They kissed passionately as she run her fingers through his thick, blonde hair. She felt his strong hands reach behind to her back, using them to press her towards him even tighter as she tasted the merlot on his tongue inside of her mouth.

In the spur of the moment he pushed her gently, yet very enthusiastically up against the wall. She felt his hands slowly trickle down towards her bottom, he eyed her curiously to see if she would stop him, but instead she positioned herself so it was easier for him to place a powerful hand on each one of her plump arse cheeks over her dress.

He squeezed, softly at first, perhaps gauging her reaction again, but when she began to kiss him more vigorously he took his cue to squeeze a bit more firmly. She suddenly felt what must be his semi-erect penis press up against her through his trousers.

"Oh Teddd," Andromeda involuntarily moaned under her breath, as he continued to kiss her and squeezed even harder on her buttocks. She had never before desired someone as much as she craved Ted in that moment.

With almost every fibre of her being she wished that she could take Ted back to her bedroom and they could explore each other's naked bodies. Her mind ran wild with the thought of making furious animalistic love to him.

The more she thought about it the more raw and primal her thoughts and desires became.

In the heat of the moment she even, for a split second, considered letting him take her right there on the table which they had just ate their three course meal.

But no.

She couldn't do that.

Andromeda Black could not give away her virginity in the Hogwarts kitchens of all places!

The wine was putting ideas in her head.

Andromeda naughtily bit his lip, which seemed to completely astonish him, but judging by the increase of the bulge in his trousers it had not been a completely unwelcome surprise.

She pulled away slightly so that they stopped kissing.

"I love you," Ted whispered.

"I love you too," she replied breathlessly.

"Then why can't we have a proper relationship?" he asked, catching her off guard.

Andromeda had known this was coming and felt a lump in her throat, as he caught her breath slightly. Her heart rate had increased rapidly with her arousal, but this change in topic would no doubt put a stop to that too.

She almost wished he had taken her on the table if it had avoided them talking about this.

It had been a pleasant surprise that they had managed to dodge this topic of conversation for so much of their evening already.

"Ted," she murmured. "I wish that things could be different…honestly I wish-

"You wish what? That I wasn't a filthy muggle-born that-

"Ted!" Andromeda barked. "How can you say that?! You know that part of the reason I love you is because you are so different to all of the pure-blood bastards in my house!"

"You can say that all you like, but if I was a pure-blood like your little sister's fella then we wouldn't have to settle for kissing in a flaming kitchen storage room, would we?!"

Ted suddenly looked really annoyed now.

This argument had been brewing for months, so it was not unexpected, but still she had not braced herself for this moment as much as she should have. They had just had the most intimate and sexually charged moment of their relationship so far, why did they have to ruin it with an argument?!

"We wouldn't? Would we?!" he repeated in a frustrated voice, but she could not bring herself to reply, all she could do was look at him with an expression of real sorrow on her face.

"You would not be safe if people knew we were dating Ted. A muggle-born dating a daughter of the Black house… you just do not understand-

"I understand well enough!" Ted snapped back. "My Mum came to this country from Poland with no family left alive… do you know why that was?" he demanded.

"Ted. Ted, please-

The alcohol seemed to have really gone to his head and she could see now that he was very visibly distressed.

"They were all killed! Thrown into concentration camps and either worked and starved to death… or the lucky ones were stuck in gas chambers and murdered on arrival! I've seen the way some of those lads look at people like me… if they had their way they'd do the same to us! Well they can bloody well jog on! If I have to fight a hundred of them to be with you then so be it. I'll do it!"

"Ted, please, please promise me you will not go looking for a fight with anyone. I fear I have already riled up Lucius enough tonight already, do not give him and his cronies an excuse to have a duel with-

"What'd you mean you've already riled him up enough tonight?" Ted interrupted.

Andromeda sighed. She should not have even mentioned it, as no good could possibly come of telling Ted about Malfoy's invitation to the Slug Club Christmas party.

"Well… he… he invited me to attend Professor Slughorn's Christmas party with him-

"He did what?!" Ted fumed. "And what did you say?!"

"I said no of course!" Andromeda replied angrily, as if there was any doubt over what her answer to Lucius would have been.

"I'll kill him!"

"Ted! You will not under any circumstances speak of this to Lucius or anybody else," she ordered. "I can assure you that you have absolutely nothing to worry about in regards to my affection… I would have thought from our kiss just now that much would at least be obvious to you – and I dare say that following on from my rejection earlier tonight, you will not have to worry about Lucius attempting to court me again."

"Why's that then?" Ted asked moodily.

"Well, if you must know, we had a mild disagreement after I rejected him so publicly-

"Publicly?"

"Yes, well he asked me in-front of the whole common room. I did not have much choice. But he angered me so much that I stole your little insult about his Father having to buy him the captaincy to prevent Xavier Shacklebolt from carrying on in his position as Seeker."

Ted looked gob-smacked.

"Wait?! So you said that… to Malfoy… in-front of your entire common room?!"

"Yes, well he was being really rather irritating and I figured that would be the insult that would hurt his pride the most… you know what boys are like with Quidditch."

"You really are full of surprises, Miss Black," he eventually chortled, before pulling her in for another kiss. The kiss was a welcome break from their spat, but it confused her as she was not sure if that meant that their argument was over or not.

"And that's just given me the most brilliant idea!" he announced proudly, although Andromeda did not like the newly found crazed look in his eyes.

"What is it?" she enquired nervously.

"It's…its perfect! The Slug Club Christmas party. That's what you're going to get me for Christmas. I'm going to be your date to his stupid over-rated celebration of nepotism!"

Andromeda was too dumb-struck to even respond.

Ted looked absolutely giddy.

"Oh but don't you see, 'Dromeda? It's perfect. We get to announce to the world that we're together and it will completely piss off dear old Lucius Malfoy on the biggest stage of them all. Oh, can you imagine the look on his face?!"

"Ted," she pleaded. "Have you not been listening to anything that I have been saying to you? You cannot seriously think this would be a wise move for either of us."

His expression briefly turned from jovial to slight anger at her reply, before an even more worrying look appeared on his face. This was not one of anger, but one of calculating deliberation and it scared Andromeda far more than any look she had seen on her secret boyfriend's face ever before.

"You know how much I love you, Andromeda," Ted began, as she began to nervously play with her ring again. "But these past few months… I've been wondering how much you really love me. Do you love me… or just the idea of me? Am I your boyfriend… or am I just a weird experimental phase that you will soon grow out of?"

"Ted, you know that I love-

"All I know is that I don't want to spend the rest of my life kissing you in kitchen storage rooms, or having to settle with secret letters and hiding in the shadows. Are we supposed to live like this forever?" he asked, as he stared at her with a mixture of frustration and sadness in his eyes.

She really did awful about making him feel like this.

"Ted, you do not understand," she started, as she felt the first tear trickle out of her eye and fall slowly down her face. "If my parents found out about us they would make me choose… they would disown me if I chose you… I would have nowhere to live… here at school I would be treated worse than dirt… once I am of age and have left school… maybe things could be different-

Ted laughed and shook his head.

"You want me to live my life for the next couple of years and pin everything on a maybe? A maybe?!"

Andromeda cursed her luck. She really had not phrased that last part too well. Why did she have to say maybe?!

"Well maybe I've had enough of living like a second class citizen. Maybe it's time that you do make your choice!"

"Ted… Ted please do not do this, I am begging you-

"We can go to Slughorn's Christmas party together, as a couple… or… or we can go our separate ways… once and for all," he finished, seemingly with a lump in his throat, before taking one last desperate look at her and storming off.

"Ted," she shouted after him, hurriedly following him out of the storage room door into the kitchen as hot, heavy tears began to pour out of her eyes.

"Ted!"

He had already managed to race out of the kitchen and into the basement corridor. She rushed out of the door, running past a confused and bewildered Toby, and saw Ted pacing about ten metres ahead of her, heading towards the corridor that would lead to the Hufflepuff common room.

Andromeda began to dart after him, she did not care if anybody saw them together in public anymore. She knew now that she loved him too much to worry about any of that.

"Ted! Ted wait I-

As she turned down the dimly lit corridor she suddenly collided with someone or something very large which took her right off her feet. It was like she had run straight into a wild mountain troll. She landed onto the hard floor right onto her back, which winded her considerably.