Chapter 2

"What the—?" Teddy proceeded to say a word that would have caused his grandmother to smack him. Derrick, who had toppled off his seat, used Teddy to yank himself upright and move over to the door in the dark. Noah, the logical one of the group, pulled out his wand and lit it. It was only after this that the other two realized that was the thing to do in this situation.

Derrick slid open the door and peered outside into the corridor. There were little balls of light poking out of every compartment from people's wands, except for compartments full of first years who did know how to work Lumos yet. The Head Boy suddenly emerged from nowhere and began to move along the train, calming people down. At the other end of their carriage, the Head Girl, Violet Wilks, who just so happened to be Derrick's girlfriend was doing the same thing. She stopped when she got to the three boys' compartment. Derrick kissed her swiftly and pulled her inside.

"Do you know what's happening?" Noah said, lifting his wand to see her face in the light. Teddy stifled a snicker. The whole setting reminded him of a sleepover had by seven year olds.

"No clue." Violet said, adjusting her robes daintily. The silver from her Slytherin tie glinted unnaturally in the harsh wandlight. "But I should be out there. There's bound to be panic." She waved to them all and slipped back out.

Teddy leaned over to the window and peered out, but all he could see was his own reflection, because the light on his side of the glass was too bright. He could barely see out into the night. But suddenly, he realized something. It was only around 11:15 in the morning on a warm autumn day. There was no way it could be that dark outside. He only knew of one thing that could suck the light from the place, and that was Demen—

"Attention Hogwarts students." The magnified voice was so loud and sudden it startled Teddy right out of his seat. He clattered to the floor and dropped his wand, which went out. "We are experiencing some difficulties with the train. We have maintenance working on it now and will be on our way shortly." Teddy could almost feel the breath of relief that issued from nearly every student on the train. Teddy groped for his wand for a few moments before finding it, lighting it, and letting out a yell. He had found himself face to face with the Lestrange brothers, sneering evilly from the front of the newspaper. Of course, he had dropped the Daily Prophet when the train stopped, and it was still open to the murder article, of which Rodolphus and Rabastan were the prime suspects.

"What?" Derrick asked, looking frantically around for the cause of Teddy's fear.

"Nothing." Teddy pushed himself up and sat back down, but it was only seconds before the compartment door burst open again.

"Teddy!" It was James Potter

"James? What are you—?"

"Have you seen Al?"

"What?"

"Al! My little brother, Al, you wanker!"

"You watch your mouth, James—"

"He's going to be panicking! I have to find him!"

"Well, he should be with Rose and Lysander." Teddy spoke slowly, trying to calm James down.

"Then let's go find them!"

"Wait a minute." Teddy grabbed James by the back of his collar. "You really need to calm down. I'm sure they're just fine."

"Uhh….Teddy? Al's a wimp. He won't be fine."

During the entire conversation, Derrick and Noah hadn't said a word, but simply followed them with their heads, as if James and Teddy were playing a thrilling tennis match in the semi-dark train compartment. Teddy wanted desperately to send James away and take his friends to go battle the Dementors and whatever else was out there that stopped the train. So far, he hadn't heard anyone come aboard, but maybe there were Death Eaters out there messing with the breaks, or dismantling some important life saving component of the Hogwarts Express. He wanted to tell Derrick and Noah this view, but Teddy knew very well it would send the already over-stimulated James into an even blinder panic.

"You know what?" Teddy said, making up his mind. "You're going to go back to your compartment and sit there calmly with your little Gryffindor buddies we sort out the Demen— I mean, the train issues."

"What are you going to do about the train? Studying magical Maintenance by night, are you?" James sneered. It was another of his lame twelve-year old comebacks. Teddy had grown rather sick of James over the last year, but also rather fond of him. However, at the moment he knew lives could be at stake so he wouldn't let his energized, bouncy 'cousin' interfere.

"Well…we'll figure something out." Teddy said, ignoring the fact that his comeback was twice as lame as James' had been. "Go back to your friends, Al will be fine. He's with the others."

"But I—"

"Now!" Teddy barked. James scowled at him and whisked away, holding his lit wand aloft to see where he was going. Teddy whirled around back to Noah and Derrick. "Well?" he said, when they just looked at him. "Let's go!"

"Go…do what?" Derrick asked.

"Yeah." Noah chimed in. "We don't actually study Magical Maintenance by night, Ted."

Teddy suddenly realized that he hadn't yet told them his Dementor theory. He took a breath, ready to explain, when the lamps flickered back on, sunlight streamed back in the window and the train started moving with a jolt. All up and down the train there were yelps of surprise, thuds of luggage and people falling, and many mutters of "Nox" as the need for lit wands was extinguished with the darkness. For what must have been the second or third time, Teddy fell over, but this time he slammed his head on the doorframe. He heard the flimsy wood holding it together crack as he slid down onto the floor.

Shaking stars out of his eyes and giving a slurred reply to Noah's "Are you alright?", Teddy pushed himself upright and sat down on his seat, rubbing the back of his skull. He dimly heard Derrick repairing the door and sliding it closed.

The rest of the train ride was quiet. Teddy couldn't help silently panicking over the Dementors and probably Death Eaters that had stopped the train. As they pulled into Hogsmeade Station, he half expected the train to give a squeal and tumble off the tracks, but it didn't. They clambered out into the light rain that was falling and made their way through the crowd and towards the carriages. Almost all of them were full or filling up when they got there.

"I hope we don't have to wait for the second trip." Teddy groaned. Then he spotted Victoire, waving him over. It looked like her carriage had some space in it, so he obliged and moved towards her, unaware that Noah and Derrick weren't following him. Derrick had snagged Violet and the two were snogging and trying to climb into her carriage at the same time, and Noah was conversing with a Hufflepuff boy he knew. Teddy reached Victoire and clambered into the carriage with her and five or six of her friends, all of whom were girls. He felt the chill from the rain evaporate from him as he sat next to Victoire. Her friends were all giggling and chatting, but the two of them were awkwardly silent.

"So...what classes are you taking zis year?" Victoire asked as the carriage trundled through the Hogwarts gates.

"Uhh…" Teddy found his mind oddly blank. Slowly, the words slid out of his mouth. "Defence Against the Dark Arts, Charms, Transfiguration…" That was as far as he could remember while staring into Victoire's flawless face. She was the spitting image of her mother, but had only a slight trace of her accent. "…and, you know…other stuff." Teddy finished lamely. "You?"

"Potions, Herbology, the other basics. I don't know what I'll do after I finish school so I want to keep my options open, you know." She said. Teddy nodded.

"Yeah." He said, unable to think of anything else to say.

Thankfully, it was only a short while after that that the carriages swayed to a halt. The rain was coming down a little harder now, so Teddy yanked his cloak over his head and made a dash for the front doors, which were wide open. He could feel the cold rain soaking through his cloak and onto the back of his neck. Shivering, he slid into the Entrance Hall and waded his way through the crowd, unconsciously knocking second and third year students out of the way, his mind still full of the oldest Weasley child.

Teddy sat himself at the Ravenclaw table with his back to the Gryffindors, facing the Hufflepuffs. The endless chatter of the school whirled around him, and he grinned down at his gold plate, happy to be back. It wasn't like the summer holidays were awful or anything, but he was often asked to babysit at a relative's house, so he spent his days chasing James all around Uncle Harry's house or trying to stop Rose Weasley from shutting her little brother Hugo in a wardrobe. As he was pondering his summer, Lauren Graymer sat next to him. She was also a Ravenclaw in her seventh year, and Teddy remembered how they had sat together on the train on their very first day at Hogwarts. She had barely gotten out a greeting when the Headmistress, Professor McGonagall, stood up and held a hand up for quiet.