You all ought to be very impressed by how fast this chapter got out given that 1.) It's longer than usual, 2.) I am currently taking a fiction writing workshop that is usurping most of my writing time, and 3.) I am obsessed with the World Cup, though devastated when the U.S. was out, I am now supporting Brazil.

Chapter 20- Not Just a River in Egypt

We went back to Hogwarts and immediately found ourselves buried in an inhumane amount of homework, supposedly to prepare us for our O.W.Ls which suddenly seemed to be very soon. If there was one thing I was at least relatively confident about, it was my ability to do well on exams, but I was struggling with the fact that whatever N.E.W.T classes I took would determine the rest of my life. All of the fifth years seemed to think of nothing else but exams and their future careers. The more logical part of my mind told me it didn't really matter, I could take nothing but herbology and still not have to worry particularly about my future standard of living, but pride would prevent me from doing that. Most of the students in Slytherin, not least my own family, had an overwhelming sense of entitlement. In many ways they were saved by the fact that in addition to pure blood, the other hallmark of Slytherin was ambition, and ambitious people are rarely lazy. Ruthless and thoughtless and morally ambiguous, but never lazy. It is why, despite the fact that so many of us were born with the idea that the world already belonged to us, that was never quite enough.

Sirius appeared to be struggling as well, and far more vocally. He declared to anyone who asked that he wasn't going to waste his life sitting around Grimmauld Place being boring (a pretty clear indication of how he felt about his role as heir, if anyone cared to think about it). First, he declared he wanted to be an Auror, probably because James wanted to be an Auror. While nobody questioned his talent, ability, or dedication, they did question someone with his lack of impulse control managing to stay the three year course of Auror training. He would do something reckless, trying to be funny or trying to be a hero, and the Auror Division would not laugh and give him a detention as Hogwarts teachers always had. Then he saw a brochure about treasure hunters for Gringott's and decided that sounded cool and had a bit more legal flexibility, but he didn't have Arithmancy. The pattern was pretty clear, he was looking for action and adventure, and I didn't think the vague role of "head of the family" would be quite enough for him.

The truth was, although I hadn't even really admitted it to anyone, not even Sirius or Marlene, and in a way not even myself, I did want to have a job and in some vague corner of my mind I knew what it was. I didn't want to admit it to the extent that I wondered to myself why I had kept the brochure out of the pile on the table in the common room.

"Is this a four or a nine?"

"That's clearly a four."

"If it was clear, I wouldn't have to ask," Ted sighed.

"Can you please just tell me where I went wrong without the commentary on my penmanship?"

"I'm looking, I'm looking," he replied. Swallowing my pride, against my better judgment, and knowing that I was setting myself up for merciless mockery, I had asked Ted to look at an Arithmancy assignment that I had gone over and over and couldn't get right. It was a blow to my ego, but with exams approaching I didn't dare fall behind in my hardest class. As much as I would never admit it, Ted was quicker to spot errors in logic, while I was tidier in my work and quicker to spot his careless mistakes.

"Here," he said triumphantly, stabbing it with his quill. "What's all this? This whole formula is all skewed Andy. D'you want to look at mine?"

"No, I can do my own homework," I said haughtily. "I just couldn't see where I'd gone off track." I sighed and closed my eyes and took a deep breath. "Thank you."

"Was that so hard?" he teased, passing the paper back to me. When I didn't answer immediately, he was off on another subject, as usual. "Are you lot in Slytherin having to do this job choosing thing with your head of house?"

I nodded, dragging out my Arithmancy book. "Bit stupid really, I mean Slughorn is decent and all, but it's not as though we're close and he knows me terribly well or what I like and don't…"

Ted nodded. "Yep, I think Flitwick is an excellent charms teacher and all that, but…but odd, figuring it out now. I don't feel a bit grown up or ready to have a job. What do you reckon sounds interesting?"

I gave him a slightly raised eyebrow. "Tonks, Blacks do not have jobs."

I gave "jobs" the same inflection most people reserved for "communicable diseases."

"Well, lah-di-dah," he muttered. "Then how do Blacks get money?"

"Do you really not understand the concept of 'family money'?"

He nodded, allowing that point. "All right, so what do you do? You, a Black, get up in the morning, and you don't have a job," he copied my tone, "then what do you do all day?"

I considered this, and thought about what my mother did. "Well, mostly I guess they go out, like shopping or to spas or to lunch…they seem to have tea a lot."

"Is that what you want?"

"What I want is really not the issue."

"Pretend for a moment it is," he said simply.

"I guess…well, I think it might be interesting…" I almost showed him the brochure I'd been carrying around in my bag, but stopped myself, the Black and Slytherin side kicking in. "I don't know, I've never really thought about it."

He didn't believe me, I could see it in his face, but Ted had a finely tuned sense of when to push and when to let things pass, and so he shrugged and picked up his quill, and I felt a sense of enormous relief. He went on and diverted the conversation to himself.

"It all seems a lot to figure out now. Every time I look at all the options I end up thinking I ought to go back to the plan I had when I was eight."

I grinned, wondering what kind of futures muggle children dreamed of. "And what was that?"

He shrugged, looking embarrassed. "Well, I can't say I quite had the details worked out, since I can't carry a tune to save my life, and they're not even playing together anymore, but I was pretty sure The Beatles were going to ask me to join them."

I blinked. There were so many bizarre things about that sentence that I didn't even know where to direct the first question. At my silence, he looked up with surprise.

"You do know The Beatles?"

I knew beetles, we crushed them up and used them in potions. In first year Transfiguration, we had turned them into buttons. As far as I could tell, Ted had just expressed a desire to be mashed up in a potion or turned into a button, and I was clearly giving him a crazy person look.

"You're killing me, Andy."

I blinked again, wondering where exactly I had lost this conversation, and why he was looking at me like I was an idiot when he was the one talking nonsense. He set down his quill again, as though preparing to offer important information.

"The Beatles are a band, Andy. You know, a music group? They sing songs and play instruments? They're really good, and really famous…"

"That's just about the worst band name I've ever…"

"They're wicked Andy! If there's one thing that's better about the muggle world, that I totally miss, it's the music!"

"We have music-"

"Yeah, have you heard it? It's awful! Muggle music is brilliant! The Beatles, and The Rolling Stones, The Eagles, Elton John, The Clash, Pink Floyd… and…man, I wish I could bring my record player to Hogwarts, then all you pureblood kids would see what good music really is."

It was the first time in the years I had known him that Ted spoke freely and excitedly about the muggle world he came from, and I found that I was actually interested in his muggle music. Usually he hesitated to talk about it, knowing the sort of ridicule he might expect from the students at Hogwarts who despised all things muggle. As he picked up a quill to go on with his homework, he was suddenly humming and tapping his feet to the melody of some song I didn't know, shaking his head to himself.

"That is so sad…"

I entered Professor Slughorn's office warily, and took my seat across the desk from him. He regarded me with interest for a moment, because I was a Black, I'm sure, and then shuffled the paper on his desk.

"Well, Miss Black. Your sister sat in that same chair last year and informed me that Black ladies do not have jobs. I suppose you intend to continue that theme?"

I hesitated, biting my lip. I didn't like Slughorn, particularly. He was a social climber, no question of that. But on the other hand, given what I had seen in our classes, he was an equal opportunity social climber, supporting promising mudbloods as well as those in Slytherin. It's ironic that that is the thing that gave me courage enough to admit to him what I had not yet said to anyone else.

"Sir, I think I'd like to be a healer."

It was the first time I said it. I had been carrying the brochure around in my bag for weeks. As Ted would say years later, it was perfect for me. It required my precision, my attention to detail, and frankly, my ability to detach at times. Many years later, it would seem obvious. At the time, I only realized that the brochure had captured me as none of the others had, and the idea of living my mother's life of shopping and parties made me feel so stifled as to feel like all the air was being crushed out of my lungs. I knew I could get the high tests scores they demanded, and I loved the heady idea of a new mystery every day.

Slughorn looked surprised, and then shuffled his papers to stall for time, apparently he had expected me to take Bella's line, but finally found what he wanted.

"Well, Miss Black, that is certainly an ambitious, and admirable, goal. You'll need at least an E in your N.E.W.T level in Potions, Herbology, Transfiguration, Charms, and Defense Against the Dark Arts. Your efforts in herbology could improve a bit, the notes here suggest you have great potential but fail to apply yourself."

That was logical, I had mostly ignored Herbology as a waste of my time, but I had never minded the course, so if I needed to I could bring my grade up. The best part of this news was that most of the disciplines I would need to pursue to be a healer were also the disciplines that my family would respect as "real " magic- Potions, Transfiguration, Charms, and Defense Against the Dark Arts. The Herbology I could explain off as a fancy for flowers. I raised my eyes to Slughorn, and in that moment liked him perhaps more than I ever had before. He also looked as though he had never seen me before, but liked what he saw. He drew himself up importantly.

"Well, you are one of the more dedicated, and talented, witches who have come through Slytherin. I don't doubt you can manage the coursework."

Once when Bella was holding forth on something philosophical, she declared it was impossible, beyond the age of thirteen or so, for men and women to be friends without some kind of sexual tension. I have to dispute this, because it was due to her machinations that Hadrian Davis and I became good friends that term and remained friends for over twenty-five years, through both of our marriages (and his subsequent divorce and remarriage), children, and two wars. Indeed, he's been there for some of the more difficult times in my life, when I needed someone with an objectivity that Ted was too close to me to have.

Bella could be subtle when she wanted to, but in this case she didn't want to, and although her constant attempts to set me up were nothing but annoying, I have to believe at least part of it was out of a real desire to see me happy, although she couldn't quite figure out what it was that might make me happy. I eventually found out (years later) that her suggestions to Hadrian that he ask me out were anything but subtle.

He finally did ask me to Hogsmeade as the end of the term drew near, more as a result of Bella's power of suggestion and a seventeen-year-old male's one-track mind than any particular idea of whether he liked me or not. We had barely spoken beyond the general courtesies you might extend to someone in the same house. He was, in fact, Will's roommate, but I guessed they were not close, being vastly different in personality and political affiliation. I agreed mostly because it was easier than explaining why I declined, and I didn't dislike him by any stretch, which made him the least of many possible evils.

We went to The Three Broomsticks (in agreement that Madam Puddifoot's was rather sickening) and actually spent a very pleasant time, discovering that we had a great deal the way of common interests and very similar philosophies on dealing with being in Slytherin. We also realized, not without a certain amount of awkwardness and apologizing, that we didn't have any particular inclination to date. Hormones notwithstanding, he was surprisingly self-aware for that age, and realized, as I did, that we were far too similar to ever make a go of a romance. Aside from that, he was madly in love with a seventh year Ravenclaw (who he would ultimately marry, the first time.)

The practical side of it was that being seen together gave us both a kind of legitimacy and saved a lot of questions. We never lied and said we were going out, but in Slytherin, at least, we didn't correct any misconceptions. It got Bella off my back, and apparently pleased his father enormously. But I forgot that nothing went on at Hogwarts that was not public domain.

If I noticed that Ted was being rather short with me, I put it down to exam stress, as I was feeling a considerable amount of it as well. We had fallen easily into studying together in the library, and it seemed natural, nobody really noticed. About a week before our O.W.Ls started, I stopped in the library late, not long before curfew, to give him back his notes I had borrowed, and found him studying with Alice Taylor. This surprised me more than I expected. I knew she was his girlfriend, I saw them together all the time around school, and yet I had managed to rarely encounter her, and had actually managed to never speak to her. I paused awkwardly, and then unfortunately fell back on Slytherin attitude to cover the fact that I was completely thrown off.

"I'm just bringing your notes back," I said briskly, and he looked a little surprised by my voice, which was unnaturally cold.

"Thanks," he took them and then Alice spoke up.

"Hi, I don't think we've ever actually met. I'm Alice Taylor."

"I know," I said coolly, and then out of habit rather than any desire to be polite to her added, "I'm Andromeda Black."

"Right, Sirius's cousin. Want to join us? We're studying History of Magic. Positively brain-numbing."

"No thank you, I have to go," as was typical in Slytherin, my actual words were polite but the tone and look said everything. "Good night."

Ted caught up with me in the hallway, and grabbed my shoulder, spinning me around. "What's your problem?"

I gave him the same scathing look. "I don't have a problem. I was bringing your notes back and now I'm going to bed."

"You were really rude in there Andy."

"I don't need a lecture on manners from you."

"Apparently, you do," he snapped back. "I hate it when you do that."

"Do what?"

"Look at people like your sister does," he said, before turning and going back in the library.

When Bella wasn't trying to set me up, I had the feeling she was withdrawing further and further into another world. I was too wrapped up in my own life to even try to figure out what was going on with her, and I think Narcissa tried to talk to me about it, but I blew her off. Bella had turned seventeen that spring, and there were no longer any laws keeping her from apparating or using magic outside of school. There was no longer anything holding her back.

The morning after my argument with Ted, which I was fully aware was completely and totally my fault, Bella got to breakfast nearly as it was ending, and sat down next to me with a heavy sigh of exhaustion. Already in a bad mood, I gave her a dull look.

"What's your problem?"

"Just tired," she said, far too cheerfully. I sighed, stabbing unenthusiastically at eggs.

"Why do you sneak out at night Bella?" I said, low enough that no one else would hear. She reached for coffee.

"Why wouldn't I, when it's so easy?"

"Because Father would hex you into next year if you embarrass the family by getting expelled."

She smirked, and I knew that was no longer a very effective threat. By that time she knew curses far more deadly than any Father had.

"I'm not going to get expelled from Hogwarts Andy," she said affectionately, as though I had said something quite adorable.

"If you get caught sneaking out?"

She smiled prettily. "Dumbledore's greatest weakness is that he believes everyone is redeemable. He won't expel anyone he thinks he needs to save."

I knew she was quoting Rodolphus, but I didn't know then that he was quoting Lord Voldemort. I bit my lip.

"Bella-"

"Don't be a bore Andy," she said sweetly.

I found out many years later (from friends at the Ministry who had access to veritaserum-induced confessions) that she had not yet taken the Dark Mark that term, that would happen that summer, but Rodolphus had more or less brought her into their circle. I use the phrase "brought her in" because he was older, not because she needed an inducement or convincing. I did realize, because I knew her better than most, that something had changed.

Still in a good mood, she walked with me part way to class. We were in the main corridor when two little boys, probably first years, chased each other through, shouting with high spirits and eleven-year-old laughter. It was the sort of thing we would have ignored, but that one of them tripped and ran full-tilt into Bella. She looked down at him in disgust for a moment, and then eyes glinting in a way I had never seen before, knelt down and spoke in a voice that sent chills through me.

"What do you think you're doing?" she asked, softly.

"Sorry," squeaked the boy, a Gryffindor. She grabbed the boy by the arm and dragged him to his feet, it almost would have looked like a helpful gesture if I hadn't seen that her grip on his arm was bruising and heard his little yelp of pain.

"Sorry? Is that all you have to say? Playing your little baby games and getting in my way. Mudbloods, who shouldn't even be allowed to walk the halls here with decent…" her voice was rising and I saw in her face that look I had seen that she was getting carried away, that madness or passion or conviction or whatever it was the drove her was pushing her to take revenge for an insult so small it ought to have gone unnoticed. For a sense of justice or for a desire to protect her, I'm still not sure which, I stilled her wrist with an iron grip as she raised her wand. There was no doubt in my mind at that second that Bella intended to use cruciatus, a kind of prescience I didn't want, but felt with absolute certainty.

"Andromeda, let go of me," she said, in a low voice she had never used on me before.

"No."

A few people had been watching the boy with indulgent smiles, a few people had seen him run into Bella, and now a few people were watching, and more were pausing to see what they were watching. A fight was always worth watching, but if it involved Bella and I, it was like front-page news.

She jerked her hand slightly, and I got a shock as that burned and jerked my hand away, but not to be deterred from keeping her from making a huge mistake, I stepped in front of her. "Bella, it's not worth Azkaban."

The look she gave me was purely not my sister, and I shivered again, feeling goosebumps spreading over my arms and shoulders. Perhaps it was the look her victims saw. Perhaps it was only for me, the one she thought was the only person who would never defy her.

Generally, I backed down when Bella frightened me, but I was so tired of her edging around the rules and toying with getting caught, always going slightly farther, and perhaps knowing that it couldn't be much longer before she went too far.

"Bella, let it go," I said, my voice deceptively calm.

She grabbed me, I think she merely intended to push me out of the way, but I used the same spell she had used on me a moment before (indeed, she had taught it to me) with a sound like a whip-crack and she recoiled, shocked not only that I would defy her, but that I would use magic against her.

"Fine, do whatever you want. I don't care anymore," I hissed, and saw just a second of shock register in her eyes before I turned away.

"That's…um…1749, isn't it?"

Marlene was lying back in the grass, her arms folded behind her head, her casual posture at odds with the tension in her voice, as I quizzed her dates for the History of Magic O.W.L. It was a beautiful day, but we didn't dare to take even a minute off from studying. As Marlene wrinkled her nose up trying to remember the formation of the International Confederation of Wizards, I glanced up and saw Alice Taylor crossing the grounds back toward the castle alone.

"Andy? 1749?"

"Yeah, that's right…hang on a second."

I passed the book off to Marlene and caught up with Alice, and she turned and regarded me warily when I said her name. I didn't like the blow to my pride, but I also knew I'd feel a little easier if I got it off my conscience.

"Listen, I wanted to apologize." She looked surprised, and I went on. "I was rude to you the other night, and I'm sorry. I was just…tired, and stressed."

It was fortunate for me that she was far too nice to hold a grudge, and she smiled.

"That's okay, I thought maybe you were just having a bad day. Ted always says you're nice, so…no big deal."

"Thanks."

I turned to go back to Marlene when she spoke again. "Andromeda?"

"Yes?"

She hesitated, bit her lip, and then shook her head, looking embarrassed. "Nothing, never mind. Good luck on exams."

The first exam we had was Charms. I felt like I did very well on it, and the actual taking of an exam, rather than having them looming as an unknown, actually calmed me quite a lot. As soon as the practical part of the exam was over, Marlene and I escaped to the library to study for potions, which would be the next day. We had been at it about twenty minutes before Ted came up.

"Sirius is looking for you," he informed her. She frowned, not even quite looking up.

"Is that a "Sirius is looking for me" because he's bored and figures I might be able to amuse him, or "Sirius is looking for me" because he actually needs to speak to me for some reason?" she asked.

"Honestly, I really didn't ask."

"Oh bloody hell, doesn't he ever have to study?" she said irritably, flinging her quill down and stomping out of the library.

Ted lingered by the table until I looked up. I didn't really want the stress of another encounter with him, but I also got the feeling he wasn't going to go away until he said something.

"Is Sirius looking for me too?" I finally asked.

"No," he cleared his throat awkwardly. "Alice said you talked to her."

"Yes."

"Thank you, for that."

"It had nothing to do with you, I apologized to her," I pointed out, and he made an annoyed, impatient sort of moved that I felt, rather than saw, since I wasn't looking at him.

"Andy…" he began, and then stopped, as though reconsidering whatever he had planned to say. "How did your charms exam go?"

"Fine."

"So you're just going to go on being pissed off at me."

"That was my plan, yes."

A laugh escaped him. "Well, that's honest." He sat down across from me, taking Marlene's seat. "But while you're being pissed off, I'm going to join you," he added cheerfully.

Marlene came back a few minutes later muttering things like "honestly can't go five seconds without being the center of someone's attention…" and, "…at his beck and call constantly…"

We studied until almost half-past ten, when I realized me shoulders were aching from leaning over books all evenings and a good night's sleep would probably do me a lot more good on the exam than much more studying. Trying to loosen the tension in my shoulders, I leaned back and stretched my arms up over my head. Marlene apparently took the hint from this, and announced that maybe it was time we all gave it up for the night. When Ted didn't answer her immediately I glanced at him, and found him staring at me. Not just looking at me, but a shocked stare as though he had never seen me before and only just noticed me, with such intensity that my heart jumped into my throat. Even if I had known what to say I'm not sure I would have been able to speak, but Marlene saved me by punching him in the shoulder.

"It's late, and it would be embarrassing to take points off of both of you, let's go."

My last exam was Defense Against the Dark Arts, and although I did well, I had messed up one incantation that I thought might mean the difference between an O and an E, and I was just generally annoyed with myself for a stupid mistake. I also had the pleasant, totally relaxed, and completely drained feeling that comes with finishing a long period of stress. I came into my room thinking that it was only five o'clock and I could take a short nap before dinner, and found Bella waiting for me, sitting on my bed and reading one of Annabelle's Teen Witch magazines ("Hot New Summer Fashions!")

"You're finished with your exams?" she said, phrasing it as a question although it wasn't really. Even when we were fighting, she kept track of our lives. She never stopped thinking of Narcissa and I as exclusively hers.

"Yes."

She tossed the magazine back on Annabelle's bed and frowned at me. "You look tired."

"Thanks."

She smirked. "You were right, you know," she went on, as though she was discussing the weather. For Bella to admit that anyone but her was right was hardly a normal thing. "About that first year kid. That wasn't worth getting in trouble over. It just made me mad. I keep hearing I need to control my temper," she gave me a self-deprecating smile, and then leaned back, letting her hair pool out against the green bedspread. "Are you still mad at me?"

"No," I admitted. "And I'm sorry I hexed you."

She sat up suddenly. "What's happening to us Andy?"

I shrugged. "Nothing is happening to us. It's everything that's happening around us."

I sat with Bella (and Cissy, and Rabastan and Shannon, who appeared to be headed for a romance, but they headed in and out throughout the train ride) on the train home, and she was surprisingly affectionate, as was often her way whenever we had some sort of spat. She would make me wonder what she could do, and then draw me back in. Never, until that last moment, did Bella ever imagine I could defy her. She thought I lacked her conviction, that I lacked her passion and her devotion, but she never believed I would turn on her, and in a way that gave me a sort of safety.

It was also harder for me, for I could never quite turn away from her attempts at making up, because I so loved the Bella she became then. Ted, and even Sirius, used to wonder, and both asked me once (and only once) about how physical Bella was with both Narcissa and I. The answer that I gave them, the truth, is simply that Bella was by far the most intense and most unrestrained person I have ever known. If she was angry, you knew, but also if she wanted to be close to you, you knew. I have always been one of those people who is deeply uncomfortable with physical contact from people I didn't know well. At the beginning of another Hogwarts year when all the girls would run around shrieking and throwing their arms around each other, I would stand back warily.

The exception was my sisters. Cissy had been affectionate as a little girl, but as she grew up that changed into the aloof air many at Hogwarts saw. But as for Bella, she was as intense (I assume) as the day I was born, and from her it never seemed overbearing, just what I felt like I needed- an assurance that she still loved me.

"Well, you're not going to wear white, in any case, it's nearly as bad on you as on me, and you know that's what Mother will want."

Bella's biggest concern seemed to be what I would wear, as I would turn sixteen that summer.

"I'm not going to wear white, but I rather doubt I could pull off that dress you wore."

"You could, but it wouldn't suit you…your style, I mean. But that doesn't mean you have to wear whatever boring little girl dress Mother comes up with. You always look pretty in blue or green, or purple maybe. Not pastels, but jewel tones," she had been braiding my hair, and now she let it fall through her fingers as Simon Flint passed the door, "Oh, I had to ask him something," she said, leaving me alone. Not objecting to a moment devoting thought to something other than my wardrobe, I hardly minded.

I was surprised when Sirius wandered in, for he and Bella had been pointedly avoiding each other all term, and I had come to accept it would be a permanent situation. They would never be close again, and I was walking a fine line between them.

"You look lost," I told him.

"Running away actually. Marlene is yelling at James and Peter for putting fireworks in Lily's bag, which didn't really hurt her but definitely scared her. I'm not sure if James thought it would endear her to him or cause her to jump into his arms in fear, but it didn't work. And since it wasn't my idea, I was getting out of the line of fire."

"Wise idea."

"Yes, I am very wise. Most people don't realize that about me," he agreed. "And in my wisdom, I'm wondering what you're going to do about the little situation you've gotten yourself into."

"What situation? I'm not in any situation."

"You and Hadrian Davis. I see what you're doing, and why. He's a decent guy. But everyone thinks you're dating."

"Well, everyone else's assumptions, although incorrect, are really not my problem."

"Your problem, Miss Black, is not that everyone assumes you're going out with Davis, but that Ted Tonks thinks you're going out with Davis."

That particular little part of the whole ploy had not really occurred to me, but I had not grown up in the Black family without learning to hide what I was thinking.

"So?"

Sirius snorted, annoyance and some amusement in his expression. "Let me get this straight. You honestly and truly think he thinks of you as nothing more than a completely platonic friend?"

"He has a girlfriend," I pointed out. "And you yourself, Mr. Black, said she's a lovely girl."

"So she is, and Alice will be just fine, don't you worry about her. I'm not, I'm worried about you."

"I'm not."

Sirius shook his head sadly. "Denial is not just a river in Egypt, Andy."

I gave him the look we reserved for when Sirius said something particularly stupid, but he gave me a look that was, for a moment, completely in earnest. "Don't you see the way he looks at you when you're not paying attention?"

"You're an idiot, Sirius Black," I said decisively. We rode in silence for awhile before, although I hated myself for asking it, I couldn't help it. "How does he look at me?"

He frowned deeply, as thought looking for exactly the right words, and then suddenly looked up at me with an angelic smile.

"Like you're covered in chocolate."

A note on music: Ted is a Beatles fan. He just is. Because I say. All of the other bands/artists he mentions were absolutely around at the general time this fic was taking place in the weird and skewed timeline I have forced it to work in. If you don't know who they are, please don't tell me or you'll make me feel old, and I'm not that old. One of my pet peeves is stories set in this era where the characters listen to Green Day (or similar).