It's been three years since Celeste and Newt became best of friends, making Newt an honourable member of Celeste's friend circle.
It was their O.W.L year, and everyone were stressing out, except Celeste. She was sure that stressing out will be a disaster for her.
"Why are you not even a tad scared Fischer?! We have owls two months later!!" Helena exclaimed as she slammed her book down to glare at calm Celeste.
The students hanging out in the gryffindor common room glared at Helena in return.
"Because, unlike you, I was preparing from the starting of the year. I balanced my social aand study life." Celeste commented as she wrote something on her parchment.
"I think you should lower your voice, Helena. You might disturb the seniors." Newt commented quietly as he stared at his essay, trying to find something to write more.
"How was he even allowed in gryffindor tower Celeste? You didn't answered me earlier." Helena asked as she went back to studying her chapter of Divination.
"Because I am a prefect, and I promised him that we will study Transfiguration together. And also because he is an honorary member of our house." Celeste commented as she pushed her parchment towards Newt, who gave her a grateful smile.
"So, any of you deduced that what Leta is upto? Heard that she got into trouble." Helena asked as she stared at the chart in the book.
"No, it was because of that two gits she got into the trouble. Now do focus on your work, or else I will have to give you detention, and as a prefect I can give you detention." Celeste said as she stretched her limbs and kept her quill on the table.
"Yeah yeah, power abuser." Helena muttered as she tried to focus on her work, and not the people gossiping.
"Sup losers?" Riley Francis greeted as he plopped on the sofa beside Helena.
"Very great of you to join us Riley. Are you forgetting anything?" Celeste asked, sarcasm dripping on her tongue making Helena snicker.
"Uhhh- shit, I am really sorry! I forgot that I had essay to write!" Riley exclaimed as he sat up on the sofa.
"When was the last time you ever remembered anything I have told you? Because you never ever remembered." Celeste quipped back as she rolled her parchment after Newt passed it to her.
He was watching the conversation with an amused smile. He rolled his own parchment and stuffed his belongings into his side bag.
"I said I am sorry! I will start my essay right at this moment!" Riley exclaimed as he jumped off from the sofa and rushed towards the boy's dormitory.
"And I should head back to hufflepuff common room." Newt piped up as he stood up, and straightened his robes.
"I will see you out." Celeste said as she stood up and dusted her robes from imaginary dust.
They both headed towards the portrait hole. Students who knew Newt bidded him a bye.
"Thanks for helping me with this essay. I really appreciate it." Newt thanked Celeste, who gave him a warm smile.
"Its a no biggy. I should thank you for the puffskien you gifted me for my birthday. She is adorable." Celeste thanked him.
"Well I didn't knew what to gift you on your birthday. My mother was able to pull some strings." Newt said smiling and adjusting his side bag on his shoulder.
"Good night Newt. Just don't let others work you up, and you can drop by gryffindor common room whenever you want." Celeste said as she tucked her hair strand that fall in her face, behind her ear.
"Yeah, I will keep that in mind. And good night. All the best for the match tomorrow." Newt said as he waved Celeste and walked off towards the direction of his common room.
●○●○●○●
"This year is going to be our year! It's the last match of the season, and I want you all to try your best." Captain Traci spoke up loudly.
"Aye aye captain!" Everybody shouted their agreement.
"Do not undermine Ravenclaw, because they defeated Slytherins with a landslide. Fischer, Potter and Weasley, do your best and keep scoring." Traci said as he paced around the room.
"We won't let you down!" Three chasers said with a unison and high fived.
"Let's win this game!" Traci exclaimed and everyone cheered before heading out towards the pitch.
Sometime in the match, Celeste was zooming through air with the quaffle in her hand, dodging the beaters and opponent chaser left and right and soon threw the quaffle through the loops, scoring Gryffindor team yet another 10 points.
"Fischer has the Quaffle and is flying towards the goal post!!! AND SHE SCORED!! Score is 120 to 50!!" The commentator roared and Celeste pumped her fist in the air.
"You are doing amazing. Lets hope that David catches the snitch." Charlus said as he looked around the field beside Celeste.
"And I think he caught the sight of the snitch." Celeste said as she pointed out David going for a dive.
"WEASLEY SCORED ANOTHER POINT FOR GRYFFINDOR!" Commentator roared and Celeste flew towards the red headed girl.
"Let's score last time? With our formation?" Charlus asked grinning, and fixed his glasses.
"Let's go for it." Celeste agreed and all three of them flew up, with quaffle in Celeste's hand.
Celeste threw the quaffle to Charlus with a force, and Charlus caught it smoothly and flew towards the goal post.
One of the Ravenclaw chaser tried to knock quaffle out of Charlus' hand, but met with failure as Charlus threw the quaffle at Viona Weasley, who caught and with a speed of lighting flew towards the loop.
Celeste flew to the goal post, and waited for the quaffle to be passed to her, last link of the move.
Viona grinned and tossed the quaffle in the air, and hit it with her end of the broom. The quaffle sailed through the air, and landed straight into Celeste's arms, who threw the Quaffle through the loop.
"That was an amazing representation of PFW move!!! Or that's what they call it! And David Olivander caught the snitch!! Gryffindor wins the quidditch cup!!" The commentator announced and every gryffindor on the quidditch pitch went into celebratory mode.
Celeste found herself shouting with glee and a big mouth splitting grin.
"We won!!!!" Traci shouted amongst the team members and everyone laughed at the shouting done by the captain.
As soon as the team's feet touched the ground, they found themselves amongst the happy gryffindor crowd.
"You did it!! You won the quidditch cup!!!" Helena exclaimed as she hugged Celeste, who laughed.
"Yes we did it!!!" Celeste exclaimed as the crowd cheering grew louder and louder.
After the cup was handed to the gryffindor team, everyone was in double happiness as the party was taken to gryffindor common room.
Celeste deliberately stayed behind in the locker room, decided against of changing the robes. She was walking along the empty corridor, lost in her own thoughts.
"Congratulations on winning the cup." Someone spoke up as Celeste was walking alone.
"Merlin's beard Newton, do not ever do that again!" Celeste exclaimed as she kept her hand over her racing heart beats.
"I am so sorry! I didn't mean to startle or scare you!" Newt exclaimed apologetically, giving Celeste an apologetic look.
"Its alright. Just never do that again. And thank you. Want to join us in celebration?" Celeste asked as Newt kept up with Celeste's pace.
"Will your house mates not be angry or something because this is like your celebrations?" Newt asked as he fixed the gryffindor scarf Celeste landed him two years ago.
"Nah, you are an honourable member in our common room. They will be delighted to have you." Celeste said as they climbed the stairs.
"Kraken." Celeste said the spell, and the portrait opened, revealing the portrait hole.
"I still find it weird. Like Ravenclaw has riddle to answer, I have to tap the barrels in rhythm. Slytherin and Gryffindors have simple passwords. I just don't understand." Newt said as they walked down the portrait hole.
"That we have to ask to House founders. Now let's enjoy ourselves." Celeste said as she dragged Newt to the otherside of the common room where her friends were gathered.
"Why are you still in your quidditch robes?" Helena asked as she sipped on the butter beer.
"My whole team is in the robes, Ena. And I am channeling my inner lioness. Let me be." Celeste said as she took two butter beer bottle from the table and handed one to Newt who said a thank you as he took it.
"Newt boy, here was channeling an inner lion. Like look at the scarf! Where did he got one?" Paul asked ad he pointed at the scarf wrapped around Newt's neck.
"I lent him one back when we were in third year. I never asked him to give it back. So yes, it's his now." Celeste said as she opened her butter beer bottle.
"Wow, that's something. Are you sure it's just game spirits Newt?" Paul asked suggestively, wiggling his eyebrows, making Newt flush red at his face.
"Oh paulie bear, should I remind you of the Gryffindor vs Ravenclaw. You showed up with gryffindor scarf and Ravenclaw paint on your face. That was the greatest conflict I have ever seen." Helena said in sing song voice.
"Hush, my girlfriend was playing from the opposite team. I had to support both." Paul huffed irritatingly as he popped open the Bertie Botts every flavour beans.
"Exactly. Celeste might not be his girlfriend, but she is his best mate, like literally. Aside from Leta, Newt only hang out with her, no one else. And there is no bad thing in sharing the scarfs." Helena quipped as she took a sip of her butter beer.
"You all gossip the fuck away, I will be back in a moment or two." Celeste said as she turned around waving her friends and mingled with her quidditch mates.
"Aye Fischer, finally showed up." Potter spoke up as he draped his hand around her shoulder.
"Potter, I wouldn't miss this for the life. We actually won the cup. And seeing you all will not be here next year makes me sad." Celeste said as she raised her butter beer bottle.
"You will continue our legacy, I am really sure about that. And a little birdie has told me that our captain has put of really good words about you in books of our head teacher." Weasley said as she gulped down his butter beer.
"Oh nonsense. Let's not talk about who will be next captain. Surely no one can live up to Traci. He was so desperate to win this." Celeste said as Traci join them a moment later.
"Fischer, are you still not going to ask out that hufflepuff?" Traci asked as he gestured over the group sitting in a corner.
"What? No! He is my best mate!" Celeste exclaimed but her face gave her away as her cheeks turned scarlett.
"Uh huh sure. Your face, eyes and body language tells entire different story. Go and ask him out because he is not going to ask you out obviously." Traci said as a wide smirk took a place on his lips.
"I do not know what you are talking about. I am not having this conversation with you all." Celeste muttered as she gulped down her butter beer.
"Oh come on, I have seen you giving him 'oh I like you' looks so many time that we have forget the count." Potter spoke up, giving his signature grin.
"Shut the fuck up Potter. If I like Scamander, then you like wood too." Celeste said, raising her brow in challenging way.
"That I do, and she has already said yes to go with me to hogsmeade day after tomorrow, so step up your game please." Potter retorted, a huge smirk on his face.
"When did you do that?!" Celeste asked, eyes wide with shock.
"Just a moment before. Now I think you owe for undermining me." Potter said sticking his tongue.
"Oh so mature of you Mr. Charlus Potter." Celeste said as she rolled her eyes.
"Come on, go and talk to him. It's not like it would be end of the world, will it?" Traci said grinning widely.
"If he stops speaking to me or if it destroys our friendship, I will go rogue on you all, and it will be really ugly." Celeste warned before wiggling put of Charlus' grip and stalked towards her group.
"Got a time for us finally?" Paul asked raising his brow.
"Shut Paulie bear. I am here to borrow Newt if you are done with boring him with your usual boring talks." Celeste said, tilting her head to look at her group.
"Hey I don't bore!" Paul defended himself, clearly offended by Celeste's statement.
"Oh for sure. Newt, how about a walk through the black lake? I wanted to ask about some matters." Celeste asked, ignoring the looks thrown at her way by her friends.
"Ofcourse, why not. So umm..see you guys later?" Newt said, confused by his own statement.
"Oh you definitely will, even if you want to do otherwise. Now let's go, before they go on another rant." Celeste suggested as she nodded towards the portrait hole.
Newt waved towards the group before walking out of the gryffindor common room with Celeste by his side.
Celeste's quidditch robe swished behind her, as she walked and talked with Newt, who was interested in her view point about nifflers.
They were walking idly on the bank if Black lake, which was silent and no ripples in the lake. It was quite peaceful.
"So what you wanted to talk about? It must be important if your gryffindor friends were not involved." Newt asked as they sat on the grassy land.
"It actually is. I am scared of its outcome, but I won't be a gryffindor if I didn't take the risk and would beat myself if I didn't ask." Celeste said as she kept her stretched her legs and leaned her weight on her arms.
"What is it? You know how anxious I get if you just play around with your words." Newt said as he gave her a side glance.
"Don't get me wrong Newt, or don't let my words bother our friendship." Celeste began, and it got a reaction as Newt was now completely looking at Celeste.
"The years we had with each other, exchanging knowledge on creatures and curses and hexes. I don't know how, but I have started to feel something, which doesn't happen in friendship. Like something blossoming from friendship." Celeste continued as she avoided to directly look at Newt.
"What are you trying to say?" Newt asked, confusion evident in his voice.
"Of course you wouldn't know what I am trying to say. I like you Newton Artemis Fido Scamander. As in more than a friend that we are." Celeste said now looking directly into steely blue eyes.
The pupils of Newt's eyes dilated at the statement and his mouth formed an 'o'. "You-I...You mean as in romantically?" Newt suttered the question making Celeste smile a bit.
"No, hypothetically. Of course Romantically Newt. You don't have to reciprocate if you don't feel the same. I just wanted to tell you, rather than have guilt in future that I didn't told you about my feelings." Celeste said as she sighed and again looked at the vast lake.
There was a moment of silence and Celeste almost regretted it, and was ready march into common room and give her quidditch mates an earful.
"I-I fe...feel the same. I am not a brave one, and I was quite ashamed to feel the way I felt about you. We are best friends, and I thought it's like a forbidden thing. I think I am lucky that you actually brought it up." Newt spoke up after a long pause and a small smile flickered on his lips.
"You do? As in really or are my ears ringing?" Celeste stuttered as her pupils of yellowish green eyes became wide with shock.
"You certainly heard correct. We actually know who will be pants in this relationship, if you want to proceed with the courting. I would never be able to approach you." Newt said, blushing as he averted his gaze towards the lake.
"Oh my Merlin, you don't know how much I want dance around with that." Celeste admitted with a large grin and her face still facing Newt.
"I am still astonished that you really like me. I am the most introverted personality in this entire school. Your friends are only friends I have, except Leta ofcourse. My brother took a double take when I mentioned about the group of friends I have." Newt said, amusement lacing his voice.
"You may be an introvert Newt, but you are the most pure human being I have ever met. And my friends are your friends because they see you for who you really are. Not the rumours that are about your circulating in Hogwarts." Celeste offered before a comfortable silence settled between them.
"As we have a last trip to hogsmeade day after tomorrow, want to go out with me?" Celeste asked, grin not leaving her face, breaking the comfortable silent.
"Like you have to ask." Newt said, a wide grin now in his face as he looked at Celeste.
After a while they both strolled at the bank of the black lake, now with alter motive. Talking about their likes and dislikes and Newt asking her to spend the summer with him at Scamander manor in South Westminster.
At the end of the day, they approached the castle, fingers interlaced with each other's and blush settled on their cheeks with a content smile.
As soon as Celeste stepped in the common room after parting ways with Newt, she was greeted with questions.
"Potter you didn't tell them about anything, did you?" Celeste asked loudly over the questions thrown at her.
"Guilty as charged." Charlus said grinning with mischievous glint in his eyes making Celeste roll her eyes.
"If I wasn't in gleeful mood, I would have whacked on your head. You are worse than Viona." Celeste exclaimed before addressing the questions.
"Just tell us, did your precious Scamander said yes? Please say yes!" A voice amongst crowd was loud and clear.
"Well you already know the answer. But if anyone from this house teased him about this, I will have your head. Am I understood?" Celeste said sternly, but a grin on her face was visible.
"Wouldn't dream of it!" Someone exclaimed making Celeste roll her eyes. She walked towards the stairs of her dorm, when a hand draped over her shoulder.
"Well well well, what do I hear? Scamander and you are going on a date?" Helena spoke up, grinning like a child.
"Yes, something wrong with that?" Celeste asked giving her a grin in return.
"Nope, but I am sure I called it in our second year. I am a perfect match maker." Helena said grinning equally wide.
"Uh huh." Celeste said as Helena walked up ahead of Celeste with a mischievous smile on her face.
"Celeste and Newt, sitting under a tree!" Helena started singing, prepared to run upstairs.
"Dont you dare to finish the statement Helena!" Celeste warned her as she took a step up.
"K-I-S-S-I-N-G!!!" Helena exclaimed before rushing up as Celeste started to climb the stairs faster in order to catch her best friend.