Blackbird

Chapter Two

"Nice of you to join us, Ms. Black." Andromeda blushed as she quickly shut the door behind her. It's bad enough to be called out for being late by any teacher in front of the whole class, but somehow Professor Flitwick's squeaky voice made it all worse.

"My apologies, Professor," she said. Like any teacher, her polite, calm tone immediately soothed him. He merely rolled his eyes as he returned, somewhat airily, to his instruction. She planned to sit in her normal seat near the back of the classroom, only to find it was taken by another student. Repressing the desire to slump her shoulders she quickly scanned the room for an empty seat, but the only available one was in the far left, next to Ted Tonks. He looked up, probably feeling her stare. He scanned the classroom as well and, coming to the same conclusion she had, returned his attention to her. His lips curved up into another one of those smirks as he lifted his hand and patted the seat next to him.

Her cheeks filled with heat and she immediately stared at the ground to hide the blush that was sure to follow. Her mother had told her to never stare at her feet, it was a sign of weakness, of submission. And the Blacks did not submit to anyone. But she couldn't look at him! No, it had nothing to do with that, it was just that she couldn't let him see her, not that it would be a problem if he saw her it's just that she—

She forced herself to stop, and look up. She bypassed his face as she did, focusing instead on the wall above him as she went to her seat. The moment she sat down she focused her attention forward, refusing to even glance at him. But it wasn't enough to block out his voice, whispering,

"How was the scenic route?"

Her cheeks inflamed again, and she almost screamed in frustration. How many times could a person blush in a few minutes? One would think until the previous blush wore off, there would be no room for more blushing. They would be wrong.

She tried to focus on the lesson, but no matter how hard she tried she couldn't ignore the person next to her. It was like she was hyperaware of his presence and every cell in her body wanted to glance over at him again, no matter how often her mind told it no.

Except she couldn't resist. She opened her book and bent down into it, pretending to be searching for something, when really, she was glancing at him over the top of the cover. He didn't notice, as he was too busy making his quill dance across his desk.

It's funny how you could know someone for years and yet never noticed certain things, like how his skin reminded her of the pleasant yellow hue of sunlight. His whole demeanor seemed to scream sun, even his ever-present smile had a lightness about it.

"How's the view from down there?"

She let out a tiny gasp and straightened as she slammed the book closed, while Ted chuckled. Her slamming was pretty loud, loud enough to cause the people around them to look at her in alarm, but a majority of the class was already moving and talking, so they didn't notice anything. That was fortunate, but it also meant something was happening, and since she hadn't been paying attention, she didn't know what it was. She supposed she should ask someone, and she had an idea which someone, it was just...

"We're supposed to be getting partners, to you know, practice what we've learned."

She looked over at him. He pressed his lips together and smiled toothlessly. She smiled, a nervous smile that by the time she turned away had turned into a grimace. She started towards Susannah, a shy Hufflepuff girl she usually partnered with during these things, only to find that she was partnering with someone else, another Hufflepuff boy. She glanced around, everyone else seemed to have a partner, which left...

She slowly turned back to face Ted, like a prisoner might turn to face the firing squad. He just looked at her. He wasn't smirking, but she could tell it was taking considerable effort on his part. He seemed to be waiting for her to say something, and when she didn't he took the initiative.