/𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐒\ [𝒔. 𝒃𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒌]

𝟑.𝟜.𝟥

"to live without hope is to cease to live." ~ Fyodor Dostoevsky

~october 1973~ ((continued))

"I think I hate Care of Magical Creatures class," Artemis murmured to Remus as they worked side by side on their Girding potion.

Remus smiled and measured out doxy eggs before dumping them into the cauldron. Artemis couldn't help but notice the tremor in his hand as he did so. "Why's that?" he asked.

"It's just that everything's either boring or gross. I don't care about flobberworms, but I also don't want to touch the claberts, they're too scaly." Artemis stirred a handful of dragonfly thoraxes into the potion until it turned orange. "But claberts aside, anything's better than Divination."

Remus let his head fall backwards and sighed dramatically. "Fucking Divination..." he said, making Artemis laugh. "That class is bullshit. Total bullshit."

Artemis nodded. "And the worst part is that most people in the class believe every word of it."

"That doesn't surprise me," said Remus, smiling. "You know, some of the girls in Divination always sort of reminds me of this one painting I saw and I've been meaning to tell you because you're always reading those art books... I think it's by John William Waterhouse-"

"Circe Offering the Cup to Ulysses," Artemis said without missing a beat. After years of being quizzed by her father, she knew the art world like the back of her hand. "And yeah, it totally looks like them. Just less batty."

Remus laughed. "Man, I wish I could remember things like that. I'm good with memorizing things I read, but it's like you've got a whole catalog of artwork in your head."

Artemis swelled with pride at the compliment, but tried hard to hide it. "My parents are- were really into art history, so I spent a lot of time at museums."

The correction between are and were wasn't lost on Remus, but he chose not to bring it up just then. "That's awesome. My mum's a librarian. She's a muggle- that's why I read so many muggle books."

"Have you read any Russian literature?" Artemis asked, moving the potion over fire and adding some more doxy eggs.

"A bit, why?"

Artemis shrugged. "My latest obsession. Dostoevsky was one of my dad's favorites so I took a few of his books from my mum's house over the summer-" Artemis broke off, realizing too late that she'd revealed too much about her family life without meaning to. "Ah- so I've- ah- been reading those."

"I'll have to try some. I can never get past all the long names," Remus said, not batting an eye at the confusing dynamics of Artemis's life.

She looked up from the potion at him, a small smile playing on her lips. Remus's heart swelled with happiness. He'd made her smile. He loved doing that. "You get past the names," Artemis said simply. "It's confusing for awhile, but you'll catch on. I just finished Crime and Punishment, I can lend it to you if you want."