Before giving Victorie a chance to worry, she received correspondence from Ciaran at breakfast the next morning in the form of an owl-delivered envelope landing on Maya's breakfast crumpet.
"It's addressed to you." She muttered and returned to her sullied crumpet in possession of one less letter.
Victorie was still holding it in her hand when she entered her first class of the day. Transfiguration. She studied the jet-black inked-in letters on the eggshell white paper. She re-read them on her way to her seat...
Would you care to accompany me on a walk across the grounds at 6 p.m. on Friday?
Making her way to her seat that day included bumping into five or so different objects, but she didn't mind. She sat down and before she knew it a deck of cards were shoved in her face.
"Pick a card, any card." He said. The voice belonged to Ethan and he was rotating the deck dramatically in front of her.
At a loss for what to say, she stayed silent and settled on putting the letter in her pocket with one hand, and sliding a card out of Ethan's deck at random with the other. When she looked at her card she was faced with none other than the Death Tarot of all things.
"Why are you using tarots?" She blurted. "I thought this was a magic trick."
Ethan sat down on the seat next to her. "No! I would need my wand for that." He said. "I was trying to do a tarot reading on you, isn't that how you do it?"
"Not exactly." She replied.
He took the Death Tarot back and began reshuffling his deck. "Jamie tells me you're good at this stuff, perhaps you could teach me?"
Victorie smiled to herself. "Did he?" She looked around at the other students who she had ignored up until then, but her mouth fell open in a pleasant surprise at what she saw. A few rows up from where she was sat, she saw Jamie sitting next to none other than Teddy. The two were chatting like normal, waiting for the lesson to start. Her smile broadened at the sight.
Ethan 'The Magician' was still waiting for a reply. Victorie faced him and pursed her lips in thought.
"Let me see that." She asked and took the deck. With one smooth motion she tapped the deck against the table to unite the cards. She placed her hand on top of it and closed her eyes, mumbling something inaudible.
"What are you doing?" He asked with slight unease.
But Victorie shushed him and handed back the deck with a smile. "Let's see you shuffle." She suggested in her most pedagogical cadence of speech.
He pulled his Hogwarts robe up on his shoulders and rubbed his hands together before accepting the deck back.
After pausing for a second, like he was waiting for some air horn to go off, he began clumsily flailing the cards in between his hands. But Victorie wasn't about to make remarks about his form. Instead she waited with anticipation for what was about to happen.
As Ethan kept fumbling with the cards, they began multiplying in his hand. The boy looked on in puzzlement for a second, but before he could properly react the cards took off into the air, spraying his face and a moderately large section of the classroom.
At that precise moment, Professor McGonagall decided to enter the classroom and Victorie snorted loudly and smacked her hand against her mouth to stop any additional noises from escaping.
McGonagall's eyes immediately targeted Ethan. She marched up to him and Victorie through a cloud of cards still sailing in the air and stopped.
"Ten points from Ravenclaw." She spat and slammed her hand on their desk, then turned toward a cowering Victorie. "...and Gryffindor."
Ethan crouched up as a result of being reprimanded and Victorie could practically hear Gryffindor's rubies in the hourglass decreasing, all the way from the entrance hall.
"Nicely done Victorie." Ethan whispered sarcastically once McGonagall was out of earshot and he had regained his normal posture, to which the redhead giggled in response.
Later that night it was time for Victorie and Teddy to serve their detention. The staff had made an unusual plan for it and (to Victorie's dismay) it had turned into a whole thing.
The fog rolled in along the moors creating a dewy coat over the grounds. If the temperature dropped ever so slightly she was sure they would wake up to frost the next morning.
But currently it was still the evening.
Mr Filch stopped just outside the Forbidden Forest and gazed up at the moon. Victorie followed suit. A waxing gibbous, she noted and was about to rejoice the near arrival of the full moon to her company when she saw Teddy staring straight at the ground, in denial of what everyone else around him was taking in. She thought better of it and refrained from commenting.
And so it was time for the inevitable — the tree of them entered the forest.
Victorie was proud to admit that she had been to a few detentions in her lifetime. Usually they consisted of a perturbed professor slamming a pile of parchment on some desk in a deserted classroom for her to sit at, thus unfolded several hours of assignments for her to do in complete silence.
Usually.
Tonight was different. The gist of it was that Professor Longbottom had a plan to grow Puffapod Plants so that his second year Herbology class could study them. But for this he needed Slughorn to whip together Dragon Dung Fertiliser for him.
For Slughorn to be able to do that however, he would need a bunch of dragonfly thoraxes. This was where Victorie and Teddy came into the picture.
Since no one was in the particular mood to venture into the Forbidden Forest while these creatures were active, since it coincided with the time of the day when people were usually asleep, they put Teddy and Victorie up to it.
She had to admit, as punishments go, this one was up there. Chasing dragonflies at twilight was not something she looked forward to.
Then again the change of scenery was nice, it could have almost been exciting had she not had about a million other more pressing things that she'd rather be doing that night.
"McGonagall was quite impressed with you this morning." Teddy noted.
The two were a few steps behind Filch, and he deemed it safe to engage with some small talk while they navigated the uneven path with their hands tucked inside their matching Gryffindor robes.
Victorie thought back to the 'card trick' she'd caused. "Sarcasm?" She asked.
"No." He assured her. "I mean when she complimented your switching spell. She seemed quite happy with you then."
"Oh, that." Victorie shrugged happily. "I suppose anything seemed worthy of praise after that Ravenclaw girl got sent to the hospital wing for that partial transfiguration she did to herself."
"Penny does that to herself every other week. Give yourself some credit." Teddy said as he stepped over a large tree root in his path.
She took a moment to consider it, she hadn't given it much thought, but he was kind of right. "Yeah... It was weird... She doesn't usually give out compliments like that, at least not to me."
Teddy scoffed. "Perhaps she stopped viewing you so antagonistically once you stopped questioning every single thing she says."
Victorie gave him a shy smile. One half of her was glad that he was recognizing her efforts, the other embarrassed that he had noticed.
"Just trying to be more supportive." She said with a pointed undertone and waved her wand gleefully, causing sparks to shoot out of it.
Teddy grabbed her wand and held it down. "Cut it out, he'll see you!"
A few steps ahead of them Mr Filch was guiding their way further into the forest with a scrappy old lantern for assistance.
Eventually they got so far in that the path was only a thin line on the ground and the bushy trees grew so tightly that they sealed the view of the sky off completely, letting the moon peek out only once every so often with its much appreciated glow.
Every time it did Victorie and Filch would peek back at it, and Teddy would look at his own two feet. And every now and again Filch would voice another intimidation tactic, like warning them not to stray too far from the path or they might encounter a werewolf. To which the two looked at each other and snorted, knowing full well that that was just a rumour.
"If anything it's the Shrieking Shack you should look out for." Teddy whispered in response, but only so that Victorie could hear.
"I'd be more worried about running into an acromantula if anything." Victorie added with a shudder. She looked around, but past Filch's lantern was mostly darkness, which she didn't find particularly soothing.
They kept walking for a while longer, stumbling over branches and roots in the darkness, until finally she could see the path a little further up ahead being lit up from above. The light felt like salvation.
When she got closer, she saw that the path ended there, and that the moon was in fact lighting up a small pale blue pond surrounded by patches of the most luscious moss she'd ever seen.
The three of them snuck between the thick pine trees that circled the glade and Victorie let her shoes sink into the moss as she stepped up to the pond and looked out across it. It glimmered like quartz in the light.
The dragonflies weren't hard to spot. They were everywhere. Their luminescent wings let out a unified buzz as they glided across the pond, creating small ripples on the otherwise perfectly still body of water.
As if on cue, Teddy and Victorie got their wands out of their robes, but Filch immediately raised his voice. "Put those away!" He commanded.
Victorie was about to ask how else they were meant to catch the little things, but before she got a chance to, Filch stuck two large glass jars in their faces.
Ah, right. Victorie thought. She'd almost forgotten by then that this little excursion of theirs doubled as a punishment.
Fair enough.
She grabbed one of the jars, but not without allowing herself a glare sent Filch's way. Teddy on the other hand went for a perhaps less dignified (yet justified) frown. He too grabbed his jar and walked up to the pond.
Teddy and Victorie began to wave their jars around, but their attempts were uninspired at best. Victorie was more fascinated by the way the moon's light rays made the mist around them visible and the way it did little somersaults around Teddy's arms as he flung his jar around.
Filch however jumped straight into it. He was a natural, creeping up on the little creatures and doing pirouettes and the likes of it to capture them. Locking them in with the lid in a quick motion.
It quickly became apparent to them that once he set his eye on one, he drove himself mad in his quest to not let it escape. At one point he went so far as to run after one of them, past the thick trunks and beyond, disappearing into the dark.
"Do you think he'll ever come back?" Teddy joked.
At that moment Victorie just managed to lock one in between her jar and the lid. She twisted the lid shut and stared at the thing, letting out a squeal of glee.
"Good job." Teddy mumbled, tongue out in concentration while closing in on one.
"Pssh." Victorie uttered, suddenly failing to see the part where any of this was worthwhile. She got out her wand and exclaimed, "Immobulus!" to the effect of which the dragonflies froze in their place.
Victorie used her wand to gather a heap of them up and levitated them into her jar. "Do you think that's enough?" She asked and held up her jar with a few of them glowing inside.
"Probably." He said and relaxed his arms. Looking thankful not to have to bother any longer. He set his jar down on the ground.
Victorie set her jar down too and whispered the counter incantation. The incantation did its job and the dragonflies unfroze, but her mind was elsewhere.
"Do you think he's alright?" Teddy questioned, looking into the distance where Filch had run off.
But Victorie didn't hear. "I need your help with my date on Friday." She stated flatly.
"Right." He said, but his eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "Your date." He reminded himself. "...On Friday."
Victorie waited for him to piece this all together, then realised. "Hold on, did I forget to tell you about that?"
"I think you did." He announced, not without an ounce of derision.
"I'm nervous." She admitted. "I've never been on a date, I've never even kissed anyone."
"Okay, first of all, you don't kiss on dates." The words fell out of his mouth before he'd thought them through.
She looked at him like he had gone mad. "Ever?"
He closed his eyes, mentally backtracking in his mind. "I mean, at least not on the first date..." He divulged, then quickly added, "Or on the second for that matter."
"Right." She said, not fully convinced. "Aside from kissing, what advice do you have for me? I know I need to compliment him, right? Tell him his poetry is amazing and agree with his taste in music and stuff like that?"
"Not necessarily..." He said, shuffling his feet back and forth.
His ambiguity caught her off guard. "What do you mean?"
"Well, I don't know... If it's a date perhaps it's better to be honest." He tried.
She wondered for a moment if she was actually still talking to Teddy Lupin. Perhaps it was a trick of the light. Perhaps it was Teddy who had gone off to chase a dragonfly and the boy before her was actually Mr Filch. That explanation seemed all the more believable, as she couldn't for the life of her imagine a world where Teddy Lupin was telling her to be honest.
"Honest? Since when?" She asked. "I thought your shtick was to lie your ass off to make people like you?"
"Yeah, well..." He seemed lost for words. "That's good too but..." He trailed off for a minute, then a stroke of genius hit him. "You might also want to maintain your integrity, right? You want him to like you for you... and stuff..."
But Victorie was not satisfied with his explanation. "So sometimes I should follow your advice, and sometimes not then? Do you realise how confusing that makes these lessons?" She crossed her arms and looked at him for an answer, but when she received none, she went on. "Given how unreliable your advice is, I might as well consider kissing to be on the table."
Teddy shook his head vehemently. "No, no, didn't you hear me? You don't kiss on a first date." He reiterated.
"Why not then?" She demanded.
He looked around the glade they were standing in, stalling for time. "Because, like you say, you've never done it before."
He hesitated for a second before he went on, "So... what if you're really bad at it? It might give him a bad impression. You might want to get to know the guy first, so that his first impression of you isn't your bad kissing."
"So we've settled on the idea of my kissing being bad, have we?" She suggested whimsically.
"Most likely." Teddy huffed.
She knew he was being mean, but it wasn't getting to her. Had her lack of experience been a sore spot of hers she wouldn't have brought it up in the first place. If anything she was more concerned about what had gotten into him.
The thought of their moment in the closet the other day had snuck its way into her head at some point during their conversation, and she couldn't get it out of her mind.
If it had been an almost kiss, the prospect of what it would have been like intrigued her. So in a spur of the moment decision, she decided to go in with all the ammunition she had at her disposal. If that included taking advantage of the out of the ordinary deal they had then (by her reasoning) his rudeness justified her foul play.
"You've never even kissed me, how would you know?" She shot back.
Teddy didn't say anything, and he wouldn't look at her either.
"Here's an idea..." She began, fighting back a slight tremble in her voice. "Why don't we try it once?"
This definitely bordered on abusing the ethos of the lessons, but she didn't care. Hopefully his vow to help her out veiled the desire that lingered behind this particular request of hers.
"Try it?" He seemed confused, like it hadn't fully dawned on him what she was actually proposing.
"You know, as one of your lessons in social interaction. I just need to make sure I'm not terrible at it." She explained innocently.
Then it finally sunk in. He looked at her in astonishment. "You're out of your mind!"
Victorie held back a laugh. She would have been embarrassed had she not found it so funny. "So it's not one of the modules then? Sorry my bad." Her tone remained aloof.
"It's not one of the modules, no." He said. A smile was tugging at his lips now though. It put her at ease.
"I won't push it." She assured him.
The two stood in silence for a few seconds, listening to the buzzing of the dragonflies around them.
But eventually curiosity got the better of Victorie and she broke the silence, "...Have you ever kissed anyone?" she asked while absentmindedly pushing the moss on the ground down with the tip of her shoe.
"I have actually." He replied with what was clearly disingenuous pride, only added to push her buttons. Victorie put her hands in her pockets and nodded, imagining Teddy backstage with some girl after a gig. "...You don't believe me do you?" He asked.
"Not really, no." Victorie lied. She had to at least attempt to push his buttons too.
But he only laughed. After his original astonishment had settled, Teddy seemed genuinely amused by their conversation, almost thankful for the silly detour. His smile lingered as he looked at her. She noticed that something had changed in the way he was eyeing her.
The silence that fell between them made her feel like she might have actually got him to seriously consider her suggestion. It only took her feeling like he was warming up to the idea for her to start chickening out.
What am I doing? She thought. I've never kissed anyone — it would only turn out to be a complete embarrassment for me!
"It's probably for the best that you said no." She asserted.
"I never said no." Teddy quickly corrected.
But Victorie felt he'd made himself pretty clear earlier. Besides, at this point his clarification was not something she wanted to hear, so she ignored the technicality and kept rambling, "You're totally right, I wouldn't be any good at it and it would just suck all over. I can't believe I even suggested it. Don't worry, I won't ever suggest that again. Consider it unsuggested."
"I can't take the chance of that though, can I?" He said, barely audible as he stepped closer to her.
Her heart began to pound harder. "No, really, you don't need to worry." She held up an arm between them to demonstrate. "Just always keep me at arms length from now on and you'll be safe." She laughed nervously.
Teddy wasn't laughing, he was just looking at her, close enough now that she had to start backing away so as to still keep her arm outstretched. He responded to this by placing his hand on her arm and pulling it down until the two were no longer at a lawful arms length.
She had to remind herself that what she said had just been a joke, and that it wasn't actually unlawful.
It sure didn't feel unlawful when he placed his other hand on her other arm and guided her slowly backward until she felt a tree make contact with her back.
For a moment there was no movement. The two stood still and the almost full moon reflected in his eyes as he watched hers. He leaned in.
"Can I?" He asked.
She cleared her throat, hesitating, pretending she needed to consider it. "Sure." She said while trying to sound brave.
There was a flash of that same amusement from before and his lips twitched. Then he pulled her closer by her arms and kissed her, feeling glad that he hadn't taken any chances and thinking that no matter how many social skills he ever taught her, she would always find ways to misinterpret what he meant. Thankfully at least some of the time it worked out in his favour, keeping her oblivious to his affections.
She thought the kiss would be slow, but there was an unexpected amount of enthusiasm to it. She thought it would be over soon, but there was also an unexpected amount of dedication to it. His hands had even travelled from her arms to cup her face, and she wondered for a brief moment if it was okay that her hands had somehow ended up on his chest.
Then he stopped the kiss, but his eyes didn't open and he remained close, breathing against her mouth. His breath was warm in contrast to the raw November chill that bit her cheeks.
She realised that she'd been thinking so much that she hadn't really taken the time to properly enjoy the kiss while it was happening, and cursed the fact that it was over.
But then suddenly his lips were on hers again for a second...
And then again.
And for a third time.
On the fourth time she was prepared and decided to lean into it more, causing them to fall back into a whole thing again.
This time his hands were back on her arms. She'd fault his lack of variety, but in fairness she'd only asked him to kiss her, and touching had not been properly discussed.
Then she realised that she was in fact remembering to properly enjoy the kiss this time, although she probably wasn't supposed to.
She reminded herself that the kiss was meant to serve a greater purpose. However, so far there had been a significant lack of teachable moments to this kiss. She wondered if perhaps Teddy had also forgotten about the greater purpose.
The whole thing just seemed to be unfolding in front of her, so she leaned into it and lifted her arms around his neck. It seemed to be that the id controlled them now.
With youthful impatience their mouths moved against each other until they both had to stop for air and Teddy whispered smugly, "Just don't expect all kisses to be that good."
Victorie thought his comment seemed pointed, but before she could properly reflect on it, a rustle of some branches startled them, and the two jumped apart and froze.
Filch appeared behind the trees, holding up his glass jar proudly with the dragonfly caught inside.
Victorie gave him a thumbs-up, then picked up her own jar and showed it to him. It wasn't lost on her that gathering them all up inside the same jar might make it look too obvious that she'd used magic, but thankfully Filch didn't make any comments except grumbling, "We only need five." underneath his breath. Perhaps he too wanted nothing but to get back to the castle at that point.
They let out a few of the dragonflies, and put the five they needed into a sack Filch had brought with him.
Teddy and Victorie looked at each other briefly, then at the beautiful pond one last time, before leaving the glade and stepping back on the path that would take them back to the castle.
The walk back could have been plagued by tension from the kiss. But Victorie was too exhilarated for that to happen. Once Filch was out of earshot, Victorie let out a breath and a, "Wow." with it.
Teddy smiled to himself but pretended to not know what she was referring to. "What?" He asked playfully and dragged his hand through his messy blue hair.
"Can you believe that just happened?" She marvelled and interlinked her fingers. "That was incredible!"
The energy that rushed through her made her feel like she'd been struck by lightning or something. She wasn't sure if she would be able to sleep at all that night.
"I guess." Teddy replied and Victorie assessed him critically. She could have believed his aloofness had he been able to wipe the smile that played on his lips away, but here they were.
"You guess? You guess our kiss was incredible? Our earth shattering, mind blowing, universe expanding, dimension shifting KISS? You guess it might have been incredible?"
Teddy let Victorie ramble on, but he couldn't help but wonder how she could manage to be so detached from it. How she could feel comfortable enough being open about her feelings. There was something off about it.
"You have to admit, I'm ready for dating now." She rejoiced.
...There it was. His smile faded. Of course she could be detached, this was all a performance to her.
It wasn't particularly flattering to hear how their moment was going to benefit her upcoming social conquests, and Teddy was pretty silent for the remainder of the journey back to the castle after that.
A/N: Thanks again for the reviews!
I really appreciate feedback on my writing and storytelling if you have any opinions about that.
Published: 26 March 2022