stars | sirius black

34: 12 Years Later

SEPTEMBER 1, 1993

"HURRY UP WOULD YOU?" Arabella Arroway calls out to her daughter, worried they might miss the train. She took one last check around their house, making sure everything was in place before they left. She started tapping her foot on the wooden floor as she waited by the front door for her daughter.

"Stop tapping your foot, Ara. You know it's not going to make Cass go any faster." Someone says, causing Arabella to jump a little in surprise. She turned around to find Remus Lupin with a small smile on his face. 

"Rough night?" Arabella joked, noticing the addition of scars on his face and the heavy bags under his eyes. 

Remus laughed it off, shaking his head a little. "It happens every month, you get used to it."

"Nervous?" Arabella asked, tilting her head slightly at him. 

"Very." He said, looking down at his feet. 

"I'm sure you'll do great, Remus." She said reassuringly, smiling at him.

"Easy for you to say." Remus scoffed.

Before Arabella could say anything, the sound of her daughter coming down the stairs with her suitcase in hand interrupted her. She sighed and wiped the thin layer of sweat on her forehead when she got to very last step and looked at her mother and Remus.

"You know, it's bad enough having my mother at school with me. Now, you both are going to be there." She joked, pouting at the two adults.

"Think of it this way, at least Remus won't be alone in this house anymore." Arabella said, smiling up at her and Remus.

"Thanks by the way, for letting me stay here these past couple of years." Remus said, smiling gratefully at Arabella.

"Well, the house was pretty much empty for most of the year anyways so it's not really a big deal." Arabella said, waving her hand as if to say it's nothing.

"I still can't believe that my mother is my Arithmancy teacher and now my godfather is about to become my Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. Something tells me this is going to be an interesting year." Cass said, shaking her head and laughing.

"A year that you are going to miss if we don't move right now. Are you sure you've got everything?"  Arabella said. Cass mentally checked to see if she had everything.

"Oh, Merlin!" She said, face palming and shaking her head. "My wand! I left it in my room. Hold on." 

Cass bounded up the stairs to her room, leaving Remus and Arabella to wait for her.

"Cass is so forgetful! She sure is her mother's daughter, hmm?" Remus joked, a teasing grin on his features.

"Shut up, Remus!" Arabella laughed, hitting  his shoulder playfully. 

"Hey, Ara." Remus said, knowing that this would be the only chance he had to tell her. He thought it would be better if she heard it from him and not from the daily prophet or their fellow professors at Hogwarts. When he found out himself, all he felt was anger. But he knew Arabella had a right to know. 

"What is it?"

Now or never, he thought.

"Sirius escaped."

"What?" Her breathing quickened and her eyes were now wide as she looked at her best friend in disbelief. "How? That's impossible."

"I don't know how. Only the higher ups at the ministry and Dumbledore knows at the moment. I overheard a couple people from the ministry talking about it at Diagon alley. It's only a matter of time before every one else did, I thought it'd be better for you to hear it from me."

"Found it!" Cass yelled from her room, but Arabella was glued to her place, unable to move or speak as they heard Cass' footsteps coming down the stairs. 

"What happened to mum? She looks like she's seen a ghost." Cass joked, noticing Arabella's face paled and unblinking.

"She might as well have." Remus mumbled.

"Anyways we should go or we'll miss the train!" Arabella said, grabbing her things and heading out.

"Not a word of this to Cass." Remus said, snapping Arabella out of her trance.

"Why?"

"She thinks he's innocent." Remus shrugged, saying it as if his explanation was the most obvious thing in the world.

"He is innocent." Arabella snapped.

"Yeah, sure." He said sarcastically, rolling his eyes. "It's hard enough for her to carry the last name of a killer but imagine how everyone would react when she tells them he's innocent now that he's an escaped convict." 

Arabella and Remus rarely fought but topics like this one was an exception. When it came to Sirius Black, she and Remus had passionately contrasting views;

She knew he was innocent, she was the one who cast the charm and knew that Sirius wasn't the secret keeper.

He believed he was guilty, all these years Sirius had accused of him being the traitor when it was him all along. Besides, Arabella loves Sirius, her word isn't exactly reliable. She'd say anything to protect him.

They held each others gaze for a few moments. Neither refusing to look away until they heard Cass' exasperated scream, "Come on, you two!"

"She's going to find out eventually." Arabella said, turning away from Remus and headed outside.

__________

WHEN THEY arrived at platform 9 3/4 with only a few minutes to spare, Cass wasted no time in going inside the express with a rushed "I'll see you both at school" to Remus and Arabella.

"Faculty rides in the train after this one. The Hogwarts express is mostly for the students." Arabella said, standing beside Remus, not even sparing him a glance.

Remus nodded. "Okay. But I think I'll be riding the express to Hogwarts, I missed how it felt like to ride it." 

Arabella nodded in acknowledgement and Remus boarded the train. 

She sighed when Remus disappeared from eyesight. Her hand went to touch the engagement ring that was now in a chain that hung around her neck. The chain was low enough that whatever she was wearing would conceal the ring. When she felt the familiarly cool metal, she wasn't able to stop the small smile that graced her lips. 

Unbeknownst to Arabella, he was watching her. Only if she would look back, maybe she'd see. She'd see an almost familiar black dog, looking at her with its head slightly tilted; waiting for the right moment to reveal himself to her again.

__________

hey! it's been a while. 

this story is such a mess lmao i've missed you guys tho

anywwww

ahhh cass is now in her fourth year while harry is in his third bc this is prisoner of azkaban time. ara is now a teacher at hogwarts??? soooo ara and siri haven't gotten married so she's still Arabella Arroway buuuut their daughter is Cassiopeia Black. 

if things still don't quite make sense, hopefully ur questions will be answered in the next chaps. this one is just kind of an intro to the PoA part of this story.  

i'll probs make a separate story about Cass but I'll do it when I finish this one HAHAHAH

also,, a huge thank you for over 1k comments, 5k votes, and 139k reads. that seems so crazy to me. no idea how that happened but i'm grateful nonetheless(: never imagined that this story would reach those kinds of numbers.

anyways, let me know what you think of this part in the comments and give it a vote if you think it deserves one.

lots of love and i'll see you soon,
arielle