Chapter 10
All was forgiven...
Upon their arrival to Hogwarts, the children solemnly hugged each other and parted ways. The Weasleys and Potters were all either in Gryffindor or Hufflepuff, so Ara and Scorpius were about to separate from the crowd to head in the opposite direction. However, Scorpius grabbed Rose, Albus, and Ara by their robes, pulling them in another direction entirely.
"Argh!" Rose grunted, trying hard to break free of the blonde's grip. "Let - Go - Of - Me!" she struggled, pulling at her robes.
"Where are you taking us?" Ara asked tiredly.
"The library. I am not going to my mother's funeral this early on her life, if I can help it. We're doing research on this. There's got to be a way to fix her," Scorpius said determinedly. At the words 'library' and 'research,' Rose stopped her attempts to escape, but Albus began wriggling.
"I'm too bloody tired to do any research. For Helga's sake, it's a Saturday. I'm not going anywhere near the library!" Albus declared.
Scorpius, by this time, had let go of both Ara and Rose in order to restrain Albus. "You're coming with us, Potter," Scorpius fired back. Albus kept attempting to escape, but the boys were evenly matched, falling to the ground without either really succeeding. Eventually, the two boys became so tired in their tussle that they both sat down on the floor with exhaustion.
"I'm still... not going... there," Albus panted in between deep breaths. Rose rolled her eyes.
"Wingardium Leviosa," she chanted, and Albus began to float in the direction of the library.
"Hey! That's cheating," he gasped out, flailing his arms and legs in midair.
"Stuff it or I'll drop you," Rose threatened.
"Come on, Scorp," Ara pulled the blonde up to his feet. They followed after Albus and Rose, one of which was groaning all the way to the library. At the entrance, Rose unceremoniously ended the spell, landing Albus on his butt.
"Ouch!" he cried indignantly.
"Aww, did I bruise your wittle bum? Need me to kiss it?" Rose asked mock sweetly.
"I think you've been a bad influence on her," Albus said pointedly at the two Slytherins.
"Sweet Circe, have you never heard of something called 'the comeback'?" Scorpius groaned.
"What?" Albus asked confusedly.
"Morgana-forsaken Hufflepuffs!" Scorpius whisper-shouted after receiving a glare from Madame Pince.
"An appropriate rebuttal to Rose's insult could have been, for example, 'yes, Rose, please do kiss my butt," Ara explained. "That would be a comeback."
Albus blinked. "Oh, is that all?" Albus asked innocently.
"Oh, I give up!" Scorpius shook his head and threw his hands up in the air, turning to go deeper into the library.
"So, what exactly are we looking for?" Rose asked Scorpius cheerfully.
"Holy Helga, give her a book and she'll forget all about her father's death?" Albus shook his head at his cousin.
Ara shrugged. "Books provide a beautiful alternative reality. It's a fantastic distraction."
"You two," Scorpius called. "Get over here you lumps!"
"Be quiet," Madame Pince hissed from her desk.
"We're looking things up about fixing magical comas," Rose gushed excitedly.
"Why don't two of us take potions, and two of us take spells?" Ara suggested.
"I'm not-" Albus began to protest, but Rose did her best impression of Ginny Weasley, hands on hips.
"Albus Severus Potter, so help me Godric, if you complain one more time about being in a library or researching," she paused for emphasis, inwardly grinning at every cringe Albus made at those two words.
"Are you going to finish that statement Weaselette? Or I'll just start researching in the library without you," Scorpius goaded.
"Oh no you didn't!" Rose raged.
"Yes he did, and it's because he can. I'm taking spells, you guys duel it out or whatever. Ara is out. Peace," she drawled, bored. She turned away and began walking to the right, glancing over the different aisles of books. Scorpius glanced once at Rose's furious expression and ran after Ara.
"Coward!" Rose hissed.
"It's called a Slytherin's sense of self-preservation," he whisper-yelled back, ducking into the aisle that Ara had disappeared into.
"Come on Albus, let's go research potions!" Rose enthusiastically dragged him from his spot, Albus grumbling the entire way.
In the aisle the two Slytherins had disappeared into, they grinned and slapped a high-five.
"This was a brilliant idea, Ara. She doesn't suspect a thing, it got her out of any depression, and this might really save my mum!" Scorpius grinned at his childhood co-conspirator.
"Beautifully executed, getting her all riled up at you. That really snapped her out of it," Ara smiled.
"Now, down to business," Scorpius said, scanning the titles on the left shelf.
"Scorpius Cepheus Malfoy is focusing? Somebody called Guinness!" Ara mocked sarcastically.
He chuckled a bit. "So funny," he stated, with a slight sarcastic edge.
"Who are you and what have you done with Scorpius Malfoy?" Ara gasped as the blonde continued to scan the bookshelf. Scorpius ignored her, grunting as he began to pull a thick encyclopedia from the shelf above his head. Seeing that he was about to drop the volume, Ara waved her wand with a simple "Wingardium Leviosa," levitating it just before the book landed on his toes. Scorpius yelped as it slid from his grasp, breathing a sigh of relief that his foot had been spared.
"Thanks Ara, though you're a tad bit Hufflepuffish today," he teased.
In an attempt to hurt his foot, Ara ended the spell, hoping the fat book would destroy his toes, but Scorpius had already taken hold of it. He lugged it over to an empty table, placing it with a loud thump onto the wood.
"What is that, anyways?" Ara asked, sitting next to Scorpius and setting the book between them.
"A catalog of all the spells that have been created or used," Scorpius explained. "It automatically shows the spell name, incantation, creators, purpose, and most famous uses."
"Perfect," Ara brushed off the dusty leather cover and opened the book to the first page. "To sort the spells, choose one of the following categories from the list and tap the text with your wand once. The most relevant spells will be in the beginning of this book, while the least will be at the end. To specify your search, tap the chosen category twice and say the keyword(s) relevant to your area of interest," Ara read aloud.
Scorpius pulled out his wand. He tapped "Healing and Medical Spells" twice, declaring "coma." When he turned the page, there were about fifty results on the first page, with text at the bottom asking if they needed to alter their search or use a more advanced search.
"It's like a magical Google!" Ara exclaimed excitedly. "To view the results, just tap your wand to the line with the spell."
Scorpius tapped the first one, Resipisco, created by Professor Norris Brigateer in 1471.
This spell was created in 1471 by Professor Norris Brigateer, in hopes to awaken his father from a coma induced by a concussion. Unfortunately, Brigateer's attempt, although successfully awakening his father from a coma, did not allow his father to fall asleep when necessary. Brigateer's father died shortly thereafter, due to a lack of sleep. Since then, healers have not trifled with the spell again. In 1645, Healer Cuthbert Scobahull attempted to find a counterspell in hopes to restore the sleep necessary for various coma patients, but was unsuccessful. The mechanisms of the Resipisco spell have not been studied, seeing that the spell is fairly useless to the Healing field.
Ara groaned. "That's the top result? Obviously, there's no clear cut answer."
"You're not allowed to be discouraged. That's my job," Scorpius snapped. "Plus, it's only the first one."
"Oh look who's the optimist now?" Ara retorted.
"Are you taking a journey down Scorpius's Sarcasm Street?"
"I live there," Ara rolled her eyes.
Scorpius simply flipped the page, and began reading the entry on Expergedueram.
In 1292, Henecoc Walbrook experimented with the Latin wording of Expergefactam in awakening his wife from a deep slumber, known in the fairy tale of Sleeping Beauty. The best incantation resulted in Expergedueram, but it only lasted for brief periods of time. Walbrook's wife would awaken for a few hours, but the potency of the spell wore off quickly. Further research on the spell has not discovered the biological effects of the spell, though some Spell Composition Specialists (SPS), namely Richard Panshawe, speculate that the wording of the spell required too much energy to continue its effects. Panshawe consistently advocated its use for awakening patients in long term comas, but animal trials have proven that the spell requires an excessive amount of energy that the mice used in experimentation did not possess. After these studies, the Expergedueram spell became obsolete.
"Well, that wasn't super helpful..." Scorpius trailed off.
Rose and Albus joined Scorpius and Ara at the table, levitating several large tomes. Rose sat down eagerly, while Albus slumped down miserably in a chair, rubbing his ear sorrowfully.
"I pity your future children," he grunted.
Rose ignored him. "So, did you find anything?" Rose asked Ara and Scorpius excitedly.
"Yeah, have you ever heard of Google?" Ara asked Rose and Albus.
"Of course! I don't live under a rock," Rose exclaimed.
"Well, my dad's mentioned it once or twice, but I never understood it," Albus grumbled.
"Well, Rose, this book is like a Google for spells. Albus, it's basically a compilation of different spells that you can search to find the most relevant ones," Ara explained.
"That's actually brilliant!" Albus perked up a bit. "That would make... researching..." he shuddered, "so much easier!"
"It's wonderfully efficient, but it kind of takes the joy out of it," Rose sighed. Albus rolled his eyes.
"You and your mum are so alike it's beyond scary sometimes."
"Granger's child. What did you expect?" snorted Scorpius.
Rose ignored the comment, too excited about her research. "So, I was looking through mentally associated potions, and these are the ones I've found so far," she declared cheerfully, sliding a piece of parchment covered in scribbles towards the Slytherins. Ara looked it over appraisingly.
Baruffio's Brain Elixir
Dr. Ubbly's Oblivious Unction
Memory Potion and its variations
Anti-Paralysis Potion
Mandrake Restorative Draught
Perhaps similar effects on comas? (in Rose's messy cursive)
Magi-Me-More Pills
Revive Potion
Scintillation Solution
Wit-Sharpening Potion
"Not a bad beginning list," Ara smiled, flattening out the wrinkled paper. "It certainly holds promising ideas, though, I don't think the memory potion or magi-me-more pills will be very useful," she noted.
"I was wondering about those as well. Although the wit-sharpening potions aren't really what we're looking for, I thought that an energy or brain power boost could be helpful," Rose replied, scratching out the two potions Ara had vetoes.
"Hmm... Well, it depends, I guess, on the cause of her coma. If her brain shuts parts off, then those potions could be very useful, in stimulating them or something..." Ara pondered.
"Exactly what I was thinking," Rose confirmed.
"Does it bother you, Malfoy, that these two speak like they're actually sixth years rather than firsts?" Albus inquired incredulously.
"Not so much. They're just like their mothers," Scorpius replied, and made to snatch the list from Ara, who anticipated the move and held it out of his reach.
"Ara!" Scorpius whined.
"Scorp!" she mimicked, throwing him a death glare. "You know to say 'please' and 'thank you,' so use those words!"
"Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease may I have the list?" Scorpius asked, annoyed and extending the 'e' sound.
"Yes, you may," Ara replied, handing it back to him and smiling sweetly.
Scorpius's eyes perused the paper, while Albus's eyes drooped. Looking up from the paper, he set his eyes on the ginger in front of him with a newfound respect.
"Well done, Weasley. I appreciate it."
"It was my pleasure," she responded lightly, meeting his gaze intently.
"Spells are looking pretty dismal," Ara reported, breaking Rose and Scorpius's staring contest. "We hadn't gotten through many before you guys came, but the few we did were pretty specific to fixing comas, but they didn't work out well.
"That's disappointing," Rose said sadly.
"Hardly," Scorpius scoffed.
"Maybe you need to look at less specific spells, or spells that fix the cause of the coma rather than the coma itself. Maybe the spells won't work well on comas because there can be multiple causes or things to fix, and the magic can't fix everything, especially since it's not being focused on anything," Albus suggested tiredly, yawning widely.
"What?" he asked as the other three stared at him.
"That's brilliant," Ara breathed.
"There's the creativity and intelligence you've been lacking thus far!" Rose cheered. "I knew you had it in you."
"Sweet Salazar, the Hufflepuff is smart and the Gryffindork insulted her cousin! DId I step into a parallel reality?" Scorpius asked disbelieving.
"It's not like I'm stupid," Albus protested.
"They just can't handle your brilliance," Ara patted his hand.
"Why don't you have your pity party with the other Hufflepuffs?" Scorpius snarked. "I don't understand how you could be a Slytherin," he looked pointedly at Ara. In no time flat, she had her wand out and hexed his mouth shut.
"That's why. I can be ruthless and sweet. It depends on if my the object deserves affection or... disciplining," Ara smirked, putting her wand away and choosing that word specifically. Scorpius's eyes widened. SHe had just called him childish, and he had no way to defend his honor. Tugging at his sealed mouth, he settled for a glare.
"Lysander and Caymen have been too influential," Scorpius commented once she lifted the charm. Ara smirked.
After compiling a list of potentially helpful spells and potions, the four first-years stumbled towards the owlery in a mind-numbed post-intensive researching state. Ara, Scorpius, and Rose each sent a copy to their parents, but Albus knowingly opted out of sending the Potters a copy, predicting that Harry and Ginny would merely forward it to Draco or Hermione. On their way back to dinner, Rose thought she saw a suspicious shadow move towards the four, and whipped out her wand.
"Rose?" Albus asked. Ara and Scorpius turned to face the direction Rose's wand was pointed towards, but found nothing there.
"Oh, I thought... I thought I saw something." She shrugged, pocketing her wand.
Ara saw Caymen slinking around the corner in her peripheral vision, but he was soon gone. She shook her head in amusement.
"Probably just Caymen," Ara smiled, walking in the direction of the Great Hall.
"Who?" Rose and Albus asked simultaneously.
"Lorcan and Lysander's best mate. I think your puny Gryffinpuff brains can draw a reasonable conclusion from that," Scorpius snarked.
"Hey!" Albus cried indignantly. Rose, on the other hand, had learned to ignore the constant stream of insults issuing forth from Scorpius's mouth.
"Careful there, insult us too many times, and we'll be forced to think that you have self-esteem issues," Rose drawled. Okay, so, she didn't really ignore him.
"Don't flatter yourself," Scorpius shot back. "I'm doing you both a favor and reminding you of where you stand on the intellectual level."
Ara rolled her eyes, lightly punching the blonde. "You know that Rose is ten times brighter than you are."
"Booksmart? I'll concede. Cunning? Hah, I'd like to see her try," Scorpius snorted.
"Oh quit bickering. You two sound like an old married couple. You and Rose too, Malfoy," Albus groaned.
That comment shut up the threequickly. The rest of the walk back to the Great Hall was virtually silent: Ara was too tired to bother keeping the conversation going, and Scorpius and Rose glared at each other.
"For the record, if I were married to you, I'd poison your tea," Rose said offhandedly when they entered the Great Hall and split up into their tables.
"If I were married to you, I'd drink it," Scorpius called over his shoulder as he walked over to the Slytherins with Ara.
Headmistress McGonagall watched the four, amused. She leaned towards Neville, the Herbology Professor and Gryffindor Head of House. "Neville, I do believe a bet is in order."
Neville was by now used to Minerva's eccentricities. It almost seemed as if Minerva had felt duty-bound to inherit Dumbledore's idiosyncratic spontaneity. The Potions Professor and soon-to-be Head of Ravenclaw (when Flitwick would retire), Professor Michelle Huang was still easily shocked by Minerva's audacity.
"A bet on what?" she asked the Headmistress, smiling slightly in her disbelief.
"Couples, by the end of seventh year. Beyond Hogwarts, if it comes to that," Neville explained. As Professor Pucey (Head of Slytherin) leaned in with interest, Michelle smiled at her fellow faculty members.
"Rose Weasley and Scorpius Malfoy, any day and every day," Michelle stated confidently. "I'd wager twenty galleons on that, if we're going to last for seven years."
"Oh honey, we go beyond Hogwarts," Natasha reminded her.
"I bet on Rose Weasley and Alden Wood," Neville said confidently. "The sorting hat's been 99.99% right. I'd mark the wager up to forty galleons."
"Oh ho ho! Someone's confident," Michelle teased.
"You bet," he grinned.
"So punny," Natasha rolled her eyes. "My money's on Ara and Scorp. They have the whole childhood sweetheart thing going for them. Same as Neville in galleons."
"Albus Potter and Emelda Nott. Guaranteed," Minerva smiled. "Seventy-five galleons.
"No," Michelle protested. "That's not happening. I doubt they even know the other exists!"
"Oh, you'll see," Minerva laughed.
"I'm surprised Rose is so happy. She was bawling during the funeral. A few hours, poof! She's better than at the beginning of last week," Neville commented.
"Those three are good for her. They really snapped her out of any funk she might get into," Michelle agreed.
"They're so like their parents," Natasha smiled.
"It bothers me that Ara is in your house," Michelle complained. "I was talking to Rowena the other day, and she and I feel skimped that Hermione Granger, Rose Weasley, and Araluen Zabini aren't Ravenclaws. Especially Araluen. I look at those four like the founders of Hogwarts. One for each house, but just kidding! Ara's a Slytherin! No Ravenclaw representation whatsoever!"
"Actually, I asked the Sorting Hat about this once I had her in Herbology. Bright kids, all of them, but Ara's just above and beyond. He was seriously considering Ravenclaw, but she could really fit any of the houses. She really wanted to be with Scorpius, though, since they're joined at the hip. So, she chose Slytherin. The hat's reconciled with Rowena, though, by suggesting Rowena take a personal interest in Ara's intellectual development," Neville informed the other professors.
"Do you have nothing better to do than talk to a hat and talk to a portrait?" Natasha asked Neville and Michelle incredulously. "If you have so much time, would you mind grading my first years'-"
Neville glared at her. "Natasha," he interrupted. "You'll find that the Sorting Hat's incredibly wise and interesting to talk to!" Michelle nodded.
"Same with Rowena," Michelle added.
Minerva tapped her fingers to her chin contemplatively. "Neville, the next time you speak with the Sorting Hat, it would be wonderful if you include me in the conversation."
"Great. Everyone will be taking to a hat in a few days. I'll begin checking us into St. Mungo's ahead of time," Natasha drawled.
"How are you parents faring?" Minerva asked Neville quietly.
"Loads better, thanks to Alex. They've gotten most of their memory and function back. I think St. Mungo's will discharge them to Hannah and me in a month or so," he said cheerfully. "You've no idea how much better it is to hold a conversation with them, and have them remember who I am."
"That's wonderful to hear," Michelle grinned.
"How's the issue with Astoria faring?" Neville asked Natasha.
"Tough. Though Hermione drafted a perfect contract, Mungo's being a right stick up the ass about having an outside specialist come in," she answered.
"Language, please," Michelle teased, nudging Natasha.
"Anyways," Natasha continued, ignoring Michelle's prod. "Hopefully, I'll get approval by next week. Healer Davies is rushing it as quickly as she can, and I had to submit loads of background check paperwork. It was terrible."
"Well good luck with all that," Minerva smiled.
"Now, who's writing these bets down? We've got to keep track of them!" Natasha declared.
AN: Yay! New chapter! DON'T KILL ME I'M SORRY IT'S BEEN SO LONG. I had to write this one from scratch, and junior year has sunk its claws into me, so I'm sorry that I haven't updated in a few weeks. This was actually done a week ago, but I had hand written it and needed to type it up. Also, while this chapter is slightly shorter, I think the Harry Potter Generation chapters will typically be longer, since, well, I'm not nearly as focused on the going ons in Hogwarts. We have Astoria to heal! Shout out to you Saudi Arabian, Latvian, and Trinidad and Tobago views!