Chapter Forty-Nine – A Not-So-Prefect Animorphmagus OWL Year!

A/N: Happy 38th Birthday to Harry Potter! Here is Year 5 of Harry Potter – After the Epilogue (Chapters 49-60); and I hope you enjoy this latest installment in this epic story!

There was only one thing on Al's mind on Wednesday morning – and it wasn't the trip back to Hogwarts. While he'd only met them two days ago, Jaimie and Lorie really had captured his heart in a way that was just as profound as what he felt for Gwendolyn – if in a different way. Missing them wasn't the same as how he'd felt the first time he'd been away from his parents and sister, or how Rose had felt during separations from boyfriends while at school or home; but it was just as hard on him.

That was why he convinced his father and sister to switch up their travel plans for the morning; Harry took his time getting to London with James; and he took Al and Lily to Chudley first so that they could have one last visit with Malorie and the twins. Al still cooked breakfast first and cleaned up, but while James ridiculed him; even he couldn't complain about taking the Floo Network to London and Muggle transit to King's Cross – especially when that meant he didn't need to rush around and spend any time with Al at all after breakfast. Malorie had approved the bonus visit; and she and Ginny were able to work with that; since they'd planned on trying to have Jaimie and Lorie awake then anyway so that they'd sleep while Ginny was in London saying goodbye to her kids. Once Al and Lily were there; she popped home to spend a bit more time with James – a bonus chance for what might be a last, happy, personal moment with her eldest son for a long time.

"Make sure you count them before we leave," Lily teased as she cuddled with Jaimie while Al held Lorie and hummed 'their' lullaby to her softly. "I think he might just try to hide one or both of them in his undetectable expansion bag when it's time for us to leave."

"I wouldn't do that to Malorie," Al assured them. "I'm going to miss them like crazy, though; and home-schooling is looking really great right now."

"You wouldn't need me doing my new job if you were home," Malorie told him – "even if I am taking time off that I don't deserve."

"We took that into consideration when making our bigger plan – and offering you the job," Al assured her. "You wouldn't have to worry about me doing your job if I was home either – I'd want to babysit instead."

"If the last two nights are what I should be expecting for the next few months; I'll likely wish that you could do some babysitting for me," Malorie told him. "It's not that I didn't believe everything your Mum told me, but I did expect that I wouldn't need so much help right from the start; and I don't know how I would have managed without all of the support."

"You'd have found a way," Lily declared; "and we're glad that you don't have to do that because we love all three of you a lot. Yes, we do," she told Jaimie; and leaned in to kiss her forehead. "I'm glad Al asked for this visit. If you can bring them for a Hogsmeade or game day visit or three when it's warm-enough to do that with them; I'd love that too. They'll be three and a half months old by the time we're home for Christmas; and we're going to miss so much!"

"You will," Malorie agreed, "but we'll do what we can so that you still see them a lot – even if that's just with mirror chats and pictures."

"We'll send Winter with special Owl Posts for all of you too," Al told her.

"Okay, but don't send tons of toys for the girls," Malorie warned. "Their room is already half-filled – and they won't even be able to play with most of them for months – or longer for a lot of those toddler toys."

"So I should probably save their charm bracelets for their first birthday or something?" Al joked.

"What kinds of charms would you put on them for toddlers?" Lily asked curiously. "I can tell you right now that the mother in the room will not approve of you giving our nieces any invisibility charms."

"Or any others that would actually give them that kind of power," Malorie agreed. "I don't know what age limit I'll put on for different magical things with the girls; but they won't be getting charm bracelets like Lily's when they're babies or toddlers."

"Mum and Dad got us our first brooms for our first birthdays," Lily advised her. "I don't know what Mum would've done if Al had been a bit older than he is; and had tried to give me the charm bracelet when I was younger instead of starting with my eleventh birthday."

"We used magic as babies and toddlers," Al reminded her. "Has Mum talked with you about that for Jaimie and Lorie yet, Malorie? It might not be very much longer before things start happening around them. It can start as soon as they can use their eyes well-enough to focus on things – and then decide that they want them."

"I expect to have a very different perspective on that soon – and a better understanding of why my parents were so freaked out by me," Malorie suggested.

"I wish that had been different for you," Al said seriously. "I even get why it's hard for Muggle parents to find out that they have a Wizard or Witch in the family; but that doesn't make it okay to mistreat any child. You get that – just as Dad did; so Jaimie and Lorie are as lucky as James, Lily, and I were – and are."

"That's way too serious for our last bit of time with Malorie and the girls," Lily declared. "Let's talk about anything that's more fun – like all of the shopping you'll get to do with Mum; the Quidditch matches you'll get to go and see live while we're stuck at Hogwarts; and how much fun you're all going to have while we have to work and study day and night."

She made sure that they did only talk about fun things from then until Ginny came back to get them; there was a long round of goodbyes with lots of hugs, kisses, and a few tears; and then there was a bit of fun as Al took a tiny little side trip to bring a snack and hot drink to Patrick Towler to thank him for working late so that Malorie and her babies were being watched over while Harry and Ginny were both busy – and there was a true, obvious opportunity for reporters or bad guys to consider taking advantage of to cause trouble. Al didn't actually think that would be a problem, or he might not have been willing to leave, but he was grateful; and he also liked the change in attitude he now sensed from the young Auror-trainee. Patrick had apparently seen Jaimie and Lorie sometime while working at the hospital on Monday night; and that had been enough to change his perception about them – and Malorie – for the better.

Ginny, Al, and Lily moved on and met up with Harry and James at King's Cross – though James didn't stay with them once they were on platform nine and three-quarters. Al and Lily stayed with their parents while waiting for Gwendolyn and Jonah. Rose and Hugo made it there first – a bit of a shock; since Ron had been in charge of getting them to the train while Hermione had needed to work instead. The biggest change for Al, Gwendolyn, and Rose was that they all needed to get on the train and head for the Prefect car this year while Lily, Jonah, Hugo, and most of their cousins and friends went to find compartments to sit in elsewhere on the train.

The Prefect car wasn't completely off-limits to other students, but Al, Gwendolyn, and Rose had only ever looked in and seen it before while on walks along the train; so the simple act of going there and being part of that exclusive little club was exciting – and the first perk that went along with being Prefects. Louis and Deanna Thomas were there to welcome them – along with the rest of the Prefects – and about half of them were there by then. Having their Head Boy and Girl from Gryffindor and Ravenclaw was great for them, but there was more than a little weird for them too with just twenty-four teens gathering in the large, open sitting area of the Prefect car – and that was entirely because of the six Slytherin Prefects that all exuded a lot of hate for Al that he could sense in far more detail than he'd ever want to reveal to any of them.

Louis and Deanna kept them busy with a round of introductions that continued with the Prefects that arrived after them; they stored their bags; and then settled in for their first Prefect meeting as they waited for the train to move out toward Hogsmeade. Al got to have a few glimpses of their families, but didn't have a very good view of that section of the platform; and didn't really get to have a last, bisual good-bye with his parents because Louis didn't wait for them to be underway before bringing the meeting to order.

"Welcome to our first Prefect meeting of the school year – and congratulations to our eight new Prefects," he said easily while relaxing back into his seat next to Deanna. Al sensed a new, strong connection between their new Head Boy and Girl, and while he hadn't heard anything about Louis dating anyone since his last break-up; he suddenly had a pretty good idea about who his cousin's next girlfriend would be – something that was far from uncommon among Hogwarts Heads and Prefects. "We have a fair bit to cover, so let's get to it; and we can save up the getting to know each other a bit better for later in the trip. Deanna – would you like to start with the basics for our fifth-year Prefects?"

Deanna did that; tried to get through the boring parts of the rules and responsibilities; and then handed off to Louis again so that he could discuss and set up duty schedules that included everything from supervising the carriage rides from the station to the school to monitoring common rooms, dorms, and patrolling the castle. Louis and Deanna were willing to work with their Prefects to set all of that up, but didn't do that beyond the weekend; since they'd still need to get their class schedules; and that would affect availability for some of them – particularly for Astronomy classes or particularly-heavy study days. Al and Gwendolyn were happy to be paired up for as many Prefect duties as was possible for inter-House friends; but Landon and Shane were terribly disappointed when Rose and Susannah chose to pair up for their patrols and other duties around the castle – which left the two boys to team up too.

Al had tried not to be as amused over that as the three girls were, but that wasn't easy; since Shane and Landon had each gone out with Rose; but neither of them would have picked her for their Prefect team. He didn't find Landon's ongoing interest in Gwendolyn funny at all; and that was one more thing that he wished that he knew less about than he did. By the time Deanna wrapped up the meeting; Al was sure that he was going to be busier than ever before pretty much every day of the week with their added duties, so while they settled in for the long trip, and Gwendolyn, Rose, and Susannah got into a chat with some of the other Prefects; he spent a bit of time trying to work out how he was going to juggle his classes, studying, Quidditch, Prefect duties, and everything else he was going to have on his plate over the coming months – including work and making time for family and friends. His first reaction to those musings was that he didn't really want to try to do it all, but that was something so contrary to everything the girls and other friends had talked about with him over the past month; that he wasn't willing to even go there himself let alone talk about it with Gwendolyn or anyone else.

"Have you actually hit your limit for busy?" Susannah teased while smiling at Al. "You look as though you're a bit overwhelmed – and I haven't seen any sign of that for you before, Al."

"We haven't exactly had long, lazy summer days; but this is going to feel like too much by comparison – at least until we get used to our new schedules and the extra responsibilities. I don't need to get into OWL-year Divination to predict that we are not going to get as much sleep this year."

"No doubt," Susannah agreed. "Instead of going there, though; I'd like to hear about Malorie and the babies. Is there any chance you have pictures?"

"We do," Al assured her. "Do you have one in your bag, Rose? I put mine in with my book bag."

"I've got one right here – though I'm surprised you didn't have at least one ready to show off to everyone," she teased.

"I wanted to wait and see what it was going to be like for us today," he answered seriously. "There's a good chance that Gwendolyn will wish she could patrol with someone else today when it's our turn to do that later – and maybe for the next few days."

"We'll deal with those problems together," Gwendolyn assured him. "You should keep a picture or two with you, though, since I think that most teens wouldn't be able to keep messing with you about Jaimie and Lorie once they see how adorable they are."

"They didn't have any effect at all on Rita Skeeter," Al reminded her – "and she saw them in person; not just pictures of them."

"Let's not go there either," Gwendolyn suggested. "She's been horrid toward you, Malorie, and the girls with every word she's written over the past couple of days; and I'm sick of it!"

"Then it's likely wrong of me to wish just a little bit that Rita will try to come to Hogsmeade again – or the first Quidditch match – and try to mess with you," Susannah offered. "That would be a bit unbecoming of a new Prefect."

"So would blasting her," Gwendolyn agreed; "but I might do that anyway – even if it got my Prefect badge taken away."

Al knew that she hadn't been joking about that, but her comment had more of an impact on him because of what he sensed from Scorpius and Lysandra. He hadn't really paid attention to the fact that they were able to hear nearly anything going on in the Prefect car, but while he'd been aware of everything; he was learning to filter out the noise – though he could still recall every detail if needed for future reference. In this case, his interest was piqued because Scorpius had thought that Gwendolyn's comment was worth passing along to James – and maybe on to Rita from there; since he thought that having her – or all of their – Prefect badges taken away would make for a great start to their school year. That news flash made it clear to Al that they were going to need to be cautious about what they said and did around the other Prefects – even when they were just making jokes. It also revived his musings about his impending school workload – and led to a bit of contemplation over what his life might be like without some of the less-fun responsibilities.

The train ride to Hogsmeade station was definitely different for Prefects. Having the perks of their own train car and the comfort that went with sharing all of that space with just twenty-four teens was great; but Al and Gwendolyn also missed getting to spend lots of time with their families and friends too. They still got to see everyone, but those visits were all short, fun, cameo moments while they were on their Prefect patrol or while helping out with some of the little problems that arose along the way. Those problems were generally brought to the attention of the Prefects by one or more of the teens or tweens involved, but while Al was glad that their efforts didn't attract a lot of attention; he and Gwendolyn did make a good impression on every student they helped.

Their Prefect work was really just beginning by the time they arrived at Hogsmeade station; though Al and Gwendolyn had one of the easier jobs once there – to help with getting all of the luggage to the castle. That was also one of the most-boring jobs; which was why they'd volunteered when nobody else did. Al was particularly-good at getting that work done; so it wasn't long before they had everything loaded up and could catch a ride up to the castle well-before the Prefects assigned to the second-year students could do the same once making sure that all of the students were accounted for and on a carriage or boat.

Keeping busy right up until minutes before the start of the sorting ceremony and feast didn't leave them with any time to socialize with their friends, but Al was happy to get to be with Gwendolyn that entire time; so he was in a great mood when he was finally able to sit down next to Rose and among all of their fifth-year Gryffindor friends. He didn't have a chance to do much more than catch his breath and exchange a few greetings before the firsties arrived and began their processional. The group of tweens was at least as large as in each of Al's first four years, but he also knew that this was the first year in a long time without any Weasley clan kids; Gwendolyn only had one cousin in the group; and they didn't even have many family friends' kids this year either.

The walk to the front of the hall and then crowding into rows once there took a few minutes; which gave Al lots of time to pick out those few kids that he did know – and take in the range of emotions from all of the firsties that ranged from confident self-assurance to moderate fear of the unknown. As a Prefect, he found himself taking note of kids that might need more help than others; thought about ways he could offer them assistance; and wondered just a bit why he hadn't really considered taking the initiative to do that in previous years. Becoming friends with Susannah certainly had something to do with a different perspective on charity and helping others; but he also had to admit to his own, selfish inattention to the needs of other teens beyond his own circle of family and friends.

Al didn't stop thinking about those things as the Sorting Hat was put on the stool, but he did focus his attention and senses on the ancient, magical hat and listened to the song that it had come up with for his OWL year.

Lend an ear young lads and lasses;

As I sing this little song.

I've advice to help with Hogwarts life and your classes;

And would never steer you wrong!

If you think I'm old and dusty;

Wait until your lessons start.

Though your Professors may seem crusty;

Wondrous wisdom they'll impart!

It's my sage knowledge that I've offered;

And unlike our prankster poltergeist, Peeves;

I've no tricks here being proffered;

Nothing hidden up my – I have no sleeves!

My advice, if you will take it;

Is to listen to your heart.

If you do, that's to your credit;

For you'll know the course that you should chart.

Don't think that gives you leave to cheat and lie;

Or do your very worst!

It's not a sure-fire path to an all-time high;

A way to get from last to first!

Don't fear to follow where your heart leads;

To it you always should be true;

'Cause that's the way to do good deeds;

And bestow honor upon you!

So go forth to where-ere the winds may blow;

Learn of magic and the rest;

For that's all you'll ever need to know;

To be your very own very best!

"I liked the song from last year better," Rose leaned in and advised Al. "The teens and tweens around here that could use that advice most will be the ones that don't hear the message at all – or just make fun of it."

"That's true, but it's funny that I've been thinking that this is the first year when I've been concentrating a lot on what other students around here need – notice those needs more than I've ever done before. Maybe that message is something we need to take seriously for ourselves."

"You already do a lot, Al," Rose reminded him. "It would be impossible for you to help everyone all of the time."

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean that I shouldn't do more – just as Susannah does with all of the volunteer work she's involved with around here and at home."

"You do your part – and I'm not just talking about the never-ending entertainment you provide with all of the teen drama around you."

Al pretended to shudder. "Now you've gone and done it – I'm jinxed for sure!"

He made light of that, but then he also sensed that he was headed for some imminent and near-future trouble; and those feelings grew stronger as the sorting began and the firsties were placed into their House families. That took time, as it did every year; and Al and Rose talked quietly with the friends closest to them while keeping ears and eyes open for the sorting. Al was happy for Gwendolyn's cousin, Meg Rivers, when she was sorted to Ravenclaw with her brother and sister – though that did mean that Ravenclaw got another talented Quidditch player. They had a happy bit of a surprise when Nina Madley was sorted to Gryffindor instead of into Ravenclaw with her brother and cousin, but then the only other firstie that Al knew much about at all to be sorted to their House too was one of Gwendolyn's Weird Sisters' cousins, Winston Wintringham.

That was going to make Lily's job as junior team Captain tougher with just two days to get to know all of the Quidditch-playing firsties in their House, but then she was so much more out-going than he was that there was no doubt that she was up to the task! Winston was among the last firsties to be sorted, so it wasn't long after that before their Headmistress began the feast; they spent most of an hour enjoying that food and eating too much; and then Al and Rose were in charge of getting the firsties to their House while Louis and the three older Prefects had other responsibilities. It felt odd to Al to be on the leader side of that little trip; Rose took care of passing on the new password; and then they showed the firsties around the common room before setting them free for a while to socialize and settle in before they'd need to round up the boys and girls and show them to their dorm rooms.

While they waited to do that, Al and Rose sat at one of the work tables with some of their friends; talked quietly; and had a lot of walk-by cameo visits – including from Lily and Hugo. She was making the rounds and had taken Hugo along with her; so she had gossip tidbits to pass along – including about prospects for her junior team. Al played along, but also began to steel himself for the imminent drama that he was going to be dragged into the middle of – and it wasn't really all that long before that confrontation was started by Ollie Wood. He climbed onto the work table he'd been sitting at with James and a group of their sixth-year friends; whistled loudly to get everyone's attention; and then waited for the few moments it took for the chatter to die down and for most sets of eyes in the room to be focused on him.

"Thank-you," he called out; looking serious; but with a wry smile that didn't hide the malevolence that Al sensed being directed his way. "For those of you who don't know me, I'm Ollie Wood, and while I'm sure you're all excited about getting on with reunions with your friends or exploring Gryffindor tower and meeting new friends if you're one of our firsties; this is the best chance I'll have to speak with all of you at once – and I have something rather important to ask of all of you!"

"If it's to keep away from all of the Witches you fancy this year – forget it," James called out; earning a round of laughs.

"I want to talk about our senior Quidditch team – and call for a vote to replace our named Captain!" Ollie declared; and that statement put an instant end to the laughter – and pretty much all of the background noise too. "Again, for those of you who don't know, the Animorphloser was named Captain by Mr. Peakes and Professor Longbottom – against the recommendation made by my sister and outgoing Captain, Olivia! I think that is a travesty – especially when the loser has just come here to Hogwarts while leaving his new litter of puppies behind for others to care for while he gets to run around with his potty-trainer here as if he hasn't a care in the world. He doesn't deserve to be our team Captain – especially when we have the much-better choice of a professional Quidditch player right here in our House! Unless you've been living under a rock, you know that James Potter is undefeated as Seeker for the Caerphilly Catapults; he will be the future superstar for their team; and I put his nomination forward and call for a vote to determine whether you want to have a senior team that is led this year by the best player in our school – and in the show; or a lying, cheating dog who doesn't deserve anything more than our scorn and to be shunned by all of us!"

"I second the nomination!" Patricia declared loudly and proudly – "and call for a vote too!"

"The Captaincy of our teams is not subject to a vote," Lily countered. She'd walked over toward Ollie and glared up at him. "What's the problem, Ollie? Afraid that you won't make the team again this year without help from your best mate?"

"We ought to take a vote for the junior team Captain's job too; since you're nearly as vile as the loser," Ollie retorted. "I don't have a problem. The loser himself has insisted that he wants to have fair and open tryouts for all positions on the team – and to allowing challenges too! I'm just demanding a Captain's challenge and vote right here at the starte – when we can all have a say in the matter!" he smirked darkly at Al. "Come on, dog – we're all waiting for you to back up your claims of fair play. What say you – or does the cat have your tongue?"

All eyes turned to Al when he stood and faced Ollie. "If you all want to have a vote for senior team Captain; I've no problem with that," he answered earnestly. He then walked over to stand next to Lily; and surprised everyone in the room when he held the Captain's badge up and out to Ollie. "I'll trust you to count the vote fairly and award that badge to the winner."

"Then I call for the vote!" Ollie declared.

"Just like that?" Lily demanded; and then rounded on Al. "Aren't you going to at least say anything on your own behalf? Fight for the job – and what's best for our House?"

"My record is well-known," Al countered easily; "and I'll leave it up to all of Gryffindor to collectively decide what's best for our House. If the majority truly believe that our senior team would be better-off with James as Captain; who am I to presume otherwise?."

"There you have it!" Ollie crowed. "All those in favor of the Animorphloser; raise your hands." He waited for about ten seconds while also making a turn to pretend as though he was counting hands; which Al knew he wasn't doing at all. "All those in favor of giving the job to the Caerphilly Catapults' star Seeker, James Potter?" The second spin as he looked around the room and continued to pretend to count took twenty seconds, since that apparently was proof that he had more hands to count. "Well, that wasn't even close! James Potter, congratulations – you're the new Captain of our Gryffindor senior team! Let's all give him a round of cheers and there's no need to hold the applause!"

Lily looked furious, but Al just gave her a gentle hug; and then turned her away from him as the cheers and applause began. "We should go and congratulate your new fellow Captain. There was no good way for me to ever win that battle," he whispered.

"Nothing about this is good," she hissed. "We are going to talk later; and you are not going to like that at all!"

Ollie had hopped down from the table by then; his smile was vicious now as he handed the Captain's badge to James; and then joined in on the applause.

"Congratulations," Al told James. "Good luck this season."

"What's that supposed to mean?" James retorted suspiciously; and then smirked. "Let me guess – you're going to whimper off with your tail between your legs; and refuse to play with our team now that our fellow Gryffindors have picked me over you."

"I'll be at tryouts to support you and our new team," Al assured him, "but I haven't decided whether I want to play on the team with you or not – and don't bother pretending that you'd want me on your team either. Now that I'm not Captain; I have the chance to decide that for myself; so maybe I should thank you as well as congratulate you for this brilliant victory. You don't want me hanging around you, though; so I'll get out of your way and let you have fun with the celebration."

Lily stepped up close to James and leaned over to hug him. "Congratulations, you stinking, rotten, selfish git," she whispered vehemently. Al overheard her; but nobody else except her intended target did. "You make me sick!"

"Thanks, Lily," he said loudly as if she'd actually been happy for him. "I think that our chances of another Quidditch Cup just went up from unlikely to a sure thing too!"

Lily didn't respond; took Al's hand; and walked away. They both ignored the raucous laughter and some parting insults; went back to where Al had been sitting; and then Al smiled ruefully and pretended to be hurt when Rose and Lily both punched him.

"I can't believe you just let that happen without putting up a fight at all," Rose told him. "You do know that you haven't just likely ruined this season for yourself, right? I want to play again this year; so does Ray; and I think that Cyndia would have a good shot at making the team too – or would have if you'd been Captain. Merlin only knows what sorts of games James will play now that he's in charge!"

"What would you have had me do instead?" Al asked seriously. "Start a minor war with James and Ollie on our first night back? Cause a rift within our House? I'm sorry if this messes things up for us – for you, but if you don't like it – feel free to make your own challenge for the Captain's job – or nominate someone else."

"You know I don't want to be Captain so that I can win the Keeper job over Louis fairly," Rose retorted.

"I do know that," Al agreed. "Do you think that Louis will feel the same way if tryouts aren't fair for you – as you're implying they won't be; or will he take the job anyway because it's his last chance to show off for the league scouts – and because our new senior team Captain has undeniable connections to some important movers and shakers in the league?"

"You knew this was going to happen," Lily leaned in and accused quietly.

"I knew something was going to happen," Al agreed. "That shouldn't surprise you."

"It doesn't," Rose told him. "So – are we going to be out of luck for playing Quidditch this season?"

"Lily won't be," Al hedged; and then sighed. "For me - probably. Like I just told James, I'd have been Captain and played this year for my own reasons, but I wouldn't have liked playing with James or being his team Captain; and I'm seriously thinking about not playing this year now that I don't have to do it because I almost-never have fun playing Quidditch with him. That doesn't have to be true for the rest of you; and I don't know whether you'll be able to play this season or not. There is a chance that James won't listen to the sorting hat and follow his heart."

That joke earned a few laughs; but the mood at their table was solemn after that; and Al was glad when it was time to round up the firstie boys and take them to their dorm room and show them around to where the baths were and offer some tips about dorm life along with assuring them that if they needed anything; they simply needed to ask any of the Prefects for help. Since he and Rose had been assigned to the firsties; they did not have any patrols ahead of and after curfew, so once the firsties were settled in; Al was able to go on to his own dorm room; unpack a bit; and get ready for his classes on Thursday morning. He didn't need to worry about getting books, since he had all of them on his mirror too; so he'd only need to stop in to his dorm room again after breakfast if he needed anything special for his first morning classes – like his potions-making gear and supplies or Herbology gear. He had one more chat with Ray, and his best mate wasn't happy with him either for not even really trying to keep his Captain's badge, but he hadn't had a good answer for what Al could have done differently either – and hadn't thought that he could have won the job over James even if he had thrown his hat into the ring too.

The one thing that Al didn't tell any of them – and hadn't decided whether he would admit to anyone else; was the fact that he had actually won that challenge by seventeen votes despite Ollie's nasty comments and lies. That truth wasn't something he took comfort in; he still thought it was a rotten situation; and he felt more than a little guilty for being partially-responsible for what he did expect to be a mess for Rose, Ray, and Cyndia. His biggest problem, though, was weighing what was best for everyone; and making choices that went against his own best interests – and he now sensed that his choices were not only going to affect his Hogwarts Quidditch career for another season.

Ending his day like that hadn't been any fun, but he was sure that he was doing the best he could for everyone; he had to be content with that as he went off to bed and sleep; and tried not to think about the cascading problems he knew would come next. There would be time-enough for that starting again in the morning.

The first day of classes for Al's OWL year started out quietly-enough, but then there was one notable change to his morning routine – he needed to check in on the firstie boys as part of his Prefect duties; help out when needed; and then meet up with Rose in the common room and offer more help to any firsties that wanted it for getting back to the Great Hall for their morning meal. Many of the tweens were too cool or adventurous to want or need help, but they still ended up leading about half of the firsties out of Gryffindor tower; and they went on a little mini-tour along the way that likely didn't help many of the firsties with getting their bearings or make it easier for them to get to their classes. Fortunately for them, they only had two days to go to the weekend; and then they'd be able to spend a couple of days exploring the school and trying to find the best ways to get around.

Their Prefect duties meant no morning walk and talk with Rose, though, and while that wouldn't be an everyday or permanent change; Al was actually glad that they couldn't do that when he knew that Rose would have wanted to talk about Gryffindor Quidditch – and know more about why he'd so passively allowed James and Ollie to take over the team from him. That was the top gossip story in the Great Hall as word got around that James had been voted Captain – complete with all of the insulting details for Al and more, all-new lies. Gwendolyn was mad at him when she heard the news too, but she had Prefect duties to deal with too; so they didn't get to talk much before breakfast.

That meal was a bit tough for Al to get through, and then he and Rose had to get to work again as they helped out with firsties once they had their class schedules and needed some nudges to get going to pick up books and find their way to first class. They were able to do that while waiting for their Professors to get around to making up schedules with the OWL-year students; and then they had a longer wait as it took extra time to set up those schedules for each teen as changes were made for many of their classmates – usually with dropped optionals. Al and Rose knew before getting their own schedules that they'd be starting their first day of classes with History; and Al was happy because he was going to be taking that class with Gwendolyn. Their second class of the morning was going to be Charms with Hufflepuff, so they didn't need to go back to their dorm rooms to get anything; and they headed for History class once they had their schedules and could meet up with Gwendolyn and some of their Ravenclaw friends.

"Okay, what really happened last night?" Gwendolyn demanded of Al once they were on their way up the stairs and on their way to History class. "Please don't tell me that you just let James and Ollie insult you; convince everyone in your House to vote you out as Captain; and give the job to James instead."

"Well, that's pretty much it in a nutshell," Ray advised her – "though Ollie did all of the insulting; supposedly took care of fairly counting the votes; and judged the winner with a show of hands. I've slept on it though; and now I'm still absolutely-sure that Al's an idiot for just going along with that farce when it was just a flat-out mutiny."

"It was definitely that,' Gwendolyn agreed angrily, "but didn't anyone come to Al's defense? Not even you or Rose?"

"Don't put this on them," Al said quietly as he sensed Gwendolyn's accusations dig in and hit home with his cousin and friend. "Lily confronted Ollie; and that didn't matter or make a difference. I don't blame anyone except myself for what happened, and while I'll be upset if this messes things up for anyone else; I'll still pick this over causing bigger problems in my House."

"Then Quidditch doesn't mean nearly as much to you as it does to me," Gwendolyn retorted in angry exasperation. "We may not know what James and Ollie will do next, but it's a safe bet they'll try to keep you off the team somehow; and I'd never let that happen to me without a fight!"

"That's actually all true," Al admitted candidly. "I love playing Quidditch; but don't need to be on our House team to do that and have fun – and I don't have fun playing on teams with James either. I want to play in the show too, but if that doesn't happen for me; there are other things I love to do too – and I don't need to play for a league team to be happy."

"Then why are you putting so much effort into helping Rose with her dream?" Gwendolyn countered. "Playing for Gryffindor is part of her plan; and you've likely just messed that up for her – and for Ray and Cyndia too!"

Al sighed. "I don't want to have a fight with you over this," he said earnestly. "Nearly everyone else in the castle seemed to be very happy with the news at breakfast – in all four Houses."

"They're happy over seeing you torn down yet again," she countered. "That says a lot about them – and you too; since you seem to enjoy being treated like dirt instead of standing up for yourself."

"That's exactly it," Rose interjected with a nod; "but I don't want to make all of this tougher for him either – even if he is being an idiot."

"Well, maybe you should," Gwendolyn retorted. "He'd be useless to you on the Cannons if he just gives up so easily just to avoid confrontations. You're mad at him too – I can see it; but be mad at yourself too, Rose. I'm mad at the lot of you for letting James and Ollie walk all over Al! You sat back and expected him to lead the way – and just followed along into this mess without fighting back either!"

"Gwendolyn..." Al began to say; and she rounded on him.

"Don't admonish me!" she told him angrily. "I put up with a lot of insults and the rest because of you – for you! I have to stick up for you all of the time! What do you care enough about to fight for? Would you let James take me from you without a fight?"

"You're not some prize to be fought over," Al answered; "so no – I wouldn't fight him – or any other Wizard – for you."

"So you don't even believe that we're worth fighting for?" Gwendolyn demanded dangerously; and Al knew that she was truly getting angry with him – even though it had all started with her being most-upset over the likelihood that they once again wouldn't get to have another Quidditch rematch in May – for the third time in five years. He was on dangerous ground for real; but didn't offer platitudes that would have just been lies she'd see right through.

"I love you," he stated simply. "That – and who and what I am and want to be – will either be enough for you, or it won't be; and you'll choose another Wizard. If you truly think that I need to fight for you to prove anything; then I am not the Wizard you think me to be – and we're probably not meant to be."

"So now you don't think that we're meant to be?" Gwendolyn demanded loudly.

"I don't think that – and you know full-well I'm talking about what you feel and think," Al countered. "You're mad at me – I get it. So is everyone else that might be hurt by having James as Captain instead of me. There are others who are very happy, though, and when you think about it; you should be one of the happy majority – especially if you believe our senior team will be worse-off this season because of this change. Are Peter and Pauline happy? How about the rest of the teens and tweens in your House?"

"You're changing the subject," Gwendolyn accused.

"No, I'm getting back to where we started, since this didn't begin as being about us," he disagreed. "You think that I needed to fight and do what was best for me with this with no regard for anyone else – or at least only with consideration for a select few. I won't do that, and while I don't know whether I've done what's right for anyone else at all; I've done the best I know how; and will live with the consequences."

"Well, guess what, Al – you're wrong – and the rest of us have to live with those consequences too! What's even dumber is that you get my point; yet still don't think that this is worth fighting for," Gwendolyn surmised. "You don't want to fight for the job you earned and deserved; you don't seem to care about what's best for your team; you're abandoning Rose and your best friends; and it seems you don't care about what this means for you and me!"

"Gwendolyn!" Rose exclaimed. "That isn't fair!"

"Neither is what James and Ollie did last night," Gwendolyn countered. "Where was your outrage for that? Go back to doing nothing and let me try to knock some sense into your cousin."

"Your cousin," Al repeated; sounding stunned because he truly was surprised by what he sensed from her in that eye-opening moment.

"Have you gone so mental that you can't recall that you are her cousin?" Gwendolyn asked scathingly.

"No, I remember that just fine, but that's the first time I've ever sensed you think of me as that – instead of as your boyfriend – at least since not long-after we started dating," he explained quietly. "I'm sorry, Gwendolyn. I love you, but this is who I am, and if you're truly sick and tired of all of the razzing and insults – and hate that I'm such a pushover; then maybe you should take that break from me that you're thinking is such a good idea right now."

"Stop doing that! My thoughts are none of your business!" Gwendolyn told him; her eyes now sparking with blue fire.

"Okay," he agreed. "I love you. Have a good morning." With that said; he went Animorphmagus; ran off ahead of everyone else in their group; and got out of sight – though it was impossible at that point to get away from her soul-crushing thoughts.

He cursed his hyper-active senses and foresight; seriously considered skipping his first class; and wished that he didn't know that Gwendolyn was having true doubts about them – and that she really was sick of starting yet another school year with being the butt of so many horrid jokes and really believed that he needed to fight back against those attacks no matter the cost. She'd been mad at him before, but this was their first real fight, and all of his abilities didn't provide an easy answer for how to deal with the problem – or give him any clues about whether they'd work things out or not. He certainly hadn't foreseen this consequence to allowing James and Ollie to take over their Quidditch team, but then that said something about him too, since he knew that even if he had known; he wouldn't have changed anything.

History class with Gwendolyn suddenly wasn't with her anymore; and that sucked all of the fun out of his life. He didn't skip the class no matter how much he wanted to do that, but he made sure he was last to go into the classroom; and he sat as far away from all of his friends as he could. Professor Binns didn't notice, but everyone else did, so he kept his head down; wished that he couldn't sense all that he could; and was ready to go and first out of the class the moment they were set free. Again, that was partly because he sensed more from Gwendolyn than he wanted; knew that she wasn't ready to even talk with him again; and couldn't give her what she at least temporarily thought that she wanted.

Their second class on Thursdays was going to be Charms with Hufflepuff, and then they'd be with Hufflepuff again for a double Potions class all afternoon. That worked out for Al even if nothing else was working out for him; and he continued to avoid Rose and the rest of their usual group of friends while in those classes too. Rumors about trouble with 'the royal couple' were making the rounds of the school by Charms class; which is why he hated being there and surrounded by more nasty thoughts and being forced to sense how happy his misery was making others – including former friends like Tory Summers. She'd already been thrilled at the Quidditch drama news; and ecstatic to find out that Gwendolyn had blasted him over it – and possibly broken up with him too. The last part of that was rumor and speculation, but then for all Al knew – that could be a rumor that proved to be true.

Skipping lunch in the Great Hall seemed prudent, so after going to his dorm room and getting his Potions kit and supplies; he avoided Rose and Lily without any trouble; went outside; and then he made sure that he wouldn't be found or bothered so that he could be alone with his thoughts until he'd have to put up with another round of too much information among his Gryffindor and Hufflepuff classmates all afternoon. Once again, he made sure that he was last to that class; was able to sit at a work table by himself; and he kept his mouth shut and just focused on the lesson and then the potion assignment until he could leave again and get away from everyone. He knew that he couldn't dodge everyone indefinitely, but he didn't go to their study classroom – he went to the one place that he couldn't be tracked down by anyone. That was how he discovered something new about the Room of Requirements.

Picturing in your mind what you wanted of the Room of Requirements was more important than the words, so Al didn't even realize the extent of what he'd requested for several long moments as he was just relieved to be safely away from everyone. The total, absolute silence did capture his awareness soon-enough; since it was a jarring contrast to the cacophony of sensory overload he'd been dealing with all day – and really, for years now as his abilities had grown. The Room of Requirements had given him a room that shut out all of the 'noise' from the emotions and thoughts of everyone else in the castle and surrounding area. The quiet really was blissful, so he just enjoyed it for a while; and then sat down and got to work on his History, Charms, and Potions assignments.

He didn't lose track of time – he just ignored it. Hunger didn't keep him from skipping dinner; he worked through until it was time for him to deal with some Prefect duties; and then he had to deal with all of the awful again as all of the mental noise crashed in on him the moment he stepped out of the Room of Requirements. That got worse when he reached Gryffindor Tower and the common room, but Rose and Lily didn't try to talk with him – because they weren't there; and since his Prefect duties were in the boys' dorms; he went directly there and didn't talk with anyone. Throwing himself into his work again didn't help – especially since he knew from the start that he was going to have another, imminent confrontation with James and Ollie. That visit happened sooner instead of later; and he knew that James and Ollie had used the Marauders Map to track him down as quickly as possible once they'd made excuses to leave the common room.

"You really don't want to bug me right now," Al told James and Ollie as they sauntered into the third-year dorm room that he was currently inspecting.

"Yeah, we really do," James retorted. "I've been voted team Captain; your ex-girlfriend has finally wised up; and we don't want to miss out on your descent into despair and madness."

"We're just getting started with our revenge," Ollie taunted. "You got me kicked out of here last year; now it's payback time!"

"Good luck with that," Al said indifferently.

"I guess the stories are true, and you won't fight for anything," James taunted. "Gwendolyn's well-rid of you; and now she's mine for the taking!"

"Why don't you just quit school and go home to your mudblood and her puppies?" Ollie added derisively.

"Go away," Al told them bluntly. "I've had just about all I can take today; and you really don't want to get me mad right now."

"You can't get mad – you're a Prefect," James reminded him. "If you so much as touch us; you'd lose that job too – not that you deserved it in the first place either."

"Stop, James," Ollie wailed theatrically. "I think the loser's about to cry."

"I'm not," Al disagreed. "I am done with all of these hassles, though; so thanks for the help with that." Both boys jumped back when he drew his wand; but then they just stared at him even with half-drawn wands as he simply used his magic to remove the Prefect badge from his robe and then deftly caught it with his free hand.

"What's that supposed to mean?" James demanded; and Al laughed.

"It means that I've decided that you're all absolutely right; but don't worry, James. I'm not going to get mad – I'm going to get happy instead! Now if you'll excuse me; I need to go to the Heads office and resign."

"You're bluffing," James retorted.

"No – I'm fed up," Al disagreed. "Congratulations – you win again!"

He was already walking past them by then; they followed him all the way into the common room; and then they stayed with their friends while he left the room and did go straight to the Heads' office – while they began bad-mouthing him to their friends and made sure that everyone knew that he had told them he was going to quit as Prefect but that they were sure he was bluffing and wouldn't give up all of the perks like the Prefects baths. They were wrong about that – as they were about so many other things they conned themselves into believing. He'd hoped that Louis would be in the office alone, but Deanna was there too; and he knew that before knocking and then waiting to be invited in. That wait was only moments-long; but seemed a lot longer because the consequences of this choice really were crashing in on him even as he still knew it was what he needed- and wanted – to do.

"What's up, Al?" Louis asked. "Are there problems in Gryffindor tower?"

"No – I've come to resign as Prefect," he practically blurted out; wanting to just get it over and done with as quickly as possible.

"What?" Louis exclaimed. "Al – what's this about? The Quidditch team? It can't be about Gwendolyn. You're just having a little fight – it happens to all of us."

"It's about both of those things and a lot more," Al advised him seriously; and tossed his Prefect badge onto the desk that Louis was sitting behind while Deanna had pulled a chair up to one side. "This has been yet another lousy start to my school year; and I'm done with it! Give the job to someone else."

"Sit down and we can talk this out," Louis suggested. "I won't just accept your resignation."

"Then you'll just have to kick me out when I don't show up for any of my duties," Al countered. "I don't want to talk it out with you, Louis. I don't want any of this!" He waved a hand around the office for emphasis. "There's nothing that you could possibly tell me or do that would change anything about what's going on in my life right now." He smiled at his cousin. "Be honest – even you're happy about that vote last night. You weren't there, and didn't get a say in the matter; but it may work out better for you with James as Captain instead of me."

"That isn't fair!" Louis countered.

"It may not be," he agreed. "That remains to be seen; and it may be a while before we know how it all turns out. It doesn't really matter what happens with that because I'm only trying to make the point that most of our fellow students will be just as happy about this as they are about how that vote turned out for me and everything else that's being tossed around to tear me down. You can't do anything to fix that for me – anymore than I can. That's why I'm choosing to be done with all of it."

"Quiting isn't the answer," Deanna told him; and it was all he could do to keep from laughing because he sensed that she thought her life would be simpler without having a trouble-magnet for one of her Prefects.

"That's exactly what my friends think I've done by not starting a war with James and Ollie over who should be Captain of our team. In this case – you don't even believe that – and Louis agrees with you about both," he said honestly; and then felt bad as they both looked guilty. "I'm sorry. I don't want to act or be bitter and angry about this – what I actually want is the exact opposite. I am going to take my own life back again, and before I can find my way back to being truly happy again; I need to start by getting away from all of the drama and getting rid of the unimportant distractions."

"And you think that being a Prefect – or Head – is unimportant?" Deanna challenged.

"For me – yes," he agreed. "Nobody believes me, and That won't change even after this; but I truly don't care about gaining honors and accolades. That doesn't mean that I don't still want to be the best Wizard and person I can be – it just means that I am going to find my own way to do that – and that won't happen through being a Prefect or as Captain of our Quidditch team."

"I don't like this, Al," Louis told him. "You've had a bad day. Suck it up; take your badge back; and get on with it."

Al looked at him steadily for a few long moments – until he sensed Louis' discomfort at the intensity of his focus; and then shook his head. "You really don't know me very well at all; or you'd know that wouldn't work on me."

"Well, what would work?" Louis countered.

"Nothing," Al assured him. "That is what I've been trying to tell you. I am going to do everything I possibly can to get out of the spotlight; figure things out for myself; and put the focus back on being happy – just as Mum and Dad have been doing since quitting their jobs."

"They shouldn't have quit overy your little baby scandal – and you're making another stupid mistake too," Louis declared bluntly. "You know that being a Prefect is a big commitment and responsibility. Gwendolyn will need to spend lots of time at her duties – time that she won't be able to spend with you if you quit. You may as well forget about working things out with her if you walk away from this too."

"My little baby scandal," Al repeated; hating what he sensed from his cousin; and then he shook his head yet again. "You really don't know me at all to believe that, Louis. As for Gwendolyn, I'm sure she'll agree with you, but maybe you think that's for the best for Gwendolyn too; since I've obviously already messed things up for Mum and Dad with those other mistakes you just brought up."

"That isn't what I said," Louis protested; but Al knew what he was thinking and feeling.

"That's exactly what you said – and apparently truly think of me as well," Al disagreed. "This is probably a good time for me to walk away, since I don't want to say anything I'll regret – especially when you should care even-less about this than you do about me being voted out as team Captain." He headed for the office door. "Give the gossip a day to die down; and you'll be sure that you're better off without me on the Prefect team."

"Al – please don't do this! Quitting the Prefects just isn't done!"

"Well, in that case, if there's an award for being first for that – keep it too; 'cause I don't want it," Al only half-joked. "Goodnight, Louis, Deanna. I don't expect to see you around much after this; so have a good school year."

Al didn't feel good or free as he walked away from the Heads' office. He didn't really want to feel anything at all for a while – though going back to the Room of Requirements wasn't an option when it was near-curfew. That thought had him laughing to himself, since if he'd been a Prefect still; it wouldn't have mattered how late he was out. Then again, his day wasn't done because he still had Astronomy class at midnight – and it wasn't going to be fun because they had that class with Ravenclaw too – which meant that Gwendolyn would find out about his resignation sooner instead of later.

He still had lots of time before that class, though, so he went back to Gryffindor tower; passed through the common room and pretended to ignore all of the stares, whispers, and insults; and went up to his dorm room. Rose had been elsewhere, and Lily didn't try to stop him; so he made it to his dorm room without talking to anyone. That was fine with him; he put shields up around his bed; and read ahead in his Astronomy textbook until he needed to get to the Astronomy tower for that class. It took going Animagus to be left alone for that walk; he got small to wait until everyone else was on the tower; and then he did his best to stay away from Gwendolyn, Rose, and the rest of his friends through until the end of class. Gwendolyn was ready for another fight by the time they were set free, and while he didn't want to do that as publicly as he knew it would be; he didn't try to run off in animal form again – but waited for her in the hallway once out of the tower.

"Have you completely lost your mind, Albus Potter?" she demanded hotly as she stormed up to him – and all of their classmates loitered around to watch the show. "You've quit as Prefect now too?"

"I have not lost my mind; and yes, I did resign earlier tonight," Al answered quietly.

"So letting James take over your team wasn't enough – now you've walked away from this too? Am I next to go?"

"Possibly – if you can't accept that none of that is important to me," Al agreed. "I love you, Gwendolyn, and I want to share my life with you, but I don't want to be team Captain or Prefect; so you'll need to decide whether you want to date me when I'm not either of those things."

"You are both!" Gwendolyn declared angrily. "You're the best student in our year! You earned both of those titles that you're so easily throwing away. I Don't want you to quit - I want you to stand up for yourself – and if you would; your friends would stand with you!"

"Why do you insist that I have to do that? I mean – to what end? You're right – I won't fix this because I don't want to play the game anymore. I get dumped on whatever I do – and it splatters over onto the rest of you. You've been wondering all day whether you'd be better off without all of the drama and the crap you have to take – and whether we're worth it. I've been wondering the same thing – about being a Captain or Prefect; and I've decided that it isn't worth it. Now it's your turn. If you need your boyfriend to be a Prefect or team Captain, or have had enough of all of the drama and always getting dumped on; then I'm never going to be the Wizard you want me to be."

"That's a load of hippogriff dung," Gwendolyn told him. "You're being a coward."

"Yeah, that's me – a coward," Al agreed. "I'm such a coward that I'm willing to walk away from the best thing in my life just because I don't want to fight for a couple of petty titles that I care nothing about!" Gwendolyn was about to offer a hot retort but he cut her off. "You're going to tell me that I should be fighting for Rose, Ray, and the rest of my friends – that it's a fight for you too – if for no other reason than you want that match in May to be against me instead of other Gryffindor Chasers. Why does it have to be me? The rest of you are welcome to fight as hard as you want – assuming, of course, that there will be a fight at all!" He closed the small gap between himself and Gwendolyn and locked eyes with her. "I'm not going to fight for you," he assured her quietly. "I'm going to keep on loving you with all of my heart; find my own way to be happy; and hope that you can love me for who I am and want to be – 'cause I can't be the Wizard that you would need me to be to fight the cheating, lies, and dirty tricks that others are using against me." He closed his eyes to the pain of what he sensed from her; but there were no tears when he opened them again. "Feel free to blame that on me too." He leaned in; kissed her; and then turned around; changed forms; and flew away.

Life did not immediately get better for Al thanks to his newly-declared freedom from trying to be what everyone else wanted of him. He got blasted – verbally – by Lily on Friday morning before breakfast; that meal was a horror of malevolent sensory overload for him; and then he had to put up with all of the Slytherin glee during a full morning of Transfiguration while also having Rose insist on sitting next to him in stony, disapproving silence – though she did join in on answering questions and earning points for their House. He earned some points too for being first to achieve two different Transfigurations, but he barely acknowledged the praise with the slightest of nods; those achievements annoyed Rose even more; and yet she was equally-annoyed that he only answered two questions that were asked of him directly.

He skipped lunch again in favor of some much-needed relief from the mental and emotional stresses that was possible for him now in the Room of Requirements, but this time; he also made the room big-enough for a solo Quidditch workout. Divination after lunch was with Ravenclaw, and since he and Romeo were the only Wizards still taking the class in their OWL year for their two Houses; there was a lot of hate directed his way by all of the Witches in the room that were happily siding with Gwendolyn. There was nothing that he foresaw in his near future to suggest that would change anytime soon; so he was not very happy when he moved on to Care of Magical Creatures for what would be the last class of the week for Gryffindor and Hufflepuff for the entire school year.

As with Slytherin, there was more dark, happy feelings around him thanks to some of the teens in both Houses that were continuing to enjoy his latest fall from the heights of two days ago to being alone and apparently ostracized by everyone now. He flew off after Hagrid set them free for the weekend; went back to the Room of Requirements; and stayed there until shortly-before curfew. By then, Rose was busy with her Prefect duties, but he avoided Lily by going invisible and following a group of his fellow Gryffindor into the common room – and then going up to his dorm room. Ray stayed up late in the common room with Cyndia, and the rest of his roommates left him alone as they came up to bed; but then that was because he used a shield so that they would do that – and kept it in place all night even as he slept. He was first to wake – as usual; and he was out of the dorms before any of the other guys were up and going too. He didn't get past Lily, though; and she needed to tear into him again – though she waited until they were out in the hallway and away from the Fat Lady.

"Your new plan is working out brilliantly so far," she told him sarcastically. "I've never seen you so happy in my entire life!"

"You may have noticed that I have a few problems to work through first before I'll be on my way to the being happy part of my plan,' he countered.

"Those problems are all your doing. You're also the one responsible for messing up the only happy parts of your life," Lily disagreed. "Gwendolyn's crushed – and you're lucky that I haven't blasted you for doing that to her."

"Gwendolyn's furious and isn't sure she wants anything to do with me anymore; but she isn't crushed. You know me well-enough to know what it's costing me to take this stand."

"A stand that's totally ridiculous!" Lily shot back angrily. "You're an idiot to just walk away and let James win yet another victory by cheating you out of something you earned and deserved."

"If I had done that – and won; then what?" Al asked. "What would I have to look forward to then? A fun-filled Quidditch season – or a never-ending battle with James and Ollie trying to make my life miserable and tear me down every chance they'd get? I'd have to deal with a new challenge every week! Merlin only knows what else I'd have to deal with – all to keep a job I didn't want in the first place!

"You wanted it," Lily disagreed.

"I didn't," Al insisted. "I preferred me over James; didn't want Rose to have to make a Captain's choice over Louis – or risk the downside if she had an open tryout for Keeper and lost; and thought that Tiberius would be a lousy Captain. I love playing Quidditch because it's fun and exciting – when we're actually all trying to play for fun. I had a blast playing with you, Mum, and Dad all summer – and when I got to play with Gwendolyn, Jonah, and everyone else except for James, Ollie, and some of our friends that are sick and tired of me besting them every time we play. I'm tired of all of that, Lily."

"Then you should tell Rose that you're done with the Cannons too," Lily told him. "The best players in the show always have their fair share of haters."

"Do you expect to have a lot of haters on your Harpies' team?" Al asked. "You're talking about rivals now – not team mates. Rose and I want to build a team that plays for the joy of the game."

"No – that's what you want. She wants to build a championship team. You won't help to get her there if you give up every time someone tries to cheat or push you around."

"If Rose wants to let me play for the fun of it, I think I'm good-enough to help any team win matches. If not; then maybe that won't work out for me either."

"I'm getting the urge to hex you," Lily warned. "You're not even the same Wizard I left home with on Wednesday morning."

"It likely seems that way to you," Al agreed. "I'm not going to change my mind about the choices I've made; so where does that leave us?"

"With me hexing some sense into you!" Lily declared hotly – and then she blasted him – or attempted to do that. He didn't try to stop her, but he'd stepped back as he sensed her make that choice; and simply put up a shield to protect himself from her hexes and jinxes.. "Come on, coward! Fight back! Do something and prove you're not the hippogriff-sized chicken that everyone thinks you are now, you git!"

"No," he answered; his voice sounding flat because of the small space he allowed in his shield so they could still talk – a space she couldn't take advantage of with her attack. "Do you feel better yet?"

"No," Lily mimicked derisively; and blasted his shield again despite the futility of it. "Wake up, idiot! I am not going to let you go around acting exactly like James is telling everyone you are – like a whipped, loser of a mongrel dog!"

"Then I guess I'll need to stay away from you too," Al said sadly. "Good luck with your tryouts today. I love you."

It didn't feel at all good to change forms and fly away from his sister – and not just because of the hexes and Lily's ongoing, failed attempts to blast him as he left that just made her more-furious with him. Her insults had cut more-deeply; but changed nothing. That confrontation did convince him to skip breakfast, though; and he went to the Room of Requirements again to get away from it all – though he didn't actually have anything to do once he was there since he'd been able to get his weekend assignments finished on Friday night. Lily had the first tryout timeslot of the day for her team, so he didn't stay in the Room of Requirements for very long; but he also chose to get to the stadium using an invisibility charm; and then he went Animorphmagus after picking out a spot to sit and watch the tryouts where he wasn't likely to be found or noticed by anyone else in the stadium.

Jonah met up with Lily after breakfast as she was getting ready to head out to the stadium for her team tryouts; but neither of them looked happy as they shared a hug and then headed out of the hall. She hadn't been alone, but her Gryffindor friends and team mates gave them some space and let them go ahead on their own as Lily took Jonah's hand and he squeezed it in silent support.

"Should we talk about how things are going on day three of the big sister-brother fight; or do you want to get focused on your tryouts instead?" he asked quietly.

"My brother is an idiot," Lily declared. "I couldn't even hex some sense into him this morning."

"As if you could have done that," Jonah scoffed – "though those are two statements that I'd have never expected you to say about Al. James for sure; but not Al."

"Facts didn't keep me from trying," Lily advised him. "He wouldn't do anything beyond defending himself against me, though; and then he just flew away when I wouldn't stop trying to blast him. It's like he doesn't care about anything anymore!"

"That isn't true," Jonah disagreed; and then smiled ruefully when Lily glared daggers at him. "I'll shut up now," he decided – "and won't be adding politician to my future job short list."

Lily laughed. "I don't deny that he still loves all of us," she said seriously; "but he has stopped caring about things that are important to us."

"Like winning Quidditch Cups, being team Captain, or wearing a Prefect badge?" Jonah countered.

"Exactly," Lily agreed.

"So what do you think he'll do instead?"

Lily shrugged. "Last time he took a season off from Quidditch he learned to be the only Animorphmagus in the history of theWizarding World," she reminded him. "Merlin only knows what he'll come up with this time."

"Maybe he'll decide to start a band. Dad would love that," Jonah teased.

"Maybe you should go back to shutting up again," Lily countered. "Gwendolyn and Rose might both hex or curse him if he did that."

"Probably," he agreed, "but what I was actually wondering was whether it would make a difference for how you're feeling right now if he did do something amazing instead of being a Prefect or team Captain. For that matter, what if he did nothing except have fun while doing absolutely nothing special at all?"

"We'd still be mad at him for wasting his talents and giving up on us just because James and Ollie called him names and stole the team from him."

"You didn't answer the first part of that," Jonah pointed out.

"And you're trying to rope me into saying something using pointless arguments," she insisted. "Playing Quidditch or being a Prefect wouldn't keep him from doing other, possibly-great things. He might have been an Animorphmagus whether he'd played Quidditch or not in his second year."

"Okay," Jonah agreed. "If you truly think that he's wrong, then have at it and keep trying to convince him of that. On the other hand, if this is just because you think he's your main chance at another Quidditch Cup, or for some other, personal reason; then you should support Al's choices."

"Do you?" Lily challenged; and Jonah grinned at her.

"Shutting up again now."

Gwendolyn was angry, frustrated, hurt, and it was all she could do not to lash out at anyone and everyone around her. She was lousy company, but Toni, Michael, and Susannah had gone with her for a morning study session while Rose and Ray had gone to the stadium to support Lily, Hugo, and the rest of their junior team cousins and friends. She hated not having Al at her side; hated that he seemed to have given up on everything; everyone; and himself! This was far-worse than when they were kids and he just let James push him around without ever putting up a fight; and she wasn't going to even pretend to support him for doing that!

What had gotten into him? How had things gone so horribly-wrong in a week – just a few days, really; from the amazing morning when Jaimie and Lorie were born until Wednesday night and Thursday when he'd decided to mess up everything? She wanted to hunt him down and blast him; hated knowing that she likely couldn't do it – if what she'd heard about Lily's confrontation with him before breakfast was any indication; and wanted to do it anyway if for no other reason than he'd walked away from them because of what he'd sensed and picked up on from her own thoughts and emotions. It wasn't his fault – he couldn't change the fact that it was one of his talents; but that didn't mean it was right that he could know her mind and use her thoughts against her.

Hardest of all – and what made her angriest; was the posibility that she really didn't love him enough to want to be with him if he couldn't be the Wizard she knew he could be if he'd just accept the consequences that came along with his gifts and stop letting lesser Wizards and Witches cheat and lie to take what they want from him without a fight!

Be selfish. That's what he'd call it. Be more like James! He'd basically said that – though in his usual, back-handed way to try and avoid saying anything hurtful to anyone.

Well, James was currently an undefeated Seeker so far in his fledgling career in the show; he was now team Captain for the Gryffindor senior team; and he was a very popular guy – particularly with the Witches that were impressed with that sort of thing.

"You mean Witches like you," she chided herself in silent derision. She'd certainly been impressed and proud of Al when he was Captain and a Prefect!

On the other hand, James was also a hippogriff-sized cheat, liar, git, and worse!

While Al is the nice, safe, brilliantly-talented, but utterly-boring brother – as Malorie had pointed out on several occasions. Now, that was a statement that seemed rather important in hindsight as she was forced to come to terms with the fact that she might, in fact, feel the same way about the docile side of Al's personality!

So where did this apparent, ridiculous impasse leave them?

For now; in a really bad place - apart.

Rose sat with Ray, Cyndia, and a few other friends while Lily got the team tryouts started. She'd been sure that Al would come to support Lily, but he'd never be late and was nowhere in sight; so maybe he'd decided to stay away – particularly after Lily had tried to hex some sense into him until he chose to run off again instead of standing up to her – another choice that just got her angry with him all over again!

"Lily was worried about who she'd end up with for Beaters," Ray said quietly. "It seems she has reason for that."

"Winston Wintringham is doing alright," Rose suggested. "Al would be able to tell for sure; but I'd say he's nearly as good as Fred was in his first year."

"Maybe, but the rest of them are more-likely to get knocked out by the bludgers than making accurate, clean hits with them. It's a good thing for our House that we only lost Fred and Orlando this year; and have a really good Seeker, Keeper, and Chaser trio."

"Well, if that's all decided already; we should've just gone and studied with Gwendolyn and the rest of our group," Rose suggested.

"You can do that if you'd like," Ray told her. "I'm thinking about studying with Cyndia and her group until Al and Gwendolyn work things out. Our study classroom is not a Wizard-friendly zone right now."

"I thought Al would be here," Rose said – admitted aloud – instead of responding to Ray's comments.

"Sitting here with us?" Cyndia asked seriously. "Why would you think that? We're all mad at him because he's likely screwd us out of what could have been a brilliant Quidditch season for us with him as Captain; and I'd be happy to blast him for doing that to us! I didn't have so much fun on our team the last time James was in charge, but that doesn't really matter; since he and Ollie will make sure that we won't even be on the reserve squad now!" She laughed at that. "Actually, now that I think about it – I am surprised that Al isn't here. That would be as stupid as everything else he's done over the past few days!"

"He's gone way beyond stupid," Rose declared. "He was named Captain! That vote didn't need to happen at all; and Mr. Peakes would've backed him up."

"Sure," Cyndia agreed. "And Al would've looked like a hypocrite and liar – but let's not let facts get in the way of being mad at him for screwing everything up for us. He won the vote in the summer for our training with his Mum and Dad before we knew who was to be Captain. This time, he lost the vote and challenge. We'll need to skip over that fact too; but I'm okay with that."

"Is that really a fact? Did he lose the vote?" Rose asked. "Why do we believe that? Because Ollie said it was so and he's so well-known for honesty at all costs?"

"You think he lied too?" Ray asked; and Rose nodded.

"Yeah, and none of us called him out on it – including Al. Ollie would've never been able to get away with that if the vote had only been in a challenge with the team and reserve squad; but most of our fellow Gryffindor likely didn't even care much one way or the other."

"It doesn't really matter how they did it," Cyndia suggested. "I don't think he'll come around – especially when you add up everything that's been dumped on him. The big question for us, though, is are we going to try to band together and fight if James doesn't have fair tryouts next Saturday; or are we going to give up and walk away too – and end up doing exactly the same thing that Al's done by letting James and Ollie do that to us too?"

Al sat through Lily's tryouts, and other than ending up with a comparatively-weak Beater duo; there were no surprises as Hugo, Roxanne, Kathryn, and Melissa all earned their spots on the team again. He waited until he was out of the stadium to send a mirror message congratulations to Lily that included offering the same to the other thirteen players to make the team or reserve squad, but then he turned his mirror off and returned to the Room of Requirements – where he had his own Quidditch workout for the rest of the morning. That wasn't as much fun as playing with Gwendolyn, Lily, Rose, or the rest of the people he loved to play the sport with the most, but it gave him time to play with new tricks and do some serious thinking about what he'd like his broom to do if he could design it himself and then figure out how to do all of the magic that went into broom-making.

He knew that he couldn't keep skipping every meal, but he didn't go to the Great Hall for lunch. Staying in the Room of Requirements was far more peaceful; and he even had a nap for a while on the sofa he'd kept for himself after giving the rest of them – and his mirror – to Rose in case she'd needed them overthe weekend. Okay, he'd magically dropped them on her bed and sent a mirror message; but it was the thought that counted. Thoughts were what he focused on for most of the afternoon – and all of them were about what he wanted to do to have fun and be happy – whether that ended up being with Gwendolyn, his sister, cousins, and friends in the short or long-term or not.

Problem number one – how to make his classes and study time fun if he didn't get to do that with Gwendolyn, Rose, and his friends? Ditto that for Quidditch – problem number two. He wanted to help others – problem three; and while doing that was easy-enough – the actual problem was helping without drawing attention to himself for those efforts. He had a talent for sensing things like the needs of others; so finding teens and tweens in need of help would be easy-enough too; so he just needed to work out how to act on things he learned when the last thing he wanted was to trade being in one big spotlight for another; but he thought that could be done if he was very careful. Next up – getting out there and playing with or without his usual playmates; since he couldn't stay hidden in the Room of Requirements for the next three school years! Well, the school grounds were immense for small animals. He could likely experiment with that all year and never get bored!

True, but without Gwendolyn, Rose, Lily, and everyone else around to share the fun with; he foresaw a future where he was the happiest, lonliest teen at Hogwarts!

After her team tryouts, Lily spent a lot of the rest of the day trying to find out about the other junior teams – which meant spending time outdoors with some friends; and doing anything except studying. Quidditch was the top chat topic, but bashing Al was a close second; and she had help for that with friends of all ages from three out of four Houses – four, if you included the walk-by razzings from some Slytherins.

The Hufflepuff tryouts were up next for Quidditch, and with three players graduating to the senior team level; they were likely in for an eventful tryout compared to Gryffindor where only the Beater contest had been particularly-exciting. Unlike their senior team players, Lily, Hugo, and the rest of their friends had quite a few Hufflepuff friends; and they didn't even need to wait until lunchtime to get most of the news as some spectators and disappointed hopefuls left the stadium as each part of tryouts ended.

They learned early on that Greta Jones earned the second Beater spot on the team with Captain Lee Johnson; John Whitby finally got his shot at being team Keeper now that Leanne had moved to the senior team level; and Anne-Marie Summerby was the lone addition at Chaser with Drew Summers and Michael Macmillan each winning their spots on the team again. The only position they had to wait to hear about was Seeker; and Lily knew as soon as she saw him at lunchtime that Luke Summerby had kept his spot on the team – and would get to play for Hufflepuff with his younger sister.

Slytherin had their tryouts after lunch, but while it ought to have been tougher for them to find out about their new team; that didn't end up being a problem at all – thanks to the combined efforts of the Gryffindor and Ravenclaw members of Lily's little gang of outdoor playmates. There were some unknowns to be sure, but no major surprises. Andrea Avery, and Grant and Bethany Pritchard, kept their spots on the team at Seeker and Chaser; Derrick Selwyn, as Captain, was their Keeper again; and Dan Derrick switched from Beater to Chaser. That ended up making the Beaters the main unknown for Slytherin's junior team too; and Lily knew that they would have to wait until they played against them to find out whether firsties Carson Thicknesse and Ferguson Pucey would be any good – or at least how they'd stack up to her own, new Beater duo.

The results for Ravenclaw wasn't a problem either, and while she got teased about it; she didn't need to snog that news out of Jonah before – or after – dinner. Jonah didn't end up having any surprises either; and his tryouts went very smoothly – with just one minor exception because Robin Ackerley didn't keep her spot on the team. That hadn't really been a surprise, since Chris Madley and Bryson Campbell had been nearly as good as Robin in their first season on the reserve squad; and they'd won the next-best two Chaser spots behind Alyssa Graves after she earned the top spot at tryouts. Meg Rivers won the Keeper spot and replaced Ryan, but while some of the other hopefuls had been surprised by that; nobody actually 'in-the-know' had expected it to even be close; since Meg was very much her mother's daughter! Ravenclaw's only unknown was at Beater, but Katrina was certain to be one of the best junior Beaters, so she'd be able to work with her new firstie partner, Andy Goldstein.

Quidditch was still the top news topic at dinner for Lily and her friends, but by the time she'd finished eating, she was glad to get away from all of the drama; and go spend a quiet evening with Jonah. That alone time with him still included some Quidditch talk and more venting about Al's ongoing stupidity – including skipping another meal in the Great Hall; but Jonah did help her out with a half-hour or so of music fun, some quality cuddle time, and even a bit of minor snogging that at least gave them better things to do for a while even if it didn't solve any problems.

Al didn't get any of the junior team Quidditch news while spending the rest of the day in the Room of Requirements, but he did pick up most of that news from everyone around him after returning to his dorm room ahead of curfew and the few times he ventured out into the castle or outdoors on Sunday – though he generally did that while either in Animorphmagus form or using an invisibility charm to stay hidden and left alone. He skipped all three meals again; and the only 'real' human interaction he had for the entire day was his first mirror chat with Malorie since getting back to Hogwarts – a chat that he'd left for too long already before deciding that he couldn't put it off anymore – even if it would mean finding out that she didn't want to have him talk with her – or the twins – either. He sent a mirror message first; and then she called him after just a few minutes instead of sending a message reply.

"You didn't need to wait this long to talk with us," Malorie told him with a wry smile after he'd answered her chat request. "Your parents heard the news from Lily days ago – and I'll let you know right away that they're here with Jaimie, Lorie, and me right now; so it's too late to avoid them if you were hoping to do that for a while longer."

"I was going to call them next," Al advised her; smiling too. "Hi, Mum and Dad. How are all of you doing?"

"We're fine," Malorie assured him. "That's not true for you, from what we've heard; though you don't look too bad to me."

"I probably wouldn't if everyone that wants to blast me right now actually did that," Al only half-joked. "Are you, Mum, and Dad all interested in getting in line to do that too?"

"I'm not," Malorie assured him. "Jaimie, Lorie, and I were happy to hear that James is team Captain now; since that'll be something for them to brag about when they're older." Al sensed that wasn't entirely a joke, but joine din for the laughs with his parents.

"We've been waiting to hear your side of the story before deciding whether to blast you too or not," Ginny added; calling that out from somewhere nearby. "What in Merlin's name happened between the time you left on Wednesday morning for you to have your year start out so horridly within a day?"

"If Lily talked to you already; then you know what happened," Al countered. "I'm sure she told you all of the important details."

"Okay, then why have you just let James take over the team – and why quit as Prefect?" Ginny asked more-pointedly. "The first didn't need to affect the other."

"I wouldn't have been able to do any good as a Prefect with everything else going on around here," Al answered seriously. There's no point in going into the details for that; since it won't change anything." He sighed. "I've botched things with Gwendolyn, Lily, Rose, and pretty much everyone else; but I just don't want to play all of those drama games anymore. I don't know what'll come of this with some of the people I care about the most, and you can imagine how I feel about that; but I'm also happy to get away from as much of the awful as I can right now – and it will blow over eventually."

"Does that mean you won't be trying out for the senior team now either?" Ginny stated more than asked, and while Al couldn't see her; he shrugged.

"I'm leaning toward that," he agreed. "I've got the week to think about that and decide for sure, but even if James and Ollie would let me play; it wouldn't be any fun."

"You had fun playing Quidditch with your team this summer," Harry offered.

"I had fun where I could," Al amended. "All of the bad feelings around me were not fun – just as that isn't fun around here either. That's part of what I need to get away from right now; and I really am happier without constantly battling all of those bad vibes."

"You can't avoid them forever," Harry countered – "and isn't it worse having more of those bad vibes coming from Gwendolyn, Lily, and Rose?"

"Compared to what?" Al challenged. "That is fairly-awful for me, but there are also a lot of very happy teens and tweens around here balancing that out – including other people that I care a lot about too." He smiled ruefully. "James is having a brilliant time so far; and that definitely wouldn't have been the case if I'd put up a fight – or kept him from getting the Captain's job that he wanted so much more than I did anyway. That could work out very well for some of the others we've played with all summer too; and I'm sure that one of my fellow fifth-year Gryffindor roommates will be very happy to be Prefect instead of me. Maybe this is what's best for everyone."

"Including Gwendolyn – or you?" Malorie challenged.

"It's a bit funny that you suggest that when Gwendolyn's been wondering if you've been right about me all along," he advised her. "Everyone thinks that I'm being a coward and that I won't do what's best for me while I actually think that I'm being selfish for doing exactly what I feel is best for me – to get out of the teen drama game and just do things that make me happy. I don't know what will happen with Gwendolyn and me, but I am sure that she'll need to decide whether she can love me for who I want to be; since I don't want to be the Wizard I'd need to be to stay on as team Captain or to be a Prefect that would be hated by half of the students here – not to mention dealing with all of the rotten that goes along with having that job even for the Prefects that don't have the problems that I attract."

"You really need to work on that tendency to brag without seeming to do that," Malorie suggested. "You may as well have just told us that you're too good to be Captain or Prefect – and I mean that to be the nice kind of good more than too-talented – though you may have meant that too."

"Is that what you got from what he said?" Ginny asked seriously; and Malorie laughed.

"Didn't you?" she countered. "He's telling the truth about being selfish for this. I don't know whether Al can be happy if he's all alone there, or whether he's really doing what's best; but I'm sure we all get why he'd want to just say the heck with it all. That is, in part, why you quit your jobs, isn't it?"

"It is," Harry agreed. "The play time with our kids and grandkids has just been a really awesome bonus!"

"I hope that you'll still let me have some play time with my nieces too," Al told Malorie – "even if that can only be through mirror chats between now and Christmas. As for being happy the rest of the time; I'm still trying to figure out how I'll do that – whether that ends up being with Gwendolyn, Lily, Rose, and the rest of my friends or not."

"Well, you don't have to worry about having those mirror chats with us," Malorie assured him. "Jaimie and Lorie have seemed more restless since you left; so I hope they'll settle down after talking with you – and maybe getting to hear their special lullaby. I also don't have many friends; so I don't want to lose one of them – even if everyone else does think you're an idiot right now."

"Thank you," Al said sincerely. "I'm likely going to really need the happy moments with you and the twins while waiting to find out how all of this turns out around here."

They talked about that for a while longer; Ginny and Harry each took a turn talking with him while using Malorie's mirror; and he got to have time watching and talking and singing to Jaimie and Lorie. That mirror chat lasted for more than a half-hour; and then he was on his own again until curfew while his parents helped Malorie with the 'bedtime' feeding for their granddaughters. He was on his own in his dorm room at first; used a shield again to be sure he was left alone; and went to sleep before any of the other guys joined him anyway because he was sure he'd need the rest to get through the first full week of the school year.

James was having the absolute best start to any school year since his first – and he was sure it was going to just keep getting better once he'd finished making sure that everyone in the school hated the Animorphloser! The plan that he and Ollie had hatched for taking their team back from the loser had worked perfectly – even better than they'd hoped; since it had led to him quitting as Prefect and having his potty-trainer dump him too! Even Lily and Rose were mad at the loser now – and that was going to get worse once they found out what he had in store for the lot of them next! They had no idea what was coming, and while he was sure that Rose, Ray, and Cyndia were likely plotting ways to steal his team for a second time; they didn't have a chance of out-smarting him!

Watching the Animorphpotty's descent into madness – and making fun of him every step of the way – had been brilliant; but everything else about his first week and a half of school had been brilliant too. His first day of classes had started with the morning off; followed by an afternoon of DADA. His only class on Friday was Transfiguration; so he was basically going to have three-day weekends every week! Mondays were going to start with double Charms; but then he had the rest of the day off; and didn't have another class until he wrapped up with DADA for the last class on Tuesdays. Wednesdays were his 'long' day; he had double Transfiguration in the morning; and one period of Charms after lunch.

He should've dropped down to three classes years ago!

All of that free time allowed him to do whatever he wanted most of the time – and that's exactly what he did! He did a Quidditch workout every day – but didn't offer any team workouts – since he wanted to be fair to everyone at tryouts, of course! Ollie and some of the other players did do their own workouts during their time slots; but James stayed a way so he could remain impartial. He spent extra time razzing and insulting the loser the rare time he actually showed his ugly face anywhere in public; and had fun hitting on the potty-trainer – sure that it was just a matter of time now before she'd be another notch on his broomstick!

While life was brilliant at school; he also had some bonus fun on Tuesday night thanks to getting to watch his Catapults team fall apart without him and lose their match to the Harpies. He wasn't cheering for the Harpies – he was simply happy to see that everyone on the team except for Miya had given up as fully as the loser had after he crushed him. It had only taken Gabrielle thirty-one minutes to win her Seeker duel – and since his back-up Catapults' Seeker hadn't even tried. That just proved to him that she was over-the-hill and past-due to retire; but he didn't have a problem with proving that to her a few dozen times before she got the hint – while beating the Harpies every time too! Now, he'd even have reason for payback after the Harpies made his team look so incompetent!

Finally, as if everything else hadn't been brilliant enough for him; his rising star attracted a lot of attention from Witches of all ages. Sure, some of them would need to grow up before he could make them future playmates; but Patricia, Rosinda, and Bristol weren't the only Witches he'd snogged and more during his first week and a half of school! Bristol wasn't the only Witch with a boyfriend to play with him either; which just made the fun all the more exciting!

The loser, on the other hand, was getting exactly what he deserved - nothing!

Scorpius was a very happy camper as Lysandra shared a congratulatory hug with him after their senior team tryouts wrapped up. Unlike last year, they'd had the first tryout time slot; so they still had the rest of the day open to them instead of having to wait around all day just to find out what kind of team they'd end up with. By then, they needed to vacate the stadium to make room for Ravenclaw; so Lysandra stayed with him as they headed out with everyone who had stayed to watch the final battle for the reserve Seeker spot on their team – after G-Air had won the top job in under fifteen minutes thanks to his shiny new Lightningbolt.

"I hate to admit it, but maybe it's nice to have some of our best players back again this year," Lysandra joked – saying that loudly-enough to be overheard by Rupert and G-Air. "your team looks pretty good this year."

"We'll look brilliant if your idiot Gryffindor buddy ends up with a team as bad as he had the last time he was Captain," Rupert offered with a snort. "From the rumors we've heard; I wouldn't be surprised if he picks an all-Witch team – and Quidditch skills would not be necessary."

"Now why didn't I think of that?" Don asked with a laugh. "That's a brilliant idea!"

"Right up until game time," G-Air said with a derisive snort. "You'll have better luck with the Witches by actually getting some wins this season."

"You're just glad to have girls around again that aren't related to you," Don retorted. "Getting back to Lysandra's original comment, though; I'm happy with our team this year too. I'm not going to guarantee any wins, but whatever happens with the other teams; I think we'll have a chance to win in every match."

"That's very Hufflepuff of you," Rupert retorted. "Do you feel bad for the Animorphpotty too?"

"I feel bad that I might not get one more chance to bash his head in."

Rupert laughed. "From what I've heard – why bother? He's practically in a coma now anyway."

"He's doing as well as always in the classes we have with Gryffindor," Lysandra advised him. "Don't believe every rumor you here – there's more going on there than we know."

"Well, you should know; since you guys are buddies with the Animorphpotty's brother," G-Air suggested with a sneer. "Personally, I'm hoping the loser decides to throw himself off the Astronomy tower – like his namesake did!"

That joke earned a raucous round of laughs; and they had more insults and commentary when they crossed paths with Gwendolyn on her way into the stadium for the Ravenclaw tryouts. As usual since the start of her big fight with the loser, she didn't look broken up – she looked perpetually ticked-off. Her responses to their taunts had been blunt and earned laughs from the guys – along with two fairly-lewd offers. That scene was fun for Scorpius and Lysandra, since they were as happy as anyone to see the royal couple torn apart; so they were in an even-better mood as they moved on and spent most of the rest of their day having fun and celebrating Scorpius once again earning top spot for Chaser on their senior team – and doing that convincingly!

Gwendolyn was on a devil-may-care tear as she went in on the attack against Peter for her third of five shots. She'd been the only Chaser so far to earn two goals on her first two shots; and Peter looked nervous because she'd nearly taken his head off the first time; and had ricocheted the shot off of his back on the other – after getting him completely turned around. This time she went straight at him; pulled up at the last second as if trying to go over the top for the shot; dropped the quaffle as he reacted to that play; and then did a vertical three-sixty and used her broomtail to knock the quaffle into the now-open center goal – while Peter also backed away from the face full of broom he'd have gotten if he hadn't done that.

"Hi, my name's Peter Boot – your team Captain," he pretended to introduce himself. "You may have mistaken me for another Wizard; so please don't take my head off!"

"You're a Wizard – guilty by association," she advised him without any real sense of humor.

That was the full-extent of their verbal exchange; she retrieved the quaffle; whipped it over to Landon – who looked as nervous about getting that pass as Peter had looked for the shot; and then she got back in line behind Stephanie – who was now one goal behind her after earning her second on Peter.

"I should've had you go first," Stephanie joked quietly as they watched Landon take his time setting up his next shot on goal. "You've got Peter more rattled than I've ever seen him before."

"He's lucky I didn't try out for Beater."

"I'd say we all are," Stephanie amended. "Well, that last goal of yours didn't help Landon on that shot. Maybe I'm right where I should be in this line – and Peter is just looking past me to you."

"Don't even think about meaning that in any way other than Quidditch," Gwendolyn warned.

"If I was going to make a joke like that; it'd be about me looking past you to Al – if it wasn't for the fact that I only love him in a sister or cousin sort of way," Stephanie told her with a grin.

"Now you're just trying to get into my head and mess me up," Gwendolyn decided. "I'll let Peter know he can thank you for what happens with my next shot."

She actually told him that after she scored her fourth goal in a row, but she didn't feel any satisfaction – especially as she got back into line again to wait for her last shot and suddenly realized that she'd scored every single one of those goals using moves that Al had taught her, worked with her on, and helped her to perfect. That fact just made her even angrier again – if that was possible. Everything reminded her of him, and the more she thought about it; the more she wondered when she'd lost herself. For years now, she'd just passively gone along as she'd become his girlfriend – his potty-trainer! Nobody ever seemed to even think of him as her boyfriend – she was the Animorphpotty's girlfriend! She tried to look back and figure out when she'd lost her own identity; and couldn't come up with a specific moment – it had just happened. One day, she was her own Witch, and the next; she was a side-kick to Albus Potter.

She could pinpoint exactly when the floodgates had burst on all of the pent-up anger she hadn't even wanted to admit was there within her – during their fights on Thursday morning and after Astronomy class that night. Even then, when she wanted to have it out with him, he had been so nice, kind, and loving that she'd wanted to punch him in the face! He'd gone into hiding since then, and now, except for in their joint classes and a rare glimpse of him around the castle or school grounds; she didn't see him at all. He hadn't worked things out with Rose or Lily either; and she didn't know what she'd do about it if or when they did – since she couldn't picture studying with Rose if Al was in the room with them. She didn't know whether to like the idea of changing study groups or not – and wondered if Toni and Michael would make that change with her if needed.

So many problems – and all because her idiot ex-boyfriend... her ex-boyfriend? When had she decided that she'd gone from fighting to breaking up with him? Whatever – add it to the list of things that were now messed up in her life all because Al decided to give up on everything – including them!

She was in the perfect frame of mind for her last shot on goal – except for the part where she again used one of Al's best tricks to earn her fifth goal – and the top Chaser spot on her team! Stephanie was second, Mark Goldstein rounded out their trio; and Landon tied for fifth to earn one of the reserve squad jobs. Peter then had his new Chaser team help him to choose his back-up; she couldn't bring herself to feeling bad when she actually hurt Ryan on one of her goals against him; and still went on to score on every shot against every Keeper. Ryan still won the back-up spot; and then she sat and took her gear off – and then watched the entire Seeker battle while Pauline and Stephanie put on a brilliant show for their fellow players and the spectators. Pauline eventually won that battle; but Stephanie was much closer than anyone had expected; and gave her big sister all of the competition she could handle and then some!

That was good for their House, since Stephanie replaced Miya; that was the only change to their team; and they were going to be even better than last year!

Al made his way into the stadium under cover of another invisibility charm as his fellow Gryffindor were arriving either to try out for the team or watch the show. Some of them were sure to be disappointed when he didn't show up – not because they cared whether he tried out for the team; but because they were hoping for yet another opportunity to see him humiliated by James and Ollie. That actually hadn't been a factor in why he was choosing not to try out – though he'd foreseen a near-certainty that he'd be kept off the team regardless of how well he did if he had tried. No, as he'd thought about it all week; he'd decided to pick being happy; and knew he wouldn't be able to do that while playing Quidditch with James and Ollie..

He truly did feel good – happy – as he made his way to an out-of-the way spot in the stadium with a good view but nobody around that might accidentally bump into him. That had a lot to do with how brilliantly his day had been going so far; and he really liked the routine he was getting into now as he made the adjustments to his life that everyone around him thought was insanely crazy. The more he made the changes, though; the less he cared about what anyone else thought of him. He was making progress on that every day, and he was feeling so good because he'd started his day with a meditative martial arts workout in the Room of Requirements; followed that up with breakfast for one by the lake; and then he'd quietly gone forth into the castle and helped a total of four younger students – including two that had no idea he'd intervened in their lives by keeping two would-be bullies from messing with them. Those two Slytherins didn't know what happened either – only that they weren't able to move each time they'd tried to ambush their victims. After the second bout of immobilization; they'd given up and moved on. He also sat down with an overwhelmed firstie in the library; helped her out with a long chat and some study tips; and he had one second-year boy that he helped with a charm-gone-wrong problem that he'd been too embarrassed about to ask for any help from Professors or Prefects.

None of those efforts earned him any attention or recognition – he was in it for the fun and joy of those moments. That wasn't the case for these tryouts, but in this case; it wasn't what he sensed and foresaw that bothered him – it was being comparatively-near to some of his favorite people while they were having some very bad thoughts about him that made being there to watch the tryouts such a trial for him. He couldn't avoid all of the dark emotions around him, but he tried to push those senses to the side when James called the prospective players to gather around him and got the tryouts started..

"Welcome to the senior team tryouts for what will be our best season ever-so-far for those of us lucky-enough to make the team this year!" James declared. He smiled encouragingly as he looked around from face-to-face; and Al sensed both the dark hatred and glee that his brother was feeling simply because he wasn't there among the player-hopefuls. "Before we begin, I'd like to announce that I have decided to do things a bit differently this year. Instead of choosing our team today; I'm going to start training with the top fourteen players from tryouts today – including myself, of course; and then I will decide which six players will play in each match this year!"

That announcement wasn't news for Al, but it was for everyone else – including Rose, Ray, and Cyndia. He found all of the varied reactions from the players and spectators interesting; but nothing he sensed changed anything about what he foresaw in the near-future – for the results of the tryouts or the short-term after that.

"I know – it isn't the way we normally do things here at Hogwarts, but we're going to try it this year and see if this new incentive will help all of us to get better – and give us a better chance to bring the Quidditch Cup back to our House this season! As usual, we'll start with the Beater tryouts; put the Chasers up against the Keepers; and then pick our second Seeker last. I'll pick the top four Beaters, six Chasers, and two Keepers; and I've already explained how we'll do things ahead of each match this year. Any questions? No? Okay – let's get right to it!"

He sent the Beaters up first, and Al watched the battle with detached interest. Now that James had declared that he was simply picking the top four Beaters, he'd be able to choose Tiberius, Brock, Fred, and Orlando without upsetting any of them; while that was also why he saw that none of them pushed all that hard – just enough to show they were better than the other Beater hopefuls. That made ranking them based on those performances pointless; but Al still gave Fred the win, with Brock, Tiberius, and Orlando earning the next three spots on the team.

James called for the Chasers and Keepers next; he got them to do that exactly the same way Olivia had done a year ago; and started out with the two Keepers stepping upp to try out against Louis and Rose. Each Chaser was allowed three shots against each Keeper too; they had eighteen Chaser candidates looking to earn one of those six spots; and James just let them go at it for as long as it took to get through the two hundred and sixteen shots that the four Keepers faced from all of those Chasers. Al knew which eight players were going to be picked for the team before the first shot was taken – and that the scoring wasn't going to matter. That didn't keep him from enjoying himself as he watched most of the Chasers battle it out against the Keepers – particularly when it came to watching Rose, Ray, and Cyndia really shine as they proved that they were the best Keeper and top two Chasers on the day. When Louis and Rose finished facing their last shots; all of the players still in the air landed; they gathered around James; and waited while he made a theatrical show of having the totals tabulated and double-checked before being ready to announce the results.

.

"Sorry for the delay," James said loudly as he turned his attention to the players standing around him; smiling as he held up the sheet of parchment he'd been working on. "We wanted to make sure we got this done right and fairly! Let's start with our Keepers. Louis and Rose Weasley – congratulations! You're our top two Keepers this season!" He paused while there was a round of applause; and Al noticed that James was smirking as he watched Rose's reaction to the news that she'd made the team. Al knew what James and Ollie were doing, and he didn't like it; but could also admit that their plan was working brilliantly as they made sure that Rose had no reason to complain about being treated fairly – unless she wanted to argue the point that James had implied that Louis won the Keeper battle by naming him first when she'd won with three more saves than Louis had earned.

"I don't want to keep anyone waiting, and we do still have a Seeker duel to get to; so in no particular order; our six Chasers are Magnus and Cyndia Finnegan, Ollie and Ray Wood, Eric Talbot, and Romeo Remillard! Congratulations to all of you – and well-done!"

Al knew that Ollie had actually been tied for seventh by a goal, but nobody noticed or offered a complaint, and just as with Rose; James and Ollie had made sure that Ray and Cyndia had nothing to complain about now that they were on the team too. They were messed-up and baffled by the news; and he watched as they joined the rest of their new team mates on the sidelines near James and began to watch the battle for the 'second' team Seeker.

"What the hell just happened out there?" Lily demanded as she watched Rose, Ray, and Cyndia join their new team mates; and she was as stunned as they looked.

"Your older brother just finished pulling off his coup while we're all sitting around here letting Al get screwed," Hugo suggested; and then laughed when Lily glared daggers at him. "Don't shoot the messenger."

"He isn't wrong, either," Melissa offered. "You don't have to like it, Lily; but it's brilliant – in a rotten, under-handed way. Rose, Ray, and Cyndia have nothing to go after James or Ollie about – they're on the team. Now, if they don't try their best; they won't have any chance of playing in the matches – and James can string them along all season if he plays his cards right."

"While Al didn't even try out for the team when we all know he's the best Chaser in our House," Lily retorted. "Why did he bother training all summer only to quit on us like this?"

"That's likely for the best," Kathryn suggested. "If he had come here; I expect that James and Ollie had some way to keep him off the team and publicly-humiliate him yet again anyway."

"Well, are we a bunch of hypocrites?" Cyndia asked quietly so that only Ray and Rose would hear her. "We were all set to fight if James tried to screw us out of a fair tryout, but now that we've all made the team; we're okay with going along with the lies and cheating – even though Al's still getting screwed."

"He could've fought for himself," Ray offered; sounding a bit angry at Cyndia's blanket claim implying they were now as guilty as James and Ollie for trying out for the team instead of standing by Al and taking the season off too – which was obviously what Al was doing by not even bothering to show up for tryouts.

"And if he doesn't want to fight for himself; why should we fight for him?" Rose added; looking angry too.

"Well, the cynic in me would say we should have fought now because James is likely to string us along all season and never actually let us play a match," Cyndia suggested. "I've been wrong to this point, though; so maybe I just have no idea at all what James is up to with this game of his."

"Other than his ongoing mission to destroy Al," Rose said quietly. "That's working out great for him – and Al's helping him out by just giving up on all of us!"

Al watched the Seeker duel; Kira Kirke was the surprise winner of that battle; and Al was sure that James would be happy to have another attractive Witch to compete against this season – especially since she wouldn't be good-enough to ever even come close to besting him even on his worst or her best day. He moved on to have dinner for one by the lake, and while he wasn't interested in going to the Great Hall for any meals; he was going to need to think about other food options he could pick up while in town for the first Hogsmeade weekend of the year; since chocolates and candies wouldn't keep him going indefinitely. He flew back to the castle after that snack-meal; stopped into his dorm room while everyone else was having dinner so that he could pick up a few things he wanted in his book bag for the evening; and then he'd gone on to the Room of Requirements and was there well-ahead of the post-dinner exodus from the Great Hall. He studied for a while; and then set up his sofa got comfortable, and called Malorie for their daily mirror chat.

"Skipping dinner again?" she asked as her image appeared in his mirror. "Did you change your mind; try out for the team anyway; and then that went as badly as you'd expected?"

"I didn't try out; and they went exactly as I'd expected," Al answered. "James was fair with nearly-everyone today; and Rose, Ray, and Cyndia all made the team."

"They did?" Malorie asked in surprise. "If that's what you expected; why didn't you tell me that before now?"

"I didn't want to spoil the surprise," Al half-joked. "James is doing things a bit differently this year," he added and explained. "He's going with a team of fourteen players; and will pick the six-best players to take into each match with him sometime shortly-ahead of each game. I don't have all of the details yet about how he'll do that; but I'd say that his plan for that worked perfectly. Nobody can accuse him of not being fair today; and Rose, Ray, and Cyndia either have to play the game his way and hope that he actually lets them play on the team with him if they're the best players during their practices."

"You're sure they'll do that," Malorie deduced.

"They will – and now they'll blame me for whatever happens for the rest of the season too. It's a brilliant plan, really."

"And so successful that you're reduced to mirror chats with me – and you really just want to talk with your nieces," Malorie joked.

"You actually know who I am at the core – even if everyone else thinks that you're just joking about me being the good, boring brother," he suggested. "My problems haven't gone away and I miss Gwendolyn like mad; but I truly am starting to be happier now that I'm trying to simply be who I am without all of the distractions."

"You're semi-bragging again," Malorie chided; and Al laughed easily.

"Sorry – I'm still a work in progress. "How has your day been going?"

"Really good," Malorie answered with a soft, happy smile. "I'm not getting much sleep, but the girls are so amazing! Your Mum and Dad have only stopped in once today – though they'll be back tonight to help out with the bedtime ritual – if that's what I should call it. "I don't know why I think of that as bedtime when they're up again every two or three hours."

"The good news is that it sounds as though they're mostly doing that together," Al reminded her. "You'd get no sleep if they took turns sleeping and wanting to wake up."

"If Jaimie could sleep through Lorie's cries; I'll likely need to get her hearing checked when she's a bit older. Don't go around starting any jokes about it with your family, but I'm already wondering if I should've waited a week or two before deciding on naming them."

Al laughed. "I wouldn't dream of doing that to Jaimie and Lorie – I'm still the quiet, good one."

"While James is still the loud, brash one," Malorie added with a nod. She turned her head when they both heard a baby gurgle nearby. "As usual, your timing is good – and I think that they've recognized your voice. Let's go see if they recognize you yet, Uncle Al."

Malorie went over to where the girls were in a shallow, raised playpen. She pointed her mirror toward the girls; and Al could see them swaddled in their blankets and propped up a bit so that they could look at each other. They were both looking up at Malorie and the nirror she held over them; and they both cooed and hiccupped in response to seeing him.

"I'd say that's a yes," she declared. "Say hi to your Uncle Al, girls," she added with a laugh in her voice. "He's had a tough afternoon and could use the cheering up."

"Hi, Jamie; Lorie," Al said gently as he smiled at them. "Are you being good for your Mommy today? You both look beautiful. Are those new blankies?"

"You know they are," Malorie interjected. "I'm pretty sure that I have about a one-month supply of them – thanks to your collective family."

"Don't be surprised if that's more like a three or four-day supply some weeks," Al countered. "Let's not give them any ideas for tonight, though; and move on. Did you have any other visitors today other than Grandma and Grandpa? Go on any outings? Meet any new friends?"

Those questions had been directed at Jaimie and Lorie, and they cooed at him in response; but Malorie had that conversation with him; and they talked for another fifteen minutes before the girls started to get fussy and she needed to end the call and take care of them. Al switched to surfing the wireless web for a while after that; but his thoughts were with Malorie and his nieces for quite a while.

His first chat with Malorie after his fights with Gwendolyn had felt awkward, but while she'd been blunt and had her own perspective on what he was doing and the problems he was having; it had meant a lot to have her assure him that he could still call and talk with her – and the twins. He'd called once a day since then, because he didn't want to be a pest, and while Malorie might not want that longer term; she seemed happy to talk with him for now – as long as he didn't do any bragging about how good he thought he was being with his new choices and changing perspective. He had no idea whether that would last – he certainly hadn't foreseen the full-extent of the mess he'd made of things with Gwendolyn, Rose, Lily, and the rest of his friends, but then he was also learning to be happy with the here and now – and not worry so much about whether there would be good or bad in the future.

Right now, he had no idea what even the near future was going to bring for him. He wished more than anything that he could make things right with Gwendolyn, but everything he sensed about their situation told him that the next choices had to be hers – and all he could do was wait, hope, and keep loving her with all of his heart. He didn't want to dwell on that, so he got up; went back to the work table and stool; and returned to his studies.

Susannah had gone to their study classroom with Rose after they had dinner in the Great Hall. Ray and Cyndia joined them next; and Gwendolyn came on her own – and advised them that Toni and Michael were taking the evening off because they were finished their must-do weekend assignments. She sighed silently as it didn't take long for the Al bashing to begin – starting with the Gryffindor team tryouts report that Rose, Ray, and Cyndia got to pass along to Gwendolyn. The rumors had already made the rounds to the other Houses, so she hadn't been surprised by the details, but she didn't like the way her friends were each reacting to the news – particularly when they continued to blame Al for messing everything up for them despite the fact that they hadn't, as yet, had James do anything to them – other than take the Captain's job from the Wizard they were currently hating on anyway. Sure, she expected that James was stringing them along, but if he really wanted to be brilliant about that; he'd put one or two of them in to play in one or more of the matches too; since his divide-and-conquer tactics really were working out perfectly for him so far.

It was the anger and insults directed at Al that she really didn't like – even if she understood why Gwendolyn and Rose in particular were lashing out at him. Her own problem, though, was that she understood why Al had made those choices – and she was proud of him for having the courage to take his stand. Part of the reason she felt that way was because of her kindred talent for Divination, and while his abilities were leaps and bounds beyond hers; they had a shared empathy that put everything they experienced in a different light; and most of all – he kept on loving everyone regardless of what they heaped on him simply for choosing to be kind and good.

"When is Lily going to go on that Animorphpotty hunt she told you about after your tryouts?" Gwendolyn asked. "If the rest of you are going to help her with that; I might want to go along – though I might just sit back and watch the show instead of helping out."

"Are you sure?" Ray asked. "I expect to feel better after blasting him a few times. You might feel the same way."

"Why?" Susannah asked quietly; getting everyone's attention; since she hadn't joined in on the coversation since Rose had started with the update.

"Why what?" Ray asked in honest confusion.

"Why will you feel better if you can blast Al – especially when we all know he'd need to stand there and let all of you do it?" She put her mirror down and looked from face to face; her own expression disapproving and serious. "You'll be mad at me next; so consider that fair warning." She only paused for a moment; but didn't give anyone time to jump in with any comments.

"You're all mad at Al for walking away from the team instead of fighting back when James and Ollie tried and succeeded with taking it from him. Now, you're mad at him because James had the audacity to play fair and put the rest of you on his team without Al. Yes, we all know that you may very well be right, and that James and Ollie will just play you all season; but you're also mad because he's shown that you're all a bunch of hypocrites."

"We're not hypocrites – we just aren't going to fight for Al when he doesn't even care enough about any of us to fight for himself!" Rose retorted hotly.

"Really? He doesn't care enough about you to accept that Captain's job in the first place just so you didn't have to choose yourself over Louis to play Keeper this year? I've been right here all week, Rose! Do you think I didn't hear all of you talking about what you should do if James tried to cheat during tryouts? Well, did he? What did you do about it? If you're right about what he'll do for the rest of the season; will you call Louis or the other guys out for going along with him if they get to play and you don't? Let's look ahead while we're at it. How fair do you plan on being with Hugo if you're Captain over the next two seasons? Will it be fair for him to wait his turn for a couple of years just because you were named Captain fairly?"

"That's not the same!" Rose protested; but Susannah saw that she didn't believe her own assertion.

"It's only different in that they cheated and lied to get what they wanted; and in this case – you've all gone along with the plan because they've only gone after Al this time." She smiled grimly at Ray. "Don't look at me like that – you could be in the exact same position with your sister and cousin next year! Cyndia, you were all set to blast Magnus if you'd been treated unfairly today – expected him to quit if James and Ollie messed things up for you. I don't see you and Ray doing the same for Al." She looked at Gwendolyn next. "I wonder if Ryan feels as though he got messed with today too? You scored on every shot against all of the Keepers from what I heard earlier today. It's awfully convenient for Peter that Pauline gave up the Captaincy of your team in a season when he might have been up against a Keeper that might be good-enough to beat him for the Keeper job – but I'm sure that Ravenclaws are above those sorts of games; and you'd certainly never stand for seeing your own cousin being treated unfairly – even by two of your friends and team mates!"

"Fine – we're all hypocrites," Gwendolyn ground out; sounding angry; and Susannah sighed inwardly again – knowing justas Al had where this was going to lead. "What's your point? Al obviously doesn't care – why should we?"

"My point is that Al knew all of this – probably saw it all happening before it did. He knows how everyone around him feels all of the time; knows what they think more often than not; and has to deal with all of that from the perspective of the most gentle soul any of us have ever known. You've all joined in to tear down the one person who has proved over and over that he loves us unconditionally – and still does. I don't know whether any of you will ever be able to accept that he doesn't want to be like that – make those sorts of choices."

"He's done it before," Gwendolyn countered; and Susannah shrugged.

"Maybe, but he's always tried to do his best; he'd be the first to tell you that none of us are perfect – and he's still trying to do that now. You sit here again tonight insulting him nearly as badly as James, Ollie, or his Slytherin haters have been doing over the last week and a half – and I'm sick of it. Now you want to blast him too – or try to go and gang up on him to do that despite the fact that we all know that he can stop all of you if he chooses to do that! You're acting no differently than James for that. If you can't love him for the Wizard he's trying to tell you he wants to become; then don't – and move on without him! You don't have to destroy him to do that, do you?"

"We don't want to destroy him – we want to knock some sense into him!" Rose insisted.

Susannah shook her head; stood up; and began to pack up her things.

"He's the only one of you who does make sense," she told them quietly; and then smiled ruefully at Gwendolyn. "Be glad that he'll only ever love me in a sister or cousin sort of way; 'cause I'd give anything to have a Wizard as amazing as he is look at me the way he looks at you every time you're near to him. He is never going to be flashy and extroverted like you and your parents are – or his own Mum, brother, and sister. If that's what you need; then I wish you well with finding that Wizard; but I'll also think you're an idiot for giving up on Al just because he doesn't want to fight for what you want." She sighed aloud this time. "Do you not even understand why he doesn't want to do that? It out to be obvious."

"No – please enlighten us; oh great fount of wisdom," Gwendolyn said sarcastically.

"You know how strong he is - magically," Susannah told her. "He could literally have anything he wanted and I wouldn't be surprised if nobody else is strong enough to stop him." She laughed at their reactions. "Come on – you go on about him being a coward while he could have simply made every Gryffindor in your House – including James and Ollie – forget that there ever was a vote. Heck – he could have stopped Ollie from even calling for that vote in the first place!"

"So why didn't he?" Rose demanded. "That just makes me angrier!"

"Really? So every time you get angry about something or someone, Al should do whatever he can so that you get what you want? James and Ollie – or anyone else you don't like – shouldn't have free will because Al has the power to take it from them? Where should that level of control start and stop? Al could make Kyle your devoted boyfriend or future husband forever – and make sure that he's oblivious to anything he shouldn't know about you or our Wizarding World. Why go through all of the trouble of building your plan to buy the Cannons? Just get him to go and force them to sell the team to you for a knut or sickle – depending on how generous you want to be. He could do that, I'm sure; and never, ever get caught."

"I'm not asking him to cheat," Rose protested; and Susannha laughed.

"You just finished saying it made you angrier that he could have made Ollie forget about even asking for the vote – or make everyone forget it happened. Does the how matter if the results are what you want at the expense of others?"

"Of course it matters!" Rose agreed.

"And that's why Al's made these choices," Susannah concluded as she finished packing her bag and picked it up. "I love all of you too, but it's time for me to make my choice too – and I choose being happy."

"You're going to hang out with Al?" Gwendolyn demanded darkly; and Susannah shrugged.

"Possibly – though he won't want me to throw myself to the wolves like that – especially when there's a good chance you'd join that pack now to help out with shredding my reputation too. Don't worry – if I do study with Al now and then; you've nothing to worry about from me, Gwendolyn. I've already mentioned that he only loves me like a sister or cousin."

"You haven't said how you feel about him," Gwendolyn countered; and Susannah nodded.

"I haven't," she agreed – and then headed for the door. "Good night. I've loved studying with you, but apparently, it's just another new school year and time for yet another big change in our lives."

Lily and Jonah had gone off on their own after dinner; they had one of Al's sofas and his mirror; and they'd eventually set it up in an out-of-the-way classroom after going for a long walk that took them to that classroom by way of a meandering route that had spanned the castle from the dungeons to the seventh floor – not that she'd wanted to do that in search of Al so that she could try blasting him again.

That would have just been an added bonus!

They played and sang music for a while; had a bit of snogging fun; and then called her parents to have a bedtime chat that included getting to say goodnight to Malorie and the twins because they timed it for the bedtime schedule that Malorie was trying to get set up for Jaimie and Lorie. Ginny answered the call on the third chime; and was smiling as she held her mirror with one hand and one of the girls with the other.

"I thought that you might call sooner with the Quidditch report," Ginny told her.

"Do you really want to know that one of your sons is an evil genius and the other is an idiot?" Lily countered.

"Careful – you're talking about their father and uncle," Ginny teased. "We have already heard enough to know why you're saying that, but why are you saying that about Al when he was only at tryouts as a spectator?"

"What are you talking about? He wasn't there today!" Lily asked and stated.

"You may not have seen him; but he was there," Ginny assured her. "That's how we know what we do so far about how your senior team tryouts went this afternoon."

"Then he's more the idiot if he was there and watched on while James finished off his coup by putting Rose, Ray, and Cyndia on his team – and proved that we're all a bunch of hypocrites for going along with his deviously-brilliant plan to get everything he wants while giving us no reason to fight him. I've been trying to hunt Al down to try and blast some sense into him again; but he's still skipping every meal and has gone into hiding again."

Ginny sighed. "Get over yourself, Lily," she said bluntly. "You know Al well-enough to know that he could have stopped that vote or done any number of other things to win that fight and keep his job as Captain – or Prefect for that matter; though he gave that up voluntarily. You think he's messed up your chances to win a Quidditch Cup, but what is really going on with him is that he's decided that the price you want him to pay for finally getting your name on that trophy for the first time is more than he's willing to pay. For all we know, he's seeing the consequences of his actions ten or twenty years down the road; didn't like what he saw had he done what all of you seem to be demanding of him; and decided he needed to stop now."

"Or what?" Lily demanded. "He'd go on to win three more Quidditch Cups and get Gwendolyn mad at him for besting her team every year? Well, she's furious with him now anyway – and I think she's done with him!"

Ginny laughed. "I was done with your father more than once when I was a teen. I'm not saying they'll work it out – they may not; and that would be too bad for them. If they don't, though; it won't be because of anything your brother did – it'll be because Gwendolyn can't accept him for who he is instead of what she thinks a son of the most powerful Wizard in the World is supposed to be."

"What's wrong with wanting him to stop being afraid of showing everyone just how amazing he is?" Lily demanded crossly.

"Everything, if he wants none of it," Ginny answered. "You think quite a lot of your father too, don't you?"

"Of course," Lily agreed.

"So what would you ask of him? Right now, he's an unemployed bum with a new part-time gig as half of a grandparent babysitting service that we get paid for in cuddles, dirty diapers, and the occasional spit-up. You didn't start insulting and hexing us for walking away from our jobs."

"So you're saying that all of this is your fault for setting a bad example?" Lily joked; and smiled when she earned a round of laughter for that line.

"I'd suggest you submit that idea to Rita Skeeter; but it wouldn't fit in with her current narrative that Al's getting his due with everything going on there. Then again; you think he deserves everything he's dealing with too – and then some extra hexes, jinxes, and curses too, right?"

"Quit trying to mess up my being mad at him," Lily told her half-seriously. "You would have felt exactly like this at my age."

"And did more than a few times when I'd get mad at one of my brothers," Ginny agreed with a nod and smile. "All you're saying with that statement is that your brother is wising up to what's most-important in life – and it isn't about being Quidditch Captain, Prefect, or filling shelves with awards so that everyone knows how amazing you are."

"He's still working on that back-handed bragging thing," Malorie called out; "but I think he's come a long way in the last week and a half."

"You're talking with him?" Lily asked in surprise.

"I think that it was Sunday before he tried calling; and we've talked once a day since then – and he talks with the girls."

"Why didn't any of you tell me?"

"Because we didn't want to mess up your fun with being mad at him," Ginny joked.

"Al hasn't quit or walked away from anyone," Malorie added. "You've all just chosen not to walk with him on a new path."

"Because we don't like where it's going," Lily countered.

"That might not ever change for you," Malorie suggested. "You and Gwendolyn really like the spotlight – and you shine when you're in it; so Al's choices may prove to be incompatible with what you want – and very lonely for him – until he surrounds himself with like-minded Wizards and Witches."

"There'd better not be any Witches if he knows what's good for him," Lily declared; and Malorie laughed.

"Even if Gwendolyn decides she can't accept this new, introverted version of Al and moves on to someone more exciting? No wonder you're not sure about whether you want to date Jonah or not – he's certainly more like Al than you or Gwendolyn."

"And he's sitting next to her," Ginny advised Malorie with a grin.

"Oops," Malorie offered without any real hint of embarrassment. "Still true. Maybe you both need to go and hang out with some other Wizards to appreciate the ones that love you the way I wish James could love me."

"While still being an extroverted, moderately-dangerous bad boy," Lily added.

Malorie laughed. "Also true," she agreed. "I hope that you all get things figured out – and I'm not just saying that because I don't want to end up unemployed if Rose and Al go their separate ways."

"She'd go ahead with her plans without him," Lily assured her.

"Maybe," Malorie agreed; "but would my job still be any fun?"

"You should stop talking to Al too," Lily suggested. "Before you know it; you'll stop having a thing for bad boys at all and start thinking that guys like Al aren't so bad after all."

Malorie laughed. "That all depends on what you want them for," she offered. "Your boring, good brother calls and talks to his nieces every day; makes sure that they know they're loved; sings them beautiful songs; and is sure to be an amazing father someday too. Here's some more truth, Lily. I'm an idiot for not waiting to find someone like that to share my life with. You're an idiot for not seeing that you have that and more in the Wizard sitting right next to you; and Gwendolyn is an idiot if she doesn't choose all of that love over whatever fantasy she thinks she needs her Wizard to be – or because what others try to do to Al makes her life a bit messy too."

"Maybe I should just talk with the twins," Lily suggested. "I'm sure they'll understand the benefits of a good mad!"

Al was changing his schedule to avoid as many problems as he could with all of his friends – and that was driving wedges between them that he didn't like; but were preferable to the alternatives of hurting them with truths that they didn't want to hear or accept. He went to bed early – before Ray came up to their dorm room; he woke up a bit earlier than he had before; and he was out of their House before anyone else. On Sunday morning, the weather was half-decent; so he went outside for his morning workout. He went with a Tai Chi long form instead of something more-energetic and flashy, but while he was able to sense some spectators watching from the castle; nobody came outside or anywhere near him while he worked through those forms near the cliff's edge of one of his favorite spots overlooking the lake.

After that, he had time to go for a fly; he went into the castle and quietly prevented a pre-breakfast attempt to bully a pair of Hufflepuff firsties; and then he went to the Room of Requirements to have his breakfast for one away from all of the mental noise that he could avoid while in that special place. With all of his weekend work finished, Al ventured out around the castle for a while to try and quietly do some good deeds – and crossed paths with Susannah in the library. He hadn't tried to avoid her despite knowing what she'd wanted; and he'd hated hurting her feelings by turning down her offer to study with him now that she'd left their study group too. She'd understood the consequences of that offer, but he wasn't willing to let her pay that price just to continue to be his friend; and that was also one more thing that he didn't want to be responsible for – the hurt that came along with being his friend in any way.

They'd both been sad when they'd parted after that chat, but Al needed to keep busy; so he stayed in the library; helped a few kids in study distress; and added in a bit of project research that gave him a legitimate excuse for being there. That kept him busy until lunchtime; he went off to the Room of Requirements to have that meal on his own too; and then he spent half of the afternoon doing his own Quidditch workout along with some work on one of Lily's birthday gifts. He got that gift finished; wrapped it; and put it away with the store-bought gift he'd picked up for her over the summer holidays.

By dinnertime on Sunday, and while he was blissfully-ignorant while in the peaceful environs of the Room of Requirements, the Quidditch gossip was moving down the list of top stories; but he was still involved in new stories that were making the rounds. Despite the fact that he'd only talked with Susannah for a few minutes in the library, there was speculation about them that was a story quickly gaining traction; but there was also news that Louis and Deanna had offered Ray the extra Prefect job – and he had accepted it. Al didn't find out about any of that until he returned to the Gryffindor common room ahead of curfew, and most teens didn't have much more than the basic details from those stories; but Al was able to find out more than he wanted to know – whether that was knowing Ray's true reasons for accepting the job; Rose's mixed feelings about having him as her new fellow Prefect; or even Louis' reasons for offering his best mate the badge that he'd cared so little about! On the even darker side, he found out that Gwendolyn had started that rumor about him and Susannah; and she hoped that Ray's new status as Prefect would make Al mad-enough to stop being a coward and stand up for himself – even though deep-down, she knew that wasn't going to happen.

That return to sensory-overload had Al coming up with an idea for wireless magical earbuds for his mirror while wishing he could block out all of that 'sound' around him; and he had the how for doing that worked out in his head by the time he was ready to get some sleep, so while the problems in his life continued; he still felt that there were good things happening for him too – even if nobody else believed that. The good was still a long way from off-setting all of the bad, and Gwendolyn was always in his thoughts on some level, but he continued to hope that everything would work out for the best; and that he'd again get to share all of the good and happy he wanted in his life with her – and with everyone else he loved-most.

His daily routine continued to evolve, and while not all of it was for the good – like not being involved in Lily's fourteenth birthday beyond magically delivering her gifts to the foot of her bed early on Tuesday morning; there was more good happening. He explored his magical talents with a new freedom now that he didn't do hours of tutoring every week. He used his Animorphmagus abilities regularly because he didn't care what anyone else thought about it if he decided to fly or run between classes – or go outside to play around the school grounds or even in the lake! He continued to use his abilities to help others – including his mission to stop the particularly-nasty bullies – another scan-and-locate twist that he honed to find both those bullies and victims dreading the next attack.

Unlike James with all of his 'study' classes; Al's school day was simple – he had classes in every time slot. He enjoyed all of the magical play time – though it wasn't always easy to deal with the environment around him. On Mondays, he had three of four classes with Slytherin, and the one that would have been his best of the day was tough because he had to be in the same greenhouse with the Witch that he loved like crazy – and who, at least temporarily, was hating on him more-deeply every day. There was one change for the good – his complete and total focus on the plants was making him a more-appreciative student of the subject. Sure, some plants might try to poison or eat you, but other than that; they could be quite nice and were great listeners!

More rumors were started when Susannah switched class partners in the double Charms class they had together on Tuesday morning – a change that angered Rose because one of her recent best friends had picked 'his' side – and told her that she was on the wrong side of the fight – or in the wrong for fighting with Al at all. Rose's mad and the rumors were especially-stupid because Susannah didn't sit with him instead – though she ended up at the table in front of his; and his efforts to be happy and have fun were again tested as Susannah had to put up with insults and jokes regardless of what either of them actually did.

While he couldn't celebrate Lily's birthday with her because she wanted to stay mad at him; he'd actually been glad to sense that his gifts had been appreciated – but hadn't changed anything between them. He wasn't going to change the path he'd stepped out onto, but he also didn't want anyone to be part of his life simply because of things he could do for them – or cool gifts. He had double classes of Herbology and DADA in the morning and afternoon on Wednesday; the plants kept him company while Gwendolyn, Rose, Ray, and others hated on him all morning; and he had his magic to play with while the Slytherins added their hate and scorn to the emotional ether around him.

Al was completely out of the loop for Hogwarts Quidditch – beyond hearing all of the rumors and picking up on all of the good and bad he sensed from the players on all of the teams. Quidditch was still part of his life, though, and while he didn't have anyone to compete against; he continued to try and hone his skills and take his game to the next level – finding joy in the effort without the need to deal with the hard feelings or even hatred. He continued the daily chats with Malorie and the twins; kept ahead of all of his homework with ease as he also got faster and better at using his RevisionWizard – and did a bit of tinkering with it too just to make it even better.

He worked and played pretty much from before dawn until curfew; went to bed early every night; and even with all of his classes; he had his weekend assignments finished by the time he went to sleep on Friday night – so he only had projects left to work on over the weekend – along with the fun he planned on having that would include his first Hogsmeade weekend and a Harpies' match. On the downside, it was also going to be his first Hogsmeade weekend without Gwendolyn; and he wasn't going to get to be a part of Lily's first Hogsmeade weekend either. That was a cost he had to pay on a spiritual level, but he refused to let it deter him from his new goals. He woke up early as usual; went to the Room of Requirements for his morning workout; had a quick breakfast for one after that; and was first in line to leave for Hogsmeade – and he had quite a wait for that before he was set free to leave the castle. He flew off toward town as soon as he was out of the castle; ignored the taunts that were shouted out after him; and made it to town faster than even the over-age teens could because they still had to walk to the gates before apparating to town. His joy level kicked up a dozen or more notches when he sensed that his parents, Malorie, and the twins were there; he headed unerringly straight for them; and shared a happy round of hugs with them in the main dining room of the Three Broomsticks.

"Thank you!" he told all of them simply; his smile bright and happy as his father handed Lorie to him for a cuddle. "I so needed this today!"

"Malorie thought that you might – though we won't be staying for long. Jaimie and Malorie will only be good for an hour or so before they'll be getting fussy again and want to be nursed," Ginny told him. "You look well-enough – especially since we've heard that you've skipped almost all of your meals since getting back to school. If you wanted to fast; why didn't you do that during the summer instead of eating us out of house and home? You did know that we're unemployed." Al laughed – joined in for the laughs; and realized it was the first time he'd done that with a group in weeks.

"I'll be able to re-stock my food supplies today," he advised her. "I'm pretty much out of them now – and that's definitely a first for me."

"Try going to more meals in the Great Hall," Ginny counseled. "You can't stay healthy eating nothing but sweets all day."

"I'll pick up other, healthier foods today too," Al hedged and promised; while turning his attention to Lorie. "Good morning, beautiful. I am so glad to see you in person again. This past nearly three weeks without any cuddles has been very hard for me."

"We are passing along all of the cuddles and kisses you ask us to give them," Malorie advised him. "Before you get totally focused on your nieces, though; how did you get here so fast? We thought that we still had fifteen minutes or more before the Hogwarts students would get here – and didn't plan on going outside until we heard the older teens apparate here."

Al grinned at her. "I was first in line – and flew."

"Now I wish we'd been outside to see that," Malorie said with a laugh – "though that doesn't exactly fit with you trying to stay out of the spotlight."

"That would have been worse if I'd walked to town without Gwendolyn – or with Susannah; since she's the only friend or relative at Hogwarts who is talking to me right now."

"Ron would tell you to try suffering a bit more obviously," Harry told him.

"I can't do that – because I'm not suffering," Al advised him seriously; though he was still smiling as he gave his outward attention to Lorie. "Maybe I'm just not being clear about what I'm doing," he suggested next. "I'm trying to learn to simply be happy and have joy in my life. No hate; anger; frustration; sadness; regret; or any other negative emotions – just happiness and love." He looked up at his father. "Open your senses to Jaimie and Lorie. That's what I want to have again – without all of the baggage."

"That's likely impossible," Harry told him just as seriously; but Al shook his head.

"It's unlikely that everyone will ever want that or try to achieve it. That means I'll have all of that negativity around me, but it doesn't mean that I can't learn to feel that way all of the time. I don't feel as though I'm anywhere near getting to that point again yet; but I am making progress."

"Well, we're not going to have long for this visit, so let's not waste the time we do have with such serious matters," Ginny suggested. "Let's switch babies. I'm sure that Jaimie wants her cuddles and kisses with you too."

Al spent another couple of minutes with Lorie; five more with Jaimie; and then the rest of his short amount of time withall of them before wrapping things up with a round of goodbyes and as many hugs and kisses as he could fit in before insisting that they should go and meet up with Lily, Rose, and whomever else they wanted to see – especially since his parents were also getting to have an only-slightly belated birthday visit with Lily instead of waiting until the Christmas holiday to see her in person again. Only his father saw him go when he was invisible by the time he was outside again; and he didn't hang around to watch the reunion – though he did know what went on while he got started on his shopping.

He was happy for the surprise that Gwendolyn, Rose, Lily, Jonah, and some others got to have and the half-hour of fun that followed before Harry and Ginny took Malorie and the twins home again; and he was doubly-glad that Gwendolyn did not decide to include any of them in her current hate-on for him. This Hogsmeade visit was also different for him because he didn't have any supplies to get for any younger cousins or friends. He did, however, have his own shopping list for that; and it felt a bit like Christmas for him as he picked up things that he wanted to give to some of the students he'd been helping. The biggest gift for that was a new mirror and a copy of RevisionWizard, but he also picked up some supplies; a new school robe in exactly the right size; and a fairly-substantial supply of sweets and treats.

Getting his own supplies along the way was easy-enough, but he did extra shopping there too – including an old, used Cleansweep that he planned on using to learn the basics of broom-making; and a couple of books on the subject that he knew weren't available in the library because he'd already checked to see what they had on the subject – and had read a couple of them too. He made a point of avoiding Gwendolyn, Lily, Rose, and the rest of his friends to keep the awkward moments to a minimum; but wasn't as successful at being less mentally intrusive because he couldn't help but to know what was going on with all of them. He didn't have lunch in town; picked up fresh food for that to have back at the castle so he could skip lunch there too; and went to the Room of Requirements with time to spare ahead of the Harpies-Bats match.

Watching that game by himself while having a lunch of a sandwich, veggies, and fresh fruit wasn't as much fun as cuddling with Gwendolyn and being with his friends would have been – if they were all getting along, but he was content; and enjoyed watching the short match that Gabrielle won for her team in just over an hour – another short match that helped the Harpies a lot as they headed deeper into the season. The short match gave him lots of time left in the afternoon to go forth and quietly share the love. He delivered anonymous gifts; protected a firstie in imminent risk of being bullied; helped two kids in the library; and one more in one of the Potions dungeons – all before going back to the Room of Requirements for his lonely, rather boring dinner-for-one.

Finally, he wrapped up his day with an evening of quiet play time in the Room of Requirements that was all about magic fun – whether that was broom-making or one of his other ongoing projects – like new Christmas toys. He stayed there until near-curfew; had some Animorphmagus fun for the trip back to his dorm room; and then he got ready for bed and went off to sleep.

The first, not-quite-three-week cycle of the new school year had not gone at all as he'd ever imagined even during the last couple of days of summer. His entire perspective on what a best-ever school year would be was completely changed now. There were a lot of unresolved problems and issues – with the status of some of his most-important relationships at the top of that list; but he knew that what he was doing was truly best for him; so he was going to listen to the sorting hat's advice; follow his heart; cross his fingers; and hope for the best!