A/N: Chan-chan! Those of you who know me, hail my first ever Harry Potter fanfic! Those of you who don't, welcome aboard! And a special welcome to RACHEL, whose Christmas present this is. Don't fuss, RACHEL, nobody's going to be able to stalk you by your first name alone. I would also like to state here that Rachel is responsible for the characterisation of Albus. She wanted him evil, so I made him evil. Don't blame me; she's like that.

This is set several years after the final scene of Deathly Hallows, so the characters from the series (Harry, Susan Bones, etc.) are all in their forties or thereabouts, Teddy Lupin is in his late twenties, and Harry, Ron, Hermione and Draco's children are all about twenty.

Merry Christmas, everybody!

Teddy Lupin lowered his binoculars and wiped the rain from the lenses. Though he didn't let it alter the calm, efficient motion of his hands, he was cursing inside. Finally, after months of effort, of careful bribery, of shivering on street corners and tailing wizards in pursuit of fruitless leads, here was the evidence he needed. Playing out right before his eyes! A gift! And he had forgotten his camera.

He pressed the binoculars to his eyes once more. The stately, swaggering house in Grosvenor Square was protected against almost every magical means he could have employed in order to spy on it, but of course no Malfoy would think it worth defending against a Muggle invention – if they thought of it at all. Licking his lips, he edged to the side as the object of his focus moved out of his field of vision. A second later he had him in his sights again – had both of them. There was no spell he could cast without all hell breaking loose, but at least now he'd seen it with his own eyes. This case had been starting to feel more and more like a wild goose chase.

He stared at the back of the silver-blond head as its owner bowed over his desk. Scorpius Malfoy. Teddy's lip curled. Like grandfather, like father, like son, if family anecdotes were anything to go by. Petty crooks, the lot of them. Scorpius finished writing and passed a sealed envelope to the man standing in front of him. A man with a young face, pleasant enough, but a coldness about the eyes.

Albus Severus Potter.

'Got you,' Teddy breathed. Albus inclined his head, said something, turned and left the room. Scorpius leaned back in his chair and stretched.

Teeth chattering, Teddy pulled his trench coat around himself and set off down the street, pulling a mobile telephone out of his pocket as he did so. Technology wouldn't work in the Ministry itself, of course, but his employer should have left by now...

The phone rang four times before it was answered. A woman's voice, deep and measured, spoke.

'Susan Bones, head of magical law enforcement. Who is speaking, please?'

'Miss Bones,' Teddy said, scarcely bothering to hide the grin in his voice. 'We have liftoff.'

He kept an office in Diagon Alley, where anyone serious about business set themselves up. It was closer to the Knockturn end of the street, and was more gloomy than shabby. He had always been like that, Teddy reflected, glancing at the bronze plaque on the door – Edward Lupin, Private Detective – before shouldering his way in. Maybe if he kept a well-lit reception area, with a roaring fire and plush red chairs for his clients to rest their fat behinds on, he would have the ministers in muttering jovially about a little spot of private bother they were sure he could clear up for them, and would have established what they called a 'network.' There was velvet in the office, but it was dark plum. He burned black tapers, and rarely lit the fire.. The human brain functions better a few degrees lower than the temperature the Ministry liked its offices. So they used him, but didn't trust him, and the gold jangled into his vault in recompense, and Teddy, insofar as was possible for someone of his disposition, was perfectly content.

As he stepped into the hallway, he morphed his features from his disguise back to their true shape – that is, the shape which made him recognisable as son of Remus Lupin and great nephew to Bellatrix Lestrange. As he opened his eyes, blinking, he saw that the woman he had spoken to on the phone was already standing punctually outside the door to his office.

'Miss Bones!' he exclaimed, adopting his being-civil-to-clients voice and extending his hand for her to shake. 'Good afternoon. I apologise for keeping you waiting. Please, come in.'

He led her into his office and sat down behind the desk, steepling his fingers. Susan Bones sat down opposite him. When her mother had been head of Magical Law enforcement, she had been the picture of severe efficiency. In the same position, Susan was blonde, perfectly coiffed, immaculately made-up and just as intimidating. No grey showed in her highlighted hair, but her face looked a little haggard.

'Well, Mr Lupin?' she said, without preamble. Of all his clients, she was one of those he liked best. 'You reported a breakthrough?'

'Yes indeed,' he nodded. 'Today I observed Albus Potter actually in the company of Scorpius Malfoy. In his house, up in his private study. Clearly in confidence. They're obviously up to something, just as you suggested.'

'I see.' Susan Bones gave the shadow of a smile. 'So you're not going to give up this case as a bad job, then? Now that you've seen proof?'

'I never give up a case until my client gets tired of paying the cheques, Miss Bones,' Teddy said. He sat up straighter in his chair and spread his hands on the table. 'Now, obviously from this point the case still presents several serious difficulties. First of all, though it's pretty well an established fact that young Scorpius is up to no good, your department has never managed to pin anything on him, so even if we do get concrete evidence that the two of them have met, it won't necessarily prove anything. Second, I'm sure I don't need to remind you that this is Albus Potter we're trying to accuse.'

'I know.' Up until this moment Susan had remained dispassionate, but now she looked away, her face troubled. 'I hate to be the one…who'd have thought it of Harry Potter's son?'

'Who'd have thought it of Remus Lupin's?' Teddy riposted dryly. Susan looked at him and laughed, but it was a sad sound.

'Indeed,' she said quietly.

Teddy shrugged. 'I stay within the law. More or less. It's what makes me useful to you when you can't go to your Aurors.'

They sat in silence for a few moments. Then Susan spoke up again.

'You said if we get some evidence.'

'Ah,' Teddy said. 'You picked up on that, did you? Well, you see, I was at the Malfoys' property in Grosvenor square, checking for routes in, good angles for cameras and so forth, and as I was looking through the window with my binoculars, Albus himself appeared as I told you.'

'And?'

Teddy smiled sheepishly. 'I had forgotten my camera.'

There was a pause.

'I suppose I lose my next month's bonus for that,' he said.

Susan roused herself with a shake of the head. 'As a matter of fact, Mr Lupin,' she said. 'I don't think it matters much either way. This information is useful to us because it provides us with a definite lead, but even if you had managed to take photographs, I'm fairly certain they would have been useless as evidence. This is, as you said, Albus Potter we are trying to accuse. And there is the fact that you are an independent and not entirely reputable agent. If we tried to make an arrest merely on your say-so, I expect we'd be laughed out of court.'

'True.' Teddy grimaced. 'So, what's your plan?'

'I'd like you to go out again, Mr Lupin, and do a little more detective work. But this time, if you wouldn't mind, I'd like you to take a partner. Someone whose word has more weight. A qualified Auror.'

Teddy looked at her in surprise. 'You told me you couldn't go to the Aurors. You said they wouldn't spare a man to investigate someone who didn't even have a criminal record. You said you didn't want it known that you were investigating Potter.'

'And all that would be true,' Susan agreed, 'for an established Auror. But I've got us a new recruit. I put the good word in for Hugo Weasley.'

'Hugo Weasley?' Teddy repeated. She certainly had him on the hop today. 'Ronald and Hermione's son?'

'Yes. He's fresh out of Hogwarts. Took a desk job in the Auror office, hoping to get promoted. That's all closely linked to my department, so I was able to step in. I expect you'll remember him?'

Teddy's brow furrowed. 'Vaguely. It's been a while since I visited. But seriously, are you sure he's right for the job? He'll be a close friend of Albus's, surely? Their parents are like brothers.'

'He's keen to prove his friend innocent and protect him from scandal,' Susan said, 'which is why he won't breath a word of this assignment to anyone until it's over – which is exactly what we want. And he owes me a favour. Well, there you have it. He's a little green, but it's the best I can do. Happy?'

'Very,' Teddy said grimly. 'When can I meet him?'

Three days later, he was standing outside the Leaky Cauldron, waiting. He had ditched his sombre trench coat in favour of jeans and a sweatshirt, and had reassembled his features into a slightly more laddish, less angular version of himself. The less this new Auror twitched around him, the better.

His phone rang and he brought it up to his ear. 'Miss Bones?'

'Mr Lupin. Would you tell me where you are, please?'

'Outside the Leaky Cauldron, like you said.'

An impatient sigh. 'You've changed your face again, haven't you? I can never recognise you when you do that.'

'Just trying to make myself presentable,' Teddy said apologetically. 'I'm the one in the dark blue jeans. And with the stupid hair,' he added as an afterthought, sprouting a turquoise Mohawk as he spoke.

A moment later he spotted Susan between the heads of the hurrying shoppers. She was walking with her hand on the shoulder of a gangly youth, her head inclined, talking, but he couldn't hear the words. She looked up, and he gave a crooked smirk and waved.

His eyes slid over her exasperated expression and came to rest on the boy beside her. He was considerably taller than her, with the burly, round-shouldered look of many adolescents. He had a round, boyish face, grey eyes, a dusting of freckles and flaming red hair.

'Ah, Mr Lupin!' Susan called, bustling up to him. 'Found you at last! This is Hugo Weasley.'

'Hi, Hugo,' Teddy said, pushing himself of the wall and extended his hand. 'I'm Teddy Lupin. I remember you now; you look like your dad.' They shook hands.

'It's been seven years now, hasn't it?' Teddy continued. 'So that would make you…?'

'Three years out of Hogwarts,' Hugo said breathlessly. Teddy had been going for friendly and accessible, but it seemed he'd already caught the boy on the wrong foot. Though he worked discretely, Teddy had a reputation among those in the business. Maybe he should have just stuck to it.

'Well,' Susan said, glancing nervously between them, 'shall we go in and have a drink then?' She spoke casually, but Teddy noticed her glancing at the clock over the doorway.

'Is that really necessary?' he asked. 'I'm sure you want to get on.'

Susan dropped all pretence and looked him straight in the eye. 'Yes. I don't want you scaring Hugo off. Or introducing him to your nefarious ways too early on.'

'I don't eat people, Sue,' Teddy drawled, with a grin that bared every one of his teeth. He caught Hugo staring and winked. Hugo ducked his head.

Susan sighed. 'Alright, then. I've got a lot to do this morning, so I'll leave you boys to it. Just…' She met Teddy's eye and seemed to decide that there was more than could be prohibited in a few sentences. 'Well, good luck.' She turned and disappeared up of the street.

Teddy watched her out of sight, then turned sharply to Hugo, who jumped. 'So,' he said, eyeing him keenly, 'do you want to have a long leisurely drink and get to know each other like Sue suggested, or just get straight down to business?' He raised his eyebrows in a way that dared Hugo to answer, I don't mind.

'Uh…straight down to business,' he said breathlessly.

I think I can work with this kid, Teddy thought.

'Great,' he said out loud, losing the Mohawk again. He had the satisfaction of seeing Hugo gape. 'We'll just grab a shot to toast the investigation and then go to work.' He reached for the door handle, but then stopped. Hugo was still staring.

'There's something you're bursting to ask, kid. What is it?'

'Are you really a werewolf?' Hugo whispered.

Teddy barked a laugh. 'That disease can only be transmitted through bites. No, I'm just a normal human being like you. Come on, let's get that drink.'

He pushed his way into the tavern and grabbed two tall stools at the bar. 'Two firewhiskeys,' he said briskly, slapping a galleon onto the counter. The spirits arrived, dark and flickering ominously in their conical glasses. Teddy picked his up and raised it to Hugo.

'To a smooth-running assignment then,' he said, and drank. The firewhiskey scorched hearteningly down his throat. He coughed once and set the glass down.

'Oh, and by the way, Hugo,' he said. Hugo was still sipping cautiously, but at the sound of his name he stopped and looked up.

'Yes?'

Teddy ran a finger round the rim of his glass, choosing his next words carefully. 'You do realise…that we are now mounting a criminal investigation against Albus Potter? If it comes to it, can you turn evidence against your childhood friend?'

'Al's been…different lately,' Hugo said slowly. 'We were really close friends when we were small, but he hasn't really talked to me for ages…'

'And?'

'I want to find out what's up with him. Maybe help him –'

'Maybe get some leverage?' Teddy suggested slyly.

'Huh?' Hugo said. Teddy grinned and shook his head. Maybe the boy was still too innocent for such subtle allusions to ulterior motives, but Teddy doubted it was easy to grow up the best friend of the son of the Boy who Lived. Especially if he then went on to ignore you in later life. Maybe Hugo wouldn't mind putting himself back on Albus's radar – either by warning him of impending scandal, or exposing him to the same thing.

'And what if it turns out he is planning something with Malfoy, and you turn him in? What about the family?'

'Well, of course that won't be very pleasant…but I'm in the Auror office now.' Hugo stuck out his chin. 'If someone's doing something they shouldn't, I have to turn them in, don't I?'

'Yes, you do,' Teddy agreed. Just don't go applying that rule too zealously to me, young man. 'And what about Scorpius Malfoy?'

Hugo shrugged. 'Two years below me at school. Don't know him.'

'Fabulous.' Teddy laid both hands flat on the bar and pushed himself to his feet. 'Let's go.'

Back in the rainy street, Teddy swiftly gave his instructions.

'This,' he said, producing a slim silver box from his inside pocket, 'is a Muggle digital camera. We wizards have cameras of our own, of course, but I prefer this one because the photographs can be instantly transmitted if you have the technology, and because they're stored in a way that most wizards don't understand, which means they'll have a harder time destroying them if you're caught. Here's the button you press to take a picture.' He helped Hugo to take a couple of basic shots. 'There's a lot of other useful things I could teach you, but we don't have time for that now. Here's what I want you to do.' He pointed across the street. 'You see that bar; the one that looks like it fancies itself? That's where Scorpius Malfoy likes to go for a late lunch and a drink some days. If you see him, follow him. If he does anything incriminating, take pictures. If he spots you, come forward and introduce yourself. You were at school together, after all. Be all, hey, Scorpius, remember me? Meet me back at my office at eight thirty, and…' He paused, an idea forming in his mind. 'I want you to bring me any photos of Albus you have in your house, OK?'

'What for?'

'You'll see. We might not need them. That all clear?'

'Yes, sir. Uh…what are you going to do?'

'I'm going to see if I can break into Albus's place of residence and find anything out,' Teddy said bluntly. 'Alright? Off you go, then.'

He watched Hugo into the bar, then turned on the spot and disapparated.

Albus's flat proved just as impregnable as the Malfoy home. Teddy hadn't really expected any less. Could ask the Ministry why a civilian needs so many curses across their front door…he thought. They'd probably just pull some Boy-Who-Lived crap on me though…still, it'll add weight to the case, if we ever bring it to court…could try getting Hugo to break in. After all, wasn't that the point of having an Auror onside? He's got automatic authorisations that I haven't. He clattered down the stairs…well-lit and nice paintwork, a very respectable first home for a well-heeled wizard fresh out of school…nodded to a woman in the doorway, and stepped out into the street.

Who are we kidding? he wondered, staring up at the sky and blinking when droplets of rain fell into his eyes. What are two eighteen-year-olds seriously going to be getting up to? Still, a job's a job. Next time he apparated it was onto a leafy suburban road. To his own surprise, he felt a little choke of nostalgia as he took in the familiar gardens. But that was OK. He was here to play the part of a visiting relative, after all.

He knocked on the door of number twenty-nine, and it was pulled open by a woman with brown eyes and a few streaks of grey in her auburn hair.

'Hello, I…' Her smile faded, to be replaced by a look of sheer astonishment. 'Teddy? Teddy!'

Teddy gasped as she dragged him in off the porch and hugged him, crushing the breath out of his lungs.

'Great to see you too, Aunty Ginny,' he said breathlessly.

'Oh Teddy, why didn't you come round before, it's been ages! Come in, come in!' She ushered him down the hall ahead of her, talking non-stop. 'James and Lily are both home at the moment, and Harry's out in the garden…oh, they'll be so glad you're here!' They had reached the kitchen. 'James, look who it is!'

The young man standing at the sink turned round at his mother's call. There was a lot of his father in his shaggy black hair and the shape of his face, and, if you looked more closely, a lot of George Weasley. As his eyes met Teddy's, he broke into a broad grin.

'Ted!' He bounded across the room to shake hands. 'Man, it's great to see you again. Hey, Lily, look who's here!'

It was slightly harder to greet Lily. As a small child she'd barely left him alone, and when she came into the room she greeted him with a shy smile instead of her mother and brother's flood of exuberance. Teddy hugged her warmly and left her blushing. He wondered briefly whether there was any jealously between her and Victoire still. It had never been easy for the female members of the clan when faced with their beautiful cousin. Maybe his brief fascination with her at the age of nineteen hadn't been the best-judged thing in the world.

And then Harry was there. Teddy disengaged himself from the embraces of the rest of the family and allowed himself to be pulled into a bear-hug by his godfather. Harry held him tightly for a long moment and then placed his hands on his shoulders, looking into his face. Teddy knew that he wasn't just seeing him, but a whole host of other ghosts: his mother and father, the man who had been Harry's own godfather…his own parents.

James, Lily and Ginny had all gone quiet. Maybe, Teddy reflected, he should have felt at home with this man who had known and loved his own parents, and who alone understood the loss he himself had sustained. But he just felt awkward. It had always been there for him: the unbridgeable gulf between Harry and Ginny, who had suffered through the war, James and Lily, who lived untouched by it, and he, Teddy, who had lost everything and didn't know why. And he was sick of people gazing into his eyes and seeing his father. If he had his way, humans would hatch anonymously out of eggs, each one able to start its life afresh, instead of dragging a whole caravan of wraiths along with it.

Ginny made coffee and they sat around the dining table together to drink.

'So, why the sudden visit, Teddy?' Harry asked. He looked older and more creased around the edges than Teddy remembered him, but also more relaxed, as though, minute by minute and hour by hour, he was still leaving his past behind him.

'I ran into Hugo today,' Teddy explained, opting for a little of the truth. 'Hugo Weasley?'

'Ah yes,' Ginny nodded. 'He's just been promoted to active service in the Auror office. It seems our family just can't stay out of trouble. So he's in your line of work now, more or less.'

'Yep; that's how I came to be with him. We got talking about the old days, and it started my thinking: why don't I drop in on the Potters? I hope I'm not intruding?'

'Of course not!' Ginny exclaimed. 'You know we're always glad to have you.'

'They've all been missing you like crazy,' James said. He was leaning against the counter with his arms folded. He met Teddy's eyes with a look that was half-flippant, half-challenging. 'All moping around, wailing, why won't Teddy come over? Why has Teddy ditched us?'

'James!' His mother slapped him on the leg. 'Ignore him, Teddy; we all know you've been busy –'

'No, it's alright,' Teddy said lightly. He addressed James directly. 'I did ditch you. It feels like I don't know who I am, half the time. I thought if I spent some time on my own, I'd find out. But here I am now.'

'And you know you're welcome, any time,' Ginny said, pouring him more coffee. 'So, how's your business going?'

Teddy sighed quietly. They were all mincing around him like a wild bird, afraid to challenge him on the rumours of his less-than-scrupulous dealings or demand why he hadn't been through their door in years, in case they scared him off. Only James dared to come anywhere near the taboo subjects, and Teddy liked him for it.

'Business is great,' he answered. 'I do alright for myself. I'm in the middle of a rather sticky assignment at the moment, but I always say, it's not my job to complain if a job's difficult, or if I think my client's off their head to be suspicious at all. I just do the best I can with the leads I've got.'

'And are you getting anywhere at the moment?' Lily asked.

Teddy tilted his head to one side and appeared to consider. 'Think I may have hit a new lead,' he said. 'It's all confidential at the moment, but yes, I'm hopeful.'

'That's great.' She searched for something else to say, failed and fell silent.

Teddy swigged the last of his coffee. 'Um…to you mind if I take a look upstairs, Ginny? At my old room?'

'Of course, dear,' Ginny said at once. Teddy jumped to his feet before she could order one of her children to escort him. Let them think he needed some time alone. Let them think what they wanted. He climbed the stairs and pushed open the door to the nearest bedroom.

The mattress on the floor was covered with a tangle of blankets; James had always been untidy in everything he did. Teddy stared at the spot in the corner where his bed had used to go. As a child, he had lived with his grandparents – who had been worse than Harry at seeing ghosts – but he had spent long spells here every holiday and a good few weekends in between, visiting the godfather who loved him like another son. Albus had crammed into the room along with them, and they had sat up late into the night, ignoring Ginny's shouts up the stairs as they gossiped. He had been like a hero to the young Albus and James, because he knew all about Hogwarts and they didn't. When James, who exhausted himself during the day and never worried about anything, was snoring, and when they'd given up on poking him to make him stop, he and Albus would have quieter, whispered conversations. That was how he'd found out that Albus understood about the ghosts too.

'Of course,' Teddy murmured to himself, leaning in the doorway. 'If he is up to something he shouldn't be, that'll be why. Guess he's sick of everyone expecting him to be like his father, just like I am. Why didn't I see it before?'

He and Albus had always had common ground. He must have been off in his own little egotistical world during his self-enforced exile if he had forgotten that. Well, now he had a motive for Albus's crimes, assuming there were any. Teddy frowned, considering the irony of it all. That he, who probably understood Albus better than anyone now, could maybe go to him and become friends with him, and be respected by him, because he wasn't whiter than white himself. Albus knew what it was like to be told, 'you look so like your father, and you have your grandmother's eyes.' Those vivid green eyes, eyes of Albus, eyes of his godfather, eyes of Lily Evans, the woman whom he had never met, whose actions had decided so much of the course of the war…

Enemy eyes. What did it matter if he understood Albus? Teddy might have little respect for the law, but he didn't want to find himself on the wrong side of it. Melodramatic Albus. It wasn't as though he'd lost a parent. Teddy had, and he could still play by the rules. And if Albus couldn't, it was his job to make sure he felt the consequences.

Teddy slipped quietly out of James's room, bypassed Lily's and stepped into Albus's. It was cold here; the bed clearly hadn't been slept in, and there was no clutter on the floor. Unlike his brother, Albus was tidy, but unless Teddy was much mistaken, at the moment he was also absent.

He moved quietly across the room and began quickly pulling open the draws of the dresser. Parchment and ink, old school books, essays, a couple of magazines – God, he remembered going through that phase – and then, in the bottom draw, what he was looking for. A stack of glossy colour photos.

He slid them into his pocket and pushed the draw shut, and as he did so something rattled faintly inside. Quickly Teddy pulled it open again, and a single black ball rolled to the front. Teddy picked it up and turned it between two fingers. A venomous tentacular seed.

He kept snaplock bags in his pocket for evidence like this. Quickly he pulled one out and dropped the seed inside, then sealed it and pocketed it along with the photos. Then he clattered down the stairs and back into the dining room.

'Thanks for the coffee, Ginny,' he said.

'Are you leaving already?' she exclaimed, jumping up and hurrying around the table.

Teddy grimaced bravely. 'I'm afraid I'd better. Work, you know.'

'Of course,' Harry said, rising as well. 'But promise me you'll be back soon, okay, Ted?'

'I promise,' Teddy said, submitting himself to another round of hugging. He reached James last, grasping hands briefly, and then posed a casual question as he shrugged into his coat. 'Ah…will Albus be in later?'

'I'm afraid not,' Ginny apologised. 'He's living in London at the moment, writing a bit of freelance for the Daily Profit, casting around for a job that suits him. He hasn't been in in a month, actually.'

'I think he needs some time on his own, too,' James put in, watching Teddy narrowly. Teddy grinned at him, kissed Ginny on the cheek and made his way down the front steps and out of the house.

As he walked away, he turned slightly to block his hands from view of the house, pulled the photographs from his pocket and began to flip through them. They were exactly what he wanted: shots of Albus from all different angles and with many different expressions on his face. Perfect for what he had in mind.

And the seed. Just one little black speck of life, left rolling around in the bottom of a drawer in an empty room. Hardly damning evidence. But it was just like the security spells around the London flat. What could a respectable civilian possibly want with an item like that?

At eight thirty pm Hugo pushed open the door to Teddy's Diagon Alley office. A bell chimed thinly as the door swung – the only sound in the stillness. Hugo shivered. When he had met Teddy Lupin in the Leaky Cauldron he hadn't seemed so bad, but the sober little bronze plaque on the door had brought back to him exactly what he was dealing with. The sign was there to show clients that they had come to the right place, but it wasn't an advertisement – Teddy's reputation went before him. This was the man who had drunk himself under the table in London's most shady wizarding nightclub to prove that they were serving illegal hallucinogenics. Who had disguised himself as the leader of a dragon-dealing ring, led a planned raid on a reservation and then presented the stolen eggs to the authorities along with audiotapes, photographs and lists of names. Who had quietly let a giant serpent out of its cage in the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, so that when his target was rushed to hospital for bite wounds there would be no doubt that he had been trespassing. And yet somehow he always managed to keep one foot within the circle of the law. Did he, Hugo, really want to get mixed up with a man like that?

It was cold in the office, and completely dark. Wrapping his arms around himself, Hugo glanced around, wondering if he had even come to the right place, or at the right time. He couldn't hear anything.

'Mr Lupin?' he called tentatively. No answer. He noticed the second door at the end of the reception area and made for it. 'Mr Lupin?' Carefully, he eased the door open and peered around it. It was even darker inside.

'Call me Teddy.'

Hugo jumped as the voice sounded from the corner behind the door.

'T-teddy?' he stammered. 'I didn't see you there –'

'No. Come in.'

As Hugo stepped around the door, he saw that Teddy was sitting in a purple-upholstered armchair in the corner, beneath a gas lamp turned down very low, poring over a stack of photos. As Hugo shut the door behind him, he looked up and smiled.

'Right on time,' he said, standing up and walking over to his desk. 'Please, sit down.' He indicated the chair in front of it. 'And let's have a little more light.' He gestured at the lamp, which blazed up to full strength, warming the atmosphere of the room. 'I like the dark,' he explained, sitting down and spreading his photographs across the desk. 'Most people are scared of it. Not me. Gives me the advantage. So, did you find anything out?'

'Loads!' Hugo said. He was feeling much more nervous than he had in the Leaky Cauldron, facing Teddy formally across a desk in this room, which seemed to feature a lot of dark, vintage fabrics, polished mahogany, and no windows, but at the question his enthusiasm came bubbling up again.

Teddy looked surprised, but pleasantly so. Maybe even impressed. 'Loads?' he said. 'Well, tell me.'

'I got the photos of Al, like you said,' Hugo began, pulling a large photo album out of his pocket. 'But…it looks like you've already got some…' His face fell as he looked more closely at the pictures already spread out across Teddy's desk, all of which seemed to feature Albus somewhere.

'Never mind; the more the better,' Teddy said, taking the album and adding it to his collection. 'Good job. And what about Scorpius?'

'I followed him like you said,' Hugo answered, leaning forward on the edge of his seat. 'He went all the way down to the river, to one of the dockyards, and he spoke to a man there for a bit about some crates that were getting delivered – I couldn't hear what they said, but they obviously knew each other, and I could tell they were talking about the stuff in the yard. And then…' Hugo's voice was high with excitement – 'Albus showed up!'

Teddy was definitely surprised this time. 'He did? Right there?'

'Yeah, he shook hands with Scorpius and the dockyard man, and then he and Scorpius disapparated together.'

'I see,' Teddy nodded. 'And did you get pictures?'

'Um…' Hugo blushed. 'I…had a bit of trouble working the camera.'

'Right.'

'I didn't get any shots of them together, but I got a good look round the dockyard,' Hugo said quickly. 'After they were gone I went out and pretended to be a Muggle. I acted like I was having some trouble with my camera, and I talked to the docker and said that all these derelict areas in London were fascinating artistically, and then I went all over the place taking photos and he didn't try to stop me. 'Course, he might have recognised me, but I don't have much experience of sneaking around. I thought it would be worse if I tried to hide and he caught me.'

'Hmm.' Teddy was sucking on his teeth, his face deadpan, but Hugo thought he looked pleased. 'Gimme the camera.'

Hugo handed it over and watched breathlessly as he viewed the photos one after another on the little screen in the back.

'So,' he said as he flipped through them, 'did you see what it was that was being delivered?'

'Venomous Tentacular pods,' Hugo answered promptly. 'Some other stuff that I didn't know what it was, but mostly pods.'

'Ah, I see,' Teddy nodded, arriving at a close-up of one of the crates. 'Excellent.'

'Teddy, what are Venomous Tentacular used for?' Hugo asked.

'Good question. Of course, once fully grown they're dangerous. Some smart-arses – like the Malfoys – like to have them in their gardens to scare off "intruders." Muggle-baiters sometimes plant them around the place and watch the non-magicals trying to deal with them once they've sprouted. All good fun.' Teddy blinked. 'Distilled juices from the leaves can be used as a stimulant – after a heart attack, for example. A large dose is fatal, but I don't think it would be a very good way of killing someone. Then the seeds themselves have quite a peppery kick if you grind them on your food.' He stuck his tongue in his cheek, zooming in on a photo on the screen. 'Oh, and they'll also give you quite a trip if you eat more than about two. So yeah, a good seasoning in the racier type of nightclub. Does that answer your question?'

'Uh…yeah.'

'Not the nastiest stuff on the market – which is why it's good to trade in. Popular, profitable and not worth a life-sentence. However, the Ministry is looking to crack down on these sorts of items – which the Muggles would call class B or C drugs – simply because their prevalence on the black market makes them a big problem. Tentacular-smuggling would be worth pinning on Mr Malfoy, certainly. Hey, Hugo?'

'Yes?'

'Let me give you some professional advice.'

'Go on.'

'It would be a terrible thing if wizarding-kind in general became competent in the use of Muggle technology. Probably put me right out of business. But you as an individual should learn how. Sometimes, like I explained before, it's very useful; sometimes it's all you've got. It's undetectable to magical security systems and wizards who view the Muggle world with snobbery are powerless against it…except with a good old Reducto curse, of course,' he added as an afterthought. 'Now, remember what I said. Learn how to use Muggle technology, and don't teach anyone else.'

'Okay,' Hugo nodded. 'I will.'

'Good.' Teddy stood abruptly. 'Now, to business!'

'To business?' Hugo echoed. 'Aren't we done for tonight?'

'Goodness, no,' Teddy said, shaking his head. 'You want to be a spy? Better get used to waiting on street corners at ungodly hours of the night. Or the morning. Now, this is how things stand. You've got photographic and witness evidence of Scorpius's smuggling gig, I've got evidence of Albus's – ' he produced his snap-lock bag and dangled it in front of Hugo's nose – 'and we've both seen the two of them together. Right now, we have the advantage. But if we wait – it's only a matter of time before they realise they're being investigated. They'll cover their tracks. We'll be stuck trying to second-guess them and get more evidence. And then they'll go crying to their supporters and the shit will hit the fan. We'll have Harry Potter and his powerful friends all over us. We'll be forced to close down the investigation, Sue will be implicated and she'll come screaming down here to rip my throat out. We can't let any of that happen. We've got to wrap this up tonight.'

'We can do that?'

'Sure can.'

'But we're missing evidence of the two of them together. And even though we both happened to see them, surely they'll be being careful? It won't be easy to catch them together…'

'You're absolutely right. It won't. But I'm going to arrange us an opportunity.' Teddy had opened a cupboard in the corner and was pulling out boxes. 'Tonight, Albus Potter and Scorpius Malfoy will be drinking together at the Psychedelic Merlin bar and club in Covent Garden, in full view of you and your camera lens.' He pulled an old-fashioned camera from the box and hung it round Hugo's neck. 'That's a wizarding camera; you should know how to use it. Yes?'

'Yes. Are you sure they're going to be at this club place?'

'Of course. I managed to scavenge some information on Scorpius's plans for the weekend a few days ago. I wasn't going to follow this one up, but now it turns out it's going to be useful.' Teddy pulled a mirror out of his desk draw, propped it up in front of him and drew a handful of photographs towards himself. 'Could you look through those boxes until you find a miniature tape recorder that's lying around somewhere?'

'Sure.' Hugo bounded to the cupboard and stuck his head into the nearest cardboard box.

'We making sound recordings, then?' he asked as he searched.

'Yes,' Teddy said. The phrase 'no shit, Sherlock,' was implicit in his tone. Hugo blushed and went back to searching.

'How're we going to plant it?' he asked.

'I'm going to clip it to my clothes.'

'Oh,' Hugo said, stumped. He pulled a square silk scarf out of the box, saw that it was useless and dropped it over the side. Now that he came to look at it, there was a lot of odd stuff inside.

'Teddy, why do you have all this stuff?' he asked.

'It's stuff from home,' Teddy answered, his voice coming out strange and thick, as though he were twisting his face at a strange angle, or perhaps chewing something. 'Stuff that I didn't want to look at all the time, but didn't want to throw away.'

'Uh-huh.' Hugo sat still for a moment, then remembered that he was meant to be searching for a tape-recorder. He attacked the next box.

'Hey, can I ask you a question?'

Teddy's voice sounded amused. 'Knock yourself out,' he said.

'Why are you so badass?'

'I have to be,' Teddy said lightly. 'Life's not so easy for the gay son of werewolves whose dad was a war hero in a war a lot of people would much rather forget. Especially when his work involves treading on a lot of important toes.'

'Well yeah, but…did you say gay?'

'Is that a problem?' Teddy had shifted round so that his back was towards Hugo and the light from the gas lamp fell on his face. When he turned round to fix Hugo with his eyes, his head was silhouetted against the flame, but Hugo knew that he himself was bathed in light. It was an uncomfortable position.

'Well, no, but you…you snogged Victoire!'

Teddy burst out laughing and turned back to face the mirror. 'I know,' he agreed. 'Put me off for life.' If he closed his eyes, it seemed that he could still hear James's loud, indignant voice echoing around the station. He's snogging Victoire! Snogging her!

'Ahem.' Hugo cleared his throat. 'But that wasn't what I meant. Why do you do all this semi-legal independent detective work and never come to visit the family anymore?'

Teddy sighed. Peeping over his shoulder, Hugo saw him still facing the mirror, glancing between his reflection and the photo album open on his knee. 'Do people ever tell you that you look like your uncle Fred Weasley?' he asked after a moment.

'Uh…' Hugo considered, thinking around the clench of borrowed sadness that he always felt when that name was mentioned. 'No…grandma doesn't really like to talk about him –'

'No. In that case, when you were at school did you ever get sick of people going, oh my gosh, it's Ron and Hermione Weasley's son! Or ignoring you and doing the same thing over Albus instead, if that was more what it was like?'

'The second thing,' Hugo admitted.

'Right. And did you ever wish you could just run away from all that, set up somewhere where nobody knew the stories about your family, and just build your own life?'

'Well…when people want to know Mum and Dad's stories and ask me about them, sometimes, yeah.'

Teddy squinted into the mirror. 'It was like that for me,' he said. 'On my first day at school, half the kids were expecting me to be some kind of hero, and the other half – even after all this time, after people have seen the harm that discrimination did during the war – the other half were expecting me to be like this werewolf-person. But I didn't particularly want to do what was expected of me.' Another long pause. When he spoke again, he sounded breathless, as though he'd been concentrating hard. 'Apparently my dad was this really caring, selfless person,' he said. 'Harry always tells me that he and my mum were two of the best people they ever knew, that they sacrificed themselves to help everybody.' He slammed his hand down onto the table. 'Well, maybe it would have been better if they'd been a bit more fucking selfish and stayed with me!' He breathed out hard, shaking his head. 'Apparently my dad was always trying to make up for what he was as well. He always tried to be as good and as kind as he could, and worked hard at whatever crappy job he could get hold of, to try and prove that just because he was a werewolf, he wasn't a bad person. But why should I try to apologise for something I'm not, that wouldn't be my fault even if I was? At school, if kids called me a werewolf, I would chase them round and try to bite them.' He shrugged. 'It was funny, watching them run away screaming when I knew my teeth couldn't even break their skin. But the worst part was when Harry would look at me like he was seeing ghosts. I felt like yelling, I'm not my fucking dead dad, OK? You found that tape recorder yet?'

'Uhm…' Hugo looked down, and found to his surprise that his hand was resting on the device. He grabbed it and stood up. 'Yes, I've got it.'

'Okay. Brace yourself,' Teddy said, rising too. He turned around, and Hugo gasped.

'You – you look just like Albus!'

'From every angle,' Teddy said smugly, examining his head from the side in the mirror. 'If you think I look like him, I must have done alright. D'you think I'm tall enough?'

Hugo stared at Teddy, slowly putting two and two together. 'You're going to attach the tape recorder to your clothes?'

'Yup.'

'And pretend to be Albus?'

'Yes. We don't have time to mess around bugging rooms. I'll steer the conversation round to incriminating subjects, and before you know it we'll have a tapeful of evidence.'

'And you want me to photograph it.'

'I do indeed.' Teddy stooped to pick up his coat from the back of the chair.

Hugo planted himself where he was. 'That's fabricating evidence.'

Teddy gave an impatient sigh. 'Look, Hugo. You know Scorpius is a crook, I know he's a crook, and we both know that he and Albus have met at least twice. It's not like we're faking a charge against them; hopefully by the end of the evening I'll have heard whatever it is they're up to out of Scorpius's own mouth. But to be perfectly honest with you, I'm bored of this investigation. Why spend weeks looking for the one piece of evidence we still need when we can easily get it tonight?'

'But…' Hugo protested weakly.

'If you want to be an idealist about it, think of it this way: every night we don't finish the case is another night they can spend selling Tentacular seeds to kids in clubs. That stuff's dangerous if you take too much of it. Give me the recorder.'

While he was clipping it to the inside of his jacket, Hugo thought of one more objection. 'Don't you think it's a little risky? You pretending to be Albus when you haven't even met him for years? What if you make a mistake and he guesses you're not him?'

'Don't worry; I won't,' Teddy said coolly, and Hugo realised at once that it was true. Teddy Lupin was legendary. He never screwed up a case. Somehow, he wouldn't screw up this one.

'Right,' Teddy muttered in Hugo's ear as they hurried along the wet, glistening road towards the club. 'I'm going in. When I see Scorpius, I'll be all hail fellow, well met, fancy seeing you here, and I'll get him talking, and you just keep that camera on us. Take as many shots as you like. If we leave, follow us. I'll try and keep track of where you are and make sure he doesn't see you. You just worry about the pictures.'

'Okay.' Hugo sounded more subdued than before, but Teddy was certain he would follow through. There was still a chance that his friend might be innocent after all, and if not…well, Teddy thought he'd read enough jealousy in Hugo's eyes to be sure of him. If his childhood friend really had cut him off, turned criminal and gone into business with an old family enemy, Hugo might not be entirely reluctant to expose him. So it was with confidence that he peeled off from his young partner, as though they weren't together and had just happened to be holding pace for a few strides, and entered the club.

Inside it was open-plan, with a violet-lit bar and tables and steps leading down to a darker dance floor where lights strobed and music pounded. Teddy found himself moving instinctively with the music as he made his way further into the room. He liked a good night out, and it was a while since he'd had one. But did Albus really go in for that sort of thing? He had always been the quietest and shyest of the Potter children. Well, he would take his cue as to whether he should have fun or not from what Scorpius seemed to expect of him.

And speak of the devil…

He had seen the senior Malfoys enough times before: Draco, pale and pointed, very much like the ferret he had briefly become in Ron Weasley's rapturous story, and his wife Astoria Greengrass, with the flat face of a pug. But Scorpius Malfoy had just enough of the roundness of the pug and the sharpness of the ferret to make him look really quite distinguished.

He was sitting on a stool with his back to the bar and his arms spread out along it for balance, watching the dancers, his head inclined to half-listen to something a girl in a low-cut top was whispering in his ear. She didn't look much more interested than he did; clearly this was the kind of place where hooking up was what you did.

Scorpius's white-blond hair shone pale blueish-purple in the ultra-violet lights. Glancing down, Teddy saw that the white stripes on his trainers were glowing in the dark; an unexpectedly youthy aspect to his haughty appearance. Grinning, Teddy stepped forward and spoke.

'Evening.'

Scorpius jumped and turned away from the girl in mid-sentence. She gave him an affronted look, slid down from her stool and stalked off. Scorpius didn't seem to notice.

'Al!' he exclaimed. (So Albus was 'Al' to Scorpius, was he? Interesting.) Then he lowered his voice and hissed, 'how did you know I would be here?'

'Lucky guess,' Teddy said smoothly, taking a seat and mimicking Scorpius's position against the bar.

'Are you sure it's safe?' Scorpius muttered, trying to relax again but glancing around warily.

'Sure; it's dark,' Teddy said airily. Dark enough that you won't see if I don't look exactly like your partner in crime, anyway. 'What you drinking?'

'Chinese Dragon,' Scorpius replied, holding up his cocktail: a mix of pomegranate juice and firewhiskey. 'Let me get you something.'

'Thanks.' What did Albus like to drink? Teddy took a stab in the dark. 'I'll have a Singing Siren.' A rock salt rim to the glass, lime juice and gin on crushed ice – and a thimbleful of black cherry syrup, which always sank to the bottom, saving itself for the final sip.

'Want any pepper on that, sir?' the barman asked as he handed Teddy his drink. Teddy focussed a little more keenly; pepper was the street name for ground Tentacular seeds.

'No thanks,' he said, and drank. The lime zest helped to clear his head, and the salt crystals cracked and stung on his lips.

'Probably wise,' Scorpius said, watching him, 'on a weeknight. Though we should know it's fine-grade stuff.'

'The finest,' Teddy agreed. He leaned back further to leave a clear line of sight between Scorpius and the plate-glass window. 'So, how did it go at the docks today?'

'Good business,' Scorpius said, his voice low and confidential. 'Fletcher Junior managed to bring in three bales this time, plus one of his boys spotted a good deal for unicorn horn over on the continent. You know how expensive potion horn is getting now that the apothecaries will only sell ones that have been shed naturally, so we should make a good profit on that, but I told them to trim the bases off for glitter as well.'

Teddy sucked in his breath quietly. "Glitter," made from powdered unicorn horns, was one of the most expensive drugs on the black market. It wasn't illegal in itself – pure powdered horn was an essential ingredient in antidepressants and Felix Felicis, to name only a few – but its recreational use certainly was. Teddy had never risked it himself, but he heard the high it gave was unlike anything else in the world – which was what kept users coming back for more, even though it wasn't physically addictive. And of course, the practise of "hacking" – sawing the horns off unicorns who weren't ready to shed – was a criminal offense.

'Bases?' he murmured. 'Tips are purer, you know.'

Scorpius snorted. 'Come on, Al, you're smarter than that. Where could we sell unicorn horns without tips? Everyone would know what we'd used the rest for; we could only sell on the black market. And you know what prices get like there.'

'Ah,' Teddy nodded. 'You been having trouble with the pricing of the pepper?'

Scorpius rolled his eyes expressively. 'You can say that again. That skinflint behind the bar – ' he jerked his thumb at the bartender – 'keeps trying to push my price down. Luckily he's been with us long enough that he'll go down with us if we get caught, so he can't hold that over my head…but still, that's the trouble with the black market. If you let people threaten you, you have to sell your goods dirt cheap.'

'Mmm.' Teddy was filing information away. Albus and Scorpius dealt with Psychedelic Merlin. 'We need to get a bigger corner in the market.'

'That's what the project's about,' Scorpius said intriguingly, getting to his feet. 'Want to dance?'

Teddy blinked. 'Okay.'

He gulped the last of his cocktail, grimacing at the sticky sweetness of the cherry syrup in his mouth, and followed Scorpius down to the dance floor. He wasn't entirely sure in what spirit he was being invited to dance, but any doubts he'd had were erased when he felt a slender white hand slip into his own. He glanced around to see what kind of reactions they were getting, but nobody looked twice. Was this a safe house for those who swung the other way, and if so, did Scorpius come here regularly to dance…with Albus?

The bass wasn't fast, but it seemed to get into your very blood. This wasn't a good angle for camera shots, but who cared? Hugo should have got a good few already, and besides, Teddy needed a dance. The strobe came on again, and stayed on relentlessly, chopping the world into fragments and allowing him to close his eyes and think as he danced. Professionally speaking he was pleased – no doubt he'd already got enough evidence, on the tape and in Hugo's camera, to get both Albus and Scorpius into court, but he was still curious. He thought he would stay on and see if he could find out what this 'project' was about. And besides, he was enjoying himself.

Scorpius put a hand on his shoulder. Teddy took him by the waist and they danced, face to face.

'Remember this afternoon,' he murmured beneath the pounding of the music – dangerously, since he himself had no idea what had happened that afternoon.

'Yes.' Scorpius pouted. 'You only stayed ten minutes – after making me do all the work on the dock. You told me you had to go out of town.'

'Well, I came back,' Teddy said.

'Why?' Scorpius asked, fishing transparently for compliments. Teddy took the bait.

'Because I had to see you,' he whispered, letting his eyes fall shut and leaning in till they were brow to brow. He wasn't expecting the kiss.

Scorpius's parted lips pressed into his, while his fingers twisted into the hair at the nape of Teddy's neck, pulling him closer. Surprised but willing, Teddy complied. What the hell. I've got to keep my cover and…damn, I should get out more. He pulled away, not having to fake his breathlessness, and met Scorpius's eyes. The other boy was staring up at him with an almost pleading expression, as though afraid of rejection. Quickly Teddy tried to analyse the relationship between them. If Albus had gone off the rails in the same way he had, then that would make him...Teddy ran the scanner over his own personality…a cynic and a player. He had assumed up until now that Albus and Scorpius were equal partners in this, but if there was a romantic side to it…maybe it did involve a love-struck Scorpius chasing after a partially-indifferent Albus. Not wholly indifferent, though; the familiarity with which Scorpius had asked him to dance suggested that something had already happened between them. Which was why he felt safe in pulling Scorpius to him for another kiss.

He kept it slow, thorough and languorous, and after a moment Scorpius gave a hiss of frustration, fingers knotting into the back of his shirt in an attempt to make him kiss harder. Teddy gave one breath of a laugh. He remembered being eighteen and desperate for action. He pulled away again and Scorpius gazed up at him with pleading eyes.

'Al.' He backed up, leading Teddy away from the dancers and towards a quieter corner of the club. Out of the corner of his eye Teddy spotted a couple of snogging couples lurking behind pillars. Scorpius stopped moving when his back met the wall. His arms twined themselves around Teddy's neck, pulling his head down.

'Kiss me,' he said softly.

His eyes were a very dark shade of grey-blue, wide and lustrous, the irises almost engulfed by pupil. Teddy wondered whether he might not have taken something after all. Either that, or he was heavily infatuated with Albus Potter. But was it the kind of infatuation that would make him blind to anything wrong, or the kind that would make him notice any tiny differences as soon as they started getting under each other's' clothes?

In the meantime, those lips were waiting. Teddy kissed more roughly, at the same time pushing him back into the wall, pressing their bodies closer. He slid his hands into the front pockets of Scorpius's jeans, palms flat against his thighs. When he pulled back a little to nibble Scorpius's lip, he could hear his own ragged breathing. It had been too long since he'd gone out, knocked back a few and snogged someone in the back of a club, which was why he now felt inclined to take full advantage of the situation he found himself in…however, he reminded himself, as one of his hands tugged Scorpius's plain white shirt out of his jeans and slid up his back beneath it, he mustn't forget that he was working…

Happy days. How many people's work involved making out?

'A-al,' Scorpius stammered as Teddy's lips left his to brush down the side of his neck.

'Hmm?' Teddy breathed against his neck. The shiver Scorpius gave at the sensation reverberated deliciously through both their bodies.

'Please…come home with me.'

'What, right now?' Teddy asked, keeping his voice low.

'Yes…now…' Scorpius pressed forward against his thigh, hand tightening on the back of his neck. 'Right now, I don't care if it's only ten…'

'Well, you said it,' Teddy muttered. Scorpius gave a huff of part amusement, part exasperation.

'Al, we…God, it was magic, but we only had that one time…' He pushed still closer, and Teddy felt a jolt of response in his own nerves, making him jerk instinctively forward. 'Oh, Al, I want you so much…'

'Alright,' Teddy consented, kissing him again. He felt Scorpius tensing to apparate, and put a hand on his shoulder to stop him. 'No, let's walk.'

'Walk?' Scorpius protested. 'Are you kidding? Why?'

'Because patience is a virtue, and hunger the best sauce,' Teddy said, slinging an arm loosely around his waist and tucking the hand into his pocket. 'And because exercise improves libido.' And because my photographer needs to know where we're going, he added in his head, and because I can pump you for information better while we're walking. Slapping a galleon on the counter as they exited through the glass doors, he wondered what he was doing. Was he really going to sleep with Scorpius Malfoy? He had no moral qualms about impersonating Scorpius's lover, but maybe a little editing of the tape would be in order in the morning.

Outside – 'the rain doesn't let up, does it?' he observed – he glanced around for Hugo. An unremarkable-looking silhouette passed them on the other side of the road, and Teddy nodded imperceptibly, at the same time disengaging himself from Scorpius so that their arms were just barely brushing. Scorpius threw him an aggrieved look. Teddy ignored it; he was too busy noting the figure turning to follow them softly, and being impressed with the way the apparently bumbling Hugo was coming through for him again.

'I got your message about the gamekeeper you saw in Peru,' Scorpius said quietly. 'Brilliant. If we can make a few more connections like that, we can really get the Riddle project off the ground.'

'Riddle project,' Teddy echoed, trying not to make it sound enough like a question that Scorpius would become suspicious, but to prompt him subconsciously into answering anyway. It was very quiet in the street, and he strained his ears for the sound of following footsteps, but heard nothing. Hugo must have guessed that they were heading towards Scorpius's house, which was within easy walking distance, and dropped well back, staying out of sight.

'Yeah,' Scorpius said, drifting closer to his side. 'I still remember when we got talking, how brilliantly you spoke…I'd always thought you were just some kind of idealistic idiot…'

'It's what our parents taught us to believe,' Teddy murmured.

'When you were talking about how You-Know-Who got it wrong, going all-out for power…about how gullible people were, how if they had some idea of you based on your family and you kept up a respectable front, you could get established in the underworld and have just as much power as he ever did…and you said we should call it the Riddle project.'

'I'm not sure about that now. Sounds kind of melodramatic.'

'It would be if we called it like, the Voldemort project, but Riddle…that was when I realised you could use words as well. Like, we're a mystery, and when people realise that we're comparing ourselves to Voldemort – Voldemort like he didn't want to be known – they'd start to think we were dangerous. I read your latest piece in the Prophet, by the way. It was brilliant.'

Teddy knew he was being chatted up shamelessly, but as long as that meant Scorpius would keep pouring out valuable information at this speed, he wasn't fussed.

'Just tell me you're not planning to try and resurrect You-Know-Who,' he said quietly, draping an arm around Scorpius's neck.

Scorpius turned to look him square-on in the face. 'He's dead,' he said shortly, 'and he wasn't too happy with either of our families when he was alive, either. It's just a name.'

Well, that was a relief at any rate. None of the necromancers who cropped up now and again had succeeded yet in conjuring up the spirit of Lord Voldemort, but they were always nasty and dangerous to deal with.

They had reached the house in Grosvenor Square. Watching Scorpius fumble with the keys, it seemed incredible to Teddy that he should pass so easily across the threshold that had frustrated him so many times, as an invited guest. Scorpius pushed the door open, and no sooner had Teddy stepped into the dark hallway than he was being tackled and kissed again.

'Upstairs,' he grunted, pushing Scorpius away. Somewhere with a window and a vantage-point from the street. But Teddy knew that he couldn't possibly need more photographs. What he wanted was Scorpius – or to be more precise, Scorpius had reminded him of how much he wanted to get laid. And now he was determined to follow through with the rest of the night before he attended to his work.

In Scorpius's bedroom, he quickly whipped his coat off and slung it over the back of a chair, before Scorpius could try and remove it for him and discover the tape recorder clipped inside. From the rooftop across the street, he caught something that could have been the glint of a camera lens. Now, to distract Scorpius before he thought of closing the curtains…

As the younger boy appeared at his shoulder, Teddy seized him by his tie and the front of his shirt and hefted him up and round, slamming him against the wall. It's okay, please don't rush to my aid, we're only pretending to fight…Scorpius's hands were clutching at him in what could have been a combatant's grip, until one slid down to grab his arse. The other was struggling with the buttons of his shirt. Teddy kissed him soundly on the mouth for a moment, then bent forward to suck on his neck, dipping his hands beneath the waistband of the dark blue jeans as he did so. Scorpius moaned, nails scraping against the bare skin of Teddy's chest. Glancing towards the window once more, Teddy wondered what Hugo was making of this.

One of his hands slipped sideways, touching the ever-more-insistent bulge in the front of Scorpius's jeans. Teddy thrust forward with his hips once, twice, then jerked the navy boxers (silk. Don't forget you're shagging a Malfoy) down. Scorpius hissed at the contact, then yelped as Teddy lifted him bodily and deposited him on the bed. Straddling him to the mattress, his face – or rather Albus's face – framed perfectly in the window, Teddy swiftly unfastened the buttons on Scorpius's shirt and plunged forward, sucking and nipping all the way down his chest from collarbone to navel. Scorpius was being quickly reduced to a quivering wreck in his arms, and Teddy decided that the time was ripe to try for a little more information.

He drew breath, but before he could speak, another voice sounded, faintly, from outside the window. Someone was shouting up from the street.

'Scorpius?'

Both of them froze at the same moment, staring at each other. Teddy's entire focus was trained on the window. The voice, suddenly and stomach-lurchingly familiar, called again. 'Scorp?'

A thud. A scuffle. And then Hugo's high-pitched voice rang out.

'Teddy!'

A searing pain dragged Teddy forcibly back through the open window and into the bedroom, where Scorpius had just rammed a knee between his thighs. Before he could move to retaliate, the other man was whipping off the bed – the little snake – and diving for the pocket of his discarded jeans. It seemed that all this take-over-the-criminal-underworld plotting wasn't just talk; Scorpius had clearly done some practising in case of a street fight. Teddy had just time to roll off the bed before the first curse struck the place where he had been.

Shaking off the painful landing, he sprang to his feet, and immediately had to leap aside to dodge another curse. A single glance at his opponent told him he was in trouble. Scorpius was white to the lips, his expression murderous; he lashed his wand hand and this time the curse hit Teddy square-on, slamming him back into the wall. A hot, wet pain exploded on the back of his head, and he slid to the floor with a groan.

Scorpius took a stride forward, but as he opened his mouth for another curse a loud bang and a yell sounded through the open window. Scorpius hesitated for a pained instant, then turned and vaulted over the windowsill, disappearing from sight.

'Oh, shit,' Teddy, muttered, hauling himself to his feet.

Ignoring the pounding in his head, he stumbled to the chair where he had hung his trench coat, with his wand in the pocket and the recording device clipped inside. Never mind the rest of his clothes, but if they found that…

He slung the coat around his shoulders, grabbed his wand and ran to the window. Down in the street, lit by flickers of spell-light – and they were all going to be in court for use of magic in the presence of Muggles, if they weren't careful – Hugo was duelling Scorpius and Albus at once. He was bringing all that intensive Auror training into play, and in other circumstances it might have been enjoyable to watch aggressive magic being used properly, but now wasn't the time to admire his technique. Teddy could tell that Hugo was in trouble. He had the moves, but he hadn't had enough practise at applying them; any second now he was going to panic. And he was up against dangerous men. Albus and Scorpius had separated. They were coming at him one on each side, like pincers. Scorpius looked ready to kill, jabbing and darting furiously and with such controlled finesse that one almost forgot he was naked. Albus was stalking on Hugo's other side, fighting at half Scorpius's pace, beating home a steady, cynical attack. Son of the Boy who Lived indeed. Teddy ground his teeth. The treacherous little shit.

Hugo! Teddy swung his leg over the windowsill and jumped, grasping the trench coat shut at the last second. Scorpius Malfoy might be quite happy duelling naked like his pure-blooded ancestors from the caves. Teddy wasn't. He landed, bending his knees with a quick charm to reduce the impact, and leapt forward. Hugo was losing his beautiful form, frantically whipping a curse left and a hex right to beat back his assailants. Teddy darted forward, grabbed him by the arm and yanked them back to back. One opponent each. Now they would get somewhere.

Hugo was face to face with Scorpius, who had nothing in particular against him. Teddy sent up a silent prayer that Hugo was good enough to watch his back for him, and squared up to Albus. He saw surprise fill his old friend's face, to be quickly replaced by a sneer.

Well, the scheme of pretending to be Albus was blown wide open now. Teddy let it go with a mental shrug, and attacked.

Albus defended for a beat, parried and lashed back. Teddy sucked in his breath. The kid was good. His style was deceptive: steady and almost ponderous, so much less impressive than Scorpius's lightning duelling. But when the curse came, it hit hard.

Teddy settled for some non-magical dodging and riposted, landing a curse that blew the pavement up under Albus's feet. He jumped at the last second and stumbled backwards, and oh, now he was mad. There was something malevolent in the brush of air that the next hair's-breadth curse sent whistling past his face. Teddy ducked to the side – then leapt forward with a yelp as the road erupted in flames at his heels.

Scorpius had got one in under Hugo's arm. Teddy sidestepped away from the crater in the pavement, clawing his coat shut as the up-draught from the spells fluttered its skirt. Scorpius laughed aggressively – thanks to you and your little drug-scheme, Teddy thought, I am showing off my shapely legs and freezing my nuts off in the street at one o'clock in the morning. I will have you in jail for this – and dodging past Hugo to join Albus in pressing home his attack. Suddenly Teddy found himself facing the pair of them, the ally wall at his back. Hugo was to his right. Teddy waited for him to come piling in to the rescue, but the boy appeared to have frozen. Teddy focussed in on Albus and Scorpius stalking towards him, and for an instant he felt a frisson of real fear. Then, out of the corner of his eye, he saw Hugo move, slow and fluid.

The street seemed to explode.

The white light of the spell slipped past him. There was a deceptively soft whump. A roaring in his ears. Air went rushing past him, dragging the breath out of his lungs with it. The world spun. Albus and Scorpius disappeared, hurled backwards off their feet.

That was the stuff! That was why you brought an Auror with you on these trips!

'Run!' Hugo shouted, grabbing him by the shoulder.

The two of them sprinted down the street, Teddy shooting one last spell over his shoulder to ward off pursuit. As soon as they were round the corner, he seized Hugo's elbow in a vice-like grip.

'Brace yourself!' he shouted, and Disapparated.

They reappeared in the middle of his office with a loud, breathless clatter.

'Oy!' Hugo shouted. 'I can…what was…you could at least warn me first!'

Teddy slumped against the wall, grinning. He had forgotten that young wizards who had just passed their tests often got snitty about being side-alonged like children, but with a little reflection Hugo would realise that there hadn't been time to ask.

'Couldn't go shouting out our destination,' he said. 'Speaking of which, I'll just go lock the door.'

Hugo didn't answer. He was staring rather gormlessly at Teddy.

'What?' Teddy asked, before a cold breeze on his knee reminded him that he was still dressed in nothing but a trench coat, and that he could maybe be pulling that coat a little more tightly around himself than he was currently doing. He hastily jerked the lapels together, but there was nothing he could to about the fact that the hem only came down to his knees. He could never be comfortable like this; no matter what eighteenth-century nobles might think, men's calves were not meant to be on display.

'Not always a dignified job,' he said, by way of both apology and explanation. He brushed past Hugo and unclipped the tape-recorder from inside his lapel, placing it on the table. 'Did you get some good photos?'

Wordlessly, Hugo set the camera down next to the recorder.

'Wonderful,' Teddy said. He noticed that, as Hugo's fingers withdrew from the camera, his cheeks began to colour red, and that he flinched a little to the side when Teddy's hand came close to him. The poor kid must have got quite an eyeful. It would be just like him to feel that he had to zealously document every stage of the evening…

'I'm just going to put some clothes on,' Teddy said, with a bland, open smile, and Hugo's high colouring blossomed into a full-scale blush. Turning away before his smile could become a smirk, Teddy walked out of the room.

When he returned, fully dressed and rubbing his arms to warm up, Hugo was sitting in his armchair with his legs drawn up to his chest, resting his chin on his knees. His eyes, lit by the flickering light of the candle, were fixed on the two devices on the table, and Teddy could guess his thoughts. He was thinking of Albus, how close the Potters were to the Weasleys and all the incriminating evidence that was stored up on that camera and that recorder.

'What happens now?' he asked quietly when he saw Teddy come in.

'Now we go to bed, and in the morning we go to the Magical Law Enforcement office and tell them that Teddy Lupin's done it again. And then we go to court and give evidence and after a long, boring legal procedure we land our drug dealers behind bars. We have everything we need.'

'But Albus caught you.' Hugo's eyes flickered from Teddy's face to a point around his knee and back again. He still looked a little flustered, bless him. 'He knows the shots were fake.'

'We have all the evidence we need,' Teddy reiterated. 'Have a nightcap before you go?'