Mixing Cultures (Andromeda)

The sixth year potions students had clearly all had the same idea once classes were out for the weekend: study time. It was not simply the habitually studious Ravenclaws and the few others from throughout the houses that generally populated the library even on Fridays before dinner; no, the entirety of them had flooded the library, leaving the librarian a tad bit bewildered. They had all obviously agreed that the Potions assignment they had all just received this afternoon merited the early-weekend visit, as opposed to the eleventh hour homework cram that most of them generally participated in. Andromeda sat in a circle of Slytherin girls, chatting about nothing much at all while poring over the books to make some planning decisions when it came to her version of the assignment. Of course, only part of her mind was on her immediate surroundings.

Andromeda had fallen into a bit of a terrible life situation recently. Family weekend had been the culmination of a lot of stress that had already fallen upon her, and it was getting progressively worse. Last weekend, the one after the family visit, she’d buried her father. Her betrothal to Jacen Frost had been dropped as a result of the gossip that had surfaced after his death. The betrothal itself had been stressful enough – and now Bellatrix was playing matriarch and finding a new one for her. There went any momentary hope for a choice of her own, however much she trusted Bellatrix to find her someone suitable. The gossip was still following them, though it had died down quite a bit since the funeral. Still, it was unsettling. And beside all of that… she’d had to visit Rabastan, one of her closest friends, in the hospital wing during the week between her father’s death and burial. Why? Because the day before he’d died, Rab had nearly taken his own life. Andromeda was falling to pieces, and how was she handling it?

By wondering about a certain Ravenclaw prefect she should not even be thinking about, anyway. And pretending everything was okay on the surface. Narcissa was in heavy mourning, but she and Bella… well. They’d neither had a wonderful relationship with Daddy dearest, anyway. Andromeda was taking the Rabastan stuff far harder than the actual death of her father, though that did make her feel quite guilty. And she hadn’t seen her tutor in ages, which made her uncomfortable for a number of reasons. She had just decided on the attraction potion – reminding her of her first lesson with Ted, actually – when someone come up behind her. She twisted her head around, and knew instantly no one else in her circle would help him. Taking pity, she gave the other girls a look before they could say anything snarky. Kindly, she smiled at the curly-headed Ravenclaw boy. He’d transferred from America recently, she remembered hearing. ”Hi, Eddie. I’m Andromeda Black. I’d be glad to help you out,” she said as she gathered her things. ”I’ll see you girls back in the common room later, don’t worry,” she said as a good-bye before leading Eddie to one of the last empty tables, towards the back of the library.

”I hope you don’t let those uppity people bother you, Eddie. I know most the people in our class are a little…” She frowned, searching for the word, and smiling when she came across it. ”Persnickety. Just don’t let it get to you. Anyway – here we are, um. I was going to go with the attraction potion myself, how about you? I’d been studying the amortentia recently, and so I’ve been learning about that vein of stuff, anyway. Sorry – am I talking too much? I must apologize. It’s been an odd couple of weeks for me, and I tend to ramble when I’ve got a lot on my mind,” she explained smilng.