Chapter 14:

Speaking Lessons

The first year hex war began again in earnest within a few days of the return to school. Teddy wasn't entirely sure who re-started it, but as George had restocked Victoire's prank supply over Christmas, he had strong suspicions on the matter. Whoever started it, by the first Friday, Story Shacklebolt had sprouted a tail, Megan Twist (a Ravenclaw) had started singing everything she said, Chuck Senders of Gryffindor had developed a blue and bronze tartan pattern in his hair and retaliated against Leon Nesbitt by feeding him a potion that made him fall asleep in class, and Victoire herself had acquired warts and a hooked nose. Madam Pomfrey got everything fixed, but the Headmistress drew the line when an errant Gryffindor (Teddy suspected Kirk Scrimgeour) made the stones slick in the seventh floor corridor, which had ended with a pile of teachers falling over one another. The first years of both Houses were given a massive detention on the first Saturday back, Filch providing each of them with a mop and a bucket of soapy water, with the instruction to clean all of the staircases in the castle. On the way to Hufflepuff for Muggles and Minions, Teddy and Ruthless passed Victoire and Story, who were working together cheerfully enough on the staircase that led down from the Great Hall. Victoire was trying to explain that if the group could get organized and do everything in a logical order, they'd be done before lunch. Story seemed to be trying to convince her that her classmates might not take the suggestion particularly well.

Ruthless rolled her eyes and grinned, and Teddy reached out to take her hand. She seemed surprised by it. They had failed to find a spot on the first night back that wasn't already taken up by some other reuniting couple - Teddy's room would be private enough, but neither one of them suggested it - and hadn't really spent any time alone together since. Busy, Teddy guessed.

"So," she said, "is your godfather going to teach again this year, or just hang about?"

Teddy shrugged. "I'm not sure. I think he's skipped a couple of years, but I don't see why he'd skip this one, as he's here anyway. But it's usually autumn term."

"That's what I was thinking." She shifted her hand, and her fingers laced through his. "I hope he does. I like his classes. I think..." She turned to him, biting her lip. "I think I'd like to be an Auror," she said, then quickly added, "Don't tell anyone."

"Why not?"

"Because everyone wants to be an Auror. They'll think it's silly."

"Your great-uncle was head of the department," Teddy said. "And Minister of Magic. And he died to protect Uncle Harry, even though they didn't like one another very well. I don't think anyone would think it's silly."

She frowned impressively. "Don't tell," she repeated. "I might change my mind anyway. I might want to be a... I don't know, something, instead."

Teddy grinned. "I think you'd make a smashing something."

"Well, it's certainly better than nothing."

They came around the corner and found the Hufflepuff still life propped open by the hulking form of Frankie Apcarne, who was hunched over his books. He'd come back from holidays to the horrible knowledge that his O.W.L.s were in only a few months, and Teddy hadn't seen him with fewer than four textbooks all week.

Ruthless let go of Teddy's hand and scooped up all of the books on the floor. "Come on, Apcarne. You'll definitely fail your O.W.L.s if they have to cart you away raving before June."

"I was going to stop," Frankie said. "Really."

"Mm-hmm," someone said skeptically from inside, and Teddy saw Tinny Gudgeon at a table, also surrounded by books, but in her case, they were Muggles and Minions references. She was apparently covering for Frankie's Urban Planner duties again.

It took ten minutes for everyone to arrive (except for Story and Victoire, whose characters were sent on a "shooting spree," which Tinny said was what Muggles called it when they had to go somewhere to make a film; Roger looked like he was going to disagree with her, but blushed when she looked at him and said nothing). Instead of an enemy, Tinny had made up a very large disaster, which involved floods, fires, and - she revealed this with an air of hard-earned wisdom - something called an "imminent nuclear meltdown." Teddy, Ruthless, and Donzo were assigned this last, and spent the afternoon rolling to get by guards who didn't believe that there was a problem and to get past all sorts of electronic security systems and avoid something called radiation sickness. Roger explained this as something like picking up symptoms from a Cursed object, except that the object didn't mean to do it, and had some practical use beyond cursing. The other groups worked on other fronts.

Ruthless offered to go get lunch, but took Maurice and Bernice with her instead of Teddy. Zachary declared this a godsend, as it meant they might get lunch before it was cold. There was some merriment at Teddy's expense, but it was good-natured. Teddy was beginning to feel like an elder statesman in the girlfriend-having business, even if he hadn't kissed Ruthless since they'd both ended up with their mouths full of ashes.

Once the game was over, Ruthless decided to go flying around the grounds, and Teddy decided to practice his balance, as Dudley had suggested. He went down to the rocky shore of the lake and started going backward and forward on the lumpy surface. He couldn't keep his arms from pinwheeling at all, and ended up sitting in shallow, near freezing water when a stone turned under his foot. When he got back to Gryffindor Tower, he huddled up by the fire to get warm. Victoire and Kirk were either doing their homework or strategizing for the next round against Ravenclaw. He decided it was the latter when Chuck Senders came over, looking determined, with several paper tags sticking out of his Charms book. The first year girls had apparently been inspired by the detention to join the war, if they were going to be punished for it anyway, as Mina Moran appeared from the girls' staircase dragging Victoire's trunk a moment later.

Teddy listened to them for a while, wishing he were in their year and participating, mostly waiting for Ruthless to get back. He finally saw her come through the portrait hole, but she just waved to him and went on up to her room.

He frowned, ill at ease.

His jeans were dry now and his face quite toasty, so he went up to his room. Checkmate begged for a game of chase. He picked up her favorite charmer and played with it aimlessly, finally securing it under his mattress and setting the string to wave around magically while Checkmate bounced at it. He took Dad's wedding ring from the chain on his neck, set it on a blank piece of parchment, and worked its Charm, hoping that one or the other of his parents would have helpfully supplied a memory about not getting a kiss for two weeks and then being waved to across the common room, to see if it meant anything ominous. Of course, there was no such memory - they'd saved their happiest and most important memories for him, and sometimes other things had got dragged along (Dad's new spell hadn't worked perfectly, which Teddy thought an improvement over perfection in this case), but confusion over someone's behavior didn't really fit either category.

The best it could do was bringing Teddy to a memory he'd had once before, a day with the Marauders in Hogsmeade, obtaining some used furniture from Madam Rosmerta which they would later use to furnish their dormitory. He supposed the ring chose that memory because James Potter had been musing over the Meaning of Lily, but they were all quite mystified, and therefore had no help to offer whatsoever. He was beginning to wonder if the Marauders weren't all a bit clueless about girls. Despite Sirius's swaggering, even he never seemed to know what they were thinking, and if he got confused enough, he just moved on to someone simpler.

Through Dad's teenage eyes - Teddy sensed that he was fourteen in this memory - he saw James hoist a chair onto his shoulders as they trudged back toward school. Sirius had the other chair, and Dad and Peter were rolling a table. James sighed deeply. "Do you think she's right in the head?" he asked. "She's friends with Snivelly, and that can't mean anything good."

"Sorry, mate," Sirius said, "the House of Black has my perception skewed about what's right in the head and what's not. Can't help you."

"She doesn't care about Quidditch!"

"I don't care about Quidditch, either," Dad offered.

"That settles it, then," Peter said, "she is crazy. Same symptoms as Lupin. Well... most of them."

After this, the memory faded into a snowball fight, the furniture pocketed in little protective charms while they pelted each other. The object became to stand on top of the table and defend it against the others. Dad won, and James and Sirius put him on one of the chairs, lifting it up and carrying it to the gate like a sedan chair, then dumping him unceremoniously down while they went back for the rest. The subject of the girl mystery was dropped; the memory ended, and Teddy was left without answers in his dormitory. He tried a technique from his Divination book to try and Conjure a dream of Mum when he went to sleep - a piece of parchment under his pillow with the incantation Somnium Dora Lupin placed on it - but the dream it brought was as unhelpful as the memory. She appeared and they sat on either side of the table from Dad's memory, but she didn't say anything after Teddy finished his question. She just smiled and nodded.

He woke up frustrated. Maybe he should try Nymphadora. That might get her mad enough to open her mouth. He realized he was getting angry at her, which was a pointless sort of emotion, so he cut off the train of thought and decided not to try the spell again. She couldn't answer his questions because she was dead, not because he hadn't annoyed her sufficiently.

He supposed he could ask Granny, but he couldn't think how to write it in a letter.

In the end, he decided there was really only one logical person to ask, so he waited until Thursday evening, waiting impatiently for Uncle Harry to appear in the entrance hall.

Instead of taking the Whomping Willow tunnel to the Shrieking Shack, Uncle Harry led Teddy out of the front gate, and they came to the Shrieking Shack through Hogsmeade. Uncle Harry stopped at the gate and smiled. "It's all yours," he said.

Teddy blinked, then remembered the keys that would let him in. He thought about wanting to get in and closed his fist three times. The iron keyring Uncle Harry had given him for Christmas appeared, looped over one of the rusty spikes of the fence. He picked it up, and let them in. He could feel some other Teddy, some shadow Teddy who lived alongside him, who had always come into this house this way. The windows weren't boarded - or under the illusion of boarding, as some of them were - and the last few Christmas decorations were still up because no one was really in a hurry to take them down. The shadow Teddy glanced up at the window of his bedroom, to see if anyone had been into his things, then ran carelessly up the path, calling for Mum, because he guessed she might have some notion about why girls did things, though he didn't hold out much hope, really...

He blinked, and the Shrieking Shack was just itself again, and he was standing at the base of the path with Uncle Harry. He really did have a question about Ruthless, but only the mice were inside to answer it. He sighed and went up the path to the door. The same key that worked on the gate went to the door, and he opened it on its squeaky hinges, unused for nearly fourteen years (if then; he had the impression that his parents had mainly used the back entrance, through the garden, during the brief time they'd been here together). The Shack looked different, coming into it from a level, rather than clambering up from below.

The blood stain in the parlor still drew Teddy's eye. He thought about asking Uncle Harry for help in removing it, but he had a feeling the request wouldn't be taken well. He shook off the mood and tried to think of a way to bring up the problem with Ruthless, but nothing came to mind before Uncle Harry launched into trying to teach him to make his Patronus carry messages.

"This is generally done nonverbally," he said, "but I don't think you're ready for nonverbal spells yet, so I had Hermione come up with a good incantation. She thinks Declamare Patroni will work." He raised his eyebrows and waited for Teddy to repeat it properly, then went on. "The message it carries is a matter of what you need. Try to keep it simple. The Patronus can't carry complex instructions. You can't really use them for long conversations. What I need you to be able to do is have it tell me where you are and what sort of trouble you're in - for instance, 'I'm on the Hogsmeade road. Twenty werewolves surrounding. Get here quickly, I can only handle ten one-handed.'"

"Right, I'm sure that's exactly what it will be."

Uncle Harry smiled. "As long as you tell me where you are and that you need help, I'll get to you."

"How will I know if the message gets to you?"

"I'll show up, wand out."

"What if I'm behind an Apparition barrier?"

"I'll get as close as I can and run. I'll send my Patronus ahead so you know I'm coming."

"Won't that warn Greyback?"

"That's a good point," Uncle Harry said. "But I imagine he'll have heard and seen you send yours anyway."

Teddy nodded. "How does it know to go to you, rather than just flying around, looking for someone?"

"I don't know. But I've never had a Patronus end up misdirected. You just need to imagine the person you're sending it to." He thought for a minute, then said, "Go upstairs. Somewhere. Then send your Patronus down to tell me where you are."

Teddy went up to his room and sat down on the broken old bed that occupied it. It occurred to him to wonder why in the world the Shrieking Shack had been furnished - with broken furniture, no less - but there was no one alive to ask. He hadn't cast the Patronus since the first night, and didn't feel particularly good, but it didn't give him any trouble. When he said, "Expecto Patronum," the hawk flew easily from his wand. He watched it, then fixed his surroundings in his mind and said, "Declamare Patroni." The hawk swooped at him suddenly, racing toward his face. In a flash of white light, it disappeared.

A few seconds later, something white swirled on the ceiling and dropped to the floor. Prongs's jaw dropped, and said in Uncle Harry's voice, "It came, but said nothing. Concentrate on the words."

Teddy did the spell again, then said aloud, "Upstairs, in my room."

The hawk disappeared.

A soft pop in the corridor announced Uncle Harry's presence, but he was a few doors down. He came to the door and leaned on the frame. "This is particularly your room?"

"Well," Teddy said, "it would have been. Mum had started to fix it when they had to leave. I forgot that you didn't know. It had the words, then? Exactly?"

"If the exact words were 'Upstairs, in my room.'"

"They were."

"Then you have it. Well done."

Teddy cast the Patronus again, just to watch it fly around. It landed on top of the dusty old wardrobe where the boggart had hidden in the autumn. "I think it needs a name," Teddy said. "How about Wings? That's my Muggles and Minions character."

"Sounds good."

"I could use it on the Map, too."

"Mm-hmm."

"But no one really calls me that."

"I don't really have nicknames, either," Uncle Harry said. "Just not something my friends did. The Marauders are really the only people I've known who did that."

"McGonagall had a nickname," Teddy said. "It was in my grandmother's book. Sirius's Uncle Alphard called her 'Pallas.'"

"I can't even imagine."

Teddy fumbled for a connection to what he really wanted to talk about, and said, "Do you suppose that Uncle Alphard was going out with McGonagall?"

"What?"

"You know... maybe that's why he called her that."

"Er... I don't know. You'd have to ask McGonagall, because I'm certainly not going to."

"People going out sometimes do strange things, right? Like strange nicknames?"

"Excellent segue," Uncle Harry said, bemused. "What confusing thing has Ruth done?"

Teddy blushed. "Nothing really. It's just..." He bit his lip, then found himself telling Uncle Harry about the last kiss, in the fireplace, and the fruitless search for privacy the first night back, then the week with no kissing at all, and then the cheerful wave across the common room. "She's not angry at me, but I don't know what she's thinking! I looked in the ring, but the Marauders didn't have any idea, and Mum wouldn't talk to me in my dream, and..."

Uncle Harry held up his hand and shook his head. "One thing at a time, Teddy."

Teddy stopped, realizing that he must sound a bit mad. He shrugged. "I just tried a dream spell," he said. "Fourth year divination textbook. Nothing dangerous. It's to help you dream about something if you think you need to."

"I don't think that was in my book." Uncle Harry thought about it. "As far as Ruth goes, you need to talk to her. I haven't got any theories, and I'd guess she knows why she's doing this."

"What if it's because she wants to break up?"

"Is that what you're afraid of?"

"Well... yes. Everyone else has broken up. Roger's already gone out with someone new - Lizzie Richardson - and broken up with her, too."

"Well, you are a bit young to expect to be with her forever. Whatever it is, Ruth is the best person to talk about it with. She's the only one it makes sense to. If I've learned one thing being married, it's that."

"Does Aunt Ginny ever do things you don't understand that don't mean she's going to break up with you?"

"If she broke up with me every time she did something I don't understand, I would be a very lonely man."

Teddy sighed.

Uncle Harry smiled, then fixed a shattered chair and sat down in it. "You're doing fine, Teddy," he said. "If she's not angry, then it's not anything you've done wrong, or that she imagines you've done wrong."

"But how do I fix it?"

"Well... I..." Uncle Harry winced. "I'm afraid I've run out of wise Uncle Harry advice. I don't know, Teddy."

This somehow didn't help. "Oh."

Uncle Harry looked at him for a long time, the good humor fading. "Teddy, you know what I'm going to say next."

Thoughts of Ruthless fled from Teddy's mind. "I'm not dwelling on dreams, Uncle Harry. Just trying to have them. That's all. Honestly. It's stupid. I know."

"No, it's not."

"Did you ever want to talk to your mum about a girl?"

"No," Uncle Harry admitted. "I had Hermione for that. And your granny, later. But the day my James was born, I wanted to show him to my dad. Introduce them. Ask him what I was meant to do next. I imagine he'd say I already had seven years of experience with you, but with you I had Andromeda as a safety net. I wanted my dad when I found myself without one."

"I thought it didn't bother you."

Uncle Harry looked surprised. "Of course it does, sometimes."

"How do you make it stop?"

Uncle Harry got quiet, then said, "It was worst right after the war. Everyone was celebrating, but I just seemed to go to one funeral after another. Your parents' funeral was the worst. There were so many things I realized I meant to talk to Remus about and never did. I wanted to call - " He stopped, seemed to consider something, and shook his head sharply. "But right around that time, Ginny and I were trying to fix things, and Ron and Hermione were getting their lives together. And of course, I fell madly in love with someone new."

"With someone other than Aunt Ginny?"

"Yes. Someone short and chubby with thinning green hair." He grinned. "Every now and then, someone will tell me how generous I am, looking after a poor orphan. They have no idea. It's pure selfishness on my part. Why do you think I used to have your Moses basket on my desk when I was training?"

"Because Granny couldn't find another babysitter," Teddy said, raising his eyebrow.

Uncle Harry laughed. "Right. That's it." He sighed. "Teddy, what I'm saying is that... well, that place where they're not there, it's not going to get any smaller. But it's not going to stop hurting if you gnaw at it all the time. The only way for it to heal is to leave it be a little bit, and concentrate on loving the people you've got around you. Otherwise, it'll drive you mad, because you can't do anything about it. It doesn't mean that you don't care, or you've forgotten."

Teddy nodded. "All right."

"Do you think we've had enough of a serious conversation for the night?"

"Oh, yes."

"Good. Let's see if we can get this floor straightened out. This is pretty bad."

They spent the next hour getting the floor boards in Teddy's room to lie flat, and fixing the furniture. Uncle Harry had bought new fittings and fixtures as part of the Christmas present, and Teddy replaced the doorknob while Uncle Harry put up a new chandelier. Teddy was pleasantly tired as they made their way back to Hogwarts, talking about a Quidditch game Uncle Harry had taken James to, and the Gryffindor team's prospects for the cup this year. Part of Teddy's mind was engaged in this, the other part was turning over what they'd talked about earlier. When Uncle Harry left him at the door, he let it turn back again.

It hadn't occurred to him that Uncle Harry still thought about his parents and felt them missing, though he supposed he should have guessed it while they were working on the Marauder's Map together. Professor Longbottom had once told him about saving bubble gum wrappers that his mum had given him. Granny would sometimes break into tears for no reason. His cousin Draco had tried to kill someone to avenge his father. Voldemort had tried to destroy the world over it. And of course, Teddy had his own collection, his box of Marauder nonsense collected over the years, his searching not only for Mum and Dad, but also for Sirius Black, James Potter, and Peter Pettigrew.

Something was trying to come together in his mind; instead of going back to Gryffindor Tower, where it was noisy and crowded, he checked the Marauder's Map for an empty classroom. Professor Firenze was just leaving, and classroom eleven was empty.

He went inside. It was still Charmed to show the forest. There was a pool of water. He prodded it with his wand. "Indicare."

The water went cloudy, and a face swam up from it, muddy and unclear, but recognizable.

Greyback.

He was missing a father as well. He'd become a werewolf to fill the hole. Was he still collecting things? Trying to connect? Going places that would matter, just as Teddy went to the Shrieking Shack?

He went back to Gryffindor Tower, not pausing in the Common Room. He could only think of one person who might know something more.

He got out a piece of parchment and wrote, Dear Professor McGonagall, I was wondering about what you said about Astrid Greyback...

There was a Gryffindor-Ravenclaw Quidditch game that Saturday, and the Great Hall was festive with students wearing their House colors. Slytherin traditionally supported Ravenclaw, so Corky and Maurice had blue and bronze rosettes on. Hufflepuff held to its custom of supporting Gryffindor, although there always seemed to be grumbling about being "more than Gryffindor's cheering section." Teddy thought this silly, as Gryffindor was generally Hufflepuff's cheering section against the other Houses as well, and they'd been evenly matched when they played one another, but he supposed it didn't matter - they showed up in scarlet and gold one way or another, and no one was in doubt of their loyalties once the cheering started.

Ruthless was in a state of high tension. She pulled him behind a tapestry and said, "I don't suppose I could have a kiss, even if I've been odd?"

Teddy obliged.

"Not bad," she said. "I think we're getting the hang of it, you know." She was nearly bouncing from foot to foot. "Are you going to wish me luck or not?"

"Good luck," Teddy said, as confused as he had been before, though less unpleasantly so. She went back to the team, and the festive pre-game activities at the table. Teddy followed, but got caught in a knot of first years, including Victoire, who were already counting up hexes and pranks to send at the Ravenclaw spectators. Glancing over at the Ravenclaw table, Teddy saw a similar group around Story. He thought it might be wise to skip the game, then decided that Ruthless wouldn't take it well. But he'd sit with the seventh years, he thought. As far from the mad first years as he could get.

An efficient looking barn owl arrived in the middle of this with a note from Minerva McGonagall.

Mr. Lupin, I'm intrigued by your question, and quite glad you thought to ask me. I've arranged to visit Professor Longbottom for tea on Sunday, and he's indicated that you are welcome to join us. I have asked Madam Pince to send Professor Dumbledore's Pensieve to the greenhouses, and after we've talked, perhaps you would care for a more direct look.

Sincerely, Prof. Minerva McGonagall

Teddy wrote a quick acceptance to Professor McGonagall, and a second to Professor Longbottom. He was sitting at the high table, so it was just a matter of the owl dropping it off before moving on, but it seemed more proper than just running up and saying, "Coming to tea tomorrow, thanks."

He got it and nodded soberly in Teddy's direction, then rolled his eyes as the owl flew away.

The game took four hours, as the Snitch was being especially tricky. Honoria Higgs had somehow ended up commentating today - the days of a single appointed commentator had ended with Lee Jordan, and they'd decided to use the opportunity to make sure, in the future, that the commentator wasn't in either of the playing houses. The seventh years all seemed to have their group together, as did the second years, so against Teddy's better judgment, he ended up sitting with Victoire after all. She paid very little attention to him, as she was busy sending Kirk and Leon off with bundles of red and gold fireworks to sneak behind the Ravenclaw section. She posted Mina Moran as a guard to make sure no one was doing the same to Gryffindor.

Franklin Driscoll, one of the Ravenclaw Chasers, scored five goals early on, but after that, Ruthless made him her personal business, and he wasn't able to get around fast Bludgers for the rest of the day. Chet Fleming, a fifth year Gryffindor Chaser, was a right prat in person, but Teddy was glad he was on the team - he got four goals himself, so they were trailing by only ten, and Holly McKean, a second year girl who was new to the team this year, evened it up. "It's a new game!" Honoria said perkily. Teddy began to wish he'd brought Tirza and her pirates along.

Finally, Chet led a serious offensive and got Gryffindor ahead by fifty points. Unfortunately, the Snitch made its next appearance nearly on top of the Ravenclaw Seeker, and Ravenclaws took the game by a hundred points. The mood in the Gryffindor Common Room was funereal, and Teddy escaped it. He'd finished his weekend homework yesterday, so he took out The Lost Treasure, the fourth and final book in the Tirza series. He didn't bother doling this one out in tiny swallows. Mum had enough of these stored up to keep him occupied until he got bored with them.

Tirza and the pirates had rescued Holt from the prison in Australia at the end of the third book, and they'd had a joyful reconciliation. Brock was trying to talk the village witch into marrying him. And of course, in the midst of this, the evil Malacquis family returned to its dastardly attempt to hunt down Tirza, especially now that she was pregnant, as her child, by some legal loophole that Teddy suspected was made up for the book, could inherit everything out from under them. They decided for some reason that the best way to kill Tirza without raising suspicions of foul play was to draw her into the protection of a poor little island colony in the South Pacific, lost for a hundred years but conveniently rediscovered as the book opened. It seemed to be inhabited entirely by helpless, good people who were trying to magically bring peace to the world. The Malacquis family, in tandem with a corrupt magical government on a nearby island - both made up - launched a war on them, and Tirza and Holt and the whole pirate crew had to go in to save them. In the middle of it, Tirza had a son. Teddy began to get a dreadful, sinking feeling, but kept reading.

Holt ran off to battle. Tirza was supposed to stay on the ship, but didn't. She ran into the battle and saved Holt from the dastardly Baron Malacquis. The islanders made their potion, and, while it didn't bring peace to the whole world, it did pacify the Malaquis troops.

They all lived unrealistically ever after. Teddy looked at the picture on the cover. Tirza was standing on a beach with her little baby under lime-green palm trees, looking out over a sea so blue it hurt to look at. Holt was beside her, his long hair whipping in the wind, flying out to join hers so it was impossible to tell where one of them began and the other ended. Teddy wasn't sure what they were meant to be looking at so intently, as all three of them weren't on the island until after all the danger was gone.

There was a knock at the door. He checked the Marauder's Map and saw Ruthless outside, pacing in small circles. He went to meet her, slipping out into the corridor outside (Checkmate protested loudly when he nudged her back in).

Ruthless held out a covered plate. "You missed supper," she said. "And lunch, too. I thought you must be hungry."

"I missed supper?"

"It's ten o'clock, Teddy."

"Oh. I've been reading."

She nodded. "Well, I thought you'd be hungry," she said again, and started down the stairs. It was a gesture very unlike any he'd seen from her.

"Wait," he said. "What's going on?"

"Nothing, why?" She frowned. "Are you all right? You look angry."

A flight below them, one of the second year boys coming up from the Common Room looked at them curiously.

Teddy took Ruthless's hand. "Come on. If it's ten o'clock, it's probably pretty empty down there."

She nodded. "There were only a few people when I came through."

When they got down to the Common Room, Teddy spotted a pair of chairs near the window that were out of the way and out of earshot from the fireplace, where Victoire and Leon were building something that looked frankly dangerous. He pushed the chairs together to make a wall and block their view, then sat in one of them. Ruthless took the other.

"Are you going to break up with me?" she asked.

"Am I going to...?" Teddy shook his head. "No. I just... well... you said it yourself. You've been odd."

She sighed. "My parents think I'm too young to have a boyfriend," she said quickly. "They like you perfectly well and they think you're a good choice so they're not forbidding me completely, but they think I'm too young to have even a very good boyfriend and I promised I'd think about it." Once it was all out, she looked at him nervously.

"Oh," he said.

"I think they might be right. I don't want to be anyone's girlfriend." She looked deeply pained. "But I really like kissing you. Really. Even if we're not especially good at it."

Teddy couldn't think of anything to say to this, as he'd already used "Oh."

"And also, you're my best friend. Breaking up would be - well, you know. And what if we still want to kiss each other? I think I will for a bit, and I ought to stay away, as I've been doing, but that's miserable, because without you, I'm mainly stuck babysitting my little brother if I want company, and that means being bossed about by Victoire these days, and - " She sighed. "Is this why you were angry? Am I being one of those annoying girls? That's why I don't want to be anyone's girlfriend, it's turning me into - "

Teddy shifted in his chair and leaned over to kiss her, which surprised her into silence. He managed not to drool, and she didn't bruise or bite him. "I'm glad you were my first girlfriend," he said, then tried a smile, though he didn't really feel like it. He'd made a sworn blood oath to not be an idiot when it became time to break up, and he meant to hold to it, though he really wanted to start yelling at her, even though she wasn't really doing anything terrible. "Or does that break the googly-eyed rule?"

"Well, if we're breaking up, I guess the rules don't really apply. We might need new ones, though. Are we breaking up?"

Teddy nodded. "I'm going to go upstairs now."

"Are you all right? You look a little - "

"I'm going upstairs now," he said, then got up and left. He chanced a look back when he got to the base of the boys' stairs. Ruthless was standing by the chairs, biting her lip.

He turned away and went to his room, ignoring Checkmate's demands for play as he stacked up Mum's books and buried them at the bottom of his trunk.