Chapter 12
The Great Investigation
Unlike the morning after the Erkling attack, the school corridors seemed very calm and quiet. None of the students were scared or jumpy, leading Albus to believe no one in the student body knew. That was probably best, Rose had told the boys when she saw them a breakfast. Think about how much panic a four-and-a-half-foot child-gobbler caused, how bad would things be if the student body learned that something truly dangerous had gotten into the school?
Not to say that certain members of the student body weren’t rattled by subjects other than invading beasts. Every since arriving back at Hogwarts, James and Fred both had been highly agitated over some issue they would not discuss with anyone. But with James’ new-found paranoia and constantly sick expression, Albus could only venture to guess it had something to do with the newly missing Marauders Map; the Marauders Map, which was not so much lost as it was hidden securely in a certain trunk in the Slytherin dormitories, although it might as well have been on the moon for all the likelihood that the two cousins would ever stumble upon it. And Albus could not help but get a somewhat sick sense of satisfaction from this fact.
And Rose was having too much fun with this than was for her own good. But with the Ravenclaw common room and the fact that there were the impossible-for-James-and-Fred-to-solve riddles to keep her safe, she could probably be allowed a little more leniency than Albus would have been able to grant himself.
“James, Fred,” she greeted them one morning, plunking herself down at the Gryffindor table, making herself quite comfortable, “how are things?”
The two cousins offered the girl a few indistinguishable grunts in reply, but with no real eye contact. They both stared into their breakfast plates, still looking just as ill as they had been for days.
“You two have been looking rather peaked lately,” she went on, helping herself to their breakfast plates, an offence that normally would have led to one pulling back a bloody stump. “Would you like to tell your dear Cousin Rose about it?”
Fred twitched his head from side to side like an irritated cow, and James made a tiny series of squeaks, as though he were going to throw up.
Albus, however, was soon distracted by a certain Gryffindor taking his seat a few places down from him. Maddox Dugan exchanged greetings with the people around him, taking brief pauses to load his plate up with food. Nothing he said to anyone developed into a lasting conversation, though, and Maddox remained free to partake in any offered discussion.
On any secret society.
And with Rose completely wrapped up in her little game of ‘Poke the Bears’, now would be the perfect opportunity to ask without being caught. While Rose continued to amuse herself with her cousins’ torment, Albus quietly slipped out of her sight and crept over to Maddox Dugan’s side. He was so quiet about it, in fact, that even Maddox didn’t notice him until Albus spoke up.
“Hi, Maddox,” Albus greeted him.
The older Gryffindor jumped slightly at the suddenness of the greeting, but luckily, no one else at the table seemed to notice. “Oh! Hello, Little Potter!”
“Did you have a good holiday?” Albus asked, trying to keep the conversation light to start.
Maddox shrugged his shoulders. “Fair. And you?”
“Fair,” Albus answered as well. “I feel almost more tired than I did when I left for the holidays.”
“That can happen,” Maddox acknowledged. “Especially at Christmas. Of course, Easter will hardly be a break either, with exams so close.”
Albus nodded, although he wasn’t really paying true attention to the advice. More that he was just waited for what felt like a suitable amount of time before asking what was truly on his mind.
“Well?”
Maddox looked up from his breakfast plate. “Well what, Little Potter?”
“Do you remember what I spoke to you about the night before we left for the holidays?”
Maddox toyed with his fork idly, as he tried to recall whatever it was Albus was referring to. But when it finally did hit him, it him hard. “Oh, that! Of course, that!”
Albus smiled to himself, happy that Maddox at least had taken the time to think about it, even if he hadn’t given him an outright ‘yes’.
“Yes, Albus,” Maddox replied with a certain air of seriousness to his voice. “I have.”
Albus became anxious to hear the answer. Maddox seemed to be dragging out his reply for as long as he possibly could. James liked to do that too from time to time, and so did a few of Albus’ uncles. “Are you going to join us?” he asked. “You know; join us?”
Maddox set his fork down, shaking his head slowly. “I’m sorry, Albus, but I’m going to have to turn you down.”
Albus bit down on the inside of his cheek and tried to nod, even though he felt as though he had been punched in the stomach.
“It seems like a cute little club and all, Albus,” he said to him, “but I just don’t know if you’ll need my help. Nothing else has even happened lately that needs to be watched for.”
Albus shifted his eyes down, trying not to feel offended.
“I know what’s been happening lately has been scary,” Maddox said, putting his hand on Albus’ shoulder, as though trying to reassure him. “Even the older students have been scared too, I’ve heard them, so don’t go thinking you’re any less of a Gryffindor because you feel afraid.”
Oh, Albus wished so badly he could tell Maddox about the Quintaped that had been in the Potions classroom only the night before. It was the most dangerous creature that had come into the school yet and quite possibly one of the most dangerous creatures in the world. If Maddox knew that the Arcane ScoRA had faced off against a creature like that and won, he would be on the floor begging to join. But he had already broken so many rules just by telling the older Gryffindor that the Arcane ScoRA existed, he couldn’t risk telling him anymore.
Besides, if he said anything that even sounded like Quintaped, he had little doubt that Rose would jump over the table and knock him to the ground just to keep him quiet.
“Personally, and I can’t believe I’m saying this,” Maddox went on, pushing himself up to his feet, “but getting back to class and your schoolwork would do you a world of good. Merlin, to have a Ravenclaw father!”
And with that, Maddox hoisted his book bag up over his shoulder and made his way to the Great Hall doors without so much as a backwards glance.
With the older Gryffindor gone, Albus turned his attention back to his breakfast, even though he wasn’t exactly hungry anymore. As he thought about it, Albus began to understand the reasoning behind Maddox’s decision, even if he didn’t like it. The only reason he, Rose, and Scorpius were members of the society was because they were there when it had been formed. Maddox was either going to find the Arcane ScoRA cute, or horrifying. It was just that the older boy had helped Albus so much since the school year started that Albus thought, maybe he would be able to help the three of them with whatever snuck up on them next. The idea of what he and his friends had been doing, and would most likely continue to do, suddenly seemed so much more terrifying, even though nothing had really changed.
One day, just after the Gryffindors and Ravenclaws had finished another one of their classes with the severely strict Professor McGonagall, Rose was leading Albus to the library, not to study, but just for a few moments peace. They had had more than enough schoolwork for one day, and it was still morning with two more classes and Potions for Albus still to come. He wondered if they were going to bother to find some chairs or if they were just going to collapse right onto the floor. But before they were even close, they heard something that made them instantly forget about their fatigue.
“How was your journey?” a voice said, squeaking on the last vowel.
“Very nice, thank you,”
Albus and Rose stopped in their tracks. They knew that the first voice they heard was that of Professor Flitwick from the distinctive squeak in his voice. The second was less so, sounding somewhat familiar, but more in the sense that one would hear the same type of voice a dozen times a day.
“Thank you so much for coming.” They could recognize Professor Flitwick’s high pitched tone much more easily now that the voices were coming closer. “We know it must not be easy given your wife’s current condition.”
“It’s fine, really,” a man’s voice answered. “The Healer said at this point, it’s still perfectly safe for Luna to travel.”
Now it was obvious to them who the school’s visitor was. The voice and the name were enough to give Albus a clue as who was about to follow Professor Flitwick around the corner.
“Loony!” the two of them screeched in unison.
They rushed up to the woman who was as good as family and hugged her on either side. They didn’t really have another option; Luna stomach bulged beneath her robes, far too big for either of them even to reach her for a hug face to face. Her belly was not nearly as big as it had been when she was pregnant with her now three-year-old twins, Lorcan and Lysander, but Albus was certain that once James and Fred saw Luna, the jokes comparing her to snowmen and the planet Mercury would be flying back and forth.
And Luna apparently still had quite a few months to go before she gave birth. Albus wondered just how big her stomach would eventually get.
“Well, how lovely to see the two of you!” Luna remarked, her face glowing. “I believe you have just made my day!”
The two cousins just squeezed her tighter, Albus worried that she might just pop.
“What?” they suddenly heard Rolf say from behind. “Am I going to be ignored?”
“Hello, Rolf,” Albus and Rose greeted Luna’s husband, although neither of them broke their grip around Luna.
“It was wonderful to see you both,” Rolf said as he walked past them, ruffling their hair. “But I really should keep up with your headmaster. I don’t want to find out if he still holds power over the former Ravenclaws.” He said this with a slight tilt of his head toward his wife, but Luna ignored it. For right now, it seemed as though she wanted to devout all her attention to two of her honorary children.
“Have you seen your dads yet?” she asked them suddenly, the two children still draped over her.
Albus was confused. He released his hold on Luna and stepped back. “Our dads?”
“Well, they’re here,” Luna told them, now that Rose was letting go as well. “The entire Auror Office is here with them. They even had to bring in a fair amount of the Ministry’s Hit Wizards as well.”
“Why on earth would they need to do that?” she demanded.
Luna never did get the chance to answer Rose, though, because a pair of prefects came racing around the corner, appearing quite frantic.
“All students, please report back to their houses immediately,” they took turns shouting. “All students, please report back to their houses immediately.”
Luna stood to her feet, although she did it in a clumsy way. Even if she wasn’t ready to give birth yet, she was definitely losing her center of gravity.
“We’ll see you both later,” Luna assured Albus and Rose, “The baby doesn’t think this will take very long. Rose, you’re a fellow Ravenclaw now. Why don’t I walk with you to the tower? And Albus, you can walk with us for as long as you can.”
Albus and Rose each took one of Luna’s hands to help keep her steady on her feet as she walked across the uneven stone floors of the castle. All along the way, she tried to talk to them about their classes, creatures she and Rolf had seen on their latest expedition, her twins, the new baby, but Albus knew what she was really just trying to distract them. Luna was a lot more observant than most people gave her credit for, and she could obviously tell that telling the cousins that their fathers were in the school had disturbed them. Not because either of them were afraid they were in trouble, but because their fathers were both Aurors, charge by the Ministry to hunt down Dark wizards. And wherever they were, Dark magic was almost certainly nearby, especially on an unannounced visit.
After Albus had parted ways from Rose and Luna, he was left alone to contemplate what could possibly be going on. The invasions of beasts in the castle had been frightening, but Albus wasn’t exactly sure it could be called Dark magic. Then again, there were a lot of things that Aurors knew that the rest of the Wizarding world didn’t. Albus’ dad and Uncle Ron didn’t tell their families half the things they had done on any given work day. Who knew what kinds of people were really around today?
Albus clung to the banister as the stairs moved beneath him, carrying him straight to the entrance of the Gryffindor dormitories. The Fat Lady sat in her framed scene in her pink satin dress, waiting for all the Gryffindors who were coming back all at once.
“Password?” she asked Albus, peering over the top of his head, as though she were looking for more students.
“Novus militia,” Albus repeated the password in a distracted sort of way.
The frame swung open, revealing the entrance to Gryffindor. A few other students snuck in just behind Albus, clinging close to one another. Once they reached the interior of the common room, those students took their seats on the squishy red sofas, alongside other Gryffindor students whispering to one another and holding their composure in a nervous sort of way.
While the students all remained seated or in some other sort of lowered position, there was a collection of adults standing in the room as well, all tall and dignified. Albus’ dad was standing there among them, along with Caroline Murphy, Will Harris, Paul Mitchum. Albus knew them as Aurors from his dad’s office. The rest of the witches and wizards there were strange to him; they must have been the Hit Wizards that Luna had been talking about. Professor Longbottom was with them, trying to appear calm, but unfortunately for the Herbology professor, he was easier to read than Beedle the Bard.
“Dad!” Albus called out and waved once he got close enough.
But Albus’ father continued to stare out into the crowd as though he hadn’t even heard him. Even if his dad was on duty, Albus liked to think his father would have at least acknowledged his existence. Albus took his seat alongside the other Gryffindor first-years sitting on the floor, just as nervous as the rest of them were. Something was very wrong.
“Gryffindors, Gryffindors, listen up!” Professor Longbottom called out over the collective whispers. “As you have probably all notice, Hogwarts will be hosting a few guests from the Ministry’s Office of Aurors and Magical Law Enforcement.”
Professor Longbottom was clearly trying to keep his tone light and casual, but was failing miserably. It wasn’t entirely his fault, though. Unannounced visits from Ministry investigators always carried a heavy feeling. Most of the children’s parents came from the generation that had lived through the Second War, and even after all the Ministry revisions Albus’ father said had happened, everyone had grown up in an environment that had taught the children not to trust the government. Even Albus and his siblings shared similar feelings.
“The way this is going to work is that you are all going to be called up to the dormitories one at a time, where the Aurors are going to ask you some questions that you should be able to answer quite simply,” Professor Longbottom told the students. “The Aurors will do their best to conduct the interviews in as less commotion as possible, and I am very sure that none of my students will know anything of interest to them anyway.”
Professor Longbottom tried to laugh at his own joke, but it soon died off when no one was joining in. “Very well. In that case, I’ll let Mr. Potter take the stage.”
Albus’ father stepped forward, clearing his throat, and taking his turn to speak. “From the first-years, we will first need to see Georgia Ackhart. The second-years will begin with…”
Albus and all the other Gryffindors sat and listened as names from each year were called out.
“Fourth-years, Maddox Dugan. From the fifth-years, we will speak to Timothy Crowne. Six-years will start with Jane Birmingham; and finally, we will need to see Barton Bonds from the seventh-year class.”
The students whose names had been called out were easy to spot, as they had all turned the same very distinct shade of pale.
“We will start the interviews with the students we have called and we will call out the remaining names as we need them.”
It should have been self-explanatory that those students whose names were called should have gotten up immediately to go with the Aurors, but there weren’t even any attempts to do so. None of the called students did out so much as move. The seventh-year boy, who was even a prefect, seemed hesitant to obey.
“What the matter with you people?” a voice among the Gryffindors shouted. “These are officers of the law! Do you want to be arrested?”
Albus looked over his shoulder to see Maddox Dugan stand to his feet, staring down at his housemates almost as though he were disgusted with them.
“This is supposed to be the house of the bold and chivalrous?” he asked them. “I know it’s not possible that all of you have something that needs to be hidden from the Dark Wizard-catchers, so that must just mean you’re all being a bunch of cowards!”
The collective group of heads tilted down to stare at the rug or the sofa cushions. There was a strong sound of truth to the fourth-year’s words, but, of course, no one was willing to admit it.
“C’mon, people,” he said to the older students who still had yet to move. “The underclassmen are never going to believe there’s nothing to worry about if even you don’t behave like Gryffindors.”
When still no one made a move, Maddox groaned, realizing he was going to have to be the one to prove his courage to the Aurors and the student body.
“I’ll go first, then,” Maddox told them, walking past the Aurors who were supposed to be interview him, appearing as though he was the one leading the way. “Let’s go.”
The young woman who was assigned to interview the fourth-years appeared just as shocked as anyone else, following Maddox up the tower staircase in a state of near awe.
“Alright then,” Albus’ dad said once he shock over the situation faded. “We’ll start interviews with the names we have already called, as we will be moving on to the rest of you as we finish. We will call out your names when we are ready for you.”
At long last, the other six students whose names had been called rose to their feet. Georgia Ackhart was sent with Albus’ dad, while the others all went with strangers.
Georgia looked back at the group of Gryffindors still sitting beside the fireplace, and Albus was certain she was looking directly at him. It wasn’t hard to understand. It was no secret that Albus’ dad was head of the Aurors office, and Albus was the most logical person to seek out, the one who would have the best idea of what to expect. But the truth was, Albus didn’t have any insight to offer. Even the people work that Albus did know from his dad’s work, he didn’t know very well. He had no idea how much patience they would have for a long line of frightened students, especially the younger children who might cry and beg for their parents.
Albus’ dad would doing his best to keep his tone relaxed so as not to frighten Georgia or any of the other first-years he would soon be interviewing. At least Albus hoped so. He had never really wondered if the dad he knew at home and who he was at work were two different people, the way Professor Longbottom was Neville in the outside world, but a teacher he was expected to treat just like any other within Hogwarts.
Time passed, and more names were called. A lot of the students who had finished their interviews left the common room, though a few did return to their previous spots on the sofas or the rug.
Victoire, the Hogwarts Head Girl and closest possessor to power of any student, paced back and forth with her hands clasped over her chest. As a Weasley with a ‘W’, she would be one of the last students to go. In a lot of way, it must have been worse that way; having to have all that anxiety build until it reached its peak. Albus worried about how well Rose would be able to handle that kind of stress. Most likely not well.
“Albus Potter.”
Upon first hearing his dad call his name, Albus jumped, instinct leading him to fear that he was in trouble. It wasn’t until everyone had noticed this embarrassing little flinch that he remembered why his father was even at Hogwarts in the first place. With as much dignity as he could muster, Albus pushed himself up to his feet and walked up to his dad. To Albus’ confusion, though, his father acted as though he barely knew his son, regarding him with no more attention or recognition than any of the other first-years had received.
Albus imagined his dad was trying to be professional about this. It wasn’t as though an Auror’s job requirement usually involved the interrogation of eleven-year-olds. Actually, if Albus’ dad had treated him like a son, it might have made the situation even more awkward and uncomfortable than it was now.
Albus’ father, who had been leading the way up the stairs, finally reached the door to Albus’ dormitory, and opened the door for him. In the middle of the room was a small table and set of chairs that had never been there before. Already sitting in one of the chairs was a man Albus recognized quite well: Ashford Ollivander, the wandmaker who had made Albus’ wand, and the wands of his brother and his cousins right up to Dominique and Molly.
“Please,” Albus’ dad directed him to one of the empty chairs, “take a seat.”
Shoulders stiff and feet shuffling, Albus made his way to the chair set right at the foot of his own bed. The girls had probably all been up here for their interrogations as well. Thanks to have an older brother and a half-dozen older cousin, Albus was well aware of the charms on the staircase leading up to the girls’ dormitories, about how the stairs would transfigure into a slide, sending any boy who tried to sneak up sliding right back down into the common room.
Albus watched as his father took the seat across from him, taking out a quill and parchment. “First of all, I need you to state your name and age for the record,” his father stated with little emotion.
Albus shifted uncomfortably on the hard oak chair. “Albus Potter,” he spoke cautiously. “I’m eleven years old.”
His dad waited until Albus actually spoke before writing down the answer, although it was completely unnecessary. “Albus, give me your wand please.”
He wasn’t sure what he had been expecting when he heard his dad’s entire office had come to interrogate students, but he wasn’t quite sure what his wand had to do with anything. “Why?”
“You’ll get it back after you answer the questions,” his dad said with a sternness in his tone. “Please give it to me.”
Albus was ordinarily not one to disobey his parents, but he knew that Harry Potter, Head of the Auror’s Office was not one to mickey around with. Even though he didn’t understand the reasoning behind it, Albus pulled his wand from his pocket and gave it to his father. Albus’ dad didn’t even look at the wand, simply handing the rod over to the wandsmith.
“Cherry and unicorn hair,” the wandsmith remarked as he took the wand for himself, “eleven and a half inches. I remember this wand. A very potent combination, excellent for defensive and healing magic.”
Albus was only paying half-attention to the wandsmith’s inspection. Ollivander was not saying anything Albus didn’t already know. Maddox had told him all these things back before the Christmas holidays. Besides, he was slightly more concerned about why his dad and the Entire Department of Magical Law Enforcement had come to Hogwarts.
Ollivander was still turning the wand over in his hand as he looked up to meet his gaze with Albus’ dad. “I will continue to examine it,” he said to Albus’ father, “if you wish to proceed with you questions, Mr. Potter.”
Nodding again, Albus’ dad turned his attention to the piece of parchment before him. “Where were you on the date of July fifteenth?”
“Dad, I was at home,” Albus answered, still confused. “You know that. You were there too.”
But Albus’ father remained sober, not swayed by expressions or the distress of his own child. “Albus, please just answer the question.”
Albus took a deep breath and resolved just to get all of this over with as soon as possible. “I was at my house in Godric’s Hollow.”
“Have you ever been to Ireland?”
Albus shook his head. “No.”
Albus’ dad didn’t write the answer down. “Actually, your mum and I took you when you were one, but you couldn’t have remembered that, so I’ll let it go.”
Albus sat perfectly still as his dad carried one with a list of questions that Albus could find any rhyme or reason to: list all his connections within the Ministry of Magic, what was his current grade in History of Magic, had he noticed any odd behavior from his peers, did he eat meat. Albus did his best to keep his answers as short and clear as possible.
As the questions went on, Albus’ thoughts went on to a bit of autopilot and his mind started to wander. He kept waiting for his dad to ask some questions about the creatures invading the school, why he was friends with Scorpius Malfoy. Part of him just expected to see his dad simply throw the quill and parchment away and tell his son that he knew all about the Arcane ScoRA and ask him how long he thought he would have been able to keep it a secret. But no; he just carried on with his list of questions that all the other Gryffindors had had to answer, and Ollivander continued to play around with his wand, not looking to Albus like he was doing much of anything. Albus watched Ollivander as he passed his wand through his hands, every now and then, picking up a quill and taking notes on a bit of parchment.
“Albus,” he heard his dad suddenly call at him, snapping his fingers. “Albus, pay attention.”
His voice was stern, but still low and calm. Albus could never recall a time when his dad had yelled at him or even Lily. James, yes, one the few occasions when he finally got into enough trouble, but Albus knew that yelling and screaming at the top of his lungs was not his dad’s style.
“Are these statements a clear and accurate description as you have given them?” his father asked in that same even tone
Albus nodded his head. “Yes.”
“Do you understand that offering false information to the Department of Magical Law Enforcement is a criminal offence and can be met with serious consequences?”
“Yes.”
“Can you think of any other information you would like to include that hasn’t been asked of you?”
Oh, there were a lot of things that Albus believed his father would be interested in hearing, but nothing he would be willing to offer up.
“No.”
Albus’ father set his quill off to the side. “Then this interview is over. You may join your classmates back down in the common room.”
Albus stood to his feet a little too quickly and he felt the blood rush make him lightheaded. All the same, he was not willing to say in the room a moment longer. As soon as Ollivander handed him back his wand, Albus rushed down the staircase as fast as he could without actually running. When he reached the common room, more than a dozen sets of eyes were staring at him, though Albus quietly convinced himself that the Gryffindors probably stared at everyone who came down after their interrogation was over. And by the time he took his previous seat on the rug, the call came out for Bailey Reynolds to come up and be questioned.
Glancing around the room, Albus noticed that James was nowhere to be seen. Likely,he was still being interviewed, but Albus had seen several of the students get up and leave as soon as they were no longer needed, sneaking out past Professor Longbottom and all the other Ministry officials. Not that Albus couldn’t understand. The atmosphere in the tower was so tense, it didn’t make sense that anyone would want to stay there.
In other years, the interviews had finally moved into the Weasleys and most of Albus’ cousins had disappeared behind closed doors. It was also at this time that Albus chose to follow the lead of the other missing students and disappeared out of the tower, this time, without drawing the attention of a single eye.
The whole time Albus ran through the corridors, he felt a lump in his throat growing larger and larger. No one had told him that he couldn’t leave the Gryffindor common room, most of his housemates already had, but he still could not help but feel his heart race, and not just from the running.
Moaning Myrtle’s bathroom. They had all met there so many times before, and no one, absolutely no one went in there, for fear of upsetting the bathroom. In an odd way, the girls’ bathroom was the only place in the school that felt truly safe.
Moaning Myrtle was floating above the stalls, weeping and sobbing about some tragedy.
“Myrtle!” Albus called up to her, gasping for breath. “Myrtle, I need your help!”
Myrtle looked down, what might have been tears glistening in her eyes, appearing quite shocked to see him. “Albus Potter!” she swooshed down to his level. “What are you doing here? And why do you look like you ran all the way here? Is something wrong?”
“Myrtle,” Albus whispered into the bathroom as he pulled the door closed behind him. “Moaning Myrtle, are you in here?”
“I need you to go find Scorpius, and then go find Rose,” he begged the girl ghost. “Tell them it’s urgent, and they need to come to the bathroom right away!”
She even squealed in what sounded like delight. “I’m on it!”
The girl ghost did a showy loop through the air before she disappeared through the wall.
After Myrtle left, the only sound in the bathroom was the echoing gurgle of her haunted toilet. Albus was too nervous even to pace, so instead, he stood against the bathroom wall, occasionally knocking the back of his head against the stone wall.
“Albus?” he heard Scorpius’ voice call. “Where are you?”
“Did Myrtle come and get you?”
“No,” Scorpius answered, matching Albus’ hushed tones. “I was already on my way down. All the Slytherins started panicking when the rumor started that they were going to start searching student rooms next. No one even noticed me leave. Professor Vhartan didn’t even notice.”
As though on cue, Myrtle floated through the bathroom wall, appearing both surprised and please to see Scorpius Malfoy in her bathroom.
“Here’s Scorpius,” she presented him with a sweeping gesture of her arms. “I floated through the Ravenclaw tower, but Rose wasn’t there.”
“She must be in the corridors,” Scorpius said to her. “See if you can find her scuttling through the halls.”
Myrtle gave a curt nod, much more serious and business-like than she had been with Albus.
“Merlin, Albus!” Scorpius exclaimed as soon as they were alone. “There are Aurors in the school, interrogating students! What the bloody hell have we gotten ourselves into? I didn’t sign on for this!”
Albus nodded nervously as his fingers fidgeted with his robes. He hadn’t signed on for this either. They hadn’t meant to start an organization devoted to keeping the school from danger; they had just been trying to avoid detention and the wrath of Professor Hardarse! This was all getting much too big, much to fast!
It was right at that moment when Albus suddenly remember what Scorpius had just said about the Aurors searching through student rooms, and he breathing began to quicken as he panicked.
“The map”” Albus began.
But he didn’t even have time to finish before Scorpius reached down the front of his shirt and extracted a rather old, yellowed piece of parchment.
“Some of the older students heard that the Aurors were searching rooms before they got to the Dungeon level. I had to grab the map before they got to our dormitories. If we’re lucky, Rose has the Invisibility Cloak on her or in a really good hiding place.”
“Did anyone see you sneaking into your room when you went to take the map?”
Scorpius shook his head, snickering under his breath. “There were a lot of people who had things they didn’t want found. And the prefects who all ran to their rooms as well were in no position to lecture.”
Albus breathed a deep sigh of relief, knowing at the very least, his father could not go after him for stealing the map from his brother…who had stolen it from their father.
Just then, the sounds of intangible shouting interrupted the two boys, becoming considerably louder as the accompanying footsteps grew closer. Without a face, Scorpius seemed at a loss as to who was coming their way, but Albus had heard the two voices in argument enough times to recognize them from the moment he heard them: Rose and Uncle Ron, who must have been here with the Auror’s Office as well. And from the intensity of the yelling, it was quite clear that Uncle Ron had broken the sacred taboo of not crossing one of the Weasley women, no matter how small.
As soon as she slammed the door behind her, Rose let loose a frustrated shriek. But Albus noticed something else; Moaning Myrtle wasn’t with her. Rose wasn’t here because the bathroom ghost had warned her to come.
“Rose!”
Albus felt his entire body stiffen once he heard the voice echo from the corridor: it was Uncle Ron! Even though Scorpius obviously had no idea who was shouting, he was still smart enough to know how much trouble he would be in if an adult saw him in the girls’ bathroom. So together, the two of them ran off to hide behind one of the corner walls.
“Rose Athena Weasley, you get out of there right now!”
“NO!” Rose shouted back.
Albus snuck to the tile floor, drawing his knees up to meet his chin. Scorpius remained standing, but his legs were shaking so badly, it looked as though he might topple over at any moment.
“Rosie, I spent plenty of time in the girls’ bathroom while I was a student here, so don’t think I won’t go in there after you!”
For a moment or two, Uncle Ron was silent, as though he was beginning to see the additional meaning that could be attached to that statement. “That is why you are extremely lucky I am here on official Ministry business and I don’t have time to play these little games! So…you can stay in there all night if it suits your fancy!”
More footsteps told the two crouching boys that Uncle Ron had left them, and the skirting noise of the shuffle informed Albus that the man could not get away fast enough.
“Rose?” Albus approached his cousin cautiously, not sure if she might turn on him. “The cloak?”
Rose, with any verbal answer, reached down the front of her jumper and through the folded Invisibility Cloak to the tile floor, the previous bunching having been hidden by her school robes.
“Good!” Albus breathed a sigh of relief. “Scorpius said he heard they were going to start searching through our things as soon as they finished questioning the students.”
“Once again, Rose’s eyes went wide and her voice went loud. “What?” she bellowed, causing Albus and Scorpius both to flinch. “If my father thinks he is using all this as an opportunity to snoop through my personal belongings, he is sorely mistaken!”
“Yes,” Scorpius drawled in a slightly sarcastic manner. “The interrogations at the hands of Ministry officials was quite unpleasant as well, I found.”
Rose turned her head in a flouncy sort of way, smiling a smile Albus had seen enough times to know it didn’t mean anything good. “Oh, I wouldn’t say that, Scorpius. I found the whole experience quite breezy. Maybe they just question students from certain families a little more intensely than others.”
Deep down, Albus had known this was coming, but the three of them has been able to work together for so long without incident, he had secretly been hoping that his two friends might have forgotten all about what others people thought when they heard the names ‘Weasley’ and ‘Malfoy’.
After the Second War, the Weasleys went from being poor-as-dirt blood traitors to one of the most respected wizarding families in all of Britain. Having so many children in the previous generation had paid off, for the Weasleys now had their fingers in every aspect of the wizarding world that could be imagined. They were a family of war heroes now; wealthier and more powerful than they ever could have imagined.
The Malfoys, on the other hand, suffered the fate that many of the prouder pureblood families did once the war ended. Much of the Malfoy’s previous wealth, going towards either reparations or bribes. And despite Scorpius’ fine clothes and the airs he put on, Albus had serious doubts as to whether Scorpius’ family was now any richer than Rose’s was. And even worse than that, many people believed, was the brush that the Malfoys and other families just like them had been painted with. What had brought them so much wealth and respect in previous generations proved to be there undoing in the here and now.
Albus groaned and sunk to the floor as he watched a very loud, very violent argument start up. He didn’t even bother to remind them who could potentially walk passed the bathroom door and hear them. He knew he couldn’t stop them even if he tried. At some point in the fight, Myrtle returned to her bathroom, watching the back and for bickering nearing violence. Albus had taken a seat on the floor, and Myrtle sunk down to the floor to join him. Albus wasn’t sure he could say she was ‘sitting’ beside him, because he wasn’t certain if ghosts even could sit.
“Not that I think I could even do anything,” Albus said to the girl ghost, “but shouldn’t I be doing something to stop all this?”
Myrtle shook her head. “Knowing those two, this was going to happen sooner or later. Better they air it all out in the open rather than letting it fester. If they did, it would just be that much worse.”
Albus nodded thoughtfully. “You really smart, Myrtle,” he told her. “Wise, I mean.”
Myrtle giggled slightly at the compliment. “I wish I could say it all came from being a Ravenclaw, but I’ve been around for a long time.”
If there was any chance of him being supported, Albus probably would have leaned his head against Myrtle’s shoulder. Being friends with a ghost was complicated.
“Well I’m glad you’re here with us,” Albus confided in her. “You’ve been a great deal of help to the Arcane ScoRA.”
The transparent girl giggled once again, combined with a squeal some rapid kicks against the air. If ghosts could blush, Albus was certain that Myrtle would be bright red.
The two of them sat quietly and indulged the spat between the Slytherin and the Ravenclaw. They listened to words like ‘blood traitor’, ‘inbred’, and other certain adjectives and nouns that Albus felt would get him in trouble just for thinking.
Myrtle was the one who eventually broke up the fight when the real heat of it died down. “So no one is even the least bit curious as to why the Ministry is here?”
But the bathroom ghost went more or less ignored, as the argument continued on the same tangent it had been taking for nearly twenty minutes now. Annoyed and angry for not getting the reaction she wanted, Myrtle let loose one of her loud, wailing shrieks; the kind that probably could have crack porcelain. Rose and Scorpius immediately stopped pecking at each other as their hands flew to their ears, and Albus’ too. He could help but feel a little betrayed. He hadn’t been doing anything. Myrtle could have a least warned him.
“Look at you two!” she scolded them as she floated up to a more impressive height. “You are going to allow something that happened before you were even born get in the way of your responsibilities to this school? We are a band of brothers…and sisters! You should both be bigger than this! I am simply disgusted with the both of you!”
Scorpius and Rose were both very clever, and they probably could have answered with a comeback to Myrtle’s speech if they wanted to. But they both stood completely silent and stunned. No one had ever witnessed this sort of behavior from the bathroom ghost.
Before Rose could even respond, Albus tossed the Invisibility Cloak over her head, leaving only her shoes and her stockings to show.
While Rose was still standing stunned under the cloak, Albus turned his attention to the Slytherin boy beside her. “Scorpius, get out the Marauder’s Map.”
The Arcane ScoRA and the Wand of MacArt by OliveOil_Med
Chapter Notes: Albus, Rose, and Scorpius are no longer the only students at Hogwarts with worries when the Department of Magical Law Enforcement comes to the school and begins interrigating the student body.
Thank you, Lizzy and Treacle Heart!