Disclaimer: No. Still not mine.

A/N: For those who asked for it. These guys will probably later feature in another fic.

A/N 2: To those who have read Daring Nerve and Chivalry, Where Dwell the Brave at Heart and particularly The Gospel According to Lupin, I wonder if you'll guess who his friend is. She may be a McCormack but she is so much like her mother…

1st September 2009

With a packed trunk, his father's owl (for appearance's sake) and acid green hair, Teddy Lupin was ready to face almost anything. He had been tempted to give himself a tattoo and an eyebrow piercing just to be absolutely certain that no-one was going to make a comment about his beloved father - not to his face, at least.

Lupin had quickly put that idea to bed.

"Dad, what if it puts me in Slytherin?"

Lupin sighed and smiled down at his son. "So what? I know lots of perfectly lovely Slytherins, very academic, very high-flyers, innately nice."

Teddy raised an eyebrow, blatantly rather dubious. "Really?"

"Well, no, but you could be the first."

Teddy managed a faint smile, though he was now feeling very sick indeed. He spared a hug and a kiss for his mother, almost ignoring his father for fear that other people see them together.

"Bye, Teddy."

Teddy winked at his sister. "See you, pipsqueak."

"Come and see me after school tomorrow," Lupin murmured, conscious that his son's fears of being detected as a teacher's son were worse than ever before, handing over the caged barn owl. "And be nice to him."

Teddy nodded and took a deep breath, dragging his trunk with one hand and swinging the disgruntled owl's cage in the other. It was easier now, without his father beside him, looking like him and talking like him and standing like him and…being obviously related to him.

"OW!"

Teddy peered into the carriage. "Hello?"

The boy stood up, pushing his trunk back against the wall. "Bloody thing." He had a thick Liverpool accent and skin the colour of milk chocolate, but Teddy was captivated by his eyes - the same colour as his father's.

"Sorry, man." He stuck out his hand. "I'm Tom. Tom Collins. Is this your first year too?"

Teddy grinned and nodded, shaking Tom's hand. This had taken no time. "Like the cocktail?"

Tom sighed. "Yeah."

"Sorry, I bet you get that all the time."

Tom smirked. "No, first time I've ever heard it."

Teddy laughed. "Oh, I'm Ted, by the way."

"Cool hair. Did your folks let you dye it?"

Teddy beamed at him. "Do you want to see something cool?" He changed his hair to his favourite shade of purple and back again.

For a moment, Tom was silent and Teddy began to think he should have kept his gift to himself but the other boy's jaw dropped and he grinned.

"That's dead good."

Teddy laughed. "But, yeah, my parents let me do pretty much anything…except drugs. I don't think I'd get away with that. Do you…um…do you want to find a compartment?"

Tom nodded. "If I can shift this damn trunk. I might have to sit out 'ere on my tod."

Teddy shook his head. "It's really weird how we're speaking the same language and I don't understand a word you say."

"On my own, you dozey get." He opened the nearest door. "'Ere's one."

Inside, sat a tall girl with jet black hair and piercing electric blue eyes. She raised her eyebrows and put down Witch Weekly, obviously thinking that the two boys were far more entertaining.

"Oh, hello."

The girl pursed her lips in reply and returned to her magazine, flicking through the fashion pages and humming to herself.

"I'm Teddy."

"Erin," she replied, her gaze not leaving the page.

Teddy frowned slightly. "Are you Scottish?"

Erin sighed and slammed her magazine onto the table separating them. "Why? What's it to you?"

Teddy held his hands up in surrender. "I just wondered why you came to London to go back to Scotland."

Erin sat up straight. "Well, I wasn't going to walk to Hogwarts and the flying carpet's gone in for it's M.O.T." She flicked the page over. "What have you done to your hair?"

Teddy smirked. "Oh, do you like it?"

Erin returned to her icy silence.

Tom blew the air out of his cheeks and took the seat opposite her. "What's your problem, love?"

Erin peered over the top of her page, fixing Tom with her incredibly blue eyes and silencing him, seemingly holding him in a trance. "Are you talking to me?"

"No, I was talking to Jabba the Hut."

Finally, she put down her magazine and leant across the table. "What the hell is Jabba the Hut?"

Teddy, exposed to his father's nerdy tendencies from a very young age, replied, "A really fat alien." The silence deafened him, ringing in his ears. "What House do you think you'll be in?"

Tom hummed for what felt like ten hours. "Hufflepuff. That's where they put everyone who doesn't know where they're going."

Teddy smiled strangely. "My Mum was a Hufflepuff."

Tom winced. "What was your Dad?"

Teddy cleared his throat and mumbled, "Gryffindor." And he's totally not the Head of it.

"Oh, go for that one, I would. Still, even Hufflepuff's better than Slytherin. It's got the shadiest characters in it. Half of Azkaban were in Slytherin."

Erin made a slightly nasal sound but pressed the subject no further.

"What about you, Erin?"

"Slytherin."

"Oh."

Well, this was awkward. Teddy fidgeted. He wasn't sure if he and Tom were really friends and Erin seemed to despise him. He remembered what his father had said about Sirius, and opted to talk her into submission.

"Is that where your parents were?"

Erin nodded.

"Did they see you off or did the Dementors not let them out for the day?"

Teddy stared at Tom, his mouth agape. "You've got some nerve, aye."

Erin stuffed the magazine into the pocket of her robes. "For your information, my mother and father fought against Voldemort during the war, and er…just so you know, Dementors don't guard Azkaban anymore so if you're going to insult my family, at least do it properly."

"So who are your family?"

Erin glanced toward Teddy. "You know, I think maybe a darker green would have suited you."

"What? Like this?" His hair was now emerald and Erin raised her eyebrows, leaning back in her chair.

"That's um…useful, I suppose."

Teddy grinned. "Very. My Mum's a Metamorphagus." He might as well come out with it. "And my Dad's the Charms teacher."

Tom winced. "Oh, that is going be dead awkward. You're going to look like a right bell-end, mate."

"Thanks, Tom, I really appreciate your support."

Tom shrugged. "I'm just saying. Tough love, Ted. Tough love."

Erin's response was considerably more detached. "And who is your father?"

"Remus Lupin."

Tom gasped. "No way! I've got his Chocolate Frog card. I've got the whole Order. And Circe. I've got five of her. Oh, and Merlin, and I thought I saw an Agrippa one once. They're really hard to find."

Erin met Teddy's eyes and rolled hers. He grinned at her.

"This is Tom."

Erin nodded and held out her hand. "Erin McCormack."

Tom, surprised by her sudden display of friendship, took her hand and shook it loosely.

"They say the way to spot a big girl's blouse is by a loose handshake," said Erin, smiling at him.

Tom smiled back. "Sorry about…you know."

"It's all right. I've had a lot worse. A lot truer too."

Teddy decided not to ask. Though, of course, he could not speak for Tom; sadly.

"Like what?"

It came as no surprise that he was placed in Gryffindor. Though, as Erin took her seat opposite him, plainly the only person unsurprised was indeed Erin.

"I thought you were going to be a Slytherin," said Tom, halfway through a chicken leg, some time later when the shock had evidently sunk in.

Erin's expression was one of vague disgust. "So did I. Still, my half-uncle was here and my mother kept telling me how she should have been." She turned to a girl on her right. "Can you pass the feta? I'm Erin."

Teddy and Tom shared an incredulous look. She certainly hadn't been this approachable on the train. Perhaps she was only pleasant to other beautiful people who radiated 'Ice Queen'.

"Galateia."

"This is Thomas, you'll probably want to avoid him." Tom glared at her across the table and Erin smirked back. "And Ted, who doesn't seem so bad because he's barely had the chance to speak with Tom around. Oh, and he can do things with his hair."

Galateia smiled. "Yes, I can see."

"He's a Metamorphagus," said Tom, shoveling mashed potatoes into his mouth. "Cool, isn't it?"

Erin wrinkled her nose. "I really don't want to see the contents of your mouth, but yes, I have to agree."

Teddy beamed at her. "And, it's not a good look, Tom."

Tom elbowed him and returned to eating, a task all of itself. It was distinctly reminiscent of feeding time for a Piranha.

"Good God, boys disgust me."

Galateia nodded. "You can't even taste that, surely."

Tom merely continued to shovel them down. "I haven't eaten all day. I was too nervous."

Erin's face betrayed no hint of amusement. "No. Far too nervous to eat five Chocolate Frogs, six cauldron cakes and two boxes of Every Flavour Beans."

Galateia's mouth dropped open. "How are you so thin? That's what I want to know. Merlin, boys get away with everything."

"Because we're not so obsessed," said Tom. "Pass me the sausages."

"I'll meet you later."

Tom smirked, knowing that straight after their Charms lesson, his new best friend was about to approach his father. "I'll wait outside."

Teddy waited for the room to empty, packing his things away slowly. He wondered how to approach his father who had almost ignored his very existence for the past hour, but he was surprised to find Lupin sitting on his desk and beckoning him over.

"How was your day?"

Teddy nodded and beamed. "Good. How was yours?"

Lupin laughed. "Disturbing." He gave his son a half-smile. "I see you made friends."

"Oh yeah, Tom's so funny and Tia's cool, but Erin's a bit…"

"Detached?"

Teddy nodded. "Yeah, that's exactly it. Did you get the feeling she hated you?"

Lupin nodded. "I'm sure she just takes a bit of getting used to."

"A bit, yeah. So what do you think?"

Lupin smiled. "It's not about what I think. You obviously like them and they obviously like you. I don't feature into the equation at all."

"But do you like them?"

Lupin nodded. "Oh, especially Tom. Very entertaining."

Teddy laughed. "I'm sure he didn't mean it. It's just a black eye. Erin can get that fixed so easily."

Lupin scoffed. "Just a black eye? I don't know how it's possible to be that clumsy and I'm married to your mother. I live with you."

"I'm not clumsy!" Teddy protested.

Lupin raised an eyebrow. "Ted." He shifted his papers, straightening them out and locking them away in a drawer. "Still, you're nothing like Calamity Collins. Come on, before we miss dinner."

"Hi, Sir."

"Evening, Tom."

Teddy rolled his eyes. "You're such a fan-boy, Tom, it's unreal." Turning to his father, he said, "I think he wants your autograph. If he asks for a really disturbing book from the Restricted Section, don't worry; he doesn't really want it, he's just going to sleep with the slip under his pillow."

Tom elbowed him. "Shut up."

"You shut up."

As much as he tried not to compare them, Lupin could not help but think of James and Sirius.