It is a truth universally acknowledged that Muggle-borns wishing to maintain their good health should refrain at all times from talking to Andromeda Black.
If someone chose to ignore this tacit rule, they did so at their own peril. Although Ted Tonks had never seen Andromeda go out of her way to be rude to a Muggle-born, the stories he’d been told from friends and other classmates were enough to convince him that her list of redeeming qualities was on the short side.
It also kept Ted from actively seeking out her companionship, or anything of the sort. The problem was, however, that recent certain circumstances had made it impossible for Ted to stay away from Andromeda.
After surprising himself with an Outstanding Potions O.W.L., Ted had chosen to continue the class at the N.E.W.T. level last year. It had been Ted’s smallest class, so, the choice of partners had been rather limited. Nevertheless, Ted was content to be paired with Edmund Clevery, and though Andromeda was in the class as well, they never said a word to one another. This year, the class was small again, and Ted was planning on pairing up with Edmund. That is, until Slughorn had his say.
And unfortunately, Slughorn’s say was that Ted and Andromeda would be working together all year.
Edmund Clevery had chosen an inconvenient time to drop Potions from his schedule.
All this, Ted had learned yesterday, his first day of classes. Today was the day they would start working together on Potions, and Ted was getting the feeling he’d rather be handling Bubotuber pus.
Ted continued to bemoan his misfortune as he sat at in his chair in the dungeons, waiting for Andromeda to arrive and for class to start. He saw her as soon as she walked through the doorway; her impossibly good posture and seemingly inherent grace made it hard not to. She moved to sit next to him just as Slughorn cleared his throat to begin teaching. Other than a cursory look of disdain, Andromeda made no acknowledgement of Ted.
“Listen up, everyone!” Slughorn called cheerfully, stepping in front of the board and eyeing his pupils with beady eyes. “We’ll be starting off the year with something relatively easy “ Strengthening Solutions.” With a wave of his wand, instructions for the potion appeared on the board in scrawled handwriting. “You have until five minutes before the class is over to finish, so you and the partner had better hurry!”
After the last comment, Slughorn took to walking around the room, glancing into students’ cauldrons here and there and making an occasional remark.
Ted began gathering the ingredients they would need to complete the potion, and Andromeda set out a few of her measuring devices. Though casual chatter had sprouted up between partners nearby, the mood remained decidedly tense. They both remained busy for the first five minutes, but after that, Ted knew they’d need to start talking if they wanted to get anything done. He glanced at her from the corner of his eye, but all he could see was a curtain of long brown hair.
Clearing his throat, Ted finally broke the silence. “Do you want to start adding the ingredients, or do you want me to?”
Andromeda didn’t even turn to look at him. “If you think you can do it without causing us to fail, by all means, go ahead,” she said coolly.
Oh, well. Aren’t we off to a wonderful start? Ted thought, measuring the first ingredient carefully. Eyeing the directions on the board, he raised his hand over the cauldron and began to add the ingredient.
“Are you daft?” Andromeda hissed suddenly, her hand shooting out and grabbing Ted’s wrist right as he was about to drop an ingredient into the cauldron. “You never put it in all at once! The potion won’t brew properly, and it’ll come out all wrong. Did you take a single Potions class last year? Honestly!”
“Please forgive me, your Highness,” he muttered, pulling his hand away from hers and letting the ingredient fall into the potion slowly. “Is that up to your exceedingly impractical standards?” Ted asked.
“I suppose it will do,” Andromeda said. Without another word, she added the next ingredient, and grudgingly allowed Ted to add the next.
Other than a few generic requests to pass the mortar and pestle or to Stir the other way, for Merlin’s sake! the two worked in silence the rest of the lesson.
Finally, after Ted was afraid he could take it no longer, the class was over. He nearly sighed in relief as Slughorn dismissed the students, but managed to keep his feelings to himself. He may not have liked Andromeda, but he’d try to keep their relationship cordial if he could.
Gathering his books, he stood from the table and briskly walked from the room. Andromeda was a few steps ahead of him, and he followed her for a few turns down the hallway by mere coincidence.
As Ted was about to turn to head down the hall leading to the Ravenclaw common room, Andromeda stopped as she passed a group of her friends.
“Hey, Andromeda,” one (Neil O’Hare? Ted thought) called. “How are you?”
“All right,” she replied, not elaborating any further.
“She has Ted Tonks for a Potions partner, though,” Marie Thason offered. Marie was in their class as well, and Ted decidedly thought she was the definition of the word ‘priss.’ “What’s it like, working with the Mudblood?”
Ted’s quick footsteps came to a halt as he heard his name, and moved to the side of the corridor where he could listen to the conversation at a safe distance.
“I could get used to it,” Andromeda said, “if he wasn’t so horrible at Potions. I’m not sure what Slughorn was thinking when he let him join the N.E.W.T. class.”
Neil O’Hare laughed at this, and muttered something to the group too low for Ted to hear. He did distinctly catch the words ‘Mudblood’ and ‘filth,’ though.
Having listened to enough, Ted turned and moved around the group of Slytherins unnoticed. Though part of him found the conversation vaguely amusing, he couldn’t help but smart a little at the fact that he’d been insulted.
Doing his best to shake it off, Ted turned down the corridor again only to hear his name once more, but this time at a much louder level.
“Ted!” At the sound, Ted spun around to find the person who was calling him. “Ted, over here!”
Eyes searching the hall, he spotted his younger sister Lydia and one of her friends walking quickly to catch up to him.
Though she was two years younger than he, Ted and Lydia got along well enough, although the two were polar opposites. Ted was clever and sensible, whereas Lydia was all bouncing curls and flirtatious smiles. It was the latter interest that concerned Ted the most. Lydia seemed to always be in search of some boy or other to date, or at the very least, go to Hogsmeade with.
Though it had been innocent enough so far, Ted wondered if his younger sister would garner a reputation that was rather unsatisfactory sooner or later. More so, he was afraid his other sister would continue to follow Lydia’s footsteps and end up in the same boat.
“Hey, Lydia,” Ted said as he moved to stand next to her. She was walking with a friend of hers from Hufflepuff “ a Maggie Tymber, who Ted remembered quite well from a noisy sleepover that summer.
“Oh, you’ll never guess what happened today, Ted!” Lydia exclaimed. Before giving Ted a chance to reply, she continued, “In Charms I did my Silencing Spell on the first try! Flitwick gave five points to Hufflepuff, and I swear George Winters gave me the most brilliant smile after it.”
“I’m sorry I missed it,” Ted said, choking back a laugh at the pride with which Lydia told him this. “Thanks for thinking to tell me.” A small smile succeeded in escaping his effort to remain serious.
“It was wonderful,” Lydia sighed. Then, turning to Maggie, she said, “Do you think George likes me, then?”
As Maggie opened her mouth to reply, Ted sensed that his involvement in the conversation was coming to end. Lydia, for one, was not known for her long attention span.
“Well,” he began, “I’ve got a letter to write before dinner, so I’ll see you later, Lydia.”
“All right, bye!” Lydia waved over her shoulder to Ted, easily dismissing him in order to return to her gossip.
Shaking his head slightly at his sister’s silliness, Ted continued his walk to the Ravenclaw tower, the time it was taking much longer than he would’ve like. Finally reaching the common room, Ted quickly found his favorite chair. Pulling out a piece of parchment, he began to write to Jonathan Renard, Ted’s best friend who had finished Hogwarts last year, and now was training at St. Mungo’s. He wrote:
Jonathan,
It’s only the second day back, and I’m already counting down until the holidays. It’s not that I don’t like Hogwarts, it’s just that sometimes the work and people I have to endure can be too much. Plus, Ravenclaw tower isn’t the same without you here. Oh well, that’s what I get for having a best friend who’s a year older than me.
Hm, let’s see. You’re probably wondering why I’ve found it necessary to write to you so soon into the year. Well, I’ve just come back to the dormitory after Potions, where I had a lovely class.
You’ll find it funny that Andromeda Black is my Potions partner for the year - you always did think she was the prettiest Black sister. But while you may have found her tolerable, I’m finding that her pride is most likely incapable of growing any larger. I know my little sister Lydia thinks she’s some sort of Hogwarts royalty, but I just don’t see it. She’s rude and happens to think I have the brains of a first-year. I mean, that attitude might have been more acceptable if it were you she was partnered with, but I digress.
Well, I hope training at St. Mungo’s is going well. Write back when you aren’t busy saving lives. Or maybe at this point you’re still passing out Pepper-Up Potions “ equally important, I’m sure. But either way, you know where to find me.
- Ted
After signing his name, Ted stuffed the piece of parchment into the envelope and left the dormitory to head to the Owlery before dinner. Hopefully, Jonathan would write back soon with some advice on how to handle dealing with Andromeda daily.
Until then, well, Ted supposed he’d have to work with what he’d been given. After all, two days down, only, oh, however many there were until June to go.
Potions and Prejudice by solemnlyswear_x
Chapter Notes: A extremely large amount of thanks to Colores, iloverupertgrint, and harry4lif for being wonderful betas! :)