Brightest ✯ Sirius Black

✯fifty-two✯

Stars had always been the things Cleo looked to for comfort. In a vast, blanketed dark sky, they would shimmer through, providing light when she needed it most. When she looked up to the sky, begging to become one of them on the top of the Astronomy tower, she could feel their presence, as if stars were her friends and she could sense their worry and care.

When she was little, her father bought her a telescope because she had told him that she wanted to be an astronaut. She wanted to go up into space, to be one with the stars, to finally meet the twinkling lights she had always called her friends. She and her father would spend hours looking through the telescope at night, finding different stars and giving each one a name. She remembered learning about the brightest star in the night sky, the binary constellation in the shape of a dog. The star that was named Sirius. It was always her favorite.

And then she met a boy named Sirius. He reminded her of a dog when they first met. He ran around like a wild animal, his hair in his face, causing mischief and somehow managing to get out of trouble all the same. She fell in love with the boy like she had fallen in love with the star he was named after.

It was a comfort thing. Just like the stars, she felt at peace looking at him too. For a while, she was convinced that he actually was a fallen star. He was too bright, too perfect, too magical to be real. She was in awe of his beauty, his personality, despite the fact that sometimes she felt he was a million miles away.

And now, as she stepped out of the quiet little house in Godric's Hollow, careful to not make a sound, the blanketed dark sky suffocating her, she looked up to the window that she knew he was asleep under. Then, her eyes drifted to the star in the sky, but she knew that they were both too far away for her to ever reach.

She hiked her bag up her shoulder and took a deep breath. Leaving like this was not how she imagined, sneaking away like a thief in the night. Except instead of a haul of priceless goods, she was hauling a family burden and a broken heart.

She looked at the sleeping house one last time. She didn't know when she would ever see her best friends again; those fantastic, amazing, hilarious best friends that she had been blessed with the privilege of knowing. What did she do to deserve them? She shook her head and wiped a stray tear from her cheek. What would Mrs. Potter say, when everyone would come down for breakfast that morning but Cleo's bed would be empty? Not a trace of the girl was left in the room, and they would all be worried sick. But she had to do this. For them, for their safety, she knew that she had to.

So she walked. She began to step further and further away from the house, from the last bit of home she was left with. The stars weren't bright enough tonight, and Cleo sighed.

"Where in the bloody hell do you think you're going?"

She stopped in her tracks, her eyes closing as she sighed. "Remus..."

"No. Not tonight Cleo. You don't get to do this tonight," he said, and despite the fact that Cleo hadn't turned around yet, she knew Remus was walking closer. A faint, "what's going on?" came from behind him, and she knew that James was up too. She finally turned around.

Cleo had only really seen Remus angry a few times, but it was never directed at her. And she was grateful for it, because an angry Remus was not something she ever wanted to be on the other end of. But here she was. James was rubbing the sleep from his eyes, confusion evident on his face as he stumbled forward from the house as well.

The last to step foot out of the doorway was Sirius, who looked confused but when he saw Cleo, saw the bag on her back and the wand in her hand, the tears in her eyes, he put his head down and shut his eyes tight, fighting his own tears.

"Remus please, I have to-"

"You don't have to. That's the thing Cleo. You think that you have to do all of this on your own, but you don't," he fought.

"I'm not putting you guys in danger any longer, I won't do it," her voice shook, "innocent people are being attacked because Voldemort's people are out there looking for me. It's only a matter of time before they do, and what then? I'm just supposed to let you all fight for me?" She threw her arms out to her sides in utter desperation.

"Yes!" Remus shouted. She flinched back, shutting her eyes as tears continued to spill down her cheeks. "That's what we do. That's what a family does, Cleophus," his voice got softer as he came closer. Soon, Remus stood right in front of her. "We are your family, and we will always fight for you." He stepped closer, put his hand on her shoulder and squeezed, before slowly slipping her bag off her shoulder and taking it from her.

Cleo shook her head, accepting her defeat. "Why?" she whispered. James and Sirius had gotten closer too, and stood before her as well.

"Why?" James scoffed, laughing. "Because we love you, Cleo."

Love is an odd thing. The same way one loves their mother is not the same way that they love their husband or wife. Love comes in many forms, in many different ways, in many different languages. When Sirius heard James use the word "love", he looked up from the ground and looked at James. The look of love on James' face towards Cleo was one that Sirius recognized; he once held that look for his brother, or at least, he must've at some point. He looked towards Remus, saw the look of adoration and respect in his eyes and he knew that Remus' love was different from James', but in similar ways. And then, his eyes met Cleo's. Her lovely blue eyes, swimming in tears as she tried to fathom the love coming from the three boys in front of her. And Sirius just knew, that his love had to have looked different than James' or Remus'. For his love looked a lot like Cleo's, and in that way, he knew that he was in trouble, and no smooth talking would get him out of the consequences this time around.

quite short, bit of a filler. I also nearly died from goosebumps when i wrote this

not to toot my own horn 

but damn

anyway

thank you so so much for 60k reads... nobody's ever liked what I've written so much in my life lol

I appreciate you

each and every one of you

from the bottom of my nearly non existent heart, thank you

lots of love

JJ