Pococurante: caring little; indifferent; nonchalant
March 8, 1970
Students flooded down the chilly stone corridors, babbling about the bad weather, dropping books on accident or on purpose, calling out to friends. The flood of people vibrated with an overzealous amount of energy, making up for the classes on either side of this ten minute window of movement in which they would have to sit quiet and still. In the hustle and bustle, no one noticed the boy and girl who passed by each other without a word, without even a look, the indifferent expressions masking their faces. That is, no one except one fourth year girl.
"Dromeda! Hey, Andromeda! Wait!"
Andromeda Black turned impatiently to wait for her little sister to fight her way through the crowd. Narcissa popped up a moment later, brushing her long silver-blond hair out of her face and fixing Andromeda with keen, pale eyes.
"What do you want, Cissy?" Andromeda drawled.
"What's happened between you and Ted Tonks?" she asked.
"What do you mean?" Andromeda asked back, turning on her heal to keep marching up the corridor. Narcissa scurried along beside her.
"You know what I mean," she told her sister, rolling her eyes. "You two used to be all buddy-buddy, and now you don't even look at each other in the corridors. I saw the way you looked right through him just now. He used to wink at you and grin and you used to nod back, but now…."
"Childhood affections," Andromeda shrugged, no emotion in her voice. "We've grown up."
"Just since Christmas?" Narcissa asked slyly.
Andromeda rounded on her, sighing impatiently. "Narcissa, he's a mudblood. I don't associate with Muggle-borns or waste my time caring about their feelings. I stopped nodding back and he stopped winking, and that's it."
"Are you sure it wasn't more?" Narcissa coaxed, her voice fluttering the way it did when she was trying to get new dress robes out of their mother or an extra galleon from their father. "Only I heard that the girl Ted dated last year, you know, Miriam Strout, reckons he's got a new girlfriend. Couldn't be that you're jealous, could it, Dromeda?"
"Please," Andromeda scoffed. "I wouldn't envy anyone who had to endure that Muggle stench all the time. Bella's right, Cissy, you hallucinate drama."
Andromeda tossed her long brown braid over her shoulder and marched away from her sister, huffing with exasperation. She rounded a corner, then paused to check that Narcissa was not following her, and slipped into a secret passage hidden behind a tapestry.
Ted Tonks leaned against the back wall, pockets in his hands. In the dim light, she could just make out his smile. "Laying it on kinda thick, aren't you? Surely I don't smell that bad."
Andromeda blushed. "You could hear that?"
"Air channels," Ted explained, looking up at a gap between the wall and ceiling far above their heads.
"Sorry," she muttered. "Just copying Bellatrix, as much as it makes me sick. It's the only way Narcissa will believe me."
He nodded, stepped forward. And she fell into his arms.
Andromeda Black's newest trick: the only way to protect the things you love is to wrap them thickly in layers of indifference.
A/N: Hi! So it's me. I'm failing at this lately, aren't I? This everyday thing. Really sorry. Get sidetracked! But I'll catch up! :)
So this is a tiny bit of a continuation of January 3 with Ted and Andromeda. I seem to like them quite a lot. Hope you do to! Please review! (no rhyme intended. Saw the Lorax the other day :D)