/𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐒\ [𝒔. 𝒃𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒌]

𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐞𝐞

"I know not all that may be coming, but be it what it will, I'll go to it laughing." ~ Herman Melville

The months came and went, and Artemis spent them scouring the newspapers for any news on Sirius. Every time she heard something move outside, she perked up. The front gate opened? It had to be him, finding her at last. 

Only it never happened. Remus came and went, spending a few nights at a time at Hogwarts before coming home. Sirius never made an appearance. She kept careful track of the supposed sightings in the papers, but after awhile realized they didn't make any sense. With the unreliability of sightings and no word from anyone in the outside world about his whereabouts, she was starting to lose hope. 

She missed Remus more than she cared to admit while he was gone. She liked to think of herself as independent, able to live with herself and only herself. But she missed the constant companionship of her best friend. She was almost happy that the school year was almost over, at least he would have the entire summer off.

She was also slowly realizing that Remus had been right. Not knowing where Sirius was was slowly driving her crazy. She was getting restless. She wanted to go out and find him, bring him to her. She couldn't take being cooped up in the house anymore while he was on the run, maybe hurt or even dead, far, far away from her. 

So she started to plan. On a warm June evening, while Remus was at Hogwarts and the world felt quiet, Artemis spread maps and parchment and newspapers over the kitchen table and started plotting a route to find Sirius. She drew all over the maps, jotting down haphazard ideas on every corner of scratch paper she could find. 

Artemis stayed up all night. She didn't even notice when the sun started to rise over the treetops in the backyard. She was so lost in her own little world, she barely acknowledged Remus coming in the back door until he sank into a chair and buried his face in his hands. She stuck her pencil in her ponytail for safekeeping and hurried over to him. "What's happened?" she asked, eyeing him up and down to make sure he wasn't injured. The war may have ended over a decade ago, but her instincts never went away. 

Remus was shaking so hard he could barely get his wand into his pocket. "I've just come from Hogwarts," he said darkly. 

"Yeah, I know," said Artemis, utterly bewildered. "What the hell happened to you? Is it the potion Severus made for you? Wasn't it a full moon?" 

"The problem wasn't with the potion," said Remus, his face still in his hands. "I didn't take the potion. I transformed fully. But that doesn't matter right now-" 

She raised her eyebrows at him. "That doesn't matter? Rem, why didn't you take the potion?" 

"Because I was occupied with-" Now that he was sitting right in front of Artemis, he didn't know how to explain what had happened that night under the Whomping Willow. It didn't matter, though. He knew there was only one thing Artemis would actually care about. "Sirius," he said, his voice so dry he could only get out the one word. He took a deep breath. "Sirius was at Hogwarts." 

Artemis's mouth fell open. She didn't say anything. 

"Remember the old Marauder's Map?" 

She nodded. She hadn't thought about the map in ages.

"Well, I confiscated it from Harry- don't ask me how he got ahold of it. But anyway, I was looking at it, and I saw two names I wasn't expecting." 

She finally found her voice. "Two?" 

"Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew." 

At this, Artemis sank into the chair across from Remus. "Peter? I thought he was dead."