A/N: Hello! This is for the Quidditch League Fanfiction Competition. Prompts: 1. Sentence: The clock seems to be ticking backwards. 2. Dialogue: "That's not what you said last night." 7. Tap on a window.

Enjoy!

His Heart in a Letter

Chapter 2

Andromeda watched as her older sister Bellatrix paced around the bedroom where they were all waiting. Every so often, she would stride up to the door and place her ear against it, murmuring spells and straining to hear what was being said below. To Bellatrix's frustration, her parents' magical charms were more powerful than hers, and she could hear nothing but a low, completely unintelligible buzz.

After the fifth time, when she'd tried a combination of charms, Bellatrix sank to the floor and groaned. Tutting, she glanced around the room distastefully and said, "You've done a horrible job decorating, Andromeda. I wouldn't even be in this room if it didn't have the best spot in the house for hearing downstairs."

"Fat lot of good that's done," said Narcissa, smirking at Bellatrix. She was sitting at the foot of the bed, where Andromeda was absentmindedly braiding her hair.

"Shut up," Bellatrix snarled. "The waiting is driving me insane."

"Just be patient, Bella," said Andromeda. "It doesn't even matter that much. If this proposal falls apart, they'll fix you with another one."

"But I like this one," she snapped.

"What do you even like about him?" sighed Narcissa. "He's ugly. And quiet."

"He's stoic," said Bellatrix firmly. "And I like that he's stoic."

As they shared their words in the harsh, clipped tongue that was now almost foreign to Andromeda, she collapsed into her mind, thinking of a few days from now when her life could very well change forever. One year ago, she had left the only person she'd ever loved. One week ago, she'd received a letter from him, promising that he would return for her. And she was waiting.

"Merlin, the clock seems to be ticking backwards," Bellatrix groaned, dropping her head into her hands.

Andromeda almost smiled; that was the first thing she and Bellatrix had shared in common for over a year. The clock really did seem to be ticking backwards.

She knew what being with Ted would mean. Her family would no longer be her family. There would be no inheritance. The name 'Black' would be officially scratched off of her name, like the end of a snapped wand, dangling there by a tiny thread of unicorn hair.

It would also mean happiness like she'd never known it before.

"What do you think about blood purity?" Andromeda dared to ask.

Bellatrix stared at her as though she were speaking troll. "Don't be ridiculous, Andromeda. Blood purity defines who we are as wizards. It defines who we are as Blacks."

"Yes," said Andromeda. "That's what we've been raised with. But what do you think?"

"What do you mean?" asked Narcissa. "Obviously, that's what we think, right? It's what we were raised with, so it's what we think."

"It doesn't have to be," Andromeda said simply.

"What else would it be?" Impatience bled through Bellatrix's voice. "Sometimes, Andromeda, I really feel like I don't know you."

"What if a man was lovely," said Andromeda quietly. "Like, he's absolutely kind and strong and ambitious. You know what I mean? And stoic, if you want."

Narcissa giggled and Bellatrix smirked. "I'm listening," she said skeptically.

"He's got family values and is rich and very handsome," she continued.

"All right, just get to the bloody catch, would you?" said Bellatrix.

"He's half-blood."

It was like the air had been sucked out of the room. A surge of emotions was building in Andromeda and was at the breaking point; words that she would most definitely regret were about to come spilling from her mouth—

"You've got to be kidding me!" Bellatrix cried, almost laughing. "A half-blood? Are you serious? How can a half-blood have family values? How can he be ambitious?"

"He could be," said Andromeda, somewhat defensively, though her heart was slowly sinking.

"That's impossible," said Narcissa, looking at her oddly. "Half-bloods and lower bloods don't have what we have. They don't have what it takes to be somebody. It's just not there, naturally."

"What do you want in a man, Andromeda?" said Bellatrix. Her tone was biting, but Andromeda could sense a hint of curiosity beneath it.

She knew she could not answer honestly. Shrugging, she replied, "I'd like someone who knows how to take care of me and earn good money. A good, pureblood from a good family."

"That's not what you said last night," said Bellatrix at once.

At this, Andromeda went cold. "What?" she demanded. "What does that even mean?"

"I heard you." Bellatrix's upper lip curled in a sneer. "Mumbling. 'Ted...Ted…I'm sorry…I love you.' Who's Ted?"

"That's—no—you're just—" she spluttered. "Ted's a character from a novel I'm reading. The main character and Ted, the love interest, split up. I guess I just got, I don't know, involved in it."

"That's bollocks," said Bellatrix. "You think I don't know?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," said Andromeda defensively.

"You're my little sister, 'Dromeda," she said. "I know everything."

Casting her eyes to the floor, Andromeda said, "What's your point?"

"My point"—she was shocked at how soft and serious Bellatrix's voice suddenly became—"is that you better stay away from that. It'll do you and us no good."

Andromeda didn't respond. Her sister's warning was the final say. Living here, in the Black household with Black values and beliefs would be suicide. There was a way out, however risky and difficult it would be, and Andromeda was going to take it.

The night's silence rang like thousands of gongs in Andromeda's ears, as it had done every night since Ted's letter came. He hadn't specified when he would come, and in her hastily scribbled response, she hadn't inquired. So she lay in her bed, every night, hardly daring to breathe for fear of missing the sound of Ted's approach. As she waited, she remembered Bellatrix's words. The clock seems to be ticking backwards. Andromeda smiled sadly. The last sentiment she would share with her sister.

Then, it came. A soft tap on her window. She'd left it open a crack to create a loophole in her father's protective, anti-burglary charms. Andromeda through her heart might burst as she tiptoed to the open window. There was the man of her dreams, hovering on a broomstick and smiling at her like she was the most perfect thing to ever walk this earth, like she was the only wish on his letters to Santa Claus for ten years. Like she'd never broken his heart. Without a second thought, Andromeda climbed out of the window and onto the back of Ted's broom, and they shot off into the night sky.

How long they soared, Andromda neither knew nor cared. All that mattered was that she could feel Ted with her, against her, and the broken being her family had forced her to become was now mending itself bit by bit with the help of his presence. After eons, they landed in an empty field; Andromeda could see nothing but flat land for miles, and the stars glittered like they never could in the city.

Ted dismounted his broom and ran a hand through his windswept hair, staring at Andromeda. Dressed in a brown t-shirt, tweed jacket, and jeans, he looked like a dream come true. And really, he was.

"I've missed you so much," he said. The sound if his voice nearly brought her to tears.

"I've missed you, too," she managed to say. "Thank you for coming back."

Ted shook his head. "I didn't have another choice. We belong together, Andromeda."

"I know," she said hoarsely. "I'm sorry I didn't realize it before."

"No need," he said, and then he kissed her. It was like being back in Hogwarts, being in love without consequences, feeling the fluttering wings of butterflies in her stomach every time she thought of Ted.

"I'm ready to run," Andromeda said firmly after he pulled away. "Let's leave."

Gripping her hands tightly, Ted nodded. "I'll come and get you tomorrow night. That gives you a chance to pack your things and say—"

"There's no need for good-byes," she interjected. She had thought this through completely. It had been many months since she'd passed the point where she could continue to call the people she lived with her family.

"Okay," said Ted.

"Let's leave now," she said.

"Now?" said Ted, surprised.

"Now," she repeated, nodding. "I'll get my things and we'll go. I'm not waiting any longer."

With a heavy sigh, Ted pulled Andromeda into a hug. Wordlessly, they mounted his broom and didn't speak again until they were safely out of the Black house and on their way to a new life.

High in the sky, Ted shouted, "I love you!"

"I love you, too!" she shouted back, exhilarated from the height, and from her freedom.

"Will you marry me?" he yelled as they dodged clouds.

For a moment, Andromeda felt a pang of sadness that she could not tell her sisters about this moment of romance, that she could not squeal with them and recite every detail. But then, the man in front of her turned to face her, and all her sadness drifted away into the open air.

"I would love to."

A/N: I'm working on at least one more chapter. Please leave me your thoughts!