Chapter 7: Prefect Affairs

Albus knew that it was unwise to dwell so much on a piece of paper with no discernible value, but he simply could not help himself. His thoughts and theories on both its sender and intended purpose varied depending on his mood, and he found himself far too preoccupied with it to allow more normal things to take over his mind. The reason for this, he knew, had roots to his thoughts of many months ago.

There was simply no denying what Albus had felt as he had scanned over the letter during his first read. He had excitedly-and stupidly- thought it to be from Sancticus Fairhart. A letter from beyond the grave. Not that there was one, of course.

"They never found his body!" Albus was still arguing with his friends a few days later. "That has to mean something!"

"It means that his family never got to properly bury him, and yes, that is sad" Scorpius said, his eyes scanning a page of Muggle Studies notes from the previous day. "Do we really need to go over this again?"

Albus crossed his arms and stared into the common room fire. "Yes" he said grumpily.

Scorpius started ticking them off of his fingers.

"First and foremost, he's dead" he stated simply. "Second, that wasn't his handwriting, we know that from the letter you got last year. Third, Fairhart could spell."

"I got another one!" Morrison piped up. "That kid said an owl dropped it off! Fairhart used crows remember!"

Albus sighed, though admittedly, these had been the answers that he'd wanted. However much he may think of it at night, he had at least felt closure before, when he'd known his old professor and friend to be dead. This way, at least, there were no more questions that needed to be asked. Still, fighting against his own logic, Albus persisted.

"But it is strange, isn't it? I mean, no body found..."

Now it was Scorpius' turn to sigh. "Al, look...I didn't want to say it before, because I didn't want to hurt your feelings, but there's something you have to understand. That's how murder works. Your dad reckons it was WAR who did it, right? If you were Waddlesworth, and you wanted the public on your side, would you let the body of an Auror be found? Or a former Hogwarts teacher, for that matter? He got his message through by leaving nothing behind. Fairhart's in pieces right now most likel-"

Morrison gave him a swift thump on the back. "Slow down mate" he said.

Albus hung his head though. "He's right" Albus said. "I know he is...it's just..."

He had to trail off there however, for he could not accurately convey what it was he was truly thinking. The thought of Fairhart still being alive was absurd, but the alternatives only increased the mystery. If it was not his former professor, then who was it?

"You're ruling out the more simple possibilities mate" Morrison said. "There's a handful of kids in Slytherin with black hair and green eyes. That could have been meant for a few people."

Albus had already batted that theory away in his head however. He had taken to examining every Slytherin that he'd never bothered to notice before, and though many of them had one of the physical attributes mentioned, Albus thought that he'd fit the admittedly bland description best. Likewise, didn't these kinds of things always happen to him anyway?

"Also can't rule out it being a practical joke and the like" Scorpius added in. "There's nothing to suggest that this was a message of dire importance, or a warning from a ghastly professor. It may have even been discarded trash, placed into a letter to annoy you."

Albus wanted to battle these ideas too, but he simply didn't have the strength. Besides, doing so would only take him back to his original thought process, which did nothing to comfort him.

Instead, he opted to focus on less mysterious but equally arduous things. Though the letter cropped into his head at random intervals, he learned that he now had to deal with the fact that Scorpius had been rather incorrect about his statement on the first day. Fifth year came with plenty of homework.

The first day proved to be only a sliver of the expected work to be done, and by Thursday Albus was already behind. His attempts to practice Transfiguration in his spare time had already lost him an hour in which he had intended to do Professor Handit's first essay of the year, and as Professor Longbottom-Neville as Albus knew him- was asking for drawn diagrams of every disgusting plant that he threw at them, Albus' cramped fingers were getting as much work as his wand.Even Hagrid was proving to be difficult.

"Now I'm not gonna' be the one teacher to let yeh fail yer O.W.L's, am I?" he said, raising his voice above the groans of the class; he had just had the audacity to assign them an essay on the mating rituals of the lobalug, an aquatic creature whose gender was very hard to find to begin with.

"Now come on, I'm given yeh all a full week to do it! Yeh don't even have to ruin your weekend!"

Albus' weekend, however, was already ruined.

"Tomorrow then, correct Mr. Potter?" Professor Puckerd said crisply, a steely smile on his face. Albus had ended up cancelling his meeting with the irksome professor the day he'd made it, having lied and cited the intense amount of homework he'd gotten as an excuse. This same statement got him through the rest of the week, including another Potions lesson, but by the end of class Friday he'd ran out of options. He truly was free, and, more importantly, he really did need to plan tryouts; he could not hope to take on Gryffindor in November with only two players.

"Boy, he's really eager to plan Quidditch tryouts with you, isn't he?" Mirra joked as Puckerd dismissed them from class.

Albus practically stomped his way out of the classroom. He had told Mirra, during a quick, impromptu meeting at the library the day before, all that he knew about Puckerd and Fischer. Though Mirra had sympathized with him, she seemed to have different things on her mind now.

"Oh lighten up!" she said, "Find the humor in it!"

Albus gave her a dark look. "There's nothing humorous about it" he said. "This guy-"

"Wait tell me later Al I have to run!" Mirra said quickly, cutting him off. "Sorry, it's just that me and Charlie are supposed to meet Professor McGonagall-"

"Yeah yeah, I know" Albus retorted grumpily, permitting her to give him a clandestine kiss on the cheek before she ran off.

The day had not been a total waste however. His third potions lesson had went well, with Albus delivering yet another perfect potion to a professor who could probably care less about the quality of his work. In addition, he had managed to plan a get together with Mirra for as soon as he was done with Puckerd, his hopes that the gargantuan library would act as a sort of safe haven from the Potions master.

And so, on a rather rainy Saturday morning (in which Albus would have preferred to be outside) he trudged his way through the labyrinth to the Potions classroom, a long sigh preceding a brisk knock at the door. It opened at once.

"Albus!" Professor Puckerd beamed. "Splendid! Right on time, though of course, the quality of your work has suggested as much. Yes, very good sense of time indeed..."

"So...yeah, Quidditch tryouts-" Albus started at once, eager to progress through the conversation as quickly as possible.

"Dear me it's chilly" Puckerd said, still standing in the doorway and giving a false chiver. "Care to join me for this chat somewhere else? I was rather hoping to get a tour of one of the towers while we spoke..."

Knowing full well that it was not in the best interest of anyone to be rude or to object, Albus agreed. They walked through the dungeons and up to the main floors, the entire time Albus being bombarded with questions.

"No, I don't know" Albus said, when Puckerd asked about if he knew the story behind the blood on the Bloody Baron.

"A mystery indeed" Puckerd said, and Albus saw him inching his hand towards his pocket. "But surely, someone must have told you? Your father, perhaps?" he said, the sentence dripping with more than mere curiosity.

"No, he didn't."

"But was he not in Slytherin house as well?"

"No" Albus said, doing his best to keep his temper. How was any of this relevant?

"I see" Puckerd said, and just like that, his notepad had been whipped out. "Your father was a Gryffindor then?"

"How'd you know?" Albus said dryly.

"Lucky guess" Puckerd said. "Only three choices actually."

Albus heard the jotting commence. On cue, Puckerd went in for the kill.

"So are you the only Slytherin in the family then? Something of a break in tradition?"

"Yes."

"Oh my" Puckerd said softly, his light tone not matching the furious work of his hands. He was so distracted with writing things down on his notepad that he bumped into a third year Ravenclaw girl. He ignored her as she rubbed her side sorely. "That must have been difficult for you, in the earlier years. You must have felt-to some degree- separated from them. Perhaps a feeling even akin to...alienation?" he finished dramatically.

"We're here" Albus blurted out, moments away from the staircase leading to the top of the tower.

Puckerd smiled smugly, walking alongside him. "The architecture is truly amazing-"

"Professor, do you think that maybe we could discuss the Quidditch team now? I really want to get it out of the way."

Puckerd kept his notepad out, but nodded. "Very well then," he said, his voice suddenly business-like. He pushed his glasses up his nose so that they were plastered to his face. "What needs to be done?"

"Well I was planning on having tryouts as soon as possible, so maybe tomorrow morning-"

"Quite alright" Puckerd said dismissively.

"Okay well...then I also need to let you know that I'll be looking for five new members, and I need your permission to post a bulletin in the common room telling people what spots are available-"

"Fine with me" was Puckerd's sharp reply. "Is that all?"

"Yes" Albus said, his teeth bared. However frustrated his professor was, he thought that he could top it. The conversation had lasted less than a minute. A trip to the Astronomy tower had most certainly not been necessary.

"Well I'm glad that we've gotten things all sorted out then-oh my" he said suddenly, pretending to have just noticed something just off the balcony of the tower.

"What?" Albus said, barely concealing the irritation in his voice.

"The view! Why, I can see the whole grounds!"

Albus gave him a blank expression before turning on his heel. "Well I'm going to head out then; I should probably get started on my Charms-"

"Albus, what are those?" Puckerd asked, almost childlike. He was pointing out onto the grounds near Hagrid's vegetable patch.

Albus sighed and took a look. He saw what Puckerd was staring at immediately. Just a little way off from Hagrid's cabin were two grazing winged beasts, black in color and reptilian in facial structure.

"Those are thestrals" Albus said plainly, and now that he could see them from a distance, he did not think them as frightening as they'd been the night of his return to Hogwarts. "They pull the carriages."

"Thestrals" Puckerd repeated, apparently in awe. "I think I've read something about them before. Aren't they only visible to those who have seen death?"

"Yes" Albus replied, and he knew at once that Puckerd had successfully snared him into a conversation. He had known very well what thestrals were.

"How strange" Puckerd said, and he raised his notepad up slightly. "But you can see them, clearly. Tell me Albus...who have you seen die?"

Albus hesitated. What was going on here? "I- well- during the Hogsmeade massacre a lot of people died. So yeah I saw a few" he said, trying to sound truly disturbed by it.

"But no one in particular?" Puckerd said, his hand practically shaking. "No one with a name worth remembering? Like-for instance- Reginald Ares, former leader of the Dark Alliance?"

"No" Albus lied boldly. He did not know exactly why he lied; he only knew that it felt right to withhold information from his interrogator. "No one like that."

Puckerd began jotting furiously, the pages of his pad flipping so quickly that Albus could feel a breeze.

"Can I ask you something sir?" Albus said, his fists shaking. "What are you writing there?"

Puckerd put a great deal of effort into stabbing the paper for his final period, and then hurriedly stowed the notepad away. "Oh nothing of interest" he said, smiling like a predator that had learned the route of its prey. "Just my own personal notes on the castle; you know, about the magnificent-"

"Architecture" Albus finished for him. "I know."

And with that he stalked off, leaving his professor to admire the scenery by himself. No sooner had he departed from the Astronomy tower did he pull out a withered piece of parchment. A tap of his wand and the Marauder's Map was at his disposal; he had taken to using it to avoid young Quidditch hopefuls in the hallways. He'd rather deal with them on the pitch, when he absolutely had to.

A quick glance at the corner of the Map told him that Mirra was already waiting for him in the library. He took the long way around a group of first year Slytherins that had pestered him the day before, then took a secret passage to right outside of the library. Satisfied, he wiped the parchment blank and went to join Mirra.

"How'd it go?" she said, looking up from a Defence Against the Dark Arts book that she was poring over.

"Well I have Quidditch tryouts all planned out" Albus said, dropping his own bag and sliding into the seat across from her. "Took a whopping five seconds."

"Not bad" she said, wiping a strand of hair from out of her eyes.

"Yeah, but I haven't even gotten started on the rest of the talk yet. He's a sneaky one he is. Always trying to catch me off guard."

She smiled. "So how else have things been?" she said.

Albus opened up a textbook at random, then flipped to a page that he'd never get around to reading. "Not bad" he said. "Just busy. Oh! I didn't tell you, I've gotten a shoddy letter already..."

He briefly explained the situation with the cryptic piece of paper, adding in casually how it had reminded him of the previous year-when he'd received an anonymous letter from Fairhart.

"Weird" Mirra said, scratching at her chin. "I wonder who it's from this time."

Albus frowned but said nothing. Before he could say another word however, something had caught his attention. Two people had just entered the library. Walking side by side and at a matching pace were Lance and Rose. Their hands were clasped tightly and they were chuckling about something. Albus saw Rose look over at them, and he felt his heart skin. They were bound to come over and ruin his alone time with Mirra-

But they didn't. Rose said something to her angelic boyfriend and they both took a table rather far away, immediately removing books from their bags and gluing their faces to them. How strange...

"What's up?" Mirra said, catching his eye and noticing his lack of attention. She turned to see what he was looking at. "Oh..." she said when she'd seen them.

"I could've sworn she saw us" Albus said, flipping the page in his textbook uselessly.

"Probably did" Mirra said, her attention returning to her work. She started scribbling notes. "Rose has actually been kind of distant with me recently though."

"Mmm" was all that Albus could manage. He had a very good idea as to why that might be, but he was not going to say such a thing unless he absolutely had to. Mirra leaned in close and whispered her next sentence.

"Actually-between you and me-I'm starting to think that Lance isn't too fond of me."

"What?" Albus said, sweating now.

"Yeah. It's weird. We got along great last year. I don't know what happened."

Albus tugged at his shirt collar. "Maybe-maybe get him a nice birthday present and see how it goes?"

"His birthday's not until March" she hissed.

"Really? Rose said it was this month..." Albus said thoughtfully, though he realized now that that was probably just a plot to get her boyfriend a gift free of occasion. "Well, either way...just don't worry about it."

"I can't not worry about it!" she said, as loud as a whisper could be. She turned to eye them quickly, then looked back at him. "That's my best friend's boyfriend! She's been so off since the start of term, I can't let it get worse!"

"Lance doesn't have anything against you" Albus said offhandedly. "C'mon, how could he? You're amazing..."

She gave him a light smile, but it quickly turned back to a stern glare.

"That's sweet Al, really, but I'm being serious-"

Albus sighed. "Look, it has nothing to do with Lance, okay?" he said. It felt weird, as he was Scorpius' friend, but he did not want Lance to get a bad rap. He truly had done nothing wrong.

Mirra narrowed her eyes at him, and then closed her book. Albus gulped.

"What do you know?" she asked.

"Nothing."

"Albus I'm serious!" she said, and she sounded too angry for his liking. "Do you know why she's been like this?"

Albus tensed up. For some odd reason, he felt as though he'd prefer to be back with Puckerd than where he was now. He did not want to cause a row between Mirra and Rose. At the same time however, he thought that it was a much better idea than letting himself argue with her.

"Well-and this might not even be it! But she's...eh..."

She frowned at him. "Is it because of me and you?" she said. "She feels like I'm trying to snatch her cousin away, doesn't she?"

She looked close to tears.

"No it's not that at all!" Albus quickly protested. "She's just jealous that you got Prefect!"

He paused and strained his ears, as if waiting to hear delicate glass shatter. Instead, he was greeted with silence, and then an exasperated sigh.

"Oh that's ridiculous" Mirra said. "No, I'm sure she was disappointed, but I know that she's happy for me. She told me so on the train."

Albus gave her a wry smile.

"Unless she told you something different" Mirra added.

Albus shrugged. "No. I mean-it's not-it's not like she's mad or anything. She just made a bit of a fuss over not getting Prefect, that's all. Said that- well-"

"Said what?" Mirra said sharply.

Albus wished that he hadn't commented that last part. It truly had been a slip of the tongue. Deciding it would be in his best interest to say it without its original scorn, Albus repeated his cousin's words from the summer.

"She just reckons you got the badge because you do more than enough, whereas she only does enough. As in, you know, how great of a worker you are, and how pretty you-"

But Mirra had already risen from her chair, her cheeks red and her grey eyes piercing. She stuffed the chair under the table and marched over to Rose and Lance, quite a few heads turning as she did so. Albus craned his neck and perked up his ears to get a good grasp of what was happening.

Mirra tapped Rose on the shoulder. "Can I talk to you for a moment?" she said, and Rose, looking bemused, followed her over to a corner of the library, leaving a very confused Lance to watch from afar. Albus was forced to do so as well.

They talked in hushed whispers for a few moments, and even though it was hard to catch what they were saying or thinking by facial expressions alone, it looked as if he was in the clear. Albus breathed a sigh of relief in knowing that he'd averted being the cause of a fight. He should have expected it however, he realized. They were girls after all. Girls were good at making up-

"EARNED IT!" came a bellow from the corner, and Albus saw that it was Rose who was yelling, her face now as scarlet as her house colors. "YOU'D HAVE FAILED BY NOW IF IT WASN'T FOR ME!"

The shouting match started. Albus rose from his chair at once, as did Lance, whose astronomically superior looks seemed to have somehow helped him get there faster. He was in Rose's corner in an instant.

"More goes into it than grades Rose!" Mirra yelled back. "Ever think that maybe your attitude is why you didn't get the badge!"

"Catfight!" Albus heard someone yell throughout the library; it sounded uncannily like his brother. He hurried over so that he was now standing by Mirra, ready to steer her away from confrontation.

"No," Rose screeched, "I think that your sad life story is why I didn't get the badge!"

Even Albus, who had said some pretty messed up things in his life, thought that she'd gone too far. He then witnessed Mirra, now in complete shock at what Rose had said, do something that Albus had never seen her do. She raised her hand as if to smack-

Albus caught her by the wrist, then struggled to lower her arm. Wasn't he supposed to be strong?

Rose too looked as if she'd been struck by lighting. "Oh, you want to raise you hand at me!" she roared, and she withdrew her wand at once.

"Woah!" Albus said, and he barely noticed that the people in the library were talking adamantly about what was occurring. He withdrew his wand to defend Mirra. It felt strange pointing it at his cousin, though he had to admit, it was almost a dream come true. What happened next was not however. Lance had promptly withdrawn his own wand and pointed it square into Albus' face. He knew that he was going to end up in the Hospital Wing if he proceeded further with a skilled seventh year...

"Alright, everyone calm down" came a voice from the crowd of students that had risen to watch. James, it seemed, had indeed been the one to initially call out. His own wand was drawn, and Albus knew that this would be the deciding factor; his brother's reputation as a skilled duelist preceded any of their own.

"Lance, you're one of my best mates, but jinx my brother and you'll end up in a dustpan. Al, lower your wand, that's your cousin. Rose-you look like a tomato. And put your wand away."

They all lowered their guard, but the argument continued.

"And I'll have you know that I never said anything about you doing 'more than enough'!" Rose said scathingly

"Yes you did!" Mirra snapped. "Albus told me!"

She had evidently not seen the gestures he was making; the ones in which he was slashing his finger across his throat to indicate that she keep that part under wraps.

"Why would you believe him over your best friend!" Rose shot out.

"Because he's my boyfriend!" Mirra said, and there was a sharp intake of breath from everyone in the library.

Despite the severity of the situation, Albus could not help but smile. That was the first time she'd used that term...

They were all thrown out of the library moments later; the hook nosed and agitated librarian already had something of a vendetta against him anyway, and soon enough the four of them-James had been permitted to stay- had split into pairs and went in separate directions.

"I can not believe her!" Mirra was saying as the two of them marched through the hallways. A second year Slytherin approached him.

"Hey! I heard that there's a lot of open spots-"

"Not now!" Albus growled, and he pulled Mirra closer as they walked down the hallway, not really sure where they were going.

It was amazing how fast news spread. An attack on the castle by the Dark Alliance could be imminent. Waddlesworth was bombarding the newspapers every day. And yet, the confrontation in the library was all that he heard about for the rest of the day.Mirra had asked to be alone a few hours after it had happened, and Albus, checking the map and seeing that Rose was far from the Gryffindor Common Room, had escorted her there. By the time he'd reached his own Common Room to tell Morrison and Scorpius, they had already heard a mangled version of the story.

"You turned Lance's head into a Quaffle!" Scorpius said excitedly.

"What? No..."

"Oh" he said, looking suddenly depressed. "Well at least it's not the other thing we heard..."

"And what's that?"

"That you'd been murdered" Morrison said simply. "So then what really happened?"

Albus explained the entire true story to his friends, all the while hearing those around him blab about the Gryffindor prefect who had tried to fight another girl.His friends did not interject until towards the end, Albus' slight smile acting as a signal of permittance.

"And then she said 'because he's my boyfriend'-"

Morrison and Scorpius high fived each other as if it were instinct.

"Nice" Morrison said with a cheeky grin. "When the girl says it, it's official."

But Scorpius' smile had turned to a sudden frown. "Mate...that's bad news" he said.

"What?" Albus said, unsure as to if his friend was joking or not. "How is that bad news?"

Scorpius shook his head. "Because I doubt our house is going to go for that."

Albus scoffed at the idea, but by next morning, he had come to the realization that Scorpius was rarely wrong twice in one week. Having awoke bright and early to get to the Quidditch pitch, Albus had taken his seat at the breakfast table expecting it to be filled to the brim with Quidditch hopefuls. What he found instead was himself sitting at a distance from everyone else. The only students awake-the older ones- were either throwing him dark looks or ignoring him. Inclined to believe that it was the time of day responsible for this anomaly, he headed down to the pitch with a barely filled stomach.

Albus waited on the Quidditch pitch, circling the hoops aimlessly on his state of the art broom for almost an hour before his potential teammates showed up. They came in groups of two or three, and as he'd expected, they were mostly younger students. Even Scorpius-already a member of the team and expected to be there-didn't show up until later, yawning and wiping at his eyes groggily.

It wasn't until another full hour had passed that it seemed like the majority of hopefuls were there, and Albus, as he walked back and forth surveying them, could not truthfully say that they looked like a promising bunch.

"Okay" he said, clapping his hands and not letting their relatively small size deter him. "We've got a lot of positions open, but that doesn't guarantee anything for anyone. I'm looking to make the best team possible-"

A third year student with curly red hair and a menacing leer raised their hand.

Albus sighed. "Not really sure that warranted a question, but okay..."

The third year cleared his throat. "Is it true you're dating a girl from Gryffindor?"

Scorpius chortled. "Told you mate" he muttered from beside him, supporting himself on his broomstick coolly.

Albus recovered from the question a moment later. "Yes" he said. "And that's irrelevant."

There was some muttering throughout the crowd, and to his immense surprise, a few of the older ones even left.

"Oh now come on!" Albus roared. "Really!"

"Hey less left than I thought" Scorpius chimed in.

Albus turned to him. "I don't get it" he said through gritted teeth. "Why do they care?"

"Your family hasn't been in Slytherin mate" Scorpius said. "They've sheltered you. I've told you before, and I'll say it again. There's bad blood between the lions and the serpents. You dating Mirra makes you the least popular Quidditch Captain in the history of our house."

"But we were already practically together!"

Scorpius shrugged. "But it wasn't official. The youngsters may not care, but you know how teenagers are. Labels are everything."

Albus turned, furious. "Alright, the rest of you, line up according to what position you're trying out for!"

Quidditch tryouts proved to be the most arduous that Albus had ever been to. Almost entirely comprised of first and second year students, Albus was forced to nitpick his way through more than an hour of poor to mediocre performances. It soon became a decision pertaining not to who had more strengths, but rather, who had the least weaknesses.

"This is ridiculous" Albus said, engaged in low talk with Scorpius over in the corner of the pitch. "Remember the turn out last year?"

"That was before the captain became a complete traitor" Scorpius said sarcastically.

Albus sighed. "Alright, well then let's make do. Which chasers gave you the most trouble?"

"The kid with the bushy eyebrows made me fly to a different hoop once or twice..."

In the end, it proved to be an almost dismal effort. Albus did indeed end up with a full team, but sizing them up one by one, he thought that he and Scorpius would be doing the bulk of the work throughout the year. He had two chasers who were in their second year, a whiny girl named Tiffani Garrett who had successfully swerved a few bludgers, and a rather tall for his age dark skinned boy named Garth Moone. The third chaser was the oldest of the new members, a confident fourth year with dark hair named Barnabus Curder. His two beaters were both boys in their third year who appeared to be best friends. Their names were Yin Luong and Barry Bryant, and neither of them had much talent to boast about.

"Okay, that about wraps it up!" Albus called out. "Team, I'm pleased with what we've got here!" he lied, and the sad thing was, he knew that it was showing on his face. The rest of the students who tried out sulked off the pitch dejectedly, and Albus even heard one of the mutter something along the lines of "house traitor" as they went. Choosing not to let this sting him, Albus dismissed Slytherin's worst team in years and headed back to the castle with Scorpius.

"Well I think that went well" Scorpius said. "I mean, hey, if worst comes to worse we'll just have Morrison fill in a spot."

"I'm not going to shift Morrison around" Albus replied. "He fared well as a reserve Keeper, that's his place. Up for an early lunch?"

He spent most of the day walking around the castle and eating table scraps with Scorpius, in no particular hurry to wake up Morrison and ruin his sleep. Albus did his best to avoid angry stares from his housemates as they meandered around, though he did take a great deal of notice from the looks coming from Gryffindors. Many of them seemed just as irate as Slytherins, only Albus knew his status as Quidditch Captain would not protect him from these people. He wondered if Mirra was going through the same thing.

"So," Scorpius started, nibbling toast as they strolled around the lake, "any word on the whole Rose situation yet?"

Albus raised his eyebrows. "Which one? Yours or Mirra's?"

"Both."

Albus shrugged. "They're best friends, I'm sure they'll get over it. There will be some really loud apologizing, some crying, a couple hugs, you know how girls are..."

"Ah" Scorpius said with a nod of his head. Before he could ask his next question however, Albus had already addressed it.

"Rose and Lance seem to be going strong" he added, avoiding eye contact with his friend. "Really strong."

Scorpius nodded once more. "I know that she's crazy about the guy" he said, staring into the lake as he spoke. "But that doesn't mean that she loathes me, you know? I mean, we get along..."

Albus sighed. He did not want crush Scorpius' feelings, but he knew that his friend was very clever and equally observant. Albus had seen nothing from Rose that would lead him to believe that she had feelings for Scorpius, and he knew that once Scorpius gave up hope on the matter, it would become all too obvious to him as well. At the same time, however, he had no interest in stringing him along.

"Well I thought it was shot between me and Mirra, remember?" Albus said. "When she was with Eckley? So there's always a chance, somewhere down the line. But...I don't know. Rose has a boyfriend, and you can only really have one of those. But she has plenty of room for friends. Maybe...just step it up a bit as a friend? If nothing changes then nothing changes-and don't expect it to- but apart from that, I mean..."

He trailed off there, positive that he had good advice to give, but unsure of how to articulate it. Scorpius nodded in understanding however.

"But how would I go about doing that?" he asked. "Being a better friend? I barely talk to her unless we're all huddled up together, and with Mirra and Rose not talking-"

"Well," Albus cut him off, "they're not talking currently. They will. Until then...maybe you should let Rose know which side you're on, between her and Mirra."

Now it was Scorpius who had his eyebrows raised. "But I really kind of agree with Mirra..."

Albus smiled. "But you don't have to tell Rose that. I doubt Mirra will mind, I'll fill her in."

Scorpius smiled, and soon after, the subject abruptly changed to classes. It wasn't until the afternoon when they finally met up with a disheveled Morrison, and the rest of an otherwise eventful Sunday went towards the agonizingly boring chores of studying and catching up on the entire week's worth of homework. Like many fifth years, it wasn't until midnight that they were fully finished studying, but Albus and Scorpius, having had Quidditch tryouts to deal with earlier, were still the last to put their books away. Alongwith Morrison, the three of them sat huddled around the fire, shuffling parchment and screwing ink bottles shut in silence.

"Well I'm just about ready to head back to bed" Morrison said with a yawn as he closed an unread textbook and rolled up half completed Charms homework.

"Me too" Albus said, yawning himself and calculating in his head how little sleep he'd get if he passed out on his bed the second that he went up to his dormitory. With a shudder, he realized that he had Puckerd to deal with the next day. "Didn't even start my Herbology homework either. I'll throw something together tomorrow night; Neville will let me slide..."

"That kind of thinking, young man, will do you no good in your O.W.L year" came a brisk voice from somewhere in the room.

Albus blinked slowly in confusion, then opened his eyes and jumped back in fright, as did his friends. There, in the fireplace, was his father's floating head.

"You three should be in bed" he said firmly.

"Dad!" Albus said, crawling closer to the fire. "What are you doing here?"

The last time he'd seen such a thing was in his second year, in which Uncle Ron had done the same thing to have a quick discussion with him about an important matter. Was his father here for a similar reason?

"Hello boys" his father said quickly to Scorpius and Morrison, and they both muttered it back. "And to answer your question, Albus, I'm actually doing what no father should ever be doing; hoping that his son is okay with staying up late on a school night to have a chat."

"I am" Albus said quickly, turning to his friends. They both nodded.

His father grinned. "I know it's late, I'll try and make this quick. I would have popped my head in earlier, but I didn't want anyone else to hear this. I suppose I'm very lucky to have only found the ears of you and your friends. To be blunt, I'm here for a little status update. How was your first week as Wendell Puckerd's personal chaperone?"

"So you know about that" Albus said blandly.

"Indeed I do. Headmistress McGonagall alerted me of it as soon as it happened. I commend you for handling it so well; a refusal to comply may have been disastrous."

"So it couldn't have been avoided, huh?" Albus asked him.

His father shook his head. "I'm afraid not. Such a thing would have looked too suspicious. Do not be fooled by his role as a professor or Head of House. Puckerd, though by no means hopeless with a cauldron as I've heard, is not quite worthy of either title. Janine Fischer has planted him in such a position to give him a good opportunity to exhibit control of the students. How is he faring, by the way?"

Albus shrugged, but it was Scorpius who answered.

"He's teaching" he said. "But apart from that, he seems determined on making friends with everyone. Said so the first night here, gave us a personality test and everything..."

Albus' father sighed. "Yes, I figured he'd take the polite route. There's something you should know, Albus" he added, turning back to his son.

"And what's that?"

"That I understand your situation" his father said knowingly. "As highly coincidental as it seems, my fifth year at Hogwarts was also marred by Ministry interference. That being said however, I think we have found ourselves on two entirely different sides of the field."

"How so?" Albus asked, not sure what his father was getting at.

"Because you see, the Ministry interfered during my time to gather information on the school, including the way it was run and degree to which we were taught. Janine Fischer knows that Hogwarts is functioning properly. Her main goal is, as I'm sure you've deduced, to extract information from those closest to me. As in, you."

"But what about James!" Albus blurted out. "And Lily!"

"The thought did occur to me" his father said with a glum look. "But I think that you have more to worry about than they do. Lily is too young; they will not expect her to have much information regarding me. And James is too old. They will assume him to be much too clever and far too involved with his final year here to be of much help. You, however, are a very juicy piece of bait. They expect you to be stressed due to your first year in which major testing is done, filled with angst due to the point in your adolescence, and easier to capture alone due to your house. You have no family in Slytherin to turn to at a moment's notice. Additionally, they know you are prone to doing and saying things without putting much thought into it; the situation in Diagon Alley proved that much. And to cap it all off, these things do always seem to happen to only you, don't they?"

Albus nodded while his friends chortled. "So then what am I dealing with here?" Albus asked. "Just an entire year of being badgered with questions about you?"

"Doubtful" his father said. "Though Puckerd will have to keep up his charade, he can use it rather advantageously. Scorpius, you mentioned personality tests?" he said, turning to him.

Scorpius nodded, waiting to see where it went.

"Puckerd, it would seem, is going to try and establish connections between his students. I'd be willing to bet a very large portion of my Gringotts vault that he is attempting to learn who is a friend and who is a foe to you, Albus. Both can be used effectively. He will no doubt use the ones not fond of you to learn things which will give him leverage over you, and your friends, I'm sorry to say, may ended up being interrogated just as you are, under the same cheery pretenses of course."

He then eyed both Scorpius and Morrison.

"This means that you two may have some questions to answer in the future. I will hold no grudges regardless of your answers, but I can only ask politely that you keep what you know of me to yourselves."

"Sure thing Mr. P!" Morrison said, giving two thumbs up. Scorpius nodded as well.

Albus' father smiled. "Good to know. Albus, I hate keeping you up so long, but I was curious, is there anything in particular that Puckerd has asked you about?"

Albus thought for a moment, but then smiled at a sudden realization. This question stirred something in him. "I'm your spy, aren't I dad?"

His father gave him a curious look. "An interesting term" he said.

Albus moved even closer to the fire, his smile now fixed on his father's face. "Fischer has Puckerd talking to me to get information on you. And you...you have me talking to him to get information on her! If you know what questions she has him asking, then you know exactly what it is she wants to know!"

His father gave him a toothy smile. "A Slytherin indeed, Albus. Though I think that calling you a 'spy' is a little harsh. No, you're at perfect liberty to deny me any information. I've already said that I will not treat you as a child who isn't allowed to know what's going on. If you choose to keep Puckerd's questions to yourself, then feel free."

Albus smirked. "Well I don't" he said. "But honestly, there's nothing in particular. He's really just tried to bring up basic stuff, like how often you're home, or if you were in Slytherin. Except-well-there is one thing" he added thoughtfully.

"Oh?"

"He asked me if I saw how Ares died" Albus said. "Kind of an odd question..."

But his father had already groaned. "Damn" he said. "Going in that direction."

Albus stared hungrily into the fire. "What direction?"

"If there's one way to attack someone in the government, Albus, it's to use the law against them. There's nothing more incriminating."

Albus scratched at his head. "I still don't-"

But it was Scorpius who blurted it out. "They want to make you out as a murderer!"

Albus' father gave him a wry smile.

"Correct, Scorpius. That is exactly what they want to do."

Albus didn't quite register this. "Wait-what-"

"Reginald Ares' death was a welcome step in the war against the Dark Alliance" his father said. "Many people seemed to think that such a blow would have everything over and done with. Darvy's new position as the big bad boss has led some to doubt Ares' actual standing as a powerful leader. There are very few people Albus-only a handful of Ministry members outside of our family, in fact- who know that Ares was the more powerful and more intelligent of the two brothers. Because the danger has only increased since his death, the public and Fischer's half of the Ministry seem to be under the impression that Darvy was always the true threat; that Ares was a puppet. This makes his death less of a necessity and more of a casualty. Suddenly, his murderer was not quite in the right."

"But you didn't kill him!" Albus said. "It was Darvy!"

"I know who it was" his father said simply. "But no one is going to believe that, even on the word of me and your uncle, especially since Waddlesworth is bragging that it was a member of WAR who did it. If this is disproven, it would naturally be a Ministry member accused next. Incidentally, what did you tell him?"

"I said I didn't see anything" Albus said.

His father smiled. "I feel terrible condoning lying, but that was probably the best answer to give. The less that they know about Ares' death, the better."

Albus nodded, but Waddlesworth's name had flicked something on inside of his head. "And dad, Waddl-"

"Under surveillance" his father cut him off. "We've found nothing yet, but I have not ignored your story. You say that you saw Waddlesworth in Diagon Alley, and that's enough for me to believe that he's up to something. All that his innocence has proven thus far is that whatever he is doing, he's being very, very secretive about it."

Albus heaved a deep sigh, allowing the information that he'd gathered to sink in. It was strange, how he and his father were talking now. It had been years since they'd had a full, legitimately honest conversation. With the truth on his mind, he spoke his next words.

"I can't stand Puckerd" he said. "It's only the first week and he's already hit my last nerve! When will we be rid of him and Fischer?"

His father gave him a stern look. "Try not to harbor too much animosity towards them, Albus. They are our allies."

Albus' jaw dropped. "They're picking at me for scraps of information-"

"Because they believe that doing so will get rid of me, and allow them to focus on other things. Janine Fischer and I have a very big dispute on our hands, the source of all this trouble. Our dual roles as Head Auror was meant to both organize and appease the public, but alas, it's never that simple. Fischer believes that the Renegade movement is our primary problem. Get rid of the Renegades, and the Ministry can put all of their efforts towards the Dark Alliance. In addition, Waddlesworth is, to this day, taking more and more people away from the Ministry and into his own realm of thought. Fischer believes Waddlesworth to be the most prudent dilemma here; she sees him as both an obstacle in the way of Darvy as well as a threat to the structure of the Ministry."

"And you don't agree?" Albus asked, unwilling to admit it, but still somewhat in agreement with what had been said.

"On no, I do" his father said. "But I believe that Darvy is the bigger threat. It will take Waddlesworth a great deal of time and effort, in addition to a large amount of well crafted speeches before the Ministry of Magic no longer has supporters. We do not have that much time with Darvy. His unpredictability makes every potential threat seem imminent. Conceivably, he could launch an attack tomorrow. It's a judgment call. I'd rather deal with Darvy first and Waddlesworth later, and she the opposite. Notice, however, that we both have the same intentions. Only I'm not going to waste my time trying to frame her for murder" he added thoughtfully.

Albus nodded. His father gave him a warm look.

"I understand your frustration Albus, I really do. But I see no reason to be rude to Puckerd; only firm. We are all interested in the safety of our loved ones. So long as we keep that in common, we have no reason to fight amongst one another. I know I'm asking a lot of you Albus, I do. But I can only hope that you understand the importance of your actions now. Acting abrasively will only hinder what we have here."

Albus nodded once more. He understood completely, even if he didn't like it.

"And on that note Albus," his father started, "I think we've discussed all that needs to be discussed. I appreciate your help here. Your help and your maturity."

"Dad wait!" Albus said, for his father had seemed like he was on the verge of leaving. "One thing, real quick. I-erm- I got a letter."

He heard Morrison topple over; Scorpius slapped his hand to his forehead. Albus didn't care though, they'd been honest all night, and he had no intention of omitting anything.

"A letter?" his father said. "From who?"

"That's just the thing" Albus said. "It was just-hold on-"

He tore through his books until he found what was already a decrepit piece of parchment; he'd read it several times in an attempt to gather meaning from it. He held it up so that his father could read it. As he stuffed it back into one of his books, he saw an expression of complete bewilderment on his father's face.

"That some kind of neat puzzle?" his father asked.

"I have no idea what it is" Albus told him.

"It's trash" Scorpius added, though Albus saw that his father was staring thoughtfully.

"At first glance the odd writing would make it seem to be some sort of warning. But if that were the case, then the person writing it would have to be very poor at warning people indeed. Delivered by owl?"

"A regular tawny, from what I heard" Albus said. "It came late one day..."

"Interesting" his father said. "Do you have any idea who it's from, Albus?"

"I-well-no, I don't. But last year I got a letter from someone, and it was unsigned."

"Like this one?"

"No, it was better written. And it-and it turned out to be Fairhart."

There was an uncomfortable silence following this, the crackling of the fire the only thing indicating that time was moving at all. After a moment however, he could hear Morrison and Scorpius muttering behind him. He paid them no mind; he was staring too intensely at his father. He was wearing an expression of sadness, as if he was not sure how to say his next words without hurting his son's feelings.

"Well Al-"

"I know" Albus cut him off before he could get much further. "I know."

His father nodded, frowning. "I'd put it away from your thoughts right now. If you get another one, or new information regarding it arises, let me know and we'll se what we can figure out. For now, keep to your studies, and try and maintain a cool head around Puckerd, okay?"

Albus nodded, knowing that the conversation was now over. Strangely, however, he saw Morrison motioning with his fingers, as if making a ring around one of them. Slightly confused at first, Albus solved it as his father made to speak once more.

"Oh, and dad, one more thing!" he said. "Morrison's sister is getting married in December, and we've been invited to the wedding! So..."

His father smiled. "We'll make arrangements. For now, get some sleep. I'm afraid I don't have enough pull with the teachers at Hogwarts to let you nap through class."

"Okay" Albus said, and he and his friends all stood up, ready to put out the fire once he left.

"Have a good night, Albus. You too, boys" his father said.

"Good night" they all chorused back.

"Oh, and Albus?" his father added quickly, just as his head started to vanish from sight. "Congratulations on the new girlfriend. Same one right? Neville told me. I hear that she's way out of your league too. Well done..."

And with one last cheeky smile, his father's head had disappeared. Seconds later, the fire had been extinguished, engulfing them in complete darkness.