21 Chapter 21

Sirius cornered his favorite cousin two weeks after Ricky's incident in Transfiguration.

"What's going on with you two?" he asked, holding her behind a pillar.

The five of them manhandled each other a lot, mostly because once they start flinging spells at each other things and people around them started to getting damaged.

Andromeda didn't fight him, mostly because he was holder her right wrist and they both knew that it was her left hook that could lay him out on his arse.

"Nothing, Siri."

"Nothing," he repeated sardonically. "You have him wrapped around your finger, Drom."

"No, not yet."

He pressed her a little harder to the wall, "Ricky is a good person."

"And I'm not?"

"You are the best out of the five us, you know that, but that isn't a very high bar. Ricky is the highest damn bar I've ever encountered."

"I don't think you know much about him."

His blue-grey eyes narrowed on her, and he asked again, "What do you want with him?"

"He's mine."

His eyebrows shot up and he stepped back from her.

"A Potter? A Ravenclaw? You know our parents won't be happy with him. They will think he's Fleamont Potter's bastard son."

She smirked, which made him suspicious,

"Perhaps, but they won't forbid it. They would forbid Bella from him, but not me. He's powerful and he's a pure blood, that's good enough."

"Since when is a bastard son good enough?"

"Since mother tried to drown me in a well when I was ten, they don't care what I do so long as I don't run off with a half-breed or mudblood."

"Do you have to use that word?" he asked with a sigh. "I know you don't believe any of that nonsense."

"I can have him if I want him. Don't ruin this for me."

Sirius ran a hand through his long curls. "He's a good person, Drom. Don't hurt him."

She met his gaze with dark eyes and said, "I'm a good person, too. Slytherin or no, Black or no. I am not evil."

He let out a long breath and pulled her into a hug. "I know," he said into her hair, "I know that."

Ricky wasn't really sure if he was dating Andromeda or not, though he supposed they might as well have been, seeing as he couldn't imagine trying to pursue anyone else while being pursued by one of the Black Sisters.

Who by Ricky's estimation, was just as dangerous as Bellatrix Black, only Andromeda, as hard edged as she was, had a kindness in her that her sisters seemed to lack.

Of course, he hadn't met Bellatrix in person, but he'd looked into her dark gaze and had not seen the warmth there that burned in Andromeda's gaze.

But they hadn't really talked about dating, or much about each other, or anything else really, between her watching him in the halls between classes and kissing the daylights out of him in secluded corners.

A couple people had spotted them, but oddly the rumour mill had not caught on yet. It seemed they people who tried to blab got laughed out of the room at the mere idea that Andromeda Black, Bellatrix Black's little sister would ever date James Potter's Potterclaw of a bastard sibling.

The whole thing seemed to amuse Terry greatly, who picked on Ricky constantly for his 'forbidden' affair.

Which didn't make Ricky feel any better about possibly preventing Nymphadora from existing. But It was clear that Ted Tonks the Hufflepuff was not even on Andromeda's radar.

And seemed like neither Terry Greengrass nor Andromeda Black had the slightest interest in each other beyond friendship, something that became more apparent when they began studying in the library together and they both started poking fun at his shyness.

He didn't mean to be shy. Some moments he felt like he was top of the world, and then there were moments when he couldn't conceive how someone as beautiful and incredibly as Andromeda could be interested him.

The most interesting thing about him was his secrets and his flying.

He sighed, tonight was all Hallows Eve, historically not a great night for him. Nothing had happened at the feast, though he still found himself unable to eat, sick with worry that something might happen to them.

And by them, he meant everyone, especially his young parents, Sirius, and Andromeda.

Though, in all honesty, it would be kind of funny to have seen something come after her, after all, Black Sister versus troll was an easy equation.

Still, he worried.

Terry had turned in already, he'd put himself into a food coma, leaving Ricky to try hopelessly to read a book.

Not even Scamander could ease his mind tonight.

Unable to sit here a moment longer he grabbed his James's cloak and crept out of the dorm.

Unsurprisingly, Ricky wasn't the only one out of curfew, and he needed to wait only five minutes outside the entrance of the Slytherin dorm before a Slytherin came in.

It was Snape and Ricky smirked at the boy's outrage if he learned it was he who had let a Potter into their dorm.

The common room was empty, the lake water dark outside the windows. Figuring he didn't have much to loose, he went towards the opposite corridor Snape had disappeared into.

Andromeda was in the midst of the odious task of brushing through her wet hair.

"I can do that for you," a voice said.

She whipped around to see the speaker who sounded far too masculine to be here.

"Ricky?" she asked. "What are you doing here?"

He raised a brow, "Do you not want me to be here? I can leave if you like."

"No," she said hastily.

He held out his hand, "Then give me the brush."

She smiled, he could be done right bashful sometime, but there times like now were he was almost jarringly direct.

She handed him the brush and turned her back on him. She watched him the mirror as he worked through her damp tangles.

"Are you alright?" she asked.

He was quiet for a long moment, and didn't interrupt the building silence between them which was occupied only by the sound of the bristles through her hair.

Ricky seemed to decide on the truth because he said, "No, I'm not."

She waited and a few minutes later, he said, "I hate Halloween."

"Why?" she asked, holding back a shiver as he brushed her hair back from her face, the feeling on her skelp made her want to purr.

"It was the night I became an orphan."

She didn't say anything, didn't pity him or give him some empty comfort. She just sat still and listened. He didn't say anything else as he finished brushing through her hair.

He leaned over her to put the brush on the counter, his hand coming up to comb through her now smooth hair.

She shut her eyes and leaned back into his touch. When next they opened, his face was very close, and she accepted the kiss he offered.

They parted and he took a seat on her bed. "I don't know much about you," he remarked.

She stood, and put a hand on his chest, she pushed, and he laid back.

She sat beside, and he looked up at her, his body relaxed, passive.

He was probably the only person on the planet who wasn't even the slightest bit afraid of her.

"What do you want to know?"

"What do you think of your family?"

She laid down beside him, "What do you think of your family?"

"Which one? The foster family or the Potters?"

"Both."

He sighed, "My foster family were -are lowly pieces of owl droppings. My cousin was a brainless bully, my uncle was a tempermental hippo, and my aunt was a horse faced crazy person. She had me cooking them breakfast by the time I could stand and I did more chores than most homeowners. Summers were the worst, no school to break up the time, and it seemed the garden always needed to be weeded in the hottest part of the day. I hated my life there, I hated them.

After I was kicked out, I lived on the streets for a while until I stumbled across a sellswand. She took me in when I was sick and nursed me back to health, I followed her around after that. She was brutal when it came to training, she taught me how to kill but at the same time she taught me the difference between right and wrong."

This revelation caused Andromeda's eyes tonwiden slightly. This was staring to make sense, the reason why Ricky was that much more advanced than everyone else was because of that.

"And the Potters?" she forced herself to ask.

He turned his head to look her, he planted a miss on her forehead before smiling and saying, "I love them. They are too good for me. James is a bit spoiled, but he has a good heart."

"My family…" Andromeda began, "We have issues. My mother is evil, my father is deaf to anything that doesn't fit his picture of the way things should be, much like his brother. My aunt is a cow. Sirius is erratic but very dear to me. Reggie is too meek for his own good, and my sisters -they are a part of me."

"What is Bellatrix like?" he asked curiously.

Andromeda looked up at the ceiling, "Bella is extremely powerful, a little broken, and very lost. She has a disconnect between her thoughts and her emotions, she doesn't deal with intense emotions well."

"What is she doing now?"

"Traveling. She's in France right now with our Uncle Orion."

"Is she alright?" Ricky asked, "I mean from being apart from you and Narcissa?"

Andromeda turned on her side to face him, pleased at his insight. "I would not say she is flourishing, but like many people on vacation, she isn't trying to build a life for herself, just exploring. She's going to America after winter break. It's a big country so she won't be back until the end of the school year. This summer we are going to Uganda for an exchange program."

"They have summer school?"

"Sort of, the students who are coming here will be doing internships with the Ministry, not the staff at Hogwarts."

"Any particular reason for choosing Africa?"

Her smile felt wicked, "Wandless magic, Uagadou has mastered it. They hardly ever use wands."

"That sounds amazing," he said, eyes alight with interest.

"I'm just happy not to be going home," she said, "Cissa and Reggie are coming with us. Siri has been sentenced to house arrest for not being a proper heir to House Black. He's going to miserable."

"He's always welcome with the Potters."

"I wouldn't be surprised if Siri ran away, the only reason he hasn't already is to keep his brother safe."

"Who are you talking to?" a voice interrupted them.

Andromeda bolted up, Ricky sitting up with her.

"Potter?" Cissa asked, her grey-blue eyes wide, "How did you get in here?"

"Why are there only two beds in this room?" Ricky asked in return.

"We kicked the other girls into their own room, this is the Head Girl room, technically," Andromeda supplied.

"How did you get in here? No boy has ever managed it before, much less a Ravenclaw. You should have been attacked by a thousand paper and metal snakes," Narcissa said as she approached them, hands on hips.

Ricky shrugged, "I told them I didn't mean any harm and to stop moving. Which I meant, but can I just say how creepy it is that that's all it took? And if I could do it then that means that Salazar or his any of his descendants could have gotten through. I have nothing against Slytherin House, but Salazar Slytherin was a creep."

"Salazar Slytherin was a great wizard," Cissa said peevishly.

"A great wizard, but not a great person. Winston Churchill did great things for Britain, but he wasn't a great guy either."

"Who's Winston Churchill?" Andromeda and Narcissa asked in unison.

Ricky rolled his eyes, "You're British and you don't know- you know what, never mind, it isn't important."

"You still haven't explained how you got past the defenses, surely the curse didn't just listen to your kind and earnest words, Potterclaw" Narcissa sneered.

"He's a Parselmouth," Andromeda answered for him.

Narcissa did a double take, "He's a what?"

"Like I said, Salazar was a creep, and nothing you say will convince me otherwise. Spawning Basilisks is a no-no."

"What?"

"Did you get the cards?" Andromeda asked.

Narcissa flipped her beautiful blonde hair and said, "Of course." She sat on the foot of the bed across from them and asked, "How are you at wizarding poker, Potter?"

"Um," he answered smoothly.

"You truly are a Parselmouth?" she asked again.

He hissed at her in a long stream of sibilant sounds.

"What was that?" Andromeda asked.

"Yes, and no, I'm not good at poker. Also, I didn't bring any money to play with."

"That's alright," Andromeda said, bending to reach beneath her bed.

"Money is boring," Narcissa said with a sly smirk as she dealt out cards.

"We play with liquor," Andromeda said, placing a bottle of fire whiskey in the center of the bed.

Ricky's expression made them both laugh.

"Relax Potter," Cissa purred, "it's a holiday."

His dark blue eyes narrowed on her, "Game on, Black."

Look at her with apprehension once more he shook his head before resigning to his fate.

He knee that there was no way this will end well for him. Clearly Narcissa had some much pent up frustration that needed to dull out, and he could bo doubt guess were caused by the Marauders.

The next day Ricky woke on his back looking up a ceiling with a dull headache. He could see the ceiling because he had somehow managed to fall asleep with his glasses on. In fact, it seemed like he had all his clothes on, except his shoes.

He wiggled his socked toes, and then crunched his stomach to sit up, only there were two weights on either side of him that made him pause.

He looked down and found two girls curled around him.

Shouldn't I have noticed that first? But his head was still foggy from the amount of Fire Whiskey he had consumed last night.

The loser of each round had to drink half a shot. Narcissa had kicked both their arses, but Ricky had the suspicion that Andromeda was just throwing her hand when she wanted a drink.

Leaving him to believe that the 'game' wasn't really about winning but an excuse to drink.

Ricky had been trying, which the more he had drunk the harder that had become.

He blinked the faint haze from his eyes to try and memorize the sight before him. Both girls had their heads tucked on his shoulders, their dark and fair hair intermingling and fanning out around their backs and over his hands.

Narcissa was tucked close to his side, one of her arms holding him around the waist, whereas Andromeda had thrown one of her legs over both of his and her free hand draped over his chest.

He breathed in slowly, trying to slow his pulse and settle himself. He would not make a fool out of himself and he would not be the one to wake them.

If someone had told him last year that he would have woken up in a twin bed with Draco Malfoy's and Nymphadora Tonks' mothers asleep on top of him he would have called them bonkers.

Of course, having two Black sisters in bed with him was bonkers.

But he was certain they hadn't done anything last night, he hadn't quite gotten blackout drunk, he had just gone further than tipsy. He had never drank before but he was pretty sure that's what he was feeling.

Although, shouldn't his head hurt worse? Maybe he was still drunk.

He tried to dig through the hazy memories, he was pretty sure that they had started to ask him personal questions after his third shot.

He had gone into great detail about his friendship with Hagrid, the centaurs, unicorns, and spiders. Which is true, he did patch things up Hagrid after the Hippogriff incident.

Ricky was almost positive he hadn't said anything incriminating other than expounding on what a good friend Hagrid was.

He groaned inwardly, he had been making a lot of slips around Andromeda, more than he had happened with anyone else.

But the truth was, he was starting to fall in love with her. At least, his growing feelings for her were fast outweighing his apprehension about preventing Nymphadora from being born.

After all, it wasn't like by dating him he was eliminating Andromeda's or Ted's chances of having kids. They could always fall in love with someone else, right?...Ok that ship has sailed Tonks probably won't be born, but maybe Nymphadora Potter? Yeah that sounds better

Then another idea popped in his head, What about Bellatrix Lestrange? Well Bellatrix Black right now. Was she saveable?

It wasn't a crime to be born with mental troubles, they just didn't excuse murder or torturing people into insanity.

But Andromeda's Bella hadn't done any of those things yet. Maybe together, Andromeda and Ricky could save her, keep her on the right track. Perhaps they could save Regulus too.

Regulus who had probably been pushed by his mother to join and killed by Voldemort himself when he defected.

It seemed that Ricky had arrived before Voldemort had established himself, which meant that there was still time, time that was quickly speeding away.

Ricky didn't know what he needed to do next to end Voldemort. Facing him off in a duel was out, assassinating someone with more knowledge of curses and poisons than himself seemed stupid too.

The fake ring hopefully is doing the trick right about now.

Perhaps he should go to Dumbledore directly, or perhaps he should do something like the DA, Dumbledore's Army and amass a force amongst the student body.

Which was likely conceded, but Voldemort was raising his own army from Hogwarts and recent graduates, and this time around Ricky would have support from Slytherins, at least some of them.

He let out a soft breath, but were any of them anything to compare to Professor McGonagall or Professor Flitwick?

The only thing stopping Ricky was that the adults had not succeeded in the past and the chances of any adults listening to him and taking what he said seriously were near laughable.

Dumbledore would sooner believe his anonymous package than a Ravenclaw, dimension traveling seveteen year old.

Narcissa let out a soft snore and it was all Ricky could do not to laugh. The future Mrs. Malfoy snored, he was so going to hold that over her head at some point.

Andromeda nuzzled her face further, shifting her legs further over his so that her hips were half over his, her large breasts cushioning against his chest.

His pulse was back up and he gulped, he was so out depth for this situation. Could he ask Sirius for advice? Or would that be weird because they were cousins?

It would definitely be weird, at least for Ricky, to ask Terry?

Terry might have been his best friend in this reality but he was also Andromeda's best and closest friend, and unlike Ricky who had to keep his most troubling concerns to himself, Andromeda and Terry shared near everything.

Andromeda shifted again and this time, her face found the side of his neck. He needed to get out of this bed.

As wonderful as it was to have his girlfriend this close to him, she wasn't fully awake, he was still a little drunk, oh yeah, and her fifteen-year-old sister was pressed to the other side of him.

True, Ricky was only a year older than Narcissa and almost two years younger than Andromeda, but that didn't mean he wanted to be intimate with Andromeda while still in bed with her little sister.

Of course, said little sister had other ideas. Narcissa blinked awake, her blue-grey eyes turning up to him, a slow sly smile creeping across her lips.

She propped herself up on his chest, careful not to touch or disturb Andromeda, and leaned close to his face.

Is she going to kiss me!? His entire body stiffened and he pressed himself back into the pillow, leaning away from her.

Andromeda woke from the tension he was exhibiting, her warm eyes-such a contrast from her youngest sister's, smiled up at him then flicked toward Narcissa.

Like a viper, Andromeda's hand shot out shoving her sister back from him.

Narcissa seemed prepared because she didn't fall off the bed and came back at Andromeda with interest.

Andromeda shrieked and on instinct, Ricky curled around her and rolled them off the bed.

He landed on his back, her full weight crashing into his chest.

The wind was knocked out of him and he was unable to move as Andromeda hastily rolled off him and Narcissa began laughing.

When he managed to sit up, he glared at both of them.

Andromeda kissed his cheek, "Good morning, Ricky."

He couldn't stay mad at her.

Narcissa giggled, and he was able to not only glare but frown at her, which only made her laugh harder.

Sighing at this Ricky looked at Andromeda with a mischievous look on his face, which caused her to look at him wearily.

Without pause or hesitation, he jumped on her and pinned her on the floor. Before she could let out any sound of protest he kissed her.

Andromeda's eyes widen, and when his hands caressed the lower back she let out a soft whimper.

Ricky's tongue quickly invaded her mouth and set fireworks in her head, Andromeda thoughts were halted.

Instinctively she wrapped her arm around his neck and returned the kiss with passion.

When they broke for air, Andromeda's dazed face told him all he needed to know.

She looked up at him while biting her lip, with lust clear in her eyes. But before she could act on it Narcissa's voice broke from the side.

"Wow, I don't think i have eve seen someone handle you like that sister."

Andromeda groaned, Narcissa was shocked, while Ricky had a smug look on his face.