TEDDY

After the debacle with Bryce Lawrence Nico was asleep for a while.

Reyna, Hedge and Teddy were sitting next to him in the sun no-one really saying anything. Teddy honestly wasn't sure what to think. Nico had saved their lives, but at the cost of someonelse's and Teddy didn't know how to feel about that. On one hand he was glad to still be alive and not tortured to death, on the other… every dead was one too many.

Teddy wondered what his family was doing. Were they searching for him? Probably. Had his letter arrived? He didn't really know how much time had passed so he couldn't say. At least it was in Jamaica by now. Or so Teddy hoped.

Hedge ripped Teddy out of his thoughts by handing him a bunch of bad smelling bandages. He nodded to Nico's right arm and then put some on his left. Understanding what was wanted of him, Teddy dutifully laid out the bandages on Nico's pale arms. They were even paler than before, nearly translucent.

"What's that exactly?", he asked.

"Satyr magic", Hedge answered.

"He looks awfully pale, doesn't he", Teddy continued.

"We think its his powers, they weaken him a lot", Reyna explained quietly. She was dunking bandage in some strange goop.

"If I had the correct ingredients I could brew a pepper-up-potion. They help against fatigue and the flu.", Teddy said.

Hedge looked at him. "What kind of stuff do you need for that?", he asked sceptically.

"To start with, a cauldron", Teddy said.

And with that the topic of brewing potions was forgotten.

"Did you think about what I said? About contacting MACUSA?", Teddy asked after a while of silence.

"It sounds like a good idea, honestly. You said they could transport people over farther distances?", Reyna asked.

Teddy nodded. "Yeah, its called apparating. If you put a feather-light-charm on the statue it should be possible to transport her no problem."

Reyna looked contemplating. "Do you think you can do that charm and will it be enough to put her on a truck or something like that? I would rather not involve strangers in this."

Teddy blinked at her in surprise. "I guess. I have never tried it out. But I can do the shrinking charm. I don't know how well that will work on a godly statue but it's worth a try, right?", he said, suddenly giddy.

Reyna's eyebrows shot up in surprise.

"Yes, that could work. Will she return to her normal size after?", she asked.

"Of course, a simple 'Finite' and the charm is cancelled."

Reyna looked at Hedge, who was looking at them both frowning. Then he grinned. "Well, time to show us some magic, you silly wizard."

They had to wait until Nico was waking up. Hedge was constantly applying more bandages and muttering under his breath. Teddy had cast several healing charms he knew on Nico. None of them were particularly powerful but they seemed to help get a bit of colour back into his cheeks.

Until then Reyna and Teddy were talking about the wizarding and the demigod worlds. Teddy had to admit, Camp Jupiter sounded pretty cool. But from when Hedge would skim in Camp Half-Blood was also nice. They had gone down into Buford again, looking for a car dealership but finding none. Not that Teddy really knew what one would look like. They did have a busstop with buses going to a nearby bigger city.

"We could hitchhike and then shadow-travel in between. With a smaller statue that should be easier on him", Hedge had commented when Reyna and Teddy had returned emptyhanded. "We will think of something. We are already in the US and we still have time. It will be fine."

"I hope you didn't just jinx us", Reyna muttered.

At that moment Nico startled awake.

"Good morning!", Teddy said cheerfully.

Nico looked at him in slight irritation before turning to Reyna in question. Reyna sighed in relief.

Hedge said "Good" and put one of the jucky bandages right into Nico's face. The confused "What … ?" was slightly muffled.

Nico struggled to sit up, but Reyna pushed him back down. Teddy placed a new bandage on him.

"Are you trying to plant me?", Nico asked, looking from Hedge to Teddy.

"Nah, it's satyr magic", Teddy told him and covered him in more gunk.

"He wanted to make you drink a potion. Be glad we didn't have a cauldron", Hedge said.

"Hey! I'm good at Potions. Its one of my better subjects", Teddy said with rightful indignation.

"That's a subject?"

After telling Nico about their future plans and encouraging him that they didn't hate him for what happened with Bryce, they packed their tent and their weapons. They only had two days before the deadline on the first of August. Teddy couldn't believe how fast the time had passed in the last week.

"I pulled some favours and the cavalry will meet us tomorrow. Thanks to Teddy's help you woke up earlier than I expected. We will go north and meet them", Hedge told them. They had spent the last two days patching up Nico and making plans for the trip Camp Half-Blood. "Then we will drop off Teddy here at his magical place in the city on continue on from there."

Teddy wanted to protest that, but they hadn't listened the last five times so he had given up.

"Alright", Nico said.

Reyna motioned for Teddy to get on with his magic. He raised his wand and focussed on the statue of Athena.

"Reducio!", Teddy said loudly, focussing his magic to work as he wanted.

Slowly, inch-by-inch, the Athena Parthenos shrunk. Sweat gathered on Teddy's forehead and his breathing became quicker. This was more exhausting than anything else he tried until now. Finally the statue was the size of Hedge's bat and Teddy stopped the charm. He doubled over heaving air into his lungs.

"That was harder than I thought", he rasped.

Hedge patted him on the back.

"But you did it", Reyna said. She picked up the statue to carry her comfortable in her arms even though Teddy suspected it still wasn't the lightest.

The group turned towards Buford.

"Let's go, the bus leaves in an hour", she said and then strode off and the others followed, Teddy and Hedge supporting Nico.

They didn't get very far.

The loud cracks of apparition sounded and suddenly they were surrounded by wizards and witches in black and purple robes. American Aurors.

Teddy stumbled back a bit. Why were they here? One of the aurors, a tall man, stepped forward.

"You are under arrest for the practicing of dark magic, forceful entry, kidnapping and murder as well as resisting arrest", he said. "You will be brought to the prison of the Magical Congress of the United States of America and be held there until your deportation to the Ministry of Magic of Great Britain."

What in Merlin's name where they on about.

"I think you are mistaking us for someone", Reyna said. "We do not know what the Magical Congress or whatever is and would really like it if you left us alone."

"The Magical Congress is the government of wizarding America and you - "

"What are you on about?", Nico interrupted. "Wizards don't exist. Are you feeling quite well? And where did you come from all of the sudden?"

Some of the aurors shifted and looked at each other in confusion. Teddy was glad he had already pocketed his wand. These MACUSA-wizards didn't seem friendly.

"Excuse us please, but we need to catch a bus, you see we were camping with our Uncle and would like to get home now", Teddy stammered out. He hoped they wouldn't catch his lie. He was also glad he wasn't wearing his school robes anymore but had gone shopping in San Juan.

"But you are criminals and we have an arrest warrant", the lead-auror said. He looked confused.

"Listen here, cupcake, I do not appreciate you bothering us like that and accusing the kids of murder. So take your crazy ass and scurry off", Hedge now said, stepping in front of Reyna.

Some of the wizards nodded and lowered their wands, obviously accepting that they had the wrong people and were trying to arrest 'innocent muggles'.

"No!", the lead-auror sounded near hysterical now. "We detected underage use of magic and you fit the profiles of a group of internationally wanted criminals! You will come with me!"

"If you don't let us leave now I will call the police!", Reyna yelled back. "Now leave us alone!"

Teddy nodded in agreement. One of the witches stepped up to the leader and whispered something.

"Alright then, we will just Obliviate you and then you can be on your way", she said and smiled and them apologetically.

"Obliviate? What's that?", Hedge asked with suspicion in his voice.

"It's nothing to worry about", the woman said sweetly.

Teddy was not convinced. He whispered quietly "Obliviate removes parts of your memories" hoping Reyna and Hedge heard him but not the others. By the way Nico went still next to him, at least he had heard. "Oh hell no! I'm not losing my memories again."

Teddy glanced at him. That boy sometimes worried him a lot.

Reyna narrowed her eyes at the witch. "I don't think so. We will be going and you will let us and we will just pretend this never happened, understood?", she said harshly. The witch flinched back slightly but nodded. "Good" Then Reyna led the way through the middle of the wizards and Teddy made sure to follow quickly.

Once they were out of earshot he let loose a breath he hadn't noticed he was holding in.

"That was strange. Didn't you say they would help us?", Nico asked.

"I thought so. But apparently there was a misunderstanding somewhere", Teddy told him.

He didn't quite understand what just happened. The wizards they were going to ask for help had just ambushed them and were trying to arrest them for murder. What murder? Did they mean Bryce? But how would they know about that? And what about the dark magic and the kidnapping? Were did those ideas come from. Did they believe Teddy was kidnapped from Hogwarts? Sure, he didn't go voluntarily but that didn't mean they forced him or that he couldn't go home whenever he wanted. He really hoped his letter would arrive soon and then Harry could clear up that misunderstanding. They didn't need the wizarding world chasing them too, after all.

One thing was clear, though. Teddy wouldn't be going to MACUSA in New York.

They had reached Buford in the time that Teddy was thinking and quickly found the busstop. Briefly, Teddy wondered if the bus would be anything like the Knight Bus but then brushed that thought aside. Of course not, these were muggles.

"Mind explaining what happened back there?", Reyna asked, crossing her arms. The statue was sitting next to her.

Teddy shrugged. "No idea. They seem to think we are internationally wanted criminals, but I have no idea why", he said. "Well, it could be that they think you kidnapped me."

Reyna huffed and plopped down in a seat.

"I'm sorry that happened. If they didn't track my magic then we wouldn't be in this situation", Teddy tried to apologize.

"Don't be stupid, cupcake", Hedge said and patted Teddy's shoulder in comfort.

Teddy gave him a weak smile.

"At least we know they are searching for us now. Maybe we should keep out of public places for a while", Nico suggested. "So, this teleporting thing, you can't do that as well, can you?", he asked Teddy.

Teddy shook his head.

"No. Apparating is only taught in sixth year and its illegal till seventeen. I only just finished my second year", Teddy said with a sigh. "So I'm pretty useless."

"You're not useless", Reyna said. She sounded surprised that he would think so. "You helped just now with the statue and Nico's health. And you tried to help us against Orion, that's not useless."

"But there is so much magic can do, but I can't do any of that. There are charms that make you unplottable or something. Heck, there is a curse that just kills you", Teddy sighed again. "I can change the colour of stuff and make things fly. That's useless."

"I don't think flying is ever useless. And there are a lot of things I can't do but others can. You just need to work together", Reyna said.

"There is a curse that kills you. Like, just dead?", Hedge asked.

Teddy nodded, thinking about his parents. "It's one of the unforgivable curses. You just stop living. It's what killed my parents.", he explained softly.

"I met someone who was killed by that once", Nico muttered. They all looked at him weirdly. "What? His death felt weird so I asked him how he died, you know, the dead love talking about their death, and he told me it was some killing curse. And then I asked more and learned some interesting stuff about him."

"Is that how you knew what wizards were?", Reyna asked. "Because you badgered some poor soul about his death?"

Nico shrugged grinning slightly. "He didn't complain."

Teddy laughed slightly. He tried to imagine how that conversation would have gone.

A loud screech was heard, Teddy flinched in surprise.

"It's just the bus", Hedge told him, patted him on the shoulder again and then boarded the train.

"You know, I think what you're doing is pretty brave. Maybe a little bit reckless but putting your safety behind helping others and doing what's right is a brave thing to do", Nico said.

Teddy blushed bright red. No-one had ever called him brave before.

"Well, my father was a Gryffindor. So I guess I do get some things from him", he said, because he didn't know what else to do. "I'm a Hufflepuff though, like my mum."

Teddy smiled slightly before looking at Nico again who was frowning at him.

"What the fuck is a Hufflepuff?"