Last Time on Black and White:

"Severus, I apologise for my outburst earlier, I know this cannot be easy for you, nor that it has ever been easy for you, but I implore you, find forgiveness, before it is too late."

The dungeon Professor, stood still for a moment, regarding Dumbledore with a calculating gaze before turning to face the door once more.

"Good evening, Professor." he said finally before leaving and shutting the door behind him.

Dumbledore leaned back in his seat, watching the man leave before sighing tiredly.

Book 4 – Chapter 21: (Not So) Downtime

Sirius sat in Dumbledore's office while the old man regarded the last living Black. They had discussed the tournament, Dumbledore assuring the man that he was keeping a close eye on Andrew, though he still wondered why his name was entered and not both the boys and they had discussed The Crouch Trial, scheduled to take place a little while after Yule. Now it was the topic Sirius had wanting to address since he was declared a free man.

"I'm afraid I cannot allow that, Sirius." Dumbledore said with a small sigh.

"Albus, be reasonable, you know as well as I that the Dursley's are unreasonably foul individuals." Sirius argued.

"The boys are safer there than they would be anywhere else. Especially with the reveal of Barty Crouch Jnr, it is now apparent the Dark Lord's followers are still actively attempting to hurt the boys."

"And I understand that, but you cannot tell me that Privet drive is more secure than Grimauld Place. The wards around the Black home are some of the meaner ones on the British Aisles."

Dumbledore sighed tiredly and was about to respond when Sirius cut him off and asked him question.

"Would you have let the boys live with say... the Fawleys?" he asked.

"Excuse me?"

"The Fawleys. Would you have let Harry and Andrew live with them?"

"No, of course not!"

"Why not?"

"Sirius, you know why..."

"Just please answer the question."

Dumbledore took a breath before responding.

"As you know, while they aren't convicted, it is highly suspected that they supported Lord Voldemort's dogma."

"So in other words, they're bigots. And I can assume you didn't want the boys to be raised around anything related to the bigotry against Muggles or Muggleborns, correct?"

"Yes, you assume correctly."

"So then why place them in a house-hold that has bigotry towards magic and their own kind?"

"Sirius-"

"No! You only met Petunia once. Once! That should have been enough to show you the type of vindictive, hateful woman she is. I met her for the first time in our seventh year when James, Lily, Remus, Alice and I were going to meet up with some of our friends at Bournemouth Pier during the summer, Albus she was the most unpleasant individual I have ever met! I wouldn't say she's as bad as my parents but you can imagine what I think of her if I even entertain putting them in the same category!"

"Sirius..."

"The second time was at Lily and James' wedding, she came with that whale of a husband of hers, you know Vector, or whatever his name was."

"Vernon."

"Yes! That chap. The most obnoxiously rude couple at the party! You were there, you remember! Commenting that simply because they had chosen to have a small intimate wedding that they obviously had no money. The absolute nerve! Lily wouldn't let James or I give them a piece of our minds, but I promise you I would have been absolutely ecstatic to mention the amount of money they had!"

"Sirius!" Dumbledore yelled to get the younger man's attention. "We simply cannot risk it... I'm sorry. Truly I am, but it is for their own safety."

"And as I've said Grimmauld Place is as safe as-"

"What of Kreacher? Hmm? As I understand it, your old house elf is not your biggest fan, what should happen if he chose to reveal the location of the boys to your dear cousin, Narcissa?"

"Then I will ban him for communicating with the my cousins!"

"Your mother's portrait also comes to mind."

"She only had the one commissioned."

"And you know this for a fact? Are you willing to stake your magic on it?"

Sirius paused at that and continued to stare at Dumbledore, his jaw clenching at the thought.

"Sirius, I am not trying to be obtuse or unfair, I know how much you would like the boys to stay with you, and I know how unpleasant Petunia and her husband are. I've known this for a while now." Dumbledore told him his face showing his worry and sadness at the boys' situation. Then he perked up slightly and looked to Sirius, his eyes once more gaining their mysterious twinkle.

"But it simply cannot be done where you are currently staying, I'm sorry."

Sirius seemed to deflate a bit before frowning and looking up at Dumbledore.

"Where I am currently staying?" he asked leaning in closer.

"Yes, the wards around Privet Drive are not only for the boys saftey but also for the protection of their last living relative; Petunia and her family. Why the entire neighbourhood, of course with all the familiar looking houses in the area it would be very difficult for any of Voldemort's forces to find the boys should they even manage to somehow dismantle the wards."

Sirius frowned again before a small smile started creeping along his face.

"Of course, what about security though? Wouldn't it be wise to have someone there? Should the boys need assistance of a magically mature individual?"

"You know, I was thinking the same thing, perhaps having Order Members take revolving shifts to guard them, but now that I think on it, that may be a waste of resources."

"A waste of resources indeed, why, many of the Order have their own lives to live we cannot expect them to simply put who knows how many hours on hold until someone comes to relieve them of their station."

"That is a very astute observation you have just made, Sirius. Perhaps, you can come up with some sort of plan, you know, something that takes care of all the issues we have just discovered."

"You know what, I think I may just do that."

Sirius stood and regarded Dumbledore for a moment before speaking once more.

"Had you ever considered placing them with someone else?"

Dumbledore nodded slowly. "I had, but you must realise, at the time, who was I to trust? The man who everyone knew to be James' brother in everything but blood was the prime suspect in their murder, Remus had been off the list, since the Ministry would have stepped in the moment he was nominated and placed the boys in family of the 'right sort'. Distrust was in abundance. So in a moment of desperation, I placed them where I knew Voldemort's followers would not think to look for them, Petunia Dursley."

Sirius nodded, he could understand that, had he not been so quick to seek revenge, he would have had custody of the boys. He shook his head to rid the cob webs of the past and looked back to Dumbledore.

"I do understand, we should have told you. But we figured..."

"No need to explain yourself, I understand. In fact it was a rather ingenious plan, unfortunate circumstances though."

"You said it. Well then, I think I should go start looking into that solution for our problems."

Dumbledore smiled happily at the man and waved goodbye as he left the office. Leaning back in his seat the aged Headmaster smiled and began humming a small diddy, while he picked up a quill and began finishing his missive to the Goblins. It seemed everything was in harmony this afternoon.

HP-AP-HP-AP-HP-AP

There was complete pandemonium in the Gryffindor tower as many of the Lions took to celebrating Andrew's amazing performance in the first task. Butterbeer and other... unsavoury drinks flowed, people sang and cheered, and many more were trying to get close to the boy to congratulate him on his impressive performance.

Andrew, Harry, Ron and Hermione sat near the fire place each one nursing a butterbeer.(Su and Luna had decided to skip the festivities, claiming they were not and were not going to be the party types).

Andrew examined the golden egg before him, trying to figure out what it was about while tracing the patterns on it carefully.

"Bunch of hypocrites aren't they?" Ron said sourly as he took another swig of his drink. "Just a few days ago they were calling Andrew crazy. Saying that he had gone and cocked up everything for the house. Now look at 'em."

"What do you expect, 'house of the brave' favours those who needlessly have their lives endangered. I should've gone to Ravenclaw." Hermione muttered in annoyance.

Andrew snorted at that slightly. "Pretty sure we've all been thinking that for years now, this house is not smart enough for you at all."

"Look at McLaggen, dumb bloody brute. Chatting away like he wasn't the cause of everyone hating you."

"Everyone?" Andrew asked with a frown, since he hadn't been here to see the aftermath of his meltdown in the Great Hall.

"No, the Quidditch team and Neville, along with the Creevey boys were pretty much all on your side." Hermione provided with a small nod to the mentioned parties.

"Ah, well, that's nice to know." Andrew responded with a nod.

"Oi! Potter why don't you open up that egg, 'ey? Let's see what's in there!"

Seamus Finnegan yelled out while pointing the tip of the bottle he was currently drinking out of towards the boy. The room cheered along with his announcement and started chanting for Andrew to open it.

The dark skinned boy looked up to Finnegan, glaring hatefully at the boy who noticed and immediately took an subconscious step back. He then turned to look at his friends who shrugged as if to say the choice was his. He turned to his brother and saw Harry contemplate it for a moment for nodding his head.

"Alright..."

Andrew looked down to the egg and shrugged.

"Fuck it."

He twisted the latch at the top of the egg and immediately regretted it when the unholy sounds of damned shrieked through the Gryffindor common room. Everyone immediately covered their ears and ducked their heads.

"Why do things like this always happen to us!" Ron screamed over the sound, not knowing whether the others heard him or not.

HP-AP-HP-AP-HP-AP

A week passed since the first task, and everyone had been treating Andrew as though he was some sort of hero for his actions with the Dragon. He mainly thanked them and went on about his day, seeing as he had more than enough work he had to catch up on, and that classes were still commencing, so he was constantly behind his peers.

The "hero worship" as he angrily dubbed the attention he had been getting almost doubled in intensity after the Prophet had released the an edition of the paper which featured the tactics of the first task. There were hero poses of each champion battling their Dragon as well as Andrew standing by the flaps of the tent holding his Golden egg with a massive grin on his face.

The paper went to detail each champion's tactics and how effective they were, of course Andrew caught some flack for damn near blinding the entire audience, but honestly, he didn't care. He had survived, that's all that mattered to him. It was when they reached the end of the first page that Harry once more felt a deep unsettling feeling creep into him.

"... Also it would seem as though the First Task of this auspicious tournament has shone a few lights on potential love connections happening around the school!

Turn to page 10 for the latest potential couples to come out of this tournament!"

As he read those words he heard a flurry of pages being turned by the majority of the student body and sunk his head in despair. Looking up at Hermione he noticed her frown as she too flipped to the page mentioned, still reading over her shoulder he decided to see what Skeeter had decided were the up and coming couples of the school year.

Love Within the Hallowed Halls of Hogwarts!

While I am certain there are countless couples cuddling up to each other for the Yule holidays none seemed to be cozier than our youngest champion and this young female!

The picture below showed Andrew and Hermione in their embrace in the champion's tent when Rita interrupted them. The picture was on a loop as they hugged and pulled away when they noticed the camera flash.

It has come to this reporter's attention that there seems to be something happening between young Mister Potter and the young lady, now identified as Miss Hermione Granger, a forth-year muggleborn in Gryffindor house.

According to some sources, the two have been inseparable since their first year, many have claimed that they seemed to be dating, but are rather adamant about keeping in secret due to Potter's social standing and Miss Granger's Muggle heritage. In fact many have commented on the two's relationship.

"I don't understand what he sees in her, to be honest. She's rather nosy and controlling, she tends to act like a know it all in class as well. Personally I wouldn't date her, but hey, Potter must see something in her, right?" commented a student who wished to remain anonymous.

Andrew quickly turned to Hermione.

"That isn't true, you know that right? She's just blowing all of this up so that she can sell..."

"I know, I'm not worried about it. It's pretty obvious this anonymous source is either, Malfoy, Parkinson or some other Slytherin who has it out for you." Hermione replied waving away Andrew's worry.

He sighed in relief that Hermione wasn't buying any stock in this and proceeded to read further.

But dear readers, where there is Love, there is sure to be heartache, as it has also been revealed that this potential couple may already be headed for a nasty end.

Miss Granger may not be the best fit for young Mister Potter, as there are several witnesses who claim to have seen Miss Granger getting rather close to another champion; Viktor Krum! They have been seen together on multiple occasions towards the back of the library getting rather acquainted with one another. It would seem as though Miss Granger is quite the star chaser, first one of the Boys-Who-Lived and now the Professional Seeker of the Bulgarian Quidditch team?!

But, dear readers Miss Granger is not the only one at fault as Mister Potter has been seen on several occasions with not only Miss Fleur Delacour, the Beauxbatons champion, but also Ravenclaw forth-year Miss Su Li, daughter to Defence Attorney Li!

It would appear Mister Potter has an insatiable thirst for women, which makes me wonder which lucky lady could break him of his ways and get him to finally settle down? Or is this the result of a broken heart caused by Miss Granger? Did her unfaithful ways push him into the arms of another woman? Or rather should I say the arms of other women?

We do hope to that these two figure out their situation and stop the pain they seem to obviously be causing one another.

Andrew's jaw clenched in rage, he was going to kill-

"I'm going to kill that hag..." Hermione muttered angrily, finishing Andrew's thought. "I am not a star chaser! What the hell?!"

"Hey, we know that." Harry told her soothingly.

Hermione let out a small growl, before she stopped, her mind seemingly running a mile a minute before she looked back to the paper.

"How does she know about Viktor and I in the library? We usually go there when it's relatively empty since the less people are there the less likely they are to bother us, plus we enter at different times so that assumptions like these aren't made."

"Hey, now that you mention it... How does she know that I've been hung out with Fleur? I'm pretty sure no one knows about our friendship, just cause we haven't really hung out much." Andrew replied with a frown of his own.

"You guys are sure no one saw you?" Ron asked as he swallowed a piece of bacon. Andrew was happy he seemed to learn how to swallow before speaking.

"Positive." Hermione responded immediately. "Even if someone did, what are the chances that in the entire school, all the houses, every year, that she'd find the one or two who saw us?"

"The numbers don't add up." Andrew responded with a nod before turning to Hermione. "By the way... how often do you hang out with that-"

The question was cut short as they heard a flurry of wings above them and looked up to see about 15 owls flying around the Great Hall. About 6 delivered letters to students around the Hall while about 4 landed in front of Andrew and Hermione got the remaining 5.

They shared a look of confusion before untying the letters and looked at them in confusion. Andrew decided he would take the first plunge and tore open a letter. It was addressed to him by a person he didn't know.

They claimed that he was a sexist pig who seemed to only want women when he was in a relationship before backtracking and saying that if it were due to Hermione, they were sorry about what she had done to him, but ultimately he should a healthier way to deal with his heartbreak.

"Holy shit are all of them like this?!" he asked in disgust as he passed it over to Hermione and the others to read.

The other three all said about the same thing, that he wasn't dealing with the break up healthily and that they were sorry that the "muggleborn" had the audacity to break his heart. They believed him to be a good guy, blah, blah, blah and that he should thank Rita Skeeter for bringing this forward for him so that now he could find a woman who was right for him. Two then proceeded to suggest either their daughters or their nieces. Andrew threw the letters on the table and groaned in annoyance.

"Well, at least they seem to be rather on board for you dating their daughters." Ron commented with a small laugh as he passed the letter he read to Harry.

"No thanks, they mentioned that they were "mature and would happily teach me about what it means to be loved by a woman", I prefer not to be groomed by a bunch of cradle robbing cougars, thank you very much."

Hermione turned to her own pile and opened one, it took a moment before she frowned and threw it on the desk. Andrew frowned at her reaction and picked up the letter to read it, he was disgusted by the first line.

"You Gold digging, mudblood whore!"

"Holy fuck!" Andrew cried out as he threw it down. "What the fuck is wrong with people?!"

Hermione shrugged as she reached for another, as she picked it up and opened it, she let out a short shout and dropped the letter as boils started appearing on her arms. Someone had attached a curse to the letter, what the hell were the matter with people. Hermione stood from the table and rushed out of the hall, Andrew stood to chase after her, but not before grabbing the note in anger setting the others on fire and chasing after Hermione.

He called after her, ignoring the looks from the others in the Hall and followed Hermione all the way to the Hospital Wing. Where he found Madam Pomfrey casting spells on a sniffling Hermione's arms.

Andrew approached them and stood beside her.

"Ma'am is there something you can do about this?" he asked with a frown.

"It shouldn't be too hard to reverse the process, it seems to be a lower level curse luckily it wasn't a darker one, or these would scar." she said with a small shake of her head.

"Miss Granger, when I am done here, I will teach you how to scan your mail for any potential curses, alright? I believe with Skeeter's newest article, you may be subject to many of these before the week is out." Madam Pomfrey said.

Hermione nodded her head in understanding when the others came rushing into the room.

"Hermione, are you alright?" Harry asked.

The bushy haired girl nodded her head in response.

"This is bullshit, why is everyone going after her? The article doesn't exactly paint me in a great light either, why is she the only one getting punished?"

"She's a muggleborn." Luna answered simply.

"Meaning?" Harry asked.

"Meaning, she is the easier target. Andrew is one of Boys-Who-Lived, anyone who even thinks about trying to curse him would be socially sacrificed, Hermione though is a muggleborn, she doesn't really have anyone in the magical world who can defend her. So she's the easier target."

Andrew's expression became stormy and he headed towards the owlry to send a letter off to Mrs Li, something had to be done about this.

The others watched him leave and Su seemed to debate with herself for a moment before going after him, while Ron turned to Harry.

"Hey, just a thought, but is Andrew a Half-blood as well?" he asked curiously.

"What do you mean?" Harry replied with a frown.

"Well, I mean don't get me wrong, you're a Half-blood because Lily Potter was a Muggleborn and James Potter was obviously a Pureblood, but... Andrew may be your brother, but he obviously isn't your... biological brother. Now I've never asked because, it isn't my business and Andrew's always just been, you know, Andrew. But I just wonder, is he a half-blood like you?"

Harry paused his brow twisting once more, he had never asked himself that question before, he had obviously never given much stock in the belief of blood status, as it always seemed rather... prejudice and unimportant to him, but being brothers, he just naturally assumed Andrew was a Half-blood like himself, but as Ron pointed out they weren't related by blood. Which just swung everything back to one question;

Who were Andrew's parents?