{Disclaimer:  The Harry Potter World was created by J.K. Rowling and rights are owned by, but not limited Warner Brothers and Scholastic Books.  I, therefore, own no parts of this, save for Andromeda McGee and Wyvern, who are figments of my own imagination.}

Chapter 26

There Are Always Reasons

**When this old world starts getting me down/ And people are just too much for me to face/ I climb way up to the top of the stairs/ And all my cares just drift right into space "On The Roof" Carole King**

"Andy, wait!"

"Go away, Remus," she didn't even bother to turn around.  "Or do you plan on verbally slamming me into walls as well?"

"I only want to know what really happened."

"Oh, so you're going to listen to me?  Impressive.  I'm glad someone decided I'm not, how did he put it, a lying, traitorous, little bitch."

"Andy," he pleaded.  "I know you had to have a good reason."

She spun around slowly to face him.  "You're right.  I had a perfectly reasonable reason, if any one chose to listen to it.  It was the fact of an imperfect potion."

"Imperfect?"

"Yes, imperfect.  I fixed the potion so it would be immune to our dear friend, the Dark Lord."

"It didn't work?"

"Correct."

"He's not invincible?"

"Never was and never shall be on my account."

Remus cracked a small grin.  "I should have known you'd think of something like that."

She sighed, hands on her hips.  "I really don't blame you for doubting me, especially after all that happened to the lot of us.  Sirius, on the other hand…"

"He could have shown some restraint."

"Some?  Much more than he did!"

"I can't apologize for him, Andy, not this time.  He'll have to fix things by himself."

"I know.  At least you listened to me.  And you didn't insult me.  That counts for something."

"You do realize that you have to work with Sirius in the same room?"

"Oh, gods, yes!  I swear that someone is going to die before the end of the year and it's not going to be one of the students."

"Try not to hurt him."

"Hurt him!  Ha!  You crack me up sometimes, Remus.  I would never do something like that."  Sarcasm dripped from her voice.

"I mean it, Andy.  You and I both know how stubborn he can be and it'll take a while for him to admit he was wrong."

"He won't admit it.  He'll keep being an obstinate git for a few months until someone can get it through his thick skull that I was right all along and he made a complete and utter fool of himself."

"Andy, pause just try.  Please.  For my sake at least."

The grim, bitter laughter had yet to leave.  "I'll try, but I can't promise anything."

Remus nodded slowly.  "That's all I wanted to hear, that you will try."

"Well, you heard it loud and clear and now I have to go face him.  So if you hear any blood curdling screams, you know where they're coming from.  See you later."

She walked down the hall, head held high, tense with the thoughts of what might happen.  The door was slightly ajar, allowing her entry to the classroom.  She glanced around, noticing Sirius at his desk correcting papers.  He didn't even bother to acknowledge her presence.  Her desktop was empty, save for a single piece of parchment.  Andy scanned it over, shaking her head.  There was no name that it was addressed to, only writing.

"This class is yours to instruct.  We will no longer be co-teaching and will be switching as to what classes we will teach.  You will responsible for the entire sixth and seventh year students, as well as the list I have compiled for you at the end of this letter.  The remaining classes are mine to teach.  I feel that this is the best for both of us.  I no longer hold you in a high regard after what you have done.  We cannot function as a team without trust.  I cannot trust you any longer.  I will not apologize for what I have done."  It was signed illegibly with Sirius's signature.

Andy stared at the paper in her hands and shifted her gaze towards Black.  His dark eyes shone like tempered steel at her, pain and agony, hurt from what he thought she did.  He turned his head away, severing the connection between them.  Andy let her eyes close and took a deep breath.  Eventually, he would understand.  Until them, she would just have to be patient.

The seventh years filed into the room, aware of the palpable tension.  The lesson continued uneasily, with Andy snapping at a large amount of incompetent individuals and taking a record number of points from the Hufflepuffs.  The Ravenclaw half had enough brains to make sure everything was perfect or at least close to it and only lost a minute handful.  Yet they all survived and left the room in one piece.

Andy slammed the lesson book on the desk and stomped over to where Sirius passively sat.  Her fingers closed tightly around his lapels, yanking him over the desk until their faces where only inches apart.  "You don't get it, do you?"

"No, McGee, I obviously don't."  He sounded miffed.  "Though I would like to know what I don't get."

"I would never in my life do something like that and you damn well know it!"

"I have no reason to believe you."

"You have plenty of reasons!"

"The reasons not to believe you are much more convincing."

"Are they now?"  Andy's eyes blazed with an almost subhuman fury.

"Peter turned when we least expected him to do it.  Why couldn't you have gone and done the same exact thing?"

"Peter was too easy to manipulate."

"Azkaban can do strange things to a person.  It can change them, twist their minds to be what they are not."

"My morals held through.  Remember who put me there in the first place."

"I know perfectly well who."

"So why would I side with him after he erased my entire existence and locked me a cell for Merlin knows how many years?"

Sirius shrugged under her grasp.  "I don't know.  Twisted motives, an odd sense of revenge, power plays, bribes, anything could have turned you."

"Sirius, it's not what you think…"

He cut her off.  "I know exactly what it is, no matter what you think!  I will not listen to you!"  He forced her hands away, standing up to tower over her.

Andy's palm connected with the side of his face with a loud crack.  "You fucking bastard!"

"You betrayed us all, Andromeda McGee, every one of us."  He calmly walked away.  Andy's eyes grew wide as the door slammed shut.  She let out a pent up scream.  The thick dungeon walls kept most from hearing it, though a few Gryffindor first years jumped as they passed near the dungeons.  The class went by in a blur as that most of the students were now completely terrified of their professor.  Andy was in rare form, able to go from screaming at an insolent Slytherin to calmly explaining why what they were trying to accomplish was highly important.

Andy was alone once more.  She sat on the corner of her desk, hands folded loosely in her lap.  Why did Sirius have to go and ruin her life?  Did he not understand the bond between them and what breaking it would do to them?  She depended on him.  He had brought her back into existence.  He had been there for her when she needed someone.  Just as easily, he had shunned away without a real explanation.  She supposed she knew why.  Sirius Black had been an Auror before he was arrested.  He hated Voldemort with a passion, more so after James and Lily had been murdered because of Peter's betrayal.  Now Sirius believed she had done the same thing: betrayed them all to the Dark Lord, even though she hadn't.

The door creaked open.  Andy could hear footsteps and guessed the Sirius had returned to claim the papers he had left on his desk.  She kept her eyes down.  After what had been said only a few moments before, she was not ready for another confrontation.  The footsteps stopped nearby pausing.  A hand touched her shoulder.

New rage boiled up in her as she swung her fist out to hit him.  She could feel it connect with his midsection.  Andy pushed herself off the desk, battering him thoroughly with her fists, tears clouding her vision.  "Why won't you go away?  Haven't you tormented me long enough today?  Do you have no empathy to what you've god damn done to me?"  Arms and legs lashed out furiously, connecting with every part of the body they.

Strong fingers grabbed her wrists and with a swift motion pinned them behind her back.  She twisted and turned, struggling to get out.  "Let go of me, you bastard!"  She kicked back, but hit nothing.  "I don't care about what you've done!  Get your paws off me!"

"Temper, temper, McGee."

Andy froze, going limp.  "Oh, shit."  Her head fell to her chest.  "I didn't mean that.  I thought you were someone else."

"I would hope so."

"I'm so sorry, Sev.  It was just him and what he said…I don't know!  He wouldn't listen to me!  I tried, I really did.  He just…" She trailed off from a lack of how to explain everything.  Snape simply let her go.  Andy turned to face him.  "I really am sorry."

He grabbed her by the collar of her robe.  "Listen to me, McGee, and listen well.  You have got to learn to control your temper.  If I had been someone else, you could have been out of here in an instant.  Be glad it was me and be glad I know you well enough to realize that what you did was not on purpose."  He released his grasp, letting her stumble backwards.

"So no harm done?"

"Other than a rather large amount of bruises, no.  Next time you want to take your anger out on something, try to do it on an inanimate object."

"I will," Andy sounded contrite.

"I did not come here just to be used as your punching bag.  I need to know where you put my stash of ingredients."

"They're locked in your office, with the rest of your stuff.  We figured you might want them eventually."

Snape opened the door to his office.  Everything was exactly how he had left it, save for a handful of boxes haphazardly stacked in one corner.  He glanced at the contents, confirming that they were what he wanted and picked it up.  "Take the other one, McGee.  They're being relocated my lab."

Andy grabbed the remaining box, following like a shadow behind him.  It was set on a shelf in the back of his laboratory.  Snape started to reorganize the contents, placing them on cluttered shelves and desk tops.  Andy watched from her corner, chewing lightly on her bottom lip.  Her eyes followed the Slytherin as he moved around the room.  He turned, noticing that she watched him.  "What do you want, McGee?"

"I'm sorry!  I didn't mean to do it!  It wasn't supposed to happen!  It really wasn't!  I didn't mean to hurt you!"

Snape laughed softly, taking her by the shoulders.  "Is that what you're worrying about, that you hurt me?"

She nodded solemnly.

"Don't be a stupid git.  I have survived many worse beatings than having you attack me.  I'm used to it by now.  Pain can be ignored, bruises heal, wounds can be mended.  It's all right."

"You sure?"

"Yes, I am certain."

"All right.  So you accept my apology?"

"Yes, McGee, though I don't see your need.  You've hit me many times before without apologizing."

"Thanks, Sev."  She gave him a quick hug and rushed out of the room.

Snape watched her leave and closed the door with a flick of his wand.  Why she had spontaneously hugged him was beyond his thoughts.  Andy McGee was like a whirlwind; she could from anger to contrite to just plain friendly in a matter of minutes.  She had never learned to pull her punches and obviously wasn't ready to learn to do so.  She had hit him hard a few times, but no major harm was done.  He had almost forgotten how easy it was to provoke her into a fight.  She was a pit bull no matter what anyone else thought.

{Author's Note:  Originally this chapter involved Snape in leather, but that just didn't work.  That part was written during a two week performing arts camp, in which I took an acting class for seven hours a day.  The teacher decided to concentrate on Shakespeare, so the leather section of the chapter that I omitted was a result of that.  Shakespeare twists the mind.  I did finish 32 though, right now, even after all sorts if essays and such and Marching Band.  Slowly, I will finish this!

VMorticia:  I keep my own update list, so yes, you will getting them when I choose to update.  I want to get flamed, don't ask.  I was hoping some one would flame for that chapter, but no one did.  Damn.  Glad you are enjoying it.

Ignominia (aka Iggie): Well, school sucks.  The best class is AP physics, in which there is a total of 5 students and the teacher has a great since of humor.  Here's the next part and no, this isn't very little is it?

Hope you enjoyed this chapter!  Peace, Love, and Life Savers, Nataly Ravenlock}