Chapter 1:

A Professorial Party

The rain had been coming down hard for four days, and London had taken on the soggy, dispirited look of a wet newspaper, with gray skies leaking ink out over the grass and streets and pavements, turning them to dark mud. Birds flapped about with their feathers bedraggled and grimy, ill-tempered wet stray cats foraged in soaking garbage piles for food, and shut-in children - Muggle and magical - were beginning to make nuisances of themselves as their parents searched helplessly for something to keep them entertained.

No part of the city was soggier than the run-down, seedy square at Grimmauld Place, and children and parents had taken to avoiding one another, the parents beginning to have anxious thoughts about cabin fever. At Number Eleven, half a dozen twelve-year-old girls had commandeered the basement, where they'd set up a Ouija Board. The girl who lived in the house - one Isabel Nelson - had long insisted that the neighborhood was haunted, particularly the strange house next door, and the rainy day seemed a good opportunity to explore the claim. An old drunk had once told Isabel that Number Twelve had just appeared from nowhere one day thirteen years ago, but of course everyone else said that was nonsense - Number Twelve had always been there, where it belonged. Houses did not simply appear and disappear, and they had memories of it being continuously inhabited by the odd Mr. Potter, and his family before him, for as long as anyone could recall. What the Potters did was anyone's guess, but people seemed queerly uninterested in the question.

At Number Thirteen, toddlers were quite literally trying to climb the walls. Their father ground his teeth and tried not to lose his temper at the third tale about hearing a lion roaring next door. It wouldn't do to lose one's temper in quarters this close. He turned on the television and put in a video about cartoon lions fighting on the savanna, and it served as a temporary mollification.

Inside Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place, there was far too much magic going on for such a simple diversion. The Potter children - James, Al, and Lily - and their cousins, Rosie and Hugo Weasley, were annoyed by the weather, and by their exclusion from the goings on among the grown-ups. Their grandmother was doing her best to keep them distracted by Conjuring magical lions and promising that they would all have a very lovely time together tonight, but to no avail. Five children between the ages of five and eight fed one another's restlessness quite effectively. Eight-year-old James was particularly outraged that someone who was no more a grown-up than he was would be with the grown-ups tonight, while he himself was being left behind. The horrible unfairness of the situation had resulted in frequent runs up the stairs to a bedroom where a fifteen-year-old boy paced nervously among piles of discarded clothes.

The door opened with a bang - again - and James stormed in. "Couldn't you ask them to let me come?" he asked with no preliminaries. "I'd do everything you say, Teddy!"

Teddy Lupin stopped pacing. His hair, currently a bilious shade of green, stood up straight and formed itself into a high fan, then fell down over his ears and turned black. He was wearing blue jeans and an old white vest. A gold ring on a heavy gold chain swung gently over his spreading chest. His body, used to his quick shifts in shape, seemed to be impatient with the slower shifts brought about by nature, and his latest growth spurt had left him all sharp elbows and knees on his long, thin limbs. Without magical help, all of his trousers were too short for him. All summer, he'd lived in shorts, but shorts wouldn't do tonight. He'd just have to shrink his legs. That was all there was to it. They couldn't stop him morphing, even if they tried to make a rule about it.

"Teddy!" James said, interrupting him.

Teddy shook his head. "Sorry, James," he said. "It's for grown-ups."

"You're not a grown-up. You're just fifteen!"

"Yes, but Professor Longbottom invited me anyway. I'm nearly grown."

"I'll be nearly grown in just seven years, then!"

Teddy tried another approach. "I don't think your Mum wants you at this sort of party..."

"Mummy's going to it. She and Aunt Hermione and Luna and Professor McGonagall all said that it couldn't just be for the boys, and they were going because they're Neville's friends. I'm Neville's friend. Shouldn't I go?"

"Well, I'm sure she thinks you'd be bored. It'll probably be very boring. You'll have more fun here with Granny Molly and Granddad Arthur and the cousins."

"If it's boring then why must you go? You could stay and play with us. I made up a story about Checkmate and Martian!" He smiled brightly. "They go to Neville's wedding, and they have to stop pirates from stealing the presents."

"James, no," Teddy said, then sighed at James's crestfallen expression. "Look, you can be in charge of Checkmate tonight." He scooped his cat off the floor (she'd been chasing his socks as he tossed each pair away) and handed her to James. "Take her on an adventure. Maybe Kreacher will let you explore his cupboard for mice, if you ask him nicely."

James pouted over Checkmate's head. "Why do you have so many clothes out?"

Teddy wasn't about to tell him that it was because he'd been trying and discarding them for two hours - just like he'd done before his first date - because he wanted something that didn't look childish, but also didn't look like he was trying too hard to look like an adult, and he wasn't having any luck. So he just said, "I don't know."

"What's going to happen at the party?"

"I don't know."

"Why do they call it a stag party? Is Dad going to make his Patronus? My granddad was a stag when he was an Animagus."

"I'm not sure, probably not, and I knew that; they called him Prongs." Teddy went back to searching through his clothes. Donzo's tour tee shirt was out. Lee Jordan liked his music, but no one else listened to it, and they all thought he was an act for kids. There was a leather jacket that had belonged to Teddy's grandfather, Ted Tonks, and Teddy rather liked it, but he thought it would look like he was trying to imitate someone. Granny had bought him some dress robes, but it wasn't really a dress robe sort of party, at least according to Uncle Harry. Other than the new robes he'd just bought for school - much too fussy for a stag party - his robes were ill-fitting and worn out. He'd put one on earlier and thought he looked like he was copying a picture of his father... and not from any of the rare times Dad had been able to make ends meet. All he needed were patches on the patches, and he thought he could pass. Which was altogether a bad idea when he was going to be surrounded by Dad's friends and students, who already tended to make a great fuss about how much Teddy looked like him. He frowned at the mess, then looked at James, who was watching with a puzzled sort of expression. "Hey, James, why don't you tell me the Checkmate story. I bet she'd like to hear it, too."

James brightened immediately and sat down on the camp bed where Teddy had slept last night. Checkmate squirmed, but didn't force James to let her go, and started purring when he got his knuckles under her chin and began scratching. "Right, so Checkmate and Martian were both here one day, when an owl came - "

"And they thought, 'lunch!'" Teddy said.

James made an attempt at a rude gesture he'd seen Teddy's friends make, but used entirely the wrong fingers. "It was a special owl and it told them that they couldn't eat it, because it had an invitation for them, and the invitation said that they must go to the wedding for Professor Neville Longbottom and Hannah Abbott, who wasn't a professor at all, just a lady he liked. And there were going to be presents everywhere..."

Teddy let James's voice wash over him. It was the same kind of nonsense story James always made up. Checkmate had become an expert in karate, and had a human friend named Julia. Martian had Uncle Harry's Invisibility Cloak, which James had decided long ago was really the special invisibility cloak from the old fairy tale about the three brothers. (Uncle Harry gave him a quizzical look the first time he heard this - he always seemed surprised by James's imagination - and said, "Well, James, I suppose you never know, do you?") Checkmate, Martian, and Julia all hid under the Cloak to spy on pirates and see if they meant to steal the presents. James was just getting to the part where the pirates had laser guns and the cats had to learn flame freezing spells when Uncle Harry leaned in the door and said, "Teddy, it's just about time to go." He looked at the pile of clothes. "I'm never Summoning your trunk for you again. Just close your eyes and grab something."

Feeling quite stupid being caught at this, Teddy closed his eyes and plunged his hand into the nearest pile. He came up with a clean white tee shirt that he'd already passed over a few times, thinking it would look like underwear, or that Neville would think he was treating it like some party in the Hufflepuff Common Room with his classmates. He pulled off his vest then put it on.

"That's fine," Uncle Harry said.

"I have to shrink my legs," Teddy told him. "My jeans - "

Uncle Harry flicked his wand, and the jeans grew two inches, covering the gap that showed his bony ankle. "Anything else that needs adjusting?"

Teddy looked at himself. He was in nearly the same clothes he'd started with this morning, though the new white tee shirt was cleaner than the old one. He shrugged.

Uncle Harry rolled his eyes. "I'll take that as Fifteen for 'no.' You know, there's no one there you haven't actually known since I was dragging you around in a giant sun hat and dark glasses."

Teddy felt his face go red. "Uncle Harry!"

He grinned. "I think I still have that hat around, thought I'd save it for your children, in case they turn out to be Metamorphmagi. I could Summon it for you..."

"No, thank you."

"Come on, we have to go. Lee and George have something planned. Wouldn't want to miss it."

"Uncle George has a plan?" James said, standing up. "Please let me see! I want to see Uncle George's joke!"

"Not this time," Uncle Harry said. He leaned over and kissed James's head. "Your grandmother's in charge. You be good and make sure that the littler children don't give her too much trouble, all right?"

"All right," James said, kicking absently at Teddy's discarded vest. "But Lily never does what I say."

"I can sympathize," Uncle Harry said, and herded both boys out of the room. At the bottom of the first flight of stairs, he shooed James off into the front room, where the others were trying to learn a song from Molly. Once James was securely on the floor between Al and Rosie, Uncle Harry shook his head and led Teddy downstairs. The fire was already going, and Ron, Hermione, and Aunt Ginny were waiting for them. Ron was dressed exactly as Teddy was, and the women were wearing tennis shoes and short-style robes.

Aunt Ginny was smiling brightly. "I'm going to dance with everyone, Harry, and you'd best not say anything about it, or you'll find yourself crawling with bats."

"As long as I can avoid dancing, I'm fine with the arrangement."

Aunt Ginny laughed and kissed him.

Ron shook his head and looked at the ceiling. "Are we going or not?"

Hermione answered by taking the jar of Floo powder from him and throwing a generous handful into the fire. "The Hog's Head!" she called, then gave the jar to Teddy, stepped into the green flames, and disappeared.

Teddy took a deep breath, grabbed the sparkling powder and tossed it into the fire. "The Hog's Head!" he said, then stepped into the placeless space of the network, and hurtled off toward an alien world.

It was impossible to fall out of the fireplace at the Hog's Head when Teddy got there; the floor in front of it was far too crowded. He had a brief glimpse of Uncle Harry's friend Seamus, who'd been doing more of the work at the bar since Aberforth Dumbledore had "started getting on in years," and one of Luna Scamander standing on a table and examining something she'd apparently spotted in a corner of the ceiling, then he tripped and landed against Hermione's back, and was solidly thumped away by Ron's arrival. Uncle Harry came next, looking exasperatedly over his shoulder, and then Aunt Ginny came. She turned while the flames were still green and said, "James, I mean it! Tell Nana she can use any means necessary!" She shook ash out of her hair, then reached up and waved over the crowd.

"NEVILLE!"

A knot of people broke up, and from the midst of it, Professor Longbottom emerged. His hair was tousled and his pleasant, round face was red. Teddy guessed he'd been at some mead. "Ginny!" he said. "Welcome!"

He came over, and Aunt Ginny stood on her tiptoes to kiss his cheek. "I'd say congratulations, but quite honestly, Hannah's the one to be congratulated on the good catch. So I'll settle for happy birthday and you will love being married. Promise. Though please do Hannah a favor and learn to dance."

Professor Longbottom shook his head and held a hand out to Uncle Harry. "You still haven't learned to dance? Honestly, Harry, saving the world isn't the end of your travails. Hasn't anyone told you that yet?"

Hermione laughed, and a moment later, they were all giving each other hugs. Professor Longbottom turned to Teddy, and held out his hand to be shaken. "Teddy, I trust that nothing that happens here will get around the school."

Teddy tried a smile; it seemed to fit. "If it does, it won't be from me."

"Good man. Lee and George are over by the fire with Professor McGonagall. I'd watch out. They've got cards."

Ron snorted. "Teddy's already cleaned George out twice this summer. I think it's George you'd best be warning."

The adults laughed, and veered off into a conversation about betting at Hogwarts, and Teddy found himself forgotten. He wandered off into the crowd.

"Teddy Lupin!" he heard, and was slapped on the shoulder by Seamus's much-younger wife, a girl called Nancy who was weaving through the crowd with a tray held up over her head. She was always waiting tables when Teddy came here during Hogsmeade weekends, and had been particularly fond of Laura Chapman, who had come with him twice last year. "You're a butterbeer man, aren't you? I'll get you a bottle."

Teddy didn't bother to argue, though he thought he was outgrowing butterbeer, and had been trying to develop a taste for the mulled mead that Hagrid sometimes brought to Granny's. He just nodded at her retreating back and went on.

At the bar, something exploded, and a girl made of golden fireworks began to shimmy and shake her way among the glasses. It was hard to tell through the glittering medium, but Teddy thought she looked naked. She danced over the heads of several people and landed on Professor Longbottom's head, where she twirled twice then burst into a shower of whistling sparks.

"Here, help me down."

Teddy looked up. He'd reached the table where Luna was standing, and she was holding out her hand. He took it and eased her down. "What's up there?"

"Oh, I thought it might be a Highland High-leg, but it turned out to just be a garden variety spider. I decided to leave it alone. It seems happy." She glanced around. "My husband was here somewhere. I'd guess he's disappeared off with Hagrid. They're getting Dapple settled."

"Dapple?"

"The baby hippogriff. One of the litter in France, the only male. We've brought him to live with Buckbeak." She blinked slowly, and there seemed to be a lecture on hippogriff fathering in the offing, but then she shook her head and said, "It seemed a good idea."

"Oi, Teddy!"

Teddy looked up. George Weasley was sitting by a smaller fireplace, waving over a hand of cards. Lee Jordan was beside him, giving a rather shark-like smile. Professor McGonagall, imperturbable as ever, looked up over the top of her glasses.

Teddy looked at Luna. "I should give them a chance to win some gold back from me."

She gave him a vague sort of smile and wandered off toward a knot of people near the window. Teddy recognized Cho Chang and her husband, a Muggle Healer named Daniel Morse. Daniel had known Mum and Dad during the war, and he gave Teddy a friendly sort of wave, but was apparently involved in a debate of some kind with Slughorn, who was holding court with former members of the Slug Club. Teddy ducked into the crowd before old Sluggy saw him - he'd spent quite enough time with the Potions master last year, learning to brew Wolfsbane Potion for little Neil Overby, a werewolf who'd be starting at Hogwarts in September. There would be more lessons next week, and Teddy thought that would be quite enough of Slughorn over the summer.

He emerged at the table where Lee, George, and McGonagall were sitting, and gratefully took the chair that Lee kicked out for him.

"What kept you?" George asked.

"I don't know."

"I'm surprised James didn't tag along."

Teddy smiled. "He tried. What's the game?"

"London Lowball. We haven't got to that yet, but I'm sure you'll pick it up."

"That's not particularly fair," Professor McGonagall said.

"Don't worry," Teddy assured her. "I've been keeping up with my independent reading. Just in case."

Lee laughed, and dealt Teddy in.

McGonagall studied her cards primly while Teddy arranged his hand, and said, "Your... independent reading. I don't suppose you've had a chance to review those books I sent you?" She raised an eyebrow, and Teddy caught the hidden wink.

"Dead boring," he said. "Can't imagine what you think I'm going to do with them."

"I expect you to do nothing at all. You're not nearly old enough to study the Animagus transformation in anything more than a theoretical manner. I know you'd never consider actual practice." She placed her bet and it to George.

Teddy settled in - Lee and George had been teaching him cards for two summers. They'd also tried to teach him to smoke a pipe, but he'd got so sick that they'd given that up entirely. The trick was to make other conversation, so they wouldn't notice what you really thought of your hand. "So," he said, "I've only met Hannah once or twice. What's she like?"

"Nervous," McGonagall said. "I don't envy her bridesmaids. I expect flamingos at the wedding."

"They're on the cake," Lee told her. "Some sort of joke. Susan MacMillan set it up. Said Hannah could use a laugh. Pansy's horrified, of course."

"Pansy!" George made a face. "Not Parkinson! What's she doing nosing around Hannah's cake?"

"Finch-Fletchley," Lee said. "You can't possibly have missed that wedding. She's been going on about how she's seen the light about Muggle-borns. Probably reflects nicely off all that gold in Justin's vault."

Both names were vaguely familiar to Teddy, but he didn't know enough to comment. "Why flamingos?" he asked.

"Her O.W.L.s," George said. "Quite famous, really. She got nervous, and a whole flock of them showed up. Wonder what Lupin will Conjure for us this year." He grinned wickedly.

"I think he'll just freeze up," Lee opined. "We know he always cracks under pressure."

"Scared, Teddy? The O.W.L.s are vicious, you know. The rest of your life depends on them. They - "

"Mr. Weasley!" McGonagall scolded. "Really!"

Lee leaned forward. "She doesn't want you to be too nervous. Nerves could make you fail, and you'll never amount to anything."

Teddy rolled his eyes and said, "What's your bet, Jordan?"

George roared laughter.

Teddy settled in comfortably. He supposed some of the others might look at him oddly, but here, at least, he was just one of them - a holder of the Marauder's Map, a Purveyor of Aids to Magical Mischief Makers. Lee and George had treated him as part of the circle since he'd shown them all of the tricks he'd discovered in it, and he was glad. It wasn't precisely that they treated him as an adult - George found plenty of opportunities to harp on Teddy's youth - but that they treated him as an equal. Teddy's age was no more or less a point of conversation than Lee's career or George's joke shop. Being bound to the Map made generations seem less important.

Or so Teddy thought.

George examined his cards. "Reckon I'm going to need to sell the shop if I keep this up," he said wistfully, and Teddy guessed he was trying to drive the bet up. "Know of any buyers?"

"Well, perhaps Professor Slughorn will be in the market," McGonagall said, and tossed a few coins into the pile. "I imagine he'll grow bored rather quickly."

"Bored?" Teddy asked. "Why would he suddenly get bored?"

"He hasn't told you? I thought he would, with all of those Wolfsbane lessons. I assumed that was why he was training you. Professor Slughorn is retiring this year."

"Retiring?" Teddy repeated. "This is Professor Slughorn's last year?"

Professor McGonagall studied her cards. "As I understand it, his papers have already been filed. Professor Sprout is looking for a new Potions master for September."

"But the Wolfsbane... I couldn't... Well, not alone. I've been brewing it for Père Alderman this summer, but Professor Slughorn always watches and..." He shook his head. "Never mind. I'm sure the new Potions master will be able to brew it, if I can. I haven't even got an O.W.L. Professor Sprout will be looking for someone who can do it."

"I should hope so," Professor McGonagall said. "As unless you plan to become a teacher yourself - do you?"

Teddy shook his head. "No. I don't want to be a teacher."

"Then you won't be available for Neil's entire education, let alone for Celia Dean's. She's a year behind him."

Teddy shook his head, feeling foolish for the moment's scare. Of course they weren't going to leave the care of a pair of werewolves solely on his shoulders. He was only doing penance for the killing of Fenrir Greyback. They wouldn't risk Neil and Celia just for Teddy Lupin's need to atone. "Right. So, who's it going to be?"

Lee made a face. "Best watch out, Teddy. Neville may hear that you only came to his party to get Hogwarts gossip, and I'm told he's not one to make angry."

"He's got a point," George said. "We should switch to Hogsmeade gossip. I heard a rumor that the family running Weasleys' Zonks is going to grow."

Lee - whose wife, Verity, managed the Hogsmeade branch of Weasleys' - smiled broadly. "Could be I've heard something of that nature."

"That's wonderful news!" Professor McGonagall said. "And I raise you two Knuts."

The game was interrupted a few minutes later by the arrival of several female ghosts, led by a woman named Rosmerta, who did a bit of provocative shimmering, most of which Teddy missed because he was at the wrong angle. (He rather supposed that he'd been positioned her for exactly that reason, and guessed that when he left - and probably some of the stricter old teachers left - things would get a bit wilder. He found himself somewhat disappointed by this.) When they left, food appeared on the tables, along with a good deal more mead as Hagrid came back from his hut, Luna's husband in tow, carrying a large barrel between them. Teddy went to sit with Uncle Harry's family, which had gathered around Neville. He only half filled his glass (Uncle Harry was watching him narrowly, but not actually forbidding it), then tucked in to a hearty meal. Teddy thought he recognized the cooking of the Hogwarts elves, but he wasn't entirely certain until Hermione asked Neville to send her thanks to Winky, the elf who ran the kitchen with a small iron fist.

Teddy had grown up with Uncle Harry and his friends around, but there was still something strange about sitting with them casually, an equal, listening to them swap Hogwarts tales of the sort that never seemed to make the official biographies. He heard a great deal about Professor Longbottom's toad, Trevor, to whom a toast was made. There was ribbing over what had apparently once been a notoriously bad memory, though Teddy had never personally observed Professor Longbottom being forgetful. Aunt Ginny reminded Uncle Harry and Ron that "Neville managed to ask two girls to the Yule Ball - surviving a rejection, I should point out - while the pair of you were still dallying about and daring one another."

"Yes," Professor Longbottom said, "but it was Harry and Ron who ended up with the two girls I asked!" He grinned. "Of course, I think we could all take advice from Lupin, here. I think he's made it through half his year. Are you going for the other half this year, Teddy?"

Teddy choked on his mead. "Er... no. I've, er... well, only Laura and Lizzie, in my year. Ruthless was older. And - what?"

The adults were all laughing, like Teddy had done some particularly clever trick, and Teddy frowned, mildly irritated. George and Lee tweaked him about his girlfriends now and then (George was particularly amused by Ruthless, who was a Gryffindor Beater), but it was the same way they tweaked one another about things. And of course, his friends at school all gave him trouble about it, but that was only to be expected. This was different. They just seemed to find it funny that little Teddy Lupin had had girlfriends. Ha-ha. He wondered why they bothered inviting him as an adult. They didn't -

Aunt Ginny poked him in the side. "Don't sulk. You'll never make it through the rest if you start sulking. Just ask Ron. He knows."

"I liked you better when you respected me properly," Ron said.

"Yes, it must have been a real golden year for you, before I learned to talk."

Ron drew his wand, and a moment later Aunt Ginny's mouth was locked shut. Undeterred, Aunt Ginny raised her own wand.

"Bat bogey!" Professor Longbottom cried gleefully. "Haven't seen the old bat bogey for ages, Gin."

Aunt Ginny tapped the lock on her mouth and it disappeared. "Sorry, Ron," she said, "it's Neville's party. Must respect the groom." Bats started to pour out of Ron's nose, scrabbling over his face as he laughed.

"What on earth...?"

Teddy looked behind him and saw Daniel Morse, his mouth curled in a half-smile, his head shaking slowly in disbelief.

Cho came up beside him, smiling prettily. "It's a specialty of Ginny's," she told him. "Quite famous in its time."

"Very... interesting," Daniel said.

Cho looked awkward for a minute - Teddy supposed she knew she'd just walked into the end of an inside joke - then turned to Professor Longbottom. "Neville, I was so happy to get an invitation. Best of luck."

"You're not leaving already, are you?"

"I am. Daniel's got an early morning, and well... I have some preparations to make."

"Preparations?" Uncle Harry asked.

She gave a nervous smile. "Well... Professor Slughorn has asked me to take the Potions post. Just for a few months, mind, to give Professor Sprout time to find someone better suited, but he thinks I'm capable enough. I'm going to have to learn a few Charms to make sure my husband can get in and out without my help!"

Daniel took this with great grace, though Teddy thought it might be a tad insulting to him. He just put his hand on her shoulder and squeezed. "Oh, but I can't imagine you finding a way to Charm me more than you already do, darling."

Cho's smile widened. "The lovely thing is, it even works when he's being sarcastic. Remember that, Neville. And whatever you do, don't take advice from these two." She pointed to Uncle Harry and Ron.

"Never have," Professor Longbottom said. "Never will. Will you both be at the wedding?"

"I can't," Daniel told him. "I wish I could, but I'm afraid I'm on duty. Bad luck."

"I'm sorry to hear that. Cho?"

"I'll be there with bells on," she said, and little golden bells appeared at the ends of her fingers. She jiggled them in a cheerful wave, then led Daniel out through the crowd.

Teddy realized just as the night swallowed her outside that he hadn't asked her whether or not she could brew the Wolfsbane Potion.

Dinner finally ended, and pudding came and went. Lee and George joined them as the crowd thinned out, and the talk faded into the evening. Teddy was happy to listen. Finally, Seamus came over to sit down, and beside him was a very thin black man who waved awkwardly at Teddy. Dean Thomas - the fifth member of Uncle Harry's dormitory. Teddy's father had died to save his life, and he and Teddy had never quite known what to do with one another.

Aunt Ginny looked between them, then suddenly yawned. "Oh, dear," she said. "Mum'll have my hide if we don't get back on time. I'm sure James has driven her quite mad by now. I gave her permission to use Unforgivables if she needs to, but she seems to think it's a bad idea to do that to the son of the Aurors' Department head. Not sure why, really." She turned to Teddy. "I don't mean to drag you away before you have another chance to relieve George of some gold, but I did promise your Granny that we wouldn't leave you here alone with this lot. Bad influences, you know."

There was a round of goodbyes, and then Teddy found himself in front of the fire again. He looked over his shoulder. Dean was still sitting at Professor Longbottom's table, and when he noticed Teddy looking, he glanced quickly away.

Then Teddy was nudged forward, and the flames went green. He spilled out of the fireplace at Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place to find himself face to face with James, who was waiting for him whilst standing on his head in his pajamas. Just before the flames turned green on this end, Molly came down, her jaw clenched, and James ducked behind Teddy for protection.

Teddy rolled his eyes, then picked James up - he was getting too big for it, but it was still possible - and carried him up to the room they were sharing, dumping him onto the bed like a sack of rubbish, which made him giggle, like always, and Teddy was very glad that some things never changed.