Astrophile: A person who loves stars, astronomy.
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It was strange.
Sirius Black had thought he was special. Not in the centre-of-a-prophecy, save-the-world kind of way. But, stupid as it sounded when he rethought it afterwards, he had believed that perhaps he- or, more accurately, Snuffles- was the only one that Alex could ever be as relaxed around as she was when she was alone.
He was wrong.
Winking at her as he stepped through to her dining area, Sirius couldn't help but feel that knawing in the pit of his stomach. Jealousy? Of course she would be comfortable around her own family, Sirius had only been in their house for ten seconds but he was already fully prepared to curl up in a chair and let her dad make him a cup of hot chocolate. There was an edge of anxiety that was missing to Alex now, even though Sirius could see the way that her spine snapped straight upwards when she had recognised their dinner guests. He doubted even she realised the difference in her character.
In the dining room, with its smartly polished oak table and laminated side cabinets, Sirius worked hard to spot baby pictures of the girl. These seemed less frequent with each year she had aged, but he guessed that was a result of her photography more than a lack of parental care. Her childish handprints, preserved forever in ornamental clay dishes and flimsy coloured sand paper pressed lovingly into frames, were everywhere, mirrored in most by her brother's. Sirius swallowed around a lump in his throat.
This was what he wanted. So badly. Whatever it was that this family had, Sirius decided right then and there that he would try to capture it in every instance of his life.
His father instinctively, and rather rudely, took Alex's father's place at the head of the table, with his mother instantly claiming the other end. This placed Sirius in between Alex and her father, facing his brother wedged in the middle of Micah and Mrs Fawley.
It would be fair to say it was without a doubt one of the most awkward dinners Sirius had ever eaten. Full of thinly veiled references to the little fun club known as the Death Eaters, peppered with anxious glances from the Fawley parents to their children. Micah and Alex, for once united in a cause, just seemed to be waiting for the whole thing to be over.
"So Sirius," Alex's mother said to him after a rather long sip of wine, "Professor Dumbledore tells me that you will be assisting with Alex's astronomy."
Sirius almost choked on his broccoli. He didn't look at Alex as he responded, "Yes, um, Ma'am. Although we haven't actually started working on anything specific yet."
"Well, we have a fully equipped room upstairs," Mr Fawley offered, "Alex could show you after dinner."
Sirius dropped him a nod and pretended he couldn't feel Alex vigorously shaking her head at her father from behind him, "Thank you, sir."
"Please," Alex's dad smiled warmly, "Call me Mike."
"Thank you... Mike." Sirius corrected himself.
"Knowledge of the heavens is an ancient family tradition." Orion Black's voice thundered from down the table, "It is imperative in the education of any of the young hoping to make an impression at social gatherings."
Sirius thought about the last 'social gathering' he had attended. In his, he must admit, rather foggy memory, there drifted the images of James riding an inflatable hippogriff around the common room while Remus shook his head in despair. It was odd, but he couldn't recall his knowledge of constellations coming in at all useful in that scenario, although his knowledge of enlarging balloon animals was another story.
He knew, of course, that by using the term 'social gathering' his father was not-so-subtly referring to his pastime of helping to run a cult of racist terrorists with a murder-y vendetta against the Logan Mitchell's of the world. Whether Alex realised this or not was impossible to determine from her expression as he glanced it out of the corner of his eye. He sensed his brother sit up taller in his chair and instinctively sank downwards.
"Of course." Helen was nodding at Orion's words, "And Alex has always had such an enthusiasm for astronomy. I can only imagine why she's struggling so much."
Sirius saw Alex's hands clench at each other under the table, but said nothing. She started fiddling with a flimsy string bracelet tied around her wrist, tugging at the loose ends. She always did that when she was frustrated.
"Whatever sentiments my husband might have about the subject," Walburga Black butted into the conversation, her tone so calculated that Sirius wanted to shout to the Fawleys to take cover, "Astronomy will not help your daughter continue the Great Work. She would be better turning her attentions towards potions and the dark arts."
"Defence against, do you mean?" Micah Fawley interrupted, frowning. Everyone at the table with the exception of the twins and the adult Blacks seemed to close their eyes for a moment, absorbing the impact of those words. Regulas, not quite as subtly as he thought, kicked Micah under the table.
Walburga Black set her wine glass down, "That is also a useful subject, I suppose. For deployment against some of the more liberal members of the resistance."
Micah furrowed his brows. Helen Fawley was quite obviously working her brain for some way to interrupt the conversation. Next to Sirius, all of Mike Fawley's muscles had tensed.
"I don't understand." Micah sealed his parents' doom with those three words.
Walburga's surprisingly crane-like neck swivelled so that she was narrowing her eyes at Helen, "Have your children not been initiated yet, Mrs Fawley? How disappointing. Especially given the plan we have so carefully tendered for them, giving some of our most prestigious resources over."
"We... We thought it best to wait," Mike's Adam's apple bobbed obviously, "Until after their OWLs."
Walburga and Orion regarded the Fawleys for an impossibly long moment. Sirius had never wanted so badly to take Alex's hand. He wasn't even sure who he would be comforting.
"That is understandable." Walburga said at last, drawing repressed sighs of relief from the dinner attendees, "However unfortunate. And here I believed that we would be able to talk freely tonight, of all nights."
Sirius felt Micah and Alex exchange the sibling expression of reassurance that the other one didn't understand shit about what was happening either. He fought the urge to share a similar look with his own brother, the pointed cold shoulders and short responses of the past week a reminder of the promise he had made.
After dinner, Sirius was indeed ushered to follow Alex, who led him somewhat haltingly up the softly carpeted stairs in a silence so oppressive that Sirius could have mistaken it for the moments after a nuclear blast wipes out all life on Earth. Pictures littered the walls in the random places that proud parents choose for their too-many frames showcasing their children's accomplishments. There was an entire platoon of newly installed pictures of Micah standing in a hole, covered in dirt and holding a weather-worn ring proudly up to the camera.
Sirius paused when he saw a recent moving one of Alex. She was on a farm, or somewhere rural, knee deep in mud, laughing, with her arm thrown over Logan, busy pulling faces at her. There was another boy in the background, who looked too similar to the Mitchell boy to not be a relative of some kind. He was rolling his eyes at the show. Sirius smiled slightly.
"Um. That's Logan's brother." Alex supplied, having noticed that the boy had stopped.
Sirius didn't take his eyes off it, "Muggle?"
"That depends." Alex's voice wobbled a little.
Sirius tore his eyes away to look at the girl. She still had one foot on the next step upwards, she wore a conflicted expression, hands running up and down her bare arms as she hugged herself. He noticed for the first time how she had covered her usual tracery of scars, the jagged one on her face only showing if he squinted at it very carefully, which he was not going to do again because she probably already thought he was creepy enough.
"On what?" Sirius asked, quirking an eyebrow.
Alex swallowed, "On whether you'll send people to hurt him."
Sirius felt like he'd been hit in the face with the force of an erumpet horn. He took a step upwards, so that he was at eye level with Alex, frowning very deliberately, "You don't honestly think I'm like them, do you?"
"I don't know." Alex stumbled backwards, almost tripping over the end of her dress, "I don't know anything about you."
Yes, you do. Look at me. You do. You know me.
"I promise." Sirius searched her eyes for any sign of that girl she was when he was Snuffles, "I promise you I am not like them."
Alex observed him suspiciously, "I don't know how I'm supposed to tell."
"Well, that's simple." He shot her the ghost of a smile and turned on the spot, flapping out his suit linings to showcase all its crimson glory, "I have way better fashion sense."
Reluctantly, Alex smiled, "It's probably a good thing you're not going after Logan's family." She informed him as she resumed the trail back up the stairs.
Relief stealing into him, Sirius grinned at her back, "And why's that?"
"I'm pretty sure his dad's the leader of the Mafia or something." Alex explained in a way that made Sirius unsure whether she was joking or not.
Sirius spluttered a laugh, "Are you serious?"
"Yeah," Alex laughed nervously, "They import unlicensed guns over from the States, I think."
They came to the top of the stairs, facing a corridor with the walls painted a dreamy blue, low sapphire firelight glowing sleepily in candelabras on the walls. Each of the doors was a deep navy colour with the exception of a completely black one at the end of the hall.
"Wow." Sirius shook his head, trying not to seem too impressed by the décor, "Wouldn't have thought Mitchell was up to it."
"Oh, no." Alex pushed open the black door at the end of the hall, which gave way with a soft click, "Logan wants to go into law."
"The irony." Sirius muttered, following her into the room.
The room beyond made the rest of the house look like a cheap apartment. It was circular, about half the size of a small classroom. The floor was carpeted black, with irregular bumps that betrayed the shape of matching bean bags, spaced out around it. The only source of illumination were the constellations dotted around the black wallpaper, glowing softly, white taped lines connecting the representations of stars into the patterns that people had drawn for them millennia ago. These provided the light to see the telescope that dominated the centre of the space, beautiful in all its intricate gold and silver design.
It was the ceiling that was the grandest affair, however. It was domed, completely glass so that you could see the real life counterparts of the wallpaper. It was dark enough now that the stars were burning away like little sparks flying from the fire, captured in a still instance of life.
"Well," Sirius breathed, unable to tear his eyes away from the night sky above, "This is certainly something."
"Some of the old families have necklaces, or cups, or special gifts passed down the generations," Alex sounded more comfortably confident here, masked in the dark, than Sirius had ever heard her, "We have the house."
Sirius thought about his own families traditional home, and immediately felt jealous, "What does that mean, exactly?"
"It, um... It changes depending on who owns it. And it moves." Alex fiddled with the telescope absently, "They say there's a room created for everyone who's ever lived here. Those ones always stay the same."
"Is this your room?" Sirius asked, turning on the spot to take it all in.
Alex was quiet for a moment, "No. This was my... Um, my Grandma's, I think."
"She liked astronomy, I guess." Sirius was reaching for things to say about the eighth wonder of the world. He had always found the lessons a little tedious himself, but if they were all like this, then he could see himself falling back in love with his namesake.
"She was a Seer." Alex provided, "But, like, a scientific one? If that's even a thing?"
Sirius frowned, looking at her for the first time. Alex's makeup was more obvious in the cool light of the stars, cracking on her cheeks in the places it overlapped with her cuts. Her head was turned upwards, eyes searching the sky the way that Sirius' had been only a moment before, hair glowing eerily in the light where it tumbled freely down her back, a silver sheen glancing over the strands of brown.
"What does that mean?" He asked her, fully willing to go to any lengths to continue this, for once normal, conversation.
Alex glanced back at him, smiling slightly, shrugged, and looked away, "I don't know. Just something my mum said."
There was a stool, surprisingly uncomfortable and rickety in the face of all the perfection in that room, just in front of the telescope. Sirius gestured to it with a hand, "Shall we get started then?"