Harry Potter and the New Marauders (A Harry Potter Fanfiction)

Visitors

II

Visitors

“What is it with you and those rocks?” Lee asked Teddy, as Teddy was situating his jar full of smooth, shiny pebbles on the headboard of his four-poster.

“Hagrid started the game when I was really little,” Teddy explained. “I didn’t know what was happening back then, but when I’d change each month, Hagrid would be there to help take care of me; he even saved my life once, when I stopped breathing halfway through the change. I’d go to his place the day after, if I even woke up, or the day after that, an’ he’d take me fishing or sailing on the Black Lake, or into the Forest to see his friends. Sometimes my friends from Hogsmeade would come, too. You remember, don’t you, Jack?”

Jack nodded, looking sad. “Yeah, but Perry and Colin and them didn’t know you were a werewolf, either, back then.”

“Yeah,” Teddy agreed. “So when I was feelin’ really bad, Hagrid would have me find a pretty pebble and he’d put it in a jar. ‘One rock fer each time I cheered yeh up,’ he used to say. I got like five jars, full. This is the last one I kept at his house, before school started,” Teddy explained, giving the nearly full jar a shake. He then opened it.

“I don’t know what I saw in this one,” he said, holding up a cracked black stone with a line down the center. “I never saw one like it before, so I guess I just picked it up? It’s really kinda ugly?”

“Where’d you find it?” Lee asked, looking up from the Marauders’ Map. “It looks weird?”

“Back in the Forest, on a path, to the place where the Dark Lord thought he’d killed my Uncle Harry,” Teddy replied.

“Put that back in the jar,” Argos growled at him, which got everyone’s attention at once.

“Hagrid used t-to t-take you in there?” Ciaran gasped. “Aren’t there…m-monsters in there?”

“Nahhh,” Teddy waved him off, giving Argos an odd look. “What’s’a’matter, buddy?” Teddy asked the dog.

“One does not like that rock,” Argos replied. “You should throw it in the lake and be rid of it.” Teddy cocked his head at him.

“You sound like Uncle Harry now,” Teddy snorted.

“I…I think you’re bein’ kinda hard on your Uncle,” Jack spoke up. “Doesn’t matter either, seein’ as how I’m gonna do it.”

Jack was referring to biting Freddie, should Malfoy fail in finding a cure for the Bloodburn, but Teddy was having none of that. Still holding the black rock, he pointed at Jack and shook his head. Once again, the argument over who was going to bite Freddie began. Teddy moved the Invisibility Cloak to his pillow, and leaned back to engage Jack in debate again.

“Guys, don’t fight over me!” Freddie cut in, but it didn’t help as the same old argument escalated once more.

“There’s still a chance your folks’ll come around,” Teddy attempted to finish it, just as he always did. “It’s not like mine are comin’ back for me!”

“My parents hate me!” Jack retorted hotly, “’Sides, you got a HUGE family that loves you! And your Uncle Harry wouldn’t want you to end up in…” Jack retorted, but Teddy’s eyes had begun to glow, just as they always did when he grew frustrated. His hair turned brilliant red, slowly, and he shook his finger at Jack.

“If my dad was here, I’d tell him the same thing I told Uncle Harry!” Teddy snapped, as Argos whined and jumped down. The temperature of the room dropped, and the boys were startled to see their breath coming out in little puffs.