The Slytherin Diaries: Heirs of Grindelwald

Dear Chiasma,

I know it's been awhile since I wrote last... I feel a little guilty... but I've just, well... classes are a lot tougher then last year, Potions is a nightmare and McGonagall is completely on my case about not being able to transfigure a snake into a feather boa (really, who would ever want to do that?) Malfoy's taunting is more brutal then ever, especially since half of our dorm has come off with the impression that I won our non-existent dual, the freckled carrot is still making sad/hurt/I-don't-have-the-emotion-capacity-to-tell-what-emotion eyes every time we pass, I have no free time between Quidditch on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday (out of the kindness of his heart... or the fact that Gabrielle convinced him he needed to set aside one night of the week to snog her, Malfoy decided to give us Friday off) and fencing also on Sunday, I'm having no luck finding out who my father is, but instead just creepy dreams with an eerie castle that keeps disappearing, and then of course there are the constant reports of mass terror... and I'm the happiest I've ever been. There, I said it. I'm happy. I'm happy! And I'm so terrified of losing this feeling, of slipping back into hopelessness and despair and melodrama that I'm clinging desperately to every moment. The last few weeks... the last few weeks I've been more fully... engaged, I guess, in living then I've ever been in my life.

I have friends. Actual, real friends that I can walk with to class and goof around with at practice and study with at night. Who would have thought? I think part of the reason I haven't needed a diary recently is that I can actually talk to Aiden and Adonis and Persephone when I need to. I'm still having a really hard time completely opening up though... it's like my thoughts and (cough)emotions (I'm still struggling with even admitting their existence) are protected by, arbitrary number, nine walls (we're reading Dante in Muggle Studies... I feel there have been times when comparing my mind to hell isn't a huge stretch)... and anyhow, I might have let down one wall, enough not to cringe ever time Adonis hugs me, to admit to Aiden I'm terrified of playing in our first game this Saturday, or to make a complete arse of myself trying to keep or with Persephone in the morning... but there's so much more... but enough of that. Because I'm happy, and because I have to go to Quidditch practice now, it being not Friday.

Andi looked at the messy green ink for a few minutes, a bemused smile on her face. Why she felt bemused, of all the feelings out there, she couldn't have said; it was like she was a mother, and this girl who wrote in the diary was her daughter, finally come into her own.

"Ready, Falcon?" Andi jumped at the noise behind her and jerkily shut the diary. The voice laughed, slightly nervously, and only then did Andi relax with her recognition of its owner. She slid around on the stool she had been perched on in the Slytherin common room and faced him with a wry grin.

"I don't know, I don't think anyone's ever really prepared for the youthful death that awaits us on the Quidditch pitch," she told Aiden, glancing meaningfully across the room to where Draco, sitting alone in a corner that was even darker then the standard for the Slytherin dungeon, was furiously perfecting his list of drills for practice. She picked up her broom and stood with exaggerated slowness, looking at her friend pleadingly.

"I guess we have to go, seeing as we're playing Hufflepuff in two days and all." She glanced over to the window, where rain slid in thick sheets down the magical barrier, and then looked longingly back at the massive Slytherin fireplace. "Where's Persephone?"

"She said something about extra potions work earlier and that she'll meet us there. You know, I'm actually rather impressed by Draco's dedication," Aiden told her, easily pushing open the portrait.

Andi rolled her eyes. "Dedication, fanaticism, whatever you want to call it."

Aiden chuckled, green eyes warming slowly, and for a moment Andi fully appreciated the difference between him and his twin. Adonis was outright about everything, his passion for fencing, his feelings for Ginny. Not to mention his unmistakably gorgeous physique with a classic, brooding face surrounded by dark, curly, perpetually haloed locks. And in the tradition of bold features, of course his face was not complete without a strong chin and tragically poetic blue eyes that displayed his emotions for the world to see. His laugh could engulf a room with his own amusement, but walking alongside Aiden, Andi felt just as rewarded by his quiet chuckle. Aiden she understood a little more then his twin. His features alone could clue someone in that he was more subtle then his brother; no brooding, no emotionally torrent eyes, just a calm face topped by sandy hair and clear green eyes. His voice was more hesitant and purposeful then Adonis's carefree timber, and although Andi felt she would never fully understand why he was so uneasy with himself, it reassured her.

"But really, I'd always assumed the Malfoy clan was a lazy bunch of rich snobs that just allowed their money to get them everything," Aiden stated, holding open the castle door for Andi. She smiled in awkward thanks and walked through to the rain. "Draco actually seems to be working hard."

"And working us hard," Andi muttered half-heartedly, determined not to appreciate any qualities belonging to her nemesis.

"But he works just as hard, if not harder," Aiden pointed out, stopping in the mud and allowing his tilted face to be thoroughly soaked. "If anyone's slacking off, it's Henri." His faced darkened, and for a moment Andi saw the most intense look of dislike she had ever seen on him pass across his face. But then it was gone, replaced by a look of... remorse? Sadness? Andi couldn't tell, but whatever he was feeling seemed to be a resigned emotion rather then a heartfelt one.

"He's just bitter that neither of his siblings made the team." Aiden's face darkened again and Andi sighed. "Why are we stopping?" She asked to change the subject.

Aiden brought his face back down and gave her his widest grin. "Race you to the field."

Andi lifted her eyebrows. "Loser cleans brooms?"

"Of course." Aiden swung his leg over his broom and patiently waited for his opponent to do the same. Andi wondered briefly as she waited for his cue to go, that she wasn't scared of losing.

She still wanted to win, though, and she used every ounce of magic Sameth had given the Hippogriff to accelerate at Aiden's signal. The rain flung itself at her face in a desperate attempt to slow her, to loosen her grip on the slippery broom. But Andi had that feeling now, that feeling that you only get when you're flying at 150 kilometers an hour and pushing, with every muscle in your body, to 160. That feeling when you've given everything you've got to a single moment, and you're about to give even more to the next so that you can look back at that moment as a first in your list of achievements. And that feeling you get when you know someone's trying to beat you; they might be beside you or behind you, but they're not ahead of you and you know they could get there at any moment. Andi had that feeling, and she wasn't about to be stopped.

Unless, of course, a heavy, slippery force were to slam into her side and send her momentum slightly sideways. Andi scowled and glanced over; she didn't expect that from Aiden. But when she threw a quick glance to her left, it was Draco that leered at her through the increasing grayness. And suddenly that feeling of absolute freedom, absolute accomplishment fled, replaced by one on imminent failure. She couldn't win; she given her all and Draco had easily caught up with her. She slowed, Draco glanced back, surprised.

No. That was her only thought, her only drive. At the end, at the field, she would come up with a thousand reasons to justify that no; she refused to lose to Draco, she was sick of giving up, there was no way that expensive Nimbus 2001 was better then any broom her brother had made.

But for now, there was just no, and inch by painstaking inch she began to regain the ground she'd lost. This wasn't flying like before, this was work, and hard work. More acutely then ever she felt the rain slash at her face, her fingers freeze against the broom, her muscles clench as she pushed herself still lower. But with every bit of pain came another inch

And then she was an inch ahead, and they had reached the field.

Andi tumbled off her broom in to the mud, unable to keep a huge grin from plastering itself on her face. She had never been more grateful for the cover of looming darkness and rain in her life; after all, she didn't want to seem cocky. Large feet plopped down next to her, sending clops of mud to the few parts of her clothing that weren't already cloaked.

"Graceful landing," Aiden told her, extending a hand with a grin.

"Ooof." Andi felt like she took half of the field with her as she stood up. "Thanks," she told him, cringing as she pushed her back back in place. She looked around at her teammates, wondering if they had been able to see any of the race through the rain. Henri's bored face told her nothing, nor did Crabbe and Goyle's usual intelligent stupors. But Persephone's dark eyes shone with sentimental pride to the point where she looked like she might start crying, which, while flattered, Andi dismissed as unbalanced hormones.

"Falco!" Malfoy threw his broom down with a ferocity that didn't match his usual cruel coolness. He stormed through the mud like Moses on a warpath, and Andi, unused to seeing Draco so furious, involuntarily took a step back.

"Why the hell didn't you tell me you could fly that fast? If you had-"

A quiet growl from behind Andi cut him off. "Draco-" Andi turned to find Persephone, dark eyes ablaze with warning. Again, Andi had no choice but to write off this sudden change in her formerly tearful friend as hormones.

Draco clenched his jaw shut, cheek twitching frantically with effort. Andi frowned, relieved but perplexed.

"I always played keeper when I was younger," Draco growled, grudgingly civil. "If I'd known you could fly like that, I would have put you as seeker. But there is no way we're switching positions with one practice left before our first game!"

"Well you weren't exactly welcoming for seeker tryouts!" Retorted the last of Andi's rush from winning. Draco just looked at her, silver blond hair dripping around his face and green robes clinging to his slender frame. For a single moment, Andi had perfect understanding of what was going through Draco's mind.

Are you kidding me? He has condescended from his lofty position as captain to almost admit imperfection, to almost compliment her flying, and she had spoken back to him.

Then he shook his head returned to the impenetrable, inexplicable Malfoy that Andi had come to accept as a constant presence, albeit a bad one, in her life.

"Just... stay after to practice," Draco growled before turning to the rest of the team. Andi sent a resigned look to the stormy heavens. There was no way she was coming out of this day without a severe cold.

One... more... step. Andi through herself against the portrait, mentally preparing herself for the few moments of self-support she would need to actually open the door to the lounge.

"Feathered... wolfsbane." She rasped. The knight gave her a surly look and swung open. Fortunately, or unfortunately, Draco had kept her so late that only a few students were left in the common room, which meant few people to confuse her with the swamp-monster.

Laughter erupted by the fire and Andi turned to see Adonis, falling over his knees in amusement. She scowled and dragged herself over.

"Accio... towel,' Adonis said between laughs. A red towel came whizzing out of one of the doors, slapping a first year in the face its way. Adonis handed to her with a wide smile.

"Sorry... you just look... on the bright side, isn't mud supposed to be good for your pores?" Andi snatched the towel from him, in no mood for jokes. Immediately she felt bad; why couldn't she stay nice to people for more then two seconds? Fortunately for her, Adonis wasn't put off easily.

"So what on earth happened? Aiden and Persephone stumbled back over an hour ago and disappeared to the showers."

Andi sat down with a plop, spraying mud across the couch without remorse. "Draco wanted to see if I have any potential for seeker. Ergo, extra hour and a half of practice,-"

"Ergo, looking like you've died and come to haunt the Slytherin dormitory as the Swamp thing." Adonis finished for her. Andi just glared. "Where is Malfoy, anyhow?" Andi gave him the same look Draco had given her earlier, the are-you-kidding-me exasperated glare that clearly stated she neither knew, nor saw any reason to care, where Draco might be at this particular moment.

Adonis took the hint and Andi relented her glare a little. "Do you have a lot of work left tonight?"

Andi groaned. "I haven't started preparing that potion for tomorrow... or practiced transfiguration... or written the two rolls of parchment I need to on Inferno... although that's not due til Monday, but I'm going to be so busy this weekend... I did get Arthimancy done though," she said, adding a rather false note of brightness as her head fell onto her knees with an exasperated thud.

"Okay, breathe," Adonis told her, lightly rubbing her back through the two layers of clothing and ten of mud. "I'll cut you a deal... let me check my Athimancy homework with yours while you go shower, I can't stand the subject, and when you get back I'll help you with Transfiguration and Potions."

Whether because of the offer or the back rub, or some combination of the two, when Andi looked up she felt like her heart was going to explode with gratitude. She threw her arms around Adonis in the first hug she had ever initiated, ignoring his muffled protest to the mud.

"Thank you thank you thank you thank you thank!"

Adonis laughed easily. "Hey, what are friends for?"

"Miss Falco, Miss Weasley, can I get anything for you? A pillow, perhaps? Never mind, fresh out. I think a nice dose of DETENTION then, instead!"

Andi jumped at Snape's shout, giving another half jump when she saw Ginny performing exactly the same graceful awakening across from her. Andi peered blearily at Snape, too tired to give any sign of respect or remorst.

"7 pm, this classroom," Snape told them, eyes already darting furiously around the classroom for other misdemeanors. "I suggest you catch up on your sleep before then." With a flap of his robes worthy of Count Dracula, he was off to undermine Colin Creevy's entire sense of self-worth.

Ginny and Andi looked at each other. "Did we both fall asleep?" Andi asked, rubbing her eyes as she tried to refocus on the orange potion ahead of her.

Ginny yawned gracefully, hair every so slightly out of place in a manner that only served to make her more beautiful. "I guess so," she said, ruefully looking at their potions book. Orange was only the second stage. She looked back up at Andi and sighed. "I guess we should work on this, huh." Andi scowled.

"Class dismissed, we will finish the potions on Monday." Both girls let out a huge sigh of relief.

"I will see you tonight then," Ginny said, cheerfully tossing her bag over her shoulder.

Andi just groaned.

Andi didn't have the energy to feel relieved when Professor Vector finally dismissed her last class of the day.

"Thank you so much for last night," Andi told Adonis as she half stumbled out of the classroom. She ignored Florence's giggle from behind her. "How an earth are you not exhausted?"

"Oh, it was fun. And I also didn't have three hours of Quidditch beforehand," he reassured her. He looked down at her, grin becoming slightly nervous. "So anyhow, I overheard you have detention tonight-"

Andi laughed, pleased that she knew immediately what he was thinking. "Yes, I have detention with that girl you still can't manage to talk around," she told him, friendly teasing in her voice. "Want to take my place?"

Adonis looked at her earnestly. "You know I would," he said quietly. A slightly wry smile crossed his face and he opened his mouth to speak again. "Andi-"

A breathless body pushing between them interrupted. "Guten Tag, mein Freund, den ich seit einem ganzen Monat nicht gesehen habe."

"Ich hasse, als du Deutsch...oh, forget it. I hate it when you speak German." But he threw an arm around Hermione's shoulders anyways and Andi felt a twinge she wasn't quite ready to deal with.

But fortunately for her, something else hit her mind first and she turned to Hermione with a shocked look on her face. "Wait... did you just say... good day, my friend, who I haven't seen... for a month?"

Hermione grinned eagerly. "Yes, sprechen Sie deutsch?"

"Nein... I mean, no." Andi's scowl deepened. "Maybe... was he German?" she mused aloud, completely forgetting the existence of anyone around her.

"Was who German?" Adonis asked her, looking concerned.

"Nobody." Andi shook her head, shifting thoughts of her father away for another day when she had time to ponder them more fully. She inhaled deeply, then asked cautiously, "How do you guys know each other?" Hermione still made her nervous.

"We both went to summer school at Stonehenge," Adonis explained. "I took fencing and remedial Arimanthacy and German, she took every other course they had to offer."

"And fencing," Hermione amended, with just the right amount of humble pride.

Adonis rolled his eyes. "And fencing. You going on Sunday?"

"If I finish enough school work... and study for O.W.L.s... and help Ron and Harry with their work... " Hermione beamed. "Are you going?" She turned to Adonis as they continued down the corridor and Andi, opening her mouth to reply, realized the question was directed only to her friend.

"Of course, next weekend's the tourney and I need practice if I'm going to win," Adonis told Hermione with his wide grin

"Hermione!" Andi felt lightheaded, watching as everyone around her slowed and her world narrowed to the echo of a voice. The small, rational part of her mind clung to the idea that the entire universe could not be altered by a few notes, but there it was, blurring, twisting, fading around a single constant sound and her heartbeat, now in rhythm with it.

A large hand gripped her arm and her surroundings straightened itself around it. Andi smiled gratefully at Adonis, who just grinned knowingly.

"Have you seen Ginny recently?" Harry jogged awkwardly up, out of breath, and Andi mentally critiqued his running form.

"Hello, Harry, how are you today?" Hermione asked, just a little too sweetly. "Why, Hermione, I'm fine today, and I have a very good reason which I'm about to tell you for MISSING ALL MY CLASSES TODAY!" Hermione stood fuming in the middle of the hallway, arms crossed and turning so red in anger Andi thought her hair might light on fire. Which was a mildly amusing image, with the fifth year's bushy hair that slightly resembled a desert bush to begin with.

"I, um, overslept," Harry said reluctantly, the guilt and indecisiveness in his face betraying the lie. Andi glanced over, just a quick, sneaking look, but a moment was all she needed to see the torn expression on his face that she, the only borderline-Slytherin, knew all too well. There was the pained, sad look in his eyes that begged for forgiveness for doing something he thought was beneath his character. And then there was the clench in his jaw, that said it really didn't matter whether or not he had her moral approval or even his own, he was going to continue doing whatever it was and Merlin help the person that tried to stand in his way.

Andi may have seen the warning, but Hermione didn't and Andi cringed as Hermione continued her vehement lecture. "I saw you at breakfast! Of course, not for very long, because you came in, glared at Ron and me, your two best friends, grabbed some bread, and disappeared again to wherever the hell you've been going with Ginny since the year started! You haven't turned in half the assignments, one of your best friends thinks your snogging his younger sister and you haven't even been around to clarify. And we have OWLs at the end of the year!"

"Because those are the most important things in the world, right Hermione?" Harry asked, a newly bitter tone seeping into his voice. A small crowd was gathering now and Andi took an unbalanced step back, landing first on the toes of a second year, then on an unfortunate toad, who happened to have the misfortune of being caught under a growing forest of feet.

But Andi's missteps went unnoticed as all eyes were riveted on Harry. Perfect, hero Harry Potter lashing out at his best friend

"There's nothing in life worth working for other then a grade, right? School before all else, right?" Harry's eyes now flashed to match his clenched jaw; there was no more indecisiveness. "Well here's something we don't learn here, Hermione. None of this is real! This isn't life! Life is the thing nobody wants to talk about here. We have students here who's school just got demolished and classmates killed, but nobody talks about that." Andi glanced at Adonis; his seemingly perpetual halo had darkened to a wrathful shadow and he looked like a painting she had seen in muggle studies of some Greek god or another, emerging vengeful from the sea with a storm following in his wake. Then his brother appeared silently next to him and the storm faded into heavy, but calm, clouds.

"Life is dementors... and, and Death Eaters and Peter Pettigrew and Voldemort, yes, VOLDEMORT, because he's real and people died and are dying because of him and Ced-" he broke off, but Andi had no doubt that everyone else in the hallway knew why.

"Harry, we were there!" Hermione's lip was trembling and her face was pale, but her voice was shakily composed. "Ron, and I, were there. We were there for the dementors, and for Pettigrew, and those enchantments first year... Harry, everyone had Moody as a teacher last year! And everyone had the dementors-"

"WHO ELSE HEARD THEIR PARENTS DIE WHEN THEY SAW DEMENTORS?" Hermione fell silent, but Harry didn't. "WHO ELSE SAW CEDRIC DIGGORY DIE? I'M DOING SOMETHING IMPORTANT WITH MY TIME SO GET OFF MY ARSE ABOUT IT!"

"We just want to help!" Tears were streaming down Hermione's face now and her tone was defeated. "I just wanted to help.'

"Well, you can't." Harry just stood there, angry and proud, demanding a response. Andi could have sworn she saw his scar glow.

"And Ginny can." It was impossible to tell whether Hermione was bitter or merely accepting from the flat tone of her voice.

"Don't make this about Ginny." A cold and calculating tone had replaced the earlier emotional rampage, and still Harry stood still, arms folded, the entire crowd holding their breath for each of his.

"What is it about?" Her tone was as quiet, if not as calm, and although her voice was nowhere near as forceful it was just as demanding. Their eyes locked and for several long seconds nobody moved. It was a stalemate. Hermione had lost more pieces, but it was nonetheless a stalemate.

"You wouldn't understand," Harry muttered finally, vehemence lost.

"You didn't try." Hermione unabashedly, proudly almost, wiped the dried tears off her face without blinking. The staring contest continued for several more indistinguishable seconds until finally Harry's green eyes turned away to the floor. For the first time he seemed to notice all the feet around him, then all the legs, the torsos, the carefully blank faces of the students around them. Muttered curses about students having too much free time were barely audible even in the silent corridor, but the following angry stomp of feet resounded off the walls and Andi could only imagine what it was like to walk down that hallway and know that everyone was looking at your back and hearing your footsteps and thinking about your words, with your in italics because they would be accusatory stares, attentions, thoughts.

Then he was gone, and before all attention could turn back to Hermione she spun around with a small humph and walked off in the opposite direction. Only when she, too, had rounded the corner like a runner on a banked track did an eruption of gossip burst from the students' lips.

"Can I ask you something?" Andi asked as they pushed their way out of the crowd.

Aiden glanced over at his brother, who still seemed to have clouds trailing him. "Sure," he said, without looking down at her.

Andi drew in a deep breath, hoping courage had come in with the air and praying she wasn't about to throw away these friendships that only a month ago had seemed completely incomprehensible. Much as she loved having friends, though, somewhere along the line she'd discovered that having friends means caring as much, or more, about them then about herself, and even though she knew what she was risking she had to ask.

Andi breathed in again, then blurted out: "How come you don't hang out with any of the other kids from Beauxbatons?" That wasn't the real question, but Andi hoped it was slightly less abrupt.

The second she saw the glance Aiden gave his brother Andi knew she'd made a mistake. There was only one reason, there could only be one reason, and she had no right to ask. Her mind raced with ideas of apologies and time travel, all completely inconceivable or at the very least massively expensive. It wasn't what was in Aiden's glance or even Adonis's clenched jaw reply, but the very glance itself, the fact that they had each other for whatever they needed to talk about and if Andi was being completely honest with herself, she knew that they had each other and it was just a selfish desire on her part for them to include her. And if she was being even more brutally honest, there was also the blatant curiosity on her part and she couldn't believe she had just deliberately hurt them to satisfy it.

Andi cringed, and did what she did best. She lied.

"I'm sorry... I wasn't thinking... -" Two hands touching her arms lightly at once cut her off, and Andi wasn't sure which of the twins to look at first.

"It's okay... " they began simultaneously. The mood lightened slightly as all three grinned at the rare indication that the twins were, in fact, twins.

This time Adonis glanced at his brother, and more secret communication passed from blue eyes to green. Then he sighed, and looked down at Andi.

"It's partly... that," he admitted softly, referring to Andi's supposed blunder. "It's also... we didn't... haven't made ourselves popular with some of the other... " Adonis stopped, clearly uncertain of where to begin. Andi felt like she was going to throw up, unable to believe she was actually putting someone she thought she genuinely cared about through this. She was really a horrible person, that only reason they had become friends with her was because they didn't know her and couldn't know how bad she was and...

"Can we just tell her everything?" Aiden asked quietly, cutting of Andi's self-deprecating train of thought.

"You don't have to... " Andi told them, glancing from one twin to the other in what she hoped looked like heartfelt apology.

Adonis shook his head at her protests. "It'll be good to be able to tell someone... we really haven't talked about it at all... "

"We kind of haven't had to, with each other... but it'll be good to actually tell it out loud," Aiden finished for his brother.

"Is it okay if we go outside?" Adonis looked not at his brother but at Andi, and suddenly it became a close tie between wanting to throw up and burst into tears for their consideration of her feelings, of all things. All she could do was nod.

They walked in silence down to the lake. A few students still jogged around the outskirts; Andi thought she spotted Persephone doing sprints on the far end. Her heart was beating rapidly in some sick mixture of guilt, anticipation and general heartache, and when they finally sat down on the sand she couldn't bring herself to raise her eyes from the slow rise and fall of the water.

"It's long," Adonis warned her, watching the tide with her. "You see, our father was an arse." Andi looked up, surprised.

And just a little relieved. "Funny, mine too." She gave a small, timid to Adonis and he gave a sad one back before continuing.

"So you'll understand a bit... see, our father... "

"He wasn't just, our father," Aiden interrupted for him. "He was a father for two other families." Andi's eyes widened in surprise. Instead of... well, Andi wasn't quite sure what the normal look was for someone who just admitted their father was a polygamist, but instead of having that expression, he looked surprised.

"I've never told that to anyone willingly before," he told her, his puzzled frown slowly giving way to a subtle smile. "It wasn't as bad as I'd thought it would be."

"I don't know who my father is," Andi told him, returning his smile wryly. Part of her couldn't believe that she had just admitted that, but that part of her... along with wall number two, she realize, was far away and all she felt on the surface was relieved. "You're right... that was the first time I've told anyone that willingly, and it wasn't that bad. But continue," she finished hurriedly, remembering that this wasn't supposed to be about her.

"Our father's name was Henry Taylor," Adonis continued, less tense then before but still lacing bitterness around the sound of his father's name. "American, but moved to France for college. "Met a woman named Cheryl, married her and had one son."

"But apparently he married her mostly for the money, so when he saw our mother on stage one night singing, he had no qualms about asking her out," Aiden continued unemotionally, as though he were gossiping about a celebrity who's actions he disapproved of, but didn't actual care about.

"Or about marrying her as Henry Jacobs." Adonis was not so good about speaking dispassionately.

"At the time, polygamy was all new to him and he was a little nervous about it, so he convinced his first wife to move London a week after he married our mother." There were traces, but just traces, of ironic bitterness in his voice. "But six months later, on a real business trip instead of his fake ones, he met a lovely bar tender in Amsterdam, and married her while his first wife was six months into her second pregnancy and our mother was in her eighteenth hour of labor with us." The bitterness had grown steadily in his voice and suddenly Aiden stopped. Andi bit her lip. For the first time, all of her family problems seemed insignificant.

"Our mum died giving birth, actually," Adonis said quietly. "And dear old Dad couldn't leave his two other wives to take care of us, so he took us over to our uncle's doorstep and disappeared. He'd already changed his name, so he figured he could just go on living a double life."

"He didn't count on Uncle Jean being ex-French Auror." Aiden smiled grimly. "It took him twelve years, but in our second year at Beauxbatons he finally found our father."

"He didn't, actually," Adonis interjected. "His first wife's father, a prominent French lord, got suspicious of Herny's constant traveling and thought he married his daughter to spy on him." Andi scowled; this sounded vaguely familiar but she couldn't quite place it. "Really suspicious guy, apparently. Anyhow, he had Henry tailed, found out he had another wife. Now, he wanted to keep the whole thing quite so as not to tarnish the family name, but on the subject of family name-"

"Montague," Andi interrupted, suddenly realizing. "James Montague couldn't stand for his grandchildren to have the last name of a cheating American low life."

Adonis nodded. "And when you're a Montague, getting a divorce and having your name changed is a newsworthy deal."

"Rita Skeeter had the story in two seconds flat. Including who his wife in Amsterdam was, and that he had once had a third wife who had died giving birth to a stillborn." Aiden was back to unemotional reporting. "But Uncle Jean put it together and got a couple friends to run a check, and found out that Henry Taylor and Henry Smith was also Henry Jacobs."

"Who had by then disappeared, but unfortunately for her, we knew who his other daughter was." Adonis grimaced.

"Adalinda Smith," Aiden said sadly. "We were horrible to her. In most things, school, sports, whatever, we're pretty good about balancing each other, but we were both so mad that he had chosen her over us we terrorized her or an entire year and she never knew why." Aiden closed his eyes in remorse, reliving all the horrible things he had done. Before she realized what she was doing, Andi patted his hand lightly and he opened his eyes, surprised.

"Been there," was all she said.

"You'd be shocked," Adonis told her unhappily, looking down at her hand. Andi withdrew it quickly and shook her head.

"You'd be surprised," she told him wryly, determined not to relive her own moments of sheer cruelty just then. She told herself it was so she wouldn't be distracted from her friends; in truth, she just didn't want to remember the person she'd been.

"Anyhow, after a year we finally stopped. Not out of maturity or anything like that; this poor first year burst into tears in the middle of the corridor after I called her bastard." Aiden cringed on the last word and closed his eyes again. "She yelled that no, she did know who her father was, the world knew her father was because he was a cheating ass with a famous ex-wife."

"And we finally realized that we were in the same boat as her."

"And that we were assholes."

"And that we were assholes," Adonis agreed. "Anyhow, the point of that was, was that we made enemies with pretty much every student in Adalinda's hall." Andi thought silently that that wasn't the point at all, but didn't interject with such a pointless comment.

"And Beauxbatons only has two halls."

"And we never bothered to prove ourselves anything other than assholes to that half of the school," Aiden said simply.

"I dated one girl from Allivi, but actually, that didn't really seem to help things," Adonis admitted. "Hall rivalry at Beauxbatons was always much worse there than it is here... even now, none of the Allivi's or Paprikiners intermix. We were all sorted into Slytherin and Ravenclaw, they're all in Gryffindor and Hufflepuff."

"But what about the other students from your hall?" Andi was already mentally kicking herself before the question was completely out. Why? Why couldn't she keep her mouth shut? Why was she an insensitive, selfish,...

"Elinor and Ray and Jacob were all at summer school," Aiden cut off her train o thought. "Ray and Jacob were our best friends... " his voice trailed off.

"Elinor was his girlfriend." Adonis only looked at his brother, silently willing to take some of the pain away. Andi wished that she were anywhere else in the world so that they could be alone with their complete understanding of each other. "As for everybody else... well, Adalinda... she is... she was at Beauxbatons... when it happened, too." Adonis stumbled and Andi understood.

"And it wasn't until... after, that we realized... she was our half-sister," Aiden added quietly.

Andi stood slowly, unsure of what to do or say and just letting her body move one moment at a time, like in a dream with no thought of before or after. She hugged Aiden, then Adonis, then crouched down in between them unable to look at either because she knew anything she could say or do would fall so far short of the comfort and support they needed.

"Um... ," Andi just stared at the water for several abnormally long seconds and waited for the words to come out. They didn't, so she forced them. "I'm really sorry about... well, everything... but for whatever it's worth... I'm so much happier now that you two are here."

Before they could reply, she was gone.

A billion different thoughts, none of which Andi wanted to deal with, flew through Andi's head a lightening speed. One of those thoughts, however, had a pressing time concern.

She had detention in two minutes.

In a sprint that would have made Persephone proud, Andi dove through the hallways and leaped down the stairs, skidding to a halt in front of Snape's dungeon just as the clock chimed seven. Snape glared at her as she walked in, probably because he was hoping she would be late and he could assign another bout of detention. Ginny, however, looked relieved.

"I was so scared you'd forget and I'd be stuck here by myself," Ginny whispered as Snape headed to his office. "We get to clean all of these." She pointed to a huge stack of flasks in the center of the room.

Yesterday, Ginny's comment about being grateful for her company would have thrilled Andi. Today, she was thinking she had all the friends she could handle.

Ginny, however, was not having similar thoughts.

"I am so glad this week is finally over... so much stuff to deal with, although I guess your week isn't really over, you have Quidditch tomorrow... I'm completely dreading my first game," Ginny chatted cheerily to Andi's 22.53 percent open ears.

Andi's mind was still rifling through conversation topics, each one more inappropriate than the last. It took her a full two minutes of uncomfortable silence to realize that Ginny had provided her with an easy one.

"You're playing keeper also, aren't you?" Andi asked, still only half paying attention but unwilling to let the only sound in the room be Snape's occasional snort of disgust in his office.

Ginny gave her small, subtle, humble-because-I-know-I'm-perfect perfect smile that Andi felt was completely wasted on her. "No one else tried out," she admitted, still smiling. "But I've been practicing every free moment... I'm so scared of letting the team down." She looked up at Andi through startlingly endearing green eyes and even the Slytherin felt some sympathy for the girl's plight, before she realized that the word åÔplight' had just crossed her mind. Not to mention that she was in the same situation and all her sympathy should be reserved for herself.

"We don't really have a choice about practicing ever free moment," Andi said ruefully and only a little bitterly. She yawned in memory of last night.

"Yeah, I heard you guys were practicing maniacally," Ginny admitted, tossing a clean beaker into the barrel.

"That's what I said!" Andi exclaimed, glad to see somebody who could objectively agree with her. "But no, Aiden's all, Draco's dedicated" Andi shook her head in disgust.

Ginny's ivory face darkened a little at the mention of Draco's name. "Do you think Harry and are going out?" She asked, seemingly abruptly. Andi dropped the beaker she was holding and the sound of shattered glass echoed throughout the dungeon. Snape glared but didn't say anything.

"Repario," Ginny said, pointing to the broken glass and grinning. "Sorry, I forgot you had a crush on him, I just feel like the whole school assumes we're snogging and-"

"What?" Andi squeaked. Her heart thudded with panic. She knew her voice tended to shake and her face inclined towards a lovely shade of red whenever Harry was in a two kilometer vicinity, but she had assumed people just wrote that off as her being awkward. Her safety had always been that nobody would care enough to notice that extra shade, that extra shake. And really, didn't Ginny have better things to do with her time, Andi thought, now irritably.

"Oh, don't worry, I'm sure he has no idea," Ginny told her, still grinning. Andi thought like she looked like a lioness pleased with a kill, but she could have been a little biased just then. "But as a girl... well, I've been there. With the same guy, actually. But what I was really trying to say," she added hastily, seeing Andi's not-so-comradely look. "Is that we're not going out. I'm just helping him out with... stuff, but everyone thinks we are and I shouldn't care, but I do." She looked at Andi pleadingly.

"I believe you," Andi said generously, eager to believe. Because she hadn't done enough prying today, she added, "That was some display in the corridors today, though."

Ginny flushed and threw a beaker into the barrel a little more harshly then necessary. " I heard... not from Hermoine or Ron, of course, because they aren't speaking to me." Andi could have sworn the Gryffindor sounded just a little bitter, and it was an odd emotion to identify coming out of the mouth of someone so innocently gorgeous. Which led Andi onto a thought about how shallow she was, if she could equate beauty with everything good like that, and-

"Thanks for believing me, though," Ginny said, cutting off her thoughts with a regained smile. "It means a lot, especially when no one else does. But, that's actually not why I brought this whole thing up." Andi frowned and looked at her. "We... Harry and I... actually need your help." Andi continued to frown. "There are a bunch of reasons, but I guess the all-encompassing one is... well, you and Harry are third cousins."

Silence echoed throughout the dungeon for several long moments, Ginny looking at Andi and Andi looking expressionless.

"Well," Andi said finally, picking up another beaker. "I guess there goes that crush.

Andi didn't go back to Slytherin after detention. Instead, after an awkward goodbye to Ginny, she wandered in the vague direction of the Quidditch pitch. There were some people at Hogwarts who had a place, a place where they could always go to reenergize and think. Andi wasn't one of those people. But she was fairly certain that the pitch would be empty just then, and that was all she wanted.

At first, Ginny had tried to avoid telling her more, protesting that Harry should tell her what the had found out. But Andi had played on Ginny's sense of prevailing fairness in life, and told hr that she couldn't just tell Andi something like that and leave it hanging. And since they still have fifty or so beakers to clean, Ginny told her.

It had all started over the summer. Harry had been, in Ginny's words, emotionally unhinged. Seeing Cedric die the same death as his parents, seeing the ghosts of his parents from you-know-who's wand, had triggered something in his mind, made him obsessive with finding a way to summon his parents' ghosts.

There was a little more to it than that, Ginny had sad apologetically but firmly, but it didn't have anything to do with Andi and the spells he had been researching had been highly illegal. Which, if Andi remembered that day on the train, were what Draco was holding over Harry's head. It wasn't a complete blackmail, because Harry had never gone through with any of the spells, but he hadn't wanted Hermione or Ron to know, and this was where Ginny came in.

When Harry had begun researching the spells, the one he found the most promising, Caelumetterrae, required the invocation of the spirits of all of his forefathers. By name. Which for Harry, was a problem. He knew Hermione would disapprove and he knew Ron would tell Hermione, but he needed help from someone in the wizarding world who could help him out with his ancestry. So he went to Ginny.

And she, in turn, had discovered two very important facts

Grindewald, the darkest wizard in the era between Slytherin and Voldemort, was Harry's father's father's mother's father.

He was also Voldemort's grandfather.

Recognizing the potential power of bloodties, Harry and Ginny researched more. They discovered that Grindewald had two wives that marked two distinct era's in his own life: before he'd turned evil and after. Each wife had three daughters, Harry was the descendant of the first wife and Voldemort of the second.

Apparently, however, Grindewald was not a desired ancestor to have and they had come up repeatedly with dead ends on the other four lines.

By the time Ginny had gotten to that point in her explanation they were nearly done and Snape was glaring testily over at them. Apparently even he had better things to do than detention.

So Ginny had hurriedly summed up, with a promise that Harry would show her everything on Sunday: Elizabeth Flaco shared the same great-grandfather, and great-grandmother, as Harry's father.

And now Harry wanted her help in discovering the other three lines.

For the second time that day, Andi's mind was a chaotic racetrack of thoughts. She walked slowly through the crunchy, moonlit grass and let her thoughts sort themselves out, so that by the time she reached the glowing poles of the pitch, four thoughts stood fully articulate and neatly numbered at the front of her brain.

1. There were huge chunks missing from Ginny's explanation
2. Why was her mother's ancestory the one she was discovering?
3. She was related to Voldemort
4. She had had a crush on her third cousin.

Andi shivered, from the cold, from her own disgust, from the overwhelming feeling of being a complete singularity in the universe that she had never understood, but had at least always had a place in it. Now her place was changing, but it wasn't the universe that was changing but her, her interactions and her friends and her own blood. So the universe remained incomprehensible, and the one part about it she thought she understood, had any control over, was growing increasingly more elusive the more information she had forced on her. Wasn't knowledge supposed to enlighten?

With that thought in mind, she sat down in the center of the Quidditch pitch, determined to hide from all other thoughts in the blinding darkness.

Why did it matter who her ancestors were, anyways? Most of them were dead anyways. Except that it seemed infinitely important now. Now that she knew, she shared blood with Harry Potter. Now that she knew, she shared blood with Voldemort. And she still didn't know who her father was.

Something buzzed in the night besides her, and unreasonable fear, augmented by knowing everything she didn't know, surfaced and squashed all other thoughts.

And then a large force, one that didn't buzz but rather started swearing in a wonderfully familiar voice, squashed her.

"Malfoy, I hope that's your broom."

"Falco, I hope this a glamour spell on a toad because the real Falco was ordered to get to bed early the night before her first game."

"Yes, this is a toad that happens to be exactly the same size and shape as Andi Falco. Or was, before you proceeded to crush it with your useless body weight."

"My body useless! It's chiseled."

"My point was, it's a good this is a toad and not Andi, because otherwise you might be injuring your keeper right before her first game."

Draco rolled off her with an uncharacteristic grunt and became a dark blob lying in the grass beside her. "What on earth were you doing out here anyways?"

"Thinking. Don't even try." Andi stretched her arms and legs out in the dark, and invisible heaviness still imprinting the blades of grass into her back.

"You did just hand me a silver platter of insults and you expect me not to take it?"

"Think of it as too easy. What are you doing out here?"

"Practicing."

"Malfoy, you're insane."

"Falco, shut up."

"I gave you a silver platter of insults and all you've got is shut up? Really, Malfoy, I expected so much more of that silver, cold-hearted tongue of yours. You could have said-"

"I said," the darkness said next to her, stirring closer. "Shut up." And suddenly cold lips were on her lips, sending chills from her mouth to her head through her entire body until she felt like she was drowning in icy water and getting brain freeze from eating too much ice cream all at once. Except that ice cream tasted better. Or was she the one being tasted? Draco's tongue, burning compared to his lips, seemed determined to prove its entire length by running it through her entire mouth. And just when it pulled out, briefly, Andi couldn't help herself anymore.

"Are you... laughing?" Draco's voice was incredulous.

"... no... " Andi gasped between chortles. She rolled away from him and tried to muffle her laughter in her knees.

"Yes you are!" Andi imagined he was bright pink by now, like a raw lobster with silver blond hair. She started laughing harder.

"How was that funny? I am not funny!"

"... my father talks to me in dreams... " Andi giggled, holding her sides. This was simply too much. "... my mother is descended from Grindewald... . My third cousin is Harry Potter... My great half uncle... or cousin two... three times removes... or something... is you-know-who... Aiden and Adonis's father was a polygamist... and Draco Malfoy just kissed me!" Andi was laughing so hard now she thought she would explode.

"What?" There was a seriousness in Draco's that slowed Andi's laughter down.

"Huh?" She hiccupped, struggling to sit up.

"You and I need to talk, but-"

"Well I'm glad you finally agree," Andi told him, not laughing but still unable to wipe an absurdly big smile off her face. Even this seemed funny now.

"But not now," he told her, standing up. A rough hand grabbed her wrist and pulled her up. "Because right now, you are going straight to bed so you are well rested for tomorrow."

"Your not my dad!" She retorted childishly as he started striding towards the castle, her hand in tow. She stopped smiling for half a moment. "That's not really funny." She started giggling again.

"You are absolutely ridiculous!" Draco snapped.

"Hey Malfoy?"

Grunt.

"Why'd you kiss me?"

"You wouldn't stop talking," the voice ahead of her growled.

"Okay." She could handle that.