The Black Sheep

All Andromeda ever wanted to feel in her life was free. She wanted freedom from the chains that her family had put on her since birth, freedom from their standards and their way of life.

Wanting to be free while your constellation was called The Chained Woman was poetic in a way that Meda hated. It made her feel like it was her fate to be chained to the hell that her family had created for her. That her fate was to become a housewife, produce an heir, and become her mother.

Now, thinking that was enough to cause herself to panic about her future, so she decided to veer her thoughts away from the fact that she would have an awful decision to make in the future.

Herself or her family?

As a Black, it is engrained into your brain from a young age that family always comes first, no matter what. If something brings dishonour onto the family, then you're not allowed to do it. This ideology was problematic for Andromeda because it upheld things that she didn't agree with at all.

The much scarier option was to choose herself, and while this would be the obvious option to many, Andromeda didn't know if she had the bravery to do so. Leaving her family would be seen as selfish and stupid, however, it could create a beautiful life.

The very thought of getting disowned sent a shudder through Meda. Not yet. She desperately tried to focus on the pages in front of her and not the quidditch players out in the sky.

Fifteen minutes passed and she still was revising for the exams that would grace her with their presence in a few months. Deciding it was probably okay to look out the window again—after all, she had made it a whole fifteen minutes—Andromeda watched the quidditch players fly around happily.

Ravenclaw had just won the quidditch cup over the past weekend, so three out of the four houses—you can probably guess which is absent—dictated their own tournament that combined the different houses' players together and separated everyone onto different teams. Henri was on a winning team at the moment, this was about all Meda could tell, except for the fact that they all looked free up on those brooms.

Their smiles would more likely than not be etched into Andromeda's memory permanently. She wanted to be as free as them.

...

Thoughts perturbing her sleep, Andromeda revised more than she slept these days. The only downfall to this was that the professors could tell; maybe it was because of the dark eye bags under her eyes or maybe it was because she was nudged awake every so often by her seat partner. Whatever the circumstances, McGonagall asked her to stay after her transfiguration class.

Immediately doubting herself, Meda jumped to the conclusion that her last essay she turned in was rubbish. Trying to undo her mistake, she jumped ahead of McGonagall and started to speak.

"I swear I can do better on my essay!" She rushed out, anxiety written on her face. "I understand it's in my best interest to put my best foot forward before exams."

She only paused to take a breath, not even stopping when McGonagall looked like she wanted to interject.

"That's why I've been revising tirelessly!" Andromeda explained. "I need to get excellent marks-"

"Miss Black," McGonagall interjected, appearing extremely worried.

"Yes, Professor?"

"I've already looked over your essay," she said. "You received an outstanding on that, anything less wouldn't do it justice."

Andromeda blinked dumbly in response, not knowing exactly what she had been called for after class if it hadn't been for her essay she was sure was rubbish.

"Did you need me for something, Professor?" Meda asked quietly.

"I wanted to talk to you for a moment in my office," McGonagall spoke with a gentle tone. "You look extremely stressed."

"I-uh," Meda stuttered, still not quite understanding what was going on. "Am I in trouble or something?"

"No, dear, not at all," McGonagall sighed. "I just wanted to make sure you were doing okay. Are you alright?"

"Yes," Andromeda replied quickly, too quickly.

"You're absolutely sure?" McGonagall asked. "Nothing at all is bothering you?"

"I, well," Meda paused, never having been checked in by an adult before. "I haven't been sleeping the best recently."

"I'll send you off with a tin of biscuits to go to Madam Pomfrey," McGonagall smiled softly, grabbing a tin off her desk and handing it to Meda. "I baked them fresh this morning."

"Thank you, ma'am," Meda gushed. "Why exactly do I need to go to Madam Pomfrey?"

"To get a sleeping potion, of course," McGonagall answered, leading the way to the door. "Run along now."

After that interaction, Andromeda held a lot more appreciation for McGonagall, not only as a professor, but as a person too. She genuinely cared about Andromeda as a person, and that was something that Meda was eternally grateful for.

Her good mood was ruined by the time she had turned down two corridors as she was confronted by Alexander Carrow. The boy was a sixth year Slytherin, who had two younger twin siblings in Andromeda's year that pissed her off to no end. After catching sight of him, Andromeda immediately returned her features to their normal, placid look.

"Hello, Andromeda," Alexander greeted her as kindly as he could muster.

"Is there something you need, Alexander?" Meda asked, much less polite than she probably should've.

She raised an eyebrow as he walked closer to her. Her mother and Mrs Carrow had always been close, resulting in the children constantly spending time in each other's company. The Carrows, especially Alexander, creeped Meda out, so while she stood there awaiting his response, she shifted her weight uncomfortably.

"I think it would be beneficial for both of us, if we went on a date," Alexander spoke as if it were a professional matter.

Meda's draw nearly dropped before she reeled herself in.

"This is the first step in the courting process and-"

"Sorry," Meda gave a tight-lipped smile. "You want me to go on a date with you?"

He nodded with a furrowed eyebrow.

"No," Andromeda replied simply. "I'm sorry, I can't go on a date with you."

"Well, why not?" Alexander asked, crossing his arms over his chest.

Andromeda very nearly laughed at his question because why would she go on a date with him? The only answer she could come up with is that it would make her family happy and proud, but if something achieved those two things, then surely it wasn't a good thing to do.

She wasn't sure how it had happened--she would soon figure this out--but a bucket of water levitated over Alexander's head and dumped out sudsy water all over him. Andromeda's eyes widened and she hid her laugh behind her hand.

"Did you do this?" Alexander practically yelled at her.

"No, you daft idiot! All of my attention was focused on getting you to leave me alone!" Andromeda retorted. She heard someone laugh from behind her. "Tell me how I was supposed to do wandless magic when I was trying to hint at the fact that I wanted you to leave me alone? That simply just takes too much brainpower."

"You can do wandless magic?" Alexander asked.

Andromeda scoffed and was ready to insult the boy in front of her when she realised the laugh she heard from behind her was not a figment of her imagination.

"I think she said beat it, bozo," a voice said.

Meda looked over her shoulder to see two boys from Honeyduckes. She quickly became embarrassed because one of them had been the one she knocked over and the other appeared to be his best friend. He winked at her.

"Fine," Alexander said, his jaw tightening. "Andromeda, you will regret this."

"Doubt it, but whatever floats your boat," Meda muttered under her breath, spinning back around after hearing another laugh.

"He's an idiot," the boy that laughed said quickly.

"Clearly," Meda said. "Who're you two?"

"I thought there was no need for formalities," the other boy said.

Andromeda rolled her eyes but a smile graced her lips.

"Fine, remain anonymous for all I care," she replied just now noticing that they had buckets and mops with them. They must've come from detention.

"He's kidding," the one boy glared at the other. "I'm Jack."

"And I'm Ted," Ted introduced himself.

"I'm Andromeda," she said, cringing at the use of her full name.

They stood there awkwardly for a moment before Andromeda, surprisingly, started a new conversation.

"Throwing a bucket of water over him was the best you had?" Andromeda asked, laughing at Jack's overexaggerated reaction.

"You treat your knights in shining armor-"

"Oh, don't flatter yourself-"

"What did you want us to do?" Ted asked, obviously amused by Jack and Meda.

"You could've like whacked him on the head with your mops or something," Meda suggested, shrugging.

"We didn't want to hurt him," Ted responded, not letting Jack butt in. "We just wanted to get him away from you."

"Noble, but he wouldn't have cared if he was in your place," Andromeda said, taking them both by surprise.

"We're not him," Jack replied simply.

"True."

"Have you known him for a while?" Ted asked politely.

"Yeah, we practically grew up together," Andromeda responded, not thinking too much about her answer.

"You grew up together?" Ted asked, clearly surprised by her response.

"Yes, I think we might be cousins of some sort," Meda clamped her mouth shut.

She knew better than to talk about her family at school, but here she went anyway, talking to two people who probably counted as strangers about how her cousin wanted to go on a date with her. She saw the disgust all over their faces, which she felt too, but she immediately deflated.

"Let me get this straight," Jack drew in a deep breath. "This guy wanted to go on a date with you, but he was your cousin?"

"Yes," she sighed. "Don't worry, it disgusts me too."

She wondered for a brief moment what they happened to think of her. Hoping desperately they didn't think she was like her family, she smiled awkwardly.

"I've got to go to the hospital wing," Meda explained. "I'll leave you two to your mops and buckets."

Just as quickly as their conversation had started, it was over, and the only thing Meda could think was it could've gone worse.