Re-reading DH has turned me into a Andromeda/Ted fan...
Disclaimer: Haha. No.
Andromeda had always been a little bit different from her sisters.
They were all proud Slytherins with pureblooded ancestry who were the very best of friends. There was something odd about the middle child, though. Something that her family could not quite put their finger on. It almost seemed that her ideas and opinions were a bit odd, off almost, though not in a noticeable way. No, she never played with muggles in her childhood and spat at mud-bloods with the rest of them, but it was always some hesitation, an uncertain glance.
Most of her family brushed it off as normal teenager behavior, a little bit of rebellion wasn't too bad. They always thought that once she was settled with a good, pureblood husband, she be grounded and accept the morals that the Blacks had held for generations; Torjous Pur.
Maybe she would have, too. With so much pressure from her family, Andromeda might have become just like her sisters; Death Eaters fighting against mud-bloods for the most powerful wizard in an age, married to the man that her parents wanted her to with normal, good pureblooded children.
All of this might have happened if Ted Tonks hadn't come waltzing into her life. He was the most arrogant, persistent, and infuriating boy she had ever met. Andromeda reasoned that it must have something to do with his blood status. A mud-blood was flirting with a Black, what would her Aunt Walburga say if she heard about this?
Yet, through the hatred infused in her since birth, a spark had been lit. There was something about the mud-blood Ravenclaw that contradicted what her parents had told her about muggle-borns. Maybe it was his smile that was so happy and so human, or perhaps it was something else, like that fact that he had held her while she sobbed onto his shoulder, terrified of what her older sister was getting herself into.
The tiny flame soon grew larger as she gradually began to accept Ted as a friend, ignoring the dark looks her sisters and Slytherin peers gave her. Andromeda realized that he was human, just like everybody else. There was nothing wrong with the muggle-born, nothing different that made him unlike all the purebloods she had ever known. The only thing that separated the groups was that Ted was a great deal kinder and a small problem of non-magical parentage.
She would always remember the first time he kissed her. She was so happy and yet scared out of her wits. What if her sisters found out? Would they tell on her? What would her family do to her for breaking the most honored code of Torjour Pur? What wou-Ted kissed her again and for a moment she put these thought away, to be worried about another time.
They continued to date in secret, meeting up for Hogsmead visits and spending time in secret passageways, away from Narcissia's suspicious eyes. The situation was growing more and more delicate by the day. Muggle-borns were being attacked by a group that called themselves Death Eaters. Bellatrix was part of them, Andromeda had seen her snake tattoo and the crazy manner that her once beloved older sister was adopting.
Her family was beginning to worry that this seemingly 'normal rebellious teenage behavior' was becoming a problem. Andromada would not discuss the issue of blood purity with them, refused to join Voldemort's cause, no matter how much Bella pleaded and, worst of all, talked to muggles and muggle-borns whenever they took trips to Diagon Alley and London. Aunt Walburga clucked and shook her head at behavior like this, saying there was one in every family and she was glad it wasn't one of her boys.
By her seventh year, the girl that was once so sure of her family's values and pure-blooded status was now drifting away, barely speaking to her sisters and staying in her room during holidays. Fear gnawed at her and Andromedra knew that one day, very soon, she would have to choose between her family and Ted.
Pureblood or mud-blood? Blood traitor or proud Slytherin? She did not know anymore.
It wasn't until that winter that her parents found out about Ted. She came downstairs to see her whole family in the sitting room, her mother sobbing silently into a handkerchief as Bellatrix paced back and forth, obviously furious. Her little sister and father just sat there in disbelief.
"What is the meaning of this?" asked Bella, thrusting a piece or parchment into her hands. Andromeda looked down and felt all the blood leave her face. It was Ted's letter, the one he had promised her as they kissed goodbye before leaving the Hogwarts Express.
"I-I don't know, Bella."
"It's a letter from that mud-blood boy. The one that you claim you talk to only because you two have Head Boy and Girl duty together. He wrote you a rather sappy letter, Ana. Can you believe that?"
"Uh-no. No, that's outrageous. Why did he do that?"
Bella grabbed her sister's arm, almost nose to nose with her. "I'll tell you why, Ana. It's because you love him don't you? Why isn't that just sweet? Ana loves a mud-blood."
"Don't say that." The anger in her voice even surprised Andromeda but she gathered her courage and glared at her sister. "How dare you call him that. Ted is so much more than you even were, Bella. He may have muggles for parents but that does not make him any less that you, better actually since he doesn't have these stupid pureblood beliefs. You know your master Voldemort has a muggle for a dad? Shall I go call him a mud-blood?"
Bella screeched with anger, whipping out her wand. Andromeda was too slow to deflect and was hit by a curse of unimaginable pain and she fell screaming and withering on the ground. She heard Narcissia shout and Bella laughed.
The pain stopped and Andromeda was left shaking on the floor of her sitting room, the girl she once thought was her best friend standing over her. "You see?" crowed Bella, facing her family. "This is the power that the Dark Lord has bestowed on me. He will take control one day and kill every muggle-born and blood-traitor out there." She kicked her sister in the ribs. "Get out. You are not a Black anymore, Mud-blood lover."
The girl left that night without a single glance back. The Tonks family welcomed her with open arms and she soon became part of it, marrying Ted as soon as she graduated and dropping the hated name Black forever.
Andromeda had always been a little bit different from her sisters. They were all proud Slytherins with pureblooded ancestry who were the very best of friends. One thing set Andromeda apart from Cissy and Bella, though; she was a Tonks, a muggle's name and a blood-traitor's name.
A name that she could be proud of.
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