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Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor am I making any profit from this piece of writing.

5: Delirium

The room was suddenly bursting with noise, screams and the scrape of wood on stone as the students leapt to their feet, gasps and exclamations of horror filling the air.

"Oh Merlin!"

"Professor?!"

"Is he okay?!"

"Somebody get help!"

Teddy vaulted over his desk and shoved his way through the crowd that was surrounding their teacher's collapsed form.

"Dad?!" he cried, falling to his knees beside his father, reaching to lay a hand on his shoulder. "Dad? Can you hear me?!"

There came a mumbled, vague response and Teddy strained to hear over the chaos that surrounded them, until a voice demanded:

"Everyone shut up! He's still conscious!"

There was immediate silence as Teddy bent down, his head practically on the floor.

"Dad...?" he tried again, only to jump when Remus' hand suddenly grasped hold of his arm.

"...an...." came the wheezed response, and Teddy grabbed hold of his father's hand.

"What is it, Dad? Tell me..."

"W...w..."

"Tell me, Dad!"

"...wand..." the werewolf finally managed, the word not much more than a sharply exhaled breath.

Teddy immediately shoved his free hand into his pocket and drew out his wand, pressing it firmly into his father's hand.

"Go on, Dad," he instructed, gripping Remus' fingers to ensure that the wand did not slip from his feeble grasp. "Do...something..."

A thin wisp of silvery light trailed from the wand's tip and quite suddenly vague whispers filled the air, causing the class to look around them for the source of the noise.

Help me...somebody help me...in the classroom...the Ministry...for the love of Merlin...somebody find Dora...

"What's going on?" whispered a girl to Teddy's left, only for Chester to whisper:

"Shut up! He's trying to concentrate!"

"Yeah, but what's he doing?"

"He's trying to contact the Order of the Phoenix." Teddy supplied, gripping his father's hand more tightly. "C'mon Dad, you can do it..."

And quite suddenly a great silvery figure burst forth from the tip of Teddy's wand, streaking through the nearest wall at lightening speed, causing several of the students to jump backwards in alarm.

"Thank Merlin," Teddy breathed as yet again everybody started talking at once. "Now hang in there, Dad, everything's going to be alright, I promise...Dad?"

Remus' grip upon the wand had suddenly gone limp.

"He's fainted, Ted." Chester announced from his position staring down at the professor's pale face.

It was mere minutes later when the classroom door burst open and Professor McGonnogal came gliding into the room, making the students jump.

"Everybody out of the way!" she demanded, and they immediately parted to let her through. Wordlessly she bent down and reached to press her hand to the werewolf's forehead.

"Andrew has gone to fetch Madam Pomfrey, Professor." a Ravenclaw boy informed her, but she did not appear to hear him. She reached to cautiously pull open Remus' mouth, before squinting inside.

"Oh Merlin," Teddy heard her mutter to herself, before she straightened up and declared: "Everybody back to their common rooms! Go on, now, off you go!"

"Is Professor Lupin going to be okay?" Chester wanted to know, but he was ushered towards the door with the rest of the class.

"Yes, yes, of course he is. Now go on, out!"

Teddy did not move a muscle. When the Headmistress turned to face him he planted his feet stubbornly upon the floor and said:
"I'm staying with my dad."

"Yes, of course you are." McGonnogal agreed, just as Madam Pomfrey hurried through the door, pushing her way past the exiting students.

"Oh dear, Minerva! What on earth happened here?" she exclaimed, not waiting for an answer as she dropped to her knees beside Remus and began to examine him. Teddy suppressed a shudder at the limpness of his father's body.

"We better get him to the Hospital Wing." McGonnogal decided grimly. "Then I shall have to owl the Ministry. Let Tonks know her husband has been poisoned..."

"Poisoned?!" Teddy cried, feeling something constrict in his in alarm. "He's...he's been poisoned?!"

"He's going to be fine!" Madam Pomfrey told him briskly, reaching to draw her wand. "If we're quick, now let's get him out of here."

"If...if you're quick?!"

Teddy's panicked mumbling went ignored as a stretcher was conjured and the two witches set about moving Remus onto it. The boy watched numbly as his father was levitated towards the door. He shuffled along behind the adults, eyes upon his feet.

If they were quick?

What if they weren't quick? What then?

As the two witches continued to murmur hurriedly to one another, racing down the corridor as fast as they could without upturning the stretcher, Teddy struggled to keep up. His legs felt like dead weights, he didn't want to catch them up, to lay eyes upon his father's ghostly face again. The image seemed to be seared into his eyelids already, he wanted to stop and press his thumbs into his eyes until they throbbed, until the image disappeared. He wanted to sink to the floor and stay there, not follow them to the Hospital Wing. The risk of seeing an empty shell flop down upon a mattress was far too much for him, the very idea of witnessing such a thing...to see his father slip away before his very eyes...

Remus was not supposed to die. He was supposed to live forever, not simply drop dead one day leaving his son's world in pieces. Besides, fathers were immortal, it was a fact of life...

Except Grandad Tonks.

And Harry's dad James.

They had been immortal, too. Only somebody hadn't explained this to Voldemort or the Death Eaters. It hadn't been fair.

And here Teddy was, in the great, fairer new world that everybody had been fighting for, and it still wasn't fair.

It was wrong.

By the time he had reached the Hospital Wing, Teddy found that his father had already been deposited upon a bed and Madam Pomfrey was hurrying over towards her office, still babbling to McGonnogal who was on her heels.

The young Gryffindor drew in a deep, steadying breath, before shuffling over to his father's side.

Remus' face was deathly pale, even his lips seemed to have had the colour sapped from them, and his closed eyelids seemed unnaturally dark and heavy.

Teddy slowly reached to press a hand to his cheek, only to hastily draw away, for the icy temperature made him shudder. He bent forward, his mouth mere inches from Remus' ear.

"Dad...it's me, Teddy." he informed the lifeless figure clearly. "Listen...you're not allowed to die. It's against the rules. Your my dad, your not allowed to leave me, there's...there's not....not a war or...or anything...so...so you aren't allowed to die, okay? Being poisoned isn't a good enough excuse..."

There came pounding footsteps once again as Madam Pomfrey and Professor McGonnogal returned, the former carrying two large bottles full of...Teddy was sure that he didn't want to know what. McGonnogal was holding an empty bucket.

"What's in there?" Teddy asked as the bottles were set firmly down upon the bedside table, but he was ignored.

"First things first!" Madam Pomfrey announced, reaching to roll up her sleeves in a business-like fashion. "Let's sit him up."

Teddy shuffled backwards to allow the Headmistress closer to the bed and each witch took hold of an arm and pulled Remus up into a sitting position. They proceeded to tilt his head backwards and tip a generous amount of murky looking liquid from one of the bottles down his throat.

The werewolf immediately gagged and, to Teddy's shock, his eyes snapped open in alarm as he attempted to gasp for breath.

"Calm down, Remus!" Madam Pomfrey instructed firmly as he instantly began to struggle against the hands that were holding him firmly upright. "Don't struggle for Merlin's sake, your weak enough as it is!"

Remus did not appear to be listening to her. He wrenched his arm free of McGonnogal's grasp, only to flop down onto his side, coughing uncontrollably. Quite suddenly he reached to pull himself towards the edge of the bed, head lolling over the edge as he vomited violently onto the tiled floor.

McGonnogal sighed heavily, tapping her fingers upon the rim of the empty bucket.

"I'll owl the Ministry, shall I?" she muttered, setting the bucket down and turning to stride back towards Madam Pomfrey's office.

"That's it," Madam Pomfrey was saying as she lay a comforting hand upon the werewolf's shoulder. "That's good, very good..."

As Remus continued to empty the contents of his stomach and Merlin knew what else in a storm of coughs, spluttering and wheezing breaths, Teddy couldn't help but disagree. From where he was standing the whole scene looked far from good.

It was not for several minutes that Remus managed to pause long enough for Madam Pomfrey to asked:

"Finished? Good!" She seized him by the arm and hauled him back onto his back, causing him to give another spluttered cough. As she reached to pull a handkerchief from her pocket and hastily wiped the remnants of his encounter with the side of the bed from his face, Remus' eyes were blinking rapidly as if trying to clear his vision.

"Wha...?" he rasped, barely suppressing another series of coughs.

Madam Pomfrey bent down until her face was directly in front of him.

"Remus," she spoke slowly, as if speaking to a very small child. "You are in the Hospital Wing. I need you to stay very calm and not move about, okay? You've been poisoned, you need to save your strength. Do you understand?"

Remus stared at her blankly for a long moment before give a single nod.

"Good. Now I need you to drink this," she thrust the second bottle under his nose so that he could see it. "It will help to neutralize the poison..."

"Poison...?"

"Yes, Remus, the poison. You've been poisoned, remember? I told you just a moment ago."

"Oh."

Teddy felt his stomach twist into a worried knot as Madam Pomfrey reached to press a hand to the werewolf's forehead.

"It's starting already," she muttered grimly, glancing over her shoulder as McGonnogal made her way back towards the bed. "Minerva, I don't know how long it was before we got to him, but he's really in quite a bad way..."

"Where's Dora?" Remus mumbled, his eyes drifting closed as he spoke.

"I'm sure she'll be here as soon as she can." Madam Pomfrey assured him, reaching to uncork the bottle, only to freeze when he murmured:

"She's supposed to be at home. With the baby."

The two witches exchanged a worried glance.

"The baby...?" McGonnogal repeated as Madam Pomfrey set about measuring out a generous glassful of potion.

"Teddy." Remus explained, voice growing steadily more distant. "She's at home with Teddy."

"Remus...Teddy isn't a baby anymore..." the Headmistress reminded him gently, only for him to agree:

"Of course he isn't. He's at school."

"He's not making any sense." Teddy observed, clasping his hands together nervously in front of him.

"It's the poison." Madam Pomfrey explained as she hurriedly pressed the glass to her patient's lips. "Drink, Remus." she instructed firmly, before practically forcing the concoction down his throat.

As another round of spluttering coughs took hold of his father, Teddy squeezed his eyes closed. Please, he begged silently, please make him better, don't let him die, not now, not like this...

The coughing subsided quite suddenly at the sound of a soft thudding noise. Teddy's eyes snapped back open to see his father once again out cold upon the bed.

"What now?" McGonnogal asked quietly as Madam Pomfrey took a small step backwards, setting the glass down upon the bedside table.

"Now," the nurse said, "we wait."

Teddy went to fetch himself a chair.

Come the evening and Teddy had not moved from his seat. Some hours ago he had resorted to resting his head upon the edge of the bed, his statuesque vigil was making him drowsy. He counted the half hours every time Madam Pomfrey bustled over to check up on her patient. At first she had attempted to say something reassuring to him, but as time wore on her efforts became reduced to little more than a vague smile. Teddy skipped his dinner, refusing to leave his father's side, determined to be there when Remus woke up again.

At approximately one o'clock the following morning, Teddy drifted off to sleep.

When he woke up some five hours later, the bed was empty.

Remus was gone.

Teddy blinked to banish the sleep from his eyes, before getting hastily to his feet.

"Dad?" he called, looking about the room searchingly, only to find that he appeared to be entirely alone. He stumbled sleepily out into the aisle and headed to Madam Pomfrey's office.

"Madam Pomfrey...?" he called, tapping lightly upon the door.

"Yes, yes," came a voice from within, and Teddy jumped backwards slightly as the door was flung open before him. Madam Pomfrey bustled out onto the ward, carrying a familiar looking glass bottle. "I know what the time is, Mr. Lupin! I was just coming and believe me, five minutes isn't going to kill him..."

She stopped dead in her tracks.

"Where is he?!" she asked, rounding on Teddy as if it were entirely his fault.

"You...you don't know...?" Teddy stuttered, panic assaulting his insides, he felt as though his legs were about to buckle.

"No." Madam Pomfrey breathed, turning back to stare wide-eyed at the empty bed. "No, Mr. Lupin, I don't..."