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Chapter 16. The revenge of the star

It had been almost a month since I had come home from Hogwarts. Time had just run away without me even having the time to notice it. The only thing that helped me understand that it was a new day every morning when I got up to have my breakfast was the fact that a letter appeared on the table. Every. Single. Day. I did not know why mum still put it there; she could just throw it in the trashcan right away like I had done myself the first day. We had had the conversation many times, what if Rachel and Henry spotted the owls when they left it at the doorstep? It was a problem, I admit that, but mum's endless tries to force me to give him at least an answer that said I did not want anything to do with him anymore was not tiring in my ears. Not at all. I knew that I would hurt myself if I told him to forget me because deep inside, even how much I truly hated him, I still loved him too. I knew that now, and I had accepted it, but he was no longer the only one who had my heart. For every day that past, every morning when I got reminded by that stupid letter, my feelings for another person grew only stronger and stronger. A person who had never let me down, never been mean or told me I did not understand. Even though I in times did not have a single clue about what he said or did.

It was afternoon when I knocked at the door. I could hear Mrs Ross' steps on the inside until she opened the door silently.

"Hi Izabel! Come in", she said and gave me a welcoming smile as I stepped in through the door. " Joshua's in his room, I bet he's still sleeping. Go up there and jump on him and force him to get out of bed!"

I chuckled and walked towards the stairs. "I'll try to do my best!"

Mrs Ross, or Juanita as she insisted on being called, was Josh's mother. She was Spanish, and probably the main reason for Josh's exotic handsomeness. William Ross, Josh's father, was a Scottish man who during a trip to London in his younger days met a beautiful Spanish woman and decided to leave Scotland behind to share his future with her, and it all resulted in Josh and his two younger twin sisters, Maria and Laura. I knew this story very well now, though Juanita always wanted to invite me to dinner with her family where she always ended up proudly telling me a story about her wonderful family and how lucky she was. Josh thought she was embarrassing but I could not help myself from loving the way the painted up pictures before me of the perfect life. A life I had had too once. That was the second reason for why I always stayed and wanted her to tell more, because it was a chance for me to feel like I also had something similar.

When I had entered the second floor I walked passed the two first doors and stopped and the third out of four. I did not knock or anything, but just opened the door and stepped in and looked around. No one was there, but at the sight of the messy bed I figured he had just got out of it. I took a step forward and then suddenly heard the door that belonged to the room next to me open. In the next second I twirled around and stood face to face with Josh himself, who was only wearing boxers and holding a towel in his hand. I forced my eyes to focus on his face, but they stubbornly insisted on try peek down at his… Muscular… Torso.

"Hi Izzie", he greeted me with a low voice as he closed the door behind himself.

"I… Er… Hi! Should I step outside…?" I just wanted to slap myself in the face, this was just so awkward, but at the same time I could not lie and say that I did not like what I saw.

"No, it's okay, but if you bother you can wait outside", he said and walked passed me. I could not do anything else than turn around in his direction as my eyes got stuck on him. I tried to focus on the small water drops that still lingered on his shoulders, just to make the impression of not staring right at him, but the truth is it only made me stare even more. He put on a pair of jeans before he made a final ruffle with the towel in his hair and then picked up a dark green t-shirt to wear.

"So…", he began and pulled the shirt over his head. "You ready to go to one of the best places in the world in my opinion?"

"I guess…", I said and he raised one eyebrow at me. "Sorry, I got distracted; I don't know what I'm talking about. Of course I am ready!"

He came up to me and chuckled. "That's what I thought, let's go."

We walked downstairs and were on our way out when Juanita caught us.

"Ah, so you got him out of bed, Izabel? Well done! Come and eat something before you leave", she said and showed us two sauce pans which were both filled up to the edge with food.

"Mum…", Josh complained and I laughed.

"We'll come back later to take a bite, Josh's been going on for weeks about a place he wants to show me so we better go there first", I said and she smiled at us.

"Well, you're a lovely girl Izabel, and he must like you very much though he has never shown whatever place it is to his mother or any other girl!", she said and left the food at the stove and came up to us. "Take care of her now, Joshua. Don't let the monsters take her, girls like this doesn't grow on trees!"

"Okay mum, we've got the message", he said and put his arm around me and steered me out through the door. "Bye, see you later!"

He rushed from the house dragging me with him out to the street outside where he slowed down to walking again.

"You shouldn't be so harsh against your mother, she's lovely", I said and glanced up at him.

"You think? I think she's just embarrassing", he said and I laughed. "If we had stayed for another minute she would've tried to make me propose to you."

"Then I would at least get a wonderful mother in law!"

"Yeah, sure." He seemed to be a bit moody which I thought was a bit juvenile.

"Hey, grumpy", I said and flipped his nose lightly so that he would look back at me. "Light up or I'll throw you into the nearest bush."

"You're not strong enough", he said, still sullen, but I could se the corners of his mouth twitch slightly.

"I haven't shown you my superpowers yet so don't you dare judge me!", I said with played anger.

"You said before that you didn't believe in such things!" Now he was smiling again. Score!

"Guess someone had bad influence on me." We smiled at each other and continued walking in silence at a road that had a small forest on the left side. After a while I began to wonder where this place actually was.

"Is it far?" It felt like we had been walking for a really long time now.

"Nah, maybe we're halfway now"

"Then why didn't we take the bike?"

"Because it needs to be dark to get the full effect of it", he said and left my mind wondering even more where we were going but when I suddenly felt a hand on my shoulder and glanced down to se both Josh's was hanging down along his body, I froze. I turned and swallowed the scream that had been built up inside me when I saw a person dressed in a black cloak with a hood that covered the face in darkness. This reminded me so much of the evening when Sirius and I had met Mr Lestrange, and what if this too was a Death Eater? Sirius was not here to protect me, I had lost my powers and Josh was a muggle. A muggle. Oh, my god! I had to protect him! I put myself in front of him, and as a reflex, I searched for my wand in my pocket. But I had no wand.

"Calm down Izzie, it's Halloween remember?", Josh said and stroked my shoulders soothingly, but calm down was the last thing I was planning on doing right now. I jumped high when I heard a branch or something crack in the forest beside to us. The next second the stranger in the cloak turned and walked back the same way that we all had come from. I relaxed a bit and turned around again.

"Come on", Josh said and took my hand, and even though I knew he could be more vulnerable than me, it felt very comforting. "Maybe he had got lost on his way somewhere and only wanted to ask for the way, but you fierce woman scared him away!"

I laughed at his joke half-heartedly, but could not stop wondering if it had been a Death Eater.

When the forest ended it was already dark and we walked around the edge of it and found a small hill which the forest had formed itself around. Josh led me to the top where we finally stopped. I looked around us, it was quite an impressive sight but still…

"It's beautiful, but wouldn't it be even better during sunset?"

"No, come sit down and I'll show you the best part", he said and sat down at the grass. I followed his example, a bit curious.

"Okay, I'm ready."

"Look up."

I did as he told me and turned my head up to the sky, and found the most beautiful sight I had ever seen. The sky was the darkest possible blue I could ever imagine, and there were stars everywhere that lit up and glimmered. The only thing missing was the moon. I sighed.

"Do you like it?", Josh asked and I could see him smiling at me, even though I refused to look at anything else than the sky above.

"I love it, this is so beautiful."

"I thought you would like it, do you have any favourite stars or constellation?", he asked and I looked around, trying to find the best one.

"Isn't there a lion somewhere? I bet that's the coolest", I said and let my fingers build claws, in a try to portrait a lion.

Josh laughed before he spoke. "I think there is, but don't know where. I only know the easiest."

"Which one is your favourite then?", I asked and finally broke my eye contact with the world above.

"The dog star, Sirius. It's the brightest star in the whole sky."

I snorted. "I hate that one."

"Why?" Josh seemed to think my sudden hate for a star was a bit amusing. "What has poor Sirius ever done to you that make you hate him so much?"

"You don't even wanna know", I muttered under my breath. I was not sure he had heard what I said, but Josh still began to laugh.

"Ah, Izzie, you're hurting Sirius' feelings", he said after calming down.

"Well, I don't know much about stars, but I do know that this one definitely has no feelings, so there's nothing to hurt really." I glanced at him and saw that he looked straight back at me and I quickly turned to look the other way.

"I'm glad I'm not Sirius because I wouldn't stand having you hate me like that."

"You're nothing like him", I said and forced myself to meet his eyes again. "He's the show-off, knows way to well that he's the brightest one of them all, and when something, or someone, doesn't suit him anymore, he leaves them behind. You're his opposite. Warm and kind, and most of all, even though you may be almost as bright as him, you simply don't care about it and that's why I won't hate you. Ever."

"Sounds almost as if you're talking about a person", he murmured.

"You said he had feelings, so well, maybe he is", I answered and shrugged. After that we were both silent for a while, as was the rest of the environment around us. I could feel Josh taking my hand and holding it in his own.

"Hey, Iz", he said and I glanced up at him. "I don't know what you think of me, and you can punch me hard if you want to, but I just have to try this once."

I had no clue what he was talking about before he leaned down towards me and kissed me. Even though I had not kissed many guys in my life, I could tell he was good. Much too good to end it as soon as he did. He leaned back and searched for any reaction, good or bad, in my face. I smiled at him and he lit up. But he had not done justice, ending it so quickly; so I decided to move closer to him to finish what he had started. My lips searched for his, and when they found them I put my hand on his cheek and let it wander back to his neck as Josh wrapped his arms around me.

I did not know for how long we had been just sitting there together, kissing, but a sudden crack from the forest, similar to the one I had heard before, forced us apart. I searched around behind us, where I thought the sound had came from but found nothing.

"Izzie, look", Josh suddenly said and I looked forward and saw something big and dark coming out between the trees. It was an animal for sure, and first I thought it was a wolf but then I realized it was just a dog.

"Oh, hi there", I greeted it and held out my hand, and it gave Josh a suspicious glance before it came up and sniffed at my fingers. It was quite big with long, shiny, black fur. Its eyes were light, almost grey, but I had seen other dogs with that eye colour before so it did not scare me.

"Maybe he has come to scold at you for being rude to his star", Josh joked and I chuckled, but the dog showed his teeth at him. "Oh, my god, did you see that?"

"Yeah", I said and prepared to get up. "Maybe we should leave it alone."

We rose from the ground and started to slowly walk down the hill, but the dog followed us and puffed my hand with his wet nose.

I turned at looked at it. "Hey, doggie, maybe you should go home. Do you have a home?"

It just looked back at me and waved its tail two times. "Okay, we'll take that as a yes. Run home, buddy!", Josh said and took my hand, but just as before when he had spoke the dog showed its teeth again and this time even a small growl could be heard. He did not stop this time, and the growl just got louder and louder.

"Let's go", I said and we began to walk. This time it did not sound as if the dog followed us, but then suddenly it came running towards us and took a grip of Josh's free hand.

"OH, FUCK!", he shouted out and began to try to push the dog away.

"No, stop it! You'll loose your whole hand if you do that!", I said and gripped his arm to hold it still. "Stay there!"

I searched for something to distract the dog and found a small rock.

"Stop hurting him!", I yelled and throw the rock at it. It hit at the middle of the body and it let out a whimper before releasing Josh's hand.

"Shoo! Away with you!", I shouted and it actually obeyed me. It gave me a final, quick glance before if spun around and galloped into the forest. I had never been much of a dog person, but there was some strange connection that I felt to this one that I could not entirely understand. Not understand at all actually. But I could not take the time to think about that. I hurried over to Josh to look at his hand. There were only a few small holes from the teeth and it was not bleeding so much. He had been very lucky.

"Is anything broken?", I asked and turned it cautiously from side to side.

"No, I'm fine. Let's head back", he said and took my hand in his other and we began to walk home.

When we came in through the door Josh's mother had a chock. I had noticed she began to speak Spanish and English when she was angry or worried, but I thought that was quite normal to people who knew more than only one language.

"Un perro? We have to get you to the hospital immediately, you may have got tetanus!"

Luckily his father was home by now and helped to calm his wife down. During the time he did that, I was cleaning the wounds and put a small bandage around Josh's hand.

"Thank you", he said and I gave him a peck on his mouth, but he put his arms around me, making my innocent peck turn into a deep kiss. Problem was, we were standing in the bathroom and the door was open.

"Josh! What if your parents see us!", I said between the kisses and giggles.

"They won't mind", he reassured me, but I did not know if I believed him or not, and at the moment, I did not really care either.

When I had finally got home and was lying in my own bed I felt so happy, maybe because I now knew that I was in love with someone who loved me back. That had never happened to me before. And then my thoughts wandered to that strange dog again. I had a strong urge to meet it again, yet I could not understand why. Even though it was beautiful, it was still just a dog. I fantasized on having him as a pet, and yes, I actually thought it was a he. He looked a bit majestic, which I imagined only a male dog could do. And the name was already set for him. He was the sweet and kind version of Sirius, the version that I would like to be mine for all eternity. Too bad though that dogs lived short lives compared to humans, but still, then I would be glad over the little but valuable time we got together. Because after all, that was what really mattered. Before I fell asleep I promised myself that I would find my Sirius, and that the search would start tomorrow.