/𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐒\ [𝒔. 𝒃𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒌]

𝟕.𝟞.𝟥

"if I had a flower for every time I thought of you... I could walk through my garden forever." ~ Alfred Tennyson

~december 1976~ ((continued))

"Alright, enlighten me," Sirius said, standing in front of a painting of a man fending off a ship from a shark attack.

Artemis grinned up at him and then scrutinized the portrait. "This one's easy. My dad used to go on and on about the symbolism- John Singleton Copley used to paint exclusively tragedies to memorialize the overall tragedy of living itself."

"That's... depressing as hell."

She shrugged. "I like it. I mean, why gloss over tragedy when it's such a- a big part of our lives." Her smile faded. She was thinking about her mother, long gone, probably across the country by now. And her brother, so young and already joining up with the Death Eaters. And the countless disappearances she and her friends had been tracking since November.

"Well, the guy's fighting off the shark," Sirius said, pointing to the man with the spear in the painting. "So maybe the artist was also talking about fending off tragedy. And how sometimes that's the only thing that can get you through."

Artemis leaned into Sirius's side and he put his arm around her shoulders, kissing the top of her head gently. "Yeah, maybe he was."

"Remember when we came here the summer before fifth year?"

She laughed and turned to take his hands in hers, looking up at his face with almost childish amusement. "The year I pretended you didn't exist."

"Well, yeah," he said, chuckling. "But remember when we came to the museum? And you wore that red dress and you kept grabbing my hand and pulling me around everywhere to show me paintings?"

Artemis snorted and looked down at her feet. "Yeah, fifteen year old me was annoying."

Sirius shook his head and took one of his hands from hers to brush a few pieces of hair from her eyes. "That's when I knew I loved you."

"Oh yeah?" Her eyes were twinkling.

He gave her a rueful smile. "Yeah."

"And then I pretended you didn't exist." She looked almost sorry, her eyes darkening.

Sirius merely laughed. "Well, fifteen year old you was annoying as hell."

"Don't pretend you were any better," Artemis said, wrapping her arms around his neck and standing on tiptoe to kiss him. "But we got through it."

"Yeah, we did."

He was staring down at her with the most love Artemis had ever seen in anyone's gaze. She kissed him again, then stepped back. "Sirius, I don't want to get married."