An: if you've reviewed or favourited or alerted and I haven't got back to you, even just to say thanks, I'm sorry, my email account had a major tantrum, so I'm not sure who I've replied to. Rather than doubling up on some people, I'm just going to say thanks here: I'm really grateful for all your comments, and I'm really happy that you're enjoying the story enough to favourite and/or alert. Also, I never realised that I have three guys with the same first initial in this story. Sorry about that. Enjoy
Chapter Eighteen – As an Heir he's Most Unfit
The next few weeks passed with very few major events. It was possible more had happened, but Andromeda was so caught up in the secrecy and happiness of dating Ted that she didn't pay full attention
Slowly, she was regaining the confidence of her housemates; much to her relief, as spending so much time with her younger sister was torture. She talked so much about Bellatrix's upcoming wedding, the finer points of Defence Against the Dark Arts and, of course, the inferiority of Muggleborns. Naturally, Narcissa didn't say Muggleborn, but the other hateful word. Andromeda found it hard to say now or even to think it. Everything she'd been brought up to believe – that Muggleborns were inferior, stupid, slow – it all fell away when she thought of Ted. He wasn't inferior, he bested her in Transfiguration a lot of the time; he wasn't stupid, he was almost top of the class in Charms; and he wasn't slow. Maybe he was too kind to say quips out loud, but that didn't mean he didn't think of them.
She was very grateful for the Room of Requirement, because it gave her and Ted somewhere to meet where she didn't look over her shoulder all the time. At any other time she tried to act normally around him, maybe even slightly colder than usual, anything to make sure no rumours spread. Having turned Dolohov down she was on thin ice with her parents. A Muggleborn boyfriend might just finish them off.
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"You seem happy."
Ted looked up from buttoning his shirt. "Two frees this morning, remember? After breakfast I can go back to bed."
Tom frowned, giving up on trying to brush his dark hair. "No. This is more than two frees happiness. This is… Oh my god."
"What?" Ted was looking round the room, a confused look crossing his face. "Have you seen my tie?"
"Ted! Don't change the subject." Tom was staring at his best friend with a mixture of horror and pity. "You're dating Andromeda, aren't you?"
Now throwing things out of his trunk, searching for the missing tie, Ted made a dismissive gesture. "No. Seriously, have you seen my tie?"
"Oh for- Wear one of mine." Tom brandished one at him. "And what do you mean no?"
"I mean," Ted replied, taking the tie from him, looping it round his neck, "that I'm not dating Andromeda Black. She's pureblood, I'm not. End of story. Remember?"
Tom watched his friend carefully. "Fine. But something's making you happier than just your two frees."
Ted grinned and ruffled Tom's hair. "There might be bacon at breakfast."
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"Only child," he said. They were in the room of requirement sitting at either end of a battered sofa, with a chessboard in between them.
"Really?" She sounded surprised, as he nudged a pawn forward. "I thought you had a brother."
He shook his head, leaning back and stretching. "Nope. Just me, Mom and Dad."
Andromeda frowned. "I swear you had a brother," she muttered, deliberating over whether to move her bishop or her knight.
"I've got a cousin," he offered, watching her intently as she moved her knight close to one of his castles.
"I've got some of them," she replied with a smile. "You can have them if you want."
"Sirius seems nice," Ted said, studying the board. "What are the others like?"
"There's only one other one," she told him. "Regulus, he's Sirius' younger brother. He's nice enough for a ten year old. He follows Sirius round everywhere. Apparently, he was distraught in September when Sirius came to Hogwarts."
"Is he anything like Sirius?" Ted asked, a grin dancing on his lips. "Because I'm not sure Hogwarts is going to be able to deal with two of him."
Andromeda laughed, shaking her head. "No. He looks like him, but the similarities end there. Reg is really quiet, and he does what you ask. I can't begin to tell you the amount of times Narcissa persuaded him to try on her old dresses when he was younger. Sirius never would."
Ted spluttered, as he tried and failed to stifle a laugh, imagining Sirius in a dress. "I hope you took photographs. It'd be amazing at his eighteenth birthday."
"Eighteenth? Why eighteenth?" She looked at him quizzically, pushing her queen forward.
"Oh right, seventeenth in the wizarding world," he sighed. "In the normal world, I mean, the Muggle world, you become an adult at eighteen, not seventeen."
Andromeda thought about it for a while. "I can't decide if that's odd or not."
"Checkmate!" Ted finally cried. He grinned at her, as she gaped in astonishment at the board. "I told you I was good."
She rolled her eyes. "Yes, well…" She was at a loss for a comeback and she was struggling for words, when he leaned across and kissed the confusion away.
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"Andromeda."
The sound of his voice made her tense and she slowly put down her quill. "Yes, Titus?"
And there he was, standing beside the desk that she had commandeered in the library, looking exactly as he always did. Smart, slightly haughty, tall. She casually laid her hand on top of her wand, just in case what was heading her way was a hex.
"I'm not here to hurt you," he said quietly, but he definitely didn't look friendly. But had he always looked like that? He placed his wand on the table in front of her. "I'm unarmed."
She attempted a smile, but all she could think of was his handsome face twisted up into a snarl as he said those terrible things. He sighed. "I know. I'm sorry."
"What?" His last comment had shocked her into forgetting her manners.
"I'm sorry." He seemed to be contrite. ""I never meant to hurt you. I was upset."
Andromeda considered him for a moment before asking, "And what does Holly think of this?"
"She'll live." Titus offered her a tentative smile. "Dromeda, we've been friends too long to fall out now."
There had been no acknowledgement that she was right, no guarantee that it wouldn't happen again, but she couldn't help but relax back into their friendship. "How've you been?"
He beamed at her, sitting down on the chair next to her. "Fine, though I'm failing Csharms without your help."
As the world began to return to rights, Andromeda realised that her absences from the common room would be a lot harder to explain now that someone would care where she was. It was with a sinking heart that she realised she couldn't tell Titus about Ted; and how she longed to tell someone. But there was no-one she could tell.