{andromeda} late for class

[tedtonks]

IT'S NOT THAT YOU CAN'T SEE

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THE FOREST FROM THE TREES - YOU'RE NEVER OUT IN THE WOODS ALONE[/center][/font]

The news of the Death Eater attacks had spread all around the school, and now that the three victims were back at Hogwarts and trying to get on with their lives, the school had basically gone crazy. Or, at least, that was how Ted felt as he pulled a fourth year Slytherin off Lachlan Parker, who had decided to abandon all magical items and use his fists to show the poor Hufflepuff just how he felt about muggle-borns.

Luckily for Ted, Professor McGonnagall had come along just at that moment, and after five or so minutes of an explanation of the situation, Ted rushed off to his Defence Against the Dark Arts class of which he was now late for. New teacher, too. This year was getting off to a great start.

Taking a deep breath, Ted opened the door and watched as a sea of faces swivelled around to see who the late person was. Swallowing loudly, Ted's eyes met with Professor Dawlish's. "Sorry I'm late, sir." He frowned a bit and made a move towards his usual seat...

...which had been taken. Rats. He felt there was no need for more of an explanation at his lateness, as Dawlish rolled his eyes and set back to the work on the blackboard. Where the hell was Ted going to sit? His eyes scanned the room for an empty chair.

There! Ted headlined for the seat, unaware of who it was that he was sitting next to. He put his school satchel down silently on the ground and slipped into the chair, pulling out his quill and some parchment to write on. He rummaged around in his bag for an ink bottle, but nothing came up.

"Hey," he whispered to the girl sitting next to him. "Could I possibly borrow some ink? I can't seem to find mine." As if everything had just clicked, he realised he was sitting next to Andromeda Black. He smiled at her, hoping she wouldn't mind. Just his luck - late for class and he'd forgotten all of his ink. Wonderful.

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[quof]

Andromeda quickly slipped into her seat and pulled out her books, and then resisted the urge to bang her head on her desk. It hadn't exactly been a good day for her so far. It seemed a bunch of little episodes—tripping humilitatingly in the great hall, knocking in to a couple of first year hufflepuff's and having them run anyway like she was going to eat them or something, on top of remembering a homework assignment she had due that she'd completely forgotten about—mixed with getting very little sleep the night before wore down a lot or your physical and emotional stamina.

The seat next to her remained empty, as usual. None of the other students wanted to sit by her, and the Slytherins all wanted to sit by each other. She didn't look up as somebody entered class late as she was to busy copying down what Professor Dawlish was saying.

It was only when somebody asked her for some ink that she looked up, startled. She recognized him as Ted Tonks, a fellow sixth year and a Hufflepuff. She also happened to know he was a muggleborn.

Andromeda hated how that was the first thing she thought about everybody. She almost always knew, as some of the Slytherins made it a point to fish out every single muggleborn in the school and she happened to catch on to it. She supposed it had something to do with her family, since she was surrounded by a lot the blood purity stuff all the time. But that didn't seam like a very good justification.

Had she been either of her sister's, she would have made some disgusted remark. But she wasn't. What she was, however, was shy and socially awkward. She stared at him for a second before saying, "Sure." She reached into her bag and pulled out an extra bottle. She passed it over too him carefully, as to avoid making contact.

It wasn't the first time she'd interacted with Ted, they'd spoken before and she remembered her their conversations as being rather pleasant. He was one of the few Hufflepuff's who actually would talk to her. But she still didn't feel like she knew much about him and found herself studying him out of the corner of her, taking in physical features she hadn't noticed before.

[tedtonks]

IT'S NOT THAT YOU CAN'T SEE

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THE FOREST FROM THE TREES - YOU'RE NEVER OUT IN THE WOODS ALONE[/center][/font]

Ted couldn't help but feel a bit unnerved at the small amount of contact that Andromeda made with him. She didn't look him in the eye and passed over the ink bottle all with too much care for his liking. Did he smell bad or something? He pressed his lips together in a tight line as he took the bottle from her and set it down on the desk. "Thanks," he said quietly. The mass of notes written on the blackboard was starting to look bigger than ever, and so with a deep breath, Ted dipped the end of his quill into the bottle and began writing.

Five lines in, it was suddenly becoming quite hard to concentrate. Andromeda was studying him out of the corner of her eye and Ted couldn't figure out why she was doing it - and why he felt so bothered by her actions. They'd talked before - mostly just pleasantries in very brief stints -, so why was this time different?

Andromeda Black had always seemed a bit different to the other Slytherins. She never joined in when it came to the topic of muggle-borns and blood-purity; but Ted couldn't help but think that that was why Andromeda had shied away from him as he'd asked to borrow some ink. He was muggle-born, and while being quite proud of it, it had earned him some enemies in his time at Hogwarts.

He ripped off the bottom bit of his parchment and dipped his quill in the ink again. The class had fallen silent, and so to talk would only draw more attention to the two of them.

Why are you looking at me like that?

Ted flicked the note under Andromeda's nose with the side of his hand. Hopefully he'd get some answers.

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[quof]

Andromeda wasn't exactly sure what she was looking for, or even why she was looking. She noticed the way his hair crept over his eyes and the way it clung to the back of his neck, and the way his jaw moved as he struggled to copy down the ever-growing list of notes.

She flicked her eyes away quickly the moment it looked like he might turn in her direction. She didn't want to be caught staring, as that was rude.

Then something flashed under her eyes and she looked down to find a small folded note on top of her parchment. She glanced over at Ted, but he was no longer looking at her. She glanced around to make sure no one else was looking before picking up the note and gingerly unfolded it, trying to be as discreet as possible.

Her eyes bulged a little when she saw what was written. So he had noticed. She felt a small blush rising in her cheek and stared determinedly down at the paper.

What should she say? she could deny it, or find some perfectly reasonable excuse, like she thought she'd seen something on his face. But she didn't feel comfortable with either action, so instead she answered as truthfully as she could.

I don't know

She was as proficient at subtly trading notes as he seemed to be, but she manged to fling it over on to his desk in a rather unnoticeable way.

[tedtonks]

IT'S NOT THAT YOU CAN'T SEE

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THE FOREST FROM THE TREES - YOU'RE NEVER OUT IN THE WOODS ALONE[/center][/font]

Ted tried hard not to pay attention to Andromeda as she responded to the note. He bit down hard on his lip and focused back on the board, where Professor Dawlish had written down another three lines of notes. A small groan escaped Ted's lips, echoed by some of the other Hufflepuffs and Slytherins around the classroom. This new Professor sure loved writing notes, that was for sure. Ted flexed out his hand, getting rid of the cramp that had formed.

Before he could start writing again, Andromeda had pushed the folded up note back onto his side of the desk and onto his bit of parchment. And for whatever reason it was, Ted was eager to open it.

He read the small, finely written words three times before putting the note back down in front of him. She didn't know? Ted's eyebrows knitted together in confusion. Maybe he had something on his face that she was just being too polite about? Shrugging, Ted replied ever so casually,

OK.

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and flicked it back over to Andromeda's side of the desk. If she had a problem with Ted sitting next to her, she could always ask him to move. His usual seat would be open again next lesson and he would stop annoying her with his presence. After all, most of the muggle-borns around Hogwarts were used to that kind of treatment. It wasn't unusual for them to feel unwanted or cast aside when it came to group situations.

For the rest of the lesson, Ted couldn't help but look over at Andromeda ever couple of minutes. He wondered what she was thinking, if she was going to reply to the note, and if she was still uncomfortable with him sitting so close to her. The desk was kind of cramped, and every now and again they would accidentally brush knees under the table.[/blockquote][/justify][/font]

[quof]

She had expected a little bit more of a reply, but all she got was one word. She stared at, feeling disappointed for some reason. So that was it, it was over. Unless she replied to it somehow, but she had no idea what to respond with, so she just moved it to the side of her desk and left it that. She could go back to doing what she should have been doing in the first place—coping notes—which was what she wanted, wasn't it?

She took a deep breath and pushed the confusing thoughts away, refocusing on the lecture. For a while this worked quite well, though she felt as if she was exerting substantial self-control to keep herself from looking over at Ted.

But then Professor Dawlish did something that blew her little plan away. They were going to start practicing what they had supposedly just learned, and would need to divide into pairs. She felt her heart sink. She was always the one left out of these, for the same reason there was always and empty desk beside her.
except for that desk wasn't empty anymore, there was someone sitting in it.

She couldn't help it this time, she looked over at him, feeling her cheeks flush again. She didn't know what to say, exactly, so she just glanced around the room to avoid looking at his face, but remained turned in his direction.

[tedtonks]

IT'S NOT THAT YOU CAN'T SEE

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THE FOREST FROM THE TREES - YOU'RE NEVER OUT IN THE WOODS ALONE[/center][/font]

Ted had barely been paying attention to what kind of words were coming out of Professor Dawlish's mouth. All he had were the notes copied down in front of him, and when the teacher came around and announced that everyone had to partner up, Ted's lips mashed together in a hard line. He was going to fail epically at this.

As Ted swivelled around in his seat to face Andromeda, his deep blue eyes met her brown ones. He instantly knew that they would be partnered up together, it was just a matter of who was going to take the first tentative step. Breathing deeply, Ted straightened up in his seat. "Partner?" he asked simply, his eyebrows raised and a smile on his face. He was determined to be nice to her no matter what she thought of his blood-line. He was better than that; but, in all honesty, he wasn't entirely sure that she was judging him by blood status. It was merely the conclusion that he had jumped to.

He stood up from his chair and took his parchment with him, folding it into the pocket of his robes. They were learning about defensive spells. Specifically, how to defend oneself against 'Oppugno', and other such harmful spells, where inanimate objects were made to fly across the room at an incredible pace.

With a flick of his wand, Dawlish pushed all of the chairs and tables against the walls so that the students could stand in two lines: the first line were going to do the attacking, and the latter were going to defend themselves. He looked over at Andromeda, who was standing opposite him across the room, and wondered if she was okay with being partnered up with him.

She stood with grace and elegance, and held her head up high. She had confidence, but wasn't over-confident like her older sister. She had soft features and a little blush still remained on her cheeks. Why the hell Ted was starting to notice it was another thing all together, but he pushed those thoughts out of his mind as he readied himself to defend against Andromeda's oncoming attack.

"Ready?" he asked steadily, smiling a bit. Why hadn't he noticed her before now?

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[quof]

Andromeda forced herself to look back at him as he spoke.” Partners?” She nodded, her voice seemingly stuck in her throat. She felt a little disappointed with herself. She had been raised to be eloquent and direct when speaking to others, and despite her shyness, she was usually able to follow. But for whatever reason, she simply would not work. She tried not to think too much about why that might be.

She hadn’t lost her ability to walk, fortunately, and moved to her spot with a fluid grace. She turned to face Ted, forcing her face into a composed, pleasant smile and she prepared to do the spell. Defense Against the Dark Arts wasn’t her best subject, unlike the rest of her family. She was best at charms, though this spell was a little bit charmish in nature, so perhaps she would do alright. Andromeda wasn’t a show-off, but she hated to appear inadequate either. But for some reason she found that she particularly wanted to perform well now. And she thought she had a vague suspicion of why though she tried to pretend that she had no idea.

“Ready?” Ted asked politely from across the room, and she allowed herself a small smile.

“Of Course, are you?” She raised her wand slightly, waiting for Professor’s Dawlish to indicate that they could begin. She hoped he was, because while she wanted to do well, she didn’t particularly like the idea of smacking him in the face with something. Her expression became a little more sheepish as this new thought occurred to her.

[tedtonks]

IT'S NOT THAT YOU CAN'T SEE

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THE FOREST FROM THE TREES - YOU'RE NEVER OUT IN THE WOODS ALONE[/center][/font]

Ted couldn't help but smile back as Andromeda smiled at him. "I'm ready," he said back simply and braced himself for the oncoming onslaught of quills that were about to attack him. As Professor Dawlish gave the word, there was a muffled cry of 'Oppugno!' and a line of quills were shot at the defenders. It all happened so quickly, and Ted barely had time to react, but just as the quills came hurling towards him, he cried 'Protego!'

[/b] and blocked them. Whew. That would have hurt, otherwise.

The class broke out into a loud sort of chatter. Ted put both his thumbs up at Andromeda and grinned again. "You did well!" he called from the other side of the room, just as Professor Dawlish called for silence.

--

The rest of the class carried on just the same. They each had their turn at practicing and defending, and by the end of the lesson, he felt pretty proficient at what he had just learned. Dawlish called for 'Class Dismissed' and the students rushed to pick up their things and get out to lunch.

Ted bit his lip as he slung his school satchel over his shoulder. His eyes scanned for Andromeda in the classroom, but she was nowhere to be found. Putting two and two together, Ted ran out of the class and into the corridor, spotting her at the other end, about to go down the stairs to the Great Hall. Running at full pelt and out of breath, he managed to catch up with her.

Ted had never been a man of words. He liked to let things happen as they did and never tried to influence a situation too much. If people didn't like him, then that was their choice, but something was different about it this time. He didn't want Andromeda to dislike him. No - somewhere, and for whatever reason it was, Ted wanted her to think well of him.

"Hey," he said, as he caught up with her. "Mind if I join you for lunch?" He smiled, hoping his offer wouldn't go astray. It was very rare that a Hufflepuff would ever 'have lunch' or even talk to a Slytherin; but there was something different about Andromeda Black, and Ted was willing to give it everything he had to find out just what that was.[/blockquote][/justify][/font]

[quof]

Andromeda was pleasantly surprised when she managed to make the object fly on her first try. She was a pretty good student, but it usually took her a little while to master things.

She grinned in a way that actually showed her teeth at Ted’s praise, even though the words were rather simple. Of course she felt very strange afterward and averted her eyes as Ted Prepared for his own spell. But gradually she found that it didn’t feel as weird. As class progressed she relaxed quite a bit, and almost enjoying hurtling quills across the room. But then class ended. She grabbed her things are hurried out, as she was never one to linger. She had just reached the top of stairs when she heard someone coming up quickly behind her. She turned and was surprised to find Ted, who was struggling to catch his breath just a little bit. Her eyes widened. He’d followed her? Had he actually run from class just now?

"Mind if I join you for lunch?"
Andromeda took a step back, completely caught off guard. What should she say? She opened her mouth as though to reply, but closed it, thinking. Could they sit together? It wasn’t exactly done, but there wasn’t a rule against it or anything. It wasn’t something any other Slytherin would probably consider, but she did a lot of things that weren’t very slytherin-ish, and associating with people they all avoided was one of them.

But this would be different, it wouldn’t talking to some random muggle-born when they were alone in the library and no one could hear them. It would be in the great hall where the entire school, the other Syltherins--Bellatrix-- could see them. She felt herself tense up, the temporary relief she had felt back in class was all but gone.

“I don’t know if that could work…” she tried to make it sound like it was because they were in different houses and generally everyone sat with their own house, instead of being because she was afraid.

She sighed and looked away, feeling suddenly dejected. Ted seemed to be somebody she could get along with quite well, and she would have loved to talk to him a little more. But it was very rare that she got to do what she wanted.

[tedtonks]

IT'S NOT THAT YOU CAN'T SEE

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THE FOREST FROM THE TREES - YOU'RE NEVER OUT IN THE WOODS ALONE[/center][/font]

Ted frowned at Andromeda's rejection. There were so many different reasons why they couldn't sit together; for one, he was muggleborn. Muggle-borns didn't hang out with Purebloods. He was in Hufflepuff, and Slytherins and Hufflepuffs apparently weren't allowed to talk. Ever. Ted took a step back from Andromeda and leant against the banister at the top of the staircase. He wondered which reason Andromeda was thinking of, and decided to ask her straight out would be the best way to answer his questions.

"It's because I'm muggle-born, isn't it." It was more a statement rather than a question, but it would surely get an answer out of Andromeda anyway. Perhaps that was why she'd been staring at him in class. There was a moment's pause between them. "It's okay, you can say it. I'm not ashamed of it, you know," he said quietly, leaning in towards her. "I'm not ashamed of being muggle-born."

He took a step out from her and raised his eyebrows. "Either way, I think it could work," he shrugged, his forceful blue eyes meeting her calm brown ones. "You seem nice enough and I'd like to hang out with you," He studied her for a moment, watching her as his words sunk in.

"Well, if you want to take me up on my offer, I'll be sitting outside by the lake with some food. You'll know where to find me." He smiled at Andromeda once more and made his way down the stairs towards the Entrance Hall, hoping desperately that either Andromeda would change her mind and follow him, or she'd come and sit with him a bit later.

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[quof]

Andromeda was used to people assuming she was like every other pure-blood Slytherin, but it still felt a sucker punch to the gut every time one of them voiced it. Not that it was their fault, since she really didn’t give them any reason to believe otherwise.

“Yes,” she sighed, “No, Yes,” she ran her hand through her hair, feeling suddenly agitated. “It’s complicated.” Of course "it’s complicated," was an indirect way of saying I really don’t want to explain this to you right now, something she couldn’t fathom doing with anybody.

She just sighed when he said the next part. Good, now at least she didn’t have feel guilty. But then he was inviting her to sit with him. She stared at him in confusion, people didn’t do that to her. Muggle-born’s didn’t want anything more to do with her after she made it seem like she was a blood supremist.

And he said she was nice, but how could he know that? True, she hadn’t treated him like dirt the way others would, but that was no indication as to whether or not she was a person worth hanging out with. She couldn’t move, she was too confused, too frozen. She just watched him walk away before sighing heavily and making her way into the lunch room. But she couldn’t eat anything; she kept going over that moment.

Not quite sure what she was planning to do, she stuff a couple of non-messy items in her bag and headed outside. She saw ted already sitting by the lake and walked over to him.

“Hi,” she had finally reached him. She didn’t know how he would respond, since she had kind of rejected him earlier. But he had invited her anyway, which much count for something.
“I found you.” She said with an awkward smile, trying to relieve the tension that was clouding her lungs.

[tedtonks]

IT'S NOT THAT YOU CAN'T SEE

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THE FOREST FROM THE TREES - YOU'RE NEVER OUT IN THE WOODS ALONE[/center][/font]

'It's complicated.'

Ted had a feeling that those two words were going to sum up a lot of the Wizarding World's problems, as well as the problems that Ted and Andromeda were going to face if people were to see them together in public.

"Too complicated, perhaps?" Ted offered, raising his eyebrow at her, a small smile on his lips. He had a feeling that she didn't particularly want to talk about how complicated the situation actually was, and so he let the topic drop.

As for how he knew that Andromeda was nice was another matter completely. It was easy to see; from the way she walked and talked, to the way she didn't sneer in his direction simply for existing. A lot of other Slytherins did - which is what set Andromeda apart from the rest of the pack. Given how many opportunities she'd had to tell Ted to go away, or insult him for sitting too close, it was easy to see that Andromeda was a fair deal nicer than her other Slytherin counterparts.

Ted ducked into the Great Hall and scooped up some of the food from the table and sai dhi to a few people before making his way outside to the sunshine. He found a spot near an old weeping willow tree and set down his things, leaning his back up against the bark of the tree.

The Giant Squid was lolling around in the lake, seemingly doing some very slow laps from one end to the other. His mind ran over what had just happened during that last lesson, and what on earth he was doing. Why was he defying all the so called 'laws' of socialisation? He had no business talking to Slytherins, let alone asking them to have lunch with him. It just wasn't done.

Small footsteps grew louder and Ted turned around to see the figure of Andromeda Black making her way over to him. He couldn't help but smile; so, she did want to hang out after all. Blood couldn't have been that much of a problem.

"Hey," he said in return, grinning widely. He scrambled to shift his stuff out of the way so that she could sit next to him. "Yeah," he laughed, unable to take his eyes off her. "Looks like you did."

"I hope I'm not taking you away from your other friends," he said through a half-full mouth as he passed her the plate of food he'd managed to snag from the Great Hall. "It's too nice of a day to sit inside though, don't you think?" He knew he was making small talk, but that didn't matter. All that mattered was that the two of them were talking, no matter what the topic was about.

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[quof]

Andromeda breathed a sigh a relief as she lowered herself on the ground next to Ted. She didn’t look at him as she carefully laid her things out in front of her, but she could feel his eyes on her. She tried to tell herself not to freak out; he was just a guy after all. A guy who had invited her to eat lunch with him, and who she found herself staring at as she took the plate he offered her. There was something about him that caught her attention, that was for sure. Her cheeks flushed again and she averted her gaze just a little bit, staring out over the lake.

She could have laughed at his next topic, what friends? Her only true friends were her family, and even they couldn’t really count.
“You don’t have to worry about that.” She said, she wasn’t sure why she was telling him this. Except that she wanted to respond with more than a conversation ending yes or no answer.
She smiled at his next words, finally tearing her eyes away from the squid, which she had always found quite fascinating.

“Oh yes,” She said eagerly. “I much prefer being outdoors than staying in the castle, outside is so…” She broke off, slightly embarrassed that she had started rambling. She had to look away again.

“And what about you, is this taking you away from your friends?” She didn’t really know who hung out with, but she supposed it must be the other 6th year Hufflepuffs. He seemed like he might be kind of popular, at least among certain circles, because he got along so well with other people. That was why he was talking to her, because he was friendly, and for no other reason.

But that wouldn’t explain why she was talking to him. She who was not popular, shy, and who didn’t make friends easy. So why had she come? Like so many other things today, she didn’t know the answer.

[tedtonks]

IT'S NOT THAT YOU CAN'T SEE

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THE FOREST FROM THE TREES - YOU'RE NEVER OUT IN THE WOODS ALONE[/center][/font]

He shrugged. "Alright, then." If she said not to worry about it, then Ted wasn't going to push the subject any further. If anything, Ted was a bit too easygoing about things in general.

"So... what?" he said as he took another bite out of his apple, wanting to know the end of her sentence. "But yeah, I get what you mean. Being in the castle can feel so cramped at times," he offered his own opinion, smiling at the fact that both their point of views were so similar. See? They weren't so different after all.

"My friends?" he asked, slightly taken aback. "Well, Diggory's off doing prefect things, so I doubt he'll miss me." He paused to finish off his apple and he placed the core on the ground next to him, making a mental note to dispose of it later. "And that about sums up my friendship circle, so you don't have to worry about me, either," he laughed. Ted put his hands behind him, firmly on the ground, and stretched his legs out in front of him.

"Okay. Favourite class?" he asked, turning his head to look over at Andromeda, hoping that they would have something else in common.

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[ ooc: Sorry, Quof. D: It's short and crap and it's early here and my muse is like LET ME SLEEEEP. ][/font]