Chapter Six

Something Borrowed, Something Renewed

November, 1968

Damn it! Andromeda thought angrily, gasping as she climbed the staircase two steps at a time. It was Thursday, and already ten past eight, meaning that the library had almost definitely shut. She knew it was her own fault; she hadn't been at all busy and could have dropped in to renew her book at any time, but for reasons unknown she had spent the whole evening in a state of procrastination. She had even let Isobel and Betty engage her in conversation about Lucius for a good two hours, as a result of Isobel's 'triumph' at the Halloween Ball. They had discussed at length on whether "I'll see you later, then" meant that he was interested in a long-term relationship, and Isobel fretted that her freckles would eventually push him away. Finally, after they had drained Andromeda of every piece of information she could recall about the Malfoy family, they let her go without complaint or a goodbye.

She hadn't seen Edward since Halloween, and wasn't really sure how to treat him since this incident. Up until the moment she saw him with all the Hufflepuff girls, she had always treated the boy as a fixed point in her life. He had a time, a day and a location, and it had never much occurred to her that he had his own life beyond their own encounters. Now that she was aware of his individual existence, she felt like he had mutated into a foreign entity.

Reaching the library, she breathed a sigh of relief to find the door shut, but unlocked. Using her shoulder to edge open the door, both hands occupied by 'Moste Potente Potions', she slid through.

'Well no one told me about her, the way she lied
Well no one told me about her, how many people cried'

The sound took her by surprise. Although she had grown up with a personal radio, hearing music in the library felt unnatural. Coming in to investigate further, she spotted a record player on top of the check-in desk, and behind it, stacking books onto a shelf, was Edward. His back was turned so he continued stacking in time to the beat of the song, completely oblivious to her presence. Andromeda coughed. He didn't hear it. She tried his name.

"Edward"

'Well let me tell you 'bout the way she looked
The way she'd act and the colour of her hair'

The record drowned her out. She tried again.

"Edward!"

"Her eyes were clear and bright
But she's not there"

It was no use. She stalked over to the desk and dropped her own book down with a large thud, displacing the record, which came to a shuddering halt. On hearing the sound, he spun round immediately. She smiled.

"Oh, sorry, my fault."

He raised his eyebrows at her, coming over to properly remove the disc from the player.

"Are you apologising for almost breaking my record, or for being late for your renewal?"

"Wow, who died and made you head librarian?"

He grinned and shook his head, sliding the disc back into it's cover. "Maybe I have been working here too long."

The tension that Andromeda felt in anticipation of speaking to him again faded away without her noticing. No longer bothering to ask, he opened the front page of 'Moste Potente Potions' and stamped it. She prodded at the record player.

"Where did this come from?"

"Why, where all things come from: the store-cupboard. Naturally it only comes out a few times a year, what with the ban on noise in the library. I'm not sure why Madame Crouch hasn't thrown it away."

"Well that would be a shame. I personally found your dancing quite entertaining" she said, springing up to sit on the desk.

"What! I wasn't dancing. I was stacking. Rhythmically."

She laughed. "Right. That's what they all say".

"Hey, at least I can dance, unlike some in this room!"

"What do you mean by that? She asked indignantly.

"I saw you at Halloween Ball, skulking around like it the last place you wanted to be. From your apparent lack of enthusiasm I can only assume that you're such a horrific dancer that you censor yourself from participating in any shape or form!"

Upon hearing this, she picked up the book and swatted him with it on the shoulder.

"Owww!"

"I do not skulk." However, she hadn't realised that he'd seen her at the Halloween Ball. He'd looked far too occupied by the group surrounding him, and she'd certainly made no effort to be noticed herself. She couldn't work out if she was happy about this or not.

"Your lack of relevant response is very telling. Do we need to get you lessons?"

"Well I certainly wouldn't be getting them from you! I notice you lack a certain level of co-ordination in that field". Wait, had she just flirted with him? No, of course not, that was just a standard insult, like the ones they always swapped... wasn't it? Suddenly she wasn't quite so sure. Luckily, it seemed that her expression did not reflect her thought process, because Edward carried on as if nothing had changed.

"Andromeda, if you did in fact see me, you'll know that you just told a lie so huge that I can't even be offended by it."

"Yeah, you keep telling yourself that. Besides, I sort of wish I didn't see you there. It felt wrong."

He tilted his head to one side and scrunched his nose "... Hang on, I'm trying to work out whether I should be insulted by that."

"It's true!" She insisted. "You belong in the library. Seeing you somewhere else is like... like watching a centaur walk on it's hind legs"

"Now I'm definitely insulted by that! I'm allowed to roam beyond these walls, you know."

"Not if I had my way." He gaped at her. "I'm serious! You exist here, with your stamp and your step ladder, and now apparently your record player." She picked up the vinyl cover and looked at it. "What is this, anyway?"

"Firstly, not my record player, I only use this because I don't own one myself. Secondly, only one of the best records of this decade, so I won't hear a bad word about it. Mum only owled it to me the other day, so I've been making the most of it."

Andromeda flicked the cover round to look at the other side. Judging from the wear around the edges, it was a second-hand purchase. Her own family had a large library of mint-condition records at home, which she imagined would probably include this EP, and she briefly wondered whether she should offer to give him theirs, if he liked it so much. Ultimately, she decided against it. Money was always a touchy subject in the wizarding world at the best of times, but especially due to all the recent talk of insurgent groups, which was causing the economy to inch ever closer to crisis mode. Just because she was comfortable talking about wealth, didn't mean that others would be.

"No, actually I thought it sounded pretty good."

"Oh." Her response surprised him. He rubbed his temple for a moment, and then shrugged. "You can borrow it, if you like. I mean, if you have your own player at Hogwarts."

"Yes. About the player, I mean. No, wait, about both. Are you sure that's okay?" She garbled, still holding the vinyl in her hands.

Edward relaxed against the desk. There was a lot more control to his voice when he next spoke. "Yeah, yeah, no problem. Just bring it back when you're done, that's all. We can treat it as an additional loan to the book."

"And you're absolutely sure that's okay?"

"Yes, or I wouldn't have offered. Stop sounding so worried!"

"I don't sound-"

"- yeah, yeah, whatever you say. Now get off my desk, I still need to lock up."

"And so the usual level of service resumes" Andromeda commented, hopping off the desk. "Nice way to treat a valued customer." Edward grabbed his bag and together they made their way to the exit.

"Not so much valued customer as undetected book hoarder". He held the door open for her and she went through, giving him her best filthy look.

"Shut up. I will read it. At some point."

Closing the door behind them, he brought out the set of keys and set all the locks in place. With a brief flick of his wand, the protection on the door was complete. Andromeda knew that the Hufflepuff common-room was somewhere in the basement, although she reckoned it couldn't be that close to the dungeons. Therefore she wasn't surprised to see him navigate the moving staircases with her in the direction of the entrance hall.

They had made light conversation down the three flights of stairs, but he went quiet on the final few steps. She glanced up, only to realise that Carolyn from her dorm was by the door leading to the dungeons. The other girl saw her, too.

"Andromeda! Are you coming back to the dungeons?"

Andromeda quickly glanced around, only to see that Edward was already several feet away from her, heading in the opposite direction as if they were total strangers. A wave of relief washed over her, immediately followed by a wave of guilt. However, Carolyn was still waiting for her reply.

"Yes, just picking up some things from the owlery. Wait up"

As she reached Carolyn, the other girl observed the book and the record in her arms.

"Ouch, Odysseus must have had trouble carrying that book all the way up here! Is that a record? That's nice, you never use your record player, it's such a waste. I don't recognise the band though. Are they new?"

Andromeda smiled fixedly, and wondered why Carolyn insisted on asking so many questions.

"Yeah". Thankfully that answer seemed to be enough, and the two girls disappeared off to the dormitories.

The cauldron puffed out a ball of purple smoke, and Alice put the ladle down. Narcissa flicked through the 3rd year potion book, trying to re-find the page containing the instructions for volubilis potion.

"Hold on, it was here somewhere... I don't think it's supposed to end up purple though... maybe pink?"

"It's already been pink, it changed colour when we put the mandrake in."

Narcissa sighed, electing to turn pages randomly rather than look at the contents page. "Maybe it's orange then?" She glanced to Alice, hopefully. "Or maybe we just got it right?"

The potion was frothing wildly now, and Alice had to calm it with a flick of her wand when Slughorn's back was turned. Narcissa finally found the page for volubilis, and held it out for both of them to read.

"Oh, so it's supposed to be yellow? I don't get it. What did we do wrong?"

Alice took the book out her hands and started cross-examining it with the various ingredients on the table. Narcissa started to take off her potions gloves, content that her partner would solve whatever the issue was by the end of the lesson. Over on the other side of the classroom, she could see Travers taking a large swig from the jug of honeywater borrowed from the ingredients cupboard. She shuddered, remembering how most of these ingredients had been in storage for several years before use.

"Still better than McTavish" she muttered under her breath.

Alice looked up from the textbook "Pardon?"

"Travers. Still better than McTavish." Both girls looked back to Travers, who swilled the remainder of the honeywater in his mouth and spat it into the cauldron.

"Are you really sure about that?" Alice asked, her face distorted into an picture of extreme disgust.

"I actually think I am. He's gross, sure, but unlike McTavish, he realises that sometimes he needs to leave me alone. And by 'sometimes', I mean 'almost always'."

Alice poured some syrup into their own concoction. "Cissy, I do sometimes wonder whether you have any idea of what a healthy relationship is supposed to be like."

"Of course I do, don't be stupid. My relationship with Travers is perfectly healthy. I just don't like him all that much."

"I see. So what's his first name?"

Narcissa paused. Turning up the heat on the cauldron, she answered. "Don't know, don't care."

The bell rang for the end of class, and the students started to pack up.

"It should be more than casual make-out sessions, and then bitching behind his back. It should be a situation where you couldn't bring yourself back out, even if you knew you probably should. Look at him. What is he to you? Your best friend? Your soulmate?"

"Alice. I hate to play this card on you, but you are a teenager who never even appears to get crushes on people. What do you know about soulmates? Or is there something you're not telling me?"

Alice groaned and tucked her wand back into the pocket inside her cloak. "No, of course not."

"Well that's sorted then. He's a step up. A step towards a better boyfriend and a brighter future."

"Alright, so what about Christmas?"

The girls made their way out of the potions classroom and headed up towards the charms corridor. Narcissa was taken aback. "What about it?"

"Are you going to meet up with him? Invite him over? Meet the parents? As you say, you are in a relationship with him now"

The questions didn't have their desired effect. Narcissa just stopped, then burst out laughing in the middle of the hallway. "What a silly thing to ask! You're so funny sometimes, Alice."

The winter was drawing in, and Andromeda was making the most of her empty dorm before her roommates stopped braving the windy trek to Hogsmeade. Her record player had left abandoned at the bottom of her closet for the majority of the last four years, but today she had pulled it out and set it up on the floor, for lack of a better position. The record Edward lent her had been hidden under her mattress, and only now did she go to retrieve it. She didn't really know why she had been so secretive about it – the other girls wouldn't think twice about a record in the room, but somehow it was something that she wanted to keep for herself. Sliding it out the cover, and placing it carefully on the player, she set it to play and sat down on the floor, watching it spin endlessly around.

'Well no one told me about her, the way she lied
Well no one told me about her, how many people cried'

After several listens, she decided that although she liked the song, she didn't particularly care for the singer. After several more plays, she decided that it was her favourite song ever, and whoever the singer was, he was amazing, and she was more than willing to bat-bogey hex anyone who said otherwise.

However, she suffered a rude interruption at the arrival of Narcissa, who came bounding into the dormitory unannounced. Flinging herself at the record player, Andromeda hastily took out the disc before her sister could grill her about it, but Narcissa's interests were elsewhere.

"Sorry, but you've got to let me stay in here. Travers wants to take me on a date tonight, and I can't bring myself to reject him to his face."

"It's just a date, Narcissa. You're being rude. Besides, you should face the consequences of dating the first boy you see. Go. It won't be that bad."

"Yes it will! There's nothing I'd rather do less. Except maybe go on a date with McTavish."

Nonchalantly, Andromeda placed the disc under her pillow whilst Narcissa sprawled dejectedly on the floor.

"Remind me, is Travers the one who gave the black eye, or the one who received it?"

"The one who received it. Although I fixed it now; he looks a lot better."

"And you don't want to see him because..."

"Because I have better things to do with my time. Like avoid him."

"Cissy, that's the biggest contradiction I could ever -"

Narcissa flung herself dramatically against the bed post. "Love is a contradiction, Andromeda!"

Andromeda groaned in frustration. "Except you don't like him! Nobody understands why you're bothering. I don't understand. Alice doesn't understand. Bellatrix... well, she wouldn't understand if either of us could catch her for more than ten minutes."

Narcissa pressed her hand to her forehead, imitating the fashion models in the magazines that her mother sometimes left in the reception room at home. She had started overacting, which Andromeda had come to recognise as a sign of boredom. "You don't understand, because you don't know what it feel likes to want to be with someone!"

Andromeda didn't reply. When her sister became melodramatic, it was usually best to stay quiet, until she gave up and left her alone.

The plan failed.

"... or maybe, you do!"

Without missing a beat, Andromeda flopped facedown onto her bed, burrowing herself into the duvet.

"No. No! Don't even start this conversation!" she wailed, her mouth smothered with the cotton sheet. Narcissa's eye's gleamed. It had been a while since the topic had been mentioned, and watching her big sister squirm was a wonderful side-effect.

"Soooo" she started, using a sing-song voice. "Who do you like?"

"No-one. Go away." Came the thick reply from the bedsheets.

"Don't be so boring! There must be someone you think you could at least maybe like?"

For a moment, Andromeda's mind diverted to a Edward, her boy in the library. If she was looking for a classic boy-meets-girl moment in her life, she had to acknowledge that meeting him was the closest thing she was going to find. But it wasn't like that. She knew this to be true, because she knew she wasn't the girl who met boys, only to spend the rest of the month crushing on them so hard that she could barely speak to them. She never acted that way towards anyone, and she certainly hadn't towards him. She realised, with a slight sense of smugness, that if anything, it was more likely to be the other way round. Pleased with the result of her thought process, she sat back up, preparing to evict Narcissa from the dormitory for once and for all.

"Sadly, little sister, there's no news that I'm going to give you, so you'd better be on your way."

Narcissa narrowed her eyes at her, not shifting.

"Why are you smiling?" she asked, her voice laced with incredulity.

Suddenly becoming distinctly aware of her facial movements, Andromeda tried as hard as possible to fix a neutral expression in place.

"I'm not smiling." It was too late. Narcissa had seen too much.

"Yes you were! What aren't you telling me? ….. Tell me, Andromeda or I'm never going to leave this room again!"

"In that case you'd better start working on your ghostly nickname, because you're going to be here for a very long time. I told you, there's nothing to tell."

Narcissa bounced towards her, grinning.

"Please, please, pleasepleasepleasepleaseplease! I promise I won't repeat it to anyone!" And then, after a moment's consideration "….. Is it Malfoy?"

Andromeda could almost feel her eyes doubling in size.

"What!?"

Beaming, Narcissa went on.

"I've heard rumours, you know. Apparently his father wants him to start looking for potential partners, because of all this 'family allegiance' stuff going on at the moment. I did a bit of digging, and your name appeared through the grapevine on more than one occasion! Has he said anything to you?"

"What? No! Who told you this? This is brand new information to me!"

Narcissa laughed. "Really? Are you sure that he hasn't been dropping hints, and you've been too dense to notice? Because I can see that as a definite possibility"

Andromeda's face flushed a deeper shade of pink. "No! I'm absolutely certain! And if I hadn't noticed, one of the other girls would have said something. All of them have been fawning over him since the start of the year. Wait, isn't he supposed to be with Isobel at the moment?"

This appeared to be exactly what Narcissa wanted to hear. She leapt on the bed, kicking off her shoes, and started snuggling up to her very reluctant sister.

"So there is some gossip after all! I totally knew that all your year were trying to get with him – it's because they've all realised that he was good-looking once he toned down the hair gel. It's a pity, I clocked him long before he stopped looking like a refrigerated rat. What happened with Isobel? Tell me everything"

Not having much sense of loyalty towards the other girls, Andromeda was quite willing to comply, and spent the rest of the evening dramatically recounting the exploits of her year group. Narcissa had always loved Andromeda's rather cruel imitations of other people since she was a little girl, and they spent the rest of the evening mocking the Hogwarts community quite contentedly. Proceedings were halted upon the arrival of the other girls in the dormitory. Unable to keep a straight face upon seeing the new arrivals, Narcissa hastily excused herself from the dorm, whilst Andromeda was forced to feign tiredness in order to avoid another conversation about the significance of Malfoy using the word 'later' in place of other alternatives, such as 'soon' or 'tomorrow'.

Some time later in the night, when all the girls had drifted off to sleep, Andromeda awoke, feeling something too hard under her pillow. She reached for the object and pulled it out. Just making out the shape of it in the dark, she remembered that it was Edward's vinyl record. Quietly climbing out of bed, she lifted up the mattress and slid the record back underneath, so that it was safely hidden between mattress and bed frame. Only when she was back in the comforting warmth of the bed, content that the record was under her protection, was she able to fall asleep once more.

A/N: Thank you for reading! As always, please review/follow/favourite if you'd like to hear more - it's such a good motivator to keep writing if I'm aware that people are interested in the story. The song in this episode is 'She's Not There' by The Zombies.

On a side note, I saw one reviewer comment on how weird it was to read 'Edward' instead of 'Ted'. Trust me, it's even weirder to have to write it! But that will all change, when the time comes...

Shhhh, I'd better leave before I drop any more spoilers...