Disclaimer: The characters here and the world they inhabit are the creation and property of JK Rowling and her assigns.
Unlike are we, unlike, o princely heart!
Everyone left the Hospital Wing, leaving Andromeda and the Mudblood alone with the Matron, who mumbled something about pajamas before pulling the curtains and going to her storeroom. Andromeda glanced over toward the other cubicle. The curtain was silent.
"Let me count the ways," came a lazy voice on her other side. Andromeda dragged her gaze back over to where Lucius apparently still stood. She smiled in a way she hoped was properly charming.
He smiled down upon her, and for some reason it made her shrink back into the bed upon which she was sitting. "Let me count the ways," he whispered. "First of all, by this time tomorrow, your sizable dowry will be in my control. Second of all, later tomorrow night, you will allow me to do all the things you haven't let me do since our engagement."
There was a banging sound in the next cubicle and a muffled sound of annoyance. A candle flickered and was then put right.
"Where was I?" asked Lucius. "Oh, yes, third of all and most importantly, within the next month, you will be in the process of bringing the precious heir my father wants into the world. Then I shall be free to pursue my own interests."
Andromeda was confused. "I thought you wanted..."
"You're the wrong sister."
"Narcissa, then..." Her mind worked quickly. Cissy had been treating Andromeda like some sort of a thief since the Blacks had announced this engagement. Did Lucius mean that he reciprocated Cissy's feelings?
"Of course, Cissy, but no! Father thought you seemed more-" he smirked- "sturdy." He ran his fingertips along her arm. "I admit I find you interesting, but you're not my first choice."
"So after there are children..."
"I shall be free to indulge my preferences."
"And I?"
"Will be free to do as my father directs."
The matron came in and clapped her hands. "Off you go, Mr. Malfoy."
"I'll be back before breakfast."
"Oh, Lucius, you know that you can't see me before the wedding tomorrow."
He smiled almost genuinely this time. "Perhaps you're right. Better not court ill luck."
He was gone in a flash, and Andromeda was left to slip into her hospital gown while the Matron fussed at the Mudblood behind the curtain. A moment later the Matron was back, and casting spells left and right. "Into the bed with you, dearie, and rest well."
"Yes, ma'am," she said, meekly, pulling the covers over her legs.
The Matron bustled off to her own room and shut the door.
The Mudblood peeked around the curtain.
I, who thought to sink, Was caught up into love, and taught the whole Of life in a new rhythm. It came to the front of her mind without her consciously looking for it.
"You weren't trying to kill yourself," he said with a kind smile.
She was irritated by it. "And the sickle drops. Good for you, Mudblood."
"So how were you going to get through the gates?"
"Walk, of course."
"You know they're locked, both physically and magically. You never would have got out."
She knew she was looking at him stupidly. It made her irrationally angry-at him. "Still, you shouldn't have interfered. It had nothing to do with you, you know."
"'Ah... but a man's reach should exceed his grasp, or what's a Heaven for?'"
"That's-that's not in the book."
He smiled, and it was as though the sun was rising behind him. "You've read it. You must've read all of it."
He'd gone and changed the rules on her, quoting from somewhere else. "Oh, I don't care."
"It was written by her husband."
She laid down and rolled away from him. "I'm sure that I'm very happy for them."
He walked around the bed and knelt down till he was even with her face. Her breath disappeared. It must be somewhere.
"You can't marry him."
"Thank you, Mr. Obvious. I hadn't figured that part out, yet."
Suddenly he was doing that thing again, and there were his lips, and her lips, and her hands were around his neck, strangling-no, tugging him closer. She broke away. "This has to stop."
"Where were you going to go?"
She sat up and hugged her legs. "Diagon Alley. I was going to send an owl to my Uncle Alphard. He's one of them, but not really. He'd help me. I've already directed my trunk to his house."
"Wouldn't they find you?"
"I have some metamorphmagus abilities. I could hide well enough until he could get there."
"How long could you stay with him?"
"A day or two until they decide to check his house anyway. As if it matters to you."
"I might have an idea."
"How do I get off the grounds?"
He smiled. "That's the easy part. Do you have your uncle's address?"
She shook her head. "It's somewhere in Blackpool. I really don't know. Maybe my cousin knows. He spends weeks at a time there when Aunt Wallberga gets too angry."
"Can you meet me in the library, near the Herbology section before lunch tomorrow?"
"You really have an idea?"
"Will you take a chance with me?"
"'I seek no copy now of life's first half.'" He smiled, and she continued, "Yes, I will go with you. Anything to avoid what they want." She hated sounding desperate, but things were at a desperate point.
He walked back toward the curtain. "I'll see you in the library before lunch, then. Sleep well, Princess."
"I have a name, you know."
His face poked back out. "Yes, I do know, Miss Black, and in fact, most people have names."
She looked at his curtain, feeling a bit shamed by that without knowing why.
The Matron let Andromeda go after breakfast, and she hurried away before she could be called back. She never saw the Mudblood-other student, she told herself-and she didn't take time to look for him. Her first stop was the potions classroom. Given Slughorn's general laziness, she suspected her potions from the past term were still there, and she wanted one of them.
It was as she supposed. Protected from light and other adverse conditions, it looked exactly as she left it. It smelled right, so she pulled a few strands of hair out of her head, rolled them between her fingertips, and dropped the resulting snarl into the bottle. As she shook it, it turned a shade of violet that was identical to what had happened on the day a sample of the same potion had gained her an O.
When Narcissa came to Andromeda's dormitory room an hour later, she found Andromeda sitting on her bed next to her wedding gown. The comb that was to be used as a portkey was near by as well. A bottle of purple potion and several toiletries and cosmetics were lined up on Andromeda's desk.
"Why aren't you ready yet? The portkey is in half an hour."
"Cissy? Why have you been so angry with me since the engagement?"
"Are you kidding? That," Narcissa pointed at Andromeda's engagement ring, "should be mine."
"So you're saying that if I was suddenly gone..."
"I would take my rightful place as Lucius' wife."
Andromeda nodded, "I just needed to hear you say it. You're right; there's not a lot of time. Could you look at me, please? I need to see your eyes, dear. Yes, just like that. Confundo..."
"You're early. That's good."
The Mud-other student-took Andromeda's hand and walked over to one of the bookshelves. He turned How to Tell if Your Tentacula is Venomous and 101 other Useful Hints, and a space suddenly appeared among the stacks. He led her to the opening. By the dim light of his wand she saw a staircase. The opening in the library closed after they passed.
"How did-"
He put his hand over her mouth and breathed into her ear. "Hush! The staff lounge is just beyond the next landing."
She nodded and followed him. They went down past three landings and where the fourth should have been the stairs ended, evening to a path with a downward slant. After ten or fifteen minutes, the path slanted back upwards, and he turned to her. "I tried to pick up that book to look at it sometime in fourth year, and it wouldn't come off the shelf. It's just a lever that opens that doorway."
"So where do we come out?"
"The Hog's Head."
"I can Apparate from there."
"I don't think you should; isn't your uncle going to the wedding? Would an owl get to him in time?"
She bit her lip. "I guess not; I'd have to find someplace to be perhaps all night."
They reached a door that opened in a back room of the inn. He peeked into the main room. "All right, Abe?" The barman nodded and he continued. "I'm going to take the bike out for a few hours. Not that it matters to him much," he muttered under his breath.
They went out to a shed, and opened the doors. A machine with wheels and tubes and things was standing there.
"What is that thing?"
"It's a Triumph motorbike. My dad had it during the Muggle war. He gave it to me for my birthday, and Abe lets me keep it here."
"What does it do?"
"It takes people places."
She realized what he intended and shook her head. "Oh, no... you can't be serious."
"I can be serious, speaking of whom, he gave me your uncle's address. It will be a stretch, but I think I can take you down and be back for the leaving feast. No one will suspect I'm involved, and they won't think of asking me."
"But-"
He put a paper bag into a sort of pouch on one side of the machine and rummaged in the other side, pulling out a leather robe, much shorter than his school robes. He changed, and then made to wad his school robe into the pouch. Andromeda sighed and held out her hand.
"Really?" he chuckled as she folded it and handed it back. "You're going to love this, I promise."
"I'm out of other options."
He put his hand under her chin. "Do you trust me?"
She sighed and said the first thing that came to her mind. "'Write me new my future's epigraph?'"
He smiled and kissed her, and it was the best thing that had happened all day. She ran her hands up the leather on his shoulders, but this time he ended it.
"All right, then. You need to wear this helmet." He put a hallowed out ball on her head and snapped it under her chin. After kissing her, he put a similar hat on his own head.
"Now, you're going to sit here." He lifted her and deposited her on the back portion of what she had to assume was the seat. He leaned down and yelled a bit, because the hats muffled the sound. "I need you to hold my jacket when we're going, ok?"
She nodded. "Thank you... Edward."
He was startled for a second, and then leaned down, causing their hats to bump. His lips manged to kiss the tip of her nose. He zipped up his funny leather robe. Then he lifted his leg over the bike and sat on the front part of the seat. After some sort of adjustment for balance and whatnot, he did a strange jumping movement, and the machine exploded in sound and malodorous fumes. Andromeda shrieked and grabbed him around the waist. She felt his laughter through his jacket as he adjusted her hands to a better position. It seemed that the machine was intact after all.
A moment or two later the machine carried them away from Hogsmeade, leaving behind a cacophony of sound and more fumes.
A/N: Sonnets from the Portuguese, of course, #42, mostly, but there's a line of two from another, and of course the line Ted recites is from Robert Browning. I can't seem to stop writing this story. Chapter 4 is already in my head, with ideas for further chapters. Should I stop? Should I keep going? To weigh in on this and other pressing issues, mash the review button and let me know.