Chapter 23:
Breaking Through
On the anniversary of the Battle of Hogwarts, Teddy swore that he wouldn't go to the spot where his parents had died, but of course, he did. He'd sworn the same last year, and ended up there anyway, his traitor imagination trying to put together what had happened. Dad had fallen to Dolohov. He'd thrown his wand to Dean Thomas to defend himself, then Dolohov had changed his target. The curse would have rendered him unconscious, but it hadn't been the Killing Curse. It had been a specialty of Dolohov's. It burst internal organs. It would have been painful. Then Mum had run out and Dean had taken over the battle to get Dolohov away, thinking that Mum might be able to do something. Hermione had survived Dolohov's curse, after all. Maybe she would have been kneeling beside him when Bellatrix came out of the shadows, her knife drawn...
Or maybe she'd been out for an entirely different reason. Maybe she'd been chasing a giant, or even dueling Bellatrix. There was no way to know.
Teddy lay down on the ground where they'd been and looked up at the sky, willing them to answer him, to tell him, to be with him. After a long time, he took out Dad's ring, and used it to go back into a favorite memory, the only one on it that had all three of them in it and fully alive. They were together in Granny's garden, and Mum was posing for the picture Dad had never finished drawing. He kept telling her to be still, but he wasn't serious about it. Mum was morphing at baby Teddy, and he was morphing back at her as well as he could at less than a month old. Dad finally couldn't stand being separate from them anymore, and dropped his charcoal and sketchpad and put his arms around them both. He plucked Teddy out of Mum's arms and cuddled him, joking that he meant to keep him - after all, she'd got to carry him around for nine months. Mum tackled them both gently onto a bench, and kissed baby Teddy on the head, then ran her fingers through Dad's hair and told him that she loved him. Dad didn't say it, but Teddy was in his mind, and felt it in a wave so strong it felt like he might drown in it. He could feel the small warmth in Dad's arms that was himself, and it was all too good, too happy, it couldn't last, it couldn't be his. But it was.
For another forty-eight hours, Teddy thought as the memory cleared. Maybe.
Uncle Harry found him there - he didn't look surprised - and they walked to the Shrieking Shack together for a very quiet, and very short, lesson.
May went on. The days got brilliantly long and warm, and the castle grounds smelled of growing things and freshly turned soil. The lake had a rich, green scent about it. Teddy got full marks on his Revenant essay, and he earned twenty points for Gryffindor by solving a puzzle that Professor Firenze set for all of his Divination classes. A sixth year N.E.W.T. student who'd been just behind him in figuring it out gave him a sullen glare. Hagrid's Clabberts were occupying themselves building a nest in a tree that Hagrid had built a light cage around. Jane Hunter asked Teddy to go out, and Teddy said no before really thinking about the question.
The baby Clabbert was born as June began. Hagrid ran into the Great Hall at lunch yelling for all of his students to come to the paddock to see something they'd not get another chance at. Most of his students didn't come, but several people who weren't - including Victoire Weasley and Story Shacklebolt - did. The female Clabbert was hunching and grunting, snapping at the male, who was trying to bring her a lizard. There was blood. Donzo busied himself making tea, and Maurice and Corky found it necessary to help him. Tinny Gudgeon made an attempt to tell the Clabbert that she was doing fine and it would all be over soon, but halfway through, she went and vomited in the pumpkin patch. Jane was close after her. Victoire rolled her eyes and brought over some ice, letting one cube melt on the Clabbert's face. It looked grateful.
Once it was over, of course, no one strutted around talking about it more than Donzo, who wrote a song about the miracle of birth, and Maurice, who enjoyed giving all the gory details. Tinny still looked green. The baby Clabbert became an object of great interest. The third years, whose project the Clabberts had been, were assigned times to come and help with feeding ("Mother thinks we'll be carin' fer it," Hagrid said. "Happens sometimes when yeh keep creatures."), but were frequently accompanied by students in other years. Victoire called the baby "Grenouillette," which she claimed meant "Little Frog." Everyone else called him Green Boy.
On a night in mid-June, Teddy was in Hagrid's hut with Roger, Donzo, Ruthless, and Victoire. Roger was working on the baby's nest, and Donzo and Teddy were chopping meat into baby sized pieces while Victoire held the baby in her lap, neatly dodging its sharp teeth as she popped chopped bits into its mouth.
Ruthless, who'd come up from a useless, post-season Quidditch practice and was in full uniform, bat at her side, shook her head. "That thing's pickier than my baby brothers."
"He reminds me a lot of Muriel, actually," Victoire said, pulling her finger away quickly. "Do you want a turn? Bet you got a lot of practice with your brothers."
"More than I ever wanted," Ruthless said, making no move toward Green Boy. "It's about to spit up on you."
"No, not quite," Victoire said.
"Yes, look - " Ruthless leaned over to show Victoire something, just as her prophecy came true. Green Boy spit a gob of half-digested lizard and mucus out onto her Quidditch robes. "See," she said. "You're not the only one who knows about babies. They're so charming." She wiped distastefully at her sleeve. "I'm going back up to the castle."
"Not by yerself, yeh're not," Hagrid said, looking up from a book on sphinxes he was working his way through. "Reckon you lot can all get yer class credit, if yeh like."
Donzo and Roger eagerly dropped their chores, and Teddy started to wash the knives. Victoire looked pained. "Oh, Hagrid, can't I just finish feeding him?"
"Well, I can't leave yeh here on yer own..."
"I'll stay," Teddy said. "Might as well. I don't have anything better to do."
"You're mental, Lupin," Ruthless said, and ran her hand affectionately through his hair.
Hagrid gave them a leery look, then said, "The pair of yeh - stay righ' where yeh are 'til I get back, all righ'?"
Teddy shrugged. Greyback had done nothing since the night he'd aimed Vivian at an innocent family. He was safe in Romania; maybe Mathilde had convinced him that it made more sense to stay where he was than to walk right back into the Ministry's guarded fortresses. Even the Aurors seemed not to expect much trouble. Uncle Harry was alert and on guard when Teddy had passed him, but Ron was talking to Professor Longbottom and the woman Hannah. There hadn't even been an extra guard during the full moon. "Sure," he said. "We'll stay."
Victoire nodded and went back to Green Boy. Hagrid led the others out. Teddy watched them go up the hill.
"I wonder if Maman's baby has been born yet," Victoire said.
"I'm sure your Dad will call you by Floo."
"I wish I could be there."
"I know."
She reached into the vat of chopped lizard and pulled out another handful, drizzling it down to Green Boy in bite-sized drops. His mother would be doing this by chewing it up and spitting it down his throat, but no one had wanted to be quite that good a replacement. "Teddy?"
"What?"
"Are you going to marry Ruth Scrimgeour?"
"Am I... what?" Teddy turned around. "I'm not marrying anyone!"
"But someday." She pursed her lips dramatically, then let out a long-suffering sigh. "I suppose if she's your true love..."
Teddy deeply wished he hadn't volunteered to stay. "Er... I..." He couldn't think how to follow it up. "Is Green Boy going to spit up again?"
She inspected the Clabbert. "I don't think so. Does it look like it to you?"
"I don't know what it would look like."
"Are you going to go out with someone else? Laura, or Tinny, or..."
"I don't know." Teddy backed toward the door. The sunset was casting a faint red glow over everything, and he suddenly wanted to be out in it. "Why?"
"Well, I thought maybe... well, I'm not allowed to go out, exactly, but well..." She looked up, chewing on her lip, and it dawned on Teddy that Victoire Weasley was asking him out. Victoire. He thought it wrong on every conceivable level that he should be asked out by the girl who'd inherited his baby things as soon as he outgrew them.
Of course, she was pretty, no question there. Her hair was beautiful, and her face, lit red by the sunset...
Teddy felt his heart stop.
Her face wasn't red from the sunset.
It was lit from beneath, from the pustule on Green Boy's forehead.
She saw the change in his face. "What is it?"
"Put the baby in its cage," he said. "There's trouble."
She didn't hesitate. She put Green Boy in the nest Roger had been fixing for him, and ran to the window, where Teddy was looking out onto the grounds.
"We should get back to the castle," Teddy said. "It's safer in there. Hagrid will understand if we tell him about the red. It might be nothing. He's just a baby. But... just in case."
"Right," Victoire said. The nervous little girl with very strange ideas was gone now, and she was the general of her private little war again. "They're not too far ahead. We could still run and catch them."
Teddy peered out. He could see the top of Hagrid's head just coming up from the dip beyond the Whomping Willow.
"All right," he said. "We'll go out the door, make sure there's nothing right here, then run as fast as we can."
He held his hand out and she took it - this had nothing to do with what they'd just been talking about, it was just a partnership - and he opened the door slowly into the deepening evening. A ghost moon hung in the sky.
"Come on," he said. "Let's - "
Something white streaked across the grounds from the gate, and then Maddie Apcarne was running after it, screaming. "We tracked them! Neville! Harry! Hagrid! They're moving through the ground! They're - "
Something shimmered on the ground in front of the Whomping Willow, then twirled up into the air. A storm of sparks flew about like fireflies, swirling themselves into shapes.
Vivian.
Mathilde.
Greyback.
At least a dozen others.
All standing between Teddy and Victoire on one side, and all of their defenders on the other.
Teddy tightened his grip on Victoire's hand and dragged her around, meaning to run back to Hagrid's hut, but something warm swarmed by him, and Mathilde Dubois appeared in front of him, smiling in great good humor. "Eh-eh," she said, shaking her finger. "It's your turn. And 'oo is your pretty friend?"
Teddy drew his wand, but before he cast a spell, Victoire's bag hit his elbow and something flew toward Mathilde. A dungbomb blew up in her face.
Mathilde screeched and said something in French that didn't strike Teddy as one of her over-sweet pleasantries.
Victoire snapped back at her - Teddy caught "connasse" and "putain," among many other words - but before she could really get started, he broke left, hoping to get around Mathilde, but she streamed by them again, obviously meaning to keep them driven toward Greyback and the others. He looked up the hill. Uncle Harry had arrived, and Professor Longbottom was running out from the greenhouses. Maddie and Hagrid were already fighting. Roger was running for the castle (hopefully for help), and Donzo and Ruthless were running down the hill toward the fray. As he watched, Professor Longbottom knocked them backward with a none-too-careful Banishing spell.
A Patronus spun out of the air and formed itself into a stag. Uncle Harry's voice said, "Get to safety."
Teddy tried another break toward Hagrid's house, but Mathilde had got tired of playing the game. She waved her wand, and the whole house was wound about with sharp wires. No sanctuary there.
There was the Forest to one side, of course, but -
"Hey!"
Victoire jerked to one side, and Teddy saw Mathilde diving for them. He remembered how she'd taken Vivian. She might not be a big boxer, but he thought Dudley's advice was as good as ever. "Don't let her get a grip!" he said.
"I got that part!"
Teddy didn't have time to think out a complex hex, but he hit Mathilde with a Jelly Legs Jinx, which slowed her enough to pull Victoire out of an arm's reach, but she was already reversing it, and he didn't dare try it again; he couldn't afford to have her come up with a good Shield Charm and bounce it back at him.
"We need to get to the Whomping Willow," he said.
"That's the other side of them!"
"Not completely!"
By then it was true. Uncle Harry was dueling two members of the pack who Teddy didn't know; Professor Longbottom was trying to get to Greyback, and Hagrid was pummeling a huge man with ragged clothes. Hannah had tackled a woman with scraggly black hair. Ron was throwing deadly curses at two werewolves who were jumping aside, completely distracted. The line was broken. If they could just get to the tunnel, he could send Victoire through the floo to Shell Cottage, then...
He let go of Victoire's hand, trusting her to run after him as fast as she could. Side by side, they made for the Whomping Willow, which was waving madly against the red sky. A branch swiped Hagrid off the man he was fighting, and Uncle Harry had to jump to avoid a sweeping root. To Teddy's great satisfaction, a frond slapped Greyback across the face.
Vivian was standing still in the fray, her face white and haunted, somehow missed in her stillness by all of the tree's violence. She must have learned to fool it somehow in her use of the tunnel this year. She had a stick in her hand, and Teddy realized that, no matter who she'd come with, it was him she was waiting for.
"Vivian!" he yelled as he came in range of the branches.
She ran for the knot, but before she got to it, Mathilde Streamed under the canopy and knocked her aside. "Traitor!"
"I am not a traitor!" Vivian screamed. "I'll never be a traitor!"
She shoved Mathilde backward, and the tree knocked her wand out of her hand.
Professor Longbottom ran toward the tree, but was knocked back. "Viv!" he yelled, and then her wand was flying through the air, her wand with its core of werewolf hair, Greyback's wand.
She reached for it, and Teddy thought, Good, she'll take Mathilde out and -
Mathilde jumped to her feet and caught the wand, just beyond the reach of the branches, near where Greyback was standing.
Greyback, who wasn't engaged in fighting anyone - he was letting his lackeys do it - glared at Vivian and said, "That's mine! You stole it, you thieving little twist!"
Mathilde raised it at Vivian, who smiled softly.
"No!" Teddy yelled uselessly. He barely noticed Greyback yelling the same thing.
Mathilde jabbed the wand down, a diagonal motion that Teddy had seen in his nightmares, Dolohov's curse...
There was a flare of light and a deafening explosion. The wand shattered, and Mathilde dropped to her knees, her fingers mangled, her face spattered with blood.
"The only thief was Greyback," Vivian said. "He stole my hair for it, you dumb bint."
Mathilde crawled to Greyback. "Retreat... can't defend..."
Greyback's huge hand fell onto Mathilde's head, like a father about to bestow a blessing. He twisted. Teddy heard the crack before she fell to the ground.
"You don't give the orders around here," Greyback said, and kicked her inert form. He smiled at Teddy through the branches of the Willow.
Vivian jabbed the knot on the roots, and the tunnel opened up. "Go, Teddy!"
Teddy ran into the cover of the branches, into the protection of the tree that had been planted for his father, that had given the wood for his mother's wand, which was now his own. He felt safe, like he'd got through, like -
Greyback thundered inside, clear with all of Teddy's defenders occupied with his packmates. He threw Vivian aside, and she landed hard on the hill, slumping down into unconsciousness. Professor Longbottom screamed her name again, but he was still fighting with Greyback's pack, and couldn't get through.
"TEDDY!"
Uncle Harry's voice thundered through the day, and Teddy ran for the tunnel, meaning to throw Victoire inside, then start the branches again, then follow her. He wanted to be in the fight, but he'd just end up being a distraction again.
Greyback grabbed his arm and swung him around hard. "Back where we started, eh, Lupin?"
"I don't even know you," Teddy said.
"Oh, but we're practically family. You want a family, don't you?"
"He's got one!" Victoire said, dragging at Teddy. She drew her wand and cast an Itching Incantation, but Greyback held on anyway.
The skirmish line broke, and Uncle Harry ran toward them.
Greyback stepped on the knot on the tree. The branches started moving again. One of them clipped Uncle Harry and sent him flying back toward the men he'd been dueling.
"Move with the branches!" Teddy heard, and, to his horror, saw Donzo, holding tight to one of the swinging fronds, as they'd all joked about doing in the autumn. Ruthless was near him, but instead of just trying not to get hit, she was moving inward, her Quidditch robes making her look like an Auror in the shadows. Greyback sliced his wand toward her, and the branch broke. She rolled into the circle. He laughed. "Playing dress up, are we, girl?"
Ruthless drew back her arm, and Teddy saw that it wasn't her wand, but her Quidditch bat in her hand. She drove it into Greyback's wrist like it was a Bludger, and he howled in pain, letting go of Teddy.
"Get out of here, Lupin!" Ruthless shouted.
"You, too!"
Greyback, furious, made a grab for her, but the branch Donzo was clinging to swung by, and he reached down, shouting, "RUTHLESS!"
Ruthless grabbed his hand and let him swing her onto a branch. "Go!" she yelled to Teddy.
Teddy drew his wand and blasted Greyback backward before he could respond, then pulled Victoire toward the roots of the Whomping Willow. "Get in the tunnel," he said. "Crawl as fast as you can. I'll be right behind you."
"Teddy, go first!"
"I'll be there!" he yelled. "Go!"
Victoire reached into her bag and threw a handful of whatever she came to first between Teddy and Greyback. Several fireworks went off and a portable rainstorm started to send lightning around. She jumped down into the tunnel. Teddy caught a glimpse of her wide blue eyes reflecting the evening sun, then felt a hand close hard around his wrist.
Greyback snarled at him. "I ain't done with you," he said. "We got lessons. Don't you like your lessons? Your dad did."
"Not from you, he didn't."
"And here I thought you didn't know me."
Teddy tried to raise his wand, but Greyback swatted his arm down. "Think you've got a chance, do you?"
"They'll get through your line."
"Doesn't matter. There's always more werewolves to be made, and you'll help me out there, just like Vivian did. Not that she didn't help me out in other ways."
"Let go of me!"
"When we get where we're going," Greyback said. "Can't go quite as fast without Mathilde, but we'll get there." He leaned close enough for Teddy to smell the reek of his breath. "You'll get used to it all right."
Teddy twisted his wand toward the Whomping Willow, not knowing what he meant to do, hoping that the tree would know his wand, know him as part of itself. "Please," he whispered.
A huge limb curled inward and slammed into Greyback's shoulders, throwing him aside like a large rag doll.
Uncle Harry's Patronus appeared again, not affected by the branches swinging through it: "Get to safety now."
Teddy rolled down toward the roots, toward the shifting opening of the tunnel. He waited for it to be clear, then dropped down into the darkness.
Victoire hadn't started when he'd told her to - he supposed he wasn't surprised - so she wasn't very far ahead of him. She'd lit her wand, and he did the same.
"Where are we going?" she asked.
"The Shrieking Shack," Teddy said. "Go quickly. I think Greyback will try to get in."
She sped up, barely needing to duck. Teddy felt uncomfortably cramped; he must have put on more inches over the year than he'd noticed. It hadn't been this tight in September. He shrunk himself down enough to move comfortably, and caught up to Victoire. She gave him an odd look, but kept moving.
They'd got halfway when something crashed down into the tunnel behind them. "Got you now!" Greyback bellowed. Teddy felt something sick and red bloom inside of him. He'd known it was coming, but he was going to his house. He didn't want Greyback in it. He'd worked too hard on it, spent too much of his own sweat and even blood in it. They'd had no right...
"I see you!" Greyback sing-songed.
Teddy and Victoire looked at each other, and Teddy said, "Run!"
They ran down the cramped tunnel, Greyback's crazy panting as he crawled along behind them echoing until it filled the world. Teddy's wand felt hot and jittery in his clamped hand, and he was almost dizzy with anger. He pulled them out into the tiny area under the trapdoor. He blasted the door open with his wand - using more force than he'd intended - and pulled himself up, then reached back to help Victoire, letting go of his morph and growing back to his natural size.
She looked up, eyes wide, at the Shrieking Shack. "What's haunting this place? I heard - "
"Nothing!" Teddy said, frustrated. "It's just a house. It was never haunted! It was just my parents' house!"
"I swear there's something..."
Teddy ground his teeth. "Never mind," he said, more to himself than to Victoire. "Come on. We'll get you back to Shell Cottage." He fumbled in the inner pocket of his robes for the sparkling cubes of Floo powder that Donzo's father had sent him. There was a flower-pot of it on the mantle, but he didn't want to chance spilling it. He fumbled one to Victoire, then shoved two more into the front pocket of his jeans.
"What about you?"
"I'm going back."
"No you're not!"
Teddy grabbed Victoire's elbow and dragged her into the parlor and plucked the Floo key from its spot by the fireplace. He jabbed it into his spot.
Flames leapt up.
In the next room, Greyback burst out of the trapdoor like ash spewed from a volcano. He picked up the discarded trapdoor and threw it into the wall, tearing the wallpaper Teddy had spent the autumn carefully restoring.
"Teddy!" Victoire screamed.
"Go!" he yelled.
She tossed her cube of Floo powder into the fire and said "Shell Cottage!" but before she could move, Greyback ran into the parlor, knocking her off her feet as the flames went green. "You're going to miss the party, Missie," he said.
Teddy jabbed his wand at Greyback, wishing he knew worse curses than anyone had ever bothered to teach him. He tried a Blasting Curse, but somehow, his aim was off, and Greyback just grabbed his arm and pushed him back. He was used to controlling people smaller than he was, and didn't even seem winded holding on to both Teddy and Victoire.
Teddy couldn't get his wand hand turned around. He tried to kick Greyback in the side, but Greyback was ready for him. He brought his elbow down hard on the side of Teddy's knee as soon as his leg straightened out, and bright white pain exploded out. Only Greyback's hand around his wrist kept him upright.
Victoire squirmed, and Teddy saw her hand disappear into her bag.
Greyback started to turn his head, noticing the motion, so Teddy started to struggle again, ignoring the pain in his leg. "Is this the only thing you can control?" he asked. "Couple of kids?"
Greyback laughed, giving his attention back to Teddy. "You'll get a lesson in what I can control, Lupin."
"You couldn't control Mathilde, so you broke her neck."
"She had a wrong idea in her head. She thought she - "
Something whistled up between them and burst into thunder and lightning. Rain lashed across Greyback's face, and in surprise, he batted at the small cloud, letting go of Teddy.
Teddy dropped onto his good leg, then yanked Victoire out from under Greyback's knee. A tiny arc of electricity stabbed at the buttons on Greyback's coat, and he yelled, pulling it off and throwing it into the corner. The storm followed the coat, pouring rain out over the floorboards. Another flash of lightning showed the water stain spreading, reaching for the other, older stain near the trapdoor.
"Come on!" Victoire said, dragging Teddy away from the parlor, where Greyback was blocking their escape.
He limped sideways into the narrow corridor by the stairs, and his leg gave out, sending him reeling into the wall. Most of the drawings fell down around him, their frames shattering. A splinter of wood stabbed up through the paper on the picture of Evvie Blondin, and Teddy felt it like it had gone through his own chest. He could feel hot, powerless tears behind his eyes.
Something crashed in the parlor.
Victoire looked around frantically. "Where should we go?"
Teddy couldn't seem to think. Part of him was outside, being dragged back by strong, wiry arms. An echoing voice said, Let go... let go... you have to...
"TEDDY!"
He blinked, and was back in the corridor. "Kitchen," he said. "We can get out into the garden." He raised his wand. "Expecto Patronum!" The hawk exploded out into the room. Greyback, stumbling out of the parlor, drenched, tried to make a grab for it, but of course, there was nothing to hold onto. Teddy gave up trying to stand, and scrambled back toward the kitchen on all fours. "Declamare Patroni! Uncle Harry! Shrieking Shack. Greyback's here."
The Patronus swooped down, then shot back over his head and disappeared.
Victoire's arms hooked under his shoulders, and he felt himself yanked back into the kitchen. He scrambled to the wall and used it to pull himself up. He Levitated the table and flipped it into the doorway, shattering part of the drywall, but blocking Greyback's way. "Come on!" he said, edging against the wall toward the back door. Blood red light was streaming through the window, and he could see the plants waving in the wind, as if nothing had changed inside. In the corridor, he could see flickering green light from the fire, and he hoped that Greyback wouldn't think to jump through, into Shell Cottage, where Victoire's family would be settling in for the night.
But that didn't seem to be on Greyback's mind. He made a sound deep in his throat and shoved the table back into the kitchen, grabbing hold of one of its wooden legs. It broke off with a screech of old, dry wood, and Greyback threw it through the window over the sink, showering the counter with shards of glass and letting in the night wind.
Victoire reached the door and pulled it open, then looked back at Teddy. He tried to lurch over to her, but his knee had locked where Greyback hit him, and he fell madly to the floor. Greyback lunged for him.
"Get out of here, Victoire!" he said.
She didn't appear to hear him. Her lips were drawn back in a snarl, and the sunset painted her pale blond hair a violent shade of pink. "GET OUT!" she screamed at Greyback. "GET OUT!" She launched herself at him, knocking him off of Teddy, but he caught her by her hair and threw her across the room. She slumped down against a table by the wall, knocking over the mug of knives and a clatter of tools that Teddy and Uncle Harry had been using.
"That's that, then," Greyback said, and grabbed Teddy by his good leg.
Teddy pulled himself up, fists balled together around his wand. He smashed into Greyback's arm, forcing him to let go, then hit him with a Stinging Hex that Uncle Harry had taught him. His face puffed up.
A white thing swirled into the kitchen, and Uncle Harry's stag charged on Greyback, adding, almost as an afterthought, "On my way."
"Guess we have to hurry, then," Greyback said. He punched through the Patronus, grabbing Teddy by his robes. As he did, Teddy caught a blur of motion behind him, a stream of blond hair, and the flash of fire as the sunset hit a handful of silver.
Victoire screamed incoherently, a banshee, a Veela on the attack. She drove her fist into the side of Greyback's face, and Teddy had an impression that she'd somehow grown talons, as her great-grandmother would, then he saw that she'd gathered the chopping knives that his parents had left behind, that he'd been shifting around the kitchen all year. Two of them broke through Greyback's cheek with a thick tearing sound. A third dug a diagonal furrow in his forehead, from his temple to the peak of his hairline, and the fourth lodged in his eye.
Blood poured over both of them in a gory rainstorm.
Greyback swayed twice, then fell on top of Teddy, sending his wand skittering across the floor. Teddy felt sharpened teeth pressing against the flesh of his thigh, trying to poke through his jeans. He dragged himself away, kicking at Greyback's semi-conscious form with atavistic loathing.
"Get to Shell Cottage," he told Victoire. "Now. Go."
"Not without you."
"I'll be right behind you." It was a lie. He wasn't going to leave without Mum's wand.
"No, you won't."
Greyback pulled himself up, propping himself on his arms, dragging himself toward them. The knife in his eye pulled free, popping the eye out as it fell. Teddy made a grab for it, thinking he could put it in Greyback's neck and end all of it, but Greyback's groping hand hit it out of the way. He pulled one of the others out of his cheek and started advancing on them, pushing them back toward the corridor. "Last stupid mistake you'll make, girl," he said, and to Teddy's horror, his voice was gaining strength as the shock wore off.
Teddy forced himself to his feet and lurched toward the parlor, shoving Victoire ahead of him. The flames were still green, waiting patiently to let her through to her destination. "GO!" he yelled.
Victoire gave him a skittish look, then ran into the flames and disappeared. The flames flared, then went orange again.
Teddy was alone with Fenrir Greyback.