Harry Potter - Series Fan Fiction ❯ His Greatest Fear ❯ Chapter 1

Chapter One

 

Teddy Lupin was having the most boring day ever. It was his seventh year at Hogwarts, and he was stuck in double Potions with Slytherin house. The Potions professor, Professor Blackwing was walking around inspecting the students' potion. They were supposed to be making a shrinking potion, but Teddy and his partner and best friend Ross Finnigan had already finished and tested theirs. Thus, they got to sit and watch some of the students be humiliated by the results their potion yielded. Finally, at long last, after what seemed like an eternity, Professor Blackwing said they could go. Teddy and Ross jumped up happily, because it was their last class before the weekend, and it was a Hogsmeade weekend. As he and Ross discussed what they would do in Hogsmeade, Teddy's bright blue eyes shone almost as brightly as his ever-changing hair. He had made it blue for the day. He loved the fact that he had inherited his mother's metamorphmagus gene. He could make his hair and face be almost anything he wanted. He pretty much left his face alone, because besides pictures, it was the only memory he had of his mother and father. His hair, however, changed daily.

He had inherited more than being able to change hair color though. He had also inherited a half-werewolf gene. When the full moon came around, he became a grumpy mess who couldn't get enough bloody steaks. People just sort of stayed away from him. Beyond that, though, he was one of the most popular kids in the school. He was a beater on the Gryffindor Quidditch team, and had so many friends he didn't know what to do with them. His best friend though was Ross.

Ross Finnigan was Seamus Finnigan's son. Seamus had wound up marrying Parvati Patil, of all people, and they had had two children: Ross and Becky. Becky was in her third year. Ross looked at lot like his mom. He had dark black hair and olive-colored skin and brown eyes. He was tall, though, and good-looking to boot. He and Teddy couldn't keep the girls away from them most of the time. Passing through the Gryffindor common room was usually a fiasco of female giggles. Teddy and Ross, along with a few other great guys, stayed in a room together in Gryffindor tower. They had gotten the room that Harry Potter himself had stayed in during his years at Hogwarts. Since Harry was Teddy's godfather, it had been really cool that he had managed to get in his old room. Harry even came to visit his children, Teddy, and his nieces and nephews at Hogwarts some weekends.

Although Teddy was popular, his love life was something of a shambles lately. He had dated a few girls, but never seriously enough to last. Ross had been dating Rose Weasley for quite some time now. She was in her sixth year along with Harry's oldest, Albus, and Victoire Weasley, Fleur and Bill's daughter. Teddy himself had dated Rose back in his fourth year—her third—but it hadn't worked out. They were still close friends and she hung out with him and Ross a lot as did Victoire, since she was good friends with Rose. Rose was a pretty girl. She looked just exactly like Hermione had when she was in school. She was slender with brown eyes and bushy hair, except it was red like her father's. However, the bushiness was not quite so bad now that she was getting older. She was brainy like Hermione, as well. She spent a lot of her spare time looking things up in the library. Victoire always tagged along and did her homework there. Teddy and Ross had to go get a book for Potions once the year before and the girls were in there with their heads together, giggling. When they had walked by, the giggling had come to an abrupt end and the girls had blushed crimson. As soon as the boys got behind the bookshelf, Teddy had heard them dissolve into another fit of giggles. They had found out later that Rose had been telling Victoire she liked Ross. He had asked her out shortly after.

Teddy's thoughts turned to Victoire as he got ready for bed that night. He couldn't wait until the Hogsmeade visit and he was sure that Rose and Victoire would be with them the whole time. Victoire had her mother's piercing blue eyes, and long blonde hair, but her hair had the lightest streaks of auburn in it that could only be seen in the sunlight. She was part Veela, which made all the boys chase after her endlessly, but, like Teddy was with the giggling, she seemed to ignore it for the most part. She was tall, almost as tall as Teddy, and slender, but curved in all the right places. Teddy shook his head, smiling. It had been too long since he had had a girlfriend for him to be thinking about Victoire like this. He rolled over and went to sleep, contemplating what all he and his friends would do in Hogsmeade the next day.

Teddy was awakened by a hand shaking his shoulder. He blinked in the bright sunlight that was streaming in the window and immediately put his hand up to shield his eyes. He looked around to see who was shaking him. Devon and Butler Thomas, Dean Thomas's twin sons, were standing over him grinning.

“Wake up, Teddy! You're going to be late for Hogsmeade! Come on! Get up!” Devon grabbed one arm and Butler grabbed the other and they dragged him to his feet. Dean had married a witch he had met in his profession after Hogwarts. Devon and Butler both had a creamy light brown colored skin and reddish brown afros. They were rail thin, unlike their father. They took after their mother in that respect. Teddy had only seen her once, at King's Cross Station their first year. She had had the creamiest white skin anyone could imagine and dark auburn hair and bright green eyes, and her sons had eyes to match. She had been tall and slender, and Teddy had quite thought she wasn't a bad catch. He had told Devon and Butler as much. They had scoffed at the thought that their mother was pretty, since boys usually don't think of their mothers in that respect.

Teddy blinked once again, and began to slowly gather clothing to put on. He inspected himself in the mirror and decided a color change of hair was definitely in order. Blue hair did not go with his black and orange pullover sweatshirt and his black pants. He changed his hair to black with small orange highlights to perfectly match what he was wearing. His hair was already mussed from rolling out of bed, but he mussed it just a bit more and turned to tell the twins that he was ready. But they were already gone. Only Ross still stood waiting for him.

“Sorry, buddy, they were in sort of a hurry,” Ross offered by way of explanation, but Teddy shrugged it off.

“Come on, let's go find Rose and Vicky,” Teddy said, calling Victoire by her pet name her parents had given to her when she was little. It had stuck, even though she didn't particularly care for it. Teddy had once asked her what she wanted to be called, and she informed him that she wanted a normal name that wasn't French. Her mother had been outraged, of course. They had been at Mrs. Weasley's for Christmas dinner when it had happened. Harry had just laughed and said she would get over it when she got older. Ginny had said she did, and her mother had turned very red and angry and told her that Ginevra was quite a lovely name. She had launched into its meaning and where it came from, but Teddy had politely made his exit along with Vicky, James, Albus, and Rose. Only those who were too young to be excused from the table or who weren't finished eating had stayed to hear that speech.

“Teddy! Ross! Hurry up!” Rose was calling across the common room the moment they had emerged at the foot of the stairs to the boy's dormitory.

“Where's Vicky?” Teddy asked when they reached the portrait hole.

“Oh, she said she would meet us there. She had a new friend that she had promised to meet up with first. I told her we would meet her at the Three Broomsticks for a butterbeer.” Rose was leading them down the staircase to the main entrance of Hogwarts. Teddy was fleetingly thinking that he was hungry and had missed breakfast, but remembered that he could eat something that Madam Rosmerta cooked up. She was quite a good cook, even though she was getting a bit older now.

As Professor McGonagall checked each of them off and nodded them off to Hogsmeade, Teddy saw Victoire far off in the distance with a figure that was distinctively male. He found himself feeling something he had never felt before. He was angry and wanted to throttle the boy that she was with. Ross was holding Rose's hand and talking to her in their own conversation now, and Teddy was feeling a little left out. He walked a little behind them to give them a bit of privacy. He suddenly heard someone calling his name. He turned to see Professor McGonagall beckoning him back. He told Ross he would meet them at the Three Broomsticks in a bit.

“Yes, Professor?” he said as he walked back toward her.

“Listen, Lupin, I don't want any funny business this trip to Hogsmeade. If something else goes wrong this time, I shall have to ban you from going to Hogsmeade again.” Teddy knew what she was referring to. The last time they had gone into Hogsmeade, he had bought a load of exploding products from Zonko's and set them off in the Slytherin common room the next day. He wouldn't have been caught, except he dropped one in the Gryffindor common room and left one in his trunk which was found in a search of each house's dormitories. It had been a dare, and he had taken it. He had even used Harry's Invisibility cloak to sneak around. Harry had let him use it since his third year, deciding that he needed it far more than any of his children did. James and Albus were constantly trying to sneak out after hours, but Teddy rarely sneaked about…well, perhaps only when dared to do so.

“Yes, Professor, I promise nothing will happen. I am meeting my friends in the Three Broomsticks for some butterbeer and then I think I'm taking a trip to the Shrieking Shack.” Teddy paused here, thinking of his father inside that shack all alone. “I wish I could have known him and Mum,” he whispered.

“I know that makes life hard, but you mustn't make anymore trouble for yourself, Lupin,” McGonagall replied, her expression somewhat softened. He nodded jerkily, and hurried ahead without a response. He didn't want her to see the tears filling his eyes as they so often did when he thought about his parents. He ran to catch up with Ross and Rose, and found that they had caught up with Vicky and her friend.

“Teddy!” Vicky exclaimed upon seeing him. “Where have you been?”

Having composed himself, he replied, “I was speaking with Professor McGonagall about transfiguring something,” he lied smoothly. He couldn't help but give the boy with her the once-over. He was about a half-inch shorter than she was, but a lot of boys were shorter than she was since she was tall. He had mousy brown hair, brown eyes, and coke-bottle-thick glasses. His clothes looked as if they had come from a rag bag, and were rumpled. He was shivering a bit in the cold, because he had no hat or mittens. Everyone else was dressed warmly as the snow fell lightly to land on their noses. Vicky's eyelashes were clumped with snowflakes, but she just brushed them away laughing. The boy said something to her, and hurried ahead, leaving the group to themselves. As soon as the boy was gone, Teddy's previous anger that he was unsure of left him as abruptly as it had arrived. Ross and Rose broke away from Teddy and Vicky, whispering and laughing. Vicky tucked her hand into the crook of Teddy's arm.

“Boy, it sure is cold, isn't it?” she remarked. “I'd better stay close to you to keep warm.” She smiled, and he reveled in the feel of her body close to his. He got as close as possible to her.

“Yeah, I'm cold, too,” he agreed. Even though he had been quite comfortable without her right there next to him, it was so much better with her than without her. She had on a knitted cap that Mrs. Weasley had made her for the last Christmas. She decided that sweaters took too long, and began making everyone caps. It was a cute snowcap with the two little strings hanging down on each side with little puffballs on the end of them. She had made Vicky a pink one that perfectly matched her pink pullover sweatshirt and blue jeans. She laid her snowcapped head over on his shoulder as they entered Hogsmeade and headed toward the Three Broomsticks.