Christmas Day came with the visits of Harry Potter, Andromeda Tonks and Kingsley Shacklebolt, all held hostage by the children as they insisted on showing off Teddy's new television before leaving.

Still, it wasn't like Teddy could just forget everything that was happening around him.

"I don't know who the owner of the Wand is Ted," Harry said in front of the TV that day, "It's been 12 years. Lots of people have managed to outduel me since that day. Ron, Hermione, even Ginny lets me have it some days," Harry said with a laugh, "And then at work there's a whole handful of other wizards. Even your father and Sirius have defeated me a few times."

Teddy perked up.

"You fought with Dad?"

Harry nodded.

"Yeah. It was right after I'd said I was joining the Auror program. I wanted your dad's help in training me to pass the exams. Didn't feel right asking your mother. She's the examiner after all."

Teddy laughed.

"But either way, the Elder Wand's owner could be anyone by now. It could be a pigeon for all I know."

"A pigeon?"

"Long story. Had a run in with a dark wizard in an owlery," Harry said, waving his hand in a mock form of protest but Teddy grinned just the same.

"The point is Ted, just relax. I doubt anyone will be able to track where I dropped the Stone and even if your suspect does, just because he has physical possession of the Wand doesn't mean he actually owns it."

"But what if he does?" Teddy protested, "You said yourself that you don't know who owns the Wand anymore. It could be anyone. Even Clair."

"Then we'll cross that bridge when we get there," his godfather told him firmly.

"Now that's enough talk. It's Christmas Ted and you're only 12! Let the adults handle this one and get back to playing."

Ted gave a frustrated huff but he waved his godfather off with a smile anyways.


The rest of the week passed without further incident thankfully. The other grownups often split into their own respective groups and Teddy entertained himself with his friends. Incidents and Masters of Death shifting to rest in the back of his mind although they never quite disappearing.

Vic had taken a firm attachment to Sirius, insisting that he teach him all his Marauder tricks and Sirius had happily obliged with the other children warily tagging along.

"Padfoot, you're being a terrible influence," Remus shouted after had sat upon the couch only to have red and gold sparks fly out from underneath him in a dizzying display.

Q, having made himself comfortable in the corner desk with his own laptop, was staring slightly wide eyed while Vic and Sirius' laughter could be heard in the other room.

"Why don't you three teach Celty how to fly?" Remus suggested as the children made their way into the living room followed by a still sniggering Sirius.

"Yeah! We could do that!" Vic said enthusiastically, "And Sirius can teach us how to surf standing up!"

Remus winced and gave his friend a look.

"Relax Moony, no one's going to break any necks around me," Sirius said, feigning hurt at his friend's lack of trust and Remus rolled his eyes as he sat back down on the couch.

"You better not or you're not coming within a mile of this house," he muttered as he watched his son lead a slightly frightened Celty out the door.

Remus tried to smile reassuringly to the girl but he think it turned out to be more of a wince.

"Q, give me the beer."

"It's good beer."

"I'm sure it is but you've already drank half the case and it's not even noon."

Remus fought back a grin as he turned to look at the couple in the corner of his living room. He hadn't even heard Helena come in.

"That'd be Sirius' fault," he spoke up instead, "Butterbeer can be a bit addicting at first I'm afraid."

"It's good," Q said bluntly, taking a swig from the bottle before it was snatched up by his wife.

"There's not much alcohol content," Q insisted but Helena ignored him as she walked out of the room.

"Ted! Look out you're going to-!"

CRACK

Remus winced and he spared a look out the window.

"I'm OK!"

Remus sighed. This was going to be a long week indeed.


Overall, it was a relatively relaxing break but by the time school started, all the tension building up in Teddy made him feel like he was ready to burst. The second he went back to the castle, Teddy couldn't help but feel that he should be doing something, anything, to help search for the Stone. It didn't even feel like the teachers were giving the impending crisis much thought at all.

His father had insisted they were thinking of a solution but a month slowly dragged by, January turning to February, and Teddy hadn't seen anyone even start up a search party.

"They're not doing anything to find the Stone," Teddy muttered angrily one day in the library. The boys had begun meeting there every day after class, drowning themselves in books that could help them know anything about the Hollows. So far, they'd turned up with nothing.

"Yeah. I'm with Ted on this one," Vic said, "It's like the adults think if they don't find it, Clair won't and this whole thing will blow over."

"But he will find it," Teddy insisted. He didn't know why but some part of him was certain that Clair would find a way to get the Stone. Wherever it was in the Forbidden Forest.

"Hi Teddy!"

The boys instantly snapped stopped talking when a voice behind Ted spoke up.

"Hey TK!" Vic said, pleased that it was only their first year friends, "We haven't seen you since Christmas. What's up?"

The blond boy grinned, "Nothing much."

"Where're your friends?" Teddy asked and TK pointed behind him.

"Kari's in the magical creatures section."

"And Clair?" Teddy prodded, slightly hesitant.

"Who's Clair?"

The three boys gave each other a startled glance. They should have known Clair would cover his tracks.

"Nevermind," Roy interrupted hastily, shooting Teddy and Vic quick glares.

"You know McGonagall asked me about a Clair too," TK said with a frown, "I told her I didn't know anyone named Clair."

"You must have-"

"Don't Ted," Roy hissed, "Don't get more people involved."

Teddy let out a frustrated sigh before switching back to his false cheerful self.

"Well, I'm sure McGonagall just wanted to ask some first year students. I think the rumor is that whoever this Clair is he's the one who broke into old man Dumbledore's tomb," Teddy lied.

TK looked aghast, "That's awful," the younger boy said and the other three nodded meaningfully.

"Just don't tell anyone. It's just a rumor," Teddy hastily corrected.

"Sure Ted. The secret's safe with me."

And with a final wave to his friends, the boy headed back to the stacks of books in the library.

"What do you think? Obliviated?" Teddy muttered and his friends shrugged.

"It's for the best really. That's two less people involved in this mess. Assuming Kari got the same treatment."

"And we can't really expect Clair to show up again here after all," Vic pointed out.

"It's for the best Ted."

"I don't even get why they became friends in the first place," Teddy complained, mostly to himself.

"Clair needed someone on the inside to keep him in the loop. TK and Kari probably seemed like a good start, they're first years and innocent enough," Roy explained with a shrug.

A gave his friend a glare at the nonchalance in Roy's voice but small part of Ted's mind agreed so he kept quiet. Still, it didn't mean he had to like it.

"I want to talk to Kari," Teddy said determinedly, pushing himself out of his chair and heading to the magical creatures section. He caught up with the younger girl relatively quickly as she was the only one in the section.

"He Kari!", Teddy said, his heavy footsteps signaling his arrival well in advance. Kari smiled at him and offered a polite hello as she tried to replace a book on one of the shelves.

"Hey Ted. Hope you had a nice Christmas. Mind giving me a hand?"

"Sure thing," Ted said beaming, taking half of Kari's book piles and went to work replacing them in the proper order on the shelves. "How was your break by the way?" Ted asked as he worked, keeping a sharp eye on any changes to Kari's expression as she spoke.

"It was alright. Matt and Travis had to study for their OWLs so TK and I got to explore the castle a lot on our own. Not many people stay over the break," Kari said.

"Cool. Did you see anything? You didn't find a three headed dog did you?" Teddy joked as Kari looked over at him with surprise.

"No...no three headed dog," Kari said with a laugh, "It was just some pixies, empty corridors, hidden entranceways, secret rooms. That kind of thing. It was fun," Kari added. "There's this really gross place that's full of slugs and slime. And there's another that's covered in mirrors like some crazy maze. Oh and there's this one that's full to the brim with cool artifacts and stuff."

Ted's ears perked, "That sounds cool. Where'd you find it?"

Kari shrugged, "On the seventh floor across from Barnabas the Barmy's tapestry. It seemed kind of dangerous though. I don't think a lot of the stuff in there is safe but TK snuck out at night to visit it a lot. It had this mirror in the corner that lets you see whatever you desire. He said he always saw his family in it. I think his parents are divorced..." Kari trailed off into a whisper but Teddy nodded at her in confirmation.

Kari gave a shrug. "I only went in once. Couldn't seem to find it again after that. I guess it only shows up for certain people."

She looked kind of dejected so Ted offered her a comforting smile as he put the last book in his pile onto the shelf.

"Did you see anything in the mirror?" Teddy asked, hoping to keep the conversation going but Kari turned such an alarming shade of red that Teddy just laughed, "It's alright. You don't have to tell me," he said with a grin as he waved goodbye to her. Kari continued to blush but she gave him a farewell wave in reply.

"Guys," Teddy said, breathless as he raced back to the table with his other friends.

They gave him equally questioning looks as Ted took his time to catch his breath before announcing in a low tone:

"I know where Clair hid the Elder Wand."


"This is so so so not a good idea," Vic muttered as he glanced nervously behind him to see nothing but pitch black.

Roy led the way holding a small ball of fire in his hand but otherwise the hallways of the 7th floor were rather eerie at night.

"Since when were you one to quit on an adventure?" Teddy whispered.

"When it's in a part of Hogwarts crawling with teachers that we've never even met before," Vic whispered back. It was largely true. Teddy and the boys had no reason to come to the 7th floor when all it had was the staircase that led to Divination. More unnerving to Vic though was that it also held a lot of teacher's offices that taught the third year and higher electives. If they were caught out after curfew, Teddy seriously doubted any of these teachers would let them off easy like Professors Bobo and Logan might.

"Just focus on getting into the room," Teddy said. "I don't know exactly but Harry said the Room of Requirement only shows up when we really, really need it so focus."

"It's like the 5th time we've walked up and down the same corridor Ted!" Vic argued.

Ted ignored him and continued to walk behind Roy as they followed the length of the corridor. Whenever they reached the opposite wall of The Barmy's tapestry though they would sigh in defeat as no door appeared before them.

"Maybe we should come back tomorrow," Vic said again after a few minutes of silence.

Ted growled in frustration.

"Come on!" he thought to himself as if the Room would be able to hear his thoughts, "We really do need to get back the Elder Wand. Who knows what Clair could do with it. Even though he's a vampire he's still a Muggle. He can't use magic! He doesn't know what he's getting himself into with this and we need to stop him before he does something irreversible. This is for the sake of the Wizarding World here!"

"There," Roy whispered, speaking up for the first time in ages and Teddy gave a sigh in relief when Roy's flames lit up the door that they'd been seeking for.

Vic gave a quiet whoop and ran over to the door, grasping the handle firmly before opening it to Ted's nod.

Ted stared open eyed at the huge room staked to the brim with objects of various shapes and sizes. Piles of furniture, statues and objects of various shapes and sizes filled the room from floor to ceiling.

"This isn't the Room of Requirement," Roy said, looking around and Ted gave him a puzzled look, "It's the Room of Hidden Things. Same... but different... We're going to have a hell of a time looking through all this," he added with a frown.

"Whatever, come in before we're caught!" Vic hissed as he pushed the other two into the room and closing the door behind him.

Roy took out his wand and tried a Summoning charm but nothing seemed to happen much to everyone's dismay.

"Well we better get started," Ted said looking around with a sigh, "We do technically have all night."

Vic flew up to the top of the largest pile and did a quick sweep of the whole area.

"It can't be too high up. Clair probably wouldn't have been able to reach," Roy said as he prodded a chair experimentally with his foot. The chair rattled a bit before going still and Roy quickly backed up.

"How do we even know what's safe to touch?" Teddy asked, frustration pilling up as he sat down on the floor in thought.

Kari hadn't mentioned seeing any sort of wand in this room although Ted had to admit the possibility that she or TK had seen it was slim given the volume of stuff packed into here.

"Oh Vic," Ted hollowed to his friend who was still flying circles around the piles, "Do you see a mirror anywhere? Kari said it was in a corner."

"Oh yeah. A big ass one is over there," Vic said pointing to the right corner. Ted and Roy gave each other a look before deciding it couldn't hurt to try it out.

"What do you see Vic?" Ted asked as they approached the enormous mirror in the corner of the room. It was rather hard to miss it. "MIRROR OF ERISED" was etched into the top and Ted noticed a phrase was carved underneath it but he couldn't read it. Vic grinned at him. "I'm Head of the Aurors and there's this awesomely huge mansion behind me with a car! I bet you that's mine. You and Roy are there too. And the three of us are playing soccer."

Ted laughed at this. He turned to Roy wondering if he wanted a look but the Slytherin boy seemed to have already had his fill and had turned away. Ted decided not to pester him about him and shoved Vic out of the way instead so he could take a look.

"What do you see?" Vic asked, curious.

"It's just me. And dad and mom and you two." Ted said, curiously as he stared at his own reflection. It wasn't off from the mark really now that he'd thought about it. He supposed he was pretty happy with what he had and he didn't really know what more he'd want.

"Wait," he said suddenly as his reflection winked at him. A pile came into view. Teddy recognized it as one of the piles near the entrance to the Room. He watched as his reflection dug through it a bit before finding a box. It didn't look like much, a wood box with some silver and purple gem garlands. Yet the box was emblazoned with the Leonelli family crest; the same crest that was on the necklace Teddy had gotten from his attacker at the cemetery. It was good enough proof for him and the reflection faded away as Teddy broke his gaze with it.

"The pile at the entrance. On the right. There should be a purple and silver box about eye level," Teddy said, Roy was already halfway there and Vic and Teddy took off after him.

From there only a few more minutes of searching yielded results.

"Found it," Roy said triumphantly holding up the box as the other two boys ran up to him. Wordlessly he passed the box to Ted who opened it.

And inside was the a wand, roughly 15 inches in length with patterns of elderberries running down its smooth wood.

"That's it Ted," Vic said in a low whisper, "That's the Elder Wand."

Ted carefully picked it up expecting a burst of magic but the wand remained still and imposing in his grip.

"Looks like you're not the true holder of the Wand, Ted," Vic said a bit disappointedly and Ted shrugged with a grin.

"That's alright. Wasn't really hoping to be anyways."

"Leave the box and let's go. I want to catch a few hours before the sun's up," Roy said with a nod and the other boys agreed as they left the room.

Before they could go their separate ways back to their respective dormitories though Ted grabbed Roy's wrist.

"Did you see her?" Ted asked quietly, conscious of Vic walking triumphantly a few steps in front of them. "Did you see that person you want to remember in the Mirror? The one that took care of you two when you guys were little?"

Ted knew Roy's memories had been erased when Death Eaters killed the closest thing to a mother the brothers had ever had. Vic was too young to remember and Roy tried hard to make sure his brother stayed innocent and carefree for it. But Roy remembered. Roy remembered everything. He remembered the presence of a another; the feeling to be accepted and cared for unconditionally. The love from a woman with no name or face. Because magic had taken it from him.

Vic rounded a corner and for a brief second Roy stopped to turn to Ted with a shake of his head.

"I saw her yeah," Roy said in a monotone voice, "I saw her taking care of me and Vic in this nice little house that seemed all quiet and happy. And you and your family were coming over so we could play," Roy continued as he removed himself from Ted's grip and turned around.

"But I didn't see her face," he whispered as he left.

And while Roy was a friend of few emotions, Ted could feel his disappointment through his words.

Sadly, he rounded the corner to go after Vic.

"Ted," Roy called back and Ted turned, "Don't worry yourself over it. We got the Elder Wand back today. Consider it a victory," Roy said.

Teddy patted the pocket where the Wand lay hidden underneath his cloak.

"Yeah alright," he said with another smile, "Night Roy!"

Roy raised an arm in farewell before he disappeared down the stairs leading to the Slytherin dungeons.

Ted grinned and walked away more determination in his step. They had the Elder Wand now. And if Clair wanted it back he'd better bloody well come and get it.


AN: I know. I know. Another long ass wait. I had hopes to finish this all up in the summer but then we went on a huge mother of a trip to Europe and I didn't get any time on a computer for almost 4 months. Anyways, still aiming for story completion by the end of the year though. If I don't make it feel free to come after me with pitchforks.

Regarding a review about Celty and her not going to Hogwarts. Honestly I had no intention of letting people think she couldn't go to Hogwarts because she was mute. That thought like didn't even cross my mind _ but I see where some people can make the connection. I actually had a whole back story planned for Celty like I did for TK and Matt but the story was getting too long so I omitted it because it wasn't necessarily important/relevant. TK and Kari were also supposed to get a larger role in finding the Elder Wand but meh, no time for that either.

Anyways, in this back story (that I may or may not add now), Celty is basically traumatized from events in her childhood rendering her mute and unwilling to go to Hogwarts because so and so...something happened there relating to the war...It was supposed to also talk about how Snape met her and kinda sorta in his Snape-y ways took her in. When I omitted her back story I now realize I should have also made her a Squib or something /poor story planning me. In a nut shell, Celty initially didn't go to Hogwarts because she just didn't want to. And since she has no parents to make her, she got her say.

Now the reason I didn't want her going to Hogwarts was because I wanted an "outsider" in the story. Someone who could run around and do things or gather intel while the other kids are stuck at Hogwarts. In a way, she's a reserve character, as is her thought potion, being readily available in case the story progresses in a way that we may need them.

With that said, as I do intend to wrap up this story faster than originally planned, Celty might not even get much page time anymore. It's just that I'd already conceived the idea of her years ago and I mentioned her back in chapter 15 (last chapter before I took a year hiatus). I'm sure you guys are more interested in Teddy and his family anyways since they're the only cannon characters.