Legal Disclaimer: I own my stuff, but not the original source material. That belongs to whoever. Also, the opinions and interpretations I use here may not reflect the same in said whoever that owns the source material. Look, I'm just a poor college librarian. Suing me isn't going to get you anything but tears.

Warning: This work may be offensive to some readers. There is also an onscreen character death towards the end with mild blood. Additionally, there is use of a fantasy racial slur and implied/referenced abuse & canon war. Feel free to back out if need be.

Author's Note: Reputation is a very funny thing, especially when it makes you ignore red flags.

Submitting Info:
Stacked with: Quidditch League (Season 10); RAVEN (2023); MC4A (Sp-Y6)
Individual Challenges: Red Instead; Quaffles; Bludgers; Sap Bath; Colors of the Sky; Ravenclaw MC (x2); Slytherin MC; Magical MC (x3); Sandbox (Y); Reader (Y); Cinematic (Y); Gamer (Y); Dreamers (x3); Ethnic & Present; Neurodivergent; Rian-Russo Inversion (x2); Short Jog; Bucket Listing (Y); Eating Cake (Y); Exchange (Y); Greatest Gift; Green Ribbon; Two Cakes (Y); 3rd Rule; Bi Bi Bi; Setting Sail; Ship Sails; Bedtime; Castle Time; Traveler; Lunar Era; Rainbow Connection; Finders; Gender Bender; Hold the Mayo
Team (Position): Wigtown Wanderers (Seeker)
Round (Prompt): Round 10-08 ("My reputation's never been worse, so…" - Delicate by Taylor Swift)
RAVEN Challenges: Settings [64](First Kiss); Items [114](Slippers); Colors [44](Dove Gray)
Other MC4A Challenges: SpB [1A](Chocolate); TrB [2B](Accidental Marriage); Ship (n/a)[SpBig (Rain); SpMed1 (Big Damn Hero; Married Already; Matchmaker); SpMed2 (Hand Feeding)]; Chim [Nettle]("God Help the Outcasts" – Hunchback of Notre Dame; Turned Left Instead AU; Race Bend)
Representation(s): Fem & Jewish Ted Tonks/Lucius Malfoy; Autistic & PoC Ted Tonks/Andromeda Black; Chim Song Prompt; QL Song Prompt
Primary & Secondary Bonus Challenges: Middle Name; Mother Hen; Nightingale; Spinning Plates; Unwanted Advice; Mouth of Babes; Tomorrow's Shade; Second Verse (Ladylike; Not a Lamp; Persistence Still; Found Family; Nontraditional; Zucchini Bread); Chorus (Pear-Shaped; Wabi Sabi; Peddling Pots); Demo 1 (Muck & Slime; Corvid Brain; Over the Hills; Where Angels Fear; Sweetest Burn; Lovely Coconuts; Casper's House; Under the Bridge); Demo 2 (Unicorn; Head of Perseus; Call Me Dantes; Hot Stuff; Toto's Tribute; Wind Beneath; Abandoned Ship; Jack's Jollies; Sitting Hummingbird); Paid Demo 1 (Brooms Only; Clio's Conclusion; Lyre Liar; Uncivil Obedience; These Boots)[x5]; Paid Demo 2 (In the Trench; Surprise!)[x2]
Tertiary & Generic Bonus Challenges: T3 (Thimble); SN (Rail; Negate); Once (Moses Supposes; Santa Fe; Inchworm); CM (n/a)
Space Address (Prompt): 2D (Aftercare)
Word Count: 2026 words

(^^)
Reputation's a Funny Thing
(^^)

Tzipporah Tonks had laughed when she had been sorted. Her parents surely did as well when she had sent a letter home. The Lord loved irony, no doubt. Why else would Ravenclaw be the best fit for someone with her name? Birds belong among other birds, after all.

Maybe she should have been more conscious of how well other people's names fit their personality. Maybe then she could have avoided everything that came later.

But the attention from Lucius had been flattering. He was certainly handsome. While some of what she had heard about him had been worrisome, it did not match how he was to her face. He was charming, almost sweet. He sussed out all of her favorites and proceeded to bring them to her. It became their thing, a common part of their limited times they could sneak away from others. He would procure her favorite sweets or fruits and then spend hours hand-feeding them to her as they curled together on the dark blue couch they had placed in the abandoned classroom they had stolen for just this use.

"You are so beautiful," Lucius told her. One fine-boned hand carded through her nut-brown curls as the other pressed a plump blackberry to her lips. "You are my favorite. Do you realize that? Of all the pretty birds of Hogwarts, you're my favorite."

"I would be offended," Tzipporah told him sassily, "but I realize that you probably aren't aware of Muggle slang."

"You are in Ravenclaw," Lucius said carefully after a momentary pause. He frowned in concentration so hard that both perfectly sculpted eyebrows touched. "Why would Muggles have knowledge of such things?"

"Muggles sometimes call women 'birds'," she replied. She reached up to trail her fingertips over his forehead just to see the furrows disappear under her touch. Her tan fingers looked like a dark cloud moving against the pale skin of his face. "It's not very nice."

"Muggles do not sound very nice in general," Lucius stated. "Nearly everything I have heard makes them sound practically barbaric." His teeth flashed as he smiled down at her. "Except for you, of course. You are so much more than where you came from, never fear."

"I don't," she said as something uncomfortable squirmed within her gut. It felt like a warning of some kind. Lucius trailed his fingers over her lips, tugging the bottom one from beneath her teeth where she had unconsciously bit it. When she continued speaking, they dipped ever so slightly into her mouth. "I am not afraid with you."

His teeth flashed again as he smiled, like the sunlight on the fangs of the serpent in the Garden. When he asked if he could kiss her, Tzipporah agreed readily. It was their first kiss. It was not their last.

Maybe she should have listened to the feeling in her gut. Maybe she should have listened to the warning whispering its way through the darkness of her mind.

"It's not real, you know," Andromeda told her three nights after she had returned from winter break. All of the Blacks had gone home that term, even their outcast third-year Sirius, which was rare enough for the family. Whatever family event that had occurred, it had left Andromeda drenched in glamour charms and the scent of dittany. "Whatever you think you have with Lucius is a honeyed lie meant to lure you in."

"He loves me," Tzipporah denied. She tied the royal purple ribbon Andromeda had chosen for tonight's braid. She met Andromeda's eyes in the vanity mirror, ignoring how uncomfortable it was to make eye contact in order to make herself understood. "And I love him."

"His father will never allow a marriage," Andromeda whispered. Her lips moved for a moment without any sound before she closed her eyes and sighed as if defeated. "You will never be seen as worthy."

"Because I'm a filthy mudblood?" Tzipporah asked sharply. Anger snapped through her like a wild fire. "Or is it because I'm a Jew?" The anger choked out her ability to speak. As she would with her family, she reverted to sign, because Andromeda had immediately taken to learning it. Each motion was jerky with the amount of emotion she put into each one. "I thought you were better than that, Andy! Both of those things never mattered to you before!"

Unable to listen to anymore from her friend, she fled the dormitory. Tears ran down her face as she ran down the stairs from Ravenclaw Tower. The slippers on her feet did nothing to keep the cold from seeping into her. As she was running down a hall on the seventh floor, she crashed into Lucius. He looked just as shocked as she was to see her so late at night.

"What is wrong?" he asked, recovering faster than she did. "What has you so upset?"

"Andromeda—" Tzipporah couldn't finished the tale. She was crying too hard. Lucius' face stiffened at the name of her best friend.

"What did she say?" he snapped, clearly furious. She just cried harder, too hurt to even explain how betrayed she felt at that moment. Lucius gripped her arms and pulled her firmly against his body. "What did she say?!"

"She said that—" Tzipporah hiccupped. "She said that I would never be worthy to marry you." Tzipporah struggled to gather herself. She just had to be strong, just like the woman who had once had her name. That Tzipporah would not let something like this tear her apart. "She told me that what we share isn't real! That it is a lie! But I know she is lying!"

"Of course she is," Lucius assured her quickly. His grip shifted to rubbing her arms. "She's just jealous."

"Jealous?" Tzipporah questioned, shocked from her tears. She shook her head. That didn't make sense at all. "Why would she be jealous?"

"There has been a marriage contract between the Blacks and the Malfoys since I was born." Lucius paused again as if letting her process that information. Her insides started to freeze at the implication that she might have been too hasty to condemn Andromeda's statement. Pure-blood marriage contracts were notoriously difficult to break, and doing so had a tendency to result in blood feuds between Houses. "I was to bond with Andromeda this summer after we had both finished Hogwarts. Over winter break, I informed my father of my intent to bring you into the family instead."

"You want me to marry you?" Tzipporah asked. She loved him, of course she did, but she had honestly never considered that he would be willing to forsake his family's prejudice for her. Lucius just smiled and kissed her as gently as he ever did.

Their last term at Hogwarts passed far more quickly than Tzipporah could imagine. Tentatively, she and Andromeda made up. Both of them were careful to avoid the topic of Lucius as much as possible. It was only towards the end of the year that Tzipporah brought anything related to the pending marriage up around her best friend.

No matter how strained their relationship was at the moment, Tzipporah just couldn't bear the thought of being married without Andromeda by her side.

"Of course," Andromeda agreed immediately when Tzipporah asked if she would accompany her to Malfoy Manor from the train.

The feeling of something being wrong that had been growing all term relaxed at the simple agreement. Tzipporah knew she could handle anything that life threw at her so long as she had Andromeda's support. The last seven years had certainly shown that.

Tzipporah shoved her trunk, broomstick, and bulging messenger bag into the overhead rack of the compartment she was sharing with Andromeda. Heavy drops of a summer rain slid down the window pane as Andromeda nodded solemnly in agreement to stay with their things while Tzipporah went in search of Lucius, to at least to let him know where she was going to be when he was done with his final duties as Head Boy. As Tzipporah passed by Andromeda she did not notice Andromeda's dove gray eyes had darkened with worry and her lips thinned with poorly concealed wrath.

The door shut behind Tzipporah as she waded out into the sea of students crowding the corridor of the train.

"I can't believe you got that mudblood to believe you," came Rodolphus' voice from a compartment as Tzipporah passed it. She paused to listen, a bad feeling churning in her stomach. Rodolphus was one of Lucius' close friends and had been since before they had started Hogwarts. "Mudbloods are so stupid. I have no idea how one managed to get into Ravenclaw."

"While I acknowledge how the other Houses lack the standards of Slytherin," Lucius answered, "perhaps I am just that charming." He let out a loud sigh, full of regret. "It is a pity that I couldn't bed her before giving her to the Dark Lord. She has such pretty lips."

"You'll get your chance," Rodolphus reminded him. Tzipporah stifled her gasp with her hands. Her eyes were already prickling with the tears threatening to fall.

"And sully myself further?" Lucius scoffed. "It is bad enough that I will have to deal with the stain on my reputation necessary to get her to come willingly to the manor."

Tzipporah felt her heart break in her chest as his words echoed in her mind. She couldn't believe it. After all they had been through, that he would even consider handing her over to the Dark Lord felt like a sword through her chest. She swallowed her tears as she rushed back to the one place that she could possibly find any solace.

Andromeda would always be her sanctuary. Oh, Lord, Andromeda had tried to warn her, hadn't she? Tzipporah was just too hard-headed, too blinded by her affection towards Lucius to listen.

Thankfully, Andromeda already had something of a plan, which she quickly explained once Tzipporah had gotten back to their compartment. She had been planning on simply stunning Tzipporah to get her out, but now that Tzipporah understood what Lucius had been planning all along, that wouldn't be necessary. They could simply sneak out together when the train pulled into Kings' Cross. They would have to be quick, but Andromeda had already arranged for a safe place to stay until they figured things out further.

Just a few miles outside of London and before they could put their plan into action, Tzipporah felt a chill pass through her body as Lucius appeared in the door of their compartment.

He stood there, a towering figure with a smug expression on his face, as if he had already won. He grabbed Tzipporah by her arm and tried to drag her away, but Andromeda was quick to stop him. She grabbed Tzipporah, pushing her to the far side of the compartment and as far from Lucius as possible in the small space. At the same time, Andromeda pulled out her wand from the sheath on her arm.

"Leave her alone," Andromeda ordered in a voice as hard and cold as a glacier. Lucius laughed, a cruel sound that made Tzipporah's skin crawl. He lunged forward just as Andromeda slashed sideways with her wand. A red line immediately formed across his neck.

Lucius fell to the ground, gurgling as he choked on his own blood. Tzipporah could see the life fading from his eyes. She felt a deep pain in her chest as she realized what had just happened. She hadn't wanted it to end this way, but it had.

Andromeda calmly vanished the body and blood like it was a misbrewed potion. Then she gathered Tzipporah close, tears streaming down both of their faces. Tzipporah felt the weight of her decision and the guilt for the death of the man she had loved until a few hours ago.

Those last few miles were spent in near silence, as no words were needed between them. Andromeda held Tzipporah's hand tightly as they slipped through the crowds of Kings' Cross and into their now-intertwined future.

Reputation and blood politics be thrice damned.