The Black Star

Dedicated to Jade, the best beta-reader ever known

*1995*

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

He couldn’t know how great the friendship between Remus and Stella had been, couldn’t know about the special bond that still connected them. So he didn’t ask.

After they’d finished packing, Harry, Ron and Hermione descended the stairs and went into the kitchen where Remus awaited them.

Seeing them, he gestured towards the door that led outside.

“Ready? Alright, we’ll be off, then. Thanks Arthur, thanks Molly- we’ll see each other soon, I suppose,” he said.

Ron’s parents nodded.

“Good-bye, dears. Have fun,” Molly told the young trio.

Remus moved towards the door but was stopped by the puzzled glances Hermione, Harry and Ron cast him.

“Don’t we travel vie Floo Powder?” Ron asked.

Remus shook his head.

“No. My home isn’t connected to the Wizarding Network in case somebody wanted to invade it that way. We’ll have to travel by car. The ministry provided one that has… er, special abilities.”

At the last bit, Molly frowned.

“Special abilities? You didn’t tell me about that!”

She looked accusingly at Remus, obviously remembering their old Ford Anglia. But Remus assured her that this car couldn’t fly.

After that, they went outside and stuffed their trunks into the back of the car which had been, fortunately, magically enlarged. Then they all said good-bye to Ron’s parents and left.

Harry had resumed the seat next to the driver’s one and suddenly realized something.

“I didn’t know you could drive…” he told Remus who smiled lightly and said,

“Well, I can. It was ‘cool’ when I was young and nearly everyone took driving lessons… some with more, some with less effectiveness.”

“Professor…er, I mean Remus, where do you live exactly?” asked Hermione curiously while fields were passing on either side of the road.

“It’s in Dyfed, Wales. A small town called Wolf’s Castle.” Remus grinned. He knew exactly what they were thinking now.

“Suitable name, isn’t it? In the past there was a castle whose owner was rumored to be a werewolf… and there were always living wolf packs in the surrounding forests. That’s how the town got its name,” he explained.

That remained the whole conversation throughout their journey. Somehow, nobody felt like talking and so they all jumped when suddenly a voice spoke up from nowhere.

It was Dumbledore’s.

"Amicum vocare !” he said, enunciating clearly. "Remus, are you there?”

"Yes, Albus. Harry, Ron and Hermione are here with me. No problems so far. We should be reaching Wolf’s Castle in a few minutes,” Remus said into the thin air, but Dumbledore had apparently heard him because he responded,

"Very well. Inform me after your arrival. And you three, have fun at Wolf’s Castle.”

The youths could almost hear him twinkling and then the connection broke.

“What was that?” Harry asked. He’d first thought of some sort of microphone, but it wouldn’t have worked, being surrounded by all that magic.

"That was a Vocatus Spell. You can contact a person no matter where they are. There are, however, places that are charmed so that this spell wouldn’t work if you wanted to contact a person there,” Remus said and left unspoken what they were all thinking. Azkaban was certainly one of those places.

They were driving through a hilly green area, when suddenly a sign appeared on left side of the road

"Welcome to Wolf’s Castle!” it was reading. There was a head of a howling wolf painted beneath the words.

Harry, Ron and Hermione looked at what Remus had termed ‘town’ in a fit of great enthusiasm: a cute but small village with white houses with red roofs. It was really picturesque. They drove along the main street and out of the village.

After a curve, they saw it.

There was a majestic gray castle with two towers standing on a hilltop.

The youths gaped at it, lost for words. Remus chuckled, amused by the expressions on their faces.

“Well, I haven’t exactly said that the castle didn’t exist anymore, have I?”

Ron found his speech again.

“But… but I thought you were…”

“Poor?” Remus interrupted him and Ron blushed, not knowing what to say.

"You were right,” continued Remus. "The castle is my only possession and as you can certainly imagine, you need quite a lot of money to keep such a building in an intact state, … which was rather difficult when I had no job…” he trailed off.

Harry, Ron and Hermione felt awkward but soon forgot it because their attention was caught by the magnificent appearance of the castle again. It wasn’t very large, but it had some sort of aura that made it look slightly mysterious and rather imposing. It was built entirely out of stone and had a smaller building standing next to it which had obviously been the stables once.

After they had approached the gate to the castle grounds, Remus got out of the car and took out his wand. He waved it towards the gate and murmured something, apparently taking down some wards. Finally, he drove into the castle grounds and they all got out of the car, eyeing their surroundings with great interest.

The castle grounds were full of trees. The whole place couldn’t be termed other than ‘green’. There were even ivy ranks on the castle walls. Despite the mysterious aura the castle had, it seemed friendly, Harry thought. He noticed the same feeling of safety that he had had when he’d first seen Hogwarts.

Suddenly there was a creaking noise and the castle gate opened, revealing Sirius who came striding towards them with a broad grin on his face. Harry started walking towards him and after they’d reached each other, they hugged.

“It’s good to see you, Harry,” Sirius said softly and then took a step back.

“Welcome to Lupin’s Lair, you three!” he said to Harry, Ron and Hermione, ignoring Remus’ groan at his words profusely.

But the trio found it amusing. Hermione chuckled and turned to Remus, looking inquiring.

“Is it really… " she said.

Remus looked disapproving.

“No,” he said, glaring at Sirius. “It’s not the castle’s name. But Sirius has found it clearly amusing to call it like that ever since his first visit here. I can’t stop him.”

He sighed resignedly, but Sirius only laughed and put his arm around Remus’ shoulders.

“Oh c’mon, Moony. That’s just because we didn’t find any suitable word that began with ‘L’,” he said good-humoredly and Remus rolled his eyes in mock-exasperation.

“So it’s Malfoy Manor and Lupin’s Lair,” mused Harry, holding back his laughter.

"I think Lupin’s Lair is better than Malfoy Manor any day,” said Ron rather unexpectedly and received a grateful smile from Lupin and nods from Harry and Hermione.

“Yeah. And it’s way better than Lupin’s lavatory or Lupin’s Laundry, too,” agreed Sirius. Then he seemed to get another idea and chuckled.

“Or Lupin’s Lingerie,” he said, getting a bit insane. Remus rolled his eyes again and hit Sirius’ arm.

“Letting you stay here was the worst mistake in my life,” he complained, sounding slightly desperate. "What have I been thinking? I must have been cursed, out of my mind, crazy, totally unaware of what I was doing…”

Sirius cut him off.

“So it’s Lupin’s Litany now,” he said, still grinning.

“Yeah, but there will be Lupin’s Lividness if you don’t stop at once!” threatened Remus.

Harry, Ron and Hermione looked at each other and grinned. They certainly wouldn’t be bored on their stay at Lupin’s Lair…

Remus led them into his castle. The entrance hall wasn’t nearly as large as the one in Hogwarts, but it was magnificent all the same. Tapestries were hanging on the walls, displaying scenes from the life of the past castle owners. There were some hunting scenes, one tapestry showed a dinner party and another one showed a man who was surrounded by wolves. But they didn’t seem to attack him, quite the contrary. They were lying peacefully at the man’s feet and the biggest one of them, obviously the alpha male, was sitting next to the man with its head in his lap. Harry looked at that tapestry, taken by the fact that wolves could be so peaceful in a human’s presence. Remus who had followed his gaze, pointed at the tapestry. The other three came and looked at it, too.

“This has been my grandfather, Silvius Lupin. The wolves adored him. Of course, not only the wolves did. Silvius was a Switcher,” he said.

Harry cast him an inquiring glance.

“A ‘Switcher’?” he echoed.

Ron looked puzzled too, but Hermione got the expression she always had when nobody knew the answer in class save her. Remus nodded at her encouragingly.

“The Switchers or Changers, like they are sometimes called, are people who can turn into different animals at will. They can understand and speak the language of any animal as well,” Hermione explained.

“So it’s like a higher level of being Animagus?” asked Ron.

This time it was Sirius who answered.

“No. You can be born as a Switcher, but not as an Animagus whereas you can learn how to become an Animagus, but not how to become a Switcher,” he said, looking a bit absent as if he was recalling something that had happened a long time ago.

“It seems unbelievable, but there are even Muggle Switchers. There are of course almost none who know about their ability – this goes for wizards too, though.” Remus didn’t miss the chance to sound a bit like his teacher-self .

"You mean, there could be quite a few Switchers in the world but they just don’t know about it?” asked Harry curiously. This matter interested him.

“Exactly. You can’t transform so easily. Being Switcher requires training as well as any transformation. You have to learn how to control your body, so that e.g. you won’t change into the wrong animal at the wrong time,” Remus responded.

Then he showed them the castle, explaining that he used only the first and the second floor of three.

“And the dungeon when it’s full moon and I’m not here,” Sirius added.

The bedrooms were all situated in the second floor and when Harry, Ron and Hermione entered their rooms, they saw that their trunks had apparently been magicked up there by Remus.

“You may make yourselves at home and the come down into the dining room. We’re going to have dinner in ten minutes,” announced Remus and then he left together with Sirius. They headed down the stairs towards the drawing room that was on the first floor, too.

The two men sat down into the chairs opposite the fireplace. Remus regarded his friend cautiously.

“Did you read the newspapers today?” he asked, not looking at Sirius.

Remus had subscribed for almost every existing wizard newspaper because news got hardly ever in time to Wolf’s Castle if you didn’t help yourself. He hadn’t got a subscription for ‘Witch Weekly’, though, but he’d read it at the Burrow and didn’t know whether or not Sirius had accidentally got his hands on a copy, too. It became clear when Sirius replied.

“Yeah, I did,” he said and his voice sounded so bitter and unhappy that it made Remus flinch.

"‘One could also say Mrs. Black, regarding the situation.’ What do they know? Nothing. They know nothing,” Sirius continued with even more bitterness.

“How come you’ve read ‘Witch Weekly’? I don’t have a subscription for that.” Remus wondered which caused Sirius to smile faintly.

“Well, you do have. For about three weeks. You see, if you want to become part of the wizarding community, you must know the gossip as well. Knowledge is power,” he explained.

Remus looked into Sirius’ eyes.

“What do you think about that article?” he asked softly.

Sirius turned his face away and focused on the fireplace. Remus could see his face harden and becoming unreadable.

“Well, she’s still beautiful. She’s hardly changed if that picture is up-to-date, that is,” was all that he said. He didn’t seem to be inclined to discuss that topic further, so Remus resolved to change it. He was just about to say something when a strange noise resounded. It was coming from outside the castle, more exactly from the direction of the stables.

And it sounded oddly like a neigh.

Remus looked at Sirius, who became suddenly very occupied with the crackling fire, with narrowed eyes.

“Padfoot?” he asked slowly.

“Yeah?” Sirius managed to look – what he called ‘innocent’, but his expression wouldn’t have fooled a naïve child and it made Remus extremely suspicious.

“What did you do? Did you buy a horse when I was away? Did you steal it?” he asked sharply and suddenly became alarmed.

“For the love of Selene, Sirius… you’re not holding a Pegasus captive, are you? Or a unicorn? Maybe the King of the Unicorns himself? Tell me!” Remus demanded.

Sirius made a denying gesture.

“The King of the Unicorns? Are you crazy, Remus? I know I’m good, but not that good. Nobody can hold Coriolan captive,” he said, shaking his head. Then, seeing Remus’ soon-to-be-rather-furious stare, he continued quickly,” I neither bought nor stole any horse. I was just looping through the forest and I found a young bicorn that was wounded. So I brought it here with me.”

Remus relaxed at his words. Then the bicorn neighed again as if it wanted to confirm its presence.

“What’s its injury like? Did you do something about it?” Remus asked his friend.

“Yeah, its left front leg is injured. Not broken, but almost. I put some of that stuff you use on injuries on it,” Sirius told him.

“Good. We can look after the bicorn later,” said Remus and at that moment Harry, Ron and Hermione entered the room.

“A bicorn? What’s that?” asked Harry and couldn’t help but thinking that this was the day he’d asked most questions in shortest time in his life. Well, maybe save the day he’d first met Hagrid and they’d gone shopping in Diagon Alley.

While Sirius was explaining what a bicorn was, they went to the dining room for dinner. The system was the same as in Hogwarts: The food just appeared on their plates.

After everybody had filled their stomach, Harry leaned over to his godfather and told him that he would like to speak to Sirius in private. Sirius nodded and gestured Harry to follow him. Remus, Ron and Hermione stayed behind and were soon absorbed in an animate conversation about Dark Arts. Sirius had led his godson into his room. Harry looked around curiously. It was obvious that this had been sometimes Sirius’ room in the past. There was a picture of a motorbike hanging above the bed and Harry could see a book on the shelf that bore the title ‘A Guide to Successful Mischief-Making’ by U.R.Bad.

They sat down on two chairs that were opposite the bed and Sirius looked at Harry encouragingly.

“What is it that you want to talk to me about?” he asked.

Harry took a deep breath. He wasn’t sure how to express what he wanted to know.

“Well,” he began. “I’ve happened to read ‘Witch Weekly’ today.”

Harry looked closely at his godfather, but whatever Sirius might have thought at those words, his face betrayed nothing. He glanced calmly at Harry.

“Yes?”

Harry shifted uneasily.

“Yeah… and as I’m really not good in asking people about such things, I’ll make it quick and direct. What is there between you and Stella Decartier? Are you married?”

Sirius looked at him, still weirdly calm.

“No, "he replied quietly. “No, we aren’t.”

* * * * *

*1971*

Fights could be very enjoyable for those who didn’t participate…

Well, it was true, but only partly. All the teachers started soon to complain that the rivalry and hatred between Gryffindor and Slytherin had increased. Duels were on the daily order and James and Sirius got detention nearly every day for getting involved in a fight or playing pranks on Slytherins, mostly on Snape and Lucius Malfoy.

Lily and Stella kept laughing at the boys when they managed to get themselves caught over and over again.

“Well, being a Mischief-Maker requires having a brain,” teased Stella one evening in November in the common room and got support from Lily. Although one must state that this support consisted of nothing but giggles… Lily wasn’t the only one laughing, though. Most of the Gryffindors were laughing too, because James and Sirius had managed to get a Slime Shot backfire when they had wanted to use it on a Slytherin prefect. They were now covered with pink stuff that smelled horribly of strawberry-flavored chewing-gum.

“Brain, yeah? Oh, listen, all ye faithful – the Queen of Mischief has spoken!” Sirius snapped at Stella, losing his temper. "I bet you can’t even pronounce the word prank, so do shut up, you silly cow. You are not being helpful.”

“Language, Black.” Stella’s voice was dripping icicles. "I will certainly NOT shut up. You and Potter are a disgrace to the whole House! Kindly stop acting so stupid and trying to make mischief when you obviously don’t know how to do it at all!”

Now James joined the discussion.

“Yeah, and I suppose you know it veeery much better, don’t you?” he said with heavy sarcasm, giving both Stella and Lily who was fighting down an urge to laugh, an unpleasant glance.

“Of course she does,” said Lily, sounding superior. “We both do. Girls are far more intelligent than boys. The sooner you realize that, the better for you.”

Her words didn’t seem to have the desired effect. The two boys just smirked.

“Show your abilities then, Oh-so-Intelligent-Ones. I’m sure that would be highly… er, entertaining,” Sirius said, sneering.

But Stella wouldn’t have been Stella if she hadn’t answered to such a challenge.

“Very well then. Keep your eyes open and watch how professional’s work looks like.”

With that, Stella turned on the heel and walked upstairs to the girls dorm, followed closely by Lily whose eyes were dancing with mischief now.

Actually, Lily hadn’t been exaggerating at all. Stella had a whole arsenal of good ideas and ways to make them work.

“Alright, since we’ve just announced the start of our activity, it wouldn’t be good to go after Black and Potter right now. They’ll watch their backs if they are sensible,” Stella mused.

“Although it’s those two we’re speaking about, so maybe they won’t,” she added as an afterthought.

Lily grinned.

“But still, it’s better to be careful. Let’s start with the Slytherins,” she suggested.

Stella’s eyes sparkled.

“And I’ve just got a wonderful idea of what we could do,” she announced and then explained her plan quietly to Lily who agreed on it instantly, grinning all over her face.

* * * * *

Next morning, Lily and Stella descended the marble staircase down to the Great Hall and went to the Gryffindor table, looking enormously pleased with themselves. It was early and there were almost no students sitting at the tables, just a few Ravenclaws, one Hufflepuff, James and Sirius and no Slytherins. The two Gryffindor boys eyed the girls suspiciously. They were slightly irritated by the expressions the girls wore.

“Now, what are you planning to do? Bombarding us with dolls? Or maybe flowers?” James said mockingly.

Sirius sneered.

“Maybe they are going to sing… to make us go deaf!”

They both laughed, but the girls regarded them serenely.

“Oh yeah, go right ahead and laugh at us – you are going to be veeery surprised,” Lily said smoothly and her and Stella started to eat, smiling secretively to themselves.

Meanwhile other students were arriving, but still no-one from Slytherin. Remus who had joined James and Sirius, made a remark about their absence which caused Lily and Stella to dissolve into giggles. But they flatly refused to tell anyone what was so terribly funny.

Suddenly, everyone’s attention was caught by the Slytherins who were coming from the dungeon. Normally they came in small groups, but that morning it seemed as if the whole House was coming together. Some of them looked rather shaken, some disgusted, others even nauseated. But they all had one thing in common (except for being Slytherins, of course) :

They were looking extremely furious.

Glaring at the other students in the Hall, they resumed their seats at the Slytherin table and started whispering nervously among themselves.

Stella and Lily watched them, leaning back in their seats in a relaxed manner. They wore both an expression of faint amusement, but refrained from giggling or expressing their apparent satisfaction in some other way.

Remus looked inquiringly at the Slytherins, then consideringly at Stella and Lily and said, “Whatever you’ve done, you’ve managed to get them really, well…”

“Horrified, shocked, sick, furious, livid, seething?” Stella asked cheerfully.

“Discomposed, I was going to say, but the other six words fit, too,” he replied and then asked what it was that the two girls had done.

Stella gestured Remus to come closer and explained something quietly into his ear. James and Sirius saw his eyes going wide and then a broad grin spreading over his face.

“Indeed,” he said, still grinning.

“Okay Decartier, what sort of horrible thing did you do get the Slytherins so pissed off? Wait, you didn’t really sing to them, did you? Because then I’d stop being myself for a moment and actually feel sorry for them…” Sirius drawled, looking bored.

“His composure is really annoying,” Stella thought and her eyes flashed briefly with irritation.

“But well. It’s nothing I can’t do either,” she said to herself and went back to her previous, controlled state.

“Do you really want to know it?” she smiled angelically at James and Sirius. "Coz I’m not sure you’ll understand it… it requires imagination and intelligence – terms you might’ve heard in the past, but nothing that could be applied on a description of you.”

The two boys glared at her, unable to think of a witty response at the moment. So James just made and impatient gesture and growled,

"Explain.”

But Stella and Lily didn’t seem to be inclined to do it at all.

“Explain?” Lily spluttered with mirth. “Why on earth should we do that? Try and figure it out yourselves.”

With that, Stella and her stood up and headed for the common room, grinning broadly and looking irritatingly smug, in James’ and Sirius’ opinion.

The boys turned to question Remus, but he was already gone as well. Sirius frowned.

“Remus didn’t look all healthy this morning, did he? Do you think he’s going to be ill again? I mean, he’s been ill in September and in October…”

“Yeah.” James agreed, looking worried. He and Sirius liked Remus. “I hope he hasn’t got some sort of chronic disease or so,” he said.

* * * * *

James’ and Sirius’ wish to know what sort of prank the girls had pulled was soon fulfilled. Before lunch, the whole school was talking about how some people (most ingenious or hateful ones, depending if you were a Slytherin or not) had managed to paint the Slytherin Common Room shocking pink and fill it with the horrible smell of cooked cabbage mixed with apple vinegar.

The most indignant one was Prof. Atrox, the Head of Slytherin.

“This is an absolute impertinence! When I find the culprits, I shall make sure that they will be expelled!” he snarled during the Potions lesson with the Gryffindor and Slytherin first years and stared furiously at the Gryffindors.

Sirius cast a sideway glance at Lily and Stella. He was impressed by their absolutely straight faces. They showed nothing. Sirius wasn’t sure if he would have managed to stay that cool in their situation. Especially now that Atrox was eyeing Stella with great suspicion. She returned his gaze steadily, her face betraying nothing. James thought that he and Sirius should be mildly indignant that Atrox obviously didn’t consider them to be the culprits, but instead he felt a growing respect for Lily and Stella.

“Stop that,” he told himself sternly. “They’re girls – and just having the luck of beginners.” But he couldn’t quite convince himself.

Sirius was having much the same thoughts. He wasn’t happy that the girls were better at pulling pranks than he and James were.

“Either we will come up with a grandious scheme for making mischief or our reputation will be ruined,” he thought grimly.

James and Sirius were determined to show that they were the best.

Their determination wasn’t completely useless. They began to plan their actions more carefully and in great detail. More than that, they became friends with Remus Lupin and discovered that hidden behind his shy and calm manner there was a sharp intelligence and amazing creativity. From then on, they started having success and there were less and less occasions for Lily and Stella to laugh at them.

* * * * *

It was nearly Christmas. One December evening, the Gryffindor first years were all in the Common Room, most of them mourning over their History of Magic essays. History of Magic was so fantastically boring that even Stella admitted it beat chess in this matter. And coming from her, that was quite a statement. If there was something she was absolutely bad at and not interested in at all, it was chess.

While James, Lily, Remus, Peter, Mary-Ann, Caroline and Elizabeth were busy writing their essays and sighing, Sirius and Stella weren’t concerned about History of Magic at all.

Stella was sitting in an armchair, humming Muggle rock songs to herself and casting the working first years an amused glance from time to time. Sirius was lying on a nearby sofa, absorbed with his copy of “Which broomstick”. One of the current Beaters of the Gryffindor Quidditch Team was in his final year and Sirius desperately wanted to take over that position. And for that, he needed a good broom. Knowing his ambitions because Sirius hadn’t been talking about anything else for days, Stella peered over to look at the page he was reading and made a disapproving noise. Sirius turned to her and raised one eyebrow.

“You having a problem, Decartier?”

“Me? No. But you are going to have one soon. Look. These are British broomsticks,” she replied.

“Yeah. So?” Sirius didn’t have a clue what she was getting at.

Stella sighed despairingly.

“Howling Hecate, Black! Don’t you know anything about broomsticks? Anyone who has some common sense wouldn’t buy a British broomstick right now,” she said slowly, as if talking to a rather dim person.

Sirius sat bolt upright. Stella had a way of talking that made him feel totally inferior. Nobody could make him feel like that, not even his father who could be very sarcastic and menacing if he wanted to. Of course, Aeneas Black didn’t use that particular ability of his often and even more rarely toward his son. But still, when Sirius felt inferior, he got annoyed.

“Oh, yeah? Well, you’re certainly the right one to talk about common sense,” he said with a voice full of such thick sarcasm that you could’ve cut it in pieces.

His icy behavior often made even third-years uneasy, but it didn’t have that effect on Stella at all. She looked just bored.

“Listen. British brooms are crap these days. Cleansweep 2! Comet 190! Shooting Starlet! Slow, difficult to control, stubborn…” she seemed as if she could go on and on.

“They’re not!” exclaimed Sirius indignantly.

The Cleansweep 2 and Comet 190 were Scottish broomsticks and being a Scot, Sirius felt that he should defend them.

“Are too,” Stella was born in Scotland as well, but that didn’t prevent her to see those broomsticks as they were – rubbish.

“Are not!”

“Are too. This is getting childish and ridiculous. It’s proven, Black. There have been tests!” she said, clearly showing how dumb she apparently thought he was. ( Although that wasn’t what she thought at all, but you can’t let your archenemy know that you consider him intelligent, can you?)

“I don’t believe you,” Sirius said mutinously, knowing how childish he sounded, but unable to stop himself.

Stella rolled her eyes.

“Sure. When nothing else works, the total pig-headed unwillingness to look facts in the face will always see us through.”

Sirius glared at her. Then he said, despite himself,

"Aha. So British broomsticks are crap. What would you advise me then, Oh-Well-Informed-One?”

“French broomsticks. Or Canadian ones. Or maybe Argentinean ones, but the aren’t easy to get,” Stella replied promptly.

Sirius who knew that she was half French and had lived in Canada, frowned.

“French and Canadian? And you’re being entirely impartial, aren’t you?” he said with irony.

“Black. You know perfectly well that the last good British broomstick has been the Silver Arrow. Unfortunately, they’ve stopped to produce it, otherwise I’d advise you to buy it,” Stella explained patiently.

“Oh, such a big interest in my welfare? How touching…” Sirius smirked.

“Listen, if it was just about you, I wouldn’t say a word even if you wanted to buy a museum broomstick from the 12^th century. But you are going to be on the House Team. Good Beaters with equally good brooms can influence Quidditch games very much. And I want Gryffindor to win the Cup!” she said, now more intently.

Stella could apparently care about something too, Sirius thought. But wasn’t that what he cared about as well? To win the Cup?

He sighed resignedly.

“Alright, Decartier. What do you recommend?”

After some time of explanations, arguing and comparisons, they came to a decision. Sirius was going to order a ‘Thunderbird’, a Canadian broomstick and currently one of the best.

Stella went back to her armchair, looking clearly pleased with herself that she had been able to persuade Sirius who was now lying outstretched on the sofa again and leafing through ‘Which broomstick’.

Suddenly Mary-Ann looked up from her essay and frowned as she saw the two of them lolling around so lazily.

“Say, are you two ever going to do some homework?” she asked sharply.

Sirius and Stella cast her both a mildly inquiring glance.

“Really not your business,” drawled Sirius out of the corner of his mouth and Stella looked as if she might’ve agreed if it hadn’t been him to say that.

“I really don’t understand how they’re doing it,” said Lily to the other first-years who were busy with their homework. "Not to do anything and still be among the best in class.”

To tell the truth, Sirius and Stella didn’t have a clue themselves. There was just the fact that remembering things was very easy for them. Also, they had no problem with writing an essay on the morning of the day it was due. But those abilities they had in common made them even more to rivals. While Stella would never try to be better than Lily and Sirius wouldn’t want to beat James, they were the hardest opponent when trying to beat each other. The other first-years had got used to the fact that Lily and James were nearly always the first, closely followed by Sirius and Stella who often shared the second rank together, not much to their satisfaction.

That was the situation. There wasn’t only the rivalry between Gryffindor and Slytherin. The hardest competition was between Stella, Lily, James and Sirius. They seemed as if they simply couldn’t get along, whatever might happen. Soon their rivalry became sort of legendary and not only among Gryffindors. Whether or not that was a good thing, remained, however, unsolved…

~TBC~