Written for Can You Make It To the End challenge (Round 2: AndromedaTed, shrieking shack), the Colours of the Rainbow Competition (Black- stars) and the Lover's Day Event at Hogwarts (prompt: "The stars are so pretty. You know what else is pretty?")

Ted reached down to offer Andromeda a hand as the two climbed up to the roof of the shrieking shack. Shaking her head and rejecting the offered hand, Andromeda pulled herself up on her own, leaping up from a windowsill. Ted applauded.

"Thank you, thank you," Andromeda said, taking a mock bow. Ted made a face at her, enjoying the way Andromeda stuck her tongue out childishly back at him.

Ted patted the spot beside him and Andromeda sat down, wrapping her cloak around herself tighter.

"The view of the sky is beautiful from here, isn't it?" Andromeda said, staring up at the sky in wonder. "I'm glad my cousin told us about this place not actually being haunted."

"I'm glad too," Ted answered. Looking at Andromeda, his smile softened. "The stars are so pretty. You know what else is pretty?"

Andromeda turned her head sideways, considering it. "Nothing."

"Huh?' Ted answer, eyebrows scrunched up in confusion.

Andromeda repeated her words slowly and deliberately, as if talking to a five year old, "Nothing means the lack of anything, Theodore. There is nothing as beautiful as the stars because stars are a cosmic presence necessary in our everyday life. Nothing else matches that criteria, therefore there is nothing as pretty as the stars."

Ted buried his face in his folded up feet, breathing deeply to try and keep him calm demeanor. "I was going to say you, Dromeda. You are pretty like the stars."

Andromeda ducked her face to hide her grin. "Thank you Theodore, that delightfully clueless but adorable simultaneously."

Ted's eyes narrowed. "You knew what I was going to say, didn't you? You said that just to make me frustrated you …. Snake."

Andromeda's smirk deepened and she leaned down to whisper huskily into Ted's ear. "Don't worry little badger, I won't eat you alive. I promise."

Despite himself, Ted shivered.