Chapter 17:

Battening Down

Vivian listened while Teddy tried to explain Honoria's position as well as he could.

"I didn't mean to bring you into it," he said. "I only wanted to do something because that" - he stopped himself from using the word she'd already used - "girl brought Dad into it. I don't think he'd like that. Only when I went, she said I wasn't the eyewitness. Will you talk to her?"

"Oh, yes," Vivian said absently. "I'll get the others, too. I know Blondin's practically spitting. Alderman's not in an entirely priestly frame of mind, either, and Coral had to restrain Evvie to keep her from going after that stupid little twist. Evvie's been the one sitting up with Neil."

"You think they'd all come?" Teddy asked. "Honoria can't leave Hogwarts - "

Vivian cut him off. "They're not about to let anyone into the Sanctuary just now, anyway. I'm sure I can get at least Blondin, Evvie, and Alderman. They were the ringleaders in the escape. Hagrid, may I use your fire?"

Hagrid nodded, and she went to the fireplace. While she was talking to someone in France - Teddy wondered how exactly that worked across the Channel, and thought he'd ask Kirley Duke the next time he visited Donzo - Professor Longbottom sat down across from Teddy and said, "This is all very interesting, and not a good way to take the target off of you."

"I don't care about that."

"Your godfather does. And your parents would."

"Yeah, 'cause all three of them were smashing at keeping the targets off them."

Professor Longbottom shook his head. "I'm going to let Harry handle that."

Vivian finished her call, and announced that her three friends, and - to her surprise - the author, Hamilton, would show up on Thursday after school hours. Teddy would need to arrange to have Honoria here at Hagrid's at six-thirty. He wouldn't be able to stay for the interview, as he'd have his lesson with Uncle Harry that night, but he'd heard it before.

Thursday was only two days, but it seemed, when Teddy got back to the castle, like it would be forever. The Auror Williams, on guard duty, had cornered a Ravenclaw fourth year trying to get out, and when Teddy came in, the fourth year was demanding to know if Williams intended to drag him off screaming. Williams looked less than pleased. Teddy stayed out of it.

He was less able to avoid the subject in History of Magic the next day, when Geoffrey Phillips, a Ravenclaw who had hated everything about Hogwarts since he arrived but for some reason hadn't left yet, began to quote Mathilde's article, and rhapsodize about the Ministry reaping what it had sowed. To Teddy's annoyance, Franklin Driscoll, who was normally perfectly sane, seemed inclined to agree. To his even greater annoyance, Geoffrey appeared to expect that Teddy himself would be going along with it.

"What they did to your dad - must've been rough, mate," he said with deeply fake sympathy.

Donzo jumped in. "I'm sure it wasn't ideal, but Teddy's dad was against these murderers."

"What was he, brainwashed?"

"Civilized," Teddy bit out.

"But what kind of false consci - "

Teddy stood up, knocking his chair backward, and drew his arm back. Donzo caught him and sat him back down with a stern look, then turned on Geoffrey. "That's enough, Geoff," he said.

Binns, who was floating at the front of the room looking distraught, resumed his lecture about the Centaur war of 1153. After class, Teddy walked out with Donzo.

"Thanks," he said. "I don't really have time for a detention this week."

"Don't mention it," Donzo said.

"I almost forgot about Geoffrey. He's been so quiet lately."

"Yes, well, he's got a little audience now. Bunch of little girls who were reading about the poor ickle orphan werewolves."

Teddy felt queasy.

Donzo stopped, and reached into his book bag. "My dad sent you something when he saw that article."

"Sent me something?"

"He noticed the bit about getting through Apparition barriers. He wasn't the only one, a lot of people are talking about it. But he wanted to give you these." He held out four sparkly black cubes.

"What are they?"

"Concentrated Floo powder. You can keep them in the pocket inside your robe. I guess my grandfather used to keep them." He smiled sheepishly. "He said he dragged you back behind the Floo at Christmas."

"I asked."

Donzo looked at him disbelievingly. "All right. He's very impressed with himself for teaching you something, anyway. Feels quite responsible for your well-being."

Teddy shook his head in wonder.

Donzo grinned. "Don't worry," he said, "I'm sure someday, you'll learn to tie your shoes and walk across the street all by yourself."

"I don't know," Teddy said. "Without seven or eight guardians, I might forget to look both ways."

"Anyway, carry that. For Dad. So he believes that if bad guys come for you, you'll be able to get to a fireplace, light a fire, and escape, and it will all be thanks to your mum's favorite band."

"I think if that happens, your grandfather'll become her favorite Floo repairman."

Donzo looked uncomfortable, and Teddy realized he'd just talked about two dead people in the present tense. They went on to lunch, and Teddy was glad when Victoire pulled him into a prank in the other direction.

On Thursday afternoon, he ate dinner quickly and went over to the Slytherin table. Corky waved to him, but he shook his head and went straight to Honoria, who was eating by herself (she appeared to have broken up with Brendan, who was currently splitting pudding with a brown-haired second year). She was quite untroubled and unhurried. She even let Teddy see the list of questions she meant to ask. "Professor Slughorn has already told me that if I write fairly on this, he'll let me back with no prejudice from before. Which is only fair, as I was only a first year last time."

She didn't rush herself through the rest of the meal, eating delicately while she made a few quick adjustments to her questions. Teddy sat idly at the Slytherin table, looking up at the enchanted ceiling. Corky and Maurice finally came over and entertained him for a bit. He didn't realize until he was on the way out, side by side with Honoria, that people were looking at him and whispering behind their hands. Ruthless was craning her neck, looking at him with disbelief. He shook his head helplessly, and she nodded, looking relieved.

"I have some pictures my dad drew of them when they were kids," he told Honoria as they walked down to Hagrid's. "Would they help?"

"Definitely."

"All right. I'll bring them back."

"I'm surprised you're not staying."

"I'm meeting my godfather."

"Yes... you've been meeting him. Private lessons?"

"Do you want the pictures?"

"Yes."

They went on without talking any more, going faster to keep warm in the chilly late January night. Uncle Harry was waiting with Hagrid, Vivian, and the others. Teddy performed the introductions. He didn't think Honoria could ever have gone into a room where so many people were happy to see her. She was just sitting down with the werewolves when Teddy left with Uncle Harry. They practiced the Patronus a few times, and Uncle Harry introduced him to a new defensive spell that was intended to unbalance an attacker. They spent the rest of the lesson disarming each other, though Uncle Harry said that Dad had got on his case about using that too often. "Worked in the end," he said, "but that was because of a lot of other magic that had been done. I reckon your dad was right about normal battles. Don't be predictable. And in Greyback's case, disarming him may actually come down to taking off his arms, as he doesn't exactly do his biggest damage with a wand. Expelliarmus!"

Teddy blocked it with a Shield Charm, but the Charm wasn't strong enough to actually bounce back and disarm Uncle Harry. "Do you know yet how she got through the barriers?"

"No," he said, then Teddy's wand went flying from his hand.

"Hey! I don't know nonverbal spells!"

Uncle Harry handed the wand back to him and sat down on the threadbare old sofa. "Unfortunately, we can't count on people always using spells we know."

"Has anything happened because of that article?"

"Oh, about two hundred letters demanding that I censure Ron, and Kingsley's got a similar number about censuring me."

"Has anyone written nasty letters to Mathilde Dubois? I haven't seen anything in the Prophet."

"The Prophet has some problems of its own. I was talking to Dennis Creevey - he was in Dumbledore's Army, he lost his brother. He's on their editorial staff. They've certainly received letters, but they haven't decided what to do with them. I told them to hold off. I'm looking into it. Interesting idea you have with the school paper."

"I don't want Vivian to lose her job."

"Hermione's working on that, but of course, everyone's saying she's using her status as a war hero to get special dispensations for a friend. It's a mess, politically. I hate politics. Have I mentioned that?"

"Once or twice."

They finished up the lesson, then worked on the living room wallpaper for a little while. It had been shredded, and a huge section above the mantel had simply been blasted away by magic. Uncle Harry didn't know how it had happened, but Teddy had once caught a reflection of it in one of Dad's memories. The memory itself was of walking through Granny's garden with Teddy in his arms, but all sorts of things that happened had been bound up in his mind that day, and one of those things was remembering the day he and Mum had been evicted from the Shrieking Shack. They'd sent all of their furniture to Granny's, and proceeded to put everything back to the way it was. Or that had been the idea. A portrait Dad had drawn of Mum had been hanging there, and in the fray, it had fallen, and the frame had broken and torn the parchment. In a fit of fury, Mum had blasted the wall. He'd had to drag her out before she tore the whole place down. She finally calmed down, saying over and over that they'd come back, it was theirs, the goblins couldn't have it, and so on. Dad had got the portrait fixed (it was in the corridor at Granny's now), but Mum always swore it wasn't the same along the line of the tear. Teddy didn't think Dad had meant him to get that memory, so he hadn't told anyone about it.

They finished up at last. The room still looked old, but it wasn't shattered and torn anymore. Teddy took down the drawings of Alderman, Blondin, Evvie, and Hamilton, and brought them back through the tunnel. Honoria was just finishing up when they got back, and was happy to get them.

The Charmer ran on Wednesday mornings, so Teddy had to wait nearly a week to see what came of it. Students were looking anxiously around for Vivian, wondering if "that creepy werewolf woman" had been sent home. The newspaper was usually unheralded - a few people read Roger's column on all things Muggle, and Franklin Driscoll had started drawing a comic strip called "Hoggy Warty," in which various members of the staff and student body were represented by animals (Slughorn, of course, was a giant slug, while Professor Longbottom was an anthropomorphized lion), but mainly, it was something that only the people who worked on it read.

Until the Wednesday that Honoria rejoined its ranks, anyway.

That morning, a copy magically appeared with each student's breakfast. On the cover were the five pictures Dad had drawn, set next to current photographs of Vivian, Alderman, Hamilton, Evvie, and Blondin. Vivian's was in the center at the top. Two went down on either side. In the box they made, the headline was "GROWING UP WITH GREYBACK."

Teddy saw people open the fold with vague curiosity, then start to read, becoming more deeply engrossed as they went. The sound of breakfast that morning was the sound of turning pages.

Teddy knew the stories, of course, but no one else did. Honoria didn't hold back. She'd taken unforgiving pictures of Vivian's scars, and talked about the murders she'd witnessed before she was ten. Blondin talked about being taught to hunt by smearing human blood on rabbits. Alderman had got Hermione to Vanish the caps her parents had long ago put on his sharpened teeth, at least long enough for people to see them. "It was our souls Greyback was after," he said. "It was Lupin who got them back for us."

Honoria entered the Great Hall fashionably late, and Teddy stood up and applauded her. So did several other people. She manufactured a flustered expression and dropped a curtsy.

There was no talk of Vivian leaving after that. Students wrote to worried parents, and sent along copies of the article (the Charmer had curiously printed enough copies for every student and the full staff, and still had many extras). The Aurors were also applauded on their arrival that night, and the next night, at his lesson, Uncle Harry told Teddy that they'd been getting owls all day from parents congratulating them on the raid and offering help. Better still, the Wizengamot had been inundated with even more owls, and these had been demanding that Vivian retain her post... and that the laws preventing her from holding it be permanently repealed. "According to Hermione," he said, "the longest and best ones were from your dad's students. Oliver Wood and the entire Puddlemere team made up posters that they've got all over Diagon Alley. Oliver's holding your Dad's picture in one hand and his Defense N.E.W.T. score in the other. They just say, 'Isn't it about time?'"

Teddy laughed. "I think Dad would like that. Am I right?"

"Oh, I think he'd bluster about and say that he really didn't deserve it. But he'd like it just the same. And he does deserve the loyalty."

The euphoria lasted a few more days. The Daily Prophet, chastened at being scooped by a school newspaper, ran Honoria's article, and the fervor increased. But the moon was waxing as they entered February, and people who had signed their names to petitions and letters were looking nervously at their own protection. The madly swinging pendulum started to go in a new direction altogether as they remembered Mathilde's threat: toward terror. Letters to the Prophet started coming in, insisting that calamities were coming, that Greyback would be able to get anywhere while the Aurors were busy guarding Hogwarts.

Within the school, life went on, as it always had and always would. The nine minute wonder of a Charmer article making it into the Prophet had faded within a week, and when the moon was three days away, most of the school was back to its regular studies, much to Honoria's annoyance. She was sullen in Defense Against the Dark Arts on an afternoon three days before the full moon, re-reading her article instead of listening to Robards.

Teddy also found the speed of the whole thing disorienting. He'd wanted it to last longer, somehow, than a particularly interesting Quidditch scandal. Robards had got through the regular textbook early, as he usually did, and had moved on to his own particular favorite Dark Creatures. Today, he was talking about revenants, which resulted from a sort of accidental, botched ghost-forming. "It's rather like a piece of the soul gets caught on something and snags," he said. "It's aware of itself, but all it feels is anger, trying to rejoin the rest of itself. Most Muggle ghost stories are really stories about revenants. They - " He stopped. "Mr. Potter?"

Teddy looked up. Uncle Harry was standing in the door of the classroom, looking serious. "I'd like to speak to Teddy, if I might, Professor Robards."

Teddy followed Uncle Harry complacently halfway down the corridor before it hit him - Uncle Harry had never pulled him from a class.

He stopped walking. "Granny - !"

Uncle Harry turned, his eyes wide. "No, Teddy, I'd have told you right away. Andromeda's fine. Everyone's fine. It's entirely a different matter." He blew a harsh breath out and ran a hand through his hair. "Sorry. I didn't even think of that. A million other things going through my head. But Andromeda's fine. Incredibly, unbelievably stubborn, but fine." He turned up the stairs, and Teddy followed. "She's insisting on staying at St. Mungo's. We can secure St. Mungo's. It's not that hard to make a fortress of it, and there are former Aurors there who were hurt in the war, but can still help keep guard."

"Guard?" Teddy sighed as they turned a corner and headed for the Headmistress's office. "The full moon."

"Greyback and Dubois have more or less promised an attack. They know we'll defend Hogwarts, and it won't be difficult to guess that we'll defend St. Mungo's and the Ministry, so we think they'll go for soft targets as well. Defense is going to be somewhat complicated. Chrysanthemum." They'd reached the gargoyle that guarded the door to the Headmistress's office, and it jumped aside. They didn't talk as the rotating staircase carried them up.

The door at the top was open, and Teddy noticed immediately that there were several people inside who weren't normally at Hogwarts. George Weasley stood up as they came in. Beside him, Lee Jordan was lounging in a chair, and Ron was leaning on the wall by the window, looking dour. Fleur was pacing behind Professor Sprout, and a plain-looking youngish man with thinning mousy hair was fiddling nervously with a silver gadget Teddy didn't recognize. Behind him was Kingsley Shacklebolt, the Minister of Magic. There were no other students present.

Professor Sprout waved them inside. "Come in, Mr. Potter. Mr. Lupin." She waited for them to take seats, then said, "Mr. Weasley has hinted at what you've come about. And if it's what he's hinted, I hope you have a very good explanation for yourself, because exposing Hogwarts to more violence is not something I care to do."

"Hogwarts is going to be targeted no matter what we do," Uncle Harry said. "But Greyback and Dubois aren't Voldemort, and the pack is barely trained in magic. Hogwarts can be defended. We're also defending St. Mungo's. But we can't protect every household if Mathilde Dubois has developed ways to get through Apparition borders. They'll anticipate that we'll put our biggest forces here, but they'll split up. We haven't left them a huge group. The children we found near Nurmengard don't think there are more than a handful left. You have a trained Auror here in Professor Robards - "

"Two," Kingsley Shacklebolt said.

Uncle Harry gave him a confused look; this apparently hadn't been in the script. "Kingsley, oughtn't you - "

"My son is here. If people complain about extra hands being spent at Hogwarts, I can always say I'm being protected rather than standing a watch."

"Complain?" Teddy asked.

Kingsley looked at him. "There's a sense that the Auror Division may have more interest in protecting Hogwarts than protecting the country as a whole."

"Their sense is right," Uncle Harry said. "But practically speaking, it's easy to defend a castle. That's what castles were built for, after all. The most surprising thing we could do is not be here. Be out there. At least as Aurors. Hogwarts won't be undefended. The staff is top notch, Kingsley will be here. Ginny will come with the children - "

"The children?"

"Yes," Fleur said. "Zey will be easier to watch if zey are 'ere. I will be 'ere as well."

"That's what we need to ask," Uncle Harry said. "There are several families that are particularly targeted, and we'd like them to be safe while we watch the softer targets."

Professor Sprout shook her head. "Harry, this is... surely if the most targeted families are here, we ought to have an Auror presence."

"You have an Auror presence," Kingsley said. "Just an unannounced one. And the presence of many veterans of a more subtle war."

"Meanwhile," George said, "I've worked more on the spell we used for the Hogsmeade weekend in October, so that people can call for help immediately if they need it. Anyone who wants it can come to the shop and get it free of charge. They'll be able to call the Aurors. But the Aurors wouldn't be able to Apparate immediately out of Hogwarts - they'll need to be outside."

Sprout considered this for a very long time, then said, "How many are you talking about?"

"My family," Harry said. "Ron and Hermione's children - Ron will be out with the Aurors and Hermione will be watching St. Mungo's with Bill. Bill and Fleur's children. George, Angelina, and little Freddie. Lee and Verity. And Dennis and his family."

"Alicia and Colin," the man Teddy didn't know said. "She's still weak from having him, but I'm bloody well going to be out there prowling about. I still think it's that perverse bastard who twisted my brother's neck."

"We'll set up a watch," Uncle Harry said, not arguing. "Lee and George, you'll be in the Owlery. Teddy, you'll stay with them all night."

"What? I'm to be babysat? There are other people he's more interested in by now, I'll bet he's even got a problem with Honoria, I'll - "

"Teddy. I'm asking for your trust."

Teddy fell silent, but felt mutinous. Uncle Harry went on with his proposal to turn the Great Hall into a large campground for the families. The doors would be barricaded, and adults would be on hand and on watch the whole time, in case Mathilde's spell was strong enough to Apparate directly there, though he found it unlikely. Meanwhile, other adults would be keeping watch - Lee and George in the Owlery (while babysitting Teddy), Kingsley patrolling the corridors with Professors Robards and Longbottom, the rest of the staff in their well-known crisis pattern. "You managed to keep me alive for six years here," he finished. "I trust you and Professor Flitwick and Professor Slughorn with my children."

Professor Sprout seemed to surrender. "All right. I don't like it, but I see your point. We'll defend Hogwarts. And anyone you put here."

"Good," Uncle Harry said. "I'd like to take George and Lee up to the Owlery - Teddy as well - to set up the best" - he paused - "viewpoint."

"Very well." Sprout shook her head. "This had best be the end of it, though."

Uncle Harry signaled to Lee and George, and they walked out ahead. Now that the meeting was over, they were reminiscing fondly about other trips to this office and punishments they'd received with the first Fred, George's brother. Uncle Harry purposely stayed a few steps behind them, and when they turned to head up the stairs to the Owlery, he drew Teddy aside.

"First of all," he said, "Greyback may have acquired new targets, but he hasn't been sending any of them love notes. He doesn't feel any of them are owed to him. You aren't in the same category as the others."

"But - "

Uncle Harry held up his hand. "And you're not going to the Owlery for extra protection."

Teddy had been so busy forming arguments in his mind that he almost didn't register this, and didn't know what to say when he did, other than, "What?"

"I don't want you in this fight, if there is one," Uncle Harry said. "And you will stay in the Owlery. I don't want to hear anything about you rushing off, no matter how much you think you need to."

"But - "

This time, Uncle Harry just stopped him with a look. "But if it were just about protecting you, I'd pull you out of school and send you to visit your cousin Draco in New Zealand. Or I'd send you on your own to Hawaii. Or Siberia. Viktor Krum has a Quidditch training camp there, and frankly, it's quite tempting to suddenly decide you ought to be a Quidditch star. Instead, I'm sending you to the Owlery with George Weasley, who once gave me something that's very helpful in keeping an eye on Hogwarts."

Understanding started to dawn. "They know about..."

"I assume they suspect, but I haven't told them you have it, or any of the new things you've discovered. But they know about the Map, and they used it - along with Fred - for years before they gave it to me. They've kept it secret."

Teddy felt dizzy and pleased - far from being treated like more of a child than the others, Uncle Harry was actually inviting him to help, as if he were Ron or George or Bill or Professor Longbottom. He was looking Teddy straight in the eye, man to man. And he was giving Teddy a chance to do something. Teddy nodded vigorously. "They can use it. I'll help them. I'll show them... are you really asking me to take a watch?"

"Yes." His face was pale and a little green. "I don't want to. I don't want you near this. But you are near it. And I need your help."

By the time they'd got to the Owlery, Lee and George had settled in quite comfortably. George was feeding a mouse to one of the school owls, and Lee was propped in one of the glassless windows, one foot planted on the floor, the other on the sill. They were laughing.

"...decided to sneak down the wall and see Hogsmeade?" George said. "I told him he'd end up breaking his leg, but he managed to get all the way down to the lake before Hagrid got hold of him and marched him back up."

"As I recall," Lee said, "I told him he'd break his leg. You told him that you already had detention and couldn't join him. It was the thing with - "

" - Flint, right! I'd forgotten, you're right."

Lee looked over at the stairs where Teddy was standing with Uncle Harry, and smiled. "Teddy. Don't ever try to climb down the wall. Very dangerous." He gave a pious nod.

"There were no broomsticks about?" Teddy asked. "I'd have taken a broomstick. And I don't even like flying."

"I like the way you think," George said. "We'll have to have you in for pipes and poker soon. This summer, I think." He smiled. "Fred would be kicking himself just about now for not thinking of the broomstick. We were first years and didn't have our own, but it's never been hard to sneak them away from other people."

Lee turned and put both feet on the floor. "So, Harry... what's the real story with the Owlery? You can't really see in every direction up here."

"Of course you can," Uncle Harry said. "Teddy? Do you have anything that might help them see in every direction?"

Teddy cocked an eyebrow at them, trying to mimic their easygoing friendship. "Do you solemnly swear...?"

They raised their wands in unison. "...that we're up to no good," they said.

Teddy took the Marauder's Map from his bag and spread it out on a large crate that wasn't too badly splattered with owl droppings. Dad's wand, tethered to it, thumped out onto the slats.

"How many wands do you have?" Lee asked.

"Just two," Teddy said. "And this one really belongs to the Map. It's Dad's. Watch."

Lee and George bent over the Map, and with some apprehension, Teddy used Dad's wand to open it, bringing out all the tricks the Marauders had saved for themselves. He looked up partway through explaining its ability to find lost things, and was delighted to see the men completely engrossed in what he was telling them, watching the magical item they'd used do things they didn't know it could do. George was watching with frank, open admiration, Lee with plain happiness. Teddy smiled. He hoped that, whatever was on the other side, the Marauders were all watching, and were happy to see themselves being properly appreciated. He imagined Dad looking a little embarrassed, James possibly exaggerating some emotion or wiping a fake tear of pride from his eye, Sirius puffing up like a popinjay. He didn't think Peter was with them anymore, but if he could see, Teddy imagined a place for him where he could think, "At least I did something right once." He didn't share these imaginings with Lee and George (and wouldn't share them even if it were just Uncle Harry here), but he did share it with the Marauders as well as he could, and a part of him felt them here, three more people in the room, bent over the crate, letting Teddy do their talking.

"...and it turns out that Dad bound Uncle Harry to it," he finished, "so Uncle Harry could bind me. I updated it. It shows the White Tomb now, and a lot of things that I noticed were different. I guess there's still a lot it doesn't see, but we can see everything in the castle."

Uncle Harry looked it over; he seemed happy just to watch the dots moving about with the names attached to them. "I also looked through Moody's dark detectors, and added a spell to warn Teddy when there was anyone around who meant him harm."

"Like Victoire," Teddy said.

George laughed. "Victoire?"

"She got a bit miffed at me and tried to set off your fireworks in my dormitory. I noticed them ahead of time and gave them back to her."

"Why was she miffed?"

"I don't know. She got mad when she found out I was going out with Ruthless. They don't like one another for some reason."

Lee bellowed laughter and sat on the floor. Uncle Harry and George were looking at each other oddly, and Teddy realized what they must think.

"No," he said. "Nothing like that. Really. I don't know what the problem is. They didn't like each other quite a long time before I started going out with Ruthless. And I think they still don't. It doesn't have anything to do with me."

This didn't seem to lessen their amusement.

George recovered first. "If you say so, Teddy."

Uncle Harry cleared his throat and pursed his lips against smiling. He got it under control and said, "Now, as to the Map. The warning spell is automatic when Teddy opens it, and it references him, but any of the werewolves in Greyback's pack are a danger to him, so they should show up in red if they're here."

"Right," Lee said. He got back up, looked at Teddy and laughed, then caught himself and said, "So they'll most likely have to Apparate before moonrise, won't they? Even with her special spells, they can't possibly Apparate after they've changed."

"I'm not even going to count on that absolutely," Uncle Harry said, "though it's probably true. The Map doesn't see most of the Forbidden Forest past the spider's nest. Unless... Teddy have you gone any further? No consequences if you say yes."

"A little further," Teddy admitted. "Frankie and I found a cave last year. But not much. Most of it still doesn't show up. But I did go to where the gate was, that Mum and Dad sent the pups through. It's a neat little clearing, but it's close to the wall. There's still a lot of forest out there."

Little by little, their gathering started to feel less like an old friends' reunion and more like a planning session. Teddy wasn't the center of attention, but he was as much a part of it as George, Lee, or Uncle Harry. It was a good feeling. He hoped that, when he grew up, they would want him as a friend. He had the idea that they could be his friends, just as much as Ruthless or Donzo or Frankie. He considered this a rather profound thought, though it occurred to him that it would be wise not to expose it to the light of day just now.

He walked down with them as the sun set, escorting them to the door as if they'd been there to visit him. Hagrid met them, and they disappeared into the shadows as they headed toward the gate.

Teddy went into the Great Hall for supper, and sat with Victoire and Ruthless as usual. He felt like telling them about his afternoon with Lee and George, possibly dropping in that he would be part of the guard on the school when the full moon rose, but he supposed that was meant to be a secret. He did tell them - so that they wouldn't worry when he didn't come back to Gryffindor Tower, of course - that he would have to help the guards with something. He slyly tipped the corner of the Marauder's Map out of his book bag - since they both knew about it, anyway - and they looked suitably impressed. He had a brief fantasy that Ruthless would say that she wanted to go out again, but she just settled in to do her Transfiguration homework. Victoire started to ask questions, but Teddy shook his head, hoping she would know it meant that it was all somewhat secret.

After supper, he went back to his room to make sure his work was done before this started, in case things got out of control. When he went to sleep, he dreamed himself back onto Tirza's ship. This time, for once, Tirza was on board. She and Holt and the pirates were preparing for a battle at the island.

"We need every hand!" she was saying, rounding everyone up.

Holt turned to him. "We need you in the crow's nest, Teddy."

"Isn't that where you belong?"

"I can't get there," he said, and Teddy looked down to see that his foot was in a cast. There seemed to be some reason why he couldn't magically repair whatever the damage was, so Teddy didn't question it. He obviously couldn't climb up the ladder to the crow's nest. "It's up to you. Go on."

Tirza ran over. "Are you sure? It's awfully high up there."

"It's the best place for him," Holt said. "And we need someone there."

"I suppose." Tirza looked at him, frowning. "You'll be careful, won't you? Keep to where you're told?"

"It's a bit hard to get down from there," Teddy said. "Unless I fly."

She touched his face. Her hand seemed to have a queer weightlessness to it. "Go on then," she said. "We'll be on the island. Everything will be fine. Be careful." She kissed his cheek, then rushed off into the thick of the pirates, where she was directing the landing party.

Holt put a hand on Teddy's shoulder. "Watch the shadows," he said, then turned and followed Tirza to a rowboat.

Teddy squared his shoulders, then climbed the mast, feeling the good warmth of the tropical sun on his straining shoulders. He pulled himself into the crow's nest and picked up the Omnioculars someone had left there. Looking through them, he saw the world as the Marauder's Map - dots with names floating beside them - but he couldn't read them all. He set the Omnioculars back down, and watched the rowboats dwindling as they leapt toward the lost colony.

He stayed above, keeping his watch.