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 day before one of her scheduled curfew patrols, Teddy slips into the prefect's common room on the fifth floor to use the fireplace to floo Sirius.
Her conversation with Mary and Alice had been stuck in her head as though someone had used a Permanent Sticking Charm, and she had been unable to shake the idea that she should talk to Sirius about his brother. She had written to him the day before, asking if she could floo him alone, and he had responded quite enthusiastically only that morning. She has no idea how she's going to approach the whole thing, but she would really find Sirius' advice invaluable right now.
When she sticks her head into the fireplace and comes out the other side in her living room, she spots Sirius lounging lazily on one of the couches. He perks up instantly when he spots her, a broad grin splitting his face as he leaps off the couch and dives down to sit in front of the fire on his knees.
"Teddy!" He exclaims, looking truly delighted to see her. He fixes his clothes self-importantly. "You wanted to talk? Tell Big Brother Sirius exactly what's wrong, little sister."
"He's always wanted a sister, did you know that?"
Teddy's smile flickers for a second, but she hitches it back up before Sirius can notice. "Well," She starts off slowly. "It's really not that big a deal. I just didn't want to say it in front of James because you know he can get a bit... well."
"Overprotective." Sirius nods knowingly, as though he's not guilty of the exact same thing.
"Yeah." Teddy chews on her lip for a second, then adjusts her body so that she's kneeling more comfortably on the carpet back in the common room. It's a very disconcerting feeling, having your head in one place and your body in another, and if anyone walks into the room and sees her on her knees with her ass up in the air and her face in the fireplace she'll be absolutely mortified.
"Teddy," Sirius tilts his head, his grin starting to fade a little. "Tell me what's up. You're starting to make me nervous."
"It's nothing!" She insists. "It's just that- well, Aubrey switched up the way that prefect patrols work this year."
"Bertram Aubrey got Head Boy?" Sirius asks, suddenly amused. "He always had the personality of a wet dish cloth."
"Yes, well," Teddy certainly can't argue with that. "He decided that this year everyone should patrol in pairs, so everyone got assigned a partner.
Sirius, easily-distracted child that he is, finds this uproariously funny. "Oh, James will be raging when he finds out that he could have had a year of partnered patrols in dark corridors with Lily! Imagine what they would have gotten up to in those empty hallways!" And then, as soon as he'd said that, a thought seems to occur to him and he narrows his eyes at her. "Wait, who's your partner? Is that why you wanted to talk? Have they tried something?"
Well, no way out of it now. Teddy takes a breath, and says, "Aubrey partnered me with your brother."
Sirius' mouth goes a little slack, before he purses his lips and nods. "Oh." He says, frowning. "And is he- I mean, how is he?"
