For his first meeting with the new prefects, Teddy had written up a quick speech on his phone with bullet-pointed schedules of what everyone was doing for the evening and a time and place for the first 'official' prefect meeting. This had been the most organised thing he had ever done, and he thought it would stand him in good stead as a Head Boy who can effectively people manage.
The only problem was, he hadn't anticipated the Head Girl.
The Head Girl is Aral Rosier. Aral Rosier is an old-school pureblood, former Gryffindor prefect, and Teddy remembers her being hardline with rule-breakers, every single day she had the badge. She really liked taking people off to McGonagall to ask to put them on Forbidden Forest detentions. She's created handdrawn schedules on parchment for everyone. Including him. She's kind of speaking in a patronising way to him during the meeting, but not enough for him to protest. She's also the head of the Duellist Club and has been since she was in fourth year, so Teddy isn't exactly inclined to protest.
Aral smiles over at Teddy very nicely while informing the prefects (all in robes) that uniform must be worn during official patrols. Teddy is still in torn skinny jeans and a pin-covered jacket. He pastes his smile on his face and very carefully does not look at Victoire, sitting over with the other Slytherin prefect.
Teddy's not great at organisation, which is why he had been so surprised by the Hogwarts owl delivering his badge. It had been accompanied with a letter by McGonagall explaining that her choice was 'based on years of observing your work', and Teddy lets himself feel irrational for a moment, wonder if this was about making him look ridiculous. He then tamps that down and muddles his way to the end of his closing speech, tucking his phone in his pocket; he didn't realise how stupid he'd feel looking between the screen and the prefects.
"—I'm really looking forward to working with all of you and encouraging inter-house co-operation; I'll be discussing this with Aral later, but, er, I was thinking of mixing up the patrols between different houses so you all get to know each other."
Aral smiles patiently. "That sounds like an interesting idea, the Head Girl did that when I was a Prefect."
Teddy tries not to ascribe too much meaning to her words and tone. Even though she's definitely doing a baby voice. Aral turns to the group.
"Edward and I are going to be taking the first years along with Professor Hagrid to the boats; your responsibility to them comes after the feast-"
Edward. Nobody calls him Edward, he's pretty sure the last time he had been called that was by McGonagall just before he was sorted. In first year. Everyone knew he was called Ted or Teddy or, well, pretty much anything close, and Teddy didn't dislike his full name but Aral and he moved in vaguely similar circles, Victoire was in Duellist Club, so she had to know that wasn't what he went by. He chewed his lip a bit, then tried to stop. Aral was winding down speaking already, he needed to stop zoning out so much.
"—any questions? No? Then I suggest you all take some time to yourselves. The prefect carriage is being staffed in the order written on your schedule; Romina, Emily, you're first."
Emily Vaughn, a Hufflepuff prefect he only knows because she makes a point of leaving personally-baked pastries out in the common room whenever she gets the chance, and Romina Shahid, a Ravenclaw he used to sit with in Potions. Teddy realises- Aral's already mixed up the houses, and now he looks like an idiot. He nods shakily and exits the carriage fast, shoving the schedule into his jacket pocket. He could identify his feelings about this situation, but he decides that a better use of his time is to go buy as many chocolate products as he can from the trolley lady.
It's two, in the end, two chocolate frogs, because Teddy's many things but he has a good handle on impulse control and not much of a streak for spending. Gran's influence, he guesses. He walks down until he finds the right carriage, opens the door, plops down in the empty seat the others saved for him and jams the frog in his mouth before anyone can speak. The frog wriggles in his mouth. He chews.
Victoire's already here, as is the other prefect in their midst, Conrí Fawley, and all the rest: David Brown, Maz Nakir, and Arden Kao. Arden nods at him.
"Tedward."
Teddy swallows the frog. "Arden."
"Really? No reaction for Tedward?"
"Vic's already done it."
Arden groans dramatically as she turns to Victoire. "Ruined."
Victoire's still wearing the Hufflepuff scarf over her green robes. Teddy hadn't noticed earlier. "I had to do it," she says. "Look at his face, that's a Tedward. Couldn't greet him any other way."
"I'm just saying, I invented it."
"Frog card?" Teddy offers the group.
"Cheers, mate," David says, grabbing it. "Hey, are you and Vic still together?"
Victoire snorts. "The art of subtlety's not lost on you."
"She's wearing my scarf, David, what did you think was happening?"
Conrí shakes his head. "That's no guarantee of anything, you two've been stealing clothes off each other since first year."
"More like since primary school," Victoire says. "He nicked my tutu just before my grade 1 ballet."
Teddy laughs. "Did I?"
"You don't remember?" Victoire is smiling. "Mum was so mad at you she told you off in French."
"I always forget you two had a whole past at Muggle school," Maz says. "You sickening lovebirds."
"Right here," Arden says, holding out her hand. Maz and Arden high-five. They don't agree on much, but their favourite running joke is that Teddy and Victoire are aways on some level of PDA, even if they're just, like, hugging, or holding hands. Teddy reckons it isn't PDA unless they're kissing in a class or something, and Vic and he aren't that excessive.
David's face falls. "I got another one."
Vic leans over. "You did not."
"Another one! The curse of Albus bloody Dumbledore." David flicks the card at Arden's head, which makes Arden lunge forward, which makes Maz and Conrí try to encourage the fight and take bets, which means Teddy has ample time to unwrap another frog before anyone tries to nick a leg. This one makes a run for it, but if he's been blessed with something, it's fast reflexes. He catches the frog. Puts it in his mouth. Chews.
"How many cards of him do you have now?" Maz says in the background.
"Like, twenty-five, and I don't even have one of Ted's dad."
Teddy patiently ignores David, who has a tendency to put his foot in it with statements like those, and switches his side of the carriage to Victoire while the rest of the carriage starts arguing about frog cards. Victoire bumps Teddy's shoulder. Teddy sighs.
"Is Aral Rosier always such a dick?"
Victoire shrugs. "She's always that intense, I guess, but if you mean the whole-" she pitches her voice up high like a baby- "'That's very interesting, Victoire'- kind of voice, she does that to pretty much everyone. To be honest, I've been in Duellist with her for three years, I'm not even sure she does it on purpose."
"Just naturally a dick."
"She's- she has a weird family environment. I'm pretty sure she really doesn't get along with them, so we all kind of- just let her work it out."
Teddy now almost feels bad for being mad at Rosier. Victoire sighs.
"Although sometimes she does bring that to Duellist's and go way too hard on a firstie. We always get pissed at her for that."
"Fuck, really?"
"She set a snake on Dominique, middle of her first duel. I did not forgive her for that, I gave her hell until she made a face-to-face apology."
"She's the one that set the snake on Dominique?"
"Yup."
Teddy shakes his head. "I can't believe she got Head Girl."
Victoire shrugs one shoulder, rustles into Teddy's chocolate frog packet for the card. "She's good at making everyone else keep to the rules, and I reckon her family probably pulled some strings- ah-hah." She pulls out a card and hands it to Teddy.
It's Dad, although Teddy's seen this card enough to know it wasn't really a photograph, some sort of trickery where they stitched a couple of on-file photos together into a complete moving image that smiles. The scar on Dad's cheek doesn't move when he smiles like it should. In fact, most of his scars are sort of faded out. Teddy doesn't like that.
He curls a hand over the card and tucks it in his pocket. David's not getting this one- this one's his.
"Thanks," he says to Victoire. Victoire relaxes against him; and then sits up suddenly.
"Oh my god, Teddy, do you have the playlist?"
Teddy blinks, sits up, grins. "Yeah, of course!"
Maz and Conrí immediately sit to attention.
"Yes-s-s-s-s," Maz says, making grabby hands at Teddy's phone. "I've been gone so long, I need this."
Teddy checks his battery. 42%; good enough for now. "You guys ready for this shit?" He clicks onto Spotify, opens up his playlists. 'hogwarts express 2k15' is part of a tradition that spans back the last seven years, back when he was showing a confused fresh-from-etiquette-school Conrí the ropes of Muggle music. Now, every year, Teddy would DJ for the train up so the mostly magic families could hear what they were missing. And, because David would complain that he'd heard it all before, he'd throw in some weirder stuff too. He relished the challenge of finding music everyone would like, although he had a tendency to try to get everyone silent for the songs he really loved, which wasn't a good look and he'd tried to stop doing that.
He turns it on and turns it up, and 'Uptown Funk' starts proceedings. Arden gets out some sweets she got at her grandparents', Victoire starts telling the latest stories of her various travels across the world, and it's like being back in first year. Teddy forgets about the stress, just for a little bit. Relaxes back. Tries really hard not to think about the wild wastes of after-Hogwarts, how this is the last year he'll ever go up there with his friends, how he has no idea what he wants to really do, how he has no idea how to make his parents proud.
He clutches at the card in his pocket. He doesn't think about it.
.
.
If you search up 'hogwarts express 2k15' on Spotify, you might just find a playlist of the best 2014-15 had to offer in pop music, plus a little more in the alternative/pop punk section. Teddy's a pop punk emo kid trying to pretend he's not.
Hope Christmas is treating you well; I got a chocolate frog amongst my presents, which seems fairly serendipitous to me. The card was Salazar Slytherin. I always get that one.
