Being a mother was one of the greatest gifts you could ever wish for in life, however there were some unpleasant elements to it. You loved your daughter, Andromeda with all of your heart, but sometimes she worried you with some of her decisions and lack of forethought when it came to what was troubling her. By no means were you spying on your daughter, but with one of your closest friends being her teacher, if there were any concerns he was able to forward that to you.

Remus had sent you a letter telling you about some of his concerns when it came to Andromeda's studies. You hadn't received her results for her third year at Hogwarts yet, and as far as she had told you and your husband, she had been doing perfectly well. However you trusted Remus' judgement and wanted to look into whatever was bothering him about her work.

It now being summer, she had informed you that they would send her grades home over summer, which was a change from her normal schooling, but Remus had revealed that it was a lie.

Discussing it with your husband, Sirius, the two of you waited at the dining table until came into the room. She looked rather confused when she saw the two of you sat there with overly sympathetic smiles.

"Mum, Dad?" She asked, cocking an eyebrow.

"Morning Andy," you smiled softly.

"Why don't you sit down, little'un?" Sirius offered gesturing to the dining chair opposite the table to the two of you.

Andromeda was the spitting image of her father, and mirrored the same concerned expression he held on his face. Having been named after Sirius' favourite cousin, she had always been close to her father and it was almost concerning how they seemed to always know what each other was thinking or feeling.

"Did something happen?" She asked sliding into her seat. "Are you getting a divorce? Did Auntie Andy die?"

You shook your head.

"We aren't getting a divorce, honey. And Andy is fine. She's still coming over next Sunday with Dora, Remus and Teddy," you smiled weakly, trying to assure her that everything would be okay.

"Then what is going on?"

Biting onto your lower lip, you turned to your husband to see if he was going to be the one to speak or if it would be you. From his worried expression, you realised you were the one who was going to have to be bad cop here. For someone who spent twelve years in prison, he was completely unable to stand up to his daughter, rather being deemed as a friend to her than her father.

"Could you please bring us your end of year results?" You asked kindly trying to give her the benefit of the doubt.

Her eyes widened as though what you had said was practically the most terrifying thing that she had ever heard. But seen as she had the boy who lived as her older brother, she had heard many worse things.

"But... they... urm... they haven't... come through yet," she muttered looking down at the dining table unable to keep your eye.

"Well your uncle has other things to say about that," you commented.

"Oh."

She rose from the table and disappeared from the room.

You let out a disheartened sigh running your hands through your hair. Seeing how stressed you were becoming, Sirius wrapped an arm around your shoulders, pulling you closer to him.

"Harry was never like this," you frowned.

"He was fighting a dark wizard, I'm pretty sure even if he did do this we wouldn't have done anything. Andy and Harry are completely different cases. She's just becoming a teenager, I'm sure I rebelled a whole lot more than just hiding my exam results," he said softly, kissing your temple.

"I know," you sighed. "I did worse than that. But I just don't know why she couldn't trust us."

You could feel a chuckle reverberating through him.

"She knows she can trust us, but sometimes it's hard to remember that, let's just see why she hid it," he smiled gently.

Within a moment of Sirius speaking those words, Andromeda returned, dropping a scroll onto the table, hanging her head again in shame as she sat down.

Hesitantly you and your husband unfurled the scroll to read what she had received in her exams. On the sheet of paper were several A's and a few P's. Although it wasn't overly terrible, Andromeda had always looked up to her brother's best friend, Hermione, and had intellect that was comparable.

"Andy, why didn't you tell us?" Sirius asked.

"What happened, honey?" You added softly.

"I didn't want you to be disappointed in me," she whispered.

You reached a hand across the table to hold her hand, giving her a reassuring smile.

"We aren't disappointed. Just a little concerned. Did something happen?" You questioned. "Remus mentioned that you did seem rather out of it in his classes."

"Is it a boy?" Sirius said gruffly.

She shook her head aggressively. "It's not a boy dad."

"Good," he said triumphantly.

You raised an eyebrow to gesture for her to continue talking to you about what had happened.

"I... urm... I didn't do much revision.... And I was distracted," she mumbled.

"Distracted by what?"

She let out a deep sigh before beginning to ramble.

"I'm sorry. I know you have said I can do anything I want to as long as I make sure that my academics come first. But... I didn't know what to do. Dad made such a big deal with Harry... he still cries when it is brought up in conversation and they wanted me to join them... so I said yes. I can't actually join until next year but they wanted to train me a bit... but I didn't want anyone else to know as if Remus knew then you would know... so we had to train at night so I was tired all the time."

You turned to your husband pretty sure you knew what she was talking about but you weren't overly sure.

"Calm down Andromeda. What do you mean?" Sirius asked.

"I was asked to join the quidditch team. They think I'm pretty good but whenever you talk about Harry being a seeker, Dad cries and I don't want to be such a fuss," she said softly.

"Okay, and why wouldn't they let you join this year?"

"Well, the captain is the seeker, and I am a seeker. So she said I could take her place next year, and be substitute for this year. It wasn't exactly what I wanted but I was really excited. But I promise if I am on the team next year I will put my studies first and I won't lie anymore or hide anything from you. And if I fall behind I know I can talk to Uncle Remus about it, or write to you two or Harry or even Hermione," she rambled with a gentle smile on her face.

Although you knew you shouldn't let her off so easily with what she had done as being dishonest was one of the most terrible things she could do, but you knew her heart was in a good place.

"I guess we can look into that, but know that we do not appreciate you lying to us, and we do not expect you to do the same again. We want you to do well Andy, but if you are truly as good at quidditch as the captain of your team thinks, maybe that deserves a lot of focus too."

~*~

Written by Charlotte.