The War Season

Violet wouldn't talk to Teddy the next day in class. Nor to Kai or Dewey. Whenever any of them would try to speak to her, she turned away, and Nagaeena, Decima, and Bernice stood in their paths. Even the other Slytherin boys looked ready to intervene if any of them moved towards Violet.

Teddy tried again as students filed into the Great Hall for the Halloween Feast, but again, a wall of Slytherins blocked him.

“Violet, please!” he called out.

“Take a hint, runt!” sneered Mortimer Thickwaite, shoving him back into the Gryffindor table. “Now bugger off before you get hurt!”

It was a sad and depressing Halloween Feast. Chloe tried to cheer Teddy up, but he felt horrible, and he kept looking down the table at Roger Drocker and his friends, whom he suspected were the ones who had ambushed Violet.

“Teddy, it's awful what happened to Violet,” said Chloe. “But it's awful that she blames you, don't you think? If she really thinks you'd do a thing like that, to your own cousin...”

He got up from the table, and stalked back to the Gryffindor common room to wait there by himself. When the Gryffindors began returning, though, he stood up to confront Roger.

“She's half your size you bloody coward!” he yelled at Roger. “What kind of sick nutter does something like that to a girl?”

“Oh, bloody hell, are you going to cry, Lupin?” sneered Roger. “She's a snake! You should show more loyalty to your own house!”

“You're no Gryffindor!” Teddy was ready to start a fight right there in the common room, but Colin and Alfred held him back, while Danny Boyle stepped between them.

“Go to bed, Lupin!” the Prefect snapped. “Go to bed right now!”

As Professor Longbottom had predicted, things got uglier.

The Slytherins took their vengeance against Roger and his friends. He and three other fourth-years were found tied together naked in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom, while the ghost giggled and laughed at them. They hadn't merely been left exposed and humiliated, though – they'd been worked over rather seriously, and hexed for good measure. Their ears had been turned into cauliflowers, their eyes swollen so large they were bulging painfully against the insides of their sockets, and they had been afflicted with massive infestations of boils. It went well beyond a prank; the boys all spent the better part of a week in the infirmary.

Just as Violet had refused to reveal who ambushed her, Roger and his friends claimed they never saw who jumped them. But they were only the first of a steady stream of students who limped, staggered, or were carried into the infirmary, and Madame Pomfrey said it was only a matter of time before someone wound up being sent to St. Mungo's, or worse.

No one ever admitted to seeing anything. The Gryffindors and the Slytherins were for all practical purposes at war, and any witnesses to their skirmishes were told to keep their mouths shut or else. Threats from teachers and the Headmistress were to no avail.

The first week of November was cold, dreary, and dismal, an appropriate start to the Quidditch season. The first game was Gryffindor vs. Slytherin.

Students and staff filled the stands, despite the gray drizzle. Everyone was looking forward to the game with both anticipation and dread. The Gryffindor vs. Slytherin rivalry was legendary during the best of years; this year, both houses were approaching the game like a military engagement. Slytherin had won the Quidditch Cup for the last two years. In the Gryffindor stands, some seventh-years were leading them in a militant cheer that sounded more like an incitement to riot. From the Slytherin stands, drums pounded out a war tattoo.

Cheers and howls rose as the teams marched onto the field. They looked more like gladiators marching into an arena. The Gryffindors wore red and gold, but blood-red predominated, and some had adorned their uniforms with gleaming spiky bits. The Slytherins had added leather straps and metal studs everywhere they could to their equipment. Coach Mannock frowned and made several players on both sides remove spiked elbow pads, and steel-shod coverings from their boots, and he checked all the players' gloves.

“Would you look at that monster?” exclaimed Edgar, in the Hufflepuff stands. “He's a bloody tank!”

He was pointing at Hugh Truncher, who was a Beater for the Slytherin team. Dewey didn't know exactly what Edgar meant by “tank,” but the gist was clear enough. Hugh looked like he could swat Bludgers with his bare hands. Dewey feared for any Gryffindors in his path.

The Ravenclaws were mostly rooting for the Gryffindors, though Kai had detected a certain amount of sympathy for the Slytherins after what had been done to poor Violet. He'd tried unsuccessfully to put Connor and Rodney between himself and Gilbert, but the Muggle-born boy had grabbed a seat next to him, which meant Kai expected he'd be answering questions about Quidditch all during the game.

Coach Mannock finally finished removing the more obviously-lethal adornments from both teams' uniforms, and had the team captains shake hands.

“I want to see a clean and friendly game!” he barked.

The Gryffindor and Slytherin captains smiled at each other, while each squeezed the other's hand brutally, until the spectators could almost hear bones grinding from the stands.

“Clean and friendly,” scoffed Kai.

When Mannock blew his whistle, the players took flight. What followed was the bloodiest game in Hogwarts history.

The Gryffindors were excellent flyers, and had obviously learned a lot of fancy maneuvers by studying professional Quidditch players. Teddy heard the older students saying it was their best team in years. But the Slytherin team was big, vicious, and fearless. They prided themselves on the number of injuries they inflicted, and had gone undefeated the previous year.

The Slytherins relied on an offensive strategy utilizing close-formation flying, while the Gryffindors flew daringly in an effort to outmaneuver them. The Gryffindor Chasers would deliberately dive at their Slytherin counterparts if they couldn't find an opportunity to steal the Quaffle. A Slytherin Chaser bounced the Quaffle off the head of one of the Gryffindor Chasers. The Beaters of the two teams zoomed in circles around one another and pounded the Bludgers back and forth. Within the first ten minutes of the game, three players had been knocked off their brooms, and one had to be carried off the field and replaced by a reserve Chaser.

The Gryffindor Seeker was a third-year girl named Hannah Holmes. The Slytherin Seeker was Elizabeth Krupp. At times, they seemed more intent on pursuing each other and trying to drive one another into the ground than they were in catching the Snitch. Whenever Coach Mannock wasn't looking, elbows would connect with faces, or a foot would lash out and kick an opposing player's broom.

Dewey and Kai gave their Muggle-born roommates a running summary of Quidditch terms like blagging, blatching, blurting, and cobbing; the two teams seemed determined to run through every full-contact foul on the books. Hugh collided with two Gryffindor players at once and sent them both spinning to the ground. One didn't get up. The Gryffindor Beaters began tailing Hugh and fouling him when they couldn't hit him with a Bludger. Then they abruptly changed tactics and one dived across Krupp's path while the other sent the Bludger rocketing at her from behind. She tried to duck the Bludger and flew face-first into a Gryffindor Chaser's broom, and became the third player removed on account of injury. Her replacement was a rookie second-year boy who was nonetheless mean and determined; the next time Holmes tried to hem him in against the stadium wall, he grabbed her hair and braked so quickly he nearly yanked her off her broom. The two of them began brawling in mid-air, and Coach Mannock had to blow his whistle and take both players out of the game.

With both teams reduced to using reserve Seekers, it didn't seem as if the Snitch were going to be caught any time soon. Half a dozen brooms were replaced as collisions reduced one after another to kindling. Some players went to the infirmary; others kept playing with broken fingers, sprained ankles, missing teeth, and cracked ribs. Chasers went careening off the stadium walls, tackled the Keepers and each other, and used Quaffles as weapons when they couldn't score a goal. Beaters launched themselves at each other, swinging their bats at anything that moved. Even the Bludgers seemed to be out for blood, howling through the air like cannonballs with malevolent intent.

“This is horrible!” said Chloe, covering her eyes as there was yet another bone-jarring collision.

“Yeah, it is,” agreed Teddy. He was looking across the field, at the Slytherin stands. Ophilia Karait sat in front, applauding each Slytherin goal but otherwise remaining cool and dispassionate no matter how intense the game became, but behind her, the Slytherins were going wild every time they scored, or a Gryffindor player was hit. Except for Violet, who remained as expressionless as Ophilia. But she never looked in Teddy's direction.

“This is a bloodbath!” said Gilbert, in the Ravenclaw stands. “Is it usually this nasty?”

“No,” said Kai, who was starting to wonder if someone were literally going to die today.

“This is wicked!” said Edgar enthusiastically, in the Hufflepuff stands.

“That's one word for it,” muttered Dewey.

The rain was beating down more heavily. In the staff stand, Professor Llewellyn shook her head every time there was another foul; the teachers were all grimacing. No Quidditch game had ever been called off in the history of Hogwarts; not for weather or fouls or injuries. But the Headmistress looked as if she were thinking about it.

Just before the sun went down, the two inexperienced Seekers both dived after the Snitch, and wound up locked together, spinning out of control in a tangle of brooms and limbs, wrestling, punching, biting, and head-butting each other just before they both collided with the ground. They bounced and skidded painfully across the sand; their brooms went flying in opposite directions. The Gryffindor Seeker groaned and rolled over, pushing the Slytherin Seeker off of him and revealing the Snitch clutched to his chest. The game ended 380 to 290 with a victory for Gryffindor. The stands erupted with cheers and roars from the Gryffindors, screams and boos from the Slytherin side, and a general sense of relief.

As students made their way back to the castle, the news spread through the crowd, circulating amongst all the houses; two more wands had gone missing. One belonged to a Gryffindor second-year, who believed it had been stolen as he was watching the game. The other was Elizabeth Krupp's, whose wand could have been taken any time between when she was carried off the field and while she was lying in the infirmary.

“If this keeps up, the Headmistress is going to question everyone with Veritaserum,” said Dewey.

“It's not that easy to make Veritaserum,” said Kai. “And I'm not sure the Ministry of Education would let her, even if she wanted to.”

“Well, the way things are going, she really may be replaced at the end of the year. The fighting here is making the pages of the Daily Prophet. My dad wrote me to warn me to stay out of it.” Dewey rolled his eyes. “As if any of us have a choice, with Gryffindors and Slytherins jinxing each other in the hallways every day.”

“It's not just Gryffindors and Slytherins,” Teddy muttered. He had been morose and distracted ever since the disastrous night of October 30th.

“That's true,” Kai admitted. “But it is mostly Gryffindors and Slytherins... and Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws who have the misfortune to be caught in the crossfire. Teddy, are you ever going to quit mooning over Violet?”

Teddy looked at Kai sharply. “I'm not mooning over her!” he said. “I just feel terrible about what happened to her! And I can't believe she actually thinks we put Drocker and his friends up to that!”

“I'm sure she doesn't, mate,” said Kai. “She's just upset.”

“She's just upset?” Teddy repeated. “Boy, you Ravenclaws really are clever, keen, and wise!” He rose and skulked off to Gryffindor Tower.

Dewey and Kai looked at each other, and Dewey shrugged helplessly.

“Have you tried talking to her?” Kai asked.

Dewey nodded. “Yes,” he said sadly. “But she doesn't want anything to do with any of us.”

Teddy persisted. He could not talk to Violet in class, but he chased her down one afternoon after Potions, pushing right through the other girls surrounding her and ignoring them as they gasped indignantly and then threatened to jinx him.

“Violet!” he said, skidding to a halt in front of the smaller girl.

“Leave me alone!” she hissed, looking down to avoid meeting his eyes. “Haven't you embarrassed me enough? Just go away, Teddy!”

“Violet, you know we didn't mean for that to happen to you! I'd never do anything like that! Neither would Kai or Dewey! We're your friends, Violet!”

She looked up at him slowly.

“It doesn't matter whether you intended it or not, Teddy,” she said quietly. “It's what happens when Slytherins try to be friends with non-Slytherins.”

“That's not true!”

“You really are thick, aren't you?” said Bernice, shoving him aside.

“Violet has all the friends she needs,” said Nagaeena, and the four girls stalked off down the corridor.

“Ah, women troubles,” said a gruff voice. Teddy turned to see Professor Slughorn, shaking his head and tut-tutting. For a fat old man, Professor Slughorn could move rather stealthily. Of course they were right in front of his office.

“It's not women troubles, Professor,” said Teddy. “It's Slytherin troubles.” He looked down. “Maybe she's right. Maybe it was foolish to think we could be friends.”

“Ah, but you're wrong, Teddy.” Slughorn opened his door and beckoned him into his office. After hesitating a moment, Teddy entered. It was dominated by a plush chair behind a magnificent mahogany desk, but there were a number of other chairs sitting on a brightly-colored oriental carpet. The shelves were lined with handsome bound volumes on various subjects; only a few seemed to be about potion-making. There were photographs of Slughorn too, at various stages of his life, usually with someone else. Teddy recognized some of the other people in the pictures. There was the old Headmaster who had preceded Professor Llewellyn, the legendary Albus Dumbledore, and there were former Ministers of Magic shaking hands with Slughorn, and several famous Quidditch players, and directly behind his chair, Teddy spied his godfather. Harry was smiling for the camera while Slughorn threw an arm around his shoulders, but Teddy thought Harry's smile looked a bit forced.

Slughorn sat down at his desk. “What you don't realize is just how thoroughly Miss Parkinson was humiliated.”

“I know she was humiliated, sir!” Teddy protested. Indeed, he still felt sick every time he remembered the sight of Violet hanging upside down with her knickers showing.

“Well then, you should understand that just saying you're sorry won't cut it. Her pride was badly injured.”

“What am I supposed to do, then? I'd beat up Drocker and his friends myself if I could, but I think the other Slytherins already took care of dealing vengeance.”

The old Slytherin considered him thoughtfully. “Maybe she doesn't believe you understand the consequences of your friendship.”

Teddy's shoulders slumped. “So it's my fault for being friends with her?”

“No, no. But it's all very well for you to befriend a Slytherin. Your fellow Gryffindors might give you odd looks, but they aren't really tormenting you over it, are they? And the Slytherins might be suspicious of you, but they aren't preying on you in the hallways. But from Miss Parkinson's perspective, she risks ostracization in her own house, and invites abuse from yours. Your situations are not comparable, you see.”

Teddy sunk further into his seat. “So she suffers more than I do, is that it? I didn't think I was being selfish for being her friend.”

“Not selfish, Teddy,” Slughorn said gently. “But perhaps a bit oblivious. Your friendship comes at a higher cost to her.”

“So, what, I have to prove I'm worth it? I have to pay some kind of price? I don't get it.”

“I believe,” said Slughorn slowly, “You have to convince her that her friendship is truly valuable to you.”

Teddy thought about that some more.

“With all due respect, Professor, why do you care?”

Slughorn chuckled. “I've always been something of a matchmaker.” Teddy's eyes widened, and Slughorn laughed out loud. “Oh, don't look so alarmed, my boy! I didn't mean like that! I mean I put people together with other people who can help them, friends who will be valuable later in life! And I would hate to see you and Miss Parkinson remain estranged.”

Teddy wasn't sure he was any more enlightened after leaving Slughorn's office. He certainly didn't understand Slughorn's interest in him or Violet.

Kai and Dewey didn't have any insights. He repeated his conversation with Slughorn to them after lunch the next next day. Chloe was tagging along, looking a bit exasperated by the conversation.

“Maybe he does want to play matchmaker!” Kai said.

“What?” Teddy exclaimed, missing Kai's grin and wink at Dewey. “Violet's my cousin!” he said indignantly.

“You know what they say about second cousins,” said Dewey, trying to keep a straight face.

“Kissing cousins,” agreed Kai.

“You're barking, both of you!”

Kai and Dewey both broke into laughter.

“Gits!” Teddy growled. They slapped him on the back.

“I think Violet is being terribly unreasonable,” said Chloe.

“Well, you weren't taped upside down in the Entrance Hall with your knickers showing, were you?” said Teddy.

Chloe blushed. “No,” she said. “But you weren't to know Roger and his friends were going to lie in wait for her when she came up to the seventh floor. She shouldn't blame you.”

“No,” Teddy sighed. “But...” He frowned. “Drocker's gang came across her by accident. They couldn't have been lying in wait for her, they wouldn't have known...”

Teddy, Kai, and Dewey stopped and looked at each other. They turned around and looked at Chloe.

She stared at them. “Wh- what?”

“Why would you think Drocker was lying in wait for Violet?” Kai asked.

“I- I assumed... I mean...” She stammered, her face turning red. She was avoiding their gazes.

“Oh, no,” said Dewey.

“I don't believe it,” said Kai.

“YOU!” yelled Teddy, startling them all. “WHAT DID YOU DO?” He advanced on Chloe, with such an angry expression that she actually backed away, looking frightened.

“I- I didn't mean, it was only supposed to be a joke, I never expected it would become so serious, oh Teddy I'm sorry!” she whimpered in a high-pitched tone.

“WHY?” he screamed. “WHAT DID VIOLET EVER DO TO YOU?”

Chloe looked terrified. She stared at his face, and behind him, Kai and Dewey's mouths dropped open, as Teddy's hair flared bright green and flailed around his head like a living thing, then turned flame-red, standing straight up, then blazing yellow, sticking out from his head in sharp spikes in all directions, and then midnight blue, laying back flat against his skull.

“Eek!” Chloe exclaimed.

“I can't believe I've been such an idiot! Violet was right about you all along, you horrible, lying, manipulative little – ”

“Teddy,” said Dewey.

“Uh, mate,” said Kai, concerned. He didn't think Teddy would hit Chloe, but he'd never heard the Gryffindor so angry.

“You oughtn't to have been a Gryffindor! I'd say you should've been a Slytherin, except you're not good enough to be a Slytherin! Violet is worth ten of you, you – ”

Teddy spit out a word, then, which was the most horrible word he'd ever used, one that would have made his grandmother use a Scouring Charm on his mouth if she'd heard him say it. Chloe's eyes went wide, and filled with tears, and then she turned around and fled, sobbing.

“That was harsh,” said Dewey.

“She deserved it, though,” said Kai.

Teddy was standing there, breathing heavily. Dewey and Kai looked at each other.

“Er,” said Dewey.

“Are you all right?” asked Kai.

“And...” Dewey muttered.

“Mate, your hair! How does it do that?” Kai blurted out.

Teddy turned around. “Huh?” He ran a hand through his hair, and blushed. “Oh. I guess I must have lost control.” It slowly returned to its normal tousled blond.

His two friends stared at him.

Teddy sighed. “I'm a metamorphmagus. Like my mother.”

“You're joking!” said Dewey.

“Ace!” exclaimed Kai. “You can look like anyone, then?”

“Why didn't you ever say anything about it?” Dewey asked.

“Don't you have to register with the Ministry?” Kai asked.

Teddy looked around, checking that no one was nearby.

“It's not that easy,” he said. “It takes practice to actually look like other people. Technically, I don't have to register until I'm of age. My grandmother and my godfather told me I shouldn't let on to everyone that I inherited my mother's ability. The Ministry might know what I can do, once I turn seventeen, but that doesn't mean the world has to.”

“We won't tell,” Dewey promised.

“Can you look like me? Or Dewey? Can you even turn into a girl?” Kai asked excitedly.

Teddy gave him a sour look. “I've never tried. And I'm not a show pony.” Kai looked chagrined, and then Teddy shook his head. “Anyway, I need to figure out what to do about Violet.”

“I don't know what you can do about her,” said Dewey glumly. “She doesn't seem to want to have anything to do with us.”

“You know what?” Teddy said. “Slughorn said I don't realize how badly she was humiliated.”

“I think we all realize how badly she was humiliated. I mean, we all saw it,” Dewey murmured.

“Well, then I've got to convince her I really understand.”

They both frowned at him. “How are you going to do that?”

Two nights later, Teddy took a deep breath, and descended the stairs from the Entrance Hall to the dungeons. The entrance to the Slytherin common room was a secret door, but it was hard to keep it completely secret when the Slytherins had to pass through it all day.

Actually walking up to the door and knocking on it, however, took an entirely different sort of nerve.

After a minute, an older Slytherin boy opened the door, with a baffled look. He stared down at Teddy.

“Could you please tell Violet Parkinson I'd like to talk to her?” Teddy asked politely.

The Slytherin boy kept staring at him.

“Since she won't talk to me anywhere else,” Teddy went on cheerfully, “I guess I'll have to wait out here until she comes out.”

“You must be insane!” The Slytherin boy slammed the door shut in his face.

Teddy sighed, and sat down outside the door. A few minutes later it opened, and the first boy along with two others emerged.

“Did you tell Violet I wanted to see her?” Teddy asked.

“No,” said the first Slytherin.

The three of them grabbed Teddy and lifted him off the ground.

“Let go of me!” he shouted, struggling and kicking. They were all bigger than him, and he was unable to break free.

“You can go back to your Gryffindor chums and tell them you took their bloody dare,” said the Slytherins, dragging him into a dungeon-level boys' washroom.

When Teddy came trudging up the stairs to the seventh floor, he was bedraggled, and soaking wet. Kai and Dewey were waiting for him.

“You all right, mate?” asked Kai.

“I'm fine,” Teddy said. “But I need a bath.” He sloshed past. “I figure tomorrow night it will get more interesting.”

Dewey and Kai looked at each other. “He's out of his mind,” said Kai.

Teddy approached the Fat Lady. “Password?” she asked.

“Saint George,” said Teddy.

She wrinkled her nose. “You don't smell so good, dear,” she commented, as she let her portrait frame swing open to admit him.

The next night, Teddy was down at the Slytherin entrance again. This time Mortimer Thickwaite and Jonathan Madscarf opened the door almost immediately.

“You really are insane,” said Mortimer.

“I'm not going away until I can talk to Violet.”

“Get it through your thick, stupid, skull! She doesn't want to talk to you!” snapped Jonathan. They both drew their wands. Mortimer cursed him with a Bat-Bogey Hex, while Jonathan put a Leg-Locker Curse on him.

By the time Teddy hopped his way up to the seventh floor, he was tired and sore and his nose was bleeding.

“I reckon you're getting off lightly so far,” said Kai, as he and Dewey tried to remove the Leg-Locker Curse.

“So far,” said Teddy.

“You really think this is going to work?” Dewey asked.

“I'm not so sure Violet will be impressed by blind stupidity,” said Kai.

“Thanks for the support. I'll see you tomorrow. You think maybe you could wait for me in the Entrance Hall next time?” Teddy rose and staggered his way back to Gryffindor Tower. Dewey and Kai looked at each other and shook their heads.

By the third night, there were more Slytherins waiting for him. “Do you have a deathwish?” asked one of the Quidditch Beaters.

“Would you just let me talk to Violet?” he sighed.

“No. Levicorpus!” Teddy went flying straight up and flipped head-over-heels, to dangle from his ankle just below the ceiling.

By the time he limped up the stairs to the Entrance Hall, he was bruised and had blisters all over his face and hands.

“This isn't funny any more, mate,” said Kai.

“Do I look like I'm laughing?” asked Teddy.

“Seriously, you should give this up,” said Dewey.

“No.”

He went to Madame Pomfrey and got a salve for the blisters. The next day, he felt the Slytherins watching him everywhere he went.

Violet walked past him in Herbology class and whispered, “Stop it!”

“Will you talk to me?”

“What are you trying to prove?”

“What do you think?”

She looked exasperated, and stalked back to her table.

“See you tonight!” Teddy called after her. The Gryffindors and Slytherins alike stared at him. Chloe watched him silently from another table.

“It's almost romantic,” Nagaeena commented, in their room that night.

“In a clueless, pig-headed sort of way,” Bernice said.

Violet glowered at them. “Being stalked by an idiot is not romantic.”

“If you say so,” Nagaeena shrugged. “But he's certainly determined.”

Kai and Dewey had to half-carry him to Madame Pomfrey's that evening.

“Mr. Lupin, if you keep coming to me in this condition, I'm going to have to report it to the Headmistress,” said the healer.

“I'd rather you didn't. I'll have to stop coming to you,” said Teddy. Madame Pomfrey scowled disapprovingly at him.

“This dueling is getting completely out of hand,” she said. “I've never had so many injured students coming in.” Teddy noticed many of the other beds were filled, in fact, some by students in worse shape than him.

“I'm not dueling. I'm just trying to talk to someone,” he said, as he got up to leave.

Madame Pomfrey stared at him. “Well, I don't think she's listening!” she called after him.

Everyone was watching Teddy the next day. Slytherins looked at him as if he were crazy. Violet passed him a note in Potions class that said, “Stop being a stubborn idiot!”

He passed a note back: “You first.” She crumpled it up, while Nagaeena, Decima, and Bernice stared at him.

Kai and Dewey tried to talk him out of returning the next evening.

“They're going to hurt you,” Kai said.

“They've got to kind of admire my determination, don't you think?” asked Teddy.

“No, they're going to hurt you,” Kai replied.

Teddy was barely able to crawl up the stairs afterwards. Madame Pomfrey was unamused when Kai and Dewey brought him to her infirmary.

“Jelly-Fingers, Jelly-Legs, Sponge-Knees, and missing eyebrows,” she said. “You're lucky that whoever did this didn't do anything to your brain.”

“I think the damage has already been done there,” said Kai. Teddy glared at him.

“You'll have to stay here overnight,” she said. “If I could, I'd keep you here until you promise not to get yourself hurt anymore. What are you up to, Mr. Lupin?” she asked despairingly.

“Don't worry, Ma'am,” he sighed. “It can't go on too much longer.”

In History of Magic class the next day, Dewey whispered to Violet from the row behind her: “Would you please put an end to this?”

She turned around and glared at him. “I'm not responsible for his stupidity!” she hissed back.

Kai sent a note flying at her in Charms class. It read, “We're all really, really sorry!”

She sighed, and put her elbows on her desk and buried her face in her hands.

Teddy was released from the infirmary the next day. Dewey and Kai were waiting for him downstairs when he headed down to the Slytherin dungeons that evening.

“We can't let you do it, mate,” said Kai.

“This isn't just being stubborn, it's suicidal,” said Dewey.

Teddy looked at them, and balled up his fists. “How do you plan to stop me? Are you going to fight me?”

They looked at each other.

“Be reasonable, mate,” Kai pleased.

“They haven't even gotten really nasty yet,” said Dewey.

“See you in a little while,” sighed Teddy, and he proceeded down the stairs.

In the Slytherin common room, Mortimer Thickwaite stepped through the door to face the waiting Slytherins.

“Unbelievable! He's back!”

Jonathan Madscarf sneered. “Slow learner.”

Hugh cracked his knuckles, making an evil popping sound.

The bigger boys exited the Slytherin common room.

Violet emerged from her room, and looked at the door with a troubled expression. She paced around the common room for a while, staring at the black water of the lake overhead, the bust of Salazar Slytherin, and then paused in front of the portrait of Severus Snape. The former Slytherin Head and (briefly) Headmaster looked down his nose at her. She avoided his gaze, and looked at the plaque beneath his portrait instead: 'Severus Snape, 1960-1998. The Hero of Hogwarts.'

Ophilia was seated in one of the reading chairs, beneath a bright green lamp, with a book in her lap: A Purely Theoretical Approach to Understanding the Dark Arts, Which Contains Absolutely No Recommendations or Endorsements for the Practice Thereof. She watched the younger girl for a minute, and then said, “Violet,” and beckoned her over.

Violet shuffled over to the Prefect, and looked down at her shoes. Ophilia studied her a moment.

“How did a plain little thing like you snare a boy like that?“

Violet frowned. “It's not like that. He's my cousin.”

“He's obviously besotted with you.”

Violet frowned again, but Ophilia went on.

“You need to put an end to this, Violet. The boys really are getting tired of this game. Do you want them to kill your cousin?”

Violet shook her head.

“You have an excellent opportunity to practice the use of your charms, which are obviously far less modest than they appear at first glance. Boys are idiots, Violet. Trust me on this. They only become more idiotic as they get older. You have this boy wrapped around your finger. Take advantage of that, learn from it, and use him.”

“He's a Gryffindor.”

Ophilia nodded. “That doesn't mean he can't be useful. Who knows, perhaps he has the makings of a Slytherin, come the end of the year?”

Violet frowned some more. She doubted that.

Hugh and Mortimer and Jonathan reentered the room, laughing maliciously.

“This can get much worse,” Ophilia said.

Violet nodded. “I'll talk to him.”

Ophilia went back to reading her book, and Violet went into the dungeon corridor outside. Teddy was lying in a little heap by the stairs. She gasped and ran over to kneel next to him.

“Violet!” he groaned, and grinned at her, though his face was swollen and his mouth was bleeding. “Wotcha?”

She sighed. “You're an idiot.”

He grimaced. “Yeah, I've been hearing that a lot.”

She looked him over. His fingers and his feet had been reversed. His arms and legs flopped bonelessly, and he looked worse than some of the Quidditch players after the Gryffindor-Slytherin game.

“Why would you let them do this, Teddy?” she asked quietly.

He looked at her. “I know how scared and humiliated you had to be, Violet. I'm so sorry. I wanted you to believe I really understand how you felt.”

She stared at him, with her mouth open, then blurted out, “That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard!” She shook her head. “Ophilia says you're besotted with me.”

“I'm really not.”

She nodded. “I know. You're besotted with Chloe.”

“No, I'm not.”

She gave him a skeptical look, as she helped him sit up. He exhaled slowly, and then told her about his confrontation with the Gryffindor girl.

“I just don't understand why she'd do a thing like that.”

“You don't understand girls. Especially girls like Chloe.”

“What do you mean?”

Violet's eyes narrowed a moment.

“She'd make a good Slytherin.”

Teddy frowned. “I told her she wasn't good enough to be a Slytherin. I said you were worth ten of her.”

Violet smiled in disbelief. “You said that?”

He nodded.

“Look at you,” she said softly. Teddy could barely even sit up without her help. “You are such an idiot.”

“Yeah. Like I said, I've been hearing that a lot.”

“We'd better get you out of here. I heard the sixth-years talking about practicing Bleeding Eyeball Hexes and the Curse of the Flaming Feet.”

“That sounds bad. Kai and Dewey are upstairs.”

Violet had to struggle to drag Teddy up even one flight of stairs. Dewey and Kai looked delighted when they saw Violet, and appalled when they saw Teddy.

“So, are we friends again?” Kai asked Violet.

She glared at him. “How could you let him do this?” she scolded.

“How were we supposed to stop him?” asked Dewey.

“You're the one who let him do it,” said Kai.

“This is not my fault!” she said angrily.

“No,” said Dewey. “It's not.” He looked at her seriously. “We are sorry, Violet. We're really sorry.”

“It was awful, what happened,” Kai agreed. “We don't blame you if you don't want to stay friends. But we wish you would.”

She looked down.

“Guys?” said Teddy. “I don't think I can feel my hands or feet.”

“We'd better get him to Madame Pomfrey,” Violet said. And as they all proceeded upstairs, she asked, “What are you three grinning for?” She shook her head. “Boys really are idiots.”