/𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐒\ [𝒔. 𝒃𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒌]

𝟏.𝟜.𝟥

"but, it was a little different tonight. there was a feeling of autumn coming to last a million years." ~ Ray Bradbury

~october 31 1971~

The night before the big Defense Against the Dark Arts test, Marlene and Artemis left Mary and Lily in the library the second they got bored of studying. Artemis was confident that she'd get a high grade on the test since Defense was her best subject, and Marlene insisted that she didn't care about grades anyways. They'd gone straight to the library after their first ever Halloween feast, which left Artemis feeling stuffed and a bit giddy. They wandered the halls aimlessly until ten minutes before curfew and then headed back to Gryffindor tower. As soon as Marlene saw Sirius and James sitting on the couch by the fireplace, she scowled and said, "Let's just go upstairs." Artemis, not in the mood to argue, merely followed Marlene across the room and gave James a small smile when she wasn't looking.

The girls both spread across their beds when they got to their dormitory, staring up at the ceiling as darkness filled the room. Artemis pulled a muggle lighter out of her pocket and started lighting and un-lighting it, flicking it on and off. "Where'd you get that?" Marlene asked after the first few flickers of light.

"Swiped it from that seventh year boy who's always smoking over by the forest." Artemis flicked the lighter again, watching the flame bob around before she extinguished it. "I dunno why he doesn't just use magic."

"Simple fire spell would do it," Marlene said, trying to sound more sophisticated than she was.

"Well, obviously," Artemis said, rolling her eyes. The giddy feeling had faded, leaving her antsy and slightly irritable, not in any kind of mood to deal with Marlene's usual snark. "I'm bored," she sighed, flicking the lighter on and holding it dangerously close to her face.

Marlene raised her eyebrows at Artemis, and then sat up, pulling her hair up into a long ponytail. "Let's do something then."

"Like what?"

"Like... I dunno."

Artemis sat up too, tossing the lighter to the side of her bed. Her long brown hair fell in wild curls around her shoulders, the way they did when she didn't try to style it. She looked a bit insane, Marlene thought. "It's Halloween," Artemis said slowly, a mischievous glint in her eye. "I mean, we could do just about anything."

"What are you talking about?" Marlene asked, her cold, collected front breaking as she giggled, her crooked teeth showing.

Artemis grinned at her, running her fingers through her tangled mess of hair. "Well, James was telling me the other day- no, shut up," she held up a hand as Marlene's face turned to disgust at the mention of James. "He was telling me there's all sorts of secret passages and rooms and things around the castle. What if we went looking for them?"

Marlene's eyes lit up, and for the first time, Artemis saw her face break into genuine excitement. "Alright, let's do it." She jumped out of bed and grabbed her wand off of the bedside table. "Let's go right now." Artemis got up too, quickly growing to like this side of Marlene. Her own eyes were glinting with troublesome excitement, and she grabbed her own wand and led the way towards the door of the dormitory.

Marlene and Artemis only made it to the portrait hole before they were stopped. "Where are you two going?" Lily asked curiously. Marlene and Artemis both jumped and whirled around to see Lily and Mary sitting on the floor in front of the fireplace, books and notebooks spread between them.  "Where are you going?" Lily repeated herself.

"Ahhh," Marlene stammered, looking to Artemis.

"Out," Artemis said with simple confidence. She head her head higher and straightened up to her full height, which wasn't very tall, especially next to Marlene.

Lily narrowed her eyes. "Out where?"

"To- ah- to find secret passageways," said Marlene. Artemis shot Marlene a critical look.

Lily's eyes narrowed even further, if possible. "No, you're not," she said bossily. "You're going to get us all in trouble and lose all of Gryffindor's house points. No, no, you can't." She stood up and brushed her hair out of her eyes, her mouth downturned in a troubled frown.

"Ahhh, come on, Lils," Artemis said with a convincing smile. "You're welcome to join us."

"Absolutely not!" said Lily, stunned. "If I'm going to become a prefect one day, I can't be running around the halls after curfew-!"

"Lily, that's the stupidest thing I've ever heard," Marlene said drily. "Mary? You'll come, won't you?"

Mary bit down on her lower lip and shrugged, looking tensely from Lily to Artemis to Marlene, not sure whose side to take. "Ummmm...."

"Of course she's not going," Lily said with a huff. "None of us are. Now, come on. Help us study for this test-"

"I'll go," Mary said softly. All three girls looked up and stared at her. She widened her eyes innocently. "I just mean... I think we can take a study break... just for a little bit."

Lily scoffed and took a step back as Mary pulled herself to her feet and joined Artemis and Marlene by the portrait hole. Artemis grinned at Mary for a second, and then turned back to Lily. "Come on, Lily... What's that saying? If you can't beat 'em, join 'em?"

"It'll be fun," Mary said in a soft, cajoling voice. Marlene and Artemis stared at her in surprise again. "If we get caught, we can just say we were trying to stop those two." She jerked her head at Artemis and Marlene, who were absolutely floored at seeing this side of Mary. She was usually so quiet and so innocent, but now her mouth was set in a troublesome smile and she was standing up straighter than usual.

Lily shifted from foot to foot, looking torn. "F-fine," she said at last. "But only for a bit, and I'm only going to keep the rest of you out of trouble."

"Perfect," said Marlene. Then, all three girls turned to Artemis for instruction.

Artemis, not used to being seen as a leader, was surprised for a second, but then she squared her shoulders and turned to face the three other girls. "Alright then. We all have to be super quiet, okay? And someone needs to stand in the back to keep lookout."

"I'll do that," Mary offered.

Artemis nodded. "Great. Keep your eyes peeled for any signs of secret doors or hallways, but also don't forget to listen for footsteps. And stay close." Marlene, Lily, and Mary all bobbed their heads, watching Artemis with wide eyes. "Ready?" Artemis asked, smiling at them and turning towards the portrait hole. "Let's go."

The girls crept out into the corridor, walking so close to one another their shoulders were brushing. Artemis motioned for the others to follow her, and they tiptoed down the steps, all careful to hop silently over the trick stair. Artemis leaned over the railing to make sure nobody was standing on the landing below, and then jogged lightly down the rest of the steps, followed closely by Lily, who had gone very pale in the low lighting of the school. Artemis's hand found Lily's in the dark and she squeezed it tight, tugging Lily along behind her. "See anything?" she whispered.

"I don't understand why we can't look for secret passageways during the day time," Lily said reasonably.

Marlene and Artemis rolled their eyes at the same time. "Because it's Halloween, Lily. It's only fitting that we go out at night."

"I don't see what Halloween has to do with any of it," said Lily. "Except for maybe make the place scarier." She let go of Artemis's hand to wrap her arms around herself and shiver slightly.

"That is the point," Marlene said exasperatedly. "It's scary, so it's more fun."

"That doesn't make any-"

"Guys," Mary said in a squeaky voice. They ignored her. "Guys!"

"What?" Artemis started to ask, but at that moment, they rounded the corner and came face to face with- "James?!"

"Artemis?" Sirius whisper shouted from behind James. Behind him, Peter and Remus were looking both confused and slightly amused.

Artemis narrowed her eyes at Sirius, and then turned back to James. "What are you doing here?"

"What are you doing here?"

"Looking for secret passageways," Sirius and Artemis said at the exact same time. Then, they both looked down at the ground with sour expressions.

James looked back and forth between them for a second, eyebrows raised. Then, a slow grin spread across his face. "Well, we can all look together then."

"No," Lily said quickly. "We should split up, and you four should go back to the common room."

"Why us?" James asked, his mouth twitching. "Why can't you go back to the common room?"

"Because we got here first," Lily stated, realizing how stupid the words sounded as they came out of her mouth. "And I'll report you if you don't."

"But you're out past hours too," Remus said reasonably. "We could just as well report you."

Lily stared daggers at Remus before drawing herself up to her full height. "Fine, then we'll all go back to the common room and forget this ever happened."

At this, everyone opened their mouths to protest, but suddenly fell silent the second they heard the clicking of footsteps in the hallway leading to where the group was standing. None of them had realized how loudly they had been talking, and they stared wildly at each other, wide-eyed. "Filch," Artemis whispered, and then turned and ran. The others followed without hesitation. 

The eight first year Gryffindor students bolted in the direction the girls had come from, bumping into each other as they hurtled around a corner and down another corridor. Sirius sped up, passing Artemis, who looked over, annoyed, and increased her own speed too.

"Not the time for a race, you two," Remus muttered, managing to keep up with them on his long legs. Artemis glared at him and took another sharp turning, looking over her shoulder to make sure everyone was keeping up. She slipped a little on the marble floor and caught herself on Remus's arm before picking up speed again.

"In here," she whispered, wrenching open the door to an empty classroom and standing to the side so everyone else could run in after her. Once they were all gathered, bent double and breathing hard, Artemis held a finger to her lips and pulled the door shut swiftly but quietly.

"Lumos," Sirius whispered, lighting the tip of his wand so they could at least see where they were standing.

Lily was bent over, hands on her knees, red hair tumbling in front of her face. "I-" she gasped, "-am never- going anywhere with you- again."

"So now isn't the time to ask you on a date?" James asked, then yelped when Lily punched his arm.

"Shut up," Remus scolded, hovering by the door. "We need to get up to Gryffindor tower as soon as possible. I'm pretty sure it won't take them long to find us."

Sirius sat down on top of one of the desks and pulled one knee to his chest. "We could just make a run for it. How fast can Filch be?"

"Doesn't matter if he catches us," Artemis said drily. "If he sees that we're Gryffindor students, he'll take all our points anyways."

"So... we just have to not get seen," said Sirius with an annoying sense of entitlement. "I still don't see the problem."

Artemis felt annoyance flare up in her chest. "The problem is that with eight of us, it'll be impossible not to get seen. Maybe if you had just stayed in the common room-"

"Us?" Sirius said, his expression changing in an instant to one of annoyance. "How is this our fault? You're the ones who got us caught, anyways. We weren't being that loud." He folded his arms across his chest and gave Artemis a superior look.

Her eyes flashed dangerously. "You were too being loud, and believe me, you're not as sneaky as you think you are." Sirius jumped off of his desk and took a step closer to Artemis, who held her ground, nostrils flared.

"Guys, guys," Mary interrupted, stepping between the two and holding up her hands. "Just stop arguing. You're going to get us all caught."

"She's right," said Lily. Artemis was surprised to see that she, James, and Remus were crouched next to a desk, a piece of parchment between them.

James was drawing out a map of the school and Remus kept pointing at various spots and saying things like "I know Filch'll expect us to be there, so let's go... here." Peter was standing at the door, listening through the crack for footsteps.

Sirius and Artemis both turned away from each other, resentment still building between them. Sirius joined Lily and James looking over the map and Remus left them to it, sidling over to lean up against the wall next to Artemis. "Look, I dunno whose fault this was, but I'm really sorry anyways. For everything." His bluish green eyes were hopeful and apologetic, begging Artemis to just go back to being his friend.

Artemis let out a deep sigh and slumped back against the wall. "S'okay," she said, tapping her foot impatiently. "I started reading that book you gave me, by the way. Atlas Shrugged. I think I like it, but the narration is a bit weird."

"I just really like that one quote by the author. '"I started my life with a single absolute: that the world was mine to shape in the image of my highest values-"

"-and never to be given up to a lesser standard, no matter how long or hard the struggle," Artemis finished, and they shared a smile. "My dad loved that quote." Artemis felt the usual pang in her stomach at the mention of her father, who she missed more and more everyday.

"Alright," Sirius interrupted, standing and addressing the rest of the group. "We're making a run for it."

"No, we're not," said Artemis. "We've got to wait it out a little longer."

Sirius shook his head resolutely. "It's now or never. I'm leaving now, and whoever wants to join me is welcome. Whoever wants to stay here with- her-" he jerked his head at Artemis, "is more than welcome." And with that, Sirius strode confidently towards the door, James close at his heels.

Remus pushed himself off of the wall, shot Artemis an apologetic look, and then followed. Peter did the same, whispering a quick, "Sorry, Art."

Artemis turned to the girls with a thunderous expression. All three of them were staring longingly after the boys. "Fine," Artemis relented, "Let's go."

The girls crept out the door, Marlene pausing to close it tightly behind them before running to catch up with the boys. They found them a few corridors down, walking quickly in the direction of Gryffindor tower. When James saw that they'd joined them, he gave Artemis an enormous smile, which she didn't return. They wound their way through corridors and halls, some of which Artemis had never even seen before.

Finally, they reached the last stretch of hall before the stairwell leading up to the tower. It was a straight shot. Artemis, a feeling of relief growing in her chest, jogged to the front of the group to walk alongside James and Sirius. Then, just as they were mounting the first step, light flooded the hall and all eight of them whipped around to see what the source was. "Ha," Filch said in a humorless monotone. "Gotcha."

~

Artemis stumbled through the portrait hole and stalked over to the couch by the fireplace, in front of which Lily and Mary's textbooks still sat opened, waiting for their owners to come back and finish studying. James was right behind her, and he leapt into the armchair to the left of the couch, facing in towards the table at the center of the grouping of chairs. Remus settled himself in the armchair across from James, and Sirius, not having anywhere else to sit, flung himself onto the other side of Artemis's couch, sliding as far from her as he could get. Artemis pulled her legs up and tucked them underneath herself, creeping as close to the armrest as possible. Marlene eased herself onto the floor in front of Artemis, leaning her head on the armrest, and Mary and Lily sat down where they had been before, this time not touching the books between them. "Detention every night for the next week," Marlene said crossly. "I can't believe this."

"That's what we get for sneaking out," Lily said in a superior tone, although it was obvious she was just as upset over getting in trouble as the rest of them.

Neither Sirius nor Artemis said a word. Both were far too angry to even argue with each other, so they sat in silence, blaming each other in their heads and pretending not to care about the situation. Silently, Artemis promised herself that she would never speak to Sirius Black again in her life.