Opinions were pretty evenly divided on when Sirius ran away, I was hoping for "Duh, it's so obvious from canon that…" but I guess there is no real indication in canon. But I did appreciate all the thoughts, I'll have to go with what suits my plot purposes.

This chapter does not thrill me. Not much happens. Will and Andy come to some decisions, Andy notices some changing patterns in her own friendships, and Sirius and Bella come to a head.

Chapter 18- Falling Apart

When you have a hangover, getting on an old train filled with teenagers yelling to each other is possibly the most unappealing idea in the world. Needless to say, our enthusiasm to return to Hogwarts the next day after our adventure with merlot was noticeably lacking. None of us had the potions skills or ingredients to make a potion for it, and to ask the house elves would mean it would get back to Mother and Father, and so we suffered. I didn't really have time to focus on my absolutely blinding headache as I had new prefect duties to worry about. I might have forgotten about it entirely in my misery, but I ran into Marlene getting on the train, and noted her shiny badge, and she dragged me along with her to the compartment we were supposed to report to, chattering about other prefects.

"Lily Evans...she's really nice, you'd like her if you got to know her, and Remus...but you already know him on account of he's Sirius's friend. Ted, well, that's no surprise to anyone, although naturally you wouldn't care about that..." she added, with a sort of superior, knowing look.

"No, not particularly," I agreed.

"Then I suppose you also wouldn't be interested the least little bit to know he and Helen broke up over the summer," she added lightly.

I was more interested in that news than I cared to admit, but shrugged. "Again, not particularly."

"And that he's now going out with Alice Taylor, from Gryffindor," she finished, clearly very interested in my reaction to that.

"Well, that was certainly fast," I said sharply.

Marlene frowned at that, as though she wanted to discuss it further but wasn't sure if she liked that comment, but she didn't have time to say anything as we walked into the car where the subject of our discussion was sitting, along with Rabastan. They were eyeing each other warily, but silently, and they both looked rather relieved to see us.

"Whoa Black, you look rough," Rabastan said, grinning.

"Shove off, Lestrange."

He smirked, and I saw Ted smile slightly, almost as though to himself. I took the seat next to Rabastan because it was the natural thing to do, we always seemed to segregate ourselves by houses even when we were supposed to mix. A few minutes later Lily Evans stuck her head in, and then said "Yeah, this is it," and was followed in by Remus Lupin. By the time the train started to move everyone had showed up, including the Head Boy and Girl- Timothy MacDonald and Sally Ackerly (from Gryffindor and Ravenclaw respectively.) I was personally congratulating myself on my accurate guesses as to who the prefects from other houses would be.

We all got a long lecture on how prefects were allowed to take away house points, but anyone abusing that power would find themselves no longer a prefect. Points could be taken only for misbehavior, and being someone we didn't like did not constitute misbehavior. Rabastan looked highly disappointed by this news.

I chanced to glance up, and found Ted looking at me intently, not listening to the instructions any more than I was. He hadn't said anything to me, there seemed to be a sort of unspoken understanding that in front of someone from Slytherin, like Rabastan, we weren't any more than casually acquainted. I hadn't asked him to do so, but it made both of our lives easier. As soon as I glanced up and met his eyes he smiled at me, and then turned his attention back to Sally, who was explaining that prefects were supposed to set a good example for other students.

After about an hour they sent us off, but rather than immediately trying to catch any misbehavers and exercise our new power, Marlene and I wandered into the train compartment where Sirius and James were sitting with their friend Peter, who I had never actually spoken to. He didn't really stand out in a crowd, but I guessed he must be fun, being friends with Sirius. All three of them were hunched over a book, rather an odd thing in itself, and Marlene marched over and snatched it away.

"Why are you reading about-" she frowned at the cover. "-Animagi?"

"Maybe because it's interesting, and who made you the book police anyway?" Sirius replied, taking the book back and stowing it in his bag, then turning an annoyed look at both of us. "I can't believe you're both prefects. This is not going to be a good year."

"No worries here," said James cheerfully, folding his hands behind his head. "I learned to avoid the prefects years ago."

"Bet you won't be avoiding Evans very hard," smirked Sirius.

James sighed wistfully. "This year she's going to warm up to me. I'm sure of it."

Sirius, Peter, and Marlene all rolled their eyes at once, apparently this particular prediction was one he made with some regularity, as Remus came in behind me.

"Dear Merlin, three prefects in one compartment?" said Sirius, putting a hand to his forehead in melodramatic swooning fashion. "I fear I may pass out from the sheer brown-nosing potential here…"

Marlene punched him in the arm (rather hard) and he winced, and I stood to go.

"I'll lower the average a bit then."

He looked apologetic. "I didn't mean…"

I smiled at him. "I know, you were kidding, I'm going to find Bella anyway."

I didn't find Bella, as I had gone only a few steps when I ran into Ted. I stopped because I wanted to say something, although I wasn't really sure how to phrase it. I wanted to thank him for automatically understanding not to greet me normally in front of Rabastan, for giving me the choice of taking on Slytherin's ingrained ideals or not, and in my own time. It was a vote of confidence, that I would eventually do it on my own, whether he realized that or not.

"Hey," I said, stopping him.

"I just took points from two Slytherin second years for fighting…do you think this new power is going to corrupt me?"

"It might, you strike me as easily corrupted."

He laughed. "You all right?" he asked with slight concern. "Lestrange was right, you look a little rough, and you were pretty green while MacDonald was going on and on."

"I'm fine," I said briskly, as the train lurched slightly and my head did as well. "Though coffee would be nice…"

His grin widened a little bit. "Are you hungover?"

"Shut up."

"You are!" he caught my expression and made a concerted effort to stop laughing quite so obviously. "What did you do?"

"Nothing so interesting as you're imagining. Bella and Cissy and I were just sitting around drinking wine."

"And then you had a pillow fight in your knickers?"

"Ted!"

"Or that's how it ends in my mind anyway." Before I could come up with a satisfactory response to that, he rummaged in his bag and withdrew a small white bottle, which he handed to me. "Aspirin. Take two. It'll help with the headache," he explained, and when I looked skeptical he added "It's not going to poison you Andy."

Someone cleared their throat quietly behind us, and I turned to see Will.

"Can I have a word Andy?"

I shrugged, agreeing without giving him any leeway, and Ted gave Will a particularly nasty glare before leaving us. Will said nothing about the fact that I had been having a conversation with someone who he thought entirely beneath me, and if he thought we were just discussing some sort of prefect business, I wasn't about to correct that misconception.

He glanced around and then spotted a compartment occupied by only two young Hufflepuffs. He pushed open the door.

"Get out," he ordered them simply.

The bolder of the two spoke up. "No way, we don't have to do what you say…"

He pulled out his wand, but I put a hand on his wrist. "Please?"

They grumbled, but realized that Will wasn't kidding and their bravado was not going to be appreciated. As soon as the door closed behind them he put away his wand, which I supposed I should take as a gesture that this was going to be non-combative discussion. I crossed my arms expectantly. He had asked for a word with me, and so I was going to let him start this.

"Look…" he began, stopped, and then started again. "I don't want to fight with you. I just don't know what to think…about anything. You're not exactly easy to read, and I know you feel like I'm telling you what to think, but I'm doing that because I don't know what you think."

I suppose it's sad that this speech reminded me what I had liked about him originally. He wasn't a thug, he didn't get off on violence for its own sake. When he was himself, and not in the company of people like Lucius and Rodolphus and his brother, and not stirred up by their enthusiasm for the cause, then I felt like I knew him, he was calm, and reasonable. He was smart, and talented, and even funny when he allowed himself to relax. I had admitted to Sirius and my sisters that I thought he might be dating me just because he liked my name and my family, but I didn't think that's where it had started. There was a point he really had liked me. It occurred to me suddenly, and not without some guilt, that I was doing the same thing. Was I still with him because I really wanted to be, or because it was so easy and everyone approved? Infatuation as a child is very different from trying to reconcile someone into your life as an adult, and there was no ignoring that we weren't the same people we had been two years ago. He was smart enough to realize that as well. What we still had was really nothing more than what was most convenient for both of us.

"I'm not trying to be mysterious," I said helplessly. "And I'm not trying to start fights. I just don't feel about it the way you do. I can't say without exception that it's worth it because I don't really see what it is my family lacks that we're meant to take back."

"It's-"

"It's not that I don't understand the politics, don't explain it to me like I'm a child," I warned.

"He stuck his hands in his pockets. "So? Where does that leave us?" He leaned back against the train window and looked at me. "We're breaking up, aren't we?"

I nodded, not entirely trusting what I might say. He glanced away from me for a second, and then nodded as well.

"Okay," he said quietly. "I hope you're sure about some of these choices Andy, because I can't protect you if you make the wrong ones." He kissed me briefly, and left.

"Well, it's not the end of the world," Bella pronounced, as I sat on the foot of her bed that night and told her about it. It was late, I had gotten through the opening feast, and making sure all the first years got to their rooms properly and Rabastan didn't terrorize them, but I wanted Bella's reassurance that it wasn't a huge mistake. I actually felt relieved to have the whole matter settled. "Really it might be for the best. They're a good family, but there are better families out there if we talking about marriage."

"I wasn't really…"

"You can bet Mother and Father are," she replied. "But that's no reason you can't have fun for awhile."

She said all of this while frowning at the timetable for her classes, which she had been unable to decide upon. To no one's surprise, she had come out with excellent scores on her O.W.Ls. On the ones she considered "real magic" (Transfiguration, Charms, Defense Against the Dark Arts, and Potions) she had gotten an "outstanding," and even on the ones she considered a waste of time she had managed to pull off an "acceptable" or higher. She was planning to do N.E.W.T classes in all of the ones she'd done an Outstanding in, and was trying to decide if she wanted to take any others. I wasn't sure exactly why she was so concerned about taking the right N.E.W.T classes when she had already announced she knew she wouldn't have a regular job that would look at her scores.

I shrugged. "I wasn't really thinking about that kind of fun either."

"Don't rule it out, is all I'm saying," she said, with an irritated sigh as she pushed open the curtains around her bed, which she had charmed so her roommates wouldn't hear us and laid the timetables on the bedside table.

"Right. I'm going to bed, I'm exhausted." I started to go.

She frowned and let the curtains fall shut. "No, stay."

"Why?"

She frowned. "Because I want you to."

I conceded, not really caring enough where I slept to make it a fight.

"You know, you never really said what it was you guys fought about," she said suddenly, a few minutes later.

"Nothing. It doesn't matter."

"Mhm. You used to tell me everything."

"No question about it. That job is cursed," Reg said decisively the next morning at breakfast. The Defense Against the Dark Arts position had changed hands again, when Professor Langlais had met with an accident while working again for the Department of Mysteries over the summer. She was in St. Mungo's, and there was no word on what exactly had happened or whether or not she was expected to recover. There was also no word yet on who our new teacher was meant to be. I was surprised anyone was willing to take it, given the track record.

"Why would a teacher job be cursed? Zat is stupid," Adrienne said, and he blushed and quickly looked down. Reggie had a bad case of unrequited love for her, something he thought to be a great secret, when in fact everyone knew.

"Not so stupid," Bella said quietly. "There's no better time to influence people than when they're young. And no better way to control people but through their children."

I stared at her, wondering where she had gotten that from. She seemed to think she had said too much, and so just shrugged and went back to frowning at her class schedule again.

I didn't have to wait long to find out about the new Defense teacher, as I had the class that afternoon. I walked into the class with Shannon and Adrienne, and ran into them as they both stopped dead.

"Whoa," muttered Shannon, followed but Adrienne's quiet "Mon Dieu!" I peeked around them to see what they were talking about. The new teacher was standing in profile, writing on the board, and he was absolutely gorgeous- at least six feet, wavy dark hair, sparkling blue eyes, and a perfect physique. While we stood in the doorway gawking, more students were arriving, with rather divided reactions.

"Now that's more like it," said Annabelle.

"Oh you have got to be bloody kidding me," said Frank Longbottom, directly after her.

"Well hello," said Marlene, appearing at my elbow. "Easy on the eyes, that one."

"I know." I had to agree. While I was hardly the type to set my sights on a teacher, that didn't mean I couldn't admire the scenery. Finally, as we were causing a pile-up outside the door, we had to move into the classroom, and without even realizing I did so, I sat next to Marlene rather than joining Adrienne and Annabelle in their stampede to sit in the front row. I didn't even realize how strange that was until I saw Annabelle turn in her seat and give me a strange look. By that point changing seats would have looked even more obvious, so I stayed where I was. I tried to reason that Marlene and I had been friends since second year, everyone knew we were friends, and there was nothing particularly strange about it, but I also knew that I was breaking some kind of deep-seated Slytherin protocol. Perhaps even more disconcerting, Ted was sitting on her other side.

"Good afternoon class, I'm Professor Browning."

"Yes, you certainly are, aren't you?" Marlene muttered under her breath.

"Are we going to have to listen to your commentary for the entire class?" Ted muttered back.

"Oh, I reckon the entire year…"

A few weeks into the term, Sirius and Marlene broke up. Of course, they would break up hundreds of times over the years they were together. We would quickly learn that it was their favorite way of ending an argument, and they would promptly get back together again, be absolutely nauseating for about a week, and then repeat the process. The first time, however, we didn't know this so it seemed like a great crisis. Being the cousin of one and the good friend of the other, and feeling somewhat responsible for them being together, I was naturally the one stuck in the middle, listening to their respective rants about each other.

"Just who the hell does he think he is anyway…" was pretty much the way all of Marlene's comments began, and I more or less made noises of agreement that yes, Sirius could be quite a prat, and yes, men in general were all quite useless, and yes, we probably would be better off if they were all just eaten by hippogriffs.

I was rather inclined to agree with at least the last two statements, since it seemed Sirius had been correct, once it became generally known, in the way things simply did at Hogwarts, that Will and I were no longer going out, I noticed a definite increase in male attention. One Ravenclaw sixth year had asked me to "study" with him, and I had agreed as he was quite good looking. I had quickly realized that his idea of "studying" didn't involve books, quills, or parchment, and cut that particular study session short immediately with a relatively harmless but rather painful hex.

I made a point of finding out everything I could about Alice Taylor, which, since she was in Gryffindor, was surprisingly easy. I simply asked Sirius, who was kind enough not to comment on my strange habit of investigating the girlfriends of a boy I claimed to have no interest in. To my extreme irritation, there was absolutely nothing to dislike about her. A year younger than us, she was pretty in a warm, friendly sort of way, the top of her class, and generally well-liked by everyone in Gryffindor. According to Sirius, she was quiet at first, but really quite sarcastic and witty when you got to know her, and really quiet clever. In short, she sounded perfect for him. Even Sirius admitted she was "really quite a cool girl" and I was in a snit with him for a week over this perceived disloyalty, although had I been called on to explain exactly how it was disloyal I probably couldn't have. In all honestly, she really was quite a cool girl, and we ultimately became good friends, and it caused Sirius no end of amusement to remind me all the self-imposed angst I had endured.

I was so wrapped up in my own friends and their romantic intrigues that I didn't realize the slow shift that was taking place. I was spending less and less time among Slytherins, and though I didn't notice, it never occurred to me that Bella did.

The last Hogsmeade week-end before the holidays fell on a bright, sunny Saturday, and I spent it mostly with Marlene. She and Sirius had made up (and subsequently broken up and made up again) and we spent a while with his friends in the Three Broomsticks, until they went off on some mysterious errand, which Marlene took in stride. I suppose she'd have to in order to date Sirius. We spent the rest of the afternoon shopping with her roommate Lucy.

Ted caught me as Marlene and I came back into the entrance hall as twilight fell, having stayed in Hogsmeade as long as we could. He was breathless, and looked worried.

"I was looking for you, there's a fight," he began. I gave him an odd look.

"So? You're a prefect, why do you need me to take care of it?"

"Because…it's…well, I think it might be…"

He didn't have to finish, because I saw the glossy black of Sirius's hair in the midst of a forming knot of students.

Sirius fighting was not particularly unusual, he'd had his share of fights at Hogwarts, very often on behalf of some female, that Gryffindor chivalry complex getting the better of him.

"Oh no…" I muttered, pushing through them, and then stopped as I saw what was really going on. The person he was arguing with was not some other boy who'd made a snide comment in the halls. It was Bella. Bella fighting was unusual, mostly because anyone with any sense was afraid of her.

For a moment I stood frozen with indecision, I didn't want to get between them, but Blacks simply did not air family conflicts in public. They were both too angry to realize that, looking murderous. There was no laughter or hint of amusement in Sirius's features, his eyes suddenly cold and deadly. I couldn't see Bella's face, but before I could touch her or say anything, she stepped forward and slapped him so hard it rang through the hall. My first thought was that it was an odd reaction for someone who used magic as naturally and easily as she did, but then her relationship with Sirius had always been so intensely and sometimes violently physical, and she had never been capable of cold detachment and calculation when it came to those she loved, or hated, and I think then, with Sirius, it was both. Driven to action by the sheer force she put behind it, I grabbed her arm.

"Bella, don't."

"Stay out of this Andy," Sirius said tightly, eyes barely flickering to me. "I know who it was Bella…how would Mummy and Daddy feel about you then? For all their complaining about me, you'll be the one dragging the family name through the mud," his words were short and clipped and so cold that he frightened me.

"You're a disgrace to the family already, and I won't let you drag us down to the mudbloods and muggles…" her eyes glittered dangerously, with that kind of horrible expression that made me feel like she wasn't entirely there. "I'll kill you first."

"What's going on here?" Tim MacDonald hurried across the hall, and with the authority of Head Boy, didn't seem the least bit concerned that either one of them would turn on him without a second thought. I wasn't so sure. "Get on to dinner, all of you, before I start giving out detentions."

Sirius started to say something, and then turned on his heel and headed in the direction of Gryffindor Tower. Bella shook off my hand and headed for Slytherin, people nearly jumping out of her way when they got a look at her face.

Students drifted away, I could hear them muttering to each other, "I thought she really might kill him," and "Did you hear what he called her?"

There were a number of times in my life I was glad for Marlene's cool head in a crisis, and she put her hand on my arm. "I'll deal with Sirius. I suggest you go and make sure she doesn't do anything unusually stupid."

She was right, and yet before dealing with Bella I figured I ought to get at least a vague idea of what had happened, which Narcissa could only give me a half-outline of. Apparently Bella had a mysterious appointment to keep in Hogsmeade, and Sirius, hoping either to get her in trouble or keep her from trouble, we weren't sure which, had taken it upon himself to follow her. Narcissa had no idea how he might have managed this without being seen, but then she didn't know about James Potter's invisability cloak. Whatever the method, Bella found out about it, and while she was unable to get to him in Gryffindor Tower, had cornered him on the way to dinner. Apparently what had started as a little spat has escalated into what I had walked in on.

In a way, I was annoyed with the both of them for simply being stupid- Bella for thinking Hogsmeade with all of Hogwarts there would offer any kind of privacy for whatever she'd had planned, and Sirius for being foolish enough to meddle when he had no idea what he was getting into. On the other hand, I felt like this had been coming for awhile and this was just the spark to set it off. It didn't really matter what had started it, it had just been the one incident that got them both angry enough for things to come to a boil.

Elizabeth was sitting on one of the couches in the Slytherin common room, and when she saw me heading for the stairs advised, "I wouldn't Andy, Bella's in a rage." The comment was punctuated by the sound of something breaking above me.

"I know," I said grimly.

She had broken something, for the floor was littered with glass shards that crunched under my shoes when I stepped into the room. As soon as she heard the door she whipped around with her wand pointed at my heart. I didn't flinch, and slowly, she lowered it slightly. "Get out."

"No." I shut the door behind me. "What were you thinking? We do not make our family matters public."

"Sirius hardly deserves to call himself a Black anymore," she spat.

"Because he wanted to know what you're up to? Hell Bella, I wonder that myself sometimes. Half the time you're too stupid and careless to realize how much trouble you could get into."

"How can you take his side?"

"I'm not taking anyone's side, I was just trying to stop both of you from airing family conflicts in front of every damned student at Hogwarts. And do you really think it's smart to be broadcasting death threats to everyone within hearing distance of the Great Hall? How does Azkaban sound, Bella?"

She turned back to me, eyes narrowed, and put her hand against my cheek. "What's the matter Andy?" she said, in a horrible, mocking little voice, "were you scared?" Her hand slid over my skin, nails scoring slightly, not enough to leave a mark, but enough that I knew it wasn't an affectionate touch. I slapped her hand away, and for a second her eyes flashed and I wasn't sure that she wouldn't hurt me.

"Sirius is a blood traitor," she said, clenching the hand I had just slapped away. "Mark my words, he'll come to a bad end." Suddenly her hand flashed out again and she grabbed me by the arm, as though she might shake me. "When this war ends, those who were on the right side will be honored, beyond anything we can imagine. We'll live in a world where purity is the standard. Those who opposed him will be lower than muggles. I won't let him drag the family down, and damned if I'll lift a finger to save him." She released me, but then turned and perhaps in an unconscious gesture, put her hand on my shoulder, fingers curling around my throat in what was almost, but not quite, a threat. "I hope you understand the concept of loyalty better than he does, Andromeda."

I was sitting in the library, not because I intended to study, but because I was usually left alone there, sitting at a table that looked out over the grounds, and generally hidden from view, so anyone who wanted to find me would have to do some looking. Nevertheless, I wasn't terribly surprised when Ted sat across from me.

"You all right?"

"Sure, I'm fine," I tried to sound casual and failed miserably.

"Look, I'm really sorry for throwing you into the middle of that. Just that I've seen you guys, your family I mean, kind of close ranks when you fight, and I thought it might be better if you broke it up."

"Thanks…I mean you're right, normally it would be. But when they're both mad like that there's really no talking them down."

"I could tell. You get caught in the middle rather a lot."

I shrugged. "They can't go on like this forever."

He frowned. "At some point, you have to take care of yourself and let them do what they will. Maybe you can't save everyone, and maybe, it's not your job to."