Gryffindor
Blurry images swam around Albus' eyes. He couldn't see that well and wasn't sure what was going on but he could tell he was lying down on a bed.
"Is he all right?"
"Look, his eyes are opening!"
"Albus? Albus!"
Albus could hear the distinctive voice of Madame Knightgale yell over the voices, "Back off! Back off! You can see him later; let him get up on his own."
Albus rubbed his eyes and pushed with his elbows to get up. He found that was indeed in the Hospital Wing. He looked around the room to see the last two people that had been in the room leaving.
"Ted! Victoire!"
A smiling Ted Lupin and a glowing Victoire strode over to Albus' bedside. Victoire looked stunning. She was no longer pale and sickly looking and her eyes had returned to their sparkling blue color.
Ted also looked great. He no longer bedridden from his crash during the Racing championship and the grief that had captured his face for the last few months had disappeared.
Ted grabbed Albus' hand and shook it wildly. "You did it, you really did it!"
Albus smiled. He still didn't know what had happened after he had fallen unconscious but he felt pretty confident that everything worked out.
In his grip he felt something. He opened it up to find the purple diamond shaped stone that the scarred man had taken to be in his palm. He realized when he fell his hand must have fallen atop where the pendant had fallen. "Here Victoire," he handed her the pendant. "I believe this is yours."
"My pendant!" Victoire shrieked as she accepted it from him. She attached it back to her golden necklace and bent down to kiss Albus on the forehead. She then began to leave.
Ted gave Albus a pat on the back. "Thanks, Al. For everything."
"So is it off?" Albus had noticed that the ring he had seen Victoire wearing before she left the castle was now gone.
Teddy nodded without regret. "For now."
Albus nodded and said good bye as Teddy left the room to catch up to Victoire.
Albus turned over and his side. He was still quite tired. He was just getting comfortable when he heard the doors to the room open. Albus got up to see who it was it was his father.
"Albus, my son, you did it!" Harry swooped down and gave his son a giant bear hug.
"Thanks dad but, er, what exactly did I do?" Albus asked.
"Ah, after you fell unconscious. Well as per your instructions both Rose and Luke made their way back up here, woke me up, and told everything. I alerted the other teachers of the situation and then came down here to find you lying on the floor by a bunch of robes and Professor Kinlan. Now, would you mind telling me about what went on down there?" Harry asked.
Albus told him everything. "…and I then the scarred man said all that was left was to take the Invisibility Cloak. So I drew my hand over my head as that sensation I told you about took over but this time I was also partially in control. Then somehow out of nowhere the Sword of Gryffindor appears in my hand which I used to strike down the scarred man and destroyed the nearly completed Scar of Wizardry. The man turned to sand and blew away as it became smoke. Then I fainted and awoke here."
"I see. I am glad you had the cloak to tell the truth though." Harry said.
"Are you going to confiscate it?" asked Albus.
"As your teacher I should." Harry withdrew the cloak from his back pocket and handed it to Albus, "However, as your father, I think you should hold on to it."
Albus gladly accepted the cloak and then returned to his questions, "Dad, who was that man?"
Harry sighed. "For once, the mystery isn't completely solved. I don't know who it was but I promise that we will be finding out soon."
"I saw Victoire and she looked great, what happened?" Albus asked.
"The Healers at St. Mungo's say that she just stood up in her bed and returned to completely normal health at the same time, according to what I understand, you destroyed the Scar of Wizardry. They ran some tests and a day later released her to come back here." Harry explained.
"A day later? How long have I been asleep?"
"Five days." Harry elucidated.
"Five days?"
Harry ckuckled. "Yes five days."
Albus threw his head back into the pillow. He got up a second later realizing he still had a lot of more questions. "What about the objects that had been out through the Ensis Lapiss to form the Scar of Wizardry?"
"After you struck the nearly completed Scar of Wizardry everything just appeared in the room and as for the Ensis Lapiss itself, I have talked to the Minister of Magic and he agreed with me that it should be destroyed."
"I understand." Albus said. "Those tests before the Temple of Scar of Wizardry, do you know where they came from? They didn't seem like they were set up by the scarred man because he wanted us to go find him so he could get the Invisibility Cloak."
"I don't know but the way they were set up, the magic that was used seemed older. Not extremely old, but at least it was definitely dated back a couple of decades ago." Harry reflected.
"Yes but I don't understand what the tests actually were."
"The first test was the test of strength. How did you have strength then?" asked Harry.
Albus remembered something he had said to Rose when they left Luke to fight the skeletons. "Strength. Strength to let go."
Harry nodded, "Knowledge?"
"The sphinx didn't ask a riddle, that would be understanding. Knowledge is really knowing and having the awareness of what to do when the situation is tough."
"And courage?"asked Harry.
"There was no challenge of courage. There were only two for some reason."
"Wrong. There was test of courage. It was the hardest test there was and the test that decided your fate down there."
"The Temple. Facing the scarred man was the challenge of courage."
Harry smiled. "Yes."
Albus was uncomfortable. He had just conquered three traits that belong to a certain people. But his anxiety of being associated and compared to his father had left him. "Dad, at the beginning of the yea I was given a choice. I think I chose wrong."
"Our choices define us Albus. However, when we can realize that our choices were wrong and when we try to fix it then that is really what counts. You can say Draco Malfoy was a bad person but in the end he left his dark ways. Its times like that that really defines us."
"Dad, I think I made the wrong choice joining Slytherin. Can I join Gryffindor? Am I even worthy of joining Gryffindor?"
Phoenix soared. Albus' owl entered the Hospital from an open window and flew above him. Suddenly, the owl began to sing. The song touched Albus' very soul. It was a beautiful blend of sounds that an owl shouldn't be able to produce. The green feathers began to fall off of the owl and was replaced by orange and gold feathers. The red feathers blossomed and the owl was engulfed by a small flame that disappeared quickly. The owl had grown and its features changed.
"I heard that song once, twenty years ago from the very same phoenix." Harry said.
Albus was shocked as he saw the red bird fly over him. "Phoenix…is a phoenix?"
"Yes. His name is actually Fawkes. He used to belong to a great Gryffindor before he disappeared. It seems he has resurfaced and revealed himself to you. So you ask me if you are worthy of being a Gryffindor? Well, if that doesn't convince you, what about the sword? Dumbledore told me only a true Gryffindor could draw the sword from a hat, and if that's true than only those who embody Gryffindor himself could draw the sword from thin air." Harry said.
As Albus heard that he began to remember seeing the sword. In Diagon Alley, when a couple of sparks from Albus' wand caused Harry's robe to fly up a little. He remembered seeing something silver. Now he knew what it was. "You brought it here at the beginning of the year."
"Yes. Albus do you remember the night the Ensis Lapiss was stolen and the fake remains were on the floor?"
Albus nodded yes.
"Well, that night the sword was also stolen and it must have ended up down at the Temple. You didn't just draw the sword from nowhere. You drew the sword when it was trapped by dark magic. You are a Gryffindor." Harry explained.
"Dad, I told you about these strange sensations and how I am able to sometimes do this incredible wandless magic and now conjuring the sword, why can I do that?" It was the final unanswered question and the one Albus had been holding onto for the longest.
"Albus it's for the same reason that you can do many things a Phoenix can only answer the call of certain people. Wandless magic is rarely practiced except by a certain special people, Albus-"
"Mr. Potter? It's time to go." It was the same man Albus had talked to that last winter. The Auror, Norman Likuud.
"Dad, where are you going?" Albus asked.
"Sorry, Albus. Top secret Auror business." Harry replied as he walked over to Likuud.
"But what about what you were saying?" Albus asked.
"I won't be gone long. It can wait." Harry said. He walked out the door before peaking his head back in. "And Albus? Welcome to Gryffindor."
Madame Knightgale insisted he stay the night. The next morning, Albus woke up and headed down to Dungeons. He stayed there for the week, only telling Kraushaar who was the head of Slytherin house, that he would be transferring to Gryffindor. He didn't get a chance that week because of his final exams. But at the end of the week, Albus finished his last exam and was able to return and finish packing. He then took his stuff and headed up to the Gryffindor Tower. He had only told Luke and Rose he was going to Gryffindor House but when he arrived he greeted by the entire house who had a party that afternoon for him. During the afternoon he had fallen asleep. He woke up later to find it was dark out. He checked the time and realized he was missing the End-Of-Term Feast.
He quickly changed into Gryffindor robes that James had given him and ran down to the Great Hall. He opened the doors to see a completely silent Hall. Then everyone turned to look at him.
"Ah, Mr. Potter," Ravensddole obviously speaking as she was standing at the podium in front of the entire Hall, "I was just about to speak about you." Ravensddole turned her attention back to the entire Hall, "Now of course you can see from the bronze and blue decoration that Ravenclaw has won the House Cup. However, in light of recent events I have decided that another few houses deserve points. First to Mr. Luke Harris, fifty points to Hufflepuff for displaying loyalty and companionship in the face of danger."
Hufflepuff gave a modest applause. It wasn't enough to put them over the top but it did give them honor.
"To Miss Rose Weasley, fifty points to Gryffindor for quick and rational thinking in a state of emotional distress."
A giant applause came from Gryffindor. The extra fifty put them over the top and in the lead for the House Cup.
"And finally to Mr. Albus Potter, one hundred points for returning possessions to their rightful owners and having courage when things seem hopeless."
Slytherin House screamed and cheered for a whole minute. But Gryffindor House just smiled. The Slytherins began to notice their smiles and saw the robes that Albus was wearing. Albus smiled and walked over to the Gryffindor table.
"Gryffindor wins the House Cup!" Ravensddole announced.
Albus didn't care that he won the Racing championship. He didn't care how he did on his exams, he didn't care that he solved the mystery of everyone's stolen possessions. Because now, here, everything counted. Everything was right.
Everything was the way it was supposed to be.
Albus yawned. The night ahead was going to be a long one. The trip back home would last all night he knew.
"Albus," Rose said. "Luke and I are going to say goodbye to few people, want to come with?"
"Nah, I'll get to it." said Albus. Rose shrugged and followed Luke out the train compartment and closed the door behind them.
Albus tried to get to sleep for a while until it became blatantly obvious he wasn't going to get to sleep. So he opened up his truck looking for something to do. He eventually reached the bottom of his trunk when he found a stack of books. He picked up the first one he saw. He looked at it and recalled getting it as a gift for Christmas.
"Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone." Albus read the title. He shrugged and opened up the book.
It didn't seem like a long time, but Albus was nearly at the last page when the he saw the sun was rising. At this point he was reading aloud to not only himself but also Rose and Luke who had joined him right after he began reading.
" 'Which means, Dumbledore called over the storm of applause, for even Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff were celebrating the downfall of Slytherin, "we need a little change of decoration." He clapped his hands. In an instant, the green hangings became scarlet and the silver became gold; the huge Slytherin serpent vanished and a towering Gryffindor lion took its place. Snape was shaking Professor McGonagall's hand, with a horrible, forced smile. He caught Harry's eye and Harry knew at once that Snape's feelings toward him hadn't changed one jot. This didn't worry Harry. It seemed as though life would be back to normal next year, or as normal as it ever was at Hogwarts.
It was the best evening of Harry's life, better than winning at Quidditch, or Christmas, or knocking out mountain trolls... he would never, ever forget tonight.
And suddenly, their wardrobes were empty, their trunks were packed, Neville's toad was found lurking in a corner of the toilets; notes were handed out to all students, warning them not to use magic over the holidays ('I always hope they'll forget to give us these,' said Fred Weasley sadly); Hagrid was there to take them down to the fleet of boats that sailed across the lake; they were boarding the Hogwarts Express; talking and laughing as the countryside became greener and tidier; eating Bettie Bott's Every Flavor Beans as they sped past Muggle towns; pulling off their wizard robes and putting on jackets and coats; pulling into platform nine and three-quarters at King's Cross Station.
It took quite a while for them all to get off the platform. A wizened old guard was up by the ticket barrier, letting them go through the gate in twos and threes so they didn't attract attention by all bursting out of a solid wall at once and alarming the Muggles.
'You must come and stay this summer,' said Ron, 'both of you - I'll send you an owl.'
'Thanks,' said Harry, 'I'll need something to look forward to.' People jostled them as they moved forward toward the gateway back to the Muggle world. Some of them called: 'Bye, Harry!' 'See you, Potter!'
'Still famous,' said Ron, grinning at him.
'Not where I'm going, I promise you,' said Harry."
But Albus had to stop. The Hogwarts Express pulled to a stop. But Albus didn't care. He knew what came next.
"Wait, Albus what about the rest?" asked Luke.
"Luke," Albus said as they exited the train. "it went something like this." Albus gave Luke a big hug and bade him farewell. Rose followed suit.
"I'll miss you two over the summer." Luke said to Albus and Luke.
"It's all right. This September we'll be together back at home.
Luke was just turning around when he heard this. He turned around and looked back at Albus confused. "You mean this September we'll be together back at school?"
Albus saw his mother and sister waving for him to come to them. Albus began his walk to them and yelled over to Luke.
"No, together at Hogwarts, out home."
Author's Note: And that is it! Thanks to everyone for reading! I plan on releasing Albus Potter and the King's Hallow within the next month. I was finally able to figure out how ot fix my plot for book three but I am going to need this next month to get ready for book two.
Once again, thanks to everyone and check back in next month (or hopefully sooner) for the release of Albus Potter and the King's Hallow.