𝗽𝗶𝘅𝗶𝗲 𝗱𝘂𝘀𝘁, teddy lupin

˗ˋ 15

CHAPTER FIFTEEN
✧
-: fifth year :-

── IN WHICH HE DRAWS

. . .

The head of blue hair shot up from the poster it was leaning over as the door into the abandoned and once empty classroom swung open and slammed shut.

"Oh thank Merlin." Celeste breathed out as she saw Teddy leaning back in his chair, changed out of his uniform and changed into something a little more his style. "Your shoelace is undone, by the way."

"No apologies?" The Lupin boy raised his eyesbrows, shifting in the chair and balancing the end of his somewhat battered Converse on the edge, gaze shifting from the ginger haired girl to the lace as he tied it up."

"I'm sorry." Celeste was using the corner of the dusty teacher's desk to steady herself, reaching down for the buckle of her heels. She took off her shoes and padded over to him, the material of her thigh-high socks causing her movements to be silent. "I was helping Evie with some... Ancient Runes homework." 

Her hands wound around to the back on her belt, chin and gaze tilted upwards as she pulled on the ribbons that kept it tight, untying the bow and returning to the front to undo the criss-cross pattern. 

"Alright, give me a warning before starting to undress. If the dress code really was that casual then-" Teddy's joke was met with a small bite of laughter, a hand reaching out and stopping him from fully undoing the yellow and black tie. 

She began tightening it until pausing. "Hold on - actually.." Her hand left the tie and she moved away from the desk and back to her bag, extracting one of green and silver instead. Teddy quickly loosened it until he could pull it off, stuffing the Hufflepuff tie in his pocket.

"Oh you were serious about that?" Teddy sat forward, moving the coloured pens on the surface of the desk out of the way so that Celeste could sit there, her face a picture of concentration as she did it up, untucking his collar and standing up again. 

"There. Now you can help me deliver all these." She had returned to her bag, picking up the heels and holding them in one hand as she sat on the chair beside Teddy, placing them gently down at the base of the desk - then she pulled out a stack of black, silver and emerald sheets of card.

"Are they for your meeting?" Teddy reached over and took one of them, scanning the message already printed on them. "So what did you need to do with these?"

"Personalise them. You might be at the top of the social hierarchy but that doesn't make people love you automatically." Celeste's focus was clearly on the stack of invitations and not on her best friend, tone dismissive.

"But you don't know them? They're all first years so-" Teddy began, cut off by the sound of a thump as the Weasley girl extracted a large pile of sage-green folders, which already seemed to be holding a number of sheets of paper in, despite having only known them for one day. 

"We held interviews on the train, and I did my research. Before I left last year - and after Kaila named me as 'Queen' I broke into McGonagall's office." Celeste admitted without a care in the world, voice so nonchalant that it was as if she was talking to Teddy about her summer - although when she did do that it had been more about one-upping him than anything. 

"And did what?" It wasn't too much of a big deal for Teddy, he had probably done worse (but even then he couldn't remember) and he brushed over it as if it was the most normal thing ever.

"I stole a list of all of this year's first years. Then I used my contacts and knowledge to find out more about them." If Teddy hadn't been convinced of her taking on the position that Kaila Adkins left for her, then he was now. 

Amongst the conversation, Celeste had pulled the empty desk on the other side of her towards her to make on big desk, opening up the file on the top of the pile, unstoppering the bottle of ink and beginning to write her first invitation. 

"So what do you have there?" She asked, eyes flickering up from her writing over to the sheet of paper that Teddy had been slaving over. "Is it homework or..?"

"It's your Quidditch poster. And I've done mine as well." Teddy reached for another sheet and held them up - he was considerably good at drawing and design and they both looked incredible in their respective house colours, somewhat similar in layout but different enough that you couldn't tell that they were created by the same person.

"Teddy-" Celeste's voice had acquired that soft tone that he wasn't too used to hearing, the green felt-tip in his hand shaking slightly. 

"I figured that you had enough to do and so, whilst I was waiting, I just got on with it - they're not too hard to make, y'know?" Teddy chuckled, forcing the changed atmosphere back to what it had been before. "Considering you're now the head of your little group it matters more if you're seen hanging out with a Hufflepuff like me in the way that you do."

"You're making it sound like we're hooking up or something." The Weasley girl scoffed and Teddy rolled his eyes.

"No, you just have a dirty mind. My point is that I know you have a busy year and I want to help you out as much you can. And even if that isn't as much as I want to, the least I can do draw you a Quidditch tryouts poster." Teddy shrugged, flattening the poster on the table and continuing to colour inside of the dark lines of the title.

"Thank you." Celeste replied with a smile, eyes set on the sight of Teddy Lupin working so carefully on a Slytherin poster for a little longer before returning to her invitations.

She could use all the help she could get, the year ahead promising to be her busiest one yet.

✧