Unspeakables; Rule One

Chapter Seventeen: Drinking Partners and Beer Can Towers

2023

The room reeked of alcohol and emotional despair, a scent Ginny Potter, née Weasley, hadn't smelt in years. There were empty fire whiskey bottles and muggle Guinness cans littering the entrance, food crusting over on dirty dishes stacking in the kitchen, and various bits of laundry strewn across the wooden floor of his small flat. The place looked and smelt like a rubbish bin. Teddy could see how disgusted his godfather's wife was as she navigated the scene, making sounds that resembled yuck and ew.

Grim had also made similar sounds when he arrived, crescendoing into a final groan as he chose to sit beside him on the cleanliest cushion of the lone, tattered, beige couch. The other two cushions were stained with last night's takeout, something he wouldn't have noticed without Ginny's presence magnifying the pigsty.

She stepped over her last obstacle, a pair of flipped-over trainers, before throwing open the corner curtains with a nonverbal spell; the daylight made Teddy squint his eyes. Ginny appeared staggeringly young at 42 years of age. It would be easy to mistake her as a witch in her late twenties, a youthful gleam that the world could only assume came from years of diet and rigorous quidditch training. Time hadn't been as generous to his godfather. Harry Potter had grey starting to salt his black hair, an aging factor that the world could only assume came from years of stress and rigorous Ministry work. Grim and Al also suffered from that assumption.

As Teddy's pupils adjusted, he observed Ginny floating a pair of dirty socks off the metal stool near the fireplace.

"I didn't know you were stopping by, Ginny. I would've tidied up a bit, had I-" Teddy had started his list of excuses but was interrupted when she flung the sock at his face. He ripped it off, nearly gagging at his stink.

Ginny sat on the stool, crossing her arms and disregarding Teddy altogether. "Grim, would you like to explain why you asked me here? You and I are supposed to be at the Leaky Cauldron in half an hour."

The two were attending a birthday celebration for one of Harry's Aurors in the filing department.

"I'd like to have a drink before, wouldn't you? It's what the kids these days call-...pregazing,"

"Pregaming." Teddy corrected, shaking his head.

"Right. Pregaming." He said. Ginny gave him a rather pointed look in return. "Fine. He shut off his Floo network and won't talk to me or tell me what's happening. I can't get him to shower, let alone leave this damn flat for work, and I'm about to lose it if I slip on spilt curry again."

"If you were that worried, you should've asked my grandmother or godfather." His grandmother was, more than likely, properly panicked after not hearing from him for two days.

Andromeda had lost so many people during the war. Her husband, her daughter, and her son-in-law. She had also lost two sisters to the darkness of evil. The pain of losing Nyphmadora did something to Andromeda, and knowing her daughter had been murdered by her own sister had destroyed her. Teddy believed his grandmother had spent years holding some small light of hope in her chest for Bellatrix and that it was snuffed out the second she had heard the news of her daughter's demise. That was when Narcissa Malfoy stepped into the picture, attempting to make amends for her failures. Andromeda may have forgiven her, but Teddy wasn't sure how he felt about his great-aunt. He had always been good at forgiving but never forgetting.

"They are both too mushy with you; I needed someone who would throw a sock at your face."

Ginny hummed, calculating Teddy's sullen features. "Would this have anything to do with why my niece has been locking herself in her room to cry?"