Chapter 25:

Confession

After a long time, Uncle Harry stood up. The wind, even warmed by the fire, seemed cold against Teddy's neck.

"I think it's safe to move now," Uncle Harry said.

Teddy nodded, but didn't move. He felt like he'd grown long, thin roots, and they were tangled in with the grass and flowers.

Uncle Harry turned to him and held out a hand. "Teddy, we should go."

Teddy tried to stand up. His knee buckled, and he sat back down. He looked up at the empty hilltop, now strewn with unrecognizable chunks of wood and plaster. A large pane of broken glass was stuck in the ground, pointing angry shards up at the sky. It had caught the moonlight, and glimmered ghost-like in the early night. It was strangely beautiful.

"Teddy?" Uncle Harry sat down beside him and put an arm over his shoulders. "We can stay if you need to. Ron was getting everything under control when I got away. I'm sorry it took so long. They realized I was trying to get past the Apparition border and kept getting in the way. Your friends got them off me, finally. Luckily, Ruth Scrimgeour is bad at following orders, and Donzo McCormack figured out what they were up to."

"Good," Teddy whispered. "That's good."

"I'm sorry it came here, Teddy."

"I brought him," Teddy said. "It's my fault. I brought him here. And I killed him here. Victoire stabbed him in the face first. I sent her to Shell Cottage."

"That was just the right thing to do," Uncle Harry said. He eyed Teddy carefully, then sent his Patronus off toward Hogwarts. "I'm sorry it ended it this way. I wish we'd been able to get our hands on him before now."

"I killed him," Teddy said again.

"I know. That's why I'm sorry. I wish I'd done it. I wish I could have spared you that."

"Does that mean part of my soul is dead? Torn up? Didn't you say that was how Voldemort broke himself up?"

Uncle Harry put his arms around Teddy and held him very tightly. "You were in a fight. It went the way it went. Greyback kept pushing. And of the two of you, I'm glad it's you that came out safe."

Something flashed, and a white terrier fell out of the sky. Ron Weasley's voice said, "The pack's under control. Vivian's stable. Sending Madam Pomfrey to you."

"Vivian's alive?" Teddy asked.

"Yes. Greyback hurt her when he threw her, and the tree got her in the head, but she was alive. Sounds like she's going to be all right." Uncle Harry pointed his wand at the gate and undid whatever security spells were left after the destruction.

Teddy thought about what Greyback had said, about how she wouldn't have any use for polite schoolboys anymore, and wondered where "all right" came into it.

There was a pop, and then Madam Pomfrey was hurrying in. She looked at the remains of the Shrieking Shack with horror - Teddy remembered that she had brought Dad back and forth when he was in school - then shook her head and bent to Teddy. "What've you done to yourself now, Mr. Lupin?"

After that, there was a blank sort of time that seemed no more than one image after another. Madam Pomfrey healed Teddy's knee, and then they were back at Hogwarts, with quite a crowd. Bill Weasley came from somewhere, saying that he'd had to Apparate because the Shrieking Shack's Floo was secure. Victoire was all right. She was home with her mother, and would come back to take her exams next week. Teddy had done the right thing. Teddy tried to tell him that Victoire had been the one to keep her head while Greyback had him cornered, but nothing that came out of his mouth seemed to make sense. He wanted to go back to his room, but Madam Pomfrey made him go to the hospital wing, even though his injuries were healed. He protested that he had to go feed his cat, and the next thing he knew, Ruthless was there with Checkmate. Uncle Harry Conjured a bowl for her and set it on the table by the bed, Summoning the food, and Teddy watched her eat, stroking the tip of her tail absently. Ruthless held his other hand. Granny came in, looking frantic, and started doing diagnostic spells. Teddy wanted to tell her to stop, that he was fine, but he didn't seem to have any strength for it.

Finally, Uncle Harry brought him a goblet of hot chocolate, and he guessed it had been laced with a sleep potion, because he had drifted off to sleep long before he finished drinking it.

Uncle Harry stayed the night, and was there when Teddy woke up the next morning, bringing him a tray with breakfast, including a large bar of Honeyduke's chocolate.

"Eat that first," he said. "It'll help you feel better."

Teddy broke a piece of it off and nibbled on it. The world seemed more solid. "You should go home. James and Al and Lily probably miss you."

"I called them by Floo last night after you went to sleep," Uncle Harry said. "James told me that I absolutely had to stay with his Teddy. He wanted to come himself. I told him that if you want to, you and your Granny can come home with me tonight. Your teachers will let you come back for exams."

"Where's Granny?"

"Madam Pomfrey gave her a Sleeping Draught. She's sleeping over there." He pointed to a screened off bed. "Do you want to come home with me, Teddy? Would you feel better away from Hogwarts?"

Teddy shook his head, and pushed some eggs around on his plate. "I have homework. And I need the library for exams."

Uncle Harry nodded. "I thought you'd say that. It's probably good. Keep moving." He frowned. "Are you sure it's what you want? I know it's what I'd want, but Hermione thought - "

"Really, Uncle Harry, it's better." Teddy pushed his breakfast around a little more. "Is Vivian here?"

"No. She's at St. Mungo's for now. The Healers are putting her back together so she's strong enough for the transformation in a few days."

"Does she have to go to Azkaban?"

"I hope not. Not right away, at any rate, and Hermione is working as hard as she can to make sure it doesn't happen at all. For what it's worth, I think she'll succeed. Dennis Creevey wrote a piece about her for the Daily Prophet, and he says he's going to keep going until everyone's on her side."

Teddy nibbled a piece of toast. "Why did her wand explode during the fight?"

"Wands are complicated things," Uncle Harry said. "It never ceases to amaze me. Greyback thought that a wand whose core was hair from 'his' pack would bring him all of their power. But turning a wand against one of its parents? That's unpredictable. And I somehow doubt Mr. Ollivander warned him about the complexities while he was being forced to make it."

"So when her own werewolf hair was turned on her, it blew up?"

"Hers. Her friends' and allies'. Your dad's. The power was channeled in a dozen directions. Greyback might have suspected something at the last minute - he tried to stop her - but Mathilde didn't know what the wand was made from."

Teddy tried to care about this answer, but didn't quite make it. "What happened after Victoire and I got away? How did Greyback follow us?"

Uncle Harry sighed heavily and sat down. "Greyback was perfectly happy to let the others fight. They were mostly from the pack he'd allied with in Romania, though he still had a few of his own. He stayed behind the line in the battle, and as soon as all of us were involved in it, he dropped out of sight. There were about twenty of them. The whole strategy seemed to be covering for Greyback, keeping us away from him while he went after you.

"I ordered Scrimgeour and Donzo back to the castle after they got to you in the tree, but obviously, they didn't go. The other boy, the blond one - ?"

"Roger."

"Roger, yes. He came back with Professor Sprout and Robards and Slughorn. We started to get on top of them, but then we realized Greyback had gone. They'd started a search when your Patronus got to me. I tried to break away, but they saw me. Donzo figured out what they were doing, and he and Scrimgeour jumped in. Scrimgeour's got a nasty Stunning Spell, once she decides to use magic instead of bashing in faces with her bat." He considered this, then shrugged. "Though that was pretty effective, too."

"She wants to be an Auror," Teddy said, then winced. "Oh, she didn't want me to tell you that. Forget I said it."

"Please make sure she gets the marks. I could use her." He smiled briefly, then his face became grave. "I left Ron in charge when I left. He got most of them subdued. Had to kill one, though. It happens. Maddie, as well."

"And me."

"And you. Just like Ron. Just like Maddie."

Teddy nodded, then frowned. "Why was Maddie here? I saw her coming..."

"The Unspeakables figured out how Mathilde was moving. How many times did I say we were protected on every side and from above?" He rolled his eyes. "No one defends from underneath, except around tunnels, because until Mathilde, the ground wasn't a viable way to travel. She found a way. Now that we know what she was doing, we can block against it if anyone else tries. A bit late, but at least we know."

Teddy thought about the day the werewolves had attacked him after his first date with Ruthless. They'd seemed to rise up out of the earth, coming from the long grass, and he'd never even thought about it. They'd have been seen if they'd been there before. He slammed his fist down on the bed. "I should have figured that out!"

"Teddy, you're fourteen. You're not responsible for figuring out a question that the Department of Mysteries floundered around on for months."

"But if I'd got to it sooner, then they wouldn't have been able to take Vivian, and they couldn't have - "

"Stop it. There's always a better way if you start thinking of it afterward. But you can't go back and redo it. There are a lot of things I'd do differently if I could. But we're stuck with what happened. And that was never your job."

Teddy nodded. It made sense. Perfect sense. But if only...

Granny woke up five minutes later, and spent the rest of the morning fretting over him. She not only didn't hate him for killing Greyback, she endorsed it wholeheartedly, and expressed a wish to bring him back to life so she could get a few licks in herself. "Don't you ever torture yourself over that monster," she said. "I don't want you taking it lightly, but dammit, Teddy, there's such a thing as taking guilt too far. If you think he'd have hesitated to kill you, think again. And then we'll have a nice, long trip to France to talk to the children your dad rescued from him."

By lunchtime, Teddy was feeling stronger, the previous night more of a strange, nightmarish memory. He asked if he could go to Potions. Madam Pomfrey seemed dubious, but Granny was fiercely in favor of it. She Summoned all of his school things for him, and sent him off.

Slughorn was surprised to see him, but conducted his class as always. After Potions, Teddy went to Divination, and sat with Donzo and Roger and Maurice and Corky. They were with Trelawney that day, and trying to scry in a crystal ball. None of them saw anything, and after a while, Roger cracked a joke about weather predictions and Jane Hunter, and Maurice laughed at it, and then they were all laughing, and even though Teddy still felt outside of himself, the day continued to move forward.

Uncle Harry went home for supper.

Teddy began to study for his exams.

Over the next several days, Teddy seemed to spend a lot of time asleep. He went to class, did his homework, then fell, exhausted, to his bed, Checkmate generally curled up on his pillow over his head. He dreamed badly at first, of Greyback, bursting into flames, and then of the Shrieking Shack tearing itself apart on his magical command. Eventually, he found himself on a rowboat, thirsty and hot, headed for Tirza's ship. Tirza - so close to Mum now that there was no difference - pulled him up and put a cool towel on his head. He asked for water, but she said he couldn't eat or drink here. "I'm sorry," she said, covering her face. "I'm sorry, Teddy, I can't help."

"You help," he told her. "I'm sorry about the house."

She smiled sadly, and combed his hair with insubstantial fingers. They didn't talk. The Malaquis clan was coming, and she stood up. "I have to go fight," she said. "Tell me that you understand, Teddy. Please."

Teddy thought about pulling Greyback behind the Floo, about turning to face him after everything he'd done. He nodded. "I understand."

She kissed his forehead, then ran off, shouting orders. Teddy watched her climb onto a boat, and then she was gone, the dream faded away there, as a band of fifth years came in downstairs, celebrating the end of their Potions O.W.L.s, making a huge racket that even Teddy couldn't sleep through. It was they who'd become the raucous Malaquis soldiers, he thought resentfully. He could have stayed asleep, kept talking to Mum, if they hadn't come.

He went to supper, made conversation with Ruthless, and with Frankie, who was stressed about tomorrow's O.W.L. in Defense Against the Dark Arts and trying to remind himself of every spell he knew. Teddy was glad of this. Maurice and Corky joined them after a while, and then Tinny and Jane and Bernice. Roger was trying to get a hatchling Ouzelum bird to look after next year as a special project, and seemed very distressed that the Ministry didn't want him to have one in his Muggle home. Teddy agreed that it was blatantly unfair, as, had he been wizard-born, it would be no more remarkable than a Pygmy Puff.

Ruthless invited him to study down in the Common Room, but he was already sleepy, and went back to bed. He dreamed again of the rowboat in the South Seas, and he knew long before he arrived that he'd find himself on Tirza's island, washed up on the brilliant sand. He looked up and wasn't surprised to see the Shrieking Shack, looking out of place but oddly comfortable, on the jungle-covered mountain that rose beyond the bay. It was freshly painted, and the shutters hung properly. He imagined rosebushes in front, and they appeared.

"Teddy?"

He rolled over onto his back. Dad was standing there, dressed in Holt's clothes, but with no other attention to Teddy's year-long fantasy. He crouched and put a hand on Teddy's forehead. It was weightless. "You did well."

Teddy blinked. "I wrecked the house."

"You sure did!" Dad laughed and sat down. "That was some Blasting Curse. But you can see, it's fine now."

"Is it really better here?"

Dad grew serious. "No. I don't want you to start thinking that way."

"But - " Teddy pointed to the bright sun, the blue sky, the fish that had appeared, broiled, on a sizzling pan nearby.

"It's paradise," Dad said, "and if I could, I'd trade it forever to get a year with you."

"But you can't."

"But I can't. We do the best we can with what we're given."

"It's not fair." Teddy pulled himself to his feet and looked out across the ocean, putting a hand over his eyes to block the angry glare of the sun. "Everything you went through... for TEN MONTHS!"

"It would have been worth it if it had been for ten minutes." Dad came over to him and stood by his side, hands in his pockets. "Though I suppose Fifi LaFolle would never write an ending like that."

Teddy could smell the fish nearby, brilliant and clear. He wanted some, but Mum had told him not to eat or drink here, so he didn't ask. Instead, he sat with Dad, watching the sun play across the sea. After a while, Mum joined them. She was dragging a rowboat full of boxes and suitcases, and Teddy knew that she meant him to sail off, to wake up. He didn't want to wake up. It was better here. He wanted to go up to the house, to his room. He wanted Julia and Raymond and Orion and Mira and Carina, but they never seemed to show up in his dreams of the island, even after he wrote them there.

He slept through Herbology the next morning, and Professor Longbottom took ten points from Gryffindor. He was, thankfully, not inclined to coddle Teddy on the day of the full moon. Teddy suspected he was thinking of Vivian, worrying about her transformation so soon after an injury.

After his afternoon classes, he wandered back into the Common Room, meaning to go upstairs and sleep until supper, but Ruthless had planted herself at the base of the boys' staircase.

"Lupin, you're staying up," she said. "You're going to come out with me, and we'll meet Frankie and Donzo downstairs. We'll play Muggles and Minions until it's time for supper. Frankie has a whole game set up - and you know how he's been during O.W.L.s - and it's going to keep you hopping."

"I'm tired."

She looked around, then drew him into the space behind the Lionbloom, where Victoire had caught them snogging in some other life. "Teddy, everyone's worried. You're fine when you're with us, but you're sleeping all the time. Are you hurt, or is this just... you know... because you feel bad?"

"I'm just tired," Teddy said again.

She touched his face. "I know. But let's wake up, shall we? You're getting a bit scary."

Her hand on his face was very warm, and very solid, and suddenly, that was all Teddy wanted. He put his arms around her, hooking them up under hers, and pulled her as close as he could, not wanting to kiss her or caress her, just to have her next to him. If she was surprised by this, she didn't show it. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and pressed her cheek against his head. Her hair filled his field of vision almost entirely, and tickled against his face.

After a long time, she patted him awkwardly on the back and pulled away, kissing his cheek lightly as she did. "Come on, Lupin," she said, "buck up. Stiff upper lip and all that other stereotypical nonsense."

"Right." He took her hands. "Stereotypical nonsense, coming up." He stuck his chin out dramatically, and morphed it so it was perfectly square.

She laughed.

A branch of the Lionbloom lowered, and Teddy spotted Victoire's pale blue eyes. This time, she looked more amused than upset. "Honestly, Teddy," she said, "this place isn't as private as you think it is."

Teddy let the girls take him downstairs to the Great Hall. Frankie had put together a particularly exciting game, which required Teddy's character to fly to nearly every location. He wasn't given any time away. They played through supper, commandeering the end of the Hufflepuff table for the game. The others all acknowledged what had happened, and chastised Teddy for feeling too bad about it.

"Greyback's not worth a catnap," Corky said, rolling to see if his character would be able to pick the lock on a set of chains, "let alone sleeping for four days."

"Fine, I'll be happy about killing someone."

"No one's saying be happy about it," Frankie said, "but you do need to come up from it, mate."

Victoire didn't join in this. He supposed she knew that it was more about the Shrieking Shack than Greyback. Instead, she gushed about having been there after all for the birth of her new sibling. "A brother!" she said. "Finally, another boy!"

Ruthless made a face. "My sympathies."

"His name is Lance," Victoire said, ignoring this. "Lancelot, actually, but no one's going to call him that. Artie's walking around like he invented him."

"As long as they never meet a girl named Guinevere..." Corky said.

Maurice nodded. "I'd steer clear of Gwens and Jennys as well, just to be safe."

Victoire stuck her tongue out, and grabbed the dice to roll for an escape from an out-of-control taxi with a mad driver.

The game went on until the Headmistress sent them to bed for the night, reminding them that people were trying to study for exams, which would pick up again Monday morning. She didn't seem angry, though. Teddy stayed in the Common Room with Ruthless and Victoire for a long time, slowly working around to talking about what had happened the night Greyback came to Hogwarts.

"Victoire was amazing," Teddy said. "I tried to tell people how amazing she was, but no one seems to have quite got the scale of it."

"That's because you've been out of it," Ruthless said. "And we're not letting you sleep more than eight hours anymore. If you're not up tomorrow morning, we'll be in with a set of drums."

Teddy slept easily that night, dreaming himself into the rowboat, which was well stocked with things he needed - pictures, mostly, and books. Some of the lumpy wrapped packages didn't contain things with names or shapes, but Teddy knew he needed them anyway. He watched the island fade off into the distance. Mum and Dad were there together, watching him go. The Shrieking Shack gleamed white in the tropical sun. He reached Tirza's ship and climbed aboard, bringing up the rowboat with all of its cargo. Victoire started to stow it, and Ruthless was occupying herself with the maps, plotting out a course. Others ran about busily, preparing the ship to sail off to wherever it was going.

Teddy took his first exams the next week, and he thought he did reasonably well. Ruthless was as good as her word about not letting him sleep, and when she couldn't be on keep-Teddy-awake duty, she had Victoire do it. His friends in other Houses didn't let him go back to Gryffindor during the day at all. It got easier.

After his Herbology exam, he waited for the others to leave - giving Tinny and Roger a sign that he meant to catch up with them later - and went to Professor Longbottom, who seemed drawn and pale, but otherwise all right.

"Did you need something, Teddy?"

"I just wondered... have you heard... er... is she all right? Vivian?"

Professor Longbottom set down a Singing Sunflower he was misting and said, "Yes. She's transformed in worse shape than she was in. She said they practically coddled her at St. Mungo's."

"Is she coming back?"

"No. She's not."

"They're not sacking her, are they?"

"She's going to the sanctuary in France," he said. "The rest of the pack is going to take care of her."

Teddy thought about asking what that meant for the pair of them, but decided that was more than he would be allowed to ask. Professor Longbottom gave him a look that said he knew perfectly well what Teddy was thinking, but didn't offer an answer. There was a knock at the door, and a curly-haired man with wire specs - Ernie Macmillan, Teddy remembered - announced with important jocularity that he was "absconding with the Herbology professor, who's required in London on urgent business." Professor Longbottom rolled his eyes, and Teddy rolled his own back. Apparently, Teddy's weren't the only friends with a mission.

Uncle Harry made a point of coming up for a lesson - given in the antechamber outside the Great Hall - but they mainly went over a few of Teddy's favorite Charms before his exam. James had sent him a new story about Julia and Raymond. Uncle Harry asked if he could handle that. "I told James that he might think about changing the names, but he's determined that they're Julia and Raymond. I didn't want to tell him why that might hurt you. I wasn't sure you'd want me to."

"It's all right," Teddy said. "I'm glad someone else knows them."

Uncle Harry nodded, and they went on.

Teddy finished his exams the next week, two days before the Hogwarts Express returned to take them all back to London. He was sitting with Victoire when the carriages appeared, and they both fell out of their conversations. The thestrals were horrible to look at, skeletal and vicious-looking, though he knew in his mind that they were actually gentle. Victoire shuddered.

They climbed into the carriage together, and Ruthless, Donzo, and Maurice joined them. Teddy watched as his third year retreated into the past.

Granny took him home from King's Cross. She was aggressively cheerful in the car, enough so that Teddy knew he must still look bad. She'd decided to go to part time hours on a permanent basis - "I'm certainly old enough to enjoy some time off" - and was planning to spend the summer getting started on another history book. "I could wait until autumn term, if you like, but as I'm looking at the Wizarding communities as they spread through the Empire, I thought it could give us some nice holidays, all on my publisher." She winked. "Ellsworth has a place in the States, not far from Salem - "

"Ellsworth?"

"Ellsworth Wintringham? His son Herman plays the lute for the Sisters? We met him at Weird World this Christmas, remember?" She gave him a strange, guarded look.

Teddy blinked. "You're... er... are you... going out with him?"

"We've had a few dinners together, for which I dressed nicely and intend to keep doing so, but mainly, we've got to be friends. It's nice to have a new friend somewhere near my own age. And he admires the Beatles! I think Ted wouldn't mind me being friends with a man who knows all the words to 'Hey, Jude.'" She bit her lip. "Are you quite all right with it?"

"I never thought about it. But... sure. I have friends. Why shouldn't you?" He gave her a perfunctory smile, but dearly hoped that he would never, ever come home to find Granny snogging Ellsworth Wintringham. Even imagining it to hope he would never see it was disturbing. He had no idea how his grandfather would feel about it, either, as Granddad had never appeared in his dreams. He tried to imagine looking down fondly on Ruthless going out with someone else, and wasn't sure Granny had it exactly right.

But that wasn't fair, from either of them. Teddy was away all year long and Granny was by herself, and had been for a long time. He had no business feeling strange about it. It wasn't his business to have feelings about one way or the other. And Granddad was supposed to have been a good man, who would never feel badly about his wife.

So Teddy just kept smiling as they made their way past the pond, past the now-normal levels of magical security, into the house where he'd been born. For a minute, he was about to ask where Bludger was hiding, as he usually shuffled out to wind himself around Teddy's legs, but he remembered in time. He thought he'd go out to the family's cat cemetery later and put a cat treat on his grave.

The summer days settled in. He went with Granny to Shell Cottage to visit baby Lance, who looked like a small, more crinkled version of Charlie. He visited the Romp and took the opportunity to see if Hermione had any of the Animagus books Professor McGonagall had mentioned. She had one of them, and she lent it to him with her eyes narrowed in deep suspicion. He didn't read it. He wanted the copy at Hogwarts.

He went to Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place, and asked if he could look around in the sealed-off upper rooms. Aunt Ginny wearily let him into Sirius's, and he spent a long time looking at the picture that was permanently stuck to the wall, growing more antique by the day. James, Sirius, Dad, Peter. They looked like they'd been off somewhere having fun. Uncle Harry's James came up to get him, and tried to tell him stories. Teddy couldn't really follow them. James looked deeply disappointed, which made Teddy feel about two inches tall.

He went to Diagon Alley, where Tinny's parents had a restaurant, for long, leisurely games. Both times, he ran into Professor Longbottom at the Leaky Cauldron. The first time, he was having lunch. The second, he seemed to be trying to fix a squeaky staircase while his grandmother told Hannah Abbott that she was mad to think of taking on a business that she was legally prohibited from closing no matter how slow it was. "My Frank's Alice once said that old Tom must be a masochist to run this place..."

But those were just moments. Mainly, he found himself alone at Granny's house. He had invitations to be elsewhere on most days that she worked, but he didn't want to take them. He wandered from room to room, looking at Dad's drawings in the nursery, at the portrait he'd drawn of Mum that Teddy was now very glad he'd never brought back to the Shrieking Shack, at Granddad's scrying dish. He sat with Checkmate in the cat cemetery, looking at the names of the long-vanished family pets. Dodger. Granny. Quaffle, Snitch, and now Bludger. He thought about going to his parents' graves in Godric's Hollow, where Uncle Harry had given them space beside his own parents, but he didn't go. He almost never went. He didn't know if that made him a bad son or not.

Two days before the Thunder Moon appeared again - the anniversary of Greyback's escape - an owl came from France.

Dear Teddy, the note it carried read, I hope you're feeling better, though I imagine the past few weeks haven't been kind to you. Evvie said that she and Nate told you about our habit of having a feast here every month before the full moon, with the people we care about, all of us bringing food to share. This is an especially important month. We're all together, and the threat is over. We'd very much like it if you and your grandmother could come. Alderman is also inviting your Uncle Harry and his family, as well as Ron and Hermione Weasley and their family, and Bill and Fleur Weasley (Bill, of course, is always invited, but only comes on special occasions).

It would mean a great deal to me if you could be here. I loved your parents very much, and would like to stay in touch with you. Let me know if you can come! Don't worry about bringing food; I'm sure there will be plenty.

Love, Vivian

Granny said she'd like to go, so Teddy wrote back an acceptance, and ignored the instruction not to bring anything. Granny got twenty five fresh fish, and Teddy managed to cook twenty-two of them on an old Muggle grill of Granddad's without scorching them too badly. Checkmate was all too happy to inherit the burned ones. They took an international Floo to Paris, and a local one to a village near the sanctuary. To Teddy's surprise, Hagrid was waiting outside the little pub, standing beside Buckbeak, who looked very unhappy to have a cart behind him.

"Thought yeh migh' like a lift up there," Hagrid said. "And Vivian reckons Buckbeak migh' like a look at his little ones."

"Oh, how lovely!" Granny said, stepping into the cart. Teddy followed her, and Hagrid checked the cart to see that it was tightly bound, then climbed in. Teddy hoped he had done some sort of lightening charm on himself. Apparently he had, because as soon as Granny had Disillusioned them all, Buckbeak took off at a run, and leapt into the sky easily. France rolled away beneath them, green and fragrant as they flew into the mountains and descended into the sanctuary village, which had been decorated for a carnival. Uncle Harry had already got here, and Teddy could see James and Al looking over the edge of the hippogriff pen.

Vivian, still looking wan and weak, came over to them, and took the fish. Her magical eye had been replaced, but she didn't seem to be playing with her field of vision much. "Teddy, I told you that you didn't need to."

"I wanted to."

"Well, it smells delicious. I'm glad you could come."

"Thanks."

"You brought food on top of everything else you've done?" someone called, and Teddy saw Nate Blondin jump over the paddock fence and come toward him, hands outstretched. "Mate, I want to shake your hand. Both hands, even. Which one did you kill him with? I'll shake that one twice."

"Nate!" Evvie came around the end of the table, looking aghast. "That's not the sort of thing you ought to say! Honestly!" She turned to Teddy and shook her head in frustration. She looked very pretty, wearing a Muggle-style party dress, her curly hair pulled back by a decorative clip. "Don't mind my husband. He's never been subtle."

"Flawed upbringing," Blondin said. He shook both of Teddy's hands solidly, but didn't mention killing Greyback again.

Uncle Harry and Aunt Ginny noticed Teddy and Granny's arrival, and they were immediately folded into the family. Lily had grown three and a quarter inches since Christmas, and she insisted on telling everyone in the general vicinity about it as she sat on Teddy's lap, eating strawberries and bits of duck that Teddy tore up for her. Neil Overby, much more cheerful than he'd been in December, had noticed Al's Neddy the Kneazle t-shirt, and was now involved with finding out from the Potter boys just what had been happening in the comic books lately.

The feast was less a single meal than a full day of picking at everyone's offerings. By the time Bill and the older children arrived (Fleur didn't feel up to the long trip and didn't think baby Lance was quite ready yet), there were good-sized dents in everything. Blondin kissed Victoire's hand, but, at a look from his wife, refrained from complimenting her on stabbing Greyback in the head.

Lily finally tired of her perch on Teddy's lap and went looking for another novelty. She found Vivian at last, and a moment later, Teddy saw Vivian's eye start spinning around comically while Lily laughed.

Teddy got up and wandered to the hippogriff paddock. Victoire and her sisters were in a clearing, doing a strange kind of dance. Teddy found it hard to look away from, but finally, he did. The boys had moved on to exploring the safest looking forest path Teddy had ever seen, though James was creeping along like he had the entire Malacquis clan and a herd of erumpents on his tail. He turned to warn Al and Neil of some danger he'd created. Teddy went around to the back of the paddock, looking at several empty stalls, listening to the baby hippogriffs squabble amongst themselves. Mirabelle and Buckbeak were having some afternoon exercise with Hagrid and Valeska. The other adults were lounging comfortably at the tables, stuffing themselves on good food.

"Why are you alone?"

Teddy jumped and looked up.

Père Alderman was sitting on the edge of the hayloft. He grinned and jumped down, landing in a crouch in front of Teddy, his black clerical clothes looking odd in context. He looked, in fact, like a particularly mischievous teenage boy wearing a priest costume. "Really, Teddy, the whole point is to be with other people."

"You're not, either."

Alderman stood up, and the image of the boy faded back into the image of a young, cheerful priest. "I had a few things to finish up before moonrise. I have a baptism to do tomorrow afternoon, and I'm never in shape to finish the paperwork in the morning."

"Oh."

"The word through the grapevine is that you've had a hard time."

"People are talking about me?"

"Yes, that happens when people care about you. I know, it's horrible. Next thing you know, they'll be worrying."

Teddy looked down. "I wish they wouldn't."

"Is it really guilt about Greyback?"

"Partly. I know he was awful, but - "

"But killing him is still killing." Alderman nodded, and Teddy had a feeling that he understood. He'd grown up with Greyback. It occurred to Teddy that Greyback may have even made Alderman hurt people, the way he'd made Vivian hurt people. Vivian hadn't wanted to shake his hand over killing Greyback, either. "I can't give you a proper act of contrition, of course, but it might be a good idea to do something concrete..."

"Like what?"

Alderman gave him a calculating sort of look, and Teddy realized that he'd thought about this a lot already. He found that he didn't mind. "Well," he said, "between Hermione Weasley and Neville Longbottom, I think Neil Overby and Celia Dean - the girl Vivian bit - will make it to Hogwarts in a couple of years."

"Good!"

"As your act of contrition, I want you to ask Horace Slughorn to teach you to brew Wolfsbane Potion for them. Vivian says you're quite adept at potions, and I think two years should be long enough to learn. Will you brew the potion for them when they get there?"

"Atone for killing Greyback by helping his pack."

"In a way that would drive him purely crazy, which can only be a bonus." Alderman smiled. "Will that help, do you think?"

Teddy nodded. Even having the thought of it - some solid thing to consider - made it better. "I'll do it," he said.

"Good. But Greyback's not all of it, is it?" Alderman looked around and made sure no one was nearby. "Why did you destroy the house, Teddy?"

Teddy thought about shrugging it off, giving the same glib answer he'd given the other students, that it was burning down and he'd just helped it along. Uncle Harry hadn't asked why he'd done it, and Granny seemed to have decided it was because of Greyback. Teddy hadn't volunteered anything. He'd told no one about the phantom faces, or about his sister, drawn in flame, running to him for a hug, or his vision of Mum at the sink, or of the way the rosebush had seemed to grab at him. He opened his mouth to give a shortened version - perhaps something just enough to satisfy Père Alderman's idea that there was more to it - and somehow, it all came out, everything from Mum and Dad losing the house to finding the Tirza novel there to reading the others and finding the bookmark with all of his siblings' names on it, right up to Dad and Julia, running into the kitchen, crowned in flames, reaching for him. He was aware of crying near the end, but he guessed a priest wouldn't tell anyone. "And then," he said, "I looked up, and I swear, Father, I could see them. They were in the windows. I was in the window. My sisters and brothers and my parents, and I - " He stopped, his throat working against him.

"Go on, Teddy," Alderman said. "Get it out."

"I hated them!" Teddy said, then covered his mouth and shook his head. "No, I mean... I mean..."

"You mean you were angry. About them dying?"

"No. At them." Teddy leaned forward, his head hurting. "And then I blew up the house. To make them go away."

Père Alderman nodded again. "You want to watch your temper," he said, calmly enough. "There's a reason wrath didn't make the virtue list."

Teddy gulped. "But my parents... my brothers and sisters..."

"You don't hate them."

"I did, though." Teddy wiped his face, angry at himself now for crying. "What was the point, anyway? They weren't real. I mean, Mum and Dad were, of course, but Julia, and Raymond, and the others... I just made them up, didn't I?"

"I don't know. There are a lot of things we don't understand. Maybe they never would have existed even if your parents had lived."

"Then what was the point of any of it? I always wanted to be someone's brother, I think. And then I found out all of their names, and... I don't know. I wish I had a big family like Victoire's, or Ruthless's."

Alderman laughed. "Well, there's your point. That's something you know about yourself. You want a big family. So have one, when you're older. The world would be better for having a lot of Lupins in it, I think. And your penance for being wrathful is that you'll never pass it on to them. The anger stops with you." He smiled kindly. "Don't worry about it just yet. And as to brothers and sisters?" He nodded toward the clearing, where James had climbed up onto a fallen tree and was giving a demonstration of Basilisk-slaying (Lily didn't look happy to be playing Aunt Ginny in this scenario, and as Teddy watched, she rolled off and made Al take over). "We make the best of what we're given," Père Alderman said, and Teddy shivered at the repetition of the words from his dream. "And what you've been given are two brothers who want to be just like you, and a sister who sat on your lap for hours with no coaxing. They aren't replacements, either. They're better than replacements. They're real, Teddy."

"But Julia and the others..."

"Can wait." Alderman looked out over the square, where the werewolves were starting to gather together to walk to their secured spots. "I have to go before I become very bad company. But you... Teddy, go be the brother you were meant to be. There's no greater honor you could do your parents."

He dipped his head and disappeared into the shadows of the barn, and a moment later, Teddy saw him emerge on the hillside and hail Blondin and Hamilton, who were trying to calm Neil down.

Teddy turned away from them and went back to the clearing, where the non-werewolves were starting to get ready to go. James, deprived of his new audience, was sitting on the tree, swinging his legs restlessly. He looked up when Teddy approached, and smiled broadly. Before Teddy could greet him, however, Al ran at him from the side and tackled him.

"Hippogriff-ride!" he said.

"Take them down to the gap, would you, Teddy?" Aunt Ginny called. "We'll meet you with broomsticks as soon as we've sent all the dishes home."

Teddy picked Al up and balanced him on his back, turning his hair to feathers (much to Al's delight). Lily spotted them from across the clearing, and started over.

"Hey, James," Teddy said, "I've got a good story for you. It's about my dad, and your granddad, and Sirius. Did you ever hear about the time they fought a whole colony of Acromantulas when they went on holiday to Borneo?"

"They did not," James said, jumping down and looking eager to be proved wrong.

"Sure they did. And they had Checkmate and Martian with them, too..."

Teddy walked down the mountainside, carrying Al, Lily toddling industriously along behind them. James circled all of them energetically, trading the story back and forth with Teddy as the Thunder Moon rose above them.

THE END