Chapter 15

- Love Can Break Even the Strongest of Chains -

It had taken a full hour to calm Arkie down and stop her from screaming out in anger and fury during Charms. Teddy had yet to tell the others about his new living space but he had promised not to keep things from Arkie, and he was determined to keep that promise.

"Why doesn't she just expel me instead?" Teddy asked as they walked into the Great Hall for dinner. Arkie followed him, abandoning the Hufflepuff table, where her friends were giving her strange looks. Everyone seemed to shuffle out of the way whenever Teddy passed by, but they always shot his sorry glances. He understood why. They trusted him, but were afraid of the consequences of rebelling against the High Inquisitor. His friends, not so much.

"Maybe Dumbledore has something to do with it?" Arkie thought aloud, taking a seat right by his side. At that exact moment, an owl flew down towards them dropping a large roll of the Daily Prophet. Arkie quickly grabbed it and dove into the pages. She gave an understanding oh.

"What?"

"Apparently the Werewolves have begun to threaten the Ministry."

"Guess Dad's mission isn't going well..." He said, cutting into his egg. As usual, before the full moon, Teddy was starving and had pilled his plate full of food.

"They're probably trying to clear the tension, hence why they haven't expelled you yet... besides you haven't done anything worth expelling you for... have you?"

"Not that I can remember." He said, scratching his head.

"Well remember quickly. Umbridge might plan to use them against you." She set down the newspaper. "Why don't you send an owl to your dad, or Padfoot, or the whole Order even? I'm sure they'd want to here about this."

"Because, Umbridge is watching all the mail coming in and out of Hogwarts. I can't risk it."

"Barbaric!" Hermione huffed, sitting on the other side of Teddy, Ron and Harry right behind her. "Umbridge has taken it too far." Teddy looked around. Everything had seemed to go back to normal, everyone kept their distance from him, except his friends of course. "I mean, honestly, you've done nothing to hurt anyone, ever!." Instead of responding he took another bite of his breakfast.

"Merlin's beard..." Arkie was staring at the front page of the Daily Prophet again, on it was a large black and white picture of a screaming woman with tangled black hair, dressed in prison clothing. "Mass prison breakout," she read. "Fudge suspects culprit behind devastating escape."

"Well, let's hear it then." Teddy said, finally putting down his cutlery.

She straightened out the paper. "Down in the Ministry of Magic Fudge was surrounded by reporters all asking the same question, blah, blah, blah- ah, here we go. Fudge had this to say 'We have confirmed that 10 high-security prisoners in the early hours of yesterday evening did escape. And of course, the Muggle prime minister has been alerted to the danger. We strongly suspect that the breakout was engineered by a man with personal experience in escaping from Azkaban."

"Wait for it." Teddy said dramatically.

"Notorious mass murderer Sirius Black."

"Knew it!"

"Cousin of escapee Bellatrix Lestrange."

Ron swallowed his sausage. "I didn't know that, isn't she the one who used the Cruciatus curse on the Longbottom's?"

"Dumbledore warned Fudge this could happen." Hermione sighed. "He's gonna get us all killed just because he can't face the truth."

"Harry." They all spun around in their seats. Seamus was standing behind them, looking a little awkward. "I wanted to apologize." Teddy glanced at Harry but couldn't read his face. "Now even me mum says the Prophet's version of things don't add up." Seamus continued. "So... what I'm really trying to say is that I believe you."

Teddy glanced at the other students watching, each one of them nodded in agreement.

With all his strength, Teddy forced himself to remain calm and expressionless as he walked down into his new room. Cry, moping and giving up was exactly the react Umbridge would want and he wasn't about to give it to her. While he waited for Filch to come a lock his cell door he put all his belongings in the corner, spread out the thick rug and pillow Arkie had given him, in exchange he had given her the Marauders Map for safe keeping, as well as the food he was able to nip from the Great Hall.

He stared numbly down at the chains before hearing footsteps behind him. "Is all this really necessary?" He turned around, hiding how powerless and lonely he felt.

"High Inquisitors orders." He growled taking a step forward.

"I got it." Teddy spat, bending down and chaining his arms and neck to the wall. Filch snicked, slammed the door shut before locking it and hanging the key on a hook, just out of his reach, as if trying to tease him. Teddy rolled his eyes to hide the tears and faced the opposite direction to the door. He heard the sound of Filch's footsteps growing faint.

The transformation had been painful and uncomfortable. It was difficult to change when he was tethered to wall in heavy chains that dug into his wrists and neck. Despite his growth spurt as a human, Werewolf Teddy was still smaller than the average Werewolf.

He closed his eyes, lying on the rug. Every full moon he would always feel what he called the 'call of the wild', the sensation had become stronger ever since his father and him had spent the full moon together in the Dark Forest during his third year. Now the 'call of the wild' was the strongest it'd ever been. Every muscle inside him told him to fight against his restraints, he knew he could, but that would be playing right into Umbridge's hands.

So he curled up against the wall, not even looking at the food he'd prepared for himself. Suddenly his wolf ears flick up, he heard movement and couldn't stop himself from looking up in surprise. Arkie was walking down the staircase, holding the Marauders Map steadily. Her eyes widened and she rushed over to the bars of his cell. "Teddy!" She said in a half-whisper.

Werewolf Teddy wanted to respond but all he could muster was a small, surprised whimper. "Hold on." She said, trying to open the door. "Where are the keys?" He lifted his head sniffing in the direction of the keys, hanging from the small hook. She ran over to them, fiddling to find the right one and then pushing open the door which gave a loud creak. She paused, listening to hear if anyone was coming, then she ran over to him stopping only when Teddy slowly backed away. "Teddy..."

Arkie stared. She'd never seen a Werewolf in person before. They were big and very different from a normal wolf. She watched as Teddy lowered his head, ashamed by her staring. "Teddy..." She repeated, crouching down until he looked back up. His once forest green eyes were now a unnatural yellow that glowed in the dark atmosphere. But she saw through the animal eyes and could see behind them the same kind and loyal boy she'd loved so dearly.

Without hesitation she sat down, edging closer to him until he could no longer back away from her. She sat there, showing no signs of leaving. Back in Grimmauld Place, Teddy had refused her to visit him during his transformations. Arkie looked down at the chains on his wrists and neck. Slowly she lifted the keys and slotted them into the keyholes.

The chains fell down and Teddy sniffed them, hesitantly watching her again.

Her eyes never left his. She could see him chest rise and fall quickly as she raised her hand. "I'm not going to hurt you... it's just me, Teddy." She whispered. He shifted slightly forward and her hand met his cheek. He leaned into it, closing his eyes and letting out a small relaxed whimper. She rest her other hand on his chest, feeling the pounding of his heart. It was Teddy's heartbeat, so different from anyone's she'd ever met.

"I'm here... I'm not going anywhere..." She moved even closed to him, until she was leaning against his chest. Teddy looked up, his eyes half closed. Arkie pulled his paw so it was resting on her lap and put her ear to his chest to hear his steady heartbeat. His warmth was enough to keep the cold away and as she closed her arms she felt just as comfortable sleeping beside him as a Werewolf as she would if he was human. "I'm here..."