/𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐒\ [𝒔. 𝒃𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒌]

𝟏.𝟟.𝟤

"hold faithfulness and sincerity as first principles." ~ Confucius

~january 1972~ (continued)

Artemis slid into a seat between Remus and Peter and let out a deep sigh, pulling her books out and setting them on the table in front of her. "Everything alright?" Remus asked with a shifty glance.

Artemis shrugged. "I guess so. Mary's all upset that Severus said something to Lily and I really just don't want to get involved."

"Why wouldn't you?" Remus asked, shooting a disgusted glance over to the other side of the Great Hall, where a rowdy group of Slytherins were distracting everyone with loud bangs and outbursts of laughter. "They're all bloody intolerable."

Artemis followed his gaze, but quickly looked down when she saw that Percy was a part of the group. "Severus is alright," she said quickly. "He helped us prank you lot back when you threw water balloons at Lily and Mary." She tilted her head at Remus, giving him a pointed look, and then laughed.

"Haven't you gotten over that yet?" Remus said, his face cracking into a grin as he pushed Artemis's shoulder. "And may I remind you- your 'prank' failed miserably."

"We'll still get you back sometime," said Artemis with a sly grin. "Better keep your guard up, Loopy."

Remus crumpled up a piece of parchment and tossed it at Artemis's face. "Better watch yourself. We're coming up with a nickname for you too." He raised his eyes warningly, the corner of his mouth tugging upwards in a barely contained smile.

"Oh yeah?" Artemis said with a snort. "And what's that going to be?"

"Well," Peter answered from across the table. He'd been looking for a spot to interject in the conversation and this was the perfect opportunity. "Sirius says that because you're named after a Greek goddess, we should find the worst one and start calling you that."

Artemis bit down on her lower lip, but couldn't contain the laughter spilling over. "That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard!" she said, catching her breath. "And Sirius calls us nerds." She gestured to Remus, whose eyes were twinkling humorously.

"Listen..." he said, his voice cracking as he tried to keep from laughing, "it's a work in progress."

Artemis let out a snort and cracked open her Transfiguration textbook. "Come on, let's finish this paper for McGonagall so when James asks if I can work on it with him I can say I already did it."

Peter and Remus opened their own textbooks, and together the three of them started writing their essays. "Artemis, what does a switching spell do?" Peter asked a few minutes in.

"Pete," Artemis said, looking up from her book with an expression of the utmost concern, "That cannot be a real question." Peter shrugged. "It switches stuff!"

"Right- right-" At that moment, there was a sudden commotion from the other side of the room that made all three of them look up with a start.

Frank Longbottom had sprung from his seat so fiercely, it toppled backwards with a crash. He stood facing Bellatrix black, his wand pointed straight at her chest. "Say that one more time, Black!" he shouted as Bellatrix took a step back, holding her hands up in mock surrender and laughing unaffectedly. Artemis was struck by how much her smile looked like Sirius's when he was making fun of someone. It made her chest burn with anger.

"Oh, Frankie, Frankie," Bellatrix said in her high-pitched pixie voice. "Calling you a blood-traitor isn't an insult, it's just a fact. Now, if I were to say... for instance, your father's a filthy muggle-loving idiot and your mother's a good-for-nothing gold digger, then that would be an insult- but also true!"

Frank's face contorted into something resembling a snarl. "Don't you call my mother that when yours had to marry into the Black family because the Rosiers weren't rich enough for her."

"You take that back!" Bellatrix shrieked.

Frank let out a humorless barking laugh. "Yeah, right."

"Arania inumai!" Bellatrix screamed, and everyone in the Great Hall jumped as an enormous spider sprang from the end of her wand and scuttled towards Frank, who let out a little yelp and scrambled backwards.

"P- petrificus totalus!" Frank said, pointing his wand at the spider, which froze up and keeled over, paralyzed. Frank stared at it in disgust for a moment, and then rounded on Bellatrix.

He opened his mouth to shout some hex at her, but Bellatrix beat him to it. With a cold smile, she said, "Everte statum!"

With a bang, Frank was thrown off his feet and flew through the air for a few feet before landing on his back on the cold marble floor of the Great Hall. The Slytherins surrounding Bellatrix roared with laughter as scattered Gryffindors hurried to help Frank. "Come on," Artemis said, leaping out of her seat and jogging after Dorcas and the Prewett twins to get to Frank's side, Remus and Peter close at her heels.

The small group huddled around Frank as he started to sit up, rubbing at the back of his head. "Well," he said in a low voice, "that was embarrassing."

"I'll say," Fabian snorted, looking over his shoulder at the Slytherin's who were still mocking Frank's fall. "Are you afraid of spiders, mate?"

Dorcas gave Fabian an admonishing look and turned back to Frank. "You alright? You shouldn't have tried fighting her, you know. Ignoring bullies is usually the best option."

"Right," Frank said, rolling his eyes. "Should've just ignored her when she called my mum a gold-digger."

"Or you could've just beaten her," Gideon said, a small smile playing on his lips.

Artemis laughed softly at this. "Don't worry, Frank," she said, "we'll all help to get her back for this."

"Oh yeah, we'll curse the hell out of them... as soon as we learn a few curses," said Remus. Frank gave them a grateful nod.

Then, Remus and Peter shifted to let a small, dark haired girl with almond shaped eyes and soft skin into the little circle. "Hey, I saw what happened," Alice said softly, her cheeks growing pink as she ignored the fact that everyone's eyes were on her. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," Frank said, a crooked smile growing suddenly on his face. "Just hit my head."

Alice nodded and her eyes quickly flitted to the floor before her face could get any redder. Artemis exchanged an amused look with Remus, and sat back on her heels to watch. "Here," Alice said gently, "let me see."

Gideon and Fabian carefully suppressed their laughter, Remus and Artemis avoided each other's eyes, Peter watched intently, and even Dorcas's mouth twitched uncontrollably as Frank tilted his head forward and Alice reached out with clumsy fingers to examine the back of his head. "Right," she said practically, "hold on." She pulled her wand out, still carefully avoiding eye contact with everyone. "Episki." Frank flinched as a little trail of golden light trailed from the end of her wand and made contact with her head. Then, a few seconds later, Alice sat back and Frank reached up to pat the soft curls on the top of his head.

"Hey..." he said, his smile growing as he looked up at Alice. "You're smart."

"Merlin's beard," Dorcas muttered, getting up and walking away as Alice's face turned the exact shade of a tomato and her eyes fluttered back to the ground.

On the other side of the Great Hall, Andromeda Black was hopelessly trying to get her sister away from the scene. "Come on, Bella," she pleaded. "You'll get in trouble if literally any professor finds out what you did."

"No, I want to watch," Bellatrix said, staring malevolently at Frank, who was still recovering. "It's funny."

"Okay, I'm pretty sure that's, like, sadistic or something," said Andromeda, taking Bellatrix's arm. "Come on, we're going for a walk."

"No!"

"There's something I have to tell you anyway. Just- come on-" Andromeda dragged her sister through the crowd of Slytherins and out into the chilly corridor that led down to the dungeons.

Bellatrix tore her arm from Andromeda's grasp and glared up at her with painfully dark eyes. "What's going on with you? You're no fun anymore."

Andromeda let out a deep sigh and crossed her arms over her chest, leaning against the brick wall of the hallway. "Bella, you know I've always been around to keep you and Cissy out of trouble."

"Mmmm, I don't exactly remember you keeping us out of trouble last year when we trashed the bathroom outside the common room and blamed the Gryffindors." Bellatrix raised her eyebrows pointedly but Andromeda waved her off. "Oh, come on, Andy. Ever since you became Head Girl you're no fun anymore."

"Yeah... I don't think it's... my becoming Head Girl that's changed things," Andromeda said slowly, choosing her words with caution. "There's something I haven't been telling you."

Bellatrix rolled her eyes dramatically and leaned against the wall next to Andromeda, mimicking the way her sister was standing. "Oh, stop drawing it out. Just tell me what's happening. Are you sick? Are you dying- oh my god, you're sleeping with Lucius Malfoy- I knew it was a bad idea to make you two head boy and girl-"

"Bella!" Andromeda scolded. "Don't talk like that, and of course I'm not with Lucius. You shouldn't even know what- that is." She ignored it when Bella scoffed in . "But- I guess you're close. I've been seeing someone."

Bellatrix perked up immediately. "Oooo, who? Spill."

Andromeda took a deep breath and tightened her arms around her chest, not meeting Bellatrix's eyes. "Ted Tonks."

Silence.

Andromeda pursed her lips and turned to face Bellatrix so her shoulder was still resting on the cold brick of the wall. Bellatrix continued to stare straight forward, seeming to have trouble comprehending what Andromeda had said. "Ted Tonks... the Hufflepuff?" she said at last.

"Yes," Andromeda said in a calm voice. "I've been seeing him since last year, but this year things got more serious. Bella, I think I'm in love with him, but you can't tell anybody."

She widened her eyes, hoping Bellatrix would be supportive, but she knew she should've known better the second her sister's eyes narrowed. "You think you're in love with some mudblood?"

"Don't say that," Andromeda said. Her voice wasn't angry, exactly, but it was stern enough to make Bellatrix fall silent. Andromeda knew harsh language towards everyone who wasn't as pureblooded as them was all her sister knew, so she tried not to take too much offense. "He's a lovely person- honestly, he's one of the best I've ever met. He's gentle, and he cares about me, and he makes me laugh- and Bella, we're leaving together as soon as we get out of Hogwarts. No matter what you have to say about it."

Bellatrix finally tore her eyes from the opposite wall and rounded on Andromeda. "Leaving? What d'you mean, leaving? You can't be with him, you know. Mum and Dad'll disinherit you." She said it as a simple fact, completely lacking any emotion.

"I know, and I don't care." Andromeda stood up straighter and squared her shoulders. "I want to marry him, and I don't care if we have money or not. We'll run off to some muggle village somewhere and we'll never have to deal with Mum and Dad's hypocrisy again-"

"Hypocrisy?" Bella snapped, "How can you call it hypocrisy, when all they've ever done is take care of you?"

Andromeda recoiled at the comment and stared at her sister with sad, but unsurprised eyes. "I'm not answering that. Bella, someday you're either going to become the pureblood clone Mum and Dad want you to become, or you'll leave. I'm leaving. And the only reason I'm telling you this now is because you'll have to take care of yourself. Narcissa won't do anything for you, you're going to be on your own."

"But- you'll still be around, right?"

Andromeda shook her head sadly. "Probably not. I'll try to keep in touch, but I need to make a life for myself, Bella. I'm sick of always bending over backwards for everyone else." She stood up straighter. "For the first time ever, I'm doing something for myself, and I'm not going to apologize for that- I just- I just want you to understand. I still love you, Bel."

Bellatrix's expression darkened into an even deeper scowl if that was possible. "You're really abandoning our family for a useless- no good- mudblood. Do you have any idea how selfish that is? You can't just run off with some guy, and-"

At that moment, Lucius Malfoy rounded the corner, and when he saw the two girls, his face contorted into a smile. "Hey, Andy," he said, reaching out to ruffle Andromeda's hair. "On duty tonight?"

Andromeda dodged his hand and forced a smile. "Yeah, but I'm down by the kitchens tonight. Ummm, speaking of which-" her eyes flitted nervously between Lucius and Bellatrix, "-I actually better go. Uh- I'll see you both later." And with that, she hurried down the hall, her long brown hair streaming behind her.

Lucius turned to Bellatrix with raised eyebrows. "What's up with her?"

Bellatrix stared after Andromeda in mild disgust before looking up at Lucius and batting her eyelashes. "I dunno," she said with a high pitched giggle. "Want to go play chess in the common room before you go on patrol?"

"Sure," Lucius said with a shrug. "Let's go."