Disclaimer: All characters belong to J.K Rowling, as does the setting. I own nothing but the plot.
Tears streamed down her face as she sealed the letter. Her heart breaking more with every drop of wax that fell onto the folded parchment, her mind obsessing over its contents and the misery it would bring to the reciever. And yet she knew she had to do this. The past couple of months with Ted Tonks had been magical. While their relationship had been secret, they had had no choice, Andromeda had found herself starting to believe in the dream she and Ted had concocted. A dream of running away together after hogwarts, a dream of leaving their need of secrecy behind and never returning, a dream of finally escaping all of the prejudice and hatred that had surrounded her all her life. That dream was shattered over her summer holidays though, and was replaced with cold, hard reality. There was no escape. She realised that now.
Over the holidays Andromeda's sister Bellatrix had dragged her to countless death eater meetings in the hope that she would join with her cousin Regulus. It was at those meetings that she finally faced the facts, her dream of escaping with Ted would have to stay just that: a dream. There was no hope for them. That fact was rubbed in her face everytime she heard her sister's friends brag about the muggles that they had put in their place, it was brought to her atention with every gory detail they recounted. Ted wouldn't stand a chance against these people, he would be dead before he knew what hit him. Actually, no, these people liked to indulge in torture before finally giving their victims the death they were begging for. She couldn't subject Ted to that, and dating her would definitely earn himself spot on Bellatrix's hit list. It was safer for him this way. Andromeda kept repeating that in her head as she attetched her letter to her owl's leg and watched it dissapear into the night sky, with her dreams of freedom and love vanishing with it.