/𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐒\ [𝒔. 𝒃𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒌]

𝟕.𝟛.𝟤

"a friend is someone who knows all about you and still loves you." ~ Elbert Hubbard

~september 1976~ (continued)

Marlene was standing on her bed, carefully sticking a poster of Joan Jett to the wall with a spell she'd learned from Dorcas over the summer. Lily was stretched on on the floor below her, Rose, Mary's cat, crawling on her chest, and Mary was eyeing her reflection in the cracked mirror, trying to find the right shade of foundation out of the collection in Marlene's makeup bag. When Artemis entered the room, she immediately flung herself onto her bed and stared over at Marlene.

"You know you're going to have to take that down at the end of the year," she said, eyeing Marlene's spellwork.

Marlene didn't avert her gaze from the poster. "Don't fucking remind me, Blake. And besides, hot women make me focus better. It's all for the betterment of my school work."

"Shut up, Marly," Lily sighed, a small smile twinging at her lips.

Mary turned away from the mirror and held two bottles of foundation up to her face. "Which one?"

Artemis squinted at her. "The one on the left for sure."

"Thanks, mate."

Artemis nodded and went back to watching Marlene. "Just out of curiosity," she said at last, "Was I annoying as hell first year?"

Mary and Lily exchanged a look and burst out laughing. "Yes, you absolutely were," said Lily, scratching Rose behind the ears.

Marlene finished her handiwork with the poster and dropped backwards onto her bed, grinning up at Joan Jett's picture. "Art, you used to get into fights with Sirius about the 'right way to break the rules.' Yes, you were annoying as hell."

Artemis smiled fondly at the memory and ran her fingers through her hair. "Yeah, okay. You're right."

Later that night, Artemis laid awake in bed long after the rest of the girls fell asleep. She couldn't remember the last time she'd slept well. Over the summer, it had been easy to remedy with late-night parties to distract herself, but at school, she knew she'd be forced to face the problem if she was going to make it through the year. Still, every time she closed her eyes, all she could see was the smoky sitting room in the Goyle Manor and her uncle lumbering at her through the haze.

She couldn't do it. She slipped out of bed and pulled on a sweater before creeping to the door and silently making her way out into the hall. Artemis had snuck out enough times to know how to do it without waking up a soul. She crept cat-like down the stairs and into the common room.

She wasn't alone. Sirius looked up from the couch, but didn't look surprised to see her. "Couldn't sleep?"

Artemis jumped, then relaxed once she saw who it was. She sighed and crossed the room to curl up next to him. "Couldn't sleep."