{Disclaimer: The Harry Potter World was created by J.K. Rowling and rights are owned by, but not limited to Scholastic Books and Warner Brothers. I, therefore, own no parts of this save for the characters of Andromeda McGee and Wyvern, who are figments of my own twisted imagination.}
{This chapter is for Jess (a.k.a. Josie) who, when I asked for ideas, sent me a short insert, which I edited and used for a part of this chapter. Thanks! What would I ever do without you?}
Chapter 28
Life's a Bitch
**Chill out,
what you yellin' for?/ Lay back, it's all been done
before/ And if you could only let it be you will see...../ Why do you have to go
and make things so complicated?/ I see the way you're acting like you're
somebody else gets me frustrated./ Life's like this...
"Complicated" Avril Lavigne**
Andy stomped back to her room sometime after midnight. Snape was being an arrogant bastard and generally assuming that he knew everything. He had argued with everything that had come out of her mouth. After a very heated discussion that got both of them screaming at each other, she had stormed out of the lab.
A quick glance around her room showed nothing amiss. With a short pent up growl she slammed her fist into the nearest pillow, feeling something go 'crunch' under the solid blow. The paper was flattened out, her name recognizable on the front. She knew the hand writing. In fact, she knew it very well indeed. It belonged to one Sirius Black, who currently hated her total being. It was addressed very formally with her entire name spelled out in spindly letters: Andromeda Josephine McGee. It was too neat looking for her to trust it. Andy chucked it into the flames of the fire place watching it turn to cinder ash. She hadn't bothered to read it. It was probably more insults, more you are dirt, scum, a low life amoeba, or what ever else he could think of to call her. In fact, only yesterday he had told her once again that she couldn't be trusted. This time it was on the Quidditch pitch when Madame Hooch had scheduled a practice. That man frustrated the hell out of her. She held the pillow tightly as the last pieces of the parchment burned red. Not bothering to worry about it, she slept.
An incessant beeping woke her a few hours later. Andy opened her eyes, rubbing them to remove the last bits of sleep. She glanced over to the glowing clock. 5:37 in the morning. It had taken her two minutes to fully realize that the clock was creating the racket and she hit it hard with her fist. It stopped mid beep. "Ugh," she moaned, pulled herself out of bed. She limped over to a sink and washed her face to clear the remnants of her dozing. A quick glance showed her room was a disaster.
'Comfort foods' were scattered over her oak coffee table. An empty bag of Oreos leaned against a melted three-quarters finished pint of Ben and Jerry's Rocky Road Ice Cream. A bottle of Hershey's Chocolate Syrup, a bag of marshmallows, and a can of whipped cream that now contained enough of its prior contents to make one mini, and very mini at that, ice cream sundae, were in a heap near by. A few other foods were there but they weren't important enough to take notice of at the moment.
"Why, why, why does he have to be such an ignorant ass?" Andy muttered to herself, forcefully throwing on the pair of sandals that Snape had given her. She stopped and thought for a moment. Come to think of it, he was being an ignorant ass as well. Men…What was their purpose in life? Was it just to make her miserable? She laughed out loud, causing Wyvern to raise her head from where she had been sleeping. "Don't worry, cat, you don't have to deal with them. I do." She paused. "I think I'm going crazy again, at least for the moment. I try to trust someone and they turn their back on me. You know what? Life sucks!" Andy stormed out of her room.
"Alohomora," she mumbled to the door of the Potions classroom, still not fully awake. It creaked open, allowing her entrance to the room. She shuffled over to her desk. No new messages waited for her. 'Good,' she thought to herself. 'Being told once again that I can't be trusted is not something I need this morning. What I do need is a cup of strong coffee.' She summoned a mug and took sip. It was bitter and scalding hot, but it helped to clear her mind.
Third years were the first class of the day, meaning Sirius would be in at any moment, preparing for his lesson. She would have to hurry out of there if she didn't want to have another run-in with him. She hastily opened her briefcase, separating the 6th and 7th year papers, filing them in her abnormally tidy desk, for her that is. She had no sooner begun when Sirius walked in. Andy kept her head down, but her eyes were up, watching his every move. If he even blinked wrong, she would let him have it. He glanced over at her for a half a second, then slowly continued walking over to his desk, staring at the floor.
At that moment, an owl flew in, dropping the Daily Prophet in the open drawer of Andy's desk. She sighed, looking at the front headline: "VOLDEMORT'S POWER INCREASING?" She raised her eyebrows and began reading the four full-page article until she came across the line "...yours truly, Rita Skeeter...", and tossed it into her briefcase, not really intending to read it later.
Sirius cleared his throat. Andy didn't even bother to look up. He cleared it again, making it apparent he wanted to get her attention. She continued to ignore him. 'I can be a bitch if I want to be,' she thought, making it blatantly obvious that she was deliberately focusing on what she was doing and didn't want to hear whatever that incompetent bastard had to say.
"Er...Andy?" Sirius said, speaking a few decibels louder than a whisper.
Andy yawned with much exaggeration, as she finished sorting and grading papers she hadn't got to the night before. She swiftly scooped up the two piles, filed them properly and closed her briefcase.
"Look, Andy, I thought maybe we could--," Sirius began, but it wasn't effective. On that note, Andy looked at him, scoffed, and walked briskly out of the room, making sure to slam the squeaky door behind her. Sirius sighed, sat down, his head in his hands, the deafening silence of the empty classroom ringing in his ears. She obviously hadn't wanted to talk with him. He hoped that she had gotten the note he had written her. Judging by her reaction, she probably hadn't read it. With his currently luck, she had destroyed it, thinking it was more insults like he had written before.
"Damn!" he swore to himself, the curse echoing from the walls of the dungeon. He added a few more potent curses that we won't mention since this is supposed to be PG-13. "Why, Andy? Why do you have to be such an obstinate bitch?"
The third years warily shuffled into the room, having seen Andy fly out in a rage. They had learned of both professors high strung temperaments. After seeing one of them race from the room looking like she was about to kill something or someone, they didn't know what to expect from the other. Sirius had calmed down, in fact. He waited patiently for his class to enter then began the lesson. Underneath his exterior placidness, uncertainty and anger bubbled away. The students left him alone in the room. He waited for Andy to return, knowing that she had a class to teach next.
Andy had left boiling with fury. How dare he try to talk with her? After all that he did to her, did he actually expect her to listen to what he had to say? She didn't think so. She knew she had to return though she didn't want to. Andy shoved open the door, noticing that Sirius was still there. 'Damn persistent bastard!' she thought to herself, throwing her battered briefcase onto her desk.
Sirius approached her cautiously, not wanting to be blown up at, yet knowing that it was likely to happen. "Andy, we need to talk."
"Why? Give me one good reason to listen to you? Personally, I have none that I can think of."
He couldn't think of anything either. "We still need to talk."
"About what? Are you going to start calling me names again? I don't need to be convinced that I'm low-life scum for the third time this month." She paused as he tried to speak, but cut him off. "Look, Sirius. You've already told me how you felt about me. I believe you decided that I was a traitorous, little bitch. No, don't speak. We have nothing between us anymore. It's as simple as that. Got it? No matter what you do, nothing can change. Anything you do, I can ignore. Don't try to write me, I'll just burn it like I did to what ever you sent me last night. I won't listen to what you have to say. You don't believe me any way," she paused taking no notice of the sorrow in his eyes. "Just go away. I have a class to teach."
Sirius turned on his heel, grabbing a pile of papers and left the room like a dead man. Andy had made up her mind about what he had said. She was not going to listen to him easily. It was a pity. If she would listen, everything would be fine. She had always listened before.
They had been third years. It was the day after Christmas break when everyone returned to Hogwarts. Andy had climbed up the stair to the Gryffindor dormitories, dragging her trunk behind her with heavy remorse. Sirius had taken the other end, helping her carry it down the long halls and into her room.
"Thanks," she had turned to face him, face colored with numerous bruises.
"What the hell happened to you, Andy?"
"It's nothing, just a few bruises."
"It's something."
"No, it's not."
"Yes, it is." Sirius took her arm, feeling her wince. He rolled up her sleeve, seeing more bruises and cut marks. "What did he do to you?"
"He didn't do anything."
"Andy, listen to me. You don't just suddenly have a bunch of bruises appear on you. Something had to happen." He led her to a couch in the Common Rooms. "You can tell me."
"It's better left unsaid, Sirius. You don't have to deal with it. It's my problem, not yours."
"You're my friend. I do have to deal with it. Was it Ben?"
"No, it wasn't Ben. He left to pick up a few things and his friends came over. They were completely smashed on who knows what. I could smell the liquor on their breath. A few of them started throwing me around, hitting me. It was horrible. Ben came back and stopped them, but he couldn't stop the damage that had been done. I was lucky nothing was broken. It hurt so much…" Everything came out in a quiet whisper. Sirius could tell she didn't want to talk about it.
"It'll be alright," he put his arm around her shoulders, pulling her close. She looked so vulnerable, bruised and battered.
Andy looked up at him, tear streaked face smiling slightly. "Thanks, Sirius."
Sirius thought about that for a moment. She had always talked to him before. He knew more about her than any one else, Lily included. They could talk about anything. Another memory came back to him.
An owl had flew right into the Common Room, dropping a letter on his lap. Sirius took one look at it and left the room. Andy watched him go from the corner she had been studying in. She could tell something was wrong, just by the way he walked out on them. She stood up, following him out. She caught up with him half way down the hall. No words passed between them, just simple silence.
Sirius knew that she would follow him. Andy had a knack for telling when people were unhappy or something was wrong. He couldn't hide anything from her. He had learned it to be impossible. He collapsed on a bench in a deserted corridor, Andy sitting next to him.
She let a moment pass before speaking. "What happened?"
Sirius passed her the letter, which she scanned quickly. "Oh, gods, that's horrible!"
Sirius said nothing in response. There was nothing to say.
"Hey, everything will be alright. Death is only life's next great adventure."
"You don't what it's like to lose someone you love."
"Yes, I do. I know more than anyone else around here."
"It's not the same. She's dead. I'll never see her again."
Andy took his hand in her own. "She died what doing what she did best. She died trying to save the lives of others."
"But she'll never come home. She never be there again."
"Pisces Black was an Auror for a reason. She used her life to fight for us. She wouldn't have wanted to die any other way."
"I know. Why couldn't they have taken someone else? Why did it have to be my sister?"
"She probably understood exactly what she was doing."
"She was fool-hardy to do it."
"No, Sirius, she wasn't. Pisces isn't one to describe as fool-hardy. She knew all the dangers of being an Auror. She wouldn't have been fighting for any other reason."
"You're right, Andy. She did know what she was doing, but that still doesn't mean that she had to go and die for it."
"No, it doesn't, but she did."
Sirius paused, breathing more calmly than he had before. "I'm going to avenge her death. They'll pay for taking her life. No one messes with the Blacks and gets away with it."
Andy had been there for him. She had listened; she had forced some common sense into him. Pisces had been his older sister and a bloody good Auror. They had been close and then the Death Eaters had killed her in an attack. He had become an Auror to avenge her death and the deaths of others. Andy had supported him all the way.
He couldn't take it anymore! He needed her. Having her ignore his existence was like loosing a part of himself. He missed having someone to talk to that he knew would listen. Yes, Remus was there, but it wasn't the same. He wanted Andy back to way things were before. Sirius bowed his head, realizing how lonely he had been the past few months. Anger and rage had held him through, but he needed people. He needed people that he could trust, people like Andy. She had been one of his best friends and more than that. He wanted her back.
{Author's Note: Well, well, well…I told you it would take awhile to solve things. Come on, did any of you actually expect Andy to listen to Sirius? She just wouldn't do that! It's not her character. Ben is Andy's older brother, as mentioned in Chapter 11, in case you forgot. Oh, well. I suppose I should stop ruining people's lives, but that's no fun. Just a warning, most of this chapter was written after having an allergy attack that made my arms swell up and break out in hives. I spent over two hours at a hospital on Saturday trying to get everything cleared up. I'm better now, though my hands are still slightly swollen and the hives come and go. So if anything in this chapter is confusing, blame it on the medicines the doctor put me on. They make me rather woozy. That of course, was in mid August, when this chapter was written.
VMorticia: Yeah, he could have, but he didn't and I really don't feel like going back and changing it. That chapter was hard enough to write as it is. I did like Remus's reaction. This is what you get for starting with my fic.
Ignominia: I'm glad you still enjoyed it.
WeasleyTwinsLover1112: Of course, he's a thick headed git! What else would he be?
Anna Black: You have waited long enough. Here's 28. I know the feeling. I've done that before. Up until two, awake at 7:30, at my friend's by 8:30, band at 12:30, or in some cases earlier.
Hope you enjoyed it! Peace, Love, and Rice Crispy Treats, Nataly Ravenlock}
