Questions and Answers

Teddy stood next to the door, listening to the sound of Harry's footsteps fade. When he was certain Harry wasn't going to come back, Teddy stalked into his bedroom, and began to yank the sheets off the bed. Until yesterday, he had owned exactly two sets. One was emblazoned with the logo of the Pride of Portree, his favorite Quidditch team when he was younger, and a somewhat elderly set he unearthed from the back of the hall cupboard where Andromeda kept such things. However, Teddy didn't think it would be a good thing for his first night with Victoire if she had to deal with old Quidditch logo sheets, and had purchased a set of sheets in a pleasing shade of navy blue. He wadded the old sheets into a bundle, and carried them into the small bedroom on the other side of the flat. Nobody ever slept there, but Teddy kept a spare bed, just in case. Normally, he used it as a glorified laundry basket. He spread the new sheets over the mattress and began to tuck them under.

It wasn't the first argument he'd had with Harry over the years. Normally, Harry had a great deal more patience with him than he had with his own children. Teddy sometimes felt it was because Harry felt sorry for him, and that made him angry. Especially when he was younger. Teddy didn't want special treatment from Harry, just because his parents were dead. But still, they'd had their fair share of blowups over the years - over the normal things - curfews, not tidying his room enough, Teddy's almost fiendish delight in doing something like quickly changing his hair or eye color at his Muggle primary school to the point where it drove his poor teacher to tears. Somehow, then, Harry's shouting at Teddy seemed to make him feel better. Because it wouldn't raise Harry's ire so much if he didn't care. Right?

As Teddy stuffed the pillows into their pillowcases, he replayed the argument with Harry in his head. It was the idea that Harry didn't trust him that bothered Teddy. He had always trusted Teddy before. Teddy savagely punched the pillow he was holding. He wanted to finish getting things ready for Victoire, but he couldn't think straight. 'Sod it,' he muttered, throwing the pillow on the bed. He walked out of the flat, slamming the door behind him.

*****

James slid into a place at the Gryffindor table next to Isabella, who was frowning at that morning's paper. 'What's the news, Iz? Peace and prosperity as usual?' he scoffed.

Isabella glanced at James, pushing her curly hair behind her ears. 'How well do you know the Aurors?'

James shrugged. 'I know most of them by name. There's a few Al, Lils, and I know pretty well.'

Isabella bit her lip and put the paper on the table. 'How well did you know her?' she asked, the tip of one finger resting on the edge of a photograph. It was a copy of an official Ministry photo.

'That's Kathleen... She used to watch us when Andromeda couldn't. Especially before Teddy was old enough to watch us and after he started school...' James's dark blue gaze swiveled up to Isabella. 'What did she do? Catch some old Death Eater who's been hiding in a cave the last twenty years?'

'She's dead...'

'What do you mean, "she's dead"?'

Isabella turned the paper over. 'According to this, she was protecting a Muggle couple. Someone was trying to use a Killing curse on them...'

'Why would someone do that?' James asked, bewildered.

'What? Protect someone else?' Isabella gave James an incredulous look, as if to say, How can you ask that, considering who your father is...?

James shook his head. 'No... Try to kill someone... It's so... pointless...'

Isabella watched James stare sightlessly at the food on the table. 'Are you going to tell Al and Lily?'

'Huh?' James blinked several times.

'Al and Lily?' she prompted.

'No... I... I'll take care of it...' With that, James stood up headed for the doorway, grabbing Isabella's paper, as he sidled out of the bench.

'James!' Jacob said gaily as James trudged out of the Great Hall. 'James...? Hey, James, Fred and I have got the perfect thing to launch the water... James...?' He watched James wander dazedly up the stairs toward Gryffindor tower. Jacob slid into James' abandoned seat. 'Iz, what's up with James? He'd never pass up a chance to lob water balloons at Greengrass' lot.'

'It's nothing, Jake,' Isabella murmured, ladling soup into her bowl.

'When's the next practice, then?' Jacob asked. 'We need to give Nicky, Alex, and Sophie some practice time, if they're going to be any good as subs.'

Isabella glanced in the direction James had gone. 'Maybe Saturday.' She heaved a soft sigh. 'We'll have to see, all right?'

Jacob paused in the act of slathering a roll with butter. 'Is there something wrong, Iz?'

'No.' Isabella felt a twinge as she smoothly lied to Jacob. They didn't keep many secrets amongst themselves, but she had the feeling this was something James wanted to deal with privately for now.

XxXxXxX

Lily gazed at James curiously. She couldn't recall a time when James had been so disinterested in food. Ginny always joked that he ate like Ron, and Lily had grown up seeing how much Ron could put away at meals. It was truly astonishing. Normally, James nearly inhaled his food, rather like the Hoover, but tonight, he merely pushed it around his plate, the gravy on his potatoes congealing into rivulets of goo. 'You all right?' she asked. 'If you're sick, you ought to go see Madam Pomfery.'

James shook his head. 'I'm not sick, Lils,' he told her.

'Then what's the problem?' Al interjected.

'Not now.' James swung his feet over the bench and stood up. 'I'll be in my dormitory,' he added.

Al watched James leave, and waited several minutes, before he, too, left the Great Hall, and slipped into Gryffindor tower. Al swiftly went up the stairs, bypassing James' dormitory door, continuing up to his own. He pulled open the drawer of his night table and took out a large bar of chocolate. He tucked it into his pocket, and descended down the spiraling stairs to the door of the fourth year boys' dormitory.

He stood in front of the door, hesitating, then tried the doorknob. It twisted easily under his hand and he peered through the crack in the door. 'James...?'

'I don't need a nursemaid,' James growled from his bed.

'Wasn't planning on trying,' Al retorted, pulling the chocolate from his pocket. 'Want some?'

James held up a half-eaten bar of Honeydukes' chocolate. 'Way ahead of you, bro...' He pushed himself into a sitting position and waved at the foot of the bed, by way of invitation. He eyed Al as he settled on the foot, his back against one of the bed posts. 'I see Dad's indoctrinated you, as well.'

'What? That chocolate makes you feel better?'

James nodded, breaking off a small piece and popping it into his mouth.

Al shrugged. 'Doesn't hurt, at any rate...' He nudged one of James' feet. 'So?'

'So...?'

'What's got your knickers in a twist, eh?'

James sighed, and reached under his pillow of the copy of the Prophet Isabella had been reading at lunch. 'The story under the fold. Left side...'

Al took the paper from James and flipped it over. His eyes darted from side to side as he skimmed over the brief story. 'Oh.' He began to peel back the wrapper from his chocolate. 'Told Lily yet?'

'No. Can't figure out how...'

Both boys munched their chocolate for a moment. It wasn't Lily's ability to handle someone dying that gave them pause. It was how she had idolized the other Aurors that worked with Harry. On more than one occasion when Lily was younger, they had caught her pretending to be an Auror, while her stuffed animals were Dark wizards and witches she tracked down and arrested, using a twig from the elm tree as an erstwhile wand. It was something they all had done. But Lily had enjoyed Kathleen's time with them immensely. She could usually cajole Kathleen into demonstrating various charms and hexes for them, something Kathleen always prefaced with, 'Don't tell your father I did this...'

'Maybe we could get Izzy to tell her,' ventured Al.

James hitched one shoulder. 'Maybe.'

'Hey, Al?' Lily's head poked through the door. James quickly folded the paper, hiding the photograph of Kathleen. 'Max, Sebastian, Anil, and Scorpius said they'd meet you in the library...'

'Oh, bugger...' muttered Al. He'd forgotten about the test in Potions the next day.

Lily would normally have informed Al to, 'watch his bloody language, for Merlin's sake...' But she had spied the paper on the bed between her brothers and drew closer to see it. 'I know that place,' she said, pointing to the photograph that displayed several Aurors and Obliviators milling about a street.

'Don't be daft, Lils,' James scoffed. 'It looks like a hundred other Muggle streets in London.'

Lily's lips thinned and she pressed them together in an effort to rein in her temper. She detested it when her brothers dismissed off the mere idea that she might actually know something they didn't. 'I know I've seen that street before,' she insisted. 'With Mum and Dad.'

'Whatever,' James huffed.

Lily's index finger jabbed the paper, making it crackle. 'In April. Dad, Mum, Teddy, and I went to this church in Barkingside for some do for Sarah. Holy... Holy Something...' she muttered. 'Holy Trinity, maybe...? Anyway,' she said, brushing the detail aside, 'I remember that street. We walked past it from the Underground station to the church.' She picked up the paper, examining the photo more closely. 'That can't be...' The paper rose an inch or two until it nearly touched the tip of her nose. 'Look...' she breathed. 'It's Dad's cousin...'

'You're imagining things,' James sneered. 'It can't be.'

'It is. Just look!' Lily held the paper out to James and Al, her finger pointing at Dudley and Aaron, half-hidden, as people milled about in front of them.

Al's mouth dropped open. 'That must be who...'

'What?' Lily's antenna sprang up. 'That must be who... what?'

James exchanged a glance with Al, before he broke off a piece of his chocolate bar and handed it to Lily, before he unfurled the paper and brushed a finger over the story about Kathleen. Lily's eyes widened at the story, but she remained remarkably calm. Her fingers curled around the chocolate, and soon it oozed between them as it melted. She looked down at her hand in surprise, and walked out of James' dormitory without another word.

XxXxXxX

Teddy lay on the sofa, curled into a ball, his knees pulled into his middle. He groaned softly in discomfort, wondering if he had indeed inherited his father's ability to consume vast amounts of chocolate. 'Ohhhhhhhh,' he moaned into a small pillow. His stomach roiled under the influence of six of Honeydukes' largest bars of chocolate, each the size of a small slab. Normally, he would have been able to share it with James, Al, and Lily, and still have enough left over for Harry, Ginny, and Victoire.

He had just wanted the ache in his heart to go away. Chocolate had usually been able to make him feel better, just like his father had promised in his last few journal entries. He kept shoveling chocolate into his mouth, hoping the sense of dejection that settled in his middle would melt with the warmth chocolate usually brought, but it didn't work. It hadn't worked through the six bars of chocolate, the four cups of hot chocolate, and the double-fudge sundae he'd managed to choke down at Fortescue's. Maybe I should have stopped after the fifth bar of chocolate... he mused, curling into a tighter ball. At this point, Teddy didn't want to see a piece of chocolate again for a good, long while.

Not for a few days, at least...

The soft knocking sounds worked their way through the cloud of misery that surrounded Teddy. He rolled off the sofa, and shuffled to the door, grimacing as he attempted not to vomit. He slowly opened the door and exhaled gustily at the sight of Victoire, standing nervously on the doormat, clutching her old schoolbag. 'Please tell me you're early...' he begged.

'Actually, I'm late,' she told him. 'Quite late. It's nearly seven.' Victoire sidled around Teddy and used a finger to tilt his chin up toward the light. 'You look awful,' she commented. 'Are you feeling unwell?'

Teddy shook his head. 'Too much...' He gulped. 'Chocolate.'

Victoire whistled softly and steered Teddy into the kitchen, urging him into a chair. She pulled a small kit from her bag and set it on the counter. She picked up Teddy's teapot and tapped it with her wand, filling it with boiling water. Victoire took a small ginger root from the kit and took a knife from a drawer, thinly slicing part of the root and dropping the pieces into the teapot. 'We'll just let that sit for a bit,' she murmured soothingly, taking the chair next to Teddy. 'So what brought on the chocolate binge?' she asked conversationally.

'Fight with Harry,' Teddy mumbled.

VIctoire rested her elbows on the table and gazed at Teddy. 'You've had rows with Harry before,' she pointed out.

Teddy slumped forward and let his head rest on the table. 'I know...' He turned his head so he could see Victoire. 'This was different. It wasn't like when they found us snogging in that old tree house at the Burrow.'

'Oh, that was bad...' Victoire said wryly. She could swear her ears were still ringing from the verbiage her parents had unleashed on her.

'Yeah, but after everybody calmed down, he came up to my room at his house and we had a chat about it all, and it was all right.'

'So what was this one about?'

Teddy made a muffled grunting sound, and wrapped his arms around his stomach. 'How long 'til that tea's ready?'

'About ten more minutes.'

Teddy exhaled through his nose. 'You know those Muggle baitings?' When Victoire nodded, he continued. 'One of his Aurors died last night. Protecting his cousin...' Teddy's mouth crimped and he bolted from the table. He stumbled into the bathroom and fell to his knees in front of the toilet, and began to throw up.

He didn't hear Victoire follow him or turn on the faucet to soak a face cloth. She wrung the cloth out and laid it on the back of Teddy's neck. 'Feel better?'

Teddy pulled the cloth from his neck and used it to wipe his clammy face. 'Some,' he admitted.

'You want me to go home?' Victoire asked gently. 'We can do this another time...'

'No!' Teddy sat back against the tub. 'You don't get another few days off like this until when? April? May?'

'June...'

'I'll be fine in a bit... Just too much chocolate...' Teddy reached forward and flushed the toilet. 'Just give me a minute...' He pushed himself to his feet and grabbed his toothbrush. 'Let me brush my teeth,' he mumbled.

'All right...' Victoire slipped out of the bathroom, closing the door behind her. She went back into the sitting room and grabbed her bag and took it into Teddy's bedroom. She stopped just inside the door and gasped softly, looking around her. Small candles dotted every available surface, flickering in the darkness. He had scattered small bouquets of flowers around the room and even turned down the carefully made bed. 'Oh...' she breathed, feeling tears prickle behind her eyelids. He'd even swept the dust bunnies that seemed to take up permanent residence in the corners of the bedroom.

She dropped the bag at the foot of bed and waited for Teddy to come out of the bathroom, standing next to the bed, facing the door. Presently, he appeared in the bedroom doorway and stood there, looking slightly apprehensive. He smiled crookedly and took a deep breath, before his eyes crossed slightly and his hair lengthened and grew heavier, falling into his eyes, fading from bright turquoise to its normal glimmering sandy hue. 'Thought you'd want me to do this as me...' He took a step into the bedroom.

Victoire snorted softly. 'I'd know it was you even if you decided you wanted to look like Felix from your year.' Felix had played Keeper for the Ravenclaw Quidditch team. He was well over six feet tall with chocolaty brown skin.

Teddy took another steady step into the room. 'Oh, you would, would you?'

'Yeah...' Victoire's head cocked to one side. 'Remember your seventh year? You kept hiding behind tapestries and jumping out at me, looking like Merlin-knew-who... And I always knew it was you.'

'Well, I suppose trying to look like the bloke from one of Harry's monster films was pushing the limits a bit...'

'Just a little,' Victoire agreed. 'And I never knew Frankenstein to have one of these...' She let her fingertips brush over Teddy's widow's peak.

Teddy grinned a little. 'Mum never could make hers disappear, either,' he said softly. 'Dad said it's how he used to recognize her when she was in disguise...' He slowly exhaled. 'I really miss them sometimes...'

'I know...'

'Which is kind of silly, when you think about it.'

'Not really.'

'Are you hungry?' Teddy asked, half hoping she'd say "no".

Victoire didn't miss the slight wince in Teddy's eyes. 'I'm all right. How long is Great Wall open? Midnight?'

'Yeah...'

Victoire took Teddy's hand and brought it up to her lips, and she softly kissed the palm. 'We've got all night, don't we?'

'Yeah...' Teddy's voice grew husky.

'And most of tomorrow, too...'

Teddy gestured awkwardly to the bed behind them. 'So do you want to...?' he muttered.

Victoire flashed a wide smile for a moment, then to Teddy's enormous surprise, giggled nervously. 'Would I be here if I didn't?' she asked shyly.

Teddy ran a hand through his hair and his nose wrinkled suddenly. 'Ginger...' he murmured.

'Oh! Hang on...' Victoire darted around him and padded into the kitchen. She pulled two cups from the cupboard and arranged them on a tray with the teapot and a small jar of honey. She carried it all back into the bedroom, and settled on the bed, setting the tray down in the middle of it. She poured a cup of the ginger tea and held it out to Teddy. He took the cup from her, his fingers brushing against hers, sending tingles up her arm.

Teddy gingerly sat on the other side, cradling the hot cup between his palms. 'Oh, the romance,' he muttered.

'What's that?'

He sighed and leaned back against the headboard, sipping his tea. 'Here I'd planned this romantic evening, and we're spending it dealing with my chocolate overdose.'

'I don't mind...' Victoire handed her cup to Teddy. 'Hold this for a mo, would you?' She began to wriggle out of the heavy jumper she wore, tossing it aside carelessly. 'You always keep it too warm in here...'

'I do not,' Teddy protested, his eyes growing round at the form-fitting Manchester United t-shirt she wore under the jumper. 'Nice shirt.'

'Thanks.' Victoire tried to take her tea back from Teddy, but he had turned to set them both on the night table. She watched in bemusement as he used his wand to Banish the tray, still holding the teapot to the floor. He slid one hand into her hair and pulled her closer.

'I'm feeling lots better...' he told her, just before he kissed her.

XxXxXxX

'Have you seen Lily?' Al asked Hugo, who was sleepily packing his books into his bag.

Hugo shook his head. 'Not since after dinner. She was supposed to come work on a Charms essay with me, but didn't show up. Maddie said she wasn't in her dormitory, either. I thought she just went to the library and didn't say anything,' he yawned. 'Or maybe she did, and I didn't hear her... Happens with Rosie all the time,' Hugo mused, as he slung his bag over one shoulder.

Al stood in the middle of the rapidly clearing common room, chewing his lip, staring into the fire. Coming to a decision, he ran up the stairs to James' dormitory and burst through the door. 'Where's the map Dad gave you?' he asked, without preamble.

James looked up from his Arithmancy textbook, eyes narrow. 'Dad said it was for emergencies...'

'This is an emergency,' Al maintained. 'Lily's missing.'

James snorted. 'This is Hogwarts. She can't get very far.'

'Yeah, but it's way past curfew, and she could be anywhere.'

James slowly closed his book and crawled to the foot of his bed. He tugged the lid of his trunk open and reached inside, pulling out a battered copy of Unfogging the Future. He flipped open the cover, revealing a cut-out section of the book filled with a rather manky looking wad of parchment. James glanced around the dormitory and jerked his head toward the door. 'Come on...' He led Al down to the common room, peering through the dim firelight. 'Doesn't seem to be anyone else here...' He held the tip of his wand to the parchment. 'I solemnly swear I am up to no good.'

Spidery lines of ink spun out from the center of the parchment, forming the outlines of Hogwarts. Al took his wand from his pocket and muttered, 'Lumos.' He held it over the parchment, training the light over Gryffindor tower. 'Maybe she came back and nobody saw her...'

'Could be,' James agreed. 'She's quite small...' His fingertip trailed over the side of the tower that held the girls' dormitories. 'Izzy, Maddie, Rosie, Sophie... No Lily.' He set the map on a table and lit his own wand.

'She's not in the library, either,' Al added.

'Brilliant.' James ran a hand through his hair, making it stick out even more, then rubbed his eyes. 'Dad didn't tell me how bloody small the print was...'

'I think...' Al leaned closer until his nose nearly touched the parchment. 'Yeah, I think that's her...'

'Where?' James leaned in for a closer look, his head colliding painfully with Al's. 'Owwww.'

'You've got Mum's hard head,' Al groaned, rubbing the side of his head, over his ear.

James furiously rubbed the top his head, eyes watering. 'If I've got Mum's hard head, you've got Grandmum's,' he retorted. He blinked a few times, then resumed staring at the map.

The dot labeled "Lily Potter" was at the top of the Astronomy tower.

'Bloody hell, how cold is it up there right now?' James breathed.

'Dunno.' Al's fingers began to drum restlessly on the table. 'Come on, Lily... Come back down...'

James' foot wiggled impatiently. She's not moving... 'Right. Go get your cloak. Meet me back here.'

XxXxXxX

It had started innocently enough. Their first kiss in the tree house when she was fourteen and he sixteen. Her father had been beyond outraged. Livid, actually. By contrast, her mother had been rather amused. But to the two of them, it had been... Logical. They'd spent their entire lives in each other's back pockets. Best friends. Even when the boys in his dormitory took the mickey out of him for having a girl as a best friend.

She had known. Maybe as far back as that first kiss.

But she hadn't been prepared for this.

Their bodies weren't exactly uncharted territories for either of them. She knew the lines and hollows of his as well as her own.

She thought she had understood the concept of intimacy before. There wasn't anything he didn't know about her and she knew more about him than perhaps his own godfather.

But this...

As a Healer trainee, Victoire could have given Teddy a clinical definition of sex. The textbook definition was dry and dispassionate. Almost something of an "insert tab B into slot A" sort of thing.

Despite what she had known before, this was a complete surprise.

Allowing another person into her body took the concept of intimacy far beyond what she had previously recognized. It sounded like a ridiculously trite cliché, but she couldn't tell where his body ended and hers began. If they used words, they had been lost in the murmurs, sighs, and kisses.

Victoire had learned something else new that night.

Words were unnecessary.

XxXxXxX

Al clattered into his dormitory and snatched his cloak off its hook. 'Where're you going?' Scorpius asked curiously. 'It's after eleven...'

Al hesitated, swinging his cloak over his shoulders and fastening it at his throat before he replied. 'Looking for Lily...' he mumbled.

Scorpius said nothing, but slid off his bed. He dropped to his knees next to his bed and unearthed his trainers, then found a thick jumper and pulled it over his pajamas. He grabbed his cloak and walked past Al. 'Let's go...'

Al followed Scopius. 'Go back to the dormitory!' he hissed. 'You'll get in trouble!'

'And you won't?' Scorpius glared at Al.

Al's mouth snapped shut. 'Fine,' he muttered. 'It's on your head, though.' He continued down the twisty stairs, nearly running into James at the bottom.

'Oh, good. You brought backup.' James wound his scarf around his neck. 'Knowing Lily, she'll get all arse over elbow and won't listen to anybody. She's worse than Dad...' He strode to the portrait hole, head bent over the map. 'All right... Filch and his damn cat are down by the Slytherin dungeon. We'll have to hurry, though.'

'What is that...?' Scorpius craned his head to look around James' arm at the map.

'I'll tell you later,' Al murmured.

They stole through the castle, stopping occasionally to consult the map, and after more than thirty minutes, carefully opened the door that would take them to the top of the Astronomy tower.

Lily was huddled under a parapet, wrapped in her cloak. Al hurried over to her, crouching down, so he could train the light of his wand on her face. Her lips were faintly blue. 'Lily...?' Her gaze flicked dully to him and a fine tremor ran through her body. 'Let's go back inside, eh? You must be freezing...'

James turned around and presented his back to her. 'Come on, Lils, I'll carry you...'

Al took Lily's hands and pulled her to her feet. James knelt so Lily could climb on his back.

'Wait.' Scorpius pulled his cloak off and wrapped it around Lily before putting a Warming charm over it. Lily leaned against James, and he hooked his arms around her knees, before standing.

'Take the map,' James grunted to Al, holding it between his fingertips. 'Check where Filch is...'

'Great Hall...' Al replied. 'But Mrs. Norris...'

'Shite, shite, shite...' James groaned. 'Don't tell me she's at the bottom of the tower.'

Al glanced up at his brother. 'All right. I won't.'

'That's not funny!' James huffed, shifting Lily to get a better grip on her.

'She's halfway between the entrance to the Hufflepuff dormitories and the Great Hall.

'All right, then...' James nodded toward the door. 'Let's get back to Gryffindor...' Al pulled the door open and waited for the others to file through.

'I have a question...' Scorpius ventured.

'What's that?' Al examined the map with a worried frown creasing his face.

'How are we going to get Lily up to bed? Boys can't go up to the girls' dormitories...'

'I can put myself to bed...' Lily's voice quavered as she began to shiver in earnest.

'At the very worst, we can put her on the sofa...' James mused, as if Lily hadn't spoken.

'I don't need you to put me to bed!' protested Lily weakly.

'You don't get to talk right now,' James said rudely. 'You're the one that's been on top of the bleeding Astronomy tower for Merlin knows how long in below freezing temperatures, with just your cloak.' He tightened his grip on Lily's knees. 'What in the hell were you thinking?!?' he burst out angrily, but still whispering. 'Never mind. You weren't.'

'James...' Al nudged his brother's arm. 'Lay off...'

Lily sniffed and rubbed her nose against the back of James' cloak.

'Fine...' James said darkly. 'I'm still going to write to Mum and Dad about this...'

'Don't you think Lily feels bad enough?' Al retorted. 'I don't think you need to drag Mum and Dad into this, too.'

'Would you mind telling me why four Gryffindors are out after curfew?' The tart voice made the boys stop in their tracks.

'Oh, bloody, buggering...' James turned around to find McGonagall in a tartan dressing gown, with a tray containing a pot of tea and a plate of biscuits in one hand. 'Professor...'

Al hastily crammed the parchment into his pocket. 'Ma'am...' His voice died under the intensity of her glare.

Scorpius gulped then piped up, 'Lily didn't come back to the tower, Professor. We...' He trailed off, glancing at the other two, then bravely continued. 'We just wanted to make sure she was all right...'

McGonagall's lips thinned in manner that made the boys take an involuntary step backwards. 'Five points from Gryffindor. For each of you. And that includes you, Miss Potter.' Lily, peeping over James' shoulder, nodded. 'And detentions. I shall set them first thing tomorrow.'

'Yes, Professor,' Al muttered.

'I will escort you back to your dormitory,' McGonagall said dryly. 'In order to prevent any further incidents.'

'Thank you, Professor,' Scorpius murmured. 'Erm, Professor?'

'Yes, Mr. Malfoy?'

'Will you be writing to my parents about this...?' Scorpius felt the blood drain from his face.

'No, I think you have managed to get into enough trouble for one day.' McGonagall gestured with her free hand. 'After you.'

XxXxXxX

Teddy sat in the deep windowsill, watching Victoire sleep. She could sleep with total and complete abandon, sprawled across the bed, her hair fanned over both of their pillows. He remembered reading Remus' journal entry about his first night with Dora. Teddy had been deeply mortified, once he realized what his father had been talking about. He looked down at the journal in his lap, opened to an entry written in late June, just over nine months before he'd been born, the words illuminated by the moonbeams streaming into the window.

Remus had been somewhat bemused at the idea that he, a man of words, could not manage to find the right ones to describe exactly what had transpired in Dora's bed. Teddy hadn't understood why all the other times he had read his father's journals. But now, as he read what Remus had managed to say, Teddy could appreciate what words weren't able to say.

He didn't think his werewolf-enhanced senses would surge to the surface in the midst of sliding his hands under Victoire's shirt, but he supposed that might have counted as a high-stress situation. He could hear every hitched breath, every muffled moan; feel every beat of her pulse under his fingers. He could taste her with every breath he took, the tang that was uniquely hers melting into the back of his throat.

He remembered the first day he'd kissed Victoire. Bill had been incensed, but Teddy honestly couldn't remember when his hand had slipped down to Victoire's bum. He's been just as surprised as Bill to find his hand there. Harry had been nearly as irate, but Teddy privately thought it had more to do with Victoire's age. Later, after the little ones were in bed, Harry had ventured into Teddy's attic bedroom. Harry had said a lot of things Teddy didn't really understand at the time, but one thing had stood out.

'One day, Ted, you're going to find a woman you'll want to lose yourself in...'

'But how will I know...?'

'You'll know.'

Teddy traced the outline of a block in his quilt, then looked up at Harry. 'What if... What if it's Vic...?'

Harry was surprised, but not. Hadn't he known it was Ginny when he was Teddy's age? 'Just give it time.'