Now, let’s see, where did we leave off...? Ah yes, page 195 is where my chapter correlates with Order of the Phoenix. Italic portions (that aren’t spells) are sections that I’ve quoted straight out of OotP to work with my chapter. If this explanation doesn’t make sense now, it will by the end of the chapter.

~*~*~

At last the Hogwarts Express slowed to a stop and they all got off the train. Andrea smiled at the pleasantly crisp feeling of the night air on her face. It was much cooler than evenings at home in Kent, and it served to welcome her back to a new year. Fresh air for a fresh start, that’s how it had always felt. She and her fellow Gryffindors turned as they heard the familiar call for the first years, but it was Grubbly-Plank, not Hagrid, who held a lantern and was gathering the new students around her.

“That’s odd,” Sophie commented. “I wonder where Hagrid is.”

The others were perplexed as well, but as no one had the slightest inclination as to why he wasn’t there they simply dropped the subject and made their way through the crowds and to the horseless carriages. Sophie and Andrea made it into a carriage with Roderick and Edward. “Did either of you see Euan? I was going to pop in on him during the journey here, but we got too busy with our game.”

Sophie anxiously shook her head, growing a little nervous at the close proximity to the object of her affection. “I saw him,” Andrea said. “I passed his compartment on my way back from changing into my robes. He looked really nervous, but he’d found a few other first years to latch on to for the ride. They were trading chocolate frog cards I think.”

Euan was Edward’s youngest brother, there was another brother, Ethan, who was sandwiched in-between. “Well, at least Euan and his lot have got decent weather for the boat ride across the lake. D’you remember our first night Rick?”

“Bloody monsoonal rain with a bleeding fierce wind. I thought all our boats would capsize!” Roderick reminisced. “Must be enchanted so they don’t tip though, don’t you think?”

“I don’t know, I think I heard a couple years ago that the younger Creevey boy fell in. He said the squid put him back in the boat,” Andrea countered.

“Didn’t he just get pushed by one of those Slytherin blokes?” Ed questioned.

“Yeah, I think you’re right. Warrington’s brother now that I’m thinking harder about it,” Andrea surmised.

“I’m so hungry I could eat an entire hippogriff!” Roderick moaned, rubbing his stomach.

“I hear you mate,” Eddy agreed.

“What? I thought you two had stuffed your stomachs with sweets. Wasn’t that the plan?” Andrea asked.

“Exploding Snap, me dear sister, Exploding Snap. It’s an addicting obsession.”

Andrea and Sophie both smiled and rolled their eyes at each other, though the boys didn’t seem to notice. Andrea, Roderick and Eddy kept up a conversation until they rolled up to the castle. When they stepped out of the carriage, Sophie’s cousin called her to come and walk with her, and Edward straightened his robes and made his way over to flirt with Katie Bell.

“And then there were two.” Roderick and Andrea strolled up the stone steps into the Entrance Hall. “Andrea, was it just me, or was Sophie a bit weird on the way in the carriage?”

“Weird how?” Andrea asked.

“She didn’t say one word. I know she really wanted to be Prefect; is that what it was about?”

“I guess you could say that’s a small part of it.”

Roderick continued his inquiry. “What else is bothering her?”

“Rick, you know me better than anyone else. Other than when I’m mad, why else would I be at a loss for words around someone? Why would I act queerly around someone?”

“Blimey, I don’t know. You’re usually friendly enough to everyone, except when you’re mad at them. Other than that I don’t-” He broke off, his jaw dropping.

He pulled Andrea out of the crowd milling into the Great Hall, an eager look on his face. “Are you telling me that Sophie might. . . ?”

“Might what?”

“That maybe she. . . ?”

“Maybe she what?”

“Does she actually fancy me?”

“Roderick, I didn’t say anything of the sort. Don’t let it go to your head,” Andrea whispered urgently.

He seemed totally in shock. “How could it go to my head? She’s one of the smartest girls around, and I, well I. . . .” he trailed off.

“And you what?”

Andrea could barely hear as he answered, “I sort of fancy her myself.”

Andrea merely smirked. “Come on, let’s go fill your stomach,” she grabbed his arm and pulled him back into the ranks filling into the Great Hall for the Sorting, “I can hear your stomach growling like a great lion.”

“The sign of a true Gryffindor, eh?” They both laughed.

They made their way to the Gryffindor table amidst the glow of thousands of candles, each receiving their share of greetings from their friends. Though Andrea was oblivious, Roderick did not miss the fact that his little sister was turning heads. His hand even went unconsciously to his wand in an overprotective way. He knew his sister had grown up a lot over the last summer. They took seats near each other, each sitting with their classmates in their year. Each of the house tables had been spectacularly decorated. The Gryffindor table had a deep scarlet tablecloth draped over its length, and had settings of gold plates, goblets and cutlery. There were also vibrant red and yellow roses in huge bouquets spread intermittently along the table.

It wasn’t long before the first years came in, more nervous than ever as the whole school quieted. Professor McGonnagall led them to the front, carrying the three-legged stool and the familiar old, worn and tattered hat. “Look, there’s Euan!” Ed pointed to a boy in the middle of the line of first years. “He’s shaking like a leaf,” he added a bit apprehensively.

The whole school quieted down within a matter of seconds, the older students waiting for the hat to begin its song, the first years waiting for whatever was going to happen next to happen quickly.

((Please refer to pgs. 204-207 of the American version of OOtP to read the Sorting Hat’s song, I won’t take the space to include it here.))

Unsurprisingly, everyone was in a bit of shock. This year’s song was different than any of the students had heard before.

“That’s very interesting,” Andrea mumbled to Sophie.

“Indeed.”

Professor McGonnagall stood at the front of the Great Hall, waiting impatiently for the students to quiet down again, which they did rather quickly. Then she set her attention to the task at hand. “Abercrombie, Euan.”

“I hope he makes it into Gryffindor,” Ed whispered as Euan stepped forward, stumbling slightly in his nervous state. He sat on the stool and then tentatively placed the hat on his head.

A moment later, the Sorting Hat gave a great shout of, “GRYFFINDOR!”

The whole table burst into loud cheers, though Ed and his brother Ethan were probably the loudest. They watched as he gamboled over to the table, passing Ethan, who gave im a big clap on the shoulder, nearly knocking him over, and he finally sat down, being congratulated by those around him.

Finally the sorting was over, and Dumbledore stood from his seat at the staff table. “To our newcomers,” said Dumbledore in a ringing voice, his arms stretched wide and a beaming smile on his lips, “welcome! To our old hands - welcome back! There is a time for speech making, but this is not it. Tuck in!”

Everyone in the hall cheered and laughed and then began dishing hot, steaming food onto their plates as it magically appeared on the table. There were roasted chickens, turkeys, duck, lamb, ham, and pork chops; split pea soup, chicken noodle soup, potato soup, and other stews; corn, beans, cauliflower, broccoli, carrots, peas, and asparagus; potatoes, rice, breads and rolls, and all of the other trimmings. After a while, the tide was turned and the dinner made way for dessert. There were cakes, puddings, tarts, and pastries of all sorts.

When every stomach was full and all the food had disappeared, as did the plates, Dumbledore stood; the time for speech making had arrived. Sophie listened intently; Roderick was mildly interested; Ed and Andrea were busy conspiring, now that they knew that their best friends liked each other, for they knew that the two would never really do anything about it. They weren’t aware of any of the announcements, totally oblivious until they could no longer hear their own whispering for all the talking going on around them.

They lifted their heads to see that a great deal of their fellow students were outright carrying on normal conversations. They looked to the staff table, puzzled that Dumbledore would allow this, but were quite surprised to see that the newest member of the staff was trying to address the student body. It was a relief though, because if it had been Dumbledore that the students were ignoring, they would’ve known that something was terribly wrong.

They only heard the very end of this woman’s speech “Let us move forward, then, into a new era of openness, effectiveness, and accountability, intent on preserving what oughtt to be preserved, perfecting what needs to be perfected, and pruning wherever we find practices that ought to be prohibited.”

Dumbledore applauded, as did a few of the staff, and a sparse number of students. Then Dumbledore stood, thanked the woman, Professor Umbridge, and continued with the rest of his announcements before finally dismissing everyone to go to their dormitories. The first years were collected by Ron and Hermione, and the rest of Gryffindor house ushered past them, asking the other prefects the new password to give to the Fat Lady. Andrea and Edward detached themselves from the others so as to finish hatching their plans for Operation Sophie-Roderick Romance.

“I do think we make quite the brilliant matchmakers, don’t you think?” he asked her as they approached the entrance to Gryffindor Tower.

“We’re simply brilliant.Mimbulus mimbletonia,” Andrea said to the Fat Lady.

“Welcome back dears,” she greeted as she swung her portrait for them.

“So don’t forget,” Ed said as he headed toward the boy’s staircase.

“I won’t,” she answered. “Nine-thirty.”

“That’s the ticket!”

Andrea smiled then went over to the chairs around the fireplace, where she found Sophie, Ginny Weasley, and a couple of other fourth year girls who they were friendly with. They were all catching up and Andrea joined them happily. Everything was going wonderfully so far this year.

She was sitting in the midst of the girls when someone approached their group. “Hello all. Andrea, can I have a word with you?” It was Neal Thatcher.

Sophie and Andrea exchanged a quick look, and Sophie merely shrugged. “Sure,” Andrea said, and got up and followed him to one of the more private corners of the common room. She heard Ginny and her friends giggling as they left. As they crossed the room, they passed Fred and George Weasley who were sitting at one of the study tables talking with Lee Jordan. George looked up and glanced at them, and she wished that she wasn’t in her current predicament.

Neal Thatcher was a sixth year and extremely attractive. He was nearly perfect: smart, witty, polite, and a Prefect. Many of the girls in the school fancied him. Andrea had been one of these girls as well, but that was last year. Why did George have to see her with him? That would serve to ruin any chance that she might have with him.

The two of them sat down, and Andrea waited for him to say something, for she didn’t really have anything to say to him. “How was your summer Andrea?” he started feebly.

“It was all right, better towards the end,” she said cooly. “How was yours?”

“It would’ve been nice had I not felt like a great prat.”

Andrea’s expression softened somewhat.

“I owe you a huge apology, and I wanted to do it sooner, but I knew that you deserved more than just a note by owl post. So I’m extremely sorry about the end of term last year.”

“Thank you, that really means a lot to me,” she gave the smallest of smiles, he actually sounded like he meant it.

“I don’t want to make excuses, but I was just really busy and highly stressed out by the O.W.L.s last year. I know that’s not a good reason, but I’m really sorry. I was also a bit scared. I know it’s asking a lot, but I’d really like to try again.”

“I don’t know if I can,” she sighed.

“I know that I really hurt you, and I don’t deserve it, but I hope that someday you can forgive me. And if we can’t be a couple, I’d at least like to try and be something. Your friendship is invaluable to me, and I really hope you know that.”

“I do. I really liked you a lot, but the friendship we had was really important to me too. Just give me some time. That’s what it’s going to take, and we’ll see if we can be friends again. I hope that we can, but I can’t make any promises.”

“Thanks, it means a lot to me just to know that you’re willing to give it a shot. Goodnight,” he smiled then left her to go to the dormitory.

Without even thinking about it, she looked over at the table where George had been sitting, but Fred and Lee were the only ones left there. In fact, they were some of the only ones left in the common room. Andrea stayed where she was, drumming her fingers idly on the small table nexxt to her, needing to think before she went up to her room. She heard some shouting drift down the boy’s staircase and felt a horrible jolt of anger in her stomach. He was really upset about something, but she didn’t really want to deal with his feelings right now.

She went up to her room at last, and was greeted by Sophie, Lavender and Parvati all asking what had happened with Neal. “Well, he just apologized, and he hoped that we could try again, but I told him I couldn’t be any more than friends with him.”

“Are you mad?” Lavender exclaimed. “He’s divinely handsome and so smart.”

“Well, then aren’t you glad he’s back on the market?” Sophie defended so Andrea didn’t have to talk about it.

“I’m going to bed,” Andrea said, looking at her watch, and seeing it was nine-thirty. Time for phase one. “Sophie, I think I left my wand downstairs, would you mind looking to see if I did?”

Sophie looked like she really didn’t want to and was about to refuse.

“Please?”

“Oh , all right. You should be so glad I’m such a great friend.”

“I am, trust me,” she said as Sophie left.

Their dormitory was more of a suite, a small sitting room with mirrors and vanities on one side and a couple of comfy couches over by the window. There were two doors leading off of the main room. One was to the small room that Lavender and Parvati shared. The other was the room that Sophie and Andrea shared with Hermione.

The door was slightly afar, and Hermione was already in their room. It seemed that she had just finished unpacking her trunk. Andrea set to accomplish the same task.

“I couldn’t help overhearing, and I hope you don’t mind me asking what happened, but i didn’t know that you and neal weren’t a couple anymore. I thought things had been steadily going better and better between the two of you ever since you went to the Yule Ball together last Christmas.”

“No, I don’t mind. They were. I don’t really really know where to start though. How much do you know?” Andrea asked Hermione. Though Sophie had that grudge about Hermione always being the best, they were still pretty close friends, seeing as they did share a room, and the same love-yet-hate feelings toward Lavender and Parvati.

“Not much to be honest. I was spending so much time last year helping out Harry with the Tri-Wizard Tournament.”

“That’s right. Well, I’d had a pretty big crush on him, seeing as you know, he’s Neal Thatcher.”

“Oh, I completely understand,” Hermione smiled. Neal Thatcher was about as handsome and popular as Cedric Diggory was, with just as many girls in his fan club.

“I was totally in shock when he asked me to the Yule Ball. We went and we had a spectacular time. I’d been really really nervous, but he was such a gentleman and it was really easy for us to talk. From then on we started to spend afternoons together studying, playing chess or whatever else. We went to Hogsmeade a couple of times. It was all going pretty smoothly, and we both knew that we had growing feelings for each other. Then along about the beginning of May, we were out one evening after dinner before we had to be back in the castle, and things were going really well, and he, well, he kissed me.”

“Really?” Hermione asked, excitedly.

“Yes,” Andrea smiled, then gave a heavy sigh. “That’s where things went downhill. He had exams coming up, so he had to throw himself into endless studying, which is natural, and I completely understand. But he wouldn’t even sit by me or speak to me during meals. He just completely started to avoid and ignore me. I didn’t know why either. He wasn’t even going after other girls, which i’m thankful for because that would have made it much worse, but it still hurt. Exams came and went, and he still didn’t speak to me. I finally cornered him, asked him what the hell he’d been thinking, and he just shrugged, and I told him it was over between us.”

“Oh,” was all Hermione could think of to say.

“I don’t know. Maybe I handled it the wrong way, but I didn’t know what else to do.”

“No, I think you had every right to be completely upset, and you shouldn’t waste your time on someone who is going to ignore you like that.”

“Thanks Hermione.”

“It’s the truth. He really should have been smarter about the whole thing.”

“You’re right. At least he apologized to me, and I know he really meant it. I feel bad telling him that there’s no hope for us to be together, but it’s hard. I don’t know if I can even be friends with him, but I hope that I can, because he is a nice person and we enjoy each other’s company. I guess we’ll just see.”

“I think it’s really great of you to want to be friends, a lot of girls wouldn’t be able to do that. I’m also very glad that you aren’t the kind of girl to just fall back into his arms,” they both laughed, knowing full well that that is the kind of thing that Lavender or Parvati would do without a second thought.

“Andrea, is Sophie okay with, well, you know. . . ?” she trailed off.

Andrea turned to face Hermione, knowing this was about the Prefect issue. “She will be. Just give her time. I think that she’ll soon be having her hands full with other things,” she smiled mischievously. “I sent her to look for my wand for a reason.” She held up her wand to show that there was no reason for Sophie to be down there looking for it. “Edward Abercrombie and I are busy with a little something we like to call Operation Sophie-Roderick Romance.”

The two girls giggled.

“Which reminds me, what of you and Viktor Krum?”

“Well, we still write, and he invited me to come visit him this summer,” Hermione answered, blushing.

“And did you go?”

“No,” she said simply.

“Ah, then what of you and Mr. Ronald Weasley?”

“Oh really! What are you talking about?”

“Come on Hermione, the chemistry between the two of you has been growing steadily more palpable since at least the third year. . . .”

~*~*~

Sophie and Roderick had indeed met in the common room the night before, looking for Andrea’s wand and Edward’s shoes respectively. They made plans to go to breakfast together. Andrea and Edward gave them their space, using the time to meet for breakfast themselves and continue working on plans for Operation Sophie-Roderick Romance. As they sat down at the long table, carefully on the opposite end from the hopeful couple so that they could watch them all they wanted, they celebrated a successful completion of phase one.

“Here’s to you,” Edward raised his glass in a toast to Andrea.

“Back at you, Ed,” Andrea gave him the same honor. “Now, phase two. I’m predicting that we won’t have to step in much for phase two to happen. It’s phase three and beyond that I’m worried about.”

“Don’t I hear you! Roderick is completely gutless when it comes to pursuing the ladies,” Edward admitted.

“Yeah, Sophie is almost completely devoid of experience in the subject of romance. We have our work cut out for us.”

“We’re naturals. Just look at them,” he tilted his head toward Sophie and Roderick. “We should maybe think of opening a little business. There are plenty of people in this very room right now that I’m sure would love to be set up into neat little couples.”

“How would you put a price on that kind of thing?” Ed merely shrugged. “Well,” Andrea guessed, “It’s more of a priceless thing, so we could easily gouge the price as high as we wanted. Then there’s the supply and demand aspect to take into account.”

“Definitely. So many people would be lined up that we’d have complete control of the price.”

Someone cleared a throat behind the two of them. They both turned around only to be face to face with Professor McGonagall. “I may point out before you begin such an ambitious and ridiculous business that you, Miss Benning, will have you hands full with preparations for your O.W.L. examinations, and you, Mr. Abercrombie, start your N.E.W.T. level classes this year. Don’t think it’ll be a step back in the progress that you made in lessons last year.”

“Yes, Professor,” the two said together.

“Now here are your schedules. Mind to study hard, I hate to see such potential be left idly by the wayside.” She handed them their respective schedules and moved on down the table.

“Let’s see, I’ve got Arithmancy, Charms, Defense Against the Dark Arts and History of Magic with an emphasis in Goblin Relations. Not too bad; except for there’s Arithmancy every day, and History of Magic is never good.”

“I think that if they found someone other than Binns to teach the subject that it would be not merely bearable, but interesting as well,” Andrea observed. “What career path did you choose again? I forgot.”

“Banking and being a curse cracker for Gringotts.”

“Of course I remember now you’ve told me.”

“What about your schedule?” he asked between mouthfuls of porridge.

“Death warmed over for Monday. Listen to this,” she said, buttering some toast, “History of Magic, double Potions, with the Slytherins mind you, Arithmancy, and then double Defense Against the Dark Arts. Arithmancy is complicated, but not terrible. I just wish I didn’t already have a bad feeling about that Umbridge. Something is not right about her, Ed, but I don’t know what it is.”

“I hear you, I can’t believe Dumbledore hired someone like that. Good luck to both of us.” They continued to eat their breakfast in silence after that. People started to file out of the Great Hall in groups heading to their first lessons of the day. “Oh, have to go, there’s Katie. Pleasure dining and conspiring with you.”

“Bye Ed.” Andrea quickly finished her eggs and then gathered up her school bag. She looked for someone she knew, but the only Gryffindors left, it seemed, were the first and second years. Andrea gave up looking for someone to walk with and just left the Great Hall by herself. She went up the staircase in the Entrance Hall, trodding her way to Binns’ classroom in the far east wing of the castle.

Turning a corner, she charged right into, and was knocked over backwards by a couple of people. “Sorry,” they both said. Then, “Andrea?” two hands extended forward to help her up. It was the Trouble Twins themselves, Fred and George Weasley.

“Thanks.” She took their hands and they hoisted her back to her feet.

“Are you all right?” George asked.

“Fine, I believe.”

“No doubt of that,” Fred muttered, so only George could hear.

“What?” she asked.

“Where are you off to?” George asked quickly.

“Binns. History of Magic.”

“Fred and I will walk you. Can I take your books?” George offered.

“Thank you, that’s really sweet of you,” she said as she handed over her books.

Fred gave his twin a queer look. “We’ve got Transfiguration though.”

“Well, that’s clear on the other side of the castle,” Andrea observed and Fred nodded.

“It’s the least we can do,” George said pointedly to his twin.

“Are you sure? I wouldn’t want to be any trouble.”

“We insist. Fred and I don’t mind in the least.”

Fred rolled his eyes, unbeknownst to the other two, and then stepped in line with them as they made their way down the corridor.

There was silence between them all for a moment. “Er, how was your summer Andrea?” George asked.

“It was nice actually. Played a lot of Quidditch; Aidan Lynch broke his arm at our house last week, but Mum patched it up good as new. She’s skilled in the area of medicine, seeing as how there are so many injuries at our house from the Quidditch games.”

“Lynch? Really?” Fred asked, now interested in the exchange.

“Yes. He really is quite the clumsy chap.”

They laughed. “You were at the World Cup last year, right?” George asked.

“Don’t even talk to me about the World Cup,” she quipped.

“Er, why not?” George asked tentatively.

“I wasn’t there,” she grumbled.

“Really? Why?” Fred inquired. “Isn’t your dad the Head of the British and Irish League?”

“Well, the Cup was in the middle of the summer holidays right?” The twins nodded. “Well, we had a whole bunch of players at our house almost nonstop leading up to the Cup. Mum said that if Roderick and I didn’t have all of our summer homework completed by the time we were supposed to leave for the Cup, that we wouldn’t be able to go. But as I mentioned before, there were a lot of Quidditch-playing visitors, and so we played a lot of Quidditch; we didn’t think Mum was really all that serious. The night before, Mum asked if we were finished. We said almost. Almost is a relative term; for us, it meant we’d almost finished procrastinating the work. We worked all night, and we did almost finish our work. Probably would have if we hadn’t grown so tired in the wee hours of the morning, we were both working along rather sluggishly then. Mum ruled with the iron fist, though she’s usually the lenient one. It killed Dad that we couldn’t go. To make matters worse, they made us stay with our muggle neighbors, so we couldn’t use any sort of magic for the five days they were gone.”

“Awful bad luck,” Fred said in awe.

“Indescribable bad luck,” George agreed.

“I know, like I said, the Cup was in the middle of the holidays. We would’ve had plenty of time to finish it. Needless to say we didn’t speak to Mum for weeks.”

“Wow, that’s a bit harsh don’t you think?” Fred asked.

“It was the World Cup!”

“True. Never mind then.”

“Besides, I was a year younger in my maturity. But the silent treatment wasn’t without its payoffs.”

“How so?” George asked.

“Mum asked Connolly and Lynch if she could have their Firebolts to give us as belated birthday presents.”

“No,” Fred started.

“Way,” George finished.

“Oh, you haven’t lived until you’ve ridden on a Firebolt. Absolutely nothing is better. Not one thing.,” she sighed. “Sorry,” she laughed nervously, “I guess I’ve got a bit carried away with myself.” She bit her lip.

Fred turned his head to look at George, and whereas usually they would’ve shared a look, Fred was surprised, because George was looking intently at Andrea, smiling, and said, “Rubbish. I don’t want to hear Fred talk anyway, he’s got nothing new to say.”

“Thanks you two for walking me. It was nice to have the company,” she said, turning to face them as they reached the door to the classroom.

George handed Andrea her books. “It was a pleasure really. Think nothing of it.”

“Well, I’ll see you around,” she smiled and went into the classroom.

As they turned and started running down the corridor towards Transfiguration, knowing McGonagall was not going to be one bit pleased with their tardiness. Fred didn’t let this fact go unnoticed by his twin.

“Since when have you ever cared whether or not we were on time to our lessons?” George asked. “When have you ever cared whether or not we even made it to our lessons at all?”

“I’ve never cared, and I don’t now, I’m just wondering if I missed something back there between you two.”

“Between me and Andrea? You’re full of dung bombs. Honestly, George Weasley and Andrea Benning, does that even seem like a possibility to you?”

“You’re right, I was mistaken. A girl would have to be lacking a brain to go out with you.”

“Ha ha brother. It’s the same in your case as well.”

~*~*~

“Now, I know this is kind of a silly question, because you never pay attention in History of Magic, but was it possible that you were paying even less attention than normal?” Sophie asked Andrea as they walked to Potions.

Andrea shrugged, smiling, “Perhaps.”

Sophie gasped. “Did something happen?”

“I’ll tell you when we can have a bit more privacy in Potions, er, not Potions. Arithmancy then. There’s no telling who could be listening now.”

~*~*~

“I can’t believe you didn’t tell me in Binns’ class or during Potions! How could you possibly wait?” Sophie was raging as they sat made their way from Arithmancy to Defense Against the Dark Arts.

“Sophie, could you keep it down? It doesn’t necessarily mean anything. At least we’re friends though, and honestly, I’m fine with that. I’m not really to keen to get caught up in any romance after, you know, everything with Neal.”

Sophie gave her an understanding smile and looked like she was about to say something else, but didn’t because that moment brought them to Umbridge’s classroom, and no one knew how strict or lenient she was yet. Sophie and Andrea took seats on either side of Seamus and Dean. They watched Umbridge with apprehension

“Well, good afternoon!” she said when finally the whole class had sat down.

A few people mumbled “Good afternoon,” in reply.

“Tut, tut,” said Professor Umbridge. “That won’t do, now, will it? I should like you, please, to reply ‘Good afternoon, Professor Umbridge.’ One more time, please. Good afternoon, class!”

“Good afternoon, Professor Umbridge,” they chanted back at her.

“There, now,” said Professor Umbridge sweetly. “That wasn’t too difficult, was it? Wands away and quills out, please.”

Andrea exchanged a dark look with Dean. This was definitely not a good sign. The last time they’d begun a year of Defense Against the Dark Arts with a quill in hand, they’d been taking a quiz from Lockhart, about Lockhart. Andrea was slow to take out her quill, ink, and parchment. She looked at the blackboard after hearing Umbridge rap on it with her wand.

“You will be pleased to know, however, that these problems are now to be rectified.” Andrea gave a groan and sunk a bit lower in her seat. “We will be following a carefully structured, theory-centered, Ministry-approved course of defensive magic this year. Copy down the following, please.”

She rapped the blackboard again; the first message vanished and was replaced by:

Course aims: 1. Understanding the principles underlying defensive magic. 2. Learning to recognize situations in which defensive magic can legally be used. 3. Placing the use of defensive magic in a context for practical use.

([Please turn your books now to pages 240, 241, 242, 243, 244, 245 and 246. Read these pages, because I don’t want to quote the whole thing here. I’ll cut to the end of what I want though...])

”Take this to Professor McGonagall, dear,” said Professor Umbridge, holding out the note to him.

He took it from her without saying a word, turned on his heel, and left the room, not even looking back at Ron and Hermione, and slamming the classroom door shut behind him.

“Tsk, tsk, I do hope Mr. Potter learns to control that temper before too long. It will do him no good. Now, back to your reading class.”

Many of the class hurriedly put their noses to their books. Andrea lowered her head, but didn’t read. She sat drumming her fingers on her desk top, fuming. She hadn’t said anything, but she was positively shaking with anger at Umbridge’s incredulity. After five minutes, she couldn’t stand it any longer.

She stood, slamming her book closed. Umbridge, as well as the rest of class, looked at her in surprise.

“Is something wrong dear?” Professor Umbridge asked sweetly.

“Yes,” she growled.

“Please tell me what is wrong.”

“You are!” Andrea barked.

“I doubt that dear,” she smiled.

“I believe every word Potter says is true, and so do you or you wouldn’t be stamping out everything he says and trying to discredit him!”

“Miss- what was your name?”

“Andrea Benning. The stupidest thing you can do at a time like this is to impose mere theory on us. If only for the sake of our practical examinations you should teach us everything you can, including the actual procedures!”

“Thank you for you opinions, Miss Benning, you are entitled to them even if they are severely misguided. However, due to the disturbing manner in which you shared them, distracting your fellow students, and speaking without being called upon, I must take another ten points from Gryffindor.”

“It’s worth it.”

“I suggest you keep your opinions to yourself unless you want to find yourself in detention with Mr. Potter. Now, if you will, please, continue with your reading.”

Andrea sat down again, but she didn’t open her book. She merely folded her arms and looked moodily out the window. After about ten more minutes, Professor Umbridge spoke again.

“Miss Benning, is there something of extreme significance taking place outside the window?”

“No.”

“Then why are you not reading dear?”

“I don’t feel well. Stomachache.”

“Well, then collect your things dear, you should have told me sooner. I will give you a note to take with you to go down to the hospital wing. I dare say Madam Pomfrey will have you in tiptop shape in no time. It’s no wonder you were so irritated before.”

Andrea didn’t protest, but quickly gathered up her bag and her book and went to the front of the room to get the note from Umbridge. “If you ever feel a need to talk about anything, I’m here for you dear, just come to my office. I’m always willing to listen.” She whispered sweetly so only Andrea could hear.

“You are the last person I would think of actually talking to about anything, you old hag,” Andrea mumbled under her breath as she left the classroom.

Andrea had been buried by books in the library trying to keep up with all of the homework the teachers were piling onto the fifth years’ plates. It didn’t help Andrea’s concentration any that she was thinking about Neal Thatcher, George Weasley and Harry Potter.

Harry’s detentions had already made his first week back at Hogwarts pretty miserable. Potions on Thursday didn’t help either. It seemed that Snape only had to glance for a moment at the essay he’d assigned Harry to decipher that it wasn’t very good.

After he’d collected all of the assignments, he stood at the front of the class, seemingly scrutinizing the Gryffindors and admiring the Slytherins in the same look. Settling immediately into silence, the class awaited today's instructions. “Today,” he said in a cool voice, “We’ll attempt something terribly easier than the Draught of Peace, since some of you were so dismally able to scrape that out during our previous lesson. The Draught of Mediation is a potion in the same family as the Draught of Peace, and hopefully some of you will take advantage of that and learn what you’ll need to know for the latter. Ingredients found in the usual place. Instructions,” he waved his wand slightly, “on the board. Also, you will find I’ve paired you up. There is enough time during this lesson for you to brew two batches of the potion. One person will watch while the other prepares the potion, then you will switch. This, with any luck, will prevent any mishaps,” he concluded, looking directly at Harry. Draco laughed quietly.

Snape sat behind his desk and the class began to go about their assignment. Harry looked up at the board and saw that he was paired with Andrea Benning, one of his fellow Gryffindors. He’d never really talked to her. He seemed to recall that they’d worked together on charms once in Flitwick’s class during their first year. Hermione mentioned her from time to time, and he saw her around here and there.

They worked for the first while in near silence. Andrea was preparing her potion while Harry watched. Harry noted that her skills were adequate. He actually had the distinct impression that the reason she wasn’t any better was because she simply didn’t care that much. She finally spoke to him when she was in the final portion of stirring and monitoring the potion as it brewed in her cauldron.

“Harry, I know it’s not really my business, but I think you really ought to learn to control your temper. You seem to lose Gryffindor a lot of points every year, and since you and Umbridge are already off to a rocky start-”

“Thanks for your concern,” Harry cut her off testily. He really didn’t want to hear it from this girl. She probably felt just like Seamus did about him, that he was making up the whole lot of it. Maybe she’d even had a secret crush on Cedric and held a grudge against him for what happened.

Soon she was finished and it was his turn to take a go at the Draught of Mediation. He began cutting the first ingredient and was about to dump it into his cauldron.

“Hold it,” she said. “That doesn’t go in until after the clover powder. You never put lavender in before clover powder.”

“Oh, er, thanks.”

He continued to to prepare the rest of his ingredients, putting them in the cauldron, meanwhile, Andrea monitored him closely, drumming her fingers on the table lazily. The drumming was starting to really get to Harry, but Andrea seemed not to notice in the slightest.

“You might want to chop that carrot root a little more finely,” she said. This was her fifth correction, and it finally sent him over the edge.

“You know what, if you’re so good why don’t you make it,” he seethed.

“I already did my own batch thanks. You really ought to concentrate a little more, you’re just making careless mistakes.”

“While we’re on the topic, is there anything else you’d like to give me advice on?” Harry said vehemently, his voice rising.

“You might lower your voice, Snape’s getting a little curious.”

“Whatever you say.”

“You know what Potter,” Andrea looked him directly in the eyes, “I’m just trying to help you out.”

“Thanks, but I don’t think I need any help from you,” he said, dumping the final ingredients into his cauldron.

“Oh, I forgot, you’re the high and mighty Harry Potter who thinks Dumbledore will bail him out of anything. Sometimes even you ought to respect those around you. You don’t listen to anyone.”

“That’s rich coming from you. We’ve talked, what, once? Who do you think you are?”

“I’m one of your classmates and what you do affects me too. Like when you get us extra homework in Potions because of your comments or mistakes.”

“If you weren’t a girl, I’d say let’s have a go, but I’d actually feel bad if I hit a girl, though if you don’t shove off it, I don't’ know if I’ll be able to control my temper,” he said mockingly.

Just then two things happened: Harry realized that he had been ignoring his potion because it started congealing and boiling up dangerously close to the rim; but as Harry tried to remedy the situation, he was knocked backwards as Andrea’s fist collided powerfully with his jaw. As he was knocked back with the momentum of her punch, Harry’s leg knocked over his cauldron. Everyone around them jumped back. Snape descended upon the whole situation in the next instant.

“Potter, Benning, this behavior is unacceptable at Hogwarts, and even more unacceptable in my classroom. Potter, you will clean this up, I can tell from the stench it is giving off that you didn’t tend closely enough to its brewing. Benning, go immediately to the headmaster’s office and explain yourself. The two of you will also report to me for detention on Saturday night.”

~*~*~

After marching angrily all the way to the Headmaster’s office, she found herself at a loss as for what to do and stood for a quarter of an hour waiting for some sort of indication. She thought the gargoyle actually let out a sigh after a while, but she couldn’t be sure. She’d only been here once before, and that was during the first week of her first year at Hogwarts. She suspected there was some sort of password, but she had no idea where to even begin guessing.

Giving up, deciding that she would just wait for either someone to come out or go in, she went to the other side of the hallway and sat on the wide window sill. A short while later, the gargoyle moved aside, making way for some people who were coming out. She stood and straightened her robes. The two people came out laughing, were none other than Fred and George Weasley.

They both stopped laughing when they saw Andrea Benning standing there in front of them, but they were still smiling brightly. “Good morning you two,” she was the first to speak.

“Good morning,” George said.

“Lovely day to visit the Headmaster, no?” Fred commented casually.

“Yes, what are you two doing here?”

“Just catching up with Dumbledore, giving him the heads up on a few of our plans, planting some of them in his very own office,” Fred answered. “But we really should be asking you the same question. We’re here all the time, but I would never pin you to be one to be sent here, because that is the only reason you would be here right now, it’s the middle of class time.”

“I really don’t to talk about it. It makes me pretty mad,” she gave a forced smile at this statement.

“Well, I suppose we’ll let it slide, because you’ll have to tell Dumbledore anyway. Come George, we ought to go to class. Good day to you Miss Benning,” Fred gave a slight bow.

She chuckled and then curtsied, “Mr. and Mr. Weasley.”

George gave a bow, “By the way, the password is ‘peacock peppermints.’”

“You know the password?”

“His office is our office,” they said in unison as they disappeared around the corner. She laughed, gave the password and then went up the continuously moving spiral staircase. The door at the top was ajar, and so she went in, walked across the room and slumped into one of the chairs by the desk. She crossed her legs and folded her arms. She loved Dumbledore, and on any other occasion would have found it a pleasure to be able to explore his office, but right now, she definitely was not happy about being here.

A moment later Dumbledore entered the room from a door behind his desk. “Miss Benning, it’s lovely to see you. However, you don't seemed so pleased to be here. Would you mind telling me who sent you?”

“Professor Snape.”

“And for what reason.”

“He wanted to.”

“Really?” Dumbledore chuckled. “And what triggered this irresistible desire to send you to my office during his class; Professor Snape usually tries not to waste any student’s time when they could be learning the art of potions.”

“I punched Harry Potter.”

“That’s very interesting.” He paused, looking across the room. “Now aren’t those a curious invention?” he pointed to something over her shoulder, on the far side of the room, and she turned to look. “I only wish I’d invented them myself. Extendable Ears really are quite an asset.” With a pop, they disappeared. “Now that we have momentarily satisfied the curiosity of the Weasley twins, will you please follow me?” He stood and motioned for her to come with him out onto the landing on the top of the stairs. He tapped his wand on one of the stones in the wall, and a door opened up before them.

They went down a long passageway that turned a couple of times, went down a flight of stairs, then another, and then another. They then came to the base of a staircase much like the one that moved in front of Dumbledore’s office, except that this one descended in a straight path. At the bottom Andrea found they were behind a tapestry. Dumbledore pushed it aside, and held it open while Andrea came out. He then walked toward a painting of a large cornucopia of fruit and tickled the pear there. When it opened and they stepped inside Andrea was surprised to see that they were actually in the kitchens, house elves bustling around them, finishing the preparations for the day’s lunch.

“Popnick,” Dumbledore called. A second later an extremely small and stocky house elf, with a lavender face punctuated by a pointy, violet nose, rushed up to the two of them.

“Yes Headmaster?”

“Where is that problem I was alerted about?”

“Right this way sir, right this way. Would you like anything, Headmaster sir? Or young mistress?”

“Perhaps after,” Dumbledore smiled. They followed Popnick down past a fair row of sinks, counters and tables all surrounded by busy elves. At one point they passed an elf that all the others seemed to be avoiding. She was surrounded by bottles of butterbeer, swigging down more as they passed, and hiccuping between gulps. They came to a broom closet that the elves were also avoiding, and for good reason, because there was something pounding against it repeatedly. “Am I right in remembering that you learned how to properly dispose of boggarts in your third year from Professor Lupin?” Dumbledore asked, motioning towards the door.

Andrea nodded.

Dumbledore stepped aside to give her some room. “Wand at the ready.” They each pulled out their wands, and then Dumbledore pointed his at the door. “Alohomora.”

The door slowly creaked open. For a moment, there was a dark, shadowy figure floating out of it, and the room turned suddenly very cold, but then it changed from a floating figure to a standing figure, still cloaked in black robes. The next moment it changed yet again to a green skull with a snake protruding from it’s mouth, and finally it made one last shift. It was no longer a Dementor, a Death Eater or the Dark Mark. Standing in front of Andrea was Harry Potter, or the boggart version of him.

She took a step backwards, biting her lip anxiously, but the boggart Harry didn’t move much, just scratched his head and then looked at his watch. He gave Andrea a curious look and then Dumbledore stepped forward, the boggart Harry disappeared, but Andrea didn’t see what Dumbledore’s boggart was, for it was too small for her to see as Dumbledore blocked her line of vision. She heard him say, “Riddikulus.” Then there was a loud pop, Dumbledore gave a bright chuckle, as did a few of the house elves who were watching and then the boggart was gone.

Dumbledore crossed the kitchen and sat at one of the tables. “Popnick, I think we’ll take a little refreshment now, if you’d be so kind.”

“Oh, yes, just one moment Headmaster sir, I’ll be back promptly.”

Andrea sat across from the headmaster and waited for him to speak but he waited until Popnick had come back a moment later with a few small coffee cakes and some milk. As they tucked in, Dumbledore finally spoke. “Andrea, I wish you to know that I think it quite interesting that you fear Harry more than you fear the evil things threatening the magical community, and the non-magical community as well. Are you really afraid of Harry?”

“It’s not Harry himself just so much as all the things that happen to him. It’s hard to stand by and not be able to do anything about it. For four years I’ve watched and not been able to help or even lend a listening ear. I suppose it would be different if we were actually friends, but we’re not. He’s never really needed me because he has Ron and Hermione, and he’s really close to the whole Weasley family.”

“One can never have too many friends or family,” Dumbledore said. “Just keep trying. The time will come, sooner probably than either of us would hope, when Harry will need everyone around him he can find.”

“It’s just hard. I know what he’s feeling, but I can’t really talk to him about it. For example, this whole week, I’ve been having this sickening feeling in my stomach when I know Potter’s in detention with that Umbridge woman. Something is really wrong. It’s just so awkward since he doesn’t know about any of the mess. I mean, what am I supposed to say? ‘Oy, Harry, I’m feeling sympathy pain and emotions for you?’”

“It won’t remain so forever. I just urge you to form some sort of relationship with him because it will make it easier when the time comes.”

“I guess today has helped loads,” Andrea groaned. Dumbledore laughed. They spoke over their snacks for a few minutes and when they were finished they stood and left the kitchens.

They faced each other to say goodbye, and then Andrea gave him a queer look, and then looked at his robes. They were changing color from a deep blue to a light pink. Dumbledore looked at his robes as well. Then he laughed, explaining, “It must be the Weasley boys. George took a hold of my forearm when he shook my hand this morning. Brilliant, those two.” They both laughed, then Dumbledore disappeared behind the tapestry again and Andrea made her way to the Great Hall to meet up with Sophie, Dean and Seamus for lunch. Lucky for her she had Umbridge and Defense Against Boredom after lunch to look forward to.

She saw that Sophie was sitting between Dean and Seamus at the far end of the Gryffindor table, near the staff table, and they were thoroughly engrossed in some sort of discussion. She walked down the length of the table, she noticed out of the corner of her eye that a few people were whispering and pointing in her direction as she passed, but she just tried to ignore it.

“Hey,” she said as she sat down across from Sophie.

“What did Dumbledore say?” Dean asked.

“Just what I needed to hear, of course,” she answered.

“Great man Dumbledore. He’s really wise.”

Sophie and Andrea both nodded in agreement; Seamus didn’t make any indication in favor for or against his friend’s comment. He was still thinking about where he stood.

Andrea pulled a ham sandwich off of a tray in front of her and began to dress it with the toppings and condiments she liked the best while the three across from her lapsed back into their previous conversation. Andrea took the time to rethink what Dumbledore had told her.

She was so oblivious to her surroundings that she gave a shout of surprise and nearly dropped her knife as two people jumped onto the bench on either side of her.

“So,” said Fred Weasley, on her left.

“Tell us,” George continued on her right, “Did you really -”

“Actually hit Harry Potter?” Fred finished.

“Yes,” she nodded, her jaw clenched.

“What made you do it?” George asked.

“He just, he’s so-” she started vehemently, then paused and took a deep breath and then continued. She didn’t have to look to know that the twins each had huge grins on their faces. “We were having a bit of an argument. He made me rather angry. So I just,” she didn’t finish, but merely shrugged. The two of them laughed.

“He’s our friend,” Fred said.

“But we totally admire you for punching him,” George finished. Then they stood and left, it was about time to get going to afternoon lessons. Across the table, Sophie raised her eyebrows, smiling in that way that friends do when you’ve just spoken to your crush. Andrea rolled her eyes and ate her sandwich, occasionally adding to the conversation.

As before, italicized portions are direct quotes from Order of the Phoenix being used in the story.

Andrea stepped through the portrait hole on Friday afternoon by herself. She was glad that the first week of lessons was finally over. She flopped into one of the comfy armchairs by a window out of Gryffindor Tower. A tiny, sparkling blue pixie flitted over to where Andrea was sitting and landed on her knee. “Hello Flet,” Andrea said affectionately to the happy creature.

Flet was a loyal, sweet natured, though a bit dimwitted fairy who’d followed Andrea home from the woods near her home a couple of summers ago, and Andrea took her around everywhere with her since then. Flet was only about as tall as Andrea’s pointer finger was long, but she was good for a laugh and could lend a listening ear when Andrea felt like just talking without having to respond or listen, just to clear her head.

Looking out the window she could see a few people making their way to the Quidditch pitch and remembered that it must be for tryouts for the house team. With Oliver Wood gone Gryffindor needed a new Keeper. She looked up when someone dropped into the chair next to her. It was Edward, but her brother was nowhere to be seen. This was a rarity as they were nearly inseparable while at Hogwarts.

“Where’s Roderick?”

“Don’t know, we were walking back here from Charms and then the next moment he was gone.”

“That’s very interesting; same story between Sophie and I on the way back from Arithmancy.”

“Young love. . . What say we go out and watch the house team tryouts?”

“I’m down. Just let me grab a cloak.”

After they fetched their cloaks, they left the common room, Flet zooming along with them, went into the Great Hall to grab something to take with them, and then left the castle, walking across the grounds. It was just a bit windy and crisp so they were glad for their cloaks. Passing the lake, they heard the footfalls of someone running behind them. A moment later the person was right next to them.

It was Neal Thatcher. “Hello Andrea, Edward. Mind if I join you? I guess you’re going to the pitch, right?” He smiled.

Edward didn’t answer, but waited to let Andrea, giving her a look that said it was up to her. She didn’t even really think about it, but simply nodded and smiled back at Neal. Even taking into consideration all that had happened between them, she did enjoy his friendship and wanted to reforge it.

When they got to the Quidditch pitch, they made their way up into the stands. Angelina Johnson was just finishing up giving instructions to the team and the prospective new members, letting them know just how it was going to work and what she expected out of the new Keeper. There were a few other small groups of their fellow Gryffindors scattered around the stands, watching and supporting their friends. There was also a group that looked horribly like the Slytherin Quidditch team, except that there were only six people, not -

“Hello Andrea,” came a somewhat familiar drawl behind them. Neal and Edward both turned their heads to see who it was, Andrea was a little slower about it. Her stomach plummeted when she saw that it was indeed who she dreaded: Draco Malfoy.

“Hello,” she said, and all three of the Gryffindors turned back around. Andrea was now wishing that Edward had been sitting next to her instead of on the row right in front of her and Neal because Draco Malfoy took the opportunity to sit on the bench next to her.

“Shame Potter couldn’t be here with the rest of his team. Bet he’s still recovering from that punch you dealt him. My compliments,” Draco laughed.

“He got detention from Umbridge. It had nothing to do with me,” Andrea corrected.

“Ah, well, no matter. Listen, I’ve got to catch up with the rest of my team, but we’ll chat later.”

Andrea didn’t say anything as he left, and once he was well out of earshot she groaned audibly. Neal and Edward tried not to laugh too loudly. “Please you two, you’re only making it worse.”

“What, it’s not our fault that you hit Potter and caught Malfoy’s attention by doing it. Guess you should have thought of the repercussions before you hit him next time,” Ed grinned.

“Hey, I only hit him once. It’s not like I’m going to make a habit of it,” Andrea protested.

“I think we’ll have to keep our wits about us to make sure we don’t anger Benning too much, Neal, I hear she can deal a mean shiner,” Edward said in a loud whisper to Neal and they both laughed.

“Angelina’s the new Quidditch team captain this year,” Andrea stated. “This is me ignoring you by the way.”

“Oh, who is that out there trying to keep? He’s horrid,” Neal exclaimed as they watched Katie Bell score no less than seven times against him.

The next person was rather good. “Do either of you know who that is?” Andrea asked.

“I think it might be Vicky Frobisher,” Edward guessed.

They watched another person, not quite as good as Vicky, but almost. “That looks like Geoffrey Hooper,” Neal said. He only missed one goal.

One of the last people to have a go at keeping the rings had flaming red hair. They needn’t inform each other that it was Ronald Weasley. He was just about as good as Frobisher and Hooper, though not quite. He looked like he was only missing out of nerves, and actually did put out a few clever saves, though he missed a few as well.

After everyone had taken their chance at keeping, the hopefuls stood around the bases of the various rings while the team went into the locker room to discuss who should be chosen. Ten minutes later, everyone was gathered around the doors to the locker room, waiting for the announcement. Angelina led the team out, and everyone immediately grew silent.

“You all did a good job tonight out there, and so we want to congratulate you all and thank you for coming out tonight. After much deliberation, we’ve made our decision.” She paused, and the anticipation was almost palpable. She smiled as she announced, “The new Gryffindor Keeper is Ron Weasley!”

There were cheers, some sighs of defeat and groans of frustration, and then the terrible laughter of the Slytherins. They were the first to leave the pitch and head back toward the castle. Edward maneuvered his way over to Katie Bell and they soon left as well with some of the other sixth years. Andrea left, growing curious to see if Sophie and Roderick were back at the Gryffindor common room yet or not. She cast one last look over to the team, looking to see if George was still there, and he was. She left the pitch, in a rather good mood though she was by herself, with only Flet for company, but she liked it that way sometimes. But it all changed as she rounded the corner of the stands.

Draco Malfoy was standing there alone. He smiled when he saw it was her. “Can I walk you back to the castle?”

“I’m perfectly capable of walking myself thanks,” she stated flatly.

“Excellent, then you can walk me,” he replied, and slipped an arm around her shoulders. “Can’t you just imagine our children, years from now? They’ll be out there trying out for the house team, totally outshining everyone else on the field. . .” he trailed off.

“Excuse me,” Andrea shook his arm off of her and started to walk faster, Draco matching her strides. “When you say ‘our children’ do you mean that you will have children and I will have children, or do you mean offspring of you and me together?”

“The latter, of course,” he smiled lazily, winking at her.

Andrea came to an abrupt halt. “You are completely insane! The chance of you and I having children is one in a billion, and you want to know why? It’s because my feelings towards you are almost that of loathing!!!”

“I’ll take those odds; I like a good challenge,” he smiled wider at her look of disgust. “Besides, we already have one thing in common: our mutual dislike for Potter.”

“You are very mistaken. I respect Harry quite a lot.”

“Enough to punch him?” he laughed.

“I’m going to punch you if you don’t leave me alone right now!” she yelled at him.

“I’ve got to get back to the other Slytherins anyway. We’ll speak again soon.”

“I hope not,” she mumbled. After he’d jogged off, she started ranting to Flet, who was appropriately angry enough for the both of them. “Can you believe him? Absurd! Me? The wife of that boarish, brainless. . . Madame Malfoy, can’t you just see it? Madame Malfoy, his little wife. No sir, not me, I guarantee it.” Flet was zooming around, showing her indignation at the whole affair.

“I know,” Andrea said. “He’s completely mental, not to mention self-centered and prideful.”

She noticed that Neal running towards her from the Quidditch Pitch, so she waited for him to catch up before going back to the castle. When he reached her, he noticed something was definitely bothering her.

“What’s brewing in that head of yours?” he asked.

“Draco Malfoy just let me know that he and I are going to be having children,”

Neal tried to hold in the laughter, but he couldn’t. It burst forth like a gale of wind.

“It’s NOT funny,” Andrea stated.

He nodded vigorously and barely managed to blurt, “yes, it is,” amidst his laughing.

“I suppose it is a bit funny,” she conceded. Neal kept laughing, and she couldn’t help but join him.

~*~*~

Page 276

“Come here, Ron, and see if Oliver’s old robes fit you,” called Katie Bell. “We can take off his name and put yours on instead. . . .”

As Ron moved away, Angelina came striding up to Harry.

“Sorry I was a bit short with you earlier, Potter,” she said abruptly. “It’s stressful, this managing lark, you know, I’m starting to think I was a bit hard on Wood sometimes.” She was watching Ron over the rim of her goblet with a slight frown on her face.

“Look, I know he’s you best mate, but he’s not fabulous,” she said bluntly. “I think with a bit of training he’ll be all right, though. He comes from a family of good Quidditch players. I’m banking on him turning out to have a bit more talent than he showed today, to be honest. Vicky Frobisher and Geoffrey Hooper both flew better this evening, but Hooper’s a real whiner, he’s always moaning about something or other, and Vicky's involved in all sorts of Societies, she admitted herself that if training clashed with her Charm Club she’d put Charms first. I really wish that one of the Bennings had come out for the team, they’re some of the best flyers I’ve ever seen.”

“The Bennings?” Harry interrupted. His distaste for Andrea grew a little more at Angelina wishing she’d come out for the spot Ron had just earned.

“Yeah, those kids were raised to be Quidditch players. Didn’t you know Roderick and Andrea’s father is the Head of the British and Irish Quidditch League? He and his wife were on competing teams in the World Cup Game in 1977, knocked each other off their brooms in a mid air collision and fell in love from there. Their grandparents on their mum’s side are Rudolph Brand and Gwendolyn Morgan, you read that bit about them in ‘Quidditch Through The Ages’ didn’t you? Roderick is named for the Tornados’ seeker from the 1920s, Roderick Plumpton. They have loads of players from the League over at their house all the time. My family lives nearby them in Kent, we all grew up together. Anyway we’re having a practice session at two o’clock tomorrow, so just make sure you’re there this time. And do me a favor and help Ron as much as you can, okay?”

He nodded and Angelina strolled back to Alicia Spinnet. Harry moved over to sit next to Hermione, who awoke with a jerk as he put down his bag. Looking around the common room, he couldn’t spot either of the Bennings. He actually thought Roderick was a pretty decent chap, but Thursday’s Potions class kind of ruined his opinion of Andrea.

“Oh, Harry, it’s you. . . . Good about Ron, Isn’t it?” she said blearily. “I’m just so - so - so tired,” she yawned. “I was up until one o’clock making more hats. They’re disappearing like mad!”

And sure enough, now that he looked, Harry saw that there were woolly hats concealed all around the room where unwary elves might accidentally pick them up.

“Great,” said Harry distractedly; he wanted to tell someone his thoughts about what Angelina had just told him about wishing a Benning had come to try out, but he knew Hermione wasn’t the one to discuss it with. Besides, he had slightly more pressing matters on his mind; if he did not tell somebody soon, he would burst. “Listen, Hermione, I was just up in Umbridge’s office and she touched my arm . . .”

~*~*~

The next morning at breakfast, Harry was eating some kippers and toast with Fred and George who were pouring over notes related to Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes. He was not looking forward to the mountains of homework he had left to complete. He just hoped he’d be able to manage it, what with Snape’s detention later that evening.

As if on cue, someone tapped him on the shoulder, and that someone was Andrea Benning, the reason he was serving detention, though Snape would gladly take any reason to make him miserable.

“What do you want Benning?” he huffed, glaring at her.

“Woah there Potter,” she responded. “I’m just passing along Snape’s instructions. Dungeons at seven o’clock.”

“Thanks for the excellent news,” he barked.

“My pleasure,” she rolled her eyes, then turned on her heel and left. Ron and Hermione joined him, in a bit of a row about something, but Harry could’ve cared less.

“Listen, Harry,” Fred leaned forward, putting down his clipboard.

“We wanted to ask you something about Benning,” George had a smug look on his face, as did Fred.

“What?” he grunted.

“Why did she hit you? She said you made her angry, but she didn’t tell us why.”

“I made her angry? That’s rich. She’s the one who laid into me about how I need to control my temper, quit losing house points, try to stop making teachers give us extra work. She’s mental that one.”

“You know, Harry,” Hermione said tentatively, “She stood up to Umbridge about you after she sent you to see McGonagall our first day.”

“Oh, really, how kind of her,” Harry said sarcastically.

“She says she believes you,” Ron added. “She said that Umbridge must know it’s true too if she’s so adamant about silencing you.”

Harry didn’t say anything for the rest of the meal. He didn’t want Andrea to be defending him, because then he couldn’t hate her with quite as much feeling as he had before.

~*~*~

Snape set them the task of cleaning out the various tanks where he kept some of the larger amounts of slimy, smelly, unrecognizable dead creatures. It was a disgusting job the he left, no doubt, for those he disliked the most. Harry knew he was at the top of that list, he had failed to notice that Andrea wasn’t too far below him on that list.

They’d been cleaning for a while when Harry decided to say something to her. “Listen, Andrea, Ron and Hermione told me what you said to Umbridge. Thanks.”

“It was nothing. I just couldn’t handle how ignorant she is being,” Harry smiled discreetly, seeing that the anger she’d shown when she hit him was slowly building again at the mention of Umbridge.

“Harry, I really owe you an apology, I was out of line to speak to you the way I did, and to hit you. So, I’m sorry.”

“Never mind it.”

They didn’t speak anymore for the rest of their detention, and they didn’t speak after either. Harry was dismissed earlier than Andrea, since she was the one who’d actually thrown the punch. Harry still didn’t like Andrea, but he could at least respect her now. It was nice to know he had an ally outside of his friends - especially since not all of them (Seamus in particular) believed him.

This chapter is dedicated to Josh Groban. Josh, where ever you are, you make me melt when I hear you sing. Let’s go on a date ;)

Andrea was trying to practice the organizational charm Flitwick had begun teaching them that day in class. She’d dumped out the contents of her school bag on a table in the corner of the Gryffindor common room. The only one who’d ventured coming near her in the past hour was her fairy, Flet, who was zooming about erratically, mirroring how frustrated Andrea was at the moment. She threw her potions book at the wall in frustration.

Some second years studying a short distance away hurriedly picked up their assignments and moved to the far side of the room, worried that things would soon be flying at them in Andrea’s anger.

She hadn’t made any progress in the past hour and a half, and was at her wit's end. “Having a bit of trouble?” someone said behind her.

She turned around to see Neal standing there, a smug look on his face. She glared at him, and he tried to wipe the smirk off his face. “Charms has never been your best subject. Care for a bit of help?” he asked, not a hint of arrogance or rudeness in his voice.

“Actually, yes. I don’t think I can get any worse.”

Neal was a member of the Hogwarts Charms club and had always excelled in the subject. He sat down in the chair next to her.

“Organizational charms won’t work unless you’re in a calm and collected state of mind. You can’t very well be organized on the outside if you aren’t organized on the inside. So, take a couple of deep breaths and try to clear your head. Think of something that you’re really good at, that you can do without thinking to much about its execution.”

Andrea smiled, that was easy enough to think of, flying. She inhaled and exhaled, concentrating on flying. It did help to relax her.

“Now, you don’t want to take on too much at once.” Neal slid all but three of her things to the side, out of the way. “Just concentrate on something small at first.”

One by one, Neal added objects to the pile as Andrea got better and better. An hour later, her school bag was in perfect organization, and she closed the flap, letting out a deep sigh of relief. She and Neal smiled at each other.

“Hey, I was wondering if maybe, since you’re really good at charms, and I’m, well, dismal at times, if-”

“If I could tutor you now and then like I did last year?”

“Er, yeah. You know the tricks and just what to tell me. Flitwick’s a brilliant professor, but I just need a little more coaching than he can give me during class when there are others around he has to help.”

“Yeah, no problem. I’d just appreciate if you could proofread my essays.”

“A galleon’s a galleon,” she smiled.

“All right then. Thursdays?”

“After dinner works.”

“You up for a game of chess?”

“You know I’m terrible!” she joked. The truth is that Neal had never bested her in a game since last February, when she let him win, for his birthday. “Accio Wizard Chess,” she summoned the game set into her hands and they settled over onto the only empty spot around the fire, a couch with a table in front of it. They sat next to each other and began duking it out over the chess board. Between the help Neal gave her with charms, and the chess game, their laughter and their conversation, it seemed as if almost no time had passed since last spring. Andrea was really happy that things were going so well, because the truth was that Neal really was one of her closest friends.

One thing that was actually a benefit now over last year was that she no longer worried about romantic feelings toward him. It relieved so much pressure. Things had always been easy between them, but now it was even more so. Neal noticed as well.

“I like you like this,” he said as their respective pieces set up for another round of chess.

“Like what?”

“Just, like this, just Andrea, no reservations.”

“It’s nice for things to be normal between us,” she smiled. “Knight to E5.”

Pretty soon after that a lot of their fellow Gryffindors went off to their dormitories. Fred and George entered through the portrait hole, behind a large group of first years who had almost assuredly been playing guinea pig to the next Weasley invention. As they walked past, George seemed deep in conversation with Lee over something, but Fred winked and said, “Careful Neal, this one’s got a temper. She’s liable to hit you if you cross her.”

Andrea rolled her eyes but laughed along with Fred and Neal and a couple of people around who’d heard the comment.

By the time they finished their last round of chess, no one else was left in the room with them. Neal turned toward her on the couch. “So, I’ve been meaning to ask you something.”

“Go ahead,” she played with the fringe on one of the squishy couch pillows that she’d set on her lap.

“Have you and Malfoy set a date for the wedding yet?”

“Not funny!” she stated through her laughter as she hit him with afore mentioned pillow.

“Ow! Ow! All right, enough!” She stopped hitting him with the pillow and focused her attention on the fire, smiling. “I was only joking. He’s a great prat. You know, he might leave you alone if you weren’t so available.”

“What do you mean. It’s not like I’m walking about with a sign asking for someone to date me.”

“I know you’re not. You’ve never been like that, which is also appealing to most guys. No one wants a girl who is going to follow them about like a new puppy. Guys are just naturally drawn to girls who are independent, and you are. You’re independent and fun, and smart and beautiful.”

Andrea turned her head to look at him, wanting to thank him for the compliment, but was thoroughly surprised to find that his face was right there, and the next moment he was kissing her. She abruptly stood up, breaking the kiss.

“Neal, I can’t do this,” she said.

“Why not? I thought things were going well enough between us.”

“They are, but as friends!”

He stood as well, to face her straight on. “But I thought earlier when you said you liked that things were normal between us that maybe you meant normal as in the way they were last year.”

“No,” she said, tears of frustration beginning to well up in her eyes. “No, I mean normal as in not awkward. There is no way, and I told you that the first night back. I like you as a friend, and you mean a lot to me, but we can never have a relationship that is romantic. I just can’t do that again!”

She ran up the stairs and straight into her room, past Lavender and Parvati who were trying new charms for their hair in front of the mirror, and past Sophie and Hermione who were going over star charts on the couch. She closed the door to the room shut behind her, hopped onto her bed and pulled the curtains closed around her four-poster.

She touched her lips where Neal had just kissed her. If this had happened six months ago, she would have been elated. Now she just wanted to forget the whole thing. She’d been spending a fun evening that had been ruined by one rash moment.

She was very glad that Hermione and Sophie waited to come in, giving her time to fall asleep before they came to bed. Perhaps things would be better in the morning.

~*~*~

Things were much better the next morning. Nothing was resolved, and she still had mountains of homework, and Potions as well as Umbridge to look forward to, but with the new day, her spirits were lifted and she knew she’d be able to handle it all.

Breakfast was normal.

History of Magic was boring as usual. Sophie took notes, Seamus dozed off, and Andrea played a bit of hangman with Dean.

Potions was dreadful, but no more so than any other lesson they’d had with Snape.

Lunch brought an interesting occurrence.

Andrea was sitting at the house table next to Edward and Roderick when someone tapped her on the shoulder. She turned to see a Weasley twin, She thought it was George at first, but quickly realized it was Fred.

“Hi Fred,” she said, a bit puzzled at his serious expression, mind you it wasn’t gravely serious, just more serious than most people ever saw on a Trouble Twin's face.

“Can I speak with you privately for a moment?”

“Er, yeah, of course.” She got up and followed him out of the Great Hall and continued to follow him until they were completely out of anyone’s way.

“I wanted to talk to you about George.”

“Really?”

He nodded. “Have you noticed anything different about him this year as opposed to last year?”

“Er, I don’t know. Not really I guess, I haven’t spoken to him as much this year as last. You two are always pretty busy with your business it seems, I guess that’s why we haven’t talked as much, not to mention I’m always studying. . .” she realized she was babbling. “Sorry, more information than necessary.”

Fred smiled, “Don’t sweat it. It is like you said, we’re always busy. He’s been a bit different though ever since we left school for the summer holidays though.”

“How so?”

“Well, I couldn’t really figure it out at first. It wasn’t that perceptible, but I’m his twin. I just know when something is different, and like I said, there was a bit of a change about him.”

Andrea nodded and Fred went on.

“So I thought about it for about six weeks, and I realized he must have feelings for a girl.”

“Oh,” Andrea tried to keep her appearance nonchalant and unaffected by this, though she was hoping it was her.

“And do you know who it is?”

“Well, no.”

“Well, I didn’t know either. Of course there was no way to tell who it was during the holiday because the only girl around was Hermione Granger, and I knew it wasn’t her of course; and it wasn’t like he was corresponding by owl with anyone either. So I had to wait until we came back to Hogwarts naturally.”

“Naturally,” Andrea agreed.

“So once we got back I started to observe George and his interactions with all females around us, minus our sister and Hermione. The list started to dwindle, and I whittled it down to just a few people.”

Fred paused, and Andrea merely waited for him to continue.

“Well, eventually, by the end of the first week, I had it down to two people, but in reality I already knew it was you.”

“Me?” Andrea was glad to hear it, but still was floored.

“Yes. The first night in the common room, you went and talked with Neal Thatcher privately in the corner. George, Lee and I were in the middle of a discussion, and when you walked past our table, George looked up, and he kept glancing to where you were sitting with Thatcher. Finally he just got up and stalked off to the dormitory.

“Then,” he plodded on with his evidence, “next morning, he insists that we walk you to class, remember, after we knocked you over. Completely opposite form the direction we needed to go. Nearly got us landed in detention for being late to McGonagall’s class.”

“That doesn’t mean anything,” Andrea protested. “It was the least you could do for knocking me over.”

“Fine, I can see you aren’t going to buy my evidence. Down to the point, do you fancy my brother?”

“What?”

“Well, I know my brother well enough to know that he likes you, but I don’t know you well enough, and you’re hard to read.”

“Who says you even know your brother well enough? Maybe he’s just different because of something else. I mean, you have different experiences because you aren’t together all of the time. Just look, right now you aren’t together, so he’s having a different experience than you are, which will make him a little bit different than the last time you were with him.”

“No it won’t. And no, he’s not different for some other reason. He’s my twin, I would be the expert about knowing things when it comes to being a twin, not you my dear.”

“You might be surprised,” she mumbled.

“What? Don’t try and change the subject with ludicrous statements. Do you fancy my brother? It’s a simple question.”

“It is a simple question. Let’s say, for the sake of the question, that your assumptions about how your brother feels are correct. Do you think I would actually answer your question?”

“So, you do like him!” Fred said triumphantly.

“I didn’t give you an answer, and I don’t plan on it. You have no business asking me.”

“The fact that you won’t answer tells me everything, and it is my business because he is my twin.”

“I won’t answer because if I do like him, you don’t need to know. If I don’t like him, you especially don’t need to know. Feelings between me and George are between me and George. It’s not between you, me and George.”

Fred still had a smug look on his face, though he said, “Don’t tell me if you don’t want to, but you don’t need to, I have my information.”

“Good, because I need to get to finishing my Arithmancy for next hour. To satisfy your curiosity, I would venture to guess that George and I are only friends and that things aren’t likely to change. Make of it what you will.”

She left Fred, who still had a smug look on his face, and she hoped that she had been able to say something that wasn’t stupid. She didn’t know whether or not she really wanted Fred to know the truth. And did George really like her?

“Andrea!” someone called as she walked past the Great Hall. “Do you know where I can find my twin?” It was George, smiling as he strode towards her. “He looks like me in just about every way, though he’s not quite as smart,” Andrea laughed at this. “I heard that he was with you.”

“Yes, as a matter of fact. I think he’s down that way, if he’s still in the place we were talking.”

“Was he pestering you?”

“Actually, yes, a bit,” she laughed.

“Did you punch him?” George asked excitedly.

“No! You’re never going to forget I hit Potter, are you?” she groaned.

“The chances are slim to none. What was he pestering you about?”

“Oh, well, er,” she didn’t really know what to say.

“Come on, just tell me.”

“Well, the topic of conversation was that you and I evidently have feelings for each other, or at least we do according to Fred,” she explained all of this very quickly.

George just looked at her for a moment. Then he laughed, “He’s a bit mental that one, like I said, not quite as smart as me.”

“I told him he was off the mark, that we’re only friends,” she smiled. She was disappointed that he didn’t appear to fancy her in any way, but she still enjoyed him and he always made her smile. “I’ve got to get to the library though, last minute Arithmancy.”

“Good luck on that,” he called as she turned and made her way up the stairs.

Sitting in the library, she couldn’t really concentrate on her assignment until she thought about what had just happened. She didn’t know quite what to think at first. So George didn’t like her, but it was evident that Fred absolutely was positive that he did. She looked around the library, and then gasped when she saw Neal coming into the library. She quickly put her head down and sunk lower into her chair, hoping that he wouldn’t see her. She wasn’t quite ready to speak to him yet.

He didn’t seem to notice her. Seeing Neal did make her contemplate a bit more though. Did she even want a relationship after everything that had happened, and was still happening, with Neal? No. Not right now. Perhaps George not liking her was the best thing for the time being. Perhaps the best thing right now was just to have a harmless little crush on George Weasley and nothing more. It would be nice and drama free. After all, she had other boys to worry about, Neal, Draco, and Harry to be exact. Andrea had no sisters, but she did have a cousin about four years older than herself that she was close to. She would write to Penelope and ask her for a bit of advice. First, however, she would finish her Arithmancy.

~*~*~

“Fred, what’s in your head? Talking to Andrea about us liking each other! It’s absurd!”

“No, I’m afraid it’s quite obvious that you do like each other, dear brother.”

“Well, it’s news to me,” George shrugged. He and Fred both let the subject drop. Did he like Andrea? She was beautiful, no doubt about that. She was also smart and interesting to talk to. He would be lying if he said he wasn’t at least intrigued by her. He had been intrigued ever since the last of term the previous year. But did he actually fancy her?

After taking her note to Penelope and sending it off from the owlery, Andrea made her way through the castle to the Great Hall. The weather was bright and only slightly cloudy, no wind to speak of, ideal for the Quidditch match which would be under way in an hour. As she entered the Hall she spotted Sophie, who waved her over, but she was forced to stop as someone decked out in green Quidditch robes stepped in her path abruptly.

“Good morning Miss Benning,” he smiled.

“Morning Mr. Malfoy,” Andrea replied.

“Lovely day for Quidditch, no?”

“Perfect conditions,” she barely was able to agree before he continued his side of the conversation.

“I wouldn’t ask that you actually cheer for Slytherin, but since I know you’re not a particular fan of Potter either,” he laughed, no doubt remembering her punching Harry during Potions, “You may as well join us in showing disdain for Weasley. Take one of these, my treat.” With that he thrust a small pin into her hand.

“Interesting. I have to be going now. Break a leg,” she said, truly hoping he would.

Soon enough she was sitting with Sophie, Roderick and Andrew, dishing up some hot eggs and sausages onto her plate as they all talked excitedly about the upcoming match, decked out in red and gold, the same as everyone else along the table. The whole house was keeping their eyes peeled for any sign of their team. The first to arrive for breakfast were Fred and George. The moment they stepped in the doors of the Great Hall, there was booing from the Slytherins, but it was drowned out almost completely by the cheers of the Gryffindors, and even some of the other houses.

The twins took it in stride, completely in their element. They bowed and nodded, acknowledging their adoring fans. As George passed Andrea, their eyes met for a split second, but he hurried past, and she quickly took a drink of her pumpkin juice. A moment later Fred passed, and having witnessed the moment, winked at Andrea in a cheeky way. She blushed slightly, her jaw dropping at his perceptiveness. Luckily she recovered before anyone but Edward could notice, and he kicked her leg playfully under the table.

It wasn’t long before the champion Seeker and rookie Beater turned up. They received a rousing welcome as well, but Ron seemed to be growing more pale by the moment. Andrea watched as he collapsed onto a nearby bench. Harry was faithfully at his side, trying, no doubt, to give Ron a pep talk and try to boost his confidence. That reminded her of the pin Malfoy had given her, she pulled it out of her pocket and looked at it. It was a silver crown shape with the message: Weasley is our King. This was obviously not an indication of anything good ahead. Hermione and Ginny passed at that moment, and Andrea called out to them. They stopped and she stood and went over to them.

“Thought you might want to take a look at this. No doubt there’s some kind of trouble afoot,” Andrea said apprehensively, holding out the pin for Hermione to take.

Hermione gasped as she read it.

“Malfoy’s idea of a joke,” she explained. “I expect there to be more than just this.”

Hermione handed it to Ginny, who shook her head, “We can’t let Ron see this, he’s nervous enough as it is.”

“Thanks for the heads up,” Hermione said and they parted.

There was another rousing cheer as the Chasers entered and they sent the whole team off with an even louder ruckus than any of the previous. Looking up at the staff table, Andrea saw that Snape looked rather annoyed, McGonagall was glowing with sheer pride, and then, perhaps even worse than Snape’s attitude, was the look on Umbridge’s face. There were only two words to describe it, sly and scheming. That couldn’t mean anything good. No doubt she was looking for any excuse to extinguish as much of the excitement around as she possibly could.

Roderick matched her gaze, voicing his thoughts. “Is it just me, or does that woman seem like she’s always up to something?” The others nodded in agreement as they rose and began their plight to the pitch, hoping to get best pick of the seats.

The lawns were covered with frost, and in ten minutes there would be a well beaten path leading from the castle to the pitch, no longer frozen, and probably dry as well from all the traffic. They settled themselves on the top row, in the middle of the Gryffindor section, they were surrounded by the other fifth, sixth, and seventh years from their house. Word had been spread that any underclassmen found in the prime seating area would be treated to some hexes or other similar treatments, maybe even some nosebleed nougat, which Fred and George still hadn’t found the antidote for. There was a faint melody coming from the opposite stands, where the Slytherins were sitting.

It wasn’t long before the teams emerged to huge cheers and boos from either side. There was no question at the entrance of the Gryffindor House Team that they were heavily the favorite among the crowd. The teams lined up face to face. Angelina shook hands with Slytherin’s captain, Montague. Madam Hooch gave the signal for the players to mount brooms.

The whistle was blown and fourteen players and four balls flew into the air, and Lee Jordan’s commentary began.

“And it’s Johnson, Johnson with the Quaffle, what a player that girl is, I’ve been saying it for years but she still won’t go out with me -”

“JORDAN!” yelled Professor McGonagall.

Many of Lee’s fellow Gryffindor’s laughed, knowing full well that his pursuit of Angelina involved significantly more than flattery for her skills on the Quidditch field.

“Just a fun fact, Professor. Adds a bit of interest - and she’s ducked Warrington, she’s passed Montague, she’s - ouch - been hit from behind by a Bludger from Crabbe. . . . Montague catches the Quaffle, Montague heading back up the pitch and - nice Bludger there from George Weasley, that’s a Bludger to the head for Montague, he drops the Quaffle, caught by Katie Bell, Katie Bell of Gryffindor reverse passes to Alicia Spinnet and Spinnet’s away, dodges Warrington, avoids a Bludger - close call, Alicia - and the crowd are loving this, just listen to them, what’s that they’re singing?”

Most of the stadium seemed to strain to hear just what it was the Slytherins were singing. It didn’t take long for everyone to figure out that this was bad news. Lee began to plow on with his commentary, and the Gryffindor fans immediately began to take action by dispatching a dozen or so people to try and get close enough to the Slytherins to start casting some silencing charms. They all would’ve gone, but that would draw unwanted attention. They decided that their best bet was to get into the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff sections and so they split into two groups. Andrea and Roderick went to the Ravenclaw side with Dean Thomas, William Burnoose, Colin Creevey, and Selene Grading. They rushed off in a single file line, wands already out. They climbed up into the stands and were greeted by some of their friends and easily let through to the side closest to the Slytherins. There they met up with Roger Davies and Cho Chang.

Roger was the first to notice the Gryffindors and looked at them, a frustrated look on his face. “It’s no use, we can’t get them to shut up!”

Cho explained, “We think they put up some kind of barrier in anticipation of anyone trying to silence them.”

“The blighters have only gotten louder since Weasley let that first goal in the hoop,” Davies was thoroughly annoyed.

“They got one past him?” Dean asked dejectedly.

“The second one came through just a minute ago,” Cho said, a solemn look on her face. It meant that they’d been able to find at least some sort of weakness in the Gryffindor team, but no one wanted Slytherin to win.

“We’ll keep on trying to figure something, but you may as well go back and just try and drown them out with everything you’ve got over on your side,” Cho said.

“They’re bloody annoying really. Probably have the blasted song in my head for a week,” Davies complained.

The Gryffindors thanked them for their help and went as fast as they could back to the scarlet and gold section, arriving just before the others who’d tried from Hufflepuff, reporting similar news of support from their friends over there. All they could do now was focus in on the game and try to boost Ron’s morale.

But Ron let in two more goals. There was a feeling of desperation among all of the fans. Everyone was hoping that either Potter would be able to hurry and find the Snitch, Fred and George would knock the whole Slytherin team unconscious one by one with Bludgers, or the Chasers would start some mad scoring streaks to bring Gryffindor into the lead.

“- and Katie Bell of Gryffindor dodges Pucey, ducks Montague, nice swerve, Katie, and she throws to Johnson, Angelina Johnson takes the Quaffle, she’s past Warrington, she’s heading for goal, come on now Angelina - GRYFFINDOR SCORE! It’s forty-ten, forty-ten to slytherin and Pucey has the Quaffle. . . .”

The fans didn’t care as much about the score at this point as they did about the fact that a bit of hope had been restored. The went wild and even completely drowned out “Weasley Is Our King” strains for a few moments. Soon, however, everyone was back to paying rapt attention to the game’s progression.

“- Pucey throws to Warrington, Warrington to Montague, Montague back to Pucey - Johnson intervenes, Johnson takes the Quaffle, Johnson to Bell, this looks good - I mean bad - Bell’s hit by a Bludger from Goyle of Slytherin and it’s Pucey in possession again. . . .”

Not many noticed the flash of gold, but everyone noticed when the two opposing Seekers each began taking some spectacular dives.

“They Snitch has been spotted, and both Potter and Malfoy are in immediate pursuit, they’re hot on the trail, neck and neck, headed to the goal hoops, but now they’re changing course slightly, it’s too close to call.”

The whole stadium held their breaths. They both extended their arms, reaching, groping . . .

It was Potter who raised his hand in the air triumphantly and everyone but the Slytherins erupted into deafening roars of approval, celebrating at the Slytherin’s defeat. Many people missed what happened next, but soon all were paying attention because the action on the field clearly wasn’t over.

A Bludger hit Harry squarely in the small of the back and he flew forward off his broom; luckily he was only five or six feet above the ground, having dived so low to catch the Snitch, but he was probably winded all the same as he landed flat on his back on the frozen pitch. At the sound of Madam Hooch’s whistle there was a deafening sound of catcalls, angry yells and jeering. Everyone continued to protest as they watched Angelina land next to Potter and then help him off the ground with a hand up. Madam flew straight to the perpetrator of the illegal Bludger, none other than Crabbe.

“Oh no,” Sophie said, as they all watched Malfoy land near Potter and Johnson. He seemed to be talking to Potter, but he turned around and greeted the rest of the team, except for Ron who quietly left the field by himself.

The next moment, however, the Weasley twins were both being restrained, one by Potter, the other by the three Chasers. They seemed to want to pummel Malfoy to the ground. Obviously whatever he was saying was truly horrible. No doubt something along the lines of “Weasley Is Our King,” Andrea had no doubt he’d penned that himself, having heard personally some of the jibes he’d thrown at Ron over the years.

It wasn’t long though before Harry let go of his teammate and they were both trying to beat the pulp out of Malfoy. Madam Hooch hadn’t noticed at first, being too busy laying into Crabbe, but then she saw the horrid display and shouted “IMPEDIMENTA!” bringing the brawl to a halt Madam Hooch was shouting something at the two while Malfoy was laying curled up, much to the amusement of many of the enemies he’d already created among the rest of the houses. The girls still had a firm hold on Fred while Harry and George walked off the field in the direction of the castle. They weren’t followed by any other students, everyone wanted to see if there was going to be anything else of note taking place as part of the aftermath.

There wasn’t, and soon enough the stands emptied and the students all made their way back to the castle, some to the Library, others to the Great Hall, or their House common rooms and various other destinations. However, even though everyone was spread across their respective parts of the castle, by mid-afternoon everyone had heard that Umbridge banned Harry Potter, Fred and George Weasley from ever playing Quidditch again, as per the new powers given her by the newest Educational Decree.

No one had seen hair nor hide of Ronald Weasley since the end of the match. The rest of the team sat brooding around the fire as things started to wind down in Gryffindor Tower from the bustle of homework and other things. Hermione and Ginny were the only ones who dared to delve into the circle of foul moods. Everyone else left them well enough alone. The Snitch, which Harry had forgotten to leave on the field in his anger, only served as a mesmerizing reminder of the blow to the Gryffindor team.

The common room emptied, and many people were sound asleep in the girls dormitories before Hermione came into the room she shared with Sophie and Andrea. Andrea was still awake, and she watched silently as Hermione gathered an array of warm clothes, including a hat she had knitted. It was obvious Hermione was preparing for some sort of outdoor excursion. Andrea let well enough alone. She remembered well just how tightly wound Hermione was their first year at Hogwarts, and was glad that she had relaxed significantly.

A few minutes after Hermione left the dormitory, Andrea went back out to the common room, sleep completely eluding her this evening. The empty common room was extremely peaceful, and the large fire was finally settling down, starting to edge toward the point of embers, but there was still going to be a while before it died completely. She settled into a big comfy chair, watching the flames flicker pleasantly.

After a half an hour, Andrea still wasn’t any closer to feeling sleepy, but she did hear some noise on one of the stairways behind her, the one leading from the boys dormitory. Andrea was pleasantly surprised to see it was George Weasley who had come down into the common room and there was a small whir of butterflies in her stomach. She watched as he crossed to the far side of the room and shuffled through some loose leaves of parchment that had been left on one of the large study tables. Once he found what he was looking for, he turned to go back into the dormitory, but stopped, seeing Andrea there. She smiled, quirking an eyebrow, “Homework Weasley?”

“No, just looking for a set of experimental notes from one of the last tests Fred and I conducted on the skivving snackboxes,” he replied, holding up the renegade parchment. “What are you doing still up?” he asked, coming over and sitting on a chair nearby.

“Can’t sleep,” she shrugged.

“Would you like to try a complimentary piece of Fainting Fancy? It’s supposed to make you faint but so far all Fred and I can get is just heavy drowsiness, followed by sleep,” he explained.

“Would I actually be able to wake up in the reasonably near future?” she asked giving a small laugh, knowing that a few of their Skivving Snackboxes still didn’t have all the quirks smoothed out.

“Yes,” he smiled, then winced slightly, putting his hand to his lip. “Kind of forgot about having Madam Pomfrey take a look at that.”

Andrea leaned forward and moved his hand away. “That’s a nasty battle wound. How could you’ve forgotten.?”

“Well, I haven’t been smiling much today since it happened.”

Andrea pulled out her wand. “Accio healing kit!” A moment later, a small black box came to rest in her lap. “Do you mind if I take a look at it?”

“I’d really appreciate it,” George answered.

Andrea opened the box, murmured a few words, then pulled out a warm, wet rag and started to clean his bloody lip from the brawl with Malfoy. He pulled back from the initial sting, wincing a bit. Andrea smiled. “It smarts a bit more than when you actually got the injury doesn’t it?”

George laughed softly, nodding in agreement. He let her finish cleaning it. Andrea then went back to her little black box and pulled out a small jar. When she opened it, there was an overwhelming scent of mint, making George cough a little in his initial reaction. Andrea smiled, “This salve should help.” She put a dab on her finger and gently applied it to his lip. George watched her intently as she tended to the injury, his pulse starting to go faster. She took h is breath away whenever he saw her, but he hadn’t had a really private conversation with her since last year. They’d never been actual friends spending time together and the like, but they were very friendly toward each other whenever they were in the same places at the same times.

She paused when she chanced a quick look at George’s eyes and was ensnared by them. Her cheeks took on an immediate shade of deep red, and she hoped that the common room was becoming sufficiently dark enough to hide the brunt of it. George took a deep breath, and then coughed from the strong scent of the mint salve. They were both glad the tension had been broken. “Well, tomorrow, there should be almost no trace of this cut.”

“Really?” he asked. She nodded. “Thanks.”

“It was no trouble.” There was a moment or two of silence, then Andrea took a deep breath and started to plow through what she’d been thinking most of the day. “I cannot believe the gall that Umbridge has! Banning you, Fred and Harry from the team! And Crabbe, all he gets is lines? It’s an injustice and totally absurd!” she finished rather vehemently.

“It’s good to hear you say that,” George gave a small smile. “I honestly want to strangle the woman. I mean, Quidditch is one of the only reasons Fred and I even decided to come back to Hogwarts. Our future isn’t planned so much on NEWT results. That and our mum probably would’ve turned us into tea cozies in her anger.”

They both laughed heartily at this comment, George’s mood finally starting to grow a bit happier. “So Quidditch is the only reason? I don’t know if I’d come back just for that. You can play Quidditch anywhere, and you and Fred are good enough to get on one of the teams in the league.”

“You really think so?”

“Yeah, are you kidding? You’re brilliant!” she was smiling widely at this, and he was now matching it. “I mean you and Fred both,” she added, hastily breaking their eye contact again.

George logged away that comment to think about later. After a moment, he said, “Andrea can I ask you something?”

She was studying the fire intently again as she had been before he’d come down to the common room, it always seemed to ease her tension. “Of course - you just did,” she smiled at him, looking at him from the corner of her eye. He rolled his eyes. “But I imagine you wanted to ask me something a bit more substantial.”

“Why didn’t you go out for the team this year? I saw you watching from the stands with Edward Abercrombie and Neal Thatcher. I’ve heard you and Roderick are both really good.”

“From Angelina?” George nodded. “It’s simple: I don’t play Keeper, and neither does Roderick. Between my oldest brother who keeps for the Kestrals and all the other players who drop in we’re never in want of a Keeper at the Benning Manor.”

“Have you ever tried your hand at Seeker or Beater? I hear the house team has a few openings,” he groaned. He stood and reached into his pocket. He pulled out a Fainting Fancy and tossed it to her saying, “Think it over anyway. I’m going back up before Fred comes looking for me. This paper,” he lifted his hand which held the bit of parchment, “is what he sent me down here for after all.”

“Thanks,” she said.

“No, thank you.” He began to retreat to the stairway to the boys dormitory.

“Goodnight.”

“‘Night Andrea.”

He’d been glad that he’d been rather busy with Quidditch and Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes this year, because it had given him ample reason to avoid talking to her. Not that he didn’t want to, he just didn’t know what to say to her anymore. They’d spoken one evening right before the end of term last year, and that evening, he realized that he might actually be developing feelings for her. Seeing her after a summer apart, during which time she’d grown twice as beautiful as she was before didn’t help matters. Also, the few times he’d spoken to her this year had given him an odd feeling that he wasn’t used to. Dare he call it nerves? Tonight confirmed the suspicion that had been growing in his head for the past months, though he hadn’t been positive until tonight.

He truly fancied Andrea Benning. She was one of the most beautiful girls in the school now, rather smart, great Quidditch player, and had a bright personality. Not to mention that she was sought after, though she didn’t seem to notice. He groaned inwardly as he plowed up the staircase for he knew he was in way over his head.

“How do you do it, Lee?” George asked as they walked back to Gryffindor Tower from the Great Hall from breakfast, Fred was no doubt still asleep. The day after his ban from Quidditch really made the thing a lot more real.

“Do what?”

“Spend your time not playing Quidditch. I’m going to have so much extra time to kill. I mean, I don’t study, and now I don’t play Quidditch. All I’ve got is the joke shop I suppose.”

“Nah, you just need to get yourself a girl mate.”

George’s stomach gave a horrible lurch. He immediately thought of Andrea, but he quickly pushed those thoughts out of his head.

Lee mistook his silence. “All right, girls are a bit complicated. Exploding Snap then. There are those sixth years who play Exploding Snap every free moment they’ve got, you know them, Edward Abercrombie and Roderick Benning.”

George nearly tripped over his own feet at the mention of Andrea’s brother.

“Hey,” Lee laughed at his clumsiness, “this no Quidditch thing is hazardous to your well being I see. We’ll figure out something, I’m sure.” As they reached the portrait hole, it swung open of its own accord, letting out a string of their fellow Gryffindors.

There were a few first years, and then a knot of fifth years, consisting of Dean Thomas, Seamus Finnigan, Sophie Smethwyck and Andrea Benning. Andrea told the others to go along and that she’d catch up with them in a minute.

She approached Lee and George, smiling. “Good morning.”

“Same to you Andrea,” Lee said cheerfully. George contented himself with a nod and a weak smile.

“George, I just wanted to thank you for that bit of Fainting Fancy last night, it was just the what I needed.”

“Good, I’m glad it worked out. Thanks again for treating my battle wound, it’s a million times better this morning, almost nonexistent.”

“No trouble. Mum showed me a few tricks. She’s always patching up some sort of Quidditch injury around the house. Well, I’m going to go catch up with Sophie and the others.”

“See you around,” George said as she turned and left. He smiled, watching her go down the corridor.

Lee just watched him for a moment, then he laughed. “So what about Benning then? She’d make a good girlfriend. She’s totally gorgeous, not to mention smart.”

“No,” George said hastily. “No way.”

“All right. What about Selene Grading?”

“No.”

“Delia Wellington?”

“Come off it, Lee.”

“All right, not now; but later, you, me, Fred, we’re going down to the Library and we’ll start our evaluation of the best candidates for dating. First, I think we’ve got to take advantage of this glorious snow we’ve got outside. Perhaps bewitch some snowballs to zoom around and annoy people.”

~*~*~

Madam Pince glared suspiciously at the Terror Trio as they entered the library later that afternoon. She felt they had to be up to something, they were never in the library on the weekends, and today was Sunday. Fred and George came in to look up bits of information on weekdays at lunch now and then, but this was highly suspicious. They’d even brought their schoolbags with them, putting on the illusion that they were here to work on some class work. The three surprised her even further by coming straight over to her desk.

“Afternoon, Madam Pince,” Lee said in a cheerfully quiet voice.

“Not causing trouble boys, I hope,” she said it more as a warning than anything else.

“Come now Madam Pince,” Fred looked hurt.

George matched his look and his tone, continuing his brother’s thought, “Would we ever cause trouble?”

She scoffed.

“For you, that is,” Fred amended.

“You do have a clean record in my realm of the school, but you are up to something, I can feel it in the air.”

“It’s nothing that will disturb the others,” Lee reassured her.

She gave them a scrutinizing look, but gave a nod allowing them to proceed.

~*~*~

The Hogwarts Library was in no way something to sneer at. Rows upon rows holding shelves and shelves of books, scores of tables scattered around here and there across the floor. The walls of the library itself were three stories high, every inch of it housing some book or other.

Fred, George, and Lee all quickly climbed one of the spiral staircases leading to the platform of an isle that went all around the walls so that students could get to the books on the second level. Then they climbed a ladder to one of the private study tables on the third level. Lee was the first up, and when the twins had appeared, he said, “Hope you don’t mind, but I thought we might need the inside scoop,” he indicated his cousin, a sixth year Ravenclaw, Elsie Smoot.

“Don’t worry, I know what is a secret,” she smiled at them.

“That, we’re sure of, but will you keep ours?” George asked apprehensively.

It was well known around Hogwarts that if you wanted even the most obscure tidbits of information on anyone inside Hogwarts, you could easily get what you needed from Elsie Smoot. She was the queen of the gossip mill. If anyone knew it, she would. If you didn’t want your information noised abroad, you could either pay her off to keep quiet, or keep it quiet yourself in the first place, making sure you didn’t let your secrets leak any farther than those you knew wouldn’t talk.

“Lee and I have already discussed the terms of my being here. I’ve prepared a little profile that I need each of you to fill out. Based on your answers I will tell you all the information I know about the girls who would most likely be compatible, and you two can just listen. I’ve made a list of eligible bachelorettes fifth year and above. So, do come sit,” she motioned to the seats at the table.

She pushed a roll of parchment each to Fred and George. It was rather lengthy. There were questions about everything, including how the questioned would react in different scenarios. Fred was done a few minutes before George and handed his parchment to Elsie. She pulled out another roll of parchment, and started crossing off a few names here and there. When she was finished, she handed her modified list to Fred, then took George’s profile and began crossing names off of another list. She then took out a last piece of parchment, another duplicated list of the eligible bachelorettes, and marked on her list which ladies she had indicated for each twin. She then handed Fred and George their respective lists.

“Take a look at that for a minute, I’m going to look and see if any of the candidates are in the library right now.”

She scanned her list and the floor below alternately. “Ah, there’s one you might try George,” she pointed to a table where there were a few people studying. “Sophie Smethwyck,” George immediately looked to see just where Elsie was pointing, particularly because he knew who Sophie’s best friend was, and indeed, he was not disappointed. His heart skipped a beat when he saw Andrea, and he studied her while Elsie went on about Sophie. “Fifth year Gryffindor; really intelligent. Her father works at St. Mungo’s and that’s her plan as well. She’s not beautiful, but not plain either. Really loyal and ambitious.

“Okay, Fred, right below us is Daphne Greengrass. . .” George didn’t really pay attention as Elsie went on and on about girl after girl. He’d pretend to be listening when she mentioned a prospective candidate for him, nod his head, whatever needed to look like he wasn’t watching Andrea as she moved around the library, collecting different books, putting them back after she’d found what she needed, laughing with Sophie, concentrating hard on what to write next. He couldn’t help his fascination.

“Now, to discuss my payment,” Elsie said, thoroughly in a business voice. “We have the consultation fee, as well as the confidentiality fee. The confidentiality isn’t really an issue since you two didn’t tell me any of your feelings other than what you wrote down generally on your profile, but most of that is easy for anyone to figure out if they want to.

“Seeing as Lee is my cousin, and you two are his best friends, I won’t tell anyone you came to meet with me about your love lives,” she smiled. “Now, consultation fees. . . hmm, let me think. . . I’d say ten galleons a piece.”

“Are you bloody serious?” Fred exclaimed, totally surprised.

“You can’t put a price on love,” she smiled with satisfaction.

“But I haven’t even got any girls in Gryffindor on my entire list!”

“I suggest that you don’t get involved with any girls in your house for the time being; perhaps much later, but not now,” she said pointedly. “Any more concerns?” she asked. “All right then. You can pay me in gold or in goods, I hear you inventions are top notch.”

The twins smiled and dumped their pockets, depositing one fake wand, and then various skivving snackboxes and other things. Looking over the goods, she nodded, pleased with her payment, and started collecting it into her school bag. The boys thanked her and Fred and Lee started down the ladder first. George waited until Lee’s head was below the platform level and then quickly sat down again next to Elsie.

“I had a feeling you and I weren’t quite through yet,” she said.

“Five galleons for a question and then your silence about it.”

“Deal. Go ahead.”

“Well, there’s this girl that I know, and I know her a lot better than anyone on my list, so-”

“Say no more,” she interrupted. “You’re wondering why someone you think you would be a lot better going after isn’t on you list.” He nodded. “Who is it? I promise I won’t tell a soul.”

“Er, well, it’s Andrea Benning. We’ve been pretty friendly over the years.”

“Benning. You’ve got good taste; high hopes as well. She’s in the top of the game, but there are two simple reasons she’s not on anyone’s lists. Malfoy is after her, and though it’s obvious enough she hates him, Malfoy isn’t about to give up and you don’t want to cross him. Besides that, there’s Neal Thatcher.”

“Oh, well, no matter,” George shrugged. “I was just curious. Thanks again,” he said

~*~*~

Andrea looked up from her essay when she heard footsteps coming quickly towards the table where she and Sophie were studying in the library. It was Edward, minus Roderick, and he had quite an apprehensive look on his face. He motioned for Andrea to follow him, evidently not wanting Sophie to know he was here. Andrea quickly muttered to Sophie that she had to go for another book and followed the path that Ed had just taken a second before.

“What’s the matter?”

“It’s Rick. I won’t dance around it. We were sitting in the common room, in the middle of a spectacular game of Exploding Snap. All of a sudden he looks at his watch, stands up, and declares that he has to go meet Sarah Edgewood. Then he leaves, just like that.”

“Sarah Edgewood?”

“I know! Not to mention the fact that we were in the middle of Exploding Snap!”

“Like that’s the most important thing,” Andrea’s voice was bitterly sarcastic. “I’m wondering why he went to meet Edgewood at all.”

“I know,” Ed agreed. “I was of course curious as well, so I followed him. They met up in the entrance hall, and she’s all smiles, and then,” Ed paused.

“And then what?”

“He kissed her.”

Andrea’s jaw dropped. “This is terrible! I thought Sophie and Roderick were together, and here he goes cheating on her! They were studying together just last night!”

“They’ve been studying together almost every night,” Ed’s face was full of shock, and Andrea knew her face must match it.

“Well, what am I supposed to do? How am I supposed to tell my best friend that my own brother has been playing her?”

“I’ve no idea, I just figured I’d give you the heads up. I do not envy you one sickle.”

“Thanks for your support,” she rolled her eyes. They both walked down the aisle looked around the corner at the table where Andrea left Sophie. Ed and Andrea both gasped at what they saw. Sophie was no longer studying. Instead she was paying attention to a Ravenclaw named Terry Boot who was whispering something in her ear. Sophie giggled and then kissed him on the cheek. He smiled and then stood up and walked out of the library.

Andrea and Edward hid behind the row of books again. They were beyond shocked, only a notch above dumbfounded.

Ed was the first to be able to speak. “I think something has gone seriously wrong with Operation Sophie-Roderick Romance.”

“My brother is playing my best friend who is playing him in return.”

“You find out what is going on with her and I’ll find out from Roderick what his story is.”

Andrea nodded and they each went their separate ways. Andrea sat back across from Sophie as she had been before. Sophie looked up, and seeing the look on Andrea’s face asked, “Is something wrong?”

“Yes, something is very wrong. I’m really confused.”

“Oh, is it something in this Transfiguration essay? Let me have a look,” she said reaching for Andrea’s work.

“No, it’s about you and Roderick,” Andrea indicated.

“Oh,” Sophie looked a bit uncomfortable as well now. “I guess you saw Terry.”

“Pretty much. Care to explain?”

“First, it’s not what you think. I would never do that to Roderick.”

“Well, you’d better keep explaining because so far all I can see is that you and Roderick have been studying together an awful lot and yet you’re kissing Terry Boot on the cheek? I’m trying to understand, but things just aren’t adding up.”

“Okay, we do study together. Roderick and I find that we’re able to study really well together, but that’s all. Roderick has someone else as well,” she was speaking very quickly, no doubt trying to get everything out in the open as quickly as she could before Andrea changed from stunned and unbelieving to angry. “I mean, the first couple of weeks back from the summer holidays Roderick and I tried giving a relationship a go, so we studied together and the like, but we never were able to click, other than being able to study and help each other out that way. We both kind of found other people at the same time; for me it was Terry, for Roderick it’s Sarah Edgewood, the Hufflepuff prefect.”

“So why didn’t you ever tell me or Ed?”

“Well, we knew that you and Ed prided yourselves on the fact that you were running, what is it, ‘Operation Romance?’”

“Operation Sophie-Roderick Romance,” Andrea offered.

“Yes,” Sophie laughed. “So we couldn’t very well disappoint you two now, could we? Besides, it gave us a good cover so that we could find our own relationships without any meddling best friends, as much as we appreciate the both of you.”

“So that’s it?”

Sophie nodded, laughing.

Andrea joined her, “Well, that’s a relief. I was dreading having to tell you that my brother was going with another girl.”

They continued to laugh until Madam Pince swooped down on them, shushing them.

“Actually, do you mind terribly if I leave you here? Terry and I made plans to meet up.”

“No,” Andrea smiled, “Go ahead.” Sophie gathered up her things and left the library. However, Andrea wasn’t alone for long.

“Mind if I sit here?”

Andrea looked up and into the face of Neal Thatcher but said nothing. This just felt awkward. Why did he have to go and kiss her? She dipped her quill in the ink pot on the table and went back to writing her Transfiguration essay.

Since she didn’t make any sign of protest, Neal sat down. A couple of Ravenclaw fifth years walked past, waving sheepishly at Neal and then turning the corner and giggling. Andrea couldn’t help but snicker at the display.

“It’s not like I ask for it you know,” he groaned.

“Really? I thought you could sign a list at the beginning of your first year for that kind of thing, I think they post in on the bulletin boards in each of the houses.”

He laughed softly at her sarcasm, then they let the silence build between them. Finally Neal took a deep breath and then said, “I can’t make any excuses about the other night, but I needed to tell you that I am really sorry, about you know. . .”

“Kissing me?”

“Yeah, that.”

“I know you are. I accept your apology,” she smiled, knowing that she may have acted the same way he did if their roles were reversed. Then her smile grew and the mischievous glint returned to her eye as she added, “Besides, it’s not as if I can really blame you for wanting to kiss me.”

Neal laughed again. “Thanks.”

Andrea again continued her essay and Neal pulled out his own homework from his bag. They worked until it was time to go down to the Great Hall for dinner, their friendship beginning to repair itself again. It had always been easy for Andrea to forgive people after she’d had a chance to think things over, and as long as they came around with a sincere apology. As they walked from the library, Andrea couldn’t help the feeling that she just needed to share what was going through her mind.

“I can’t be anything but friends with you. I need you to understand that. I’ve totally gotten past what happened between us. The end wasn’t so good, but other times will remain fondly in my memory. But you HAVE to understand, there is no way; because of our history, and because I don’t fancy you any longer, we can be nothing more than dear friends.”

“I really do understand, and I feel awful about jeopardizing our friendship like I did. I just, got caught up in the moment. I’m really sorry. But I do have a question.”

“Yes?”

“When you say you no longer fancy me, it seems that there is an underlying current that you might-”

Andrea cut him off, “When I say friends, I do have one condition: we will never be talking about who I do and do not fancy, unless of course you want to talk about how much I hate Malfoy, because I’m all for that avenue of conversation.”

They both laughed. “I can live with that. So, that Draco Malfoy, he’s a great prat, no?”

~*~*~

Sunday was indeed the beginning of the new era. Edward and Andrea finally found out that Sophie and Roderick were no more than friends and that they each had found someone else. Andrea and Neal were able to patch things back up and be friends.

George was realizing more and more that there was no girl he’d rather spend his time with than Andrea, but it was just like Elsie had told him: she and Neal came to dinner together and sat with some of their friends; Draco even tried to ambush her on her way out after she was finished eating, but Neal waltzed up and saved her just in time.

Fred’s conquests began almost immediately. He decided he’d take it alphabetically. He made a calendar with a different girl’s name for every week. George would have been appalled if he hadn’t also found it a bit funny. Now he fully understood why Elsie Smoot hadn’t put any girls from their house on Fred’s list. There would have been quite a problem and Fred wouldn’t have been able to sleep in safety. Of its own accord Fred’s new reputation of simply wanting a few good meetings in the broom closet and nothing more preceded him and not too many girls seemed to mind.

Pg. 451

December arrived, bringing with it more snow and a positive avalanche of homework for the firth years. There was not a day that didn’t find Andrea, Dean and Seamus in the library. Sophie was there as well, but more often than not would usually be studying with Terry Boot in some secluded corner of the library. They used to study with the other three, but were banned when the couple’s looks, flirtatiousness, and other couple tendencies grew to be rather quite a disturbance and annoyance.

Andrea felt it was a shame really that they had so much schoolwork. She was sad that she couldn’t just sit back and enjoy the magical things about the season. The mistletoe, the bright decorations, the beautiful blankets of snow, and cuddling up near a roaring fire. She kept diligent to her studies though, because she was determined to make the time go faster until holliday when she’d be free to laze about in the beauty of winter at home.

When Andrea wasn’t in the library, she was either with Neal Thatcher trying to improve her Charms skills, or in the greenhouse with Neville Longbottom who’d been asked by Professor Sprout if he could tutor Andrea. Andrea excelled in Defense Against the Dark Arts, Transfiguration, History of Magic, Potions, and with Neal’s help even Charms was coming along nicely. However, Andrea couldn’t identify or categorize plants for the life of her. She knew her potions ingredients, but that was because she’d studied profusely, and almost all the time they were in labeled containers.

Andrea was very glad for Neville’s willingness to help her in Herbology. It was evident that this was something that came very naturally for him, something he enjoyed and excelled in. In return Andrea was more than happy to help Neville along in his other subjects. Many people took one look at Neville in class and thought he wasn’t quite up to snuff, but as time went on, Andrea realized that Neville was the one holding himself back. His lack of self-confidence was his biggest cripple. Whenever he got wrapped up in an assignment and forgot that he wasn’t any good he became entirely capable of whatever he put his mind to.

Andrea was rather glad that she was always so occupied with studies, because she was able to avoid Malfoy almost completely, only seeing him in lessons. His attentions were growing even more insistent. She didn’t even need to listen to the words that came out of his mouth to know that nineteen times out of twenty he was either telling her of how they were perfect for each other or suggesting they sneak off to some broom closet. When she would refuse and rebuke him, he’d always answer with something to the effect of, “Your stubbornness and/or feisty personality are irresistible. You’ll come around soon enough and realize you’re madly in love with me.”

It made Andrea want to punch him, but since their exchanges took place mainly under the eye of Snape durring Potions, Andrea restrained herself, not wanting to be scrubbing and cleaning the disgusting tanks in Snape’s storage rooms again.

~*~*~

The last week before the Christmas Holidays found the students talking excitedly about their plans for break or kissing beneath the mistletoe. Fred Weasley, still keeping up his rigorous schedule of girls took every opportunity he could to lure some girl or other beneath the magical stuff. George was no longer amused by his twin’s antics; they only served as a reminder to him of his own wishes to be underneath the mistletoe, but while Fred would take any and every girl, George only wanted one girl, and she seemed to be almost impossible to find alone.

He saw her sometimes in the Great Hall for meals, and when he could he’d sit with her, but most of the time she was surrounded by her friends, and those times when she wasn’t he had Fred or Lee right on his heels and he wasn’t quite ready to reveal the object of his heart’s desire just yet. On top of that there was the fact that there was still something going on between Andrea and Neal Thatcher. He didn’t know just what it was, but he decided it was better to just let well enough alone. He and Andrea were friends after all. He wanted to see more of her around, even if it was just as friends, but she was always studying.

He did have D.A. meetings to keep him occupied now along with Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes. Occasionally, when Fred was off in some broom closet or under the mistletoe, he even took to cracking open his books. Not that he actually did any essays, but he would just brush up on the things they didn’t cover in class. It wasn’t his fault that he was blessed with such a superior intelligence and only needed to hear something come out of a teacher’s mouth once for it to make perfect sense and be able to remember it at the drop of a hat.

The last D.A. meeting before Christmas brought news from Angelina that they’d chosen new players for the house Quidditch team to replace him, Fred and Harry. He didn’t hear who it was as he Fred, and Lee were coming in just on the end of the conversation between Angelina and Harry. Once everyone had arrived, Harry announced that they would be reviewing the things they’d learned so far and set them to work on the Impediment Jinx first.

There were scattered bits of mistletoe around the room, and George almost swore he saw Ginny under a bit of it with her boyfriend for a moment, but didn’t turn and check. He didn’t want to know if his sister was snogging some boy, especially if it was that Zacharias Smith. He was glad that Fred was avoiding the stuff. In general Fred had decided to not only stay away from Gryffindor girls but extended it to members of the D.A. as well. They went on to Stunning, and then at the end of the hour, Harry brought the session to an end and they all started to leave the Room of Requirement in twos and threes.

Fred was off to some rendezvous and left Lee and George. They ran to catch up with the three Gryffindor Chasers. The five of them talked about their plans for the Christmas Holiday. They were all looking forward to a good three weeks away from Hogwarts. They all loved being there, but a break would be refreshing.

As they got closer to Gryffindor Tower, George brought the conversation around to what he was particularly curious about. “I heard you found some replacements for the Quidditch team.”

Angelina glared at him, still furious about the fact that almost half her team had been banned from playing. He just glared right back at her. It’s not like he was thrilled about it himself, but he couldn’t let Malfoy simply insult his family like that. Alicia spoke for Angelina, who decided to walk ahead of them, followed closely by Lee who was still trying to convince her that they should go out.

“We did find some replacements. Your sister, for one.”

“Really?” George said, completely surprised.

“Yeah, she’s a pretty good Seeker. She’s no Potter, but not bad at all.”

“More than we can say for our new Beaters though,” Katie groaned. “Andrew Kirke and Jack Sloper. They’ve got nothing on you and Fred, but they were the best that showed up.”

“We’ll have to start some intensive training as soon as we get back in January,” Alicia said wearily. “It’s hard to believe that just a year and a half ago Wood was captain and we’d won the Cup. Goes to show how things never turn out quite the way you think they will.”

They reached the Fat Lady at that moment and all three were glad that it wold serve as a good halt to the current conversation. Just after they climbed through the portrait hole, someone else crawled in after them. It was Sophie Smethwyck. Seeing her reminded George that Andrea was supposedly a brilliant player and made him want to know why she once again had neglected to go out for the team.

He looked around the common room to see if Andrea was there. She wasn’t. “Hey,” someone called his way. He looked to see who it was, but it was Dean Thomas, and he was talking to Sophie. “Where’s Benning? We thought she was with you.”

“She’s not back? I left her in the library a while ago, I thought she’d be back by now.”

“Well, she isn’t,” Seamus stated the obvious. The three seemed a bit worried, and with good reason as it was growing late.

“You know, I was going to go and borrow a book from the library. I can check and see if she’s still there,” George heard himself say, though he didn’t know why he’d let the words come out of his mouth. Dean and Seamus simply shrugged, but Sophie gave him a bright smile and thanked him for his thoughtfulness, and with that George was heading back out the portrait hole, an excitement he couldn’t deny growing in him. It’d give him a chance to ask Andrea why she didn’t go tryout for the Quidditch team.

~*~*~

“Is someone paying you to make my life miserable, Malfoy? Is that why you’re so persistent?” Andrea raged at him. She didn’t care that it was getting late and that her shouts could bring any number of authority figures that may be prowling around looking for rule-breakers. In fact, she did hope it would bring some teacher, or Filch, or even Peeves, because then she would have a chance to get away from Malfoy. She was almost home free, the hallway they were currently walking down was about to end and then she would turn to the right and he, hopefully, would take the left course as that was the way to the dungeons.

“You know, you’re even more beautiful when you’re angry,” Malfoy drawled. “It makes your eyes all fiery.”

She stopped and turned to glare at him. He was merely smiling at her, and it made her want to strangle him. “Why won’t you leave me alone?” she pleaded. “What did I ever do to deserve this torture?”

“Oh, stop putting on these shows, I know you’re worried I won’t return your affections, but I thought by now you would’ve figured out that I simply adore you.”

“You’re out of your head!” she shouted. Then she took a deep breath and calmly said, “Is there anything I can do or say to make you stop?”

“Give me what I want: a kiss, for starters.”

Her mouth dropped open in shock and disgust, she couldn’t help it, but the next moment she wish she had been able to control her reaction. He took the opportunity to close in and cover his mouth with hers, slipping his tongue eagerly into her open mouth. She was paralyzed to stop him out of her shock, and then fear as he backed her up against the wall, pining her there with his weight. When his hands started to grope at her, her senses came back to her and she sprung into action.

She tried to struggle against him, but he was stronger than she had expected. Using a little more force than before, she started to push him away, but was still not making a lot of headway. She slapped his face as hard as she could, hearing the sting, and even making her own hand hurt, but it got his mouth away from hers. With a better supply of oxygen, she was able to start kicking and punching him. He backed away, but she didn’t quit. She was enraged and disgusted. “How dare you?! I’m serious when I say you’ve been wasting your time! I will NEVER like you in any remote way! If you were the last person in the world, I would die rather than speak to you, much less anything else!”

“Back off Benning. I’ve given you ample time to make the right decision, but I’m done with you. Now you’ll regret your rejection of me,” he reached with lightning speed for his wand. “Crucio.”

Andrea crumpled to the floor with the intense pain that immediately filled her body. The sound of her screaming seemed distant in her own ears because of the fire that seemed to scorch through her veins. She started to sob; even though it had only been a matter of seconds of pain, it felt like an eternity. Then the pain stopped, as quickly as it had begun.

She was only barely able to open her eyes and see through her tears that someone had collided with Malfoy, and she could hear the sound of punching, and growls of frustration. She wiped the tears out of her eyes as her rescuer yelled at Malfoy’s retreating figure. “If you so much as look at her again in the wrong way, or at all for that matter, you’ll regret the action! If you were worth my time, I’d kill you for what you’ve done!”

Andrea was a little frightened to hear the anger in George Weasley’s voice, but when Malfoy was no longer in sight, he turned to her with deepest concern on his face although she could still feel that there was a large amount of anger raging through him. He kneeled next to her, his blue eyes penetrating hers, and softly asked, “Are you all right?”

She couldn’t stand for him to look at her right now, and the tears rolled hotly down her cheeks as she hung her head. “How much did you see?”

“I saw him. . . I saw enough. You handled yourself brilliantly before he pulled out his wand.”

“I feel so humiliated,” she moaned. She had a feeling that George had been about to say that he’d seen Malfoy on her, seen him groping and kissing.

“Hey,” he put one of his hands under her chin, cupping her face delicately, “You have nothing to be ashamed of. He’s slime and not worth a second thought. I also think you amply hurt his pride and gave him a few nice shiners, like you did Harry.”

Andrea gave a feeble laugh.

“Do you think you can stand?” he asked. She nodded and he stood and then reached down to give her a hand up, which she gratefully took. She was a bit shaky, but George saw this and put an arm around her waist to steady her. “Are you sure you’re ok?”

“I’ll be fine. Just a bit more embarrassed than anything,” she looked to the floor.

“I’m just glad that I was here to stop him, and don’t feel embarrassed. I’m not going to tell anyone what he did to you, and I doubt he’s going to say anything either. Let me walk you back to the Tower,” he smiled. His smile warmed her insides, not making her melt like it usually did, but it served to calm the tumultuous emotions raging inside her.

They were quiet as they walked back to Gryffindor, and as they went along Andrea seemed to be recovering. George still kept his arm around her, more for emotional support than physical. About halfway back, George decided to quench his curiosity and help Andrea to take her mind off of what had just happened. “Andrea, why didn’t you try out for the house team this time?”

“My skills as a Beater aren’t quite, well, they’re about as great as my skills as a Keeper, which are nonexistent.”

“Why not Seeker?”

“I couldn’t do that to Potter. He’s only banned until Umbridge is gone, so next year he’ll be back to playing. I’m not the person to go in and take over his spot this year. Actually, I heard Ginny got the position. She’s probably the only person who could fill in without making Harry terribly mad. Your family is like his family, aren’t you?”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right. But why does it matter so much to you? Why not just play?”

“Like I said, I couldn’t do that to Potter.”

“Why not?” he asked, unconsciously removing his arm from around her, and continuing with his train of thought. “Do you fancy him or something?”

“Oh, no! Never! Potter is about the last person I would ever crush on. The day I fancy him is the day I’m mourning Malfoy as my late husband!”

“That bad?”

“No, it’s just. . .complicated. I totally respect him, and I definitely hold him in high esteem, but I could never think of him romantically. Long story. Besides, while I’m not too shabby as Seeker, Chaser is my true calling. I’m quite brilliant, not to come off too pompous, but I just am. I find that when I play other positions it kind of affects my abilities as a Chaser.”

“Makes sense that you are a Chaser.”

“Why’d you say that?”

“Well, you like to be in the thick of things.”

“I do?”

“Yeah, there’s a lot of glory in being a Chaser, and you’re the youngest in your family. Seekers only really get the attention when they’re either in pursuit of the Snitch, or faking pursuit. Keepers are only in the game when the Quaffle’s coming towards them. Beaters are more behind the scenes, no one knows what they’re doing until after they’ve already made their mark, able to wreak their havoc without anyone noticing beforehand,” he smiled mischievously and winked at her.

“That’s not the only reason you like playing Beater. It gives you an outlet for your aggression.”

“What can I say?” he sighed. “Some of us use a Beater’s Bat, others are more apt at using their fists.”

“You are incorrigible!”

“One of my many charms.”

“You’re only charm.”

“Ouch, Benning! That hurts right here,” he frowned pitifully and put a hand over his heart.

“Didn’t know you had one of those,” she teased. They both laughed, and then a comfortable silence fell between the two of them the rest of the way back toward Gryffindor Tower. George was about to give the password when Andrea grabbed his arm. He turned and looked at her, seeing that her hazel eyes were looking a little bit misty.

“Hey, I just wanted to thank you for-”

“Don’t say another word about it. I just wish I had come earlier.” He tried to give her a reassuring smile, “Are you sure you’re ok?”

“I will be. A new day always makes things better. It’s just, it’s not so much the pain from the curse, I’m pretty well over that. But I feel so used, the way he. . .” she broke off, unable to finish.

A tear started to make a trail down her cheek, and George wiped it away. “Shh, come here,” he said soothingly as he pulled her into his arms. She wrapped her arms around his back, enjoying the feeling of strength and protection in his embrace. Her head just seemed to fit on his shoulder, he wasn’t much taller than she was, only about three or four inches.

They both jumped when the Fat Lady gave a loud, obviously fake cough and let go of each other, Andrea quickly wiping any remnants of her tears away.

“Sorry, you want the password,” George said sheepishly.

“Well, yes, of course, but look,” she pointed above where Andrea and George were standing.

They both looked up. Mistletoe. George was finally under the magical stuff with exactly the girl he wanted to be under it with, but after what she’d already been through tonight, he didn’t want to pressure here at all. He quickly looked away at the wall, shifting his weight. “Andrea, you don’t have-”

She placed a hand on his cheek and turned his face back to look at her, and they both smiled at each other. Andrea closed the distance between them, taking a breath to calm her nerves. He placed his hands on her waist.

“MIMBULUS MIMBLETONIA! MIMBULUS MIMBLETONIA!” Someone was shouting from around the corner. George and Andrea jumped apart, startled, the moment broken. The next second Fred came into sight, running down the corridor towards them. The Fat Lady had swung forward, in a huff of disappointment. “Quick!” Fred grabbed each of them by the arm. “Filch is coming! He hasn’t seen me yet, but we’re in for weeks of detention if he catches any of us!”

~*~*~

A few minutes later, the twins were up in their dormitory, in bed, the others in their room already asleep. “Hey George.”

“Yeah Fred?”

“I’ve just had a very interesting thought cross my mind.”

“Me too, I was thinking we might try an invisibility gum. What is it they make the cloaks out of? I think Ron said Harry had one, maybe he’d know.”

“No.”

“You’re right, Potter probably has no idea. Bet Dumbledore does though. Do you think we could get him to tell us?”

“You and Andrea were about to kiss before I came around tonight, weren’t you? If only Filch hadn’t been on my trail.”

“It was only a bit of mistletoe, it’s nothing really.”

“But why were you out there alone with her anyway?”

“I bet Dumbledore would tell us. I think he’d approve.”

“Dumbledore would tell us why you were with Andrea?”

“We could probably get a book from the library if Dumbledore refuses to tell.”

“Do you need Dumbledore’s approval to go out with Andrea? I’d think you’d probably want to ask her brother if you needed some approval.”

“Fred, I’m trying to concentrate on this invisibility gum. It’d be priceless! Maybe sell even more of that than all the Skivving Snackboxes we’ve sold so far.”

“Right. I approve of you and Benning, in case you were wondering.”

“I wasn’t, because it was just mistletoe.”

“It was pretty late for you two to be out of the common room.”

“I just saw her in the hall and we happened to be going the same way,” George hissed.

“Fine, fine. I’ll drop it. If it’s nothing, then it was nothing.” However, George couldn’t see the huge grin on his twin’s face. “G’night.”

“Night.”

~*~*~

Andrea didn’t tell Sophie about what happened with Malfoy or with George when she came up to their room. Hermione had just crawled into bed, and Andrea quickly followed suit. Before long they were all asleep.

Andrea found herself dreaming she was back home. It was summertime and she and her brothers were all home at Benning Manor. Others were there too, Edward, and his brothers Ethan and Euan; Lynch, Troy, Mullet, Moran, Connolly, the normal bunch. They were all zooming around on their Firebolts in a thrilling match, though it was modified. Two chasers and one Beater per team, instead of the normal three and two. There was a heightened danger though because there were still two bludgers, and they had fewer targets than in a normal game, making it easier to find one being pelted towards you. Their father was serving as referee, while mum was watching as she tended to her garden. Andrea had just dodged a bludger and was about to take a pass from Troy. The Quaffle was in the air, heading her way. She lifted a hand off her broom to reach out for it. Just before it came into her hand, she bolted up out of bed, a horrible rush of fear and foreboding filling her entire being.

This was really weird. She hadn’t been having any kind of nightmare, yet she was breathing heavily, her forehead was covered in icy sweat, her hands were cold and clammy. She had the horrible urge to hurl the contents of her stomach. Something was terribly wrong. There was no reason for her to have awoken like that from her Quidditch dream. She was glad that neither Sophie nor Hermione had woken up. Then it hit her. He’d had the terrible nightmare. It was that bloody sympathy pain and emotion channeling into her. She got up a moment or two later, and walked across the room to where the house elves always left a pitcher of cool water and a few glasses. The brunt of what she had felt when she woke up had worn off. It never lasted terribly long, but she still felt a bit of the wake of it. She would go and tell Dumbledore first thing in the morning before she left for the Christmas Holiday. He’d want to know.

You’re going to meet a lot of Andrea’s family this chapter since she is going home for the holidays. Bear in mind that none of these people really matter in the scheme of things. The only people you meet in this chapter that matter are Darren and Rachel, otherwise it’s no big deal, and you really don’t have to pay much attention to Darren and Rachel because I’ll tell you everything you need to know when they pop up again later.

Pg 460

The next morning Andrea woke up very early. She hadn’t slept as well after waking up so horribly from her dream. She quickly and quietly got ready and then rushed out of the common room and made her way to the gargoyle on the third floor that guarded the gateway to Dumbledore’s office. “Peppermint Peacocks.”

The gargoyle didn’t move other than to shake his head.

“Blast! It’s different?”

The gargoyle nodded in the affirmative.

“Okay, how about Chocolate Frog? Drooble’s Best Blowing Gum? Honeydukes? It’s really important that I talk to the headmaster! Please let me in?” she finally pleaded knowing that she couldn’t guess anymore this early in the morning.

The gargoyle cocked his head to the side, seeming to contemplate for a moment, then he hopped aside, much to her surprise. She hadn’t really expected the creature to just let her in. But then she guessed that the gargoyle probably knew that sometimes there needed to be an exception. “Thank you,” she said sincerely as she stepped onto the moving staircase.

Once she reached the top of the staircase, she knocked on the closed door, and some mumbling behind it quickly stopped. “Come in,” Professor Dumbledore’s voice rang through the door.

Andrea came in. “Good morning, Headmaster,” she smiled.

He smiled in return, though it was a tired smile, and she noticed that he had the beginnings of dark circles under his eyes. “Good morning, Miss Benning. It’s quite early, what brings you here?”

“Well, I had kind of a weird experience during the night.”

“Please, sit,” he motioned to some chairs that were in front of his desk. They were wooden, with straight, high backs. She sat on the middle one. “Go ahead and tell me what happened.”

She proceeded to tell him about her Quidditch dream and then how she’d woken up, as if from a nightmare, in a cold sweat, etc.

“Well, are you feeling quite all right now? I’m sure Madam Pomfrey would be more than pleased to assist you in any way she can,” Dumbledore said when she was finished.

“It all subsided rather quickly. I’m feeling fine now, a bit tired if anything,” she answered.

“It was an exhausting night for many of us. I wouldn’t worry too much though, your experience isn’t out of the ordinary. There have been other times like this for you, no?”

“It happens from time to time. I’ll be doing something and have emotions that don’t relate at all to what is going on around me.”

“Completely natural, considering the circumstances. Anyone in your same position can tell you that.”

“I just thought you would want to know, in case it was anything serious.”

“Oh don’t worry,” Dumbledore assured her. “Things are being taken care of as we speak. But it’s nothing for you to worry about. Things will turn out all right as long as we don’t have any problems.”

Andrea chuckled at this last part. Dumbledore had that ability to keep a bit of humor even at serious times. Of course things would be fine if there weren’t problems.

“If there’s nothing more you wish to discuss, then I suggest you hurry along and get some breakfast and finish packing your things to leave. The carriages will be leaving to take you and your classmates to Hogsmeade station in a couple of hours.”

She nodded and thanked Dumbledore for his time.

“It’s always a pleasure to speak with you, Andrea. Happy Christmas!”

“Happy Christmas to you too, Professor Dumbledore!”

~*~*~

After having a quick breakfast and then packing her trunk to leave for the holidays she made her way down to the Entrance Hall with Roderick and the three Abercrombie brothers. She’d already said goodbye to Sophie; she was staying with her sister Barbara at Hogwarts for Christmas, the two both felt the need to devote as much time in the castle without regular distractions to study for the OWLs in Sophie’s case and the NEWTs in Barbara’s. Andrea couldn’t imagine wanting to stay at school for the holidays so that she could study. She had devoted every spare moment in the library this past week so that she wouldn’t have to do very much homework while on break.

The boys ditched her and climbed into their own carriage in front of the castle, but Andrea didn’t make a fuss. She happily climbed into a carriage with Hermione and Neville. Neville would be spending the holidays with his gran at home with the rest of his family. Andrea had bought him a particularly interesting plant for Christmas. She’d had the witch in the shop help her pick it out, and she couldn’t remember the name of it at the moment, but she’d been able to keep it alive for about a week, so she was pretty proud of herself. She gave it to Neville on the train ride home so it wouldn’t die before Christmas, and he’d been really excited about it, knowing what it was as well as its uses. He also congratulated Andrea on her ability to keep it alive by herself.

Hermione was going on a skiing trip with her muggle parents. For the past couple of weeks Andrea had been learning about skiing as a part of their winter sports unit for Muggle Studies class. Andrea gave Hermione her gift on the train as well because it was a pair of skiing goggles, some intense condition sunscreen and lip balm. The last two were both products from the wizarding world, but would far outshine any muggle product. Andrea knew from her study that it was guaranteed that skiers would receive sunburns if they didn’t take the proper precautions. Hermione was very glad for the thoughtful gift.

Andrea and Roderick’s Christmas would be spent at the Benning Manor with all of their family coming home as well. Mr. and Mrs. Benning where there on the platform when the two stepped off the train. They waved a cheery goodbye to their friends before being pulled into a bone-crushing hug by their mother. Walter Benning stood behind her, smiling at his children and trying his best not to laugh. This kind of hug was just as traditional as the way she always sent her children off to Hogwarts in September. The next moment she was holding each of them at arms length, the next part of what her husband and children referred to as the ritual.

“Oh dear, you two look far too skinny, but I suppose you’re healthy enough. Have you been eating a balanced diet? Fruits AND vegetables? You don’t skip breakfast do you? You don’t owl nearly as often as I’d like.” Every day is what she would like. Once a week is what she actually got. “I suppose you’re too busy with your studies though, at least that’s what your father tells me. You ARE studying aren’t you? Roderick, did I hear that you have a girlfriend? Tell me all about what she is like! Do you have a picture of the two of you? Perhaps we can have her and her family over for dinner sometime in the next few weeks. I hope she isn’t becoming a distraction. I saw Edward and his brothers come off the train as well. Does Edward still like that Katie Bell? His mother told me that Euan was sorted into Gryffindor as well, that’s excellent isn’t it?”

By the time they reached the Benning Manor Mrs. Benning’s inquiries of her two youngest children were over and done with and she was back to normal speaking patterns, meaning that her children and husband could actually answer her questions. But she still had more to go. Her three older sons were all arriving in the next few days along with their respective girlfriends, wives, and children. In addition to their immediate family, Mr. Benning’s brothers and their families would be at the Benning Manor for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Their house would be full and bustling up to the brim of excitement, just the way the Bennings liked it. Some families aren’t close, but the Bennings definitely did not fit in that category.

The next morning Andrea and Roderick’s oldest brother flooed in with his family. Dai and his lovely wife Judith had two young girls, Maggie and Grace, who were five and three respectively. These girls had their mother’s blonde, curly hair, and ice blue eyes, and loved to giggle. They also adored their Uncle Roderick, and he adored them in return.

By dinner time the next batch had arrived. Second oldest of the Benning children, Kevin and his wife Elizabeth had sworn not to have any more children. They were convinced that their set of troublesome triplet boys would be enough to last them the rest of their lives. The four year olds Sam, Simon, and Seth all had brown hair, and, even at this age, eyes that could only be called a conspiratorial hazel.

Due to his relationship with Sarah Edgewood, Roderick hadn’t spent as much time in the library as Andrea had over the last few weeks and had to confine himself to the study for a few hours every day during the first week of the holidays. Maggie and Grace took their dolls into the study as well so they could be with their beloved uncle the first day. Judith then asked Roderick to study during the afternoon, conveniently during the girl’s usual nap time. This worked like a charm, Roderick was able to work, and the girls fell asleep for a couple of hours.

By the time Roderick was finished with all of his homework the Kestrals had played their last game and Darren was free to come home. He also brought his lovely team mate, Rachel. Andrea and Rachel got along really well and the two were the only ones who could keep Sam, Simon and Seth from getting into too much trouble. Kevin and Elizabeth jokingly asked if the two girls would possibly consider taking their sons and raising them until they got their Hogwarts letters. Andrea loved the boys dearly, and Rachel was quite taken with them as well, but they declined Kevin and Elizabeth’s query, which wasn’t entirely meant in a joking way.

~*~*~

On Christmas Eve the extended family of Bennings showed up for a buffet style dinner and then stories around the huge roaring fire in the great room. There was a huge Christmas tree in the corner of the room, decorated with glowing fairies and enchanted snowflakes with sprigs of holly berries here and there. Flet actually joined her fellow fairies this year on the tree. She was extremely vain and enjoyed choosing a spot at the top of the tree.

The Bennings all settled in for an evening of laughter. Andrea was sitting in-between Rachel and her cousin Penelope, and each of the girls had one of the triplets. Kevin and Elizabeth were glad for yet another opportunity to have some time to themselves and cuddle in peace. Rachel wasn’t missing out on any time with Darren though, he had his arm around her and she had his head on her shoulder. It didn’t take long for her ward, Simon, to fall asleep, lying across both Darren and Rachel’s laps.

Grandpa Benning was always the first to start the story telling, relating the tale of how he met his wife. They went to Hogwarts together, and she wouldn’t speak to him until seventh year when Grandpa’s friends locked them in a tower together for the entire Easter weekend. Needless to say, when Grandma was finally forced to talk to her admirer of three years, she sort of came around. They were married the next October.

Next Grandpa Brand, Mrs. Benning’s father, who was always referred to as Captain by his grandchildren, told about his Quidditch glory days. He was captain of the Heidelburg Harriers in the late forties and early fifties. He met his wife during the Harriers’ match against the Holyhead Harpies in 1953. During the week long game, which he liked to recount almost every detail of, he took the opportunity to woo and flirt with his opposite number on the Harpies’ side, Gwendolyn Morgan. At the end of the match, he proposed marriage to Miss Morgan. She clobbered him on the head with her Cleansweep, giving him a concussion. After he was taken to St. Mungo’s, merely as a precaution, Gwendolyn started feeling guilty. She went to visit the invalid. He kissed her that day, and she gave him an actual answer to his marriage proposal. They married the next week, though their marriage didn’t affect the highly competitive spirit between the Harpies and Harriers. The rematch was another bitter week-long battle. Brand’s wife finally used her leverage to distract him just long enough for the Harpies’ beaters to hit him with a bludger, sending him to St. Mungo’s again with another concussion. The Harpies won the game and Gwendolyn retired her Harpies robes.

~*~*~

There was only one day of the year on which Morgan and Walter’s children would wake up early without any difficulty. Christmas morning found Dai, Kevin, Darren, Roderick and Andrea waiting anxiously in front of the Christmas tree, examining their presents, making guesses as to what they were. They were under strict orders not to wake anyone else up until seven o’clock, and by no means were they to open their presents until everyone was up and in the great room with them.

At six fifty-eight, the five Benning children all gathered anxiously around the grandfather clock in the entryway.

Six fifty-nine.

Thirty seconds left.

Twenty.

Fourteen.

Ten.

Three, Two, One.

BANG! All five started making as much of a ruckus as they could, setting off a few Filibuster Indoor Fireworks as well, and rushing from room to room trying to rouse all of their family. After years of this, people were used to the ritual and no longer made too much of a fuss about it; besides, presents were always followed with an exquisitely delicious breakfast, which was well worth getting up early for on a holiday.

There were enough presents to fill everyone’s fancy. Andrea got a new set of robes, some new quills, a myriad of Quidditch related items, some delicious sweets from Dean and Seamus and some from Neville as well, an autographed photo of the weird sisters from Sophie, a decorative little hand mirror from Hermione, a wizard deck from Neal, and then a set of muggle boxing gloves with a card signed affectionately by ‘Frank and Gene.’

By the end of the day the extended family had left the Benning Manor and Andrea’s nieces and nephews had finally worn their parents resolve down enough to let them use their new presents from Grandpa and Grandma the next day. Training brooms. Judith and Elizabeth had been horrified. Dai and Kevin had tried to be horrified as well after getting over their initial excitement and noticing their wives reactions to the brooms.

Walter had proclaimed that it was never too early to begin training for the game. Morgan had quietly reassured her daughters-in-law that the brooms were bewitched to fly very slowly, no more than three feet from the ground, and to veer away from large objects like trees or buildings. They also had a proximity charm so that they couldn’t stray very far from home. With all of the reassurances and the overabundant pleading of their children, Judith and Elizabeth decided they could let the little ones use their broomsticks.

~*~*~

On New Year’s Eve Walter and Morgan gathered around the fire in the entry way with their children. They were only waiting for Elizabeth and Judy to tuck in the children before leaving for the Wood residence. Walter worked in the same department as Mr. Wood and the Bennings had been going to their traditional New Years Eve party for years. Finally the two came downstairs. “I must admit,” Elizabeth conceded, “I was really worried about those training brooms, but after a full day on their brooms, the triplets actually go to bed without a fuss, and THAT is something I thought would NEVER happen,” she laughed.

Walter winked at his daughters-in-law, “Grandpa knows best.”

“Don’t let him fool you, it was MY idea, I raised four rowdy boys myself, not to mention quite a rambunctious little girl,” Morgan whispered to Judith and Elizabeth.

“Everyone have their brooms?” Captain Brand asked. They all nodded. “Good. Let’s go then!” He and his wife were the first to take a handful of Floo Powder and toss it into the fire. The great grandparents switched off years for who would stay behind and watch the little ones.

Next Dai and his wife, then Darren and Rachel. Roderick and Andrea followed, and then the others after them. While they were all waiting for their whole party to show up, Gran Gwen asked if Roderick would be joining the adults in the ballroom this year or not for dancing.

“No, not until seventh year,” Roderick answered. “I’ve got to keep an eye on this one here,” he put a protective arm around Andrea.

Andrea shoved him playfully away. “Torment me is more like. I will never get over that trick you pulled when I was in my second year, the first time Mum and Dad let me come.”

“Oh yeah!” Darren laughed. “I’d almost forgotten!”

The rest of her brothers started laughing as well. “What happened?” Rachel asked.

“We asked Oliver to teach her how to dance,” Darren explained.

“That’s not so bad.”

“Not if I wasn’t four years younger than him, and had a huge crush on him! I couldn’t even talk to him, and I nearly spilled my pumpkin juice all over myself when he came up and asked me to dance.”

“Oh,” Rachel said, now understanding. The four brothers were still laughing.

“You had a huge crush on me? I never knew that,” Oliver laughed, having just entered the room.

“Oh Merlin, please let me just disappear!” Andrea groaned, putting a hand over her face.

“This just gets better and better!” Darren roared, slapping his knee. Rachel slapped him up the back of his head.

Mr. and Mrs. Wood came in, just as Mr. and Mrs. Benning stepped through the fireplace. “Welcome, welcome!” Mr. Wood boomed, heartily taking Mr. Benning’s hand and shaking it.

Oliver made his way over to Andrea’s side. “I must say I’m a bit flattered that you had a crush on me.”

“HAD a crush on you,” they both laughed.

“I guess that would explain why you were as stiff as a board.”

Andrea smiled. “I couldn’t believe that the sixth year Gryffindor, captain of the Quidditch team, crush of my entire time at Hogwarts up til then, had actually asked me to dance. And I didn’t even know how!”

“You still learned rather quickly,” he offered her his arm as they all started to leave the room which they Flooed into. As embarrassing as the ordeal had been for Andrea at the time, it was actually not so bad to talk about it with Oliver now. He played Keeper for Puddlemere United and had been to the Benning Manor with the rest of the team quite often, allowing Oliver and Andrea to become friends. “I did think it was a bit odd for a second that Darren asked me to teach you, but I didn’t think too much of it.”

“Do you want to know something absolutely horrifying?” Andrea asked him, a playful gleam in her eye.

“Of course.”

“I had already decided the names of our seven children,” Andrea laughed.

Wood looked a little surprised for a minute, his ears turning slightly pink. He quickly joined in Andrea’s laughter though. “Seven you say? We had our own Quidditch team then.”

“Naturally.”

“That is a bit horrifying.”

“I told you it was horrifying. It even horrifies me that I’d planned all that. I was a silly second year with an enormous crush.”

“You’ve grown up quite a lot,” he commented. “It won’t be long before you’re as old as I am.”

“You’ll always be four years older than me,” they both laughed.

“You know what I meant.”

“I do,” she smiled. “It’s good to come to these parties and see that you’re here and you’re still close to everyone from your seventh year.”

“Almost everyone. It is nice though. Sometimes we’re not very close through the rest of the year, and some of the old group have left, but on New Year’s Eve, it’s like time stands still for a night, and everything is almost as it should be.” He had a thoughtful look on his face as they looked over and saw the knot of Oliver’s friends sitting at one of the dinner tables. “Who is your crush these days?”

“What?”

“Well, I’m curious to know who succeeded me as the future father of your own personal Quidditch team. I think I’m entitled to the opportunity of deciding if he’s suitable.”

Andrea laughed.

“Unless it’s still me,” he winked. She punched him playfully on the arm.

“No, it is not you. I actually don’t think I want seven anymore anyway; being an aunt has been quite an eye opening experience you might say.”

“But you’re not going to tell me who it is?”

“No. Oliver, you worked as a pawn for my brothers before, if they knew that I had told you who it is that I fancy, they would stop at nothing to extract that information from you so that they can use it to tease me mercilessly. I learned my lesson, and I couldn’t subject you to such dangerous information.”

They both laughed.

“Oliver!” Mrs. Wood was calling him from the entry room.

“I guess I’ll go ahead and tell you that Darren set me the task of trying to find out who your current crush is.”

Andrea’s jaw dropped. “I should’ve known!”

Oliver laughed. “I’ll see you around later.”

“See you.”

Andrea made her way out to the backyard because that is where the teenagers always gathered. She didn’t know very many people there. Now that Oliver had graduated, the younger guests were just children of Oliver’s parents’ friends. She looked for Roderick and saw that he had wasted no time in finding Sarah Edgewood. Edward was there, but he was busy trying to flirt with Katie Bell.

“Andrea?”

She turned around to see who it was that was calling her name. She was surprised to see it was none other than Terry Boot, Sophie’s Ravenclaw boyfriend.

“Hi Terry.”

“Mind if I play as your shadow for the night? I don’t really know anyone here.”

“No, not at all. I’m in the same boat as you,” she smiled. “I don’t know many people here either.”

The two weren’t very close at all, but by the time they’d shared a meal, danced a bit, and played a few rounds of Wizards and Warlocks and other wizarding games, they were becoming fast friends. The food was good, the midnight fireworks were beautiful, and the games, even though Terry and Andrea ended up on the opposite team from Adam, were exciting and fun. There was only one time when Andrea wasn’t having a wonderful time. After all the games, everyone went inside for a final two or three dances as everyone started to Floo out in turn. Andrea had had a really fun time with Terry, but as they danced, surrounded by couples, Andrea had the sudden wish for George Weasley to be there with her at that moment. At first the thought surprised her, but after a little reflection, she realized that he was more than just a crush.

The day that Fred had taken her aside and had the talk with her about how she and George fancied each other, and then George had agreed with her that they were only friends, Andrea had decided that George was no more than a crush and had decided that it was best if it remained that way. Only a crush. However, unbeknownst to herself even, she’d continued to fall for the red-haired joker. She thought of the last time she’d been with him, under the mistletoe.

~*~ The Wood’s New Year’s Eve party has been used in this story with the permission of ByMerlinsBeard. I also drew a lot from ‘Quidditch Through The Ages.’

Roderick and Andrea came back to Hogwarts on just a normal wizarding train to Hogsmeade about two days before the new term started. Roderick was anxious to get back and spend some time with Sarah. They’d been owling each other daily throughout the holiday, but absence certainly makes the heart grow fonder.

After spending New Year’s Eve with Terry Boot at the Wood’s party, Andrea actually felt like they were friends, and it wasn’t as awkward being around Sophie and Terry. The three of them went to the library for their last afternoon before classes started. They found one of the few couches intended to let students from other houses have a comfortable place to mingle other than the outdoors or the Great Hall. Andrea sat in the big comfy chair next to the couch, reading a novel for her Muggle Studies course while Terry and Sophie began a game of wizard’s chess. She looked up when she heard Terry’s queen begin to brutally attack Sophie’s knight. Something caught her eye, and she looked over to see Fred and George Weasley and Lee Jordan looking at some books down at the other end of one of the nearby rows of books.

She kept tabs on them out of the corner of her eye, trying to focus on her book, yet not doing too good a job of it anymore. The twins and Lee moved to a different aisle, and she could no longer see them, but she did hear Lee laugh not too far off. Fifteen minutes later Fred and Lee left the library, but not George. Sophie had caught on to what Andrea was paying attention to, and softly said, “He’s down that row of books behind you. I can see him from here.”

“Who is?” Andrea tried to play innocent.

Sophie arched an eyebrow and Terry laughed silently.

They went back to their game and Andrea went back to reading. Five minutes later, Andrea snapped her book abruptly shut. “Okay, I’ve read the same page about nineteen times now and I still don’t know what I read. Maybe I should just go talk to him. Where is he?” she asked Sophie.

“Right behind you,” Terry answered quietly, not looking at Andrea.

“Who were you looking for?” she heard George’s voice right behind her.

“Blast! How long have you been standing there?” she whispered, eyes closed.

“Long enough,” George answered.

“I have the worst luck,” she groaned. The other three all laughed.

George put his hands on her shoulders, and bent down behind her chair. “Come with me,” he whispered so that she almost didn’t hear it. A shiver ran down her spine as she turned to look at him. He was smiling, and she smiled right back at him. He stood up, held out his hand, and she took it and followed him off around the corner, grinning back at Sophie and Terry. Sophie was beaming, and Terry gave her a wink.

“Where are we going?” she asked after about five minutes of wandering out of the library and down numerous corridors that Andrea didn’t even know existed. She thought after five and a half years of living in the castle, that she knew it pretty well, but obviously she was wrong.

“Just follow me,” he answered. Then he stopped abruptly and turned to face her. “You trust me right?”

“Within reason,” she laughed. He smirked and then turned around and started walking again, still holding her hand. They stopped soon, though Andrea had lost track of which floor they were on. There was a funny statue of a very confused looking wizard with his gloves on the wrong hands. It looked very familiar. “Who’s that a statue of?” she asked.

“Oh, that’s Boris the Bewildered.”

“Sophie has a picture of, no, she used to have a picture of that up next to her bed.”

“Really? That’s odd,” he laughed.

“Where are we by the way?”

“My and Fred’s Secret Lab,” he grinned mischievously. “Bill told us about this place, the rest of the corridor is dedicated to Prefect stuff, bathrooms, common rooms, study rooms.”

“Oh,” it now made sense why Sophie would have had a picture of Boris the Bewildered’s statue. All she’d ever really wanted was to be Prefect. George was standing next to a statue of a great warthog, he pulled down on one of the tusks like one would a lever, and an array of the bricks next to it sunk in to the wall and then slid to the side, opening up a passageway.

“Come on,” he took her hand again and pulled her into the secret lab. There were a few couches, a large supply of sweets and butterbeer, some crates in one of the corners, and then on the other side of the room a bunch of cauldrons and other things that she suspected the twins used to develop their inventions.

George walked over to one of the small tables and picked up a hat that was lying there. “Watch this,” he said. He put the hat on, and his head disappeared.

Andrea gasped and then laughed. “That’s brilliant!”

He took the hat off and his head reappeared, he was smiling broadly. He plopped onto one of the couches, and Andrea sat on the other end of it, facing him.

“How’d you do that?”

“Don’t tell Fred I told you.” He told her that they’d figured out the simple charm that would work while they were trying to develop an invisibility gum, which they were still working on. They continued to talk about many things, their Christmases, though George left out a lot of what had happened, like his dad being in St. Mungo’s after being injured working for the Order and the fact that they’d stayed at Sirius Black’s house. They broke out some of the sweets and butterbeers. Fred and George kept a good stock here so that they didn’t have to run off to Hogsmeade every time Gryffindor House needed to celebrate.

An hour later George and Andrea left the Weasley’s Secret Lab, deciding they were keenly interested in having some supper. Sweets and butterbeer can only be so satisfying. George gave Andrea a long look as they made their way to the Great Hall.

“What?” she asked him, smiling at him.

“I was just curious.”

“What about?”

“Well, when I came up behind you in the library I couldn’t help overhearing when you said you wanted to come talk to me. What was it about?”

“Oh,” she said, looking ahead again, her ears turning a bit pink. “Nothing really. I just wanted to talk to you.”

She could tell without even directly looking at him that he didn’t think this was quite a good enough answer. She sighed. “I missed talking to you over the holidays.” Her cheeks were now burning and she knew they must be completely red.

George halted and put a hand on her arm to stop her from walking as well. “I missed you too,” he said, barely loud enough for her to hear. She looked up from the ground to see that he had a silly grin on his face and she smiled back at him. They just stood there for a moment, smiling at each other. Then he leaned forward and gave her a kiss on the cheek. She slipped her hand into his and they walked the rest of the way down to the Great Hall.

Almost everyone was back, a few students still gone, arriving on an evening train. As they got closer to the Gryffindors, still holding hands, a few people seemed to notice and began whispering, but not too many. Most people were busy catching up with their friends about their Christmases. Neal called out to Andrea to come over and sit with him and some of the other fifth and sixth years.

“You wanna-”

“Nah, you go on, I’m going to go sit with Fred. Merlin knows I didn’t see enough of him over the holidays,” he winked.

“All right, see you later then?”

“Yeah, later.” She gave his hand a squeeze and then made her way over to Neal and the others.

When George sat across from Fred and Lee, they looked at him quizzically.

“What?”

“I think we’d better ask him.”

“I agree,” Lee said. “Who should do it?”

“I’m his brother, I’ll do it.”

George rolled his eyes. “What is it?”

“Where you in a broom closet somewhere with Andrea Benning?” Fred asked seriously.

“No! I’d like to think I’m a little more creative than that.”

“How is this going to affect the business?”

“Well, seeing as I don’t spend a good hour with different girls every night off in a broom closet snogging, I don’t think my actions will affect the business as much as yours do,” he smiled.

“Good point,” Lee laughed, as did the twins.

A little while later George watched as Andrea left the Great Hall, with Neal. He couldn’t help an icy feeling develop in his stomach. Fred and Lee hadn’t noticed anything and were surprised when George pushed his plate away and excused himself to go up to bed. He hoped he wouldn’t see Neal and Andrea as he made his way up to not his bed as he’d told Fred and Lee, but to the Room of Requirement. It was always a good place to think, or a good place to escape everyone else.

~*~*~

After looking over Neal’s Transfiguration essay and making a few corrections, and then practicing a few of the Charms she’d been having trouble with before Christmas, Andrea went straight up to the girl’s dormitories and went into her room, fully intending to drop into bed and fall asleep after a nice day. However, when she opened the door to the room she shared with Sophie and Hermione, Sophie was sitting on the edge of her bed, obviously waiting for her to come.

“You have to tell me everything that happened!” she demanded anxiously. “Where did you go? What did you do? Did you kiss?”

“What?” Hermione wheeled around on her stool in front of the vanity. “What’s all this? I didn’t know you had anything going on.”

“Well,” Andrea grinned, “It only just started right before we left for the holidays.”

“Hey, you didn’t tell me anything happened that night!” Sophie pretended to look hurt.

“Well, the two of you were asleep when I came up to bed that night weren’t you?”

Hermione and Andrea joined Sophie on her bed and Andrea launched into a modified story of what happened before Christmas, and then gave all the details of what had happened that afternoon.

“And he kissed you on the cheek? That is so cute!” Sophie sighed. They all were pretty giggly and giddy at this point.

“So you really like him then?” Hermione asked, a bit surprised, but in a good way.

“Yeah, I do. I mean, I thought it was only just a crush you know. But then at New Year’s I just realized that he really meant a lot to me, more than I thought.”

“How do you tell them apart though? They’re identical!” Sophie remarked.

“Yeah, sometimes even Mrs. Weasley can’t tell them apart, it’s rare, but it still happens,” Hermione added.

“Well, for one thing, George has this scar on the back of his neck. I guess a couple of years ago, when Oliver Wood was still captain of the Quidditch team, Fred and George were goofing off during one of his post practice speeches, and he whacked George with his broom.”

They all laughed, though Hermione looked a little concerned at such behavior. “But how do you choose one twin over the other? Physically isn’t the only way they’re identical.”

Andrea shrugged. “I don’t know. They are really similar, but they’re different as well. One time though, Fred was in detention and George just came over and asked if I wanted to play some wizard’s chess. That was a couple of years ago I guess, and we’ve just been kind of friendly toward each other ever since. One thing that’s a little different about the two is that, while they’re both really confident, George is a little more reserved about it. Fred is usually the one to speak when they’re together and talking to someone. I guess Fred’s a bit of a playboy too, obviously,” she laughed. It was now common knowledge that Fred was willing to snog any girl in Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff as long as they knew there were no strings attached.

“It’s hard to describe, but as much as they’re the same, they’re also very different,” she shrugged again.

After a few more hours of chatting and catching each other up on what had happened during the holiday break, they finally retreated to their own beds and the lights dimmed.

“Andrea?” Sophie said curiously.

“Yeah?”

“Where’s your fairy? We’re missing the familiar little blue night light.”

“Oh,” Andrea laughed. “She joined the rest of the fairies on the Christmas tree this year, and then when we took the tree down and sent the fairies back to the forest near our house, Flet just kind of went along with the rest of them. Fairies aren’t too bright to begin with, and Flet was definitely not the smartest of her kind. She did just follow me home one day after all.”

They laughed quietly and then one by one, the three of them quickly dropped off to sleep.

~*~*~

Two weeks later it seemed there was only one thing on the minds of half of the Hogwarts female student population: the Valentine’s Day trip to Hogsmeade. Girls were snatching up dates here and there. Third year girls were batting their eyes furiously at their male classmates who were hopelessly confused.

Katie Bell even batted her eyelashes enough for Ed to get up the courage to ask her to spend the day with him.

When Angelina told Katie that she’d have to break off her date with Ed because the team would be having Quidditch practice that day, Katie had nearly cried. Evidently she’d been waiting for Ed to stop flirting and ask her out for about a year. When she told Ed the bad news, he looked like all of his hopes had been crushed, but then Katie had grabbed him and kissed him right there in the Great Hall.

Andrea was hoping for a date from George. Ever since they returned from holiday, they’d been spending a lot of time together. They usually ate their meals together. Andrea was invited to participate in a few of the twins pranks. They went for walks together, had a few snowball fights, and played games in the common room.

In fact, when she wasn’t being tutored by Neville, or studying with Neal, she was with George. They’d been growing really close, and while Andrea wished it was more than just friendship right now, she felt like there was still time for that later on.

Lately though, she wasn’t getting to spend as much time as she wanted to with George. Aside from her normal studying, she’d been assigned a group project in Muggle Studies. Their professor had assigned everyone into a group with a fifth, sixth and seventh year student in each group and then given them topics to work on from Muggle history. Andrea was working on the Golden Age of Piracy with Alicia Spinnet and Neal Thatcher. Neal was insisting that they spend a lot of time on their research. Andrea decided that even though Alicia didn’t seem to mind that much, she was not going to put up with this much studying. So, while they were waiting for Alicia to show up from Quidditch practice, Andrea decided it was time to give Neal a piece of her mind.

“Neal, I think we’ve got about four times more information than we need to do this project. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve actually developed quite a fascination for the subject, but I don’t like spending every other night in the library with you and Alicia when I could be doing other things.”

“Fine, you’re right, we do have enough information. But that’s not the reason I really want to study so much for this thing.”

“Well, then please give me a good reason why I shouldn’t just walk out of here right now.”

“You can’t Andrea!”

“One good reason, Neal, one good reason.”

He beckoned her to lean closer, took a deep breath, and then quickly whispered his reason in her ear. “I sort of have a really big crush on Alicia.”

Andrea laughed out loud. Madam Pince glared at her, and she sunk into her chair, stopping her laughter. “If you want to spend time with Alicia, then you don’t need me here to disturb you.”

“But you can’t leave me alone with her, I’d get too nervous. I just, I need you here so that I don’t mess things up. Just long enough that I can become good enough friends with her that I can actually think striaght. Please?” he begged.

Andrea rolled her eyes but smiled all the same. “How can I refuse a desperate friend?”

Neal exhaled in relief. “I really owe you big time.”

Just then Alicia strolled in, “Sorry I’m late. Angelina wouldn’t let up and kept us longer than I expected.”

“Oh, it’s not a big deal,” Neal said.

Andrea bit her lip to keep from laughing. It all made sense now. She would not forget this favor she was doing for Neal. Sacrificing time she could be spending developing her relationship with George so that Neal could get closer to Alicia might be worth it in the end. At least she was sure to get about two hundred percent on this class project.

~*~*~

By the time she came back from the library with Neal and Alicia, it was pretty late and most of the other Gryffindors had deserted the common room in favor of their warm beds. Andrea looked about for George, but he wasn’t there so she climbed the girl’s staircase and slipped into the fifth year’s suite. It was a Monday night, and she was completely exhausted. She didn’t know why, since she hadn’t really done anything particularly strenuous, but all she wanted to do was crawl into her bed. Perhaps it was her Monday schedule getting to her. All she ever wanted to do on Monday night was go to bed early now, but she had no such luck tonight.

“There you are!” Sophie said. “Studying awfully late tonight again.”

“It wasn’t so bad tonight,” she shrugged.

“You were with Neal weren’t you?” Lavender asked.

“And Alicia,” she added pointedly. Lavender and Parvati didn’t know much about George, so they were still holding hopes for Andrea to get back with the clever and handsome Neal Thatcher.

“Have you got a date for Valentines yet?” Parvati asked as Andrea plopped down next to her on the couch.

“No. Have any of you?”

“I’m going with Terry,” Sophie was first to answer.

“Big surprise there,” Lavender gigled. “But I’ve got a date! Justin Finch-Fletchley just asked me at dinner tonight!”

“Congrats, he’s a really nice guy,” Sophie said.

“I know, and so dreamy!” Lavender sighed.

They all laughed. “What about you Parvati?”

“I’m going with Seamus actually,” she blushed.

“Hopefully you’ll get a date too,” Lavender smiled at Andrea. “I can’t believe no one’s asked you yet. You’re definitely the prettiest girl in our year.”

“Yeah right,” Andrea laughed.

“I’m serious! Everyone knows it.”

“Well, it’s not that big of a deal if I don’t have a date anyway,” Andrea decided to brush off Lavender’s declaration that she was the prettiest girl in fifth year, it made her really self concious.

“Oh, but it totally matters!”

“Absolutely it does,” Parvati agreed. “Everyone knows that your status on Valentines Day with a guy shows how it will go the rest of the year.”

“My older sister went on her first date with this guy Andrew on Valentine’s day her seventh year, and now they’ve just gotten married,” Lavender said dreamily. “They had the ceremony this last Christmas. It was so beautiful!”

“My parents went to Hogsmeade for Valentines Day while they were at Hogwarts too,” Parvati added.

Lavender and Parvati continued to name off couples that had spent time together in Hogsmeade on Valentines Day. Andrea was starting to think that maybe this was really serious. She didn’t know if she wanted to marry George or anything, but she did know that she liked him a whole lot and would not object to having a relationship with him.

“But I’m sure someone will ask you,” Lavender concluded. “I’m going to go up to bed.”

“Me too,” Parvati and Lavender went into their bedroom.

“I had no idea that it was that big of a deal,” Sophie finally said.

“Neither did I,” Andrea was definitely growing more anxious about February 14th.