Last Time on Black and White:
"That's it, we're giving you till the count of three!"
"1..."
"Andrew, just drop your wand!" Hermione called out.
"2..."
"I would if I fucking had it!"
"3!"
"Ah shit!"Andrew shouted before pulling Hermione down and covering her from the spell fire.
Book 4 – Chapter 4: Dark Omens
The spells shot off by the wizards soared above them and sizzled out as they made contact just above the two fourth year students.
"Stop, hold your fire!" came a yell.
Looking up, Andrew and Hermione saw Mr Weasley as well as their friends running towards them with panicked expressions.
"That is Andrew Potter and his school friend, Hermione Granger!" yelled Mr Weasley.
"Arthur..."
"No Crouch! You had no right to shoot off those spells and you know it! I have half a mind to report you to Head Auror Bones!"
The man, Crouch, sighed before signaling to his men to lower their wands. Just then the two of them were rushed by their friends who all had to be assured that they were safe.
"Where the fuck were you three?" Andrew asked the twins and Ginny in a mildly annoyed manner.
"Well-" Fred started.
"Ginny here had to-" he was cut off when the girl stomped on his toe, while her face burned a bright red.
"Ahem, Ginny had to handle something, then we saw Bagman and we chased after him."
"Ludo Bagman? The eccentric dude?" Andrew asked with a raised brow.
"Right! Well he owed us-"
"So we went after him and well, we figured we'd be quick but..."
Andrew sighed but controlled his anger before turning back to the three red heads.
"As long as you're alright." he relented before shaking his head.
"Andrew." called Mr Weasley joined by the Crouch fellow. "Tell us exactly what happened." the patriarch of the Weasley said.
Andrew recounted the steps that lead up to the discovery of the man in the field swapping some facts such as Fred, George and Ginny's disappearance for a scream in the woods they went out to investigate and found themselves in said field before being ambushed.
Crouch glanced over at Hermione who seemed shaken up and were being consoled by Harry and Ron off to the side and he turned back to Andrew and noticed his calm demeanor as if the boy was neither bothered nor affected by the Dark Lord's symbol ominously floating above their heads. He narrowed his eyes at the boy but chose to keep his mouth shut for the moment.
When Andrew finished they requested his wand to which he explained again that he didn't have. Before his eyes widened.
"Summon it!" he said while looking at Crouch.
"Excuse me?"
"Well, it should come if you summon it right? So just do that." Andrew said slapping his forehead with a laugh.
Crouch blinked before raising his wand and casting the spell. "Accio Potter's wand."
Harry felt a jolt in his pocket and kept his hand on his wand so that it wouldn't fly over. There a was a moment of nothing before a sleek black wand flew through the air and was caught by Andrew.
"There you are, beautiful!" he said happily as he examined his wand.
"It came from where the spell was cast." Hermione said her eyes slightly wide.
"Hmm? Really? Well, my wand didn't cast that spell. I know that for a fact." Andrew said.
"Andrew..."
"No, I know it didn't." he persisted.
"Well, then I suppose you wouldn't mind us taking a look, now would you?" Crouch said suspiciously.
"Sure, what's the spell?" the dark skinned boy asked.
"I think we should do it." Crouch insisted.
"It won't work for you. My wand works for no one but me and my brother. Same goes for his wand." Andrew informed him.
"I highly doubt-"
"Professor Flitwick tried and they bested him, and isn't he one of the dueling champions in the world? And with his heritage you'd think he'd know a bit more about wand lore than we do."
The two stared at one another before Crouch relented and let Andrew perform the spell and found the last spell to be used was the Glacius charm, from Flitwick's last lesson before they left Hogwarts, last term.
Once it was determined that Andrew's wand couldn't have cast that spell, everyone had the same question in their mind. Who could've done it and why did they do it? Voldemort's symbol, but Voldemort was dead.
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Finally after returning home the boys were bombarded by both Mrs Weasley and their Godfather as they both faffed over the boys double and triple checking that they were in fact alright.
Once everyone had calmed down they headed inside for some supper and to take their minds off of what had happened. The conversation was lighthearted and fun as they discussed some of the children's adventures at school, making sure to exclude the titular end of year disasters.
Soon enough it was getting later and the children were told that they had to go off to bed. A little while later Andrew and Harry called by Sirius and followed the man up to the roof of the crooked building.
"Hey." the man greeted the two boys.
They greeted back and joined the ex-convict as he star gazed.
"Off to another year at school." he said with a blissful sigh.
"Yeah, another year filled with... adventure." Andrew said after a small pause.
"Well, less adventurous than last year, please." Sirius said with a small laugh to which the boys chuckled along with, knowing that it was probably be exactly the same if not more adventurous as the previous year.
"You know, you're mother; Lily, she loved the stars." Sirius said.
"Really?" Harry asked.
"Yeah, she had this deep fascination with the concept of life outside our realm of understanding."
"What do you mean? Like aliens?" Andrew asked with a frown.
"She did mention that, yes. But rather the idea that life and death are concepts we are still have no idea about. Like could something be alive and yet not be? Could something die without really dying? She would ponder things like that for hours at a time. Drove James mad." Sirius finished with a laugh.
Andrew and Harry shared a look though. Could something die without really dying? Those words echoed in their minds for a moment.
"You don't think...?"
"They said announced him dead, yet we've fought him twice already." Andrew responded before turning back to the stars.
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September 1st arrived and Andrew stood in the foyer of the Weasley family looking utterly surprised.
"You're ready?" he asked in disbelief.
"Yeah." They answered with a shrug.
"Huh. Okay." he said with a slight shrug.
With that they walked outside of the home and found two muggle taxis sitting there. Andrew stopped as did Hermione and Harry as they stared at the shiny black vehicles waiting for them.
"The hell?" Harry muttered.
"Come on, let's go. We've got a bit of a drive ahead of us." Mr Weasley said excitedly.
"We'll meet you lot there." Sirius said gesturing to Bill and Charlie who stood beside him.
The Potters seemed as though they wanted to argue but chose against it and smiled before nodding to their Godfather before headed to the cabs.
The ride to the station was largely uneventful except for Mr Weasley occasionally asking the driver questions about innate muggle objects.
When they finally arrived and made sure to have all of there belongings they made their way to the platform and were greeted by multiple families assisting their children with their luggage.
The Weasleys began their long goodbyes while Andrew and Harry had a moment with Sirius.
"So, I didn't get to spend too much time with you this time around, but I swear to you, next summer will be amazing." he promised with a large smile.
"Next summer? What about Christmas?" Harry asked.
"Oh I think, you'll want to be at school this Christmas." Sirius answered with a sly smile.
"Why am I suddenly nervous?" Andrew said worriedly before they were joined by the Weasley parents and given massive hugs.
Once they have found a cart and placed their carry on luggage the children opened the window and waved to the adults on the platform.
"Have fun this year, and be careful!" Molly said with a smile.
"Bill, Charlie what's happening at school?!" Fred and George asked loudly.
"Sorry little brothers, but that is a secret." Bill said with a smile.
"God, I wish I was at school this year." Charlie said wistfully.
"Wait, why?!" Andrew yelled out as the train started moving.
"You'll see! Have fun!" Sirius called out as the train picked up speed and the station eventually disappeared.
"Great." Fred said in an annoyed tone before sighing and excusing himself and his brother to go meet up with Lee.
Ginny also said her byes as she went off to find her friends. Which left the Gryffindor four in the cart by themselves.
Ron kicked up a conversation about what they thought the big surprise at school would be that year and Harry simply said, "As long as it's a normal year, I couldn't care less about they're doing."
"Hear, hear!" Andrew provided with a sigh before standing and stretching his arms. "I'm going to the restroom." he said.
Leaving the room Andrew rubbed his hands together and felt his ring. He examined it for a bit, he frowned. "When did I put you on?" he muttered out loud before shaking his head and moving on with his task.
Harry and the others sat in their cart when the door opened and there stood Malfoy, his signature smirk in place.
"Oh God." Harry groaned in annoyance.
"Ah, Greg, Goyle? What's that smell?" he said with his nose pointed to the sky.
"He's going to say it's me, isn't he?" Hermione asked with ease while she kept her eyes on the book she had been reading.
"Five Knuts says he's going to say something about "blood" in general." Ron added as he continued his game of chess with Harry.
"No way! That's a sure win!" Hermione chimed in.
"I'll take you on that bet, I think he's going to mention you're family in some way." Harry accepted as he moved his complaining rook to a position.
Malfoy stood in the doorway looking utterly confused by this exchange. He was expecting them to blow up at him as they normally did.
"Could you get it over with, please? I'd like to concentrate here." Hermione sassed.
"Shut it, you filthy mud-blood!" he snapped, he immediately felt a force slam into his face as Ron's punch sent him stumbling backwards.
"You'll regret this, Weasley!" he yelled as went to charge the boy only to find a wand pointed in his direction by Harry.
"We've indulged you enough, now leave." Harry threatened in a low tone.
Malfoy seemed to realize that he was not about to win whatever was happening here and chose to walk away while nursing the sore spot of his cheek.
Harry and Ron sat back down to continue their game.
"Thanks guys." Hermione said with a small smile she had hidden behind her book.
"No problem, we've always got your back." Ron said shooting the girl a smile. "Also Harry, five Knuts please." Ron said as he claimed Harry's knight and held his hand out for his payment.
Harry shook his head and pulled five bronze coins from his pocket and handed them to his friend. There was a beat of silence before Hermione spoke up.
"Andrew's really having an affect on us isn't he?"
"Oh thank God, I thought I was the only one thinking that." Ron said with a sigh of relief.
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As Andrew exited the bathroom he was grabbed and yanked into a compartment.
"What the hell?" he said angrily.
"Potter."
Andrew looked up and saw his secret friend as they shut the blind to avoid any unwanted attention being drawn to them.
"What can I do for you?" Andrew asked slightly annoyed.
"Have you found anything? You know, that can help me?"
The dark skinned boy sighed before responding. "No nothing yet. I'm looking everywhere I can. But I mean, I doubt Dumbledore kept all the old laws just laying around the library somewhere. I'll have to look around Flourish and Blotts."
"Oh please, they wouldn't have it." the Slytherin dismissed flippantly.
"Then where would you suggest I go?" he asked annoyed at the attitude he was receiving.
"Borgin and Burkes might have something."
"I'm sorry, who and what?"
"It's a... store."
"I don't like that hesitation. What and where is this store exactly?"
"It's in Knockturn Alley and it isn't exactly the... lightest place on earth."
Andrew blinked before breathing deeply. "Okay, so I guess we'll leave that as a last resort and come up with more ideas."
The Slytherin sighed in annoyance.
"Listen, it's fine. I'll figure this out, I'll see what I can do. We've still got 3 years, I'll figure this out don't worry." he said as he placed a hand on his friend's shoulder. "I'll get you out of this." Andrew said with a smile.
Soon the two left the compartment, a few minutes of each other, they weren't ready for people to talk about their friendship.
Andrew just wanted to get to his compartment and sleep for a solid 2 hours before having to change and look interested in whatever was happening at Hogwarts this year.
"Drew!"
Jumping a foot in the air Andrew turned and saw Su and Luna in the compartment next to him. Pulling the door open he grinned at them.
"Holy hell! What are you guys doing here?" he asked with a confused look.
"We go to Hogwarts, Su's in your year. Are you alright, Drew? Did you hit your head?" Luna asked her face masked with worry.
"No, Luna, I'm fine really. I meant why don't you join us in our compartment?" Andrew asked with a small laugh.
"Oh no, it's alright. Luna and I are quite comfortable here plus we're waiting on a friend of ours." Su answered barely looking at the boy.
Andrew frowned at the weird behavior. "Did something... happen?" he asked nervously.
"Hmm, oh no, Su seems to have this ridiculous notion that she has to avoid you this year becau-"
"Luna! What have we said about secrets?"
"That you shouldn't share them, no matter how curious someone might be." the tiny blonde responded while looking thoroughly scolded.
"That's right."
"But, the secret involves Drew, so..."
"No! Luna, you are to tell no one. Understand?"
"But-"
"Luna."
"Understood." Luna replied with a pout and tiny huff.
If the situation didn't involve someone he thought of as a close friend wanting to avoid him, Andrew would've provided an "Aww" to Luna's attitude. Instead he smiled sweetly at her.
"So hold on, did I do something wrong, Su?" he asked nervously.
The raven haired girl didn't respond immediately.
"... No, but I find myself in a scenario where I would be more comfortable having some distance between us." she answered.
"Luna?" He asked turning to the blonde.
She looked as though she wanted to say something, but just couldn't bring herself to say anything under Su's immense look.
"Sorry, Drew." she said sadly.
Andrew blinked and backed away from the compartment and closed the door before walking down the hall for a moment, this was a weird feeling for him. Usually he didn't care if people chose to ignore him, if anything he preferred it. But something about the way Su dismissed him so easily made him feel... bad. This was why he tried to avoid making friends. Choosing to be a general arsehole so they'd leave him alone. It worked with some people, but most other people just wouldn't leave him alone because of it.
Hermione was a wildcard; he had chosen to approach her first in First Year, so that was his own fault but even after he became his usual dismissive, insulting, manipulative and horrid self, she stayed. She stayed and accepted him for all of his... well she would call them flaws, but nonetheless.
Now here was Su, completely shutting herself off from him, when they had made such amazing strides in their friendship. He felt his chest constrict and a stinging by his eyes. What the hell was this sensation? He felt pain, but didn't have any physical injuries outside of the arm yank which was barely anything to begin with. So why did it hurt?
"Hey Andy, you alright?"
Looking up he saw Ginny standing in front of him.
"Oh hey Gin, uh, yeah I'm good."
"You're crying." she stated with a shocked look on her face.
"Hmm? Oh, yeah sorry. I was thinking about... snakes." he told her quickly while wiping his face.
"Snakes?"
"They don't have any arms." he said in a pained whisper. "Well, I'd better head off. Harry and the others must be wandering where I've run off to. I'll see you in the common room." he said before rushing off.
"Okay... bye."
Ginny shook her head before turning and walking into her compartment and found something else that made her blink in confusion.
Su sat opposite Luna, her legs crossed mimicking her arms as she gave the little blonde a harsh look. Luna on the other hand sat with her hands in her lap and refusing to make eye contact with the ruthless, raven head in front of her.
"What the hell's going on today?" Ginny asked herself as she frowned at the scene.
