MISSED CALLS ➡︎ TEDDY LUPIN [2] ✓

xlviii. THE DATE

After dropping the basket of gifts off inside the common room, Avalon allowed Teddy to lead her through the halls to a secret destination.

That secret destination seemed to be the kitchens, and as he helped her over the ledge into the room, she noticed how all the working house elves flocked over to him with smiles on their faces.

"Mister Lupin!" One elf said excitedly. "We've prepared your... surprise! It's all right here."

She seemed to have censored herself in order to keep the surprise, well, a surprise, and she gestured to a picnic basket sitting on the small wooden table at the center of the room.

Teddy grinned. "Thank you, Lottie. I appreciate it."

The elf, Lottie, turned to Avalon then. "You must be Ava—Mister Lupin has been talking about you for weeks, every time he comes to visit!"

Avalon, already blushing, turned to Teddy, who had also gone red out of embarrassment.

"And Mister Lupin, she's just as pretty as you described!" Lottie said in a whisper-shout.

"Alright!" Teddy said, ruffling his blue hair. "Ava, we ought to be going now. Got a lot planned!"

He ushered out of the kitchen to save himself from being embarrassed further and, as they walked towards the main entryway of the castle with the picnic basket in hand, she poked him in the side.

"You've been telling the house elves about me?" She said, grinning widely and continuously jabbing him in the ribs as he squirmed and laughed.

He caught her wrists in his hands and pinned them to her sides. "Alright, alright! Maybe I have!" He said with a shy smile.

She jerked her wrists against his strong grip. "Aw, Teddy. That's adorable." She looked at him sweetly, a glimmer in her eyes.

Teddy just rolled his eyes at her and looked at her with such a loving expression that she got goosebumps just from his look.

"Come on, we're going to the lake."

—

It turned out that Teddy had orchestrated a few of his friends to set up a blanket, some enchanted candles that were charmed to never blow out, and a stack of more blankets folded up nicely.

"Wow." Was all Avalon could say as she looked at the setup, leaning her head onto Teddy's chest.

He pressed a kiss to the top of her head. "You like it?"

All she could do was nod, overwhelmed by the amount of planning.

She had been blushing from the moment he'd met her outside her common room, and she was sure she looked like she'd spent three consecutive days in the sun with no sunblock. It was honestly quite embarrassing for her to be so flustered, but she hadn't been on a date since she'd tried—and failed—to get over Teddy a year and a half ago by going out with Alex from the Gryffindor quidditch team. Needless to say, it didn't go well, and the two simply remained friends.

Teddy led her over to the blanket and encouraged her to sit down, and, following his lead, she did as he wished.

The blanket was soft, and it must have been charmed to be warm and waterproof, because despite the dew on the grass and the slight chill in the air, the fabric under her remained cozy and dry.

She shivered as a cool breeze blew off the lake, and he looked over at her with a concerned expression.

"You cold?" He asked.

When she nodded, he was quick to peel his jean jacket off of his torso and wrap it around her shoulders. He even went as far as to pull her hair out from under the collar; his long, nimble fingers brushed against her neck, and she found herslef shivering not from the cold, but from the sensation of feeling his touch on her skin.

Teddy chuckled at her physical reaction, leaning back onto his elbows to get a better look at her.

He smiled softly and admired the girl he fancied—her hair as red as a roaring fire, hanging down her back in soft curls; her eyes that held a reflection of the ocean. She was gorgeous, in the most unique way possible. Even her cousins Luna and Laurel who looked almost exactly like her in terms of red hair and light eyes did not measure up in comparison to Avalon.

When they'd met, when he was eight and she was six and a half, she had been this short, scrawny, underdeveloped-looking girl who was just scrappy enough to get into fights with her older brother on the regular, and he remembered thinking she was pretty even back then. But that was before Oliver had convinced him that girls had cooties, and for several years he'd pushed away the thought of Avalon as anything more than his best friend's younger sister.

And then, when he was sixteen and she was fifteen, he'd realized how deep his crush for her was. He'd tried to ignore it, to find the person who was most opposite to her in every way possible, so he'd asked out Victoire Weasley and attempted to fall for Vic instead. But as wonderful as Victoire was, she wasn't Avalon. Their breakup had been amicable and the two remained good friends.

For another year, Teddy suffered in silence every time he was at her house, every time Oliver complained about her, every time he'd pass her in the hallways at Hogwarts or in the kitchen at the Weasley home.

Until she kissed him and suddenly everything was in prime position for them to actually work.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" Avalon asked, breaking his train of thought and his trip down memory lane.

Teddy shook his head and broke himself out of his thoughts. "No reason. Just reminding myself of how pretty you are."

Her face flushed. "Oh, shut up."

alternatively titled: teddy is a sap and he's loved her all along