17th November 2012 - The Ink Incident

"Mr Lupin, do you think that this was funny?"

Teddy looked down at his lap, and the fingers he was twisting around each other in his discomfort. "No, Professor."

"Then please explain to me why you would do something like this."

Tentatively, Teddy raised his gaze. He immediately wished that he hadn't. Professor McGonagall's face was so stern that he very nearly lost his nerve and ran from the Headmistress's office. It wouldn't solve anything, though, so he forced himself to remain seated. He lifted his chin. "I just wanted to see if it worked, Professor."

"Surely your godfather has enough stories of his somewhat questionable antics during his tenure at this school for you to know that that cloak does, in fact, work?"

He blanched. He knew that his excuse was flimsy at best. "Yes, Professor."

"And poor Ogden has a weak heart, you know."

"Yes, Professor."

"He didn't need the extra work. You could easily have just accepted your punishment for being caught out of bed without adding an explosion of mimbletonia ink into the mix. That greenhouse will take days to clean. You understand that, don't you?"

"Yes, Professor."

McGonagall peered shrewdly at him from over the top of her spectacles. "Do you have anything that you wish to say in your own defence?"

Teddy had plenty that he wanted to say, but he was fairly certain that McGonagall wouldn't listen. She wouldn't care that the miserly old caretaker had nearly caught both him and Vicky out of bed when they should have been tucked up in the Gryffindor and Ravenclaw towers respectively, and – former Gryffindor or not – she wouldn't consider Teddy's less-than-subtle diversion tactics gallant in the slightest.

It was his fault that Vicky was on the other side of the room, and therefore he couldn't get under the cloak in time before Ogden caught them. He had to do something to distract him so that Victoire could sneak away unscathed, even if it meant landing himself in detention.

Encouraging rule-breaking was not something that the Headmistress would've approved of, and Teddy hadn't gotten Vicky out of trouble just so that he could drag her back into it.

So, he merely looked her in the eye and said, "No, Professor."

"No?" McGonagall gave him a severe look. "Well, so be it. I will be taking twenty points from Gryffindor for your actions, and you will be cleaning the greenhouse – without magic – in detention tomorrow evening, but I will take it no further at this point. Consider this your first and last warning, Mr Lupin."

"Yes, Professor."

"You may go."

Feeling thoroughly chastised, but not one bit sorry for his actions, Teddy stood and made his way towards the door. He had only got halfway across the office when McGonagall called his name.

"Oh, and Lupin?"

He half-turned back. "Yes, Professor?"

"Make sure Miss Weasley knows that she's lucky to have a friend like you. Someone so willing to get into worse trouble to protect her."

Teddy blushed. So she'd known all along? "Um…"

"Loyalty is an admirable trait, even in troublemakers." She paused. "You remind me of someone I used to teach, you know. I lost count of the amount of times he put himself on the line to get his friends out of bother. I think the two of you have been spending too much time together." He could have sworn that he saw her lips twitch. Certainly, her expression was less severe than it had been a minute beforehand. "Off to bed, Lupin. Goodnight."

"Goodnight, Professor."

It was only when he was halfway along the corridor back to the Gryffindor common room that it dawned on him. Professor McGonagall had just compared him to Harry Potter. In a good way.

For the rest of the walk, Teddy Lupin had a spring in his step the whole way.