"Inaya Shafiq and Mason Mckinnon."

They were working in pairs, it was 4th year Arithmancy. Mason walked over to her and sat down next to her.

"The assignment is to pick some students in different classes, which we can observe, and predict their behavior in the following year," said Inaya.

"Yes, we should preferably choose a friend because of the close proximity."

"Ok, which of your friends are you going to choose?"she said as if they were competing.

"Can we relax a bit, we don't have to be serious all the time."

"I'm not going to do this project on my own," she said sternly.

"I wasn't proposing that! I just want a more positive working atmosphere, you know?"

"That's reasonable, I guess."

"Good... I'm glad we've agreed to be civil... So, I'm choosing my friend," he thought for a second, "Ted Tonks, it shouldn't be too hard to predict his behavior."

"I'm choosing my friend, Andromeda since her life's pretty straight forward." she chuckled.

"Okay," he said, he was a little uneased by the mention of a Black sister, but he just wanted this project to be as enjoyable as possible, "We, should probably try to find their personality type then put those into an altered version of Minton's Hogwarts algorithm, to account for our time period."

Inaya was silent for a second.

"Good plan." she said weakly, but impressed.


A couple weeks later

"I think we're finally done with this assignment, why did she give this to 4th years?"

"There weren't a lot of people who took Arithmancy this year, so she made it more advanced to keep us interested. It sure keeps me interested."

"I'm very proud of us! Look, we've made an almost perfect algorithm!"

Inaya looked over the sheets with all the numbers and graphs that they'd worked on.

"We've forgotten a very important factor, for predicting their behavior."

"What?" asked Mason, confused.

"We've become friends!" she said with a smile.


"Then I came to one of their study sessions, then Dolly and Ted came. I mean we all went to them to get homework answers so our story's a bit tainted. But, it's fine since we all became friends!" said Edith.

"Edith, when I ask 'how did we ever become friends?' it's rhetorical." said Ted at breakfast.

"Looks like someone has another case of homesickness, do you miss Jim that much?" asked Edith, making puppy dog eyes, the look Ted gave her made Mason chuckle.

"Happens every year," said Mason.

"Hey, I've been friends with him since... forever! Of course I'm gonna miss him," he said, accentuating his point with his fork.

"I'm going to sit at the Gryffindor table if you keep being grouchy, " said Mason.


Andromeda was sitting with her sisters, they were laughing with their friends, occasionally talking to her. There was a reason her friends weren't other Slytherins. It wasn't like she didn't belong in the house, it was just the only Slytherins she could be friends with were really intense and she couldn't deal with that all day.

"This school has really gone to the dogs. Blood-traitor headmasters, and heads. I'm surprised we don't have a mudblood professor! If they infiltrate our world, soon they'll be burning us purebloods at the stake!" Bellatrix said to the Lestranges. Rodolphus gave her undivided attention, while Rabastan ate his food.

Andromeda held up the letter she wrote the night before, "I have to go drop this off at the owlery. Bye everyone."

"Bye Andromeda," they'd been trained by Andromeda throughout the years to say goodbye to her in unison, otherwise she wouldn't leave.


She walked up to the owlery, she didn't meet anyone on her way, maybe they hid when they saw her. However, she did see someone when she arrived at the owlery. It was Tonks, he was scribbling on a piece of paper. She knew she shouldn't talk to him, she was trying to distance herself from him but she couldn't help it. She snuck up behind him, still keeping distance between them, and said:

"You know that you are supposed to have already written your letter when you come to the place to send it?"

"I don't see any signs, so..."

She rolled her eyes and went to see her sister's owl, Aster and fastened the letter to his foot and gave him a treat.

"Sorry, I am making you work so hard so early in the year, Aster, safe travels." she whispered.

I guess she's nicer to owls than people, he thought. He went and tied his letter to his owl, Hungry. He'd said "Are you hungry? Hungry? Hungry?" too many times to the bird, until the owl would only respond to that name.

He looked down at his letter:

Dear Jimothy,

One night away from you has torn me apart. I wish you were here too, and I'm sorry if Hungry kills you. Try-outs for the Hufflepuff Quidditch team are next week, so I'll have to train a bit to be ready. Edith and Mason say "hi", they'll probably write to you when something has actually happened.

I gotta go. I have class, hope you had a good first day!

Love,

Ted

He tied it to Hungry, and watched him fly away. He turned around, Andromeda was gone. He didn't expect to see her, but he still thought that there might be a chance that he could see her before she left for class.


He got to History of Magic and sat next to Edith. They were in the back of the class. She passed a little piece of paper between them:

What's up? She wrote.

Nothing, really. Just wrote a letter to Jim.

Your friendship is the most adorable thing ever.

Thanks?

Did something happen in the owlery? Did Hungry bite you? 'Cause if he did, it's really just karma for naming him Hungry.

No, it was fine. It's just Andromeda was there.

Didn't you see her yesterday too? Why was she there? Who could she be writing a letter to?

I don't know! We're not really the best of friends! You know since she's a Black, and I'm a muggle-born.

Ok, I just mean she's kind of a mystery, you know? I mean, Inaya and Dolly have been friends with her for years, but they still don't know her thoughts on blood-purity? And, she has someone back home that she has to talk to on the first day back, which hints at her somewhat agreeing to her parents' views. However, she's the only Black so far to have friends in other houses, which could mean she's somewhat different.

How long have you been thinking about this Edith? You used "however" in a sentence not for school. You're worrying me.

SHE'S AN ENIGMA, it's interesting.

Do you like have notes about everyone you meet, just in case there's a murder or something.

No, I'm a proper detective, I store things in my mind.

Now we know why there isn't any room in there for common sense.

That's just mean, Ted.

Is not

Is too!

IS NOT!

IS TOO!

That interaction launched a debate that lasted the rest of the period. They wrote paragraphs about whether what was or was not mean, and Edith used "however" many more times.


After the school day, Inaya, Gwen and Andromeda met in the library to go over the notes of the day and chat. Since they were in different houses they didn't get a lot of time to talk to each other during the school day.

"So, how is that project with Mckinon going Naya?" Andromeda asked.

"Why do you ask?" Inaya replied, slightly nervous.

"Well, that project has been going on since last year. It must be very difficult."

"It is."

"So, I saw you went to the owlery this morning, how was that?" Gwen said, trying to fill the silence, and change the subject.

"It was fine. I was mailing a letter to my uncle."

"What about?"

"Becoming prefect, you know, just first day stuff."she said, not looking up from her notes. Gwen looked a little sceptique.

"Ugh, I just remembered I have patrols today!"said Inaya.

"What's so bad about that?"asked Gwen.

"It's with Oz Sherman ,"she said.

There was a pause.

"Ugh, Oz Sherman, " they all said together.

"He's so creepy and weird," said Gwen.

"Yeah, one time I caught him with like... tubes of hair? I saw people's names on the tubes, I don't want to know what he's doing!" said Inaya, disgusted.

"I saw him speak to a wall. Not a portrait. Not a ghost. Just a wall. I asked him what he was doing and he said that he was 'talking to a friend'," said Andromeda.

"I can't believe I have patrols with him,"

Inaya said, burying her face in her hands.

Gwen patted her on the head, as Andromeda kept reading her notes.

"I have finished reorganizing my homework from today, so goodnight," Andromeda said, putting her stuff into her bag, before giving a short wave to her friends.

"See you later," Gwen and Inaya said together.