Chapter 2:

Love and War

Teddy was the only Hogwarts student invited to Professor Longbottom's stag party, but the whole of Gryffindor House was invited to the wedding. Several of Teddy's other friends had found their way in when Hannah chose The Willow - a restaurant run by the parents of Teddy's friend Tinny Gudgeon - for the reception, and they volunteered to serve.

For most of them, the wedding wasn't a cause for any great nervousness. Unlike the party, Teddy felt that he had this scenario reasonably well figured-out, and most of his mates thought of it as something to do for a day, an interesting curiosity. Donzo McCormack was debating whether or not to bring a girl, but had been talked down from that ledge by Maurice Burke, who reminded him that Professor Longbottom was a hero, and all of his adult friends were war heroes, meaning the gossip columnists would be about. Once it was agreed upon that it would be a dateless event, they all relaxed.

Except for Victoire Weasley.

"How's this one?" she asked, running down to Granny's basement in the third dress of the day. She'd brought her suitcase for a simple game of Muggles and Minions because she hadn't made this decision three days before the wedding (Teddy felt considerably better about his own indecision only a few days before; at least he hadn't dithered for days). Donzo gave her an overly appreciative glance, and even Frankie flicked his eyes over her. Maurice Burke rolled his eyes, and Roger Young gave her a leering sort of wink, which she didn't even notice.

"Do you think it looks too casual?" she went on. "Should I wear dress robes? Ruth, what are you wearing?"

Ruthless Scrimgeour, Teddy's usually-ex girlfriend and constant best friend in Gryffindor looked at her blankly. "I don't know. There's some horrible thing with lace in my wardrobe. Mum's determined that I'll wear it. Are you going to try to con the landlord into letting you stay even though you're out of gold, or do you want to make a break for it and try another place?"

Victoire bit her lip. "I don't know. Try to con the landlord, I suppose. What about your hair? How are you doing your hair?"

"No idea. What's your charm stat again?"

"Seventeen." Victoire looked at her dress and shook her head. "Oh, no, this one's terrible. I look like china doll."

Granny appeared at the top of the cellar stairs with a tray of butterbeers floating ahead of her. "You'll look lovely in anything you wear, dear," she said.

"Oh, but I want to wear the right thing! Isn't it wonderful that they're getting married? I want everything to be just right. It's very romantic! Don't you think so, Ruth?"

Ruthless blushed and shook her head. "Isn't Tinny coming? Or even Bernice? Bernice hasn't played in ages. We should call her. Just get some other girl here for her to talk to."

Victoire gave an exasperated frown. "Fine!"

Granny sighed. "Victoire, would you like me to Summon a mirror down here so you can work on your hair without running up and down from the game?"

Victoire smiled and nodded.

Teddy supposed that would have been the end of it, but Victoire was determined to make Ruthless her friend and wasn't very skilled at the task, despite three years of practice. Teddy had never been able to make out just why Ruthless disliked Victoire, or why Victoire was so determined to overcome it, and he wished they'd just stop provoking one another.

As they played their way through a listless game, Victoire slowly moved from asking Ruthless what she meant to do with her hair, to making timid suggestions, to finally giving explicit directions, like "You really must use Sleek-Easy for special occasions," and "Oh, your hair is so lovely, if you would just pin it up a bit, just over the ears..."

After the sixth such directive, Ruthless slammed her dice down on the table and stormed up the stairs. Teddy heard her voice, but couldn't tell what she was saying. Her tone with Granny seemed perfectly polite. Then she stormed back down with a pair of scissors in her hand. She grabbed her thick, unruly red hair into a pony tail and hacked it off at the base, causing the rest to puff out like the head of a dandelion.

"There," she said, leaning toward Victoire aggressively. "Problem solved, don't you think?"

Victoire put her hand over her mouth. "Oh, your poor hair! Oh, Ruth, I'm sorry! But you could still do something cute with it, I'm sure..."

Ruthless put her hands over her face and shook her head hopelessly.

To Teddy's utter confusion, on the day of the wedding Ruthless actually went to Victoire as soon as she arrived at the church, for help getting her hair in order ("Mum got it down to my shoulders and she had pins in it, but they've fallen out, and I'm stuck"). Victoire happily went away with her, and they disappeared with Fleur for a few minutes. When Ruthless came out, she looked deeply uncomfortable, and kept patting at a sort of bun that Fleur and Victoire had evidently done for her. Teddy thought she looked beautiful, and for once, other people seemed to be turning to look at her as well, which made her uncharacteristically shy. She slipped into the middle of the group of boys, effectively hiding herself behind Donzo, who was the tallest. Ron, who was acting as an usher (Uncle Harry was Professor Longbottom's best man), led them to a group of seats and told them to behave themselves, or he wouldn't seat Hannah's pretty cousins from Finland anywhere near them.

A harpist took a seat at the front of the church, and the wedding began. Teddy had been to a few, and this one seemed rather typical. He had Mum's memory of her own wedding - a quick affair in a dingy Ministry office, organized with less than two hours to spare - and a flare of unreasonable anger burned at him. Mum had been perfectly happy; he'd felt that in the memory. But she'd earned something like this, and ought to have had it, with everyone she'd ever been fond of right there with her.

He felt something warm on his shoulder and looked back to find Victoire, who was smiling brightly enough to light several London neighborhoods. "It's wonderful!" she mouthed as fireworks went off above the heads of the newly married couple, who were snogging quite un-self-consciously in front of everyone. They turned together, Neville and Hannah Longbottom, now and forever, and Teddy decided that he agreed with Victoire. It really was wonderful. Though he decided it might be wiser not to share that observation with his mates, who were all expressing varying degrees of boredom, except for Maurice Burke, whose expression was utterly unreadable.

As the bride and groom made their stately way back up the aisle together, Teddy saw Tinny's parents spring into action. They carried a flowered arch to the end of the aisle, and made a great show of Charming it. They finished just as the Longbottoms reached them, and bowed deeply.

The Longbottoms stepped through the arch and disappeared.

As soon as they were gone, the Gudgeons placed several more arches, less ornate than the first, and guests began to go through them, disappearing as they went. Teddy's group, which had been near the front of the church, was among the last to go, and by the time they got through to the other side - the Gudgeons' restaurant - the reception was already underway.

The bride and groom sat at a table placed at the head of the room, like the Hogwarts High table, and several small tables were scattered around. Hannah had obviously thought out the guest tables carefully, and made a large table for Teddy and his friends, somewhere near the back, where they could keep to themselves - and those who'd volunteered to help could slip out unnoticed - even though their families were in attendance (Granny and her gentleman friend, Ellsworth Wintringham, were seated near Hannah's aunts and uncles, and they all seemed to know one another from Hogwarts). The dance floor was at the far end of the room from the high table, and James had already got Aunt Ginny out there. They were dancing energetically, if not expertly. Al and Lily were trying a clumsy box step, though the music wasn't even vaguely waltz-like. Uncle Harry and Ron were taking the mickey out of Professor Longbottom about something Teddy couldn't hear, and Hannah's Hufflepuff friends were gathered around her, telling her how lovely she was. On the fringes of that group, a pretty, dark-haired woman about Uncle Harry's age was hovering near a man with curly blond hair. She turned suddenly, an avid expression on her face, and Teddy recognized her just a moment too late to avoid her sudden, determined advance.

She reached the table and held out her hand. "Teddy Lupin!" she said. "Why, I don't believe we've been properly introduced. My name is Pansy Finch-Fletchley. Your father was my very favorite teacher. Are you planning to teach? What grand plans do you have? It's your O.W.L. year, isn't it?"

Without asking, she sat down in a place with a card that read "Roger Young," and blinked at him expectantly.

"I'm not going to be a teacher," Teddy said reflexively, scrambling to find mind-space for a conversation with a woman he knew had once led choruses of a song making fun of Ron, had tormented Hermione, and had gone out with a Death Eater - or a future Death Eater, anyway - for most of her time at Hogwarts. On the other hand, she had continued writing friendly enough letters to Dad after his illness had become public knowledge, and Teddy supposed that ought to count for something. He fumbled for an answer. "I, er... well, I just don't want to... I mean, I'm not much of a teacher."

"Oh." She seemed a little unsure of what to say to this, which was the normal reaction of former students of Dad's when Teddy let slip that he didn't intend to become the second coming of Professor Lupin. He had no special reason for this. He actually could teach, and fairly well, and he enjoyed it. But the thought of taking Dad's job made him queasy, so he'd rejected the notion early on. He felt the same about taking Mum's job, so he braced himself for the next, inevitable words from Pansy: "Oh, then you must be thinking of being an Auror!"

Teddy shook his head. "I don't know. Really. I don't want to be an Auror, either."

"Oh, but you really must start thinking about these things! You'll need to decide which N.E.W.T.s to take."

"I, er..."

To his great relief, Donzo pulled out a chair on Pansy's other side and said, "Actually, I'm starting a band after school, and Teddy's going to play the harp."

Pansy paled. "Really? Oh. How... interesting. You like music, then?"

Teddy bit the inside of his cheek to keep from laughing, then said, "Sure."

"He's crazy on the strings," Donzo added, grinning wickedly. "I may have him play later when I sing for the Longbottoms."

Teddy, who'd never played the harp in his life (or had the slightest desire to do so), gave Donzo a helpless look as soon as Pansy turned to him.

"You're, er..." Pansy frowned in a confused way, then looked suddenly pleased with herself. "You're Donzo McCormack! You're dad's in the... Moonhowlers?"

"Weird Sisters."

"Of course, yes, they sang at the Yule Ball when I was at Hogwarts. Are you in Teddy's year? What N.E.W.T.s do you need to form a band? I've always wondered."

"It's an involved course of study with Binns and Sprout."

"Sprout?"

"Yes, she plays a wild accordion."

Pansy looked utterly lost, and Teddy felt sorry for her. None of the adults were talking to her, and she'd been reduced to a conversation with a stranger who happened to be the son of someone who'd taught her for a single year. He reached around and hit Donzo's arm. "Let her be," he said. "Donzo's just taking everything because he's too smart for his own good. He doesn't need any of it. And I don't play the harp."

"Oh." She smiled awkwardly. "I, er... well. I suppose you'll need to get used to people asking you what you mean to do this year. O.W.L.s, you know. Everyone's going to ask."

"I don't know what I want to do," Teddy said. This wasn't entirely true. He was fascinated with Frankie's mum's job - Maddie was an Unspeakable, and she always seemed to have something interesting on her mind, even if she couldn't talk about it. But as no one knew what Unspeakables really did, he didn't think anyone would be able to advise him about N.E.W.T.s for it. In fact, he had a feeling that unless they came to him, he'd not get inside no matter what N.E.W.T.s he took. "It doesn't really seem real."

"Oh, dear, you need a plan! Hermione's awfully clever at plans, if I recall correctly. Perhaps she could help!" She preened, apparently impressed with herself for complimenting Hermione.

"I could ask."

A new song came up, and Pansy smiled more genuinely and stood up, looking around. "Oh, I love this..." She trailed off. Her husband was engrossed in a conversation with Uncle Harry, and she stopped rather than going over. "Oh, well. I suppose I can just listen." She cast around for somewhere to go.

Teddy stood up. "Could I have this dance, Mrs. Finch-Fletchley?"

"Oh, yes. Thank you." She went to the dance floor with him, looking both relieved and uncomfortable somehow, and Teddy managed to get her dancing. He caught Granny looking at him, and she smiled in a satisfied way. Teddy nodded back to her. She leaned over to Ellsworth, and a moment later, he came out and asked to cut in. Teddy bowed and backed away.

Granny caught him and guided him over to her table. "Very nice, Teddy," she said. "Your grandfather would have done that."

"You think so?"

"Absolutely. He had a great deal of patience with girls who grew up with unsavory connections."

"But you weren't nasty like Pansy was in school!"

"Not on that subject, but I rather think Lucius Malfoy wouldn't have counted me as demure and well-mannered." She stirred her tea. "What did she want to talk about?"

"My plans for the future."

"Mm, yes. O.W.L. year. She's a Slytherin. She'll assume you have a master plan."

"Do you assume that?"

Granny smiled. "I've spent quite enough time among Gryffindors to know that you haven't the slightest inkling of one, Teddy. But you really must start thinking about the subject. You'll have your meeting with Neville later this year, and you will need to decide what classes you need to take, and which O.W.L.s you need to study particularly hard for."

"I thought I'd just study the ones I'm really interested in and see what they're good for."

"Oh, yes, that'll work brilliantly." She rolled her eyes. "Teddy, you may have to master things you're not interested in if you mean to do everything you are interested in."

Teddy grimaced and took a sip of Ellsworth's drink (it was a vile, coconut flavored thing that made phantom palm trees shimmer at the edge of Teddy's vision). He had a feeling he'd be more than a little sick of being asked about his future by the end of the year. The only one of his friends (other than Donzo, who was already doing the job he meant to do) who had the slightest idea what he wanted was Frankie, who was going into his last year and taking whatever N.E.W.T.s happened to please him, because he meant to go into the publishing business with his father, and his father wasn't requiring anything in particular, as long as he got at least two solid Exceeds Expectations among five N.E.W.T.s.

Well, Ruthless knew as well. She'd had her career advice interview last year, and had needed to admit her ambition to be an Auror, which had meant brutal study sessions and some private tutoring in Potions from Teddy, which had ultimately led to Teddy's girlfriend Lizzie breaking up with him, even though nothing had happened until after the break-up, and that hadn't been much, and...

Granny snapped her fingers under his nose. "It's a wedding, Teddy," she said. "Smile. Go dance with someone you want to dance with. Even if it's dangerous to life and limb." She winked at Ruthless, who was famous for accidentally hitting her partners with flailing arms while she danced. At present, she was dancing with James, who wasn't much better, but had the excuse of being eight.

He braced himself for the pain and started over, but was interrupted partway by Victoire, who'd already managed to dance with all of her cousins and her father, and was waiting for a dance with the groom. A moment later, she had Teddy out on the floor, and he had to admit, she was a less dangerous dance partner than Ruthless, especially as the music slowed. They talked about Gryffindor and the pranks she meant to play this year, and about the cousins and all the new words her youngest brother, Lance, had been learning ("Marie taught him a word that Mum wishes he wouldn't say, and now he says it all the time - Marie's in such trouble!"). She didn't press about O.W.L.s, though she said she was curious. They'd danced three songs before he particularly noticed the time passing, and he was in a considerably better mood. When Professor Longbottom asked if he might cut in, Teddy felt an absurd urge to say no, then remembered that he could more or less dance with Victoire any time the family got together, and it wasn't like she was a girlfriend, and if he happened to dream later about dancing with her in a forest glade again, it didn't mean anything at all, except that she did still have Veela blood, and that was undoubtedly why he'd been momentarily entranced. With this firmly in mind, he went back to his table, where Ruthless was waiting with her eyebrow raised inquisitively. Teddy ignored this, and asked her what she and James had been talking about.

Teddy's friends went one by one to do their shifts serving. Maurice was called into service dancing with older ladies who were there by themselves, including Augusta Longbottom and Pomona Sprout. Minerva McGonagall was there alone as well, but no Gryffindor would allow her to sit out any song she showed a desire to dance to, so no special arrangements were needed. While Teddy danced with her, she brought up the subject of the books again. "I'm not entirely certain I ought to have shared them with you, you know," she said. "There are dangers involved in the Animagus transformation if you actually tried the practice, which of course, you're not doing."

"Well, if I were to try anything, which I wouldn't, I'd make sure to use all the precautions, and I'd have Ruthless or Donzo around to look after me if anything went wrong. Like, for instance, turning my fingernails into feathers. Which might have happened - hypothetically - last year, if I'd just started out toward the end of a book. But Ruthless would have fixed it perfectly well, if it had been her turn when it didn't happen."

"Ah, yes. Well, feathers would have been a minor inconvenience. Don't forget Maris Vissen who - "

" - turned into a fish while she was visiting Timbuktu."

"A spot of trouble breathing," Professor McGonagall said.

"In theory, I wouldn't have that problem."

"You've other books you need to be studying this year, Mr. Lupin," she said, more sternly. "Even purely studying the theory of the Animagus transformation, as you're no doubt doing, can be time-consuming. Don't let it interfere with your O.W.L.s. What do you mean to do?"

Teddy sighed, and continued the dance.

They stayed at the reception long after the bride and groom left (Ernie and Susan Macmillan were left as hosts), and by the time Teddy got home, he was deeply tired.

He went to his room, actually rather hoping for a pleasant dream about dancing in the forest with Victoire - or any of the other girls who might choose to visit - but instead, he found himself standing on the edge of a cliff. He didn't know the place. Below him, trees swayed in the wind. They seemed to grow in a strange, almost geometric pattern.

A maze.

The wind gusted behind him, and he sailed out into the darkness, his arms spreading, becoming wings. Inside the maze, he could see Victoire, dancing with her sisters, and Ruthless, dueling someone. His parents were there, beyond a wall of trees, laughing with Sirius in the kitchen at Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place. Somewhere else, he saw Uncle Harry, walking through the woods, looking terrified, a stone clasped in his hands. As he rose higher, he could see more - strangers, friends, relatives in all times and all places. A man with a desperate, bloody face looked up at him, and something cold went through him. He circled above, then suddenly, the trees grew, and he was lost in the dark, unable to get above the canopy. His wings seemed to melt away, and he crashed to the ground, alone.

He woke up just before noon, his heart pounding. Granny had gone to St. Mungo's, leaving him a bit of gold, a bag of Floo powder, and an instruction to go off and do something amusing, if he happened to wake up before she got home at six.

Teddy put it into his pocket, thinking he might go back to Diagon Alley, where his friends were all helping the Gudgeons get things back in order today. He meant to do it.

Instead, he tossed the powder into the fire and called, "Badger Hill!"

A moment later, he spun out into the Apcarnes' kitchen.

Maddie was at the stove, although it was the afternoon of a work day. Two teacups were set up at the table, and a small wooden box sat between them.

"Hello, Teddy," Maddie said. "Please sit down."

Curious, Teddy pulled out one of the chairs. A pitcher of milk flew over and dropped a dollop into his tea, and two sugar cubes leapt up over the edge. He stirred it. "You knew I was coming?"

Maddie turned away from the stove, a pan of hot biscuits in her hand. She set it down between them. Teddy generally thought of her as a Hufflepuff version of Molly Weasley - thick through the waist, a pleasantly round face, a good cook and jolly mother... and no one to cross, if push came to shove. He took a biscuit.

Maddie sat down and put her hand on the wooden box. "This is a Daedalus Maze, Teddy," she said.

A flash of last night's dream came to Teddy, spiraling down among the trees, his wings seared. "What?"

"It was initially invented as a Divination toy, by a man called Dedalus Royce. The name has stayed in the family, though the last name has been lost - they're the Diggles, now."

Teddy didn't know what she expected him to say to this, so he didn't say anything.

Maddie went on. "That was perhaps a hundred and fifty years ago. The Department of Mysteries was less a proper Ministry Department at the time than a gentlewizard's social club. It had been more once, of course. The Ministry wouldn't have incorporated it if it hadn't been. But at the time, it was Royce, Phineas Black - that's when they started calling him 'Nigellus,' they were mad for classical sounding names, Gordon Burke, Aloisus Leary, Percival Dumbledore... a few others. It doesn't really matter. It was considered a post for young men of good families who wanted a post, but were above such drudgery as legislation or law enforcement. Good minds, all of them."

"What did they do, though?" Teddy asked. "What was it for?"

"Ah, the eternal question of the Department." Maddie laughed. "Ultimately, it was, at least in the Ministry's eyes, for nothing at all. The Department had once been involved in invention and innovation, but during that time, it was devoted largely to debating, and to explorations of what most people deemed thoroughly esoteric matters. Professor Black maintained this as his ideal of how the department should operate for the remainder of his life - pure research."

"I've talked to his portrait," Teddy put in. "That sounds about right."

Maddie smiled faintly; she'd met Phineas's portrait as well. "There were a few voices asking for it to be shut down," she went on, "and their gold to be spent in more productive ways, but most people thought it a harmless way for restless young wizards to entertain themselves. Very few of them were happy when the lot of them quit en masse. Phineas, in particular, began to make a pest of himself about Wizarding education. Burke, of course, went on to take his family's little shop and turn it into a much bigger pest, though it was his son Caractacus who made it the charming boutique we know now. And you know what happened to Percival Dumbledore."

"Azkaban," Teddy said. "Because he went after those berks who hurt his daughter."

"Yes."

"Why did they all quit?"

"It's a matter none of them saw fit to commit to writing, though interviews with Percival at Azkaban shed some light on it." She nudged the wooden box forward. "After he'd been at Azkaban for ten years - this would be close to the time his wife died - he asked for Dedalus's maze. No one knew what he meant. They asked Phineas, as they'd been close, but he refused to answer. Finally, someone made the connection to Dedalus Royce, who'd passed away. His daughter Ariadne had found a wooden box with a maze carved into it. It was brought to Percival. He lived another fifteen years, nearly all in his right mind, though he wasn't entirely present."

"It was this box?" Teddy asked, reaching out.

"Oh, no. This is one of dozens that have been made since. After Percival died, Ariadne took the maze back. She learned to use it, and she put in some safety measures."

Teddy looked up sharply. "Safety measures?"

"Yes." Slowly, Maddie pulled the box back to herself and turned it absently with her fingers. "It began as a Divination toy - more advanced than tea leaves and crystal balls, but still just a mode of fortune telling. Royce's thought was that the future had many potential outcomes, and he wanted a tool that he could use to try different paths and see where they led at any given juncture. Not altogether different from what your grandfather did, trying to help people find the best new paths after catastrophic sorts of injuries."

"What did it become?"

Maddie sighed. "It's not easy to answer. It became itself, Teddy, which is the only thing any creature or object can rightfully become."

Teddy morphed at her, letting his face run through any number of images. "Really?"

She rolled her eyes. "We both know that's cosmetic," she said. "And if I learned one thing growing up with your mum, it's that you can only morph like that when you're reasonably sure who you are. When everything's changing, when you're confused... you find it more difficult, don't you?"

Teddy shrugged and brought his natural face back. "So, what is it?"

"Royce created the maze with a simple thought, but he was part of a group of brilliant, restless minds. They'd all added charms, and it began to do odd things in its quest to see the paths of choices."

Teddy imagined the men as the Marauders, in the Department of Mysteries instead of their Gryffindor dormitory, bending over a wooden box instead of a piece of parchment. He wondered if Phineas had ever been pictured quite as daring and mad as his great-great-grandson before, and rather doubted it. "What did it start to do?"

"It needed to understand more than time. Identity, the universe, the mind, faith, even death."

Teddy ground his teeth. He had no liking for Death, which he considered a mean-spirited relative who lived too close and always seemed to drop by with nasty news whenever things were going too well. Death was a liar and a cheat. On more than one occasion, Teddy had fancied punching Death in his spectral face. He thought it would be quite satisfying, no matter what the Uncle Harry's book of fairy tales had to say about the subject. This was also Granny's opinion, though she was careful not to share it with Uncle Harry. Every time she saved a patient's life at St. Mungo's, she would come home, prepare a drink, and laugh in death's face because she'd beaten him again. Then she would prepare another drink, and another, because the only times it had truly mattered to her, Death had won.

"Teddy?"

Teddy looked up, not sure how long he'd fumed at her single word. One single part of what she'd said. "The Mysteries," he said. "It shows all the Mysteries together."

"Yes. The maze grew inside itself. It became a way of exploring the way the Mysteries intersect with one another."

"So what were the safety measures for?"

"Mysteries aren't tame," Maddie said, giving Teddy a wan smile. "Ariadne Royce - who ended up reforming the Department and making us more useful to the Ministry - always thought that the men had managed to spook themselves somehow. So she found ways to keep it an observational tool, and created safety devices to see to it that no one went wandering. At first, they used it in the course of work, but finally, it became... well, I won't say 'tame,' of course, but nearly ritualized. What would a person see in it? How would he or she use it?"

"A test," Teddy said.

"In some senses. Mainly, it's a test for the benefit of the young person interested in what we do, a chance to dip into the Mysteries, view them from something of a distance. You could find out if these really are the questions you mean to be asking. You need to know before you choose your N.E.W.T.s; it's not a simple specialization." She pushed the box across with finality.

Teddy put his hand on it. "And if I say no?"

"Then you say no."

"And you Obliviate me?"

"I don't think it would come to that."

"Even if I decided to say no after using it for few months?"

"No. I may have to tie your tongue, but ultimately, I don't think it would matter much. When they call us Unspeakables, it's often quite literally true. There aren't always simple words. You'll see that."

Teddy nodded, and ran his finger over the lines of carving on the box. "How did you know I was coming?"

Maddie laughed. "I have a friend in Time," she said. "I asked her to let me know when the right time came up."

"Do you think my parents would like it?"

"Not in the least. I think if Tonks were here, we'd be having a rather large fight about the subject. I've been holding both halves of it in my head for weeks now. I think we'd have reached the point where she's sending your dad to the door to say that she's not prepared to talk to me just now."

"And what does Dad say in your head?"

"I'm not very good with Remus's dialogue. I didn't know him as well."

Teddy smiled. "Well, I do. I think he'd say, 'I'm not fond of it, but Teddy ought to make his own choice. I'll talk to Dora.'"

Maddie blinked. "That's a remarkably good guess, Teddy." She shook her head. "I'd like you to meet me at the Ministry tomorrow. I can teach you to use the maze. At Christmas, you can bring it back, and we'll talk."

Slowly, Teddy gathered the box to himself. It felt cool to the touch, and it felt powerful, like a strong magnet. He nodded. "All right," he said. "All right, I'll take it."