Teddy and the Marauders

seven

Chapter 7
Teddy Lupin

On Monday evening, Teddy was just gathering his things- parchment, quills, ink- for his lesson with McGonagall, when the other boys came stomping down the stairs.

"Did you get detention too" Sirius laughed, seeing Teddy just about to go out

"No, I have a class." he replied "For my metamorphmagus stuff." just to demonstrate, he flashed his hair from it's usual pink to blue, then green, then yellow, finally pack to pink.

"What's your real hair colour?" Peter asked. Teddy thought for a moment. He hadn't seen his real hair colour in the longest time.

"I think it's brown. I couldn't tell you the exact colour though." they all laughed

The five Gryffindor boys filled through the portrait hole and off to their respective classrooms, or so they said. Teddy thought the Marauders were heading suspiciously away from the majority of the classroom. They looked as if they might be heading to the kitchen instead. He didn't say anything though. He just headed to the transfiguration classroom where McGonagall and Tonks were already waiting.

"Mister Luther, welcome." McGonagall on briefly looked up from her papers "For this first lesson, I want to establish what each of you can already do. I will test each of you individually while the other does some reading on your extraordinary gift." her tone was very professional and business like, as if she had been planning that on paragraph of speech for quite some time.

"Miss Tonks, I'll start with you. Mister Luther, the book you will be reading is on my desk. Chapters 3 to 10. I don't expect you to finish them all right now but you can make a good dent in this time." Teddy nodded and got the book in question.

He brought it over to one of the desk and sat down. He looked over the large book. It had a clear, peeling, plastic like, covering over top of it. Underneath it was a cardboard type cover that had a deep blue background with white block letters reading 'Abilities of Transfiguration'

Teddy flipped to the third chapter and began to read. Out of the corner of his eye he could see Tonks' hair flashing bright colours but ignored it and focused on the reading before him.

'Chapter 3, Metamorphmagus

The Metamorphmagus is a wizard, unlike any other in terms of power or look, but they do possess one key attribute- the ability to change appearance at will. Metamorphosing is a very rare quality found in few individuals. This is a talent that can only be brought forth at birth and not learned. Some have found that this talent is not brought forth at birth, but rather at a time of extreme peril after they have bought their wand at the age of eleven and developed their magical abilities. This branch of Metamorphmagus is known as Late Onset Morphing. (More on Late Onset Morphing in Chapter 4) Metamorphosing is always passed down through a bloodline and because of it being a recessive gene, can lay dormant in a family for generations, to the point that the family might not even know of the gene anymore. It is thought that every known Metamorphmagus is related, however distantly."

'I know every Metamorphmagus at Hogwarts right now are related' Teddy thought. He skipped ahead to chapter 4.

'Late Onset Morphing is a second branch of Metamorphosing that is brought on after one is eleven. This quality, however much it may not be possessed at birth, is equal in power and quality to that which is possessed at a young age. It is brought forth (as mentioned in chapter 3) in a time of extreme peril and terror. A type of fight or flight instinct that is thought to be brought forth as a chameleon type defense to hide from whatever is attacking the patron. In the few studies that have been done of these such wizards, one in two of them lost their appearance shifting abilities by the time they reached the age of fifty.'

Ted thought to all the Metamorphmagus he knew or knew of. The only two that came to mind were himself and his mother. No others. He knew they were rare, but only two just seemed unlikely. He thought again. He remembered a story his aunt Ginny had told him about a girl in her year at Hogwarts and her, along with her two brothers, Late Onset Morphers, but they had all been killed during the Second Wizarding War. What was her name? Maycee? Marlene? No, it was May, May Almer. Right, her whole family had names that doubled as the months.

Why had the three been killed though? And why did it bother Teddy so much? He sat there for a couple more moments, going through the whole story again, but no more information jumped out at him. He hadn't deduced anymore information when McGonagall called him over to test him. He and Tonks switched placed and he looked at the aging, yet still quite young in Ted's regards, professor.

"Alright Luther. I want you to change your hair through the colours of the rainbow, in order." she said, getting right down to business. Teddy obeyed and did just as she asked. "Now do the same with your eyes." again Teddy did as she asked. "Can you do them at the same time?" he nodded and demonstrated. "Alright. Change the length or style of your hair." Ted changed it so that it mirrored Sirius' hair. First thing he could think of. "Very good, are you able to change your height?" He nodded and once again showed the professor. "The last thing for now, are you able to change to have any animal like features?"

'Well I am an illegal animagus like my father's friends' Teddy said in his head. Out loud, however he just shook his head. Not a complete lie. He wasn't able to do that with his morphing abilities.

"Thank you MIster Luther." she nodded.

McGonagall led Teddy back over to Tonks and he sat down at the desk beside her. McGonagall stood in front of the two.

"For your next class I will have an adequate lesson plan for the level that you are both at." She looked over the the clock hanging on the wall "That's all I have for you tonight, I have to serve detention for a couple seventh years so you may go."

"A quick solution would be to let us off the hook, Minnie." A voice said from the doorway. The three of them looked over to see teenaged Sirius Black leaning against the doorway, a big smirk lined on his face.

"Mister Black, I do hope you brought your comrades with you." McGonagall said, stone faced. Two heads popped in view of the doorway. Peter and James peeked around the corner and smiled at Teddy. Remus hung back awkwardly behind the other three.

McGonagall rolled her eyes at the four Marauders and let Teddy and Nymphadora go, shoo-ing the detainees into the, now empty classroom.

Ted walked with his future mother, shooting side glances at her. Just for fun, he made his hair match the exact shade of orange that hers was. She noticed and changed it to a brilliant white. Once again, Teddy matched the colour. It became a sort of game to the two, Tonks trying to shift her hair through colours so fast, hoping Teddy wouldn't be able to catch up to her and Teddy working just as hard to keep up. By the time they had reached the Great Hall, they had been through all the colours of the rainbow and more.

"See ya Tonks." Ted smirked and heading over to the Gryffindor table.

"Wait!" she called after him. He turned to see her concerned face, her hair back to her natural mousy brown.

"Yeah?" he asked hesitantly. His hair was still at the vibrant red that her's had been moments before.

"What did you call me?" she asked

"Tonks?" he replied, no entirely sure of the question. She smiled a bit, still looking deep in thought.

"Yeah, I like that a lot more than Nymphadora." she crinkled her nose when she said her first name "Thanks Luther!" she ran off to sit down with her friends looking eager to tell her friends.

'Uh oh,' Teddy thought 'I just named my mother'

(A/N: Omg! 200+ reads?! thank you so much! I am giving this update to you (and it's a longer one) to say thank you for that and for all the nice comments on the last chapter. It really means a lot to me. I'm also going to dedicate this chapter and the next few to my favorite readers as another thank you. This one is dedicated to elrabbit for being my favorite for pretty much all my stories. So thank you. I also have the next few chapters decided for who I want to dedicate them to. -Jul)