Butterflies | Teddy Lupin

Chapter Thirteen

"All I'm saying is that I'm totally going to fail this quiz if Professor Fiddlewood doesn't give us the extra credit questions. It's only been like one class, how could we already have a quiz?" Rosemary groaned, laying her head on the Gryffindor table. The morning was early, the two girls sitting almost alone at the table. They were next to each other, two figures clustered close together. The smell of breakfast food was wafting through the air, sugary and savory scents causing Charlotte's mouth to water.

Charlotte laughed, gently moving her friend's green hair away from the powdered sugar covering her pancakes. Teddy and Charlotte had always been as thick as thieves, best friends in every way, but if Charlotte was forced to choose someone else to hold the coveted position, she would choose Rosemary. Rosemary was Rosemary, a bright light in the darkness. "Rose, I'm sure that you'll do fine. You always exaggerate," Charlotte said, rolling her eyes. "Remember when you were sure that you failed but you ended up getting an E?"

Rosemary blushed, sitting up to shove a chunk of buttered bread into her mouth. "That's not the point. I have no idea why Fiddlewood gives us all of this homework and then expects us to have time to study. It's not possible."

"I told you not to take Advanced Xylomancy this year, and guess what you did? Take Advanced Xylomancy," Charlotte teased her, humor right on the edge of her words.

"I thought that it would be easy! When Professor T was teaching it it was!"

"That's because she liked you!"

"Of course she had to retire the year that I take the hardest course."

The two girls went back and forth for a few more minutes, getting giddier and giddier until they collapsed into laughter. More people began to trickle into the room, filling it with the noise and murmurs that came with them. Charlotte and Rosemary were joined by their roommates, who rolled their eyes playfully at the way the two girls were laughing. They tapered off the laughter in favor of more food and more complaining, done by Charlotte and Rosemary respectively.

Charlotte watched Polly and James walk in together, smiling when she heard their bickering as they walked past. "They remind me so much of what young Teddy was like with me," she said, much to the agreement of her friends.

"You two were worse," Anita said immediately. She was seated across from Charlotte, reaching over to pick up a goblet of orange-mango juice.

"Waaaaay worse," Daisy chimed in. Her blonde hair flew around her face with the movement, braid flying.

"Do we need to remind you of the Great Pumpkin Debacle of fourth year?" Rosemary said.

"Okay, okay, I get it," Charlotte said, her cheeks warm. She flapped her hands at her friends to wave them off, biting into a scone with a smile. She groaned as the blueberry filling hit her tongue, savoring the taste. Just before she took her second bite, the scone was plucked out of her hands by one Teddy Lupin.

"My turn to take your food." Teddy winked at her, his mouth full of Charlotte's scone. Crumbs stuck to the corners of his mouth, accenting the mischievous grin plastered to his face.

Rosemary shot Charlotte a look behind Teddy's back, Charlotte making a "cut-it-out" gesture with her eyes. She shifted her gaze back to Teddy, ducking her head to hide her blush. She let strands of dark hair fall over warmed cheeks and a shy grin. "One of these days I'm going to be sick and you are going to get my germs," she warned.

Teddy threw his head back and laughed, swallowing the rest of the scone. "Then we can be sick together."

Charlotte had a vision of them, years in the future, sitting together on the couch, watching the time tick by while sick with a trashy movie playing on the tv. She pictured them warm and happy, smiling even when sick because they enjoyed the other company. That was the future that she wanted. It lived in her head as a distant fantasy, something that she thought was attainable only in her dreams, impossible to find in real life.