(1968, October)

Andromeda

Three years after Andromeda met an infuriating Hufflepuff in the library; one year after she admitted to her friends that yes, that Tonks bloke really was quite cute, for an impertinent mudblood; and six months after she finally admitted to herself that she didn't understand why Blood Purity really mattered, Bellatrix graduated.

Just after exams, while the seventh-years were off celebrating the end of their Hogwarts days, and the fifth-years were passed out after their OWLs, and everyone else was packing and lazing and enjoying their last few days with their friends, Edward James "call me Ted" Tonks had tracked down Andromeda Tatiana "my name is not ANDI" Black and asked her if she'd like to meet up over the summer.

Her eyes had grown wide and she looked around in a panic – if Bella found out about this, she would be dead. Tonks would probably be literally dead. And his entire family. (Meda had no illusions about what the Death Eaters did, nor that her sister was one of them, nor that said sister would go to extreme lengths to put any potential suitors firmly in their place: Jasper McCulloch still wouldn't speak to her after Bella spoke to him after he asked her to the first Hogsmeade weekend.)

Thankfully, no one had been near. She had glared at Tonks, and dragged him by his collar into an empty classroom, sending privacy spells at the door. "Are you completely mad?" she had hissed. "No, I can't meet up with you over the summer! If my sister finds out you even talked to me –"

"What's she going to do? Kill me?" he had laughed.

"YES!"

He had rolled his eyes. "Don't be so dramatic, Andi."

"Don't call me ANDI, Tonks! It's not my name, and we're not friends!" They weren't. Just because he was cute and she had realized that blood was blood and magic was magic and life was life no matter what, and wouldn't curse him in the halls like some of her classmates, didn't mean she liked him.

"Sure we are. And it's Ted."

She had made a strangled little noise of frustration. Conversations like this were the point where her argument that muggleborns weren't really all that different fell apart. "I cannot associate with you! CAN. NOT. Bella would kill you. Father would have me betrothed to one of his friends by the end of the summer!"

"We can go to Muggle London. No one needs to know."

"How in Circe's name would I get to Muggle London? And you're still assuming I'd want to go out with you, which I don't," she had added after a second's pause. "I don't even like you!"

He had just smiled, that so-charming, disingenuous smile. "Sure you do." ("No, I don't," she had interjected.) "But I get it – crazy sister, overprotective parents – it's fine." She almost laughed at the thought of her parents described as overprotective. "I get it. I'll see you next year," he said confidently, heading for the door, then turned back and winked. "Andi."

She had just grumbled under her breath and let him go without correcting him, because really, he was right: she did like him. He was straightforward and kind and stubborn and had never once bowed and scraped before the Black Family Name and Bella's determination to prove that the family reputation for insanity was well-deserved. (After three whole years of Slytherin and Ravenclaw boys doing exactly that, she could see the value in one who didn't act like she was a possibly-unstable princess to be cautiously fawned over).

But he was a muggleborn and a Hufflepuff, and so, so ignorant about the way the world worked, and who she was and who he was. The only reason he didn't act like the other boys did around her was because he was too stupid to recognize the danger her family represented. He thought she was just a pretty, stuck-up rich girl who liked him because she didn't tell him to bugger off.

She couldn't go out with him, and that was that.

And now she had a problem, because it was the day before the first Hogsmeade weekend of her fourth year, and she had turned away everyone who had asked her, for various reasons that all really came down to their not being the one she really wanted. So she didn't have a date already, and the one she did want (but shouldn't have) was standing in front of her saying, "How about it, Andi? Go with me?" and "Come on, your crazy sister isn't here anymore, you can do whatever you want," and "It'll be fun. I'll buy you lunch at that new tea shop…"

"Nothing's changed since last year," she pointed out, as coldly as she could. "If I'm seen with you, ever, Father will find out, and he will sell me off to the highest bidder before I even graduate. And let me tell you, after 'sullying yourself with a mudblood' the highest bidder is a lot less attractive than the one you would've gotten before."

Tonks just sighed. "So that's a 'no,' then?"

"Yes, it's a no, you moron!"

"You do like me, though," he pressed, sounding a little uncertain, for the first time she had ever heard.

"Yes," she said in a tone of pure exasperation. He perked up at once. "I mean – I don't dislike you." Gods and Powers, that slow smile was going to be the death of her. She wanted to kiss it off his stupid face. "I don't hate you on principle…"

"Just go with your girlfriends, then," he suggested, almost slyly (for a Hufflepuff). "And meet me here, on Sunday, at noon. I'll get us lunch from the elves and no one will have to know."

"Here?" she raised an eyebrow at their surroundings.

He nodded earnestly.

"In an abandoned classroom?"

More nodding.

She couldn't help but smile, just a little, at his hopeful expression. "Merlin, you really know how to treat a girl," she quipped.

"So you'll come?"

She waited a long moment, keeping him in suspense, but then sighed. "If anyone asks, you're tutoring me in… Runes. I was too embarrassed to admit it to anyone who matters, which is why I asked you, and not a Slytherin or Ravenclaw."

"Yes!" Tonks hissed, beaming, pumping his arm in celebration of his success. Meda rolled her eyes at the mugglishness of the gesture, but didn't say anything. "Brilliant! This is so great! I'll see you Sunday! And don't worry, I won't tell a soul." He tried to keep a straight face, but was quickly grinning again, clearly unable to hide his excitement.

She scowled. "It's your neck on the line if you do," she pointed out drily, but he just laughed and waved and practically skipped out the door. She sighed. He wouldn't even have to tell anyone. They'd know just by looking at him. She'd have to be extra careful to act normally, so they wouldn't figure out that it was her he was seeing in secret.

She did like him, after all.

At least enough that she didn't want to see him dead over her.