Secrets Well Kept

Prologue

She had grown accustomed to keeping secrets. The secrets she kept dangerous ones, ones that her family would not approve of, nor most of her friends, nor most of her house. It was a dangerous secret, but the alternative was one she could not live with.

Andromeda Black was not like most Blacks, and this was something she was aware of. No matter how much she tried to pretend she was not different from her family, everyone could tell. She was not as quietly beautiful as her younger sister, Narcissa, and neither was she harsh and cruel as her older sister Bellatrix was.

No, Andromeda was different, because ever since her fifth year, she had been harboring a secret from her family, friends, and house. A secret that would soon be discovered, and send Andromeda down a road from which she would never look back.

It had all began at the start of her fifth year. Bellatrix was in her seventh year at Hogwarts, and Narcissa in her fourth year. It had been the year that along with her supply list for school, had came a prefect badge.

That day had been a good one, as her parents had actually shown what she thought may have been some pride in their daughter, although Bellatrix had been in a mood after that, as she had never been chosen as a prefect. That was fine, however, as Bellatrix was always in some kind of mood.

It was the prefect badge that had started her off on her journey. That was how she had met Edward Tonks, the Hufflepuff boy who had changed her life.

Prefect duty hadn't been how they grew to be friends and from there much more, no it had been her slipping grades in History of Magic that had lead her down that path. On Headmaster Dumbledores advice and the eventual requirement that she take up weekly tutoring sessions in History of Magic from Ted Tonks, the muggle-born who had changed her life so.

And this is the story of the unlikely couple, of a Slytherin Pureblood, and a Hufflepuff Muggle-born.