Pianissimo | Teddy

Theodore Tonks had skipped breakfast for the first time in god knows how many years. Instead of eating his usual heaping of blueberry pancakes and laughing over an intellectual joke with the rest of his housemates, he had spent the morning lying in his canopied bed - staring up at the ceiling, telling himself that he was incredibly ill and there would be no getting out of the room today.

At least, until he had forced himself to get dressed and grab a book from his trunk, telling himself that lying around in bed would get him nothing done. He had ever intention of avoiding everyone else in the Library if he must get up because of his own conscious. Snagging an apple from the center of the Ravenclaw Common Room’s coffee table, he bit into it and began reading the book. His less than steady walking seemed to be doing alright today, for he managed to make it a few floors without tripping and otherwise embarrassing himself in front of the school populous. About twenty pages, he looked up, realizing that he was nowhere near the Library, “What on earth-” He spun around in the hall. He had missed the proper floor a few corridors back and now found himself near the wing of abandoned classrooms.

Teddy was just about to turn back when a certain melodic sound caught his ear - it sounded like the piano...and it most certainly was coming from the room next to him. Shoving the apple between his teeth so it was properly held, he opened the door as quietly as he could and slipped inside. He was glad that the girl seated at the piano bench hadn’t stopped playing - either she hadn’t noticed that he had entered or she was too entranced with her own melody to care. The beautiful piano music swirled around Teddy - her emotion almost visible within the notes; each chord that she struck evoking a different resonating feeling in his very heart. Teddy felt with her: such rich and vivid emotion exuding from the keys.

Beautiful. He couldn’t think of another word for it. The way the dim light of the room and bright sunlight from the window seemed to hit her gently curled hair. The elegant stride of her fingertips across the black and white of the keys. Andromeda Black was so unlike her sisters in every way possible. Ted had known Bellatrix for a while, seeing as they both served as Seventh Year Prefects, and although Andromeda seemed to share some of the same physical characteristics, they were gentle and understated on her person. They were not terrifying, but like soft and elegant graces of true royalty. If the purebloods were ever supposed to be royal, they would have all looked like the middle Miss Black.

For more than a few moments, he stood there, one hand holding the book open to the page that he had stopped reading on, the other holding the half-eaten apple in the middle of the air, his mouth hanging open in a certain peculiar curiosity. It was then that the piece came to a culmination and he dropped both the book and the apple, crashing to the floor, as he began his own round of applause, “That-” He shook his head in disbelief, “Was incredible.”

---

TAG; @andromeda

NOTES; forgive ted and his perpetuity for being odd... XD

Elegance and grace was entirely all that he saw as she finished the piece; he could care less about the book and apple that were now on the floor probably covered with dust. It seemed, then, that Andromeda realized that there was someone else in the room and was obviously startled. Was that a blush on her cheeks? Surely the Black sisters didn’t blush, did they? They were staring at one another, neither saying a word in that moment, when Ted managed a smile, “Sorry, sorry-” He breathed, trying to calm her seemingly jumpy nerves. She really was like no one he had ever met.

In another instant, she had risen to her feet, “Oh god-” The words that spilled from his lips were nothing more than a whisper as he watched her foot catch on the leg of the seat. Without thinking, Ted - and all his lankiness - lurched forward his fingertips colliding with the sides of her shoulder as he attempted to steady her (he was quite surprised that he hadn’t managed to fall as well, considering his track record with staying upright was, generally speaking, subpar). He could feel the tautness of her body, as if she was used to holding herself so entirely still that even this slight movement seemed strange to her. Ted examined her face; this was the closest that he had ever been to Andromeda. There had been a bit of admiration from afar, but none of it quite felt like this. Realizing that he was staring and subsequently getting lost in her almond shaped brown eyes, Ted knew that he should draw back, “Careful, won’t you?” Offering a gentle pat on her shoulders, he withdrew a few steps, pretending that he was utterly absorbed in the window pane across the room.

She knew his name. By the stars above, she knew his name. Ted felt his heart beat a bit faster in his chest as he stared at her, careful brown eyes turned toward the sheet music that was upon the piano, “Yeah,” Silently he was cursing himself for not being able to think of anything more clever to say in that moment. He could only muster a measly yeah? If you were a character in a book, you’d have her swooning right now, he reminded himself, but it was really no use. For as much as Teddy read and loved books, he had always lacked the quintessential heroism that all the protagonists exuded, “Andy-Andromeda Black. I’ve seen you around school. Know your sister.” He gestured to the Prefect’s Badge that was on his jumper, trying to play it off as if he hadn’t seen her in the Great Hall and been so entranced by her fluidity and airs that he poured syrup all over his pants during breakfast a few months back.

“I shouldn’t have snuck up on you like that. Terribly rude,” Mentally he was cursing himself for being so stupid. Sneaking up on Andromeda Black while she was playing the piano...? What did he have? A wish to be forever known as that guy? She immediately snapped her mouth shut and Ted could only imagine that he was most assuredly creeping her out with his antics. Feeling slightly flustered, he managed to open and close his mouth a few times before words actually came through his lips, “I just heard it in the corridor and found myself incredibly-” He backed up ever so slightly until he realized that he was pressed against the piano, at which point he tried to cover up his lack of foresight by putting his arm up on the top as if he had been planning it all along, “How long have you been playing?”

---

TAG; @andromeda

NOTES; yeah, i’m not really sorry either if we’re being honest ;D

“Well, Just Andy. The pleasure is all mine.” The Ravenclaw boy said as he observed the smile that was on her lips. In some ways, she seemed to be mirroring his own emotions, although he was sure that hers looked far more controlled and natural. His was more of a spur of the moment excitement that he couldn’t hold back from his facial expressions.

“What?” Ted managed, gulping ever so slightly. Of course she was nothing like Bellatrix - Dromeda had to be the antithesis of her sister. Where Bellatrix had molded her life in hatred and anger, the girl that stood in front of him now seemed to blossom in grace and fairness. Truth be told, he found that the connection between them was very little - a simple shared last name. Bellatrix was not the one who had single handedly made him run into a wall when he was too caught up watching her read a book one afternoon in the Transfiguration Courtyard. Bellatrix was not the one who managed to make him laugh with her quirky smile two tables away at the Great Hall. No, all of those things were purely Dromeda. No, she was not like her sister, nor was she like any other girl that he had ever met, “We are all the same in the fact that we will never be the same,” He offered her a light smile, suddenly aware that he was acting as if he knew Andromeda far more than he did, “However, if it had been your sister in this room I’m pretty sure that she would’ve taken this fine opportunity to rip me limb from limb or something dramatic like she always threatens. She’s a joy-” A lopsided grin formed on his lips as he ran a hand through his already messy hair, “An absolute joy.”

For a moment, he was lost for what to say, but the words seemed to come to him in that instant, begging him to tell her that she was not defined solely by her sister, “You’re prettier than her, you know.” He breathed, his eyes still focused on the keys that he had touched by accident, “Bellatrix, I mean. She’s like a bat out of hell and you’re-” He furrowed his brow as he sought the words to explain the way that he saw her. Dear God, Ted, don’t say like an angel. Don’t say like an Angel. “Like an A-Dove.” Well, now he had done it, because that was so much better.

He watched as her fingertips drifted over the keys, almost like a tiny ballerina gliding across a stage - silence filled his ears, but there hung the undoubtable potential for something great. He found that he was smiling to himself as he watched her fingertips, his eyes trailing up her arm, until he met her eyes with his own, “I wouldn’t even know where to start.” Ted looked down at his own clumsy fingers and shook them ever so slightly, “I’ve never been very musically inclined. If you must know, my mother signed me up for trumpet lessons when I first went to primary school. The only music I managed to make was in the form of one screaming instructor who hated the way my G sharp sounded...she was also screaming because I managed to make the trumpet hit her over the head without so much as a move. What a way to find out that you’re magical.” He laughed a bit more, his fingers slipping from their position above the piano and hitting a few dissonant keys. His eyes darkened ever so slightly at the sound - Dromeda could play such beautiful music and he had nothing to offer but his clumsiness around a piano. Yes, you are certainly that guy, His psyche reminded him.

---

TAG; @andromeda

NOTES; *dead quinn*

Ted’s eyes met Dromeda’s and he was struck with the surprising realization that she was smiling too. Merlin, she really was nothing like the rest of the Black Family. The smile on her lips was the most beautiful thing he had seen in a long time - it seemed to reach her eyes. If only she wore it all the time...He ran a hand nervously through his hair, trying to look cool as he stared right past her ear into the light of the window - but he only succeeded in ruffling it into a disarray that was uniquely Teddy. Then he heard her words and his eyes were back on hers, “I-Uh-I-” Of course, he knew that no one was quite a match for Bellatrix, but if someone could get her to back down, surely it was her sister, “Thanks!” He managed to regain a little bit of his composure as he grinned again, stuffing his hands into his pockets. Slowly, he rocked back and forth on his feet

She looked like she was going to disagree for some reason, “I mean it, you know,” He carefully interjected, watching her eyes widen as if she was seeing some sort of phantasmic sight before her. And then she giggled - Merlin, what he wouldn’t give to hear her laugh like that all the time! There was a strange pleasure in being able to make Dromeda giggle. She seemed so delicate; exactly the kind of thing that he had always admired about her. Her sisters could be dangerous and vile, but she? She couldn’t. There was just something about her. He could see it in her eyes, “You’re welcome, Droms.” He grinned his lopsided grin again and tucked his head ever so slightly, as if he was embarrassed by the whole ordeal - which, Ted actually was. He had a tendency to be awkward around girls, and she seemed to be no exception. However, unlike the manner in which most girls took his compliments, she actually seemed flattered.

He watched carefully as she sat, leaving enough room on the side of the bench for a Ted-shaped person to sit comfortably. Was she inviting him? He struggled for a moment, debating whether he should sit or remain awkwardly staring at her from above when she spoke. The smile on her lips - however - was the deciding factor. Never had a girl looked at him like that; as if she was seeing him truly for the first time. Andromeda Black, you curious thing, you. He slid down next to her and angled himself ever so slightly to the right to look at her, “Dromeda-” Her name was a breathless whisper on his lips as he struggled to find his next words, “I have to tell you something.” Wrinkling his nose, he tried not to laugh, “I am the least coordinated person on this Earth and, I swear to God, this is going to be a disaster. But I am at least going to try it because you play it with such grace...” With that, he gave her a playful shove with his shoulder and faced the front, letting his fingers rest on the piano, “I’ll make you a deal. I let you teach me piano. And in exchange for the lesson, you have lunch with me next Hogsmeade Trip.” He was being bold - more bold than he had ever been in his life, but it was about time that he stopped groveling in self-pity, “Politics over ice cream and book-browsing post-lunch are always optional excursions-” He added, accidentally pressing a few keys of the piano and creating quite the stir with his nervousness.

---

TAG; @andromeda

NOTES; --