Last Time on Black and White:

"What? So learn tactics to beat him? How would that help?"

The man smiled.

"I do not believe tactics are you or your brother's forte, Andrew. But as I understand it, Mister Weasley is quite the Chess Master."

"And you think that'll transfer over to battle tactics?"

"With enough training in that direction? Possibly." Flitwick answered with a nod.


Book 4 – Chapter 43: Saying Goodbye

"You promise me zat you will write?" Fleur asked as she stood with her fellow Beauxbatons students before they boarded their carriage.

"Of course, I'll write all the time." Harry responded with a nod.

"Eh... if I remember." Andrew chimed in with a shrug.

Fleur smiled and gave the boy a light punch in the shoulder. She then turned to Harry and sensing the boy's slight awkwardness stepped up to him and wrapped her arms around him tightly. She felt him stiffen at the contact for a moment before he slowly wrapped his around her, Fleur felt a small smile grace her lips before she pulled away and gave Harry a small kiss on the lips. The exclamations around them reminded her to the populace surrounding them.

"I guess I forgot zat we 'ad never really kissed in public before." she said with a mischievous smile.

"I don't mind, if people know, that is."

"Me neither."

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Su and Hermione sat in the library, neither really knew anyone from the other schools and decided to spend their time going over the map Harry had lent them to find Rita Skeeter. Neither girl ever found out what happened to the gossip queen, Andrew simply told them that he had to tell Dumbledore everything and that the Headmaster had demanded Skeeter's jar before being told that he'd handle it. They didn't mind much though, they hadn't really seen any consequence of their actions and assumed Dumbledore had done something to keep the woman quiet.

The girls were busy with something else in any case; they were working on figuring out the mystery of the Potter map.

"I don't understand most of the spells on this thing." Su bemoaned.

"Well, we know they have an animate spell on this, but I don't understand how it can track the people in the school."

"Well, that more than likely has to do with the school's ward system itself, right?" Su said with a slight frown.

"Well, we can assume that the ward system has some sort of identifying property to it, and who ever made this map somehow found a way to link those two elements so that the names can be found on the map."

"Sounds about right, but now we're caught in the loop of how did they manage to do that? They must've found some way to link the two but ancient magicks aren't compatible with the type of spells we use today."

"Wait, really?"

"Yeah, back before the founding of Hogwarts, Witches and Wizards used inconspicuous items as magical foci, as such, their magic was wilder. Nowadays we use wands to keep our magic centred and focussed. If we tried to use a staff or magic ball, our magic would probably go crazy."

"That's fascinating!"

"It really is, like did you know-"

"Oh! Hey, Su!"

The pair of girls scrambled for a moment as a third voice broke through their conversation. Su turned to the voice and heard Hermione mutter and tap her wand on the parchment. A boy in her house made his way over to the pair, a wide smile on his face. Su resisted the urge to palm her face and forced a smile on her face as he approached. The boy had a handsome face and tall frame, his brown hair rested on his head curling in all directions. He had dark eyes and a small amount of baby fat on his face, not unlike Neville Longbottom.

"Hey Marcus, I thought you'd be downstairs saying goodbye to the leaving students."

Marcus ran a hand through his hair lazily.

"Yeah, I mean, I said bye to some of the Durmstrang guys, but I didn't really become friends with anyone else." he responded with a small shrug. "Oh, hi, sorry I didn't mean to interrupt anything." he said as his eyes moved over to Hermione.

There was a pause as someone waited on the other person to speak. Su felt a small pressure on her foot and jumped slightly. "Oh, right err, Hermione this is Marcus Belby, Marcus, this is-"

"Hermione Granger." he said, cutting Su off. "Of course, I know the brains of the Potters' group."

"Oh." Hermione responded followed by a single laugh. "Harry, Andrew and Ron are all smart in their ways." she defended.

"Sure, but you're the one most ahead in terms of learned information."

"I'm an avid reader."

Marcus smiled at her words. "I find myself to be quite the bookie as well."

"Oh? Who would you say your favourite author is?"

"Magical, I'd say Luthor Forthrone. Muggle, would probably be Russell Baker."

"Russell Baker? Really?"

"I find him entertaining." Marcus replied with a small shrug.

"I didn't think anyone knew who he was." Hermione said with a smile.

"Well, my father is an avid fan of Muggle culture and I suppose his interest transferred over to me."

Su blew out a small huff of air before standing.

"Oh, Su! I'm sorry, we were busy with-" Hermione's eyes scanned over to Marcus for a moment. "Our project."

"Don't worry about it. I've got to go do something anyway. We'll catch up later."

"Are you sure?" Hermione asked, looking slightly guilty.

"Yes, I'm sure. Have fun discussing your muggle authors, I'll see you later."

As she approached the library doors, Su turned to look at the pair once more before shaking her head before leaving. As she walked towards the staircase she remembered the previous night in the Ravenclaw common room.

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Su sat on one of the couches within the common room, a book in her lap as she had completed her packing for the end of the school year. One more day in the castle and she would be on the train back home. She had a meeting with Hermione in the morning, she figured the girl was avoiding saying goodbye to the visiting students, especially since speculation on her and Viktor Krum's relationship had once more resurfaced.

"Hey, you're Su Li, right?"

Caught completely off guard, Su turned to the voice and recognized the boy as Marcus Belby from the year above her.

"Err, yes. Hi Marcus." she greeted awkwardly.

"Hi, how are you?"

"I'm... good. Thank you."

"Great, great."

"..."

"..."

"Can I help you, Marcus?" she asked with a frown.

"Right! Of course, because it'd be really weird if I just came by and said hi randomly."

"Yeah, despite the fact that you did just that."

Marcus gave an awkward chuckle for a moment. "Right, I was just wondering if you... err."

Su felt a small amount of panic flood her senses. She did not want to make any assumptions but this seemed to be going in a direction she really did not want it to. Oh, she had never rejected someone's sincere feelings before, how the hell was she to do it without hurting the poor boy.

"... you know Hermione Granger, right?"

"I'm sorr-" Su blinked as the question reverberated in her ears. "Hermione?"

"Yeah, I've seen you hang out with the Potters every now and again, so I figured the two of you were friends."

"Oh err, yeah, Hermione and I are friends." Su responded using every bit of her will power to keep the blush away from her cheeks at her faux pas.

"Would you happen to know if she were... single?" Marcus asked while turning to look at the room in interest.

"Oh. Oh! Okay. Um, last I heard she was single."

"Okay, cool. Do you know if her and Krum's relationship was... serious?"

"Serious? No. They hung out a few times in the library, but nothing more outside of that. Why?"

"Oh! No special reason!"

Su could immediately tell that he was lying.

"Do you... do you like, Hermione?"

"Wha-? What?! No! What? Don't be ridiculous!"

Su stared blankly at the boy before sighing and shaking her head slightly, before a thought made its way into her mind.

"Oh, so I should tell Harvy Grant that she's available?"

"What?! Who's Harvy Grant?!"

"Why do you care? You don't like her right?"

"Of course not, I just... I was curious."

"No matter, well, I'd better write a letter to him to let him know that I'll be in the library with her tomorrow morning." Su said as she stood and stretched her arms above her head. "Goodnight, Marcus."

Before the boy could respond Su walked off to the girls dormitories, the mischievous smile hidden from the boys face. Once she was sure she was out of his field of vision she broke down laughing and wondered what the next morning would look like.

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As she made her way down the steps, Su noticed that the last of the students seemed to be leaving. She made her way to the courtyard and watched as the students dwindled as they filed away. She walked over to one of the many benches and took a seat in one. It was a lovely day, the sun decided to grace the occupants of Scotland this day as there were barely any clouds in the sky.

"Hey."

Su jumped a foot in the air and turned to see Andrew smiling at her. He seemed to be holding in his laughter at her reaction.

"That wasn't funny."

"Yes, it was, you just didn't see your reaction."

"Prat." she mumbled.

"Oh, come on, don't pout." he responded while poking her side lightly.

"Stop it. I'm mad at you."

"No, you're not, you're just embarrassed." he said while still poking her.

Su ignored him and turned her head away from him dramatically.

Andrew poked a little harder and Su let out a short shriek of surprise. There was a pause as she turned to face him and saw a look of surprise on his face.

"Hang on, are- Su, are you ticklish?"

Her eyes widened. "Andrew, no. Don't you dare."

A smile started to pull at his lips as he regarded the girl for a moment.

"Don't I dare, what?" he challenged as he prepared his hands.

"Andrew, I'm serious. Don't." she responded. It would have been intimidating if she hadn't had a smile on her face.

"I don't know what you mean. Don't what? Don't do... this?!" he immediately went in for the attack; tickling Su's side, she in turn let out another shriek and began squirming away from his fingers. The courtyard was soon filled with Su's laughs as Andrew continued to assault her sides.

After about a minute the two sat on the bench, Su panting from her laughter and Andrew chuckling along side her.

"This is so weird." he said after a moment.

"What is?"

"This. You and me. It's crazy to think that you basically ignored me for two years and now... now I'm tickling you in the courtyard."

"I did not ignore you for two years." she responded with a small slap on his shoulder.

"Well, you might as well have, I did everything I could think of just to get you to talk to me."

"I was just... reserved." she responded with a small shrug.

Andrew didn't say anything and just sat next her patiently.

"I was not very social when I was younger. I had a hard time making friends with people."

"Oh?"

"I was, let's just say I've always had a certain expectation for people and more often than not, they disappointed me."

"What kind of expectations?"

"I've always found them... boring. Like, I don't expect people to be daredevils or adrenalin junkies, it was just, the same thing, everyday. It got to the point where I could just... predict what they were going to do, so I just became... bored."

Andrew was intrigued by that response. "You didn't like knowing what someone would do?"

"Not when I could do it the entire time. I mean, at that point it felt like I wasn't getting much from that person so I'd just... distance myself from them."

"Hmm, that's interesting."

Su turned to look at him and saw him with a thoughtful look. "Why?"

Andrew looked back at for a moment and looked back up to the sky before responding.

"I've always found reading people to be, interesting. I mean, don't tell Harry or the others but I've got their mannerisms memorized at all times, I guess I just like finding patterns in people and recognizing those patterns."

"Do you do that with everyone you meet? Figure out their patterns?"

"I- I think so. Huh. Never really thought about it consciously before. I guess it's just easier to get someone to do what you want when you know how they think and act."

"Manipulate them, you mean?"

"Hermione had the exact same tone in her voice when she figured out why I wanted to start the prank war."

"Okay, we'll get back to the fact that you did that in a moment. Do you manipulate everyone you talk to?"

"Only when I need to."

"Have you ever tried to manipulate me?"

Andrew turned to face her. The two locked eyes for a moment and Andrew felt himself becoming lighter. As he stared into Su's eyes, the weightlessness seemed to envelope him and he started seeing flashes of moments. He immediately shut his eyes and turned away from the girl.

"No, never consciously, at least." he answered.

"Did you use Legillemency on me again?"

"I- I don't know. I think so. But, I stopped the moment I saw flashing images, I swear! I'd never look at your memories without your permission."

Su was ready to stand and leave before stopping herself. She took a breath and released it slowly.

"It's okay, I wasn't thinking anything too personal, anyway. That's the second time you've done that now."

"I know, I'm sorry. I really don't know what causes it."

"Have you ever done it to anyone else?" she asked.

"No, no it's just been you."

Andrew turned to Su to see her looking down at her hands.

"You want to know what I'm thinking."

"Sorry?"

"So, I'm assuming you know that those who learn the mind arts are more versed in one skilled than the other?"

"I read that in the book, yeah."

"I think you have an affinity for Legillemency. So, when you want to know what someone is thinking, you subconsciously start accessing their surface thoughts."

"Oh, well, that's troubling."

"Yeah it is, especially if you run into someone who isn't as understanding as I am. Duels have been had over less. You need to get a grip on that."

"You're right, but how?"

"Getting as far as you can with Occlumency. You can consciously realise what you're doing with the help Occlumency and stop it before you try to invade someone's personal space."

"Right. Again, I'm really sorry."

"No, it's okay. I think after hearing how you read people it just makes sense that you would do that. You have a deep need to know what someone might be thinking, if anything; it feels like a defensive response."

Andrew felt his heart skip for a moment before he changed the topic. "So, we've been friends for about two years now, so... you don't find me boring?"

Su couldn't help but smile at the question. She knew what he was doing but decided to not push the matter.

"I mean a falsely accused Lord in third year and a death competition this year? I'd be moronic to find you anything other than fascinating."

Andrew laughed out loud at her statement.

"What can I say? We aim to please."

Su giggled at his response before stopping and turning back to him.

"Okay, so explain this whole Prank War thing you guys started?!"

"Oh! Right, so it all started when Tonks charmed by hair..."

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Harry walked over to the gargoyle and spoke the password he was instructed to give when he had received his note from the Headmaster.

"Ah, Harry, thank you for joining me this evening." Dumbledore greeted with a nod.

The day had gone by faster than the students had anticipated with the end of year dinner being held in a few hours.

"Of course sir, what can I do for you?"

"I just wished to speak with you for a moment. Tell me Harry, what do you know about the Trace placed on your wands?"

The question seemed to stun the student for a moment before he shook his head.

"Not much, sir." he answered honestly.

"Well, it is a fascinating piece of magic, created to keep track of muggle borns who spent their time away from Hogwarts back in the muggle world."

"To minimise the risk of exposing magic." Harry as he nodded along with Dumbledore.

"Precisely. However, the Ministry couldn't exactly tell which wand would go to Muggle born and raised students, and which would choose Pureblooded students, as such they were all outfitted with this security measure."

Harry frowned, confused on what it was the Headmaster was trying to tell him.

"The trace is deemed unneeded in areas with a saturation of magic, since those around the area would know about the existence of magic."

"Excuse me, but what are you trying to tell me exactly, sir?"

"I believe with the revival of Lord Voldemort it would be beneficial for you and your brother to begin extending your lessons into your summer holidays. Of course, you would be allowed to invite any friends you wish, should you believe them to be up to the task."

Harry stared wide eyed at the man. "Are you being serious, sir?"

"I am. You will begin additional theory and spell casting lessons this summer."

"That's brilliant, sir!" exclaimed a jovial Harry before a thought made him stop in his tracks. "But what about the Dursley's? They'd never allow that."

"Do not worry about your fa- your relatives, Harry. They will have little to no say on what you do this summer." the aged man responded with a secretive smile and glint in his eye.

"What do you mean, sir?"

"Ah, I do believe that is a secret that you will discover tomorrow. Now then, we should convene to the Great Hall for the final dinner."

Dumbledore stood from his seat and made his way to his office door, motioning for Harry to follow him. The two left the office and made their way towards the first floor, when Dumbledore excused himself so that he could enter through the teachers' entrance and allowed Harry to share the exciting news about the upcoming summer.