Love Among Muggles

I hate robes, thought Andromeda Black, looking at herself in the long mirror in her bedroom. They don't even show my calves, let alone my knees. I have such good legs, too. The dress robes were mauve, one of the few colours that drained all the tones from in Andromeda's hair and eyes, so she gave the overall impression of being pale grey. She had asked her aunt and uncle to let her go to the Ministry of Magic garden party with them but, looking at her dress robes, she wasn't sure whether she wanted Ted to see her dressed like this.

Little Sirius stared at her with all the solemnity of a small boy who's been allowed into the room to see his cousin in her dubious finery. "Will you bring me some cake back?" he pleaded.

"I don't know if that'll be possible," she told him.

"Stick it up your sleeve," he informed her. He produced a half-eaten biscuit from his own sleeve.

Andromeda flapped a loose mauve arm. "There's certainly room. Here, how did you get so good at hiding things? I thought you weren't allowed biscuits."

Sirius smiled, and Andromeda sighed. It was very difficult to stop Sirius, even at this age, from doing what he wanted, and he usually got away with it, too. His doting parents saw it as a sign of true determination and willpower and laughed off his naughtiness.

"Safety pins," Sirius told her. "See?" She looked inside the sleeve of his robes. The bulky fabric had been carefully pinned to make a pocket where no one could see it and movement would not disturb it. "Take the pins out at night," he warned. "Kreacher will tell mummy if he finds them."

"Well, you're not supposed to have cake between meals." Sirius looked glum at this, and then cheered up as she added, "I'll try to bring you back something that won't make crumbs." What Andromeda hadn't realised was that Sirius ate his contraband in Regulus' room. He generally bribed the smaller boy with a bite or two. Kreacher would then find the crumbs and report the Crimes Of Regulus to Andromeda's aunt Walburga, and Sirius would get off scot-free.

"Out of here," Andromeda ordered. "You're not allowed in here while I'm gone." As Sirius skipped off to find his little brother and lord over him in the way older brothers love to dominate smaller ones, Andromeda picked up her small mauve handbag and walked down to the drawing room, where her aunt and uncle were waiting.

*********

In most of London, the tributaries of the Thames have been bricked over. Down the centuries, the smaller rivers that flow into the great river have been lost. The great pleasure gardens, too, have gone, including the legendary ones at Vauxhall. In wizarding London, however, the waterways and pleasure gardens remain. An unplottable, hedged-off area to the side of one of the great parks houses a stretch of one tributary. Skilled herbologists care for the roses and trees around it, and the centrepiece is a magnificent goblin-wrought gilded pavilion large enough to seat a hundred people. When the magical community's power brokers host a garden party, they make sure it's an impressive one, and they did so on this evening back in 1966.

There is an art to emerging from an outside brazier via Floo without being covered in soot; Andromeda was a Black and Blacks do not emerge from anywhere looking shabby. Her mother and aunt had taught her how to remain elegant when using any form of transportation. She stepped from the flames and gasped at the loveliness of it all, then remembered her manners and kept walking. Only the vulgar stopped and stared and blocked access points.

"May I walk around and meet people?" Andromeda asked her aunt.

Walburga Black smiled. "Of course you may - but make sure you speak only to the right sort of wizard, whenever possible," she cautioned.

"Be polite, be brief, be quick to move on," Andromeda said. Another lesson she had learned: it was not the done thing to be too hostile to Muggleborns and half-bloods openly, for they were officially accepted as part of the wizarding world, but that did not mean one had to get involved in long conversations with them. Her aunt had impressed this upon her again before they Flooed to the hidden garden. Andromeda knew this party would be a sort of test, to see if she had learned her lessons well. Her relatives would watch her to see if she could negotiate her way through a 'safe' gathering of Ministry workers and their families.

She wandered over to the drinks table and helped herself to a glass of champagne. Another test, she thought. I mustn't appear childish, but neither must I get drunk.

A blonde boy a couple of years younger than her approached her at the drinks table. Good grief, she thought, it looks as though he's drinking Firewhisky! She didn't like him very much, and thought it ironic that her aunt's advice would be as useful with him as it would with her 'social inferiors'.

"Good evening, Andromeda," he said formally, holding out his hand. She held hers out and he kissed it! Yuck, she thought.

"Lucius!" An elegant older man walked towards them both, barking at his son. "Trying to steal all the girls for yourself?"

"This is Andromeda Black, father," the boy explained. "Andromeda, may I present my father, Abraxas Malfoy." The introduction hadn't been completely necessary; both father and son had the classic Malfoy colouring and sharp features.

Andromeda pasted her brightest smile across her face. "I think we met at my aunt and uncle's house earlier in the summer," she told the man.

"Of course!" He looked extremely pleased. "Well, far be it from me to keep the two of your from talking..." With that, he wandered off.

"You have a charming father," Andromeda told Lucius truthfully. Abraxas had charisma in spades, despite the fact that he was said to have voiced support for Grindelwald before the war, and for the duration of the hostilities was locked in Azkaban as a precaution. It didn't seem to have done him any lasting harm.

Lucius snorted. "He's been following me around as though I had a Permanent Sticking Charm attaching his feet to my shadow! You're the first person I've spoken to who passed muster."

"Oh dear." Andromeda did her best to sound sympathetic. "Are many other people from school here?"

Lucius flapped a hand. "A couple. I wasn't interested in talking to children, though - not that I would include you in that, of course."

He's trying to flirt with me, thought Andromeda in stunned disbelief. Not because I'm pretty or funny, but because I'm Approved. Approved Wife Material. He hasn't even taken his OWLs yet! She looked past Lucius to see her aunt and uncle chatting to Abraxas. Her aunt was beaming. "Um... so is there anyone interesting here to talk to?"

"Oh no," he told her seriously. "Listen, there are some benches behind those hedges. We could go and talk without all the Mudbloods around. Did you know there are some here tonight?"

"No. Which ones?" Andromeda was quite keen to know where one particular Muggleborn might be.

"Well, I only know of one - they're very sly, you know, very good at aping their betters. That secretary over there." He nodded towards an amazingly pretty brunette witch in mint green chiffon robes. Her hair rippled down her back, her eyes gleamed - even the champagne in her hand seemed to sparkle more than other people's. Andromeda realised why Lucius had headed straight for that particular witch. He continued, "I mean, she's secretary to the Minister himself. Who'd have thought a man in his position would have one of those working for him? Father was furious that she'd duped me into talking to her."

More likely that you were hormonal enough to try to chat her up, Andromeda thought. "The Minister has to maintain appearances," she said. He nodded approvingly. Be polite, be brief, be quick to move on, Andromeda remembered. "Oh look, there's Maeve Crouch," Andromeda said. "I need to ask her something about our Charms class."

With that, Andromeda darted away from Lucius in the direction of Maeve. A brief chitchat with her classmate gave Andromeda time to survey the party, all the time uttering the polite smalltalk that was acceptable at this sort of event.

Then she saw Ted, walking through the party with as much ease as he'd strode along Carnaby Street to see Andromeda and Claire to the bus. This was the first time she'd ever seen him in robes, and he looked good. The robes were a medium grey, cut to hang well around his shoulders. He walked over to the beautiful witch, and she grabbed him possessively by the arm, causing several of the wizards around them to look extremely grumpy. Andromeda knew exactly how they felt. She knocked back her champagne and wandered off morosely to sit behind a rose hedge.

"Hullo Maggie," Ted muttered quietly to the witch, while the other people around them weren't paying attention. "Feeling rather friendly today, aren't we?"

"I've had my bottom pinched twice already tonight," she grumbled. "They'll leave me alone now you're here. Pretend you fancy me, hmm?"

"Well," Ted said thoughtfully, whispering in her ear as though trying to chat her up. "Let's go somewhere quiet and chat. I need a girl's advice on something." Doing their best to look romantic, the pair wandered off in search of a more private location.

"I've met a girl, Mags," Ted confessed.

"Haven't we all," Maggie said dryly. "Although it's about time one caught you. Good luck to her, I say. What's she got that none of the others had?"

"A school uniform," Ted told her, adding hastily, "She's sixteen. Nothing dodgy. And it's not her age that attracted me."

Maggie laughed. "She'll be of age in a year - possibly less. The pair of you could get married then, if you wanted to. I'm sorry, I shouldn't laugh, but you've turned down so many girls. There was the one with the amazing legs..."

"Barbara," Ted said.

"...Barbara, and Paula with the green eyes, and Muggle Marilyn with the cleavage... It's so funny."

"Ha bloody ha," Ted grumped. "There's another thing I didn't mention - her surname's Black."

Maggie stopped laughing.

"And where, pray tell, did you meet one of those?"

"She was there when I gave a lecture to her Muggle Studies Club at Hogwarts, although I didn't notice her then. I haven't seen her tonight, either, although I was hoping she'd be here. Just to chat to, I'm not stupid. I saw her, though - really saw her - on Carnaby Street. She was all dolled up like the cutest Muggle you ever saw, drinking coffee with Claire."

"With Claire Culpepper? A Black, dressed as a Muggle, drinking coffee with one of us? You're being set up, you dope."

"No, Mags, listen..."

"You listen to me, Ted Tonks. I deal with members of the Black family day-in, day-out, and they all treat me like dirt. It's only because they can't deal with the Minister without me that they don't ignore me, and they'd have me out of my job if they could arrange it. There's no way one of them would bother with one of us unless it was to hurt us."

They both realised their slightly raised voices were attracting attention, and sidled closer to the hedges and bushes to the side of the garden. Meanwhile, Englebert Fletcher, king of the tipsy bottom-pinchers, had finished with his Firewhisky and decided he couldn't be bothered to walk to the gents, not when there were some plants that might benefit from a spot of private watering.

Andromeda's horrified shrieks cut through the air. Everyone at the garden party looked round to try to see where the sound was coming from. Ted and Maggie were first round the hedge, being the closest to it, and were confronted with Englebert, one hand still holding his robes up, staring in drunken shock at a very upset Andromeda, who darted towards Ted and Maggie as soon as she saw them. "Ted! Ted! He came towards me with... with his robes up!"

Ted put one arm protectively around her. "You're safe, Annie."

"Only wanted a wee..." Englebert began to explain drunkenly. Maggie caught on immediately and started to giggle, and Andromeda felt slightly foolish, but that didn't seem to matter; not now she was with Ted, who had come running to help her. It didn't even matter that there hadn't really been anything to help her with.

However, time had enabled many other witches and wizards to catch up with them. As Englebert dropped the hem of his robes, Walburga Black stepped smartly up and immobilised him with a blast from her wand. Lucius, meanwhile, darted over to Andromeda and pulled her over to the mass of purebloods. "Are you all right, Andromeda?" he asked, clearly concerned. She looked back towards Ted, who was smiling faintly, and Maggie, who had stopped laughing and was trying to explain Englebert's comment to an outraged Walburga.

"I wasn't in any danger," she admitted. "And even if I had been, I think there would always be someone around to defend me."

Lucius puffed out his chest. "Any wizard would defend a witch in danger!"

Andromeda smiled broadly at Ted. "Thank you," she called to him. Any further conversation was prevented by her uncle Orion, who insisted on chivvying her back to the pavilion to sit down and recover from the shock.

Safely sat in a pretty chair in the pavilion, a glass of nerve-steadying Firewhisky in hand, she mulled over what had happened. I once asked Ted to make sure I was safe, she thought, and that's exactly what he does. He keeps the Muggles safe from magic, and wizards safe from Muggles. The one time I took a risk, he was there, drinking coffee with me. No wonder that witch clung so tightly to him.

She looked at the purebloods around her. In their way, they too kept her safe. An insult to her would be an insult to her family and, by extension, all of them. Harm done to her would wound them all. She could grow up, have children and grow old in peace and luxury, all because of the blood in her veins. Because she was a Black. That was the problem, really. They weren't taking care of her as a person; they were defending her blood, and themselves. She wanted to be Andromeda, and she was only ever that when she stepped away from people who looked at her and saw her ancestors.

It was foolish to think a grown man could fall for her, even if she was nearly an adult herself. If Ted loved the beautiful witch, she decided, she could still be his friend, and she still had to break free of the pureblood net.