Chapter 20:

The Clabberts' Alarm

Teddy felt vaguely nauseated as he made his way back to Gryffindor Tower, his stomach belatedly catching up with the fact that he'd managed to pick a fight with his godfather on the most personal territory they had between them. He could imagine his parents on the other side - possibly on a beach on Tirza's island, next to the dead, tie-dyed lethifold (and would something that was killed in the afterlife stay dead?) - looking at him with disgust.

Of course, a cool voice in his head demurred, they preferred Uncle Harry, anyway. He was more interesting, and a hero, and they died for him instead of staying with you. And who could blame them, if you're going to be such a brat about it? What kind of son are you, thinking your parents needed a teenager to rescue them, anyway? Or that they weren't devoted to you? No wonder they didn't want to stay.

He stopped in the corridor, hand on his stomach, thinking he might vomit here and now, and deal with Filch yelling at him for it. Perhaps he should go to Madam Pomfrey. She might have something.

Or perhaps he should just stop picking fights with Uncle Harry. Or with voices in his head, for that matter.

"Teddy?"

He took a shaky breath and looked over his shoulder. Victoire was standing in the corridor, her head cocked to one side, her large bag resting on her hip. "What?" he asked.

"Are you sick?"

"No. Where are you coming from? It's almost curfew."

"Only 'almost.'" She shrugged. "I put a cup of Mite-y Panthers in the curtain across the hall from the Ravenclaw door knocker."

"Mite-y Panthers?"

She grinned. "From Uncle George, cooked up just for me. It's not really mites, just sort of a coarse powder. I dusted the curtain. Every time one of them brushes it, it'll roar."

"Wonderful. Does this mean we can look for screaming eagles in retaliation?"

"Well, sorry. Just having some fun." She started on toward the Fat Lady's portrait.

Teddy didn't feel like having another family fight just now, so he went to catch up with her. "No, you were right, I'm not feeling well. Stomach."

"Oh. Well, I think I have something..." She started digging in her bag as they walked.

Teddy held up his hand. "I think I'll check with Madam Pomfrey in the morning, and not risk turning into a rabbit or whatnot." He winked, though he didn't feel amused.

"Fine, just spoil all of my fun," Victoire said lightly. They reached the portrait and she said, "Confuto Inimicus."

"As it ever shall be," the Fat Lady said, then opened.

Ruthless waved from the fireplace, a deck of cards in her hand, but Teddy didn't feel like staying downstairs. He pointed at his book bag, hoping she would interpret that as having homework to do. She stuck her tongue out and then called, "Weasley, are you overloaded with work?"

Victoire's face went perfectly blank. She still seemed to dislike Ruthless for whatever reason she had, but this was an actual invitation, from a girl, to do something that was not related to her prank war or a boy. Teddy thought she'd probably accept it, and wasn't wrong. He watched her go over, blond hair swinging prettily over the small of her back as she pulled her bag off from over her shoulder. Ruthless greeted her with a shark-like smile, and started setting the stakes.

He went upstairs and lay down on his bed for a while, not thinking, waiting to stop feeling like he had a stomach flu. Checkmate draped herself over his ankles and lazily groomed her front paws. She gave him an irritated mew when he got up and started to walk aimlessly around the room. The pictures James had drawn for him two years ago were on his wall, and he examined each one, looking at the stick figures and shapeless blobs like they belonged on a museum wall. For no reason at all, he stood by his curtained window, studying the braided sash. For something to do, he dangled its fringed end for Checkmate to play with, and she set to it eagerly. Once she was involved in it, he Charmed it to move on its own, and went back to pacing. He should do his homework. Or read ahead. Or start to see about those books McGonagall had listed for him, though he wouldn't really be able to do anything until the morning. He thought about getting the Marauder's Map out and getting them to talk to him for a bit, and had it halfway out when he was gripped by a fear that they wouldn't talk to him, after what he'd said. It was a stupid fear. They didn't inhabit the Map. It was just a spell, like any other, and it would work as it had always worked, but he couldn't shake the superstitious dread. He imagined that James wouldn't want to talk to him at all, and Sirius would fly into a rage. Dad would just be very disappointed.

But perhaps Pettigrew would think he was a kindred spirit. Always a bright side.

Feeling quite miserable, he finally took Dad's ring from the chain around his neck and set it on a piece of clean parchment. He thought as hard he could about what had just happened with Uncle Harry, hoping for a memory that would help, then opened the window into Dad's memories.

The room disappeared, the light became tinged with gaudy pink. He could feel a moist, cool rock under him, and he was looking out over the ocean, where the sun was sinking in luxurious summer slowness. He knew he was far in the north of Scotland, not far from where the one-time Julia McManus had grown up, but he wasn't with Julia. He was with John Lupin, his grandfather, and they were camping. Tomorrow, they would go back to Dad's Muggle grandparents' house, and there would be great falcons and climbing around an old fortress (recently fifteen and headed into his O.W.L. year, Dad didn't think he'd tell his friends how much he liked such nonsense), but for now, they were just enjoying a bit of bloke-time, as John called it.

Teddy felt his father's eyes move, and looked down at his hands, where there was a tin plate. On it was a fish. He knew that they'd caught the fish themselves earlier, and cleaned and boned them by hand, Muggle-fashion, just for the fun of it, then cooked them in the campfire. His was half eaten, and when he pinched off another bite - burning the tips of his fingers, as they'd forgotten to bring forks - and put it in his mouth, Teddy tasted the remembered taste, and it wasn't like any fish he'd ever really eaten (or, he suspected, that Dad had ever really eaten, though he would from now on at Teddy's imagined island). It was like something they might serve up on Mount Olympus. Dad had thought at first that this was meant to be another pointless search for a non-existent cure, or what his father called "a long and serious talk" - his euphemism for a scold about an argument they'd had. Dad hadn't entirely left the memory of the argument itself, but Teddy had a vague image of both John and Julia looking shell-shocked, and a sense that something nearly unforgiveable had been said.

Instead, they'd hiked around on the country lanes all day, looking at interesting creatures (Dad had found an imp, which was now in a tiny cage, happily eating a spider) and talking about school (for Dad) and work (for John). John's work was in archiving, just as Julia's was, and Dad found it boring, but he didn't tell them that, because it pleased him that they told him about work, and shared their frustrations about their jobs with him.

John had finished his fish, and now tamped some tobacco into an old wooden pipe. He didn't normally smoke - it was Julia whose life was dusted in fine ash - but it wasn't unheard of. He reached into his bag and pulled out a second pipe. "Remus? Would you like to smoke?"

Dad didn't want to say no, so he took it and let John get him set up. He breathed in deeply, and Teddy felt his head and throat fill with stinging nettles. He started coughing, and John smacked him on the back.

Dad handed the pipe back. "I don't think so," he said.

John laughed. "Well, I thought I'd offer you the option. I imagined you might think yourself old enough, if I'm to judge by your attentions to one Tatiana Dale..."

"How did you know about - " Dad blushed; Teddy could feel it in his own skin. Tatiana had gone to Hogsmeade with him on a day all of the Marauders had dared one another to bring girls, and he was madly in love with her, though he hadn't quite dared to talk to her since, except in letters which he'd never sent. He blanched. "You read my letters?"

"No. I've just been listening to you talk, and her name is every third word out of your mouth."

"Oh."

"Don't worry. When I was your age, the girl was a blond beauty named Winifred Devins. I was devastatingly taken with her."

"But you married Mum!"

"Yes. And Winnifred married Aristotle Gamp."

Dad was shocked at this, imagining for a moment that John was talking about old Winnie Gamp, who sometimes appeared at parties. But she was quite frowsy, so he supposed it must be someone else.

John grinned. "So tell me about your Tatiana. Other than that she's a very good Quidditch player, and wonderful at Charms, and helps smaller children with their homework, and may well sprout angel wings soon."

Dad squirmed, but felt good. "There's really nothing more," he said. "Oh, except that she invented Self-Spelling wands in class one day."

"So will we meet her?"

"No," Dad said. "She's... well... I don't actually talk to her."

"Why not?"

"Well... there's not much point to it, is there? It's not like I'm ever going to marry anyone."

John sat back, the humor draining from his face. "Aside from the fact that we're talking about going out with a girl, not marrying her, Remus... what on earth are you talking about? Why wouldn't you marry?"

Dad shrugged. "You know." He pointed up at the waxing moon, now making a ghostly appearance in the sky. "Kind of stupid to worry about going out and all of that. I'd have to tell someone I married, and then she wouldn't want to marry me."

John looked frustrated, and Dad was already trying to figure out which speech this would elicit. Perhaps the you-can-do-anything-others-can, or possibly the more impatient you-need-to-stop-obsessing-over-this. Instead, John just said, "Remus, that's the stupidest thing I've ever heard you say. Now... what other hearts are you out to break this year?"

Dad was a little insulted that he hadn't been taken seriously, but eventually warmed to the subject, telling John about the other girls in his year. His mind flitted over Lily Evans, who would later become Uncle Harry's mum, but also over several others, none at all serious. They all looked very different from one another. Teddy decided it was probably a good thing Dad had finally met a Metamorphmagus.

"You see," John said when the talking stopped. "It's always good to think about these things."

"Oh," Dad said wisely. "The have-hope speech. I wondered which it would be."

John threw a fish at him and the charm on the ring ended, bringing Teddy back to his dormitory.

Teddy wasn't sure what he'd got out of this particular memory, except that John Lupin had been madly optimistic about Dad's prospects. Well, that and that Dad had always resisted hope. Right up until he'd married Mum and had a child, which he got to enjoy for less than a month before dying in pain from a curse that had torn up his innards. Bully for hope.

Teddy put the ring back on its chain and went to bed, hoping for a dream where he could talk to them, find out if they were angry. But he didn't sleep for hours, and when he did, it was thin and dreamless.

The full moon rose on Friday night, and Teddy went to the Astronomy Tower to watch it for a bit. Professor Firenze had given an assignment of reading the sky and he did it absentmindedly, wondering where the Aurors were, if they were running across Greyback's pack, if anyone had been hurt. There were no alarms. Nearly Headless Nick floated up to tell him that it was nearly curfew, and Teddy nodded. He looked up at the moon and said goodnight to his father.

"Do you suppose he hears?" he asked Nick.

Nick looked less than enthusiastic, and said that he didn't know. "I wonder sometimes if I might still make the choice to find out," he said. "I find myself wondering more and more since the battle." He sighed wistfully.

Teddy frowned and went inside.

There was a Quidditch game the next morning, but the atmosphere in the Great Hall lacked the usual playful atmosphere, at least until the owls swooped in with the morning post, and everyone checked the front page to make sure that nothing had happened at home while they slept. Ruthless glanced at her copy, seemed satisfied, and handed it across to Teddy. She started warming up her bat arm.

There had been an attempt at crossing the boundary at the Ministry, to the place where four registered werewolves were transforming in their cages (there was a picture of the miserable little iron cages, and Teddy tried not to think of Dad transforming in one of them), but it had been unsuccessful. No other attacks were reported, though an "undisclosed source" gave a warning to people not to drop their guard. Teddy could almost see Uncle Harry rubbing his forehead and trying to get away from reporters demanding answers after he'd been up all night. He started to write a letter assuring Uncle Harry that it was a perfectly fine answer, then stopped, remembering that Uncle Harry might not be overjoyed to hear from him just now.

The Quidditch game lasted an hour, during which Gryffindor pounded Slytherin repeatedly on goals. Slytherin might have won anyway, as the Snitch appeared very close to their Seeker, but Ruthless sent a well-aimed Bludger in his direction, knocking him off course long enough for the new Gryffindor Seeker - a second year girl named Sylvia Neill - to swoop in for the capture and the game. There was a party back in the Common Room, but Teddy didn't stay long after congratulating Ruthless, who was engaged in her rather dangerous form of dancing. He ducked her flailing arm, then went to the library with Professor McGonagall's list of books on the Animagus transformation. Only one of them was on the open shelf - the rest were in the Restricted Section - and he pulled it out sneakily, though he had every right to it. It just seemed like something that ought to be sneaked.

He would have expected a book like this to be quite popular (there was glamor in being an Animagus), but the card in the front pocket only had ten names, and they went all the way back to the nineteen-forties, when the first one was "M. McGonagall." It had also been checked out by an R. Skeeter in the fifties, as well as by a handful of people in the sixties. In nineteen-seventy-three, nearly covered over by a blood red stamp that said "LATE RETURN," was J. Potter. Several weeks later, also nearly covered by the LATE RETURN stamp, was S. Black. The only check out in the interim since then was to H. Granger, in the spring of nineteen-ninety-five.

Teddy thought about actually checking it out, just so he could add his name to this particular list, but decided to wait until he'd actually learned to transform. No sense having people pay attention to his reading material just yet. He holed up at a secluded study carrel near a drafty window so no one would bother him, and read several chapters. He deduced early on that his accident with his eyes was a rather common one people made when they were deliberately studying the subject. He'd done it clumsily, based on his natural shapeshifting ability, but he'd apparently tapped into the magic involved. Unfortunately, he didn't understand the vast majority of what he was reading. No wonder standard training required an Outstanding O.W.L. in Transfiguration... but of course, the O.W.L. just meant that a person had mastered it. There was nothing preventing him from reading and learning ahead, and not bothering with the actual exam. But he'd definitely need to do that if he had the slightest thought of becoming an Animagus. It looked like there was a lot in there about holding one's identity as well. He guessed the book may have helped James come up with his identifying spells on the Marauder's Map as well.

Reluctantly, he put it away when Madam Pince came around, ordering everyone out for the night.

On Sunday, there was a Muggles and Minions game in Hufflepuff. Victoire maneuvered her character into uni, so she was now working with Donzo and Teddy, though Story was on the fringes. Ruthless decided that her character wanted to show up Victoire's character, and they spent most of the day rolling against each other in various staged contests. Teddy thought it wiser not to take sides, as Victoire had a bag full of Weasley pranks and Ruthless had a bat and a temper.

By Monday, the sick feeling from the fight had passed, and he resolved to apologize. He was on the way down to Care of Magical Creatures with Tinny and Roger when he saw Uncle Harry arrive for guard duty, switching off with Williams on patrol near the greenhouses.

He stopped. "Er, Tinny... could you tell Hagrid I'll be along in a minute?"

Tinny drew her eyebrows together. "You'll be along? You want me to tell a professor that you'll be 'along' for a class?"

"Well... yes."

She shook her head at him like she thought he'd gone round the bend, but agreed. Teddy watched her head off with Roger, then squared his shoulders and took the path toward the greenhouses. Uncle Harry was chatting with Professor Longbottom, looking tired and morose, and Teddy wondered if things had been worse during the moon than the Prophet had let on. Professor Longbottom looked up and spotted him first, and pointed at him, giving Uncle Harry a smile.

Uncle Harry turned, and his face brightened. Teddy guessed it was a show. He was always good about not letting work get into his family. He started up the path and met Teddy halfway.

"Hi, Teddy."

Teddy bit his lip and took a deep breath. "I'm sorry," he said. "I'm sorry I said those things. I know it was the worst thing I could say - what I said about you not caring about my parents - and I know it's not true and I'm sorry I said it and - "

"Teddy, it's all right," Uncle Harry said. "I could have handled it better. I expect it's not the last time we'll run across it. And as Hermione reminded me, when I was thirteen, I did a lot of raging about losing my parents, too."

Teddy nodded. "Still..."

"Teddy, listen. What you said wasn't true, but I know where you got it from. I was there when Remus died, and I gave my son Snape's name. But I didn't need to give him your dad's name. Your dad gave his name to you, and it's yours to pass on when the time comes, not mine."

Teddy tried a smile. "It's probably a good thing," he said. "'Albus Severus Remus' would sound awfully funny."

Uncle Harry laughed more than the joke was worth, and said, "Yes, I suppose it would, though that's not really my first reason for thinking it's a good thing that you're here. So, let's say we found the last functioning Time Turner and gave it a twist back to Thursday night."

"Right," Teddy said. "We just decided - very calmly, of course, and with no knife-waving - that we couldn't fix the floor."

"And then came back here and talked about deep and interesting things." Uncle Harry still looked sad. He sighed. "You'd best get to class. And I'd best get on patrol. I'm meant to be on the far side of the castle by now."

Teddy nodded. Uncle Harry squeezed his shoulder and started up toward the castle. Teddy went on to Care of Magical Creatures, where everyone was gathered in the paddock, around the Clabbert cage. Vivian was there as well, standing behind Hagrid, smiling broadly with the half of her mouth that worked properly.

Hagrid was grinning madly when he looked up. "Teddy! Glad yeh could make it. I was jes' tellin' the others, we go' some good news. Seems our pair o' Clabberts really is a pair!" He reached into the cage and a green hand found his wrist. "Come on out 'ere now, girl, an' show 'em yer surprise!"

The smaller of the two Clabberts hobbled out into the sunshine, and Teddy could see that her belly was just the littlest bit swollen.

"Is she - ?" He looked at her.

"Expecting!" Vivian finished. "It's so exciting!"

"Never did have summat born fer a class," Hagrid said. "There was a baby dragon once - Teddy'll know all about tha' - but that was before I was teachin'."

The boys looked at each other, no one really knowing whether or not they were supposed to express interest. Tinny and Jane looked cautiously optimistic, but when Jane noticed Teddy looking at her to see how she was reacting, for some reason, she turned bright red and looked away.

Roger, who loved animals best, finally broke the impasse by going up to the female Clabbert and touching her belly. "Professor Hagrid," he said, "could you Conjure a stethoscope?"

"A what?" Hagrid asked.

"A stethoscope. You put it in your ears, and put the flat part on something, and you can hear. We could hear the baby Clabbert's heartbeat."

"I don't reckon I know what that is..." Hagrid said.

"Does anyone have an Extendable Ear?" Teddy asked.

"Where do you mean to extend it?" Corky asked. "Down her throat?"

"I don't know..."

"Oh, stop it," Jane said. "You're being absurd. Roger, just write home and ask for a stethoscope. Look - you're all scaring her. Isn't that pustule only supposed to glow red if she thinks she's in danger?"

Teddy looked over. The pustule on the Clabbert's head was indeed bright red. He looked to the cage, where her mate had been gloating uselessly a moment before, and there was now a reddish light in the shadows as he looked up the hill.

Teddy turned toward the Whomping Willow, and something flashed like lightning.

"It's not us!" he said. "Get in Hagrid's house!"

A figure shimmered into view beneath the Whomping Willow, but before the branches could take aim, it burst forward in a stream of light. As it came closer, Teddy could see that it was a female shape, then she was in front of them.

Mathilde Dubois smiled. Her teeth had been filed to neat points, but she was otherwise unmarked (at least anywhere that Teddy could see). She was tall and thin, with high cheekbones and dark eyes. She'd dyed her hair a uniform black with no highlights, and cut it sharply across her forehead and under her ears. She looked like pictures Teddy had seen of women in the nineteen-twenties. Even her robes, fashionable and thigh-length, contributed to it. Her lips were painted a bright, cruel red. "'ello," she said.

Vivian grabbed Teddy's arm and dragged him behind her, then raised her wand. "You have no right to be here," she said. "It's my territory."

"Territory," Mathilde said, "is for ze 'olding." With an irritated flick of her hand - Teddy could now see that she was carrying an unusually thin light-colored wand - she disarmed Vivian.

A Patronus flew over Teddy's head, toward the castle, and Hagrid thundered forward. "Yeh get out!"

Mathilde made another contemptuous gesture with her wand, and Hagrid was bound in iron chains. A second flick made a row of bars appear, blocking off the rest of the class. She took one look to see that they were secure, then pleasantly said, "Zis is ze Lupin boy, is it not?" She tried to reach around Vivian, but Vivian moved backward violently, taking Teddy with her. Mathilde looked at her with feigned disappointment. "Oh, but 'e is so pretty."

"Touch him, you'll die," Vivian said.

Vivian's arm went stiff, and Mathilde put her hand under it. She stroked Teddy's arm. "And yet," she said, "steel living."

Teddy yanked his arm back. He tried to get around Vivian to attack, but she wasn't completely Petrified, and wouldn't let him.

"What's ze matter?" Mathilde asked. "You don't like girls? Per'aps Fenrir should come next time, you would like 'im better, no?"

"I like girls," Teddy said. "But I don't like killers." He tried again to get around Vivian, and she shifted back. Far up near the castle, Teddy saw Uncle Harry running across the grounds. He sent his Patronus, and a moment later, the greenhouse door burst open and Professor Longbottom came out, shutting his first years in with a blast of his wand.

Mathilde sighed. "What a shame," she said. "We shall 'ave to 'urry. And 'ere I wanted a nice, long talk."

"You're not taking Teddy anywhere," Vivian told her.

Mathilde looked up with vague interest. "No, no. Of course not. Not yet. 'E weel come for ze boy one day, but I 'ave come for my seester." She touched Vivian's frozen arm tenderly. "Fenrir was so 'appy to learn you were alive after all. 'E 'as so looked forward to seeing you again."

"No!" Teddy said. He shoved Vivian off to the side and drew his wand, holding it tightly against a Disarming Spell, just as Uncle Harry had taught him, but the concentration on holding onto it was too much to actually do a spell of his own.

Mathilde put her arms around Vivian, smiled sweetly, then burst into a cloud of fine, sparkling points, taking Vivian with her. As Professor Longbottom and Uncle Harry thundered into the paddock, the cloud swirled into the sky and was gone.

"Vivian!" Professor Longbottom yelled. He raised his wand, and an arc of lightning split the gray March sky, followed by a crack of thunder that made Teddy's ears ring.

Uncle Harry was doing something Teddy didn't understand, muttering and tracing his wand in an arcane pattern. Whatever it was didn't seem to work; he looked down, grinding his teeth and went to Hagrid, Vanishing Mathilde's chains, then the bars she'd used to trap the rest of the class.

"I'm sorry," Hagrid said. "She was fast. An' I was always rubbish at wand work."

"It's all right," Uncle Harry told him, then looked up at the students. "Is anyone hurt?"

Professor Longbottom turned on them, his eyes blazing. Teddy knew that he'd got close to Vivian, but the rest of the class seemed very confused. "What's the matter with the lot of you?" he asked. "Why is Teddy the only one with his wand drawn?"

Teddy fought to keep his jaw from dropping. He'd never in his life seen Neville Longbottom lose his temper, least of all at students. "It happened really fast, and she was ready for Hagrid. They couldn't have done anything."

"Professor Longbottom," Uncle Harry said calmly, "perhaps you should get the Headmistress while I talk to the students."

Professor Longbottom looked mutinous for a moment, then seemed to come to his senses. He mumbled something Teddy didn't catch and strode up toward the castle.

Corky was the first to come out of the shadow of Hagrid's hut, spooked and looking as small as a first year, even though he was now easily the biggest in Teddy's year. "She just showed up from nowhere," he said.

"Where?" Uncle Harry asked.

"Under the Whomping Willow," Teddy told him. "Then she used one of those Streaming Spells to get here fast."

"I think I know what I'm working on next," Uncle Harry said. "Tell me about when she appeared."

Tinny stepped forward, putting her hand on the female Clabbert's head. "We were just having a class," she said. "The red spot started glowing. And then something flashed near the tree, and she came. Teddy yelled at us to get into the house, then Vivian got in front of Teddy, then Hagrid sent for you, and she - the woman, that is - put the chains on him." She stopped, looking confused. "And it didn't seem... that is to say, I felt like I couldn't raise my wand arm. It didn't seem like there was enough time. But there must have been."

Uncle Harry frowned, then shook his head. "I want each of you to tell me about the flash you saw when she first showed up, and where you first spotted her," he said.

Each of the students, Teddy included, gave the same account as Tinny. It had all happened too fast to see details. Uncle Harry suggested half-heartedly that he might use the Pensieve, but he didn't seem to think he'd spot much more.

"Professor Hagrid," he said, "may I use your fire?"

Hagrid nodded. "Can the students go back?"

"Wait until I'm finished. I'll stay here with Teddy then, and you can walk them back." Uncle Harry went inside.

Donzo was looking thoughtfully up at the castle. "Is Professor Longbottom all right?"

"He's fine," Teddy said.

Donzo nodded, but looked like he'd put together a piece or two of the puzzle, even without Teddy's knowledge of Christmas. Teddy wanted to tell him not to say anything, but to do it, he'd have to say something himself. He'd just have to hope that Donzo would have the sense to keep it to himself.

Uncle Harry came out and sent Hagrid off with the class, and a moment later, Professor Sprout appeared. She'd sent Professor Longbottom to let his first years out of the greenhouses and take them back to the castle. "He'll join us when he's got them safely there, and apologized to Hagrid's students. I never would have thought it of Ne-" - she realized Teddy was still there - "Professor Longbottom."

"I've asked Ron to bring Hermione and get her through the gate," Uncle Harry said. "We need new protection spells, and we need them now."

Professor Sprout agreed and smiled tightly. "Er, Mr. Potter, oughtn't Mr. Lupin be with his classmates?"

"Teddy's in the thick of this," Uncle Harry said. "There's also a particular possibility I'd like to talk to him about."

"What?" Teddy asked.

Uncle Harry sighed and looked at the Whomping Willow. "I'm thinking of where she appeared. Why at the Whomping Willow?"

Teddy couldn't think of any reason.

"You think she came up through the tunnel?" Professor Sprout said.

"I'm hoping so," Uncle Harry said. "If so, then we'll just need to secure the tunnel better. I know she can't get into the Shrieking Shack, but if she was able to Apparate into the tunnel, she could have crawled up, Disillusioned, then just put on a light show to make it look like she'd broken security."

Professor Sprout nodded. "I fervently hope that's the case, Mr. Potter. Although I don't see where it concerns Mr. Lupin."

"Mr. Lupin owns the house on the far side of the tunnel, and I'd like to get his permission to expand the security charms through the whole passage."

"Er... sure," Teddy said.

"It may require some special equipment," Uncle Harry said, raising his eyebrow. "Do you solemnly swear that you don't mind?"

"Oh!" Teddy said. "No, not all. I mean, yes, I swear, I don't mind. I have some parchment in my bag. You can write down what you mean to do and give it back later." He fished in his book bag for the blank Marauder's Map, and handed it over.

"I'll have it back to you tonight," Uncle Harry said. He looked up and smiled, raising his arm in greeting. Ron and Hermione were coming from the gate.

Professor Sprout looked irritated. "I'm not entirely sure what just happened, but don't imagine that I believe that you just had a conversation about a spare piece of parchment."

Hermione reached the paddock a few steps ahead of Ron and smiled wearily. "Hello, Teddy. How are you?"

"Fine. But Vivian's gone."

"I know. Harry told me."

"Mr. Potter." Professor Sprout looked significantly at Teddy.

Uncle Harry frowned at Teddy thoughtfully, then said, "Professor Sprout, I'd like Teddy to stay. He's the only student against whom there is a direct, voiced threat. I'd like him to know what security is going to be available to him. We may think of something that we can teach him immediately."

She didn't look happy, but resigned herself to it.

The group settled into Hagrid's hut, and a few minutes later, Hagrid and Professor Longbottom arrived. Ron had taken the opportunity to bring in a great deal of food from home, which he said was just something of a gift, since they were all imposing on Hagrid's hospitality. Hagrid wasn't given any reason to offer anyone food.

Most of the talk was over Teddy's head magically. Hermione was pulling book after book from her old Hogwarts book bag, which she'd converted into a portable library (Teddy had been allowed to browse the shelves once; they were much more neatly organized than Madam Pince's). They were going to use several archaic protection spells that Mathilde might not recognize quickly, and of course, secure the tunnel. As to Vivian, there would be a search, of course.

But no one seemed hopeful about it.