author's note: Again, thanks for the reviews. I always enjoy getting them, and seeing other people's opinions; it helps that they're mostly positive so far!

Couple of responses to reviewers (actually I think they're entirely to Loki Mischeif-Maker, but never mind!).

Andromeda is the only daughter who has entirely fulfilled her parents' expectations so far (note italics!). Bella, whilst she has recently begun to make her father proud, wasn't a source of pride prior to the summer after she left school; though her engagement to Lestrange (coming up soon!) will almost certainly propel her into position of favourite daughter.

As for Vogue - Andromeda doesn't really read Vogue as an insight into the world of fashion. She's more interested in the information it gives her about Muggle culture; she's sort of an anthropologist in that respect. All the Black sisters are intelligent, but in different ways: Andromeda is the most inquisitive of them, certainly, and perhaps the most focused on her schoolwork.

It's not entirely certain that Andromeda was born in 1953- but with Bellatrix in 1951, and Narcissa in 1955, I think that bringing her down smack in the middle is probably the best idea. JK may correct that in future, but until then, I think 1953 is the safest bet.

And finally apologies for repetition - that was due to desperately writing that chapter late at night after inspiration had struck and I just had to get it out of my system!

OK, so we're still setting the scene here. But at least Andromeda and Ted both know that the other exists. And yes, I know we've only got as far as the start of term feast. As before, bear with me!

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Ted always loved the start of term feast. For him, whilst the excitement of returning to Hogwarts began to grow as soon as he arrived at Platform 9¾, it was at the feast, with the Sorting, the delicious food (so much better than anything he got at home) and surrounded by his friends, that term really began.

He even enjoyed the speech by Professor Dippet, though it was the same every year. But this year was the start of a new era: Professor Dippet had retired, and the Transfiguration teacher, Professor Dumbledore, had been appointed in his place. Ted liked Dumbledore - he was fair, and though he seemed to know about every single piece of mischief that was being planned, he let all but the most damaging go ahead. Dumbledore was the reason, Ted reflected, that he had got an O in his Transfiguration OWL, and the reason why he was taking it for NEWT.

And so Ted sat back on the Ravenclaw table between Gideon and another Muggleborn, Sam Yates, and prepared to let it all just wash over him. Then he glanced across to the Slytherin table, and saw her. The girl he'd bought a magazine for at King's Cross. Andromeda Black. But far from being the smiling, laughing girl he remembered from the platform, she now looked utterly miserable. She was sitting bolt upright, her head held high and proud, but she looked... as if she'd had some really bad news, or something.

He stared at her for a long time, almost without meaning to. It wasn't hard; Andromeda had a beautiful face, heart shaped with smooth, almost carved angles. Then he heard Gideon's voice, laughing, swimming up to him. "Ted? Ted! Come back! Come back to us!" For another second, Ted stared over to her, and then reluctantly turned to face Gideon.

"Yeah, what?" he said, a little defensively.
"Where exactly were you?" Gideon said, a smile creeping up his face. "You looked very happy, wherever you were."
"I was just..." Ted struggled for a moment. "I was just looking...""You, mate, were "just looking" at a Black." Sam chuckled. "There's no "just looking" with those girls."

"I loaned her two bob for a magazine," Ted said shortly, "and she hasn't paid me back. That's all." When Sam and Gideon raised eyebrows and looked at each other, Ted shrugged in the most relaxed way he could manage. "Seriously, would I even think of getting involved with someone like her? With her family's reputation?"
"You'd be an idiot, mate," Gideon concluded. "And we all know you're anything but an idiot. Right?"
"Right," Ted nodded, but couldn't resist glancing back across towards Andromeda. She was looking straight at him, and when she saw him looking back, she smiled faintly, nodded, and then looked away.

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Andromeda had climbed out of the train feeling utterly, utterly lost. Hogwarts loomed up in the distance, but it felt like the last place she wanted to be. After everything Imogen had said on the train, the thought of spending another year in the company of people who thought the way her family did about the wizarding world made her blood run almost cold.

As she got into a carriage with Imogen, Imogen's younger brother Evan and Rabastan Lestrange, she wondered what on earth was going to happen that year. How was she going to cope with all this? She couldn't stand all this talk of blood treachery, and Mudbloods, and separation. For some reason, she couldn't stop thinking about that Muggleborn boy, Ted. He had been so kind, so generous, when he barely knew her. People like him deserved better than anything Imogen Rosier had to say about them.

Just before they took their places in the Great Hall for the start of term feast, Andromeda saw her sister for the first time since they'd parted at Kings' Cross. To her shock, Narcissa was hanging off the arm of Lucius Malfoy, looking up at him adoringly as he strode down the Great Hall.
Lucius was in Andromeda's year, though several months younger, and Andromeda loathed his blood purity fanaticism with a passion. He had spent most of the previous year making passes at Andromeda; but now it seemed he had gone for her sister, instead. It was hardly surprising that a Black had ended up with a Malfoy, as the family estates bordered on each other in Wiltshire. But for Lucius to go straight for her sister...

"I think... I think I'm going to be sick," Andromeda said faintly as she sat down next to Imogen.
"Jealous, are we, Romy?" Imogen pursed her lips. "Well, I must say, Cissa's done well." Andromeda pulled herself up tall, holding her head high. She felt desperately sad - not for losing Lucius, as she had never wanted him in the first place, but because it seemed that she was losing Narcissa. Her younger sister, so easily led astray...

As she sat there, utterly miserable, she looked across the Hall, scanning the crowds for people she knew. And then she saw him - the boy from Kings' Cross. Drat it, she still owed him money. He was talking, joking with his friends; and then he suddenly looked up at her. His eyes were dancing, he had a grin on his face, and there was something so friendly, so open in that smile that she couldn't help but smile back, before looking back down to the table again

Perhaps she would go and repay that debt some time soon. She could find him after lunch, or after supper, and give him the money, and maybe... maybe talk to him. He seemed like such an antidote to what she was going through, and it would be nice just to get a breath of fresh air. As Dumbledore finished his first speech, and as the familiar gleaming platters of food appeared before the students, Andromeda had set her course.