School began in much the same way it always had, with the exception that the amount and complexity of work seemed to have increased dramatically over the summer break. We were studying for our OWLs now, the teachers informed us sagely, and that meant a step-up in our magical education, a chance to push the boundaries of our knowledge and acquire the skills that would carry us through the rest of our life.

"What they really mean," grumbled Annabelle less than two weeks into first term as we sat together in the common room labouring over our Transfiguration essays. "Is that they've been given free reign to torture us into submission, and soon we'll all be perfect little textbook robots."

Privately, I agreed. What with the added burden of Prefect patrols twice a week, my days were suddenly crammed with activity, and I rarely had a chance to sit and relax. I longed for the days when my afternoons had been filled with leisure activities, long walks around the grounds with my sisters, or hours spent lounging in the Slytherin common room with my head in a book. I had barely been back at Hogwarts a week and already I had reams of homework to complete every night.

Despite the extra workload, I had made up my mind that this was to be the year I finally tried out for the Slytherin Quidditch team, no matter what. I kept a continual look out at the notice board, and when the date of try-outs was finally posted there in early October I had to stop myself from squealing in excitement. After watching the World Cup final, I was determined to give myself a chance to fly, regardless of what my housemates said. And at least I knew Leo would support me; he owed me big time, after all, since I had agreed to continue the pretense of our relationship. In reality, this didn't involve much more than simply being seen walking to class together, and the occasional hand-hold or kiss on the cheek. Since I generally enjoyed Leo's company anyway, I didn't mind having to spend time with him. But that didn't mean I was going to miss an excuse to call in the favour.

"Why are you so bouncy tonight?"

It was Monday night, and I was on patrol with Ted. Quidditch try-outs were scheduled for the afternoon the very next day. I had been edgy all evening and clearly it had been noticed.

I immediately went very still. "I'm not."

Ted snorted. We were ambling along the third floor, passing by the statue of the one-eyed witch Gunhilda. "If you were any twitchier I'd worry you'd been hexed," he said casually.

"Maybe I'm just desperate to get away from you?"

He laughed. "Maybe. But I wasn't aware acting like an enchanted grasshopper was a symptom of disliking someone."

We had fallen into this routine of petty banter quite against my initial intentions. I had planned to spend my nights on patrol with Ted in stony silence, pretending as though he didn't exist and using the opportunity to silently revise in my head. But after a few weeks of this I grew so bored and tired of the silence that I began to respond to Ted's idle chatter, and soon enough I found myself engaged in a battle of wits with him, exchanging barbs and witty retorts as we walked through the empty corridors. Ted always took my insults with good humour, and returned as good as he got. He had not, however, ever called me Andy again, not since I had drawn my wand on him on the Hogwarts' Express.

"This wouldn't have anything to do with the Slytherin Quidditch try-outs tomorrow, would it?" asked Ted slyly.

I pulled up short, swivelling my head to glare at him suspiciously. "How – who told you that?" The only person who knew about my intention to audition for the team was Leo. I would kill him if he had been spreading gossip.

"No one told me," said Ted. "I just put two and two together." When I continued to glare at him he laughed. "Honestly, you're not that hard to figure out, you know. You obviously love Quidditch. Frank told me you flew better than anybody else in class in first year. I've never seen you miss a game, and you were at the World Cup. Try-outs are tomorrow, and you seem nervous as hell. I had a guess, and looks like I was right."

I wasn't sure whether to be annoyed or impressed at the way he had figured me out.

"What I'm really wondering," Ted continued as we began to walk again. "Is why it's taken you until fifth year?"

I didn't answer, staring rather sullenly at the tapestry of a troll that we were passing. I waited for Ted to speak but he seemed content to wait for my answer. Eventually, against my better judgment, I found myself saying, "I wanted to try out last year, but… "

"But?"

"But I'll be the only girl on the team," I snapped, annoyed that I had lowered my guard enough to respond to him. It really wasn't any of his damn business. He was probably just canvassing for Hufflepuff, trying to figure out our team's weaknesses so that he could exploit them at a later date.

"What position will you try out for?" asked Ted, and I seized on the change in tact gratefully.

"Chaser."

"Ah," I could hear the smile in his voice even without looking at him. "So you'll be coming up against me then? I have to warn you, I won't take it easy on you just cause you're a girl."

I tried to smile, but my insides had suddenly clenched at the thought of playing in front of the entire school in a game of Quidditch. "Got to get on the team first," I mumbled.

"You will," said Ted breezily, "if what Frank told me about you is right. And he's a pretty good judge of fliers. Who're you going to replace though? Rabastan Lestrange?"

This point had been bothering me too, the only damper to my excitement at finally gathering the courage to try-out. There was not really a position opening up on the team, but Bletchley always made everyone fly for their positions at the start of each year. The three Chasers for Slytherin were Rodolphus, Rabastan, and Lucius Malfoy. Of those three, Rabastan was clearly the weakest link. How he would react to having his spot challenged by me, though, I was not sure.

Ted must have noticed my anxiety, because he hurried to reassure me, "Lestrange is a crap flier. I can't imagine you could be worse than him."

This did little to cheer me up. "It's not that which I'm afraid of," I said without thinking.

"What is it then?" asked Ted. I could hear the curiosity in his voice.

"You wouldn't understand."

"Try me."

I sighed, and stopped walking so that I could face him. "It's being better than him, and knocking him out of the team."

He looked confused. "Why would that worry you?"

He was so naïve, so obviously not Slytherin, that it was almost funny. "How would you feel if a girl knocked you out of the Hufflepuff team?"

Ted cocked his head to the side, considering. After a moment he said, "If she was a better flier than me, then I wouldn't mind. I'd just try and get better, so that I could knock her back out the next year." He grinned.

I rolled my eyes. "Yep, well, you can guarantee Rabastan won't think like that." I started walking again, and Ted fell back into stride beside me.

"You think he'll be angry?"

"Of course he'll be angry!" I snapped. "He'll be furious."

"He wouldn't do anything to you though, would he?" asked Ted in concern.

I shrugged. I didn't think Rabastan would do anything to me, at least not anything that my sister could find out about. He wouldn't want to risk getting on her bad side; nobody in Slytherin wanted to risk that. Then again, there were plenty of ways to make someone's life miserable without being caught, and Rabastan probably knew most of them.

"Anyway," I said bracingly as we reached the end of the corridor and began to walk back the way we had come. "I doubt I'll make it on to the team. Even if I am good enough, Rabastan's father employs Bletchley's, and I don't think he'd want to risk offending him by dropping him from the team."

Ted made an irritated noise under his breath. "I'll never understand Slytherins," he said.

"No," I agreed, rather sadly. "You won't."

I could barely stomach anything the next day. I finally confided my plan to Annabelle at lunchtime when she began to speculate that I was coming down with dragon pox as a reason for my lack of appetite.

After I had told her the truth, she gaped at me with eyes as wide as saucers.

"Wow," she said when she had finally recovered. "Wow Andy, I mean – that's – that's really brave of you."

At that moment I did not feel particularly brave. My legs were tapping restlessly underneath the table and I felt as though I could barely sit still a moment longer.

"What's brave of her?"

It was the last voice in Hogwarts I wanted to hear. Rabastan slid in opposite us, reaching out for a bread roll. His eyes swivelled between the two of us.

"What's brave of her?" he repeated when nobody answered him.

Annabelle looked flustered. I kicked her under the table and she winced. "She – she – she wants to sneak into the kitchens!"

I stared at her, and she gave me an apologetic look. Rabastan was frowning in confusion.

"Why on earth would you want to do that? Aren't you getting enough to eat?"

I flushed. "Just… for something to do. I've always wondered what it looks like down there."

"Hmph." Rabastan began to pile potatoes onto his plate, and before long he had lost all interest in us in favour of his food.

I excused myself as soon as I could after class and went down to the dungeons to collect my broomstick and change into my flying gear. I was early, but thought I might sneak down to the pitch before anyone else and get in some early practise. As a precaution, I cast an invisibility charm over my broomstick, before tucking it under my arm and ducking back into the entrance hall and out onto the grounds.

It was a fine day, perfect for flying. I half broke into a run in my eagerness to get off the ground, and I almost forgot to lift the disillusionment charm from my broomstick I was that excited. The rush of air when I pushed myself off the grass was like sweet music to my ears.

I had flown at Hogwarts before, obviously, usually on rainy weekends when nobody else was using the pitch and my flying would go unnoticed. But never before had it felt this good. I raced in loops around the pitch, my hair streaming out behind me in the wind, before zooming upwards straight into the sun, then plummeting down again in the move I had seen the Romanian and Australian Seekers perform at the World Cup. I had never felt so free, so jubilant. It was like nothing could reach me up here, not my family, not my sisters, nor any of my housemates. I was completely alone, completely –

There was somebody watching me. I pulled my broom to a harsh stop, squinting down at the figure far below me. Whoever it was waved back, their hair glinting golden in the bright afternoon sunshine.

I scowled, and turned my broom so that I was pointing straight at him. Then I began to fly as fast as possible. As I drew closer, I saw Ted's expression change from a smile to a look of stunned horror, and a split second before I would have hit him he threw himself sideways onto the ground. I pulled out of the dive and leapt off of my broom before it had even come to a complete stop.

"Are you mental?" Ted barked, scrambling to his feet and staring at me as though I were a three-headed monster that had just Apparated in front of him. "What did you go and do that for? You could have cleaned my head off!"

"What are you doing here?" I demanded.

He gave me a wounded look. "Well, I thought I'd come watch you try-out, didn't I? But if you're going to try and run me over, maybe I won't bother," he spoke in a tone of great offence, but I thought I saw his lips twitch slightly at the end.

"It was a great dive, though," he said after a moment, almost as though he couldn't help himself. "Frank was right about you. You should be a shoo-in for a Chaser spot."

"Your dive was better," I said with a smirk, and Ted shot me an annoyed look.

"Oh yeah, I practise that move all the time."

I laughed, before noticing another figure striding towards us from the castle. It was Rabastan, dressed in his emerald green Slytherin Quidditch robes, his broomstick tucked under one arm. The smile slid off my face. "Oh crap," I muttered.

Ted turned to see what I was staring at.

"You'd better go," I said hurriedly.

"No way," argued Ted. "I came to see you try-out."

"You shouldn't be here," I said. "You're a Huffelpuff, and it's not – "

But it was too late to stop Rabastan from seeing us. I saw him freeze mid-step, before quickening his pace.

"Andy?" he called out as he approached us. "What are you doing here?" His gaze drifted to Ted, and he scowled. "And what is he doing here?"

"Prefect business," I said automatically.

Rabastan didn't buy it, and I couldn't blame him. "Come to spy on us, have you?" he sneered at Ted. "Trying to pick up tips on how to use a broom?"

Ted's expression remained light. "If I wanted tips on using a broom, Lestrange, I wouldn't be watching you," he said mildly.

I gave a snort of laughter, and had to cough quickly to disguise it.

Rabastan's cheeks had flushed red, and the grip he held on his broom was white-knuckled. "You think you're so clever," he spat at Ted. "But you're nothing but a stupid – " he broke off, eyes fixed on my broomstick. I could actually see the moment when confusion gave way to shocked understanding.

"Were you flying?" he asked me incredulously, as though the very thought of it was as absurd as trying to dance with a Blast-Ended Skrewt.

I lifted my chin defiantly. "Yes."

"But – but – " I could see Rabastan's brain slowly piecing things together. "Does that mean – are you trying out for the team?" He didn't wait for my answer, because clearly it was written all over my face. "But there's no position for you!"

There was an awkward silence. I wished Ted would go away. I didn't particularly want him to witness mine and Rabastan's falling out. It was private Slytherin business, after all, and nothing to do with him.

"All the positions are reopened at the start of the year," I responded calmly. "You know that's the way Bletchley runs things."

"You can't – that's – " Rabastan was shaking in anger. "Why are you doing this?" he demanded at last.

I stared at him in confusion. "Why? Because I want a chance to play Quidditch, just like everybody else."

"That's – that's just – it's not – " Rabastan rounded on Ted, clearly deciding he was the easier target right then. "What are you still doing here?" he shouted at him. "Don't you have a badger to go and hug or something?"

Ted raised an eyebrow, but evidently decided not to push it. We could both see that Rabastan was in a fragile state. "Alright, I'm going," he said, casting a quick glance in my direction. "Later, Black."

I appreciated his lack of familiarity, particularly as it looked like Rabastan was very close to being pushed over the edge. There were other Slytherins crossing the grounds now; I could see Leo and Bletchley, walking together but with a respectable distance between them, and Rodolphus and the two Beaters, Vincent Crabbe and Sanders Goyle. Lucius Malfoy brought up the rear of the team; behind him trailed more than half a dozen Slytherin hopefuls.

Bletchley did not look surprised to see me. Clearly Leo had told him of my intentions to try-out. The others, though, were obviously not suspecting my presence. Crabbe and Goyle gaped, while Rodolphus merely stared at me in that hard, unfriendly way he had. I fidgeted under his gaze, knowing news of my decision would be reaching Bella's ears very shortly. Oh well, there was nothing I could do about that now.

"Are you trying out?" asked Lucius Malfoy. His gaze was appraising, as though he was trying to weigh the threat I might represent to his own position.

"Yep," I said, with a nervous glance at Bletchley. "For Chaser."

"Alright, well, you all know the drill," said Bletchley. He spoke in an easy-going tone, utterly different from the way he had addressed Leo that night in the forest. Then, his voice had been rough with emotion. I remembered the kiss they had shared, and blushed. Judging from the nervous glances Leo kept shooting me, I gathered he had not told Bletchley that I knew their secret. Truth be told I was glad. It would have made things rather awkward.

I was not the only person trying out for the position of Chaser. There were quite a few younger Slytherins, from second and third year, keen to try their luck on scoring a spot. But it was fairly obvious once we started flying that their skill did not match the older boys.

The drills went much the same as they had the year before, when I had watched in secret from the stands. We began with basic Quaffle passing, then branched into more complicated formations, followed by flying at high-speed and demonstrations of broom control in pressure situations. I was in my element. After my initial nerves had faded, I began to fly just as I had in the summer with Leo. My hands passed the Quaffle effortlessly and I never faltered, even when Rabastan threw the ball so wide I had to go into a dive to retrieve it. I could feel the grin on my face, and when I successfully scored my first try, beating Bletchley himself, I couldn't help doing a quick lap of the pitch in celebration.

It was while I was high up in the air that I caught sight of Ted. He was sitting in the shadows of one of the stands, far enough away that he wouldn't draw any attention. I didn't think any of the other Slytherins had seen him. When he caught me staring he gave me a small wave. Scowling, I turned my broom sharply and flew to the other side of the pitch.

We flew for close to an hour. I was one of the last to come down. Bletchley called us all in and began the usual speech thanking us for our participation.

"I'll have the team sheets released by the weekend," he said. "Keep an eye on the common room noticeboard. Training begins next week, so if you're lucky enough to get selected, make sure you're prepared to start straight away." His eyes drifted to me and away again.

I didn't hang around on the pitch, and deliberately avoided looking in Ted's direction. To my great annoyance, Rabastan fell into step beside me as I began to trudge back to the castle.

"So," he said. "You're serious about this."

I didn't reply, in the hope that he might go away.

"When did you get so good at flying?" he went on after a while. His tone was vaguely resentful.

"I don't know," I mumbled. "Just practice I guess."

"You said you flew once or twice with Leo," Rabastan continued. "You don't get that good from just once or twice."

Up ahead of us, Bletchley and Leo were walking together. They appeared to be arguing about something. I could see Leo talking rapidly, but I was too far away to hear what he was saying. "It might've been more than that," I said indifferently.

"Why are you trying so hard to get on the team?"

"Why does it matter to you that I am?"

Rabastan's upper lip curled derisively. "I don't really care," he said. "It's just a bit embarrassing, that's all. I mean, you don't see any of the other girls acting like this. It's only you."

"Why do I have to be like everybody else?" I demanded, feeling too positive about my performance to let Rabastan's petty insults bring me down. "If I want to fly why shouldn't I? And besides…" Ted's words during patrol drifted back to me, and I blurted them out without thinking, "Even if I do beat you, you should just try and get better, so that you can knock me out next year."

Rabastan sneered. "As if you'd ever knock me out of the team! Come off it, Andy."

I shrugged and quickened my pace, hoping to leave him behind. Unfortunately he lengthened his stride to keep up with me.

"You know," he said, his voice following me like an acid cloud. "I'm beginning to think – "

"I really don't care."

He smirked. "Suit yourself. You and Avery on the rocks?"

I almost stumbled, but managed to keep my voice light. "No. Why would you think that?"

"Don't know. But he doesn't seem to be paying you much attention, does he?"

I scowled. It was true I hadn't had much to do with Leo during practice, but I hadn't thought anybody else would be paying enough attention to notice. "We were busy," I said.

"Mm-hmm. Want me to put a good word in with Bletchley for you? If you ditch Avery and go out with me instead I will."

The look I sent him could have withered flowers. "I can't honestly believe you think I would do that deal," I said coldly.

He quirked an eyebrow, but I thought his jaw was rather tight. "Your loss," he said.

We had reached the entrance hall. Rabastan and the rest of the Slytherins began to descend the stairs to the dungeons and, purely out of desire to get away from him, I went the other way.

"Where are you going?" he demanded.

"Nowhere that's any of your business," I snapped back, stalking up off the marble staircase and onto the first floor corridor.

"You've still got your broom!" he called after me. "Andy – "

But I ignored him

I didn't really have any destination in mind. I climbed until the third floor, taking the short cuts and back-ways that guaranteed I wouldn't meet another student. I thought about going to the library, but my rather conspicuous broomstick and Quidditch clothes made that awkward. Instead I simply wandered the third floor corridor, dragging my feet and wondering how I would explain my actions to Bella, who would surely have heard the news by now.

Someone was coming toward me along the corridor. I glanced up, and saw that it was my fellow Prefect, Dorcas Meadowes. She gave me an appraising glance, her grey eyes drifting to my broomstick.

"Been flying?" she asked, stopping a foot away from me.

I nodded.

"What position did you go for?"

I didn't bother to ask her how she had known about try-outs. "Chaser."

"Ah." She smiled at me, and I wondered how strange it was that we could stand here having a perfectly civil conversation, when we had barely spoken to each other in five years. "How are you finding being Prefect?"

I shrugged. "Alright. It's a lot of extra work. I didn't realise OWLs were going to be this hard."

"Tell me about it," said Dorcas. "How are you going with your summoning charms?"

I scrunched up my nose. Usually I did not feel comfortable confessing any kind of academic weakness to other people, not even to my sisters or close friends; but for some reason honesty seemed to come naturally to me at that moment. "Not good. I can summon them, but they always come too fast, or too slow. Professor Hexia says I need to work on my diction."

"You're still doing better than me. So far about the only thing I've managed to summon is her disapproval."

I laughed. It felt nice, to be standing there chatting. I remembered what Weasley and Prewett had said about wanting to promote inter-house harmony among the Prefects, and thought they would have approved of this impromptu corridor meeting.

"So how are you finding rounds with Ted?"

Maybe it was the Slytherin in me, or perhaps the overly casual way in which she asked the question, but I was suddenly suspicious. "Why?" I asked, scrutinising her reaction.

"I was just wondering," she said lightly. "Ted's a nice guy. I have rounds with your boyfriend."

"Oh, yeah." I remembered Leo's words on the train, and the frown returned to my face. "How's that?"

"Could be worse," shrugged Dorcas. "Anyway, I'd better go – I'm going to the library to do that essay for Slughorn. You want to come?"

"Oh, no," I made a vague gesture to my broomstick, and she nodded. "Thanks, though."

"No worries. I'll see you round, Andy."

I watched as she walked away, my eyebrows knitted together in thought. Then, since there wasn't much else to do, I began the slow trek back down to the Slytherin common rooms.

Bella was waiting for me. She strode over before the door had even closed behind me, her eyes lit up with the keen brightness I had come to associate with her whenever she was angry. Her fingers wrapped around my arm and she steered me through the room and into my dormitory without speaking.

"What's going on?" she demanded as soon as we were alone.

I fixed a look of innocent confusion on my face. "What do you mean?"

Bella tossed her hair. "Don't give me that, Andy. Since when do you like Quidditch?"

I stared at my sister, appreciating for perhaps the first time the vast gap that had sprung up between us, almost without my noticing. I hadn't wanted to draw away from Bella; in my ideal future we had always stayed best of friends until old age. But I couldn't deny that we were on separate paths now, and no longer had the things in common that we once had. That she didn't have a clue about my love of flying was just a particularly blunt indication of that fact.

She was still waiting for my response. I lifted a shoulder and dropped it again.

"I don't understand," she said, taking a step closer so that she could peer into my face. She was looking at me as though I was a particularly frustrating puzzle she was trying to solve. "Are you telling me you want to join the Slytherin Quidditch team?"

"Yes."

"But why?"

I had to bite my tongue to stop from blurting out a response that would only antagonise her. "I've wanted to for ages. And then I went to the World Cup and got inspired."

Bella threw up her hands. "Honestly Andy," she said. "It's absurd. I mean, if you really want to fly, then I suppose there's nothing wrong with that, on weekends or whatever. But to actually try-out for the team." She shook her head. "What were you thinking?"

My gut gave a sharp little stab. I had known she would respond like this, but that didn't mean hearing her lack of support hurt any less. "I don't see what the big deal is," I said weakly.

Bella rounded on me like an angry cat. "The big deal?" she hissed. "The big deal? Andy, the big deal is it's completely inappropriate! We have a perfectly good team as it is and – "

"If it's so good then why do we keep losing every year," I snapped.

"What, and you think you'll improve it?" scoffed Bella.

"I would improve it!" I said heatedly. My temper was rising now and I was powerless to stop it. "And you'd know that if you paid any attention at all!" I span on my heel and paced over to my bed, wishing she would leave me alone. I hated that she had the power to make me feel like this, as though I was silly and immature to even think about flying for Slytherin. I knew it wasn't true. I was a better flier than Rabastan. Ted had said so.

Bella followed me, and her hand stroked my hair, gentler than normal. But when she spoke her voice was just as patronising as before. "Andy," she began. "I appreciate that you want the freedom to do as you please. I understand. But surely you can see how embarrassing this is for mother and father."

"And what about what you get up to, Bella?" I bit out. "What about the sneaking around with Rodolphus? The bullying and the violence? You don't think that embarrasses them?"

I heard my sister's sharp intake of breath as she withdrew her hand. "Don't talk about what you don't understand," she said in a cold voice.

My eyes were beginning to sting. "Oh I understand," I said quietly. "So long as I toe the pureblood line and don't make friends in other houses, or embarrass my family by wanting to fly, then I can do whatever I want. Even if that means disappearing for hours on end with a boy and – and reading all sorts of dark magic stuff."

There was a pause, before I was whirled around to face Bella. Her cheeks were flushed and her eyes shone, and I knew I had come close to pushing her too far. "You say 'the pureblood line' like it's a bad thing," she whispered fiercely. We were so close that I could feel the warmth of her breath against my skin. "Why would you say it like that, Andy? Don't you understand?"

Staring into her face was making me cross-eyed; I dropped my gaze to the floor. "I don't know anymore," I said honestly. "I thought I did but I…"

Bella released me and took a step back. She seemed to be breathing heavily. "It's that Mudblood," she said, and my eyes darted to her face. "That Hufflepuff Mudblood. He's filling your head with nonsense."

"What? Ted has nothing to do with this."

I realised my mistake a second too late. Bella's face contorted and she suddenly looked quite mad. "Oh it's Ted, is it?" she mocked. "Ted has nothing to do with this. Leave Ted out of it." She sneered. "Rabastan told me he was on the pitch today."

I would strangle Rabastan in his sleep. "It was Prefect duty."

"He's on the Hufflepuff Quidditch team," Bella panted, pointing an accusatory finger at me. "He's the one filling your head with this flying rubbish."

"He's got nothing to do with it!" I yelled, finally losing my temper and shouting back at her. "I've liked flying ever since I got my first broom! It's not my fault you never paid enough attention to notice what I did in my spare time!"

Bella broke off whatever she had been about to say, offence written all over her face. "I pay attention," she began, but I was angry too now, and cut her off.

"Only when it suits you! And really for the last few years you've been way too busy in your own world to see what's happening in mine!"

"That's not – "

"How come you didn't know I like flying, then? How come even after five years at school together you still couldn't name my favourite subject? How come you didn't have a clue that I liked Leo before Cissy told you?"

Bella was staring at me, open mouthed. I turned away again and sat down heavily on my bed. All the elation I had felt on the Quidditch pitch had evaporated as though it had never been there to begin with. Now I felt empty, despondent, like flying had been a dream or something I did in another life.

There was a tense silence. I could feel Bella's hesitation, as though she wasn't sure whether to leave or continue the conversation. It was the first real fight we had had in a long time.

After a while she came over to me, sitting down beside me and drawing me into an embrace. I returned the hug, but only for the sake of not escalating things further. There was no warmth in Bella's arms for me anymore, and I could still hear the disapproval in her voice, for all she tried to hide it from me.

"I'm sorry for shouting at you," she said as she smoothed my hair away from my forehead. "You just caught me by surprise. And I'm still not sure about this whole… flying thing. But I guess… I guess I can overlook it, for a while. I mean, we all need our little outlets, don't we?" She laughed softly, as though we were sharing in a private joke, but I did not catch the humour. "I'm only trying to look out for you, Andy."

I gave her a strained smile. "I'm a big girl now Bella. I don't need looking out for anymore."

She ruffled my hair. "Nonsense. You'll always be my baby sister, as long as I'm alive."

.