"Left. Up. A bit more to the left."

"Hurry up this thing is heavy!" Ted complained as he held the sign in both hands and struggled not to tip over with it.

"Alright you can let go now," Matt called and Teddy, much to his relief finally let go.

He backed up a bit and stared at their handy work as Matt jumped down from his position on top of the wall.

"Looks nice," he said with a satisfied nod and Ted grinned back.

The past week had Teddy blissfully occupied. Every morning he and Matt cleaned up the theater in preparation for opening and Vic and Roy would go out to street perform.

They'd have lunch together before Matt and the boys would go their separate ways until the shows started. Then Ted would help Matt with the tickets and the food and all that other stuff that a theater was in charge of.

In the excitement of the fair and the work keeping him occupied, Ted found it quite easy to forget about any lingering thoughts in the back of his head as he got swept up in the moment.

And for the next few weeks he wrote to his mum, busied himself in some work and laughed with his friends. It was all nice and easy.

And it was around that time that the Hogwarts letters started to come in signaling the end of the summer break and the start of a new school year.

"Hey Ted!" Vic shouted and Ted looked round to find his friends running up the hill towards them.

"Looks like summer's almost over," Matt said as Vic quickly handed out the letters to everyone else.

The boys walked off to a patch of grass and rocks by the side of the theater before tearing apart their envelops.

Ted quickly skimmed his letters. Nothing really exciting. Just a list of school supplies paired with school rules and the calendar for the year but his head turned when Vic gave a low whistle.

"Look who made prefect," Vic said pointing to the current fifth year of the group.

Ted quickly turned to Matt was busy staring down at his hand in wonder as said hand clutched a prefects badge.

"Whoa! Congrats Matt!" Ted said happily as he leaned over to look at the badge some more.

It didn't look like much. A simple badge of gold and scarlet with the letter "P" adorned in its center. Still, Ted thought it looked pretty cool and he laughed at Matt's shell shocked expression over the small thing.

"Now you can use the prefect's bathroom and take away house points and give detentions and everything," Vic said before pausing with a thought, "I wish I was a prefect."

"So what? You can abuse your powers?" Matt teased and Vic nodded vigorously.

"Actually it says here that prefects can only deduct house points and give detentions to students of their own houses," Roy pointed out as it seemed he'd snatched up Matt's letters along the way.

"What? But that means we'd lose the Cup!" Vic protested and Roy shrugged.

"I guess being a prefect's all about deciding what's right and what's wrong," Ted pointed out as he took the letters Roy was holding to skim through them.

"Matt we're friends right? You wouldn't give us detentions would you?" Vic insisted and Matt laughed.

"I dunno. I'll have to think about that one," he said before everyone burst out laughing at Vic's shocked face.

"You wouldn't!" he accused and Roy patted him on the back.

"Tough luck Vic. Looks like you won't be able to get away with anything now," he said as the group sniggered at Vic's pout.

"Just you wait. I'll be a prefect and I'll put the whole lot of you in detentions," Vic shouted but Roy was one step ahead.

"I'm still in Slytherin and by the time you become prefect Matt would have graduated. That only leaves Ted."

"Fine! Ted! I'm putting you in detention!" Vic huffed, pointing an accusing finger at the boy.

"What did I do?" Teddy protested feeling much like the innocent bystander.

"A lot of things!" Vic shouted back.

"Like?"

"Like…" Vic faltered, "Like…like a lot of things I haven't thought of yet," he finished and the rest of the group rolled their eyes mockingly at the boy.

"Alright. I'll go get lunch," Matt finally decided and Ted could tell that the real fact that he'd been accepted as a prefect seemed to have cheered him up considerably.

"What do you guys want? Pizza sound good?" he asked and the other boys nodded hungrily.

"Great. Be right back."

Ted and his friends watched the older boy go before turning back to talk amongst themselves.

"This means we need to go to Diagon Alley soon," Roy said waiving the letters before him.

"Yeah. Think your old man's up for it?" Vic asked as he crouched on top of a nearby rock.

"Yeah," Ted said with a nod, "He went home with mum a few days ago and he says he's fine. The people over at Mungo's prescribed him some stuff so he'll heal faster. Plus the Muggle medicine and mum says he'll be as good as new by the time school starts," he said happily.

"Awesome Ted," Vic said with a grin and Roy gave a nod of approval as well.

"We should be leaving in a few days anyways. I'll send an email. Maybe we can catch a ride with Q and Helena again. They said they'll be leaving in two or three days since Helena's got work soon," Ted said thoughtfully.

"Yeah. I figure Muggle school will be starting in a week or so too," Vic said with a sad sigh.

"Well. It was fun while it lasted," Ted said, lying down on the grass, mind flashing back to all the excitement over the summer break, "We should do this again next year."

"Hell Ted we're going to do this every year," Vic said with a grin, "We'll make sure of that."

Ted laughed, "Alright then. That's a promise right Roy?"

But the Slytherin boy stayed silent as he stared out towards the boundary of the theater grounds with a small frown on his face.

"What's the matter bro?" Vic asked, hopping down from the rocks to see what his brother was looking at.

Ted too got up off the ground to stare at a group of older boys at the edge of the property who seemed to be standing in a circle around something.

"Let's go check it out," Ted said and his friends nodded before rushing off towards the area.

As they got closer voices could be heard.

"Hey kid. What's in that letter eh?" someone sneered, "Clutching it to your chest like that's not going to stop us from taking it!"

"Now be a good little kid and hand it over. What's in it? Money?"

"Hey don't worry. We're not going to hurt you. We just want to know what's so special about that thing you're holding."

As Ted got closer he noticed a small boy sitting on the ground surrounded by the older boy's legs. He was clutching a letter to his chest and he looked ready to cry as the boys grabbed him and tried to wrestle the letter out of the smaller boy's hands.

"Oi! Why don't you pick on someone your own size?" Ted shouted, taking a stone from the ground and throwing it at the pack of bullies.

As the rock hit someone's head with an audible tick Ted grabbed for another one as Vic and Roy got ready for a fight behind him.

"Shit Ted. It's a Hogwarts letter," Vic mumbled behind him and Ted did a double take to the letter that the boy was still clutching. It distinctly had the red seal of Hogwarts stuck to its center. If Muggles got their hands on a Hogwarts acceptance letter the Ministry would certainly have some cleaning up to do and Ted didn't want that to start up again.

"No magic," Ted mumbled and Vic nodded not really having the time for argument as the bullies turned and made their way towards the trio.

"What do you want pipsqueaks?" One of the boys asked.

"Leave the kid alone," Ted repeated planting his feet firmly on the ground.

"Why should we? It's none of your business."

"It bloody hell is our business," Vic muttered and Ted nodded fueled by a protective rage, "We're part of the theater. You're on our property," he said glaring at the pack of bullies.

"Oh yeah well screw you."

"That the only insult you can think of?" Ted asked only to duck quickly as a fist came flying towards his face.

"Didn't your parents ever teach you it's not nice to hit people? It's supposed to show how immature you are," Ted scoffed as he backed up quickly from the gang.

"Pfft. You're not our parents," one of them muttered and Ted suddenly had an idea as his face broke out into a grin.

"Maybe not but I can try," he said to the wary bunch. What kid grins like a lunatic before he's about to be beaten up?

Quickly Ted quickly turned around and scrunched up his face, ignoring the confused looks by both enemies and friends.

"How's this?" Ted asked as he turned back to face the pair.

The older boy's took one look at Ted's face and gave a yelp of surprise. Ted had the exact same face as the bully who had spoken earlier.

"What the bloody hell! You creep. Get away from us!" one of the boys shouted

"No good?" Ted asked before turning around and screwing up his face once more.

"How about this one?" Ted asked rather pleased when the boys back peddled faster as his face took on the appearance of another one from the group.

Vic was laughing behind him and Ted couldn't help but grin and turn around once more.

"You like zombies?" Ted asked as his face took on the form of a movie like zombie complete with decayed skin and a glassed over expression.

The bullies ran.

"And don't come back!" Vic shouted after them.

Ted quickly reverted back to his regular face with a rather proud grin.

"Smooth one Mister Goodie Two-Shoes," Roy teased and Ted shrugged, "At least no one got hurt right?" he asked as he ran over to the boy still staring wide eyed at the trio.

"You ok?" Ted asked, extending to give the boy a hand and the kid quickly shook himself before taking the hand and standing up.

"What're you doing waving that thing around in a Muggle area? You're just asking to get mugged," Vic said with a frown but the boy seemed oblivious as he stared at Teddy with wide eyes.

"You're Theodore Lupin right?" the boy shouted excitedly jumping up and down slightly in anticipation.

Teddy looked surprised at the boy before sharing a confused look with Vic.

Now that the excitement had died down Ted got a good look at the boy. He was short and although Ted knew the boy was eleven judging from his letter he looked about nine at best.

The boy had a mop of messy blonde hair and piercing blue eyes which were fixed in awe at Ted.

"Uhh. Yeah," Ted said, rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment.

"Cool!" the boy shouted and Ted couldn't help but raise an eyebrow. What was so cool about him?

"I saw you in the newspaper last year! They say you've got really blue hair and that you're a metamorphagus and you stopped a werewolf attack when you were only eleven!"

Ted gave another awkward glance at Vic who shrugged with a small grin.

"News travels fast Ted. Good luck!" Vic said, dragging his brother off back to the rocks.

"Bastard! You just can't just ditch me!" Ted thought frantically as Vic and Roy made their retreat.

"So. Is it true?" the boy asked eagerly and Ted turned his attention back to him.

"Uhh. Yeah bu-"

"That's so cool!" the boy interrupted before Ted could continue, "I bet you fought off those Death Eaters and everything! I got saved by Teddy Lupin! How cool is that?"

Ted had a feeling the boy was just talking to himself now and refrained from answering.

"Can I get your autograph?"

Ted blinked, "Uhh. Sure…?"

"I bet you took the whole hoard of them with some really powerful magic. Have all those enemies running you in fear. You can do wandless magic right? What am I talking about? Of course you can. Can you show me? Huh? Can you?"

Ted had a feeling his protests would fall on deaf ears so he remained silent not knowing whether to feel proud or embarrassed.

"Tomi?"

The boy stopped his small happy dance around Ted to look up in surprise.

"What're you doing here?"

Ted turned to the sound of the voice and found Matt standing just up the path looking rather shell-shocked at the small boy in front of them. He was casually carrying a pizza box that looked about to slip from his surprised fingers and spill onto the floor.

"Matt!" Tomi shouted, looking ecstatic as he ran over and hugged the older boy.

"Tomi! What're you doing here?" Matt repeated as he pushed the boy away a bit roughly.

"I…I wanted to see you" Tomi replied, looking down at his feet.

"Now?"

Tomi looked up in confusion, "Well yeah. Mom said she'd take me on holiday. She said I could go anywhere I wanted," he replied, voice soft as he looked up at Matt who only seemed to look even more shocked.

"You brought your mom?" Matt shouted as he took several steps back and looked around frantically as if expecting said woman to come marching up the hill towards him.

"Well. Yeah…."

"Are you crazy?"

"I didn't think- She doesn't know," Tomi argued.

"Which only makes it worse! You have any idea what would happen if she saw us?" Matt cried and Tomi flinched again.

"But-"

"I need to go," Matt mumbled and Tomi's head shot up.

"But! But I!"

But it was too late for Matt had run off back down the hill and round the bend out of sight.

"But I wanted to tell you I got accepted," Tomi said sadly to himself.

Ted watched the weird exchange of words between the two blondes as one ran off and the other starred sulkily at his shoes.

He figured he didn't really want to find out what was going on and decided on making a break to the rocks where Vic and Roy were.

He took a look at Tomi standing along several paces away and sighed.

"No need to get upset," Ted said as he made his way over to the boy and placing an arm on his shoulder, "If you want I can tell him."

Tomi didn't look too pleased with the idea but he nodded after a while, "Ok. Thank you Mr. Lupin."

"It's Teddy," Ted corrected, "Or just Ted if you want. I'm only one year older than you. No need for the Mr's."

Tomi gave a grin, "Alright then. Tell Matt I said bye? We'll probably be leaving tomorrow. We just stopped over so my mom could take a break from driving for a night."

"Sure. I'll tell him to send you a letter or something," Ted said regardless of the fact that he had no clue if Matt would be able to do such a thing.

Nevertheless it seemed to make Tomi happy as he eagerly nodded.

"My name's Tomi Kadokawa by the way," he added, "That's T-O-M-I. But Brits like to swap it for a double m and a y.

Teddy resisted the urge to ask a really stupid question and just shrugged.

"So what name do you like?" he asked instead.

"Umm. Well my friends call my TK and I like that," Tomi said with a considering look passing through his face.

"Well that makes life easier. Nice to meet you TK," Ted said sticking out a hand for prosperity's sake.

"So we've got Q and TK. Any other letters of the alphabet I should be learning?"

Regardless the two boys shook, happy to have made a new friend in each other.

"Tomi?"

Both boys jumped as they looked down the road. A middle aged Asian woman was making her way up the small hill to the theater and Tomi gave a happy smile.

"Over here mum!"

"Why on earth did you run off like that? Come on now. You said you wanted to ride the Ferris wheel right?" Tomi's mother replied and the boy nodded as she approached.

"I hope my son here hasn't been bothering you young man," she said in an apologetic tone as Tomi ran over to her.

Ted blushed, "No. He's fine. We had fun. I'm Theodore Lupin. It's very nice to meet you," he replied politely.

"And it was very nice to meet you," Tomi's mother replied with a warm smile, "But if you'd excuses us we must be going. Thank you for looking after Tomi," she finished as she turned and walked away, son in tow.

Tomi did a quick look over his shoulder and waved.

"Thanks a lot!" he shouted to Ted and Ted gave a grin as he waved back.

Soon the boy and his mother were out of sight and Ted sighed.

"Well that was interesting….now where's Matt?"

Ted made his way over to where Vic and Roy were still talking to themselves by the rocks at the edge of the theater complex.

"So? How'd it go?" Vic asked and Ted shrugged, "He's a good kid. Name's TK…..Have you seen Matt?" he added as an afterthought.

"No. How long does it take to get pizza?" Vic asked, standing on his rock and searching the area as if the older boy would suddenly appear.

And low and behold there he was, making a quick walk back up the hill and over to the boys.

"Sorry for the wait," Matt announced as he sat down on a nearby rock and opened up the pizza box.

"Got a little sidetracked," he muttered but Vic and Roy didn't seem to care as they made a beeline to the awaiting food.

Ted looked at his friends for a second before diving in as well, managing to claim two slices before it was all gone.

"Man I'm gonna miss summer break," Vic sighed as he sat back down, half his pizza already eaten.

Ted watched his friends with a smile before looking over at Matt who also seemed to be enjoying himself.

He figured questions could wait. Right now it was all about food and enjoying the last few days of summer break.

"So. About TK…." Ted started and Matt looked up at him with a raised eyebrow.

It had taken Ted all day to finally get up the courage to ask Matt what had happened that afternoon with the boy by the hill.

Now they were currently in the theater lobby. The sounds and excitement from the show was in full swing and Ted and Matt really had nothing to do until the show was over.

"He's going to Hogwarts you know," Ted pointed out.

Matt froze, whipping his head around to stare at Ted with wide eyes.

"He's going to what?" he asked and Ted repeated.

"He's going to Hogwarts. That's why he wanted to see you. So he could tell you himself."

Matt was silent for so long that Ted felt like he ought to give the older boy a whack on the back to wake him up.

"You ok?" he asked instead and Matt shook himself before sitting down on a nearby stool.

"Yeah. I'm fine. Ecstatic even," he murmured and Ted could catch the little hint of awe in his voice.

"Why didn't you wait for him to tell you before your ran off?" Ted asked and Matt sighed, running a hand through his hair.

"Tomi and I…well…our parents don't really get along. If they see each other one would either go ballistic or just make things rude and awkward," Matt mumbled.

"Why don't your parents get along?" Ted asked, confused and Matt's face hardened.

"Because my dad's a vampire."

Ted paused, slightly shocked as his mouth only seemed to squeeze out a small, "Oh….I'm sorry."

Matt gave a choked laugh, "There's nothing to be sorry for. It's all my dad's fault anyways."

"What'd he do?"

Matt paused and his voice dropped down to a whisper.

"He loved her, married her and had two kids with her….and then she found out he was a vampire….."

Ted's mind quickly scrambled to make sense of that sentence and he didn't like the conclusion that it gave him.

"But that shouldn't matter. If they loved each other they'd stick together no matter what right?" Ted argued and Matt gave a bitter laugh.

"You know Ted. Sometimes I envy you," he said and Ted fidgeted nervously in his seat.

"Vampires aren't socially acceptable. They're a declining species and not many people know what they can accomplish. They take myths and legends as fact because there isn't a big enough population to study."

Ted remained silent as Matt went on.

"Mom was a businesswoman. She traveled all over the world and got good money. Dad was rarely ever allowed to work, people shunned him and it was just pathetic. When word got round that he had married a successful Japanese woman they hated him even more. People talked about us behind our backs, we had to move all over the place to avoid people."

Matt shrugged before continuing.

"I guess after a few years it started to wear Mum out. She couldn't live a successful life with a husband that kept dragging her down."

Matt sighed as he rocked himself back and forth on his stool.

"And then she found out why everyone hated him and she was furious. She couldn't believe he hadn't told her. She couldn't believe that he'd knowingly dragged us all into his problems without saying a word….."

Matt trailed off with a frown, leaning back and staring up at the ceiling of the theater.

"So one took the younger kid that had the least vampire traits and had a better chance at growing up somewhat normal. And the other takes the older kid that's already used to it all and doesn't mind travelling all over Britain to help host shows like this one."

Matt punctuated his last statement with a broad sweep of his arm, gesturing to the theater around them.

"Tomi was 4. I was 8," he added as an afterthought.

Silence reigned throughout the theater lobby interrupted by the muffled laughter past the show room doors.

"Are you mad at them?" Ted finally asked once he could no longer take the silence.

Matt frowned, "Not really. I guess. I can see why Mum wouldn't want to be with a guy that's lied to her for almost a decade…..but I can see why Dad would want to keep it a secret from her."

Matt got up and stretched with a yawn. Looking at the clock the show was due to end soon and the two boys should really get back to their stations before a hoard of people came pouring out asking for their jackets and souvenirs and what not.

"Tomi and I still write to each other and stuff. We send pictures and gifts for Christmas and birthdays. It could be worse really," Matt said with a shrug as Ted clambered off his seat to get ready.

"So. You're happy TK's going to Hogwarts with you right?" Ted said somewhat uncertainly. He'd thought he knew but it was safe to ask just in case.

Matt gave a rather faint smile to himself before turning to Ted.

"Of course I'm happy Ted," he said a bit exasperatedly.

"Our parents might be divorced and we might not share the same last name. But Tomi's still my little brother."

Ted grinned.

"Good," he said with a determined nod.

One teeny tiny mystery solved. A whole bunch of them to go.

And remember what I said about all the different kinds of kids/people a few chapters back? Well TK and Matt are one bunch. One more kid to go. Also note how I'm stealing names from all over the place :P

Why people stole the cloak has still yet to be solved. Probably won't be solved for a while...a very very long while...

Next chapter: Teddy finally goes back to Hogwarts. (It's about damn time too)