After a quick bite of peppermint ice-cream out of four red and green bowls and more forced conversation on the couple, Ted and Tom filtered out of the room while Helen and Andromeda cleaned the dishes.
"One bloody bit of a girl you've got there," Tom said to Ted once they were well situated on the couch.
"Yeah, I'm awfully lucky," Ted said, a smile on his face.
"She's gorgeous, and sweet, and trust me," Tom continued, pointing a finger at him, "I've talked to 'er. I know for a fact she's head over heels for ya."
Ted swallowed and his smile was weaker the second time, though Tom didn't catch it but rather offered him some honey-glazed peanuts out of a holly-leaf bowl.
- -
After time had passed, Tom had passed to sleep on the couch and Ted stretched a rough wool blanket over him. He appeared in the doorway of the kitchen to find a sight he'd never thought he'd see. Helen was slumped in a kitchen chair, fast asleep, and Andromeda was wearing a red and white checked apron with lace on the ends (it was very frilly, something he would have never imagined her to wear. But it was not the apron that was so shocking, but rather there was a soft Christmas song playing on the muggle radio by the sing that Ted had installed a couple years ago. Andromeda was dancing slowly around the room, the bell of the skirt and the apron spinning.
She was facing the wall, her back toward him, and she stopped turning long enough to see him, standing in the doorway, his head on the doorframe and his hands in his pockets. She blushed, wondering inside her head how it was Ted Tonks could affect her enough to make her blush in the first place, but he walked over to her and extended a hand.
She bit her lip, and looked up at him, softly with her gray eyes, then took the hand. The two swayed softly to the song playing, both fairly good dancers. Neither noticed as they got closer, their bodies barely touching, they began to notice, so close, smelling the intoxicating scents of one another, closer, closer...
A spoon clattered to the ground and Andromeda and Ted jumped apart. Helen stirred at the table and stood, wiping sleep from her eyes.
"Oh, we're being miserable hosts!" she said, but Andromeda and Ted smiled weakly, avoiding one another's gazes.
"We better go," Ted said, and Andromeda nodded her head. Helen headed for the couch and the two followed, but she turned to find them in the doorway.
"Look! You two are under the miseltoe!"
Ted and Andromeda looked up, and sure enough, they were standing underneath a sprig of the aforementioned plant. Before Andromeda could come up with a formible excuse for why the two would not do any said tradition, Ted had leaned down and matched his lips with her half opened ones, just a peck then back heading toward the coatrack, Andromeda in tow.
After putting on her jacket, she turned to face the elderly couple to thank them for their generosity. Instead, she found Helen asleep beside Tom on the couch, clinging to his sweater, the blanket half covering them. The rough edge that had seemed to line Andromeda's throat uncomfortably since Ted's speech tightened, and she followed him into the night air and leaving the couple on the couch.
- -
They made it to their room without speaking, and Ted pounced on the bed the moment the door was closed, sighing into his pillow.
"Long night," Andromeda groaned, pulling off her jacket and sweater and sitting on the foot of the bed as Ted rose, stretching his long limbs out of his heavy layers and unbuttoning the first couple of buttons on his shirt.
"I'm so wired!" he said, plopping down on the bed, "I mean, tomorrow's Christmas. The one day that you just know everything is going to be okay, because it all just makes sense."
Andromeda snorted, moving to place her back against the wall and responding, "That's just you, I think."
"Oh really?" he quipped, turning to face her.
"Really really."
"Then, please, inform me on the basic Black Christmas day," he said, and she admired her fingernails before responding.
"Well," she sighed, "Late rising, of course, from the party the night before. Narcissa first, the hopeful one, prouncing downstairs around eleven and having Minnadite fix us cinnamon oatmeal, then Bellatrix, coming upstairs with orange juice and glasses, and then myself, last, to enjoy. We'd sit on the floor and munch, then head downstairs to attack the presents underneath the tree with Mum and Dad looking on."
"I don't understand how that's so bad."
"Well, that's how it was," she said, scratching the corner of her eye.
"I see." A silence filled the air between them and Andromeda closed her eyes.
"You're quite the actress," he said, causing her to open her eyes as he continued, "Tom was fully under the belief you were quite enraptured with my amazing self."
"Don't flatter yourself," she said lightly, smirking.
"Oh, don't deny you think I'm just adorabley attractive," he drawled, sarcasm in his voice.
"Why, yes, Theodore. Your eyes, they're so fantastically blue, like the ocean," she said, her voice mocking a ditz, "And your hair, so shaggy, so attractive. The brown with the red, making your eyes stand out. Your nose, and your manly chin. Oh, yes, I don't know how I've ever contained myself."
He rolled his eyes to this, "In all seriousness, Black--"
"In all seriousness," she stated plainly, interrupting him, "I s'pose you're quite attractive," she paused, noticing thier closeness and what she was saying, "to some muggle girl, of course."
She said, and the moment of warmth between them was gone. Ted wouldn't fall without a fight, however, and his blue eyes shone with anger now.
"And," he said scathingly, "I suppose you'd be attractive if you weren't such a wench!" She gasped, taken aback by his bitter tone, "Just a hoighty-toighty spoiled brat who wanders around thinking she's better than everyone else because her last name."
"Don't!" she shrieked, "Don't-you-dare."
"Do what? What am I doing that's so horrible, Black? Putting you in your place? Cutting you down to size? Have you ever wondered how absolutely stupid you sound, going on about blood and all that other nonesense!?"
"D'you know what it's like?" She erupted, "Being me? D'you know what I go through? You cross the line when you call me stupid, but do know what it's like having to put on an act? Saying and doing things every single day that you hate? Going home to a family and trying to reach out to them but getting absolutely nothing in return? Lying with every word your saying?"
She was shaking now and he wondered when it was he noticed she was so fragile.
"Why do you put up with it?" He questioned and she looked into his eyes.
"To be strong. To be an example. For Bellatrix, for Narcissa, for Regulus and Sirius. To be disowned from your own family, it just sounds dreadful."
But instead of matching the compassion held in her words, his were still bitter, "To not stand up for what you believe in, Andromeda, makes you weaker than the rest."
And he turned on his side, away from her, sliding out of his button-down. She rose, stung, and changed into her pyjamas in the bathroom, his words stinging her and feeling more hollow than she ever had.
Author's note: my computer is now in Dell heaven, sniffff. I'm borrowing a computer that REALLY hates me, and it's not at my house, so I figured I'd update on Andry and Teddy. We've covered lots of ground in this chappie, maties, ain't it grand? Hah, well... ::thinks:: yayy! My mindi s ab-fab fluffed and the only thing I've got is Manny and Sean from Degrassi making out. Which isn't good. Uh, reviews are spectactular, and Anna Ierse, I sorry, but no more Weasley clan. I might toss one of them in, but not as a major character. Don't say I didn't warn you about this bitter turn in the A and T relationship, cos I did! ::flips through a/n's on the other chaps:: I did! And the ending in on the brink! It's going to be Christmas, and not even poisonious little Black-ness of 'Meda can't taint the awesome power of the holiday. Gosh, I love Christmas. And Zane. Whoops! Did I say that aloud? ::sigh:: I've got to stop typing because I'll just think more about him. Argh!
Review, please?!
And the next chapter will be delayed (I know! It sucks!) because my lack of computer / net access. I know, I know, it's v. sad, but imagine how I'm doing without a computer. Not sure how I've lasted this long.