The Black Star

*1995*

...But that one didn't gratify Harry in any way.

He was eager to speak to Sirius in person, but he seriously doubted that this was possible right now. Still, you never knew what was going to happen next. Maybe a big black dog would appear right there in Diagon Alley.

Harry looked at the article again. Stella Decartier, Head of Black Star... another unanswered question. What was the Black Star ? He'd never heard of something like that. So Harry asked his friends.

“Wait... Dad's told me once... yeah, it's an IWIS,” answered Ron after a few seconds of thinking. His words caused Harry to look even more puzzled than he had before.

"An IWIS?” he echoed.

"An International Wizarding Information Service,” Hermione explained. Seeing Harry's unknowing expression, Ron added, “Espionage.”

“Oh. I see.” Harry muttered. He hadn't expected something like that. Had he expected anything? -- he asked himself. No, he hadn't really given it a thought before.

So Silver was the Head of a spying organization -- an Information Service, as it was officially called.

"That's why she is 'feared and highly respected',” Harry thought. "Knowledge is power.”

And again he remembered her voice, almost repeating his own thoughts as she had once said to him, “Knowledge is power, but it can be deadly.”

How very true, Harry thought bitterly. So many people had been tortured to death because they had known something Voldemort had wanted to know, too. However,Stella seemed to have avoided such a fate until now, for which he was grateful. After all, she was one of the few people that actually cared about him. And having the Head of Black Star caring about him, Harry realized that it was an immensely reassuring fact. He smiled and saw his friends looking at him inquiringly.

"I've just realized that it's extremely relieving that there are such powerful people like Silver who care about me. It means higher safety for you two as well and for this, I'm grateful,” he explained and saw Ron and Hermione smiling back at him. Suddenly he felt much better than he had a few minutes before.

Since the three of them had already finished with drinking and eating ice-cream and since they had already got their school stuff, they arose and went to the Leaky Cauldron. From there, they traveled via Floo Powder back to the Burrow.

After they'd stumbled out of the fireplace at the Weasley's, they were confronted with a rather unexpected sight.

Remus Lupin was sitting with Molly and Arthur Weasley at the kitchen table and smiled as he saw the three of them coming out of the fireplace.

Harry's eyes widened in surprise. He heard Ron and Hermione draw in breath sharply, both surprised as well.

After a few seconds, he remembered his manners and managed to say, “Hi, Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, hello Professor.”

“Hello, Harry. And please call me Remus. This goes for you, too,” Lupin told Ron and Hermione who nodded.

“Remus has come to make you an offer.” Arthur cut in and looked at him encouragingly.

“Yeah. You know Harry, since Sirius is now staying at my house in Wales, we thought that you might want to spend the rest of your holidays there. Ron and Hermione are also welcome,” Remus explained.

Harry's eyes lit up. He definitely liked the idea -- but there was one thing...

"Arrangements have been made, of course, to ensure your safety and Dumbledore agrees with this plan. In fact, it was his idea,” added Remus.

This satisfied Harry. If even Dumbledore had no objections, then they could go. He would see Sirius again! More than that, he would get the chance to ask him about Silver. Remus looked at him expectantly. Harry grinned.

“I'd love to come,” he said.

Ron nodded and said that he'd like to come as well. Hermione joined his opinion, but she told them that she would have to inform her parents.

“No need to, dear,” said Molly Weasley cheerfully. “I've already sent them an owl. I'm sure they won't have any objections!”

Hermione looked doubtful. She just hoped that Molly hadn't written about Remus being a werewolf and Sirius being a convicted murderer who escaped Azkaban. She supposed this would shock her parents, despite the fact that the Wolfsbane -- potion made Remus safe and that Sirius was innocent. But oh well.

The three of them went to their rooms to pack their trunks. While packing, Harry was considering whether or not he should ask Remus about Silver. It was a big probability that he knew her, too. But then, Harry thought this was Sirius' business, so it would be better to ask him.

Of course, Harry couldn't know that it concerned Remus Lupin equally.

*1971*

...This year was promising to be very enjoyable.

After the breakfast, the Gryffindor first-years descended to the dungeon because they were going to have Potions.

At the moment they'd entered the Potions dungeon, they noticed a few other people already sitting there. It seemed as if they were going to have those classes with first-years from another house.

With the unpleasant looks on their faces, it became clear at once: Those people were Slytherins. The Potions Master told the Gryffindors to sit down and introduced himself as Professor Atrox. He was rather tall and had dark hair and dark bushy eyebrows that almost covered his glittering black eyes. With his nose that looked like a slightly crushed potato, he looked quite funny. But all the urges to laugh the students might have had were stopped when they saw his thin, cruel-looking mouth. Professor Atrox looked as if he was better not to get involved with.

Stella recalled her father telling her how much fun they'd always had in Potions with playing pranks on their teacher who hadn't been able to hold the class in bounds. Well, it didn't seem like Prof. Atrox was going to have the same problem.

Right now he was explaining how very difficult the Art of Potions-making was and that he assumed they were all dimwits who wouldn't understand it anyway. Okay, he didn't say it exactly like that, but that was how it sounded to Stella and Sirius who both hated to be spoken to so superiorly.

"An innocent little bit of Enlarging Potion could make his nose bigger... wouldn't that look better?” wondered Stella mockingly, not knowing that Sirius was planning how to annoy Atrox as well.

The others seemed to have different thoughts. James was looking calm, he trusted himself to be good enough to satisfy even this teacher. Lily seemed to be a bit afraid of Atrox, but also ready to prove that she wasn't a dimwit who didn't understand anything. Peter looked simply horrified throughout Atrox's speech and Remus was worried. He just hoped that they wouldn't have to use Wolfsbane or pick some plants under the full moon.

Severus Snape was looking so smug as if he already knew everything about brewing potions and the other Slytherins didn't seem to be particularly afraid of Atrox, either.

Soon it became obvious, why. The Gryffindors learned that Atrox was Head of Slytherin House.

“Weird. Dad told me that his Potions Master was also Head of Slytherin. Wonder if this is a kind of tradition?” said Stella to Lily who shrugged, not knowing it, either.

After they had finished discussing the Pepperup Potion they were going to make in their next Potions lesson, the bell rang and the Gryffindors hurried upstairs, looking for the Transfiguration classroom since their next lesson was Transfiguration.

They were awaited by Prof. McGonagall who introduced herself and then read each one's name out loudly from a list. A strange expression flickered across her face at the mention of 'Black, Sirius' and 'Decartier, Stella', but nobody noticed it.

McGonagall began to explain that Transfiguration wasn't easy and that they would have to listen to her properly and follow her orders.

"It's for your own safety. Things can go horribly wrong in Transfiguration and not every spell can be reversed,” she paused, glancing with irritation at Stella who was absorbed with reading a book and apparently hadn't been listening at all.

“Ms. Decartier, could you please repeat what I've just said?” she asked sharply.

Stella looked up and said calmly, “You explained the difficulty of Transfiguration and that we have to listen to you and follow your orders for our own safety. Things can go horribly wrong in Transfiguration and not every spell can be reversed.” Stella quoted the last sentence and grinned inwardly as she saw McGonagall's eyes widen in surprise.

“She had been so sure that I was absorbed with my book and wanted to give me detention. Well, bad luck,” the girl thought amusedly.

But the Professor thought more than that and while she was telling the students to read the first three pages of their books, she watched Stella with interest.

"How interesting... she's been reading the book carefully, I can tell that, and yet she could quote me. Her father had the same ability,” she smiled at the thought of the old days when she had been attending Hogwarts.

"Luke Decartier was known for it and drove the teachers crazy. Well, not only the teachers... since he was very bright, good-looking and a great mischief-maker ... along with Aeneas Black who was from the same kind. I might've considered Luke as an 'option' even though he was younger, but then, he was taken by Lucinda Guarneri in his third year who didn't release him ever since then ...” her smile became a bit regretful. Then she focused her attention on Stella again.

“She's got the typical Decartier eyes -- this strange mixture of brown, gray and green. But she has Lucinda's skin and hair color... in fact, she bears more resemblance to her mother -- outwardly. I guess she's inherited her father's character. Could be interesting, though... Lucy's Italian temper and Luke's coolness that almost verged on arrogance. Well, we will see. She's exceptionally bright, no questions there, but I suppose she'll turn out just like her father: mischief, pranks and certainly not studying...” Minerva McGonagall sighed and turned to look at Sirius.

"I wonder how they are going to get along... their parents were great friends, but Sirius and Stella haven't seen each other since they were only babies, they wouldn't remember that...

Apparently, Sirius inherited his father's good looks and his character with big probability, too. But he does have something from his mother. Diana Ravens always seemed to float rather than walk. And I've never seen an 11-year old moving so gracefully like this one. It's weird.

Well, with those two here, the teachers are going to have 'exciting years' *sigh*. The Potter boy seems to be rather mischievous, too... ah well. What has to come, will come.”

Prof. McGonagall finished her inner monologue and gave each of the students a pin that they were supposed to turn into a needle with the help of the instructions they'd just read.

James, Sirius, Remus and Stella didn't have a problem with that. But Lily managed to turn the pin into a needle only at her third try. She scowled and decided that she was not going to like Transfiguration. Potions had been far more interesting and the Charms book was simply fascinating... She couldn't wait for her first Charms lesson.

The other students did fairly well and after even Pettigrew had managed to transfigure his pin, the bell rang. Everybody hurried to the Great Hall for lunch.

James and Sirius sank immediately into a deep conversation about which prank to play on Atrox. Peter Pettigrew started wolfing down the delicious Hogwarts food which caused Lily and Stella to look at him with disgust.

Meanwhile, Remus was examining his timetable and saw that they were going to have Defense against the Dark Arts in the afternoon.

"Great! That's something I've been looking forward to,” he thought happily. Remus hoped that the DADA lessons would also help him to fight the darkness inside him. Being a werewolf had effects on him even in his human shape. The week before the full moon he always became more aggressive, more daring and felt and increased craving for meat. But he had some time. The next full moon would be on September 30^th, in 4 weeks.

***

The DADA lesson went well. They were studying little Dark creatures who weren't very dangerous and their teacher, Professor Lovell Sheridan, had told them that they would start with Defense Charms soon.

"Normally, the first-years don't learn them, but in the current situation it's better when you start with them right now.” Sheridan had told them.

He had meant the Dark wizard Voldemort who seemed to gather more strength and power from one day to another, as Stella explained to Lily afterwards. It was better to be prepared.

After DADA, they went to the Gryffindor Common Room. They had now some time until dinner would start and no homework to do, since it was the first day.

Lily and Stella settled down on two chairs near the big fireplace. Two Gryffindor third-years playing chess caught Lily's attention. Suddenly, she noticed something weird. Lily tugged at Stella's sleeve and gestured towards the two third-years.

“Look! The pieces are moving by themselves!” she exclaimed. Stella cast her a mildly inquiring glance.

"So what?” she asked.

“Well, in Muggle chess they don't do that. It's the players who have to move them.” Lily explained.

“Really? But that must be a very quite game... you know, the wizarding chess pieces can also speak and they're always giving you tips. I've got a set myself. Fancy a chess game?” Stella asked.

Lily agreed instantly. Self-moving and speaking chess-pieces! If only her mum and dad could know, they would be amazed!

After a short while Stella returned with her wizarding chess set and they started to play. The first game was rather short. It took Lily only a few minutes to give Stella a checkmate. Stella's king started a tirade against her playing abilities. But this had been a mistake. Stella got irritated and banged her king's head against the chessboard in order to shut him up. He was rather dizzy afterwards.

Stella sighed resignedly.

“Chess has never been one of my strengths.”

“Then it's time to change that,” countered Lily, but Stella obviously wasn't in the mood to lose again. Instead, she got up and asked Remus if he wanted to play chess with Lily. He agreed and sat down opposite the two girls.

“Now. Watch and learn, Stella,” commanded Lily. And so Stella did.

After ten minutes, she began to stir in her chair.

After the next five minutes had passed, Stella stifled a yawn.

Finally, about a half and hour after the start of the game, she had trouble to keep her eyes open.

"'Watch and learn!' Oh yeah, sure ! The only thing I learned is that when you're suffering insomnia, you should watch a chess game! This is even more boring than watching grass growing! Because the grass stops growing when winter starts, but it doesn't seem that this game is going to end so soon.” Stella muttered to herself and got up. She wanted to go to the library. The Hogwarts Library had an excellent reputation and she assumed that there were certainly some books that would interest her.

Stella had been right. There were quite a lot of books that would interest her. She chose to read 'The Rarest Magical Beasts and Where to Find Them -- Expanded Version' first and returned to the common room with it. Within a couple of minutes, she became totally unaware of her surroundings.

"The extremely rare bicorn, a distant relative of the unicorn, can be found in the forests of Scotland where there were reported sightings throughout the century,” Stella read. "It is, however, very difficult to get a glimpse at a bicorn. Being black-colored, it is very well able to hide in the dark forests. Originally from Spain, the bicorn is by no means as peaceful and gentle as the unicorn. Having two silvery colored horns, the bicorns like to fight with each other, which is their favorite pastime. They also have mischievous tendencies which makes it easier for people with a similar character to approach them.” Stella grinned. She liked the sound of the bicorn's description and wondered whether there lived some of them in the Forbidden Forest or not.

"One way to find out,” she said to herself and then read on.

"One of the most powerful and mysterious dragons is the Canadian Albine which can be found in Northern Canada and Greenland. Even looking at it can be painful for the beholder because its pearl-white scales reflect sunlight and the gaze of its huge scarlet eyes is terrifying. With its height of more than 25 meters it's easily the biggest dragon ever known. It's very unusual in many ways, for example the fire it breathes is electric blue and freezing cold. Such a dragon is nearly untamable like most dragons, but there were cases in which a Canadian Albine made a friendship with a human. Those occasions remained, however, rare.” Stella smiled. She had been part of one of those cases and it had been wonderful. Still smiling at the thought of the huge Canadian Albine she had been friends with, she sank into reading again.

"The Great Falcon Basilisk is one of the rarest and most dangerous creatures ever to populate the earth. Hatched out of a hawk's egg that was cared for by a viper, the Great Falcon Basilisk has a hawk's head and the body of a snake. It can be longer than 20 meters and it's body can be more than one meter wide. The Great Falcon Basilisk's weapons are his murderous stare like the common Basilisk's, its large beak and a sting at the end of its tail that contains one of the most venomous kinds of poison in the world. The most recent reports state that those creatures prefer to live in deserts like Sahara, Namib and Kalahari.”

Stella examined the picture that was beneath the text critically and found that the Great Falcon Basilisk wasn't an ugly-looking beast. It was, however, a deadly beauty it had, she thought and suddenly noticed that she had skipped a few pages right at the beginning. The girl flipped back in the book and read on.

“The Aquaenix or waterbird, like it's sometimes called, is a 'cousin' of the more commonly known phoenix. They have similar powers like being able to carry heavy loads and having tears with healing powers, but instead of fire, the Aquaenix's element is water, naturally. When the end of its life comes, the Aquaenix will freeze and turn into an ice-statue. Then, after melting, it will be reborn from the water. The Aquaenix's beauty is equal to that of the phoenix. With its silvery beak, talons and eyes and feathers of indigo, royal, light, ultramarine and dark blue, it bears a magnificent appearance. The Aquaenix can be found in humid countries like Ireland, Scotland, Finland and Madagascar.” Stella looked up and smiled again. She was thinking of her pet aquaenix Kaye whom she had found wounded about 4 years ago and cared for her until Kaye's wounds had healed. Normally, aquaenixes didn't stay with humans, but Kaye had done so out of friendship to Stella who liked the aquaenix like a human friend. Aquaenixes could fly very fast, so Stella used Kaye for mail-delivery too and hadn't bother to buy an owl. And by the way, aquaenixes were far more intelligent and beautiful than owls.

Stella looked at the next page where there was a picture of a blue dragon. She read on.

"There is only very little known about the Azure Dragon. It is as mighty as it's rare and so there are only very few mortal ones who met such a dragon and even fewer who survived that meeting. The Azure Dragon is not much larger than other dragons, but it is told that it can resist physical attacks much longer. The Azure Dragons are most likely to be found in the mountains of Tibet.” Stella's eyes became dreamy. She'd love to see a real Azure Dragon, but this wasn't very likely to happen. She leafed the book through and stopped at the letter 'S'.

“The Scorpicore is the mightier cousin of the terrifying manticore. It has also a lion's body, a scorpion's tail and a human's face. It is, however, not tawny like the manticore, but blood-red. While the manticore is at most 1 ½ meter high, the height of the Scorpicore can be 2 ½ meters and up. Being from the same kind like the Sphinx, the Scorpicore prefers the hot and sunny places and therefore can be found in Egypt, Libya, Chad and Niger.

“Mmmh, that's very interesting. Wonder if you can buy a Scorpicore for a pet. I'd kind of like that,” said a voice above Stella's head and made her jump.

“Black! Why are you lurking around like that?” Stella was annoyed because Sirius had startled her.

“Am I lurking around?” he asked with big, innocent eyes.

"Yes, you are! What have you been up to? Spying on me or what?”

"Spying? Me?” he looked now, although it seemed impossible, even more innocent.

Stella narrowed her eyes.

"Why do you keep answering me with questions?”

“Am I answering you with questions?”

“Now you are just trying to annoy me,” she snapped, irritably.

“Yeah,” he said with a lopsided grin.” And by the way, behold my success.”

Stella glared at him and this made his grin get even broader. Lily and Remus who had been listening to the two of them bickering, raised their eyebrows meaningfully and grinned as well. Of course, they didn't know yet that they were going to do this very often from now on. Arguments could be very enjoyable for those who didn't participate...

~to be continued~