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XI: Everything In The Interim

"I don't know what I'm going to do when you graduate, Lisa. How am I supposed to go on without my main ice cream supplier?"

Lisa grinned around a spoonful of ice cream at her friend and teacher, Professor Taeyeon Kim. She sat on top of a desk in the Defense Against The Dark Arts classroom, legs crossed underneath her with an enormous sundae in her lap.

Taeyeon Kim had been in Lisa's life ever since she and Ten became best friends in Ten's third year. Ten had convinced the elders to allow her to visit Buriram the summer before the village was destroyed, making Taeyeon one of a handful of people in the world who remembered what it was like. For Lisa, having Taeyeon around in the years after was immeasurably important. Taeyeon was proof outside of her and Ten that Buriram was real, it existed, and they could smile together about how the sun bathed the oak trees in orange light as it dipped behind Kao, knowing they were imagining the exact same trees. Having Taeyeon helped her remember the beauty of her home, not just the pain.

"Don't worry, Professor Kim," Lisa chuckled, popping a syrup-covered marshmallow in her mouth. "I'll put a good word in for you with the house elves."

"Hm, it won't be the same though," Taeyeon hummed. "So, Professor Hwang tells me you and your partner will be opening the ball with a dance. How goes the search?" she asked, eyes sparking teasingly.

Lisa groaned and dropped her cheek glumly into the palm of her hand. "Do you and Professor Hwang have lunch together just to talk about my own personal misery?"

"Sometimes," Taeyeon said with a light shrug, then smirked deviously. "And other times we're otherwise too preoccupied to talk about anything at all."

Lisa wrinkled her nose in complete revulsion. "Gross, Taeyeon, I do not need to hear about—about that!"

"What?" she asked innocently. "Professor Hwang has an impressive record collection and we both happen to be music lovers. And that's Professor Kim to you, Lisa, at least until you graduate," she chastised with a click of her tongue.

"Oh come on! I've known you for years. We've spent Christmases together! I've seen you in your nightgown for goodness sake!" Lisa complained, and Taeyeon tossed her head back with a musical laugh.

"And now I'm your teacher, and I will fail you if you don't treat me with the respect I deserve," she said imperiously.

"How am I supposed to take you seriously when I've seen you running around the Manoban's backyard in your underwear, drunk off of eggnog, screaming about how you're some sort of magical warrior demi-goddess?" Lisa deadpanned.

"Who are you to say I'm not?" Taeyeon challenged, stoic chin thrust in the air. "And you're avoiding the question. Who will be the lucky man to take Lisa Manoban, Triwizard champion, to the ball? Or woman, I'm not presuming anything," Taeyeon said with a casual shrug.

Lisa hesitated with her spoon halfway between her bowl and her mouth before she set it back down and adjusted her glasses. "Well...there is someone I've been thinking about asking," Lisa admitted and drew in a nervous breath. "She—" Lisa added a little emphasis, and Taeyeon didn't even flinch, "—is in my potions class. We've become close friends and I...I like her. A lot," Lisa confessed, and saying the words out loud filled her with an inexplicable combination of relief, happiness, and sheer terror.

"Not that it would matter anyway," she mumbled glumly. "I don't know how to dance, Taeyeon. Like, at all. I'm going to make a fool of myself in front of the entire school. In front of...in front of Jennie."

Taeyeon's lips spread into a wide grin, eyes sparkling in a way Lisa knew all too well. "Not if I can help it, my dear child."

Lisa's whine went completely ignored when Taeyeon took her ice cream away and fiddled with a gramophone by her desk. Music played, and the desks in the room slid to the side to create a space when Taeyeon swished her wand. Lisa barely hopped off of her desk with an indignant yelp before it whooshed to the other side of the classroom.