Chapter 24:

The Place Between

Greyback dragged himself into the parlor, smiling grotesquely, his bleeding face shedding gore with each step. "Your little girlfriend leave you all by yourself?" he asked. His words were perfectly understandable, but sounded like they were surrounded by protective packing spells, crackling and popping through bubbles of blood.

"Not for long," Teddy said. "My godfather's on the way."

"Oh, this place is protected enough. Mathilde was a clever girl, but she said she couldn't get in here. Or the tunnel, once they got it magicked up. Reckon it'll take a good five minutes, maybe ten, for your dear old dad - or, well, closest you got, anyway, as your real father's not even much of a meal for the worms these days - "

Teddy morphed. It was a subtle one, a thickening of his cheekbones, a flattening of his sharp, Black nose. He raised the widow's peak on his forehead. Small changes... but Greyback stumbled backward like he'd seen a ghost. Teddy glared at him. "Didn't warn you about everything, did they, Greyback? Did you skip your lessons?"

"You're not him. He's dead. Dead as your mum. I saw 'em both there at the battle, you know. Some old bat brained me, then something must've took me down. Woke up on the hill. Bellatrix woke me up as she went by, laughing. And who should be there but Lupin and his little twist of tail? Her bleeding out right there on top of him, him wailing like a babe in the woods." He raised his voice, mocking: "Oh, poor little wife, gone away from him forever! It's a right tragedy! Leaving a poor little orphan, too! 'Course, that was her own fault, wasting time in a battle trying to heal up the breathing dead. Especially with her dear Auntie on the prowl."

Teddy felt a knife twisting deep inside of himself. The thought that the only person who knew, who had been there, was this monster... But the knife was far away. Something cold seemed to fall over him, a cloak made of ice. "You watched them die."

"Oh, she was dead by the time I got there, barely started healing him before Bella took her out. But your dad was alive. You might say I was holdin' his hand when he finally karked it." He gave another horrible smile, and Teddy understood what he meant.

"You took his ring," he said.

"Threw it halfway back to the castle. I think a giant stepped on it. A bloke shouldn't die pretending to be something he's not," Greyback said with deep, jocular piety. "Shoved her off him, too, so he'd have room to breathe his last few breaths, which I hear he didn't have the last year or so." He seemed to have got over his surprise at Teddy's morph, but Teddy didn't let it go. It felt comforting somehow, and right, to wear Dad's face for this. Greyback took a few more lurching steps into the room. "But I reckon I'll take you with me, and when the moon comes up in a few days, I'll give you everything she tried to take from your dad."

"Right, because before he fell in love with Mum, he was in a real rush to go with you."

"His parents filled his head with strange ideas, but he came back to me in the end, 'til his Little Red yanked him back."

"He was spying on you," Teddy said, backing toward the fireplace, fumbling in his pocket for the cubes of Floo powder, willing them not to fall out as he wobbled around on his sprung knee. "He was spying for Dumbledore, you idiot."

"That's what he told himself. Might even have told other people. But I know better. He found out what it meant to be in a pack. His only mistake was trying to take mine. He wasn't any different from the rest of us. Sweet finally figured that out. Oh, sorry. Vivian. She's not going for that high-sounding nonsense anymore, though."

Teddy cast about for something to throw at him.

Let him talk, Teddy. Think.

It was Dad's voice, but Teddy didn't think it was really Dad. It seemed more like his own brain throwing out a rescue flare. He backed a few more steps toward the fireplace. He could feel the good heat of the fire relaxing his sore muscles.

"Think you're going somewhere, do you?" Greyback said. "I can follow. Oh, I know, they say only one through the Floo at a time, but we both know that's just about being careful. If I grab on with you, you'll pull me along wherever you're going. Maybe to see your godfather's little boys. Is that what you've got in mind? Or maybe your Granny. She's a bit old for me, but she always looks delicious anyway."

"You'll die from losing blood before you can do anything," Teddy said. Something was trying to catch in his mind, some idea. A way to hold Greyback here until Uncle Harry could get to him.

"Oh, I think I can hang on until this little scratch heals up. Won't be quite so pretty, but then, neither will your little girlfriend once I find her to pay her back. No one'll ever think she looks like her mum again. So what do you say? Shall we go straight to her place?"

This time, the voice didn't come from one of his parents, or from his own head. It came from Kirley Duke, and Teddy could hear it as clearly as he had at Weird World: We're in a place between places, which isn't a place at all... And for God's sake, don't try to go back through this one without more powder, you'll be cooked.

He pulled one of the Floo cubes from his pocket, stowing the other safely. Would Greyback buy it if he didn't hear a destination? How much would Mathilde have taught him?

"I see you thinking, Lupin," Greyback said, coming closer. "You think you have a safe place, somewhere it won't be any trouble for anyone. We're made for trouble, though. We're meant to cause as much of it as we can."

"I'm not a werewolf," Teddy said.

"Well, I'll fix that right enough. But it's not just werewolves made for trouble. We're just more honest about it."

Teddy said, "Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place," but didn't throw his Floo cube into the fire. It was just for show. And he wanted to make sure he waited long enough for it not to go through. He narrowed his eyes. "If this is the whole bit where everyone's out to take everything from anyone who can't hold onto it, get over it. I outgrew that. Most people do."

"Most people learn to pretend. Doesn't make 'em any different." Greyback came closer, almost within arm's reach. "Your dad was a great one for pretending," he said. "Why, the way he walked around, you'd think he didn't have a desire in the world. Just to float across the bloody tulips being saintly Professor Lupin. But he knew better. We all knew better. Bet your mum got a good lesson in how delicate and saintly he was. Sure didn't take him long to sprog her up, did it? And as soon as he'd got enough of what he wanted, he scarpered."

The icy cloak blew away, and Teddy made a mad grasp at it. "Stop talking about that!" he hissed.

Greyback laughed, his blood making a gurgling sound in the back of his throat as he did. "Oh, right. I'm sure it was all for her own good. 'Course, maybe she liked it that way. Most women do, once they get a taste of it. Don't reckon Sweet's going to have much use for polite little schoolboys anymore."

Teddy's mind filled with red rage, and he fought to keep from ending everything by jumping on Greyback and tearing at him with his bare hands. That would be the worst thing he could do, and he could almost feel other hands on him, staying him. He clenched his teeth and said, "You're sick."

Greyback lunged forward, and Teddy backed up almost to the fireplace. "Better run now, lad," Greyback said, "or you're going to burn yourself up. Or maybe you think you'll fight for the lady's honor."

Teddy threw the cube of Floo powder into the fire, and the light in the room went green. He tried to look wary, like he was trying to avoid Greyback's grasping hand, but he was really waiting, waiting for the old, gnarled arm to reach out and grab his arm.

It did.

With a teetering step on his injured leg, Teddy fell back into the fire, his free arm outstretched, dragging Greyback with him into the place between places, into the void.

He felt the spin begin as soon as he was in the flames, but he threw his own weight - with Greyback's - in the opposite direction, bringing himself to a stop long enough to grab for the back of the fireplace. This wasn't a fancy affair, like Weird World's, just a gap in space, through which he could see the shattered parlor of the Shrieking Shack. A utilitarian ledge ran along the back, with handholds on it for maintenance. Teddy caught one of them sloppily, then pulled himself far enough to get a firm grip.

Greyback tried to spin away from him. "What's this? Talk, boy."

"You were the one who decided to follow," Teddy told him. "I didn't say I was going anywhere."

"I'll kill you in here as easy I would out there!"

"All I have to do is let go, and you'll never get out. I will. And if I don't, you won't, either." Teddy twisted his arm to turn Greyback's. Out here, Greyback's weight was no advantage to him. If he pulled free, he'd just go spinning into nothingness. If he did anything that made Teddy lose his grip, he'd be stuck here. His remaining eye was twitching in a prelude to panic. Good, Teddy thought. Let him be scared for once.

"I can hurt you in the meantime," Greyback said, but all he did was flex his iron hard fingers on Teddy's wrist.

Teddy concentrated on his morph, wanting Greyback as panicked as he could be. He evened out his skin tone, and threaded gray through his hair. "You've hurt me all you're going to," he said.

"You stop that right now, boy!"

"Don't like this one?" Teddy asked, and morphed himself into Neil Overby.

Greyback tried to pull away.

"How about this one?" He morphed into Père Alderman, then into Nate Blondin, then decided to push it by morphing into Evvie, then Vivian. Neither of these morphs were, strictly speaking, perfect, but he didn't intend to give Greyback a chance to look that closely.

"Stop it right now!"

"Oh, I know! How about this one?" He pushed away Vivian's scars, lightened and curled his hair, and became Astrid Greyback, as she'd been the day she came to Hogwarts.

"You can't do that!"

Teddy morphed back into Dad's face, which settled in comfortably. "Sure I can. What are you going to do about it?"

"Ask your little girlfriend's dad what I do about faces I don't much like." Greyback reached out and grabbed Teddy by the front of his robes. Something made a soft crinkling sound. The Marauder's Map. Uncle Harry had told him not to leave the castle without it, and he'd absently put it in his pocket before going to Hagrid's tonight. It didn't show the Shack, of course, or this place, so he couldn't think what good it would do, but it seemed like there was something, some use...

It clicked into place.

Of course.

Teddy kicked at Greyback with both legs, ignoring the jolt of pain in his injured knee. With a grunt of pain, Greyback let go of him and went spinning out into the nothing. Teddy pulled the Marauder's Map out, not needing to open it. Dad's wand was tethered to it, and it appeared, floating in the wind. Teddy grabbed it and pointed it at Greyback.

"Petrificus Totalis!"

Greyback spun out of the way of the spell.

"Bugger," Teddy hissed, putting the Map back in his pocket. That wouldn't do any good. He'd be somewhere in limbo by the time Uncle Harry got here. "Accio Greyback!"

Greyback flew toward him, teeth bared, blood flying from his face. Teddy meant to catch hold of him and freeze him - or so he told himself later - but Greyback had other ideas. He grabbed one of the other hand holds, then his arm pistoned out, the hand wrapping itself around Teddy's neck, cutting off his air, and his voice. And Uncle Harry had decided he wasn't ready for nonverbal spells. He lost hold of his morph as the world started to develop strange black blotches.

"Bad idea," Greyback said. "I think you're done here."

Teddy thrashed wildly, but Greyback was impossibly strong.

"Maybe I'll just knock you out and take you with me. Or maybe I'm done with you."

Teddy turned Dad's wand in his hand. He might not be able to do any magic, but he did have one chance. He jabbed his arm down as hard as he could, driving the tip of Dad's wand into one of the gaping wounds in Greyback's cheek. Greyback yelled and fell away from Teddy, losing his hold on the back of the fireplace as well. He made a mad grab for Teddy's leg.

Teddy flipped himself forward with all of his strength, bringing his legs around, dragging Greyback toward the grate.

Greyback let go.

And hurled into the high orange flames, shooting back into the parlor of the Shrieking Shack like a living fireball. Teddy saw him lurch into the curtains, and they went up in flames, catching the wallpaper.

"No!"

He pulled the last Floo cube from his pocket and threw it into the fire, shouting, "Shrieking Shack!" The flames turned green and he jumped back through them into a spreading inferno. Greyback managed one more step, then fell forward, his arm stretching into the corridor. Flames caught the shattered picture frames, and they lit like kindling, Dad's drawings turning to char inside them. The house was catching too quickly, impossibly fast, like it had just been waiting to go up.

Teddy shook his head in negation. He heard himself coughing and felt like something was wrapping itself viciously around his chest. Somewhere, he heard a fist thundering against a door.

It didn't matter.

Greyback had ceased all movement, and Teddy stared at his body, trying to feel something other than nausea at the stink. The monster was gone. Whatever man he might have been was also gone. All that was left was something charred and unrecognizable. Teddy tried to convince himself that it had been an accident, that Greyback had gone through without any help, but somehow that didn't matter. Had this been his intent all along? To turn Greyback into this smoking mass of gristle?

"No," he whispered. "I didn't... I didn't want..."

But he had wanted. He knew it. He could have taken Greyback anywhere, could have dragged him in front of any number of adults. Instead, he'd remembered Kirley's warning about bringing extra Floo powder, and then trapped him.

The fire crept up the banister now, twisting into shapes, beautiful shapes, as it spread. He saw a large dog leaping down the stairs, its flame-coat rippling. A rat ran around its paws. In the parlor, there were four boys laughing, and a man and woman were sitting together on the sofa, reading a book to one another.

The flames reached for the kitchen, and Teddy was suddenly filled with horror. He ran for the kitchen, going around the trap door, around the blood stain, now spreading with char, and he saw a smoke figure of a man struggling with a snake. Nearby, taking no notice of him at all, was a flame-stag.

Teddy went into the kitchen from the side, and the flames hadn't reached through. Mum's wand was still at the base of the wall, and he grabbed it, holding it tight, not trying any magic. Through watery, smoke-filled eyes, he could see a woman at the sink, not in flame, but shimmering in the house's memory. She was scrubbing madly. Ghost sponges flew angrily around her. Teddy sank down against the wall, watching.

The kitchen floor caught.

A little girl sprang from it, chased by a smiling, happy man, the man Teddy's father would have been if he'd lived. The girl was Julia. She ran toward Teddy, flame-arms outstretched, wanting a hug.

The front door blew in off its hinges.

"TEDDY!"

Teddy looked up, and Julia broke apart, Uncle Harry was walking through the flames, untouched. He grabbed Teddy's arm. "Are you all right?"

Teddy blinked at him. "The house..."

"We're getting you out of the house."

"Your dad... Snape... MUM..."

Uncle Harry looked at him blankly, and Teddy realized that he couldn't see any of the fire-people. Something crashed, and flames shot out of the parlor, lighting Greyback's body up.

"That's it," Uncle Harry said. "We're getting you out."

He dragged Teddy to his feet. Teddy's knee buckled, but it didn't matter, Uncle Harry had him. Uncle Harry pushed open the back door, the door that led into the overgrown garden, and pulled Teddy out into the warm June night.

"Come on," Uncle Harry said. "I've got you."

"The Shrieking Shack..."

"Sit down. Let me see what I can do."

He set Teddy down on a soft slope beside a monstrous rosebush, and Teddy realized with no surprise at all that it was the rosebush his father had planted the day after the wedding, the day Mum had come out here and they'd talked about their future. Now its thorns clawed at Teddy's robes.

Uncle Harry sent off his Patronus for help, then started to Conjure water, throwing it on the Shack as quickly as he could.

Teddy pulled himself to his feet, looking up at the ruins of his house, at the home that would have been his. In an upper window, he saw a flame-version of Dad, bent over his desk. In another window, Mum was carrying a baby around. And high up, he saw an attic window, and in the window was another Teddy, a Teddy who belonged here, who had his secret places here. This boy hadn't killed anyone, even by accident. He was sitting comfortably on the ledge, across from another boy, a brother.

Teddy raised Mum's wand at the house, at that calm boy who had never existed, at the phantoms swallowed up by the blood shed here.

"CONFRINGO!"

The top floor of the house exploded outward, sending wooden planks and metal fixtures flying in all directions.

Uncle Harry turned and grabbed Teddy away, shielding him.

Teddy reached under his arm and yelled, "CONFRINGO! CONFRINGO!"

"Teddy, stop it!"

"CONFRINGO!"

With a boom like thunder, the Shrieking Shack blew out into the night, the boards and windows flying like fireworks. A low rumble came from the far side, and beyond the house's confines, Teddy saw a long, narrow ditch fall into itself as the tunnel collapsed underground.

"Confringo," Teddy said, but he'd lost his strength.

Uncle Harry tackled him down and sheltered him from the flying debris, muttering some kind of comforting patter that Teddy would never remember later.

Teddy curled up on the ground, his mother's wand in his hand, and waited for the last of it to fall.