Chapter 10: Charming Girls

While Potions with Professor Slughorn had never exactly been dull, it never really was thrilling either. Perhaps this was because Teddy was just a first year and the introduction to Potions was basically a survey on the instruments they would be using and also getting to know the ingredients. And while the material from Potion's Standard Book of Spells Year Two was certainly more involved and more interesting than the materials they covered last year, the heightened atmosphere of the class suggested there was more to it.

"Spot on," Seavelle cried causing half the class to jump a bit in their skin. She rarely left her spot in the front of the class; the days she lectured, she generally did so from her seat. Today though she was following Fernius around and inspecting the children's work, and had noticed that Decima and Nagaenna's potion was apparently flawless.

"This is NEWT grade ladies, very clean work. Keep it up."

The girls beamed with pride and Teddy was surprised to see that neither of them cast an arrogant smile towards the Gryffindors or their fellow classmates, each merely quietly smiled and then diligently went back to work. It was the type of thing a Quidditch star might do after making an improbably good play.

Seavelle meanwhile had resumed pacing the room. Like Fernius (who she was currently following in his wake and double checking his examinations), she gave but the most passing glance at the potion itself. Instead she would run a finger over the chopped roots, hold a mixed vial to the light, or perhaps silently instruct the student to give the potion a few more stirs.

Teddy found himself, from the first class on, paying closer attention than he normally did in school. He attributed that to pairing himself with two of the hardest working people in the class (Violet and Stephen still were among the first to class every day and regularly secured the front and center table in the room). What Teddy found remarkable though was that it wasn't just the Slytherins who were preoccupied with doing well in the class. His own classmates were far quieter, far more serious, and far more competitive within the room.

Madame's involvement today seemed only to make people more determined. "Marvelous," she exclaimed. Teddy, along with the others in the front row, turned to see Seavelle scrutinizing the surface of Julie and April's potion. "Honestly... Fernius come and see this."

Fernius made his way over to the potion and took his own perch near the chamber.

"Great color, fine temperature control," she said.

He nodded and then gave the girls his usual playful smile. "Fine work ladies."

They were working on a purifying potion. Stephen had declared in the beginning of the class that this was relatively easier than most of the other potions that they had been recently working on and that it should be a piece of cake. For whatever reason, Stephen was having an especially difficult time with the day's potions work.

"Stephen," Violet said in exasperation after he had added the right ingredient at the wrong time (better Teddy thought then his previous error of adding the wrong ingredient at the right time).

Stephen screwed his eyes up in frustration. "I know, I know- sorry. I'll fix it."

Violet looked over at Decima and Nagaeena's potion in annoyance but didn't say anything. The three worked double time for the rest of class, Teddy in his usual role as the slicer, the masher, the shaker of things, Stephen stirring and adding bits of this and that, while Violet sat staring motionlessly at the cauldron. Teddy was always impressed by whatever internal clock she possessed as without hesitation she would point to Stephen and say, 'Now' and he would proceed to drop in the next ingredient or to stir it. The truth was the two Slytherin's were absolutely in sync while making their potions. They didn't need to say much of anything to each other but they seemed to know exactly what the other person needed at the time. He hated to admit it but there was a part of him that enjoyed Stephen being the bumbling one at the potion's table.

"Alright everyone," Fernius said getting everyone's attention. "Hopefully you've finished your work because class is ending momentarily. Please bring a labeled vial with your potion in it for grading."

Stephen cast another apologetic look at Violet before filling the group's vial up and bringing it to the front of the class.

As soon as he had left the table, Teddy felt a kick to his ankle. He glanced over at Violet who was looking at Teddy in much the same way. They glanced down, under the table, and to their surprise, Rowley, was grinning up at them.

"Uh, hi?" Teddy said to him.

"Hello Mr. Teddy Lupin and Ms. Violet Parkinson," Rowley said. He was holding two envelopes in his hands and was beaming at them.

"What are those?" Violet asked pointing at the envelopes.

Rowley snapped a finger and the envelopes disappeared. "Madame wanted to make sure you received them," he said and then glanced once tellingly at Teddy's schoolbag and then over at Violet's. "I wanted to find a good time though."

Teddy didn't know what to say to this, but Violet who had glanced towards the front of the room and then back to Rowley seemed to understand.

"Thanks Rowley," she said.

Teddy nodded and thanked the elf who beamed back and then vanished. He had barely straightened back up to start clearing his supplies when he noticed Stephen over to the side giving the two of them an odd look.

"How did we do?" Teddy asked him.

He shrugged. "'E' work."

Teddy smiled. "Well that's good then. You two salvaged it."

Stephen glared back at him for a moment before closing his eyes and taking a deep breath. "It could have gone worse," he said and then left them.

Teddy's smile would probably have widened at Stephen's antics, had he not been sitting next to his cousin who had been prickly towards him since their argument in the lobby.

"Teddy," she said wearily. "I shouldn't have yelled at you like I did in the lobby yesterday."

She had never been forthcoming with apologies and Teddy was taken aback by how contrite she looked and sounded.

"It's ok," he said, having been more surprised than angered by her outburst.

"No it's not," she replied. "I was hysterical and childish and I realized today that it was exactly the type of thing another person in my family might do."

"Either you're talking about your baby brother or your mother..." Teddy said with a grin.

She smiled back. "Yeah, anyway I have a number of things I wanted to speak with you about, but it would seem we had to take care of the issue of me being a prat first."

"Apology accepted," Teddy repeated.

"Good," she said. "So first of all- Rowley is a smart little elf."

Besides singing the praises of the unusually conscientious and stealthy house elf, Violet had wanted to tell Teddy about her house's "indoor activities suggestions" and to find out what Gryffindor had come up with. He wasn't surprised that the Slytherin's had also suggested a School Ball. The girls in particular in their house were dressing much more formally each day. It was commonplace to walk down a hallway and hear the click, click, click of a Slytherin in heels.

She did not bring up the fact that Stephen had not been re-invited to Madame's dinner party and he didn't either.

The last thing she brought up was the most interesting to him however. She mentioned when they were out of earshot of the classroom that Seavelle had visited their common room the other night to discuss the inter-house activities; her first time visiting there to Violet's recollection. She had enjoyed the Ball idea a great deal and said that she would volunteer in an advisory role if the Headmistress would accept her.

"Everyone was really excited about that," Violet said. She glanced up and down the hallway before looking back at him. "She mentioned Dr. Babbit and his asylum from America."

Teddy blinked. "She what?"

"It was fairly strange," Violet said. "She was leaving the room and she just randomly said, 'Maybe we can invite Dr. Babbit to the dance- wanted men are so hard to find'."

Teddy waited, believing there be more to her statement than this. When Violet didn't say anything he raised his hands in confusion. "And?" he asked.

"That's it."

"What do you mean, that's it. That could mean anything."

She rolled her eyes at this. "She's not stupid, she knows what a roomful of Slytherin's will do with this."

He raised his arms again, "You said it- not me."

She laughed, then dropped her voice. "Did Harry ever explain the reason he was kicked out of America?"

He shook his head.

"Well," she said thoughtfully. "I'm sure we'll find out soon enough."

When Teddy made it to the Interhouse common room a few nights later, Dewey was already there. He had a book out at the table he was sitting at, but he didn't seem to be paying it any attention.

"You waiting for someone?" Teddy asked. He waggled his eyebrows.

"Cut that out," he replied. "And no- I was actually waiting for you."

Teddy took the seat next to him and starting taking out his books. "Right..." he said.

"No really," Dewey maintained. "I was hoping you would come here by yourself. I kind of was invited to Madame's dinner party."

Teddy grinned. "You won't quit till every woman in this castle is under your spell..."

Dewey scowled at him, the patient Hufflepuff apparently nearing his limit. "I don't think she invited Kai."

Teddy stared blankly back at him. "How would you know?"

"Because I just had Potions with him and you know that if he was invited to something like that he would mention it at the first opportunity that he could."

That made sense to Teddy. He would assume that the elves had already distributed their invites, considering the dinner was quickly approaching. So if they hadn't already heard Kai boasting about the invite then he had probably missed out.

"You shouldn't assume that I was invited," Teddy said.

"What? Why not?"

"Stephen White wasn't re-invited?" Teddy tried hard not to look too pleased by this information.

He must have failed in this because Dewey frowned at him. "I'm thinking of just skiving it off anyway; find a good excuse and thank her for considering me."

Teddy groaned. "Noo- it's bad enough with the Slytherin's mooning over Madame. At least you and I could have fun there."

Dewey shrugged. "You don't have to go either, you know."

This was true enough, although Teddy knew that Violet would probably hold it against both of them for a very long time indeed if they blew this dinner off. Also it just seemed a bit... Un-Gryfindor to avoid a meal simply because it would likely be uncomfortable.

"It's not that bad," Teddy offered.

Dewey didn't say anything for a bit. The two pulled out their coursework and spent a few minutes working silently before his friend sighed. "I know it wouldn't be that bad. If my parents find out though that I was at one of Madame's dinners, I'll never hear the end of it..."

"They'll be that mad?" Teddy asked.

He gave Teddy a funny look and was about to answer, when his gaze swept to the entrance of the room where the Ravenclaw's Hannah, Eloise, and Mary were making their way over to the table.

"Just waiting for me huh?" Teddy said to Dewey.

Dewey colored slightly, but ignored Teddy as he cleared their books to make a space at the table for the three girls.

The girls seemed oddly cool and serious as they quickly said hello and then took their seats at the table. They immediately began pulling out parchments and books.

Dewey cleared his throat (still ignoring the grin that wouldn't leave Teddy's face at his jumpy friend). "Uhm, is everything alright?"

"Hmm?" Eloise said glancing back at him. "Of course it is- we just wanted to get our stuff together before we talk to you."

"Your stuff?" Teddy asked. He leaned over towards the largest parchment that the girls had pulled out in front of him and saw a long bullet list of directions."

"Didn't you speak with Kai?" Eloise asked. "He said you did when he spoke to us."

"About what?" Teddy asked.

The three girls seemed somewhat affronted by this. "For the thing Kai is making… He told us you two had mentioned our names," Mary said.

"He told us you two sang our praises- said you guys couldn't go any farther without our help," added Hannah.

Eloise, gave Dewey a particularly sharp look. "That you two were dunderheads in the subject... Although this seems more reasonable now."

Teddy and Dewey looked at one another for a moment before plastering sheepish looks on their faces.

"No- no. We had talked to Kai about his thing," Dewey said quickly. "He mentioned that he was going to talk to you three."

Teddy nodded. "He just neglected to tell us that he was going to do it so soon. We had no idea he was that far along."

The girls continued to stare at the two boys with suspicion. Dewey thankfully changed the subject.

"So is that a list of things for us to get in order to finish the…" He paused to search for the word. "Is there a good way to refer to it here?"

"Actually that's something I was thinking about," said Eloise. "I don't think this is a good room to discuss this in, no matter what sort of names we might devise for it."

The two other girls nodded at this. They had a point, Teddy thought, as the inter-house common room remained one of the loudest and most crammed rooms in the castle each evening. Even now they were struggling to keep their voices just above a whisper but had to lean fairly close to one another in order to make out what each person was saying.

"So, the library?" Dewey asked.

She shook her head. "No, the place we have the most privacy is in our dorm."

It was times like this that Teddy was glad that he was a metamorph as he was able to detect and reverse the blush that covered his face. Dewey, unfortunately, wasn't so lucky as the back of his neck, his ears, and his cheeks immediately turned a bright red.

"Ravenclaw tower?" he asked.

Hannah and Mary glanced at one another and giggled a bit, but Eloise cut them off. "I don't think we can help you guys with this if we can't speak freely. The difficult thing will be getting you guys in."

Teddy rolled his eyes. "How hard can it be to get into your tower? Our mate lives there."

Mary smiled. "Ravenclaw's defense is pretty simple. You have to prove you are able to cut it in there. If you can't, then you can't get in."

Dewey glanced down at his wand and then back at the girls. "So, we should bone up on our charms and transfig spells then?"

This time all three girls giggled at them.

So the plan was to meet the Ravenclaw's the next evening in their dorm. Unlike the oath ceremony in the fainting room, Teddy and Dewey didn't have the luxury of having a house elf kitchen to hide in and avoid detection. While it wasn't forbidden for students of other houses to speak to people at their entrance portals (students frequently did just this when they needed to drop off books or notes to a friend in another house) their job was that much more difficult because they needed to make it through the common room and to the girls dorm without getting noticed.

"You're a walking polyjuice potion," Mary had said to Teddy when he voiced these realistic concerns.

"And me?" Dewey said.

Mary looking at her two friends who had blank looks on their faces, and shrugged.

"I'm sure you two will do just fine," she said.

Teddy and Dewey discussed their options on their way back to their own common rooms. Everything hinged on them being smart enough to get in- and then Kai being smart enough to move them all to the girl's room.

"He's a Ravenclaw..." Dewey said. "He should be able to figure out a practical and sensible plan."

Teddy and Dewey shared a laugh before parting ways.

Back in Gryffindor Teddy groaned when he saw an older Ravenclaw boy simply walk through their portal door along with Sarah, the prefect. The two gave him a strange look.

"Sorry," he said, "I just realized how easy it is for other people to get into our house."

"You paranoid Teddy?" Kaitlin called from a nearby table where she was playing a game of wizard chess.

Teddy ignored her and went over to another table to finish the letters that he had been thinking about for the last few days.

Dear Harry,

Hopefully receiving two letters in two weeks is a good amount for a godson. You came at a fairly bad time as this was the only time this semester I've had a talk with any professor outside of class. You know what I mean.

I have a few family questions for you when you get the chance. Nothing serious- I'm just curious as to our family history as some of my friends and teachers have been inquiring about what our parents do for a living.

Speaking of that- could you mention to Gran that I would like to invite Dewey, Kai, and Violet over for a day on break? I just wrote her the other day and forgot to mention and you know how she likes to have enough warning before springing things on her. I don't know if Violet will be able to come but she did last year so who knows?

My classes are going well. My professors are interesting this year and have interesting things to say about one another as well. I can give you and the rest of the family a longer run down of everything happening here over the holiday. Unless I see you first but I suppose that wouldn't be something I should look forward to.

I am looking forward to the holidays so I can see everyone. Tell Victorie to stop pestering everyone about school, that she will be here in a few months. Hope everyone's well,

He worried a little about the letter as his Godparent had been pretty clear that many people were reading their letters and that any hints he might have about Prospecting or Dr. Babbit could be figured out by other people. He read through it again, decided it was probably fine, and then signed it.

The second letter, which would seem simpler considering he didn't need to worry about disguising his language, was a bit more difficult to formulate.

Chloe,

I was happy to read through your last letter- it sounds like you are really enjoying your new school. Thank you for your concern but honestly we haven't had any dangerous things happen inside the castle. Everyone's going a bit mad really as we aren't allowed outside, or in certain parts of the castle, and many people don't see why as nothing has happened.

I'm not sure exactly how to say this but Julie and April have asked me a few times if I still talk with you. They asked if we were dating. I know that we aren't- but it's none of their business really. Anyway I figured you would probably want to know that people still remember you and are asking about you.

It's a bit different this year. I'm not sure the best way to describe it but there are some new teachers and they seem to have an effect on the students. A lot of kids are much more into their classes (Violet and Stephen for example) and a lot of students are dressing much more carefully- getting ready for a Ball they are planning I think. It feels like a different place than last year. It's not bad but it's not the same.

Anyway I'm sure some of the Slytherin girls could really go for the muggle face charms that you brought last year. I could make a quick galleon selling it to some of them- although thinking about it that sounds more like something Kai would do. We are going on holiday in a few weeks- I know my family was planning on stopping in Diagon Alley for a day- any chance you might be in London then?

I hope that you keep enjoying your school- let me know about your holiday plans. Oh and you don't need to put so many muggle stamps on your letters. The owls don't care.

Take care.

Teddy

He read through the letter twice- resisting the urge to cross out a few lines that he had written and rewritten the last time he had tried writing to her. For some reason everything either came out like he was complaining about Hogwarts or like she was a shallow and silly girl that needed to hear about dances.

He had to get back to her though. He had taken far longer than her to respond to the last letter and, like with his Gran, she needed to get the letter before the Holiday if she was going to adjust her plans. So it was with a sigh that he rolled up the second letter and placed it next to the first. He trudged out one more time that evening to the owlry where he would take a breath, tie the letters up, and then send them on their way.