Chapter Seven

The Shield Charm

Albus had barely managed to get any sleep. He dragged himself out of bed around seven and washed up, emerging to find Finn sitting up on his bed and rubbing his eyes.

Finn looked at Albus and grimaced. "You look like shit."

"That bloody siren did me in," Albus muttered. "I couldn't get back to sleep."

"So I wasn't just imagining things," said Finn. "I thought it was some weird dream."

"At least you didn't jump out of bed naked again," Albus said, remembering the scarring events of his first afternoon in the castle.

"What the hell was that, then?" Finn asked.

"My phone," said Albus, tapping his trunk with his foot. "You know how I told you about the audio thing?"

Finn nodded. "Yeah, that it couldn't play anything. I thought you had the volume turned down, though."

"I did," Albus grumbled. "Seemed like it wasn't enough."

"D'you think you should check—"

"No," Albus interrupted. "It's too early; if that blasted thing is still going, I want nothing to do with it."

"None of the others are here," Finn said, looking around.

"I never said anything about the others," said Albus. "But now that you mention it…" He hesitated. "Us two and Scorpius were the only ones who heard it."

"Well, the other guys are on the other side of the room, no?"

"Yeah, but there's no feasible way they wouldn't have woken up unless…" Albus stopped. "Unless there's something magical about it."

Finn hopped out of bed. "You said it's in your trunk?"

"Yeah," Albus said. "Why?"

Finn moved quicker than Albus could react, throwing the lid of the trunk open and tossing aside his books and clothes. The noise from the phone grew louder and louder, eventually plateauing at full volume. The siren wasn't nearly as intense as last time, but it was still loud enough to be mildly uncomfortable.

Finn fished the phone out from the bottom of Albus's trunk, nearly falling in due to its enhanced depth, and bolted out of the room.

The noise didn't reduce as Finn ran down the stairs; in fact, it got louder. Albus could barely detect it, but the volume certainly wasn't decreasing.

Albus shook himself out of his stupor. Finn had thankfully failed to notice the Invisibility Cloak, and stuffed it underneath his bedsheets. He ran out the open door and stumbled down the stairs, his feet bare and his steps unsteady.

Finn was standing in the middle of the common room, his fist clenched around the phone into the air, looking like some kind of lame superhero in his neon pyjamas. People were staring at him oddly, and some even moved out of their seats and farther away.

"Erm… you good?" Ethan asked, looking at Finn oddly from near the fireplace.

"Can you hear anything?" Finn asked, shouting a little. "Because I can, and my friend and I were trying to find out if anyone else could."

Ethan stood and slowly made his way over. "Are you hearing things? That's generally not a good sign." He noticed Albus at the foot of the stairs. "Oh, Albus, I actually wanted to talk to you. Is your friend okay?"

"Yeah, he's harmless," Albus said hurriedly, moving and grabbing Finn's raised arm sharply. He tried speaking at what he thought to be a normal volume. "He's not a morning person."

"Right," said Ethan, his tone doubtful. Albus squirmed in place and tried to focus on Ethan's words over the unrelenting noise. "Look, I wanted to remind you that the D.E. is today. You said you were interested, at the beginning of term."

"You remembered?" Albus asked.

Ethan smiled and tapped his head. "I've got a good memory. It's at five-thirty. Try to get there early, it usually fills up quick."

"Yeah, of course," Albus said, smiling awkwardly. "Enjoying that book?"

"Yeah, the first one's good. You mind if I read the second when I'm finished?"

"Sure." Albus nodded and started pushing Finn back up the stairs. "Well, good morning."

Albus snatched his phone from Finn's grasp when they returned to their dormitory. He threw it back into his trunk, stuffed the Cloak and his books on top, and sat down on the lid, sighing in relief when the noise stopped.

Albus mustered the iratest expression he could and aimed it at his friend, who had sat down on Scorpius's bed.

Finn was picking at dirt under his nails. "The D.E. is today? That should be fun."

"Don't," Albus warned.

Finn held his hands up defensively. "You wanted solid answers, there you go. We're both completely lucid, and now we've determined that not everyone hears the thing."

"Was that really the best way to go about it, though?"

Finn shrugged in response. "It worked, didn't it?"

"Maybe," Albus admitted. "But now Ethan's probably on our backs."

"Oh, we'll be fine. If we need to do any snooping, we've got that handy dandy Invisibility Cloak of yours."

Albus laughed anxiously. "I dunno what you mean."

Finn pointed. "That one you're sitting on right now? I noticed it while digging through your trunk."

"Bloody fantastic," Albus grumbled. "This has been a mare."

Scorpius burst through the door, throwing it open it such force that it hit the stone wall and emitted an ominous thud. Scorpius looked back at the door handle, which had broken into two pieces against the stone wall.

"I'll fix that later," he said. "There's something more important."

"I spoke too soon," Albus muttered. "What is it?" he asked, noticing that Scorpius's hands were suspiciously devoid of croissants.

"Did you just take the phone out?" Scorpius asked.

"Yeah," Albus said. "Why, were you in the common room?"

Scorpius's eyes widened. "I was in the Great Hall."

"Did anyone there hear it?" Albus questioned, sharply standing up.

"We did," Rose called from the doorway. She was standing there with Talia. "It's seven-forty, we need to get to class."

"Something shady as hell is going on here and you're worried about class?" Albus scoffed. "This is some deep gravy, Rosie!"

"I don't need you telling me that," said Rose. "Why d'you think we heard that bloody phone from the Great Hall but it goes completely silent in a trunk?"

"I told them about everything," Scorpius said. "Even about last night."

"We woke up, but it's not like we knew what was going on," Talia muttered. Her eyes were puffy and ringed with shadow, and it was evident that the lack of sleep had taken a toll on her. "I thought I was going looney."

Finn tsked at Scorpius. "And here you wanted a normal school year."

"As long as I'm not in immediate danger of expulsion, I can handle it," Scorpius said, a faint kind of bewildered smile on his face.

O

Albus and his four friends booked it to the Great Hall right after classes, figuring that they'd be early enough to score spots right near the dueling circle, but were instead relegated to the back of a line that wrapped around the corner.

Rose stared at her wrist disbelievingly. "It's only a quarter past five! Classes just ended!"

"The D.E. is s'posed to be the best thing aside from Quidditch," said Minghao, cutting into line with Barry and Gore in tow. No one raised concerns, likely put off by the hulking boy who looked like he could snap any of them in half.

"I heard that the best part is watching the seventh years," said Talia, who looked as if she could levitate off the floor any second. "They do the coolest stuff."

"Most of seventh year Defense is making your own spells," said Rose. "I bet they practice them here."

"I'd make a line shortening spell," Scorpius muttered. "I hate waiting in line."

"My sister's been practicing hers at home," said Barry. "Nearly blew up the house once, but it's been getting more consistent."

"She can do magic at home?" Albus questioned.

"She turned seventeen halfway through the summer."

"Ah."

They rounded the corner ten minutes later. Two prefects were collecting permission forms at the entrance to the Hall, and Finn blanched as the others withdrew their slips from their robes. "Were we meant to get those?"

"Go!" Albus urged, now glad they were at the back of the line.

Finn returned five minutes later, out of breath but just in time. He cut to the front of the line just as the others were cleared, earning a slew of angry glares from those in line behind them as he apologetically handed his crumpled slip to one of the prefects.

The prefect stared at Finn hard for a moment before tapping the paper with his wand. It disappeared in midair, and Albus spotted a name in loopy writing appear at the bottom of the prefect's clipboard before Finn was waved inside.

The room itself was packed so full that Albus and his friends could hardly push halfway through the crowd. From the snippets of conversation that floated Albus's way, it appeared that most everyone was excited to see the older students duke it out with their own spells.

The Slytherin first years did their best to peer over their older peers, but their best wasn't much, and they were instead forced to gauge what was happening based on the myriad of mingling sounds in the air; or, at least, they might have been, if Gore weren't there. He aided their efforts to push through the mass of bodies, and Albus was granted an uninhibited view of the circular dueling platform, so large it spanned the width of the hall.

Professor M, standing in the very center of the circle, raised his arms up in the air, and an anticipatory blanket of silence fell over the Hall.

M had cast a Magnifying Charm on his voice, but there was no need, for the quiet was so dense that they'd have been able to hear a pin drop. "Normally, we'd provide some basic information and begin straightaway, but because of the extensive size of our group today, Professor McCaffrey and I have decided to do things differently."

M glanced at Professor McCaffrey, who stood on the outer edge of the platform.

"You're all going to get a chance to learn some magic today, don't worry," said McCaffrey. His voice wasn't magically amplified, but his words echoed across the Hall, regardless. "But we're going to divide into sections based on skill level—let me finish!" said McCaffrey as scattered groans of disappointment broke the silence. "We're going to divide into sections based on skill level after introductions and a… special demonstration."

"Dueling is an ancient is well-practiced art," said M. "But it evolves just as magic does. New spells create new effects and new strategies, and in return produce new ideas for even more spells. The rules of dueling are simple, and in their simplicity we find freedom to interpret the rules as we may."

"All dueling occurs within a circle, like this," said McCaffrey, indicating the platform. "That is the number one rule. If you step out of the circle, you lose."

"If you are incapacitated, you also lose," M added. "That means you can't just get back up and fire more spells after being Stunned. Of course, we're not going to be Stunning anyone full force, here, but in professional dueling, most matches end that way."

"What if you die?" came a voice from the back of the room, inspiring a number of chuckles.

"Then you'd die, wouldn't you?" M responded, drawing enough laughs to break the tense atmosphere.

"No one has died in a professional duel since the seventeenth century," McCaffrey assured. "And that's because of the second rule."

"No spells above class V," said M. "Here, we lower that to class III. I understand you first years haven't quite gone over the modern classification system, but it means nothing stronger than a hex. No curses."

"You don't want to know what happens if you break that second rule," said McCaffrey, silencing a few resultant murmurs. "It's not fun for anyone."

"Especially Professor Helios," said M, shaking his head. "Lots of paperwork."

"I think it's best for us to just show them, Professor," said McCaffrey slyly.

"I'd have to agree," said M. "We're going to demonstrate some dueling basics for you all."

A rumble of intrigue returned in full force as the two professors began casting protective barriers around the circle. Talia squealed and grasped Albus's arm. "Didn't M duel professionally?!"

"He did," said Albus, feeling uncomfortably warm.

M drew his wand and held it at his side. "If everyone could back away from the circle slightly, please. I want a nice hard place of ground for Professor McCaffrey to land on."

McCaffrey chuckled as the others backed up. "Don't get too comfortable, Marcus."

"I'm not."

"We're using spells up to class V, like a normal duel, with a twist," McCaffrey prefaced, still grinning. "We have to say our incantations aloud. You all aren't limited to this rule if you can do nonverbal spells, but it doesn't make for much of a demonstration if you have no idea what spells we're casting."

"But first, rule three. The formalities. Stand at either end of the circle," said M, bringing his wand to his chest. McCaffrey did the same. "Think of your first spell, but not too hard, you don't want to blast yourself in the face. Then, bow…"

Both professors tilted their heads up as they bowed, keeping their eyes on one another. M's unfinished sentence hung in the air.

"And duel!" M exclaimed. He darted forwards from the edge of the circle and jabbed his wand out. "Rictusempra!"

"Protego!" came a shout from McCaffrey, and the jet of light from M's wand bounced harmlessly off an invisible shield. "Expelliarmus!"

The spell went rocketing back at M. M didn't bring up a shield, instead seeming to watch the spell coast towards his face.

"He's going to lose!" Rose screamed.

He wasn't going to lose. Professor M turned his wand up to the jet of light, and with the most precision Albus had ever seen in his life, caught the disarming spell. M coiled his arm back like a spring and fired the spell right back at McCaffrey with two times the velocity. The Charms professor darted out of the way just in time.

Cheers erupted around the Hall as the dueling became more furious. Crackling, shattering sounds like glass breaking filled the air as spells collided. It seemed like the professors were going all out, especially as M started pushing area effects to force them onto quite literally uneven footing.

"Glacius Regio!" yelled M, jumping into the air like a cartoon character and pointing his wand at the ground.

A massive block of ice spread from beneath his feet, building up and outwards and sloping at a severe degree. It grew five, then ten meters into the air, so high that it caught light from the top of the windows and cast a looming shadow over the entire Hall.

Albus craned his head upwards as the professors ascended. M landed catlike on a flat part of the glacier, but McCaffrey was forced into a tough position. He managed a quick Ascendio and vaulted over the razor sharp crest, but hit the ice on the other side hard and began sliding down the extreme grade on his back.

McCaffrey pointed his wand at the ground as he slid closer to M, but Albus didn't catch the first part of his incantation. "...Maxima!

"Bombarda!" M exclaimed, pointing at the same spot. A large hole started boring into the ice in front of McCaffrey, but it soon became the least of the Charms professor's problems.

The glacier fissured with a great crunching sound and, as two large sections broke off and crumbled to either side, the middle exploded into a thousand pieces. Shards of ice ranging from the size of house flies to human beings coursed downwards with terrifying speed, and the two halves of the glacier fell like a giant pair of wings beating at the ground.

Albus shrieked and covered his head like the many others who did the same, but the ice fragments melted in midair and instead sent a thin wave of snow over the crowd.

The bigger chunks of ice seemed to move in slow motion as they fell. McCaffrey was sent flying backwards by the force of it all. He managed a weak "Arresto Momentum!" as he tumbled down the side of the glacier. The thing sunk into the ground itself, and as the chunk of ice fully disappeared, McCaffrey landed unceremoniously in the exact spot M had indicated before.

Albus and his friends roared in approval as M skated with ease down his half of the ice. He hopped off as the tip of the glacier disappeared into the floor and, twirling his hand, gave the crowd an exaggerated bow.

McCaffrey stumbled to his feet and smiled sheepishly, waving at the few students who offered him encouragement. M strode over and shook his hand, smiling and saying something Albus couldn't hear.

"What was that last incantation?" Albus asked, turning to Rose and shouting over the noise.

"Which one?" Rose questioned.

"The one that started making the hole!"

"I couldn't tell!"

"Bravo, yes, yes," said M, his voice amplified again. "It's obvious that I am the superior duelist, but I must confess that Professor McCaffrey put me on unsteady ground."

"Now that you've all had your fun," said McCaffrey, wanting to change the subject, "we're going to break out into our groups."

Almost instantly, the mood soured.

"The two of us will be going around and monitoring," McCaffrey continued, "but each group will be led by two volunteers. Your leaders are already waiting in classrooms we've set aside for today, simply go ahead when you hear your year. Sixth and seventh years, Ethan Healy and Christopher Marley will be leading your practice on the Sound-Splitting Charm in room 1-E. Third, fourth, and fifth years will be led by Athena Hayes and Jay Wallace in learning the Freezing Charm, which Professor M used a variation of, in room 1-B. First and second years, you'll be learning the Shield Charm—which both Professor M and I used repeatedly in our duel—from Walt Stephens and Victoire Weasley in room 1-C."

Albus grinned and sprinted out of the Hall like a speed demon, leaving his friends to call his name helplessly. Victoire was probably the coolest person Albus knew aside from Teddy, and now that her and Teddy were dating, they were both worthy of the esteemed and exclusive title, "super cool."

Victoire was busy chatting, presumably with Walt Stephens, but she turned her head to the door as Albus burst into the classroom. Her face broke into a grin. "What's going on, Al?"

"You're teaching us?" asked Albus excitedly, darting over and clasping his fists at his chest.

"Yeah, we are," said Victoire, clapping her hand on his shoulder. "I have high expectations, kid."

Albus straightened like a board and saluted. "Aye, aye." He sunk a little after putting his hand down, feeling stupid. Aye, aye?

Walt Stephens looked at him oddly. "You're Albus Potter, right?"

Albus felt like he was being scrutinized by a professor. "Er, yeah."

"He's brilliant," said Victoire. "Smartest in the family besides Rose."

Albus couldn't help but grin. "Well, maybe."

"Albus!" It was Scorpius, followed by the others. "Hold on!"

"Hey, Rosie," said Victoire, waving lightly at Rose.

Rose returned the wave, grinning. "Hey."

"Your friends?" Victoire asked, looking to Albus.

"Er, yeah. Scorpius, Talia, Finn," said Albus, pointing each of them out. "Guys, this is Victoire, my cousin."

"One of four thousand," said Scorpius drily.

"Hi!" said Finn loudly. "I'm Finn!"

Victoire nodded awkwardly. "Well, hi."

Footsteps and chatter began filling the room, and Stephens turned to Victoire as if Albus wasn't there. He whispered something to her, but not quietly enough that Albus couldn't hear. "He should be in Gryffindor. He's a Potter."

Victoire's smile disappeared, and her eyes blazed with a sudden fury, as if she were prepared to slap Stephens across the face. "I dare you to say that again."

"I'm gonna go," said Albus, trying to pretend like he hadn't overheard Stephens's remark. None of his friends seemed to have noticed, and they looked at Albus with puzzled expressions. A lump had formed in his throat, strange and unwelcome, and it moved heavily as he spoke. "Come on, guys."

"But aren't—" Rose saw the look on Albus's face and stopped. "Oh. Okay."

Victoire could tell Albus had heard. "Albus, just wait a moment…"

Albus didn't hear the end of her sentence as he and his friends made their way to the side of the classroom.

"Albus, why didn't you tell me your cousin was that hot?" Finn was saying. "Come on!" he said as Rose and Talia both glared at him. He turned to Scorpius. "Mate, surely you agree with me."

"Huh? Oh, yeah, I guess," said Scorpius, looking suddenly alarmed.

"You guess? Well, there's no need to guess, my friend."

"First and second years, please settle down!" Victoire shouted, her tone a little more harsh than normal. Victoire cast Albus a little reassuring grin as the students settled, but Albus turned away as Victoire continued speaking. "We're going to be working on the Shield Charm, today. Stephens and I are going to demonstrate, and then the rest of you are going to split off into groups to practice. At the end of time, we'll call a few people up to show off what they've learned. Everybody ready? Good. Pay close attention."

"The Shield Charm," said Stephens, his voice high and reedy, "is perhaps the most important spell in a wizard's arsenal. It is very simple to cast, yet incredibly effective."

"He sounds like a rip-off Professor M," said Talia quietly.

"The incantation is, Protego. Observe. I will cast a simple Stunner at Miss Weasley—"

Victoire prickled at Miss Weasley, wrinkling her nose in distaste.

"—and she will block it using the Shield Charm." He tilted his chin up and smirked smugly. Albus felt a sudden urge to hit him in the nose, extremely hard. "One, two, three."

On three, Stephens twirled his wand, and a red jet of light moved through the air towards Victoire.

"Protego!" said Victoire, swishing her wand downwards in a straight line. When the red jet arrived within a meter of her person, a translucent blue shield appeared. The spell harmlessly bounced off and dissipated against the ground.

"Like so," said Stephens. "Did you all see her form? Straight down. The straighter the line, the more effective the spell."

"But obviously," said Victoire quickly, "the intent is the most important thing. Intent will, at an extreme level, literally allow a witch or wizard to produce magic from their fingertips. As long as you clearly picture the effect in your head, you should succeed. The wand motions and the incantation are designed to make the whole thing easier, that's all."

"You all don't know how to cast Stunners yet, so Tickling Charms will do," said Stephens. "Go ahead and begin practicing. We'll be walking around the room as monitors."

But as the five Slytherins split off into a circle and sent Tickling Charms at one another, casting the shield proved to be more difficult than Victoire made it out to be. Students burst into raucous fits of laughter in regular intervals, and often times people would need to sit out to catch their breath.

Rose and Scorpius had picked it up within mere minutes, but the other three were suffering. Albus had managed to produce three satisfactory shields, but most of the spells seemed to only be weakened by the blue barrier. Talia seemed to be faring a little better than him, but she, too, wasn't having much luck.

Finn, on the other hand, had exhausted so much of his reserves that his face had lit up red like a stoplight. Literally. Finn's face was emitting an unsettling red glow that lit his movements like a torch, and it finally subsided after he sat out for a bit.

About fifteen minutes in, Victoire walked over to check on their progress. "How's everything going here?"

Rose started. "Well, it could be—"

"Oh, fine," said Finn, grinning stupidly.

Victoire raised an eyebrow. "You sure?"

Finn's face suddenly glowed red again, and he quickly spun around. "Totally!" he squeaked, his voice muffled.

"We're having a little trouble," Albus confessed, gesturing to himself and Talia. "It keeps going through the shield."

"Mmm." Victoire nodded. "That's a common problem." She ducked, and a jet of green light cut through the space her head had just occupied. Victoire stood and resumed talking like nothing had happened. "I find that the best fix is to try and sync the timing of your shield with the offensive spell. Here, someone cast a Rictusempra at me."

Rose did the honors. In almost a split second, the spell had reached Victoire. But unlike what she'd done before, her wand was incredibly close to the jet of green light before it bounced off. Unfortunately, the spell hit Finn in the back, and the poor boy was sent tumbling to the ground in a fit of giggles.

"Sorry!" said Victoire, rushing to Finn's side and helping him up. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine," said Finn, still giggling, though Albus suspected it might not entirely have been because of the spell.

Albus tried Victoire's technique, and it seemed to work. In fact, he succeeded in blocking his friends' spells more than half the time. Albus felt himself getting into the groove, and after another fifteen minutes, he'd finally gotten good enough to consistently block the spell each time.

"Alright, everyone!" called Victoire from the front of the class. "We've got a few minutes left, enough time for some demonstrations! Any volunteers?"

A couple hands went up here and there, but Stephens picked one out immediately. "You!"

Albus bristled as Dylan Abbott strode to the front of the class, looking all smug and pompous.

"Another volunteer for this first matchup!" said Victoire.

Almost immediately, Albus's, Scorpius's, Finn's, and Talia's hands shot up into the air. Before Stephens could speak, Victoire twirled her finger and pointed in their direction. "One of you, come on up here."

Albus made to step forward, but Finn placed his arm out. "Don't," said Finn, grinning evilly. "I got this."

"But you haven't blocked a single one!" said Talia.

"He's got this," said Albus. He could see the look in Finn's eyes. "I trust him."

"Don't fail miserably," Scorpius said warmly.

Finn strode to the front, trying to match Abbott's demeanor but looking more like a peacock doing a mating dance display. Abbott visibly shrunk away from Finn, but Finn just kept smiling like an insane person.

"Which one of you wants to shield first?" Victoire asked.

"Me," said Finn confidently.

Albus whooped in approval, and the other Slytherins shouted their own words of support as Stephens instructed Finn and Abbott on where to stand.

"Come on, Dylan!" one of his cronies cried.

"You've got this, Finbar!" Scorpius shouted.

"Not my name!" Finn hollered. "Ignore it," he said, taking evident pleasure in Abbott's bewildered face. "Inside joke."

Abbott snarled. "I'm gonna wipe the floor with you, freak."

"Relax," said Victoire. "This is supposed to be friendly."

"Oh, yeah," Finn nodded. "I'm very friendly. Dylan and I are best friends."

"Wands at the ready!" Stephens commanded.

Finn clamped his mouth shut and held his wand out, looking more determined than Albus had ever seen him.

Stephens waited until the room had gone silent. "Abbott, you can cast your spell whenever you please."

Almost immediately, Abbott sprang out of his dueling stance and wrenched his mouth open. "Rictusempra!"

The green light crackled and rocketed through the air, but Finn appeared unconcerned. Albus curled his hands into fists as the jet of light sailed close to Finn—far too close. He wouldn't have enough time to put up the shield, even using Victoire's technique.

But Finn was still smiling. Everything seemed to happen in slow motion as Finn brought his wand down through the air with intense precision. "Protego!" he yelled, finishing the incantation at the exact point where the tip of his wand touched the jet of light.

Albus's mouth fell open as Finn brought his arm backwards like a cannon, still moving with the flow of the spell, before firing Abbott's Rictusempra right back at him, just like how M had done before.

The green jet of light grew twice as large and twice as fast, and it zipped and zigzagged around in the air before speeding at Abbott. The Gryffindor barely had time to squeal before his own spell rocketed into his stomach, sending him flying meters and crashing to the floor, laughing hysterically.

A valiant screech tore itself from Albus's open mouth, and the whole room lit aflame with roars as Finn bowed, copying M's extravagant hand movements. Victoire was laughing as though she'd been hit by a Rictusempra herself, and Albus sorely wished he could take a picture of Stephens's befuddled face.

O

With all the excitement of the D.E., Albus had forgotten to pick Rose's brain about the siren. He ambushed her after dinner, plopping down next to her as she furiously scribbled an essay for Transfiguration.

"Can we talk now?" Albus asked, trying to sound casual.

"It had better not interrupt my schedule," Rose muttered, keeping her focus on her parchment.

"I haven't heard your perspective yet."

"My perspective?"

"What d'you think it is?" Albus asked, knowing Rose would figure out what he was referring to.

Rose placed her quill down neatly next to her parchment. "Listen. I think that you brought some kind of Muggle technology into Hogwarts, the most magical location in Britain, and that it malfunctioned. You're overthinking this."

"What was that about the trunk this morning, then?" Albus pressured.

"Speculation."

"Speculate this." Albus looked around furtively, making sure not to be overt. "If you heard the siren all the way from the Great Hall, and that too at the same volume as me, then surely you heard it increase slightly."

Rose's eyes wavered slightly. "Perhaps I did."

"Then you're thinking what I'm thinking."

"I don't want to think anything else about it," said Rose, making to stand up. "We're done here—"

"It's a homing beacon," Albus said hastily.

Rose sat back down, almost knocking over the inkpot. "That's a bit of a jump," she said shakily.

"But you're thinking it too. That's why you sat down."

"Don't you go all psychoanalysis on me, Potter."

"Joke's on you." Albus smirked. "I dunno what that means."

"What are you going to do about it, then?" Rose demanded. "You can't go out after ten, there's curfew. You can't go out during the day either, obviously. People are going to see you wandering around with that thing like a madman."

"You should've seen Finn this morning," said Albus. "That is a real madman."

"I don't want to know, nor do I think pursuing this is smart," Rose whispered. "My suggestion? Leave the ruddy phone in the bottom of your trunk, and don't pull it out until the end of term."

"You know I can't do that," Albus said.

"You'd better."

"Rosie, if there's something going on, I need—"

"No, you don't," she interrupted. "You don't. You have zero obligation, Albus, zero. Sometimes I start to think that you just want to be like your father."

Albus sat up and narrowed his eyes. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Rose grimaced. "Look, that came out wrong."

"Yes," Albus said bitterly. "I think it did." He stood and shook his head. "Cast some kind of silencing spell tonight. I'm taking the phone out."

"But Albus—"

"Don't," he snapped. "No wonder my dad wasn't friends with your mum for most of his first year." He turned and left without waiting for Rose's reaction. Even still, he could feel her sad stare as boring a hole into the back of his skull.