They just stared at each other. Andromeda dared to hope he hadn't heard what transpired inside, didn't know who she'd been talking to. But one look at his face told her it was a fool's hope.

"Ted—" she breathed.

"We're you really going to do it?" he asked. "Run away with him?"

She closed her eyes then said, "I didn't mean it like that."

"Oh?" Ted said, "So he was going to come with us? Me, you, our child, and your ex-fiancé, slash brother of the man who assaulted you—"

"That wasn't his fault," Andromeda interjected.

Ted just stared at her. Fury brewed in his eyes, but he seemed determined not to let it out. Not yet.

"Slash Death Eater?" he said coldly, the fury growing more intense.

She wanted to deny it, but she dared not. Not when Ted seemed on the verge of exploding.

"How long have you known?" he asked.

She looked down, unable to look him in the eye. "Ted—"

"How long have you known Rabastan was a Death Eater?" he said again, his voice still dangerously calm.

"Ted, please—"

"Are you worried someone's going to find out? That Rabastan might go to Azkaban? Or worse? That they might be able to use him to catch the others?" He gasped. "Imagine if they managed to catch Voldemort himself. That would truly be a tragedy."

She shook her head, while tears brewed in her eyes. "You don't understand."

She still couldn't look up, but she could hear the pain in Ted's voice as he asked, "Are you sleeping with him?"

He head whipped up. "No!" she said, horrified he would even think it. "It's not that."

"Then what is it?" he asked, his rage starting to spill over. "What could possibly make you—"

"I couldn't tell anyone about Rabastan," she said quickly, desperate.

"Why?"

She closed her eyes. She'd never planned to tell him this. She'd planned to take this secret to her grave. But she knew him. He would never stop. His mind would keep coming up with worse and worse theories until she told him the truth. "Because I made an unbreakable oath," she said, her voice barely a whisper.

But she might as well have shouted it from the way Ted reacted. "Rabastan made you make an unbreakable oath?" he asked.

She shook her head. "Not Rabastan."

Ted once again looked like he was going to explode, but she literally couldn't tell him anything more, not without risking her life.

"Say it all hypothetically," he said finally.

"That won't work," she said, her voice breaking.

"Just try."

She didn't want too. If he knew the truth, he might never forgive her. But he might not forgive her if she didn't tell him either. "Hypothetically speaking…." she said, and when her voice continued to work she continued, "I made the unbreakable oath with Bellatrix."

Ted's eyes widened. "When? Hypothetically speaking."

"Hypothetically… when I rescued Lorie."

Ted swore, as his fury returned. "You've known for almost a year."

She glanced at the ground again, while tears started to spill out of eyes. "Hypothetically. I knew about Rodolphus and Bellatrix. I didn't know about Rabastan until later."

She could feel Ted's fury, like storm, but once again he refused to let it break.

"What did they promise you?" he asked.

"That they wouldn't… wouldn't hurt you. It was the only way I could keep you safe. Bella, she never would have let me have you." She looked up then. Willing him to understand. To forgive her. To realize she did this for him. For love.

He looked like he wanted to, but the pain in his eyes made it impossible. "So everyone they've hurt in the meantime, everyone they killed, that child they murdered…" His voice started to shake. "You traded all of that for me."

She could say she hadn't known. Hadn't known how bad things would get, but it wouldn't matter. It wouldn't change what she'd done. "I didn't know what else to do."

"And now you were going to throw me away too," Ted said. He chuckled, but it didn't mask his pain. "to save Rabastan."

"No, never," she said, the tears spilling more freely now. He could hate her, but he couldn't think she didn't love him. "I just… I had to try to save him. I owed him that."

"You don't owe him anything!" Ted said, his fury finally breaking free. "He's the reason you—" He broke off, trying to rein his temper in. When he spoke again his voice was controlled, though anger still leeched into every word. "It doesn't matter now, because I'm going to Dumbledore right now, and I'm telling him everything."

Her heart broke, but she said, "I can't let you do that, Ted."

He turned away from her in disgust, but she pulled out her wand and said, "Impendimentia!" Momentarily freezing him in his tracks. He glanced back at her, mutinous.

The tears kept falling and her hands shook, but she held the spell steady as she said, "If the ministry comes knocking on their doorstep, they'll know it was me, and nothing will stop Bella from killing you, and everyone you care about."

Ted's eyes darkened, and he said, "She won't be able to do that if she's in Azkaban."

Andromeda shook her head. "I can't take that risk."

Ted's eyes flashed. "It's not your choice to make."

She closed her eyes, grief threatening to take over. They'd had a similar conversation last year, when she hadn't wanted to report Rodolphus' planned attack on Teresa. That one incident had ripped her and Ted apart, and now it was happening all over again. She couldn't bare that. She couldn't lose him again.

"What about our child?" she said desperately. "You want to risk their life too?" Ted's eyes widened in surprise, and she took a step closer to him. "I'm keeping it. I decided, but I can raise our child without you, Ted." She stopped in front him, gazing at his eyes, begging him to understand.

Her revelation that she'd decided to keep their child sent a wave of emotions through him. Surprise. Joy. Worry. She wished she'd realized she wanted to keep the child sooner, and that she'd chosen any moment other than the present to tell him. They could have planned their future together, instead of her using their unborn child to scare him into seeing things her way.

"Is this a world you want to raise our child in?" he said finally. "One where it has to fear for its life? We take them down, we make our world safer."

"Ted, please, don't—" she reached out to touch him, but he flinched away from her. Her spell had worn off, but that wasn't what concerned her. Ted flinched away from her the way pureblood flinched away from muggleborns, like the idea of being touched by her repulsed him.

"All those people," he said, his voice breaking, "their blood is as much on my hands as it is on yours. I can't live with that. Not without trying to make it right."

Then he turned away from her and continued down the hallway. She could have jinxed him again, but what was the point. She couldn't hold him prisoner to her will forever.

"Ted," she said behind him, as the tears flowed more freely. "Ted, I'm sorry." But he didn't turn around, and soon he disappeared. Once he was gone, she collapsed to his knees, sobs overtaking her body.

Tonight she'd lost Rabastan, and she might have just lost Ted too. With her family gone, and her few friends turning from her, she might be completely and utterly alone. Her hands flew to her belly. Now that she'd decided to keep her child, she couldn't change her mind, but the idea of raising the child by herself filled her with terror. She'd never felt more lost or afraid.