Among The Stars --- Remus Lupin

•three•

Ara sat with Lily and Mary in the Great Hall, eating breakfast and awaiting their schedules. The four boys strode in and sat around them.

"Good morning girls," James said, biting into a piece of toast.

Ara just nodded in response, but Lily flipped her long red hair and smiled brilliantly at him. The seven of them made some small talk until McGonagall marched down the table, handing out schedules.

"I'm so excited for Divination," Ara said.

Everyone groaned.

"Divination is the worst," Mary moaned.

"At least we have it first, get it out of the way," Sirius voiced, winking at a Ravenclaw girl who had just sauntered by.

"Ugh, but we have History of Magic last," Lily whined.

"What's so bad about History of Magic?" Ara questioned.

"It's taught by a ghost. Rumors say that Professor Binns fell asleep, died, and then turned into a ghost and just kept teaching. It's sooo boring," Lily explained, licking the yogurt off of her spoon.

"I happen to find it interesting," Remus said.

"'Course you do. You find all of our classes interesting," Peter snickered. Then he looked around nervously, searching for approval from his peers. James and Sirius laughed and Peter's expression turned to one of relief.

Remus showed Ara to Divination, for James and Sirius wanted to check the quidditch schedule. Peter went along just for the fun of it. Lily and Mary had claimed they wanted to head back to the common room to 'freshen up'.

"Why are you interested in Divination?" Remus asked, attempting to make conversation.

"Seems interesting," Ara answered.

"You'd probably be good at it, with your reading people and all. Trelawney will like you," Remus said.

"Hopefully," she responded cheerfully.

To get to Divination they had to climb up a ladder that fell from a hole in the ceiling. The ladder led to a small circular room filled with the scent of a heavy perfume. Round tables were surrounded by overstuffed bean bags. A long row of shelves in the corner held an array of reflective crystal balls.

Remus let out a low whistle, "It's even worse than I remember it."

Some of the other Gryffindor students were already in the room, but Ara couldn't find the Professor. Remus and Ara joined the other students in the corner, waiting awkwardly to be told where to sit.

Other students filed in and finally a lady covered in shawls of every color swept into the room. She wore large glasses that magnified her eyes and made her look like a bug. She had long, frizzy hair that was messily tied into braids.

"Hello, I am Professor Trelawney," she bellowed dramatically.

Ara's excitement towards the class was getting lesser every second.

"This year you will sit in alphabetic order according to last name. Two to a table please! I believe that the letters in you name bring your fate. This year it is your fate to sit next to whoever is next to you in the alphabet," Trelawney explained, she obviously hadn't practiced her speech very much.

Ara sat next to Remus because there was no one else with a J or K in the class. This was fine by Ara, she'd much rather sit with someone she knew.

"Now, today we are going to use the crystal balls to refresh from last year. Someone from the table get up and grab a ball from the shelves," Trelawney hummed.

Ara heard snickers from James' and Peter's table. Boys, so immature.

Remus stood up and came back with a shining sphere.

"Has everyone got one? Good. I want you to focus on your partner, focus on your partner and then look into the crystal ball. Record what you see," the professor said.

"Do you want to go first?" Remus asked.

"How about you go first, so I can see how to do it."

"Alright. Well, um, first I'm supposed to focus on you."

Remus studied Ara. She had kind green eyes. She sat with her legs crossed and she wore one silver bangle around her wrist.

"Okay, and now I just look into the crystal ball."

Remus wasn't expecting to see anything. Last year on his O.W.L.s he made things up. He had read his textbooks, he knew what to make up, so he got good marks, but he didn't actually see anything.

A mist-like substance filled the crystal ball and swirled around inside of it. At first there was just a shadowy figure, but then the image sharpened and Remus could tell it was Ara. They were in the Shrieking Shack.

Remus was quite uncomfortable. Was this real? Would this actually happen? Why was he actually able to see something? Could Ara see this too?

"What do you see?" Ara asked.

Remus wanted to fall over in relief, Ara couldn't know he was a werewolf.

"I-I see us becoming better friends," he said. The image faded and Remus recorded his lie.

Ara pulled the crystal ball towards her and then looked at Remus. She watched his hand form the letters on the parchment. He was a very precise writer.

Looking into the crystal ball, a white mist swirled around the inside of it. At first, all she could see was a night sky with stars. It was a cloudy night, but as a cloud floated across the sky a full moon appeared. Then it shifted to Remus. He was sitting in the Great Hall laughing with his friends. The mist swirled again. The ball seemed to be gathering its thoughts. The next image was one of four animals. A rat, a stag, a black dog, and a werewolf. The image faded away and the crystal ball was clear again.

"Did you see anything?" Remus asked expectantly.

Ara wasn't sure what to say. The images she had seen obviously had something to do with Remus.

"It was odd. I saw a rat, a black dog, a stag, and a werewolf," Ara said carefully.

Remus' calm expression flickered to one of fear, but only for a second.

"Weird," he shrugged, giving a small smile.

Ara wrote down her findings and for the rest of class she read her book.

Remus left class worried about his secret.

Ara left class knowing something new.

~~~~~
A/N: I hope you like this chapter! I tried to be creative with it.

Thanks for reading! (: