/𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐒\ [𝒔. 𝒃𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒌]

𝟓.𝟝.𝟤

"I shall seize fate by the throat; it shall certainly never wholly overcome me." ~ Ludwig Van Beethoven

~november 1975~ (continued)

James dove in an insane effort to get the quaffle from Regulus Black, the newest chaser on the Slytherin team. It was the most intense game the Gryffindor team had ever played. With Frank as their captain now and Emmeline as a full time player, they had the upper hand, but the score was tied and the match had been going on for nearly an hour and they were all tired. "Sorry, Reg!" James called as he nearly knocked Regulus off of his broom and sped off, the quaffle tucked under his arm.

He passed to Emmeline, who passed to Frank, who dunked the quaffle neatly through the hoop. The Gryffindor stands went wild. "If Em can get the snitch now and Marlene can keep the posts for just a little longer, we can win!" Lily cried over the commotion.

Artemis watched Marlene intently. It was her first season as keeper, the spot she'd taken up after Mitch graduated. She'd wanted the position, and she was happy to give up seeker to Emmeline, but it was no secret that she couldn't compare to Mitch just yet. She'd been trained as a seeker, not a keeper. "Come on, Marly," Artemis urged under her breath as Slytherin got possession of the quaffle and Abernathy hurled it at the Gryffindor goalposts.

"And..." the announcer, Rita Skeeter, said excitedly, "Saved!"

"Yes!" Mary shouted, pumping her fist in the air. "Go Marly!"

The game only grew in intensity after that save. Every time Gryffindor thought they were ahead, it was only moments before Slytherin matched them with a goal of their own. Artemis was on the edge of her seat, watching the game with enraptured focus. She had her eyes on Emmeline, waiting for any sign she'd seen the snitch. Then, it came. "Look!" Artemis cried, grabbing Mary's sleeve and pointing. "Look, look!"

"She's found it!"

Emmeline was in a steep dive towards the snitch, arm outstretched. The crowds were in a frenzy, watching as Slytherin's seeker, Cillian Marks, a fifth year, chased after Emmeline. He showed no sign of slowing down when he reached her and aggressively threw his elbow into her face, not taking his eyes off the snitch.

Emmeline hadn't been expecting that. Marks's arm knocked her from her broom and she toppled sideways into the open air, plummeting the rest of the distance to the ground.

The stands went silent for a split second, and then erupted into the most chaotic shouts and protests fathomable. "Foul!" Artemis roared, flipping off Marks as he caught the snitch and held it up. "That was a dirty play!"

It didn't matter. The game was won, and as Emmeline managed to struggle to a seated position on the ground, the crowd stormed from the stands to either celebrate Slytherin's win or berate Madam Hooch for letting Marks get away with such a play.

Artemis, Lily, and Mary spotted Marlene kneeling over Emmeline with the rest of the Gryffindor team. They hurried to join her, pushing their way through the crowd to make it to Emmeline's side next to Marlene and James, who was holding Emmeline's head carefully in one hand to support her.

"What happened?" Emmeline asked foggily.

James gritted his teeth. "That good for nothing git, Marks, shoved you off your broom."

"Oh," said Ememline, her voice fading. "That's so embarrassing."

Marlene chuckled. "Come on, we're gonna get your to the hospital wing. You're going to need to get that arm in a cast."

Emmeline let her friends help her to her feet, then turned to James. "Did we win at least?"

James's shoulders slumped and he shook his head. "Don't worry about that now, Em. It's fine. It was a dirty play."

"Yeah, okay," said Emmeline, and leaned all of her weight on Marlene's shoulder the rest of the way to the hospital wing.

~

After depositing Emmeline in the hospital wing and ensuring she would be okay, the Gryfffindors trooped up to their common room to commiserate their loss together. Artemis made her way around to the different circles, talking to everyone, with James at her side. The two of them and the rest of the Marauders had made a reputation for themselves, and were gaining popularity at Hogwarts. This didn't go over their heads, in fact, it went straight to their heads.

Artemis sat down next to Fabian Prewett, who had his arm around Lily's shoulders and smiled at them. "You two are so cute," she said, winking at Lily.

"Oh, stop it," said Lily, blushing. "Go bother Remus or someone."

"Can't," Artemis said darkly. "Look." She tossed her head in the direction of Remus, who was sitting in a chair with Sirius, both talking in low voices.

Lily nodded. "Ah, right. Sirius."

"Sirius," Artemis echoed, scowling.

Fabian looked back and forth between the two of them. "Sorry, you're still mad at Sirius?"

"Yep," Lily and Artemis said at the same time.

He nodded. "Right... it's been a pretty long time, hasn't it?"

"Well, get used to it," said Artemis. "It's going to be like this for the rest of our lives."

Just then, Marlene stood up on a table and cleared her throat for attention. "Listen up," she said in a bossy voice. "In memory of our dear, fallen, Emmeline Elizabeth Vance, we'll be playing exclusively Bowie and Fleetwood Mac for the rest of the night."

"Hear hear!" Frank shouted from where he was sulking in the corner with Alice, still angry over the loss.

Seconds later, Ziggy Stardust wafted through the speakers and the common room settled back to its former state. Artemis got up and joined the boys in her usual seat on the couch by the fire. James grinned over at her. "I love this song."

"Same."

"Wanna dance?" He stood up and offered Artemis his hands.

Artemis laughed and let James pull her to her feet and spin around. They migrated to the center of the common room, both mildly uncoordinated in their dance moves, but they laughed to make up for it and James spun Artemis around until she was dizzy.

Sirius watched them with the slightest hints of disgust lingering in his expression. "This is an atrocity," he muttered to Remus. Really, James and Artemis weren't bad dancers, and they looked like they were having fun. But Sirius couldn't stop thinking about that night at the vineyard at the end of summer and the way Artemis had thrown her arms around his neck and swayed to the music the same way she was doing to James now. He couldn't stand it. He hated Artemis for freezing him out for so long and he hated himself for burning the books in the first place and he hated Regulus for kissing Artemis and he just wished this awful year would end already.

Artemis was laughing so hard her sides hurt when she finally stumbled back to the little circle of chairs by the fire and collapsed onto her couch, which was now completely empty. She looked behind her at Remus. "Where'd Sirius go?"

Remus gave her a mild shrug and threw a bar of chocolate in her direction, hitting her square in the face. "Stormed off somewhere."

Artemis frowned and unwrapped the chocolate, breaking a square off and taking a thoughtful bite. "Why?"

"Will you just talk to him?" Remus asked, finally feeling like he might be getting somewhere in forcing the two of them to make up. "He's really sorry, and I don't think you're as mad at him as you think you are."

Artemis shook her head. "No, trust me, I'm exactly as mad as I think I am," she said resolutely and stood up. "Thanks for the chocolate, though."

~

Bellatrix was late for Defense Against the Dark Arts, but she didn't care. Professor Bones was an idiot, and the class was pointless. Besides, she was a sixth year and she hadn't wanted to take N.E.W.T level Defense anyway, but Slughorn had put it on her schedule because he thought she 'showed promise.' The whole thing was bullshit. She swept her dark hair over one shoulder and took a left down a hallway nowhere near the Defense wing. She was considering skipping the class altogether, but her mind wasn't made up yet.

She turned down another corner and saw four people moving towards her, staring down at a large piece of parchment spread between the three of them. Perfect. Potter, Black, Lupin, and Pettigrew. Bellatrix's favorite people to mess with. "Expelliarmus!" she said lazily, forcing the parchment from the boys' hands and laughing as it fluttered to the floor.

James and Sirius instantly pulled their wands on her as Peter and Remus scrambled to pick up the paper, carefully fold it, and stuff it hurriedly into Remus's bag. "Skipping class, Bel?" Sirius said, taking a step towards her. "I'll be sure to tell Auntie Druella."

"Oh really? Then I'll have to tell Aunt Walburga about that mudblood I saw you snogging the other day."

"At least she was good looking. Better than that Rudolphus, or whatever his name is."

Bellatrix turned red and James let out a short laugh. "Aw, hit a nerve, did he? What kind of a name is Rudolphus anyway? D'you say his whole name when you're getting down or d'you shorten it? You could call him Rudolph, like the reindeer."

At this, Sirius chuckled and twirled his wand in one hand. Bellatrix scowled. "What are you talking about?"

"Ahhh, you wouldn't understand," said Sirius. "What about Rudy? Do you call him Rudy?"

"I will not talk to you about this," spat Bellatrix. "Now get out of my way, or I'll blow your faces off." She was still holding her wand at the ready, preparing to hex them all if she had to. It wouldn't bother her, she loved trying out new spells without really knowing what they were going to do.

James and Sirius exchanged a look. "Should we move for her, Prongs?" Sirius asked lightly.

James seemed to take a moment to consider. "Ahhh, why would we, Pads?" he said with a smile. "That seems like a bit more trouble than it's worth."

Bellatrix didn't hesitate. "Victorion!"

A jet of blue light flew from her wand and Sirius and James both dove to the side, but Remus wasn't fast enough. He let out a yelp of pain as the burning curse hit him and he doubled over, clutching his chest and breathing hard. "Remus!" James cried, running to his side and trying desperately to remember the counter-curse.

Bellatrix shrieked with laughter. "Got to work on your reflexes, don't you, Loopy?"

Sirius's expression darkened with unrestrained anger. "You do not get to call him that!" he roared, and then waved his wand without making any sound.

Red light flew from it and Bellatrix, not expecting her cousin to be able to use nonverbal magic, didn't have the time to dodge. It hit her square in the chest and she let out a cry of pain as the spell knocked her backwards, a large bruise forming on her stomach and spreading quickly to her arms and legs. "That serves you right," Sirius said in satisfaction. Then, just for good measure, "Petrificus Totalus." Bellatrix's entire body went stick straight as the bruising continued to spread and she let out a whimper of pain that went ignored by all of the boys.

The burns on Remus's body were looking worse every second. "We have to get him to the hospital wing," said James, who had been trying his best with counter-curses, but couldn't find the exact right one.

"Right- can you walk?" Sirius asked, his voice automatically switching to a more gentle tone as he addressed his friends.

Remus gave them a pained nod, and then started limping in the direction of the hospital wing. Sirius, James, and Peter all followed, supporting Remus as he walked. When they were almost there, James turned to Sirius. "You can do nonverbal spells?" he asked with a small smile.

Sirius shrugged. "Apparently now I can."

~

The fresh cold of the new winter stung the cheeks of Alice and Dorcas as they strolled along the edge of the Forbidden Forest together. The two of them loved late November. They loved when the crispness of fall gave way to the soft, fresh snow and the clean cold of winter. Alice rubbed her hands together for warmth and thought back to her walk with Frank only a month before in this exact spot. "Isn't it crazy how much has happened in this school year and it's only November?" she said to Dorcas, who smiled, thinking back to a similar walk with Marlene earlier that month that made her insides warm up for a moment.

"Yeah, it's really crazy."

"Are you worried?" Alice asked, her expression serious. "About anything that's happening right now? You-Know-Who and the disappearances and... everything."

Dorcas shrugged. "I mean, sure, I'm worried. But we'll be fine, no matter what happens, Al."

Alice was silent for a long time. She'd been doing a lot of thinking lately about everything happening in the world, and she wanted to tell Dorcas about the conclusions she'd come to. "I think you were right the whole time," she said softly. "About buckling down. Doing something that really matters instead of fantasizing about a world that doesn't actually exist."

"That's not exactly what I said," said Dorcas.

Alice shrugged. "But it's what you meant, and I think I agree with you. I think I'm going to start taking things more seriously. No- I am going to start taking things more seriously. I want to do something that really matters in this world. No more fairytales."

Dorcas didn't know how to feel about this. On one hand, she was happy Alice was going to start using herself to her full potential, but then again, she'd loved Alice for always having her head in the clouds, always keeping a million things on her mind at once. "What about Frank?" she asked at last.

The smile on Alice's face was unmissable. "Frank is... well- I got my fairytale, you know? I love him so much, and now that I found that, I feel like I can focus on other things." She paused and stared up at the trees covered in the first snowfall of the year. "He wants to be an auror, you know. Like you."

"Does he really?"

"Yeah. And I've been thinking about it too. I mean, wouldn't it be cool if the three of us did it together?"

Dorcas grinned. "Yeah, Ally. That sounds really cool." She meant it, but a little part of her felt bittersweet over Alice abandoning her dream of being a writer to fight off dark wizards. Not that it was a bad thing. Alice would be an insanely good auror, Dorcas had no doubt of that. It just finally felt like they were growing up. They'd be leaving Hogwarts next year, and then they'd be on their own, figuring things out for themselves. A shiver ran through Dorcas's spine and she wrapped an arm around Alice's shoulders, holding her close for warmth.