Note: I would like to reveal that somewhere in this story so far is a Big Clue as to where this story is heading...
That's got you wondering, hasn't it?
Thanks to my reviewers!
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor am I making any profit from this piece of information.
9: The Warning
Teddy's excitement dulled a little after his long wait standing just outside of the staff room, and he was just beginning to think that the teachers' meeting would never end when at last the door opened and the teachers began to file out of the room, a few offered him a small nod as they passed, whilst the majority ignored him entirely. Crossing each professor off a mental list in his head, Teddy found that Remus and McGonnogal were the last to leave, but after Professor Flitwick, nobody else came out into the corridor. It was then that Teddy heard the Headmistress's voice from within.
"Remus?"
Shuffling forwards a few steps, Teddy peered into the room just in time to see his father come to a halt halfway across the room in order to turn his back on the door to look at Professor McGonnogal. The elderly witch had an envelope clutched firmly in both hands, her grip causing the paper to pucker and crease.
Teddy glanced up the corridor just in time to see Professor Flitwick disappear around the corner, and so he shuffled forwards and pressed himself up against the wall, listening intently.
"I've...I've had a letter from the Ministry." the boy heard the Headmistress announce warily. "From the Office of the Werewolf Registry, to be precise. They say they mean to...visit Hogwarts later today."
Teddy peered around the corner again and could just about make out Remus dropping down into an armchair, reaching to run a hand through his hair with an audible sigh.
"Has this to do with Moirai Cantrall?" he asked, and McGonnogal gave a small nod.
"That and the attacks the Prophet reported yesterday, I suspect. They're doing the rounds."
Attacks? Teddy frowned deeply and silently cursed the fact that he had shunned his usual reading of the Daily Prophet the previous morning, in favour of sulking in bed for an extra half an hour. He had heard nothing about any attacks...
Why had Remus not mentioned them in Hogsmeade?
"Who are they sending?" Remus asked, and the Headmistress sounded distinctly displeased when she replied:
"Artemis Carrow-Smyth."
"For the love of Merlin...!" Remus muttered, and Teddy felt his heart begin to race at the mention of the name Carrow.
"I know." McGonnogal muttered, and Remus got to his feet, shaking his head somewhat despairingly. "Still, they've nothing on you, it's just routine questioning, I expect."
"Artemis Carrow Smyth doesn't do routine questioning." Remus told her darkly, and Teddy hurriedly ducked back around the corner as the werewolf turned and began to walk towards the door. "Dora says Kingsley's forever calling him into his office and complaining about his manner. They can't get rid of him, though, they can't get a majority vote from the Wizengamot to sack him."
"I'm sure you'll be fine." McGonnogal called after him, tone not nearly as confident as Teddy would have liked. Teddy was just backing off down the corridor a little, ready to pretend to be passing by when he heard the Headmistress call again: "Remus?"
Remus paused in the doorway to look over his shoulder.
"Minerva?"
"Try not to let him haul you off to Azkaban for no decent reason, will you?"
Remus' rather grim chuckle sent a shiver down Teddy's spine, and he felt so overwhelmed by this sudden, confusing development that he quite forgot to start walking. When he finally blinked himself out of his panic, he found that Remus had come to a halt outside of the room and was staring at him, eyebrow raised.
"Hi Dad..." the boy mumbled awkwardly, shoving his hands into his pockets. "I was just coming to look for you..."
"Really?" As he turned to lead the way up the corridor, Remus sounded distinctly disbelieving. "Well, you've found me."
"Yep..."
"Did you happen to find Professor McGonnogal too?"
At this question, Teddy flinched.
"No..." he mumbled, and when Remus glanced round at him, more disbelieving still, he mumbled: "Well...I might have." He waited to see if Remus was at all angry, or whether he was going to scold him for eavesdropping, but the werewolf said nothing for a long moment. Teddy jumped at the chance to divert the conversation from his misbehavior, so he asked:
"Who's Artemis Carrow-Smyth?"
"He's in charge of keeping the Werewolf Registry up to date."
"Is he related to Amycus and Alecto Carrow?" Teddy hurried to catch up with his father, looking up at him as Remus frowned thoughtfully.
"They are his...second cousins, I believe." The werewolf glanced down at his son's worried expression before adding: "I don't imagine he ever met them. He certainly wasn't a Death Eater."
"What did Professor McGonnogal mean by attacks? Who's been attacked?"
"The Prophet didn't give names, but Ministry workers have been approached and threatened. Whoever did it was wanted to know their reasons for accessing the Werewolf Registry. And what with Moirai Cantrall's parents announcing her prophecy to anybody who'll listen...well...the Ministry are worried there is a connection, I suspect. Maybe they think somebody is trying to protect this...child Moirai mentioned, trying to stop people finding out who they are."
"And...Artemis Carrow-Smyth thinks...thinks you've got something to do with it?"
"What he thinks is irrelevent, Teddy. I've nothing to tell him."
"How come McGonnogal's worried he'll chuck you into Azkaban then?"
Remus chuckled darkly again, his eyes fixed upon the corridor ahead.
"That was a joke."
"It didn't sound like a very good one."
"No," Remus agreed, voice little more than a sharply exhaled breath that Teddy could barely make out. "It wasn't." He cleared his throat meaningfully, and his tone was instantly lighter. "Artemis Carrow-Smyth is not a great fan of mine..."
"Why?"
"That doesn't really matter, the point is he can dislike me as much as he likes, I haven't done anything wrong. You just forget about him, Teddy. This is all going to blow over soon enough, they'll conclude the prophecy is false, or they'll work out what it means and arrest whoever needs arresting. We can forget the entire thing."
"What about the person attacking the people from the Ministry?"
Remus shrugged somewhat impatiently as they rounded the corner, heading for the Defense Office.
"There are plenty of werewolves who want the Register destroyed all together, Teddy. They think it an infringement of their rights, they don't want employers or the Ministry checking up on them all the time, or to feel like they've been branded. This was probably just some form of protest, it's happened before in the past."
Teddy frowned at the realization that his father seemed to be using lots of words like probably and maybe. It wasn't like Remus to use such speculation, either he knew something for sure or he kept his mouth shut. The boy could not help but wonder if he was being entirely frank and honest. He wanted to tell Chester and Victoire everything he had heard, to see what they made of it, but before he could make his escape he remembered why he had sought out his father in the first place.
"Dad, I was wondering, do you know any other werewolves like you? Who have children?"
Remus was silent for such a long moment that Teddy wondered if he had heard the question.
"Dad...?" he tried, and with that Remus sighed heavily, coming to an abrupt halt. The werewolf turned to face his son, his expression uncharacteristically stern.
"No, I don't." he told the boy somewhat bluntly, and Teddy felt his father's hands come to rest heavily upon his shoulders.
"I was only wondering..." the boy mumbled, taken aback, only for Remus to shake his head.
"No, Theodore, you were not only wondering. You want to work out who the Dark Creature's child is. Well, I'm telling you now, your curiosity ends here."
Teddy stared at him, wide eyed for a long moment as he digested this surprisingly blunt tone.
"But...if I figure it out, everybody will stop thinking I..."
"No, Theodore." Remus interrupted, his gaze so piercing that Teddy instantly fell silent. "I am being deadly serious. Listen to me, and listen carefully. None of this has anything to do with you, and to make it otherwise would be downright foolish, especially now that the Ministry is involved. Divination is a fluffy, inconsistent discipline, do not give anybody any reason to misinterpret the situation."
"But Dad..."
"No buts. Don't risk getting yourself into trouble! Merlin knows you don't want to get on the wrong side of Carrow-Smyth! Upset him and you upset half the members of the Wizengamot! Keep your head down and let the Ministry sort everything out. Do you understand?"
"I guess..." Teddy instantly regretted sounding sulky, for Remus' eyes widened in frustration and his grip upon the boy's shoulders tightened.
"I mean it, Theodore. No investigating, no curiosity, no wondering! I forbid it. I absolutely forbid it."
At this final declaration, Teddy gave an involuntary shudder. He was pretty sure that Remus had never forbidden him to do anything in his whole entire life. Of course there were things he shouldn't do; he shouldn't avoid eating his greens at dinner, he shouldn't let Chester copy his homework, he shouldn't swear. There were even things that Remus said he couldn't do; he couldn't play with his fanged frisbee inside the house, he couldn't play out in the woods after dark, and he couldn't stay downstairs in the evening once a month to watch his parents prepare for the coming full moon.
But Remus had never actually forbid him anything. Let alone absolutely forbid...
"Okay, Dad." Teddy agreed, forcing himself to look up into the werewolf's eyes. "I won't do anything, I promise." As he held his father's gaze, it dawned on the child that Remus was not furious as he had first seemed. Watching relief spread across his face, Teddy realized that he had been worried, panicked. Teddy was not sure whether this made him feel any better, it merely increased his suspicions that Remus' assurances that everything would work itself out were false. He felt nervous about Artemis Carrow-Smyth turning up to ask Remus questions, no matter how innocent the werewolf was.
As if he could read the child's thoughts, Remus sighed heavily, patting his son reassuringly upon the shoulder.
"I know you won't. You're a sensible boy." he said, smiling faintly.
"Mum doesn't think so." Teddy said, smiling back at him in an attempt to lift the atmosphere. "She said so in her letter the other day."
"Yes, well," Remus' smile widened as he turned and began to lead the boy down the corridor, hand still upon his shoulder. "Sensibility is not part of your mother's every day vocabulary, she doesn't know what she's talking about."
Teddy sniggered, glad of the easy conversation after such a dire warning.
"Can we have hot chocolate?" he asked hopefully, for sitting down in his father's office to talk over a mug of hot chocolate always made him feel better, no matter what the circumstances were.
"There's a bag of marshmallows in my desk."
Teddy was pretty sure nobody had ever felt as delighted by the mention of marshmallows as he had just then. He was just compiling a mental list of questions he wanted to pose to his father; what are the actual chances of you being arrested? Are you worried about talking to this Carrow-Smyth man? Why does he hate you so much? This has nothing to do with the Child, it's more about you than anybody else; when they rounded the final corner and spotted somebody waiting for them by the office door.
The waiting man looked, Teddy thought, rather like an upper class scarecrow. He had a thin, pinched face and a shock of straw-like blonde hair that stuck out at all angles, as if a bird had made it's nest atop his head. His dark green, velvet robes hung limply on his skeletal body as he stood, arms folded across his chest. He stared at father and son through mismatched, beady eyes.
Teddy felt Remus' hand withdraw from his shoulder and, with the unsettling gaze of Artemis Carrow-Smyth upon them, the werewolf's son felt the loss of the assuring weight acutely.
"Remus Lupin?" the man inquired as they neared him, and teddy thought his voice sounded somehow serpent-like.
"Yes..." As they neared the door, Remus reached to give Teddy a gentle push to keep him walking down the corridor. "Go back to Gryffindor Tower, Teddy."
"And Theodore, I believe." Carrow-Smyth observed as Teddy passed him, causing the boy to pause and look up at him. Teddy immediately wished that he had kept walking; for the man's staring with mismatched eyes, one dark grey, the other a blank, milky white, was unnerving.
"Theodore has homework to be getting on with." Teddy felt Remus' hand press against his back, and the child fixed his gaze upon his feet and began to march himself away down the corridor.
"He looks like Tonks." Teddy heard the man observe, and he could not help but get the impression that this was a fact that Carrow-Smyth found sickening in some way.
"Don't we all?" Remus murmured as he reached to open the door. "Shall we?"
As soon as he heard the door closing behind them, Teddy broke out into a run, heading straight to the library to find Chester and Victoire.