Among the Stars

   The next morning Michael didn’t show up to breakfast, a fact that made Wisteria frown. After breakfast Wisteria walks with her friends to the Transfigurations classroom. Halfway there a short, older boy with sandy blonde hair and electric blue eyes joins them in the corridors.

    “You’re Wisteria Evans, right?” He asks.

    She blinks at him. “Yes. Who are you?”

    “I’m a Hufflepuff Prefect, the name’s William Alderton, but you can call me Will. I believe you are friends with my little brother Michael.”

    This statement makes Wisteria stop in her tracks and her friends send her worried glances. “I thought I was…” She mumbles.

    “Has he stopped talking to you?” Will asks.

    Wisteria looks at him. “Yes, how did you…”

    “Dangit.” Will says. “I thought that maybe since you’re his friend…” He trails off.

    “What are you talking about?”

    He looks as if he’d already forgotten she was there, his blue eyes clouded at first, but then cleared back to their normal shocking shade of blue. “Every now and then he’ll go through this phase where he convinces himself that he’s useless and a burden on everyone he knows. He cuts himself off from everyone and anyone.”

    “He’s done this before?”

    “Unfortunately.”

    “How long does this usually last?”

    Will sighs. “That’s a difficult question to answer. Sometimes it lasts a week, sometimes two, sometimes a few months, it just varies.”

    “Months?.. What’s the longest it’s lasted?”

    Will sighs deeper. “Two years.”

    “Years?” Wisteria asks, horrified. She couldn’t imagine Michael cutting himself off from her for years. “Is there anything I can do to make it pass faster?”

    “I’ve never been able to help him out of it. He usually has to figure it out on his own. Then again, he’s never really had a friend before. Maybe you could do something, but I don’t know what. I heard he was skipping ahead a few years and-“

“Wait, what?”

Will looked confused. “Did you not hear? He asked our Head of House if he could take more classes and skip ahead a few years to graduate early. After some convincing he was given permission to do so. I had been under the impression that he was staying in your year, so when I heard the change in plan I knew something must have been up.” Will looks at Wisteria warily as she takes this new information in. He won’t be in any of my classes anymore, was the main thought running through her head. She thought that in class would be the perfect time to talk him out of this, but now… “Anyway,” Will continues, “you girls need to get to class. Maybe I’ll see you all around.” With that, he leaves.

    The girls stand in silence for a while before Wisteria starts walking again and the others follow. Then Shannon says,

    “That boy was really cute, don’t you think?”

    Penelope glares at her and Shannon shrinks away, but Christine replies to her.

    “I suppose. Do you know how old he is Wisty?”

    “He’s a sixth year who spent the summer in America.”

    “Ooh. Shay’s going after an older boy then.” Christine says playfully.

    “No one said anything about going after him. I just pointed out he was cute.”

    “Not as cute as his brother.” Jane mumbles.

    “That’s for sure.” Penelope agrees.

    The five girls walk into the classroom and begin to pick out their seats among the clusters of Ravenclaws and Griffindors. Wisteria spots the Prewett twins that she had met the day before sitting at the table next to Lily. She sits herself down next to her twin sister; on the other side of her was a gap between tables, and then the Prewetts. Penelope and Christine sit down in front of the Prewetts and Jane and Shannon sit in from of the Evans.

    Wisteria discovered quickly that the Prewett twins were class clowns, but it seemed the teacher was already more than prepared to deal with them. This meant that when one of the twins tried to pass her a note, Professor McGonnagal caught him in the act and swiftly disposed of the unread note.

    The twins didn’t look one bit disheartened though. They continued to goof off and try new ways of sending messages to the Evans twins. Finally, Wisteria, who was both annoyed with them as well as curious as to what they wanted to tell her, cast an obscure spell on their table as well as hers while McGonnagals back was turned.

    She was sure the Professor knew what she had done, but McGonnagal said nothing, so Wisteria went through with her plan anyway. She took out her quill and wrote on the table in front of her

    This is Wisteria. I’ve cast a spell on our tables. If you write on yours it will appear on mine. This way we can talk to each other without you two idiot getting in trouble.

    As she silently waited for them to notice and respond, McGonnagal continued droning on with her lecture, letting Wisteria know that even if she had been caught, McGonnagal had no intention of doing anything about it. Perhaps. Wisteria thinks to herself, she’s simply thankful at least one student is using what they’ve learned, even if it’s not for the best reason.

    She looks down and sees words beginning to form on the desk. This better not be some prank, though I applaud you on creativity if it is.

    Wisteria laughs to herself and looks over at their table to one of them writing something on parchment and the other looking over at her. She smiles and replies. It’s not, I promise.

    Well, He writes back, in that case, this is really cool. Where did you learn a spell like that?

    I actually paid attention in Charms last year. She writes.

    Sarcasm noted. He replies shortly.

    I wanted to pull a prank on a friend of mine so I did a bit of kissing up to Flitwick, asked a few questions and did a bit of research on my own and stumbled across it.     

    Well I think it’s magnificent. Could you do this to our desks in every class we have together?

    You know, you could always pay attention in class for once.

    Wow, you already have me figured out, don’t you. But paying attention is boring. Plus, I’m pretty sure the only classes we have together besides this are Charms and History of Magic. Those are dreadful.

    Then we could sit together instead of apart. If we do that, writing notes won’t be necessary.

    Yeah, but this way it actually looks like I’m paying attention and taking notes and stuff. Besides, I like writing these little temporary notes.

    Wisteria rolls her eyes and sighs. Fine you weirdo. I’ll do this on our desks in those classes. Which one of you am I talking to?

    Fabian. I think that Gideon is asleep.

    Wisteria glances over at their table and sure enough she sees that one of them is fast asleep. She looks between them for a moment in an attempt to find some noticeable difference so that she could tell them apart, but Fabian catches her staring and she turns away.

    Admiring the view were you? Fabian writes. Wisteria fights the blush wanting to rise to her cheeks and replies,

    Trying to get used to get used to the sight of your face more like it.

    Am I too beautiful for your brain to comprehend?

    Something like that…

    Well I happen to think that you are just as pretty as me.

    Is that supposed to be a complement?

    What else would it be?

    A joke.

    I never joke about pretty girls.

    Wisteria blushes and, feeling bold, writes, Are you flirting with me?

    Fabian scrawls a short reply, Something like that… mimicking her earlier words. Wisteria smiles softly to herself and thinks about how Michael never flirted with her outright like that, though she would very much like him to.

    Immediately she scolds herself for thinking that. Michael won’t even talk to her anymore and who knows how long it will last. She can’t be expected to wait for him to get over himself and be willing to interact with her again. At the same time though, a small glimmer of hope remained in her chest that Michael’s phase would be a short one and he would soon return to being her friend, if nothing else.

    If it is then I’m flattered and if it’s not then thank you. I don’t typically get complements like that.

    It takes a few moments, but finally words begin appearing, Really? I would think the whole world would jump at the opportunity to point out your red hair.

    That’s just it though. Everyone says I have pretty hair, not that I’m pretty. For all the world cares I’m as ugly as a Flobberworm, because all they see is the hair.

    I suppose that’s true. Gideon and I come from a family of redheads though, so we’re used to it. Our sister Molly is even married to a guy who comes from a long line of redheads.

    Really?

    The two continue to talk until the end of class. Their next classes were in opposite directions, so the two parted ways quickly after the class had ended. Wisteria then quickly caught up with Remus, James, Peter and Sirius before they went off to class.

    “Hey Remus.” She says, “I trust you took notes in Transfigurations?”

    “I did.”   

    “I was a little distracted and didn’t get some of them. You wouldn’t mind letting me borrow them later so I can get the rest, would you?”

    “Of course you can. Do you want to meet in Library after dinner?”

    “Sure.”

    “We’ll come too.” James said, slinging an arm around Sirius. “Siri and I aren’t doing too hot in Potions.”

    “We haven’t even been to Potions yet.” Peter points out.

    “Yes, well we haven’t taken Divination yet either, but I could have sworn the leaves in my tea this morning were telling me that I needed help in Potions.” Sirius jokes.

    Wisteria rolls her eyes at them. “I will see you all later.” She says, smiling, as she walks away. Wisteria jogs to catch up to her friends on their way to Herbology and out of the corner of eye sees Mercury Black.

    As usual his clique of Slytherins, consisting of his fellow seventh years Shaun Belby and Audrey Pendleton, surrounds him. Though now there are more in the mix. Some are just younger kids trying to act cool by hanging around him, but others are simply new additions to his inner group. There are three new additions that Wisteria recognizes, seventh year Narcissa Lestrange, her sixth year boyfriend Lucius Malfoy, and first year Regulus Black, Mercury’s younger brother.

The group of Slytherins glare daggers at her as she passes. A few of them call her ‘mudblood’, others taunt her, but by far the scariest thing out of all of it was Mercury. He stood in the back of all of them, leaned up against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest, completely silent. He doesn’t say a word as she passes, just glares. Beside him the youngest Black brother stands less confident and less menacing, looking more like an imposter trying to blend in than anything else.

Wisteria ignored all of them, but quickened her pace as she rushed to reach her friends. When she catches up to them she lets out a breath she wasn’t aware she’d been holding, glad to have gotten past them without an incident.