By gellerfan
NB: Thanks to JK Rowling for creating Potterverse.
Rated: +13
Spoilers: No
A/N
CHAPTER XIV "AN UNEXPECTED ALLIANCE"
The first day of classes was a nightmare for Albus because he had double Arithmancy session in the morning, not his favorite subject. He thought that it couldn't be worse until he remembered that after lunch they would have another double session, but now of History of Magic, by Professor Binns.
"Still Binns" Albus groaned "He must have been here for centuries".
"Do you want to kill a ghost, Albus?" asked Rose "that would grant you an O in your NEWTs".
Albus noticed the sarcasm, but he didn't find a correct answer.
"Yes, but Binns is sooo boring"
"Definitely it's a family matter" Rose said "Your father got sleep or spent classes playing with Dad"
"You don't"
Rose smiled.
"You know that Dad once said that I've inherited Mum's brain. However, you should take Ravenclaws as a model, the ones who share Binns classes with us. They don't like Binns, neither I, by the way, but it doesn't matter. If you don't like the subject you don't pay attention, but we face work with zeal because maybe we will learn something and we take care of our grades, dear".
Albus then remembered that there was a meeting scheduled for him.
"I have to go, Rose"
Albus didn't want to be late, so he hurried to Page's office. He wasn't late, but when he got there everybody was there.
"Fine. Being the last one isn't the best way to make a good impression" he thought.
Headmaster Page seemed to read his mind because he smiled to him.
"Oh, Potter, you're finally here. Don't worry, you're not late. Well, now that we are all here we can start. Students, this is not a meeting between Professors and students, so you should sit beside the Head of your House" Page said.
"Clever move. Now it's more difficult to oppose to you" Albus thought.
Albus realized that Julia and Tony thought the same, but they were disciplined students, so they said nothing. Pat and Ronnie, good Hufflepuffs as they were, didn't think for a second and just obeyed Page' suggestion.
There were some seconds of pause when Albus expected someone to start. In fact, he expected Julia or Tony to do it, until he realized that, being Page present and in his office, professors and students were waiting for the Headmaster to start.
Page looked at the four professors and five students present and smiled.
"I guess I should start, isn't it?. I think we all know why we are here"
They all nodded. Typical Page. He wanted to check people present in the meeting. Yes, he was wise and nice, but he had to manage a school with Houses, some of them extremely competitive and with strong ego, so he had to be really sharp. He was the first Headmaster coming from Hufflepuff after a long time of Gryffindors (mainly) and Slytherins Headmasters, so he always wanted to remind everybody that he really deserved the post. Page liked what he saw, so he continued with his speech.
"About the project, you will receive all our support, so you'll have full access to our Library" Julia and Tony raised a brow because that was more than they expected. Page saw that.
"You know there is a restricted area. You will only have access with a professor, and we must be sure that such a kind of information must be still restricted"
"Thanks, sir. We fully agree with you" said Julia.
"Great, because if you want to expand the project there must be certain limitations"
Page looked at his interlocutors again. Once again he was controlling the meeting.
"And now there is the question about how to control the work" Page continued.
"What do you mean, sir?" asked Julia again.
"I'm pretty sure many students would like to collaborate, so it should be a Board of Direction"
"We want to propose a Committee for the project. There should be one or two members for every House involved" suggested Jorvik.
Albus then remembered something.
"Did you received the list from the Ministry, sir?" he asked.
Albus then looked at Julia and Tony and realized he had made a mistake.
"Yes, and I have the impression that you had the list before, although this is not what we agreed" answered Page.
"We don't have the list, sir" said Julia.
"Someone told you then" answered Page "and clearly thanks to young Potter and his connections in the Ministry".
"We were talking about the Board of Direction and, by the way, I do remember that we offered our help. Maybe we should discuss about that" said Tony.
"Good cop, bad cop" Page thought "O'Connor tries to calm me and then Blackburne pushes"
"I support Professor Jorvik' suggestion" Page said "two members of every House should be ok"
"But it must be clear that we Hufflepuff and Ravenclaws are the founders. It was our idea, and that must be established" argued Tony.
"As a Headmaster I cannot accept that" said Page.
"We understand, sir, but we come from times where Headmasters were biased in favor of Gryffindor or Slytherin, because they came from those Houses. We are not demanding that, sir, we just want to be reflected that this is our idea. We have a House to defend, sir. Sorry".
Everybody was shocked when they realized that this speech came from Professor Jones, the Head of Hufflepuff. This was really hard for Page because he didn't expect that from his own House.
"We could talk about it tomorrow" suggested Jorvik.
"If it only means that the idea is theirs, Gryffindor has no problem" said Neville.
Now Slytherin was isolated. Professor Acheron wanted to put resistance, but she knew it was nonsense because it was three to one.
"Neither Slytherin" said Acheron.
"So that's it. The Heads of the Houses should provide two names tomorrow, unless you need more time to discuss the item internally" said Page.
"We'll try to fulfil the deadline, but we have to talk with our Houses, sir" said Acheron.
"Sir, about the list. During the meeting with Mr. Potter we talk about Mrs. Luna Scamander. Maybe you could contact her" said Julia.
"I know her husband Ralf. I'll contact them" answered Page.
"And by the way, we have a theory" continued Julia. Then she gave to Page the list and there was an underlined name.
"Why?"
"It makes sense. It's a quite isolated location"
"I know all the people included in this list. I don't buy it, Mrs. O'Connor, but we will discuss it with Scamander. Anything else?"
No one said a word.
"Ok, that's it then. Thank you" said Page.
"Why did you give the list? Now we could go to that place to know if we're right or not" said Albus to Julia.
Julia just smiled.
"Typical you, always thinking in breaking the rules. First, Page knew we had the list, so he expected from us to have a theory".
"Did he?" asked Albus surprised.
"Not from you, git" intervened Tony.
"Tony, could you just not be you, just for a minute?" asked a desperate Julia.
"Why?. Page expected us to have a theory"
"Enough"
"Ok, what were you talking about?"
"Albus wanted to break the rules"
"He wanted to make a typical reckless Potter move? Oh, I forgot he's a Potter. Please, continue".
"I just wanted to take a look at a certain place" said Albus defensively.
"And we'll do it, but we need a plan B, because something can go wrong, so they could send a rescue party" said Julia.
"But my father …" said Albus.
"We'll do it in a proper way, which means that we will wait for Scamander".
"Why?"
"Because Rolf and Luna Scamander knew them, so we will have more information" said Julia.
"Do you remember the Tri-wizard Tournament?" asked Tony.
"Yes"
"Well, there are two possibilities. One of the members of the list is a bad guy"
"Or?"
"Or someone is doing a Barty Crouch jr"
"You mean someone is using polyjuice potion?".
"It's just a thought, but why not?. This is why we need to meet Scamander first. Rolf and Luna Scamander know all of them, so we'll have hints if there is a sudden change".
Albus found impossible to counter Tony's and Julia's logic, as always, so he gave up and went to see Neville just to know his impressions about the meeting, who told him not to worry.
Then he saw Pat, Ronnie, Julia and Tony, and it seemed that they didn't like what Tony was saying, but Tony acted as he didn't mind and left the group.
"Where are you going?" asked Albus.
"I have to see someone" said an enigmatic Tony, making clear that Albus wasn't invited.
"Maybe you're smarter than me, Tony Blackburne, but I wouldn't be a Potter if I didn't discover what are you planning".
He had inherited his father's invisibility cloak, so it was easy for him to follow Tony, who went to a room, where, surprise, surprise, Scorpius Malfoy was waiting for him.
"I received your message" said Scorpius, all smiles.
"What? They are enemies. Everybody at Hogwarts know that" thought Albus.
"I needed to talk to you, because there is something which could be of your interest" said Tony.
Scorpius smiled again and wrote a note, who gave to Tony.
"Oh really?. Tell me" said Scorpius.
Tony raised his wand and muted something.
"Do you want company?" asked Tony.
Scorpius laughed.
"Young Potter?. I felt that someone was using an invisibility cloak. Harry Potter was very fond of that, so my father taught me how to detect cloaks".
"We won't talk about anything secret so, unless you want him obliviated, he could join us" said Tony.
"It could be funny. Please, Potter, join us" said Scorpius.
Albus abandoned the cloak and sat beside Tony.
"How did you know?".
Scorpius and Tony laughed.
"You should not enter in a room just after the one you're following to, because the other people could see…"
"Nothing. You could see nothing" said Albus.
"We cannot see you, but there are certain changes when you use a cloak if you pay attention. Just one minute later and we would have been busy talking and you could enter without being noticed" said Scorpius.
"He wrote a note to me and I cast Homenum revelio. Easy" said Tony.
"We should start, Blackburne" said Scorpius.
"Ok. I want you to be into the Board of Direction in our project".
Scorpius smiled.
"Maybe you should try harder to convince me".
"Slytherin is not performing well lately except in Quidditch. Your Head Boy is Stevenson, and it's not the best Slytherin can offer, and your Head Girl, Zabini, is even worse. You're in our year so you can't be prefect, but you should lead Slytherin"
"And you're worried because you love Slytherin, of course".
"I don't mind Slytherin, but I need you and I need Slytherins. The whole wizarding world needs you, although they don't know it".
"Sorry?" said Scorpius.
"We don't know what's happening in Lithuania, but I'm pretty sure we will suffer the same here, and you Slytherins can help us, you can help us a lot. This is not the typical fight between Houses. If we don't fight side by side we can lose, so we need you leading Slytherin".
Scorpius sent a serious look at Albus and Tony.
"We are not involved in that".
"We know" said Albus "but maybe you know someone who is".
"I know no one, and what you say is insulting".
"I'm sorry, Malfoy, I really didn't mean to hurt you. We know that no Slytherin is involved, but you Slytherin and mainly you Malfoy can be very useful because you do have a network. Your network is better than anyone, I must confess. You know, maybe you know someone who knows someone. Think in your family. It will be great for your father. He will recover the influence Malfoy family used to have" said Tony.
"The influence we Malfoys deserve".
Albus and Tony smiled. They realized that they had a deal.
"I guess you have to think about it, but maybe you should talk to your father" suggested Tony.
"I will, but I promise nothing, and now, I have to talk with Acheron" said Scorpius and then he left the room.
"I didn't know you were in good terms with Malfoy"
"We are not friends but we respect each other. He's a rather interesting guy, except when he acts like a Malfoy"
"But nobody knows. You're supposed to be enemies".
"And they must keep thinking that or Malfoy's position would become weak, and we don't want to deal with Stevenson, who is sharp as a troll".
Albus couldn't help laughing.
"What were you talking about with Julia, Pat and Ronnie?"
"Nothing special. I told them that I shouldn't be selected as a member of the Board. Julia will be, and the other should be a boy, or a girl, like Catarella or Chang. I don't mind"
"But…"
"I have a certain reputation, and not a good one. I'm not very popular between Slytherin and Gryffindors, so Ravenclaw must give something if they wanted to lead the project.
"And you decided to give up your post"
"I proposed that to Jorvik, and he agreed. Now he has something to negotiate. Besides, I don't need the post. I'll have friends there".
"I don't know what Professor Longbottom will do"
"He will choose Rose Weasley and you, I guess. I know no Gryffindor student older than you, so I guess they are not really bright".
"I'm not bright"
"Well, you try, and that's a start"
Albus knew that was a compliment, and compliment coming from Julia or Tony were scarce.
"Maybe I should propose my brother James. He needs a help"
Tony raised a brow.
"I doubt Longbottom would accept, and it doesn't matter if you're a Potter. Your brother James will face resistance even in your own House, and about the other Houses, he has a certain reputation, and not a good one".
"Like you?"
"No, not like me. People respect me even if they don't like me. About your brother, I know that many people find him kinda cool with his jokes and his performance at Quidditch, but he's not taken seriously. However, I'm not a Gryffindor, so it's not my problem".
And a worried Albus went to see Neville Longbottom, although he decided that first he will visit the library to see Julia and Rose and ask for advice.
He was walking down the corridor when he heard Ian McCulloch, Captain of Gryffindor Quidditch team, calling him.
"Albus, remember that we will have tryouts next Wednesday after classes. I know that in your case it's quite absurd because you will be in the team, but you should attend the meeting".
"Of course, Ian. I'll be there. I hope this season would be easier".
"I just want to repeat the result, Albus. You know this is my final year, so I want to finish here winning the Cup".
"I'll do my best, Ian"
"I know. See you on Wednesday"
Finally, Albus arrived to the library, just to see Chinhua at the door.
"Hello Albus, I have tryouts next Tuesday. Could we have a practice tomorrow?"
"You don't have to worry because you'll pass the tryouts easily, but practicing it's always helpful".
Chinhua hugged him, unaware that they were seen by the whole library.
"Awesome. We could practice what Sara and Mum did yesterday. I'll show you tomorrow".
Albus looked at the students and he knew that they were all gossiping about him.
"Great, more troubles" he thought.
He searched for Julia and sat in front of her. He realized that she and all her group of friends had seen him with Chinhua. So he was verbally attacked by her group of friends, asking questions about he and Chinhua, so he left the library very angry and sad. He didn't know how to reassure Julia without telling her the truth about Chinhua.
Finally, he got at Neville's office, where he really tried to convince him that James could be a good member of Gryffindor in the Board of Direction, but he couldn't break Neville's resistance.
"I have to talk with people in our House, Albus, because there must be consensus about the election. However, are you saying that you don't want to be elected? I want to be sure because your name will probably be discussed" said Neville, but Albus understood clearly what Neville meant. The other members will not accept James.
"And Rose?" Albus asked.
"My intention is to propose a boy and a girl, and I'm pretty sure Rose is one of the favorites".
"Try to be sure that Rose is elected".
Neville smiled sadly.
"It could mean that you won't. Are you sure?"
Albus nodded.
Suddenly Neville hugged him. That was extremely unusual because they were at Hogwarts.
"You're really like your father, Albus". Neville's face reflected that he was really proud of Albus.
"I would prefer an easier life, and Dad is not a model in that"
Neville laughed.
"Did Voldemort return? You don't know what is like".
"Maybe I will know, uncle Neville" Albus thought.
The following day Neville called him.
"It was hard, but Rose and you were selected. Some people argued against you, because it meant that there were two members of the same family, but I said that you were there in the group and it made sense, and they couldn't say no to Rose. Besides, someone talk to our Head Boy in favor of Rose, someone from other House"
"Who?"
"Devil if I know"
"What about the other Houses?"
"Slytherin selected Scorpius Malfoy and Mary Ness"
"So Scorpius did it, and Ness is clever and a friend of him. Good move" Albus thought.
"Hufflepuff selected Ronnie Peterson and Pat Paisley, and Ravenclaw selected Julia O'Connor and Chinhua Chang".
"I thought that we should select a boy and a girl"
"That was a suggestion, not an order"
"Unless you take Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw as a joint proposal. Tony quitted to defend his friends Ronnie and Pat, so Ravenclaw proposed two girls. Ravenclaw boys will accept because Tony is not there and the girls will think that Jorvik is wonderful. Everybody wins. About Hufflepuff, Pat and Ronnie worked very hard, so I guess that Jones didn't need to push" Albus thought.
After classes he practiced with Chinhua and everyone grabbed the snitch once. Albus thought that his will for win was bigger, and this is why he won once, but he realized that Chinhua was more efficient, and maybe, just maybe, she was better technically.
They don't know how but there were many people watching the practice. The final outcome was the talk of the school the following day. Finally, Albus Potter had a rival.
Tryouts were as expected. No one tried to match Albus so he became Regular Seeker, and James became Beater again too. The day before he saw Chinhua in her tryout. Albus saw Cho Chang and Rolanda Hooch attending the practice.
"What do you think, Albus?" asked Cho after hugging him.
"She's improving every day"
Hooch just nodded.
"Your match will be very interesting" she said.
Two days later all the teams announced their list. Chinhua was the Regular Seeker for Ravenclaw.
"I can only say I wish she'd fail in her first match against Slytherin. If she beats Malfoy because it will be her first match, then she should beat Hufflepuff and our final match will be even harder than it was against Malfoy last year" Albus said to his brother James.
"I agree with you, Al. She was impressive".
Al looked at James, and saw fear in his eyes.
"I can handle the situation, James. I've improved a lot too".
"Sure, Al" said James, trying to look convincing, but Albus knew him well, and it was the first time talking about Quidditch, that James didn't look at him with absolute confidence. James always believed that, no matter what happened downfield, his younger brother would save the situation getting the snitch.
"I'm still the best Seeker here. I'll show you" Albus said.