Chapter Eleven: The Ties That Bind

I: Hogsmeade

"Hogsmeade, Hogsmeade, Hogsmeade, Hogsmeade!" Victoire Weasley sang, skipping down the corridor. "Aren't you excited, Teddy?"

Teddy watched her, amused. "Not quite as excited as you are."

"I mean, don't get me wrong, I love Hogwarts as much as the next person, but there's something about being stuck in here for weeks on end without really being able to go anywhere that gets to me." A shudder ran through her shoulders. "What can I say? I've got wanderlust!"

"Wanderlust," Teddy repeated, grinning. "Right."

She turned around to smile at him. "Are you doubting me, Lupin?"

Teddy feigned shock. "Doubt you, Weasley? Never."

They reached the Great Hall. Much to Teddy's surprise, there were quite a few students clustered in front of the noticeboard, whispering and muttering things amongst themselves. Teddy saw both Matilda and Giovanna, but they didn't notice him; Matilda's eyebrows were furrowed together and she was saying something to Giovanna, whose lips were pressed together in a thin line. He wondered what was going on, and resolved to talk to Matilda later - he hoped that Daisy hadn't been bullying her again, though it was unlikely, for no one had seen or heard much of Daisy Shipkins of late.

Teddy and Victoire made their way over to the Hufflepuff table, where Alfie and Ella were already sitting. Alfie was helping himself to a slice of toast so thickly coated in butter and jam that the bread was barely visible; Ella, on the other hand, was sitting quietly, picking at a strawberry. They weren't speaking - Ella was instead rather immersed in the newspaper in front of her.

"What's up?" Teddy asked, sliding into a chair next to Alfie. Victoire went around the table and sat next to Ella, surreptitiously peering over the Ravenclaw's shoulder to see what she was reading. Ella, who strongly disliked this, moved slightly, blocking Victoire's view.

"Ella's been reading that newspaper for the last five minutes," Alfie said grumpily. "She hasn't even turned the front page."

"That's because the front page is the most interesting," Ella murmured.

"She speaks!"

"Oh, shut up, would you?" She glanced up and shot him a glare. "It's not like we're in a rush or anything."

"Yes, we are," Victoire said, heaping French toast onto her plate. "Hogsmeade weekend, remember? It's bad enough that Riley's not here, she's going to make us late."

Ella gave Victoire a funny look. "We're not going to Hogsmeade."

"What?" Teddy and Victoire exclaimed in unison. "Why?"

"Didn't you see? McGonagall put up a notice on the board outside the Great Hall. Something happened." She pushed the newspaper towards Victoire. The blonde's mouth dropped open and she turned it towards Alfie and Teddy, who scanned the headline with a mixture of shock and horror. Teddy felt his insides turn cold.

No.

His uncle Harry had said that it would never happen again. The spell, the incantation for the mark had been lost at the end of the war; nearly everyone who knew it had either been killed or was locked away in Azkaban.

So how was it that it had been cast above Hogsmeade?

"I didn't think anyone knew how to cast it anymore," Victoire said quietly.

"Not entirely true," Ella said, pushing her glasses up her nose. "There are some former death eaters who got off with a pardon, and there was never certainty as to whether those who were under the Imperius Curse at the time of the war could remember the incantation. Or whether death eaters passed on their knowledge of the incantation to family mem-"

"What are you implying?" Victoire cut in sharply.

Ella held up her hands. "Nothing! Nothing."

"Good."

"Still," Ella said, shaking her head, "this doesn't bode well for her."

"Who?" Alfie interjected.

"Riley. Everyone knows her uncle and aunt were death eaters. I don't like to think about what they might say now."

"She can't really take any more," Victoire said quietly. "It's no wonder that she's not here - someone must have told her." She glanced at the French toast on her plate, and then up at Teddy. There was a strange amount of desperation and deep concern in her blue eyes. Sighing, she pushed her chair back and got up. "I should go," she said. "Riley needs me now."

"Where is she?"

Victoire shrugged. "I don't know. But I have to find out."

Part of Teddy wanted Victoire to sit down again, wanted her to realise that if Riley wasn't there, she probably didn't want to talk, but he knew that Victoire would be antsy all day if she didn't find her friend. He might not have liked Riley too much, but he knew how much she meant to Victoire and he knew how this situation might end up affecting her. If Victoire felt as if she had to go, she had to go.

"Tell her if she needs us, we're here," Alfie said staunchly. Teddy glanced at him; he wasn't aware that Alfie and Riley were particularly close, but then again, Alfie was incredibly loyal to his friends.

Victoire nodded once. "I guess I'll see you later," she said, before running off. Teddy watched her go, his feelings still mixed. He could only hope that she found Riley, and that Riley didn't shut her out again.

Once she was gone, Teddy glanced surreptitiously around them. Most students upon finding out that the Hogsmeade trip was cancelled had retreated back to their dormitories, eager to catch a couple more hours of precious sleep. Therefore, the Hufflepuff table was fairly empty - a few third years were sitting several seats down from the trio, but they were talking so loudly amongst themselves that Teddy sincerely doubted that they could hear what anyone else was saying. He gave Alfie a meaningful look and both boys leaned in so that they were close to Ella and could speak without being overheard.

Ella gave them both an odd look. "What? Why are you invading my personal space?"

"Ella," Teddy hissed. "You need to tell Tabitha James."

"What?"

"You know what. Your theory."

Ella looked hesitant. "Teddy, I still don't have any evidence -"

"I don't care!" Teddy said, surprising himself with his own ferocity and conviction. "The dark mark, Ella - it's gone up over Hogsmeade. Do you know what this means?"

"That these people, whoever they are, are bad," she said slowly. "It means that they're not just playing around - they have resources, or they have access to people with resources."

"Could they be former death eaters?" Alfie asked.

Teddy shrugged. "Could be. Whoever they are, Ella, your theory might help the Aurors. You need to tell Tabitha James!"

"Tell Tabitha James what?"

Teddy glanced up to see a Gryffindor seventh year standing just behind Ella. He was watching them bemusedly, his hands on his hips and his right eyebrow quirked. Teddy recognised him immediately — his name was Peter Rose, and he was the Chaser on the Gryffindor Quidditch team. Alfie had always said that he was a brilliant player, the kind who was likely to go professional after he graduated.

"Hi Peter!" Alfie said loudly in an attempt to change the subject. "Good to see you, man! Great goal against Slytherin last week."

"Thanks, Hayes," the Gryffindor grinned. "You did pretty well yourself in the match against Ravenclaw." He turned to Ella. "I've always wondered how you two manage to stay such good friends . He gives your house such a whooping whenever he plays against them."

Ella, who looked rather like a deer in the headlights, let out a short, barking laugh quite unlike any sound Teddy had ever heard her make before. "Yes, well…"

"What's this about Tabitha James then?" Peter repeated.

"Oh," Teddy said hesitantly, "you know…" He glanced at Alfie and Ella worriedly; he wasn't about to tell some boy he barely knew about Ella's theory, but he couldn't for the life of him seem to come up with a convincing story and Peter Rose did not seem as if he was about to let it be. "Ella was just thinking of telling Tabitha James that she…er …"

"That she what?" Terence Gates appeared, and Teddy felt a wave of irritation — or was it anger? — rush through him. Great. As if the situation wasn't bad enough already, Gates just had to show up and make it ten times worse. "Hey, Peter. Thought I'd come see why you were hanging around with these losers."

Peter Rose gave Terence a look, but he didn't say anything.

"Do you really think Tabitha James will believe anything you say, Anderson?" Terence said, raising a pale blonde eyebrow at Ella, who turned very pink. "You're just a kid. She probably doesn't even know your name. Why would she even care about what you want to tell her?"

"She probably cares more about Ella than she does about you," Teddy said hotly.

Terence seemed unaffected by this. "Sure," he shrugged. "Whatever you say, Lupin. Come on, Peter."

As the two boys turned and walked away, Alfie let out a sigh of relief, obviously glad that they'd managed to manoeuvre their way out of a potentially damaging situation. Teddy, on the other hand, was fuming.

To tell Tabitha James about her theory, Ella would have to be confident in it. Thanks to Terence, all the confidence that Teddy had tried his best to instil in her had been tapered down.

There was no way Ella would go to the Aurors now.

.oOo.

II. Keep your friends close

Back when Victoire Weasley's father, Bill, was at Hogwarts, it had not been the norm to know where each house's dormitory was located. You knew your own, and that was that, unless you had a particularly good friend from another house. Nowadays, things were rather different — Victoire had friends across all four houses, and knew exactly where each dormitory was within the castle. Therefore, it didn't take her long to get to the entrance to Slytherin dungeon. After all, she'd been many times before.

The one thing, however, that had remained the same was the protection given to each dormitory. While Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw were arguably less secure, because anyone could tap out the appropriate rhythm on the bricks or answer the riddle, Gryffindor and Slytherin were impossible to breach unless you knew the password.

And though Victoire's best friend was a Slytherin, she had not shared the password with Victoire.

"Damn it," the blonde swore, standing just in front of the grey stone wall that she knew led into the common room. She tried to think — the password could be anything… perhaps it was something directly associated with the house?

"Snake!" she exclaimed.

The wall remained as it was.

"Too obvious," she muttered to herself under her breath, racking her brains. "Um… oh Merlin, what if it's in Parseltongue?"

"Unlikely, considering none of us are Parselmouths," came a female voice from behind her. Victoire spun around, startled, to come face to face with Riley's roommates, Hestia Witherspoon and Iris Fawley. Iris cocked her head to the side, giving her the appearance of a questioning dog. "Victoire? What are you doing here?"

"Me? I was just…"

She didn't know what had her so tongue-tied; it wasn't as if she had been doing anything wrong. And Hestia and Iris were nice girls — they were friends with Riley, and Victoire had spent time with them in classes before.

"Weasley?" Iris repeated.

"I just wanted to see Riley," the Gryffindor blurted. She noticed Iris and Hestia exchange looks, so she garbled on: "I know I'm technically not allowed in here, but I'm sure you've heard by now about the dark mark over Hogsmeade, and … "

"You've come to see whether Riley knows anything?" Hestia said accusingly, folding her dark arms in front of her.

"What?" Victoire exclaimed. "No! No! Goodness, Hestia, you know as well as I do that Riley knows nothing about any of this, but she thinks that people think that she does."

Hestia's face softened slightly, but she said nothing.

"I just want to make sure she's okay. This whole…" she waved her hand around, looking for an adequate descriptor, "mess has been really tough on Riley— I mean, you guys share a room with her, you know that. And … well, she's my best friend, so… " she trailed off again. "Look, just let me in, would you please?"

"Victoire," Iris said quietly, "we can't do that."

"Why?" Victoire said, a little more demandingly than she'd wanted. It struck her all of a sudden how much she sounded like her mother when she was angry. "Riley's in there, isn't she?"

Iris sighed. "Yes, but we're not allowed to —"

"So what? That's my friend, we're talking about — I should be allowed in!"

"It's against rules," Hestia stepped in. "No non-Slytherin can enter the Slytherin Dungeon and should we let you in, the Prefects will have our heads."

"That's a ridiculous rule!"

"Gryffindor has it too!" Hestia snapped. "Unless you lot are having a party, we're not allowed in. The number of times I've been in your position…" She trailed off, and Victoire suddenly remembered that Hestia was good friends with one of her roommates, Sophie White.

"Hestia," she pleaded.

"No," the Slytherin said firmly. "I'm sorry, Victoire."

Both girls turned away from Victoire, but Iris hesitated and turned back. "We could tell Riley that you're here. She can come out and talk to you."

Fat chance of that happening, Victoire thought. Riley wanted to be alone; it was unlikely that she'd take herself out of voluntary isolation just to talk to her. But she nodded anyway. "Yeah. That'd be great, thanks Iris."

Iris smiled and turned back. While she'd been talking to Victoire, Hestia had whispered the password and the passageway to the common room had been revealed. The two girls entered, and Victoire briefly considered sneaking in behind them, but decided that it would be too difficult — they'd know instantly, for there wasn't anywhere to hide in the passageway, and there was no point in destroying any goodwill that she had with the two girls.

Sighing as the passageway closed, she kicked a pebble near her foot down the hall. She didn't quite know what to do — there was no point waiting, really, for it wasn't as if Riley was about to come out. She might have been making progress lately as far as sharing things with Victoire went, but something told Victoire that what had happened in Hogsmeade would set Riley back.

And she didn't want that to happen. Riley had isolated herself for long enough, and Victoire felt like finally, after four years of friendship, she was getting past the wall that had always been between them. She didn't want to let Riley build that wall back up, especially not now. The kidnappings, the dark mark, the threats in London — it was all horrible and awful, but at least if Riley let her in, something slightly good would have come of it.

She checked her wristwatch. Five minutes had gone by since Iris and Hestia had entered the common room — surely long enough to go and find Riley and tell her that Victoire was waiting. And yet there was no sign of the brunette. Her heart sank slightly, but she supposed she shouldn't be disappointed. Four years outweighed four weeks, after all.

She turned to go, shuffling her feet against the floor, when she heard a throat clear behind her. Spinning around, a grin burst out when she saw Riley standing in front of the wall. Her hair was a mess — Victoire didn't think she'd even brushed it that morning — and her eyes were dull, but she forced a small smile. "You wanted to talk?"

Smiling widely, Victoire practically ran up to Riley and threw her arms around her. "Yes," she said, "I did."

.oOo.

III: And your enemies closer

So far, Alfie Hayes was not liking his fifth year at Hogwarts.

It wasn't that the work was hard (though it was). It was that it felt like something bad was happening every week without fail. The London incident, the threat in Hogsmeade, and now the dark mark… it was terrifying knowing that there were people out there who seemed to be targeting him.

Never before in his life had Alfie felt so insecure.

And when he walked into the Great Hall the next morning to see Tabitha James casually sitting at the faculty table, speaking with Professor McGonagall, the uncomfortable feeling in his stomach grew even larger.

"Oh no," he whispered, almost involuntarily.

Why her? When she'd left after the London incident, he'd thought that she wouldn't come back, that maybe the case would be reassigned to someone else, especially considering her apparent failure to make any sort of headway.

Teddy, who was standing next to him, gave him an odd look. "What's the matter? Did you leave something behind?"

Alfie shook his head. "No," he said, his gaze still squarely focused on Tabitha. "No, I… I thought I had, but I'd actually… um, remembered it."

Teddy narrowed his eyes, and Alfie felt his heart sink slightly. Of course Teddy hadn't fallen for it - the problem with knowing someone for five years and spending almost every waking minute with them was that they were generally quite good at calling your bluff

"What was it that you thought you'd forgotten?"

Alfie panicked. "Um. Er." Why wasn't anything coming to mind? "My… um... " Crud!

Teddy quirked an eyebrow. "I thought as much. What's going on, Alfie?"

"Nothing!" Alfie protested, stealing a surreptious glance at Tabitha James, who was now helping herself to bacon. "Nothing."

"You keep looking at Tabitha James," Teddy noted. "Are you worried that she's back? Because quite honestly, Alfie, I think it's probably a good thing that the Auror department has some kind of presence at Hogwarts, what with our proximity to Hogsmeade and what's been going o-"

"I don't trust her."

"What?"

Alfie took a deep breath and turned to face Teddy. "I don't trust her."

"Tabitha?"

"Then who?"

"I don't know!" Teddy sighed. "Alfie, why don't you trust her?"

"I don't know," Alfie said, shifting uncomfortably. "I just… there's something about her that feels fishy."

Teddy furrowed his eyebrows and crossed his arms, looking rather pensive. "What do you mean? Alfie, you can't possibly think she's involved in this."

Alfie was silent for a few moments. He didn't really think that Tabitha was involved in what was going on. She was many things - a bully and a bigot, but a death eater? A kidnapper? She might be heartless, but Alfie didn't think she was that much of a monster.

"No," he said at last. "I don't."

"Then why don't you trust her?" Teddy's response was quick, and Alfie found himself beginning to feel slightly attacked. There was a time when Teddy would have understood, when he wouldn't have had to explain himself to him. They were so similar - he couldn't believe that Teddy seemed to blindly trust the Auror when it was so obvious that she didn't have all of their best interests in heart.

But then again, Teddy didn't have all the facts.

Glancing up at his best friend, Alfie knew that all he had to do to make Teddy understand was to tell him exactly what Tabitha James had told Riley. To tell him how Riley was being attacked by the very person who was supposed to protect her, to stand for the unity of the wizarding community as a whole, purebloods included. He knew that Teddy would understand, for Teddy had been the victim of prejudice essentially since he was born. All he had to do was tell him, but he couldn't.

Riley had confided in him that day. He didn't even know whether she'd told Victoire about all the horrible things Tabitha had said to him, but she'd told him, and she'd told him knowing that he wouldn't tell anyone else. If he was in Riley's position and she in his, he wouldn't want her to tell anyone, not even her best friend.

To tell Teddy would be to breach Riley's confidence. And although he wasn't particularly close to her, though he owed her nothing, he just couldn't do that.

"I just don't," he said at last. "But there's nothing I can do about it. I'm sorry, I don't know why I brought it up."

"Alfie," Teddy began, but Alfie cut him off.

"No, no, I shouldn't have brought it up." He sighed and began to walk towards the Hufflepuff table. "Let's just have breakfast and forget all about it."

.oOo.

IV: Surfacing

You can think of anything that happens like a pebble dropped in a pond. It sends ripples out across the surface, disturbing anything in its wake. It seems as if nothing will ever be the same again, that nothing will ever go back to the way it once was. But eventually everything returns to normal. The ripples dissipate and the water smoothens over so that when the next pebble appears, it's almost as if nothing had ever disturbed the pond before.

Eventually.

Teddy sat in the Hufflepuff common room, skimming over his assigned reading. Alfie sat next to him completing an essay, and Matilda Goshawk lay on her back reading her Astronomy textbook. Giovanna Downing was slumped on the floor, the Daily Prophet spread out in front of her. It was so normal, Teddy almost wanted to scream. True, it had been several days since the dark mark had gone up over Hogsmeade, but that was no reason to forget that it had happened. And yet that was exactly what everyone seemed to be doing - their workload had returned to normal, they were still going to classes and everything just seemed to be returning to how it was before the mark had appeared.

Teddy hated it. They couldn't just forget that something had happened, they couldn't just ignore it. They had to stand up and do something about it.

If only Teddy knew what to do.

His thoughts were interrupted, however, when Giovanna very suddenly crumpled up her newspaper and threw it across the room. "I'm so sick of this!" she screamed.

Teddy, Alfie and Matilda stared at her, confused and shock. Sudden outbursts of anger were not Giovanna's style at all. She might have been coming out of her shell a lot more since she escaped from under Daisy's thumb, but this sort of behaviour was definitely uncharacteristic.

"Are you okay, Gi?" Matilda asked tentatively.

"Of course I'm not okay!" Giovanna replied grumpily. "Everything nowadays is so… so doom and gloom! And I'm not saying that it shouldn't be, what with what's going on, but it's just too much. Is it too much to ask for some fun?"

Teddy thought it rather was, what with everything that was going on, but he decided not to comment.

"What do you want to do then?" Matilda asked, closing her book and resting her chin on her palms.

"I don't know," Giovanna replied, sighing. "There's not really that much to do here. I mean, Hogsmeade weekend was supposed to be fun and interrupt all this monotony, but of course it had to go and get cancelled —"

"Yeah, but you can't really —"

"Of course I don't blame Professor McGonagall, she had to cancel it. I just wish… I don't know. That we had something to do. I'm not saying that what's going on in the wider world," she gestured out of the window, "isn't important, because it is. But I think they should've organised something to distract us."

Alfie shrugged. "I get that."

Teddy wasn't sure he did. The teachers all seemed to be pretending like everything was fine, when it clearly wasn't, and it just seemed to draw attention to the fact that there was something wrong. He wished that they would just confront it head on; organising something to distract the student body felt counterproductive, as if it was drawing attention away from the situation at hand.

Then again, it wasn't as if focusing on the dark mark was doing him any good. He felt so useless sitting around on his hands; he felt like he couldn't do anything. It was his world, and yet he felt so out of control. And though he didn't consider himself a control freak, he didn't like feeling so powerless.

Suddenly a distraction didn't seem like such a bad idea after all.

"Do you have anything fun in mind?" he asked Giovanna.

The brunette shook her head. "See, I'm not really that creative. I literally can't think of anything other than read a book or go for a walk but like, how boring can you get?"

"Not much more boring than that," Alfie agreed. "Although I'm pretty sure Ella would love to read a book."

"It was always Daisy and Morna who would come up with the crazy ideas," Matilda said wistfully, glancing down at her abandoned textbook. "Daisy especially. She might be mean sometimes —"

"More like all the time," Teddy muttered under his breath.

"— but she's always fun, you know? She's always got so many ideas."

"Has anyone actually seen Daisy outside of classes recently?" Alfie asked, his eyebrows knitting together. "I don't really remember the last time I saw her in the common room. She used to be in here all the time complaining about Bella Watson, and granted, it was a pain, but I don't know…"

"There's something odd about not having her around," Teddy finished for him. He had to admit that as annoying as Daisy Shipkins could be, it was strange not to hear her voice all the time. She had been such a regular figure in his everyday life for five years that it was strange not to see her around, not to hear her continuously complain.

"I agree," Matilda said quietly.

"I haven't seen her outside class," Giovanna said. "No idea where she is or what she's doing and why she's hiding and — oh, hello, Morna!"

Morna Clemmons had shuffled up to them, her arms folded protectively. Her eyebrows were furrowed, her forehead wrinkled and her lips turned out in an ever-so-slight pout. "All I said was that it sucks that we couldn't go to Hogsmeade this weekend, and she bites my head off." She put on a falsetto before continuing, "Yes, Morna, it sucks for you because you can actually show your face in public without being shamed and embarrassed and oh my it must be so wonderful to be you. Ugh!"

"Are we talking about Daisy?" Matilda asked.

"Yes, of course we are!" Morna snapped. "Don't be thick, Mat, who else would we be talking about?"

"Hey now," Giovanna said warningly.

Morna sighed. "Sorry. I'm sorry. It's just…ugh, she's been such a bitch lately. She keeps going on and on about how she can't show her face in public. She's never around, and when I want to talk to her she just brushes me off, and she's always so rude. Like I try! I really try! I just …" her face crumpled and she let out a tiny sob, "don't know what to do!"

"Oh no, Morna!" Giovanna lept up and wrapped her arms around the blonde. "No, honey, it's not your fault that Daisy's being a bitch."

"But it is!" Morna wailed.

"It's not!" Matilda chipped in.

"It is!"

"It's not!"

"It is!"

"Oh for Merlin's sake," Teddy muttered under his breath.

"Girls," Alfie replied.

Morna sniffled and wiped her eyes. "It's just, I feel so bad. I think what her sister did to Bella Watson was completely and totally wrong, but I can't help but feel bad for her. Like, it was her sister. And yeah she didn't do anything to stop Laura, but … I don't know, I guess it's natural to feel like you've got to follow in your sister's footsteps? Does that make sense?"

"I mean, none of us have sisters, but it does," Alfie said.

"I have a sister," Giovanna said. "She's much older than me, and we're not that close, but I get it. I'm not saying that I've forgiven Daisy, but I do get it."

"Do you think she'll ever get over it?" Alfie asked.

Teddy thought about this. He could imagine that Daisy was embarrassed and felt upset — goodness knows that he definitely would, especially since Hufflepuff opinion had drastically shifted against her sister. But Laura was graduating this year — Daisy wouldn't be under her influence forever. And maybe, just maybe, this whole situation would help Daisy grow up.

"What, are you lot having a meeting without me?"

Teddy spun around. Daisy Shipkins stood at the entrance to her dormitory, her hands folded across her chest.

"Daisy!" Morna exclaimed.

"What, you're friends with them now?" Daisy gestured towards Giovanna and Matilda who glanced at one another uncertainly. "Is everyone in this house against me then?"

"No—"

"It's that bitch Bella Watson's fault!" Daisy screamed. "She ruined everything!"

"Daisy —"

"Shut up, Morna. I don't want to hear it."

Daisy turned around and slammed the door behind her, leaving the fifth-years in the common room very uncomfortable and slightly uncertain what to make of her very sudden outburst.

"Well," Teddy said at last, "she's certainly not over it yet."

The others made murmuring sounds of agreement. Some people, it seemed, just didn't learn from their mistakes.

.oOo.

V: Talking in T's

The vast majority of Hogwarts students were relieved to learn that Tabitha James would not be conducting individual interviews regarding the Dark Mark displayed in Hogsmeade. It wasn't that no one liked Tabitha, but there was a general agreement that there was something about her that was a little scary.

"She makes me feel like I'm guilty," Giovanna had said, shuddering. "I know I'm innocent — I mean, I literally know nothing about what happened in Hogsmeade — but she makes me feel like I do. It's odd."

Instead, Tabitha was talking to students in groups. She'd mixed them up so that there was one member of each house in each meeting. Teddy was happy to find that Ella was to be in his. He thought that there might be a way to trick Ella into revealing her theory to Tabitha — despite what she and Alfie believed, he still thought that talking to Tabitha was the right course of action. After all, she was an Auror. What better person to help them? He thought that they were being terribly irresponsible by simply sitting on information that could be vital to her investigation.

However, there was no way of bringing it up during the meeting. Tabitha was to the point, her questions close-ended. There wasn't much room for Teddy to introduce a new topic, and even at the end, when she asked if there was anything else anyone would like to bring up, he wasn't sure how to raise the topic subtly without antagonising Ella. He left the meeting, therefore, feeling rather disappointed.

"You're awfully quiet," Ella commented as they walked down the corridor towards the Great Hall. "Disappointed by the meeting?"

"What?" Teddy said a little too quickly. "Why would I be?"

Ella narrowed her eyes at him. "Oh, you know. It yielded no results."

"Didn't expect it to," Teddy mumbled. "Don't you think if anyone knew anything, they'd have come forward by now? No one's just going to wait for Tabitha to ask them directly."

Ella shrugged. "Some people might, you know. A scared first year."

"A scared first year is hardly going to speak up when surrounded by a group of people."

"That's a good point." She paused. "You'd think Tabitha would've thought of that, wouldn't you?"

"Yeah. Yeah, you would."

"Almost odd that she didn't."

"Are you hinting at something?"

"Me?" Ella looked thoughtful. "No."

"Oi!" A voice came from down the corridor. Teddy spun around to see Victoire running towards him, waving madly. He couldn't help but smile. Victoire was always so enthusiastic; she was acting as if she hadn't seen him in years. "Wait up!"

"You wait up," drawled another voice. Riley appeared from around the corner. She had her arms folded across her chest and looked rather cross. "You just took off down the corridor like a seeker who's just seen the snitch."

"But Teddy and Ella are here!"

"Still!"

Victoire rolled her eyes dramatically and turned to Teddy and Ella. "Where are you two coming from then?"

Teddy jerked his thumb in the general direction of Tabitha's office. "Auror meeting."

"Ugh." Victoire wrinkled her nose. "During lunch? That's horrible. I don't mind the meetings so much, as long as I'm missing class."

"That's not a good attitude to have," Ella said reprimandingly. "Classes are wonderful."

"To you, maybe. You're good at them. Teachers love you."

"Teachers love you too," Riley pointed out.

Victoire went slightly pink and ducked her head. "Teachers love my family," she corrected. "Flitwick keeps going on and on about how I must take after my father in Charms."

"Do you?" Ella inquired.

"I hate Charms. He thinks I'm a late starter — apparently dear old Dad was awful at Charms until he kicked himself into gear for his O.W.L.'s. Flitwick's waiting for the day I wake up and do the same."

"He'll be waiting a long time then," Teddy teased.

Victoire hit him on the arm, but laughed.

Riley finally caught up to them (Teddy suppressed his irritation with her — the least she could have done was run a bit so that they weren't all waiting for so long — because it was such a trivial matter) and they continued on towards the Great Hall, chatting amongst themselves. The girls were going on about some sort of new potion that supposedly gave you clear skin overnight, and Teddy found himself tuning out. As they got closer to the Hall, the corridors filled with students. Teddy couldn't help but wonder whether any of them knew anything about the dark mark at Hogsmeade and if so, how they were managing to stay quiet for so long. If he had known anything, he'd have been driven half mad by now trying to keep it a secret.

"Teddy?"

"Sorry?"

Victoire rolled her eyes. "Were you listening to me?"

"Sorry, Vic."

"I asked what Tabitha asked you at your meeting."

"Oh! Nothing really. The usual. What were you doing the night of the mark, did you see anything and so on."

"Good to know I didn't miss anything," Riley muttered.

"You skipped your meeting?" Ella, ever observant, inquired. "Why?"

Riley looked uncomfortable for a moment. Victoire quickly chipped in. "She's Riley. She skips everything. Potions classes with Smith, detention with Hagrid, even her own birthday party — remember that, Riles, you forgot all about that party I threw you when you were thirteen! You'd gone down to Hogsmeade with Billy Crenshaw instead because he bet you you couldn't drink more butterbeers than he could without being sick. So really, missing a meeting with an Auror is perfectly in character!"

"Oh yes," came an unmistakable drawl. Teddy let out a long, rather audible groan, and Ella tensed up. "Of course a Carrow would miss her meeting with Tabitha James?"

"Leave her alone, Terence," barked Victoire.

Terence Gates smiled slyly. He jumped off the wall where he was sitting with a couple of other Gryffindor fifth years and approached the five friends. "Why, Weasley?"

"Because she's my friend!"

"A Weasley, friends with a Carrow? Whatever would you parents say?"

"They don't care, for your information," Victoire replied staunchly, jutting her chin out. "You can … bugger off."

"Now why would I do that? Your friend here missed a meeting with Tabitha James, and as a responsible member of the student body, I believe it's my civic duty to take her to James."

"You'll do no such thing."

"Missing a meeting with an Auror," Terence continued as if he hadn't heard Victoire, "now if that doesn't look guilty, what does?"

"Hey!" Teddy, despite his better knowledge, found himself stepping in. "Leave her alone, Gates. She's not involved."

He saw Ella bite down on her lip and he knew that she wanted him to stop, to take the high road and walk away. But, as per usual when it came to Terence Gates, he couldn't. There was something so… so… infuriating about him, that Teddy just couldn't think with a clear mind.

"What did you say to me?" Terence taunted.

"You heard me. Leave her alone."

"What's going on?" Alfie had approached the group tentatively, and stood beside Ella. "What did Terence do this time?"

Did it matter? Teddy thought. Terence was always saying something, always doing something, he never seemed to learn a thing.

"Teddy, please," Ella whispered.

"Listen to the bookworm, Lupin," Terence said nastily. "You don't want to mess with me."

"On the contrary, Gates," Teddy hissed, "you want to mess with my friends? You've got to go through me."

"Is that all?" Terence laughed. "And here I thought I'd be fighting dementors to get to Carrow, not some itty bitty puppy that fancies himself a big bad wolf."

"Hey!" Victoire roared, running up to Terence and pulling her wand out of her robes. She clutched it firmly in her palm, and shoved it up to his face, the tip barely inches away from his skin. Her eyes were narrow and fierce. "No one insults my friends."

"Vic, he's not worth it!" Teddy exclaimed.

"Come on, Weasley," Terence said, staring Victoire down. "Why don't we see your famed warrior blood, then? Or are you no good compared to the rest of your family? You don't even have the characteristic red hair - may I suggest that your blood's been watered down? Or that," he paused for dramatic effect, "you aren't even a Weasley at all?"

"What do you mean?" Victoire attempted to sound confident, but Teddy could see her hand shaking.

"Well, veelas aren't exactly known for their loyalty."

It was from that moment onwards that things began to happen rather quickly.

Riley screamed, "You utter prick," and swung her fist towards Terence's face.

Terence caught hold of Riley before she could hit him and pushed her with such force that she fell on her back.

Victoire whipped her wand out and screamed, "Flipendo," causing Terence to fall backwards.

"Oh, you're going to be sorry you did that, Weasley!" Terence yelled. He grabbed his wand from his pocket and pointed it towards Teddy, shouting something incomprehensible. Teddy felt a sharp pain sear across his cheek. He wasn't exactly sure what it was, but judging by Ella's gasp of horror, it wasn't good.

"You … you … twit!" Alfie yelled, pulling his wand out of his cloak and pointing it squarely between Terence's eyebrows.

Terence laughed. "Stop pretending like you know what to do with that thing, Hayes. You should put it down before someone gets hurt."

Alfie made a quick movement that looked somewhat like the bat-bogey hex, but Terence was too quick for him. Before Alfie could complete his spell, he was left hanging upside-down in the air. "Teddy!" he yelled, anxiously. "What's going on?"

"I'll get you down," Teddy promised.

"Not likely," Terence said. "Levicorpus."

Teddy felt himself swing upwards with a lurch. It took him a few moments to refocus; when he did, he saw Terence in front of him, clambering to his feet. There were a few cuts on his arm from the glass, but he looked completely calm - calculating, even. Teddy glanced around to see if he could spot Ella, but she seemed to have magically disappeared. He reached instinctively for his wand, but his pockets were empty; his wand had fallen out when he'd been levitated.

"All bark and no bite, eh, Lupin?"

"You," Teddy said, his blood pumping adrenaline through his veins. "Is this the only way you know how?"

"Come again?"

"What in your life is so miserable that you have to antagonise people like this? What have I ever done to you? What is it about me, Gates? Why are you so darn insecure?"

"I am not."

"Yes you are! Ever since we first met before we were sorted, you've had it out for me. I don't know what it is - maybe it's my last name, maybe it's that my parents fought in the war - but you've never, ever been able to get over whatever basic hatred you have for me, no matter how much I try!"

Terence was silent for a moment. When he spoke again, his voice was softer, but no less dangerous; it sent a chill down Teddy's back. "You really don't get it, do you?"

"I suppose I don't! It's always the same spiel, Gates. Half-breed, werewolf baby… what do you have against werewolves anyway? What have they ever done to you?"

"Shut up."

"I bet you've never even seen one"

"I said, shut up!"

Filled with a sudden burst of anger, Terence pointed his wand at Teddy and yelled "Oppugno

For a split moment, it felt like nothing happened. Then, Teddy became faintly aware of the shards of glass from the window rising up off the floor, and pummeling towards him. Time seemed to slow down as they came closer and closer, and he braced himself for their piercing impact.

But none ever came.

"What in Merlin's name is going on here?"

The pieces of glass fell to the floor.

Teddy felt himself lurch back to an upright position, his feet firmly planted on the ground. He looked up to see Professor McGonagall standing in front of him, her hands folded in front of her.

And next to her was a very terrified Ella.

.oOo.

VI: Conversations on the way to McGonagall's office

"You went for McGonagall?"

"How could I not, Teddy?"

"We're all going to get in trouble now."

"You're not seeing the bigger picture here!"

"What?"

"If I hadn't shown up when I did, with McGonagall, you'd be seriously injured now. You'd be in the hospital wing."

"And Terence would be in trouble, but I wouldn't be!"

"For goodness sakes, Teddy, he'll still be in trouble, but at least you're not hurt! I get that you're angry with Terence - stop taking it out on me!"

"I'm not!"

"Yes, you are, you're being an utter prick!"

"I am not."

"Teddy, stop it! I understand that Terence makes you mad, and he was way out of line what with all those nasty things he said about you, Riley and Victoire. And I get that you're mad at me now because you think I somehow betrayed you by going to get McGonagall but you have to understand where I'm coming from!"

"Where are you coming from then?"

"You…"

"I what? What, Ella?"

"You looked like you could kill him. And he … was so out of control. I didn't know what was going to happen. All I knew was that I couldn't just stand around while you and the others got hurt. So I went for a teacher and the first person I ran into was Professor McGonagall and that was that. I'm not going to apologise because as far as I'm concerned, I did the right thing."

Silence.

"Teddy?"

Silence.

"You do get where I'm coming from, don't you?"

Silence.

"Teddy?"

"Yeah."

"Yeah what?"

"Yeah. I get it."

"So you forgive me?"

"There's nothing to forgive."

.oOo.

VII: Eight

Teddy had been in Headmistress McGonagall's office exactly seven times before.

Of those seven, five had been because of Terence.

Why break the pattern, then?

This time was, after all, no different. She demanded an explanation, everyone stayed quiet. She demanded an explanation again, and he spoke up, carefully explaining what had happened without putting blame on anyone. Terence butted in loudly, trying to argue his own point. Riley and Victoire bit back and Alfie looked nervously at Ella. McGonagall silenced them, gave them a stern lecture and doled out punishment — thirty points from each of their houses, and detention every night from now until Christmas holidays. Terence and Victoire, who had used magic in the corridors and therefore broken an extra rule, received extra detention to be served in the week immediately after they returned from Christmas. Teddy thought this rather unfair, considering that Victoire's use of magic had been in self-defence, while Terence's had been a direct attack that could have ended up being quite severe.

"I hope this will make you think twice before doing anything like this again," McGonagall said sternly, looking at the ragtag group over her glasses. "You should all know better by now — especially Mr. Lupin and Mr. Gates."

Teddy mumbled an apology under his breath.

The funny thing was, he did know better. He knew that by getting riled up, he was doing exactly what Terence wanted him to do. He knew that if he just walked away, he could avoid confrontation, and avoid anyone getting hurt. But somehow, he just couldn't. He felt like Terence had to learn a lesson, and that it was his duty to somehow teach it to him. He just didn't know how to give up and let it be.

McGonagall paused for a second before sighing and leaning back in her chair, her wrinkled hands folded on the desk in front of her. "I understand that current events have been … difficult for all of you to deal with." Her eyes passed over Riley, who shuffled back slightly. "And I understand that they have caused fear — fear that perhaps motivated your fight this afternoon. But I must ask you all, in the interest of the wider wizarding community, to put your differences behind you."

This, it seemed to Teddy, was directed at Terence.

"I am not asking you all to become best friends, although I know some of you are. I am asking you to stick together, as a school community, as young wizards and witches. These are trying times, and something tells me we have not seen the end of them quite yet."

"What does that mean?" Alfie asked quietly.

Professor McGonagall shook her head sadly. "I cannot predict the future, Mr. Hayes." Her gaze drifted across them all. "And I cannot stress the importance of staying united through this. Many years ago, a dark wizard almost succeeded at destroying the world as we know it because he wove discord among us. We cannot let that happen again. Do you understand?"

Teddy nodded, feeling as if the weight of the world had been placed on his shoulders. He, too, believed in the importance of unity, especially what with recent events, but to have the responsibility of maintaining that comradeship bestowed upon him? All of a sudden, he became acutely aware of his position within the wizarding world, and not for the first time, he felt his stomach sink.

What hope did he, a mere fifteen-year-old Hogwarts student, have to change the world?

It was a thought that remained with him long after he left Professor McGonagall's office. It followed him all the way back to his dormitory, as he carefully removed a piece of parchment from his desk drawer, got out his quill and began to write a letter addressed to Tabitha James.

.oOo.

IX: Suspect

"Come in."

Robards didn't look up as Tabitha James entered his office. He was too busy sorting through a stack of papers on his desk, muttering things to himself. Tabitha stood in front of him for what seemed like hours before clearing her throat emphatically.

Robards stopped. He slowly brought his gaze to meet hers. "Something you want?"

"Yes, actually."

He gestured at the chair in front of his table. "Don't let me stop you then."

She didn't sit down. Instead, she reached into the front pocket of her robes and extracted an envelope. "A week ago, while I was at Hogwarts, I received this."

She held it out to Robards, who took it, examining it suspiciously before flipping the seal open and removing the parchment that lay inside. As he unfolded it, he asked, "And you're showing this to me only now because?"

"Because I wanted to investigate a bit. See if what the person was saying added up. And I when I found that it did, I wanted to talk to you face to face."

"The person?"

"It's anonymous, sir."

There was a moment of silence as Robards skimmed the letter. His eyebrows furrowed in concentration and though Tabitha tried to kid herself that she didn't care what he thought, she found herself waiting with baited breath, hoping he didn't simply dismiss it as a silly theory.

"Okay," he said at last, putting the letter down on his table, "tell me why I should believe what this … good citizen is suggesting."

"Well, for one thing, they're right. Every single attack so far has been somehow connected to Hogwarts. Melissa Cooper and Leslie Stiles were both Hogwarts students, though the former had yet to start. The London attack was only on muggleborn Hogwarts students."

"The Hogsmeade attack?"

She had known that he would ask about this - Robards had an uncanny knack for quickly identifying and pointing out the flaws in any theory. "Is a bit more of a stretch, granted, but Hogsmeade is only five minutes away from the school and is a much softer target."

"Okay," Robards said, shrugging. "But I still don't quite see the whole point of this. Alright, it seems as if everything's connected to Hogwarts, but I feel like we're just stating the obvious here, James. Tell me something that'll help us nail the bastard behind this."

Tabitha felt her lips curling upwards into a smile. She did love it when she could prove that she'd anticipated these sorts of questions, that she thought things through. "Let's start at the beginning. Melissa Cooper's kidnappers would have required the addresses of muggleborns, as would the wizards who attacked London. As only muggleborn Hogwarts students' households, rather than muggleborns in general were attacked, it follows that the perpetrators of this little attack obtained their information from Hogwarts."

"Fine," Robards replied, folding his arms, "but you're forgetting that Hogwarts has no registry of blood-status. Neither do we, as a matter of fact. It's easy enough to figure out which individuals are purebloods, but it's trickier to determine who's a half-blood and who's muggleborn."

Tabitha had anticipated this too. "Unless you cross-reference the list of Hogwarts students and their addresses with our records."

"Are you thick, James? I just said, we don't have a registry of blood-status."

"Oh, just listen!" Tabitha snapped. "I checked with a friend down in the Department of Registration. We don't add muggleborns to the registry of magical individuals until after they start at Hogwarts. By determining who on the list of incoming Hogwarts students wasn't on the registry, the kidnappers could have identified all first year muggleborns, leading them straight to Melissa Cooper."

Robards was silent for a moment before nodding. "Alright, James, that makes sense. What about London?"

"Same thing, really. We have a registry of the number of wizards in each household - the data's collected every year, when we do our census. For muggleborn students, there would only be one wizard in the house."

"What if they had siblings?"

"That's just it," Tabitha said triumphantly. "I looked into the households that were attacked again, and look at this." She pulled out a small list from her pocket and began reading off it, "Kane Williams, fourth-year Gryffindor, is a muggleborn with an older brother who's also magical. His brother has now graduated Hogwarts and is living at home. They were not attacked. Camilla Spoon, second-year Slytherin, is a half-blood with a muggle father and a magical mother, but lives only with her father because her mother took off. She was attacked. Ella Anderson, fifth-year Ravenclaw, is the daughter of a Squib and therefore not a muggleborn, but the only magical individual in her household. They were attacked."

"So the failures of the attackers -"

"Have led us straight to their methods. I double-checked the Ministry reports. We were so focused on the possibility of people breaking into the Ministry itself that we failed to look at whether any of the individual departments had experienced security breaches."

"What are you saying?"

"The Ministry wasn't broken into - not properly, because whoever got into the atrium and carved that message about Melissa Cooper didn't get any farther than that - but according to a report from July, the Department of Registration was breached. They thought it was just a mistake, some rookie intern who was lost, but what if it wasn't?" Tabitha paused. "Don't you see what this means, Robards? We know how they did what they did - this puts us one step closer to finding out who they are."

Robards was silent for a moment. Tabitha watched him closely, her dark eyes narrowly following him as he took a deep breath and sat down, clasping his hands on the desk in front of him. "Any theories as to who they are?"

Tabitha smiled. This was the moment she had been waiting for; she had known all along that coming to Robards' office with a solid theory, but no suspects, would simply not suffice. If he was to take her seriously, if he was to take any of her theory seriously, she had to give him a name.

"There's only one person who has had access to the Ministry and Hogwarts the entire time this has been going on. Auror Munroe."

A/N: aaaand we're back! Apologies for the majorly long hiatus, guys - I'm super busy during term time and never have any time to write! I do aim to get a few more updates out during the holidays though, so keep checking back on Wednesdays! I'm really looking forward to the next chapter!