Chapter 18

- Groping Chains -

The next few days Teddy spent hidden inside the cramped house in Grimmauld Place became very repetitive and he felt sorry for Sirius who'd been on house arrest for over a year. Everyday he'd wake up, get changed and walk down the hall to the dining room for breakfast, ignoring Kreacher who shot him dark looks whenever he passed and would constant grumble, "Half-breed scum. If my mistress knew... oh what would she do to poor old Kreacher?"

He would spend the morning with his godfather, which was actually okay because they enjoyed each others company. Sirius had a lot of fun stories to tell about his father's and their time in Hogwarts and for a few brief minutes a day, Teddy could forget about his worries. The two would then get to work, ridding the house of the strange objects and pest-like creatures that'd taken residence there, trying to make the whole place more inhabitable.

They'd spent an entire afternoon riding the upstairs curtains of Doxies, which wasn't as enjoyable as it sounded. One of the small biting fairies had nicked his ear, not very hard, but it had still hurt. Then he would go upstairs to his room and check the Marauders Map. Through his years at Hogwarts Teddy had begun to not only memorize his own timetable but Arkie's too. So he knew when and where she go during the day.

He wished with all his heart that he could be there. Every now and then he would watch Arkie line up with hundreds of other students who would, one by one, walk into Umbridge's office. His scarred hand would ball up as he guessed what they were doing. All he wanted to do was to comfort her, reassure her that he was still watching, trying to see if she was okay. But there was nothing he could do. He was expelled and officially banned from Hogwart's grounds.

After a good hour or so of staring at the map, he would join his godfather downstairs for homeschooling. Sirius wasn't an expert in many subjects and wasn't an amazing teacher like his father, but the two were able to have fun, practicing the spells Teddy had learnt in Harry's lessons and occasionally trying something new. Sirius was impressed when Teddy showed off his fully corporal Patronus. "The apple doesn't fall far from the tree." He had said, watching the silver bear before it disappeared.

"What do you mean?"

"Well your father was always a talented dueler, guess he passed that on to you."

"You mean as well as his good looks." Teddy said with a smirk to which Sirius had laughed at.

Occasionally his dad would drop by but sometimes other witches and wizards would also come to check in on them. Tonks had made a few appearances every now and then and Teddy always enjoyed her company. Along with Sirius, the two would make him laugh so hard he once accidentally snorted his glass of milk.

Mad-Eye Moody also dropped in quite frequently which Teddy had mixed feelings about.

It was always very awkward for him whenever he was forced to be in the same room as the scarred Auror. He always remembered that night in the Dark Forest the year before, of course the Moody back then had been an impostor, but still couldn't shake the memory away. He constantly tried to hide how uncomfortable he was, but nothing got past Moody.

One day, when Moody joined them for breakfast, constantly eyeing Teddy with his magical eye, he asked how his training with Sirius was going. "It's good." He'd responded.

"You learnt anything new?"

Sirius leaned back in his seat. "No, not quite. I'm afraid I'm not the best teacher."

"Don't say that, you've been great fun." Teddy said quickly and Sirius smiled but Moody grumbled.

"Sure it's all fun and games. Honestly, Sirius you must find this boy a teacher."

"Well what do you want me to do? I can't just invite a tutor here, Mad-Eye."

Moody had taken one more bite of his toast before turning around in his seat to face Teddy, who refused to make eye contact and stared down at his porridge. "I can teach him a thing or two. Let's see what you can do."

"Huh?" Teddy was confused, having only half paid attention to the conversation. "Do what?"

"Magic. Sirius has t heard from Sirius you are quite an extraordinary dueler."

"Well I wouldn't say I'm an extraordinary dueler..."

"Let me be the judge of that." He'd grunted standing up.

Soon the two were standing in one of the large rooms upstairs. Sirius was downstairs cleaning up the dining room. Moody limped over to Teddy, his metal foot landing heavily on the wooden floorboards. "Now, are you familiar with the Knockback Jinx?"

"Yes, I am."

"You can look me in the eye boy, it's rude to not look someone in the eye."

Teddy quickly looked up at Moody, but he wasn't looking at him anymore, he was staring at the empty cupboard in front of them. "Why don't you give it go?" He pointed to the cupboard. "Don't be nervous."

"Flipendo!" The cupboard was push backwards, almost falling over and scrapping the floor.

"Good. Don't flick your wand so much, quick movements." Moody said as he inspected Teddy with his electric blue eye.

"Flipendo!"

"Quicker! By now your opponent could've already disarmed you and tied you up in the corner."

Ever since that day Moody seemed to consider himself Teddy's personal Dark Arts professor. He'd set him homework and when he visited he expected to see an improvement from their last lesson. It was an understatement to describe his lessons as intense, but Teddy seemed to gain a little more respect for the Auror each day.

Despite his filterless attitude and little patience Moody was actually a decent teacher and by the end of the week Teddy had perfected the Mending Charm as well as the Full-Body Binding Curse. It became less awkward when he visited and Moody watched as boy went from not meeting his eyes, to hanging on to his every word.

"Morning." Sirius said one morning, greeting Teddy who was already dressed and preparing himself a quick snack. The Marauders Map was blank and folded up on the table.

"Morning." He replied. "Is Dad or Moody visiting today?"

"I don't know. Why do you ask?" Sirius said, walking to the fridge and pulling out a carton of orange juice.

"Just wondering, there's a Boggart in the upstairs wardrobe. I thought that maybe they'd like to take care of it."

"I can give it a go." Sirius suggested.

"Nah it's fine. My Dad's taught me how to deal with them, I'll get it."

Sirius nodded, drinking straight from the carton as Teddy took the stairs two at a time. The Boggart infested wardrobe was shaking violently and it reminded him of his first lesson with his father. He remembered watching the Boggart shift into a giant killer wasp, which was a surprise to everyone who thought it would become the full moon like it did with his father.

The story behind the wasp was actually quite a funny one, though maybe not have been funny at the time. He'd gotten back to the orphanage after his first year at Hogwarts and was unaware that a giant wasp nest had grown under his bed. By far the worst night of his entire life.

Teddy gave a determined look at the wardrobe, ready to show the big ugly wasp what he was made of. He flicked his wand and the wardrobe creaked up. He expected to hear the familiar buzzing of wasp wings but there was only silence. He took a few steps forward, peering into the black insides of the wardrobe. A low clanking noise echoed from inside, like metal on metal.

"Um... hello?" He said wearily, then screamed.

Something had reached out at him, like big heavy brown tentacles, reaching for his feet and arms. He fell back in surprise, scurrying away from the Boggart on all fours. The noise was growing louder and his heart raced as one of the cold, dirty tentacles wrapped around his ankle. That's when he realized that it wasn't really a tentacle, but a long chain, much like the ones back in Hogwart's dungeon.

He let out another scream and heard Sirius calling out his name from downstairs. More chains reached out from inside the wardrobe, groping at him. "Riddikulus!" Nothing happened, he couldn't think of anything remotely funny. "Riddikulus! Riddikulus! Riddikulus!" Still nothing.

Sirius burst through the door and saw the chains reaching out for his godson. "Riddikulus!" He cried out and the chains turned to long, colourful balloons that fell to the ground and floated back into the wardrobe which Sirius shut quickly. "Teddy, are you alright?"

"Yeah... Yeah, I'm fine."

"What happened?"

"It got the jump on me that's all..." Teddy stared at the shaking wardrobe. "Sirius... do you mind if we don't tell Dad about this?" He panted, his big green eyes pleading.

"Sure, kiddo." Sirius said, putting a kind hand on his shoulder.