Fall Apart- R.J.L

Disappearances

The entire platform of 9 and 3/4 was buzzing with excitement. People were jostling around eachother and the sounds of screeching owls and the reunions of old friends filled the station.
"Ooh! I see Dorcas," Marlene shouted over the noise, "I'm gonna go say hi, I'll see you later yeah?"
"Yeah I'm gonna go get a carriage before they're all full."
The girls parted ways and Theo boarded the train. The train was surprisingly quiet, it appeared that most people were still greeting friends and bidding parents adieu on the platform. Theo made her way down the hall of the carriages down towards her favourite one. The first carriage she ever sat in on the Hogwarts express and the one that was currently occupied by a mop of mousy brown hair in a jumper.

"Moony.." she breathed, a smile painted on her face at the sight of him.
"Teddy!" The boys face lit up and he leapt from his seat to embrace her in a warm hug. "It's so good to see you I've missed you."
"I've missed you too, so much."
"Come, sit." the boy dragged Theo down with him onto the same bench he had previously been strewn across.

Remus Lupin, Moony, was another member of Theodora's group of misfits. Moony was the most kind, gentle, bookworm 90% of the time except for once a month when he had a little bit of a personality change. Remus was one of Theodora's closest friends in fact she'd go as far as to say they were best friends, study buddies, practically an old married couple at this point. They read, and bickered, and bickered about reading but were quite happy with their little dynamic.
Theo loved Remus and Remus loved Teddy and they never had to do anything about it.
Teddy is what he called her, it's what they all have started calling her but it was Moony who came up with the name, it's partly because of her name and partly because of her...other ability. But that's a story for another time.

"What subjects are you taking this year?" Remus asked with genuine interest.
"Ooh well Im taking Alchemy this year which is exciting as well as Care of Magical Creatures, Potioms, Transfiguration, Defence against the Dark Arts, Astronomy, Charms, Herbology, The Muggle studies Music elective and Arithmancy."
"Christ Teddy that's like 10 classes!"
"Oh and I'm taking the additional apparition course."
"Even I'm only doing 9 classes and that's including apparition. How in hell are you going to manage 11??"
"I'll figure it out it's not like I've anything else to be doing."
"Sleeping? Eating? Socialising? You're not gonna have any free time!"
"That's sort of the point I need to stay busy."
"Well don't come crying to me over your arithmancy homework at 2 in the morning."
"Fine fine whatever but you'll be taking that back when you're crying to me at 3am over your Astronomy essays."
"That was one time-"
"That was three times and the last time you fell asleep on my floor so I had to write the entire paper myself."
"Sorry..."
"It's alright it was actually quite funny, we took turns drawing on you and seeing how far we could stick things up your nose before you started to wake up."
"I KNEW THAT WASNT A DREAM"
"Nope just me."
"Oh you minx!" Remus exclaimed and grabbed her waist tickling her a wrestling playfully like kids.

"Children, children please no fighting we can't have Gryffindor losing points before the year has even begun."
Teddy and Moony's heads turned swivelled to meet the eyes of James Potter, hanging in the doorway to the carriage looking smugly at his awfully close friends. "Looks like some people got cosy over the summer."
"Yeah, you and sirius are looking awful cosy Prongs I've been meaning to ask if Evans should be worried." Theo retorted.
"Oh bugger off you know who I was talking about. You and Moony, what's going on here?"
"Oh come on James you know there's nothing." Moony argued.
"Fine fine whatever you say just so long as you don't break our little Teddy bear's heart." James warned as he wrapped his arms around her neck in an awkward hug.

"Who's breaking Teddy's heart? Cause if anyone it should be me."
"Sirius Black as I live and breathe why I haven't seen you in well over three minutes!" James exclaimed.
"Padfoot!" Theo jumped up to give Sirius a tight hug.
"Hey there Teddy bear" He held her tight, "Who's face do I have to break for hurting you?" He whispered in her ear.
"No one I promise, I'll tell you if there is."
"How come Sirius gets secret conversations and a hug and I get snarky remarks?" James asked.
"Because we have a rejected child bond that you'll never relate to."
"I feel excluded"
"Sorry Prongs dear."

Moony had a book in his lap which he was reading intently as he sat against the window.
"Whatcha reading?" Theo asked gently.
"Sonnets of a Sorcerer."
"Ooh I love Poetry, can I read with you?"
"Course." He grinned and opened his arms for her to move closer. Theo lay her head on his chest and started reading the pages in front of them.
They had been on the train for an hour or so and the other boys were deep in conversation over the recent Quidditch World Cup. Eventually the cabin fell into a comfortable silence. They were very tired and the initial buzz of excitement had worn down to a gentle hum. Soon enough however the comfortable calm was interrupted by the opening of the sliding door.

"Anything from the trolley dears?"
"Ah finally food!" Sirius exclaimed in delight. "Can I have two pumpkin pasties and a couple of lucky rice wands please?"
"Of course my love that'll be 8 sickles." Sirius handed her the money and sat back down.
James then purchased his usual pile of jelly slugs, chocolate frogs, popping pixie dust and bertie botts.
Then Remus stood up forcing Theo to move from her extremely comfortable position on his chest.
"Two cauldron cakes and a copy of the daily prophet please."
He handed one of the cauldron cakes to Theo without uttering a word about it and then resumed his place on the bench. He knew she was low on money and couldn't afford to spend it all on sweets from the trolley. Being abandoned by your family kind of causes a cash flow issue when you're a teenager who can't get a full time well paid job. Remus never cared about this and quite enjoyed buying food for Teddy. She used to feel awkward about it like she was a burden to him and the others anytime they went out but as they've grown it's become more normalised to the point where they don't even speak of it now.

"Do you mind if we read this instead for a bit?" Moony asked holding up his copy of the daily prophet.
"Not at all" Teddy smiled and lay across the bench with her head on Moony's lap. "Can you read it to me? My eyes are tired I think I might doze off if I try to concentrate on reading."
"Of course I can. There's more articles about the disappearances would you like me to start with them?"
"Please."
"Oh the disappearances!" James interjected, "I wanna hear about those too actually so do speak up Moony."

They all sat and listened to Remus read out the terrifying articles about mysterious disappearances and attacks happening more and more frequently.
"It's him isn't it?" Teddy questioned.
"That's what everyone's saying" Moony responded. "I'm sure he'll be stopped soon enough, he only needs to come up against Dumbledore once and this whole thing would be over." Moony reassured her.
"I'm not so sure, he's gathering a massive army Moony." Theo explained.
"Teddy's right, both of our family's are willing to die for him and I'm sure at least half the other Slytherin family's are the same if not more."
"He's like a rockstar to them, doing almighty Salazar's work." James added, "Killing everyone but the purest of purebloods."
"It's ridiculous and awful." Teddy said sadly. "The fact that it's my family who are involved in it is infuriating."
"Mine too." Sirius added "I couldn't stand another day listening to their codswallop about how non-purebloods shouldn't be allowed practice magic. They're all crazy."
"There's more and more talk about war." James added.
"I heard about that too, pretty soon it's gonna be us out there fighting him."
"Enjoy our youth while it lasts." Moony says with a sad air of acceptance of the impending doom.