astronomy • marlene mckinnon

seventeen

Astraea Black had no idea what had gone wrong.

What she had done wrong.

Was it even her fault?

Maybe it wasn't, but it sure felt like it was.

Within two months of starting Hogwarts at the age of eleven, Astraea had learned that you could count on the students of Hogwarts to spread the most senseless rumors or leak the most private secrets.

It didn't take long for the entirety of Hogwarts to find out that Sirius Black had been disinherited from the noble and most ancient house of Black.

Astraea knew it had to be one of the pure-blood Slytherins, someone who had access to their family tree, someone who was a part of it.

But that didn't matter, finding out who had started announcing to everyone alive didn't matter to her anymore.

It took a much shorter time for students to jump to assumptions about what might have happened and even shorter for the rumors to fly.

But, it took time for Regulus to remember why he had been so angry at his elder brother.

When Sirius had walked out of the house with his stuff and his name was burnt off the family tree painted on the tapestry in a room downstairs, Regulus had been furious with him.

For the rest of the summer, Astraea could feel the anger radiating from her younger brother, increasing every time his eyes would land on the tapestry or every time he would cross the room which was now closed.

When Regulus had first seen him at the train station, with James Potter and his parents, smiling and being hugged by Euphemia Potter, Regulus had just been happy and relieved that he was okay.

All the anger he felt for Sirius abandoning him and Astraea had vanished.

Astraea wished people would keep their mouths shut, especially about matters that didn't concern them, matters that they didn't even know about, until two weeks ago.

The three siblings had been alright when term started, they would send each other a comforting smile whenever they would make eye contact with the other and had begun conversations when away from prying eyes.

The news of Regulus Arcturus Black being the new Black heir spreading like wildfire and consuming everyone in the process had been the cause of it all, Astraea was sure of that.

As Regulus's anger returned, he stopped giving that small comforting smile to Sirius.

He started changing his path when he would see his brother laughing with his three friends, being perfectly okay.

Astraea had tried to talk to him, more than once, wanting to know where his anger was coming from and tried to make him understand, but he wouldn't talk and Astraea would never know why.

But if she had to be completely honest with herself, she did know why the youngest of the siblings was so furious with Sirius, a small part of her was angry about it too.

She wished Sirius had done what the three had silently promised each other ages ago, what every child of the Blacks has been doing. She wished he would keep up with their parents' bullshit until they were of age and then do whatever he could when they were no longer under someone's control.

But at the same time, Astraea understood why Sirius had done what he did, perhaps she would have done the same if she was in his position, but it didn't matter. Sirius had done what he had to do, Sirius had thought of himself and Astraea couldn't be mad at him for that.

She had to respect his decision as he had done with hers, and she wished Regulus would have done that too.

Sirius had noticed the change in his younger brother's behavior, he hadn't exactly been hiding it.