That night, Albus had a dream.
He had earlier left Uncle Charlie packing up and made it to the gates before they shut behind him. As soon as he got back to the Cellar, weariness hit. Rose, Scorpius, Gas, and Cormac were having a study group. Rose and Scorpius fighting about the proper wand movement for a color-changing charm, which Rose had evidentally just demonstrated as Scorpius' hair was a eye-seering shade of fuscia. They looked up and made him a space to join them but he begged off, said he was exhausted and a goodnight. He went straight to bed.
In his dream, he was still camping out with Uncle Charlie in his tent at the pavilion and having trouble sleeping. It wasn't that the bed was uncomfortable; it was one of the nicest beds Albus had ever slept in.
Charlie's tent was his permanent home out on the preserve, so it had all of the features a home would have. The bedroom Albus slept in was one of several, except this one smelled faintly like the jasmine blossoms Aunt Audrey kept for healing potions. He sat up, threw his legs over the side, and searched the night stand for the lamp that was there. His questing hand found a plastic card. He turned on the lamp and looked at it. It was a Dragon Keeper identification with the name, N. Tedescu, but mysteriously, there was no identifying photo in the nightstand drawer when he put his wand away earlier.
Uncle George always joked that Uncle Charlie never brought home his girlfriend because she was a vampire. Maybe it's true.
Albus thought about it for a minute before shaking his head. Nah, his uncle probably liked dragons more than girls. He turned the light back out and tried to sleep, but it was no use. Finally, he gave up.
He put on a robe over his sleepwear, some trainers, and stowed his wand in his robe pocket, and walked out of warm tent, into the chilly night. His feet crunching on the pebbled stone.
He wasn't sure where he was headed until he was halfway through the dark, intimidating tunnel, into the interior of the massive Dragon Pavilion.
In the arena, which was lit by the three quarter moon, he walked over to the crate. Uncle Charlie's spell was centred inside it, but he wasn't going to look at the illusionary dragon. He just wanted to think.
What am I?
That question tore itself out of the dark recesses of his mind. As he recalled that morning, that anger surfaced again.
It felt so familiar, but he couldn't remember ever being that angry before.
Or at least acting on it.
That was it! That was where he knew it. Years of pranks, years of teasing and disrespect, years of his property being destroyed, years of having older cousins pick on him, and uncles joke around with him.
It came from years of being the victim.
What upset him wasn't that Uncle Charlie sent a dragon after him; he understood the reasoning behind that.
What upsets me is that he thought he could.
Albus had always got along so he could get along, he had always let things happen, and then didn't retaliate, because he just didn't have the heart to keep going with it. He just wanted to be left alone.
Why won't they leave me alone?
Now he was among the Hufflepuffs. He was in the House at the bottom of the order. He was in a House whose best-known member was a martyr. It wasn't an easy path being a Hufflepuff. You were not considered the smartest, the bravest, or the most cunning. You were not perceived as intimidating or dangerous.
You are a Badger.
What was a Badger?
Eagles where high, soaring, spectacular creatures that inspired wonder.
A Lions were powerful and strong, attacking anything with ferocity.
A Snake was a solitary creature, which occupied nightmares, struck in stealth and were universally seen as dangerous.
What was a Badger?
Badgers were peace loving creatures huddling together, working hard digging out a place for themselves, attacking or harming no one. When forced to defend itself, a badger was one of the most tenacious and vicious fighters in the entire animal kingdom. Always the underdog, but never attacked with impunity or without reprisal. If you provoked a badger, and forced it to defend itself or its family, you were in for a bad job!
Albus felt a smile touch his lips. The Sorting Hat was right.
I am a Badger.
He made a decision right there, in the pavilion by the light of the moon. From this night forward, he was going to be a Hufflepuff to the core.
Not what Hufflepuff had become, but what it could be.
He was going to be a true Hufflepuff, that loved peace, minded his own business, was loyal to his friends, and worked hard; but one who would be someone you never wanted to cross-ever.
This path would not be an easy one.
But when the time comes, that you are faced with a choice, between what is right, and what is easy...
To hurt others was easy. To take what you want and be cunning, and never think of consequences: that was easy. To be intellectual and never feel emotion, and be untouched by others and their plight, that was easy. To be bold every time, taking all the glory, that was easy.
Being peace loving, gentle, thinking of others, doing the things that others didn't want to do, and taking a back seat when necessary, but making sure no one ever victimises you or your friends and loved ones? That was hard.
It is hard, but it's right.
Albus took out his wand, for once not feeling scared of the power he felt within, or the potential for harm it possessed. He touched his forehead with the tip, and communed. This was a rare Chimera Scale wand, beautifully carved by hands possibly not human, and it was placed in his hand. It had chosen him. At that moment in the darkness, he finally chose it back.
He waited in the darkness until Uncle Charlie woke and went to the fireplace to put the kettle on. Albus said, "I need to talk to you."
Uncle Charlie almost leapt out of his skin. "What are you, daft, boy? Don't scare your poor uncle like that!"
Albus was grave. "Please. It's important."
After his uncle was seated, he made the gesture for Albus to go ahead and tell him what was on his mind.
"I've decided, Uncle Charlie, that I can't let you get away with what you did to me yesterday."
The older man looked offended. "Well, it worked didn't it? I should think you'd be grateful."
Albus made sure he was making eye contact when he stated, "You would've never done that to anyone else."
Charlie snorted derisively. "No one else was afraid of a ruddy broom!"
Albus didn't back down for once. "I was afraid of flying because someone nearly killed me on a broom when I was six! You were there when it happened. You visited me in St. Mungos. You know how long it took me to recover! Still you thought less of me because I was afraid?"
His uncle thought about that for a moment. "You never cried."
Albus felt perplexed at the change in tone. "What?"
Charlie rubbed some sleep out of his eyes, before returning Albus' stare. "I Apparated your broken little body to St. Mungos, and you never cried, not once. I wanted to take James and Fred somewhere private and tan a strip off their hides, but Mum told me that they felt bad enough."
Anger made his voice rough. "That's how I knew I should never be a parent. The fact is, if I were their dad, they would've been right beside you drinking Skele-Grow with immobilising charms all over their bodies. Even with all that pain, you never cried. That's why, when you never flew again I was disappointed. You're too tough a kid inside, Albus, down where it counts, to be scared. It has to be a choice you're making. I don't think less of you. I just wanted you to realise you could handle a dragon being after you. I never expected you to chase the dragon off and come after me!" Charlie blurted with a bark of laughter.
Albus didn't join him. "Even so, I can't let you get away with it."
Charlie grinned teasingly. "And what are you going to do to me, Ickle Albykins?"
Albus felt a sly smile touch his lips. "I guess I should still send Mum an owl to let her know I'm flying. She'll want details. How many I give her, is up to you."
Uncle Charlie looked positively grim. "You wouldn't do that to me! Your mum would kill me, and then get creative! I nearly lost my beard the last time she hexed me with the Bat-Bogeys!"
Albus gave him empty eyes. "I wouldn't?"
Uncle Charlie considered Albus for a few minutes. The battle of wills was intense in the silence. "What's your price?" he asked slyly.
"I need a broom for Quidditch."
"I'll let you have the scorched Millennium."
"The new one you flew on will be fine."
"That's an expensive broom, son."
"I can always send an owl to Grandmum too."
Charlie glowered at Albus, and then he smiled, shaking his head in mock disgust. "You slimy, little, blackmailing git!"
Albus leaned back, placing his hands behind his head. "Anyone who can create an illusionary dragon with that much detail can transfigure a broom into Hufflepuff colours, too."
Charlie grinned. "Anything else, your highness?"
Albus rolled his eyes comically. "My name spelled out with an indelible charm on the handle will suffice. Gold letters."
"Full name?"
"Why not?"
Charlie smiled fondly at his nephew, but there was a respect that wasn't there before. "You know that manoeuvre you pulled off on that broom, turning the tables on that dragon?"
Albus relaxed after the stress from the confrontation. "Yeah?"
Charlie grinned. "I've only seen another dragon do that. You fly like a dragon, son."
Albus met his eyes. "No, sir. I fly like a Badger."
-
When Albus awoke in his Hogwarts bed. He stayed there in the darkness, taking stock, thinking about his dream. It had been incredibly vivid and real-frighteningly so.
Was that the way he really felt? Like a victim who wasn't going to lie down and take it anymore? And that stuff about Hufflepuff. How did he know all that? Had his subconscious listened when he'd tuned out Rose nattering on about the Houses in Hogwarts, A History?
His talk with Uncle Charlie was something else to ponder. Could he really stand up to an adult that way? The threats he'd made, the demands-was he actually capable of blackmail? Was that dream possible?
His heart skipped a beat when Scorpius yanked his bedcurtains back to ask, "You awake?"
"I am now," Albus grumbled. He slid out of bed and went through the motions of dressing and walking to the Great Hall with Scorpius and Rose almost in a daze. As he listened to them merrily squabble, his mind couldn't help but wander,
What did the dream really mean?
Did it mean that he wasn't just the youngest son of Harry Potter, the boy afraid of everything with panic attacks and anxiety? A boy his brother said was doomed to have an ulcer by the time he reached fifteen? Did it mean that he was becoming something else?
His thoughts were interupted by the arrival of the owls.
Celestina dropped a package at Rose then fled, fearing reprisal. Scorpius sighed in relief as there seemed to be no Howler coming for him. Albus went back to his porridge, and his thoughts, secretly relieved for some strange reason.
Suddenly there was an increase in comments. As Albus looked up, he felt like he was going in slow motion. He somehow knew what he would see.
He was the only one in the Great Hall not shocked when a owl, looking bone weary, dropped a long broom shaped object in front of him.
Waving Scorpius and Rose off, he picked up the card attached.
Albus,
I made it, safe back home in Romania. I realized before I left the country last night, if I ever want to come home again, I need for you to NOT tell your mother and grandmother how I got you flying. So accept this as a bribe, and good luck!
Yours,
Uncle Charlie
P.S. I made some alterations I somehow knew you'd appreciate.
Tearing open the package and finding a brand new Nimbus Millennium, spelled black with Hufflepuff yellow twigs, his full name in gold under the badge on the handle, Albus thought:
What is happening to me?
Albus Potter and the Year of the Badger by Sly One
Chapter Notes:I know this chapter is a bit strange but it introduces an important change in Albus. So bear with me.
Chapter Endnotes: All hail JK! Praises to JK! It's all hers, down to the House Elves ear dander!