Snarry-a-Thon21: FIC: Rushed Reactions Title: Rushed Reactions Author:Yuuko Other pairings/threesome: None Rating: G Word count: 5700 Content/Warning(s): None Prompt: No. 99: Snarry are married and teaching at Hogwarts. Their students don't know what to make of them since they never engage in PDA. Summary: A trio of Hogwarts students take on investigating a possible relationship between two of their professors after they see an article in the paper. A/N: A fluffy one shot.
“What?!” a shrill voice broke the usual morning murmur in the great hall. If it hadn’t been the voice that caused a disruption, then it would certainly have been the sound of crashing cutlery and goblets hitting the stone floor as three girls jumped up at the Hufflepuff table. The one sitting in the middle with big curly hair stood clutching the morning Prophet, flanked by her two best friends: one a Gryffindor and the other a Hufflepuff.
“What’s wrong?” the plump girl on her right side asked, bacon strip halfway to her mouth as she tried to scan the article on the cover of the paper.
They paid no mind to the exasperated prefect from the Ravenclaw table who was drinking coffee and attempting to banish the mess the trio had made. He had to leave his own breakfast to shoo the girls away from the broken crockery. He was used to them making a mess, but it was too god damn early for this nonsense in his opinion. Over the smallest of the three he could almost make out the headline.
“Good for him.” he chortled as he returned to his breakfast.
The words ‘The Boy-Who-Lived-Twice Marries!’ swirled across the front page zooming itself forwards and backwards across the top of the print.
Hayley Lancaster tore the paper open to page 4 for the rest of the article, her hands trembling as she tried to focus on the small print, but her vision swam in and out of focus. All around them others began receiving their copies of the paper and other shrieks of shock and giggles broke out around the hall. Clusters of students put their heads together to read the article to each other while others turned curious eyes on to the Head Table.
Professor Harry Potter took a sip of his tea and turned the page in the book he had brought to breakfast with him. His green eyes flowed evenly from left to right as he read his book, paying no mind to the excitement, though the gleam of silver on his left hand caught the eye of all the girls (and handful of boys) like a beacon. He was used to the scrutiny so he wasn’t about to indulge the student body so early in the morning.
Out of the corner of his mouth he murmured something to Deputy Headmaster Severus Snape, who seemed even less approachable than usual as Headmistress Minerva McGonagall giggled something at them from behind her napkin. Professor Potter leaned forward to look around the surly Potions professor and smiled indulgently at the Headmistress, ignoring the scoff that came from Snape.
“Did anyone know he was dating someone?” Hayley's friend Megan Clive said, trying to scrutinise the photo of their Defense Against the Dark Arts professor in the paper, while a second rasher of bacon found its way to her mouth. “This is an older photo of the professor from when he took on the teaching post.”
Potter was almost never in the paper these days; Headmistress McGonagall made certain no outside entities bothered the schools population, especially during the school year.
Sandra Morton looked over Hayley’s curly head and watched as Professor Potter returned to his book and gently nudged his elbow against Snape’s arm. She was surprised that the normally cantankerous man didn’t push him away; in fact, his face relaxed minutely as he returned to his morning tea. She would have been more focused on that had she not noticed the soft sniffs at her elbow. Snapping to attention, she grabbed her tiny best friend by the wrist and ran her out of the great hall, leaving Megan to collect all of their school bags.
She had no better place for them to retreat than outside into the courtyard in an alcove, but Sandra was determined to help her friend pull herself together before she met Professor Potter in her first class of the day.
“Hayley, darling, it’s going to be okay,” she said. She cupped her pointy little pink face between her brown hands, shushing her best friend. Sandra didn’t really know if Hayley’s feelings would be okay, but she certainly didn’t want to let her cry her heart out uncomforted.
Megan caught up with them at that point, floating the three bags behind herself while clutching a napkin filled with muffins to her ample chest. As she reached them, she quickly stuffed a half-eaten scone into her mouth.
“It was bound to happen, right?” she said as she tucked the napkin into her bag and turned to her friends, dusting off her blouse and hands. Megan wrapped her arms around Hayle’s shoulders, her face buried into the copious curls as she clung on her back like an oversized barnacle.
“He’s rather fit, he was bound to get snatched up by someone.” she spluttered a little as she tried to unstick hair from her lip gloss.
“But by who?” Hayley sniffed; her nose began to leak as her lower lip trembled. Sandra pulled both girls into her arms and they began to sway gently, Sandra and Megan sandwiching the sniffling Hayley between them.
“He-he-he isn’t dating anyone,” Hayley sniffled into Sandra’s sternum, whipping her nose into her grey and red uniform jumper.
“He’s our professor, love, he’s not going to announce that sort of thing,” Sandra soothed.
“We could find out.” Megan brushed the blond hair out of her way so she could look into Haley's face. “Snoop and see! It’ll be fun.''
It was these moments that reminded Sandra that their friend was always salivating for a tantalizing story, be it romance novel or gossip.
“But it said…” Sandra tried to prevent anything from taking off, but it was too late.
“Really? Should we?”
Sandra sighed; she might as well let them have their fun. She suspected they wouldn’t let her divulge what she had already deduced, or what they would have plainly read had they finished the article.
There was a chime overhead that made the girls jump.
“Shit!”They grabbed their bags and ran; they did NOT want to be late to their first class on Monday. Professor Potter might be one of their most tolerant professors but Potions Master Snape was anything but, and that’s where Sandra was headed.
“Ladies, do not gallivant around like a herd of hippogryphs,” Headmistress McGonagall called as they ran past her on the ground floor and split off: Sandra to the dungeons and the Hufflepuffs up the first staircase and then the second.
“Sorry, Headmistress,” they yelled back, and continued to run.
Sandra was extremely grateful that the Potions classroom was such a short run from the courtyard. It was never a good day for a Gryffindor to lose house points from the head of Slytherin. She slid into the back row right before the door to the classroom slammed shut, catching some lone straggler who still hadn’t caught on that it was always better to be early to Snape’s classes than right on time.
“Today’s potion will take the entire class period. Read the instructions carefully or you will not complete the potion in time,” Snape said in the quiet rough voice of a man who expected no nonsense to happen in his presence. “Begin.”
The sound of chairs scraping and students beginning the preparation of their ingredients was added to the crackling of tiny desk fires under cauldrons and the bubbling of water.
“Is my sister alright?” her desk partner asked as he handed her the jar of dry hibiscus petals. Sandra nodded, choosing to ignore the Slytherin so she could reread the potion directions in her book.
“You ran her out…” he said. She subtly kicked him under the table as she felt Snape's eyes on them.
“Shut it,” she hissed as she counted out eight shriveled red flower petals and began to crush them by rolling the pestle from her kit over them. “I’d like to not fail this assignment.”
“Is it about Professor Potter being married?” he pressed on, handing her the next jar containing a collection of little twigs that made a bell sound as he jiggled the container at her eye level.
“I said shut it,” she growled, snatching the jar from him. By now the entire class was listening, even Snape. “Hayley won’t be happy to hear that you’re gossiping about her.”
“Mr. Lancaster, Ms. Morton.”
Sandra almost dropped the jar in shock. She had lost track of Snape circling the room, but his coming up behind her shouldn’t have startled her as badly as it did.
“Detention.”
Hayley and Megan had trampled into Professor Potter’s Defense class with the grace of a stampede of elephants. So of course he was entirely aware of the moment they made it into his classroom falling over each other and huffing. It was a practical lesson day, so the entire class was standing against a wall in a huddle waiting for their turn.
“Thank you for joining us Ms. Lancaster, Ms. Clive,” Potter said. “Please get your wands ready and watch carefully what your classmates are doing. You will have a turn as well.”
There was a lot of giggling and laughter in the classroom as the students took their turn against a boggart that had taken up residence in a hatbox on the professor's desk. It was a testament to how cheery and comedic the Hufflepuffs could be as a unit, that the boggart gave up leaving its box after eight students.
“Excellent work, everyone. Clearly you are too much for this challenge.” Professor Potter’s grin was wide as he leaned against his desk, arms crossed. “Everyone who did have a go gets five points, and anyone who didn’t today will get a go next class.”
There was a cheer, and people began finding their bags in the pile by the door. “Ms. Lancaster, could you wait?”
She went up to his desk, unable to meet his eye. Behind her, Megan seemed torn between leaving with her classmates or waiting at the door. She made a vague hand gesture indicating she would be right outside.
Professor Potter was not a tall man, but Hayley was so petite that she had to look up to face him. He bent a little to seem less intimidating, kind green eyes trying to find her watery blue ones.
“Are you alright?” He flicked his wrist and produced a handkerchief for her.
She nodded, swaying slightly from foot to foot in discomfort. Rarely was she under this much scrutiny from him and honestly, aside from class materials, he had never asked her how she was feeling before.
“You’re usually one of the most animated students in this classroom, and earlier you seemed very upset.”
She took the handkerchief he offered her, feeling the soft cool fabric under her warm hands as she gnawed on her lower lip.
“I’m okay,” she said.
“Let me know if there’s something I can do to help. My office is always open.”
“Thanks, Professor.”
***
The highest Hogwarts tower was freezing in the middle of winter for their Astronomy lesson, but this was the last chance to get these calculations down before the season changed.
“Hayley, I think Professor Snape and Professor Potter are walking up from the gates.”
They were up in the astronomy tower with the moon hanging full and bright overhead to illuminate the entirety of the grounds. The three girls abandoned their telescope and looked over the walls to the walking path up from the school gates.
“What, where?” Hayley dropped her scroll of calculations, completely forgetting the assignment, and tried to pull herself up a little on the high walls to get a better look.
“Stop chattering about and return to your observations,” their professor called from the opposite side of the balcony, where she had paused in her rounds to help someone with their telescope. “You all better have marked down the positions, because your number will be off and I will be deducting points from your final grade,” she scolded and returned to the malfunctioning instrument.
“Is Snape carrying something?” Hayley asked Megan, who had turned her telescope downward and was trying to get a better look.
“It looks like Professor Potter’s godson.”
“Oh, is Teddy visiting, then?” A Slytherin boy whose name Hayley couldn’t place also turned to their group. “He’s in my little brother’s nursery school.” He grinned at the girls. “He’s come over a few times over the hols.”
Their work was completely abandoned by then, but they were too interested to care as they packed up.
“Does Professor Potter bring him over?” Megan asked, snooping for Hayley, who was trying to pretend not to listen.
“Yeah, or his Gran... and one time Snape did.” He laughed a little. “Scared the tar out of me to see him in the floo midsummer.”
“I’m Andrew Lester, by the way.” He introduced himself to the girls.
“My brother’s mentioned you,” Hayley realized. “Are you the Drew he shares a dorm with?”
“That’s me, got sick for the Astronomy lesson, so Professor Travers is letting me make it up today.”
Sandra huffed, noticing her two best friends had completely abandoned their assignment and knowing they'd be copying hers.
“Why was Snape dropping off Professor Potter’s godson?” Megan packed up her telescope and stuffed her homework haphazardly into her bag.
“It’s his godson, too, innit?” Drew scoffed “Well, not really, but what with Snape and Potter being together kind of makes them interchangeable for Teddy, don't it?”
“Are you sure?” Megan gasped. Sandra's fingers intertwined with Hayley, who swayed a little where she stood.
“Sure of what? Them being together?” he asked. The group started heading down the stairs, trailing behind the rest of their classmates. “I’d say so. Professor Snape’s got the earring that matches Professor Potter’s ring.”
“Earring?” Hayley paused. “Not a wedding ring?”
“I always find it so funny what muggle-borns don’t know.” Drew grinned as he began to lead the girls down towards the dungeons in the direction of his own dorm room. “Muggle-borns can be so sweet.”
Megan giggled.
“Potions masters tend to wear an earring rather than a ring or a pendant to match their spouse’s. They need to keep their hands free of possible contaminants in their potions, and a necklace could also break and fall into the cauldron, so it became a common practice for Potions masters to wear a piece of jewelry on their left or right ear, matching whatever hand their spouse wears their wedding band on,” he explained.
“Hayley!” a voice called towards them as they turned the final corner towards the Slytherin dormitory.
“You’re really deep in the castle for a bunch of Badgers,” the boy teased as he grinned at his twin sister and her friends.
“Excuse me, I'm a Gryffindor.” Sandra grumbled.
“You’re even more lost, Ms. Lion.” He gave her a playful wink that made her apple cheeks flush a deeper crimson, though she tried to play it off by fidgeting with her bag, pretending to look for something.
“Stop teasing my friends, Alex,” Hayley hissed at her brother. Identical blue eyes squinted at each other, one mocking, the other serious.
“She’s not complaining, is she?”
“And here I was thinking you ladies were a part of the Professor Potter fan club; you do have an interest in boys your age.” Drew turned to stand like a joint barrier between the girls and the portrait that led into the Slytherin common rooms.
“Oh, Hayls is.”
“ALEXANDER!” His twin sister hissed and aimed a kick at his ankle but missed him and caught the other boy instead.
“So you’re investigating.” Drew seemed unbothered by the kick, though he did shift his weight away from the curly-haired blond. “That’s friendship there,” he laughed and elbowed Alexander in the ribs. “Come on, it’s almost curfew and I need to nick something from the kitchen before then.”
There was a groan from the girls. They hated Astronomy night because it threw their meal schedules off to have to stay up so late in the cold.
“Goodnight, Hayley, make sure you wander back to your own dorm and not the Lion’s den, or Mum will be wondering about what you and your friend are getting up to.” Sandra turned a dark shade of red at the implication, though she couldn’t tell if Hayley even understood what her brother might be suggesting.
“I’m not the one who got detention for not keeping their trap shut,” she huffed over her shoulder as she walked off. Sandra was now certain that the jab had completely been missed. Thank god. She didn’t need Hayley to think too deeply about that, at least not at this moment.
It was early the next morning and the first Hogsmeade weekend of the new year. There would be no other normal reason for so many students to be up and about so early on a Saturday morning. The plan had been set the night before. Megan and Hayley had stayed up whispering to each other with the curtains closed around Megan’s bed, planning how they’d get more information. Sandra would of course follow them wherever they went, once she had served her morning detention in the library for Professor Snape. Usually they’d include her in their planning, but since she was missing half of the Hogsmeade Saturday, they didn’t feel like asking for her opinion on their scouting mission.
Perhaps if Sandra had been present during the planning, they wouldn’t have forgotten that Professor Potter’s godson was in residence. Both Hufflepuffs seemed surprised to see the little boy sitting at the head table between Snape and Potter, a spoon clutched in his right hand as he smiled up at his godfather.
“Why do you two always plan our weekends while I’m not around,” Sandra huffed into her cup of tea. The other Gryffindors had grown used to the two Hufflepuffs at their table so long ago it was not strange to not find the girls in their number.
“You’d try to stop us, that’s why.” Megan chewed on her bacon, a conspiratorial look in her green eyes. “Besides, you’d be so bored if we didn’t take you on adventures!”
Sandra snorted, highly doubting her life would be all that dull, though she would surely have far fewer detentions without them.
“Do you think he’ll still be the chaperon even with Teddy here?” Hayley was destroying a slice of toast in her plate, crumbling it between carefully manicured fingers. “I hadn’t thought about him swapping with another professor.”
“Probably; Teddy’s gone before.” Megan took a large bite out of her eggy bread.
All three girls looked up at the head table where Snape was now shaking his head at the little boy and cleaning the residue of something red and sticky from his mouth and cheeks with a napkin as the small face morphed itself to look more like a puppy snout than a little boy.
“You know Alex’s roommate is probably right about them.” Sandra put her teacup down to get herself a refill.
They watched as the two men and the little boy excused themselves to the table, Snape stopping behind the headmistress’s chair and saying some parting word to her before they left the Great Hall.
“Hayley, you know no matter what, he’s not going to be interested in you,” Sandra said, more to her teacup than her friend.
“I don’t care!” Hayley growled. “I want to know for sure.” She got up suddenly and followed the professors, her curls bouncing in her wake as she left the hall.
“Megan...you read the entire article….right?”
She paused, mouth open and loaded syrupy fork on its way to her mouth. Her lips pulled together in a thin line as she dropped her fork onto the plate.
“Yeah.” She picked up her glass of pumpkin juice and swirled the liquid around so she had something to do with her hands. “After she fell asleep last night on my bed...But you know she needs to see things for herself.” She drank the last of her juice and set the glass down with a definite thunk. Her large eyes were a little shiny behind her round glasses as she pushed the remains of her breakfast away.
“Isn’t it kinder for her to see that she doesn’t have any foundation for the crush rather than trying to convince her out of it?” Her voice was soft and mournful as turned to hike her short legs over the bench one at a time to get up.
It was the argument at breakfast that led to the new stake-out situation. Hayley had immediately collected her winter cloak and was one of the first students heading out to the village. Technically the rules said that the students were to travel in pairs at the very least, but she was so put off with her friends she didn’t even think of waiting. How could Sandra be so mean, she sighed, didn’t she understand? She was a girl, she should know what a girl’s longing heart was like. But no, she had to be pragmatic, serious, practical Sandra. Hayley was so distracted by her whirling mind that she walked into the back of someone in the snow-covered path.
“Whatcher, Ms. Lancaster,” a warm voice chuckled as she was caught by the arm and kept upright.
“P-Professor Potter.”
He let go of her wrist and smiled down at her.
“Where are your friends, Ms. Clive and Ms. Morton?”
“W-well…” She was saved from having to answer by the little boy that came barreling up to them and slammed into Professor Potter’s midsection, making him release an oomph.
Professor Snape was following the little boy back down the path at a slower pace, clearly content with keeping an eye at a few yards away as the little boy ran off again, this time to throw himself into a snow drift and be lifted out by the tall thin man. The little boy released a shriek of delight at his legs dangling a few feet from the ground and wiggled out of the grasp to land on the snowy path and run full speed at his godfather again.
“Uncle Harry, can we get candy?” He grabbed onto his godfather and began yanking him farther down the path.
“Did you ask your Uncle Severus yet?” Harry squatted down to be level with the little boy. “Remember, your Nan left your pocket money with him and not me.”
“Awww.” The little boy dropped the hand he was holding, turned, and put his small hands on his hips. “Uncle Sev-russ,” he said with all the seriousness the four-year-old could muster in his high voice.
“Would you like to join us on our walk until your friends arrive?” Professor Potter turned back to Hayley, who had momentarily forgotten she was standing alone with her professor. Her face felt warm as she nodded and fell into step with him and then with Snape, who appeared to have been waiting on Professor Potter.
“Ms. Lancaster.” The pale thin man acknowledged her.
“Hello, sir,” she responded. It was a common practice of the student body to avoid him at all cost. War hero he may be, but he had a legendary reputation of hard and serious punishment for rule breaking.
“Ms. Lancaster will be joining us for a bit until her friends arrive.” Professor Potter smiled. “It appears that they miscalculated what time they were meant to meet up.”
“Yes, that can happen when someone receives detention,” Snape said, and Hayley could have sworn she saw a small smirk pull at the thin-lipped mouth. Hayley hadn’t received the entire story of why Sandra had received detention from Snape, but knew it was her brother’s fault somehow. She did appreciate that Professor Potter was covering her own rule-breaking by inviting her along with them.
It was an enlightening morning to join the professors on their patrol, with the little boy bouncing around between them. Occasionally he would grab onto each of their hands and demand to be swung up between them. There was a slight twinge of nostalgia in her heart as she watched the trio a few paces ahead of her. Out of admiration for her voluminous ringlets, the little boy had morphed what had been an identical haircut to his godfathers’ to look just like hers, minus the clips that were keeping it out of her face. He bounced impatiently beside his minders, complaining that he was hungry, and asked for lunch, which the adults agreed to.
That’s how Hayley found herself sitting at a booth in the Three Broomsticks across from her Potions professor while the object of her affection escorted the little boy to the loo.
“I’ll be certain to keep an eye out for your cohorts Ms. Lancaster.” The rough voice startled her, she had been so deep in thought about how bizarre this entire outing had become.
“Thank you.” She tried to smile, but found that it was almost impossible in her current state of mind. Earlier in the year she would have given anything to spend the day with Professor Potter going around the village and window shopping with him, but now she felt like a teenager out with her parents and baby brother. At least at home she could tell her mum and dad that she was going off with her twin brother while they minded the baby, but no luck here, and even if she did try to get away she’d be leaving the professor behind.
She tried to avoid his black gaze as he scrutinized her. There were rumors that he could read minds, and that was not something she wanted to confirm for herself, especially if these two men were together and she was secretly pining for the younger one.
“Hayley, in trouble already?” Madam Rosmerta laughed as she approached the table.
“No. I’m just joining the professors for a bit today.” She wished the ground would swallow her up. Of course that’s what it would look like to anyone who had seen them walking around together. She’d been so excited to follow Professor Potter around that she hadn’t considered how strange it looked from the outside. At that moment the little boy bounced into her side of the booth.
“Hi Ms. Rossy!” He sat up as tall as he could beside her, his short legs kicking out, making their booth bench jump a little under her. Hayley suspected the kid would no doubt crash at some point based on what she had seen in the past from her baby brother, and then one of the professors would be forced to carry him around like a small sack of potatoes.
“Hello, Little Teddy, what are you having today?”
“Apple Juice and a cheese toasty please!”
“An excellent choice young man...and for you Professor, what are you and Harry having today?”
“Two coffees, black for Harry and with cream and sugar for myself, as well as two shepherds pies.”
“And Hayley?”
Hayley felt put on the spot; she wanted to seem adult with the professors but she realized her choices were more in line with the excited four-year-old at her side.
“A cream soda please, and some chips.”
She spent the meal eating silently and watching the professors interact. Though the Potions master was clearly keeping an eye out for rule-breaking amongst the population of the students that were coming and going from the pub, Professor Potter was helping Teddy draw his day out for his Nan in a journal that turned out to be filled with crayon drawings in a scribbly hand. The little boy had shown Hayley his drawings with pride, taking time to explain each one to her.
It was the drawing that the little boy showed her of his family that solidified the thing she had been attempting to ignore the entire day. The world from the eyes from a four-year-old was a simple thing.
A big red circle surrounded his most important people under a big smiling sun. A person with long brown coloured hair and a triangle dress with a four legged orange thing at her feet was holding hands with a smaller figure with curly pink hair. The next figure in the row was also holding hands with the little pink haired one. This she understood to be Professor Potter, though he was bigger than the other figures and had scribbled black hair and big round things that she guessed were his glasses. He was holding hands with a black figure with a flowing black cape. All four figures had big smiles on their faces to match the sun overhead.
She looked up from the sketchbook to glance at her professors while the little boy tried to tell her a story of the family cat, named Ginger.
Hayley understood what the little boy saw between the professors: Potter and Snape, Left and Right, Green and Black. They felt like a set somehow, in a way she hadn’t noticed from across the Great Hall. That was the most relaxed interaction she had ever seen them in.
Now she wondered how she had missed how they seemed to function as a single entity when they sat together. Their shoulders were touching as they sat side by side. Snape’s head was turned to meeting Potter’s eye as he said something softly to Potter, who seemed to find it amusing. A small pull of lips showed that the surly professor was smiling back before he returned to his food, picking up his fork once more with his left hand and scooping a final bite of his meal. Their dark heads bowed closer as Snape listened intently; Potter giggled something in his ear, mischief sparkling in his green eyes.
The world they were in had cut out all others for a moment as they met each other's gaze; someone could have dropped a Weasley banger in the room and they might have not realized. Hayley was strongly reminded of her parents. She’d seen them this smitten with each other before, joking and teasing one another, though she knew her father to be very serious and her mother to be a dreamy romantic.
Snape's long elegant hand put down the fork again and picked up his coffee mug. His right hand lay absently on the table between himself and Potter, who moved to rest his own left hand over the pale wrist as he leaned back, voice raised a little more in excitement.
Hayley sighed wistfully without realizing, and twitched in embarrassment as she met the sharp black eyes of the Potions master appraising her momentarily before returning his attention to his partner. She was sure she wasn’t imagining the pink tinge forming over the sharp cheekbones as Snape was once more absorbed in Potter’s story. He brushed the curtain of black hair away from his face and tucked it behind his ear, revealing what Alex’s roommate had told them about: a small cuffed silver hoop adorned his ear, with a similar pattern as the ring adorning Professor Potter’s left hand.
“Ms. Lancaster, I believe your companions have arrived.” Professor Snape startled her and she turned to look out the window to her right, where, sure enough, Megan and Sandra stood bundled up and gaping at them.
“Off you go then, enjoy the rest of your day.”
She grabbed her purse and coat and shuffled out of the booth once little Teddy let her.
“Can we play tonight? You said you’d play,” he pouted.
Hayley wasn’t sure she had agreed to that, but figured she must have been lost in thought because she realized that she had also drunk and eaten her order with no recollection of doing so.
“Sure, Teddy, if the professors let you sit with my friends and me we can play after dinner.”
“YES!” he cheered, throwing his arms around her again. She ruffled his curls as she did with her baby brother and excused herself from the professors, pausing to thank them for lunch and for letting her intrude.
“Our pleasure, Ms. Lancaster.”
She burst out of the Three Broomsticks, grabbed each friend by the hand and took off running.
“Did you really just have lunch with the professors?” Megan squealed. “Oh my goddess, tell me everything.” She quickly ran out of breath, but her enthusiasm for the good gossip wasn’t hindered.
“Did you get in trouble?” Sandra asked, shaking the bruising hold from her arm and instead interlacing her gloved fingers with Hayley’s bare ones.
“No, I didn’t, and yes I had lunch.” Hayley dragged them into Honeydukes, mind still reeling from the experience. “And...you were right.” She stopped behind a display of Ice Mice. “They’re together.” She frowned a little, looking off in the distance and too embarrassed to make eye contact with her friends. “And I’m sorry I didn’t want to listen, but I’m glad Professor Potter’s happy.”
“Is he?” Megan swooned. “I mean we wouldn’t know by looking at them, would we? But the article did make it sound so romantic.”
“Did it?” Hayley turned suddenly to look between her two friends. “I-I guess I didn't finish reading it.” She deflated a little. “And you can tell, at least if you really watch them up close, when it’s mostly just them.”
Sandra fiddled with the end of one of her twists, “We wanted to tell you, but you wouldn’t really listen to us.”
Hayley closed her eyes and took a deep breath, in through her nose and out through her mouth.
“I’m sorry, I just got carried away.” She took another deep breath and felt better. “But he’s happy, and I got to see into their little world, and yeah...I’m glad Professor Potter is happy.” She felt the corners of her eyes prickle. “And that’s good enough for me.” She tried not to cry; more deep steadying breaths sort of seemed to help.
“Come on Hayls, the key to a broken heart is lots of chocolate.” Megan gave her a squeeze and pulled her friend along the aisles and aisles of sweets. Behind them Sandra snorted with laughter. She was willing to get Hayley anything that would make her feel better.