By gellerfan
NB: Thanks to JK Rowling for creating Potterverse.
Rated: +13
Spoilers: No
A/N
CHAPTER XXI "CROSSING BORDERS"
The following days Harry struggled trying to stablish a clear line of action. He read the inform of Moresby's autopsy wrote by St. Mungo's Healers and the conclusion was death by poison. Harry couldn't believe it because his team took Moresby's wand and they thought they searched Moresby properly, but it was clearly not the case.
"How was it possible?" Harry asked to the Healer who signed the inform.
The Healer unveiled Moresby's corpse and opened his mouth.
"Look" said the Healer pointing at a molar" There is a poison depot here. He just had to bite".
"I didn't know that was possible" said Harry.
The Healer looked at him surprised.
"I thought you knew it because you are Muggle raised. I've seen that in Muggle movies".
"I completely forgot it, and my team doesn't know those kind of Muggle tricks" admitted Harry.
"It seems that someone is crossing borders between our worlds"
"As a Healer, I guess you will know how to find out the ingredients of this poison".
The Healer smiled sadly and shook his head.
"This is the problem. Here at St. Mungo some of us can use other ingredients and create a potion with similar effects using magic, but then your team would have noticed it. No, Mr. Potter, the ingredients were bought in the Muggle world".
Harry took mental note of that, realizing that if they had to investigate there, he was the only one with the abilities to enter the Muggle world without being detected.
"Thank you very much. We'll be in touch" he said.
After that he returned to the Ministry, where he found Ron. When Harry explained the results of the autopsy he left Ron speechless, because Ron knew little of Muggle world, so those tricks were unthinkable for him.
"I don't know what to say, Harry"
"I will search for advice, don't worry. What do we have about Moresby's last moths?"
"We are investigating all the people Moresby contacted, but right now everyone seams clean, just business affairs, so we'll have to get back on time for months, maybe a year before"
"Do it, Ron. So, our only good news is that Carlisle is ok"
"Yes, but he doesn't seem to remember anything useful. He hired Moresby around eighteen months ago, he's been very competent and the references he brought were excellent. Probably Moresby made a Memory Mod on him, because he doesn't remember much more"
"And this is the reason why the Augurey knew Moresby well" said Harry.
"What? Yes. We asked Carlisle about who recommended Moresby, but…"
"Memory Mod"
"I'm sorry, Harry"
"Just to summarize. We need to find possible links in United Kingdom, who brought the Laumés and who recommended Moresby"
"Did you receive news from Page?"
"Yes, the pair of Laumés left are recovering well from the spell. Professor Khan is keeping them under the guide of Page and Allenstein. You'll be glad to know that Hagrid returned home and is helping them"
"That's great"
"And those are the good news. We don't know the sender"
"And we two have problems at home" said Ron.
Harry laughed, but Ron seemed worried.
"What did you expect from them? They think we put our children under unnecessary risk" Harry said.
"Thanks Merlin our kids love us"
"Yes, I'm Lily's hero again, and even James was surprisingly kind. It seems that storming a cottage and sending Avada Kedavras all around is what they expect from us".
"Hermione and Ginny have a point, Harry. It was really close. The kids were using Bewitched Sleep, the kind of spell we would have used, and the beast was progressing anyway".
"Don't think of that" said Harry, trying to reassure his mate, but Ron was thoughtful.
"What's the matter, Ron?"
"When we had Rose's age, we complained because of the lack of collaboration between Hogwarts and the Ministry. We are very good on spells, Harry, but I've never seen what Allenstein did, the Narcolepsia spell, and Page knew that spell. We should work on that".
"I thought that it's really a powerful spell"
"It's not an Unforgivable, Harry"
"In the wrong hands, it really could be as dangerous as an Unforgivable, but I see your point, we must increase the collaboration. You're right, mate. Unfortunately, we cannot count on Shaklebolt. political situation is pretty complicated because of Blackrock Manifesto" said Harry.
"Yes, Blackrock Manifesto has a lot of support and our society is divided. Hermione thinks that all this mess is absurd"
"We're part of the establishment, Ron"
Ron thought for a second.
"I was thinking about a song, you know, our men told us they saw a boy singing it, and it's becoming very popular"
"Yes, Shaklebolt is angry about that and ask us to cut all this, and the Daily Prophet is mad too" said Harry while he remembered part of the song
Panic on the Diagon Alley
Panic on the streets of Hogsmeade
I wonder to myself
Could life ever be sane again?
Burn down the Ministry
Hang the blessed Skeeter
Because the lies that they constantly say
It says nothing to me about my life
"The youth is angry and wants a change, Ron. By the way, did you receive news from Neville? I'd love to know his opinion about the recent events"
"Page praised his performance at Carlisle's cottage in front of all the students, so he's extremely happy and is now a hero between Gryffindors".
"What about your kids?"
"You know I'm their hero"
"Not you, git. I meant which is the situation between the students. What does Rose think?"
Ron seemed ashamed.
"I didn't ask her, sorry".
Harry laughed.
"Neither I, Ron. I'm afraid we haven't been very diligent. I wonder what's Albus thinking about all this mess"
"You can bet he was glad with the action. You don't care about James' opinion?"
"I don't need to. I'm sure he found it very funny".
Meanwhile, Albus was in his class of Care of Magical Creatures. Professor Khan, accompanied by Headmaster Page and Ernst Allenstein, was teaching the students their advances in the study of Laumés.
The Laumés looked at Page and Allenstein angrily because they remembered what the wizards did to them at the cottage, but this was the reason why they tamely let Khan continue his explanation without any problem. The Laumés saw the wands, and that was enough for them.
Khan pointed at the pair of Laumés.
"I know you see those pair and think they can't be that bad because they are beautiful, and you will think they are nice because they live nearby lakes, abandoned bath-houses, in islands of lakes or dense forests, and they love to gather near rivers, lakes, swamps, in meadows, mainly in night in new moon or full moon. Our colleagues from Lithuania reported us than in new moon or full moon they seem to dance and enjoy themselves"
Khan looked then at the students.
"But this is the nice part of the story. Laumės move very fast and are very dangerous, especially to men. They could tickle or tweak them to death and then eat their bodies. It's truth that those cases are part of the past, but…"
"Sir" said Albus.
"Yes, Potter?"
"I've read that Laumés attacked some wizards at Lithuania recently. Is that true?"
Khan looked at Page nervously. The class was Page's idea, and Khan agreed just because it was a Headmaster suggestion.
"You're right, Mr. Potter. There have been some attacks" said Page.
Students looked at each other nervously because of the news. Only a few of them knew that fact.
"However, we have two options. Pretending that nothing happened because Lithuania is far away from here or learning
from the creatures and try to know what happened. Hogwarts is a haven of knowledge in our wizarding world, so here we have no other option that study if we want to fight this menace. Thanks to people like Professor Longbottom or Mr. Allenstein there was no harm done.
Ronnie Peterson shivered.
"What's wrong, mate?" said Pat Paisley.
"Did you see that?"
"No. What?"
"One of the Laumés looked at us, and just for a second her eyes changed. They were hunter's eyes. In fact, they reminded me velociraptors' eyes. Did you watch the movie?"
"We watched it together, Pat"
"It's true, but then Allenstein came close and once again their eyes seemed humble and peaceful"
"They remember the spell"
Albus was listening to the conversation when he saw Julia raising her hand.
"Sir, did you make a comparison between let's say normal Lithuanian Laumés and those ones?"
Khan seemed surprised and couldn't avoid looking at Page.
"Not still" said Allenstein.
Albus analyzed Allenstein's face.
"He knows more than he is saying" he thought, then he noticed that Scorpius Malfoy gave him a sign when no one was looking. Albus commented that to Tony, who was beside him.
When the class ended, Tony and Albus went to the room where they had the meeting with Scorpius weeks ago, and they waited for Scorpius, who arrived some minutes later.
"How is it going at Snakeland, Malfoy?" asked Tony.
Scorpius fainted a smile.
"Trouble times are difficult but profitable, Blackburne, you should know it, and as far as I know, no one tried to cast me. I thought that stupid moves belonged to Gryffindor, but it must be contagious"
Malfoy and Blackburne laughed, to Albus surprise, who didn't find the situation amusing.
"There where Slytherins involved too, but I don't want to discuss. May we help you?" said Albus.
"Ok, Potter" said Scorpius raising his hands to ease the situation "you want me to get some information, and I have some, maybe it's nonsense, but here it is, Reginald Montauban, a good friend of my family …."
"His son Charles is a second year at Slytherin, isn't it?" said Tony.
"Yes. Well, you know that Montauban is one of the oldest wizarding families, only surpassed by Malfoys and Blacks before the end of the latter family"
Albus sent a stern look to Malfoy
"I'm just commenting a fact, Potter, not questioning what Sirius Black did" said Scorpius.
Albus knew that it was true, but truth was a painful and bitter pill to shallow.
"Please, continue" said Albus.
"You know that we the old British wizarding families have a network all around the world and mainly in Europe"
Albus nodded.
"And you know that there's been a change in Lithuanian government"
That new came as a shock.
"Did you know it?" he asked turning to Tony.
Tony nodded.
"I read it on the Prophet some days ago, I thought you knew it too. In fact, we've tried to stablish a link between that change and Laumés, but we haven't found it"
Albus then looked at Scorpius, who was enjoying the situation.
"In fact, it seems that there's been a change for better, if we believe what they say. Democracy, meritocracy, the country open to the rest of wizarding world…" said Malfoy.
"Sounds like Blackrock Manifesto" Tony said.
"Did you notice?" asked Scorpius smirking, but he stopped when Tony made a sign.
"Let's summarize. What do you have, Malfoy?" said Tony.
"Montauban is happy with the situation, and has a good network all around Europe, Lithuania included" said Malfoy.
"Being happy is not a crime, Malfoy" said Tony.
"The exchange of owls has increased recently"
Albus and Tony looked at each other.
"That could be something" said Albus.
"You have to inform your father, but remember that my name should never be in the letter" said Malfoy.
"Why do you do that?" asked Tony.
Malfoy seemed surprised.
"I promised"
"Yes, but you could win more with the other side"
Malfoy shook his head.
"I'm not as clever as you, Blackburne, but I'm not dumb, and we have learnt from the past. I support what they say, but not if it means killing people" said Scorpius.
"This is not what you did in the past" said Albus.
Scorpius looked at Albus and this time there was no smirk in his face.
"Once again, Potter, we've learnt, but it doesn't mean that we accept your superiority. I admit that you're not like your father and this is the reason why I'm here, but I'm not your fan"
This time his face showed again a smirk of superiority.
"Thank you, Malfoy. We'll be in touch" said Tony.
"I hope you'll take the lead on this, Blackburne. It would be great to see a brain leading, and not just muscles" said Malfoy pointing at Albus.
Albus breathed deeply and keep the composure. Malfoy was too important to risk losing him for a stupid fight, and the information seemed valuable. He was about to say something, but Tony spoke first.
"Once again, thanks, Malfoy"
Scorpius knew that if he said one more word this time the war would be against Tony, and he knew the outcome, so he smiled and left the room.
Albus looked at Tony
"I could have done it"
"Maybe, but there was a risk"
"I have to inform my father, Tony, but you should find the others and talk about this meeting"
Tony raised a brow and Albus knew that he didn't approve that.
"I will not risk Scorpius' relationship, Albus. I can explain all this as our theory, but these walls have ears".
Albus understood that Tony was right. In fact, only Julia and Chinhua could match Tony's brain.
"You're right. I'm going back to Gryffindor's Rook".
This time Tony laughed.
"Rook?"
"Yes, I know that the official name is Tower, but my uncle Ron loves chess, and so he called it Rook".
"An ancestor of mine, a Muggle, was a chess player. His name was Joseph Blackburne. He played a match against the world champion Wilhelm Steitnitz in 1876, but he lost".
Albus looked at Tony under a new light.
"I thought you were a pure blood"
"Don't be silly like Malfoy. Our world would have vanished without Muggle raised children. That give us force and, talking about chess, a huge improvement".
"You should play with my uncle Ron"
"It would be funny, but I'm sure he wouldn't like the experience. We'll meet at the library"
Albus then ran to Gryffindor's Tower and wrote a letter to Harry explaining the situation but omitting that Malfoy was the source.
Harry was shocked by the news, and reprimanded Ron for "our lack of diligence trying to find out what is happening in this world"
Ron noticed that, in fact, Harry was blaming himself as he always did, so he didn't get mad.
"Who is Albus' source?"
"The hell if I know, Ron"
"And you didn't ask him?"
Harry realized his mistake.
"I didn't, Ron. I was caught by surprise and I'm afraid he's right"
"Afraid so, mate"
"Ron, gather our team. We should distribute the work to analyze this new"
"We shouldn't. It is a mix between our job and politics. I can do it, maybe with one of two of our complete confidence"
"You're right, and Ron, I'm sorry. I shouldn't blame you for this. It was…"
"Your fault, as you always say, being right or not. You shouldn't carry that weight alone, mate, and owl the kid, please"
"Do you think he will tell me the truth?"
"You should try"
Harry knew that his mate was partially right. Ron was right asking for more information from Albus, but he was wrong in one thing. Albus omitted the information intentionally, so Harry should try other ways to talk with him.
"I'd like to talk to you. Be at the fireplace tomorrow at midnight" he wrote to his son.
When Albus read the letter, he knew what his father wanted, but he couldn't avoid the talk. He sought advice in James (avoid the talk, he said) and Lily, who tried to convince him to give Harry what he wanted. That was logical coming from Lily, because she worshipped her father.
Albus knew that he couldn't follow her brother's advice, so he looked for Chinhua.
"Albus, I've just received a letter from Mum with Paul's vision of her last game against Ballycastle Bats".
Albus was worried trying to figure out what to say to his father, but he couldn't avoid laughing.
"Are you telling me that tough Paul Wolffe allowed to extract his memories from the match? That sounds incredible to me".
Chinhua pulled a face.
"It's not so difficult if Mum or Sara want to. We have a pensieve at Ravenclaw, but I guess you cannot enter"
"Because of the riddle? You don't have a password like us" said Albus.
"Do you know it?"
"Dad told me"
"I have to ask for permission. Wait for a second"
He returned a minute later.
"You're allowed to enter, but just to the pensieve".
They walked towards Ravenclaw Tower and then they saw the eagle knocker asking a riddle.
"What thing all things devours?" the eagle knocker said.
Chinhua looked at Albus.
"That's easy. Come on".
Albus thought for some seconds, but he didn't figure out the answer,
"I don't know. Answer to the knocker and you can laugh at me"
"Time" she said.
"Well reasoned" said the eagle knocker, and the door opened.
Once in the pensieve, Chinhua introduced Paul's memories and they got their heads into the pensieve.
Being at a pensieve was not new to Albus. He has experienced that at Tutshill Stadium, but then it was only a practice with Sara, Cho, Chinhua and himself included. Now he could hear the crowd roaring supporting their teams and the flags fluttering, black and red for Ballycastle, which was the home team, and blue for Tutshill.
Match started as expected. Cho and Sara decided to switch places, so this time Cho was the Regular Seeker. She and Donald Kingston, Ballycastle Seeker, climbed to the sky to reach a good place to find the golden orb. Meanwhile, Chaser of teams fought for the Quaffle, but Tutshills Chaser had the upper hand and started to open a gap in the score. Harry noticed the extreme flexibility in Tutshill defense and how menacing and precise were Tolya Holmov's Bludgers. Madina flew as always, fast as a lightning and lethal as a white shark, but Albus noticed that the other Chasers didn't collaborate with him as everybody expected and acted following the older patterns, not the new ones, so Ballycastle players could defend and everything relied on Seekers, because the gap was just 110-50 for Tutshill.
Albus noticed that Cho had found the snitch, but she didn't turn immediately to grab the golden orb, as Harry or the former Albus would have done. What he did was just a feign casual turn who helped her to catch the wind. Kingston, the Ballycastle Seeker, saw the snitch too and turned violently to approach the snitch, but that move meant a great decrease in his speed, so he saw how Cho overtook him at full speed thanks to the wind and grabbed the snitch.
"A superb performance. I have to explain this to my mates" thought Albus.
Albus noticed Chinhua's excitement when he looked at her eyes.
"Well, what do you think?" he asked.
"Mum was great, and Beaters are starting to show their real strength, but there is still a lack of coordination between Chasers. The other two Chasers don't follow Madina's pace" she said.
"I guess we will win against Hufflepuff this Saturday. How do you feel against Malfoy? Do you want to practice?" he asked.
"Thanks for the offer, but right now we are practicing collective play. I think I can handle Malfoy unless I have a nervous breakdown because of the debut, and situation in your House is not wine and roses, Albus, maybe we should stop practicing, unless until my debut. I'd love to practice with you, but it's not in your interest" she said smiling.
"As you please, I have to return to Gryffindor to prepare myself to a talk with Dad" said Albus.
Chinhua noticed that his mood wasn't the one it had to be.
"Any problem?" she asked.
"Well, I owled him telling something and now I can't tell him who is my source"
Chinhua laughed.
"This is what happens when you mess around with black and green"
"Sorry?"
"You're being mysterious, Albus, bust you're not trained on that, so it's clear that you talked with an arachnid, because I would have known if you talked with a Ravenclaw and you would tell me openly if it was a Hufflepuff or a Gryffindor, and you're not let's say friendly with others black and green"
"Arachnids?" said Albus intrigued.
"Yes. Usually, people only think about spiders, but there are other arachnids, you know, with blonde hair".
"So your advice is …."
"Give him a hint"
"Dad's more or less like me, Chinhua. Hints don't work".
"Let's hope you're wrong".
"I'll tell you"
Albus waved goodbye and went to Gryffindor Tower, but first he made a short stop at the Library trying to find Julia, but he only found Tony with Pat and Ronnie.
"Where's Julia?" he asked.
"She left with Lisa, but we don't where they are"
"And Alan Clarke?"
Tony raised a brow.
"So, you don't want my advice anymore? I understand that you prefer Julia because she's beautiful, but now you're abandoning me for my padawan"
Albus sighed. There was something worse that being in detention, being the subject of Tony's pranks.
"He's always with you"
"Not really, we appreciate our independence. However, for your information, but he's spreading evil".
Albus looked at Tony speechless. Ronnie and Pat laughed when they saw his face.
"Ok, I resign. What is he doing?"
"We don't really know. Some Slytherins were asking stupid questions, and someone had to punish them" said Tony.
"Professors don't fulfill their duty properly on that field" said Pat, still laughing.
"You didn't do it, Tony?" said Albus.
"They avoid me like a plague. I don't know why" Tony said feinting an innocent look "besides, Alan would extract valuable information from them, I hope"
"Yes, he's better than you in that. You always take pleasure mocking at them" said Pat.
At midnight, Albus left his bed silently. He could hear his bed mates snoring, so they were completely asleep. Albus then approached the fire place trying not to make any noise. Just at midnight, the live coal suddenly changed its shape to look alike Harry's face.
"Hello Dad" Albus said quietly.
"Hello. I know this is quite strange, but I had to ask you something. By the way, I hope everybody is asleep" said Harry.
"Yes. I They are".
"It's about your letter. We are following your suggestions, son, and I must thank you for that, but I'd like to know which is your source. It would accelerate our quest".
Albus breathed deeply because that was the question he was afraid of.
"I can't tell you, Dad. I promised not to reveal it".
Harry's face moved showing his irritation.
"I need it, Albus. You can't fail me"
"I'm not failing you, but I must honor my word" said a desperate Albus.
"As you please, we'll be in touch" said Harry with a voice full of anger, and so his face left the fireplace.
Albus looked the fireplace, now crackling normally, and didn't figure out how to help his father without betraying Scorpius, so, visibly sad and depressed, he returned to his bedroom. His bedmates were still snoring, so they would never know about his nocturnal excursion. That was good because the problem was still a secret, and bad because they couldn't help him when they all woke up.
Harry was terribly angry after the short conversation with Albus. He felt betrayed, although he realized that Albus should have his reasons, Harry couldn't find them and Harry realized that he lost his temper before asking Albus about that.
"Did you receive letters from Albus recently?" he asked to Ginny.
Ginny looked at his husband surprised.
"No. He's more like you, not very fond of writing letters. Why?"
Harry explained her the discussion with Albus.
"You should respect him" Ginny said.
"I have an investigation going on, and the information is very relevant"
"And he's your son"
Harry knew that she had a point, but his pride was leading his actions, so he left the room.
Harry went to the Ministry, but the anger still didn't let him work.
"How can I find out the truth?" he thought. He told nothing to Ron and Hermione because he felt they would share Ginny's opinion, and he didn't want to hear that, so he decided to find out the solution for himself or face Albus after the match. Mad at Albus or not, he promised to attend the match, and he would honor his word.
The following Saturday, Hogwarts Stadium was filled up to see the first match of the season between the defending champion, Gryffindor, against Hufflepuff. Gryffindor team was gathered before entering the game field.
"I hope we will start this season as a team" said Chaser Anne Cornwell looking at Captain McCulloch and Albus. They both nodded, so the rest of the team sighed in relief.
"Don't worry, Anne. We'll do it" said McCulloch, then he looked at the team "last time we suffered a lot to win the Cup, but we've learnt, we've trained hard and we're better than a few months ago. This is the last year for me and Linda, and we'd like to finish our studies at Hogwarts with another Cup. It won't be easy, but let's do it, starting for Hufflepuff. If we play as usual the victory is ours".
Albus kept his composure trying not to discuss with McCulloch. Playing as usual was just what he was trying to avoid. The only change was Beaters play, who now played à la Slytherin, but it wasn't enough, he knew it, because he knew that Chinhua was introducing Tutshill innovations in Ravenclaw and Albus was sure that Slytherin had something up their sleeves, so Gryffindor was not leading the innovation in the game, and if you don't have the initiative you can lose.
Albus looked at a certain place at the box seat hoping but not expecting to see his father, and to his surprise he saw among the Body of Professors his father hugging Lily and sitting beside Headmaster Page, while Cho, Chinhua and Tolya Holmov were beside Jorvik as Ravenclaw's guests.
"James, Dad's here" said to his brother.
James looked at there too.
"At least he keeps one of his promises" he said.
"Come on, we have to play well in front of him"
The match started and Albus climbed to the sky until he reached a good sight position. He made some feints here and there trying to mislead Donegal, Hufflepuff Seeker, but he was pursuing him like a hound dog.
Downfield, Gryffindor was taking the lead but not as much as everybody expected. Both teams copied Slytherin's tactics, but Hufflepuff, true to their traits, acted collectively, so they compensated the more skilled Gryffindor Chasers. Ten minutes after the start of the match Gryffindor leaded only by 40-20.
Albus started to fly between the others players to create confusion between his rivals, as Sara and Cho taught him, but to his concern he misled both teams, and Hufflepuff regrouped faster and took advantage of the situation to level the score 40-40.
Albus admitted his mistake and flew according to a classical pattern, hoping that his mates would calm down and take the lead again, and so they did, so after forty minutes of game they were winning 80-60.
Suddenly Albus saw the snitch close to Gryffindor goal. He feinted a dive and turned softly to catch the wind and grab the snitch from behind. Donegal wasn't as good at turns so he couldn't prevent Gryffindor victory 230-60.
Gryffindor team gathered to congratulate Albus for the victory, but he wasn't satisfied because he wanted a bigger gap in the score, so matches against Ravenclaw and Slytherin would be really stressing.
He flew to salute Donegal, who was being consoled by the rest of his team.
"Good match. You have improved a lot your defense" he said to Hufflepuff team.
"Thank you. We thought we had chances, but your final turn was unexpected to me. You didn't fly that way in the past" said Donegal.
"I've practiced this summer, but you're improving a lot. Well done"
Hufflepuffs smiled for the compliment, so the tension caused by the defeat disappeared. Albus took advantage of that to abandon the group and get close to his father.
Harry saw Albus coming with mixed feelings. He was extremely proud of Albus' play, but once he returned victorious Harry remembered their last discussion.
Cho and Chinhua saw Harry's face so, transparent as he was, they realized that something was wrong between father and son.
"Have you got any problem with Albus?" Cho said.
"How do you…?" Harry realized that it was useless to hide information from them and told them the conversation without giving names.
"Albus told me, but I advised him to give you hints" said Chinhua.
"What kind of hint?" asked Harry, who realized then that Cho was cracking up "Why are you laughing?"
"Because the answer is obvious" Cho said.
"It's not"
"Yes, it is" said Cho and Chinhua at unison.
Harry thought for some seconds and, terribly humiliated, had to admit that they were right.
"I wonder what his father would think when he found out" he said.
Once again Cho and Chinhua laughed.
"Come on. He sent his son" Chinhua said.
Harry looked at Cho, who nodded.
"I'm stupid" he admitted.
"You both let your pride rule your emotions and quarreled for nothing" said Cho.
Albus then joined the group, and Cho made a sign to Tolya to join them.
Harry then hugged Albus.
"I'm proud of you, son" Harry said.
"Thank you, Dad" said Albus with a mix of joy and relief.
"Well done, although your team doesn't seem to adopt our innovations and was surprised when you messed between players" said Tolya Holmov.
"They are quite reluctant to introduce the innovations. Glad to see you, I didn't expect you to come" said Albus.
"It's always nice to see matches, and who knows, maybe I could discover some new talent here"
Albus smiled and said nothing, but Tolya kept pushing.
"You didn't write to me"
"I didn't want to bother you"
"Chinhua does, and I'm owling back to her with my impressions. Seekers are very important, but Quidditch is a collective sport, and I'm pretty sure her team will introduce the innovations" Tolya said.
Albus knew that Tolya was right, but didn't want to admit that he failed because of the internal situation of the team.
"You could have noticed the snitch before thanks to the wind, unless you were expecting to increase the gap" said Cho.
"I was waiting that, but thanks, I didn't notice the change of wind" said Albus.
"Why don't we go to find James?" said Harry, hugging Albus to remark that discussion between them was over.
"You're not mad at me?" asked Albus.
Harry laughed.
"I'm afraid you're a lot like me, so I should be mad at myself and indeed I am, I should have known, and I should have pushed you so far"
Harry waved goodbye to Cho and Chinhua and accompanied by Albus and Lily, departed looking for James, who was celebrating the victory with his team mates.
One week later, Albus was in a state of shock reviewing mentally the match between Slytherin and Ravenclaw. He was surrounded by the whole Gryffindor Quidditch team after he said goodbye to his father.
"Their defense was very good, they almost dried Slytherin's offensive" said James.
"They did what I suggested you to do, don't you remember?" said Albus angrily.
The team received the blow in silence. Even McCulloch, because Albus was clearly blaming him.
"I think we're doing well, but we need to practice more, but our Chasers can overcome their defense. They are very good" said McCulloch, and Milton and Cornwell, the other Chasers, smiled to him grateful.
Albus was about to shout to them because that was false, their Chasers were not better than Claire Short, and she played always surrounded by two Ravenclaw players, so she could not dodge nor pass the Quaffle, so her score was meagre, just thirty points, when she usually scored no less than sixty-seventy points per match.
"Besides, Slytherin was ahead 50-40 when Chang got the snitch, and we have you, Albus" insisted McCulloch.
"Slytherin only scored fifty points in thirty minutes. Last match against us they scored 150 points in thirty minutes, Captain" said Albus.
"Ravenclaw is poor playing offensive" replied McCulloch.
"And they know it. We can improve too, we must improve"
"We still have you" said James with a begging look.
Albus decided to give up.
"Since we're decided to improve, we'll need to work hard, isn't it, Captain?" he said.
McCulloch smiled.
"That's the spirit. I'll talk with Professor Longbottom to arrange double sessions" and after that the group dissolved, leaving James and Albus alone.
"Which is the problem, Al?" James asked.
Albus looked at James, and James was horrified when he saw fear in Albus' eyes.
"You don't understand, James. I've been reviewing Chinhua flight since the match ended"
Albus' mind started to work again, how Chinhua and Scorpius reached the sky. How smoothly she turned from left to right, always catching the wind, always increasing the distance between Scorpius and her. "Fly with your head, not with your muscles", this is what Cho and Sara always told him, and suddenly he saw Chinhua practicing it. He saw the increasing surprise and frustration of Scorpius, who didn't know how to match Chinhua skill, and suddenly she made a seemingly casual ample turn to catch the wind again and going down at full speed to grab the snitch. When she started to veer Albus closed his eyed imagining that it was Sara veering and guessing where she would appear. When he opened his eyes, Chinhua was almost at the same point where Sara would be, just slightly worse, but much better than Albus, because he struggled with such a turn.
"Don't tell the team, but I don't know how to match her, James. I've created a competitor and she overtook me" said in despair. That confession left James speechless.
"So, what can we do?" James said.
"If you don't have the brain, you must train double sessions, bro"
"Yes, but your points are vital"
"My points are vital" sighed Albus.
Meanwhile, Harry was entering a wizard House.
"Well, well, well, that was unexpected. Welcome to Malfoy Manor, Potter" said the voice of Draco Malfoy.