If I owned it, I would be rich and not at all worried about the economy. As it is, I'm not rich, I don't own Harry Potter. Sorry.

Part Three: Until They're Before Your Eyes

May 1970

"Is it moonstone or monkshood that's used for joint pain?" Andromeda asked flipping desperately through her copy of Advanced Potion making.

"You're stressing about exams."

"But I need to know."

"You don't need to know now. You thought you had some time to take a break from studying."

"I just need to-" Ted leaned forward and began to kiss her. She smiled into his lips for a moment before suddenly pulling away and turning back to her book. "Seriously, I need to find out Ted!" He sighed, shoving his fingers into his golden hair as Andromeda began pouring through her book again.

"You are proving difficult to distract today."

"This is important!"

"You're freaking out."

"But it's…" Ted leaned forward again. She stopped as his lips touched hers. They were sitting out on the edge of the forest outside of Hogsmeade again. For a moment she was happy, her want to kiss Ted, something they couldn't do in letters, however many they sent, overcoming her frantic need to study. Then she began to pull back again.

"Which is it?" she asked quietly.

"You need to relax," he replied before kissing her again. She kissed him back, feeling herself slowly leaning back more and more as the distance between her body and Ted's grew smaller. Suddenly Andromeda sprung up, her forehead clunking against Ted's nose. Her hand shot to her forehead as he wiped at his nose with the back of his hand, looking at it to see if there was blood.

"I'm so stupid! Of course it's monkshood!"

"Yeah stupid, that's the word I was looking for," Ted told her his eyes twinkling slightly now that he was sure his nose was okay.

"Oh, sorry."

"It's all right. No blood," he told her. "But you have to have some amount of stupidity if you sneak out of school to do schoolwork."

"I came to see you! And it's not like it's homework, per say; I'm revising."

"You're panicking," he told her sitting casually on the grass, one knee bent up with his arm on it. His nose was a bit red. Andromeda smiled to herself. "What?"

"You look cute," she murmured, looking down. Ted rolled his eyes.

"You look quite cute yourself. I just wish you'd quit worrying about exams. You'll do fine. You always have from what you've told me."

"I want to be prepared," she told him, scooting closer. He lay down on the ground and she rested her head on his stomach. "I never thought it would be this important before."

"It's not that important, not compared to O.W.L.'s and N.E.W.T.'s," Ted reminded her.

"Maybe not to you. I don't know. I never thought I'd actually have a real need for good scores. I just got them."

"You've worked for them before."

"Of course. But it was never important for me to get good grades. Just respected, a nice idea, a good idea."

"I seem to remember you were about as panicked last year too." Andromeda sighed and sat up again, punching him lightly in the arm as she moved. "Ouch, my dignity!"

"You deserve it."

"What did I do?"

"I'll think of something later," she informed him snobbishly as she picked up her book again and began flipping through it. "Besides, I remember someone dreading prefect duty because he had N.E.W.T.'s and spent the time hissing incantations under his breath." Ted sat up and settled himself next to her, reading over her shoulder.

"A lot of people said I was doing that but I never noticed," Ted replied thoughtfully.

"Now who's the one who gets stressed over exams?"

"What are you looking up now?"

"The difference between aconite and wolfsbane."

"There is none."

"Are you sure?"

"Who's the herbologist here? Yes, they're the same plant."

"Well I know that. I mean, the difference between naming. When do you call it aconite and when do you call it wolfsbane?"

"Don't forget monkshood."

"Well obviously," Andromeda sighed.

"I'm sorry but nothing is obvious about your study habits, did you know that?"

"It's obvious to me," she pleaded, looking up at him. "Help me will you? I know I'm going to fail Herbology and then everyone will make fun of me because see, my boyfriend, he works with plants all day and I should know something about them." She tried to make her best puppy eyes possible, and Ted just laughed.

"You do know you have no logic don't you?"

"Excuse me?"

"One," he said kissing her forehead, "you are not going to fail your Herbology exam. And two," he said, kissing near her ear, "no one would laugh at you if you did because they don't know I'm your boyfriend."

"Right, that," Andromeda agreed, twisting a little to meet his eyes again. She smiled lightly and leaned forward to kiss him on the lips. "I suppose I don't have very much of that logic thing," she breathed, sitting with her legs folded towards her side. Ted put his arms around her, raising to kneeling on his knees, leaning down to kiss her.

"No, hardly any," he consented pulling his lips away for a moment. Ted put one of his arms down on the ground to keep his balance as Andromeda kept on leaning back, one of her hands settled next to his, the other in his hair, gently pulling him down with her. She leaned her neck to break apart and touched her forehead to his.

"Good thing I have you to be logical for me."

"Very good," he consented as her back finally come in contact with the ground, both of Ted's arms keeping him up off the grass.

"Not that you're terribly logical all the time either," she managed to mutter.

Ted suddenly propped himself up more, "I resent that," he said quietly with a smile. Andromeda laughed as she sat up more, leaning towards him.

"You stopped."

"I thought you wanted to study," he smirked.

"There are more interesting things," she replied, raising one of her eyebrows. Ted reached forward and pushed a strand of her hair that had fallen out of her ponytail behind her ear, his face coming close to hers again and for a time she was once more lost. It was a surprise to her that she managed to hear the faint sound of coming voices. She pushed at Ted and jumped to her feet, hissing at him to hide. He gave her a startled, confused look but consented as her stomach sank. She was sure she heard voices coming towards them and she watched as Ted cast a disillusionment spell on himself and headed back towards the trees, away from where the noises were coming from. Andromeda's heart was thundering as she looked up and saw her sister standing there, her eyebrows raised along with both the Lestrange brothers. Andromeda's eyes looked between the three of them, becoming more and more aware of how she looked. She shrugged her shoulder to try and move the sleeve of her robe up again but the first few buttons were undone and her sleeve refused to move. There was grass in her hair; she could feel it scratching at her scalp now.

"Been having fun out here?" Bellatrix asked with a smirk.

"I fell asleep," Andromeda said coldly.

"You bother to skip out of school and you spend that time sleeping?" she questioned, the smile still on her face.

"I wanted to study alone but I fell asleep," Andromeda replied, her eyes following Rabastan as he walked to her left side. Rodolphus stayed by Bellatrix, his eyes flittering with dry amusement. "I needed a break from the castle."

"I'm sure."

Andromeda brushed through her hair and glared at her sister. "I'm not you Bella," she growled before moving to collect her books, hoping to walk away, dragging her sister and the Lestranges further away from where Ted was hiding. Or was he still hiding? Had he managed to slip far enough away that he could he apparate? She didn't really feel like sticking around either way. She began to walk back towards Hogsmeade. Bellatrix reached out and grabbed her arm, squeezing it tightly.

"Where you going little sister? I'd very much like to meet your lover. Where is he?"

"There's no one. I was revising and sleeping," Andromeda growled, pulling back as hard as she could. Her arm slipped out of Bellatrix's hand more easily that she had expected and she found that Rodolphus had come up at her back and quickly seized both her arms from behind.

"I see how it is now," he hissed in her ear. "It's alright. I understand you're a Black; you have needs and I'm not always around. But you won't let you're loyalty rest with him anymore, now will you? When I want you, you're mine, not his."

"Let go of me! I don't know what you're talking about!" Andromeda commanded, yanking hard against him but he held tight. She squirmed and tugged, trying to get free for just a moment. If she could, she would be able to apparate. Her test had taken place in April, and she had passed. Rodolphus laughed and shoved her suddenly, right into Rabastan's awaiting arms.

"Hello there pet," he said with a smile as she hurriedly stuffed her right hand into her pocket and grabbed her wand. With a pop and flash of light he was sent crashing backwards and Andromeda was about to apparate when Rodolphus grabbed her again.

"Now that wasn't very nice," he whispered, his arms around her waist pulling her close. She could feel his breath in her ear and it irritated her to no end. She could feel his body pressed up alongside her back as she struggled against him. "But maybe you don't understand. My brother and I have always gotten along well because we like to share."

"Get away from me!" Andromeda yelled, trying again to get free. Her hand gripped tightly to her wand but she couldn't tilt it back to attack Rodolphus without getting hurt herself. "Bella!" she hollered. "Bella you told him to leave me alone! You told him!"

"It's for the best Annie," Bellatrix told her.

"What kind of best? Bella, please!" she demanded, trying to kick at Rodolphus's shins, stomp on his feet, anything she could manage.

"I- you don't want me to defend you anymore. You've made that perfectly clear!"

"Bella!" she yelled as Rodolphus grabbed his wand.

"We'll be back in time for you to catch dinner," he assured her.

"Bella!" Thunk! She felt Rodophus's body stiffen and fall behind her and she went tumbling to the ground over his body. Quickly she dashed to her feet, snatching her books off the ground as she grabbed her wand to apparate.

"Who's there! Show yourself!" Rabastan called out. Andromeda left, appearing beside the Hogwarts gates panting. Her heart pounded out of control, jumping wildly when she heard someone apparate beside her. She took a deep breath when she realized it was Ted, looking more furious than she had ever seen him. He grabbed her elbow and opened the gates pulling her inside the grounds.

"Don't ever leave here again!"

"Excuse me?"

"He was going to- he would have- Dromeda!" Ted yelled, stamping his feet like an angry toddler. He swore and kicked the wall holding the gate in place. Andromeda stood where she was, her books pulled tight to her chest, her arms crossed over them. Ted turned to face her again. "He can't have you! He can't hurt you! I won't let him!"

"Obviously. You hit him with a spell."

"Your sister should have done something!"

"I'm a bit mystified by that myself. She doesn't act like herself around Rodolphus. She gives in to him when there are other people around. When they're alone she doesn't but when she knows other people are around-" Andromeda stopped and looked up at him. "You're jealous?"

"Jealous? No I'm not jealous!" Ted exclaimed, coming towards her again. He raised his arms as if to hold her but then seemed to think better of it and dropped his head, running his fingers through his hair with a sigh. "I'm furious."

"I got that."

"He shouldn't do that to you."

"He's never actually done anything."

"He's tried!"

"This is only the second time."

"Why are you so calm about this?" he asked angrily, not angry at her, but in general enraged. Andromeda bit her lip while thinking, slowly bending down to place her books on the ground and then coming back up to meet Ted's eyes.

"I think because you're not."

"So you were before? You said this had happened before? When?"

"I told you. During the holidays."

"You only said he tried to kiss you and you didn't want to be kissed by him."

"That's the gist of it."

"That's not the gist of it! There's a huge- huge chunk you're leaving out! Were you just as calm then? How could you not be furious?"

"Well, Sirius and Regulus were there to be mad for me I guess. I never-"

"Why! Dromeda you should be mad!"

"Ted, seriously, calm down."

"I can't calm down! He tried to- Dromeda he would have raped you if he'd gotten the chance. You do realize that don't you?"

"He might not have intended to go that far."

"Dromeda!"

"Fine, he could have. I don't know his intentions."

"Then how can you be so calm?" Ted repeated in exasperation. "You, the girl who was panicking about exams, who worries constantly-"

"Not constantly."

"-who would undoubtedly scream, yell, and holler if anyone did the same thing to one of her friends or her sisters, why are you so calm?" Andromeda stared at him for a moment, biting her lip again then shook her head.

"I don't know."

"You don't know?" Andromeda shook her head again. "You should be. Do you know that?"

"I'm well aware."

"Why?"

"I was afraid when he had a hold of me."

"But you're not now."

"You're cooling down too."

"Dromeda-"

"Ted, I don't know. Does it matter?

"Yes, it does matter. It matters because what if I'm not around to protect you?"

"I hardly need your protection."

"Then how were you planning to get away?"

"I can apparate. As soon as I got free I would have-"

"What if you hadn't?"

"It didn't happen. Why panic about something that didn't happen?" Ted sighed.

"Someone's going to catch me if I stay on the grounds."

"If they haven't already somehow. I swear some of the teachers have eyes all around the castle."

"Security cameras," Ted mumbled.

"What?"

"Never mind."

"No tell me."

"Dromeda, I should go. I need to calm down more."

"You seem calmer."

"On the outside."

"Oh." Andromeda looked up at him. "I still want to know what security cameras are."

Ted managed a small smile. "It's a muggle thing."

"I still want to know."

"It wouldn't work at Hogwarts. I was joking."

"I still want to know. Talk to me Ted."

"I need to go. I need- I need to think."

"About what?"

"About all the reasons it would be bad if I set out to go kill Lestrange."

"Ah."

"Both of them."

"Could potentially land you in Azkaban."

"Possibly."

"Not to mention you might get hurt."

"It'd be worth it."

"But then I'd have no one to protect me," Andromeda said, making herself laugh. Ted raised his eyebrow at her.

"I'll write back to your letter from this morning tonight, okay?"

"You'd better explain security cameras then too."

"I could do that," he said with a smile, turning to go.

"Aren't you going to kiss me good-bye?"

"I didn't think you'd want me to, not after-"

"Ted, I'm fine."

"I find that strange."

"Ted," Andromeda pleaded faintly. "I got out okay so I'm fine," she assured him as she came close to him. He put his arms gently around her.

"Promise me you'll stay in the castle grounds?"

"Until school ends."

"I suppose that's as good as it gets," Ted sighed. Andromeda leaned up and kissed him lightly on the lips before pulling back and looking into his eyes, studying them. She could still see them raging as he reached up a hand and began playing with the loose strands of her hair again. "I hate him, Dromeda."

"I know." He leaned down and kissed her forehead.

"I love you," he said quietly.

She smiled. "I love you too." He gave her a brief hug and headed for the gates, leaving her behind as he apparated right beyond the ward. Andromeda bent down to pick up her books before heading to the castle when she heard someone coming up behind her and turned around. Her eyes caught on two people, a round-faced girl and Francis's brother, Frank Longbottom.

"I told you she was different from her sister," Frank muttered.

"Well, I knew that," the girl sighed. Then she smiled and held out her hand. "Hi, I'm Alice Hale. I met you at one of Slughorn's parties but you were rather disoriented. I don't know if you remember me." Cautiously Andromeda returned the handshake as she stood up, leaving her books on the ground again.

"You kept asking me if I was alright," Andromeda replied carefully.

"I suppose I did. You really did look awful. I'm not sure why you came. Then again, maybe you didn't intend to. Slughorn did kind of pull you into the party. He does that sometimes. Although I haven't seen you there again. Have you been avoiding them? Although sometimes I do to so maybe we're just missing each other. That's a definite-"

"Isn't he a muggle-born?" Frank interrupted, staring at Andromeda.

"Who?" Andromeda asked quickly as Alice quieted down.

"He is, isn't he? He was in Ravenclaw I think. And I'm almost positive he was a muggle-born."

"Almost positive. Well that shows how certain you are," Andromeda replied snidely.

"I'm sure he wasn't someone a Black would typically associate with."

"What do you want Frank?"

"Nothing. He doesn't want anything," Alice sighed. "He'll drop it and leave her alone," she said, glaring over at the boy. "It's none of his business and he would do well to remember it."

Frank rolled his eyes at her. "I still want to know."

"I'm not going to tell you."

"That's as good as a yes."

"And I'm sure your lack of surefire information and my lack of agreement will come in useful when you're telling people."

"Oh, he wouldn't tell anyone!" Alice protested.

"He wouldn't?" Andromeda asked.

"Yeah, he wouldn't?" Frank seconded. He received double glares from both Alice and Andromeda before Alice looked back at Andromeda.

"He wouldn't because that would get you in trouble and it would be just mean. I know my mother, well, she left and it wasn't- it wasn't too pleasant for her as she said and she only left for a blood-traitor so if it was a muggle-born you were talking to and- and well Frank wouldn't tell."

"I repeat, he wouldn't?" Frank questioned.

"Come on Frank. If you tell, then she loses her status in her house. If she loses her house status, then she can't protect Francis anymore."

"I'm not protecting Francis."

"Please, everyone talks about that fight between Aias Burke and Yaxley," Frank sighed. "Alice is right. If it weren't for you, Francis would be in the same shoes." Alice got a smug look on her face. "Okay fine you win," he told her.

"Thank you!" she smiled cheerily. Andromeda couldn't help but smile a little. "Anyway," she said, turning back to Andromeda, "I won't be telling and I'm guessing Frank won't either." She giggled. "It's so cute though."

"You just like other people's love affairs," Frank snorted.

"I must admit, I take little interest in your affair with Rosie Hart."

"Eh, well, it's destined to end soon enough."

"Must you be so cold? She has feelings you know!"

"I thought you weren't interested!"

"I'm not."

"Then why do you care about her feelings?"

"Maybe she's not the one I don't care about," Alice bit back. Andromeda bent down and scooped up her books.

"If you must know, it's a mutual thing. We're both a bit disinterested."

"Disinterested?"

"We've talked about it. Right now she's using me to make Oliver Johnson jealous and I'm alright with that."

"Oh are you?"

"I'm going to go," Andromeda said faintly.

"Oh, alright then. Good-bye," Alice said offhandedly.

"I mean, I don't like anybody right now. Well, I mean not anybody I have a chance of hooking up with anytime soon. At least I don't think I do."

"Who is it? I'll tell you whether or not you have a chance."

"No."

"Why not?" Andromeda heard Alice ask as she faded out of hearing range. She tried not to let herself run down to the common room.

Please don't hate me. You can hate Rodolphus. You really can. And you can say he dies in the 7th book because I don't think it mentions whether or not he does, but don't hate me, please?

Okay, so warning, the next chapter is pretty light, fluffy, and short. It's just a conversation between Frank, Francis, and Andromeda.