I don't own Harry Potter. Obviously.

Part I- It Started Out as a Feeling

April 1969

"You're leaving again."

"Yes."

"You shouldn't."

"I need to."

"Bellatrix?" someone else called, a young male voice against the two females. "Are you ready?"

"You're bringing him?" Andromeda asked harshly.

"He wants to help," Bellatrix told her.

"Are you coming too, Andromeda?" Malfoy asked.

"He's fourteen," Andromeda reminded Bellatrix, her voice full of accusation.

"Fifteen!" Lucius argued.

"He wants to help the cause."

"He's fifteen," she retorted, "and he's going to be married to Narcissa."

Bellatrix snorted. "Even better reason to bring him. Rodolphus will be there as well. That means both you and Cissy will be considered on the right side when the time comes."

"So she's not going?" Lucius asked.

"He's fifteen," Andromeda repeated.

"I'm old enough," Lucius insisted.

"If he thinks he's old enough, than he's old enough. Come on," she ordered Malfoy. Andromeda glared at them as Bellatrix went down the rest of the stairs to meet Lucius at the bottom.

"I'll give you detention."

"Like I care," Bellatrix snorted, but Andromeda wasn't looking at her. She was looking at Lucius. A look of worry had crossed his face. She had hit the right nerve.

"It'll hurt your chances of becoming a prefect next year if you get caught sneaking out."

"Bellatrix, maybe I ought to-"

"It doesn't matter, Lucius!" Bellatrix yelped. "Being a prefect, it doesn't matter at all! Andromeda doesn't even like it. She keeps getting put with an arrogant mud-blood."

"Muggle-born," she corrected without even thinking. She felt two pairs of grey eyes, Bellatrix's dark and slightly accusatory, Lucius's cool and questioning.

"Slip of the tongue, Annie?" Bellatrix asked after a moment, climbing back up two of the stairs.

"Yes," she answered quickly. "I'm used to being in class where I get points taken away if I say the wrong thing."

"You get points taken away if you say the right thing, you mean?"

"Yes."

"Good because I wouldn't want you getting too friendly with this mud-blood," she replied, her eyes boring into Andromeda's. "You wouldn't want to have too many slips of the tongue around him."

"No."

"Like knowing him by his first name. That would be getting to friendly."

"I agree."

"So you wouldn't do that? You're not that familiar with him then?"

"No."

"So Ada lied to Narcissa then?"

"What?" Andromeda asked her.

"Never mind Annie," Bellatrix said, walking back down the stairs. "Although I must tell Narcissa to get some new friends. Hers seem to like spreading deceptive rumors."

"I hadn't heard."

"It doesn't matter," Bellatrix said as she and Lucius began to walk away, Lucius seeming childish and wobbly next to Bellatrix's cool grace. "Just a rumor that you were getting too friendly with a certain muggle-born."

"Mud-blood," Andromeda corrected, trying to keep her voice from shaking. Bellatrix grinned.

"That's right. I guess we both sometimes just have slips of the tongue." And with that she left through the hidden door, leaving Andromeda alone on the steps, her resolve to dislike Ted Tonks solidified even more. If she liked him at all, she would have to hate him.

Two nights later, she found herself patrolling the corridors with Tonks once again. Multiple times he attempted small talk and she shot him down, answering in monosyllables if she answered at all. She could feel him staring at her though she didn't look in his direction. "Andromeda," he began again, this time reaching over and touching her shoulder as if trying to turn her towards him. She jerked away. "Andromeda, what's wrong?"

"Nothing," she answered stiffly and turned around a corner.

"You promised to help me you know." She winced. She'd forgotten about that. "You said you'd help me figure out what jobs were out there in Herbology."

"Well you should know better than to trust a Black," she replied quickly.

"I wouldn't."

"Then you knew I wouldn't actually help you."

"I never said I thought of you as a Black."

"Well I am and if you didn't know that, you're an idiot."

"I meant that you're different. You don't act like they do."

"I do too."

"You talk to me. You didn't flinch back when you found at the girl you'd helped was a muggle-born."

"Professor Martin told me too. And they'd talk to you too if they had prefect duty as many damn times as I do with you."

"They'd do nothing but call me mud-blood," he pointed out.

"I call you mud-blood, mud-blood."

"Only, I think, when you're trying to protect me," he answered. Andromeda finally glanced over at him and found he was looking right at her trying to judge the correctness of his statement. For a moment they paused in the hallway and she could tell he was waiting for her to respond. She bit her lip and then started to walk again, facing straight forward, letting him fall behind. "I can stand up to a few hexes. I wouldn't mind if I could be your friend."

"It's more than just a few hexes," she said suddenly, whipping around to face him. He stopped dead, studying her. "It's more than you can even guess so just-just leave me alone. For both of our sakes!" Then she jetted around again and began marching down the corridor.

"No," he said plainly.

"To save your own skin," she pleaded.

"No."

She sighed and gave another attempt. "To save mine." For a moment he was silent. Perhaps she had finally managed to make something sink into his thick skull.

"Would she really hurt you?" he asked softly, barely audible above the padding of their footsteps.

"I never said anything about a she."

"Don't pretend I'm stupid. Would she?"

Andromeda hesitated. "I don't know," she finally answered. "I don't know what she's capable of anymore."

"What did she do?"

"I never said-"

"Don't pretend I'm stupid," he repeated. "I know you Andromeda. You're a friend of mine whether you can admit it or not. And I can see that something has happened. Merlin, everyone in the school can see that something happened. You and your sister have always been attached at the hip and then this year, suddenly, you're not. Even Narcissa isn't as close to you anymore, though she never was quite as close. Everyone can see it. Don't think you aren't one of the most gossiped about topics in the school and trust me, I know gossip. You wouldn't believe what flies around in the Ravenclaw common room."

"Ted I can't tell you," Andromeda said, her voice defeated. "I can't tell you, I can't tell anyone." She looked back at him. "I can't turn my sister in."

"Turn her- you mean to Azkaban? She's done something bad enough to land her in Azkaban?" Ted asked her. Andromeda didn't say anything but her silence was apparently enough of an answer. Ted didn't press the question again. The quiet that followed seemed overbearing and Andromeda didn't think she could stand to let it sit.

"So speaking of rumors," Ted said suddenly, "is that one about the Slytherin dormitories true?"

"What one about the Slytherin dormitories?" she asked in confusion.

"That boys and girls sleep, among other things, in the same dormitories. There are no separate ones for boys and girls."

A scandalized no was almost to her mouth when an idea struck her. She grinned as she looked back at him, her eyebrows raised. "Is that a way of asking who I've had in my dorm?"

"That's a way of asking who you've had in your bed," he answered, with a slight laugh.

"Why, vying for a spot?" She nearly jumped as he grabbed her shoulders and turned her to face him, looking at her from head to foot, a playful glint in his eye.

"Yes," he answered, his eyes dancing. "M'lady if you would allow me into your bedchamber I would be the happiest boy of eighteen this world has known." Then he grabbed her hand and kissed it while he took a slight bow as though he were a perfect gentleman. Andromeda couldn't stop the giggle that escaped her mouth.

"I'm quite sorry, good sir, but my bedchamber has no room for boys and only room for true men," she played along, walking away from him.

"Then I shall become a man that I may enter," he replied cheerfully, jogging a little to catch her and then walking alongside her, "Tell me, how can I achieve manhood in your eyes?"

"You must survive the flaming heat of a dragon's breath in order to bring me ten scales."

"Easy enough fair maiden, for I have survived even the hotter fire of my passion for you for many a day." Andromeda snorted. "Although you're not really a fair maiden," he said as an after thought. "You're definitely a gorgeous and I'm fairly sure you're a maiden but fair would only suit your sister." Andromeda paled a little at the mention of her sister. Ted seemed to catch it and hastily amended, "I only meant Narcissa."

"I know," she said quietly but effectively ending the strange word game they'd been playing. Silence fell again and Andromeda felt herself wishing she could talk to Ted again, argue or play or even just chat. For a moment she wondered when he would start talking again so they could carry on with a conversation but he wasn't saying anything, perhaps afraid he would overstep a boundary again. She took a breath in, reminding herself that he had been the one to keep talking to her after she had practically told him that Bellatrix was too dangerous.

"So have you talked to your head of house at all about your career options?"

"I talked to Flitwick during the career advice meeting fifth year. I think that's coming up for you, isn't it?"

"Yes, a lovely meeting with Slughorn where I pretend to be interested in a career while he pretends to believe me."

"Why not just decide not to pretend?" Ted asked her, raising an eyebrow.

"So what did Flitwick tell you?" she questioned, ignoring him.

"Well, he definitely recommended something in Herbology," Ted shrugged.

"What other classes are you in?"

"Um, Charms, Creatures, Potions, and Defense."

"So there are a lot of things you could do," Andromeda sighed in frustration.

"Thanks!" Ted answered brightly and she glared at him. He grinned widely. "Not helping I suppose."

"Well, what do you like to do in the greenhouses at all hours of the day besides collecting dirt samples on, it looks like your ears today?"

"Oh, yeah, I had it on my hands and then I had my wand behind my ear and I went to grab it and well, that explains the dirt."

"Right well, what do you like to do besides dirt collection?" Andromeda repeated.

"Experiments with breeding. Creating hybrids or just messing with plants to see their different reactions I suppose. But come to think of it I wouldn't mind doing a few experiments with breeding with you," he said with a large smile on his face. Andromeda shook her head and chuckled.

"Does everything always turn into a sexual reference for you?" she asked exasperatedly.

"Only as long as it makes you smile," he answered. "You're other mood is so depressing. I hate to see my friends depressed."

"We're not friends."

"I'm still waiting for that better reason."

"So anyway, there are a few companies that actually work with breeding plants but I'm not sure how many have a lot of hybrid productions," Andromeda said turning to face the corridor instead of facing Ted. He rolled his eyes and followed after her.

"Do you know any names?"

"Hm, well there's Flora Fanatic; Dangerous Domestics, they mostly grow plants to feed to their animals or to feed to the animals they're going to feed to their animals; Plant Supplier, though usually I think they're called Post Script; McFarland Magical Vegetation…

Alright, shorter chapter and it's pretty much pure fluff. I'm not incredibly proud of this chapter I just needed it for the next chapter (which has a lot of fluff in it as well and a Francis who's gotten on the bad side of a Giddiness Potion).