"But she's so afraid of f-f-falling in love"

When all was said and done, when the dust cleared, and all that was left for Andromeda was herself, she would look back on her life and smile nostalgically. In the end, she would have just as many smiles as she would tears, which, for others, wouldn't be enough.

They would want to have many more smiles than tears, or much more happiness than pain, but Andy had painfully learned to take what she could get. She would get screwed over more than once, which she could blame on only the fates that handed her this life.

If one had told Andromeda how her story would eventually end at the beginning of her sixth year, then she'd try desperately to change it. Going to the ends of the Earth wouldn't be the only thing she'd do to ensure she wouldn't have to leave life alone.

Well, essentially alone, anyway.

Of course, she'd always have herself, and she was currently learning how to make that enough. Andy desperately wanted it to be enough. She needed it to be if she was going to get through all the side glances and missteps that came with being a sister to Narcissa.

She and Narcissa split away far too easily, ignoring each other the entire way to the train. Andromeda wished she could say something to mend the hurt they both were feeling, but either there weren't any words that could fix it, or she simply couldn't find them.

Putting the summer out of her head like she promised herself she would, Andy practically ran to Jack and Ted when she saw them standing in front of a compartment.

"Andromeda Black!" Jack screeched, jumping into a hug with Andy.

She laughed despite him saying her full name bringing back countless memories of Druella doing the same in a not-so-kind way.

"Jack Johnson!" She returned the favor of screeching into his ear.

"Oi, Jack, you're gonna hurt her," Ted reprimanded from behind Jack.

He rolled his eyes as he let go of Andy.

"She's like indestructible at this point, Edward," Jack said, laughing when Ted winced at the use of his full name. "See?"

Jack proceeded to fake slap Andromeda in the face. Going along with it all, she fake fainted into Ted's arms, who caught her right on cue. She winked at him before standing up again.

"I really shouldn't of caught you," Ted sighed, shaking his head at the two in front of him.

"Andy!"

Henri's shriek could be heard from quite a ways away on the train. Andy looked up as a grin spread across her face while Henri ran down the train to her. Tripping over her trunk multiple times, Andy was surprised Henri had made it to her without breaking an ankle.

They stared at each other for a moment before embracing each other in a back-breaking hug. As they did so, Henri whispered to Andy in her ear.

"Are you okay?" She asked.

The question was brought about because Andromeda had told Henri everything in a letter before they had returned to school. She had written about Cygnus, and Narcissa, and August, and so many other things that had worried her brain into a small ball of nothingness.

Instead of answering, Andromeda just nodded in response.

"It's okay not to be, ya know?" Henri whispered again.

Andromeda just squeezed her tighter in reply.

"Do they know we're here?" Jack whisper-shouted to Ted.

Meda could nearly see the punch in the arm that Ted gave him because of how obnoxious Jack was when he said OW! Henri and Andy stopped hugging to see Jack holding his arms out, asking for a hug.

"In your dreams, Johnson," Henri said, grabbing her trunk and walking right by him into a compartment.

"Ouch," Jack said, letting his arms drop at his sides.

Ted and Meda made eye contact and laughed at their friends with each other. This was what she missed the most over the summer because she might be able to channel this feeling for a fleeting moment, but nothing was better than being able to live there in the actual memory.

...

Not only had Andromeda been made a prefect, but Ted had too. Additionally, he had also been made quidditch captain, which had been a big deal to nearly the entirety of Hogwarts.

Why? You may ask.

Ted had been born to two muggle parents, who had first learned that magic was real at the same time Ted had—the year before he entered Hogwarts. Now, this effectively made him a muggleborn, which meant people everywhere held this fact against him.

As soon as it had caught wind that a muggleborn had been made prefect and quidditch captain, Meda swore it was all she heard about everywhere. Once, she even heard Narcissa whispering to her friends—no doubt gossiping about what she had heard from the rumor mill—Ted's name.

She didn't like the fact that people would dare utter his name in a negative way. He was Ted Tonks for Merlin's sake, a saint practically.

Of course, as his right hand man, Jack gave no shits what people thought of him, and took every comment made against Ted personally. Henri had dragged him away from what would've been sure to become much more than just a verbal assault more than once.

She stared at the back of his head at dinner, thinking about how cruel it was to have family that would've thought the same things about him. Why couldn't they see that he could do magic just as well as everyone else?

...

For the first time ever, all four of them found themselves in the same class at the same time. Professor McGonagall had only shook her head at the four of them when they walked in, clearly expecting shenanigans from them the moment they walked through the door.

Little did she know, a group of four would walk into her classroom the very next year, and it would take everything in her to come up with ways to try to keep them from trouble.

Jack and Ted sat at the table behind Andy and Henri very conveniently. Minnie usually tried to separate people preemptively, but since she liked the four of them she let it slide and jumped into her lesson.

Of course, being the first lesson of the year, the content was about as exciting as a cardboard box. Minnie tried to make it more engaging for them, but, unfortunately, most students' attention drifted to other things.

For Andy, it had been the note Ted had dropped onto her desk as he walked to McGonagall's desk to grab a spare quill. He had also left a pen--something Ted had just taught Andromeda about--with the note so that she could reply easily.

Henri smirked at her friends as Andy read the note and laughed quietly to herself. When she looked up from the note to see Henri's face, she gave her a questioning look.

"What?" Andromeda whispered to which Henri just shrugged with a smug smile on her face.

Nudging her friend's arm, Andy sighed to herself when Henri just laughed while keeping her face pointed at McGonagall as the lecture continued. Again, Andy nudged her on the shoulder, and again, nothing.

"Miss Black," McGonagall said, grabbing Andromeda's attention all at once. She could hear Henri conceal her sniggers with a cough. "Is there something so important that you are trying to disrupt Miss Moreau's time to learn?"

"No, professor," Andy replied at once, still intimidated by any type of authority due to her past experiences.

"Good, I'm glad we're in agreement," McGonagall said in a tone of finality. She was about to turn but stopped as she thought better of it. "Tonks, do try your best to keep your friend, Johnson, awake."

Andromeda turned around to see Jack, the picture of serenity, fast asleep on the table in front of him. She shook her head at them and focused her gaze back on the note he had left her. A drawing of her looking into a telescope with the words, "ready 4 astronomy?" had been scratched onto it.

She felt her heart warm.

...

Astronomy really was the perfect way to end the day. Just her, the stars, and Ted—and well, everyone else in the class, but they seemed to disappear somewhere between her looking at the stars and into Ted's eyes.

They sketched whatever constellations they had read about earlier during class as they chatted quietly about anything that crossed their minds. From future prefect patrols to all the possibilities of the universe, it seemed that Ted and Andy had managed to cover a majority of it in their ongoing conversation.

"Wait a second! Are you named after the Andromeda Galaxy?" Ted asked excitedly.

Andy laughed quietly.

"Indeed I am," she replied with a small smile. "Most of my family is named after some sort of star."

"Isn't your sister named Narcissa though?" He asked cautiously, obviously wary about bringing the topic of her family up.

"Yes, that's why I said most not all," she clarified, after which he nodded as he followed along. "Her name does connect to Greek mythology somehow though, so there's that."

"Is your sister like you?" Ted asked, earning Andy's full attention.

She took her gaze from the stars for a moment to ponder what the correct answer would be.

"In what way are you asking?" Andy asked him. "Do you mean like how she thinks or-"

"No, just like—what's she like? I don't mean to pry, of course, I understand that you don't want to talk about your family-"

Ted sighed and cut himself off.

"I can't blame you for being curious," Andy said indifferently.

If she was being honest, then she might've said that she didn't mind him asking about her family. Deep down, Andy knew he'd never really know what it was like to grow up in a family such as hers because he had had the exact opposite experience with his, but he'd never judge her for her family's ways.

"I just—Davina, Jack's sister, is in the same year and she mentioned she was in some of the same classes as Narcissa when we talked about you over the-"

"You talked about me?" Andromeda cut in teasingly. "What'd you say?"

Ted's face grew warm.

"Just that you were a friend."

"Oh, c'mon, Ted, please don't tell me you made me sound boring," Andy said, feigning a grimace.

"I couldn't do that if I tried," Ted replied bluntly.

They resumed a short silence as the professor walked behind them and cleared his throat. Andy rolled her eyes into the telescope right before Ted started speaking again.

"I have to suffer through arithmancy all by myself," Ted complained, pouting. "How could you drop the class?"

"If you remember correctly, then you'll know that I got a poor on the OWL," Meda paused to laugh as Ted sighed dramatically. "So, it wasn't as if I could've taken the class if I wanted to."

"I bet you would've done better if you had studied," Ted replied, poking her side.

She batted his hand away and shrugged in agreement.

"Didn't feel like it though," Meda said casually.

Arithmancy had been something Cygnus and Druella had practically forced upon her. She had wanted to take Muggle Studies—a wish that would've disowned her on the spot if she spoke of it—but her supposed-to-be parents would hear none of it.

It might've been out of spite that she didn't study. Of course, she hadn't enjoyed the subject, so acting as if she didn't study because she simply didn't want to was much easier than telling Ted the truth.

Though, the truth always came out somehow.

...

Song: She's Not Afraid
By: One Direction

I'm so sorry that this chapter took me so long to write, these past few weeks have been so hectic!😅

Welcome to Act III! I'm so glad you've joined me!

Of course, this act has lots of lovely and maybe some not-so-lovely things coming, but it's all how you look at it! You'll meet some interesting people too. 😉

See you all later!

Lmao anyways thanks for reading
-teddy xx