Here's the next chapter! This one took a while, since I was thinking the scenes through carefully. Harry continues to pull a Dumbledore, while Albus gets annoyed. :P A review asked why I've been updating so quickly, and told me they could wait. Well, I know, but I just wanted to update! I have free time now, and I thought I might as well, since this story is interesting me. :) Plus, I probably won't update as quickly for the rest of this week, cuz school starts again tomorrow. Ugh. Anyways, thanks for the reviews. Also, thank you so much to my first follower, DaniellePayne609 (yes, you deserve a shout-out). Also, my only follower, but it doesn't matter. I'm just glad some people enjoy my story. Enjoy, and thanks for reading! :)
Chapter 9: Halloween
"Well that settles it then," said Albus, in the Gryffindor common room. "It's got to be her."
"Should we tell your dad?" asked Sapphire.
"No," Albus sighed. "Last time he basically told me to forget about everything. If dad isn't going to act on our suspicions, then we will."
"So...what's the plan?" asked Scorpius.
"I don't know," Albus admitted. "Not yet, at least."
"Wow, both well-thought out and strategic. Good plan." Scorpius said sarcastically.
Rose piped up suddenly. "I have a plan."
Albus, Scorpius, and Sapphire stared at her.
"Miss Rule-Enforcer has a plan to break the rules?" Scorpius asked incredulously .
"Shut up," snapped Rose. "Technically, i f it's Professor Bulstrode, and we catch her, we're catching a criminal. So it's following the rules."
"Whatever logic helps you sleep at night," said Sapphire. "So, what do you have ? "
"The Halloween feast," said Rose simply.
Again, the three of them stared at her like she had three heads. "Care to expand on that, Rose?" asked Albus.
"Ugh," groaned Rose. "You people really need to think. At the Halloween feast, all students and teachers gather in the Great Hall. This is the perfect opportunity for Bulstrode to strike again."
Albus began to get excited again. "So when we see her, we catch her in the act. "
"Noo," Rose said sarcastically. "When we see her, we start tap dancing. Anyways, glad to see you guys are finally listening."
Sapphire frowned. "But how do we catch her? I mean, she's checked Albus' dorm. Where else could she check?"
"Professor Potter's office." said Scorpius. "She thinks that it's with Al, but his dad is the Head Auror, not him. And it would be unsafe at his house, with only his mom and sister there."
Rose had a thoughtful expression on her face. "Hmm...that could work. During the feast, Al pretends he has to go to the bathroom, when he really heads to Uncle Harry's office on the fourth floor. We shove him in the hallway, and Bulstrode will step out and try to kidnap him."
"What?" Albus sputtered. "That's a terrible plan! I can't defeat her!"
Rose sighed. "You didn't let me finish. She tries to kidnap you, but I cast the disarming charm from behind, and then tie her up with the rope-tying spell."
"Geez," Albus grumbled. "Next time tell us the entire plan before you give me a heart attack."
"Okay, so just to recap," started Scorpius. "We use Albus as bait, and pray she can't take on three first years."
"Basically," said Sapphire cheerfully.
"And afterwards, we tell Uncle Harry," said Rose with a stern look at Albus. "We can't just take on whatever organization she's part of; the man in your dream sounded scary."
Albus sighed and gave in. "Fine," he said.
"Why do you want to do this, anyway?" asked Sapphire. "I mean, if we tell your dad, won't everything be solved?"
Albus scowled. "Yeah, everything will be solved. It'll be back to normal. He won't tell me a thing and I'll be stuck in the shadows of him and James. He's not even the one who had the dream!"
"So that's what this is about," said Scorpius with a knowing look. "Well, I have to agree with Rose."
Albus thought he heard Sapphire mutter something like, "No surprise there."
"We can't get too involved with this, we 're just 11! We'll just help out by catching Bulstrode, and then leave it to your dad." Scorpius continued, showing no sign that he had heard what Sapphire said .
"Alright," Albus sighed. "I guess it would be okay to just have a normal year, actually. I just got caught up in the excitement of this. I'm probably overreacting about nothing. Anyways, looks like we've got to wait until the feast now ."
Little did Albus know that he was not overreacting at all.
Weeks passed by. It was surprising how fast the days went by. Well, I guess time flies when you're doing homework and studying, thought Albus. September quickly dissipated into October; November just around the corner. Albus hadn't forgotten about the plan, and he hoped the others hadn't either, because it was almost time to put it into action.
"Now class, for homework..." the class collectively groaned. Harry smiled. "For homework, I want you all to get out, and have a great Halloween!" Everyone cheered, and rushed outside before Harry could change his mind. As the students left, he thought Albus looked a little nervous. He would ask him to stay behind, but he had another class. I'll just talk to him during the feast and see what's bugging him," Harry thought. But of course, if Albus' plan worked, Harry would not get the chance.
Albus ran over to where Rose and Sapphire were sitting by the fire. They were doing each other's hair. Girls, thought Albus, shaking his head. "Hey, have any of you seen Scorpius?" he asked .
"I think he's in the boys' dormitory," said Rose.
"Thanks, I'll go get him!" Albus rushed off and dragged Scorpius towards the fire. "Hey guys, I don't know if you remember, but around a month ago we had a plan during the Halloween feast, to – "
Sapphire cut him off with an incredulous look on her face. "You honestly think we forgot? I've been thinking about it all month!"
"Me, too." chorused Rose and Scorpius.
Albus sighed in relief. So he wouldn't h ave to go over the plan. "Okay, good. You remember. Now here's what we do. Just walk down to the Great Hall, and I'll pretend to go to the bathroom. Scorpius will come with me, which will be fine, since my dad forced me into the buddy system. Later, Rose will 'not feel very good' and Sapphire, you take her food for her ."
Sapphire interrupted. "Why not just leave the Great Hall at the same time?"
"Yup, all four of us eating and then we jump up all of a sudden and run out of the Great Hall while students and professors continue to eat," Scorpius answered facetiously. "Nope, not suspicious at all!"
Sapphire scowled. "Point taken."
"Okay, so we know the plan. Let's head down to the Great Hall!" said Rose.
At the Great Hall, all students seemed t o be enjoying themselves. They were joking, laughing, and scaring each other. After all, it was Halloween. All except four students, who didn't need the Halloween celebrations to look scared. They were frightened of their own accord.
Patiently (or so it seemed) waiting for Professor Bulstrode to show up, and the feast to begin. Or in their case, for the plan to begin.
Headmistress McGonagall stood up. "Unfortunately, due to an accident, Professor Bulstrode cannot join us for the feast. So, we must enjoy this feast without her ." The Gryffindors exchanged looks of glee, both due to the fact that Bulstrode wasn't here, and that the tables were now covered in delicious dishes and foods. Again, all except four.
"What are we going to do now?" hissed Rose. "We never even thought about her not joining!"
Albus tried not to look disappointed, in which he was failing miserably. Their plan was on the verge of falling apart.
"We're going to have to stick with the plan." whispered Albus.
"But couldn't Bulstrode have gotten to your dad's office already?" Sapphire asked.
"I'm almost sure that she did," said Scorpius nonchalantly.
Rose stared at him. "Then why are you acting so cool about it?"
Scorpius smirked. "So you admit that I'm cool?"
"You know full well that's not what I meant!"
Before Scorpius could reply, Albus butted in. Those two couldn't get in an argument at a time like this.
"Alright, alright. Let's just go with what we have. Scorpius, let's go to the 'bathroom'." Albus said.
The two left the table, and Rose and Sapphire tried to act natural. This was proving hard with Harry gazing at them intently, wondering why Albus had left. To make matters worse, he started heading over to Rose and Sapphire.
"He's coming! He's coming!" Sapphire said, panicking.
"Don't hyperventilate! Just act normal." Rose said, trying to sound soothing. In reality, she was just as nervous as Sapphire.
"Hey, Rose! Hello...? I'm sorry, I forgot your name. I think it was a gemstone. . .?" Harry said.
"Sapphire Todesworth." She said in a robotic voice.
Rose could have stomped on her foot. Way to act natural, she thought. And I thought I was a bad actress.
Harry smiled. "Right, Sapphire. Lovely name, really."
Sapphire blushed, while Rose was trying her hardest not to gag.
"Anyways," Harry continued. "I noticed Albus leave the hall, with his...friend, Mr. Malfoy." Harry said, putting a slight hesitation before "friend". "I don't suppose you know why?"
The way Harry put it made it clear that he knew that Rose knew why, and was simply asking politely as a formality.
"Scorpius," Rose corrected automatically , blushing afterwards when she saw Harry 's expression.
"Right, Scorpius. So, the reason?"
"He went to the bathroom, and asked Scorpius to go with him because he knew that you asked him not to go anywhere alone . " Rose answered in what she hoped was a nonchalant voice.
Harry smiled. He knew he shouldn't have doubted Albus. And he was actually listening to what Harry said! "Oh, alright. Glad to see that he's actually taking my words to heart. I'm really proud of that ; I thought he might still be angry about what I told him at the Quidditch game. "
Rose nodded, feeling guilty, and trying not to let it show. Unfortunately, Harry had known her since birth, and could apparently tell something was off in her expression.
"Something wrong?" he asked.
"Oh, no, I'm just feeling a little sick. Think I might have eaten too much." Rose said, trying to kill two birds wit stone.
Harry looked down at her plate. It was still full. He raised an eyebrow at her. Fortunately, before she could crack, Sapphire answered for her.
"Oh, that's like her third helping. Rose , I told you not to eat so much!" she scolded. Clearly Rose shouldn't have judged her acting ability so quickly.
"Oh," said Harry, looking more concerned now. "Do you want me to take you to the hospital wing?"
"No!" said Rose. "I mean, it's just a stomach ache. You should enjoy the feast. I think I'll just go rest. Sapphire, do you want to come with me?"
"Sure!" said Sapphire.
They walked out of the Great Hall, with a suspicious look still etched on Harry' s face. Thankfully, he didn't follow them, and instead headed back to the professors' table.
Rose and Sapphire dashed to the corridor outside Harry's office. There, they found Albus and Scorpius with looks of worry on their faces.
"There they are!" said Scorpius.
Rose and Sapphire headed towards them, where they immediately began to get berated by Albus.
"Do you guys know how long it took you to get here? Professor Bulstrode could have gotten here already, and been on her merry way with the Potestum!" Albus exclaimed.
"But she didn't." said Sapphire wisely. "And how do we know it's even here?"
Albus put on a thoughtful expression. "True, but not the point. Anyways, let's get into position!"
They waited ten minutes, but no sign of Bulstrode appeared. He was beginning to wonder if anyone was even going to show up when he heard a noise coming their way.
"Someone's coming!" Albus hissed. He started walking around his dad's office, expecting Bulstrode to show up. Surprisingly, he heard no further noises. He peeked past the hallway, and saw a figure in dark robes turn somewhere else.
"Bulstrode's not coming this way, for some reason," Albus said. "I'm guessing she wants to make sure no one's here first , so she's going to take a quick trip to the Great Hall. But that wastes time . Let's take care of that for her, shall we ?"
Scorpius winked. "I'm on it." He took a deep breath, and yelled across the hallw ay. "No, Rose, for the last time, I will not go out with you!"
Rose's jaw dropped while Sapphire sniggered. "I didn't want to in the first place!" she screamed, louder than Scorpius.
"So you're saying it's over?" yelled Scorpius.
"We never started! I'm going down to the Great Hall where I have some actual friends!"
"Me, too! Beats this place. No one around to ignore!"
With that, they stopped screaming and clomped their feet against the ground, making it sound like they were walking away . As they rounded the corner, where they would hide, he heard Rose whisper to Scorpius, "You're an idiot!"
Smirking, Albus heard footsteps come his way. He walked down the corridor, and the figure stepped in front of him. Upon seeing him, the figure raised their wand , meaning to strike Albus. Albus waited for one of his friends to jump out and disarm Bulstrode, but nothing happened . Instead, the bolt of light hit Albus across the chest and ropes started forming a round him. He was clearly being ta ken captive.
He started panicking. Where were his friends? The figure strode towards Albus, pushing him against the wall. Then, she attempted to open Harry's office. This was when everything went wrong. Rose jumped out and yelled "Reducto!", causing Albus' ropes to disintegrate. She attempted to disarm the figure, but a noise from behind the corner stopped her.
At this point, a noise was issued from where his friends were hiding. He wondered what was going on.
"PEEVES!" He heard Sapphire shriek. Peeves swooped through the hallway, throwing what looked like candy at Rose, Sapphire, Scorpius, Albus, and the figure. One piece landed in his mouth, and Albus chewed it, wondering what it was. He found out a second later when all he could see was pitch black.
Blinding Bubblegum. A Weasley product, that he knew his cousin Fred happened to have an entire collection of. Apparently , his friends had chewed them too, as he could tell from the noises, cursing, and shrieking. Spitting them out didn't take the blindness away. They stumbled across the hallway trying to grope for each other to get a sense of where they were. This was no help whatsoever, and ended up bumping into each other for the next five minutes. Eventually, it wore off. But it was too late. Harry's office had been ransacked, and the figure was gone.
