A Wizard's Alphabet – A
Amortentia
Life is sweet, thought James, as he climbed through the portrait hole, his pockets full of Weasley's Wizard Wheezes products he had just bought from the Hogsmeade branch of the shop, having used the One-Eyed Witch's passageway to get there. It was the end of the Christmas holidays, and James, Albus, Lily, and all of their Weasley cousins had just returned from the Burrow hours earlier, where they spent said holiday together every year.
His entrance into the Gryffindor common room triggered a burst of giggles amongst a group of fifth-year girls seated by the fireplace. James winked at them, ruffling his hair, so that they lapsed into even more giggles.
Smirking to himself, James walked over and sat down next to Rose, Albus, and Louis, where they sat in the corner working on some homework they had neglected over the break. Well, Albus and Louis were, while Rose helped them, having finished it ages ago.
"How's things, little bro and cousins?" James said cheerfully.
"Oh, buzz off," said Albus, rolling his eyes. Louis looked up and smiled briefly in greeting, before returning to his work. Rose didn't answer, but instead looked over at the group of giggling girls who were now whispering enthusiastically to each other, occasionally shooting a glance at James and giggling some more.
"Gosh, someone's in a right mood. What's wrong, Al? Missing Mummy and Daddy already?"
Albus went red and glared at James, but knew better than to argue, and went back to his work like Louis.
Rose turned back to face James, rolling her eyes. "You're so immature, James. And you might want to watch what you eat."
James raised an eyebrow, puzzled by his cousin's warning. "Come again?"
She sighed, gesturing towards the giggling and whispering girls. "I heard them earlier, in the dorm, talking about methods of slipping you Amortentia; they nicked some of it from Professor Slughorn's office."
James laughed. "Ah, yes, there's a brilliant Potter gene there; apparently there were girls trying to slip dad love potions when he was sixteen. Obviously Al didn't inherit it, but I did," he gloated, causing Albus to flinch with the effort of not whacking his brother upside the head.
"But why didn't you just confiscate it? You didn't get that prefect badge for nothing, Rosie," he said instead.
She shook her head. "I never actually saw it; I would have no idea which one of them has the actual potion."
"I'd report them myself, but seeing James inflicted by Amortentia would be hilarious." He muttered to Louis, who snorted, his bright blue eyes gleaming with amusement.
James shrugged, and yawned, apparently oblivious to the exchange between his younger brother and cousin. "Well, I guess I'll just have to get a girlfriend and they might give up. Anyway, night!" he said happily, before heading off to his dormitory.
Rose stared after him, an incredulous expression on her face. "Honestly, I'll never know how he got through his OWLS, really, his skull is even thicker than Michael Crabbe's arms!"
Albus shrugged. "It'll serve him right if they manage to get him to eat or drink something with Amortentia in it, it might shrink his thick-skulled ego."
"Maybe. Felicia McLaggen seems really serious about it, though..."
"Wasn't her dad the one that hit Harry over the head with a bludger even though he was keeper and they were on the same team?" asked Louis, packing up his things.
"Yeah, that's the one," said Albus, closing his own books, and yawning. "Oh well. I still think he needs to be taught a lesson.
All three of them stood up and glanced once more at Felicia McLaggen and her group of friends.
"See you tomorrow, then,"sighed Rose, before making her way up to the girls' dorms. Albus and Louis looked at each other, before climbing the stairs to their own.
James woke up the next day to a weak ray of sunlight filtering through the gap in his curtains. He opened them and threw one of his pillows through Fred's curtains to wake him up. He stood up and walked around to his trunk to get dressed (his pillow flying back through the curtains and landing on the middle of his bed), but paused as he saw an extravagantly red and gold wrapped gift sitting on top of the trunk. He cautiously picked up the little red card which was resting on top of the package, opened it, and read it.
Hi James!
This is just a late Christmas present, sorry about it being so late, I wasn't sure where you would be for the Christmas holidays. Anyway, here it is! It's just a few Honeydukes sweets, hope you like it!
Love, Your Secret Admirer xx
James snorted, thinking about the group of girls that were by the fireplace the night before.
"What are you laughing about?" said Fred, peering over his shoulder. James handed him the card, and shifted the package onto his bed so that he could get dressed.
"Rosie reckons that some girls in her dorm are trying to slip me some Amortentia," he explained while he pulled on his robes. Fred laughed, shaking his head, and handed the card back to James.
"I guess she was right, then," Fred said, crossing over to his own trunk to get dressed.
James laughed in agreement, grabbing his wand from his bedside table. He paused when he looked at the package again, an idea forming in his head. Grabbing the card, he started to modify the writing inside it. Curious, Fred looked over James' shoulder again, and by the time he was finished his work, they both wore evil grins, and Fred was fighting the urge to laugh.
Later, at breakfast, Felicia McLaggen and her friends kept glancing down the table at James, where he, Fred and Roxanne were chatting animatedly about Quidditch league while Lucy watched them, only vaguely interested.
"Do you think he's eaten any of the sweets yet?" Felicia whispered.
"Relax, Lisa, he probably wanted to eat breakfast first."
"Yeah, don't worry, Rose says he'll eat pretty much anything sooner or later."
"You're right... thanks guys," said Felicia, breathing deeply to calm herself as her friends rubbed her back sympathetically.
Albus, Rose, Louis and Scorpius sat a few seats further down from James, Fred, Roxanne and Lucy.
"-So you only just got back?" Albus was saying to Scorpius, who, despite his complete Slytherin heritage, was sorted into Gryffindor. He had also gotten back from the Christmas Holidays later than everyone else.
"Yeah, we had to get dad to St. Mungo's before it could get any worse. He was in a pretty bad way,"
A sharp intake of breath came from Rose. "Damn... dragon pox at his age is pretty deadly," she said, sympathetically patting Scorpius on the arm.
He half-smiled at her. "Yeah... Mum's gone hysteric. I had dragon pox when I was three, though."
"I had it when I was ten, right before James started his first year. He wouldn't stop teasing me about it until I 'accidentally' turned his toothbrush into a giant slug," Albus said, absent-mindedly glaring in James' direction at the memory.
"I haven't had it yet... I guess that's bad. Anyone know what we've got first?" said Louis, apparently eager to change the subject.
"Double History of Magic; we'd better go get our bags," said Rose, acknowledging the groans of the boys by rolling her eyes.
When they reached Gryffindor tower, and Albus, Louis, and Scorpius dashed up the stairs to the boys' dorms, while Rose went up to the girls'. Louis and Scorpius crossed to their beds on either side of Albus' to get their bags, while Albus paused in front of his, staring with an eyebrow raised at a red and gold package on his trunk. He took the card on top and read it while grabbing his bag from beside his bed.
Albus,
Merry late Christmas! I know I already gave you a gift, but I wanted to give this to you without James knowing about it – so don't tell him! Besides, you might need these soon; your homework load ain't getting any lighter anytime soon, if you know what I mean.
From your favourite god-brother,
Teddy
Albus smiled; it was so like Teddy to do things like this, especially the extravagant wrappings, which reflected his personality in a big way (he had made his hair into a red, green and gold afro for Christmas, and even grown antlers and a big red nose).
Making a mental note to thank Teddy in his next letter to him, Al showed the card to Scorpius and Louis, who both laughed at it, while he opened the package to discover a box containing a multitudinous supply of Honeydukes sweets.
"Bloody hell," said Scorpius as the three gaped inside the decently sized box. Louis nodded vigorously in agreement to that wordy statement.
Albus scoffed, before shoving a bar of chocolate into his pocket, figuring he would need it during Double History of Magic and shoving the rest into his trunk. "Come on, Rose'll kill us if we're late."
Later on, during their torturous History of Magic lesson, a good percentage of the class were in their usual stupor, only a couple bothering to take notes, one of them being Rose, obviously. Albus had his head on his arms and was very close to falling asleep. Remembering the chocolate bar he had stuffed into his robe pocket, he lifted his head and pulled it out, purely because it was more interesting than Binns' monotonous lecture. Rose shot him a death glare as he silently opened it and took a bite, revelling in its flavour, which contrasted so brilliantly to the dull atmosphere of the classroom. Looking around, and taking another few bites of the chocolate. He noticed that Felicia Mclaggen seemed tense, and worried about something. Maybe something had gone wrong with trying to slip James the Amortentia? He laughed inwardly at the idea of offering her help; after all, she did have the loveliest, longest, shiniest light-brown hair... as smooth as the chocolate Albus shoved into his mouth as he stared at Felicia.
Next to Al, Scorpius noticed his vacant smile as he stared at something, and followed his gaze to Felicia McLaggen, who apparently was trying to slip James some Amortentia. Suddenly something clicked in his mind. Albus had seemed quite bitter when he, Louis and Rose told Scorpius about the girls' scheme. Was it because he had secretly been crushing on Felicia and was jealous that she obsessed over his own brother? It was bloody confusing. Scorpius deliberated for a minute, before pulling out a piece of ripped parchment and scrawling a note on it.
Yo, Al – Why are you staring at McLaggen?
He then folded it up and threw it across to Albus, not worrying about Binns noticing, since he hardly ever seemed to notice there were even people in the room. He noticed Al look at the note in surprise, before unfolding it, reading it, smiling, writing his reply and chucking it back to him.
Scorpius unfolded it, and wasn't sure what to think of the reply.
Hey, Scorp – Have you ever noticed how long and shiny and beautiful her hair is?
He glanced up to look at said hair. It was certainly long, but it looked pretty artificial – probably due to excessive use of Sleekeazy's Hair Potion, he thought. He then looked at Al again. The vacant smile was on his face again, and he rested his head on his hand. His green eyes were strangely glazed. Shaking his head, Scorpius wrote his reply.
Al – What the blazes is wrong with you!
He threw it back over to Al, and waited for him to reply.
Scorp – Nothing's wrong at all! In fact, everything is perfect! More than perfect!
Scorpius furrowed his brow. Something was definitely wrong. Either that or the chocolate Al had eaten had been spiked with an Elixir to Induce Euphoria or something... he must have fancied this girl for a while.
Al – So... you fancy her? Geez, I would never've guessed...
Albus seemed reluctant to look away from McLaggen's hair this time, but sighed at the note, taking his time on one particular word as he wrote his reply, it seemed.
Scorp – I don't just fancy her... I'm in LOVE with her!
The word 'Love' was embellished with little hearts and roses, and made Scorpius feel sick. This must have been coming on for a while... how did he not notice it before? He decided to show it to the other two, so he left Albus to gaze lovingly at McLaggen, while he wrote to Louis and Rose.
Lou, Rose – Look at this conversation between me and Al. Did either of you two notice him showing signs of fancying McLaggen before?
Sighing with worry for his best friend, he chucked it over an oblivious Albus' head to Louis, who opened it and read it, his eyebrows raising further up into his strawberry-blonde hair until they were barely visible. He looked across at Scorpius, shrugging and shaking his head before writing his reply, and handing it across to Rose, who looked slightly disgruntled at being disturbed, but read the note and wrote her reply nonetheless, her brow furrowed. She then passed it back to Louis, who read Rose's reply, before chucking it back to Scorpius.
Scorp, Rose – If he fancied her, then I had no idea. Then again, Al is Al isn't he? He's never been incredibly open about his feelings, has he? Well... 'til now, I 'spose.
Scorp, Lou – Something is definitely going on. Unless he's just been hiding his feelings for the past month or so and gotten sick of hiding everything... maybe it was triggered by hearing that she fancies James? Either that or he's had a sudden revelation – she's not exactly ugly, is she? Didn't think her to be Al's type though...
Scorpius glanced at Albus again, and was about to reply when the bell signalling break finally rang.
Albus packed up super fast, and all but ran to hold the door open for Felicia, who smiled at him slightly bemusedly. He followed her out of the class straight away, not lingering to let anyone else through the door first. Ignoring her friends starting to titter, Albus tapped her on the shoulder. She turned around to face him, seeming once again slightly surprised. Al noticed how her big amber eyes seemed to shine like real ambers.
"M-may I carry your bag?"
Felicia's jaw dropped – she had not expected this. Had she put the package in the wrong dorm? Or, maybe James – being the amazing and generous person he is – had kindly shared his chocolate to his younger brother. Yes, that was probably it. Felicia wanted to swoon at the thought, but thought it wiser not to at this particular moment.
"Um... sure," she said. He instantly took her bag from her and put it over his shoulder along with his own bag. They began to walk towards the great hall together, Felicia thinking things over in her head – she had half a mind to get him an antidote, but she also figured it would be pretty useful to have someone so close to James fawning over her. It would either make him jealous, or she would be able to get him to slip James some Amortentia more effectively. In the end, she decided she would see how things played out. Albus was fairly good looking anyway.
"Y-your hair, it looks really nice t-today," he stuttered as they reached the hall. Felicia looked at him; his emerald eyes seemed misty behind his glasses. She smiled, taking her bag back, kissing him on the cheek, and thanking him before walking off to find a seat at the Gryffindor table with her friends and explain her plan.
Meanwhile, Albus raised his hand to where she had kissed him, before dropping to the floor in a faint just as James, Fred, Roxanne and Lucy walked past.
James and Fred roared with laughter, while Roxanne raised her eyebrows at her brother and cousin, and Lucy rushed to see whether Albus was okay.
Scorpius, Louis, and Rose sat in a corner of the Transfiguration Courtyard during break. They had seen Al rush off to offer to carry Felicia's bag before either one of them could say anything to him.
"So no one had any idea that he fancied McLaggen?" Scorpius asked dejectedly. The other two both shook their heads. "He's doomed; she's not going to be giving up on James anytime soon, that much is obvious."
Rose sighed. "It is rather strange. I guess there's no other explanation other than the fact that he was shaken when he found out that she fancies his brother, and decided to get a move on before she could get James, before he got her."
Louis frowned, while Scorpius closed his eyes and leant back against the courtyard wall. "I guess we'll just have to see what happens."
The rest of the day's classes passed without much event, other than Albus starting to sit next to Felicia in every class and stare at her constantly. James was thoroughly enjoying seeing his little brother trip over his own feet and stammering as he trailed McLaggen every time he passed him in the corridors.
That night in the dorms, Scorpius and Louis watched Albus carefully as they pulled off their robes and put on their pyjamas. He was lying across his bed, staring up at the canopy of his four-poster, absent-mindedly sucking on a sugar quill. "Hey, guys..." he said softly, as Scorpius went to put out the lights. "You're both good with girls... how can I get Felicia to like me more?"
Scorpius' eyes widened as he looked over at Louis, who was looking at him with a similar expression, but was the first to speak. "I... I guess you just need to be real polite and nice to her," he said nervously.
"Yeah... and maybe do something to... to impress her. Your dad had tons of girls after him because of all that stuff he did..." Scorpius said uncertainly.
"Hmm... Yeah... You're right. I'll do something to impress her," said Albus airily, before finally leaping up and getting into his pyjamas. Scorpius exchanged a nervous look with Louis, who shrugged hopelessly.
James was just about to head down to breakfast the next morning when Albus suddenly appeared right in front of him, and James crashed into him, sending them both tumbling through the portrait hole. James swore loudly and got up straight away, laughing valiantly along with everyone else who was watching and turning to kick Albus for randomly appearing like that. However, the latter was already standing right in front of James again, who yelped and swore again.
"Okay, seriously, Al, you have got to not do that!" he said.
Albus appeared to not hear him, and instead asked, "How do I impress a girl?"
James bit his tongue to keep himself from bursting out laughing, and took a few deep breaths to calm himself before answering.
"Uh – I don't know, something big, with the whole school watching," he replied, biting down hard on his tongue as Al's eyes widened.
"Like climbing up to the Astronomy Tower?"
This time, James let out a snort and had to turn away until his waves of hysterical laughter died down enough to control them. He turned back to his brother, who was still looking at him with the same expectant look, apparently completely unfazed by James' odd behaviour. "Y-yeah, perfect!"
Albus nodded curtly. "Okay. Tell everyone to be at the foot of the Astronomy Tower during break." He then rushed off, and James lapsed into laughter, clutching the wall for support. When he finally regained control of himself, he made his way down to the Great Hall, and sat down between Fred and Roxanne.
"Albus wants everyone to be at the foot of the Astronomy Tower at break," he whispered to Fred, who grinned evilly.
"Leave it to me," he said, and with those words, stood up on the table and shouted out for the whole hall to hear "Oi! Everyone who wants to see something cool come to the foot of the Astronomy tower at break!"
Everyone was silent for a second as Fred climbed down, then the normal chatter resumed.
"Reckon that'll work?" said James, grinning broadly anyway.
"'Course, their curiosity will get the better of them, as always," replied Fred, as Lucy watched them with narrowed eyes from across the table.
Further down, Albus beamed when Fred stood up and made the announcement, and Rose immediately suspected something, and pestered him to tell her.
"Just be there during break and you'll find out," he said simply, refusing to tell anyone any details when they asked, which caused Rose, Scorpius and Louis to exchange nervous and concerned glances. "What have we got first, anyway?" Albus continued, oblivious to the exchange.
"Potions and Herbology..."
Potions with Slughorn went by as per usual, but during Herbology, an air of excitement filled the greenhouse, since pretty much everyone had heard Fred's announcement over breakfast. Afterwards, everyone headed towards the foot of the Astronomy tower, chatting animatedly about what they might find.
"Where did Albus go?" said Rose suspiciously, looking around for him as they crossed the gardens.
"He ran off, practically dragging McLaggen along with him," explained Scorpius. All three of them sighed.
When they finally reached the foot of the Astronomy tower, Rose dropped her books, made a little squeaking noise, and fainted. Louis helped her back up again while Scorpius almost fainted himself, his mouth dropping open into a perfect 'O'.
Albus was hanging off a ledge on the side of the wall of the Astronomy Tower, moving sideways towards a pipe that he would be able to climb up. He was probably twenty feet up already, judging by how small everyone looked whenever he looked down. He grabbed the pipe and began to shimmy upwards, glancing down again at Felicia. She wore an expression of admiration, which boosted his confidence greatly, and he slowly but surely made his way up even further.
"What is he doing!" Rose cried hysterically, glaring at Louis and Scorpius as if it was their fault. With a jolt, Scorpius realised that it was partially his fault; he had suggested that he do something to impress McLaggen.
"Impressing her," he whispered hopelessly.
"WHAT!" Rose all but screamed.
"He's doing a damn good job of it, too! Have you seen the poor girl?" came James' amused voice from behind them. "I didn't think he'd do it... just goes to show, eh?"
"You... you KNEW!" Rose screamed shrilly"
"Yep, sure did. I guess Amortentia really is the most powerful love potion in the world... go figure!"
This seemed to drive Rose to an ultimate level of hysteria. "AMORTENTIA!"
"Well, I had to do something with those lovely sweets that darling Felicia was kind enough to gift to me."
Rose opened and closed her mouth, Louis was looking slightly green, and Scorpius started to say "You..." but was interrupted by a loud creaking noise, and someone pushing past him and knocking him sideways into Louis.
Albus quickly pulled himself onto a nearby crumbling ledge as the pipe he had been shimmying up started to pull away from the wall slightly. He hadn't planned to use this ledge – it was one of the thinner ledges, and was collapsed slightly in the middle. He felt very unsafe, pressed against the wall, his fingers stark white as they clutched the flat stones. He was just able to stand on the ledge with his toes, and was scared to move in case he fell.
"POTTER! WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING!" someone screamed below. Albus carefully turned his head to see who it was, and felt himself pale as he registered how far away the ground was, and how precariously he was standing on the ledge, how easy it would be for him to fall... just one wrong step...
His stomach lurched, and his breath caught in his throat. He could hear the same voice yelling something else at him, but his brain felt numb, and his vision began to swim before his eyes, darkness converging on either side as he fell into its suffocating arms.
"You have a lot of explaining to do."
James cringed; he had heard that line many times while he sat in the headmistress' office, but never had it sounded that severe.
"I-"
"You nearly got another student killed. You realise that, yes? Your own brother, no less!" McGonagall said, glaring at James across the desk. "Explain!"
James flinched again, before reluctantly launching into his explanation about how Rose had warned him about the girls and the Amortentia, and how he had modified the card and put it on Albus' trunk when he wasn't in his dorm.
"But what I want to know is where he got the idea to climb the Astronomy Tower?" McGonagall demanded.
"Um, well, he asked me what he could do to, er, impress her, so I told him...er, something big with the whole school watching... and he asked if climbing the Astronomy Tower was... good enough..." James explained, looking at his feet.
"And you agreed with him? Didn't even try to stop him?" He winced once more, and didn't answer. Professor McGonagall sighed resignedly. "Fortunately for you, it was not entirely your fault. You will receive two months' detentions with Mr. Filch. Miss McLaggen, and possibly her friends, depending on what kind of part they played in her plan, will also receive detention. And I'm sure your family will punish you enough, anyway. Your parents, siblings, cousins and Mr. Malfoy are in the Hospital Wing."
Taking this as a dismissal, James stood up, and left. He had no intention of going to the Hospital Wing, where he knew his mother would skin him alive, but figured that not going would create a Howler Effect; it would come sooner or later, but the later he left it the worse it would get, so he dragged himself to the Hospital Wing, where he was, indeed, skinned alive by his mother. When she had finally yelled herself hoarse (since even Madam Pomfrey had been too intimidated to tell her to lower her voice), she had glared daggers at him once more, before disappearing behind a screen that probably had Albus and everyone else behind it too. He cautiously made his way towards it, but a gentle hand on his shoulder stopped him in his tracks. He winced. It was too gentle.
Dad.
There was one thing worse than his mother's screams of rage; his father's calm words that oozed with disappointment.
"James..." he started.
James made a noise somewhere along the lines of 'eep'. Harry sighed, remembering how much more intimidating he himself found calm and controlled anger compared to yelling, screaming, raging anger, which was pretty bloody scary, especially coming from Ginny. "Fair word of warning;" he said quietly, "the phrase 'if looks could kill' will most likely run through your head if you go in there."
James winced again. Harry raised an eyebrow. "Why do you keep wincing?"
"Just... just say it, dad," whispered James dramatically. Harry's eyebrow disappeared into his messy black hair.
"Alright, well, I would have expected better of you," he started, noticing James wincing again. "I know you like to play pranks on people, especially your brother, but I did think that you thought things over before acting upon them, usually. He's your only brother; you should put more value on those sorts of things."
Realising the worst was over, James sighed. "Well – what would you have done?" he asked feebly.
"Me?" said Harry, shaking his head. "Well, first of all, I was an only child, and, I put them in my trunk, though I really should have thrown them away."
"Wait, what?"
Harry sighed again. "When I was sixteen, there was a group of girls who were trying to slip me a love potion – as you know. One of them, Romilda Vane, gave me a box of chocolate cauldrons spiked with some of the Weasley's Wizard Wheezes' Love Potion."
James' eyes widened. "You never told us that part!"
Harry shrugged. "I guess I thought it irrelevant."
"Hmph! So you put them in your trunk?" persisted James.
"Yes, and there's more to the story, but I won't go into details now. Just throw away any kind of food a 'Secret Admirer' gives you from now on, alright?"
James nodded, and Harry clapped him on the shoulder, before leading him through a gap in the screens.
The first thing that Albus was aware of was being very warm. He then realised that even though he was lying on something very soft, he ached very painfully all over, and his limbs felt too heavy to lift. He could hear a buzzing nearby; a buzzing that slowly came into focus as voices, though he could hardly work out what they were saying.
"-Bloody lucky to be alive."
"So is James, I'm surprised Mum didn't murder him."
"She nearly did, I almost pissed myself."
"Oh wow, death by wet pants."
"Shut up."
"Yes, please do."
"So, how exactly did he fall?"
"Well, the pipe he was climbing on started to pull away from the wall, so he pulled himself onto the spindliest ledge there is,"
"He kinda froze up on it, didn't he?"
"Yeah, then McGonagall yelled at him, and he looked down, and kinda just... collapsed."
"Fainted?"
"Yeah... it was scary."
"I was sure he was... dead."
"We all did."
Albus' eyelids fluttered open. He could see dark, blurry shapes nearby and hear various gasps and exclamations. He felt around for his glasses, and someone pushed them into his hands. He put them on and looked around, taking in the scene. He was in the Hospital Wing; the screens usually used to hide patients from public view had been pushed roughly aside nearby, and the grounds outside the window were dark. Rose, Scorpius, Louis, Lily, Hugo, James and Teddy were all sitting nearby, looking fairly pale.
"What the-?" he mumbled, trying to sit up. Rose put a gentle hand on his shoulder and pushed him back down, which was a good idea, since it had made Albus' head hurt quite badly when he raised it. He gingerly lifted his fingers to it and felt a thick bandage. "What—what happened?" He asked, looking around at everyone and sinking into his pillows.
They explained everything – from the love potion to the Astronomy Tower incident.
"It was bloody scary when you fell, you just kinda... crumpled. Hit the ledges on the way down, too. Fell about thirty feet," explained a very white Scorpius.
Albus learned that he had achieved a cracked skull, a broken ankle, and a broken elbow, all of which had been fixed by Madam Pomfrey, but still ached. Everyone was also surprised to learn that he remembered absolutely nothing of the ordeal.
"That's just... odd," said Teddy.
"Maybe it was knocked out of me or something. The last thing I remember is leaving Gryffindor tower for History of Magic yesterday," confessed Albus.
"I guess it makes sense, since you weren't technically yourself, so a memory blank isn't too much of a mystery," said Rose, "it often happens when people are given strong love potions. And combined with being knocked unconscious for several hours, a memory blank should be expected."
Everyone nodded slowly, seeing the logic in this. Albus closed his eyes, his head pounding quite painfully.
Everyone exchanged looks which clearly said the same thing.
"We'd better leave you in peace," said Teddy, standing up, and gently patting him on the shoulder. "You get better, alright?"
Albus smiled slightly, and Teddy smiled back, noticing how small and dishevelled he looked, and whacked James upside the head as he left.
Everyone else said their goodbyes and well-wishes until it was just Albus and James (who was rubbing the back of his head) left in the Hospital Wing.
"Listen, Al... I'm real sorry. I was... a bit arrogant."
Albus didn't open his eyes. "Hmm. Yeah."
"D'you... d'you want anything?" James offered nervously.
"Actually... yes," said Albus, opening one startlingly green eye and staring maliciously at his older brother. "Revenge."
A/N: I have a couple of things to explain, I guess.
Characters: (Just in case you don't know or have forgotten)
James, Albus and Lily are the children of Harry and Ginny, which is pretty obvious from the Hospital Wing scene, but whatever. I wanted to include Lily in it a bit more but I couldn't find a place for her to fit in... (their ages are 16, 15 and 13, by the way)
Rose and Hugo are the children of Ron and Hermione. I also wanted to include Hugo in some more with Lily, but once again, I couldn't fit him in. (Ages 15 and 13)
Louis, along with his siblings Dominique and Victoire, are the children of Bill and Fleur. (Their ages are more spaced out; 15, 18, and 21, if my calculations are correct)
Fred and Roxanne are twins, and the children of George and Angelina. (Both age 16)
Lucy, along with her older sister Molly, are the children of Percy and Audrey. (Ages 16 and 18)
Scorpius is, quite obviously, the son of Draco and Astoria. (Age 15)
*Ages are not all completely canon or realistic, but that is how they are for me, for the sake of writing and not having to make up any characters. Except for Felicia, which reminds me...*
Felicia is the daughter of Cormac and his wife who I haven't bothered to name. (Age 15)
And I also know that it would have been pretty obvious if Albus was inflicted by Amortentia, but for story's sake I made people a little dumber than they should rightfully be. Sorry if it seems a little... off.
All in all, I feel I did pretty well, but it's your opinion that matters, so click review, kay? I also need a beta, I know.
- Silver