I apologize for the long wait, my computer has been out of order, and it's taken ages to get up and running again. As you might have noticed, the lay-out of this story has been altered slightly, we now have a PART ONE, and PART TWO beginning at chapter fourteen, and a title for PART TWO, being the title for the story of Teddy's first year at Hogwarts. Notice how Teddy Lupin and the Secret of Merlin's Gallery might coincide with this chapter's title... just a tip! Please remember to REVIEW, part of the reason for the delay in this chapter was that once I got my computer working again, I'd lost most of what I'd written of this chapter, as well as the motivation to rework it.
That Monday night revealed Teddy, brown hair smooth like Trey and dressed in jeans and a red and gray striped t-shirt, though with his cloak still on to guard against the cool breeze as the sun seemed to be setting earlier that evening, sitting cross-legged on the soft grass of the Quidditch pitch, waiting for Trey.
Around five forty, he came hurrying into the pitch, also wearing jeans, a navy t-shirt and Gryffindor Team cloak. He carried the heavy wooden box of balls under one arm and two broomsticks in another- one a sleek mahogany Nimbus 11000, the other a tarnished Cleansweep 7, the latter of which he handed to Teddy.
Teddy wrinkled his nose slightly, and Trey said with a grin, "I know, but it was the best Madam Spinnet had on her. She said it was her old broom, from when she was at Hogwarts, or something. And sorry I was late, but Manchester caught me coming down and thought she'd give me a ten minute reminder about my prefect patrol schedule."
"She's head of Gryffindor house, right?" Teddy asked.
"Yeah," Trey replied. "Right, so, down to business. You know how to play and all that, right?"
"Yep," Teddy replied easily.
"So today I just want us to chase around a bit and see how you are with the quaffle, alright?"
"Cool!" Teddy replied, bouncing up. Trey grinned as Teddy mounted the broom like a pro, launching himself high into the sky and feeling the cool air rush past him.
"Here!" Trey called, tossing the ball at him, and Teddy caught it with ease, tucked it under his arm, and whizzed off down the pitch with it.
Moments later, he heard a whistling sound not far behind him and he swerved and rolled, ducking the bludger.
"A bit of warning, next time?" he suggested to Trey, rounding about on the broom to face him.
"That's not what it's about," Trey called back, laughing as Teddy hear it coming up behind him again and ducked just in time, his head sinking below the level of the broom.
"Excellent job, though, you can really hear them! Go score a few goals, I'll be keeper!"
Trey mounted his broom, and Teddy followed instructions.
As he made his third goal past the other boy, he asked, "Do you think they'll let me be on the team?"
"Not this year," Trey replied, snagging his next attempt by the tips of his fingers, "But I bet you'll make it next year. First years haven't been on the team since-,"
"Since Harry," Teddy replied. "I really want to be on it next year, though."
"Well, I bet you will be, mate. With any luck, I'll be your captain." Trey said.
"A whole foot of parchment?" Joshua moaned as the Gryffindors sat slumped on the floor around the fire in Gryffindor tower the following afternoon. "On werewolves?"
"Just write big," Russell advised him from behind his own textbook. "That's what I'm doing."
"I'll never know enough," Josh complained. "What's Beekman playing at, anyway? There's no werewolf section in our textbooks."
"We finished the paper yesterday," Mathew said.
"There was plenty on werewolves in the library," Aiden told them, "But it was weird. It was all in the Defense section. You'd think we'd be getting this assignment from the Defense teacher, wouldn't you?"
"From what my Uncle Percy's said of the curriculum," Teddy replied, "We're doing spells and such all year. Maybe Professor Beekman's picking up the slack."
Later, Erin asked Teddy, "Why do you keep defending him? You know why he set that essay; it's to make you miserable!"
"Harry says people like him are only ignorant," Teddy replied. "It's unfair to judge him. I don't have to like him at all, but I can't really blame him for it."
"Some people won't be ignorant for much longer, the way he keeps at it," Mathew commented drily.
The other two were forced to agree.
Midnight that night drew nearer, and Teddy found himself increasingly nervous as he watched the clock, not touching the charms assignment in front of him as he waited to once again be subjected to the apparent wrath of Professor Sylaster-Black. However, when the Gryffindors reached the top of the tower that evening, it was to find their teacher slumped at his desk, staring wistfully up at the thin slice of moon floating above their heads.
For several minutes, the group stood assembled in the dark before him, unable to say a word. But they weren't Gryffindors for nothing, Teddy supposed, and he wasn't about to fail his Astronomy class because of a teacher who didn't want to teach them.
"Professor? What should we do?" he asked, approaching the long wooden desk.
For a long moment, the man simply stared at him mournfully at him before gesturing vaguely at a stack of parchment atop his desk. "Star chart," he murmured. "Trace the constellations you know, to be handed in at the end of class. A progress chart, of sorts. Use your telescopes."
"Um… right," Teddy said, feeling rather disconcerted. Erin stepped forward, grabbed half the papers and helped him pass them out to his equally unsettled classmates.
Working with Mathew and Erin, he managed to draw lines to connect small black dots on the parchment for the remaining class period, covering the Big Dipper, Little Dipper, Orion's belt, Andromeda, and Canis Minor.
When it felt past time for class to have ended, Teddy raised his hand, and held it there, clearing his throat occasionally until Professor Sylaster- Black glanced up at him.
"Er, Professor? Can we go?"
Without even consulting his wristwatch, the professor nodded.
Teddy walked up uncertainly and placed his star chart on the Professor's desk, then turned around, packed up his telescope, and left with the others, murmuring to Mathew, "Curiouser and curiouser," which earned him some odd looks from people who had not listened to Mrs. Black read them Alice in Wonderland when they were around eight years of age.
In fact, Teddy was feeling so curious about the teacher's odd behavior that he was the first one up the stairs of the tower for classes the following Tuesday, shortly followed by a reproachful Mathew and Erin. He reached the landing, then pulled down the ladder leading to the trap door on the ceiling and clamored up loudly, nearly dropping his telescope before he pulled himself up through the gap to find that the figure staring disapprovingly down at him was not Professor Sylaster- Black at all.
"I'm Professor Sinestra," she informed him briskly. "Would you like a hand?"
"Er, I've got it," Teddy murmured, consciously aware of the tall, tan skinned woman's gaze on his turquoise hair.
He shoved his telescope into his bag and stood, staring at her.
Her name sounded familiar.
She was tall, but slim, and had a lot of greying caramel colored hair pulled back into a ponytail at the base of her neck.
"Di-didn't you retire at the end of last year?" he asked nervously, wondering if he could convert his hair to brown without being obvious about it, then deciding he shouldn't bother. Let her think what she liked. "Where's Professor Sylaster- Black?"
"Your normal teacher in this subject is indisposed. Feel free to set up your telescopes," she added to Mathew, Erin, and Katie Wood, who had joined them while she was talking.
The four did so, joined soon by Aiden and Elliot, then some of the other girls, then the rest of the Gryffindors.
Teddy discovered that when Professor Black was not teaching, Astronomy was a lot more fun, even with this oddly brisk woman. She seemed to know an enchantment to set the map of constellations she showed them to life, and as they all peered through their telescopes, the odd, silvery apparitions aligned themselves in their proper places in the sky, giving the Gryffindors a terrific view of each constellation and its placement.
"Make note of this enchantment," she instructed the class. "Outside, it only works in the absence of the moon, but in an enclosed space it is really quite magnificent."
All in all, Teddy rather enjoyed the lesson. It ran a bit longer than usual, and it was nearly one thirty in the morning by the time the group of Gryffindors headed back to Gryffindor Tower.
The corridors were dark and shadowy at this time of night, and aside from the occasional teacher patrolling, there was no one between them and their common room. Teddy was gazing at the portraits, wondering how it was that they all seemed to glow with the oddest sort of light. An enchantment of sorts, he supposed, as it kept the corridors from getting too dark at night.
One portrait was of a Sphinx, the next a group of knights in various states of undress, putting on their armor… Teddy quickly glanced away from a man he was quite certain was about to take his pants off to exchange them for armored pads, and his gaze landed on a man with a brilliant beard and moustache, as well as flowing robes. For a moment, Teddy might have mistaken him for Dumbledore, but the facial structure was quite wrong. It was Merlin, he realized. Merlin the sorcerer, Merlin of Camelot, Merlin with the spotted maroon underpants, according to Ron.
"What?" Erin asked, glancing back at him, for he'd stopped moving and was staring at the portrait.
"That… that's just a neat picture," Teddy said, tearing his eyes away.
"I suppose it is," Katie replied, glancing it over.
An urge suddenly overtook Teddy, and he turned to the others. "Let's go back to that secret passage."
"Are you mental?" Aiden asked.
"Now?" Erin said.
"What secret passage?" Katie asked.
"We found a passage the other day, while we were poking around the dungeons," Teddy replied, leaving out the part about the Slytherins.
"Really?" Katie asked, her eyes gleaming excitedly.
"I want to go down there," Teddy told them.
"Let's!" Katie exclaimed.
"It's the middle of the night!" Erin exclaimed.
"I don't mind," Mathew said thoughtfully.
"It's a bit eerie down there, though," Teddy said as they walked away from the portrait. "I don't know what I was thinking. Let's not…"
"No, I'd like to," Katie said. "A secret passage? It sounds brilliant!"
"Alright…" Aiden trailed off thoughtfully. "Actually, yeah, let's do it. I'd like to explore more."
"No, don't," Teddy told them. "It just doesn't feel right…"
"You suggested it in the first place," Katie reminded him. "Come on, you said the dungeons?"
She turned around and darted off down the passage, her pigtails flopping.
Mathew nodded and went after her excitedly, while the other three trailed after, uncertain.
As they passed the portrait of Merlin, Teddy was quite certain he winked at him.