Disclaimer: As always I own nothing but the original characters and the situations all characters find themselves in. Thanks for reading, hope you enjoy.

What Did You Say

Sitting on his bed that night with his back braced up against his headboard, Ted worked away at his comics like a man obsessed, having come up with a fabulous idea after Andromeda had informed him that she liked his drawings well enough to not object to her character. It was going to be awesome, Ted thought as his pencil flew across the parchment. His best storyline ever if he did say so himself. It was going to be more epic than Heston's, 'The Ten Commandments'.

"If you're going to stay up all night drawing pictures of Andromeda Black again I'm going to smother you with my pillow." Ted's roommate Casper muttered from the bed beside him.

Ted looked over to give the man a split second look of apology before turning back to his work.

"You know if you keep obsessing about her to this degree you're never going to get a girlfriend, which also means you're never going to get one naked." Casper persisted, and not for the first time. He got that Andromeda Black was hot, he had eyes in his head after all, but he didn't see the point in his roommate wasting his time pining for the Slytherin Queen.

Ted's cheeks flushed as he pictured Andromeda naked in his mind. She'd be even more beautiful than a Veela, he thought with a sigh of longing.

"You're pathetic, you know that don't you?"

"Oh I know. But she talks to me, Casper. We hold conversations. And I never thought that was possible either. I think we're going to be good friends, just you wait and see."

Casper lifted his head from his pillow and shook his head in exasperation. "Ted, why would you want to be friends with her? That's even worse than drooling at her from afar. Even if the world went to hell in a hand basket and you did become friends, you don't exactly want to be her shoulder to cry on when some bloke treats her bad or she has a spat with someone."

"Andromeda's not the cry on anyone's shoulder type. She's not the crying type period."

Ted's roommate couldn't argue with that. "All I'm saying is that sooner or later you're going to trip yourself up and she's going to realize how you feel about her. And when that day comes she'd going to squish your heart like a bug under her foot, mark my words."

"She wouldn't deliberately squish a bug under her foot either. She doesn't like her things to be dirtied or stained in anyway. If she wanted to kill a bug she'd just use her wand."

Casper stared at his friend, slowly shaking his head back and forth. "Why do I even bother?"

"Couldn't tell you." Ted answered, not looking up from his artwork, a faint smile curving his lips when his friend gave a sigh of defeat and went quiet. "Night, Casper."

"Night, you bloody idiot."

)

They were halfway through their tutoring session the next day when Ted turned the page of his Charms book and spotted the letter that had been shoved between the book's pages. Brows furrowing Ted picked up the letter with a curious look on his face. "Now where did you come from?" He murmured, completely losing track of what Andromeda was saying to him as he studied the envelope which had his name on it in flowing, female script.

Annoyed when she realized she was being ignored Andromeda gave the Hufflepuff a dark look, one he missed since he was too busy opening an envelope. "You can read your mail after our lesson."

"But I want to know who it's from." Ted argued as he slid the sheet of parchment from the envelope. "It doesn't have a return address and whoever sent it must have slipped it into my textbook while I wasn't looking."

"You're opening mail from someone you don't know?" Andromeda gave him a look that said she thought he was dumber than a mountain troll. "What were you thinking? Do you know how easy it is to booby-trap letters? Well? Do you? Have you heard nothing I've said about the members of my house who would love to send you to St Mungos?"

Ted waved the still folded piece of paper in her direction. "Look, its fine. My hand is not dissolving off my wrist."

"Not yet its not." Andromeda murmured nastily in response, her aggravating only increasing as he unfolded the letter and started to read it. The look on his face tipped her off that there was still reason to worry about the contents of the letter. "What does it say?"

"Someone wants to meet me tomorrow by the lake." Ted answered thoughtfully. "They don't give their name, just that whoever it is, she's in Hufflepuff. Or at least I'm assuming it's a she. That's what the writing looks like to me. Nice penmanship."

Thinking of her sisters and the traps they might lay Andromeda neatly snatched the piece of parchment from his hands before he could stop her. Studying the handwriting she was relieved to see that the style bore absolutely no resemblance to either of her sisters' hands. Reading the sparse note as well Andromeda didn't get any bad vibes, but there was something about it that annoyed her on some basic, almost primal level.

Handing it back to the Hufflepuff Andromeda gave him a questioning look. "Are you going to go?"

"Well I have to, don't I?" He returned as he refolded the letter and slid it back into the envelope. "The writer didn't leave any way for me to contact her. It would be rude of me to let her wait there and not show up. Besides, the girl obviously wants to talk to me about something important, and I'm not doing anything particular tomorrow anyway."

Andromeda couldn't have said why, but the idea irked her. "She's terribly rude, to be so inconsiderate of your time and schedule. Using your good manners to force you to see her, just disgraceful. A real lady would never behave in such a way. She's probably some classless twit with as much intelligence as she has breeding."

Ted's lips twitched even as he shook his head at her way of thinking. "One's breeding doesn't dictate good manners, Andromeda. I'm barely middle class and I at least have the good manners not to insult people I've never met."

Andromeda's back straightened as his meaning hit home. Dark eyes flashing the Slytherin glared coolly at her companion. "Are you suggesting I have no manners?"

"No, but I'm saying it's wrong to say mean things about someone you don't know. I get that that's become your new way of dealing with your changing views of Muggles and Muggleborns, but still…words have a lot of power, Andy. A wound delivered by words can leave marks that will last a lot longer than ones delivered by a wand."

Andromeda's eyes narrowed. "You just called me Andy."

"Did I?" Ted's face was all innocence.

Now it was Andromeda's lips that twitched ever so slightly. But she wasn't about to let what he'd said go either. "I've said negatives things about other people before, why do you care now? What's so special about this letter writer anyway?"

If it had been any other girl Ted would have thought she was jealous. "I don't say anything because most of the time you don't mean it. You just say it because it's what you've been trained your whole life to say. It's a lot easier to learn bad behavior than it is to unlearn it, so I'm giving you some slack."

There was something in his expression that made Andromeda want to squirm like a naughty child being scolded. "I…I would be polite to your family…if I were to ever meet them. Even if they are Muggles."

"Because you're too smart not to know that I wouldn't easily forgive you if you hurt them or their feelings." Ted countered, pointing his quill in her direction knowingly.

Since that was the reason she'd be anything approaching nice to the people Andromeda conceded his point. "Do you think I will ever meet them? Your family?" She couldn't imagine them clearly, or how she would ever manage to spend more than an hour with them, but she would try. It was mindboggling really, to know that she would.

Ted grinned widely at the idea. "I'd like to introduce you to them someday."

"I'd…like to meet them too…someday." And hating the gooey feelings his grin was causing Andromeda sought to banish them. "I should very much like to see what sort of people would unleash someone like you into the word without better supervision and common sense."

Not offended in the least Ted kept on grinning. "And I'd like to meet your parents properly too, but that would not end well at all."

"The house elf would bury you in the backyard."

Ted laughed, even though he could see that she wasn't really joking. "And would you cry and put flowers on my makeshift grave?"

Andromeda's tone was dry as she answered him. "Given how little would be left of you it would be more of a hole than a grave."

"Ouch."

)

The next morning Andromeda staked out a spot so that she would see anyone who moved to approach the assigned meeting place. Ted was under the impression that there was nothing to worry about, but the boy didn't worry about things half as often as he should. So it was up to her to take care of him. Again. It was becoming a full time job, Andromeda thought as her dark eyes scanned the school landscape for potential problems. Ted was already standing under the designated tree, which annoyed her even though she often lectured him about the importance of punctuality. He was usually just on time when dealing with her after all.

Andromeda had come up with two logical explanations for this meeting, neither of which she liked. The first was that some members of her house wanted to lure him away from the general school population for the purpose of harming him, the other that some stupid Hufflepuff twit wanted to confess her feelings to him.

Of course it was most likely not the second scenario, Andromeda assured herself, even as her eyes darkened and narrowed at every female within her eye sight. After all, who would want to confess to Ted? It wasn't like he was the kind of guy the girls went wild for. And he would have told her if there was some hussy at Hogwarts who was interest in him. Men liked to brag about that sort of thing.

A real woman of class and breeding would never be so bold or eager as to call a boy out to declare her feelings. Talk about appearing desperate, Andromeda sniffed as she crossed her arms in front of her. A man would have to be equally desperate to be interested in such a woman. Ted couldn't possible he that desperate.

But nothing she told herself was very comforting and Andromeda found herself evaluating every girl she spotted, finding multiple faults with all of them. From having cankles to wearing too much jewelry, the Slytherin found something to dislike about every single one.

That the girl who finally moved to approach Ted at the tree was a whole minute late did nothing to endear herself to the Slytherin, who watched the girl the way a cat eyed a lame mouse.

Leaning back against the tree Andromeda watched the exchange from where she was with one hand in her jacket pocket. The pocket that contained her wand.

The two chattered back and forth, Andromeda's eyes flashing when the girl pulled something out of her coat and held it out to Ted with much blushing.

And he took it, Andromeda thought with flames all but shooting out of her eyes. You two timing, self centered, prat, she inwardly fumed, envisioning herself cursing the cad into the next century with dark pleasure. When she got through with him he'd rue the day he thought he could toy with her affection and than throw her over for some badly dressed, frizzy haired, Hufflepuff harlot.

Realizing what she was thinking Andromeda paled, swaying where she stood as she reeled from the idea that she was…just possibly…jealous.

She'd never been jealous before so she had no precedent to go by. She just knew that she hated the sight of Ted with another girl. Like he belonged to her and this hag was trying to steal him from her. Not that she could manage that of course. No one stole from Andromeda Black and lived to tell the tale. It wouldn't be difficult at all to set the bitch straight about whose man she was making eyes at.

She was thinking of Ted as her man now?

Merlin help her, Andromeda thought as she slowly shook her head at her own thoughts. She needed to go to St. Mungos for a round of shock spells. Now.

Feeling weak in the knees Andromeda sat down hard on the ground, staring into space as she tried to figure out how her brain could be malfunctioning to such a severe degree. It shouldn't be possible. Bella was the one in their family with mental problems and horrible taste in men.

"Andromeda!"

Andromeda blinked as she looked up to see Ted running towards her, coming to a stop in front of her.

"Are you okay?" Ted demanded to know, squatting down like a catcher so that he could see her face better. She was pale and her eyes were glassy, not good signs. "Do you feel faint? Did you eat something bad? Did you eat shellfish at lunch? My mum always says you shouldn't eat anything that carries its house around with it because you never know how often they clean it. Does the food vary depending on the table? I don't think there was any seafood on our table today."

"What…what are you doing here?" Andromeda asked, her brain so fried that she was fuzzy on all the other details.

Ted reached out and placed one cool hand over Andromeda's forehead. "I had that meeting, remember? I was over there and the girl, Alyssa, she said you were watching us and when I looked over you were all pale and than you sat down on the ground. I figured something had to be pretty wrong for you to just sit in the dirt like that. I know how fussy you are about your clothes. So do you feel faint? Should I go get someone?"

She was sitting on dirt? Andromeda looked down, realizing that she was indeed sitting on the ground without anything between her clothes and the earth. This day just keeps getting better and better, Andromeda thought darkly as she forced herself to her feet, Teddy rising with her, keeping his hands firmly on her upper arms to support her in case she stumbled.

Blinking Andromeda forced herself to meet his concerned eyes. "I'm fine. Don't trouble yourself."

"You're out of your genius mind if you think I'm just going to leave you here." Ted was insulted she thought that he would. "Now come on, let's get you inside and looked over, okay?"

"What about your little meeting with that girl?"

Ted looked over in the direction of the girl in question and than back to Andromeda. "I'm sure she'll understand. And we already had our meeting so to speak. She and I can talk more later if she wants to."

"And she likes you, doesn't she?" Andromeda asked, wincing slightly at the sulkiness of her tone. Holy Harpies, what was wrong with her today?

Blushing at her words Ted was still flabbergasted by the girl's confession. "How did you know that? Can you read lips? I've always wondered how you train people to do that. I mean the way your mouth moves can't be that distinctive for every word, can it?"

"What did you say, when she told you how she felt?" Andromeda demanded to know, ignoring his other questions. She'd deal with them later if he persisted but for the moment she had to know what the outcome of the meet had been. Did Ted fancy the girl? Was that why he was blushing? Were the two going to start going out now? Was she being replaced?

"Well that's really none of your business."

Andromeda reached out and grasped the startled boy by his lapels. "What. Did. You. Say. To. Her?" She all but hissed, her Slytherin nature really showing as her dark eyes dared him to continue to leave her in the dark.

It was Ted's turn to pale a little, knowing that he was in a lot of trouble but having no idea what he'd done to piss her off. And it was never a good idea to piss her off, especially to this degree. But why would she care so much what he'd said to Alyssa, Ted wondered as he stared into her fierce black eyes. "Do you…uh…know her?" Ted asked weakly, wondering if Andromeda had some prior beef with the girl that was making her behave so out of character.

"Ted." Andromeda's voice was soft and low, sending shivers down the Hufflepuff's spine in reaction. "I won't ask you this again. What did you say to her after she confessed her feelings to you?"

"I told her that I was really flattered but that there was someone else I liked." Ted blurted out, feeling like his continued existence on the planet depended upon him answering her to her satisfaction.

The Slytherin's eyes took on an interested gleam.

"And just who do you like, Ted?"

The Hufflepuff gulped hard. "I don't suppose I can decline to answer that question?"

"I'm afraid not."

"Didn't think so."