Moonlight

Chapter Seven

Childhood Memory

Ted awoke with the mournful howl seeming to live inside of him, inside his very soul. He turned over and tried in vain to return to the wonderful, relaxed state of sleep. It was only around one in the morning. He needed sleep. Unfortunately he did not manage anything close to sleep until the outside had turned gray with early morning, because after he'd awoken from that awful, terrible dream, something in the back of his mind kept bothering him and it gave him the urge to move around, and toss and turn in his sheets. In the end he found sleep simply out of exhaustion from tossing and turning so much.

The very next morning he overslept. Luckily, Rodger was looking out for him.

"Get up!" he exclaimed, ripping the covers off of Ted.

"Five more minutes..." Ted moaned.

"We've got charms in five minutes!"

"What?!"

Rodger jammed a slice of toast into Ted's open mouth. "Come on!"

They barely made it to charms in time, with Ted cramming the last bit of toast into his mouth. It was just a good thing the Marauder's Map had taught them shortcuts in case of emergencies such as this.

Ted wasn't able to read any of the journal that evening though either, because he and Rodger had Quidditch practice. They were the team's Beaters, and the practice went late into the night, prepping for the final match between Gryffindor and Ravenclaw. The next evening, Wednesday, was devoted to studying for finals. And then the following evening, on Thursday, they had another Quidditch practice, and, again, it went late. On Friday evening, Ted was hitting the books again in the Gryffindor common room. But he couldn't concentrate. As he idly fingered the gold Gobstone that was actually the ANSWERS box in his trouser pocket, lounging on the sofa in front of the merrily crackling fire with a book on arithmancy propped open in front of him, he daydreamed of his date with Victoire the following day. He couldn't see her anywhere in the common room at the moment, and in fact, he hadn't seen her at all since she'd said hi to him that past Monday morning at breakfast in the Great Hall.

And then his nose began to prickle.

He dived for his bag at once, sending the arithmancy book to the floor with a dull thud. Rodger was surprised, as he'd been below him on the floor stretched out on his stomach, and the book in question had nearly crashed right onto his head. "Watch it, Ted!" he said indignantly.

Ted barely heard him. Nose still prickling, he whipped out the Marauder's Map from his bag. Glancing around to make sure no one was watching, he opened up the map and examined it. "There!" he exclaimed under his breath.

"What's there?" Rodger asked, still irked that Ted had nearly given him a concussion.

Ted raised his eyes from the map to Rodger. "My nose just started prickling again, so I checked to see if Liane Géroux's name was on here again, and it is! Look!" He pointed out the dot labeled "Liane Géroux" pacing outside on the grounds, in proximity of Gryffindor tower. Just like before. "That's where she was on Sunday," Ted explained. "I went to the window and saw her. And my nose was prickling then too. Come on, Rodger, you can't deny she was the shadow I saw out my bedroom window!" His nose continued to prickle, and had a compulsion to run to the window that very second and see if he could see her again, just so Rodger could see for himself that she was real.

"Hey, look!"

Ted and Rodger glanced up from the map and saw Bartholomew Spinnet pointing out the very same window to which Ted was just considering to run.

"What is it, Spin?" asked Bartholomew's best friend, Terrence Jordan. Bartholomew had earned the nickname in his position as Keeper on the Gryffindor Quidditch team, and much preferred it to his first name. It was also clever because the word "spin" happened to be in his last name anyhow.

"There's someone out there, Terry," said Bartholomew.

"Mischief managed," Ted whispered to the Marauder's Map as he tapped it with his wand before folding it up and stowing it in his pocket with the gold Gobstone. He leapt to his feet and crossed over to the window where a crowd of Gryffindors was already forming to get a glimpse of what Bartholomew was seeing. As he reached it, his foot caught the leg of a chair and he fell to the floor.

Rodger, who had followed him, pulled him up to his feet.

They stood together at the edge of the knot, but by now there were so many that they couldn't get through.

"They're gone!" Terrence announced. "Whoever they were...."

Ted's heart sank, along with everyone else's gathered around the window.

"It looked like a woman," said Bartholomew as the dispelled throng gradually dispersed in a cacophony of chatter.

Ted's heart leapt again. "A woman!" he said, turning to Rodger. "See? I told you! I wasn't imagining--!"

"You can't just go on Spin's word, mate," said Rodger. "His perception could have easily been distorted. It's awfully dark out there...."

Ted scowled at him and wandered to the window, where Bartholomew and Terrence were still looking outside to see if what'd they'd seen would reappear. He leaned his shoulder against the bit of wall beside it, his hands thrust in his trouser pockets. The prickling in his nose had completely stopped now. "Wotcher, Spin. Terry."

"Hey, Ted," said Bartholomew and Terrence.

"Why d'you use that term?" asked Terrence.

"What term?" asked Ted, sensing Rodger coming to stand beside him.

"'Wotcher'."

"Why not?"

"It's more common in London, innit?"

"Yeah. But I live in the London area. South London, actually. And--" Ted smiled slightly, feeling a warm fuzziness inside him that made him forget his irritation with Rodger, with whom he exchanged half a glance "--it happened to be something of a signature greeting of a member of the Order of the Phoenix."

"Who?" asked Bartholomew, tearing himself away from the window like his friend.

"No one you'd have heard of," Ted said dismissively, moving closer to the window to gaze out of it himself.

"Try us."

Ted said nothing.

"Leave him be, guys," he heard Rodger say behind him.

"See you next practice then, Ted. Rodger."

"See you, Spin," said Ted and Rodger.

It was dark out, but the waxing gibbous moon was even brighter tonight, as the full moon approached nearer and nearer. Thoughts of Ted's parents consumed him. He closed his eyes and felt a memory wash over him....

Six-year old Ted was up in his room playing with his plush animals. At the moment, he had his stuffed wolf Rory in one hand and his stuffed black dog Sandy in the other. They were his two favorite toys, and in his world, they were the best of friends that went on adventures together. "Catch me if you can, Sandy!" he said, pretending it was Rory talking. He ran them along the edge of the bed so that Sandy was "chasing after" Rory. "Slow down, Rory!" he cried, now pretending it was Sandy talking. "You're going too fast!"

"Teddy!" Andromeda called from downstairs. "Get down here, please!"

"But Grandmummy, I'm busy!"

"Your godfather's here!"

Ted's spirits brightened, his game no longer a priority. "Harry!" he cried. He dropped Rory and Sandy, burst from his room, and bounded down the stairs. He accidentally missed the last stair and fell forward. However, just before he hit the ground, two strong arms caught him and lifted him up.

"Careful there, Teddy!" said Harry, his face glowing with a grin as he set little Ted down back down onto his feet.

"Wotcher, Harry!" laughed Ted. "Hang me upside down! Please, please, please!"

"Teddy, you're getting awfully heavy," chuckled Harry. "Can't we just have tea?"

"Hang me first! Hang me first!" Ted demanded, jumping up and down and raising up his arms.

"Teddy, for goodness' sake, where are your manners?" Andromeda scolded, taking Harry's travelling cloak off from around his shoulders. "Let the man breathe at least."

"It's alright, Andi," said Harry, a mischievous gleam in his green eyes. "Alright then, Ted, I'll hang you. I'll hang you--if you want me to."

"I do! I do!"

"Are you sure you want me to?"

"Yes! Yes! I want you to! I want you to!"

"Alrightee then!"

Ted squealed with fearful delight as Harry swept him up in his arms, flipped him upside down, grasped an ankle in each of his hands, and dangled him upside down in the air. After a minute, which was filled entirely with Ted's laughter, he told Ted that he had to put him right again.

"No! Not yet!" Ted begged. "Please, Harry! Just a bit longer!"

"Ted," Harry laughed, "I've got to! Your face's turning purple!"

"I'm doing that Harry! Honest!"

From Ted's position, he saw Harry's upside down face peer at him with an eyebrow raised in speculation. "You wouldn't be fooling me now, would you?"

"Er.... ARGH! Head hurts! Put me down, Harry, quick!"

"Excellent idea, Ted," said Harry, carrying Ted upside down by his ankles to the sofa in the sitting room. Unceremoniously, he flopped him down on the sofa.

"Now tickle me, Harry!" Ted giggled. "Please, please, please!"

"Oh, Teddy," said Andromeda, smiling and shaking her head as she entered the sitting room with a tea tray floating alongside her.

"Tickle you?" Harry said in exaggerated disbelief. "You want me to tickle you? Well...if you insist...." And with that he attacked Ted with his fingertips, tickling him frantically all along the sides of his stomach.

Only when Ted was breathless with laughter did he gasp, "Okay...! Okay...stop...Harry...! Stop...! Ha...ha...ha-ha...!"

Andromeda made sure to set the tea tray somewhere out of harm's way. "Harry, I have to say, I wouldn't have said this six years ago, but I can certainly say it now: I think you'd make a wonderful father."

"Thanks, Andromeda," said Harry quietly. In truth, this routine of playing with his godson whenever he came to visit him and Andromeda was very new territory for him. Before Ted, he'd never had experience interacting with a small child. Ted had learned this from Harry himself. Apparently he liked to think of playing with Ted as not only good bonding, but also as good practice for whenever he had kids of his own--if he ever had kids of his own.

"And speaking of fatherhood," Andromeda went on, pouring Harry a cup of tea and handing it to him on a china saucer, "how are things with you and Ginny?"

Sensing that the two grown-ups were going to do that boring talking thing, Ted amused himself as he continued to lie on his back on the sofa by swinging his legs in the air and staring at the ceiling, absently tugging at his right ear with his right hand.

"Well, they're going quite well, actually," he heard his godfather admit in a tone of embarrassed glee. Next he heard the sound of tea being sipped, and the light chink of a china cup being set back down on its saucer.

"Oh?" Andromeda said expectantly. There was the sound of more tea pouring.

"See, things were a bit slow with my Auror training and her training for the Harpies, but now that Ron and I've both been qualified and we've settled into our offices at the Ministry, and Ginny's gotten into the groove of professional Quidditch life, we had a chance to start going out again." He chuckled and Ted heard him sip more tea.

There was a pause, and then Ted heard his grandmother say teasingly, "There's something you're not telling me, Harry. Come now, what is it?"

Again there was the chink of a china cup being set down on a china saucer. "Alright, alright. Well...Ginny and I.... We're engaged."

Andromeda laughed. "And about time, too! Congratulations."

Ted grew bored with swinging his legs in the air and sat up on the sofa to see his grandmother had turned to him inquiringly.

"Teddy, I seem to have forgotten the sugar bowl. Would you go fetch it for me from the kitchen? It's sitting on the counter beside the sink."

Ted sprinted into the kitchen, stepped up his special stepping-stool at the sink, and grabbed the china sugar bowl full of sugar cubes that he sometimes liked to sneak and suck on--though he preferred the taste of chocolate to just plain sugar. However, he was so overzealous in stepping off of his stepping stool that he tripped over his own two feet and fell to the floor with a crash. The sugar bowl fell with a crash too, having slipped from Ted's grip in the fall. It made impact with the floor and shattered into a mess of china shards and sugar the moment it made contact with the wood floorboards.

One shard nearly hit him in the eye, but luckily his worst injury was a shard grazing his right eyebrow. He felt tiny beads of blood form where the shard had hit. In the aftermath, he got up off of his stomach and sat up on his knees. He reached up and felt the tiny amount of blood on his brow, and then regarded the broken china lying amongst the thin covering of sugar everywhere.

Dread dropped through the bottom of his stomach like a dead weight. "Oh no..." he moaned. He eyes stung and welled up with tears: tears for having messed up and broken something--again: tears for the tiny cut in his eyebrow, which was still oozing tiny beads of blood.

This all happened in less than a second, though it seemed longer. Before he knew it, his godfather and his grandmother came through the kitchen door. He looked up at their appalled faces, and knew that he was in for it now. And on top of that, the cut in his eyebrow was starting to sting.

"I'm sorry," he whimpered, and felt the tears gush out of his eyes as he began to cry. "It was--It was an accident.... I'm really sorry...."

Harry sighed and took out his wand. Pointing it at the mess on the floor, he muttered, "Reparo," and the sugar bowl repaired itself. As he began siphoning the sugar off the floor next, Andromeda had crossed to Ted and knelt beside him.

"Don't you fret, love," she said, "after raising your mum, I've quite grown used to dealing with more-than-constant accidents."

Ted felt her knuckles caress his cheek, light as a breath. He nodded, and wiped his eyes with the back of his sleeve. Some of the blood on his brow rubbed off on it.

Andromeda did not fail to notice. "Oh dear, did you get a cut?"

Ted nodded, sniffing, gazing down at the now sugar-free floor. Out of the corner of his eye he saw her take out her wand.

"Let me see where it is," she said.

Ted raised his face.

Andromeda placed the tip of her wand on it, and heard her mutter something and then felt the tingle of his skin rapidly healing good as new. "There we are," she said. She smoothed a few bangs out of his face and smiled demonstratively at him.

TAP-TAP-TAP!

Ted looked over his shoulder at the kitchen sink window and saw the old tawny owl, Ringo. His grandfather was the one who had named him, and apparently he had named him for his favorite band member--the drummer--of an old British Muggle rock 'n' roll foursome called the Beatles, who had been--according to Ted Tonks himself--very popular among Muggles the world over when he'd been a young man, and being Muggle-born, he obviously had a taste for them. That was something Ted always liked about Muggle-borns: they seemed to have the best of both worlds--literally: they were magic, and learned to adapt in the wizarding world, but they also had their "roots" in the Muggle world, and easily came to know their way around in both societies.

From what he could tell, it looked as though Ringo had a letter in his beak. As Andromeda rose to her feet and opened the window to take the letter and give Ringo a treat, Ted glanced around for his godfather, only to see that he had vacated the kitchen. He supposed that after finishing with cleaning up, Harry had gone back into the sitting room.

Getting to his feet as well, he scampered out of the kitchen into the sitting room and saw that Harry had sat down in his seat on the sofa and resumed sipping his tea, gazing absently out the window as he did so.

Ted went over and sat beside him.

Harry looked around at him, seeming to reemerge from his thoughts. He smiled at Ted. "Where's your Grandmum?"

"Ringo brought a letter," said Ted, his eyes focusing upon the small china plate of cookies set on the tea tray. He wanted one, but after what had happened in the kitchen, he didn't feel he deserved it.

Harry seemed to read his mind. "Those biscuits look excellent, don't they?"

"Uh-huh."

While this happened, they heard the sounds of Andromeda in the kitchen taking the letter from Ringo, giving him a treat, breaking the seal on the letter, and now they heard the groan of the stairs as she climbed up them to the second floor of the house.

"Fancy one?" Harry asked, referring to the cookies. "I do." He leaned forward, set his saucer with his tea down on the table, and nabbed a cookie from the plate. He offered it to Ted, who looked up into his godfather's face and reluctantly declined with a shake of his head.

A crease formed between Harry's eyebrows. "Why not?"

"I don't think I should have one," said Ted. He pulled his legs up and hugged his knees, burying his face in them. All he could see now was darkness.

"Now why would you think that?" Harry's voice inquired interestedly.

"Because I don't deserve it," said Ted, his voice muffled by his knees.

"Ah.... Because of what just happened?"

"Yes."

"I see." Ted heard him dip the cookie in his tea, take a bite, swallow, and then set it down on his saucer with his cup. And then he chuckled, "Well, there's no doubt you're your dad's kid."

Ted brought his face up from his knees and looked round at Harry. "What d'you mean?"

"Well, he was always saying he didn't deserve good things too. I mean not always but...a lot of the time." He cleared his throat and glanced at the kitchen door watchfully.

"Why? He wasn't a bad man, was he?" Ted asked.

"Oh, good God no, Ted," said Harry, tearing his eyes away from the door. "Definitely not. But...well, he always felt like--like he was bad...in a way. And...well, everyone's like that really. I broke lots of rules when I went to school, for instance. Everybody's a little bit bad sometimes but...your dad was...well, he thought he was really bad when he wasn't. And he wasn't even the one tripping over everything! Your mum was the one doing that."

"Was anyone ever bothered about her tripping over stuff all the time?"

Harry took a sip of tea. "'Anyone' who?"

"Anyone in the...in the...." Ted struggled as he tried to remember the name. In the end he settled with, "In the Phoenix Thingy."

"Oh! You mean the Order of the Phoenix. Well...er...yeah, but they always tried to be really nice about it. And we could usually tell when she was coming to call at Order headquarters. We'd hear a, 'Wotcher!' followed by the clatter of the umbrella stand as she bumped into it for the umpteenth time, and then Sirius' mum'd start screaming her bleedin' head off." He laughed lightly and wistfully with the memory. "But she was a good person. And even though you're grandmother said she was a Hufflepuff in school, she was as brave as any true Gryffindor." He looked directly into Ted's face. "Your dad was a good person too."

"And he actually was a Gryffindor just like you, wasn't he?"

"Yes. He was a Gryffindor right to the very end."

"So he was brave just like you too?"

Harry nodded. "But of course, even Gryffindors see something when they face a boggart."

"What's a boggart?" Ted asked.

Harry laughed. "Teddy! You know what a boggart is! I told you about them just this past Christmas."

"Yeah, but I forget."

"Ah. Well, in that case: a boggart is something that when you face it, it turns into whatever scares you more than anything."

"Oh." Ted took a moment to process this, and then asked, "What did a boggart look like to my dad then?"

"Er...well, your Grandmum wouldn't like me telling you...she doesn't like talking about your dad much...."

"C'mon, Harry! Please?"

"Well, alright...it er...it looked like the full moon, actually."

"The moon? What's so scary about the moon? I thought you said he was a brave man!"

"He was. But remember that bravery doesn't mean not being scared."

"Yeah, but why'd he be scared of something silly like the full moon...?"

And now Ted knew why. Full moon meant an ordeal his father had had to deal with on a monthly basis....

His mother had still loved him, despite what he was....

A familiar wave of nostalgic melancholy stole him over, and he felt Rodger's eyes on him.

"Ted?"

Ted looked around at him, and saw that his smoky blue eyes held concern.

"Oh, Rodger!" sang a girl's voice at a table nearby.

Ted and Rodger looked over to see a small group of fifth year girls smiling and giggling flirtatiously.

"Would you help us translate this rune?" asked a brunette by the name of Cecilia Bell, batting her eyelashes. "We can't seem to suss this nasty little devil out."

Rodger glanced at Ted.

"Go on," said Ted, punching Rodger playfully on the shoulder and managing what he hoped was an encouraging grin. "The birds want their dose of Rodger tonight."

"You're okay?" Rodger asked.

"I'm fine. Go on, go on."

Rodger glanced once back at him over his shoulder as he went over to where Cecilia and her friends were sitting. He turned away when he reached them, and as Ted returned to gazing out the window, he heard Rodger say in his smooth, charming tone, "So, ladies, what appears to be the trouble then, eh...?"

Ted looked up at the fuller gibbous moon rising behind the trees of the Forbidden Forest. If he didn't know any better, he might have thought it was speaking words of comfort to him....

He sighed and moved away from the window. En route to the sofa in front of the fireplace to collect his things and head up to bed early, he took one last glance at the window behind him. He half-tripped, as his foot caught on the leg of the sofa, but because he'd been walking, he managed to steady himself before falling completely face forward onto the floor.

While jogging up the stairs to the dorm, he slipped on the stone steps halfway to the top. The moment he felt gravity drag him down, the first thought that came to mind, for some reason, was, Wingardium leviosa! which was pointless to try and use on himself in order to prevent his painful tumble down the stairs, as he did not have his wand out--not that he would've had time to whip it out anyway. Yet, to his mild surprise, his falling stopped abruptly the moment he thought of this incantation. He floated for a few seconds, and then landed lightly on the flat of his feet on the stone step, entirely unscathed. Casting it aside as a fluke, he continued jogging up the stairs. Again he slipped. Again he thought, Wingardium leviosa! This time, however, he found himself a second later, sprawled on the stone steps with an immensely sharp pain in his hands and knees.

~

In his bed in the dark dormitory, Ted's consciousness descended further into the relaxed realm of sleep. For about an hour he remained in the deepest stage of sleep: stage four. And then his mind churned, steadily at first. His brain waves remained slow as Ted reentered the third stage of sleep. With a sudden, infinitesimal burst of electrical activity, his mind returned to the second stage. Ted began to hear voices. Colors and shapes moved and shifted. The darkness of his eyelids filled with fuzzy light, as he made the crossing into R.E.M. sleep.

"Here, I'll hold him, Dora."

Teddy's nose started prickling, but it was ticklish. He didn't know why, but it made him smile.

"Dora! Dora, look! I think he's smiling!"

"Really?" A woman's excited face appeared. "Oh, Remus! Hang on! Keep him smiling, I wanna get a picture!"

The man laughed. "I'll try!"

Teddy's nose prickled, and prickled. He liked this man beaming down at him. His nose always prickled to see him. And the woman who fed him, he liked her too, her and the funny things she did with her face that no one else did--it didn't scare him at all. He sneezed as the prickling in his nose went on and on....

The world swirled in a haze of color and shape.

"Remus! Tonks!"

"Kingsley?"

"What's going on?"

"We've received an alert from the D.A.--"

"The what?"

"You know, that thing Harry started--"

"Oh, right! Well, what's the alert?"

"There's trouble at Hogwarts--You-Know-Who--"

"Voldemort's on his way to Hogwarts?"

"That's the word. C'mon, Remus, they need all the help they can get...."

"Dora, love...I would feel better if you and Teddy were staying with your mother while I'm away."

"Why?"

"I'll think you'll be safer where it's not just you and Teddy alone. And when you get there, I want you to stay there, understand?"

"But Remus, what if--?"

"Please, Dora. If something happened to you...."

"Alright then...."

"Look, Ted, I'm taking a picture of you with me for good luck!"

Teddy saw something in the man's smiling eyes...it was scary. He reached up to the man with a sudden, urgent desire to be held.

The man scooped him up into his arms. "Come on now, Ted, chin up."

Teddy liked the man patting him on the back and the sound of his voice. It soothed him. He buried his prickling nose in the man's shoulder.

"Remus...."

"I know, I know, King. I'm coming." He gave Teddy to the woman. "Be good for Mummy, okay, Ted? And no matter what, just remember that Daddy loves you...."

"Remus...Remus, please be careful...please...."

"I will...I promise.... I love you so much, darling...."

The prickle started to disappear....

"Mum, I know what I'm doing!"

"He told you to stay put!"

"I can't stand not knowing whether he's dead or alive!"

"But what about Teddy, huh? What about your son...?"

"Be good for Grandmum, now, alright Teddy? And no matter what, just remember that Mummy loves you too. Daddy and I'll see you when the sun comes up, I promise...."

No! Don't go! Ted sat bolt upright in bed, breathing hard, his mouth dry, and his hand outstretched in front of him, trying to grab onto something that wasn't there.