Forbidden Fate

Chapter Eleven: OWL Year is Over

Two weeks later, Ted nervously met Derrick Avery for the first time.

"Relax," Andromeda told him. "Just try not to be yourself."

"What?" Ted snapped, making her giggle.

"I'm joking! Though you may want to, erm, make your hair a bit neater."

Ted rubbed his hands though his hair and grumbled good-naturedly, "I wish you had never lightened up and started joking."

Andromeda gave him a quick kiss. "You have only yourself to blame for that--and there's no going back."

"No going back" was the way he felt waiting in the Hog's Head. In a way it was ironic. This was the bar Andromeda first met his best friend, and now at last he was meeting hers.

Derrick skulked in, and Ted saw that he was also looking uneasy.

"Hello Ted, Andromeda," he said formally, sitting down. They were at the table farthest from the door, hidden behind some shady wizards in cloaks smoking pipes.

"Wotcher," Ted answered. Derrick's face clouded with confusion for a moment, then he laughed and the tension broke.

"Same to you. How are you feeling? Oh, and how's your friend feeling?"

"I'm fine, and Kirley's great. We're both bummed that we lost the match though."

Derrick shrugged. "It was unfair, I'll give you that. But house pride prevents me from being too upset with the results."

"It hasn't prevented me so far," said Andromeda. "I hope Ravenclaw crushes us in the finals."

Derrick snorted and said derisively, "You should be in Ravenclaw, then."

"Meda could have been," Ted defended her. "She's certainly smart enough."

Andromeda blushed. "Didn't you have to tutor me in Potions?"

"How are you as a tutor, Ted?" Derrick put in. "Is she going to pass her Potions OWL?"

"Better than pass, and not just because I tutored her. If she puts some effort into it, she could even get an 'Outstanding.'"

"There's just one problem," she said. "We all know I won't put some effort into it."

They laughed, though they all knew in less than a week they would be facing the exams themselves. Ted dreaded them for two reasons. One, because he wasn't too thrilled about taking exams in the first place. More importantly, it meant the year was almost over. As if the beautiful weather wasn't enough indication, the calendar told him it was the end of May. It would be impossible to see Andromeda over the summer. And next year, she wouldn't need tutoring anymore. They could always meet, but it wouldn't be as special as the past year had been.

There was an awkward silence, each of them busy with their own thoughts, and then the conversation turned to Houses and their experiences with the Sorting Hat.

"The Hat didn't know what House to put me in," Andromeda was saying. "It said I would do well in any of them. I told it to put me in Slytherin then, as everyone in my family was going there anyway."

Ted couldn't tell if she regretted this or not.

"It said I'd do well in Slytherin," said Derrick. "Sly, cunning...that's me to a tee."

Andromeda rolled her eyes. "What about you, Ted? Does Hufflepuff fit you to a tee?"

"Nah--I wish it did! The Hat put me there pretty quickly, if that means anything."

"You're lucky," Derrick said. "You didn't have any family to be compared to. Everyone complains about Muggleborns being prejudiced against. But those same people assume you're evil if you come from a rich pureblood background."

"Hear, hear," Andromeda chimed.

"I never thought about it that way," said Ted. "Until I met Andromeda, I would have been one of those people you mentioned. Guess I had to step up and see that I was wrong."

Derrick looked at Ted as if he were really seeing him for the first time. "You're all right, Ted. You make a lot of sense."

"For a Muggleborn," Ted added, and they laughed.

Andromeda let out a long breath. "Let's go outside," she suggested. "It's a beautiful day."

~~~

A few days later, Ravenclaw beat Slytherin to win the Quidditch Cup. Derrick sulked but Andromeda couldn't have been happier. It was justice; she now felt rejuvenated enough for the OWLs. Overall, she thought she did well. She was almost positive that she would get an easy 'Outstanding' for Defense Against the Dark Arts. All the examiners clapped for her at the end.

She and Ted moved their meeting to Monday, after the Potions exam. That way they could celebrate success together...or she could sob on his shoulder. Throughout all the other exams--Charms, Herbology, Ancient Runes--she wondered idly how Ted was doing. She saw him cramming both food and studying with Kirley at lunch on Sunday. Andromeda didn't trust herself to eat.

She sat down early Monday at her own table in the Great Hall and read the first question on the parchment: "What does the essence of hellebore produce?"

She thought back to her very first lesson with Ted, and how they made the Draft of Peace together.

"I know this! We went over this!"

Feeling more peaceful, she went to work and to her amazement--the practical and written parts went smoothly!

Professor Fenwick motioned her to come over to him after it was over. "Excellent job," he whispered. "How do you feel?"

"Relieved," Andromeda sighed. "I think I got an Excellent, at least."

"At least," Fenwick agreed. "And if I may say so, your friend Mr. Tonks just made one perfect potion after another; the examiners were quite shocked. He's a master."

Andromeda felt like singing. Both she and Ted did well! And she was glad Fenwick told her--Ted was too modest to brag about how well he did. The Potions professor raised his eyebrows at her ecstatic grin and strode away. But he nodded his head to her as he left.

Later that night in the Room of Requirement, Andromeda ran right up to Ted and hugged him.

"Thank you so much!" she shouted as he spun her around. "I think I did wonderfully! Except in History of Magic, of course. But who cares about that?"

"I did pretty well," Ted said modestly, as usual. "I even understood Defense! Though we won't really know what we got until July, will we?"

"I don't care if I'm counting my dragons before they hatch! I'm simply glad it's over."

Ted crossed the room and sat down at the table, shoulders slumping. "I'm not," he said glumly.

Andromeda sat beside him. "I know what you mean. I don't know how I'll survive the summer without you."

"We'll survive...but we'll be miserable."

"We can't even keep in touch by owl post! I'll have to pretend to write you like I did last Christmas."

Ted laughed weakly. "You--you pretended to write me? I did the same thing last Christmastime! I wrote letters to you but never sent them."

Andromeda laughed too, even though she wanted to cry. "And we weren't even as close then as we are now."

Ted pulled her close and kissed her. Knowing that this might be their last private moment together for three months, they kissed some more. And some more...

~~~

The next two weeks went by in a blur for both of them. To no one's surprise, Slytherin won the House Cup. This spurred another round of bitter Slytherin-Gryffindor rivalry, as Gryffindor came in second, behind by only thirty points.

It was a bright June day when Andromeda Black boarded the train to go back to a place she barely thought of as home. In the midst of the cheerful crowd she spotted Ted lugging his trunks and waving goodbye to his friends. She felt an odd mix of love and jealousy looking at him.

"At least his family isn't mad," she thought. "His summer won't be all bad."

She didn't say much on the ride home. Watching trees and houses whiz by, she remembered boarding the Hogwarts Express for school at the beginning of the year.

"I didn't even know Ted then," she realized. "Somehow it seems like ages ago. I didn't have this big secret from my family, this other life..."

She had crossed an invisible barrier with Ted, one that separated her from people she loved--though they didn't know it yet. But she couldn't play both sides. She knew which one to choose.

And there was no going back.