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| < Book of Austramaddux ~ Albus Potter and the curse of the crypt |
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Wed Aug 19, 2009 2:01 pm
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Professor
Joined: 06 Jan 2008
Posts: 1074
Location: Going Nowhere Fast.
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12. Suspicions
November seemed to blur by, but unfortunately, Classes with Professor Washburn –and detentions- did not blur by. In fact, Albus spent most of the November weekends in detention with Professor Washburn, something that none of Albus’s friends, or Albus for that matter took kindly too. Soon enough, December rolled around, and with it, came Lily’s birthday. Luckily for her, her birthday fell on a Sunday. To surprise her, Albus, James, and Harry took her to the Three Broomsticks, and bought her breakfast. It was topped off with Ginny being able to visit Hogsmeade. After they all got Breakfast, Harry and Ginny handed a Lily her birthday present, which was a silk bag filled with an assortment of Galleons Sickles and Knut’s.
“James, Albus, can you do me the favor of taking Lily back to Hogwarts.” Harry said. “James, take Lily the proper way please.” Harry added after noticing the grin on James’s face.
“But, I want to spend some of my money at the Triple W!” Lily complained
“Yeah, can we go?” Albus asked “A house elf gave me five galleons because the work I did during Washburn’s detentions was enough to let him rest for two days.”
“Detentions?” Ginny asked sternly
“Later.” Harry muttered to Ginny, before turning back to James Lily and Albus. “You guys can go, but be back at Hogwarts within an hour and a half.”
“Great, thanks dad!” James called, already sprinting towards the Triple W. Lily quickly ran after, and Albus merely jogged there.
“Lil’s, it’s your birthday, I refuse to let you pay.” Teddy said with a grin.
“Just let her give you a galleon or two, she won’t give up until you do.” James insisted
“Albus, finally you’re here!” Lily said with a grin.
“It’s freezing outside, I’m shocked it isn’t snowing when it’s this cold.”
“It’ll snow soon enough.” Teddy said with a shrug. “It is better when it snows though, because we rent out the back lot so that kids can have snowball fights.”
“That’s a really pointless way to make money.” A fourth voice said, entering the Triple W.
“Oh, and Happy Birthday Lily!” a fifth voice said. Albus turned around to see Rose and Nicky entering the shop, Rose carrying a small box. “Just picked this up from that goblin gold store, it’s a necklace.” Lily quickly opened the box, and put the necklace around her neck.
“Is that what I think it is?” Albus muttered to Rose, noticing the two golden ‘R’s imprinted on the necklace.
“Nah, it’s a replica of the real thing, special made, spent fifteen galleons on it.”
“Ah, do you want me to pay you back for it?” Albus questioned
“No, my parents gave me the money for it.” Rose grinned “What’s up with the satchel? It’s a Sunday.”
“Invisibility Cloak, nicked it from my dad, I figure he’s not going to need it any time soon.”
“So you brought it with you?”
“A bunch of Slytherin’s thought it would be funny to steal a few people’s clothes, so I figured if anyone came looking for my stuff that if they found the cloak that they would take it, and I couldn’t have that happen, could I?”
“I think your cloak may come in handy.” Nicky said, glancing out the store door behind Albus and Rose. “It looks like Professor Washburn doesn’t want to be seen.” Albus turned around, and sure enough, Professor Washburn was anxiously walking down the street, looking around him every few seconds to make sure no one was looking at him.
“He’s up to something.” Albus muttered, before looking back at his brother and sister, who were currently occupied “And I’m going to find out what.”
“That’s not exactly-”
“Just come on.” Albus insisted, ushering her out the door.
“So how does this thing work?” Nicky questioned, but Albus was already throwing it around their shoulders. “That’s bloody brilliant, I have to admit.” Nicky said with a grin.
“Let’s go, he was heading down this way, oh, and Rose, do you know how to make footprints disappear?” Albus questioned as they began walking.
“I’ve already charmed your shows so they wouldn’t make an imprint in the snow.”
“Again, Brilliant,” Nicky grinned
“Nicky you dolt, shut up!” Rose hissed as they neared the side-street Professor Washburn had walked down.
“Complete silence from now on guys, okay?” Albus instructed.
They walked down a set of narrow brick steps, and into a dimly lit side-street with one or two shops on each side, and a few homeless people hugged up against the wall. Under the cloak, Albus silently peered into the windows of the shops, looking for Washburn, and soon hit the end of the Alleyway.
“Where’d he go?” Nicky mouthed to Albus and Rose
“Don’t know,” Albus responded, glancing around. Rose however, who was on the right, began walking, dragging the other two along. “Rose, where are you going?” Albus asked.
Rose’s hand was already outstretched, and she seemed to grab something, and then turn it. A door opened, revealing a small white room in which light was shining through. Albus Nicky and Rose quickly ducked into the room, and hid against a corner as Washburn turned around to face the door, and quickly shut it. As Albus’s eyes adjusted to the room, he saw that a second person was in the room, Professor Kelso.
“Let’s hurry this up please, although it’s hard for you to imagine I was actually busy when you called me.” Washburn sneered, turning around to face Kelso.
“She gave me this, read up Washburn.” Kelso said, taking an old tattered book from his robes, and throwing it in a not-so-gingerly manner towards Washburn’s feet. The book however landed right in front of Washburn, and he picked it up. Albus caught a glance of the book, and had trouble suppressing a sound.
“Is this all?” Washburn said, pocketing the book in his cloak.
“Yes. It’s good reading, but let’s not discuss it now.” Kelso said with a meaningful glance towards Kelso.
“Yes, very well then.” Washburn said, turning to leave.
Albus Rose and Nicky stood, and went to leave, slipping out of the door after Professor Washburn. The three waited until he disappeared, and then they ripped off the cloak, and Albus stuffed it into his Satchel, and the three of them ran out the alley, and towards the Triple W, where James stood looking at them with a worried look on his face.
“You Blast-Ended Skrewt, where’d you run off to?” James questioned
“Honey Dukes.” Nicky said automatically
“Well don’t off again like that you dolts, you had me worried sick.” James scolded
“Thanks mum.” Albus said, rolling his eyes, and walking past James, but James grabbed him by the scruff of his robes, and pulled him back.
“Al, you’re my responsibility, if you had gotten snatched or something it would’ve been my fault.”
“Yes, because wizard snatchers are around every corner,” Albus said mockingly “you really need to calm down, James.”
“Lily, are you ready to go?” James questioned, ignoring Albus’s comment
“Yeah.” Lily said, happily skipping towards the store door.
“Albus, feel free to lead the way.” James said, glaring at Albus.
~AP~
“You don’t know what you saw for sure Albus!” Rose said, her voice echoing around the Room of Requirement.
“Rose, you were there with me!” Albus insisted “There’s definitely something going on, and Washburn and Kelso are in on it.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure.” A fourth voice said. Instinctively, Albus turned towards the door to the room. “Now go about three meters to your right.” Albus then turned towards the window.
“How long have you been there?” Albus questioned, looking at Ben’s head, which was taking up the head of Sir Paggywode.
“I got here about four seconds before you entered the room; I was just planning on popping in and seeing if anyone was snogging or holding secret meetings, and it just so happens that you three are.” Ben grinned
“Nice, well, I geuss.” Albus shrugged “Who’s cranking that contraption of yours?”
“No one,” Ben grinned “Geir-Haugen upgraded it. It’s now living up to his name on both sides of it.”
“Meaning?” Nicky questioned
“Well, the only reason you guys can see me is because I’m near the sun, and the sun is what’s making my face project on this window. But Geir-Haugen figured he could also use the sun to power it, so he went to a muggle store, bought a mini solar panel, put a size charm on it, and now the thing is powering the Solar Light Hologram. Oh, and further news on the N.I.W.W front-”
“What the bloody hell is ‘N.I.W.W.’?” Nicky asked
“It’s the Norwegian Institute of Witches and Wizards.” Rose said abruptly “Now shut up and let Ben talk.”
“As I was saying,” Ben continued with a polite nod towards Rose “N.I.W.W is going to be visited by the AAU, which is the American school of course. Well, it’s being visited by the Headmaster and a few members of the school’s council for a week. But, they’re only staying there because the Muggle Hotels can’t exactly park a flying car without getting suspicious. But, anyway, they’re staying here, and Geir-Haugen and the Headmaster here are planning on asking the AAU headmaster about getting electricity into the school via the solar and lunar panels.”
“Well that was a mouthful.” Nicky commented
“Was he always this annoying?” Ben asked Albus whilst grinning
“I don’t know exactly.” Albus shrugged
“Well, I think it’s great that your school is going to get electricity in it, by all means I think our school needs it too.” Rose commented
“Yeah, it really does.” Nicky grinned “Oh and Geir-Haugen is trying to get it so that he can basically teleport the hologram form of me, and have my whole body be in the room with another light source other then the sun.”
“How would that work?” Nicky questioned, his eyes oddly beaming with curiosity.
“Well, for example he’s currently trying to get another, smaller version of this Solar Light Hologram, and he’s trying to turn it into a Heat Hologram, so right now the theory is that I would appear in a hologram form, just out of a burning fireplace, or- at least for now we hope- a candle.”
“That would be bloody brilliant!” Nicky exclaimed “I could just light a candle, and poof, there you are!”
“Well, yes, in theory that is the basic idea of it. Although it opens a bunch of doors of opportunity, it’s tricky; I mean it was complicated for the first wizard to create the floo network, so this no doubt will be harder.”
“Sorry, but wouldn’t it be easier for you to just floo here?” Albus questioned
“No, Hogwarts’ floo boundaries is four miles from the front doors in all directions, which as you can imagine, is not even close to Norway.” Rose replied
“That’s not true, my dad told me all these stories about how he visited his godfather in the Gryffindor fire place.”
“The boundaries law was instated during James’s second year, Teddy told me about it over the summer.”
“So, who’s this Washburn bloke?” Ben questioned, bringing everyone back to the original concept of their meeting at the room.
“Charms teacher.” Nicky answered
“What happened to good old Flitwick?”
“He died.” Albus pronounced with a slight frown.
“So, you think this Washburn guy and this Kelso guy are planning something evil this year?”
“No, Albus thinks that the two are planning something evil this year.” Rose declared
“Well, I heard you guys go over the story, and for all we know the book could’ve belonged to Kelso’s mother, and he wanted Washburn to read it.”
“That’s bloody well not likely.” Albus said, shaking his head. “Look, when Washburn picked up the book, I saw the words ‘The Tales’, which means it was most likely ‘The Tales of Beetle the Bard’, which means that they were looking at something obviously important in that book.”
“Albus, if it was that book, then it contained fairy tales about a hopping pot, or three witches going to a magical fountain, or three brothers, like, there’s really nothing interesting in that book!” Rose protested
“She’s right, I have to read it for a book report up here; it’s just a load of pot-tosh.” Ben sighed.
“It’s ‘toss’ Ben, the phrase is ‘just a load of pot toss’” Albus said with a slight grin
“Not up here it’s not.” Ben said with an even bigger grin “Oh, Nicky, you’d love this school, the Headmaster made it so that the magic didn’t interfere with Muggle inventions, so there’s a television in every common room.”
“I think you mean a telly?” Rose questioned
“Well, I call it a Television.” Ben said, shrugging
“Ben, don’t change too much, okay?” Albus questioned.
“I’ll try not to.” Ben declared.
“Back to the original topic, I really think Washburn’s up to something guys.”
“Albus, give it a rest, Washburn isn’t up to anything.” Nicky chimed in.
“But you don’t know that for sure.”
“And you don’t know for sure that Washburn is up to something.”
“Well, soon enough I will.” Albus protested
“Guys, you really need to pump the brakes.” Ben interjected as Nicky was about to argue back
“We need to do what?” Nicky, Rose, and Albus asked at the same time
“I don’t know, a few kids here say it.” Ben shrugged.
“Well, I have homework to go do, so goodbye now.”
~AP~
“Good evening class, turn your text books to page 387 please, and begin doing the potion on that page.” Professor Klein instructed once everyone was settled. Albus, Rose, and Louis sat at the same table, and Louis flipped open his book.
“The essence of happiness.” Louis said, reading the heading on the page.
“I’ll go get the ingredients.” Rose said immediately
“The essence of happiness.” Louis repeated “Ironic, it looks like Professor Klein could use some of it.” Albus looked up at Professor Klein. She looked like a mess. Her desk was covered in tissues, her eyes were red and puffy, and she began to silently cry.
“Let’s go guys; we only have forty five minute left in this class.” Rose sighed.
“Calm down, it’ll all get done.” Albus assured her.
“In that case, take this frog tail, dice it, put it into the potion, and stir it nine times clockwise.” Rose ordered.
The rest of the class progressed this way, Professor Klein crying silently at her desk, and Rose instructing Louis and Albus to do various things. By the end of it, their essence of happiness was the grayish color it was instructed to be. Albus happily burst out of the classroom, running up the steps out of the dungeon.
“Someone’s excited to be free of classes.” Nicky said with a small grin as Albus literally ran into Nicky on his way to the courtyards.
“Hey, want to go play some exploding snap, or winkles and augers with me?” Albus questioned
“Sorry, I can’t, got Quidditch Practice.” Nicky said with a small frown.
“Why?” Albus asked with a large disappointed frown spreading across his face.
“In the name of Dumbledore, Albus, you sound like an infant.” Rose scolded, coming up behind Nicky and Albus
“Quidditch match between Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff, if you ask me the first and last Quidditch matches of the school year should be Gryffindor Verse Slytherin, but obviously that’s not so.”
“When’s the match?” Louis questioned
“Tomorrow night, this means of course that I’m going to be on the Quidditch pitch for a few good hours both today and tomorrow.” Nicky sighed
“Yes!” Albus exclaimed “Washburn and Kelso can’t give me detention for Friday night, there’s a Quidditch Match going on!”
“That’s not necessarily true, my mom was told me a few years ago that your dad spent a Quidditch Match in detention for his sixth year, and your mum had to fill in for him, and at the end of the match Ginny and Harry had their first kiss.”
“True story.” Harry said, coming up and hugging Albus. “However, you’re in luck, because it’s the opening game of the season, which all teachers are required to attend.”
“Fantastic!” Albus exclaimed
“But, don’t go shoving it in his face, if he gives you detention simply go to Lippert and have him remind either Washburn or Kelso that they can’t give you detention that night.”
~AP~
“Albus!” Rose scolded “Where on earth were you?”
“I was merely reminding Kelso and Washburn that they can’t give me a detention.” Albus shrugged
“You shoved it in their faces didn’t you?” Louis asked
“Yup.” Albus grinned
“WELCOME!” Michael Wilton said into the microphone, his voice echoing across the stadium. “I would like to remind everyone that the game in September was a re-do of a match from last year because people had accused others of cheating, and the Staff just wanted to clarify it, it doesn’t really matter though, since the Quidditch Cup was already given to Ravenclaw last year. Now back on the pitch it seems as if the teams are having a little bit of a meeting of sorts, and they aren’t out yet.”
However at that moment, the Ravenclaw team shot out of the changing room. The Keeper, Alex Ruben, in the lead, followed by the keeper, the two beaters, the three chasers, and then the Seeker, Lucy Weasley. Once the team was in the air, around the respective halves of the circle, Lucy quickly scanned the crowd for Albus, Rose, Nicky, Lily, and Louis, and when she found them she gave a quick wave, for the very next second the Hufflepuff team shot out of their changing rooms.
“And, Cabe Ridcully quickly releases the balls from the crate, and the players are off!” Michael said as the chasers made a beeline towards the Quaffle, and a Hufflepuff Chaser grabbed it. “Hufflepuff has possession, well, had possession, but, that was a bloody brilliant Bludger from Nicky Vane.”
“Albus, I suggest you duck.” Louis instructed as Ezekiel Smith, the chaser who was just hit by a bludger, flew towards the stands where Albus and his friends were. His broom was spinning and he seemed to have no control on his broom. Albus ducked at the last second, and Ezekiel flew out of the pitch, and gained control of his broomstick as it began to plummet to the ground.
“Well now Ravenclaw is in possession, and it’s Freddie DeGiacomo with the Quaffle, now it’s Jimmy DeGiacomo, oh, wait, now it’s back to Freddie, and he passes it to the captain Sasha Fleming, who Soars towards the Hufflepuff goal, and scores!” Michael announced “Good Chaser she is, quite attractive too.”
“Michael Wilton!” Professor McGonagall scolded from the platform. She was reluctantly sitting next Michael; she was there to make sure his commentaries did not get out of line.
“Hit him with a Bludger Jefferson!” Sasha called with a grin towards Nicky, who pulled back the Beaters Bat, and as a Bludger came by, he swatted it with ease, and sent it towards the commentary platform.
As the bludger neared the commentary platform, the ball swooped down, and flew towards Emily Goodman, and it knocked her off her broom, sending her down about fifteen feet, and smacked into the ground, dropping the Quaffle as she fell. Sasha quickly picked up the Quaffle as it fell, and tossed it off to Freddie, who scored another goal for Ravenclaw. As Ravenclaw score about four more goals, making the score sixty to zero, the game began to get heated, and within the first hour of the match, the score was ninety to eighty with Hufflepuff in the lead. Similar to the match in September, this match was also violent. Albus watched in awe as Sasha Fleming Blind-Sided Emily Goodman into the side of the Grandstands hard enough that that section shook.
Albus looked around, and saw that only students from their first to fourth years were in the lower Grandstands, but he then realized that the older students must’ve been considered of higher importance, and therefore they got to sit in the Higher pillar like seats, which were at least fifty feet up, and gave the occupants a good height in which to view the Quidditch Games.
“So, it’s now One-Hundred to One-Hundred-Ten with Ravenclaw in the lead and both Nicky Jefferson, one of Ravenclaw’s Beaters and Ashley Doone, one of Hufflepuff’s Beaters, seem to be trying to injure as many players on the opposing team as possible. However, Nicky having better aim and quicker reflexes from what I have gathered is injuring more of the Hufflepuff members. Now I’m not saying that other Ravenclaw beater, Panevra Patil and the Hufflepuff Beater, Fiona Florence aren’t holding up their ends either.” Michael said with a small shrug. “That was a great save by Hufflepuff’s Keeper, Robert Prendergast.” He added
The game continued for what felt like forever, and although everyone else around him was complaining about how frigid it was around him, Albus was either too interested by the Quidditch Game, or too distracted by the odd interaction between Professors Washburn and Kelso. However, by the end of what must’ve been the second hour, Albus’s fingers were pink and numb.
“Was that the snitch?” Michael asked over the microphone, as if expecting someone to shout out a response. “I think that was the snitch. Yes, Lucy Weasley saw it too!” Michael said excitedly “Now hurry up and catch the damn thing so I can go inside!”
“Michael!” Professor McGonagall yelled
“Sorry Professor.” Michael called “Now Kendall Kunposs is neck-to-neck with Lucy Weasley, and the two are closing in on the snitch. Oh, lovely barrel roll by Kendall Kunposs, cute she is, although word has it she’s taken. Now, Sasha Fleming, she’s a cutie.”
“She’s also taken!” Alex Ruben shouted as loud as he could over the roaring winds.
“Well, look at that, both cute girls are taken, and I remain single!” At this, Nicky Jefferson hit another Bludger towards the commentary box.
“Michael, I swear, if you get another bludger sent towards this stand, then you will never be a Commenter on Quidditch Games for the next three years of your time at Hogwarts!” McGonagall shouted.
“Yes, my dearest apologies.” Michael said with a grin “Oh, Lucy just shoulder rammed Kendall into the wall, and Lucy’s now in the lead! Go, Go, Go!” Michael shouted eagerly. In a quick blur Lucy shot up, dodging a Bludger that was about to hit her, rolled away from an oncoming Hufflepuff chaser, and grasped the Snitch in her thumb and index finger, and then pulled it into her grasp, and punched her fist into the air. “AND RAVENCLAW WINS!” Albus and his friends immediately jumped up and cheered, and within an hour, the Ravenclaws were up in their common room celebrating the win, and Albus was down in the Slytherin Common Room, trying to fall asleep, but his mind still set on the conversation between his two professors.
~AP~
“Do you have detention tonight?” Patrick asked Albus with a smile as Albus plopped down into a seat, letting his satchel drop to the floor in front of him.
“Do you even have to ask?” Rose questioned, glancing back at Patrick
“I was just wondering.” Patrick shrugged
“Two hours of detention, it’s a shame,” Albus said, shaking his head slowly
“Why’s that?” Louis asked
“I was actually hoping to get some of those two essays done in the two hours that I have detention.” Albus then looked around the Quidditch Pitch, and noticed the empty makeshift podium in the middle of the Pitch. “Kelso’s not here yet?”
“Nope, probably eating lunch, or yelling at students for riding their broomsticks.” Nicky grinned
“Good, I’ll get some work done now.”
“Why don’t you do that over winter vacation?” Rose asked
“Because, we leave Sunday morning, and I’d much rather have it be done by the time we get to Kings Cross Station.” Albus sighed as he pulled out a copy of the assignment from his satchel.
“Why do you still have that on you?” Rose asked, glancing meaningfully towards the transparent cloth that was stuffed into Albus’s bag.
“I felt safer if it was with me.” Albus said, as he jotted the date onto the top right corner of the paper.
“Your supposed to write the due date on the paper, not the date.” Jason Nemitz commented.
“And besides, it’s the fourteenth not the thirteenth.”
“So, we leave on the sixteenth?” Patrick questioned as Albus vanished the ink from the parchment, and re-wrote the correct date.
“That’s irrelevant, but, yes.” Albus said as he looked at the two papers in his hands. “Should I do History of Magic or Potions first?”
“Well, you’re decent at Potions according to my mum, and your dad was there during the History of Magic essay, so, I suggest you do the History of Magic one first, it will be easiest.” Mindy Klein said with a grin.
“Sorry I’m late!” John Kelso said, bursting through the hidden door near the staircases.
“Sir, where were you?” Someone from the stadium asked
“Irrelevant.” John Kelso said, shooting the question down “Today we will discuss the means of right of way, and flying in formation, and if we have time, we might or might not have time to get to broom control aspects, and the new regulations on broom riding.”
“This is going to put me to sleep quickly.” Nicky said with a small grin.
“Pay attention.” Rose instructed “And Jefferson, if you do fall asleep, I’ll be more than happy to wake you up.” Rose said with a small grin.
Like with the past few classes, Albus’s mind wandered in and out of paying attention to Professor Kelso, and he only caught a few words of the professor’s speech. However, about an hour into the two and a half hour class, Professor Washburn burst into the stadium, and dragged Professor Kelso out towards the Hufflepuff Changing Rooms.
“Take a fifteen minute break.” Professor Kelso managed to say before he was pulled into the Changing Rooms, the door slamming shut behind them.
“Well, at least you have fifteen minutes to work on your essay.” Lucy shrugged
“Or not,” Albus said, tugging on the wooden door that led to the staircase. “Damn, the door won’t budge.”
“Use your wand! In the name of Dumbledore, are you a wizard or not?”
“Alohomora!” Albus said, flourishing his wand, but the door remained the same. “Kelso must’ve locked it.” Albus said, running up towards the front of the grandstands. “That’s what, a twenty foot fall?” Albus said, with a small grin towards Rose.
“I’m going with.” Nicky said eagerly, running up towards Albus as he pulled the Invisibility Cloak out of his satchel.
“You guys are idiotic.” Louis said with a small grin.
“Albus, I forbid you from leaving, and, I’ll tell your mum and dad if you do.”
“Go ahead.” Albus said as he dropped his satchel onto the ground, and swung both his legs over the edge of the wall.
Albus closed his eyes, and dropped. His knees buckled slightly as he hit the ground, and he rolled onto the grass, and quickly covered himself with the invisibility cloak. Once Nicky hit the ground, Albus quickly threw the cloak over him too, and the two of them quickly ran towards the Hufflepuff Changing Rooms.
“They’re going to notice if the door opens.” Nicky commented.
“The doors probably locked anyway.” Albus added with a smile.
“Then why are we doing this?” Nicky questioned
“There’s a small passageway on the Marauder’s Map, my granddad and his friends found it in their years, and it proved as a good thing to use before the Quidditch Matches.”
“Care to elaborate?” Nicky questioned
“Not really, it’d be better if you saw it for yourself.” Albus grinned as he produced his wand from his robe pocket, and pointed it at a hanging tapestry with the Hufflepuff emblem next to the changing room doors. “Dissendium!” The tapestry became transparent, and revealed a small etching in the wall.
“‘TM’, what do you think it means?” Nicky questioned
“Most likely ‘The Marauders’” Albus grinned as he touched his wand to the etching.
A wooden door appeared, and Albus and Nicky opened the door, and went into the narrow and slim corridor. The two of them had difficulties squeezing into the corridor whilst being under the cloak, and once they were in, Nicky successfully shut the door behind them. Albus slowly shuffled his way down the corridor, the chipped wood poking and prodding at him and the invisibility cloak as they went. After a minute or two, the two of them made it to the end of the corridor, and Albus found himself staring at a slotted metal door.
“Is that a locker?” Nicky questioned, but Albus didn’t answer, he just put his hand on the door, pulled up on a latch, and soundlessly, the door opened.
“This is what we have to do?” Washburn’s voice yelled, and the sound of something hitting the ground could be heard.
Together, Albus and Nicky left the locker, and shut it behind them. Stealthily, they sneaked up to where Washburn and Kelso were, and Albus saw a copy of ‘the tales of Beetle the Bard’ on the floor. Albus was tempted to pick it up, but instead he turned his attention to the two men in front of him.
“It’s not that hard Washburn.” Kelso said tentatively, as if he was afraid of Washburn
“It is when you left me to decipher a children’s fairy tale book!” Washburn said with a frown.
“I’m assuming you found out what was needed?” Kelso questioned
“Yes, but the whereabouts of what we known will most likely never be known, and it will be nearly impossible to find them.”
“Well, try your best, won’t you?” Kelso asked
“I will only do this if you help me, and you can guarantee that no one finds out about it.”
“Deal,”
At that, Albus grabbed Nicky by the arm, and tugged him into the locker, shut the locker door, and began nearly running towards the other end of the passageway, the sticking out wood and nails scratching up his pants and hands, and cutting into his legs and palm. Albus flourished his wand, and the door shot open, and the two ran, and sprinted towards the staircase up to the grandstands. Once they made it there, they threw off the cloak, and took a minute or two to catch their breath.
“Okay, so, they might be up to something after all.” Nicky panted as they slowly made their way up the stairs.
“No kidding.” Albus frowned
~AP~
That night, Albus lay wide awake, his wand lit, trying to finish one of his four essays, but with every sentence he would daydream, thinking about the conversation between Kelso and Washburn. They were up to something, and Albus knew it. The only question was what to do next. |
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http://www.harrypotterfanfiction.com/viewstory.php?psid=258196
http://www.wix.com/xxeveryinchxx/apsof |
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| Posted:
Tue Sep 15, 2009 10:06 pm
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On Plattform 9 3/4
Joined: 15 Sep 2009
Posts: 2
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i've found this forum not long ago and i've read both your storys up to this point.
so is there going to be more? or cn i read it some where else? pehaps you can send me the story via email?
its realy good
keep up the good work  |
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| Posted:
Thu Oct 08, 2009 12:31 pm
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Professor
Joined: 06 Jan 2008
Posts: 1074
Location: Going Nowhere Fast.
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Sorry for being so late on this update guys, but i got carried away with school and what not, well, anyway, i'm currently on the seventeenth of what i hope to be 23 chapters, well, here's chapter thirteen:
13. Exploring the Hogwarts Express
“Are you really bringing your broom to Grimmauld Place?” Rose questioned skeptically from the bed adjacent to the one Albus was crouched near.
“Good point.” Albus said, casting the broom aside. “Should I bring my School Robes?”
“Albus,” Rose sighed “All I packed was the needed books, my money bag, and three pairs of Muggle Clothes; I suggest you do the same.”
“Only three pairs?” Albus questioned
“Stop being difficult and just do it.” Hugo insisted
“Yeah!” Lily agreed
“Why did you bring these two?” Albus asked Rose, motioning to the two first years on the bunk above Rose.
“Well, we’re all leaving on the same carriage,” Rose began
“Actually I was going to ride in with Nicky, Ralph, and James.” Albus interjected, stuffing a pair of socks into his satchel, and topping it off with his invisibility cloak, and closing the satchel. “Feel free to invite Lucy though, I don’t think she’s found anyone to ride in with.” He added as he picked up Twiggy’s cage, and jammed a few animal treats in there. “Don’t eat all of those, they’re to last you the whole trip.” The owl hooted cheerfully, and wordlessly Albus shouldered his satchel, and left the Slytherin Boy’s Dormitory’s, Rose, Hugo, and Lily fallowing.
“But, we’re all sitting together on the train ride, right?” Lily questioned
“Yes, of course we are Lil.” Albus answered with a grin. “Plus, the more people there, the less of a chance there is that we can fit Patrick in the compartment.”
“Well, we better hurry guys.” Rose instructed, and with that, Albus ran up towards the ladder, and climbed it in a blur. “You Potter’s take things too literally.”
“You Weasley’s… are awesome.” Albus said, with a small grin as he dashed towards the Slytherin Common Room door.
~AP~
“Where in the name of Dumbledore were you?” Nicky questioned as Albus jumped onto the slowly moving Carriage.
“Jefferson, be a man and say ‘Bloody Hell’ that ‘in the name of Dumbledore’ saying is for those who don’t want to swear.” James insisted
“Who says the kid wants to swear?” Ralph questioned
“Exactly.” Nicky said, as if he had made some gigantic point by agreeing with Ralph
“Hey, did you guys bring your brooms?” Albus asked
“Yes.” James and Nicky answered simultaneously.
“Crap,” Albus sighed “didn’t think to grab mine.”
“Teddy will grab it; he’s stuck working for today and tomorrow.”
“Say, where are we going to fly?”
“Dad expanded the backyard last year, Teddy and George helped.”
“Never knew we had a backyard.” Albus shrugged.
“Well, all of the buildings surrounding it were torn down, and Teddy confounded the guy into letting us buy some of the land behind it, hence us having a backyard, and then they magically expanded it. It’s great, because now the building has a front yard, and a deck and a white fence around it, it’s great.”
“Sounds it,” Nicky agreed “Do you guys have an actual pitch like you do at your Grandparents house?”
“They were talking about building one over the summer.” Albus shrugged
The rest of the ride towards the station contained a fragment of light conversation, a heated argument over who would win the Quidditch World Cup (an event that would take place towards the end of the summer), an attempt at playing Winkles and Augers, which ended with the Auger flying out the side of the carriage after one of the wheels went over a rock, shifting Nicky’s wandwork, which sent the auger flying out into the cold December breeze. When they neared the platform, the four students eagerly ran out of the carriage, and onto the train.
“Where do you want to sit?” Albus asked, his satchel bouncing around at his waist.
“Towards the back, it seems as if James in Ralph abandoned us though.” Nicky said, looking back
“I was expecting that to happen.” Albus sighed as he slowly made his way to the back of the section. However, the only section in the back had two timid looking first years. “Crap.”
“I don’t want to sit with these little buggers.” Nicky protested
“Well, then do something about it.” Albus shrugged
“My pleasure.” Nicky said before pulling out his wand. “You guys are going to want to move.”
“Why?” One of the first years, a Hufflepuff, asked Nicky.
“Why? If you don’t move, I’ll transfigure you,” Nicky said, then turned back to Albus “What do you think Al, should I turn their heads into a swarm of angry Bees, or should I turn their legs into Blast-Ended Skrewts?”
“Well, the Blast-Ended Skrewts will just be there, whereas the Bees would sting the rest of their body, making it very painful, not to mention that they won’t have heads for the rest of their life.”
“We’re very sorry, we’ll be going now!” the second boy said, shoving the first boy out of the Albus’s and Nicky’s way.
Once the two left, Albus and Nicky went into the compartment, shut the door, and Nicky began laughing.
“Nicky, that was horrible, you could’ve just said that you were about to set off a Dungbomb in the hall near their compartment!” Albus insisted
“I know, but this was better, did you see their faces?” Nicky asked, still laughing.
“You scare me sometimes.” Albus grinned
“He can scare all of us.” Lucy announced walking into the compartment, followed by Hugo, Lily, Rose, and Louis.
“We’re never going to fill this thing, are we?” Louis said, jumping into his seat, and placing his satchel in the seat next to him.
“Well, they gave us twelve seats, and there are only seven of us, so, no.” Lily grinned
“Make that nine of you.” Jason O’Kelly said, entering the compartment with Mindy Klein fallowing.
“That leaves three seats that Patrick can occupy.” Rose said with a slight frown
“Unless we fill them up with our stuff,” Mindy suggested with a small shrug.
“That could work.” Nicky said with a small grin as they began placing their possessions on the three remaining seats.
~AP~
Finally, the food trolley’s here!” Nicky said, shaking Albus awake before running out of the Compartment. Albus groggily opened his eyes, and made his way to sit up, but Mindy stopped him.
“You were asleep for an hour and a half. If you move now, you’ll most likely retch all over the compartment.” she said. “Tell me what you want and I’ll get it for you.”
“No, no, I’m fine.” Albus insisted, but Mindy pushed him back gently
“I’m assuming he wants a few chocolate cauldrons, and most likely a chocolate frog card or two.” Rose answered with a slight grin. Defeated, Albus sat back down in his seat, and Rose threw a blanket at him. “I figured someone would fall asleep on the Train Ride. Although, in all honesty I figured Jason would’ve been the first to fall asleep, but, you went first.” Albus glanced three seats over to his left where Jason O’Kelly was asleep, his head pressed against the window.
“Here you are.” Mindy said, handing Albus a few Chocolate Cauldrons, and four chocolate frog cards.
“I’ll pay you back later.” Albus said with a small grin towards Mindy.
“No you won’t, just think of it as my Christmas Gift to you.”
“But then I didn’t get a present for you.” Albus groaned as he adjusted himself in his seat.
“Don’t worry about it.” Mindy grinned
“Is anyone up for some Winkles and Augers?” Nicky asked “My wandwork has improved a lot since last year.”
“I’ll play you!” Lily exclaimed. “Um, how do you play Winkles and Augers?” she then asked timidly
“See Lil, this is why me and James tried to teach you all the popular Hogwarts games this summer, so you’d know how to actually play them!” Albus protested.
“I’ll play you.” Lucy said with a small grin “That is, if you’re willing to accept an awful, most likely traumatizing defeat.”
“I’m willing to accept that I think.” Nicky grinned
“Wait, seeing as how both of you guys seem confident, let’s make it a bit more challenging.” Albus suggested, and then pulled out a snitch from a pair of socks in his satchel “Meet your Auger.”
“Albus, how did you get that?” Rose scolded
“Relax; it’s the one I got from the first game I one.”
“You mean that amazing game between Ravenclaw and Slytherin last year?” Nicky asked, his face lit with excitement
“It wasn’t amazing!” Mindy and Albus protested at the same time.
“You knocked me off my broom!” Albus said, pointing a finger lazily towards Nicky
“And you knocked me off of my broom!” Mindy said, pointing a finger at Albus. “Furthermore, you broke my broomstick.”
“Well, the Whomping Willow broke mine a month or so after that, so consider us even.” Albus said, grinning sheepishly
“So, Winkles and Augers?” Lucy asked Nicky, who turned to her.
“What? Oh yeah, let’s play.” Nicky said as Albus released the snitch from his grasp
“The right wing got bent over the summer, and the bodies a little bit burnt, both of which are courtesy of my dragon, Thunder.”
“You have a dragon at your house?” Mindy questioned
“Well, my Uncle Charlie, you know, the Care of Magical Creatures teacher, he shrunk a dragon for me last year, and he gave it to me for Christmas.”
“Crap!” Nicky exclaimed as Lucy scored into Nicky’s Winkle, which in this case, was his (newly installed) cup holder. “Why’d they make these things so big?”
“Why did they think we needed them anyway?” Rose questioned, peering over the top of a book. “The cup holders I mean.” Rose elaborated when Nicky and Louis both looked at her confused “What reason did they have to put them there?”
“To hold our drinks of course!” Hugo exclaimed
“What drinks?” Rose nearly shouted “They don’t provide us with drinks, I certainly didn’t bring my own drink, so, why add the mechanism that holds drinks?”
“They added the cup holders so that Lucy and Nicky can play Winkles and Augers.” Albus sighed “Now, get back to reading your book.”
“It is not a book,” Rose seethed “it’s an astronomy chart; each page shows a different constellation in the Northern Hemisphere, intriguing really.”
“Yeah, sounds it.” Hugo said dryly, sighing sarcastically at Rose.
“Oh, shut it.” Rose sighed as she returned to her charts.
“Nicky, you’re really awful at this.” Lucy grinned as she scored the third point.
“Thanks Lucy.” Nicky sighed as the two levitated the Snitch again. “Ya know Albus; this would be a lot easier if the snitch didn’t start fluttering its wings around all the time.”
“It’s a snitch, what do you expect?” Louis asked.
“Wha-what time is it?” Jason O’Kelly called, snapping away as the train screeched on the brakes.
“I don’t know, but we’re not at the station yet.” Nicky answered slowly
“Then why the stop?” Albus asked apprehensively.
“I don’t have the slightest clue.” Louis muttered
“There’s probably just something stuck on the tracks.” Rose reasoned
“Who wants to go check it out?” Nicky asked, standing up.
“I’ll go.” Lucy shrugged
“Same,” Albus sighed, sitting up from his chair. “Not like anything else exciting will happen here.”
“You’re going to get in trouble.” Rose warned
“I’ll go too.” Louis and Mindy announced simultaneously
“So, it’s just going to be Rose, Lily, Hugo, and Jason left?” Albus questioned
“I want to-” Hugo started
“You’re not going!” Rose scolded
“You’re not mum, you can’t tell me what to do Rosie.” Hugo taunted, walking out of the compartment in pursuit of the other students.
“Hey, do you remember in your dads third year when a dementor boarded the train looking for Sirius Black?” Louis questioned
“No, geuss I never heard that story then.” Albus said, grinning sheepishly. It felt as if he had heard of every expedition his father, his Uncle Ron, and his Aunt Hermione had gone on.
“It’s eerily similar to this actually.” Lucy said, frowning slightly. “I know all about it; I’ve been told about it by Hermione and Ron, I’ve read it in the book, and I’ve seen it in the movie. Now, Hermione and Ron told me when I was about six, so they left out the description of the dementor, they just told me that it was a creature that guarded Azkaban Prison. Then, in the Books, they toned it down to make it okay as children books, but in the movies they had the Dementor look really creepy and scary. However, they cut out the part where Ginny enters their compartment concerned about Harry, and then Neville randomly entering as well.”
“But, what happened?” Nicky asked as he, Albus, Louis, Lucy, Hugo, and Mindy progressed into the section of the train holding the third fourth and fifth year students.
“So, on the train in their third year, the train suddenly stops, and the lights go out, and everyone starts panicking and sure enough, this thing, a guard of Azkaban called a Dementor boards the train, and he entered Harry Ron and Hermione’s compartment, and he just looks at Harry for a few minutes, and then Harry passes out.”
“Creepy.” Nicky grinned “So, are we expecting to get into some weird adventure filled with Dementors?”
“I really doubt it.” Albus shrugged “We’ll probably just go to the first head boy or girl we see and ask them why the train has stopped.” However, at that moment, a crackling sound filled the section, and a voice filled the section.
“At this time the train will begin moving, please take your seats.
“It’s the train operator.”
“The train has a driver?” Hugo questioned “Just figured it ran on magic.” He shrugged
“Well, we should head back.” Mindy suggested, however at that moment a few kids came out of a compartment, and ushered her in.
“Who still wants to explore the train?” Albus asked
“I do!” everyone exclaimed
“Think we can fit the five of us under the cloak?” Albus asked Nicky, who shrugged.
“You mean your dad’s invisibility cloak?” Lucy questioned skeptically
“Yeah, nicked it from him, don’t tell him.” Albus said abruptly as he threw the cloak over himself. “I can fit three more people. Hugo, go back to the compartment please.”
“Why me?” Hugo complained
“Because I’ll give you five Galleons if you do.” Albus pleaded, and with that, Hugo spun on his heels and nearly ran back to the compartment.
“Wait, so, where are we going?” Nicky asked
“On to the next section of the train.” Lucy whispered as the group slowly made their way past the next section of the train, and quickly through to the next door.
“What the hell kind of room is that?” Nicky asked, staring at the cart filled with coal rocks through the sliding door.
“Obviously it’s the coal cart.” Louis grinned slightly “It’s a cart filled with coal, like, really?”
Albus pushed open the sliding door, and a burst of wind filled the compartment. Albus looked down, his foot partly extended off the edge of the section, his foot expecting to hit the floor of the next section.
“I wouldn’t do that.” Louis said stick his arm in front of Albus, and glancing down. “That is unless you want to get run over by a train.” Albus looked down too, and sure enough, the only thing there was a knuckle connecting the section of the train to the cart. Albus then pulled the cloak off of his four friends.
“What are you doing?” Nicky asked, glancing at the two compartments on either side of them. “You’re going to get us caught you oaf.”
“Well, we have to jump over there, so I figured it would be best to remove the cloak.” Albus said, grinning slightly as he carefully placed his foot on the knuckle.
“Be careful.” Nicky warned.
Albus placed a second foot on the Knuckle, still gripping the frame of the sliding door with his left hand, his right hand stretching out towards the coal cart. Albus then made a lunge for the cart, leaning all of his weight on the knuckle, making it bend slightly under the weight. Albus placed both his hands on the coal crate, and pulled himself up and over it with ease.
“I suggest that you don’t put your weight on the knuckle.” Albus whispered over to Nicky, who took a step back before leaping forward. Nicky flew over the entire wall of the cart, falling behind Albus, and groaning in pain. “Genius idea Nicky,”
“So, we’re just randomly exploring the train?” Louis questioned as he and Lucy climbed over the side of the coal cart.
“I get bored easily.” Albus shrugged “Plus, it was either this or we sat in the compartment for another hour or so.”
“We’ve got two more hours by my watch.” Louis groaned
“It’s freezing, come on, let’s see what’s up here.” Lucy shivered, walking towards the other end of the coal cart.
“I’ll just shut this door.” Nicky said, waving his wand lazily as he fallowed Lucy. Albus looked back in time to see the sliding door snap shut.
“It’s the front of the train; it’s just the command room.” Lucy said, turning back around towards the sliding door, and nearly running towards it.
“So, where to now?” Albus asked.
“Well, I still have to beat Weasley at Winkles and Augers.” Nicky grinned
“I doubt that’s going to happen.” Lucy smiled slightly as she opened the sliding door with a wave of her wand, and cheerfully hopped into it.
“Can’t wait to get to the Burrow,” Louis grinned “The annual family snowball war is my favorite tradition.”
“A tradition that is going to be a Weasley-Only event this year,” Albus sighed as they entered their compartment. “The Potters are going to Grimmauld Place this winter.”
“And I’m staying with you.” Nicky said with a big grin.
“Since when exactly?” Albus questioned, his eyes widening.
“About nine hours ago when I asked your dad,” Nicky grinned “He asked what I was doing for the holiday, I said I was just sitting around in my dad’s apartment complex for the two weeks, he said I could come and live with you lot.”
“Well, okay then.” Albus shrugged “Won’t make that much of a difference, except we have one more person to help clean out the house.” Albus grinned
“Ugh, I forgot about the hole ‘cleaning the house no ones used in like twenty years’ part of the Vacation.” Nicky groaned
“Well, it’s getting us one step closer to selling our house in Marble Arch and buying a house in Godric’s Hallow.”
“How’s that?”
“Well, we’re going to move into Grimmauld Place sometime towards the beginning of the next school year, sell our Marble Arch home, and then start looking at houses next Christmas Holiday, then buy one, and my parents are going to move us into it by the end of the third School Year.”
“Why so much time in between the events of moving and selling?”
“Dunno,” Albus shrugged “it was just the way my parents planned it.” Albus explained as he sat down in the compartment.
“We’re almost there.” Rose announced dully, glancing up slightly from her book. “And you guys missed the second Trolley arrival.”
“Figured as much,” Albus shrugged as he opened one of the last Chocolate Frogs that Mindy had bought him. “Where’d the snitch go?” Albus questioned, glancing around the compartment
“Back corner of the shelf above your head,” Rose answered “It tried to fly out, so I charmed it into thinking it belonged on the shelf.”
“Impressive.” Louis grinned as Albus retrieved the Snitch from the shelf above him.
“Got it!” Albus claimed, handing the Snitch to Nicky. As Albus went to step down with his left foot, his right foot slipped out from under him, causing him to lose his balance, and fall backwards. Albus smacked onto the floor, his head bumping into the seats opposite from the ones he was recently occupying. “Ooh.” Albus moaned, gripping his back in pain.
“Get up you complainer.” Nicky insisted. “You’ve had worse falls.”
“And, you can thank Quidditch for most of them from what James tells me.” Lucy grinned
“Well, that’s true.” Albus shrugged and frowned slightly
~AP~
“It’s time to go, were in the station.” Rose announced dully as she placed her book into her Satchel.
“Oh, all right.” Albus said in a defeated tone as he snatched the snitch out of mid-air, and pocketed it.
Nicky and Lucy reluctantly stored their wands in their robes, and left the compartment after grabbing their Satchels. Albus grabbed Twiggy and his own Satchel, and left the compartment after Lucy and Nicky. On the platform, Albus quickly found his brother, and together, they found their parents.
“You ready?” Harry asked with a small grin towards his two sons.
“Where’s Lily?” Albus asked, looking around for his sister as Nicky walked up to the three.
“Mum’s already apperated her to Grimmauld Place, her friends talked so much it gave her a headache, so she took her home to give her a potion.” Harry explained
“Poor kid,” James said sympathetically “remember when she used to get migraines every other day?”
“Well, we best get going then.” Harry said, bringing Nicky, Albus, and James into a tight embrace and apperating from Kings Cross Station.
“Hey guys!” Ginny greeted the two Potters as they landed in the kitchen and looked around.
“Hi mum.” Albus and James both muttered in response.
“Well, they’re enthusiastic about this vacation.”
“I’m assuming that they just miss Hogwarts.” Nicky chimed in, setting his Satchel and his owl Zippy on the floor of the Kitchen.
“Al, how about you show Nicky where he’s sleeping for the next week and a half.” Harry suggested. Reluctantly, Albus stood up, grabbed his own possessions, and began the tour of the house to Nicky. |
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Fri Oct 09, 2009 3:41 pm
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Professor
Joined: 06 Jan 2008
Posts: 1074
Location: Going Nowhere Fast.
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Enjoyy:
14. The Magical Wonders of Grimmauld Place
“And, this is where you’ll be staying.” Albus said, flipping the light switch in his room. “We had muggles install electricity into every room.” Albus grinned as he placed down his Satchel and Owl on the desk near one of the windows in the room.
“When was the last time this place was used as a bedroom?” Nicky questioned, glancing down at the moth eaten blankets on one of the beds.
“I think eight years ago.” Albus shrugged “Don’t worry; we’ll change the sheets sometime before you go to sleep.” Albus insisted, seeing the look of worry on his friends face.
“So, what do you guys usually do when you’re here?” Nicky questioned, looking around the dusty old room.
It was cramped with furniture. There was a Bunk Bed, which Nicky had already claimed by placing his stuff on it, another bed, and two dressers crammed along one wall, three desks on another, and then two broken bookshelves, Albus’s bed, and a closet overstuffed with boxes aligned the third wall. The fourth wall was dedicated to the door, and two paintings, one of a group of old men, and one of a baby in a crib.
“Well, we haven’t been here in a good five years or so, but when we did, most of our family was here, including the Weasleys, so it was more interesting.” Albus explained “And, I think they’re all going to pop in sometime over the week and a half of freedom we have.” Albus grinned slightly
“Ya know fourteen classes seem to be a lot easier than I thought they would be.” Nicky admitted
“Makes me wonder how many classes were held in the Founders time.”
“I don’t suppose we could take a trip into Flamel’s Diary, do you?”
“Lippert has it, so, no, I suspect not.” Albus said as he turned around, and began leading Nicky down towards the main floor.
“Where are we going now?” Nicky asked
“The backyard, I want to go check it out.” Albus responded.
“Oh, okay.” Nicky shrugged
“Albus!” Harry hollered up the stairs from the kitchen “Come and help us with these bags!”
“What bags?” Albus asked, but the next second, Hugo, Lucy, and Lily were running into the backyard.
“I’m assuming their bags.” Nicky shrugged as Albus went down to the basement where the Kitchen was located.
“Whose bags am I taking where?” Albus asked.
“Lucy, Rose, and Lily’s bags to one of the guest bedrooms on the second floor, and Hugo’s in your room, and Ron and Hermione’s in James’s old room.” Harry answered
“Where is James going to sleep?” Albus asked as he picked up Lucy, Rose, and Lily’s bags, and began heaving them towards the kitchen steps.
“In a room on the third floor.” Harry answered.
“Brave soul,” Albus grinned “how much are you paying him to do it?”
“Ten Galleons for each day,” Harry laughed “He was happy to do it.”
“But, we’re here for eighteen nights!” Albus exclaimed
“I know, I know, but it was the only way he’d do it.”
“What is he going to spend one hundred eighty Galleons on?” Albus questioned
“I don’t know, but he’s bringing Tiffany over later, figured I’d tell you now.” Ginny answered.
With that, Albus lugged the luggage up the Kitchen steps, and up the multiple steps into its proper room, and then immediately ran outside. Just as James had said, the backyard was large, and surrounded by a white picket fence, and there were currently three makeshift Quidditch Hoops on each end of the yard. Albus looked up in the sky, and was shocked to see Teddy there. Teddy noticed Albus, and quickly landed near him.
“Just apperated here,” He explained “Grabbed your broomstick as well.” He grinned as he handed Albus a broomstick that was leaning up against the back wall of Grimmauld Place. Albus quickly mounted his broomstick, and kicked off of the ground.
“Squashel anyone?” James suggested, tossing the Quaffle up and down in the air.
“Nah, I really don’t want to have any broken bones on my hand.” Teddy insisted “Let’s just play some two-on-two Quidditch.” He suggested as Nicky shot up into the air, and hovered near Albus.
“Seems fair.” James shrugged as he tossed the Quaffle into the air.
Although no one had said it, the teams immediately became James and Albus playing against Teddy and Nicky. Albus, against his will, was put as Keeper. James and Teddy were oddly enough, even matched as the chasers, and half of the time Albus wasn’t even sure who had the Quaffle until it was thrown in either his direction, or Nicky’s direction. After about an hour or so of playing Quidditch, Ginny announced that it was time for dinner.
“So Lucy, you’re staying with us for the Vacation?” Harry asked as everyone happily ate dinner.
“Well, my dad went out on some weird expedition for work, and my mum went with him. Molly stayed at the Burrow, and I decided to floo here with the Rose. Grandma Weasley said it was okay, sorry if I shouldn’t be here.” Lucy explained, and then apologized.
“No, no,” Harry insisted “It’s quite all right that you’re here, I just wanted to know why.”
“Oh, okay then.” Lucy shrugged
“So, I figured we would start the cleaning process right after Dinner, but for tonight we’ll just make sure the bedrooms are in good shape.” Ginny announced as Kreacher collected the plates of those who were done eating, which was everyone but Teddy and James.
“Come on!” Hugo called to Nicky and Albus as he disappeared up the Kitchen steps.
“Mum, where are the extra sheets?” Albus questioned, standing from his chair.
“In the cabinet in the living room,” Ginny replied “Oh, and because your father and I signed the papers allowing you to use magic outside of school, you can use your wands, but strictly for cleaning purposes.
“Brilliant! Thanks Mum!” Albus grinned as he ran up the steps. He paused in the entry hallway, and quickly waved his wand. “Accio Extra Sheets!” Albus exclaimed, flicking his wand.
“No Magic!” Lily yelled from a floor above Albus.
“Mum said we could!” Albus called back.
The sheets feebly flew in his direction, but they lost altitude and acceleration, and fell to the floor a few feet before they got to Albus. Albus sighed, and picked up the sheets from the ground, running up the steps. Albus entered what will be his bedroom for the next eighteen days, and shut the door behind him. Albus tossed a pair of sheets to Nicky, Hugo, and threw the remaining pair onto the bureau next to his bed. Hugo began groaning, and Albus looked over to see him tangled up in the pair of sheets Albus had previously given him. Albus sighed, and flicked his wand.
“Relashio!” Albus commanded. There was a loud crack, and the sheets and Hugo were suddenly apart from each other, and Hugo looked confused and slightly dizzy.
“Scourgify!” Nicky exclaimed, flicking his wand towards a purple and grey burn on his bed frame.
However, instead of it vanishing, the bunk bed collapsed, which caused both Nicky and Albus to swear rather loudly. Simultaneously, Albus and Nicky fixed the bunk bed with a wave of their wands. Albus turned around, and went back to his bed. However, as Albus went to his bed, he heard screams, and the pitter-patter of feet running down the end of the stairs.
“Mummy!” Lily called as she, Rose, and Lucy ran down the stairs.
“Wonder what’s up with them.” Hugo commented, but within the next five seconds, the girls, followed by Ginny, barged into their room.
“There’s such a thing as knocking you know!” Albus complained, but his mum flicked her wands, and the sheet on Albus bed tore from the bed, and slumped to the floor.
Albus looked down, and nearly retched all over his bed. On the bed, crawling in a mass was a group of Mucilaginous Skrewts, their brown bodies crawling over each other slowly.
“Okay, the boys are sleeping in the Den tonight, the girls in the Living Room.” Ginny said in her usual motherly tone.
“Can’t you just vanish them or something?” Albus questioned
“No, Mucilaginous Skrewts are notorious for sticking to surfaces, and, not having an effect if used on Magic.” Rose answered
“We’ll have to either clean them by hand, or your father will freeze them to the bed, throw them out, and then buy new ones.”
“Sweet,” Albus grinned “Then can we bring them to our house in Godric’s Hallow once we buy them?”
“Most likely,” Ginny sighed “Although I suppose we could just move our beds from Marble Arch over here.”
“But, we don’t have enough beds!” Albus said excitedly, he hoped for new beds for the room.
“Oh alright,” Ginny sighed, giving up “I’ll just get some beds tomorrow.” She said, beginning to usher the children down the stairs. “Come on, boys in the den, girls in the living room, I’ll get you all some sleeping bags.”
~AP~
“So, who wants to hear a ghost story?” Hugo questioned
“No one,” Albus muttered. “Now go to sleep, it’s nearly one in the morning Hugo.”
“Then why are you still up?” Hugo inquired
“Because you keep talking to me!” Albus said in a harsh whisper, trying his best to not wake up the three girls who were in the room right next to them.
“Fine, fine, I’ll shut up now.” Hugo sighed as he sat back down in his sleeping bag.
“Finally,” Nicky muttered, falling back into his sleeping bag as well.
Albus tried to fall asleep for a good hour or two, but eventually gave up, and stood up, carefully making his way towards the door leading towards the backyard. Albus slowly twisted the door knob, careful to make sure the door didn’t squeak on its hinges. Albus then carefully stepped outside, and shut the door behind him.
“Can’t sleep?” a voice asked, making Albus jump into the air, loose his balance, and fall onto the deck.
“Who the bloody hell is there?” Albus asked, wishing he had either his wand or his glasses.
“Calm down, it’s only Teddy.”
“In the name of Dumbledore, what do you think you’re doing scaring someone like that?” Albus asked “Nearly killed me!” he insisted.
“You’re going to wake someone up soon.” Teddy said in a hushed whisper as he covered Albus’s mouth with his hand. “Now come on, and sit down with me.” Teddy said, helping Albus to his feet, and leading him towards the picnic table on their newly built Veranda.
“Any chance you can get my glasses?” Albus asked, but before he could finish, his glasses were already in his hand, and Teddy was storing his wand in his robes. “Thanks.”
“No problem,” Teddy grinned “You up for some Quidditch?”
“Teddy, it’s like three in the morning,” Albus protested.
“So, that’s a no?” Teddy questioned
“That’s defiantly a no,” Albus grinned “Hey, so, how’s the Triple W going?” he asked
“Hard to say, I mean, I’m ready to take over, but, I’m also a bit afraid, I mean, Weasley Wizard Wheezes was really George and Fred’s thing, I just don’t feel right owning the store now, you know?”
“Well, doesn’t Fred co-own it with you come January?”
“I meant Fred the first, George’s Brother, your deceased Uncle.”
“I understand as to why you feel bad, but, George made the decision, and he obviously trusts you with the store.”
“I know he does, but that’s not the point. George basically raised me, I went to his house every opportunity I could, and when I couldn’t, I was at Grandma Weasley’s house, and George visited me every other day, not to mention I was practically best friends with Fred. George and Fred – the first Fred I mean – opened up both the Diagon Alley location, and the Hogsmeade Location, and it wouldn’t feel right for me to own it.”
“I can understand that.” Albus shrugged “Mum and dad were right; you do practically live with us and the Weasleys.” Albus grinned
“Meh, you’re all I’ve got, aren’t you?” Teddy questioned with a grin “Moldy Voldy killed my parents; I grew up for the first two years of my life with my Grandma, than she got sick, so Grandma Weasley took me in. She’s basically my mum.” Teddy grinned “It’s weird, but I’m oddly like your dad, I mean, both our parents died before we could remember them, only I think I got the better deal, I mean, I lived with people I either automatically liked, or I grew to like, you guys are like a family to me.”
“Yeah, and my dad got stuck with the Dursley’s.” Albus grinned
“Speaking of the Dursley’s they’re coming over the twenty first for dinner, according to your dad.”
“What?” Albus exclaimed “The Dursley’s, the people who despise magic are going to be in a house filled of magic in five days?”
“No, it’s technically the seventeenth; they’ll be here in four days. Oh, and, get this, they’re arriving by Floo, Patrick told them about it, said he wanted to travel here via It, and your dad agreed.”
“That’s going to be one hell of a Dinner.”
“I’m sure of that.”
“Ten gallons says that Dudley’s wife passes out once she sees this house.”
“Deal.” Teddy grinned, shaking Albus’s hand.
~AP~
“Hugo, fly left!” James shouted “Left you Skrewt, left!”
Albus laughed as he slowly put on his shoes that morning, although his family was out playing on their broomsticks. He was tired, although it was nearly noon. He and Teddy stayed up until at least four either sitting there in silence or talking about random things.
“What the hell was that?” James questioned “You call that a steep dive? You were at a fifty degree angle for Dumbledore’s Sake, oh, watch me first!” As far as Albus could tell, James seemed to enjoy yelling at Hugo.
“Is there enough Air in the backyard for another flyer?” Lucy asked as she grabbed her broomstick
“Sure, the more kids there are the more I can destroy at Quidditch.”
“Sorry Teddy, but I don’t see that happening anytime soon.” Lucy grinned as she flew up into the air. Nicky grabbed his own broomstick, as did Albus, and the two of them set up into the air as well.
“It’s ridiculously cold outside, how can you guys be up on broomsticks in this weather?” Rose asked
“Quidditch waits for no weather Rose!”James and Teddy called in unison.
“Besides, we have jackets!” Lucy called with a grin as she did a warm-up lap around the pitch.
“Now, I want a clean game from you all!” Teddy called in a voice eerily similar to that of Cabe Ridcully. “No fighting, no crashes, no- no anything bad!”
“Okay sir!” Everyone else called back with a grin
“Now let’s play some Quidditch!” Teddy said, about to throw up the Quaffle into the air
“Wait, how are we making the teams?” Albus questioned as he hovered about fifteen feet off of the ground
“Well, there are six of us; so, I reckon we’ll have one keeper and two Chasers, and the first team to get to two hundred wins, sound fair?” Lucy questioned. There was a murmur of agreement to this.
“I saw Teddy and James are captains.” Hugo chimed in “Otherwise it’ll just be unfair.”
“So, I pick Albus and Lucy,” James said quickly with a grin. “You’re left with Hugo and Nicky.”
“Alright, Hugo is awful, but Jefferson’s not all that bad.” Teddy shrugged as he threw the Quaffle into the air. “Captains are Chaser one!”
“Al, go be Keeper!” James called.
Albus sighed inwardly, but turned around and flew towards the Goal’s relentless. Hugo was the other Keeper, and Nicky and Teddy were the chasers for the opposing team, which meant Albus would have to do more than just sit there on his broomstick. Teddy gained possession of the Quaffle, and quickly soared down towards Albus, Nicky at his side in case he wanted to make a pass. Teddy however, continued flying, turned his broom sharply to the right, stopping it, and throwing the Quaffle up into the air. Teddy then quickly dropped off of his broom, holding onto it with both hands. As the Quaffle fell, Teddy sharply kicked it towards the goals, at a speed so fast that Albus had moved a foot towards the correct goal before the Quaffle flew into it. Albus flew through the hoops, grabbed the Quaffle, and then passed it off to James.
“James, pass it!” Lucy yelled as she soared towards the hoops. James quickly passed it, Lucy caught it, and threw it into the left hoop.
“Guys, come and help us with this!” Harry yelled from the second floor window.
“Five more minutes, we just started!” James exclaimed
“No, we need to get this done now, you’re mother is back with the beds, oh, and Uncle George is here.”
“Uncle George?” Teddy questioned “Hope he’s brought the new products!”
“What new products?” Hugo inquired
“Go find out for yourself!” Teddy grinned
“That I’ll do!” Nicky grinned as he fallowed Hugo running into the house.
“Same here!” Albus grinned as he flew low to the ground, and then jumped off of it as it was in motion. The broom flew for about three feet, and then fell to the ground.
“I see you’ve landed that move.” Teddy grinned.
“About time, he’s been trying to for months, it was a good laugh though, every time he fell flat on his face over the summer.” Lucy grinned
“I didn’t fall every time, just a vast majority of them.” Albus said defiantly.
Before Lucy could respond however, Hugo ran out of the house, screaming. Albus laughed at the sight in front of him. Hugo’s body had transfigured to look like that of a Lion standing on its back legs. This however, was quickly followed by Nicky running outside with the body of an overgrown Eagle. While Nicky and Hugo yelled and swore at the sights of each other’s bodies, Albus, Lucy, Teddy, and James were on the ground bursting in hysterics.
“Finally, he got those done. We had some trouble with those, our one test product just had his fingers and toes turn very furry.” Teddy grinned
“What are they called?” James questioned, he no doubt wanted to invest in the prank himself.
“They don’t exactly have a name, but, for now their tentative title is ‘Hogwarts House Bodies’.” George called from the doorway as he carried out a large Triple W box of prank supplies.
“Meh, I don’t like the name. You should’ve made them ‘Hogwarts House Heads’, and have the consumer’s head turn into the animal of their house.” Albus shrugged
“That’s what we planned, but we hope to have these, along with a whole new section of pranks, out on the market in time for Christmas, and we had the idea for the bodies to transfigure about a week ago, and we only thought about the heads transfiguring oppose to the bodies about two days ago.”
“And, how do they change back exactly?” Lucy asked, disgusted by the effects of the product.
“They have to spit out the gum that they have in their mouths. Here James, take a pack on the house.” Geo grinned as he threw a pack of gum to James, who grinned widely. Nicky and Hugo however, spit the gum out, and within seconds they were back to their normal state of being.
“So, you just have to get the person to chew the gum and they change appearance?” James questioned
“Yes, and I’m sure that if you want to alter the affects of the gum, you can ask Ms. McGonagall, who helped us make the gum in the first place.” Teddy answered “But, don’t tell anyone, the last thing that woman needs is a bunch of kids asking her how to make the affects permanent or something of those likes.”
“What else do you have in that box of goodies?” Hugo asked
“Try this one on for size.” Geo said, tossing Hugo a mint wrapped in plastic.
Hugo popped it in his mouth, and immediately, he opened his mouth, as if to say something. However, a crackling sound, as if that of a fire, could be heard emitting from Hugo’s mouth, and his jaw slowly began to stretch slowly downward, and stopped once it reached the floor. Hugo spit the mint out into his hand, expecting his jaw to return to normal, but it did not.
“The effects wear off in about a half an hour.” Geo grinned “See, we knew kids would get in trouble for eating a candy from a Skiving Snack box because they’re notorious at Hogwarts at this point, however these look like actual mint candies, and you can claim you just thought it was a mint. However, you obviously can’t do it often, or you’ll get caught.”
“That’s bloody brilliant. I’ll be sneaking in a box or two into the common room of the next team to beat Gryffindor in Quidditch.” James said, grinning devilishly
“I figured you would be.” Nicky chimed in.
“What else is there?” Albus asked, still looking at the box.
“Well, Fred had the idea to bring back a prototype that Professor Umbridge confiscated in my seventh year of school.” George smiled “It didn’t really have a name, but it was a ball of light that could be tossed around for fun, it’s more of a time passer then a prank, but I figured it’d be good for the younger kids.”
“What’s this thing?” Nicky asked, pulling out a telescope.
“No!” Albus shouted, but it was too late. A black boxing glove extended through the eyepiece of the telescope, and hit Nicky in his right eye, and sending him stumbling backwards.
“That would be our punching telescope. It’s been tampered with; I brought it to fix it.”
“It seems fine, punches hurt a bit though.” Nicky said, grinning.
“That they do.” Aunt Hermione grinned from the doorframe.
~AP~
“James! Get the bloody door already; it’s probably one of your foolish friends!” Ginny yelled as she fumbled through a box of Christmas decorations.
“Fine, fine, I’ll get it!” James said, defeated as he put down the fake wand he was dueling Hugo with, and walked through the maze of boxes in order to get to the front door.
“Albus come and help me with this!” Ginny pleaded. Albus sighed, put his broom carefully down on the ground, bottled the polishing solution, and placed it down on the coffee table in the living room. “The Dursley’s are going to be here in two days, and this house is not even close to being cleaned out of its dark magic. Help me separate through these boxes; anything that can be thrown out can go down to the basement.”
“Mum!” James called, stepping back through the maze of boxes, a man trailing behind him.
“Hello Ginny, long time no talk, eh?” the man asked. Strangely enough, Albus had the feeling he had seen this man before, he just didn’t know where from. The man was tall, dark skinned, and muscular, although aged.
“My oh my, Kingsley Shacklebolt, how’ve you been?” Ginny questioned
“I’ve been excellent Ginny, thank you.” Shacklebolt said his voice calm and even.
“How’s the ministry treating you?” She questioned
“Well, I retired from the auror business last year; I’ve been working up on level three for the meantime.”
“Why’d you retire?” Ginny questioned
“Everything with Merlin just seemed too close to the past for me, I didn’t want to be stuck in the middle it all again, you know?” Shacklebolt said, grinning sheepishly “Harry around this time of day?”
“He should be; he said he was going to stop into the office some point during the day, but I think he’s still here.”
“Excellent, well, why I wait for him, would you two like some help with this project of yours?”
“That’d be great!” Albus said grinning, but Ginny shot him a glance.
“We really don’t want to impose on you.” Ginny reasoned
“Impose on me?” Kingsley chuckled “I’m always willing to help people Ginny, you should know that.”
“Excellent, well, the Dursley’s decided to visit us the twenty-first, so, we have to hopefully finish up cleaning out this house, and then put up Christmas decorations.”
“Well, you have your hands full it seems, I’m glad I offered my assistance.” Shacklebolt said, “Albus, can you hand me those Christmas hats?”
Albus looked around, and then pointed his wand the box filled with Christmas hats. Albus waved his wand, and the hats flew towards Kingsley, who then took over the spell, and flicked his wand quickly. The hats began to slowly hover over to the staircase, and within a few seconds, each severed house elf head on the wall adjacent to the banister was covered with a Christmas cap.
“That’s bloody brilliant.” Albus said, laughing.
“It’s nothing really, just simple magic. It would be more impressive if I could make them belt out Christmas carols at the top of their lungs.”
“I think your seven years of taken transfiguration has flown from your mind then. We learned how to make non-talking things talk in seventh year.” Harry grinned, walking down the stairs.
“Well, I was in Hogwarts long before you, and, McGonagall didn’t start teaching until three years after I graduated.”
“Well, what brings you here?” Harry questioned. Shacklebolt then gave a quick glance at Albus and Ginny.
“Is there someplace we can talk away from other ears?” Kingsley questioned warily
“Of course, let’s go to my study, its right up the stairs.” Harry announced, leading Kingsley up the stairs
“Albus, go and put those in your and Nicky’s room please.” Ginny said “I’d prefer if they were in the closet.”
“What is it?” Albus questioned
“It’s some of Regulas Black’s possessions.” Ginny said with a look of confusion on her face.
“Then, why don’t we just throw them out?” Albus questioned
“Sirius told Remus to not throw that box out when I was in my fourth year. Trust me, just do it Albus.”
Albus reluctantly stood, grabbed the surprisingly light box, and carried it up the box towards his room. Albus opened the closet door, and dropped the box down in the back of the closet, and turned around. However, when he turned around, the voices of his father, and Kingsley reached his ears.
“…It’s leading me into false security, which of course is something I don’t like.” Harry was saying
“Well, it’s Merlin, he’s good at hiding, but he has to show up at some point. He didn’t return just to sit around in hiding, he came back to do something.”
“And I, Professor Lippert, and Headmaster Conrey have already established this fact last year. The thing is, he’s not just going to show up under pollyjuice potion and try to take it from us, plus, we do background checks on all of the incoming staff.”
“I know, but the Hall-” Kingsley began, but Harry cut him off.
“Don’t mention the name; I don’t want my kids finding out about this stuff.”
“You mean you haven’t told them about the situation, or the story?”
“No, I was hoping I’d never have to tell them.” Harry admitted
“Well, if things go as badly as both of us expect it to go, you’ll be forced to tell them.” Kingsley said. “I’ve got to get going now, but, this was a good chat Harry, I’ll keep in touch.” Albus had just ducked back into his room when Kingsley exited the door adjacent to it.
“Who was that bloke?” a familiar voice called, Albus turned towards the window, and sure enough Ben was shining through it.
“Kingsley Shacklebolt, he’s an Ex-Auror.” Albus explained “They we’re discussing some things.” Albus said as his father walked down the stairs, not noticing Albus’s being in the room, or him talking to Ben. It was clear that he was worried, and therefore distracted.
“What things?” Ben questioned, biting into an apple.
“Merlin related things.” Albus whispered tentatively, afraid as if someone would catch him talking to Ben. Albus slowly closed the door, and moved closer to Ben. “They still haven’t found him, and, they were talking about something important pertaining to him. They said that he was coming back to look for something, Kingsley was about to announce it but my dad cut him off, he said he doesn’t want me to hear about it.”
“Well, it’s clear now; another awful year is going to happen to a Potter.” Ben said mockingly. “Your dad’s top Auror, I’m sure that whatever issue they have with Merlin will be resolved by the end of the year.”
“I really wouldn’t be so certain of it.” Albus said skeptically.
“Albus!” Ginny hollered up the stairs, making Albus nearly jump.
“Well, I can see you have to go, I’ll be back later tonight, okay?”
“Okay Ben, I’ll see you then.” Albus said as he reluctantly returned to the hallway.
“How long does it take for you to drop off a box?” Ginny asked
“Sorry, I got side-tracked.” Albus apologized
“Well, now we’re all just going to have to work twice as hard!” Ginny scolded.
“Sounds like a load of fun.” Albus muttered sarcastically as he walked down the stairs.
~AP~
“Albus, help Uncle Charlie with the tree!” Ginny yelled.
“It’s okay Al, I got it.” Charlie grinned as he pushed the tree through the door frame.
“Everyone, front and center!” Harry called. Everyone with the exception of the adults stood before Harry in a line, looking bored out of their minds.
“How much longer do we have to keep up with this?” James complained. “My arms are sore from scrubbing out the bathrooms.”
“Yeah well, you’re going to be going it all day, the only Christmas present your mum and I want is for this house to be clean, so, get it done by Christmas. You have all of today, and most of tomorrow, we expect the Dursley’s to be here around six thirty, at which time you Weasleys are free to leave for the burrow via floo, or stay here. It’s your decision.”
“So, what annoying tedious work are we going to do today?” James questioned
“Clean the third and fourth floors.” Harry said quickly. There were sighs and moans of disagreement, none of which Harry commented on. “Now, the quicker we get this done, the better it’ll be for all of us, okay?” he asked “So, grab your wands, and fallow me.” Harry said, leading the group of kids up the stairs.
“What’s so bad about the third floor?” Nicky whispered to Lucy on the way up the stairs, Albus grinned slightly at the hint of fear in his voice. Nicky eerily reminded Albus of his Uncle Ron.
“Anyone who enters will die a painful death!” Teddy and James chanted from front of the line.
“Lovely reference to my time, but the wording is inaccurate to say the least.” Harry chuckled “Their just mocking me Nicky, there’s nothing to fear up in the third floor, it’s just, well, absurdly dirty.”
“Plus Sirius Black’s mum charmed the house the day she died; she made it so dark magic would always be in the house.” James lied with a straight face. Albus had to struggle to stifle a laugh.
“You’re lying… right?” Nicky questioned
“Nope, dead serious.” James said
“Well, it should be dead Sirius.” Teddy said with a small grin, Nicky now just looked confused.
“Come on guys, were here, get to work.” Harry grinned.
“Sir yes sir!” Teddy grinned
“Be serious Teddy.”
“Can’t I just be Remus?”
“I mean it Teddy.” Harry said sternly.
“Sorry Harry, just trying to lighten the mood.” Teddy grinned as he set off into a room, wand raised.
“Come on guys, let’s go.” Albus said, leading Nicky, Rose, and Lucy into a room at the end of the third floor.
Albus flipped on the light switch, and stared at the room, it was clear that they had a lot of work ahead of them. The room was cluttered with broken furniture a shattered chandelier, a few pictures, and a load of boxes. Albus walked towards the middle of the room, and plopped himself down on the bed, immediately, it broke, and a cloud of dust slipped out from the sides of it.
“Well, this is going to be the highlight of our Christmas vacation, isn’t it?” Nicky commented as Hugo appeared in the room.
“I suggest we start by clearing up that chandelier, although oddly enough, most of the glass is gone.” Hugo shrugged as he walked up to the chandelier and grabbed one section of it, hoisting it up. “Well, are you going to help me or not?” Hugo questioned.
Albus and Nicky simultaneously levitated the chandelier, and moved it slowly towards the doorway, which everyone quickly moved away from. However, once they got it against the door frame, it wouldn’t move. Nicky lazily flicked his wand, and the chandelier dropped, Albus not being able to levitate it solely.
“Reducio!” Albus exclaimed, immediately, the chandelier shrunk into a fourth of its original size, and Albus picked it up with ease, and walked towards his dad.
“Dad, where do I put this junk?” He asked, signaling towards the chandelier.
“Start a pile in the far corner near the bathroom.” Harry told him. Albus shrugged, and chucked the chandelier in that general direction; it skidded across the floor, and came to a complete stop before it hit the wall.
When Albus came back to the room, he saw practically everyone in the room just sitting around, with the exception of Hugo, who was trying to pick up a large box by himself. Albus sighed, and picked up one end of the box, and together, he and Hugo carried it out into the pile of trash that was quickly growing. When Albus returned for the second time, he saw Rose, Lucy, Lily (who had just joined them), and Nicky just sitting around.
“What are you guy’s—and girls,” he added as Rose cleared her throat. “Doing just sitting around, get to work!”
“Fine, fine,” Lucy said, defeated.
Within an hour, about one fourth of the room was cleaned out. However, they still had to tackle moving the bed (a task too tedious to do via wand), cleaning the walls, and the floor, separating the contents of the room between what they had to keep, and what could be thrown away. However, a majority of the things ended up getting thrown out, because they served no importance to any of them. Kreacher however, (much to the dismay of Harry), kept trying to sneak things back to his old cubby hole in the kitchen.
“When was the last time this room was used?” Nicky questioned as he kicked a box out of the room. It skidded along the wooden hallway, and smacked into the large rubbish pile in the corner of the hall.
“Probably forty years ago. It was Sirius’s dad’s bedroom from when he was a kid, and it was transformed into an office, and then I don’t know what happened to it exactly.” Harry chimed in, leaning into the bedroom
“So no wonder it’s nasty.”
“Well, keep up the good work, James and Teddy are almost done with their rooms, so I suggest you pick up the pace a bit.” Harry grinned “Whoever finishes the fourth floor the fastest is getting the box of the newest prototypes from the Triple W according to George, and he’s not going to give one to Teddy later either, well, at least not for free. So, you better hurry.”
After Harry revealed that information, everyone except for Rose and Lily was working tediously and quickly, each wanting their own box of the Triple W prototypes. Albus and Nicky began breaking down the bed. (To which Rose protested: “You don’t really have to break it, I’m sure it comes apart in a reasonable manner”) and disposing of it piece by piece, the final part being the metal frame that had moth eaten curtains draped over it just moments ago. Once the bed was out of the room, it was merely a matter of throwing out the broken pieces of furnishings, and sorting through the numerous boxes. With the whole group working faster, the room got done within the next thirty minutes, and with the third floor done, they hurried up onto the fourth floor.
~AP~
An hour or so later, James and Teddy had one the competition, but only because Lucy’s and Rose’s hair was caught in a Larcenous ligulous plant, which liked their earring’s and refused to let go of their hair until they gave up their jewelry. It took Harry and Ron about a half an hour to realize what the plant wanted, and then another half an hour for them to figure out how to get it separated from the wall.
“Check Mate!” Nicky yelled, punching his fist into the air.
“Re-match Jefferson,” Lucy said, grinning at Nicky, who was already setting up the board.
“This fire’s making me hot.” Lily complained
“Then feel free to leave the living room.” Albus snapped.
“Where’s mum, I miss her!” Lily complained again in the same dull annoying drawing tone
“She’s getting Christmas presents now be quiet.”
“Al, you ought to be nicer to your sister, it’s five days from Christmas, not a wise time to be getting in trouble.” George grinned as he levitated about fifty decorations onto the new ten or so foot tall Christmas tree.
“Good point I geuss.” Albus shrugged as he turned around to see Nicky’s pawn getting smashed to dust by the Queen’s sledge hammer.
“Why’d they make the Queen have a sledge hammer?” Lily questioned
“I think they just needed every player to have a weapon, and they chose a sledge hammer for the Queen.” Lucy shrugged
“Lily, why do you act so much younger then Lucy?” Nicky questioned as he captured one of Lucy’s pawns
“Well, I’ve been eleven for about half a year now, whereas she’s only been eleven for less than a month. If we were still going by old school regulations, she wouldn’t even be going to Hogwarts until next year.”
“Do you mean the old December First regulation?” Albus questioned
“No I mean the original regulation which states that you have to be eleven upon attending Hogwarts. Personally I prefer that regulation to the new ones.” Lucy admitted.
“Lucy it’s your turn!” Nicky grinned as he captured one of her knights.
“Queen to E-5,” Lucy said, with an even bigger grin on her face. Lucy captured Nicky’s Rook, and checked his king.
“I see a way Nicky can get out of it.” Rose announced. It wasn’t a surprise to anyone, seeing as how Rose could beat anyone in the room at Wizards Chess.
“Where is it?” Nicky asked frantically, scanning the board for the solution
“I’m not going to tell you, but, I call playing winner.” Rose grinned
“That’s so unfair!” Nicky said, and moved his pawn forward, knowing that there was nothing else he could do in order to win the game.
“Queen to G-5,” Lucy said with a grin. Her queen took its sledge hammer, and crushed Nicky’s King into dust.
“Nice, I call winner.” Rose said “Should I use my own pieces or Nicky can I use yours?”
“I’m fine with you using mine, they need a break from being crushed and destroyed anyway.” Nicky grinned
“You want to go play Quidditch?”
“Do you even have to ask really?” Nicky asked with a grin.
~AP~
“Welcome to our, well, winter house I geuss you could call it.” Harry said as he embraced Dudley in a brief hug. “Olivia, it’s lovely to have you here.” Harry grinned towards Dudley’s wife. “Kids, the Vernon’s are here!”
“I have to apologize for the mess, we have about seven kids and around six adults here on a day-to-day basis, I think most of them are here now actually.”
“Well, we brought Patrick, so, I geuss it’s good that they’re here then.”
“Well he’s always welcome.” Harry grinned as Patrick ran outside towards where Hugo, Albus, Nicky, and James were up in the air playing Squashel.
“Toss it to me you git!” Albus yelled as Hugo tried to dodge James, who was flying at him, but Hugo merely got hit in the face, and the Quaffle taken away from him.
“James, toss it here!” Nicky yelled.
James threw it to Nicky, who caught it, and flew low to the ground, then shot up into the air, Albus in pursuit of him. James and Hugo however, were behind them, and when Nicky evened out, James and Nicky were just a few feet behind Albus, who rocketed forwards, and was soon next to Nicky, who suddenly decided to shoot down towards the ground, again, Albus fallowed him.
“Throw me the ball!” James said, grinning.
“No, throw me the ball.” Hugo grinned, as if his saying it would trick Nicky.
“You’re not on his team, idiot!” James shouted
“I know that!”
“James, catch!” Albus yelled, grinning to himself. On instinct, James turned towards Nicky, who was still circling around frantically trying to not have the Quaffle be stolen from his possession.
“Shut it Albus!” James grinned, and flew at Albus’s height and speed, and soon caught up to him. “Look out.” He yelled, grinning. Albus turned to face front, and just had enough time to swoop up into the sky, avoiding the oak tree that was in the yard.
Albus recovered his balance, and by this time, James had gained possession of the Quaffle. Albus flew towards him, and from the corner of his eye he saw Hugo flying after Nicky. Good Albus thought Keep Nicky distracted while I go to take the Quaffle from James. Albus flew towards James.
“Come on…” Albus muttered to his broomstick
“Get off me!” Nicky yelled loudly
“Make me!” Hugo yelled.
There was a grunt, and the sound of someone screaming, and Albus looked up in time to see Hugo in the air, off of a broomstick, flying towards Albus. Albus tried to get out of the way, but he seemed to not be able to move. Hugo collided with Albus, and Albus flew off of his broom, but managed to grasp the tip of the broomstick. That was until Hugo hung onto Albus’s broom, and accidently kicked Albus in the gut. Albus fell from his broom, and after waiting for what felt like forever, he fell on the ground on his side, a gut wrenching sound of a bone breaking sounded, and Albus screamed in pain.
“I’ll fix it!” A familiar voice called out as Albus clenched his eyes in pain. “Artemisae!” Albus screamed in pain as a tickling sensation swept partway up the broken bone, and then continued down it.
“Patrick, sod off!” James yelled. The next thing he knew, he was being carried inside, his eyes clenched tight from the pain, sobbing silently. Then, he felt nothing. |
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Sun Oct 11, 2009 6:56 pm
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Professor
Joined: 06 Jan 2008
Posts: 1074
Location: Going Nowhere Fast.
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Hey guys, i'm on the eighteenth chapter, the main climax is techincally two chapters away, but is discovered in the next chapter! Everythings starting to wrap up, and of course, once i'm done with this i'll start writing the third book, to which i already have a plot.  BTW, this book is either going to be 23 chapters, or 24 chapters, it depends on when if i decide to break up one of the chapters into two or not, but, it doesn't really matter now, so, yeah. I'll post the fifteenth chapter in a few hours. |
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http://www.wix.com/xxeveryinchxx/apsof |
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| Posted:
Mon Oct 12, 2009 1:03 pm
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Professor
Joined: 06 Jan 2008
Posts: 1074
Location: Going Nowhere Fast.
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A/N: MUCH thanks to Kaydle50 and Caspbear for letting me use their names/incorperate them into this chapter. Enjoy:
15. Ending Up In Saint Mungo’s
"He’s going to be just fine,” an unfamiliar voice said “But, he would’ve been better off if no one had interfered with the break, what a first year was thinking healing a badly broken bone, I’ll never know.”
“Well, I’ll ask him next time I see him!” James said angrily
“No James, you won’t.” Ginny scolded “Patrick was only trying to be helpful.”
For the first time in seventeen hours, Albus opened his eyes. He looked up at the blurry ceiling. It took him a while to realize he didn’t have his glasses on. He cleared his throat, and it hurt to do so.
“Albus?” Nicky questioned, Albus looked up slightly, felt woozy, and then retched on his bed covers.
“Oh honey, sit back, take it easy.” Ginny said, pressing down gently on Albus’s shoulder.
“What time is it?”
“It’s about twelve thirty, December twenty second.” Harry answered automatically.
“How’d I get here?”
“Well, we Floo’d here.” Lily responded
“But, why am I here?” Albus questioned
“Well, you fell off of your broom, and, broke your arm, and since Patrick tried to fix it, which just messed it up more and, your Aunt Hermione tried to fix it, but she said she was afraid she would just mess it up even more, so, we just Floo’d you here. The Dursley’s went home, and the few Weasleys who were at our house are being very generous and cleaning up the house for the final preparation for Christmas morning, the nurses said you can go home on Christmas Eve.” Nicky explained quickly “Oh, and, I’m sorry for throwing Hugo towards your way, I didn’t think he’d really crash into you, I figured you’d catch him and put him on your broom, but, obviously that didn’t happen, oh, and, Hugo apologizes for kicking you in the gut.”
“It’s not his fault; either that or he flew over our fence into someone’s yard.”
“Well, that’s probably true, but, I shouldn’t have shoved him off his broom, none-the-less for a Quaffle.”
“James, what thoughts were going through your brain when you decided it would be a good idea to play Squashel with two Second years and a First year?”
“It’s not his fault mum, we were all having fun until I fell, plus, Nicky and I started playing long before James showed up and asked to join us.”
“I still don’t like the fact that he allowed you guys to play.” Ginny muttered slightly, torn between caring for Albus and being mad at James.
“So, I’m stuck here for the next two days?” Albus sighed, disappointed.
“I’m sorry honey, but, they said it would take that long for the bone to heal properly, and they need to make sure you get the proper amount of rest, and this was the only way they could guarantee it.”
“This sucks.” Albus muttered
“Well, you’re lucky you didn’t get attacked by approximately two thousand snowballs.” Someone commented, Albus, who was still nauseous, couldn’t look up to see who it was, but he could sense the confusion hovering in the room.
“Harry, is that Ben in that painting of an old man?”
“Yes, yes it is.” Ben responded, Albus slowly turned his head, and saw Ben’s face had replaced that of an old shriveled up man, and of course, Ben was grinning.
“How’d you know we were here mate?” Nicky questioned.
“Well, first I had to go to Hogwarts, wait until Professor McGonagall would walk by, which took about an hour and a half, and, she kindly gave me the projection coordinates of Grimmauld Place.” Ben began.
“Professor McGonagall knows the projection coordinates of Grimmauld Place?” James questioned
“Yes, it appears as if she did, and, well, then, I went to Grimmauld Place, and when I visited today some House Elf,” Ben continued, but was cut off by Harry
“That’d be Kreacher.”
“Yes, he’s- charming to say the least. Well, he told me that you guys were at Saint Mungos, and when I asked him why he just rambled on about some ugly family with a brat child who harmed master’s son.”
“Well that would be the Dursley’s.” Ginny interjected.
“Guy’s, stop interrupting please!” Albus snapped his voice tense and cracked from under-use.
“Sorry, we’ll be in the Tea Lounge if you need us.” Harry said standing and leading Ginny, Lily, and James out of the room.
“Why do I have to go?” James asked
“Because; I’m telling you to go, and I’m your father.”
“So, you were ambushed it sounds?” Albus asked Ben after the door snapped shut.
“By a bunch of Sixth Years; they figured it’d be a riot to gather up a bunch of snowballs- we got about four feet the day before this happened- and hit the first kid they saw walking around grounds. Well, my very first class that morning was Herbology, which we had in climate controlled Greenhouses, but, that’s irrelevant. So, anyway, I was hurrying along, a bit late, and I decided to take a shortcut. Well, it would seem as if my shortcut had led me right into a throng of twenty Sixth Years with exactly one hundred snowballs each. Not only did I get detention for being late, but I got no sympathy for being hit by two thousand snowballs.”
“How’d you know they each had one hundred?” Albus questioned
“Because Arithmancy Homework the previous night was to see what you could use one hundred items for, and what effect they would have on someone’s day.” Ben frowned
“Well, at least they were creative about it.” Nicky shrugged. “And, you guys are lucky enough to get snow. It’s about twenty degrees here, and we have no snow.”
“No snow?” Ben questioned quizzically “That’s messed up.”
“Watch, we’re going to get it exactly after our Christmas Break is over.” Albus ginned
“So, is there anything exciting happening over at the Norwegian Institute for Witches and Wizards?”
“Not really no, but, Albus tells me you guys have some suspicions about your teachers this year.” Ben grinned
“Only small suspicions, like, we saw our Broom Safety instructor and our Charms teacher talking about deciphering a children’s book called ‘The Tales of Beetle the Bard’, and how our Charms Teacher, something Washburn agreed to find something- or someone, if Kelso could make it that no one found out about it.” Nicky answered
“Well and there’s the thing Albus was telling me about the other day.” Ben grinned
“What thing?” Nicky questioned “Albus, what’d you hear?”
“I overheard that Kingsley Bloke and my Dad talking about Merlin, and how they couldn’t find him. They were also talking about what Merlin had returned for. My dad said he’d already discussed what Merlin had come here to return for with the Headmaster and Professor Lippert last year.” Albus explained
“Well, if he discussed it last year, it had to have been back when Flamel returned.” Ben reasoned “Which means that it must be sometime over the summer.”
“Yeah, that makes sense, but still, he says there’s an entire story behind it, a whole situation, and according to Kingsley, the aftermath of it could be devastating.”
“Well, remember the promise you made me Albus, if anything crazy is going on this year, you’ll give me a week’s notice, okay?”
“Well, seeing as how we were the good guys in the situation last year, we barely had a days notice. Kelso and Washburn aren’t flashy guys, they’re not going to pull something like last year where they show up from a vortex and pull out the school’s interior magic. They’re no doubt going to be subtle and stealthy about whatever it is they’re going to do.”
“In a nutshell, Albus doesn’t think we’re going to be able to give you that kind of notice.” Nicky said, sensing the look of confusion on Ben’s face.
“Well, what happened to you exactly?” Ben questioned towards Albus.
“Squashel Happened.” Albus grinned
“Hey, isn’t that sport big in The States? Zane mentioned some bloke getting nearly killed by it.” Ben questioned
“Yeah, and James said that it’s pretty decently known up in Norway too.”
“Meh, it’s more of an adult game, the sixth and seventh years love to play it. They’re thickheaded and brutal they are.” Ben grinned “And, I think our headmaster is going to give us an actual Squashel Pitch within the end of this school year.”
“Our Debate Team is actually due to discuss the same issue mid January.” Nicky chimed in.
“A thirty foot wide circle with pads along the walls? About fifty feet high?” Ben questioned
“That’s generally what they were thinking, yes.” Nicky said “Although, I don’t think they were going to make it an actual Hogwarts sport, I think they were just going to have the pitch.”
“That was the plan with us too.” Ben agreed
“I’m hungry.” Albus chimed in. At that second however, there was a loud ‘Crack!’, and a house-elf appeared in the room
“Mr. Albus Potter, it’s ‘bout eat’n times, and you’s has requested food!” a house elf in a torn and stained green loincloth said, grinning from one pointy ear to the other.
“Uh, thank you, uh, who are you exactly?” Albus questioned
“I is the house-elf Peckle, sire!” the house-elf jeered cheerfully. “I is not s‘possed to be talking’s to you’s, but when I heard’s of a Potter in our Hospital, I just had to come and visit you’s!” the house elf said.
“Why thank you Peckle, that was very kind of you, but, what is a house elf doing in a Hospital?”
“Saint Mungo’s has de house elfs now’s!”
“Well, that’s not really necessary, I’m sure there are many Wizard Chefs who would be willing to do the job. So, what do you have to eat today?” Albus questioned
“I can makes you whatever you’s is needing.” Peckle insisted
“Well, I’d love a few Wraps for me and my friend, if that’s not too much to ask.” Albus said kindly.
“Oh, and a basket of Chocolate Frogs,” Nicky added
“Too bad I can’t be there.” Ben frowned slightly. Albus could tell that even though Ben wouldn’t admit it, that he missed Hogwarts and his friends.
“You can floo here, or take a portkey, I’m sure my dad wouldn’t mind having another kid stay at Grimmauld Place.”
“What about Grimmauld Place?” Harry inquired.
“I was just wondering if Ben could come over for a day or two after I left Saint Mungo’s.” Albus questioned tentatively, figuring that his dad would say no immediately.
“Well, I figure we could make that work.” Harry said to Ben. “I’ll need to talk to your Headmaster, but I suppose you could just Floo over here either Christmas Eve or Christmas morning.”
“That’d be excellent, thanks.” Ben grinned
“Wait, you’re on a painting.” Nicky said, astounded.
“And?” Harry questioned “I’ve seen creepier things.”
“No, but, the other times we’ve seen him, he was on a window, always.”
“You’ve seen him other times?” Ginny questioned, appearing in the room with Lily.
“Yes, he’s appeared at Hogwarts.” Albus explained
“Well, Geir-Haugen made some adjustments.” Nicky said “He made it so that you can be reflected on anything that had some amount of light shining on it, and, the electric lights that are in this room are enough to allow me to pop up here.”
“Who’s Geir-Haugen?” Ginny questioned
“The Technomancy teacher at Nicky’s school.” Ben answered quickly.
“What’s all this talking about?” James asked, walking into the room.
“Lunch is served Master Potter!” Peckle said, appearing in the room with a tray of Wraps and a basket of Chocolate Frogs. Albus grinned, and then looked around at his family. They were all standing there in silence, staring at Peckle.
“Guy’s, this is Peckle.” Albus said, introducing the House Elf, who gave a courteous bow at the sound of his name. “Well, don’t just sit there and stare at him, I’m sure you have something to say.”
“This is mine.” Nicky said, gently taking the Basket of Chocolate Frogs from Peckle’s grip.
~AP~
“So, when do you guys think you’re going to leave tonight?” Albus asked as Peckle, (who had seemed to have taken the task of being Albus’s personal House Elf) took his dinner.
“We think in an hour or so.” Ginny informed Albus.
“My point!” Nicky exclaimed as the crumpled up piece of paper hit the door.
“Mum, did you bring my wand with you?” Albus questioned.
“No honey, but, here, you can use my spare one.” Ginny said, handing one to Albus from her purse.
“When’d you get this?” Albus asked
“She nicked it from a Snatcher who tried to take her purse.” Harry chimed in with a grin.
“When was this exactly?” Albus questioned with a grin. It was hard for him to imagine his mum taking it from someone.
“In my seventh year on a Hogsmeade Weekend,” Ginny sighed “I was walking around with Hermione, who had decided to complete her education and went back to Hogwarts for her seventh year, and she went to the Restroom, and while I was outside, someone took my purse from me.”
“So, she punched them right in the face, took her purse and the kids wand.” Harry interjected.
“I don’t believe it.” Albus grinned.
“And, it was some fourth year son of a Death Eater.” Ginny grinned
“I’m sure he was going to amount to something in his life, he’s taken over Dung’s business last I heard.”
“Mundungus Fletcher?” Ginny questioned “I thought he’d given up a life as a crook.”
“He has, which is why good old Jimmy Graham is now taking over the business.” Harry grinned
“Which means he’s stealing and robbing innocent people?” Albus questioned. He had heard stories of Mundungus Fletcher’s way of life, but he found it more humorous then rude back when he was younger.
“My point, HA!” Lily exclaimed. Albus inspected the wand in his hand, for a moment, he had forgotten that he was holding onto it.
As Nicky went to send the Auger towards Lily’s Winkle, Albus flicked the wand quickly, and the Augur flew into an empty vase on the table behind Nicky, which was Nicky’s Auger in this case.
“My point.” Albus grinned.
“You want to play?” Nicky asked “I’m sorry mate, should’ve figured you’d want to do something.”
“It’s okay; I’m just glad all of you guys are here, you know?”
“Yeah, but, keep that wand on you.” Nicky grinned as he levitated the Auger, and sent it towards Albus’s bedside table. “Let’s make that quill cup your Winkle, deal?” Nicky inquired
“Deal, but, look out,” Albus grinned as he flicked his wand, sending the auger flying into the vase behind Nicky.
“You’re too good at this!” Lily complained.
“Just wait until Rose comes here tomorrow, oh, and Lucy.” James grinned “The two of them could probably beat any of us at, well, anything.”
“I’m glad they’ve become good friends.” Harry grinned
“My point,” Albus grinned as he scored a point on Lily.
“Be quiet! I quit.” Lily said angrily, pocketing her wand and sitting down on a chair, pouting.
“Practice makes perfect Lil.” Nicky said with a small grin.
“Well, we better get going Albus, we’ll see you tomorrow, okay?”
“Okay mum, take care guys.” Albus said with a grin. “Mum, here’s your wand.” Albus said, giving Ginny the tiny black wand.
“Thanks Albus, I’ll remember yours tomorrow okay?”
“Okay, thanks.” Albus said with a grin as the door snapped shut.
~AP~
“I’m sorry sir.” Nurse Marlett apologized as she inspected Albus the next morning.
“You should be Angela, you’ve been here for a week, and you still can’t get my coffee order right.”
“Maybe because as an intern she’s not supposed to get the doctor’s coffee,” Rose said defiantly from the chair in the back of the room.
“I’m sorry, and you are?”
“You should be sorry, and I’m Rose Elizabeth Weasley.”
“Well, Ms. Weasley, I’m a doctor, you’re a child, okay?”
“I’m surprised they let you be a Doctor, Mr. Garcia is it?”
“Doctor Garcia, yes,” Dr. Garcia said abruptly.
“Well, ‘Doctor’ Garcia, she’s a nurse, not a servant, so treat her like a nurse or I’ll report you to the Head Administrator here. Or should I just tell my dad? You know he’s pretty close with Minister Tom, and if word gets to him that Nurse’s are being treated badly, I’m sure he’ll only hesitate a little bit before closing down the Hospital.” Rose added with a grin. With that, Doctor Garcia frowned, and swore continuously under his breath as he left the room.
“Thanks for that, although, I could’ve handled it myself,” Nurse Marlett said with a small grin.
“You know, you don’t seem all that happy as a nurse.” Lucy realized with a quizzical grin on her face.
“Well, my true ambition is to be a teacher at the Alma Aleron University in Pennsylvania.” Nurse Marlett said with a small grin.
“Do it!” Nicky, Albus, Rose, and Lucy all exclaimed at once.
“We have a friend who goes there, Zane Walker, he’s an enthusiastic bloke, but, he says the schools awesome, you should go there; it’s better than sitting around here taking coffee orders.” Albus insisted.
“Anything in particular you’re interested in teaching?” Lucy asked
“Well, I like numbers, so Arithmancy if they have it, although I hear the Headmasters reasonable, hopefully he’ll let me open up a Mathematics Class.”
“You should, it’s a great school, and the headmaster-, who by the way is Benjamin Franklyn, is a great headmaster, and I’m almost certain he’ll let you teach Mathematics.”
“Well, it’s odd, but, I think you kids have convinced me to do it, I’ll ask the headmaster for a job, and if he says yes, I’ll be handing in my letter of resignation.”
“That’s excellent, if you make it, you should hunt down Zane Walker.” Nicky grinned “Although, he’ll be in his seventh year by then.” Nicky said, the grin from his face disappearing.
“Well, I’ll ask around for him.” Nurse Marlett told Nicky, and then turned towards Albus. “We’ll be able to get your arm out of that sling, and hopefully out of the cast tomorrow.
“There’s a cast on this thing?” Albus asked, looking at his arm.
“Around the bicep, yes, you fractured your elbow, and you broke your Ulna and the bicep tissue.”
“So you put a cast around my bicep tissue?” Albus questioned
“And a small one where you broke the Ulna, it was higher up, closer to the elbow, so, you were lucky enough not to get the full arm cast.”
“Hey Albus!” Ginny exclaimed softly, walking into the room and embracing her son in a hug. “Hey Nurse Marlett, Doctor Garcia giving you trouble still?”
“He will, but, I’m quitting soon.” Nurse Marlett announced with a grin. “I’m going to A.A.U to teach Mathematics.”
“And I’m assuming these four convinced you to do so?” James asked, leaning on the door frame leading into the room Albus was in. “And, is it always this crowded in the ground floor?”
“Yes, these four did in fact give me a shove towards the idea, and, people always get stupid ideas near the holidays it seems.”
“Hey Nurse Marlett, how’s my boy doing today?” Harry asked, entering the room and ruffling Albus’s hair.
“He’s doing just fine, we’re hoping to get his cast taken off tonight, as well as his sling, and as you know, we hope to dismiss him towards tomorrow afternoon.” Angela said with a polite grin.
“Excellent, thank you Angela.” Harry said with a grin. Angela turned around, and left the room with a small smile on her face.
“Do you have the energy to go anywhere at the moment Albus?” James questioned. “We were thinking we’d go to the Cafeteria.”
“Isn’t that on the fifth floor?” Albus asked his legs sore and tense from under-use from the past two days.
“It’s on the fifth floor, yes, but there are elevators we could take.” Nicky told him.
“This is true.” Albus grinned to his friend.
“So, do you want to go to the cafeteria?” Harry asked
“Sure, if I can get out of this bed.” Albus grinned.
It was not until Albus sat up fully that he realized how bruised and sore his mid-riff was, and it was something that surprised him. However, he shook off the thought, and slowly slid off the side of the bed. With Harry and James on each side of him, and walking slowly, the group of Potters, Weasleys, and the one Jefferson made their way out of the Hospital Room in which Albus was held. Ginny led the way, having an odd knowledge of the route they were taking, whereas Harry, who had been to Saint Mungo’s the same amount of times, was always asking his wife if the way they were going. As they passed the front desk, Albus caught sight of a man with a broomstick sticking out of his knee cap.
“Artifact Injuries, Ground Level, take a right and continue down the hall, as Dr. Garcia to inspect you.” She said. When they walked by, another man, this time holding a snake attached to his arm, grinned slightly at the Potter Family. “Creature-Induced Injuries, Floor One. See Dr. Dillywood.”
“Are you okay?” Nicky asked Albus who had just stopped briefly.
“Yeah, I’m fine, just, tired I geuss.” Albus shrugged
“Well, here, sit in the wheelchair, I don’t want you to tire yourself out.” Harry reasoned, grabbing the wheelchair from a nearby wall and carefully placing Albus in it.
“Thanks Dad.” Albus grinned as he slowly pushed himself towards the elevators.
“Here, I’ve got you.” James said, grabbing the handles of Albus’s wheelchair. Suddenly, James jerked back on the handles, making the wheel chair go on its back wheels, and James spun Albus around once, and then put him back to normal. “How was that?” James questioned
“Nauseating,” Albus grinned.
“Come on guys!” Lily, who had run ahead of the rest of the group called.
“Okay!” James said with a grin as he ran; still gripping the handles of the wheel chair, towards the elevator which Lily was currently holding open. Within seconds, the entire group of people was shoved into one elevator lift, and Lily enthusiastically jabbed the ‘floor five’ button with her thumb.
“Level two!” Lily exclaimed.
“Lily, there’s no need to announce what floor where on.” Ginny said kindly
“We’re here.” James announced cheerfully as the door to the lift opened, and the group of seven people stepped off of the lift.
They quickly made their way towards the cafeteria, where they sat down at a large table, and they were immediately flanked by a group of House Elfs.
“Hello sire, what would you like for Lunch today?” Albus was asked by a short pink-eared House Elf in a grey towel.
“Can I have some steak and kidney pie please?” Albus asked.
“But of course!” The house elf exclaimed, snapping his fingers. With a crack, the house elf disapperated from the Cafeteria, and seconds later, he returned, holding a delicious looking Steak and Kidney Pie.
“Honey you’re having pie?” Ginny asked
“I figured I’d deserved it.” Albus grinned
“I simply got a chocolate cake.” Nicky grinned as he pierced the top of the cake with his fork.
“Feel like sharing that cake?” Albus asked to the left of him, where Nicky sat.
“Of course.” Nicky said, grinning as he handed Albus a fork.
“Excellent.”
~AP~
“I don’t think it’s possible to eat so much cake.” James sighed.
“What those house elfs were thinking when they gave all three of my children cake I’ll never know.”
“They were thinking ‘let’s give them cake’.” Nicky said with a grin on his face as he plopped down into a chair on Albus’s side of the Hospital Room.
“I can see you enjoyed your meal.” A soft voice called from the next room, making everyone jump.
“Who’s there?” Lily asked, afraid.
“I’m Karen Warren.” The nice woman said from behind the curtain.
“What happened to your fingers?” Lucy questioned. Because he was lying down on his bed, Albus didn’t get a chance to see the woman, and therefore had no clue as to what Lucy was talking about.
“Well, as an inspired poet, I write a lot, and, that writing gets tiring, so, I transfigured by fingers into quills. Wasn’t the brightest idea of mine, I think I had too much wine when I did it.”
“And why couldn’t you just transfigure them back?” Rose asked “What made it so you came here?”
“Well, the man I got the charm from deceived me, it seems. The charm wasn’t a charm for transfiguration; it was merely a hex, an undoable hex it seems. So, the doctors are going to inspect it, and see if they can fix it, and, if they can’t, they’ll either keep my hand like this, or, amputate it.” At the end of the sentence, Albus could sense the dropping tone in her voice, her tone filled with sadness and disappointment.
“I’m sure they’ll be able to fix it.” Harry assured the woman. “Saint Mungo’s is a great hospital with excellent doctors.”
“I’m glad to hear it.” Karen chuckled.
~AP~
“Happy Christmas Eve Albus!” about three voices called the next morning, Albus immediately sat up, and grinned.
“Albus, we can take your sling and cast off now if you wish.” Nurse Marlett said, grinning as she entered the room.
“I’m fine with that.” Albus shrugged.
Nurse Marlett walked up to Albus, and gingerly took the sling off from around Albus’s neck, and then slid it off his arm. Albus’s arm dropped into his lap, heavy and strained from underuse.
“It feels weird, is that normal?” Albus asked, concerned for his well being.
“Yes, it’s perfectly normal.”
Nurse Marlett then took her wand, and carefully ran it along the side of the cast, causing an orange light to grow along the cast as she did it. She then re-positioned Albus’s arm, and did it again. She then gingerly placed her hands on each end of the cast, and pulled it apart carefully. Albus was shocked when it came apart with ease.
“You’re a lefty, yes?” Nurse Marlett asked
“Yes ma’am.” Albus answered nodding his head.
“Well you lucked out in a way, breaking your right. It’s going to feel weird getting adjusted to using it, especially if you play Quidditch or any contact sports.”
“Oh, and Albus, no more Squashel, okay?” Ginny asked with a small grin. For the first time, Albus remembered the three people in the room, his Mum, his Dad, and James.
“So Squashel is why this started?” Nurse Marlett asked, clicking her tongue. “All the doctors complain about that sport. Back when it was played by a rather large group of kids at Hogwarts, maybe ten or so years ago, the Doctors spent more time visiting the Hospital Wing in Hogwarts then they did in Saint Mungo’s, so many stories not unlike your own. Kid falls, breaks something, some inexperienced child tries to fix it, and just makes the break worse.”
“Well, next time I play, I’ll make sure to wear more padding.” James called with a small grin.
“Oh, you’re not playing anything for a while James.” Ginny said with a faint smile on her face. “Your poor supervision is what got Albus into this predicament.”
“It’s okay, I got blamed for things too when I was a kid, ah the woes of being the oldest. But, you get to be the first to drive a muggle car.” Nurse Marlett said with a grin as she noticed the disappointment on James’s face.
“So, I’m assuming Albus wants to leave soon, but, I figure we’d get some food before we left.” Harry said with a grin. “Can we just get the discharge papers, and then we’ll be out of your hair for, well, hopefully the next few months. I can’t guarantee it though.”
“I’ll ask Dr. Garcia. Oh, and Mrs. Warren, they’re moving you to Floor Four, they feel as if that level would be more appropriate for you.”
“What’s up in the fourth floor?” Karen asked sleepily
“It’s Spell Damage, dear.”
“Seems adequate,” Karen sighed “At least it’ll be a quicker walk to the Tea Room. I fancy that Tea, I do, need a daily dose of it most say.”
“Well, Albus, are you ready to go?” Harry questioned
“Yeah, I just want to change into actual clothes if that’s okay.” Albus said to Nurse Marlett.
“Of course, the Bathroom is on the curtain barrier between your and Karen’s room.” Nurse Marlett said, pointing to the door.
Albus slowly stood from his bed, and retrieved the clothes from a bag that his dad had brought. Albus then made his way towards the bathroom door, pushing the curtain back behind him. Albus looked back as he grasped the door handle, and grinned sheepishly at Karen Warren. She however, was looking up at the ceiling, and didn’t catch Albus’s grin. Albus quickly changed in the bathroom, and when he left, he looked at Ms. Warren, and saw that she was still looking up at the ceiling. This time however, she was smiling to herself, and chuckling softly.
“Karen, are you okay?” Albus asked, approaching the woman. Upon hearing Albus’s inquiry, Nurse Marlett Harry ran over to where Albus now was. Tentatively, Albus approached Ms. Warren, whose head snapped up, and looked directly at Albus, who jumped back and swore.
“Under the willows you will battle, to protect the traits of death.” She called. Her voice was mystical and sweet, yet deep and eerie at the same time.
“What’s happening to her?” Albus asked, frightened.
“She’s delusional!” James exclaimed.
“Under the willows you will battle, the mystery is the only thing left.” Karen continued, her face shaking a little.
“What’s she blabbering on about?” a Portrait of an old wizard asked
“Under the willows you will battle, the moon will save you all.”
“What the bloody hell is happening?” James asked as Harry put an arm on Albus’s shoulder. Up until then, Albus was slowly walking towards Ms. Warren.
“Under the willows you will battle, your enemies will fall.” Karen said. She then shut her mouth, and then fell asleep
“She was having a stress-induced episode” Harry exclaimed.
“She was what?” Nurse Marlett asked, doing a double-take.
“She’s having a stress-induced episode, people snap in and out of them. They commonly happen when something life altering or stressful happens to someone.”
“How’d you know what was happening?” Nurse Marlett.
“When I was a kid, my Uncle’s son had a few; of course Professor Revalvier didn’t put it in the books. She said it wasn’t all that important, and, she only knew very little about it as she was writing the books.”
“Let’s go down to the cafeteria now.” A slightly pale Ginny said, leading the group over to the exit to the door.
“Mr. Potter, what should I do if she has another one of those things?” Nurse Marlett asked
“Do nothing; wait for her to snap out of it.” Harry answered. “Oh, and, the signed Discharge papers are on Albus’s bed.
Within minutes, the four Potters were up in the Cafeteria, all eating, and Ginny and Harry trying to start multiple conversations, which Albus knew was to get their minds off of the situation that took place back in the room.
“So Albus how’s the chicken?” Ginny questioned
“Good, but, not nearly as good as some home cooked meals.”
“Well, you’ll be getting a lot of those once you get back.” Harry said with a grin
“So, where is everyone else?”
“They’re at Grimmauld Place sleeping in.” James answered
“And, is there any news about Ben?” Albus asked his dad.
“No not yet.” Harry said, grinning slightly, a sight that Albus missed.
As Albus bit into his chicken, his thoughts roamed to the words of the delusional Karen. She had looked directly at him the entire time, her eyes an eerie blank white and her smile crooked and haunting. Albus tried to remember her words, but couldn’t. The entire situation had been blurred, and seemed to have only lasted seconds, which in reality, it had.
“Excuse me sir.” Someone from behind Albus called. Albus turned in his seat, and saw that he was blocking someone’s path to a seat.
“Oh, I’m sorry sir.” Albus apologized, moving his seat forward, giving the person enough room to push past. As he continued across the cafeteria, Harry and Ginny stared at the man, causing Albus to stare at him too. He was rather tall, with billowing blue robes too long for him, and flowing grey-blondish hair that looked dirty, and in need of washing.
“Does that look like…?” Ginny asked, her voice trailing off.
“Only about thirty years older?” Harry asked
“I think it is.”
“Professor Lockhart!” Harry called suddenly, making the man in the blue robes spin around on his heels.
“Professor did you say?” the man asked “I was a professor?” he asked again, nearly running back to the table. “Do tell me, what did I teach?”
“You taught Defense against the Dark Arts.” Harry said with a small smile.
“Did I really?” Professor Lockhart asked slowly in disbelief.
“In my first year you did, that was until you accidentally hit yourself with a memory loss charm.” Ginny answered
“Well, Bloody Hell, geuss old Lockhart did accomplish something after all. Say, do you know when my birthday is?” He asked cheerfully, grinning. Albus nearly gagged at the sight of Lockhart’s stained, crooked, and broken teeth.
“Not a clue sir, sorry.” Harry frowned
“Lockhart, there you are! What are you doing out of bed?” a round female nurse asked, walking up to Professor Lockhart.
“I’m talking to my friends!” He announced cheerfully.
“And these friends would be?” The nurse asked, peering at the Potter family skeptically over the frames of her spectacles.
“We’re the Potter family ma’am.” Harry answered kindly.
“Lockhart, you know that you get served food in your own room, why even bother to come to the cafeteria?”
“He was looking for me ma’am.” A man said, walking up to Lockhart. He had about inch long brown hair, and was rather muscular, although he was about five foot seven, which Albus considered short
“Oliver Wood?” Harry questioned, looking at his old friend.
“Hey mate, what brings you here?” Oliver asked, grinning at Harry.
“Albus broke his arm, what about you?”
“I broke pretty much all my bones in the both arms and legs during a bloody violent Quidditch Practice. The press managed to keep it quiet, and the hospital was kind enough to let me stay in a hidden room so no one would know I’m here, I’m getting dismissed tomorrow though, and the hospitals pretty empty, so I figured I’d come out of my room to eat today.”
“Ouch, seems like you’re having some tough times on the pitch.”
“You’re keeper for Puddlemere United, right?” James asked.
“Yeah, although we’re not playing for any cups at the moment, we lost a chaser and a seeker to a tornado our last game, so we’ve been put out any chance to win the World Cup. However, we’re expecting to be in the cup for next year.”
“I’ll be your seeker, I’m of age, and I’m top player for the Gryffindor team.”
“And you have to take your N.E.W.T’s.” Ginny said, grinning as she shook her head.
“Well, I could ask to take them now; after all, I am almost top of my class.” At this, Albus laughed
“You the top of your class; what classes are these exactly?” Albus asked
“Shut up you Skrewt!” James said, punching Albus in the arm.
“I’m sure you can audition in two years for the team, there’s bound to be another tragic accident in the next two years that’ll leave us without a seeker.” Oliver said, grinning as he took a sip of Butterbeer.
“MINE!” a high pitched voice called as it jumped up, grabbing onto James’s hair, then launching itself forward, and snatching Oliver’s Butterbeer from his hands.
“Damn it Winky!” Oliver exclaimed, tugging around his robes for his wand. “Quick, someone stun that house elf!”
“I’m on it!” Albus, James, and Harry called on instinct, standing up and chasing after the house elf that was in fact, good at hiding.
“Where’d it go?” James questioned as the House Elf darted under the table, knocked over a chair, and then jumped onto a light fixture, and swinging on it, sending himself flying across the cafeteria.
“Stupefy!” Albus called as the House Elf was about to land on a nearby table. The House Elf coiled against the force of the spell, and smacked onto the floor, the butterbeer shattering on impact.
“Harry, I’m sure you slightly remember Winky, Cornelius Fudge’s Ex- House Elf?” Oliver Wood asked, coming to the side of the Elf, and repairing the shattered butter beer bottle with a small black wand. Albus recognized it as Ginny’s spare wand.
“How could I forget her?” Harry questioned “She practically helped Fudge plot the entire fiasco of my fourth year.”
“Well, she’s under full watch here; recovering alcoholic.” Oliver said with a slight frown
“I remember she had some issues with that after fourth year.”
“She’s been here for about two years now, and almost every day she tries to nick someone’s butter beer to drink it.”
“You there!” Lockhart said, pointing his index finger at Oliver. “Who am I?”
~AP~
“Checkmate!” Nicky yelled, his rook slicing Lucy’s queen in half.
“Hey guys.” Albus said, grinning as he dropped his bag and walked over to the few chairs and tables placed around the fire place.
“Hey Albus, it’s good to see you back here.” Lucy said, grinning slightly as Albus sat down in a seat. Albus looked around at the four of his friends around him. Albus then did a double take, and stared at the occupant of the fourth seat.
“Ben?” Albus questioned “What are you doing here?”
“Got here last night, I have to tell you, for a Wizard’s home, I’m not all that impressed.” Ben said, grinning as he looked around at the boxes upon boxes labeled ‘useless junk’
“We’re in the middle of cleaning the house, it’s a tedious process.”
“Well, I figured that much, but still.”
“Yes, Ben has been lovely.” Ginny said with a small grin.
“I try Mrs. Potter.” Ben grinned “I did help you bake cookies though, and wrap presents, and clean.”
“Well, you’ve got me there Ben.” Ginny chuckled.
“So, who wants to go play Squashel?” Nicky questioned a large grin on his face. “Kidding!” he nearly yelled once he saw Ginny’s disapproving frown
“You guys are staying off of brooms until you go back to Hogwarts, besides that, I don’t really care what you do.
“So, what do you guys want to go do?”
“I don’t know, play Winkles and Augers?”
“It’s starting to get old; I say we make a new game.” Lily sighed.
However, at that moment, a loud sound ruptured through the hallway, and James and Fred slowly walked out, their faces pink and black.
“No one try to alter the affects of the mint candy, it won’t end well.” Fred said with a small grin.
“Another thing for me to clean I suppose.” Ginny muttered as she walked towards the lounge room, where there was bound to be a mess caused by James and Fred.
“Hey guys!” Teddy yelled apperating into the Living room, Victorie at his side. “Sorry we haven’t been here for a bit, we’ve been busy; we’ve set a definite date for the wedding, and we’ve been busy with things over at Shell Cottage, and we’ve just got back from the doctors, is Harry around?”
“He’s up in his study.” James answered.
“Thanks.” Teddy said, before walking up the stairs, Victorie fallowing him.
“Wonder what that could be about.” Ben announced as James and Fred went out to the back yard.
“Dunno, but, I’m not going to bother myself with it.” Albus said.
“So, create a new game?” Lily questioned
“Not today.” |
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http://www.harrypotterfanfiction.com/viewstory.php?psid=258196
http://www.wix.com/xxeveryinchxx/apsof |
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Sun Oct 18, 2009 6:58 pm
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On Plattform 9 3/4
Joined: 15 Sep 2009
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when the rest is coming out?
this story is good |
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Wed Oct 21, 2009 2:42 pm
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Professor
Joined: 06 Jan 2008
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Location: Going Nowhere Fast.
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Wed Nov 04, 2009 6:53 am
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The Grotto Bard
Joined: 31 Dec 2007
Posts: 1255
Location: Western Narnia ( Virginia USA)
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@LaRoque, I have thoroughly enjoyed AP and the Curse of the Crypt thus far. You have not only created a parallel Hogwarts' world but have also given it depth. New spells, new flora and fauna, new wizarding laws, new institutions and amazingly new technomancy have all been introduced.
You have successfully woven characters from the HP series as well as the Lippert series into your story. There are hints that Hogwarts' past may be more involved than we know. Your last chapter was simply delightful! How cleverly AP's future was revealed---and in verse no less. Thanks for a very entertaining read.
Glad to know you have plans for AP 3. |
Last edited by kaydle50 on Thu Nov 05, 2009 2:57 am; edited 1 time in total
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HEAD OF RAVENPUFF
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Wed Nov 04, 2009 9:54 pm
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Professor
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Location: Going Nowhere Fast.
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| kaydle50 wrote: |
@LaRoque, I have thoroughly enjoyed AP and the Curse of the Crypt thus far. You have not only created a parallel Hogwarts' world but have also given it depth. New spells, new flora and fauna, new wizarding laws, new institutions and amazingly new technomancy have all been introduced.
You have successfully woven characters from the JP series as well as the Lippert series into your story. There are hints that Hogwarts' past may be more involved than we know. Your last chapter was simply delightful! How cleverly AP's future was revealed---and in verse no less. Thanks for a very entertaining read.
Glad to know you have plans for AP 3. |
Well, i'm humbled, and honored to recieve such a compliment. Thanks Karen. However with school and whatnot, i'm only two chapters ahead of the last one you posted, with the death of my laptop, i lost a lenghty chunk of the book, which i was dissapointed by at first, but it'll be re-written quickly i assume.
Pertaining to the third books plot, i fear it MAY be copying both a fan-fiction i've enjoyed over at HPFF, and Geo's third book. Not giving away too much; It includes two other schools, a reason for the Potter's and Co to be there, and, it includes a competition in order to fill the time. lol |
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http://www.harrypotterfanfiction.com/viewstory.php?psid=258196
http://www.wix.com/xxeveryinchxx/apsof |
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Thu Nov 05, 2009 3:06 am
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The Grotto Bard
Joined: 31 Dec 2007
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Location: Western Narnia ( Virginia USA)
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| Very sorry to hear about your laptop. Take your time, we realize you have more pressing issues at present. I am still looking forward to your conclusion of this tale and hoping you will further develop AP3 later. Thanks. |
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Wed Nov 11, 2009 1:36 pm
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Professor
Joined: 06 Jan 2008
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16. Raining Cats and Dogs
Like every Christmas morning Albus could remember, he was woken up by one thing; Lily. He wasn’t sure what had caused her to constantly scream on Christmas morning, he just hoped it didn’t happen next year as well. Albus’s eyes were thrown open at the sound of her constant shrieks, and Albus immediately rolled over in his bed, and jammed a pillow against his head in hopes of drowning out the sound of Lily’s yelling.
“When will she shut up?” Ben questioned from somewhere within the bedroom.
“Hopefully soon,” Nicky muttered, still half asleep.
“Hugo, wake up!” Ben whispered, throwing a pillow towards where Hugo was sleeping.
“That was me!” Albus muttered, removing the pillow from his bed, and smacking Hugo with it.
“What?” Hugo asked, sitting up suddenly, and looking around.
“Good morning, Lily’s doing the usual Christmas Morning routine.”
“Ugh, I thought she’d get out of that once she got to Hogwarts.” Hugo sighed
“I think we were all hoping she would too.”
“Well, I suppose we should go down, don’t want to keep people waiting, do we?” Ben questioned
“Meh, James isn’t going to get up for about another half an hour I suspect, so it couldn’t hurt to sleep in a bit more.” Hugo reasoned.
“Good.” Nicky muttered, flipping over in his bed and clamping a pillow close to his head, trying to drown out the sounds of Lily’s voice. Albus sighed as Lily nearly bounced down the stairs in excitement, and with a slight grin on his face; Albus closed his eyes, and was soon asleep.
~AP~
“Get up you git, it’s snowing, and you and your friends are the only ones still asleep.” James said, flicking on the light switch with a wave of his wand.
“I’m up!” Ben exclaimed, rolling out of his bed groggily, and hitting the floor a foot or so below his bed. “I’m up,” Ben repeated tearing the twisted up sheets from his body, and throwing on a pair of snow coat and snow pants.
“Well, we’re not going to go outside until everyone has opened their presents and had something to eat, my mum’s orders.” James sighed.
“I’ll wake up Hugo.” Nicky grinned, crouching on his bed, and jumping off, heading towards Hugo’s bed. However, Nicky didn’t jump far enough, and ended up landing on Albus, who pushed Nicky off of him, and punched him in the gut.
“That was me you git!” Albus seethed, holding a slightly bruised eye.
“Obviously.” Nicky grunted, holding his gut in pain.
“You’ll be fine.” Albus insisted as he stood up and threw on a pair of jeans and a long sweater his mum had made for him last year.
“Come on Hugo, get up.” Nicky said, smacking Hugo in the head with a pillow.
“The clown won’t kill me!” Hugo yelled, sitting up suddenly.
“Uh, I’m glad to hear it?” Ben questioned as he and Albus made their way to the bedroom door, Nicky jamming on a shirt, and pulling Hugo out of bed. “We’re going to start without you Hugo!” Ben yelled down the stairs.
“Alright, alright, I’m coming, calm down.” Hugo muttered as he pulled on a shirt and made his way down the stairs.
“Hey mum.” Albus said, hugging his mother and sitting around the living room where all of the presents were laid out around the Christmas tree.
“Hey guys, good morning.” Ginny said with a small grin as she led each of them to where their presents were. “Ben and Nicky, yours were sent here this morning from two rather large barn owls.”
“Excellent.” The two said, grinning as they sat down around their presents.
“So, are we doing this the typical slow and boring way, or are we just tearing them apart?” James questioned. Every Christmas except for last, Ginny had them go in order by age, and open one present at a time, a task that took at least an hour, if not longer.
“Well, you guys worked hard in keeping this house spotless, so, go crazy.” Harry said, looking up briefly from his newspaper
Albus grinned slightly, and then grabbed one of the biggest boxes he found, and unwrapped it. To his delight, it was a rather large box of Weasley Wizard Wheeze’s treats, including some of the prototypes Teddy had showed them a few days ago. Albus thanked Teddy, who was sitting next to Harry and talking to him, and Teddy just gave Albus the thumbs up in response. Albus then grabbed another box, and unwrapped a sneak-o-scope.
“Oh crap!” James exclaimed, jumping backwards, his head rebounding off of the French doors behind him. James kicked the small box aside, and stood up quickly.
“You didn’t want baby Skrewts for Christmas?” Harry questioned, his eyebrows arched, a small smile on his lips. “Hagrid brought them by earlier in the week, he says they help fertilize the grass, but I figured you’d like them more.”
“Those things are nasty!” Nicky said, leaning into the box of about one hundred Skrewts crawling over each other.
“Honey, get those bloody things out of this house!” Ginny nearly screeched once she saw the Skrewts.
“Yes ma’am.” Harry said, placing the lid over the small box, and bringing it outside.
“This is brilliant.” Ben said, pulling out a small object looking like a muggle lighter.
“What is it?” Nicky questioned
“It’s a muggle lighter, but it’s from Geir-Haugen, so it must be some brilliant contraption of his.”
“A lighter?” Ginny questioned skeptically “Harry is that safe for a twelve year old to have?”
“The worst he can do is set a house on fire, but why would he want to do that?”
“Well, give it a try!” Teddy said grinning.
“Here it goes…” Ben said.
Apprehensively, he flicked the click wheel on the lighter, and it sparked. Immediately, every light in the room, even the sunlight, was dragged into the lighter. A green small flame shone, and a voice suddenly called out in the darkness.
“State your current position.” The voice was males, and sounded deep and groggily.
“Grimmauld Place.”
“State your wanted destination.”
“Uh, Grimmauld Place; Backyard… I geuss.” Ben said quietly. From the small light cast by the lighter, Albus could sense the confusion on Ben’s face, and Albus stared at the lighter, afraid of what would happen.
“Destination found, prepare for travel.”
“Wait, what?” Ben questioned. It was too late.
The green light grew quickly, and soon engulfed Ben, and there was a small pop, and Ben, and the lighter, disappeared. Albus looked around in fear, and could see no sign of Ben, and someone screamed out of fear, and Albus recognized the voice as Lily’s. The light was automatically restored to the room, and everyone looked outside to see Ben in the grass, grinning slightly. Albus, Harry, and Ginny all ran outside, and ran towards Ben.
“Are you alright? Are you hurt?” Ginny questioned, pulling Ben to his feet.
“Feel a bit dizzy, but other than that I’m fine.” Ben said, grinning still.
“There was a paper inside the wrapping, says you should only use it in case of an emergency.” Nicky said, hanging Ben the paper once they got inside. Ben flipped the paper over, and grinned
“It’s from Geir-Haugen, as I suspected.” He announced “It’s a mini floo system according to this parchment, says it’s only good for five uses.”
“That’s bloody brilliant though.” Nicky said, grinning
“Yeah, but I only have four more uses out of it, and then its junk.”
“Well, I’m sure Geir-Haugen can make another one.” Ginny insisted with a small grin.
“Sweet, a box of Bertie Bott’s Every Flavored Beans!” Nicky said suddenly, making everyone turn towards him. He held up the box, grinning slightly
~AP~
The rest of Winter Vacation seemed to fly by, and before Albus knew it, he had one day before he had to go back to Hogwarts. Albus was currently sitting around the living room with the usual throng of Cousins and Friends, and they were playing the new game they had previously invented, which was somewhat like a combination of Winkles and Augers, and Exploding snap.
“So, Nicky and I just thought up this game last night, and we reckon it’ll be huge at Hogwarts.” Lucy said grinning as she explained the game. “So, everyone take a card from the exploding snap pile, and point out your wand at the person’s card who is opposite from you in the circle.” This for Albus was Ben, so Albus extended his wand out to the card, his wand almost being close enough to touch it. “Now everyone levitate their other person’s card.” Everyone did so, and Albus kept his wand concentrated on the Exploding snap card. “Now, the objective of the game is to match up the card your levitating with its partner card before it explodes in the other persons face.”
“Well, doesn’t this game seem so much fun?” Hugo said sarcastically, eyeing the card near his shoulder suspiciously.
“It may be a bit dangerous, but its time you live a little Hugo.” Ben said, grinning
“Ready? GO.” Lucy said.
Immediately, everyone looked down at the circle of cards on the floor before them, and Albus tried to levitate his card so the face side was towards him. Albus stared at it, the picture was a bezoar. Albus looked down at the circle of cards, and couldn’t see a bezoar.
“Anyone here have a bezoar?” Albus questioned
“I do!” Nicky exclaimed, and carefully, the two laid their cards down in the middle of the circle, and the purple glow around the cards faded, meaning that they were no longer in fear of exploding. “Now keep going until all the cards are gone!” Lucy exclaimed
“Of course you’d make this game more difficult.” Hugo sighed as he frantically searched the cards on the floor. “There’s Dumbledore!” he exclaimed, and put the card in the center of the circle, and then levitated the other card towards the first Dumbledore. “Crap!” he yelled.
Hugo lost concentration on the card, and it dropped to the ground. Nicky and Ben both swore, and almost everyone lost concentration of their cards as they hurried to cover their face. Hugo’s card exploded first, then there were about four more explosions, and Lucy and Albus were the only two left with levitating cards.
“And, that’s how you get disqualified.” Lucy said with a small grin as Hugo, Ben, Nicky, and Lily left the circle with a small frown.
“Where the bloody hell is the Witches Hat?” Albus questioned
“It’s a cap Albus, it’s a Witches Cap. Ms. Trelawney wouldn’t be happy.” Louis suddenly said from the fire place. Albus swore in excitement, and dropped his card, which exploded, making Lucy the winner of the game.
“Louis, what are you doing here?” Albus asked, crawling across the floor towards the fireplace. Albus however, was taken aback when he just saw Louis’s head floating in the fireplace.
“Just sticking in for a quick visit, I’m surprised you guys aren’t out playing in the snow, we got about five feet up here. Of course, I reckon the headmaster charmed it to be so.”
“Wait, you’re back at Hogwarts already?” Rose questioned, remembering that Louis was on his way to the Burrow the last time they saw him.
“Yup, ran away.” Louis said, and at this, everyone questioned his statement in disbelief. “Christmas night, Teddy and my dad got into a row about something, my dad forbade Teddy from seeing Victorie, Victorie flood back to Shell Cottage after yelling at my dad, and she left the floo bag there, so, I gathered up my stuff, and flood away. I owled my mum telling her, so they’re not too mad.”
“What happened between Teddy and your dad?” Rose questioned.
“He didn’t want them getting married this summer, he says that Victorie’s too young. He has to learn to let her grow up. She’s training to be a night nurse at Saint Mungo’s anyway, and Teddy already owns the Triple W in Hogsmeade, and he’s going to own the one up in Dunnsberry if he can prove he’s responsible.”
“Oh my, I forgot that Teddy owned that store now!” Rose exclaimed
“It’s his second day on the job; he opened the Triple W first thing Wednesday morning with a twenty percent off sale, he sold a bunch of inventory too. Teddy and Fred are doing well for themselves.”
“Wait, aren’t there about four other Triple W locations in London other than the ones in Hogsmeade, Diagon Alley, and Dunnsberry?” Albus questioned, remembering his uncle briefly saying there was more than two locations.
“There are three more, two are owned by an old friend of George’s who goes by the name of Lee Jordan, and there’s his wife, who I think is Alicia Spinnet or something like that, but I could be wrong.” Hugo announced. “And then Daddy co-owns one of the stores.”Hugo announced. “They bought it after I was bought, but they don’t really work there, it was more of an investment.”
“Well, I have to go guys, Kendall Kunposs needs the fireplace.” Louis said, before his head disappeared in the flames.
“Well, it was nice to see him.” Lucy said, grinning slightly as she shuffled the Exploding Snap Cards.
“It was,” Albus agreed “he makes Divination actually durable.”
“Guys, are you all packed for tomorrow?” Ginny hollered down the steps.
“I am!” Lily and Rose both called.
“Well everyone better get up here and finish!” Ginny yelled.
“Yes ma’am!” Albus, Nicky, and Ben called. The three of them hated cleaning, let alone packing, and as Albus had learned from last year’s Christmas, it was surprising how much of your belongings got scattered across the house.
~AP~
“Bye Albus, have a good rest of the year, we’ll probably see you again in April, be good, do your homework, don’t get into duels!” Ginny yelled quickly as the train began to gather speed.
“Bye Mum, I love you!” Albus called back as he quickly stuck his head into the compartment window.
“Anyone up for some Snap and Match?” Lucy asked, pulling a pack of Exploding Snap Cards out of her hand.
“I’m good.” Albus muttered, leaning back in his seat and shutting his eyes.
He had played Winkles and Augers, and the new game- which was temporarily named Snap and Match- for hours last night after everyone was done packing, not to mention he had nearly eaten his weight in the chocolate chip cookies Kreacher, Ginny, and Harry had mad. With thoughts of returning to Hogwarts in his mind, Albus quickly fell asleep. However, after what felt like a few minutes, Albus was woken up again by the sound of about one hundred Snap cards exploding.
“Crap, sorry, I dropped the pack!” Hugo yelled as Albus and Nicky both woke up suddenly and looked around.
“Damn it Hugo, keep it down.” Nicky sighed as he rested his head against the cold window of the train.
“I miss Ben, as odd as that sounds.” Lily sighed as she absent mindedly waved her wand.
“Lily, you’re moving the light fixture,” Rose announced as the light hanging from the ceiling of the compartment began to sway back and forth. “Lily!” Rose yelled
“Huh?” Lily asked, dropping her wand, and accidently shooting a stinging hex from the tip of it.
“Ah, bloody hell that was my shin!” Jack Whillete yelled, grasping his shin in pain.
“Guys, shut up!” Jason O’Kelly sighed, leaning his head against Rose’s shoulder, immediately asleep.
“I’m hungry!” Cameron and Connor Creevey said in unison.
“I don’t care.” Albus muttered angrily as he fell back asleep.
“My oh my, what would your mothers say if she heard this kind of language?” Mindy asked from the compartment door “So far I’ve heard about four ‘craps’, one ‘bloody hell’, and one ‘damn it’, you guys are growing up.” She said, grinning as she sat down in the one remaining empty seat in the compartment.
“Silence, the bears talking.” Nicky muttered, asleep for the second time. Albus soon followed in suit, and then Jack Whillete was the fourth to go to sleep.
~AP~
“Come on you big oaf, wake up!” Lily said, smacking Albus in the face.
“I’ve got it.” Nicky said, and the next thing Albus knew, his knee was in shocking pain, and he was wide awake.
“What the bloody hell you Skrewt!” Albus said, his knee searing in pain, and Nicky then threw Albus’s satchel at him.
“Were at the station, and the train’s going to leave regardless on whether or not you’re on it.” Nicky said.
Reluctantly, Albus threw on his satchel, grabbed Twiggy in his cage, and then grabbed his Trunk, and made his way to the door of the train, and was soon on a carriage, half asleep on the way to the castle. Absently mindedly, Albus dropped his trunk off in the entrance hall, with the rest of the luggage, and soon found himself in the Slytherin Common Room, asleep.
~AP~
“Good Morning Class, I hope you enjoyed your Winter Vacation, and I’m assuming most of you are hoping for the April Vacation that the headmaster has planned for this year?” Harry asked with a small grin.
There was a muttering of agreements to this fact. The headmaster had decided the weekend that the students had gotten back from the winter vacation that there would be another vacation planned for the second week of April. Albus was excited for this vacation, because he would be going back to his home in Marble Arch for the duration of the vacation, which unlike the Christmas one, would only be a week long.
“So, today I’ll be teaching you all about a certain creature called a Boggart, which I’m sure most of you know about. So, in a raise of hands, who has heard of the name Boggart?” About four or five hands were up, including Albus’s. “Great, who would like to tell me what a Boggart looks like?” To no one’s surprise, Rose’s hand shot up first. “Rose?”
“A Boggart takes on the shape of what someone fears the most.”
“Five points for Gryffindor!” Harry grinned “now, who knows what defeats a Boggart?” This time, Ezekiel Smith raised his hand.
“Something humorous and an incantation, if I’m not mistaken,” He answered calmly
“Correct three points for Hufflepuff.” Harry said.
~AP~
“Four hours of D.A.D.A, Transfiguration, and Potions.” Albus complained
“I know, I was in your class for everyone!” Rose said as they made their way towards the room of requirement.
“Hey guys, how’s it going?” Nicky questioned, meeting up with the two.
“It’s good, Albus is complaining, as usual.” Rose sighed
“Going to the Room I’m assuming?” Nicky asked “It’s quiet up there, great place to do homework, mind if I tag along?”
“Of course not.” Albus insisted as they made their way up to the seventh floor. However when they got there, it was filled with about five Gremlins, and James.
“How’d you guys learn about the meeting?” James questioned
“What meeting?” Albus asked, eyeing his brother curiously “We just came up here to do homework.”
“Oh, well sod off, we’re busy up here.” James insisted
“No, it’s just as much our room as it is anyone’s!”
“Yes, but two of us are prefects, who are supposed to be outside the Room of Requirement making sure no one gets in here.” Peter Teer said, smiling at Albus.
“Bloody Skrewt.” Nicky muttered as they turned to walk away. Albus however, stopped Nicky in his tracks, and turned back to James.
“We’re just as Gremlin as any of the idiots you have in your club, so what are you planning?” Albus asked
“You’re not even an official Gremlin!” James insisted
“Yes, and out of the twenty or so people who follow you guys around like they are Gremlins, were the best and the most useful, and you know it.”
“He has a point.” Sasha Fleming sighed “He did come up with a reasonable excuse after one of our pranks last year.” Sasha admitted
“Fine, you can help us.” James said, defeated. “But don’t go telling your idiot friends, or anyone for that matter, they’ll tell Conrey.”
“Deal.” Rose said shutting the door behind her as the three entered the Room.
“Good, we’re planning a classic.” James said, grinning.
“And a classic in your opinion is what exactly?” Nicky questioned.
“Read this.” James said, jamming his index finger onto a page of Amazing Charms and How to Use Them. Albus, Nicky, and Rose all crowded around the book, and read the line James was referring to.
“That’s brilliant; didn’t the Marauder’s do something along the lines of that?” Albus questioned
“Which is why I call it a classic, George wanted to do it once he and Fred found out about it, but Umbridge had them on a tight leash the year they discovered it.”
“Well, when are we doing this?” Nicky questioned
“Soon enough Jefferson, these are things you can’t rush.” Sasha said, grinning slightly
“Well, it’ll most likely be after the weekend.”
“Excellent, I hoped to get into a few snowball wars over the weekend.” Nicky grinned
“And us Gremlins will join you in that task, trust us on that.”
~AP~
“Jason O’Kelly; either start throwing, or move out of the bloody way!” James yelled as snowballs flew past the Gremlin’s fort.
“Our sides are collapsing!” Sasha said as she transfigured a rock into a metal shield, and blocked a few snowballs.
“Then repair them!” James yelled as he chucked a snowball over the wall, pegging another kid in the face with it.
“James, need a bit of help over here!” Nicky called from the far corner of their fort. Nicky and Louis, both of whom were positioned there, were currently being ambushed by a group of sixth year Slytherins.
“Damn it Nicky, just throw a few snowballs at them!” James yelled.
All together, there were about seven groups of kids in separate forts, each in a snowball war with one another. It had started off being Gryffindor Gremlins verses anyone else who wanted to join, and soon spawned into seven groups, four consisting of kids from each house, and three more, one of the Gremlins and Gremlin followers, and the other two were mixed groups of friends.
“Damn it!” Albus cursed as a snowball connected with his mid-riff, making him stumble backwards slightly.
Annoyed, James ducked under the nearly collapsing sides of their fort, and took his wand out from under his robes. He waved his wand at a pile of twigs near the rear of their fort, and it immediately transformed into a rather large catapult. Grinning, Nicky and Albus loaded about twenty snowballs on the catapult, aimed it towards the Slytherin fort, a fort responsible for most of the Gremlins fort’s damage, and released the catapult. With ease, the Slytherins fort crumbled under the force of the snowballs, giving the Gremlins some time to ambush them.
“Guys, gather up snowballs, I have an idea!” Sasha yelled.
Collectively, Albus, Rose, Nicky, Louis, Hugo, and Lucy created about thirty snowballs, and gave them all to Sasha, who waved her wand at them. The snow levitated, and then slowly expanded to enclose the perimeter of the Gremlins fort, and then expanded to the ground, standing about four feet tall, and then formed into ice about a fourth of a meter thick.
“Brilliant!” James grinned as he threw a snowball at a few awed Ravenclaws.
Within two hours, the Gremlins went inside after defeating every group but the Slytherins, who by the time had many more people than the Gremlins, so the Gremlins just accepted Defeat and left. Albus currently resided in the library with Rose, trying to tackle his potions homework. This specific task was to write three hundred words on the effects of misuse of Ageing Potion.
“Do you think it’d be unorthodox for me to mention that George and Fred tried to fool the goblet of fire by using an ageing potion?” Albus asked his cousin.
“I don’t think you’d get any extra points. If Slughorn was still teaching, then maybe you’d get the extra points, but not with Professor Klein.” Rose answered, not looking up from an Arithmancy book.
“What do you want to do when we’re done with this?” Albus asked.
“Hey guys!” Nicky nearly yelled from the doorway, getting a piercing glance from Madam Pince, the rather old librarian.
“Hey Nicky.” Rose said quietly, not wanting to get thrown out of the Library by Madam Pince.
“Hagrid’s in his hut right now; just saw him coming back from the mountain that Grawp and Prechka live in, he was limping, and looked a little shocked, you want to go visit him when you’re done?”
“Let’s go now, I’m almost done anyway.” Albus said, counting the lines on his parchment. “I’m roughly at word two hundred eighty, so I can do the conclusion later. Rose, does that sound good to you?”
“Yeah, I finished all my homework yesterday anyway, just wanted to read.” Rose said, placing the book back on a nearby shelve, and leading the way out of the library.
Within minutes, the three at the door of Hagrid’s hut, shoes and ankles of robes soaked, and wanting to get inside quickly. Albus glanced towards the window, and saw the curtains drawn shut.
“You’re sure he’s in here?” Rose asked Nicky as she knocked on the door again.
“Positive.” Nicky answered confidently.
“Who’s there?” Hagrid asked. His voice was deep and growly as always.
“It’s Albus.” Albus answered, and then added “And Rose, and Nicky.” Suddenly, the door opened from the inside, creaking on its hinges, and Hagrid let the three in.
“Charlie’s in the castle nowadays?” Hagrid grunted “O’ course, his human skin can’t handle da cold conditions.”
“Hagrid, what’s going on?” Nicky asked, noticing the bloody towel wrapped around his knuckles, and the torn up coat near the half giants bed.
“Just playing around with Grawp is all.” Hagrid said abruptly before shakily pouring himself a cup of tea. “Prechka had some babies ya know? Two of them, but, they might not be here for long.”
“What do you mean by that Hagrid?” Rose questioned.
“Well, baby Giants are hard to keep track of ya know? And der loaded with magic abilities when der born, and one of em got loose over winter break, and he accidently killed someone.”
“How though?” Nicky questioned “Surely a human can protect himself against a baby giant.”
“Well, dem babies were big ya know, nearly five feet tall, and one of em got off the mountain side, went into a nearby cave, where a muggle was camping ‘or the night and they found her ripped to pieces; the muggle of course.”
“I read about that, Kyla Kinsmen right?” Rose questioned
“That’d be her.” Hagrid sighed “Now, either Grawp’s boys are going to go to other mountains, away from you kids, or be put to sleep, but der too young and too big to be here.”
“But, can’t you just enhance the strength of the fence surrounding their alcove?” Albus asked
“The headmaster wants em far away; he’s fine with me keeping Prechka and Grawp though, which is good.”
“Well, I’m sorry to hear about that Hagrid.” Rose admitted, patting the half-giant on his large shoulder.
“Look at you three, just like Harry Ron and Hermione you are. I like this trio better than the one you had last year Albus.”
“Yeah, but we all miss Ben.” Nicky chimed in.
“You three better stay friends you hear?” Hagrid asked, grinning
“I’m sure we will be.”
“We need kids like you three, what especially with Merlin out there on the loose.” At this, the three kids looked at Hagrid oddly
“You know about that?” Albus and Rose asked simultaneously
“O course I do!” Hagrid exclaimed “I know just ‘bout anything that goes on around here, Professor Lippert keeps me in the loop of things.”
“Do you think things are going to change soon with Merlin out there?” Nicky questioned
“I think if Merlin was like Voldemort- who just wanted to cause fear and panic- that we would’ve heard about it by now. No, Merlin’s different. I have a feeling he’s going to keep quiet for a while, maybe a year or so, lead everyone into a false sense of security, and then make his mark.”
“How reassuring,” Nicky said, grinning slightly, “that makes me really feel safe about going to Hogwarts next year.”
“I’m sure he’s not going to be doing anything to you three, Nicholas Flamel’s the one who has to worry.”
“Well, we best get going Hagrid, don’t want to get caught out of school past curfew.” Rose answered with a small smile.
“Do you guys want to visit again next weekend?” Hagrid questioned
“We’ll probably be able to make it.” Nicky said as they all made their way out of the hut, shutting the door behind them. “Well, he’s really optimistic.” Nicky said sarcastically as they made their way back to the castle. “I’m sure that the three of us, the three who tried to stop Merlin from existing in this day are completely safe.”
“Oh shut it, we’ll be fine, Merlin’s probably not even going to come back for a few years.” Rose said confidently “He’s smarter than that.”
~AP~
“Hey, the prank’s going on today at Dinner. Be ready, but you don’t need to help us set it up, we’ve already got it rigged.” James whispered quickly into Albus’s ear as Albus made his way to Wizard Literature that Tuesday, January 29th.
“Okay.” Albus shrugged.
The prank, which the Gremlins had planned around the second week of January, had taken longer than hoped for in order to get it done, but of course Albus knew it would take longer to rig this prank up, because they needed the Great Hall to be empty for it.
“Albus, where are you going?” A voice called. Albus snapped his head around to see Professor Lippert standing in the doorway. “I believe you’re with me for the next hour or so.”
“Right, sorry sir, got distracted.” Albus said as he sat down in his regular seat in the back row next to Nicky.
“So Class, today we will be discussing the Salem Witch Trials, something you typically discuss in your third year of both Muggle Studies, and History of Magic, but I got this book for Christmas, read it, and bought copies for my second year classes, because I figured you’d appreciate it.” Professor Lippert announced “Now, Scorpius Malfoy, distribute these books please.” Professor Lippert said, levitating the books onto Scorpius’s desk. Reluctantly, Scorpius picked up the stack of books, and began to distribute them to students of the class.
“Now, who can tell me about the Salem Witch Trials?” to surprise, Cameron Creevey rose his hand.
“They took place in Massachusetts, which is a State in America, and it was a time when the Muggles found out about Wizards and Witches, and tried to prove if someone odd in the town was a witch or a wizard by doing absurd things like burning them at a stake, or throwing them in water to see if they could swim.” Cameron answered, and then continued quickly “Of course, the real wizards and witches were already in hiding up in New York, so these Muggles were killing off their own kind. Foolish Muggles they were in my opinion.”
“Great explanation that was Cameron, very detailed.” Professor Lippert announced, grinning at Cameron. “Well, this book is titled The Massachusetts Massacre: Wizards in Hiding as you can imagine, it’s written from the perspective of a wizard, who goes by the name of Zach Walker.”
At this, Nicky and Albus made eyes with each other, looks of disbelief etched on each other’s faces. Albus knew they were both thinking the same thing of ‘could Zach Walker be related to Zane?’
“And, it starts in Salem, with Zach being burned at a stake, and then he just uses floo powder to Floo to his aunt’s house in New York, and his aunt keeps him hidden there.” Professor Lippert continued
The rest of the class was spent with Professor Lippert discussing the story, and then with Professor Lippert picking kids to read the story aloud. By the time the class was over, they had read about fifteen pages of the book. Once the class was over, Albus was one of the first kids out of the room, and he and Nicky walked down to lunch together, the conversation starting with how they thought the book was going to turn out, and it then quickly veered towards Quidditch.
“How was double Wiz Lit?” Rose questioned Nicky and Albus when they sat down, oddly enough, at the Hufflepuff table for Lunch.
“Crappy.” Louis answered sitting down “And what are you three doing at the Hufflepuff table?”
“I keep forgetting you’re in my Wiz Lit Class.” Albus admitted “And, I don’t know, we just found Rose and sat here.”
“Ashley Doone wanted to discuss tutoring options with me.” Rose answered simply
“You need tutoring?” Nicky asked, surprised
“No, Ashley Doone needs me to tutor her, and she’s willing to give me five galleons per session, which I’m happy with.” Rose said
“You’re going to tutor people now?” Louis questioned
“If people want it, yes.” Rose answered abruptly
“Well, this is getting boring, so, I’m going to the Slytherin table.” Albus grinned as he stood up, and went over to where Ralph Deedle was sitting with Marry Marsh and Gabby Gashfield.
“Oh, hey Albus, sorry you didn’t make the Quidditch team this year, Samantha’s being a right git about stuff though.”
“I can imagine.” Albus said rather abruptly “Look, Ralph, was Zane Walker by any chance related to Zach M. Walker?”
“It’s possible, but I don’t know, I’ll write him about it.” Ralph shrugged
“Are you guys excited about the match against Gryffindor?”
“No, it’s in under a month, and Samantha is making us practice at every opportunity.” Marry sighed
“That stinks.” Albus said as he wolfed down his food. “Well, I have to get doing to Muggle Studies.”
A few hours later, Albus was assigned two more homework assignments, and was sitting at the dinner table, looking up at the enchanted ceiling, grinning slightly to himself. Once nearly everyone was done eating, Albus caught eyes with James, who grinned slightly; his wand tucked up his sleeve. Albus nodded slightly, and James’s arm jerked and he muttered something under his breath. Suddenly, there was a clap of thunder, and lightening struck from the enchanted ceiling, hitting the middle of the room, and making everything shake, and many people yell.
Sasha then stood quickly, and yelled an incantation. To everyone else, it looked as if Sasha was just trying to stop the lightning bolt, and to everyone’s joy, the lightning bolt recoiled back into the ceiling, and suddenly, there was a loud sound of a cat meowing, and a tabby cat fell from the sky, and landed on all fours, and ran across the floor. This one cat was followed by a few more, and suddenly, there were about twenty cats, and thirty dogs running around the great hall, and two large mastiffs were eating the food off of the Ravenclaws table, and Albus had difficulty stifling a laugh. On cat was currently trying to jump up to the window, and kept falling backwards.
“EVERYONE STAY STILL.” The thundering voice that vibrated throughout the Great Hall came from Headmaster Conrey, who began walking towards the Gryffindor table, angrily shoving the cats and dogs out of his way. He grabbed Sasha by the neck of her robes, as well as James, and led them out of the Great Hall. “Someone, get rid of these damn animals now!” the headmaster yelled as the door snapped shut behind the three people leaving.
“Imicam Incunamp!” Professor Washburn yelled, flicking his wand abruptly.
All of the animals in the room sat on their back legs, and turned towards Professor Washburn, who flicked his wand lazily, and the animals began quickly walking towards the Entrance hall of the school, which was wide open. However, after most of the animals were out of the school, Washburn tripped over a mop, and lost his control on the animals, which ran amok. Washburn quickly flicked his wand, and shut the door to the school, but by that time, about ten of the animals had ran past him, into the school. Washburn picked up the mop, and angrily broke it against the floor, and stared angrily at Filch.
“It’s okay Washburn; we’ll get them within the next few days.” Professor McGonagall said calmly, standing from the staff table. “Kids, you’re dismissed, if you find a stray dog or a cat, bring it to either Hagrid or Charlie, who will give it a kind home.”
~AP~
“Bloody hell Conrey didn’t look happy.” Nicky said to Albus in a hushed whisper as they made their way towards the grand staircases.
“He never struck me as an animal person.” Albus said, grinning slightly, and then remembered that his brother was most likely in big trouble at the moment.
“Still, James and Sasha are lucky if they get off with twenty detentions.” Rose sighed
“Mum’s gunna send a howler I bet.”
“And then grandma Weasley would too, I reckon.”
“Well, see ya Albus.” Nicky said once Albus reached the narrow corridor heading towards the Slytherin Common Room.
“Good night guys.” Albus sighed, wondering what would happen to James, and then he realized that his dad hadn’t done anything during the time of the incident, which means he either had something to do with it, and didn’t want to get caught for it, or thought James deserved what was coming to him. Either way, Albus knew that James was in trouble. |
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