Chapter 13:
Brothers
Teddy had never been particularly fond of sports, and he suspected Dudley was frustrated by his inability to put his feet exactly where he was told to put them, in exactly the right way. His balance was off, and he managed to tip sideways and end up essentially falling into Dudley, who was representing Greyback, which seemed a less than advantageous approach.
"All right," Dudley said, "let's get a little less fancy. First thing you've got to do is recognize where I'm coming at you from, and block it." He moved his left arm quickly, but there was nothing wrong with Teddy's eyesight, and he was able to fling his right arm out to block it. Dudley nodded. "Good. We'll keep up with this. And don't worry, when I started this, I was so fat I practically tipped over just by shifting my weight."
And keep up with it, they did. Dudley slowly added more to it, and talked about his "center of gravity," which was meant to help him keep his balance. They used the round stones that lined the path for balance exercises, while James mirrored it by walking along the edge of the bench with an ease that Teddy envied. After forty minutes, Al and Artie ran out to collect James for a game out in the front garden, girls against boys in a marshmallow war. George was supplying exploding marshmallows. Teddy allowed that he was a bit too old for this.
When James and Al were gone, Dudley taught him some good ways to hit a person, and how to put all of his weight into it. Then, he went back to the balance exercises.
"Sorry to get into that, but this business with falling could get you into trouble at a bad time. You should practice doing this. D'you have some rocks or whatnot to practice on up at your school?"
"There are some around the lake."
"Good. Just find a bunch of really uneven ones and practice walking on them without flailing about."
"I'm always going to be clumsy. My mum was clumsy."
Dudley shrugged, unimpressed. "My mum's compulsive about cleaning the house. I decided I'd rather watch a game than clean the sink with a toothbrush. Try it again."
They kept it up for another hour, then a cold rain started to fall, and Dudley checked his watch. "I reckon I'd best find out how I'm getting back to Little Whinging before dinner. You're not half bad at this, you know."
Teddy frowned in concentration and made five steps along the stones without flailing for balance, then stepped down onto the flat path. "Thanks for teaching me," he said.
Dudley puffed up visibly and said, "Well, I reckon you'll do just fine. Really wasn't much to teach you."
Teddy walked back inside with him. The adults were sitting around the fire, picking at Christmas biscuits, playing cards, and chatting about the school. Teddy had to look twice before he realized that Professor Longbottom's arm was actually around Vivian Waters' shoulders.
"Not a word at school, Teddy," Professor Longbottom said.
Teddy nodded vaguely, attempting to remove the information from his mind entirely.
Dudley had gone to Uncle Harry, who was talking to Granny, and they were debating how best to get him home. Granny said she could drive, but the drive to Surrey would take longer than was strictly a good idea. Uncle Harry was trying to convince Dudley to let him bring him back magically, either by dragging him through the Floo again, or dragging him along as an object in Apparition. "I really ought to say Happy Christmas to Aunt Petunia some year or another," he said.
"It's probably happier for both of you if you don't," Dudley said.
They weren't paying any particular attention to Teddy. He drifted away. For a few minutes, he joined Percy, Molly, and Arthur, but they were halfway through an involved sort of board game. Teddy moved on shortly after he saw Uncle Harry leave with Dudley, headed for the Apparition boundary. Audrey and Fleur were cleaning in the kitchen, getting things in order, laughing about Weasley men. Teddy didn't think he had much to contribute to the conversation. He went back upstairs. There was laughter coming from his nursery, and he went quietly to the door. Lily Potter was sitting at the work table, tangling her red hair around a baby brush. Hugo Weasley had hold of a little drum that Teddy had used to play with, and he was hitting it enthusiastically, making little musical notes float up into the air with each beat.
Angelina Weasley was sitting on the floor, getting a new pair of trousers onto Freddy. "I thought we had it when we got him out of nappies. Mum didn't warn me about all of the things that can happen with magical accidents!"
From the chair, there was a soft laugh, and Teddy looked across to see Victoire, her baby sister Muriel sitting on her lap. Muriel had a no-spill cup, and Victoire was helping her hold it, tipping it to her mouth expertly. "Artie once inflated his trousers and nearly floated away," she said. "And sometimes, I have to be in charge of all of them, and Muriel and Artie both sometimes... Teddy? Why are you lurking?"
Teddy shrugged. "Just wondered who was in here. They used to feed me in that chair, I think."
"Do you want to try with Muriel? It's fun."
"No, thanks."
"Scared of a little baby?"
"Dead terrified," Teddy said. He went across the hall to his own room, which was empty. Out the window, he could see James leading the boys' charge against Aimee, who was leading the girls. They all seemed to be having a great deal of fun. He looked away. The Fifi LaFolle books he'd found were sitting on his end table, the bookmark with Mum's chosen names lying on top of them. The old, familiar sense of wanting his mum, just wanting to see her face, came to him, and he fought with it. He was too old for it at any rate; it wasn't like his friends whose mothers were alive were always running about wanting to see them. He'd probably be making excuses for her pink hair if she were here. Complaining about Dad going on about his days as a Marauder. Chasing Julia and Raymond away from his school things before they did any damage and...
"Stop it," he told himself. "It's Christmas."
His traitor imagination didn't obey, instead Conjuring hazy, bitter images of cheerful Christmases, with Mum dancing clumsily around the kitchen, wearing a red and white hat, tipped jauntily to one side, while Dad sat with the little ones in his lap, reading them stories. Granny and Granddad spoiled all of them quite rotten, of course. Granddad would sing as badly as Mum danced. Julia had on half of the clothes in Mum's wardrobe and was carrying around a huge handbag, tromping in high heels that Mum couldn't handle without falling. Teddy hid her face behind large sunglasses, as he had no idea what she would actually look like.
He ground his teeth. This was what Uncle Harry meant about dwelling on dreams. Julia and Raymond were dreams. Mum in the kitchen with the hat was a dream, and so was Dad with a pair of smiling toddlers in his lap, reading about jolly bloody St. Nicholas. Teddy didn't want to be lost in the dream. The dream was awful. He ought to march back into the nursery and pick up Muriel, and try to get her cup of milk down her throat without killing her. Or he should go out to the game and help the little boys, though it wasn't entirely fair. Perhaps he should ask Victoire to come down and take up with her sisters and cousins so it would be even.
Instead, he took Mum's bookmark and went back out to the garden. No one saw him. He went back to the bench by Granddad's Scrying dish. It was starting to get cold, and a thin frost had spread over the stone.
With some effort, Teddy pried up the base of it, and slipped the bookmark under it. He set it back down. With his finger, he wrote "Julia" in the frost, followed by "Orion," "Raymond," and the others. He leaned over and looked into the stale autumn rainwater that had gathered around the moonstones. "Show me," he said. "Just once, show me."
It remained blank.
He looked back at the house. There were dozens of magical decorations. Bill and Percy were currently Levitating something that George was trying to catch. Granny was magically cleaning up from the snacks. There was no chance at all of the Ministry noticing one tiny extra bit of magic.
He took out his wand and prodded the water in the basin.
The water went cloudy, like he'd dropped sand into it. He saw a flash here - light brown eyes like his own (unmorphed, anyway); a twirl of long, sandy-brown hair; a mischievous grin on a face he couldn't see the rest of. Then the water went entirely white. A white shape pushed up from it, became an upraised hand, the sign for "Stop."
Teddy jumped back.
The hand sank and disappeared. Teddy looked back down into the basin. The water was clear. His body had warmed the stone, and the names he'd written in the frost were gone. He sat back. The burning need to dream was gone, which was good, but he felt low and lonely, and he wished he'd invited some of his school friends, or that Victoire was doing anything other than playing with her baby sister. He wished he could use the Marauder's Map, but didn't dare try any more illegal magic... and didn't really want their jovial teenage opinion on this particular matter.
"Teddy!"
He looked up. James had come around the house. He had an exploded marshmallow stuck to one earlobe. Teddy turned away quickly, aware that his eyes were wet. He wiped them and said, "I'll be in soon, James."
"Aimee wants to have a treasure hunt," James said. "Could you make a treasure hunt for us? Granny Andromeda says it's time to come inside, before it gets dark."
"I'll be along in a minute," Teddy said again. His throat felt tight. He didn't want James to see him like this.
James's small hand patted his head. "Are you sad?"
"Yes," Teddy said. "Go away, James." He winced, horrified with himself, but James didn't seem upset. He came around to the basin side, where Teddy had turned to look away from him, and insinuated himself onto the bench between Teddy and the Scrying dish. His lower lip was stuck out stubbornly. Teddy hugged him, then drew away. "Go on back to your family," he said.
James blinked at him in a confused way, then seemed to decide not to try and puzzle things out. "You should come in as well. If you don't want to play at the treasure hunt, you said you'd teach me Tarot poker! I even brought cards."
"Tarot poker?" Teddy couldn't remember ever bringing up the subject of Tarot poker with James, but he couldn't think of where else he'd have got the idea. It had been a game that the Marauders had played, and Teddy had seen it in the ring memories. Why had he told James about it? When?
"You said. In the letter you wrote to me that Dad brought. You said we could play together."
"I did?"
"Yes!" Now James was starting to look spooked, and Teddy wondered just what his own face was doing. He reached up to touch it; it didn't seem to have morphed at all. James frowned. "Teddy, you should come inside!"
It seemed very urgent, so Teddy let himself be led back in. James ran upstairs and got a deck of Tarot cards, and Teddy spent the rest of the time until dinner teaching James, Al, and - eventually - Victoire how to play the silly game, which involved having a turned out card stuck to their heads (George provided packaged sticking charms, so they wouldn't have to break the law), which they didn't know. They had to bet on who had the highest. Granny insisted that they use the leftover biscuits for betting. Al won the biggest pile of them.
The strange, disconnected feeling began to fade during dinner, as he and Victoire caught the family up on life at Hogwarts. Professor Longbottom made a great show of whistling to himself while they talked about the hex war and sneaking out at night, though he ended up contributing a story about a midnight duel with Draco Malfoy that Uncle Harry had somehow forgotten to mention over the years.
The guests, with the exception of Uncle Harry's family, left after pudding, and it was already time for the smaller children to be in bed. James wanted another story, and Al wanted to be tucked in and tickled. Aunt Ginny took care of the latter, playing a game in which she snuck up on him then became the Tickle-Mummy-Monster. Teddy made up a story for James about a girl named Julia who flew to the moon on a toy broomstick that had been secretly given very special Charms. James declared it his very favorite yet.
Teddy went across to his nursery, where Uncle Harry had got Lily into her pajamas, and was now sitting in the rocking chair trying - around her squirming - to comb snarls out of her hair. He frowned at a difficult one and raised his wand, then set it down again.
"Isn't there an unsnarling spell?" Teddy asked.
"Yes," Uncle Harry said, "But last time I tried it, I ended up cutting off a chunk of her hair. She cried until Aunt Ginny got it to grow back." He fought with the snarl a bit more, and Lily sniffled.
Teddy bit his lip. "I don't reckon I could... give it a go?"
Uncle Harry handed him the comb with great ceremony and said, "Be my guest, Teddy." He stood up and let Teddy sit down, then plopped Lily onto his lap. She immediately started to bounce around and ask for a game. Uncle Harry raised an eyebrow in challenge.
"Hush," Teddy tried.
This had no effect.
"Why not play the quiet game?" Uncle Harry suggested. "You remember the quiet game, don't you, Teddy? Where you see how very, very quiet you can be?"
"Er... sure," Teddy said, then smiled daffily at Lily. "So how quiet can you be?"
She hunched her shoulders up and put her finger over her mouth, and whispered, "Thith kwyt."
"Very good," Teddy said, and, with some trepidation, tackled the snarl.
It was snowing lightly when Teddy woke up the next morning, making everything muffled, even the sounds inside the house. He could tell that Granny was making breakfast again, and he could hear James and Al chasing each other, but he wanted to stay in bed for a few more minutes, to...
He wasn't sure why he didn't want to go down yet. He just wanted to be alone. He stretched his legs, then reached over and picked up The Treasure of Tirza Malone, the first of the Tirza books, and got brainlessly lost in the first chapter, which introduced Tirza as the orphaned daughter of a dispossessed noblewizard, who'd held onto one precious possession, the huge stone known only as The Birthright Ruby. She was trying desperately to regain her family's home, which had been taken over by the villainous Malacquis clan. In the midst of this, she heard rumors of the famous jewel thief, Holt Oakenwand, who had stolen an emerald necklace from a banker's wife who lived nearby. It was all quite stupid, and quite entertaining, and he decided that he ought to learn to transfigure the covers into something about pirates, so he could grab a chapter or two between classes.
There was a soft knock on the door. "Teddy?" Granny called. "Are you awake?"
"I'm up," he said.
She opened the door and leaned in. "I have breakfast out, and - " She stopped and raised an eyebrow. "Is that a Fifi LaFolle novel?"
"I found it in the nursery."
Granny smiled somewhat sadly. "Well, if you have an honestly-come-by quirk, it's Fifi LaFolle. Just tell me that you're not taking romantic advice from her now that you're going out."
Teddy, who was thinking about skipping ahead to see if he could find Holt and Tirza's first kiss to get pointers from, said nothing.
Granny came over, plucked it out of his hands, and winced at the prose. "This is not how it actually works, you know."
"Sure. Tirza never gives rules."
"Rules?"
"You know - no kissing in public, no googly eyes, that sort of thing." Teddy looked at her cautiously, wondering if the look on her face was because she didn't want to talk about his going out with anyone, or because Ruthless's rules weren't normal. He cautiously said, "Did you have rules with Granddad?"
"Quite a few. Most dealing with how to stay away from the Blacks."
"Was he allowed to say you were pretty?"
"It was a requirement of sorts. Ruth doesn't like to be called pretty?"
Teddy shook his head. "She thinks it's girly. Granny, do you like Ruthless?"
"Yes. In her own very odd way, I think she's a lovely girl."
"Do you think my parents like her, if they're watching?"
"They are. And I'd wager your dad thinks she's a smashing choice. Your mum might think she needs to be a bit friendlier, but she'd just wish she could be here to try harder to set a friendly example."
"What about Granddad?"
"Your granddad had a notable weakness for girls with a lot of danger attached to them. I'm sure he's quite fond of Ruth. Why the questioning?"
"I just wondered. Ruthless was sure that her brothers would all tease her."
"She has brave brothers." Granny smiled. "And at some point, she's going to have to drop the silly nickname."
Teddy wondered if she knew of any good books on kissing, if she didn't think Fifi LaFolle was a good source, but as he didn't really want diagrams and a list of possible curses that could be passed through the lips - along with detailed stories about having treated those curses - he decided not to ask. "Are the Potters leaving?"
"Harry has to go back to work, and the children want to go back to their rooms to play with their toys, though I don't think they've quite realized that we're not going back with them. Harry actually wondered if you'd like to go with him today. He's going to France, to talk to the cubs from Greyback's pack. I told him I thought you might enjoy it, but I didn't want to speak for you."
"It's all right for me to leave the house?"
"As long as you're physically traveling with Harry Potter, it's all right for you to leave the house. If you decide you want to wander around Knockturn Alley on your own, it's not all right. Are we clear?"
Teddy nodded. He said that he'd very much like to go, and asked if he could possibly get dressed first. By the time he got downstairs, most of breakfast had been polished off, so he just grabbed half a loaf of bread on the way to the Apparition barrier. Uncle Harry was dressed officially again today, with scarlet robes and shiny black shoes. He looked up sheepishly from the muddy, snowy ground and said, "Will you think less of me if I do an Impervius Charm on my feet as well as my glasses?"
"Definitely," Teddy said. "It's all anyone would ever think of Harry Potter - the Man Who's Afraid To Get His Shoes Wet."
Uncle Harry laughed and did the charm, then led the way out into the snow. The world had developed a soft white blanket, and the air seemed cushioned, flattening their voices. "I'm actually going to talk to Père Alderman's mother. She worked in the Werewolf Capture Unit for years - that's why Greyback took her son - and I was hoping to persuade her to come back to work to help us. I thought you might like to meet the others. And you could talk to little Neil Overby, who's settling in fairly well, now that most of his wounds are healed." They reached the Apparition border, and Uncle Harry held out his arm. Teddy took it. The world went dark and pinched, and Teddy felt like all of the air was squeezed out of him, then they were on a sunny mountainside, in an evergreen glade. A woman he at first took for Fleur Weasley was waiting for them, then he realized that she was younger, a bit thinner, and looking at him like she was waiting to be introduced instead of waiting for him to offer help in the kitchen.
"Gabrielle," Uncle Harry said, "I don't know whether or not you remember my godson, Teddy Lupin. Teddy, this is Fleur's sister, Gabrielle Delacour."
She smiled. "'Arry, eet 'as been DuLac for six years now. Teddy, eet is good to see you. My nieces write of you often. Especially Victoire."
"Victoire's my friend at school," Teddy said.
"Ah. Of course." Gabrielle turned down a path, indicating that they should follow. "Mirabelle is waiting beyond the trees," she said. "Zere is enough snow for the sleigh, no? She is in a 'urry. You weel see why."
Curious, Teddy followed. As soon as they cleared the trees, he saw a pure white hippogriff reined to a sleigh. Gabrielle bowed to it casually and it bowed back, then let her - along with Teddy and Uncle Harry, climb into the sleigh. There was a jolt, and then the sleigh was rushing along the ground, then over it. Below, Teddy saw the path winding up to the top. There was a large gap in it that would prevent casual hikers from getting to the sanctuary. He saw a flat area short of the summit, with two bowl-shaped depressions ringed by trees, and a narrow path leading to a collection of cabins arranged loosely around a village square. Gabrielle pulled on the reins, and Mirabelle circled down to it. As soon as the sleigh touched down, Gabrielle unhitched the hippogriff, which ran eagerly across to a paddock.
"Come," Gabrielle said. "You 'ave a moment. Fiona weel be zere anyway."
Teddy let himself be led across the square to the paddock, where he could hear strangely low-pitched chirping. Mirabelle was rooting in a barrel and came up with a dead ferret, which she chewed, but didn't swallow. Teddy was glad he hadn't had much breakfast.
Then he forgot entirely that it was nasty, as Mirabelle leaned over a fence and a tiny golden beak came up to take a bit of ferret from her. A downy head appeared, then ducked back down again.
"When did they hatch?" Uncle Harry asked. "Hagrid said that he'd been bringing Buckbeak down to visit, but I didn't know how well they'd, er... got along."
"Zey 'atched last month," Gabrielle said. "Buckbeak is a proud papa now."
"Can I look?" Teddy asked.
"Be careful," Uncle Harry said. "Hippogriffs are always a bit dangerous, and I imagine a new mother is nervous on top of it."
Gabrielle nodded her agreement. Teddy went carefully to the pen where the babies were, staying to the far side of it, where he wasn't in reach of Mirabelle's talons. He looked down. The bottom of the pen was lined with hay, and their foal-like hindquarters seemed more at home in it than their front talons, though they were quite wobbly regardless. One of them spread his stubby, fuzzy wings.
Teddy thought them both ugly and wonderful.
"Are you new here?" someone said softly.
Teddy turned around to find a small, frightened-looking boy standing in the shadows, holding a bucket of water. He seemed weak, and there were dark circles under his eyes. "I'm just visiting."
The boy nodded. "You don't look like you're one of us."
"Neil! That's rude." A woman came scurrying out of the shadows, brushing hay from her clothes and looking apologetically at Teddy. She was dressed in work clothes, but Teddy could see that she was very beautiful, with a cloud of curly chestnut-colored hair and a tiny, upturned nose. She smiled across the paddock to where Uncle Harry was now talking to an older woman, then looked back down, scanning Teddy's face hungrily. "You must be the Lupins' son. And Andromeda's grandson. I thought she was the most beautiful person I had ever seen. With the most wonderful name." She stuck out her hand. "I'm Evelyn Blondin," she said. "And you've met my foster son, Neil Overby. He came to us this fall. Neil, this is Teddy. His parents were very important in making a safe space for all of us."
"Where are they?" Neil asked.
"They died," Teddy said briefly.
Neil nodded. "Mine, too. Are you a werewolf?"
"No. My dad was."
"Oh." Teddy bit his lip. "Is Millicent Bulstrode here?"
"Sometimes," Neil said. "Not today. She's getting a new leg in Paris."
There didn't seem to be much else to say. Teddy was always coming across the notion that there were worse things than losing his parents cleanly in battle before he was old enough to remember having them, but he rarely ran across a clearer case of than Neil's. He felt absurd even comparing it, and guilty for feeling sorry for himself yesterday. Neil had to have watched Greyback murder his entire family. Teddy had just slept through it while it was happening a country away. He didn't think he had any words of hard-earned orphan wisdom that would help.
Evelyn - Teddy guessed she must be the "Evvy" that Vivian had talked about - waved her arm widely, and a tall blond man came across the square toward them. He stopped to talk to Uncle Harry, then came around. He smiled, and Teddy was quite sure he recognized him from the pictures Dad had drawn, even though he'd been just a boy then. In the pictures, he'd been wearing rags, and had a skull around his neck. Now, he was dressed in perfectly ordinary robes, and was wearing a tool belt.
"I'm Nate Blondin," he said. "While Harry's off saving the world, he said it would be all right - if you'd like it - for us to show you what Lupin and Tonks gave us all."
Nate talked when he had something to say, but Evelyn contributed most of the chattering conversation as they went through the sanctuary village. She pointed out the neat, slate lined paths that had been put down over the years - "Nate's idea!" she said proudly - and the village center, where the werewolves met each month to eat heavily before the transformation, which apparently helped dull the pain of it.
"It's turned into a tradition now," Evelyn said. "Everyone comes, werewolf or not. People bring dishes to pass. Doesn't make the transformation any more pleasant, but it can only help to feel like life on either side of it is going to be good. I generally dress up for it. It's something that always makes me happy."
Nate laughed. "Do you remember when Lupin brought that cha - "
"Charity box!" Evelyn said, laughing loudly. She sat down on bench. "Lupin didn't actually bring that, though, remember? He just let us hide it in that shed he was living in." She smiled at Teddy. "We thought he was so fancy, living in a real house sort of thing. We were all living in caves. We were going there to play before he started teaching us. And when we got a box of charity clothes and books and so on, I found an evening dress. I imagine it was really someone's princess costume, but I thought it was the most wonderful thing in the world. Lupin explained to me about how such a thing would only be worn at an evening dance, and then I got him to tell me all about dances and other such lovely things. I imagined myself in some grand hall, dancing with a prince or whatnot. It was the first time I realized there was a whole world out there. I wanted to learn to read and dance and do all manner of human things."
"Did Dad teach you to dance?" Teddy asked.
"Not then," Nate said. "Greyback didn't let us dance properly. He didn't allow any, er..."
"Special friendships," Evelyn said, glancing at Neil. "Greyback rather thought we girls belonged to him. But I'd prefer not to go there. Your dad did teach me to dance, though, that last Christmas. He and your mum came here."
"Oh!" Teddy said. "I have a picture, I think. They came with a woman named Rachel, didn't they?"
"Yes. Rachel Berkowitz. And of course, Adelaide Robards. Your parents brought a lot of refugees through here. Those two were a trial. They did loathe each other."
"Hardly surprising," Nate snorted. "Given that they were both... special friends... with Gawain."
Teddy laughed, but shifted uncomfortably. Gawain Robards was his Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, and a decent man. Teddy had a fuzzy notion that his marriage wasn't very good - he lived at Hogwarts and his wife lived in London - but he preferred to keep it fuzzy. "They looked very happy to be here. In the picture. My parents, I mean. Not Rachel and Mrs. Robards."
"Oh, they were," Nate said. "I thought they might just explode from it. Come on. I'll show you where we transform."
He led the way away from the village, along the neat paths. Neil followed along, looking dejected. Some of the houses were old, some clearly newly built as the children had grown up and chosen to move out of their communal homes.
"We were raised in a pack," Evelyn said. "We didn't really understand the idea of having guardians, though Valeska - Gabrielle's grandmother, I'm sure you'll meet her later - looked after the girls a bit. She's not a great one for boys, most Veela aren't, though she'll make an exception for Tonks's son, I'm sure."
"Here," Nate said as they reached a raised platform. "Those two pens down there - that's where we transform. Females on the right, males on the left. I built the platform so that the others can see if someone seems to have got hurt. It's too easy for there to be accidents."
"Do you use Wolfsbane Potion?" Teddy asked, before it occurred to him that it might be a rude question.
"We don't have anyone here who's qualified to brew it," Evelyn said. "So we just use the old fashioned ways of controlling it. Food, fellowship, good moods. Well, the oldest method, of course we don't use."
"Oldest method?"
"Eating people," Neil said, speaking up for the first time since they'd left the hippogriff nest. "Greyback said that's the only thing that makes the pain stop." He fell back into silence. There was nothing to say to that.
Nate sighed. "That particular cure is obviously out of the question."
The tour went on, through the pens (which were actually self-contained little forests, which Evelyn said kept their minds occupied through the transformation) and into a little Healing clinic where a woman with short dishwater blond hair was treating an elderly elf for a skin infection. Evelyn introduced her as Coral, another member of the pack, who was trying to get a proper apprenticeship in Paris - Madame Maxime was doing her best to help - but was, in the meantime, doing what she could pick up on her own here. A few more of the children came out to gawk at Teddy, and finally, they circled back to the village square.
Père Alderman was waiting there, on the bench where they'd been sitting earlier. He stood up with a warm smile. "Teddy," he said. "Coral flooed to tell me you were here. I understand from Vivian that Greyback has decided to make you his pen pal. Are you all right?"
"Fine, thanks. I think Greyback could stand a tutor."
Alderman laughed. "When they get him back to Azkaban, I may just take that job on myself. Purely out of Christian charity, of course, and not at all because I think it would make him climb the walls."
"Alderman's morally perfect these days," Evelyn said.
"Yes, my confessor is very bored." He made a halo over his head with his fingers. "All the penance he assigns me is purely for his entertainment. There's never any cause for it." He leaned to one side, looking around Evelyn. "Neil? Why are you hiding?"
Neil peeked out, then turned and ran.
"I'll get him," Evelyn said, and went after him, catching him in a hug and smiling at him until he smiled back. She took his hand and led him toward the neat house where the three of them lived.
"Evvy seems happy," Alderman said.
Nate shrugged. "The circumstances are terrible, but she's enjoying the chance to be a mum. I think she's right good at it, too."
This seemed a private conversation, so Teddy cast around for something else. "Is the one who wrote the book here? The book that the Beauxbatons girls like?"
Nate made a face. "He only comes at moons now. We're not thrilled with him."
"Hamilton didn't mean for that to happen," Alderman said. "It was never the intent."
"Then why'd he write the damned thing?"
"Gold."
"Hope he's enjoying it."
Alderman seemed ready to pursue it, then just sighed and said, "Blondin, you need to learn to judge people by their intentions."
"Didn't I see something involving 'good intentions,' about how to pave roads that lead to somewhere unpleasant?"
"How in the world would he have guessed that a pack of girls in Paris would think kidnapping and cannibalism were signs of refined sensibilities?"
"Because he wrote the moons better than he wrote anything else. Even I thought the rest of the thing was boring."
They continued the argument, not so much ignoring Teddy as simply accepting his presence. Teddy listened with interest, contributing his thoughts on why teenage girls might have been interested - he told them about the Moonhowlers, and the students who liked them - which were accepted as equal to their own contributions. He asked if he could see a copy of the book.
"Why would you want to?" Nate asked, aghast.
"Well... they think one of the girls is helping Greyback. She liked the book enough to get cursed deliberately. She might like it enough to use it to find somewhere to hide."
Père Alderman raised his eyebrows, surprised. "That's a good thought," he said. "Do you read French?"
"A little bit," Teddy said. "Mostly spells."
"The French is advanced," Alderman said. "I'll go through it, though. Translate the passages that may suggest a hiding place. I'll send them on to Harry. You have a good brain in your head."
Teddy didn't press, though a part of him wanted to struggle through the French just to read something that one of Dad's students had written, about things that they'd all known. He guessed that they just weren't keen to have the book distributed any further than it already had been.
Uncle Harry came out a few minutes later with the older woman he'd been speaking to earlier. She smiled when she saw Père Alderman, then gave him a hug and proceeded to call him "Bobby" for the remainder of the visit. They were invited to lunch in Victoire's great-grandmother's house - a charmed building that looked like a forest on the inside (though one whose weather was always perfect), which Teddy recognized as the place where the picture of his parents had been taken all those years ago. Uncle Harry reminded him that Valeska was a Veela, and tried to warn him about her effect, but Teddy still found himself completely tongue-tied and confused, and was halfway through explaining how he was a secret Animagus who had orbited the Earth on a broomstick before he caught himself. Valeska seemed accustomed to it. Uncle Harry teased him unmercifully the entire way back to the Apparition point, where Teddy demanded an absolute oath on their very godfather/godson relationship that he wouldn't tell anyone, even Aunt Ginny.
He shook his head. "So you don't want me to tell your granny."
"No."
"And you don't think Bill and Fleur would find it funny?"
"I don't care."
"And you're sure I shouldn't send a letter to a certain Miss Scrimgeour?"
"NO!" Teddy put up his hand in a warding gesture.
They reached the Apparition point, and Uncle Harry said, "I'm sorry, Teddy. They're all going to ask. Well, maybe not Ruth. If I don't answer, they'll think it was worse than it was."
"You just want to laugh at it."
"Well, yes." Uncle Harry smiled and mussed his hair, then rolled his eyes. "If you grow much more, I'm going to have to reach up to do that, and it loses something in the process. So I forbid it. Come on, it's time to go home."
"Can I go through the Floo from your house? I didn't say goodbye to James and Al and Lily this morning."
Uncle Harry held out his arm, and Teddy took it. A moment later, they came out of the darkness of Disapparition in the square outside of Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place. Teddy went in and played with James and Al for a few minutes - they were building a very tall house of Exploding Snap cards, and had got it seven levels up before it blew up on all of them. He gave them hugs, then went down to the kitchen to kiss Lily and Aunt Ginny, then Flooed back to Granny's.
The next week went by in a pleasant haze of laziness. Teddy put off all of his homework and enjoyed spending time with Granny. He helped her get her basement office in order, and they went into Granddad's "Muggle Room" - a room across the basement from the office where magic was prohibited and most of his Muggle gadgets worked without any interference. There, they spent an agreeable day playing with Granddad's aging computer and watching films that featured Muggle machines that moved fast and frequently blew up. Another day, they lost track of time entirely reading in the parlor while a cold December rain fell outside. Granny got through a large book on the history of Muggle medicine, and Teddy plowed through the first two Tirza novels. Now that he had the fourth, he thought he'd finish up To the End of the Earth as soon as he got back to school.
Granny had dropped down to a part time schedule, but was still gone some of the time that Teddy was home, and he used those hours to listen to music and go through his parents' and grandfather's things, as he'd done frequently when he was small. After New Year, he settled in to do his work, and began to contact his friends again. He had a long chat with Ruthless over the Floo, at the end of which she reached into the fire and kissed him, ending with both of them nearly choking on ash, and Kirk, who'd wandered in, laughing crazily in the back. The call ended when Ruthless ran after him, screaming threats if he told anyone.
Corky's Portkey back from home was scheduled for the day before the Hogwarts Express would take them all back to Scotland, and, to Teddy's great happiness, he was allowed to stay at Granny's for the night. Uncle Harry brought him at six-thirty, along with Maurice, who was itching to get away from Wendell.
"If he asks the same question again, I'm going to kill him, then end up with all of my relatives in Azkaban," he muttered.
Teddy rolled his eyes and said, "Well, say hello to mine while you're there. And everyone else's."
The three of them spent a decent evening, during which Teddy taught them Tarot poker. The next morning, they left en masse for King's Cross, back to Hogwarts and the world they had made there.