Andromeda Black!

If I get one more letter about you and this muggel fighting or cursing at each other, I swear on the first bloody pureblood that I will send a howler to you right in the middle of lunch. And trust me; it will contain some very personal stories about you. One more letter, Andy, one more.

All the best, your Mother

Andromeda stared down at her mother's letter in fright. While she was generally not scared of the gentle hearted role model, she knew perfectly well that Druella Black never sent empty threats. She would have to try extra hard not to fight with the muggel- born boy that spent most of his class time arguing with her.

Ted Tonks was one of the most handsome students in Hogwarts- even Andromeda had to admit it. He had dark locks of teased hair, a well muscled Quidditch body and his eyes were a frightening ice-blue. He was a genuinely kind-hearted boy and was top-of-the-class in his year. If not for his heritage, Andromeda and Ted might have gotten along well enough. But, unfortunately, it was not to be.

While Andromeda was not terribly concerned about blood purity, she found herself constantly watched by her two elder sisters and other Slytherins. They insulted her and judged her every time she talked to a half-blood or greeted a muggel-born, so much so that she just gave up on talking to anyone outside her own house. She just acted as though there was no one at all in the room aside from Slytherins. This was something that Ted despised. And because of this, he always found small ways to humiliate or anger her, usually ending in verbal fights and a number of hexes. Andromeda hated him with a flaring passion for the internal pain that he caused her when he insulted her looks or her family. She hated that he could make her feel like the lowliest scum in the world when, according to her family, that was supposed to be him. And she hated that she was the only one that he treated like that, that she was the one that got all his negative attention. She hated him.

~~~

While Andromeda was thinking over her mother's threatening letter, Ted Tonks was sitting in his dorm room, pouring over a similar one from his father.

Ted,

I have recently been owled by your headmaster about you fighting with a fellow class mate. While I do not usually like to interfere in your life, I will have to ask you to cease this horrid bickering now. If the girl is a menace then she deserves none of your time. I will have to come to your school personally and evaluate this behaviour if I received one more letter.

Yours truly, Peter Tonks

Ted scowled at the letter.

He hated the Slytherins with the fiery passion that all Gryffindors possessed, and he especially hated Andromeda Black. Andromeda was everything he aspired not to be. She acted like she was indifferent to the world, like she truly only cared what happened to her. She ignored all the other houses, blankly refusing to work beside them. And the worst thing, the Slytherins worshipped her for it. He screwed up the paper viciously and threw it at the wall in frustration. His roommate looked up at him curiously, but decided not to ask. Ted sighed and decided to spend the rest of the day by the lake, as that was where he would usually go to calm down. He found out, as he walked down to the lake with his hands in his pockets, that he was not going to be able to take a peaceful walk after all, for sitting beside the lake was none other than Andromeda Black.

Unexpectedly, his breath caught in his throat as he took in the sight of her. She was kneeling at the base of the lake, her fingers dipping lazily into the sparkling water. Her dark, thick hair swirled around her in the slight wind and her head was bowled as if praying. She is beautiful. Ted thought wondrously before shaking the thought from his head. I mustn't have slept enough last night, he concluded thoughtfully before taking a step towards her.

"What are you doing?" he asked loudly and Andromeda started, nearly toppling into the lake before Ted reached out and caught her arm to steady her. What am I doing? He thought, and then remembered the letter. I'm just being nice to her because I don't want my father to come to the school, he told himself with a shudder at the thought. Andromeda was staring at him with a curious glint in her other-wise emotionless face.

"Thank you," she said quietly before sweeping past him towards the castle. Ted shouted after her.

"What were you doing?" Andromeda turned to Ted with a wary smile.

"That, my dear, is none of your business." And with that she flounced away, leaving a confused Gryffindor behind her as he wondered why she was acting even slightly nice to him. He, of course, had a reason. However, she did not. This just confused him more.

~~~

"Today, class, you will be brewing a batch of Veritaserum in partners that I will pick. Once you are done I want you each to taste it and then question each other. Ingredients and instructions are on the board."

Andromeda let her attention wander idly as Professor Petreson listed partners of the top of his head. She lifted her head as she heard her name.

". . . Miss Black and Mister Tonks," the teacher looked up hesitantly to see the two student's identical looks of horror and smirked to himself. Maybe this time he wouldn't lose the bet. He was startled suddenly as Andromeda, instead of fighting and insisting that she work with someone else, walked over to Ted and sat next to him, dropping her book-bad hesitantly onto the table and leaning back casually on her chair. She was of course, completely aware of the stares and glares that she was greeting from all round and only focused on Professor Petreson, who looked slightly crestfallen.

Andromeda was a nervous wreck inside. She knew that as soon as she returned to the common room later this evening that she would be bombarded with threats and accusations by her house, but she just couldn't risk the wrath of her mother. So she had sat down next to Ted and intended to get the potion done as soon as possible.

Ted stared at her as if questioning her sanity before Andromeda addressed him. "Should we get started?" she asked him rhetorically before making her way to the ingredients cupboard and leaving a startled Ted behind. Ted smirk behind her back in a very Slytherin way (though he never would have admit it). There was an advantage to having to test the truth serum with Andromeda, and that would be to finally find out what she was doing by the lake.

The two set out to do the potion in silence, neither being able to keep from glancing at each other every now and then. The class around them all exchanged confused looks. Shouldn't there have been a fight by now? Shouldn't they have been pointing wands at each other's throats?

"Okay class," Professor Petreson said loudly, startling the class. "You should have all completed your potion by now. Take a drink of it and start questioning each other."

Andromeda quickly took out two flasks and handed one to Ted before dipping hers into the potion and throwing her head back to down it. Ted followed her lead.

"Black," Ted addressed her, a small and mocking smile twitching up his lip. Andromeda knew what was coming. "What were you doing by the lake earlier today?"

Andromeda sighed but the compelling desire to tell her secrets was becoming too much for her to resist.

"I was praying," she admitted for Ted's ears only, as she knew what the reaction would be if anyone else found out. Religion was never much of an issue around wizards, as most of them believed that the so-called 'God' was just a wizard who managed to make people believe he was all-knowing and all-seeing by performing simple spells around the muggels. Purebloods were expected to believe this, as anyone with another view was considered a blood-traitor for they were agreeing with lowly scum such as muggels.

So, of course, Andromeda couldn't let another soul know of her religious choices, and it was only out of force that she revealed it to Ted. She could only pray that he wouldn't open his mouth about it.

Ted's eyes widened and he leaned in closer, so that bother their faces were merely inches away and they could speak without being over heard.

"You believe in God?" he whispered and his cool breath washed over her face. She nodded. His eyebrows rose and he looked at her curiously. "Does that mean that you don't believe in other Pureblood rules?" Another nod.

"I . . ." Andromeda paused, but the serum stopped her resistance. "I don't believe that muggels or even muggel-born wizards or witches are scum. I believe that they are exactly the same as us, that a muggel-born could become just as great as Purebloods if given the choice. I don't believe in keeping the blood line pure, as it only breeds hate and cruelty."

Ted was staring at Andromeda with new eyes but a dark light clouded them suddenly.

"If you don't believe in all that, then why do you treat people the way you do?"

"I don't mean to," she whispered in misery, and Ted had to lean in to hear her better. Their faces were so close at the minute that the class was all sending disgusted or hopeless (in the teachers case, anyway) looks. The couple ignored them. "If I don't then my house doesn't talk to me for weeks. I hate feeling alone in mine own family." Misery clouded her voice and Ted's eyes reflected sympathy.

Suddenly Andromeda looked up at Ted in barley veiled curiously. Her nose accidentally skimmed his and a small shiver ran through his spine.

"Why do you care so much?" she whispered to him. She was sure that anyone else listening in on their conversation wouldn't a clue what she was asking about. But Ted would. Not once had Ted ever tried to pry into Andromeda's privet life. Or her, his. It was an unspoken rule between the two to never try and find out anything of the other, it would only complicate things. And now Andromeda could see that this was happening. A warm feeling was working its way from her toes and gradually up to her chest, leaving her heart beating furiously as she suddenly realized how close they were. It was Ted's answer to her question that really got her worried, though.

"I like you," he told her, before covering his mouth with his hand. His eyes widened considerably, as did Andromeda's. Ted was in shock. When she had asked the unexpected question, he had answered with the first, and ultimately truthful, due to the Veritaserum, response that came to him. What he had not expected was that his resort would be this.

Andromeda's mouth twitched at the corners slightly at the sight of Ted. His eyes were as wide as saucers and his pale was devoid of colour. His eyes narrowed quickly and he took his hand away from his mouth, showing the scowl underneath.

"Don't you dare laugh at me Andromeda Black!" he hissed half heartedly, still to baffled to be truly angry. Andromeda grinned at him, putting her face closer to his (if that was even possible) to intimidate him.

"Make me," she whispered dangerously and, dare she say it, flirtatiously? Ted grinned at her wickedly and the class around them were amazed. What had possibly caused this change between the two ex-enemies who now looked like Star-crossed lovers? Needless to say, what happened next shock them all so much that Selena Edgecombe fell of her chair while Demetrius Prod spat out the potion that he was drinking.

"I will," Ted said, before he leant down and captured Andromeda's lips with his own, forcing quick but gentle kisses upon her. Andromeda leant forward so that her lips pressed harder against his as an attempt to keep him against her. A warm feeling was filling her and she craved more of it as the kiss became more passionate, the two completely ignorant of the cries and out brakes that were surrounding them. Suddenly a voice cut through their sultry haze.

"Mister Tonks and Miss Black, cease at once!" Petreson yelled as his face turned red. Another five gallons down the drain, he thought angrily as he watched surprise crossed their faces. "Dippet's office now!"

Dumbledore sat with an amused twinkle in his eye as an angry potion's teacher paced before him.

"How in Salazar's stripy pink underwear did you manage to get them together?" he suddenly yelled. He was done with Dumbledore's sickening twinkle. Dumbledore considered him slightly over his fingers, which were propped up in front of him in a superior way.

"Have you ever heard me say that 'fate is a force on its own, the only thing you can do is nudge it on its way'?" Dumbledore asked unexpectedly. Petreson barely kept from rolling his eyes. He had heard quiet enough of Dumbledore's quotes and riddles to last his a life time. He pointedly raised an eye the annoying old man, a signal for him to continue.

"Well that's what I did. I nudged it along." At the potions masters' furious glare, Dumbledore sighed before elaborating. "I simple asked both of their parents to write a threatening note to the children, insuring that they two would have to act nicely to one another or have their threats unleashed on them.

"Both Miss Black and Mister Tonks had no reason to find out the reason behind all their yelling and fighting so, by making them be nice to each other, I guaranteed that the two would be relatively decent to and then, eventually, get to know one another. I must say, it surprised me that they took to each other so quickly."

Petreson growled at him. It was completely unfair that the old man could base a bet on theory alone a win, while he lost the gallons.

The potions master tossed a lump of coins onto the transfiguration teacher's desk, before he vowed never to bet with Dumbledore again and swept from the room.

Dumbledore sighed. Now he would have to find another ignorant teacher to bet with. His small frown swiftly turned into a growing grin. The twinkle was back.