/𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐒\ [𝒔. 𝒃𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒌]

𝟔.𝟝.𝟣

Her thoughts were scattered by Athena dropping clumsily onto the table in front of her, spilling over a platter of toast and tipping Remus's bowl of oatmeal. "Athena, what the-" Then, she noticed the large parcel attached to her leg. Artemis narrowed her eyes and quickly moved to undo the package and free her obviously struggling owl, silently cursing whoever put Athena through such an ordeal.

"What's that?" asked James, leaning over her shoulder in interest.

Artemis shrugged and absentmindedly pushed his head away as she unwrapped the tight packaging. She felt like the air had been knocked from her lungs when she saw what it was. It was a book. A book she'd seen about a million times in her childhood, one she could still picture every detail of even after all these years. It was what had inspired her to keep her own little black notebook and what had driven the fantasies of her young life.

Andrew Blake's notebook.

He'd always wanted one that looked like an actual book. Like a huge volume, filled with empty pages for the creator to fill. So, he'd taken a copy of a dark wizarding book from his parent's library and scrupulously wiped every page with magic. Then, he'd filled it by hand with his own thoughts, his own poetry, all of the words in his head crammed into the enormous book in sloppy black ink. His hands were always stained with the stuff. Always. And he never let anyone see the inside of it. Not even Artemis. Even holding it felt strange.

The noise around her faded to a dull roar in her ears as she opened the cover, and a note dropped from the first page. She picked it out of her lap and read her mother's looping scrawl.

My darling Artie,
We haven't been in touch recently, and it's my own fault, but I felt like the sixth anniversary of your father's passing was a good time to reach out. I went through some of his old things the other day and found this in a stack of his old work. I'm sure you remember it. I flipped through some of it and I want you to read it for yourself. Artie, Andrew would be so proud of the young woman you've become. You're exactly like him- brave, headstrong, and loving to a fault. All I want is for you to know just how strong his love for you was. Write me back, I want to see you. I miss you so much.
All my love, Mum.

Artemis's vision blurred as soon as she got through the first sentence. Her friends all exchanged worried looks as she stared at the piece of parchment and tears spilled out over her cheeks, dropping and smearing the ink of the note.

Then, she stood up so abruptly she almost fell over, grabbed the book from the table, and sprinted from the Great Hall, her long hair obscuring her face. Sirius, James, Remus, and Peter all sat in silence for a moment, staring after her, and then Sirius picked up the letter she'd dropped onto her plate of food. The words were slightly marred by her tears, but he got the idea.

"Give me the map," he said to James.

James dug into his back without hesitation and handed the Marauder's Map to Sirius. "What is it? Are you going to find her? What did the note say?"

"Yeah," Sirius said vaguely, and then jogged from the room, muttering, "I solemnly swear that I am up to know good," as he ran.

He followed the dot that said Art Blake blindly, not paying attention to where he was going until he was standing on the doorstep of Hagrid's hut. He didn't know what he was doing there, but Art's dot was positioned on the inside with a dot that read Hagrid, so he knew it was where he was supposed to be. He raised one hand and knocked hesitantly on the large door.

A torrent of barking ensued and Sirius entertained the idea of changing into his dog form and barking back, nearly making himself laugh at the idea. He grew solemn again when the door opened and Hagrid peered down at him in curiosity. "Black, what're you doing here?"