The face of the ludicrously expensive silver watch her Mother had gifted her for her last birthday indicated she had just a few minutes left until she had to meet Ted.

"It is not 8 o clock already, is it?" Cissy asked from the dark brown leather armchair, which was perched opposite Andromeda's one in their secluded and cosy corner of the Slytherin common room.

"I am afraid it is," Andromeda replied nervously.

Narcissa Black laughed at her older sister as she gently put down the hideously romantic looking Christmas card she was making for Fabian Prewett.

The card appeared to depict Cissy and Fabian in some kind of Hogsmeade in the snow type setting, with Fabian wearing his trademark Gryffindor red and yellow woollen 'F' sweater.

The real jumper, apparently hand-knitted and gifted to him by his older sister Molly, was of course currently being worn by Cissy, who in the last few weeks since "borrowing" it had barely took the thing off. She was even rumoured by her dorm-mates to go as far as to sleep with the damn thing as a pillow.

"You are so easy to read, Drom," Cissy said, with another mocking laugh.

"What on earth do you mean?!" Andromeda demanded, as she glared at her younger sibling.

"You must really like him if he makes you this nervous," Cissy replied with a knowing smile. "You should not be embarrassed by it. I think it is rather cute. My heart always skips a beat a little when I know I am going to see Fabby."

"You read too many romance novels," Andromeda hit back at her, which came across a little more defensive than she had intended. "I am not that nervous."

"Sure," Narcissa said with another sly smile. "My, my, what would dear Mother and Father think if they knew that a strapping young muggle-born had their daughter in such a fluster."

"Cissy! Shhh!" Andromeda angrily whispered. "And I am not flustered!"

"Sorry!" Narcissa mouthed in a hushed tone. "I dare say nobody would believe it even if they did hear a rumour about you and him dating. The daughter of a Black dating a mug-

"Cissy!"

"Alright, alright! Sorry!" Cissy relented with a roll of her eyes.

The hand of her watch's clock had now darted forward a further minute. Andromeda did not want to be too early to meet Ted, as he always liked to turn up fashionably late.

He called it trying hard not to look like he was trying that hard.

She called it utter nonsense.

"I think I shall have to love you and leave you," Andromeda said to her younger sister, as she pulled herself up and reached out to hug Narcissa.

Cissy held her close enough that Andromeda got a large waft of the lavender perfume her sister had characteristically over-applied. She coughed slightly, then felt a little bit sorry for Fabian Prewett, who no doubt had not had the courage to bring this issue up with her either. Some Gryffindor he was.

"Good luck, sis," Narcissa said as she bid her farewell.

Andromeda walked towards the entrance of the Slytherin common room and despite her previous protests she did have to admit that her sister was right.

She was nervous.

She was flustered.

She felt awful.

This day had been coming for a while and she really was not ready for it.

It was what she had been dreading all over the summer.

It was the day where her and Ted would have the talk.

The talk that she had been dreading.

Ted had dressed it up as a romantic Christmas date, but she knew deep down that all he really wanted to talk about was them going public with their relationship.

But that could never happen.

Andromeda ran her fingers through her long flowing chestnut brown hair as she readied herself to leave the dungeon.

"BLACK!"

All of the nervous energy suddenly vacated the premises of Andromeda's body and it was quickly replaced by an envoy of rage and fury.

Lucius.

As she turned around to face the slimy bastard she saw that he was not alone.

Malfoy was flanked by Corban Yaxley and Algernon Avery, both with big smirks awash their conniving, loathsome faces.

Standing a few feet behind them was the familiar sighting in these parts of the large lumps of meat, Kenneth Crabbe and Laurence Goyle. They were both not quite cool enough to be fully fledged friends of Malfoy's, but they both seemed to relish in their roles as guard-dogs, which at least allowed them to be part of Lucius' entourage in some capacity.

What was a bit unfamiliar and still took a little bit of getting used to was the third tag along to Malfoy's entourage. Rabastan Lestrange, the very odd and peculiar younger brother of her eldest sister's husband to be, was now, purely by association, considered worthy of at least some form of acknowledgement by the popular pure-blood boys.

"Andromeda!" Lucius began earnestly. "If you could spare me just one moment, my dear."

She felt her hand drawing up into a fist at him calling her dear.

How dare he call her that?

The sheer audacity of the boy seemingly knew no bounds.

The arrogance he carried with himself would give anyone the impression that he ran the place and was a 7th year Head Boy, but he was nothing of the sort, at least not yet. His height and frame did make him look a lot older than he was, but it was his confidence and ability to simultaneously intimidate and impress the others that meant he did practically run the place, despite not even being a N.E.W.T.s student yet.

It was that confidence and false-bravado that had meant that at first, despite him not even being old enough to be in the same year as her, when he had first began to court her, Andromeda had initially fallen for his charm and posturing.

She had been very naïve.

She was not naïve anymore.

"What do you want, Lucius?" Andromeda asked in an uninterested manner.

"I want you, Andromeda Black!" he announced in slightly raised ostentatious manner, so much so that it attracted the attention of numerous nosey onlookers. Yaxley and Avery both snickered, with Rabastan Lestrange looking back and forth at Crabbe and Goyle, possibly trying to establish whether he was permitted to laugh at this himself.

"More specifically, I want you to give me the honour of accompanying you to the Slug Club Christmas party."

Andromeda felt very embarrassed as she noticed many eyes darting over in her direction, all waiting for her to say something. Public proposals to Slug Club parties of this nature were not unheard of, especially for the big festive one, which was always the biggest, but you would never catch someone like Lucius participating in such folly.

"I am flattered, Lucius," Andromeda began in a sarcastic tone. "But I am afraid that you are too young and lack the maturity to court a lady of my standing."

Whatever he may have been expecting her to rebuff him with, if he had been expecting it at all, it had not been that. There were a few audible chortles and laughs throughout the room, although noticeably none came from any of Malfoy's cronies or allies.

Lucius, quite unexpectedly, began to laugh himself, which in turn meant that Yaxley and Avery began to laugh too. Rabastan Lestrange let out a loud roar, although stopped prematurely when Kenneth Crabbe glared at him.

"Good one, Andromeda!" Lucius confidently countered to her. "I like that you are not as easily won as some of the other girls at this school. Of course, as a daughter of the noble house of Black I would expect nothing less. But the idea that I lack maturity is a quite simply preposterous notion. I stand before you as Slytherin's youngest Quidditch captain and Seeker for a generation."

"Lucius, I confess that I do not know too much about Quidditch," she began, to a few snickers from Malfoy's posse.

"Of course, my dear, as a lady you cannot be-

"But I do know enough to know one thing, Lucius," she said loudly, interrupting his sexist intrusion. "The only reason that Xavier Shacklebolt is no longer the Seeker of our Quidditch team is because your Father's gold bought you the captaincy."

The Slytherin common room dungeon suddenly erupted into a mixture of audible gasps, groans and hysterical laughter. Nobody could quite believe that Andromeda Black had just said out-loud what the vast majority of the Quidditch watching school would often gossip about, but never dare say in ear-shot of Lucius, let alone directly to him.

Xavier Shacklebolt had apparently broken all kinds of records as Seeker a few years prior. The Slythern Quidditch team was always dominant, but with him at the helm there was never any doubt that they would win every match with absolute ease, whilst the general consensus with Lucius as Seeker was that they often won in spite of him rather than due to him.

At least that was what Ted had said was the general consensus of his Quidditch-watching dorm-mates. It had been Ted who had originally made that comment about the Malfoy gold being the only reason Xavier was no longer Seeker, she had not ever considered repeating it to Lucius himself, but in the moment such was her rage that she had gone full throttle without even thinking about it. And it had felt very good.

Lucius looked dumbstruck, but his surprise quickly turned to one of fury as a nasty frown appeared on his face.

"She's got you there, Lucius!" the loud voice of Kingsley Shacklebolt bellowed across the room to much fanfare from those sitting with him. Malfoy glared over at him but said absolutely nothing to the school's Head Boy.

Kingsley was one of very few students considered out of bounds of even Malfoy's belittlement. Not only was he the Head Boy of the entire school, but he had won the Hogwarts Duelling Club's prestigious annual tournament for three years in a row. There was one extremely important unwritten rule as a Slytherin, or indeed as a member of any other house in the school – Do Not Mess with Kingsley Shacklebolt.

"I can assure you, my Father's gold did not-" Lucius began in a rage-filled voice, as his face began to turn bright red whilst he glared at her with his hate-filled eyes.

"Your father's gold has bought you many things that you have desired in your life, Lucius," she interrupted, much to his continued fury. "But there is one thing that I can promise it will never be able to buy. Me!"

And with that, before Lucius even had a chance to reply, she stormed out of the Dungeon in a triumphant rage, not even sticking around to hear the laughter and shock at her last victorious quip at him.