As time went by, the blossoming romance between the students of Hogwarts and their sweetheart died down, although only marginally. Yet enough that Teddy could now make his way through the corridors undisturbed most of the time. And enough that Victorie had gone back to being the girl off the map, the way she wanted it.
Although certain things seemed intransigent on repeating themselves going forward, Victorie found as the door opened to the divination classroom and Teddy crept in.
He shot a smile Trelawney's way, who merely gestured for him to have a seat and returned to her lecture. Teddy then slouched down in the one empty seat at the back of the classroom, next to the only student sitting by herself.
"I've got mail for you." She chimed derisively and snuck a rose coloured envelope his way under the rickety table they were sitting by.
Teddy side-eyed the envelope for a second before grabbing it. He studied the stains on it from where perfume had once trickled down the parchment and dried. He assumed it was perfume, but he wasn't certain. The strong whiffs of burning incense, particular to the divination classroom, made it hard to differentiate any other scent.
He felt aimlessly with his fingers right at the top where the envelope had been ripped. "What's your verdict?" He mumbled, while pretending to pay attention to Trelawney's ramblings.
Victorie shuffled in her seat. "It's fine." She mumbled back.
A silence fell between them as they both stared blankly at Trelawney and her wide gesticulations. But Teddy could feel that there was still something left on the tip of her tongue. He waited, still feeling the ripped parchment with his fingers.
He was just about to drop the thought in his head when...
"Although I would have gone for something a little less on the nose... It's derivative."
They looked at each other and Teddy took this opportunity to smile crookedly. "You seem to have put a lot of thought into this." He continued to smile, eyeing her through his fringe as she grimaced.
"Oh sod off. I skimmed it." She argued, and plastered her attention on Trelawney once more, an example which he followed after putting the envelope down.
But Trelawney had stopped talking and was sitting down at her desk. The students were getting their books out of their bags. Victorie reached into her bag hanging on her backrest for Unfogging the Future. Teddy mirrored her once again.
"Give me your hand." Victorie ordered as she put the beat up book on the table in front of them, causing the tablecloth to move unfashionably.
"What?" Teddy asked. He put his own book on the table and searched the room for clues. "What for?"
"We're doing palm readings, dumbass. Were you not paying attention?"
He looked her up and down apprehensively. "No I was not, and neither were you!"
"Sure, but she told us last week." She nodded toward Trelawney, who was on the other side of the classroom attempting to discern something from a girl's palm, and getting too far into her personal space while doing so. "…Does that mean you haven't done your reading either?"
"I've been busy." Teddy caught sight of the discarded envelope on the table and swiftly bent down to slide it into the outer pocket of his bag.
She watched as he sat up again and rolled up the sleeves of his shirt casually, arms getting gradually more visible before she snapped her gaze back to his face. "Of course." She replied callously.
They stared at each other for a moment.
Teddy decided to backtrack their conversation a few steps, and present his hand to her, palm upside.
Victorie chose to ignore it. Something about it seemed precocious. She couldn't get herself to take the first initiative. His hand hung in the air. Instead she reached for the book he had laid out just like hers. Except…
"Wait. This isn't Unfogging the Future." The book had a golden snitch embossed on the front cover. "Do you really suppose this will be useful in a class on divination?" Victorie asked, trying to keep herself from laughing.
As his mistake dawned on him something seemed to change in his demeanour, something she didn't expect. He turned in his chair so that he was facing further away from her. "Whatever." He said.
She watched him avoid her gaze and fiddle with his fingers nonchalantly, almost as if he actually cared enough to be remorseful. She decided that perhaps she was done questioning him for now.
"I'll help you. You can read my palm instead." She said softly and gave him her copy of Unfogging the Future, which he hesitantly accepted.
He observed expectantly, trying to gauge what the next move was and not quite believing her words.
The air changed around them. Grew thicker. The light seemed dimmer; the candlelight more protruding.
Their eyes merged together like magnets, but her designated right hand was behind schedule. Arms hanging like poles on either side of her she readied herself.
"Okay." She stammered, in reply to something which remained a mystery.
When Victorie presented her hand, Teddy reacted by grabbing it and twining it the right way up.
"Hey!" She burst. "Palmistry is not a duel." She retracted her hand, only to present it once more a second later. "You need to be meticulous, and observant. You can't do any of those things if you are in a rush."
Despite her pompousness Teddy seemed to be taking her words seriously. He readied himself, but he was now regarding her hand the way a five-year-old regards the cookie jar while being surveyed by his mother.
Victorie rolled her eyes. "You see this line?" She pointed at the most distinct line at the top of her palm. "That's the heart line. It represents my emotional life: my relationships and how I relate to people in a social context."
He peered at the line on her hand from afar and Victorie rolled her eyes a second time, then immediately regretted it. Instead she continued softly and in her most scholarly manner, "Now you need the book. What can you tell me about my heart line based on the information in there?"
With thinly veiled trepidation, Teddy sifted through the pages for an unreasonable amount of time until he found the first chapter on palmistry. The otherwise edgy looking boy now seemed as out of his element as any other 17-year-old.
He kept reading until he was so engrossed that he mindlessly took Victorie's hand and studied it closely. Her arm tensed up as she watched him analyse the faint features of her skin.
"It's straighter than average, and more compact." He moved closer and she could feel his breath on her skin.
Her eyes travelled from the boy in front of her and, as though distracted, toward the paintings on the walls. She was impressed by the softness with which he handled her. The way he re-positioned her wrist, like an instrument. Her eyes travelled further up, toward the ceiling, trying her best not to confuse the touches for caresses.
With a whisper she asked the ceiling, "And what does that say about my emotional life?"
"That you're… That it's guarded."
Victorie dismissed the ceiling and turned her attention back to the situation at hand (and the person currently holding it). She was expecting to find Teddy wrapped up in the book, but he was staring straight at her. They stayed like that for a while, hand in hand.
Then suddenly palmistry felt like a duel again.
"Where does it say that?" She interrogated, but before receiving –and without expecting– a reply she nicked the book from him where it lay closed beside him on the table. She opened it up, effortlessly finding the right page, but before she could orient herself, Teddy took the book back.
"I thought this wasn't a duel? Don't oppose my reading!" He demanded and smiled confidently, eyebrows raised in triumph.
Victorie yearned for the book with both hands clutching the table. "It's not a duel! But… I'm your teacher, I should check for any potential errors." She reached for the book once more, but it was snatched away before she even got close.
Teddy appeared amused. "You're my teacher now, are you?"
"Well you damn well need one." Victorie sat back and let the book be free.
"Is that a comment on Professor Trelawney?" He joked.
They both turned for a moment to see Trelawney almost dozing off behind her desk, while the other students seemed to be doing pretty much everything other than palm-reads.
"It's a comment on the fact you've been late to every single class this week." Victorie said, looking him dead in the eyes. "And I'm not even sure you understand the concept of homework as something you do in between classes."
She wasn't sure if she had hit home, or if he was just enamoured by Trelawney, but he wasn't taking his eyes off the teacher's sluggish exterior. If this was a refusal to look at Victorie, or just a general hopelessness, she couldn't be sure. She looked at his hand, clenched into a hard fist and sitting on top of their shared table.
Once again with a voice soft as cream she said, "Jokes aside, if you're going to do this, you're probably going to need some help."
Teddy eyed her from the side, still not fully committing to the conversation they were now having.
They both knew what 'this' meant: finally having a plain old boring everyday, and the responsibilities to go with it. Teddy's entire life had been touch-and-go, a 'special circumstance'. He didn't do mundane, and it was obvious that he was struggling to adjust.
With a purse of his lips he faced Victorie again. "I'm doing this." He asserted. "If you help me."
Victorie opened her mouth to accept, but was interrupted right away.
"And only if…" Teddy paused for effect. He was back to his playful self, tilting his chair forward and smiling as though charming people was a competitive sport and he was the champion three years running. "...I can help you with something."
Attempting to not get sucked into his smile (she knew that could turn into a duel of its own) she asked, "With what?" failing to even sound sardonic because of how distracting his game was.
Surely it was a game to him? The dishevelled hair and the long fringe, currently being worn black, but she knew that that could change at a moment's notice, so there was no point getting attached. Not to mention the round earring on the one ear, matching with the black hair. Was it a competition? Was there a price? Why else would he care to play it so well — if there was no reward to be collected?
"Your emotional life." He answered.
Victorie stared at him, but this was a different stare than the one from before he'd spoken. Suddenly his earring on the one ear seemed so trivial.
She immediately had a hum of what he meant. There had been a few instances lately when she'd interacted with a fellow classmate and she had found Teddy on the sidelines, silently judging.
Why was he judging? Let's just say that if being charming actually was a competitive sport — she didn't play it well.
And she didn't need him judging her for it. It annoyed her. "Then the offer is off the table." She snapped.
"Come on Victorie!" Teddy interjected, as though he was expecting to have to punch through a wall to get to her. "You obviously have some issues connecting with people around here. I could help you get better at it."
The whole idea felt silly to her, and she wasn't even sure if he was being serious. "Connecting with people isn't a skill that can be taught, and especially not by someone who never even needs to try and make people like him."
Something told her that she needed to get out of the conversation before he punched through the wall. Without looking at him, she stood up, grabbed her bag hastily and left the classroom. Divination was almost over anyway, and she didn't want to find out how his face would react to what she had just said.
Published: 21 February 2022