"You seem extremely perky today…"

Andi looked up from her vanity, alarmed as fumbled with her makeup and nail polish collection.

"R-Really?"

"Yep. Like if you had a boyfriend, I'd say you had sex."

"That's preposterous." Whilst neither of those things were true, Ted was not her boyfriend and she hadn't even kissed him yesterday, she was begging her cheeks not to turn red as she looked defiantly at Madeleine's face.

"Whatever, don't think we didn't notice you were late in last night and it looks like you slept with a coat hanger in your mouth you can't stop smiling."

This was true; she hadn't been able to stop since he left her last night.

"I think she's in love…" Persephone's monotone voice murmured as she sat down next to Andi at her vanity and started brushing her black locks as she pouted in the mirror.

"I am not!"

"No need to get so defensive about it."

"I'm not getting defensive!"

"Girls!" Madeleine pushed in-between the two bickering friends, sitting down on her own stool in the middle. "Although, to be fair Andi, it's not like we're asking much. Just if he's a good kisser or not."

"Maddy!"

"That means, he definitely is."

That time, Andi did blush.

"Shut up the pair of you."

"Who is it?"

"He's not my boyfriend."

"So there is someone…"

"Look guys, honestly, there is nothing going on right now, I'm just trying to figure things out."

"Well by that grin you're definitely besotted."

She sighed and glared at her two friends before turning back to her mirror. For the first time she hadn't thought much on the complications of Ted, she had just been enjoying the post first-date haze and the fact that every time she thought of him her heart leapt into her mouth. It was only now as she sat there, seeing the reflection of her friends eye-ing each other up that the seriousness of the situation hit her.

She had done what Severus said, given Ted his chance… and he had shown her just how blooming perfect he was.

Andi jumped up from her table and grabbed her cloak and books for Transfiguration before swooping out of her dorm without another word.

As she climbed the limitless stairs to the common room and then up past the dungeons, then up another flight to Transfiguration, something niggled in her mind. You're still smiling. She clutched her books to her chest and giggled slightly as she remembered clutching his foot-ball or whatever it was really called last night. She hated to admit how sentimental she was over little things like that. She had a box underneath her bed that was full of similar objects; eggshells from her first breakfast at Hogwarts, wrappers from Honeydukes on her first trip out to Hogsmeade, her lucky pair of Quidditch socks that she had grown out of, tickets to Quidditch matches or A Bludger to the Head, (most from Madeleine as her parents disapproved of such frivolity) earrings, lockets, hairpins, other junk and now Ted's football. She had shrunk it down to fit in of course, but it went in there will all her other possessions as if it was meant to belong.

"Get a grip!" She muttered under her breath as she caught herself doodling little hearts on her parchment. She threw down the quill and rubbed her thinking spot before sighing. It's like you're a 14 year old girl with a crush.

A crush. Oh Merlin, you have a bloody crush… She then rested her head on her desk with a groan.

"Something wrong, Miss Black?"

She looked up with a start.

"No, sorry Professor…"

The lesson came to an end twenty minutes later and she gathered all her papers in to her bag, rolling her eyes as she once again noticed the doodles. She slung her bag on her shoulder and walked out of the classroom running her hands through her hair.

"So lover, who is he?"

"I told you he's no one, Mads." She rolled her eyes and Madeleine pulled herself off of the wall and groaned and she followed her friend.

"Please please please please tell me!"

"There's no point, I know you'd go blabbing to Persephone, and she can't keep her mouth shut, and there's nothing going on right now anyways."

"Nothing going on? I swear, you haven't been this happy since the Halloween Bludger to the Head gig."

She tried to suppress her smile, but again she couldn't. "I mean it Maddy, leave it okay?"

"So he's no one?"

"No one."

"Fine." Madeleine groaned again and shook her head. "I'll see you later. Got charms. It's a good thing Tom and Celeste don't do it, because there's this mudblood, getting way too big for his boots. It's taking all we have not to put him back in his place."

"You have charms with… Hufflepuff, am I right?"

"Yeah…" Her eyes narrowed as Andi's widened.

"What's the guy's- I mean mudblood's name?" She tried to sound as bitchy as she could, and whilst she knew delving deeper into this conversation was dangerous territory she had to be sure.

"Ted something or other. Filthy muggle name. Why do you ask?"

Thank Merlin she was a Slytherin and had a lot of practise at lying, and occlumency for that matter (at the age of fifteen, she had to stop Bella from parading around her memories and thoughts somehow). She contained her slight gasp and fake scoffed before frowning.

"That's just one of the Hufflepuff twats that Tom got into a fight with in Creatures last week."

"Oh, urgh, people like that just make my blood boil. I hope he gets what he deserves."

"Yeah."

"See you, love.

"Yep." Andi smiled and Maddy grinned back before turning down the right corridor and heading then left up a few stairs.

Andi waited a good thirty seconds before moving, making sure Maddy had begun to ascend the stairs. She let out a huge sigh of relief, taking a few steps back and leaning back against the cool stone wall, her eyes naturally falling shut.

"So I'm no one and a twat… nice to know you enjoyed yourself last night."

She stood up and opened her eyes with a start, nearly tripping over her own feet. She immediately went to apologize or at least explain, but she looked at him, leaning against the wall himself, a huge grin on his face and a mischievous twinkle in his eye.

"Happiest you've been since A Bludger to the Head gig… I'll definitely take that as a compliment."

She blushed and pouted before shaking her head and turning away.

"Don't you have my friends to annoy in Charms?"

"Yeah, but they can wait."

She found herself biting her lower lip and fiddling with her tie as she looked up through her lashes at him. Ted's smile wasn't fading either.

There was a silence as their eyes continued to stare into each other's and he took a few cautious steps towards her.

"I think the question I have for you, gorgeous, is…"

"Is?" She blushed again at his compliment. She would haven normally told him to shut up at this point, but something inside her was begging him to finish his sentence.

"Will there be another night like yesterday?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I think there will be…" She said it before realising what had spilled over her lips.

He grinned and leant forward, his hands still in his pockets as he pressed his lips to hers in a gentle kiss. Her eyes automatically fluttered shut and as he pulled away she found that she was holding her breath in anticipation.

"I've got some Slytherins to piss off in class."

"U-Uh huh…" She was still caught up in his eyes and felt herself stammering. She shook her head and coughed, crossing her arms across her chest. "Can't wait for the stories at lunch."

"I'll make sure they're good then."

He moved away from her to pick up his bag that he had dumped against the wall, before heading down the corridor Maddy had left through earlier. Andi stared after him, smiling when he turned back to look at her.

"See ya."

"Yeah, see you."

After he had completely gone, she turned and laughed to herself, covering her face with her hands. This felt too good to be true.

"So he said to me 'Persephone, if I'm to be with you, I need to be with all of you'."

"And what did you say?"

Persephone barely battered an eyelid as her flat voice continued to drone through the dorm.

"I told him that I could do so much better."

"Wow."

"That's brave of you Seph." Celeste pointed out as she flopped down onto her bed.

"Do you honestly imagine me spending the rest of my life with him?"

"Well, I suppose, but in the end you're okay, you'll get set up with some rich stud once you leave here if you don't have someone. Some of us have to find our own."

"And Andi's taking the free ones when it's inevitable that her parents are going to set her up anyway."

"What?!" She was snapped out of a daydream, which embarrassingly involved Ted and the beach and things she wouldn't ever admit out loud, and she sat up a frown on her brow.

"Well you won't tell us who lover boy is, and it's like, your parents are going to arrange a marriage when you turn eighteen."

"Where's all this arranged marriage talk coming from?"

Maddy sat back against her pillows. "We all know, that out of the four of us, you and Persephone are going to get set up if you're not already involved by your next birthday."

"That's rubbish!"

"No it's not, and you know as well as I do that Crabbe and Lestrange are putting in bids with your parents for Bellatrix when she turns 18 in Feb."

"And Malfoy probably would be too if he wasn't so into your Narcissa. It doesn't matter how old she is, if he's eighteen and wants her, they should get married as soon as possible. Your family should consider it an honour, every respectable family wanted him as a son-in-law. I know my Father did." Said Celeste as she waved her wand, the cucumber on the side chopping itself before two of the slices flew onto her shut eyelids.

"You guys don't know what you're talking about."

"They do alright." Everyone suddenly turned to face Persephone who was again sat at her vanity brushing her hair. She was even more unreadable than Narcissa. "You and I both know Andromeda, we will either be paired up with the guy of our dreams, rich, handsome, powerful… or it will be some balding fat man in his forties."

Madeleine snorted and Andi glared.

"Well, that's not going to happen."

"Oh, because of your new boyfriend?"

"He is not my boyfriend."

"Well you should hope he becomes it soon, because we aren't all as lucky as Bellatrix who has many the man fawning over her. We might just have to take who we get."

Andi scoffed and lay back on her bed snuggling back into her pillows.

They were right in a sense, she had been reminded by her nanny on many occasions about how likely it was that she would have her marriage arranged and therefore her image had to remain respectable, and how she had to keep her knickers up in order to do so. It may be the Sexy Seventies, but the men of her class (whilst they were allowed to whore about as much as they liked) wanted their young ladies pure on their wedding night.

The girls continued to talk, boys, homework, bitches, the normal topics of conversation for a Wednesday night. Andi however remained silent, after about fifteen minutes she pulled the green curtains around her bed with a deep sigh.

She always slept on her left side, that arm under her head, her right hand holding the quilt to her. She attempted to close her eyes many times, but she felt down all of a sudden. It was as if the haze of happiness had just left and she was left feeling empty. She had been lucky enough to never experience what it was like to be around a Dementor, but she imagined it felt something similar. Ted was no longer a happy thought, but a sad one.

Who was she kidding? They couldn't be together, he would always have to be her secret, she could never present him to her parents. Therefore he would be replaced, with like Persephone said, some devilishly handsome man or an old coot, she imagined neither of which would love her or be a faithful husband.

But she was hurt by this thought. Surprisingly hurt, something she hadn't necessarily felt when she had been disregarding Ted as a potential boyfriend in the last week or so. She had actually been looking forward to the second date, if it was ever going to happen.

Not able to get comfortable she turned over onto her right, but then knowing she would never get to sleep like this, turned back to her left, lying slightly more on her front than before.

"Do you think she's asleep?" She heard Celeste whisper.

"Andi?" That was Maddy asking. "You awake sweetie?"

She kept quiet, curious to see why they wondered.

"She asleep." Persephone droned.

"Who's her fancy man then do you wonder?"

"I honestly have no idea… I thought this morning it might have been Tom, but he's looking even moodier than usual. So I then thought about Darius but I can't ever imagine Andi liking him so... I just don't know."

"Maybe… Urgh I don't know either."

"Well, it's good to see her happy."

"Yeah, suppose… It just feel's…"

"What?"

"There's just something weird about it all."

"She's not stupid girls." Persephone stated, and there was a creek of a bed and Andi assumed Seph had finished her cleansing spell ritual and finally climbed into her bed.

"What does having a secret bloke have to do with being stupid?"

"Like you said, no offense, but like myself, she has to be careful with her choices. She has a brain. She's not going to let her heart rule her head, she knows what's acceptable for our future. She knows how to be respectable."