fall into me | t. scamander

the winter ball

A/N: Raphael reference pic is attached above! Hope you like this chappie :) enjoy!!

———

Turned out that her anonymous suitor was none other than Raphael, her Slytherin Beater counterpart whom had apparently harbored a crush on Mei since her first tryout as Beater. As flattered as she was, Mei wasn't entirely sure whether she was up for the winter ball when her arm was just newly revived, not counting the fact that she still had lots to catch up on what with her missed classes in Defense Against the Dark Arts and Ancient Runes, but Kevin and Raina were ecstatic about the news and had pushed her to agree to Raphael's request despite it all.

The Winter Ball's approach meant that she and Theseus only had one week left together, those innocent hours of the morning stolen by their laughter echoing through the library walls as though they were secrets to keep. And Mei was a fool not to admit to herself that she was going to miss this, the moment where she and Theseus could exist with just each other, the time shared with soft giggles and snorts as they tried to keep it down so that they wouldn't attract so much attention.

"I heard you accepted Raphael's proposal," Theseus spoke up, interrupting their quiet flow of downtime.

Mei glanced up from her Ancient Runes book. She was deep in the middle of a lecture, but his words had been enough to pique her attention, "how do you know?"

"Word travels fast, especially when the said boy can't keep his mouth shut." Theseus leaned onto his arm and tilted his head at her, "do you like him? This Raphael?"

Mei blinked, "he's a good friend."

"Oh yeah? What's he done that's so good?"

A frown fell upon her face, "what do you mean?"

"Do you know him well?"

"Yes, and he's nice. He hasn't given me any reason to believe otherwise."

They stared each other down, stormy aquamarine clashing with opaque brown. Suddenly, the air formed a tense barrier, so thick one could cut it with a knife.

Finally, she saw Theseus's jaw twitch, "he's not what he makes himself out to be."

"How do you know that?"

"I—" he pushed his hair back from his face, "—just trust me. I've known this guy since first year. He's got issues."

"I could say the same thing about Autumn."

Theseus shot her a look, "you don't know her personally, it's different—"

"And you don't know Raphael personally—"

"I do—"

"Why are we even having this conversation?" Mei cut him off abruptly. She crossed her arms over her chest as her eyes narrowed in suspicion, "I don't think I owe you any answers, Scamander. Whether or not I decide to go to the Winter Ball with him."

"I didn't mean it that way."

"Sounded that way though."

Theseus sighed, "I don't want to fight, Mei."

"Neither do I."

It was in the stifling silence that followed that the auburn-haired young man sighed and murmured out, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to come onto you so strong, I just have a bad feeling about this."

"I think you're just overthinking it," as if on cue, the bell for breakfast sounded across the room and Mei took it as her chance to get away. She got up, shoving all of her things into her bag while ignoring the Hufflepuff prefect's stare, "anyway, I got to go."