Ted had Quidditch practice, the Slytherin/Hufflepuff game was coming up, and even if it was almost certain that they would lose their Captain, Marcus Lean, had upped their number of practices.

He went into the changing room and got changed into more suitable clothes and then took his broom out to the pitch. It was one of the school's brooms, a Cleansweep 5. They'd bought a sizable amount when the broom model had come out, there was a large number of students at Hogwarts, which meant a large amount of money, which meant a large budget to spend.

Marcus was explaining what they would be practicing that day:

"So after you've flown a bit, Iola, Basil you're going to work on your Dopplebeater Defence. Ted, Lorna and Gunhilda you'll be working on your reverse passes. Lisette, just try to catch the Snitch when I let it out. Everyone got it?"

The team nodded, some more begrudgingly than others. Lean was a good Captain, in Ted's opinion, but it was also his first year as Captain. He wasn't very organised with the practice schedule, but he was trying his best, though some players thought that he didn't even deserve to be a Keeper considering his position as Chaser the year before.

There weren't many players left from last year's Quidditch team; only the beaters, Iola Smith and Basil Jornis, and the new Captain, were left from last year's team after they all had graduated. Leif Bowman, the old Captain was missed, he used to be the Keeper before he graduated.

They did what Marcus had told them, as he flew around giving them comments on their form. Lisette, the youngest of the group being a second-year, was flying all around the pitch on her Comet 180 after the flying piece of gold.

Ted was happy to be flying, happy for having a distraction. The breeze blew against him, making him feel cold but free. He tossed the ball over behind him at Gunhilda, she caught it.

"Why didn't they also use something alive for the Quaffle in the old days of Quidditch? They used one for the Snitch,"

Lorna stared perplexed at Gunhilda, as the other girl tried to juggle the ball she'd just caught in her hands. Ted caught Lorna's eye and gave her a look of understanding. Gunhilda was always a bit spacey.

They practiced for a while longer, Iola and Basil kept making weird faces whenever their Captain's back was turned. They did this at every practice, and it was tiring everyone including Marcus.

Ted glided back down, he was pleased with how practice had gone. He hadn't thought about the words he'd shared with the pure-blood enigma.


Andromeda placed her head in her hand as she lost herself in her thoughts, or more specifically one thought : was he right? He couldn't be… right? She should have yelled at him for insulting her, or told him off at least in some way, because he was wrong. He had to be.

"Hey, Andromeda we're kind of supposed to be working," Delwy said, hesitantly.

"Oh, right… er… so what are we doing right now?"

"We were doing Astronomy. So if you want I can help you, 'cause it seems like you're… puzzled by what to put on your star chart," Delwy said, staring at her empty chart.

She sighed.

"Delwy, almost my whole family is named after stars, except for a couple irregular relatives like my sister for some reason…"

Delwy looked at her confused, and she remembered the point that she was trying to make.

"So your help is unneeded," she said weakly,

"Okay," he said, "If you say so,"

Why did I do that? she thought. He was just being nice…

She tried to focus on her star chart. Did she just push everyone away? Why did she always do that? Why has she said that to Gwe- to Fawley? Was Tonks right?

"Andromeda?" Delwy said. His stuff was packed up.

"What?" She tried to make her voice not sound irritated, and she seemed to succeed.

"I'm going to leave, it's late and I want to make a good example… I'm a prefect,"

She felt her badge on her robes through the layers of fabric.

"Okay, good night Delwy,"

"Um… okay," he said then left.

The librarian shooed her out quickly after, but she wasn't finished organising.

If you spent more time in the real world, you wouldn't be surprised by the consequences of your actions.

At least her mother was right sometimes.

Delwy left before her so she'd have to go to the dormitory alone, and try not to get caught by whoever was on duty.

She moved to place her bag more comfortably on her other shoulder, but her hands slipped and the bag fell onto the floor. There was a large thud that reverberated through the empty corridor.

Then it was silent. She quickly picked the bag up again. She was so lucky.

Footsteps started echoing through the halls. She hid behind a suit of armor.

The clicking noise of shoes stopped in the middle of the corridor Andromeda was in, and she held her breath.

The steps started up again and faded out, she let out the breath she was holding with a sigh.

Then a head popped out next to Andromeda.

"Gotcha!" The head said, "I can't believe you fell for that, you must not have older siblings,"

Andromeda remained behind the suit of armor,

"There's really no point staying there, I've caught you out of bed,"

Andromeda walked out from behind the armor, shyly. The girl saw her badge and said:

"And you're a prefect! I'm going to have to deduct double the points, well triple since you're Slytherin,"

Apparently her look of despair was funny to this girl, because she laughed.

"I'm just messing with you, do you snakes really have no humor," at Andromeda's silence she continued more seriously, "So you're the Slytherin 5th year prefect, right?"

"Yes," she responded, finally being able to grasp at least one part of this interaction.

"Andromeda Black?"

"Yes."

"Well you know me already I'm the Head-girl," the Gryffindor girl said.

"Yes, I do," Ah yes the girl who apparently "stole" Bella's position, and who Andromeda could never remember the name of.

"Well, let's get formally acquainted," the Head-girl put her hand out for Andromeda to shake, "I'm Molly Prewett,"

Andromeda put her hand in Molly's hesitantly, "Andromeda Black,"

"Don't worry, being a blood-traitor isn't contagious,"

"Obviously not," Andromeda said,

"So what are you doing out so late?"

Andromeda didn't understand this girl's obsession with talking to her. Molly gestured for her to start walking, and Andromeda walked beside her.

"I was organising my notes in the library and couldn't concentrate," she told her the truth, she may be a blood-traitor, (by her own admission!), but she was still Head-girl; she had to be honest with her, it was the rules.

"Why couldn't you concentrate?"

Andromeda looked at the girl walking beside her. She looked like she was kind, if not someone who joked around too much. On the other hand, Andromeda could be biased considering that the Black's idea of a joke was hiding a rat under your pillow every time you lost a tooth, and even that wasn't the whole family just Bella. She still didn't know where her older sister got all those dead rat's…

She wanted to trust her, she'd seen how she was in prefect's meetings and she deserved the position. Bella skipped almost all the meetings then complained that she didn't know the schedule and said it was because the heads were disorganised.

The Head-girl was leaving next year anyway, the repercussions weren't that damaging.

"I miss my old friends… they've made other friends and one of them- one of the new friends that is- said some things to me and I think he might be right? I mean I've never thought about any of the points he'd said before… I also anno- was mean to one of my new friends, well new friend singular… and also-"

"Well look who's a talker!"

Andromeda was embarrassed but didn't blush. She controlled the color in her face so that the pink wouldn't appear.

"My goodness, you are right that was terribly undignified!"

"No, no it's okay," Molly said, "I can give you one piece of advice on one of those problems, because to be honest you were talking really quickly, so tell me the one that's bothering you the most,"

Andromeda thought for a moment. Molly felt that at that moment Andromeda looked very young.

"What is bothering me the most is what my former friends' new friend said to me… I can not tell what he was trying to say,"

"Why not ask him?" Molly told her.

"What?!"

"It's the only way you'll know for sure, just think about it," Molly said and stopped walking.

Andromeda was confused for a moment before she saw that they were in front of the Slytherin common room.

"Good night," Molly said, and started to walk away.

"Good night," Andromeda murmured back.

Molly heard and smiled.


I can't believe I forgot to do Quidditch stuff sooner! Hope you enjoyed this chapter, I got lost in Quidditch Through the Ages for this.