She was wearing an expensive looking set of deep purple witch's robes, and her luxuriously thick brown hair curled wildly down to her waist. A pale hand reached up and tucked a few strands of it behind her ear as she perused the tattered book she held in the other. From the back she looked like the archetypal witch depicted in the muggle stories of Ted's childhood, mysterious, commanding, graceful with just a dash of pure savage. And to Ted she looked completely and utterly sexy.
Taking a quick look around to check no one could see them he approached her. She didn't notice him, she was still absorbed in the book. He cleared his throat and then, putting on a deep rough voice said:
"Andromeda Black!"
The witch started, dropping the book and spinning around, that wild hair of hers fanning out and actually striking Ted across the face. Oh well, Ted thought, he probably deserved it.
"Ted! Merlin you scared wits out of me! Don't do that!" she exclaimed, hitting him hard on the shoulder on the "do".
Come on, Ted thought, I probably didn't deserve that.
"Oi!" he laughed, "you already slapped me once with that crazy wicked witch hair of yours!"
"You've got a thing for crazy wicked witch hair and you know it Edward," teased Andromeda in a mock stern voice, but losing it halfway through.
"What's that meant to be? You're McGonagall impression?" laughed Ted, "pathetic."
"Do you want another slap Tonks? Or will it be a stinging hex to the balls this time?"
"Just a kiss for me thanks this time," grinned Ted, opening his arms up for his girlfriend, "Come on, no one's watching, it's not like any self respecting member of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black is going to be lurking in a shitty second hand bookshop right?"
"One kiss Ted, and then that's all you're getting for a month," said Andromeda, walking into his outstretched arms and planting his lips on his.
Ted kissed her back vigorously, messing up her hair because he knew it would annoy her, and because he liked the feel of it. Andromeda closed her eyes and the whole world disappeared around her. No parents, no sisters, no family whatsoever, no purebloods, no muggleborns, no houses, just pure and utter...
"Urgh!"
Andromeda and Ted pulled apart at once and turned to face whoever had made that noise. Andromeda's heart faltered as panic rapidly filled the nothingness, only to sigh in relief at the sight of a young boy with glossy black hair and a face wrinkled in disgust.
"Bleugh! That's gross!"
The proceeded to begin making retching noises and miming vomiting onto the floor in front of them.
"It's alright Ted, it's only Sirius," said Andromeda, "Sirius, Sirius, shut up!"
"Why?" asked Sirius, stopping his vomiting act and straightening up, he looked up at Andromeda and Ted in haughty defiance for a moment before something seemed to dawn on him and his eyes widened in realisation, "oh! Is he the..." he cupped his hands around his mouth and stage whispered, "muggleborn?"
Andromeda looked apologetically at Ted for a moment, but he looked more amused than offended by what Sirius had said so she turned back to her cousin.
"Yes, this is Ted," she said quietly, "listen, are the others here? Your parents? My parents? Bellatrix?"
"No," scoffed Sirius loudly, "what? You really think they would be seen in a place like this."
He wrinkled his nose in a more mild version of his disgust on seeing Andromeda kissing Ted. Andromeda really wished her cousin would learn the art of lowering his voice.
"I'm Sirius by the way," said Sirius, extending his hand to Ted with an air of confidence that only comes in one so young from an ingrained sense of superiority, "I'm Andromeda's favourite cousin, which isn't saying much really as it's either me or my goody-two-shoes brother Regulus, but I'm better than Bellatrix and Narcissa too."
Ted shook his hand.
"Well, nice to finally meet you Sirius," said Ted, shaking the kid's hand, "Andy's told me a lot about you."
"She's told me a lot about you," said Sirius, "she says you've got a notorbike."
"I've got a motorbike if that's what you mean," said Ted.
"Yeah that's it, 'motorbike'. Can I see it? Can I have a go on it?"
"Well I 'aven't got it with me today I'm afraid but maybe Andy can bring you round to my house and can take you for a little spin on one day?"
"Wow! Really? Cool! Can you take me tomorrow Andromeda? Please? Please? Please? Please? Pl..."
"One day," said Andromeda.
"Pleeeeeeeease? I said please! Come on Andy! And I haven't said then 'm' word in over a year now except once or twice but that was by accident and I only said it to Regulus. Pleeeeeeease?"
"I'll take you before the end of the holidays, I promise," said Andromeda, "not tomorrow though, I'll need some time to think of an excuse and ask our parents."
"You're the best Andromeda."
"I know, now why don't you go back to wherever you're meant to be eh?"
"Because I'm meant to be in the Flourish and Blotts and it was boring in there and then mother started talking to the Lestranges so they'll be there for ages."
"Ah but if you stay here then you'll have to watch me and Ted snogging," teased Andromeda.
Then she turned back to Ted, clamped her hands on either side of his face and... well, picked up where they left off. Well, since this is already happening I might as well go with it, thought Ted, and he kissed her back with twice the ferocity as before. Sirius was making the retching noises once more, Ted opened his eyes briefly to see Andromeda's eyes wrinkled with joy. The retching noises grew fainter and then they heard the tinkle of the bell on the shop door. They were alone.
They kissed passionately until Ted sensed that he was losing Andromeda. He drew back and saw that her dark eyes were filled with sadness. Andromeda expressed all her emotions through her eyes and held all her other features in perfect aloof neutrality. It was one of the things she had learnt from growing up in a huge twisted viper's nest that was her family, and she had learnt it so well that to most people she could pass off as just another stuck-up unfeeling Black, but Ted knew that beneath those steady lips and impassive face lay a person who was capable of enormous feeling. It hurt her, and it hurt him to watch.
"What's up?" he asked.
"Merlin I hope he doesn't get put in Slytherin," breathed Andromeda.
"Hey, come on now, there's nothing wrong with Slytherin," said Ted firmly.
"There is though! There's something immensely fucked up about a House full of power hungry, selfish, elitist, deceitful..."
"Dromeda, Dromeda, stop."
"Look it's easy for you stand there and say Slytherin's not all that bad Ted, you didn't have go through seven years of it. I just want one of us, one of us, to turn out alright."
"What are you on about? You turned out alright didn't you? More than alright I'd say! And as for Sirius, he seems like a sound kid."
"He is," said Andromeda, "that's why I just want him to have a good start, to have the chance to be something other than just another fucked up inbred mess of a..."
"Dromeda, please, enough of the self-hatred alright? You are honestly the most wonderful person I have ever met. You're as brave as any Gryffindor, you're as smart as any Ravenclaw, but right now you're acting as thick as a sodding Hufflepuff!"
Andromeda laughed softly.
"You make me laugh at all the wrong moments Ted."
"There's never a wrong moment to laugh Dromeda."
"He is a good kid," said Andromeda again.
"And he hasn't said mudblood in over a year," grinned Ted, "since we've been going out in fact..."
"Shut up Ted! I just didn't want him to go in making enemies on his first day, he's not like the rest of them but they're all he knows. He doesn't buy all their blood purist nonsense, for Merlin's sake he's barely at an age where he can understand their blood purist nonsense! That's why he needed help, he needed to learn how to recognise it and know that it's wrong. And if I didn't teach him then who else was going too?!" she added almost defensively, "I was too late to save Cissy, but Sirius, Sirius has a rebellious spirit, always has. He doesn't know what he's rebelling against yet but so long as he's channelling it all in the right direction isn't that a good thing?"
"Andromeda, I honestly think Sirius could not have hoped for a better cousin than you. And you know what, I'd wager anything that kids gonna turned out to be a cocky little Gryffindor."
"Merlin, Aunt Walburga would flip her cauldron lid!" laughed Andromeda, "d'you really think so?"
"What shall we make it? A galleon?"
"I am not betting on my cousin's Sorting Ted!"
"You're just afraid of losing your money," said Ted, "look, you'd have to be idiot to bet that a Black who wanted to ride a muggleborn's motorbike would end up in Slytherin."
Andromeda laughed again.
"I love you Ted," she said.
"You can never say it without laughing can you?" said Ted, pretending to be put out.
"Hey! You were the one who said there was never a wrong time to laugh!" protested Andromeda.
"Damn you and your sly Slytherin ways," said Ted, slipping his arms around her again and kissing her neck and her cheek and her ear, "taking advantage of a poor dopey Hufflepuff."