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Chapter 21

A Little Job

The first of December saw an even half-foot of snow covering the grounds of Hogwarts. Albus was constantly on the alert now that it was his turn to complete a dare from Scorpius. He had heard from Paul that Scorpius had been taken to Professor McGonagall. He had had detention every day that week and fifteen points had been taken from Slytherin. Paul had also told him that Scorpius thought that Albus had only given the dare to make sure he was caught and was desperate for revenge. This had caused Albus a huge amount of worry and he had become rather paranoid. He never sat with his back to Scorpius and avoided him in corridors taking long detours just to be sure that Malfoy wouldn't see him. Of course, he knew he couldn't avoid Scorpius Malfoy forever; sooner or later the time would come when he would have to face him.

This time came towards later that week when Albus, Rose, Philip and Paul were leaving Herbology together. It had been a dismal class, the Acanthus was now to large for it's pot and they had had to move it to a larger one, this had been very difficult because Athena had refused to help because she didn't want to get dirty. So Albus, Paul and Artemis had to manage the big thorny plant between them and they had all got poked by the painful thorns and then Athena had tipped a tray of soil over Artemis's head.

When they had been allowed to leave the greenhouse Albus was asked to dismiss the students outside while Professor Longbottom searched frantically for the Asphodel seeds that had been in the tray Athena had overturned.

Outside, some of the other groups were supposed to be clearing the ground around their trees of snow or shaking the snow off the branches but most were throwing snowballs at each other. Albus saw Rose clearing the snow of her Laurel tree while the Slytherin girl bossed everyone around. Albus could see the frustration etched clearly on her face as she tried to hold her temper.

Philip was clearing the last of the snow from around the little saplings roots with a shovel. Scorpius, who was probably supposed to be helping him, was leaning on his shovel looking bored. He snapped a twig of the tree and started twiddling it around in his fingers, he had not seen Albus yet, Ablus dismissed the other groups before heading for theirs, Paul walked with him,

"I'll tell them, if you want to go ahead." He offered, "That way you won't have to talk to Scorpius."

"No, I'm going to have to face him eventually, I might as well do it now ... while his thugs aren't around."

Lewis, Samson and Tynes' groups had been working inside and so they had already left. Malfoy would be far less likely to confront him without any backup. He drew nearer to the group.

Philip had stood up wiping his brow, Scorpius was still playing with the twig. He stuck it through the branches and jabbed Rose's arm. She was still trying to ignore the bossy girl but Albus could see the infuriated expression on her face and the tell tale signs of an explosion. Albus made his way over to the group as fast as he could in order to disband them as fast as was possible but he was too late, Scorpius jabbed Rose again, even harder this time and he saw Rose snap.

"GET OFF SCORPIUS!" She roared as she grabbed the end of the twig and cracked it cleanly in two.

"WOULD YOU LEAVE ME ALONE FOR ONCE!"

"Class dismissed!" Shouted Albus over Rose next few words which were not very polite.

"Bloody hot-tempered -" Muttered Scorpius under his breathe.

"Come on Rose." Said Philip grabbing Rose's arm and dragging her over to Paul before she could respond.

Albus went to follow them but Scorpius called him back,

"I want a word with you, Potter."

"Okay then, one word." Replied Albus.

"Don't you try to be smart with me."

"Fine. What do you want?"

They started to walk towards the entrance to the castle. Albus tried to ignore the wet snow seeping into his shoes.

"I want you to do me a little job,"

"And what 'little job' is that?"

An uneasy feeling was creeping through Albus's bones.

"I need you to get something for me, only it's not going to be easy, you see, the thing I want is in a very difficult place to take it from, it's in the restricted section."

Albus felt himself go cold and it didn't have anything to do with the snow this time.

"You seem to read a lot for someone with so little intellect." Albus replied regaining his cool and calm composure.

Scorpius paid no attention to his comment.

"Are you going to get it for me or not?" He demanded.

"You still haven't told me what 'it' is."

"It's a book, what do you think is in the restricted section? I'll tell you the name when you agree to get it." Scorpius glared at him.

They were nearly at the front door now.

" 'When I agree'? I'm sure you mean, if I agree."

Scorpius laughed but Albus was sure it was fake, his eye were still angry,

"You don't have a choice, I can tell Professor Flint that you were the one who stole his book, or that you were flying around the castle on a stolen broom or that you dared me to go into Heep's office, you know he'll believe whatever I say but I don't think it will have to come that far, because I know what you wanted from Heep's office; I know why you wanted that cloak."

Albus felt every muscle in his body stiffen but he kept on walking trying not to let the panic show on his face but Scorpius knew he had struck a nerve.

"So will you do my little job?" He asked stopping just inside the big, oak doors.

"I'll do it - what book do you want?"

"It's called 'The Rise and Fall of He Who Must Not Be Named', got it? I won't rush you ... just give it to me before the Christmas break and that'll be fine, you might even find something interesting in there yourself."

Albus left Scorpius glaring wickedly without another word. His brain was working overtime. Could Malfoy possibly have found out what the cloak was before Heep had dragged him out? Why did he want a book from the Restricted section and who did he want it for? Surely Malfoy didn't want to simply read the book for his own pleasure? How did he know the name of the book anyway, how did he know that it would be there? How was he, Albus, supposed to get it?

Albus was starting to get a headache. He joined Rose and Philip at the Gryffindor table to fill them in on what Malfoy had said. He would tell Paul later. He left out the part about the cloak, though he wasn't quite sure why except that he wanted to give it more thought before he told anyone.