Chapter 14: Second Chances

Life at Hogwarts was good. The weeks following his incident in Defence Against the Dark Arts proved to be something of a reminder to Albus ; a reminder that he could very happy when inside the castle.

The immediate reason for this was obviously James, who since giving advice to him about Mirra had been nothing short of a joy to be around. He frequently visited his younger brother at meal times, helped him with homework assignments in the library ( when he was able to) and had went out of his way to make sure that a very bitter Eckley did nothing to annoy him.

And on this happy thought, Albus couldn't have been more pleased with how good things were going with Mirra. It was quite strange, when he thought about it. When she had been dating someone, he had felt strangely obligated to make his move on her, though now he felt next to no pressure at all. They laughed together in classes, studied together in the library, and talked about things that he normally confided to just Morrison and Scorpius. Most prominent amongst these things was, of course, his father's memory.

Albus had not forgotten about the small glass vial that was now hidden at the bottom of his trunk. Indeed, whenever he had a spare moment it lingered on his mind like a small lie that he told or a song that he couldn't remove from his head. He had not yet made an attempt to view the memory- Fairhart rarely left his office and during meal times Albus was much too hungry to waste them. Strangely, Mirra saw this differently.

" That's not hunger Al! That's guilt!"

They were sitting alone together in the library, Mirra working furiously on Arithmancy and Albus pretending to work on Muggle Studies so as to have an excuse to still be there after their friends had left.

" Guilt?" he asked.

" Guilt! You know that you shouldn't have stolen that memory, so you're purposefully finding excuses to not view it! "

" But I do want to see it!" he admitted. There was no point in lying to her.

She carefully tucked her hair behind her ear before speaking. Albus needed a moment to comprehend her.

" But you still haven't, and you've had it for a while. You have had chances to use Fairhart's memory bowl thing right? So some part of you doesn't want you to view it. Some part of you is guilty."

Albus gave her a weak grin. She was correct is assuming that a small part of him did not want to view the memory, though he suspected that this had little to do with guilt. As curious as he was, he could not shake the feeling that something about the memory of Ares was going to disappoint him.

At the same time, he knew that if he did choose to view it, it would have to be quick. Every morning he dreaded the news from home that his father knew what he had taken, and every night that he fell asleep without viewing it proved to be another wasted day. He knew that this may be his only chance to discover how Ares had gotten out of Azkaban as well. He could not hope for his uncle to become intoxicated and divulge more secrets- there would be no second chance to learn what could be crucial information.

" So there's another Hogsmeade trip coming up" Mirra said suddenly, and Albus was snapped from his thoughts. She seemed to be very tense for some reason, and she was avoiding his eyes. Her eyes stayed glued to her notebook anyway. " Some time in February" she added.

Albus picked up his head from his Muggle Studies textbook; he had read the same page five times now. " Any plans?"

She tucked her hair behind her ear again. " None yet" she said. " I'm going to talk to Rose and see if we can kind off just split from Charlie and Donnie. Give it a bit more time."

Albus ran his hands through his hair. " Ahh, well you two deserve a girls day to yourselves" he said. " All this hard work you've been doing."

He picked up her Arithmancy notebook and flipped through it. " Blimey I don't understand any of this. I'd might as well be reading Mermish."

She giggled and took her book back, but she had a small hint of a frown on her face as she did so. " Yeah" she said. " Just a girls day."

____________

In addition to his social life prospering once more, Albus found himself enjoying the challenge of his classwork. Now that Christmas was over the teachers were no longer reviewing and explaining- Albus was actually learning new things. Professor Flitwick had moved them past summoning and was now teaching them things like the shrinking charm and engorgement charm, both of which Albus had something of a good grasp. Professor Bellinger had taken the next step in Transfiguration as well ; they were changing liquids to solids. This too he proved to be surprisingly adept at. Indeed, the only spells he seemed to have difficulty with were the one's that Fairhart was teaching.

They were working on stunning for the third consecutive time now, and Albus simply proved incapable of doing it. A few of the students in the classroom had been a bit weary at the thought of him giving it another try at first, but after the first lesson, the idea of him creating a powerful blast of flames again was laughable. It seemed that no matter how hard he concentrated, he simply couldn't fire a stunning spell.

Even worse was that his friends had gotten rather good at it. Scorpius had ended up being something of a natural- he was nearly as good at it as Albus was disarming. Morrison had struggled a bit more but could now stun nearly every time. Fairhart was allowing one more lesson of stunning to continue so as to give stragglers more of a chance, infuriating Albus as he felt no closer to getting it than he did when he had first started.

" Concentrate!" Fairhart was still announcing one Friday in early February. " Do not be disappointed if you are unable to perform a certain spell- different wizards have different specialities. It is imperative that you not let your confidence drop. Remember, magic works with your emotions and your mind. Let them guide this energy!"

Albus screwed up his face in concentration furiously and aimed his wand at Morrison, who was standing quite still, chewing his finger nails nonchalantly.

" Stupefy!" he cried.

Nothing happened. Albus gave a groan and Fairhart continued to walk around the room and give tips. Albus wished that he wouldn't do this ; he was pretty sure that he was the only one struggling.

" Let's take a break" Fairhart said as several students were all revived at once. " We have a good twenty minutes of class left, let's use some time to recuperate."

The students all sat back down in their seats and began talking, all of them in a much better mood than the exhausted Albus. Feeling that he had might as well use this time to jot down the Muggle Studies homework that would be due Monday, he reached into his bag to get his notebook.

" Here let me get that for you" Scorpius said suddenly, plunging his hand into his bag and pulling out a random notebook. " You must be exhausted from all that work" he added cheekily, and Morrison laughed.

Albus gave him a cold stare and snatched his notebook away.

" You'll get it mate" Morrison said reassuringly. " I mean, you have four years left after all..."

" Haha" Albus said dryly. " I just can't concentrate" he said. "I've got other stuff on my mind."

This was quite untrue of course. Apart from the memory of Ares, he had less on his mind than he had in quite some time.

" Why how's operation Mirra going?" Morrison asked him, taking a seat on top of his desk like how Fairhart did. At this Albus glanced at his teacher and saw that he was sitting quietly, reading a paperback book.

" Fine" Albus admitted. " We were just talking a couple days ago."

" About your unrequired love for her?" Morrison asked him with a grin.

" Unrequited" Scorpius corrected him icily, and Morrison shrugged.

Albus frowned. Morrison was clearly pleased that he could do something that he couldn't, and was now trying to make himself feel better by seeing what else Albus was failing at.

" We were just talking about stuff. She mentioned going to Hogsmeade, that's about it."

Scorpius, who had taken out a book of his own, looked up incredulously. " Are you serious?" he asked. " Did you say yes?"

Albus looked at him in confusion. " Huh? Yes to what?"

" Did she ask you to go to Hogsmeade with her?"

" No she just mentioned that she didn't want those two prats to go, that's all..."

Scorpius slapped his head to his forehead. " Next Hogsmeade trip is Valentine's Day you idiot."

Albus felt his eyebrows raise in surprise. He had not known this. Had she?

" So what's your point?"

Morrison began talking but Scorpius, as was usual, quickly cut him off.

" So that's a sign you idiot! She was asking you to take her to Hogsmeade on Valentine's Day!"

Albus gave a bitter laugh at the irony in his friend's statement. Scorpius was always telling him to play it cool, not jump to conclusions, and just let things work themselves out. Now he was interperating for Mirra?

" What are you on about?" Albus asked him.

" Al, that is a sign if I have ever seen one. You- you should go for it."

Albus' jaw dropped, as did Morrison's. " You've been telling me not to do anything though!" he said loudly, and a few people looked over at them. " And so did James!"

" Al, hear me out" Scorpius said, raising his hand up a bit. He leaned forward so that every word could be heard clearly. " You may not get a second chance at this. I mean, how many more times is Mirra going to break up with someone and then inexplicably start talking to you about a Hogsmeade trip precariously planned for Valentine's day?"

Albus blinked. " I don't know? A couple?"

" Never!" Scorpius said, and now he was the loud one. " It's never going to happen again! Ask James if you want, tell him that she mentioned Hogsmeade. See what he says..."

The bell rang after that, and Albus and the rest of the students filed past Fairhart's desk and towards the classroom door. Before Albus could leave however, Fairhart called him. Feeling that this had something to do with his inability to stun, he grumpily mad his way towards his professor.

Fairhart looked up from his paperback book. Albus took the time to register the silver ring that was on his finger, and noticed that it looked unusually tight, as though it belonged to a much smaller finger. Before he could get a closer look Fairhart had spoken however.

" Good luck in the match tomorrow, Al."

The prospect of another Quidditch match was yet another thing that was keeping Albus happy these days. In the first week back Gryffindor had narrowly edged out Hufflepuff to secure a spot in the Quidditch Final. Ravenclaw, who had suffered a thundering loss to Hufflepuff just before break, was now in the running to play Gryffindor for the cup. As that was who Slytherin played next, it would take a fantastic blow out on Slytherin's behalf to steal that opportunity.

Albus realized immediately that this next match would make or break him amongst his fellow housemates. Being responsible for losing two matches in a row would turn him into nothing short of a pariah, but if he could somehow redeem himself, somehow get Slytherin to the final, he would prove his spot on the team was no fluke.

The points were against them however. They would need to win by a full one hundred and fifty points to earn their rematch against their Gryffindor rivals. And as Albus sat at breakfast the next morning, hours away from the match, he knew that this meant that his team was counting on him- not the other way around.

" At least you're eating this time" Morrison said as Albus took a few small pieces of bacon and shoved them into his mouth. " Last time you couldn't even say that."

" And I have less on my mind" Albus said, washing it all down with a glass of orange juice. " That should help things a bit."

" So when are you talking to James then?" Scorpius said from across the table.

Albus frowned slightly. " When he's not busy" he said.

Truthfully, Albus was somewhat glad that James had so many prefect duties to keep him occupied. He was afraid that if he did go to James for help with Mirra there would be two people pressuring him to make a move. He had put some thought into it the previous night and deduced that Scorpius was on to something. Mirra bringing up Hogsmeade had been awfully random.

He let his thoughts carry him all throughout breakfast, and only when he was pulling his Quidditch robes over his head did he begin to focus on the task at hand. Thinking of Mirra may have cost him the game last time ; it was time to focus.

His team sat quietly in the locker room, and Albus knew exactly what they were all thinking. If they didn't make it to the final, this would be their last game of the season. And Atticus' last game ever, in a career in which he hadn't even won the cup.

Atticus seemed to be thinking along the same lines, he too was surprisingly quiet, he seemed unable to gather his thoughts. He was still standing however, and when he finally did address his team for the pre-match talk, his voice sounded shaky.

" If this is my last game," he started, " Then I want you all to know that I'm proud of our team. We don't need a cup to know that we're winners. But let's try and get there anyway!"

They all gave yells of approval, and Albus saw that Atticus eyed him as they began the walk to the Quidditch Pitch. Albus nodded his head before Atticus could even speak.

They shuffled out onto the field amidst boo's and cheers, though Albus thought that the boo's had decreased somewhat compared to their previous game. James, it seemed, had had his Gryffindor friends refrain from doing so.

The Ravenclaw team was already stationed in their positions, wearing robes of a brilliant blue with bronze trimmings. Albus noticed that their team captain, a sixth year named Jayden Goldstein, was looking extremely confident as he waited for Atticus to shake his hand. Albus could hardly blame - it would take a spectacular screw up from his team to prevent them from reaching the final.

Albus took his position at the rear of his team and watched as the two captains shook hands. He saw Mister Wood approach the middle, heard the sound of the whistle, and kicked off from the ground as hard as he could.

The weather was perfect for Quidditch. Though early in February, it was cool rather than chilly, and the fresh air did nothing but refresh him as he rose high above everyone else, his eyes peering around the field for any sign of the snitch.

The Ravenclaw seeker proved to be much worse at strategizing than James, he was circling the field aimlessly, occasionally elevating himself for a broader view. He was obviously just as confidant as his captain. This thought comforted Albus ; he at least had determination on his side.

The first points were scored by Slytherin five minutes into the match, Atticus had made a truly spectacular shot to draw first blood. At this, Carter Montogomery's voice reverberated clearly through the Pitch.

" Ten to nil, Slytherin" he shouted through the microphone. " And they'll need to keep this shut out going if they want any chance of making it to the final!"

Albus rose higher and higher into the air, narrowly avoiding a bludger as he did so. He was forcibly reminded of Eckley having hit a bludger towards him, but before he could think much more of it he tossed the idea from his head. He'd have all the time in the world after the game to think of how much hated Eckley. Now, he had to catch the snitch.

Deciding that the snitch wasn't near by, he sped through the sky at top speed, not even bothering to let the game going on below him distract him. He had Carter's voice to guide him however.

" A nice play there by Pollison, and Ravenclaw's tied the game up!"

Albus heard someone groaning and looked down. The Ravenclaw seeker was tailing, but was evidently having a hard time keeping up with his speed. Albus grinned a little, it was time to see if his diversionary trick would work. His brother had not fallen for it...but this seeker didn't look quite as bright.

He pulled into a sudden dive, narrowly missing the seeker tailing him. He shot downwards at an incredible sped, and the sound of the commentary was marred by the wind. He knew, however, that his competition was following him.

He swerved just in time to avoid another player, then swerved again to avoid a carefully aimed bludger. He continued his steep descent until he was quite close to the ground -

In a fantastic display of athleticism that astounded even himself, he pulled out of his dive with hardly a moment to spare. He even heard his robes skim against the grass as he twisted himself into a horizontal position. He heard a thundering crash behind him and turned just in time to see a furious Ravenclaw seeker look up at him from the ground, thoroughly disheveled from the crash.

" Fantastic maneuvering by Potter! It's going to take some time for Groman to regain his composure from that!"

Albus sped upwards at these words, fully aware of the position he was now in. The Ravenclaw seeker, who he now knew was named Groman, was far from permanently incapacitated. But he had bought some time. The game was tied at ten each. If he could just find the snitch now...

It was as though fate was rewarding him for his fantastic dive. Just feet above him he saw a glimmer of gold. Groman was still trying to mount his broom without falling off. He sped up and extended his hand-

" POTTER GETS THE SNITCH! SLYTHERIN WINS ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY TO TEN!"

Albus flew to the ground and got off of his broom, barely believing that the scene was real. The tiny snitch remained fluttering in his hand, though his body was soon numb from his team, who had converged on him and was now practically smothering him. They had won by one hundred and fifty points. They were going to the final.

" It's going to be a rematch between Gryffindor and Slytherin for the cup! What a spectacular turn of events!" Carter announced.

Through the gap of bodies now surrounding him Albus could see Jayden Goldstein yelling at his seeker, who looked equally agitated with himself.

Albus smiled as the Slytherins in the stands joined the group and patted him on the back. Someone announced that there was to be a party in the common room, and all other thoughts were lost from his head.

_________

The knowledge that Slytherin still had a shot at the cup kept Albus' spirits high over the stretch of the next few days. He was once more greeted with pats on the back, smiles from his housemates, and the occasional smatter of applause that he had once been accustomed to when he had won games last year. Still, for all the happiness that this brought him, a question still lingered on his head.

Valentine's day was not far off, and he had yet to even approach Mirra, let alone ask her to go to Hogsmeade with him. Scorpius and Morrison had given up on advising him, deciding that he had now gotten far enough to know what he wanted. And thus, seeking James for help become more of a priority than ever.

He managed to corner his brother in the library the week before the Hogsmeade trip. He was, surprisingly, by himself and doing, even more surprisingly so, homework.

" James" he said as he sat down across from him.

His brother looked up for a second before returning to his work. " Can't talk now" he said. " Charms work. You wouldn't happen to know if Glacius is an extention of Aguamenti or if they're two separate spells entirely would you?"

Albus stared at him blankly. " No idea" he finally admitted.

James frowned and ran his hands through his hair, then began erasing several paragraphs from his paper entirely.

" I need to talk to you about something" Albus said, ignoring the fact that his brother had already claimed that he couldn't talk." I think that Mirra-"

James gave a loud laugh that earned him a reprimand from the librarian. He ran his hands through his hair again and shook his head, smiling.

" What's so funny?" Albus asked.

" It's just that you're completely wrong already" James said in a quiet voice. " Al, you can't think that you know something about girls."

" Why not?"

James shook his head once more. " I'm going to let you in on a little secret pal. A secret that Teddy let me in on before I even came to Hogwarts."

" And what's that?"

" That girls are smarter than us in every conceivable way! We can't possibly know what they're thinking because they're better at it then we are. If they get us to think something, it's only because they want us to think that, and if they want us to think something, it means that they're thinking differently. Got it?"

" There's not a shorter version of that, is there?" Albus asked hopelessly.

" There kind of is" James said reassuringly. " Basically, you're a pawn. In every sense of the word. The quicker you realize this, the bigger strides we can take, understand?"

" Got it" Albus said quickly, eager to explain his situation. " Can I talk now?"

James placed his finger tips together. " Proceed."

Albus explained, briefly and quietly, what had happened in the library. Everything from what she had said to the look on her face as she had said it was told with meticulous detail. He then said everything that Scorpius had said, and finally finished by dramatically asking if Scorpius was correct.

James surveyed him carefully, made to speak, and then stopped. He opened his mouth once more after a bit more thought and finally spoke.

" Scorpius may be on to something" he said, and Albus thought that his heart may have missed several beats. " Or she could have just been trying to make conversation. But bringing up Hogsmeade is very curious indeed....and she may actually like you a bit now that I think about it."

" What?!"

It was now Albus' turn to receive a reprimand. He didn't care in the slightest however, he was now trying to make sure that he had heard his brother correctly.

" You serious?" he asked. " How do - who told- why do you think that?"

" Well she broke up with that Charlie bloke because of you" James said casually.

" What?"

" Charles Eckley" James said clearly. " The punk kid that roughed up Scorpius last year. They got into a huge argument because he had been knocking bludgers towards you that entire match, and it finally concluded over Christmas break. Why do you think she dumped him?"

" I don't...Rose told me something different" Albus said, astounded.

James shrugged. " Well she probably covered the basics, but that was the big reason. Of course, you and Mirra are good friends though. She could have just been sticking up for you."

" So what do I do?" he asked. " Do I ask her to go to Hogsmeade with me? Or what?"

James pondered this for a moment, his Charms homework now lay forgotten on his desk. He scratched his chin, then spoke.

" It's a big risk. Things could get really awkward if it turns out she doesn't like you. And like I said, she's still in rebound mode. Maybe you should kind of...I don't know...go half and half?"

" Huh?" Albus replied, bewildered at his brothers choice of vocabulary.

James leaned forward across the table. " Maybe you should like bring it up. But don't be so forward about it. If she seems into it, then ask her out. if not, back away before it gets awkward. Just prod a little bit."

" You really think that I should try that?" Albus asked hesitantly.

James nodded. They sat in silence for a couple of moments before James flapped his hands. " So get on it!"

" What now?" Albus asked, surprised.

" You waiting for next Christmas or something? You can still catch her on the way to dinner!"

Albus jumped up from his seat without so much as a second thought. The second that his brother had said these words he felt adrenaline rush through him. He strode out of the library at an extremely brisk pace, bumping into students as he did so. James had been quite correct - it was nearing dinner time.

His eyes peered through group after group of students, though he couldn't find Mirra anywhere. Using his advanced knowledge of the castles many secrets, he took a concealed passageway down to the fourth floor right near the stairs. If anyone was walking down to dinner, he would be able to meet them.

He saw Mirra after a couple of moments ; she was chatting merrily with Rose and a pretty blonde girl from Gryffindor who's name Albus' didn't know or even care about. All three of them eyed him curiously, and he knew why at once. He must look very peculiar standing by the stairs, chewing on his fingernails nervously and moving his feet in a kind of quick step that he couldn't control. He supposed that he may have looked like he had to use the bathroom.

" Al?" Mirra said when they approached him, and they waited on the stairs while hungry students passed them.

" Hey" he said quickly. " Do you think I could talk to you? For a second?"

She gave him a bewildered look. " Erm...sure?"

She stepped off of the stairs and Rose followed.

" Privately" he said, and he realized at once the mistake he was making. If his nervous tone and body language didn't do it, then certainly his choice of words would let her instantly know what he was going for.

Rose looked at Mirra for a second before following her blonde friend down the stairs. Albus led Mirra down a narrow corridor, where she followed him wordlessly. He finally stopped in the center of the corridor.

He tried thinking about what he was supposed to say, but now that he thought about it, realized that he had nothing.

" So erm...remember what we were talking about a few days ago?" he asked uncertainly.

She gave him yet another curious look. " You mean about the memory?" she said quietly. " You watched it didn't you?"

" No" he said quickly, and indeed, this was the first day in a while that he had not even thought about the tiny glass vial. " I mean about...erm."

He didn't know what to say next, so he ended it there. He ran his hands through his hair much like his brother had, and now saw that it was probably untidier than ever. Forgetting everything that James had told him, he just decided to take his chances. Kind of.

" Wannagotohogsmidwimme?"

He wished that they were closer to the stairs, he very much wanted to throw himself down them. He had to be the only person on the planet stupid enough to screw something like that up.

" I'm sorry?" she said, and he breathed a sigh of relief. She hadn't heard him.

" I- I wanted to know if-"

" Al!"

" What!" he barked, spinning around angrily. It was Scorpius who had called his name, and he was running towards them from the other end of the corridor very fast ; what looked like the Prophet was in his hand.

" Hey Mirra" Scorpius said in between breaths when he had finally reached them. " What's up?"

" Nothing" Mirra said. " I was just going to dinner. What were you saying Al?"

He glanced at her, his heart beating fast. But he couldn't say anything with Scorpius standing right there.

" Oh. Yeah...I forget" he lied to her.

Did she look disappointed? A strange look had flashed across her face for a moment, but it went away as quickly as it came.

" Okay then" she said. " Well I'm off to dinner...if you remember then tell me."

Albus nodded as she walked towards the steps and vanished. He turned to Scorpius, his face livid.

" What is so damn important!?"

But Scorpius didn't say anything. He merely held up the newspaper, a stony expression on his face, and let Albus read the bold headline for himself.

POTTER TO BE REMOVED FROM POST?

"What?" Albus gasped, taking the paper from his friend's hands. " Why?"

" They found some guy with a memory charm on him" Scorpius said. " They cracked it a bit. He couldn't say much, but he claims that Ares is responsible for a few Ministry workers deaths. He's taking a lot of heat for still not having caught him."

Albus crumbled up the paper in his hands, furious. He stared down at the wrinkly headline, ignoring Scorpius' reprimand for having wrecked his paper. It was time to view that memory.

______________

A/N

Just a few quick comments I wanted to make in regards to some reviews, and a question I wanted to ask as well.

Someone mentioned that they thought I was going too slow with the story- I see your point. I have planned this book out entirely however, and I plan on having a big climax, so I kind of want information to just trickle through for a little while. That's not to say that I plan on making these next few chapters boring however. As indicated by the last line of this chapter, the next one is going to be filled to the brim with information.

Someone else commented on the way that harry handled the whole James/Albus situation, saying that it seemes like he condoned bullying and should have acted differently. This thought occurred to me as I was writing it, and that chapter came very close to being radically different from what it was. I realized, however, that I wasn't trying to make the perfect father. I was trying to make a realistic one. Ginny, perhaps, would have taken the cloak back and given it to Albus, then reprimanded James for his behavior, because she knows how older brothers cna be. But Harry had no siblings- no parents. I would imagine that for him, the most important thing was that his children got along. Don't think that James didn't get a good talking to, he did, as shown by his sulky expression at the end of chapter 11. But Harry knows that James isn't emotionally mature enough to make the first move. He was counting on Albus' empathy, selflessness, and ability to forgive to mend his relationshop with his brother.

And on that note, a quick question for you guys. Now that the James/Albus fued is officially over, is there anyone who sided with James at first? When I wrote that chapter way back, I wrote it with the intent that both could be equally supported. Not james giving out the detention, but at least confiscating the cloak? Albus was breaking the rules. It certainly escalated, but did anyone find it hard to pick a side at first, when Albus disowned his brother? Obviously, as the writer, I really have no opinion on the matter. I'm just curious as to what you guys think.

R&R and enjoy!