let the game begin || teddy lupin

ii.

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AFTER A particularly confusing lesson, I left the Transfiguration classroom and, before I could spot him, an older Ravenclaw crashed into my side. He reached out to steady me before releasing his hold quickly, tucking his hands into his pockets, "Sorry 'bout that."

"He's so graceful," another replied, who had followed him, his eyes shining with a hint of mischief.

"Says the one who dropped off his broom yesterday trying to execute a roll instead of practicing," he shot back, glancing back to me as he did so. His hair was black with dyed silver streaks, which he kept reaching up to brush as if he needed assurance that they were still there, "Jay just needs some help."

Before the other one, Jay, could respond, he was quickly shoved away by his friend. I watched the two of them disappear down the hall, bickering with each other as they rounded the corner. I started off after them since I had to find Amara in the Great Hall before our afternoon Potions class.

She was much more knowledgeable than I was when it came to that class and, thankfully, she was more than happy to help explain things before lessons. If I was able to find her, that is.

I entered the Great Hall and quickly spotted her sitting on the end of a bench, shoveling food into her mouth as if her entire life depended on it while simultaneously reading a magazine article that I could tell was one of our dormmate's, whose though I wasn't quite sure.

She glanced over as I slid onto the seat next to her, "Hey."

"Do you need to be anywhere?" I asked, nodding at her fast-paced eating and her constant glances around.

She shook her head sheepishly and set down her fork, "No."

"Okay," I raised a questioning eyebrow but didn't pry farther, "Can you help me with Potions right now?"

"Like, right now right now?"

I sighed with an amused smile, "No, I mean later right now."

She rolled her eyes and pushed aside her plate, making room for her textbook and a piece of parchment paper. She had a pencil stashed in the bottom of her bag, courtesy of her muggle mother who insisted a good pencil was superior than any quill, and she jotted down the basics that the chapter was covering, going into further detail for anything I had trouble understanding.

I watched her write, sketching out pictures of a couple of the ingredients with short descriptions of their purpose, and looked around the table for the two boys I'd run into. They had to have been at least two or three years older than I was so it was a little harder to find them, due to the fact that older years tended to branch out amongst the many halls to hang out during lunch, away from the chatter of the Great Hall.

After a few sweeps, I spotted them with one of our prefects, Daniela, and realized that they were members of the quidditch team. I wasn't sure how I hadn't noticed beforehand, especially based off of the comment one of them had made about practice, but now it was quite obvious. Jay and another boy, perhaps a year younger, were laughing loudly and looked out of breathe over something the girl next to them had said, though she looked far from amused at their reaction.

I found myself smiling as they laughed and prodded at each other, pushing for a smile from her, until Amara elbowed me firmly in the ribs and waved her parchment in my face, "Less ogling our quidditch team, more paying attention. I've drawn another four ingredients while you were staring and the least you could do is pay attention."

"I'm not ogling," I tried to protest, only a few words getting out before she cut me off by slapping her palm over my mouth.

"Less dying," she scolded, "And more work. Try out next year just stop being weird. You look like you're inspecting their souls with your eyes."