Neville threw his fifth attempt across the room and into the fiery snout of a Flaming Freesia. He scratched the side of his nose with his quill and wondered whether or not he was doing the right thing; whether or not it was best if he tried to tackle this problem on his own.
His first inclination had been to write to Harry but Neville feared that this would only provoke Harry’s tendency to over-protect. No, Neville had thought to himself; he needed advice that was pragmatic, uncomplicated, sensible and, with a sudden epiphany, he had pulled the piece of parchment towards him and begun writing to Hermione instead.
After the formalities of asking how she and Ron and little Hugo and Rose were, Neville wrote about his concerns for Teddy. He explained that he feared he was finding his experience at Hogwarts too difficult and how he felt it was his duty to take Teddy aside and make sure things were alright. He was worried of pushing him though. Neville understood, more than most, how uncomfortable it could be explaining to others about the fate of his parents. He asked Hermione her thoughts on what he should do and, whether or not, he was right to be worried.
More punctual than even Neville expected from Hermione, her reply arrived with the Evening Post.
Dear Neville,
My advice would be that, if you’re worried, than maybe there is something to be worried about. I don’t think anyone underestimated how difficult it would be for Teddy but perhaps we were all more optimistic than it was realistic to be.
I think the best you can do is talk to him when he needs you, help him if you can. He’s a sweet-natured sensible boy who won’t need much coaxing to confide in someone like you. Keep in touch if you have any problems.
We are all fine this end. Hugo accidentally set Crookshanks on fire the other day (which that irresponsible husband of mine seemed to find hilarious!)
Come see us soon and bring Hannah with you!
All my love
Hermione
He smiled to himself thinking about Crookshanks and the reprimanding looks only Hermione could bestow upon Ron with such affection. He missed his friends more than he had possibly realised he would in accepting his position at Hogwarts. However, there were some positive things to come out of his isolation during term time. It had resulted in him spending more time in Hogsmead and his frequent trips to the Three Broomsticks had resulted in his growing attachment to its new barmaid, Hannah Abbot.
Neville felt himself flushing and he quickly banished those particular thoughts from his mind. Teddy Lupin was his primary concern at the moment; there was time to consider his feelings for Hannah later. He had heard from a number of sources (Peeves being the most vocal) that Teddy had been found that morning asleep beneath the statue in the Entrance Hall. But Neville wasn’t due to take Teddy’s Herbology class for another two days and he couldn’t think of a way to orchestrate a meeting where he would be able to tactfully ask if he was alright. Somehow Neville had the impression that despite the lip service he had been paid, Teddy still wouldn’t feel comfortable in confiding his problems to his Herbology teacher.
As Teddy waited anxiously outside the Greenhouse he could see, out of the corner of his eye, two Gryffindor girls elbowing each other and looking in his direction. Trying his best to ignore them, Teddy pretended to be rifling in his bag for something but he heard one of them finally pluck up the courage to ask, “Are you Teddy Lupin?”
Teddy nodded and the girl who had yet to speak, a plump girl with a pasty complexion said to her friend, “See, I told you. Why isn’t your hair all funny colours now? Like how it went pink the other morning?”
“It doesn’t work like that.”
“If I was a Metamorphagus I would change my appearance all the time! Then no-one would know just who I was.”
“Who’s a Metamorphagus?” one of the more unpleasant looking Slytherin boys asked, a boy with a lean, mean mouth and an aquiline nose.
The plump girl pointed at Teddy who automatically lowered his eyes back to his bag. The Slytherin boy sniggered at his surrounding friends before drawling, “Go on then. Prove it. You don’t look special to me.”
“I’m not proving anything to anyone.” Teddy huffed, straightening his back and turning his fierce gaze onto the Slytherin.
“How do we know you’re not just lying then? Metamorphmagi are really rare, aren’t they?”
Both the rotund Gryffindor girl and Teddy spoke at once.
“Why would I lie about a thing like that?”
“I saw his hair change colour!”
The Slytherin boy smirked, unconvinced before saying with a shrug, “How would I know why you’d lie about something as pathetic as that? Probably just attention seeking…”
“He doesn’t need to attention seek!” The other Gryffindor girl snapped suddenly, starting forward, tossing her hair over one shoulder. Teddy recognised her from her previous Herbology class. “Don’t you know who he is? Don’t you recognise his name?”
The Slytherins gave each other unpleasant looks. Teddy tried to interrupt, tried to stop the girl from saying anything else but he wasn’t quick enough.
“Both his parent’s names are on the statue downstairs! They both died in the Battle of Hogwarts!”
An eerie silence descended as Professor Longbottom approached and allowed them to enter into the Greenhouse. The dark-haired Gryffindor smiled as Teddy took his seat but he found himself unable to return her smile. He supposed he should feel grateful; after all, she had only been trying to defend him. But from the way that the Slytherin boy with the curved nose pushed past him as he made his way to the bench in front Teddy realised that, in fact, the girl had inadvertently done more harm than good.
“So I guess that’s why he wanted to sleep downstairs on the floor,” he heard the Slytherin boy say to his friends as Professor Longbottom made his way to the front of the class. “Wanted to be closer to mummy and daddy.”
“Settle down please!” Professor Longbottom called over the class and Teddy, trembling with an emotion he could barely suppress, felt his cheeks burning as he attempted to ignore the things the boys were saying. But despite his efforts to listen to the instructions the Herbology teacher was giving he couldn’t draw his attention away from the boys in front who, with occasional glances back to him, continued.
“Do you think he cried when he came here?” a boy with a puggish nose and a simpering voice asked.
The hook-nosed boy laughed and mimicked, “Booo hooo! Isn’t my life tragic?”
“Shut up!” Teddy hissed through gritted teeth, carefully adjusting his volume so that no-one but the boys in front could hear.
As one the boys turned round and the mean-mouthed boy, who was clearly the ring-leader, squared his shoulders and said, “Why should we? It’s true, isn’t it?”
“You don’t know anything about my parents!” Teddy’s hands were trembling as he struggled to hold his quill to maintain the pretence of making notes. An anger that had been previously dormant seemed to be simmering just beneath his skin and he feared, from the way some of his other classmates were pointing in his direction, that his hair was changing colour to match.
“Who says we don’t?” the boy who had yet to speak chipped in. He was a boy of a sanguine complex and narrowed, unpleasant grey eyes. “They were both members of the Order, weren’t they? They both died here…they deserved it.”
Teddy could not say anything in return. He had dropped his quill and was finding it difficult to breathe as he watched the Slytherin boy’s lips continue to move.
“I know what your dad was…I don’t care what he did for the Wizarding World. He was contaminated, a half-breed. He doesn’t deserve to be remembered; your mum too…for marrying someone like that. Metamorphagus and werewolf? You’re just as degenerate as they were! ”
In one swift movement Teddy had jumped to his feet, knocking over his stool as he withdrew his wand. He only vaguely heard the commotion of the classroom as he directed all his hatred at the laughing Slytherin boys and, before they even had a chance to defend themselves, he had jinxed them all.
The boy with the puggish nose turned a peevish shade of green as he clutched at his stomach and howled in pain. The Slytherin with the grey eyes was lifted clean off his feet and was hung, suspended by his robe collar, from a hook that jutted out from a particularly high piece of trellis. The boy with the distinctive nose had been less hesitant than his counterparts and had managed to withdraw his wand. Yet Teddy was simply too furious to be anything but quick and, with a flourish of his wand, sent both boy and wand shooting several yards backwards.
The boy landed with a heavy thump at the feet of Professor Longbottom who quickly summoned Teddy’s wand. The moment he felt his wand leave his hand it was as though the red mist that had descended in Teddy’s mind lifted, and he suddenly felt ashamed of what he had done. He sunk down onto stool as Professor Longbottom muttered words like “Irresponsible” and “Shocking” as he tried to simultaneously detach the boy from the trellis and relieve the symptoms of the sickly Slytherin.
“I would have never have expected such behaviour from you!” Professor Longbottom fumed as he ushered the three boys away to the hospital wing just to be sure. Teddy could keenly feel the whole class’ eyes upon him as he struggled to meet his Professor’s unpitying eyes.
“Ten house points from Gryffindor,” he announced to the utter incredulity of the Gryffindor’s in the class. “And you, Teddy, will stay behind after the lesson, do you understand?”
Teddy nodded and said nothing in his defence; how could he explain to his teacher, in front of his peers, just what had made him react in that way?