Early in the morning, Polaris woke up to find herself tucked into a bed in the Hospital Wing. The strict matron had sent the Marauders away as soon as they woke up. Madam Pomfrey had let Polly stay because of her injuries but she refused to get them checked-out.

Polly could have left immediately to get ready for the new day ahead but she stayed put by Remus' side. And left only to removed the blood from her cloths and to get some food. She had timed in right. When she got back from the kitchen with a hot bowl of soup, Remus was already stirring from his sleep.

"Hey," she greeted, while handing him the glass of water he was reaching for. After placing the bowl of soup on the table, she then lightly pressed the back of her hand to his forehead to feel his temperature. Thankfully, he wasn't burning up.

Madam Pomfrey nodded to Polly when she mouthed 'thank you' to her. She then helped the werewolf sit up to eat the soup. Or was it drink the soup? Whatever.

When she brought a spoonful of soup to him he said, "Polaris?"

"Yes?" She set the bowl down.

"What are you doing?" He looked worried. This was not right. She should be hating him right now. Not feeding him soup.

Polly gave an amused scoff, "I think it's pretty obvious. I'm taking care of you."

"Why?" He pressed his lips together in a frown.

"Because you're hurt." Polly gestured to the bandages covering his body.

Remus suddenly felt self-conscious. He moved to cover his scarred body only to stiffen because of the pain from his injuries. He gave a silent cry and groaned as tears started to well up in his eyes. Polly quickly moved to comfort him. She gently caressed his hair as she shushed at his tears.

"It's okay, Remus. Everything's gonna be alright."

"No," he shook his head. It wasn't because of his pain. "No no no. I hurt you." The werewolf gave a disgruntled sigh. "I'm so so sorry."

"You didn't," Polly comforted. She noticed that Remus didn't quite believe her. "Alright, maybe you did, but-" she quickly added before he could interrupt, "-it's okay. We're both going to be okay. Right?"

When he nodded, Polly smiled brightly. She picked up the soup again that she had set down and turned to feed the boy.

After a spoonful or two Remus spoke again, "You're... you're not afraid?"

"Afraid of what?" Polly innocently shoved another spoonful of soup towards him. He gave her a look. "Of the wolf inside you?" she looked at him with a thoughtful gaze. "No," she finally decided after a few seconds.

"You have a gift, Remus." Polly sighed when he turned away from her. But she always spoke her mind. She placed a hand on his to grab his attention. "You have a gift ," she repeated, "that you treat as a curse."

Polly remembered the many times she failed to control her elemental powers. She had destroyed everything in her path. She even almost killed a person last Christmas. A Death Eater, no less, but still a person. 'Monster,' she had always thought of herself that way. But, in the long run, she learned that pushing away her powers will only make it worse.

"Once you make peace with the wolf inside you, you'll be able to cooperate as one. And one day, you'll hopefully be able to control your shift," she spoke slowly as to get the message in. Not only to Remus but also to herself.

The Gryffindor didn't give a sign that he agreed or disagreed with what she said but Polly hoped he would at least think about it. It was different from the usual 'you're not the wolf, you're not the monster' speech he would get from his friends.

After Remus finished his soup, Polly gathered up the bowl and moved to leave. But Remus' hand suddenly shot up to stop her. "What were you doing out last night? It was already pass curfew," he said curiously.

"I... needed some air."

"Right..."

"Sorry," Polly looked away from the injured boy. Her gaze stopped by the door. The Marauders were walking in, obviously tired but excited to see their friend. They only slowed down when they saw her.

"It's alright. Everybody has secrets," he smiled at her cheekily which quickly turned to pleading, "Promise to keep mine?"

"I promise," and with that he gently let go of her hand. "Thank you... Polly."

With a smile she turned to the rest of the Marauders standing a few feet back.

"Polly," James started but she only smiled and motioned to Remus. He nodded in understanding. He had to apologize for last night before he could talk to her.

When she finally faced her brother, she was enveloped in a big warm hug. "Hi Sirius."

He pulled away to look at her carefully. "You sure you're not hurt?" he asked, concerned. It was weird and different for him to act like that but it felt right. Being a brother to a sister may not be as different from being a brother to a brother.

Polly shook her head. "I better get ready for class," she said looking at the clock on the wall.

Sirius gave his goofy smile, "Yeah. You look horrible." He pulled away and crossed his arms.

"Geez, thanks bro," she replied casually. She quickly realized her mistake. Calling Sirius 'bro' seemed to startle him. Well, he had time to process it during the holidays but being acknowledged as a legitimate brother by Polaris is a different story.

"I'm sorry. I mean... Sirius..." she trailed off as she corrected herself.

"No. You can call me brother when you want. You are my little sister after all." It was very endearing but when he patted her head when he said 'little' was ever so slightly offensive. Polly knew she was small but still. She had given him a hard jab at his side when she turned to leave, earning a laugh from the other Marauders.

"See you later, Polly!" Sirius called to her with a wave.

She only rolled her eyes and quickly left to get ready for the day.

=O=

Polaris was distracted the whole day. She was dozing off most of the time. And there was this harsh twinging pain on her abdomen. 'I'm starting to regret not getting checked up by Madam Pomfrey,' she though mournfully.

She had sneaked in to their bathroom before her dorm mates woke up. But the constant nagging she got from her friends, especially Victoria, was getting on her nerves.

What was on her mind? The date. The letter. The werewolf incident. The murder of her guardian. Basically, a lot of things.

Fortunately, she didn't get caught in any of her classes. The last one she's on was History of Magic. And all the other students were dozing off as well because of their ghost Professor droning on and on and on about Goblin Rebellions, Giant Wars, and things.

As soon as the boring ghost dismissed the class, Polly grabbed her things, clutching at the mysterious letter she had received last night. She didn't know what to do, so she rushed to the only wizard that she could think of to help her, even though she couldn't bring herself to trust him.

She remembered the path to Albus Dumbledore's office from her first day. Retracing her steps, she found herself on the Gargoyle Corridor with an intimidating gargoyle staring down at her.

"Um... hi. May I pass through?" But the sapient gargoyle only stared at her. She didn't know the password. "I don't know the password but this is urgent."

After a heated staring contest between her and the large, ugly, stone gargoyle, she accepted defeat and turned away to walk back to her dorm room to rest. The sound of grinding stone brought her attention back to the gargoyle who suddenly moved to reveal a stair case leading up to the headmaster's office.

"Professor Dumbledore?" she greeted the headmaster. He gestured for her to come in. The sparkle in his eyes were slightly dimmer. This made Polly believe that he knew why she was there.

"Miss Black, how may I help you? Please take a seat."

"Sir. I need your help," she said as she sat down, straight to the point. The old wizard took off his half moon spectacles and set down the parchment he was reading before she came in.

"Would you care for a sherbet lemon?" he pushed towards her a large bowl of the sweets but Polly ignored him.

"Sir, last night, I received a letter," she then proceeded to recount what happened just before she left the Common Room. She brought forward the letter the mysterious black bird had delivered to her.

"It's from Voldemort. He wants me to..."

"Join his cause," Dumbledore nodded in understanding. "Can you tell me how he came to know of your elemental powers?" He looked at Polly with his piercing eyes. She suddenly felt dizzy. Either the exhaustion finally caught up to her or he was digging into her mind.

She quickly pushed him from her mind and prepared to block anything from entering. She quietly thanked Amelia Pitch for teaching her Occlumency to prepare her in keeping her deepest secrets.

"Very good, Miss Black," Dumbledore praised. "I'm awfully sorry for that but I had to make sure you didn't let slip of the information from your mind."

"Of course, I didn't," Polly grinded her teeth. She reminder herself to not lash out at the wizard in front of her since he might be the only one who can help her.

"Polaris, you have to realize who you are. They are calling you 'Pitch Black'. Being an elemental is rare and can easily be seen as a weapon," he paused and gave her a meaningful look. "Sp, who else knows about this?" he held out the letter.

Polly shook her head, "No one."

Dumbledore gave a soft sigh of relief. "Alright, Miss Black, you may g-"

He was cut of by Polly bringing her fist aggressively onto his table. "NO!" she growled. The flames on the torches around them rose into the air. Her breathing became ragged and uneven.

"Polaris," the wizard started softly, "breath." He hadn't flinched once. He's probably used to aggressive, hard-headed Gryffindors anyway.

Polly gave a deep sigh bringing down the flames with her. "I'm sorry," she placed her head to her hands, "it's just... No! You can't just push me away. You can't expect me to just leave it alone. To just leave it to 'you' to handle things on your own. And you should know that I don't easily trust other people. I mean, trust is obviously not in my vocabulary."

She started pacing back and forth. The old man waited patiently until she could clam herself down. Sometimes the flames would flicker violently but would always calm down with every breath.

Polly faced Dumbledore and slammed her palms onto his table once more. She had a pleading look in her eyes, "Professor... I'm scared..."

This seemed to shock Dumbledore. His brows furrowed.

"I'm scared to make a mistake," she sobbed, "I promised myself I would never join him. I'd rather die than... than join him..." she trailed off. She though about her Amelia. The Amelia Pitch. The well respected elemental who refused to join the Death Eaters. 'I'd rather die than join him...'

The poison on her lips. The bottle in her hands. The locked doors. No one would have been able to break into their house to poison Amelia. There were wards. No one could possibly even evade her, tricked her, into drinking the draft in the first place. She didn't get poisoned by the Death Eaters.

'Oh hell, she killed herself,' Polly thought in horror. She looked at Dumbledore and the look in his eyes confirmed it.

"You knew," she said. Not a question. He shook his head to agree. But she had bolted out of the office before he could console her.

Polly ran through the corridors. Into the Common Room. Then into Regulus' dorm room.

She flung herself into her brother's arms. Regulus looked at his dorm mates coldly as to get the message to leave them. When they left she started to cry.

"Polly, what's wrong?" She shook her head. "Is it Potter?" She shook her head again.

"I was wrong. I was so wrong, Reggie," she sobbed, "she killed herself. She- she-"

"What?" Regulus was confused and scared.

"My Mama killed herself." She was shaking badly. Regulus felt her legs give in. His first thought was than she was stressed out but when he moved to cradle her he saw her blouse.

"Bloody hell, Polly you're bleeding," Regulus said in a panicky voice. Blood was once again seeping through her clothes. Where Moony had roughly held her down with his sharp claws. He knew about his brother's friend and he prayed, "Oh, let it not be that deep. Polly, stay awake. Polly? Polly!!"

And everything faded out.

=O=

Author's Note

Okay... that was dark... I think... So, I'm going to move this from T to M. By the way, thank you for your reviews!! And sorry, this was late...