Remedial History

Chapter Eleven: An Uneasy Alliance

Neville was waiting outside the pub. Theo hung back behind him as he led the way to the table where Harry was sitting. "I didn't know it would be so many people," he said, looking shyly around at all of them. "Neville just said Professor Lupin was coming."

There were, in fact, four other adults at the table - a young woman with a short mop of neon orange hair, a plump, blond man and a dark-haired woman who seemed to be a couple and who both looked out of place for some indefinable reason, and ... Stubby Boardman. He was actually sitting at a table in the Three Broomsticks like a normal person. Theo was almost struck silent, but he had to ask his idol something of the utmost importance.

"Mr. Boardman? Could I have your autograph?"

"Sure thing, kid," said Stubby Boardman cheerfully, scrawling his name on a cocktail napkin and handing it to Theo.

"Wow," said Theo. After a moment, he remembered his manners and added, "Thanks."

Neville elbowed him as he began drinking his butterbeer. "You'd better tell them," he muttered.

Theo fidgeted, remembering why he had come and feeling uncomfortable about incriminating his sister in front of a crowd of strangers. He wondered if it was too late to run away.

"Would you rather talk in private?" asked Professor Lupin. "We could go to my room upstairs."

Theo nodded and steeled himself. He was going to do what he came here to do. "Neville and Mr. Boardman can come too," he suggested hopefully, and to his surprise Mr. Boardman really did join them as they went up the stairs and down a long, dark, corridor.

All four of them crowded into a cramped single room with a low ceiling. Theo and Neville sat on the bed, and the two men pulled up chairs opposite them.

"So, er, Mr. Boardman, it's really an honor to meet you and thanks again for your autograph and the concerts were amazing, especially the one where you kissed Professor Snape, and I wish my sister could have seen you perform," said Theo in one breath. Abruptly, he remembered that wasn't why he was here, and broke off, blushing.

"Go on, tell them about the passwords," whispered Neville.

Theo felt grateful; that was an easy place to start. He began to tell his story, slowly, haltingly. The men kept making him stop and asking him exactly what he'd told his sister about the conversation he'd overheard, how much she knew about how to get in and out of the castle, what sort of questions she generally asked him when they spoke, and how often he talked to her during the school term. Theo was relieved that they asked so many questions; it meant he could wait a while longer before getting to the part of the story that really mattered to him, the part that he was most afraid of telling.

"Moony, hadn't you better ... " Mr. Boardman interrupted. He left the sentence unfinished.

Professor Lupin sighed. "I hate to, but I suppose I don't have a choice. Theo, do you know what Legilimency is?"

Theo shook his head. Neville didn't look like he knew either, which made Theo feel better about confessing his ignorance.

"It is an obscure branch of magic that I have some skill at. It involves - well, not mind reading precisely, but the ability to create a connection with another individual's mind that allows you to share some of the other person's memories and emotions. I'm telling you about Legilimency because it provides a quick way to confirm your story if you'll permit me to use it on you. It won't hurt - "

"No fair lying to the kid, Moony," said Stubby Boardman quietly.

Theo was shocked that anyone - even Stubby Boardman - would talk that way to a professor, but Professor Lupin didn't seem to mind. He stared at Mr. Boardman for a moment and said, "Fair enough, Stubby." He turned back to Theo. "Well, it can hurt, but only in the way that painful thoughts and memories always hurt. No physical pain, I promise." He stopped short and gave Mr. Boardman a slightly hesitant glance. "Right?"

"Right," said Mr. Boardman.

"Do I have your permission?" asked Professor Lupin.

"All right," said Theo.

"Good. Look up - no, meet my eyes - perfect. Legilimens!"

Images of the last two months streamed through Theo's mind - poking fun at Just Todd with Blaise ... watching Buffy's tadpoles wriggle around the rain barrel with Neville ... reciting a week's worth of passwords to Medea ... Nick and Richard of Gloucester walking together on the walls of York ... Tracey's silver bracelets shining in the candlelight ... Blaise giving Draco a mocking look as he handed him the dagger and the cup ... the copy of Romeo and Juliet falling from his hand as he realized the truth about his sister's death ... the hours sitting at Hagrid's table, and poring over newspapers in the Archives -

Professor Lupin's face swam back into focus. He said, with a slightly rough edge to his voice, "It's enough, Reg. He's trustworthy. And in a great deal of danger."

Theo wondered who Reg was, and then realized that Mr. Boardman probably hadn't been christened Stubby. "But I do know what Legilimency is," he said. "Medea does it to me when she talks to me sometimes, only she never told me what it was called."

Over his head, the two men exchanged a troubled look.

"Theo," said Lupin after a moment. "what you've just done took an enormous amount of courage..."

"More than I had at your age," added Mr. Boardman. "It takes a lot to stand up to your family members and question what you've been taught at home."

"And after this, you will need to keep on being brave. You mustn't tell anyone you've spoken with us, all right?" said Professor Lupin. "Not even your friends, and definitely not your family. You speak to your sister using a two-way mirror?"

Theo nodded.

"You'll have to lose that mirror or break it."

"I will," said Theo. The mirror had been sitting face down at the bottom of his trunk since Thursday. He'd been a little uneasy about destroying it for good, but now he knew without question that he had to.

"And listen, stay in touch with us," Professor Lupin instructed him. "You'll probably be able to find me in the North Tower for at least a few more days - don't mention this to anybody either, by the way - but if I'm not around and you need somebody else safe to talk to, go to Professor Dumbledore or Professor Snape, all right?"

Neville gave Theo a sympathetic look, and surprisingly, so did Mr. Boardman. "Moony -"

"He's Theo's Head of House, Reg. And has he ever given the slightest indication of ... well, of anything besides being a nasty git?"

"Well, no, but it's not exactly fair to send the kid to a nasty git, is it? Why not McGonagall?"

"Because - Never mind." Lupin turned back to Theo, who suspected he was remembering the boggart lesson but didn't intend to give away anything about it. "Or Professor McGonagall. You can talk to her too."

"All right," said Theo, feeling dazed. None of these people was exactly easy to confide in.

"Think you've had enough questions for one afternoon, kid?" asked Stubby Boardman.

"Yeah." He hadn't told them about Lavinia yet, but perhaps that could wait until he saw Lupin again. He probably knew part of it, anyway, because of this Legiliwhatsit business, but at least he hadn't pressed Theo to talk about it.

"Right, then. I'm just going to go tell Tonks and Jack about this latest development, and I'll let you spend some quality time with your fan club ... Stubby." Professor Lupin left the room after giving Mr. Boardman a knowing smirk, as if they had some sort of inside joke.

"Why do you keep calling each other 'Moony' and 'Reg'?" Theo asked after he had gone.

Stubby Boardman smiled. "'Moony' was his old school nickname - and he's allowed to take a few liberties with me. He knew me before I was a singing sensation."

"What's your real name?" Theo asked.

"Reginald Dwight."

But Theo was almost sure he was lying. He wondered once again how far it was safe to trust this new set of adults.

"Would you show us how to play the ukulele?" asked Neville, who seemed to have no doubts about Stubby Boardman's good faith and had been eyeing him worshipfully.

"Sure thing," said Mr. Boardman agreeably. "Let's start with a simple tune. Watch closely, and I'll show you the fingering for 'Mary Had a Little Knarl'."

After half an hour of practice, Theo and Neville had both mastered it.

Mary had a little knarl,

Little knarl, little knarl,

Mary had a little knarl,

Its spines were sharp as pins.

It followed her to Hogwarts once,

Hogwarts once, Hogwarts once,

It followed her to Hogwarts once,

Straight through Professor Binns.

"It'll have to be Professor de Mimsy-Porpington now," Theo told him. "We've got a substitute, and it looks like he's staying a while."

"Hmm," said Stubby Boardman. "That makes things harder. Difficult name to rhyme and scan." He strummed the ukulele experimentally.

Mary had a little scorpion,

Little scorpion, little scorpion...

"I don't think so," said Theo, laughing out loud for the first time since Wednesday.

Stubby Boardman shook his head regretfully. "I don't think so either," he said. "We'll just have to stick with the regular version, even if it's a little out of date. Now, I'm going to let you in on a little secret. You're both well on your way to a stellar career, because the first rule of being a singing sensation is that you can make 'Mary had a Little Knarl' sound like almost anything if you really work at it. I even managed to play it to the tune of 'Bohemian Rhapsody' once."

"What are the other rules?" Neville asked.

"Sequins are your friend. It helps if your backup band sounds worse than you do. And if everything else fails, scream a lot."

* * *

"And so," said Nearly Headless Nick at the end of their next class, "the rivalry between Slytherin and the other Houses, particularly Gryffindor, had deep and twisted roots on both sides. It grew out of the universal human traits of clannishness, suspicion of outsiders, and the tendency to attach great importance to real and perceived slights against oneself and to minimize one's own mistreatment of others. For your homework, I ask you to note and collect examples of these traits at Hogwarts today..."

"Going a bit touchy-feely, isn't he?" said Crabbe to Theo after their professor had left the room.

"Yeah," said Theo heartily. He had a feeling he was being tested. "Maybe he should get married to the Sorting Hat - they seem to have a lot in common."

He glanced over his shoulder at Harry and Neville, who gave him a discreet nod. He pretended to drop his quill and hung back as his housemates went out into the hall.

"Why don't you come to the North Tower with us?" Harry suggested. "We'll wait a few minutes to make sure Crabbe and Goyle are out of the way."

Theo followed them in silence as they climbed the many flights of stairs to the Divination classroom.

The place seemed cozier and less oppressively hot than it did during Professor Trelawney's classes. Several of the other Gryffindors were already curled up in front of the fireplace with a bowl of popcorn, and Mark Evans and his small friend, Aurelius Meadowes, were having a toad race with a couple of Buffy's babies. Professor Lupin and the orange-haired woman Theo had seen in the Three Broomsticks apparently had some kind of bet riding on the race; they were each urging one of the toads on.

"Wotcher, Theo," said the woman. "I don't think we've been properly introduced. I'm Tonks."

Theo guessed that this probably wasn't her first name, although he wasn't positive. "Er, pleased to meet you, Miss Tonks."

"So I hear you're the grandfather of Speedy and Slowpoke here," she said.

"Yeah, this is Buffy," said Theo, taking his pet out of his pocket. "All the baby toads are hers. It's nice - they're cute and the first years love them - but she and Trevor are starting to act real friendly again, and I don't know what I'll do if she has more tadpoles, because I had enough trouble giving away this first set."

Professor Lupin looked up from the finish line. "Do you know how to do a birth control spell?" he asked.

"No, sir," said Theo.

"Watch closely." Lupin pointed his wand at Buffy. "Prophylaxis!"

Buffy looked up at him curiously and gave a lazy hop.

"It doesn't seem to have done anything to her," said Theo.

"It shouldn't," said Lupin. "There aren't supposed to be any side effects, it'll just keep her from conceiving any more babies for the next seventy-two hours. You'll need to renew the spell after that, so you'd better have a practice. You want to flick your wrist - like so..."

"Prophylaxis!" said Theo.

"Spot on."

"Hadn't you better teach Harry and the others?" asked Miss Tonks.

Lupin looked puzzled. "But - they haven't got toads." He followed her gaze toward the other side of the fireplace, where Weasley and Hermione Granger were doing their best to squeeze into one very small armchair, and flushed slightly. "Oh. Right. Er, this works on all vertebrates, by the way. Cats, owls ... primates of all sorts. You get the idea."

Buffy sat there patiently while one Gryffindor after another practiced the spell. "Your turn, Ginny," said Miss Tonks to the youngest Weasley.

"My sister doesn't need to know that!" Ron interrupted indignantly.

"It's your sister's business if she decides she wants a toad of her own," said Miss Tonks, cheerfully but very firmly. Ron looked uncomfortable, but did not protest.

Little Mark Evans was running around the North Tower firing off birth control spells in random directions, until Professor Lupin took him aside and pointed out that it was a bad idea to cast spells on people without their permission, as there were some people who actually wanted babies.

"Oh." Mark thought about this for a moment. "Do you?"

"Good Lord, no! I was speaking generally. At least ... not any time soon."

Ron snorted and shoved a handful of caramel-coated popcorn into Mark's mouth, explaining to Theo in an undertone that this was the only way anybody had ever been able to get the kid to shut up.

Theo helped himself to popcorn and began to nibble on it. He was beginning to feel comfortable, despite the weirdness of hanging out with a whole crew of Gryffindors, when Miss Tonks pulled him aside and said, "I went to school with your sister Lavinia. Didn't know her all that well, but I liked what I saw of her. I was sorry to hear about her."

What in the world was he supposed to say to that? "Thanks," he mumbled.

He still hadn't told anybody except Hagrid his suspicions about his sister's death. The adults seemed more interested in the conversations he'd had with Medea, and some of the questions they asked made him uneasy. They approached the subject discreetly - asking him where he'd grown up and so forth - but Theo could tell they were extremely interested in knowing where to find his family. He carefully avoided naming his hometown or his father's shop.

"Did you bring the two-way mirror?" Miss Tonks asked.

"Yes," said Theo. He allowed the adults to inspect it briefly, then Professor Lupin handed it back.

"You know what to do," he said quietly.

Theo threw it from the window of the North Tower, and it smashed on the stones far below.

"Good riddance," Miss Tonks said in a cheerful, matter-of-fact voice. "Let me see, your sister was exactly seven years older than you, and it doesn't sound like your family has a lot of gold to spare, so I'm guessing your family won't have an extra one in reserve. They're expensive."

Professor Lupin nodded. "And they take a while to manufacture, so that should buy you a few weeks. All the same, I'd be more comfortable if you had a chance to learn a little Occlumency - the art of blocking Legilimency. I'm going to try to teach you a bit over the next few days, and, with your permission, I'd like to request that Professor Snape continue your lessons after I'm gone."

Harry groaned. "Does it have to be Snape? He's not exactly the gentlest Legilimens out there, you know."

"He is Theo's Head of House, and almost the only trustworthy person he can speak to without attracting attention," said Lupin firmly. He turned back to Theo. "I don't expect you to master Occlumency in a matter of weeks, but you should be able to make enough of a start to block anything your mother can do over a distance, using the mirrors. It goes without saying that you should say nothing about any of this in your letters home."

"What about the Christmas holidays?" Theo asked.

The adults looked at each other and said nothing for a moment, and at last Miss Tonks replied, in an artificially casual tone, "You might want to put your name down to stay at Hogwarts over Christmas."

Theo knew what that meant. If they had their way, his father and Medea would be spending the holidays in Azkaban.

It wouldn't be the first time. His dad had been accused of breaking into the Ministry of Magic and sent to prison at the beginning of the summer, but he'd escaped right before Theo had returned to school. He refused to talk about the break-in or anything that had happened afterward. But despite all the rumors of prisoners going insane in a matter of weeks, Jephthah Nott didn't seem greatly damaged by his experience. He'd returned a little wearier and thinner and jumpier than he'd been before, but still recognizably himself. Perhaps, Theo thought, there were worse fates than being sent to Azkaban.

Then he had a realization that made his stomach lurch. What if his father seemed relatively normal because the damage had already been done, because he'd spent time in Azkaban before? And what about his sister? She'd been slightly mad for as long as he could remember, but surely she hadn't been born that way. He wondered what had happened to her.

He decided not to tell them about Lavinia, after all. He didn't want Medea to harm anyone else, but he also didn't want her charged with murder.