Teddy in fact, didn't get caught for lighting a seventh year prefect's book on fire, and said seventh year prefect did get a week worth of detentions for not doing her essay due to her scorched book, which she made no effort to replace and even threw onto Lyric's desk instead of her homework scroll.
Lyric Watson reminded Harry a lot of Tonks, crossbred with McGonagall. She was a very kind, cheerful person, but was strict as in class. Last year she had started a snowball fight in the Great Hall over Christmas, and somehow was the third most feared professor in faculty. Minerva being in the top spot followed by Lauressa D'Amore the Potions Master. (Harry wasn't even in the running, it would be unfair, as he was one of the most feared people in the world -death to Voldemort and all.)
Lauressa was wonderful, very much like Severus, but she was home schooled by her Potions Master father and was far more learned in the art than anything else. Maybe a bit of Herbology, but she hardly used her wand. Her classroom was full of all sorts of pickled things and plants growing in pots but it was a total bomb site. The biggest difference between Lauressa and Severus was not the skill, or the style of teaching but the fact that Luressa was allergic to organisation without being slow or clumsy about it, Harry admired her skill to keep track of chaos.
Harry finished his scrawled lesson plan off with a flourish and set it aside before pushing his chair away from his desk and heading to the Great Hall for dinner. He happily eavesdropped on the students as he passed, noting that Jules Rosier was planning to sneak in a broom despite the first year rule and Addison Haber and Napier Erdos, two first year Gryffindor's were planning a bet to see who could get closest to the Whomping Willow.
"Remember to put in a death clause," Harry reminded them quietly, both boys looked confused before one of their classmates - Marisol Quigley- explained he was implying they might die if they tried it. Harry smiled. Who would name their kid Marisol? Smart girl none-the-less.
Peyton Howards, Gil Paige, Walker Hardy and Ezekiel Van De Zee were standing outside the hall, four of the seven third year Gryffindors and all Teddy's closest friends. Peyton was a tall lanky boy, his hair was blonde but he had dark, kind eyes and thick eyebrows. Gil was an orphan, coming from an orphanage in Muggle London. He was small, with very dark brown hair and apple green eyes, and the boy was brilliant but painfully shy. Walker was a loudmouth and Harry really didn't like the boy, He reminded Harry strongly of Cormack McLaggen, his hair was Dudley blonde and he was quite chubby but not the whale proportions his cousin had reached. Lastly was Ezekiel Van De Zee who was a tall and dark haired pure blood Dutch boy who had a mischievous glint in his eye that reminded Harry of the young Sirius Black he saw in Severus' fifth year memory. It scared Harry a bit, he knew that very, very soon Teddy and Ezekiel would start causing all sorts of mayhem.
"Teddy's been in the library all day!" Walker was saying loudly, "Hes not even doing homework the prat's just ignoring us."
"He's not a prat," Gil said quietly, Peyton was frowning at Walker while Ezekiel rolled his eyes.
"Teddy's just all cut because everyone keeps asking him about Hare-Bear."
"Don't call me Hare-Bare!" Harry cried at the boy, who, while his friends all looked a little scared, smiled at him charmingly.
"Sorry Professor," Ezekiel said respectfully, "I will, from now on make sure to practice an appropriate impersonal relationship at Hogwarts, but you'll always be Mr. Hare-Bare to me."
"Ezekiel," Harry warned. The boy smiled at him. "Go to dinner, boys." Harry dismissed the three students trying to look serious and Ezekiel who was still smiling charmingly at him.
"Damn kid." Harry muttered entering the Great Hall and looking for Teddy straight away, finding him greeting his laughing friends at the Gryffindor table, then scanning the Slytherin table to find Scorpius, who was sitting by himself at the end closest to the teachers table.
Minerva smiled at him as he sat down between her and Neville. Neville was happily talking to Poppy and Maxine. Minerva laughed at him.
"Yes?" Harry asked her with an eyebrow raised.
"Hare-Bear?" Minerva asked with a tight smile.
"I'll bring back Minnie Mouse," Harry warned her. Her smile fell.
"Sirius told you about that?"
"Of course he did," Harry said, "Information like that should never be lost."
"Well, at least I contained it to just Sirius," Minerva defended herself, "Mr. Van Dee Zee has just about the whole school calling you Professor Hare-Bear."
"At least they're using Professor."
"You know Voldemort will be rolling in his grave right?" Neville asked, "He was defeated by Professor Hare-Bear."
"Shut up Neville," Harry said playfully, Madame Pomfrey laughed at them.
"This has to be addressed immediately." Harry said seriously, standing up and heading to his office.
Harry walked between the Gryffindor and Huffelpuff tables on his way out of the hall. He heard his dreaded nickname whispered over and over and stopped behind his godsons seat.
"Does this make you Teddy-bear?" Harry said, loudly enough for the surrounding people to hear.
"NO!" Teddy said in a horrified and disbelieving voice.
"I've no doubt you're behind that nickname, Teddy-bear."
Ezekiel laughed at him.
"What are you laughing at Geeky Zekie?" Harry asked even louder. Ezekiel grinned at him. The surrounding tabled roared with laughter.
"Oh," Harry said, loud enough to attract the attention of everyone in the hall, "Don't you laugh at Teddy-Bear and Geeky Zekie. If I catch you using my improper little nickname you're in for it too." Harry warned.
"Professor Hare-Bare," Ezekiel provided unnecessarily, "In case anyone was in doubt."
"Thank you," Harry said sarcastically, and he turned on his heel and left.
Teddy looked at his friends horrified.
"Teddy Bear," Walker teased.
"No!" Teddy ordered.
"Can you change your features to look like a Teddy Bear?" Gil asked, "Wait..."
The four boys stared at their friends horrified look.
"You did!" Gil said.
"No!" Teddy cried.
"Come on Ted," Ezekiel taunted, "Tell the truth."
"Nooooo," Teddy whined.
"Bet Hare-Bear will tell us!" Peyton said, pulling Gil along as Ezekiel and Walker jumped up.
"NO!" Teddy shouted, capturing the attention of the other students as he chased his friends out of the hall.
Harry, much to Teddy's relief didn't give them the information they wanted, he did dub Walker 'Texas Ranger', though none of them but Gil seemed to understand the reference and Gil ended up with the nickname Gilyweed, Peyton smiled a challenging smile at Harry as Harry stared at him with a look of utter concentration.
"I can't call you Peyton Satan." Harry said. "Hmmm. I'll think of something."
Harry waved them away dismissively, and the five boys went back to the common room, Gil quietly saying he needed to finish his Potions essay off.
Teddy flopped onto his favorite armchair while Gil jogged up to the dorms to get his stuff, Walker and Peyton pulled out their exploding snap cards and Ezekiel disappeared.
"Where's Zeke?" Teddy asked, the two boys on the floor shrugged and Gil came down the stairs with armfuls of parchment.
"You work too hard Gil," Teddy told the boy as he spread his school crap on a small table. "That essays not due till next week."
"Has to be perfect," Gil whispered, concentrating very hard as he picked up his quill and dipped it in his inkwell.
"It is," Ezekiel sauntered into the common room like he owned the place. Then he sobered up.
"I have to go visit my sister tonight," He said somberly. They all looked at him with varying degrees of pity. His sister was really sick.
"Is she okay?" Walker said quietly. Zeke nodded.
"I'll see you on Friday." he said with a tight smile and left.
"His sister is so sick," Peyton said, Gil nodded.
"She has Type II Osteogenesis Imperfecta," Gil supplied. "Its pretty serious."
"He visits her about once a month, doesn't he?"
"Yeah, since first year," Teddy said, "For a couple days."
"Whats her name again?" Walker asked.
"Bethany, shes 4 I think." Gil said, Teddy nodded.
The group were quiet for a moment, and uncomfortable and then Walker bullied Peyton into resuming their game, Gil began to re-read his assignment and Teddy shrugged and skipped up the steps to find a book. He missed Zeke already.
Thursday was usually a great day for the boys, they had History of Magic and then double DADA then nothing. And Harry always, always, always, did an awesome practical class on Thursdays.
They were not disappointed.
"Now," Harry clapped his hands, the class was empty of usual classroom things, instead full of trees. "Who can tell me what we might be studying?"
The class looked around the set up of the classroom, all totally confused.
"Okay, when you're wandering the forest at night," He said, "What sort of dark creature might jump out at you? anyone?"
"Well anything could," Cora Mason shouted, she was a Ravenclaw with an annoying bob haircut.
"True Miss Apple-Cora," Harry said, not missing a beat when the class giggled at the girls nickname, "but what I've got today will try to do something very specific. So, I want you to wander around."
Harry walked back into the trees and the students, still confused began to wander around the classroom.
Teddy was walking through the trees when he saw it, a light. A man holding a lantern was leading him along a path he hadn't seen.
"Gil," Teddy pointed to the thing and tugged his friend along. "Its helping us," Teddy said certain.
"No wait!" Gil tugged Teddy's sleeve back. "Its not, I've read about these before, Its a Hinkypunk," He pulled his wand and pointed it at the creature. "I can't remember the spell."
"Gilyweed, Teddy Bear!" Harry emerged from the trees by their side, giving Gil 7 points for correctly identifying the hinkypunk. "The spell is Lumos Duo," Harry said, pulling his own wand and showing them the 'flick-flick' movement.
"Then filppendo to finish it off, but don't finish him, I want everyone to face it."
"Yes Professor Hare-Bare," Gil said, a look of determination on his face, he did the spell perfectly allowing Teddy to get a glimpse of the Hinkypunk before it turned into blue-grey mist again.
"Lumos Duo!" Teddy cried, this time the creature stayed whole, it had a lumpy body and a single tail like leg, and two spindly arms with no desternable head or neck, in one hand - or rather at the end of an arm was a large lantern.
"Lumos Duo!" Gil cried again and the Hinkypunk stayed solid.
"Flippendo!" Harry said, it fell over the lantern clattering but not going out or leaving its hand.
"Great work!" Harry told them, "Twenty points to Gryffindor, now off you go so the rest of the class can take a crack.
The rest of the lesson was much the same, Gil thought there were five Hinkypunks wandering around in the room and after the period ended they got to see the consequence of following them.
Darcy, Verna and Paisley, two Gryffindors and a Ravenclaw respectively, were covered in honey and feathers.
"Now, quiet kids, okay," Harry began shushing the laughing class. "In a real forest, what would happen is you would be led to a swamp, lake or bog and drowned, so its important not only to remember that Hinkipunks are out there, but also that feeling you get, like you're certain they're going to help and you should follow. Remember that feeling, because we'll come across it when we cover vampires and some other curses later, alright? Your homework is about that feeling, and the thought process, your own experience please and start to speculate about how you would fight it. Non-formal homework, alright?"
Harry dismissed the class, excited about their easy homework task, the Gryffindors especially who had lunch, then the whole afternoon off.
"Maybe we could ask to see Zeke and his sister?" Peyton said, "I mean, I've never even seen his family before, and he's met all mine - he stayed at mine Christmas first year. All of it."
Gil cringed. "I stay at school," He said, "except summer, I've begged McGonagall to let me stay at summer but she says no."
"Whats the orphanage like?" Teddy asked carefully, Gil shrugged.
"Shabby, small, really bad food." He said, "And a lot of the kids are nasty pieces of work, very clicky, I hate it."
"If Harry hadn't taken me in I'd be in an Orphanage." Teddy told him, "I think."
"Molly would have taken you Cub, or Uncle Ron and Aunt Hermione, or Uncle George," Harry said quietly, coming up behind the boys. "Are you allowed to visit during the summer, Gil?" He asked, Gil shook his head.
"Too much liability," he said sorrowfully.
Harry nodded in understanding.
"Well, off to lunch-"
"Actually, Harry," Teddy said quickly, "I mean, Professor Hare Bear," He corrected. "Would you ask Ezekiel's parents if we can come with him when he visits his sister?" Teddy gave Harry his best puppy dog eyes, which, because of his metamorphagai ability, were actually comically big and watery and baby blue. (Gil called him Puss in Boots for it but Teddy had no idea what he was on about.)
"No Ted," Harry said.
"But Zeke is always so sad when he comes back, sometimes for days!"
"Its a family thing, Teddy, that goes for the rest of you too."
The boys sighed defeated and the group followed their retreating professor into the Great Hall.
"I feel like shes my sister too," Teddy said, "I mean, we know so much about her." Gil agreed completely while Peyton shrugged.
"He doesn't talk about her much to me, or Walker."
"Well her name is Bethany," Teddy said, Peyton gave him a look that said 'I knew that.'
"She's four, and her favorite color is puce."
"Loves unicorns," Teddy added, Peyton nodded.
"Yeah, her birthday is March 7th, Ezekiel always gets her a plush unicorn."
The boys continued to talk about Bethany as they sat down and ate lunch.