Albus walked into Defense Against the Dark Arts class with crutches between his arms. Scorpious walked in next to him holding books for the both of them. It had been three days since Albus ate the chocolate frogs and he still hadn't recovered. Madame Pomfrey said it was because the potion he had consumed was so strong. Albus eyes examined the class room.
At first he didn't see anything unusual but after a minute he saw her. There was a woman in the corner wearing brown robes. She blended in well with the wall so most people wouldn't even notice her presence but Albus did. Ever since he and his dad talked he noticed that there seemed to be an adult in the corner of every classroom, hallway, and dormitory. Even though he didn't know every one of these people he recognized them all as his dad's coworkers. The aurors seemed to have a new top priority of protecting everyone. Their being in the school wasn't announced they just showed up after break. They hadn't gone unnoticed though. Albus had heard whispers in the hallway from students about how they had seen the Harry Potter around Hogwarts. Others would say that they had noticed Neville talking to a bunch of other adults and they seemed to be friends. No one had made the connection that these people might be Professor Longbottem's old coworkers yet.
Albus had pointed it out to Scorpious last night when he finally persuaded Madame Pomfrey that he was well enough to sleep in his own bed. Scorpious had agreed with him that it was strange and Albus played along as his friend pondered why. The reason they were there was because Albus had seen Lucius Malfoy on Hogwarts ground. He wasn't going to tell Scorpious that though. The last thing his friend needed to hear was how Albus thought his grandfather had been the one who put him in the hospital.
"Alright so everyone knows we started the new term the other day," Neville said getting the classes attention," I want to welcome Mr. Potter back from the hospital. Hopefully you can ditch those crutches soon."
Neville smiled at Albus from the front of the room as the boy's face turned a bright cherry red. There was almost nothing Albus hated more than being the center of attention.
"Right but now as we have everyone here I would like to talk a bit about First Year Fights. As you know that will be coming at the end of the term and its time we start turning our attention to them. As you know you will be allowed to duel any individual in the school who is not in your house," Neville said. The professor stood behind his front desk and as he spoke he leaned forward onto it looking intently at his student's faces searching for their reactions. This time of the year was an interesting time for the professor. He got a rare glimpse into his student's personalities. The ones who liked to avoid confrontation got nervous as the reality of their task set in. The top students in the class usually became even more attentive, if possible, hanging on every word the man said. Neville also got to see a bigger picture on exactly the relationships between different students. For example at the moment Rose and Scorpious were shooting death glares at each other. These two students had already made up their mind that they were going to duel each other. Both had already made up their mind that they were going to win.
"The most important thing to remember as these duels approach is that you should respect your opponent. This isn't the Battle of Hogwarts it is a light duel meant for practice only," Neville said. Albus knew as the professor's eyes passed over his two best friends that the warning was meant for them. Not that they had noticed he knew that the two were two busy fantasizing about all the different ways they were going to murder each other. Albus sighed and tried to ignore their occasional death glares. He didn't know who he would duel. He hadn't made any enemies over the past semester. He guessed that was a good thing but it sure didn't make this bit any easier. He tried to imagine himself trying to fight someone and he could already see himself being hexed by his attacker as he made a sad attempt at thwarting their superior ability. He would have to fight a Hufflepuff, someone who would be nice enough not to make him look to stupid.
"With that said I want you all to start thinking about your partners over the next couple weeks because it will help when we go over the basics of predicting your opponents moves," Neville said wrapping up his brief talk on First Year Fights. "Now we are going to start going over basics of defense. Who can tell me what a ward is."
Albus sank into his chair as the class started its regular Scorpious Rose and the Professor conversation. "Any spell used in defense would be considered a ward," Scorpious answered.
"Right today we are going to touch on a common ward that is appropriately named protego," Professor Longbottom said.
He proceeded to demonstrate the spell and call on students at random to try it out. Rose was the third one called on and as usual she got the spell on her first try. As she turned to run back to her seat Albus could see her eyes start to move to give Scorpious an obnoxious look.
Instead Albus distracted her, show off, he mouthed. Rose smiled at her cousin and Albus smiled back as her red curls bounced back into their seat. That was the Rose he grew up with. Well the obnoxious part was totally her too; he just preferred the cheerful red head to the know-it-all half of her.
"Mr. Potter do you want to try or do you want to sit this one out?" Neville called from the front of the room. Albus looked at his crutches. He knew he could get away with not doing the spell. He also knew that if he was going to play out this whole injured person he would hear it later from his brother who was quickly losing his guilty attitude now that it was clear Albus would live.
"I'm fine," Albus said as he gathered himself to move to the front of the room. It took him a minute with the crutches and all but he got there. Once there he rested his right crutch on Neville's desk. He was strong enough to stand on his own, as long as there was no walking he could stay there and cast the spell with only the left crutch.
"Protego," Albus said waving his wand. Nothing happened. When Neville had casted the spell there was what looked like a bluish essence projecting out from his wand creating a shield of protection. Albus wasn't the first one to try the spell and fail in front of the class so he tried again. "Protego," he said trying to put more confidence in the spell.
This time the spell back lash and Albus felt himself falling backwards. He moved his foot back to try and stop his fall but it he was too weak to save himself. He braced himself for the impact with the ground. This wouldn't be the first time he'd fallen and it wouldn't be his last. It would be the first time he had fallen in front of the entire class as he epically failed at casting a spell. He just was having some rotten luck these past few weeks.
Half way through his fall he felt himself slowed though. There were two arms slowing his fall, they weren't strong enough to support his entire weight but they were enough to make him feel more like he was sitting down than falling. He turned to look back at the owner of these arms expecting to see Neville. Instead he saw the women from the corner.
"Th-thanks," Albus stuttered out his face turning red. He was just saved by a girl. Albus glance over at Scorpious who looked like he was about to explode with laughter. Great. The women helped him to his feet and handed him his crutches. He headed back over to his seat and joined his friend.
"Smooth," Scorpious said, "You would make a great damsel in distress. You even have your own auror in shining brown armor." His friend teased.
Albus turned tomato red and crossed his arms over his chest, "Shut up," he murmured Scorpious just shook his head and continued to suppress laughter.
"She's an auror," someone said from behind them. Albus and Scorpious turned to see who was talking. Cato Nott was looking intently at the two boys.
Scorpious nodded, "Yeah they're all over the place. One in every room and hallway. Al says that he recognizes some of them as his dad's coworkers. In fact I've heard his dad is here too."
Albus groaned inwardly. His dad probably wanted the whole aurors being there to be on the down low. He probably should have mentioned that to Scorpious when he pointed the ministry workers out. Now the whole school would know that something was wrong by the end of the day. Nott wasn't known for keeping his large mouth shut.
Nott's eyes widened, "Something big must be going on to have all the aurors here trying to protect us huh."
"Boys you three paying attention?" Neville asked raising one of his eyebrows.
"Yes sir," the three Slytherins replied in unison.
"You guys should have seen it," Scorpious said as he retold the story of Albus' fall to a group of Slytherin boys at dinner.
Albus just sat there and blushed as his friends cracked up. Occasionally he would murmer, "Wasn't my fault," or, "It wasn't that bad." Although he couldn't even stop himself from laughing along with the other boys.
At this point in time the boys weren't aware that there was a pair of soft brown eyes watching them from the corner of the room. The women in the brown coat had been convienently in all of there classes today as she had managed to get herself assigned to protect the boys from any more threats to their lives. Little did the auror office know that she was the danger in the first place. Funny how things work out. She had both tried to kill Albus and saved him over the course of the past few weeks. No regrets though she was just bidding her time she needed the auror's complete confidence that she was in fact Georgia Littleton which of course she wasn't. In fact she was a he.
The aurors had arrived just in time for his newest batch of polyjuice potion to be ready and he had jumped on the opportunity. Auror's got their own bedrooms, meaning privacy, and they were close to the investigation. One would have thought that after the Moody and Crouch fiasco the aurors would've learned. They didn't though and thus he was standing in the corner at the moment disguised as a woman. At the moment he needed to be catious. He eyed Potter's son and Scorpious. The fact that the blonde haired boy could stand to sit next to the Potter disgusted him. Draco had failed to raise his son properly and when things were all said and done he intended to knock some sense into both the boy and his father. For now he had to sit and wait though. Wait for the right time to launch his attack. He had waited nineteen years to get his revenge on the boy who lived. Soon the great Harry Potter would understand exactly what he had put him through. Soon his agonizing wait would be over. Soon so soon.
A/N Hey so just wanted to thank all my readers out there. This story reached 1000 hits this week end. I know that might just be one person reading it a thousand times but hey sounds like a milestone to me, so thank you I really apreciate all of your reviews and everything.
