Harry ran to her in ridiculous hope… her face was ashen and her eyes closed… but something was happening. The pendant of the first Andromeda, the pendant that shared almighty power with a galaxy in the sky above them, hung around her neck and all around its edges, the green light of the death spell lingered. It was growing and Harry clutched at Andromeda's hand. All at once the light vanished, or so he thought. Looking up, he heard a whoosh and saw a jet of light streak back towards the person who had cast it…
The spell had reversed itself and Andromeda was not dead at all, Harry realised. But as he watched, the spell did not reach its target, the woman who had cast it – diving in front of her, Callidus Green caught the spell and died.
Rowan looked up, furious, but Harry was ready and raised his wand. Thin cords sprung from it and wrapped themselves around Rowan Crowe. She lay helpless on the ground. 'Boy, how dare you?' she snarled, but Harry, as soon as he had removed Rowan's wand from her bound hand, went over to Andromeda.
'Oh Harry… I'm not dead, am I?'
'No,' said Harry, grinning. But then his expression changed. 'Callidus is. Your pendant – it reversed the spell and it shot back at Rowan – but Callidus jumped in the way…'
'Oh no,' she murmured, struggling to get up. Sitting on the crackly ground, she gazed over at Rowan, lying beside her dead brother. 'Harry, go and get Dumbledore – we've got to arrest her or something. And I've got to find out…'
Harry did as she said, though reluctantly, and Andromeda walked carefully over to Rowan. Andromeda could feel no pain. She supposed it had been shock that knocked her out. Well, there was no telling what a spell like that would do.
Not knowing what to say, Andromeda stared at Rowan instead. 'It wasn't his fault, you know,' said Rowan uncomfortably, 'it wasn't Callidus. He was too gentle. I put the Imperius curse on him.'
'And you're proud of that?' Andromeda rose to her feet and Rowan cringed as though Andromeda was about to kick her. 'You controlled an innocent man and now he's dead, because of you. Why try to kill me? What have I ever done?'
'Your father,' said Rowan urgently. 'I loved him… all the time we were at school I followed him around like a pathetic little fool… but he didn't love me. He loved some stupid Muggle. You can't understand, Andromeda – you can't understand why I needed to do it…'
'You tried to kill me because my dad didn't love you.' Andromeda was shaking with rage. 'And you used Callidus to get your own back, too.'
'I found out that he was writing to you,' Rowan said desperately. 'I took my chance. I still loved Emelus, even if he had forgotten me. I wanted to hurt him. I almost succeeded. Why couldn't you die? And now I've lost Callidus too… and he loved me… and I loved him more than if he were my true relative…'
'You stupid woman,' said Andromeda calmly, trying not to look at her uncle. 'What makes you think I'll believe you? It's your fault he's dead, not mine.'
'But it's true, it's true!' Rowan was screaming and the woods were silent. 'I wish I'd died instead of him… I wish I'd never tried to find you…'
'So do I,' said Andromeda, watching Harry's silhouette through the trees, and the two larger ones that walked beside him.
*
Rowan was gone, stored in Azkaban among murderers and Death Eaters. She was a murderer herself, Andromeda thought. She tried to kill me. But the words had no meaning. Rowan was far from innocent, but she was also far from evil, and only the evil deserved Azkaban. She was in love with my father. What would Andromeda do for Harry's love? She didn't know.
Callidus Green was to be buried the day after the school year ended. It was only a week away, Andromeda realised. Emelus and Erasmus Green had decided to organise the funeral after Emelus was contacted by his eldest daughter. Neither of the twins really remembered their elder brother, but they felt that they should be the ones to sort things out – to accept him back into the family. Callidus's parents, Andromeda's grandparents on her father's side, were both dead. It seemed they would never know why Callidus was ignored.
Unsurprisingly, Andromeda was feeling a bit depressed at the end of the school year. She had just lost her uncle and someone had tried to murder her. Also, of course, she wouldn't be seeing Harry for two months. 'Not if I can help it,' whispered Ron to Hermione, showing her the two already-written letters asking Harry and Andromeda to stay at the Burrow. Hermione's own invitation was already packed in her case. It had been one of the first things she put in.
OWL results were another thing they would all be eagerly awaiting. With Snape's absence, this year's Potions exam would take place next year instead, so they'd have to do double the amount of work to allow for the beginning of NEWTs as well. Harry thought he'd rather like to be an Auror, but he'd have to wait and see what other jobs were available. And of course, how his exam results turned out.
The arrival of the Hogwarts Express to take them all home was a welcome sight for most of the Hogwarts pupils, but not for Harry, Ron, Hermione or Andromeda. They would all miss each other a great deal, and Harry wasn't pleased to be going back to the Dursleys'.
The mood in their compartment was subdued. Hermione was idly plaiting Andromeda's hair and Ron was miming the same on Harry, much to their amusement, but there wasn't much conversation going on. 'Who got you that bracelet?' Harry asked to fill in the silence.
Hermione looked down at the gold cat charm that still adorned her wrist. 'I got it on Valentine's Day,' she replied with a grin. 'I don't know who sent me it, though.' From the look on Ron's face, Harry had an idea of who it might have been.
The train pulled in at King's Cross Station far too quickly. Harry lugged his case behind him and turned back to his friends, grinning awkwardly at Ron, submitting to Hermione's quick hug and kissing Andromeda, provoking whoops from the Weasley twins.
'That's us done!' shouted Fred, pulling off his Hogwarts robes to reveal a T-shirt and jeans. George grinned too. 'Yeah, we'll all be a load of Percies before long.' Harry smiled in spite of himself. He would miss Fred and George at Hogwarts.
Walking rapidly through the barrier, Harry caught sight of Mr Dursley, checking his watch pointedly. 'You're late,' said Vernon acidly.
Am I? thought Harry. It seemed like a quick journey. 'Yes, sorry I didn't hijack it and go at two hundred miles an hour,' said Harry pleasantly. Looking back at Andromeda, who was just arriving through the barrier, he waved and tried to ignore the choking feeling he suddenly got. It would be a longer summer than ever.
Well, that's it! There will be a 'Sixth Year' and most probably a 'Seventh Year' too, but first I must ask you all to give me some feedback. There are two things I want to know.
1) Did you like this story? I don't just want reviews that say 'Cool' and 'Keep writing' or 'That was terrible!' and 'okay'. Those are fine during the writing, if you want to do them, but I really need to know now what was good and bad about that story. It doesn't take much. Just please tell me why you liked it or why you hated it. Who was in character? Who wasn't? Do I write OK? Which was the best chapter? The worst? Did you like Andromeda? Why or why not? I really do take these into account. And I really do need them, because I want to be an author one day. Please, just a bit of constructive criticism. I don't care if you think the whole thing's awful. Just tell me WHY. OK, I think I've made myself clear now. But you don't have to answer all of those, I don't expect you to write me an essay. Just pick one or something. One reason why it was great or why it was terrible.
2) For my next project I am either going to write 'Sixth Year' or a Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs fic. Bear in mind that whatever I begin with, 'Sixth Year' and 'Seventh Year' will still get written, I'd just like to know which should come first. Does this series need a break, or should I go right on? The MWPP fic will deal with all seven of their years at school, but won't be as long as this one because each chapter will have a subheading e.g. 'September', 'Christmas', 'Easter'. I will only include significant events in this story. It will probably be quite difficult to write, but I've had some ideas and will write it eventually. 'Sixth Year' needs a lot more ideas. I am EVENTUALLY going to write both of these, but which should come first? You choose, 'cos I'm horribly indecisive.