Chapter One:

"Meda, Meda," cooed her mother, ruffling her hair. "Have fun! Make sure to write!"

Andromeda rolled her eyes and smiled a little. "Yes, mum. See you at Christmas."

Her father hadn't smiled once, as usual. He kept the same, straight, quiet face. "Be smart," he said in his deep, almost disapproving voice. "Make good choices."

She knew she wasn't the favorite as her mother started fawning over the beautiful youngest sister, Narcissa, who shyly smiled at her parents. Bellatrix had already said her goodbye.

The sisters were all very different.

Bellatrix, in all her glory, was the crazy, risque, promiscuous older sister. She was not at all the respectful and responsible eldest sibling one would expect to find. She was pretty, Andromeda supposed. She had black, tightly curly hair, a long body with long legs and definite curves that she was not afraid to show, and a sharp, cold, calculating attitude to match.

Andromeda was the middle child. Unlike both her sisters, she was generally pretty quiet, cautious, and observant. She didn't think she was as pretty as her sisters, but she always brushed that off. She didn't really care. Andromeda had long, thick, straight brown hair. She was shorter than Bellatrix and about the same height as Narcissa.

Narcissa definitely was the favorite of the two older ones, even among classmates. She was out-going, cheerful, and popular, obviously the favored one wherever she went. Her wavy blonde hair always seemed to attract attention. Narcissa's attitude was more like Bellatrix's than Andromeda's. Andromeda was always the different one.

There was one thing that was standard throughout all three was the fact they were Slytherin princesses - the perfect pureblooded girls that definitely stood up for purebloods and themselves.

But of course, as was said, Andromeda was always different. She just didn't know how different she'd end up being by the end of her sixth year.

Bellatrix disappeared down the hallway of the train, as did Narcissa, and somehow, Andromeda found herself looking for a compartment with any room. The only one available, unfortunately, did not have any of the people she'd hoped.

She walked in anyway.

The whole room fell silent as she lifted her trunk to put it above. Two of the boys leapt up to help her, taking the trunk out of her hands and lifting it up for her.

She immediately recognized her two helpers as Frank Longbottom and Ted Tonks. She clenched her teeth together with frustration. "I did not need help," she said icily, sitting down.

"Okay," replied Ted Tonks, taking it down and tossing her trunk to the floor.

"Ted!" snapped the red head girl that she knew was her age. Molly Prewitt.

"Well she didn't need help, Molly," Ted said with a smile that was too teasing for him to be serious often.

Arthur Weasley and Frank Longbottom laughed.

Molly said, "Well, I'm Molly. We're in the same year."

Andromeda nodded. "I know."

"Ted Tonks," said the muggle with the great big smile that would be attractive had he not been muggle.

"Arthur Weasley," said the boy with the bright red hair.

"Alice Prewitt," said the small girl reading in the corner.

"Frank Longbottom."

Andromeda sat down, ignoring her trunk on the floor, and gazing around at each of them. "Nice to meet you," she said reluctantly. "I'm -"

"Oh, we already know you," Arthur said. "Andromeda Black."

She felt her pale face burn and tried to keep her cheeks clear of a blush. "Yes. I am."

Suddenly Frank Longbottom seemed to drift away from her, sitting next to the girl in the corner. His eyes were guarded and cautious. "I didn't realize this before, but you must be related to Bellatrix Black."

"Yeah, Bella's my older sister," Andromeda replied. "My younger sister is Narcissa."

"Yes, we know Narcissa. It's hard not to," Arthur replied.

Andromeda nervously pulled her book out of her trunk and started to try to read. These people did not at all seem to like her. She wasn't sure she liked them either.

"Molly, did you hear about He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named? The rumor is he might be recruiting pureblood Death Eaters," said Frank with interest.

Andromeda shifted uncomfortably. Molly replied, "Frank, You-Know-Who will probably be recruiting a lot of people. As long as we have Professor Dumbledore, we should be fine."

"Purebloods," Ted Tonks growled.

"I'm a pureblood," Arthur said pointedly.

"But you're different!" Ted snapped. "Have you ever listened to any of the other ones? They pick on those poor little first years and don't you remember that little girl last year? She ended up in the infirmary!"

"Ted, she was fine. Besides, you were bugged about it too," Alice said soothingly.

Ted replied, "I was never badly hurt though."

Andromeda cut in coldly, "It's always been that way. They're never hurt too badly."

Everyone turned to stare at her. Molly gulped and looked down at her hands. Frank picked a place on the wall and stared at it.

"What?!" exclaimed Arthur with disgust.

Andromeda felt her insides curl with shame and she hid it with a harsh and cool glare. She waited for him to say more before she chose to speak.

Arthur said slowly and calmly, "Hogwarts is a place where muggles and halfbloods and purebloods should feel safe to learn and be equal for blood status, not be ashamed of what they are."

"They're not ashamed," Andromeda snipped condescendingly. "They're fine."

"Then you're absolutely blind," Alice said quietly. "How can you think that how your kind treats muggles is alright?"

Andromeda stared at them in shock. "They're alive. They are obviously still walking around the school, they are obviously just fine!"

Molly seemed to be barely containing her anger. She said in a very carefully controlled voice, keeping her gaze away from Andromeda, "If you were treated like scum and hexed at and tripped and pushed and teased and you knew you had to avoid certain people, would you feel just fine?"

Andromeda felt like she had been hit with a bag of rocks. Quietly, she looked back down to her book and did not respond. The train ride was long and quiet now.

Ted Tonks suddenly appeared in front of her, offering her a chocolate frog. "I went and got snacks," he explained. "You can have one if you'd like."

She hesitated, not knowing whether to accept it or not. Judging from his...definite muggle-ness, he was probably not very rich. He was exhibiting a quality she rarely got to see - true, honest, genuine kindness.

Reluctantly, she took the chocolate. As he turned away, she said, "Thanks."

He turned to look at her and at the same time, tripped over her trunk.

"TED!" cried Alice, Molly, and Frank, leaping forward to help him.

He was bleeding from a cut on his forehead and sporting a bloody nose. Andromeda flipped her wand out, gently touching her hand to Ted's cheek, and murmured a spell she had learned from her mother. The cut immediately closed and stopped bleeding, and his nose cleared.

"There, are you alright?" she asked.

"Yeah. Where'd you learn that?" he asked, staring at her with beautiful blue eyes.

"My mother, she -" Andromeda realized she was leaning over her trunk, towards Ted, a muggle, and holding his face. She gulped and dropped her hands to her sides, quickly sweeping back. "She er, she taught my sisters and I basic first aid with wands because she thought it was good to know."

She lifted her trunk up above so he wouldn't trip over it again, and then sat down with her book.

Molly, Arthur, Frank, and Alice had all been completely silent the whole time. Finally, Frank asked, "You alright, Ted?"

"Yeah..." Ted replied, sitting down and started whispering something to Frank and Arthur.

"That's pretty cool, Andromeda. Think you could teach me how to do that sometime?" asked Molly. The train screeched to a stop.

Andromeda pulled her trunk down and opened the compartment. "I don't know. Maybe."

She quickly made her exit and ducked into the hallway. Bellatrix came out of nowhere, slamming her into the wall. "Meda, what on earth are you doing with blood traitors and mudbloods?" she hissed.

"I had to. There were no open places in any other compartments," Andromeda whispered. She felt her shoulder crack and it hurt. "Don't worry, nothing happened."

"Alright, don't let it happen again, Andromeda. You could've sat on Notte's lap, I'm sure he would've let you. He would've liked it." Bellatrix stalked away.

She tensed with rage. "I wouldn't do that, Bella," she growled.

"Well you should've!" she shouted. Her sister disappeared, leaving her pressed against the wall and upset over the whole ordeal.

"Are you alright?" asked a voice she unfortunately started to memorize.

Andromeda gulped before tearing her gaze to Ted Tonks. "I'm fine. Leave me alone."

She started to walk past him, and he said, "Andromeda?"

She had no idea why, but she stopped to look at him. His blue eyes studied her for a moment, and then he said softly, "Have a good year."

Quickly, she turned away and walked, trying to pull her normal scowl on to her face as to not look like she was surprised by the muggle boy.