Aftermaths, Part 40

by Geri ([email protected])

Rating: Mostly PG-13, but NC-17 for overall story

Pairing: Snape/Lupin, Theodore/Blaise

Warning: AU; events that occurred at the end of Order of the Phoenix were significantly altered from the book.

Sequel to: Always, Summer Vacation, For Old Time's Sake, Three's a Crowd, Return of the Raven, Phoenix Reborn, and Phoenix Rising.

Summary: The various characters deal with the aftermath of the war, and Snape and Lupin try to build a family together with Theodore and Dylan. However, some people are unable to let go of the past...

Author's note: {} Indicates character's unspoken thoughts.

Disclaimer: Characters belong to J.K. Rowling, except Hob, who belongs to William Mayne; no money is being made off this story; consider it a little wish fulfillment on my part.
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"Can I talk to you for a minute, Lukas?" Lupin asked.

Lukas's last class had just filed out of the room, groaning and rubbing their bruises. "I suppose so," he replied. "But you'll have to hurry or we'll be late for lunch." He grinned wolfishly. "And I've worked up an appetite, whipping these young cubs into shape."

Lupin laughed. "It seems you've taken to teaching, after all, despite your reservations!"

Lukas looked a little uncomfortable. "Yes, well, the kids aren't as bad as I thought they'd be. They're surprisingly well-behaved, even the Slytherins. Some of them even like the lessons. So what did you want to talk to me about, Remus?"

Lupin's smile vanished. "Well, um..."

Lukas crossed his arms, giving his friend a suspicious look. "All right, Lupin, out with it!"

"We had dinner with Selima Snape last night," Lupin said, "and she told us a great deal of interesting gossip about the pureblood families."

"You know I'm not interested in such things, Remus," Lukas said, still gazing at him suspiciously.

"One of the stories she told," Lupin continued, "was about an heir to a pureblood family who was killed in accident along with his young son. Only Selima says that it might not have been an accident, and Severus thinks that the son might not really be dead..."

Lukas gave up his pose of indifference and lunged forward, grabbing Lupin by the front of his robes. Lupin fought the urge to bare his throat in submission; the wolf inside him wanted to whine and submit to what it recognized as a pack leader. As he had once told Severus, he was not an alpha wolf. But Severus was his alpha, not Lukas, and the act of submission had become so intertwined with their lovemaking that it would seem like a betrayal to submit to someone else. So Lupin fought off his wolfish instincts and forced himself to hold his ground.

"Stay out of this, Lupin!" Lukas snarled. "This is none of your business!"

"But if you are the missing heir--"

Lukas shoved Lupin away from him and snapped, "This is not a fairy tale, Lupin! You and Snape have been reading too many bad novels! And even if it were true, no one would ever let a werewolf become head of a pureblood family!"

"But the law states that--"

"It doesn't matter what the law says! The purebloods would never let a werewolf inherit the title and taint the bloodline! Besides, I wouldn't take the title if they handed it to me on a silver platter! I want nothing to do with those arrogant, self-centered bigots!"

"If you don't want the inheritance, what about justice for those who died?" Lupin asked quietly.

"Justice?" Lukas asked with a bitter, mocking laugh. "After everything you have been through, after everything you have endured, do you really still believe in justice, Remus?"

"I do," Lupin replied. "Although Severus would no doubt say that I am an idealistic Gryffindor fool."

"In this case, Severus would be right."

"Things are different now," Lupin argued. "Arthur Weasley--"

"Is a good man, I must admit," Lukas said, "but he is only one man. There is only so much he can do. He can pass all the laws he likes, but he cannot force society to change overnight. We are supposedly equal with the humans now, Remus, but none of my wolves' families have offered to take them back. Brian sent a wedding invitation to his parents, and they sent it back to him in pieces, along with a note saying that he is no kin of theirs and never to contact them again."

"I'm sorry to hear that," Lupin said with sincere regret. "How did he take it?"

Lukas shrugged. "He was sad, but resigned. He has accepted his place in my pack; he knows that we are his true family now. But you see, Remus, despite the law that says he is equal, despite the fact that he is a hero of the war, his pureblood family still wants nothing to do with him." Lupin remained silent, unable to argue with that. "There can be no true justice for the dead," Lukas said with a weary sigh. "Only revenge, and that will not bring the dead back to life. Let the past be, Remus, and tell your mate to stop meddling in my life."

"Yes, Lukas," Lupin said, bowing his head. "I am sorry; Severus should not have meddled, and I told him so. But I wanted to tell you that if you wished to pursue this matter, that we would help you."

"You have helped me enough, Lupin," Lukas said dryly. "It's all your fault that I'm stuck teaching these brats!"

Lupin laughed, relieved that Lukas wasn't going to hold a grudge. "You'll make a wonderful teacher, I'm sure! You've already gotten through to Aric Dietrich a little, or so Severus has told me."

"Severus should mind his own business," Lukas grumbled good-naturedly. "Come on, let's go to lunch; I'm starving!"
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At lunch, Lupin spoke to McGonagall about Martin Parry. She reported that she had given Mr. Parry a "stern talking-to," and that he had promised not to cut any more classes, but had refused to say what was bothering him, insisting that nothing was wrong. "But obviously something is," she sighed. "You're very good with the children, Remus; I hope you'll be able to get it out of him."

Filch showed up in the middle of lunch and walked over to the Headmaster. "There's a man at the gates demanding to see Professor Snape," Filch said. "Says his name is Terrence Nott." Filch asked with a hopeful gleam in his eyes, "Want me to throw him out? I could borrow Hagrid's dog and--"

"That won't be necessary, Mr. Filch," Dumbledore replied calmly. "I believe Professor Snape can handle this."

"I've been expecting him," Snape said with a smug smile on his face. "I've been wondering how long it would take for word to spread; not long, apparently. Show Mr. Nott to my office, please."

"Yes, Professor," Filch replied, although he looked very disappointed.

Snape rose from his seat and Lupin did likewise. "Would you like me to come with you, Severus?" Dumbledore asked.

"No need to interrupt your lunch, Headmaster," Snape replied, still looking smug. "I can handle this myself."

A few minutes later, Terrence Nott, Thaddeus Nott's younger brother, burst into Snape's office shouting, "What do you think you're doing, Snape? I won't let the Snape family steal the Nott inheritance away from us!"

"What are you talking about, Nott?" Snape asked in a tone of feigned boredom.

"You know what I'm talking about!" Terrence shouted. "You've adopted Theodore!"

"And why have you suddenly developed an interest in the boy's welfare?" Snape asked scornfully, although he knew perfectly well what the answer was.

"We didn't think you'd object to the adoption," Lupin said in a quiet but cold voice, with none of his customary gentleness in his eyes, "seeing as how you said you wanted nothing to do with Theodore after his parents died."

Terrence flashed a quick, contemptuous look Lupin's way, then turned back to Snape, as if it were beneath his dignity to speak to a werewolf. "I don't give a damn about the boy," he snarled, "but he cannot inherit the Nott estate if he is no longer a Nott!"

Snape reached into his desk drawer, pulled out a rolled-up piece of parchment, and tossed it to Terrence with a careless flick of his wrist. Terrence unrolled it and read it, and his eyes went wide with shock. "As you can see," Snape said in a lazy, bored tone of voice, "Theodore has surrendered his claim to the Nott estate. Which I believe would make you Lord of the Nott estate, as you are next in line to inherit." Snape watched Terrence's eyes fill with greed and pleasure, then added in a contemptuous voice, "I told Theodore to sign it over to you. He hardly needs to bother with that piddling little estate now that he is the Snape heir." The pleasure left Terrence's eyes and his face turned red with anger. Snape pretended not to notice, and began rifling through some papers in his desk. After a moment, he looked up and blinked, as if in surprise. "Oh, are you still here, Nott? Well, now that everything's settled, you can see yourself out, can't you? I'm afraid I'm a little busy right now; there are a lot of things I still need to do to transfer the Snape title over to Theodore. Of course, I just rejoined the family myself, so I need to go over the family holdings, which are quite extensive, so it will take some time to tally it all up properly..." He frowned thoughtfully at the papers, then looked up again. "Why are you still here, Nott?"

Terrence Nott turned on his heel and stomped out of the room without another word. Lupin closed the door behind him, then leaned against it and started to laugh. "You could have just owled the paper to him, Severus."

"Yes, but this was so much more fun, don't you think?" Snape asked with a grin. "I wanted to pay him back a little for the way he abandoned Theodore after Thaddeus and Marta died."

A vindictive smile spread across Lupin's face, which was a very unusual sight, but he was fiercely protective of his "cubs," and he didn't like the way the Nott family had treated Theodore, either. "You gave him what he wanted, but he didn't take as much pleasure in it as he thought he would."

"There's nothing a Slytherin hates more than being made to feel unimportant," Snape said, still grinning wickedly.

"By the way, I thought this business with the Snape title was settled already," Lupin said.

"Of course it is, Lupin," Snape replied, and held up the papers he'd been looking through. "My mother has all the documents relating to the Snape holdings; these are just my lesson plans. I just wanted to rub it in Nott's face how much more wealthy my family is than his." Lupin laughed and Snape smiled ruefully. "Damn, I wouldn't have had Morrigan fight so hard to keep the Nott estate intact if I'd known we'd be giving it to Terrence! I should have let the Ministry clean out the Gringotts account and tear the mansion apart."

Lupin laughed again, then came over and slipped his arms around Snape. "I love it when you're being wicked, Severus," he whispered into Snape's ear.

Lupin's breath tickling his ear made Snape shiver pleasantly. He glanced at the clock on the wall and said, "There's about half an hour left on lunch. Do you want to go back to the Great Hall?"

Lupin nipped at his earlobe and whispered, "I'm not hungry. At least, not for food..."

"I thought that's what you'd say," Snape said with a grin, and began removing anything that was breakable from his desk.
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Lupin whistled cheerfully as he headed back to the DADA classroom after lunch. When he arrived, he noticed that his first-year Gryffindor-Slytherin class had segregated themselves by House (as was normal with all his classes), but Allegra had come over to the Slytherin side of the room and was talking to the Slytherin girls, who were responding in a friendly enough manner, asking her questions about her brother's friend, Dylan Rosier. Lupin grinned as he recalled how Lavender and Parvati had bonded with Pansy and Millicent over their shared crushes on Dylan; his foster son certainly seemed to function as a great icebreaker for the Gryffindors and Slytherins. Some of the Gryffindors were frowning at Allegra, but not all of them, which Lupin hoped was a good sign.

"Take your seats, please," Lupin said with a smile, and Allegra returned to her desk on the Gryffindor side of the room. He had already taken the time to memorize the names and faces of the first-years when they had been Sorted, but he introduced himself and then greeted each of them personally, just to be sure that he'd gotten it right. They seemed very impressed that he knew who they were without taking roll, as if he'd done it by magic, when all it had taken was a little observation, and Lupin grinned in amusement.

"Chloe Sinclair," he said, pausing in front of the desk of a cheerful-looking blonde Gryffindor girl. "Your father was a housemate of mine." Her father Cassidy was the man who had invented the magical music boxes that were now commonplace in the wizarding world, and he had helped fund the Wolfsbane Potion Distribution Program with his newfound wealth, for which Lupin was very grateful.

"Yes, sir," she said, smiling up at him. "He sends his greetings."

The boy sitting next to her, Jarrett Jordan, proudly informed Lupin that his cousin Lee was now working as an announcer at professional Quidditch matches. "I'm sure he's doing a fine job," Lupin said. "The school matches just aren't the same without him." Then the entire room fell silent as he reached Portia Pettigrew's desk. She stared up at him, looking pale and frightened. Poor child; did she really think that he was going to blame her for what her uncle had done? Apparently she did, along with the rest of the class, judging by their apprehensive expressions. "Hello, Portia," he said kindly. "I'm very pleased to meet you."

"Y-you are?" she stammered incredulously.

"But her uncle killed your friends!" Kenneth Sloper blurted out.

"As a werewolf, I am the very last person who would ever judge people on appearances," Lupin said quietly. "I believe in judging people by their actions, not by their names or their relatives." Portia smiled at him hesitantly, and the class fell silent again.

Lupin continued with the lesson, but he watched his students carefully throughout the period. He noticed that most of the Gryffindors regarded Portia with suspicion, and the Slytherins with a mixture of curiosity and wariness. No one was outright rude to her, but Allegra was the only one who made friendly overtures towards her, which were immediately rebuffed--which in turn caused Emma and Chloe to frown; it seemed they had already taken a liking to Allegra. Lupin remembered that Peter had been eager to gain the friendship of his housemates, almost desperately so, while Portia just seemed to want to be left alone. Then again, Peter had not been branded with the stigma of having a disgraced traitor and Death Eater for an uncle. Lupin sighed inwardly. Portia's physical resemblance to Peter couldn't help but make Lupin feel a little uncomfortable, but he still wanted to help her. He knew all too well what it felt like to be lonely and despised. Well, he would just have to be patient and try to win her trust, which would probably not be easy, but he'd had plenty of practice with his Slytherin lover and students. If he could win over Draco Malfoy, not to mention Severus Snape, surely Lupin would be able to win over Portia, eventually. And Allegra was a sweet but very persistent little girl; maybe she would succeed in breaking down Portia's resistance before Lupin did.
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Martin Parry reported to Lupin's office after classes were over. "Please have a seat, Martin," Lupin said cheerfully. "Would you like a cup of tea?"

"No, thank you," Martin said sullenly.

"Are you sure?" Lupin asked, pouring out a cup of tea from the teapot sitting on his desk. "I'm making some for myself; it's no trouble."

"I'm sure."

"How about a cookie?" Lupin offered, picking up a plate filled with sugar cookies covered with colored sugar sprinkles. "They're still warm; Dobby just brought them up from the kitchen."

"No thank you, sir," Martin said impatiently, squirming in his chair a little.

Lupin's pet rat squeaked, sticking its snout through the bars of its cage, nose and whiskers twitching eagerly. "It seems Kiseki would like one," Lupin laughed, and broke off a small piece of cookie and fed it to the rat. He then ate the rest of the cookie himself and took a sip of tea.

"Please, sir," Martin said, an edge of annoyance creeping into his voice, "Professor McGonagall gave me another detention in addition to the one Master Bleddri gave me; I need to see her after I'm done here. If this is about yesterday, I apologize for my rudeness."

Lupin set down his tea cup, looking serious now. "I don't want an apology, and I'm not concerned about your rudeness so much as I am concerned about you. You have always been one of my best students, bright and eager to learn. What has happened to change that?"

"Nothing," Martin mumbled, but he stared down at his feet and refused to meet Lupin's eyes.

"I am accustomed to hearing the usual insults about werewolves, of course," Lupin said. "I have come to expect them, especially from the Slytherin students whose parents place so much importance on blood purity, but I did not think that my lycanthropy bothered you." Lupin allowed a tone of hurt confusion to creep into his voice, and Martin glanced up, a look of guilt on his face, before he dropped his gaze again. Encouraged, Lupin said, "I know it's not just me personally, since you cut Master Bleddri's class the other day. Something has happened to make you hate werewolves." Martin flinched, and Lupin continued in a very soft and gentle voice, as if trying to soothe a frightened wild animal that was poised to flee, "Did something happen over the summer, Martin? Did a werewolf harm you or someone in your family?"

Martin went tense, and for a moment Lupin thought he had misjudged, that the boy would run out of the room. But instead he reached into his pocket and pulled out a crumpled-up wad of paper and silently handed it to Lupin. Lupin carefully unfolded it, and found that it was an envelope, a letter addressed to Martin. Inside was a clipping from the Daily Prophet, one of the series of articles Rita Skeeter had done on the werewolves' role in the battle against the Death Eaters; it featured a photo of Lukas with several of his pack members, including Brian and Kyra. Also in the envelope was an invitation to Brian's and Kyra's wedding. Scrawled on it was a note that read: "I'm sorry that you had to find out about it this way. I wish I could have told you earlier, but your parents and mine forbade it. But now that I am a 'respectable' member of society once again, I feel I have the right to invite you to my wedding. I hope you will come; it would make me very happy to have someone from my family there, and for you to meet my friends and fiancee, and for them to meet you. But I will understand if you cannot, or do not want to come. Regardless of what you decide, of what you may think of me, I will always love you. Love, Brian."

Lupin's jaw dropped open as something suddenly clicked in his mind: Lukas's declaration that Martin seemed somehow familiar to him, the similarities of Martin's and Brian's last names...Parry...Perry. "You're related to Brian!" he blurted out. "His...brother? Cousin?"

"He's my uncle," Martin said, his eyes filling with tears. "My father's younger brother. He disappeared almost two years ago. First my family said that he had been in an accident, but they wouldn't let me go visit him at St. Mungo's. Then they said he had gone away to recuperate in the countryside, and that he couldn't have visitors because he was too weak. But when weeks went by without word from him, I kept pestering my parents about it, and they finally told me that Uncle Brian had done something terrible and that my grandparents had disinherited him, and I was never to mention his name again."

"He was attacked by a werewolf," Lupin said gently. "It wasn't his fault; he didn't do anything wrong."

"I didn't know that then," Martin whispered. "I thought he must have done something really bad, for my parents not to want to even say what it was. I thought maybe he'd become a Death Eater or something. I didn't find out the truth until this summer, when these articles started showing up in the Daily Prophet, and then when the wedding invitations came. My grandfather was furious; apparently he told Brian that he could no longer use the Parry name, so he changed his last name, but only by one letter, and with his picture in the paper, people are eventually going to figure out who he really is, if they haven't already, and expose my family's shame to the world. At least, that's what Grandfather says." Martin's voice started to shake. "I'm sorry, Professor, I know it's not your fault, but I kept thinking about how a werewolf had taken my uncle away from us, and I started hating all werewolves..."

The boy began to weep, and Lupin came around from behind the desk and put an arm around him. "I'm so sorry, Martin," he murmured.

"Why did that werewolf attack him?" Martin sobbed. "Why wasn't he taking the Wolfsbane Potion like you do?"

"It wasn't made widely available until just recently," Lupin explained gently. "It's very expensive, and many werewolves could not afford to buy it. And even if they could, some of them might have been afraid to go to St. Mungo's or a Potions shop to buy it, for fear of people finding out about their lycanthropy. Without the equal rights bill in place, they could have lost their jobs or been disowned if anyone discovered their secret."

"Like my family disowned Brian," Martin wept.

"Yes," Lupin said softly. "People fear us because they do not understand us, but you should not be ashamed of your uncle, Martin. He is a very brave man; he risked his life to fight the Death Eaters. I don't know him very well, but he seems like a good person to me. Master Bleddri knows him better; perhaps he would be willing to talk to you about Brian sometime."

Martin sniffled and ran his sleeve across his eyes. "Do you really think so?"

Lupin smiled. "If you ask him nicely, I'm sure he will. Brian is one of his pack members." Martin looked startled, and Lupin said, "Not all werewolf traits are bad, Martin. Wolves are social animals, and since most of us are bereft of our families, we tend to seek out a pack of our own to belong to, a family of choice rather than blood, if you will. And we are fiercely loyal to our pack."

"A-and Master Bleddri is part of Brian's pack?" Martin asked.

Lupin nodded. "He is the pack leader, in fact."

"That's right, the Daily Prophet said he was the leader of all the werewolves."

"Well, that's not exactly true," Lupin clarified. "He doesn't command all of the werewolves in England, but a great number of them regard him as their leader. Most of them were outcasts living alone in fear until he gathered them together and gave them a sense of purpose and belonging."

"And are you part of this pack?" Martin asked curiously.

Lupin laughed. "No, although I do consider Lukas to be my friend, my true pack is Professor Snape, Theodore, and Dylan. And also Professor Blackmore, my friend Sirius Black, and Harry."

"What about this girl that Uncle Brian is marrying?" Martin asked. "Is she part of Master Bleddri's pack? Do you know her? What is she like? Is she pretty? Is she nice?"

Lupin smiled to hear the old eagerness returning to Martin's voice. "Yes, she belongs to Master Bleddri's pack. I don't know her well, but she is very pretty, and she seems to be a very brave and...ah...outspoken young woman." He grinned. "Feisty, one might say."

"I wish I could go to the wedding," Martin said wistfully.

"Why don't you, then?" Lupin cheerfully suggested.

"B-but I can't!" Martin stammered. "I'd need special permission to leave the school--"

"Which I'm sure your Head of House would grant," Lupin said with a smile.

"But wouldn't I also need my parents' permission?" Martin asked dubiously. "I know they'd never give it!"

"Hmm," Lupin said thoughtfully, then his expression suddenly brightened. "You have your parents' permission to go to Hogsmeade, don't you?"

"Yes, sir."

"Well, then," Lupin said, "perhaps I can persuade the Headmaster to make that Saturday a Hogsmeade day. Then you wouldn't need special permission to leave the school. And if you just happened to run into a few of your teachers, and they just happened to invite you to go for a little walk with them..."

"That's quite devious of you, sir!" Martin said in an admiring tone.

"There are some advantages to living with a Slytherin," Lupin said with a grin. "I think some of Professor Snape's deviousness is starting to rub off on me!"

Martin blushed a little and said, "Thank you, Professor. Thank you for everything! I'm really sorry about the way I treated you the other day."

"It's all right," Lupin said, patting him on the shoulder. "You may not be able to see Brian before the wedding, but why don't you write to him? I'm sure he'd love to hear from you." He handed the creased and wrinkled envelope back to Martin.

"Thank you, sir, I'll do that."

"You'd better run along, then, and finish your detention," Lupin.

"Yes, sir," Martin said, and left the room looking surprisingly happy for someone who was heading to detention.

"That went very well," Lupin said to Kiseki, who squeaked and stared hopefully at the plate of cookies. He fed the rat another piece of cookie and sighed, "I suppose it would be too much to hope for that my talk with Aric will go as well..."
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Dylan was not as happy about his detention, but it wasn't quite as bad as he thought it would be. He arrived at Hagrid's hut with Crabbe and Goyle, and found Hagrid and Luna Lovegood waiting for them.

"Did you get detention, too?" he asked Luna.

"No," she said with a cheerful smile. "I like the Thestrals, so I volunteered to help."

"Hey, us too!" Crabbe said, and Goyle nodded enthusiastically. Dylan gave the three of them a disgusted look, but they didn't seem to notice.

"Well, come on," Hagrid said. "They're out back." Behind the hut were a full-grown Thestral and what appeared to be a half-grown colt--or whatever it was that baby Thestrals were called. The young Thestral had a bandaged hind leg, and there were several long scratches across its flank. "This is Thalia," Hagrid said, patting the larger Thestral, "an' this is her son Diablo. He wandered away from his mama an' got lost in the forest. He seems ter have run afoul of some beast; not sure exactly what. Thalia won't leave him alone till he's healed, so she can't hunt for food, so we've got ter feed 'em, an' we've got ter tend ter his wounds." He went back into the hut and brought out a large bucket filled with chunks of meat and told the students to feed the Thestrals.

"They like blood," Luna informed her companions.

"That's what I'm afraid of," Dylan grumbled. "You know, Professor Snape will be very upset if I get eaten by a Thestral."

"The Thestrals would rather have a good chunk of beef than a stringy thing like you, Rosier," Hagrid told him, looking amused.

"That's so reassuring," Dylan muttered. He glanced at his much bulkier housemates and hoped that the Thestrals didn't decide that Crabbe and Goyle looked tasty. Luna was already feeding Thalia without being harmed, so Dylan shrugged, grabbed a chunk of meat and offered it to Diablo. The young Thestral sniffed at it, then eagerly snatched it from his hand and gulped it down. It sniffed at his hands and began licking the blood off them, and Dylan yelped in surprise, jerking his hands back.

"It's all right," Luna assured him. "They won't hurt you."

Dylan noticed that Thalia was now licking Crabbe's bloody hands, and Crabbe was laughing, "That tickles!" The Thestral made no move to bite him despite her sharp fangs, so Dylan supposed that Luna was probably right. Still, he stepped aside to let Goyle feed Diablo, and went to get another piece of meat; he didn't want the Thestral to mistake his hand for a piece of beef if it got too hungry.

"Now that you've made friends with 'em, they'll let you tend Diablo's wounds," Hagrid said after all the meat was gone. Dylan had to admit that the Thestrals seemed tame enough; they hadn't tried to bite, and were at present letting Luna, Crabbe, and Goyle pet them and scratch them behind the ears. They changed the bandages on Diablo's leg and applied healing salve to his wounds.

"He should be better in about a week," Hagrid said, patting Diablo. "Good work, all of yeh." He said to Luna, Crabbe, and Goyle, "Five points ter Ravenclaw and ten ter Slytherin. I can't give yeh points, Dylan, since yeh're servin' detention, but yeh did good, too."

"Thanks," Dylan said. It was the first time Hagrid had ever given him a compliment. He still didn't particularly like the Care of Magical Creatures instructor, but he knew that Hermione did, so he supposed it was a good thing that Hagrid had finally decided that he wasn't really a Death Eater after all.

"Can we come back again tomorrow?" Goyle asked.

"Sure," Hagrid said, beaming at them. "I can always use the help."

They headed back to the castle, Crabbe, Goyle, and Luna all chattering together about how wonderful the Thestrals were. Dylan shook his head and muttered something about how they were all crazy, but the other three ignored him.
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Meanwhile, Tristan Ames-Diggory sat in Snape's office, sullenly disemboweling horned toads. Snape sat at his desk grading assignments, trying to watch the boy out of the corner of his eye without being obvious about it. The boy looked a little like Cedric, but nothing at all like Lukas; he wondered if he was wrong about Bleddri being the Diggory heir. Of course, he had no idea what Cynric Diggory had looked like, although after hearing his mother's story, Snape could now recall seeing Anya Diggory at their house a few times when he was a child, but he had not taken much interest in his mother's gossip sessions with her friends at the time. He had a vague recollection of a pretty dark-haired woman who always seemed to look a little worried--and no wonder, if she had been trying to keep her son's lycanthropy secret...assuming that Bleddri really was her son. Snape remembered Anya's brother Anwir Gravenor more clearly, since he had been a fellow Death Eater, but Lukas didn't resemble him much either, except perhaps for the high, aristocratic cheekbones, but that was hardly a trait exclusive to the Gravenor family. Well, since Lupin said Bleddri had made it clear that he had no interest in pursuing any contact with his hypothetical pureblood family, Snape supposed that it would just have to remain a mystery. Of course, getting Lady Selima to give up on it was an entirely different matter. Snape sighed; Lupin was right--he should never have brought it up in the first place.

The clock chimed and Snape looked up; an hour had passed. "You may go now, Mr. Ames-Diggory," Snape said. "I trust you will be more careful of your behavior in the future."

"Yes, sir," the boy said sullenly. He washed the blood and slime off his hands, then opened the office door and stepped out into the hallway. He had left the door ajar, and Snape was about to shout at him to close it, but he saw a couple of older Hufflepuff boys, both members of the Quidditch team, waiting outside.

"Finally, Tristan!" Zacharias Smith said impatiently. "Try to avoid getting detention from now on, will you? It plays havoc with the practice schedule!"

"Aw, give him a break, Zac," said the other boy, Kevin Whitby. "You know how Snape is..." He glanced at the office, then fell silent when he saw Snape looking at them. "Anyway," he said hastily, "come on, let's get to the Pitch!"

"One moment!" Snape said, rising from his seat and walking over to the door. "Why does Mr. Ames-Diggory need to accompany you to the Quidditch Pitch?"

"H-he's been made our new Seeker, sir," Whitby stammered nervously.

"What?!" Snape roared, and the boys all cringed. "But he's a first-year!"

"One of the other first-years lost control of his broom during flying lessons," Smith explained, "and Tristan flew after him to help. Madam Hooch was really impressed by his flying skills; she said he's a natural. Professor Sprout happened to be watching, and she and Madam Hooch had a talk, and well, Hufflepuff needed a new Seeker..."

"But he's a first year!" Snape repeated.

"Professor Sprout gave him special dispensation to join the team, sir," Smith said. "Besides, Potter became Seeker for Gryffindor when he was only a first-year--" That was obviously the wrong thing to say; Snape's pale face suddenly flushed with anger. "Um...please, sir," Smith said weakly. "We'll be late for practice. If there's a problem, perhaps you should discuss it with Professor Sprout."

"I certainly will!" Snape snapped. He slammed his office door shut and stalked off, presumably in search of Professor Sprout. The three Hufflepuff boys breathed sighs of relief, then began looking anxious again.

"I hope he doesn't get Tristan kicked off the team," Zacharias said.

"He can't!" Kevin said, but he looked worried, too. "They let Potter play as a first-year!"

"Yeah, but Potter is...well...special," Zacharias said reluctantly.

"The Boy Who Lived," Tristan said, a little sarcastically.

"Yeah," said Zacharias, looking uncomfortable. "He's a decent sort, though, really; he doesn't lord it over anyone. Come on, let's go to practice. We'll let Sprout and Hooch handle Snape."

Part 41