I've Never Seen A Diamond In The Flesh

Ted Tonks. 16. Hufflepuff. Muggleborn. Give me food, sleep, girls and I'm happy.

[littleoldandyblack]

"Ted…" she sighs. An instinctive reach for his hand is stopped just barely in time for the Ravenclaws passing by. She folds her arms instead, and keeps walking until they find a place to be alone.

And they do. They always do, right? They’ve gotten on alright like this, keeping their relationship secret from other people, for quite awhile now. It wasn’t the original plan. The plan was just to wait until they were both ready, although they both knew it was only Andromeda they were waiting for. Well, therein lies their problem.

"Are you alright?" she says finally, dipping her head to take a peek at his face. "Are we alright?”

[lion-hearted-badger]

Ted's fingers stretched out to grasp hers when she saw her hand moving closer to his but he only felt air slip in between his fingers and not Andromeda's. Looking up he saw too Ravenclaw students coming their way and he quickly shoved his hand in his pocket and looked down at his shoes. 

They walked in silence for awhile until Andromeda broke it. He was slightly surprised by her question but only slightly. "I'm fine...We're fine, everything is fine." He said with a shrug. It wasn't completely true, because he wasn't fine and that was beginning to affect the "we" part of fine. He was getting frustrating because they could be completely together one minute and not at all the next and it was beginning to drive him insane. He was tired of messing up and waving at her in the halls and her having to ignore him. 

"Lets just get somewhere private, yeah?" He said rising his eye brows and putting on a smile, trying to change the conversation.

[littleoldandyblack]

Of course, Teddy! Why wouldn’t I - oh… [looks around, suddenly tense] right. [takes a deep breath] Right. Moving, yeah? Let’s go.

[whispers] I’m so stupid. For a moment there, I forgot.

[lion-hearted-badger]

[Privately rolls his eyes] You're not stupid. If you're stupid then I don't have a bloody brain at all because I forget almost every time I see you.

[littleoldandyblack]

Hey there, grumpy face.

The cold’s fine s’long as you just keep moving.

[lion-hearted-badger]

Want to keep moving with me? I understand if you know...Can't.

[bluemavor]

[lion-hearted-badger]

Andromeda Tonks taken by Ted Tonks when they went out sledding during their first winter as a married couple. 

[thesmallestlupin-archive]

Not that much different? Well that’s a depressing thought. I was told it was supposed to get better! 

[lion-hearted-badger]

Not so bad. I mean I guess I get a bit more opportunity to slack off and what not. But I've always been doing that.

[minhiedae-deactivated20151225]

> Ted/Andromeda

"He will always be my safe haven."

[lpkyo]

[thesmallestlupin-archive]

I’ll have to agree with you on that. I love winter…in December, not early November. How are you Ted?

[lion-hearted-badger]

Oh you know...Enjoying the life of a seventh year which is...Not that different from first year.

[lion-hearted-badger]

It's getting too bloody cold.

[dreammetheworld]

[lion-hearted-badger]

[littleoldandyblack]

"I love you," he whispers hazily, sinking into sleep.

The common response to a lover’s ‘I love you’ is ‘I love you too’. Everyone knows this. Andromeda Black knows this. She’s said it to him. She’s said the first phrase and also the response. She’s meant the words, felt it. But just this once she thinks of something else to say.

"How much?" she whispers back, very much awake. His I love you’s have this effect on her.

"Huh?" comes Ted’s answer.

Andromeda laughs and turns over to face him. She props her head up with her hand, elbow lying on the sheets just beside his head. “You love me,” she echoes his words to him.

Ted looks up at her, messy blonde hair, sleepy eyes, and a lazy smile - all visible to Andromeda thanks to the moonlight through the window. He frees his hand from under his head and lifts it up to her face. “I do,” he tells her.

Andromeda leans into his hand, closing her eyes at his touch. “How much?” she says softly. Her smile still lingers but there’s a seriousness in her voice. A neediness almost. In hindsight, Andromeda realizes, this wasn’t a very a good idea. “Nevermind, forget I asked,” she adds, lying back down and turning away.

She could scare him away with her asking. That’s the summary of Andromeda Black, isn’t it? Scaring people away the more she cared about them?

In the silence, she feels him tug hesitantly at her shirt. “Hey,” he says gently, coaxingly. It reminded her of the way he talked to Corvus, her owl, during their first few meetings with each other. It was the tone Ted used whenever the owl tried to intimidate him with eye-squinting and head-swaying and wing-spreading and hissing. “Hey, Andy.” It was a tone that just made it impossible not to trust him. And, well, Corvus practically adored him now.

But Andromeda doesn’t answer. She hears him calling out to her and she’s angry with herself that he has to. She keeps creating distance between the two of them. And it’s not like she means to, not anymore. But she just can’t help it.

"Hey," he tries once more, another tug at her shirt. "Andromeda.”

"Hm," she manages.

"If you really want to know," Ted tells her, "we can take a picture of the ocean."

Andromeda knits her eyebrows, too distracted by this answer to remember to sulk in self-loathing. “What?”

"The ocean," Ted says simply, and she can almost hear the smile on his lips. "Probably the closest thing to measuring just how much I love you."

"You’re an idiot," she blurts out, along with a soft peal of laughter. "An absolute idiot." She’s grinning and blushing so much, there’s no way she’ll turn to face him now. "Let’s go to the beach, then," she quips.

"Oh, let’s," says Ted, putting his arm around her.

She holds his hand and squeezes it. “Might as well take a picture of the sky too,” Andromeda says very quickly before she loses all of her momentary courage to say it, “because that’s how much I love you.”

[lion-hearted-badger]

"She's so beautiful." "She looks like you." "How could you possibly tell that?" "You said she's beautiful didn't you?"

Andromeda and Nymphadora Tonks on her first day home, taken by a awe struck Ted.

[lion-hearted-badger]

[zachariasknowsbest-deactivated2]

[lion-hearted-badger]

"Blonde today, huh?" "Mhmm." "Like Mary?" "And like Daddy." "But let’s not forget you were born with my color hair." "Sounds like somebody’s jealous, Dora." "Don’t be jealous, Mummy." "Oh, here you two go teaming up on me again." "It’s because we love you, Dromeda." "Because we love you, Mummy."

[josef-c]

[wicked-marauders-memories-blog]

"Why are you taking a picture of this?"

"Because it’s a nice view."

"You’re a idiot."

"But I’m your idiot."

Andromeda Black having a adventure with Ted Tonk. Taken by a cheeky Ted Tonks 1977.

[hunterbuttparrish]