An Account of Falling Stars

Chapter 7: Sirius

I opened my eyes on Monday morning to a world tinted blue. It was the point in the earliest hours of the morning where the birds were only just waking up, where the sky was barely beginning to lighten. The air in my room was frosty thanks to the freezing Scottish weather. I rubbed my eyes tiredly before slipping out of bed. Now that I was awake, there was no more chance of me falling back to sleep.

I wander my room a bit and take my uniform out of the imposing wardrobe standing in the far corner of my room, and lay them carefully on the bed. The uniform was immaculately tailored and pressed to perfection. I ran my fingers over the soft material of the plain black blazer, then I traced the patterns of the embroidered school badge on the chest of it. The gentle material was a welcome feeling to my raw fingers that had been forced to play the piano until they were blue with bruises which was annoying because the bruises left by my mothers cane the day we got here were just beginning to fade.

The school logo was a plain white triangle with a circle inside it and a long line going straight through its centre. The mark of the hallows of which the school was named after. I considered getting ready for my first day of school right away. I had so much pent up energy and I just wanted the day to get started already, but I was also nervous. Regulus and I had been home-schooled our entire lives. Father ordered we have the best tutors money could buy and our education was extensive and thorough. We were tutored in: Maths, English, Science, French, Latin, Greek, Art, Classical music, Politics, Ballet, Ballroom Dancing, History and Economics.

Of course we excelled in most subjects quickly and so the workload kept piling up, and I couldn't handle it, so I stopped trying as hard. I did enough to do well, not to excel. Unlike Regulus. Regulus took everything in his stride. He never made mistakes, it was never too much for him. He was just born perfect and I hated that. I hated how he pretended that he loved maths and economics when I knew that he really loved art and poetry. And he was amazing at it. One of Regulus' paintings could be sold for millions if he tried but instead he chose to focus on what father thought was best.

I was good at all subjects too but I was really passionate about ballet and music. Music was so freeing, so calming, so exciting. It filled me so much joy to master a new instrument, and over time, learning new instruments got easier and easier. I was only permitted to play classical instruments though and after a few years, it got boring and trying. Dance was similar. I loved being able to cross the dance floor and leap into the air and land with the quietest thud. Ballet was one of my favourite things in the world but as I grew my father decided that it was too feminine for his heirs and we were forced to stop. Regulus stopped completely, he never mentioned ballet again, but I practised and stretched in my room in secret, never wanting to lose that part of me no matter how feminine my father deemed it.

After a long time of being lost in thought, sitting crossed legged on my bed, I decided against getting ready just yet. I didn't want to mess up my uniform in any way and leave a bad impression. I was already nervous about seeing James and his friends after what he and his mother must have experienced when they came and dropped off a tin of cookies for me.

My heart warmed at the thought of them, and I reached under my bed to get the now dwindling stash of cookies. I opened the tin and absentmindedly munched on one while I thought of the never ending kindness of Euphemia Potter. She'd never met me, only spoken to me over the phone. I expected to be just a client to her, but there she was, welcoming my family to the neighbourhood and leaving me a tin of spicy, chest warming cookies. She was truly a goddess and I had to repay her. Then I got an idea, since I had so much time left 'til I was even supposed to be awake, I'd sneak into the kitchen to bake the Potters something nice.

I crept into the kitchen from my bedroom, stalking down long hallways and avoiding creaking floor boards. The halls were dark and mostly cast in shadows other than slithers of light streaming in through the thick drapes covering the windows. My feet were freezing and practically turning blue by the time I stepped into the kitchen.