Author's note: Enjoy!
Disclaimer: The following characters belong to J.K. Rowling, and this story derives from her original works, storylines, and world. Please do not sue me, I can barely pay tuition.
Hogwarts: Assignment #7, Aquatic Studies Task #1 Write about being scared of something or someone.
Warnings: NA
The Phoenix Teaches Mercy
Andromeda felt as if she was about to melt through the chair she'd been sat on in the headmaster's office, and quite possibly through the stone floor as well. Ted had reached over from his seat and put a hand on hers, undoubtedly trying to reassure her like he always did, but she knew she would burst into tears if she turned her hand around to take his or if she even faced him. It was bad enough, embarrassing enough, to be caught out in the halls after hours. It was even more embarrassing to be caught with someone by a teacher. To have both of those things happen at once, and with a boy she should have had nothing to do with in the first place... the embarrassment of a long-time teacher's pet and picture perfect student being caught breaking the rules was nothing compared to the fear that had gathered in her throat, choking her from the inside.
What if word got around the school, through a gossiping portrait or hopelessly romantic ghost, that she and Ted had been caught? It would inevitably get back to her parents, through the insidious grapevine and unbreakable solidarity of the Sacred Twenty-Eight. What if Professor Dumbledore or Professor Slughorn wrote home to her parents? Merlin; she just spotted the portrait of Phineas Nigellus in the back of the room. He had another portrait at Uncle Orion Aunt Walburga's home; what if he reported this incident back to the Black family? What would her parents do to her and, more important, to Ted if they found out about this?
She blinked away anxious tears, trying to take her mind off of its panic and fear by chiding herself for her lack of composure. That was nearly just as un-Black as getting caught kissing a Muggleborn Hufflepuff in an empty classroom at 2:00 in the morning.
To reground herself, she starred at the phoenix perched behind the headmaster's desk, on a beautiful and intricately carved pole. The bird was grooming itself, picking at its gold and red feathers with a handsome and delicately curved beak. When it saw it watching her, it straightened itself up. It too, trying to maintain its composure and dignity. It too, trying to live up to the expectation of toujours pure. For the record, she thought the bird was doing a much better job.
"I see that you have met Fawkes, Miss Black," Professor Dumbledore said as he entered his office from a door that Andromeda hadn't even noticed, one that must have been a secret passage. Even if it was the middle of the night, he was fully awake and dressed in a rich set of emerald robes. His greying hair was tied back out of the way and he smiled at the two of them.
"He's been with my family for generations," the headmaster went on, stroking Fawkes' feathers with the back of his hand. The bird cooed gently in response. "Wonderful pets, phoenixes are. You learn a lot from watching them and learning their ways. For example; at the end of their life cycles they burst into flames and are reborn from their own ashes. I suppose you had learned that in Care of Magical Creatures already..."
"Yes sir," Ted said. Andromeda looked up at him briefly. He was staring straight ahead, his face stoic and set as a painting. Her heart melted in her chest. It had been stupid of her to look at that face and think that she could look at it forever, to think that kissing those lips was anything ressembling a good idea… still, she knew where every freckle went and where in his hair cowlicks formed the most. The idea of losing that, of being in a world where she couldn't plot out his freckles or predict where and how she should run her hands through his hair, felt astoundingly impossible.
Dumbledore turned back to them and arched a silver eyebrow. The look he gave the two of them was piercing, but shockingly enough Andromeda wasn't afraid of it despite the turns the night had taken.
"Well, from Fawkes and his many births I have learned that we all deserve second chances," Dumbledore said. "Especially when the cause is just and the alternative is especially and needlessly cruel. That being said, I do not expect you two to get caught again."
"Yes, sir," Ted said again. Andromeda breathed a sigh of relief and turned her hand around so that her fingers could squeeze hers. Her anxiety lifted, but she couldn't manage to respond to the headmaster. Ted would have to speak for the both of them.
"Excellent," Dumbledore nodded. "I will then return to the very good book I put down, and let you two say goodnight before having Mr Filch escort you back to your respective dormitories. Sweet dream."
Stacked with: Hogwarts; Shipping War; Spring Bingo; Link Maker; Chimera Creator
Individual Challenge(s): Hufflepuff MC; Slytherin MC; Rian-Russo Inversion; Setting Sale; Short Jog
Word Count: 812
Spring Bingo
Space (Prompt): 2A (Renewal)
Shipping Wars
Ship (Team): Ted Tonks/Andromeda Black Tonks
List (Prompt): Spring Medium 1 (Shipper on Deck)