"Here we are," said Ted, as he and Andromeda stepped out of his father's pickup truck. "Home sweet home."

Andromeda stared up at the farmhouse, trying to hide her displeasure, but failing miserably. Peeling paint. Hideously outdated curtains. A rickety old porch. And was that manure she was smelling? Feeling slightly sick to her stomach, she imagined that she was at the Selwyn's huge manor house instead, with it's lavish decor and expensive furniture, wrapped in Radulf's arms and laughing at something India had said. Somewhere a dog let out a loud bark and she was jolted back to reality. She was stuck on a farm. For the entire summer. With Ted Tonks.

"I must say," said Mr. Tonks, as he came around the truck, "Ted's mum and I were very surprised when he wrote to us and said his girlfriend was coming to stay for the summer. We didn't know he was seeing somebody."

Andromeda smiled weakly, resisting the urge to gag at the thought of being Ted's girlfriend.

"Thank you for having me," she said, deciding it was in her best interest to be polite. Surviving the rest of the summer here would be hard enough by itself. She didn't need Ted's parents poisoning her food or ordering a cow to attack her to add to this mess.

Mr. Tonks smiled at her. He looked a lot like Ted, only older, with flecks of gray in his thinning blond hair.

Andromeda started walking up the porch steps, cringing as they creaked under her weight. "Ted, bring in my trunk," she ordered.

Behind her, she heard Mr. Tonks chuckle. "She's a bossy little thing, isn't she?"

"This mattress is lumpy," Andromeda informed Ted.

The two of them were in Ted's sister Shannon's room. She was spending the summer in America and wouldn't be needing it.

"Sorry, princess, but you're going to have to deal with it. It's the only extra bed we have in the house."

"Why don't you have a guest room?"

"Because we don't usually have guests."

Andromeda sighed and looked around the room. There were lots of posters on the wall, all with muggle singers on them that she'd never heard of. Stacks of records covered the floor.

"You're sister likes music, doesn't she?"

Ted nodded. "It's a bit annoying, actually. She's always playing it much too loudly when I'm trying to sleep."

Andromeda ran her hands over the sheets. "What's the thread count of these?"

Ted sat down in his sister's bean bag chair and looked up at Andromeda warily. "I don't even know what that means."

She sighed loudly. "I'm asking because these sheets feel a bit scratchy. My sheets at home are 1000 count Egyptian cotten.

"Look, Black," said Ted, "I didn't ask you to come here. I don't even want you here. This was your idea and if our sheets don't live up to your standards then that's too damn bad."

Andromeda sighed again. He was right, of course. She had brought this upon herself.

"Just so you know," he added, as he stood up to leave, "you'll be helping me with the farm chores while your here." He paused, watching as her eyes widened. "And since we're both still 16, we'll be doing them all the muggle way."

She buried her face in the pillow as Ted left, slamming the door closed behind him.

This was going to be a long, long summer.

"I'm sorry, you want me to do what?"

Andromeda was currently staring at Ted as if he had just expressed a desire to marry Moaning Myrtle and spend the rest of eternity sharing her toilet.

He smirked. "You're going to help me as I assist a cow in giving birth. Normally my dad and I would do it, but he's out of town at an agricultural conference."

His mother looked over at them from her place by the stove. "Do you want more eggs, dear?" she asked Andromeda kindly.

"No, thanks," she muttered, using her fork to move her uneaten eggs around her plate. "I've lost my appetite."

Ted wiped his hands on his napkin and stood up. "Well, we better get out there," he said brightly. "Time's a wasting."

He stifled a laugh at the expression on Andromeda's face. She looked like a prisoner walking to her execution. He swung his arm around her shoulder as she came around the table. "Come on, love, it'll be fun."

She glared at him darkly, but he only smiled wider.

"You two are just too cute together," Ted's mum said, as he opened the back door and led his "girlfriend" out into the sunny June morning.

"I'm going to murder you, Tonks!" Andromeda had never wanted to strangle someone so badly in her entire life. "You scared the shit out of me!"

Ted laughed, making her angrier. "Come on," he said, "it was kind of funny."

"No, it was not!" she screeched. "I thought I was actually going to have to see a cow give birth!"

"Did you really think I would do that to you on your first full day here?" he asked. "Come on, Black, give me some credit."

"I'm going to kill you," she muttered.

"It was just a joke."

"Jokes are supposed to be funny! I'm not laughing!"

"Why are you so mad?" he asked. "At least you don't have to actually help a cow give birth."

Andromeda pushed past him. "I'm going back inside. In fact, I'm going back to bed. It is way too fucking early to deal with you and your idiotic sense of humor."

"Tsk, tsk, that's not the kind of language a lady should use."

She flipped him off.

"Besides," he continued, stopping her in her tracks, "I still need your help. You know, with chores that actually exist."

She whirled around, once again seriously doubting her decision to come here. An entire summer of dealing with her parents' disappointment and frustration had to be better than this.

"What kind of chores?" she asked suspiciously.

He grinned. "Nothing too difficult."

A few hours later, Andromeda wiped the sweat from her brow. Apparently Ted's idea of "nothing too difficult" included repairing a rather large chunk of a fence that had been damaged during a storm.

"It's too hot," she groaned. "Tell me again why I have to wear your sister's jeans?"

"You wouldn't want to be wearing shorts right now," said Ted. "All this wire would scratch you up bad."

She sighed for what felt like the thousandth time that day.

"We're almost done," he said, as if he could read her mind. "Then we can have lunch and you can change into a pair of Shannon's short's if you'd like."

Andromeda had figured out soon after she had arrived that none of her clothes were suitable for the farm life. Luckily for her, Ted's sister was about the same size and had a closet full of old clothes for Andromeda to choose from.

Ted tried not to stare at Andromeda's legs as she came down the stairs, but he failed miserably. She had on a pair of shorts that lived up to their name. They were short.

He cleared his throat. "Erm," he said, feeling his face heating up, "we're going into town for lunch, if that's okay."

She nodded. "That's fine."

"Good,"he said, leading them out to the truck. "Because this place has the best burgers in all of England."

Andromeda would never admit it to him, but she was the slightest bit jealous of Ted's parents. As she got to know them, it became obvious that they were the complete opposite of her parents.

His mum was a little on the the heavy side, with rosy cheeks and a kind smile. She was always wearing an apron and baking things. She was the antithesis of Andromeda's mother, who was tall and thin and always perfectly coifed. Druella Back rarely smiled and when she did it never reached her eyes. She would never be caught dead in an apron and left all the cooking to the house-elves.

Mr. Tonks spent a lot of time reading the paper, just like Andromeda's father, but unlike Cygnus Black he always put it down when his wife or son or even Andromeda spoke to him, giving them his undivided attention. He was always whistling some tune or another and made a lot of jokes about muggle politics that she didn't understand.

They were the kind of parents who listened to their son, who loved him dearly and made their affection clear. They placed no value on 'upholding the family name'. They would never pressure him into marrying someone he did not want to marry. All they cared about was his happiness.

Two weeks later, Andromeda was surprised to discover that she was still alive. And while Ted was still driving her crazy and the work was still a pain in the arse, she had stopped wishing that she had gone to France with her parents instead.

"A horse," she said uncertainly. "You want me to get on a horse with you?"

She and Ted were currently standing the stable, both looking up at a brown horse named Asher.

"Yes, I do."

"Why?"

"Because it's fun. Us farm folk are allowed to have fun once in a while, you know."

She bit her lip. "I've never ridden a horse before."

"I know," said Ted. "That's why we're doing this."

She just stood there, staring up at the horse in front of her. It was so tall. She hadn't realized horses were such large animals.

"I won't let you fall," he whispered. "I promise."

She looked up into his bright blue eyes and found herself nodding. Because he looked so sincere, so honest, so kind. She trusted him.

Ted climbed up onto the horse and then held his hand to help her up.

"Put your hands around my waist," he instructed.

She did, trying to ignore how nice his stomach muscles felt under his T-shirt. Quidditch and farm work were certainly doing something for him.

"Hold on," he said, giving the horse a kick in the side. They took off across the field at a gallop and Andromeda let out a loud squeal, wrapping her arms tighter around him.

"Ted!" she shrieked. "Slow down!"

The horse soon slowed to a brisk trot.

"That's the first time you've ever called me Ted," he said softly. "When no one else is around, I mean."

He was right, she realized. Unless his parents were around and she had to pretend she was his girlfriend, she always called him Tonks.

"It's just a name," she murmured, feeling an unfamiliar flutter in her stomach. "It's no big deal."

"I want to show you something," said Ted, later that night.

Andromeda redirected her gaze from the episode of 'Bewitched' that was currently on television to him. "What?"

"Just follow me," he replied.

He led her up a flight of stairs and into his bedroom. She hadn't been in there until then, and she looked around curiously as he opened the window. The room was small,much smaller than her's at home, with white walls and hardwood floors. It was sparsely decorated, but she supposed that was because he spent most of his time at Hogwarts. It was surprisingly tidy, especially for someone who never seemed to be able to keep his shirt tucked in or his shoelaces tied. His bed was made. His trunk was open and she could see all his school belongings neatly piled inside. The only truly personal touch was a framed photo, the muggle kind, of a girl with blonde hair and a pretty smile that was sitting on the table by his bed.

"Come on," said Ted, interuppting her thoughts. Somehow, without her noticing, he had climbed out the window and onto the roof.

"Careful," he said, as she stepped out into the cool evening air. Normally she would have been scared, but the roof was almost comletely flat, with only a slight tilt, and she knew it was unlikely that she would fall. She sat down beside him and looked at him questioningly.

He lay down and motioned for her to do the same.

She did, putting her hands behind her head and looking up at the dark night sky.

"Wow," she murmured, gazing up in wonder at what seemed like millions of twinkling stars. "They're beautiful."

"I used to come out here all the time with my dad when I was younger," said Ted. "We'd just lie here and look up at the stars. He'd always point out all the constellations to me because I was rubbish at finding them."

Andromeda tried to imagine doing something like that with her father, but she couldn't. Her father had never made time for her, not when she was a child and certainly not now. She still remembered running into his study when she was younger and begging him to come play with her, only to have him shoo her out of the room and shut the door in her face with "I'm busy" as his only explanation.

The two of the were quiet for a while, staring up at the sky, lost in thought.

"Ted," Andromeda finally said, breaking the silence. "Who was that girl in the picture in your room?"

"Just someone," he said.

"Is she your ex-girlfriend?"

He didn't reply for a minute, but then he nodded. "Yeah."

"Do you miss her?"

He nodded again.

"Sometimes I miss Radulf," she admitted. "Even though he's an asshole and I know I shouldn't."

"He shouldn't have broken up with for the reason he did," said Ted. "That wasn't cool."

"When I told you why he dumped me, you gave a weird look," she said, remembering that day in the empty classroom when she had found her crying. "Why was that?"

"I guess I just figured you two were already shagging."

"Why?" she asked.

He shrugged. "I don't know. I guess because you were always all over each other. Also, you're friends with Adee."

"So because my friend's a floozy, you thought that meant I was too?"

He chuckled. "Floozy?"

"What's wrong with the word 'floozy'?

"Nothing," he said, still laughing.

"Would you prefer I say 'tart' or 'trollop'? Maybe 'hussy'?

"You're funnier than I thought you would be," Ted told her.

"Let me get this straight," said Andromeda. "You thought I was a slut with no sense of humor?"

"A stuck-up slut with no sense of humor," he corrected.

She giggled, lifting her hand to brush her hair from her face.

Ted noticed that her pink nail polish had started to chip away. There were a few scratches on her hand and a bit of dirt stuck under one of her nails. You could tell a lot about a person by their hands, and Andromeda's hands had certainly changed. They were no longer the hands of someone who had never done a hard day's work in her life, someone who had been spoiled since birth. They were the hands of someone learned how to mend a fence , ride a tractor, and milk a cow. Someone who slept on scratchy sheets that weren't imported from Egypt. Someone who would lay on a dirty roof and not worry that it would mess up her hair.

"Ted."

Ted rolled over, ignoring whoever was speaking to him.

"Ted, wake up. It's morning."

He sat up and blinked a couple times, his eyes adjusting to the sunlight. He and Andromeda were still on the roof.

"We fell asleep," she said. "I've never slept outside before."

If a person had told Ted Tonks a month earlier that one day he'd fall asleep next to Andromeda Black on the roof of his house, he would have told that person that they were crazy. But now, sitting there with her, soaking in the sun on that beautiful July morning, it didn't really seem so strange.

"You snore, did you know?" Andromeda said, pulling him from his thoughts.

"Yeah," he said, yawning. "Julie told me."

"Julie?"

"My ex."

"Oh," said Andromeda.

He saw a flicker of something in her eyes. Sadness? Disappointment? Jealousy?

"Well," she said, "Julie had a lot of patience. It was driving me crazy and I only had to deal with it for one night."

"Wait a minute," said Ted. "If you woke up last night for long enough to notice that I was snoring, why didn't you go inside where it's warm and more comfortable? Why would you stay out here?"

She shrugged. "I didn't want to move. I was too tired. Besides, it wasn't so bad, being out here with..." She paused, her brown eyes locking with his blue ones. She immediately turned red and looked away. "... With nature and the stars," she finished quickly.

"Right," murmured Ted, stretching his arms over his head. "Nature and the stars."

That was a pretty quick update if I do say so myself. Once again, I had no spellcheck, so bear with me. I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Please review!