Disclaimer: Anything that rings a bell belongs to J.K Rowling

Chapter Thirty Five: The Brightest Star in the Galaxy

James swore as he spotted the familiar red head on the pitch as he landed, the calmness he achieved with the fly immediately leaving his body.

He didn't blame Lily, how would she know the dead wizard she was referencing meant something to him, but it did remind him just how much of Alexandre dying was his fault. He, and his father, asked them to stay home to prevent such a thing from happening, and James hadn't listened and now Alex is dead.

"Oh." Azura brushed a bit of her hair out of her face self-consciously, "Hello. I, I didn't expect to see you so soon."

James narrowed his eyes, just noticing that she had not been hanging about waiting for him, she looked like she had been jogging. He watched as she fidgeted with her baggy shirt, and straightened to her full height, her fake bright blue hues wet with tears.

"You okay?" James knew he really shouldn't care, this girl was blackmailing him after all, but, you can't just ignore it when you see a person crying, can you?

She waved her hand in dismissal, "Nothing a little bit of mascara won't fix! Sorry I look so gross!"

James shook his head at that, wondering why he thought he'd get an honest answer from the girl. He turned on his heel and headed for the changing rooms.

"No." The girl muttered, and he glanced behind him, catching her biting her bottom lip in discomfort, "No, I'm not okay. It's my mother's death anniversary. So today is always…horrible." She laughed hollowly.

"I'm sorry, Azura." James really meant that. He didn't know much about his 'girlfriend', but he did know that she was an orphan and spent most of her holidays at Hogwarts.

She gave a weak smile in gratitude, "I barely knew her of course, she died when I was two. How do you miss someone you don't even know?"

"Well, you did know her. You just can't remember it."

She hugged herself at James' comment, glancing up at the darkening sky, "You're right. Maybe my body remembers how her hugs made me feel."

James nodded, "Yeah, there's just something about mum hugs." He regretted saying it, thinking the girl probably thought he was rubbing in the fact that he had a mum, and she didn't. "How was your Easter break?" He hastened to change the subject, and she looked quite whiplashed at that, and a little hurt. Perhaps that wasn't the right thing to do, maybe she wanted to speak a bit more about her mother?

Too bad he couldn't have inherited his father's knack for things like this as well as his invisibility cloak.

"Quiet, most people went home. Cassie wrote me lots at least."

James' eyes fell to the ground, knowing he hadn't responded to any of her letters. "I was meaning to ask, does Cassie know all this is fake?"

"No, I promised I'd keep it between us." Azura stated, a tad affronted.

"Oh, I didn't mean it like that, I just wondered why she was so cool with us dating, since she's my ex?"

"Ahhh." Azura smiled, "Well she was a bit annoyed at the start but she's too loved up with Fabian to care much about that."

"Of course." James nodded, and her blue eyes grew sharp.

"Do you still like her?"

"Cassie? Oh, no." James answered quickly and reassuringly, not sure why since he wasn't actually dating Azura.

The girl looked less sad, "How was your vacation?"

James took a deep breath at that, actually considering it. "Eventful." Is what he finally settled on. The girl looked disappointed at his evasive answer, and he remembered just what today was for her, "We took a family trip to France."

"Your whole family?" James' brows furrowed at that, what an odd way to phrase that seeing as he didn't really have a big family.

"Yeah my mum and dad. And Sirius and Remus."

She smiled at that, nodding knowingly, "You're lucky your parents let you bring them along with you wherever you go."

James nodded, he knew that he was, "Don't you visit Cassie during the break?"

"I used to but it got a bit complicated after Richard and I broke up, so holidays are avoided. Note to self, don't date your best friend's brother."

"I don't really think I'm Regulus' type." James joked and Azura laughed. "Do you want to walk up to the castle? Shower pressure's pretty shit in the locker room."

Her smile widened and she nodded, falling in step with James quickly. He glanced about the quiet grounds, he could see Hagrid in the distance, and he waved at him, and the large man waved back.

"So…who do you live with, if you don't mind me asking?"

"I live in an orphanage."

"Ah." James said stupidly, why didn't he know that. "Do you…erm…is it…erm…"

She laughed, "We don't have to talk about that Jamie, you're kind for asking."

He bit his lip as they fell into an uncomfortable silence after that.

"You live in Devon, right?"

"Yeah. Not too far from the sea."

"Do you think your mum picked the house, or your dad?" It was such an odd question that James looked at Azura, but her eyes were on the castle that they were nearing.

"Neither. My dad inherited it."

"Oh!" She said, turning to him, "Of course. I forgot that he must have. So that's like your ancestral home?"

"Technically, no." James didn't love talking about this, being raised not to talk about money or possessions, "Our ancestral home would be in Godric's Hollow. It's a tiny little place, but nobody's lived there for ages. But, family legend has it that the first Potter's came from there. We moved to Devon three hundred years ago I think."

"So your place in Godric's Hollow is older than that? Your family was there more than three hundred years ago!"

James knew that his family could actually trace their lineage back to the thirteenth century but for some reason he didn't want to say that to Azura right now.

"A lot of wizarding families are that old." He muttered, knowing that not many actually were, "How is it being a witch in a muggle orphanage?"

She shrugged, "I don't think the muggles have it that much better. At least I can go away for school, most of them just go to the state school down the street. And I only really have to go back a few weeks in the summer, and I'll be done with school in a few weeks."

"Oh, yeah! What are you going to do after school?"

She took a deep breath, pushing a strand of hair behind her ear, "I'm not sure. I've never really been one of those people who had their life figured out in that way. I should probably have a proper think about it."

James raised a brow, she was eight weeks away from exams, she ought to have thought about it ages ago, his parents had been giving him career advice since he started at Hogwarts.

Ah…

Parents.

"You should talk to McGonagall again if you're confused, she's pretty good at this sort of thing."

They had just reached the Entrance Hall and begun ascending the stairs to Gryffindor tower.

"Oh old Minerva is done with me. She's not my biggest fan."

"Hmmm, not that surprised to hear that, all things considered. I mean, she's practically done with me too."

Azura laughed, and it echoed across the third floor, "She'd never actually be done with you. You're a Potter."

"What does that matter?" James couldn't help the defensive note in his voice.

She shook her head, looking like she was stopping herself from saying something.

"What?"

"I guess because you're on the inside, you don't see it, but you matter more than I do. To McGonagall, you're not James Potter. You're the child of people she's taught before, maybe even went to school with. And she's fair, but she's human. Obviously she's going care more about someone she knows for decades, than just a matter of years."

"I think she cares about all of her students."

"I didn't say she didn't. I said she just cares more for some."

"If you think old Minnie has a soft spot for me just because I'm a Potter, you clearly haven't seen my last hundred detention slips."

She gave a tight smile, "And how many people do you know that have had a hundred chances? Other than Sirius."

James sighed, he actually preferred talking about her dead mother than this.

"Oh ignore me!" Azura laughed, rolling her eyes, "Jeez, I must be tired if I'm going all Lily Evans on you." They reached the common room, and James headed towards his staircase. "Oh! Actually, wait here just a minute, please!"

The tall girl dashed for the girl's staircase and James looked awkwardly around the common room, conflicted about heeding her instructions. There were only a few people hanging about, and he did tell himself that he would break up with her when he first saw her and that he'd try and convince her by some other means to keep his secret about knowing Jude. But, he couldn't dump her on her mother's death anniversary of all days.

Azura re-emerged, a familiar looking black bottle in her hand. She held it out to James, and he took it, his brows high on his forehead. It was a bottle of Twilfit's Shampoo, James' favourite that had been discontinued last year, "Happy belated birthday. I know this was your favourite and they stopped making it, and I managed to find one of their last bottles."

James was seriously impressed, "My mother looked for weeks and she had no such luck. Thanks, Azura!"

James caught a group of third years staring at them near the fireplace, so Azura made a point to reach up and kiss him on the cheek, "My pleasure, Jamie."

He thanked her again for the shampoo and bade her goodbye. There wasn't any harm in waiting a few more days to break up with her, and he could probably brainstorm ideas of doing so with little repercussions with his friends in the mean time.

He shrugged off his clothes quickly when he got into his dorm and climbed into the shower, excited about breaking in his birthday gift, satisfied with the pleasant familiar scent that filled his nostrils as he lathered his hair.

He left the bathroom to find Peter crawling about the room, looking for something.

"What's up, Wormy?" He raised a brow as the boy jumped to his feet as if he was caught doing something wrong, "You alright?"

He nodded profusely, "I was just…er…Jude's in the hospital wing!"

"What!" James snapped, he had been leisurely changing after the relaxing shower but now his every muscle was taut, "What! How, what happened?"

"She fell from the carriage, I think she hurt her shoulder." James barely heard what the boy said, now throwing his clothes on in haste. He ran down the stairs, but stopped, just catching sight of Azura who was curled up by the fire, a book in her hands, her wet strands drying from the heat.

He never noticed just how pretty she was.

She had very striking features, sharp eyes, straight nose and full lips.

"James?" She looked up at him, slightly confused, "Are you okay?"

"Do you want to have dinner together, tonight?"

Her brows rose, "Sure! Is now good for you?"

He nodded, and she shot out of the chair, "I better go get ready." She quickly pecked him on the cheek and his heart lifted at the intoxicating smell that was her. She made to step away, and he grabbed her, suddenly feeling an immense heat wash over him, desperate to have her lips on his again and pulled her in for a kiss.

"Get a room." There was a loud gasp that followed the words, and Azura pulled away from him and James looked away from her, annoyed by the interruption. He caught Jude staring at him at the entrance to the common room, with Lily and Sirius.

"Godric! Jude! Jude you just spoke!"

"Oh. Yeah, I do that now." Jude turned to Lily, a wide smile on her face.

Azura rolled her eyes, unbothered by this update, "I'm going to go get ready. See you in a bit, Jamie."

He kisssed Azura again, feeling almost faint as she parted from him and watched in appreciation as she walked up to her dorm. He turned to the entrance, and he chuckled at the gross expression on Jude's face at his actions. It was probably their most traditional brother-sister moment yet.

"Oh shit, your shoulder? Are you alright?" James had completely forgotten about Jude, being distracted by his girlfriend.

"All patched up." The girl looked confused, and he wasn't convinced that she was okay. He looked to Sirius, who also sported a confunded expression.

"Pomfrey says she's okay but would like her to be observed for the night."

"Oh, that doesn't sound good." James looked down at Jude's shoulder, inspecting it for himself.

"No! I'm alright. Pomfrey's just paranoid." Jude had been casting anxious glances at Lily, who had been staring pointedly into the fireplace now as if she wasn't really in the conversation anymore.

"Well…" James glanced around, aware that he couldn't actually voice his worry aloud or it would be odd. Afterall, why would he of all people be so concerned about a classmate he barely knew.

"I took her to the hospital wing, so I told Pomfrey I'll keep an eye out for her." James smiled, grateful that his friend had a plan.

"We can check on Jude, it makes sense afterall, we're her roommates." Lily suddenly turned back to them, all flaming hair and defiance.

"Well, I did tell Pomfrey that I'd do it." Padfoot's voice was equal parts annoyed and unbending.

"And since when did you care about breaking promises to teachers?"

"She's not a teacher, she's a nurse, it's completely different."

Lily rolled her eyes, "I doubt Jude wants to spend a night with you Black. Don't you have some girl to go and torture."

Sirius' face went pink at that and James cocked a brow as he caught his friend glance at Jude, who was still staring at James curiously.

Just then Azura re-entered, her hair in beautiful curls, she had fixed herself up in record time, and James appreciated how the green dress she wore fit her. "You look gorgeous."

"Thank you. Shall we?"

"Sure." He nodded, taking her hand and walking to the exit.

"Mate?" Sirius called, "What are you doing?"

"Having dinner with my girlfriend." James laughed, what a bizarre question from Sirius.

"Erm, actually, could I have a quick word with you Potter."

"Can it wait?" He asked Lily, whose green eyes widened in surprise, "Or you could talk now, I don't mind Azura overhearing."

"Erm…well, about what I said earlier. Black just told me about your dad's friend in France. James…I'm so sorry."

James took an involuntary step towards her as her face crumpled in sympathy, but then he stopped himself. What was he going to do? He shook his head, suddenly feeling very confused.

"James?" Azura whispered, "We should go."

"Yes." He nodded at her, turning away from Lily, "It's okay. Oh," He turned to Jude, "Are you sure you're alright?"

She narrowed her eyes, "Yes…are you?"

"This is the best I felt all week." James smiled, pulling Azura to him, and giving her a quick peck on the cheek and holding her hands all the way down to dinner.

-x-x-x-

James had barely shut the portrait when Sirius turned to Lily, "That was weird, right?"

Lily didn't respond, her hands folded about herself, her face slightly pale.

"Evans?"

"What? Oh, I don't know. I suppose not, they are dating."

Sirius grumbled, he couldn't actually tell Evans that Azura was blackmailing his friend into dating her, especially in front of Jude. James didn't want his sister to know he was making that kind of sacrifice for her, he knew she wouldn't agree with it.

"Something's off." Jude had still been staring at the closed portrait.

Lily frowned at Jude's words, "What do you mean?"

"I think she's just hungry." Sirius cut in, not wanting Jude to let anything slip. Mr Potter had been clear about keeping Jude's relationship to them a secret. "Dinner?"

Jude nodded her head slowly, whilst Evans narrowed her eyes at Sirius.

He sighed, and Jude turned to Lily, "Will you join us?"

"Of course." The redhead smiled, giving Sirius a brief annoyed look out of habit, and swiftly moved towards the portrait hole, and Sirius couldn't help feeling a bit annoyed in return, he liked the idea of having dinner with just Jude for once.

They entered the Great Hall, catching Azura and James sat practically attached at the hip at one corner of the table, and Jude made a beeline for them.

"Woah, woah, woah." As odd as it was that James suddenly took an interest in his fake girlfriend, Sirius wasn't going to have the apparent love of his life, Lily Evans, sit with them, "Pixie's down here, let's join her."

He didn't wait for the girl to listen, and tugged her by the hand over to Mary, who had been waving at them ever since they entered the Great Hall.

Sirius jumped into the seat across from Mary, but Jude crossed over, sliding in next to the girl. He frowned, wondering why she had created such distance between them, but realised it was better to stare at James from that position, which is what she immediately started doing.

"So, did you meet her?"

Sirius glanced at Mary, who had been sipping on some pumpkin soup, "What?"

"Your French friend?" She wiggled her eyebrows at him and Sirius smirked, but hated the topic they were circling on.

"You're going to have to be more specific, Pixie?"

"Ugh. You're the worst." Evans groaned, biting into some chicken.

"You have something against making friends, Evans."

"Just the way you do it." She bit out, glancing at Jude, "How's your shoulder?"

Jude finally tore her eyes away from James and Azura, "Right as rain."

Mary spat out her pumpkin soup, gobs of it hitting Sirius in the face. He blinked, more surprised than disgusted and the short girl turned to him, mortified, "Oh my Godric! Oh, oh, oh! I am so, so, so, so sorry! Oh my Godric. Erm, erm." She made to siphon the soup off Sirius, but her hands were shaking so much Sirius dodged the spell, not willing to take a chance with his face on the line.

"That's alright, Pixie." He wiped his face with a napkin, glancing at the group of fifth year girls who had been laughing at Mary and they immediately fell silent, changing their guffaws for more flattering expressions.

"I…that was really hot. Godric I'm such a klutz. I was just so surprised to hear…you talk?" Mary gawked at the girl sat next to her, and Sirius frowned, didn't Jude leave the train with her dormmates earlier, how were they all only finding out now that she spoke?

"So was I!" Lily then turned to Sirius, "Why weren't you? Nor was Potter, now that I think of it."

"What's that saying about little things amusing little minds." Sirius smirked at Evans and she rolled her eyes at him, turning back to Jude.

"So, how do you feel about next term?" Sirius hid his smirk, Evans was quick about making up for lost time. She'd make sure Jude was one of her best friends by the summer.

"Excited, spells are going to be much better now that I can do them verbally." Jude laughed, a soft charming tinkle that floated over to Sirius and turned his smirk into a smile.

"Well considering we're about to start non-verbal spells, that's bad timing on your part." Mary laughed, eagerly looking at Sirius for a response, but he raised a brow, finding the joke in poor taste.

"You're right Pixie, I should have scheduled it better." Jude smiled warmly at Mary. The other girl looked visibly put out by the use of her nickname and Sirius frowned, not completely sure why the usually friendly girl was acting so weird.

"Well, you're more than welcome to join the Charms club now." Evans added with a large smile, "We meet every Wednesday! Oh and we do a social once every fortnight on a Sunday, I brought a few muggle boardgames with me from home - I'm going to introduce everyone to Monopoly this week!"

"The girl's just found her voice, are you really going to force her to use it to tell you what a terrible idea that is."

Evans glared at Sirius, but Jude leaned forward, "That sounds like fun, I don't know what a boring game is but Monopoly sounds nice."

"Not boring games, board games. Like a piece of cardboard that you play games on. Or does that need an explanation as well." Mary rolled her eyes in exasperation at Jude, and Sirius surprisingly exchanged a confused look with Evans at the girl's unkindness.

"Anyway…even if you don't join the Charms club, I can help catch you up with any spells you might need reworking now that you're, you know, talking!" Evans smiled encouragingly.

"Thanks Lily, that's so nice of you!"

"I can do the same with Transfiguration." Sirius chipped in, and he ignored the curious green eyes that was stuck on him, "I am the best in the year, afterall."

"You are not!" The redhead turned to Sirius, scandalised, "I beat you by ten percent last year!"

"Who cares about grades. I'm talking about actual skill."

"Fine, I'm better at you in that too!"

"Oh I doubt that very much." Sirius chuckled, knowing that there's no way Evans could outdo him when he had to master their practical syllabus to even attempt training as an animagus, which was the hardest transfiguration spell one could master.

"Fancy putting your money where your mouth is?" Sirius smirked at the glinting green orbs.

"Oh I'd much prefer better things at my mouth."

Evans rolled her eyes, "Like a muzzle."

Sirius laughed so loudly the fifth years next to them jumped, and he glanced around, sad that nobody could fully appreciate the humour of that joke.

He realised that Jude had a concerned look on her face, clearly not used to Sirius and Lily's frosty banter, and he smiled, "Of course, it's completely up to Judalia who she wishes to educate her about the finer things in life."

"If she did, she definitely wouldn't need help from you." Evans jumped up from her seat and they all followed, and Sirius opened his mouth to retort but was cut off by Jude.

"I feel like a bit of fresh air, so I'm going to have a wander around the grounds before curfew. I'll see you upstairs." Sirius' face fell at her words, and he hovered at the exit to the hall, he thought that she had been having a nice time, and now it felt like she wanted space? He glanced to his side and could tell that Evans was about to offer her company so he hastened out of his thoughts.

"I'll come with you." In his haste it came out like a command, rather than a request and all three girls looked at him in surprise, "It's just, I told Madam Pomfrey…"

"Okay." She smiled, heading to the open front door, and Sirius rushed after her, ignoring the quizical looks from Mary and Evans.

When it was just the two of them, Jude glanced up at him, "I know what you're doing."

"What?" Sirius pulled himself to his full height, already defensive.

"James is acting weird so you feel like you have to take care of me, and you're really kind, but you really don't have to. I'm sure you have much more fun things to do on your first night back at Hogwarts than babysit your best friend's little burden." She laughed at the last word, hugging herself against the chilly night.

"You don't honestly think that's how any of the Potters' see you?"

"Oh I know they're too kind to think like that. But it is what I am."

"Then so am I." Sirius mumbled.

"Oh…oh Sirius no, they don't see you that way!" Jude gasped, "Oh, you should listen to them all talk about you when you're not there. They love you."

Sirius was sure his ears had turned pink, "Well, I'm sure they feel the same about you." They had begun making their way down to the lake, and Sirius glanced up at the castle, they were very near curfew but he was confident that he could get her back without landing her in trouble.

She sighed, "So, what are we going to do about James?"

Sirius shrugged, "He'll come to his senses. We've all been there."

"Been where?"

"Liked someone completely unlikeable. In my third year…" He stopped talking, just realising that it perhaps wasn't the time to gloat about how he landed a sixth year Slytherin who was pretty much Bellatrix's role model just to annoy her.

"Yes?"

"I…er…beat Lily Evans in Transfiguration by a whole percent. She likes to say that she was down with a cold the day, but I like to bring that up every so often, lest she forget."

Jude chuckled, shaking her head, "You like her."

"What, noooo, no, no." The last thing he wanted was this girl to think he liked anybody else, least of all Evans.

"Not like, like, but like her. Like as a person. A friend."

Sirius looked up at the waning moon, "I suppose, yeah. I mean, she's alright. I mean, she's proper annoying. And, full of herself, but it's also really annoying because it's super justified." He laughed, "But yeah, she's a good person."

"I think so too. You know, she greeted me every single day when I couldn't speak. Asked me to join for lunch whenever she could, even though I never would. She made me feel like a person, and not furniture."

Sirius glanced to the ground, sad that she ever felt like that.

"And so did you."

"Huh?"

"I remember the times we'd bump into each other, and you'd acknowledge my existence, even interact with me. I think you're just as kind as Lily is."

Sirius opened his mouth to protest, but then realised he loved the idea of her thinking he was kind, and that very thing suddenly mattered so much to him. He remained silent as they circled the lake, not sure that his voice wouldn't betray him if he expressed his thanks right now.

She stopped, looking up at the star strewn sky, "There you are." She pointed up at the brightest star, easy to find near Orion's belt. "Isn't it lovely that your parents looked at you when you were just a baby, and said you were the brightest star in their galaxy."

Sirius scoffed, "I'm pretty sure it had nothing to do with their feelings for me, and everything to do with the fact that all our family are named for stars."

"Oh but then they could have called you anything, they could have called you…Crux, or Leo, or Corvus. But they named you for the brightest star in all the galaxy."

"Or the dog star." He glanced down at her, "They named me in the hopes I'd be some loyal pet to the family."

She returned his look, not agreeing with him by the look in her eyes, but not protesting. He stepped forward, noticing tiny flecks in her dark grey orbs, wanting to know more about her. "What does Judalia mean?"

"I don't know." She sighed, "I haven't heard of it, never came across it in books. I don't think it means anything." She looked up at the sky, "So my parents, whoevere they are, looked at me, and gave me a meaningless name?"

"I think they looked at you and thought no name that exists was good enough, so they had to make one up." Sirius cleared his throat, the moon and the stars above it's own kind of truth serum, "Why do you prefer Jude?"

"Oh, I don't have a preference, but, Charlus called me that once. And I liked that. That he called me something different, something special. I wonder whether…I was called Jude before, and that's why I liked it so much when he did." She let out a frustrated sigh, and shook her head.

"I'm sorry." Sirius whispered, "I can't imagine what it's like not knowing your history."

"I don't know if I could ever go forward if I keep looking back." She shrugged, shaking her head and her frown disappeared, "The stars are playing veritaserum with my thoughts." She laughed, turning around, "We should get back before we get in trouble. Where to next?"

Sirius' brows rose, "Huh?"

She shrugged, "Well, I thought you want to keep an eye on me, you can't exactly do that in my dorm. And…I don't really feel like sleeping. Though I know we're almost at curfew, but I have a funny feeling that you know your way around the castle pretty well."

He smirked, "It's one of the many things I know my way around well." He just remembered he was talking to James' sister and cleared his throat and his face of expression, "Erm…follow me."

A/N: Any guesses where he will take her ? A little more Lily interaction now - I hope you like it!

Feedback is always so appreciated! Thank you for reading!

Kalina