22

1976, 14 May- Thursday.

Polaris was beyond confused on how this even started, an argument? With a bloody mudblood? The class had barely begun, he was the first.

It had been a while since he had come to class first, leaving Aaron and Corvus back in the Common Room, but Polaris simply didn't want to sit in the front of the class like last time, because Corvus decided to walk slowly as usual- with that they would get distracted in a conversation, maintaining that pace, of 'slowness'.

It was the last class of the day, which was Potions, a class the Slytherins shared with the Gryffindors.

The so-called 'argument', started with a desk… that's right a desk. First of all, Polaris wished to make it clear that he had gotten to that row, first. He placed his satchel in the middle of the desk, and then just a second later a bag was thrown onto it.

He turned to see a boy in Gryffindor robes, who was frowning at Polaris, he told Polaris that it was his row, not Polaris'. At first, Polaris just assumed it was just some weird joke, the Gryffindor was giving and proceeded to toss the Gryffindor's satchel to the row behind him.

Which, of course, the Gryffindor didn't like and started getting rowdy about it, demanding Polaris move. Polaris of course ignored the boy and sat down in the middle seat of the desk, which only infuriated the Gryffindor.

"Are you even listening to me!?" the boy shouted, sighing in annoyance Polaris turned around, the boy had his satchel in a tight grip, "Well, not really. Say… what's your name?" Polaris spoke. He really didn't know his name, he was obviously a mudblood, seeing as Polaris couldn't recognise him. "Bob Williams!"

"Really? Bob?" Polaris tried to keep a straight face, but he couldn't he ended up bursting into laughter, "Your parents named you 'Bob'? do they perhaps hate you 'Bob'-" he burst out into laughter again, he couldn't help it, in all honesty, this was his first time meeting a so-called 'Bob'.

His face went red, "They named me after my grandfather!" Bob shouted.

"Really, then perhaps your great grandparents hated your grandfather." Polaris mused, just as Bob opened his mouth a few more students came in.

They were all Gryffindors, all four of them that walked in, one of them happened to be a friend. Nathaniel Sayre and another happened to be someone he hated, Willow Smyth.

Nathaniel waved at him, "What are you laughing at?" Nathaniel merely asked, "Have you ever heard of the name Bob?" Polaris asked. Nathaniel merely raised a brow, "…Bob? Is it like a pet name? it's an interesting one.." Nathaniel pondered.

"Are you bloody kiddin' me?! Nathaniel, look at me and tell me who I am!" the boy stood in front of Nathaniel, who in turn looked at the boy's robe, and awkwardly stood there. It was obvious Nate had no idea who this boy was even though the school year is almost over.

"You're Carson, aren't you?" Nathaniel said unsurely, the boy let out a shout of frustration.

"That's Bob," Willow dryly contributed, walking towards one of the front rows, which had Polaris raised a brow at.

Nathaniel was slightly startled at the response from Smyth, were they not friends anymore?

Bob seemed to give up even talking, instead opting for sitting down slightly brooding as his arms crossed.

"Nate, we saved you a seat, here!" one of the boys Nathaniel had walked in with called out to him, Nathaniel turned with a smile, "Nice, I call the middle seat!" he responded, giving them both pointed looks.

"Hardly now, you can take the edge seat!" another of the Gryffindors said to Nathaniel, sitting in the seat Nathaniel had wanted to sit at.

"Next time then," Nathaniel told them, rolling his eyes

Interesting no sitting with Willow today? Hopefully, he finally realised she wasn't worth the trouble to be friends with.

"Yeah, Pol?" Nathaniel called out to him before walking in between the aisle of desks, to where his seat was saved. Polaris turned to him, raising a brow, "Hang out after class?" he asked, Polaris nodded, smiling, knowing he wanted to work on the map, or perhaps he finally has a name for it.

He gave him thumbs up. Nathaniel flashed him a grin.

Soon enough the class filled up, with Corvus and Aaron coming just before 4 pm, "Took youse long enough" Polaris said in a low voice as their professor walked in, announcing to their class what today would entail. Before he could go any further, a knock stopped him.

A student came in, peaking in the class, "Um, sorry to disturb your lesson, professor Slughorn." She was wearing Gryffindor robes, she seemed familiar, with her red hair. She seemed to look as though she was in fourth, perhaps her fifth year.

Professor Slughorns' face brighten at seeing her, "Miss Evans! What a pleasant surprise. I see you can't keep away from potions, can you? This my dear student is one of my best students, always achieving amazing feats!"

Evans? Not a wizarding name. Her? Amazing feats? Perhaps muggle-borns could be good for something, but it seems to find an intelligent one is rare. It wasn't every day you could get a complement like that from Professor Slughorn.

She flushed lightly, "Right, thank you, professor. I just finished my lesson with Transfiguration with Professor McGonagall, and she kindly asked if it would be okay if she could borrow Polaris Black, for a few minutes, to discuss something quickly." The girl, 'Miss Evans' spoke.

Polaris raised a brow, "What do you think she wants?" Aaron asked, Polaris shrugged his shoulders.

"No clue…"

"Someone's in trouble" Corvus sang out in amusement.

"Oh? Now. Alright! Perhaps you can have a theological discussion on potions, One of the smartest fifths, and one of the smartest first years-"

Polaris tuned their professor out, getting up from his seat, walking past the Evan girl, not saying a word. He didn't expect to hear her footsteps behind him but he did, she semed to catch up with him. "Your Sirius' brother, aren't you?" she asked curiously.

He looked at her, he didn't sneer nor frown at her, for actually speaking to him, she was a mudblood after all. "Well, I wouldn't say brother. Mother blasted him off the family tree, therefore, I wouldn't personally want to call him my brother, he lost that right when left like a coward." Polaris nonchalentey said.

"You know, he does care about you. Talks about you too, in the common room." She commented airly.

He didn't reply.

"You know I thought you'd be more similar to your other brother, the one who isn't blasted off the tree." She spoke again.

"What do you mean?" he questioned her, glancing to his side where she stood.

"Well, you don't see like a snob, nor a bigoted idiot. The first thing your brother Regulus did when I told him my name, was to give me a look of disgust…" she mused, not at all sounding sad of the memory.

"Well, you're obviously competent, if you're able to get such a compliment from Professor Slughorn, especially with you being a mudblood." He commented, taking a sharp right, she didn't respond, but he did hear her huff, she sounded annoyed. He looked over his shoulder giving her an amused looked after hearing her mutter, 'brat'.

He continued on his way to Professor McGonagall's classroom, entering it, he saw her sitting at her desk, with two other students, Ravenclaws by the look of it.

"Sorry, Professor. I was told you called for me." He said politely not knowing if he was interrupted, "Yes, I did. Do come in." and he did, he walked over to where the other two students, a girl and a boy he remembered seeing before were stood, both of them looking at him as he walked forward.

The girl was slightly taller than the boy, Lockhart was it? He thinks that was the boy's name, remembering that head of hair, surprisingly enough he wasn't wearing those glasses.

The girl had thick black hair, filled with waves, that reached her waist. Her head turned to him hearing his steps getting closer, her onyx eyes meeting his, her eyes complimenting her deeply tanned skin.

"Now that you three are here, there is something I wish to discuss." Her voice was stern, Polaris was beyond confused as to what could possibly be the problem, seeing as they were most likely in trouble.

She placed three sheets, at the end of her desk, facing them. "These have been taken from each of your essays. From the last assessment that the class was to submit just last January." She said. then she only finished correcting them now? what was wring with them, that she seemed disappointed?

None of them said anything as she stayed silent, "Is there anything you'd like to tell me?" she spoke again.

There was nothing at all he wanted to say other than there should be nothing wrong with his essay, in his opinion it was pure perfection, perhaps that was just his opinion, still, he was expecting an 'O' in it. He wouldn't accept anything lower, he had to research for a while to be finally proud of the final work, after writing a few drafts.

Four pages, of 'perfection'. "professor, is there something we have done? I'm really not sure what I am being called here for… is there something wrong with my essay? I did exactly as the statement had asked." Polaris found himself speaking, she hummed.

"I too am not sure why I'm here, professor, nor do I have anything to tell you, did I do the assignment wrong?" the Ravenclaw girl asked, the Ravenclaw boy said nothing at all, standing in between them, nervously.

"There has been plagiarism at hand, and I wish to know how it occurred." Her stern tone rang out. Plagiarism?!

Immediate objections began from the Ravenclaw girl and Polaris, "Plagiarism? I assure you, Professor, that my work is mine. I work hard for my grades, not cheated on them. It's unethical!" Polaris refuted her notion of 'Plagiarism'. Besides, he wouldn't even be able to say the names of these Ravenclaws, but she was suggesting they copied each other, or perhaps another person's work.

"I would never! I did it all myself, I even referenced everything I used from my sources." The Ravenclaw girl, defended herself, completely appalled at such a notion.

"-Professor McGo- oh, sorry professor I'll-" a voice interrupted them from the door, having just opened it and nervously trying to close the door again, seeing Professor McGonagall was occupied.

"-It's fine Mr Robinson, wait outside, I'll be there in just a moment," their professor told the boy, he was tall, with a messy head of blonde strands, falling over his eyes. He pushed the strands from his vision, nodding.

"Alright," he whispered as he closed the door, leaving them with their professor as before.

She looked at them with her piercing gaze, "I will be back and when I come back I would like to understand why Mr Lockhart as information from both of your papers. Either you willingly gave it to him, or he willingly shared his, which was expanded on." She told them before getting up, leaving all three of them standing there.

It was silent for a few seconds before the Ravenclaw spoke, she turned to both of the boys.

"Well, I didn't plagiarise, so for Ms to have said…" she trailed off, looking towards Lockhart who took a nervous step back, her eyes narrowing at him, "Lockhart has information from both our work… how fascinating" she drawled, hinting Lockhart as the culprit.

"There's no need for us to be here. A complete waste of time" Polaris sneered, it was unbelievable, could she not wait until their next lesson to solve this issue? He had a class right now! "You!" Polaris snapped.

Lockhart took another step back, pointing to himself, "M-Me?" he awkwardly asked. "Yes, you! You did this didn't you? Don't think I can't remember a face, I remember you that day, back in January before I submitted the essay, you bumped into me- it's hard to forget those ridiculous glasses you were wearing which you don't seem to be wearing right now" Polaris told him.

"I didn't do this! I promise I didn't plagiarise!" Lockhart tried to defend himself. The girl frowned, she stood beside Polaris her arms crossed, "Glasses" she mused, staring at Lockhart curiously.

"I remember seeing you wear glasses too- they were utterly ridiculous… I happened to have my essay in the common room when you were wearing them- did you read it?! You moron, how stupid can you be, thinking you could get away with it?!" she snapped at him.

Polaris left him to her, walking to the desk, McGonagall only put one page from each of their essays, he quickly scanned Lockhart's essay, and found the part that was his, the Ravenclaw poorly paraphrased it, barely any difference, other than a few words. It was laughable, how he replaced his 'However' with a 'But'.

He grabbed the girl's essay, reading it, having read Lockharts he could obviously tell her work was the original version of what Lockhart had added to his. "You did a really poor job paraphrasing, Lockhart." Polaris drawled walking over to them again, he handed their essays to the girl.

She took them, reading them herself, "I pity you, Lockhart, to have stooped so low. You're a half-blood, you can't possibly afford to be so stupid enough to Plagerise… undertaking such a risk only to gain nothing but consequences. Do you have anything to say for yourself, Lockhart?" Polaris drawled, loving the fear Lockhart was showing.

"I- I… Sorry, I didn't want to! I just didn't have time to do it, and by the time I tried stating I didn't have enough time, and what I had wasn't good enough! I needed to do good in eh assessments! I didn't have time to change it more!"

The girl sighed, "Whatever, I could care less. You'll be punished,£ she nonchalantly told him, looking away to place the essays back on the desk, she walked back she was so close to Lockhart, that he help his breath in suspense of her anger, "just know this isn't going to be staying in this room. I'll make sure everyone knows about you." She whispered in delight, smiling in delight, with that taunting tone she used.

She moved from him, her head tilting as she set her eyes on Polaris, "Anand, Shrishti Anand. A Ravenclaw as you already know, seeing as it's obvious. I suppose I'll be greeting you when I see you" she lightly commented, smiling.

Anand, it was Indian. An Indian pureblood name, even without the name, with how she moved, her gestures, the way she presented herself, the way she stood- it all screamed pureblood. He took her hand, kissing the back of it politely.

"Black, Polaris Black. I too will be greeting you, seeing as it's impossible to ignore each other after…" he trailed off looking towards the shameful looking Lockhart.

"Well, you know," he told her in amusement looking back at her.

"With the formalities done and dealt with, let's be more casual. Call me Shrishti. "

He nodded in understanding, "Of course, call me Polaris. Having read your essay, it's quite the interesting topic you chose. It has some valid facts and proof to back up your theory. Perhaps you could be an author, publishing all the findings you may find out in the future." He told her.

She beamed at him, obviously proud of her work, "Thank you! I worked really hard on it. My father is a Magicalist, he travelled the world when he was younger finding things and proving theories, some of which have been proven, then he travelled to England where he met my mum."

"Ah, so a researcher? That's interesting, are you thinking of being one too? only knowing you for like what? 10 minutes, I'd say you look like you'd be up for an adventure."

She shrugged her shoulders, "Perhaps, the hat couldn't decide whether I should be a Gryffindor or Ravenclaw. I opted for Ravenclaw, seeing as it was fifty-fifty, besides my mother would have gone ballistic if I had been a Ravenclaw. She was a Slytherin, she was a Flint you see." She told him, his brows raised in recognition.

"AS flint? Any relation to Aaron Flint in Slytherin?" Polaris asked, she nodded, "Yeah, he's my first cousin once removed, he's my mother's first cousin." She answered him.

"Really?! Aaron has never said anything about you and seeing as we have classes together, I don't think I have ever seen you two talk."

"We're not close, honestly we both have some unspoken agreement to ignore each other in Hogwarts," Shrishti answered Polaris' statement.

As they waited for their professor to come back Polaris turned to Lockhart who was sitting at a desk, fidgeting with his hands, "Those glasses, that's how you did it, right?" he asked to the moving towards him, standing in front of the desk.

He nodded slowly, "Yeah, magical glasses, they memorise every word that's read, but it resets every 24 hours."

Eventually, Professor McGonagall came back, allowing Polaris to go back to class, Shrishti didn't need to go back to class seeing as she already finished her lessons for the day. Though not all of them were permitted to go, Lockhart was left behind. He was curious if she would fail him before even taking the written exam.

With the look McGonagall gave them when they made Lockhart confess his 'wrongings- you could tell she knew, she just wanted him to confess himself instead of her pointing her finger at him.

After Potions, he said his goodbyes to Aaron and Corvus who headed to the courtyard with Elias while he went his own way with Nathaniel who said goodbye to his friends.

"How come you sat with those people today?" Polaris not bothering to conceal his curiosity, "Oh, them? Adam and Callum, we recently became friends so they invited me to sit with them Natnaiel told Polaris, who nodded then smiled slyly.

"What about Smyth? You left her to sit with your new friends… you guys having a couple issue?" he teased, Nathaniel frowned and was silent for a few seconds.

"I don't like Smyth like that, she's my best mate. We had some type of argument I guess, and she got annoyed at me and I'm still deciding whether she's the one that needs to apologise first or me so I'm keeping a distance…"

"…Tough." Polaris helpfully told him, as they headed to their destination for that evening.

Once they entered the room of requirement Nathaniel ran off towards one of the many shelves that filled the room, in excitement.

As Polaris looked around, he noticed how it was similar to a library, with the large, rounded table that was placed in the middle of the room and from what he saw had the map on the middle of the table.

Walking up around the table to look at the opened map and smiling, he would have never thought the day they started making it that they'd come this far, in all honesty, he thought he would have failed the task.

Shifting the map closer to where he was standing, he stared at the bare map that showed, it wasn't an exact copy.

Staring at the map for a few seconds he muttered, "Corvus Avery", with the mutter of the name, he watched as the ink that created the map crumbled to nothingness before rebuilding itself showing where exactly Corvus Avery was which was in the courtyard with Aaron and Elias.

Polaris couldn't help but grin at the progress, there were still a few things to do for the map to be completely finished.

"It's awesome isn't it?" Nathaniel asked as he made his way beside Polaris where he was standing.

"Yeah" Polaris responded.

Pushing the map aside, Nathaniel covered the empty spot with a piece of paper with words scattered across it.

"… and what's this?" Polaris asked as Nathaniel spread it across his vision, "The name of our map!" he exclaimed with glee.

"But first, I'll start with how I got the final product of the name." Nathaniel started as he pointed toward the words on the top of the page.

"Obviously these are our names," Nathaniel continued.

Nathaniel and Polaris were written clearly on the top of the clear page; he then shifted his finger down to the next line he had filled.

"…And this is also our names but just backwards you know, so instead of Polaris it's Siralop and instead of Nathaniel it's Leinahtan."

He then shifted his finger from their backward names to the right side of the page beside their names, "Now these are our houses, Slytherin since you know you're in Slytherin and Gryffindor because yeah. Now Slytherin backwards is Nirehtyls and Gryffindor backwards is Rodniffyrg, okay, okay, I'm getting there- taking the first four letters of Our names backwards that being 'Sira' for you and Lein for myself, now looking towards our houses backwards, taking the first three letters from that we're left with 'Nir' from Slytherin and 'Rod' from Gryffindor- and if we put them together we've got 'Siranir' for you and 'Leinrod' for me" he explained and then with a quill in his hand he circled the final product that was written on the page.

'Map of Siranir & Leinrod'

Polaris stared down at the circle as he resited every word Nathaniel had just said went through his mind, staring down with a thoughtful gaze, not exactly hating the idea, seeing as it was somewhat creative and they had to call it something.

"And we could go by 'Sira' and 'Lein' as code names- and for short we can call the map 'SL'" Nathaniel added seeing as Polaris had yet to say anything.

Finally, Polaris looked up from the sheet and nodded, "Alright, let's do that then."

Nathaniel's eyes widened, "Really?!"

"Really, I would have just called it 'the map', if it weren't for you, and don't go telling everyone about it since it wouldn't be much of a secret."

"…Yeah, I won't tell anyone- and really? 'map'?" Nathaniel responded.

"-That's fine, just no one else, and not just map, Nate- but THE map..."

With that said Nathaniel nodded slowly and opened his mouth to speak again, "Can we add colour to it? Like a Slytherin green and Gryffindor red, when it has the title of the map?"

Polaris tilted his head back looking up at the ceiling as he huffed with his eyes closed trying to imagine the combination together. After only a few seconds he looked back at Nathaniel.

"No, I don't like the look of it- what about just having the title as the colour? We can have mine green and yours red, then have the and between it a golden colour."

Polaris pulled his wand out and tapped each word changing the colours to see if what he had just said would look nice.

Nathaniel picked the page Polaris had just altered and looked intently at it before giving a quick nod before speaking again, "Sick."

"Sick?" Polaris repeated, slightly confused, "Yeah, like awesome? You should really hang out with muggle-borns more often, they teach you a lot of words." Nathaniel told him.

"I don't need to. Amelia already has a hoard of muggle-born friends… I think they're starting to rub off on her, with how excited she gets telling me stuff about them." Polaris told him. "She's apparently, 'fascinated'.

Nathaniel started to laugh, "You make it sound like they're some type of rare species." Nathaniel mused as he leaned over the map, looking at the names that appeared every so often, moving away from the school area, he glanced over at the forest seeing Hagrids name… he looked over the forest more before his eyes stopped seeing Willow's name and frowned.

His breathing hitched as he saw that particular area she was in, he remembered it- they both promised they wouldn't go back, and definitely not alone… it was dangerous, having nearly fallen to their deaths.