November 24th ⭒ 1997
"SERIOUSLY? YOU KNOW it's just tutoring."
Marlene looked at her doubtfully. "Sirius Black just wants tutoring? Jo, if you told me that in a game of two truths and a lie with the fact that you're secretly dating Filch, I'd believe the second."
Josephine cocked her head to the side. "That's what he told me."
Truthful enough, she decided.
In reality, most of the tutoring sessions were about 40% actual work, 30% them mucking around because both of them had incredibly short attention spans (maybe just Josephine, but Sirius went along with it), 10% arguing, and 20% that seemed to never stay the same.
Last time, they'd somehow managed to convince themselves that scaring couples that had snuck out was a good way to end their weekly sessions. But the fun of bonding with your best friend through being a pain in the ass was soon cut off when Evan Rosier showed his annoying face. No, she supposed, that was too harsh. His face was decent-looking, just the worst time ever along with being someone she heavily disliked.
She shuddered at the memory of what had happened in fourth year. Thankfully, Josephine wasn't given too much time to relieve the trauma.
"Jo!" she heard a voice holler, effectively breaking her out of her mental lock.
She turned to see Sirius at the bottom of the staircase, having many a time attempted to climb up and only ended up falling down. Sliding down, her shoes skidding across the smooth surface, Josephine brandished both arms. "Indeed, that is my name."
The girls simply shook their heads, all too familiar with their little dramatics. Lily waved innocently. "Have fun, Jo and Laurie."
"Laurie? Is he pretty?" Jo muttered, more to herself than to Sirius.
Surprisingly, the boy responded, "He's a guy in a muggle book." Upon seeing her raised eyebrows, Sirius hastily elaborated. "Moony wouldn't shut up about it. Little Women, I think it was called? But Remus is more of a Laurie, honestly. I don't think I'm poetic enough or nerdy enough."
The confusion on her face grew. "Oh?" Jo resisted the urge to cross-examine him.
"Speaking of Moony, where are the rest of them? You know I can't deal with you making faces everytime I try and get you to write something on the paper, Siri. It's a waste of my short and humble life."
Sirius tugged on the strap of his satchel. "Humble? Anyways, they went to try and formulate an early fool-proof—" he made air quotes with his fingers, "plan to get Evans to say yes."
"James does realize Lily saying he's an option is her way of saying it's already fool-proof? It has been seven years."
He shook his head, a hint of a smile on his lips. "No, I don't think he does."
Josephine shrugged. "And what brings you here without an excuse on this fine, fine, evening for coming up with useless plans?"
He slung an arm around her shoulder, grinning widely. "I couldn't turn down a study session with a lovely lady, could I?"
"Oh, sod off," Josephine laughed, fishing around in her bag for her wand, "are you actually going to listen today? I don't think I can deal with another headache from trying to get your attention."
Sirius mock-saluted with his free arm. "Of course, General."
Her lack of belief in him was probably obvious, at this point.
Shrugging, Sirius allowed her to lean into him as they continued to make their way to the tower. "How could you possibly not believe that? Darling, you have my attention whenever you want."
The girl scoffed, shoving him away. "And that is precisely why I believe whatever bullshit you just sprouted is, indeed, bullshit. That," Jo gestured at him, "isn't going to work on me."
Sirius blinked, mimicking her tone, "And what exactly is that?"
"Your knock-off Bruce Wayne charm, minus the fact that you don't exactly have a batmobile lying around to impress chicks with," Josephine deadpanned.
"You have severely wounded my ego," Sirius retorted as seriously as he could, though the corners of his eyes gave him away.
"If we weren't best friends I'd be shoving my broomstick up your ass just about now, Siri," she threatened with a dark smile, her hair turning to the troublesome shade of black Sirius was all too aware of. Her hair was a good indicator of her mood, these days.
"Your broomstick? Jo, you don't have one?"
Jo looked at Sirius, "I do?"
They stopped, looking at each other as the meaning behind his words finally dawned on Josephine.
"Siri!" Jo managed something between a laugh and a sigh as she edged away from the boy dramatically. "And how I miss the eleven years of quiet I had before I met you."
"You always complain that it was better at Hogwarts because, finally, James had someone else to argue with," he commented cheekily, drawing her back with a laugh.
"You know, I really don't understand why I put up with you when I can go talk to Rem or something." Jo pretended to think out loud.
Sirius whistled, "I do! It's because my charm is utterly irresistible and however much you deny it, it's true. Moony is a lovely gentleman but I am the loveliest."
"True my ass," Jo huffed, partly because that was how she tended to reply to Sirius's arrogance and partly because she was out of breath from all the walking up the spiral staircase. "You are so lucky you have long legs. People like me have to cry every time we go anywhere with you."
"Yeah, but can't you just morph into someone like me?"
Jo shuddered, "You want me to talk to you while looking like a replica of you? Okay, maybe you'd enjoy that, I don't know, but it would definitely scar me to look like you for even five whole minutes."
Sirius dropped his stuff on the ground with a loud and rather unceremonious plonk. Josephine, bag still on her shoulder, leant against the banisters that were meant to stop students from accidentally falling off after getting wasted (of course, that wasn't supposed to happen but the founders seemed to understand teenagers and their strange desires) but were really only high enough to stop toddlers from doing so.
Sirius soon wandered over, stretching as he prepared to listen to Josephine's rambling on and on about stars.
It was one of the things you had to get used to, being a friend of hers. Sirius, on the other hand, positively despised the stars. If his name wasn't Sirius, it would be a lot easier to detach himself from his family. Yes, changing his name could be done, but people do get attached to their names after having said name for 17 years.
It was like his parents had foresaw his future. Or, maybe they'd gone to one of those muggle name pickers — though Sirius thought that was rather unlikely, considering just how much his parents despised muggles.
No, they'd probably pulled up a star chart and picked the first, untaken name that they'd seen, What a romantic start to life.
He would probably have zoned off, just staring at either Jo or the sky, but something was off with the girl standing in front of her. Every now and then, she'd give a small start, as if something had gone wrong.
Had it happened again, Sirius would probably have asked her whether she was okay.
But right there, Josephine seemed intent on continuing her lecture, "Sirius and Vulpecula, see the path between them? It's wavering, but it's quite distinct, just like—" His gaze flickered towards the spot where she was pointing, eyebrows drawing together in what seemed like interest, before Josephine grabbed his hand.
Josephine was holding his hand.
Sirius had barely a moment to realize what she'd done before he felt the ground give way, the only thing that he was aware of being Josephine's heartbeat quickening. The world seemed to turn pitch black right there, stars clouding his sight.
Then it cleared, and Sirius was holding onto Josephine's hand like a lifeline as they stood in front of a house.
"Jo, do you know this place?" Sirius asked, mouth open and gaping at the scene in front of them.
He glanced at the girl, before realizing that she seemed almost . . . too alive. Her eyes were wide open, the irises a molten gold that looked everywhere at once yet didn't see at all. Gold, yes. Josephine was the epitome of the color: her eyes were bright, her veins seemed to pump with life, her hair floating on its own accord, herself in the air with only Sirius anchoring her to the ground. She was just about the only source of light in the dark.
No, actually. Small, interwoven strands that were the same shade of gold as herself encircled the skies. Stars, etched into the lines, crossed over each other, and if Sirius looked hard enough, it was as if he could see something within those very stars.
She was the sun and the heavens, in that moment. And like the sun, Josephine was burning.
In mere seconds, Josephine seemed to almost rise a few hundred degrees. Sirius could feel the blisters forming on his skin as he tried frantically to get her attention, "Jo, look at me."
Josephine did not reply, but thunder did. The skies darkened impossibly so, as he saw a bright light flash from inside the building. A yell, a shriek, then dead silence. The ominous note hung in the air, sending shivers up his spine as he frantically muttered Josephine's name over and over again, squeezing her hand in what he thought was reassuringly.
Only in the years to come would Sirius realize just how brief the entire encounter had been, for something that would haunt him for the rest of his life. Maybe, maybe, the swiftness had been mercy. But that was not for Sirius to judge, right there.
Because Sirius, at the time, only had a vague idea of what had happened. Josephine's bright aura faded, the sunlit glare from her eyes dimming seconds before they were back on the astronomy tower, like nothing had happened. The only acknowledgement that something had passed was the dazed look on his face. No, not dazed — starstruck.
Drowsily, she blinked at the boy, warmth spreading into her grasp and onto Sirius's hands. Her gaze slowly meeting his, Josephine asked, with a touch of hesitance, "Siri? You look like you've just seen a ghost."
Breathing heavy, Sirius slowly let go of the girl in front of him and almost backed up into the wall in his haste as he grabbed his satchel. "I . . . I think I'm ready for the test. Night, Jo."
"We don't have a test?" Josephine called uselessly after Sirius, who had long ago slipped around the corner, quick steps down the stone floors of the astronomy tower. His hair unkempt and his face flushed from the encounter, he forced himself to take a deep breath before heading in the direction of the dorms.
The previously determined gaze in her eyes was replaced by an uncertain waver, as Jo leant against the railing and glanced up at the sky above her.
She wondered just what she'd done to offend Sirius like that all night long.
lola's notes.
this story is quite fast-paced because jo's powers are the catalyst for much of the events in this story.
she was originally going to be a seer but tbh stars > future over here so i'm not gonna explain it all but think . . . dark hold!wanda 🤭 bye *giggles*
as usual, please vote & comment ALL your thoughts! i adore interacting w you guys