Chapter 10: Rivalry Is In The Blood, Part 2
(Or, Teddy's First Term)
"But... where's all the normal classes?" Jesse asked in confusion, looking at his timetable. "The stuff like maths, language arts, sciences, history..."
"Well, there's History of Magic right there," Teddy said with a tone of somebody explaining the obvious, pointing to Wednesday morning. "Apparently nobody stays awake through that one. Taught by a ghost." At Jesse and Marcus' jaws dropping, he grinned. "I'm being entirely serious. Professor Binns is a ghost. Fell asleep in an armchair one night and got up to the next morning to teach and left his body behind, according to legend. Been around for quite a while."
"Yeah, all right, but where's all the other stuff? I mean, aren't we supposed to have, like, maths and stuff?" Marcus asked, examining his timetable.
"Why?" Teddy and Kryton both asked blankly. "You can do your sums, can't you?"
"Well, yeah, but..."
"That's all you really need. S'long as you can count," Kryton said with a dismissive air. "The only class that really uses it is Potions, any way. You don't happen to know who teaches that, eh?" he asked Teddy.
"Yeah, sure I do," Teddy replied. "Professor Slughorn. I know almost all the professors here, a lot of them were either Order of the Phoenix or Dumbledore's Army."
"So what's he, an elf?" Jesse asked, with a valiant stab at humour.
"No, just a fat old man who plays favourites," Teddy said.
There was a faint crack beside them at the breakfast table and Teddy whirled around. "Kreacher!" he exclaimed.
The old house-elf really was that: old. Now nearly useless anywhere, the Hogwarts house-elves had taken in the decrepit old Kreacher and were caring tenderly for him, though he would still hobble to his feet if his Master Harry was in need.
"Master Teddy should not say such things about his teachers, no he shouldn't, Master Teddy will heap most grievous shame on his godfather's head, he who slew the Dark Lord, who has most noble heart..."
"What is it, Kreacher?" Teddy laughed, ignoring the elf's reprimand and cutting off the soppy house-elf love sonnet.
"Mistress Ginny wishes for Master Teddy to be reminded that she has contacts and Master Teddy should make most valiant attempts to behave himself or she will find out."
"Thank you, Kreacher, I'll keep that in mind," Teddy said. "Did she honestly make you come all the way up here just to tell me that?"
"No, Mistress Ginny asked Winky to do it, but Winky was having too much Butterbeer again last night so Kreacher took it upon himself to do the bidding of his Master Harry's wife, because Kreacher is a good house-elf, yes, he does what what his family wishes of him... Yes, yes, Kreacher's Mistress Black always said Kreacher was a good, good house-elf, it is a shame that she is gone, and all my mistress' lovely things, awful filth destroying the most noble house of Black, Kreacher cried for months..." He disappeared with another crack, still mumbling away to himself eulogies for Grimmauld Place and its family.
"Wh-what was that?" Marcus asked uneasily.
"Oh, that was a house-elf," Kryton replied.
"Are they all like that?" Jesse asked.
"Dunno, never met one in real life, heard about them from my dad," Kryton said.
"Yeah, they're all pretty much like that," Teddy said.
"All pay homage to the one who knows everything except how the sorting is done!" Marcus said with a mock worship bow.
Teddy laughed.
"Hey!" came Rosier's hiss from across the Potions classroom. "Hey, half-breed!"
"Just ignore him, please?" Marcus whispered under his breath to Teddy. "I don't want to get chucked for being in the wrong place at the wrong time."
Teddy nodded slightly, casting a glare in Rosier's direction. "All right," he muttered.
"Hey, is it true that werewolves eat their young? Obviously you didn't taste so good, or else your mother – "
"Sorry, Marcus," Teddy muttered, "but I can't take him and his bile. Silencio!" he shouted, casting the spell at Rosier.
Rosier's eyes grew wide, he dodged the spell narrowly and he shot another spell towards Teddy, who ducked just in time. The spell ricocheted off a brass cauldron, which teetered dangerously on its feet for a moment before resettling.
"Sectumsempra!" Rosier yelled, and many of the eyes in the classroom went wider than saucers.
The spell grazed Teddy's arm as he dove aside, slashing his wand arm open. As his wand dropped to the ground and rolled out of his reach, Rosier raised his wand again.
"Petrificus Totalis!" Teddy shouted, flinging out his hand. That one managed to hit Rosier just as his final curse came flying at Teddy, who narrowly avoided it, but resulted in striking the brass caudron with such force that its contents exploded, along with the cauldron.
Teddy managed to get to his feet, and ignoring the shocked eyes of his classmates and the surprised yell of the professor as he entered, stumbling over to Rosier, said, "I would shut up about werewolves if I were you. At least my family wasn't Death-Eaters." He delivered a swift kick to the frozen Slytherin's stomach. "That was for calling my father filth." He smashed his foot into Rosier's face. "That was for calling my mother a mutant." He delivered one final kick just as Slughorn was prying him off. "That was for being a git."
"What happened here?" Slughorn demanded, still holding Teddy back.
Immediately, two different versions of the story arose, the Gryffindors yelling about being provoked and the Slytherins screaming about attacking without reason.
"The both of you, on your feet," Slughorn ordered as he unfroze Rosier. "Straight to the headmistress! Astounding, first day and dueling in a classroom... Ought to expel the both of you... Broke my brass cauldron... present from Andremischa Hendryvitch... had it since before either of your parents were a twinkle in their parents' eyes... broke my brass cauldron..."
"Mr Rosier, I must impress upon you the seriousness of what you did," McGonagall said sternly. "That was a curse used only by the darkest of wizards. That alone would be sufficient to have you sent to Azkaban for a number of months."
Rosier muttered something indistinct under his breath, still gingerly touching his newly repaired nose.
"One hundred points from Slytherin and a month of detention," McGonagall decided. "You may return to class. Mr Lupin," she continued, turning to the pale-faced boy.
"I want him in the hospital wing for the rest of the day, Minerva," Madame Pomfrey said, fixing working at getting Teddy's arm to stop bleeding.
"I'm not going to lose the arm, am I?" Teddy asked anxiously.
"Oh, good heavens, I hope not," Madame Pomfrey replied distractedly. "Continue on, Minerva."
"Mr Lupin, as I understand it, Mr Rosier was trying to get a rise out of you. However, that does not excuse starting such a brawl inside a classroom."
"But Professor!" Teddy exclaimed. "He – "
"I am well aware of Mr Rosier's standings on a number of subjects," McGonagall interrupted him. "I would have hoped that your godfather would have taught you to ignore such petty attempts at provocation. Heavens knows that he and Draco Malfoy had enough of them during their years here." Sighing, she looked at the boy for a moment. "I suppose that I shouldn't be so surprised. Rivalry seems to run in your family's blood."
"So what do I get as punishment?" Teddy asked in a mumble.
"I think we'll let your godfather decide that," McGonagall said, and Teddy looked up to see Harry coming into the headmistress' office.
"What are you doing here?" Teddy asked immediately.
"I was here on Ministry business," Harry replied. "Can I ask what preceded this?"
"Let us just say that he and Hayden Rosier are going down the same path as yourself and Draco Malfoy," McGonagall said dryly as she headed out of the office.
"Here, I'll handle this," Harry said to Madame Pomfrey, who merely sniffed and said,
"Bring him straight to the hospital wing when you're through, if you please."
"What happened?" Harry asked again, crouching down to keep working on Teddy's arm. "From what I understand of it from Neville, he's been goading you?"
"Neville told you about yesterday?" Teddy asked.
"Professor Longbottom to you, and yeah, he owled me. Seemed to think it would happen again. What'd he say?"
"He called Dad filth," Teddy muttered, and he felt Harry's hand tighten on his arm, "and he said Mum was a mutant and a disgrace... and then he was saying that werewolves – "
"All right, Teddy, I get the gist of it," Harry said quietly.
"Well, what was I supposed to do, let him get away with saying that?" Teddy demanded in righteous anger. "That's, like, the same as saying I agree with him!"
"This is where a responsible parent would say to 'be the better man', 'take the higher road', 'ignore him'," Harry said. "Me, on the other hand, would've done exactly what you did, so I can't say that in honesty. Unfortunately you've inherited the Marauder temper, which cannot be checked when one of them has been wronged." He sighed. "However, Professor McGonagall will be expecting some form of punishment. So, how's twenty points and two weeks detention sound?"
"A lot better than Rosier's," Teddy admitted.
"But do be careful, Teddy, all right?" Harry said, getting to his feet. "I don't want Dolores Umbridge coming down here screaming about dangerous sons of werewolves."
"Yeah, all right," Teddy replied, getting to his feet.
Teddy sighed as he eyed his reflection in the mirror. "I think I'm tired of brown," he announced to the others.
"Hear, hear," both Kryton and Marcus spoke up.
Teddy contemplated it for a moment. "Maybe... think I'll make it blue for a while, and longer."
"How do you expect to make it – " Jesse started to ask, then let out a yell when Teddy managed to style it in under ten seconds.
"Ha! Eight seconds, personal best!"
"How'd you do that?" Jesse yelped.
"You're a Metamorphmagus," Kryton said, impressed.
"Yeah, got it from my mum, she was one too," Teddy said dismissively, shaking his hair out of his eyes and returning to his Transfiguration homework.
"How'd you do that?" Jesse repeated.
"I just thought it and it happened, that's what a Metamorphmagus does," Teddy shrugged. "Been able to do it since the day I was born, except I couldn't control it back then. Used to flip colours five or six times a day, according to Harry."
"Can you learn that?" Marcus asked interestedly.
"Nope."
"Well, what's this Quick-Ditch?" Jesse asked as the school was making its way down to the pitch for the first match of the season (Hufflepuff versus Gryffindor). "I still don't get it. What's Quick-Ditch?"
"It's not Quick-Ditch, it's Kwimmits, isn't it?" Marcus said, looking at Teddy.
Teddy actually flinched. "It's Quidditch. Quidditch. And it's only the biggest sport in the wizarding world. Ginny actually played semi-pro until I was about 6. National team tried to get Harry to play when I was 7, but he never did, he was just starting full-time at the Aurors' Office then..."
"How do you play?" Jesse asked.
"Well..."
"Ah! What kind of barbaric game is this?" Marcus yelped, watching as one of the Hufflepuff Chasers went down after being struck by a Bludger.
"Barbaric? I think it's brilliant!" Jesse laughed, leaning over the railing to try and see better.
"Remind me to take you to the next World Cup so you can see some real Quidditch!" Teddy laughed in return. "Ginny always gets us in free since she's with the Prophet and ex-Harpies."
"This is brilliant, I love it!" Jesse exclaimed. "Oh, look, there's a little gold one down there, what's that for?"
"Where?" Teddy asked, looking down where Jesse was gesturing. "I don't see it."
"Well, it's gone now. What's the little gold one for?"
"That's the Snitch. The Seekers try to catch that one. First one to catch it ends the game and earns the team 150 points. Usually means they win. Ginny's been Seeker before. Charlie was a Seeker. Harry was a Seeker. You ought to see the competitions Harry and Charlie get into when Charlie's in from Romania and they go after the Snitch. Oh, oh, look, the Gryffindor Seeker's spotted it! Go! Gogogogogogogo!"
"Oh, no, he's going to miss it," Jesse said, following the Seeker on his way down.
"I hate this game," Marcus said bluntly as the Hufflepuff Seeker threw the Gryffindor Seeker into the walls.
"You're a barbarian," Teddy laughed.
"You're the barbarian."
"You ought to come down for a day or so during Christmas break, Teddy," Marcus said brightly as the train was pulling into King's Cross Station. "My grandparents would think you're so wonderful..."
"Yeah," Teddy started to say, when he spotted his grandmother waiting on the platform. "Oh, no, I'm at Willow Hollow for Christmas this year, that's right. Easter, then. I'm in Cheswick for Easter."
"What?" Jesse asked.
"Harry and my grandmother split custody," Teddy explained, grabbing the seat ledge as the train ground to a stop. "I'm with Grandmum for Christmas and July this year." He frowned momentarily, counting out holidays. "Yeah, Christmas and July."
"Don't you get used to it?" Jesse asked. "I mean, if they've split custody..."
"I expect I will," Teddy said, "but it's the first year they've actually done it, so I'm still a little confused. Before that, I've always lived with Harry and Ginny."
"Happy Christmas, Teddy darling, it's good to have you back again!" Andromeda said, hugging her grandson tightly. "How was your first term?"
"Grandmum..." Teddy muttered as he quickly returned the hug and then wriggled out of her grasp before she could kiss him.
"Oh, I forgot, we're in public," Andromeda laughed, ruffling his red hair affectionately. "It's not cool to be kissed in public. Come on, then."
"So tell me about your classmates," Andromeda prompted at dinner. "Who's in Gryffindor with you?"
"Well, there's eight of us, four boys, four girls."
"Anybody I would know? Or at least whose parents or grandparents I would know?"
"I don't think so."
"Well, what's the family names?" Andromeda slid into her chair. "Trust me, darling, I grew up with Blacks, I know all the wizarding world's families."
"Jesse's Muggleborn, so definitely don't know him. Um, Marcus' parents were both Muggleborn, Dylan is the name."
"Nope, don't recognize it. Your mum probably knew them, they were likely around her age."
"Wanlosky is the other boy, Kryton."
"Name sounds vaguely familiar, might've been starting Hogwarts when I finished."
"The girls are Aberdeen, Andrysiak, Hallows and Tierney."
"I had a Ravenclaw boy in my year who was a Hallows. One in Hufflepuff one year below was an Aberdeen. And I went out once with a Gryffindor named Andrysiak. This is all before I discovered your grandfather existed, of course..."
Teddy yawned as he crawled into bed. It still seemed so unfamiliar, so strange to be going to sleep here, in the quiet without the sounds of Harry and Ginny talking below, without the sounds of Jay tossing and turning in the room next to him and the sounds of Al kicking the bars of his bed in his sleep and the sounds of Lee whining from her room...
He wondered if Jay and Al had put up a fuss when they realized that he wasn't going to be there for Christmas.