A/N: Oh, look! An update! Yay!

Chapter 4

After our brief exchange, which could hardly even be considered a conversation, Ted and I had fallen back to our normal one-sided conversation; I could not bring myself to give Ted more than one-worded responses and he didn't seem to mind in the least. I was both a bit embarrassed and intrigued by what Ted had said, but I hadn't had the courage to bring up our previous conversation, to ask him what he had meant. I had hoped Ted might bring it up, but he had gone on pretending as if it hadn't happened at all.

I tried to follow his example, throwing myself into my studies as I tried to forget his words. It certainly worked during the day, but late at night, I would find myself lying wide awake, trying to decipher the meaning of what he had said: Because you're different.

What had he meant by that, I wondered? How was I different? I certainly did not feel different. After all, I was quite convinced that my family's views of our world were correct and I believed everything I had been taught. But, why did Ted think that I was different from them? Could he see something I couldn't?

The weeks passed, September turned into October, and before I knew it November was upon us and with it came the chilly weather, as well as the much awaited Quidditch season. It seemed that the Slytherin team was training consistently now, seeing as the first match, which would be between the Gryffindors and Slytherins, was only a few days away.

I had never been a big fan of the sport, but I would quite often find myself in the Quidditch pitch, watching them practise. Darius, who had made it as a Chaser into the team, had invited me to quite a few practises, but I liked to tell myself that I only went to them because Rodolphus was on the team as well and Bella had taken quite a liking to him. Of course, this was a lie—I would sometimes go down to the pitch regardless of whether Bella accompanied me or not.

On one such instance when Bella couldn't be bothered to accompany me, a day or so before the first match, I was sitting on the stands, my cloak wrapped tightly around my small figure, trying to ignore the cold weather. I wasn't paying much attention to the practise; instead, I chose to use the free time to write a letter to Narcissa; I wrote to her regularly, sometimes more than once a day and she wrote just as often, keen on knowing every single detail of my life at Hogwarts. It was the highlight of my day, writing to my sister; it returned some sense of normalcy that seemed to be lacking in Hogwarts.

Too engrossed was I with writing my letter that I didn't see him walking my way until he was sitting right in front of me.

"Hello, Andy," he said and I jumped, slightly startled. I looked up to see Ted grinning at me, before turning to the person beside me, giving her a slight nod. "Zabini."

Isabelle Zabini had quickly become one of my closest friends, and it would remain that way, well into our adulthood. It wasn't that I wasn't popular amongst my housemates, because I was—being Bellatrix's sister and a Black had its advantages—but there really weren't many people I would consider friends, more like acquaintances; Isabelle was one of the few people I considered to be my friend.

I enjoyed Isabelle's company, more so than the rest of my roommates did—they all viewed her as being annoyingly shallow, not that they were any different themselves. While it may have been true that Isabelle was quite vain, she was also quite smart and offered me an insight to things that I would have remained oblivious to otherwise. She was also rather talented at Potions, something that would come quite handy to her later in life.

"Tonks," she acknowledged, giving him a small smile, before returning her attention to the magazine she was reading. Perhaps the thing that intrigued me most about Isabelle was her lack of interest in blood purity. Despite being from a long line of prestigious Pure-blooded Italian wizards, Isabelle cared for blood purity as much as our roommates cared for her, which wasn't very much. Men are men, she would later tell me, regardless of their blood status.

"What do you want, Tonks?" I asked, remembering to keep a hint of irritation in my voice, ignoring the fact that my heart was beating just a tad faster; this was more than I had said to Ted in the past month.

"Nothing," Ted said, his grin never wavering. "Just wanted to see how my favourite Slytherins are doing."

"Well, as you can see, we're doing quite well, so leave," I said, returning my attention to my letter.

Ted ignored me as he leaned in, trying to get a closer look. "What'cha writing?"

"None of your business," I snapped, pulling the letter away from him.

"Is it a letter to your boyfriend?" Ted asked innocently, not at all bothered by my irritation toward him.

"I don't have a boyfriend," I hissed.

"Oh, that's right. That Nott boy's your boyfriend," he grinned.

"He is not!" I yelled, my voice a pitch louder; already, I could feel a light blush creeping up my face.

"I'm just teasing you, you know," Ted chuckled. "Honestly, Andy, you really do make it easy for someone to take the mickey out of you."

I glared at him and Ted sighed, passing a hand through his uncombed, dark hair.

"Look, Andy, I just came to ask you if tonight would be a good night to get together, just to see what we both have so far. Slughorn did say it was worth half our grade, you know."

I let out a small groan. I had been too preoccupied with finding the meaning of Ted's words that I had completely forgotten about our agreement; after Professor Slughorn had given us the instructions for our potion during the first week of October, we had both agreed to do our research separate and meet later that month, which we still hadn't done.

"What?" he asked, furrowing his brow. "You didn't forget, did you?"

"No," I answered quickly.

Ted looked at me, clearly not convinced. "I don't know why I don't believe you, Andy."

I sighed. "Fine. I might have forgotten," I said evasively.

Ted chuckled. "Well, I can't say I blame you. I try not to think about Potions more than I have to." He looked thoughtful for a minute, before smiling. "Tell you what, we go to the library and do our research together. How does that sound?"

I hesitated, considering his offer. I didn't really want to spend more time with Ted than I had to, but what choice did I have? I certainly did not want to fail Potions; it wasn't a possibility.

"Okay," I said finally.

Ted smiled. "Great. See you after dinner." He rose from his seat, giving me a smile. He nodded in Isabelle's direction, who merely waved him away, before turning around and walking back down the stands.

"I don't get why working with Ted annoys you any," Isabelle said, finally putting her magazine down as we both watched Ted's retreating back. I tore my gaze away from him, turning instead to look at her.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, it isn't like Ted is any bad at Potions."

"But he's Ted Tonks, Izzy," I said, as if that made all the difference. "He's a Muggle-born."

Isabelle waved her hand around, dismissing my comment. "You know I don't care much for that, Andy. You have to admit he is kind of cute," she giggled.

I looked at her like if she had just grown an extra head. "The only thing I'll admit is that I think you've been inhaling too much of those potion fumes of yours. You should go have Madam Pomfrey check you," I said seriously and she grinned.

"Say what you want, but the fact still remains that Tonks is not that bad looking," she said, giving me a small shrug. "At least be glad you aren't stuck with Adelle."

"What's wrong with Adelle?" I asked, feeling a bit defensive toward my cousin.

"Nothing, really. I mean, she's nice enough, I suppose, but she's a complete troll when it comes to Potions."

It wasn't untrue; Adelle was even worse than me when it came to Potions, and that was saying something.

"I would much rather work with her than be stuck with Tonks," I said rather huffily, glad that practise had come to an end.

Isabelle was too preoccupied with watching the boys dismount their brooms to be bothered with responding. Instead, she elbowed me, nudging her head in the direction of a certain blond, shaggy-haired second-year.

"I suppose he's more to your liking, isn't he?" she asked innocently.

I blushed, turning away from Darius, who had just spotted me and waved in our direction.

"Shut up, Izzy," I muttered and she laughed.

"I knew there was a reason you dragged me down here," Isabelle said as we both descended the stands.

We met Darius halfway and Isabelle made a great show of stretching and yawning, as if she had suddenly become increasingly tired. "Oh Merlin, am I tired. While I enjoyed having you drag me down here, Andy, I think I'll go lie down before dinner. Goodbye, Darius, Andy," she said, giving me a large grin as she walked away.

Darius laughed softly, shaking his head as he stared after her. He turned to look at me then, giving me a smile.

"Care to take a walk?" he asked and I could feel a light blush creep up my face as I nodded slowly.

"Behave yourselves, you two," Rodolphus called after us, which caused the surrounding boys to explode in a chorus of "Ooh's" and laughter. Although his tone was light and teasing, I couldn't help but notice the hint of seriousness in his voice. Already, Rodolphus was starting to become quite protective over me, as were most, if not all, of the boys in my House; this was a drawback of being the younger, less interesting and far more fragile sister of Bellatrix Black.

"Don't worry, Rod," Darius said, turning to look at Rodolphus. A look of understanding passed between the two boys and Rodolphus nodded, giving us a smile.

We continued walking, the boys' teasing and hooting following after us and Darius smiled at me apologetically.

"Sorry about that," he said sheepishly.

"It's alright," I said, giving him a small smile, although I'm sure my face told another story; I could feel my face burning a dark, crimson red.

"How are your classes?" he asked, trying to make conversation.

"Good, I suppose," I replied with a small shrug.

"You suppose?" he asked, arching an eyebrow.

"Well, they're nothing like I thought they would be," I replied.

"Much more demanding you mean?" he asked. I nodded and he laughed, not unkindly. "Yeah, that's what I thought, too. But you're smart and quite talented; you'll be all right." He smiled and I returned his smile, feeling my blush reappearing.

"I hope so," I managed feebly.

"Don't worry. You will be. What class are you having more trouble with?"

I hesitated, rolling my lower lip between my teeth. "Potions."

"I'm not claiming to be an expert on the subject, but I could tutor you, if you'd like," he offered and I smiled as I saw a light blush creeping up his pale face.

"I'd like that," I said, groaning inwardly as I heard my name being called. We turned to see Bellatrix rushing toward us, a gleeful grin on her face.

"Well, this is where I leave you, Andy. See you," he said, giving me another smile, before walking away.

"See you," I whispered, slowing my pace so that Bella could catch up to me.

"What did he want?" she demanded as soon as she reached me, giving me the biggest grin I had ever seen. I looked at her, wondering why she seemed to be so excited, before responding.

"Nothing, we were just talking." I paused, biting my lip. "He offered to tutor me on Potions."

"That's great," she said vaguely and I wondered if she was even paying attention to what I was saying. "Listen, Andy, I need your help."

I stopped in my tracks, finally understanding why Bella seemed to be so happy; she was plotting something and, whatever it was, I instantly felt sorry for whoever her intended victim was.

"Oh, Bella, what are you up to now?" I sighed and she shrugged her grin still in place.

"I'm not up to anything, Andy, really." I looked at her in obvious disbelief and she sighed. "Fine. I just think it's about time I teach that Mudblood her place." She was, of course, talking about Emmeline Vance, the Ravenclaw Muggle-born who seemed to surpass her in all, if not most, of their classes.

"And where do I fit in all this?"

"Well, I need someone to pour her this," she said, extracting a small vial full of some sort of powder from her robes.

"What is that?" I asked wearily.

Bella grinned. "You'll see," she said vaguely. "Will you do it?"

I sighed. "Why me?"

"Because, Andy, I need someone who nobody would suspect of being up to no good."

"I'm a Slytherin," I reminded her.

"Yes, but let's face it, Andy, you're a bit of a swot and nobody ever suspects swots." Had anyone else said it, I might have been offended, but since it was coming from my sister, I really didn't mind. Bella was like that; always very blunt and open with her views.

"Oh, Bella," I sighed in defeat. I knew that, even if I tried, Bella would never let me decline my help. "Exactly what do you need me to do?"

After a quick visit to the Kitchens, in which I had somehow managed to convince the house-elves to pour the powdery potion onto the food directed toward the Ravenclaw table—it was a rather harmless potion, only being able to serve its purpose once the appropriate spell was cast—I met Bella at the entrance of the Great Hall, just as we had planned.

"Did you do it?" Bella whispered to me as we both took a seat in the Slytherin table. I nodded, trying to maintain a cool exterior; inside, I was a mess of anxious knots and doubts. "Great."

I tried to follow Bella's example as she joined in on the conversation, although I was too nervous to do more than nod my head. Finally, after an agonizing ten minutes of fretting, Bella's victim showed up. She was a rather pretty girl, with lovely brown hair and I immediately felt guilty about what was about to happen. I watched helplessly as I saw her take her first bite, doing nothing to stop my sister as she pointed her wand at her, casting the spell.

Almost immediately, Vance's chocolaty curls started falling off in large heaps, adorning the ground around her. Vance froze, her spoon suspended in mid-air and her eyes wide in horror.

Vance turned to look at Bella, who was laughing with glee, and shot her a look of contempt, her bright, blue eyes shining with angry tears, before rushing off. I felt sorry for her, seeing her run to Madam Pomfrey knowing very well that there was nothing the older witch could do. The potion, Bella had told me, would prevent Vance's hair from growing even an inch for the next month, no matter what powerful spells were cast to it.

There were a few shrieks from the girl population that followed Vance as she exited the Hall, but they were drowned out by the jeering laughter of the less sympathetic Slytherins, as well as some of the male population that were oblivious to this poor girl's suffering.

They disgusted me at that moment, with their lack of sympathy and ignorance. But most of all, I disgusted myself. I could have done something, anything to stop Bella, but I hadn't.

After dinner, I made my way down to the library, keen on getting my meeting with Ted over as soon as possible. I wanted nothing more than to lie in my bed and forget about what I had just done.

"Out of all the Muggle-borns I could have been paired up with, it had to be you," I said huffily as I took the seat across from his.

Ted said nothing, merely smiled at me and shrugged, before returning to the book he was reading. I looked at the pile of books he had gathered, before picking up a promising one and opening it to a random page. I stared at it absentmindedly, reading the first line over and over again, not really taking anything in.

Every so often, Ted would look up at me, open his mouth, before shaking his head and looking back down. Finally, not being able to take it anymore, I snapped.

"What?"

He looked up and I could see him hesitating. "Why'd you do it?" he asked finally.

His question caught me off guard and I looked at him stupidly.

"Do what?" I asked, hoping that he wasn't referring to what had happened during dinner.

"Why'd you do that to that poor Vance girl?" he asked again. "She hasn't done anything to you."

"How do you know it was me?" I asked blankly, trying to give nothing away. "It could have been anybody else."

He shrugged. "It could have, but you were the only one without a reaction. I saw you; you didn't move or anything, you just sat there, with a blank look on your face. But your eyes..."

He trailed off as his eyes met mine and I could see something there, something I couldn't quite place. And then I it hit me: pity. I dropped my gaze, suddenly finding the table beneath my hands interesting. He stayed quiet for a moment and I could feel his gaze on me. I could hear Madam Pince calling out that the library was closing, but neither of us moved.

"You feel guilty don't you?" he asked quietly. When I didn't answer, he said, "You do." It wasn't a question, it was a statement.

"How would you know?" I asked, rather forcefully.

He shrugged. "I just know."

"You don't know me," I retorted.

"Oh, but I do. You're different," he said, as if that were answer enough.

"Maybe I'm not as different as you think," I snapped.

Ted looked at me the unmistakable ghost of a smile playing on his lips as he stood from his seat.

"No, you are different," he said, sounding almost as if he were trying to convince me as he gathered the books in his arms.

"How so?" I asked, not being able to keep the curiosity out of my voice as I followed him with my eyes, watching as he returned the books to their previous place.

"Well, you've never called me a Mudblood, for one," he said, finally smiling as he picked up his book bag. "See you around, Andy," he said, giving me a small wave, before walking a wave, leaving me to stare stupidly after him.

A/N: I'm feeling quite nervous about this chapter, and I'm real anxious to know what you guys thought. What do you guys think about Isabelle? Any thoughts? Am I making Andromeda too nice? Should I tone it down a bit? Am I moving too fast?

Anywho, now that my insecurities are out of the way, I believe I owe you lovely reviewers a big thank you:

ChocolateIsKryptonite: Ted is one of my favorite characters too! I just love him. And I agree! People should be more aware of how awesome Slytherins and Hufflepuffs are!

RuterDam: Because I want you to, that's why muahaha lol and that's just how I always imagined them: friends from the beginning, even if Andromeda tries to deny it at first

Guest: I have! One of my favorite books. I know, I suck for borrowing the beginning from it, but I couldn't resist

Slytherin's Black Cat: Aw, why thank you. I'm glad you think my story is promising. Means I'm doing something right :)

Fire The Canon: You naughty person you lol just kidding. I don't really mind if its similar..we both have our style :) Now I'm intrigued. I shall read all your stories then (I love Scorose anyway) :D just know, that if I don't update in a while it's all your fault lol

Again, thank you all for your lovely reviews!