Ted awoke later that day to someone shaking him.
"What it is?" he mumbled groggily only to find Q standing over him with a plate of food.
"Dinner. Friend is here," the man said, shoving the plate in Ted's hands before leaving the room.
"Can't we leave you alone for one day without the world falling to pieces?"
Ted's face broke into a grin as the voice of his best friend resonated throughout the room.
He looked towards the door to find none other than Victor Sage standing there with his arms crossed and glaring mockingly at Ted.
"How'd you get here?" Ted asked, patting the sofa to invite his friend to sit down.
"Ugh. Flew to the closest wizard community. Used the Floo to the train station. Took the train. Flooed from the London stop to your house. Aurors were still there. Huge mess to sort out. Flew around until I came here a few minutes ago," Vic said pausing to take a dramatic breath of air. "Oh and Roy stayed behind to look after some things," he added as an afterthough
Ted nodded before further communication was interrupted by Dr. Rodor walking into the room.
"My another one. We're going to need more rooms," the doctor exclaimed and Vic was quick to get up and offer him a polite bow.
"Sorry sir. I'm just here to pick Ted up. We can leave in a few minutes."
"Nonsense. It's almost dark out," the doctor exclaimed much to Vic's confusion, "And haven't you boys thought about packing? Teddy dear boy you've been in those clothes for two days!"
Vic and Ted exchanged looks.
"We can uhh go back to my house and fetch some supplies I guess," Ted said a bit nervously. He didn't like the idea of going back home but if Vic was with him he felt safer. Besides, the doctor was right, he couldn't spend the rest of his summer in the clothes he was wearing now….
"I'll get my son to drive you," the doctor said with a nod and Teddy instantly felt better. If Q was going with them he was sure everything would be fine. The man was a bit socially awkward but Ted felt that he had good intentions.
"PYLON! Where are you?"
Ted flinched ever so slightly at the doctor's shout but he sat down none the less as Vic watched the doctor leave the room with a quizzical expression on his face.
"Don't ask. I'll explain some other time," Ted said with a sigh and Vic gave a shrug before plopping down on the sofa once more.
"Your dad looks like shit," Vic muttered after a while and Ted nodded, picking at sandwich on his plate absentmindedly.
"Has he woken up?"
"He woke up this morning when he changed back," Ted replied as Dr. Rodor re-entered the room with another plate of food.
"I don't know where in bloody hell that boy ran off to," he muttered.
"He was here just a minute ago," Ted told him with a curious expression and Rodor sighed.
"Yes well. He has a knack for disappearing at random. Might be for a few minutes. Might be for a few weeks. I remember this one time I hadn't seen him in three months and the next thing I know he's brushing his teeth in the bathroom," Tot shook his head a bit in frustration before handing Vic some food.
"Eat first. If the pylon doesn't show up I'll get Richard to drive you."
Teddy nodded, and Vic shot him a confused look as the doctor once more left the room.
"A pylon's someone who doesn't do anything useful," Ted supplied and Vic's eyebrow went up even higher.
"Why would a father call his own kid that? No. He's not even a kid. That guy has to be 30 at least!"
Ted shrugged, "They don't like each other."
Vic gave a snort, "Yeah I can tell."
Teddy grinned a little, debating whether or not he should tell Vic about Q but he eventually decided against it. If it needed to be brought up Ted would ask the other man first he supposed.
"So. How was the Fair?" Ted asked, desperately wishing to change the topic.
"It's awesome Ted! I can't wait to show you. There's performers and tradesmen and animals and-"
Ted grinned as he settled down to his friend's excited rambling. It was good to see that some things never changed.
Q, much to Ted's unsuspected relief, came back only a few hours later sporting a new trench coat to replace the previous one.
As soon as he stepped through the door his father rounded on him to clean the dishes and drive Ted and Vic over to the Lupin house.
"And when you come back help set up…." The doctor trailed off and gave Ted a curious look.
Ted looked back, confused at what the doctor wanted but Q spoke up.
"Remus. Remus Lupin."
Tot didn't even bat an eye.
"Yes. When you come back help set up Remus in your room. It's not like you use your bed anyways. Helena can sleep with Myra for now."
"Hrmm," was the only reply as Q set out to the kitchen.
Teddy was starting to suspect that the Rodor family "pylon" actually did more than anyone else in the house. He was starting to see why Helena wasn't so fond of the idea. It didn't seem very fair really….
"Sorry you have to drive us," Ted said, poking his head around the kitchen a few minutes later.
"Don't mind."
"You don't mind much do you?" Ted asked but the man before him was silent.
"Come on. Let's give him a hand," Ted said and Vic frowned at first but eventually nodded.
Cleaning duties went smoothly and before long Ted and Vic were squished up in Q's pickup truck (Ted still didn't feel comfortable in the car) and were on their way.
The trip went smoothly and before long the trio was driving up the Lupins' driveway.
"Come on," Ted said, bullying Vic out of the truck and up the steps leading to the house.
"You think they'll still be people inside?" Ted asked, peering into the window only to find that the curtains were shut tight.
"Hmmm," Q replied, reaching for the door and all three of them were fairly surprised when it swung open on the first push.
"That's…not supposed to happen…" Ted muttered nervously.
"It's been a whole day and Aurors have searched the place. I'm sure it's fine Ted," Vic said, pushing the door open further.
"ANYONE HOME?" he shouted and Ted instinctively reached over to clamp a hand over his friend's mouth.
"It's your home Ted. You can shout as much as you like!" Vic protested as he struggled out of Ted's hold.
"Besides. If there were people here I'm sure they would have made themselves known by now," he said before entering the house.
"Yeah or maybe they're waiting to ambush us when we get inside," Ted muttered but he followed his friend inside anyways with Q bringing up the lead.
As the boys made a beeline for Ted's bedroom Q decided to wander off downstairs. Teddy secretly wished he had stayed but said nothing.
Entering his room he quickly turned on the light only to frown when the bulb above him did no more than flicker. They must have cut the power and mum hadn't been home today to fix it. Great.
"Here's your trunk," Vic said, pushing the large case out from underneath the bed, "Hurry up Ted. The faster you get your shit together the faster we can get out of here."
Ted nodded, running over to his dressers and flinging them open. He was pleased to see that whatever magic his mum and the Auror's had worked on here meant that everything that had been upturned by the intruders was back to its original place. It was like the break in hadn't happened at all. Still, whenever he opened up a new drawer Ted made a mental check that everything was where it should be and nothing was missing.
"Hey Vic, do you ever wonder what they wanted?" Ted asked after a moment, looking up from arranging his clothes into his trunk.
"Well your mom said nothing of value was taken. No money, no magical artifacts, no priceless jewelry. She did a full check. Even the laptop's still here," Vic said with a thoughtful frown as he lay on Teddy's bed.
"Just like Harry's place," Ted replied with a curious expression.
He gave the room around him a scrutinizing look. Nothing seemed out of place. His mother had said that nothing big was missing but surely those men wouldn't have gone through all that trouble if they hadn't taken something of extreme important right?
"What do you have that's worth a lot and your parents don't know?" Vic asked, peering down at Ted from the bed.
Ted frowned, "Nothing really. Everything I own comes from my parents unless it's gifts or something and the last person to give me a gift was-"
There was a pause and then Ted's eyes widened and he shot to his feet while Vic seemed to get the same idea as he left off the bed.
"HARRY!" they both shouted in unison, starring at each other for a moment in shock before springing into action.
Clothes flew everywhere as Teddy and Vic grabbed them and flung them across the room, desperate to reach the bottom.
Before long anything that had been in the trunk had been flung out and the boys were left staring at its bottom.
"It's not here," Ted breathed, staring in mute shock at the empty trunk before him.
"Dammit Vic! The Invisibility Cloak is gone!" Ted shouted, shaking his friend a bit by the shoulders before a new voice shouted.
"It'll be OK Ted. I'm sure Harry will understand."
"He'll understand alright but that doesn't mean he'll like it. I'm doom-"
"AUROR DEPARTMENT! NOBODY MOVE!"
"Click."
The boys jumped a good foot in the air and quickly turned around only to find the strangest of sight before them.
Two hooded men stood in the doorway. Wands drawn and pointing menacingly at the two boys but Ted for once ignored them.
Instead he was quite focused on the man behind the two Aurors.
For, trenchcoat, fedora and all stood Q. A gun in each hand and he was pointing them straight at the two Auror's heads.
"Drop them," the man said with steel in his voice and after a while two wands clattered noisily to the floor as the two petrified aurors hesitantly raised their arms up in the air.
"We don't want any trouble," one of the men said nervously and Ted frowned, thanks to the bad lighting it was hard to make out these Aurors' faces but that stutter sounded somewhat familiar.
"….Neville?" Ted asked, stepping forward a bit and he heard a sigh of relief come from the other man.
"Q it's OK," Ted said motioning for the man to put the gun down.
"The boys right. No need for guns now," the other one stammered. This one sounded older….
"What're you doing here?" Ted asked as Q pocketed his guns and Neville took a hesitant step forward into the moonlight from the windows.
"I'm in charge of guarding the place since your mother's moved to the Burrow for a few days," he said reaching to draw the hood away from his face so that Ted could be absolutely sure it was Neville Longbottom.
"I'm sure you've met Proudfoot," Neville went on as he introduced the older man by the door.
"Yeah. He was partners with my mum," Ted mumbled, scrutinizing the man a bit before turning his attention back to Neville.
"Why didn't you show up when we called?" he asked and Neville fidgeted nervously, "We thought we should ambush you when you came in."
"Told you so," Ted muttered at Vic beside him.
"Who's your friend?" Proudfoot growled, indicating Q standing behind them, leaning against the opposite wall.
"Umm," Ted said, faltering a bit.
"Robert," the man interrupted and Ted shrugged, "Yeah. My dad's staying at his place," he finished and Proudfoot turned to give the man a glare.
"You sure he's not the one who bloody shot him in the first place?"
It wasn't more of a question but rather a threat and Ted could feel the tension coming from Proudfoot as he glared at Q. Ted sighed. Why couldn't everyone just get along?
"No. I trust him," Ted said, trying to make his voice sound strong.
"Isn't it illegal to carry guns around?" Proudfoot accused.
"No more than it is to carry around that stick of death," Q muttered.
"Now now let's not fight," Neville said a bit nervously as he planted himself between the two men.
There was a tense silence as the Auror and the Agent stared at each other before Proudfoot shoved his wand back into his pocket and marched back down the stairwell without a word.
"Why do I have to put up with this?" Ted heard Neville mutter.
"So. Did you figure out who did it?" Vic asked in what sounded like a last ditch effort to change the topic.
"No. No leads. We don't even know what they took. We can only assume they believed something to be here but were unable to find it."
"But they did find it," Ted thought to himself as his mind briefly filtered back to the missing invisibility cloak.
He opened his mouth but closed it again.
It made sense. They'd go to Harry's first and when they didn't find the cloak there they'd search the next likely house. The last of the Marauders: His dad.
But that wasn't what stopped Ted from speaking his find out loud. It was more to do with guilt. If he told Neville about the cloak then he'd be admitting that it was all his fault.
It was his fault that they ransacked Harry's place, upsetting not only Harry but Ginny and their children as well.
It was his fault Neville and the rest of the Auror department was here and not at home with their families.
It was his fault his mum had to worry and above all. It was his fault his dad had almost died.
Teddy suppressed a shudder and glanced at Vic who gave an encouraging smile.
"We can tell them later if you want," Vic whispered as Neville took to sit on the bed.
"So Ted. You've grown up. How's your summer been?"
"It's OK," Ted mumbled not feeling like he should remind his father's student that he was out of home, travelling with an agent of the secret service, his mother was in tears and his father was hanging onto life by a mere thread.
"Yours?" Ted asked and Neville sighed.
"Yes well. I'm thinking about quitting the Ministry. Maybe get a job as a teacher."
"At Hogwarts?" Ted asked, perking up.
"Well no. I don't think Hogwarts needs a teacher any time soon. Maybe in a few years," Neville said rather thoughtfully, "To be honest I haven't really given much thought to it."
"If you come to work at Hogwarts that'd be really cool!" Teddy said encouragingly.
"Well. We'll have to see. But don't blame me when I give you detentions," Neville said with a smile and Ted grinned back.
"Now weren't you supposed to be packing?"
"Mmm. My friends are taking me to the Summer Fair up in Yorkshire," Ted said proudly, "This is Vic by the way," Ted said, pointing to his friend who looked down at the floor awkwardly as he was introduced.
"Nice to meet you."
"You too sir."
"Now come on this stuff isn't going to fold itself you know," Teddy said, dragging Vic towards the trunk.
As clothes were once more thrown into the trunk and Ted couldn't help but feel somewhat relieved that the nasty details of last night's ordeal had been avoided.
He was left talking to Vic and Neville about mundane topics like what school had been like in their first year and what they were going to do at the Fair once they got there.
It wasn't long before Ted and Vic waved goodbye to the Auror and ran outside to find Q waiting for them patiently by his truck.
As Q silently placed the trunk in the back and the boys got in, Ted found a small object dropped into his lap.
"Might want it," Q muttered as the engine roared to life.
Ted stared at the man for a beat before he shrugged to himself and fingered his father's wand with his hand.
"Thanks. I'm sure he'll want it back," Ted said lamely but he smiled at the long, smooth piece of wood none the less.
The rest of the car ride was silent. Vic was looking through the window to one side and Ted was busy admiring the wand in his lap.
It felt like only a few seconds had passed before Ted looked up to find that the engine had stopped and they were back at the Rodor house.
"You going out?" Teddy asked Vic, as Q opened the door to leave.
"No," Vic said with some force that made Ted raise and eye, "Not until you tell me what's going on!"
Vic turned to Ted with a frown and Ted only stared back in confusion at his friend's sudden change of attitude.
Something inside him told him that he'd known Vic had stayed quiet for too long during the car ride.
"If he's a Muggle how does he know about magic? Why's he carry guns in his pocket as if it's legal? What's with the pylon thing? Why do you call him Q? And how'd he know where your house was without you telling him?" Vic said, crossing his arms stubbornly.
Ted turned to look at Q who was by now standing just outside next to the car.
There was a silence for a while and Ted battled with what to tell his friend without giving everything away.
"I should tell Vic right? He's my best friend. He wouldn't tell anyone." Ted's thoughts were haywire and just when he'd come to the conclusion that yes. He would spill the beans. Q suddenly spoke up.
"Part of the Secret Service. Q is my job title," he said and both boys paused to stare at him in shock.
"Will bring your things inside," the man muttered as he left for the house.
Vic and Ted stared at each other for a beat with the same look of shock on each of their faces.
"He's part of the British Secret Service?" Vic whispered and Ted nodded uncertainly. Vic wasn't the one to whisper…
"So. He's Q? Like in the movies?"
Again Ted nodded.
There was another silence as Vic frowned and Teddy wondered what his friend would say. Was he suspicious? Members of the Secret Service certainly don't blurt their titles to random children right? Maybe Vic thought Ted was lying to him or…
"THAT'S SO COOL!" Vic shouted and Ted jumped in surprise.
"..or he can be Vic and shout at the top of his lungs," Ted thought to himself with a smile.
"I wonder if he's met James Bond. Well maybe there is no James Bond but there has to be a 007 right? I wonder what his name is. You think this truck's got a secret button that shoots missiles or something? Come on Ted help me look!"
Ted clamped a hand over Vic's mouth.
"First. You can't tell anyone. I don't think even his family knows." Ted whispered and Vic gave several silent nods before Teddy removed his hand in relief, "And second. This isn't his truck. It's his brother's truck so I doubt you'll find any missiles in here," he added with a grin only to burst out laughing when Vic whined:
"Ahh maaan! Why'd you have to spoil everything Ted?"
