Written In the Stars | s.b |

TWENTY-TWO

Ariah laid on her mother's bed, curled up to her side.

Hope Lupin's hair was long gone. Her cheeks sunken and eyes heavy. Every day she was getting worse and Ariah didn't want to head back to school that morning and part from her mother. She had begged her parents to stay but they both agreed she had to go and enjoy her third year at hogwarts.

"Just imagine going to hogsmeade with everyone," Hope said that morning as she played with her daughters hair. "You're dad has told me so many stories from his time at hogsmeade and you don't want to miss it."

Ariah hummed dismissively, not caring an inch about hogsmeade. She just wanted her mum to be okay. Her mother was her rock and she didn't know what would happen if she lost her.

"Ariah," called her father from the doorway. "It's time to go."

"No! Please," she cried. "I don't wanna go..."

"Hey Riah look at me." She looked to her mother who cupped her face in her hands. "I will see you at Christmas break. And then we can talk about all those crazy boys and we can work through everything that happened and work on meditating, okay?"

"You promise?"

Hope Lupin looked at her husband with sad eyes before smiling back down at her daughter. "I promise."

"Hello, Sirius," Marlene waved a hand in front of her boyfriends face who was watching the Lupin's arrive and say goodbye to their father.

Sirius whipped his head to face his girlfriend. "What?.... Sorry... I guess I zoned out."

"So I've basically been talking to a wall all this time?" Marlene asked with a cheeky grin.

Sirius matched her grin, leaning in closer. "Maybe... but this wall is an amazing kisser."

James made a gagging sound from across the couple. "Sure... pretend your best mate isn't even here... get a room you two."

Marlene and Sirius shared a chuckle at their friends disgust before Peter stumbled into the compartment. He'd grown a few pounds over the summer and he looked even more anxious than usual.

"I literally just got back from Romania with my family and all I want to do is sleep," Peter said as he plunged himself beside James.

"Yeah well when don't you want to sleep," James said back. "Glad you're here though mate. These two make me sick."

"What? You don't like PDA?!" Sirius asked. "How could you not like this?"

In one smooth move, Sirius pulled Marlene on his lap, covering her face in kisses as she giggled and James groaned.

"Well don't let us interrupt... whatever this is," Remus said from the doorway.

Sirius couldn't help his eyes from falling on Ariah who looked absolutely defeated. His heart broke and he wished to help her. To hug her and make sure his best friend was okay.

But he couldn't.

So he tightened his grip on Marlene, pulling her up further on his lap, his head resting on her shoulder.

"You're just jealous Moony," Sirius winked.

"Why do you guys call him Moony?" Marlene asked. "I feel like I'm out of the loop."

"Well you are," Ariah muttered.

Everyone's eyes fell on her as she stared moodily at the floor. Her eyes lifted up slowly.

"Oops.. did I say that out loud?" she asked, her voice full of attitude. She obviously wasn't sorry.

"It's just because our Remus here is a night owl," James said, his eyes shooting a look Sirius couldn't understand at Ariah.