Chapter 3: The Underground Rebels

"He… who?" Teddy asked as Lyric pushed open the front door.

"Hello!" Lyric called out, closing it again behind her. "Is anybody in?"

"Lyric, is that you?" came a man's voice as he appeared in a doorway. "We weren't expecting you back until much later this month. What's –" He stopped when he saw Teddy standing next to Lyric.

The man looked oddly familiar to Teddy, and as he studied his face, it didn't strike him where he would know this man from. He looked about mid-thirties, the Weasleys' age, darker skin – maybe African descent, wild black hair with a streak of white and suspicious brown eyes. He was thin, not particularly well-kept, but who was these days?

"Lyric, what have you done?" he asked sharply.

"Is Mark in?" she continued blithely. "I've brought a new member."

"Lyric, you know the rules!" the man burst out. "You can't just bring… you can't… he can't…"

"Oh, seriously, Dean, relax," she said with a roll of her blood-red eyes. "Do you seriously think I'd have brought him here if I wasn't totally sure where his loyalties lie? Now where's Mark?"

Dean? As in Dean Thomas, the Muggleborn classmate of Ron and Hermione? The one who'd disappeared off the face of the Earth after his death, like so many others of their generation? Like most of the Order?

Teddy thought hard, thought back to much earlier days, and much more difficult times.


He couldn't understand why everybody was so sad and angry. What had happened? Why wouldn't anybody play with him now?

The Weasleys were here. And Hermione, and Moody and Kingsley and the others. There were so many of them here, and they had never said 'no' before, or told him to go play somewhere else. How could one of them not come play?

"People are spreading the news," George was saying quietly, one arm around Ginny as she cried into his shoulder.

"Draco Malfoy all but screamed it from the rooftops," Ron growled, with Hermione crying with her head in his lap.

"More and more people are going underground, or maybe they're just being killed," Kingsley said in his deep voice. "We're not sure. The first ones to go have been –"

Hermione gasped between sobs, "So far Dean has disappeared, Lavender, the Patil twins. Seamus won't so much as walk the same path as any of us."

"Neville's taken Luna away," Ginny said, looking up from George's shoulder. "We're not sure when they left or where…"


"Was somebody asking for me?" came another man's voice as he emerged from another door. This was was roughly the same age as Dean, but with light skin, dark brown hair – not so dissimilar to the colour Teddy had at the moment, but with a streak of white in it – and hazel eyes. The individual features of the newcomer's face were masked, hidden by the severe disfigurement. Scars and burns littered his face and Teddy saw the same marks on the forearms. He walked with a slight limp as he joined the group.

"Mark, this is Jacob," Lyric said with a smile. "I've recruited him. He can be trusted," she added as Mark turned to Teddy with a suspicious look in his eye. "You can go ahead and test him if you'd like. Not exactly a practice to be encouraged, though, given his being status."

"Tell me about yourself. Why are you looking to join us?" Mark asked Teddy shortly.

Teddy had to think fast. Given that these people all looked pretty ragged, and they were this far into the forest, he had to assume that these were some scattered remnants of the resisters. Finally, he said in as calm a voice as he could manage under the pressure, "My name is Jacob Wolfe. No jokes, please," he added when Lyric snickered. "I'm a werewolf. Up until quite recently, I was a prisoner of Voldemort in London. My family… my family is still there." He paused. "They didn't want to join Greyback."

Well, he wasn't really lying, was he? He really was a werewolf, and they were practically prisoners in Grimmauld Place, and it was Voldemort that kept them in there, and Greyback's pack was pretty much the only other living option for a werewolf…

Dean and Mark exchanged a glance. "How old are you?" Dean asked finally.

"Seventeen," Teddy replied.

"How long has your family been imprisoned?"

Teddy paused for a moment. "As long as I can remember," he said finally. "I was quite small at the time, but I don't think it was all that long after Harry Potter was killed."

Mark's eyes were still watching Teddy with masked interest. Then, without warning, his wand flashed out and Teddy was struck with the most intense pain he'd ever felt in his life – and that included transformation.

What the hell was this madman Cruciating him for? Despite the panic running his mind – did this guy know he was lying? Did he suspect that the boy he saw before him wasn't real? – Teddy focused his fraying nerves and energies on maintaining his appearance.

'No,' he told himself firmly as he felt his mask slipping. 'You are Jacob now. This is who Jacob is. There's nothing to lose.'

Finally, finally, the pain ceased and Teddy stayed collapsed on the floor for a moment, putting himself back together. He didn't think anything had gone. Didn't feel like anything was missing. He was pretty sure he couldn't move his right leg, though. Or was it moving of its own accord? Was it even still there? Merlin, that had been painful…

"Sorry about that, Jack," Mark said cheerfully, holding out a hand. "Had to make sure you were who you said you were. Never can be too careful these days, can you? Bore up like a man, though. Suppose you're used to pain like that, being a wolf?"

"That was worse," Teddy groaned, accepting the hand Mark held out. He looked down at his feet. Yeah, they were still there – right pant leg was ripped to shreds, though, shoe pretty roughed up…

"Yeah, you went wolfish for a minute there," Lyric told him frankly. "Mark's going to make up for that, isn't he?"

"Hell, no," Mark replied easily. "Jack's going to find his own replacements. You don't mind if I call you Jack, yeah?"

"Sure, whatever," Teddy replied, still a little stunned. "What's going on?"

Mark and Dean both laughed slightly. "He's a little punch-drunk, isn't he?" Dean asked Mark in amusement.

"Sensory overload, probably," Mark replied wisely. "Poor thing looks like Boris the Bewildered, doesn't he?"

"Reminds me of Carter right after we tested him."

"You'd think an ex-Death Eater would've been used to the Cruciatus."

Lyric smiled and laughed, looping her arm through Teddy's as the two men continued to discuss the aftereffects of the Cruciatus. "Come back to Earth, Jacob."

Teddy shook his head to try and bring the world back into focus. "Okay. I'm good now."

"So, Jack-the-Wolf, come in and we'll introduce you around. How long are you here for, Lyric?" Mark asked, turning to look at them again.

"Not sure," Lyric replied. "Think we'll hang around for a while, anyway."

They followed the two men through the doorway into the kitchen. Inside, there were three women gathered around the table, along with four young children.

"Oh, hello, Lyric," one woman greeted, her lank brown hair tumbling down her back as she looked up. She had blue eyes and a kind smile when she took in the sight of Teddy. "We weren't expecting you back for some time. And who's this?"

"Meghan, this is Jack," Mark said. "He's going to be joining Lyric in her life's mission. Jack, this is Meghan, Dean's wife."

"And a beauty, isn't she?" Dean asked affectionately, laying a kiss on her cheek. There were two disgusted cries from the lone little boy and one of the older girls, and Dean laughed before swooping in to kiss both of them as well. "These are mine, too, I guess."

"Rebecca and Braden," Meghan explained, pointing to each of them. "This is Emily," she continued, gesturing to the young woman beside her. This one didn't seem too much older than Teddy, and substantially younger than the other adults – probably in her mid-twenties. "And the little one down there is Tania. She's Emily's. We found Aubrey wandering the forests a few months ago – and I'm sure you know how dangerous these woods can get for a little girl. She says her family was killed."

"And you've picked up a new person since the last time I was here," Lyric commented, looking over at the redheaded woman in her mid-thirties. The woman had been silent throughout the entire conversation, her eyes rimmed with red.

"Ah, yes, Ginny," Mark said with a grin. "Ginny's a rarity, indeed. She stumbled across us a few weeks ago. Apparently on the hunt for somebody and on the run from somebody entirely different. Do you want to fill Lyric and Jack in? They've infiltrated Greyback's army for us, they might know something about the boy you were looking for –"

Ginny looked up, and Teddy's heart stopped for a brief second. "Hello. Mark's given you sort of the overview, but not the details. My name is Ginny Weasley."

"Not Weasley of the Order of the Phoenix?" Lyric interrupted in astonishment, staring at the woman. "We – I mean to say, Greyback and his army – didn't think any were left alive after Harry Potter got killed."

"We were rather deeply entrenched in our hiding spots, but there's still a few of us floating around," Ginny replied faintly. "Not many anymore, though. He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named tracked down my family last month, killed every single one. I was helping another Order member with a search at the time, it's the only reason I survived."

"Who were you looking for?" Teddy asked carefully, though he suspected he knew the answer.

"Has Greyback ever mentioned having run across a Lupin in recent months?" Dean asked casually. "Apparently there's an Order member's child missing."

"Well, Teddy's hardly a child. He's legally an adult," Ginny sighed. "But he's been missing for a number of months now, since Christmas. Remus and Tonks are understandably worried about him, he's never left – their hiding place – since he was born. They've had people try and search for him, but he's a Metamorphmagus, so I suspect he's blended himself in pretty well. Probably changes appearance every time somebody gets close to finding him."

"Why did he leave, if it was so dangerous?" Teddy asked.

"We think… well, we think he got frustrated with always being hidden away. And Harry –" her voice broke on the name. "I think maybe he got tired of living in Harry's shadow."

"Has Greyback ever mentioned anything?" Mark asked quietly.

Both Lyric and Teddy shook their heads. "Never."

"He a werewolf?" Teddy asked casually. "Somebody in the pack is bound to run across him if he is. Only so many of us left now."

Ginny nodded slightly. "He is."

"I'll keep an eye open when I'm out," Teddy replied easily. "Should I be catching him or killing him?"

Ginny laughed for a second. "I think his mother's laid claim on killing him. Just catch him."


"So?" Lyric asked later that evening as she took him out into the cool night air. "It makes Meghan and Emily feel safer when I'm not in the house while the children sleep," she added in explanation. "My kind really isn't as dangerous as everybody makes us out to be, but what can I do?"

"It's all so… surreal," Teddy admitted truthfully. "I keep wanting to pinch myself, just to make sure I'm really awake."

Lyric laughed at his honest reply. "You really have been locked away for a long time, haven't you, Wolfe?" She smiled and caught his wrist. "So? You going to keep me company through the long, cold night, Jacob? Or do I have to curl up in a tree's hollow all by my lonesome?"

Teddy looked back at the disappearing horizon, then at the pale white hand wrapped around his wrist. "Well…"


"Young Master Lupin, where do you think you're going?" came Sirius' teasing voice as he caught Teddy around the waist and hoisted him up in the air.

"I'm going to go play with those kids," Teddy said simply with a smile, as he wrapped his arms around Sirius' neck. "I'm tired of playing with Fox."

He waited for the agreement, watching Sirius turn slightly to look at Daddy. "No, don't look at him," Teddy pouted.

Daddy sighed as he took Teddy from Sirius. "Sorry, bud," he said quietly. "That's not an option. Come on, it's time for bed."


"Jaaaaaaaacob…" Lyric said in a singsong voice.

"Hmm?" Teddy replied, looking up again. "Oh, yeah, sorry. Sure, I'll stay."

Lyric laughed, tucking her slim body against his side and winding her arms around his neck. "What were you busy musing over?" she asked with a slight smile. After a moment, she distanced herself a bit. "I'm sorry. You're cute and all… but oh, my dear, you do carry quite a repulsive odor in those veins."

Teddy grinned at her slightly. "Really?"

Lyric wrinkled her nose. "It's true. Werewolf blood has this weird… um… well, no offense, Jacob, but your blood smells… dirty." She smiled back at him and settled against his side again. "It's a good thing I'm not a nose breather." Pausing when Teddy looked at her with a quizzical expression, she added, "It makes the cravings less severe when you breathe through your mouth. My kind can survive perfectly well on normal food. Blood really is like a drug that's been inbred into us – as long as you don't get into the habit of drinking it, the cravings are minimal."

"Now that's interesting," Teddy replied. "Pray tell what other dirty little secrets you might be hiding inside that lovely head."

Lyric smiled again and pulled him down to the wet ground. "Well… did you know that I am not allergic to sunlight?"

"Really?" he asked in surprise.

"It's true. We have an increased sensitivity to light, but it's something we can build a tolerance to." She grinned for a moment and then yawned, hitting Teddy's leg as he stared at her, dumbfounded. "Yes, I also sleep. In fact, I haven't slept in 24 hours, so I'm going to curl up and do so now, if you don't mind."

Finally, Teddy had to laugh and shake his head. "All right." He bit back the snicker as Lyric settled her head against his shoulder, then shuddered and distanced herself from him.