"I always think everything is a trap until proven otherwise. That is why I am still alive." - Prince Humperdink from S. Morgenstern's The Princess Bride

There was Christmas and there was mayhem and mishap and confusion. It was far before Harry Potter, the very early brink of his parents' stay at Hogwarts. It was Andromeda Black's final Christmas as a Hogwarts student and now she found herself arguing with a toothy desk clerk at the Leaky Cauldron, bartering for a room.

"Do you know who I am?" She questioned, her eyes narrowing.

"Look, chicky, I don't care if you're the bloody Ministress of Magick. We're all out of rooms."

"My name is Andromeda Black and I demand you give me a room this instant!"

"No!"

She supressed a groan as she took a deep intake of breath, searching her mind for something else to tide over the smelly git for a room.

"Tom! What seems to be the problem here?" A jovial voice called over Andromeda's shoulder and she gritted her teeth together reflexitavely, for she knew without turning who the owner of the voice was and it was the last person on earth she'd like to be faced with.

"Ted, good boy! Seems this deranged lady here doesn't understand 'No Vacancy.'"

Andromeda watched her enemy, Ted Tonks, scan her as she gave him a threatening look.

"Now, Tom, there must be some confusion. Miss Black is a dear friend of mine from school," here Andromeda's eyebrows raised skeptically but she changed her expression to the warmest smile she could muster as the Tom bloke looked at her through narrowed eyes. "She must have forgotten she's to be staying with me this break."

Andromeda couldn't supress her angry shock and as Tonks gripped her elbow and steered her away from the desk toward her luggage at a table in the bar.

"What the -- Tonks, what are you thinking!?" She hissed, rubbing her elbow.

"Let me tell you, I've seen that death-glare you were giving Tom one too many times to think you weren't about to do something ludicriously foul. And he wouldn't hesitate to toss you out to the side roads and have you be devoured by what vermin lurk in the side alleys, especially around Christmastide."

"So now you're going to be devoured?"

"Huh?"

"Well I severely doubt you were serious about us sharing a room. So, naturally, I figured you'd do something chivalrous for the first time in your bloody life and give the room to me." She drawled, a half-smile playing at her pale lips.

"Actually," he said, "I hadn't really gotten that far."

She rolled her eyes, "Traditional Tonks, go and do something insa-"

But as soon as she began to berate the boy, a pregnant woman approached their table. Andromeda recognized her immeadiatly, as did Ted, but for different reasons.

"Theodore!" She called sweetly, pecking him on the cheek. She was absolutely beaming, but a deep frown creased her pretty features, "Oh, you spending Christmas here again? Oh, doll, honestly, Arthur and I would be pleased to have you come to the Burrow. Billy and Charlie love you to death! It's just not right to spend Christmas alone!"

"Now, Molly, I won't intrude on a Weasley holiday."

"Oh!" Molly exclaimed, spying Andromeda, "And who is this?" She said, her voice dropping a tone as if to imagine the two were romantically linked.

"Andromeda Black... she's --"

"His fiance!" Andromeda blurted, grasping his hand in hers.

Molly's face was awash with confusion but then broke out into a hearty smile, "Oh, my, Merlin. I remember you back when you were a tiny toddler. I saw you last... seven years ago? You weren't in Hogwarts yet. The Montague's party."

"Before you married tras-- I mean, Mr. Weasley." Andromeda said bitterly, though Molly ignored the subtext and cast a dark look at her before smiling once more and telling them goodbye. She glided out the door.

"Fiance?" Ted said, face set in a grimace.

"She was a Rookwood!" Andromeda burst, ignoring Ted's comment, "And then she had to go marry some foul excuse for a pureblood and have red-haired babies!"

Tonks sighed, nodding dissaprovingly, "It's all about blood to you."

She criscrossed her eyebrows, "I thought we'd come to that agreement on many other circumstances, Tonks."

Tom rushed to their side, smiling, "Fiance, eh? Now you could've told me, Ted!" He leaned down to grasp the handles of Andromeda's fine leather luggage and the two followed him up to Ted's room.

Andromeda and Ted wore identical grimaces and glares at one another as they climbed the stairs.

Author's note: end chapter uno! And those of you who have just tuned into my fanfictions thought I could never write a multi-chaptered fics - well, mwaha. This is Multi-Chaptered-Fic TWO for me, actually. Only Treasured Workplace, my previous extended project failed miserably. Heh, let us hope that won't happen again! The quote at the beginning is a bit of a theme for the entire piece. Prepare yourselves for Chapter Two - featuring sleeping arrangements and such gone awry and why 'Meda was at Leaky Cauldron to begin with. In the meantime, reviews make chapters come much faster.

Review, please!