A/N For the Prompts Only One Hour Challenge/Hardest Challenge Ever by Lady Phoenix Fire Rose and the John Green Competition by annaisadinosaur. I've never done Andromeda before. Hope I do her justice! Also, I sort of changed the ages of her sisters in relation to her, just to make the story work. Please R&R!
Andy Black was always the weird one. Her sisters, Bella and Cissy, had both ended up in Slytherin, just like all the Blacks. But Andy had been sorted into Hufflepuff. Of all the Houses!
Not that Hufflepuff was a bad place to be. In fact, Andy secretly loved being there, but she could never admit it to her family. They had all been shocked three years ago when she'd written home about it. Five Howlers had been sent her way, asking how she could possibly have gotten herself sorted into the worst House.
Now, in her fourth year, Andromeda Black was a new person. She was still the weird one. Bella and Cissy were older and couldn't be bothered to talk to their sister. Andy knew Cissy wanted to talk to her, deep down, but Cissy was always the rule-follower, the one that would do anything to stay out of trouble. And certainly Bella, the seventh year, wouldn't be caught dead talking to a fourth year Hufflepuff, even if she was her sister. What would the others think?
One day, in the middle of Potions, Andy overheard a couple of Slytherins talking about her.
"Bellatrix told us to stay away," one of them said.
"Yeah, so?" the other asked.
"Narcissa did, too. We can't just go against the orders of two of the Black sisters to talk to some Hufflepuff."
"But she looks so lonely. She doesn't have any friends."
"I don't care. Bellatrix and Narcissa said no, so we aren't going to talk to her!"
"I don't bloody care what those girls said, Andromeda looks lonely and I'm going over to talk to her. You're such a prick." And so the girl quietly ran over to Andy's table, where she was sitting all by herself.
"Hello," Andy said.
"Hi. Sorry about Jade, she's just scared of your sisters," the girl said, pointing her thumb back at Jade. "I'm Hanna Grey from Slytherin." She held out her hand. Andy took it.
"I'm-"
"Andromeda Black, yeah, I know," Hanna said. She was kind of annoying, but Andy was glad to have a friend, even if she was from Slytherin.
"Call me Andy," she said. "Thanks for disobeying my family. I won't let them know you're talking to me."
Hanna grinned. "Have you even started on your Swelling Solution yet?" she asked.
Andy looked down at her cauldron. It was empty. "No. What's the point? What do I need potions for anyway?"
"Oh, come on," Hanna said. "What's the first instruction?" She looked up at the board. "Fill halfway and heat for forty seconds. We can do that." Andy smiled. She was so glad to have someone to help her. She hadn't had a friend in four years. She had no idea how to act, but for some reason, she didn't think that would make much of a difference in Hanna's mind.
Andy looked at the board. "Number two," she read. "Add three lacewing flies." She dropped three of them into the cauldron. They went on like this for the rest of the period, alternating reading and acting out the instructions.
Time to time, Andy would look over at Jade, who was now sitting with three other Slytherins, who would no doubt tell Bella and Cissy all about Hanna befriending their sister. Cissy, of course, would vote to do nothing, and see where it led. Bella, on the other hand, would want to intervene and rip Andy away from the one friend she could ever possibly have. Madness. Why didn't Bella want her to be happy? It wasn't Andy's fault she'd been sorted into Hufflepuff. It wasn't Andy's fault she got no attention from Mum and Dad. None of it was Andy's fault, but Bella seemed to think her sister caused all the problems in the world.
"Something wrong, Andy?" Hanna asked, waving her hand in front of her new friend's eyes. "You spaced out for a second there."
"No, no, it's all fine," Andy replied. "I just can't read the instructions anymore. Bloody steam coming off all the cauldrons." This was, in fact, true. Andy couldn't see what they were supposed to be doing any longer. She wondered if all the other students couldn't see either. She thought about years ago, and years into the future. Would this sort of thing continue to happen to all the students of Hogwarts? Halfway through Potions, always, would no one be able to read what they were supposed to be doing? Or would there be a spell invented to clear away all the steam so that it would be more convenient?
Did it even matter? Andy could just barely make out the rest of the instructions. Thankfully, she'd thought to bring a notebook. She wrote down the remaining instructions so they wouldn't have to squint through the steam any longer.
"Stir counterclockwise five times," Hanna read. "And then wave your wand for ten seconds." She did so, and the potion turned orange, the exact color it was supposed to. Andy smiled. They made a good team.
"Do you think we should show this to Professor Mildew?" she asked Hanna. Her friend nodded. They gathered up a bit of the potion into a vial and brought it up to the professor's desk. He glanced at the potion, nodded, made a check mark on his paper next to the two of their names, and sent them on their way to do whatever they liked for the rest of the period.
"I was wondering," Hanna said. "What are you doing for the next Hogsmeade trip?"
"I never go to those," Andy said. She was always lonely, but it was magnified in Hogsmeade. Everyone was walking around with their arms linked with their best friend, having a terribly good time. Andy made the mistake of going only once. It was hard to get her parents' permission to go, as they thought she didn't deserve to do anything, now that she was a Hufflepuff. Only Slytherins got to have fun, after all.
"Well, you do now," Hanna said. "Jade doesn't want to go, but I do, and I don't want to go by myself. So you're going to come with me. And we're going to drink butterbeer and eat Honeyduke's chocolate all day. You have to come!"
"Sure, sure," Andy said. In fact, it did sound fun, walking around Hogsmeade on a winter day, arm in arm with her friend.
Andy had a friend now. And if that meant standing up to her sisters, then so be it. But she'd found a shred of happiness at Hogwarts. She wasn't going to let it go very easily.