18: The Bigger Picture
“Order! Order!”
The Wizengamot was in session, fifty figures in plum-coloured robes gathered on the stone risers before him. And sitting helplessly in the centre of the vastness that was Courtroom Ten, Teddy Lupin had to admit he had never been so scared in all his life.
His eyes shifted around the room, taking in the stern and solemn face of Kingsley Shacklebolt, presiding, as was his right if he so chose, over the proceedings that day. He could see the thin, rat-like face, narrow beard and spindly moustache of the prosecutor Aloysius Sproule as he shuffled through his notes and glanced to his right with a hint of a smirk on his face. Following his gaze, Teddy found the more reassuring sight of Hermione Weasley and Padma Goldstein, engaged in a low-voiced conversation, although Hermione glanced up and offered a wan smile when she saw him looking. She had been his lifeline over the dreadful last few days “ after a lonely and despairing night spent in a Ministry Holding Cell, she and Padma had appeared first thing the following morning. They hadn’t been able to speak freely due to Padma’s presence and the monitoring spells in his cell, but the look on Hermione’s face had told him louder than any words that she knew the entire truth. They had talked through the particulars of the case “ Teddy had maintained his personal vow of silence regarding his parents’ return but had otherwise been honest - and she had told him that she was working to overturn a ban on Harry being allowed to come and see him. And then, as she’d moved to leave, Hermione had lingered a moment, and with a brief flash, the words don’t worry, they’re fine had darted across the back of the papers she was holding. And then, with a quick smile, she was gone.
A little of the dark despair that had all but swamped him had lifted after that visit. He had to admit he’d been worrying himself sick over what would become of his parents, of what they’d do now he’d been taken, of what would happen if they were caught. He’d lived half in anticipation and half in fear of some foolish rescue attempt on their part, sometimes imagining that they would all flee abroad to safety together, at others picturing them imprisoned or worse, sent back to die somehow by a Ministry that didn’t understand that their return had done no harm at all. But knowing that they’d done the sensible thing, that they’d gone to those who loved them and sought help, made Teddy feel a hundred times better. It meant that whatever became of him, his parents would be kept safe and well. And that was all that mattered now.
He’d been allowed to designate two visitors by the Custody Wizard “he insisted upon Harry being one, in spite of the reputed ban, and for the other he requested his Gran. He had briefly considered Victoire, but he had to admit he had no desire for her to see him like this, and with the cell fully monitored, he was in no position to explain himself to her. Besides, he owed this to his grandmother. And within half an hour of the permission letter being dispatched, Gran was outside his cell door, haranguing the Custody Wizard to open the door a little faster.
He’d held her for a long time, losing himself in the warmth and reassurance of her presence. And as she’d held him tightly in return, she’d whispered in his ear a quiet but heartfelt thank you and added that his family were gathered at her house and waiting for news. They’d talked mildly about meaningless things for a while “ he’d asked her about the conference and how she’d found Vienna - but at length she’d drawn him out as she always did, and he’d confessed about how terrible he felt for poor Penny, still unconscious in St Mungo’s, and how he’d never meant for anything like that to happen. Gran had promised a visit on his behalf and then agreed to his request to have a word with Victoire. Did he want her to invite Victoire to her house, she had asked pointedly, to meet his family? After a deep breath, Teddy had said yes.
And then, with an odd look upon her face, Gran had risen and said that she’d be back to see him again later that day.
The Gran that came that afternoon was his mother.
If it hadn’t have been for the presence of the Custody Wizard lingering in the hall outside, Teddy would have been half tempted to bawl her out for taking such an absurd risk with her safety. But he had to admit that this time, her disguise was flawless “ she had clearly studied the original extensively “ and if she had not turned one eye dark and winked at him with the other, he might not have even realised it was her. And in spite of his fears, seeing her in whatever face was such a profound relief that Teddy found he simply didn’t care.
She too had chatted, although her apparently meaningless talk carried a great deal more weight than anyone else listening in could understand. She let him know that she’d finally managed to sort out the old family potion she’d been discussing and it had indeed helped with her problem. She had also told him that she had spoken to Victoire and explained about the misunderstanding when they had last crossed paths. Teddy’s girlfriend had been a little surprised by this overture, but she understood completely and was willing to forgive. She had asked her to pass along her love and to tell him that she missed him. The relief that had flooded through Teddy at those words had been profound, and, although his heart still ached that he had been unable to explain the misunderstanding himself, he asked her to take his love back to her. “Gran” had smiled and agreed.
And then she had moved on, informing him that Frederico the decorator had done such a fine job at his home that she’d brought him back to look at hers as well, and that he and his assistant were working in his old bedroom. She added that she was keeping this news quiet, since she didn’t want him poached, but that Harry, Ginny, Victoire, Hermione and Ron were all aware of his presence. She had added that Frederico himself did not see the need for such secrecy, and believed that he should simply let his presence be known and have done with it, so that others could see how well his work had blended into the existing architecture, but that she, his assistant and the others continued to actively discourage such an action, at least until the work was closer to completion and they had a better idea of the whole colour scheme. A clash, they had pointed out, would be disastrous. Teddy had not missed her meaning.
His dad wanted to tell the truth.
Teddy couldn’t blame him. A part of him longed for all to be revealed, for his parents to be able to step forward and take the accolades they deserved rather than skulking in the shadows, but he also knew that such a revelation would be shattering. What would the reaction be to a pair of war heroes back from the dead? Would the Ministry behave with kindness or paranoia? Would they fear the consequences so much they would try to send them back through the Portal? And what would become of him when it was revealed that he truly had interfered with the past? True, it would be better for him than some of the accusations Zenobia Moon had hurled around “ the Wizengamot was more likely to go easily on a young man trying to rescue his parents than on someone who had potentially tried to interfere with the outcome of the most pivotal few hours in recent wizarding history “ but it was their fate, not his, that mattered now. He had firmly told his mother to stand her ground. Frederico should be kept concealed. Poaching would be a disaster.
She had nodded her agreement, kissed his forehead and taken her leave.
And finally, the next day, after another visit from Hermione and Padma, the ban had been overturned and Harry had arrived.
It had been with a thrill of both dread and joy that Teddy had heard his godfather’s voice, heard him dismiss the Custody Wizard with a series of sharp commands, and watched as he carefully cast a web of spells designed to fool the listening and monitoring devices in his cell into believing that nothing more dramatic than the weather was under discussion. And then, he had seated himself in front of Teddy and, emerald eyes firm and unyielding, and asked to hear the entire story from his side.
Teddy had told it. Guiltily, he confessed to the lies he had told his godfather and the deceptive oath he had sworn, and tried to explain how he had thought he was protecting Harry and how his father had made him see better. He even admitted that he had intended to tell Harry himself that day, and would have done if it had not been for his arrest…
To his profound relief, Harry had smiled. His father, it seemed, had told much the same story. And although his godfather had informed him, in a manner that made his insides squirm uncomfortably, that he did not appreciate being lied to in such a way, he did understand and appreciate his motives. And then he had forgiven him.
After all, he had added, the lies had been worth the result. Everyone concerned agreed that, with the possible exception of Remus. And Remus, of course, never considered any action done for his benefit to be worthwhile.
Teddy had leapt upon the given opening and asked about what his mother had so subtly passed on about his father’s position on the truth. Harry had frowned, and Teddy had known right away there was trouble.
“It’s to do with what Hermione’s found out about Sproule’s intentions for the prosecution,” he had admitted uncomfortably. “She can’t say for certain, but from the research he’s been doing and the questions he’s been asking various witnesses, she reckons he’s going to try and claim you were planning to alter the course of the battle in favour of Voldemort.” He sighed deeply. “And from the perspective of someone who doesn’t know you well enough, it’s a reasonable suggestion. Why would someone choose to interfere with such an important event if not to change the outcome? It’s all supposition, and Hermione will make sure the Wizengamot know it’s nonsense, but the seeds of doubt will be sown. Voldemort’s return is a very sensitive subject amongst most members of the Wizengamot “ they all lived through it, after all, and the majority are old enough to have been involved the first time too “ and if they even suspect that might be the truth, they won’t look favourably on what you were doing. And as Remus keeps saying, without bringing the truth into it, it’s a difficult argument to refute.”
The accusations of Zenobia Moon returned in an instant. They’d seemed absurd at the time, ridiculous, and had been dismissed easily enough in the presence of two people who knew him well enough to understand that. But in front of a room full of strangers, who knew nothing of him but the now indisputable fact that he’d tried to reach into history during a battle that was, to them, all about the bigger picture… That he might want to alter one simple, smaller tragedy might not even occur. They’d believe him out to ruin twenty years of peace, even though every law of time travel would show it couldn’t happen.
They’d throw away the key if Sproule’s words found their mark.
And Teddy knew it. Without his parents revealed, without the solid absolute proof that he had not intended to invoke pure evil and overturn two decades of peace, he’d be spending the rest of his life in Azkaban.
But still he couldn’t let them. The Wizengamot would see their presence as just as much of a danger. His parents had to die or history would not be as it was recorded. They wouldn’t understand the true intricacies of temporal mechanics as he did, that nothing had changed, that all was well “ they’d try and do something stupid. He was certain.
No. Whatever happened to him, his mum and dad were to be kept safe and out of sight.
And looking Harry straight in the eye, he told him so.
Harry had given him a weak but fond smile, and remarked that he hadn’t realised until now just how alike he and his father really were. Remus had already embarked on a campaign to make him swear that whatever became of him, he was to ensure that Teddy was kept safe and well. What was he supposed to do, he’d asked almost plaintively in the general direction of the ceiling, when faced with a pair of Lupins determined to sacrifice themselves for the other?
Teddy had returned the smile and said he should listen to the one he was talking to now.
Harry had sighed deeply, embraced him gently, revoked his spells and left.
All his visitors had returned again in the few days before the trial had been arranged; Hermione and Padma to brief him on what to expect, Gran and “Gran” to comfort him, and Harry to block the monitoring spells that he himself had instituted in the cells five years before, and keep Teddy informed of the true nature of what was happening. And then, the day before the trial had been due to begin, Harry, with Hermione’s help, had arranged something that Teddy knew he would never be able to repay. They had wangled permission for a visitor’s pass for Victoire.
Harry had accompanied her, ostensibly to watch over them both, but truthfully to fool the spells once more so that the two young lovers could have an honest heart-to-heart. Victoire had been characteristically frank.
“You’re an idiot, Teddy,” she informed him bluntly. “And I can’t believe you didn’t trust me with this after I found those notes. Yes, yes, you were protecting me, I know.” She raised her hands to forestall his protests as Harry smirked slightly. “But I don’t need your protection, Teddy. I love you and I want to share your life. But how can I do that if you can’t trust me?”
“I do trust…” Teddy could almost feel his heart tearing as he yearned to try and explain himself but yet again Victoire put an end to his reply.
“I know,” she interrupted, her voice now slightly weary. “I do know and that wasn’t fair of me to say. And your dad did tell me about the talk you had, and that you were on your way to tell me the truth when you were arrested. Me before Harry even.” She smiled, slightly apologetically, at Harry, who shrugged. “I know it’s true because Papa told me you’d called round. I just wish I’d been home. Aside from anything else, you wouldn’t have been back in time to get arrested.” She sighed deeply, reaching forwards to grasp his hand in both of hers as she peered up, flicking her long blonde hair out of her eyes with a jerk of her head. “Your parents are lovely,” she admitted with a smile. “They’re both so much like you, in their different ways. And knowing you must have been watching them and getting to know them, I can see how you came to do this, in spite of the risk of… well, this happening.” She gestured to the cell with her eyes. “If it had been Maman and Papa and I’d known there was a way…” She sighed again. “I can’t blame you, even if you have got yourself into a hell of a mess. And despite what happened to Penny…”
Her eyes flicked down as Teddy fought back a sickening surge of guilt. “I never knew that anything like that would happen,” he whispered almost desperately. “The Weasleys have always been so good to me, and Penny’s my mentor and my friend as well as my boss. She got me that apprenticeship when I left Hogwarts. If I’d have known, Mum and Dad or not, I’d have never…”
A squeeze of his hands yet again prevented him completing his sentence. Victoire smiled wanly. “I know,” she murmured again. “Oh Teddy, I know.”
And then her lips had hovered close to his, and Harry had discretely turned his back for a minute or so, as Teddy and Victoire indulged themselves in the kind of kisses that Teddy had a horrible feeling he would be separated from forever in the not too distant future.
If he was condemned for any longer than a few months, he knew he would have to break up with her. Love of his life or not, Teddy knew it simply wouldn’t be fair on her to expect her to wait. And if he went down for life…
That thought had stayed with him all through the night after Victoire and Harry had left. It still lingered when the Security Wizards had come the next morning to take him to trial.
And thus it was that Teddy Lupin now found himself facing Sproule and the Wizengamot, knowing that in order to save his parents, he would probably have to sacrifice his freedom. He could only pray that by some Hermione-induced miracle it didn’t come to that.
As the chatter in the courtroom died down in the face of Kingsley’s exclamation, Teddy allowed his eyes to wander up into the galleries where witnesses could watch. The trial had been designated restricted, which meant, to Teddy’s profound relief, that the press and general public had been banned from coming inside. That hadn’t stopped them trying “ Hermione had rather pointedly handed a beetle in a jar over to the scribe of the court, and asked that it be returned to the Daily Prophet - although there was absolutely no hurry, she insisted, as long as it stayed out of earshot of proceedings. Molly Weasley, along with Arthur and Bill, had lingered outside the door of the court for a good twenty minutes, and harangued the Security Wizards there so loudly that Teddy could hear it all the way from his cell, pointing out that she was a close friend of the family and that her and her family’s exclusion was ridiculous. It had taken Minister Shacklebolt himself, along with Harry and Victoire, to persuade her to wait elsewhere; for although Teddy had no objection to her presence, he had, through Hermione, only been allowed to designate five official visitors as support, and all the places were already filled.
He allowed his eyes to drift up to the high gallery near the door where they were gathered. Harry, his eyes solemn, his jaw clenched, was staring down at Teddy with both sympathy and resolve, although his eyes did flick more often than was natural to the two redheaded figures to his left. On his right sat Gran, deathly pale, her eyes frightened, but with her expression fixed and steady as she clasped the locket that Teddy knew held three locks of hair “ his grandfather’s, his mother’s, and his “ within its grasp. Beside her was Victoire, her eyes never leaving him, never wavering “ they’d spoken again, all too briefly, five minutes before the trial had begun, holding each other as he whispered more apologies and she more forgiveness over and over again. And finally, on Harry’s left, beside the door and holding hands in a manner that Teddy could only hope that no one would notice was not entirely consistent with a brother and sister, were Ginny Potter and Ron Weasley.
Except they weren’t, of course. By the power of Metamorphosing and Polyjuice Potion taken from the Auror stores, his parents had come to the trial.
Teddy hadn’t been happy when Harry had informed him in whispers of this plan the day before, just as Hermione and Padma approached to request his choices for supporters - but he’d gone along with it anyway, relieved in spite of himself at the thought of having them there. His father met his gaze now, disconcertingly so behind Ron’s blue eyes, and smiled wanly with his freckled cheeks as his mum raised Ginny’s eyebrows and joined in. He could tell that his dad was already thinking about stepping in, and prayed that Harry would keep his word to his godson rather than swearing an oath to his father’s old friend instead.
Keep them out of it, keep them safe, please Harry, keep them safe…
Above him, dressed in plum, in the centre of the gathered members of the Wizengamot, Minister for Magic Kingsley Shacklebolt had come to his feet.
“Order!” he repeated, raising his hands as the final few straggling chatterers in the seats around him calmed down. His eyes drifted briefly to Teddy, and the young man caught a glimpse of a complicated cocktail of emotions weaving circles in his eyes “ sorrow, nostalgia, disappointment, and resignation all tumbling over one another as he rose to do his duty. Friend of his parents or not, Minister Shacklebolt would assess the evidence and be just and fair in his sentencing. It was what he was renowned for, the reason, along with his common sense and good judgement, that he had stayed Minister so long without dispute, and Teddy knew, in spite of himself, that he would not have it any other way.
Kingsley cleared his throat once and, glancing briefly at the notes held in one hand, launched into formal speech. “On this day, the tenth of July, we are gathered here to investigate the charges against one Teddy Remus Lupin which stand; that on the second of July at approximately forty minutes past eight in the evening he did willingly and knowingly attempt to pervert the course of history, specifically the events of the Battle of Hogwarts, and that in doing so, sabotaged an invaluable magical Portal in such a manner that it resulted in the serious injury of Penelope Anne Weasley, Head of the Time Division of the Department of Mysteries. The Prosecutor is Aloysius Suetonius Sproule. The Defenders are Hermione Jean Weasley and Padma Mehadi Goldstein. Questions on behalf of the Wizengamot will be posed by myself, Kingsley Shacklebolt, Minister for Magic, and by Matilda Ariadne Breakspear, Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. The Senior Undersecretary, Percy Ignatius Weasley, has been excused on compassionate grounds. The Court Scribe is Terence Lancelot Boot. Witnesses to be called are Rajesh Chaudhry, Edgar Florian Fortescue, Albert Ethelred Croaker, Dennis Nigel Creevey, Rose Delilah Zeller, Lucy Madeline Brightwell, Zenobia Lilith Moon, Elijah Meriadoc Whistler, and Petroc Constantine Mercer. Does either legal representative have any further witnesses to add at this time?”
Sproule rose crisply to his feet. “Not at this time, Minister.”
Padma also stood, since Hermione was apparently lost in reading over something in her notes. “None, Minister, thank you.”
Kingsley’s gaze turned abruptly onto Teddy. “You are Teddy Remus Lupin of Winter Hollow, Ceredigion, Wales?”
Teddy nodded slowly, trying to calm his breathing enough to voice the words from between his bone dry lips. He met the Minister’s gaze, aware of how Kingsley Shacklebolt’s ever-steady voice had cracked slightly over his middle name and surname, and wondered just what he would say if he knew his two old friends were hidden behind red hair at the top of his courtroom.
“I am,” he stated softly.
Kingsley nodded quietly in return. “Then let the trial commence,” he said.