Still More Questions
“Ow!” Rose screeched quietly, but still echoing through the hall. “Scorpius, that was my foot!”
Albus cringed, even though his own feet had yet to be injured. Walking so close together, it was not difficult to understand why they kept stepping on one another’s toes. All the same, the Invisibility Cloak would be of little use if someone could follow their shouts of pain. It was clear that they would probably need to take a few more late-night practice strolls under the cloak before they became half-competent at walking underneath it. But that would probably have to wait until they were certain they would be able to walk the corridors without being eaten alive.
The Aurors and Hit Wizards were all absent from the student rooms, but the students were still absent from the halls. Even though the three first-years had no reason to believe the wizards from the Ministry would be all together, or that they were even still in the castle, the three of them were still holding out hope that if they could stumble upon them if they were in a meeting, they might hear something that would be remotely useful to the Arcane ScoRA. But up until now, all they had been doing was running back and forth down the corridors with no idea of where they were going, just searching for any possible signs of life.
“Where would they go to meet?” Scorpius pondered aloud.
“There’s a whole castle full of rooms! How would I know?” Rose snapped at him.
Scorpius’ face contorted into an odd sort of smirk. “You know, you get cranky whenever your parents come to visit,” he stated.
Albus began to grind his teeth as he sensed another argument between the two behind him starting up. This time, however, Rose and Scorpius were gracious and tactful enough to keep it at a hushed whisper, and never remained out of step with Albus who led the way; although Rose did make sure to give Scorpius a few smacks on the head with the Marauders Map.
After what had to be at least three dozen doors they had passed over, Albus finally found the first sign of something promising.
“Stop!” Albus hissed suddenly, but it wasn’t enough to keep Scorpius and Rose from crashing into him, bringing all three of them tumbling to the ground.
Being the leader, Albus was the one who ended up at the bottom of the pile, and he had to struggle to make his way at least partially out from under to tell everyone why he had made them stop. “I can hear voices in there,” he said finally, though somewhat breathlessly, as he felt his ribs poking into his lungs.
The three students pulled themselves quietly to their feet quietly and smoothly, with all the grace of Britain’s most poorly trained ballet dancers, all the while keeping the gazes on the tall, massive doors ahead of them. There was a very large set of brass locks, and there were most likely also magical wards in place keeping outsiders out. And if this really was where the Ministry officials were choosing to congregate, a simple Alohamora was not going to get them inside.
Luckily enough, though, one of the Hit Wizards who had been in the Gryffindor dormitories exited the room in such a hurry, he forgot to completely close the door behind him. He did, however, step on Rose’s toes on his way past, and it took Albus and Scorpius both covering her mouth to keep them from being heard.
Forming a very tight, sidestepping line, the members of the Arcane ScoRA squeezed in through the miniscule crack. And no one was there to step on anymore of their toes.
The room itself wasn’t anything special. It had a hearth with a lit fire and a collection of mismatched armchairs and sofas. There hadn’t even been any special guard on the door, or else the three members of the Arcane ScoRA would not have been able to tiptoe inside so easily.
The three of them each gripped the cloak tightly in their fists, lest some member of the group wandered away, took the cloak with them, and left the other two completely exposed.
Most of the people in the room were more or less strangers, people who served under Albus’ dad. Then there was Uncle Ron, pacing across the stone floors. Rolf and Luna sat off to the side, Rolf thumbing through pages of notes while Luna sat off to the side with a book. Albus’ dad was shuffling through a small pile of parchments, dropping them one at a time into the rubbish bin when he appeared to be done with them.
“Well,” Uncle Ron was the first person they heard speak, directing his words at Albus’ father, “what did we learn today that we didn’t already know this morning?”
The three members of the Arcane ScoRA continued to sidestep their way into the room, settling into a tight little nook between a bookshelf and the wall, more than out of the way of the collection of people gathered inside.
“Nothing,” Uncle Ron answered before Albus’ dad could speak, “that’s what.”
“Lorentia?” Luna read aloud from her book, seemingly to no one. “Larinda?”
Albus’ father shook his head from side to side. “We set some very vague perimeters, Ron,” Albus’ dad said in a much calmer tone of voice than Uncle Ron was using. “We knew that our chances of finding anything of use were slim.”
Rolf set his notes aside and took a more active role in the conversation. “I’m not sure what you want me to tell you, Harry,” Rolf finally said. “I can tell you that nothing like this has ever been recorded in history, that it is likely not by mere chance that these creatures came to the school; things you already know for yourself. I’m not even sure what it is Luna and I are doing here.”
“Leontyne?” Luna continued to list off. “Levana? Levina? Lima?”
One of the wizards in the chamber gaped, rolled his eyes, and voiced his opinion quite clearly. “Creatures are running wild through this school since the start of the school year, with no sign of stopping, and you cannot understand what you are doing here?” he snapped at Rolf, striding over to the man in an aggressive manner. “What kind of so-called expert are you?”
Rolf spun around to face the man, his expression enraged, and Albus was very certain a fight was going to break out. Luckily, however, his father stepped in before any real violence could be seen.
“That’s uncalled for, Mr. Rollins!” he chided sharply. “Why don’t you take a walk and try to clear your head?”
The younger man turned his attention on Albus dad, as though he was now going to pick a fight with him instead. Albus’ father, however, remained perfectly calm and collected, though he did match the young wizard’s glare gaze for gaze, looking down at him from his superior height. Then, as though he finally thought better of the whole situation, he stormed out of the room, slamming the door shut behind him. If Rose were able to speak out loud, she probably would have remarked about how animal-like the entire exchange had been.
Once the hotheaded wizard was gone, Albus’ father turned his focus to the remaining officials in the room. “As a matter a fact, why don’t the rest of you go out for a bit too,” he directed at the remaining Ministry employees. “Emotions have been running a bit high. We could all use a bit of a break.”
As though they had just been waiting to be allowed such a break, the remaining Aurors and Hit Wizards breathed a collective sigh of relief and filed out of the room in much the same manner Albus had seen his classmates exiting classrooms. Rolf and Luna stayed behind as well, although that might have been because Luna’s center of gravity was somewhat compromised.
Luna finally looked up from her book when she notice the room being so suddenly empty. “I saw your children early today,” she said as though it were perfectly to start a nonchalant chat in the given situation. “Albus and Rose both seemed quite distressed about the whole situation.” Maybe not, after all.
“I had a feeling, Luna,” he confessed. “Believe it or not, I do not take pleasure in interrogating students.”
“That was an interrogation?” Uncle Ron exclaimed. “That was a Sunday chat that they got out of school to have! What you and I went through when we were students here, back when Britain was essentially a police state, was an interrogation!”
“What would you have me do, Ron?” Albus heard his father’s tone suddenly become more severe. “Take a page out of Umbridge’s book for techniques on questioning underaged students?”
A young witch who was one of the few to stay stepped forward out of her hiding place on an armchair tucked beside the fireplace.
“I think I know what Mr. Weasley is trying to say,” she said. Uncle Ron was the type of person who needed to have what he meant said for him a lot. “What we’re looking for isn’t the kind of thing that would be easily offered up. We need to take even what we have gotten with a grain of salt, and I doubt we would even begin to get anything useful until we begin to squeeze them a little.”
The way the lady said it sounded a lot better than when Uncle Ron said it. And once her piece had been spoken, she too left the room, stretching her arms over in head in the manner of someone who was horribly stiff.
Albus’ father shook his head once the young woman was gone. “But that’s a two-way street. It’s why Rolf and Luna are here; to lend us their expertise on these matters so that we do not solely have to take the students’ word for what has been happening here.”
“Lysippe?” Luna began saying once again, letting Uncle Ron and Albus’ dad carry on with their dialogue on their own.
Albus’ dad then turned his attentions over to Rolf. “Are you sure there is nothing you two can tell us?” he asked, eyes pleading.
“Without seeing any of the actual phenomenon, I really can’t tell you anything you couldn’t have guessed yourself.” Rolf said. “The chances of all these creatures simply stumbling into the school are next to none, especially given some of the more ‘exotic’ creatures that have been coming as of lately.”
There was a collective shuddered under the cloak, and from behind, Albus could hear the sound of crinkling paper as Rose fussed with the Marauders Map. Albus wondered to himself if Rolf was talking about the Quintaped.
“The most likely answer would be that these creatures are being summoned here somehow, though I couldn’t begin to tell you how. My guess is, though, with the way you have been heading up this investigation so far, is that you already have your own suspicions about how this is being done.”
But before either Albus’ dad or Uncle Ron could confirm or deny Rolf’s statement, Luna humphed under breath and slammed her book shut into her lap. “Rolf, I don’t think the baby likes any of the L names.”
The reason behind Luna’s behavior and odd and sudden statements was quite clear now. Luna had been looking down to her stomach every time she read a new name. She had been reading the list to the baby, as though it would be able to tell her which names it liked. Somehow, though, this realization was of no surprise to Albus; it was very Luna-like behavior.
“Luna, love,” Rolf said gently, in a manner that seemed better suited for talking to a distracted four-year-old than a grown woman, “you need to focus right now. We’re talking about the beasts that have been invading the school right now.”
Luna set her book down so that she could look her husband in the eye with that wide-eyed serene look of hers, and then she turned her gaze upward to speak to Albus’ father.
“What we need to take into account is the pattern of these invasions. If you truly believe it is one person who is responsible for these, you need to take a look at what was going on in the lives of students at the time of these attacks. Most likely, whoever did this at least believe they had good reason to do what they did. And from the information I have seen you obtain, I’m not so certain you have anything useful.”
The room went completely silent, with even the members of the Arcane ScoRA held complete spellbound. Luna always had a way of disarming any notions that she was completely out of her mind.
Once she had said her piece, she turned her attention back to her book of baby names. “Maybe something that begins with an R?” she remarked offhand.
“At any rate, nothing is going to get done today,” Rolf relented. “We have the raw materials needed for an investigation, and all we can do is work with what we have.”
“So we just wait for something even worse to stumble into the school?”
Rolf’s face took on a very guilty-looking expression at the insinuation, but he really didn’t have anything else to offer.
“Maybe I should be getting Luna home,” Rolf said, helping his very pregnant wife up to her feet.
Albus’ dad nodded as Luna struggled to stand to her feet, her very swollen stomach preventing her from moving too gracefully. “It’s alright,” he assured them. “You can go ahead.”
Rolf, however, didn’t stop talking. “It’s just that we have another appointment with the Healer tomorrow and we need to have the twins in bed early so we can drop them off at Xenophilius’ in the morning, and””
“Rolf,” Luna told her husband calmly, “Harry and Ron have already said we can leave. You don’t need to keep giving them reasons.
“I swear, if that man behaves like this every time I am pregnant, I am never going to have another baby again.”
“If you need either of us again, you know I, at least, won’t be going anywhere.”
Albus’ dad chuckled under his breath as Luna took Rolf by the arm as they walked out of the chamber. “I don’t think there is another woman on earth who has had pregnancy agree with her as much as Luna has,” he remarked with a soft smile on his face.
When his attention shifted back to Uncle Ron, however, he saw that the fellow Auror was not sharing in the momentary light mood.
“I hate this, Harry,” Uncle Ron said pounding his fist against the wall. “It wasn’t supposed to be like this for our kids. Things were supposed to be different.”
“I can’t stand it either, Ron,” Albus’ dad admitted. “Speaking to my own son like he was a criminal; terrifying all his classmates…”
Uncle Ron nodded along with the list, although his expression told that he had something a bit more specific on his mind.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen my Rosie so mad at me. I thought my daughter wouldn’t start hating me until she was at least thirteen.”
Behind him, Albus heard a sound slightly reminiscent of a mouse being trodden on, but he knew it was the sound of guilt kicking in on Rose’s part.
Albus’ dad put his hand on Uncle Ron’s shoulder. “I know it’s not easy, Ron; and I pity how much worse it’s only going to get between you two from here on out. And believe me, with the tempers you two share, it is going to get a lot worse.”
Uncle Ron’s ear turned just slightly pink, and Albus’ could only imagine that Rose’s were too.
“But I’m a bit more concerned with all the attacks on the school. It’s only a matter of time before someone gets hurt. That is unless someone already has and just hasn’t come forward.”
This time, it was Albus’ turn to feel especially guilty beneath the safety of the Invisibility Cloak. He knew that by continuing to keep what he knew a secret, he was only making his dad’s life harder, and by extension, his whole family’s. But he couldn’t very well be the one to break the code of secrecy the Arcane ScoRA held themselves to; not when he held Scorpius and Rose to the exact same standard. Besides, Myrtle knew where he slept and would most likely haunt him for the rest of his days if he told any of their secrets.
It was at that point that Albus’ father reached down into the pockets of his robes to search for his watch. Albus’ dad owned what had to be the world’s oldest functioning pocket watch. It was battered, scuffed, and ancient, but he had refused any suggestion of replacing it. “I should be leaving,” he said, snapping the watch shut. “I want to go home while my daughter still remembers what I look like. You should be getting back to Hermione and Hugo too.”
Uncle Ron didn’t offer a verbal answer, but all the same, he followed Albus’ dad out of the meeting chamber, shutting the door softly behind him.
The members of the Arcane ScoRA remained under the cover of the Invisibility Cloak for several minutes after the room had been emptied. Later, they would say it was out of common sense and that any one of the Ministry employees could have reenter at any moment, even through the Floo. But the reality of it was they were all just a little to shaken to leave the safe feeling that the covering provided. None of them had anticipated that night they were wandering the halls after dark and their small lie to keep them out of trouble would land them right in the middle of an official Ministry investigation.
Rose, of course, was the first one to shake off the initial shock of it all. “Alright, people. They had to leave something useful behind. Spread and search!”
Surprisingly, Scorpius followed the girl’s instructions without hesitation or any scathing looks. Eventually, Albus too began a cautious survey of the room, at first seeing nothing but a few abandoned quills on the room’s hard surfaces and the remnants of a late afternoon tea.
“We really should have had Moaning Myrtle come with us to stand guard,” Albus suggested as he began looking under pieces of furniture.
“Somehow Myrtle doesn’t strike me as the inconspicuous type,” Rose replied bluntly. “Besides, I think our dads know her. They never would have allowed her to stay.”
Upon further consideration, Albus had to admit that his cousin was probably right. Come to think of it, he wasn’t quite sure how Myrtle had managed to do all the undercover work she had already done for the Arcane ScoRA. She wasn’t the sort of person who was easy to miss in an empty room or corridor. But Albus supposed he had come to think of the ghost girl as really being a true comrade in their secret society, and even someone who really had it in their power to assist them in any way they might need. That was most certainly a change in the status she seemed to hold with most within the walls of Hogwarts.
Suddenly, Albus heard Rose say, “What are these?” She signaled over to a rubbish bin overflowing with pieces of crumpled parchment. Soon enough, she was joined by Albus and Scorpius, who stood at her side, but none of them made a move to actually venture inside the rubbish bin to find any clues.
Bravely, Albus reached down to the floor, retrieving one of the crumpled pieces. Smoothing it out against the palm of his hand, reading the words that had been scrawled in slightly smudged ink.
Student_________________________Wand______________________________Date_____
Georgia Ackhart____________Apple and phoenix feather, intricate___________January 29th
Jodie Canning______________Oak and phoenix feather, stable______________January 29th
Leo Edwin_________________Chestnut and phoenix feather, sturdy_________January 27th
Maeve Finnigan_____________Rowan and dragon heartstring, delicate_______January 28th
Gavin Foss________________Poplar and unicorn hair, construct____________January 27th
Simon Henry_______________Reed and dragon heartstring, brittle__________January 28th
Ruby Paddock______________Hazel and phoenix feather, yielding__________January 29th
Albus Potter________________Cherry and unicorn hair, potent_____________January 27th
Bailey Reynolds_____________Holly and unicorn hair, sublet_______________January 28th
Riley St. John_______________Maple and phoenix feather, compact_________January 28th
Damien Towler______________Ebony and phoenix feather, to scale________January 29th
“These are the Gryffindor first-years,” he told them, “and their wands.”
Eyes widening, Scorpius knelt down to the rubbish bin and dug in, pulling out another crisp piece of parchment. “Here’s the Ravenclaw third-year list,” he reported.
Rose fished out another scrap of paper. “Hufflepuff fourth-year.”
This was most certainly an interesting turn of events. Albus knew that Ashford Ollivander had to be there for some reason; there was no one better to go to in all of England on the subject of wands. Why it was the Aurors Office felt they needed him, however, still remained a mystery.
“It looks like almost all of the information they took has been thrown in here.” Albus let the piece of paper he had been holding drop back to the ground. It hadn’t been of any use to the Ministry, so it clearly wasn’t of any use to them.
“This parchment all looks brand new! They barely even looked at them!” Scorpius eyes were wide as he spoke.
“Enough for them to know that nothing on it was of use to them,” Rose concluded.
So, the plot continued to thicken.
“Why would they interview the entire school and then just throw everything away?” Albus pondered aloud.
Scorpius shrugged his shoulders as he allowed his piece of parchment to drop back down to the ground as well. “They brought in Ollivander, so we know they were defiantly interested in our wands. And what they were made of, and when they were last used.”
“Do they know what spell was used to call all these creatures to our school?” Albus asked. “Is that why they’re so obsessed with wands? Would they be able to tell what spell was used just by have a wandsmith look at them?”
“I don’t think it was the spells they cared about,” Rose answered. “Look; all they wrote down were the dates they were last used. If they were looking for a specific spell, they would have written down the last spell they used. All they really seem to care about is when they were used.”
Scorpius took his turn to speak. “So, it’s not the students they think are responsible, but they think whoever has been doing all this has been using someone else’s wand?”
“It makes sense,” Rose admitted, putting her index finger to her lips. “Maybe they thought they wouldn’t get caught if they used someone else’s wand.
“The only problem is,” she continued, beginning to pace the floor, “wouldn’t someone have noticed their wand was missing for as many invasions as there have been?”
No one had the opportunity to respond to these ponderings, however, because from out in the corridor, footsteps could be heard approaching fast.
“Someone’s coming!” Albus gasped, throwing the cloak up over their heads. “Hide! And be quiet!”
The slippery fabric settled around them just in time to keep them hidden from the two Hit Witches who came rushing back into the room, searching through the dimly chamber in search of something that was clearly important. As it turned out, that something turned out just to be a blue feather quill, but the young witch who found breathed a deep sigh of relief, as though it were some lost treasure.
Once the door was devoid of obstructions, the three first-years resumed their sidestepping walk back out the door. But not before yet another one of the Hit Witches stepped on Rose’s foot once again, this time with much more pointy, much more painful shoes. And once again, both Albus and Scorpius clamped their hands over Rose’s mouth as they moved down the hallway, holding tight despite the fact that Rose’s teeth were now pinching against their skin. At least until they finally found themselves back in Moaning Myrtle’s bathroom, where Rose showed off her surprisingly extensive vocabulary.
Albus wondered quietly to himself if this was set another something his cousin had picked up in the Ravenclaw common room.
Five hours later, none of the members of the Arcane ScoRA had gone back to their separate dormitories. Myrtle was a bit upset at first at not being invited to track down the Ministry agents, but Scorpius and Rose together had managed to convince her that her sudden presence away from her preferred haunting grounds might draw some unwanted attention under the circumstances.
She was, however, more than welcome to sit in on the society meeting that came to follow, floating around the circle in her usual observant fashion.
“The only problem is, wouldn’t someone have noticed their wand was missing for as many invasions as there have been?” Scorpius brought up a valid point.
“Unless they were actually in on everything,” Rose responded, showing off her newly acquired suspicious mind.
“But if a student actually was responsible, the Aurors would have taken them away, and the entire school would be buzzing. Everything is still quiet.” Myrtle informed them, floating around the edges of the circle. “I know, I’ve been patrolling the corridors and paying attention.”
Scorpius looked up as though he had forgotten the ghost girl was even there. “Um, thanks, Myrtle.”
Thanks, nothing! Albus thought to himself. She’s been doing just as much work as any of us have today. Maybe Albus was the only one in the society who thought of the bathroom ghost in such high esteem.
“So then what is the next step?” Scorpius asked. “Sneaking to the Ministry underneath that Invisibility Cloak and goes through the records at the Aurors Office?”
It was clear that Scorpius was being sarcastic. Albus couldn’t even begin to conceive how they would go about undertaking such an ambitious plan, or what would happen to them if they were caught filtering through Auror records. But while they were on the subject…
“Your dad seemed to feel really bad about all of it, Rose,” Albus said to his cousin, his tone soft.
But all of Rose’s previous guilty feelings about the words her father and Albus’ had exchanged in the meeting chamber were long since gone. “Stupid git of a father!” she grumbled, stomping her feet like a tantrum-throwing two-year-old. “I’m willing to bet that he somehow knew we were under that cloak and said all those things just to make me feel guilty!”
Then, Rose’s attentions, and her frustrations, turned on Scorpius. “And don’t you dare think that now is an appropriate time for joke, Malfoy! We have far too much to do, and there is no time for any Clabbert business!”
Scorpius’ face then took on a very snide expression. “Well then, what solutions and contemplations have been circling through your brilliant mind, Weasley?”
It was clear that not all of the previous tension was completely gone.
“It’s obvious what’s going on here, isn’t it?” Rose asked the two boys. “The school suspects that a student is responsible for these attacks. And the Aurors are here because they suspect this all being done by means of very Dark magic.”
Rose kept her sharp gaze on Scorpius. “Have any Slytherins been behaving oddly that you have noticed?”
The Slytherin member of the Arcane ScoRA took extreme offence to that comment. “Oh, yes! Because it is always a Slytherin who is responsible whenever something goes bump in the night! Never mind that a Slytherin has been helping to keep this school safe from the very beginning!”
Jumping to his feet, Scorpius made a swift stride over to Albus cousin so he could look her dead in the eyes.
“If you ask me, I think a Ravenclaw could just as easily be responsible,” Scorpius took a shot at the Ravenclaw redhead. “You’re all far too clever for your own good, and they always say never to trust the quiet ones.”
Albus spoke up in an attempt to deflect all the negative energy circling through the room. “What is it’s someone in Hufflepuff that’s responsible?”
The reaction from his two friends was something he expected deep down, but he still felt that the actual loud, prolonged laugher was a bit uncalled for. At the very least, though, it brought a temporary end to all the aggression between the two. “Maybe now what would be best is to go back to the dormitories and get a good night’s sleep,” Albus suggested, unable to suppress yawn.
But Rose shook her head, even while she was still giggling. “We’re still not going anywhere,” she told the group once the laughter between her and Scorpius died down. “Aurors are the best of the best. They didn’t get there because they could be outdone by a trio of eleven-year-olds.”
“We have to sleep in the bathroom?” Scorpius shouted, leading everyone else in the bathroom to rush to shush him.
“We won’t be here all night,” Rose assured him. “We can go back to our dormitories under the cloak once the corridors aren’t so crawling with Ministry officials. We’ll just have to wait it out until they leave.”
“What are we supposed to do in a bathroom for all that time,” Scorpius asked, and before all the dirty thoughts of bathroom jokes enter her mind, he finished. “Besides that!”
Instead of giving a verbal answer, however, Rose strolled over to one of the leaking sinks and turned on the tap. Once a good amount of water spilled into her cup hand, she flung it right at Scorpius’ back, to which he shrieked and spun around and saw Rose with her dripping hand and mischievous grin.
“You splashed me!” he exclaimed, trying to turn his robes so that he could better survey his soaked back.
“Yes, I did,” Rose sassed him. “What are you going to do about it?”
And with that she threw another handful of water at Scorpius’ robes. Scorpius smirked when he finally realized what Rose was implying. He then ran over to the sink to garter his own ammunition for the battle, but Rose made sure to get him plenty soaked from the running tap while he did. But once Rose was the one starting to get soaked, she couldn’t get away from that tap fast enough, screaming and shouting without any regard to who might hear her. Once the fight ensued, Albus saw little recourse but to join in himself, able to have full access to the sink while Rose and Scorpius were fleeing from each other.
At the very least, all the tension from their previous argument seemed to be gone. So if they could work it out by splashing at one another and making a mess of Myrtle’s bathroom, why not let them?
Once Albus started to think about it, he realized that this was the first time the three of them had actually done anything that might lead people to think the three of them were actually friends. Up until now, everything the three of them had done together revolved around the work of their secret society and nothing else. Even the train ride at the beginning of the year could have hardly been considered a real social interaction. This was the first real fun they had all had together; the first time they had been children and not brothers in arms. Even Myrtle joined in. Though she couldn’t actually engaged in the battle, she shouted strategic advice as she floated over their heads. It was likely the first fun she had had in ages too.
Time passed incredibly quickly, and no one bothered to call a ceasefire to check the time. By the time Rose finally decided it was safe enough to go back to their rooms, the moon was hanging in the center of the high window. Once again, Scorpius took the Marauders Map and Rose took the Invisibility Cloak so that Albus would be spared from the wrath of James or Fred, in case they might take a late-night search of his trunk. The three went their separate ways early, so there was no opportunity to discuss the day’s events or console one another’s more deep-rooted fears and anxieties. The light feeling from the water fight had faded the moment they left the bathroom, and now Albus was wet, cold, and his stomach felt like it was filled with crawling creatures.
Needless to say, Albus did not sleep very well that night.
The whole next day in classes, Albus was finding it nearly impossible to stay awake. Professor Binns didn’t notice, for Albus was behaving no different from any student in his class on any given day. In Potions, Scorpius didn’t even try to stay awake, napping quite contently with a quill in his hand so he still might appear to be the eager student. Professor Vhartan was preoccupied with Phoebe Nott’s melted cauldron and the Pucey twins being drenched in some odd orange solution that had shot out of the cauldron behind them.
Professor Longbottom, however, was not quite so easy to fool; especially after Albus lost consciousness and fell face-first into a pot of damp dirt. It was not for a few more moments, though, that they class collectively noticed him, and by the time Professor Longbottom did wake him up, Albus had a nice solid mud-mask all across his face. With the entire class laughing, Albus was instructed to go to the greenhouse sinks and wash his face. There, privately thankfully, Albus was also instructed by Professor Longbottom to stay after class.
Albus stayed at the sinks for far longer than he needed to, fearing all the eyes that would be staring at him when he finally came back. By the time he took his seat once again, class was nearly over, but Professor Longbottom didn’t call him on it. But when the rest of the class was dismissed, the teacher still kept his eyes on Albus to remind him to stay where he was.
“Mr. Potter,” he said, removing his dirt-covered gloves and setting them on the tabletop before taking a seat himself, “is there something you would like to tell me?”
Albus remained quiet, partly because he wasn’t sure of what to say, but also because he was just still so groggy.
“Albus,” Professor Longbottom said, more softly this time, “you know me. You can talk to me. I want to know what’s wrong so I can help you. Please let me do that.”
Instead, Albus stared down, tracing his finger through the scattered dirt on the surface of the table.
“Yesterday couldn’t have been easy for you,” the Herbology professor tried, “especially with your dad being the one to interrogate you and your classmates.”
Albus nodded, not speaking because he could feel his voice catching in his throat.
“Truth be told, Albus, I was planning on talking to you after class anyway,” Professor Longbottom admitted. “I have an appointment to speak with your brother later today.”
Looking up, Albus saw his Head of House shuffle anxiously on the stool. “Being the Head of Gryffindor house can be difficult at times. Everyone is too proud to admit they are afraid or that they need someone to talk to. But it is by no means a sign of weakness to admit that you need help under such difficult circumstances as these.”
Albus turned his gaze back down to the tabletop, wishing his godfather would stop tempting him. He would have loved it if he could have been able to confide in the man about everything he had faced since the beginning of the school year; all the times he had nearly been killed and how many times he had been scared. But all the same, he could not ignore the loyalty he felt to his friends, especially now that he felt he could actually call the three of them that. So instead, Albus offered a noncommittal nod and kept his secrets to himself.
“It will all be okay, Albus,” Professor Longbottom said, putting his hand on his godson’s shoulder.
Oh, if only the Herbology professor had any of idea of what he was really talking about!