Chapter 32
Landry, Miles, Genevieve, Albus, Scorpius, and Pippa were jogging down the halls of Hogwarts with Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy. Lily and James Potter were there as well, having refused to leave Harry's side. Dumbledore had assigned them to the third floor corridor in which the Philosopher's stone had been kept in Harry's first year. He had assured them that it was now free of winged attack keys, murderous plants, and decomposing trolls. As the group entered the room with the trapdoor on the floor, that had once housed Fluffy, the three headed dog, Landry coughed. The room was coated in dust. It clearly had not been used since Harry's days at Hogwarts.
Scorpius quickly performed a dusting spell, which left the room clean, but, of course, still empty. "What should we do for our trap?" Genevieve asked.
"Well, we don't have any magical beasts," Harry chuckled.
"Actually, maybe we do," Miles corrected. "I'm pretty sure there's a boggart in the closet of our Transfiguration classroom. If nobody's already taken it to use in their trap, that is."
"That's a great idea, babe!" Landry complemented.
"Wasn't there some sort of giant chess set when you fought through this same series of traps?" Albus asked his dad.
"Yes, there was. Why?" Harry wondered.
"Well, we could enlarge Scorpius's chess set and enchant it. I doubt Voldemort is well practiced at Wizard's Chess. It would stump him for sure!" Albus exclaimed.
"That will work," Draco nodded in approval.
"James, how about you set up that one prank you once did on Severus? The one with the Forever Foam?" Lily suggested.
"Yes!" James replied, excitedly.
"I wish we could Bat-Bogey Hex them," Pippa sighed.
"Maybe we can," Landry said, an idea popping into her head. "What if we cast a spell, or a couple spells, and trap them in a room that's mirrored all around. That way, the spells will just bounce around until someone enters and gives them something to hit."
"That's so clever, Love," Miles said, squeezing Landry's hand.
"Then, at the end, we can hide the fake cloak in a riddlebox. Whoever is trying to open it will have to solve a riddle to get in. I know McGonagall has a couple in her office," said Harry.
Pippa, who was holding the cloak, looked confused. "This isn't a fake cloak, though. Dumbledore gave the the real one," she told them.
Landry sighed. "Of course he did," she said, slightly exasperated.
"He put me in charge of moving it around while everyone else is fighting. I'm so small that I can be easily covered by it, so nobody will be able to see me or the cloak. And obviously I've done an anti-accio charm on it, which Dumbledore did on all the decoys, so that the Death Eaters can't just conjure it up. Though I doubt any of them would be bright enough to think of that," Pippa explained.
Landry knew there was no point in arguing against her sister being responsible for such a dangerous task. Instead, she sent everyone off to get the various supplies. Once everyone had returned with what they needed, the group got to work on setting up all of the traps in each of their designated rooms along the passageway under the trapdoor. Genevieve "engorgio!"-ed the chess set, Miles and Landry locked the cloak in the riddlebox, and Harry wrestled the boggart into a conjured-up wardrobe. James and Lily used a spell of James's own invention to create a room full of 'un-poppable' bubble foam, so thick that nobody could see through it. Scorpius, Albus, Draco, and were working on hanging up the huge mirrors that they had transfigured out of pocket compacts. "We need to make sure this mirror is straight," Albus said, as he, Draco, and Scorpius levitated the mirror up and onto the wall.
"That will be no problem for me! I'm super good at all things straight! You could say that 'straight' is my middle name! Definitely no problems with anything involving straightness," Scorpius said, with a nervous laugh.
Both Albus and Draco looked at Scorpius with very odd expressions. Scorpius's ramble was, of course, a really terrible attempt at assuring that his sexuality was hidden from his father.
Once every trap had been set, everyone met in the room with the trapdoor (though not without quite a bit of difficulty getting out through their own traps). After making sure Pippa knew all of the counter spells to get through when she went to move the cloak, all of the group sat down for a break. They knew it would be the last rest they got for a while.
"This is sure to stop old Moldy-Voldy and Grindel-wart," Pippa said, admiring their handiwork.
"I sure hope so, Pip," Landry giggled.
"See what awesome things we can do with a little help from our friends?" Genevieve said. "Well, our friends, their dads, and a couple of resurrected grandparents."
"Yes, friends! That's what we are! Well, except for Miles and Landry, who are dating. And Mr. and Mrs. Potter, who are married. But yup, the rest of us are great friends! Best friends, you might say," Scorpius rambled, again meriting a collection of odd looks. Landry quickly figured out that this strange statement was for the benefit of Scorpius's dad. She realized he must not know about Scorpius and Albus's relationship yet. Looking over at Albus, Landry noticed that he looked more than a little hurt.
All of a sudden, the castle shook. If Landry had not been sitting already, it would have knocked her over. "They're here," she said, fear striking her heart. Miles took her hand and pulled her closer to him. Lily did the same to James. Albus and Scorpius remained a few feet apart from each other.
"What are we supposed to do?" Genevieve asked.
"I don't know, but we should go see what exactly is happening out there. If we're going to fight, we should probably, you know, fight," Scorpius said.
"Yes, by all means, let's go. Scorpius seems very eager to fight," Albus said, definitely not talking about the actual battle.
"Um…okay," said Harry, deciding it was best not to involve himself in whatever his son was referring to. "How about we go see if there's anyone who needs help finishing their traps?"
The group left the third floor corridor, and began looking around for anyone who may need their help. As they passed by a window, Landry caught a glimpse of what was going on outside. Pieces of the force field were slowly, but surely, breaking away. There was a giant swarm of Death Eaters flying around, spells shooting in all directions. She watched as an Auror was hit with a green blast of magic. The witch fell to the ground, motionless. She was dead. Landry didn't even notice the tear that fell down her cheek as she turned away, and continued walking.
As the group was making their way down a particularly long corridor, a girl with extremely curly red hair came running up to them. "Hey, Uncle Harry, my dad wanted me to tell you to give Voldemort this for him," said Rose Granger-Weasley, holding up a very crude hand sign. Harry quickly pushed her hand down and rolled his eyes.
"Okay, tell him I'll pass along the message," he said.
"Oh, also, Mom wanted me to tell you not to listen to Dad," Rose called back to him, as she disappeared around the corner.
Draco smirked at Scorpius. "That's the girl, right? The one you fancy?" he asked.
"Oh, um…" Scorpius trailed off. He no longer had romantic feelings for Rose, but if he told his dad as much, Scorpius was afraid that his dad may figure out that he was dating Albus, and not accept him…or worse.
"Yeah, that's her," Scorpius said.
"Hey, here's an idea," Albus said, angrily. "How about we split up? You know, so that we can find more people who may need our help. I think it may be best for us to break up."
Tears fell down Albus's cheeks as he stormed away. "We should go see if he's okay," Genevieve said. She, Miles, and Landry ran after Albus.
Scorpius was sobbing, silently. Draco was equal parts confused and concerned. "Scorpius? What's going on?" he asked his son.
"I…I just can't," Scorpius said, running away in the opposite direction from where Albus and the others had gone.
"Leave it up to our sons to choose the middle of a bloody war to have relationship drama," Harry said, sadly.
"Wait…relationship?" Draco questioned, shocked.
"Oh, did you not know? Merlin, that explains a lot. Ah, I assumed you knew. Wow, some father I am, outing his own kid's relationship," Harry said, guiltily.
"So…Scorpius and Albus are…dating?" Draco asked.
"Yeah. Or, they were. I'm pretty sure what we just witnessed was their break up," Pippa explained.
"This is all my fault," Draco said. "I have to fix this."
He dashed off in the same direction Scorpius had gone.