AN: Fanfic's having some issues at the moment, which means emails are screwed up and uploads are difficult. Obviously, I found a way to circumvent the upload of new chapters, but if you guys aren't getting emails to tell you that I've updated, there's not a lot of point. However, I'll keep updating in the hope that you might see this. Enjoy
Chapter 22 – A Collision of Sorts
Of all the days Ted could have overslept, it had to be that day. He woke up to find his dorm room empty, and when he looked at the clock he swore. He had to tell Andromeda that Hufflepuff knew. He would have liked to think that no-one would say anything, but it was unusual for Hufflepuffs to be first with the latest gossip, and a Slytherin and a Hufflepuff together was big news. Especially following the rivalry that had mounted up due to the Quidditch cup.
By the time he made it down the Great Hall, it was far too late.
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Sitting at the Slytherin table, Andromeda was getting a headache from Titus going on and on about yesterday's match. She'd heard all about how Hannah Wilson had nearly crashed into the teacher's stand, how Nott's arm was most definitely broken and about how there had been some blatant fouls that the ref hadn't called.
"Oh god," Titus hissed. "Their beater's coming over."
Andromeda looked up to see blonde Ruth Spencer heading over to them. She knew some very interesting things about Ruth, but now she'd take them to her grave. Not only was there her resolution to not spread rumours, but Ruth was one of Ted's best friends.
"No hard feelings," was Ruth's opening line.
Titus raised an eyebrow. "You got lucky," he said scathingly. "If Nott had ducked-"
"But he didn't, did he?" Ruth asked sweetly. "He screwed up."
"Congratulations on the win," Andromeda offered with a smile, cutting into the conversation before Titus got too angry. "Though I'm sorry Nott had to break his arm for it."
Ruth turned to her, a smile frozen on her face. "Yeah. It's an occupational hazard I guess. But I wanted to talk to you. I didn't come to crow."
"Really?" Titus muttered darkly, glaring into his breakfast.
"What about?" Andromeda asked, slightly surprised.
"Do you remember back in September, when you wanted us gone from the lake? And you wanted to know if my friends knew who I was dating?" Ruth asked.
Andromeda paled. She did remember that afternoon; she remembered being awful to Ruth. In fact she remembered being awful to Ruth several other times, so if the girl was looking for payback…But she didn't know anything. Ted hadn't told her; he'd promised. But what if she'd found out? This was the perfect place to unleash maximum pain, with all of Slytherin, the people that had tentatively started talking to her again, sitting around her. If Ruth did know and she was about to announce it to the entire Slytherin table, there was nothing she could do.
"You see, it doesn't matter, because I told them anyway and they still like me," Ruth explained. "But I was wondering if your friends would be as accepting."
She knew. "R-Ruth," Andromeda stammered. "I'm sorry. I was a cow, but –"
"Because if I tell them who you meet in the Room of Requirement almost every evening, would your friends stand by you?"
Titus swivelled in his seat, as the conversation died because everyone was listening to the Hufflepuff beater say odd things to the middle Black sister. "You've been seeing someone?"
"Ruth," Andromeda implored. If the girl continued, the refound respect, the refound friends that Andromeda had clawed back…it would all disappear. If Ruth kept talking, it meant howlers and rejection and familial disappointment. "I-"
"Who have you been meeting?" Narcissa joined the conversation, gazing intently at her sister. "Why haven't you mentioned him?"
"Probably because you won't approve," Ruth replied with a wide grin. She was enjoying this so much. "I doubt you'd approve at all."
"He's your friend too," Andromeda protested, focusing all her attention on the malevolent girl. "Ruth, you don't have to do this."
"Yes I do," Ruth replied, a flash of anger replacing the smile for a moment. "He chose you over us."
"Who?" Holly asked, watching the Hufflepuff closely.
"Ted Tonks," Ruth told her, almost happily. "He's a Hufflepuff, like me-", that she directed at Titus, before turning to flash a radiant smile at Narcissa. "And did I mention? He's muggleborn." The scandalised gasp that rose from the surrounding people made Ruth beam even wider, before she turned and left Andromeda to the mess that was once her life.
The whispers began all around her, except for her immediate neighbours. Holly was speechless and Narcissa looked like she was about to burst into tears. Titus had gone a fetching shade of red, which left Malfoy to hiss "come with me" and all but drag her out of the Great Hall.
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"We need to talk." Tom reached him before Ted had taken more than a few steps into the Great Hall, taking him by the arm and steering him back out into the corridor.
"I need to tell Andromeda that people know," Ted protested, trying to stop his progress away from the Hall.
"Ruth told her," Tom said shortly, dragging his friend out of the castle. "Ruth told the whole of Slytherin, so I think you need to be as far away from them as possible."
"What?" Ted let himself be led down to the lake. "Did they believe her?"
"From your girlfriend's attempts to make Ruth shut up, I'd say so," Tom said slowing to a halt. He turned to his friend; avoiding his gaze, hands in his pockets. "I just didn't want to see you get lynched."
Ted smiled sadly. "Thanks." There was silence before he continued gently, "I didn't think you'd have a problem with it."
"I don't." The words seemed to burst out of Tom's mouth without his consent. "You can date however you want. I'm all for anything that keeps the purebloods down to earth." He sounded almost angry, and he continued, "You could be dating Malfoy and I wouldn't care as long as you didn't lie about it. All those essays? All the times you went to the library? God, did you think I was stupid? I'm your best friend!" Silence descended again, before Tom said quietly, "and I know that sounded really girly but you know what I mean."
His final comment raised a slight smile from Ted. "I'm sorry man. I- We had to keep it a secret, in case her family found out." He sighed, looking back at the castle. "I guess they'll know by now."
Tom nodded, clapping a hand to his friend's shoulder. "I'm sorry. Just…remember that she'll probably say anything to persuade them that it's all your fault."
Ted shook his head, pushing strands of blonde back from in front of his eyes. "She wouldn't do that. Maybe she'll come clean."
Tom found his friend's naivety touching, yet saddening. There was no way one of the Black sister's was going to admit to dating a mudblood. Even when it seemed like there was no way she could deny it, she would lie, cheat and weasel her way out of it. Because that's what purebloods did.
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"How could you do this?" Pushing her into an empty classroom, Malfoy was already hissing at her.
"Do what?" she asked coolly. The silence followed by the giggles and mutters as he'd dragged her out of the hall had given her time to collect herself. And she was going to deny this. They'd believe her. They had to.
"Meet with a mudblood," Lucius articulated. "How could you- could you let him touch you?" The look of revulsion on his face amazed her. He spent classes with these people and all he could think was how disgusted he was by them.
"I-" Her carefully prepared lie stuck in her throat. She couldn't deny it outright, she suddenly realised. Her pleas that had fallen on Ruth's deaf ears had also been heard by the fully functioning pairs that belonged to her friends. Far better to accuse Ted of putting under a spell. She didn't want to blame him, but she couldn't accept the rejection from her friends, from her family, from her life.
"How could you do that to Narcissa?" Malfoy was just venting now, allowing his emotions to burst out in a free for all, only stopped by Titus bursting into the room.
"Is it true?" he demanded, ignoring the other boy, walking up close to Andromeda, invading her space in a way that made her feel cornered. And like any animal, she began to fight her way out.
"He must have bewitched me," she replied, allowing a trace of anger to creep into her voice.
"How?" Titus looked furious. He reminded her of her father when she'd gone into his study without permission.
"I don't know," Andromeda protested. "With a spell, a potion? Maybe some plant from Greenhouse four."
Titus studied her, and obviously believed whatever he saw in her eyes. He nodded once and said in a low voice, "We'll fix this."
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Ted didn't see Andromeda that day. She wasn't in charms, and it was one of the few days they didn't have transfiguration. Tom had watched him like a hawk, forbidding him from going anywhere near the Slytherin common room on the grounds that Greengrass had looked like he was going to jump Ted in Herbology. Tom had even got the prefects in one it, barring Ted's way out of the common room, telling him that they wouldn't let him walk into a beating.
All in all Ted didn't see her until the next morning. And he saw her at precisely the moment that the entire Hall turned to look at her. The moment that the first shriek echoed around the Hall.
"BESMIRCHER OF OUR FLESH! SCOURGE OF THE FAMILY NAME!"
She'd never had a howler before. Her parents didn't believe in them; thought that family business was best dealt with in private. And it didn't hurt that their father could put all the emotion of the fiercest howler into a sparsely worded letter.
"BETRAYER OF IDEALS! ABOMINATION-"
She saw Sirius look up, recognising his mother's voice. When he realised it wasn't directed at him, he came over, standing behind her with a hand on her shoulder, giving her his support. Narcissa, on the other hand, shrank away, moving as for as she could away from her Aunt's cries.
When the letter had torn itself to shreds, Sirius hugged her awkwardly. "It's not so bad. Least she didn't use befouler of our household. That one's becoming pretty prominent in all of mine."
Ted wanted to go to her then, but Tom held him in his seat, despite Ted's furious cursing. As he later pointed out, Malfoy, Greengrass and even Dolohov looked murderous and even Ted couldn't fight half the Slytherin Quidditch team at once.
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"Andromeda." The skinny brunette boy almost collapsed at her feet. As it was he leant against the stone corridor, gasping for breath. She knew he was Tom Langton, Ted's best friend, but she didn't understand why he was talking to her. She hadn't seen Ted since Ruth unleashed Hell. "Ted…" Tom was still wheezing, but trying to force words out. "By lake…Greengrass…curse."
"Where?" Andromeda demanded, finally understanding Titus' promise to "fix it". "Tom, where?"
The boy was still struggling to breathe but he gasped, "Stone bench…willow."
Somehow, Andromeda knew where he meant, and ran down the corridors, cursing when the staircases moved, forcing her to go the long way round. By the time she was running out of the main door, heading towards where she'd once threatened Ruth, that she realised she didn't know what she going to do. If she stopped Titus, then she'd confirm Ruth's story. But she couldn't let Ted be hurt…
When she reached the top of the slight hill, she flinched. There was Malfoy and another half a dozen Slytherins watching as Titus aimed his wand at a blonde figure curled up on the floor. Ted.
Her mouth opened in horror as she took in the scene and then Titus noticed her. "Ah Dromeda. So nice of you to join us." He jabbed his wand and Ted moaned. It didn't have to be crucio, none of them would risk Azkaban, but any pureblood worth their salt knew other curses; only slightly less painful, but a lot less illegal. "But my question is, how did you know to come? Why would Langton run to you, unless you felt something for this…scum?"
A fresh cry rose from Ted and Andromeda looked away, focussing on Titus. "I imagine he thought I would try to stop you."
"And you're not going to?" Titus asked, raising an eyebrow.
"No," Andromeda replied, casting one last glance at Ted, before hardening her heart. "Why would I ever care for a mudblood?" She spat the last word and Titus laughed approvingly. Ted closed his eyes and gave up.