The Outlying Serpent { Fred Weasley }

19. Champions

Third Book

Late-May, 1994
Fifth Year

Ara sat alone in the Slytherin common room, revising for her O.W.L's.

I do hope George has been studying. And Fred.

Today was the Gryffindor vs Slytherin Quidditch match. The winner would take the Quidditch Cup and Ara couldn't bare to watch it. She knew it was wrong, but deep down she was hoping Gryffindor won.

Slytherin had taken the cup home for Merlin-knows how many years in a row, and Ara knew how badly Oliver wanted to win it, this year was his last chance to do so before he graduated.

He deserves it.

They'd, reluctantly, stopped seeing each other. Something about the way Oliver hadn't stood up for Ara that night, along with the fact that the boy's Quidditch team was now very estranged, attributed to the pair ending things.

The demise of the relationship, if you could call it that, had surely delighted Fred, not that Ara knew. She hadn't spoken to him since the night that he'd found out about her and Oliver.

That was the same night she had met Sirius Black.

And let him go.

After she'd done so, she couldn't believe herself. But, biting her tongue and hoping the man would keep his word, she didn't tell anyone anything.

'Sirius is a good man Ara, remember that, will you?'

Her mother's words were the sole thing that kept Ara's guilt at bay when it came to letting Sirius go. Surely Narcissa knew what she was talking about.

Right?

Sighing deeply, Ara rested her head against her Arithmancy textbook. She couldn't help but wonder how the game was going.

"Right, let's skip to Astronomy," Ara mumbled to herself, beginning to feel sick of numbers.

She flipped through her astronomy charts and began reading up on certain constellations, smiling widely when she got to one that she was named after.

Ara, the altar, was where Zeus and the other Greek gods met and found a safe haven, a refuge, before the war against their evil father, Cronus, and his Titans. It was where they swore a vow of allegiance to each other. Essentially, where they decided that there would be justice.

'She's had your name picked out for a long time.'

Ara kept replaying the night in her head as she tried to study. Specifically the last moment, as she watched Sirius leave.

"-And Ara, your mother has never done anything without a reason, naming you certainly didn't change that,"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means that she'd hoped you'd be like your namesake, like Andy, and I can tell you haven't disappointed her yet,"

Ara shook her head and tried to get her uncle, or cousin, or whatever he was, out of her head.

He probably just said all that so she wouldn't report him to Dumbledore. Ara groaned and fell back into her chair, while staring at the ceiling she contemplated her mistakes.

She could tell Dumbledore now. Tell him about the passage. But what was it worth? Sirius was long gone. And she couldn't tell the Headmaster about the Marauders Map.

Sirius had promised he wouldn't hurt anyone. And it'd been eerily calm in the castle ever since, perhaps he'd left? The Blacks were rich, and Sirius was the only living beneficiary. Despite not being able to walk into Gringotts and open the Black vault, Sirius surely knew where his family kept their hidden galleons.