The following morning, Alya woke up full of determination. Her aim was to ask her father about the mysterious painting she and Regulus had discovered the day before, in the octagonal room.

Orion Black was a creature of habit and used to punctuate every moment of his day with very precise actions. He and his wife usually got up at the crack of dawn, much earlier than their children, and, after a frugal and quick breakfast, Mr Black used to hole up in his study on the ground floor, to smoke his pipe in solitude while his eyes devoured all the news presented in the pages of the Daily Prophet, the most famous wizarding word's newspaper.

Alya, who knew her father's habits very well, would take advantage of this particular moment to put her intentions into action and satisfy her greedy curiosity.

Therefore, immediately after finishing her meal, Alya slipped out of the dining room and trotted determinedly towards her father's study. However, part of her confidence failed once she found herself in front of the dark wooden door behind which the room was concealed.

The fact was that Orion Black was a stern, authoritarian man who rarely liked to be disturbed during his strict morning activities, especially by the childish antics of his children. This was the sort of thing to be delegated to his wife. It was Walburga's job to look after Alya, Sirius and Regulus.

Alya stood still for a few seconds, staring at the handle, unsure of what to do. The last thing she wanted was to get a rebuke from her father.
However, her intense curiosity got the better of her. She inhaled deeply, arming herself with courage. She raised a little fist and firmly knocked three times on the door.

"Come in." Mr Black's voice thundered imperiously.

Hesitantly, Alya opened the door and slipped inside the room. The sweetish, pungent smell of the pipe invaded her nostrils violently. By instinct she wrinkled her nose, slightly nauseated.

"Alya?" said Orion with a serious expression, vaguely surprised to see his little daughter standing in the doorway of his study. "What's going on?"

Alya swallowed, intimidated by the harsh severity with which her father peered at her from behind the pages of his newspaper. The little girl hesitated for a moment, biting her lower lip nervously; Orion's eyebrows were travelling further and further up his forehead.

"Come on, Alya. Come closer." Orion said, inviting the girl to sit on one of the two chairs opposite his desk.
With an uncertain step, Alya cautiously advanced into the study and sat down opposite her father.

"So?" he pressed her, with ill-concealed impatience.

"M-may I ask you something, father?" squeaked the daughter fearfully.

"Well, I hope it's important. Let's hear it."

Alya looked down at her feet, not daring to look longer her father in the face. His haughty gaze always struck her with awe.

"Well... Yesterday Regulus and I spent the afternoon upstairs, in the octagonal room, and we noticed something strange..." said Alya, all at once. Then, she paused for a moment to cast a glance at her father's expression. He was listening to her with intense seriousness.

"Well... we noticed an extra lunette among the zodiac signs decorations. We wondered what it could be, but we couldn't see the pattern very well..." Alya finished her speech in a voice much more trembling than she wanted to let on.

Orion stared at her with an imperious frown and, in that unanswered silence, the little girl feared she had asked a silly question and would suffer an harsh rebuke.

But, suddenly, a pleased smirk appeared on the man's face.

"I am glad to know that small details do not escape the attentive eyes of my children," he exclaimed proudly. Alya suddenly felt two feet taller.

"What you say is true, Alya. You and Regulus are right. There is one more zodiac sign among those decorations. A constellation, to be precise."

"An extra constellation?"

"Exactly."

"But... I suppose the zodiac signs constellations were twelve." the little girl insisted curiously.

"Some people believe in the existence of another set of stars," her father replied evasively.

"And what constellation is this? What is it called?"

Orion turned a second smirk on her.

"You are quite curious about it, I see. Come on, follow me, I'll show you something I think you'll like," he said, finally abandoning his day on the desk. Orion Black stood up and walked towards the door, signalling little girl to follow him. Alya obeyed instantly, promptly jumping to her feet.

Father and daughter walked through a couple of rooms in the east wing of the building, in the direction of the library. Alya was overwhelmed by a thrill of excitement: she had never been allowed to enter that part of the house. The library and all the rooms surrounding that area were forbidden to children.

Orion stopped in front of a tall, wooden door. He pulled his wand out the trousers pocket and pointed it at the handle, lashing the air with confident movements. A soft clangour was heard, the lock clicked and the door slowly opened.

Once across the threshold, Alya found herself in a small, dark room with an oval floor plan, lit only by a torch that emitted a faint light. There were no windows and the walls were painted a deep midnight blue, making the room even darker.Alya immediately realised where she was, although it was the first time she had set foot in there: it was the palace's Planetarium, a room used for the observation and study of the stars and planets.
The ceiling, which had been enchanted by Alya's ancestors, faithfully reproduced the vault of the universe, giving them the opportunity to explore galaxies and celestial bodies.

Since ancient times, the various members of Alya's family had been very fascinated by the mysteries about universe and had worked hard to study its movements.

For this reason, the Planetarium was built as an adjoining room to the library: once he had observed the black skies of the universe reproduced by the enchanted ceiling, the wizard would run to the next room and immediately transcribe his findings about the positions of stars and planets on large star maps.

Alya's gaze wandered bewitched around the room. The place vibrated with magic and knowledge.

Orion signalled to his daughter to stand in the middle of the floor and look up at the black ceiling. With a swift, sharp movement of his wand he switched off the only light present and darkness fell thickly over the room. But, soon after, handfuls of bright white stars appeared in the ceiling vault, giving the impression of being under an immense night sky.

"Oooh!" Alya could not hold back a little cry of pure wonder. It was a breathtaking sight.

Meanwhile, Orion measured the angles of the sky with his gaze. He raised his wand again towards a specific point on the magical star-quilted ceiling, which grew larger.
Finally, the man cleared his throat and began to speak:

"As you well know, Alya, the commonly known zodiacal constellations are twelve..." he began in a grave tone, like a distinguished professor intent on giving an important Astronomy lesson. "...However, as one of our ancestors was able to ascertain, there is another. Many still do not accept the presence of this thirteenth constellation in the zodiac, but the ancestors of our family, including your grandfather, have always considered its existence important. Therefore, they decided to reproduce it also in the decorations of this palace. As well as in the painting that you yourself noticed yesterday."

Alya listened to her father dumbfounded by the story of the mysterious constellation, and still bewitched by the beautiful sky above her.

Orion waved his wand. A puff of white light united some of the many stars on the ceiling, drawing what looked like a kind of somewhat wonky, narrow pentagon.

"Here it is, Alya. This is the thirteenth constellation, Ophiuchus," her father announced proudly. "His name means 'he who holds the serpent'. In fact..." and with his wand he drew another bright straight line, joining a series of stars on either side of the crooked pentagon "...here we have the Serpent."

Orion explained to his daughter that the constellation represented a man clutching with his hands the two parts of the serpent, encircling him. Alya listened to him attentively, but looking more closely at the drawing her father had drawn with his wand, she could not help thinking that whoever had named that group of stars must have had a great imagination: that constellation did not look like a man with a snake in his hands. Rather, it gave Alya the idea of a badly stylised snail.

Of course, she did not express her opinion out loud. Her father would certainly not have appreciated it.

With his wand still pointed at the ceiling, Orion continued his Astronomy lesson:

"Here is the Serpens Caput, or 'The Serpent Head'..." he said, pointing to the line of stars to the right of the lopsided pentagon. The straight line ended with a kind of cross, which apparently represented the head of the starry reptile."...And here, instead, we have Serpens Cauda, or 'The Serpent Tail'." the man concluded, pointing with his wand to the line to the left of Ophiuchus' body, lingering over the last bright dot. He gave a light flick of his wrist and the image of the star became even larger.

"Do you know what this star is called?" asked Orion with a strange smile on his face. Alya shyly nodded her head no.

"It's Alya' star!" he claimed, as if revealing an important truth.

The little girl looked at him full of astonishment.

"Alya?" she repeated, dazed. "It's my name!"

"That's right. Your name comes from this constellation. It means tail. Precisely, the serpent tail."

"The serpent tail" murmured Alya in a low voice, looking excitedly at the small star shining at the end of the straight.

A new pride flared up inside her. It was as if her name had acquired a renewed value, an importance she had previously ignored. She smiled proudly, with her gaze turned toward the starry sky above her.

Orion waved his wand dryly one last time: the starry universe suddenly vanished, exactly as it had appeared. The ceiling became empty and dark again. The torch awkwardly spat its faint light again, softly illuminating the room.

"That's it." said Orion, in a definitive tone. "Now go and play. I have to take care of my business now."

"Yes, father." replied Alya obediently.

Thus, she and her father left the Planetarium and their paths parted.

Orion returned to his study. Alya, on the other hand, trotted happily toward the inner courtyard of the manor, while in her mind still shone proudly the little star from which her name came.

***

In the evening, the Black family gathered in the dining room, for their quiet breakfast.

Despite the silence, however, there was a veiled, slithery tension around the set table. Especially, between Sirius and Walburga.

Even Alya, who was still distracted by the image of the constellation her father had shown her that morning at the Planetarium, noticed it. She assumed that Sirius must have been up to another one of his mischief and had a fight with his mother. It was hard to establish which of the two looked more enraged.

Alya could not help but sigh desoletely. The difficult relationship between Walburga and Sirius seemed to deteriorate more and more every day.

Walburga couldn't suffer the obstinate, rebel attitude which her son always showed against the rules she had imposed on her children.

On the other hand, Sirius became increasingly fractious, day after day. He felt like a sort of prisoner, doomed to live an existence without the real freedom he wished for.
His secret interest in Muggles and their strange world started to get more and more evident; Sirius was not able to hide it anymore. And, as Alya suspected, he did not want to, either.

Of course, the inflexible Walburga Black could not tolerate such a behaviour inside her noble, pureblood home. She would root out that dangerous spark from Sirius' soul, at any cost.

Although no emotion leaked from Walburga's indecipherable expression, Alya could read the ferocious determination that inflamed her mother's icy eyes, perpetually focused on Sirius, looking at him like a bomb that might go off at any moment and destroy anything around him.

If Sirius didn't change his attitude soon, he would be in serious trouble.

Alya felt a shudder down her spine, as she thought about the kind of punishment her mother might plan.

Suddenly, Orion loudly cleared his throat, drawing everyone's attention to himself. Alya instantly emerged from her absorbed thoughts.

"I sent an owl to Druella and Cygnus this afternoon. I wanted to invite them and their daughters to stay here at the manor for a few days." he announced solemnly.

Walburga smiled in approval.

"What a delightful idea! When are they coming?"

"In a couple of days. They have already sent me their confirmation."

"Good. Thus, I'll order Kreacher to prepare the guest rooms." said Walburga in a pragmatic tone.

The couple exchanged a look of mutual approval, before returning their attention to their respective dishes. Silence fell again in the room, charged with an even more palpable tension.
Alya couldn't help but glance at Sirius. The boy had a grim, granite expression. Something seemed to have disturbed him deeply.

And Alya knew very well what it was.

Cygnus was Walburga's younger brother.
Although they were their uncles, he and his wife were not particularly pleasant people. Their visit and stay at the manor could hardly be considered cheerful news.

But what disturbed Sirius most was the arrival of Cygnus and Druella's three daughters. In particular the eldest, Bellatrix.

Between the latter and Sirius ran a deep hatred. It was impossible to say which of the two hated the other more. Surely, Bellatrix's visit would bring even more tension to the manor. And that meant even more troubles for Sirius.

Alya sighed, terribly concerned. A nagging shiver scrabbled her spine as her thoughts were shot through with a bad feeling.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hi! I hope you enjoyed this chapter. And the story, too. Let me know what you think about it.

Thank you for reading!! ❤️