Andromeda Black was the least favorite daughter. Bellatrix, beautiful Bella may have been older than her cousin mate but at least his blood was right. Besides, Aunt Walburga and Uncle Orion were cousins. Narcissa, little baby Cissy was mated to the Malfoy boy, and if he was lower than her station, that was only because the Blacks were as high as it got. Nobody else could hope to compete. But Andromeda, the chained princess, had the name of a mudblood or a half-breed or worst of all, a muggle. Tedd Tonks, in quirking black script, stained her back, just as his blood was stained.

Andromeda grew up shunned in private and ignored in public. Of course, all Black children were ignored until they could do something useful. Her parents acted as though she had the name of a pureblood boy on her back and went about quietly arranging a marriage with the Lestrange boy. Plenty of good purebloods had the names of the animals on their backs.

Her sisters and cousins never treated her any different, and maybe that was why she never could bring herself to hate a single one. Not the murderous mad Bellatrix Lestrange or the backstabbing traitor Sirius Black or the blood purist Narcissa Malfoy or the death eater coward Regulus Black. She never knew them. She only ever knew fierce Bella and rebellious Sirius and girlish Cissy and kind Regulus, who loved a little girl when they could have been cruel.

The hat dropped over her eyes, covering her from Bella's searing gaze, and told her that 'you ought to be a Ravenclaw with brains like those, but with your knack for lying and the way you value tradition, better make you a Slytherin'. Andromeda is relieved and happy. Her common room might have been a snake pit, but she knew to watch for poison.

Andromeda went to the library and laughed at things her sister said and wrote home to baby Cissy and absolutely did not look for Him. Even if he was here, she could not speak to him.

Her spine tingles in the library and she starts checking the books out and taking them back to the common room. It didn't matter how much their backbones called out to each other. It could not be. She never allowed herself to think of him.

Tedd Tonks was an only child. His parents wrinkled their foreheads at their son's soulmate, but for the most part didn't comment on her mythological name. It was only the first odd thing in a long string of odd things that seem to have something to do with their son. Once, he turned himself bright blue. Another time he had a tantrum and every flower in the garden died. But the letter that came when he was eleven really took the cake. Magic was real and their little boy was a wizard.

Tedd was sorted into Ravenclaw, and all he knew of them was that they valued being clever and creative, and that sounded like him. The hat also told him he was brave, and whispered that he would need it. He didn't understand the warning when it was given, but he would.

He looked for his mate all over, checked every house, before a girl with dark hair and flashing grey eyes cornered him one day. She was wearing Slytherin robes and looked to be a few years older than him, and when she held her wand to his throat and said she would use it, he believed her. The beautiful girl told him that her sister might be his mate, but scum like him didn't get to touch people like them. He was starting to understand what the hat said.

His neck cracked when he heard the hat call Her name. There she was. There she was. Her sister was burning holes in his head but there she was. The hat called Slytherin. There she went. She looked just like her sister and not at all like the girl he had grown up picturing. She was so much better.

She was everywhere. She was nowhere to be found. When his spine tingled in the hallway he forgot what he was saying. When they were in herbology, he scanned the group for her, but only ever seemed to get flashes. She was hiding from him.

She did her best to stay away from him. Her parents had considered not sending her to Hogwarts, not when Bella had written them that the boy was there, but The Noble and Most Ancient House of Black had been sending their children to Hogwarts since there was a Hogwarts. The Blacks brought themselves to ruin over tradition.

She tries to hide from him she really does, but her eleven year old soul called out to him, and she was losing her mind over staying away from the mudblood.

(Years from now, when she is begging for her sisters to understand, she will tell them that she tried.)

They spend five years breathless. He is always chasing her. She is always hiding. Her parents whisper their poisons in her ears and she begins to understand that poison is still poison, even if it's been dripped into your mouth since cradle, so that it filled you up and falls from your own mouth.

The astronomy tower. She is too consumed with the stars, greeting them like old friends to notice the way her skin prickles. When she does, it is too late. He is there. She is there.

"Why won't you just leave me alone?" She spits at him, and it burns to hear her voice.

Because we're mates. Mates always meet. Always. Even if only for an hour." He told her, and it is a clever ploy to get her to hesitate. He caught her wrist and she felt as though she is on fire, the words on her back screaming that this is who she's meant for.

"If someone see's you touching me, my sister will kill you." She said, part threat part warning.

"I know."

"I'm practically betrothed."

"Why?" He asked, but doesn't release her wrist.

"Because you're a mudblood of course!" Was the boy stupid?

His nostrils flare, but still he doesn't let go. His eyes were blue.

"So you're saying it's forbidden?" He asked curiously.

"Yes. Which is why you have to let me go." Bellatrix would come looking.

"By society? Or just your family?" And he had let go but she couldn't make her feet move.

"My family is society." She told him, neck arched like she'd been taught.

"So me and you, a mudblood and a pureblood, are forbidden from being mates?" he grinned when he questioned her.

"That's what I just said!" She huffed, not knowing that she looked like a goddess.

"Oh Dromeda. That just makes it more fun." He laughed.

When she runs, she burns herself off the tapestry, and holds his hand when she meets him outside.