Chapter 17

- Goodbye Hogwarts -

Teddy and Harry were both shoved into Dumbledore's office by Percy Weasley. Teddy couldn't help but glare at him, but the Weasley didn't meet his eyes. Umbridge followed them inside, chatting so quickly to Fudge it was like she was afraid if she didn't talk quick enough he would stop listening. Behind them were two wizards, one of which Teddy recognised as Kingsley Shacklebolt, part of the Order and uncover in the Ministry. The three of them didn't make eye contact, acting as if they'd never seen him in their lives.

"Been watching them for weeks." Umbridge blurted. "And see, 'Dumbledore's Army'." Teddy looked down at the list of names of all the members of 'Dumbledore's Army', with Teddy and Harry's names at the top. "Proof of what I've been telling you right from the beginning, Cornelius!" She turned to Dumbledore, shivering with excitement and pride. "All your fear-mongering about You-Know-Who never fooled us for a minute. We saw your lies for what they were: A smokescreen for your bid to seize control of the Ministry."

"Naturally." Dumbledore said, leaning against his desk, sarcasm hinted in his tone of voice, yet neither the Minster nor Umbridge seemed to notice.

"No, professor. He had nothing to do with it. He didn't even know about it-" Teddy said in defense, taking a step forward but Percy pulled him back by the collar of his robes.

"It was me, I helped to form it, I was the one teaching the students."

"Most noble of you boys to shield me," Dumbledore said kindly, Fawkes, his Phoenix squawked, cleaning his feathers and watching the conversation below. "But as has been pointed out the parchment clearly says 'Dumbledore's Army,' not 'Potter's' or 'Lupin's'." His wise eyes shifted back to the Minister and High Inquisitor who were edging closer and closer to him ever so slowly. "I instructed Harry and Teddy to form this organization. And I, and I alone, am responsible for its activities."

"No." Teddy hated how Dumbledore was taking the blame for his actions.

"Dispatch an owl to the Daily Prophet." Fudge ordered. "If we hurry, we should still make the morning edition. Dawlish, Shacklebolt," he motioned to the two wizards behind, all four of them were edging towards the Headmaster like a pack of hungry wolves. "You will escort Dumbledore to Azkaban, to await trial for conspiracy and sedition."

Dumbledore gave a small smile and walked behind him desk. "I thought we might hit this little snag. You seem to be laboring under the delusion that I'm going to... What was the phrase? Come quietly." Wands were now pointing in his direction but he barely seemed to notice. "Well, I can tell you this. I have no intention of going to Azkaban."

"Enough of this." Umbridge spat. "Take him." Her voice went incredibly high and her dark eyes were wild. Dumbledore shot Harry and Teddy a quick wink and there was a loud cry, as Fawkes flew down from his perch and hovered about Dumbledore in glorious ball of flame and feathers. Dumbledore held his hands up and once they touched the Phoenix, both of them disappeared with a bang!

The wizards were all knocked over from the force and once they stood up, they stared around the room. But Dumbledore was gone. Kingsley was panting and gave an impressed sigh. "Well, you may not like him, minister... but you can't deny... Dumbledore has got style."

Teddy failed in stopping his lip from curling upwards and Umbridge narrowed her eyes at him in revulsion.

"Boys and girls are not permitted to be within eight inches of each other..."

"Those wishing to join the Inquisitorial Squad for extra credit..."

"Students will be submitted to questioning about suspected illicit activities..."

"Any student in noncompliance will be expelled..."

Umbridge, the new Headmistress' of Hogwarts', voice echoed through the corridors as students walked miserably to classes. Hundreds of them, especially those who'd been part of Dumbledore's Army, had thick bandages wrapped around their hands. None of them spoke or even glanced at each other. The once magical and unique school had been turned into a dull, quiet prison.

Teddy had never seen so many sad faces in his life and felt sorry for all the students as he lifted the last of his luggage up the stairs from the dungeon and carried them towards the entrance of the school. His hand ached after his latest, and hopefully last, punishment from Professor Umbridge. Instead of the long sentences he'd had to write before, only one word decorated his scarred hand. 'Half-breed'.

He wondered if the scars would ever faded, or would his hand permanently be marked by the word?

"You weren't planning on leaving without saying goodbye were you?" He turned around. Arkie was walking from the front door towards him. She gave him a small, sad smile. "It's not fair... it's not fair she expelled you and not any of us."

Teddy put down his belongings and touched his hand to Arkie's face, which she leaned into, taking a slow calming breath at his touch. "I think we all knew this would happened eventually, it was only a matter of time."

"What about your OWLs?"

"There are more important things than an exams..." He kissed her softly on the lips, feeling her lean forward for more, yet he stepped away. He couldn't stay. "Just, don't tell Hermione I said that." He joked, tried to lighten the mood but she just nodded silently.

"Are you going back to the Order?"

"Yeah, I'll be staying there with Sirius, hopefully Dad will be able to drop in occasionally."

"I'm going to miss you."

He put his arms around her, staring up at the grey sky. "I will to. I just... I can't believe there's no safe way I can hear from you."

Arkie straightened and her hand dug into her robe pocket. "Actually... I wanted to give this back to you." She pulled out a familiar blank sheet of parchment.

"The Marauders Map."

"So, if you ever need to see me." She offered it to him and he gently took it.

"Thank you."

There was a cough from the school entrance and Teddy looked at the crowd of students watching them. Harry, Ron and Hermione stood at the front, behind them was Fred, George, Neville, Luna, Seamus, Dean and even Hagrid. They all smiled warmly, but Teddy could see the sadness in their eyes. "We came to see yeh off." Hagrid said.

"Aw, thanks guys." He said, wiping a tear from his eye. "I'm sorry I can't stay, and I'm sorry you have to stay in this awful place."

"We'll be fine, see you in the holidays?"

"Yeah, I'll see you all then."

Grunting slightly from the weight of his things, Teddy walked down to the train station. The empty train waited patiently for him, yet he stopped to take one last look up at the school. For a second he could almost imagine that everything was back to normal and he was simply going on an early vacation, but the minute he sat down in his empty compartment and watched the school grow smaller and smaller in the distance, he could ignore the feeling of loss in the pit of his stomach.

It'd crossed his mind that he might never get to walk through the halls of Hogwarts ever again...