-//-
(She Moves In Her Own Way//The Kooks)
Andrea hadn't been at Hogwarts for long, but she quickly realized that the boys were up to something. And she had her theories why, she was just scared of how to bring it up.
Remus didn't show up to any of his classes on Wednesday and he wasn't at dinner that evening, leading Andrea to believe her theory was becoming more and more believable. Suspicious, Andrea worked up the courage and decided to investigate the easiest persuasive member.
"Hey Peter," she smiled, taking her seat beside him on the common room couch. "Hi. What's up Andie?" he greeted.
"Is Remus okay? I haven't seen him since we left him this morning," she said, worrying her lip between her teeth. Peter felt his palms grow sweaty with nerves. "Oh, uh. Y-yeah. He's still in the Hospital Wing," he stuttered, avoiding eye contact.
Andrea narrowed her eyes at him. "What's wrong with him?" she asked. "Uhm... sick. Yeah, yeah. Some stomach bug or something." "Oh, OK. I hope he feels better. Maybe I should go down there and-"
"NO!" Peter jumped in. "Why not? If he's not feeling well, I want to help him." Peter looked around the room frantically and spotted Sirius.
"Hey, S-Sirius? I can't remember, what did Madam Pomfrey say was the reason we weren't allowed to visit Remus? Andrea wants to head down there, you see." He was trying to play it cool, but Andrea didn't believe him for a second. Smoothly, Sirius jumped over the back of the couch and landed on Andrea's other side.
"Yeah, she said he was contagious, so no one's allowed in there," he said, ruffling his hair in the process, making his curls frame his face graciously. Sirius was a much better actor than Peter.
"I see. Well, I hope he's better by tomorrow." Andrea stood from the couch and left the boys. Turning around by the dorm entrances she made sure that Sirius and Peter were distracted. They had turned to each other and were whispering urgently.
In a split-second decision, she changed direction and ran up to the boys' dorms. She quickly found the door with all the boys' names on it where she had been that morning and hurried inside unnoticed.
As soon as she closed the door, she almost regretted her decision. The post-it-covered walls weren't the only problem with the boys' room. There was a mess everywhere. Clothes, vinyl records, books, mud that had been tracked in from outside and litters of empty candy wrappers all over the place. Andrea tried to spot James' bed.
There was one bed with more candy wrappers than the other on the nightstand, so she guessed that was Peter's, judging by the potted plants along the window next to his bed too. She learned Yesterday in class that Peter loved Herbology and plants. He pretty much enjoyed all subjects that didn't require a wand, except Potions of course. But Astrology and Herbology were his best ones.
Next was the bed with Vinyl records scattered all over the crumpled duvet, and a Muggle record player on the nightstand.
Sirius, she thought to herself with a smile.
She missed her mother's record player. They would listen to Muggle music for hours on end when she was home and on her first night at Hogwarts, she and Sirius had compared their favourite Muggle artists for nearly two hours. Music had easily broken the ice that night, even if they didn't listen to many of the same artists.
The bed across from Sirius had a large poster of the Ballycastle Bats' Seeker zooming around on his broom on it. Andrea knew Remus didn't enjoy Quidditch and Ballycastle was her and James' team, so this had to be him. But just in case, Andrea went to the wall and found the post-it with the doodled pointing hand, telling her that the bed beside it was definitely James'.
She opened his trunk and searched around, grinning triumphantly when her fingers felt the silk-like material of the cloak she was looking for. She pulled James' Invisibility Cloak out of his trunk and straightened it out.
"Shush, Sirius, Wait till we're in the dorm!" Andrea heard James call out in the hallway. Quickly, she flung the Invisibility Cloak over herself. The three boys entered their dorm, looking conspicuous.
"Ok, now let's talk." Not wanting to invade their privacy by eavesdropping on their clearly private conversation, Andrea quickly rushed out of the dorm, staying invisible to them. Quickly and quietly, she sneaked out of the common room and headed for the Hospital Wing.
She opened the door slowly and looked inside. The medi-witch was nowhere to be seen. And neither was anyone else. The Wing was deserted.
"I knew it," Andrea whispered to herself with a smile.
-//-
19th of September, Wednesday, 1973
It had been a weird week. Remus had been gone all of Wednesday and Thursday after the full moon but looked perfectly fine and healthy by Friday, the bug apparently passing quickly. Andrea knew the boys knew. And now she knew, they just didn't know that she knew.
Not wanting to make it uncomfortable for Remus, she had decided to keep it to herself, and things were going great. But some subtle things were becoming less and less subtle for her.
"Come on, Moony, Potions sucks. Stop being nice and say it. Repeat after me - Potions..."
"Potions," Remus groaned, trying to walk away from Sirius. "-Sucks," he completed. "Isn't that bad," Remus responded.
"Are you hard of hearing, Moony?" "You know I'm not," he said in a sing-song voice, making Peter and James chuckle along too. Andrea rolled her eyes.
Could they be any more obvious? I mean, just the nickname alone is ridiculous.
They stopped outside the Potions classroom, walking in single file to the room. Andrea was furthest back in the group and hung back with a sour expression.
James turned and saw her face, knowing what she was thinking. Quickly he grabbed her wrist and started pulling her towards the door. She fought against him, and Sirius quickly joined in, pulling on her other arm.
"No, you can't make me!" Andrea whined as James and Sirius both pulled on her arms. "Don't be such a coward," James said, straining against her and trying to pull her in with him.
"It's torture!" she cried out. "It's Potions," Sirius huffed in an annoyed tone. "Same thing," she sassed back.
James grumbled incoherently and yanked hard on her, arm making her stumble forwards.
"Puffo," she mumbled under her breath, heading into the classroom behind Sirius. "Puffetta," he mumbled to her from behind.
"Starting Wednesday morning with double Potions is really bad planning. In the middle of the week we need to start with something nice and easy," Peter grumbled. "Agreed," Andrea huffed, high-fiving him sloppily.
She sat down beside Remus, Peter joining James and Sirius sitting with Frankie Weasley on the second aisle. And then the torture of the next hour started. Andrea was thankful she was sitting with Remus because he was very good at Potions. James was good too, but he mocked her for her lameness on the subject, Remus didn't.
A ball of paper landed on the table between Remus and Andrea. They both looked at it, looked at each other and then turned around, finding the culprit. James pointed to the other side of the class.
They all looked over to see Sirius leaning over his desk and dropping something into Snape's cauldron on the desk in front of him. He pulled back quickly and went back to his own potion with Frankie, grinning to himself as they all waited for what came next.
Andrea turned to James with a questioning look. He placed a finger to his lips and went back to writing down the next step of his own potion as Slughorn explained the process at the front of the class.
"Just wait and watch the magic happen," he said out of the corner of his mouth. "All of this is magic you brick-head. We're in a school of magic," Andrea deadpanned back. James rolled his eyes and ignored her.
A bang followed by several shrieks of horror had Andrea turning back to Snape and Lily's station. Their cauldron had exploded and the sticky, green liquid that used to be their potion was covering Snape's robes.
Luckily, Lily had just been ducking under the desk to pick up her quill, so she had nothing on her. But she stood beside her slime-covered friend, gaping at him in shock.
"Oh my! Seems like you added too much on that last step there, Mister Snape," Slughorn chuckled deeply, waving his wand, and cleaning up the mess.
"No. No! It wasn't me; it was him!" Snape had turned around now and was glaring at Sirius while pointing an accusatory finger at him.
Sirius looked up from his work and gave Snape a bored look, arching one eyebrow perfectly. "I didn't tell you to put the wrong measured ingredients in," Sirius said in a bored tone.
"Now, now, Severus. I bet even someone as skilled as you can make mistakes occasionally," Slughorn chuckled good-heartedly.
Snape turned his icy glare from Sirius and looked over at James across the room, his eyes narrowing into slits.
"I'm glad Lily didn't get anything on her. She'd kill us all," James muttered so only Peter, Remus and Andrea could hear him. Remus smiled to himself.
"Yes. Yes, she would."
-//-
On Wednesdays, Andrea didn't share her last class of the day with any of the boys, seeing as none of them were taking Arithmancy.
But she had told Sirius as they left Muggle Studies just before that she'd meet up with them at dinner so that's where she was heading after leaving her final lesson of the day. She was walking along a quiet hallway, heading for the Great Hall, when she came across someone, she hadn't had the pleasure of officially meeting yet.
The boy with the black, curtained hair came striding down the hallway at a fast pace, coming straight towards her. She came to a stop as he stepped right in front of her and stopped her from walking on, an ugly snarl on his face.
"So, you're the American," he practically spat at her. Andrea stood her ground and looked up at him, sticking her chin out proudly and rolling her shoulders back, straightening her spine.
"And you're Snape," she said back casually. "You're quite buddy-buddy with Potter and his friends. You should be more selective about your friends in the future." She cocked a brow at him. "That all?"
A sadistic smirk took over his face. "No." Before she could react, he pulled his wand out and she felt pain shoot through her face. As quickly as that happened, she felt a hot trickle of liquid start to run from her nose.
"Tell Potter that's for Potions this morning," he laughed sadistically. Andrea knocked her shoulder against his and ran off towards the Hospital Wing, covering her nose to try and slow down the bleeding.
"Andie?!" she had just turned the corner and looked up in horror as she came face to face with the four Marauders. She turned around and sped back the way she had gone, heading for a bathroom.
"Was that blood?"
"Andrea slow down!"
"What happened?!"
She came to a bathroom and pushed inside. But of course, it being a girl's lavatory wouldn't stop the boys. James rushed inside, coming to her side by the sink and looking at her reflection in the mirror, Sirius hot on his heels.
The other two boys came in at a slower pace, looking around warily. "What the hell happened?!" Remus snapped, looking at Andrea as she cleaned the blood off her face and hands in the sink. "Language," James grumbled automatically, earning him a punch in the arm from Sirius.
"Nothing. Fell is all," she mumbled. The blood wouldn't stop coming out of her nose and she was starting to feel lightheaded now. "Yeah, right," Sirius snorted, crossing his arms. All four boys started to protest simultaneously, but Andrea ignored them all.
"Can we just go to Madam Pomfrey?" Andrea muttered back, avoiding the questions. The blood was still coming out quickly. "Yeah. I think that's a good idea," Peter said, trying to calm down the situation.
James' fists were clenched tight and the muscles in his left arm were twitching dangerously as he restrained himself from screaming and demanding answers. They ended up escorting her into the Hospital Wing and Madam Pomfrey managed to stop the bleeding in a few seconds.
They headed back to the Gryffindor Tower in an awkward silence, everyone wanting to talk, no one wanting to make Andrea even more uncomfortable.
Andrea knew James would figure it out eventually so better to get it out now before he pestered her for hours that night.
"It was Snape," she said, breaking the silence, right in front of the Fat Lady portrait. The boys stopped and she came to a halt too, turning around to look at them.
"Snape did that?" Peter almost whispered, looking at her in horror. She nodded and turned away from them, heading inside alone and not wanting to continue the conversation.
The boys turned to James, waiting for his reaction. "What do you wanna do?" Remus asked, all of them ready to follow along with anything now, really.
One for all, all for one.
"He came for Andrea," James growled, his voice dangerous. "This - this is war."
-//-
20th September, Thursday, 1973
On Thursday morning Andrea was too embarrassed about the events from the day before that she didn't want to see the boys.
Thankfully, Dorcas had wanted her to hang out with her and her friends that day, so she had an excuse to avoid them.
So, leaving the Gryffindor Tower early that morning she was grateful that Kingsley Shacklebolt was up and ready before her, giving her the chance to join him at the Ravenclaw table. "Hey, Russo," he greeted her when he saw her heading his way.
"King," she greeted back, using the nickname she had heard Dorcas use every time she had been with them.
She looked around hesitantly. "Are we allowed to sit at tables that don't belong to our house?" she asked him. Kingsley smiled warmly at her. "Yeah, of course. They prefer us at our own tables during dinners but other than that they're not bothered."
Confident she wouldn't get in trouble; Andrea took the seat next to Kingsley and got herself some breakfast.
After only ten minutes, it became clear that Kingsley was very popular amongst his fellow Ravenclaws and the other houses.
People kept coming up to him, introducing themselves to Andrea, talking to him about classes or Quidditch.
"You play Quidditch too?" Andrea asked him after the Ravenclaw Captain had told Kingsley they had practice tomorrow morning. "Yeah, Chaser. You?" She grinned and straightened her back proudly.
"You are looking at Gryffindor's new Seeker," she bragged. "Seeker? No way!"
Andrea and Kingsley turned at the same time as another voice joined their conversation. Xavier Thomas had come to join them. He was very handsome, Andrea had to admit that to herself.
His lopsided smile, the styled dreads, and his bright, green eyes, matched his green Slytherin tie perfectly.
"X, I see you remember Andrea," Kingsley chuckled. "Yeah, Potters girl," he grinned, reaching out a hand for her to shake. She didn't take it. "I'm not Potters girl, I'm my own person," she said coolly, a playful smirk sneaking over her lips.
Kingsley smiled at her and looked to Xavier for his response. His eyes were wide, and he started shaking his head fervently.
"No, no. I meant no disrespect. I just meant, you're friends with him." Andrea studied him. James and Sirius had been spewing Slytherin hate since her first five minutes at this school, but Xavier Thomas had seemed pretty cool the two times she had met him. Andrea smiled at him.
"Fine, I'll let you off, just this once." Xavier grinned and took the seat across from her. "So, how did Kingsley convince you to join low lives like us on this fine morning?" he mocked.
"He didn't, I did." Dorcas' voice sounded from behind Andrea. She turned around and saw Mary and Lucretia behind her too.
As the girls took their seats, they all continued talking about school and Quidditch.
Xavier was on the Slytherin team, their Seeker, Captain and the fifth-year Slytherin Prefect. Kingsley was a Chaser and Dorcas played as a Beater.
Lucretia had wanted to try out but then decided she would wait a few years, a bit too scared of the injuries that could happen during a match and Mary liked watching and betting on the games, but she had no interest in playing.
To Andrea, the group of friends weren't all that questionable. They all shared interests, and all held very similar senses of humour. But to the rest of the school, this particular friend group had been turning heads since the day they had started walking along the halls together.
The fifth-year Slytherin, the third-year Gryffindors, and the fourth-year Ravenclaws made quite a group. One with Filipino heritage, two half-black and two black students, all in one big group. They were quite the unlikely friends from every four houses, but that's what made them all perfect for each other.
"Sirius, stop drooling," Peter laughed quietly as he saw who Sirius was looking at. Sirius wiped at his chin but found it dry.
"I wasn't drooling, Petey, I was admiring from afar," he grinned. Remus shook his head. "That sounded very stalkery even for your standards."
"You're just jealous," Sirius threw back. Remus rolled his eyes and went back to his toast cut in four, picking up the jam-covered one.
James was looking at the same group Sirius had dreamily been staring at, but his eyes were on Andrea instead of Dorcas. "Is she avoiding us? Because of yesterday?"
At his words, Remus and Peter turned in their seats to see Andrea laughing with the group of friends at the Ravenclaw table.
"Maybe. I mean, she was attacked and we're the only ones that know about it. Maybe she's embarrassed," Peter tried. Sirius nodded along to that.
"Yeah. She probably doesn't want the attention or the pity, you know," he shrugged. James let out a heavy breath.
"OK. Well, since she isn't here to overhear us, let's get to planning. Act one, Operation; Rainbow Snake."
-//-
– ACE
Xx