The Fool, Upright - Teddy Lupin/Victorie Weasley

Chapter 8: Indulgence

In a red chair sat Teddy with his beat up vans resting on the armrest of the chair beside him. His hair blended into the chair, but his black clothes complimented it well. Other than that, he looked severely out of place for the library when he wasn't in his Hogwarts uniform.

He sat and made scribbles in a notebook when Victorie approached him tentatively. It was the evening, and the thick warm air traced back to the number of students that had occupied the area throughout the day.

She was carrying a small and mysterious box with a cute bow on it behind her back, but she wasn't sure how to broach the subject of it with her revived acquaintance. Or any subject for that matter.

Their first meeting had gone well enough, but the socially awkward witch had been thrust into it without much choice. Somehow the pressure of being prepared to hang out with Teddy seemed all the more daunting.

Mostly because of how impossible it was to prepare for such an ordeal. She couldn't think of a single subject to make small talk about, and considering the embarrassing amount of time she'd spent trying, she knew she was in trouble. All she had was one question, but she didn't suspect it was going to prove a great conversation starter.

With Jamie she never had to think about these things. He was a chatterbox, and she never needed to contribute much.

Victorie's eyes went wide when Teddy managed to tear his deep focus from the scribbles and finally noticed her out of the corner of his eye.

His feet immediately landed on the floor and he sat up straight. "Sorry Madam!" He ejected. "Oh... it's you."

"Did you just confuse me with Madam Pince?" She asked.

He avoided her eye and reached down for the notebook he had dropped. While he did so Victorie took the opportunity to tuck the little box in her bag quickly. There was something very intimidating about the idea of revealing it to him just yet.

"You kind of dress like a librarian." Teddy mumbled for explanation before his head popped up again from beneath the coffee table, a mysterious smile plastered on his face.

Victorie looked at her emerald green velvet blazer and the dress shirt she sported under it. She had to admit that she did share some semblance with the usually lavish yet smartly dressed witch (except for the red hair).

She sat down on the unclaimed chair. "I see you have a notebook now?"

"Yeah, Jamie gave it to me." He'd gone back to his slumped back position in the chair, with one leg flung over the armrest as if in some silent protest against Madam Pince.

"Great, now you can take notes in class." She suggested.

He waved the notepad and said with feigned regret, "I only got one and I'm putting my syllabus in it."

Victorie let a breath out and decided not to argue why he had wasted his one notepad on this. She had her one question to ask, after all.

With one leg carefully placed on top of the other, she pushed herself forward on the chair and said with the breeziest voice she could muster, "So... How are you?"

"I'm great actually." He was using a fountain pen to scribble what looked like nonsense in the notebook in his lap. The question didn't seem to fully land. His mind was elsewhere. "I've been wondering... How did you manage to figure out how to fix that book?"

Without having to think Victorie replied, "Unfogging the Future, you mean?" She was a little disappointed at the lack of appreciation shown for her taking an interest in his mood, but decided to let the subject be changed. "Delilah told me how to get it back to normal."