borealis • R. LUPIN

extended summary

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Poli Dulworth has had an interesting life. Not as interesting as it might be when she meets the marauders, albeit, but she's had her fair share of obstacles.

She was born in a hospital in a small town called Whitby, which caused her to grow up with an appreciation for creatures that were depicted by muggles as "mythological." With her father being a muggle, and her mother a wizard, Poli's parents raised her with the knowledge of both muggle life and wizarding life. Poli's mother always told her she was so lucky to be able to have two lives, two cultures. Some people didn't have any.

Poli, as a child, was never lonely. Her older sister, Dani, who ended up being a squib, (though Poli always thought that word sounded too crass) always kept her company. They often sat on a bench, by the harbor and the cemetery, reading or playing card games. Anything to keep themselves busy. Needless to say, Poli had a beautiful, loving family whom she would cherish forever.

Unfortunately, nothing lasts forever. Especially the best things in life.

Poli's mother fell ill when she was 10, the year before she got her Hogwarts letter and left for the boarding school. Being only a child, Poli was completely oblivious to her mother's illness. She would watch as her mother would carefully sit down, her eyes fluttering closed, then open again revealing tired blue orbs. Poli would ask if she was okay, to which she would smile warmly and say she just didn't get enough sleep the night before. She told her there was nothing to worry about.

Poli's mother died when she was 11, the summer before Poli was sent to Hogwarts. She was very close with her mother, in the way that her sister was slightly closer to their dad, so when cancer spread through their mother's body at an alarming rate, killing her before Poli could pull herself together enough to say goodbye, Poli felt empty. She felt numb, unable to fathom this new concept that had been thrust upon her. The concept that she would never see her mother again. She would never laugh with her, cry with her, cuddle with her. She was simply gone and nothing Poli did could change that. It was too much.

She covered up her grief well in front of her father. Poli was more worried about him and her sister than she was about herself. She knew being a single, widowed father to two teenage girls was hard enough, but with one of them being a witch and the other beginning to apply to colleges, he had enough on his plate for him to have to deal with her emotional breakdown as well.

Because her sister became so busy with school and her own grief, Poli took it upon herself to be the front for their family. They were strong. They could get through these hardships. Poli wanted to believe that with all of her heart.

Poli spent a lot of time reminiscing. She remembered that when she was little, her mother would teach her about the constellations and mythology. Roman, Greek, Egyptian, Norse, anything she could learn, she would teach to Poli. When neither one of them could sleep, they would lay on the grass outside of their house and stare up towards the dark sky twinkling with hundreds of thousands of stars. Poli would giggle as her mother retold her favorite stories and draw out the constellations with her fingers.

Her favorite story was of Corona Borealis otherwise known as the story of Ariadne. Even though most of the Greek stories are tragedies, and were told in the most intriguing way by her mother, this one seemed to stick with Poli the most.

The story is about the daughter of King Minos, ruler of Crete. On his island was a labyrinth to confine the Minotaur. The maze was so confusing, that even the creator, Daedalus, could only barely manage to find his way out. Every year, King Minos would send twelve people from his island into the labyrinth as food for the Minotaur because the king knew that there was no possibility that they could escape. In the third year of this annual tradition, one of the groups contained a man of the name Theseus. Ariadne, Minos' daughter, fell in love with him and offered to help him escape the labyrinth as long as he would take her away from the island when he escaped. Naturally, he agreed. She gave him a magic ball of thread that he could leave as a trail behind him so that once he killed the Minotaur, he could find his way back. Once it worked, he sailed away to an island called Naxos and left Ariadne there, sailing back to his own home. As Ariadne was stranded there, lonely and sad, Bacchus, or Dionysus, arrived. He had been watching her from afar, and since he had fallen in love with her, he came to her aid. Baccus fed her, cared for her, and made her a beautiful crown. The crown had each of the seven most beautiful jewels ever discovered embedded into its gold exterior. When Ariadne died, Zeus placed the crown into the night sky, and the seven jewels became seven stars that created the constellation of a crown, which is known as Corona Borealis or Ariadne's Crown.

The story, as Poli grew up, became less innocent and soon found itself a different meaning in Poli's mind after her mother died. She believed it was a warning for her to never trust anyone completely because they could stab you in the back in a heartbeat. She had already encountered her Theseus and she didn't plan on doing it again.

However, when Remus Lupin comes into her mind, her only thought is that he could be her Bacchus. He could pick up the pieces her mother, her Theseus, left behind.

Hoping for something as lovely as that is ridiculous and completely unrealistic in Poli's opinion.

But not entirely impossible.

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