Harry Potter One Shots (Vol. I)

Levelling the Score (Teddy Lupin)

I'm trying to get into the habit of updating regularly again and that being said, you can expect the next one to be up either on Sunday or Monday. In a couple of weeks I need to return to Uni so I want to get as many of these as I can, done and posted before I have to begin worrying about new modules and all that stressful business ~

The inspiration from this one came from a random runaway thought about Teddy's metamorphmagus abilities that he inherited from Tonks. Truthfully I'm not satisfied with how this turned out so be sure to tell me what you guys think.

But then again, I thought as my eyes settled onto the back of a turquoise blue head, the lesson didn't need to necessarily remain boring. Not when I could play my favourite game of flustering Lupin a little.

Looking back to the passage of text that we'd been assigned to translate, I erased the last sentence I had written and replaced it with one I knew was wrong. The mistake was only slight; enough to catch Lupin's attention without making him question my intelligence.

"Lupin," I called out quietly to the Hufflepuff sat directly in front of me.

He glanced over his shoulder, raising an eyebrow at me. "What is it, Owens?"

"Are you finished with your translation?" He nodded and I smiled the smile that I knew caught him off guard. And sure enough, there it was; the beginning of pink blooming at the root of his hair. "Would you mind looking over mine for me?"

"Sure," he murmured, turning in his seat to face my desk. His desk mate Barnes, glanced curiously back at us and gave up pretending to complete his work. Instead he copied Lupin and turned in his seat.

"She didn't call you," Lauren said from beside me, shooting Barnes a look.

"I don't remember this conversation involving you either," Barnes shot back.

Lupin and I shared a look, one that made the tips of his ears redden slightly. Merlin, he was adorable. He even tried to hold my gaze, wanting to come across as being unaffected. Picking up my parchment, I held it out to him and he made no move to take it. "The translation?"

"Ah right."

Snatching the parchment from me, he ignored the snickers coming from his friend and looked over the translation. Beside us Barnes was unloading the issues he was having with his boyfriend onto Lauren who was trying to insist that it was none of her business. That would have been true if she hadn't been the one to set them up.

Instead of intruding on their conversation, I kept my gaze on Lupin as he looked over the parchment, completely oblivious to my gaze. He was reaching the end of the translation and I knew he found the mistake when his eyebrows furrowed. He checked it twice before looking up to my waiting eyes.

"Will you pass me your translation textbook?"

When I handed it over to him, he flicked through it and found the correct page, sliding the book towards me. He leaned in closer to me, pointing to something on the page.

"You've mixed these two words up," he explained steadily, "and, I'm sure you know that they mean completely different things. It's a really common mistake so don't worry about -" His voice trailed off when he looked up, meeting my eyes. When he realised just how closed we'd gotten, he pushed away from me and cleared his throat.

"Thanks Lupin," I said with a grin, pulling my translation back and fixing my 'accidental' error. Setting my quill down on the table, I turned to the boy. "Smart and handsome; you're the perfect package Lupin."