we are the chasers of the light

       𝑖𝑛  𝑡𝑟𝑢𝑡ℎ ,    𝑏𝑎𝑟𝑡𝑦  ℎ𝑎𝑑  𝑏𝑒𝑒𝑛            out  with  the  intention  checking  in  on  an   arithmancy  tome   he  knows  wenlock  holds  completely   detained   for  the  most  part ,    but  managed  to  secure  in  incremental  steps  before  him  enough  times  for  him  to   mimic   up  to  a  barricade  at  what  he   knows   to  be  the  final  spell    —    but  it’s  casted  nonverbally  and   hidden   from  revealing  charms .    he’d  been   close ,    but  not   enough ,    and  he’s  headed  back  from  covering  his  steps  when  he  spots  another  body  around  the  hall .    tonks   certainly  isn’t  the   worst   voice  to  hear  from  it ,    and  barty  drops  the  stiffness  in  his  legs  to  saunter  over  by  him . ❛     professor  sprout  needed  an   extra  set  of  hands   with  a  few  mandrakes  sneaking  out  right  as  i  was  finishing  my  rounds .    ❜       the   lie   slides  out  easily ,    and  he  pairs  it  up  with  an   incredulous   look  down  at  edward .          ❛     what  are   you   doing  out ?    ❜

Ted relaxed at the sight of Barty stepping into his wandlight. Of all the people to run into, Barty wasn’t the worst scenario by far. Ted gave the boy a smirk as he approached. “Mandrakes trying to escape?” he cringed at the idea- Ted was generally one for herbology, but mandrakes definitely had taken the spotlight in some of his nightmares. “That’s a horrifying thought. I suppose your timing is charmed, then.”

His shoulders slumped at Barty’s question. “Rude of you to ask- you know I’m an awful liar.” He and Barty had worked together enough that the other boy knew his biggest pitfalls: being strict with people and lying. They weren’t close enough, however, that Ted wasn’t a bit embarrassed when he admitted “I had to write my mum,” 

“Brilliant choice.” Charity mused back with a light grin. She was positive Ted knew she would never do something awful - just something bordering on civil disobedience. It wasn’t really something worth being written up over. Especially when it was something she would have asked him to join in if it weren’t for his prefect status.

“A bedtime isn’t the worst. But it’s a curfew, they haven’t figured out how to make us all go to bed at the same time just yet.” She winked before taking a quick look over her shoulder. “Well, you could always say you are patrolling. The castle does have a more…unique aspect past dark.”

Ted laughed, maybe a bit too loudly for the time of night. “Fair point. Think I just have a harder time with it after coming back from break- readjustment period and all that.” He loved Hogwarts, but he loved being home equally so. It always felt like break had him home just long enough to get used to being there again and then it was back off to school for another week of adjusting. No matter how old he got, he never managed to get used to it.

“Patrolling is a much better excuse than sending a letter to my mum, isn’t it?” he laughed at himself. He never was good at thinking of things on the spot like that, not that it mattered. He didn’t particularly care if anyone knew why he was out of bed, much less Charity. She wouldn’t judge him. Tease him a bit, maybe, but that’s what friends did. 

            “  ye  must’ve  heard  some  awfully  tame  ideas  then  ”  she  shrugged ,  compared  to  a  turn  down  gardner  street  in  a  shopping  trolley ?  this  was  nothing .  “  am  good  ted ,  am  no  hungry  ”

Ted rolled his eyes. He wasn’t a stick in the mud by far, but he was not a fan of intoxicated people. He was a pretty chill person, and most drunk people... weren’t that. Like Mary, trying to slide down the bannister in a castle where some of the staircases moved. “You’re really turning down cookies? Pretty sure that’s illegal.” he teased. Maybe if he just kept her chatting long enough, she’d forget about the bannister altogether? “C’mon, Mare, why don’t we go for a walk instead? You can tell me all about your holiday.”

Andromeda stared at him, clearly uninterested.  “Charming.”  She wrinkled her nose, not wanting him to be given the satisfaction of the inner workings of her mind.  “You’re sure? Because it would be a real shame if it turned out any of them weren’t.”  Knowing the girls she roomed with, her dorm was likely to still be abuzz at this late hour.  Not that she minded, but she would still rather be there with her friends than here talking to him.  

“We both know you’re not going to write me up, so would you rather I just went ahead and did it?”  It wasn’t that she was afraid of detention, it’s just that she knew Slughorn would probably make her clean out the potions supply closet again.  “Or would you rather come up with some excuse as to why this ‘letter’ couldn’t have waited until morning?” 

Eyes narrowing, Ted frowned at Andromeda. “I’m too tired to tell what you’re implying, but I know I don’t like the tone of it.” He didn’t get why she was even bothering, prodding at him like this when they’d so rarely spoken prior. He was usually decent at reading people, but he did tend to have a harder time reading Andromeda. It unsettled him a bit, when remarks like that could be anything from a vague comment to rile him up or a threat.

He didn’t want to tell her. He wanted to write her up out of spite alone, detention be damned. It’s not like he’d never had one before, but those times he’d actually deserved it. Tonight, though? “Today was busy and I forgot to reply to my mum’s letter from this morning. I couldn’t sleep without sending it off.” Ted shrugged, “She’s a worrywart. Didn’t want her to wake up tomorrow without a letter from me.” He hated playing off his mother’s concern, but the last person he wanted to talk to about his muggle mother’s fears was a member of the Black family. 

"You can understand that, can't you?"

It wasn’t unusual for Astrid to be up and about after curfew. She either couldn’t sleep and needed to do something to take her mind off of the fact that she couldn’t sleep, or she was up to no good. That evening, it was the latter. Astrid never did anything to hurt people but she wanted to pull a prank on some of the slytherin boys. 

She was on her way back to the common room, her prank laid in place for the morning, when she bumped into Ted. The blonde raised an eyebrow as she saw him and she couldn’t help but laugh at the sound of his voice. 

“Are you sure that you want to know the answer to that?” Astrid asked with a raise of an eyebrow and a laugh. “Because I think the more interesting question is what are you doing out at this time?” She tilted her head as she looked up at Ted, “I mean - since when have you been so willing to break the rules, huh?” 

Ted deflated at Astrid’s response- half from relief it was her, and half because it definitely meant she was up to something again. “You’re right, question retracted. I don’t want to be an accomplice.” he chuckled. At least now he had someone to walk back to the common room with. Astrid was probably better at sneaking around than he was, anyway. 

“Come on, I’m not that much of a stickler.” he insisted. “There’s no fascinating reason, though, really. I just had a letter for my mum and some pent up energy, so I figured I’d take a walk and send it now so it’s there for the morning.” Ted shrugged. He kept no secrets from his parents, including what was going on in the wizarding world and he knew his parents were more worried about him than usual. It wasn’t much, but he made sure to send letters as often as he could. 

“So, is whatever you’re up to finished? Want to walk back to the common room with me?”

“None of your bloody business.” Corban shot back, voice aggressive and attitude testy. “I’m..patrolling.” While he didn’t enjoy being a prefect in most ways, there were some perks. Like on the job naps, picking up girls by getting them out of write ups, being able to roam without many restrictions. Unless you weren’t mildly careful about it, he supposed. “And what are you doing out of bed at this hour, tonksy? Have a little nightmare?” He mocked, walking slow ( at his very own pace ) towards the hufflepuff. 

Ted flinched back a bit at the tone of Corban’s voice. He rolled his eyes at the older boy’s answer- Ted didn’t pay enough attention to the patrol schedule to know if it was a lie or not, but all the same. “I feel like if you were actually just patrolling, you wouldn’t snap have to snap at me about it. Just saying.” he shrugged. Ted didn’t want to fight with Corban, especially when he could justly write Ted up for being out of bed after hours. And yet. 

“No nightmares yet, but I’m sure I’ll have some later with your face fresh in my mind, Yaxley.” 

“Do you actually want to know?” Charity questioned, teasing just a bit to leave a warning for her prefect friend. As someone who was light of foot, getting caught in the night wasn’t ever much of a concern for her. There was plenty of practice from being coerced from her room in the middle of the night by friends who wanted to walk the bridge, or take the tubes towards the very edge of the river along the ports. Just previously, she had found herself near the entrance of the Slytherin dungeon and made her way gently up back through the stairs and halls. “What are you doing out so late? You’re usually the good one.”

Ted let out a laugh at Charity’s retort. “Now that you mention it, you’re right. The less I know, the better.” He always liked Charity, and he found their personalities clicked more often than not. But he didn’t want to have to write her up for any prefect-unapproved activities she may have been up to before he’d bumped into her.

“Oi, I’m still the good one. I just maybe don’t approve with giving sixteen year olds a ruddy bedtime as much as I agree with all the other rules I uphold.” Ted said indignantly- all seriousness lost when he chuckled again. Maybe he was just a garbage prefect, when it came down to it. “I just had a letter home to send. Figured since I was awake, I might as well mail it so it could be there by morning.” 

Hestia had really been wanting it. She couldn’t sleep, couldn’t get her thoughts off of it. That’s when she decided to risk it. Coming out of the kitchens with an small basket full of blueberry muffins, she thought she was in the clear. Then a light was on her and she froze in fear, clutching the muffins to her chest and wincing. When she realized it at least wasn’t a professor, she let out a puff of air. Keeping her voice low as well. “Me? You’re the one with the light.” Then she saw it was Ted and groaned a little, a small look of please have mercy on me, crossed her eyes. “I really wanted these. I got too full at dinner, and yes i realize, ‘is this something you should be sneaking out for, tia?’ well, my answer is yes. I needed one. It was haunting my dreams.” 

Moving closer and batting her lashes a few times, she playfully offered a muffin. “A muffin in exchange for not writing me up? Plus, you’re up too buddy. I could ask you the same thing!”

Ted lowered his wand, recognizing Hestia’s voice. “I trip over my own feet in the daylight, you think I’d get on well in the dark?” he half-joked. His eyes widened at the basket of muffins he saw her holding as his light lowered. Ted didn’t have much of a sweet tooth, at least not like many of his classmates - but muffins were another thing. 

He chucked at Hestia’s explanation. Muffins were a valid reason to be out of bed if there ever was one. Maybe more valid than his own reason. “Well, if they were haunting you, perhaps I should write them up instead.” he teased. 

Andromeda was heading back to the Slytherin common room after one of her many late night “meetings”, if one could even call them that.  It was not unusual for her to be out of bed at this late hour, she had become rather adept at sneaking around over the last few years.  As she saw a light coming from the opposite end of the hall, she jumped back, crashing into a rather old set of armor.  Pulling her dressing gown tighter around her to hide any trace of what she had been doing, she squinted in the direction of the voice.  

“I suppose I could be asking you the same question, Tonks.  Don’t your little first years need a bedtime story?” Andromeda snarked at the boy.  This was not the first time the two had run into each other in the halls, and she was certain it wouldn’t be the last.  She knew that they could each easily send the other to detention for a week for a late night offense, but she also knew that he preferred to stay away from punishment.  “Well?” The look on her face was easily read, even in the dimly lit hall.  

Heartbeat regulating, Ted lowered his wand at the sound of the familiar voice. “Andromeda?” he asked, maybe a bit redundantly. It was late and he was tired, sue him. “My first years are all in bed, I’m sure. Sweet of you to ask, though.” everyone knew how passionate Ted was about looking out for his younger housemates and, despite the amount of people who teased him, it wasn’t something he found any shame in.

He wanted to say something witty, or just write her up and be done with it so he could go to bed. But Ted was always better with words on paper, and he knew even if he could gather the courage to write her up he’d only end up in detention right beside her. “If you really want to know, I was sending a letter.” Ted admitted, shrugging. 

open  //  @petrificusstarter·

            “  a  mean  you  sayin'  a  shouldn’t  try  sliding  down  the  bannisters  after  three  firewhiskys  just  makes  me  wanna  try  it  even  more ,  ”

Ted, eyes wide, shook his head furiously. “That is possibly the worst idea I’ve ever heard.” Sure, it would probably be hilarious- but she could also easily fall to her death. The stairs in this castle were nothing to fool around with. 

Getting to the owlery and mailing his letter went off without a hitch, much to his relief. It wasn’t until he was headed back to the Hufflepuff common room that he heard something from behind him. Ted jumped, clutching his wand tightly, pointing the light at the end in the direction of where the sound had come from. 

“Blimey, you scared me half to death!” he whispered urgently, “What are you doing out and about at this hour?”

☀ Do you think it’s possible 

( cis male | he/him/his | jordan fisher ) —— isn’t that EDWARD “TED” TONKS? yeah that is him, sitting there at the HUFFLEPUFF table with those other SIXTH YEARS. when sybill looks into that crystal ball of hers, she sees dog-eared muggle poetry books, a broken watch, a bouquet of daisies, unruly dark curls, hands with crooked fingers, bloody knuckles, and pastel painted nails, & an unwavering broad smile. anyway i’ve heard he’s pretty CARING, OPENMINDED, and DETERMINED. apparently he’s ‘FOR THE LIGHT’ and MUGGLE-BORN, but i’m sure that’s not related.