-Chapter Seven-

A Ghostly Warning

Albus jerked awake the next morning, his heart pounding so hard that it threatened to jump out of his ribcage. He could remember his dream—or nightmare—unusually clearly. He remembered that terrible, bluish-skinned man with the deadly black eyes. That boy, that boy destined to destroy the world. The boy who was a freak of magic. Inhumane. A monster. And hadn't the man mentioned a 'Regiment'? That unsettled Albus the most.

Then the events of last evening returned to Albus. The full amount of his actions weighed down on his shoulders—the entire school had seen him shoot bright green lightning. They had all seen the momentarily glint of evil in his eyes. They probably thought he was some kind of freakishly powerful wizard.

Albus wondered if Voldemort and Dumbledore had to deal with this sort of persecution—probably. But something told him that their magic wasn't the same as Albus'.

At least some of the Slytherins had thought it had been 'wicked'. Albus, however, would prefer not to draw more attention to himself.

Desperately needing someone to supply him with a sick bucket, Albus dragged himself out of bed. He was clearly late to breakfast, and he didn't want to walk in when everybody else was already seated. He went into the common room. To his relief, Scorpius was sitting in an emerald armchair near the window that depicted the inside of the Black Lake.

"Er—hi," Albus mumbled uncertainly, sitting down next to Scorpius.

"Well, I'd expect a warmer greeting, consider that I'm your best mate," Scorpius replied irritably, though he was smiling.

"What are you still doing here?" Albus asked, relieved that Scorpius wasn't avoiding him.

"Waiting for you, obviously," Scorpius said. "I've got lots to tell you. After you went to bed—really early, might I add—quite a bit happened in the common room."

"Like what?" Albus asked, rubbing his forehead.

Scorpius scowled, and Albus already knew the answer. "Vladimir Rylon, that's what," Scorpius said. "He stood in the center of the common room and said that the Slytherins didn't need a king who would give them a bad name."

Albus seethed with fury. "What did they say to that?" he asked through gritted teeth.

"Quite few agreed with him," Scorpius said. "But a lot said that what you did was brilliant and that they wanted you to stay King of Slytherin."

Albus sighed with relief.

"But," Scorpius continued darkly, "Slytherin pretty much split in half."

"WHAT?" Albus thundered. "We can't be divided! Slytherins are supposed to stay together—that's the point!We can't fight ourselves if the rest of the school and the rest of the wizarding world are fighting against us!"

"Exactly," Scorpius said. "That's why I tried to kill Rylon, but Oswald, Gerald, and Wyatt pulled me back. They told me that you wouldn't want me to kill him."

"They were right," Albus snarled. "I'd have wanted to kill him myself."

"Can you kill him now?" Scorpius asked hopefully.

Albus shook his head. "I want to find Rose first. She isn't scared of me after what I did, is she?"

"I don't know. She's a Gryffindor—they can be such pansies sometimes," Scorpius pointed out, snickering.

Albus rolled his eyes. The two boys walked out of the dungeons into the Great Hall, very late to breakfast. Fortunately, it was so late that the majority of the school had already vacated it. Albus tried to disappear behind Scorpius, but it didn't work. Scorpius wasn't any taller them him. (Both boys were rather short and skinny.)

To Albus' relief, he spotted Rose sitting at the Gryffindor table, her face very pale. She looked up as the two Slytherins entered, her face brightening. "Al! Scorpius!" she squeaked, running toward them. She hugged Albus tightly, nearly squeezing all the air out of him.

"Why does she only hug you?" Scorpius muttered to Albus.

"Albus! It was scary yesterday—do you know what you did? The whole school's whispering about it—what happened afterwards? I mean, you've done it before—" Rose said, talking a mile a minute.

Albus groaned. Rose usually made him feel better with her optimism, but it was at times like this that she made him feel worse without knowing that she was doing it.

"—but I don't hate you! You're a powerful wizard like Dumbledore—I bet it was just your magic getting out of control—"

Albus felt scandalized. Scorpius kicked Rose, silently telling her that it was time to shut up. Rose turned pink and looked at her shoes.

Albus was quite a bit uneasy. His magic hadn't gotten out of control at all—he had meant to attack James, and he didn't regret it.

There was silence for a few seconds as the three second years shared meaningful looks.

Finally, Albus spoke. "What's the school saying about me?"

Rose looked as if she didn't want to answer, and there was no need for her to. Albus already knew what the school thought about him.

The trio walked to the library, deciding to change the subject to Quidditch. People shied away from him, not even daring to smile at Rose and sneer at Scorpius and Albus like they usually did. Albus thought it was a rather nice change, actually, but it still felt odd and unnatural.

"Wait a moment, have you seen Elina?" Rose asked suddenly, stopping outside of the library.

Albus blushed. He berated himself for going red every time she was mentioned—how hopeless could he get? "N-No, I haven't."

Rose grinned while Scorpius smirked at Albus' dreamy expression.

"Well, I need to find her. I need her to help me in Charms, since she's good at it," Rose continued.

"I'm better!" Scorpius said indignantly.

Rose gave him a nasty look. "Oh, I'm sorry—I meant she's the best at not shoving it in my face."

Scorpius did not look ashamed. "Admit it, you're jealous."

"Am not!" Rose snarled.

"Are too! I beat you in every single exam!" Scorpius said gleefully.

"So? I never wanted to beat you!" Rose snapped, her face heating up.

"Yes, you did!" Scorpius protested.

Albus decided it was time to intervene—he didn't want his two best friends to strangle each other. "Can we find Elina, please?"

Rose and Scorpius finally shut up, both of their faces very pink.

"Let's go up another floor," Rose suggested. "Hopefully, we'll find her there. She just finished breakfast a few minutes before you two came."

The three of them ran up a flight of stairs, Rose and Scorpius arguing with each other on the way up. Albus desperately wanted to tell them that they bickered worse than Aunt Hermione and Uncle Ron, but he didn't want to fuel another fight.

"What happened here?" Albus wondered out loud as they stepped on to the second floor landing. It was completely flooded.

"Oh, no," Rose sighed. "I bet I know what it was..."

"The bathroom?" Scorpius suggested, walking over to the source of all the water. It was leaking out of the out-of-order girls' lavatory that nobody ever dared to enter.

"Why is it so wet?" Albus said.

Rose shrugged. "I think we should go inside. Moaning Myrtle probably made this mess."

"Come again?" Scorpius asked.

"Moaning Myrtle," Rose repeated. "She's the ghost that haunts this bathroom. She always makes the biggest deal out of everything. One time, I told her that she had an awful blemish on her cheek, and she exploded at me because she was dead and couldn't get rid of it."

"Myrtle sounds charming," Scorpius said. "Okay, Elina's not here. Can we go back to the library now?"

Rose ignored him and opened the door. Albus and Scorpius hesitated, but she pulled them in against their will.

If possible, it was even more flooded in the lavatory than it was outside. The water was up to the second years' shins, and Albus seriously regretted coming inside. A pitiful howling noise echoed around the bathroom, causing Albus and Scorpius to jump and splatter water everywhere. A toilet was mysteriously flushed of its own accord, and a bespectacled girl rose out of a cubicle, transparent tears staining her cheeks.

"W-What do y-you want?" she asked, sniffling. "Come to tease me about my blemishes again?"

"Um—I wouldn't mind," Rose said loudly, giving Myrtle a dirty look. Myrtle returned the glare and then let out a piteous moan.

Albus and Scorpius winced. Moaning Myrtle seemed to notice them, and her dull eyes brightened considerably. She giggled and flew around them, confusing the two boys.

"Ooh! You two look familiar!" she said, batting her eyelashes. "I remember your fathers. Oh, I do miss them."

"She scares me, Al," Scorpius whispered. Albus nodded in agreement.

Rose looked very annoyed. "Okay, I came in here to ask you a question. Why were you throwing a tantrum? You flooded the bloody corridor!"

Myrtle gave Rose a very ugly look. "Maybe it was because someone teased me about my pimples!"

"Oh, don't humor me," Rose snapped. "What happened?"

"Oh, a few girls came in to make m-me miserable yesterday!" Myrtle wailed, rubbing her eyes. "Even a-after all these y-years, everyone s-still finds it f-fun to insult m-me!" She burst into tears and floated around.

Albus and Scorpius were both extremely bemused, but Rose simply looked bored.

Myrtle continued, wiping her nose. Rose, Albus, and Scorpius cringed. Myrtle looked close to smiling. It was a rather terrifying sight. She did a couple of backflips in the air, letting out a loud sob. Albus was very tired of her already.

"It's rather lonely here," Myrtle said quietly, sniffling. "But I do sometimes hear some interesting things. We ghosts can sense things. I can sense that darkness has returned to Hogwarts, worse than ever before."

"What?" Rose spluttered. "What nonsense!"

"Tell us more," Albus demanded. "What makes you think that?"

"Oh, I can't really say," Myrtle cried, blinking tears out of her eyes. Albus had a feeling that she was acting. "B-But there m-might be deaths at Hogwarts this year," Myrtle finished dramatically.

"Give me a break," Rose hissed.

"She's insane," Scorpius whispered back.

"You're making fun of me!" Myrtle screamed. She looked at Scorpius as if she couldn't believe it, though she gave Rose a very nasty glare. "Everyone always t-teased m-me, and n-now they s-still love t-to torture m-me in m-my d-death!"

"Ooh, Moaning Myrtle," Rose said, smirking and pointing at Myrtle's face, "you've got a blemish on your face!"

"I c-can't g-get r-rid of it!" sobbed Myrtle. "B-Because I'm d-d—"

"Dead?" Scorpius suggested unhelpfully.

She let out a wail of anguish and dove back into her toilet, splashing water on the three second years.

"Really?" Albus said. "You had to say that? She could have told us something more about the whole 'darkness returned to Hogwarts' thing."

"Oh, shut up," Rose said. "She makes me sick. She always overdramatizes everything. She's probably lying to scare us."

Scorpius nodded in agreement, though Albus wasn't so sure. They returned to the library, their robes wet.

"I'm going to make Elina do my Charms essay for this," Rose grumbled, squeezing water out of her cloak. As an afterthought, she added, "Al, can you help me in Charms?"

Albus nodded while Scorpius looked put out. They found an unoccupied table and took out their parchment. Their Charms essay wasn't difficult at all—Professor Moore wasn't the kind of teacher to give loads of homework.

A few minutes after the trio started working in silence, a rowdy group of students entered the library, disrupting the peace. Scorpius and Albus looked up angrily, though Rose let out a squeal of glee. "James, Eric! Oh, there you are, Elina!"

It was indeed James, Derlwin, and the rest of their thugs. Albus noted that Louis and Fred were also among this group. A few girls, including Roxanne, Dominque, and Elina, were also with the boys. All in all, it was the Hogwarts elite—the crowd that Rose was a key part of.

Albus and Scorpius sunk into their chairs while the popular students gave them nasty looks. Albus was glad to see that Elina did not scowl. Instead, she smiled widely at him.

"What are you doing with the freaks?" James asked Rose, gesturing primarily toward Albus, who gasped and blinked back tears.

"They're my friends," Rose replied steadily. The popular students gave her a shocked look, as if she had somehow betrayed them.

Elina walked forward to support her best friend. "They're my friends, too. Anything else to say, James?" she asked, silently daring him to insult the two Slytherins.

James did not. He turned faintly pink, which completely shocked Albus. James wasn't the type of person to ever get embarrassed. Elina turned pink, too. The popular students giggled, and so did Rose. Albus wasn't amused at all, however, and all the color left his face.

"Come on, Elina, Rose," James said, the blush finally disappearing. "We're going to play with the Giant Squid. It's drizzling, but it's it's not pouring for the first time in days."

"Or, rather, you're going to torture the squid," Albus said nastily. "Or Slytherins. Or innocent first years."

The popular students, including Rose and Elina, glared at him, though Scorpius snickered appreciatively.

"We aren't going to do anything like that!" Elina protested. "I wouldn't let them—"

James interrupted her. "We're not doing that," James said to Elina. "We never tease anyone, right?"

Albus and Scorpius gritted their teeth while the popular students laughed and nodded with mock seriousness. Elina did not look fooled, but the disapproving look on her face vanished when James put an arm around her waist and pulled her closer to him.

Albus let out a growl while everyone wolf-whistled. Even Rose joined in the playful teasing—until Albus kicked her. He felt dizzy, though not in the good way.

"So, Rose, are you coming or not?" Derlwin demanded, sounding obnoxious as usual. Albus was too busy staring at the closeness between Elina and James to register Derlwin's words.

"Oh, um, all right," Rose sighed, putting her books away. Scorpius looked utterly horrified as she went to join Derlwin, who Scorpius was jealous of in the same way that Albus was jealous of James.

"No way!" Scorpius spat at her. "You're abandoning us?"

Rose looked extremely guilty and opened her mouth to speak, but Derlwin beat her to it. "Yeah, you heard right. There's no way she'd choose you two nerds over us," Derlwin sneered, and the other popular students laughed and made faces at Albus and Scorpius.

"Stop that! It's not nice!" Elina snapped, jerking away from James and glaring at Derlwin and her other Gryffindor friends.

"Whatever, Elina," Rose muttered. Both Elina and Rose looked as if they wanted to say something to the two Slytherins, but Derlwin put his hand around Rose and James put his hand around Elina, and the two Gryffindor girls weren't able to apologize.

As the popular crowd left the library, James and Derlwin turned around to give Albus and Scorpius a warning glare that seemed to say: Stay away from our girls. The two Slytherin boys replied with defiant looks, but both of them knew that there was no hope.

"This is just great," Scorpius groaned once the library was quiet again. "Rose and Elina abandoned us—I'm going to kill Derlwin!"

"And James," Albus added.

For the next few hours leading up to lunch, Albus and Scorpius moped around thinking about the girls of their affections. Just before lunch, Scorpius voiced their thoughts.

"Do you think we have a chance?" Scorpius asked hopefully.

"No," Albus answered gloomily. "Look at them, and then look at us."

"Yeah, I know. But we can still get them to like us back," Scorpius said.

Albus gave him a nasty look, unable to believe that Scorpius didn't get it. "Do I have to spell it out? James is the most handsome, most popular, and funniest boy in the entire school and probably the wizarding world, (He appears on the front cover of Witch Weekly every other day!) not to mention that he's a genius with pranking and dueling. Derlwin—well—he's supposedly good-looking and funny, too. And he's strong.

"Look at us, then. We're scrawny, nerdy, and just weird. If I take off my glasses, I'll run into the wall. You look like a vampire—"

"Thanks," Scorpius muttered sarcastically.

"—and we're probably the two most hated boys the the school, not counting Slytherin. You, because you're a Malfoy. Me? I'm the traitorous Potter that's a disgrace to his family. I'm an outcast and I'm a freak—"

"Okay, okay, I get it," Scorpius interrupted. "We're the losers of the school. But you forgot about Slytherin. You're the King of Slytherin. That should count."

Albus sighed heavily. "I guess it does... but what's the point? Slytherin has split, thanks to Rylon." Albus stopped talking, and determination shone in his eyes. "I just remembered! I need to go stop Rylon and bring Slytherin back together," he said.

"Well," Scorpius said sarcastically, "I see that the 'King' part of you is back. I thought it had gotten lost somewhere in your depressed brain."

Albus glared at him and, quite suddenly, the two boys burst out laughing, now determined to defeat Rylon at his own game and take over the whole of Slytherin again. Hopefully, they'd be able to show up James, Derlwin, and the rest of Hogwarts and the wizarding world along the way.


"Rylon doesn't even care that much about Slytherin," Albus said heatedly as they walked to the Slytherin table for lunch. "He just wants to be King for the power!"

Scorpius nodded in agreement. "Exactly. He's going to destroy Slytherin, and Slytherin isn't exactly doing well since the whole wizarding world is determined to eliminate it."

"He's telling them that I'm a freak and I can ruin Slytherin's name even more by being its King," Albus snarled. "If he can play dirty, then I can, too."

"You've got a plan, haven't you?" asked Scorpius, an evil grin breaking out on his face.

Albus smirked. "I do, and I'm going to put it into action."

They sat down at the Slytherin table. The split was very obvious. Rylon was sitting at one head of the table, and Albus sat down at the other one. They glared at each other hatefully, too busy making threatening looks and gestures to eat properly.

Oswald Nesbitt, Gerald Erwett, and Wyatt Hemley and the most of the Quidditch team were firmly on Albus' side, as were many of the younger students. Not to say that there weren't any older students on Albus' side—several seventh and sixth years informed him that they thought that he was the one who should lead, considering that he had bought Slytherin glory last year after uncountable years of it being the hated and losing House.

Rylon, however, had a formidable army as well. It was just as large as Albus', if not bigger. He had many of the older students on his side, which was clearly a huge plus.

The professors and the other Houses seemed to notice that the air around Slytherin House was especially poisonous today. Oswald had gotten into a hissed argument with a troll-like Slytherin on Rylon's side, and Gerald was sneering at a hard-faced first-year girl who was on the other side of the split. When Slytherins fought amongst themselves, it wasn't usually physical or magical. It was carried out in the form of snide insults, backstabbing, and blackmailing. And Albus had a feeling that he was capable of doing those things perfectly.

Albus finally saw the dark side of Slytherin, the side that every other House saw and judged them on. Finally, lunch finished and the Slytherins left the table, a storm cloud still above them.

He was halfway to the dungeons when he remembered that he had a detention with Irving. He waved good-bye to Scorpius and sprinted to Irving's office, knowing that he was late.

"I see that Slytherins such as you are incapable of actually being on time," snarled Irving as Albus entered the office, panting and wheezing.

"Sorry, sir," Albus hissed, narrowing his eyes. He clutched his wand tightly, silently daring Irving to respond. He was too preoccupied with the Slytherins to care that Irving's dangerous, ice-blue eyes flashed murderously. Albus met them coldly and let out a gasp of pain.

He felt as if his insides were being burned and then frozen, and his head threatened to split. He focused all his energy into repelling the pain and did not break away from Irving's icy gaze. To Albus' shock, Irving winced and stepped back.

Had Albus somehow turned Irving's pain-inflicting powers against him?

"ENOUGH!" Irving thundered, looking a bit dazed.

Albus smirked. His victory was short-lived, however. Irving whipped out his wand and blasted Albus into the wall.

"Don't you dare," Irving growled. His eyes sparked hatefully and he whispered, "Monster."

Albus, shaken, stumbled back to his feet, his momentary courage and defiance disappearing. "W-What should I do for the detention?" he asked quietly, thinking about what Irving had called him.

"I need you to sort some files of mine," Irving said, gesturing to the shelf nearby his desk which featured filing cabinets and a stack of parchment nearby.

Albus nodded nervously and began sorting the parchment into their respective spots in the filing cabinets. The hours passed unbearably slowly, and the sun sunk into the hills. Albus continued sorting, his brain filled with plans on how to destroy Vladimir Rylon and bring Slytherin back together. Every now and then, depressing thoughts about being a monster and a freak returned to him, and he had the urge to either burst into tears or scream in frustration.

Then Albus heard a voice coming out of nowhere. The voice seemed as if it was a combination of many things speaking together. It was a hair-raising, mind-numbing, heart-stopping kind of noise, and it seemed to vibrate through the room and the rest of the school.

"We have been released. We have awoken along with our master, and we know our mission..."

Albus jumped in his seat, catching Irving's attention.

"We come for our Prey, and we will hunt him down. We wait in the very shadows, waiting to strike, waiting to kill..."

Albus' heart was beating frantically—he felt very ill all of a sudden, and his head was throbbing. Who did the voice belong to? It had seemed inhumane and terrifying, and it had been uncountable voices mixed together.

"D-Did you h-hear that?" Albus asked Irving.

"What?" Irving gasped, looking worried. "Did you hear something? Answer me now, Potter!"

"No! I m-mean, it was n-nothing. I w-was just talking to myself," Albus said quickly, not wanting to trust Irving. "I'm done. Can I go now?"

Irving's expression was unfathomable. "Very well, Snivellus," Irving hissed. "Get out of my sight!"

Albus did so gladly, nearly tripping in his haste to leave Irving's office. The voice that he had heard repeated itself in his mind, taking over his thoughts: We wait in the very shadows, waiting to strike, waiting to kill...

Albus ran back all the way to the dungeons, wondering whether or not to tell Scorpius and Rose about the voice he had heard. No. I don't want to be even more of a freak. I'm going to pretend that this never happened, he decided.


Author's Note: Anyways, I put this author's note in to say that I drew a picture (all by myself- I like to draw in my free time, too) and put it on my profile. It's currently my avatar. It has pictures of the seven main characters in my story. I just wanted to tell you all that, in case you were interested in seeing exactly how the characters looked like.