Chapter 26: Chloe's Letter

When Teddy entered Neville's office the following evening, he was surprised to find the man leaning over (and speaking into) a small stone basin. Not noticing him, Teddy quietly made his way over to the desk to get a better look.

It was a curious object, about a foot wide and a foot deep. Curious not just because it seemed to resemble a curved, stone square; but also because of the relief pattern cut into the stone face. Scenes of spear wielding Merpeople rushing towards a fierce looking squid became a gathering of Mmerpeople, holding the end of a rope and swimming around a large pole which became a great of feast under the sea.

But more curious to Teddy, when he tip-toed closer and was able to look down into what looked like boiling water (but it couldn't be) was seeing Harry Potter's face engaged in conversation with Neville. He didn't appear to be underwater, or at least he didn't seem concerned that the water might be boiling, or, that people normally needed to breath underwater; but, when Harry did speak, the noise began as a burst of tiny bubbles that shot upwards and then popped at the surface, becoming, in a strangely disconnected way, a conversation stitched together through all its component parts.

Harry noticed Teddy first."Greetings from the lands beyond!" he said, his voice sounding even more distant and distorted then Teddy had remembered.

"The land's beyond?" Neville chuckled. "What was it the first time you contacted me?"

Harry grinned. "Greetings from the bottom of the lake."

"So you're not under the lake?" Teddy asked.

Harry's laugh came across as a percussive burst of bubble pops.

No he wasn't under the lake. Nor was he under the ocean or anything exciting like that. Apparently, he was leaning into the bath tub in the Potter mansion. Harry had tried to explain the process to him but it seemed needlessly complicated. Neville's "Underwater Floo" being a much simpler way to describe it.

Teddy took the slightly awkward seat on one of the corners of the desk where he could both see Harry-in-the-basin and his Head of House. Meanwhile, Neville had unfurled the scroll containing the previous evening's transcript and was reading it out loud.

The two adults reacted largely how Teddy had expected (Neville had indeed snorted when Teddy described the boring, Herbology-related detentions that he had served, Harry had chaffed at the line of Seavelle's questioning) but their take away was different than he would guessed.

"I can't believe there wasn't a single mention of the St. Mungo's activities," Neville muttered.

Harry and Neville had taken to referring to the deposited muggles at the hospital in this way.

"I know," agreed Harry. "I mean you got to think that she's linked Babbit in with those occurrences right?"

"I would think so. If we know about his past, and clearly she's got some idea about it, then you would think that she would be connecting the dots."

Teddy remained silent as the two adults discussed their theories on Seavelle and Babbit. It was fascinating hearing them mull through these ideas if only because this was the first time that year that either had been open in front of him. He worried that if he were to offer his opinion, they would realize that he was in fact there and send him on his way.

Neville sighed. "Babbit though..."

Harry nodded. "I know."

Neither spoke for awhile. Finally Harry shook his head. "Alright, let's go through it again. Teddy, you read this time."

Teddy only ended up serving two more nights of detentions ("Really just two detentions in all" Neville reminded him at the end of his punishment). It wasn't all that much of a relief as he went from detention nights to rejoining the rest of his friends in endless study sessions.

When had it happened? When had everyone he associated with become so concerned with exams and grades? Kai and the Ravenclaws he could expect. Dewey (from his association with Eloise) he could expect. But Kaitlin and Clippy spending hours of silence with them in the library? He hadn't asked them to—hadn't even known they would be there. But there they were, Suchin too (he wasn't as much of a surprise), along with Mercy and Sung Hee, Albus and Colin, April and Julie, and even some of the Punkers.

"Well, either you're studying or you're in a noisy Common room" Dewey said as way of explanation that next night in the library. "It makes sense that everyone is turning to the library."

Kai and the Ravenclaws didn't share the same casual acceptance of the Hufflepuff though. They tended to look up irritably when people were chatting in the library, staring at the noise offenders until they eventually noticed, sheepishly smiled and quieted down (for a few minutes at least).

Teddy wasn't overly concerned with the exams. He felt like he was more prepared now than he had been at any point in the previous year, and he had a whole week left to revise anyway. Actually, he had the opposite problem, he was more interested in Neville and Harry's discussion of Seavelle and Babbit's discussion about other discussions connected to all sorts of strange and mysterious things. To think that Kai was worried about the six properties of the Everglow Charm, or that Leonard was trying to figure out the antidote to root vine. Those were the type of questions where answers could be easily found in books held in the school library. The more interesting things were the mysteries without any answers out there.

What had caused the rift between Seavelle's elves? Why was Babbit down in the kitchen that evening? Why did Seavelle care so much about the Philosopher's stone? Why did Harry and Neville seem so determined to link Babbit to the St. Mungo's activities?

Each of these questions were like stars that had smaller, more interesting questions orbiting them. A person could spend hours breaking down the various answers. But that was the thing, not only was he forbidden from discussing these things with his friends, but he actually had a very smart alternative to pursue. There was now, at any free moment of his day, a book in front of his face for him to read.

So he did. To the best of his abilities anyway. And the days slowly ticked by. He revised with his friends, he revised by himself. He spent an evening with Professor Curr and a few kids from his Transfiguration class. Halfway through, Curr broke the study session into two small groups, leading one himself and asking Teddy to lead the other one. Another night he met with Violet and Stephen White in the library. Any angry or hurt feelings were absent for three solid hours where they talked nothing but of Potion's ingredients, processes, complications, and antidotes.

The weekend came and nothing changed. Saturday morning, he and his friends went right from the Great Hall to the library. The only bright spot of what would surely be a tedious day of studying was that he had received his first letter in quite a while at breakfast. His heart had skipped a beat upon seeing the owl carrying the unmistakably over-stamped white envelope of Chloe.

He hadn't wanted to open it in front of everyone at the table. So he waited till he was in the library, till everyone had their books open and were absorbed in the material. He made an excuse that he needed to find some books and found a secluded corner of the library. With trembling hands he ripped open the letter. It was longer than her others, so he slumped down on the floor and read.

Dear Teddy,

So much has happened recently. Firstly though, I'm fine. Well not fine exactly, but I'm ok. I'm much better than I was around this time last year (although that probably isn't exactly reassuring to someone like you) but things have finally returned to normal.

The next time you speak with your godfather, make sure you tell him thank you for me. He was the most calming and reassuring person that I could have hoped for in that hospital. He was there every day for those weeks that I was there, even after I was declared stable but they were keeping me for observation.

"What?" he said to the letter. She was there for weeks? Hadn't his family mentioned that it was just a day or two with the people there?

I mean I understand that he wasn't there just for me. That I was a witness—or at least that's how they classified me. How can one be a witness when they don't remember days before or after the actual incident though? But anyway, obviously being a witness in a murder investigation would bring someone like Harry Potter around each day.

"What?" he said out loud for the second time in a minute. She was part of the murder investigation?

But I got the feeling that even if I wasn't in that position, that he would have visited, so please thank him. It's funny, I was pretty sure that I was going to make a trip to Hogwarts before the year was over. That I was going to surprise you one day, showing up in my old uniform, with my old wand and my new books, and tell you that I was going to be a Gryffindor again.

"What?" Teddy whispered to the letter.

I had been studying all year. I studied every subject, even the ones that I used to think were dumb , like Astronomy. Weirdly, that was the only one that I could really do anything with. Muggles and Wizards can guess at the stars equally. All of the other subjects though, well, mastering the hand movements and carefully enunciating words won't do you any good if you don't have a magical core.

"You're lucky," Teddy said. "Had you been able to perform any magic, you would have gotten in trouble with the ministry."

That was the hardest part about waking up in that hospital again. Not the loss of a week of my life. Not the knowledge that some creep (or maybe some creeps, no one seems to know) might have done things to my mind and body. No, the worst part was that all year long I had been holding out hope that magic was like a muscle. That if I focused on the right parts of myself, and I practiced hard enough, that eventually I would start to grow the tiny, damaged bits of magic still within me. After thinking about it for weeks and weeks, I convinced myself that all I needed was time and effort.

But when I woke up in the hospital, the first thing I was told was that my magical core was indeed gone. That I was indistinguishable from the other Muggles that had been dropped off. They had run tests when I was asleep—they had my file and found out that at one point in time I had magic—so they ran all sorts of tests. Every single one confirmed it. I am 100% squib.

So that was very difficult to hear. I felt like such an idiot. And I might have just asked one of the mediwitches there to wipe my memory clean—it had been wiped apparently a number of times this year so what was once more?

"What," Teddy whispered once more.

But then your godfather showed up and talked with me. He told me about some of the stuff you and everyone have gotten into this year (and I bet he only knows the half of it). Sometime around then I decided that I wanted my mind as is. Which explains why you are getting this letter.

I hope to see you and your family sometime this summer. I have a feeling I will be talking with the Aurors anyway. Let me know when it would be a good time for this. Also, I know this letter has been all about me, but as I've said before, watch out Teddy. There is something going on out there. I have no idea what, but whoever it is, they are dangerous and they have not yet been caught. Be smart.

Love,

Chloe.

Tears welled up in Teddy's eyes as he folded the letter and placed in back into his pocket. Suddenly, the prospect of studying seemed even more absurd. He needed to go speak with Harry right away.

He strode over to the table to collect his stuff. A few of his friends glanced at him with concerned looks.

"You ok?" Dewey asked.

He nodded quickly, swinging his book bag over his shoulder and hurried out of the room.

It took him a few seconds, as he hurried away from the library, to realize that he had no idea how he was going to speak to Harry. He had taken for granted the notion that Harry was a person that would be found whenever he was needed. He was always showing up in that way, wasn't he?

He tried the practical map, and searched Neville Longbottom's office to see if the professor was there. He wasn't, and he wasn't in his quarters, in his classroom, the teacher's lounge, or even in their common room.

Once again, he was painfully aware of being unable to perform the spell that would offer a straightforward solution to this situation. How many times had he seen a professor or a family member send a patronus message to another? If could just flick his wand and create his own bright animal to search out Neville, perhaps the lump in his throat would go and his heart would stop yammering away.

This was a useless way of thinking though and shaking his head rapidly seemed to throw the idea right away. He knew of one other way for him to contact his godfather; although it was by no means a comfortable task. Perhaps he had known ever since reading the letter that he would be doing it though, because before he even knew for certain where he was going, he stopped in front of a door flanked by a pair of gargoyles. He rapped his fist against the door twice and waited for the headmistress to let him in.

It had been a few months since Teddy had last been in Llewleyn's office. Very little had changed, her desk was still covered by mounds of paperwork, newspapers, and file folders. He noticed that a decanter of liquid and two empty glasses were placed along the windowsill.

"Mr. Lupin?" the headmistress asked him by way of greeting.

"Hello Headmistress."

He was surprised to find the headmistress not wearing her customary school robes, but rather, to be in a thick gray sweater and dark corduroy pants. For the first time since knowing her, she had her long brown hair loose from its tight bun. She looked very much like one of his Gran's friends stopping by for tea and biscuits.

"Is everything alright?" she asked him. "This is the first time this year that I have seen you in my office."

Teddy almost corrected her on this, but then realized that the last time he was in this office, the headmistress had believed he was a house elf.

"I'm fine ma'am; however, something very important has just come up, and I need to reach Harry Potter right away."

Llewellyn didn't seem surprised by this request. She nodded in a conversational way. "And you are certain that he would agree that this warrants me contacting him?"

Teddy wasn't certain of this but he nodded anyway.

"Very well," she said.

On one corner of her desk, she had a small golden lamp (which very much resembled the type in the Aladdin legend) which she opened up and extracted a handful of floo powder. She crossed the room and knelt next to the fireplace, and threw the powder into the tidy fire. It burst into a large green blaze, to which she leaned her head forward and shouted, "Potter Mansion."

There was a fairly long wait, while the headmistress was perched in the fireplace. Teddy wasn't sure if he should make conversation or not. Thankfully, Ginny Potter's voice eventually responded.

"I'm sorry Maire, but Harry's on work business."

Llewellyn glanced back in Teddy's direction, a look of regret on her face.

"Teddy?" said Ginny. "Is everything alright?"

Teddy started to nod, and merely tell her that he had some questions for Harry, but wasn't sure of any that would be smart to bring up in front of the headmistress. Instead, to his immense surprise, he began recounting everything that Chloe had said in her letter.

"And she had her memory wiped multiple times. Harry didn't tell me that," he said, unable to keep the bitterness out of his voice. "She was trying to develop her magical abilities so she could come back here."

The two adults shared a long look before Ginny sighed. "I'm so sorry to hear that Teddy," she said. "I had no idea that she was holding out hope for something like that."

Llewelyn hurried over to her desk and searched through her piles of folders. She extracted a daily prophet article out and began to read.

"Maple Kattentail, 84 year old squib from Ottery St Catchpole, shocked her neighbors this week when she performed a lumos spell from her dinner ladel. Two healers from St. Mungo's were able to confirm that Kattentail was able to repeat the spell at will (this time with a real wand). Kattentail is only the third wizard in the past century to show signs of magic after being declared a squib."

Llewelyn put the paper down and smiled. "Never give up hope."

Lunch that afternoon felt very strange. The Great Hall was as full as ever, but it was as quiet as the library. All along the house tables, students were holding books in front of their faces with one hand, their other hands unconsciously picking bits of food off their plate and stuffing it in their mouths. Those that were studying with others, kept their voices low. Even the teachers at the main table were keeping their conversations unnaturally low; as if they were worried they might distract their focused students.

Teddy also had a book in front of his face but he couldn't concentrate enough to get from one sentence to the next. He had reread the letter after leaving the headmistresses office. He was struck by just how big of a story that letter contained. The Prophet had offered quite a different account of the bodies deposited at St. Mungo's. Did they not know that Chloe (and possibly others) had a week's worth of memories wiped? How could they not know how long she had been there? How could they have missed that one of the bodies that showed up was dead? Were the Auror's pressuring them to keep the stories quiet? Chloe's letter hadn't weighed in on any of these matters. If anything, she seemed indebted to the Auror's involvement in her stay.

He thought about her plans to re-enroll in the school. It was the saddest aspect of the letter of course, but it also seemed to confirm her Gryffindorness. He also thought about the article that the headmistress had read for them. Was magic the sort of thing that a person really could will back into their lives? Maybe if she kept reading the right materials, figuring out the right wand movement, and connecting the right theories in her mind, maybe she could be the fourth ex-squib in their world?

He glanced up at the staff table to find his Head of House but instead found Dr. Babbit staring in his direction. Unlike his previous glances where he felt like Babbit was searching inside Teddy's mind, this time the Professor seemed unusually confused. He wouldn't have been surprised if Babbit mouthed, "Is it just me or is something very odd going on."

If he did say that, then Teddy would have nodded. But he didn't say anything, rather he looked at Teddy for a moment more and then turned away.

Suddenly, the silence of the room seemed oppressive. Teddy put down his half eaten sandwich and got up from the table. Everyone around him was so absorbed with their books and conversations that no one noticed him leave. No sooner had he left the Great Hall though, then a hand reached out and grabbed his arm.

He turned to find a very determined looking Violet.

"I need your help, but I need to know that you won't tell anyone. Especially you're Godfather or your family."

"What?" Teddy asked.

She grabbed one of his hands and started walking quickly down the stairs towards the dungeons. Once again he marveled at her ability to move as rapidly as she did with such short legs. At the Fainting Room entrance she got on her tippy toes to reach the torch and open the door. Once they were inside she repeated herself.

"I need your help, but you can't speak to Harry, Ron, Hermoine, Ginny or anyone else."

When he didn't answer her right away, she closed her eyes and took a calming breath.

"Teddy, I know it puts you in a difficult spot but please just give my your word that I can speak with you about something that for the time being needs to be between us."

"Ok," he said quietly.

"I've finally figured it out. Rowley and Bothers, the map, her missing meals, Fernius and Babbit."

"Fernius and Babbit?" Teddy asked.

Violet slapped her forehead. "Merlin—I forgot that I hadn't told you about that. We haven't talked much lately."

"We haven't talked much this whole year."

She bit her lip guiltily, which made him feel guilty for saying it (even if it were true).

"Madame's ill," Violet whispered. "Very ill. There is a room in the back of the infirmary that she head's off to at meals. I'm not sure if it's unplottable or if it's connected to the school like the Shrieking Shack."

"How do you know about this?" Teddy asked.

"Rowley confirmed it. I finally got a chance to speak with him last night and he was able to show me the room."

"And the map?" Teddy asked.

"I'll get to that—anyway she's been going to this room more and more. Apparently she's been sleeping there and eating there, and even teaching from there."

"Teaching?"

Violet nodded sadly. "She's on all of these potions and some of them cause her to forget where she is, or to put her mind into a different time and place."

An image of Seavelle, bent over an empty table and dropping imaginary ingredients into nothing filled Teddy's mind.

"Rowley had seen her do this a few times and wanted to help her, but none of her other elves thought it was a good idea. I think he asked you and I to help so that we would figure it out on our own and get another professor to check into her medications."

"Oh," Teddy said quietly.

"I know," Violet said. "When we didn't, he went and swapped out some of the potions himself with a few pain reducing potions. The other house elves found out and they came very close to dueling amongst themselves. Fortunately Babbit of all people intervened."

"When was this?" Teddy asked, although he was pretty certain of the answer.

"A few weeks ago," Violet replied. "I'm not sure exactly when. Anyway he and Fernius got into a screaming match in Madame's quarters the next night. They had their wands out when Madame came in, confronted them, and found out about the whole mess."

"She didn't know?" Teddy asked.

"She didn't know that the house elves were close to killing one another, and she didn't know, until Babbit told her, that the medicines she was experimenting with were extremely dangerous."

Violet waited for a moment while Teddy processed all of this. "Ok," he said, "so what did she do?"

"That's the thing, I spoke to Rowley (who was watching this entire exchange along with the other house elves) and the three talked for hours that evening about Madame's illness. About what potions she was taking for what symptoms, and how when that started to not work, what new potions she started to take. Babbit's apparently got a brilliant potions mind."

Violet said this last statement very reluctantly.

"But none of them could come up with any ideas. All they could agree on was that she couldn't take the same combination of potions as before."

"And what about the map?" Teddy repeated.

She took a deep breath. "Ok…" She paused and then started again, "Ok, so I know this is going to sound crazy, but Rowley swore that he's seen her walk through a wall."

"Walk through a wall?" Teddy repeated. "Like a ghost."

Violet scrunched up her face, "I know. I know it sounds crazy. But Rowley says that he and the other elves have seen her walk through the walls in her quarters."

"But she's not a ghost," Teddy said slowly. "She lifts books up, she eats things- I've shaken her hand."

"I know," Violet said. "I know, it's the only part of the story that doesn't sound right. Rowley said it started after she was taking all those potions, but I know that it doesn't make any sense."

Suddenly it felt like this entire story relied too heavily on a house-elf's fantastic account. Violet must have sensed this because she quickly changed the subject.

"That's not that important though. The key thing is I finally realized why she's so obsessed with the Philosopher's Stone."

"Really?" Teddy said, his heart leaping a bit.

"I was wondering about it all year. I mean she kept harassing you about it at her dinners. She's always reading Transfiguration books during our Potion's classes. She had that debate in front of the whole school which was about nothing but that stone."

Teddy nodded. "She does seem obsessed with it."

"She's desperate," Violet said quietly. "She admitted to Fernius that night after Babbit left. She had spent all year researching her illness. There isn't a cure. The only thing that will prolong her life is to use the stone."

Teddy frowned. "But it's been destroyed."

Violet nodded, excited it seemed to finally be at the root of the matter. "The stone was, but not the work."

"Flamel's work," Teddy whispered, as he remembered Hermione's words.

"She is convinced that a few of the early trial stones along with a great deal of his notes exist."

"How do you know?"

"Because I confronted her."

"You what?" cried Teddy.

"Rowley had told me everything this morning, and I was sick of just watching from the sidelines. I went to her quarters before breakfast, her elves woke her up, and we talked for quite awhile."

"She admitted to you about her illness."

Violet nodded, her expression becoming very serious. "And about the stone. I'm the only person that she told this to. One of the few people that she can trust."

Teddy was impressed but also hadn't forgotten Violet's earlier request.

"You know what she said?" Violet asked. "She said, 'If anyone else talked to me the way your cousin does, I would personally make sure that they would never step forth into this school again.'"

"What?" Teddy muttered.

"She said, your cousin isn't always correct with his hunches, but that he is the most honorable person she had ever met."

Violet watched him for a moment before continuing.

"Besides trusting me to get Flamel's work, she said that she trusts you."

This meant sneaking out of the castle, off the castle grounds. It meant big trouble and the two knew it.

Finally he nodded. "We need to plan this through."

"I did."