Archive of Our Own

The door to the flat was a deep green colour, with silver highlights and, as if the reference wasn’t obvious enough, a silver knocker in the shape of a snake coiling into himself made Edward Remus Lupin’s mouth twitch in a slightly amused smile. The Auror hesitated only for a fraction of a second before closing his fingers around the metallic reptile and knocking three times. Soon enough, the wooden panel opened on a tall, blond young man in his late twenties. He had pale grey eyes, an elegant nose and a firm chin, his handsomeness only enhanced by a light-blue dress shirt and perfectly fitted trousers. 

“Yes?” He asked pointedly, his gaze taking Teddy in shamelessly. 

“Hum, I am looking for Albus Potter?” He explained. “You are Scorpius Malfoy!” He was on duty, and therefore tried very hard to contain the fanboy excitement that crept up in his voice. 

“I am, and who are you?” the blond responded, clearly weary. 

“I am Ted Lupin, Harry Potter’s godson. We’ve met briefly before, at the Potters’ house, I believe?”

‘Before you were famous’ , was on the tip of his tongue but he held it. The young Malfoy’s expression was still very suspicious.

“Mmh, yeah, I think I remember,” he conceded nonetheless. “Wasn’t your hair blue, back then? And I certainly don’t remember you having brown eyes.”

Teddy was indeed sporting the look he preferred for work, which was short, slightly curled, light brown hair and somewhat hazel eyes. The combination reminded him of pictures he had seen of his father, and he found people took him way more seriously as an Auror when he adopted natural hair and eye colours. He scrunched his face involuntarily as he focused on his appearance and adopted his favourite: spiky turquoise hair and clear amber eyes. Malfoy’s jaw went slack for a moment, before he regained composure. 

“That’s very cool,” he conceded graciously and Teddy couldn’t help but smile a little. 

“So, is Albus here?”

“Oh, yeah, he is in the kitchen,” he said, stepping aside. “Al?”, he called, going into the apartment. “Is your god-cousin, or I-don’t-know-what, a metamorphmagus, by any chance?”

The Auror bristled slightly at being called a ‘I-don’t-know-what’ . A familiar voice came from an open door on the other side of the living room to which the door gave direct access. 

“Teddy? Yeah, why?”

“Because he is here to see you,” Malfoy announced, flopping on the sofa and putting his feet nonchalantly on the coffee table before picking up the Quidditch magazine he had obviously dropped to go to the door. 

At that moment, Albus Potter appeared in the doorframe. Teddy wouldn’t have been proud to admit it out loud, but he hadn’t laid eyes on the Potter middle child in several years. He had seen the three siblings at least once every summer during the first half of their Hogwarts years, but after he had gone to America to pursue an exchange program with the Auror division in MACUSA, the visits had become less frequent. Albus leaving the country for several years to travel as soon as he finished school had led to the two non-cousins losing sight of each other in recent years. 

“Teddy, that’s a surprise,” Albus acknowledged calmly. 

He hadn’t grown much, staying as short as his dad was, and the resemblance didn’t stop there: they had the same nose, the same jaw and, most of all, the same gorgeous bright green eyes. However, Albus’ hair was very long, almost to the middle of his back, and he had obviously found a way to tame the famously unruly ‘ Potter hair ’, making the strands flow silky and shiny down his back and over his shoulder. His stature was also slighter than his dad’s, making his legs seem impossibly long, and he was wearing a muggle tee that hugged his finely toned chest in all the right places. 

In short, he was just as hot as ever.

The sight of the man that was once his non-official cousin in his living room sure was an unexpected one. Albus still had regular updates on Teddy’s life, as Lily was also an Auror, and mentioned him often, but the two of them hadn’t actually met face to face in years. In fact, it was the first time Albus had seen him since coming back to the UK indefinitely, and starting to share a flat in London with his best friend, a little over a year ago. 

The Auror seemed even taller than the last time they had seen each other - which was saying something, his broad shoulders straining against the fabric of his deep dark-blue robes, his posture straight and almost intimidating. He had the hair Albus preferred on him, turquoise and ruffled, but, as he saw him, his amber eyes shifted to dark brown. 

“Hey, Albus, long time no see,” he greeted awkwardly. 

He couldn’t remember Teddy ever calling him by his full name and wondered briefly if he should start to call him ‘Ted’ but that sounded way too formal, even in his head. 

“Can I get you anything?” He asked then. “Tea? Butterbeer? We might have some firewhiskey somewhere.”

“Not since you brought that drunk twink last week, he downed the last drop of it,” Scorpius intervened. 

“Oh, right… Well, at least he was a good lay,” Albus reminisced dreamily. 

“You still owe a new bottle,” his best friend countered. 

“Fine, I’ll get another one tomorrow”, Albus promised moodily before reporting his attention on Teddy, who was looking back and forth between the two with wide eyes. “So, butterbeer?”

“I, hum…” Teddy cleared his throat. “No, actually, I am on duty. Just tea is fine.”

The middle Potter child frowned slightly, wondering what he meant by that, but decided to indulge him first and went back into the kitchen. Getting his wand from his boot, he quickly summoned a tea tray, complete with some biscuits they had left, and went back into the living room. A stern look towards his roommate had him take his feet off the coffee table, and a pointed stare forced him to cast a cleaning spell before Albus set the tray down. 

“What do you mean by ‘on duty’? ” He inquired as he cast a heating charm on the teapot full of water. 

“I, hum, I actually need to ask you a few questions,” Teddy started, sitting gingerly on a chair, on the left of the couch on which Scorpius was still sprawled. “For, hum, for a case I am working on…”

Albus frowned. Teddy seemed quite uncomfortable, looking back and forth between Scorpius and him. 

“Do you… need my expertise on something?” He asked, nothing else coming to mind to explain the Auror’s presence in his apartment. 

“No, not exactly.” The Auror answered and accepted a steaming cup of tea. “You might actually be a witness in this case.”

The conversation was only becoming more baffling by the minute. 

“I didn’t witness any murder or attack,” Albus assured immediately. 

“No, it’s actually a drug case.”

“Oooh, yes, in that case, it makes more sense,” Al commented lightly, making Score chuckle and Teddy almost choked on his tea. 

He looked at him with wide eyes but seemed to take his smirk as assurance that Albus was kidding - he wasn’t. 

“Would you, by any chance… Have frequented a… muggle nightclub, lately?”

Teddy’s gaze kept shifting between the two young men, clearly wishing he was asking anything else, and was taken aback by Scorpius’ laugh.

“You’re going to have to be a lot more precise than that, mate,” he said merrily. 

The metamorphmagus looked at Albus questioningly. 

“I go to a lot of muggle and wizarding nightclubs, gay bars, etcetera,” he confirmed easily. “Several times a week.”

“A week?!”

“Hey, a boy gotta shag!” He defended himself. 

This time, Teddy did indeed choke on his drink and started coughing violently, spilling all over his robes. Albus took his wand out and spelled the hot liquid away, trying not to smirk too openly as the Auror was catching his breath. The latter ended up setting his cup back down on the coffee table before reaching into the breast inner pocket of his outfit. 

“So, this is you?” He asked pointedly, trying to regain composure, and handed him a small notebook, opened to a specific page. 

On the yellowish paper, a memory version of Albus, wearing very low-cut black jeans so tight they could have been leggings, a crop-top that barely covered his nipples, and a metallic mesh shirt, was dancing under moving lights. 

“Yes, that would definitely be me,” he confirmed without hesitation. “Damn, I look good! I am so glad I shrunk these pants.”

“Let me see,” Scorpius intervened, and Albus tossed him the notebook. “Oh, yeah, that was the day you brought the tall burly Muggle back, wasn’t it? What was his name again?”

“No idea, I never got to ask him.”

“You shagged him, like, three times that night.”

“What’s your point?”

“That, Muggle or not, find a way to cast a silencing charm, next time!” 

“Fine, fine, I am sorry,” Al rolled his eyes before reporting his attention on Teddy, who was getting his memobook back. “Anyway, that was last Wednesday, if I recall correctly, but I don’t remember the name of the club.”

“The Destiny,” the Auror reminded him immediately. “It is mainly a muggle club, but they have a small back room for wizards. The owner is a muggle-born witch.”

“I didn’t know that,” Albus conceded. “So, the tall-brooding-and-handsome guy with dark red hair was, indeed, you.”

Fortunately, Teddy had not picked what remained of his tea back up, because, seeing his expression of shock, he would have spilled the last of it. 

“You recognised me?!”

“I always managed to recognise you, remember?” Albus reminded him fondly, and it was true: out of his whole family, he had always been the one to identify Teddy the quickest as kids, even when he was changing his whole face and colouring. 

Teddy ran a hand through his hair, which turned a darker shade of blue under his fingers. 

“Right…” He said. “Anyway… We, hum, we suspect a wizarding drug cartel operates in this club, and is selling illegal, magical substances to Muggles.”

“Isn’t that dangerous?” Scorpius frowned. 

“Highly,” Teddy confirmed. “We have had two muggles overdosing on the stuff in the past month alone. They can’t handle it and it can easily kill them or damage their minds for life. It is as gruesome as it sounds and the people responsible really need to be stopped. Now.”

The Auror was clearly getting frustrated, and Albus recalled his sister Lily getting worked up on Christmas, complaining to their father about how cases causing harm to Muggles weren’t taken seriously enough by the Auror department. 

“And what do you need from me?” He asked then. 

Teddy took a deep breath. 

“You were the only Wizard I could identify there, and, basically, I just wanted to know if you had seen some… shady stuff.”

Albus thought for a moment, choosing not to mention that Teddy was lucky he had found a decent shag fairly quickly that day, and therefore had been relatively sober during the whole night. 

“Not really, but I did notice another Wizard there and, now that I think about it, I might have seen him at other muggle nightclubs recently,” he mused pensively. 

“Well, that’s something, could you describe him?” Teddy asked eagerly, fishing his memobook from his robes again, as well as a quill.

Albus simply reached out, gesturing for him to hand the book over while taking out his wand. As soon as he had the item, he pressed his wand gently to his temple and focused hard on the suspect, combining several memories he had of him to make the most accurate mental image he could. When the portrait had fully congealed in his mind, he pulled his wand away, a few silver-white filaments adhering to the tip. He opened the memobook to a new, blank page, and deposited the silvery memories on it. Instantly, they were seamlessly absorbed by the paper and, after some swirling, the image of a middle aged wizard clad in brown, with shoulder-length greasy hair, materialised on the page. Albus handed back his notebook to Teddy. 

“That’s him,” he said simply. 

“That’s a very clear memory, Al, thank you,” the Auror said, impressed, and the young man felt some relief at being called by his nickname again. 

“You are welcome,” he assured. 

Teddy got up but then hesitated for a second. 

“Do you think I could ask you to report to me if you see him again?” He asked politely. 

“Sure, Teddy. I know where to find you, don’t worry.”

Teddy had been inordinately distracted these last few days, hardly managing to focus on paperwork, so here he was in his office at almost 6 pm on a Friday, surrounded by neverending parchments in various states of unscroll, and nowhere near finished for the day. There was a soft tap and he raised his gaze towards the door of his office, which he always maintained opened, and where now stood Lily Potter. She had grown into an impressive young woman, and an even better Auror, marching in his father’s footsteps with astonishing ease and confidence. She was the best partner he ever had on the job, with a level head and steady wand. 

“How is it going?” She asked with a smile and he sighed heavily. 

“As well as it looks,” he answered with a sweeping gesture above his cluttered desk. 

“Can I help you with anything?”

“Not really,” he admitted sadly. “Everything here has to be approved by a senior Auror before being processed.”

“I am pretty sure my dad won’t fire you if you do it on Monday, though,” Lily commented with a smirk and Teddy laughed briefly. 

“Thanks for the reminder, but unfortunately no amount of nepotism is going to prevent paperwork from accumulating, so I might as well do it now. It’s not like I have anyone waiting for me at home except for my grandma, anyway,” he finished somewhat bitterly. 

Even though his divorce from Victoire had been finalised almost two years ago by now, it had been a messy one and he occasionally still felt bad at the state of his lovelife, especially since everyone and their mothers and cousins tried very hard not to mention how his ex was getting remarried in the approaching summer. 

“Do you have any plans?” He asked his partner, just to get his mind on another track. 

Lily frowned, seeming slightly puzzled about something. 

“Well, actually, Albus invited me to dinner and drinks,” she revealed pensively. “Which is entirely not like him, but I said yes nonetheless, and I was actually here with the goal of convincing you to join us to try and… dilute the awkwardness.” 

Even though another evening spent by the fireplace helping his grandmother sort through her potion ingredients had seemed a bit bleak a few moments ago, it now sounded positively lovely compared to the perspective of listening to his non-cousin recounting his various sexual escapades whilst most probably charming the pants off of anyone who entered the bar. 

“As I said, I really have a lot of work to do,” Teddy reiterated, and, fortunately, the state of his desk backed him up solidly. 

“I can see that,” Lily sighed. “I’ll try and see if Hugo is up for it, then. Well, have fun with your paperwork! And I hope I won’t have to ask for a raise tomorrow from buying drinks to get my brother drunk enough to get us both at ease.”

“Albus doesn’t have a job?” The senior Auror couldn’t help but ask. 

He had wondered since the other day. The flat he shared with Scorpius Malfoy was very spacious and nice, situated in an affluent wizarding area of London, and therefore certainly very pricy, but seen as his roommate was currently the most sought-after Quidditch player in the country, if not the world, it was entirely possible the middle Potter child wasn’t paying rent. And Teddy tried not to think too much about how he paid - or rather didn’t - for his nightlife habits. 

“Your guess is as good as anyone’s,” Lily answered with a shrug. “All I know is that he hasn’t asked for any money from my parents, even though they offered, in years. Nobody knows exactly how he funds himself, and he never has a straightforward answer when you ask him. But then again, he has been secretive and weird since he was twelve, so… Anyway, I’ll tell you how the night goes. See you on Monday, Ted.”

“See you, Lily, have a nice weekend.”

The night ended up being spectacularly unproductive, with Teddy barely finishing one third of his workload before almost passing out at his desk and deciding to floo home.

The club was absolutely packed, the music strong, with a lot of bass in it, and stroboscopic lights were making it hard to distinguish people. It was the kind of atmosphere that Albus absolutely relished for its anonymity and kinetic energy, but, for once, he wasn’t in his favourite muggle club to look for a good shag. Inviting his sister for drinks the night before had been even more fruitful than he had anticipated and he knew exactly who and what he was looking for. 

From what he had been able to extract from a quite tipsy Lily twenty-four hour prior, the magical drug that was at the centre of her and Teddy’s case was a powerful hallucinogen that was mildly harmful to wizards and witches in the long run, but extremely addictive and dangerous for Muggles, who were ready to pay astronomical amounts for it just after the first dose, only to almost always end up dead. That would have been bad enough in itself for Albus to try and help, but he had, after some investigation during the week, gotten the confirmation yesterday that one of the two victims Teddy had mentioned was a very nice, if a bit vulnerable and lost in life, guy he had shagged a couple of times. 

Now, a middle-aged, greasy-haired wizard needed to find the shortest way to Azkaban as soon as possible. He went to the bar and scanned the various guys behind it, all dressed pretty skimpily, and immediately recognized a tall blond one. Sauntering his hips, he approached, knowing full well the effect he was having, clad in sinfully tight silver pants and a dark green sleeveless top. 

“Al!” The blond guy exclaimed immediately upon seeing him, smiling seductively. “So good to see you here.”

His name escaped the Wizard, right now, which was unfortunate, since he really needed to butter him up. 

“So nice of you to remember my name …” he emphasised the last word while intensely holding the blue gaze of his interlocutor and had his answer in less than a second, “... Tobias , how have you been?” 

From there, the conversation went smoothly, predictably ending up with pretty Tobias sliding a free drink towards Albus with a wink. He accepted it graciously, touching the tip of his fingers to the cold glass. While the bartender was idly commenting on the state of business, Albus concentrated on transmuting any alcohol the beverage contained into water: he needed to be in full possession of his capabilities tonight. 

“Say, Tobias, I am looking for a guy,” he started after a while, doing his best to appear moderately shifty. “He has, like, shoulder-length hair…”

The Wizard concentrated solely on the image of the suspect he was looking for while steadily maintaining eye contact and he hadn’t even finished his description when Tobias’ face lit up with recognition. 

“Oh, you’re looking for John?”

That sounded more like a fake name than when he tried to convince a Muggle that ‘Al’ was short for ‘Albert’ . Tobias looked around to make sure any of his coworkers wasn’t in earshot before leaning even deeper over the counter to whisper in Al’s ear. 

“You’re looking to buy from him? He has good stuff.”

Albus felt his insides turn to ice. He may just have gotten the confirmation he needed, but the thought of cute-as-hell Tobias getting anything from that sleazebag was horrifying. He managed to keep his face neutral and pleasant and reigned in his anger, putting on a sly smile. 

“Yeah, something like that,” he purred in the blond’s ear. “Do you know where I could find him?”

“He usually turns between here, the Destiny and Pop’s, in Soho, between 10 and 1 most nights,” Tobias informed him discreetly. “He was here yesterday so I am not sure he’ll be in tonight, though.”

A few seconds was all Albus needed to confirm Tobias was buying from ‘John’ and consuming whatever the hell the dirtbag was providing. The Wizard was pretty sure he had learned everything he needed. 

He closed the fingers of his right hand around Tobias’ hand and leaned in, sliding his left hand to the back of his neck as if he was going to kiss him. When their eyes met, Albus focused determinately and whispered ‘Obliviate!’ . The Muggle’s stare immediately went blank, his jaw slack. 

“You will forget who John is and who I am,” Albus’ tone was unyielding and his palms were firm on the blond’s skin. “You will forget that John ever sold you anything or that you ever took anything he gave you. You will never speak to him again.”

The Wizard straightened slowly, letting his arms fall by his side, catching and keeping hold of Tobias’ gaze, seeing them de-glaze quickly, blinking a few times before he looked around for a few seconds, still confused. Finally, he noticed Albus again and smiled genuinely. 

“Good night sir, would you like anything else?” He asked loudly. 

The Wizard couldn’t see any sign of recollection in his expression, and hoped this would be enough to protect the bartender until the drug dealer was taken care of. He tanked the blond, refusing another drink, and left into the crowd.

“What’s your name again and what do you want?”

The voice of Auror Smith was getting louder and more annoyed, reaching across the cubicles and interfering with what little patience and concentration Teddy had in reserve for the day. He had made it to senior Auror the year prior - and, no, it had nothing to do with the fact that the Head Auror was his godfather, thank-you very much - and therefore had his own office, but he always kept the door opened so that his subordinates could come to him for anything. Right now, he was kind of regretting it: the young Smith had graduated from the training program less than a year ago and though he was eager and enthusiastic, he was also a bit of a pompous brat. 

“What’s that supposed to mean?!” 

Even though he was doing most of the yelling, Smith’s patience seemed to have run out faster than Teddy’s, so he resolved to get up with a sigh and go investigate what in Merlin’s name was going on down the hall at eight-bloody-am on a Monday morning. Smith’s task for the day was to take down the depositions of anyone wishing to make one with the department, and he was currently sitting at a long metal table, his back to Teddy, while Albus Severus Potter, only clad in a silvery mesh shirt over a white tank top, low-cut faded jeans and knee-high leather boots and beautifully applied green eyeliner and mascara complimenting his eye colour, was leaning across from him, a shamelessly flirty smile plastered on his face. Teddy pinched the bridge of his nose and started to make his way down the hall. 

“As I told you, Auror…” Albus’ gaze flicked to the name-plate on the desk, “... Smith, I am here to see Ted Lupin about a case.”

“You can make any deposition with me, and… Don’t touch that!” Smith snapped when Al reached to straighten the name-plate. “As I was saying, you can’t just stroll in here and start… demanding things!”

Even from a few metres away and from behind, Teddy could see Smith looking Albus up and down disapprovingly. This wasn’t going to end well. 

“Oh, but you haven’t asked for my name yet”, Al practically purred at the snobbish Auror. 

“Right,” he huffed, taking up a quill. “Name and occupation.”

“Albus Potter. If you don’t know how to write the latter, you can always go and check the spelling on your boss’ office’s door.”

That was a low - though perfectly delivered - blow if Teddy had ever heard one. Unfortunately, from where he stood, he could only imagine Smith’s face going pale by the slouching of his shoulders. 

“Albus?!”

The exclamation came from behind the middle Potter child, and he elegantly straightened up and turned to reveal his sister standing behind him, a tea mug to-go in hand. 

“What are you doing here?” She exclaimed. “And what are you wearing?!”

Albus looked down briefly at himself with a fakely bewildered expression. 

“My clubbing attire,” he answered naturally. 

“It’s 8 am, didn’t you have time to change?!”

“Why would I change? I look fabulous,” Albus argued and, to be fair, he had a point. “Even Auror holier-than-thou Smith, here, can’t help but admire my ass,” he added, gesturing to a spluttering Smith, and that was the metamorphmagus’ cue to intervene. 

“Albus,” he said loudly. “You wanted to see me?”

His non-cousin turned towards him and positively beamed at seeing him. Teddy swallowed thickly. 

“Teddy! Yes, I need to talk to you, but Auror smarty-pants Smith couldn’t help but hold me back to flirt for a while.”

“I-I-I didn’t, I-What…”

Smith had jumped on his feet upon hearing his superior coming in, and was now totally red-faced and stuttering wildly, spit almost flying from his mouth. 

“It’s fine, Auror Smith,” Teddy reassured him before motioning Al to follow him, which he did, saundering without a hint of shame in his partying outfit between the cubicles. 

Teddy closed the door behind him. 

“Why on earth did you feel the need to embarrass Auror Smith like that?” He scolded without heat as Albus slouched in a chair and he went around his desk. 

“Well, I don’t have anywhere else to be this morning and making homophobes as uncomfortable as possible is one of my favourite pastimes,” Al explained very calmly, looking around the office. 

“Smith isn’t a homophobe,” Teddy protested, frowning heavily. 

“Are you sure?” His interlocutor countered with a challenging expression. “Anyway, I am here because you asked me to report to you if I had any more information on your drug case, remember?”

“Yes, yes I did,” Teddy confirmed eagerly. “Do you have anything?”

“I do, actually. The guy of whom I gave you the memory the other day is clearly involved. I don’t know if he runs the damn thing, but he sells. He goes around three muggle clubs telling everyone his name is John, when it’s actually Diogene. I couldn’t get a surname, though, sorry.”

The senior Auror was scribbling furiously away in his memobook. 

“That’s great, Albus, thanks! Did you happen to get the names of the clubs?”

“Yes, there is the Destiny, where you saw me the first time, the White Star, where I was this weekend, and Pop’s, a LGBTQ club down in Soho.”

Teddy was taking notes as fast as he could. He would have to research these places, he only knew the last one. 

“And you’re pretty sure that he is selling wizarding drugs?” He asked, looking up. 

At that, Albus reached into his back pocket and deposited a small glass vial on his desk with a triumphant smile. Teddy really hoped that was not what he feared it was, but Al was quick to make his dread a reality. 

“He gave me that as a ‘sample’ yesterday. Well, technically tonight.”

The metamorphmagus inhaled deeply and tried not to think about all the yelling and demoting he was going to receive from his boss if he ever learned that Teddy had basically talked his son into buying drugs… 

“Oh, calm down! First of all, this is staying between us if you want it to,” Albus started - Teddy wasn’t the best at keeping control of his facial expression. “And second of all, I actually didn’t buy the stuff, I received it and now I am turning it over to the authorities. So, everything is perfectly legal, here…”

It was true that, when it was presented like that, Teddy could hope to keep his job a little longer. 

“Do I want to ask why and how he… gave this to you…?” He demanded hesitantly. 

“I was passing as a Muggle, I approached him and my natural charm did the rest,” Albus recounted casually. 

“Of course it did,” Teddy muttered. “Anyway, thanks Al, this is great stuff!”

“You’re very welcome, Auror Lupin,” the younger Wizard said in a low voice and the older man was very glad there was a desk between them at this moment. 

Albus stood up to leave. 

“Don’t hesitate to tell me if you ever go investigate in these clubs, I can show you around,” he proposed then, making Teddy’s stomach knot. 

“Thanks, Al, but, hum… I can’t put a civilian in the middle of a dangerous investigation like that.”

“Well, I suppose you did dress and looked more than adequate last time we met clubbing,” Albus complimented with an actual wink . “But if I were you, I would go sleeveless, next time, show off those shoulders.”

Teddy had never lamented more his choice of robes for the day, because of how fitted they were, and really hoped Albus wouldn’t find it suspicious when he didn’t stand up to see him out. 

“Right, hum, thanks, I guess…”

“You are very welcome.”

At that, Albus turned to leave and Ted didn’t know where he found the strength to not look at his ass as he did so.

Immediately upon entering the packed club, Teddy knew finding Diogene Rowle - he had managed to dig up a surname to go with the first name Albus had given him five days ago - was not going to be easy. After some late-night and very informal investigation, here he was, clad in his skimpiest jeans, his hair straight, neon green and framing an olive-coloured face with thin lips, a sharp nose and bright blue eyes. It wasn’t an appearance he was used to sporting but it toed the right line between exotic and different enough as to not be recognized but just the right level of familiar that it didn’t require too much concentration to maintain. He might have taken someone's advice - and example - and was wearing a sleeveless lime tank top and some mascara, blending in seamlessly with the eclectic crowd frequenting Pop’s. 

One of his bracelets, a silver bangle, heated up slightly, and Teddy glanced at it to see the words ‘Are you in?’ displayed on it briefly. Lily, Smith, and even his godfather were outside, ready to make an arrest as soon as he could get Diogene Rowle in the act, then incapacitate him discreetly. He thought the word ‘yes’ as loudly as he could. He didn’t dare to look at the bangle again, fearing to appear suspicious but decided to trust the spelled item as he made his way through the crowd. At the glass bar, the speed, and smile, with which he got served his non-alcoholic drink by the cute bartender confirmed his outfit and look choices. The guy was certainly attractive, short and compact, and Teddy decided it may be a good idea to come back here when he wasn’t working, accepting his order with a bright smile. The bartender may not have green eyes, but… 

The Auror forcibly interrupted his train of thoughts immediately and buried it far into his mind, piling all his professional training on top, as he was scanning the room for his suspect. He mingled through the crowd and was finishing the last of his soda when he thought he spotted familiar greasy hair across the room. He left his empty glass on a nearby table and decided to get to the dancefloor, which was at the centre of the space, to confirm the sighting. As he was swaying to the music, three very attractive men tried, for some reason, to dance with him before he made them understand, as politely as he possibly could, that he wasn’t interested right now. He definitely should come back on another occasion… He was starting to get some stink-eye for his insistence on dancing alone which, granted, was starting to appear suspicious in a place where staying single was obviously not the vibe, when a fourth short body slammed into his chest. 

Teddy looked down and instantly almost had a stroke. The two arms that slithered on his exposed shoulders and around his neck belonged to a hot-as-hell Albus, whose makeup and fashion game positively put Teddy’s to shame. The shorter wizard had to raise on tiptoes to talk into his ear. 

“I see you took my advice on the shirt,” he said with a shit-eating grin and the Auror would have been embarrassed if he wasn’t trying so hard to keep his pelvis as far away from the other man as possible which, on a packed dance floor, was proving to be quite the task. “The guy you’re looking for is here.”

That, at least, gave Teddy something productive and concrete to think about. 

“Where?”

He tried not to reflect on what he was doing as his fingers rested on Albus’ hips, keeping the both of them dancing. 

“Against the wall opposite the bar, under the flower mural, wearing all black.”

Al strategically guided him in a swirl that gave him a good view of the designated area and, sure enough, the suspect was leaning against the wall, clad in a long coat. 

“Did he approach you?” He asked Albus as soon as the warm body was back against his chest. 

“Not yet,” the Potter answered. “I am positive his brooch has a wand-detection spell on it. That’s how he only targets Muggles.”

“Bollocks,” he swore under his breath. 

The plan had been to pass as a prospective client to get the dealer to incriminate himself and then arrest him. Even if he ditched his wand somehow - which was completely against policy while on duty, Teddy usually registered on this type of spell on his own because he was a metamorphmagus. 

“Don’t worry, I got this,” Albus dropped in his ear. “Get your team ready by the back door in Melrose Street.”

“I… What?!”

Unfortunately, Albus had already disappeared into the crowd when Teddy’s mind caught up with what he just said. He tried to go after him but he had somehow managed to already get to the dealer, so the Auror had to resolve to keep dancing while furiously sending mental instructions to his spelled silver bangle. 

‘Back door. Melrose Street. NOW.’

The guy absolutely reeked of sweat and alcohol and wouldn’t get his bloody arm off from around Albus’ shoulders, eyeing him creepily as he guided him to the club’s bathroom. The green-eyed Wizard really hoped he would have the opportunity to kick him in the nuts himself before Teddy arrested him, but, for now, he kept the act of a young innocent Muggle looking to get high. He swayed a little on purpose to get the dealer to let his guard down. 

“So, did you try the sample I gave you the other day?” Fake John tried to purr into his ear as the metallic bathroom door was closing behind them, but to Al, it sounded more like the dying growl of a flea-infested possum. 

“Yeah, it was sooo gooood,” he answered nonetheless, pitching his voice high. 

“I know,” Mr. Sleazebag said, rummaging in his coat. “I got a little more for you here if you want…” 

He produced a glass vial, slightly bigger than the one he had given Albus the last time, but filled with the same transparent orange liquid. Under the low lights of the bathroom, it seemed to glow very slightly, but not enough to appear suspicious to any Muggle, especially if intoxicated. 

Albus looked at the bottle with a gleam in his eyes, and made an half-assed attempt to reach for it, only to have it predictably snatched away by Mr. Major-creep. The guy obviously thought he was a cartoon villain, tutting at Al for his try. 

“Only the first one was free, sweetheart, I told you,” he scolded lightly. 

Which, actually, Albus was counting on. Despite what his family thought, he did know the law pretty well, and if he was to be an incriminating witness, he had to testify he bought drugs from Mr. Dirtbag. He had actually brought a sizable amount of muggle money tonight for this sole purpose. 

“Fine,” he falsely relented with an adorable pout. “How much?”

“Well… This is A-grade stuff, sweetie, it ain’t cheap… But I might be willing to give you a discount in exchange for a… favour .”

At that, Mr. Pervert stepped right into Albus’ personal space while fixating on his lips with all the subtlety of a monkey in heat. Now, Albus wasn’t shy about having practically no standards when it came to sex: Scorpius often joked that he would shag anything that loosely resembled a human male, and he wasn’t too far off. But there was no way in all circles of Hell that his mouth was going anywhere near Mr. Stinkballs, here, and that was saying something because his tongue had been in some very unorthodox places before… However, he absolutely nailed the prude-but-broke act, biting his lips while averting his gaze and feigning hesitation. 

“Oh, hum… Yeah, yeah, okay,” he stammered. “How… How much would it be with the… discount, then?”

Mr. Cheapass gave him a number that clearly showed he didn’t know the value of Al’s blowjobs and somehow expected him to be unaware of it himself, but the Wizard didn’t argue and got the money out of his back pocket. As soon as the dealer was counting the bills and the vial had changed hands, Albus dropped the act and took a few steps back, but the guy in front of him didn’t seem to notice, putting the money inside his coat and advancing towards him. 

“So, about that favour…”

“Don’t even think about it, man, you look like you have all the personal hygiene of a non-castrated stray dog on a hot summer day,” Albus immediately rebuked with a smirk. 

Predictably, Mr. Slimeball didn’t seem to appreciate the jab much, and reached for his pocket. 

“Oh yeah?” He said threateningly, but Al already knew what he was getting out. 

He stepped aside half a second before the hex left the newly raised wand, himself casting a silent Protego spell with his right arm. Fortunately, the bathroom was dimly lit and he did it discreetly enough that his opponent didn’t seem to notice. In the same movement, Albus had stepped closer and the heel of his left hand hit the trachea of the guy full force a second before his foot impacted his patella with an audible crunch. The dealer emitted a guttural groan and started to cough as his knee hit the ground. Albus had no idea if he even tried to cast another spell: he had taken hold of the wrist attached to the hand holding the wand and twisted it violently. 

Just as the magic wand hit the dirty tile floor, the door to the bathroom slung opened and Teddy came charging through it, his own weapon raised. 

“Auror department, you’re under arrest!”

Diogene Rowle was still coughing and choking as Teddy manhandled him outside, his hands bound behind him, his wand in the Auror’s back pocket. 

“Lily, secure him and try and heal him a bit, we need him to be able to talk,” he barked as soon as they got into the cold night air. “Smith, take his wand from my back pocket and process it.”

As always, the youngest Potter got to work with ruthless efficiency, summoning rope to back up Teddy’s binding spells on the suspect and forcing the latter on his knees before reciting him his rights and pointing her wand at his throat, which was slowly turning a dark shade of purple. Smith, however, seemed to have bugged at the words ‘back pocket’ , or maybe it was Teddy’s outfit, but he was looking very hesitantly at his rear end. When he noticed his superior’s confused frown at his attitude, he opened his mouth but nothing came out. Teddy reached for his pocket himself and handed him the wand with a sigh. 

“That looks like our suspect alright,” came an authoritative voice, which instantly made the three Aurors stand to attention. 

The Head Auror, formerly known as the Saviour of the Wizarding World, had just walked into the alley, looking imposing in his dark red robes, his silver-streaked temples gleaming in the low street lights. 

“You got him in the act, Auror Lupin?”

Unfortunately, Rowle might have not understood the ‘better keep your mouth shut’ implied in his rights, and he shouted: 

“He didn’t, you have nuthin’ on me!!!”

Harry Potter looked at his godson with a raised eyebrow. 

“He didn’t try to sell me anything, but I do have a witness to whom he did,” he assured his boss hurriedly. 

He just wasn’t sure how exactly he was going to break the identity of said witness in a manner which wasn’t going to get him fired - and possibly hexed. 

“You can’t legally take a Muggle’s testimony, you dimwit,” Rowle immediately spat. 

“Hey! Don’t call him a dimwit when you believed I would actually give you a blowjob! Please buy a mirror, you moron. And glasses. And soap !!! ” 

Albus had come out of the club and was now leaning in the doorframe. His father’s back was to him, while the suspect and the three younger Aurors could see him clearly. 

“Seriously, man,” he continued talking to Rowle. “You look like a sleazebag from five miles away and look like this ! Did you really think I was interested in anything you carry?!”

Harry’s eyes were shut and his jaw rigid as he was obviously looking deep into his soul for the patience to deal with his son. Finally, he turned towards Lily. 

“Is he fully dressed?” He asked through gritted teeth. 

“It really depends on your definition of ‘fully’ ,” she answered very accurately. 

The Head Auror pivoted with a sigh to inspect his middle child up and down. 

“It’s actually better than I anticipated,” he said with a shrug. 

“Always nice for you to comment on my fashion sense,” Albus responded sarcastically, stepping fully outside. “Auror Smith, I didn’t see you there! Aren’t you looking perky tonight. Almost like you have the proper qualifications to work in law enforcement!” 

“I-What?!” The young Auror choked, furious. 

“That’s not funny, Al,” Lily stepped in immediately. 

“Oh, come on, Auror Potter, you’re just jealous his ass looks fuller than yours,” her brother retorted, making Ted and Harry frown as she gaped at him. 

Albus had always been witty but that had straightforward been mean. However, the moment was interrupted once again by Rowle, making Teddy really regret his instructions to Lily to heal his throat. 

“The stuff I sold him was just orange juice!” He defended once again. 

“I already took it, you bloody idiot,” Albus countered. “They just have to analyse whatever is in my body to prove it’s a psychedelic. Though the fact that I’m finding Auror Smith almost attractive tonight is the only proof anyone needs that this stuff is highly potent.”

“Ah! You just admitted you weren’t in your right mind!” the suspect shouted triumphantly. “They can’t take a sample because you can’t give consent right now!”

“Actually, they can draw my blood and analyse it”, the middle Potter countered, pointing a growingly unsteady finger in the air, “ if there is a family member of mine present and competent to authorise it,” at that, he gestured between the Head Auror and himself, and Rowle’s eyes grew wide at the obvious resemblance, “ and if there is reasonable suspicion that I might be acting strangely or out of character, such as…”

“... such as insulting Aurors left and right for the past five minutes,” Teddy interrupted with a sigh, pinching the bridge of his nose. 

“Very creatively, might I add,” Albus added. “So glad someone is following! I would say ‘ten points for Hufflepuff’ , but I think mister broomstick-up-his-arse, here, was also black and yellow, and he didn’t do anything of value tonight except displaying blatant internalised homophobia” he ended while gesturing towards Auror Smith. 

A heavy silence followed the Slytherin’s tirade. Smith and Rowle both looked beyond horrified, for obvious different reasons, Lily seemed mildly impressed, and Teddy was massaging his nose while his boss and godfather was doing the same to his temples. 

“Ted, would you please arrest my son on charges of intoxication in a public place, please?” The latter finally got out after a deep breath.

“No, I wanted Auror Smith to restrain me!” Said offspring protested vehemently. 

“You don’t get to choose your arresting Auror, Albus!!!” Shouted the Saviour of the Wizarding World, more aggravated by the second. 

“Pfff, nepotism is dead in this country,” Albus muttered as he put his hands behind his back. 

“Just your wand is fine”, Teddy assured him. 

“And kinks too, I see. This is getting unbearably boring. I am not packing a wand. Well, not that kind anyway, but you are welcome to the other one,” he added with a pointed look towards his groin. 

Teddy was extremely happy he was facing away from Harry at this moment because he was sure he had just turned totally beet red. 

“Al, dad already gave the order to arrest and test you, give it a rest!” Lily yelled. 

“Actually, I think the drugs might be taking effect,” Albus defended and, stepping closer, Teddy could indeed see that his pupils were abnormally dilated, obscuring his usually vividly green eyes. 

He shot a worried look to Harry, who seemed to have fully recovered his professional composure. 

“Auror Lupin, apparate along with Albus to the Auror Department, put him in an interrogation room and contact St Mungo’s to have him tested immediately. I will owl you the authorization form in a few minutes,” he ordered firmly. “Auror Smith, process the suspect’s wand according to protocol and write the report of the arrest. Lily, gag the suspect, you and I will transport him to the holding cells. Let’s move!”

His eyes opened to slits and he immediately regretted it, groaning and scrunching his nose. Albus couldn’t remember having such a bad hangover in years. 

“Please, tell me you’re awake, I really should leave for practice soon.” 

The calm and posh voice of his best friend made its way through the fog clouding his brain and he gave opening his eyes another try. He was laying on the couch of their shared apartment, a blanket on him and a pillow under his head. Score was standing next to him, a water bottle in hand. Albus felt like he was 60 years old as he sat up, rubbing his face. He accepted the bottle and drank half of it eagerly. 

“How do you feel?”

His friend seemed genuinely concerned for him, which led him to try and piece together what he remembered about the previous night. 

“Shit, I didn’t get drunk last night, I got drugged up,” he recalled suddenly. “Did Teddy bring me home?”

“No, my dad did.”

“Your dad ?!” That was not the answer Al expected. “Wait, wait… You mean that in between visions of pink dragons and green hippogriffs, I didn’t hallucinate seeing your father?!”

“No, he was on call at St Mungo’s, yesterday night,” Scorpius explained, looking way too amused for his friend’s taste. “So, when the Auror Department owled in that they needed a Healer immediately for some drug analysis on a witness, he went. He didn’t say so, but I think he was looking to pick another fight with you dad.”

“That is their favourite pastime, after all,” Albus sighted. “Merlin, I think I was already pretty out of it when he got there, I don’t remember much.”

“Apparently you were, yes,” Scorpius confirmed. “Anyway, he drew your blood and stuff and came to the conclusion that since you’re a Wizard, the drugs shouldn’t present any serious risk for you. You have to take it slow for a few days and drink plenty of fluids and stuff.”

“That is two ‘and stuff’ , Score. It’s a good thing you’re so good on a broomstick, I don’t think you would have made it as a Healer,” Al mocked before downing the rest of the bottle. 

However, Scorpius’ only answer was one of his signature wicked grins, looking down at him with utter glee. 

“Shit, I said or did something while under the influence that I shouldn’t have, didn’t I?” 

“Let’s just say that, if I were you, I would be very nice to my marvellous roommate for a while because I do indeed have prime blackmailing material right up here,” he revealed while tapping his temple, still displaying his cheshire grin shamelessly. 

Albus shot daggers at him. 

“You’re an arse,” he accused, but that only made Scorpius happier. “Why did your dad bring me home and not mine or Teddy? I appreciate it, but it really isn’t part of his job.”

“Well, he mentioned that you were making Auror Lupin ‘uncomfortable’ ,” Scorpius answered, the corners of his mouth threatening to shoot up again. 

His amusement got the better of him and he let himself get distracted. He startled when Albus shot to his feet to look him directly in the eyes. What he saw made him scoff. 

“Wait, your ‘blackmail material’ is just me, high as a kite, raving about how sexy Teddy is?!” He exclaimed. “You’re seriously underestimating my willingness to do so while sober, man!”

“Don’t do that!!!” Scorpius scolded, casting his gaze down. “And isn’t the guy like your brother or something?”

“Ew, no!” Albus protested while sitting back down. “Firstly, I barely saw him for the last ten years or so, and, secondly, he never bullied or belittled or mocked me in his entire life!”

“Actually, I learned recently that older brothers aren’t supposed to do that.”

“What do you mean?” Albus inquired, focusing hard on suppressing a memory of Jim trying to force his head into a Hogwarts toilet bowl. 

“Well, there is this pair of brothers who recently joined my Quidditch team,” he explained, “and they are really nice to each other. The older one even helps the younger one train and they seem to… like each other. When I asked them about it, they said that’s how brothers are supposed to behave.”

“That’s very weird,” Albus commented with a half-horrified expression. “By the way, speaking of siblings I tolerate, I was thinking about inviting Lily for drinks again. We had fun the other night, didn’t we?”

He had invited Scorpius, and later convinced Lily to owl their cousin Hugo to join them, in order to make the outing seem more natural to his sister, and the four of them had ended up having a genuinely good time. 

“And by that, you mean you were able to glean the information you needed from her,” Scorpius commented sarcastically. 

“Yes, but not only,” Albus defended. “I do believe we all had a pleasant evening, and I think it would be nice to make it a regular thing.”

“So that you can keep an open line to the Auror Department, other than your judgmental father or Ted you-don’t-have-a-crush-on-him Lupin?”

“I don’t have crushes, Score, I am twenty-seven. I have a mental list of shaggable guys.”

“A very long one at that.”

“I like it long.”

“ Albus !”

“You started it!” The green-eyed Wizard protested. “Anyway, would you, yes or no, be interested in repeating drinks with my sister and Hugo?”

Scorpius sighed. 

“Sure, why not, it was fun,” he conceded. “Now, you seem to be in possession of your full mental and physical capabilities, as my dad would say, so I think it’s safe for me to leave you alone and go to practice?”

“Sure, scram,” Albus waved a hand in the air. “I am going to shower, I have a client this afternoon.”

“Good, rent is due soon,” Scorpius reminded him as he picked up his bag and his broomstick.

“Yeah, yeah, have a good day,” Albus shouted after him as he cast a Disillusionment charm on himself and jumped out of the window of their fifth story apartment. 

Scorpius had always moved through the air better than with his two feet on the ground, and preferred flying over any other method of travelling. He was quickly out of sight, and Albus sniffed himself as he was making his way to the bathroom, which instantly proved to be an appalling idea. He needed a shower. A hot, long shower. And possibly a wank.

Teddy smiled at the bartender of the club when he slid the colourful glass towards him. This time, he wasn’t on duty and he meant business: he was wearing the same outfit as last time, though he had transmuted the shirt’s colour to a light golden, but had opted for the appearance he was most comfortable in, even putting several earrings on - he could pierce the soft parts of his body at will and took full advantage of it when on the prowl. Which was quite rare, but tonight Teddy was determined to get it - him - out of his system. 

Unfortunately, luck wasn’t on his side tonight: the cute bartender he had noticed last time wasn’t on duty, the guy who hit on him at the bar had far too short hair for his liking, the one who tried to dance with him on the floor was way too tall, and the one who insisted on buying him a drink was a bit too muscular. After a few hours, Teddy was nursing another drink at the bar, debating if he should leave or keep trying - there was this younger man who was shooting him looks from the other side of the bar but his locks were a tad too light - when someone sat on the stool to his right. He turned and came face to face with… Albus Potter, of course. 

He was dressed relatively conservatively tonight - for his standards - with a tight t-shirt and black shiny trousers, and his long hair was in a loose braid flowing down his back. Teddy could see there were newly green strands in it. He smiled coyly at the Auror. 

“Hey there,” he greeted. “I can tell by your looks that you’re not on duty tonight.”

“What makes you say that?” Teddy inquired, wondering if there was something wrong with his outfit.

“You never go for turquoise hair and amber eyes when you’re working.”

“Oh, that. Yes, it’s kind of my default appearance, I like to keep it for my personal time,” Teddy explained. 

He was suddenly very aware that he was a bit tipsy. Al smiled fondly at him. 

“It is by far my favourite look on you,” he said, and the Auror felt his heart beat a little faster at what sounded like a compliment. 

“What’s with the green?”

Teddy never knew what came over him, but he reached for the younger man’s hair and gently pulled his braid over his shoulder. Albus didn’t seem to mind, though, his smile getting wider. 

“I may have been inspired by your neon-green look from the other night,” he revealed. “Or, at least, that’s what I’m going to tell my dad when he sees it.”

Ted groaned. 

“Please, do leave me out of it,” he pleaded without conviction, taking another sip of his drink as Albus flagged the bartender to ask for one of his own. 

The Potter laughed delightfully. 

“Anyways, were you able to make Diogene Stinkballs Rowle sing?” He asked, curious. 

“Not really,” Teddy sighed heavily. “We are pretty sure he isn’t running the operation, but we couldn’t get any name out of him.”

“Two people died,” Albus frowned, clearly displeased. “That warrants the use of Veritaserum, I believe?”

If he was sober, Teddy might have asked him how he knew that. 

“Yes, but there clearly is some sort of Fidelius charm placed upon the name of the person running the drug cartel, somehow, because Rowle was unable to pronounce it,” Teddy explained. He wasn’t supposed to discuss ongoing cases with civilians but he really needed to talk about it with someone and his boss’ son seemed like the safest option right now. “We got some place names, though, and some descriptions that we are investigating. And Healer Malfoy promised he would do his best to analyse the samples you gave us.” 

Albus snorted. 

“Sorry, it’s just funny to me when someone refers to Score’s dad as Healer Malfoy,” he explained. 

“You know him well? Harry refuses to talk about him much.”

“Go figure,” Albus muttered as he downed a good portion of his newly acquired drink. “Yes, Draco was one of the rare adults in my life who didn’t disapprove of me ending up green and silver.”

“I never disapproved of you,” Teddy said immediately, probably making himself sound stupid. 

However, Albus smiled at him with a gentle expression he had never seen on him before. 

“Thanks, Teddy, that actually means a lot.”

Feeling himself go pink in the face, the Auror averted his gaze and swallowed thickly. He almost jumped when Albus’ long fingers closed around his wrist. 

“Come dance with me,” the younger man commanded, jumping to his feet. 

This was a supremely bad idea. Like, abysmal levels of bad. Teddy knew it, he suspected Albus did too, and the bartender seemed to also. Heck, Merlin, Helga Hufflepuff, the Fat Friar and their descendants probably knew it too. 

But Teddy went nonetheless. 

The music was loud and thundering, the dance floor was exactly the right level of occupied for them not to feel self-conscious, but sparsely enough to be able to move freely, the lights were low and colourful and the exactly right amount of alcohol was coursing through Teddy’s veins to make everything more enjoyable without making the experience fuzzy. 

Before he realised what he was doing, he had his arms full with the compact body of Albus Potter and their hips were swaying in unisson to the bassline, dancing with oblivion. 

And then, Albus’ hot, agile tongue was in his mouth and Teddy stopped thinking altogether.

The door to his apartment clashed shut when Al slammed Teddy against it after fumbling to get him through it, and he wasted no time draping himself all over the Auror. He had always liked men who were taller and broader than him, and the metamorphmagus was like a dream come true, especially since he seemed to have put all his reservations aside. Albus felt two strong hands land on his arse, then travel down his thighs, and almost squeaked when Teddy lifted him with no apparent effort, making his legs shoot up and wrap around his waist.

The Auror started manoeuvering him to the couch, where Albus soon found himself sprawled and trying to get his bearing, which he got very fast upon seeing Teddy take off his shirt in one fluid motion. When his fingers got to his fly, however, Al was quick to bat his hand away, making it a point to unzip him and taking down his pants and underwear in one motion. The sight of his cock made his mouth water: he was a bit of a size-queen and this was definitely doing it for him. A peek towards Teddy’s face clearly indicated that he was having some doubts again and Al immediately decided they couldn’t have that. 

Putting to good use a trick he had practised in martial arts, he hooked a foot behind Teddy’s knee while pushing on his chest and, before he could even comprehend what happened, the Auror’s back was the one hitting the sofa cushions, this time, and Albus’ mouth was on him, making him moan loudly. The green-eyed Wizard couldn’t help but smile around a mouthful of cock, knowing perfectly well how skilled he was at this. He took his time sucking the shaft before taking it in his throat in one smooth glide, making Teddy choke before raising back and licking his lips. 

The metamorphmagus’ eyes were still amber, but his pupils were completely dilated by lust, making them appear darker, and he was looking at Albus with unadulterated hunger and want. It was his turn to be surprised when Teddy grabbed a handful of his long hair by the nape of his neck and pulled him down for a rough kiss. Not that he was complaining: he absolutely loved to be manhandled during sex, that was the best part of his short stature, actually. 

And, as if he could read his thoughts, Teddy didn’t disappoint, shifting their position in one go and almost ripping Al’s shirt while taking it off before doing the same with his pants and groaning in satisfaction seeing that the younger man was going commando. He took his shoes off before doing the same to Albus, the latter relishing the cold air on his skin while he wiggled under the larger man. 

He threw his head back in delight, moaning, when strong fingers wrapped around his cock. Just as he thought it couldn’t get any better, Teddy’s other hand found his throat and he almost came on the spot, groaning loudly, his heels digging into the couch as he tensed uncontrollably. He barely managed to rain it in, though he was hard as a rock in Teddy’s hand and, when he opened back his eyes, the latter was looking at him with pure wonder and lust, obviously delighted by his reaction. 

“Liked that?” He breathed. 

“Quite, yeah, don’t stop,” Albus whimpered and almost cried when both hands left him. 

He didn’t have the time to get angry, though, because Teddy wasn’t gentle raising him to his knees, facing the back of the sofa, and plastering his muscular chest right along his spine, like it had always belonged there, making Al’s breath catch in his throat. The Auror’s strong arms boxed him in and his teeth grazed the shell of his ear. 

“Come on,” the younger one gritted, impossibly turned on, and he could feel the lips at his ear forming a smile. 

The arms left his side, one reaching for the wand sticking out of the discarded pants on the couch, and he whimpered at the very welcome feeling of a finger circling his rim. He gasped loudly when it entered him once lubed, biting his lips and throwing his head back on Teddy’s shoulder. The larger man had boxed him in again and was working him open efficiently. Through the haze of pleasure, Albus reached behind him and blindly managed to close his fingers around Teddy’s shaft, making him hiss and then bite the tip of his ear. 

“Get on with it,” Albus urged through clenched teeth after what felt like an eternity. 

“Aren’t you an impatient one…” Teddy teased in his ear, sounding only mildly breathless, which was quite infuriating.

“You… Mfhhh ,” Albus’ retort was lost in a loud moan as the metamorphmagus inserted another finger none too gently, making him see sparks. 

After a few minutes more, he was about to egg Teddy on again, when his fingers brushed against his prostate, making him positively scream and grip the back of the couch with both hands. 

“Found it.”

Teddy sounded smug in his ear and he decided they couldn’t have that. 

“It would be a lot better with your cock on it,” Albus panted petulantly. 

He felt the fingers leaving and Teddy widened his stance. 

“As you wish…”

Albus hung his head as he felt the member at his opening and gasped as it started to enter him. It was massive and just perfect. Teddy’s warm chest was plastered all along his back, his two strong arms clutching the back of the sofa right outside of his. 

“You ok?” He breathed in his ear. 

“Yessss, please go on,” Albus urged and the older man did just that, pushing further and making him keen eagerly. 

When he was fully seated, the younger man’s head resting on his shoulder again, Teddy waited for him to get used to his girth, but Al wasn’t having any of it. Wiggling his ass invitingly, he shot an arm behind them both to grip the hair at the nape of Teddy’s neck. 

“Get on with it, move !” He urged, and the metamorphmagus didn’t have to be told twice. 

He went gently at first, but after a few strokes, Albus got impatient again and began slamming himself down more forcefully, prompting Teddy to grip his waist and snapping his hips harder, making his lover moan wantonly. He set a brutal pace, and Albus matched it stroke for stroke, both hands locked on the back of his lover’s neck, his whole body tense as a wire. The concert of grunts, moans and the slapping of flesh was filling the room, and the Wizard was feeling his desire mount steadily. 

Then, Teddy’s cock hit his prostate dead-on again, and he knew he wouldn’t last long, seeing stars and yelling in delight. The metamorphmagus was obviously getting close too, as his thrusts became almost violent, and one hand left his hip to grip his prick. Albus was gone after only a few strokes. 

“Ahhhh…”

His whole body tensed shamelessly as he rode wave after wave of his orgasm, focusing on contracting his lower abdomen as he was coming down. 

“Fuck…,” Teddy swore in his ear through gritted teeth and Albus knew he was coming too. 

Albus gripped the back of the sofa as he was coming down from what was the most intense orgasm he had had in a very long time, panting heavily and revelling in the post-orgasmic bliss that was fogging his brain. When he opened his eyes, he noticed the white stain he had left on the cushions and almost chuckled, reminding himself he would have to clean it up before Scorpius noticed or there would be hell to pay. 

He was surprised and closed his eyes in pleasure again when Teddy’s hand traced the lines of his chest with incredible gentleness before setting softly on his hips again. The Auror was very careful when removing himself and Albus bit his lips at the feeling. Teddy straightened up and Albus pivoted and felt back on the couch, moaning a little when his arse hit the cushion. He loved the feeling of his entrance being just a touch raw after a rough session of sex. 

“Shit, that was good,” he exhaled contendly, a faint smile on his face. 

After a few seconds spent basking in the post-orgasmic bliss, however, he focused back on Teddy, who was putting his clothes back on with brisk, jagged movements and a heavy frown on his face. 

“I shouldn’t have done that,” he muttered under his breath, and Albus would have rolled his eyes if he wasn’t so fucked out. 

“Relax, nobody is going to know,” he drawled nonchalantly, sitting up a little. 

“That’s not the point, Al!” Teddy countered immediately, visibly upset. 

“Then what is the point?”

The green-eyed Wizard was also getting mildly frustrated, wanting to enjoy the remnant of endorphins cursing through his veins rather than abate his lover’s existential crisis at the moment. 

“I-I-I… This… This was wrong,” the Auror stammered, getting his wand from the floor. 

“Merlin, tell me how you really feel,” the younger man snickered, self-deprecatingly. 

“That’s not… You’re impossible !” Teddy’s hair was turning darker, almost black, and his eyes too. Albus had never seen him in such an agitated state before, and was starting to understand that he was seriously upset for some reason. “I-I-I can’t, right now, I-I-I have to go.”

The metamorphmagus turned to leave, his strides long and hurried. 

“Teddy, wait!” Albus exclaimed, going after him, but he had already gone through the door. 

Not one to be deterred, or ashamed in any way, the younger man followed him in the corridor butt-naked, but the Auror got to the stairs, where the boundary of the anti-Apparition charm placed upon their flat ended, and disappeared with a loud crack, leaving Albus alone, and completely baffled, in the hallway. 

He was back into his flat, and putting his pants back on with a frustrated sigh, when the door to the apartment opened again. He pivoted with his heart in his throat, only to be met with the somewhat disappointing sight of Scorpius closing the door behind him. Which, in hindsight, was logical: even if Teddy had turned around to apologise - or, even better, for round two - he couldn’t have entered without knocking first. Albus took a deep breath and strategically but discreetly stepped between his roommate’s line of sight and the couch as he was getting into his shirt. 

“Hey, I thought you were staying at your parents’ for the night,” he greeted as naturally as he could. 

“No, my grandparents were there, and there is only so much I can take from them,” Scorpius sighed. “You would think that, after a few hours, my grandmother would run out of names of single girls from the sacred twenty-eight to drop, but noooo, it went on and on and on . Urgh!” 

Fortunately, Albus’ best friend seemed extremely annoyed and barely glanced his way during his rant, going to the kitchen. That gave him the opportunity to get his hands behind his back and cast a quick cleaning charm on the couch. Glancing back, he noticed that took care of the main stain - his own cum - but the sofa did need a deeper wash, which was beyond his abilities without his wand, still discarded under the coffee table. 

“You would imagine that this much inbreeding would hinder pureblood fertility significantly,” Scorpius continued, coming out of the kitchen with a beer in hand, “but apparently they keep having daughters that I could marry, somehow. Though she suggested one that was forty-eight years old, so maybe her definition of eligible is the main problem here.”

He popped the cap of the bottle impatiently. 

“And my dad is so whipped !” He ranted on. “He barely said anything to her, and my mum tried to change the subject but to no avail and…”

“I think the chair would be a lot more comfortable,” Albus interrupted hurriedly, getting in between his best friend and the sofa he was clearly planning on sitting on. 

That snapped Scorpius back to reality and, frowning, he looked a few times between Albus with his hair in disarray and smeared mascara, and the beloved piece of furniture at the centre of their shared living room. He inhaled sharply.

“Al… did you shag a guy on the bloody couch again?” He asked in a threatening voice. 

“No, of course not!” Albus assured immediately, earning himself a murderous glance from the blond. “I may just have gotten shagged on it, though…”

“For Merlin’s sake, Al, your bedroom is right there!!!”

“I know, I know, and I am sorry, I am going to deep clean it in a second, I swear.”

“Why can’t you do it now?!” Scorpius wanted to know. 

“Well… I am kind of… leaking right now, and I really like these trousers, so…”

“Oh, fucking Merlin, Al, T.M.I !!!”

Teddy never knew how he had been able to not only get back to work, but to actually be somewhat productive and talk, mostly normally, to Harry and Lily - and even look them in the eye while exposing the progress, or lack thereof, they had made on the drug case. Contrary to what he thought, the words ‘I shagged Albus Potter’ weren’t actually engraved on his forehead for eternity. Sometimes he wondered if he would feel less guilty if they were….

“... so I think we can transfer Rowle to Azkaban, it doesn’t seem like we will be able to get anything more from him,” Lily was saying with a sullen expression. 

She and Teddy were sitting in the Head Auror’s office, while their father and godfather was pouring over a long parchment on which their report was written, a frown on his face. After a few seconds, he sighed. 

“Yes, it looks that way,” he sighed. “And we need the holding cells for upcoming cases. Were you able to get anything from him?”

“We got the names of two other clubs the ring operates at,” Teddy informed him promptly. “We also now know that the operation is manned by only four or five people - we were unable to clarify if Rowle was included or not in the number he gave us. Seeing Rowle’s… background, and the contempt for Muggles it comes with, my guess is that the other members of the drug cartel are also most likely from pureblood-supremacist environments. Actually, from what transpired in our interviews, it seems that they target only Muggles, which is kind of new as far as drug cases go.”

“Do we have any Muggle-born Auror in the department with whom you could work on this case? Their input would be valuable,” Harry suggested. 

Teddy started to think, but Lily beat him to the punch. 

“I would have to confirm with her, but I think Camille is Muggle-born,” she mused. “And she is very good. She was with me in the Auror-training program.”

The Head Auror’s eyes narrowed in concentration. 

“That would be Auror Camille Bakare,” the metamorphmagus added for precision, and his boss’ expression cleared in recognition. “And she is indeed extremely competent, she was instrumental in recapturing the Lestrange brothers three years ago.”

“Yes, I remember, she was gravely injured and still managed to save Ron’s life,” Harry commented. “Verify with her that she could help you on this case and if it appears so, add her,” he ordered. “Anything else?”

“We are still waiting on Healer Malfoy’s analysis of the drug samples Al, hum, Albus got us,” Teddy informed. 

Fortunately, his fellow Aurors didn’t seem to notice his hesitation on the name. 

“I will owl St Mungo’s to hurry the process,” Harry promised and he seemed almost eager to do so. “Speaking of which…”

He was interrupted by what sounded like a commotion right outside his office door. The muffled voice of the main secretary, followed by hurried heavy footsteps and the man’s voice coming through the wood. 

“You can’t go in there, the Head Auror is busy!”

“Watch me!”

Teddy barely had the chance to register the fact that he knew that last voice all too well before the door swung open to reveal the Potter middle child, surprisingly and very understatedly clad in blue fitted jeans and a light green polo shirt, his long hair flowing free around his shoulders. 

“Albus, what are you doing here? And what in Merlin’s sake is in your hair ?!” Harry exclaimed, apparently seeing the green strands for the first time. 

Teddy braced himself mentally.  

“Well, dear father, I was at Flourish and Blotts, the other day, and a very pretty asian lady told me I really looked so much like my daddy, then proceeded to drone on and on about how much she regretted to have let go of him in school, before asking me if I was single,” Albus recounted, as his father’s face was growing paler behind his glasses. “So, long story short, a trip to the hairdresser proved to be a lot cheaper than ten years of therapy.”

That was not the story Teddy was expecting, and neither was his boss or his partner, obviously, as they looked at him gaping like three idiots for a couple of seconds, only to be interrupted by Harry’s secretary, who had just appeared behind Al. 

“Sorry, Head Auror, he just barged in,” the man panted - he wasn’t exactly young. “Do you know him?”

“I don’t know you, but I like you,” Albus immediately exclaimed, turning towards him. “Or is it the green hair? Because if it is, I need another appointment at the hair salon, like, today!”

However, the secretary squinted down at him, reached into his breast-pocket, pulled out a pair of thick glasses and slid them onto his nose. 

“Ooooh, you’re Mr. Potter’s son! I am really sorry for bothering you, I’ll bring some tea and biscuits!”

He puttered away, leaving the door open, and Albus looked absolutely dejected when he turned back to the room. 

“I might look into that therapy thing after all,” he muttered moodily as he got something out of his back-pocket. 

He took a step towards the desk before throwing a picture on it for the three Aurors to see. It was a wizarding polaroid depicting a young blond and attractive man laying in what appeared to be a hospital bed. He wasn’t moving much, his gaze was empty and distant and a dribble of drool was going down his chin. 

“His name is Tobias Farlow,” Albus started in a harsh tone. “He was a muggle bartender at the White Star club and the one who pointed me in the direction of Diogene Rowle. He was found in the back of an alley yesterday night, almost completely brain-dead, incapable of recognising anyone, much less of talking, with no trace of any injury.”

Teddy felt his stomach drop and forced himself to pick up the photograph to look at the young twitching face. 

“I hope I don’t need to tell you that your bloody drug cartel is. Still . Operating!” Al gritted out at last. 

“Already?!” Lily exclaimed. “We thought we had at least spooked them a little…”

“Well, not enough, obviously,” Albus all but spat. “Are you even doing anything to stop them?!”

“Do not talk to your sister like that,” Harry immediately intervened. “She and Teddy are doing everything they can!”

“Really? Because it doesn’t look like Tobias is ever going to walk again!” The middle Potter child was getting more and more agitated by the second. “He was twenty-one !”

“Albus,” Teddy had gotten up and talked in the softest yet firmest voice he could muster. “What happened to him is tragic and we are going to stop whoever did this, I swear. Now, how did Tobias point you to Rowle? It could help the case to know.”

Albus exhaled sharply and clenched his fists. 

“He… He had bought from him before,” he revealed. “But I Obliviated him. He wasn’t supposed to even remember ever talking to the scumbag! I am sure I did it right, I thought he was safe !”

“It’s not your fault.”

The four occupants of the office jumped slightly at the affirmation, spoken from the still open door, in which now stood Draco Malfoy, a rolled parchment in hand. 

“Sorry for intruding, but the door was open and there was no one at the secretary’s desk,” he excused himself politely. 

Harry sighed heavily. 

“Yes, Patrick can be… easily distracted,” he said. “Anyway, you wanted to see me?”

“No, Potter, don’t be absurd, but I have the results of the analysis you asked for and Auror Lupin wasn’t in his office, so I came here,” Healer Malfoy explained before turning to his son’s best friend. “Albus, what happened to this young man was not your fault. I have no doubt you did the Obliviate spell correctly, but my analysis has revealed that the drug Rowle was selling is incredibly addictive. I have rarely seen something so potent.”

“Is Albus going to be alright?!” Harry inquired, getting up, before anyone else could comment. 

“Yes, its effect shouldn’t be as strong in Wizards”, Healer Malfoy reassured. “But I still would like to examine you to be sure,” he added towards Albus. 

“I’ll find you an empty office to do so immediately,” Harry sprung towards the door. 

“Dad, I am fine,” Al intervened, but, at the same time, Teddy said: 

“You can use mine, I’ll be escorting Rowle to Azkaban, anyway.”

“You’re transferring him to Azkaban?” The middle Potter child exclaimed. 

“Yes, there isn’t much more we can get from him,” Lily informed. “I’ll go with you, Teddy.”

“Great! Malfoy, I’ll entrust you my son,” Harry said briskly. “Teddy’s office is down the hall and all yours. And, Al, I promise you the two will be on your friend’s case as soon as they get back. In the meantime, you are going to get any treatment Malfoy recommends.”

“I feel fine, can’t this wait?”

“No.” Harry’s tone left no room for discussion. 

Albus sighed and rolled his eyes. “Can I at least go to the bathroom first?”

“It’s downstairs, we’ll show you,” Lily told him, gesturing for him to follow. “We’re going that way anyway.”

Teddy almost forcefully positioned himself in front of Albus while guiding him down the stairs and the green-eyed Wizard didn’t feel in the right mood to taunt him by getting ahead and flaunting his admittedly very fine arse. He had something else in mind right now. He thanked his sister and former - and he hoped also future - lover, and let them go on as he slipped into the bathroom. He quickly assured himself he was alone and looked around for a plan. 

He needed approximately two minutes alone with Rowle, not much more. He knew most of the holding cells didn’t have any spell preventing people to get into them, the problem was getting past the guard. The Daily Prophet hadn’t reported any arrest, lately, so Albus could reasonably hope Rowle would be the only prisoner down there, which would probably warrant only one employee. 

What he needed now was a distraction. The good thing about growing up with a father and an uncle who were not only Aurors, but also very proud of it and liked to overshare, was that he knew all the ins and outs of this bloody Department. So, he was aware that any disturbance on the main floor took precedence over anything else, bringing any and all Aurors upstairs if anything were to go boom. There were a lot of magically created spaces in the Ministry, but not in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement: things stayed where they were supposed to be in order to not lose anything or anyone, which meant that upstairs was indeed up and vice-versa. 

Albus got a playing card from his back-pocket. An astonishingly low number of Wizards and Witches actually were aware that casting a Lumos spell on the Manticores card of an Exploding Snap playing deck made it go off exactly seventeen seconds after receiving it, or that doing so right next to an expired Bombastic Bomb from Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes caused it to produce an extremely loud noise, and some smoke, with almost no damage at all. With a quick charm, Albus got one of his hands and his shoes sticky and climbed the bathroom wall to glue the makeshift device on the ceiling, right above an open toilet, before casting a silencing spell on the bottom of it. Once activated, the noise would be redirected upward, making it sound like there was an explosion on the main floor and after a few hours, the sticking charm would fade, letting the remnant of the contraption fall into the porcelain bowl. Albus got back down and waited next to the door. 

He soon heard some voices down the hall and was quick to cast the Lumos on his makeshift “ bomb ” and to get the most precious Potter family heirloom from his magically expanded back pocket: the invisibility cloak he had snatched from Jim last weekend. He got under it and down the hall. As luck would have it, a young guy who seemed to be an Auror in training was coming out of the holding cells area, thanking whoever was inside for letting him take a break. The green-eyed Wizard managed to slip in before the door closed behind him and found himself in a windowless room with an unknowing Teddy and Lily filling up some forms. He only had to wait for a handful of moments for a very loud noise to be heard through the ceiling. 

To their credit, Lily and Teddy had their wands out and were on high alert in less than a second. It was almost beautiful to see, if Albus were to be honest, but then again, maybe the metamorphmagus was just devastatingly handsome no matter the circumstances. 

“Upstairs, now!” The latter ordered immediately, leaving Albus alone just like he had intended. 

As he suspected, only one of the four holding cells was occupied, by a tattered-looking Rowle curled on his side on the cot. He bolted upright when the bars to his cell got up on their own and gaped when Albus put the cloak aside as the door closed back down. 

“What are you…” The drug dealer started. 

“I don’t have time for that,” the young Wizard interrupted immediately. He raised his left hand and cast a silent immobilising spell without hesitating. “And I certainly don’t have the time, the luxury, or frankly even the inclination, to be subtle right now.”

He got his wand from his pocket, stepped right up the prisoner, and looked him square in the eyes. 

“ Legilimens !”

Scorpius Malfoy remembered walking down this very same stone corridor on his first ever day of school, fresh off the boat with the other first years, and waiting on the exact same spot to enter the Great Hall. He had been a high-strung ball of nerves, but a boy with green eyes standing next to him had smiled at him and things had seemed a bit easier after that. He heard some footsteps on his left, and History seemed to repeat itself as his best friend came trotting up the stairs. 

Where Scorpius had opted for classical formal fitted steel-grey robes and styled his hair back, Albus had of course gone all out, with high-low double-breasted robes in a green so dark they appeared black, adorned with silver embroidery at the hem and sleeves. He knew the Potter hated regular robes, always complaining they made him look even shorter than he actually was, and the cut of the garment also allowed him to display his legs, encased in perfectly fitted thigh-high black leather boots. He was cutting a striking figure as always, with his hair up in a tight ponytail, the two newly dyed strands of green braided along the left side of his scalp. 

“Where were you?!” Scorpius almost hissed. “There is no way I’m going in there all alone!”

He gestured wildly to the massive door leading to the Great Hall, a silver of music and chatter coming through the heavy wooden panels. 

“It’s a reception, Score, not a snake pit,” Albus commented. 

“I would much rather have a relaxing bath in a cobra-infested jacuzzi, thank you very much,” the Quidditch player informed him immediately. “I belong in the air, Al, not with ambassadors and dignitaries and whatnot!”

He tugged at his collar again, feeling like he was out of breath. Albus seemed to take pity on him and took his wrist to lower his hand. 

“Let me fix your bowtie,” he proposed. “Couldn’t you get out of this?”

“I tried, but the coach said that she didn’t care I caught the first world-cup-winning snitch in over a century for England, she would kill me if I skipped it,” Scorpius recounted while his best friend was fixing his tie. 

Albus seemed to lose patience, though, and untied it entirely, before waving his fingers. Scorpius felt the cloth at his throat tighten again, probably better than he could have ever done it. 

“You’re going to survive,” Albus assured him while smoothing out his robes. “I have had to come to this shindig every bloody year while I was living in the UK, and I hope you realise that my mere presence here is ample proof that I love you very much.”

“Yes, and I really appreciate it, but your last name is Potter, mine is Malfoy , Al! My dad was actually on the wrong side of this whole Battle, if you recall!”

“That was almost half a century ago, Score, now everyone knows your last name because you almost single-handedly won us a Quidditch world cup! So, we are going to get in there looking fabulous… Well, you look fine, but it will have to do, we are going to drink free champagne, make fun of some dignitaries, eat canapes, make sure your coach sees you, maybe find you a date - because you insist of doing the whole dating thing for some reason, and then sneak out with a bottle to the Astronomy Tower. How does that sound?”

Scorpius took a deep breath. 

“Yeah, that sounds good,” he admitted. “Your whole family is going to be there?”

“Yes, and wouldn’t that be the utmost shame if Jim found himself accidently stuck in the very same closet he locked us in during third year?”

“Wouldn’t it be even better if he had the time to make an arse of himself in front of some foreign dignitaries first?”

“Aren’t you full of wonderful ideas, tonight, my dear Scorpius…” Albus complimented while cracking open the doors to the Great Hall and gesturing for his friend to go in first. 

The middle Potter child scanned the room efficiently upon entering, a step behind Scorpius. Teddy was across the room, talking with the Headmistress, sporting his boring on-duty look of brown hair and hazel eyes ; his parents were near where the teachers’ table usually stood, in a small circle of people that included the current Minister for Magic ; his uncle Ron seemed as lost as ever in a circle where aunt Hermione was talking in fast french with some foreign dignitaries ; and his cousin Rose was laughing in a group where the sheer amount of red hair indicated a high level of Weasley presence. Albus was half tempted to convince Scorpius to go and greet their former teacher, just to see Teddy struggle to maintain a straight face, but that seemed mean, even for his standards. On some level, he sensed that he needed to talk to his father’s godson about what happened after getting what had possibly been the best sex of his life, but seeing Scorpius' already panicked gaze after only spending two seconds in the room, now was not the time. 

“What do you say we hit the buffet first, like Lily and Hugo, over there?” He whispered in his best friend’s ear, and immediately saw him relax upon seeing Al’s sister and cousin. 

They quickly joined them, Albus grabbing two flutes from a passing floating tray and handing one to his friend. 

“Hi there,” Lily greeted them warmly. “Fancy seeing you here.”

“My coach said I had to,” Scorpius grimaced, taking a sip from his glass. 

“And you managed to convince my brother to accompany you?!” The youngest Potter seemed very impressed by that. 

“It was my punishment for, and I quote, ‘defiling the couch’ of our flat,” Albus explained, rolling his eyes as his roommate glared daggers at him. 

“How does one defile a couch?” Hugo asked, sincerely baffled. 

“Do not answer that!” Lily immediately yelled at her brother upon seeing him open his mouth with a wicked gleam in his eyes, and Scorpius couldn’t help but scoff. 

Hugo looked between his two cousins a few times before his bewildered expression cleared in understanding. 

“Ooooh,” he exclaimed, then quickly frowned in disgust. “Ew, on the couch, really?”

“Yes Hugo, despite what you and Scorpius might think, you can do it in other places than a candle-filled bedroom with classical music after a million dates,” Albus explained impatiently. 

“I will not be shamed for being a hopeless romantic,” Scorpius defended immediately. 

“And I will not be shamed for being a slut,” his best friend countered pointedly. 

“I am not shaming you for having the most easily accessible ass in England, Al, I am objecting to you doing it on OUR shared sofa!”

“That seems like a reasonable objection, brother mine,” Lily interjected, making the green-eyed Wizard sigh heavily. 

“And I apologised for that!” He exclaimed. “Okay, fine, here is a proposition: how about, when we get back home, we spell the couch in order for it to buck off anyone not wearing a full set of clothes?” He suggested to Scorpius, whose eyes narrowed in interest. 

“How are you ever going to sit on it, then?” His sister chimed in immediately. 

Albus glared at her while Hugo and Scorpius erupted in a fit of laughter.

Teddy had been expected to attend the commemoration for the Battle of Hogwarts every single bloody year since he was fifteen. Fortunately, over the decades, the date had been moved so that it was now celebrated on the first of July, when the school was empty, and he didn’t have to parade in front of hundreds of young eyes for the sole achievement of being an orphan. 

He had to admit that the Great Hall had been decorated tastefully in black, with old and new pictures on the walls recounting the destruction, and subsequent restoration, of the castle, and the portraits of all the victims of that frightful day floating under the transparent ceiling, in between the candles and softly shining baubles. Like every year, it only took him a second to spot his parents: even though they were portrayed in two separate canvases, it was apparently impossible to pry them more than a few centimetres apart, and nobody knew why. His mum usually sported her favourite pink hair, but, today, they were a vivid shade of purple, and she and his dad smiled and waved at him when he entered. He smiled and greeted back, the overwhelming sadness that came with seeing them having become more manageable over the years. 

Even though he had tried to not arrive too early, there weren’t many people in the room yet, so he stood there quite awkwardly at first. It was the first year he came on his own and didn’t quite know what to do, used to follow Victoire around or to cater to his grandmother, who had declined to come this time. Fortunately, he found a floating tray with glasses rather quickly and felt less alone wandering around with a drink and a canape. 

“Mister Lupin, so glad you could come.”

He pivoted and found himself face to face with his former Transfiguration teacher. 

“Professor McGarth,” he greeted gladly. “Congratulations on your appointment as Headmistress.”

“Thank you, though I wish it had been under better circumstances, and that Professor McGonagall had had a chance to retire,” she answered regretfully. 

“I am not sure anyone or anything would ever have made her leave Hogwarts,” Teddy commented and his interlocutor agreed with a nod and a gentle smile. 

They chatted for a while. Transfiguration always had been Teddy’s favourite - and strongest - subject, and he suspected professor McGarth was a great part of the reason why, so it was nice to talk with her again. Partway through their conversation, though, the metamorphmagus got distracted by a very familiar silhouette entering the Great Hall. 

From the corner of his eyes, he could see a few heads turn as Albus Potter and Scorpius Malfoy walked across the room, and it was hard to determine if it was because the former looked sinfully attractive or because the latter was internationally famous. He definitely, and embarrassingly, knew which one out of the two had him so unfocused all of a sudden. And quite a bit warm as well… 

Fortunately, a group of three other people, including a Ministry worker he vaguely recognised, joined his and Professor McGarth’s circle, making his distraction less noticeable, just as Albus and Scorpius met with Lily and Hugo. The Auror managed to mingle somewhat normally for a good fifteen minutes after that but, regrettably, all this socialising brought him progressively closer to the very person he was desperately trying to avoid. 

All traces of concentration on his part went out the window when, upon hearing the familiar laugh, he turned slightly to see Albus talking with an older and very attractive gentleman he identified as a Peruvian ambassador. The young Potter was smiling, his eyes bright and sparkling, his stance relaxed, and conversing animatedly in fluent Spanish - where on earth had he even learned to speak Spanish?! - while the old hag was inching closer and closer. It didn’t seem to bother the green-eyed Wizard in the slightest, however, and he even giggled delightfully again when the man said something into his ear. 

Teddy saw red.

“Auror Lupin?”

He almost jumped at the mention of his name and turned towards the head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, who was looking at him strangely. 

“Yes?” He inquired politely, as if he wasn’t clutching his glass so forcefully it might break at any moment. 

“Are you quite alright? Your hair is turning… green.”

Teddy grabbed a lock on his forehead and tugged it down to see that, indeed, his curls were gaining a leafy hue. 

“I am deeply sorry, it does that, sometimes,” he stammered. “If you would excuse me, please…”

He had to make a conscious, and colossal, effort, to not look at Albus, still peacocking with the geriatric Peruvian ambassador, lest his skin turn green also, as he left the room hurriedly. 

Once outside, he took a deep, calming breath before deciding that the best course of action was to walk it off. Whatever ‘ it ’ was… 

Automatically, his steps took him in the direction of the kitchens and the Hufflepuff common room. He was getting to the bottom of a wide stone staircase when a familiar voice calling his name had the effect of a giant bucket of icy water being poured all over him. 

“Teddy, wait! I need to talk to you!”

Even though he didn’t really want to, his feet just froze and he closed his eyes, taking a deep breath. He could feel his hair bristling but would have been unable to tell which colour they were turning. He pivoted, and Albus was a few steps above him, a confused frown on his face. He really looked stunning in those boots and Teddy hated that he noticed. 

“Are you all right?” The younger Wizard asked innocently. 

“Yes, of course, why wouldn’t I be?” Teddy gritted between clenched teeth. “Had fun with the Peruvian ambassador?”

“Colombian, actually,” Al corrected, still frowning. “I met him a few years ago while travelling, he is a remarkable Wizard.”

“Well, why don’t you find a couch somewhere to shag him instead of coming to me ?!” 

Teddy regretted yelling that almost immediately, for various reasons, the main one being the mixture of confusion, hurt and anger that succeeded themselves on the younger man’s handsome features. 

“Hey, I don’t know what your problem is right now, but let me remind you that I am not the one who freaked out just because I put my dick in an enthusiastically consenting adult!” Albus shot back. 

Teddy could have screamed in frustration. He raked both his hands through his hair with more force than necessary and could feel it becoming straight, and probably greener, under his fingers. When he raised his gaze again, Albus had gotten dangerously close. They were in a barely used corridor in the basement, only a few turns away from the kitchen and the Hufflepuff common room, and not even a whisper could be heard. 

“That’s not the point, Al,” he managed to get out despite his clenched jaw. 

“Then what is the problem, Teddy?! Neither of us is going to babble, we were both relatively sober and, as I just pointed, of age. So I really don’t see the problem in us having a bit of fun!”

It sounded so simple when said like that. 

“I… I am a lot older than you, Albus,” Teddy argued, but that only made the other man scoff. 

“If I really wanted to be arse, here, I would point out that our age difference is less than between your parents!” 

The Auror frowned at that but, when he did the maths, it was true: he was eight years older than Albus whereas his parents were thirteen years apart. He looked down at Albus, who had now stepped right into his personal space and was looking up at him with a hint of a smirk, his green eyes glinting in the faint light. Then, he licked his lips and Teddy’s last strand of resolve broke.

Their lips clashed in unison and Al couldn't have told who made the first move, nor did he, too busy trying to drape himself all over the taller man. Again. 

He could almost feel him being hyper-aware of their surroundings, however, and understood that he didn’t want to be seen. Even though he had never been ashamed of his sexual escapades and appetites, even Albus had to admit that nothing would kill his libido for the next decade better than his father catching him enthusiastically frenching his godson in a corridor, so he forced himself to back down. 

“Over here,” he urged Teddy, taking his wrist and tugging him along. 

He dragged him up a short flight of stairs and quickly found a very familiar, narrow wooden door. He stroked the round handle gently counterclockwise and, with a shimmer, it clicked open. He wasted no time in grabbing the lapels of Teddy’s formal robes and putting his tongue back down his throat as he pulled him inside. 

Once the door closed behind them, immersing them in silence and darkness, Teddy wasted no time and started fumbling with the zipper of his trousers. As soon as he managed to open it, both men groaned when Albus’ cock sprang free and the metamorphmagus closed his fingers around it. 

“Don’t you ever wear underpants?!” Teddy exclaimed in between the kisses and licks he was trailing down Albus’ throat. 

“What for?” The younger man breathed. 

The metamorphmagus’ robes were easy enough to open, and Albus was more than pleased to discover that his lover was shirtless under them, but when his hands started to go down towards Teddy's belt, they were batted away. He was confused for a couple of seconds, until the Auror’s knees hit the ground. Albus had barely enough time to cover his mouth with a hand to prevent himself from screaming in pleasure when his cock disappeared smoothly in Teddy’s hot, wet mouth. He threw his head back involuntarily and it hit the wall behind him but he couldn’t care less. 

The metamorphmagus was sucking him very enthusiastically and skillfully, taking the time to lick long stripes on the underside of his member before taking him again fully in his mouth. The sounds he was making while doing so were almost as obscene as his intensely focused expression, and Albus just couldn’t bring himself to look away. Teddy’s eyes had turned amber again and were almost glowing in the dark. The younger man was so entranced by the image of the Auror kneeling in front of him and the wave after wave of pleasure coursing through him that his approaching orgasm almost took him by surprise. He buried his fingers in his lover’s hair and marvelled at the way it changed to turquoise under his hands. 

“Teddy, I’m gonna…” He gasped, pulling gently on the soft strands to signal him to pull away. 

To his utter shock, however, the metamorphmagus’ hands on his hips became firmer and even pushed him harder against the wall as he swallowed him whole, not even gagging. The pressure broke the last strand of Al’s self-control and he came with a strangled yell down the older man’s throat. When he was done, Teddy got off his dick with a wet sound, leaving him panting. Albus’ brain was still fogged by lust and post-orgasmic bliss as he watched Teddy get up, look down at him with a stormy expression and then deliberately lick his lips before wiping them with the back of his hand. 

At that, something in the young Potter’s just snapped and he advanced brusquely to slam his lover against the other wall of the closet which, seeing the small place they were in, was a mere few centimetres behind him before proceeding to kiss the daylights out of him while eagerly mapping his bare chest with his hands. He lightly brushed a nipple with his thumb and was immediately rewarded with a muffled whimper and a whole body shiver, making him smile against the Auror’s lips. 

“Interesting,” he purred in his ear before making quick work of his fly. 

He lost no time in taking Teddy’s prick in his hand, earning himself another high-pitched moan and proceeded to jack him off slowly while still kissing and licking any square centimetre of deliciously bare skin he could reach. The man was already hard and leaking when he got him out and knowing that he got to that state of arousal just by giving Al one of the best blowjobs he had in his life was enough to get himself half-hard again. It didn’t take much to bring Teddy to the brink, especially when the younger man’s other hand found a nipple again. When he felt the metamorphmagus tense, Albus ducked and took the nub into his mouth, biting it very slightly. The Auror yelled as he spurted all over their joined stomachs and Al kept licking it through it, reducing his partner to a shivering mess as he was coming down. 

“ Fuck ,” Teddy panted as Albus rose slowly, his head thrown back against the wall, a dazed expression on his face. 

The green-eyed wizard couldn’t help but smile coyly. 

“I certainly never received a blowjob of this calibre in Colombia,” was what he chose to drop next and Teddy tensed up immediately, feeling his inside turn cold. 

“I beg your pardon?” He sputtered indignantly, but his companion burst into laughter. 

“Relax, I’m kidding,” Albus said merrily, stepping away from him and getting his wand out. “I never shagged Ricardo.”

“Who the hell is Ricardo?!”

“The Colombian ambassador,” was the response, clearly tinged with intense amusement, as the younger man waved his wand to make Teddy’s sperm vanish from his hand and their clothes. 

After cleaning, Albus raised his gaze towards the very angry face of the metamorphmagus and couldn’t help a full-blown laughter at what he saw. 

“You’re literally getting green!” He exclaimed, delighted, coursing a hand through the now grassy curls. “Does your skin also turn green when you’re jealous?”

“I’m not jealous!” Teddy countered on instinct, before realising that his powers were very clearly betraying him. 

“Of course not,” Albus humoured him nonetheless, a knowing grin on his lips. 

Teddy was about to protest again but the other man grabbed him by the lapels of his open robes and silenced him with a quick kiss before parting again and shoving his dick back in his pants. The Auror sighed and got to dressing back up too, closing his robes best he could. 

“What colour am I?” He asked Al, brushing his hair lightly with his fingers. 

“Hum, it’s difficult to see in the dark, but I would say brown,” was the answer. “Oh, wait, maybe it’s still here.”

As his lover frowned, Albus turned towards the wooden shelf at the end of the closet, cluttered with a wide variety of objects, muttering Lumos to turn his raised wand into a bright light. He rummaged for a few seconds before producing a small round mirror triumphantly. 

“Here you go,” he said, handing the item to Teddy casually. 

“How in Merlin’s sake did you know that was there?!”

“I put it there, when I was in fourth year.”

“Why?”

“For the exact same purpose you’re using it right now, actually: to make sure I looked presentable after a good shag.”

Teddy almost dropped the mirror. 

“You have had sex in this closet before?!”

“This was actually my regular shagging spot while I was in Hogwarts,” Albus explained cheerfully. “That’s why I knew how to open it.”

Teddy blinked absently in the darkness. His brain didn’t know what to make of this information: the mental image of a teenager Albus getting off with some random classmate in this very same spot was both arousing and a little disturbing. 

“We should probably get back to the reception reasonably separately,” was the other man’s next comment and it did an amazing job in bringing Teddy back to the present. 

“Yes, yes indeed,” he agreed quickly. “You should go first.”

“All right. I’ll enter the Great Hall by the East door,” Albus informed him. “See you.”

At that, he exited the closet rapidly, leaving Teddy behind to contemplate his life and how it had gotten from his normal work routine to secretly shagging his godfather’s middle child in a closet situated a few steps away from the entrance to his former school common room… 

Wait… Did Albus just mention he left the mirror in this closet for his post-coital routine in fourth year ??!!!

It. Kept. Bloody. Happening . 

And Teddy didn’t know how to stop it. He wasn’t sure he really wanted to, if he was to be really honest with himself. Albus certainly didn’t. 

After their little tryst in the Hogwarts closet, Teddy had sworn to himself up and down, right and left, that it would be the last time. He would not shag his godfather’s - and boss’ - son again. Ever. 

Or at least until a week later, when he tried to have a night out and find anyone else to have sex with in a night club, only to spot a way too familiar body undulating on the dance floor and ending up pounding Albus against a filthy bathroom wall. 

That should have been the last time, but, ten days later, the middle Potter child had passed by his office after hours and somehow ended up riding him - very enthusiastically - on his desk chair. At his workplace .

As if these two instances hadn’t been mortifying enough, he had bumped into Albus at the Leaky Cauldron with already a few butterbeer in him less than a week after, and before he had fully registered what was happening, they were in a room upstairs, the younger man sprawled on his back on the bed, his long hair spread on the white pillow, Teddy hammering him into the mattress as Al moaned shamelessly, his feet crossed at the small of the Auror’s back, spurring him on. 

And, every day, the metamorphmagus had to go into work, look his boss and his partner in the eye, and talk to them about cases and reports and arrests as if he wasn’t shagging their son and brother, respectively, on a semi-regular basis. 

What may have been even more troubling was the fact that Teddy knew that Albus liked to have his throat touched during sex, absolutely loved it rough, and enjoyed having his hair lightly pulled right before climaxing, but he still had no idea whether or not he had a job, what his favourite pastime was aside from clubbing, or even if he could cook. The metamorphmagus wasn’t accustomed to casual relationships: he had had a grand total of one serious, long term commitment, which had ended rather badly, and a string of hookups in the following years in order to try and get over the former. This obviously wasn’t a problem for Albus, and Teddy honestly wouldn’t have been able to tell how he was feeling about that. After all, it wasn’t as if they could have anything resembling a relationship without giving the Head Auror, his wife, and probably Teddy’s grandmother too, a heart attack, anyway…

“Auror Lupin?”

He almost jumped on his desk chair and raised his gaze from the parchment he had been fixing without seeing for the past twenty minutes. In the door to his office stood Auror Camille Bakare, tall and impressive, her hair braided in an intricate coiffe, a report in hand. 

“Please, come in,” Teddy greeted her immediately. “And, once again, call me Ted. Do you have an update on the possible lead I gave you on the drug case?”

“Yes, in fact, I do,” she answered, letting herself in and into the chair on the other side of the desk before handing him the parchment she was carrying. “Your tip that the leader of this whole bloody cartel might be a woman paid off spectacularly. I used the partial memory you gave me and I have spotted her in various nightclubs throughout the city. I wrote down the names, but my impression is that they are looking for new bases of operation since Rowle was busted. They sure have been very careful, and I have only been able to confirm with two people, both Muggles, that they are selling drugs. But no one has been able to give me a definite name, she uses several. She’s also very skilled at altering her appearance, at least partially.”

“Very good, Camille, that’s a great start,” he congratulated her. “Have you been able to identify any of her acolytes?” 

“No, she is always accompanied by what looks like a different bloke,” she answered. “I think your hypothesis is right and that there might be polyjuice potion involved.”

He nodded as he poured quickly over her report. It was almost as good as the ones Lily wrote, with bullet points and highlighted information, and even animated diagrams. 

“May I ask how you got the information, though?” Camille asked then. “The memory you gave me was very useful.”

Well, you see, Auror Bakare, our boss’, the Head Auror’s, son has taken an interest in this case and has a very active nightlife, as well as what seems to be a particularly keen talent for investigating and making people talk, and so, the other day, he came by, gave me the information, accompanied with the memory I passed on to you, and then he, extremely enthusiastically and skillfully might I add, shagged the lights out of me on the very same chair I am currently talking to you from. 

“I have my sources,” was what Teddy chose to say out loud, however. “What’s very strange is that, if we accept that this woman isn’t majorly altering her age and body-type, she isn’t part of any prominent pureblood family. I have searched for someone matching these criteria and haven’t found anyone.”

“Well, she did seem very at ease in muggle environments,” Auror Bakare commented, which gave Teddy pause. 

“You think she might be Muggle-born?” He inquired with a frown. 

“I hate to say it, but yes.”

“Well, that would surely be unexpected,” the metamorphmagus mused as he looked again at the blurry portrait displayed on yellowish memory paper that Albus had gotten him and that was attached to his colleague’s report.

Albus was curled up, shoeless, on the chair in the living room, his knees drawn to his chest, reading the folder he had been putting together for the umpteenth time, in hopes of stumbling onto something he might have missed before. On the coffee table, pulled next to the chair, were scattered several muggle and wizarding photographs, most of them picturing an array of tall women who vaguely resembled each other. The window opened, and Albus looked up briefly, but Scorpius was quick to dispel the Disillusionment charm covering him and dismounted his broomstick. 

“Practice ran late?” He asked absentmindedly while looking down at the folder again. 

“Hum, yes”, Score answered. 

Albus immediately paused and looked up at him again, frowning, as he took his summer cloak off. 

“You’re lying,” Albus stated, baffled. 

The young Malfoy sighed, exasperated. 

“How do you do that?! You didn’t even look up!”

“You’re pretty transparent.”

“I am not!”

His friend wasn’t going to dignify that with a comment. 

“Are you going to tell me where you were or not?” He asked simply.

“Fine! I was… I went to see someone, that’s all,” Scorpius answered vaguely, putting his broom back into the closet that was next to the kitchen door and making an obviously conscious effort not to look at his roommate. 

“Aren’t you going to tell me even her name?” Albus teased, his lips curled in a faint smirk. 

“Well, you’re not telling me his name either, Al,” the blond shot back, sitting down on the couch. 

“Whose name?” 

“The name of the guy that has you at home on a Friday night instead of in a shady club looking for another anonymous shag, my dear.” 

Albus’ eyes narrowed. 

“I am working ,” was the only answer he was able to come up with. 

“You have been on this case for a week,” Scorpius commented. “Do you want a butterbeer?”

He got up and towards the kitchen. 

“Yes, please. There is something about this case,” Albus mused when his best friend came back and handed him his drink. “ Frigus .”

He cast the cooling spell on the glass bottle and took a sip. It was wonderfully refreshing. 

“Want to talk about it?” Scorpius asked and, deep down, Albus knew his friend was trying to distract him from the mystery girl he had been seeing, but he was stuck and not about to turn down the offer. 

“Well, you see, this woman asked for my help a few weeks back,” he started. “She is a police officer, and…”

“What’s a police officer?”

“Basically a muggle Auror,” the young Potter explained patiently. “So, she contacts me and tells me about her life. When she was sixteen and her sister was eleven, said sister was sent to a weird boarding school her parents refused to talk about. She more or less lost contact with her sister in the years that followed, because she was sent to Wales for her job. One year ago, she came back to London because her sister had been killed in a car crash, she reconnected with her parents over the loss and managed to get herself reassigned to the city. However, lately, she has been plagued by the unshakable feeling that her sister is haunting her.” 

“I thought Muggles couldn’t see ghosts?” Scorpius intervened, frowning. 

“They can’t,” Albus confirmed, “but that’s not what she reported to me. She said she keeps seeing women around her that really look like her sister.”

“That doesn’t sound much like a haunting,” the Malfoy noted. 

“Maybe not for us, but it does for Muggles. Anyway, my first thought was of course that the sister was a Witch.”

“Why would you think that?”

Albus was tempted to look at his best friend as if he was an idiot but reminded himself that Scorpius had been born and raised in a totally wizarding environment for his entire life. 

“Because of the mysterious boarding school,” he answered. “Their parents didn’t talk about it, it was ‘ far in the country ’, and her sister never even saw a textbook. Obviously, she went to Hogwarts.”

Scorpius was looking at him with wide eyes. 

“Okay, I never thought about that, so I will probably sound quite stupid, but wizarding kids from muggle families have to hide what they are from them?!”

“Legally, no,” his green-eyed friend explained. “Wizarding law states that the Statute of Secrecy doesn’t apply to ‘ immediate family members ’, which means parents, siblings, spouses and children. My guess is that, in this situation, the parents decided not to tell the older girl about her sister being a Witch, for whatever reason. But the parents must have been aware , because no child can attend Hogwarts without adult consent. This is where it becomes really weird: the parents of both women have absolutely no recollection of their younger daughter being a Witch, but also couldn’t answer any specific question about this mysterious boarding school. Not the name, not the location, not a single classmate or report card, nothing .”

“Their memories have been erased!” Scorpius immediately speculated, looking very proud of himself. 

“Well guessed,” Albus congratulated him. “And it was pretty skillfully done, too: they remember their youngest daughter very well, her personality, her childhood, details of the summer she spent at home, etcetera. I probed a bit and it was a very intricate memory wiping, it must have been done by someone who knew exactly what they wanted gone and it must have taken time. So, obviously, I am pretty sure it was…”

“The youngest daughter, the Witch,” Score intervened again. 

Albus tapped his nose and smiled. 

“Exactly. But here is where things get tricky: the Obliviate spell was recent. I am talking mere months, at most,” Albus detailed. “However, the sister is supposed to have died a year ago !”

“Wooow, how do you explain that, then?!”

The young Potter took one of the photographs that was on the coffee table and held it up dramatically. 

“She isn't dead,” he revealed with a smile. 

“Ooooh, of course!” Scorpius exclaimed. He was obviously completely taken by the story by now. “So, what, she decided to distance herself from her muggle family and therefore erased herself from their life?”

“That’s what you would think, but then why stalk her sister using different guises, thus making her believe she is haunting her?”

“To check up on her?”

“Then why disappear at all? If she was worried about the Statute of Secrecy, she could just have erased the memories of her being a Witch from her parents. She obviously had the skills to do it! She didn’t have to fake her death. And that’s not all…”

“How so?”

“Well, as soon as I suspected she was a Witch, I searched for her name in the Hogwarts records, and it turns out she left three years ago with various disciplinary warnings and decent marks in her O.W.L. exams but, since then, it’s like she has completely disappeared.”

“Is it just me or this reeks of illegal activity?”

“My thoughts exactly, but what kind? And what’s the connection with the sister?! Someone involved in something shady wouldn’t bother to check up on her estranged muggle sister…”

Albus didn’t finish his sentence. He was still holding the picture of the mysterious Witch - a muggle photograph, given to him by her sister - and was frowning heavily. His gaze had turned distant and, suddenly, he dropped the picture to frantically search for something in the folder that was still in his lap. 

“Al? Are you all right?” Scorpius inquired. 

“Yes, I just want to…” He interrupted himself again before gasping upon finding the information he was looking for. “Merlin! I have to talk to Teddy. Now!”

“It’s almost 9 pm on a Friday, Al,” his friend reminded him. 

“Right, it’s Friday! Great, great… I need to change,” he recollected all his paperwork with a quick spell and jumped to his feet and towards his room. 

He came out barely ten minutes later, in full clubbing attire, green eyeliner and mascara included. 

“Don’t wait up, I have to check something out,” he told his friend as he was checking his appearance in the mirror he had insisted upon mounting next to the door. “If you invite your mystery girl over, don’t forget we hexed the couch!”

“Yes, and I have noticed that you prefer taking the chair rather than wearing underpants!”

“Priorities, Score. See you!”

“Try and not get yourself killed, will you?!” Scorpius yelled after him as he was exiting the flat.

Teddy Appeared in a dark alleyway in central London he knew was safe for this very purpose, a few blocks away from his destination. He looked down at the very short note that had slithered - quite literally since it had been folded into a snake origami - in his room, at his grandmother’s house, barely half an hour prior. There were only a few lines scribbled on it in green ink, and a rudimentary map. 

Meet me at the Circus night club downtown ASAP. Got a serious lead. Be unrecognisable (but sexy, no sleeves). Al. 

So here he was at well past midnight on a Friday night - technically Saturday morning now, wearing a tight tank top and low cut pants, with very pale skin and white-blond hair, a long face with a button nose and freckles, and light blue eyes, walking at a brisk pace towards the Circus. It seemed to be quite a popular muggle club, judging by the impossibly long queue of people waiting to enter, but it was nothing a quick Disillusionment spell and some Confundus cast on the mountain of a bouncer guarding the door couldn’t fix. 

Inside, however, was another story. The club was absolutely packed and Teddy had no idea how he was supposed to find Albus in the mess of bodies dancing and undulating under the low, changing lights. His informant hadn’t bothered to tell him what he was supposed to be looking for: was he himself in disguise? He hadn’t even finished pondering when a hand grabbed his biceps. Turning around, he barely had the time to recognize Albus before he got up on tiptoes and planted a sound kiss on him. His lips were soft and warm and an intoxicating smell, a mixture of sweat, shampoo and alcohol, hit Teddy’s nose. 

“Sorry,” Albus yelled in his ear right after, “a guy wasn’t taking no for an answer, I thought this was the best way. Is he gone? Tall, brown hair, leather jacket.”

Teddy’s hands had gone to Al’s waist on reflex and he scanned their surroundings before seeing the described douchebag throw him a nasty look and turn away. 

“He’s gone,” he said to Albus. “How did you find me so quickly?”

“The note I sent you had a proximity locating spell on it.”

Teddy could have slapped himself: he was supposed to check for this type of thing. He was an Auror, for Merlin’s sake, he was supposed to know better and not blindly trust any note sent to him just because they were signed by his… he didn’t know exactly what. 

“Why did you need me?” He asked in Al’s ear. 

“Do you remember I told you the ringleader whose name Rowle couldn’t speak was probably a woman?” 

“Yes, but we haven’t been able to identify her, much less find her at all. We can’t seem to be able to find a pattern as to where she operates,” Teddy revealed as they danced so as to not attract too much attention. “How did you obtain the information that she was a woman? It could help.”

Not having their pelvic areas grinding obscenely against each other while they were moving around the club would also have helped a lot, but he was resigned to take what he could get. 

“I have my ways,” the younger man answered simply, his face in the crook of Teddy’s neck. “Anyway, I think I found out who she is and how to track her!” 

“What?!”

Fortunately, the club was extremely loud and his outburst went completely unnoticed. 

“Do you see the guy standing with his back to the bar and a beer? He is completely against the far wall and dressed in a neon outfit, with a beard that has seen better days,” Albus told him, manoeuvring him on the dance floor in a very similar fashion as the one he had used the night they had apprehended Rowle. 

It took Teddy less than a minute to identify the individual he was talking about. He was standing quite near and he got a good look at him and what he was wearing. 

“That’s the same brooch Rowle had,” he said excitedly to his companion. “The one with a wand detection spell!” 

“Yep,” confirmed the latter, smiling against his cheek. “And the guy with the leather jacket you helped me get rid of told me he sold ‘stuff’ .”

“Please, tell me you didn’t approach him.”

“I can’t, I am packing my wand tonight. Plus, I can’t disguise myself at will like you and I don’t want him to know my face yet. Not a fan of the blond hair, by the way.”

Teddy rolled his eyes. 

“I’m pretty sure the leader of the cartel is a muggle-born Witch by the name of Isla Cavanaugh. She was briefly here earlier but I didn’t make contact with her either.”

The Auror almost choked on his own saliva. 

“Al, I really need to know how you came upon this information,” he told him gravely. 

He had investigated every single one of the younger man’s lead up until now, based simply on the fact that he was his boss’ son, after all - and not based on any irrational amazing-sex-induced hormones or anything like that - but at one point he needed to ensure there was enough background to them to ensure an arrest. After a few seconds, he felt Albus sigh against the base of his neck before getting on tiptoes again to talk in his ear. 

“Alright, but we need to go to my flat to talk,” he said. 

Teddy wasn’t sure that getting anywhere near the couch was a good idea but he didn’t have much of a choice right now. Except waiting until tomorrow, obviously, but he knew his curiosity needed to be satisfied as soon as possible. 

And only his curiosity, of course…

Due to the very late hour, Albus took the risk to Appear with Teddy siding along directly in the staircase leading up to his flat, hoping there would be no Muggle out and about, which turned out to be the case. Half of the building was occupied by young Witches and Wizards like him and Scorpius, anyway.  

“So, I have been working on this seemingly unrelated case for a while now…” He started quietly, as soon as the door closed behind him and Teddy, leading the latter to his room with a wave. 

“What do you mean, ‘case’ ?” Teddy interrupted quite loudly. 

Albus turned towards him with a finger on his lips. 

“Score is probably sleeping, please keep your voice down or he’ll be all pissy in the morning,” he recommended and the metamorphmagus held up his hands in apology. 

However, as Al set a hand on the handle of his room’s door, they heard a thump coming from the door down the hallway. He frowned but opened his bedroom and motioned Teddy to enter nonetheless. 

“Scorpius doesn’t seem to be very asleep,” the latter commended in a whisper once the door closed behind them. 

“No, which is weird, he is usually an early sleeper and riser. But he has been seeing a mystery girl lately, he might be with her.”

Albus got his wand out of his boot and tapped a little glass statue of a coiled snake propped on a nearby dresser, which began to glow softly green. 

“It’s imbued with a Quietus charm that applies to the whole room,” he explained out loud under Teddy’s questioning look. “I made it a few months ago because Scorpius kept complaining I was too loud during sex.”

“Oh, so sometimes you do make it to your bed,” the Auror couldn’t help the jab, making Albus snort. 

“Only with the mediocre looking ones,” he said. “Anyway, this is the case I have been working on.”

He handed the folder, which he had thrown on his bedside table before leaving, to Teddy and sat on his bed. The metamorphmagus remained standing, his frown deepening as he went through the various documents and photographs. 

“Al, I don’t understand, what is this?” He asked after a moment. 

“That’s what I do for a living, actually,” the younger man revealed. A raised white-blond eyebrow compelled him to continue. “Okay, how do I explain this… Oh, right! I remember that you used to like muggle crime fiction books?”

“Hum, yes?” Teddy confirmed. “My grandfather had quite an extensive collection and I got into reading them as a child.”

“Great, so you know what a private investigator is?” 

“Sure, like Hercule Poirot or Sherlock Holmes?”

“Exactly. Well, it’s basically what I do for a living,” Albus explained. “Someone will come to me with a suspicion of some kind, and I will investigate. It can usually range from a cheating spouse to a cursed family heirloom of some sort.”

“Okay,” Teddy said slowly, “but there are muggle photographs in here.”

“Yes, that’s what I like to specialise in, really. I do offer my services to Muggles under the guise of a ‘supernatural specialised P.I.’ . In other words, I find the source of the Magical phenomenon plaguing them and I make it go away.”

“So you have privatised the job of the Misuse of Muggle Artefacts Office,” Teddy concluded. 

“And I do it a lot more efficiently, too,” Albus added with a wide grin, earning himself an amused laugh. 

“This is your client?” Teddy asked, holding a memory paper on which a young woman in a police uniform was looking left and right. 

“Yep! Her name is Zoe Cavanaugh, and she believes her dead sister is haunting her.”

“By the surname, I am guessing her sister is the Isla Cavanaugh you talked to me about, who, judging by the information you have here, is clearly a Witch, and you do not believe she is deceased.”

“You are really good at this,” Albus praised him enthusiastically. “I don’t suppose I could convince you to quit being an Auror and work with me?”

Teddy rolled his eyes. 

“What’s the connection with our drug case?” He deflected. 

“Well, it turns out Officer Zoe Cavanaugh is part of a unit in the Metropolitan police that specialises in drug -related crimes,” the Potter revealed with a gleam in his green eyes. “So, it occurred to me earlier to go and ask her what her most recent cases were, and it just so happens that her unit recently busted a drug operation that used to take place at three night clubs: the Destiny, the White Star and Pop’s.”

Teddy’s jaw dropped and he sat on the bed next to Albus, deep in thoughts, looking frantically through the folder, before getting up excitedly again. 

“She is using her sister to know where to operate!” He almost shouted after a few minutes. 

“My hypothesis exactly,” Al confirmed. “Zoe Cavanaugh is the one who pointed me to the Circus, tonight, because she just arrested a few dealers who sold there. I believe her sister jumps in right after she makes an arrest, taking advantage of the free space!”

“That is both diabolical and extremely clever,” Teddy seemed almost in awe. “We don’t investigate muggle cases! We would never have tracked her this way.”

“Which, if you want my opinion, is probably something the Department of Magical Law Enforcement should look into, but that’s neither here nor there,” his interlocutor commented. “Anyway, we can use Zoe Cavanaugh to track down her sister!”

“Actually, I can’t,” the Auror lamented. “Aurors can’t investigate with the muggle police.”

“That’s why I said we , Teddy,” Albus reiterated. 

“I already told you, I can’t put a civilian in the middle of a dangerous case…”

“You’re not putting me anywhere, Auror Lupin! Unless it’s naked on this bed, then, by all means, be my guest.” Teddy tried to glare at him but it wasn’t very convincing. “I’ll settle for partially naked, if that’s what offends you.”

“You’re already half naked,” the metamorphmagus pointed out. 

He was indeed wearing his tightest pair of pants, with cutouts on the sides that made it clear he didn’t have any underwear on - as per usual, and a sheer white tank-top covered in his favourite silver mesh shirt. 

“Oh, so you did notice, I was getting worried,” Albus smiled wickedly. “My point was that this is my job , Teddy. I will be investigating Isla Cavanaugh anyway, because her sister is paying me to. Now, you can accept the information I will be passing on to you or not. And hope I do not make you pay for it with sex.”

“Is that what this has been about?” The older man exclaimed. 

“No, but since we have been in my bedroom for almost half an hour, by now, and you haven’t ripped my shirt off yet, I am becoming a little desperate.”

The last of Teddy’s resolve, already substantially chipped away by the dance at the club and the fact that Al’s very minimalistic outfit looked even better in the green glow of his room, finally broke and he discarded the folder on the nearby dresser before advancing on the younger man. Albus looked very happy about this development and slid back on the sheets with his best come-hither look and a grin. 

Teddy settled between the younger man’s knees and bent down for a searing kiss, feeling his scalp shivering as his hair probably changed colour under Albus’ fingers running through it. When they separated, and since he basically asked him to, the metamorphmagus made quick work of his lover’s shirt and tank top in one motion, exposing his chest. The green-eyed Wizard clearly worked out because even though he wasn’t overly muscular, he didn’t seem to have a gram of fat on him, letting his wiry muscle ripple right beneath his pale skin. 

“Merlin, you’re hot,” the Auror couldn’t help but breathe, making the other man smile wider. 

“So are you, but it would be better with a lot less clothes.”

At this, Al flipped them both on the mattress, and had Teddy naked in a record time while still wearing his jeans and boots. He took his wand out and with two silent and extremely quick spells, he braided his hair and squirted some lube on his left hand. The Auror threw his head back and moaned loudly as the lubed fingers closed around his shaft at the exact same moment a hot, wet mouth latched onto one of his nipples. Albus worked him incredibly skillfully, switching sides right when the first nub started to get numb from overstimulation. 

“Al, I’m going to… Argh. ”

The strangled cry that escaped him was elicited by the sudden cold engulfing his cock, which did a very good job at squashing down his upcoming orgasm. He looked up at Albus, shocked, but the other man adopted a perfectly innocent expression. 

“Sorry, but we couldn’t have that,” he apologised with a wicked grin. 

“You’re a little shit, you know that?” Teddy panted through gritted teeth, but the other man just laughed. 

“And what are you going to do about it?” he challenged, a wicked gleam in his green eyes. 

He may have meant that as a rhetorical question, but the Auror wasn’t about to back down when provoked, no matter the setting. He almost revelled in the small yelp he elicited from the smaller man when he practically threw him back on a pillow, but, by his grin, it was pretty clear he had riled his lover up on purpose. Al had let go of his wand in the process and Teddy lost no time in taking possession of it. It felt a bit foreign in his hand but he wasn’t about to perform any complicated Magic with it, simply spelling the rest of Albus’ clothes away and generously lubing his fingers before discarding it on the nightside table. As a revenge for his interrupted climax, he had produced the lube cold and didn’t offer any warning to Al before entering him with a first digit. 

“ Fuck ,” the latter swore at that. “Aren’t you a little vindictive when you… Mmmmffhhh!!!! ”

Teddy had skillfully found his prostate the same motion as inserting a second finger. He was a quick learner, after all, and there was no greater motivation than to watch Albus coming undone under him, his gorgeous eyes sparkling and unfocused, his mouth slightly opened, his whole body deliciously tensed up. As such, he was almost disappointed when, as he got his fingers out, the slighter man rolled on his stomach and climbed to his knee. However, Teddy had to admit that this view was almost as good as the previous one. 

“Get on with it,” Al urged, on all four. 

The Auror got behind him but took his time caressing the splendid ass displayed in front of him with both hands before running his fingers lightly and slowly on both sides of his lover’s spine. He received no complaint, though, only a soft and sensual keening sound as the recipient arched with the passing of his hands. 

Finally, Teddy planted an open-mouthed kiss on each pale shoulder before taking his dick in hand and finally guiding it into Al’s quivering hole. The intrusion was met with a loud, satisfied moan that lasted until he was completely seated. He set a languid pace, going deep and slow, and Albus was being uncharacteristically patient, determined to enjoy the sensation to the fullest, his braid going down his shoulder, his face half turned towards Teddy with a beatific smile, his eyes closed in lustfull satisfaction. 

After a while, though, the metamorphmagus felt his pleasure mount and his strokes became more powerful. Albus sensed it immediately and enthusiastically backed himself on the shaft impaling him, punctuating every motion with a wanton moan. The rhythm starts to pick up and, feeling his orgasm approaching again, Teddy ran a hand along the exposed spine of his lover, ending with his finger fisted in the hair at the base of his neck. He closed his other hand firmly around Al’s biceps and, in one powerful tug, hoisted him upright against his chest, without missing a single powerful trust. 

When his right hand wrapped around the very hard cock slapping against Albus’ stomach, and the fingers of his left closed ever so gently on his exposed throat, the younger man tensed and climaxed loudly, sending him over the edge not even a second later.

Albus walked in the adjacent bathroom he shared with Scorpius. It had two spelled doors that locked when someone was using the facilities, preventing them from bumping into each other naked or on the loo. Not that they hadn’t spotted each other’s dicks countless times while sharing a dorm in Hogwarts for seven years but, for some reason, Scorpius had taken offence in seeing Albus’ in another guy’s mouth so they had spelled the doors shortly after he had moved in. 

The green-eyed Wizard brushed his teeth quickly and washed his makeup off before returning in his room only to find Teddy passed out in his bed, lying on his side, his hair now uniformly turquoise and soft-looking, his face lax and his mouth slightly opened as he breathed evenly. Albus didn’t usually allow his one-night-stands to sleep in his bed - or anyone, really - but he guessed that, technically, the metamorphmagus was now his two-nights-and-several-late-afternoon stand, so… He was himself too tired to think about it much, so he just got under the sheets, made sure Teddy was covered too and turned to sleep. 

As he was drifting out of consciousness, he felt something solid and warm settle against his back and a strong arm slid loosely around his waist. His last thought was that it felt quite nice…

It took Teddy a few seconds to register that the reason he felt a bit lost as he was slowly waking up was because he just wasn’t in his bed. When the realisation that he was still in Albus Potter’s bed hit him, all traces of drowsiness evaporated from his mind and he rose up on an elbow. He was alone in the sheets, but the little glass snake wasn’t glowing anymore and there was some noise coming through the wall that separated the room from the kitchen. He flopped back on the pillow with a sigh, contemplating the white ceiling and the consequences of his actions. Spending the night at Al’s seemed like an invisible line that he shouldn’t have crossed, somehow, but, then again, shagging him was probably the most important line he ought to have stayed clear of… 

He sighed again and got up. His tank top took up less space than he would like to admit once on the floor, so he bumped into a few pieces of furniture while looking for it, but was soon enough dressed, though showing his midriff to the world before 10 pm felt pretty strange. He found a mirror next to the door - Albus liked reflective surfaces next to exits, for some reason - and checked his appearance. He didn’t exactly remember when he had adopted his turquoise hair and amber eyes combo. He usually reverted to it while sleeping, but also during pleasurable times so it could have been at any moment last night. He decided he didn’t want to dwell on that and got out of the door without thinking. 

This, as it turned out, proved to be a disastrous idea - he had had quite a lot of them lately - because right as he got out of the room, the door right in front of the one he was passing through, opened. 

“Hey, Al, what would you…”

Scorpius Malfoy who, Teddy belatedly remembered, also lived in this flat, stopped dead in his tracks when he realised his roommate was not the one coming out of his bedroom, but an Auror who was very obviously doing the walk of shame - not very discreetly at that. The two men looked at each other for a second, one panicking, the other one gaping. 

“What…” Scorpius started. 

“Score! You’re up early!”

Both of them turned towards the source of the forcefully chipper voice, who turned out to be Albus coming out of the kitchen. 

“You’re shagging your dad’s godson ?!” The Malfoy exclaimed. 

As mortified as he was, Teddy couldn’t help but notice the Quidditch player’s tone was almost as cheerful as he was shocked. 

“Oh, come on, it’s not a big deal,” Albus immediately replied, earning himself a furious glare from his lover. 

“Oh, so you wouldn’t mind me telling your father, I suppose?” Scorpius challenged and Teddy felt his insides turn to ice. 

“Please, don’t!” He almost yelled. 

It was particularly annoying that Albus stayed very calm through the whole thing, and Scorpius looked like he had just won the lottery. 

“I guess you’re just going to have to be a very good roomie, mate,” the latter practically purred towards the Potter middle child. 

“Sure, sure,” he answered very casually. “As a matter of fact, I already started: I bought groceries yesterday and I was just trying to make breakfast.”

“Oh, no, it’s going to take a lot more than that, Al.”

“Are you sure?”

Scorpius’ demeanour instantly switched from cocky to suspicious as a smirk was spreading on Albus’ lips. 

“Because, you see Score, I distinctly remember buying chocolate chip cookies yesterday, and there are also no eggs left, and the coffee pot has been used,” Albus laid out systematically. “Which means that someone had a mix of chocolate chips biscuits and eggs with coffee for breakfast this morning…”

“So?” Scoprius challenged, looking anxious. 

“So, it is not only very un-British, but also totally disgusting and I have been telling that to Lily for years …”

The Quidditch player had somehow become even paler than he normally was. Teddy suspected that if any more colour was to drain from his face, he would become transparent right now. 

“You didn't figure that out from breakfast,” he accused in a wavering  voice. 

“Not only, no, but my point still stands, darling,” Albus smiled like a Cheshire cat. “You tell, I tell. Which one do you think my dear Head Auror for a father would be the most upset about? Me shagging his godson or you, the son of his school nemesis, hooking up with his only daughter?”

There was a short moment of total silence as the two roommates looked intensely at each other, while Teddy was getting whiplash from turning to each one alternatively, totally baffled by the exchange. 

“Fine,” Scorpius finally conceded, looking extremely sour. “We both keep our mouths shut.”

“Sounds like a deal,” Albus confirmed pleasantly. 

“Aren’t you guys supposed to be like… best friends or something?” Teddy couldn’t help but intervene. 

“We are,” Al immediately confirmed. 

“We love each other,” Score added at the same time. 

“What’s your point?” They asked in unison.

Teddy sighed heavily as he exited one of the only two stalls in the bathroom of the Improper Use of Magic Office, located a floor above the Aurors’ Office. A routine inspection had, for some unknown reasons, detected ‘ trace amounts of unusual spelling activity ’ inside their toilets and were inspecting them to prevent any security breach, forcing them to use the much smaller loo of their sister office. As he was washing his hands, he heard some dreadful retching coming from another stall and frowned. A few seconds later, none other than Lily Potter came out, looking pale. 

“Are you quite all right?” He exclaimed, concerned. 

“Yeah, yeah,” she dismissed with a wave and a sniff, going to wash her hands. “Remember I was dumb enough to get hit by that spell last week? This is apparently a common side-effect of the counter-curse. ”

“You were protecting a civilian with your own body, you were a hero, not ‘dumb’ ! And they gave you two weeks sick leave for a reason, Lily,” her partner reminded her. 

“Nonsense, I’m perfectly fine,” she said curtly, taking out her wand to dry her hands and straighten her robes. “By the way, Scorpius told me about you and my brother.”

Teddy felt the blood drain from his face. 

“That wasn’t the deal he made with Al!” He protested vehemently, feeling very Slytherin for a moment. 

“Why not? You know about me and Score, so it’s only fair,” she protested, and he found that hard to argue against. 

“Please don’t tell your dad,” he resolved to plead pitifully, but Lily snorted. 

“Don’t worry, my lips are sealed,” she promised. “I have a lot more to lose than you in this no-telling-stalemate.”

“You really think your dad would disapprove more of you seeing Scorpius Malfoy than me shagging Albus?” He wondered sincerely. 

“Yes , of course, the whole family knows Al is kind of a slut.”

For some reason, that last remark took the air out of Teddy’s lungs in one swift blow. He didn’t know if he was more offended to hear Lily - or anyone - talk about Albus like that or by the implication that that was the only reason the Potter middle child was seeing him. As per usual, he must have done a very bad job of controlling his facial expression because Lily realised her blunder immediately. 

“Sorry, I shouldn’t have said that,” she apologised, her voice low. 

“No, it’s…” Teddy cleared his throat. “You shouldn’t talk about your brother like that. He is a good man. He cares… and he is extremely clever and talented.”

There was an awkward silence following his comment, during which the two colleagues barely looked at each other. 

“We probably should get back to work,” the man suggested after a few seconds of extreme discomfort and Lily agreed instantly. 

They didn’t talk anymore as they got back to the Aurors’ Office and the metamorphmagus got into his workroom, still half lost in thought as he sat behind his parchments-covered desk. For some reason, what he had said about Albus still resonated deep. Up until four days ago, sleeping with the younger man had been an act driven by pure lust and instinct, but since spending the night, he felt like something had shifted in their ‘relationship’ . And what he had just commented to Lily about her brother had been genuine on his part, he hadn’t even thought about it before saying it… 

Teddy was wrenched from this very uncomfortable train of thought when he noticed a snake origami made from very light green parchment laying on his desk. It was Albus’ preferred method of delivery, since he apparently didn’t own an owl, so the Auror unfolded it gingerly, finding his lover’s slanted penmanship inside, in deep green ink. He often wondered if his family’s frequent jabs and judgements on his school house had prompted Al to use the colour for almost everything in life, or if he was just very aware of how beautifully it complimented his eyes. 

Hey Teddy, sorry I couldn’t come in person, I have a new client and a lead to look into, today , the note read. I talked to Zoe Cavanaugh again and it seems she and her team are investigating a drug-ring operating at a muggle club called the Nebula, in south-east London. They are hoping to make a move on it next week. If our hypothesis proves to be correct, Isla Cavanaugh should jump in right after. 

Teddy shoved the note in a drawer and exited his office. Auror Bakare’s cubicle was a mere few metres down the hall and she was sipping hot tea while reading a report with an extremely bored expression on her face when he rested his elbow on the partition. She turned towards him with a hopeful look. 

“Please, tell me you have something more exciting for me to do than to look over Smith’s accounts of how he heroically and single-handedly apprehend a, and I quote, ‘ most villainous, crooked and vile ’ magical pet smuggler,” she said in lieu of greetings, making her superior snort lightly. 

“It depends, really. How exciting would it be to work as a bartender in a muggle night club for the next couple of weeks or so?”

Camille took another sip of the strong black tea she was carrying as she entered the small conference room in hopes of not falling asleep in front of her colleague and superior. Lily Potter was already seated at the round table, fidgeting with a report. She looked up when her fellow Auror sat down, and even though it was extremely subtle, Camille noticed she wasn’t looking as well put together as she usually was. Her robe had a stain on the chest, her short hair was parted on the wrong side and looked slightly greasy, she had dark circles under her eyes and she wasn’t wearing any mascara. She also looked suspiciously pale and worn out. 

“Are you all right?” Camille asked, a little concerned. 

“Yes, yes of course, why wouldn’t I be?” Lily answered immediately with a forced smile. “How is the undercover work going?”

At that moment, Auror Lupin walked in the room with his usual firm stride and closed the door behind him. 

“It’s going well,” Camille informed as their superior took the last available seat. “I met your ‘ informant’, yesterday…”

“What informant?” Lily interrupted, frowning. 

She wasn’t usually this curt, but her colleagues chose not to comment. 

“Hum, your brother…?” Auror Bakare answered, now very confused. 

The youngest Potter turned towards Teddy with a shocked expression. 

“You brought Al into this?!”

“No, Lily, he brought himself into it,” was the retort. “What would have you believe I could make your brother do or not do anything ?”

“Good point, I guess,” the redhead relented. “Merlin, I need cof… tea.”

As she was massaging her face with both hands, Camille tapped her cup with her wand. There was just enough of the hot beverage left in it for a refilling spell to work. 

“Here,” she said, sliding the steaming mug towards her colleague, who accepted it gratefully. 

“Is Albus drawing any suspicion?” Ted wanted to know, looking serious. 

“No, on the contrary, he blended right in,” Camille assured him. “If he hadn’t identified himself as you asked him to, I would still think he was a Muggle. He has already charmed all the regulars, too.”

“Of course he did,” her superior commented with a strangely sour expression, while Lily seemed to be barely paying attention. 

What in Merlin’s name is going on here? , Camille wondered privately. 

“You told me the muggle police stormed the club two nights ago?” Ted then said. 

“Yes, they did,” she confirmed. “I acted all surprised, and so did the owner, though I suspect he knew about the dealings taking place. Anyway, the Mets arrested four Muggles and took them away in handcuffs, interrogated me, the other bartenders, a few patrons, etcetera, and the dust seems to be settling down.”

“What are handcuffs?” Lily intervened in between sips. 

“Restraining devices used by muggle law enforcement,” Teddy informed her with impressive accuracy. Camille had always admired his professionalism. “Good, so, if we are correct, Isla Cavanaugh should start setting up her own operation at the Nebula this week or the following. Do you think she will approach you?”

“I have been trying to drop hints that I would be interested in this kind of… trade, yes,” Camille explained. “However, it is probable that she will veer more towards Albus. He is so charming and good at flirting that nobody has even noticed he isn’t putting out. I am really sorry, but I don’t have this kind of talent.”

She really hoped she wasn’t about to lose her job for that admission, but she thought it best to be honest. 

“What do you mean, ‘not putting out’ ?” Lily frowned and Camille chillingly remembered it was her brother she had been talking about. 

“Well, hum, I mean, in this kind of environment, it’s expected of regulars to be a bit… promiscuous, I guess? And, so, hum, it’s not easy to feign it and he is doing it very well.”

“Al doesn’t need to feign it,” Lily was clearly confused. “He is a massive sl…” She interrupted herself and cleared her throat. “I mean, he usually doesn’t have that kind of… restraint .”

Camille blinked a few times and then looked alternatively at her colleague and superior, who seemed to be making a colossal effort not to look at each other as a heavily uncomfortable silence descended onto the room. 

“I am sorry, am I missing something today?” She blurted out after a few seconds. 

“No, no, of course not,” was Teddy’s quick answer. “You’re doing an excellent job. As you know, Isla Cavanaugh and her gang use wand-detection spells, have you found a way around it?”

“Yes, I keep mine in a secret compartment at the bar that can only be opened by me. That way, I don’t register on the spell but it’s close by if I need it.”

“Very good,” her superior commented. “I’ll be coming by the club every night starting today, in different disguises, to monitor everything. Lily and Smith will be posted outside. The objective is to have Isla Cavanaugh herself either try to sell to you, or to Albus, something, or, even better, to recruit  you to deal. Let’s hope it works out.”

The night was still young but it was a Friday, so the Nebula was already quite packed. It was actually a very nice club, with various subtly delimited areas that allowed its patrons to either dance, drink, talk, or a mix of all following their preferences. Behind the bar, the new bartender cut a striking figure: tall, muscular, dark, handsome and in possession of a wicked sense of fashion, pulling off neon like no other, she would totally have been Albus’ type if she hadn’t been a woman, and the direct subordinate of his… whatever it was that Teddy and he were at the moment. 

He ordered a drink to keep up appearances and paid cash, using the exchange with Auror Bakare to lean across the bar and drop into her ear: 

“There is a shady guy with a wand-detection brooch”, he informed her. “I think they have started. Be on the lookout for Cavanaugh.”

“Understood,” she confirmed in the same manner while giving him back his change. “I think Ted is already here somewhere.”

“He isn’t, but I’ll inform him as soon as he arrives,” he assured her. 

Sometimes, he almost forgot that not everyone was able to recognise the metamorphmagus at first glance and he really wondered why. It took him a whole half-second to identify him when he entered the club just as Al was finishing his drink, sporting olive-coloured eyes, black curly hair streaked with electric blue, a lip piercing, a tank top and low-hanging cargo pants adorned with chains. His skin was lighter than usual and he had freckles all over his face and even across his exposed shoulders, making him look absolutely delectable. They crossed eyes and Albus lost no time sauntering over with a flirtatious smile. 

“Love the look,” he purred into the Auror’s ear as he pulled him into a dark corner. 

“Thanks,” Teddy answered, his eyes darting discreetly around the room as he pinned the slighter man against a wall. “Any news?”

“Yes, I spotted her right before you entered.” Albus had a hand in his hair, keeping their forehead together, and another on his hip, creating the illusion they were making out. “At the wooden table next to the bar: she is blonde today, and is talking with a very slender man.”

Albus expertly switched their positions, making the taller man’s back hit the wall with a little more force than necessary.  

“It’s her!” The latter hissed, unbothered. “Isla Cavanaught.”

“Yep, and I think the sleeze with her is her first recruit here.”

“We need her to incriminate herself,” the metamorphmagus mused. “And ideally her henchman too.”

“I got the goon,” Al promised. “As for her, I’m pretty sure she fancies your undercover colleague, at the bar.”

“Camille?”

“Yes, she’s eyeing her very intensely,” the green-eyed Wizard revealed. “And that brings me to my next question, which would admittedly be very weird without context: can you morph into a woman, at least in appearance?”

“What? Why ?!”

“Because with what I learned about Isla Cavanaugh, she seems to be the type to respond quite rashly to jealousy,” Albus explained as they were still grinding against each other shamelessly. “So if you go and flirt with Camille, I do believe she will intervene and possibly propose more than a drink to her.”

The Auror kissed him soundly, using the cover to scan the room discreetly once again. Isla Cavanaugh, nigh unrecognisable, was indeed glancing more often than not towards his subordinate, who seemed none the wiser. 

“Fine, I got it,” he gritted in Al’s ear, who had the audacity to smile wickedly at him. 

“Don’t worry, I am sure you’ll still be sexy,” he purred in his ear, making his partner roll his eyes. 

“Hilarious,” he deadpanned before hiding his face in his lover’s neck as to not show his pained expression. 

Changing his eyes and hair colour came incredibly easy to him, and he even often did so involuntarily. Over the years, he had also grown accustomed to shift his facial features, like his nose and cheeks, and his skin tone quite routinely. However, altering his body still required a lot of concentration, and being in the arms of an incredibly hot guy didn’t make the process easier, quite the contrary. Teddy couldn’t do anything to modify his height without taking out his wand, but since Camille was so tall herself, he hoped he wouldn’t look too disproportionate next to her. 

After a few minutes, he straightened up and Albus looked up at him in wonder. His face was a lot slimmer, with a button nose and fine lips, high cheekbones and very thin eyebrows. His hair was long and a luscious strawberry blonde, looking freshly brushed and curled, and his whole body seemed to have shrunk laterally, his pants riding even lower on his prominent hips, past his now very slim waist. 

“I’m afraid you will need to fill up the tank top with something else if you really want Cavanaugh to notice,” Albus told him, barely able to contain his hilarity, and Teddy gritted his teeth. 

“You suck,” he hissed as he concentrated on growing breasts. 

“And very well at that, I have been told,” was the only response. “You look gorgeous, darling.”

“Thanks,” Teddy answered dryly. “Why are you putting your knee between my thighs?!”

“I just want to check something…”

“I don’t plan to take my pants off, Albus!”

“Hold that thought until you grow the shoulders back, why don’t you?”

“Al!”

“Fine, fine, go flirt, I got the other guy.”

“Don’t put yourself in unnecessary danger, will you?”

At that, Teddy sauntered to the bar while Albus watched him go from the shadows, an amused smile on his face. He didn’t have to wait more than ten minutes: Teddy leaned over the bar with a bright smile and a smothering look towards Auror Bakare who, Al realised with even more amusement, had obviously no idea she was being hit on by her boss, and Isla Cavanaugh immediately tensed up. When the bartender slid a drink towards her pretend-suitor with a bright grin, the drug dealer got up with a determined expression on her face, leaving her subordinate alone at the table. 

Albus acted quickly: he got his hands in his hair and cast a braiding spell, knowing it made him look younger, and then shrunk his shirt before cutting the midriff off and ripping his pants in several places. Extending his arms, he cast a puncture spell in the inside of his elbows to mimic traces left by needles, and finally adopted a somewhat lost expression before advancing towards the table where the drug-dealer saw him approach with interest. 

“Hey there sweetheart,” he greeted him with the very definition of a creepy smile. “Want something?”

“Would you… Would you buy me a drink, please sir?” Al pleaded, pitching his voice high and averting his eyes while fidgeting with one of his rings. 

“Sure, baby, if you want me to,” the man agreed, looking him up and down crookedly. “But I might have something even better, if you want…”

Albus’ expression perked up with feigned interest. 

“R-really? Is, hum… Is it good?”

“It’s better than good, honey. Come, I’ll show you.”

The guy got up and motioned Albus towards the bathroom with his chin and an ever growing smile.

“So, what do you say?” Isla Cavanaugh was humming in Camille’s ear. 

The young Auror would have been absolutely delighted to hear these words, if she hadn’t been standing in a back alley outside of the club, several metres, doors and walls standing between her and her wand, still kept away in the wooden bar. However, she had sent a mental signal at the silver band she wore around her right biceps and a movement on the roof opposite the street had her pretty sure she was covered. 

Everything had gone pretty quickly, and she wasn’t exactly sure how she had gotten herself in this situation. A very attractive, though a bit tall for her taste, blonde woman had started to openly flirt with her at the bar, which had been quite unexpected by itself, and, before she could even start to devise a plan to get her contact information for a day when she wasn’t working, her main target had come up, asking her directly for a drink. Even though she had changed her hair colour and makeup style once again, Camille had recognised Isla Cavanaugh easily and couldn’t believe her luck when she started chatting her up on her own volition. It had been a matter of minutes before she had asked the false bartender to accompany her outside for a smoke break, and here they were. 

“About what?” Camille asked, trying her best to appear interested, in every sense. 

The problem was that she had always been abysmally bad at flirting, even when the woman interested wasn’t a dangerous drug-cartel leader she needed to get incriminating information out of. 

“Going in business with me,” Isla answered with a lopsided smile. They were almost the same height, which was rare for the Auror, used to tower over other women, and she was right inside her personal space. “Here, at the Nebula,” the drug-dealer continued. “Some new… opportunities just opened.”

Camille’s brain was working at a hundred kilometres per hour and she hoped her mouth wouldn’t betray her. 

“Well, I sure could use a bit more cash,” was what she said and she was satisfied with her own ability to sound both eager and unsure. 

“Who doesn’t, in this economy?” Cavanaugh challenged putting her cigarette out on the wall behind Camille, coming even closer in doing so. 

“Hum, what… what would it entail, exactly?” The undercover Auror really hoped she hadn’t just gone too far. 

However, her target smiled at her and ran a hand along her naked arm, forcing her to make a real effort not to recoil on instinct. 

“Just selling some… products of mine,” she whispered. 

It was actually good timing when she decided to kiss Camille after saying that, because it allowed the latter to think about her next move. 

“And… And I would get a… percentage?” She asked breathlessly when their lips parted. 

She was trying to look as if she cared more about the money she would make than the nature of the ‘business’ itself, and it seemed to work, judging by Cavanaugh’s smile. 

“Yes, of course,” she promised. “But you’ll have to be discreet.”

“I can do that,” Camille punctuated her assurance with a quick kiss. “What would that, hum… product look like?”

At that, Isla Cavanaugh reached into her pants’ backpocket and produced a small glass vial filled with a slightly orange liquid that was very familiar to Camille. 

“Looks very innocuous,” she commented lightly. 

“Yes, nobody will notice anything, and we will make a lot of money, you’ll see.”

“Yeah, that sounds nice, but I am afraid you’re under arrest,” the Auror dropped at the exact same time as Lily Potter floated from the roof on the opposite side of the alley, wand in hand. 

Hearing her heels hit the pavement, Isla Cavanaugh pivoted while taking out her own wand from her pocket. Acting on reflex, Camille grabbed her hand and kicked her in the back of the knee. The drug-dealer was incredibly fast, though, and the stunning spell hit the false bartender full force, sending her crashing into the wall behind her, the back of her skull impacting the bricks with a loud thud. Auror Bakare slumped to the floor, totally paralysed, as Lily engaged Isla Cavanaugh in a fierce duel. The two women were equally matched, however, and Camille could only watch in horror as some kind of rotting spell hit her colleague in the shoulder and made her lose her footing. Fortunately, at that moment, the backdoor to the club flung open and, to the stunned Auror’s surprise, the blonde girl who had flirted with her ran through it, wand out. 

A few spells from her and Lily later, and Isla Cavanaugh laid unconscious on the floor, right as the Head Auror, accompanied by young Auror Smith, came running around the corner. 

“Lily, are you all right?” The mysterious blonde yelled, her wand still firmly pointed at the criminal on the floor. 

Her colleague, clutching at her injured shoulder, seemed as confused by the stranger’s intervention as Camille, and so was their boss for that matter. With a flick of his wand, the Head Auror freed the undercover Auror from the stunning spell, and she exhaled loudly. 

“Auror Smith, restrain the suspect,” he barked, his wand going to the strange scene. 

“Lily got hit, we need a Healer,” the tall blonde said firmly. 

“On their way,” the Head Auror assured, his wand now firmly pointed towards her. “Who the hell are you?”

Camille was very glad that someone finally got to ask that question, but the woman only looked extremely confused for a second before realising something. 

“Oh, right, sorry!” She exclaimed. 

At that, she scrunched her face in concentration and the jaw of everyone in the alley metaphorically hit the floor as her shoulder started to fill up, her waist grew four sizes, her jaw squared and her hair turned brown, short and curly until Auror Ted Lupin was standing amongst them, his wand still raised. 

“I didn’t know you could do that,” the Head Auror admitted, clearly impressed. “Smith, I told you to restrain the suspect!”

This last outburst brought everyone’s attention back to Isla Cavanaugh, who, half conscious again, was trying to crawl towards her wand, discarded on the pavement. She didn’t make it far though: a stunning spell from Lily, an immobilising one from her father, and magically reinforced ropes emerging from Teddy’s wand hit her at the exact same time. 

The atmosphere in the alley had barely time to relax, however, before the door to the club opened once again and through it came Albus Potter, dragging an unconscious man by the collar of his shirt before tossing him in the alley like a trash bag. 

“Impressive, you got Cavanaugh all by you five, congratulations!” he piped up merrily, hands on his hips. “Meanwhile, the only guy who knows how to dress here got you this one as a courtesy! His jaw might be broken, though, and I am pretty sure he has a nasty concussion.”

Teddy couldn’t help but smile discreetly while everyone looked at his secret lover with various levels of exasperation tinted with admiration. 

“Healers are on their way,” Harry Potter informed his son.

A soft rasp interrupted Teddy while he was writing his report and, looking up, he was extremely pleased to see his partner in the door. 

“Lily, how are you?!” He asked immediately. 

She was dressed in very professional maroon robes, her short hair combed neatly. 

“Yes, sorry for not coming in on Monday,” she apologised. 

“No, of course not,” he immediately protested. “I bet St Mungo’s gave you a lot more than a one day leave but you’re here anyway, aren’t you?”

Lily suppressed a smile and didn’t deny the accusation. 

“I feel fine,” she assured. “I just needed a couple a day to, hum… recover. Anyway, how did the processing of Cavanaugh and her henchman go?”

“It went well,” Teddy recounted. “His name is Rachid Safiq, apparently. They have both been interrogated several times and we have already arrested another accomplice. We are just waiting for them to spill out other names.”

“Good, good, I’ll start my report right now,” Lily said. “Call me if you need my help with further interrogations.”

“I will, but please don’t overexert yourself, you look pretty pale.”

“I am fine,” she retorted and Teddy couldn’t help notice her tone was exactly the same as her youngest brother when she said that. 

Speaking of which, a very familiar figure appeared right behind her as she turned to leave and the two siblings almost crashed into each other. 

“Good morning, dear sister!” Albus greeted, stepping aside elegantly. “You look positively dreadful today.”

“Go fuck youself, why don’t you, Al,” she retorted without missing a beat before going to her cubicle. 

“Charming as ever,” her older brother commented under his breath, stepping into the office looking none too traumatised by the exchange. 

Teddy smiled faintly. Weirdly enough, Albus was wearing robes, today, long iridescent ones cut in an asian style that he couldn’t identify. The Auror couldn’t help noticing he still looked sexy as hell, though. 

“It’s rare to see you wear wizarding robes,” he commented idly as the younger man sat in front of him. 

“I have a Witch as a client this afternoon, thought I would try and make a good impression,” Albus explained. “Thankfully, there is a whole wizarding community in Korea that has approximately the same build as me, so I stacked my wardrobe two years ago while over there.”

“It suits you very well, you look great,” the metamorphmagus complimented sincerely. 

He was half-expecting an inappropriately sexual response but it never came. What he got instead was extremely disarming. 

“So do you, this burgundy looks very good on you even though I am still not a fan of the plain brown hair,” Albus commented gently. “Anyway, I came because I found two other guys who I am pretty sure worked with Cavanaugh.”

He reached inside his robes and took out two pieces of memory paper that he displayed on Teddy’s desk. They both showed middle-aged men, who looked quite similar, under the low and changing lights of some clubs. 

“I haven’t been able to identify them,” Al said. 

“I actually appreciate you leaving something for us to do,” Teddy joked with a smirk, and was pleased to hear his interlocutor snort. “You think they’ll try to sell the remains of their stock?”

“I know for a fact that the one with the moustache is already doing so,” the younger Wizard confirmed, producing a very familiar vial of orange liquid from his robes. “He sold that to a Muggle at the club where I was investigating last night. Fortunately, I intercepted her when she left, managed to swap the drug off of her for another vial and she told me that guy sold it to her. I erased her memory so she wouldn’t go and complain to him, hoping he would get back to the club. I wrote the name of the places where I saw them both on the back of the papers.” 

“Thanks, Albus, this is great,” was the Auror’s grateful response. “Hopefully, without Cavanaugh supervising them, they will be easy to apprehend.”

“I will leave you to it,” Al said, getting up from the chair he was lounging in. 

“Do you have plans for lunch?” 

Teddy never knew what in Merlin’s name got him to blurt that out loud but, as Albus turned to look at him with a confused frown, he took a deep breath and decided to dive in fully. 

“And by that, I mean: would you like to have lunch with me?” 

The confusion on the younger man didn’t fade, on the contrary. 

“Just the two of us?” Was the clarification he asked for after a couple of seconds. 

Teddy opened his mouth to respond with a positive but, at that moment, Lily came barging into his office, a piece of parchment in hand, looking beside herself. 

“Ted, did you issue the order to release Rachid Safiq?!” She exclaimed, furiously waving the document in the air. 

She wasn’t looking pale anymore, her skin colour actually starting to match her hair. 

“No, of course not,” he refuted immediately, jumping to his feet and coming around his desk to take the paper she handed to him. 

Sure enough, it was an order, from the head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, ‘confirming’ Safiq’s release. 

“What in Merlin’s name…” He muttered under his breath, frowning, lunch all but forgotten. 

He immediately stepped out of his office, starting to walk to his godfather’s with long strides, the two siblings trailing behind him. As he got his first view of his boss’ office door, however, it opened and Harry Potter stepped out, looking frustrated, followed by his eldest son, who had a rather pleased expression on his face. James Potter was a junior prosecutor at the Wizengamot, and though Teddy had worked on a couple of cases with him, he usually tried to avoid it, feeling they didn’t always have the same work ethic. 

“This is not how we do things here, Jim,” Harry was telling his eldest son when they got into earshot and his godson had a feeling that their discussion was related to the order of release he still had in hand. 

“Harry, what’s this?” He asked without preamble, showing the paper stamped with the seal of the Department in blood-red ink. 

The Head Auror sighed heavily and turned towards him after a last reproachful look towards the prosecutor. 

“Jim has decided to… make a deal with Rachid Safiq,” he explained tensely, “and convinced him to give us all the information needed to convict Isla Cavanaugh in exchange for immunity.”

The metamorphmagus was speechless for a second, and so was Lily, both looking at their boss with a mix of unbridled fury and incredulity. 

“That’s not how we do things here, this is not the US!” Teddy practically shouted at the same time as his colleague said loudly: 

“We were going to make them talk !!!”

“And now you don’t have to,” Jim intervened with a content smile. “I saved you the trouble, you’re very welcome.”

Harry’s face seemed made of stone while Lily and Teddy were looking at him like he was the worst idiot on this planet. 

“Now, if you will excuse me…” The oldest Potter child started to leave, before being interrupted by his younger brother. 

“I want to press charges against Rachid Safiq,” he said firmly. 

Jim sighed and looked at his younger sibling with obvious exasperation and condescension. 

“You can’t, the Department has already made a deal granting him immunity for his testimony,” he explained very slowly as if his brother was a complete imbecile. Teddy bristled, his rage intensifying. “That means that he can’t be charged with anything.”

“No, Jim, that means he can’t be charged with anything related with the drug case, because he was only formally accused with that prior to your inordinately lazy ‘deal’ ”, Albus retorted in exactly the same tone, looking at Jim square in the eye. “I want to press charges for attempted rape.”

A heavy and stunned silence fell on the whole group at that, Teddy and Lily slowly turning towards him. 

“Albus…” Harry started, advancing towards his son slightly, his whole demeanour changed. “Did Safiq try to… rape you at the Nebula the other night?”

He had become just as pale as Lily. 

“Well, yes, I didn’t break his jaw and gave him a concussion just because he tried to sell me drugs!” Was Albus’ retort. He looked relaxed at first glance, but Teddy noticed his hands were closed in two tight fists. “He wanted to sell me the drugs in exchange for sex, I started to negotiate to get him to incriminate himself, then at one point, he attacked me, pinned me against the wall and tried to open my trousers, so I sent him face first into a porcelain sink.”

An even heavier silence descended on the little group. Teddy was pretty sure that, like Lily, he must have looked more than slightly perturbed by the mental images Albus’ tale evoked. Harry’s face had returned to its stony, determined expression and Jim simply looked mildly shocked. 

“Well,” the Head Auror started calmly but coldly. “It looks like we will be able to hold Shafiq after all. We will take Al’s deposition quickly and just…”

“ NO !”

Everyone in the office jumped. Lily’s yell had resonated throughout the whole hall. A good dozen Aurors had gotten up and were quietly looking at them from above their cubicle’s walls, at this point. 

“You always make excuses for him,” the youngest Potter shouted angrily at her father while pointing an accusatory finger at her older brother. She was  beyond irate and paid no heed to all the eyes on her, nor to the shocked expression on the Head Auror’s face at being blamed so violently. “You have made excuses for Jim his entire life , enough is enough ! He almost left a fucking rapist out on the streets because he didn’t want to bother and put in the work to close a case properly! He bloody screwed up , dad, and now he needs to face up to it. And so do you!!!”

The silence that followed her outburst was deafening. Harry, Jim, Albus and Teddy were gaping at Lily, who was still shooting daggers at her father, maybe for the first time in her life. All the other Aurors were side-eyeing each other, desperate for the conversation to move on so they could start gossiping. One thing was for sure: whether or not the Head Auror decided to hold his eldest son accountable for how he handled the case, the latter’s reputation had just taken a major hit in this office. Lily was panting slightly and Albus was starting to worry about her health, but she recovered, straightened up and turned towards him. 

“I’ll take your deposition,” she told him stiffly. “Ted, can we use your office for privacy?”

“Yes, yes of course,” he answered immediately, stepping aside. 

As he was following his sister towards said office, Albus couldn’t help but glance back quickly at the rest of his family. Teddy seemed supremely uncomfortable, Jim was looking left and right trying to assess the damage done to his reputation, but, more interestingly, their father was looking at him as if he was seeing his eldest son for the first time. He heard their voices as he entered the office, but Lily closed the door determinately behind them before sitting at the desk and picking up a quill and a parchment.

Lily exited the office after, very uncharacteristically, planting a kiss on her brother’s cheek, his deposition in hand, leaving him thoughtful. He honestly hadn’t expected her to take his side against their oldest sibling, having never done so when Jim tormented him at Hogwarts. As he got up, Teddy entered his office again. He really looked extremely handsome in his tailored robes, standing straight and ever so imposing. 

“How are you feeling?” He asked gently upon seeing the younger Wizard. 

He always looked genuinely interested in Albus’ state of mind, which was kind of new to him. Because he always acted so confident, very few people seemed concerned about his feelings. 

“I am fine,” he assured, meaning it for once, and Teddy seemed to know that, which was another oddity. “Does… Does the offer for lunch still stand?” 

The green-eyed wizard had no idea why he asked that, but he was rewarded with a bright smile from the metamorphmagus. 

“Of course,” he responded immediately and so, fifteen minutes later, they were sitting down at the terrace of a new restaurant in Diagon Alley for an early midday meal. 

“Can I ask you something?” Teddy asked after swallowing a mouthful of steak. 

The younger man had ordered pasta. 

“I would love for you to, talking about the weather is starting to feel a bit forced,” Albus replied with a grin and his companion chuckled. 

“Good point. You seemed to really enjoy travelling…”

“Yes, particularly to Colombia.”

“Will you get off my case with that?!” Teddy exclaimed and Albus laughed. “Anyway… Why did you come back? I am not complaining, obviously, just curious.”

Albus was silent for a solid minute before starting hesitantly. 

“The only person I kept regular contact with while I was exploring was Scorpius,” he revealed. “We would exchange at least two or three letters per week, often more, telling each other basically everything. And I would come back to the country for every single one of his games. I am not a big Quidditch fan but I know it meant a lot to him. After he caught the Golden Snitch that won England the World Cup, I stayed in London for a week to celebrate with him, then got back to see the world. Japan, at that time. Anyway, in the months that followed, I noticed a change in his letters. Score didn’t deal well with the fame. At all. Me and my siblings, we grew up in the public eye, obviously, but he wasn’t used to it and he let every single little critique printed in any paper get to him, he started drinking, and was in quite a bad shape mentally overall…”

His voice trailed in the air, his worry obvious as he revived these dark times for his friend. 

“So you came back for him?” Teddy prompted. 

“Essentially, yes,” Albus confirmed. “He was living in our current flat, so I cleared up the second bedroom and moved in with him. Over the last year, he learned to manage the public attention, I developed quite a successful business of sorts with this P.I. thing, and we have both been enjoying our life in London.” 

“Do you think this thing between him and Lily will become serious?” The Auror asked then. 

“Score certainly wants it to be,” Al disclosed with a sigh. “I think he is quite smitten, but convincing my sister that she can have a healthy relationship and a career isn’t going to be easy.”

“Your aunt certainly proved that it was possible, though,” Teddy commented. “She’s still remembered as one of the best Ministers for Magic we ever had. And her marriage is stronger than ever.”

“That’s a very good point, actually,” the green-eyed wizard seemed impressed. “Would you mind and try to slip that in a conversation with her one of these days? Discreetly, though.”

Teddy laughed softly. 

“I’ll try but subtlety is not exactly my thing.”

“True enough,” Albus agreed, a bit too quickly for his lover’s taste. “Scratch that, I’ll do it.”

They both chuckled at that and the lunch went on pleasantly, the weather being uncommonly sunny and warm. 

“This was nice,” Teddy said softly after insisting on paying, citing Albus’ help throughout the case as an excuse. 

The other man couldn’t help but nod and smile in agreement. 

“Maybe we could… do it again?” The Auror then asked hesitantly. 

“Teddy, are you suggesting a-a-a date ?” Albus then said, the very word sounding extremely foreign on his tongue. 

“Kind of, yes.”

The Potter middle-child ran a hand through his hair, deep in thought. The fact that he didn’t just shoot the idea down instantly with a jeer astounded even himself. 

“Teddy, need I remind you that my parents are very likely to murder the both of us if they ever learned that we slept together?” He finally told his companion as gently as he could.

At that, the metamorphmagus sighed heavily and cast his gaze down with a pained expression on his face. 

“Right, I might have indeed forgotten about that detail,” he admitted dejectedly.

Albus almost walked by his building while getting back home after his appointment with his new client, then he tried to open the door to an apartment that was one floor below his, and finally, he, in a very undignified manner, tripped over the doormat that greeted guests with the words ‘snake or cake?’ at their apartment. He barely registered any of it, feeling in a bit of a daze with how much he was thinking. Scorpius was seated on the couch with a spoon and a giant tub full of ice cream, watching him quizzically. 

“Are you drunk?” He asked. 

“No, but I need to be,” Albus replied. “Quickly if possible. Do we have firewhisky?”

It was a rhetorical question, and his roommate took it as such, gobbling up another mouthful of sweet instead of answering, and Albus got into the kitchen and back with four bottles: the three butterbeers they had left and an almost empty one of firewhisky. He took a sip directly from the last one, put the others on the coffee table and flopped on the chair before paying  closer attention to his best friend, who was clutching the giant cylinder full of chocolate-chips ice cream as if his life depended on it. 

“You don’t look so good,” Albus finally noted after a second  swig of alcohol. 

“Neither do you.”

“Did Lily break up with you?” The Potter hypothesised, a good twenty revenge plans against his sister running through his mind at once. 

“It’s a lot more complicated than that, actually,” Scorpius sighed before downing another small mountain of ice cream. 

“How so?” 

Scorpius glanced at him and Albus could tell he was at least as agitated as he was. 

“Can’t you just read me?” The blond muttered. 

“No, your mind is a mess, right now”, his friend explained in a concerned tone. “As is mine. So what’s up?”

Scorpius stuck his spoon in the ice cream and passed a hand on his face, massaging his eyes. 

“Lily is pregnant,” he dropped after a few seconds. 

A heavy silence descended on the living room. Albus felt like the air had been sucked out of his lungs. 

“I am sorry, what ?!” Was all he managed after what seemed like an eternity of his brain trying to absorb the information. 

“Lily is pregnant,” Scorpius repeated. He looked about to throw up. “With a baby. My baby, actually. Merlin…”

His breathing was getting shallow and Albus knew he should try and calm his best friend down but there just were too many questions fighting their way from his mind to his mouth. 

“ How ?! Even I know how birth control works, and there is no risk for me, seeing where I put it!!!” 

Scorpius honest to Merlin whined at that and set the ice cream tub on the coffee table in order to put his head in his hands. 

“Do you remember last month, when I got whammed by a bludger during practice, fell off my broomstick and cracked my skull?” He recounted. 

“Yes, your dad came here to heal you and check up on you.”

“He did,” Score confirmed. “He gave me a potion, I don’t remember which one, and asked me if I was seeing anyone. Since I could hardly tell him I was involved with your sister, I said no. I just found out this medication cancels the effect of the birth control potion I usually take for up to a month.”

“That’s why you don’t lie to your Healer, Score, you of all people should be aware of that!” Albus hissed. 

“I know, I know,” he lamented.

“What about Lily? I know for a fact that she is on birth control,” his friend said. “She is too much of a control freak not to be!”

“She got hit by a curse while on a case three weeks ago. In this instance, it’s totally her Healer’s fault, he didn’t tell her that the series of counter spells they did on her could also cancel the effects of her birth-control potion.”

Albus had to take another few moments to digest all of that. 

“Bloody fucking Merlin,” was all he could come up with in the end. 

“My sentiments exactly,” Scorpius agreed, taking up the ice cream again to continue stuffing his face in misery. 

“What did Lily say?” 

Scorpius looked even more dejected at that. 

“She… She is considering terminating the pregnancy,” he all but whispered. “She says a kid would destroy her career…”

“What do you think of all that?” The green-eyed Wizard wanted to know. 

“Does it matter?” His best friend challenged. “It is completely her right. I… I told her I was ready to step up, to take care of the baby, one hundred percent, that she wouldn’t have to do anything, but…”

“But?”

“I think she didn’t… believe me?” He recounted hesitantly. “She kept talking about how I would resent her in the end if I did all the work and abandoned my career, and so on. She was pretty agitated too, as you might expect. I really don’t know what to do…”

At that, the two men fell silent once again. Albus was at a total loss for words, which was quite rare, and his mind was whirling even more furiously than before, almost overwhelmingly. 

“What’s up with you ?” Scorpius asked then, as if on cue. “You also seem to have a lot on your mind.”

“As you just put it into perspective, believe me, nothing that serious,” Albus answered honestly.

At some point in the last three to four month, Teddy working on some awfully boring report only to be interrupted by a rasp on his office door and looking up to receive a metaphorical gut-punch at the sight of the most gorgeous man he had ever known standing in the door had become a weirdly recurrent happenstance. Auror Smith had stopped trying to get Albus Potter to register himself on the Auror’s Office’s visitors list after the green-eyed Wizard had given him his address in the most sultry and flirty voice imaginable upon his second visit, telling him he was welcome at his place at any hour. He was looking particularly scrumptious today, clad in muggle clothes as he preferred, with skinny jeans and a tight forest-green shirt. 

“Am I interrupting?” He asked in lieu of greeting. 

“Yes, but only boring stuff so, please, be my guest,” Teddy welcomed, gesturing to the chair on the other side of his desk. 

Albus stepped into the room, hesitated for a couple of seconds, then closed the door behind him, making the other occupant frown slightly in confusion. 

“Lily told me you managed to apprehend the two guys I pointed you towards?” The younger man started while he sat down, looking uncharacteristically unsure. 

“Yes, Karl and Greg Medley, two brothers,” the Auror confirmed. “Thank you again. Isla Cavanaugh’s trial is next week and looks all but won already. Also, Shafiq’s sentencing seems to be a sure thing, and I don’t think you’ll have to testify in front of the Wizengamot.”

“I don’t mind, if it means he’s put away for a long time,” the younger man assured. “I came to take Lily for lunch but, hum…”

He trailed off, and Teddy looked at him a bit more closely. He was fidgeting on the chair, a bit slumped, and looking nervously around the room, entirely not acting like his usual confident self. 

“Yes?” The Auror prompted. 

Albus took a deep breath. 

“I, hum… I thought about what you said the other day,” he started hesitantly. “About the dating thing…”

Teddy felt his heart rise up in his throat and he swallowed with difficulty. 

“Have you… reconsidered?” He couldn’t help the quivering hope piercing in his voice. 

Albus smiled faintly. 

“You have to know that I haven’t done the dating stuff since Hogwarts and it didn’t end up very well…”

“My last date ended in a bitter divorce, Al, I have you beaten,” Teddy challenged immediately. “That doesn’t mean that we can’t try.”

His lover was silent for a long moment but he seemed to be considering the option seriously and the Auror felt his heart fluttering wildly. 

“All right,” Albus Potter finally said. “Teddy, would you like to go on a date with me tomorrow night?” 

The metamorphmagus smiled widely. 

“I would love to, Albus.”

“Thanks for seeing me,” Al told his sister as he sat down in front of her. 

They were in a quaint wizarding bistrot in London that specialised in serving a quick lunch to the nearby Ministry’s employees. His sibling sighed. 

“I am guessing Scorpius spilled the beans about the… situation,” she said as she took her napkin from the table and unfolded it in her lap. 

“Well, we tell each other everything,” Albus defended. “Sometimes, I also make him,” he added with a grin and was happy to see Lily huff a small laugh. 

“It’s fine,” she assured him. “I am actually happy to talk to someone about it. I don’t know what to do and it’s not like I can go and tell everyone I am pregnant when no one knows I have been seeing Scorpius in the first place.”

“Not even Hugo?”

“Bloody no,” she exclaimed. “He is so hopelessly romantic, he would tell me to have the baby, marry Scorpius, and move to the country to a small cottage with a picket white fence to make a bunch more kids.”

Her expression was beyond disgusted at the perspective. At that point, the server came by to take their orders. 

“But you are hesitating about terminating?” Albus asked after the waiter left. 

“Yes, of course I am, it’s a big decision,” Lily replied. “Not only that, but I know Scorpius really wants a kid, and I actually quite like him…”

She trailed off and glanced up briefly at her brother, who was looking at her with a small smirk and a very knowing look. 

“Okay, fine, I am totally in love with him,” she admitted unwillingly. “I was actually seriously considering telling our parents about our relationship before I started to puke out my breakfast every morning last week!” 

“If you do it with both sets of parents present, at least there will be a Healer to take care of the multiple heart attacks,” Albus joked as their food was put on the table, and he thanked the server. 

“Hilarious,” Lily deadpanned. “I can’t give up my career , Al!” She then burst out without preamble. “Even though dad is making a lot of effort, the Auror department is still an extremely sexist environment. Pregnancy would put me way behind my colleagues in terms of opportunities, not to mention that maternity leave is effectively a career killer in law enforcement!” 

Albus took his time to swallow his mouthful of pasta, picking his future words carefully. 

“Okay, first of all, you can have kids and a successful career,” he started. “Look at aunt Hermione: she was the Minister for Magic, for crying out loud.”

“I don’t want to smile for the Daily Prophet ’s cameras and become a politician , Al,” Lily got immediately offended. “I want to hunt down dark Witches and Wizards, curse their asses to hell and back, and throw them so far into Azkaban that they won’t ever see the light of day again, let alone hurt anyone else!” 

“Yes, yes, you’re a badass, whatever,” her brother waved his hand dismissively. “Look, I will admit there isn’t much anyone can do for the pregnancy part, but you won’t have to take a maternity leave. I know you don’t fully believe him, but Scorpius does totally mean it when he says he will do everything.”

Lily rolled her eyes. 

“No, he won’t. He says he will, but after a couple of nights of waking up every two hours, he’ll say he is too tired to go on,” she said. “Babies are a lot of work. There is no way he can take care of it on his own and keep his job!” 

There was a pause of a few seconds, which Albus used to take another bit of his dish. 

“Okay, Lily, listen,” he started very seriously. “I know that, for you, your job and your career are extremely important, and I respect that. And so does Scorpius, by the way, he even mentioned it was one of his favourite things about you. But that’s not the case for everyone. As a matter of fact, Score doesn’t even see Quidditch as a career, per se. It’s just something he does because he is good at it and doesn’t know what else to do. He loves to fly, but that’s it. He doesn’t need to be part of a team, to play games or to win World Cups. Lily, look at me,” he commended. 

The redhead sighed but raised her eyes to his. 

“He means it when he says he doesn’t mind quitting his job,” Albus said very slowly and seriously. “He really does. He is not going to resent you, or the child, or anyone. He will be the perfect stay-at-home-dad and, believe me, he will love it.”

Lilly dropped her elbows on the table and her head into her hands, pressing the heels of her palms into her eyes for close to a minute before sighing heavily and reclining in her chair. 

“Now, Score always insists that terminating or not the pregnancy is entirely your choice, and he is right,” Albus continued after a while. “But I thought you should be aware of how he feels.”

They ate in silence for the rest of their meal, but it was a comfortable kind of quiet, both obviously deep in thought. 

“I have to get back to work,” Lily announced after they paid the check. “But thanks, Al. I appreciate you talking to me.”

“Anytime, sis,” he said as they were exiting. 

“And, Al?” Lily called as he was walking away. “Ted is a good man. I think you guys would make a great couple.”

“Yeah, if I don’t fuck it up too bad,” he answered sarcastically. 

“You have to try to know,” she clapped back, and he didn’t have anything to say to that.

Teddy felt a bit nervous as he took the dark silver snake hanging from the door and knocked three times. He inhaled deeply and waited for a response. However, before someone could get to the door, he turned towards the stairs to see Lily coming up, panting a little. 

“Oh, good evening Ted,” she greeted, looking surprised. “Scorpius told me he would be alone, tonight. We kind of need to talk…”

“Oh, I am here to take Al… out,” he reassured her immediately. 

She was carrying a shopping bag with sodas and tea bags in it and her expression was tense. She nevertheless raised an eyebrow at her superior’s choice of words. Fortunately, at that moment, the door opened on her brother, wearing a perfectly tailored bottle-green shirt with the sleeves rolled up and black pants tucked in thigh-high leather boots of the same colour. His hair was loose and flowing on his shoulders, as Teddy liked it the most. He himself had opted for his signature turquoise hair with amber eyes and muggle clothes, namely a light blue dress shirt with pale yellow accents and his best pair of dark blue jeans. 

“Good evening,” Albus greeted him, a little shyly, before spotting his sister. “Hey, Lily, Score is waiting for you, Teddy and I will get out of your hair immediately.”

“Thanks,” she said somewhat moodily, going past him into the apartment. “Have fun.”

“Thank you, you too,” the metamorphmagus said, but his wishes were unexpectedly met with a scoff from the redhead. 

“Yeah, as if,” she muttered, before closing the door sharply on the two men. 

“Okay…” Was the only thing Teddy could come up with, frowning. 

“Don’t take it personally,” Albus reassured him with a smile. “Score and her have a… difficult conversation ahead of them tonight.”

“Is she going to… break up with him?”

“It’s a bit more complicated than that,” the green-eyed Wizard said evasively. “I made a reservation at a steakhouse, I know you like meat?”

Teddy smiled. 

“Yes, I do, and I appreciate you not making a sexual innuendo with it.”

“That was the hardest part,” Albus admitted, going down the stairs and his companion laughed. 

“Where are we going, in the city?” The latter asked when they got out of the building. 

“I had another idea in mind, actually,” the Potter middle child said, smiling mysteriously.

He went near a public trash bin and picked up what looked like an old dirty cardboard box. 

“A portkey?” Teddy guessed. “Are we going far?”

“Not too far,” Albus seemed determined to keep the secret. “It’s almost time”, he added, looking at his watch, prompting the Auror to grab the box. 

Less than a couple of seconds later, he felt a familiar tug around his bellybutton as their surroundings melted. When their feet hit the ground again, Teddy shaked his head slightly to get his bearings and looked around. 

“We’re in Paris?!” He exclaimed, spotting a very familiar and beautifully illuminated iron tower on the horizon. 

“Scorpius called in a favour for me,” Albus explained calmly, carefully hiding the portkey behind a bush. “I wanted a location where we wouldn’t be afraid to be seen together, so all of the UK was basically off limits. Our return is scheduled for 11pm, we better not miss it.”

At that, he took Teddy’s hand and guided him down the hill atop which they had been transported. The Auror didn’t know the City of Lights very well, but he thought they had landed in Montmartre. 

“Did you know that there is an entire wizarding neighbourhood, here, in Paris?” Albus asked animatedly, guiding him down. 

“No, I didn’t,” Teddy admitted. “I asked Victoire to take me here repeatedly during our marriage, but…”

“But she wouldn’t shut up about Bordeaux and how Paris is overrated,” his date interrupted, and the metamorphmagus stopped in his tracks. “That’s why I wanted to bring you here,” the younger man explained, his demeanour betraying his hesitation. “I hope it’s okay?”

“How… How did you know about that?”

“She is my cousin, Teddy, I have had to endure her yapping for every bloody Christmas since I was born ,” Al reminded him. “And, no offence, but you actually chose to subject yourself to it for, what, like ten years?!”

“Fifteen, and I really would rather not talk about my ex tonight,” the Auror mentioned, though he felt quite calm about that for the first time in a long while. 

“Fine, but I’m still going to make you discover France like you haven’t seen it before.”

Albus’ excitement was extremely contagious and Teddy smiled genuinely and went after him when he started going down again. They arrived in a street with lots of Muggles milling about, but the green-eyed Wizard expertly led him to a less frequented alley and, taking his hand, right through a wall without any hesitation. 

They emerged on a narrow road paved in cobblestones that looked very similar to the one they just left behind, except for the coloured lights floating in the air, the animated shop signs, and the sheer amount of people walking by casually, dressed in a formidable array of styles and colours, from dull grey robes to flashy outfits that made Albus’ usual clubbing attire look tame. 

“Is this where you shop?” Teddy couldn’t help but exclaim. 

“Most of the time, yes,” his companion replied. “I actually used to work as a model here, look!”

He pointed towards what looked like an old clothing boutique and, sure enough, on the glass of the display was a faded poster showing a very young-looking Albus Potter, his hair barely brushing his shoulders, sending fierce gazes to the onlookers. 

“When was that?!” Teddy immediately wanted to know. 

“Right after I graduated from Hogwarts,” Al answered with a shrug. “France was my first stop in my travels and modelling was easy money. Come, it gets better!”

The metamorphmagus couldn’t stop smiling, at this point, and, distracted as he was by everything, he almost had to run after his date to keep up. The shorter man guided him to a slender staircase that was going down between two little boutiques and, soon enough, they were standing next to a river, the two towers of Notre Dame visible in the distance. 

“Is this the Seine?” Teddy frowned. 

“Yes, the French wizarding community created an entire two kilometres of liminal space, inaccessible and invisible to Muggles, along the Seine, just for themselves,” Albus explained. “It has been here for centuries and they are rightfully very proud of it.”

“Except for Victoire and her mother, apparently…” Teddy’s muttered remark made his partner laugh delightfully. 

He gave him time to take in his surroundings before pointing towards the cafes and restaurants lined up next to the riverbank, their terraces ending a mere metre or two before the water. 

“Here is where I made our reservation,” he informed the older man, advancing. “It’s supposed to serve the best meat in Europe, according to the Chef.”

“I actually have heard of it! How did you manage to get a spot?”

“The owner owes  me a favour.”

At that, a plump woman in her mid-fifties, standing in the doorway and scanning the patrons chatting in her terrace, seemed to recognise him and addressed him with a warm smile. 

“Al!” She exclaimed. “Quel plaisir de te revoir! Je vous ai réservé la meilleure table, juste ici.”

She gestured towards a quaint little spot in the corner, which offered a splendid view over the river and the sparkling city above it. 

“Merci, Madame Véga, je savais que je pouvais compter sur vous,” Albus thanked as the two men sat down. 

“Merci, votre restaurant est très joli,” Teddy tried, a lot less fluently than his date and probably with an horrible accent, but the Witch didn’t seem to mind at all, positively beaming at him. 

“Et il parle français, en plus!” She rejoiced. “Je suis contente que tu aies enfin trouvé un bon garçon, Al. Voici les menus, demandez ce que vous voulez!”

They handed them two blank pieces of thick, brownish paper, on which appeared a short list of food items as soon as they touched them, and left with another smile. 

“Your French is very good,” Albus congratulated Teddy with a lopsided grin. 

“Well, Victoire took me to see her family a grand total of twice so it was important that I learned.”

Though he tried not to sound too bitter, Teddy knew he was failing spectacularly. For some reason, his ex-wife never wanted to show him up too much, to anyone. However, he had decided not to dwell on that anymore two years ago, so he wasn’t about to start again now. He ordered the steak, which indeed proved to be the best meal he had in ages, maybe even his life, and Albus ate fish, and they chatted pleasantly. They split the check, which was suspiciously low for such a fine place, but Madame Véga wouldn’t hear any of their protest. Albus really must have done her quite the favour. After that, they bought ice cream to go and started walking along the Seine as the sun fully settled down. It was the end of summer, though, so the temperatures were still quite warm despite the advancing hour. 

“Thanks, Al, this was quite the perfect date,” Teddy said softly as they strolled idly, eating spoonfuls of sweet in relative silence. 

“We haven’t even kissed,” Albus rebuked in confusion. 

“It can be a date without physical intimacy,” the Auror explained patiently. 

“Where is the fun in that?!”

Teddy snorted, stopped, and, with two fingers on his chin, guided him in a gentle kiss. He tasted like vanilla. 

“Better?”

“For now, but I insist you keep in mind that I do put out on the first date,” Albus pouted and the metamorphmagus laughed. 

“I have enjoyed knowing more about you,” he said carefully after a while, as they were leaning on an iron fence right above the river finishing their desserts. “You can be a little… secretive.”

The Potter middle child huffed discreetly. 

“Yeah, old habits die hard, I guess,” he said vaguely. 

Teddy raised an eyebrow at him and he hesitated for a few seconds before inhaling deeply. 

“As I told you before, me and my siblings, we grew up in the public eye,” he started slowly. “My first report card from Hogwarts ended up printed in the Daily Prophet before I could show it to my parents, for example. And when I came out to them, me being gay made the front page of Teen Witch two weeks later…” 

“I remember that,” Teddy mused with a pained expression. “I was just starting as an Auror apprentice and I thought Harry was going to tear down the entire Ministry trying to find out who leaked that.”

“Really?” Albus seemed genuinely surprised. 

“Yes, of course, almost all of the magazine’s editors lost their jobs that week and one Witch was prohibited to ever work as a reporter ever again.”

There was a long pause between them. 

“I… I never knew about that,” Al mused absentmindedly. 

“So, you keep your cards close to your chest for self-protection, not because you want to appear all mysterious and dark and stuff?” Teddy’s joke made a good job of lightening the mood. 

“Oh, no, there is definitely that too,” Albus assured immediately and they both laughed. 

“Right, well, now that you clearly have me tightly ensnared, maybe you could tell me how you neutralised Safiq all by yourself, the other night?” Teddy then asked. “Because, even though I know first hand how fit you are, I have a hard time to believe you knocked out an armed Wizard with just some martial arts moves that you learned in Korea.”

“Japan,” Albus instantly corrected him. 

“Not my point and you know it.”

The younger Wizard side-eyed him for a moment before sighing. 

“Do you promise you can keep a secret?”

Teddy nodded at that and followed Albus’ gaze, fixated on a public trash bin a few metres ahead. In his hand, he held the empty carton cup he had been eating his ice cream from, inside which his spoon was also discarded. 

“ Depulso ,” Albus whispered, and the disposable holder shot from his now empty hand to land precisely in the bin, leaving Teddy gaping at him for a solid three minutes before recovering. 

“You’re a Wandless !” He exclaimed then. 

“Keep your voice down,” Albus recommended calmly. “And yes, I am partially wandless. I can’t perform complicated incantations or spells but I get by.”

“ That’s why you always go clubbing without your wand!”

“Yep,” he confirmed with a smirk. “I never find where to put it in my outfit, and when I hooked up with Muggles, it would save me the trouble of trying to explain why I carry a random stick around, while still being safe. And it ended up being extremely useful in our last case.”

“That’s very cool,” Teddy only commented with a smile and Albus found himself breathing a little easier, for some reason. 

This time, he was the one initiating the kiss, and he lost no time in prodding the other man’s lips with his tongue and ending up enthusiastically making out with him for several minutes. Suddenly, Teddy tensed and separated from him, looking like he had just been hit with a ton of bricks. 

“Are you all right?” Was Albus’ concerned question. 

Teddy didn’t answer immediately, and the green-eyed Wizard could see he was pondering something very intensely. 

“Your sister has been sick almost every morning in the past few weeks,” he then enunciated very slowly, still coming to conclusions as he was speaking. “And she has stopped drinking coffee, preferring tea instead… And she has been very moody and preoccupied lately…”

“To be fair, she is naturally quite bitchy,” Albus interrupted him, “but yes.”

“She is pregnant!!!”

“As I said earlier: complicated.”

“Merlin, she is pregnant with Scorpius Malfoy’s baby !”

“You really should resign as an Auror and become a P.I. with me, we would make a fortune,” Albus commented lightly. 

Teddy still seemed dazed  by his own discovery and its implications. 

“We should probably get back to our portkey, it leaves in half an hour.” Albus was trying no to sound too amused. “Or would you like to spend the night here?”

“No, let’s go back,” Teddy decided, still a little distracted. “I have it on good authority that my date might be willing to put out tonight.” 

“There is a reasonable chance of that, yes.”

Teddy had absolutely no idea where his dress shirt was and could not bring himself to care. It had been discarded on the floor somewhere between Al’s apartment door and the bedroom, shortly before his shoes and socks, and, now that he was on his back on the bed, the middle Potter child was making quick and efficient work of the fly of his jeans. Albus was, maddeningly, still fully clothed, but when the metamorphmagus sat up and took the top button of his sinfully tight shirt in his hands he was promptly pushed back down into the mattress. 

Unbridled lust was clearly hampering his reflexes, as he didn’t even notice Albus rising his hand before the brunette wordlessly bound his wrists to the headboard. 

“Behave”, Albus commended then in a sultry voice and with a wicked smile. 

He straddled Teddy’s hip in one fluid motion, resting his arse only centimetres away from his aching cock, still restrained in his jeans. He choked when Albus’ lips found his neck, then his collarbone, then started trailing towards his left nipple. He was already braced for the shock of pleasure to come, so he jumped hard, almost throwing Al on the floor, when several loud bangs shook the door to the bedroom. 

“Albus, I know you’re shagging but I need some help now !” The voice of Scorpius came through the wood, unusually high pitched, clearly half-panicked. 

“For Merlin’s sake, Score!” Albus immediately protested. 

“I know, but…” 

Scorpius was swiftly interrupted by his best friend shouting back. 

“Yellow gold, a strong band, no diamond, small coloured stones like rubies or emeralds, size 5 but take an adjustable one, and now sod the fuck off !!!” 

There was a long silence on the other side of the door, and then a small ‘Okay, thanks’ and departing footsteps. 

“What was that?!” Teddy exclaimed, his brain starting to function semi-properly again. 

“Our problem being resolved”, Albus answered as if it was obvious, but his date’s face must have indicated it absolutely wasn’t. “The fact that he is looking for an engagement ring means that Lily is going through with the pregnancy, so after she tells my parents that she is not only going to marry Scorpius Malfoy, but also have a kid with him, us having a relationship will go practically unnoticed! So, problem solved.”

After that, Albus ducked down again and Teddy really tried to keep his mind analysing what he had just said, but the hot and wet tongue tracing his abs was making it extremely difficult. 

“D-D-Did you convince your sister to - hmph! - have a baby - Oh, Merlin! - just so that we could be out in the open?!”

He was positively panting by now. He didn’t know a human mouth was capable of doing whatever Albus was managing right now. His whole body was taut as a wire, his arms straining against the invisible restraints that kept them above his head, his heels digging into the mattress. 

“I never told anyone to do anything they didn’t want to do”, Albus defended and Teddy instantly regretted his question, since it forced his lover to interrupt his quest to apparently explore the entirety of his chest with his tongue. However, the metamorphmagus was quickly placated when the younger man started to wiggle lower, unfortunately not pausing with his weight on his completely hard cock, to start pulling down his trousers. Teddy hissed when Al took off his jeans and underwear in one motion, letting his aching cock spring free in the cold air. 

“And I haven’t even gotten anywhere close to your nipples tonight”, Albus commented with a smirk, clearly amused by his arousal. 

He was such a prick, and Teddy was about to let him know, but the words caught in his throat, when his lover resumed his original position straddling hips with ease. Only, this time, he didn’t have any clothes on and the Auror had absolutely no idea when he had removed them, not that he was complaining. 

His ass was hot and heavy on his lower stomach, and, sat up straight as he was, his long and lean torso was in full view in the dimly lit room. Albus wiggled a bit, obviously enjoying the effect he was having on the other man, who was becoming mad with lust. Every single movement sent jolts of pleasure through Teddy’s body, and his cock was positively leaking when a now perfectly naked Albus started to run his delicate fingers along the line of his chest, his own pale skin rippling over his lean muscles. 

“Al, please,” the older man keened. 

The bright green eyes were sparkling with mischief, but, looking down, Teddy could see that the brunette was as eager as he was, his cock just as hard as his. Albus seemed to understand he couldn’t keep up with the teasing charade and rose on his knees, positioning himself right above Teddy’s shaft. He took it into his hand right as he pinned his hips to the bed with the other one, correctly anticipating Teddy’s bucking with red-hot pleasure at the action. The jolt had made him close his eyes, but he regretted it at the sight that was displayed when he opened them again. 

Albus’ body was taunt and quivering, one of his hands stroking his partner’s cock while the other one was behind him. Teddy couldn’t see it but the ecstatic expression on the younger man’s face, his head slightly tilted back, exposing his white throat, part of his long black hair spilling over his shoulder and down his chest, eyes partially closed and mouth open, breathing hard, indicated that he most certainly had one or two of his own fingers inside himself. 

The green eyes opened and their gaze met. Albus smiled and took his hand off of Teddy’s prick to trail it along his chest, resting it on his peck as he bent down, his expression delighted. 

“Your eyes have turned amber again,” he whispered with wonder, and the older man thought his heart would explode. 

The eye contact was suddenly broken, but Teddy couldn’t protest because Albus had sat back and impaled himself on his prick in one smooth motion without any warning. They both moaned loudly and Al threw his head back, biting his bottom lip in an expression of pure pleasure. 

“Shit, you feel so good,” Teddy breathed. 

Albus was tight as a vise around him and, as always, knew perfectly what he was doing, even as he was adjusting to the cock inside him, contracting and relaxing his muscles, then slightly rotating his hips in maddeningly small motions. 

“Fucking tease,” Teddy breathed accusatorily, eliciting a positively shit-eating grin from his lover. 

“Oh, would you like me to move?” 

Al’s innocent tone was somewhat negated by the raging erection straining against his stomach, and the older man decided to take revenge by thrusting his hips up as much as his lover’s weight allowed him to. It was enough to make Albus gasp and then moan loudly. 

“So bloody impatient,” he chastised, but nonetheless started to rise on his knees before sliding back down. 

He set a painfully slow pace, teasing at every chance, knowing full well the effect his undulating body had on Teddy, rendering him incoherent with desire. Just as he was about to cry from frustration, the invisible restrains around his wrists dissolved. He acted purely on instinct: his fingers closed around Al’s biceps, and he spun them both effortlessly. Albus’ back hit the mattress, eliciting a yelp, but the green-eyed beauty was grinning from ear to ear. 

“Yessss,” he hissed, throwing his head back against the pillow, as Teddy slammed impatiently inside of him. 

He set a brutal pace, thrusting his hips full force, spurred by Albus’ long legs closing tightly around his waist, urging him on. The sound of slapping flesh mixed with Teddy’s harsh breathing and Albus’ unfiltered moans of pleasure. The metamorphmagus felt his orgasm approaching and gripped Al’s hip with one hand, closing the other one around his leaking cock, making him cry out. He pumped him furiously as the pleasure racked through him like electricity, and, as he came, he felt Albus seize beneath him. 

Teddy all but collapsed, burying his face in the younger man’s neck. 

“Fuck, that was good,” Albus panted and Teddy chuckled feebly. 

He started to raise, but his lover buried his fingers in his short blue hair and yanked him down in a passionate kiss. Leaning fully into it, he savoured every single moment of the open-mouthed making out, only breaking out when they both needed to breathe. Albus was relaxed and pliant under him, his lips stretched in a content smile. 

“I am not cleaning myself up, so you better do it for me before you fall asleep,” he then announced drowsily, adjusting the pillow under his head, and Teddy couldn’t help but snort. 

“Merlin, aren’t you bossy in bed,” he commented, getting up to go fish his wand out of his discarded jeans. 

“I’m always bossy, you just fucked the subtility out of me,” Albus explained, his speech already slurred, as he burrowed contentedly into the mattress. 

Teddy cast several cleaning charms on his lover, on himself and on the sheets, cracked the window open and then got to spooning his drowsy partner from behind. He threw the sheet over both their bodies and slipped an arm around Albus’ stomach just as he was adjusting himself against him. The Auror couldn’t remember the last time he had felt this happy as he drifted to sleep.

EPILOGUE

The weather was incredibly sunny and warm without being suffocating, creating the perfect day in his godparents’ vast and well tended garden, and the day’s happiness had Teddy incapable to stop smiling. There were a good twenty people present already, most of them sporting the signature Weasley red hair, milling about, arranging chairs, setting up white canopies, and propping up flowers. Ginny was giving directions to everyone, clad in a splendid pale golden floor-length gown. Meanwhile, the former Minister for Magic, the impressive Hermione Granger, was clad in dark blue and arranging her husband’s attire while her daughter was coordinating six of her cousins in their endeavour to set up the altar where the future bride and groom were to be married in a couple of hours. 

A loud crack signalled the arrival of further guests and, glancing towards the patch of grass reserved for Apparitions, Teddy felt his stomach drop two stories upon seeing his former wife, arm in arm with who he supposed to be her new husband, accompanied by her sister and her own spouse. The Auror took that as the perfect sign that he was urgently needed inside the house to help his godfather coordinate the kitchen or something. 

The inside of the manor was cool and quiet and, as he strolled towards the kitchen, he heard a voice that warmed his heart coming from the living room. Unable to resist, Teddy deviated from his path and stood discreetly in the doorway, looking at the scene taking place in front of the extinct fireplace. His boyfriend of almost a year was holding his only nephew in his arms, rocking him slightly, and showing him the myriad of pictures displayed on the mantle while the toddler absentmindedly chewed on a stuffed snake toy. 

“... and this is your grandad’s godfather,” he was commenting to the child in an incredibly soft voice. “His name was Sirius. Next to him is your uncle Teddy’s dad. Oh, and look, here is your mummy when she was little! Didn’t she look funny?”

As if on cue, the toddler laughed, making his uncle chuckle in return. Albus then seemed to notice Teddy in the doorway and turned to him with a smile. He was wearing emerald green robes in his favourite high-low style and black leather pants. 

“I’m guessing Scorpius and Lily went to get ready?” He asked, depositing a quick kiss on his boyfriend’s lips. 

“Yes, I’m on babysitting duty until mum or dad can take him,” Albus explained. “Though I really ought to go make sure Score doesn’t have a crooked tie again.”

“Aren’t his parents with him?”

“No, I think Draco and my dad are trying to outdo each other in the kitchen,” he commented. “It’s a good thing the wedding will take place outside because there is a significant probability they will end up burning the whole house down.”

“You have to admit that the fact they can stay in the same room for over half an hour without yelling at each other is progress,” Teddy half-joked. 

“Good point,” the younger man conceded. “Having a grandchild in common has been a good motivation.”

At that, the toddler in his arms made a gurgling sound. 

“Yes, Tary, you’re absolutely right,” Albus cooed immediately. 

“Tary?” Teddy noted. 

“Well, Antares Harry Potter-Malfoy is a bit of a mouthful, isn’t it?” The boy’s uncle immediately defended and the Auror couldn’t really argue. 

They were interrupted by a loud clash coming from the kitchen. 

“You should probably go make sure the two fathers in law don’t decide to finish what they started while at Hogwarts,” Albus told his boyfriend. “Hugo will be along in a minute to take care of Antares so I can help Scorpius get ready. Are you all right, by the way? I saw through the window Victoire just arrived.”

Albus looked genuinely concerned but Teddy smiled fondly at him. 

“I am fine,” he assured. “Though I wouldn’t mind you saving me a particularly… racy dance later on.”

He raised an eyebrow suggestively and Albus laughed. 

“I got you covered,” he promised. “As I told you before, making homophobes, or, in this case, biphobes, uncomfortable, is one of my favourite pastimes.”

Teddy kissed him again and went to the kitchen only to walk in on his godfather, now Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, Saviour of the Wizarding World, youngest Head Auror in the country’s History, having a hissy fit with his former school nemesis over the colour of the china… 

In the end, though, Lily Potter and Scorpius Malfoy were married in a beautifully peaceful ceremony, Albus as the groom’s best man and Hugo as the bride’s, their almost six-month-old giggling from the first row, on his maternal grandmother’s lap, and, a few hours later, Victoire left the party in a huff with her new husband while everyone else applauded Teddy and Albus’ vigorous dancing.