A/N: I'm so sorry! My only excuse is laziness! So nothing you can really forgive me for… Anyway, enjoy the chapter. I'm not sure when the next one will be out…

OH! And before I forget, this is dedicated to the wonderful Brook and Twilightfan, two anonymous reviewers who reminded me of this story's existence and gave me the push to write this chapter!

Chapter Eight

Teddy was woken by the familiar sounds of roommates clumsily getting themselves ready. Feeling tired and wishing he could roll over and fall back asleep, Teddy forced himself to swing his legs out of bed. Immediately missing the warmth of his comforter, he dragged himself to the bathroom to freshen up.

A fellow roommate, a short boy, with long, think blonde hair and cheeky brown eyes was also brushing his teeth. From memory, Teddy thought his name was Zachary Pincer, but he'd been introduced so quickly last night, to so many people, he wasn't certain.

His two other roommates, John... something and Nicholas... someone, were already ready and dressed, waiting for them downstairs. He and Zachary got dressed, mutually complaining about early mornings and lack of sleep. They met John and Nick downstairs, along with a petit little brunette girl and tall, lanky girl with kind blue eyes and spiky black hair. He was pretty sure the smaller girl was called Mikeala Trey and he thought the taller girls name might be Lucinda, but he had never been great with names.

"Morning Teddy," Mikeala greeted cheerfully, looking far to awake for the early hour. "Enjoy your first night?"

"Yeah, the beds are... comfortable," Teddy replied, feeling slightly awkward faced with her bright smile.

"That's good," she responded gravely, face turning serious as she moved closer to him. "On my first night here, I got so sick from something from dinner-"

"Kay!" John interrupted, face scrunched in disgust. "No one wants to hear about you throwing up."

"Teddy might!" Mikeala shot back, scowling at the marginally taller boy menacingly.

"Do you?" John asked him, eyebrow raised sceptically.

"Well..." Teddy replied, scratching the back of his head uneasily, looking between the two faces in front of him nervously.

"Teddy!"

Sighing in relief, Teddy smiled over at Sirius, who was sauntering over to him, with Peter a step behind him. His bright blue eyes were focus intently on Teddy, making prickles run up his spine. The boys looked surprised to see the Seventh Year walking over to them so causally, whilst Mikeala and Lucinda were trading excited looks.

"Sirius," Teddy said welcomingly as Sirius reached them. "Morning."

"Morning," Sirius replied, smiling at the group of Second Years. "Why are you still here? I'd expected all of you to have already scampered off for breakfast. Most important meal of the day and all that."

"We were just going," Mikeala announced, smiling widely at Sirius. "You could walk with us if you like."

The boys shot her deserted looks, which she happily ignored. Sirius was looking at her in amusement.

"We have to wait for James and Remus, Sirius," Peter reminded his friend from behind him.

"Right, damn," Sirius said, glaring half-heartedly over his shoulder at his friend. He rarely turned down opportunities to awe the younger years with his presence, but he had to admit it was better with both him and James. Also, his best friend would probably pinch him - or punch him - if he started the spying without him present. "I guess I'll be seeing you younger ones at breakfast. Save me a seat."

"We will," Mikeala assured, waving goodbye as she spun and started towards the portrait to leave. The rest of the group trailed after her. On the trip down to the Great Hall Teddy reaffirmed that he had everyone's name right and promised them that he was enjoying Hogwarts so far.

They all found a seat along the Gryffindor table, and preceded to dig in to the banquet set out in front of them. Soon enough the Marauders made their way over to them, shocking all the Second Years speechless when they then sat right next to them. Mikeala quickly struck up a conversation with Sirius, whilst James was distracted by Zachary questioning him on the upcoming Quidditch tryouts, and who he thought would make it. Peter was digging into his breakfast, looking eerily like John, who sat across from him, also digging heartily into his own breakfast.

Remus settled himself next to Teddy, making his heart beat a little more quickly and his skin to prickle at the proximity. It was still a unique, and almost frightening feeling in its intensity, to actually be near his father.

"Did you sleep well last night, Teddy?" Remus asked politely, handing over a plate of buttered bread to Teddy, which had been just out of his reach.

"Thanks, and yeah, I didn't really want to get up," Teddy admitted, taking a bite of the warm, buttery bread.

"Reminds me of a certain few friends of mine," Remus said, giving his three friends a knowing look, which received him some shrugged shoulders.

"Yeah, my friends have never been good at getting up early," Teddy said, smiling in memory at the late rushes he'd shared with his friends last year.

"Do you have many sleepovers with your friends?' Remus asked, carefully keeping his tone neutral. Cursing himself at his slight slip-up.

"Ah... yeah. Two close friends of mine and me spend pretty much every night together over the holidays," Teddy said, which wasn't actually lying. It just so happened those two particular friends didn't actually exist... yet.

"So you stay over at theirs, and they stay at yours," Remus clarified.

"That is what a sleepover is," Teddy replied, sounding amused.

"So, is that your Godfather's house?" Remus asked.

"Yeah... or my Grandma's sometimes," Teddy answered, pausing in his eating to make sure he wasn't giving away too much.

"Do you have any other family?" Remus asked, sounding simply curious, though the question threw Teddy into chaos.

How did he answer that? He hadn't discussed with Harry what their whole story would be. Was his Godfather married? A dad? Teddy had his own story worked out - he wasn't about to come to the past without one - but the presence of his godfather messed enough with his to basically render it mute. Now he had to answer a question that could possibly cause a lot of problems. What if he answered one way, and Harry answered a similar question differently, and the two different answers collided! What would happen then? Would someone figure out-

"'Dy? Teddy? Teddy?"

Coming back to himself, Teddy found himself being lightly shook by a concerned looking Remus. Blushing in utter embarrassment, Teddy hurried to answer, saying the first thing that came to mind.

"Sorry! No, I don't. It's just my Grandma, Godfather and me," Teddy answered, trying to sound sad enough that it appeared his angst over the fact was what was keeping him from answering.

"I'm sorry Teddy," Remus said, sounding completely sincere as he squeezed Teddy's shoulder in comfort.

"It's fine," Teddy assured him, revelling in the unfamiliar feeling of being comforted by a parent.

"Yes, timetables," James said, spotting McGonagall making her way down the table towards them.

"How are reminders of classes cause for excitement?' Sirius questioned blandly.

"Because those classes have yet to give out homework, leaving a small window of opportunity for me to actually look forward to them," James replied, accepting his timetable off a suspicious looking McGonagall. She handed out the rest of theirs, keeping a close eye on the four Marauders.

"What do you have?" Zachary asked Teddy, leaning across the table as if he could sneak a look at Teddy's slip of paper.

"Double Transfiguration, Potions, Charms, study period, then I finish with double Defence, you?" Teddy replied easily, looking up at Zachary. The other boys reply was drowned out by a loud groan from a certain red head.

"You've got to be kidding me," Lily muttered, staring at a smiling James in shock.

"What's happening?" Sirius asked, eagerly leaning across the table to be nearer to his best friend and the scowling red head.

"The Darling Evans and I happen to have remarkably similar timetables," James replied excitedly. Lily's head dropped forward onto her hands, with a tortured groan.

Teddy heard Remus chuckling beside him and couldn't help but smile as well, the thought of the two ever getting together seeming almost like a joke to him. Though the evidence of it was currently eating breakfast at the teachers table.

"Well, young ones, now that we have been informed of the pattern of today's torture, I believe was we must go prepare ourselves," Sirius announced, standing up. Mikeala jumped up beside him.

The others nodded and also stood. As they made their way up to the Gryffindor common room to get their books, Teddy found quite a few questions directed at him. Feeling panicky, he made sure to hide himself behind the talkative Mikeala and Zachary, giving vague answers when he couldn't escape it. He was almost relieved once they finally had to spilt up at one of the hallways, because their classes were in opposite directions. Waving cheerfully at the Marauders, he followed his fellow Second Years to his first class.

Harry shifted nervously in front of the group of eager looking first years. It was his first class of the day, and one of his first real sessions of teaching a group since his fifth year. Clearing his throat, wincing at the loud sound and the unsure glances the students gave each other, he began.

"So, this is you first lesson of flying," Harry said, cringing for pointing out the obvious but forging ahead anyway. "My name is Professor Dorian and I will be taking you for the next couple of weeks, until Professor Ellis gets better."

A few students nodded hesitantly, and Harry took a calming breath, relaxing into the situation.

"So, if you would like to step up beside your broom, we can begin the lesson," Harry instructed, watching the small bodies shuffle forward. "Right, now hold your hand above the broom and – loudly – say up."

Quickly glancing around to make sure everyone else was doing the same thing, the students hurried to follow Harry's instructions. Smiling, pleased with himself, Harry then continued, following the basic steps Ellis had set out for whoever replaced her.

But then suddenly a child a fallen off their broom and they were crying and the other kids were all trying to loud, screaming about how they couldn't. Trying to keep everyone calm, Harry got the rest of the class safely on the ground, then fought his way through the fallen students group of friends to check on the injured child. It turned out she was just crying from shock and her wrist was a little sore.

Relaxing in relief that nothing major had happened, Harry managed to get most of the class to try going up on the brooms once more before the bell went, signalling that the first period had ended. Waving off the young ones, who were already exchanging outrageous stories about how the girl had fallen from ten feet high, upside down, and only just didn't break her neck and...

Chuckling to himself, Harry thought to himself maybe this teaching thing wasn't so bad.

A/N: Reviews…?