Written In the Stars | s.b |

THIRTEEN

"Maybe He jus' thought ya needed yer space," Hagrid said, placing a cup of tea in front of Ariah.

She had grown incredibly close to the man over the month and spent a lot of time outside of detention with him.

After hours of waiting for Sirius, it was finally time for Ariah to head to detention. She left early as to speak with Hagrid.

"Sirius knows me, Hagrid," Ariah said miserably. "He knows I don't like to be left alone and when I do, I go into a different hiding space but he always checks our spot... until today..."

"Hey Hagrid!"

James walked into the hut with a large smile.

"Hey Ariah," he said. "You okay?"

Ariah nodded, not wanting to get into it.

"Well," Hagrid said. "Looks like it's time ter get on with detention."

"Oh, Remus isn't coming," James said. "He said he was feeling ill and went to Madame Pom."

"No worries," Hagrid said. "He'll be serving his detention with McGonagall tomorrow at lunch."

Ariah looked to Hagrid with confusion. Why wouldn't her brother serve detention tonight?

"It should be a fine night," Hagrid said. "Full moon and all."

It clicked then, and Ariah felt a twinge of guilt rise up in her. She didn't even realize that tonight was a full moon and Remus was no doubt suffering — yet she locked herself in the astronomy tower and had a pity party.

"Do you think it'll be safe?" Ariah asked as the three of them walked towards the Forbidden Forest. From the distance, she could see the other four walking towards them. "What with the full moon and all?"

"Nothin' safer," Hagrid said. He leaned down to Ariah's ear. "You know how Dumbledore takes precautions. Remus is safe and so are you lot."

Hagrid had the group split up to look for a missing thestral. The task was impossible, hardly any of them had ever seen death. Hagrid had told them the signs to find one.

"They like ter eat fire crabs," he explained. "You can find em in an area with fire crab shells."

"How do we know it's the missing one?" Lily asked.

"And how do we bring it back?" Peter asked.

"Well.... shoot red sparks from yer wand if you believe ye've found it and I'll make the judgement."

Ariah went with Lily and Sirius towards the west side of the forest.

"Any of you two seen death?" Lily asked as they parted from the group.

"Nope," Sirius said. "Thankfully."

"No..." Ariah said.

She was currently watching her mother slowly die as she was diagnosed with cancer over the summer. The wizarding community refused to help a muggle and the muggle community hadn't yet found a cure for the illness. She was receiving chemo but her chances of survival were slim.