Karma

Chapter 1

It was a peaceful afternoon in Godric's Hollow, and the sun stood high over the back garden of the Potter cottage.

Teddy Lupin had apparated straight onto the back porch. He was surprised not to find anyone outside, but looking at the yellow grass withering in the afternoon sun, he guessed that they had all taken refuge from the heat. He stepped inside kitchen and was greeted by the pleasant sensation of a cooling charm. His godparents were sitting at the kitchen table sipping lazily at some chilled drinks.

"Hi Ted, good to see you," Harry greeted him rising from his seat.

"Thank you for coming over. We really appreciate it. I'm not quite ready to leave those three in charge of the house. I hope Victoire didn't give you a hard time for ruining your weekend," Ginny added.

"Actually, she's at a wedding in France, and she seemed rather relieved that I couldn't come. I have the feeling she doesn't quite trust me with her Veela cousins. So really, you're quite welcome. This should make a nice change from the weekends at the Auror department," Teddy answered, throwing his godfather a pointed look, but Harry only raised his eyebrows in an amused mock-stern fashion.

"Come now, you do volunteer for most of it. Right, we should be off. I've made dinner reservations in Venice."

Harry peeked his head into the room, where James, Lily and Albus had settled enjoying cool air from a muggle fan.

"All right you three, your mum and I are off. Please behave, Teddy's in charge and we'll see you Sunday evening."

With that he turned back to his wife, who spoke to Teddy.

"There is plenty of food in the fridge. I made some stew for tonight. There's money on the table if you need to get anything. Please remember to water the flowers. And if there's any emergency - "

"He'll send a Patronus or contact Ron & Hermione. He's babysat before Gin, it will be fine," Harry interrupted her rant and grabbed her hand to lead her out of the house.

When the final goodbyes had echoed through the hall, Teddy made his way to the living room. The bag for the weekend gliding to the ground, he leaned in the frame of the door.

"Hi, guys," he greeted his siblings.

Lily and James were sitting in one corner playing chess, while Al lounged on the couch engrossed in a book. All three had looked up when Teddy had spoken.

"Teddy," Lily squealed excitedly, "you'll be playing chess with me, won't you? I'll beat you this time!"

He smiled at the 12-year-old, who had just finished her first-year at Hogwarts.

"Sure, we'll give it a go when you're finished with Jamie."

As if on cue, James rose from his seat tossing his king over and thus declared defeat. Then he strode out of the room pausing a second in the door frame next to Teddy, but brushed past him without a word and went straight upstairs.

"What's up with him?" Teddy asked.

"That's normal now. Dad says all 15-year-olds are like that. He threatened should I be the same, he'll shut me in my room from one birthday to the next."

Albus had inherited his father's dry sense of humour and Teddy couldn't help but smile at his comment.

"So they really deserve the weekend off then."

"Mum says Dad works longer nowadays to avoid coming home," Lily piped in.

"Ah, come on guys, it can't be that bad," Teddy replied.

And really, how bad could it be compared to what they had dealt with from him at James' age?, he thought to himself.

Lily's immediate insistence that they would play chess to show off her new-found skill, shut down any opportunity for Ted to linger on that thought, and after two games of chess he had to admit that Lily had become rather good. He had won the two games, but she had put him in a tight spot several times. Now, well into the third game they had both lost a fair share of pieces. Strained, Teddy stared at the chess board, but to no avail. He didn't see it coming, and Lily smirked as she made her move.

"Check, dear brother. There's no way out of it. Got ya."

Teddy blinked and looked at the board from all angles, but she was right. His king was trapped. Lily had beat him, little sweet Lily, always the pet of the family and the one who had made him feel most part of the family. After all, he had already lived at the house when she was born, so for Lily there had never been a question that he was her big brother. And now, his little sister had outsmarted him.

With a great feeling of pride, he shattered his king and gave a small bow to her.

"Well done! I give it to you, I didn't see that coming one bit."

"She has been playing all the time ever since she got the set for Christmas," Albus chipped in, "her goal is to beat Uncle Ron, but I told her to get more practise. He never plays without a price, and for most it's suicide."

Ted nodded, "That's true, you better be ready for him. Last time I played him was five years ago and I ended up baby-sitting Rose and Hugo for a month. Learnt my lesson from that."

Lily seemed to contemplate the words before she said, "Rose is an angel, and how bad could Hugo have been? Babysitting them must have been a piece of cake."

Teddy scoffed, "Your cousin could drive any sane, patient man into madness with her questions."

Just then the conversation was interrupted by James stomping downstairs. Shooting an annoyed glare around the room, he growled, "Dinner?"

"Oh, he speaks. I didn't think you would grace us with the sound of your voice," Ted answered. Dropping the sarcasm, Teddy continued with an encouraging smile, "You're right though, it's time for dinner. I'll heat up the stew, and you guys can set the table."

Inwardly he was groaning. If Al was right, and this was James' usual behaviour nowadays, he wasn't sure his patience would last for a full weekend.

...

Saturday afternoon Teddy finally managed to pry James from his room for longer than mealtime. It had taken the bribe of flying in the back garden, but there really was no harm in that Teddy had decided..

After two hours in the air, they were sweaty and exhausted. Teddy hoped James was in a better mood after the exhiliartion and excercise. Touching down, Ted stood next to the younger boy who was already heading inside following Al & Lily. Catching him by the wrist, Ted held the sulky teenager back.

"What do you want?" James asked glancing from the hand on his wrist to his godbrother.

"Well first of all, what the hell did I do? Or do you act like this around the clock now?"

James shrugged shaking off the loose hold Ted had on him, "Whatever. Can I go now?"

James made to turn, but before he could do so Teddy grabbed him gently by the shoulders.

"Listen Jamie, I'm not your dad. Fifteen wasn't that long ago for me, and hell yes, I do remember how it felt. If you want to sulk and pout in your room, be my guest. Just please, don't do something rash and stupid. I know what I'm talking about, and I don't want you to get hurt."

James yanked himself free, rolling his eyes.

"Fine, I won't do something stupid. Are you happy? Can I go now?"

Realising that he probably wouldn't get through to the teenager, Ted just sighed and nodded. He tried hard to remember seven years ago, when he had been in his 'terrible year' as Harry referred to it now. Teddy cringed at the thought. That summer hadn't been easy. He had constantly felt angry for no reason, exploded at every small incident, and then felt guilty for it all. He had only come around after a lot of lectures, rows and hurting from both him and his godfather. Ted knew that he had made stupid choices back then. Maybe James would get his act together before things got messy. At least, with the experience from back then Harry had laid down the rules with James as soon as the teenage tantrums had started. Teddy hoped and prayed that his brother wouldn't repeat his own mistakes.

Apparently his prayers went unheard, because when dinner was over that night, and Teddy proposed a movie night in front of the telly, only two of his siblings were excited about the idea. James on the other hand quickly excused himself stating that he would go for a walk to get some fresh air.

"Hey, you've been out all afternoon," Ted reasoned but James was already halfway out the door. "Don't stay out late," he shouted after Jamie, who simply left without a reply.

Turning back to Al & Lily, Teddy sighed, "Well, that leaves us three for a fun night. You go get the popcorn, while I set up the telly."

Two hours later the living room was a perfect family picture. Albus was curled up in the armchair and Ted sat on the couch with Lily curled up next to popcorn bowl sat empty on the coffee table as the movie credits rolled on the screen.

"Right you two, time for bed," Teddy said and sat up a bit, prompting Lily to right herself as well.

"But Jamie isn't even home yet," Albus replied, stretching in his chair.

"Yes, and he should know better than to stay out after curfew. That's no reason for you to get sleep deprived though."

Al scowled, but moved towards the stairs following his quiet and tired sister.

Ted, however, wasn't as relaxed as he pretended to be. It was now quarter past ten and well beyond the teenager's curfew. The young Auror contemplated informing his godparents, but decided against it. Knowing Harry, they would return home immediately, and Teddy really wanted them to have their well-deserved weekend off.

Ted made the decision to at least wait until midnight with the hope that James would be home by then. Sick with worry Ted paced up and down the living room, before grabbing the empty popcorn bowl off the table and taking it to the kitchen. Placing it in the sink, he heard a dull sound outside. He frowned, leaned forward to look out the window and squintted at the darkness. Suddenly,he could make out a person in the darkness of the back garden.

That couldn't be ... he wouldn't ...

Angry thoughts entered his head and were quickly confirmed as James stumbled through the door with his broom in his hand.

At that moment, Teddy snapped.

"What the hell do you think you're doing? Do you know what time it is?"

There was no response from the wind-swept teenager. As Ted stepped closer he noticed a very distinct smell.

"Are you drunk? You smell like a liquor cabinet."

Again, there was no reply, so now Teddy started to worry. Then with dread, he realised that James had just gotten a shade paler and started gagging.

"Oh heck no, Jamie, not here. Let's get you to the bathroom."

He ushered the younger boy towards the stairs, unfortunately they only managed to get to the front step when James suddenly threw up.

"Jamie please, we need to get to the bathroom."

As they made their way along the landing, Albus must have been alarmed by the noise and peeked out of his room.

"What's going on?"

"Nothing, go back to bed please." He replied hastily.

Teddy finally managed to get James into the bathroom. The fifteen year old was now miserably kneeling on the floor holding on to the toilet for dear life. Ted had lowered himself to the ground next to his godbrother when he noticed two figures by the door.

"Is he alright?" Lily asked concerned.

"He will be. You two should be off to bed. It's late," Teddy answered with his focus only shifting for a split second.

"But what about Jamie, he ..." Albus started arguing, however Teddy had no patience for him now.

"Go to bed, Al. I'm not telling you again." The young man ordered in a clipped voice, and it finally had the desired result. Albus disappeared to his room leaving Ted to turn his attention back to the boy crouched in front of the toilet. He continued rubbing James's back in soothing circles, waiting for the vomiting to stop.

When James had finally emptied his stomach, hot tears were running down his face from the exhaustion of throwing up. Teddy had to help the shaking boy up as he spoke to him in a soothing voice.

"Let's get you to bed, alright? You'll feel better once you lie down."

With Ted's support James got into his room, where he slumped on the bed and was out cold the moment he touched the pillow. Sighing, Ted undressed the boy he considered his brother and tucked the uncooperative teenager in. He then studied the nearly unconscious body. He couldn't leave him on his own like this. In the first aid healing course he had taken at the Auror Academy, they had taught him the risks of leaving an alcoholised person unsupervised, and there was no way he could conjure the extensive monitoring charms that the ministry holding cells offered for such occasions.

With that in mind, Teddy only left for a moment to clean up the earlier incident. Downstairs, he also searched for a sober-up potion, but to no avail. Resigning himself to a sleepless night, he returned to the armchair in James' room to watch the younger boy in his sleep.

AN: This is a Sequel to my Story Teenage Rebellion. It does make sense to read that first, but it's not a must. This story is about 15.000 words long and will be split over several chapters posted every week or so. It's all written, so no super long waits. Feedback, constructive criticism and reviews in general are always welcome.

A big thank you goes to 4fan .ci for beta-reading this story and making a big improvement on grammar & style.