"Andromeda," someone said. "Andromeda, hello, I'm talking to you."

Andromeda started out of her stupor and glanced up, eyes wide. Rita Skeeter, one of her sister's friends, was leaning across the table, head cupped in her hand, a soft smirk on her lips and her eyes wide with expectation. Gabriella Parkinson and the other fifth year Slytherin girls were leaning in eagerly as well.

"I, what, sorry, I'm..." she cleared her throat, "I apologize. My thoughts were elsewhere. What did you say?"

"I asked you," she said, while her friends giggled behind her, "if the rumors are true. Are you dating Rabastan?"

"Oh… I… well," her eyes flicked toward Narcissa. After her engagement had been announced to her sister, Andromeda had pulled her aside and asked her to keep it quiet. The thing was, she'd never actually thought her sister could do it. But if they were asking if she was dating Rabastan...

"No… it's complicated." Rita said something else, but Andromeda wasn't listening. She would've thought Narcissa would've been all over this Meda/Rabastan gossip, considering how thrilled she was over the whole engagement, but she wasn't even paying attention. She seemed strangely focused on the ceiling of the great hall, which was the pretty misty blue right before a rainstorm.

Her insides lurched painfully. There'd been a time when she'd told her sister everything, and now look at them. Her life been turned upside down and she couldn't tell her sister a damned thing about it. Not a damn thing...

"I'm in love Andromeda!" Narcissa's voice sang in her head as she recalled an old conversation.

"With who?" Andromeda said, lying on the bed across from her. It was just hers and Narcissa's now that Bella had decided she was too grown up and demanded her own room.

"Torin. Torin Flint? You know him, he's in my year." Andromeda nodded. She had a vague image of a tall, dark-haired boy who looked like he was permanently leering. She was pretty sure that was Torin.

"How do you know?" she asked, partly because she was curious, but also because she knew better than to let her thirteen old sister who had just hit the pre-woman years get going.

"I can just tell," she said with a sigh, collapsing on her bed like it were heaven itself enfolding her.

"You get this feeling. It's magical… it's… you know what it is? Oh wait, you don't. You've never been in love."

Andromeda rolled her eyes. "Thanks, Cissa."

"Oh come on, I didn't mean it like that. You'll find someone someday." She placed her hand dramatically over her heart. "I can feel it."

"Sure."

"I mean it, Andromeda." Narcissa said, her smile softening into something more pleasant. "You may not be the biggest boy-magnet, but that's not really your style. You're a romantic, just like all those books you read."

"You've read my books?"

"I skimmed through the interesting looking ones." She said, lifting her hand-held mirror to face and beginning to twirl her hair. "And I must say that Scarlet Letter was a bore. I thought there'd be sex in it." She gave Meda a pointed look, lowering the mirror. "There was no sex." She pouted out her lips, and against her better judgment, Meda laughed.

"I'm serious though. One day you're going to meet this totally amazing guy and he's going to completely sweep you off your feet. And then that's it. You'll be a goner." She sighed dramatically, as though she were the one getting swept off her feet. Andromeda shook her head, smirking slightly as she buried herself in her novel.

"Just promise me something, okay?

"Hmm..." Andromeda replied, having already disappeared into the horrific world of Oliver Twist.

"When it happens, I mean, when you meet the guy of your dreams. Promise you won't cut me out? Promise me I'll always be the first one you'll talk too? Promise that you'll tell me every little romantic and nasty detail?"

Meda laughed. Somehow, her sister made everything sound so funny...

"I'm serious, Meda." She said, but she was grinning. "You promise?"

"Yeah," Meda said, still chuckling. "Of course, every little detail is yours."

It had never occurred to her it could be any different.

And now she was here, staring at her sister across the table, their promise lying between them...

"Andromeda? Hello, earth to Andromeda? Do you really think we're going to believe that it's just, 'complicated'?" Apparently Rita didn't give up so easy. "Come on, we're your friends. You have to tell us."

"Actually," Andromeda said, "I don't." She stood up. "Narcissa, I need to talk to you." She ignored Rita's indignant look as Narcissa stood up, looking surprised and a little confused. But something in Meda's face told her she wasn't just messing about.

Andromeda quickly headed toward the door, checking over her shoulder to make sure Narcissa was following her.

She wanted to head somewhere private, somewhere where no one could overhear them, But Narcissa grabbed her sleeve, whirling her around.

"I really need to finish breakfast before things get super busy. What is it?"

And suddenly Andromeda was frozen. She remembered how Narcissa had reacted to her talking to Ted, and her mouth went dry. How could she do this? Where would she even start? This was crazy! This was, she stopped herself. Just start at the beginning, her inner voice commanded, the very beginning.

"Cissa do you remember a few years ago when we were talking about... well, when we were talking about, love, I guess. You remember? You said I was going to meet this amazing guy and..."

Something was wrong. She'd said the words "love", "amazing", and "guy"...and sister hadn't tried to interrupt her once, because she wasn't even paying attention.

"Cissa?" she asked quietly, but her sister was staring off into... something, and didn't respond.

"Cissa, did you hear anything I just said?"

"What?" she said vaguely, her voice carrying that same faraway note Andromeda used whenever she was talking about magical creatures with Ted. "Oh, sorry, yes, of course. You were just talking about..." she paused, clearly trying hard to think of something her sister had said. She saw Andromeda's look and chuckled nervously. "Oh, Meda dear, don't get all worried, you were just saying...you were just saying..." The sentenced trailed off into awkward silence.

Andromeda heaved a sigh, folding her arms tightly across her chest. "Narcissa, I really need to talk you. It's just, things with Rabastan happened so quickly and—"

"This is about Rabastan?" Narcissa said quickly, trying to regain her usual bravado, "Why, Andromeda why didn't you say that from the beginning? So how are things going between you two?"

"They're... fine," Andromeda said, because there wasn't anything else she could say. "But it's not actually Rabastan and I that I was talking about..."

"Oh, he's so charming, isn't he?" Her sister sighed so dramatically Andromeda would've burst out laughing under different circumstances. "You're the luckiest girl in the world!"

This was getting ridiculous. "Narcissa, you're not listening..." But Andromeda had suddenly gone rigid, for who should have into entrance hall at that exact moment. None other than Bellatrix Black. Her heart began pounding, she looked towards Narcissa, wondering how she could possibly explain her sudden silence to her sister. But then she realized Narcissa was as still and pale as she was. She followed Bella with wide eyes, and the moment Bella stopped to look over her shoulder she hastily turned away.

"I'm sorry, Meda," She said breathlessly, "I love talking with you, but I really have to go." And just like that she was gone. Andromeda stared after where her first sister had disappeared, and then over to where her second sister had now disappeared.

It was like she had walked into some bizarre dream where everything was logical, and yet, not. She looked back down the staircase her younger sister had fled down. She'd been so focused on Ted, she hadn't really thought about her sister's strange behavior, until now. It had never occurred to her that others had secrets… that Narcissa had secrets. Appearently she wasn't the only one with something to hide.

Andromeda was so caught up in her realizations about Narcissa that at first she didn't notice who else had come into the hall, not until some girl bumped into her, giggling. She jolted, and that's when she saw him, and he saw her.

She didn't stop to think about what she was doing, she just took off into the crowd, trying to get as far away from there as possible. She dove around a corner and then peered around it. He was still coming, and his eyes were scanning the crowds like he was searching for someone, like he was looking for her.

She continued onward, resisting the urge to run, and went down an empty hallway. She reached the first door and yanked it, but it wouldn't budge.

She pulled out a wand, but a voice behind her whispered, "don't bother." Before she had time to jump or squeal, someone had grabbed her arm and wheeled her into an empty classroom. She exhaled as the door shut behind her, her hand over her heaving chest. Someone had pulled her in, she remembered, and that someone was…

Her relief slipped off of her face like stink sap. If she'd thought the world was upside down before, it had now moved into another dimension.

Her savior was James Potter.