Don’t the people and things you can find in other people’s stories, including JK Rowling’s....
Previously in “The Lightning Bond”: Andrea and George finally got together. A couple of weeks later, Andrea recruited Fred and George to help her make underground copies of Harry's interview in the Quibbler to distribute to all of Hogwarts. George was a bit suspicious because Andrea and Harry aren't friends whatsoever.
~*Beginning excerpt in italics taken from Order of the Phoenix, American Edition Page 584*~
Harry was a hero in the Gryffindor common room that night; daringly, Fred and George had put an Enlargement Charm on the front cover of The Quibbler and hung it on the wall, so that Harry’s giant head gazed down upon the proceedings, occasionally saying things like “The Ministry are morons” and “Eat dung, Umbridge” in a booming voice. While it seemed that almost every Gryffindor had asked Harry to relive his interview a million times, George couldn’t help but notice that one person didn’t come within twenty feet of Harry.
Andrea sat in the corner all evening working on her Potions essay. She would occasionally look up, glancing at Harry, but George couldn’t exactly read the look on her face. It seemed to be a look that held a mixture of satisfaction and regret at the same time. George strode across the room and came up behind her. He leaned down and gave her a kiss on the cheek.
“Want to go for a walk?” he asked.
“This essay won’t write itself,” she said, turning her head to look at him.
“It can wait.”
“So can you, George,” she smirked.
“True,” he smirked right back at her, “but I’m more impatient and much more persuasive than a ruddy piece of parchment.” With that he gave her a sound kiss on the lips that left her a little breathless.
“Blast, George!” she slammed her Potions book closed and stood up. “Where exactly are we going?”
“Wherever we end up,” he replied, triumphantly taking her hand. He led her off through the portrait hole, and they wandered around for a bit, finally coming to a stop at the end of a deserted corridor.
There was a large window that overlooked the grounds of Hogwarts. It was a clear night; the grounds were lit by the moon. George wrapped an arm around Andrea’s shoulder, and she leaned into him, resting her head on his shoulder. They spoke in soft tones about random things for a few minutes, then George decided he’d waited long enough. He moved his arm from around her and turned so he was facing her.
Andrea squirmed on the inside. She had a feeling she knew what was coming. George had been hinting at it all day, and she felt like he’d been gathering information ever since that night they talked to Harry in the common room on Valentines Day. However, she maintained a cool exterior as George brushed a lock of her jet black hair behind her ear.
“What is it, George?”
“Andrea, over the years Harry has become like a brother to me, and I’ve had enough. I want answers. I’ve been watching you, and unless you speak to him in lessons, then I’m pretty confident in betting my broomstick that you don’t talk to him at all.”
“I talk to him,” she answered, looking at George’s elbow instead of his face.
“You do? When?”
“I talked to him the day I punched him,” she offered, raising her head defiantly.
He crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow.
“I also talked to him when we had our detention together.”
“Is that it?”
“No actually. We were paired by Flitwick once during Charms in our first year. What does it matter to you anyway?”
“I’m just trying to understand. What you did today with the Quiddler doesn’t add up at all with your track record with Harry. Three conversations in almost five years of being at school with him, in the same year, in the same house? Yet you skip class so that you can make sure everyone can read his interview? What’s the deal, Andrea?”
“I... well, Harry... I told you before Christmas that it’s complicated, okay?”
“Why won’t you just tell me?”
“I can’t. I just... can’t.”
“Don’t you trust me?”
“Of course I do!” she looked directly into his eyes to emphasize the point that she really did trust him. “George, I’ve never even told Sophie why. There aren’t more than ten people who have ever known, and two of them aren’t alive anymore.” Andrea took a deep breath and looked out the window again as she continued, “I found out something my first year at Hogwarts. Dumbledore called me into his office, and what he told me turned my whole life upside-down; it was something that made me hate Harry. It shouldn’t have made me hate him, but it did. I hated him until fourth year.”
George was surprised by what she was telling him, and he burned with curiosity to know just what this information was.
“Then, I don’t know why, but things happened that just made me rethink my opinion of Harry. I don’t hate him anymore, I respect him, and if anything I’m almost a little afraid of him.”
George waited for her to continue, but she didn’t. After a couple minutes of silence, he couldn’t stand the waiting any longer. “What did Dumbledore tell - ”
His words were cut off by her lips meeting his. After she broke the kiss, she looked into his eyes. “It’s something that I have to tell Harry first. You’ll find out soon enough. It’s nothing that can’t wait.”
“But Andrea - ” George started again, only to be cut off with another kiss. Just as he had decided to give up his questioning for the night and finally wrapped his arms around her waist, she turned her head and broke it off. She didn’t move out of his arms though. George could feel that she’d grown really tense. He planted a small kiss on her cheek and then rested his forehead against the side of her head. “Andrea, is something wrong?” he whispered in her ear. He could feel that something had happened.
“I... I don’t know.” She turned her head and looked into his eyes, searching it seemed. She bit her lip anxiously. “George, do you ever, I don’t know, feel that things are happening somewhere else? That you’re sort of linked to someone that’s close to you, and you can just tell when something is wrong?”
He was caught off guard by this question. “I guess. One time Fred had this girlfriend, and when she broke up with him it was like I knew what happened before he came back and told me. I kind of felt a sort of sympathy pain for him I suppose. Is something... Do you have that with your brothers?”
“Yeah, sort of.”
“Is that what happened just now?”
She nodded.
“Do you think it’s Roderick?”
“Oi! What are you two doing?” Someone, a girl, yelled down the corridor at them. “Fred, who’ve you got with you this time?”
It was Sophie’s sister, Barbara Smethwyck, the Head Girl; the Head Boy, Steven Lance from Hufflepuff, was trying to keep up with her as she sped down the corridor towards Andrea and George. They were obviously out on their patrol duty.
“Begging your pardon, Barbara, but I’m not Fred,” George smiled, still looking at Andrea, who just laughed.
“Oh, sorry, George. Hi, Andrea. I guess I’ll let it slide this time around, but only as long as you head straight back to the common room; it’s getting pretty late.”
“Sure thing, Barbara. We didn’t realize how late it was,” Andrea smiled at the Head Boy and Girl. “Thanks for the break.” She took George’s hand and quickly led him back toward Gryffindor tower.
“How did you get us out of that? Anytime Barbara has caught me and Fred, which hasn’t been very often, mind you, she’s always given us detention.” George was in awe.
“Well, in part because I’m her sister’s best friend, but also because I’m not a notorious trouble maker like you.”
~*~*~
Nothing unexpected happened until the middle of the March. When the students and teachers awoke on Saturday morning, it was to an extremely violent thunderstorm. The wind was howling, and there were crashes of thunder every few minutes. There was the faintest trace of sunlight, but not enough to eliminate the need for torches and candles to keep the school fully illuminated.
It didn’t seem natural to Andrea to wake up and have it still be so dark. She rolled out of bed and showered before leaving the dormitory. She didn’t see any of the other girls. It wasn’t that Andrea slept in extremely late. On the contrary, it was only 9:30 when she started down the stairs into the common room. For some unknown reason, all four of the other girls were just extremely early risers - even on weekends. At the bottom of the staircase, Andrea was tackled to onto the nearest couch by a couple of people.
Roderick and Edward were laughing maniacally as they squished her. “Get off! Get off!” she cried.
“We’re staging an intervention,” Roderick informed her.
“What are you talking about?” Andrea grinned, wriggling out from under the boys and sitting up.
“We hardly know each other any more,” Ed explained. “Remember the good old golden days of summer? Back at Benning Manor, when it was just the four of us?”
“It certainly is a fuzzy memory,” Sophie stated from an armchair next to them.
“We all got ourselves some significant others, and so it’s time to take a break for just a day,” Roderick said.
“Well, maybe not an entire day,” Ed clarified, and Andrea laughed, seeing that he was looking across the room at where Katie was sitting with some of her friends.
The four went down to breakfast together, laughing all the way through the gloomy halls. There was a lot to catch up on really, as they realized when there was never a break in the conversation. The boys had said that they were going to play Exploding Snap after breakfast, but they decided to forego those plans. Exploding Snap required concentration, and there were far too many stories to catch up on, so they settled for finding a deserted corridor and conjuring up some comfortable seats.
They sat around talking and laughing for a few hours, their conversation punctuated by numerous thunder claps. Finally, Sophie, Roderick, Edward and Andrea decided to make their way to the Great Hall for a late lunch.
They’d only just sat down and started dishing up steaming bowls of stew when someone spoke from behind them. “Andrea, Roderick.”
The siblings turned around to see Madam Hooch standing there. She didn’t wait for them to speak. “Your brother, Darren, fell off of his broom today during his match - ”
Andrea and Roderick immediately burst into a gale of laughter. But Madam Hooch didn’t smile in the slightest, and they quickly quieted down. “He was injured quite badly. At your parent’s request, and with Professor Dumbledore’s permission, I am to escort you into Hogsmeade, and we will go from there by Floo to St. Mungo’s.”
“Will he be all right?” Andrea asked. Her voice conveyed the fear and confusion she felt at hearing about the obviously serious situation.
“I don’t know. The latest I heard was that he was still in critical condition.”
“Let’s go then,” Roderick said, his jaw set. They followed Madam Hooch to the Entrance Hall, people from all the houses watching who happened to be eating late lunches as well. When they reached the door, Andrea and Roderick’s cloaks, scarves, and gloves were there ready for them, no doubt brought down by the house elves. After Madam Hooch murmured a quick incantation to repel the rain while they made their way through it, they left the castle and made their way to the village.
~*~*~
Madam Hooch stayed with Andrea and Roderick almost constantly from the moment they left Hogwarts until they returned that evening. It was a relief to finally come in and shut the storm out behind them. The bitter rain, howling winds, and constant bolts of lightning and claps of thunder had not ceased all day. Madam Hooch bid the Bennings a good night, and Andrea and Roderick were about to head for steaming hot showers and dry clothes when they heard voices coming from the usually vacant room off of the entrance hall. The only time people congregated there was when the first years were put there to wait for their sorting. As the two got closer, they recognized the voices drifting softly towards them. Roderick went straight in, and Andrea followed right behind him.
They smiled when they saw Fred and Edward locked in a game of Wizard Chess. However, it wasn’t an ordinary game of chess, even by wizard standards. The player who wasn’t moving pieces on the chess board had to try and build a castle with their own deck of Exploding Snap cards, and you could only work on it when it wasn’t your turn. Not only did you have to worry about achieving the perfect balance for your structure, you had to worry about when the whole thing would explode.
Others were watching too, and there was no question that watching the game was just a distraction from the wait for the Bennings to return. Besides Fred and Edward, Sophie and Terry were there along with one of Terry’s mates named Will Fendley, as well as Katie Bell, Lee Jordan, Lavender and Parvati, Neal Thatcher and even Neville, Dean and Seamus.
However, Andrea immediately noticed that George wasn’t around.
Everyone looked up when they came in. There were greetings and inquiries expressed all at the same time, and then Andrea felt someone tug on her elbow. She turned around and was greeted with George’s concerned face. He’d been sitting in a chair right by the door, and Andrea hadn’t even noticed because of the shadowy light in the room, a fire in the fireplace being the only source of illumination. They embraced while Roderick began to tell the others what had happened.
George drew back slightly from Andrea so he could look her in the eyes. He could see that even though she was putting on a brave face, she’d been through a lot today. “Come on,” he said softly, and took her hand to lead her out of the room.
It took a while to get through all of Hogwarts’ numerous hallways to reach the spot that George had in mind, and it was a quiet trek as well. Andrea finally spoke when they were on the seventh floor, in a corridor she’d never been through before. She broke her silence because George had dropped her hand and started pacing back and forth in front of a tapestry depicting a wizard trying to teach a bunch of trolls how to ballet dance.
“Er, George? Why are we stopping in the middle of this hallway?”
George made one more pivot and took a few more steps, then turned to face her. Smiling, he turned her around, and she watched as a door materialized in the wall in front of them. George took the handle, and pulled the door open. “After you.”
Tonight the Room of Requirement was very small. There was a plush couch in front of a crackling, wood-burning stove. It was snug and warm and there was hot butterbeer for them along with a tray of warm roast beef sandwiches.
After the food and drink were gone, the two curled up together on the couch, George just holding Andrea close to him, her head resting on his chest. He softly kissed the top of her head, and she sighed. Andrea’s long, black hair had been in a braid all day, and George let it loose, stroking it down her back as she sat there with him. They didn’t speak, and while George could tell Andrea wasn’t asleep, he knew that she just needed it to be silent between them. Because of his own experience over Christmas, George could understand Andrea’s need to just sit with people you cared about in peace and quiet after spending the day at the hospital.
It was getting late getting late, after midnight in fact. George registered that Andrea’s breathing was much deeper than it had been a quarter of an hour before. After midnight, he thought. Wait, that means it’s...
He gently shook Andrea, who looked up at him with her sleepy hazel eyes. “Happy monthiversary,” he smiled.
“Monthiversary?” Andrea mumbled, furrowing her eyebrows and thinking for a moment. Then she gasped. “Monthiversay? It’s been a month since Valentine’s!” She smiled back at him and then tilted her head to kiss him sweetly. “I love that you’re cute and sentimental enough to remember our monthiversary.”
With that, they left to get back to Gryffindor Tower; George insisted that she needed to sleep. At the foot of the stairs leading up to the girls’ dormitories, George and Andrea shared another sweet, yet short, kiss. “Thanks for taking care of me tonight, just letting me sit with you,” Andrea said softly.
He kissed her forehead, “It’s nothing less than you deserve, Andy. Have sweet dreams.”
“You too,” she whispered and then planted a small peck on his cheek before turning and running up the stairs. “Good night,” she called as she went.
“Good night.” George turned around, hearing the portrait hole swinging open. “Hey, Roderick.”
“You can call me Rick. I still think you’re all right as long as you haven’t taken advantage of my sister in any way.” The two had always been friendly, though not necessarily friends.
“Just Rick then,” George said, his ears only turning the faintest shade of pink.
“Good to hear,” Rick slapped George on the back and smiled, though George could see the smile was strained.
“Something wrong?” George asked tentatively.
“Broke up with Sarah tonight,” he said flatly. “I sort of knew it was coming. Past couple of weeks have just been...” he trailed off. “There’s just not really any interest left on either side lately. That’s why I planned the day for the old gang,” he shrugged. “When she wasn’t there with everyone else tonight, I knew that sealed the deal.”
George could tell that Roderick hadn’t really meant to say even that much but had needed to. “More time for Exploding Snap,” George suggested.
Roderick gave a genuine laugh. “You’re absolutely right. I KNEW you were a smart bloke. Thanks for listening. I think I’ll just sit down here for a bit.”
“Right then. Night, Rick.”
“Night, George,” Roderick said as he collapsed into one of the large comfy armchairs in front of the fire. “You are George, right?”
“Yeah,” George laughed as he went up to his room and fell into bed.
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