Chapter 38 – Fight

Albus' POV

I looked out the window of Transfiguration lessons and watched big clumps of snow fall outside. I smiled as how much I wanted to go outside.

"Perhaps, Mr. Potter can tell us what he thinks about your answer." I jumped at the sound of my name. I haven't been paying attention, but I heard what Muscawest said about Switching Spells and its "deeper meaning."

"Uh, he's wrong." I said. Scorpius snickered next to me. I gave him a quick glare. Michael Muscaswest was the kind of nerd for Transfiguration. History of Magic and Transfiguration were his best subjects, but he was hardly as smart as Rose and Scorpius. So why would some Quidditch player, third or maybe fourth in the class say that Muscawest was wrong?

"And can you tell us what you mean by your response?" Professor McGonagall asked giving me a narrowed look.

"Well, I don't think he gets it."

"That he doesn't get it…Mr. Potter, would you please inform us all what you actually mean by that? Maybe even give us a better meaning than Muscawest's?"

I saw Roxanne had bolted up to turn around to hear what I had to say. She sat in front of me and next to Rose. Everyone knew that she liked to take quick naps in McGonagall's class. I was so flattered that she wanted to hear what I had to say. I was being sarcastic, by the way.

I looked over at Scorpius who was grinning and giving me the nod to continue. I cleared my throat:

"Well, I suppose if you look at this way, you can use switching spells against dangerous things, but it would be hardly effective."

"It is a simple spell, but simple spells are called simple for a reason because if you used the simplest they are least effective than if you were to use a complex one. So, you should try and use those spells not on the dangerous thing itself, but what is surrounding it." I said. I looked at Rose's expression and she looked shocked that I said that.

"Good, Potter, very good. Something like your father would say yeah, right, he would be proud, but must I warn you if you keep daydreaming in my class you won't be nearly as lucky as you were now." I nodded and she turned to go back to teaching, but then said, "15 points to Gryffindor."

I smiled and I saw Muscawest put his head down, disappointed.

After class, Scorpius said, "How'd you come up with that answer, mate? I mean, you nailed it. I wouldn't even have come up with a good one as that and the look on Muscawest's face. Man, that made my day." He said looking like Christmas came early.

"I really have no idea, it just made more sense I guess. I mean if you look at in a way that you're actually fighting, say another wizard, then you want them to fight as many barriers as possible, right?"

"I suppose. Speaking of fighting, you're going to get smoked today outside."

"Not a chance. My team is sure to win." I said smiling.

Every year we go outside when the snow is great for throwing snowballs and have a big snowball fight. It was like a tradition. Whoever won, the other team had to buy us chocolate on the next Hogsmeade trip. It was usually the normal Gryffindor/Hufflepuffs against the Ravenclaw/Slytherins.

So the list consisted as this:

Team1:

Gryffindors: me, Rose, Roxanne, Alice, Ellie, and Louis

Hufflepuff: Jack and Lorcan

Team 2:

Ravenclaws: Lysander, Hugo, Derek, and Dae Swan

Slytherins: Scorpius, Lily, Marcus Zabini (only came because Thor was no longer welcomed), and Gary Pickett

Yeah we had more girls, but they were actually sick at the snowball fights. We all felt bad that Lily was usually the only girl, but after she creamed Louis so hard that his winter cap fell off, we didn't feel so bad after.

We got dressed like it was something professional and went out to get ready for the fight.

We started to make our snow forts. The wider the better (our motto). The other team always made theirs taller, but we knew from the past that it never helped us.

As we gathered snow in our arms, the other team finally arrived.

I smirked. "About time."

"Yeah, ask your sister." Pickett laughed.

"What are you talking about? I was waiting on all of you to get down to the common room." She argued.

"Yeah, but we weren't the ones sleeping." Scorpius snickered. "Al, you never told me, your sister is a heavy sleepier." The guys laughed.

"Haha, yeah not so funny. Let's just start the game already." Lily gritted through her teeth.

"Anxious much? We have to build our fort, remember?" Scorpius smirked.

"Right." The other team started making their fort. We just got done and Roxanne and Ellie were making snow-angels.

"Gary, what are you doing?" I heard Lily yell. I looked over.

"What do you mean, what am I doing? I'm making our fort, duh!" He rolled his eyes.

"Every year, we do it wrong. We've got to make it wider or we won't all fit."

"Correction, we can fit, but you're our little target, remember?"

"Little?" She wrinkled her nose. Gary looked at her.

"Oh, that's right, you're a fourth year, now, aren't you?" He mocked her.

"Why I oughta…" She made a move toward him, but Scorpius stepped in.

"Alright, you two stop fighting, we're a team, remember?" Pickett shrugged, but Lily was still glowering at him as he walked away to pack more snow on top.

"We're just going to get defeated, you know." Lily said to Scorpius.

"Yeah, but we won last year."

"By luck."

"Look, just let it go."

"Fine." She sighed and walked away to help with the fort.

We were ready, more than ever. The fight began.

Snowballs were zooming everywhere. It was hard for everyone to be safe, but we each had a task and that was to get the job done.

Snowball was coming right at me and I ducked just in time. Ellie was already crouched under the fort beside me. We stared at each other for a few minutes, but then she smiled and put her finger to her lips and picked up a snowball. I did the same. She led the count. 1…2…3…

We jumped up and flung our snowballs at the same time. We missed Scorpius by inches. He got lucky. We tried to get back down, but Ellie got hit.

"POINT!!" The other side yelled. Ellie shook her head and left the playing field.

The game continued and soon the only people were left on our side was me, Rose, and Lorcan. On the other side were Lily, Scorpius, and Pickett. Pickett was the one who was killing us though. He got a lot of our players out. Scorpius was just too hard to get and Lily was hardly out because she was the one that made snowballs for them to use.

Something tells me she was very angry about that and it had to do something with Pickett.

Anyway, we had a plan to get Pickett out once he popped out of where he was before.

He finally did and we all aimed and fire. We got him!

But then I saw a snowball zoom past me and hit Rose in the face and bounced and hit Lorcan.

"TWO POINTS!!" Lily hollered. I looked over at Lily who had just popped back down with triumphant smile. Pickett looked angry that he was out and that Lily had successfully got two points for their team. Rose and Lorcan had just joined the rest of the group to watch.

I was the last one left against Scorpius and Lily. My best option was to get Scorpius and if I was willing to bet the two of them was planning to go up at the same time.

I gave a big deep breath and jumped up as did Scorpius and Lily. They both aimed and threw. I ducked as they both collided with the top of our fort. I pretended to throw at Lily, but threw at Scorpius instead and I hit him.

"POINT" I hollered and ducked back down. Ha, take that Scorpius. Now, it was between me and my sister. I really didn't know her technique that well because she hardly made an appearance, so I had to think what she was mostly likely to do.

I popped up and so did Lily. She was the first to take action and threw the snowball. I spun out of the way and threw mine. It missed. She threw one and missed me by a hair. Then an idea hit me. I crept back down and took over my scarf. I felt the chill of the winter cold hit my neck as I did so.

I popped back up again and Lily was already ready and had already aimed her snowball at me. I threw up my scarf and it hit it.

"POINT, POINT, I win!" I heard her yell and then I aimed and hit her in the shoulder.

"We win!" I yelled as I picked up my scarf to show what she had hit instead.

"What? That isn't fair. You can't do that."

"When you hit it, it wasn't touching me." I explained.

"No fair, I won."

"Tough luck." I replied to her. She hung her head. We picked up and destroyed our forts so that we could get back in to get warm butterbeer that Lysander and Lorcan already went ahead to get for us.

"Good game, Scorpius, you almost had us." I said to Scorpius. He smiled.

"Not bad, Potter, not bad. You improved from last time, but next year, will be a whole different story." I grinned.

"We'll see." I turned around to see Lily hanging her head still and dragging her feet behind us.

"Aw, come on, Lils. I had to do whatever it took to win." I said wrapping one arm around her.

"Yeah, I guess you're right. Good game." She muttered.

"Well, Pickett was angry that he got out at the end and that you were still in it. He was letting out a load of steam and bragging that he knew you would get out." Scorpius said to her. Lily whipped her head at Scorpius. I dropped my arm. I gave Scorpius a dark look, but he continued:

"But that lasted until I said that 'you're just mad because Lily did a better job and she was the one who actually stayed in the fight.' He stopped boasting right away and gave me a dirty look, but I was only saying what was true."

"You, you said that?" She asked.

"Well, yeah, I was sick of him acting like he is so…" Lily jumped up and hugged him.

"Thanks, Scorpius. Who knew you were actually nice."

"Uh, don't mention it." Lily ran off ahead. I saw Rose looking back at us. She was watching Scorpius expression at Lily's hug. That is when it dawned on me that Rose must fancy Scorpius. That started to make perfect sense to why Thor might have had a reason to break up with her.

She caught me watching her and turned around to talk to Roxanne, Ellie, and Lily who had just joined them. Women. They are so hard to understand sometimes. I'm sure Scorpius would have agreed to go out with her if she would have just asked, but who knows what is going on inside their heads. I mean me and Ellie worked out perfectly. Well, it probably wouldn't have worked anyway.

I was about to point Rose's crush out to Scorpius, but then he looked weird too. He was gazing out in space.

"What is up with you, Scorpius?"

"Uh, what?" He snapped out of it. "What did you say?"

"You're too silent. What were you thinking about?"

"The game, actually. How much we should have creamed you." He gave me a lopsided smile. I nodded, but somehow I felt he wasn't telling me the whole truth. I gave a sideways glance and he seemed to be staring off at the girls in front of us.

So there is something between the two. Who would have thought?

"I can't believe you never told me." I said to Rose after class one day.

"Told you what?"

"That you have this crush for my best friend." Rose shoved a hand in front of my mouth.

"No, you mustn't tell."

"Rose, I think I'm the only one besides Scorpius who didn't know."

"Then don't you dare tell him." She started to walk ahead, but I kept with her. "What?"

"So, why didn't you tell me?"

"Because you would freak out and you would so tell Scorpius."

"Would not." She gave me a look.

"Ok, maybe I would, but why does it matter?"

"Because, it does."

"Look, I think you should just tell him straight off."

"No, that's what men do." She looked at me. "Well brave men, that is."

"Excuse me?"

"Talked to Ellie, much?" She asked.

"Oh, that. Well, it doesn't matter, does it? She has a boyfriend."

"You could just tell her how you feel. You know fight for her, but that's hardly brave." She said sarcastically.

"I could, but I'm starting to get over her."

"Yeah, right."

"What?"

"You heard me."

"So, why won't you tell him?"

"Because, I'm a girl and girls don't tell the men how they feel. It's the other way around."

"Well, you want to hear my opinion?"

"No." I shrugged. "Yes." She said almost too desperately.

"Don't tell him."

"What? But you were just…"

"I was only saying that men think that the women should chase them not the other way around. But my whole opinion on you and Scorpius is I think you shouldn't tell him how you feel."

"Why?"

"Because, Scorpius will probably say 'yes.'"

"And that is bad?" She asked smiling.

"Yeah, because it will be me who will get stuck in the middle again."

"What are you talking about?"

"Before you became friends with Scorpius, you two hated each other."

"I never said I hated…"

"You sure showed it. I don't want to do that anymore. It was too stressful."

"It won't happen. Together means together, Al."

"Ok, well look at this way. Say that you two get together, but then break-up. You will hardly talk to each other and then I'm running back and forth to try and talk to both of you. Now, that isn't fair."

"But if we truly like each other, then there shouldn't be any conflict." She said.

"That's the other thing. You'll leave me out, again. While you guys go snog or something, I'll be alone in the dust."

"Oh, really, Al, you're making this such a big deal. We have one more year left and then we'll be gone so you'll be alone in the dust anyway."

"You really think so? You wouldn't contact me or hang out at all?"

"Well, yeah, of course we will."

"That's my point. I don't want to be in the middle." Rose stopped to look at me with anger in her eyes.

"I still don't understand why you are making this a big deal. You're the last person I would expect to neglect my choice. We're best friends, Al. I thought a true best friend would be happy for me. Not everything is about you, you know."

"I'm not saying it has to be about me."

"Then what are you saying exactly. You can be so confusing."

"All I'm saying is that, I would rather you didn't go out with Scorpius because as a best friend I will be cut out."

"Well, maybe you're making too much of a big deal. Have you ever thought that maybe we all would hang out more if we got together?"

"No."

"Well, you should. Besides, I can't really talk about boyfriends now, because lately I lost one and I'm still a bit touchy on that part."

"Right." I mumbled.

"I'm sorry, you feel that way, Al. Really I do. But, I can't help who I like."

"Alright. Fine." I said. I had a feeling I wouldn't win. We walked on.

"Well, I'll be." Rose said out of the blue. I looked up and she hurried over to a window and I followed. We peered through and there was Lily talking to someone outside a classroom. A guy, but we couldn't see who it was because his back was turned to us.

Lily was smiling and laughing at whatever the guy was saying. The guy opened the door for her and she smiled and they went in together. Then the door closed.

"You don't think?" Rose asked, but I jumped out and walked toward the door.

"Al!" Rose called out and grabbed my arm.

"Let go, Rose."

"Just let her be."

"No, he could be…"

"He seems alright. Lily is old enough to handle herself. You can't keep protecting her."

"But what if he's…"

"Lily…will…be…fine!" She said in between each breath. I stopped trying to fight her off.

"Fine, but if something bad happens to her then I blaming it on you."

"It might not be something bad." She said.

"What? You mean they might." I tried to go back to the door, but Rose grabbed me again.

"Stop it, will you?" She said.

"She's only a fourth year."

"And she is old enough to date, Al."

"She wouldn't, how could she?"

"I'm not the only one who fancies people."

"Do you know who he…"

"No, I don't, but I'm just as upset about this as you are. She never once mentioned this to me and I tell her everything. Let's go." She said. I followed, but I had the entire urge to go back and keep her away from whoever that guy is. The nerve of him.

Lily, you've got a lot of explaining to do.