Better Late Than Never

Teddy and Deana stepped out into the sunlight, and found that as bright as it had seemed from down in the tunnel, there was really only a little bit of light filtering through the trees. The entrance into the goblin tunnels emerged beneath a large rock wedged between a pair of ancient, moss-covered pines. They could hear birdcalls and other mundane forest sounds, but there were also other, less identifiable noises. Deana shivered.

“Come on,” Teddy muttered hoarsely. He wasn't sure which direction to go, so he just started walking, but Deana caught his arm. “Hogwarts is that way,” she said, pointing in the opposite direction.

He looked at her. “How do you know?”

“The sun's that way,” she said, pointing, “and it must be afternoon by now. Which means this way is east.”

“Oh.” He paused, looking down at her hands wrapped around his arm, then sighed and shook his head. “Let's go then.”

She walked next to him, and leaned her head against his shoulder a little. He wished she wouldn't, but he didn't say anything.

“You saved me, Teddy,” she murmured.

“Not yet I haven't,” he replied.

I didn't save the others, he thought. Had they gotten out? He had no idea. But he knew the Forbidden Forest was dangerous, even without goblins. Centaurs, werewolves, trolls, giants, and hadn't Uncle Ron mentioned giant, man-eating spiders, too?

“There you are!”

Teddy and Deana froze, and then stared upwards, as Ophilia Karait and Hugh Truncher descended out of the sky on brooms. Ophilia's eyes gleamed in triumph. Deana looked as if she had never been so glad to see Slytherins in her life.

Ophilia landed next to the two first-years, and looked down at them. “Uninjured?” she asked.

Teddy nodded. He reckoned he was uninjured, if you didn't count about a hundred burns, bruises, cuts, scrapes, and bumps. “How did you find us?” he asked.

“A simple Finding Charm.” She smiled and produced his wand. “A wand knows its master,” she said, and handed it back to him. He took it and stared at it, as if he didn't quite recognize it. Then he looked up at her.

“Thanks,” he mumbled. “You can take Deana back to the castle.”

He turned around, and started shuffling back the way he'd come, as Deana and the two Slytherins stared at him. Even Ophilia was speechless, but only for a moment.

“Lupin,” she demanded. “Where exactly do you think you're going?”

Teddy turned and looked at her with a dull, resigned expression. “The others are still down there,” he said. “On my own, I can turn back into a goblin, and maybe I can find them.”

Hugh's face twisted into the most appalling expression. Deana stared at him breathlessly. Ophilia shook her head, amazed.

“That is the most completely idiotic idea I have ever heard, and you reset the bar on that nearly every time I talk to you.” She caught up to him in two long strides. “Don't be ridiculous, Lupin.”

“Violet's still down there!” Teddy shouted at her. “And the other Slytherins, and Chloe and the McCormacks and Aisha and –”

“Violet is fine,” Ophilia cut him off. “She's back at the castle.” When Teddy stared at her in disbelief, her lips curled into a smile. “You see, it's not only Gryffindors who know how to escape and rescue people.”

He shook his head. “But Chloe, and Aisha, and Connor and Colleen, they were in the cavern when it blew up and they got separated and they had no one to lead them out...” He was beginning to ramble, and Ophilia seemed to sense that he was barely holding himself together, because her expression softened, just a tiny bit.

“Teddy,” she said, and put a hand on his shoulder. “Harry Potter and the Aurors are here. They'll find your friends.”

“THEY WEREN'T THERE!” Teddy screamed. “THEY DIDN”T SAVE US WHEN WE NEEDED THEM!” He tried to shake her hand off. “I'm going back, I'm not leaving them!”

Ophilia's grip tightened. She wasn't nearly as big and strong as Hugh, but she was taller than Teddy, and Teddy barely had any strength left at all.

“You are being stupid,” she said, but despite the harsh words, her tone was surprisingly gentle. “Stop acting like a child. I won't let you go.”

He raised his wand and actually poked her with it. “I'll hex you!” he shouted.

She flinched, then gave him a flat stare. “I don't think you will,” she said.

He breathed rapidly in and out. He felt his eyes burning, threatening to spill traitorous tears, and he couldn't bear it if he cried now, in front of the Slytherin Prefect. He realized that he'd jabbed his wand directly into her breast, and with a flush, he lowered it.

“Enough foolish bravery for one lifetime, little Gryffindor,” she said quietly. “Let's get out of here.”

“Teddy!” shouted another voice. Now all four students looked up, to see seven Aurors descending on their brooms, Harry Potter in the lead. Two men were sitting on one broom, with the man in back holding onto the man in front of him with one hand and clutching a second broom in his other. His companion's face was bloody, and the wounded Auror was swaying unsteadily on the broom. One of the witches had a hastily-conjured bandage over her own face as well, and one arm in a makeshift sling, but she had her wand at the ready in her other hand. All of them looked a bit scorched and shaken. Harry's hair was in even more disarray than usual.

Harry stepped off his broom, walked over to Teddy, and swept him up in a fierce hug. “Thank God!” he whispered, holding his godson close to him, and then he stepped back, and looked at Ophilia.

“What are you doing here, Miss Karait?” he demanded.

“You're welcome, Mr. Potter,” she replied.

He frowned. “We didn't need your help finding them.” And when she raised an eyebrow, he snapped, “I didn't ask you to join the search! You are a student, and we're quite capable of doing our jobs.”

“Better late than never,” she said dryly.

Harry's expression darkened. He opened his mouth, and then Teddy shouted, “There are still four kids down there! Are you going to rescue them or not?”

They both looked down at him. “Yes. We are,” Harry replied. He looked at a parchment in his hands, which Teddy realized after a moment was the Marauder's Map. “Miss Karait, you and Mr. Truncher take Teddy and Miss Forte back to the castle. That is an order, and you really, really don't want to try me right now.”

Then they heard a scream.

“That was Aisha!” exclaimed Deana.

“Aurors, go!” yelled Harry. “You kids, get out of here!” He jumped on his broom and the Aurors launched themselves in the direction of the scream.

Ophilia leveled her broom, swung a leg over, and gestured curtly at Teddy. As he got on behind her and, a bit self-consciously, put his hands on her hips to hold on, he saw that she was looking speculatively in the direction the Aurors had gone.

“Do what Harry said!” Teddy snapped.

She looked over her shoulder at him crossly, and then turned to Hugh. “Let's just take a look, shall we? I'd like to watch the Aurors in action.”

Hugh looked uncertain, but nodded. Ophilia began to take off, then jerked her broom to a halt and turned around to stare at Teddy.

“What?” he demanded.

She burst into laughter. “I knew you had Slytherin potential!” she declared. And with a wicked smirk, she turned back around and leaned forward, accelerating after the Aurors.

“I knew it! I just bloody knew it!” Ron moaned.

There were four children, trapped in a clearing, surrounded by dozens of Acromantulas, descending from the trees around them and covering the ground in a circle that was tightening around their prey. They were young, judging by their size and the dewy soft blackness of their fur, but they were all larger than the human children. The sound of their eagerness was a soft susurrus of rustling, skittering, and clicking.

Connor and Colleen McCormack were both holding branches, which made for pitiful weapons against the giant spiders. Aisha Allouzi was picking up stones and dirt clods and frantically hurling them at the Acromantulas, but they hardly noticed. The only thing that was giving them pause was the long metal sword in Chloe Grey's hands. She screamed and swung it in a wild arc as the nearest spiders probed at her with long, hairy limbs. They would skitter a little closer, cautiously extend one leg, and then withdraw when Chloe swung at it. All of the kids were trying to stay back to back and moving around in a circle, but it was obvious they couldn't possibly hold the spiders off for long. The spiders clearly knew it – they were taking their time, waiting until they could overwhelm the tasty morsels at the center of their swarm.

“I think I can put a ring of fire around the kids,” said Young, readying her wand.

“We can fly overhead and snatch 'em up if we're quick enough,” suggested MacDougal.

“Careful, the buggers can jump,” warned Ron.

“Wait,” said Harry. All of the Aurors looked at him in disbelief, as spiders were already beginning to crawl over one another and form mounds of arachnids that would soon topple over and engulf the children.

He pointed his wand, and murmured something soft and sibilant.

An enormous serpent suddenly rose up in the spiders' midst, seemingly out of nowhere. It was at least fifty feet long, with thick, massive scales, and terrible jaws that opened wide to display fangs the length of a man's forearm, dripping with venom. It made an evil hissing sound that drowned out the clicking and clacking of the spiders. A blood-red plume on top of its head stood straight up as the scales around its neck fanned out threateningly.

“Merlin!” gasped MacDougal. The other Aurors went pale, Chloe almost dropped her sword, and Aisha fainted. But the reaction from the Acromantulas was dramatic and immediate. They scattered in all directions, with a speed that was almost unbelievable. In the blink of an eye, the clearing was empty except for the children and the serpent. The spiders had cleared out of the trees as well – the sound of panicked clicking and a few leaves being disturbed receded away, and then the forest was quiet.

The giant snake slithered about in a circle, hissing and undulating between the trees, and then Harry waved his wand again, and it vanished.

“Give a bloke a heart attack, why don't you?” Ron gulped. Harry was already zooming into the center of the clearing.

“It's all right,” he said to the terrified children. “It wasn't real. Is everyone all right?”

“Brilliant!” exclaimed Ophilia, as she drew up next to the other Aurors. “Absolutely brilliant!”

Harry turned and scowled at her and Teddy, and Hugh and Deana. “I told you to get out of here!” he yelled at her.

“That was a basilisk, wasn't it?” asked Ophilia. “I know spiders are supposed to be afraid of basilisks, but I thought that was just an old wives' tale – ”

“Teddy!” Chloe exclaimed, and her face lit up with joy and relief. Teddy grinned at her. Deana wept with relief, while the McCormacks clung to each other.

Then there was a crack, and Hume MacDougal tumbled off his broom and fell to the ground.

Ophilia dived and executed a roll that forced Teddy to wrap his arms around her to hold on as the air was filled with crossbow bolts. Aurors began shouting and casting Shield Charms. More gunfire echoed through the clearing. Harry yelled, “Get down!” at the children behind him as he hurled a flaming bolt into the trees, and a goblin with a gun screamed and dropped it. In the same motion, Harry whipped his wand around to blast a goblin rushing at him with a sword, but a dozen more were charging out of the woods.

Hexes, bullets, and crossbow bolts were flying everywhere. Chloe rose to her feet and swung her sword at a goblin that was trying to split Connor's skull with an axe. The goblin contemptuously batted the sword aside, and then dropped, along with the four goblins behind him, as Lydia Davis enveloped them all with a Suffocation Spell. Harry shoved Chloe and Connor to the ground again, set fire to the undergrowth where a pair of goblins was crouching and sniping at them, and deflected a volley of crossbow bolts in mid-air as they converged on Irvine and Roberts, who were less mobile on their shared broom, but both raining hexes and curses down on the goblins. Ron spotted a goblin with a wand, pointing it at Harry's back, and shouted, “Expelliarmus!” The goblin went flying, wandless.

Teddy could barely take it all in. He had his own wand out, but realized quickly it was a futile gesture. He needed one arm to hold onto Ophilia, and as tired and dizzy as he was even without Ophilia hurtling between the trees on the broom, there was no way he could aim at anything, much less summon a hex that might have any effect.

Then Ophilia's hand closed over his, and she pointed his wand.

“Serpensortia!” she said, and a goblin that had been aiming a gun at them suddenly screamed as a large green snake materialized in the air above him and dropped around his neck, hissing angrily. He ran off screaming through the trees.

The pitched battle was brief and savage. The Aurors were outnumbered, but far more accurate. Calliope Young was whipping out a firestorm of spells, Petrifying and Stunning and blasting goblins right and left, but her fast and furious assault drew fire. She couldn't deflect everything, and she fell to a hail of bullets. One of Irvine's Shield Charms dissipated suddenly, and he cried out as a crossbow bolt went through his shoulder. He cast a Blasting Curse that shattered a tree trunk, causing the tree to topple onto another trio of goblins, and then he and Roberts went crashing to the ground. Teddy didn't see where Hugh and Deana had gone, but Hugh suddenly landed – literally – on a goblin who was standing over the fallen Auror MacDougal, with a crunch. The huge Slytherin picked up the goblin's axe and began swinging.

“Bloody hell, Truncher!” Ophilia hissed, as another goblin came running at the huge Slytherin from behind with a spear. She was still holding Teddy's wand-hand. Dazed, he felt foolish and helpless but didn't resist as she cut down the goblin who'd been about to impale Hugh with a nasty hex he didn't recognize.

“Where's Deana?” he yelled, but Hugh didn't answer as he roared and laid into another goblin. Teddy thought given a choice between a wand and an axe, Hugh looked as if he'd prefer using the axe.

There was a loud, ugly crack, not the sound of a gunshot, but horribly familiar in Teddy's ears, and then Ophilia screamed and they both fell out of the air and hit the ground. Teddy bounced and rolled. Ophilia didn't; she just lay there next to her broom, groaning.

All the air had been knocked out of Teddy's lungs and he lay on his back, staring up at the sky. He heard Chloe shout, “Teddy!” She ran over to him, dropping her sword as she knelt next to him. “Teddy, are you all right?” she asked breathlessly.

“Never better,” he gasped, and despite the situation, he actually managed to smile at her. Then he grimaced. “Ugh. Is Ophilia –?”

The goblins were in retreat. Ron was shielding the children, and cursing at Chloe, who'd run away from him to where Teddy had fallen, and Harry, Hugh, and two other Aurors were cutting down or driving back the last remaining skirmishers. Teddy sat up, and saw Ophilia slowly rolling over to prop herself up on one elbow. She had a long bloody wound along her leg and side that had split her clothes and skin right open, but she hissed, “Look out!”

“No!” Chloe gasped, as Teddy caught motion in the corner of his eye, and saw the sword Chloe had dropped – the Sword of Gryffindor – rise from the ground, lifted by an invisible hand.

Without thinking, Chloe lunged and grabbed at the sword. The air around it was hazy and seemed to ripple as if sliding over something unseen. Her hands grabbed cloth and yanked away a cloak, revealing a dark, scowling goblin with a hooked nose and glaring yellow eyes. Teddy screamed, “NO!” just before Slipfang plunged the sword into her.

Teddy raised his wand and screamed the same words he'd heard Ophilia use, and all the Aurors who were still standing cast hexes in the same moment. Slipfang roared, stumbled backwards, and almost disappeared in a blaze of magical pyrotechnics. But Teddy didn't notice any of that. He was on his feet faster than he would have thought possible an instant ago – an instant ago he could hardly move – but now he was catching Chloe, whose knees sagged beneath her and whose arms had dropped limply to her sides. He kept screaming, but he couldn't hear his own screams or any other sound. The hilt of Godric Gryffindor's sword was protruding from her chest; the point was emerging out of her back, and Chloe just stared at him and through him, as her mouth filled with blood.

Teddy kept screaming her name until Harry and Ron joined him and pried him away from her. Even after Ron lifted the girl into his arms, and then Apparated away, with the sword still stuck through her, Teddy was still screaming, and then he was beating his fists against Harry, who said nothing, just held onto him.