The next day however, Teddy was swarmed by owls as the morning post arrived.
"These owls are attacking us!" Arjun screamed trying to cover his head.
Teddy laughed. "Relax, I think these owls are from my family." The entire table was busy picking out their morning post however, most of the people his age were looking over at him with interest.
His owl Moony was carrying a letter from his Gran, Quaffle (named so by James) was carrying a letter from Harry, Fluffy (named so by Carina, who had taken an instant liking to the baby owl as it hatched from its egg) was carrying a letter from Draco, Pig was tweetering madly hopping around, carrying a letter from Uncle Ron- for an old owl he was still pretty crazy. Teddy laughed, nearly every Weasley had sent him a letter.
"You got a big family there Lupin." A dark haired boy said with a grin. "Trent Davies." He added stretching out his hand. Teddy shook his hand and introduced himself. Apart from Arjun and Trent, a boy called Michael O'Connor was their last dorm mate. He was Samuel's younger brother. There were three girls in Teddy's year too. Sarah Andrew, who was a half-blood, Samantha Collins a muggleborn and Penny Smith, niece of Zacharias Smith- to Teddy they looked like a pretty okay lot.
To Teddy and Adam's delight, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw had their first class of the day together. Their potions master was Professor Blaise Zabini who had the gift of keeping the class quiet without even trying to but the thing with Professor Zabini was that you would want to hear and pay attention to everything he had to stay. For Teddy it was a different experience altogether, because he knew Blaise loved being noisy, his son Alex loved blasting or banging things and Blaise often complained that Alex's naptimes were uncomfortably quiet for him. However, he made potions sound easy and fun and Teddy who was already trained over the summer by Draco and Blaise had no difficulty in concocting a simple cure for boils with his partner Adam. They spent the last fifteen minutes of the class talking about their dorms and common rooms. At the end of the period Blaise requested Teddy to stay back.
"Well, Ted, I am glad that you ended up in my house. Although I am quite surprised that Draco didn't send you a howler."
Teddy laughed. "Aunt Tori probably threatened him." Blaise grinned. "Probably. Now if you have nothing better to do, come visit me on Saturday for tea. I would like to know about your first week at Hogwarts."
"Sure thing, Bla-err- Professor Zabini."
Their next class was Defence against the Dark Arts with Slytherins. Teddy ran in, worried he was late, he had just spotted Arjun, Trent and Michael and was making his way to them when two people blocked his path. "And here comes the freak." Said a thin boy with brown hair while his companion laughed; Teddy didn't even know why they were being mean to him.
"Excuse me." He said politely, mentally shrugging at the bullies. The other boy tripped Teddy and he went knocking into a desk. "Hey!" Teddy shouted, turning to glare at the boys, he had hurt his hand pretty bad and it was bleeding. "Why did you do that?" By now the entire class watching the three boys, Teddy's hand was throbbing so bad that his concentration slipped and his hair turned auburn, a sign of his distress. The entire class gasped as the two boys guffawed. "You are such a freak, Lupin." The first one said again.
"Leave him alone, Avery." A girl said with her hands on her hips, her blue eyes sparkling angrily.
"Oh come on, Flint. You have to agree wolfy here is a big time freak."
"He is a Metamorphmagus, you prat. Leave him-"
But Teddy's hair had already turned pitch black as his eyes. "What did you call me?" He asked angrily.
"Aww.. is the fweak angwy." The other boy said in a baby voice. "Will he ask daddy to come bite us? Oh wait-" And the boys started laughing again before yelling in surprise as both of them were knocked into the desks by an unknown force and Teddy had his wand out. Teddy's hair and eyes were going back to brown when he decided he would keep them their normal colour. "I don't need my dad to do anything, he taught me well." Teddy said smoothly before turning to face Flint.
She still had her hands on her hips and her eyes were narrowed as she surveyed him. "You really didn't need to do that." She said pompously, "But they needed it, they have been acting as world class prats since last night. Ashley Flint" She said with a grin and extended her hand to him. "Err… Teddy Lupin" Teddy said, he held up his bleeding his hand to show why he didn't shake her hand, the roots of his hair turning pink, she really was pretty.
"You should get your hand healed. Go to the hospital wing. I will tell Professor Thomas."
"No need. Miss Flint. I am already here." Dean Thomas said materialising next to Ashley who shrieked along with the entire class.
"The disillusionment charm, students. It was very helpful at some point. Still is." Professor Thomas said. "Now please take your seats. Avery, Bulstrode stand up straight, the jinx was not strong enough for you to keep complaining. I can't believe students from my house are behaving as such belligerent fools on the first day itself." Professor Thomas snapped. "And 20 points from Slytherin for indiscipline and bullying. You are lucky I am not handing out detentions just yet but I will be writing to your parents."
Teddy had quietly slunked to sit next to Trent, who patted his back understandingly. "Lupin." Teddy jumped. "Yes Professor."
"Your hand." Professor Thomas took Teddy's hand and healed it wordlessly as the non- magical children in class watched on fascinated.
"10 points from HufflePuff, Lupin and I will be informing Professor Zabini about it." Teddy hung his head in shame. First day of school and he had already lost his house 10 points. "I understand that you were provoked but you could have ignored them, instead of jinxing them." Teddy nodded.
"Hey, don't worry mate." Trent whispered to Teddy. "My dad swears to this day that your dad was the best DADA teacher they ever had." Teddy gave Trent a small smile but soon all his misery was forgotten as he listened to Professor Thomas talk about basic defensive spells, he maintained that his teacher taught them that mastering the basic spells could save lives. While the rest of the class listened on fascinated, Teddy smiled; his mum and Uncle George had told him all about Dumbledore's Army and who Professor Thomas' teacher was.
The rest of Teddy's day flew by with relative ease till he was pulled aside by Professor Zabini after dinner.
"I heard you got in trouble in Professor Thomas' class?"
Teddy hung his head. "Yes."
"Avery and Bulstrode, huh?"
Teddy nodded glumly.
"They are a bunch of misguided fools. Don't mind them. Their parents were living secure lives far away from England during the second war. They know nothing. We used to be the same. Just don't go picking fights with them. Okay?"
Teddy nodded.
"By the way what did they do to make you so mad? I have known you all your life, you rarely get angry enough to want to hurt someone."
Teddy looked up with tears in his eyes. "They made fun of Moony Da. About him being a werewolf."
"Oh, Teddy!" Blaise said, giving Teddy a quick hug. "Don't pay attention to such idiots, okay? Your dad was one of the best people I ever met. Almost like a father figure in my life. He helped me through a lot of difficult things and don't let anyone make you feel bad about his condition. You should be proud. Life was so unfair to him and yet, he was such a strong and kind man."
Teddy nodded, wiping his eyes and giving Blaise a small smile.
"Now, why don't you go reply the gazillion letters you received this morning? And I think you would need some chocolate to keep up your energy." Blaise said with a mischievous smile.
Teddy grinned and nodded.
"Alright, on your way to your common room, you would pass a portrait of a fruit bowl, just tickle the pear and that's how you get to the kitchens. Okay?"
"I can't believe you just told me how to get to the kitchens." Teddy said with a sly grin.
"You knew? How?"
"Uncle George. Uncles Padfoot, and Prongs; Moony Da, and Dora Mum too."
Blaise laughed. "Then get going, will you?"
"Yes Professor." Teddy said solemnly before turning and jogging away.
"Oh and Teddy?" Blaise called. "If anyone asks, I was reprimanded you so strictly that you were in tears. Okay?"
Teddy flashed him a grin and a thumbs up before turning a corner and disappearing away. The other first years were waiting for him in the common room, sitting at a round table in a corner when Teddy returned with his arms laden with chocolate chip muffins.
"Where did you get these from?" Arjun asked awed as Teddy dropped the muffins on the table.
"The kitchens." Teddy said with a shrug.
"Sweet." Sarah said as she grabbed a muffin, the others nodded their agreement as they dug in.
"Where is Michael?" Teddy asked, noticing that Michael was not with them.
"With his brother." Penny replied. "He was freaked out about Professor Zabini dragging you out after dinner."
"And I told him Professor Zabini was the most chilled out Professor at Hogwarts. No one has ever seen him get angry." Samuel O'Connor said as he approached the table, Michael in tow. He frowned when he saw the muffins on the table.
"Professor Zabini told you about the kitchens, didn't he?" He asked Teddy as the others watched on with interest.
Teddy gave a non-committal shrug.
"Sweet!" Samuel's friend Dean Clarke said coming over to the table. "So, who was it this year?"
"What are you guys talking about?" Trent asked.
"Well, every year naturally some or the other first year gets in trouble within the first week and Professor Zabini tells them the way to the kitchens, after 'reprimanding' them." Dean said, rolling his eyes. "So, who was it this year?"
The table stared at Teddy. "Nice. So, what did you do kid? Lose your way? Melted a cauldron because you weren't listening to him-"
"He jinxed two Slytherins who were bullying him in Professor Thomas' class." Arjun added helpfully.
Dean whistled. "Next time they do something like this, just ignore them. They are idiots and you don't want to get in trouble with Professor Zabini." Samuel said seriously. The table looked at him dubiously as Dean laughed.
"Come on Samuel! Just tell them the truth."
"Dean."
"Okay, here is the story kids, Professor Zabini is a marshmallow. He will really reprimand you if you cross a line but that rarely happens. Otherwise, he appears to look strict but he is a Teddy bear. I am serious. There is a reason no Hufflepuff crosses the line. You would hate to disappoint him." Dean said before turning to Samuel and saying, "And that's how you do it."
Samuel rolled his eyes. "Just don't do anything funny in front of Professor Boot; he is the transfiguration teacher. He threatened to turn Dean into a rat once. All the teachers are quite alright and fair. Just don't give them a chance to put you in detention. Okay?"
The kids nodded and went back to chatting among themselves about their first day and planning to start with homework together from the next day before heading to bed.
So another chapter done. Next up! snippets of letters from everyone. I plan to move through the early years pretty quickly. Yes, it could be that Teddy would date Ashley Flint for a while. I am not saying, just hinting at stuff.
And to all those who asked me to write about things from Teddy's point. Hello! Here is a fic. Why don't I see any reviews or likes or follows?
Anyway, Please do read and review. Happy Reading.
Much love
The fishes.