Born to Run

A/N. Hi everyone! Apologies for the delay but here, at last, is the first full chapter of my newest story "Born to Run". Hope you enjoy it! Any comments would be gratefully received!

Chapter 1

"Move! Out of my way!" Andromeda Black snapped, sweeping past a crowd of excited first years on the bustling platform. They glanced up at her haughty expression and hastily scuttled out of her way. She sighed and tossed her dark brown hair in annoyance, striding down the platform to join her younger sister.

"Have you seen Bella?" Narcissa asked, as Andromeda approached, not looking up but continuing to fix her long blonde hair in the window of the train.

Andromeda glanced around her. "No," she replied. "Don't get your hopes up, Cissy. I wouldn't count on Bella to be here. She's got important things to do these days."

Narcissa looked up at her older sister, a look of annoyance on her pretty face. "I'm not hoping for anything," she snapped, inspecting her perfect nails, the discontent lingering on her face.

They stood in silence for a few moments, watching the other people on the platform, both wearing expressions of contempt at all the frivolity and laughter, as if it was beneath them.

"There's a Mudblood staring at you," Narcissa commented in a disgusted voice. Andromeda glanced up without much interest. The Black family often drew many looks. She was used to it.

She couldn't see the person's face because as she looked up, he turned away. But not hastily like the others did when she caught them looking.

"Where's Mother?" Andromeda asked, looking bored.

"She left," Narcissa replied.

Andromeda looked up sharply. "She didn't say goodbye."

Narcissa rolled her eyes. "She said goodbye to me; you weren't here. Don't be such a baby, Andie," she sneered. "She had something important to do. Come on, Bella's not coming. Let's find a compartment," she said bossily.

Andromeda felt a stab of annoyance. Since Bella had left home, Cissy had taken over her role. But Andromeda couldn't be bothered to argue. You could never win with Cissy. She was the spoilt baby of the family.

"Andromeda!" came Cissy's impatient voice from the train steps. "Are you coming or not?"

Andromeda sighed and climbed up the steps after her sister. She followed her to the compartment where there were already several people seated. They stood up as the two sisters entered and greeted them courteously, the boys kissing their hands, the girls their cheeks.

Andromeda had to restrain herself from rolling her eyes in irritation. She hated the stupid pureblood formalities. She let them kiss her hand as graciously as possible. Mulciber. Malfoy. Rosier. Merlin, she despised them. All of them. She knew that they didn't really like each other- it was purely for public show and social status that they hung around together. She did not like the girls much either. Coraline Beaugard. Elisabeth Greengrass. Emilia Nott. Bitchy, scheming and vapid.

She kissed their cheeks, her face expressionless, and took her seat beside Lucius Malfoy.

"Andromeda," he drawled smoothly. "I trust your holidays were good?"

Andromeda didn't reply but narrowed her eyes in disgust at Cissy across from her, who was flirting with Goyle. Andromeda held back a gag and turned to Malfoy.

"It was fine, thank you," she said briskly. "And yours?"

She only half-listened as Malfoy droned on for the majority of the train journey. Her best friend Cece Maguire gave her a sympathetic smile from across the compartment as she caught Andromeda's bored expression.

At last, the train ground to a halt and Andromeda peered out of the window. There was not much to be seen out of the dusty glass. The sky outside was dark and it was raining.

Moments later, they were standing on the platform in the spitting rain. Crowds of people, carrying various assortments of trunks, bags and cages were bustling around them. Andromeda hastily took Cece's arm to prevent them from being separated.

"Let's find a carriage," she muttered to Cece.

"Come on, you two," called Malcolm Crabbe, another Slytherin seventh year, a tall burly boy with dark hair and a pale scar on his left cheek. He was standing on the steps of one of the horseless carriages.

Andromeda picked her way over the wet uneven ground and clambered into the musty smelling carriage.

"I've heard Professor Turner is back this year," Andromeda heard Narcissa drawl from across the carriage.

"Oh no, surely not," said another voice. "Father told me that he couldn't possibly be allowed back… he's practically a Squib!"

The others laughed. Andromeda rolled her eyes. Professor Oswald Turner was not, of course, a Squib. But he was certainly not a pureblood, and he often dressed very haphazardly, which caused a general feeling of disdain at least amongst the Slytherins.

Andromeda sighed heavily, not for the first time that day, and tuned them out.

"I'd forgotten how much I love it here," Andromeda breathed to Cece, as they took their seats at the Slytherin table in the Great Hall. She gazed up at the thousands of candles suspended in mid-air, which filled the whole room with a warm flickering glow. This place never ceased to amaze her.

"Did you hear?" The loud obnoxious voice of Evan Rosier drifted down the table. "Elisabeth Greengrass and Adrian Mulciber just announced their engagement."

There was a hiss of whispering as the nearby Slytherins digested the juicy news. Andromeda rolled her eyes and tried not to think about what her parents had told her over the summer about her own upcoming betrothal.

"Soon, it'll be me and Andromeda making the announcement," Rosier said and smirked at Andromeda down the table. She glowered at him and made a noise of disgust.

"Not if I can help it," she muttered venomously, firmly turning her back on Rosier. Cissy kicked her under the table.

"Ow!" exclaimed Andromeda, glaring daggers at Cissy. "What was that for?"

"Stop it," hissed Narcissa. "We have a reputation to maintain."

Andromeda just made a face and ignored her.

The meal passed slowly and Andromeda tried her best to ignore all the whispers about engagements. It was just typical; the one thing she wanted the most to forget about was suddenly thrust back in her face the second she went back to Hogwarts. She had hoped that Hogwarts might be a salvation from the nightmare. Clearly she had been wrong.

"So Andromeda," Emilia Nott smirked, as they left the Great Hall. "I hear you're getting engaged to Evan Rosier."

At this, Andromeda finally snapped. "I am not engaged to Rosier. I would not get engaged to him if he were the last person on earth! He is rude, uncivilised and he makes me sick!" she spat. "And while I'm sure that neanderthal is good enough for you, Nott, I wouldn't touch him with a bargepole!"

And she stormed off, her anger finally getting the better of her.

An icy silence swept through the group of Slytherins. Then a few sniggers broke out. Some of the boys began to laugh openly. Emilia Nott glared at them. Then she rounded on Narcissa.

"Don't mind her," said Narcissa hastily. "She's just tired," she assured her fellow Slytherins, before storming furiously after Andromeda.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Cissy demanded, as she entered the Common Room moments later.

Andromeda turned at the sound of her sister's irritable tone. "Mind your own business!" she retorted, turning back to the fire.

Cissy walked round the armchair and sat down facing her elder sister, a look of severity on her pretty, petulant face. "Alright I will," she said. "But don't expect Mother to." She smiled maliciously, showing her little pointed white teeth.

Andromeda didn't even bother to look up. She was tired of her sister's empty threats.

When she looked round a few moments later, she saw that Narcissa had gone. She breathed a sigh of relief. Normally she got on with her family, but recently she found herself arguing easily with them, especially Narcissa.

"Andromeda?" She heard a voice behind her. "Is something wrong?"

She got up hastily and turned to see Evan Rosier looking at her in what she knew to be fake concern.

She shook her head, keeping her face indifferent. "I'm fine."

He smiled but Andromeda could see the underlying nastiness in his expression. "Are you quite sure? I feel that as your potential future-"

"Don't say it," Andromeda interrupted coldly. "I have nothing to discuss with you."

Rosier gave another nasty grin. "As you wish," he sneered. "But you won't be able to stay away from me for long."

Andromeda made a noise of disgust and swept past him up the stairs to her dormitory, making sure to knock her shoulder into his as she passed.

She curled up on her four-poster bed in her dormitory and pulled the Muggle book she had been secretly reading out from underneath her mattress, ready to lose herself in a world where things seemed far less complicated. No more than half an hour had passed when suddenly there was a small tap at the glass window beside her bed. Sighing, she clambered out of bed and opened the window to let in the handsome tawny owl on the window ledge. She quickly unravelled the small scroll attached to its leg, her eyes scanning the parchment.

She barely looked up as the door opened and two of the girls in her dormitory entered, giggling about something.

"And I told him, as if I would ever -"

One of them broke off as she caught sight of Andromeda, and the two girls exchanged a look.

But Andromeda hardly noticed. Her eyes were still on the piece of parchment in her hand. Looking up at the pair of them who were watching her as if she was a bomb about to explode, she stumbled from the room.

"Andromeda, are you ok?" Her best friend Cece asked, getting up from the sofa in the Common Room when she saw Andromeda coming slowly down the steps from the dormitory.

Andromeda didn't answer. She was clutching the piece of parchment tightly in her hands, her face pale.

"Andie, what is it?" Cece asked, looking worried. "Talk to me."

Andromeda shook her head silently and held out the paper to her. Cece took it slowly and began to read:

Andromeda,

I have heard, to my great displeasure, from your sister of your unacceptable behaviour. You cannot act this way, not in public. I don't care what your reasons are for your sullenness and your detachment from the noble families we have brought you up to associate with.

I hope that it is nothing to do with your upcoming betrothal, because like it or not, you are going to be married three months after you leave school, so I suggest you start getting used to the fact.

You are not some common low life who can act however she pleases. You are a Black. Start acting like one.

Do not make me sorry that you are my daughter.

Mother

Cece put down the letter as she finished reading.

"I'm so sorry," she whispered, taking Andromeda's hand.

"Don't be," said Andromeda, looking up. "It's nothing to do with you. It's the fault of that back-stabbing bitch I call my sister."

She glanced across the Common Room at where Narcissa was sitting, surrounded by a multitude of Slytherin boys and a couple of simpering girls. Narcissa looked up as she did so, and gave Andromeda a self-satisfied smirk.

Andromeda stood up abruptly, wrenching her hand from Cece's, and stormed from the Common Room, clutching the letter tightly in her fist.

"Merlin, I hate her," Andromeda muttered, pulling her cloak around her shoulders as she stormed through the corridors.

She needed to be alone. Her head felt like it was about to explode.

She let her feet carry her to an empty classroom.

Her head was pounding with an overwhelming anger. She hated her backstabbing malicious sister, her righteous cold mother, her disinterested father. These feelings had been brewing over the summer, especially since her parents had sat her down and told her that she would be married three months after finishing Hogwarts to somebody of their choosing.

"Why is it so hard to find people I actually like in my life?" she whispered to herself.

Andromeda thought back to her mother's letter; its cruel words were like a knife through her heart as she remembered them.

She slammed her fists down on the table, her anger so great she wanted to break something. She pulled out her wand.

"Reducto," she muttered, pointing her wand at the cabinet in the corner. It burst open, wood splinters flying everywhere, ink staining the floor. She watched the destruction she could cause with just a flick of her wand with satisfaction.

"Incendio!"

The desk in front of her burst into flames.

The flames rose higher as she strengthened the spell. She could feel her anger growing. Like an uncontrollable monster. Raging inside of her.

"Woah! What on earth-"

Andromeda suddenly felt the wand knocked out of her hand and she herself toppled off the desk as someone crashed into her.

"What the hell were you playing at?" A pair of grey-blue eyes twinkled down at her, full of amusement and confusion.

"Get off me," she snapped at once, pushing the person off her.

The boy stood up hastily and offered her a hand. She ignored it and pulled herself up, smoothing down her robes.

She glanced up at the boy in front of her who was gazing round the empty classroom in evident shock. The desk was charred and burnt; there was wood, torn books and ink all over the floor.

"What happened in here?"

Andromeda didn't answer. She turned away and started clearing up the mess with her wand. When she was done, she turned back to the boy standing in front of her.

"Ted Tonks," he said, holding out a hand with a grin.

She sniffed haughtily. "I know who you are," she said coldly, ignoring the hand.

He didn't seem to mind. "Oh you do? No need to tell me your name," he grinned.

"Of course not. Everyone knows the famous Blacks." Her voice was bitter.

"Are you alright?" he asked, his grey eyes concerned. "You seemed a little….er, angry."

She didn't smile, though she felt the corners of her lips give a twitch. "Yes, I'm fine. I just…received some bad news, that's all."

"Oh yeah? Want to talk to someone about it?" Ted asked, the broad smile still on his face.

She looked at him condescendingly. "Not to you."

But Ted wasn't deterred. "You sure about that? Doesn't seem like you have many people to talk to."

Andromeda glowered at him for this. Mainly because she knew he was right.

She leant against the edge of a desk and hesitantly held out the letter. Ted took it, his eyes scanning down the page quickly.

"What did you do?" he asked, when he was done.

Andromeda looked up in surprise. "Nothing. I just…well, I've just been a little off-colour recently. Not as courteous to the other Slytherins as I should be."

"There's no shame in that. I don't think I'd be very friendly to those sycophantic morons if I were you," Ted said, with a grin.

Andromeda couldn't help but smile this time. But it was fleeting. Almost as though it did not really belong on her face. "It's not really my choice. I have to associate with them. My parents would be furious if I didn't."

"Screw them. Why do you listen to what your parents say?" he said, gesturing to the letter.

Andromeda's face immediately closed up and the haughty look came back into her eyes.

"Why do you care what happens to me?" Andromeda demanded.

The question clearly stumped him. He was silent for a moment.

"Because you're different," he said finally.

"What's that supposed to mean?" she snapped, the cold tone back in her voice.

"You're not like them," he said slowly, ignoring her rudeness. "The others Blacks I mean. Or the rest of that pureblood lot."

She glared at him, loathing and contempt clearly written in her expression. But if he did not know better, Ted would have said he glimpsed a look of vulnerability, almost fear, flit across her face. But it was gone in an instant.

"How could you possibly know a thing about me?" she snarled, anger flooding her voice. "You don't know anything about me or my family, you stupid Mudblood." Her voice was harsh.

She glared at him, as if challenging him to hex her. But Ted simply turned on the spot and left the room, without a word.

As the door snapped shut behind him, Andromeda felt a strange unfamiliar feeling wash over her. Almost a feeling of regret. Of guilt. But no, it couldn't be. Not she, a Black, pureblood nobility. He was a worthless nothing. He was a nobody.