"Alright Ted?"

"Alright Frank?" The two Hufflepuff boys bear hugged and laughed after they met each other on the way down to dinner.

"How was muggle-studies?"

"I spent most of the lesson trying to explain what the purpose of a television is..."

Frank laughed as they sat down together at the Hufflepuff table waiting for the golden platters to fill themselves with delectable food- as always.

Frank Longbottom, like Ted, was quite the typical teenage lad. Slightly shyer than most, but typical all the same. He had short brown hair, sticky out ears and was just shorter than his best friend.

"Why if it isn't the dreadful duo..." Said a female voice from behind them.

"Oh come on Alice you know you love me. I completely understand that you hate Frank though, don't worry I'll get rid of him later and we can go snog in the shrubbery."

The boys turned around to see Alice stood there, hands on her hips with a crooked smile on her lips.

"Maybe another time, Teddy…" She laughed and shook her head as she bent down and gave Frank a quick peck on the lips before literally walking over the table and sitting down to end up facing the two boys, entwining her fingers around Frank's. Despite being a Gryffindor Alice was always welcome at the Hufflepuff table. That was the one thing that was always noticeable at meal times in the Great Hall: Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, and Hufflepuff tables were a mix of crimsons, yellows and blues, whilst there being a distinct green sea on the Slytherin table.

And yet tonight, Ted's eyes were drawn to it. Trying to find her face amongst the crowd.

He had given the table the occasional glance every once in a while before. But now, he couldn't do anything but stare.

"Ted…" Alice pulled him out of his trance and slammed him back down at the dinner table. "Are you okay? I mean you haven't touched your food…"

"Yeah… fine Alice…"

"You don't look fine…"

"Where did Frank go?" He looked around and he had vanished.

"Merlin, Teddy, how out of it are you? Frank left ten minutes ago, he forgot he was helping out with the first years broomstick evening classes."

"Oh…"

"Seriously, what's up… you seem, on edge?"

"What would you do…? What would you do if someone you used to know came back into your life… but… I mean do you go for it?"

"Go for it?" She frowned.

"I knew this person. I thought… I thought the world of them. Then I messed up. Big time. Scared her off-"

"Oh so it's a her is it?" Alice lent in across the table, her brown eyes sparkling and a cheeky expression on her face.

Ted rolled his eyes and slumped his face in his hand.

"It doesn't matter. It wouldn't work anyway."

"Why not?"

Ted stood, grabbing his bag with a sigh. He ignored the calls of his name from Alice; he ignored the smile from Madge and Ed on his way out of the hall. He ignored the whole world as he entered his dorm and flopped down onto his bed.

He sighed deeply again. He pulled out from underneath his bed his shoebox, filled with parchment and quills. He tipped it out on the bed. Nothing was more distracting than writing a letter home.

Dear Mum, Dad, and Lizzie.
Hope you all had a good Halloween and bonfire night, sorry I haven't replied sooner, been manic here. I had a great birthday, missed you all immensely, thanks for the cake. We'll have a proper party at Christmas, and I can do magic… er legally now- mum don't worry, I've still got a clean record- oh and Lizzie, thanks for the friendship bracelet, I haven't and I will never take it off.

He subconsciously spun the yellow, green and blue yarn around his wrist as he thought.

Frank's doing great, he said to say hello.
How's everything going with work, Dad? I've got this wicked spell to show you, will speed along your accounts so much.
Speak soon, lots of love
Ted xx

He folded up the letter and fumbled through the shoebox for an envelope, but as he did so Frank walked in.

"Ted? You okay? Alice just came and got me from the pitch, she's worried about ya."

"I'm fine, honestly." He grinned and carried on lifting papers out of the box.

"Whatcha looking for?"

"Envelope, I'm being the angelic son and writing home for a change!" He winked and the boys both laughed. "Hey Frank look at these!"

At the bottom of the box there was a pile of photographs tied together with string.

"Oh Merlin, look at you! What are they from, first, second year?"

"Second year I think… Man, I completely forgot about these…"

Ted laughed as he looked at the third one in the pile.

"Look at you pining after our Alice." He pouted and pulled what the gang referred to as his 'Love me Professor' face.

"Shut up!" Frank laughed at dived at Ted grabbing the photo from him.

"Oh look here's another!"

"Give it here!"

"And another! Blimey Frank, it only took you 3 years to muster up the courage to ask her out!"

Frank gave up and sat next to Ted, thumbing through the photographs of them in younger years laughing at how neatly Ed wore his uniform and how short Ted was compared to everyone else.

"Ted, who's this?"

"Huh?"

Frank passed him a photograph and Ted's mouth ran dry.

"That's… That's Andromeda."

"Andromeda? As in Andromeda Black? The middle Slytherin bitch?" Frank laughed but Ted snapped.

"Don't call her that!"

"Woah… sorry."

"Nah, I'm sorry…"

Ted ran his fingers over the picture, following the lines of her hair as it curled down her shoulders. She looked so different in this picture to the girl that had run into him earlier. Her eyes. They still had that softness to them. If it was possible, these grey eyes were warm. Not the ice cold of her elder self.

He shook his head and chucked the photos down with the others before gathering them all up and dumping them back in the shoe box and sticking that under his bed. He put his fresh letter on the side table.

"Remind me to post that tomorrow." He told Frank with a smile.

"Ted… like. I know we're blokes and stuff, but if you need to talk-"

"Nah, I'm fine Frank, honestly. Just knackered."

"Cool. Well I'll be back in a bit, gonna go find Alice and show her these." He nodded towards the few photos he still had in his hands before heading towards the door.

"See ya."

Alone again. He stripped from his uniform, pulling off his yellow tie and hooking it over the foot of his bed, still done up, as always. He pulled on some navy trackie bums before slipping into the bed covers and falling fast asleep.

"Teddy… Oh Teddy…"

Grey eyes pierced through the darkness like a cat's. "Teddy… don't ignore me Ted."

An angelic musical voice called to him and drew him in like a drowning sailor to a mermaid's call…

Brown locks that curled gently to the floor, mingling with the dark green silk of her dress. It clung to her body in all the right places, her breast's weren't big, her figure quite boyish, and yet all woman too.

"I've grown up Ted. Haven't you? Or are you still my little mudblood…"

The girl cocked her head back a devilish grin in her eyes before she lowered her face and grinned. Her left canine only just peeping through her gum.

"Dromeda…"

Then he was kissing her. Tasting her skin under his lips, tearing the green silk from her body.

"Oh Ted. I wouldn't do that. You should know your place mudblood…" She hissed into his ear. Then a flick of her tongue and then another hiss more snake like than human.

He pulled away and her grey eyes had slits for pupils as she grinned, her lips no longer pale pink of rose petals but blood red.

He staggered back and fell into a mop of black, raven, curly hair and heard more hissing in-between a cackle that everyone in the school knew.

Then another sister came into sight. Blonde with just a malicious grin on her lips as her two older sisters.

In one blink they were snakes, and he was their prey. A badger caught between them as more snakes slithered into view, more and more, biting, poisoning, tearing him apart, all hissing the same word: mudblood.

Ted awoke in a cold sweat, his heart hammering hard against his chest as he shivered and panted for air. He looked around and saw Frank and Ed sound asleep in the beds around him. He reached for his wand and pulled on a jumper before leaving the dorm and going to sit in front of the fire in the Hufflepuff common room. It was circular in shape, cosy, enclosed and personal. The walls had ivy on the coppery stone, plants and flowers draping down from the domed ceiling. The floor beneath his bare feet was a soft, coffee brown carpet, and there was a mix of yellow fabric and copper leather sofas, with bean bags and armchairs scattered upon it. The brass open fireplace that stood in the centre of the room was only just keeping the flames alive; the warm yellow glow flickering across Ted's drained face. He rested back into the beanbag and ran a hand through his sweaty hair.

The word had never bothered him that much. It had never haunted him like just now. The first few times he was called it, he didn't even know what it meant and was confused as to why it riled the gentle natured Frank so much. It had slipped from Andromeda's lips every now and again, but he knew deep down she never meant it. Or at the time he had thought so.

Why now. Why is she suddenly here now?

There had been times when he had completely forgotten she existed. Whole years even. Whenever the Black's where mentioned in the past, he used to spare a thought for the friendship they once had, but it had never affected him in this way. Since the second he saw her face earlier today, it seemed she wasn't to leave him, invading his thoughts, invading his conversations, and now invading his dreams; turning them into nightmares.

He closed his eyes, attempting to doze off back to sleep, but she was there again, as if imprinted on the back of his eyelids.

She was a grown woman now. And she is hot. All the Black sisters are; if dared to admit it to himself. But he didn't want that. At least he thought he didn't. He wanted the sweet girl that he kissed that autumn evening. When he couldn't control the feelings inside of himself anymore as the sun kissed her skin to make it glow; never had she looked more beautiful. He had to show her…

"Stop it." He muttered to himself.

He didn't want to relive that memory again. The memory that for weeks after plagued him. Because he knew why she shook her head after, he knew the reason stopping her from ever letting herself like him.

Your filthy, dirty blood.