A/N: This was written for Round 11 of the QLFC, of which I am Beater 1 for the Montrose Magpies. My prompt was: "Write about a budding friendship on a spring day(s) OR losing a friend on an autumn night(s)."
Additional prompts used were:
- yellow
- bitterness
- "I gave you a second chance. I ran back into a burning house to save the things I loved."
Word count: 1498
Drama
It was the third time Teddy had checked his reflection in the window, expecting his hair to be some shade of buttercup yellow. He'd never really tried to curb whenever his hair or body decided to change in some way; recently, he had regretted that immensely. Having people be able to judge what mood he was in by whether he was sporting a buzz cut or bangs, or had chartreuse or teal eyes, had not been a hindrance in his life before.
Back then, he didn't have something to hide.
It had been a simpler time, Teddy thought to himself, back when he was just Head Boy, focussed on NEWTs and running the latest Drama Club. That was the person he had been mere days ago — before everything changed.
She showed her teeth when she smiled.
Teddy told himself again to focus and turned back to the empty classroom he'd managed to acquire.
The Drama Club was like Teddy's baby and this was the third year he'd been running it. Even when he was a fifth year, he'd had enough confidence and magnetism to convince the older students to join as well as the younger ones, and enough tact and sympathy to soothe egos filled with bitterness after they didn't get a long-coveted role. As Teddy had told people, there had once been a theatre club at Hogwarts until a duel had broken out during one performance, leading to a fire that would have been catastrophic if the professors had not reacted so quickly.
So far, he'd only had to deal with some stage fright and a few forgotten lines, which was all to be expected.
This term's play was ambitious, even for Teddy, but it was his last term at Hogwarts, so he'd decided to go out on a bang. Unlike before, everything was going to be 'in house'. A group of sixth and seventh years had written a play in three acts. He had held auditions for almost three dozen roles and all of the set, effects, music and backstage roles were being filled by students too. Parents were going to be invited; the whole school was excited.
That meant, however, that some of the students were feeling overwhelmed by the pressure already, just two weeks into rehearsals.
Teddy had talked to the five he was most worried about personally, using his Head Boy status to get through into the various Common Rooms, but it had been Roxanne who had come up with the idea of running a smaller workshop over a weekend to work on nerves and confidence. As always, her ideas were the best ones, yet she refused to take any real sort of leadership role — which was how Teddy found himself on his own in the Rehearsal Classroom, as it was now commonly referred to, welcoming the students who'd agreed to come in.
Thirty minutes later and Teddy was already congratulating himself on how well it was all going.
"I gave you a second chance! I ran back into a burning house to save the things I loved!"
There was a chorus of laughter and giggles as one of the boys struck a dramatic pose and dropped to his knees to reenact his line.
"Alright, Calvin, when I said to put feeling into it, that wasn't quite what I was thinking," Teddy said with a smile and a shake of his head. "You've all done great today. We'll have another meetup in three days, but we'll meet in the Great Hall."
"I'm not doing this in front of people!" Heather squeaked; she was one of the youngest actors in the play.
"Well," Teddy said gently, "you're going to have to perform in front of people eventually. In fact, you already have. We're all people; you've been performing with us."
"Well… you don't count," she mumbled.
"To put you at ease, no, we're not taking over the Great Hall — yet. We'll be going into the Forest. That's all I'll say, though; you'll have to come to find out what I'm planning."
"He's an impossible man to get secrets out of. Trust me, guys, I've tried," Roxanne said.
Roxanne was holding open the door, dressed in ripped jeans and a t-shirt with 'SUSHI ROLLS NOT GENDER ROLES' printed across it. She always changed out of her uniform at the first chance she could get in the day, and she was even more outspoken than her brother.
"We've been best friends since we were little," she continued, winking at Teddy. "But honestly, he's got a very good poker face, despite being a Hufflepuff and all."
Teddy rolled his eyes and there were a few laughs as everyone trailed out through the door. Teddy resisted the urge to check his hair for exactly forty-seven seconds before he caved in.
Strawberry blonde wasn't yellow; it wasn't time to panic yet.
Best friends.
She'd used those words to describe him and they played over and over in his mind. That was the problem; those two syllables were leaving him tongue-tied. He didn't want to lose her.
He was going to ruin what they had. If he admitted what was going on, what was constantly running through his mind, their friendship would be destroyed forever. He turned, stepping closer to the window so his reflection blurred into the view outside. It was dark now, the days growing even shorter as the months moved closer to winter. In Teddy's opinion, the only good things about the colder weather were the vibrant shades the forest shifted through and Professor Neville allowing flasks of tea in any of the greenhouses that weren't tropical.
Roxanne came to stand beside him, quizzing him about how his time with the young thespians had gone. Teddy told her a few of the anecdotes and found himself grinning as she laughed, throwing her head back as she always did.
They'd been best friends for as long as he could remember, always closer than he and Fred were, which was difficult, considering the boys had developed their own secret language when they were six. She had sent him letters constantly when Teddy had left for school, and when she had been sorted into Slytherin a year later, he'd stayed by her side. They'd even exchanged letters while school was in session, sending owls to each other, which they'd both get the following morning.
Roxy was the person he told everything to. Keeping secrets from her had never been something that had crossed his mind until recently.
"Roxy… can we… can we talk about something?"
Her immediate look was concern and she put a hand on his arm.
"Have your grandma or Harry been bothering you again about what you're going to do when summer comes?" she asked.
When she was trying to solve a problem, she furrowed her brow.
It was the little things that he kept noticing, things that he knew he'd seen countless times before but that only now seemed magical.
"I know that what I'm about to say is going to change… everything. One way or another, it's probably going to break our friendship; I'm not naive enough to think that it can't just make it worse. But I keep thinking about it and I can't lie to you." Teddy glanced across at her, well aware that he was talking fast.
"Teddy… I know you're doing that thing where you're extrapolating and making a drama out of whatever you're worrying about," she said softly. "Just say it and then I can deal with it."
"I love you."
It was the worst choice of words. He should have led with 'I fancy you' or 'I like you' — anything would have been better than love, which was final, powerfully overwhelming, and just as dramatic as she'd predicted. Teddy could almost feel his hair switching to a shock of white strands that grew to fall into his eyes, half hiding his face. He jerked as she pushed his newly grown fringe to the side, cupping his cheek.
"I love you too."
Everything Teddy predicted came true. She showed her teeth when she laughed as they sat on the floor under the window for several hours, moonlight mixing with wandlight to cast shadows over the walls and their faces.
Their friendship ended abruptly with a kiss, her hand on his knee, him sighing against her lips.
Teddy pulled back after an eternity. Looking Roxy in the eyes, he smiled softly.
"You're thinking about how everything's changed now, aren't you?" she asked knowingly.
He didn't reply, just kissed her again. Then, despite himself, he took a breath to explain.
"It's just weird how you've been my friend for so many years, and now you're not. We're not friends any more. We're more than that."
"The word girlfriend has the word friend in it. Honestly, Teddy, how do you overthink absolutely everything?"
"Oh, so we're doing labels now?" he teased her.
She didn't reply, just kissed him again.