Chocolate Toast, Remus Lupin

A Grand Ball

Avery stood by the fireplace, greeting people as they arrived. Her conversation with her grandmother replayed in her head.

"As long as you're on your best behavior tonight I will allow you to spend the rest of break with the Potters."

"Thank you. Thank you so much!"

"You will dance with Theodore, you will greet the guests, you will be happy."

"Yes, of course."

After greeting guests for the first half hour Avery was finally allowed to go off and find her friends. She had noticed the Marauders and started to make her way there when she was grabbed. She was pulled into the hall and turned to see who had taken her. Her face morphed into disgust as Theodore stood in front of her.

"Oh come now, Avery. I'm not hideous enough for that face am I?"

"Leave me alone."

"Is that really how you're gonna talk to your future husband?" Avery scowled and tried to move past him. He grabbed her wrist and stopped her. "We have to dance at least once tonight. You can't ignore me, Avery, not if you want to go and spend break with Potter."

"How do you know about that?"

"Your grandmother and I stay in touch."

"We'll dance, I'll look happy. Is that enough for you?"

"No kiss?"

"Kiss my arse."

"Not very ladylike, Avery." Theodore studied the girl with a smirk. He moved his hand to touch the necklace she wore. "I see you kept my gift?"

Avery tugged her wrist out of his grip. "It wasn't my choice to keep it."

"Oh, Avery." Theo took her face in his hand. She glared at him. "It really didn't have to end as it had."

Avery moved away from him and back towards the door. "I think it ended when it should have."

Avery started to walk back in. "See you for our dance." The girl paused, waiting a second before stepping back in.

"Avery!" James waved the girl over and she smiled. Remus, Peter, Sirius, James, and Oscar all stood together talking. They made room for Avery as she joined in.

"We were wondering when you were gonna get off greeting duties," Oscar said.

"If I had to greet one more old person I might have avadad myself." Remus handed the girl a drink. "There's no alcohol in it, right? My gran will kill me."

"Nope, got you a safe one. We want you to leave this place for a while, can't risk anything." Remus said.

"I'm surprised she agreed to it honestly. She wouldn't even let me out during the summer."

"It's probably because my mum asked."

"Where is she anyway? I haven't seen her yet."

"She's around here somewhere." James looked around the room, finally, he found her talking to the Lupins and Andersons. "She's talking to the Lupins and Andersons."

"I'll go say hi later. Right now what I think is best is hiding." Avery had noticed Theodore walking towards her.

"What, why?" Avery didn't answer and she quickly walked off.

Theodore approached the group and smiled. "Gentlemen. You haven't happened to see Avery have you?"

Remus scowled at the boy. "No, we haven't."

"Really? Well, when you see her tell her I'd like to dance."

James stepped forward. "Even if we did we wouldn't tell her. Stay away from her Nott."

Theodore let out a laugh. "I'm guessing she didn't tell you what she needed to do to leave."

"Greet the guests."

"And dance with me, only one dance but one song could be what, 5 minutes?"

James felt his hands turn to fists. "Listen, Nott, she may have to dance with you but she doesn't like you. She doesn't love you. She may be told she has to marry you but she'll be of legal age when that time comes. She's not something you can own. She's a human being."

"How sweet, you care. I'll make sure you get an invitation when the time comes." Theo looked around the room. "There she is. I'll see you boys around later." Theo walked off towards Avery.

"I hate him with every atom in my body," Remus said beside James.

"Same here."

Trying to lighten the situation Sirius looked around the room for a distraction. "Oh look! There's my little brother. REGULUS!"

Regulus looked around for who shouted his name, meeting Sirius' eyes he sighed. He slowly made his way over to the boys. "Can you not yell?"

Sirius thought for a moment. "No. You've met James, Peter, and Remus. This is Oscar, he's a Ravenclaw."

"I'm a prefect Sirius, I know who Oscar is."

Oscar blushed. "I don't think we've talked before."

Regulus studied Oscar. "You're friends with Avery, she talks about you. You also stare a lot."

Oscar turned a deeper shade of red. Sirius looked between Oscar and Regulus. "Oh, OH! This is-" Oscar jumped onto Sirius, shoving his hand over his mouth.

"Sirius talks so much, don't you just wish you could sew his mouth shut sometimes?"

Regulus smirked. "Oh, all the time."

Theo and Avery had been dancing for 6 minutes. "Dear Merlin, did you choose the longest song to dance to?" Avery asked annoyed.

"Is it that bad to spend time with me? A year ago we snuck off and you loved to spend any minute you could with me."

"A lot changes in a year, Theodore."

"I still love you, that hasn't changed."

"You don't love me. If you loved me you wouldn't have pretended to like me."

"In the end, I wasn't pretending, Avery." The two locked eyes. "In the end, I did love you, I regretted what I did."

Avery could see some truth behind his words, but in the end, she couldn't love him anymore. The girl stayed silent. As the song ended she said goodbye and walked back to her friends.

I'm ready for a Theo redemption arc <3