Authors Note: Oh my god!!! I am SOOOO Sorry for taking so long to update!!! I was away for a month, but here is an obnoctiously long chapter, as one of my reviewers from my other story so fondly reffers to my writing as...sorry, the person was being a bitch (I hope they're reading this!) and so now I'm obsessing about it...haha, well, this one is like 14 pages, so enjoy!

Chapter 7

A Hard Day and Night

Andy did not sleep well, she had dreams about giant tentacles chasing her. She also saw images of Josh's face after she had been so mean to him. She rolled out of bed early again, taking the first shower before Patty got up and used all the hot water again. Andy towel dried her hair, putting it up into a ponytail. She pulled on her Hogwarts robes and added a touch of lip gloss and perfume. Andy pulled on her bright red sneakers, tyeing the laces and exiting the room quietly with her book sac. She grabbed a sleeping Merlin and brought him upstairs with her to the common room. No one was there, thank goodness, so she decided to work on her essay for professor Flitwick. She lay Merlin out on the couch so that he could continue his sleep, and put her bag on the chair next to her. She withdrew her bag, noticing the letter she had been writing to Shelli and making a mental note to post it today. Wonder where I can get an owl, or if there is just a normal postman who comes here. Where would I get stamps?

She looked through the notes she had taken the preceding day, trying to find the part that described the uses of the levitation spell and where it had been used successfully in the past. She wrote her thesis statement, just as her 7th grade english teacher had taught her, after writing a general overview of how the spell worked. She poceded to write out the essay, not liking parts of it, but overall thinking it was quite good. Andy heard the bell signalling that it was time to wake up and heard her stomach growl. She wanted breakfast, but it would not start for another half hour.

Andy stared around the common room trying to find something to distract herself, her eyes fell on a tapestry. She went over to it, and upon closer inspection it had the names of all the members of Slytherin house, graduating members only, dating all the way back to Salazar Slytherin himself. Although he had not graduated Hogwarts and had been one of the founders, this she had learned from the book Hermione had leant her to do background reading on Harry, he had apparently signed his name at the head of the tapestry anyway. The top of the tapestrry was faded, and the bottom was not finished yet, as there were still years of names to come. Andy liked this tapestry, and looked forward to the day she would have the privelage of adding her own name.

"So, you like the tapestry do you?" Came a voice behind her. She wheeled around to face Josh.

"Listen, Josh, I'm really sorry, I was very mean yesterday. I shouldn't have been-"

"It's okay, don't worry about it, I'm a laid back kind of guy, I don't mind. You were having a bad day, happens to the best of us." He said, brushing it off dissmissively. That was kind of him not to care, but maybe that was because he didn't care about my opinion and didn't respect what I thought or had to say.

And maybe, you're overanalyzing the situation, maybe I honestly don't care. Andy looked up, startled by this intrusion of her thoughts. She looked into Josh's deep blue eyes, so blue they were almost opaque, but could read nothing in them.

"Of course I care what you have to say." He said softly. Who is this boy? I'll have to be careful what I think around him.

"That you will."

"How do you do that?" She asked, staring at him.

"Do what?" He replied mischievously.

"You know exactly what I'm talking about, and both of us know it, so don't play dumb." She said, demanding an answer.

"I know, I just like to hear you say it. I don't actually know how I do it, I've always been able to, as far back as I can remember. Don't tell anyone though, I've never actually spoken to people in their thougths before. It's kind of cool."

"I think creepy is more appropriate." Said Andy. "So, am I really the only person who knows?"

"Really really. Now you have to tell me a secret of yours." He said.

"Tell you what, I'll think it, just in case anyone's listening." She said, sitting down on the couch and placing a purring Merlin on her lap.

My father is from a pure blood wizarding family. His name is Remulus Black, and he was a death eater. Right after he joined, he fell in love with a muggle woman. To the death eaters, this was unacceptable, she represented everything they were against and out to destroy. He fled so that he could be with her, because he loved her so much. He changed his name, lost all contact with his family, and was believed dead. He had a daughter with his new wife, and named her Andromeda. When she was seven years old he went missing, leaving his pregnant wife with their seven year old daughter. She miscarried the baby, and he was never seen again. Knowing it was the work of the death eaters, his wife fled, changing her name and the name of her daughter yet again. She sank into depression and over eating, six years later her daughter recieved a letter from Hogwarts and left, leaving her mother all alone with her memories and fear. On the way to Hogwarts, Andromeda told everyone that her last name was Black, taking her fathers old name. It wasn't until later that she discovered the death eaters had returned. In case you didn't catch that, my real name is Andromeda.

"Are you kidding? Is that really true?" Asked Josh, sucking up through his nose and sounding slightly hoarse. Andy was pleased that her story had touched him.

"Yes, it's all true, so now I have to hope the death eaters won't kill me for revenge." Said Andy, deadly calm. "Now you want the real secret? I'm afraid. I've never been afraid of anything, and now I'm afraid for my mother and myself."

"Your poor mother." Was all Josh said. People had started to trickle into the common room, so Josh and Andy decieded to head to the great hall. On the way up they ran into Daniel and they all sat together. Andy did not mention Josh's secret, and he did not mention hers.

"Transfiguration, I hear that's the hardest class here." Said Daniel. "Mogonagal is the woman who read our names for sorting, she's really strict I've heard." They went to the class early, and sat in the front row so as to look studius and interested. Professor Mogonogal entered the classroom while some students were still trickling in.

"From now on you will come to my class on time, one point from each of you who were late." Five points deducted already, and class hadn't even started. She stood at the front of the class and took role, when she reached Andy's name, she stressed the Andromeda, she must have heard Andys comment yesterday.

After taking an hours worth of notes, they were each given matches and told to turn them into needles. Andy, expecting this to come as easily as charms had, did not pay attention during the note taking process. When she was given her match she pointed her wand and said the incantation. "Trasformare fiammifero!" Said Andy, casually pointing her wand at the match. It rolled off the desk, but did not change color or shape. Andy distinctly noticed Professor Mogonagals mouth twitch. This only made Andy more determined to prove that she could do it. "Trasformare Fiammifero!" She said more loudly, pointing her wand more purposfully. The match burst into flame. Professor Mogonagal came over, extinguishing the match with a spout of water from her wand.

"Try again, Ms. Black." She said, placing a second match on Andys desk. Andy was greatful when the bell rang, she had not managed to transform thae match, although hers was slightly metallic, and no on else had suceeded either. They had been assigned to write and essay describing how the transformation took place, Josh had told Andy that he would let her copy his notes if she needed to. Andy diligantly copied the assignment into her notebook, as she did at the beggining of every term of school. She always started off organized, but by the middle of the year she had always lost interest or missed a few weeks, throwing her off for the rest of the year.

They were downstairs in the dungeons for potions, and were all milling in the hall, not knowing what to do, when professor Snape approached from behind.

"What are you all standing here for? Get into the classroom." Andy was glad that her common room was near to this classroom, because she had managed to have enough time between potions and transfiguration to sprint to her common room and grab her cauldron. She was not alone, most of the other Slytherin first years had been counting on this time frame to grab their cauldrons as well. The entered the class slightly after the rest, earning them and evil look from professor Snape, but nothing more. Andy and Daniel shared a desk and partnered up for the concoction of the Silliness Solution. The instructions were written on the board, and the supplies, if they were so irresponsible to not have bought them over the holidays, could be found in the supply cupboard.

Andy diced her, what Andy reffered to as, green fuzzy planty thing, while Daniel got the cauldron to the appropriate temperature.

What the hell is the name of this plat, and how the hell does he expect me to remember it? Andy asked herself, to her surprise, there was an answer,

I think it's some sort of thistle, or maybe he said it was thyme, I'm not sure. Did you read your copy of 1000 Herbs and Fungae?

Would you get out of my thoughts? You have no idea how disturbing that is.

Sorry, he replied, and he did not talk again after that, although Andy was very careful about what she thought from then on. Snape prowled around the classroom, breathing down the backs of everyones necks, picking on Gryfindors, and looking for the student who would be this years scapegoat. He found it in Brittni, maybe he thought that because she was small she could be pushed around easily, but he was wrong.

"You're doing it all wrong, I suppose you added the Nettle before you put the cauldron on simmer, you foolish girl. I would suggest that I require you to test the potion, but I doubt that if it worked we would be able to tell." Daniel grew hot around the neck and ears on behalf of his sister as the majority of Slytherins burst out laughing. Andy did not, as she had liked Brittni, and liked Daniel, and didn't think that she had meritted that sort of remark. Brittni drew herself up to her full hieght, facing professor Snape.

"Excuse me sir, but my causlron is on simmer, and I have never done this before, whereas you do this every year and it is your responsibility to make sure we know what we're doing. What kind of teacher are you to critisize me for making a common mistake that anyone would make when it wasn't even explained to me?" Snape, recovering from the shock of being spoken back to by a student, answered back. He was not going to be taking any lip from a student, especially not a Gryffindor student.

"Are the directions not clearly written on the board? It is your responsibility to be able to read, not mine. I did not realize that it was in my job description to teach over excited children with the maturity level of two year olds simple reading. Can you, or can you not read the board?" He asked in a sarcastic voice.

"Yes I can." She replied frostily.

"Well then, by all means, please read us line number seven." He said.

"Add the finely chopped nettles to the potion after putting it on a simmer." Said Brittni softly.

"That is what I thought it said. Oh, and 20 points from Gryfinndor for your insolence and cheekiness, and for critisizing my teaching. Now I think of it, why don't we add in a detention or two, shall we?" He turned away from her potion, swirling his robes around him and going back to the front of the class.

"She shouldn't have lost her temper with him, but that's Brittni for you. She always looses her temper at the drop of a hat." Andy looked at where Brittni was standing. She was turning bright red, and Andy noticed the girl sharing her desk had put a restraining hand on her arm to prevent her from speaking any more.

"At least he can't find fault with our potion, we followed all the instructions perfectly." He concluded more cheerfully. The two corked their sample and brought it to the front of the room. Snape gave than an approving smile, which Andy returned. Best to get on the good side of this one. They were assigned an essay on the uses of the Silliness Solution and how it would be used, it only needed to be one roll of parchemnt, he claimed he was looking for thoughtfullness. In Andys experience when teachers said they wanted thoughtfullness they were looking for you to suck up, or cram all the information you could into a shorter essay so that they didn't have to read a lot of long repetative essays.

Andy had a steaming roll covered in butter for her lunch on the way to Astronomy, which was located at the top of the tallest tower. Andy had been wrong when she had thought that there was nothing more to be taught about the stars. Their teacher, Professor Randell, was the head of Ravenclaw house. She had glasses and an expression that suggsted she spent most of her time day dreaming and staring into the skys. Considering that she was an astronomy teacher, this was probabally true of her. She spoke with passion about the possitioning of the stars and how it effected their lives. She spoke of how the position of the stars at certain times was imparative, and how people had used the stars to navigate. They were assigned to fill out a star chart of the position of the stars at their moment of birth, and were given several handouts on the moon cylces, most well known constallations, and stories relating to them.

This topic seemed really broad, it covered mythology, and a basic introduction to divination as well as in depth astronomy, but Andy enjoyed the class very much. In the muggle world she had found the class excrutiatingly dull, but Professor Randells passion for her subject showed through, making it interesting. Andy was sure that this would be her favorite class, although she was more than a little disappointed at the lack of magic used in it. They were all to come back that Wednesday night at 11:45 to stargaze with telescopes and see the fall constellations. Professor Randell spoke with excitment about the charts they would be making themselves, labeling the stars and learning their positions in the night sky. They learned how to read a star chart, and how to navigate using one. It was all very interesting.

At dinner that night Andy ran into Harry Potter and his friends yet another time. She was sitting between Rachel and Josh, with Daniel on the other side of Rachel and Daphne on his other side when she felt a tap on her back.

"So, how have your first two days been? I heard a rumor that you were attacked by the giant squid." He said in a friendly manner, glancing at Ron and Hermione.

"Yeah, I guess that's what it was." She said, looking at her own friends and back at Harry skeptically.

"So, how did you get away?" He asked by way of making convorsation.

"I shot it with a jet of red flames from my wand." She replied casually, eating again.

"Yeah right, you're only a first year, you couldn't possibly make a beam of fire, let alone one powerful enough to maim the squid. I doubt it even attacked you." Hermione said, tossing her uncontrollable frizzes over her shoulder.

"Are you calling me a liar? I was there, was I not? I know what I did better than you thank you very much." Andy snapped, spinning around and ignoring Josh, who was attempting to communicate with her through her thoughts. She blocked him out and continued to glare at Hermione.

"So, how did you do it then? What spell did you use?" Challenged Hermione.

"I didn't, I just thgought about what I wanted to happen, and it did." Andy said shortly.

"Of course. That is so very plausible. I doubt even I could do that, that is very advanced magic. You cannot possibly be capable of just thinking of the result you want and not even saying the spell and still causing it to happen. It just doesn't make any sense at all." She sniffed, looking to Harry for support.

"Well that is what happened, how many things here do make sense? If you ask me it doesn't make much sense at all for staircases to change position, suits of armor to walk, and paintings to talk, and yet they do. So tell me, does it really make any less sense for me to sendsparks out of my wand?"

"I suppose not." Hermione said slowly, pushing her hair out of her face as Harry chuckled at her remark. Apparently no one ever proved Hermione wrong about anything.

"I'm often confused by the stuff here too, don't worry about it. I was wondering if I could talk to you?" Harry said, shooting Hermione an evil look that clearly told her to back off and not cause any problems.

"What makes you think it's confusing to me? Whose worrying?" Andy asked accusingly.

"I just thought maybe, since you said-" Harry stammered, oviously trying not to offend her.

"You want to meet with me now? It's the middle of dinner." She said, cutting him off before he made an even bigger fool of himself. It was too easy to confuse the people here.

"Well, if it isn't Potty and the Weasle, I see you are still tagging along with them, mudblood." Said the snide voice of Draco Malfoy, addressing Hermione. "Are they bothering you Andy?" He asked, looking at her as she flushed slightly.

"You certainly know how to pick your company Andy, already hanging out with the smarm ball are you?" Ron said, starting to move his very large self towards Draco. He was restrained by Hermiones arm on his shoulder.

"Draco, why don't you leave?" Hermione said. "Stop pestering people and go make some friends." She snipped.

"Oh, touchy Granger, aren't you? As a matter of fact, I came over here to make sure you weren't pestering people. Andy, if they're bothering you just tell them to leave." Draco said, looking at her expectantly. On the one hand, Andy did not like this Granger girl, but she did not like Draco either.

"As a matter of fact Draco, I was just going to go speak with Harry." As soon as the words left Andys mouth she regretted it. Her friends looked surprised, Hermione looked concieted and pleased with herself, and worst of all, Draco looked hurt. He turned and walked away, his robes flowing behind him. "So, what do you want?" Andy asked Harry a little to abruptly.

"I would prefer it if we could talk somewhere private," when he saw Andys reaction to this statement he continued, "it's about your family." Andy stood up and followed him out of the dining hall, hearing whispers follow her. When she turned around she saw Draco watching her, horrified.

"So, what do you want?" Andy said, finishing her mouthfull of food.

"Do you know your father or his family?" Harry asked slowly.

"My father was murdered when I was seven years old." She said bluntly.

"Do you know what his name was?" Harry asked hopefully, leaning forward.

"Of course. His name was Regulus Black." She said.

"What do you know about him?" Harry rushed on, speaking more quickly and excitedly.

"Well, he was from a high class pure blood family and had an older brother. He joined the death eaters and was murdered when he tried to leave them for love of a muggle." Andy thought, what was he trying to prove? "That's pretty much it."

"Did you ever meet your uncle?" Harry asked.

"No, we were in hiding, his whole family thought he was dead and did not even know I existed." Andy told him. Seeing his face fall she asked "why do you ask?"

"Oh, no reason really. Your uncle was my godfather. He was murdered by death eaters too at the end of last year, it was mostly my fault."

"No it wasn't Harry, don't start that again, it had nothing to do with you. It was no ones fault." Hermione said rushing to his side to appease him. He looked pale and shaken, as if in a far off memory of what had happened before.

"Well, I was just thinking, he was the last Black living, or so we thought. But now you're here, and that changes everything." Harry continued, ignoring Hermione.

"How does that change anything?" Andy asked him, curious as to why her being a Black made any difference at all.

"Does Dumbledore know about your relation to Sirius?" Harry asked, changing the subject and avoiding the question.

"Who the hell is Sirius?" Andy asked, angry that he was doing everything on his terms, forcing her to explain everything, and then offering her no explanation in return.

"Your uncle, but does Dumbledore know?" Harry asked.

"I assume so, why wouldn't he? It's not a secret or anything." She replied to this, in her mind, rather ridiculous question.

"Maybe it should be more secret. You should tell Dumbledore." With that he, Ron, and Hermione left the room. What a wierd kid, why would she tell Dumbledore? I'll tell Professor Snape, seeing as he is my house head.

Andy made her way down to the common room and decided to seek out Draco to appologize. She scanned the crowded room, spotting him in a corner playing with Merlin and chatting with Gregory and Vincent. He looked up at the sound of her footsteps and then turned back to her cat, ignoring her.

"Draco, I'm sorry okay?" She said, taking a seat on the floor next to him.

"Guys, leave." He told his two 'friends'. From what Andy had heard, he did not treat them like friends. The two oafs lumbered off, leaving Draco and Andy alone. "So, you came to appologize? What for?" He asked her deffensively, looking skeptical.

"For making you look bad in front of Harry." She said cooly, leaning against the said of his chair.

"I don't give a rats ass what Pot head and his little chums think about me." He snarled.

"I think that's a lie, and you know it. You didn't like that you lost face in front of them, don't deny it."

"So why did you do it then? To make me look bad? Why do you even think I care?"

"Because you do. I can tell that you do, no matter how much you pretend not to care what people think about you." She had decided that calmness, not rage, was the best tact under these circumstances.

"It doesn't matter, you can go hang around with Goody Goody Granger, Weasle boy, and Pot head as much as you want, but don't come crying to me when you realize how lame they are." He said angrily.

"You know what I think?" Andy said, eyes sparkling with anger. What right did he to tell her who she could and could not hang around with? To hell with calmness, he was a jackass and she was going to get as angry as she wanted. "I think you're afraid. I think you're jealous." She informed him, standing up so that she was taller than him.

"Me? Jealous of Potter?" Draco spat. "Impossible."

"No, not impossible, true. He's famous isn't he? He conquered Lord Voldemort or whatever his name is and you're intimidated." She said, ignoring the collective shivers around the room from those who had been eavesdropping. Even Draco flinched as she spoke, perhaps she had struck upon the truth.

"Well, if I'm such a coward, why don't you go and find your hero Potty and follow him around worshiping his footsteps?"

"You know what? Maybe I will, and you know what else? There's nothing you could do about it!" Andy fumed silently as she walked past the staring common room. She entered her dormitory and flopped onto her bed, sighing with frustration. The next morning at breakfast she was still feeling outraged over Dracos reaction to her speaking with Harry, he had no right to say any of those things. Her thought were intrupted by the arrival of the mail.

"Hey, Andy, you have a letter." Josh informed her, tapping her on the shoulder and waking her from her trance.

"Oh, right, of course. Yes, okay." Andy looked at the bird sitting in front of her. A few minutes later Josh looked back and saw that she was still sitting in the same position looking at the bird.

"What are you doing?" He asked, laughing.

"Um, well, what exactly am I supposed to do with it?" She asked, looking at the owl confusedly.

"Are you kidding?" He asked uproariously. "You take the letter off the leeg silly, what did you think you did?"

"Well excuse me, it's not like I've ever done this whole wizarding thing before!"

"Relax, I was only joking, you need to calm down. Here, I'll do it for you." Josh said as he stretched across her, lifting up the owl. He really was quite good looking, and Andy was rather shocked to find herself self consious as he brushed her arm while reaching for the owl. He untied the letter gently and handed it to her. She opened the letter as the owl flew away, back to wherever it was the owls went. Andy opened the seal, scanning the note and looking to the bottom to find who it was from. It was from Professor Flitwick, telling her that he would expect her in his office that evening for lessons on charms to see if she was talented enough to move up a level. Andy sighed, looking forward to a long, busy day. This magic thing was harder than she had anticipated.