Over the course of the summer, Ted's biggest accomplishment was completely screwing up his sleeping habits. He'd gone from going to bed at night and waking in the morning like a normal person, to sleeping when he could and loosing all track of time in general. On more than one occasion, he had left the hospital and been completely surprised to see that it was actually light outside—or dark. He had adapted to a lifestyle of eating when he was hungry, sleeping when he could, and working the rest of the time.

He also learned that Nate had been right. He did just sort of get used to the lab being cluttered. Soon enough, he had all but stop seeing it for how cluttered it actually was. It had taken him about three months, but on that third month, he was amazed at how quickly and accurately he was now locating things around the lab. He wasn't the only one who had noticed either.

"Maybe this one will stick," Hazel said one day as she watched Ted concoct several successful draughts in a just a few hours time. She seemed slightly impressed.

Ted had trained with each of his coworkers so far, and as he followed each of them through their research techniques and their day to day duties, he began to catch on to the feel of the job and to how each of them worked.

He found working with Nate to be the easiest, since they both shared similar outlooks on their work. They both approached methods and potions in the same way, and they were both on the same page given that they'd both had Professor Holt as a potions master. Plus, Nate was closer in age, so even on a social level, he was easier to get a long and communicate with.

Linus and Paul were older. They were both supervisor level researchers, which meant they were above where Nate was, but below the senior level blokes across the hall. Linus was a no nonsense workaholic who was strictly by the book and had little sense of humor. He kept his hair cut quite short and his robes were always immaculately pressed. He also seemed to be almost scarily anal in his organizational techniques, which only confused Ted the more he thought about it. How he managed to not have a nervous break down in this cluster filled laboratory, he'd yet to figure out.

On the flip side, Paul was very go-with-the-flow and constantly trying to get everyone to relax. He was scatterbrained when it came to everything but his work, but was the sort of individual who you couldn't anger or annoy no matter how hard you tried. He was eternally optimistic and happy, which, needless to say, grated on Linus's anal retentive nerves.

Then there was Magda, another supervisor researcher. She was in her late forties with a crazy cat-lady sort of feel about her. She wore too much eye makeup and looked as though she never brushed her hair, but as Ted soon realized, she was probably smarter than any one there. Every time Ted had been stuck training with her, she would lecture him on how she didn't agree with the use of certain ingredients in potions—due to their harmful effects on the environment. She claimed she was in this profession to create alternatives to having to harm plants and animals in order to help people, which was something she talked about frequently.

Lastly was Hazel. As Ted found out, she wasn't fourteen, but rather in her late twenties. She was born over achiever who rarely settled for anything but the best results. She could be friendly when she wanted, but she also had one of the shortest tempers that Ted had ever seen when provoked or annoyed. She was especially short with Nate, seeing as he frequently seemed to set her off. Ted had made several mental notes to not argue with Hazel if he could help it.

As summer drew to a close, Ted still hadn't been allowed his own shift yet, but that was fine by him. He felt as though he was learning loads, and the more he could learn before they stuck him on his own the better. After all, he was in no rush…

"Hey Paul," said Hazel during one slow night after Ted had spent the shift training with her. They had just finished work and were packing to leave when Hazel had picked up the shift book. "You think Ted here is ready to go on his own?"

Paul looked over at Ted. He had just arrived for the early morning shift and was settling in. "You think?"

She glanced at Ted before turning back to him. "I think he's ready. He's been doing good work with me."

"Yeah, he's been doing well with me too. Always has."

"Nate said the same thing earlier when I asked him." She started flipping through the shift book. "Magda's always had good things to say. I'm sure Linus would too, though, I've never asked him. "

"Linus would bitch if Ted wasn't working hard enough," Paul said. "It would give him more things to bitch about."

"True," she said, looking at Ted once again. "What do you say, Ted? Think you're ready to be on your own?"

He smiled and shrugged. "If you all think I can…"

"Yes or no?" she interrupted.

"Yes." He nodded.

"Excellent," she said. "I'm putting him on the shift schedule this week."

"Don't you have to get Herbertson's permission?" Ted asked.

"He'll say yes," she said as she started scribbling notes down. "It's been a few months. He's observed how well you're doing. We'll put you on the day and afternoon shifts. That way, someone else is always around if you run into trouble. We'll ease you into the overnights."

"So, with Ted on the schedule, does this mean I get to sleep and have time off?" Paul joked. "Maybe see my wife, for once?"

"I'll see what I can do," Hazel teased. She threw the shift book into her bag and slung it over her shoulder. "But I'm done for the night, Paul."

"Anything I should know about before you go?" he asked.

She glanced at Ted, gesturing for him to tell him. It seemed as if she was testing him.

"Um," Ted stammered after having been put on the spot. "The Welksworth Potion has been boiling for twelve hours and needs to be stirred soon enough. The Healers all have instructions for any of the high priority patients that we've been monitoring, but you may want to stop by the spattergroit guy on the second floor just to see if he's taking to that test potion," he glanced at Hazel who was looking at him as if he'd forgotten something. "and…"

"And…?" she said.

"And…" he repeated, racking his brain for what he could have possibly forgotten. "And I have no idea."

She smiled. "There's nothing else. I just wanted to make you double think everything." She smiled at Paul. "Looks like an easy night for you."

Paul was smiling, too. He nodded and turned back towards his desk. "Night all."

"Come on, Ted," Hazel offered. "You can walk me out. You look like you need some sleep. No offense, but you look terrible."

Ted grabbed his bag and hustled after her towards the door. "Yeah, well, I haven't really had a normal schedule for months now."

"Ahh," she said as they walked towards the lifts. "I guess it does take some getting used to. You're doing a good job though, know that."

He sighed as they entered the lift and hit the button to the bottom floor. "I don't even remember the last time I did something fun."

"Aww, helping people is fun," she said. The lift lurched downward. "And once you're on your own and done with all this training stuff, you'll be free to do more of your own projects. That makes things a lot more interesting." She paused. "Any idea of what you may want to do?"

He stared at her. Over the last few months, he'd come to realize that reversing the lycanthropy that caused werewolf transformation was no small task. It was the sort of thing that almost seemed too large to tackle, or rather, it should be left in the hands of older and more accomplished researchers and Healers. Telling her that curing it was his primary goal was bound to make him sound like an idealistic kid.

"I've got some ideas," he said lazily.

"Like…?" she pressed on as the lift doors opened and they stepped out. "Give me some examples. This is what we do."

He took a deep breath. "Well, since I was a kid, I've been fascinated with werewolves. With the Wolfsbane being so effective, I was thinking I could take it a step further."

She nodded. "By doing what?"

"Curing the lycanthropy that creates werewolves."

She slowed her pace and let out a low whistle. "You want to cure Werewolfism?"

"Essentially."

"Big dreams there, Ted," she said as they reached the hospital exit. "People have tried and failed there before. I mean, you're dealing with gene mutation and incurable infections…"

"Someone's bound to succeed eventually," he said. "Why not me?"

"At least you've got the right attitude, kid."

He stepped out into the night where a slight chill filled the air and indicated that autumn was just around the corner. "Kid? I'm not that much younger than you, you know? Only nine years or something."

She laughed. "Well, okay then. I'll stop calling you kid." She shook her head. "Now go home and get some sleep. You probably have to be back in a few hours, right?"

"Tomorrow at noon," he mumbled. "And I can't go home and sleep because I don't remember the last time I saw my girlfriend. I think she's starting to think I've disappeared."

"Well," she said with a funny smile, "if you think about it, you pretty much have." She gave a short wave. "Have a good night."

With that, she disappeared. Ted stared at the spot for a few moments and pondered what she had meant by that, but quickly decided he'd already wasted enough time today as it was. With a quick pop, he disappeared as well.

Moments after leaving St. Mungo's, Ted appeared outside of a building at the north of town. He opened the main entrance and walked up a flight of stairs before stopping just outside of green door. He hesitated knocking. Over the summer, while he had been trapped at work, Celia had managed to find a flat. She and Maggie from school had moved in last week, and this was only Ted's second time stopping by. He was usually far too tired from work to do anything more than sleep.

He checked his watch and noticed it was 12:30. The odds of Celia still being awake when he knew she had to work in the morning were slim to none, but given both of their schedules, he hadn't seen her for more than five minutes in over a week. Even then, they had just managed to have a quick lunch together. He raised his fist and slowly knocked, holding his breath until Maggie answered the door. It didn't look as if he'd woken her up.

"Hey Maggie," he said with a polite smile.

"Hey T.R," she said, crossing her arms in front of her. "Long time no see."

He sighed. He had a feeling Celia had probably been venting her frustrations at how little they'd been seeing each other to Maggie. "Is Celia home?"

"No, she's with her other boyfriend," she said. "The one she actually sees."

"Funny," he said sarcastically, just as the door to Celia's room open and her head suddenly poked out. She was wearing a towel on her head and looked as if she'd just taken a shower.

"T.R…" she said slowly. "What are you doing here?"

"Came by to see you," he said once Maggie stepped aside and let him enter. "It's been a few days."

"I know." She pushed the door to her room open, which Ted assumed meant for him to follow. He did, and proceeded to walk straight over to her bed where he plopped down in an exhausted stupor. He threw her a lazy smile, which she returned in a similar manner. She was standing there with a towel wrapped around her.

"You look nice," he joked.

"I was just about to change," she said as she walked to her closet.

"You don't have to," he said, smiling as he tried to make his voice sound more cheerful than he actually felt. He was trying his hardest to stay awake, though, if anything would help him do that, it was his naked girlfriend.

"It's late…" she said, pulling out some pajamas.

"Yeah," he agreed. He really didn't have the energy to do anything anyway, but he felt as if he should probably try since it had been ages since they'd been together. He stretched. "So, how's work at the Ministry?"

"I'm really enjoying it," she said as took her wand to her head and dried her hair almost immediately. "It's only been a week though, so who knows how it'll end up being."

He nodded and rubbed his eyes.

"You look terrible," she said. "Is your job ever going to lighten up?"

Ted sighed and looked up at the ceiling. "Maybe if we hire more people, but I don't see that happening anytime soon."

"So, it's going to keep being like this?"

"I don't know."

"And this is just your training," she said, sitting down on the edge of the bed next to him. "What happens when you're done with that?"

"Well, we'll see next week."

"You're on your own next week?"

He nodded. "Looks like it." He smiled. "I think it's a good thing. I mean, with me actually working a shift instead of being on with someone else, it'll free up more free time for me…For us."

She crawled over him to the open side of the bed where she laid down next to him. "We never see each other."

"I know," he said as he felt his eyes getting heavier. "It's crap, but we knew what we were getting into."

"No," she said, looking at him. "You knew what you were getting yourself into. I didn't have much say."

"I don't have much of a choice, Cee," he mumbled. "This is my job."

"I know," she muttered. She pointed her wand towards the lamp and turned out the lights. "I just wished you worked more normal hours or at least had a set schedule. I mean one minute you're working nights then next you're working mornings. I never even know when you're free."

"It'll work itself out," he said with a yawn. "I know it will."

"How do you know it will?"

He didn't have an answer for that, though. In fact, he had barely heard the question before drifting off to sleep.

Ted working his own shifts didn't ease or alleviate how busy his work schedule had become. While the entire research team now did get an extra shift or two off a week, it went unnoticed by the people who saw Ted from the outside. To them, he was still working just as much, no matter how much he claimed things were different. He felt the difference, why didn't they? Why didn't Celia?

Her displeasure with how little they were seeing each other was becoming more and more evident. No matter how hard Ted tried to convince himself that things were fine, things really didn't seem to be getting much better. His job was finally starting to pan out for him now that he was on his own, so why couldn't everything else in his life fall into place, too? Was that too much to ask? The way everything was currently going, it seemed that as soon as Ted worked out one aspect of his life, an entirely different part went to hell.

He truly wanted to believe that things with Celia would work themselves out if he just got through the summer. He had hoped that once Celia started working in August, she would find herself just as busy as he was. If she was busy, then the fact that he worked all the time wouldn't matter since she'd be working too. If they were both busy, she wouldn't gripe to him about how they never got to see each other because she'd have other things to focus on. He figured it was just a matter of time, but soon enough things would calm down. He knew they would…

Except they didn't.

As it turned out, Celia's job was from nine to five, five days a week. Her set schedule only seemed to make her realize how much more Ted was working in comparison. She constantly claimed she understood, but at the same time, she didn't think it was fair that she had to take a back seat to his job. She seemed to almost be under the impression that if Ted wanted to, he could everything in an instant. That he could fix things, he just didn't want to. She didn't seem to realize that short of quitting, Ted couldn't change a thing.

Soon enough, the arguments on the issue started becoming far more frequent. It got to the point where Ted usually found himself taking what little time they had to actually be together, and using it to separate himself away from her in order to get some peace. As it was, they barely saw each other more than a few times a week. Now, the few opportunities they did get were being spent shouting and arguing with each other.

After the most recent argument, Ted had left in a huff and ended up sitting in the back garden of Harry's house. Sitting on his own, lost in thought and staring out at nothing in particular, he couldn't help but think of what a shitty feeling it was not to be able to enjoy the little free time he had. Every free moment he had these days was either spent arguing with Celia or thinking about how he could fix things so that he wouldn't have to argue with her anymore. Finding himself at his wits ends and without a clue as to what he should do, he continued to run the same loop of thoughts over and over again in his head. What was he supposed to do? What did Celia want him to do? How was he supposed to make things better? These thoughts were driving him mad.

Luckily for him, an interruption came at that very moment—in the form of a Quaffle to the side of the head.

"James!" Ted yelled once the Quaffle bounced off of him. He had turned to see James Potter standing several feet away, the obvious culprit. James had been smiling, but the smile had disappeared off of his face the second their eyes met his.

"You were supposed to catch it."

Ted made an obvious face. "How was I supposed to catch it if I wasn't paying attention?"

"Dunno." He shrugged. "I just thought you would."

Ted bit his lip and stared at him. James was headed for his first day of Hogwarts the following morning and Harry and Ginny had asked Ted over to dinner to see him off. Despite his poor mood concerning Celia, Ted felt it was the least he could do considering he'd barely seen the lot of them over the summer. Plus, with James leaving tomorrow, he wouldn't see him again until Christmas. He knew it wasn't fair to James to not come just because he was in a bad mood, though, getting hit in the head with a Quaffle was starting to make him rethink his decision.

"Are you angry?" James asked tentatively. It was almost strange to see him look worried since he was usually the sort of kid who showed little hesitation or fear. Harry always swore James looked up to Ted more than anyone, and that Ted should take it easy on him when he was acting up because he was only doing it for attention. Still, as much as he understood where Harry was coming from, it didn't make it any less aggravating.

Ted rubbed the side of his head where he had been hit. "No, it's no big deal. Just be more careful."

"Sorry," he mumbled as he hung his head at little. He immediately stiffened back up once the rest of his family came through the back door moments later. Puffing his chest out, he even pushed Albus for no apparent reason as the two of them sat down at the table.

"What'd you do that for?" Albus asked.

"Do what?" James asked with an innocuous tone to his voice.

"James…" Harry and Ginny both said together, giving him equally warning looks that parents seemed to specialize in giving their children.

"Why are we eating outside?" Lily asked as Ginny took the dolls she had brought with her and set them to the side.

"Because James is leaving tomorrow and it's a special occasion."

"About time…" Albus mumbled under his breath. James lifted up his arms to push him again, but Ted grabbed them before he could manage. He pulled him away from his brother and sat himself between the two of boys to create a buffer.

"Al," Ginny said wearily. "Can the both of you knock it off? You've been at each other all day."

"It's because they're secretly upset to see the other go," Ted joked. "They're masking their true feelings of sadness by picking on each other."

"Are not!" they both said in a repulsed sort of way. They quickly gave each other dirty looks. Ted smiled and rolled his eyes. Those two could pretend all day long that they didn't like each other, but he'd seen their true colors on more occasions than he could count. When James wasn't trying to make a show out of being the older, tougher one, he and Albus were exceptionally close. Ted didn't doubt for a second that Albus would be fairly upset once James really was gone tomorrow.

"We'll all be sad once James goes tomorrow," Ginny said. "Off to Hogwarts already."

"I still remember my first day," Ted said to James. "You'll have a lot of fun, James."

"I wish I could go," Lily grumbled.

"In due time," Harry said. "Let me get used to the idea of your brother leaving before we send you off, too."

"Do you wish you were back?" Albus asked Ted.

"Absolutely," he said without hesitation. "Do yourself a favor," he pointed at James, "enjoy every second at school, because after you're done and you've got to go get a job…" He trailed off before making a face.

"Do you hate your job?" Lily asked.

"I something my job," Ted said, forcing a smile.

"I talked to your grandmother the other day," Harry said as he helped himself to salad. "She said you're only home maybe two nights a week." His face looked a little concerned.

"Oh," Ted said as he chewed his food. "Well, I mean, I really only work the over night shifts maybe three nights of week. The other nights I'm usually just working late and going straight to Celia's."

James stabbed his dinner roll with his fork. "I haven't seen Celia in forever."

"Well, that makes two of us," Ted mumbled.

"Things okay with you two?" Ginny asked.

He shrugged. He didn't say anything, but Harry and Ginny seemed to understand where he was coming from given his reaction. Lily continued to stare at Ted questioningly, but when no one pushed the subject further, she seemed to pretend as if she understood too. Ted had a feeling that the subject was far from done being discussed though, and wasn't a bit surprised when it came up as he helped Ginny put the dishes away after dinner.

"You look overworked, Teddy," she said.

"I am overworked," he said with a lazy smile. "It's what I have to do."

"I know, but…" she trailed off and sighed as Harry walked in with the last of the dinner mess. "And what's this about Celia?"

Ted shrugged. "We've just been arguing a lot lately." He made a face. "A lot."

"About what?" Harry asked.

"About how I work too much and how I don't care about"—he raised his fingers and made air quotes—"'us.' She seems to think I'm working this much because I want to, not because I have to. As if I'm trying to be spiteful or something."

Harry nodded as Ginny said, "I can see how that would be stressful."

"It takes a certain kind of person to understand this sort of thing," Harry offered, glancing at Ginny. "Ginny and I spent almost a year apart if you add up all the time during the war—"

"Well," she interrupted, pointing her wand at the dishes she was cleaning, "we were technically split up."

Harry shrugged. "Maybe technically, but," he shook his head, "not the point. Anyway, the point is that you've sometimes got to sacrifice. Things aren't always easy and you've got to fight if you really want this to work. Celia needs to understand how important your job is to you, and if she can't…" He stopped. He stared at Ted as though he should insinuate his conclusion.

"You both need to compromise if you want to make this work," Ginny added. She was clearly trying to take a more optimistic outlook on the matter.

"That's what I say," Ted said as he crossed his arms. "She knows this is something I want to do and that it's important to me, but…" He rolled his eyes. "I don't even know."

"Have you thought about splitting up?" she asked bluntly.

Ted stared at her. He hadn't ever seriously considered it, but that was because it was hard to picture his life without Celia being in it. They had been together for close to two years now and he'd become accustomed to her being around. At the same time though, he had thought about her being the one to split up with him. He couldn't see himself actually doing it, but the idea of her getting fed up and ending things because she couldn't take it anymore didn't seem far fetched these days. He just couldn't picture himself being the one to do the breaking.

"Not seriously…" he said.

"Teddy," Harry said, adopting that fatherly tone that was only reserved for special conversations or points he was trying to make. "You need to do what's best for you."

"I know that."

"You clearly care about her, but you really have to do what is—"

"Harry," Ginny said. "It may not even be at that point yet. They may just be having a few spats here and there and—"

"We've been arguing for the last two months," Ted said.

"Oh." She sounded surprised. "Well, in that case, all I'll say is that relationships should make you feel good above all else, Teddy."

"I just think things will work themselves out," Ted mumbled. "Something is telling me to just give it a little more time."

Harry grinned. "You're a clever guy. I have no doubt that you'll figure this all out."

"Yeah…" he muttered just as Lily came running into the room and leaped at him. "But when? That's the question."

"Come on!" Lily yelled. "Come play!"

Ted forced a smile onto his face as she looked up at him. He was actually glad she'd come in and provided a distraction from the subject. As it were, the last thing he wanted to think about for the remainder of the evening was how his relationship was going down the toilet.