The year after her brother James graduates, Teddy Potter returns to Hogwarts for her final year. With the Marauders gone, it should be a quiet, peaceful year despite the mounting tensions in the world outside of school.
The problem, naturally, lies...
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The Hogwarts Express isn't officially split up into designated House carriages, but students tend to follow the unofficial segregation just the same. While there is some mixing in most of the carriages, the Slytherin carriage remains for the most entirely unbreached by other Houses.
That's why when Teddy slips down the aisle of the Slytherin carriage, she can see several curious and mostly unwelcoming faces staring straight back at her from some of the compartments with still open doors. Most compartments have their doors shut tight to block out any nosey wanderers from overhearing their conversations, so Teddy manages to sneak down the whole carriage without being stopped at all.
Regulus Black and his friends are creatures of habit, and they have occupied the exact same compartment at the very bottom of the Slytherin carriage since their very first trip to Hogwarts in first year. It shouldn't take a genius to find him, but she feels kind of sorry for Ainsworth (partly because her friends had possibly traumatised him when he had walked in on them feeling up her bum) so she figures she can suck up a couple of moments of forced interaction with Regulus Black. He's usually reticent and almost surly, so she figures it'll be over quickly and relatively painlessly.
Taking a deep breath, Teddy knocks once on the wooden pane by the compartment door before sliding it open in one quick, smooth movement. The hum of conversation from within dies immediately as everyone inside turns to look at her.
"Potter." Evan Rosier leans forward to look at her better, his eyebrows raised. He always looks as though he knows something that no one else does, and if Teddy didn't know better she'd say he looked amused right now. "What a pleasant surprise."
Teddy looks around the compartment. Rosier, with his neatly coiffed hair and stupidly white teeth, sits closest to the door beside Barty Crouch Jr., who has turned so that he can eye Teddy's body up and down in an uncomfortably thorough scrutiny. Beside Crouch, Walden Macnair is scratching irritably at a bit of peeling paint on the windowsill and doesn't bother looking up other than a cursory bored glance. On the other bench, the Carrow twins are lounging carelessly. Alecto levels Teddy with an expression of intense dislike, but says nothing. They seem happy to let Rosier do the talking.
Regulus Black is nowhere to be seen.
"Where's Black?" Teddy asks, eyes darting around the compartment as though he might appear from nowhere.
"Why?" Rosier shoots back, slouching in his seat. He sends her an insouciant little smile, but then his gaze seems to settle on her lower half and his brow furrows in what appears to be bewilderment. "I- what are those?"
"Have you never seen a pair of trousers before?" Teddy demands, before waving this aside impatiently. "Look, if you see Black will you just tell him that there's a Prefect meeting that he's expected to be at?"
Rosier blinks slowly, before a strange expression settles over his face. "Actually, he's just gone to the bathroom." He says, rising to his feet. "Come on, we'll go find him."
