"How can you call him a lunatic after everything he's been through?" Andromeda said to her husband indignantly; she was surprised that she was defending none other than Alastor Moody and even more shocked that she had to argue with Ted about it.

"This story that he told you-" Ted began

"It wasn't a story! That's a horrible thing to say!" After returning home she'd thought the most pressing matter would be getting kicked out of Grimmauld Place by her murderous aunt but she hadn't had chance to discuss her findings yet. She had seen Sirius back to his temporary home with his friend's parents and then come home to find herself immersed in a heated argument with her usually welcoming husband.

"It happened a few months ago, 'Dromeda, not a few years; he doesn't know what he's saying half the time! you don't listen to anything our superiors at the Order brief us about!"

"Well" this caught her off guard slightly; "anyone can make a mistake-" she was referring to Moody, but the way Ted had said superiors made her wish she was speaking on his behalf.

"Also it was his baby daughter that survived, not his son"

"But that doesn't mean-"

"And his wife wasn't a Dumbledore. Albus trusts him because he was a good auror in his day, his wife wasn't even natively English so there's no reason for him to think that she was a Dumbledore because pure-blood families often stay-"

"You know what?" she interjected, "you're becoming more and more like them everyday". She had known this for a while now. She hated hearing him talk to her so formally as if he were a commander and she were a cadet; and the way he referred to Dumbledore as Albus told her all she needed to know about where he now stood and who was most important to him.

"Are you saying I'm a Death-" he almost sounded furious, but Andromeda cut him ff anyway.

"Of course not! I meant the aurors; the Order! You talk to me like I'm just another soldier in the war, like I'm just the same to you as everybody else!".

"Well . . . you are". He didn't seem to realise how hurtful this was but nevertheless Andromeda burst into an angry fit of tears at his harsh words.

"I thought we were more than that" she whispered.

"Oh I didn't mean-"

"I know what you meant". Without looking back she stormed out the room and ran as fast as she could up the staircase. She had never argued with Ted about anything but she was starting to realise just how unlovable he had grown with the outbreak of war looming evermore. She didn't know if he was telling the truth about Moody; maybe it was his daughter who had been rescued and maybe his wife was from abroad; but none of that mattered if Ted had truly started seeing her in the same way he saw everyone else.

Nymphadora's bedroom was multicoloured like her hair but there were various patches of yellow as if the Hufflepuff inside her was starting to show itself. Today she was sporting a blonde hairstyle that fluttered down past her dainty shoulders. Oddly she was sat cross-legged on her bed reading 'Wanderings with Werewolves' by the debut novelist Gilderoy Lockhart; it worried Andromeda to think whether it was author or the subject which interested her daughter the most.

"I'm home, Nymphadora"

"Mum!" she threw her legs over the edge of the bed and ran towards her mother for a bear hug, "do you have to call me Nymphadora?" she whined. Andromeda thought back to Grimmauld Place and Moody's new nickname for her as she set her daughter down on the bed.

"I need you to do something for me" she said.

"What is it, mum?"

"I'm going to go away for a while; I think your father could really do without me being around to annoy him for a while" she tried to laugh in an attempt to cover up her sadness but it only brought the tears back; "so once I'm gone I need you to pass on a message for me".

"I'm sure he doesn't want you to go"

"He won't admit that, dear. But I know he does". Her daughter looked as if she wanted to protest, but Andromeda reassured her by saying "besides, it means you get to boss him around for a while" this seemed to cheer her up slightly.

"What's the message?"

"I'll write it down". It took her half an hour to write the message because she couldn't put her thoughts and her sorrows into words, and she spent most of the time looking at Nymphadora longingly as she read her werewolf book eagerly. Finally, after strapping a certain valuable item to the parchment, she handed the tear-stained letter to the blonde-going-on-ginger haired girl and knelt down to look into her eyes.

"Don't think for one second that I'm abandoning you, sweetheart" she said calmly, "I'll come back". Nymphadora threw her arms around her mother once more before Andromeda closed the door; not taking her eyes off the girl for a single second.

She packed lightly; deciding that she wouldn't need dress robes or fashionable attire where she was going. Aside from her clothes she packed a remembrall that Narcissa had given her when they were children, an ornate serpent ornament that Bellatrix had given her when she started Hogwarts, and a tiny replica of a Whomping Willow which had been grown for her by Ted.

"Where are yougoing, dearest?" bellowed one of the portraits from the wall as she made her way down the stairs with her suitcase.

"It's complicated, Hepzibah" she told the woman in the painting. The plump lady had apparently looked after Ted's father when he was a baby and watched over him as he grew up, despite the fact that being a Muggle he had no idea who the woman really was. Still, Ted had bought the painting for his father at Diagon Alley in his second year at Hogwarts but was given it back when his father died. The woman, now eternally encased in artistic form, was a constant form of irritation to Andromeda.

"Come on, darling. Tell auntie Hepzibah"

"I have to get going"

"Does Ted know that you're leaving?" but Andromeda was out the front door before she had chance to reply to the portrait. Thankfully, however, Hepzibah's interference had taken her mind off the fact that she was in effect leaving the husband that she cared so much about, despite his unhealthy obsession with the Order of the Phoenix. She trudged through the snow, on her way to the only place she could think of where shelter and advice would be provided by the person she had needed with her for years.

"What've you got there, 'Dora?"

"A letter from mum; she wanted me to give it to you". Nymphadora's tears were disturbing as Ted took the parchment from her. Strapped to it was the wand that was the mirror image to his; a wand that he thought had been left in the grave with its owner. He began reading the parting words of his wife.

Ted,

I realise now that whilst this war is still hanging over our heads you'll never be able to see the love between us that was once more powerful than any dark magic. That's why I've decided to spare us both any more pain by 'killing the patient before the disease starts to spread' if you understand what I mean. I love you so much, Ted. But I can't stay here if it means we get closer and closer to being separated forever; so I've gone to find her, because right now she's the only person, dead or alive, who I can turn to.

Loving you no matter how much you despise me at this moment in time,

Andromeda.

Ted ran into the street the second after staring solemnly at the name which was two letters too long; Nymphadora staring longingly with tears in her eyes at her father through the wide-open door; but it was too late. Andromeda had left the house long before he had chance to tell her that he did still love her and always would; that she was just another soldier in the war but so much more in his heart.