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Of Earth and Stars

Chapter 14: Nobody Special

November 1989

October flew through Hogwarts in a blur. The grounds were covered in frost during the early mornings, a promise of a cold winter to come. As the fall quickly passed and November began, the students at Hogwarts began to buzz with restless energy—quidditch season was finally upon them. Throughout the halls, classrooms, and library, students could be heard passionately debating the skill of their house and placing bets on who would win the house cup this year.

This time of year was torture for a girl like Mara Selwyn who had no interest in sports. Mara found herself in the library with her friends Nate Avery and Suri Rosier-Black, who were both quieter than usual.

"Guys," said Mara, rising from the table they occupied. "Are you ready to go to supper?"

"Definitely," said Nate eagerly shutting his potions textbook and shoved it into his knapsack. "Ready, Suri? I think Suri's dead."

Mara and Nate looked at Suri. Her head was down on the table, pillowed by her arms as she slept deeply.

"How long has she been like this?"

"For the past fifteen minutes." Mara sighed and shook Suri's shoulder until she opened her grey-blue eyes, bleary with exhaustion.

"Whasswrong," she slurred, sitting up.

"You drooled on your flobberworm mucus," Mara answered drily, giggling with Suri wiped the corner of her mouth.

"Oh no, I did! The ink started to run too!" Suri groaned angrily as she wiped at her essay for potions class, smearing the ink even more. "I'm going to have to re-do this!"

"This is why quidditch is dumb. You both are falling asleep during homework and I hardly see you anymore."

"Flint is making us train really late," Nate explained. "The first game is tomorrow and it's against Gryffindor. He says if it wasn't for Wood getting knocked out by a bludger last year, we never would have beat them."

"And it's Family Day," Suri added, finally coherent enough to focus. "So he's pressuring us really hard."

"Well, that means he's a good captain, but you guys are losing sleep." Mara struggled to support her friends while defending her crush.

"You guys should go without me," Suri urged, unrolling new parchment. "I need to redo this essay."

"Can't you do it tomorrow?" Nate scrunched his forehead. "You already finished the assignment, and re-writing it shouldn't take you too long."

Suri shook her head. "I need it done tonight because I won't have time tomorrow. My grandmother is coming for Family Day and to see the game. Afterward she wants to spend time with me. Save me a sandwich and some chips, will you?"

"Suri…"

"I'm fine, guys, really." She waved her friends away before she picked up her quill. "Go get dinner. I'll see you both later."

Mara and Nate shared a concerned look before they finally left. When they glanced back at her, Suri already had her head bent over her work, copying down her essay onto fresh parchment.

The whole process took twenty minutes because Suri made her writing was legible, and the exact foot-long length that Snape wanted. When she finally put down her quill, Suri leaned back in her chair, rubbing the soreness out of her hand while she re-read her work.

Waiting for the ink to dry, she decided to take a lap around the library to stretch her legs. Her wandering walk led her to the archives section of the library. She walked the length of the floor-to-ceiling shelves and stopped at the yearbooks from the nineteen-seventies era of Hogwarts. Suri reached up, using her toes for extra leverage, and pulled down a skinny mahogany colored book with. She ran her hand over the golden Hogwarts seal pressed into the book. In beautiful calligraphy, "1972" was also pressed in gold across the front.

Sitting on the ground, Suri propped the yearbook on her legs and skimmed the pages. The black and white faces of a several hundred students, semi-frozen in time blurred by until she stopped in the Gryffindor's second year section. Young Sirius Black with shaggy hair and unfathomable eyes stared up at her with a cheeky grin. Suri touched the side of her face; the softness of his cheeks reminded her of her own.

The image of Sirius Black said something to her, but with all the photos, the pages were charmed to be soundless. Suri raised an eyebrow, and the childhood image of her father said something again, his lips exaggerating as if he was speaking loudly and slowly.

"Er, sorry, I don't understand," Suri responded, her heart pounding.

It appeared that Sirius could hear her. With an exaggerated sigh—his dramatics made Suri smile—he ran from his position in the yearbook and passed through several photos, earning dirty looks from his irritated peers.

With shaking fingers, Suri hurriedly turned the pages to keep up with him. Eventually he stopped in the Slytherin section, under the name "Contessa Rosier".

At Contessa's, Tessa's, picture, Suri admired her mum at his age. From her grandmother's memory she saw earlier that summer, Tessa looked almost exactly the same. Suri knew, that if Tessa at the age she was in this yearbook stood beside her, she and Suri would be nearly the same height but still a bit taller.

Tessa smiled up at Suri, and her smile was open and inviting, that was until she realized Sirius was in the photo with her. When she saw him, her expression changed to one that conveyed a challenge. Sirius looked up at Suri, as though looking for his audience, before he wrapped his arms around Tessa and kissed her enthusiastically on the cheek. Tessa reacted with a soundless screech and pushed him away, making the boy throw his head back with laughter.

In spite of herself, Suri found herself giggling. She wondered if these photos of Tessa and Sirius knew who she was.

"Do you have any idea who I am," she asked the photos.

Young Sirius and Tessa looked at each other before they looked back at her. It was Tessa who responded first, she cocked her head to the side and shook it. No.

"T-that's okay," Suri murmured, feeling her throat tighten. "I'm nobody special."

Tessa smiled up at her, her eyes searching. She shook her head again and said something. Suri wished she knew what the photos were saying. With a frown, Tessa turned to Sirius and pushed his shoulder. The photo tugged at her own hair then pointed at Sirius's hair before she pointed up at Tessa. Sirius frowned slightly and looked up at her, almost thoughtfully before saying something to Tessa.

Suri jumped when Sirius and Tessa looked at her again, as if trying to figure out a puzzle. Suddenly overwhelmed, Suri slammed the yearbook shut and put it back on the shelf. She took a shuddering breath and another until her breathing was calm again. Once certain that she wasn't going to cry, Suri left the archive section.

Gathering her belongings she left the library. She turned the corner at the same time a pair of twin figures did.

"Pardon me," Suri murmured, moving around the twins. Instead of dodging them, she was blocked by one. She narrowed her eyes. "Can I help you?"

"We played together when we were little," said one of the twins. "Of course George and I don't remember that, but Charlie reminded us."

"Charlie…"

"Charlie Weasley, our eldest brother," George supplied. He lifted an arm as if giving Charlie's height measurement. "You know him. Fifth year, quidditch captain."

"I guess," Suri shrugged. "Well, yes, we played together once or twice."

"Charlie told us," Fred repeated.

"Right, well, I'm glad that you remember. If there's nothing else I'm going to go now."

"Not so fast, Rosie." The Weasley twins held out their arms, blocking her path.

"What did you call me?" Suri's voice raised a pitch.

"Rosie," George repeated. "Rosier-Black is such a long name, and Rosie suits you much better."

"Or you could call me Suri…"

"Anyway, Rosie," Fred continued, "we've heard a little about you. Something about making a girl from our house go to another school because you got into a fight with her."

"I didn't make Jessica Yates do anything. It was her choice," Suri groaned. She was tired of explaining the situation to people.

"That doesn't matter so much. Percy said she was annoying anyway," said Fred.

"Percy..."

"Our other brother. He's a third year."

"Oh, like Oliver."

"You know Oliver, but you don't know Charlie or Percy?" George looked surprised.

"I haven't talked to either one of them. I don't talk to many Gryffindors unless it's necessary."

"You're right, Rosie. And we don't like Slytherin."

"Slytherin doesn't like you." Suri rolled her eyes, feeling a headache coming on with these two.

"That's okay. But we might like you."

Suri regarded the boys warily. "You like me. Why?"

"Because Charlie reminded us of what your mum did," George's brown eyes were bright when he smiled at her.

"Apparently your mum would come over to our house to check on the charms she and her friends put up to help protect our family when You-Know-Who was around. And when your mum and our mum talked about the important things, we shoved biscuits into our mouths and annoyed Percy."

"Ron must have been born by then," George interjected.

"How would I know? Even if he was, he was a dumb baby at the time."

"I'm just saying, we probably bothered him instead of Percy."

"You're right, Georgie, absolutely right. That is an important detail."

Suri looked from Fred to George and shoved her way past them. "You both are carrying on a really interesting conversation, and I don't think you need me. I'm going."

Suri had managed to break away from the tornado that was the Weasley twins when she heard them call after her.

"Wait, Rosie!"

She turned. "What now?"

George—or maybe it was Fred, though she was pretty sure it was George—smiled at her while Fred nodded his agreement. "Thank you, Rosie."

"For what?"

"For what your mum did. Your mum helped to protect our mum."

"Oh, well, that was Tessa Rosier, not me."

"Sure, but we can't thank her, so we're thanking you. Mum would want us to. I'm sure if she knew we didn't, we would get a howler the next day."

"In that case," Suri smiled kindly at the boys. "From Tessa Rosier and from me, you're welcome."

"One more thing."

"Yes?"

Fred looked at his brother who gave him a nod. Their smiles became wickedly mischievous. "Good luck on the game tomorrow, Rosie. We hope you lose."

***End of Second Year timeline***

Author's Note:

Hey friendly faces! Thanks so much for reading this story. I am honestly so excited to write it. With that being said. The next few chapters will have a lot of quidditch, so bare with me. I promise it's for a purpose! That doesn't mean STOP READING, because if you do, you'll miss story plots along the way. Unless you want to miss them, then that's up to you.

Your reviews are love!

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