"And when the broken hearted people living in the world agree
There will be an answer, let it be"

All year round the Hogwarts grounds were quite the sight to see. Whether they were covered in snow or in patches of daisies, the beautiful school building came complete with beautiful school grounds. It's vastness never seen as a problem unless one had to walk multiple places across it.

Andromeda had come to the solution that she needed to learn how to fly—without getting on a broom—to venture around outside without growing tired, which was the very problem she had been facing now. She trekked out to see the ending of Henri's quidditch practice, only because Henri said she would visit the greenhouses with her if she went.

Professor Sprout had given each student a plant to look after and Andromeda had managed to convince herself she would fail the project. Even if herbology wasn't an area she struggled, it was like when she panicked over something her brain completely lost control.

As Henri joined her for the walk to the greenhouses, Andy realised that her friend probably would've went to the greenhouses with her if she hadn't shown up to the quidditch practice—which was completely unnecessary because the quidditch season was over—but it didn't really matter much in hindsight. Henri worried too much over Andromeda. She could tell by the way her friend looked at her.

The walk wasn't as bad as Henri made it seem—with all of her complaining you'd think they were hiking the Himalayan's—yet when they reached the greenhouses, instead of being eager to check on her project, Andromeda stood frozen at the door.

"Are you gonna go in or are we standing out here all night?" Henri asked, raising her eyebrows at Andromeda, who stared through the windows of the greenhouse. "I'm game for either, camping outside the greenhouses has always sounded like a brilliant idea to me."

"Shut up, Henri, they'll hear you," Andy said quietly.

In response to her comment, Henri turned to look at who Andromeda was referring to and saw Jack and Ted arguing over something. She smiled and looked back at Andie.

"I love those two! They're completely harmless," Henri said, earning a look from Andromeda that made a light bulb go off in her head. "Oh my Merlin! You know them!"

"I'm not a complete idiot. I know how to talk to people," she remarked, which made Henri grin more.

"My baby is finally growing up!" Henri pinched Meda's cheeks. "You're making friends all by yourself!"

"I wouldn't call them friends-"

"Nonsense! Let's go talk to your new friends!" Henri smirked and pushed the door open, tugging Andromeda along with her.

Making such a startling entrance might've not been the best move seeing as Jack was startled enough to accidentally knock over a potted plant behind him. Ted laughed at his misfortune and turned his attention to Henri and Andromeda.

"Moreau!" Jack exclaimed, picking up the pieces of the broken pot. "Sprout is gonna kill me now!"

"It's not my fault you're jumpy," Henri said, laughing lightly when Jack threw dirt at her.

Noticing that Ted was looking at her oddly, Andromeda raised an eyebrow at him, making him clear his throat.

"I didn't know you two were friends," Ted gestured between her and Henri as the latter became engaged in a conversation with Jack.

Andromeda smiled as she watched Henri throw her head back to laugh. She truly didn't know how she survived without Henri for so long.

"An unlikely pair, I'll give you that," Andromeda replied. "I just met her this year."

"Really? I would've thought you'd been friends for a while," Ted said, seeming surprised.

"How long have you known Jack?" She asked, growing more comfortable with the conversation now that it wasn't about her.

"Too long," Ted laughed as Jack scoffed from the ground where he now sat next to Henri.

"You're lucky you have me, bastard," Jack crossed his arms over his chest and pouted.

"I'm pretty sure it's the other way around," Ted responded, laughing when Jack's only reply was to throw more dirt. Ted turned back to Andromeda. "We met before school."

"Before school? Wow, that really is a long time," Meda said as Henri stood up and returned to her spot next to Meda. Jack did the same but stood next to Ted.

Andromeda thought quietly to herself about how everyone she had met during childhood were rubbish. They were bad people with even worse morals. People who wouldn't care what happened to muggles just as long as they were dead. She shivered at the thought even when it wasn't cold.

"Our mums are good friends," Jack jumped into the conversation. "They work together and everything."

It was apparent the two boys loved their families as they talked nonstop about them while Andromeda checked on her project. She learned that Jack has three younger siblings, of which one attends Hogwarts currently. He also mentioned that he's a half-blood. Ted said that he's the older brother to two siblings who are much younger than him. He hopes they'll attend Hogwarts too, but as he's a muggleborn, he's not sure they're magical yet.

Conversation flowed easily between the four, taking Andromeda by surprise. She had bumped into the two boys twice before this, and she was usually wary around strangers, so she really wasn't sure what was different about them. She didn't complain though. Meda found that they were fun to be around, which made her hope they would stick around.

"You have two sisters, right?" Jack asked curiously while Andromeda wrote observations about her plant.

Hesitating for a moment, Andromeda became a little uncomfortable with the question about her family, but she thought it was unfair that they were sharing so much about their family while she kept her mouth shut.

"Yeah, Bella and Cissy," Andy replied, looking up briefly to see Henri and Ted talking about quidditch plays. "Bella's in her sixth year and Cissy's in her second."

"She's the same age as my sister then!" Jack said, not specifying which sister he was talking about.

"Which one?" Meda furrowed her eyebrows as she tried to get the dirt out from underneath her fingernails.

"You called her Cissy," Jack spoke without the air of confidence he had previously as she made eye contact with him.

Hearing a person other than Bellatrix call Narcissa Cissy was foreign and Andromeda discovered that she didn't like it. It felt almost illegal and as if it were an unbreakable rule.

"Cissy is just Narcissa's nickname," Andromeda nearly laughed at Jack's expression. "I wouldn't call her that though if you two ever meet. She has said that it's strictly a family name."

"Do you have a nickname too?" Jack asked.

"Yeah, it's Meda," Andromeda said, loosening up as the conversation went. "The nicknames were about as casual as we were allowed to get."

"How do you mean?" Jack asked, treading lightly.

"Well, my family has always been strict with their rules," she spoke, watching Henri and Ted join their sides. "Our nicknames were one of the things that we were allowed to have, despite the fact that it's not proper."

She looked up hesitantly to see their reactions, but her words didn't seem to faze them. Maybe that was due to the fact that the Hogwarts population knew more about the Black family than she originally thought. Or, perhaps, they were just understanding people who didn't care what family Andromeda came from as long as she was nice.

"Before she died, my grandmother despised the fact that my mum would call me Henri," Henri said, sitting on the table next to Meda's plant. "It was like her mission or something to call me Henrietta, even though I told her countless times that I didn't want to be called that."

"Stupid old people," Jack huffed, making Ted crack a smile.

"Tell them that story-"

"Absolutely not," Jack said, glaring at Ted.

Henri and Andy shared a look that said it all. They both wanted to know more about this infamous story, however, each of them knew that Meda was too polite to say anything. This left the task of prying all to Henri, but she wasn't going to complain, it could be fun.

"Oh c'mon, Johnson," Henri pleaded. "We've already shared our deepest, darkest secrets-"

"She barely said anything about herself," Jack interrupted, poking a thumb in Andy's direction and Ted didn't miss the way her face fell for a moment.

"What do you want to know?" Andromeda asked like she was challenging him.

"I dunno," Jack kicked the ground, continuing to talk even though Ted tried to signal him to stop. "You're like this big mystery-"

"I'm not a mystery," Andromeda cut him off. "I'm a person, and I'd like to be treated that way. It takes a lot for me to share anything at all, so be happy you learned the name my sisters call me."

Andromeda sighed and wondered why she had such a short temper. Jack wasn't trying to be hurtful, she knew that, yet that didn't stop her from getting angry and shooting back a reply as quick as snapping her fingers.

"I'm sorry," Jack said quickly, but Andromeda waved him off.

After a beat of awkward silence, Henri pulled on Andromeda's hand to get her towards the door. She gave a short smile before turning to the two boys. Andy didn't feel like saying any sort of goodbye, so she continued to walk out of the greenhouse.

The sun was just beginning to set, which meant they had been in the greenhouse for quite some time. They might've already missed dinner, yet Andromeda knew they would fix that by sneaking into the kitchens later.

To settle the rising amount of thoughts in her brain, she sat on the grass quietly and looked at the moon. As time passed it grew brighter and brighter, and Andromeda wondered if maybe she would too.

...

Song: Let It Be
By: the Beatles

The wifi in my school right now is trash, which meant I couldn't update until I got onto the bus!

I hope you all are doing alright! My life is crazy busy at the moment and I'm finding it a little difficult to balance, so the updates might become more than a week apart!

Lmao anyways thanks for reading
-teddy xx