Target Practise

[Andromeda Fiorelli]

Andromeda had been practising most of her spells with great gusto and efficiency of late but was determined to get some more in. She used the locomotor spell to help carry a large wicker basket of rocks and small wooden branches to the cliff top and lowered it down carefully. This was exactly what she needed, there was no one else around and she was in the mood to do some damage. Not to anyone or anything in particular but just to get her mood back inorder again. No matter how many times she had tried to take her frustration out on the quidditch pitch, it just hadn't worked effectively. This was the best she could come up with now.

Twirling her wand like a baton, Andromeda began to use it as if it were a drum stick. Beating out an imaginary tune with her wand and her empty hand. Just when she thought the beat in her head was picking up pace, she flicked her wand in the direction of the basket and called out.
"Locomotor wooden branch" a branch lifted up and out of the wicker basket and went in the direction that Andy pointed at. Which was high up in the sky far out from the cliff top, just when she thought it was high enough she flicked her wand again and yelled within the few seconds it took for the branch to begin a free fall 'Incendio'.
The branch burst into flame immediately and Andromeda laughed.

"Yes, one down and a gazillion to go" she lifted a rock this time and flinging that too in the air to see how far she could throw it.
"Fore!" she shouted mimicking now what they roared in what she considered the most boring muggle game in the world, golf.

 

[Zazuka Getathorn]

Zazuka heard the yell and smiled to see her friend out here. She knew that there where rules when it came to being out here but they wheren't as strict as they where with the Forest. Not that she has set foot in there since she found out what being in there did to her. She sighed. Zazuka really did miss the woods. They wheren't scary to her because she had spent most of her life in a wood almost like it.

Zazuka got her wand out of the pocket of the jeans she was waring for once and pointed it at the rock. She mummered the spell and suddenly bell blue flames errupted around it. She wasn't trying to show off, just show Andy what she had been able to do since first year. This was one of her favoret spells by far. "Practicing like this really gets the magic reflexes in order." She said coming up behind her now. She really needed to talk to her. She head was in a sort of confusion she didn't enjoy.

 

[Andromeda Fiorelli]

Andromeda heard Zuka and watched her perform the bluebell flame spell. Rolling her eyes as if Zuka really thought she were the only one capable of doing that particular one, Andy called up another piece of wood and and burnt that one up too with the incendio spell, just as it fell she set a blue orb of light into the center of the falling flames.
She kept her back to Zuka, not wanting to say anything to her for a minute. Andy was no fool and knew Brian would have gone running to his precious Zazuka to calm him down, he was as famous for doing that as he was for arguing with her. The boy was so utterly predictable you could set your watch by him.
After flinging another rock into the air, this time higher up Andromeda practised the wand writing spell as well.
The words weren't the best sky writing she had done but she was getting better.

 

[Zazuka Getathorn]

Zazuka shook her head. Andy was mad at Brian so she was mad at her because she could calm Brian down. What else was new? She often wished that the fights between Andy and Brian wouldn't happen but she knew they where too similer in nature to ever get along for too long. Zazuka saw what she had done with the flames and clapped softly. She took out her wand and congered up a light trail that made up words then put them infront of Andy.

 

[Andromeda Fiorelli]

Andromeda turned around when she saw the letters form before her and after reading them, waved them away with her own wand.
"He said I was right? He huffed and puffed insulted me, told me we would never ever be friends only to then tell you that I was right? About which part may I ask?" this was even more insulting, she pictured Brians face on one of the rocks and flung it as far into the chasm beyond the cliffs as she could.
She really didn't care anymore what either of them said or did, she was tired of Brians constant arguing and Zuka's constant niceness. As if butter wouldn't melt in her mouth and as if the world should revolve around Brian.

 

[Zazuka Getathorn]

Zazuka took a seat by the edge. She could always come back up even if she where somehow pushed. She had been practicing spells like that ever since she had taken to coming here to think with the aid of the ocean air. "About his feeling for me." She said a bit of a blush on her cheeks. "He admited it, I don't know what it was but I seemed to have weedled the truth out of him. I also told Brian that you could lie to me but I would know." She said shrugging her shoulders. She sighed. "Again I say that things are going to be difficult." She said running her hand though her loose curls. She didn't want to hurt Andrew though he had been unknowingly hurting her.

 

[Andromeda Fiorelli]

Andromeda fumed now with so much self righteous indignation Zuka was lucky she didn't get pushed off the ledge.

"Who in the name of all that is magical do you and that great oaf think you are? He calls me a liar when clearly I never was and now here you are all up in yourself, saying that I could lie to you but you'd know! I don't lie Zuka. I have never lied to either you or Brian about anything, I may have omitted the truth on occasion so as not to actually verbally lie to you but I don't lie, especially to my friends. But it sure looks like the two of you are dab hands at it."

Andromeda called up another branch and incinerated it mid air then sent a spray of water to out it.

"Things are going to be difficult huh? Who for Zuka? Sure as hell not for you or Brian because neither of you ever think of anyone but yourselves and don't say otherwise. You both make out that you're all about your friends but the first chance to prove that and it turns out to be a load of crap. You are both so well suited its unbelievable. I hope the two of you make each other very happy because ye make everyone else around ye absolutely miserable".

Andromeda was bordering on boiling point and knew it was only a matter of time before she began cracking spells in Zuka's direction.

 

[Zazuka Getathorn]

Zazuka knew she should be scared but she wasn't. She just stared right on though in her saren way waiting for Andy to take a breath. Andy could push Brian away but she couldn't push Zazuka way. She was too closely bonded to her. This what was probobly making Andy so angry. "I told him that you could, I never said that you did. I know you don't lie. You never have. I trust in you so completly that I would put my life in your hands where things to come down to that." She said calmly though there was no smile on her face.

Zazuka's legs swong slightly a bit like a child. She thought a bit before saying the next words. "Brian was brought up by himself and has never truly had to suffer. I grew up in a home where no one cared for me. Is it really so bad to latch on to the people that seem to? Andrew for one. I care for him very deeply just not as deeply as I thought I did and judging from what I saw in the gardens one day I can tell that his feeling for me don't run that deep for me either but he is convinced that that they do. Things will be difficult for him and for me too. I don't like to hurt people Andy. You know that." She said tilting her head. Zazuka folded her hands on her lap.

"You and Brian get in agruments all the time because you don't take into consideration what the other is saying thinking that your way is the only way. I listen. Had your godmother not gotten you out of that place I would have gone after you. I didn't even flinch when you told me that you had become a warewolf not because I already knew but because I knew that whatever happened to you phisicly you would always be the same Andy even if you didn't believe that youself. But I can see where you would get that I only think of myself. I'm sure that there are some actions that I do that seem like they are for my own benifet but what they are I wouldn't know." She said calmly. Zazuka didn't yell, she wasn't about to start yelling at Andy even though it seemed like she was about to start yelling at her.

 

[Andromeda Fiorelli]

Andromeda shook her head, Zuka always had a way of deflecting her temper. She was a red head for goodness sake, a passionate Gryffindor, a hormonal teenager and on top of all that a werewolf. Of course her temper was going to be a lot more potent that most. But she hated directing it at Zuka.

"I wanted to make the two of you happy Zuka. As simple as that. I knew how you both felt about one another and wanted you both to be as happy as I am" She sighed and leaned against the cliffs at her back, waving her wand at some of the rocks in the wicker basket.
"I don't ever want to see or talk to him ever again, he has said some of the cruelest things to me and I didn't deserve any of it. You telling him that I could lie just confirms in his silly head that I do, he doesn't think of it any other way. Well I found someone Zuka who doesn't punish me the way he always did, doesn't insult me or give out to me at every turn. He calms me, keeps the worst of me at bay and I like that. Brian always just makes me boil over because it's like he knows he can" Andy sighed again.

"And that's not true either about not taking into consideration what the other is saying... you'd think that fool was a Gryffindor instead of a Ravenclaw. In all the years I've known him he has never once argued logically or with any sense of reason at all. Now Carlisle would make a great Ravenclaw. Brian is just hot headed and high maintenence."
She held back the retort that Zuka was welcome to him but in Andy's eyes Zuka was getting the raw end of the deal, but it was her bed and she would have to lie in it.

 

[Zazuka Getathorn]

A corner of Zazuka's mouth went up in a smile. "So this Carlisle is where that came from. I was wondering wondering what had coused a change since out visit to Brightstone." She said a little crypticly. Then shook her head to defuse the sence of weirdness that she always seemed to give off when she talked like this. She was happy that some of Andy's anger had seeped out though. "He was covering just as I was. I don't really know why he was but I know why I was. I was scared of what would happen if things went wrong. I was also trying to spare Andrew. I also think we where trying to spare your feelings." She said her eyes meeting Andy's now. "I know you said that you would be fine with me and Brian but I would rather die than hurt you Andy. That will always be true." She said solomly.

The moment defused again as the emotions where getting a bit to heavy for Zazuka to keep her serinity. "I think it's more like you and Brian know how to push each other's buttons and do so from time to time without meaning too. If it felt like punishment for that I know Brian would be sorry if he knew." She said looking up at the sky now. Her eyes seemed to be wondering up to the sky more and more. She was greatful for it. It meant that things where more or less back normal inside her.

Zazuka smiled and shook her head. "Whatever comes, I'm sure everything will turn out well. Now on to more pleasent matters. You know everything about the boys in my life but I know next to nothing about the new happyness in your life. Tell me everything." She said. Her smile turned into pure sunshine and her eyes sparkled incurangely. She wanted to know everything about the boy that had managed to capture Andy's heart finally.

 

[Andromeda Fiorelli]

Andromeda looked at Zuka, she was always cryptic but Andy had gotten used to that over the years.
"Zuka if I know one thing that is Brian Getathorn has never spared my feelings for or about anything. He might have said that to get his own mercenary goal but I don't know of one single time when he has considrered me above his own personal wants and needs. He is what we Irish term as a 'Mé feiner', out for number one only, himself" she raised a hand then and walked over to the basket of rocks and branches.
"I don't want to talk about him and his lack or his abundance of feelings. I really hope the two of you will be happy together I do, but I really don't want to hear about the guy or have to speak about him ok? I know that's unfair on you and maybe someday I won't mind hearing about how you and he are together but I'm just too mad at him now and he doesn't want us to be friends anymore so that entails not hearing about him and him not hearing about me".

She thought this was only fair, why should she have to have conversations about a boy who never ever wanted to be friends with her. On the subject of Carlisle though she knew she could talk till the cows came home but shook her head.
"Z that wouldn't be fair, me talking about Carlisle after I just telling you that I didn't want us talking about Brian" that was fair after all.

 

[Zazuka Getathorn]

Zazuka pouted and placed her hands on her hips playfully. "Come on! What's not fair is you leaving me like this. I want to know and I'm prepared to act like a child to get you to tell me." She said with a detemaned nod. She was playing of course. If Andy didn't want to divulge any information about her mystery man she didn't have to. Zazuka would find out eventually. It was just fun to do this from time to time.

Eventually she also knew that Brian and Andy would make up. They always did. How many times before had they fought like this. They always came back together. Zazuka would just have to wait for it to happen. For the time being she would respect Andy's wishes and not speak about Brian anymore. Though why she thought Zazuka was getting a bad deal was beyond her.

 

[Andromeda Fiorelli]

Andy laughed at Zuka as she put her hands on her hips.
"Yeah like that's going to bully me into telling you anything" she grinned shaking her head at her, "Alright, he's a bit taller than me, he's got sandyish brown hair, greenish hazel eyes. Handsome, he's quirky, he can calm me down like you can pretty much. He listens to me, he doesn't judge me or expect too much from me. He just lets me be me and accepts me for who and what I am" Andromeda knew that was another stab at Brian who had argued once before to her that he would always expect her to be more than what she was, because he always saw her as strong and capable of doing anything. That in her mind had always been an unfair assessment of her, sure she was strong and very capable but Andy was the typical Armidillo though she hated to admit it out loud. She was as tough as nails on the outside but the biggest softie on the inside. Carlisle had gotten that almost immediately, Brian never had.

"I told him about being a werewolf. It was impulsive but it seemed just so the right thing to do. I could almost feel that there was something there between us and if it were to go any further then I couldn't lie to him. Basing any friendship or relationship on a lie just means it'll never last and I wanted ... him, us ... to have a good beginning. He..." she smiled at Zuka then, "I thought he'd run a mile but he didn't. He kissed me and told me he wasn't afraid of me".

Andromeda knew that if anyone understood how much this meant to her then Zuka would. Andy's heart was a fragile commodity that had been battered and bruised over the past three years with her father and grandfathers death, her mother remarrying and neglecting her, her friends support, her arguments with Brian, the cruel treatment at Durmstrang. Just when Andy thought she couldn't take any more, Carlisle walked into her life and showed her she was someone special and she was good enough to be loved. He walked into her life at just the right time and she would love him dearly for that for always.

"He's supposed to be transferring here from Beauxbatons next year, he's just waiting to hear if he's application has been accepted".

 

[Zazuka Getathorn]

The moment the girlish squeal left Zazuka's lips she knew that she had been living with the Paramores for far too long. Most night it was like having a two month long sleep over with all the girls in the house and acting like well girls. Zazuka felt herself the least femenen of the bunch because she almost never giggled or did anything they did except for maybe hair and clothes but it seemed like they where rubbing off on her. She couldn't help but be bursting with joy for her best friend. "That's absolutely wonderful. It's about time someone convinced you of what I've known all along." She said with a brillent smile.

Andy sounded like she was in love. It was surprising to Zazuka. The way Andy described her Carlisle he sounded like the most wonderful person in the world. But then again she had a tendency to glorify Andrew before he started to drift from her. "Some of the people here know about you being a warewolf and no one here runs from you. Sorry if you felt like that. I can't wait for next year now. I will be able to meet him and maybe get a hold a bit of of his future if I try really hard." She said laughing. Again she was joking. It would totally inapropert to do that. She really did want to meet Carlisle though and since he was coming to Hogwarts she really did hope he became a Raveclaw. Goodness knew they need the help to get the house cup.

 

[Andromeda Fiorelli]

Andy had taken a step closer to the edge of the cliff to fire some rocks down manually when Zuka squealed. Having never heard any noise like that coming from Zuka, Andy nearly toppled head first over the edge, balancing herself just in the nick of time she turned around and looked aghast at Z.
"What was that girl?" she laughed, Zuka really did surprise her when she least expected her too, "I know some people here know and they never ran away from me either but ... I don't know, I guess telling a boy that you feel a strong attraction to something that sinister and serious is a huge step. But I'm glad I did it. We've been writing since that weekend, I even told him to look in the sky above Hogwarts about four o'clock the day of the full moon. Talk about silly and sentimental".

Andy smiled and sat down on the ledge, swinging her legs too and fro and breathing in the lovely fresh breeze that wafted about them.

 

[Zazuka Getathorn]

Zazuka shook her head. "I've been living with the Paramores for about a year and a half now. Kailey, Trista, Luna and Brianna have rubbed off on me big time. Especially since I now know what hidden under their floorboards. Well under the floorboards of the older ones." She said with a little bit of an incriminating smile. It should have been enough to tell her almost exactly what life in that house hold was like.

Zazuka looked up at the sky and sighed. "It's not silly. Your in love. Love makes people react in different ways. You write in the sky, I become poet and fill note books with lame limericks that I would NEVER let anyone see. I can see how that would scare you. Carlisle's reaction could have been anything but he kissed you and that so great it can't be put into words." She said almost too fast. She felt girly again but this time she didn't mind. Zazuka matched the way Andy was swinging her legs absent mindedly. It seemed like things where starting to look up for her best friend.

 

[Andromeda Fiorelli]

Andy smiled as she noticed that both of them were swinging their legs in the exact same way and at the same time.
"So what'll we do now Z? You and me I mean... is our friendship still cool? He won't want you to stop being friends with me will he?" she was afraid of this more than anything, was Zuka so in love that she would bend to Brians will if he asked this of her.

Andromeda waited to hear what Zuka would say.

 

[Zazuka Getathorn]

Zazuka looked at Andy wide eyed. "Brian would never ask that of me." She said like it was the most clear thing in the world. It was true. "In fact I'm sure that he's afraid that you will never let him hear the end of it once we get back to castle. There will be a few others upset by me braking up with Andrew but I'm sure Andrew himself wont be that upset after a bit. Not with all his girls lending their shoulders for him to lean on." She said rolling her eyes. It wasn't like Zazuka to be mean like this if you could even call it mean but really she had played off Andrew's flirting for far too long. It really did bother her.

 

[Andromeda Fiorelli]

"He's sure I'll never let him hear the end of what?" Andy was dumbstruck now but was sure about one thing, as much as she had liked Andrew he was way too flighty for Zuka and not the type her bestfriend needed at all. Perhaps Brian was the best thing for her, goodness knew they seemed to bring out the nurturing nature in one another.

 

[Zazuka Getathorn]

Zazuka looked up. "Well I'm sure that after you talked to me, you talked to him which ended up in a big fight but it did bring us together without meaning to. Quite frankly I would not be surprised if a bit of teasing wasn't in order but forget I said it." She said. She really wouldn't like to see Brian teased. The more she talked about the more Zazuka thought that things where going to go well. She pointed her wand at rock at one of the rocks in the basket Andy had and started to manipulate it in the air. It wasn't that big a deal to her. Zazuka worked really hard at her magic and it showed.

 

[Andromeda Fiorelli]

"Oh Zuka trust me there's going to be no teasing coming from me that's for sure. We are not talking remember, Brian does not want us to be friends, ever and I hate to admit it... but I'm cool with it. I don't feel as if I'm walking on egg shells anymore trying to gauge his moods. So all fine by me" she smiled watching Z manipulate the rock in the air.
Standing up she picked up a few of the branches and lining them up decided she would see how fast she could move them all one by one out over the crevice.

 

[Zazuka Getathorn]

Zazuka gave her wand a sharp flick and the small rock droped into the sea bellow. She sighed. "Sad but your choice. Happy we are still friends though." She said with a wide smile. It would devestate her for Andy to not want to be her friend anymore. She watched Andy line up the branches. She got an idea but she thought it best for Andy to launch the first one. Instead she trailed light to make a butterfly shape in the air. "I found out reasently that I may have an aunt and uncle. I got the letter a few days ago but I don't know if I should write back." She said finally unloading what she had been pondering for days now.

 

[Andromeda Fiorelli]

Andromeda held her wand as if it were a golf club and shouting 'fore' sent the first branch flying out into the air. She was just about to send out the second branch when Zuka mentioned the letter and a possible aunt and uncle. This was huge, Andy knew that Zuka's family had been beyond horrible to her, had been positively destructive would this aunt and uncle be the same? Was this a good thing?

Turning around to look at her Andy tried to assess her friends mood but found it difficult.
"Wow that's pretty big why didn't you say something before hand. That's a damn sight more important than the whole ... other thing we were talking about. An aunt and uncle? what did they say exactly... if you don't mind telling me that is".

 

[Zazuka Getathorn]

Zazuka scratched the back of her head. "Well I didn't want to worry you and also even I don't know what to think about it. You know what my family was like to me and this is my dad's brother and sister who knows what they are going to be like but they said they wanted to meet me. I guess I wanted to figure this out on my own but well, can't for some reason." She said with a soft sigh. She really didn't know what to think about all this. She had douts that the letter was even real but she hung on to it all the same.