Chapter Text

Chapter One: The House of Hadham

A warm breeze blew through the open window of the bedroom, disturbing some paper that was laying on the desk next to it. The morning air blew in a few dandelion seeds that floated gracefully across the room to land next to a snoring, mousy haired boy, his head resting on the table.

His eyes flickered as one of the dandelion seeds brushed his nose. Beating it away with one hand he sat up and let out a long yawn, rubbing his eyes. Taking a few moments to adjust his eyes to the light, he opened his phone and checked the time, 10:34 AM. At least he'd got some sleep, he thought to himself as he patted a stuck-up tuft of hair back down. He stretched and stood up from his chair, wincing slightly as his back complained about having been bent over all night.

An open book on the table caught his eye; he closed it carefully. He'd had enough of that book for one night. The papers on the desk were covered in sketches and notes, most of them looking completely nonsensical. The boy piled them up and stowed them into a folder that he then hid in his bag, he knew he'd have to summarise what he'd written down before long, but there wasn't time for that right now.

"Bertie!" came a voice from somewhere outside the room, "Are you up yet? I've got to take Louis to his friends"

He turned towards the door and replied, "Yeah, I'm up, I'll be down in a minute"

There was no answer to this, but he could hear the sound of some commotion as his mother was probably trying in vain to get his little brother to put his shoes on. Taking a deep breath, he pushed the door open and stepped out onto the landing. The sign on his door said, in simple lettering, 'Bertie's Room'.

Bertie walked downstairs and into the bright dining room. The fittings were as dazzlingly white as ever, his mother always kept them clean, but a stack of papers on the table illustrated that she was still hard at work. Mrs Hadham was an English teacher; she always spent the summer holidays preparing her lessons for the next term, hence the constant presence of paper and Charles Dickens' books in the house.

Bertie poured himself a bowl of cereal and sat down at the table to eat. He was interrupted by his mother entering the room, looking slightly haggard with her mousy hair tied up in a messy bun.

"Good afternoon," she said with a smirk, "Had a nice sleep?"

Bertie, who had his mouth full, could only roll his eyes in response, though he did it with a smile.

It was then that Bertie's nine-year-old brother, Louis, entered the room. "Mum! Where's the spare Xbox controller? Sam says that his other one is broken"

Mrs Hadham sighed, "It's probably in your room, where you left it last time"

Louis pouted, "It's not" he stated.

"Are you sure?" asked Mrs Hadham, "If I go up there and find it straight away then I'll be disappointed"

Louis threw his head back and let out a loud groan, before running upstairs and into his room.

"Works every time" chuckled Mrs Hadham, who finished off her cup of tea and put it into the dishwasher, "Can you take Monty for a walk later? I'm going straight to Auntie Clare's after dropping Louis off"

Bertie shrugged, "Sure, no problem". Monty was the family dog, a slightly daft, but very friendly, German Shephard. Bertie looked over his mother's shoulder and into the back garden, where Monty appeared to be jumping around trying to catch a butterfly.

Louis reappeared, Xbox controller in hand, "Let's go, Mum!" he said.

Mrs Hadham picked up her keys from the table and walked over to him, "You found it then?"

Louis nodded and raced to the front door.

"See you later," she said back to Bertie, giving him a quick peck on the cheek that Bertie recoiled from slightly. "Don't be like that" chuckled Mrs Hadham, "There's five pounds by the door if you want to get yourself a snack from the shop"

"Thanks, Mum," said Bertie.

She left the house with Louis in tow, leaving Bertie alone in the bright and airy kitchen. He gently chewed on his cereal and gazed around the room with all of its slightly too clean fittings, it somehow felt slightly fake. Rooms shouldn't be like this, they should look lived in and slightly rough around the edges. He sighed, that was what his parents liked though.

Bertie finished his bowl and put it in the dishwasher, taking care to put it in such a place that his Dad wouldn't need to rearrange it later on. He wandered into the living room, which was as spotlessly clean as the rest of the house.

Slumping onto the sofa he grabbed the remote from the coffee table and turned the television on. It dawned on him that he hadn't had much chance to watch the television that summer, he hadn't really wanted to. They were showing highlights from the previous days' football World Cup matches, including England letting in a slightly embarrassing equaliser in their game. Bertie had completely forgotten that it was the World Cup that summer, but he'd never really cared about football, his local team was a bit rubbish after all.

Switching the TV off, Bertie looked around the room, his eyes falling on some family photos on the windowsill. He picked up one that had caught his eye. It showed a small, mousy haired boy wearing a navy-blue school uniform that was slightly too big for him, it was himself almost exactly a year ago.

He smiled as he remembered the day. His Mum had just brought him a brand-new school uniform that he was due to wear at his brand-new secondary school. She'd proudly dressed him up and stood him in the living room, taking enough pictures that every member of his family could've had their own unique one. Little did any of them know that he'd never wear it again after that day.

Bertie then heard the sound of the letterbox opening, followed by Monty barking away at the front door. He walked into the entranceway and gave Monty a quick scratch behind the ear, his tongue flopping out of his mouth as he sat down to observe what had fallen through the letterbox, hoping that the letter he'd been waiting all summer for would be amongst the pile.

A couple of boring looking letters for his parents, a teaching magazine that his mother was subscribed to, and not much else. The last letter was a postcard from his grandparents, showing an idyllic Mediterranean scene from their holiday. Bertie turned it over and read the message on the back.

" Hello David, Julie, Bertie, and Louis,

Hope you're enjoying your summer holiday. We're having a wonderful time in Nice, six days of perfect sunshine so far! Looking forward to seeing you all when we get back, and before Bertie heads back to St Everard's.

Lots of love,

Pippa and Gordon"

Bertie let out a small smile. St Everard's, that was what he'd been told to call Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in front of his Muggle friends and relatives. He remembered when Hagrid, the gamekeeper at the school, came around to explain all of this to his family. He'd sat them down and said that, when the inevitable questions about his whereabouts came, they should simply explain that Bertie had gained a scholarship to an exclusive boarding school in Scotland.

The day he'd told his friends about this was one that stood out to him. As easy as it was to say where he was going to school, it was quite another to explain what the school actually was, he didn't even have an address. Bertie used to say that it was 'somewhere near Glasgow', and leave it at that. Such was the difficulty in talking about the school, that he'd barely met up with any of his old friends, it was just easier to sit at home by himself.

A soft whimper sounded from behind Bertie, and he turned around to see Monty sitting with his head tilted, an expectant look in his eye.

"Yes, ok, let's go for a walk," said Bertie, patting him on the head as he stepped past to pull his lead off the hanger on the wall. After quickly picking up his keys and the money that his Mum had left on the side, Bertie clipped the lead onto Monty's collar and stepped out into the warm summer air.

Bertie's crunched his way across the gravel driveway and out onto the treelined path of the quiet cul-de-sac where his house was situated. Monty barked at a nearby cat, who quickly vacated the fence post it was sitting on and dived into an adjacent bush.

"Come on Monty," said Bertie with a smile, tugging on the lead ever so slightly.

They walked out of the cul-de-sac and turned right onto the main road, a familiar route that led them towards the large park nearby. Monty got more and more excited the closer to the park they got, he was very familiar with this walk. As it was the middle of a weekday, the roads were quiet. The only people out and about were parents with children, older kids loitering around, and old people out for a stroll.

Bertie even recognised some of the older kids he passed, he'd been at Primary school with them. However, they didn't pay him any attention, it had been some time since they'd spoken after all.

Once they'd reached the park it was safe for Monty to be let off his lead, he never ran that far away from Bertie in any case. He stood looking attentively at Bertie, expecting something to be thrown any second. Bertie smiled and playfully patted his pockets, pretending not to have one. Seeing the disappointment start to grow on Monty's face, Bertie finally pulled his favourite tennis ball out of his pocket, throwing it up in the air for Monty to expertly catch in his mouth.

Bertie sat down on the grass and continued to throw the ball for Monty to chase, with him dutifully bringing it back every time. After several minutes of this, Bertie laid back on the grass, with Monty laying down next to him, chewing on the ball. Bertie yawned, he was still feeling the effects of his late night. Placing a hand on Monty's back and giving it a scratch, he closed his eyes and listened to the faint sound of the breezing running through the trees, and the sound of children playing on the equipment nearby.

Just then, Bertie felt his hand hit the ground. He cracked his eyes open and watched as Monty ran towards a nearby hedge, barking incessantly as he did so. Bertie stood up, this was unusual for Monty, this barking sounded aggressive.

"Monty, come here boy!" he called out, but Monty didn't budge.

He seemed to be sniffing around in the hedge, as if he was following something, paying no attention to Bertie.

Bertie tried again, louder this time, "Monty! Come back now!"

This time, Monty stopped, turning his head towards Bertie. Bertie walked over to him, lead in hand and clipped it onto his collar.

"Come on, let's get going" he scratched his ear then peered into the hedge, just to see if he could find what he was looking for. There was nothing obvious, so Bertie figured that it was probably just a cat. He guided Monty away and they left the park.

The route back home took them past Bertie's old primary school, a small but modern building. He looked through the gates at the white walls and thought about all the times he'd spent in there, as well as all the friends he'd made.

A few metres later and they reached the corner shop, a regular trip after school on a Friday afternoon. It was a well-kept shop, popular with the locals if they were ever short of something. The row of cars parked outside wasn't unusual, Bertie even recognised some of them. Seeing that Mr Dravid, the shops' owner, had left a fresh bowl of water outside the door, Bertie decided to tie up Monty's lead to a nearby sign and go in to buy a drink.

"Stay there Monty, I won't be long", he said as he tied the lead up.

The buzzer rang as Bertie entered, causing a couple of customers to look around momentarily. It was an elderly couple that Bertie recognised as being from a road near to Bertie's house, they quickly carried on with their shopping. A portly, bald, middle-aged man was pacing around in front of the door that led to the back of the shop, he ignored Bertie and was browsing some of the newspapers.

"Oh, hello Bertie!" said a high pitched voice.

Bertie turned to his left to see a young girl sitting behind the counter, her attention having been diverted from her magazine. It was Saira, a girl Bertie had gone to school with, her father owned the shop.

"Hi Saira," said Bertie, politely.

"It's nice to see you again, it's been a whole year!" she beamed, the sunlight glinting off her braces.

Bertie smiled back awkwardly, "Yeah, you too"

Saira smiled at him, "I heard you go to some big posh school now"

"Yeah, kind of…" Bertie glanced around to locate the fridge so he could grab a drink and get out before Saira could ask any difficult questions.

"Where was it? I thought Danny Briggs said it was in Wales, but I-"

"Scotland" Bertie interjected, "It's in Scotland, near Glasgow. Middle of nowhere really"

Saira's eyes lit up, "Oooh, I have an Auntie who lives up there. Maybe I could come and visit you if we're ever there at the same time"

Bertie turned to grab a drink from the fridge and put it on the counter, "Yeah, maybe…" he said, absentmindedly. He fiddled about in his pocket for his five-pound note.

"Maybe you could give me a tour!" Saira continued.

Putting the money on the counter, Bertie shrugged, "We don't get that much time off"

Saira frowned, "Oh, ok", she went to pick up the money but stopped, "Ah, I need the thing to open the till, I'll be right back!"

She jumped off the stool and ran into the door next to the bald man. A few moments passed and the door swung open, this time revealing the bespectacled face of Mr Dravid, clasping a sellotape bound box.

"Here you go Steve, sorry that took me a while to get", he said, handing it to the bald man.

"Not a problem mate," he said, holding it under one arm, "How much do I owe you?"

Mr Dravid stepped behind the counter and pressed a few buttons on the till, "£19.99, don't worry about the postage"

Steve grinned, revealing a mouth of wonky teeth, "You're a lifesaver mate" he said as he pulled a debit card out.

Bertie, who had stepped away from the till, was now gazing out of the window at Monty, who was lapping away at the water bowl.

"Is that Bertie Hadham I see?" said Mr Dravid, "Long time no see. How are you?"

Bertie turned away from the window and smiled at Mr Dravid, "I'm good, thanks"

Mr Dravid smiled at him one more time before he finished dealing with Steve and his box. "There you go, all done"

"Thanks again, you have no idea how hard it's been to get hold of this" Steve said, before looking out of the window and spotting Monty, "Nice dog" he turned to Bertie, "He yours?"

Bertie nodded, "Yeah, he is"

"Love Alsatians, had them when I was a kid"

"Really…" said Bertie, wanting nothing more than the conversation to end. Mercifully, Saira returned from the back room, looking flustered.

"There you are, Dad!" she said, panting, "I need the thing for the till so Bertie can pay for his drink!"

Mr Dravid chuckled, "There isn't a 'thing', you just need the code. Here…" he punched a number in on the till, springing the draw open, "All yours, petal!"

"£1.99 please!" Saira said with a grin.

Bertie handed the money over gratefully and waited for his change to come back. Saira had counted out a handful of coins and reached over to hand them to Bertie.

CRACK

The tingle of coins hitting the floor. A bang as Steve dropped his box. A car alarm blaring out. Monty barking at thin air. It all happened at once.

Steve let out a loud expletive, causing the old lady in the shop to let out a loud tut. The attention of everyone inside the shop turned outside, desperately looking to where the noise came from.

"What the hell was that?!" said the old man, scanning the street outside. The noise had startled some passers-by, as they too were looking around for the source.

"Sounded like a gunshot," said Steve, "But did you see-"

The old lady shrieked, "A gunshot? I know this town has some wrong sorts in it, I don't think we'd get shootings around here"

"Probably some louts letting off fireworks again, we hear them every night, don't we Margaret?" said the old man.

She nodded vigorously, "Yes, that's it. Honestly, what are the police playing at? I have good mind to write to our MP about it!"

Mr Dravid was waving his hands trying to calm them down, "Now now, it just sounded like a car backfiring to me, nothing to worry about"

"A car backfiring?! There wasn't even one driving past!"

Steve was ignoring them and staring out of the window, "I could've sworn I…"

The sound of Monty barking was drawing some attention from people outside, and Bertie quickly left the shop to calm him down.

"Hey, come on" he whispered, stroking Monty's back as his barks turned into a whimper, "Good boy, it's ok, just ignore the car alarm".

The shop door opened, and the large figure of Steve stepped onto the path. To Bertie's surprise, he dropped to his knees and placed his head on the ground. Bertie followed his gaze and saw that he was looking underneath the car that was currently blaring its alarm out to the whole street.

"Are...are you ok?"

Steve didn't look at Bertie, "Yeah, I'm just sure I…" he stopped, stood up and shook his head, "You're just seeing things in this bloody heat…" he laughed to himself as he returned to the shop.

Bertie didn't want to stick around for too much longer, the whole episode had left him bewildered, and he had no idea what to make of what Steve was doing. He unwound Monty's lead and started to walk down the path, heading straight home as fast as he could.

"Hey, Bertie! You forgot your change!" shouted Saira, who had just stepped out onto the street.

Later that evening, Bertie was sat eating dinner with his family. His father was pushing a boiled potato into his mouth with one hand, whilst turning the pages of a newspaper with the other.

"You see this stuff about the Tube strikes? Going to make my journey to the office more difficult next week" he said to no one in particular. He worked a very normal office job for a bank, nothing too exciting.

Bertie was quietly eating his dinner, the strange events of the day still playing on his mind. He glanced at the now calm Monty, happily chewing a toy in the corner of the kitchen next to his bed and with his mood much calmer than earlier.

"Have you had a good day, Bertie?" asked his Dad, looking up from the paper.

Bertie shrugged, "It's been fine, just me and Monty"

"Walked down to the park again?"

"Yep" nodded Bertie, skewering a segment of sausage, "His favourite place in the world"

Mr Hadham closed the paper, "No letters from school yet?"

Bertie shook his head, "Nothing yet"

"When are you going to show me some magic, Bertie?" asked Louis, spraying half a potato across the table.

Bertie rolled his eyes; he'd been asked that question every day since he'd come back for the summer. "For the last time, I'm not allowed to do magic outside of school"

"But why?" groaned Louis.

"I'm just not allowed to, ok? I don't make the rules" replied Bertie, "I can't do it until I'm 17"

Louis threw his hands in the air, "But that's so long! I don't want to wait that long!"

Mrs Hadham intervened, "Louis, do you remember what Mr Hagrid said last year?"

Louis shrugged indignantly, trying to make out that he didn't.

She continued, "Bertie goes to Hogwarts because he can't control his magic properly yet, so he's not allowed to do it in front of, um…us"

Bertie hid a smile, his mum was trying to avoid using the word 'Muggle', believing that it sounded a bit insulting to those who couldn't use magic.

"Why do we have to keep it a secret anyway? It's so unfair!" Louis pouted and rested his head on the table, waving his fork around in a circle.

"Because otherwise," Bertie said through gritted teeth, "I'd have the whole town asking me to do fix their problems for them"

Louis glared at him, he'd had a whole summer of hearing similar answers after all. "I don't think it's real…" he mumbled, prompting his parents to snort with suppressed laughter, it didn't do well to imply that they knew Louis was lying.

Not wanting to continue the conversation any longer, Bertie silently cleaned his plate of food and politely turned down seconds. He stood up to leave the table but was distracted by a tapping sound from somewhere in the room. Despite looking around to find the source, he was unable to pinpoint it.

"Do you hear that?" he asked

"Hear what?" said Mr Hadham, not looking up from the back page of the newspaper.

"That tapping?"

Mr Hadham looked up and was about to speak when the sound appeared again, "Hmm, very odd. Maybe we've got mice?"

Mrs Hadham inhaled sharply, any mention of mice made her blood pressure rise.

"I-I'm sure it's fine, dear," said Mr Hadham, attempting his best reassuring tone of voice. He turned to Bertie, "Try and find what it is, just in case…"

Bertie nodded and listened for the tapping again. It was coming from his left, towards the garden. He turned around and looked at the large French doors that led outside in the back garden, and his eyes scanned the length of the door until they were drawn towards a strange, but familiar sight. Standing in one corner was a graceful barn owl, one that Bertie instantly recognised.

"Nero?" said Bertie, immediately stepping towards the door and opening it. The owl stepped inside, apparently grateful that he wasn't being ignored any longer. He shook himself down and dropped an envelope on the floor by Bertie's feet. As he stooped to pick it up, Nero leapt onto the dining room table to snatch a segment of sausage from Louis' fork before he had a chance to eat it himself.

"Hey, that's mine!" shouted Louis, "Why'd you let it in?"

Bertie ignored him and stared at the envelope; it was addressed to him in the familiar handwriting of Albus Potter. The letter he'd been waiting for all summer had finally arrived. He went to open the letter but was distracted by the growing commotion from the table. His parents had both leapt from their seats, despite the fact they'd seen an owl before. Louis, on the other hand, was now standing up and backing away from the table, plate in hand.

"Get it away from me!" he sniffed

Bertie snapped into action, "Nero, come here!" he said, holding out his arm. He'd watched Albus and his older brother James do this on several occasions whilst they were in the Gryffindor common room together, and Nero had always obeyed.

Mercifully, he did do so on this occasion too. However, rather than go to Bertie with a single swift flap of his wings, Nero hopped into the floor and strutted over to Bertie, only leaping into the air once he was next to Bertie's feet and onto his outstretched arm.

It was then that Bertie noticed the slight mark on his leg and the few out of place feathers on his wings. Bertie was no expert on owls, but even he knew this wasn't normal. He glanced at the envelope in his hand and spotted that there was a slight tear on the opening flap, as if someone had opened the letter and tried to magically close it again in a hurry.

He made his excuses and immediately left the dining room to go back to his room. Nero hopped off his arm and settled on Bertie's desk, trotting around and inspecting the mess that was on top of it.

"Are you ok, Nero?" he asked, immediately realising that Nero wouldn't be able to respond in a way he'd understand. Bertie took the slight head tilt he made to mean 'sort of'.

Bertie nodded and opened up the letter to read it.

" Bertie,

Good news! Dad got tickets to the Quidditch World Cup Final! It's in a week and it's being held in the Australian outback, so pack a sun hat.

Anyway, Dad says you can come and stay over if you'd like, we'll pick you up in a couple of days. Hopefully, Nero found you easily, so just give him your reply and send him straight back.

See you soon!

Al

P.S. Can't wait to see what you found out about the 'You-know-what'"

Bertie read the letter a couple of times and failed to stop the smile from breaking over his face. He was going to the Quidditch World Cup. Nero was looking at him expectantly, and Bertie gently stroked his head in thanks.

"I want to reply to Albus, but I don't think you're up for flying right now, are you?" he said to Nero.

He turned back to the letter and noticed that the parchment was slightly scrunched. All of a sudden, Bertie was filled with a sense of dread. This, along with the torn envelope and bedraggled owl made him think of the possibility that someone that intercepted Nero before he reached Bertie.

And then there was everything that had happened earlier that day. Monty barking at the bush and the explosion he'd heard, and then the man called Steve acting strangely in its aftermath.

Bertie had the awful sinking feeling that someone, somewhere, was watching his every move. He glanced at his bag, the 'you-know-what' that Albus was referring to was safely stowed away inside it. All of a sudden, the book didn't feel as safe as it did just hours ago.

Someone was after the Grimoire of Anima, and they were far too close for comfort.

Chapter Text

Chapter Two: A Summer With the Potters

" Al,

I'm so happy to hear from you, and I'd love to go to the World Cup. My parents are ok with it and I can't wait to see you in a couple of days.

As for the 'you-know-what', I'll have to explain that when I'm at your house, and I'll also explain why this letter is going to be a bit late.

See you soon,

Bertie"

The letter was folded up in Albus's pocket, though he hadn't stopped thinking about it since it arrived in the beak of a well-fed looking Nero. They'd been worried about where he'd got to, thinking that maybe he'd been caught in a gusty wind and blown off course. The sense of relief that Albus felt when Nero appeared at his bedroom window was only matched by the news that Bertie had permission to go to the World Cup.

Now he was sitting in the front of the family car, heading along another boring stretch of motorway to Bertie's town. His father was in the front, driving with his usual heavy concentration, he was never that confident on the motorway. His hands were gripping the wheel tightly, and he was giving every car that passed them a nervous glance.

Meanwhile, James was slouched in the backseat reading the sports page of the Daily Prophet, there was a forty-page pull-out previewing the World Cup Final. He'd barely stopped complaining about Muggle transport all journey.

"Seriously, how do Muggles cope without Floo Powder, and why on earth are we not going to Bertie's by Floo Powder anyway?!" he said.

Harry didn't look around, "Because you have to fill out at least fifteen forms before the Department of Magical Transportation will even look at your request", he sighed. "And anyway, I don't think the Hadhams would appreciate having soot thrown all over their carpet".

James snorted and continued to read the pull-out, "Any idea who Bertie's supporting, Al?"

Albus shook his head, "Not a clue, I don't think he even knows who's in the final"

"Why didn't you put that in the letter? I have to know these things about people!"

"Just tell him who to support then, I'm sure he'll go along with it" sighed Albus.

They finally pulled off the motorway and onto a series of twisting side roads until they found themselves stuck in the one-way system in the middle of the town. After ten minutes of going around in circles, Harry eventually found the correct road and followed it to the leafy cul-de-sac that was the location of Bertie's house. Parking the car in the road, Harry got out and looked at the ordinary-looking house.

"I'll leave you to do the introductions, ok?" he said to Albus, who had just stepped out of the car and onto the path.

James was looking up and down the street, "Bit too quiet here for me" he said, joining the other two, "Hurry up Al, the Muggles will be wondering why we're standing out here otherwise".

Albus walked up the gravel path and pressed the doorbell. The sound of chimes could be heard from inside, followed by the sound of a dog barking and scratching at the door. The silhouette of a figure could be seen through the frosted glass, trying to calm the dog down. Eventually, the door opened up to reveal the beaming Bertie.

"Hi, Al! Come in" he said, standing to one side.

Albus obliged and led his father and brother into the narrow porch. The rest of Bertie's family were lined up behind Bertie, quizzically eyeing up the Potters.

"These are my parents," said Bertie, beckoning behind.

Harry stuck out a hand and smiled warmly at them, "How do you do? I'm Harry, Albus' father"

Mr Hadham shook it back, though slightly uncertainly. "Pleasure" he started, chuckling nervously, "I'm David Hadham, and this is my wife, Julie"

Mrs Hadham shook Harry's hand, taking it more in her stride than her husband, "Lovely to meet you, Bertie's been telling us all about Albus of course" she gently pushed Louis forward, "This is my younger son, Louis"

Harry leant down and held his hand out, "It's nice to meet you, Louis"

However, Louis simply stared at him with wide-eyed amazement, "Are you a real wizard?" he gasped.

James made a sound like he nearly choked from the back of the room, such was his haste to cover up his laughter. He disguised it with a cough and momentarily excused himself.

Harry, however, smiled at Louis and said softly, "Yes, I am"

Mr Hadham went bright red, "I'm sorry about him, he's a little bit obsessed with the idea of magic", he patted him on the shoulder, "We did tell him not to stare"

Chuckling, Harry introduced his sons. "You've obviously heard about Albus", Albus waved at Mr and Mrs Hadham before exchanging an awkward look with Bertie. "And this is James, my eldest"

"Howdy," said James, giving a small wave.

Harry rolled his eyes and looked at Bertie and Albus, "I don't think you two need to stand there and listen to us getting acquainted" he turned to Mr and Mrs Hadham, "That's fine, yes?"

Mr Hadham stuttered, "Ye...yes, of course! We'll leave you two to catch up"

Glad to be free from any more awkward introductions, Bertie led Albus upstairs and into his room. Albus was transfixed as soon as he stepped inside, taking a close look at the posters of various films and marvelling at the TV by Bertie's bed.

"Wow," he said, poking the flat screen, "These are what you show moving pictures on, yeah?"

Bertie nodded, slightly bemused, it was odd to think that Albus had barely seen anything from 'his' world before. "Is this really the first time you've seen one?"

"My Grandad has one in his shed, but he pulled it apart and used the wires to make a Christmas decoration," said Albus, sitting on the edge of Bertie's bed. He looked towards the door, careful to make sure that no one interrupted them, "So, did you manage to read the book during the full moon last night?"

Bertie nodded and pulled a stack of paper from his bag, along with the tatty looking book. He handed them both to Albus, who carefully placed the book on the bed. Flicking through the paper, Albus skimmed Bertie's notes, the first pages were taken up by the very first thing they'd read on that moonlit night in July.

"I thought it would be a good idea to copy out Vitanster's opening notes" explained Bertie, "That way we'll always have a copy of it"

Albus nodded and held up another piece of paper that contained strange alchemical symbols and numbers, "Is this the first page?"

"Yes, copied out word for word. I don't understand what any of it means though. At least we can study it without needing to sneak out once a month" said Bertie.

Albus let out a relieved sigh, "How far did you get?"

"Not as far as I'd have liked" admitted Bertie, frowning, "It's so technical that I had to concentrate on not getting anything wrong"

Albus shrugged, "At least it's a start" he scanned the pages again, pointing to an owl symbol in the top right corner, "Is that on every page?"

Leaning over, Bertie nodded, "I think so, it's the same as the one on the very first page. I think it's Vitanster's symbol"

Albus picked up the Grimoire and opened up its cover to the page where the larger owl symbol had appeared. He placed the book on his lap and closed it again, caressing the cover as he did so.

"Do you mind if I take this now?" he asked, not looking at Bertie.

"Oh, um…" started Bertie, "I suppose so but…" He glanced at his open window and lowered his voice, "Some weird things have been happening around here this week"

Albus narrowed his eyes, "Does it have to do with what happened to Nero?"

Nodding, Bertie shuffled closer to Albus, "His wing feathers were bent and sticking up at odd angles like someone had grabbed him"

"Yeah, we noticed that when he came back to us. He does get in fights sometimes though, so it might've been another owl that did it" said Albus, shrugging slightly.

Bertie shook his head, "There was something else. The letter had been opened before it got here"

Albus looked shocked, "Are you sure?"

"Positive' nodded Bertie, "The envelope and letter were slightly crumpled and torn. I'm telling you, someone got hold of Nero and intercepted the letter"

Albus scratched his chin and held the book slightly tighter. He glanced around the room as if expecting someone to leap out of the cupboard or through the window. "At least we didn't mention this thing by name" he lifted the book, "Do you think someone might be after it?"

"That seems logical," said Bertie, frowning, "The question is, who?"

Albus let out a derisive laugh, "Who else? It has to be Professor Marlowe"

"You think so?" asked Bertie, "Do you really think he'd go around trying to read peoples post?"

Albus shrugged, "Depends how desperate he is, I suppose" he slipped the book into his pocket, "We should be careful from now on"

"I hope he doesn't try anything, but I think we should get that book out of here in any case," said Bertie breathlessly. "I know we all thought it would be safe with me, but I'm the most vulnerable of all of us!"

"Calm down," said Albus, chuckling slightly, "It's all fine. We'll take it back to my house, Marlowe wouldn't dare to try and steal it there"

"Who wouldn't try to steal what?"

Albus and Bertie both jumped as the bedroom door opened. The shaggy-haired figure of James stepped into the room and looked around, "Cool, is that one of those 'compulooter' things?" he pointed at Bertie's laptop.

Bertie followed his eye line, "Oh, yeah…" he said, uncertainly, "Do you really not know what a computer is?"

James shrugged, "Our Grandad says that Muggles use them to send post to each other and make shopping appear at their door, he is slightly mad about Muggles though". He stopped looking around and turned to the pair, "Anyway, what's this about someone trying to steal something? Do you know about a plot to break into Gringotts or something?"

"None of your business" scowled Albus, who subtly hid the bulge in his coat pocket, "What are you doing up here?"

"Dad says it's time to go" he turned to Bertie, "Are you packed?"

"Nearly, give me a minute" he jumped off the bed and threw some extra socks into a backpack. He was about to grab the notes he'd taken from the book before James could spot them, but…

"That's weird looking homework," he said, nodding towards the paper that Bertie had just picked up.

"Just some Charms stuff that Professor Flitwick gave me" Bertie quickly made up, turning away so his reddening face was hidden from James.

James raised an eyebrow, "Charms?! I don't remember Charms having anything that complicated in it. Come on let me read it"

"No!" cried Albus, stepping across James.

Looking shocked, James could only laugh, "Eh? What's got into you?"

Albus hesitated, "It's Bertie's, you shouldn't just take it…" he spluttered, knowing that it wasn't exactly convincing.

James shrugged, "Whatever" he stepped towards the door and opened it, "Weirdo…" he said quietly before leaving the room and shutting the door behind him.

Albus turned around sharply to face Bertie, "Why did you leave those out?" he snapped.

"Sorry," said Bertie with wide eyes, "I wasn't exactly expecting James to burst in"

Albus sighed, "No harm done, I guess…"

Bertie threw his rucksack over his shoulder and led Albus downstairs. They found their parents sitting in the living room holding cups of tea, with Louis looking particularly bored.

Harry raised a hand as they walked in, "Ready to go?" he asked with a warm smile. He turned to Bertie's parents, "We'll have him back in a week or so, though I may not drive all the way back here, didn't realise just how long it was!"

Mr Hadham stared at him blankly, "What…what do you mean?"

Harry laughed nervously, "Nothing to worry about, we'll give you plenty of warning!"

Bertie's parents both looked at each other, mouths slightly agape. Mrs Hadham regained her composure long enough to give her son a hug and say goodbye, "See you in a week, have a great time!"

"Yes," said Mr Hadham with a cough, "Enjoy yourself at the…Kwititch"

"I will," said Bertie, making his way towards the door and waving goodbye to Louis, who was staring at Harry.

Louis suddenly leapt up from his chair and called out to Harry, "Can you prove you're a wizard?"

With a mischievous smirk, Harry pulled his wand out from his pocket and pointed it at the fruit bowl on the dining room table. With a small flick, the apples and bananas jumped out and hopped around the table in a conga line. Louis watched them with wide eyes, along with his stunned parents.

"Wow…" breathed Louis, who turned back to Harry once the fruit had finished their performance, "You really are a wizard…"

Harry smiled at him and pocketed his wand, "Yes, now remember not to tell anyone"

After a final farewell, the Potters left the house with Bertie in tow, beginning their long trip to Devon.

It was getting dark by the time they arrived at the Potter Cottage. The sky was almost perfectly bisected between the warm orange glow of the sunset, and the dark blue night's sky, with the brightest stars just starting to appear.

The car wound its way down a quiet B Road, before eventually turning down an unassuming farm track. Bertie did a double-take as they reached it, it was almost as if the hedgerow moved aside once the car got near. They pulled into a small clearing in the trees, in the middle of which was a quaint looking cottage.

"Here we are," said Harry as he switched off the car and stepped out, followed by his sons. "Looks like your Mum's got something cooking" he pointed up at the tall chimney, which was ejecting a steady stream of smoke.

Bertie stepped out of the car and examined the house. At first glance it looked like any other cottage that you might find in the countryside, complete with a thatched roof and ivy climbing up the stony walls. Upon further inspection, Bertie could see signs that this house belonged to a magical family. Odd floating fruit growing on a bush under the window, a strange tentacle-like plant that waved gently around, and several pink and purple flowers that he recognised from Herbology as Puffapods.

He heard some rustling from the undergrowth and leant down to see what it was, though it wasn't keen on sticking his hand in amongst the plants.

"Oi, watchu lookin' at?" What looked like a potato with eyes thrust its way out of the bush and to within an inch of Bertie's face.

Yelping, Bertie fell back onto the ground. James rushed over picked the potato up by its ears. Once it was completely out of the bush, Bertie could see that it had a body and limbs.

"Gerrof me!" complained the creature as it tried to scratch at James' hands.

"How many times do we need to tell you lot not to go into the plant patch?" he swung his arm around in the air and launched the still complaining creature over the hedge and into the woods beyond. Looking satisfied, he went back to Bertie and pulled him onto his feet. "Sorry about that, just a gnome that doesn't seem to understand the rules"

"That's a gnome?" asked Bertie, dusting himself down, "I didn't think they'd look like that"

James snorted, "They're much uglier than Professor Constantine describes them, eh?"

Albus, who had been observing the scene with great amusement, beckoned them both into the house. "Mum's in the kitchen finishing dinner," he said to Bertie, "You're sharing my room with me, so let's drop your stuff off"

He led Bertie upstairs and into his room. It looked much smaller with the second bed set up, but this only enhanced the cosiness of it. Albus closed his bedroom window, it had been open all day and meant that the room was now a pleasantly cool temperature.

"Do you like it?" he asked Bertie

He was looking around the room at the various Quidditch posters and moving photos on the wall, with his eyes being particularly drawn to one containing everyone in his year in Gryffindor house. They were sat in the Common Room, playing exploding snap and waving at the camera.

"Amy Barnes took that, remember?" said Albus, joining Bertie in looking at it, "You should ask her for a spare copy, I'm sure she'll give you one"

Bertie nodded, "I'd like that". He looked at the photo again and was immediately filled with a familiar lust to get back to Hogwarts and see everyone again. He turned back to Albus, "Have you heard from anyone else from school?"

"Just Scorpius," he said, "He's on holiday in the Alps, he's gone Troll spotting with his family"

Bertie narrowed his eyes at Albus, trying to determine if he was joking or not, but he'd spent just enough time in the wizarding world to know that this was an entirely plausible holiday activity for magical families. He sighed and shook his head with a smile, "How is he?"

"He's fine" replied Albus, flicking a stray hair out of his face, "He's not going to the World Cup, unfortunately, so we won't see him until September"

"That's a shame," said Bertie, leaving the photo behind and starting to unpack his bag. "Have you talked about the book with him at all?"

Albus shook his head, "No, not at all, we've been very careful about what we say in letters"

"Good, that means we'll have lots to talk about when we're back at school", said Bertie.

There was a knock on the bedroom door and James' head appeared in the opening as he pushed it in, "Mum says dinner's ready". He looked at Bertie, "Just to warn you, my sister will want to chew your ear off". With that, he pulled his head out and closed the door behind him.

Bertie turned to Albus, "Your sister?"

Albus coughed, "Don't worry, she's very nice…"

"So why'd he say that?"

Albus smiled nervously, "I hope you like answering a million questions about Hogwarts"

The smell from the dining room was glorious and hit them as soon as they walked out onto the landing. Following their noses, they walked in to see James already sitting down at the table opposite Harry, who gave them a polite nod as they walked in.

"I bet you're hungry," he said, pulling out the chair next to him and beckoning Bertie to sit down, "We'll keep you well-fed here if nothing else!"

Bertie sat down, with Albus sitting opposite him and next to his brother. The dining room table was covered in reams of paper with a typewriter next to them.

Albus followed Bertie's gaze, "Mum works for the Daily Prophet, Quidditch correspondent"

As if by magic, Ginny Potter appeared at Bertie's side, carrying a pot of stew and placing it down on the table, "So while you're all enjoying the game as fans, I'll be sat there taking notes" she smiled warmly at Bertie, "It's lovely to have you with us, Bertie. I hope there's enough space in Albus' room for you"

"Yes, there is, thank you, Mrs Potter," said Bertie, helping himself to a slice of bread as a floating ladle dropped some of the stew onto Bertie's plate.

The door burst open and a red blur shot across the room and into the seat next to Bertie. A grinning face was staring up at him.

"I'm Lily," she said, "Are you Bertie? You're Albus' friend? You're both in Gryffindor, aren't you? What's the common room like? I heard the fireplace is always lit, even in summer. And that there's a painting of a big highland cow that sings nursery rhymes, that's what James told me!" She stopped for a split second to breathe. "Teddy told me that the ghosts sometimes throw parties and that if you're really good you might get invited to one. Have you ever been?"

The rest of the Potters all sniggered to themselves, especially when Bertie's face turned into one of sheer bewilderment. "I don't…" stared Bertie.

"Calm down Lily," said Harry, pouring his daughter a glass of pumpkin juice, "You've only got another year to wait until you can see everything for yourself"

Lily shook her head indignantly, "No Dad, I've actually got four-hundred-and-one days before my first day at Hogwarts!"

"You're still updating your calendar then…" chuckled James as he tucked into his meal.

Lily ignored him and turned to Bertie again, "What sort of wand have you got? I want a unicorn hair one, and I hope it's made out of willow!"

James made a comment under his breath that sounded like, "Why did you buy her that wandlore book?", earning him a sharp look from Ginny.

Bertie looked bewildered again, "Um, it's rowan with a dragon heartstring core"

Lily looked satisfied at this and took a bite of her bread. The rest of the table appeared to take a collective breath and continued eating.

"And may I introduce you to Lily, our youngest," said Harry, wiping his glasses, "She is very much looking forward to attending Hogwarts in just over four hundred day's time"

The questions continued after Lily had enjoyed some of the meal, and the food appeared to give Lily's voice an extra five words per second. Bertie continued to answer as quickly as he could, though he did panic and accidentally tell her that the Potions classroom was in the Forbidden Forest.

Harry glanced at his watch as the sun turned the sky a brilliant orange, "Teddy's late" he said, "I know he was covering someone's shift, but I expected him to be relieved by now"

Just as Harry's hand touched his fork, there was a loud crack from outside the house. Bertie dropped his own cutlery with a splash, his face turning immediately to where the sound came from.

"Ah, there he is!" said Harry. He stood up and left the dining room. Lily leapt up from her seat to follow him.

James stretched his arms above his head, "Good news Bertie, Lily will leave you alone now Teddy's here. Need a hand putting things away, Mum?" He got up from the table and joined his mother in the kitchen.

Albus smiled, "You'll like Teddy", he looked at Bertie, blinking a few times as he noticed the expression on his face, "Are you ok?"

"That sound…" he whispered.

Albus looked towards the door, "That? Oh, it was just Teddy Apparating"

"Apparating?"

Albus nodded, "It's a thing some wizards do to get around. You can literally leave one location, then immediately arrive at the next one"

Bertie shook his head, "But I've heard that sound-"

"Evening, Potters!" The dining room door swung open to reveal the bright blue hair of Teddy Lupin, shooting finger guns into the room, "Sorry I'm late, got held up by Chatteris from the Muggle Liaison Office, she wanted to complain about the amount of paperwork we keep sending her. Gave her the usual spiel, that seemed to help". He swung a spare chair from under the table and sat down, acknowledging the presence of Bertie with a nod, "You're not a Potter" he stuck out his hand, "Teddy Lupin, family friend"

Bertie smiled uncertainly and shook his hand, "Bertie Hadham, um…Albus' friend"

Teddy smiled back, "Thought so"

Ginny and James walked out from the kitchen and joined the others at the table, Ginny carrying a large cake with her.

"Been a few days since we've seen you, Teddy. Not getting bored of us, are you?" said Ginny, "Would you like a slice?"

Teddy thanked her and continued, "Been busy. Who knew that you would actually end up doing more work after officially becoming an Auror?"

Ginny chuckled, handing him a slice of the cake, "Don't let them work you too hard".

"Doing my best" said Teddy tucking into the cake, "Not that I've been able to do anything that interesting yet, it's mainly been paperwork."

Lily returned to the dining room, leaping up onto the seat next to Teddy and giving him a tight hug. Teddy dropped some of the cake, "Hello again, Lily" he said, "Was one hug not enough?"

"You ran off!" she replied

Ginny leant over to Albus and Bertie, "You two can leave if you'd like, unless you want to listen to Lily interrogate Teddy"

Albus gave a smug grin to Teddy and left the table, beckoning Bertie to follow him. They made their way upstairs and back into Albus' room, with Albus immediately flopping onto his bed and letting out a long yawn.

"Tired" he stated, "What did you think of my family?"

Bertie shrugged, "They seem nice". He glanced around the room.

"You ok?" asked Albus

Bertie rubbed his head and hesitated before responding, "I don't know, it's just…". He lowered his voice, "I didn't tell you about the other weird thing that happened on the day Nero arrived with your letter"

Albus sat up, "Oh? What was it?"

Taking a deep breath, Bertie replied, "I think I might've heard someone Apparating"

"Really?" said Albus, looking unconvinced, "I can't believe that any adult wizard would risk Apparating right in front of Muggles"

Bertie raised his voice slightly, "But I'm certain I heard the same noise as I did when Teddy Apparated just now! In fact, I…". He stopped and stared into the air,

"What is it?"

"That man, Steve…" continued Bertie. "That must be what he saw…"

Albus playfully threw a cushion at Bertie, snapping him out of his trance. "You're not making any sense," he said, chuckling, "Come on, it's late and Dad says we have an early start tomorrow"

Tossing the pillow back, Bertie gave him a dirty look, "Since when did we ever get an early night?"

"Since we're going to Australia tomorrow!"

Chapter Text

Chapter Three: The Quidditch World Cup

As promised, the wake-up call came exceedingly early. The sun was still below the horizon when Albus was woken up by a familiar, but unexpected face.

“Rose?” he grumbled as he peeled the blanket from over his face and cracked his eyes open just enough to see the freckled face of his cousin, illuminated by a lantern.

“Hurry up you two, breakfast is waiting downstairs,” she said, turning towards the door.

Albus sat up and rubbed his eyes, “You should really knock before coming into a boys bedroom, you know?”

“Why? You’re always asleep anyway”. She prodded Bertie on the shoulder, but he was already picking himself up from his bed, “Ah, sorry Bertie. Nice to see you again!” she said more cheerily.

Bertie yawned, “Yeah you too” he sat up and blinked up at her, “Hold on, what are you doing here?”

“We’re going to the World Cup too,” she said, poking Albus’ shoulder again, “The rest of my family are downstairs right now”.

Indeed they were. Rose, her father Ron, mother Hermione, and younger brother Hugo were all sitting in chairs in the living room with small breakfasts in hand. Albus and Bertie barely got a ‘hello’ in before they were ushered into the kitchen by Ginny, who gave them some toast and a cup of tea, instructing them to eat it quickly as they were due to leave any moment.

Under the cover of darkness, they walked across fields and through the woods until the horizon started to turn the faintest shade of orange. Harry stopped them as they walked through a gap in the hedge that separated two fields. He pointed up at a dark barn that was nestled between a row of tall trees.

“It’s just up there,” he said, “Not far now”

Ron took a couple of deep breaths, “I can’t wait until the kids can Apparate” he groaned.

Once they were finally at the barn, they saw a slightly haggard-looking wizard sitting behind a rusty table just outside. He waved wearily at Harry as he approached, “Morning, Mr Potter” he said, “Got ye tickets?”

“Morning Derek” replied Harry, pulling a long row of tickets from his jacket pocket and presenting them to Derek.

He counted them up a couple of times and made sure they matched the number of people in the group. Satisfied, he waved them through.

The scene inside the barn was, in complete contrast to the serene atmosphere outside, chaos. There appeared to be a barely organised queue system in place as a group of witches and wizards tried to organise them in front of a small number of desks towards the back of the barn. Behind the desks were a row of very ordinary-looking objects, and Albus watched as one family stood around a teapot. They grabbed onto it, whisking them away into nothingness. Above them, a witch sat on a high chair blared through a megaphone.

“This is a reminder to all those travelling to the World Cup that there is an express ban on the import of Appaloosa Puffskeins. Thank you for understanding”

An old warlock in front of Albus shook his head and grumbled, “Preposterous” before placing a small wriggling creature into his deepest robe pocket.

Ron looked at Harry, “So much for getting here early. Why don’t the kids wait here whilst we queue”

Harry nodded, “Good idea, no point taking them all through that”

Albus, Bertie, James, Rose, Lily, and Hugo all found a space near the door to sit down and wait. Albus leant against a rope that was cordoning off a small section of the barn called the ‘Designated Apparition Area’. Every few seconds someone would appear in the middle of it, look disappointed at the size of the queue, and sullenly join the back of it.

James let out a long yawn, “If I’d known it would’ve taken this long, I’d have stayed in bed a little bit longer”

Rose tutted, “Then you’d still be waiting in here when the match starts”

James grumbled at her and closed his eyes, “Stop being logical”

There was another crack in the Apparition area. Albus looked around and saw Teddy and Victoire standing in the middle of it.

“Wotcher, Eoin,” said Teddy, greeting the wizard who was looking after the Apparition area, “Bit busy, eh?”

Eoin waved back, “Should’ve booked the time off like you did, it’s ridiculous! We’ve already had the Muggle police called on us, that was because Dedalus Diggle let off a firework that broke our silencing charms” he wiped his forehead, “The Obliviators have had to run around to every police station in the county to get that one cleaned up”

Teddy grimaced, “Still one incident isn’t too bad”

“One incident, so far…” said Eoin gravely as he let them both out of the roped-off area, “Enjoy your day!”

Teddy spotted the Potter and Weasley children and stepped towards them, “You made it then?” he said, “We had a lovely lie in!” he smirked.

James went to make a rude gesture in reply but stopped when he saw Ginny and Hermione looking towards him. Instead, he stood up and stretched his arms, “I still think you should’ve attempted to Apparate all the way there. Life’s all about taking risks after all”

Teddy laughed at him and the pair started to talk about the upcoming game. Albus sat down next to Bertie and Rose, as Lily and Hugo were caught up in their own conversation. Before any of them could open their mouths though, they were interrupted by someone calling out Albus’ name.

Looking around, they saw the grinning face of Leon Newland, their Quidditch obsessed Gryffindor housemate. He was decked out in merchandise from Japan and Romania, the two teams who would be playing in the final later that day.

“Albus, Bertie, Rose!” he said, “It’s great to see you!” He looked past them and saw James talking to Teddy, though he stopped himself from calling out to him. “Had a good summer so far?”

Rose grinned, “It’s been good, how about yours?”

He nodded, “Not bad at all. To be honest, I’ve spent most of it counting the days down to today. Who’s your money on?”

Rose shrugged, but Albus was quick to jump in, “Has to be Japan, hasn’t it? They’ve been in brilliant form”

Leon nodded knowingly, “I hear you, but no one should count out Romania, the Bolovan twins are the best Beaters in the world at the moment. Matt is convinced that Romania will win, he’s not willing to put a bet on it though!”

“Matt’s here?” said Rose, her face scrunching up slightly.

Leon nodded, “Yeah, he was with me a minute ago” he looked over his shoulder and waved into the crowd, “There he is, he’s coming over now”

Somewhat slowly, Matt slipped through the crowd and stood next to Leon. He nodded curtly at the others, carefully avoiding the gaze of Rose.

“Hello,” he said shortly

“Hi Matt,” said Albus and Bertie, who both glanced at Rose, who appeared to be more interested in overhearing what James and Teddy were talking about.

Albus coughed slightly, “Anyway, how are you?”

Matt finally looked away from Rose, and he seemed to relax once he knew she wasn’t paying attention to him. “I’m good, just looking forward to the match now”

Leon threw his arm around Matts’ shoulder, “Matt got my family’s tickets upgraded. We’re in the slightly posher seats now!”

“Your family are here?” said Bertie

Leon nodded, “Yeah”. He looked ever his shoulder and searched through the crowd, eventually spotting them and nodding towards them. “That’s them. Wait, is that your Mum she’s talking to?”

It was indeed Ginny that she was talking to, and Aunt Hermione was joining in as well. Leon’s father, meanwhile, was looking around the barn in complete bewilderment. He was a muggle with only limited experience in the magical world.

“They were both in Gryffindor, weren’t they?” asked Albus, “I’m pretty sure both my Mum and Dad played with her on the Gryffindor team”

Leon slapped his head in realisation, “Of course! How could I forget that”. He lowered his voice and leant towards Albus, “You can say no, but is there any chance at all that I could get your Mums autograph?”

Albus couldn’t stop himself from grinning, “I’ll try my best!”

“Legend,” said Leon, “Hey, Matt, where did your Dad get to? Didn’t he say he would only be five minutes?”

Matt shuffled awkwardly on the spot and shrugged, “Dunno” he said shortly

“Matthias!” came a call from within the throng of people behind Matt and Leon.

At the sound of this, Matt closed his eyes and groaned. Albus spotted some movement from within the crowd, and he could see a number of heads turning towards whoever was coming through. His eyes widened at the sight of who had just emerged into the open behind Matt.

The man could only be described as looking like a particularly large raspberry. He was wearing robes of garish pink and purple, with a ridiculous purple top hat on top of a round red face. An ornate golden cane tapped on the ground with every step he took.

“Ah, there you are Matthias,” he said, his bushy moustache bristling atop his lip, “Our Portkey is due so hurry yourself up!” he snapped. He then turned to Leon, “Are your parents prepared for departure?”

“Err, I think so, Mr Bingham” he replied

Mr Bingham nodded curtly, “Jolly good, jolly good!” he boomed, “Terrific day for it, wouldn’t you agree?” he said, directing his question to no one in particular. Popping a monocle over his right eye he inspected his tickets, “Seats right next to the VIP boxes, should be a smashing view!” he guffawed. He then looked at Albus and Bertie, “Good morning to you. You must be school friends of Matthias”

Albus and Bertie nodded, but couldn’t quite conjure any words out at the bizarre sight of his man. He had never given much thought to what the father of Matt Bingham would be like, but he certainly wasn’t expecting anything like this.

“Well?” he snapped, “Are you friends of my son?”

“Ye-yes we are,” said Albus, quickly.

Mr Bingham beamed, “Jolly good, jolly good!” he puffed his chest out, “I like to think of myself as a charitable man, so if you require any favours, such as discounted Omnioculars or even…” he lowered his voice, “Seat upgrades, you just say the word!” he laughed heartily.

Albus let out a nervous laugh before replying, “Thank you for the offer, sir, but-“

“Sir!” bellowed Mr Bingham with an even greater laugh that caused yet more heads to turn towards them, “I must say that you have might fine manners young man, mighty fine indeed! I’m glad that Mr Newland and yourself are proving that they do indeed still teach manners at Hogwarts. From what I understand, Matthias could do with learning a few himself”

Whilst all this was going on, Matt had turned a deep shade of red and was currently attempting to make himself as small as possible and looking as if was wishing for the ground to swallow him up. Albus had begun to feel quite sorry for him.

“No no young man” continued Mr Bingham, “Sir is far too formal!” he stuck a large hand out and grabbed Albus’, “Aldous Bingham”

Albus' hand was shaken for him and he spluttered out a reply, “Um, Albus Potter”

Mr Bingham stopped shaking his hand immediately and stared at Albus for a few seconds. His head snapped towards Matt, “This is the Potter boy?” he barked, “You never told me you were friends with Harry Potter’s son!” He turned back to Albus, a smile plastered on his face, “Pleasure to meet you. Please do let me know if you ever need anything, and do let your father know that you’ve now been introduced to me!”. He finally let go of Albus’ hand and let out another hearty laugh. “Jolly good, jolly good! Come now Leon, best gather your parents, our Portkey will be going in a moment”.

Leon waved them goodbye as he followed Mr Bingham into the crowd and out of sight. Matt, on the other hand, didn’t give anyone even the slightest glance as he trudged behind Leon and his father.

“What the bloody hell was that all about?” said James, who had clearly been watching the whole thing with as much bewilderment as everyone else.

Teddy chuckled to himself, “Aldous Bingham” he stated “Congratulations on being the latest to meet him, you won’t be the last”

“You know him?” Albus asked Teddy.

“Well, I don’t know him per se, but everyone knows of him” he replied. “He’s rich and well connected, which means there are plenty of people who want to know him very well indeed”

“But what does he do?” Albus continued.

Teddy shrugged, “Not a lot. He works for the Ministry, as head of the ‘Department of Educational Affairs’, but it’s a meaningless job really”

James looked bemused, “Why does he have it then?”

Teddy smirked, “Didn’t you hear me? He’s rich and well connected”

“I thought all of that stuff got rooted out of the Ministry?” asked Albus.

Teddy’s reply was rather forlorn, “Oh Al, I’m afraid that only someone very naïve could believe that. Don’t get me wrong though!” he added quickly, seeing the shocked look on Albus’ face, “Kingsley and your Dad did a huge amount of work to modernise the Ministry and remove as much of that sort of thing as possible, but it will always be around I’m afraid”

James blew air out of his nose, “That’s depressing”

“Lighten up you two, we’ll be in Australia in a few minutes,” said Teddy, “If you want to be reassured, then just know that Aldous’ heart is in the right place, he just has the usual rich man’s arrogance and ambition”

Albus wanted to carry on the conversation, still more than a little bit shocked about what he had just experienced. However, he was interrupted by the return of his Dad and Uncle Ron, who was waving a set of tickets in the air.

“Hurry up! We’re on the next Portkey out of here!”

The gathered Potter and Weasley children all picked up their backpacks and rushed to get through the crowd, desperate not to miss their slot. They were let through into the small enclosure at the back of the barn and were pointed towards a rusty bin lid that was sat on the ground. After a quick explanation of Portkeys to Bertie, they all prepared to take hold of it.

Rose squeezed herself between Albus and Bertie, her face looking to be stuck in a permanent grin.

“You ok?” asked Albus

Rose nodded, “Of course, it’s exciting!” she said. She had the same look in her eye that she didn’t whenever she was bursting to answer a question in a lesson, a sort of barely contained mania. They were just about to grab hold of the Portkey when she asked, “Did I hear wrong, or is Matt’s full name really Matthias?”

No one ever really gets used to the sensation of travelling by Portkey. It felt like having a lasso thrown around your stomach, which is then pulled up into the air by a giant, spun around and released.

Albus hit the ground with a thud, though it was more embarrassing than painful. The ground was dusty and he heard Bertie coughing away to his right, a quick look told him that he was more or less ok.

“Amateurs!” laughed Teddy as he strolled over and pulled Albus and Bertie to their feet, “You’ll learn to land properly one day! Now come on, look at how amazing this place is!”

He pointed out into a valley below them. In it was a city of tents, all brightly coloured and adorned in the flags of every nation that had competed in the World Cup, and plenty more that hadn’t. Merchandise sellers were walking around carrying great packs of scarves, flags, food, and programmes, bellowing at the top of their lungs. Albus made a beeline for one who was selling Omnioculars but was grabbed on the shoulder by his father.

“Slow down there, Al, don’t go off on your own” he turned around and gathered the rest in. “Why don’t you, Bertie, James, and Rosie stick with Teddy and Victoire? He knows where we’re camping”

Teddy nodded, “Don’t worry, I’ll keep an eye on the little darlings!”

Harry rolled his eyes and walked through the crowd with the others, leaving Teddy’s group by themselves amongst the thronging mass.

“Come on” Teddy continued, “We’ll be stuck here all day if we don’t get moving. Let’s grab some Omnioculars”

Albus made a start towards the vendor but stopped when is saw the vacantly stunned look on Bertie’s face.

“You ok?” he asked

“I’m in Australia…” he said, slowly shaking his head, “We were in England, before dawn, now we’re suddenly in the afternoon in Australia”

Albus shook Bertie’s shoulder, “You’ll get used to it!” he grinned, “Now come on! My Dad’s given you some spending money, hasn’t he?”

With their wares purchased, and their money pouches significantly lighter, Teddy led the group through the raucous crowd and towards the campsite. The carnival atmosphere made it difficult to make conversation, but Teddy was busily explaining the complexities of Australian wizarding life to Bertie, who was listening intently.

“Last year they broke their record for the most Minister of Magic changes in a single month, twenty-three! And that included three separate Ministers being installed and then ousted in one day! Merlin knows how they get anything done…” he said with a shake of his head.

“What about school? Do they have one here?” asked Bertie.

Teddy nodded, “Oh yes, it’s nowhere near here though. It’s on an island somewhere off the eastern coast, they take students from New Zealand as well, you see”

Albus looked ahead at Rose and Victoire, who seemed to be getting the full blast of James’ World Cup review.

“England were absolutely pathetic in that Peru match, didn’t deserve to go through at all. It was almost a blessing when we got thrashed by Mozambique in the next round, because we would never have beaten Romania in the semi’s” he rattled off, oblivious to the fact that neither of them were particularly listening.

They soon reached the campsite, where they were pleased to see that the tent had already been put up, with something nice cooking on the stove outside the door.

“It’s tiny,” said Bertie upon seeing the slightly ragged-looking tent.

James grinned, “Yeah, it’s a bit tight”

“I prefer cosy” chuckled Victoire

“Just make sure you shove your backpack in so we have as much space as possible!” said Teddy, who slipped inside the tent with Victoire in tow.

Bertie looked at Albus and Rose, who both put on their best poker faces as they followed behind James and into the tent. Bertie followed behind, immediately dropping his bag to the floor after seeing the inside of the tent.

It was large, bright, and airy, with extra rooms coming off every wall. A small kitchen was even being attended to by Harry and Ron, whilst Hermione and Ginny were corralling the two youngest children into putting their bags away.

Harry lit the stove and checked his watch, “Tight schedule, so a quick snack and then we’ll be straight off to the match” he waved at Bertie, “Close the door, Bertie, we don’t want anything nasty and multi-legged walking in here”, he added, glancing at Ron who was staring intently at the pot he had just placed on the stove.

Albus led Bertie into a small room with two bunk beds in it. “Bagsy top bunk!” he said, throwing his bag onto the topmost bed.

“Guests should get first pick,” said James as he leapt onto the top of the other bunk, “But the early bird does get the worm”

Bertie shook his head, “It’s fine, I don’t mind being on the bottom”. He pushed his own bag onto the narrow bed and sat down, “This tent is amazing” he said

James peered over the edge of the bed down at him, “Is it? Our Uncle George has a gazebo that can fit over a hundred people in it”

“I love it” said Bertie, “It’s easy to forget how amazing magic is” he laughed

Harry then poked his head into the room, “You’re about to get an even bigger reminder soon” he said, “Come on, grab anything you want to bring to the match and then get something to eat”

The loud and passionate crowd was now making its way down the wide boulevard that led from the campsite and down into a large canyon. It was impossible to see the stadium through the layers of people, but as they got closer the crowd thinned and the full glory of the World Cup stadium was there for all to see.

Everyone’s mouths dropped open at the sight. It looked like it had been grown out of a huge tree, with its gnarled reddish wood twisting around the enormous seating bowl, reaching high up above their heads.

Harry nudged Albus and Bertie, “It should be even more impressive inside, come on!”

They followed the line of people and filed into the stadium. The concourse was equally wooden, and Albus was put in mind of what the Forbidden Forest might look like if Hogwarts were to be consumed by a long drought. Pillars of bare bark held up crisscrossed beams of twisted branches, with the afternoon sunlight poking through at irregular intervals, illuminating a thin cloud of red dust.

Teddy glanced at his ticket, “By the looks of this, we’re a long way up!” he grinned, “Hope you like heights!”

The climb, long as it was, was well worth it. Their seats were almost at the very top of the stadium, and right above the tunnel from which the players would be flying out.

Looking around the stadium you could see the colours of the two teams. The dark pink of Japan, and the yellow and red of Romania.

“Welcome one and all to the final of the 2018 Quidditch World Cup!” the announcer boomed across the stadium.

Albus leant over the railing of his seat and could just make out a tall, bleached blond wizard stood with his wand against his throat.

Teddy followed his gaze, “Australian Minister for Magic. Don’t ask me his name, he only started yesterday!”

Nodding, Albus turned his gaze back to the wizard.

“The match will be beginning very shortly, but first we must continue that greatest of traditions…” he momentarily pulled his wand away and gulped, “The mascots!”

“You’ll love this,” said Albus, to Bertie.

All eyes turned to the tunnel, and a collective gasp erupted around the stadium. Striding out onto the pitch was one of the most stunning creatures Albus had ever seen. It was a nine-tailed fox. About the size of a horse and wearing a coat of resplendent white fur, it demanded the attention of every single eyeball. A wave of silence had enveloped the stadium.

Rose looked stunned, “That can’t be a Kitsune…” she whispered

“Kitsune?” asked Bertie

“Japanese spirit fox, they’re unbelievably rare. Not even the great Newt Scamander has ever seen one!”

Teddy nodded, “Too right. Get a good look everyone, you’ll probably never get another chance!”

The Kitsune proceeded on a lap of the pitch, occasionally lighting the ends of its flowing tails in a sort of magical flame that danced in numerous colours, prompting ‘ooh’s’ and ‘ahh’s’ from the crowd. It rounded the final turn of the pitch and back towards the tunnel when it was stopped by a deafening roar.

No longer entranced by the Kitsune, the crowd looked around to find the source of the roar. Bertie then pointed up into the sky, “What is that?!”

“Ah, I had heard a rumour that they were bringing one of those…” said Teddy, gravely.

It was, unmistakably, a dragon. Large, green, and wearing an impressive pair of long gold horns on its head, it was hovering above the stadium and eyeing the Kitsune jealously.

“Romanian Longhorn” continued Teddy, “Don’t worry, you can see it’s tied down” he didn’t sound all that convinced about their safety, but it did bring everyone’s attention to the long chain that was coming up from the ground.

Bertie gulped, “Did they not realise the stadium was made of wood?”

As if on cue, the dragon shot a long flame into the sky and beat its wings, whipping dust-up from the ground and into the air. After letting out one more long roar, the chain was tugged, and the dragon returned to the ground somewhere outside the stadium.

A round of applause rang out for both of the mascots, and the Australian Minister stepped out into the box once again. He let out a relieved laugh and wiped a bead of sweat from his forehead.

“Truly remarkable,” he said nervously, “Now it is finally time for the moment we’ve all been waiting for! As we welcome the teams out onto the pitch, I will hand you over to your commentator, Richie Renard!”

Cheers rang out around the stadium, and Albus saw a well-dressed and grey-haired wizard step into the box, his wand pointed at his throat.

“Firstly, Japan!” he declared succinctly.

A blur of pink flew out of the tunnel and did a rapid lap of the pitch, waving to the crowd as they did so. It was clear that Japan had brought a large following of support with them, as pink flags were waved all around them. James nearly deafened Albus as he cheered them so loudly.

“Izuma, Hirakawa, the captain Sawano, Tsunoda, Kaiji, Sakai, and Kimura!” said Renard as the players flew past his commentary box.

They settled around the right-hand side of the pitch and gathered into a team huddle, their thoughts now on the match.

James was bouncing with excitement, “Look at those brooms! Yajurushi, they’re called. Absolutely top of the line! Rapid in a straight line and like a housefly on the turn. You have to be really good to fly them though, it’s all on the nose you see. And Hitomi Kimura is the best seeker in the world!”

“And now, Romania!” continued Renard.

The Romania team came out of the tunnel with less fanfare than Japan. There was no enthusiastic lap of the pitch, and certainly no waving to the crowd. The cheers, though present, were definitely less than the one given to the Japanese team.

“The captain Florescu, Nicolescu, Radu, Bogdan, Bolovan, Bolovan, and Stoica!”

Albus’ eyes were immediately drawn to the Bolovan twins, the Romanian beaters. They looked like the exact opposite of what a Quidditch player should look like. It was as if someone had put two silverback gorillas on the back of a flying toothpick, they looked ridiculous. In contrast though, the bats they were holding looked like half a telegraph pole.

The referee called the two captains to the middle of the pitch and a hush went around the stadium, they were seconds away.

“Referee Dupont of France has his whistle in his lips, and we are just about ready to start…” Renards voice was suitably understated in the quiet.

A loud blast on the whistle followed, and Dupont launched the Quaffle into the air. A melee of limbs reached out to grab the crimson ball, and a small Japanese chaser emerged from the scuffle with it clasped tightly under her arm. She raced towards the goalposts so quickly that Renard barely had time to describe it.

“Hirakawa is away!” was all he managed to get out before he was interrupted by what sounded like a gunshot. One of the Bolovans had struck the Bludger with such force that the sound cut through all of the cheering. Despite the force though, the distinctive sound of Bludger hitting person wasn’t there.

It was now apparent to Albus that he had underestimated the Bolovans as just being brutes who would look to injure with every swing of their bats. This one had hit it with such accuracy that it had gone struck the Quaffle dead on centre and knocked it out of Hirakawa’s grasp so cleanly that it took a second or two for her to notice it had gone. Romania counter-attacked with pace, forcing a strong save from the Japanese keeper.

The game became fast and frenetic, and Albus struggled to keep up with it. Both teams had a goal apiece in no time at all, and Albus had to replay both on his Omnioculars.

“You’re gonna miss things if you’re not careful,” said James, who was keeping a keen eye on the game. “Look at Japan go, they play some lovely Quidditch”

James was right, Japan had their tactics down to a tee. The attacks were full of flips, twists, and sharp passing. The defence, however, looked leaky at times and it was only down to the brilliance of the keeper that they were keeping the scores level.

Romania, on the other hand, were a physical beast. Playing on the counter, they soaked up pressure and then released with devastating counter-attacks, all backed up by the superb Bolovan twins. They circled the pitch like vultures over their prey, just waiting for the perfect opening.

“Tsunoda scores!” bellowed Renard as Japan took the lead, then followed seconds later by the third goal.

“Get in there!” shouted James, clapping his hands above his head, “We’ve got them now!”

Japan looked to have cracked the Romanian defence, and in response, the Romanian captain gave some gestured signals to the Bolovans. They took position at opposite ends of the pitch and waited.

“What are they doing?” asked Albus

James looked nervous all of a sudden, “This is their tactic, the Bolovan Pincer…”

Albus turned back to the game and watched the tactic unfold. There were no more deadly accurate hits designed to dispossess the opposition, now all the hits were made to hurt.

The Bolovans hit the two Bludgers between them like they were playing tennis, and any unfortunate Japanese player was now collateral damage. This restricted the field of play, which was exactly what Romania wanted. Now, with their greater physical prowess, they could bully Japan off the Quaffle and play their way. They scored once, then twice, then three times to lead.

“This is remarkable,” said Renard, “Romania are absolute masters of their craft”

Japan looked flustered. Their beaters simply couldn’t compete with the Bolovans and were flying around chasing shadows. A brief moment of respite came when Sawano, the Japanese captain, broke through Romania’s cast-iron defence, saw a Bludger whip past his left ear, and placed the Quaffle beyond the outstretched hand of the keeper.

Conceding didn’t seem to shake Romania at all, indeed it seemed to only steel their resolve. The Bludgers flew more violently than ever before, and the bruise count on Japan was getting higher and higher. A fourth Romania goal, a fifth, sixth, seventh, they were relentless.

James was gripping the rail in front of him so tightly that it looked like his knuckles were about to burst through his skin. “Come on” he whispered through gritted teeth, “Get. A. Grip”. He glanced up at the two seekers, Kimura and Stoica, circling above them. His eyes widened and he grabbed his Omnioculars, sticking them to his eyes. “Here we go!” he shouted.

No one spoke, they just followed his gaze. Kimura was giving chase to the Snitch. She zoomed around the perimeter of the stadium, her broom responding to the faintest of touches as she closed in on the tiny ball. She turned downwards towards the surface of the pitch, and into the Bolovans pincer.

“Come on, concentrate,” said James, following her progress.

The Bolovans attention was now focussed solely on Kimura, and Japan took the opportunity to sneak a goal back. They aimed every single hit at the diminutive seeker, who had no beaters of her own close enough to defend her. But with the deftest of touches on her broom, she expertly weaved through the ceaseless Bludger attacks and closed in on the Snitch.

James was out of his seat and jumping up and down, willing her on. The noise in the stadium rose to a deafening crescendo as she stretched her hand out, now just inches away from World Cup glory.

Then, a scream. Kimura tumbled off her broom and hit the ground with a sickening thud. Stunned, everyone in the stadium looked up to see one of the Bolovans hovering with a raised bat. He was quickly swarmed by a number of furious looking Japanese players, though Bolovan simply shrugged and flew away. A quick look at a replay on the Omnioculars showed what had happened. Kimura had flown close to a Bolovan, who viciously backhanded a Bludger at her from no more than three meters away. It struck her right on her outstretched wrist, bending it into a very unnatural angle and causing her to fall off.

James was apoplectic and screamed in the direction of the Bolovan responsible, “You dirty little cu-“, Teddy covered James’ mouth before he could finish his insult.

Renard spoke again, “A very nasty blow there, but the Japanese captain has called a time out so Kimura can get some treatment. Just another reminder of how effective these Bolovan twins are”

“Effective?!” James bellowed, “That was foul play!”

Teddy shook his head, “It’s a legitimate move, James. It’s not as if he whacked her over the head with his bat”

On the pitch, Kimura was getting some treatment whilst the Japanese captain gave a team talk to his tired-looking team. On the other side of the pitch, the Romanians looked cool, calm, and collected. Their tactics, whilst aggressive, had been incredibly effective at shutting down Japan and buying their Seeker time to find the Snitch. Eventually, Kimura was clearly to fly again, though she looked more unsteady than before.

The referee blew his whistle to resume play, and Japans tactical tweaks were now evident. The Beaters had clearly been assigned to ‘Seeker Protection Duty’ and were flying alongside Kimura as she circled the pitch again. Japan had decided to give up trying to stop the Bolovan Pincer and were hedging all their bets on Kimura being able to catch the Snitch. This was a dangerous tactic. Romania quickly scored three more goals to bring up their hundred points, much more of this would take them out of range of the points that Japan would get if they caught the Snitch.

“Just a reminder that the scores are currently 100 – 30, to Romania,” said Renard, “Romania look like they might just be on their way to the history books!”

“Thanks, Richie” spat James, “Not one mention of how dirty this team is!”

Albus was starting to realise why James played so much Quidditch, it was because it stopped him from being able to get worked up watching it. He was even worse than Leon! And James sank lower in his seat as Romania scored four further goals, pushing their lead to a hundred-and-ten points. James covered his face with his Japan scarf and groaned. Romania pushed the lead to a hundred-and-fifty in the following few minutes. They were on the brink of victory.

James glanced up at the Seekers once more, and sprang back into life, “She’s seen it again, look!”

Kimura dived dramatically, followed by her two Beater bodyguards, who struggled to keep up. The Bolovans sprang into action and aimed every single Bludger and Kimura.

“Why is she going now though? Japan can’t win!” said Bertie, who could hardly watch himself.

Teddy watched gravely, “Better to go out fighting, I suppose. Japan have been dominated here”

The Bolovans didn’t care what the score was, they just didn’t want Kimura anywhere near the Snitch. The Japanese Beaters were little more than human shields as they took multiple hits to the body, desperately having to cling onto their brooms with each one. Albus couldn’t hear himself think over the noise as over half the stadium willed Kimura and her Beaters on. The other half was screaming encouragement at the Bolovans, not that they needed it.

One of the Japanese Beaters took a full blow to the face and was knocked to the ground, prompting shocked gasps from the crowd, whilst the Romania fans cheered their approval. One of the Bolovans whistled a nasty shot right in front of Kimura’s face, but she stoically flew on, only glancing behind to track the progress of her opposite number some way behind. She stretched her hand out once again, and the remaining beater readied himself to block any Bludger that dared to go near.

The Bludgers came swiftly, and violently. Kimura had been joined by a Japanese Chaser to act as another human shield, and he very quickly took a blow to the shoulder. The Snitch was within touching distance, and everyone seemed to have the same thought about what would happen if the match was tied.

It was almost anticlimactic as she gripped the Snitch in her hand. She raised it into the air with a devastated look on her face. The players looked around at each other, not quite knowing how to react.

James slumped down. Teddy stared down into the commentary box to see if he could get any clue as to what would happen next. Bertie and Rose were both stunned into silence and staring into space.

Albus looked at the scoreboard to confirm the final result, and the first drawn World Cup Final in history.

Romania 180 – Japan 190

“Eh?” he said, hitting James on the shoulder, “They’ve made a mistake, look. It says that Japan won the game.

James shrugged, “Idiots”

Down below them, Renard stepped forward and spoke to the crowd, “Thi-this is incredible. We’re going to have to check this, so please bear with us”

The stadium broke into mutters, as they rushed to check Omniocular footage of what had happened. How had they managed to miss Japan getting an extra goal? The referee flew over to the commentary box and landed next to Renard. A throng of officials carrying Omnioculars were now surrounding him and showing them the footage. Albus felt some disturbance behind him as Ron was desperately scrolling through his own to see if he had captured it, no one else near him had seen anything.

“Got it, look!” he exclaimed.

The Weasleys and Potters and surrounded Ron and took turns to look at the replay. In all the mayhem of Kimura chasing the Snitch, and the Bolovans turning their attention to her, the Japanese captain, Sawano, had managed to break through the Romanian Chasers and score a decisive goal almost simultaneously with Kimura catching the Snitch.

“Merlin's beard!” shouted James, “Did he score that in time?”

“That’s what they’ll be checking down there,” said Ron, “If he scored even a split second before Kimura caught the Snitch, Japan have won”

Everyone turned to the commentary box, where frantic discussions were still happening. The news of what had happened was now spreading around the stadium, and the Japanese players were starting to believe that they had won. Romania, on the other hand, looked beyond devastated.

After what felt like an eternity, Renard returned to his position, ready to give the official verdict.

He cleared his throat, “Following a detailed review of the available footage, the ICWQC is able to confirm that Tetsuo Sawano did score before the Snitch was captured. This means that World Cup Champions of 2018 are…Japan!”

Pandemonium.

The Japanese players jumped for joy, picking both Kimura and Sawano up on their shoulders and parading them around the stadium. Fireworks went off all around barely drowning out the cheers of those celebrating the victory. These scenes surely dwarfed any Gryffindor victory party that would ever be thrown. Flags were waved, scarves were spun around in the air, relatives hugged and kissed each other in the emotion of it all.

Romania were crestfallen. They’d done everything right, apart from keeping out that one, devastating goal. The Bolovan twins were slumped on the floor, unmoved and emotionless. They had been the most impressive players on the day, but not impressive enough to stop the raucous scenes of celebration.

One by one, the Japanese players made their way to the commentary box to shake hands with the Australian Minister for Magic, who looked like he’d aged twenty years since the game started. Then, finally, Sawano and Kimura stepped onto the newly constructed podium together. The Minister handed them both the gleaming World Cup Trophy, and, on the count of three, they lifted it high above their heads.

The end of the greatest World Cup Final in history. Albus had never seen anything like it.

Chapter Text

Chapter Four: The Duel on the Hogwarts Express

Albus was woken by the sound of an incessant knocking on his bedroom door, on the morning of the 1^st of September. He forced his eyes open but shut them immediately as the morning sun hit his eyes.

“Dad says that if you don’t get up in the next five minutes then he’s leaving you behind!” It was James. “And bring your trunk down with you!”

Albus grunted in reply and heard James’ footsteps as he walked away from his bedroom door. It was only when he was sure he was gone that he got out of bed and got dressed. He kicked his trunk open and threw some more stray clothes into it, completely obscuring his brand-new books for the upcoming year. Albus stopped as he heard footsteps going past his door again, and then relaxed as he heard them going back and downstairs.

He fumbled underneath his pillow and grabbed a tatty old leather-bound book and flicked through it. It was as blank as ever. A few nights before though, it wasn’t, and Albus had spent the whole night adding to the notes that Bertie had taken a month earlier. He’d been able to convince Bertie to leave the book with him before he returned home to his family via Floo Powder, though Bertie hadn’t taken much convincing.

Albus was pleased with the progress he’d made, and he couldn’t wait to get back to Hogwarts and show Scorpius everything that they’d done during the summer. Carefully, Albus placed the book at the very bottom of his trunk, on top of the folder of notes he and Bertie had made.

“Mum says that if you don’t get downstairs now you’ll have to go without breakfast!” said James, who had returned to his bedroom door.

“I’m coming!” replied Albus, annoyed. He closed his trunk and dragged it out of his bedroom door, shoving past James along the way.

James ignored this, “Finally. Now come on otherwise we’ll all be late!”

The car ride was a bit more manic than it would normally be as they raced along the motorway towards London. Harry kept glancing at the clock on the dashboard, watching it tick ever closer to 11 o’clock, and the departure of the Hogwarts Express. However, despite having to cast an Undetectable Extension Charm on a parking space to fit the car in, they made it to Kings Cross Station on time.

Harry checked his watch as they led James and Albus towards the entrance to Platform 9 ¾, his hand tightly clasped to Lily’s. “Quarter to eleven. Not bad all things considered” he turned back to his two sons, “Come on you two!”

James groaned and pushed ahead of Albus, “Snooze, you lose!” he called as he ran at the wall dividing platforms 9 and 10, pushing his trolley into it and no doubt appearing on the other side. Ginny followed him in, taking over looking after Lily from Harry.

“Your turn, Al” he said, going through the barrier alongside his younger son.

They emerged on the other side, right behind James who had just found Caprice Flynn, the Gryffindor Quidditch captain, and was eagerly discussing the upcoming season. Harry had to prompt him to get his trunks loaded onto the train before it was too late.

Albus looked around for any sign of Bertie or Scorpius but was dragged along the platform by his father to load his trunk with James.

“Honestly you two, remind me to get you a watch next Christmas…” he said with a shake of his head, gently passing Nero’s cage to a porter on the train. Once the last trunk was loaded he turned to Albus and gave him a hug. “Look after yourself, Al. Keep out of trouble, study hard. And remember to send us a letter in the first week this time” he smiled at him.

Albus nodded and gave a small smile, “I will”

Ginny and Lily both bade him farewell with hugs of their own. Lily hugged him for so long that Harry had to physically separate them before Albus ended up unwittingly missing the train. He jumped aboard just as the door closed and gave a final wave out of the window. The train blew its whistle, and the train slowly left the station.

Once they were out of Kings Cross, Albus started to walk along the carriage, hoping to spot anyone he recognised. He passed one of the compartments and saw the smug face of Caedus Fleet, talking with a couple of his Slytherin friends, Luther Dorrian and Terry Holloway. Their eyes met for a split second, but Albus had no desire to talk to him today.

Eventually, he spotted a mousy haired head poking out of a compartment, looking up and down the carriage. Albus waved at him, and Bertie smiled back, beckoning him into the compartment. Scorpius was sat there with a copy of the Daily Prophet, eating a pumpkin pasty. He raised a hand at Albus and swallowed his mouthful.

“About time, Albus!” he said, “Was getting worried you weren’t coming”

Albus grinned, “Held up a bit, sorry”. He sat down opposite Scorpius, with Bertie taking a seat next to him. “Good summer?”

“Pretty good,” he said, “We went Troll spotting in Switzerland. Three weeks stuck with my Grandparents in a wooden hut, I was almost praying for a very close Troll encounter…”

Bertie let out a short laugh, “Can’t have been that bad”

Scorpius raised his eyebrows at him, “You don’t know them”, he then took a deep breath and dramatically folded up the Daily Prophet, tossing it onto the empty seat next to him. “Anyway, enough of that. How’s the book going?”

Albus lit up, “Brilliantly! Bertie and I must’ve copied down at least half the pages by now, we’ve got so much to work with”

“Excellent, we’ll be able to get straight to it then”

“Exactly,” said Albus, “No time to waste. The next full moon is at the end of the month, so we have time to read through the notes we’ve taken and see what we make of it”

Scorpius rubbed his hands together, “Can’t wait. I’ve been looking forward to this all summer!”

Albus lowered his voice, “We need to be careful though. Has Bertie told you about what happened in July?”

Nodding slowly, Scorpius’ face turned serious, “He has. It sounds mental though, doesn’t it? Not in that way!” he quickly added before Bertie could interject, “I’m just saying that it’s mental that a teacher would even think about intercepting a students mail”

“I know,” said Albus, clasping his hands together, “Which is why we need to be extra vigilant. Marlowe knows we have the book, so we should be careful about where we talk about it”

“Agreed,” said Scorpius and Bertie simultaneously

Albus leant back in his seat and relaxed. Hogwarts already felt like it wasn’t going to be as much of a safe haven as it was the previous year, they would be sharing the place with Professor Marlowe after all. As Albus was about to shut his eyes to catch up on the sleep he was rudely interrupted from that morning, there was a rapping on the compartment door. Rose was stood outside waving in. She slid it open and stood in the doorway.

“There you are!” she said to Albus, “We missed you on the platform, Mum was getting worried about you!”

“We were just late leaving” shrugged Albus, not looking her straight in the eye.

Rose snorted, “James oversleeping, I bet”

Albus laughed nervously and coughed, “Want to sit down?”, he beckoned at the empty seat next to Scorpius, who gave her a small smile.

“Um, no, it’s ok,” she said, shuffling awkwardly, “I’m sitting with Sophie, Jess, and the others further down the train. I only came over to see if I could find you”

“Oh, ok,” said Albus shortly. He glanced over at Scorpius, who had started to read the Daily Prophet again. “Are the other girls ok?” continued Albus.

“Yes, they’re all fine. Have you seen Leon yet? He came by earlier with Bingham and he said he was looking to find you two”

Before Albus could answer he was interrupted by the sound of three pairs of footsteps advancing down the corridor, stopping just next to Rose. The narrow dark eyes and neatly cut black hair of Caedus Fleet emerge from around the edge of the door, the corners of his mouth were upturned ever so slightly. Rose took a step back from him, and his two Slytherin companions.

“Thought I’d find you here” started Caedus, “Still associating with this lot are you, Scorp?”

Scorpius glared at him from over his Daily Prophet, saying nothing. He turned a page and addressed Albus, “Have you seen the deals you can get on potion ingredients here? Bargains everywhere!”

Caedus slapped the door frame, making everyone else jump, “I’m talking to you!”

Scorpius looked around the compartment, as if trying to spot a fly. He then shook his head and took a deep breath, continuing with his reading.

There was now a distinctly nasty look on Caedus’ face, and he stepped into the compartment, leaving his companions to guard the door. Bertie let out a small yelp as Caedus brushed past his legs and stood over Scorpius.

“You think you’re so impressive, don’t you?” he spat, “Hanging out with Blood Traitors and Mudbloods”

“Hey!” Albus stood up behind Caedus, who completely ignored him.

Instead, he ripped the Daily Prophet out of Scorpius’ hands and threw it onto the ground. Albus glanced through the door and could just see Rose standing stock still with her hand covering her mouth.

“Do you mind?” Scorpius tutted, “I was saving that to do the crossword later”

Caedus pressed his hand against Scorpius’ shoulder and pushed him hard against the back of his seat, “Shut it!” he seethed, “I’ve been waiting for months to get back at you for attacking me last year, I never forget these things”

He was, of course, referring to the fight that Scorpius had instigated the year before. A fight designed to create a distraction to allow Albus to sneak into Marlowe’s office and steal the Grimoire. He’d thought at the time that it was a stupid idea, but now it looked unbelievably foolish.

“Not much of a revenge, is it? It was only my paper” Scorpius shrugged.

“Wand. Now” Caedus released him and stepped back, pulling his wand out of his pocket.

Looking perplexed, Scorpius could only let out a snort, “A duel? Here? You can’t be serious”

“Only place where we could possibly be together that doesn’t have a teacher present, I’m not stupid”

Scorpius stood up, muttering under his breath, “Could’ve fooled me”. He stepped towards the door, stopping in front of the two Slytherin boys guarding it. “Ah, hello Luther, Terry, good summers?”

“Let him by, you two” ordered Caedus.

They dutifully stood aside and allowed the pair of them into the corridor. The commotion had clearly attracted some attention, as the corridor was busier than normal. A couple of curious first years were poking their heads out of the neighbouring compartment, staring at both Scorpius and Caedus wielding their wands.

Albus pushed past Luther and Terry and joined Scorpius in the corridor. “This is a really stupid idea, you do know that?” he said in his ear.

Scorpius had thrown his coat off into the compartment and rolled his sleeves up, “It’ll be fine, I doubt he’s ever been in a duel before”

“Neither have you!”

He ignored this and waved his wand in the air, practising a couple of movements for the few hexes he knew. Satisfied he turned to Albus and handed him a pocket watch, “Don’t want that getting damaged, it’s antique”

Albus stared at him, “Why are you doing this? You’ll get yourself expelled”

Scorpius ignored this too and brushed some fluff off his arm, “Quick question, do you know how a duel starts?”

“Locomotor Mortis!”  

There was a flash of purple, and Scorpius fell flat on his face with a sickening crunch, his legs stuck together and unmoving. A pool of blood formed where his nose made contact with the floor. He let out a moan and lifted his head just enough to be able to see Caedus standing with a raised wand.

“That was a dirty move!” shouted Albus

Caedus cackled, “Don’t worry, Potter, his nose broke the fall!”

Albus couldn’t stop himself from pulling his own wand out, but he stopped short of firing a Jinx back at him. Nonetheless, both Rose and Bertie broke through the now larger crowd and tugged Albus back to make sure he couldn’t do anything.

“Al, don’t be stupid, just let it go” pleaded Rose, pulling his arm.

Bertie was clinging onto Albus’ wand arm for dear life, shaking with adrenaline, “Come on, let’s just go back in” he said.

Caedus laughed derisively, “Oh do keep quiet, Mudblood, this isn’t about you”

“Don’t you dare!” shouted Albus, trying to pull himself free of Rose and Bertie’s grip, “You think you’re so big and clever using that word, don’t you?”

Caedus rolled his eyes, “You sound like Bingham, do you two feel big and clever sticking up for the weakling all the time?”

Albus tried to free his arm from Bertie’s grip, but he was practically hugging it. Caedus was in fits of laughter.

“They’re a lot stronger than you think, aren’t they?”

“And who’s they?”

Caedus pointed at Bertie, “His lot”

Albus felt Bertie’s grip loosen and he was just able to pull his arm free and point his wand in the direction of the still laughing Caedus.

“Volumucos!”

A jet of green shot out of Albus’ wand, though it didn’t hit his intended target. Rather than striking Caedus, it bounced off a window, cracking it, and sending the spell straight at Luther Dorrian. He screamed as it made contact and he fell to the ground clutching his face. Dozens of green, bat-like creatures were soon crawling their way out of his nose and flying around his head.

“What did you do?” demanded Caedus, who was looking flustered for the first time.

Bertie had managed to pin Albus’ hand down again, putting all of his weight on top of it in a bid to stop his trying to Hex Caedus again. By now they had attracted a not inconsiderable amount of attention. Some of the older students were egging the pair on, placing bets on what spell either of them would use next.

“Albus, what are you doing?!” said a voice from behind him.

He managed to turn himself around enough to see Leon standing looking at the scene. Matt was stood behind him looking tense, and Albus could see his hand on his own wand inside his coat pocket.

Caedus clocked Matt’s presence, “Was wondering when you’d show up, Matthias”

Matt said nothing, but his face twitched ever so slightly, and he stepped towards him with his hand still inside his pocket. Caedus was looking bemused by everything and even dropped his wand hand to his side.

“Come on, Bingham, give me your best sho-“

Whatever Caedus was expecting Matt to do in that moment, smacking him straight in the jaw was not it. Looking more surprised than he’d ever seen him, he fell onto his backside and looked up at Matt, who had a face of thunder.

“Don’t you dare call me that name” he growled, before turning away. He walked up to Albus and pulled his wand out of his hand, then pulled him to his feet. “Leave it now, yeah?” he said.

Albus nodded slowly and looked at the scene in front of him. Luther was trying to swat away the now more aggressive-looking mucus bats, a couple of them were trying to invade his ear canal. Caedus was picking himself up onto his feet, slightly unsteadily. Terry Holloway didn’t know who to help first, so was looking between his housemates with a confused look on his face. Then there was Scorpius, with his nasty looking nose, who had to prop himself up on his arms to see anything.

“All of you, back to your compartments! You heard me, I’m Head Boy!”

Albus’ heart sank. They may not be any teachers aboard the Hogwarts Express, but there were more than enough prefects to keep order. A fussy looking seventh-year boy came marching down the corridor, ordering every student to leave the scene. One by one, the crowd thinned out, leaving just the two sets of quarrelling students. The Head Boy looked at all of them not knowing what to say.

“E-explain yourselves, now!” he cried out.

No one said anything.

“Well, if you won’t explain yourselves then I’ll just have to report you to the Headmaster. And let me tell you that he will take a very dim view on any fighting!” said the Head Boy, puffing his chest out.

Matt spoke first, “Ask the Slytherins, it’s always them”, he spat.

“Oo can ‘alk”, said, or rather tried to say, Caedus. He was holding his jaw tightly.

The Head Boy looked between them both and then looked to gain control. “You, go down to the end of the train and get that jaw fixed!”

“Wa’ abou’ ‘im?” he pointed at Luther, who was still struggling with his bats.

The Head Boy flicked his wand, “Finite Incantatem”. The bats burst, covering Luther in bright green mucus, though the bats were no longer bothering him. He performed the same spell on Scorpius, whose legs spit apart and he was able to stand up, holding his still bleeding nose.

“You’d better go with these two,” said the Head Boy, shooing them down the train.

They clearly decided that it was best not to argue, and they left the scene. Now it was just the Gryffindors standing there, awkwardly.

“You lot can just…” started the Head Boy, “Get in the compartment and be quiet” then he departed, following the Slytherins away down the corridor.

The few moments of silence amongst the Gryffindors was interrupted by Rose.

“Idiots” she seethed, “You’re all complete idiots! Don’t you dare interrupt me!” she snapped, as Albus opened his mouth, but she couldn’t conjure up any more words.

Matt glared at her, “Shut it, Weasley, no one wants to know”

“Excuse me?” Rose asked, incredulously

“You heard me, Miss Goody-Two-Shoes! We don’t want to hear your preaching about how we’re going to get expelled, or how we shouldn’t be fighting, or how incredibly posh we all are! Now go away!” he barked, pointing down the corridor.

Rose glowered at him for a few seconds, her face bright red. Her bottom lip quivered before she turned around and ran down the carriage and out of sight. The door of the boy's compartment was thrown open by Matt, who immediately entered and threw himself down onto the seat next to the window. Wordlessly, the others all looked at each other and followed him in. Taking their seats in the compartment, none of them said a single word to each other for the rest of the journey.

The silence continued all the way until they pulled into Hogsmeade Station. As the train ground to a halt and the students, now dressed in their school robes, slowly filed out onto the platform, Matt stormed his way out of the compartment without acknowledging the others.

Bertie sighed and led Albus and Leon out behind him. Once on the platform, Bertie stayed a couple of paces ahead of the other two, Albus got the impression that he wasn’t all that impressed with what had just happened. So instead, Albus and Leon were able to talk.

“So, what on earth was up with Matt?” asked Albus, knowing full well that he had been just as stupid as him.

Leon sighed and put his hands on top of his head, “Beats me, mate”

“But what he said to Rose, it’s…”

“Yeah, I know” Leon interrupted, “I think I might know the answer to that though, now I think about it”

Albus encouraged him to continue.

“We went to the girl's compartment earlier, just to say hello you know. When we got there though, they were all giggling at Matt, I just assumed it was girls being girls, but…” he trailed off and scratched his head.

“But what?”

Leon sighed, “Rose was being very weird around him, kept asking him to remind her of his name”

“What?” said Albus, squinting and shaking his head, “What’s she playing at?”

“You know her better than me,” said Leon, letting out a small laugh.

They soon found Hagrid, standing in his usual place at the end of the platform, waiting for the first years to gather around for their trip across the lake to the castle.

“’Ello Albus,” he said, cheerily, “Good summer?”

Albus smiled at him, relieved to see finally see someone who actually looked happy. “It was good, thanks Hagrid”

Hagrid grinned through his thick beard, “Tea on Friday? Firs’ week back tradition, an’ all”

“I’d like that,” said Albus.

Hagrid leant closer to Albus and lowered his voice, “Listen, is Rosie ok?”

Albus’ face fell, he had no idea what to say, “Wha-what do you mean?” he stammered.

“It’s jus’ that she looked upset when she walked by jus’ now” he inclined his head, “Anythin’ goin’ on?”

Albus shrugged, “I don’t know, to be honest” it was half a lie. “Better get going, see you at the feast”

He walked on, following the line of other students who were filing out of the station and towards a rank of horseless carriages, this was clearly how anyone not in the first year got to the castle.

“Hey, Al,” said Leon, who was looking towards the carriages, “Did Rose…no, silly question…” he shook his head and laughed to himself.

Albus looked at him quizzically, “What is it?”

Leon grimaced and looked at Albus, “Did Rose mention Matt’s name to you at the World Cup at all, his real name I mean”

“Oh, um…” Albus started, “Sort of, she just asked me if Matthias was really his real name, I don’t think she quite believed it”

Leon nodded knowingly, “Ah, right, makes sense”, he bit his lip and bounced on the balls of his feet, his eyes darting around the wood as the queue to get a carriage slowly moved, “So how did you find the final?”

“Hold on,” said Albus, who didn’t want Leon to change the subject, “What are you suggesting”

“I personally thought that the Bolovan Pincer was a bit excessive, and if they’d spread out a little they-“

“Leon!” snapped Albus

He threw his hands up in the air in frustration “Ok, look, I’m not accusing Rose of doing anything wrong, but-”

Albus’ raised an eyebrow, “Kind of sounds like you’re about to!”

“I promise I’m not, it’s just that a lot more people seem to know about Matt’s name now. And, as far as I’m aware, the only people who know about it are me, you, Bertie, and Rose” said Leon, doing his best to not let anyone hear about it.

“And James” stated Albus, “James was listening to that conversation too”

Leon shrugged this off, “Why would he care? All I’m saying is that the only person we know who might have just cause to actually spread that information around is the person who may or may not have had a problem with Matt last year”.

Not quite knowing what to say to this, Albus simply laughed and shook his head, “I know Rose, and I know she’s not like that”. Even as he said it, he felt that nagging doubt in the back of his head, she could be prone to getting worked up, but this would be excessive. “Anyway, why is Matt getting angry enough over people knowing his name that he’s punching people?”

“Beats me,” said Leon, simply, “Can’t argue that I don’t find it really stupid though”

Albus smirked with a small laugh, he had to agree with that.

“Oi, get a move on!” said an annoyed voice from behind them.

They’d been so engrossed in their conversation that neither Albus nor Leon had noticed that the queue had moved on ahead of them, they were now holding up the whole line. Offering apologies, they climbed into the back of the front carriage, where Bertie was already sitting and ignoring their gaze. A few second-year Hufflepuffs, who Albus recognised, started to climb in.

“Mind if we take these?” asked one of them, a tall boy called Caine Lakewood.

Albus shook his head, and Caine thanked him with a smile. The rest of his small group followed him. Albus didn’t spare them much attention, hardly looking up when one of the girls sat opposite him, they had their own conversations to be getting on with after all. The carriage started moving, and Caine nudged Albus.

“Sorry to ask, but we’d heard a rumour that some students were having a duel on the train. Did any of you see it?” he asked.

Albus just shrugged, “No, sorry”. He was in no mood to talk about what had happened right now.

“Oh, ok,” said Caine, disappointed. He returned to his conversation with the other Hufflepuffs, leaving Albus, Bertie, and Leon to sit in silence.

Albus only glanced up when he noticed the girl opposite shuffling in her seat. Their eyes met very briefly, and Albus found himself looking at a shy girl called Niamh Loughlan. She gave him a small smile, then quickly looked away. Albus narrowed his eyes slightly but thought nothing of it.

Instead, he looked down the track, where the woods were thinning ever so slightly. They rounded a bend, bringing Hogwarts Castle into sight. Its unmistakable glow was a lighthouse amongst the pristine cloudless sky, it almost looked like it could be towering over the mountains that surrounded it. Albus didn’t know exactly what awaited him behind those walls this year, all he knew was that he couldn’t wait to start it all over again.

Chapter Text

Chapter Five: The Feast That Never Was

The excited murmur of conversation grew as the students made their way into the Entrance Hall of Hogwarts Castle. They were greeted by ghosts and moving portraits as they filed into the Great Hall to await the start of the Welcome Feast. The Great Hall itself looked as resplendent as ever. Its enchanted ceiling showed a picture-perfect recreation of the starlit sky outside, and Albus was certain he saw a meteor zoom across it between the beams.

He sat down on the Gryffindor table with Leon and Bertie, who had finally cheered up slightly and was now talking to Albus again. All three of them looked up and down the table to see if they could spot Matt or Rose. Matt wasn’t anywhere to be seen, and it wasn’t until Bertie spotted the group of Second Year girls walking down the aisle that they finally saw Rose.

Sophie King smiled at the three of them and went to sit down next to Bertie, but she was tapped on the shoulder by Rose and they all moved down to be away from them. Sophie looked back apologetically but followed Rose anyway.

“What on earth…” said Leon, narrowing his eyes, “Have we just become pariahs already?”

Albus looked glum, “Not you, but I think I might be”

“Oh, right,” said Leon, awkwardly.

Knowing what Leon was thinking, Albus gave him a small smile, “It’s fine, you can go and join them if you want” he then looked at Bertie, “You too, don’t be an outcast on my behalf”

Bertie shook his head, “You’re not an outcast, it’s just Rose. She’ll be fine in a week, just wait and see”

Leon stretched his arms out and looked up at the ceiling, “I’ll stay here, might as well”

Before Albus could thank them, he was slapped in the back with such force that he felt slightly winded. He turned around to see James standing with a wide smile.

“Is it true?” he asked

“Is what true?”

James laughed, “That Albus Potter, my brother, nailed a Slytherin with a Bat Bogey Hex on the Hogwarts Express?”

Albus shut his eyes and groaned, of all the people to hear about it, why did it have to be James? “Why does it matter?” he asked, forlornly.

“Because it’s brilliant! They’ll be talking about that one for years!” declared James, prompting a few of his fellow fourth-years to holler their agreement.

Albus went bright red and looked down at the table, the worst possible outcome from his stupidity was surely having the rest of Gryffindor house congratulating him for it. He leant on his hand and looked into space, hoping that everything would be sorted out by the time he woke up tomorrow. This happy illusion was shattered by the sound of his name being called out from down the table. Professor Longbottom, head of Gryffindor, was marching down towards him.

“There you are, Potter,” he said, looking grave.

Albus felt his stomach tighten. Professor Longbottom very rarely called his students by their surnames, he saved that for when he was being incredibly serious. He was quickly revising what the worst outcome from the incident on the train could be.

“Sir?” said Albus, his voice shaking.

Longbottom sighed, “Could you come with me?” he looked at the other two, “Hmm, you’d better come as well, Mr Hadham”

Bertie looked surprised but didn’t argue. They stood up and followed Professor Longbottom out of the Great Hall, feeling the stares of everyone in the room burning into the back of their heads as they left walked into the Entrance Hall. They were led up the moving stairs of the Grand Staircase, right to the very top of the tower, and down a short corridor. Stopping in front of a statue of a griffon, Professor Longbottom cleared his throat.

“Acta non Verba”.

At once, the griffon statue moved to one side, revealing a spiral staircase that they were immediately led up. A simple wooden door was at the top, and Longbottom knocked on it a couple of times, hearing a muffled ‘enter’ in reply.

It suddenly hit Albus where they were, and he felt his heart sink as the door swung open to reveal the spacious office of Professor Selbit, the Headmaster of Hogwarts. The walls were covered in portraits of previous Headmasters and Headmistresses of Hogwarts, all keenly observing them as they walked in. Albus’ eyes were drawn to the golden framed image of a snoozing wizard, his long white beard bristling as he snored. His attention was broken from this by the sound of the headmasters coughing.

Professor Selbit was a serious-looking man, with wiry, greying hair, and a pair of thin spectacles resting on the bridge of his nose. Albus had had very little interaction with him since starting at Hogwarts a year ago, and by all accounts, he spent most of his time in his office.

He wasn’t alone though. The tall figure of Professor Constantine was standing in front of Selbit’s desk, wearing a look as equally grave as Professor Longbottom’s. He was joined by both Scorpius Malfoy and Caedus Fleet, their injuries had seemingly been completely healed by Madam Longbottom. Behind the desk, next to Selbit, was the very satisfied looking Head Boy, his chest puffed out and gleaming badge being given full prominence.

Albus gave Scorpius a reassuring smile, though it was half-hearted at best. As they approached the desk, Albus spotted Matt Bingham trying to remain hidden in the shadow of a large bookshelf, his head hanging.

“Stand up straight, boy!” Selbit barked at Matt, who quickly obliged. He stood up and addressed the boys, “I have not a single word that can adequately describe how angry I am with you. Never once, in all my time at this school, have I ever heard of students duelling on the Hogwarts Express. I am beyond furious with you!” he growled, glaring at them one by one. “Your conduct today is putting your independence to travel to Hogwarts without staff accompaniment at serious risk. And not just your own, but every single one of your peers, do you understand?”

They all nodded slowly, not meeting the furious gaze of Professor Selbit. He stepped out from behind the desk and paced in front of them before continuing.

“Now, I want to get the full story straight” he stated, “Mr Fleet has informed me that it was Mr Malfoy who started the-“

“That’s a lie!” interrupted Albus.

Selbit’s nostrils flared, “Excuse me, Potter?” he said, “How dare you interrupt me”

Albus was stunned, Professor Selbit surely wasn’t about to take Caedus’ word for what had happened? He was going to argue his point, even if it got him in trouble.

“I’m sorry, Sir, but Caedus is lying” continued Albus, as calmly as he could under the circumstances.

“Explain yourself then, as I have it on good authority that you performed a Hex on Mr Holloway, unprovoked,” said Selbit, looking down at him with an icy stare.

Albus ignored the final part of his statement, Caedus had clearly bent the truth there as well. “Sir, Scorpius, Bertie, and I were all in our compartment when Caedus arrived and challenged Scorpius to a duel"

 Selbit blew air out of his nostrils and sat back down behind the desk, “One of you is lying to me, and I strongly suggest that you own up now”

Caedus shuffled on the spot and spoke, “Sir, if it’s all the same, I would just like to add that Bingham was the one who attacked me physically. He just lashed out at me”. He flashed his eyes towards Matt, a horrible glint in them.

“Shut your mouth!” snapped Matt, who took a step towards him, only to be stopped by Professor Longbottom, who shook his head at him. Matt calmed down and faced Selbit. “Professor, Fleet had been calling Bertie and Albus horrible names”

Caedus’ mouth opened slightly, and he looked remorsefully at the pair of them, “I’m sorry, I didn’t realise that you’d find those words offensive” he dramatically placed his hand over his heart, “I promise that it won’t happen again”

Selbit placed his fingers together, “Yes, well, even so…” he started, “Offensive speech must be punished, regardless of intent”

“Of course, Sir” lamented Caedus, giving an exaggerated bow with his neck.

“Mr Hadham, could I please ask you to confirm the language that Mr Fleet used towards you?” asked Selbit, softly.

Bertie looked petrified, he’d been standing there the whole time not knowing how he’d been dragged into this situation. He stuttered for a few seconds, “I…um…”

“Professor, I believe that any issues between myself and Albert can be sorted out between ourselves, we are both grown up enough to know that what I said was all just some banter that got misunderstood,” said Caedus, the words slithering out of his mouth. He grabbed Bertie’s hand and shook it vigorously, “I apologise for any offence caused”. He winked at Albus and Matt, a horrible grin on his face, before letting go and falling back into line.

Selbit nodded, “I appreciate the apology, though I must still insist that you are punished” he jotted some notes down on a piece of parchment, “A weeks detention, to be served with Professor Constantine”

Albus, Matt, and Scorpius all looked at each other, flabbergasted at how Selbit had brought Caedus’ story, hook line and sinker. Both of them were desperate to air their protests, but Selbit continued before they had the chance.

“As for the rest of you, I am more than willing to see you all expelled and sent home tonight” he barked, then exhaled, “However, your heads of houses have talked me out of that course of action. Consider yourselves exceedingly lucky to still be allowed to continue your education. I must stress that all three of you are on your very last warnings, and another toe out of line will see you expelled from this school, I will be writing to your parents to make this very clear to them”. He wrote down some more notes on a piece of parchment and turned back to them, “Furthermore, you will all be given detention. Mr Filch has informed me that the suits of armour in the school could all do with cleaning, so I have offered your services. You will need to attend to them four times a week and clean them without the use of magic”

Scorpius raised his voice, “But Sir, there are hundreds of them, that will take months! We won’t have time to get anything else done!”

“One toe, Mr Malfoy!” shouted Selbit, raising the spectre of expulsion over his head “This is a punishment, you will have to organise your time appropriately to ensure that your homework and additional studies are completed on time”

Furious at the double standards being applied to them, the three were desperate to raise their displeasure at Selbit’s decision. This wasn’t helped by Caedus doing his best to suppress a laugh and looking smugly at them. Knowing that any further protests would likely see them expelled, they stiffly nodded and looked at the floor.

Selbit sighed and looked to relax, “Potter, Malfoy, Bingham, please go to your dormitories, food will be sent to you. Mr Fleet and Mr Hadham, you may return to the Great Hall for the feast, if you get there in time you should be able to see the end of the Sorting”

“Actually, Sir, I’d rather go to the dormitory too,” said Bertie in a quavering voice.

Selbit waved his hand, “Very well. Now, away with you!” he snapped.

Silently, everyone left the office and returned to the Grand Staircase. Professor Constantine led Scorpius and Caedus downstairs, leaving Professor Longbottom with the three Gryffindors. The disappointment in his eyes made Albus feel incredibly guilty, and he looked like he had a hundred things to say to both him and Matt.

He sighed and dismissed them with a wave of his hand, “Just go to Gryffindor Tower and keep yourselves out of trouble”. With that, he started walking downstairs towards the Great Hall.

It wasn’t until Albus reached the dormitory that he realised just how hungry he was, and he was desperately craving the slice of steak that he’d been fantasising about for the last few weeks. He slumped on his bed and changed out of his robes, not having any desire to spend a second longer in them today. Matt was in the process of unpacking his trunk, throwing pairs of socks into his bedside drawer more vigorously than he needed to. By contrast, Bertie was meekly unpacking his own trunk.

Matt broke the silence, “I hate Caedus, just hate him, and Selbit isn’t any better!” he let out a shout and kicked his bed. Wincing in pain he sat down on the mattress and rubbed his foot. “He just swallowed all of that nonsense from Caedus, every single word of that complete lie!”

Albus didn’t look at him, “I know” he replied quietly, “But I’m not risking getting expelled just to expose it”

“Well, we don’t need to risk that to get him into the trouble he deserves,” said Matt, turning a penetrating gaze to Bertie and stepping towards him, “You” he snapped, “Tell Selbit that Caedus called you a…you-know-what”

Bertie shuffled awkwardly on the bed, “I just panicked…”

“Panicked?!” snapped Matt, “You knew full well what Caedus was playing at back there, so why didn’t you say anything?”

Albus stood up, “Leave him alone, Matt!”

“Why should I?”

“Because it’s hardly his fault that Selbit is a gullible idiot!” said Albus, raising his voice.

At this moment, Bertie slammed his fist on his bedside table and stood up. Albus and Matt both jumped and fell silent.

“Will both of you please shut up!” he cried, “I’m tired of everyone getting on each other’s nerves like this, I hate it!”. He looked between them both and then turned his gaze at the floor. “And I also hate it when people get offended on my behalf…” he quietly added.

“What do you mean?” asked Albus

Bertie let out a small laugh, “Whenever I get called a ‘mudblood’ it’s always you two who are the first to pull your wands out! You don’t need to get involved, ok?”

“But it’s a horrible word, you don’t need to put up with being called it!” Matt insisted

“I know it’s a horrible word, and if someone called any other Muggle-born by it I’d be angry. But you don’t need to get all gung-ho and defensive for me, it’s for me to deal with” said Bertie, indicating that the conversation was finished by sitting back down on his bed and continuing to unpack. “I thought we were getting food sent up to us?” he said.

As if someone was eavesdropping on them, a plate of steaming hot food suddenly appeared on each of their bedside tables, alongside a goblet of pumpkin juice. They were pleasantly surprised to see that the plates had been filled with their favourite food. The juicy looking steak on Albus’ made his mouth water, and he eagerly tucked in, relieved to finally be eating after such a long day. The silence that fell over the three of them was much needed, and it seemed to let them all calm down.

When Matt had polished off the last of his chicken breast, washed down with a large swig of pumpkin juice, he laid back on his bed and propped himself up with a pillow. “So, how bad do you think our detentions are going to be?” he asked Albus.

Albus, who had been trying to not think about the months of work ahead of them, spent a few moments thinking before answering, “Pretty bad” he said, before finishing his own pumpkin juice. “It could take us up to Christmas to get them all done…”

Matt dropped his knife and fork on his plate and leant back on his bed again, gazing up through the top of the four-poster, “Great” he whispered, “My Dad will be pleased…”

Both Albus and Bertie looked at each other at the mention of his father, they could both remember the bizarre encounter they’d had with him before the World Cup.

“Hey, Matt, about your…” started Albus

“Don’t ask” snapped Matt, “I don’t want to talk about him”

Albus gulped and heeded his words, quietly returning to his unpacking. He reached out the bottom of his trunk, feeling for his most important piece of luggage. His hand touched the leather, and he pulled it out, knowing that Matt wasn’t paying him any attention. Despite everything, he was still desperate to understand the secrets of the book, but even he wasn’t sure how much to risk.

‘One toe out of line’

Professor Selbit’s words rang out inside his head. It would only take one misstep for him to have the perfect excuse to expel Albus, just one late night rush back to the common room that a teacher happened to cross paths with, just one encounter with Peeves, just one run-in with Mrs Norris. Albus caressed the book and considered his options. Knowing just how desperate Professor Marlowe was to get his hands on it made Albus believe that he would also be doing his best to get him expelled, he would have to be on his guard at all times around him. Then there was Caedus. He had heard everything that Selbit had said, and he now knew just how much power he had over Albus and Scorpius in particular, the lies would surely only get worse from here.

Albus sighed and carefully placed the book back in the trunk, it was certainly the safest place for it now, Marlowe couldn’t get inside the Common Room after all. He looked up and could see Bertie observing him out of the corner of his eye, and he faced him straight on when they made eye contact.

“We need a plan about what we do about…that” he whispered, nodding towards Albus’ trunk.

Albus nodded in reply and quickly looked over to Matt’s bed to check he wasn’t listening. “I’m sure we’ll have a lesson with Scorpius this week, we’ll talk then”

The dormitory door swung open hard, hitting the wall. Leon burst in, panting, followed by the bored-looking Shaun McLaren, who brushed past him and sat down on his own bed.

Leon had his hands on his knees, “What…the hell…happened to you?” he panted “Caedus was…saying…that you…nearly got…expelled!”

He stood up straight and leant against a cabinet along the wall, slowly getting his breath back. Matt stared at him.

“Did you run all the way up here?” he asked, amused

Leon coughed, “Well excuse me for caring about my friends!” he cried out

Matt raised his hands, “Sorry! But to answer your question, yes, we did” his face contorted, “And that slimy git Caedus Fleet got away with it! He lied to Selbit’s face!”

“You’re joking?” said Leon, aghast. Shaking his head he sat down on his own bed and opened a packet of Bertie Botts Every Flavour Beans, putting a couple into his mouth at once, which is never recommended. His eyes watered as he chewed them, quickly spitting them out onto the floor.

Shaun turned his nose up, “That’s disgusting, Leon” he stated, before loosening his tie and handing it on the frame of his bed.

Not keen to continue talking about what happened with Selbit any longer, Albus changed the subject. “Did we miss any important announcements during the feast?” he asked.

Leon shook his head, “Not really, I’m pretty sure Selbit used the same speech as last year” he eyed another bean suspiciously, giving it a sniff before placing it in his mouth, “Thank god, grape” he whispered, “There was something weird though, I couldn’t see Professor Marlowe anywhere”

Albus sat up straight, “What? Did anyone say why?”

“Nope” answered Leon, “Might’ve been ill though, do you remember how dreadful he looked at the end of last year?”

Nodding slowly, Albus glanced at Bertie, who had a similarly worried look on his face. Albus had his doubts that Marlowe was ill and now looked worriedly towards his trunk.

“You ok, mate?” asked Leon, who was sniffing yet another bean.

Albus nodded, “Of course I am” he stretched his arms above his head and let out a long yawn, “Just tired, that’s all”

“Don’t blame you?” said Leon, “So if you didn’t get expelled, what did Selbit punish you with?”

Matt replied, “Cleaning every single suit of armour in the castle, without magic”

“That’s mental! You’ll be there for-“

“Months,” said Albus and Matt simultaneously.

Leon nodded, “Exactly, you’ll-

“Never get anything else done,” they both said again, more wearily.

This time Leon said nothing, instead, he just started to divide his beans up into those he thought would be vaguely edible. They sat in silence for a few moments before Albus finally voiced the one question that had really been burning away at him.

“Did you speak to Rose at all?” he asked Leon. Across the room, Matt glanced at Leon to listen to his answer.

“Yeah, she’s angry at you two!” he replied, half laughing. “Don’t worry too much though, Sophie and Amy were both talking her down while we were eating”

Albus breathed a sigh of relief, “Thank Merlin for that, I can’t go another year where people aren’t talking to me”

A collective yawn went around the room, and everyone agreed that an early night was in order. Albus pulled the curtains around his bed and settled down as best he could. Not a single part of him could’ve predicted what had happened that day, and the additional stress of having to tiptoe around Hogwarts for the foreseeable future was not putting his mind at ease. He rolled over and tried to settle again, this time thinking about more hopeful things, the new spells he’d be learning, the jokes he’d share with his housemates, the teas with Hagrid.

Albus smiled, this was better. Despite everything, he was still happy to be back at Hogwarts.

Chapter Text

Chapter Six: Constantine's Warning

Nothing made Albus feel more like he was back at Hogwarts than the sound of Shaun McLaren getting up at the crack of dawn. Unlike the year before though, none of his fellow Gryffindors got up with him, they’d learned over time that Shaun getting up meant they still had at least an hour before they needed to do anything. Normally, these times would be filled with everyone trying to make each other laugh from their beds, this usually meant someone making a silly noise, and then the rest doing their best to hold in their giggles.

As the clock struck seven, Leon suddenly jumped out of bed and raced down into the Common Room.

“What’s he up to?” asked Matt, rubbing his eyes and finally sitting up himself.

Albus and Bertie both climbed out of bed and changed into their robes for the day ahead, though both felt thoroughly unprepared for their lessons to start. Albus threw various quills and rolls of parchment into his bag and threw it over his shoulder, waiting for the others to finish getting ready to go down to breakfast. As he was waiting, Leon came bounding up the stairs and into the dormitory, he was clutching a flier in his hand.

“Quidditch try-outs!” he declared, waving the flier in the air, “They’re opening up the whole team! That means your brother will have to try out again, Al”

Albus had known about this since the summer, as it was one of only two things that James had talked about, alongside the World Cup of course. James had spent almost every hour practising his flying in the back garden and had even recruited Teddy to shoot bewitched rocks at him so he could practice dodging Bludgers.  

“He’ll be fine,” said Albus

Leon nodded, “I’m sure he will be, I’d be surprised if anyone else tried out for Seeker anyway”

“What are you trying out for?” asked Bertie, who was tying his tie.

“Chaser,” said Leon, “It’s impossible to practice at home though, I’m surrounded by Muggles where I live! I might ask Caprice Flynn if I can go down early to get some practice in beforehand…” he pondered whilst stepping over to his bed. “I know that second-years hardly ever get on the team, but I just have to try”

Bertie pulled his robe on, “You’re the best flyer in our year! You’ve definitely got a chance”

Leon grinned as he quickly got dressed, “Thanks, Bertie”

They met up with the girls in the Common Room before they walked down to breakfast together. Albus gave Rose a small smile, but she just raised her nose and defiantly looked away from him. Fortunately, the others weren’t ignoring him. Bertie, Sophie King, and Hope Okoye were catching up on all things ‘muggle-born’, whilst Jess and Leon were teasing Matt about his bedhead. This left Amy Barnes and Albus talking to each other.

“Just so you know, I do agree with Rose that you were an idiot to get involved in that duel, but at the same time those Slytherins had it coming to them,” she said, trying to flatten her messy hair.

“Thanks?” said Albus, slightly puzzled.

Amy finally wrestled a clip into place that kept most of her fringe out of her eyes, “Rose will cheer up, don’t worry” she said, almost reading Albus’ mind. “But if you are going to get into another duel, please make sure you hit Caedus”

Albus allowed himself to laugh, he’d missed Amy’s slightly brutal honesty. She started to rub a mud stain from her robes, something that must have been there from last year. Amy always seemed to have the look of someone who had walked through a hedge to get wherever she was going, but she managed to carry it off.

“Stupid thing,” she said, rubbing harder, “That potion my Mum made didn’t work at all!”

“Ask Bertie to have a look, he’ll be able to clean it with a charm,” said Albus, pointing at the back of Bertie’s head.

“Good shout,” she said, leaving the stain alone at last

The Great Hall was surprisingly busy with people filling up before the start of the day. Albus had missed the smell of the dozens of plates of bacon and eggs in the hall, and he sat down at the Gryffindor table to stuff his plate high with just about everything in sight, he still had his appetite from the night before.

Timetables were soon passed down the table and distributed to the second-years. Albus could only glance at his one whilst eating his bacon and eggs, but could clearly see that their first lesson of the term would be Defence Against the Dark Arts.

“Brilliant!” exclaimed Leon, “Constantine first up!"

“We’re still with the Slytherins though,” said Sophie, mournfully.

Albus frowned then picked up his timetable to see what else his day had in store. After Defence, he would have Transfiguration, Herbology, History of Magic, and Charms.

“Not too bad, we could do without History of Magic being there though,” he said, “Then Double Potions first thing tomorrow morning, that’s going to be rough…”

Especially, thought Albus, as it meant he would probably end up seeing Professor Marlowe for the first time this year. He looked up at the staff table to see if Marlowe was anywhere to be seen, but only Professor Mutati, the Transfiguration teacher, and Professor Sinistra, who taught Astronomy, were up there at the moment. Albus turned back to his breakfast and finished the last of his bacon. Maybe Marlowe was still unwell, thought Albus.

All of a sudden the air was filled with the sound of flapping wings. Albus looked up to see a flock of owls descending from the rafters and down towards the long tables, each one carrying letters, parcels, and rolled-up newspapers and magazines. A tawny owl dropped a copy of the Daily Prophet in front of Bertie, who dropped a bronze Knut into a leather pouch worn by the owl.

Albus was about to pick up a piece of toast when a large grey owl dropped a sealed envelope onto his plate. He looked up at the owl as it flew away, it wasn’t one he recognised. He turned it over and read the address:

Albus Potter

The Great Hall

Hogwarts

He recognised the writing immediately, and he tentatively opened it up and started to read.

Albus,  

We’ve just received a letter from Professor Selbit concerning an incident that took place on the Hogwarts Express on the way to school.

What were you thinking!? Duelling with students will always be a terrible idea, and you fully deserve your punishment for doing so. There is no excuse for this, and both your mother and I are incredibly disappointed in your actions.  

I’m sure it’s been made clear to you that any further transgressions this year will see you expelled immediately. We fully agree with Professor Selbit about this.

Please, Albus, stay out of trouble and just focus on your studies, that’s what you’re at school for. We’ll keep in touch and help you as much as we can.

Dad

Albus read the letter a couple of times, folded it up and put it inside his robes, then leant on his hand glumly. He glanced down the table and met Rose’s eyes, she had an ‘I told you so’ expression on her face before she pointed her nose up and turned away from him.

“Can you believe him?!” fumed Matt.

Albus looked at him and saw that he too was holding a letter in his hands. Clearly, his parents had written to him as well. Matt scrunched the paper up and stuffed it in his pocket, before folding his arms and looking at Albus.

“Did you get one too?” Matt asked

Albus nodded slightly, silently begging him to not go on about it in the middle of the Great Hall, they were attracting enough attention anyway.

“My Dad spent half the letter talking about his ‘reputation being on the line’ because of me. Reputation? Pah!” he spat

Rose got up from her seat and walked towards them both, “Did he address it to ‘Matthias?” she smirked, before carrying on out of the hall.

Matt glared after her, “What is her problem, seriously?!” he growled, “Well fine then if she wants to be like that…” he slammed the table, rattling the goblets and startling some terrified looking first-years, and thumped his way out of the hall, though Albus suspected he wasn’t going after Rose.

“Someone has to sort those two out,” said Leon, shaking his head.

Jessie Sears giggled, “It’s his fault really”

“How?” asked Leon, puzzled, “She’s the one who-“

The bell rang out, signalling that they only had a few minutes to get to their first lesson. At once, the hall stood up in a clatter of cutlery as they rushed to get out and to lessons. The Gryffindors all followed and made their way up the stairs to the third floor. Taking the first right and up another short flight of stairs they found themselves outside the familiar wooden door of the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom, and they were delighted to see that the Slytherins hadn’t arrived yet.

“Huh, wonder where Rose is?” asked Bertie, “Or Matt?”

The door opened as Bertie said this, and there stood the tall, bald, scar-faced Professor Constantine. His warm smile was present as he greeted them.

“Rose?” he said in his deep voice, “She’s in here already”

He stepped aside to allow them in, and sure enough, Rose was already sitting on the front desk of the classroom, her books laid out neatly in front of her. She didn’t acknowledge the others as they entered, though she did give Amy a small smile when she sat down next to her. Albus and Bertie grabbed a desk together and unpacked their things, watching the door to see when the Slytherins, and Matt, would turn up.

As some chatter grew outside the classroom, they knew that the Slytherins were arriving. The door burst open and Caedus strutted into the classroom with a smug look on his face. Albus faced the front of the classroom and ignored him and the rest of the Slytherins, he wasn’t prepared to let them wind him up today.

“Settle down, please,” said Constantine, “We have lots to get through today”

“Sir,” said Leon, pointing behind him, “Is that a Romania scarf?”

Constantine turned around and looked at a red and yellow scarf that was laying on the desk. He gave Leon a small smile, “A present from a student, they’d apparently heard that I have family roots in that part of the world. I’m afraid I’m not a particularly big fan of Quidditch, Mr Newland” he finished, clearly noting that Leon was about to give him a run-down of everything that didn’t work for Romania tactically.

Albus heard one of the chairs on the desk behind being pulled out, he turned around to see Scorpius there, he’d clearly snuck in after the rest of his housemates had already arrived.

“Morning you two,” he said, quickly unpacking, “Good, I’m not late”

At the front of the classroom, Constantine was counting up the students and making a mental note of the register. He furrowed his brow, “Who’s missing?” he asked.

“Bingham, sir” answered Rose, straight away, “Don’t know where he is”

Constantine looked puzzled, “I see, well he’s got another minute before the lesson starts, so we can-“

The door opened once more, and a panting Matt was standing in the doorway.

“Sorry sir” he started, “I’m on time”

Constantine shook his head and let out a small chuckle, “Just about, Mr Bingham. Take a seat quickly, please. There’s a spare space next to Mr Malfoy”

Matt hesitated and blinked at Scorpius for a moment, before sitting down. Scorpius gave him a short nod but didn’t look all that thrilled at having to sit next to him.

“Excellent, now we’re all here…” Constantine tapped the chalkboard, making words appear upon it “We can get stuck right in. You will remember last year that we began our tuition in defensive charms and jinxes, and this year we shall be starting to look at some slightly more advanced spells and techniques” he paced up and down the room, almost hypnotically. “Normally we would take a look at how to defend yourself in a duelling situation, however, due to recent events”, Albus felt twenty eyes turn towards him, “the headmaster has requested that we postpone that particular part of the curriculum until later in the year”

Caedus’ hand shot into the air, “Sir, when will be doing that?”

“Please wait for me to point to you before asking me a question, Mr Fleet,” said Constantine, wearily, “We will get to that section when we get to it, that’s all you need to know for now”

“But Sir, I just want to know how long I’ve got before I know to defend myself from Bingham,” said Caedus, feigning fear.

The Slytherins descended into quiet titters. From behind Albus was the sound of a chair squeaking on the floor as it moved back ever so slightly. He didn’t dare turn round, but he could tell that Matt was on the brink of making a catastrophic mistake. It didn’t come though. Matt stopped moving.

Constantine sighed, “Mr Fleet, one more word and it will be a second week of detentions”

Caedus’ hand fell down and he looked away from Constantine with a glum expression. Albus now felt safe to look back, and he could see that Matt had his head bowed and was physically shaking, but he wasn’t moving anywhere for now. Then Albus saw why. Scorpius had a handful of Matt’s robes, preventing him from getting up.

“As I was saying” continued Constantine, “We will be building on the knowledge and skills we gained last year. This does mean that you will need to be working twice as hard, but your excellent exam results last year show me that you are more than capable of doing this” he smiled at them warmly. “Now, wands out, let’s see how much you’ve retained from last year” he swung his wand in the air and conjured a pillow onto each table. “Take it in turns to show me your Knockback Jinx”

The tables moved to one side once everyone had got up, and the room was soon filled with blue flashes and flying pillows. Albus quickly learned that Bertie’s aim had improved, as their pillow hit him in the side of his head whilst he was sharing a joke with Scorpius and not paying attention.

“Careful!” laughed Albus, “My turn” Albus placed the pillow down and stepped back, aiming his wand at it. He was about to fire his spell when he heard a cry of pain from next to him.

His head snapped around to see Matt writing on the floor, clutching his foot. Professor Constantine rushed over to him and helped him up, and he was quickly joined by Caedus, who was clutching his wand.

“Sorry Bingham, my wand slipped,” he said insincerely.

Matt glowered at him, “You absolute…”

“Matt,” said Constantine, placing a firm hand on his shoulder, then turned to the rest of the class. “Please take a seat”. He waved his wand, away went the cushions, and the desks reappeared.

The class silently took their seats, though Matt made a point of sitting down as loudly as he could, glaring at Caedus all the while. Constantine walked between the desks on his way to the front of the classroom, erasing the chalkboard with a flick of his wand.

“In my classes, I expect you all to retain control of yourselves,” he said seriously, but calmly, “You are responsible for each other’s well-being, and I will be firm with anyone who puts that in jeopardy” he eyes flashed towards Caedus, then back to the rest of the class, “When you enter this classroom, you are leaving any grievances you have with each other aside. You are here to learn, not settle grudges. Do I make myself clear?” The class responded as one, and Constantine blinked slowly with a sigh. “That will be all for today, class dismissed”

In complete silence, the class packed their things away and made their way to the door, but Constantine stopped them before they could leave. “Actually, could Mr Potter, Mr Bingham, and Mr Malfoy stay behind?”

Matt groaned, “What have we done now?”

Albus looked at Bertie, “See you in Transfiguration, I guess”

They trudged to the front of the classroom and stood in front of Constantine; their heads focussed on the floor.

“Don’t look so upset” said Constantine, “You’re not in any trouble”

“Makes a change” scoffed Matt

“Quite, Mr Bingham” chuckled Constantine, then his face fell, “I just wanted to apologise”

The three boys all looked at each other, they hadn’t been expecting that.

“For what, Sir?” asked Albus

Constantine looked them all straight in the eye, “For not doing more to help you last night” he said forlornly, “I don’t know exactly what happened on the train, of course, but I’m not naïve enough to believe that Mr Fleet was being completely truthful about the events that happened”

“You can say that again” scoffed Matt, “He’s a liar through and through sir!”

Constantine held a hand up to tell him to calm down, “Matt, please. I understand your frustration”

“It’s not just Caedus though!” continued Matt, ignoring Constantine’s pleas, “Selbit was the one who lapped all of that up!”

“Professor Selbit, please,” said Constantine, “And I also understand your frustration there. But please don’t let your anger sabotage you. You’re walking on eggshells at the moment, and I don’t want to see you crack them” he checked his watch, “You’d better get going to your next lessons”

Matt carried on, “But Caedus…”

“Mr Fleet will be dealt with appropriately. He himself is working on a short leash as it is” Constantine rubbed his head, “Now, away with you. Apart from you, Albus” he said.

Scorpius and Matt both looked at him with surprise, but they left the classroom without another word. Albus stood in silence for a moment, Constantine was looking towards the door, perhaps to make sure that the other two had definitely left.

Satisfied, Constantine turned towards Albus, “I just wanted to catch up with you, Albus” he said.

“Oh, ok…” stuttered Albus, “What about?”

“How was your summer?” he asked, his eyes digging into Albus’.

Albus stammered, “Oh, um, fine? We went to the World Cup and…”

“We?”

“Ye-yeah. Me, my family, Rose’s family, Teddy, and Bertie”

Constantine lifted his chin ever so slightly, then closed his eyes and nodded, “I see”. He opened his eyes again, they seemed to penetrate Albus’ head much harder this time.

Albus had no idea what to make of this questioning, “Um, Sir, what’s all this about?”

“Keep yourself out of trouble, Albus”, Constantine said simply, before he waved him towards the door. There was little sense that he had listened to Albus’ question.

Stuttering, Albus tried to find more words, but they didn’t come. He picked up his bag and made a hasty exit from the classroom, not looking back. He raced downstairs to Transfiguration, praying that he’d make it in time.

“Eh? What do you think he meant?” Scorpius looked at Albus with a raised eyebrow whilst they were sitting in the library, making a concerted effort to get ahead with their Transfiguration essays at lunchtime.

Albus shook his head, “I’ve got no idea”. His quill scratched away on the parchment as he finished off his introduction, “It’s strange though, he asked me something similar before the holidays”

“Where’s all this interest in what you’re doing come from all of a sudden?” said Scorpius, firmly crossing out a line of writing.

Bertie looked at him, “You said last year that you thought Constantine might want to take the book for himself, you don’t think he was looking for information or something, do you?”

Scorpius tapped his quill on the table a couple of times, “I don’t know, but it does seem odd”

“You don’t still believe that, do you?” asked Albus, “I hoped you would’ve dropped it by now!”

“Hey, I didn’t accuse him of anything!” Scorpius protested, holding his hands up, “I just think we should keep an open mind about it, that’s all. All I think is that there’s something a bit suspicious about Constantine asking a question like that”

Bertie was in deep thought, “Do you think Constantine knows we have the book?”

Albus shook his head, “Why would he assume that? I’m sure he knows that Marlowe doesn’t have it, but why would he think we do?”

“It’s not a massive leap,” said Scorpius, “If anything it’s the most logical theory for him!”

“Why’s that?”

Placing his quill down, Scorpius rubbed his chin, “Think about it, I’m sure he could’ve made a link between Caedus and me fighting on the day we took the book, and the sudden change in Marlowe’s demeanour after we had” he pressed his lips together in thought, “Come to think of it, that’s probably how Marlowe worked out it was us who took it as well”

Albus kept his eyes on him, then looked down at the table, “I’ll admit that it does make some sense, Constantine is pretty sharp…”. He absentmindedly rolled the corner of his parchment up slightly, then shook his head and cleared it away. “I’m hungry, want to grab something to eat from the Great Hall quickly?”

Bertie nodded and put his own essay away, whilst Scorpius continued to stare at Albus.

“Doesn’t it bother you?” he asked

“What?”

Scorpius lowered his voice, “That there are two teachers who know you have this book, and neither of them has made a single attempt to get it yet”

“The book’s safe, Scorpius” insisted Albus, “It’s locked away in my dormitory, they won’t be able to get in”

“Shh!” hissed Scorpius, “Don’t say that out loud!” He gave Albus a dirty look, but packed his things away and stood up to leave, “Let’s just get some food then”

They left the library, avoiding the gaze of the prowling Madam Pince when they walked past her desk. The corridors were littered with students making the most of what remained of their lunch break, and Albus had to weave between a group of lost-looking first-years to get through to the Great Hall. They sat at the end of the Gryffindor table, and Scorpius warily joined in, looking around nervously.

“You’re only eating,” said Albus, with a grin. He grabbed a couple of sandwiches and put them on his plate, he didn’t have long before his Herbology lesson started.

Scorpius relaxed slightly but still had to endure the accusing stares of some of the older Gryffindors as they walked by. “Easy for you to say” he mumbled, grabbing a pork pie. “Just out of interest, when are we planning on looking at the book again? If we’ve got Marlowe and Constantine breathing down our necks it might be a good idea to get started right away”

Albus shrugged, “Sure, as long as we don’t have-“

“Albus, there you are, been looking all over for you” Matt appeared at the table, holding out a small piece of parchment to him, “Detention,” he said simply.

“Tonight?” said Albus, reading the parchment wide-eyed

Matt nodded, “Yep, then tomorrow, Thursday, and Friday”

Bertie grimaced, “At least you get Wednesday off,” he said, optimistically.

“That’s Astronomy night” Matt reminded him

“Oh…” said Bertie, his face falling, “How long are these detentions for?”

Matt sighed, “An hour”. He looked around, then spotted Scorpius, “Oh, hello”

“Hi” replied Scorpius, looking blank, “Don’t suppose you’ve got one of those notes for me, have you?”

Matt glanced at Albus, then nodded at Scorpius, “Sure, here” he handed him the remaining note. There was a brief moment of silence where Matt and Scorpius looked straight at each other.

“Thanks,” said Scorpius, finally, as he scanned the note that confirmed the time of their punishment. “Just after dinner, so at least we’ll get to eat”

Matt ignored him and addressed Albus, “Do you know when Mutati’s essay is due? I want to get it started as soon as I can”

Albus was about to answer when Scorpius interjected, “Aren’t you going to thank me?” he was talking to Matt.

He slowly turned his head towards him and blinked a couple of times, “Thanks for what?” he asked, slowly and deliberately.

“For stopping you from knocking seven bells out of Caedus earlier”

Matt shrugged, “I didn’t need you to stop me” he looked back at Albus and Bertie, “See you in Herbology”, waving and walking out of the Great Hall.

“Nice guy” muttered Scorpius as he watched Matt walking away.

Albus pushed his plate away and stood up, “Don’t even start” he pleaded, “You’re going to be spending months with him, and I can’t face any arguments”. Pulling his bag over his head he went to leave the Great Hall, followed by Bertie.

“Seriously? It wasn’t that long ago that you hated each other!” said Scorpius

Albus scoffed, “We didn’t hate each other, we just…didn’t get along”

Scorpius gave a single, loud, laugh and shook his head, “Whatever you say. But fine, I promise not to wind Matt up, too much”

Giving a final groan and overdramatic eye roll, Albus left the Great Hall. The next week was going to crawl by, he just knew it.

Chapter Text

Chapter Seven: Woozy

The sound of Scorpius’ back cracking rang throughout the Grand Staircase as he leant down to scrub the last bit of polish onto the feet of the suit of armour, which was giggling.

“Stop moving,” he said through gritted teeth, as the suit of armour jiggled.

Albus rubbed his hands together and gave them a quick sniff. Polish. That was all he’d smelt of all week. He picked up his dirty cloth and rested it on his shoulder, taking care to not stain his shirt. Looking further down the stairs he could see Matt putting the finishing touches to a sword he’d been working on for the last twenty minutes, it now looked like a very thin mirror.

Scorpius finished off the feet and looked down at Matt, “You need to speed up, otherwise we’ll be here when we start our O.W.L’s” he groaned.

“Shut it” snapped Matt, “I’m not taking any chances when Filch comes round to inspect our work. Remember what happened on Tuesday?”

Scorpius blew air out of his nose and groaned. He stood up and winced, rubbing his back. “How was I supposed to know he’d lift the visor?”

The faint sound of arthritic footsteps and heavy breathing came from below them, signalling the arrival of Mr Filch, the caretaker.

“Here we go” breathed Scorpius, quickly brushing a speck of dust off the helmet of his suit of armour.

Filch trudged up the stairs, a lantern in his hand and his ever-faithful companion Mrs Norris strutting not far behind. Her amber eyes always made Albus feel nervous, but he wasn’t a particularly big cat fan anyway, and she was eyeing each of them up in turn.

“Right, let’s see what you’ve done today” heaved Filch, stepping up to Matt and eyeballing the suit of armour he’d been working on all evening. “This it?” said Filch

“Err, yeah” replied Matt

“Hmph” breathed Filch. He rubbed a finger down the flat of the sword and inspected it, “Dirty” he snapped, turning right and walking up the stairs to Scorpius.

Behind him, Matt slapped his forehead and rubbed his hand down his face in frustration, leaving behind an obvious mark of polish.

Scorpius swung his arms along the row of three suits he’d been able to clean that evening, “These three, Mr Filch” he said.

Filch ignored him and gave them a very brief look, “Awful” he mumbled, moving along to Albus, who’d managed to clean two suits. He focussed on one of the belt buckles and gave it a rub. “Marginally better,” he said. “Mr Malfoy will need to redo his three tomorrow, and Mr Bingham will give that sword another layer of polish, after that, you can move to the next lot with Mr Potter”

Matt stuck his tongue out behind Filch’s back and threw some rude gestures in his direction. Scorpius looked like he could’ve thrown his three suits over the side of the stairs. Meanwhile, Mr Filch was continuing upwards, turning down another corridor and out of sight.

Once he had gone, Scorpius let out a loud swear word and kicked the nearest suit of armour. The echo rang throughout the staircase, and Albus was sure that it would’ve been heard by someone else, even the slightly deaf Mr Filch.

“Do you have to do that?” sighed Albus, who was placing his cleaning tools into his bucket, “You’re just making more work for yourself”

Scorpius ignored him, “We’re going to be here for years…” he moaned

Matt was now walking up towards them, carrying his brush and bottle of polish, “You’re trying to do too much, you idiot” he said blankly as he passed him.

“Shut it,” said Scorpius, who threw his tools into his bucket, “I just want to get this done”

Matt faced him, “We’re not ‘done’ until Filch says we are, so we’re better off making sure these are actually clean” he rubbed a finger down one of Scorpius’ helmets, showing it to him, “Look, there’s still dirt on it”

“I said shut it!” growled Scorpius standing up in Matt’s face, their foreheads dangerously close together, and their eyes locked together. “Don’t criticise me, Matthi-“

Sensing danger, Albus quickly stepped between them, “Ok, ok. Calm down”. Mercifully, they both took a breath and seemed to relax. “We’ve had a long week, let’s just get to bed”

Matt stepped back first, picking his things up and starting to head upstairs towards the Gryffindor Common Room, stopping on the next landing to wait for Albus to follow.

“You ok?” Albus asked Scorpius.

Scorpius scratched his head and looked away, “Fine” he said shortly, “Like you said, long day”. He glanced up towards Matt, who was looking away and tapping his foot, “Tell him to get off my back, I’ve had enough of it”

Albus frowned at him, “You both need to lay off it, I’m not going to watch both of you get expelled for fighting each other”

“Thanks for stopping us, I guess” he replied, meekly

Albus paused for a moment before speaking again, “It’s late”

Scorpius looked out of the window into the dark, cloud-covered sky and nodded, “Yeah, I’ll probably fall asleep here if I don’t get going” he chuckled nervously before looking downstairs, and the way to the Slytherin Common Room. “See you tomorrow” he lowered his voice, “Are we still doing the…you know?”

Albus nodded, “Usual place”

They bade each other goodnight, leaving Albus free to join Matt on the landing. He was leaning against the stone bannister, looking aimlessly into thin air when Albus reached him.

“Finally” he yawned, “Let’s go”

They made their way up the many flights of stairs to the seventh floor, where Gryffindor Tower was located, passing several students who were rushing back to their common rooms before they could get punished for being up too late. The Fat Lady came into view.

“Donkey Hoof,” said Albus, making her portrait swing open.

Both he and Matt were pleased to see that not everyone had gone to bed just yet and that there was still a buzz in the Common Room. When they’d returned there on previous nights that week, the place had been nearly empty. The oncoming weekend had lifted everyone’s spirits after a long first week back.

“Have you seen your face?” asked Leon, who had been hunched over a stack of Quidditch tactics charts, as Albus and Matt walked over to the usual corner that the second-years occupied.

Everyone else looked up at Matt, spotting the large stain of polish running from his forehead down to his chin. Sophie and Jess were both suppressing giggles.

Matt took a breath, “I think I’ll have a shower”. He spun around and walked out of the Common Room and turned down the small passageway that led to the boys' bathroom.

Albus pulled a chair out and sat next to Bertie. He was putting the finishing touches to a Potions essay that Albus hadn’t even started yet. His first Potions lesson back had been more uneventful than Albus had anticipated. Marlowe barely paid him any attention, aside from calling his name out in the register. He was looking much thinner than before, but he had at least shaved since the previous year, but that aside, it was hard to say that he looked any more bothered by the fact he didn’t have the book in his possession.

“How was Hagrid’s?” asked Albus

Bertie didn’t look up from his essay, “It was fine, he was disappointed you weren’t there though. You should go and see him tomorrow, maybe”

Albus nodded, “I will”. He rubbed his eyes, finally noticing how tired he was. The Common Room started to thin out slightly as they sat there, and it wasn’t long before the second-years started to leave as well.

Before she walked up to the girls' dormitory, Amy pointed at Albus’ cheek, “You know you’ve got a massive stain there, right?”

Albus glanced at the nearest reflective surface, a large brass globe, and looked at himself. There was, indeed, a stain of polish on his cheek. He groaned and thanked Amy for pointing it out before she went upstairs.

“I’d better shower too” Albus groaned, “See you in a bit,” he said to Bertie before he walked into the boys' bathroom.

The Gryffindor bathroom was dark and quiet, usually in stark contrast to the rest of the Common Room. The room was covered in white tiles, augmented with the occasional red or gold line. A row of sinks lined one wall, with the toilet stalls on the other, these were all empty. Albus walked past them and through an arch into the showers. These were also divided into cubicles, and Albus could hear the sound of water gushing from behind the only locked door in the room, he figured this was Matt.

Albus walked into the cubicle next to this one and turned the shower on. Whoever was next door stopped moving and tapped on the wooden divider.

“Who’s that?” he asked, it was Matt’s voice.

“Just me” replied Albus, disrobing and stepping into the warm water.

“Oh,” said Matt, “You ok?”

Albus paused, “Yeah, why?”

Matt gave a short laugh, “Weird week”

“You can say that again,” said Albus. He washed his face, hopefully removing the stain. Matt had been in the shower for at least half an hour, and he was wondering why. “How about you?” he asked.

There was a pause, “Average,” he said shortly, giving a slight laugh.

Albus heard Matt stepping back under the water, and figured that he should do the same. The warmth was comforting after so long spent in the bitter chill of the Grand Staircase. He zoned out and let his thoughts run wildly inside his head as water cascaded over his face, he somehow thought that Matt was doing the same next door. This week had been the longest the pair had spent together outside of their dormitory, they had never been particularly close after all. It was almost as if something inside Matt had switched since they’d met at the World Cup.

“Hey, Matt,” Albus said

“Hmm?”

Albus gulped, “Your Dad, what-“

“I’m not talking about him” replied Matt, firmly, then he took a breath, “Sorry Albus”

“I understand” Albus lied. Ever since that day he’d been acting very strangely, just why did any mention of his name make him so angry? It made no sense to him. “Dammit,” he complained, out loud.

“Sorry?” asked Matt.

Albus jumped slightly, he hadn’t meant to say it, “N-nothing, just knocked my elbow on the wall”

The length of pause told Albus that he hadn’t exactly brought that lie. The sound of gushing water from Matt’s cubicle ceased, to be replaced with the sound of rhythmic dripping as he stood there before grabbing his towel. “I’m off” he stated, opening the door and leaving his cubicle.

Albus didn’t reply and only half listened to Matt drying off and getting dressed before the sound of footsteps moved away from the showers and out of the bathroom. He took a deep breath and rubbed his eyes, the week was catching up with him.

“Well done, Al” he whispered to himself, “You’re clearly a brilliant people person”

He finished washing and turned the shower off, reaching out to the rail to grab the towel, but he only found thin air. “Brilliant,” he said, laughing derisively. Listening out to make sure no one else had entered the room, he gingerly turned the lock and opened the door a crack. But then, he heard the unmistakable sound of footsteps coming into the room, at least Albus thought they were footsteps.

Closing the door as silently as he could, Albus listened. They were footsteps, but they didn’t sound like they could come from a human. The noises were small and faster than normal as if whoever they belonged to had small feet and short legs. They were racing around the bathroom from left to right, and Albus could just about make out some high-pitched and frantic muttering.

“Woozy can’t get it wrong again. Woozy must clean boys' bathroom. Woozy must do it before boys come in”

Albus went down on his knees and peered through the small gap below the cubicle door, and every so often the rapidly moving feet would enter and leave his vision. He stood up and shivered, he had to get a towel somehow, though he did mull over just waiting until the mystery intruder had left. These thoughts were interrupted by a loud yelp.

“Woozy got it wrong!”

Albus jumped and stared at the door, he could see a pair of small bare feet standing right in front of it. The sound of muffled sobbing filled the air.

“Um, are you ok?” asked Albus, not knowing if it was a good idea to confirm his presence.

The sobbing turned to crying and the feet left the door, most likely heading towards the far end of the room. Albus opened the door ever so slightly and peered out, only to be greeted by a very odd sight.

Leaning against the cubicles on the opposite side of the room was a small, quivering, humanoid creature with long thin ears, that resembled a bats. It was wearing nothing but a clean-looking loin cloth, though it wouldn’t be clean for long given the creature was blowing its large round nose into it. The realisation hit Albus all of a sudden, and he mentally kicked himself for not getting it sooner.

“You’re a house-elf!” he exclaimed.

The house-elf let out another yelp, “Woozy got it wrong!” it wailed, “Woozy wasn’t supposed to let the boys see him!” Every other word was punctuated by the sound of a nose being loudly blown.

Albus struggled to find the right words, “It’s ok” he stuttered, “I’m not going to tell anyone”

“Master said to not let the boys see him!” wailed the House Elf, completely ignoring Albus, “Master will be angry. He’ll be so angry with Woozy!” The cries turned into a complete outpouring of grief like wailing as loose tears joined the mucus in its loincloth.

Worrying that anyone left in the Common Room would hear the commotion and go to investigate, Albus desperately tried to calm the House Elf down.

“Ok, ok, it’s all going to be fine!” he started, doing his best to sound optimistic, “I’m Albus, can you tell me your name?”

The House Elf rubbed his nose once more, and the tears slowly abated. He turned around, and Albus made sure he was definitely behind the door. “Woozy, sir” he replied.

Albus nodded, “Nice to meet you then, Woozy” he gave him a small smile, “And you don’t have to call me ‘sir’”

Woozy looked offended, “But a House Elf must always address his betters as ‘Sir’!”

“I’m not your better,” said Albus, “No wizard is”. The words of his Aunt Hermione were all coming back to him.

Woozy let out another short yelp and pressed his abnormally large ears against his head, “Woozy didn’t hear that! Woozy is inferior to any witch or wizard!”

Sensing that Woozy was about to start loudly crying again, Albus quickly backtracked “Sorry, sorry. Could you tell me what you’re doing here?”

This seemed to appease Woozy, who finally turned around, revealing a pair of orblike and slightly bloodshot brown eyes, “Woozy is here because his master told him to be”

“Right…” said Albus, “And your master is?”

Woozy’s eyes seemed to detach from his brain and his gaze floated aimlessly around the room for a moment, before the light inside his head switched back on, “Master told Woozy to be here”

Albus stared at him for a second, clearly Woozy didn’t want to say who his master is. “Look, um, I’m guessing you’re cleaning the bathroom?”

Woozy thought for a moment, then nodded.

“Good. You wouldn’t happen to have a spare towel, would you?”

Woozy jumped slightly and raced through the archway, into the side with the toilets. He returned moments later, pushing a squeaking trolley stacked high with towels into the showers. Albus gratefully reached his arm out of the cubicle and grabbed the topmost towel. Wrapping it around himself he asked Woozy to turn around whilst he stepped out to get changed back into his clothes.

“Ok, done” he declared

Woozy slowly turned around and looked up at Albus. Now that Albus finally had a good look at the house-elf, he noticed that he looked slightly smaller than the average one, and he also noted the embroidered Hogwarts crest on the loin cloth.

“You work here then?” he asked, pointing at the badge.

Woozy nodded, “Of course, Master. Woozy is working in the kitchens and the laundry”

“It’s Albus” he replied, “I’ve never seen a house-elf at Hogwarts before, are you supposed to keep out of the way?”

One of the towels on the trolley unfolded slightly, and Woozy let out a small yelp as he rushed to fold it back up and place it neatly back on top of the pile. “We house-elves are told not to interfere. Woozy keeps getting told”

“It’s not going to be a problem for you if we talk, is it?”

Woozy’s large eyes got even bigger as he contemplated this, “Woozy’s master won’t like it. Woozy was told not to let the boys see”. His whole body started quivering, and he began to run headfirst towards the nearest cubicle.

Having listened to plenty of lectures from Aunt Hermione, Albus knew full well what Woozy was going to attempt to do. He reached out and quickly grabbed the back of the loincloth, stopping him from running any further. The house-elf struggled in his grasp and Albus had to lift him into the air.

“Woozy, calm down!”

His limbs stopped flailing and he seemed to finally give up resisting. Albus risked dropping him to the floor, fortunately, Woozy stayed put.

“Woozy is sorry, Woozy has been told to punish himself if he ever disobeys his master”

Albus looked straight at him, “Who is your master? Is it a teacher?”

There was a pause and Woozy’s eyes fells around the room for the briefest of moments. “Master will be expecting Woozy,” he said, “Woozy should leave and let young sir go to bed”

“It’s Albus,” he said with a sigh, “Can I at least help you put the towels out?”

Woozy looked deeply offended, “But sir, Woozy is not supposed to let wizards help, this is work for house-elves”

Albus ignored him and picked up a handful of towels. Woozy let out some small whimpers but didn’t make any attempt to stop him from hanging them up on the rails inside each cubicle. Between them, they managed to lay them all out quickly.

“See, that wasn’t so bad,” said Albus, giving Woozy a small smile

Woozy clasped his hands together nervously, “Th-thank you s-sir…” he whimpered

“You can call me Albus,” he said with a laugh, “You really don’t need to call me ‘sir’”

The sense of worry grew on Woozy’s face, and he scanned the room to make sure no one else was around. It took a couple of tries before he finally said it.

“Thank you…Al-Albus”

Albus gave him a warm smile, “You’re welcome”. He glanced outside and saw that the sun had completely set, and he remembered just how tired he was. “I think it’s time to go to bed now, where are you going next?”

“Woozy must clean the other bathrooms, Sir Albus, but my Master will want to see me,” said Woozy, looking more animated than before.

The constant mentions of this mysterious ‘master’ weren’t getting any clearer. Despite Albus’ limited experience with house-elves, he knew that this was an unusual thing for them to do.

“Why can’t you tell me who your master is, Woozy?” he asked

Once again, Woozy ignored his question and started to push the trolley away and out of the bathroom. Albus followed him to the door, where he stopped.

“Sir Albus should go to bed, my Master needs to see me,” he said, pulling the door open and stepping out into the dark corridor outside the now empty Common Room. “Woozy bids Sir Albus a good night”

Albus nodded at him and suppressed a loud sigh, “Ok then, goodnight Woozy. I hope everything’s fine with your ‘master’”

“My master needs to see Woozy” he repeated as he pushed the trolley out of the portrait hall and away.

“Run that one past me again?” said Scorpius, though he could barely be heard over the wind.

They were sat in the Quidditch stadium, watching the Gryffindor team tryouts. The Beaters were currently zooming around trying to hit as many Bludgers into some floating targets as they possibly could, and the small crowd of spectators had to be on their guard for any stray hits.

“I’m not repeating myself a third time, Scorpius!” said Albus, who was now regretting taking him along to the tryouts. However, the advantage of bringing a Slytherin along to anything Gryffindor-related was that you’d get some privacy. The rest of his house sat in seats at least thirty metres away.

Scorpius, who was desperately trying to stop his History of Magic essay from flying away at the same time, replied, “I’m just trying to get my head around it. It sounds a bit weird if you ask me”

“Ever heard of a house-elf talking like that about their ‘master’ before?”

“Nope, but I’m hardly an expert on house-elves” replied Scorpius

“Maybe Hagrid will know” suggested Bertie, who was sitting on the row of seats in front of them, watching the try-outs intently, “Or Rose?”

Albus hesitated, “Rose would know, but…”

“Oh, come on Al, she’s calmed down now!” said Bertie.

Albus looked down the row towards the rest of the Gryffindors, Rose was sitting there cheering the Beaters on. They hadn’t spoken a single word to each other since the incident on the train, and he wasn’t completely sure how she’d react if he did try to strike up a conversation.

“Maybe later,” said Albus, quickly. He had to be alert for a second as one of the Beaters accidentally flung his bat in their direction, but it landed safely between some benches a couple of meters to their right.

“Monkhouse, you’re out!” shouted Caprice Flynn, who was hovering high above the pitch. The unfortunate Beater glumly landed and stomped off the pitch.

Bertie leant over the railing and watched him walk into the changing rooms, “He doesn’t look very pleased”

Albus looked up from his page of Grimoire notes and followed Bertie’s gaze, “Monkhouse, seventh-year, I think James said he’d been trying to get into the team for years”

Bertie looked back at Albus and his eyes widened, “Why did you bring those out here?”

The wind rustled the pages of notes that Albus had in his hand, and he quickly folded them up and stuffed them into his pocket, “I wanted to read them, is that ok?”

“But isn’t it a bit dangerous to take them out in public? What happened to being discrete?”

Scorpius looked up at them both, “Relax, Bertie, I don’t think Marlowe is going to be turning up at some Quidditch try-outs”

Exasperated, Bertie shook his head, “It’s just the principle”

Albus sighed and ran his fingers through his hair, “Look, we’re not exactly going to have a load of spare time to actually look at the book for a while, so we need to take any chance we can get”

“I’ve got spare time…” muttered Bertie, turning back to the pitch. The Chasers were making their way onto the field.

To their left, the gathered second-years cheered Leon’s name, it was just about possible to make him out as he waved to them. Caprice called them up one by one, with a wiry-looking blonde boy the first to have a go at the gauntlet she’d created for them. The blonde boy weaved between some poles that were floating in the air, got grazed by a couple of bludgers, passed the ball between himself and Caprice, and then shot towards the goal. However, the shot lacked any real power, and one of the trialist Keepers was able to make a comfortable save.

“Hard luck,” said Scorpius, “That was a rubbish shot though”

One by one, the Chasers made their way through the gauntlet. One unfortunate third-year flew straight into the first pole and was carted off to the Hospital Wing with a minor concussion. A tiny fourth-year girl looked superb, effortlessly dodging some nasty-looking bludger hits, but she somehow managed to drop the Quaffle under no pressure at all. She left the pitch in tears. Leon’s competition was looking ropey at best, and Albus could see Caprice getting frustrated. And then Chambers arrived. He had been on the team last year, and he looked determined to continue being on the team this time around too.

In a flash, he was through the poles, didn’t look at all troubled by the bludgers, exchanged a perfectly flighted pass with Flynn, and then hammered a throw past the hapless keeper. Chambers let out a huge roar and thumped his chest, punching the air in the direction of the group of fifth-years who had turned out to support him.

“Damn, that was good,” said Albus, “Who’s next?”

A tall girl stepped onto the pitch and kicked off. Her run through the poles was just as quick as Chambers’, and she dipped under a Bludger that would’ve taken her head off if it made contact. Upon receiving the Quaffle from Flynn she feinted and sent the keeper the wrong way, leaving an empty hoop for her to score through. She had a relieved grin on her face as she circled the pitch and flew towards the changing rooms, she’d done everything she could.

Bertie looked nervous, “Leon’s going to have to do this perfectly”

Albus looked down at Leon, he was next up and looked to be doing some small jumps to warm up. “If he can be quicker than one of the last two, he’ll be in, surely”

On the blow of Flynn’s whistle, he kicked off the ground and zipped between the poles. A collective ‘oof’ went up from the crowd as the end of his broom clipped the last one on his way out. This didn’t seem to rattle him though, and he dodged the Bludgers easily enough. His pass to Flynn was maybe a bit firmer than he wanted it to be, but he caught the return pass well and managed to throw the Quaffle just past the outstretched fingers of the Keeper and into the goal.

Albus could see Leon shaking his head as he turned around and returned to the ground. His shoulders slumped and his head was turned to the floor as he trudged toward the bench. The second-years did their best to cheer him up, but their cheers didn’t seem to make much difference.

“Ugh, that’s annoying, he would probably be in if he didn’t hit the pole,” said Bertie, a grimace on his face.

Scorpius, who had finally put his essay away, added, “Looked fairly quick though”

“Chambers and the other girl were definitely quicker than him,” said Bertie, glumly, “There’s always next year…”

As the Chasers were the last to be trialled, Caprice Flynn went to one side of the pitch and collected her notes. The small crowd in the stadium descended into eager chatter as they waited for her to re-emerge and announce the team for the season. Ten minutes later, she went over to the group of hopeful flyers and got them to quiet down.

Standing on a small box so she could see them all, she declared, “I’m going to announce the team. This is my final decision, so any complaints you may have can go straight into the bin!” Her eyes darted around some of the more rebellious looking of the group, then she cleared her throat, “Keeper is Walton” a beaming fourth-year girl punched the air. “Beaters are Edmundson and Butcher”, two tall muscular boys nodded at each other. “Seeker is Potter”, James gave a small smile, no one else had even bothered trying out for Seeker. “Chasers are Wilson…”, the tall girl breathed a sigh of relief and looked up to the sky in thanks. Flynn cleared her throat for the last time, “And finally, Newland”

“What?!” cried Leon, “Are you sure?”

Caprice Flynn flashed him a small smile and addressed the players, “Thank you all for trying out this year, and commiserations for those who didn’t make the team”. She hopped off the box and made a beeline for the changing rooms, pursued by a group of irate-looking players, led by the raging Chambers.

The second-years were jumping for joy away to Albus’ left, it was fair to say that they hadn’t expected his name to be read out. Leon was now making his way up towards them, his face frozen in shock.

Bertie shook his head, “Wow, that’s amazing! Why do you think she chose him?”

“His attitude,” said a voice from behind them. James had just landed his broom on the benches and hopped off, “He was the only person who asked Caprice for tips and went down for extra practice before today. He’s been down here every day this week!”

“But, she wouldn’t have picked him just because of that, right?” asked Bertie

James shook his head, “Not at all, he’s a good flyer, just lacks experience” he straddled his broom and hovered again, “We’ll soon fix that though!” he said, before flying back down to the pitch.

Albus and Bertie spent a few moments watching Leon being mobbed by the rest of the second-years, his expression had turned from shock to sheer joy as he relayed every second of his trial flight to them.

Scorpius leant over, “Now that this is finally over, can we talk about that damn book at last?”

Chapter Text

Chapter Eight: Animancy

The impact of Albus and Scorpius’ detentions had never been starker than on the final week of September. After several frustrating weekend evenings sitting in the dusty abandoned classroom, pouring over the same pieces of parchment that Albus and Bertie had copied from the book, the promise of a coming full moon had given them some renewed vigour. This bubble burst quickly though, as Bertie informed them that the full moon would be on a Tuesday night when the other two would again be cleaning the suits of armour.

“Merlin’s beard, we are never going to get a chance to read the thing again!” said Scorpius, throwing his head back in frustration.

Bertie rolled his eyes, “Just leave it with me, ok?”

“What do you mean?” asked Albus, who had just finished reading a page about ‘The Basics of Animancy’ for the fifth time, and it still made little sense.

“I’ll read the book and copy it out, at least it means we’ll have something new to talk about when we meet up” replied Bertie, looking determined. “Just let me borrow your invisibility cloak”

Albus stared straight at him, mouth agape. Give Bertie his cloak? What would happen if it ended up getting lost or stolen? However, remembering that Bertie was much more risk-averse than either himself or Scorpius, he relented and agreed to let Bertie borrow it.

As Tuesday arrived and Albus finished yet another night of detention, he stayed up to wait for Bertie to arrive back from their disused classroom. It was after midnight when he heard the portrait door swing open, followed by the sound of faint footsteps. Forcing his eyes to stay open, Albus stood up and watched Bertie pull the cloak from over his head.

“Well?” asked Albus, anticipating a large number of pages to have been translated.

Bertie’s head was low and he had a frown on his face, he took a deep breath before handing the book to Albus. “I copied out a couple of pages, and-“

“A couple of pages? That’s it?”

“Let me finish,” said Bertie, exasperated. He pulled a piece of parchment out of his bag and handed them to Albus. “Just look for yourself”

Albus took them and scanned them, immediately noticing what the problem was. The entire thing was written in a runic text that Albus simply didn’t understand. He read it a couple more times, hoping that something would leap out at him, but there was nothing. Having half a mind to scrunch the parchment up and throw it away, Albus instead gave it back to Bertie and fell back into his chair.

“I had a flick through the rest of the book, there’s just pages and pages of that same writing in it. I suppose none of us really paid it any attention before” said Bertie in a small voice.

Albus simply gave a small nod in acknowledgement, then stared into the dying embers in the fireplace. It felt as if they would never work out the mysteries of the book now. He gently touched the weathered leather cover and placed it inside his pocket.

“Al?” said Bertie, watching his friend carefully.

“I just don’t know what else we can do”

Bertie bit his lip, “We’ll figure it out, we always do. It’s only runes, there’ll be loads of books in the library about them”. He did his best to sound encouraging.

Standing up and sighing, Albus trudged towards the staircase that led up towards the boy’s dormitory, “The library” he scoffed, “It’s always the library”. He finally turned back to Bertie, who hadn’t moved, “Sometimes, I think this book doesn’t want to be read…”

The following days and weeks again yielded little progress. Albus and Scorpius had become so overwhelmed with homework that they were doing well to find spare time to eat, let alone sit in the library translating runes. The blunt axe of expulsion was still hanging, precariously, over their necks. They’d even turned down Bertie’s offers to translate the runes by himself, deciding that they would have a better chance of completing the work together.

October flew by, as did another full moon. Bertie once again, under the safety of the invisibility cloak, ventured out to transcribe more pages. And once again, he returned with a handful of pages of runes.

“This is ridiculous,” said Scorpius, during a precious lunch break. He was in the process of angrily demolishing a pumpkin pasty with as much vigour as a starving hippogriff. “We’re going to be in our eighties by the time we work this out”, his voice raised to be heard over the sound of the thunderstorm outside.

Albus and Bertie didn’t answer, this mirrored what they’d been saying to each other for the last few weeks. Instead, they glumly ate their lunch and got ready for their next lesson, a surely uplifting trip down into the dungeons for Potions. They were about to get up and leave when they spotted seven individuals stomping into the Great Hall, all looking like they’d just emerged from a swamp. They were caked head to toe in mud, and all wore annoyed expressions on their faces. It was a few moments before they recognised them as the Gryffindor Quidditch team.

James didn’t say a word as he walked past Albus, he picked up an apple, and then walked straight back out of the Great Hall again. Meanwhile, Leon stood next to Bertie and stuffed a handful of grapes into his mouth.

“Extra practice going well?” asked Albus. The first game of the season was just a few days away, and Caprice Flynn had been dragging the team onto the pitch at every single spare moment.

Leon pointed his thumb at Scorpius and said, “Can’t talk with green”, he then looked around at him with a sympathetic look, “Sorry, Caprice’s orders”

Sighing, Scorpius stuffed his books into his bag and finished the remnants of his pasty, “See you in Potions then”. He quickly left the Great Hall.

Once he was out of earshot, Leon continued, “It’s been mixed” he admitted, “Just a new team gelling, that’s all”

“Newland!” called Caprice Flynn from further along the table, her right eye was welded shut by a large excess of mud, “Get cleaned up, double time! I can’t have my players getting detentions for being late to lessons!”

Leon dropped a scotch egg back onto its plate and stood to attention, “Yes miss, right away!” He sprinted out of the Great Hall to confused stares.

“Is it just me, or does he seem more stressed than usual?” asked Bertie

Thankfully for Leon, he did manage to make Professor Marlowe’s Potions lesson in time, bursting through the door with damp hair and missing a sock, just as Marlowe was about to begin the lesson.

“Good afternoon, Mr Newland,” he said, indicating the empty space on a desk next to Matt. He only continued once Leon was in place. “Today we shall be continuing to look at antidotes. You will find today’s recipe on page ninety-six of your textbooks, good luck”

The class quietly opened up their books and read the recipe for a ‘Mouth Itching Antidote’ and gathered their ingredients from the store cupboard. This was a known routine now. Marlowe’s lessons had become particularly directionless of late, they were simply spending their time making the potions, with no discussion of theory whatsoever. He would spend almost the entire lesson sitting behind his desk, flicking through bits of parchment and only looking up to tell people to stop messing around.

Albus ducked underneath a lump of frogspawn that Caedus had thrown from another desk, he was still doing his best to goad him, Scorpius, and Matt into starting another fight. He set his ingredients down and counted them out, double-checking the recipe as he did so.

To Albus’ left, Rose had already set her cauldron boiling and was steadily dropping some chopped-up leaves into the water. They were still barely talking outside of lessons, and even conversation in them was hard to come by. He quietly watched her as he divided her frogspawn into small groups and dropped them in, one by one.

She glanced up and caught Albus’ eye, “Can I help you?”

Albus snapped his head away, “No, it’s fine” he said, shortly, then turned his attention to his own potion.

In truth, the lesson had been nearly a complete waste of time. The potion itself was incredibly simple for them, especially as they’d spent the previous lessons making similar antidotes. Before long, most of the class was just sitting and chatting, Professor Marlowe didn’t look up at them.

Rose, who had completed her potion long before anyone else and had already packed her equipment away, had her head buried in a red-backed textbook.

Albus gathered up some offcuts of his ingredients and dropped them in a nearby bin, then looked at Rose’s book. Suddenly finding the urge to talk to his cousin, he coughed slightly to get her attention. Her gaze flicked to him momentarily.

“Spellman’s Syllabary?” he said, pointing at the name of the book she was reading, “What’s that?”

“Ancient Runes textbook,” she said, not looking at him.

“Ancient Runes? But you don’t take Ancient Runes” said Albus, wanting to keep the conversation going.

Rose sighed and closed the book, still looking steadfastly away from Albus, “We have to choose which subjects we want to take next year soon, you should be researching as well”. She checked the time and stowed the book in her bag, ready to leave as soon as Marlowe dismissed them.

Albus also packed away, after helping Bertie dispose of his slightly anaemic-looking potion. He whispered, “She doesn’t seem like she’s got over it yet”

“Maybe ask her about something other than what she’s reading?” suggested Bertie, with a shake of his head, speaking as if Albus was completely clueless.

“Class dismissed,” said Marlowe, from the front of the class.

Rose immediately swivelled on her stool and hopped off it, making a beeline for the exit. Albus watched her go, and glumly picked his bag up, following her out of the classroom.

Scorpius caught up to him, “What was that about?” he asked.

Shrugging, Albus replied, “Just asked about what she was reading”

“Oh, right,” said Scorpius as they walked up the stairs that led out of the dungeons. “What was she reading then?” he asked, blankly.

“Spellmans Syllabary” replied Albus, nonchalantly hopping over a dungbomb that had presumably been dropped by Peeves, “It’s an Ancient Runes textbook, apparently”. Albus stopped dead in his tracks, causing Bertie to walk into the back of him.

“Ow,” he cried, rubbing his nose, “What’s the matter?”

Albus slapped his hand onto his forehead, “I’m an idiot” he said, to no one in particular.

Scorpius and Bertie looked at each other, confused. Bertie tapped Albus on the shoulder. “What do you mean?”

“Ancient Runes!” said Albus. He took off up the stairs, pushing past several other second-years to try and catch up to Rose. As he reached the bottom of the Grand Staircase, he could see the back of her head a couple of flights ahead of him.

“Rose!” he called up to her. She ignored him and sped up.

Eventually, Rose caught up to a group of slow-moving first-years. Unable to get past them, Albus caught up to her and managed to grab the back of her robes.

“Hey!” she snapped, slapping Albus’ hand away, “What was that for?”

Albus leaned against the wall to get his breath back before he answered, “Sorry. I just wondered if I could borrow your runes book”

Rose blinked at him, “What?”

“I’m…interested in maybe studying it next year” he replied, “I don’t need it for long, just want a quick overview, you know”. He thought that sounded convincing enough.

Taking a moment to gather her thoughts, Rose eyed Albus carefully. Satisfied, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath, “Why are you so interested in it all of a sudden?”

“I just am,” said Albus, a little too quickly. He tried to cover this up by producing a small laugh.

Rose’s eyes narrowed dangerously, “It’s not like you to suddenly take an interest in anything academic” she studied his face again, “Something is going on here, tell me what”

Albus gave a derisive laugh, “You’re mental, nothing is going on at all”

“You’ll forgive me if I don’t believe you” sighed Rose, “Now, if you don’t mind, I’m going to get to Herbology, unless you want us both to be late”. She pointed her nose up at the ceiling and turned away, strutting defiantly up the stairs.

“Wait a second!” Albus chased after her, nearly knocking a painting off the wall in the process. Ignoring the protests of the thin witch depicted in it, he caught up to Rose and walked alongside her.

“What now?” she snapped, still not meeting Albus’ eyes.

Albus paused for a moment, watching a group of nosy-looking Ravenclaws walk by. “Why can’t we stop this?” he asked, seriously

“Stop what?” said Rose, flicking a strand of hair out of her face.

Albus couldn’t stop himself from sounding annoyed, “You know what” he said, “I just want to be able to talk to you again”

Rose glanced at him from the corner of her eye, “Like you’re doing now?”

“Like properly talk, not just this passive-aggressive…” he trailed off before he got too worked up. “Look, I know I was an idiot and everything but can’t we-“

“Just shut up!” said Rose, cutting across him, “You being an idiot that time has nothing to do with it!”

“Then what is it about?” said Albus, half laughing

Rose rounded on him, poking a finger into his chest, “You should know!”

“I don’t!”

“Both of you, shut up!” Bertie had been following them up the stairs.

Albus and Rose jumped and faced him. He was looking bemused by it all, looking between them both with a slight smile, shaking his head. He was laughing to himself as he continued walking up the stairs.

“Oh, Al, what are we doing?” said Rose, putting her head in her hands, “Why are we like this?”

Albus rubbed the back of his head, “Families” he said, simply.

Rose allowed herself to laugh, then looked at him sincerely, “I’m sorry, I’ve been horrid to you. I must seem like a complete hypocrite after everything I said to you last year”

“It’s fine, Rose, I get it,” Albus said, smiling warmly, “Let’s just agree to not stay mad at each other for longer than a couple of days next time”

Rose nodded, “Agreed”. She paused and pondered something for a moment, her face turning serious, “There’s something I should probably say to you, I-“

A loud bell rang out around the castle, signalling that their next class would start in just a couple of minutes.

“Oh no,” said Rose, her previous train of thought breaking in front of Albus’ eyes, “You can’t be late for Herbology!” she handed him her copy of Spellman’s Syllabary, “Here, you can borrow it for a bit, just get it back to me in one piece!”

They both ran up the stairs and raced their way towards Herbology, together.

That Saturday evening, Albus, Bertie, and Scorpius were sat in their usual disused classroom with the Grimoire and several stacks of parchment. As much as they hoped that the parchment was for all of the pages they would end up translating, in actual fact, they’d been brought there so that Albus and Scorpius could finish off their week’s homework.

This left Bertie to read through Rose’s textbook and complete the painstaking task of translating the page he had transcribed just the other night. There was no talking from any of them. Albus and Scorpius were both cursing Professor Binns for setting them such a dull essay to write, and then their ire was turned on Professor Mutati, who had taken little pity on them for not having had the chance to practice their ‘Beetle into buttons’ spell.

Scorpius gave up on writing his essay conclusion and looked up at Bertie, who was reading Spellman’s Syllabary intently. “How are you getting on, Bertie?”

Bertie raised a finger to tell him to be quiet, and his quill continued to dance on the page of his parchment.

“Think we should help?” Scorpius whispered to Albus, who was struggling to remember what the easiest type of beetle to transfigure was.

He shook his head, “Best not, he seems happy enough”

“I can hear you, you know,” said Bertie, glaring at them. He dropped his quill onto the table and rubbed his head, “This is going to take ages”

Albus stood up and walked over to Bertie’s desk, “Let me do some for a bit,” he picked up the syllabary and the parchment Bertie was working on and returned to his desk.

Bertie leant back in his chair and didn’t protest, “I think that page might be describing a spell. My translation is a bit wonky, but I’m pretty sure I see the word ‘incantation’ there”

“Nothing about the laboratory yet then?”

Bertie shook his head.

Albus looked through what Bertie had been able to translate. The English was slightly broken and it took a certain amount of concentration to read what was written down, but he felt like he had the gist of it. There appeared to be something describing a wand movement, but it was hard to make out what it could be. Albus then saw the word ‘Incanto’, this was as far as Bertie had translated.

Dipping his quill into the inkwell, Albus started to translate the apparent incantation. His quill hovered over the parchment; a blob of ink was hanging off the end precariously. His eyes darted between the pages Bertie had transcribed and the Syllabary as he tried to make sense of what he was reading.

Slowly, he started to translate the letters. An ‘X’ symbol meant ‘G’, at least that’s what Albus thought it said. He scribbled it onto the page, despite not being completely sure what the Syllabary was trying to say.

“G…E…L” he whispered to himself, double-checking the book after every letter. He kept on writing, shaking his head as he started to doubt what exactly he’d been writing. “This doesn’t look like any spell I’ve seen, it’s just gibberish!”

Bertie looked over, “What does it say?”

“Gelwefongalgi” replied Albus slowly, “You don’t think that’s in incantation, do you?”

Bertie shrugged, “It could be, this book’s really old remember”

“Suppose so,” said Albus, scratching his head, “Might as well try it and see what happens”

Bertie picked up a page he’d translated earlier and read through it, “I think this bit describes the spell in a bit more detail, look” he pointed out a paragraph, “This looks like it might be that lichen spell that Vitanster taught his students”

Grabbing his wand, Albus looked excited, “Really? Let’s try it!”

Scorpius bit his quill down and stood up, “Slow down, Albus, we should make sure we know what we’re doing before we try out any new spells”

“It’s lichen, Scorpius, it’s hardly going to blow something up,” said Albus, rolling his eyes.

“I’m with Scorpius,” said Bertie, taking a step back, “We should spend some time researching that spell more before we try it”

Scorpius gave him a thankful nod, “Two versus one. Now let me have a quick read of that”. He grabbed the page before Albus could protest and scanned it. “You’ve only translated up to the incantation and the wand movements, there’s nothing about what to cast it on, or how long it takes to work, or any potential side effects”

“Side effects?” Albus laughed, “Why would there be side effects?”

“It’s ancient magic that hasn’t been used in the last thousand years! Of course, there’ll be side effects!” said Scorpius, looking bewilderedly at Albus, “Let’s just hold on before we do something that we end up regretting”

“Lighten up,” said Albus, taking the parchment back from him and reading the passage out aloud. “A suitable surface is required when attempting this spell”. Albus looked up and around the room, “Are there any loose stones in here?”

Scorpius glared at him, “You’re not seriously going to try it?”

“I said, lighten up!” said Albus again, “The spell probably won’t even work”

He walked over to a cobweb-covered cupboard at the side of the room, opened the doors and searched through it to find a stone. Reaching into the bottom drawer he pulled out a stack of small flint tiles, perhaps they were once used in Transfiguration lessons in years gone by. Albus returned to the table and laid out one of the tiles, re-reading the passage as he did so.

“Looks easy enough,” he said, pulling out his wand and opening his mouth to say the incantation.

“Wait!” said Bertie, pulling the tile away from Albus.

Albus looked shocked, “What?”

Bertie hesitated for a second, taking a deep breath. “This magic killed Vitanster’s students,” he said, plainly. He took a moment to gauge the look on Albus’ face, but he was looking at him blankly. “We shouldn’t underestimate it just because it’s the first spell Vitanster taught his students”, he continued. “There’s a reason he waited before getting them to try this spell, and it’s probably because any type of Animancy is dangerous to perform”

Scorpius gave a sigh of relief, “That’s that settled then”. He reached out to gather up the reams of parchment spread across the table. “Now let’s just all go to bed and worry about all this in the morning”

“No,” said Albus, firmly. He pointed at the Grimoire, which was next to Bertie’s left hand. “Have you seen anything in there about why it might be dangerous?” he asked Bertie, who shook his head slowly.

“Thought not” continued Albus, “If there was anything dangerous about it, don’t you think Vitanster would’ve made that clear at the start of the book?”

“Y..yes. But-“

“So why are you worried about it?”

Bertie raised his voice, “Because you’re being reckless!”

Silence followed this, and Albus had to regain some of his composure before responding. Scorpius looked between the pair of them and quietly gathered the rest of the parchment, placing them carefully inside Bertie’s bag and subtly pushing it towards him. He stood up and pushed his chair under the desk.

“I think we should go” he carefully suggested, before tapping Bertie on the shoulder to get him to stand up too.

“Wait,” said Albus, not looking at either of them.

Bertie and Scorpius exchanged a look then sat back down again, cautiously eyeing up Albus.

Albus looked at them, “Fine, I won’t do anything in the book yet” he did his best to contain the annoyance in his voice. “I just want to know what we’re actually intending to do with this book”

“We find the laboratory,” said Bertie, immediately. “I thought that was the whole point?”

Scorpius nodded, “I agree. Once we find Vitanster’s laboratory maybe we can start to investigate the spells”

Albus let out a long sigh, “Fine!” he said, louder than he wanted to, “The laboratory it is”. With that he stood up and threw his bag over his shoulder, ready to leave.

The other two both exchanged a relieved look and stood back up again, making straight for the door as quickly as they could. Albus glanced down at the desk, the small piece of flint was still sitting there. He looked out into the corridor, Bertie and Scorpius were whispering to each other, but not looking at him. Weighing things up in his head for a moment, Albus picked up the tile and pocketed it.

After bidding Scorpius goodnight, Albus and Bertie returned to the Gryffindor common room together. As it was after dinner the room was busy, but the atmosphere was calm, people were gathered around small tables completing homework or playing chess.

Bertie waved at Leon, who was sitting by the fire with Matt, who himself was wading his way through a History of Magic essay. He went to join them but let out a long yawn.

“Tired,” he said shortly, turning to Leon, “I think I need an early night”. He looked back at Albus, “How about you?”

Albus shook his head, “No, I’m not that tired actually”, he said honestly.

“I’ll see you later then” replied Bertie, nodding. He left the common room up the stairs and turned away out of sight.

Albus watched him go, standing still in the middle of the room.

“You ok, Al?” asked Leon

“Yeah” replied Albus, shortly, “Just need the toilet”

Leon snorted, “Thanks for letting us know!”

Albus ignored him and walked out into the passageway just outside the common room. He opened the door and entered the tiled boy's bathroom. A couple of fourth years were standing by the sinks, washing their hands and throwing water over each other. They both watched Albus walk into one of the cubicles and lock the door. He sat on the closed toilet and waited for the two boys to leave, which they soon did. Sure they were gone, Albus reached into his pocket and pulled out the flint tile that he'd taken from the classroom.

Turning it over in his hand he inspected it, nothing was out of the ordinary, it was a normal piece of flint.

“Gelwefongalgi” whispered Albus, without his wand. He practised saying it a few times then pulled his wand out from his jeans.

Pointing it at the tile he waited and prepared himself. For the first time he felt the nagging doubt that it might be a bad idea to try the spell out, Bertie and Scorpius had both got to him.

“Come on, Al,” he said to himself, trying to fight the nagging voice telling him not to try it.

Taking one deep breath, then two, Albus pointed his wand at the tile and said, clearly, “Gelwefongalgi”.

Nothing.

Albus stared at the tile and almost willed it to do something. It didn’t. It looked as dull and plain as it had when he first picked it up.

“Idiot,” said Albus, “Why did you think that would work?”

He left the tile on top of the toilet and unlocked the cubicle, stepping out into the dark and empty bathroom once more. Albus yawned, he felt tired all of a sudden, as if it was only the adrenaline of wanting to try the spell out that was keeping him awake. He walked back through the common room, gave Leon and Matt a quick ‘goodnight’ and went straight up into the dormitory.

Bertie was sat up in bed reading a charms magazine, he smiled at Albus as he walked in. “You ok?”

Albus shrugged, “I think so, just felt tired”

Bertie laughed, “You were fine earlier”

“Well, I’m not now ok?” he snapped back. He saw the surprised look on Bertie’s face and softened his tone, “Sorry, it’s been a long day”

“It’s ok, I understand”

Albus changed into his pyjamas and got into bed, letting out another long yawn, “I’m sorry for anything I said today, you were right, it was a stupid idea to think about trying that spell out”

Bertie looked surprised but grateful, “Apology accepted. I’m glad we’re going to focus on finding the laboratory instead, but what made you change your mind?”

Thinking that he might’ve worked out that he tried the spell, Albus tried to work out what Bertie was thinking by inspecting his face, there was nothing there. “No reason, I just had a bit of time to think about it, that’s all”

Bertie looked somewhat satisfied. Putting his magazine inside his bedside cabinet, he put the candle by his bed out and settled down to sleep. “That’s good. You know, if you’re up to date with your homework we should go and see Hagrid tomorrow, you’ve hardly seen him this year and he’s missing you”

Albus too extinguished his candle and fluffed his pillow up. He smiled at Bertie, “That would be nice”

Settled down, they closed their curtains and fell straight to sleep. Albus had no trouble at all.

Chapter Text

Chapter Nine: The Owl in the Kitchen

The weather remained horrible for the rest of the week, and even Caprice had been forced to postpone an extra training session with her Gryffindor team. Instead, she’d ordered her players into a spare classroom to talk them through tactics for the weekend’s game against Slytherin.

For the first time ever, Albus wasn’t looking forward to watching a Quidditch match. On Saturday morning he awoke to the sound of heavy rain lashing against the dormitory window, combined with the biting chill of the squalling autumn wind that was battering the tower. Leon had gone down to the pitch early looking pale and nervous, these were not the conditions he wanted to make his debut in.

“You know,” said Matt, as he pulled a poncho over his four layers of jumpers, “as much as I want Leon to score some goals, I also wouldn’t mind James catching the Snitch inside thirty seconds”

Albus, Bertie, and Shaun all nodded their agreement as they put on an assortment of hats, gloves, and waterproofs. This was not the day for a long, drawn-out, match.

The route from the castle to the Quidditch pitch had become cut up and boggy underneath the hundreds of feet walking across it. Despite the conditions, the stadium was likely to be packed. Albus took his place amongst his housemates, wrinkling his nose at the amount of mud on the back of his leg. Next to him, Sophie was struggling with her umbrella, whilst Bertie’s face paint had given up early, the red letters were now smeared over his face, making him look like he’d been attacked.

“And here come the teams,” said the announcer, barely audible over the roaring wind.

There was no drawn-out announcement or theatrics today, both teams had taken their places to start the game as soon as they left the tunnel. Some of them were visibly shivering as they gripped their brooms, and Albus could see Leon blowing into his hands to stop them from seizing up. High above the rest, James’ attention was fixed on the case of balls on the ground below.

Wood kicked the case open, releasing the two Bludgers and the Golden Snitch into the sky. Picking up the Quaffle, Wood raised his whistle to his lips and blew as hard as he could into it, it was the only way it would be heard over the howling gale.

“And they’re off, I think” shouted the announcer, “Someone has the ball, probably a Slytherin given they’re flying towards the Gryffindor goal”

It wasn’t the fast and furious Quidditch that Albus had been treated to during the World Cup, both of the teams here were more concerned with not falling off their brooms. The Slytherin managed to breach the sluggish Gryffindor defence, but their throw was weak as the soaking Quaffle slipped from their grip.

“Oh, and that’s a bad miss,” said the announcer, “Not great from…Milton? Maybe Huckerby? Oh, who cares, Gryffindor have the Quaffle now with…Flynn?”

Caprice Flynn, if that’s who actually had the Quaffle was zooming towards the Slytherin goalposts. The cheers of the Gryffindor supporters grew louder as she got closer, but they turned to groans as she shot straight at the keeper, who then booted the Quaffle forward towards one of their chasers. The chaser hovered waiting for it to reach them, but it flew straight through their hands and made a satisfying thud as it hit the muddy ground, prompting ironic cheers from the Gryffindors.

“This is ridiculous” complained Rose, who was battling to keep her hood from coming off, “I can hardly follow what’s happening!”

Matt took it upon himself to stand in front of Rose and act as a windbreak for her whilst she tightened the strings on her hood, “Could be worse, I once watched the Wimbourne Wasps play the Holyhead Harpies in a force nine gale, we saw a grand total of one goal before the game was postponed”

“Fascinating” huffed Rose, who had finally wrestled her hood into place, “Has anyone scored yet?”

The answer was a clear ‘no’, and Albus was forced to watch Leon let two rather simple passes drop to the ground in a row. Both teams were struggling to complete their passes, but the Slytherin crowd had latched onto the debutant Gryffindor and were giving him more grief than the others.

“Come on Leon!” shouted Matt, slapping his hands together, “Shut those Slytherin fu-“ he was cut off by an errant beaters bat that had slipped from the Gryffindor beater, Edmundson’s, hand as he aimed a Bludger towards the nearest Slytherin player. The bat missed Matt’s head by an inch and landed at the feet of a third-year who was standing behind him.

“Sorry” he grunted, as the third year passed it back to him. He was shivering as he flew back towards the action.

“Blimey” breathed Matt, “Nearly took my head off”

Rose smirked, “I won’t say that would’ve been an improvement…”

Matt opened his mouth to respond, but instead, he just shook his head and turned his attention back to the match, “Can someone just score!” he cried.

He got his wish, but it was the Slytherins who were celebrating as Huckerby squeezed the ball past Walton, who was at full stretch trying to keep it out. Rather than the raucous cheers that would normally accompany this, the Slytherins just seemed to be relieved that they finally had an excuse to jump around and warm themselves up slightly.

“And that is a goal, if anyone remembers what one of those is,” said the Announcer to laughter, “10-0 to Slytherin and this game could now burst into life!”

It didn’t. The disconnected passages of play continued for several minutes as both teams made a valiant effort to break the record for the most number of Quaffle drops in a single game. The sodden ground was now littered with muddy divots where the Quaffle had landed and sunk in.

“Flynn, Wilson, back to Flynn, pass over to Newland who…drops it”, groaned the ever more bored sounding announcer.

This was becoming a familiar pattern, and the Slytherins were revelling in it. It almost looked like the Slytherins had given up trying to score, and were just enjoying watching the Gryffindor team making a meal out of the most basic passes. At one point Caprice Flynn flew over to Wood in a vain attempt to get the game stopped, but he just shook his head and flew away.

“I’ve never been more unhappy,” said Matt, pushing his soaking-wet fringe out of his eyes.

Albus clapped his hands together to generate some warmth, “I feel sorry for the Seekers, it must be freezing up there”. He looked upwards, trying to spot them amongst the black cloud. A crimson speck was just about visible circling above them, but there was no sign that they could see the Snitch anywhere.

“Can the Snitch get blown off course?” asked Bertie, his face paint now completely gone.

Matt shook his head, “Nah, it’s bewitched to stay within the bounds of the stadium, so it should be around somewhere”

“I’m more worried about them getting struck by lightning!” said Sophie. As if on cue, a long fork of blue electricity shot across the sky over the Black Lake.

The Announcer cleared his throat, “Referee Wood has just informed me that this game may be postponed if that lightning gets any closer. He is also keen to stress that Quidditch is not worth dying over, unless you happen to play for a team he’s captaining”.

Albus could tell that Wood shot the announcer a dirty look once he said that, but he bellowed some instructions to the two Captains about wanting the game to get a move on.

Flynn shouted something along the lines of “We’re trying our best”, though using language that would normally land her in detention. She hollered up to James, “Catch that damn Snitch before I kick you off the team!”

It looked like James did a salute in response and he moved around the sky with more purpose, scanning it for any sign of the Snitch. Below him, the game was petering out as both sides effectively gave up trying to attack the goalposts and were instead just passing the ball as carefully as they could, in a vain attempt to lessen the jeers from the crowd.

“Oh, thank god!” said Matt, pointing upwards.

The others followed his finger and saw James zooming across the sky, presumably towards the Snitch. The Slytherin Seeker hadn’t spotted James moving and was still hovering at the opposite end of the pitch searching the skies for a sight of the small gold ball. Instead, it was James flying in pursuit and just inches away. The usual crescendo that accompanied this event was more muted, probably because half the crowd hadn’t seen it, but the Gryffindors raised the volume by themselves as James stuck his hand out and clasped onto the Snitch.

“It looks like Potter’s got it!” said the Announcer, “Thank Merlin for that, Gryffindor win 150 points to 10, a true classic…” he added, sarcastically. “Mr Filch has handed me a note to say that students should avoid bringing mud into the castle…good luck with that one!”

James gave a quick fist pump towards the crowd before making a beeline for the changing rooms, the rest of the team had already vacated the arena as soon as the result was confirmed.

The stands emptied as quickly as they could as everyone was keen to get back indoors before the lighting storm got any closer. The wooden steps of the stands were treacherously wet, but save for a couple of close calls with some First Years nearly slipping down them, the whole school was soon back inside the castle. Mr Filch greeted them as they entered, ordering everyone to remove their shoes before they brought too much mud in. Everyone was too wet and tired to argue, though this didn’t stop him from barking at anyone he deemed to have been too slow at complying.

As Albus made his way up the stairs towards the Gryffindor common room he winced at some splodges of mud on some of the suits of armour, knowing that he’d have to clean that off before long.

It was clear that the party was just building up inside the common room once Albus entered it, the floor was being cleared and tables were being moved into place by some of the older students. The girls immediately rushed upstairs to their dormitory, leaving Albus, Bertie, Matt and Shaun standing in the middle of the room, dripping with water and still clasping their muddy shoes.

“What the heck am I supposed to do with these?” said Matt, referring to his shoes.

“Bring them up, I can clean them,” said Bertie, leading them into the boy’s dormitory.

He lined up the boys’ shoes on the floor, pointed his wand at each of them in turn and said “Scourgify”. There was a green flash and the mud disappeared.

“Legend,” said Matt, grinning, “Reckon you can do all our laundry from now on?”

“No thanks,” said Bertie, who dumped his soaking jumper into the nearby laundry basket, as if to emphasise the point. There was a muffled sound from inside the basket, and Bertie hesitated. “Um…” he said, daring to peer inside, “Ahh!” he leapt back several feet and pointed at the tall basket. “There’s a…”

“What?” asked Albus, walking towards the basket and looking inside. There was indeed something in there moving slightly. He gently moved a shirt away and uncovered whatever it was that was inside. “Hold on, Woozy?” he gasped. Woozy the house-elf was having a sleep inside the basket, completely dead to the world.

“Woozy?” asked Matt, “What’s a Woozy?”

Albus didn’t respond. He gave Woozy a quick poke on the arm to wake him up, but he just shivered slightly and yawned. “Come on, just wake up”. He poked him again, and this time Woozy stirred.

Blinking, he looked up at Albus with narrow eyes and a lopsided expression, some dried drool was visible on his cheek. “Sir…Albus?” he said sleepily.

“Yes, it’s Albus. What in Merlin’s name are you doing in there?”

Woozy pulled himself up and held onto the side of the basket, his large ears slowly poking over the top, followed by a pair of large eyes that scanned the room, “Oh” he exclaimed, “Bad Woozy!” he wailed, before starting to smack his head against the basket, not that he could do himself much damage against the wicker frame.

“Woozy, stop!” shouted Albus, picking him up by his loincloth and holding him at arm’s length like an unruly baby. “Please stop doing that” he begged before putting him down on the floor.

“Apologies, Sir Albus,” he said, rubbing his head, “Woozy is supposed to be collecting laundry from the dormitories, but Woozy was so tired” he yawned and stretched his arms, “Woozy hasn’t been sleeping, and my master has been working Woozy so hard” he started to sob, “Woozy had to sleep! Sir Albus won’t say anything to my master, will he?” he wailed.

Albus shook his head, “No, I won’t” he looked at the others, who were all staring in wide-eyed shock at Woozy, “Why don’t you bring the laundry to your master now?”

Woozy’s eyes snapped straight to him, “My master doesn’t want the laundry, Sir Albus, no no no!”. He went stiff and started to tremble, Albus could sense what was about to happen, and he grabbed a fistful of his loincloth to stop him from running head-first into the nearest bedpost. Woozy struggled, but Albus clung on.

“Ok, ok!” said Albus, “I’m sorry, why don’t I help you bring the laundry down to wherever it needs to be taken?”

Woozy stopped struggling and looked up at Albus, “Sir Albus is too kind to Woozy, but I don’t think my master will like it”

“Well, your master can deal with me then” replied Albus, reaching into the laundry basket and picking up an armful of dirty clothes, he regrated this after grabbing a pair of Matt’s underwear. “Come on, you lead the way”

“Hold on!” said Matt, standing up, “Aren’t you going to explain what the hell’s going on here?”

“Later,” said Albus before turning to Bertie, “Give me a hand”

Bertie looked stunned but obliged, picking up some more laundry. “S-sure,” he said, “Hi, Woozy, I’m Bertie,” he said anxiously.

“Open the door for us, Matt,” said Albus.

Matt nodded and tiptoed towards the door, keeping a wary eye on Woozy. He pushed the door open and jumped away as the three made their way out of the dormitory.

The Common Room was filling up, but they were all too engrossed in the match to pay them any attention. Once they’d left the Common Room and started to take the long walk down towards the laundry room, Bertie spoke in Albus’ ear.

“So that’s the one you saw in the bathroom the other day?”

Albus nodded, “Yep”

“Now he’s hiding in our laundry basket?”

“He wasn’t hiding” Albus insisted, stealing an uncertain glance behind him at Woozy, who was waddling under the weight of the laundry, “He just fell asleep”

Bertie followed his gaze and looked nervously at Woozy, “Doesn’t it seem a bit odd to you?” he whispered.

Albus hesitated and looked away from the house-elf, taking care to step around a muddy First Year who was trudging up the stairs. “I guess he just works hard” shrugged Albus, “You should’ve heard him talking about his ‘master’ back in the bathroom, I doubt he gets much time to rest”

Bertie looked at him uncertainly but nodded in agreement.

The laundry room was located in the basement, just a stone’s throw away from the much dingier dungeons. Unlike the dungeons, the walls were not covered in moss, or damp to the touch, instead, the basement felt warm and cosy. Woozy led them past a row of large barrels, that Albus assumed must contain Butterbeer and Pumpkin Juice. They came to a halt by a narrow door that was nestled in between two of the barrels, Albus would never have known it was there if Woozy hadn’t been guiding them.

Woozy stood in front of the door and gulped before standing up on his tip toes and reaching up to hit the knocker three times. The door opened immediately and the pointy face of a rake-thin house-elf stared out. It made eye contact with Woozy, who hid his face behind his laundry.

“Finally ‘ere are ya?” said the house-elf in a shrill voice, this house-elf was female. She picked up a clipboard and ticked something off with a pencil, “Gryffindor boys, Second Year…late” she crossed her arms and stared at Woozy, who was now quivering on the spot. “Well?” barked the house-elf.

Woozy yelped, “Woozy is sorry, Polley! I-it won’t happen again!”

“I shoul’ fink not!” screeched Polley, stamping her foot to emphasise the point, “Now drop that lot off and get to the kitchens, Grimey needs a hand!”

“Ye-yes!” exclaimed Woozy, sprinting into the laundry and dropping his pile into a large round vat.

Albus stepped into the laundry behind him but he felt a sharp boney finger in his abdomen, “Ow!”

“What’s this one doin’?” asked Polley, who stepped across Albus, blocking his way.

“I was helping Woozy carry some of the laundry down” answered Albus, calmly.

Polley’s eye twitched, “’elping!?” her head spun around to look at Woozy, who looked sheepish. “What’s our job, Woozy?”

“T-to…always s-stay out of…s-sight”

Polley nodded and turned her long nose up at Woozy, “That’s right. We do our job quietly, much easier that way” she pointed at Woozy, “One more incident like that and you’ll be outta ‘ere”

Albus gave Woozy an apologetic look and turned to Polley, “Please don’t be mad at Woozy, it was my idea to help” he closed his eyes and sighed, “He did say that his master would be unhappy…”

Polley’s ears pricked, “Eh, ‘master’?”

Woozy jumped towards Albus and grabbed his pile of clothes, immediately throwing the into the vat of bubbling water, then doing the same with Bertie’s. He then grabbed Albus’s robes and tried to guide him away from Polley.

“What are you doing?” asked Albus, as he was forced to take a step forward behind Woozy.

“Woozy needs to help Grimey” panted Woozy as he left the laundry, leaving Polley staring at them with her mouth agape.

Once all three of them were outside Woozy closed the door, leaving them alone in the orange-lit basement. Albus and Bertie both looked at each other, perplexed, then they looked down at Woozy, who was staring into space and shaking.

Albus leant down and touched Woozy on the shoulder, “Are you ok?” He didn’t answer. “I’m sorry if I caused you any trouble, I’ll go back in and tell Polley the full story if you want me to”

“No!” snapped Woozy, “Woozy is fine, Woozy needs to go to Grimey”

“Right…” said Albus, slowly standing up, “And where’s Grimey?”

“Kitchen” answered Woozy, who started to walk down the corridor, “Can’t let Master be angry at Woozy…” he said to himself.

“Isn’t Polley your master?” asked Bertie

Woozy turned around to look at him, “No, young sir, Polley is not my master” he spoke with a conviction that Albus hadn’t heard before.

“Woozy?” said Albus, stepping towards him, “Who is your master?”

Woozy’s eyes seemed to detach, just as they had done in the bathroom that evening. His gaze fell around the corridor aimlessly before they reattached again and looked at Albus, “My Master can’t be angry at Woozy”

Albus started to continue talking when he was interrupted by the surprising sight of a mud-soaked James walking towards him.

“Al! What are you doing down here?” he said, a large grin on his face. “You enjoy the match?”

Albus was taken aback, “Um, yeah? What are you doing down here?”

“Trying to grab some drinks for the party, but Grimey says it’s not ‘sanitary’ for me to be down here when I ‘look like this’. Can you believe him?” he asked, sounding annoyed.

Deciding that it was better to just agree, Albus nodded, “Yeah, doesn’t make any sense” he struggled to contain his laughter.

James sighed and clapped his hands together, spraying mud over the floor, “Good thing you’re down here then! Pick us up a couple of barrels of Butterbeer, thanks very much!” He started to walk off, leaving muddy footprints in his wake. “Just tell them I sent you” he called back before rounding the corner and going out of sight.

Albus thought about calling after him but decided against it. He looked at Bertie and shook his head, “I am going to kill him, one day…” he said, taking a deep breath. “Where are the kitchens, Woozy? I hope it won’t be a problem if we go there as well”

Woozy shook his head slowly and lead the pair of them along the corridor until they reached a painting of a fruit bowl, tantalisingly placed on its own at the end of the corridor. The tiny house-elf had to reach up to tickle the image of a pear. Albus was surprised to hear the portrait giggle, then he watched it swing open to reveal a large and busy kitchen.

It was a hive of activity with dozens of house-elves running around tending to pots and preparing food along the side of the room. Every so often a house-elf would levitate a platter of prepared food onto one of the four long tables in the middle of the room, where it would promptly disappear with a slight ‘pop’.

Woozy stepped into the room and beckoned Albus and Bertie to follow. They walked down the middle of the room towards a raised table where a haggard-looking house-elf was standing and barking out orders.

“Get a move on you lot, the kiddies always need feeding after a match” he called out to a group of elves who were peeling potatoes faster than Albus had ever seen.

Woozy gulped and stepped up to the table, “Sir Grimey, I’m here now”

Grimey didn’t notice him at first, instead choosing to brandish a wooden spoon in the direction of another elf who had put his knife down for a split second too long between cutting up potatoes.

“Sir…” said Woozy, again.

“Yes yes yes, I can see you, Woozy” sighed Grimey, “Third time this week you’ve been late!” barked Grimey, “Get to your station and help make the stew! We’ve got a whole school to feed!”

Grimey tapped his foot as Woozy sprinted to the wall where another elf was looking haggard as he stirred two pots of stew simultaneously. Finally satisfied, he turned to Albus and Bertie.

“What do you two want?” he barked

Albus jumped, “Um, we just want some Butterbeer for the Gryffindor common room party, James sent us” he added, hastily.

“That boy” Grimey snorted, “Comes down here covered in mud and putting footprints all over the floor, then expects me to just hand him some drinks, pfft” he shook his head, then waved in the direction of a stack of barrels along the far wall of the kitchen, “Take what you need”

Surprised at the willingness Grimey had shown, Albus thanked him quickly and walked to the back of the room. He and Bertie tested the weight of one of the barrels and figured that they could carry one each upstairs, albeit quite slowly. Bertie shifted one onto the floor and took a step back.

“It might be easier if we levitate it” he suggested

“All the way back to the Common Room? I don’t think either of us could levitate something for that long” said Albus, shaking his head.

“Has to be easier than carrying it though,” said Bertie.

Albus felt a tug at his leg, he glanced down to see Woozy there, “Oh, hello”

“Sir Albus should let Woozy take them upstairs for him, it’s the least Woozy could do,” he said, his eyes looking even larger than normal.

Albus looked at Bertie, who gave him an uncertain shrug, “Ok, sure, thanks for the offer Woo-“

Woozy snapped his fingers, causing the pile of barrels to tumble over onto the stone-flagged floor. A couple of them burst, throwing golden Butterbeer over a pair of unsuspecting elves. The initial, deafening, sound was immediately followed by a devastating silence. Every single eyeball in the room was focused on Woozy, who was now cowering in a foaming pool of liquid that was at his feet. His eyes were tightly shut.

A loud voice cut through the silence, “Woozy!” Grimey was marching up the aisle towards him, “Get out of here and go to bed! Honestly, what has gotten into you?”

Sobbing, Woozy fell to his knees and hid his eyes behind his hands, “Woozy is sorry!” he wailed, “Woozy will try to fix it!”

Both Albus and Bertie leapt forward at this point to stop Woozy from snapping his fingers again, “It’s ok, Woozy, let us sort it out!” said Albus, giving Bertie a ‘help me out’ look.

Bertie pulled his wand from his pocket and pointed it at the shattered barrels on the floor and muttered “Reparo”. The debris snapped together, but the Butterbeer was long gone and running into a nearby drain in the floor.

Grimey scowled at the three of them and clapped his hands together three times. Three of the still intact barrels disappeared with a ‘pop’. “There,” he stated, “They’re now in the Common Room”. He turned his attention to the sobbing Woozy, “Bed. Now” he snapped.

This time, Woozy wiped his runny nose and nodded. He picked himself up off the floor and slumped his way towards the door and out of sight. Albus watched him go and then looked at Grimey, who was shaking his head and inspecting the foaming mess at his feet.

“Just can’t get the staff!” growled Grimey, who looked back at the other house-elves, who had all stopped working to watch the scene unfold. “Get back to work, and get this cleaned up! As for you two”, he said, looking at Albus and Bertie, “Get out of here!”

Albus was quick to agree and he tried to pull Bertie out with him. He, however, was looking intently at the wall behind the barrels, the part that had recently been obscured by the barrels.

“What is it?” asked Albus.

Bertie pointed at the wall, “Look, can’t you see it?”

Leaning in, Albus narrowed his eyes and focused on where Bertie was pointing. It was hard to make out, but it looked like something had been carved into the wall. Albus pulled out his wand and muttered, “Lumos”. The end of his wand lit up, illuminating the small alcove he was looking into. Now lit up, Albus could make out what it was.

“An owl?” said Albus, confused, “That’s a bit random”

Bertie shook his head, “Look at it carefully, it’s definitely the same owl that’s in the book”. Albus looked at him blankly, “It’s Valerio Vitanster’s symbol!” said Bertie in wide-eyed excitement.

Albus quickly looked around the room, the elves had all gotten back to work and were no longer paying the pair of them any attention. He turned back to Bertie, “You’re sure?”

“Positive,” said Bertie, “What on earth is it doing in here?”

Albus didn’t answer, he reached out and ran his fingers along the carving. It was smooth and dirty, faded by time, but it was clearly the same as the one that appeared so frequently in the Grimoire. His finger reached the right ear of the owl when he felt the stone brick move slightly.

“I think there’s something behind it,” said Albus, his heart beating audibly in his chest. He reached back in and pressed the stone again, feeling the ever-so-slight movement in it. “I don’t think it’s going to budge”

“Maybe it needs a password” suggested Bertie, who also tried to move the stone enough to reveal whatever may be behind it.

“No, look, it’s moving,” said Albus, who had been able to get a grip around the edge of the stone.

He pulled at it firmly as it fit snugly inside the gap, but with enough give to suggest that it had maybe been moved recently. It took some time, but eventually, Albus was able to pull it out. Pointing his illuminated wand at the hole revealed a small alcove cut directly into the wall. For a moment it looked like it was empty, but Bertie reached in and pulled something out.

“What is it?” said Albus in a low voice, aware that they were attracting some attention from the house-elves.

Bertie turned the object over in his hands. It was made out of wood and seemed to have been treated with some sort of varnish, as it was shiny. Some faint markings were visible on the surface and Albus had to squint at it to try and make them out.

“It’s runic,” said Bertie, holding it up into the light, “And look at the shape of it”. Handing it to Albus, Bertie then put the stone back in place over the hole, before nudging him, “Come on, we should get out of here before someone asks what we’re doing”

Albus nodded, still looking at the wooden object. It was peculiarly shaped with a round edge on one side and a series of long, toothlike, protrusions on the other two. Upon closer inspection, Albus could see that each of them was shaped in such a way that it could link together with others of a similar shape.

At Bertie’s urging, they left the kitchen and walked out into the basement. It was quiet and they felt safe enough to talk.

“It looks like a quarter of something,” said Albus, looking at it from every angle and thinking things through in his head, “This has to have something to do with the laboratory”

Bertie pondered for a moment and took the object off Albus and looked at the writing, “Whatever these runes say, I don’t think it’s going to make any sense until we get the whole thing”. He looked at it closely and turned the object over, the other side was etched with interconnected lines. Then, inexplicably, he raised it to his nose and sniffed it. “Hmm, it smells of something flowery, maybe lavender?”

“Lavender? How do you know that?” asked Albus, impressed.

The sound of footsteps and excited voices came from the nearby stairwell, prompting Bertie to pocket the object. A group of Gryffindor’s noisily walked past them and into the kitchen, clearly on the hunt for more party provisions.

“Let’s get out of here,” said Bertie, eager to return to the common room before people wondered why they’d been gone so long.

The party was in full swing once inside the common room, even after a terrible game the Gryffindor’s never missed an excuse to let their hair down. James was in one corner of the room wearing an odd assortment of clothes that Albus suspected were the only ones he had that were dry and clean. He was surrounded by the rest of the Gryffindor team, with one notable exception.

Albus found the other second years next to the fireplace, “Where’s Leon?” he asked them.

“Upstairs” answered Matt, glumly, “I wouldn’t go up there, he’s in a bit of a state”

“That doesn’t sound like Leon,” said Bertie, helping himself to a spare Jelly Slug that was inching its way across the table.

Matt shrugged, “He felt like he had a bit of a shocker today”

“That’s ridiculous, he was no better or worse than anyone else,” said Albus

“Well, that’s not how he’s taking it” sighed Matt, “I’ve tried talking to him, so has James, and Caprice, and everyone else in the team”

Albus saw Bertie feel the pocket where he’d put the wooden object, “Well, we need to go up there” he said, looking up the stairs.

With half a laugh, Matt replied, “Fine, just don’t mention the game!”

Giving Bertie a slight tug on his sleeve, they went upstairs towards the dormitory. They didn’t go straight in, instead stopping outside the door.

“We need to keep that thing safe until we can look at it properly,” said Albus.

Bertie took it out of his pocket and looked at it again, “Sure, but where?”

“In my trunk”

Shaking his head Bertie replied, “I don’t think it’s a good idea to keep it with the book, we should keep it in mine”

Albus wasn’t completely happy with this, but they didn’t have time to argue about it. Nodding, they quietly entered the dormitory. It was quiet and dark, as half the candles had been extinguished. Leons' bed was occupied, but the person on it was curled up into a ball and completely covered by the duvet. Bertie tiptoed over to his trunk and opened it as quietly as possible, depositing the object inside. As he made his way back towards the door, he accidentally knocked into one of the tall candlesticks, causing it to wobble in place.

The duvet shifted and Leon’s head popped out of the top. He turned to face them, revealing a pair of red eyes. “Oh, it’s you” he grumbled.

“We were just leaving!” said Bertie, quickly.

There was another grumble from the duvet and Leon’s head disappeared from view. Realising that Leon was in no mood at all to talk, they left the dormitory and stood outside the door.

“He does not seem good,” said Albus in a low voice, “I’m sure he’ll be ok though”

Bertie didn’t answer, he was looked down with his thinking face on. Albus snapped his fingers.

“Earth to Bertie,” he said.

Bertie looked up with his thinking face looking even more concentrated, “Why was it in the kitchen?” he finally said.

“Come again?”

“The owl symbol. Why would someone put it there?” he asked.

They looked at each other, both trying to work it out for themselves. Seconds passed as they worked through the problem in their heads. Their eyes met, and they couldn’t help but laugh.

Shaking their heads at yet another problem to solve, they walked back downstairs to re-join the party and, for now at least, put everything else to one side.

Chapter Text

Chapter Ten: The Madness of Marlowe

A cold wind blew in through the doors of the Entrance Hall, threatening to put out the candles that lined the walls. It rushed down the corridor into the Grand Staircase, passing portraits, suits of armour, shivering students, and up onto the third floor. More students felt the chill as it came through and pulled their robes around their chins to feel some warmth. It reached a wooden door, slightly ajar, and squeezed itself through. Papers on desks rattled and some people reached for scarves. A fire on one side of the room flickered, whilst the embers glowed and tried to fight back against the cold.

“Colloportus” 

The door slammed shut. The cold wind was stopped. Students could pull their robes away and focus on the blackboard at the front of the classroom.

“Sorry about that,” said Professor Constantine, pocketing his wand and returning to pacing up and down the row of desks. “As I was saying, the Disarming Charm is likely to be the most important defensive spell in your arsenal…” he continued.

On the second row from the back, Albus put his quill down and stretched his fingers out, they’d been aching for days. The detentions hadn’t been getting any easier, but he, Scorpius, and Matt had made an agreement to get as close to finishing off their cleaning task as they could before Christmas. The result was that they were now three-quarters of the way through the suits of armour.

There was a yawn from the desk behind, and Albus glanced at it to see Scorpius rubbing his half-closed eyes. Matt was sitting next to him, his head resting on his hand, leaving the other one lazily copying down what Constantine was saying. 

Albus turned back to the front of the classroom, where Constantine had written some notes on the board. Picking up his quill and wincing slightly, he started to copy them down. 

1. Disarming should always be your first option in a duelling situation
2. The most successful duellists in history have all mastered their Disarming Charm.
3. Mastery of this charm will greatly increase your ability to use other defens-

A loud chiming of the bell made Albus jump and he ran his quill along the parchment, leaving a long black line that went over the edge and onto the desk.

“For Merlin’s sake…” said Albus through gritted teeth. He rubbed at the ink on the desk with the sleeve of his robe to get it off. 

Constantine clapped his hands together and rubbed the board clean, “Very good, excellent work today everyone. Now we have the theory side of this charm down, next week we will start with the practical use of it. So everyone will need to have their sensible caps on, yes, that means you, Mr Fleet!”

Caedus Fleet shared a nasty smile with some of his Slytherin cronies as he packed away and left the classroom. There was a general hubbub as the rest of the class followed suit. Albus was annoyed about missing the rest of the notes and he responded by haphazardly throwing his piece of parchment into his bag. 

“Can I borrow your notes later?” he asked Bertie, who simply nodded as he placed his neatly folded parchment away.

Constantine walked over to their desk, “Everything alright here?”

“Yes, Sir” replied Albus, not looking at him.

A small chuckle came from Constantine’s mouth, “Yes, I could tell by how you three spent the whole lesson yawning” he nodded at Albus, Scorpius, and Matt, who was illustrating the point by stretching his arms above his head and letting out a particularly loud yawn.

“Sorry, sir,” said Matt whilst rubbing his eye

“Yeah, it’s these stupid detentions,” said Scorpius, “Don’t take it personally”

Constantine chuckled again, “No offence taken, but should you ever need to catch up on anything, please let me know”. He walked off to talk to some other students.

Matt left the classroom ahead of the others to talk to Leon, leaving the other three to talk alone as they walked down the stairs for break time. The castle was slowly being filled up with decorations, a sure sign that Christmas was just around the corner. A small swarm of pixies were flying around dropping tinsel on any spare surfaces, including students who dared to stand still for too long. 

“What have you got after break?” asked Scorpius

“Charms” replied Bertie, dodging a low-flying pixie.

Albus sighed and leaned his head back triumphantly, “Finally, a lesson where I don’t have to rush and finish an essay”

“What have you got, Scorpius?” asked Bertie

“Me? Err…” he pulled his timetable out of his bag and scanned it. He stopped walking and his eyes widened, “History of Magic…”

Bertie stifled a laugh, “Essay?”

“Yup”

“Library?”

“Yup”

They ran back upstairs, despite the protests of some annoyed-looking sixth years, and skidded across the stone floor to turn into the library corridor. Bursting through the doors of the library they were more than pleased to see that Madame Pince was not at the front desk, so they sprinted to their normal desk nestled between two tall bookshelves.

Scorpius performed his well-rehearsed routine of opening his bag and pulling out his inkwell, quill, and parchment in one swift movement, and then just writing whatever his brain came up with.

Seeing as they were well used to this by now, and because Scorpius hadn’t yet had this method come back to bite him, Albus and Bertie left him to it and started to study their Grimoire notes again. 

“I had some more thoughts about the quadrant,” said Bertie. They’d decided on calling the wooden object the ‘quadrant’ after much debate.

“Go on,” said Albus, intrigued.

Bertie opened his notes to the page that contained the transcript of Vitanster’s introduction and ran his finger across it, eventually pointing at one section in particular. 

“See this?” he said, as Albus leaned over, “The part about his students making a flower?”

Albus nodded and read the passage, “What about it?”

“One of them, Eda, makes a lavender flower,” said Bertie, his face alight.

“Yeah?” said Albus, unsure about what Bertie was implying.

Rolling his eyes, Bertie pulled out another page of newer notes that he’d written down about the quadrant a few weeks ago, “The smell!” he said, “I thought it smelt of lavender, didn’t I? Now I’m certain that it did, and I’m almost certain that it was Eda who put the quadrant there”

It finally clicked for Albus, who resisted the urge to hug Bertie, “That’s amazing!” he cheered, causing the disapproving glare of Madame Pince to appear from around a bookshelf. He lowered his voice when she went away, “But it doesn’t really answer the question about why it was in the kitchen”

Bertie looked slightly crestfallen, “I’m still working that out, but there has to be a link”

“If we can work that out, then it will help us find the others,” said Albus, his mood lifting with the thought that they might be getting closer to solving at least one of the Grimoire’s mysteries. “Where do we start then?”

A pondering look appeared on Bertie’s face, and his eyes scanned around the nearby shelves in the vague hope of striking inspiration. “Can you think of anything?”

Albus scratched his head, “Well, it’s got to have something to do with the flower” he too started to gaze at the books, “What do we know about lavenders?”

“They’re purple” suggested Scorpius, who was taking a momentary break from his writing.

“Brilliant” snickered Albus, “Anything else?”

“They smell nice?” said Bertie, shrugging.

Albus sighed, “You’re the one who worked out the smell was lavender, I thought you’d be good at this”

Bertie looked annoyed, “I only knew that because we have a lavender bush growing outside our house!”

“Ok, ok,” said Albus, raising his hand in apology, “Let’s just have a think about it”

Across the table, Scorpius was rolling up his parchment, seemingly satisfied that he’d written enough for Professor Binns to not complain. “Why don’t you ask Rose? I bet she knows something about flowers”

“Because she’s a girl?” asked Albus, raising an eyebrow

“No, you moron, because she’s probably read a dozen books on the subject” replied Scorpius, packing his things away and standing up to leave.

The other two followed his lead, “Oh, right” said Albus, following Scorpius out of the library, “Probably best I don’t, she’ll only get suspicious” 

“We’d better get reading then, in that case,” said Scorpius, yawning again, “Tell you what though, I’m going to sleep so well in Binns’s class- Oh, sorry Sir”

Scorpius had walked into Professor Marlowe, who was coming around the corner carrying a stack of rolled-up parchment. He dropped a couple on the floor and said nothing as he stooped down to pick them up. One of them rolled towards Albus and came to a rest at his feet, unfurling slightly as it did. Curious, Albus looked at what was on it. It was a list of runes and some words that he recognised. He barely got a second look before Marlowe snatched it up, he stared at Albus and their eyes met for slightly too long.

“S-sir?” he said, taking a small step back.

Marlowe coughed and broke his stare, “Yes, get to your next class” he said quietly, a hint of contempt in his voice. He proceeded down the corridor and turned away out of sight.

“Al, what was it?” asked Bertie

Albus swallowed, “I think those were his Grimoire notes, because he was translating some spells from runes”

Scorpius looked up and down the corridor before talking, “You’re sure?”

“Positive” nodded Albus, “I’m sure I recognised a couple of them from our own notes”

Rubbing his forehead, Scorpius took a deep breath, “He’s had the same idea as us then. He must have the whole book copied out, no wonder he hasn’t tried to get it back!”

“Did you see the way he looked at me though?” asked Albus, who could feel a bead of sweat making its way down his cheek.

Bertie nodded, “Almost like he knew…” he trailed off, not wanting to think about the implications.

They stood in silence for a moment or two, before Scorpius broke the silence, “Potions later might be interesting then” he forced a laugh, prompting a dirty look from the other two, “I’ll see you there” he said, waving them off and walking towards the dungeons. 

Potions was indeed interesting. For the first time in weeks, Professor Marlowe was actually giving them some proper instruction, rather than just relying on his pupils to read the textbook properly. The relative delight at this news was tempered somewhat when they realised that the only reason he was doing this was because today's potion was a nastily difficult one called the ‘Fire Protection Potion’.

Marlowe had to watch them closely as they crushed a Wartcap into powder, in order to prevent it coming into contact with their skin and causing a nasty rash to appear. Despite a couple of near misses, this was a success. 

Albus allowed himself to breathe again as he slowly poured the fine powder into his cauldron, causing it to turn a pleasant canary yellow colour. Marlowe had moved onto the next desk once the powder was crushed, so he felt able to talk again.

“How’s yours looking?” he asked Bertie, but one look inside the cauldron told him everything he needed to know. It was green and had the consistency of slime, Bertie had to pull hard at his ladle to free it. 

Bertie watched the excess slime dribble off the ladle and groaned, “Why am I so useless at this?”

By now, Rose had walked over and was now looking into the cauldron with her brow furrowed, a familiar sight in this situation. She thumbed through the textbook, glancing back and forth between it and the cauldron. Eventually, she took the ladle from Bertie and placed it in, stirring it around as hard as she could. 

“What did you put in this thing?” she asked, stirring with two hands now.

“Exactly what the book said” replied Bertie, double checking the list, “Three Bursting Mushrooms, neatly sliced. Half a vial of salamander blood. And crushed Wartcap powder”

Rose stopped stirring and rested her arms on the table, “Are you sure? Because none of those ingredients should’ve done this to it. What was it like before you added the powder?”

“Green, just like the book said”

Shaking her head in disbelief, Rose looked into Bertie’s pestle and mortar, where there was a light dusting of the yellowish powder still coating the bottom of the bowl. She raised her hand and called out to Professor Marlowe, who came over quickly.

“Yes, Rose?” he asked, ignoring Albus and Bertie completely.

“Sorry sir, I wondered if you could tell what this powder is, because I don’t think it’s Wartcap powder” She held out the bowl to him.

Marlowe took it in his hands and he inspected the powder closely. To everyone’s surprise, he risked touching it, rubbing his finger along the bottom of the bowl and covering it in a layer of the powder.

“It’s not,” said Marlowe shortly. He placed the bowl down and cleaned his finger with a tap of his wand. He went to the front of the classroom and clapped his hands together for silence. “Class, I need everyone to get out into the corridor, please. Quickly and calmly”

Rose looked stunned, “What?” she asked to no one in particular. She looked into the bowl again and tried to work out what he’d identified, but Marlowe whipped the bowl away before she could get a good enough look.

“Corridor please, Miss Weasley”

They all filed out, with no one being any the wiser as to what was going on. A quiet chatter broke out as they stood in the corridor outside the classroom, all in slightly nervous anticipation. Marlowe stepped out to join them and clapped his hands together again, stopping the chatter immediately.

“Who will own up then?” he said, sternly, looking into the faces of everyone in front of him. 

Confused gazes greeted him back as they all looked around at each other, just in case someone else looked guilty. 

“No one?” snapped Marlowe. He took a deep breath, “Someone in this class has found it particularly funny to replace Mr Hadham’s Wartcap powder with crushed Death-Cap flesh”

There was a sharp intake of breath to Albus’ left as Rose now stood bolt upright in shock. The rest of the class descended into a murmur again, speaking in hushed tones about what that could mean.

“Silence!” barked Marlowe, turning to Rose, “Miss Weasley, perhaps you’d be so kind as to inform the rest of the class what a Death-Cap is?”

Rose gulped, “Yes sir,” she said slowly, “The Death-Cap is possibly the most dangerous mushroom in Europe, ingesting as little as half it is enough to kill a human. But sir, I…”

“Yes, thank you Miss Weasley,” said Marlowe, interrupting her, “Now, I don’t think I need to explain the seriousness of this ‘prank’, so I will ask again, who was it who thought it was funny to give Mr Hadham a Death-Cap instead of a Wartcap?”

Silence.

“No one?” said Marlowe, snorting derisively. He paced along the line, stopping in front of Bertie, “Mr Hadham, who here had access to your ingredients?”

Shaking, Bertie looked down the line at Albus, Rose, and Scorpius, the three others he was sharing a desk with.

Nodding, Marlowe turned his attention to them, “Are any of you prepared to confess?” he asked, staring at each of them in turn. Rose was staring at the floor. Scorpius had a stunned look on his face. Albus could only look perplexed.

Marlowe looked straight at Albus, “Anything to say, Mr Potter?”

Fighting the urge to shout his innocence at him, Albus replied, “Sir, I got Bertie’s ingredients for him whilst he set both of our cauldrons up. I only got the ingredients listed in the recipe”

“And you just happened to mistake a Death-Cap for a Wartcap?” said Marlowe, looking down at him.

Albus twitched, “No, I know the difference between a Death-Cap mushroom and a Wartcap mushroom, it’s not that difficult!”

“You will address me as ‘Sir’, or ‘Professor’, Mr Potter. This is a serious situation, you have endangered the life of a fellow pupil, one you claim is a close friend, and now you have the sheer cheek to claim that it wasn’t you?” Marlowe glared at him and barely concealed a triumphant smirk from appearing on his face.

“Sir” spat Albus, drawing the word out, “I would never do anything like that!” He felt himself getting bolder, “And shouldn’t you be asking yourself why the Wartcaps and the Death-Caps are kept so close together in the cupboard if it’s so easy to mistake the two?”

The concealed smirk was now painted over Marlowe’s face as he leant down towards Albus, “One toe out of line” he sneered, “What a shame, you’d been doing so well to keep out of trouble as well. Tut tut” he shook his head and grabbed Albus’ arm, dragging him down the corridor. “Class dismissed!” he called back to the stunned crowd.

Rose cried out, “Sir! Sir!” but to no avail.

Marlowe was walking at a brisk pace, oblivious to the ever-tightening grip he had around Albus’ arm, and the cries of pain he was making because of it. The corridors were empty, but it wouldn’t be long before other classes ended and they filled up again. Albus was frogmarched up the stairs from the dungeons and into the Grand Staircase, where he was dragged upwards with his ankles being knocked on every other stair. He knew precisely where Marlowe was taking him, right to the very top of the tower.

“Stop!” Albus protested, feeling more and more helpless, and fearing that this was indeed it for him at Hogwarts. His pain was replaced with anger, surely even Professor Selbit wouldn’t kick him out over something he didn’t do, but when it was his word against a teachers… 

There was nothing good about thinking about the consequences here.

He rehearsed his story in his head once, twice, three times, with each internal telling getting more and more desperate as they got closer to Selbit’s office. They walked past a passageway, and Albus heard some footsteps coming from it. He desperately turned towards them and felt his spirit lift. At this moment the tall, pale, scarred figure of Professor Constantine looked like his guardian angel.

“Albus?” he asked, stepping out on the staircase. He looked searchingly at Marlowe, seemingly with no words.

Marlowe stopped walking, his hand still wrapped tightly around Albus’ arm, “Professor Constantine” he said, sternly, “I’m in a hurry, so make it quick”

Constantine looked first at Albus, then back to Marlowe, “Loosen your grip” he ordered, “Mr Potter isn’t going to run away”

There was a brief hesitation, but Marlowe obliged and released Albus, who stepped back rubbing his arm and grimacing. Albus gave Constantine a small nod of thanks.

“Are you here to tell me how to punish my students, Dario?” Marlowe asked with a certain amount of bile. 

Constantine raised an eyebrow, “I wouldn’t dream of it” he said, “But perhaps you could enlighten me about what exactly Mr Potter has done? I’m sure you’re aware of his situation, and I’d hate for him to be expelled over something that any other teacher would find trivial”

A flicker of annoyance brushed over Marlowe’s face, though it was quickly replaced with an incredibly smug expression, “Mr Potter attempted to pull a prank in my class. He swapped out Mr Hadham’s Wartcap mushroom for a Death-Cap”

“Sir, that’s not true!” bleated Albus.

Constantine held his hand up to him, “Just wait a moment, Albus, you’ll have your chance. Continue, Professor”

Marlowe nodded, “I’m sure you’d agree that this is an incredibly serious situation and that I couldn’t possibly trust Mr Potter to continue in my class. Any other student would be looking an expulsion, not least one with his…reputation”

Incandescent, Albus opened his mouth to speak again, but he was stopped by yet another raised hand from Professor Constantine.

“I agree that this is a serious charge, and I do agree with your assessment that expulsion would be a likely punishment for anyone found to be guilty of doing it,” he said, prompting another smug smile to erupt on Marlowe’s face, “However, I think it’s normally the done thing to allow the accused to defend themselves, as someone who had a job interview with the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, I would trust that you’d know that”

Marlowe could barely hide his contempt, but he waved his hand in the air in defeat, “Fine, explain yourself, Potter”

As the only thing that Albus could now think about was his relief, he completely forgot what his story to Selbit was going to be. He saw Constantine give him a reassuring nod, so took a deep breath and recounted the truth.

“Bertie and I take it in turns to get our ingredients, whilst the other sets up our cauldrons and put them onto the heat. This time it was my turn to get the ingredients from the cupboard. I found everything on the ingredient list: Three Bursting Mushrooms each; a vial of salamander blood each; and a single Wartcap mushroom, ready for us to crush into a fine powder. The Wartcap mushroom is a mustard yellow colour and is easily distinguishable from a Death-Cap, which is an off-white or brown colour. We both started mixing our potions until we got to the step where we needed to crush up the Wartcap, which is when Professor Marlowe came over to assist us. He watched Bertie crush his Wartcap up, and then he watched me, Rose, and Scorpius do the same. After this he left us to pour the powder into our potions, which is when Bertie’s went wrong” Albus took a breath once he finished and looked at Constantine, who flashed him a small smile and nodded.

“So you say that you got all of your ingredients from the store cupboard, yes?” asked Constantine.

“Yes, Sir,” said Albus, breathing heavily with nerves.

He nodded, “Of course”. His attention turned to Marlowe, “Remind me, Professor, where do you keep your most hazardous ingredients?”

“What do you mean?” asked Marlowe

Constantine chuckled, “Forgive me, it’s just that I’m sure the Regulation for the Storage of Poisonous Materials states that anything that could do permanent harm to someone needs to be kept separately in a locked cabinet”. He eyed up Marlowe, who had a blank expression, “You’ll have a much deeper understanding of those regulations than me, it is your area of expertise after all, but I would’ve thought that Death-Caps and Wartcaps would not be kept in the same places as each other to prevent incidents like this”

Marlowe's eyebrow flickered dangerously, and he smoothed out a crease on his jacket. “And what exactly are you implying, Dario?” he drawled

“Nothing, Septimus” replied Constantine, “It’s just that in order for this situation to have happened as you described it means that Mr Potter would’ve had to break into your locked cupboard and retrieve a Death-Cap, without you noticing, all to inexplicably poison his best friend. Or…” he paused, “You’ve been lax with your safety protocols and allowed Wartcaps and Death-Caps to be stored together. So, which is it?” 

They stared at each other for what seemed like an eternity. Constantine’s dark eyes penetrated Marlowe’s skull, and he looked entirely uncomfortable under his gaze. Eventually, Marlowe backed down and pushed Albus towards Constantine, defeated.

“Excellent,” said Constantine, beaming, “We’ll consider this matter closed, shall we? And I trust you’ll be doing your own investigation into how Death-Cap dust ended up in the cauldron of Bertie, yes?”

Marlowe glared and him whilst heading back down the stairs, “Of course, Professor” he sneered. It wasn’t long before he reached the bottom of the stairs and turned down into the dungeons.

Finally free, Albus allowed himself to breathe as the fear of expulsion evaporated from his body. “Thank you, Sir,” he said between breaths.

“Not at all, could you come with me for a moment?” said Constantine, beckoning for Albus to follow. 

He led him down the third-floor corridor towards Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom, leading him inside and through to the back of the room. Pushing it open, Professor Constantine revealed his office. 

“Come in,” he said, pointing at a spare chair, “Take a seat”

Albus obliged, taking the chance to look around as he did. The room was smaller than he expected, though it was made to look even smaller by the sheer number of magical objects that lined the walls, most of which Albus couldn’t even begin to identify. A glass-fronted cabinet was on the wall behind Constantine’s desk, and Albus could see several wine bottles behind them, most looked to be half empty. 

Constantine sat down opposite Albus and clasped his hands together, requesting Albus’ attention. “I don’t suppose you’d know why Professor Marlowe was so keen to see you punished?” he asked with his eyes digging into Albus.

“Oh, um…” stuttered Albus. His mind was torn, on one hand, he knew exactly why Marlowe reacted as he did, perhaps he wanted to get his hands on the book? Or maybe he just wanted to get him out of the way? On the other hand, why would he react that way now? After all, Albus had had the book for months at this point, and he was pretty sure that Marlowe had copied most of it out anyway. 

“Well?” prompted Constantine, gently

With a sharp intake of breath, Albus replied, “I don’t know, Sir”. It was an honest answer under the circumstances.

Constantine closed his eyes and breathed deeply. He reached into his drawer and pulled out a tin of biscuits, opening it and putting it on the desk. “Help yourself,” he said.

Albus reached in and picked up a bat-shaped one that was covered in black icing.

“I think you should know that there has been an…agreement amongst the teachers to be slightly more lenient with yourself, Mr Malfoy, and Mr Bingham,” said Constantine, “None of us wants to see you get expelled”

Albus had been aware of this, if only subconsciously, but it was a relaxing feeling to know that this was true. He took a small bite of his biscuit, dropping a few crumbs onto his lap. “Was Professor Marlowe part of this?”

“Yes,” said Constantine, closing his eyes, “Which is why I’m more than surprised that he chose to deem you worthy of expulsion on such flimsy, if not completely non-existent, evidence”. He opened his eyes and resumed his staring into Albus’, “Are you sure there’s nothing you wish to tell me?”

“Sir, I’m innocent” spluttered Albus, staggered that he would even be suggesting that he had any guilt after everything that had just happened.

“You misunderstand”, replied Constantine, unflustered. His tone shifted and became serious, “Is there any reason at all why Professor Marlowe would act in the manner he did?”

Albus felt his stare burrowing deep inside his head. It was at this moment that he knew. Professor Constantine knew about the Grimoire of Anima, and he knew that Albus had it in his possession. So why was he asking? Did he just want confirmation of his suspicions? Did he want to act against Marlowe and want Albus’s help doing it? Or did Constantine want the book for himself? 

With his heart beating hard in his chest, Albus had to concentrate on not giving himself away. He thought about telling him, maybe he wouldn’t mind? Maybe he really did want to help Albus. 

Steeling himself, Albus replied as coolly as he could, “No, Sir, there’s nothing”.

There was a pause, and Constantine closed his eyes again, nodding slowly. “Very well,” he said in a soft voice. He scribbled something on a spare bit of parchment, folded it up, and handed it to Albus. 

“What’s this, Sir?” he asked

“A note for Professor Longbottom” replied Constantine, “I believe you have Herbology now, yes? This is just to explain why you’re late”

Albus’ eyes widened with realisation and he pocketed the note before bidding Constantine farewell. Looking back into the office as he left, he saw Constantine rub his forehead, seemingly deep in thought. 

Fortunately for Albus his class inside Greenhouse Three were too busy fighting with Devil’s Snare saplings to notice him walk in. He was able to walk around the edge of the room and hand his note to Professor Longbottom, who was nervously tapping his fingers on the back of his chair as he watched Matt wrenching the plant from around his wrist. He read the note and nodded.

“Thank you, Albus. You can join Bertie and Rose at their desk. Try not to startle their sapling, it’s particularly skittish” he said before stepping over to help Matt pull his away.

Rose looked relieved, “Oh, thank Merlin!” she cried, “I thought you’d be kicked out. What happened?”

 “Long story” he replied shortly, whilst putting his apron and dragonhide gloves on. 

Rose didn’t look satisfied with this, but she turned her attention back to the Devil’s Snare, which was currently trying to pick up a nearby pair of shears, though Rose was quick to spot this and move them away.

Taking a chance whilst she was distracted, Bertie stepped over to Albus, “You look worried” he whispered, “What’s up?”

“I’ll tell you later, but I think we’re going to have to be very careful with the book” Albus whispered back. 

Bertie gave him a nervous look and slowly nodded in understanding. “Ok, I get it”

A cold wind blew in through an open window, Albus shivered and rubbed his arms. Life suddenly felt much more complicated.

Chapter Text

Chapter Eleven: The Second Quadrant

“I told you to start packing days ago!” Rose’s unimpressed voice rang through the Great Hall, with a dozen eyes landing on both her and who the statement was aimed at.

Albus groaned and dropped his fork on his plate, “I told you, I don’t have that much to pack!”

“Only because you didn’t seem to actually unpack”, snorted Matt as he shoved a slice of pie into his mouth.

The Great Hall was filled with students dressed in casual clothes as they took in the delights of a Hogwarts dinner for the final time that term. The Hogwarts Express would make its journey to London the following morning, and they felt the need to finally relax after a long first term back at school. The Hall was suitably decorated with a huge Christmas tree in each corner, each one decorated in the colours of a different Hogwarts House. Tinsel the width of a basilisk adorned the rafters and ran down the walls, with floating baubles lighting the room where candles would normally be.

Albus heard a humming coming from his right. He turned and saw the translucent figure of Nearly Headless Nick gliding down between the tables.

“Merry Christmas, Sir Nicholas”, he said as he floated past.

His head turned towards them, wobbling precariously as it did so. “Merry Christmas, young Mr Potter”, he said in his pompous accent, “And Merry Christmas to all of you young Gryffindors”

The others all raised their goblets and returned the greeting.

Rose smiled at him, “How are you doing?”

“Frightfully anxious, my dear”, he mumbled, adjusting his ruff, “My fellow ghosts have nominated me to lead the planning committee for a one thousandth birthday party”

“Birthday party?” questioned Matt, “I didn’t know ghosts celebrated birthdays?”

Nick’s nostrils flared, “We don’t”, he huffed shortly, “The ghost in question had such a crippling fear of death that even when he can no longer leave the earthly plane, he finds the subject too distressing to even think about”.

“Who’s the ghost?” asked Albus, intrigued.

“Algar Morlaix. I doubt you’ll have heard of him, spends most of his time moaning about existence in the Astronomy tower” answered Nick, mournfully.

Albus thought for a few moments, “That one with the long beard and tatty robes?”

“Yes, that’s the one. No doubt you’d have been forced to listen to his complaining whilst queuing up for lessons” sighed Nick.

Rose took a sip of pumpkin juice and said, “When’s the party then?”

Nick sighed loudly, no doubt hoping to catch the attention of both the Fat Friar and Bloody Baron, who were floating by at the time, “Not until after Christmas. I would invite you, but I can’t imagine it would be very interesting”

With this, Nick floated away, ignoring the stares of his other ghosts. The Gryffindors all silently agreed with his assessment that going to a ghost's birthday party would be especially boring. Teddy had warned Albus off ever going to a Deathday Party, on account of the mouldy food and dead conversation, and it was hard to imagine a birthday being any better.

Albus looked at his watch and nudged Bertie. They quickly finished their meal and made their excuses to leave the table. A few minutes later, they were in the nearly empty library, just Madame Pince and a few Seventh Years were present. Turning between the bookshelves they came to the usual spot, where Scorpius was sitting waiting for them.

“You’re late”, he said, sounding impatient.

“Sorry”, said Albus as he took a seat opposite him and carefully unfolded some notes, “We were eating”

Scorpius sighed, “I know, I saw you talking to Nearly Headless-Nick as well”. He closed the Transfiguration textbook he was reading and lowered his voice, “What’s the plan then?”

Keeping one ear out to listen for any sign of someone eavesdropping, Albus leaned towards him, “We need to decide who’s taking the book and the quadrant home with them, because there’s no way we can leave them here”

“Sure, but remember what happened last time?” said Bertie, who was keeping his eyes firmly on the rest of the library, “We can’t risk leaving anything with me”

Albus and Scorpius both nodded slowly, well aware of the fact that their plans from last summer were no longer suitable.

“I’ll take the book”, said Albus, “It will be safe with me for a couple of weeks”

Bertie breathed a sigh of relief and relaxed, “Good idea”

“What about the quadrant?” asked Scorpius.

Albus ran his finger along the outline of a brick in the wall next to where he was sitting and thought for a second, “I could take it as well, it’s not as if things will get even riskier because I have both it and the book”

Scorpius grimaced slightly, but nodded in reluctant agreement, “I’ll admit that it’s better than it going home with me, but I still don’t like it”

Rolling his eyes, Albus felt for the familiar etchings that had been carved into the bricks by students in days gone by. His fingers ran along the biggest and most intricate one. Starting at the pointed ears, he shifted downwards towards the long and gentle curve of its body, reaching all the way down until he reached the feet, where he lifted his finger off and absentmindedly looked at it.

“Oh…” he said, the realisation smacking into his brain at high speed, “Oh!”.

Bertie and Scorpius both looked at him with bewildered looks on their faces, then their eyes moved to the etching on the wall.

“Oh!” said Bertie, standing up and immediately stepping over to look at it more closely. “How on earth have we not spotted that before?”

Albus shook his head, “We have, loads of times, we just never thought about it!” he had to laugh at himself, “All those days where I sat here and traced it, and this is the first time where I finally make the connection”

Scorpius looked confused; he wasn’t there when they’d found the first one in the kitchen. “You’re not saying that it’s one of Vitanster’s symbols, are you?”

“It definitely is”, said Albus, who was already trying to prise the brick out and managing to get some movement from it. “Keep an eye out for Pince”, he said.

With a nod, Scorpius got up from his chair and positioned himself at the end of the row of bookshelves, looking up and down for any sign of Madame Pince, or any other teacher for that matter.

“Come on… “ said Albus through gritted teeth. The brick was starting to come loose and was shaking some mortar dust onto the floor. With a final heave, Albus and Bertie managed to remove the brick and reveal the small compartment behind.

Peering in, they saw another intricately carved quadrant, and at first glance, it looked like it would’ve fitted perfectly with the one they already had. Bertie reached in to take it out, and he immediately raised it to his nose and sniffed it.

“Well?” asked Albus, impatiently.

Bertie shook his head, “No idea, sorry. It definitely has a smell, I just don’t know what flower it might be”

“It’s got to be either a Wisteria or an Iris”, said Scorpius as he abandoned his post by the bookshelves to walk over and look at the quadrant. He took a sniff himself, but he only scrunched his nose up, “Yup, smells planty”

Taking the quadrant himself, Albus turned it over in his hand. It had different runic symbols on it, like the first one, but otherwise it looked nearly identical. The comb-like protrusions came out of two sides, and at a glance, it appeared as if it might connect with the one they already had. Albus allowed himself to grin as he continued to turn it over in his hand, taking in every single detail as much as he could.

“Who gets to take this one home with them then?” asked Albus, already knowing the answer.

“You”, said Scorpius, quickly, “I’m not being held responsible for my Granddad selling it to Borgin and Burkes, thank you very much!”

Albus rolled his eyes and gave the quadrant another inspection before slipping it inside his pocket. “I can’t believe we just found another one”, he said, grinning.

Leaning forward, Scorpius was smiling smugly, “You know the other great thing about it?”

“Go on”

“It means that Professor Marlowe probably hasn’t figured it out yet”, he said.

Albus and Bertie both grinned back, but Albus had the familiar nagging feeling that Marlowe had maybe managed to find at least one of the quadrants before them. He put these feelings to one side when the high-pitched tapping of Madame Pince’s stilettoes started rapping along towards them at a brisk pace.

“The brick!” gasped Albus, “Put the brick back!”

As he was closest to the brick, Bertie snapped up and pushed it back into the hole, just managing to fit it in as the sharp nose of Madame Pince poked around the corner, followed by her dark, beady eyes.

“Not working?” she snapped, “The library is not a place for idle chit chat! I have O.W.L and N.E.W.T students desperate for empty desks to work at, you know!”

Scorpius glanced around at the otherwise empty library, “Are you sure?” he asked with a small laugh.

This was a mistake. Pince’s eyes narrowed dangerously, “Out!” she shrieked, breaking her own ‘absolute silence’ rule in the process.

Not wanting to provoke her further, the boys made a hasty retreat from the library and walked out in the corridor, which was now busier as people started to leave the Great Hall.

“I meant to ask,” said Scorpius, stopping just before the passageway that led towards the Slytherin Common Room. “You don’t have to say yes, but…” he hesitated.

“What?” asked Albus.

Scorpius grimaced slightly and looked around nervously, “It’s nothing, don’t worry about it”

“What is it?” asked Albus, again.

With a sigh, Scorpius replied quickly, “My mother asked if you two wanted to come around for a couple of days over the Christmas holidays” he went red and clasped his hands together. “You don’t have to say yes, I won’t be offended”

Albus glanced at Bertie, then back at Scorpius with a raised eyebrow, “Why wouldn’t we say yes to that?”

Scorpius looked surprised, “Well, it’s just that…you know…my family is a bit…”

“A bit what?” laughed Albus.

“N-nothing, it doesn’t matter really. My mother’s the one who invited you, so there won’t be any problem…” Scorpius trailed off and rubbed the back of his head. “Actually, now I think about it, it’s probably too late for you to tell your parents about it, I mean, you’ll have plans right?”

Albus and Bertie shared a confused look. “We’ll be fine, it’s only a night or two. What’s the matter, Scorpius?”

“Nothing!” said Scorpius, his voice going high-pitched. He finally closed his eyes and relaxed, “Look, it’s just that my Grandparents can be a bit…funny…about things, you know what I mean?” Especially with you being, you know? And that Bertie is a …you know?”

There was a silent acknowledgement between the three of what Scorpius was implying, but didn’t want to say aloud. Albus gave him a soft punch on the arm, “Lighten up, from everything you’ve told me about your Mum, I’m sure we’ll have a great time!”

Scorpius gave him a grateful smile and returned the punch, “Yeah, you’re right. And my father’s not so bad, really, doesn’t talk much when we have guests around, though. Come to think of it, you probably won’t see my Grandparents that much either, apart from when we eat”

As Scorpius started to cheer up, Bertie let out a small cough, “Sorry, Scorpius, but I won’t be able to go. I’m being dragged to Bogor Regis to spend two weeks with my Aunt”, he said glumly.

“Oh, that’s a shame”, said Scorpius, his face falling, “No way you could get out of it for a couple of days?”

Bertie shrugged, “Doubt it. Trust me though, I’d rather be anywhere else than Bognor!” he forced a smile, “Look at it this way, I got to spend a week with Albus in the summer, now you two get some time!”

Albus snorted, “Am I that special?”

“Of course not”, said Scorpius, grinning, “Bertie’s just trying to make you feel better about not being able to see him until January”

“Yeah, that’s it”, said Bertie, rolling his eyes. “Try not to miss me too much, ok, Albus?”

They descended into giggles before waving Scorpius away and returning to the Gryffindor Common Room and, in Albus’ case at least, finishing off his packing. As he threw the last couple of creased t-shirts into his trunk, he started to think of exactly how he was going to tell his parents about Scorpius’s invite.

When Albus awoke the next morning and looked out of his window, he was greeted by the sight of a thick layer of pristine, smooth snow that had covered every inch of the grounds overnight. Despite their eagerness to jump out of bed and immediately start a snowball fight, the Gryffindors knew that there would be no time for that before they had to board the Hogwarts Express and head home for the holidays.

After a quick breakfast, the students all prepared themselves for the cold, wet walk across the grounds and towards Hogsmeade Station. Fortunately, in the time they’d all eaten, Hagrid and Professor Flitwick had thawed a path through the snow.

“Thanks, Hagrid”, said Albus as he passed by him on his way out of the Entrance Hall, “Have a good Christmas”

Hagrid gave him a pat on the shoulder, nearly knocking him to the ground, “You too, Albus. Say, when you get back after the holidays, we shoul’ meet up for tea, yes?”

Albus gave him a small smile, “Yeah, definitely, but we still have some of our detention to serve, so…”

“Ah, righ’…” said Hagrid, his face falling, “Well, let me know when you’re done, ok?”

Albus nodded, “I will, don’t worry”

Giving Hagrid a final wave, he carried on down the path, catching up to Rose and Bertie, who were engaged in their own conversation. They soon reached the horseless carriages that had carried them into the school at the start of the year.

There wasn’t the same rush to get in them that there was back then, and groups of students were milling around chatting rather than jumping straight onto a carriage. Taking the opportunity to grab one for themselves, Albus, Rose, and Bertie all hopped onto the one at the front of the queue, but they were quickly joined by Matt and Leon. They started to move as soon as they sat down.

“Reckon the train will be able to get through all this snow?” asked Matt, who was in the process of eating a packet of Peppermint Toads.

Rose rolled her eyes, “Of course it will”. She pulled a large hardback book out of her bag and started to read it, blanking Matt.

Matt looked at her for a couple of seconds and sighed, “You know you don’t have to do homework, right? It’s the holidays”.

The grunt that Rose replied with was a signal that Matt should stop talking. Albus knew this, Matt didn’t.

“Take a break for once! I’d understand if we were doing our O.W.L.s, but we’re only second years,” he held out the packet of Peppermint Toads, “Here, have a sweet!”

Albus let out a loud cough and faced Leon, “Good result for the Falmouth Falcons last night!” he said loudly.

“We lost”, stated Leon blankly.

“Is that right?” laughed Albus, “Tell me all about it, please”. He grimaced and subtly pointed his head towards Rose.

Thankfully, Leon clocked this, and they were able to steer the conversation away from Matt sticking his foot in it. Upon reaching Hogsmeade Station, they split up. Leon and Matt found themselves in a compartment with a few of the Gryffindor Quidditch team, leaving Rose, Bertie, and Albus to find an empty compartment of their own.

Rose immediately opened her book again to start reading, leaving Albus and Bertie playing a very low-quality game of chess, with Rose occasionally peering over the top of her book and rolling her eyes at some of their moves.

About five minutes after they started moving, Rose put the book down and coughed to get the others' attention.

“Hmm?” said Albus as he dithered over where to send his last remaining knight.

“I wanted to talk to you two”, said Rose.

Albus didn’t look up. “About what?”

Rose coughed, finally getting their full attention, “About what happened in Professor Marlowe’s potions class, the ‘Death-Cap’ incident”

Albus looked at her, “What about it?”

Glancing at the door, Rose continued, “Something didn’t feel right about it, and-“

The door slid open, and Rose immediately stopped talking. Scorpius was standing there with an armful of sweets.

“Hi, can I come in?” he asked.

“Can’t you see we’re talking?” snapped Rose, “Come back later if you have to”

Albus glared at her, “Rose, anything you say to us you can say to Scorpius”. He looked at Scorpius, “Come in, Rose was going to say something about what happened in Marlowe’s class last week”

Scorpius’s eyes widened, and he stepped inside, closing the door behind him. “Sounds intriguing”, he said as he sat down on the spare seat next to Rose.

“Yes…” Stated Rose, shuffling across the seat so she was further away from him. She took a breath and continued, “Something didn’t feel right. I thought it would be nearly impossible that you’d pull a Death-Cap out of the supply cupboard, they’re pretty distinct, and they-“

“They should’ve been kept in a separate place from the other ingredients”, interrupted Albus, “I know that”

Rose sat up, “Well, yes, but that’s not what I was going to say”. She held up her book so they could see the title.

“Magical Fungi and their Incredible Uses”, said Albus, reading the title.

Rose nodded and spoke faster, “This has everything anyone could need to know about fungi, and it told me everything I needed to know” She took a couple of breaths, “Death-Cap powder isn’t yellow”

“Yeah?” said Albus, confused.

“You don’t get it”, said Rose, bouncing up and down in her seat, “Professor Marlowe seemed certain that Bertie had put Death-Cap powder in his potion, yes?”

Albus nodded slowly and glanced at Bertie and Scorpius. They all shared a look.

Rose continued, “Why would he be so insistent about it being a Death-Cap when it couldn’t possibly be that? Death-Cap powder is brown, and he has to have known that, it’s basic stuff for someone of his potion-making ability!”

“So why did no one spot that at the time?” asked Bertie.

“You don’t really get taught about Death-Caps until N.E.W.T level; no one else in the room would think twice. We’ve only been taught to identify them for safety purposes,” Rose replied, looking at her book again. “I only had a theory about it because I’d been reading this book”

Scorpius scratched his head, “So what was even in Bertie’s potion?”

Rose didn’t look at him, “Pixie Dust. I think there was some trace of it in the Wartcap.”

Letting out a laugh, Albus replied, “Pixie Dust? Really? How do you know?”

“It was just a guess”, said Rose, shrugging, “We used it the week before, remember, it just looked similar”

Albus leant back in his seat and thought for a few seconds, “I’m sure I didn’t pick any of that up from the cupboard though, there’s no way…”

Nodding enthusiastically, Rose sat up, “Exactly! So someone was clearly trying to sabotage you! But the question is…” She paused, “Who would want to do that?” Her eyes darted around the three of them, seemingly in anticipation of an answer.

Albus shrugged, “Caedus, probably”, he said in a low voice, not wanting to give away who he really felt was responsible. “He’s been wanting to get us expelled all year, so it makes sense”.

Rose’s eyes widened with realisation, and she breathed out with relief, “That’s what I thought too”

“You thought?” asked Albus, “You’ve been thinking about it?”

Rose let out a small cough and looked at Albus, “I was worried that someone was out to get you, so I…” she paused and ran her fingers through her hair, “I took matters into my own hands”

There was a moment of silence in the compartment as Albus, Bertie, and Scorpius all stared at her. Bertie spoke first, “What does that mean?”

Shaking her hair and pointing her chin up, Rose responded, “I spent the evening after the lesson thinking about it, so I decided to tell Professor Longbottom about it. After breakfast the next day, I went up to the staff room to find him”

Albus sat up, “Did you tell him?” he interrupted.

Rose shook her head, “No, he wasn’t there. I did speak to Professor Constantine, though”

She was interrupted by the sound of Bertie knocking the chessboard onto Scorpius’s foot.

“Ow!” he cried, jumping slightly before he pulled his foot up into the air and started to rub it.

“Sorry”, exclaimed Bertie, reaching down to clean up his mess.

Albus gave them both a glare, but he knew exactly why Bertie had been spooked by what Rose said.

“What did you say to Professor Constantine?” he asked, trying to remain cool.

Rose reached down and picked up a stray pawn, handing it to Bertie, “I just told him what I thought was going on. I also said that I was only doing it because I knew you wouldn’t do anything about it, Al”, she said.

Albus didn’t look at her, “Well, thanks, I guess…” he said in a low voice. He glanced at the other two, who were also avoiding Rose’s gaze as they packed the chessboard away.

The silence was broken by a knock on the compartment door. Sophie King and Amy Barnes were both stood outside, and they pulled the door open as Rose gave them a grin.

“There you are, Rosie!” said Sophie, “We were wondering where you’d got to”. She stopped and looked at the others in the compartment, “Oh, sorry, were you in the middle of something?”

Rose shook her head and gathered her things up, “Just finished, I’ll come and join you in a minute!”

Sophie beamed at her, “Ok, we’re just in the next carriage”, she said, pointing to her left before closing the door and walking back along the corridor.

“Hold on, Rose, before you go…” said Albus, “What did Constantine say to you, after you told him?”

She was halfway out of her seat, but she stopped to respond, “Not much, he just thanked me for letting him know. I’m sure everything will be fine now, he is Caedus’ head of house, of course!”

Without another word, she bade Albus and Bertie goodbye and offered a curt nod to Scorpius before leaving the compartment and following Sophie down the corridor. The three sat in silence for a moment as they pondered what Rose had said, the only noise being the rhythmic chugging of the train.

“What in Merlin’s name are we going to do now?” said Scorpius, letting out a long breath, “Constantine was already suspicious, but this is going to make things ten times worse!”

Albus sighed and closed his eyes. His initial instinct was to agree with him, but he had other thoughts that were starting to weave themselves together in his head. Scorpius was carrying on, making this more difficult.

“I’m sorry, but if we end up having to dodge Constantine as well as Marlowe, then we have no hope!” he said to a grimacing Bertie, who was dutifully playing the part of a sympathetic ear. “I said he was suspicious, remember? If he knows we have the book, then he’ll do everything to get it, and I bet he’ll be much more competent at it than Marlowe!”

Albus groaned. The noise was making it hard to think, “Quiet! Constantine already knew!” he snapped.

Both Bertie and Scorpius faced him, wide-eyed.

“What?!” exclaimed Scorpius, “How?”

Albus rubbed his head, “You know I told you that Constantine spoke to me after Marlowe dragged me out of class?”

Bertie nodded, “You told me that he told you about the teachers going easy on you and Scorpius” he paused, “He said something else, didn’t he?”

“Yeah…” said Albus, glancing away, “I don’t know why I kept it from you, I guess I was just trying to work it out all in my head as well”

Scorpius was leaning forward, “Well? What did he say to you?!”

“He just asked me something…” said Albus, still doubting if his initial instincts were correct. He looked towards Scorpius, whose eyes were burrowing into him.

“Well?” he asked.

Albus let out a breath, “He asked if there was anything I wanted to tell him. But the way he said it, he…” he stopped again, letting the thoughts in his head arrange themselves. “It was like he knew what was going on, or he at least suspected something was”

The atmosphere in the room went cold. No one spoke. Scorpius blinked a couple of times before responding.

“If we’re going to continue researching the book, we need to be extra careful”, he stretched and let out a long yawn, “I don’t know about you, but all of this is making me tired”

Albus finally felt able to laugh at something, “Yeah, same” he looked down at his bag. The book was in there, hidden beneath some spare parchment. He wanted to reach down and pull it out, just to check it was still there, but he knew the others would tell him to keep it hidden.

Outside the window, it was just starting to get dark. The early evening light was reflecting off the snow-covered hills of northern England. At the bottom of a valley was a village, the orange street lights mixed with the gentle flickering of the Christmas lights hanging on the front of the stone houses.

Albus pressed his face against the frigid window and thought about home. It wouldn’t be long now, and he’d be back in a sanctuary, safe from Marlowe, and away from Constantine.

The thoughts flooded back once more. Was Constantine a friend or a foe? Or was he something else entirely?

Sounds of snoring filled the air. Scorpius was asleep. Albus turned away from the window and saw that Bertie was as well, only more silently. He reached down in the bag and, as quietly as he could, rummaged around and pulled out the Grimoire.

“Valerio Vitanster…” he whispered, placing a hand on the cover and flicking through the blank pages. “Do you know how much trouble you’ve caused?”