"Hufflepuff!" The sorting hat shouted and the table decorated with yellow and black erupted with applause.
"Andromeda Malfoy." Professor McGonagall called out my name and I straightened my robes. As I strode confidently up the steps, I could hear people scoffing and muttering amongst themselves. Everyone knew which house I was going to be in. Every person in my family had been in Slytherin during their years at Hogwarts, except for one, but no one ever talked about him.
I sat down on the stool and the professor placed the hat on my head. Before it even touched a single black hair on my head, it seemed to know its answer.
"Sl-" It silenced itself. "Now wait just a moment." I swallowed. What did it mean wait? "You long to impress your family, but there is a certain spark within you that I simply cannot ignore." These words were only heard by me for the tables were still alive with anticipation and chatter. "Indeed, you would thrive in Slytherin, but even now, as you hope to live up to your family's name, you know that you have always been different. But where to place you? You are quick witted and you excel in studies, but you are also loyal, no matter what your family's past. I can tell that you will stand up for what you believe is right, and though you are afraid, you will even stand against those you love, which is a great act of courage."
"Get on with it!" A student shouted receiving a fit of giggles, but a cold glare from McGonagall.
"Gryffindor!" The hat's voice rang through the hall and the room went silent. My heart plummeted. There must be some mistake. I am Andromeda Malfoy, a well raised pure blood. I was born to be a Slytherin. McGonagall, seeming shocked herself, ushered me off the stool and called up the next first year. No one cheered as I cautiously walked to the Gryffindor table. The only sound was the light clapping from the head table.I lifted my eyes from the ground and saw Headmaster Dumbledore smiling at me, his gaze wise, yet curious. When I found a seat, the other students gave me a look and quickly scooted away. I held my head up, pretending I didn't need their approval.
Later that night, I read a letter from my mom, realizing that she would want to know what house I got into even though she shouldn't have to ask. I should have been sitting in the Slytherin common room, snickering with other Pure Bloods. Instead, I sat sniveling in front of the fire while everyone else was asleep. Or I had thought they were all asleep.
"Crying on the first day?" Exclaimed a voice.
"Bad sign." Responded another. I turned to see a red headed boy sitting next to me.
"Definitely." I glanced to my other side, gasping as I found the same boy. They both laughed.
"Twins." I grumbled. I looked over both of them. "Ginger, musty old robes: you two must be Weasleys."
"Snobbish." One remarked.
"Robes in pristine condition." The other noted. "Aha! You must be a Malfoy."
"My father told me to stay away from your sort." I said in a tone that made me realize why they thought I was snobbish.
"Your family and our family don't get along." The boy on my right explained. "I'm Fred by the way. That's George."
"I'm Andromeda." I announced proudly, wiping away the wetness on my cheeks. Fred snickered. "What?"
"Nothing. It's just a long, Malfoyish name."
"Well…" I thought for a moment and remembered the name Draco used to call me when he was young and couldn't pronounce my name. "How about Andy?"
"I like it." The twins nodded in agreement.
"Okay Andy," George started, his expression softening. "Why are you crying?"
"Oh… I just- I have to tell my parents I got sorted into Gryffindor."
"What's so bad about that?" Fred wondered.
"Every member of my family was sorted into Slytherin except for one, and he's in Azkaban."
"Well if it makes you feel better, almost everyone in your family is in Azkaban." George joke and Fred kicked him. "Ow! What was that for?" I giggled.
"What are you two doing out here anyway. Shouldn't you be asleep?"
"George and I like to think we're nocturnal." Fred grinned.
"Pranks are fun during the day, but it's at night when the real fun happens." George added, rubbing his shin.
"We should probably get to bed." I glanced toward the clock.
"See you tomorrow?" Fred asked.
"I won't tell my parents if you don't tell yours." I grinned mischievously. They both smiled and answered at the same time.
"Deal."
The chaos that ensued in the next few weeks was more than I had expected when I became friends with the twins, but it was just as perfect as I had hoped. They always made me laugh, trying especially hard to cheer me up when my mother said that my father might be 'to busy' to write me at school. Even my younger brother Draco stopped writing me letters. At first I was devastated, but the twins often encouraged me that I was brave in writing them myself that I was in Gryffindor and they said that if my family couldn't see how wonderful I was then it was their loss. This didn't completely make me feel better, but it did help.
Their first big plan for the year, was to break into the horribly stiff Mr. Filch's office and see what he had collected from students over the years. I, of course, was skeptical, knowing that if we got caught, everyone would know that we were friends. But they insisted that I come with them, it would be like some kind of initiation into their two-member club.
We started after the sun had gone down and everyone, including the twin's overly pompous brother Percy, had gone to sleep. Lee Jordan, Fred and George's other best friend, also came along, more than willing to be the distraction to get Filch away of his office.
"So here's the plan," Fred whispered, laying out a small map they had drawn. "Lee will go to the library, and open the screaming book in the restricted section."
"How do you know that there's a screaming book in the restricted section?" I wondered. "Don't you need a teacher's note to get in?" I almost said; "Don't be dense. You can't get into the restricted section without a teacher's permission. And you couldn't possibly have gotten that." But then I remembered that I was trying not to be a total prat now a days.
"Ah, young, innocent Andy, you have so much to learn." George sighed playfully.
"We broke in on the second night." Fred answered. "Looked around a bit- found some pretty interesting things."
"I'll go and make a ruckus, making sure Filch will be one the other side of the castle when you get in his office." Lee chimed.
"While Filch is in the library, we'll get to his office from this corridor." George pointed to a hallway on the map. "The three of us will look around and take anything worth taking."
The four of us snuck out of the common room and down the hall, Lee going in the opposite direction.
"Don't forget to get out of there before you can get caught, or you'll get detention for a week." George warned.
"I know. I'll see you guys back in the common room." Lee grinned before continuing toward the library. Fred, George, and I made our way around the castle, checking every corner in case Filch or another teacher was patrolling. Soon, we found Filch's office, but halted at the sound of an angry meow.
"Mrs. Norris!" I exclaimed in a whisper. She scurried off. "I hate that cat."
"We better hurry before she brings Filch back." Fred turned to the door and tried to open it, but it was locked. I sighed and pointed my wand at the lock.
"Alohomora." The lock clicked and opened. The office was cluttered, despite Filch being a neat-freak. A large trunk sat behind the desk, with a large lock on the front. I tried the spell again, but nothing happened.
"There must be an enchantment on it." I groaned, defeated. "We better get back to the common room."
"Or…." Fred's eyes sparkled and I knew he was going to say something I would regret. "We could wait for Filch to get back and get the key."
"Are you crazy?" I almost shouted. "If Filch comes back, they'll send a letter to our parents, and I can't get in trouble."
"If you want to go back, go ahead. But there's gotta be some good stuff in here if he had it enchanted." I thought for a moment, and for some reason, my curious side over powered my logical.
"Fine, we'll wait."
"Fred, go be look out, I'll find somewhere for us to hide, and Andy look around and see if there's a slight chance he left the key in here." George began to search the room for any dark corners or tables to hide under. I rummaged through the desk until I came across a large piece of blank parchment.
"Hey George… why would Filch keep an old piece of paper?" I questioned.
"I don't know, but that looks like a map."
"A map with nothing on it?" I raised an eyebrow.
"Or a map that can only be revealed with magic." He tapped his wand to the paper.
"Mr. Prongs would like to advise amateurs like the Weasley twins and especially a Malfoy to leave the pranks and raiding to the professionals." I read out loud. "It's just some stupid paper made to insult people."
"No, it's a map. Whoever this Prongs was must have put a spell on it." George concluded. "There must be a password or something." Fred peaked his head in the door.
"You two better hurry up. I can hear footsteps."
"We'll just have to settle with this." I put the paper in my robe pocket and pulled George behind me.
"But we didn't open the chest." He whined.
"We'll have plenty to do while we try to figure out how to use the map, now let's go!" Fred ran behind us as soon as we could hear Filch's shouts. We ran through the dark halls and up the moving staircases until we lost the strict caretaker. We found the fat lady's portrait and said the password, and despite her sleepy protests she let us through.
"I don't know about you two, but I'm exhausted. I'm going to bed." I took the paper out of my pocket and handed it to them.
"You're not going to help figure out the password?" Fred looked at me with his big brown eyes and pouted.
"Did you guys find anything?" Lee asked sleepily from the couch.
"The trunk was locked and Mrs. Norris found Filch before we could get it open." Fred lied.
"That's too bad. I'll be in bed if any of you need me." Lee shuffled upstairs and I began to follow him.
"Why didn't you tell him about the map?" I wondered.
"It'll be our secret." Fred smirked. I smiled and went up the stairs and dreamed of mischievous red heads.
That school year I learned how to levitate a feather and how to make a cure for boils, but none of that compared to what I learned from Fred and George. They taught me that some rules are meant to be broken and that being a Pure Blood wasn't really anything to be proud of. Instead, I took pride in getting the best score of my class in potions. Professor Snape even seemed to like me.
During the year, about a month after we found the mysterious map, Fred and George were taking guesses of the password, and the map seemed to be helping them figure it out by lighting up whenever they were getting closer to the answer, they used the right set of words and the Marauder's Map revealed itself, showing the entire grounds of Hogwarts including secret passage ways that we often used to get around. It also showed everyone in Hogwarts, with their names and a pair of footprints that moved as the person moved. It helped us know where Filch was and which route to take to avoid him. With the map's help, we only ever got caught twice throughout the school year. Like the time we enchanted some of Professor McGonagall's books to soar across the room and land on the Slytherins. We got two weeks of detention, but luckily she didn't write to my parents.
But as the year came to an end, I realized that I would be going home to a family that was disgusted by me. As the train moved forward through the vast valleys, Fred and George joked around with Lee, and I would fake a smile whenever they talked to me, trying to hide the tears brimming my eyes.
"Hey," Fred tilted his head so he could see my face, "It's going to be okay. George and I will write every week." I shook my head.
"We can't write." I said sadly. " It's too much of a risk, someone will read them."
"Well I can't go the entire holiday without talking to you. We'll just… come up with code names." Fred got out a piece of paper and began to brainstorm. "We can be just like the Marauders." We all thought for a moment.
"Well it has to do with animals if we are going to be our own Marauders." I pointed out.
"What about bird brain over here." George pointed at Fred and Fred threw the quill at him.
"Well, what about Little Red for our little fox?" Fred suggested, looking at me.
"Where'd you get fox?" I wondered.
"You're sneaky." George noted. "Remember the time when you snuck into Hogsmeade right under Professor McGonagall's nose?"
"And you're one of the wittiest people I know." Fred added. "Besides the two of us, of course." I punched his shoulder.
"So it's decided. Little Red it is." George concluded, writing down the name next to mine.
"Now what about you two cackling hyenas?" I joked.
"Hyena," Fred mused, "I like that. How about-" The train jerked to a stop.
"Hold that thought," I said, standing up. "I should get out of here before Percy shows up."
"What about our names?" They asked at the same time.
"You'll think of something." I gave them a smile and hurried out of the compartment. I pushed passed as I exited the train and made it onto the platform. I searched through the crowd of people, looking for familiar heads of light blonde hair.
"M-miss Andromeda?" A small voice said from behind me. I turned to find Dobby, our house elf, standing timidly between a group of students.
"Dobby?" I exclaimed. "What are you doing here? Where's mom and dad?"
"Y-your father sent me to pick you up miss." I froze.
"H-he what?" I stuttered. I hoped at least after an entire school year, my father would want to see me when I got back.
"He said he had business at the ministry to attend to." Dobby seemed to notice the tears. "You're mother s-said she wanted nothing more than to see you when you got back, but you're father insisted she go with him." I sniffed and nodded.
"Of course. He must be extremely-" My voice cracked and I held back a sob. Dobby reached up and took my hand.
"Let's get you home miss." He said sadly. I wiped the tears off my cheeks and held my head up high… just like a Malfoy.
I can't even begin to say how excited I am to share this with you guys! Fred and George have been my favorites for a long time and I kinda always had an I idea to do a story like this. But before any of you hard core fans freak out over Andy sharing the name of another character in the books, I will explain all of that in further chapters. So the story will be set up like this: The first five chapters will all be different years (First, then second, and so on) The sixth chapter will begin the main story. I just wanted to give a few background chapters before I got started. Again, I'm super excited with this story, and please let me know what you think!