It was a busy, summer's afternoon in Diagon Alley. Crowds of shoppers, some with Hogwart's booklists in hand and old witches in to London to restock their potions cabinets, flitted to and fro. A banner that read "Grand Opening" levitated above a pristine new ice cream parlor, and a young mother was hopelessly attempting to wipe sticky melted ice cream off the fingers of her three young children. Giving up in the attempt, she straightened up and began to push the pram, her two toddlers holding onto her skirt. As the family passed the alley beside the shop a break in the crowd made visible two teenagers engaged in a lover's quarrel before the crowd closed in again, and the sea of shoppers swallowed the vista.

"Please, Ted," Andromeda said, close to tears, "Please, just let me go." She tore her eyes away from Ted Tonk's frantic features to look wildly about her, making sure that none of her family could see them. The wall of shoppers still blocked them from sight.

"I don't understand," he was saying, "I got one letter a day for three weeks and then nothing for two." It was a fact, but he put it to Andromeda like a question.

She turned back to look at him, finally unable to control her tears once she looked into his eyes. "I c-can't be with you, Ted!"

"Why, not?" Concern and anger mingled in his voice.

"My family. They found out; I can't be with you."

"Your family?" Ted said, laughter on the edge of his voice. Having never met the Blacks, Ted was unaware of the vehemence of their beliefs. However, upon seeing the look Andromeda wore, he sobered instantly. "They didn't hurt you, did they?"

"No…not really. But, if they found us again—Ted, I'm afraid of them. My aunt Walburga is mad and my mother—"

"'Dromeda, I'm not going to let your family's Pureblood nonsense stand in the way of the best thing that ever happened to me," he said bringing his hands up to cup her face.

To his dismay, Andromeda broke into sobs. "Don't say that!"

"It's true!"

"It just makes this harder…just let me go."

"I won't let them hurt you, Andromeda; just say you'll stay with me, please!" Ted pleaded with her, his eyes searching hers frantically.

"But, what if—what if they hurt you? I can't let that happen; I can't be with you anymore," Andromeda wailed, her whole body heaving with the terrible thought.

Ted finally seemed defeated. He pulled Andromeda close and hugged her to his chest, kissing the top of her head. "Ok," he muttered quietly, "ok."

Ted released Andromeda and turned dismally back toward the side door to Florean Fortescue's, slipping the striped apron over his head as he did so. The heavy door swung open and engulfed the solemn pair with the sweet, cool smell of ice cream and the noise of a busy shop. All too soon for Andromeda, however, it shut again taking Ted with it.


Sleep eluded Andromeda for a week after her official breakup with Ted. Every time she closed her eyes she saw Ted's devastated face and his sullen, defeated walk back to his job. His own misery amplified her own and made her chest ache in a most uncomfortable way. She sighed heavily and tried to think of happier things.

Unfortunately, her happiest memories were of her and Ted together. Before she had met him, Andromeda had gone through life more or less indifferently, apathetically following the plan her mother had laid out for her from birth. Go to Hogwarts, marry a Pureblood, have Pureblood babies, preferably sons. She supposed she had other happy memories. Her uncle Orion used to dote on her and take her and Bella for walks, pointing out all the constellations in the night sky. She had been happy then, listening to him talking about the stars or his stories about great witches and wizards. Then he had married Walburga and become as withdrawn and apathetic as Andromeda felt, drinking too much and seemingly not caring at all. As Andromeda got older, she realized that his stories had all been about Pureblood supremacy anyway. Hogwarts had shattered any belief she had in that nonsense; after all, Ted was just as talented as she was. The only subject Andromeda really loved and excelled at was Astronomy. And she found peace and contentment on top of the Astronomy tower at school and in her star charts. That was her life before Ted: more or less content, simply unaware of her own despondence.

Ted had brought her to life. Never before could she recall laughing until she cried. Never had she felt exhilarated like she did when Ted tugged her into broom cupboards for a quick snog. Andromeda had never seen herself blissful until she caught a glimpse of her own dreamy smile in Ted's dorm room mirror. She had been hanging off his bed examining an album cover as Ted talked about his day. When she rolled over, she just saw a flash of a pretty young woman with long brown hair, smiling and cheerful. It had surprised her so much that she had briefly looked about the room to see if there were any other girls hanging out in the 5th year Hufflepuff boy's dormitory. How many times had they listened to his records and talked about everything and nothing all at once? How often had she smiled like that and not known it? The image was so vivid, that Andromeda could almost hear the music—the steady strum of the guitar and the whine of the violins…

" You come on like a dream, peaches and cream, lips like strawberry wine..,"

Andromeda sighed again over the intensity of her daydreaming. She thought of the first night she met Ted, and the spark she had felt when he took her hand.

"You're all ribbons and curls. Oooh, what a girl! Eyes that twinkle and shine…"

Andromeda froze in her bed. She thought she must have been going mad, because it sounded like the music was coming from out side.

"You're sixteen, you're beautiful, and you're mine."

"What in the name of Merlin's beard is that racket?" Andromeda's father cried out from down the hall.

It suddenly struck Andromeda that if other people could hear the music than she must not be daydreaming at all. She jumped up from bed and raced to her window, wrenching it open violently. Andromeda stuck her head out and felt her jaw drop, her two long braids swinging comically from her sudden halt. Below her stood Ted in front of a new baby blue car. The faces of three anxious young men peered out of the window. Just visible in the darkness beside Ted was his record player, its sound amplified loud enough to wake the whole neighborhood.

"…We fell in love on the night we met. You touched my hand. My heart went pop. And, ooh, when we kissed we could not stop…"

Despite all her worry for Ted's safety as lights all over the house burst on, Andromeda felt that her heart would burst with happiness. She was touched, ecstatic, and practically euphoric. She was falling in love all over again for the silly young man on her front lawn. Just when Andromeda thought she couldn't have felt any better, Ted spoke.

Well, he tried to speak. At first, Andromeda couldn't hear him above the music, but then the man in the driver's seat stuck his wand out the window and pointed it at Ted. Voice magically amplified, Ted tried again:

"I love you, Andromeda Black, and I'm not giving up!"

She choked on her own happiness. "I love you, too, Ted—DUCK!"

With a cry of "Mudblood filth", her mother had sent a shower of green sparks at Ted from the next window over. Ted dived sideways, narrowly avoiding being turned into a cow paddy. While Ted seemed determine to finish out the song, his friends thought that the rainstorm of curses coming their way was the cue to go. The back door opened and Gideon Prewett popped out to grab the record player. He tugged on the sleeve of Ted's jacket, but Ted didn't budge.

" 'Dromeda!" He called, obviously more worried for her safety rather than his own though curses continued to rain down upon him. Andromeda heard the front door fly open and caught a glimpse of her father advancing angrily from it, firing off a Bat-bogey hex as he did so.

"Ted, RUN! Don't worry about me. Go!"

He finally did as he was told, stumbling backwards into the seat of the car. Someone yelled, "Go, Arthur, go!" and the car sped off, eventually rising into the air. There was a final cry of "I love you!" before the enchanted vehicle disappeared into the clouds.

Andromeda stood love-struck out of the window for several long moments, not caring to move and break the spell of happiness that she basked in.

"Andromeda Black." She heard her mother growl dangerously from somewhere behind her. The dreamy smile dropped instantly from Andromeda's face as she turned to face her seething mother. She could see Bellatrix and Narcissa hovering behind her in the hallway.

But it didn't matter, whatever punishment was coming. They could ground her, ignore her, pull her hair or slap her. They could disown or even torture her because the truth was that she would still love Ted Tonks if they did any or even all of those things. In fact, in the last two minutes, Andromeda had become quite determined to run away and marry that boy as soon as the opportunity presented itself.