Disclaimer: I own nothing in the story or the cover.

For Kate (merlinspants394) for GGE2015. I hope you like it :D I'm sorry its late. I actually wrote this forever ago, and then completely forgot your requests, but realized this fit in quite nicely :)

A/N: this is a prequel to Nighttime Conversations. Hope you enjoy. Written for (skip):

would do for you comp: #10, reject a proposal; hogwarts comp: yr 2 charms: wand lighting charm, firecasting charm, engorgement charm, extra prompts: -character: Andromeda - word: problem - dotw: Tuesday - phrase: I hate you – lwl: 444 – e.e. cummings poem – action: cry – spell: accio – dialogue: "I don't understand…", "I can't do this anymore." – item: wand;

Rejection

Andromeda Black sat with her legs crossed in the center of her bed, the room around her completely dark. Her wand sat in her lap, Lumos already cast to shed light on the object in her hands.

It was the Tuesday after Easter in the Black House, and there was an elegant ball planned for tonight amongst her parents and their friends.

But had come home for the holidays with a lot on her mind. Andromeda had been dating Ted Tonks since the beginning of the year. After winter holidays, she had ignored him for a while, unable to choose between him and her family. But he had chased her down, and she had decided.

She loved him just as much as he loved her, and Andromeda wanted to be with him for the rest of her life.

But there lied the problem: Narcissa was the only one to know, and it had taken ages for Andy to let her know.

Andromeda had to confess, and she had to leave, and something had to happen before it came to blows.

In her palm lied a thin silver bland, a beautiful engraving around the edge and a single, sapphire stone inlaid.

"It's a promise ring," Ted said. Andromeda looked at the ring in his hands, her mouth open in an 'o' and her brows crinkled, confused.

"Are – are you asking me to marry you?"

Ted smiled. "Would it be a yes?" he asked playfully, then reached to take her hands in his as she shook her head in silent laughter. "Answer the question."

"It's something Muggles do. We've been dating for a while, it's just you and me, and I love you and you love me. It's a promise, a promise of something more to come. So that you know you'll always have me. Muggles usually use their class rings, but I guess wizarding schools don't do that," he chuckled. "I was my Grandma's. Do you – do you like it?"

Andromeda couldn't help herself. She cupped his jaw and kissed him, her heart hammering. "I love it."

Ted was beaming as he slid the ring onto her finger.

Andromeda didn't know why she had doused her fire. Maybe it was because in this house, she had always needed to hide.

But there was light glowing from her wand, and a promise in her hand.

With that, she whispered Incendio, flooding the room in light as she lit her torch ablaze.

Andromeda smiled. No more hiding.

Pointing her wand at her chest of drawers, she charmed the second one open, as well as the velvet pouch she had hidden buried inside it. It was a beautiful thing she picked up in Hogsmeade in her third year: a pouch invisible to all those who bought it. Indeed, it had only appeared to her eyes after she had handed over the galleons. It was where she kept the things her parents would never approve of: ambitious career brochures beyond her housewife duties, photos of her friends from other houses, a Muggle movie ticket she had seen with Ted. Andromeda raised her wand and levitated the ring from her hand into the pouch, before charming it and the drawers shut.

She smoothed down her dress robes as she rose from the bed and left the room, closing the door behind her.

Her parents' evenings were passing in the usual, mundane manner. Dozens of men and women she didn't want to speak to, or family members she enjoyed talking to but only until they brought up the Ministry, or pureblood pride, or Voldemort and his band of radicals. It never lasted very long.

Then there were her own peers. The girls were alright, but particularly enjoyed gossiping in corners. Bella usually stayed with those dozens that Andy didn't enjoy speaking to, and Narcissa with this group, or cuddled to Lucius Malfoy. As far as Andromeda knew it, Narcissa was the first who had fallen in love with her betrothed in this generation of her betrothed. She was lucky. Her gentleman peers tended to hang around the older men, trying to prove their worth. Of course, as the dancing began, those two groups melded together.

Before Andromeda knew it, Damien Mulciber had taken her hand and whisked her to the dance floor. They spun in slow, silent circles; Damien had never been one for small talk, and she was grateful. He passed her on to Malfoy, and then to Rodolphus Lestrange, and then to Regulus, and eventually she landed in the arms of Rabastan.

"Good evening, Andromeda," he smirked. Andromeda scanned the crowd to make sure no one was listening, and leaned into his ear. "I hate you."

"Now, now," he brushed her ear with his lips, "that's no way to speak to your betrothed." He placed a kiss on her cheek, and Andromeda tried to ignore the awful sensation it gave her.

"Not yet," she said firmly.

"Oh, please, we both know you're wrong there. You've been mine since we were thirteen. We simply haven't gone through the formalities. Look at Lucius – he's certainly ready."

"He treats Narcissa kindly. They will be happy."

"Ah, but aren't we happy?" There was a response ready, but it died in her throat as Rabastan pulled away and, to Andromeda's horror, got down on one knee. "Andromeda Black, will you do me the honor of becoming my wife."

This was it, and it had come so much sooner than she had wanted it to. The air around her was disappearing, nearly a hundred pairs of eyes trained only on her and Rabastan, and everything around her was closing in: her family, her future.

"I don't understand…" it was her mother's whisper.

Understand this, she thought, finding her courage. "No."

Rabastan looked shocked and despite herself, Andromeda wasn't surprised. It had been a very, very long time since someone said no.

She began to shake her head. "I can't do this anymore."

Then — chaos.

Voices erupted: yells, questions, anger. Andromeda broke out into a run, struggling against the people in the crowd but not stopping until she had reached her room upstairs. Thinking quickly and knowing the anti-locking charms on the doors, Andromeda cast an engorgement charm on the door, growing it into the frame so that no one could budge it if they wanted to as she fused it around the edges to become part of the wall. To get in, her parents would have to blast it down, and keeping up appearances was incredibly important to them.

Andromeda was hoping for a future in charms.

She sat sobbing in the dark until she no longer heard a single noise from the outside. It was very long before the quiet came, but it did. When it happened, she sent an Accio towards her pouch and held it tightly to her chest as she ventured through the house and out into the night. If she needed anything right now, it was a clear head, so she headed toward her childhood garden.

Her sisters were there, and she had the conversation she had dreaded since Ted had become her everything.

And that night she apparated away and never came back.