Written for the prompt of the day, argument, for the Hogwarts Online forum. Not beta-read, please excuse any possible mistakes. Maybe will be a three-shot.

Andromeda has been writing and rewriting that list in her head billions of times, at different moments of her life. She hasn't given it a name or a title: she doesn't dare name it. Because even just thinking of leaving, of running away is taboo and frightening.

She remembers the very first time she, unconsciously, established it. She was six and wanted to escape the house to see the horses in the stable but her parents wouldn't let her go. She wanted badly and thought of many ways to go there, but in the end, she didn't. She always has been a coward. She thinks, but she doesn't acts.

And leaving has often been an option in her choices, but she never takes it. She conspires and invents plans, because it's fun and because maybe one day... But it seems too unreal and insecure and faraway and not for her. It's just for those stupid girls who elope for someone they only think they love. Andromeda swore to herself she will never scarper for a boy, if Andromeda Black run away it would be because of a great thing. Like going to that reputed Italian school "with a high rate of mudbloods". Her parents words, not hers.

But this time her wishes for greatness are broken and she knows she needs to elope for a boy. No, she corrects herself, because of a boy. It's not a silly teenage crush she wants to join, it's a life she wants to avoid. An awful life, pre-written for her, and it's not the one she aspires.

She finally finds the courage to write down, on paper, the argument which swung the balance on the 'you must leave' side.

And she feels relieved. Because there is no way on Earth she would marry Rabastan Lestrange.

Now she has finally written it, the ingenious plans she never taken seriously seems scary and wobbly. Now that it's for real, she feels alone and she's afraid, but then she remembers her friends' words and it's a little better. Because it'll be hard but she has Hester and Helena and Astin and Ted. They will be her new family.