December kept going, and Albus' classes only got easier. After he and Matt had made back fifty of the house points he'd lost, people in Gryffindor were more willing to let them be. It seemed that Kieren was now the only person who really held a grudge against him besides Cameron.
While Albus was still barely scraping through in Transfiguration, he was excelling in Potions and Charms, with Slughorn even inviting him back to the Slug Club one night. Albus declined the invitation, which annoyed Professor Slughorn very much.
History of Magic was just as boring as ever, and Albus typically used it to catch up on sleep since he wasn't getting it much at night anymore, preferring instead to look over the Marauder's Map. The anomalies he had seen appeared to repeat themselves quite regularly, with Merlin appearing all over the castle and disappearing almost every night. Prissy's midnight trips were slightly less common, but she seemed to do it, following the same route, about once a week. He still had no idea what she was doing. He was too scared to ask her, and decided against taking another trip for fear of Professor Abel catching him again. He'd barely escaped punishment the last time. This would have to remain a mystery for him.
Another thing that had become a pattern was Merrill Bonham and his thugs chasing Albus, Matt and Rose around the castle. Sometimes they got away safely, sometimes they didn't. They'd had to go to the hospital wing a few times to get healed by Madam Pomfrey, but she was kind enough not to ask them how they got into trouble. The worst that ever happened was Matt's hands and feet getting swapped around by some hex from Bonham, and they were lucky in that respect. They always managed to dodge all of the more powerful spells that the Slytherins fired at them.
One day, they weren't so lucky.
It was just after supper that Merrill had found them. "Ickle firsties should be going to bed soon," he's said as he began his pursuit, firing curses and hexes at them, not caring if he actually hit them or not. He'd chased them to the Charms corridor when finally he hit a target, as a stunner hit Rose right in the back.
"Rose!" Albus shouted when he saw her fall. He stopped running immediately and kneeled down to help her, but she had gone unconscious. Matt stopped too and crouched down to look.
"Albus, they're right behind us," he said. "They'll get us if we don't start moving, and who knows what they'll do!"
"But we have to help Rose or she's gone for sure!" Albus said back.
"Don't worry firsties, we just want to discipline you so you know to go straight to bed after supper," Albus heard Bonham say behind him. He turned around and looked up, and the three Slytherins were right there.
"Isn't that a prefects job?" a voice behind him said. Bonham turned around, and Albus leaned to the side to see who it was.
"Dominique!"
She was standing next to her friend Alea Sanders and the other fifth-year prefect, Evan Mathewson. Dominique and Alea looked very intimidating. Evan, not so much.
"Hey, Al. These three bothering you?" she asked casually.
"We're just making sure that these first-years are accustomed to Hogwarts rules. I mean, if they're going to represent the most prestigious wizarding school in Great Britain, they should at least be disciplined," Bonham said sarcastically.
"That's not your job," Evan said, trying to be intimidating, but failing at it. "Step aside and let us look at Rose."
"Or what?" Bonham said.
"Or we'll make you," Alea said simply. Bonham's thugs, Coel and Holmes, were starting to look uneasy, their wands shaking in their hands.
"Oh yeah?" Bonham said. "What's a midget and two lesbian sluts gonna do?"
The three fifth-years didn't even reply to this. They straight away started firing curses at the Slytherins, who didn't stand a chance. They were all disarmed easily by the Gryffindors, and soon Coel's legs had turned to wood and Holmes had been turned bald and knocked unconscious. Bonham lasted a bit longer, but soon he was hit by a jelly-legs curse, and he couldn't defend himself anymore.
The three Gryffindors walked up to him, the last one standing, and Dominique punched him in the nose, knocking him out. She looked at Albus and Matt. "Get her to the hospital wing, make sure they didn't do anything else to her," she said. "And hopefully they've learnt their lesson and won't bother you anymore."
"That was amazing!" Albus exclaimed.
"Thank you," Evan said, bowing.
"What's a lesbian slut?" Matt asked, quite tactlessly.
Dominique and Alea looked at each other. Dominique eventually explained, "You know how most of the time guys like girls and girls like guys? Well a lesbian is a girl who likes girls."
"But what about the slut part?" Matt pressed on.
"That's an insult he tried to use. It's a bad thing, and that's all you should know about it," Dominique said. "I think he's learnt never to use it again."
"You two should go take Rose to the hospital wing at once!" Evan suddenly yelled. "Don't worry about these three, they'll probably be caught after curfew and given detentions, I'd expect."
"And if they ever try to bully you guys again," Alea finished off. "Tell us, and we'll make them wish they'd never been born."
The three fifth-years went off, with Albus and Matt still in awe of them. After a minute, they picked up Rose and took her to the hospital wing where Madam Pomfrey revived her.
On the train home for Christmas Break, Albus, Rose and Matt sat with Howard. By the time the train got to King's Cross, they were a bit upset that they'd sat with Howard, and were more than eager to get off of the train as soon as possible so as to be a large distance away from Howard. Albus didn't really dislike Howard, it was just that he had a tendency to talk too much, and Albus just couldn't endure more than an hour of him at a time.
Albus and Rose were quick to spot their mothers, who had both come to take them home. They ran up to them and hugged them tightly.
"Calm down Albus! It's like you haven't seen me in months!" his mother joked as she pulled away from the strong embrace. "How was school?"
"It was great!" Albus exclaimed. "But some of the teachers are a bit boring. Where's dad and Lily?"
"Lily's at home with the Scamanders, they're staying over at the moment. I thought it was better to leave her with them than risk her trying to sneak onto the Hogwarts express while we're here. And your father's in Romania," his mother said. "He's had to go this morning to help your Uncle Ron for a while with Auror business, but he'll be back before Christmas. He'll be very interested to know how your first year at Hogwarts is going, you haven't owled us in months!"
"I've been busy!" Albus said, hoping this was a good excuse. The truth was he'd been distracted by the Marauder's Map. He then remembered that he hadn't really talked to anyone about seeing Merlin on it for a long time. He thought that he might be able to talk to his dad, since James said that the Map belonged to him. Then he remembered that James and Fred had actually stolen it.
Albus started telling his mother all about what had happened while he'd been at school. He told her about all of her classes, and she'd laughed when she heard that Professor Binns was still teaching History of Magic.
After what seemed like hours to Albus, James left his friends and joined them, meaning that they could finally go home. The five of them squashed into the same car with Hermione driving them. She was a very good driver, but quite often got angry at the muggles on the road who didn't seem to know what they were doing at all. Throughout the journey Albus heard her yelling about the various things that the other drivers were doing wrong.
Hermione dropped off the Potters at their house before driving off with Rose to their home. Albus noticed that decorations were already going up in preparation for Christmas, as there was a lot more red and green than normal around their house. All he was able to do for hours when he got home was to answer Lily's million and three questions about what Hogwarts was like.
"Did you see any ghosts? How tall is it? When do you have to go to bed? Are there any secret passages? What's your favourite place? James says the kitchens have thousands of house-elves!"
Albus spent some time answering her questions, but he didn't want to spoil anything for her before she went there herself, so he left most of the details for her to find out.
"You don't want to get to Hogwarts and already know everything!" he told her so that she would give him a break for a while.
"Ok," Lily said a bit upset. "But I have more questions I want to ask you later."
Albus spent a lot of time hanging out with Lorcan and Lysander Scamander, who were still little kids, having turned five a few months earlier. They were just as enthusiastic as Lily about Hogwarts, but at least they were easily distracted when Albus started showing them the magic he could do. Since he'd finally gotten the hang of a few charms, he was able to amaze them by levitating their shoes off of the ground.
Albus was enjoying being able to sleep in and not worry about missing breakfast, so he found himself waking up at noon most days. When he did wake up, it was normally Lorcan and Lysander eager to go out and play Quidditch with him. They played three-a-side Quidditch every day, with Albus, James and Lorcan taking on Teddy, Lily and Lysander. They didn't let their mum play because they knew that without their dad there was no way they could beat her. She was always busy talking to Rolf and Luna Scamander about something, anyway.
The night before Christmas, Albus' Uncle Bill and Aunt Fleur came to their house. Albus was a bit disappointed that Victoire, Dominique and Louis didn't come with them, but he was even more disappointed when he was sent to his room almost as soon as they'd arrived. It wasn't even his bedtime yet, but he didn't want to complain and get into an argument with his mother. They didn't stay long, though, as Albus was still awake when he heard them leave.
When Christmas finally came, he was overjoyed. His entire family was coming to his house to celebrate since it was the biggest, and his dad only arrived back from Romania that day. For some reason his Uncle Ron hadn't come back with him, but since his dad didn't talk about it he figured it wasn't something to worry about. After his dad got home, a flood of people started coming in with massive bags full of Christmas presents. First it was Uncle Bill and Aunt Fleur, with Victoire, Dominique and Louis carrying the presents for them. Strangely, Albus saw that Alea Sanders had come with them. Before he had time to wonder why, in came Uncle George and Aunt Angelina with Fred and Roxanne. The moment Fred walked through the door, he and James were up in James' room and the sound of explosions could be heard along with the quiet chatter of people talking to each other. Next, Uncle Percy and Aunt Audrey got there with Molly and Lucy. After that, a sheepish-looking Dudley Dursley came in. Dudley was Albus' dad's cousin, but the two seemed more like brothers because they'd grown up in the same house. Dudley was a muggle, and always felt like he didn't fit in with the magical folk, but he was always invited to Christmas lunch with them. After that, Grandad and Grandma Weasley arrived. They were the most warmly embraced by everyone, and had by far the most presents.
The last group to come was the one that Albus had been anticipating the most. And finally, almost an hour after the first Weasleys had arrived, his Aunt Hermione came in with Rose and Hugo. Albus ran up to Rose and hugged her, and the two immediately headed off up the stairs to Albus' room.
"Where do you think you two are going?" Albus' dad interrupted.
"My room," Albus answered.
"I don't think so," his dad said. "You have to stay out here and talk to everyone for a while."
"But Fred and James are in James' room!" Albus complained.
"That's more for everyone's safety than anything else," his dad said. "Besides, they'll have to come down in a few minutes anyway, we're about to start lunch."
Sure enough, a few minutes later they all gathered around the massive dining table. Every year, Albus was amazed by the way that his parents magically enlarged the room so that everyone could fit, but they somehow managed to do it. Even this year with the Scamanders joining them, everybody fit comfortably in a room that would normally only fit the five of them. The more impressive part was cooking for everyone.
As usual, the food was brilliant. His parents were great chefs, which Rose seemed to appreciate as much as the food at Hogwarts, eating almost as much as anyone else. The feast was followed by the massive family exchanging presents with each other.
If there was one plus side to having a massive family, it was the number of presents that Albus got at Christmas. His parents had given him a new broom, which was really exciting because it was a Nimbus 3000, and his dad had brought Uncle Charlie's presents from Romania, which were dragon fangs for everyone. Uncle Bill gave him a packet of sugar quills, which his mother had assumed to be normal quills and paid no mind to. Uncle George gave him an all-new product from Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes which wasn't even out in shops yet. It was called Ghost Gum, and it was a piece of chewing gum that basically turned you into a ghost so you could walk through walls and scare people. Aunt Hermione gave him some novels to read by a muggle called J.R.R. Tolkien, but Albus didn't really look forward to reading them because they looked so long. Uncle Percy gave all of the children fifty-year diaries, saying that if they started writing in them now and became famous they could sell them as their autobiography. Albus didn't like the idea of selling it, but he thought it might be a good idea to at least write in it sometimes. Dudley gave him a muggle board game called Risk which he thought looked fun, but a bit complicated. The Scamanders gave him a book called "More Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them". Apparently it was written by Rolf's grandfather and would be helpful if he took Care of Magical Creatures in his third year. Finally, everybody was given their Weasley jumpers. These were jumpers that were hand-knitted by Grandma Weasley, and every year everyone got one for Christmas. Albus' was emerald green, the same colour as his dad's, but with a silver 'A' on it as opposed to the yellow 'H' on his dad's. By coincidence, these were the same two colours as Slytherin house, which had always meant that James and Fred would pay him out about the possibility of being sorted into Slytherin. Surprisingly, him being sorted into Gryffindor this year meant that they toned it down a bit. Rose's jumper was brown with a silver 'R' on it, as it had been every year, which she really didn't like, but she didn't want to complain because Grandma Weasley was so nice.
After the presents were all given out, everybody went outside for an epic game of Quidditch. This was a family tradition, that every year the adults would play against the kids in a very important game of Quidditch. So far, the parents had won every year. As usual, Teddy was the kids' captain and Albus' dad was the adults' captain, both of them being Seekers for their team. Albus was chosen to be a Chaser since it was the first time he'd get to ride his new broom, and Dominique and Louis were made the other Chasers. Usually Fred would also be a Chaser, but he agreed to sit it out so that Albus could try out his new broom. Victoire was their Keeper and Molly and James were their Beaters. This year's team was the strongest the kids' team had ever been. The adults were very strong, too, even without Uncle Ron keeping for them. Albus' mum, Uncle Bill and Aunt Angelina were their Chasers, Uncle George and Rolf Scamander were their Beaters, and Uncle Percy had agreed to be their Keeper for the first time ever.
When the game started, Albus was the first person to get the Quaffle. His superior broom made things very easy for him, and since Uncle Percy wasn't a very good player, he was able to get quite a few shots past him. Unfortunately, the parents were better Chasers. Even though Victoire was an amazing Keeper and made heaps of great saves, they were too experienced and got plenty of goals in past her. The scores were very tight, which means that whoever caught the snitch would win the game. And everybody knew that it would be Albus' dad.
As Albus scored his tenth goal, levelling the scores at 190-190, the people on the ground started yelling "He's seen the snitch!". Everybody stopped playing to watch Harry and Teddy fly for the snitch. They were equally matched for speed, but when it came to grabbing the snitch, Albus was bigger and able to push Teddy out of the way so that he could get it. Before Teddy could recover from the bump, Harry had a firm grasp on the golden snitch.
"Adults win!"
The adults cheered a bit, but all of the kids groaned. This was the fifth year they'd played this game, and they were still yet to win one. They were going to have to wait until the next year.
"But did you see how close Teddy was to catching the snitch?" James said as they all landed. "He'll catch it for sure next year, dad's getting real old and slow."
Everybody laughed at James' comment about his father's age, and then they all went back inside. Over the next few hours, the families left one by one, going to other commitments they had for the day. By evening, it was just the five Potters and Teddy Lupin.
The day after Christmas, Albus didn't have Lorcan and Lysander to wake him up, so he ended up sleeping well into the afternoon. By the time he did finally wake up, the house was very empty.
Albus went downstairs from his room and saw that the only person in the house was Teddy.
"Where is everyone?" he asked.
"They've all gone to the Ministry," Teddy answered. "Your dad took everyone there for a visit so he could show them around. They were going to take you, but when they saw you were still asleep, they decided to leave you be."
Albus was a bit disappointed by this, he hadn't been to the Ministry many times before, and he always found it very exciting. He also realized that he wouldn't be able to talk to his dad about the Marauder's Map until he got back.
"So are we the only ones here?" Albus asked Teddy.
"Not quite," Teddy said smiling. He pointed behind Albus into the kitchen, and Albus turned around to see Victoire standing in the doorway.
"Hi Al," she said.
"Hi," Albus said back. "Why are you here?"
"Aren't I allowed to spend time with my boyfriend?" she asked.
Albus was a bit taken aback. He knew something was going on between them, it was quite obvious, but this was the first time either of them had said anything about it explicitly.
Albus figured he should leave those two alone for a while. He realized how hard it must have been for them with Victoire at Hogwarts for months and Teddy at home. He walked past Victoire and into the kitchen where he made himself toast. After eating it, he went back into the lounge room to talk to Teddy and Victoire. He walked in, but saw that they were rolling around on a couch snogging, so he walked back out and made himself some more toast. After he'd repeated this for an hour, his stomach couldn't handle any more toast, so he decided to just interrupt them.
He walked into the room and cleared his throat. The two of them fell off of the couch and Teddy rocketed into a standing position.
"Hi, Al! We were just-"
"I know what you were doing," Albus said. "I am eleven."
"Right, of course," Teddy said.
"Oh, and Victoire, can I ask you something?" Albus said to Victoire.
"Sure," she replied, sitting up on a chair.
"Why was Alea here for Christmas lunch yesterday?"
"Because she's Dominique's girlfriend now," Victoire replied.
"Oh," Albus said. He was a bit confused for a second. Then he remembered what Merrill Bonham had said when they were back at Hogwarts. He had called her a 'lesbian slut'. Albus didn't know what a slut was, but he now knew that she was in fact a lesbian. He didn't know why, but it felt somehow weird to know this.
For the next half an hour, Teddy amused Albus and Victoire by transforming himself in different ways. Being a metamorphmagus, he could transform to look like anything he wanted. Usually his appearance stayed the same, a quite tall brown-haired nineteen-year-old. After a moment's concentration, however, he could become anybody. He was doing an imitation of the Minister of Magic, a rather short and fat man, when suddenly their fireplace almost exploded with a flash of green. Their family had returned from the Ministry. Strangely, rather than coming one by one, they had all come in at once, coughing and spluttering, with Lily screaming her face off. His mother and James coughed and spluttered their way out of the fireplace.
"What's going on!" Albus yelled at them. "Why'd you all come through at once!"
"Someone's attacked the Ministry!" his mother said between coughs, yelling over the sound of Lily's screaming. "Lily! Calm down! We're back home now!"
"Where's Uncle Harry?" Victoire asked.
"He's in there helping to stop the attacker," she replied.
"I should go and help," Teddy began, shifting back into his normal form and starting to make his way to the fireplace.
"No! You are not going in there," she said, putting her foot down. "Nobody is leaving this house until the attack is over."
His mother took Lily out of the room and into her bedroom to calm her down. After a moment of silence, Albus asked James "So what actually happened?"
"Well dad was showing us his office and introducing us to a couple of his co-workers. One guy was Arthur Spencer, and he looked awesome. Like he was bald and had a scar on his scalp that he said was from a werewolf attack when he fought in the war against You-Know-Who. Apparently he's been an Auror for decades, the best Auror between Mad-Eye Moody and dad. He knew what he was talking about, too. He-"
"Is this important?" Teddy interrupted.
"No, not really. But I thought he was pretty cool," James said sheepishly. "Anyway, he was introducing us to a few Aurors, when some people downstairs started yelling. We were up pretty high, like we could see most of London from where we were. It was kinda scary looking down out the window, 'cause we were like nine stories up, but-"
"Stop getting side-tracked, James!" Teddy interrupted again.
"Sorry, it was just really interesting. Anyway, there was shouting downstairs. That's when someone ran up to our floor and yelled 'We're under attack!', so everybody started screaming and panicking. Mum and dad rushed us downstairs so that we could floo back home, but when we got to the ground floor, we found out that that's where they were attacking. There were these masked wizards firing spells at everyone trying to make their way towards something. Dad told us to go home and that they needed his and Arthur Spencer's help. That's when we left. I think I saw dad firing spells at the masked wizards just before we left, and Arthur Spencer looked pretty awesome when he started duelling against one of them."
"So do you know who was attacking?" Albus asked.
"I dunno. They were all wearing masks," James said.
"Why did they attack?" Teddy asked.
"No, dad made us leave pretty quickly, so I didn't get to find anything out."
"When's dad going to be back?" Albus asked.
"I dunno, whenever he's done I guess. Should be pretty quick with him and Arthur Spencer working together. Apparently that guy was once fighting five Death Eaters at once when one of them disarmed him, so he used wandless magic to stun the guy and get his wand back while dodging killing curses from all directions!"
James really did seem to like this Arthur Spencer guy.
"I've met him," Teddy said. "He's not that impressive, really. Harry's a way better dueller."
"Yeah, dad's better, but he's like the next best thing. Plus he's old, so he's not as good as he used to be," James said, trying to come up with an excuse for Spencer.
About half an hour later, their dad came back through the fireplace, panting a bit and looking very tired. James ran up to him excitedly and said, "Did you win?"
Harry took a second to catch his breath, but smiled and said "Yes, we won."
"What happened?" Albus asked him.
"It was a group of witches called the Fays," he explained. "They're a clan that claims to be descended from Morgana, and they said that they wanted their inheritance. They started to cause a disturbance, and one Auror said they had to leave, so they killed him," he said solemnly. Everybody gasped.
"What, just like that?" Teddy asked. "Because he asked them to leave?"
"Yes, Teddy. Everybody was a bit shocked, and the first person to respond decide to attack them. Soon spells were firing everywhere, and nobody could tell what was going on. People went into panic mode and fired spells at anyone who came their way, friend or foe. It was like being in a riot. We couldn't tell who was a Ministry worker and who was one of the Fays, and people were being killed all over the place. I think the official death count was twelve."
Albus was shocked. Twelve people had died? How were they supposed to know going to work that day that they would get caught in a fight like that and died? They didn't deserve to die, and Albus was angry at the Fays for doing something so horrible.
"So did you catch them?" James asked.
"The Fays? No. But we did get them out of the Ministry, and now they're officially wanted. For years we've been trying to catch them doing something illegal, but now we finally have evidence of them using Unforgivable Curses, so we can arrest them as soon as we find them," Harry said, as if there was some light at the end of the tunnel after all.
"Why did they attack?" Teddy asked.
"We think they wanted something we have hidden in the Department of Mysteries. That's where they seemed to be headed. Which also raises questions, like how they knew where the Department of Mysteries was. We think they had a spy on the inside of the Ministry, so we're trying to find out who at the moment."
"What did they want to steal?" Albus asked, now curious.
"I can't tell you that," his father said, smiling knowingly. "It's a secret."
Albus never got to catch his dad alone to talk to him about the Map. Whenever he thought he'd have a chance, someone else would show up and he didn't want to send them away and seem rude, so he just waited patiently for an opportunity to open up. Sadly, it didn't, and he found himself on Platform Nine and Three Quarters getting ready to get on the Hogwarts Express.
James and Fred helped him put his bags up on the train, and he waved goodbye to his mum from afar as he got on the train. He started looking around so that he could wave goodbye to his dad, when he got a tap on his shoulder. He turned around, and his dad was there. "Come over here for a second," he said to him, dragging him away from the train.
His dad crouched down to his height and said "I know you've been trying to get me alone for a while. It's great that you've been polite and waited, but if something's important you have to tell me so that we can talk."
"Sorry," Albus said.
"I'm not angry at you, I'm just letting you know for the future. Anyway, what's up?"
Albus suddenly realized he didn't exactly know how to tell his dad. "Well, do you know what the Marauder's Map is?"
"So that's where it went!" his dad said. "Did you take it or was it James?"
"It was James," Albus quickly said, passing the blame off of himself. "He gave it to me, but I left it at school, so I couldn't give it back to you."
"Don't worry, I don't really mind that you have it. In fact, I'm happy it's in your hands instead of James having it. No wonder he got up to so much mischief last year," he said, laughing to himself. "Is that it? You wanted to talk to me about that?"
"Sort of," Albus said. "You know how it shows names of people on it? Is it ever wrong?"
His dad smiled and said "The Marauder's Map never lies, Albus."
"Are you sure?" Albus asked again. "Because I think it told me someone was there, but they couldn't of been there because they're dead."
"Trust me, I have it on the highest authority that it is never wrong," his dad said. "Whose name did you see on it?"
Albus felt awkward, and thought that his dad wouldn't believe him. "Um, it said Merlin was in the Dungeons."
His dad froze and stared at him. "Are you sure that's what it said, Albus. I need you to be one hundred per cent certain about this." He looked dead serious, so Albus started to tremble and felt his heartbeat accelerate.
"Yes, I'm sure," he said nervously.
"Then something big is happening," his dad said. "I didn't tell you before because I wasn't meant to tell anybody, but do you remember when the Ministry was attacked?"
Albus nodded. "Yes, twelve people died."
"Well the people that did that, the Fays, they claim that they are descended from Morgana. And they also said that Merlin had returned, so they needed to fight him. We didn't believe them, but I think we'll have to take that seriously now."
"Really? Are you sure the map didn't just-"
"Albus, the Map is never wrong. The enchantments on it are too powerful for anything to interfere with it, so if it says that Merlin is in Hogwarts, then Merlin is in Hogwarts. You said he was in the Dungeons?"
"Yes," Albus said. "But he's not there all the time. His name keeps appearing and disappearing on the map."
"Well next time you see his name on the Map, send me an owl immediately. This is really important, Albus, and it's also really important that you don't tell anyone about it. Not even your teachers. Do you understand?"
Albus nodded. He suddenly felt guilty for already telling both Matt and Professor Smith. He decided not to tell his dad in case he got in trouble for it, so he just said "I understand."
"Good. Now you'd better get on the train, it looks like it's about to leave in a minute." The seriousness left his face, and he smiled at Albus again. "Have a good time at Hogwarts, Al."
Albus got on the train moments before it took off from the platform, and he started looking for the compartment with Matt in it. He needed to talk to him.
