/𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐒\ [𝒔. 𝒃𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒌]

𝟐.𝟡.𝟣

~

That evening, Artemis sat in the Gryffindor common room after dinner with one of her favorite art history textbooks she'd stolen from her dad's stack. It was all about London museums and the best works in them. She was just getting to the part about the Italian Renaissance when there was a crash and Marlene stormed down from the girl's dormitory stairs. Artemis looked up serenely, but had to fight to keep a straight face when she saw that Marlene's usually lovely blonde curls were a disgusting shade of yellowing green and that her face was contorted in rage. Artemis caught Remus's eye over the coffee table and he winked.

"Artemis!" Marlene rasped, her voice already slipping. "You- you-" She couldn't even get the words out.

Artemis bit down on the inside of her cheek to keep from laughing and calmly set her book to the side. "I what?" she asked, sounding pleasantly curious.

"You- you-"

"Sorry, I can't understand you, Marls. Care for a cough drop?" She produced a little bag of throat lozenges from her pocket and held one out to Marlene. Remus snorted and had to bury his nose deep in his book to hide his laughter.

Marlene was having none of it. The entire common room was watching closely as the two girls, whose reputations had both been torn to shreds, faced off. "This'll be good," Sirius muttered to James from a few tables away. Both boys set their quills down to tune into whatever would happen next.

"You ruined everything!" Marlene finally screamed in a voice that cracked so badly it made the people around her flinch. "Everything, Artemis!"

At this, Artemis stood up and glared at Marlene. "Oh, I ruined everything?" she shot back. "You literally ruined my entire life! I mean- you made all of my friends hate me and- and- none of what you said was true and you know that, and now you think I ruined everything for pulling a meaningless prank? You literally ripped apart everything that made me happy!" Her voice broke and her hand instinctively wrapped around her stomach to dig her nails into her side. She blinked hard.

Marlene's lips parted slightly as she started to shoot an insult back, but then something shifted when she saw how torn up Artemis was over this. She shouldn't have done what she'd done, she knew that now. Tears brewed in her own eyes and she stepped towards Artemis. "I'm sorry," she said, and she meant it. "I wanted to hurt you because- because you always get everything you want-"

"Bullshit!" Artemis shouted, her foot stomping into the ground. It was the first time anyone had heard her swear. Remus raised his eyebrows, impressed. "That's bullshit and you know it! You can't just tell people those things about me and then apologize and expect everything to be fine! It's not fine!"

"But I'm really sorry!"

"I don't care!"

"Everything I did was wrong, but-"

"Yeah, it was wrong!" Artemis said furiously. "I can't forgive you- ever. So stop trying!"

The entirety of the Gryffindor common room was watching the girls attentively, tension building up throughout the room. "You know what a really good soundtrack to this would be?" Sirius broke the silence. James looked over at him and Sirius gave him a crooked grin. "Bitch, by the Rolling Stones."

"Shut up, Sirius," Artemis snapped, and then turned and stormed out of the common room, leaving everyone in uncomfortable silence.

~

It had been two months since they lost the baby, but things weren't getting any easier for Andromeda and Ted. They'd both lost far too much weight and their once bright and cheery apartment was strewn with clutter neither of them had the energy to pick up. The cold, dreary late-winter weather made everything feel so much worse. The world felt darker for Andromeda and Ted, who were barely old enough to be parents in the first place and far too young to lose a baby the way they did.