Polaris Black

19

1976, 10 January- Friday.

It was confusing to Polaris, seeing them walk past. It was infuriating to see them walk ahead of him, not bothering to look back to where they had left him, whispering in each other's ears. He didn't want to admit it because it was stupid, but he felt, he felt as though- he just felt angry and... sad? It was weird he was finally admitting it to himself. He was sad that his friends were leaving him out all of a sudden.

Sure he wanted space before, but now it didn't feel like that. Is that what they were doing, giving him the space he never told them he wanted? He didn't like that, perhaps he should have just communicated with them, but he didn't know what to communicate, seeing as he wasn't sure how he felt in the first place with Sirius leaving.

Yet, it felt like there was something there, with him leaving. Regulus, on the other hand, seemed perfectly fine, at least on the outside. Although he knew not to trust what to see outside, his brother was hurting because Sirius didn't just abandon him, but their other brother Regulus and everyone just expected him to be fine.

He couldn't afford to show weakness with him now in the spotlight, one he had never wanted.

Polaris had only noticed their behaviour a few days ago. Well, it seemed to have started on Wednesday. Their first class of that day, Corvus and Aaron, sat with Amelia... why on earth would they do that? It was strange and unexpected. He hadn't even noticed when they had left the Great Hall. Most Wednesday mornings, they walked to Herbology together, but that time they didn't. He was confused when he hadn't seen them seated but ignored it.

He entered the class expecting a saved seat by them, but instead, they were seated on a whole completely different row, one Corvus had one time mentioned he hated, because of the angle It provided, yet there they were, pretending as though it was normal. Nonetheless, he ignored it, too, opting to sit with Amelia's friends.

He couldn't help but glance back a few times, hearing them laugh. At some point, even Amelia had giggled. He shouldn't have cared, but he did- he felt left out, be left alone, like they had forgotten about it just as he felt Sirius would do too. Perhaps he already did.

Sirius never looked his way, just as Polaris tried not looking his way, staying clear when spotting him from afar, completely avoiding him. Just as he noticed Sirius did, he saw him. Sirius would turn, with his friends following him with confused gazes, but then they would look at him, and their looks of confusion turned to ones of understanding. What was it they understood? Do they agree with what Sirius did?

Perhaps what he did was for the best.

On Wednesday, the classes after Herbology were the same. They didn't make an effort to talk to him. He felt like he hadn't talked to them in ages and was starting to question their friendship, perhaps because he was, yes he was being dramatic. Still, he didn't care- they shouldn't be excluding him like that, and to think he had been planning to apologise for being distant, perhaps this was their way of getting back.

The only time they had spoken that day was when they were back in their dorm. It would be too hard for them to try not to talk to him with all of them sharing a dorm, yet they hardly spoke a word, talking to each other in hushed whispers... like they had some kind of secret.

He thought perhaps Thursday would be different, but it wasn't. Their first class was D.A.D.A. Usually, he would partner with either of them, deciding on a 'Stone, Cloak, Wand game, but they didn't that time because Corvus and Aaron had already decided to partner up.

He ended up partnering up with Elora, who gladly asked him to partner up, which he didn't mind. She wasn't terrible at duelling, that lesson, they were told to practice using the protego and disarming spell, testing their reaction time. It was boring, at least it was just boring with Elora. She wasn't much of a challenge. Thankfully, they got to swap partners every five minutes or so.