Harry talked for a few more minutes and then hung up the phone.  He started laughing as he sat back down at the table.  "Just spoken with Dudley...."

    "Yes, I'd guessed that!"  Ginny said quickly,  "What about?"

    "You'll never guess...."

"What's Quidditch?"  Kaden asked as they walked into the shop,  "Whoa!  There's brooms in here!  Are we going to be clean something?"  he asked skeptically.

    John burst out laughing,  "Clean with brooms?  No way.  We fly on them!"

"Albus!"  Kaden came running out of the door leading to the boys' dormitories, "How was dueling?  Was it fun?  Did you win?  Was the other guy unconscious for a while?  Is he still unconscious?"  Kaden sat down excitedly in the chair next to Albus's.

"And Albus fell asleep in Potions,"  Rose announced,  "I had to wake him up a few times."

    "I wasn't asleep.  I was just closing my eyes for a bit,"  Albus insisted.  "Slughorn was just talking and it was boring.  I had Quidditch practice yesterday and Astronomy. I'm tired."

"Students out of bed!"  Peeves shouted gleefully as he noticed the boys.

    "Shut up, Peeves!"  Albus replied, very irritated at Peeves's happy tone.

    Peeves peered down at Matt and then looked at John and Albus.  "Dueling, have we?  It seems that you two have won.  But Mr. Filch won't like this!  No he won't!  Students out of bed and dueling, too!"

"But those aren't at all what the O.W.L.s will be like,"  Rose reminded them,  "We've got to get used to taking exams in charms."

    "Those are three years away!"  John sighed.

    "Two and a half,"  Rose corrected him,  "And it's better to start preparing early."

"Either it's a joke or a highly advanced magical object,"  Rose remarked.  The four friends continued to watch as more writing appeared.

"Who's that old lady up there?"  Amanda pointed to the staff table.  There was a short old witch with a patched and frayed hat sitting where Professor Longbottom usually sat.

    Albus looked up and watched her.  For some reason she looked rather familiar, but he couldn't put his finger on it.

    "Yeah, and where's Professor Longbottom?"  Matt asked.

"Why don't you take a break?"  Albus suggested while they were in the common room on Saturday night.  "You've been at it for days."

    "Maybe you're right,"  Rose sighed.  She had been trying for the past hour to reproduce her name onto another piece of parchment.  "I'll just relax for a while."  She pulled out her Transfiguration book and opened it to one of the later chapters.

"Good, good,"  Binns continued,  "And in 1866, British House Elves started to have contact with the American House Elves, which resulted in a kind of House Elf unity...."

    "Kill me now,"  John muttered.

    "Five more minutes..."  Albus sighed.

    "I think Binns was around during all this House Elf stuff,"  Amanda whispered.

  "What is it, Al?"  Harry got up and squeezed his way through the crowd over to Albus.

    "It's all right if I go to Rose's house on the 28th, right?  And stay a couple days?"

    "That would be fine,"  Harry said,  "But we're actually going to Dudley's house for New Year's Eve, so we'll come get you on the 31st before we leave."

"I hate Aunt Marge,"  Kaden said loudly, causing Albus to snort into his juice.  "All she talks about is breeding dogs."

    "Don't say that about your aunt,"  Vernon scolded.

    "What?"  Kaden shrugged,  "Professor Potter must not like her either."

"What is this stuff?"  Kaden pointed to a platter of some sort of meat.

    "Pheasant,"  Albus replied.  Slughorn always served pheasant at his meetings.  Albus tried it last year and hated it.

"Maybe it's got to do that he's been flying around in a blizzard for the past two hours?"  Rose suggested,  "If they'd just have canceled the match-"

    "They don't cancel Quidditch!"  John shouted and then turned to Matt,  "You understand this, don't you?"

    "It's true,"  Matt agreed,  "Quidditch isn't ever canceled for trivial things like blizzards."

  "Yeah,"  Albus agreed,  "Even though we were with Slytherins.  Willinson wasn't too bad."

    "That's good,"  John said,  "I caught a glimpse of him in the Gryffindor robes.  Priceless."

    "Yeah, I thought so.  Until I had to put on the Slytherin ones,"  Albus replied.

"Look in the index,"  Rose instructed as she dumped a huge pile of books onto the table,  "Just look up 'Wizard's Finger Print' and if it's not there, don't bother searching that book."

    "What would we do without you, Rose?"  John laughed as he took the book that was on top.

    "Oh, it would take you until sixth year to figure this out,"  Rose grinned.

"I think Al wants to know what we're talking about,"  Ron grinned, looking up at Albus.

    Albus quickly looked down at his plate and shoved a piece of roll in his mouth, blushing.

    "I think you're right,"  Harry laughed,  "It's ok, Al.  If we talk about work stuff at the table, it's our own fault if you overhear it."

    Albus nodded and swallowed the roll.  "I wasn't, er, listening in, or anything...."

"Yes!"  John shouted as his queen smashed Matt's bishop,  "Another one of your pieces destroyed!"

    "At least I still have my knights,"  Matt smirked.

    "At least I've got my queen,"  John pointed out.

    Albus grinned to himself and settled down to watch the rest of the game.  One of  Matt's knights was in the process of killing John's queen when he heard a faint tapping on the window behind him.

  Everyone nodded and followed Harry up the stairs.  They were stopped no less than three times by various students wanting to talk to Kaden.  Albus and John broke out in hysterical laughter after the third person asked for his autograph.  Eventually, they did manage to make it to the Room.