Chapter 18:

Wolf Moon

The days were getting longer, but sunset was still before dinner at February's full moon, so dinner was to be held early that night. Professor Sprout had told everyone, of course, but it seemed most of the student body was still surprised when the door to the antechamber outside the Great Hall opened and seven-year-old Aimee Weasley ran out, closely followed by Al Potter. Al spotted Teddy, who was coming up from Potions with Corky and Maurice, and grabbed Aimee by the elbow to drag her over.

"We're spending the night!" he announced, then seemed to notice the others. He'd seen them, of course, but always forgot them between times. His bright green eyes went wide, and he grasped Teddy's hand.

"It's all right, Al," Teddy said. "These are my friends, Corky and Maurice. Is everyone here?"

Aimee inserted herself into the group. "We're all here. All my sisters, and Artie, and the Potters, and Rosie and Hugo, and where is Victoire? I want to see where Victoire lives!"

"Are you Victoire's sister?" Maurice asked.

Aimee nodded emphatically. "She's the very eldest of us, and she's very smart."

"I've noticed that about her," Corky said, then leaned down confidentially and added, "But I think you're prettier."

Aimee smiled so widely that Teddy could almost hear air going into her head, blowing her up so she might float away. She looked at Al. "I'm prettier than Victoire," she said. "He said so."

Al nodded somberly, as if he hadn't heard the entire conversation. "Is Victoire here?"

"I think she'll be coming over from Defense Against the Dark Arts soon," Teddy said. "Why don't we go in and say hello? Al, will you show us where your mum and James and Lily are?"

Given a task, Al seemed much more secure. He turned and tugged Teddy by the hand, back toward the antechamber, taking giant steps. "Mummy is talking to Kingsley and Aunt Fleur, and James has lost points for Gryffindor because he tried to climb the fireplace."

"James lost us points? He's not in the house!"

"Uncle Neville said he'd just have to take them from Gryffindor, as it's James's favorite House. James was very sad, but Uncle Neville said he could earn them back if he told stories to the little kids. Aimee and I know them all, though. So does Lily, but Lily and Hugo are playing Gobstones." He crossed the threshold and waved. James, who looked perfectly happy at the moment, waved from the tabletop, where he was having some sort of involved duel with himself while about a dozen smaller children looked on.

Then he noticed Teddy and stopped. "It's Teddy!"

"Go on with your story," Teddy said. "I want those points back."

"Will you make faces?"

Corky laughed. "Go on, Lupin. Make faces." He leaned against the back wall, and Maurice planted himself in a velvet chair.

Teddy gave in and went to the table. He sat on the edge of it, and James resumed his story, which seemed to be about a boy named Harry - "But not my daddy, this is a different Harry, who has brown hair" - who, along with his very best friend James, was going after (of course) a treasure, which was hidden somewhere here at Hogwarts. Teddy made all sorts of faces for him, including Professor Longbottom (who knew all of the secrets), Victoire, Hagrid, and - Teddy guessed this was a last minute addition - Corky and Maurice, who were to help Harry and James go down to the Chain Ball of Secrets, which would roll off the top of a cave where the treasure was hidden. (Aunt Ginny, now listening, was laughing rather hysterically at all of this.) He finished it up, seeing to it that everyone got a piece of the treasure, and some of it was put back into the Gryffindor hourglass, to replace what he'd had to take to get in, then took a bow.

"Well," Professor Longbottom said, "you've earned the points back, and I'll give Teddy ten more for helping out."

Teddy acknowledged it as well as he could, though it was difficult as Rosie Weasley had climbed up onto his lap and started poking at his face, trying to see how it worked, and three-year-old Laurel Shacklebolt was pulling his hair. To his amusement, when he looked up, he saw that Aimee and baby Muriel had latched onto Corky and Maurice during the story. Corky and Maurice looked like they'd been caught in some sort of unexpected war until Victoire swept in, picked up Muriel, and kissed Aimee. Marie and Artie ran over to join them, and Fleur, who was now starting to look pregnant, came over and fussed at Victoire. Teddy extricated himself from the girls and went to Aunt Ginny. The boys followed him.

"Are all of you safe?" he asked her.

"Yes, Teddy, we're perfectly safe." She smiled. "I understand you'll be helping with the lookout."

He nodded. "Are you patrolling?"

"Yes. I convinced the Minister that Professor Longbottom belonged in his House, as the other Heads of House will be. I'll be patrolling the corridors, along with Kingsley and Professor Robards."

"Who's watching in the Great Hall?"

She smiled faintly. "We have it under control, Teddy," she said. "Fleur's in charge. I think I've got Dennis talked into staying with Alicia and little Colin rather than rushing off on his own" - she pointed at the Creevey family - "and Professor Robards has asked several of his seventh year N.E.W.T. students to volunteer."

"Is that enough? What about the others? Is that Mrs. Shacklebolt?" He pointed to a tall, thin woman with high cheekbones.

"Yes. And she's an experienced duelist. I've asked Hagrid to stay in here as well. If there's anyone on the staff who can handle a werewolf one-to-one, it's Hagrid." She winked. "Besides, with you and Lee and George on the look-out, they won't be able to surprise us."

Professor Sprout insisted that students eat in the Great Hall, so the visitors could eat in peace here - "The elves are having enough trouble keeping up with this without people being in the wrong places!" - and by the time Teddy had finished eating, nearly everyone seemed aware of the visitors. Students helped professors get the Great Hall in order for their overnight stay. Professors and N.E.W.T. students Conjured rows of camp beds. Donzo offered to play for everyone to get the little children calmed down. He was setting up near the high table, the enchanted ceiling a darkening orange above him, when Teddy ducked out. He looked at the Great Hall with lines of children lying down on their beds, adults wandering among them, looking disoriented, and had the unwelcome thought that this was what it must have looked like after the battle, when the prone forms weren't sleeping.

He shuddered and slipped out, leaving the room behind him.

Lee and George were waiting in the Owlery, and Teddy put aside thoughts of the crowded Hall downstairs. Lee spread a clean cloth over the crate, and Teddy opened the Marauder's Map.

"We've been talking about it," George said. "If they're going to use that girl's spell to Apparate in - or whatever it is they're doing - they'll have to do it before moonrise. Once they turn, they don't really have the brains to do it."

"Then maybe they're already here," Teddy said, poring over the Map, searching for splashes of red.

"Maybe," Lee said. "But if so, they're in one of the places the Map doesn't show. I think we can rule out the inside of Hagrid's cabin, just on principle, but there's a lot of forest, and we can't really see under the lake."

"They're not mer-werewolves," Teddy said, then remembered that he was talking to an adult. "Er... sorry."

George grinned. "We were reckoning on bubble-head charms or whatnot. And there's also the question of whether or not they'll show up as wolves once they turn. The Map doesn't show every creature out there. We can see your cat, Checkmate" - he pointed to the dot bouncing wildly around Teddy's room - "but we can't see the mouse I'll bet she's chasing."

"Hmm." Teddy tapped the Map with his own wand and said, "Teddy Lupin respectfully requests the wisdom of the Marauders on the subject of seeing werewolves."

"Does that work?" George asked.

"Sometimes." At the top of the Map, Moony tipped his head curiously, but offered nothing. "Apparently, not this time." He shrugged, trying to look like he wasn't deeply disappointed. "I guess we'll just have to find out. Is there anyone at the Astronomy Tower to watch the lake?"

"Professor Sinistra took the watch," Lee said, then waved his wand, sending off his Patronus. "Just telling her to watch the lake." He grinned at George. "I don't know about you, but I like telling teachers what to do sometimes."

George laughed. "It is refreshing, isn't it? Come on, Lupin. We have a good view of the edge of the Forbidden Forest from here. Lee can take the first Map-watch. You can start telling me all of the other things it does."

"I want to hear about how you found it, and figured it out without anyone telling you."

"Deal."

So they sat on the ledge of the Owlery, watching the Forest as the sky blackened and the moon rose. Teddy looked up at it, spared a thought for Dad and the pups, and little Neil Overby.

Then he heard it.

The rising howl, coming from everywhere, echoing over the water, bouncing from the very stones of the castle.

They were here.

"I can't see where they're coming from yet," Lee said, taking up a broomstick that was leaning against the wall and handing a second to George. "They may not be showing up."

George slid down from the window sill and took the other broom. He bent over the Map, and Teddy could see that he wanted it to be the key as much as Teddy himself did.

Teddy bit his lip and looked out over the grounds. The silver-gray of the moonlit grounds was wrapped in curving patches of black where the deep shadows fell. Beyond the turrets of the castle, wrapping around the east part of the grounds in a shallow arc, was the Forbidden Forest.

Watch the shadows.

Holt's voice from his dream came back to him, and awake, he knew it. Of course he knew it. He'd lived his father's memories for nearly two years, had spoken in that voice inside his mind. He trusted it. He didn't know whether it was Dad speaking from beyond or his own brain coming up with something and giving it Dad's voice, but either way, he trusted it.

He peered out at the shadows of the Forest, beyond the places where he had gone. It was shapeless black. He needed more light, better eyes. He wished he'd thought to ask Ruthless for some of her Clear-Eye Concoction. If it could turn her horrible eyesight normal, perhaps it could help his normal eyesight, make it more like...

His eyes went to the line of owls perched above the windows. Several of them were peering down into the shadows on the floor, looking for mice and voles foolish or depressed enough to take up housekeeping in the Owlery. Their eyes were huge, with pupils that nearly stretched the whole length of them. He looked back over the Forest and morphed his own face, letting his eyes grow, widening the pupils. The world flooded with eerie gray light. His eyes ached, stretched, then, out of nowhere, seemed to snap into something new. Lines took on great clarity, and he seemed to be able to see each tree in the Forbidden Forest. To the south, he could see one of them trembling, then another, then another.

"They're coming up from the south!" he yelled.

Lee and George ran over. George frowned out into the night. "Where are they - " He stopped. "Nice morph."

"Over there," Teddy said, pointing at the moving trees.

Lee and George trusted him without question. They mounted their brooms and dropped over the wall of the Owlery. "Send word!" Lee called.

Teddy sent his Patronus to Aunt Ginny, then leaned over the Marauder's Map. He saw Lee and George flying over Gryffindor toward the edge of the forest. The first sprinkle of red was starting to seep into the areas Teddy and the Map knew. A single dot appeared, not enough to account for the size of the red cloud. It was labeled Pierre Deschain, a name that meant nothing at all to Teddy. His eyes, still morphed, saw the Map in fantastic detail, its cracked parchment, even a kind of shimmering energy that seemed to infuse it. This seemed to leap, then the red cloud surged forward in a bounding leap, three more dots appearing inside it (Teddy knew none of the names; neither Greyback nor Mathilde was with the raiding party). They were moving too quickly, even for leaping wolves.

He sent his Patronus again, this time to Lee and George, with the message, "They're spelled. Magic movement. Watch out."

He looked back down at the Marauder's Map frantically, watching for any more spots of red. None seemed to be appearing, but the original ones were spreading out, ducking from what he hoped were nasty spells raining down on them. They ran up alongside Gryffindor Tower, slipped to the front of the castle, ran at the door -

Teddy froze.

The Great Hall was still crowded, everyone gathered around the dot labeled "Donald McCormack Duke," but now the dots at the edge were moving. Fleur Weasley. Andrew Stephens. Professor Sprout. Hagrid. Dennis and Angelina Creevey.

Ruth Scrimgeour. Victoire Weasley. And, following them like a faithful puppy, James Potter.

Teddy swept up the Marauder's Map and ran.

He passed the door knocker of Ravenclaw Tower and saw Franklin Driscoll poking his head out. He shouted something, unsure of what it was, and didn't wait to see if Franklin went back. He barreled forward, down too many staircases. He was at the first floor when something caught him across the chest like a blow from the Whomping Willow. He fought against it.

"Teddy, get back to the Owlery!" Aunt Ginny said. "I don't have time for this!"

"James!" he said. "He's headed for the door in the Great Hall! And Ruthless and Victoire!"

Aunt Ginny whipped her wand in his direction, then hissed in frustration. "I can't bind you to the wall, in case they get in. Get back to the Owlery!"

"But - "

"NOW!"

Downstairs, the great doors shook, and glass shattered.

"NOW!" Aunt Ginny yelled again, then ran downstairs. Teddy heard a dozen voices raised in spellwork, repairing the broken windows. Slowly, he turned toward the stairs, feeling worse than useless.

"Hold him, Gawain!" Kingsley Shacklebolt yelled, then swore at the top of his lungs. Something warm rushed by Teddy, then there was something gray and snarling on the stairs, blocking his way. A long runner of saliva dripped from its sharp tooth.

Teddy drew his wand. His hand knocked the Marauder's Map out of his pocket, and Dad's wand followed it. He grabbed it and held it beside his own, which had also been Mum's. "Petrificus Totalis!"

The werewolf, which had been leaping toward him, froze in the air. Teddy jumped out of the way as it crashed to the ground. It was already starting to recover, even from a double spell. It whimpered, crept forward, its claws scrabbling along the floor.

He sent his Patronus again, with just the word "BLOCKED."

The werewolf pushed itself up on its forelegs, snarling and growling. Teddy leveled the wands at it again. He could hear his heart beating in his ears. His eyes had started to revert, but he could still see every hair on its pelt standing out in perfect relief. A flea crawled in the thin hair under its ears.

"Petrif - "

It leapt.

There was no time for a spell. Teddy remembered what Dudley had said about not letting something bigger than he was get hold of him, and he dove, rolling under the arc of the leap, coming to a stop against the stairs. A sharp pain in his shoulder told him that he hadn't done it exactly right, but he was untouched. The wolf turned on him again.

"Teddy, down!"

Teddy ducked, and two brooms swooped down from the upper floors. Lee and George bent low over the handles, wands raised, and suddenly, a net fell over the werewolf. It looked like simple rope, but Teddy's eyes were still changed enough that he could see the tensile strength as the werewolf fought against it. George and Lee circled back around and the net flipped over, turning into a giant sack. The werewolf howled in fury.

"Is that all of them?" George asked Teddy.

Teddy couldn't imagine what he was being asked. Then his eye fell on the Marauder's Map, and he remembered. He ran for it, grabbing it up like a lifeline. The wolf here beside him, surrounded by a blood red haze, was called Konrad Altbusser. Downstairs, surrounded by guards, was Pierre Deschain, and just outside the Great Hall, in the midst of crowd of seventh-years, with Fleur at their head, was a third, named Lazlo Kalman. The last, Johann Otteson, had never even made it inside. There were no more on the Map.

"That's it," he said.

"Don't suppose any of them turned out to be Greyback?" Lee asked, without much hope.

Teddy shook his head.

Footsteps clicked up the stairs, and Aunt Ginny appeared, looking furious. "Teddy Lupin, don't you ever do that again! Ever!"

Teddy shrank away from her.

"You were told to stay where you were! What were you doing out here?"

"I saw... er..."

"Oh, I know you have the bloody Marauder's Map. No, Harry didn't tell me, I just know. And I know you were worried about James. But dammit, Teddy, did you really think we'd let them out of there? You didn't need to leave the Owlery. You'd have been perfectly safe there! Do you really think I'm less worried about you?"

"I - "

"And you!" she turned on George. "You had one simple job...!"

"Yeah," he said. "It was keeping watch, and Teddy did right well at it. If we hadn't driven them away from the Great Hall, those are the windows they'd have broken, and we wouldn't have got there in time without Teddy."

She took a deep breath, and pressed her hand against her forehead. She looked at Teddy, then looked away. "I'm sorry, Teddy, but you didn't belong down here. You know you didn't. What were you thinking? I told you to go back!"

"There was a werewolf on the stairs," Teddy said, bewildered. There was a strange, high color in Aunt Ginny's cheeks, and she seemed not to be entirely here.

Quite out of nowhere, she hugged him fiercely, then pulled away, wiping at her face. "Come on," she said to George, looking at the netted werewolf with loathing in her eyes. "Let's get this filthy thing downstairs with the others. Kingsley can get them back to Azkaban. Teddy, you... you go back to Gryffindor Tower. Come down to the Great Hall before curfew to say goodnight. Lee, get him there."

Aunt Ginny and George Levitated the werewolf and headed away.

Lee put his hand on Teddy's shoulder. "Come on," he said. "I haven't had a chat with the Fat Lady for years."

"I shouldn't have left the Owlery."

"No. But Ginny's not one to talk."

"I guess she embraced her inner hypocrite, too."

Lee sighed and stopped. "No, Teddy. She's just thinking of someone else she begged to stay put in the middle of a battle. Someone who didn't come back."

Teddy looked down. "My mum."

Lee nodded. "Yeah."

They didn't talk the rest of the way to Gryffindor Tower. Teddy's head was starting to hurt from the amount of light getting in through his eyes, and he couldn't seem to get them to morph back. He had a sinking feeling that he'd have to go to Madam Pomfrey about it. They reached the Fat Lady.

"You know I can't say the password in front of you," he said.

"Very good," Lee told him.

"Guess I didn't do so well."

Lee smiled. "George wasn't kidding. You did just fine. As to running down - probably stupid, but we all know why you live in this Tower. And I always sort of wondered why your mum didn't. You come by it honestly enough. Just... be careful. And we're still on for pipes and poker this summer, if you want. Though I think we'd best tell the Dear Lady that you're helping with inventory at the store." He winked.

Teddy nodded weakly, then heard a buzzing that told him Lee had cut off his own hearing for a moment.

He said the password and the portrait hole opened. The buzzing stopped. Lee waved to him solemnly, and waited for the portrait to shut behind him.

The whole of Gryffindor House was in the Common Room, most of the older students with their wands raised, the younger ones, including Kirk Scrimgeour, craning to get a look. Professor Longbottom was going around, organizing them.

"Teddy!" he said. He looked at Teddy's still-morphed eyes, then appeared to decide not to ask. "Ginny sent her Patronus. Something about a Streaming Spell?"

"Streaming Spell?" Teddy asked stupidly.

"It allows them to convert to a faster moving form, and reform somewhere else. They shouldn't be able to use it transformed, but - "

"They did," Teddy said. "But we've got all of them that were here. Unless more can Apparate, even after they're transformed."

This was apparently no more comforting to Gryffindor Tower as a whole than not knowing anything had been. Professor Longbottom swore under his breath, then looked abashed. "Staying in here where I belong is a lot harder than going out there."

"Where's my sister?" Kirk asked, elbowing his way up. "She was in the Great Hall listening to Donzo, and - "

"I think everyone's all right. They'd have locked down the Great Hall."

There was a flash of light - Mina Moran screamed - and a glowing lynx dropped from the ceiling. Kingsley's voice said, "All clear, Professor Longbottom. All safe. Four werewolves captured. Continuing patrols. Heads of House to the Great Hall."

Professor Longbottom looked around for a seventh year, and found a girl named Mavis Liu. He put her in charge, and rushed out. The students started to crowd Teddy, asking about the werewolves and his eyes (a first year named Potter Goldman asked if he'd done that to scare the wolves off), but Mavis cut them off self-importantly. "Teddy," she said, "has had a busy evening, and you should all let him be."

Pompous as she was about it, Teddy was grateful. He trudged up the stairs to his room and lay down on his bed. Checkmate jumped up onto his chest and put her wet nose on the base of his chin. He scratched between her shoulder blades, and she started to purr.

"I cocked it up," he told her. She gave him an understanding look, then crawled further up and curled herself on his neck, giving him a faceful of her flank hair. She continued to purr contentedly.

He tried to sleep, hoping he could get back to Tirza's ship and thank Holt, and let Tirza yell at him for being stupid, as he'd been such a pain to her about it, but sleep wouldn't come at all, let alone dreams. It wasn't late enough, and his eyes hurt. Looking into Checkmate's fur, he could see individual hairs, and tiny skin flakes stuck in them. Each stood out like a large snowflake. He'd never noticed before, but she had a few pale orange hairs scattered in the white part of her coat. He couldn't see any fleas, and hoped he hadn't picked any up from the werewolf to pass on to her.

For what seemed a long while, he didn't think about anything. He just examined Checkmate's coat with his new eyes and let the world go on around him. Checkmate decided she'd given him enough of a cuddle - at least before he gave her supper - and jumped down with no fanfare, though her back leg thumped against his throat hard enough to bring him up from numbness, rubbing at it. He went to his desk (the smooth writing surface now looked cracked and splintered, though it felt no different than it had before) and looked for a mirror. He found one in the drawer beside The Lost Treasure, and drew both out.

His eyes had returned to their normal size, but were still perfectly round, with wide pupils surrounded by red. They weren't owl eyes. They were hawk's eyes.

He blinked them.

Had he accidentally actually Transfigured them into the shape of his Patronus animal's? He hadn't done accidental magic for a long time, but he remembered the sense of snapping up in the Owlery, the feeling of having done something entirely new. He scrambled for Professor McGonagall's letter, with its list of books. He thought the library might be his first stop after classes tomorrow. He had a feeling that it would be locked down tonight, and a quick glance at the Marauder's Map showed only Madam Pince and Filch, together in her workroom. Teddy chose not to consider this too carefully.

There was a knock at his door.

He opened it to find Aunt Ginny, looking miserable. "I'm sorry I was short tempered with you," she said. "I know you meant well, and were worried about James."

"I was stupid, and made the trouble worse because you had to leave the main battle."

She shrugged and nodded. "You did a lot right first. It evens out."

"Lee told me what you might have been thinking about. About... Mum."

"Yes." She took a deep breath, then shook herself. "Do you need help with that morph? Madam Pomfrey is in the Great Hall."

"Was anyone bitten?"

"No, but there are some glass cuts, and Kingsley took a nasty claw gash when the one got by him."

"That won't make him a...?"

"No. Only bites. But it will scar." She led him down the stairs. "That's quite a morph, by the way. Your mum did pig's noses and dog's ears - just to make us laugh - but I don't think they actually worked like them."

They talked awkwardly as they went down to the Great Hall. Teddy loved Aunt Ginny, but he'd never been as close to her as he was to Uncle Harry or the children. He'd hated her for a little while after Uncle Harry had married her (and gone away), and it dawned on him that his screaming at Uncle Harry not to leave the first few times he'd visited afterward must have made her not like him very well either, at first. They'd got past it, but didn't really have a convenient place to put one another.

They reached the Great Hall, and James ran up to Teddy, then stopped to marvel at the hawk's eyes, which he declared quite better than the old ones. Lily was frightened of them, though, so Teddy decided to see Madam Pomfrey as quickly as he could. She was just finishing up with Kingsley - Story and Laurel were both looking at him with deep admiration - and signaled for Teddy to come up next.

"Hmm," she said, frowning at them in her wandlight. "You know this isn't normal Metamorphosing."

"I'd got that far."

"All right. It's still simple Transfiguration. I'll just do the counter-spell, but I recommend that you speak to Professor Gardner about learning it yourself. With your natural Shapeshifting ability, I'm not sure how safe you'll be once human Transfiguration properly begins."

"Oh, they just hurt a bit..."

She gave him a doleful warning look, and he didn't argue. A moment later, he felt the same sort of popping sensation in his head, and his vision returned to normal as he felt a great deal of pressure suddenly disappear. She moved on to a seventh year who had a healing paste on his face, saying that it was time to remove it.

"Teddy?"

He looked around as he slid off the table where Madam Pomfrey had examined him. Ruthless was waiting for him, and quite abruptly came to him and put her arms around him, which she hadn't done since they'd broken up. He moved to kiss her, but she moved away, shaking her head.

"They said a werewolf caught you."

"I'm all right." He bit his lip. "I saw you on the Marauder's Map. You were running at the door."

"Er... yeah. That. Fleur Weasley Banished us back. I spent half an hour bound to Victoire and James, back with the babies, as she said she couldn't trust us any further."

"I'm surprised James didn't try to escape."

"Oh, he did." She sighed and sat down. "Victoire threatened to hex him if he didn't stop squirming."

"Your brother was worried about you," Teddy said.

"I know. I went up and told him I was all right. He's not half-bad for a complete waste of oxygen, you know. But don't tell him I said that. Is this really over?"

"We didn't get Greyback."

"Right."

Professor Sprout clapped her hands smartly. "Hogwarts students, you will now return to your dormitories, unless you have family here. If you have family and choose to remain with them, notify your Heads of House, who will be taking your classmates back."

James and Al rushed up at Teddy, grabbing him by the arms. "You must stay!" James said. "We need you to watch us!"

Al nodded fervently in agreement.

"Well, I'm not really fam..."

A small hand tapped the back of his head in irritation, and he turned to find Aunt Ginny rolling her eyes at him, now back to her usual self, or putting on a good show of it. "We're camped near the conference room," she said. "Really, Teddy."

Ruthless joined Professor Longbottom and the other Gryffindors in the Hall, and a moment later, they were gone. Teddy followed the boys to the Potter family's area, which was staked out beside the Weasley family's. Rose and Hugo ran back and forth between them in excitement.

Throughout the long night, Patronuses flew back and forth. Ron sent one from Azkaban, saying he'd caught a werewolf trying to infect a Muggle near the Leaky Cauldron. Uncle Harry sent two, upon other captures, then a third, frustrated one, when they hadn't got there in time. Greyback had gained back at least one of his losses. Teddy sent his own Patronus to tell Uncle Harry that it was all right, though he supposed that wasn't strictly the sort of emergency they were meant for. Kingsley, who had gone to Azkaban to oversee a quick magical expansion of the lycanthropic holding areas, sent his lynx to say that it was under control, and given the werewolf activity elsewhere, he thought it was safe for Hogwarts to go onto a less active watch. Some of the guards took the opportunity to sleep, promising to pick up the second shift. Aunt Ginny didn't sleep at all. She just watched. Teddy went to sit beside her, at least for a little while, though he was getting fuzzy-headed from lack of sleep by then. Beside them, Bill and Fleur's children were all sleeping peacefully. Victoire was lying on top of her sleeping bag on her stomach, her pretty hair a tangled mess, snoring loudly.

Teddy himself finally drifted off just as the enchanted ceiling started to get lighter. Deep sleep didn't come, and he fancied himself just a labyrinth turn from the waking world. Voices boomed in and out of his mind. He could feel the motion of a ship beneath him sometimes, but the dream never took shape.

At last, his mind registered the soft voice speaking nearby. He blinked his eyes open to see Uncle Harry, sitting against the wall with Aunt Ginny, his arm around her shoulders. He looked tired and was covered with dirt, but when he saw that Teddy was awake, he spared a weary smile.

"Lee and George told me you did a fantastic job."

"I didn't."

"Well, I heard about that, too. And I have every intention of yelling at you about it when I'm not so tired. It's been a long night, Teddy. And we didn't get Greyback or Mathilde Dubois."

"You should sleep, Harry," Aunt Ginny said.

"I will. I just wanted to" - he yawned - "see you and the the children." He pulled himself up and went to James's camp bed. James was sleeping in his customary manner, on his back, with his arms and legs thrown to either side. Uncle Harry pulled his blanket up and kissed his head, then moved on to Al, who was muttering in his sleep. Al got a few words - he liked being talked to more than James did - then Uncle Harry moved to Lily, who actually got a little hug as he leaned over, because she didn't wake up easily on any amount of prodding. Finally, he came to Teddy, and - much to Teddy's surprise - kissed his head, as he had when he was very small, and put a hand on his shoulder to give it a squeeze. Teddy blinked in confusion, wondering if he was meant to return the kiss, as he was awake.

Uncle Harry grinned and shook his head. "Don't worry, Teddy. I just needed to do that. I just..." He sighed. "I needed to actually touch all of you. Make sure you're real."

With this odd pronouncement, he Conjured a mattress for himself and went to sleep. Aunt Ginny continued to stay awake, watching, and after a while, Teddy's eyes slid shut again, and he fell into a solid sleep at last.