The tapping on the window was very insistent and Teddy glanced quickly at the door, sure that the noise would bring an inquisitive Harry or Ginny. Wand out, he lowered the lights so he could see what was making that noise and cautiously approached, sucking in an amazed breath at the sight of the huge bird perched on the ledge of his window.
The bird drew back his head to unleash another round of pecks at the glass and Teddy waved his hands at it, praying it wouldn't break the glass. Opening the window, he looked at the bird, realizing it was the same one he'd seen earlier on the electrical wire. It was holding onto the stucco ledge, its wicked-looking talons digging deep.
"What do you want?" he hissed, glancing at his door. There was a cold breeze coming into the room now and he was hoping that his godparents didn't notice any draft.
"You are Teddy Lupin," said the bird, cocking its head to the side.
"Yes. And you are …?" Teddy said, only a little bit surprised to be talking to a huge bird through his window on a chilly December evening.
The bird sat up proudly, fluffing out his bronze feathers. "I am Niyol and I have come far to see you, Teddy Lupin."
Teddy flashed back to a memory of a crack of thunder almost directly overhead and the newly-hatched thunderbird flying down out of the nest. "Me? What for?" He heard the sounds of movement out in the lounge. "Uh oh. Listen, outside on top of the building there's a terrace or patio or whatever. Meet me out there at, um, midnight, all right?"
"Teddy Lupin, what is midnight?"
There was a soft knock on his door and he heard Ginny's voice calling his name. "I gotta go. Just meet me outside in a few hours, all right?"
"Teddy Lupin—" Teddy shut the window and closed the curtains, sliding across the bare wood floor in his socks to answer the door, opening it a crack.
"Yes?" he asked, giving Ginny his most winning smile.
"You've been quiet in here. Just checking to see how your paper for Ms Okefor is going," Ginny said, subtly pushing the door open wider and stepping in. Teddy shot a look at his window, relieved to see the curtains were still closed and the bird was nowhere to be seen.
"It's fine. I'm almost done." He watched in dismay as Ginny opened his closet, rifling through for his dress robes, finally pulling them out from way in the back.
"When was the last time you wore these?" she asked, wrinkling her nose as she blasted them with a Freshening Charm.
"I dunno. Um … last year? Last spring?"
"Here, take off that bulky jumper and put this on," she said, handing him the waistcoat. He gave a resigned sigh and pulled off the jumper, slipping on the waistcoat over his tee shirt. He stood still, feeling like a mannequin as Ginny buttoned it up and took a step back, looking at him critically. "Raise your arms." Teddy did so and then spun in place at her request. "I think the waistcoat is still all right, but I'm afraid the robes themselves will be too short."
Teddy obligingly pulled on the outer robes and when he stretched his arms out in front of him, the sleeves rode up several inches above his wrists and the bottoms were a few inches above his ankles. "How much did you grow?" Ginny said, looking up at him.
"I guess you feed me too well." Teddy grinned and hunched over low enough until he was on eye-level with his godmother.
"Prat." She held out her hands and he took off the too-small dress robes, watching as she hung them back up in the closet. While she was occupied in his closet, he glanced at his window again. No bird. Good.
Turning away from the closet, Ginny crossed her arms and looked around his room, eyes moving over the pictures and posters he had on his walls. The wall facing his desk was a collage of his favorite pictures, several of which featured him and Duncan in various daring endeavors. Stepping closer, Ginny reached out and stroked her finger gently on one of the pictures. "I remember this day," she said with a fond smile.
Teddy leaned over her shoulder and smiled. He and Harry stood proudly in their new skating gear, complete with helmets and pads. "Yeah, our first day at the skate park. I thought Harry was going to break an arm."
"You learned how to skate together."
"We had you to teach us. Do all girls know how to skate?" he asked, wondering if Kelly knew and if he should invite her along to his favorite skate park.
"Hmm, I don't know if Hermione does. We'll have to go skating at Christmas and find out," Ginny said impishly, kissing his cheek. "All right, I'll get out of your hair. Those dress robes have been bothering me. We'll go this week for new ones, all right?"
Teddy hung his head, not looking forward to the endless hours of trying on various styles of robes and parading around in front of Ginny for her approval. She was very picky and both he and Harry had been the object of her obsession several times before. "I can't wait," he said woodenly, completely failing to keep a straight face.
Ginny patted his cheek. "I promise it'll be painless. Don't stay up too late, all right?"
"Yeah, all right," he agreed, choosing not to argue that it wasn't even a school night. Closing the door after her, he fell down into his desk chair, blowing out a long sigh. "No, I won't stay up too late. I'll go to bed right after I meet some daft bird at midnight and find out what the bloody hell it wants with me."
Pushing aside distracting thoughts of the bird and showing off his skating stunts to Kelly, he finished his paper, wondering if the Coyote that the Ohlone and Miwok venerated was the same Coyote that had hidden Hehewuti's egg. Is there more than one Coyote? Given what he'd learned about Him, the thought was sobering. He sent the paper to the printer in the garage potions lab and stood, giving a huge stretch. There was still a strip of light under his door, indicating that the adults of the house were still awake and in the lounge.
The siren call of leftovers in the refrigerator made him put his hand on the doorknob. He thought about his earlier conversation with Harry and took a deep breath. He didn't really feel like talking to him right now, but he knew that he couldn't avoid him forever. Squaring his shoulders, he opened the door and headed toward the kitchen, spotting Harry on the sofa, looking like he was fully engaged in whatever was on the screen of his laptop. He heard splashes and squeals coming from the bathroom and he surmised that Ginny was getting James ready for bed.
Opening the refrigerator, he surveyed the contents, settling on leftover chicken parmesan. He used a quick warming spell on the whole container and grabbed a fork, intent on making his way back to his room as fast as possible. "All right?" Harry asked as he passed the sofa.
"Yeah."
"Did you finish your paper?"
"Yeah. Just printed it," Teddy said, feeling awkward as he stood in the middle of the lounge, clutching the container of chicken parm and a fork.
"All right," Harry said. He opened his mouth to say something more and Teddy felt a lurch in his gut.
"I have some other stuff to finish," he mumbled, cutting Harry off before he could say another word and scuttled to his room, firmly closing the door behind him.
Sitting cross-legged on his bed, he thought over the events of the day, choosing to skip over the argument with Harry, focusing instead on the game and how well the team worked together. He chewed slowly, remembering the expression of pure joy on Kelly's face when she made the first score of the game. God, she looked amazing.
He had known her since she started at St Ambrose a year behind him for all that they were the same age. Harry had wanted him to start his magical education as soon as he became eligible for Hogwarts at eleven, even though magical education in the US usually didn't start until children were finished with Muggle elementary school, typically at age twelve.
They didn't share any classes, so she had been on the periphery of his awareness until she'd made the team at the beginning of the school year. Teddy had certainly been interested in girls before her and even went out on a few dates, but none of the girls he'd dated had been able to hold his interest.
They were all too giggly and girly, he thought, thinking of the first girl he'd gone out on a date with in his Sophomore year. Harry had obligingly driven them to a restaurant and then made himself scarce, waiting for Teddy's call. Eileen Ramos. She was cute, but … After dropping her off at home, Harry had asked him how the date had gone.
"It was all right, I guess."
"What did you talk about?"
"School, mostly. She's really into Arithmancy," he'd said, shrugging. He didn't have much use for subjects like that. He preferred more concrete subjects like Defense and Potions.
"You're both good at Potions, yeah?"
"Yeah, but Ginny said I should let her talk about what she wanted to talk about."
"Good advice."
They were quiet until they got to the garage, Teddy finally finding the courage to voice the question he'd been turning over in his head all night. "Harry, how did you know Ginny was the right one?"
"Oh, well, um …" Harry said and Teddy grinned to see the blush that spread over his face. "I suppose … I just did, I guess?"
"Hmph, I guess I'll have to ask Ginny to get a real answer." The entire week after their date, Eileen had insisted on Teddy escorting her to her classes, "Like a real gentleman," and got upset when he wanted to sit with his friends at lunch. He did his best to behave like she felt he ought to, but by the end of the week, she'd declared that it just wasn't working out and that she was breaking up with him. Teddy had never been so relieved in his life.
Kelly though, she's different. The three girls on the team were thick as thieves, heads constantly together and always ready to pounce when one of the boys made a mistake in practice. Teddy had been on the receiving end of Kelly's acid wit several times and he could admit to himself that every now and then he'd made mistakes on purpose to see if he could make her say something to him.
Chicken parmesan finished, he picked up his favorite deck of cards, the feeling of the worn cardboard as he manipulated them soothing some of the upset in his mind over the current situation with Harry. Finally, he heard Ginny call "Good night," through his door and he looked at the time on his bedside clock. Eleven-thirty. Almost time to go see a bird about … whatever.
Setting the cards aside, he lay back on his bed and closed his eyes, listening to the sounds of Harry and Ginny getting ready for bed. He knew that they knew he could enhance his vision with his Metamorphmagus skills, but he doubted that they'd ever thought about if his hearing could be similarly enhanced. He flushed red at the memory of experimenting with it one night and definitely getting more than he'd bargained for. It had been a long time before he could look at the two of them the same way again.
He'd almost drifted off to sleep when his sensitized ears caught the sound of talons scraping on his window ledge outside and he jumped off the bed lest the bird start pecking at the window again. Opening the window, he beheld Niyol once more, the magnificent bird looking a little impatient with him.
"Teddy Lupin, it is the appointed time, is it not?" he said, trying to climb into the room.
"No, no, no, we can't talk here!" Teddy hissed, holding his hands up to block him. "I told you, the terrace patio thing up on the roof!"
"But you weren't there, so I came back here."
"Go up there now and I'll meet you there soon," he said in a hushed whisper, listening intently for any sounds that indicated the adults in the house were awake and curious.
"Why can't we talk here in your place? It is much warmer." Teddy saw Niyol eyeing his bed and didn't want to think of the damage those wicked talons could wreak on the down comforter.
"Because someone might hear us talking and get curious, okay? Go on, I'll be up there in a minute." The bird looked at him doubtfully and hopped awkwardly off of the ledge, his wings snapping out to catch his falling body. A few powerful beats and he was out of sight.
Sighing with relief that everyone, including James, was still asleep, Teddy closed his window and quickly pulled on his trainers and hoodie. Man, I wish I could Apparate silently, he thought as he grabbed his wand and carefully opened his door. Three steps out of his room and he paused, enhancing his hearing until he could hear Harry and Ginny breathing the deep breaths of true sleep. A few more quick, silent steps brought him to the front door. Too bad I left my broom at school.
A wave of his wand showed him the blue glow of the alarm spell on the locked door. When Teddy came to stay and was able to do magic on his own, Harry had shown him how to dispel it and unlock the door in case he had to get out in an emergency. "You must promise me that you'll do this only in an emergency," Harry had said sternly and Teddy summoned up his most innocent and serious look and nodded in agreement. He and Duncan had broken that promise several times over, once quite memorably.
Locking the door behind him and resetting the alarm, Teddy headed quickly up to the rooftop terrace, Stuart the cat hot on his heels. "You'd better watch yourself. He's a lot bigger than you, all right?" he admonished the cat as he opened the door, a wave of cold wind hitting him in the face.
"Niyol?" he called softly as he flipped the switch to turn on the fairy lights strung up around the terrace. "Where are you?"
"Here, Teddy Lupin." The enormous bird swooped down out of the darkness, alighting on the back of a deck chair. Not quite knowing what else to do, Teddy sat down in a chair opposite, putting Stuart on his lap as much for his warmth as to keep an eye on him.
"Okay. So here I am. What's up?"
Niyol looked at him, his dark bird eyes unreadable and Teddy returned the favor. He was larger than he remembered Hehewuti being and unlike her, he didn't have any silver feathers at all. Instead his were a dazzling array of brown, bronze and gold that somehow all shimmered together. His wickedly curved beak looked like it could shred him to pieces and he unconsciously hugged Stuart tighter. He looked for any little sizzles of lightning, but didn't see any. Maybe that only happens if there's going to be a storm soon?
"Teddy Lupin, you are much larger than when last I saw you," the bird finally said.
"I could say the same for you. How have you been?"
"I have been well. My mother sends her regards to you, Ginny Weasley and Harry Potter."
"Um, tell her thank you. Has she had any more trouble with Coyote?" He couldn't be certain, but it looked like Niyol's expression darkened at the mention of the master trickster.
"No, we have not had any more dealings with Him."
"Well, that's good to hear." Teddy sat quietly, waiting for Niyol to get to the point, acutely aware of the cold. He didn't seem to be in any hurry, however, perched on the back of the chair and preening his feathers with that wicked beak. He pulled out his wand and cast a Warming Charm, the action catching the bird's attention.
"That is your magic-making device?" he asked, looking at it keenly.
"My wand, yeah. You want to … see it?" Teddy leaned forward and held the wand out for Niyol's inspection. "Hey!" he said when Niyol grabbed it in his beak, scared he would snap it in half. A moment later, the bird dropped it back into his hand, whole and unmarked.
"That wand carries part of my mother," Niyol pronounced, settling back on his perch and shaking his feathers into place.
"Yeah. She gifted me one of her feathers after we helped you hatch. A silver one," Teddy said, putting it safely away in his back pocket. He didn't want to think what he would have done if Niyol had destroyed it.
"It was an admirable gift and very generous of her. Not very many of your kind have been gifted with a thunderbird's feather," he said gravely and Teddy wondered if he meant wizards specifically or humans in general. Ollivander had been amazed that they had two feathers for him to work with.
"It's been a great wand. Ollivander, he's the one that made it, said it'd be great at protection." They were silent again, staring at each other and Teddy was starting to think of excusing himself to bed when Niyol spoke again.
"I need your help, Teddy Lupin."
"My help? Are you sure you don't need Harry or Ginny?" Teddy asked, petting Stuart.
"Your help. I need a Changer."
"A what? A Changer?" Teddy asked, sitting up straight.
"Exactly." Niyol bobbed up and down several times, talons digging into the softer wood of the deck chair. "I have run into some difficulty with a potential mate."
"Wait, you need my help because you're having girl trouble?" The bird looked confused and he waved his hand. "Never mind. What sort of trouble?"
"I have danced her my very best dance and we have flown together through many storms, but Yoki still refuses me," he said, a note of distress coming into his voice.
"Maybe you need some new dance moves?" Teddy said, his smile falling away at Niyol's blank look. "Um, well, maybe she's not the right one?"
"She is the right one, Teddy Lupin. The wind brought her name to me and I flew for many days and nights before I found her here, but she says I must prove myself to her." The magnificent thunderbird took on a dejected aspect, his shoulders slumped.
"What does she want you to do?" Teddy asked, feeling sorry for him. Women! he thought wryly.
"She asks for the impossible before she will consent to be my mate, but I must try. If I did not, I should simply hurl myself into the sea." The bird sat up straighter and spread his wings before folding them once more. "She has asked me for one of Coyote's whiskers."
"What? A coyote whisker?" Teddy asked with a frown.
"No, not just any coyote. That is a task I could complete myself. All I need to do is find one, break its neck and pluck the whisker. She wants one of Coyote's whiskers," he said, the way he said "Coyote" emphasizing the capital letter in the name.
"The Coyote? The same one who played hide and seek with an egg?" Teddy felt a sinking feeling as Niyol bobbed his head in the affirmative again. "Jesus Christ," he murmured, sitting back against his deck chair. "What in the world does she want with that?"
"She will use it when she builds her nest for her first hatching. She says the magic in Coyote's whisker will protect the eggs and fledglings." Niyol started to pace from side to side on the back of the deck chair, talons leaving deep scratches in the wood. "You will help me with this, Teddy Lupin?"
"How in the world will I help you get one of Coyote's whiskers?"
"You are a Changer. You can trick the Trickster," Niyol said confidently.
"Listen, I can change how I look, the color of my hair and stuff, but I don't know how I could possibly trick Coyote," Teddy said, feeling overwhelmed.
"When I grasped your finger in my beak, I felt the possibilities inside of you. Both of your parents were Changers; I felt their magic within you."
Teddy felt as if a cold wind had blown right through him, stealing his breath away and it was several moments before he could speak again. "How … how did you know about my parents?"
"Your magic spreads out all around you for anyone with the senses to feel. I can feel it now, but when I touched you, I was able to Know you truly, Teddy Lupin."
Now it was Teddy's turn to sit silently, the cat purring in his lap and looking speculatively at the giant bird, tail twitching. "I have to think about this, Niyol," he finally said.
"Yes. I have a plan, but it will not be an easy thing."
"That's the understatement of the year. When do you need this whisker? I'm going to be leaving town for a little while soon," he said, thinking of the upcoming Christmas holidays he would be spending in England, surrounded by his Weasley "cousins".
"Yoki must start her nest before the snows fly in the mountains."
"Hm," Teddy grunted, "that's going to be pretty soon."
"Yes. I can feel a storm building out at sea, far to the north. That will bring the first snow."
Teddy sighed and stretched, letting out a prodigious yawn. "Can I give you my answer tomorrow?"
"Yes, tomorrow, Teddy Lupin. I know you will help me win my mate." Niyol fluffed his feathers once more and settled back, the very picture of confidence.
"Hmph, we'll see. Meet me here again tomorrow night at midnight, all right?" Teddy stood, holding on to Stuart.
"Yes. I will meet you here. Until tomorrow." Almost faster than he could follow with his eyes, the bird spread his wings and took off with a small thunderclap.
Teddy shook his head and made his way back to his bed, mind spinning crazily with Niyol's proposition. One of The Coyote's whiskers for her nest. I will never understand women.
Teddy opened his eyes, squinting at Harry nudging him in the dim light of his bedroom. "Get up and get your kit on. I'll take you to Mel's after," he said, already dressed for a chilly early-morning run.
Groaning, Teddy complied, the lure of a pile of pancakes proving stronger than the warmth and coziness of his bed. Stumbling around, he managed to get on a pair of tights, his shoes, a long-sleeved shirt and his gloves. A hoodie and a wool beanie snugged down over his ears completed his outfit. Wordlessly, he followed Harry out of the apartment and soon they were jogging comfortably through Marina Green, heading toward the ball park.
Their breath made white plumes in the frigid December air and Teddy thought about asking how far they were going to go, but mentally shrugged; it didn't really make any difference. Well-familiar with Harry's habit of working out his troubles with motion, he knew Harry would stop when he felt like stopping.
This early in the morning, the Embarcadero down by Pier 39 was blessedly deserted and Teddy began to feel that loose and liquid feeling in his muscles and joints despite the cold. Aware of Harry's subtle increase in speed, Teddy applied more speed himself and before too long they flew past the farmer's market vendors just getting set up at the Ferry Building.
The sounds of their harsh breaths and feet pounding the pavement almost in lock step became Teddy's focus, everything else simply fading away into background noise. No bird and its strange request for help, no university applications, no arguments over his desire to be an Auror, no aching void whenever he thought about his parents.
Sweat was pouring off of him as the ball park came into view and he grinned, taking a quick glance at Harry running beside him. He looked like he still had quite a lot of gas in the tank despite their fast pace, but Teddy thought he could still beat him and he put on a sudden burst of speed, sprinting as hard as he could for the statue of Willie Mays straight ahead. He heard Harry give a strangled oath as he took off and laughed madly, making a huge leap onto the base of the statue, giving Willie Mays a hug and kiss on his cold bronze cheek.
"I win!" he shouted, voice echoing around the deserted plaza, holding his hands above his head triumphantly as Harry came to a stop at the base of the statue, squinting up at him.
"I wasn't aware we were racing," he said as he caught his breath.
"Come on. We're always racing," Teddy said, hopping lightly down and pacing around to cool off.
"True. Hungry?"
"Starved." Harry jogged slowly off in the direction of Mel's and the promised pile of pancakes and soon enough, they were seated in a cozy booth, Teddy flipping through the selections available on the table jukebox. "You have any quarters?" he asked.
Shaking his head, Harry took a quick look around and a moment later "Rock Around the Clock" began playing. "Don't ever do that," he said mildly, perusing the menu.
"You're just full of 'do as I say' lately," Teddy muttered, looking at his own menu and avoiding Harry's sharp look. The Lumberjack caught his eye and he put down his menu, looking around at the dazzling array of decorations in the restaurant.
They were quiet after placing their orders and Teddy felt the endorphins generated by the run leaving his body as he stirred his coffee, avoiding his godfather's eyes until he heard Harry give a long sigh. He knew that Harry hadn't dragged him out of bed in the frigid early dawn on a Sunday to simply have a run and he tried to stay relaxed and open, but he was finding it more and more difficult lately.
"Teddy," Harry said quietly and he dragged his eyes away from an American Graffiti movie poster to look at him, taking a sip of his coffee.
"What?" He took off his wool hat and fluffed his hair as a distraction.
"Have Ginny or I done something to make you unhappy?" Harry asked, taking a sip of his own coffee.
Taken aback by the unexpected question, Teddy frowned. "No. You guys are great." Harry nodded and looked down, spinning his coffee mug around. Shifting uncomfortably in the booth, Teddy desperately tried to think of something else to say as the silence between them spun out. "I mean, you guys have James now and …" he said, trailing off into a diffident shrug.
Looking back up at him, Harry frowned. "What's that got to do with anything?"
Teddy shrugged again, eyes skipping over the tacky restaurant decorations. "I dunno. He's yours, isn't he?" Staring hard at the poster showing a cartoonish carhop on roller skates, he subtly used his magic to prevent the tears he felt stinging his eyes. And I'm not.
"Do you think we had him to replace you?" Harry asked slowly.
"No," Teddy sighed, still staring at the image of the woman.
"Then what's going on?"
Shifting his eyes away from the lurid poster, he settled back against the booth and sighed, finally looking back at his godfather. Harry sat across from him, messy black hair giving him an air of rumpled casualness that Teddy could never quite replicate despite his best efforts. "Nothing. Everything. I dunno."
Lifting an eyebrow, Harry took another sip of coffee. "I see."
Leaning forward, Teddy set his elbows on the table, resting his head in his hands, glad Ginny wasn't here to yell at him. "It's like … I'm graduating and I have to make all of these decisions. All of this stuff and it's like if I mess up or don't choose the right thing, then I'm buggered for the rest of my life, right?"
Harry nodded, a small smile on his lips and Teddy went on. "Like these university applications. What if I apply to the wrong one? Or don't get accepted? Then what do I do? I can't go on sponging off of you and Ginny for the rest of my life, can I?"
"You don't sponge."
"It feels like it sometimes. School's not free here like Hogwarts is."
"I get a pretty good discount," Harry said and Teddy felt himself relax a little bit. "Your education is our responsibility and we take it very seriously." The waiter brought their breakfasts and they both dug in, mutually agreeing to table their discussion while they filled their bellies. The jukebox on the table continued to cycle through songs and he wondered how long the spell Harry had put on it would last.
As they ate, Teddy wondered where Kelly would like to go for dinner before the Winter Formal. Probably someplace really nice. I wonder if I could convince her to go to Fenton's? Oh, does she like Indian? There's that place over by Cal … Mopping up syrup with his last bit of pancake, Harry's voice startled him out his thoughts of Kelly and their impending date.
"You know Gin and I love you, right?" Harry said, pushing aside his empty plate.
"I know," Teddy said, trying not to squirm at the word. It wasn't something he and Harry said to each other often, for all that he said it all the time to Ginny.
"And … we think of ourselves as your parents." Teddy waited for Harry to say more as his godfather finished his coffee, shaking his head at the waiter that offered more. "Do you think of us like that?" he asked, sounding hesitant.
Teddy chewed slowly, considering his question. They'd never really had a discussion on what he should call them when he came to stay. When he was little and still living in England with his gran, Harry had always simply been 'Harry' to him. Ginny was 'Ginny' and Ron was 'Ron'. When Hermione came back to stay, that extended to her and to pretty much every other adult in his life. Sometimes George would insist on an outlandish title, but that was more of a game between the two of them. The only exceptions were Mr and Mrs Weasley, try as they might to get him to call them simply Arthur and Molly; it just didn't feel right with them.
"Well, when we're at school, you're my teacher Mr Potter and when we're at home, you're Harry, you know?" he said, shrugging helplessly. As long as he could remember, he'd known that he had people who loved him and took care of him, but as far as he was concerned, his parents were dead.
Harry nodded, accepting his pronouncement, even though his expression clearly said that he wished it were otherwise. "Fair enough, I suppose. I was only seventeen when you were born, so that makes me more of a much older brother," he mused.
"A very stern older brother," Teddy supplied. "I'm sorry."
"Don't be. You can't help how you feel, yeah? I don't know how I would have reacted if Sirius had waltzed in and tried to replace my Mum and Dad." He shook his head, a rueful smile on his face. "Oh, he would have been a terrible parent. Would've let me run wild in the streets. Did I ever tell you that he had a flying motorcycle?"
"Like Mr Weasley's flying car? That you and Ron took to Hogwarts?" Teddy asked eagerly. He always enjoyed hearing stories of the sunnier side of Harry's eventful youth, hoping to parlay it into some information about his own mother and father.
"I think Arthur got the idea from Sirius," Harry said, looking at the bill. He left some money on the table and they walked out of the restaurant, Harry telling Teddy about the last time he left Privet Drive. Teddy especially loved hearing about his mother escorting the Polyjuiced Ron. He did a bit of math and realized that she might have even been pregnant with him on that daring escapade. I might have been there!
They took their time walking home, the streets of the City waking up around them. They passed several sidewalk sleepers and Harry always had something for those that asked. Teddy had no idea where he was managing to keep cash in his running tights this morning, but he always had a bill or two. He'd even seen him cast a few wandless spells before—Cleaning Charms or minor Healing—always something that wouldn't be noticed until long after he'd passed.
When Teddy had first come to live in San Francisco, he'd been frightened by the strange men and women. "Why did you do that?" he'd asked the first time he'd seen Harry cast a wandless Scourgify on a man's filthy bedding while giving him a few dollars.
"Some people don't know how to ask for the help they need, Teddy. I can help a bit, so I do."
"But that man didn't do anything for you," Teddy said, looking back at the man that was now inspecting his newly-cleaned blankets a little suspiciously.
"That doesn't matter. You put out into the world what you hope to get back," Harry said patiently. "That's something Voldemort and the Death Eaters never understood."
Thinking back on that now made him think of Niyol and his request for help in winning his lady bird's heart. They walked on, Teddy deep in thought when he almost walked into an old man wrapped in a brightly-patterned blanket. "Sorry," he said, reaching out to steady him.
The man was cleaner than your average street-sleeper and his white hair was in two neat braids. He smiled widely at Teddy, teeth white in his dark face. "No harm done, young man. I can tell you have something weighing on your mind, distracting you from what's in front of you."
Up ahead, Harry turned around to see what was holding him up, the beginnings of a frown on his face. "Yeah, I guess I do," Teddy said sheepishly. "Do you, um, need anything?"
"I have the sun in the sky, my feet on the ground and the wind at my back. Also, I have this very nice blanket. I have all I need, Teddy Lupin," the old man said, causing Teddy to take a step back.
"What? How do you—" he started, but the old man shuffled off faster than he would have thought possible.
"All right?" Harry asked, joining him on the sidewalk.
Teddy watched the old man's rapidly retreating back and shook his head. That bird has gotten into my head and now I'm hearing things. "Yeah, fine. I wasn't looking where I was going and almost knocked that guy over." He thought about telling Harry about Niyol's visit and strange request, but hesitated. I need to talk this over with someone first. "Hey, can I go over to Duncan's this afternoon?"