The Secrets of the Map

The Letter

Three days later Teddy was sitting at the Great Hall, eating breakfast as he carefully watched the owls bringing the mail. He still hadn't heard back from Harry, which made him slightly nervous as that could only mean two things: one, that it had been intercepted by his grandmother or Aunt Molly, or that Harry was avoiding answering his question. Either one made him uneasy.
Something smacked the back of his head, and he turned to see Heather looking at him exasperatedly, her spoon still held threateningly.
"What was that for?" Teddy grumbled, rubbing his stinging head.
"For not paying attention to me," she replied, putting the spoon down. "Have you heard anything we said? Tryout dates are tomorrow at 5."
Right-he had completely forgotten. "Oh, yeah-does she want us to spread the news?"
"Uh, yes. We're in charge of advertising-posters and announcements, the whole shebang. Starting today during Study Hall."
Despite being on the team for five years, Teddy couldn't help feeling surprised that Victory had put him in charge of this as well-it meant that she trusted him a great deal more than she showed.
     Heather gave him another exasperated look before adding, "You better get your head in the game tomorrow, or we're going to have to pick a first year to be a Keeper." She shuddered at the very thought.
    "I'm not the only good Keeper out there," Teddy pointed out.
     "Yeah, you are-stop trying to be modest." She bit into her large cinnamon roll and chewed ferociously, her eyes darting back and forthcoming no doubt as a million things raced through her head. "How many posters do you think we'll need-twenty? Or maybe we should hand out flyers too, or pamphlets-" she was babbling now, her breathing getting steadily faster. She was getting a frantic look in her eyes, and last time he had seen that look she had thrown up from anxiety, and it didn't help that she was talking fast while chewing a whole chunk of a roll. "Or maybe we should just stick to the announcements? Oh wait, but we need to give them at least twelve hours notice, and I don't know if her office is open by then-we don't have enough time to do this, why didn't she tell us earlier-"
     "Heather-"
     "Maybe I should tell her she should pick someone else for the job..." She started to get up, but Teddy grabbed her arm and forced her to sit back down.
     "Heather," Teddy said in a gentle but firm tone. "It's gonna be fine."
    Slowly, she relaxed the tiniest bit, and Teddy withheld a sigh of relief. While Heather was one of the best players out there, she was also the definition of stress at times. Hopefully she'd be more calm this year. "Right," she breathed, still looking high-strung. "Well...meet you at the library during then, I guess.
"Got it. I'll bring the paper."
     She gave him a relieved look. "Thanks. I'm-really glad you're helping me with this. I know I'm a little hard to handle."
     "No problem." He smiled at her encouragingly, remembering how nervous she was in her third year tryouts. It was strange sometimes to see the anxious thirteen year old come out of the confident frame. "Besides, you're nothing compared to Alejandro. He spent the whole day procrastinating and barely anyone showed up."
     She laughed. "Right. Where're you headed?"
     "Charms-" Teddy started to answer her when he saw someone over her shoulder. Victoire-holding a letter and looking directly at him with a strange expression.
     "Sorry, catch you later," he said hastily, maneuvering his way over towards Victoire. Her hair was loose today, flowing down her back in soft golden waves and softening her high cheekbones. He remembered her wondering aloud why so many boys liked her, but to him it could not be more obvious. In fact, he was pretty surprised she wasn't with one now.
     "What's this?" She asked in a low, angry tone, holding up the letter. He glanced at the envelope in her other hand, surprised. It was Harry's letter.
     "Where did you get that?" He demanded, feeling a surprising wave of anger as he tried to take it, but her grip only tightened.
     "Bella got confused again," she replied, and he fought back a curse. That stupid owl-his grandmother had given her to Harry as a gift, and she was always confusing recipients of letters. "He wrote in here that the school owl smashed into their window and is still recovering. But I'm not worried about that." Her voice lowered once again to a furious tone. "Why did you tell him about the man in the train, and why on earth did you want to know about Greyback?"
    "I thought he should know!" He protested, not understanding the look on her face. "It's not like I told your dad-"
    "I don't care if he tells my dad, I care about the kids at this school," she hissed impatiently. "Harry said in here that whatever "map" you've got never lies, which means that Greyback is here and that you didn't tell anyone, that mean's he could attack any second now and we'd be totally unprepared-why didn't you tell McGonagall?
"I-wait, hold up," he replied, feelings extremely confused. "You believe me?"
"Of course- George told me about the map ages ago. I'm just surprised that you were stupid enough to sit here and do nothing about it. Do you have any idea what Greyback is capable of doing?"
      "Not really, no," he fired back, momentarily making her speechless. "That's why I privately wrote him in the first place, because no one will tell me anything!"
      Her blue eyes met his, and he saw a hint of understanding pass through them. "We can't talk here," she said suddenly, taking his hand and dragging him towards the hallway that was mostly empty. After checking to make sure no one was listening she turned to him. "No one wants to tell you about Greyback because he's the one who bit your dad on purpose," she said in a low voice. Teddy blinked in surprise at how quickly she stared the fact, but she didn't pause before adding, "When he was just a kid-Greyback did it a lot. And that scar my dad has is from him as well, and it's out of sheer luck that he didn't turn as well." She handed him back the letter, her eyes boring into his. "If you really think Greyback is back, then everyone is in danger-especially us. And if our families ever find out about this they're going to be worried sick."
Teddy stared back at her, his head spinning. This whole time, he had felt sorry for whichever werewolf had harmed Bill and his dad. He had always assumed to turn into a monster you couldn't control must have left you in unbearable guilt. To find out that his dad's and Bill's life were changed on purpose- and that the killer was among them-sent chills up his spine. Suddenly he felt too out in the open, with all this space... "He was the one who mauled our dads," he realized aloud, shiverigninvoluntarily. "But Mcgonagall's not going to believe us-Greyback's been dead for years, she'll probably think it's a joke item-"
      "We'll have Harry explain to her," Victoire assured him. "But there's another thing we need to consider-if Greyback really is back, then they may very well evacuate the school and close down Hogwarts."
       Teddy stared at her in disbelief, even though he felt a similar feeling of dread pooling in his stomach. "What?"
       "They can't have a murderer running around!" She insisted.
       "It's not like it hasn't happened before-Harry said there was pretty much something that tried to kill him every year."
      "And eventually his luck ran out and students started dying," she insisted. "They've seen how bad things can get-don't you think they've learned by now? The ministry's already breathing down their neck about regulations-"
      Suddenly he grabbed her arm, effectively stopping her from talking as he gazed in horror at the wall. Crooked claw marks ran across the wall. They weren't as noticeable from far away, but up close he could definitely tell that something with larger nails had sliced through the stone bricks. "Was that here before?" He whispered.
     Before he could answer, a scream echoed throughout the Hall.