Chapter Nine

A/N: I do not own anything other than the plot of the two stories. All characters belong to either Ryan Murphey or JK Rowling.

"Okay," Cooper sighed and shuffled the papers so that they were straight. "Chapter Nine."

The rest of Glee club was spent practicing songs for Regional's. It was decided that, despite the fact that the event was five months away, that they needed to change their songs.

"Otherwise known as a regular day in Glee world," Burt shook his head.

"Doing Michael again is just too risky," Mr. Schue said with a frown. "Not to mention predictable."

"But they didn't do Michael," Cooper pointed out. "Teddy changed the set list to those other songs."

"Schue's set list would still say Michael on it," Burt told him.

It was then that he dropped a mother load on them. He was going to propose to Ms. Pillsberry.

"Again," Burt and Carol chuckled.

"We know you're not going to screw it up this time," Quinn said with a grin. Teddy chuckled at their teacher's face. After practice, Teddy leaned up against the door to wait for his girlfriend.

"Well at least he gets some normal school experiences out of the whole thing," Harry said, wishing he could have done the same back when he was first dating Ginny.

"Miss me?" Victorie asked as she approached him, leaving a visible trail of broken hearts as she walked by.

"I feel sorry for the girl," Carol said. "It can't be easy for her, never knowing if boys like her just for her looks."

"It's why we're all glad she's dating Ted," Ginny told her. "Teddy and Victorie are best friends on top of being in a relationship.

"Only a lot," Teddy grinned and kissed her. As they walked out to the front of the school, Santana stopped them.

"So," she said, "party at Puck's tonight. You guys going?"

"Please say no," Burt groaned.

"Why?" Harry asked, looking concerned.

"Puck's a great kid, don't get me wrong, but his parties can get out of hand," Burt told them. "Usually have a lot of alcohol."

"Oh Merlin," Ginny exclaimed. "Ted's never had anything stronger than Butterbeer. We don't know how his powers would react."

Teddy looked over at Victorie, who shrugged.

"I'll go if you go," he said. Santana grinned.

"Great! It starts at ten," she said and sauntered off. Teddy shook his head.

"Thank Merlin it's a Friday," he said. "So, you sure you want to come to this thing? Some of Puck's ideas veer on the idiotic."

"Yes, keep that train of thought!" Ginny encouraged the idea of not going to the party. But Harry shook his head.

"Ted's a Hufflepuff—he's never experienced a Gryffindor party let alone a muggle one. He'll probably think it's tame."

"You never experienced a party in Gryffindor Tower," Victorie said with a smirk. "It'll probably be tame to my standards."

"See?"

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Tame, it was not. By the time Teddy, Victorie, Brittney and Santana arrived; half of the guests were wasted.

"Thought so," Burt sighed.

"Wait, this is what you lot call a party?" Victorie asked nervously. Teddy could understand. Even in the Muggle world, Victorie was underage despite her…ahem, more mature appearance.

"Oh, please don't drink Vic," Ginny muttered to herself—hoping her niece would show some good judgement.

"They get out of hand, I'm taking you back to your place," Teddy whispered in Vic's ear. No, he was nervous about something else entirely. His powers. He'd never drank before so he didn't know how they'd react to alcohol.

"Good," Harry sighed. Though he wished Teddy would have gotten out of there as soon as he saw alcohol, at least his godson was prepared to take Victorie home if she got uncomfortable.

"John, dude!" Sam called from his spot on the dance floor. "Come and get a drink!"

Teddy shook his head. Victorie, somehow, already had a drink in her hand and was eyeing it nervously. Puck forced a beer into Teddy's hand.

"Who gave my niece a drink?" Ginny asked, narrowing her eyes and looking dangerous.

"Lighten up dude," Puck said. "Even Berry's drinking."

Sure enough, Rachel was wasted and Santana chuckled.

"So much for her vow to never drink again," she said. Despite arriving at the same time as Teddy, she'd already consumed three beers.

"How is that possible?" Cooper asked in shock. "They're not even in college—why are they drinking so much?"

Teddy and Victorie watched as the party began to get very out of hand. The worst part was there was nothing they could do. Teddy had already consumed four beers so if Victorie wanted to leave there was no way she could without getting Teddy in trouble.

"Damn," Harry muttered but he couldn't get too mad at his godson. After what Harry had read, it was about time Ted had a good time.

"Come on," Mercedes grinned at her. "No one's going to know!"

"That's what they think," Burt muttered, already preparing to talk to Kurt about going to Puck's parties.

"She's 15!" Harry growled at Mercedes' comment.

Victorie sighed and took a sip. It tasted disgusting and made her miss her home back in England but there was nothing she could do now. Slowly consuming it, she glanced up to see Teddy's hair changing colors. Rapidly.

"Shit."

"My thoughts exactly," Harry nodded in agreement to his wife's comment.

"What's so wrong with his hair changing color?" Cooper asked. Harry sighed.

"We're not supposed to expose magic to Muggles. It's actually illegal in our world. Now, combine that with the stress Ted's been having to keep his secret, and he might run. If he runs while sober, that's fine—but since he's drunk…."

"Shit."

"John," she whispered, tugging on his arm. She knew when to act when she needed to. "John, come with me."

"At least Victorie was there," Ginny sighed in relief.

"Wow, looks like someone's getting some action tonight!" Puck yelled but then looked over at Teddy as well.

"What's wrong?" Teddy asked, seeing the look on Puck's face.

"Oh no," Harry groaned, running his hand through his hair.

"Dude, your hair!" Puck shouted.

"Yeah what about it? I mean," Teddy chuckled, "your's looks like someone glued a squirrel to your head but you don't hear me saying anything."

Burt couldn't help but chuckle, having thought the same thing a time or two after seeing Puck at a Glee performance.

Victorie forced a mirror into his hand and Teddy froze just as his hair decided to land on neon pink. He couldn't breathe. He'd been so good about it! Hiding his identity to the entire glee club was hard, but it was necessary. Not even thinking about his next move, he ran to the stairs that kept him from the front door.

"John!" Finn, the only sober one there, shouted and ran after him. Drunk or not, there was one advantage Teddy had over Finn. He was shorter, and therefore, he could duck any chance Finn had to grab him. He ran as fast as he could but stopped when he started seeing double. His knees sunk to the ground and before he knew it, the world went dark.

"No!" Harry exclaimed. Nothing bad could happen to Ted right? Maybe he got found? Oh he hoped his godson got found and wished that he had felt safe enough to tell Harry what was going on.

"Finn was sober," Burt said, trying to reassure the other man. "He'd call me or his mom—or at least Schue. We'll get him."

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Waking up in a strange place was not fun. Waking up in a strange place when one was hung-over was not fun at all.

"Victorie?" Teddy groaned as he woke up in a bed that most definitely was not his.

"Hey kid," a man with a cap on his head poked his head in. "Glad to see you're up. Another hour and I would have taken you to the hospital."

"See?" Burt said with a relieved smile. He knew more than anything that was him they were talking about.

"Thank you," Harry told him, relieved that Teddy was safe.

Teddy went to answer but the lurching of his stomach prevented any words from coming out of his mouth. Gagging, he only got to a rubbish bin quickly enough because of the man.

"There you go," he said in a comforting voice. "I'll go tell the other's that you're up."

He left and Teddy got up. He remembered enough to know that his hair changed colors. That was all he needed to know. The others probably hated him now, and for good reason. He lied to them. Victorie probably told them all about the Wizarding World.

"No, she wouldn't do that," Ginny shook her head. "But I'm sure his friends are worried about him and not hating him."

"That group is pretty tightknit," Carol told her. "Unless Teddy did something to hurt the group, they'd be worried."

"Gah!" he groaned. All that thinking was making his head hurt.

"John?" a woman knocked on the door. "I brought some of Kurt's things out for you if you wanted to get changed."

"How tall is Kurt?" Harry asked, trying to get a mental picture of whether the clothes would work.

"About 5' 10"," Burt said. "Why?"

"Ted's pretty tall, I just wanted to see if those clothes would work for him since it's not like he could change his height to fit them," Harry explained and Burt nodded.

Teddy smiled at her and she left to give him some privacy. Teddy sighed. He didn't want to go out there, but more importantly, that woman had begun to bring up thoughts about his family again. Thoughts he'd hidden.

"Ted knows he's practically ours right?" Harry asked, hoping his godson hadn't been hiding yet another secret from him.

"He does, but Harry he probably does get envious of Lily, James, and Al," Ginny said with a sigh.

"Okay," he groaned as he changed. "Let's go face the mob."

Opening the door, he saw not of the angry faces he'd expected but the concerned faces of his friends and allies.

"Figured," Cooper said with a smile, happy that Ted's fears proved to be unfounded.

"You okay John?" Mr. Schue asked. Teddy nodded but was confused. What was he doing here?

"Sam called me," the teacher explained. "Said that you lot had been drinking and that I needed to come and pick all of you up right away."

"Thank Merlin for Sam," Ginny sighed. "I don't want to think about what could have happened to those kids with only one sober driver."

"Apparently, you running out shocked them all sober," the woman who brought him his clothes said, giving a look to Finn and Kurt. Why Finn received a look, Teddy had no clue, as Finn had been the only sober one there.

"But he was still underaged and around alcohol," Carol shook her head. "Finn wants to go to college and being arrested for underaged drinking could destroy that."

"Will came and got me," the man who'd woken him up explained. "Kurt blurted something about you running off and Finn went to help me look for you."

"Dude, we thought you'd O.D'd or something," Finn said and Teddy looked down. He didn't want to worry them. He had wanted to get out of there before they started calling him a freak.

"According to Kurt, Glee club is the club of 'freaks'," Burt said, making air quotes around the word freak. "They'd never call him that."

"Mr. Schue along with Mrs. Weasely really chewed us out," Rachel said and winced at the sound of her voice but carried on, "for letting you run out."

"Fleur was here?" Teddy asked, turning his head to his girlfriend quickly but regretted it as the swift movement was enough to make him gag again.

"Trash can!" the man shouted and Finn tossed a rubbish bin over to him. Teddy forced up something –how that was possible when he'd not eaten anything since he'd woken up he didn't know.

"Oh it's possible," Harry said with a shudder, remembering the day after Ron's wedding.

"I told you to eat something," Ginny shook her head.

"First time hung over?" Rachel asked in a sympathetic tone.

"Yeah," Teddy nodded. The woman passed him some crackers and some odd colored liquid.

"Saltines and Ginger Ale," she said with a smile. "Thought it'd be best on an upset stomach, and yes she was here. She picked up her daughter."

"That won't be pleasant for Vic," Harry sighed. Fleur was a great mom but even he would have given Ted a stern lecture for being underaged and drinking.

Mr. Schue got up and grabbed his coat. "Well Burt, I see there's no need for me to be here."

"Wait, Will," Burt got up and whispered something to Mr. Schue. Schue nodded and whispered something back to him. Teddy grew nervous. What if they were still going to kick him out?

"I would never do that," Burt said firmly.

"John, you alright?" Quinn asked.

"Just fine," he said. "Umm…ma'am? Where's the bathroom?"

The woman smiled and pointed him in the right direction. His departure was the cue for the rest of the Gleeks to start the inquiry session.

"Okay," Rachel started the session off, "what was up with John's hair at the party?"

"You still remember that?" Santana groaned. "You were pretty wasted Berry."

"And I'm writing that down to inform her parents when and if this party ever happens," Burt said, writing something down on a scrap piece of paper that was in his pocket.

"I can still remember it as well," Puck defended Rachel. "I think most of us remember our class mate's hair changing colors like that."

"That was messed up," Mercedes shook her head.

"I guess to Muggles it would be," Harry sighed but hoped Ted never heard his friends say that. It would probably seem like confirmation of his deepest fears.

"What about when he took off like that?" Mike asked. "What do you think was up with him?"

"Maybe he's a wizard?" Brittney suggested. Everyone looked at her as if she had two heads. "What?"

Ginny and Harry stared at the pages in shock. They hadn't suspected that one of the kids would have guessed so soon.

"Typical Brittney," Burt chuckled.

"Britt, wizards don't exist," Quinn said and Brittney shrugged. No one else commented after that.

"Hey," Rory grinned at Teddy as he walked back. "So, you okay?"

Teddy nodded. "Yeah I'm good."

"Good, so let's find out what the hell was up with your hair," Santana said with a smirk. Teddy groaned and instantly a trash can ended up in front of him.

"Oh," Blaine flushed at Teddy's raised eyebrow. "That wasn't a 'I'm gong to puke' groan?"

Cooper couldn't help but chuckle at his little brother's reaction. He probably would have done the same thing.

"No, that was a 'I'm not talking about that' groan," Teddy said. "It's a British male thing."

Some of the more gullible members of Glee—Puck and Brittney—bought it. Finn and Rachel didn't seem persuaded.

"Thank Merlin some of them at least bought it," Harry sighed. He did not envy Ted that stress.

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Monday brought even new challenges. Teddy was ducking each glee member in the hall, except for Puck and Brittney. Victorie had been sent back to Hogwarts by Fleur as punishment for being around alcohol—to the disappointment of all the males at McKinley.

"Hey Thomas!" one of the hockey players shouted. Teddy's eyes widened before they began to burn. Some cold liquid had just been thrown into his face.

"Oi!" Harry exclaimed in outrage. Ginny glared at the pages that led one to believe it might be possible for them to catch on fire.

"Slushies," Burt said with a grim look on his face. "They're common unfortunately. Kurt's gotten his fair share of them. Oh he hides it but I see the staining on the collar of his shirts."

"Ooh!" Mike winced and led him to the boy's bathroom. There, they could see Sam wiping off his own face.

"Slushie?" Sam asked.

"Slushie," Mike nodded. Teddy got cleaned off and went to class. The rest of the week was hell, with the exception of Mr. Schue's proposal getting accepted.

"At least Ted's got some friends to help him with that," Harry sighed and ran a hand through his hair.

"Brilliant," he whispered and his thoughts moved to Victorie. Maybe one day they'd have a family of their own…maybe.

"Aww!" Carol smiled, happy for the young boy.

"John," Mr. Schue said as they left. "Can I talk to you for a moment?"

"Sure Mr. Schue," Teddy nodded. "What's up?"

He noted that Ms. Pillsberry was still there as well, something which made him extremely nervous.

"When Mr. Hummel called your place, he got the machine," Mr. Schue said. "I called the number you put down for your parents' cell phones. The one on the handout you got when you first arrived at McKinley."

Teddy nodded, not sure where his teacher was going with this.

"Oh crud," Harry exclaimed.

"What is it?" Ginny asked, concerned.

"Ted's number. What are the odds that it's fake?"

"Schue's a good man, he won't do anything," Burt told them.

"I got your machine," Schue said. "I thought I had misread it so Mr. Hummel gave it a try. He also got your machine."

Teddy gulped. He'd snuck in and changed the number after Santana had given him the phone as a sign of alliance.

"On the other hand, he's also not an idiot as much as he likes to prove otherwise," Burt sighed. "I don't know what'll happen now."

"John, we don't want to frighten you," Ms. Pillsberry said gently. "We just want to know where your parents are."

Teddy stayed silent.

"Look John, you're seventeen. It's not right for anyone to have to take care of themselves," Mr. Schue said.

Teddy scoffed. "According to all the teachers, we're supposed to be learning to take care of ourselves. I don't see why it matters now."

"He…..has a good point," Cooper said reluctantly. "I'm not saying he should be by himself but he's almost 18. If he wasn't a wizard, he'd be getting ready to go to college where he would be taking care of himself."

"Not to mention 17 is the age of majority in the Wizarding World," Harry told him. "While we wouldn't want Ted to move out any time soon, he'd be well within his rights to do so."

"You're still a minor," Ms. Pillsberry said. "You need someone to take care of you."

"We're only going to ask one more time John," Mr. Schue said, "and then we're asking Mrs. Weasley. Where are your parents?"

"Bringing the Fleur card," Ginny winced. "Fleur's great, but she'd probably be honest."

"Here's a question though," Burt pointed out. "Ted'd be an exchange student. Why are they acting like his biological parents would be there?"

"I'm not sure," Carol told him. "Maybe it'll be answered in another page."

"Speaking of which, that was the last page of this chapter," Cooper told them. "Who wants to read next?"

"I will," Ginny told him and took the pages. "How about one more page and then a break? I don't know about you, but I'd like to see if food would be provided by whatever entity took us here."

"Agreed," Harry nodded.