Black Sheep

She made her decision when she was sixteen years old.

It was easier than she'd thought it would be, deciding. She'd spent her whole life being taught all about the honor of being of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black – yet she was fully prepared to throw all of that away for one person.

The world had a strange undercurrent of irony, to make her fall in love with a Muggleborn boy.

But what choice had there been? The moment she realized she loved him, she knew. She would have to between the Black family and Ted, no matter how much he'd tried to keep her from having to choose.

She was tired of hiding their relationship. She was tired of acting ashamed.

She wasn't ashamed? And why should she be? Ted was a good man.

He was certainly better than that Lestrange that Bella was pining after. First year or not, her sister had already decided that Rodolphus Lestrange was the man she wanted to marry.

And as depressing as it was, Bellatrix probably would marry him.

She could only hope that, of the three of them, Narcissa would follow in her footsteps.

She could only pray that sweet little Cissy would marry for love.

After all, being a person who was in love, she could happily tell anyone who asked how wonderful it was.

And she was not ashamed. If there was one thing her mother had taught her, it had been that it didn't matter worth a damn what other people thought about what a person chose to do.

Granted, her mother had wanted Andromeda to want the same things she had – but that didn't matter anymore. It was no longer possible.

But however easy that the decision may have been, the thought of carrying it out was horrifying. She would have nowhere to go if she did this – and she was still a sixth year. Hopefully, Amanda hadn't been kidding when she said that Andi could go to her for a place to stay. Hopefully, Mr. and Mrs. McKinnon agreed with their eldest daughter.

And it wasn't like her parents loved her. So why was she still standing here?

Fear.

It was nothing unusual, fear holding her back. Fear always held her back. Fear stopped her from trying to teach Bella that their parents were wrong about Muggleborns, were wrong about that rising maniac, were wrong about –

– everything.

Fear stopped her. It always had.

But it wasn't fear that had caused her to fall in love with Ted. It wasn't fear that had put her in this position.

And fear wouldn't hold her there.

Taking a deep breath, Andromeda Black turned on her heel and left the Ravenclaw dorms.

PAINT IT BLACK

The Great Hall was abuzz with the typical mealtime chatter as she strode into the room. Her eyes focused straight ahead, she walked along the Ravenclaw table with a single-minded determination –

– and stopped beside Theodore Tonks.

"Mind if I sit here?" she asked with a slight smile, and Ted stared at her. Not waiting for his answer, she settled in beside him and leaned against his side smiling at him brightly as she reached out and placed her hand over his on the table. "How was your day?"

The Great Hall fell silent.

"Uh…" Ted replied dumbly. "Alright? Y-you?"

She smiled at him, noticing out of the corner of her eye that Amanda was grinning from ear to ear, and that Bellatrix was paler than usual, staring at her big sister in shock.

Such a simple gesture and yet, it was all she needed to do to break away.

Andromeda felt free.

"Never better," she replied lightly. She smiled once more at her extremely flustered boyfriend – and future fiancée, if she had anything to say about it… which, of course, she did – and turned to her meal.

Take that, Mother.

Oh, there would be consequences, she knew that. Bellatrix would hate her for life – she wasn't quite certain about Narcissa – and her parents would undoubtedly disown her.

But what did that matter? She knew who she was now, and she was free.

Andromeda Black, soon to be Andromeda Tonks.

She grinned broadly. Somehow… nothing her mother had ever wanted for her mattered anymore. She liked the sound of a new name.

As Ted finally regained his composure and began talking to her about their latest Charms essay, all fears and concerns faded from her mind.

She could get used to this.