Sorry. Late again. No excuses. Ish. I didn't know what to write.

I'm loving the reviews! Lots of people want more Rabastan/Andromeda (Rabomeda? Radromeda? Andastan?). I'll do my best, but she's at school right now! If you have any ideas or requests, please let me know via review or PM.

Nice happy chapter (that is a change), with lots(ish) of Tedromeda.

[Okay, I just finished writing this chapter. I've killed all the good vibes.]

A (very) FRIENDLY FACE

For Andromeda, Charms class was a relieving break. She sat at the back with Judy, where they forgot any sort of trouble at all, discussing rumours about their classmates (and teachers) all lesson long. Whenever Flitwick wandered too near their desks, they perfectly performed whatever spell they were meant to be practising and continued with their mindless gossip. Well, Andromeda did.

Despite being a wonder with a quill, everything went awry when Judy tried the practical side of things, especially in something as delicate as charms.

Arrggghhhhhh!

Everyone turned at the ear splitting scream from the second-to-back row. Instead of creating a trickle of water, Judy had made a river, and one that had squirted directly into the face of Madison Bulstrode. She was rather large (and had been bullied for it until she started to hit back), and after a second of confusion, her rather piggy face scrunched in anger.

Andromeda half expected steam to erupt from her ears.

The entire class had turned when she'd screeched, and the last of the falling water settled into the cups they were practising on.

Silence.

"What was that, Crouch? Trying to soak me, are you? Trying to drown me just 'cause you want my place on the team? No thanks, Crouch."

Professor Flitwick hurried towards the commotion as fast as his tiny legs could carry him.

"Girls, please calm down. I'm sure it was a accident, Miss Bulstrode. Miss Crouch, please try to control the spell a little better today. We don't want any more incidents."

And so the Charms class continued.

Andromeda looked at her friend, "Well done. Now you'll never get on the team!" she scolded.

Judy had spent all of last year practising so she could get onto the quidditch team, and to ruin it only a week before tryouts was a tragedy.

Judy laughed, "She's not the captain. Anyway, I'll just have to play so well they can't refuse me."

"You do that."

They practised the charm a few times to avoid suspicion, then laughed at their own whispered jokes, giggling like a pair of lunatics.

Before they knew it, class was over and Flitwick was taking in homework and setting more. There was a flurry to get out the door and-

"Miss Black, could you wait behind? You too, Slinkhard."

Frowning, Andromeda stood awkwardly beside the muggleborn girl, Wendy Slinkhard, who - because she was a Ravenclaw rather than a fellow Slytherin - she'd never spoken to.

"I would like to ask you two girls," he started once the door shut behind the last of the other students, "to attend an Advanced Charms class. We'll have students from fifth, sixth and seventh year, all houses, just coming once a week. A bit like a club. We study things that aren't on the curriculum that I know others in the school wouldn't be interested in, but you and the other chosen students will certainly benefit and enjoy some extra material. What do you say?"

Wendy readily agreed and Andromeda nodded too. She did enjoy charms, finding it particularly easy.

She got out into the corridor where Judy was waiting and together they wandered towards the dungeons.

Andromeda knocked awkwardly and pushed the door to the Charms classroom, looking nervously at the occupants. There weren't many, it seemed, who were deemed 'advanced' in Charms, so most of the desks sat empty.

Molly Prewett grinned from her seat beside Yasmine Littlechild, and Andromeda smiled back, taking a seat behind her.

Molly and Andromeda had never talked, but the redheaded girl seemed to always have that warm love bursting from every part of her.

It was that moment, while Andromeda fetched a quill and parchment from her satchel, that he walked in.

Ted took the seat next to her.

"Hey," he said.

She hoped she wasn't blushing. "Hello."

(A Black should be the very epitome of grace and respectability.)

Suddenly she felt self-conscious.

(A Black has no need to worry about what others see in them. Inferiors should be worried about what a Black sees in them, because the word and action of a Black is all that should matter.)

As Flitwick talked about wards and protection, Andromeda could hardly concentrate. That soft face beside her, nose scrunched in concentration, freckles dusted across honeyed skin. His foot tapped mercilessly against the leg of the table, the rhythmic vibrations reaching to where Andromeda sat.

She wished he would stop tempting her.

When they were practising (in pairs, to test whether the wards kept people out or not), he grinned at her. "You want to go first, or should I?"

Shrugging awkwardly, she gestured at him, "You go."

He raised his wand, "Protego maxima."

Nothing happened.

"Protego maxima."

Andromeda winced to herself. She was going to have to help out. "You need to flourish the wand a bit more. Keep it firm, but let the end twirl."

He smiled and did so, "Protego maxima."

Magic shot into the air, creating an iridescent bubble around Ted. It shimmered slightly in the light, a spectrum of blues and pinks and purples. She thought of the time her father had told her that a mudblood's magic was dirty and foul. Now, seeing that shine, she thought magic had never been more beautiful.

"Thanks, Andy." He said.

Andy. She never let anyone call her that, but for once it felt right. Not Andromeda, but Andy. He said it impossibly softly.

Her entire life, it had been Andromeda this and Andromeda that, the smile on Judy's face morphing into the curled lips of Rabastan. It had been said loudly, darkly, threateningly, in every way but soft. The way Ted said it was like a cloud of goose down.

Andromeda. The disappointed scold of her father when she'd got an A in Transfiguration OWLs.

Andromeda! Judy's cry, loud and welcoming, but at the time (having just been put through a whole holiday-ful of Black family discipline) it had been too much.

Andromeda. The judging stares of the teachers, putting her into a box along with the rest of her family.

My dearest Andromeda. Rabastan's voice as thick and slimy as mouldy polyjuice potion, eyes as dead as a dragon's.

Andy. Soft and sweet and perfect.

After the lesson, Yasmine and Molly cornered her outside the classroom.

"Ted Tonks, eh?"

"Nice choice."

Andromeda flushed red, "No! We're friends."

"But …"

"No," she said quietly, holding her left hand (on which glittered the ring Rabastan had given her), "Just friends."

Molly smiled, "Oh! How exciting. Who to?"

They looked genuinely happy for her. They didn't know how the ring chafed her skin, how she spun it around and around her finger, wishing she had the strength to take it off. They didn't know how heavy it was, how she hated it.

"Rabastan Lestrange."

Yasmine frowned, "I didn't know you two were…"

"We weren't. It's arranged." She said, aware how short she sounded, how tight her voice had gone. She saw the flashes of pity on the two Gryffindors' faces. she didn't want their pity. Pity was for the weak. "What about you and Arthur, though Molly? It's perfect! We're all glad you finally came to your senses."

They talked all the way back to the entrance hall, where the two others ascended the stairs to their tower, and Andromeda descended into the dungeons.

She didn't miss their parting looks that clearly said 'sorry'. She didn't lie to herself and pretend they weren't currently discussing her bad fortune. She just wished she were free of all this.

Back in the common room, Judy was frowning over a letter, red hair falling over her face, lanky limbs sprawled over a huge armchair.

"Move up," Andromeda said.

Judy barely moved.

"Judy? Judy! Judith Crouch!"

Rolling her eyes, Andy squeezed into the tiny gap that remained between the arm of the chair and the (still immobile) body of her best friend.

She only saw a few lines of the letter.

… has become a frequently appearing threat … option is remaining inside the house … be careful … is a powerful influence … barely scraping by the offers …

Judy's hands were shaking ever so slightly, her eyes scanning the text over and over again as if not believing it was there at all.

"Judy? Judy, what's the letter?"

Her blue eyes were glazed over a bit, her smile forced, "Nothing. A late Valentines … or is it early?"

"Jude-"

"Better than you, though, at least I actually got one. Terrible timing. Hope it's not from some-"

"Judy, stop. Stop, please. What's the letter? You can tell me."

She was frozen for a moment, the smile slipping to reveal an expression that could only be described as desperate.

The facade was back up in an instant. "Exactly what I just said."

Judy hopped up the steps to the dormitories, and Andromeda wished they could just speak the truth to each other once in a while.

Patrol was that night.

Andromeda wished her heart didn't have to beat so fast. She wished her quickening breath wouldn't give her away so easily. She wished she could tame her hair a bit better.

She wished she knew why this mattered at all. She was engaged, and obliged to be happy because of it, not stressing about a prefect patrol with a stupid crush.

And that's all it could be, because Andromeda certainly didn't want to get attached.

"Hi," she said when she reached the corridor where they'd arranged to meet.

"Hey. I was thinking - just one sweep of the castle, or going back over the bigger corridors?"

"Eeerr… I'll let you decide. I have no idea why they made me a prefect at all. I hardly patrolled at all last year. Kept … forgetting."

Ted laughed (she wished he'd stop doing that), "Probably your effortless good grades and the study club you created for OWLs. Plus, you didn't forget at all. You just wanted to avoid Monica Harris."

Andy found herself laughing too. "Yes, there was that."

They started moving down the corridor, checking behind tapestries and in empty classrooms as they walked. Ted continued, laughter shining in his eyes, his smile welcome like no-one else's had ever been, "How did you survive the patrols you turned up to? She's awful!"

"You tell me! You live in the same common room, eat at the same table, are in the same classes - how have you not killed her yet? She never stops talking."

"Hypocrite." he chuckled.

"What?"

"Your best friend is Judith Crouch. You're in a dormitory with Dolores Umbridge."

"Well, I suppose there is that."

They talked for what seemed like years. They'd only spoken a few times to each other, but they laughed like lifelong friends and Andy returned to the dormitory in high spirits.

She tried to make herself presetable before going in, in case anyone was awake.

Were her cheeks flushed from laughing? Was she smiling too widely?

She pushed on the door and it opened to the worst possible scene.

Dolores Umbridge was standing on her bed, Madison Bulstrode beside her.

In her hand was a letter, and she was reading aloud, "I just need you to be careful. He is a powerful influence and we are barely scraping by the offers. We cannot get out of the house without cloaked figures converging by the gate. Additionally, you father is terribly ill, and-"

Judy's letter. The one she had been so worked up about, the one that made her hands shake.

On her bed, glaring at Dolores with half the strength she normally did, head in hands and eyes red, was Judy. She looked a mess.

"Shut up," Andromeda said, marching towards the frog-faced girl and snatching the letter.

Madison looked at her, trying to be threatening. "You don't want to do that."

"Oh, but I do," she said, then promptly punched Madison's face. She had never thrown a punch before, so it bore rather pathetic results, but it was the thought that counted. While Dolores stared in confusion, Madison stood still in shock. Andy grabbed Judy's hand and dragged her away from the scene, the dormitory door slamming shut behind them.

Andy frowned, "How could you let them do that?"

"I-"

"Honestly, Judy. You're normally so strong, but now … are you alright?"

"I'm fine."

"No, Judy. You're really not. Do you need the hospital wing, or…"

"I'm fine, Andromeda. Nothing you need to worry your perfect little head about. You go and despair about an arranged marriage to a rich man, and I'll cry about my father, who is DYING, about my mother, who is being HUNTED by the man your parents support. Who you support."

Time stood still. They were alone in the corridor outside the Slytherin common room, but Andromeda knew better than anyone that walls had ears.

"I'm sorry," she whispered, "I didn't know."

"Didn't bother to ask either, did you?"

She had. She had tried, but she didn't say so. She'd never seen Judy so upset, tears welling in her eyes, hair tangled, mouth in an unfamiliar frown. This wasn't some simple problem. This was the strongest person she knew breaking down.

"I'm sorry. How is your father?"

"Ill with something. I dunno what. They can't get to St Mungo's 'cause of … 'cause of you-know-who."

"Ah. I don't … I don't support him. You know that, right? Bella does, and my parents do. Rabastan does, but I don't understand how killing can be a good thing."

Judy smiled a bit, "Thank you. I thought … I just assumed … sorry."

"Don't apologise. Please, it'll just make me feel bad."

"Please don't," she was frowning again, looking so desperate, "Don't feel bad. Don't let me make you feel bad."

There was silence. Not a cold one that Andromeda found herself experiencing too often, but one as soft as goose down. The comfortable silence that only the best of friends could feel.

"If you need to talk about it - any of it - I'm here, okay?" Andromeda whispered, "I'm always here."