Polaris Black

4

1971, 21 December.

Polaris Black stared intently at his chessboard, calculating all the possible moves that could guarantee his victory against... well, himself since he was playing against himself. His grandfather had told him, 'Practice makes 'perfect'.

Although he didn't exactly understand the saying since one can't exactly be perfect, isn't it impossible for one to be 'perfect'? What even is perfect? Isn't its version of 'perfect' different for everyone? Everyone has different looks on life, don't they, so they can't all have the same definition of perfect? It could mean something very different to each individual person.

Reg wasn't too fond of magical chess, he had told Polaris it wasn't interesting, but Polaris knew the truth. He just won't play with him since he had beaten him in every game. They had played against each other after Polaris had learned how to play. Polaris couldn't help but feel smug about it. It was obvious he was the superior sibling.

It is currently 1 pm in the afternoon, on a Saturday. Polaris invited Corvus Avery over, so he decided to wait in the lounge. Regulus just happened to be here himself, surprisingly.

Regulus and Polaris were lounging in the lounge room while Polaris was lying on the floor, directing his attention towards the chessboard lying flat on the floor. Reg was lazed on the couch not too far away from him.

It's actually the Yule holidays now, so Sirius could have been here for his Holidays, but Walburga had refused for him to be home, 'so I think he's at Hogwarts, and of course, mother is still distraught that he was sorted into Gryffindor, you'd think she'd be over it by now'.

It's not even a punishment for Sirius. He was sure he jumped for joy when their mother told him not to come home. Still, Polaris wouldn't know since he had yet to respond to the very few letters he had sent...

Polaris hadn't received a letter back for the first letter he had written. He simply assumed just maybe Sirius didn't get it, so he wrote 3 more after that, which also never got a response back either. It was infuriating how hard it is to write a letter. Even if it's just two sentences, it would be something!

Were his new friends just so great that he didn't think to communicate with his brothers? Then again, his brother had been happy to leave, expressing it with his actions and his words. He had said he was happy to be out of the house, away from 'them'. Sirius had said 'them'. Who was this 'them'? Polaris had just assumed he had meant their mother and father, but what if that 'them' included Regulus and himself?

What a Sirius thing to do... deciding not to respond to letters.

Regulus himself didn't get any responses back. He just called Sirius a selfish git after giving up. Apparently, in Regulus's eyes, 'Sirius don't care about us,' Polaris remembered Regulus saying.

Usually, Polaris would have defended Sirius, but that time, he had nothing to say but frown unhappily.

"Hey", Polaris heard lax a voice say. He looked towards the door to see Corvus, then grinned.

"Hey, I didn't hear you floo in," Polaris said as he lifted himself off the ground.

"Well, of course, you didn't. I'm not called stealthy for no reason," Corvus said as he puffed his chest out. Regulus scoffed at the exchange before heading towards to door to leave.

"Corvus," his brother said neutrally towards Corvus as a greeting, "Regulus," Corvus said back automatically. With that, Reg walked out of the room.

Polaris grabbed Corvus's arm in a loose grip and dragged him along out the door, "Where are we going?" Corvus asked.