The Black Star

The Black Star 7

*1972*

Stella was walking slowly down the dimly-lit corridor, concentrating hard on making as little noise as possible. However, she had the feeling that the pounding of her heart was so loud that it had to be audible from the deepest dungeon to the top of the Astronomy Tower (okay, maybe not there because the people there were usually too occupied with other things to hear anything). She couldn’t  help feeling excited. It was full moon and she was going to encounter a real werewolf in less than ten minutes! If all went well, that is.

The day before, she’d been down at the Whomping Willow to plan how to get into the Shrieking Shack at night. Prodding the knot on the trunk wasn’t a problem, but how should she get the tree moving again as soon as she was in the tunnel? If it stayed still all night, someone might notice something was wrong and she didn’t even dare to think about what would happen if Remus escaped...

In the end, Remus and her had found a solution. Having arrived at the Willow, she would call Kaye the aquaenix who would touch the knot after Stella would disappear in the tunnel. In theory, everything should go well. But in reality.... . Beside her excitement, Stella was very nervous. What if the wolf-Remus didn’t recognize her and lunged at her? Werewolves were much stronger than ordinary wolves (which was what she would be) and although she had a backup plan (transforming into a bird and flee out of the Shack), she felt apprehensive.

“Hm,” she remarked silently, “Now that I’m thinking about it, why don’t I just transform into a bird in the first place, get into the tunnel and then change into a wolf? Better if it involves as few people as possible. If you can regard Kaye as a person, that is.”

She grinned to loosen the tension that had settled itself all over her body. There is no need to be nervous, Stella tried to convince herself. Seeing that she was wearing an Invisibility Cloak, she couldn’t get caught. It had been a present for both Christmas and her approaching birthday in late May. She wouldn’t get any more presents from her parents until next Christmas, but that had been part of their ‘deal’. Ever since Stella’s older friends had gone to wizarding schools and started to tell her how much havoc they caused and how much fun they had with the help of an Invisibility Cloak, she’d been wanting to have one herself.

Being made of the hair of a Demiguise, an animal that could make itself invisible and therefore was extremely hard to find and catch, an Invisibility Cloak was expensive and difficult to come by. That had been the reason why it had been the sole present for Christmas from her parents. But Stella didn’t mind. Such a Cloak was worth ten birthday presents plus five times Christmas. It was a wonderful thing in every aspect. Stella loved the touch of it: as cool as silk and soft like cashmere. Also, it was beautiful to look at: fine and silvery (!) like air made solid. And of course, it was very useful.

After five minutes of shallow breathing and stopping dead at the slightest noise, Stella was finally outside the castle and headed for the Whomping Willow. It was about midnight. Stella had wanted to be sure that she wouldn’t bump into any teacher, so she had chosen a time long after moonrise. Having arrived there, she closed her eyes for a moment and exhaled slowly to calm herself. Then she went deeper into the Forest, pulled off the Cloak and hid it in a space under the roots of a linden tree. She looked around to make sure there was nobody who could spot her and as far as she could see in the dark forest, there wasn’t anybody. So the girl concentrated briefly and after a second, a starling appeared at the place she’d been standing. It flew through the branches of the violent tree, avoiding being hit by them with spectacular manoeuvres for such a little bird. Finally, it found itself in the dark hole beneath the Willow.

As soon as the starling touched the ground in the tunnel, it changed into a wolf with light-grey fur that was almost white. Stella didn’t see anything in the dark corridor that was supposed to lead into the Shrieking Shack, but that didn’t bother her. Wolves always relied on their noses and ears rather than their eyes. Stella crawled through the tunnel, thinking that it was really long and then she remembered that it had to be because the Shack was situated in Hogsmeade.

Even in their animal shape, Switchers were able to maintain their human mind which, however, didn’t interfere in their communication with other animals or werewolves, in that case. Mostly, they could understand each other pretty well. Stella hoped that she would be able to communicate with Remus. She crept up the stairs that led into the Shack and got into a dark room. Her vision was slightly blurred and there was no light except for some rays of moonlight that had found their way through the planked windows. She could vaguely distinguish pieces of shattered furniture. Everything seemed to be broken or damaged in another way. Werewolves had usually very violent instincts and if there weren’t any humans to chase, they took out their energy on the things that lay around, or at themselves, which was why Remus often had to spend the day after the full moon in the Infirmary to let his cuts and bruises be healed by Madam Pomfrey.

Stella the wolf sniffed and suddenly realized that Remus had to be standing right behind her. She whirled around and stared directly into a pair of gleaming yellow eyes. Remus growled deeply and showed his fangs that were quite big despite that he was, also in his wolf shape, still young, with limbs that seemed to be slightly too long and grey fur that wasn’t yet so harsh as it would be when he was a full-grown werewolf.

Stella tried not to panic at his furious stare and to flee out of the Shack.

“Calm down,” she told herself and then let out a soft sound.

It’s me, Remus. Can you understand me?

A flicker of recognition appeared briefly in Remus’ eyes, but then it was pushed away by the werewolf’s fury born out of the agonizing pain of the transformation and out of the helplessness of his situation, as he was trapped in the Shrieking Shack.

Stella attempted again to reach the human part of Remus. When she communicated with ordinary animals, they didn’t talk in the sense of speaking out words. Stella somehow knew what the animal meant and it could understand her in return as well. This time it was different, though.

Remus had finally managed to get a clearer mind. He had tried it before in his wolf shape, but it had worked only for seconds and then his wolfish self would take over and dominate his actions again. But now, Stella’s presence helped him. Remus concentrated on keeping control and then he let out a small yelp. Only that to Stella, it didn’t sound like a yelp. It wasn’t like talking to animals, either. Stella could hear Remus’ voice speaking, but in a muffled tone and.... in such an un-Remus sort of slang that she would’ve laughed out loud if that had been possible in her current shape. Remus had apparently sensed her amusement because he actually managed to look puzzled.

“Wassat ya grinnin’ ‘bout?” he asked.

(A/N: Well, he didn’t really say it, but you know what I mean. I will use the normal expressions for the yelps and other sounds because otherwise it’ll be too complicated.)

Stella’s eyes – now yellow as well – sparkled with silent laughter.

“Just amused about your way of talking. You speak out only the half of each word. I’ve never heard you talking like that,” she replied.

“U’r talkin’pretty funny yourself,” he pointed out. “So... distorted. One moment your voice is high like a mouse’s and then you sound like Hagrid.”

Stella grinned at that. But it seemed that their talking difficulties had subsided gradually because Remus had spoken that sentence quite normally. Maybe they hadn’t been able to understand each other properly just due to the fact that they weren’t used to talk to each other like this. That was probably the reason because after an hour, they could understand each other nearly perfectly.

It was about four o’clock in the morning when Stella decided to go back to the castle. She could barely keep her eyes open out of tiredness. Remus and her had talked about various things including the difference between a Switcher- and a werewolf-transformation and the (dangerous) beauty of the full moon. Remus had been amazed that he could think almost normally when he had somebody who was supporting him. But as hard as he tried to keep himself sane after Stella’s depart, he succeeded only for a minute and after that his wolf-ego took over his mind and the inhabitants of Hogsmeade had the ‘pleasure’ of being woken up very early by howling and other strange noises coming from the Shrieking Shack.

***

The following months passed quickly, mostly because there was a lot of schoolwork to do and that kept the students busy. Stella stayed with Remus every full moon night and they spent their time there with howling, growling and yelping in every tone possible to keep the Hogsmeade inhabitants wide awake and to confirm the rumour that the Shack was very badly haunted.

In June, the end-of-year- exams came and the Gryffindor first-years had no trouble to pass them, since you learn only the very basics in the first year and that this wasn’t so difficult. Eventually, the final term ended and the students made their way home. They parted in London at King’s Cross Station. James and Sirius were acting out of bounds because they were so happy about their holidays starting. Lily and Stella had stuck their heads together and discussed who would stay where and when. They had promised to visit each other and both were very excited to get to know the other girl’s parents and way of life, seeing that Lily was muggle-born and Stella wasn’t.

Stella winked at Remus who was approaching his waiting parents cautiously.

“He was right. They really look a little scared of him,” she thought at the sight of the Lupins. She hoped that Remus would be able to convince them to let him live with Silvius Lupin, his grandfather, who was a Switcher and therefore had no reason to fear his werewolf-grandson.

“We shall see,” she mused and let herself be dragged off by Lily who wanted to introduce her friend to her parents.

***

Glasgow, July 14^th, 1972

Hi Remus!

How are you? I hope you’re enjoying your holidays more than I do. I’m terribly bored here. James left Glasgow a few days ago. His parents dragged him off to Scarborough to visit his grandparents and they plan to stay there for a month. A whole month, imagine!

So it’s up to you to save me from the death of boredom. I’m inviting you to spend the next two weeks or so here at my place and I’d like if you accepted because otherwise I might go so far as to write my homework out of sheer dullness. No, siriusly.... rescue me, Remus!

Yours,

Sirius

Wolf’s Castle, July 15^th, 1972

Hi, Sirius!

Thanks for your invitation!

You did sound really desperate, so I can’t possibly let you down, can I? My grandfather, whom I’m living with now, doesn’t mind if I visit you. He said I could stay until July 31^st. So I would arrive via Floo Powder tomorrow around eleven, if that’s OK with you and your family.

Yours,

Remus

Glasgow, July 17^th, 1972

Dear Lily,

I’m really looking forward to next week when you’ll finally be here. Living in Glasgow can be terribly boring sometimes. There’s one thing you should know, though. We won’t be alone in our house. I’ve invited some friends from oversea, too. You don’t mind, do you? They are a nice lot: Charles Tharen, Jacques Durand, Catherine Westerland and my cousin Amanda Latorre. I think I already told you a little about them at Hogwarts. I’m sure you will like each other.

See you in a few days, then!

Love,

Stella

Ayr, July 18^th, 1972

Dear Stella,

I’m so excited about my stay at yours! I don’t mind you inviting your friends, of course. We’ll be having even more fun! I just hope you all won’t laugh at me when I’ll be surprised about everything different in a wizarding home. Say, do you have a telephone? If so, my parents would like to have your number, you know, just in case.

My father will drive me to Glasgow on Monday. I hope two o’clock is alright with you.

Looking forward to seeing you again!

Love,

Lily

Montreal, July 19^th, 1972

Dear Silver,

guess what! Jacques, Cathy, Mandy and me will travel by Muggle transport- an airplane! I’ve never been inside one, but my dad has and he reckons it’s fun, even though it takes so long. We should arrive in Glasgow on Monday around six. I’m really curious to meet that friend of yours, Lily. A redhead, like me! Yay!

And I’m really looking forward to seeing your house. Mandy told me that it’s over 150 years old and full of secret passageways and chambers. Well, I guess we’re going to have loads of fun there, especially when we come up with our crazy schemes again. Jacques said he made his parents pay him a better life-insurance.

Clever boy.

See you then, I hope you’ve got enough of Filibuster Fireworks at home because I was just struck by an idea...

Love,

Charlie

***

After the summer holidays, which had been very satisfying for most of them, the Gryffindor first – now second – years met again on the Hogwarts Express on September 1^st. Lily and Stella were together in a compartment, laughing and discussing the passed weeks. After Lily’s stay in Glasgow, Stella had spent half of August in Ayr and the girls became such good friends that they felt as if they’d known each other for ages.

Their laughter and chatter ended abruptly as four boys entered their compartment. Stella’s eyes lit up at the sight of Remus, but her face fell the moment she spotted Sirius and James who were standing behind him.

“Seems to be nearly the same situation as a year ago. And again there’s a lot of free space,” James announced, grinning down at the girls in a manner they both hated. “Settle down, guys.”

Stella was annoyed. She didn’t mind being with Remus or Peter in the same compartment, but she already knew how it was to spend a couple of hours with Sirius Black and James Potter on the train and it wasn’t an experience she’d like to be repeated. Lily seemed to feel pretty much the same way.

“No, Potter,” she said, sounding imperious. “Remus and Peter can stay, but you and Black are going to look for another compartment. I don’t want my entire trip to Hogwarts being spoilt.”

James, however, looked unruffled by her harsh tone.

“I don’t want mine spoilt, either,” he shot back. “So please shut up, Rosie.”

That had been the wrong thing to say. Lily’s eyes flashed dangerously. She hated being called by other flower-names than her own.

“My name is Lily, you smug git,” she hissed, clenching her fists.

“Yeah, whatever,” James replied carelessly and flopped down onto the seat next to Remus who had sat down beside Stella and who was now looking at her with raised eye-brows, amused, but not surprised. James and Lily were starting exactly where they had left off in June.

They all lapsed into silence, each of them preoccupied with their thoughts as the Hogwarts Express left Platform 9 ¾. Peter Pettigrew was looking forward to his stay at Hogwarts. He had now friends who would take care of him. Just a few minutes ago, James, Sirius and Remus had saved him from being hexed by Lucius Malfoy, a Slytherin third year whose foot he had accidentally dropped his trunk on. The three boys had been quite nice to him the previous year as well, but now they had told him to stay around them so he wouldn’t get picked on that easily. Peter was happy that they’d decided to look after him. He had always admired James with his radiant personality and had liked the calm and friendly manner of Remus. Peter was a little scared of Sirius, though, who could be very unpleasant if he wanted to. But he’d been rather nice to Peter so far and the blond boy thought that was a good sign. In general, Peter Pettigrew felt alright with the world, now on the beginning of his second year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

***

The school year began and it turned out to be much more difficult than the previous one. Sirius and Stella realized that if they wanted to maintain their position among the best in class, they would have to work for it like everyone else. Seeing that they were both quite lazy, the thought of studying didn’t appeal to them at all.

“Tell me,” Stella demanded from Lily one day, “When will I ever need to know how to turn a tea-cup into a hedgehog? When?! The stuff we do in Transfiguration is so useless! And McGonagall puts too much emphasis on theory. What use is to you the knowledge of the 350 side-effects of a spell when you can’t even cast it due to an absolute lack of practice?”

Lily shrugged helplessly. She was beginning to get better grades in Transfiguration than Stella because she could memorize things almost effortlessly and learning a list of i.e. a dozen of side-effects by heart wasn’t a problem for her. To Stella, on the other hand, Transfiguration itself came easily because she was a Switcher and therefore had lots of practice in that area. But that was also her problem: She used mainly her instinct and never remembered the theory, only the names of the spells, of course. Therefore she didn’t do well in written exams in that subject.

Not even Sirius was as bad as her in those. Apparently, he was better at remembering things. And, being Sirius, he used that fact to taunt her.

They had received their test results that day (McGonagall had decided to test them every 2^nd week to make sure they studied) and Stella was in a very foul mood because she had got only two points out of ten.

“It is simply disgraceful!” she thought, sitting in an armchair in the common room and staring gloomily into the fire.

Suddenly somebody spoke up from behind her.

“Two out of ten, Decartier,” Sirius announced superiorly. “Honestly, any five-year-old would’ve done better. I mean, it was so simple. You’re a disgrace to the whole House!”

Stella gritted her teeth. No point in strangling Black, she told herself. Knowing him, he would come back to haunt her as a ghost. She fought to stay calm.

“ ‘A disgrace to the whole House’? Now you are talking like a Slytherin,” she said coolly.

Sirius merely cocked an eye-brow.

“Always better than talking like a prat,” he remarked haughtily and gave a significant look.

Stella smiled sweetly. He was on the right way to make a fool of himself…

“Oh. Who’s the prat here, may I ask?” she said innocently.

But Sirius had gone too much into playing the superior one to realize what she was waiting for him to say.

“I would have thought that this should have been obvious,” he replied with his best Lucius Malfoy-imitation.

Stella’s smile became triumphant.

“Yes, well, self-criticism is the first way to improvement. Congratulations, Black. Maybe you aren’t a lost case after all,” she said fighting back an urge to laugh at his expression.

Sirius set his jaw. She was not going to outsmart him this time!

“Ah, really. How comforting to know your opinion on this topic. But I guess you’re only too familiar with lost cases, seeing that you are one yourself,” he shot back in his most withering tones, expecting either a sharp answer or a jinx in return. However, none of this happened. Sirius was confronted with a reaction he hadn’t expected at all.

Stella, who had already been annoyed about her current grades, realized that she was now losing control over her temper. There was somebody to work off her stowed anger on. Her mind started to buzz and then, some entirely different part of her, a part she usually tried to hide, pushed itself onto the surface.

Sirius saw her eyes darken and going blank, as if Stella’s mind had gone elsewhere. Suddenly, a deep growl emerged from her throat, sounding quiet but dangerous and her eyes flashed in wild fury. Taken aback, Sirius tensed and watched her intently. What was going on?

In the next moment, the wild expression vanished abruptly from Stella’s eyes and she seemed normal again. Noticing Sirius’ disturbed look, she realized what must’ve happened and decided to make the best out of the tricky situation.

She gave Sirius one of her sneers he was used to, crossed her arms in a would-be relaxed manner and said, “Scared easily, aren’t you, Blacky?”

Sirius felt the tension fade away and be replaced by the irritation he had felt before, but now magnified because he had bought her trick.

He brought his face so close to hers that she could actually distinguish his pupils (which was usually impossible, due to the fact that his eyes were very dark brown) and hissed so venomously that she shrank back involuntarily, “Certainly not by you. And if you ever address me with that name again, the word sorry won’t even begin to describe what you will be.”

Stella attempted to snort with contempt, but failed utterly. For a 12 year-old, Sirius could be quite menacing when he tried.

Annoyed about Stella calling him that silly name, Sirius made his way to the second-year boys’ dormitory. It was deserted. Remus, Peter, James and Daniel were in the common room, probably studying. Sirius didn’t mind. He wasn’t exactly longing for company at that moment. He went over to his bed and pulled out a black, oddly-shaped case from the space beneath it. The case contained Sirius’ most precious possession if you didn’t count his broomstick – an E-guitar. Of course, there was no electricity in Hogwarts, so Sirius had had to make some adjustments in order to get a real sound out of it. With the help of a Gryffindor fifth-year who also owned an E-guitar and several modified Sonorus-Spells, Sirius had managed to get his Baby sound better than it had ever done with electricity.

Now he stretched out on his four-poster bed comfortably, put the guitar into his lap and ran his fingers idly over the strings. He closed his eyes and played some random chords: C-major, E-major, A-minor. Playing guitar always had a calming effect on him. Sirius opened his eyes again and gazed out of the window. It was late afternoon and the rays of the autumn sun filled the room with a warm, golden light. Putting the guitar aside, Sirius went to look out of the window. Being almost at the top of the Gryffindor Tower, the room provided an excellent view on the surroundings. From the window of the second-years’ dorm, you could see the Forbidden Forest and a little of the Hogwarts lake. In a great contrast to its blue coolness stood the colourfulness of the treetops that consisted of every shade from light yellow over dark champagne to auburn and deep red. In the midst of those colours were spots of dark green – the coniferous trees. Autumn was Sirius’ favourite time of year. It was still warm and the occasional rain (although it was situated in Scotland, Hogwarts seemed to have a milder and friendlier climate than you would expect) gave the nature an air of freshness even though it was now preparing itself to its sleep, so to speak. The raindrops that stayed on the tree-leaves resembled tears… as if the trees were sad that the winter was approaching and that it would soon take away their leaves. Sirius liked the smell of earth after a rainfall. It was sweet and aromatic – full of everything that life was made of. He was also fond of the whispering sound of leaves when a breeze brushed over them and the soft waves it caused on the lake. Usually restless and full of energy, Sirius could spend hours lying in a clearing in a forest and listening to its sounds – it had always had a strange sort of appeal to him, as if he was, in some way, part of the forest, too. The Forbidden Forest was attracting Sirius right at the moment, almost calling him to enter and explore it. He felt himself being drawn to it with such intensity that he resolved to borrow James’ Invisibility Cloak and make a trip into the Forest. He had been locked in the Castle long enough. What he needed was some fresh air and no other ceiling above his head than the leaves that would let through the late September sun. Sirius’ mood improved greatly at the prospect of spending some time in a forest again. One of the reasons why he liked to be in such places was that he didn’t have to maintain neither his cool, sarcastic manner nor his usual air of self-confidence. He could let his thoughts run free and indeed, he used to get most of his crazy ideas for mischief at such times when nobody disturbed him.

Of course, Sirius would never admit how much those moments in a forest mattered to him and how beautiful he thought autumn was. He’d also rather encounter a dragon than to confess to somebody that he had a collection of leaves in virtually every colour from gold to red, protected by Anti-Decay Charms, which he had made himself and liked to examine, sort and re-sort when it was winter and everything outside seemed lifeless and grey. Nobody knew about it, not even James, who, however, was aware of Sirius’ fondness of forests which he quite shared. For a brief moment, Sirius thought of taking his best friend with him, but then he resolved not to. Somehow he needed solitude now.

While Sirius was in his dorm, thinking all those lyrical thoughts he would certainly never, ever tell anyone about, Stella tried to concentrate on her Potions homework (‘Describe all the magical properties of dragon blood, heart and liver and give examples’). She liked Potions and was fairly good at it as well. Sometimes she beat even Severus Snape, although not very often. Ever since she had learned about Remus being a werewolf, she had started to wonder whether there was a Charm or rather a Potion that could help him or maybe more. There wasn’t any invented yet, however, so she had begun to think about what such a potion would have to consist of. There would have to be plants that repelled Dark Magic and wolfsbane, which repelled werewolves. But how would they be able to consume it if it contained such a plant? Stella was definitely interested in a possible Potion for easing if not curing the symptoms of Lycantrophy and had decided to investigate further in that matter. Only that at that moment, she was preoccupied with something else. She, too, was gazing out of the window, which was situated at her left, not knowing that Sirius was doing the same a few more stories upwards. While Stella couldn’t find many positive aspects of the first three seasons, she adored winter, which was her favourite time of year. She loved the chilling cleanness of the mornings when there was snow covering everything and glittering where the feeble rays of winter sun touched it and when the air was crystalline clear but so icy it turned her cheeks and the tip of her nose pink. The most beautiful thing were the clear nights, though… when you could see the zillions of stars sparkling on the dark blue sky and your breath formed little crystals of mist in the air…

Stella shook her head firmly.

“Stop being a poet right now,” she told herself in stern tones. “ If anyone could look into your head, they would be pretty astonished and you, on the other hand, probably totally humiliated.”

But it was no use. She couldn’t stop what she’d been thinking. Being a Switcher, Stella paid close attention to the nature, unlike many other people. Actually, its beauty often made her want to sing loudly. Only, there was a little problem concerning that particular expressing of joy of hers.

It’s common knowledge that some people can sing, while others simply can’t.

Stella belonged to the latter.

However, being her, she didn’t waste time with complaining about it. Instead, she used her voice as a practical and very successful ‘torture instrument’.

“I guess all my friends could sing a song about my singing,” Stella thought with a wicked grin. “Of course, that would sound like a requiem.”

Her grin grew even wider and got a slightly sadistic touch as an idea occurred to her. Stella finished her Potions assignment as quickly as possible and headed for her dorm, wearing a grin of somebody who’s looking forward to something very enjoyable indeed.

Her eyes sparkling, she entered the second-year girls’ dorm and saw immediately that all of her dorm-mates were present.

Very good.

They all had turned to her the moment she had stepped in and were now regarding her with extremely quizzical looks. It was a very rare occasion where Stella was seen expressing cheerfulness (or any other emotion, for that matter) in such a visible way. Usually, she tried to maintain a cool, unruffled air that made her seem older than she actually was. Now, however, she was beaming like a three year-old at the prospect of getting a huge ice-cream sundae with the greatest of cherries on top.

“And what exactly had happened to render you so uncharacteristically cheerful?” Caroline asked with raised eyebrows, “Did Sirius Black get himself expelled? Or did you find a way of how to get History of Magic classes cancelled?”

It was no secret that Stella loathed History of Magic, never paid attention and was likely to fail it completely that year if she kept up her current behaviour in that subject.

“Oh, no, none of that,” Stella replied, still grinning all over her face, and choosing not to elaborate. They would find out soon enough. The four girls were giving her extremely suspicious glances. She attempted to calm them down, so that they wouldn’t leave the room before the show would begin. Stella pointed at the window.

“Look! It’s such a wonderful weather! How couldn’t I be cheerful?!” she said the first thing that had popped into her mind.

The looks she got after this seemed even more dubious.

It was Lily who spoke up, “ And this from the girl who complained only yesterday that it’s too damp and muddy and who said that – I’m quoting: ‘Autumn is such a useless season. It’s neither really warm, nor properly cold. I wish that winter would start in September and last until May.’ What made you change your mind so profoundly?”

But Stella only waved a dismissive hand and stretched out on her (still silver-coloured) bed.

“Now what will I start with,” she mused quietly, “No rock song this time, they already had the chance to ‘enjoy’ some of them... yeah! A muggle musical! ‘Cats’ maybe, I’ll never be able to hit the high notes in ‘Memory’, so that will sound nicely awful. Hmmm. No, I think I’ll leave ‘Memory’ to a more special occasion. Better to settle on... ‘Hair’, yes, that’s good. With ‘Aquarius’!”

Stella started humming softly to herself and then decided to plunge in with full force.

“When tha mooooon..... eeees in thaaa seventh hooouse... and Jupitaaaa eeees ailin’ weeeeth Maaars....,” she began and watched gleefully how the other girls’ expressions turned from surprise to pure horror. Stella burst into laughter. That was so wonderful! She had to congratulate herself. Never before, not even at her best moments had she sounded so awful.

And never before, the other girls had chosen to react like they did now.

Elizabeth, Caroline, Mary-Anne and Lily looked at each other, nodded in unison and Lily took her wand out. Still busy laughing, Stella couldn’t block or dodge the spell her friend, finally fed up, threw at her.

“Silentium!” Lily spoke firmly and Stella’s laughter died off a second thereafter.

Now it was the other four girls’ turn to grin as Stella suddenly wasn’t capable of making any sound. She tried to speak, but it was no use. Lily was an excellent spell-caster, even at the age of twelve.

Shooting the others a dark look and cursing inaudibly, Stella went for her wand and wanted to perform ‘Finite incantatem’. Just then she realized that she couldn’t do that because she couldn’t speak the words out loud! The other girls knew that, too and they began to grin even broader than Stella had when she had stepped into the room.

“At last,” Mary-Anne commented, satisfied. “There will be some peace.”

Stella’s opinion, however, was different.

“Oh, you reckoned that a simple Silentium Spell would shut me up?” she thought vengefully. “Forget it, ladies. Peace there will be not.” And with that, she got up and left the dorm, well aware of her dorm-mates sniggering behind her back.

Stella came down into the common room and flopped down onto a free arm-chair, sighing heavily (although inaudibly).

“What a horrible day,” she thought gloomily. “First that blasted Transfiguration test, then Black and now this. À propos Black. I really should control myself better.”

She frowned. “It would be most inconvenient if anybody found out that I’m a Switcher. Plus, Black feels satisfied when he sees that he’s got me angry. And in the past few weeks, he seemed to me like a very satisfied person. Damn.”

“Hey, Stella. Why are you pulling such a face? Something’s up?” Remus’ voice came from her right, sounding cheerful.

Stella turned to him immediately with wild hope in her eyes. At last! A friendly person! She gestured Remus to come closer, then she pointed at the parchment and the quill he was holding and mouthed, “May I?”.

Remus raised his eyebrows questioningly, but gave them to her. Curious, he read over her shoulder what she had started to scribble onto the parchment.

Remus, you’ve go to help me! Lily put a Silentium Spell on me and I can’t undo it without speaking ‘Finite incantatem’. Could you please do it?

“A Silentium Spell? Why would Lily do that? She certainly had a good reason when...” he began, but Stella cut him off with a brusque gesture and scribbled something furiously.

Remus Julian Lupin, you will perform ‘Finite incantatem’ on me at once!

“Okay, okay,” he grinned. “Since you’re asking nicely.”

He pointed his wand at Stella and said, “Finite incantatem!”

Stella exhaled with relief and gave her friend a brilliant smile.

“Thanks, Remus,” she said.

“No problem,” he replied with a twinkle in his grey eyes and then went serious all of a sudden. “Listen Stella,” he continued with a hushed voice, “There’s something I wanted to ask you. You know that some of the plants for the Wakefulness Potion we will be making in Potions need to be picked under the full moon, right?”

Stella nodded, knowing what he was getting at.

“I’ll pick some for you, too. Don’t worry,” she said, smiling up to him comfortingly. Remus returned her smile, feeling as relieved as she had been when she had got her voice back.

***

October proved to be a very successful month for James and Sirius. Not only had they got themselves onto the Gryffindor Quidditch Team (James as a Chaser, Sirius as a Beater), their first game against Ravenclaw ended with a 350:90 victory for Gryffindor. According to this, the atmosphere in Gryffindor Tower was very cheerful.

There was, however, one thing Lily couldn’t understand.

“Stella, I don’t get you,” she said to her friend, “ Why didn’t you apply for the Chaser position? You’re really good, I’m sure you would’ve made it.”

But Stella shook her head.

“I don’ t know. Potter is very good, after all. And apart from that, I don’t want to be a Chaser. My favourite position is Seeker and the Team already has one,” she pointed out somewhat regretfully.

“You could’ve still competed against the current Seeker. The fact that he is on the Team now doesn’t mean he had to stay there until he leaves Hogwarts,” Lily argued, putting her hands on her hips.

Stella gave her a lopsided grin.

“C’mon, Lils, you know pretty well that I’m nowhere as good as Patrick Lynch is. And moreover, I don’t want to waste three or four afternoons per week with Quidditch practice. I’ve got better things to do,” she said in a tone that suggested that the topic was hereby closed.

Stella did have better (or so she thought) things to do, for she had come into a phase nearly every wizarding kid eventually goes through: the ‘I-want-to-be-an-Auror-Phase’. Some of the kids held onto their dream and really became Aurors and Stella had resolved to do that, too. Having been focused only onto Potions until now, she began to show greater interest in Charms as well. In fact, she actually studied for that subject and Lily was getting competition as a result. Stella’s parents, who were working in the Auror business, didn’t hesitate to provide her daughter with different sorts of Auror manuals, books about Curses and Counter-Curses and about fighting the Dark Arts in general. Stella was particularly taken with her copy of ‘Moste Potente Potions’ because that meant she wouldn’t have to sneak into the Restricted Section in order to look up something in that book.

Shortly before Christmas, Stella managed to solve one of her major school problems with the help of ‘Moste Potente Potions’. One of the main reasons she hated History of Magic (apart from the fact that it was incredibly dull, even more so than chess, which really meant something) was that she couldn’t remember the facts and numbers. But now she had found a solution to that problem – the ‘Memoria tenax-Potion’, which improved the memory of a person. Originally, its effect lasted 48 hours, but after two weeks of adjusting and trying to prolong the effect, Stella had managed to get a ‘Memoria tenax-Potion’ that had to be taken only once per month. With using that potion, her Transfiguration grades improved as well, because of her better results in the theory tests. Lily was the only one who knew about the ‘Memoria tenax-Potion’ and she strongly disapproved of it.

“It’s dishonest,” she complained, furrowing her brows.

But Stella couldn’t care less. She had an absolutely un-Gryffindor opinion on that topic.

“So what if it’s dishonest? It only serves its purpose plus it doesn’t hurt anybody. Why not use it, then?” she replied to Lily’ s complaints. Her friend made another noise of disapproval and returned to her Herbology homework. However, Lily would certainly have done more than that if she had known Stella’s second secret concerning History of Magic.

After being able to memorize all the facts, Stella had to face the problem of writing essays for History of Magic that were even duller than the lessons themselves. They always took her very long and Stella had no intention of wasting time with what she thought was completely pointless (Goblin Rebellions, for example). That was why she only rarely wrote those essays and her grades showed it.

But seeing that it would be a disgrace if she failed that subject, Stella was forced to find an acceptable alternative of writing History of Magic homework.

And that she did.

The development of a new kind of quills had helped her: the Quick-Quotes-Quill. You just had to feed it the main facts and it would write an essay. Stella had found an advertisement in the ‘Daily Prophet’ and had decided to order one. The problem had been the prize: 30 galleons. Stella could afford only the half of it, at most. So she had come up with another deal for her parents. They would send her fifteen galleons now and she would get less Christmas presents than usual. Fortunately, Luke and Lucinda Decartier had agreed and hadn’t posed too many questions, obviously still having their own needs at that age in their minds. Stella had ordered a Quick-Quotes-Quill and from the moment she had got it, History of Magic was to her something that happened to other people. She would have let Lily participate, because Lily didn’t like HoM either, but seeing that her friend got so worked up about a little Memory-Enhancing Potion, Stella thought she’d better keep that particular secret to herself.

***

Christmas passed and the Gryffindors found themselves dreading another big event – the Quidditch game against Slytherin. Slytherin had already flattened Ravenclaw and had good chances to win against Hufflepuff. Therefore, the atmosphere at breakfast at the Gryffindor Table was very tense and serious. Stella didn’t quite share the feelings of her House-mates.

“Honestly, I don’t get your attitude on that particular game. Whenever we play against Hufflepuff or Ravenclaw, you are never so fierce, even when we are going to have to try hard to win,” she said, shaking her head in disapproval.

“That’s because it’s now Slytherin we are going to play against,” Sirius replied, talking to her as if she was too dim to grasp the situation.

Stella shot him a ‘You don’t say so!’-look.

“Thank you, Black, for that particular piece of information, but I was indeed aware of that,” she said irritably, brushing away a strand of her hair with an impatient move.

“Maybe. But I think you don’t want to understand us. I think you’re rather fond of the Slytherins, aren’t you, Decartier?” Sirius raised his voice, “I mean, you did cheer once when they scored against Ravenclaw, didn’t you?”

Everybody who was sitting some meters around them had heard what Sirius had said and they were now regarding Stella with slight mistrust and suspicion. She blushed and tried to defend herself.

“But you must admit that it was a wonderful Hawkshead Formation they had performed! It’s a sporting gesture if you can appreciate a nice performance even though it was your opponent who did it. I was only showing my respect of their skill!” she said, but from the faces around her she realized that her fellow House-mates weren’t sharing her opinion at all. Shooting her peculiar looks, they returned to their breakfast and rendered Stella extremely uncomfortable. She simply couldn’t settle on one opinion concerning Slytherin. Before coming to Hogwarts, she had heard only bad things about that House, which was why she’d told the Sorting Hat not to put her there. But by now, she didn’t quite know what to think. After all, not every Slytherin turned out to be a Dark Mage. And what was wrong with ambitious people? Stella was one herself (in some things, at least). Moreover, she knew only two Slytherins and you can’t judge a whole House after Lucius Malfoy and Severus Snape, now can you? On the other hand, there was Voldemort and the Death Eaters, most of them (although not all) ex-Slytherins. Stella sighed, still not able to decide whether to despise Slytherin or not. But one thing she was sure of. She would cheer if the Slytherin Team made a nice performance, no matter what the Gryffindors would do. Stella had the habit of doing the exact opposite of what the crowd did.

“It will be a nice change in the routine and they can’t lynch me because their parents would have to pay horribly for that, knowing Mum and Dad,” she tried to reassure herself and almost succeeded.

Having finished breakfast, Stella followed Lily and Remus to the stands at the Quidditch pitch.

*1995*

There was a lot to do, so she’d better get a move on. Sighing, she pulled out a letter from one of her clients that consisted of three rolls of parchment.

“Probably full of complaints,” Stella thought, grimacing.

Ah well. Maybe she would go outside to take a look on how Draco and Sandro were doing instead. She could use something to cheer herself up.

At first, it looked as if Sandro regarded Draco as his new toy to play with. He pushed him around and nudged him with his nose. Draco was absolutely terrified and not able to do anything. Stella watched them with increasing worry and just at the moment she wanted to intervene and save Draco who apparently couldn’t get on with the dragon at all, Sandro made a fatal mistake.

As he was towering over Draco, some of his saliva dropped onto the boy’s head. Draco went rigid at the feeling of something wet and slimy in his hair that started to make its way down to his neck. Suddenly, life came into him. Furious, he sought his wand and aimed it at the dragon, yelling at the top of his voice, “You disgusting, slavering monster! Go away from me! If you ever do that to my hair again, I will kill you! I will personally slice your liver and sell it in Knockturn Alley!”

He glared up to Sandro who was looking at the tiny, shouting figure beneath him with interest. So this little human boy could be different than only frozen with horror.

Good.

Sandro liked people who offered him distraction, which those who didn’t fear him did. The dragon let his gleaming yellow eyes rest on the boy’s face and Draco stared right back, his anger having consumed his fear. Then Sandro slowly lowered his head until he was almost at level with Draco’s and fumed gently into the boy’s hair. Draco was startled by the icy coldness of the bluish-white smoke that had emerged from the dragon’s nostrils and that was now surrounding his head.

“What did he do that for?” the boy wondered and then he felt the slimy substance on his head thicken and turn to ice.

“Oh,” Draco said and looked at the dragon who was regarding him with a mixture of fondness and amusement. “Thanks.”

Stella, who had been watching them from farther ahead, exhaled with relief. Sandro had accepted the silver-haired boy. She couldn’t help grinning when something occurred to her.

“It’s a proof of Malfoy’s sheer unbelievable vanity if a bit of saliva in his hair causes him to abandon all his fears and shout at a thirty-feet dragon. I mean, for all he knows, Sandro could have eaten him,” she mused. “Lucky for Sandro that he didn’t tear Draco’s robes, though, because on account of what I’ve just seen, I’d say it wouldn’t have been Draco who would have got eaten there,” she added as an afterthought.

Stella would have to warn Sandro. Vain people could get very… disagreeable if their immaculate appearance was endangered.

After another hour, she ordered her young trainee to go home. It was better for him not to be absent very long, otherwise his parents might become suspicious.

Stella was satisfied with the progress Draco was making. He had told her that he didn’t like animals and couldn’t handle them, either (which his Care of Magical Creatures grades confirmed), but Sandro and him had got along quite well in the end.

***

In the next morning, Stella was sitting in her living room, idly leafing through the ‘Daily Prophet’ before putting it away as ‘non-informative’. It was eight o’clock. Her next appointment was going to be at ten, so she had some time to spare until she would have to go. Therefore, she resolved to start to read a book that had been around in the living room and that she had been wanting to read for a week. Its title was ‘The Mighty Mind – Magical Telepathy and Telekinesis made easy’.

Stella had never been very enthusiastic about using the wand for doing magic. A wand could get damaged, lost or stolen very easily. Over the past decade, she had been focusing a great deal of her powers on enhancing her skill in wandless magic. Magical Telekinesis, which would enable her to cast a spell by mere thinking it, was the next step she wanted to take, although she wasn’t sure whether she was skilled and talented enough to acquire that ability. But before this, Stella planned to familiarize herself with Telepathy, which could also be very useful. She skipped the pages with the foreword and started to read the description of Telepathy.

‘Telepathy requires a strong mind, perseverance, determination and the ability to concentrate. If you want to reach a person telepathically, you have to create a mental connection between you and them. It’s easier if you close your eyes and picture the person in every detail you can think of. You have to imagine the person standing right in front of you. Concentrate as hard as you can until you can feel their presence and then try to speak to them. When you do it for the first time, the other person should know about your intention to communicate telepathically and they should concentrate on you as well. It’s better to start in two different, but adjoined rooms because the connection is the harder to create the farther away the other person is. Don’ t worry if it doesn’t work immediately. Some people have more talent, some less, but every magical person can use Telepathy eventually – if only within limits – depending on their devotion. Also practice with somebody you know very well at the beginning. Strong emotional connection helps a great deal.’

Stella stopped dead at the last sentence.

Strong emotional connection helps a great deal.

What if she tried to…

“No,” she told herself severely. “Don’t even think about it. It wouldn’t work, anyway. You have never done Telepathy before.”

Stella pushed the book away, hands trembling. Then she closed her eyes, attempting to ban the text from her mind, but the last sentence seemed to have printed itself on her inner eyelids and its words grew bigger and darker, as if they wanted to persuade her to follow her first instinct.

Strong emotional connection helps…

Her face covered with her hands, Stella shook her head, desperately wanting to forget that particular sentence which had called up emotions buried deep down.

Emotions she didn’t want to think about.

Emotions she didn’t want to face.

“No,” she whispered, feeling a familiar burning in her eyes. “I can’t. I mustn’t …”

Strong emotional connection…

Involuntarily, she pictured him, not like he was on the Azkaban Wanted-posters, but like he had been before. An image of Sirius with his unruly black hair going down to the collar of his robes and his dark brown eyes sparkling with laughter. His grin which, first so annoying, had become irresistible to her. A proud, firm posture. Someone who did not fear anything. Someone who could always make her laugh. Someone whom she had trusted. Someone whom she had loved beyond anything else in the world.

Someone who was now lost to her.

Stella sobbed, not being able to hold back the tears.

Sirius, where are you? She cried. Oh, Padfoot…

Two-hundred miles farther to the south, Sirius Black suddenly backed away from the breakfast table, violently knocking over his chair, his eyes widening with shock and disbelief.