The Halfwolf (Year 1)

The Attic and Sirius Black

Teddy lay on his back in the loft of his room, eyes closed as he listened to the girls giggling across the hall. Ginny must be doing something with them, because he could distinctly hear her voice amongst the other two girls and the squealing Lily. Zach was rummaging around by the bookcase in the corner, trying to see what there was to keep them busy. He was leaning over a small trunk that was sitting near the bookcase. Teddy glanced above his head and saw Zach's feet dangling over the top of the trunk, his top half over the back of the trunk. He glared at Zach's feet, then felt around by his sides for his wand. He found it sticking from his pocket, pulled it out, and reached out and jabbed at the bottom of Zach's left foot. Zach yelped and fell headfirst over the trunk and landed with a thump. Teddy started laughing.

"Yea yea, funny man you are, Lupin. Zach poked his head up from behind the bookcase, winced, then immediately disappeared from sight again, clutching his forehead. "I think you gave me a concussion, Ted." Teddy kept laughing. After a few minutes, he managed to slow his laughter and quiet himself. A few moments passed in silence, until Zach spoke from his spot behind the trunk.

"Hey Ted?"

"Hm?" Teddy rolled over onto his stomach, listening.

"Did you ever explore the attic in this place?" Teddy furrowed his brow.

"There isn't an attic. My room is the highest up." He clambered to his feet and started towards where Zach lay.

"Then why is there a door in the ceiling?" Teddy climbed onto the trunk and looked down at Zach, who was laying on the floor staring at the ceiling.

"What are you on about?" Zach pointed up above their heads. Teddy looked up and sure enough there was a small square door above his head. "Huh. Apparently, there's an attic," he mumbled. He looked at Zach again, then at the same time the two boys started scrambling to stand on top of the trunk. The two boys were just tall enough to push the door up. As it swung up out of sight, a silver ladder, much like one that you'd see muggle construction workers using, slid from the opening and down to the floor. The boys glanced at one another again then started up the ladder, Teddy leading the way. When they reached the top, they climbed in and sat down on the dusty floor. The entire space was pitch dark and smelled of dust.

"Didn't happen to bring your wand up, did you, Ted?" Zach asked quietly. Teddy felt his pockets and shook his head, then had an idea. He closed his eyes and, like he did when they all entered the trophy room passage together, he thought of a light coming from his head. "Well, that works too." Zach muttered beside him. Teddy opened his eyes and saw the soft light emanating from his hair casting shadows around the mostly empty space. He looked around slowly. The ceiling was relatively low, just high enough for them to stand up. There was a small pile of boxes labeled "Toys" sitting near the door. A large purple school trunk sat against the wall a little way away. He assumed that was Ginny's old trunk from her Hogwarts days. Against the far wall sat a handful of old looking boxes that he couldn't make out the writing on. Teddy got to his feet and walked slowly over to them. Bending down, he read the first box. It was very dusty and faded, but he could make out the name Sirius in black marker. The handwriting looked very familiar to him. He pulled the box open and immediately a puff of dust hit him in the face. He sneezed and waved his hand over the box to get the dust away. He peered back into the box and discovered a stack of cassette tapes stacked neatly in one corner; a pile of magazines next to them. A ball of fabric was crammed in beside the two stacks. Teddy gently extricated this fabric from the box and shook it out. It was a leather jacket that smelled strongly of cigarettes and dirt. He swung it around his shoulders and admired it. It was quite a bit big on him and had a spot on the right shoulder where it had clearly been torn and mended with a few safety pins. He pulled the box with the magazines and cassettes back behind him and reached for the next. Zach had wandered over by now and started going through the box Teddy had just pulled the jacket from. The next box Teddy went to was a good bit heavier than the first. He opened the top to find it was full of clothes that smelled just like the jacket. He started lifting them out a piece at a time. Band shirts, muggle and wizard, were in various conditions as he pulled them out. Some had holes in them, others the decals had started to fade, still others looked almost new. After the t-shirts there was a couple of black and scarlet jumpers, most with the Gryffindor lion on them in some way. He set these aside. After the jumpers there were what looked to be different colors of muggle jeans. Teddy pulled out one of the darker ones and held them up. There were holes put together with the same safety pins as the jacket. As he sifted through the jeans, he noticed some had patches from old clothes, probably other t-shirts, covering holes in artistic ways. When he'd pulled all the clothes out of the box, he looked over the side to see if there was anything else. In the bottom of the box was a small book. He reached in and picked it up. Zach peeked over his shoulder as he opened it.

"It's an album." He said in amazement. Teddy stared at the picture of the two boys staring up at him. One was tall and lanky with wavy, sandy hair and a scar across the bridge of his nose. The other was a bit shorter, with muscular shoulders and black hair pulled back in a knot at the back of his head where his wand was sticking out. He had his arm around the waist of the taller boy, who had his arm draped around the smaller boy's shoulders.

"That's my dad." Teddy whispered as he pointed to Remus. Zach nodded his head.

"Then who's that bloke?" He asked, pointing at the other boy, who was beaming up at them between laughing at something. Teddy smiled down at them.

"That's Sirius Black. They look really happy." He looked up at Zach, who was looking at the picture with his brows knit together. "What?"

"Your dad was gay?" he asked simply. Teddy stared at him. Zach looked at him, "How did you come about if your dad was gay?" Teddy lifted an eyebrow at him.

"Dad married my mum after Sirius died. Mum's told me about him, she said he was dad's first love." Teddy stared at the picture of the two of them together for a moment longer before closing the cover. He gathered up all the clothes and stuffed them back in the box, laying the album on top gently, then pushing the box towards the door of the attic. Zach watched him.

"Ted?"

"Hm?" Teddy huffed as he heaved the heavy box of clothes across the floor.

"What are you doing?" Teddy stopped fighting with the box and stared at Zach.

"Taking the boxes into my room."

"Why?" Teddy scowled at his friend.

"Because I want to. I'm going to keep them." He looked down at the box of clothes. "I like the stuff and Sirius is gone so," he shrugged, "Figure I can wear his stuff." Zach gaped at him.

"You're going to WEAR that old stuff? Seriously?" Teddy grinned.

"Why not? It all looks cool, and no one else is." Zach continued to gape at Teddy as he finished pushing the boxes to the ladder and dropped them down gently. He and Zach clambered down the ladder and pushed the boxes against the loft railing.

"Let's go see whatthe others are up to, make sure James isn't being too rowdy." Teddy said as heslid down the loft ladder to the floor.