Albus Potter, Classmates and Elves

Ch 6 Teddy Undercover, the Basilisk in the Forest

I again want to thank my beta Deb for some excellent work on this chapter. We would both appreciate reviews.

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Al VanLente asked to meet with Harry and Ginny in the drawing room at Grimmauld Place, and asked if he could bring several guests along. The group met shortly after lunch Tuesday October ninth. Albert VanLente sat on the loveseat next to his wife Caroline. Across from him sat his son Dan and Dan's wife Willimena. Opposite Harry and Ginny were the head Elves from Switzerland, John and Mary Rivendell.

"We are here to let you know that Theodore Lupin is going to be going undercover," Al explained to Harry and Ginny. "He has a gift for both map making and concealment, and if he can make maps of the island of the Pirate Witch Queen of the Caribbean it will be the biggest advance we have ever had in combating her.

"I'm going to be brutally blunt with you. Ted has two choices when he lives on that island. One is to insist on living a moral life, and if he does that he will be killed very quickly. The other is to blend in, and if he does that he will probably father children as a result of orgies and/or having sex and maybe living with witches on the island. We need to keep his name on your Tapestry, plus on a master Tapestry we have in Switzerland, without revealing anything else. It will show if he is dead, but will not show if he is in danger or anything else about him."

"That's horrible!" Ginny exclaimed, grabbing Harry's hand.

Al leaned forward in his seat, clasping his hands, his eyes serious as his voice. "She sacrifices a new person almost every day, and occasionally sacrifices whole families, cutting out beating hearts with a glass knife that has been used in human sacrifices hundreds of years before," Al explained. "She is a terrible person, from a long line of terrible people. Parts of the Caribbean are considered evil and haunted because they are, because of her. The hardest job I have is sending undercover agents to that island."

"As long as Teddy is trained and agrees, do what you have to do," Harry agreed with a heavy heart. As head Auror in Great Britain, he had not lost an Auror since they destroyed the Lestrange hideout years ago. He remembered Philip Fletcher who died in the raid. His twin sister Philomena Fletcher Brown still worked for the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, although not as an Auror, and she had married and moved on with her life. Harry knew that their mother had never really recovered, however, wasting her life away in grief. As a supervisor in the International Aurors, Harry did have the terrible task of telling parents or a spouse when an Auror had been killed or badly injured. Harry dreaded the thought that he would have to deal with Teddy being killed or badly injured.

Ginny was almost in tears. "I nursed him the first three months after the battle," she told the group. "His stocking is on OUR mantle Christmas morning. I know he is not our child, but he ... he ... he IS OUR child."

Carolina VanLente leaned forward and put her hand on Ginny's. "I go with Albert when he has to call on parents or a spouse. I think that is the hardest part of our job. We have cried so many tears over the years. I think we are doing a lot of good, but this job is just so hard, so emotionally draining at times."

"I always prided myself on being tough," Ginny mused. "It is one thing to be tough about yourself, but it is another thing to be tough when it is your children. James still has the scars from Professor Chen's attack, at least some of the smaller scars. Albus has had people attacking him for years. Lily is just reckless and careless, but I cannot count how many times I have had her at the healers. Carolina, how do you handle it?"

"Our two girls are not involved in law enforcement, which helps," Carolina replied. "I'm proud of Dan and Willie, but I worry about them. Both of their children are in law enforcement, but not as Aurors, so I'm not as worried about them or the great-grandchildren. That helps too."