Disclaimer: The story really and truly belongs to me. Some of the characters belong to me too but the Potter universe belongs to J.K. Rowling.
1st September 2009
Teddy watched his family and friends fly by as the train gained speed. His heart fluttered in his chest. He was excited of course, but he was beyond nervous too. So far, the only children of his age were the kids at his muggle school. His grandmother had insisted that Teddy go to a muggle school to be in touch with a part of his heritage. He missed Adam Callaghan, his best friend from St. Andrew's. Adam was to join some prestigious school in Scotland on the same day that Teddy was bound for Hogwarts. He wished Adam was here with him. Apart from Adam, his other best friend was Victoire and she wouldn't join him for another year. Sighing to himself, Teddy picked up his trunk and dragged it to the nearest compartment which was full. He had to drag his carriage till the end of the train before he found an almost empty compartment. Teddy thanked his stars, the train was crazy, and people kept running up and down to greeting each other. He was lucky he wasn't trampled over.
He opened the gate, looking back as he dragged his trunk in, "Hi! May I please sit here, everywhere-" Teddy turned to face the boys in the cabin and stopped short at the boy sitting right in front of him. Sitting in front of him in all his 11 year old glory was his best friend Adam Callaghan. "Adam!"
"Teddy!"
"Adam!" Teddy said with a laugh as his friend leapt from his seat to hug him.
"Teddy! You are a wizard too?"
"Of course, I am. But you too?"
"I didn't even know- here let me help you with your trunk." Adam said, grabbing hold of Teddy's trunk and hoisting it up, chatting all the way. "All these weird things used to happen around me. Remember, how mean the other kids were to me before you came along. Wow! Professor Longbottom came to explain things to us. I was amazed but he asked me to not tell anyone about it so I didn't say anything to you."
Teddy laughed. "I know, my entire family is full of witches and wizards but I was asked to not talk about it with anyone."
"But it's amazing, great even. We are going to Hogwarts together!"
"Yeah. I will have to write to dad about it. This is amazing. I was worried I would have to make new friends all over."
"As if that would have been a problem for you." Adam said with an excited jittery laugh. The other two boys stared amusedly at the two friends. One of them coughed without even bothering to be discreet. The two friends suddenly looked around and realized that they were around two other people. Teddy looked at the boys with interest. They were identical; mirror images of each other, even their eyes were the same charcoal black and crinkled with mischief as they grinned at the two friends.
"Oh right! Teddy, this is- Err.. you are Ashwini right?" Adam asked to the boy on his right. The boy grinned devilishly and shrugged.
"Oh c'mon!" Adam whined, "You guys are mirror images. It would take me sometime."
"Well, come on Arjun." The boy on Teddy's left said to the boy that Adam was talking to. "Let's help them out."
"Aww man! I was having fun." Arjun whined. His brother gave him a stern look and Arjun nodded mutely. The other one smirked, satisfied with himself and turned to Teddy and Adam.
"Hi! I am Ashwini Srivastava." He said extending his hand to Teddy. "I am wearing the red t-shirt."
"Teddy Lupin." Teddy said with a grin.
"Hi, I am Arjun Srivastava. I am the one in the green t-shirt." Said the other boy grumpily waving from his seat, Teddy grinned at him as he took his seat next to Ashwini and Adam settled down next to Arjun.
"So, Ted." Adam started. "You come from a family of witches and wizards, tell us about Hogwarts. Do you know a lot of people at Hogwarts?"
"Your entire family is magical?" Arjun asked with interest.
"Yes." Teddy answered grinning.
"Cool!" The two boys said together.
"Look, but honestly, I don't know much about Hogwarts apart from the houses and the subjects that we would take." Teddy said, "My family insisted that I discover the castle on my own. I have never been to Hogwarts."
The boys nodded. "So, what does your dad do in the magical world?" Ashwini asked.
"Oh! He is an Auror. Sort of like the wizard police, he catches the bad guys."
"There are bad wizards?" Arjun asked.
"Yes. Dad says becoming dark is more of a personal choice."
The boys nodded. "So do you have a wizard court and prison?" Adam asked.
"Yes. The wizard court is called Wizengamot and the prison is called Azkaban."
"I bet there are dragons protecting the walls of Azkaban." Ashwini said with a laugh.
Teddy grinned. "No, it's an island prison. Most parts are guarded by the Aurors but some special cells are guided by these creatures called the Dementors. I came across one when I was a kid and I had gone to visit dad in his office. They were taking away a mad murderer, and I sort of wandered near one. I felt like I would never be happy again." Teddy said making a face. "And I wasn't even near them, I was behind this partition."
The boys looked at Teddy, quite stunned. Adam more so because in the 5 years that he had known Teddy, he had never ever seen Teddy sad; Teddy was always a cheerful person.
"So, what are these Dementy-thingies?" Adam asked.
"Dementors." Teddy said with a laugh. "They are big, cloaked creatures. I don't really know how they look. My dad described them to me after the incident. But they suck all the happiness out of a person. They make people go mad. He is quite against them, so is Uncle Kingsley. I mean Minister Shacklebolt, he introduced an act to remove the Dementors from Azkaban but most of the wizengamot, which is really made of old pure blood families that were neutral during the war shot his plan to completely remove them down. So, they stay but only for the high security prisoners. People who have done really bad things, like use an unforgivable on another."
"Wow" Ashwini said as Arjun whistled and Adam nodded his agreement.
"There was a war?" Arjun asked after a moment of silence.
Teddy's heart hammered, he really should think about the things he says. He promised Harry that he would not tell anyone about it till it was taught in their history class. Most children, who did not have families directly involved with the war, knew nothing much about it. The history class would only touch upon the war, not really going into the details of how horrible that time period was. Harry and Draco had told Teddy everything, before Teddy started school. He was the son of two war heroes and the Godson of the saviour himself along with being the cousin of a Death Eater. He was given this knowledge, so that he could be ready for the attention both positive and negative. Teddy did not even notice that the other three boys were staring at him with mixed expressions of fear and fascination.
"Teddy!" Adam shouted suddenly, breaking Teddy's chain of thoughts. "Your hair!"Adam said pointing a shaky finger at his hair.
"Forget the hair dude, look at your eyes!" Arjun said looking at Teddy with open fascination.
Teddy looked at his reflection in the window. His hair was bright red, as it always was when he was stressed and his eyes were hazel instead of muddy brown. He kicked himself mentally; he had promised Draco that he would not keep his hair in their normal turquoise colour or his eyes to their normal brown for the first month of Hogwarts. This was a safety precaution; they had to ensure that Teddy would not be bullied for his special gift, Draco was paranoid about Teddy's safety and he had no faith in insecure teenagers.
"It's okay." Teddy said with a sigh, closing his eyes and concentrating on getting the agreed upon sandy brown hair and brown eyes. "I am a Metamorphmagus. But you can't tell anyone about it. Please." The three boys stared at him.
"You are a what?" Ashwini asked quite unsure of himself.
"Metamorphmagus. I can change my look at will. Here look." And as the three boys watched in amazement, Teddy changed into an exact replica of Adam with matching dirty blond hair and brown eyes.
"That is so weird!" Adam exclaimed with a grin. The other two boys nodded mutely. Teddy grinned changing back to his agreed upon state. "But please, you have to promise, you will not tell anyone about it." The three boys nodded.
"So, are all wizarding children, Meta- whatever it is that you are?" Adam asked.
"Not all. Metamorphmagi are rare. My mom was one, so I am one. I haven't heard of other Metamorphmagus. I guess it is genetic. I was born this way." Teddy said with a shrug.
"This is so cool!"
"Wicked!"
"You could totally prank someone. Freak them out completely."
"Yeah my mom used to morph into Professor McGonagall- she is the headmistress now. Once she morphed into Dumbledore- he was the headmaster then and started chatting up with another student from her house and the real Dumbledore came along and sat on the other side of the student and started chatting just as nicely with him, the poor guy was freaked out."
"Brilliant!" The three boys said together. Teddy laughed. They spent the entire train journey chatting up and getting to know each other. Arjun and Ashwini were of Indian origin, their grandfather had moved to England to become a Professor at Oxford. Their father was an Orthopaedic surgeon while their mother was a gynaecologist, their family was beyond shocked when Professor Longbottom came along and told them about Ashwini and Arjun's special powers. Ashwini and Arjun had a younger sister Ankita, who would be joining them at Hogwarts in two years.
Adam's father was a lawyer. He came from a family of successful businessmen; his mother was handling the family business while his father pursued his passion as a human rights lawyer. Adam like Teddy was an only child but unlike Teddy who had a large family to love him, Adam only had his father as a friend and guide. His mother loved him and they tried to spend as much time together as they could but more often than not she was away for business. Adam's best friend was his dog Jerry.
When the food trolley came along Teddy introduced the boys to chocolate frogs and Bertie Bott's every flavour beans among other things. The boys were excited about their first chocolate frog card collection. While Adam got Merlin ("Woah! He actually existed!" Adam exclaimed.), Ashwini got Hermione Granger and Arjun got Neville Longbottom ("Hey! That's Professor Longbottom! Blimey! He was a badass.").
When the train stopped, Teddy jumped on the platform and led his friends to Hagrid. He promptly jumped into Hagrid's arms, Hagrid laughed and mussed Teddy's hair lovingly before leading them to the boats. His friends were impressed. The boys all whopped in excitement as the boats lurched forward with a slight tap from Hagrid's wand. Teddy exchanged a quick wink with Hagrid, as he remembered the time when all the Weasleys, his dad, his mum, even Grandma took turns in teaching Hagrid Magic. Hagrid had passed his NEWTs two years ago and used his wand with great pride.
They were led into the Great Hall by Professor Longbottom after he gave them a short introduction to Hogwarts along with the names of the houses and the kind of behaviour expected from the students. As they walked into the Great Hall he heard gasps and awed "woahs" around him. Teddy had to admit, despite hearing about the Great Hall his life; he was overwhelmed when he actually saw it. Once the Sorting Ceremony started all of Teddy's concentration was focused around keeping his appearance intact. He watched Adam being sorted into Ravenclaw and applauded loudly, relaxing a bit. A part of him knew that Adam would be a Ravenclaw.
Teddy jumped when one of the Srivastava twins pushed him forward. He looked around to see that everyone was staring at him while Uncle Neville was standing with the Sorting hat in his hand. "Come now, Mr. Lupin. There is nothing to worry about." He said kindly. Teddy blushed, but walked to the stool with as much confidence as his shaky legs could muster. His vision of the hall was cut off as the hat was dropped on his head.
"Hah!" Said a tiny voice in Teddy's head. "Nervous, are we? Don't lose your concentration there boy, I know where you belong. – HUFFLEPUFF"
Teddy breathed a sigh of relief. He handed the hat to Professor Longbottom who winked at him as Teddy passed by him to join the Hufflepuff table. He got a few pats on the back while a sixth year girl pulled his cheeks for being "Oh! So cute!" Teddy looked over to the Ravenclaw table and grinned at Adam before going back to look at the sorting ceremony.
Ashwini was sorted into Gryffindor while Arjun joined Teddy at the Hufflepuff table. Once the feast was over, the first year Hufflepuffs were led back to their dormitories. Teddy grinned; his mother had already told him about the Hufflepuff common room password. Students had to play the drums in a set tune; the tune was changed each term for the common room door to open up. The Hufflepuff Common room was warm and cozy and green. There were round tables, squishy arm chairs, couches, rugs all in the Hufflepuff colours of canary yellow and black and the room contained potted plants of all sorts hanging from the ceiling, in different corners. Teddy and Arjun grinned at each other as they followed their prefect, Samuel O'Connor to the first year dormitory. Teddy found his trunk and bed and settled under the warm sheets, promising himself that he would send Moony to Uncle Draco, his Dad and grandma tomorrow morning with his letter.
AN: So, first chapter. Please read and review and let me know what you think of it. Please. Happy reading.
Much love
The fishes