Heroes

For the first few days after he returned to Hogwarts, Teddy spent most of his time in his room, trying to avoid all his admirers. He was perturbed at his new hero status. Kai wasn't helping, trying to come up with nicknames for him – “Unstoppable Lupin,” “Metamorph Boy,” and “Teddy Explosive,” which Teddy didn't find amusing at all. He was receiving owls from all over the country, including requests for interviews from newspapers and magazines. He had no idea what to do about the attention, and finally sought help from Professor Longbottom.

“You can give me all correspondence from journalists,” said Longbottom, “and Harry and I will send them nasty letters telling them to leave you alone.”

“Will that work?” Teddy asked.

The Head of Gryffindor smiled thinly. “No. But at least it will become our problem and not yours.”

Teddy slouched in his chair in Longbottom's office. “Everyone is calling me a hero,” he said, “and I'm not.”

Longbottom smiled. “You are, Teddy. I'm very glad it's not going to your head, but what you did was amazing. And you can't run away from it.”

“Girls are following me around,” Teddy complained. “Even older girls!”

Longbottom grinned. “How awful.”

Teddy scowled.

“You've been avoiding your friends too, haven't you, Teddy?” Longbottom said, more seriously. “You aren't the only one who went through this. Nor are you the only one who acted heroically. And I think your friends need you as much as you need them.”

Teddy ventured down to the Gryffindor common room that evening, and had to spend fifteen minutes talking to his fellow Gryffindors, many of whom were asking about Chloe. He finally made his way over to Violet, who was sitting in a corner reading a book. He dropped to the floor next to her.

“How do you like being in Gryffindor Tower?” he asked.

“It's dry,” she said.

He nodded. They were still drying out the dungeons. The kitchens were being repaired, and the Hufflepuff dorms, which had not been flooded and had been less severely damaged by the blast, were expected to be reopened within a week, which meant the Slytherins could be redistributed among three houses instead of two. They didn't expect that Slytherin House would be habitable again until the beginning of the next school year, at the earliest.

“I was thinking of calling another D.A. meeting,” he said.

She looked up at him. “Don't you think protesting school policies might be a little petty, at this point?”

He shook his head. “I wasn't planning another protest. But since everyone is so curious about what happened, and it's only those of us who met Harry and Uncle Ron who heard the whole truth, maybe if we meet with everyone, we'll get the real story out once and for all.”

“I doubt it,” Violet replied. “Did you know that you fought your way through the goblin tunnels wielding the Sword of Gryffindor, until you confronted the Goblin King in single combat?”

Teddy stared at her.

“I think all the other hostages were tied to a mountain of explosives with a long fuse,” she continued, “and if you didn't defeat the Goblin King in time...”

Teddy groaned and rested his head on his knees.

“Teddy!” called an excited voice. Teddy looked up, to see Dewey coming across the common room, followed by Kai, no longer on crutches but still limping, and Gilbert, Mercy, and Sung-Hee. “You've hardly been around the past couple of days!”

Teddy nodded. “Yeah. Sorry. I guess I've been...”

“Moping?” Violet commented.

“Moody and depressive?” Kai suggested.

“Teddy, can we talk elsewhere?” Dewey asked, cutting off the others' teasing, and making a gesture with his head indicating he didn't want to have this conversation in the Gryffindor common room. Teddy exchanged a look with Violet, and then they rose and followed Dewey and the others outside.

“Do you still have the Marauder's Map?” Dewey asked quietly, in the corridor outside.

Teddy shook his head. “Harry kept it. He said he's going to have some wizards at the Ministry look at it and see if they can duplicate some of the enchantments.”

“Bloody hell, they aren't going to make copies for the staff, are they?” exclaimed Kai, horrified. “Students'll never be able to get away with anything if they do that!”

“I don't think so. But Harry said it was about time the Marauders got recognized for their work, and he reckons that in an emergency, someone really should be able to track what's going on in the school better than they can now.”

Dewey looked crestfallen, so Teddy asked, “What's wrong? Did you have some mischief in mind?” He smiled at that, since Dewey was the least likely of any of them to go looking for mischief.

“No,” Dewey answered seriously. “But I need to get down into the tunnels.”

Teddy's smile faded. He stared at his friend. After several long moments, he blurted out, “Have you gone mental?” He looked at Mercy and Sung-Hee, and the two Ravenclaws, but they apparently knew what Dewey had in mind and looked back at him very seriously. Only Violet seemed out of the loop, and was also staring at Dewey as if expecting him to explain the joke, and quickly.

The tunnel under Hogwarts had collapsed after the explosives went off, but there were still miles of goblin tunnels stretching from the castle to the Forbidden Forest, and joining more passages that extended underneath Hogsmeade, an underground labyrinth that the Aurors reckoned the goblins had been working on for many years. There was talk of leading a hit team down there, because some goblins were probably still taking refuge underground, even with their main complex destroyed, but it was expected to be a very dangerous expedition, and they hoped some peace could be made with the goblins first.

In the meantime, the alarms and wards around the school, and particularly under it, had been doubled, fortified, and doubled again. Without house-elves meddling in the castle's defenses, Teddy doubted that goblin, ghost, or invisible mouse could sneak its way back in.

It had never occurred to him that anyone would be crazy enough to want to sneak out.

“There's no way,” he said. “Even with the Marauder's Map, you can't get back into the tunnels from the dungeons. It's all blocked off. And the staff would know if you were stupid enough to set foot down there.”

“Where did you get such an idiotic idea?” Violet demanded. Strangely, she was looking at Kai and not Dewey. But Kai just looked back at her and shook his head.

“I have to,” Dewey insisted, and when Teddy and Violet stared at him again, he said, “Alduin is down there.”

Teddy and Violet became very quiet at that. Dewey looked down, and cleared his throat.

“I asked the Fat Friar what happened to him,” he said. “Figured a ghost would know where another ghost might have gone. And he said that ghosts stay around when something keeps them from leaving. I thought maybe... maybe it was just saving you that had kept Alduin from moving on.” He looked back up at Teddy, whose face had gone still. “But he said that according to Moaning Myrtle, Alduin has been haunting the underground tunnels. He won't come up to the castle.”

“Moaning Myrtle?” Violet asked, in disbelief.

Dewey shrugged. “I think she sort of... likes him.” Teddy and Violet both looked incredulous now, but Dewey continued. “I asked her about Alduin, and she says he's staying down there because he thinks he's got nowhere else to go. He doesn't think he's welcome up here.”

Everyone stood there, disconcerted, while some fourth-years down the hall laughed, tossing a ball back and forth and bouncing it against the walls. With classes not yet resumed, and almost everyone still wandless, the students had had to find other things to occupy their time, and the Muggle toys the D.A. had brought into the castle were now even more popular. Filch was going crazy.

“She's very upset,” Dewey added, filling the silence.

“That would explain the second floor being flooded again,” Violet remarked.

After a long, thoughtful silence, Teddy said, “I think I know a way we can get down there.”

They all met in the Great Hall that evening, after dinner, when all the other students had returned to their dorms, but shortly before lights out. The seven students sat on a bench facing away from the Gryffindor table, while Teazle, Griffy, Lolo, and Golly stood in front of them, blinking and shaking their heads.

“We doesn't think this is a good idea at all, Dewey Diggory,” said Lolo.

“We thinks it's a terrible idea,” said Teazle.

The four free elves had returned to Hogwarts immediately after being cleared of all charges by the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. Professor Llewellyn had offered them positions on the Hogwarts staff, and they now proudly bore the titles of “Chief of Student-Elf Relations,” “Chief of Staff-Elf Relations,” “Hogwarts Magical Safety Inspector,” and “Chief Hogwarts Ombudself.”

“It's very important,” said Dewey. “And Myrtle swore there'd be no goblins around. They're afraid of ghosts. We only want to go down there once, and back.” He swallowed, and leaned forward to look pleadingly at the four dismayed elves. “I know this is a lot to ask,” he said. “And you've done so much for us already. We owe you our lives, and none of us have come close to repaying you.”

The elves looked uncomfortably at one another, and shook their heads, but Teddy said, “It's true. You're all heroes. And we do feel really bad about asking you to help us again, but we've got no one else to turn to.”

“It's Teazle's job to make sure childrens is not endangered again,” said Hogwarts Magical Safety Inspector Teazle.

“We're grateful,” said Violet. “We certainly don't want anyone to join Alduin.”

The elves gulped.

“Please,” Mercy implored softly. “He must be very lonely down there.”

The elves all looked down.

Finally, Chief of Staff-Elf Relations Golly looked up. “Only this one time, Dewey Diggory,” she declared. “And you will never ask us to be doing such a thing again.”

Dewey nodded solemnly. “I promise.”

“You know it will be... uncomfortable,” said Chief of Student-Elf Relations Lolo.

Dewey and Teddy looked at each other. “Yeah,” they replied in unison. “We know.”

They waited until after midnight. Only Teddy and Dewey were going, so they told the others to stay in bed, but when they met in the empty Gryffindor common room, they were unsurprised to find Violet there, wrapped in a dark purple bathrobe around her nightgown, her feet engulfed in matching purple fuzzy slippers.

“What?” she demanded, as Teddy grinned at her.

He shook his head, then his grin faded. “You shouldn't be up, Violet.”

“I'm just going to wait here,” she said. “Until you return.” She spoke matter-of-factly, as if they were discussing a trip to the library, but she couldn't completely hide the worried look in her eyes. Teddy nodded.

“All right,” he sighed. “Guess we do need someone to go tell Professor Longbottom if we don't come back.”

He'd intended it as a joke, but Dewey scowled at him, and Violet's expression was smoldering.

A single loud crack heralded the arrival of the four elves. They stood in the common room, looking apprehensively at the three children.

“She's not coming,” Teddy stated, pointing at Violet. “It's just us two, as agreed.”

The elves nodded.

“Got your wand?” Dewey asked. Teddy nodded. The two boys held out their hands.

“All right,” Teddy said, as Golly took his hand and Teazle took Dewey's. He smiled reassuringly at Violet. “Back before you know it.”

She nodded solemnly, and then the two boys and four elves disappeared with a louder crack.

They found themselves lying on a cold dirt floor, in almost complete darkness. Almost complete, because there was a ghost hovering over them.

“Well, stop lying there like you're going to take a nap!” Moaning Myrtle scolded.

Dewey and Teddy both took several deep breaths, as they waited for their guts to slide back into place.

“All right there, Golly?” wheezed Teddy.

“Teazle?” gasped Dewey.

“We is fine,” mumbled Golly.

“We thinks maybe it gets less worse each time,” said Teazle.

Teddy didn't agree, but he was glad the two elves were all right. He sat up, and held out his wand. “Lumos.” Light pushed away the darkness, and he could see Griffy and Lolo supporting their companions. Golly and Teazle expected to have enough strength to Apparate themselves back to the castle; the other two elves would be responsible for Teddy and Dewey's return trip.

Moaning Myrtle was still floating overhead, arms crossed, tapping her foot impatiently against empty air. “Well?” she demanded again, crossly.

Dewey lurched unsteadily to his feet, and then gave Teddy a hand up. They both still felt nauseous, but certainly weren't expecting any sympathy from Myrtle. Neither of them were looking forward to doing this a second time in one night.

“All right,” said Teddy. “Where is he?”

“This way,” replied Myrtle, and she began floating down the tunnel. “Oh, Alduin!” she called out loudly, in a sickly sweet voice that made Dewey and Teddy look at one another, appalled.

“Little louder, Myrtle, might be some goblins that didn't hear you,” Teddy muttered. The four elves trailing after them looked extremely worried. They were continuously looking over their shoulders. Teddy and Dewey were both much more nervous than they wanted to admit as well. Teddy's heart was pounding in his chest again, and Dewey kept remembering their panicked flight through dark tunnels, being chased by goblins, never knowing what was around the next corner... his mouth was dry and he was afraid if he stopped moving he'd begin to tremble, so he forced himself to keep walking by sheer force of will.

Fortunately, they didn't have far to go. It was just a little ways down the tunnel when they saw another glow, becoming a little brighter as Myrtle joined him.

Dewey and Teddy slowed to halt, and found themselves staring at Alduin Beauxjour.

Dolohov, Teddy corrected himself.

The dead boy stared back at them, his curly dark hair now a ghostly gray, his expression aloof, cautious, a little mistrustful... much as it had been in life. Dewey tried to smile at his deceased roommate, and couldn't. His eyes kept going to the bloodstain surrounding a small dark hole in Alduin's chest.

Alduin spoke. “Myrtle said you wanted to talk to me.” It was funny how his voice sounded almost exactly as it had in life, but seemed to come from somewhere just a little bit further away. “Don't worry, Dewey. I'm not going to haunt the Hufflepuff common room. We don't have to stay where we died.” He sounded bitter. Myrtle sniffed, and patted his back sympathetically.

Dewey licked his lips nervously. “Alduin,” he said, “we know everything. About you, I mean. And who your parents were. And how you wanted to be in Hufflepuff...”

Alduin's expression grew very cold, and they could almost feel a chill radiating from him. For the first time, he looked at Teddy for a moment, and then back at Dewey. “So?” he asked coldly. “I just told you, you don't have to worry –”

“We want you to come back!” Dewey said quickly, and the ghost paused, and his expression became confused.

“I mean,” Dewey continued, “we want you to come back to Hogwarts. You belong there. Not down here. And if you want to haunt the Hufflepuff common room... well, I don't see why you shouldn't. Hufflepuff House is... is your home.” His voice choked up. “I mean, it should have been.”

The ghostly Hufflepuff stared at him. The other ghost floated behind him, her gaze going from Alduin to Dewey, but for once, Moaning Myrtle was silent.

“You saved my life,” said Teddy. Alduin slowly turned his head, to regard the other boy. Teddy swallowed. “I wouldn't have hated you, you know,” he went on, in a much quieter voice. “Even if I had known.”

Alduin's stare was unnerving. Teddy had no idea what the ghost was thinking. He held out his hand. “Maybe we could have been friends,” he said quietly.

Alduin looked down at the offered hand, and after a long pause, said, “I can't shake hands, you know. I'm a ghost.”

Teddy kept it extended, and finally, Alduin reached out. Teddy felt an icy chill envelope his hand, as he and Alduin stared at each other.

“Come back to the castle,” Teddy pleaded.

“You can't speak for everyone,” said Alduin. “If they know who I was –”

“I'll tell everyone that you're a bloody hero!” declared Teddy.

“And any Hufflepuff who says 'boo' about you being there, I'll sort 'em out myself!” added Dewey.

Teddy couldn't help grinning at that.

The ghost looked surprised, then mumbled, “I don't think the dead are meant to mingle with the living.”

“Rubbish!” scoffed Myrtle. “And anyway, you don't have to haunt Hufflepuff House.” Her voice became syrupy, almost wheedling. “You could always share my bathroom.” She clasped her hands in front of herself, and raised one shoulder as she turned her chin towards him, blinking shyly. Alduin looked at her silently for a moment, and then turned his head back to regard the two boys in front of him.

“I'll think about it,” he said.

Teddy and Dewey stood there a moment, looked at each other, and then looked back at Alduin. Finally, Dewey nodded. He didn't know what else to say.

“Alduin,” Teddy asked. “How did you know how to find me and Deana? And how to lead us out? It's not like you'd been haunting those tunnels for a long time.”

Alduin stared at him, then looked away.

“My parents weren't waiting for me,” he whispered.

Teddy and Dewey both blinked, confused.

“I thought I'd see my parents,” the ghost murmured, in a whisper almost too faint to hear. “I wanted to see them so badly.”

Myrtle had stopped simpering, and though she once again looked on the verge of tears, for once they were not tears of self-pity.

Alduin shook his head. His expression was distant, and when he looked at Teddy again, his eyes didn't really focus on him.

“Your parents are waiting for you,” he said, in a voice that seemed to float from a very long ways away, laden with envy and sadness. “But they don't want to see you for a long time yet.”

Alduin floated away, into the darkness, and Myrtle floated after him, with one glance over her shoulder at the two boys.

Teddy and Dewey didn't speak. Griffy and Lolo took their hands, and the two boys were wrenched out of the dark tunnel, and back to the floor of the Gryffindor common room. Violet sprang out of her chair. Dewey groaned and forced himself to a sitting position.

Teddy rose to his feet, looking pale and shaky.

“You all right?” he mumbled, swaying on his feet, looking at the four elves. They blinked and nodded.

“Teddy Lupin looks awful,” said Golly. “Please sit down,” she pleaded.

He shook his head. He wouldn't look at anyone else. His hair had gone white.

“Teddy,” Dewey said, and Teddy shook his head again, and staggered off to his room, weaving a bit. Dewey sat on the floor, taking deep breaths and trying to clear his head.

“Let him go, Violet,” he said, when Violet looked as if she were about to follow her cousin.

She looked down at him. “Is he all right?” she asked.

“He will be.” Dewey slumped against a chair, running a hand through his hair. “So will Alduin. I hope.”

Classes resumed at Hogwarts, though there was more reading and writing essays than magic. The professors had almost all obtained new wands, but Ollivander's now had a three-month waiting list. Other wand-makers throughout Europe were also producing wands as quickly as they could, but it was not something that could be rushed. This left the few students still in possession of wands, like Teddy, Kai, and Gilbert, in a privileged position, as they were the only ones who could cast spells for other students.

Teddy didn't exactly find it enviable, but he noticed that Kai was enjoying it a great deal. He didn't take advantage of his classmates, but he definitely enjoyed lording it over the older Ravenclaws who remained wandless.

“He ought to be grateful for the Zero Toleration Policy,” remarked Violet, as they sat in the library studying. “Or he'd probably have his wand stuck somewhere unpleasant.”

Teddy and Dewey looked at each other, and then at Violet. She raised an eyebrow. “Like in the manure pile,” she said innocently. “Or behind Moaning Myrtle's toilet.”

“Right, somewhere like that,” said Dewey.

“Just don't let him get carried away tonight,” she said. “He does have a tendency to dramatize things.”

Teddy grinned, which pleased Dewey and Violet both. They hadn't seen Teddy smiling much, over the past week. “It really bugs you that he saved your life, doesn't it?” Teddy asked.

Violet rolled her eyes. “Not nearly as much as it bugs Nagaeena that Zirkle saved hers.”

When Teddy saw all the students gathered in the Room of Requirement that evening, he knew that the D.A. as they'd known it was no more. There wasn't even a pretense of it being a secret meeting. Firsties were no longer a majority, and the Room was half the size of the Great Hall, to accommodate everyone there.

Students of all ages had come to hear everyone tell their stories, starting with Teddy. A dozen different versions were already circulating throughout the school, and Teddy suspected Violet was right – his account tonight wasn't going to keep things from getting twisted around. But having everyone listen to him, and hear him tell the tale in his own words, although he dreaded it at first, became easier as he continued talking. He didn't want the adulation, and he tried not to make anything sound more heroic than it was. Even when he admitted that he didn't know what he was doing, though, he saw an awful lot of kids staring at him with wide-eyed admiration. As if stumbling blindly through tunnels, scared and clueless, made him even more of a hero.

The part about Alduin was the hardest. Everyone was quiet when he came to his escape from the tunnels with Deana, and then he told the rest almost without emotion. When he got to the battle in the forest, and Chloe's brutal fate, the words seemed to come out of his mouth of their own accord, and all he felt was emptiness. He winced a little when applause filled the room after he was done. He sat down, feeling emotionally drained, and only half-listened as all the other kids each took their turn repeating what they had already told Harry and Ron in the Room of Requirement weeks ago.

Elves appeared, bearing cake and ice cream. Mercy had asked Lolo if the house-elves would mind preparing some refreshments for the gathering. She also invited all of them to the party as well, and the firsties who had helped carry the unconscious house-elves out of the kitchens were very embarrassed when a long file of elves lined up to thank them, one by one.

“We should be thanking you!” insisted Mercy. “You should all be f –” She stopped, as the house-elves all recoiled.

“Please, Mercy Burbage, don't be using the f-word!” Lolo whispered to her.

Mercy looked down at the free elf, distraught. “But they should be... you know. Just like you.”

Lolo blinked sadly.

“Aren't you happier now?” Mercy asked. “I mean, you wouldn't want to go back to being a house-elf, would you?”

Lolo fidgeted with the buttons on her new doll-like dress.

“It is very difficult to be a free elf,” Lolo said at last. “Lolo thinks she is liking it, but sometimes she is remembering that it was much easier to just do what we was told. Now that we is free...” She looked around at her fellow free elves, “we has responsibilities.” And they all nodded gravely.

“Alduin's been roaming around on the second floor, with Myrtle,” said Dewey, sitting down next to Teddy.

“I've heard,” Teddy replied. “I'm glad.”

“Some of the Hufflepuffs are weirded out, seeing him, but Grumman and Prewitt got out the word, everyone had better be nice to him. And Edgar actually tracked Alduin down and asked what he wanted done with the stuff he left in our room, and then bugged him with a lot of other questions about what it's like to be a ghost, like does he miss eating and does he sleep, and does his bullet wound still hurt...”

Teddy stared. “He didn't!”

Dewey nodded. “He did. I was with him. Thought I was going to drop dead on the spot myself! Blimey, who asks a ghost things like that? Would you believe Alduin actually laughed?”

Teddy smiled, disbelievingly. Dewey nodded. “I don't think I ever saw him laugh while he was alive,” Dewey said, more quietly.

“Hey, you talking about Alduin?” asked Edgar, appearing suddenly with a large piece of cake on a plate.

“Yes,” Dewey sighed.

“I invited him to come too,” said Edgar. He didn't notice Teddy and Dewey's uncomfortable looks. “But he said no thanks. I think he likes hanging out with Myrtle more.” His broad face wrinkled in thought. “Do you think ghosts can snog?”

Teddy and Dewey almost choked on their cake.

Aisha was speaking to those who were listening, now. She didn't say much, but Teddy blushed and looked away when she singled him out and said that she thought Teddy was the bravest boy in school.

“And Chloe... she was the bravest girl,” Aisha said softly, looking down, and then she moved back into the crowd to stand next to Deana.

“Bloody right!” exclaimed Teddy. Violet and Kai had joined Teddy, and they all looked at him for a moment, as his expression became distant again.

“Teddy is very brave,” agreed Nagaeena. They all looked up, to see the Slytherin girl smiling at Teddy. She was wearing a fancy Indian sari again, and Teddy found himself noticing the little flashes of skin it revealed as she moved, in a way he hadn't really before. She sashayed past, clearly aware of the way boys were looking at her, and enjoying it. “But there is someone else very brave, who saved my life... even though I was never very nice to him.”

Gilbert was staring breathlessly at Nagaeena as she sauntered in his direction, and his expression became hopeful, until she walked past him and stopped in front of a very startled Stephen White.

“You were incredible,” purred Nagaeena, batting her lashes. “That was the bravest, most brilliant thing I've ever seen anyone do.” She leaned forward and gave him a kiss on the lips. “My hero,” she murmured.

Stephen was in shock. The other Slytherin boys stared, and then some of the older kids cheered and whistled, as Stephen turned bright red.

“Don't worry mate,” grinned Kai, slapping his very disappointed roommate on the back. “You're my hero!”

When the Hufflepuffs moved back into their dorms, along with a third of the Slytherins, they found that the Zero Toleration Policy notice was gone. That same morning, the Zero Toleration warnings disappeared from the Gryffindor and Ravenclaw common rooms, and the Prefects announced to their houses, without fanfare, that the Zero Toleration Policy had been suspended.

There was a jubilant air at breakfast that morning. Teddy looked at Professor Llewellyn, at the High Table, who simply ate her breakfast as usual, and then he saw Professor Longbottom sitting a few seats down from her. He caught Teddy looking at him, and gave him a little wink.

Professors were trying to cram as much book-learning into students as possible, given the difficulty in assigning practical exercises. Final exams were expected to be fairly easy. Ravenclaws muttered darkly about the lack of academic rigor, but no one else seemed to mind. It was the fifth and seventh-years who were most affected by the wand shortage, as only a few of them could take their O.W.L.s or N.E.W.T.s as scheduled. Teddy heard the Ministry was making special arrangements to conduct tests throughout the summer, both at Hogwarts and in London, and Ollivander's was accordingly giving priority to students who needed wands to take their exams.

As with the news of the ongoing goblin unrest, this was of minimal interest to most of the first-years. They knew wizards now had to travel with greater caution, as S.C.O.U.R.G.E. was still ambushing travelers, while the goblins of London remained officially neutral. There were articles in the Daily Prophet about Gringotts and “economic repercussions” that made Teddy's eyes glaze over, even though he knew he probably should be trying to understand it. But the truth was, he'd be happy never to see a goblin again.

By the beginning of June, everyone was eager to finish the term and go home. Everyone had adjusted, more or less, to coexisting with Slytherins, but the crowded conditions in the dorms were adding to everyone's weariness with school.

The dorms became a little more crowded, with returning students. Teddy was eating breakfast at the Gryffindor table, in the first week of June, when he looked across the hall and saw Geoffrey Montague seated amongst the other Slytherin first-years. Geoffrey looked up, and for a moment their eyes met across the tables. The Slytherin boy's eyes narrowed, and then he smiled tightly, gave Teddy the smallest of nods, and went back to talking to Anthony Dreadmoor and Nero Velenos.

“The expelled students are back!” Teddy said excitedly to Dewey after breakfast.

“Some of them,” replied Dewey, who had been in the Hufflepuff common room when they celebrated the return of Annabelle Jones and Douglas McFee. Annabelle had managed to avoid sneering at the Slytherins who were now sharing the Hufflepuff living area, though she certainly didn't talk to any of them. Dewey thought it was fortunate that Ophilia was still in Gryffindor Tower, though. “Annabelle said they were all given the option of returning now, if they felt able to take their final exams, or coming back next year.”

“So that's it, then,” said Teddy. “We won, didn't we?”

“Reckon we did,” Dewey replied, after thinking a moment, but as they walked side by side to Charms class, both of them thought it felt awfully anti-climactic. After what they had faced this year, a harsh Headmistress no longer seemed so terrible. Professor Llewellyn's quiet acquiescence gave them a sense of satisfaction, but not victory.

Final exams were pushed back into the second week of June, and in the hopes of raising morale and restoring some sense of normalcy, it was announced that the final two Quidditch games of the season would be held that weekend; Hufflepuff-Slytherin on Saturday, Gryffindor-Ravenclaw on Sunday. The Quidditch pitch hadn't been completely repaired, so the school would be watching from the ground, but as the players pointed out, all you really needed to play Quidditch was brooms, bats, balls, and hoops, and the latter were easily erected.

Some students threw themselves into Quidditch fever eagerly. Teddy found himself unable to become terribly enthused about the games.

The Hufflepuff-Slytherin game turned out to be the most exciting one that year. With the return of Chaser Douglas McFee, Hufflepuff gained a dramatic lead in the first part of the game, and held onto it for the next two hours, sometimes increasing it, sometimes losing a few goals to the Slytherins, but as both teams ran up the score, the excitement increased. Then, with the Slytherins down by over a hundred points, Elizabeth Krupp and Cordelia Wright executed perfect dives through the Chasers and Beaters on both sides, spiraling with each other and the Snitch almost to the ground. It was Krupp who rose back into the air with the Snitch in her hand, and Slytherin won their last game of the season.

Teddy was amused to see that while Violet didn't stay long at the party the Slytherins were holding in the Great Hall, she sat in the Gryffindor common room that night in a bright green and silver bathrobe, and fuzzy green slippers.

“Looks like someone's been breaking in her new wand with Color Change Charms,” he remarked.

She smiled. Her father had collected her Friday afternoon, and returned to Hogwarts with her on Saturday. She had come back with a new wand.

“Other kids are going to be jealous,” he said. “Especially since you're only a first-year. Wouldn't have thought Mr. Ollivander would let you jump the waiting list, even with your father's... er, influence.”

“He didn't,” Violet replied. “We don't buy from Ollivander's. We went to Rouen.”

Teddy shook his head, impressed.

“Gryffindor is going to have to win with over four hundred points tomorrow to beat Hufflepuff for the Quidditch Cup,” she said.

Teddy nodded. “But we only need to score two hundred seventy points to beat Slytherin for second. Against Ravenclaw, that will be easy.”

“Don't let Kai hear you saying that,” she replied, turning a page in her book.

“When did you start caring about Quidditch, anyway?” he asked.

She shrugged. “You saw my father watching the game with us? He actually knows a lot about Quidditch. He said Elizabeth is very good. He was a Seeker himself, you know.”

“Oh,” Teddy said. He hadn't known that. Among all the stories Teddy had heard about Harry and Draco Malfoy at school, he must have missed the fact that Harry and Mr. Malfoy were rivals on the Quidditch field too. He decided not to ask Violet which of them had been better.

He noticed suddenly that she was reading Viktor Krum's A Snitch in Hand: The Definitive Guide for Amateur and Professional Seekers.

He raised an eyebrow. “Planning on going out for the team next year?”

She shrugged. “I doubt it. I've never played Quidditch before.” She chewed her lip. “But being small isn't a disadvantage for a Seeker, and my father said he'd have me coached, if I'm really interested.”

Mr. Malfoy could probably hire Viktor Krum himself to coach her, if she were really interested, Teddy thought. “I reckon Krupp will still be playing Seeker for the Slytherin team next year,” he said. “But I heard Hannah saying she's sort of tired of Quidditch.” He shrugged, as Violet raised her eyebrows at him. “Just saying.”

She sighed. “You still think I'm not where I belong,” she said, running a hand down her green and silver bathrobe.

He shifted uncomfortably. “You have friends in every other house.”

“Yes,” she said quietly. “I do.” And she smiled and turned her attention back to her book.

Gryffindor's celebration the next night was bittersweet. Gryffindor and Ravenclaw were tied throughout the game, until with the score at 250-250, Peter Honeybourne closed in on the Snitch. Hannah Holmes performed a brilliant maneuver to loop around and ahead of him and literally snatch the Snitch right out of his grasp, and win the game for Gryffindor... exactly ten points shy of what they needed to tie Hufflepuff's overall score for the season. So Hufflepuff celebrated their first Quidditch Cup since before the war, Gryffindor contented themselves with having beaten Slytherin, and Slytherin contented themselves with not being last.

Teddy didn't think Hannah would be playing next year. Peter was not gracious about his girlfriend snatching victory literally out from under his nose, and their fight after the game had her swearing off Quidditch and Peter both, permanently... and spending the next few hours in the Gryffindor common room, with the other Gryffindor girls comforting her. Strangely enough, some of the Slytherin girls were eager to join in. Teddy didn't quite understand how cataloging all the reasons Hannah's ex-boyfriend was stupid, nasty, and pathetic, and talking about all the curses they could put on him, was supposed to be comforting, but he and all the other boys sensed that was a corner of the common room to avoid for a while.

The games were even covered by the Daily Prophet, which was eager to tell the wizarding public that Hogwarts was getting back to normal. But all the students knew that wasn't true.

In the final week of school, Quidditch and exams faded in importance, as the end-of-term feast loomed. It was time to find out who had been missorted, and who would change houses. The first-years could talk of little else. No one would admit to believing that they were in the wrong house. Everyone speculated as to who was. And not just the school, but all of wizarding Britain, awaited the Sorting Hat's decision about the future of the Houses of Hogwarts.