Chapter Seven: Woozy
The sound of Scorpius' back cracking rang throughout the Grand Staircase as he leant down to scrub the last bit of polish onto the feet of the suit of armour, which was giggling.
"Stop moving," he said through gritted teeth, as the suit of armour jiggled.
Albus rubbed his hands together and gave them a quick sniff. Polish. That was all he'd smelt of all week. He picked up his dirty cloth and rested it on his shoulder, taking care to not stain his shirt. Looking further down the stairs he could see Matt putting the finishing touches to a sword he'd been working on for the last twenty minutes, it now looked like a very thin mirror.
Scorpius finished off the feet and looked down at Matt, "You need to speed up, otherwise we'll be here when we start our O.W.L's" he groaned.
"Shut it" snapped Matt, "I'm not taking any chances when Filch comes round to inspect our work. Remember what happened on Tuesday?"
Scorpius blew air out of his nose and groaned. He stood up and winced, rubbing his back. "How was I supposed to know he'd lift the visor?"
The faint sound of arthritic footsteps and heavy breathing came from below them, signalling the arrival of Mr Filch, the caretaker.
"Here we go" breathed Scorpius, quickly brushing a speck of dust off the helmet of his suit of armour.
Filch trudged up the stairs, a lantern in his hand and his ever-faithful companion Mrs Norris strutting not far behind. Her amber eyes always made Albus feel nervous, but he wasn't a particularly big cat fan anyway, and she was eyeing each of them up in turn.
"Right, let's see what you've done today" heaved Filch, stepping up to Matt and eyeballing the suit of armour he'd been working on all evening. "This it?" said Filch
"Err, yeah" replied Matt
"Hmph" breathed Filch. He rubbed a finger down the flat of the sword and inspected it, "Dirty" he snapped, turning right and walking up the stairs to Scorpius.
Behind him, Matt slapped his forehead and rubbed his hand down his face in frustration, leaving behind an obvious mark of polish.
Scorpius swung his arms along the row of three suits he'd been able to clean that evening, "These three, Mr Filch" he said.
Filch ignored him and gave them a very brief look, "Awful" he mumbled, moving along to Albus, who'd managed to clean two suits. He focussed on one of the belt buckles and gave it a rub. "Marginally better," he said. "Mr Malfoy will need to redo his three tomorrow, and Mr Bingham will give that sword another layer of polish, after that, you can move to the next lot with Mr Potter"
Matt stuck his tongue out behind Filch's back and threw some rude gestures in his direction. Scorpius looked like he could've thrown his three suits over the side of the stairs. Meanwhile, Mr Filch was continuing upwards, turning down another corridor and out of sight.
Once he had gone, Scorpius let out a loud swear word and kicked the nearest suit of armour. The echo rang throughout the staircase, and Albus was sure that it would've been heard by someone else, even the slightly deaf Mr Filch.
"Do you have to do that?" sighed Albus, who was placing his cleaning tools into his bucket, "You're just making more work for yourself"
Scorpius ignored him, "We're going to be here for years…" he moaned
Matt was now walking up towards them, carrying his brush and bottle of polish, "You're trying to do too much, you idiot" he said blankly as he passed him.
"Shut it," said Scorpius, who threw his tools into his bucket, "I just want to get this done"
Matt faced him, "We're not 'done' until Filch says we are, so we're better off making sure these are actually clean" he rubbed a finger down one of Scorpius' helmets, showing it to him, "Look, there's still dirt on it"
"I said shut it!" growled Scorpius standing up in Matt's face, their foreheads dangerously close together, and their eyes locked together. "Don't criticise me, Matthi-"
Sensing danger, Albus quickly stepped between them, "Ok, ok. Calm down". Mercifully, they both took a breath and seemed to relax. "We've had a long week, let's just get to bed"
Matt stepped back first, picking his things up and starting to head upstairs towards the Gryffindor Common Room, stopping on the next landing to wait for Albus to follow.
"You ok?" Albus asked Scorpius.
Scorpius scratched his head and looked away, "Fine" he said shortly, "Like you said, long day". He glanced up towards Matt, who was looking away and tapping his foot, "Tell him to get off my back, I've had enough of it"
Albus frowned at him, "You both need to lay off it, I'm not going to watch both of you get expelled for fighting each other"
"Thanks for stopping us, I guess" he replied, meekly
Albus paused for a moment before speaking again, "It's late"
Scorpius looked out of the window into the dark, cloud-covered sky and nodded, "Yeah, I'll probably fall asleep here if I don't get going" he chuckled nervously before looking downstairs, and the way to the Slytherin Common Room. "See you tomorrow" he lowered his voice, "Are we still doing the…you know?"
Albus nodded, "Usual place"
They bade each other goodnight, leaving Albus free to join Matt on the landing. He was leaning against the stone bannister, looking aimlessly into thin air when Albus reached him.
"Finally" he yawned, "Let's go"
They made their way up the many flights of stairs to the seventh floor, where Gryffindor Tower was located, passing several students who were rushing back to their common rooms before they could get punished for being up too late. The Fat Lady came into view.
"Donkey Hoof," said Albus, making her portrait swing open.
Both he and Matt were pleased to see that not everyone had gone to bed just yet and that there was still a buzz in the Common Room. When they'd returned there on previous nights that week, the place had been nearly empty. The oncoming weekend had lifted everyone's spirits after a long first week back.
"Have you seen your face?" asked Leon, who had been hunched over a stack of Quidditch tactics charts, as Albus and Matt walked over to the usual corner that the second-years occupied.
Everyone else looked up at Matt, spotting the large stain of polish running from his forehead down to his chin. Sophie and Jess were both suppressing giggles.
Matt took a breath, "I think I'll have a shower". He spun around and walked out of the Common Room and turned down the small passageway that led to the boys' bathroom.
Albus pulled a chair out and sat next to Bertie. He was putting the finishing touches to a Potions essay that Albus hadn't even started yet. His first Potions lesson back had been more uneventful than Albus had anticipated. Marlowe barely paid him any attention, aside from calling his name out in the register. He was looking much thinner than before, but he had at least shaved since the previous year, but that aside, it was hard to say that he looked any more bothered by the fact he didn't have the book in his possession.
"How was Hagrid's?" asked Albus
Bertie didn't look up from his essay, "It was fine, he was disappointed you weren't there though. You should go and see him tomorrow, maybe"
Albus nodded, "I will". He rubbed his eyes, finally noticing how tired he was. The Common Room started to thin out slightly as they sat there, and it wasn't long before the second-years started to leave as well.
Before she walked up to the girls' dormitory, Amy pointed at Albus' cheek, "You know you've got a massive stain there, right?"
Albus glanced at the nearest reflective surface, a large brass globe, and looked at himself. There was, indeed, a stain of polish on his cheek. He groaned and thanked Amy for pointing it out before she went upstairs.
"I'd better shower too" Albus groaned, "See you in a bit," he said to Bertie before he walked into the boys' bathroom.
The Gryffindor bathroom was dark and quiet, usually in stark contrast to the rest of the Common Room. The room was covered in white tiles, augmented with the occasional red or gold line. A row of sinks lined one wall, with the toilet stalls on the other, these were all empty. Albus walked past them and through an arch into the showers. These were also divided into cubicles, and Albus could hear the sound of water gushing from behind the only locked door in the room, he figured this was Matt.
Albus walked into the cubicle next to this one and turned the shower on. Whoever was next door stopped moving and tapped on the wooden divider.
"Who's that?" he asked, it was Matt's voice.
"Just me" replied Albus, disrobing and stepping into the warm water.
"Oh," said Matt, "You ok?"
Albus paused, "Yeah, why?"
Matt gave a short laugh, "Weird week"
"You can say that again," said Albus. He washed his face, hopefully removing the stain. Matt had been in the shower for at least half an hour, and he was wondering why. "How about you?" he asked.
There was a pause, "Average," he said shortly, giving a slight laugh.
Albus heard Matt stepping back under the water, and figured that he should do the same. The warmth was comforting after so long spent in the bitter chill of the Grand Staircase. He zoned out and let his thoughts run wildly inside his head as water cascaded over his face, he somehow thought that Matt was doing the same next door. This week had been the longest the pair had spent together outside of their dormitory, they had never been particularly close after all. It was almost as if something inside Matt had switched since they'd met at the World Cup.
"Hey, Matt," Albus said
"Hmm?"
Albus gulped, "Your Dad, what-"
"I'm not talking about him" replied Matt, firmly, then he took a breath, "Sorry Albus"
"I understand" Albus lied. Ever since that day he'd been acting very strangely, just why did any mention of his name make him so angry? It made no sense to him. "Dammit," he complained, out loud.
"Sorry?" asked Matt.
Albus jumped slightly, he hadn't meant to say it, "N-nothing, just knocked my elbow on the wall"
The length of pause told Albus that he hadn't exactly brought that lie. The sound of gushing water from Matt's cubicle ceased, to be replaced with the sound of rhythmic dripping as he stood there before grabbing his towel. "I'm off" he stated, opening the door and leaving his cubicle.
Albus didn't reply and only half listened to Matt drying off and getting dressed before the sound of footsteps moved away from the showers and out of the bathroom. He took a deep breath and rubbed his eyes, the week was catching up with him.
"Well done, Al" he whispered to himself, "You're clearly a brilliant people person"
He finished washing and turned the shower off, reaching out to the rail to grab the towel, but he only found thin air. "Brilliant," he said, laughing derisively. Listening out to make sure no one else had entered the room, he gingerly turned the lock and opened the door a crack. But then, he heard the unmistakable sound of footsteps coming into the room, at least Albus thought they were footsteps.
Closing the door as silently as he could, Albus listened. They were footsteps, but they didn't sound like they could come from a human. The noises were small and faster than normal as if whoever they belonged to had small feet and short legs. They were racing around the bathroom from left to right, and Albus could just about make out some high-pitched and frantic muttering.
"Woozy can't get it wrong again. Woozy must clean boys' bathroom. Woozy must do it before boys come in"
Albus went down on his knees and peered through the small gap below the cubicle door, and every so often the rapidly moving feet would enter and leave his vision. He stood up and shivered, he had to get a towel somehow, though he did mull over just waiting until the mystery intruder had left. These thoughts were interrupted by a loud yelp.
"Woozy got it wrong!"
Albus jumped and stared at the door, he could see a pair of small bare feet standing right in front of it. The sound of muffled sobbing filled the air.
"Um, are you ok?" asked Albus, not knowing if it was a good idea to confirm his presence.
The sobbing turned to crying and the feet left the door, most likely heading towards the far end of the room. Albus opened the door ever so slightly and peered out, only to be greeted by a very odd sight.
Leaning against the cubicles on the opposite side of the room was a small, quivering, humanoid creature with long thin ears, that resembled a bats. It was wearing nothing but a clean-looking loin cloth, though it wouldn't be clean for long given the creature was blowing its large round nose into it. The realisation hit Albus all of a sudden, and he mentally kicked himself for not getting it sooner.
"You're a house-elf!" he exclaimed.
The house-elf let out another yelp, "Woozy got it wrong!" it wailed, "Woozy wasn't supposed to let the boys see him!" Every other word was punctuated by the sound of a nose being loudly blown.
Albus struggled to find the right words, "It's ok" he stuttered, "I'm not going to tell anyone"
"Master said to not let the boys see him!" wailed the House Elf, completely ignoring Albus, "Master will be angry. He'll be so angry with Woozy!" The cries turned into a complete outpouring of grief like wailing as loose tears joined the mucus in its loincloth.
Worrying that anyone left in the Common Room would hear the commotion and go to investigate, Albus desperately tried to calm the House Elf down.
"Ok, ok, it's all going to be fine!" he started, doing his best to sound optimistic, "I'm Albus, can you tell me your name?"
The House Elf rubbed his nose once more, and the tears slowly abated. He turned around, and Albus made sure he was definitely behind the door. "Woozy, sir" he replied.
Albus nodded, "Nice to meet you then, Woozy" he gave him a small smile, "And you don't have to call me 'sir'"
Woozy looked offended, "But a House Elf must always address his betters as 'Sir'!"
"I'm not your better," said Albus, "No wizard is". The words of his Aunt Hermione were all coming back to him.
Woozy let out another short yelp and pressed his abnormally large ears against his head, "Woozy didn't hear that! Woozy is inferior to any witch or wizard!"
Sensing that Woozy was about to start loudly crying again, Albus quickly backtracked "Sorry, sorry. Could you tell me what you're doing here?"
This seemed to appease Woozy, who finally turned around, revealing a pair of orblike and slightly bloodshot brown eyes, "Woozy is here because his master told him to be"
"Right…" said Albus, "And your master is?"
Woozy's eyes seemed to detach from his brain and his gaze floated aimlessly around the room for a moment, before the light inside his head switched back on, "Master told Woozy to be here"
Albus stared at him for a second, clearly Woozy didn't want to say who his master is. "Look, um, I'm guessing you're cleaning the bathroom?"
Woozy thought for a moment, then nodded.
"Good. You wouldn't happen to have a spare towel, would you?"
Woozy jumped slightly and raced through the archway, into the side with the toilets. He returned moments later, pushing a squeaking trolley stacked high with towels into the showers. Albus gratefully reached his arm out of the cubicle and grabbed the topmost towel. Wrapping it around himself he asked Woozy to turn around whilst he stepped out to get changed back into his clothes.
"Ok, done" he declared
Woozy slowly turned around and looked up at Albus. Now that Albus finally had a good look at the house-elf, he noticed that he looked slightly smaller than the average one, and he also noted the embroidered Hogwarts crest on the loin cloth.
"You work here then?" he asked, pointing at the badge.
Woozy nodded, "Of course, Master. Woozy is working in the kitchens and the laundry"
"It's Albus" he replied, "I've never seen a house-elf at Hogwarts before, are you supposed to keep out of the way?"
One of the towels on the trolley unfolded slightly, and Woozy let out a small yelp as he rushed to fold it back up and place it neatly back on top of the pile. "We house-elves are told not to interfere. Woozy keeps getting told"
"It's not going to be a problem for you if we talk, is it?"
Woozy's large eyes got even bigger as he contemplated this, "Woozy's master won't like it. Woozy was told not to let the boys see". His whole body started quivering, and he began to run headfirst towards the nearest cubicle.
Having listened to plenty of lectures from Aunt Hermione, Albus knew full well what Woozy was going to attempt to do. He reached out and quickly grabbed the back of the loincloth, stopping him from running any further. The house-elf struggled in his grasp and Albus had to lift him into the air.
"Woozy, calm down!"
His limbs stopped flailing and he seemed to finally give up resisting. Albus risked dropping him to the floor, fortunately, Woozy stayed put.
"Woozy is sorry, Woozy has been told to punish himself if he ever disobeys his master"
Albus looked straight at him, "Who is your master? Is it a teacher?"
There was a pause and Woozy's eyes fells around the room for the briefest of moments. "Master will be expecting Woozy," he said, "Woozy should leave and let young sir go to bed"
"It's Albus," he said with a sigh, "Can I at least help you put the towels out?"
Woozy looked deeply offended, "But sir, Woozy is not supposed to let wizards help, this is work for house-elves"
Albus ignored him and picked up a handful of towels. Woozy let out some small whimpers but didn't make any attempt to stop him from hanging them up on the rails inside each cubicle. Between them, they managed to lay them all out quickly.
"See, that wasn't so bad," said Albus, giving Woozy a small smile
Woozy clasped his hands together nervously, "Th-thank you s-sir…" he whimpered
"You can call me Albus," he said with a laugh, "You really don't need to call me 'sir'"
The sense of worry grew on Woozy's face, and he scanned the room to make sure no one else was around. It took a couple of tries before he finally said it.
"Thank you…Al-Albus"
Albus gave him a warm smile, "You're welcome". He glanced outside and saw that the sun had completely set, and he remembered just how tired he was. "I think it's time to go to bed now, where are you going next?"
"Woozy must clean the other bathrooms, Sir Albus, but my Master will want to see me," said Woozy, looking more animated than before.
The constant mentions of this mysterious 'master' weren't getting any clearer. Despite Albus' limited experience with house-elves, he knew that this was an unusual thing for them to do.
"Why can't you tell me who your master is, Woozy?" he asked
Once again, Woozy ignored his question and started to push the trolley away and out of the bathroom. Albus followed him to the door, where he stopped.
"Sir Albus should go to bed, my Master needs to see me," he said, pulling the door open and stepping out into the dark corridor outside the now empty Common Room. "Woozy bids Sir Albus a good night"
Albus nodded at him and suppressed a loud sigh, "Ok then, goodnight Woozy. I hope everything's fine with your 'master'"
"My master needs to see Woozy" he repeated as he pushed the trolley out of the portrait hall and away.
"Run that one past me again?" said Scorpius, though he could barely be heard over the wind.
They were sat in the Quidditch stadium, watching the Gryffindor team tryouts. The Beaters were currently zooming around trying to hit as many Bludgers into some floating targets as they possibly could, and the small crowd of spectators had to be on their guard for any stray hits.
"I'm not repeating myself a third time, Scorpius!" said Albus, who was now regretting taking him along to the tryouts. However, the advantage of bringing a Slytherin along to anything Gryffindor-related was that you'd get some privacy. The rest of his house sat in seats at least thirty metres away.
Scorpius, who was desperately trying to stop his History of Magic essay from flying away at the same time, replied, "I'm just trying to get my head around it. It sounds a bit weird if you ask me"
"Ever heard of a house-elf talking like that about their 'master' before?"
"Nope, but I'm hardly an expert on house-elves" replied Scorpius
"Maybe Hagrid will know" suggested Bertie, who was sitting on the row of seats in front of them, watching the try-outs intently, "Or Rose?"
Albus hesitated, "Rose would know, but…"
"Oh, come on Al, she's calmed down now!" said Bertie.
Albus looked down the row towards the rest of the Gryffindors, Rose was sitting there cheering the Beaters on. They hadn't spoken a single word to each other since the incident on the train, and he wasn't completely sure how she'd react if he did try to strike up a conversation.
"Maybe later," said Albus, quickly. He had to be alert for a second as one of the Beaters accidentally flung his bat in their direction, but it landed safely between some benches a couple of meters to their right.
"Monkhouse, you're out!" shouted Caprice Flynn, who was hovering high above the pitch. The unfortunate Beater glumly landed and stomped off the pitch.
Bertie leant over the railing and watched him walk into the changing rooms, "He doesn't look very pleased"
Albus looked up from his page of Grimoire notes and followed Bertie's gaze, "Monkhouse, seventh-year, I think James said he'd been trying to get into the team for years"
Bertie looked back at Albus and his eyes widened, "Why did you bring those out here?"
The wind rustled the pages of notes that Albus had in his hand, and he quickly folded them up and stuffed them into his pocket, "I wanted to read them, is that ok?"
"But isn't it a bit dangerous to take them out in public? What happened to being discrete?"
Scorpius looked up at them both, "Relax, Bertie, I don't think Marlowe is going to be turning up at some Quidditch try-outs"
Exasperated, Bertie shook his head, "It's just the principle"
Albus sighed and ran his fingers through his hair, "Look, we're not exactly going to have a load of spare time to actually look at the book for a while, so we need to take any chance we can get"
"I've got spare time…" muttered Bertie, turning back to the pitch. The Chasers were making their way onto the field.
To their left, the gathered second-years cheered Leon's name, it was just about possible to make him out as he waved to them. Caprice called them up one by one, with a wiry-looking blonde boy the first to have a go at the gauntlet she'd created for them. The blonde boy weaved between some poles that were floating in the air, got grazed by a couple of bludgers, passed the ball between himself and Caprice, and then shot towards the goal. However, the shot lacked any real power, and one of the trialist Keepers was able to make a comfortable save.
"Hard luck," said Scorpius, "That was a rubbish shot though"
One by one, the Chasers made their way through the gauntlet. One unfortunate third-year flew straight into the first pole and was carted off to the Hospital Wing with a minor concussion. A tiny fourth-year girl looked superb, effortlessly dodging some nasty-looking bludger hits, but she somehow managed to drop the Quaffle under no pressure at all. She left the pitch in tears. Leon's competition was looking ropey at best, and Albus could see Caprice getting frustrated. And then Chambers arrived. He had been on the team last year, and he looked determined to continue being on the team this time around too.
In a flash, he was through the poles, didn't look at all troubled by the bludgers, exchanged a perfectly flighted pass with Flynn, and then hammered a throw past the hapless keeper. Chambers let out a huge roar and thumped his chest, punching the air in the direction of the group of fifth-years who had turned out to support him.
"Damn, that was good," said Albus, "Who's next?"
A tall girl stepped onto the pitch and kicked off. Her run through the poles was just as quick as Chambers', and she dipped under a Bludger that would've taken her head off if it made contact. Upon receiving the Quaffle from Flynn she feinted and sent the keeper the wrong way, leaving an empty hoop for her to score through. She had a relieved grin on her face as she circled the pitch and flew towards the changing rooms, she'd done everything she could.
Bertie looked nervous, "Leon's going to have to do this perfectly"
Albus looked down at Leon, he was next up and looked to be doing some small jumps to warm up. "If he can be quicker than one of the last two, he'll be in, surely"
On the blow of Flynn's whistle, he kicked off the ground and zipped between the poles. A collective 'oof' went up from the crowd as the end of his broom clipped the last one on his way out. This didn't seem to rattle him though, and he dodged the Bludgers easily enough. His pass to Flynn was maybe a bit firmer than he wanted it to be, but he caught the return pass well and managed to throw the Quaffle just past the outstretched fingers of the Keeper and into the goal.
Albus could see Leon shaking his head as he turned around and returned to the ground. His shoulders slumped and his head was turned to the floor as he trudged toward the bench. The second-years did their best to cheer him up, but their cheers didn't seem to make much difference.
"Ugh, that's annoying, he would probably be in if he didn't hit the pole," said Bertie, a grimace on his face.
Scorpius, who had finally put his essay away, added, "Looked fairly quick though"
"Chambers and the other girl were definitely quicker than him," said Bertie, glumly, "There's always next year…"
As the Chasers were the last to be trialled, Caprice Flynn went to one side of the pitch and collected her notes. The small crowd in the stadium descended into eager chatter as they waited for her to re-emerge and announce the team for the season. Ten minutes later, she went over to the group of hopeful flyers and got them to quiet down.
Standing on a small box so she could see them all, she declared, "I'm going to announce the team. This is my final decision, so any complaints you may have can go straight into the bin!" Her eyes darted around some of the more rebellious looking of the group, then she cleared her throat, "Keeper is Walton" a beaming fourth-year girl punched the air. "Beaters are Edmundson and Butcher", two tall muscular boys nodded at each other. "Seeker is Potter", James gave a small smile, no one else had even bothered trying out for Seeker. "Chasers are Wilson…", the tall girl breathed a sigh of relief and looked up to the sky in thanks. Flynn cleared her throat for the last time, "And finally, Newland"
"What?!" cried Leon, "Are you sure?"
Caprice Flynn flashed him a small smile and addressed the players, "Thank you all for trying out this year, and commiserations for those who didn't make the team". She hopped off the box and made a beeline for the changing rooms, pursued by a group of irate-looking players, led by the raging Chambers.
The second-years were jumping for joy away to Albus' left, it was fair to say that they hadn't expected his name to be read out. Leon was now making his way up towards them, his face frozen in shock.
Bertie shook his head, "Wow, that's amazing! Why do you think she chose him?"
"His attitude," said a voice from behind them. James had just landed his broom on the benches and hopped off, "He was the only person who asked Caprice for tips and went down for extra practice before today. He's been down here every day this week!"
"But, she wouldn't have picked him just because of that, right?" asked Bertie
James shook his head, "Not at all, he's a good flyer, just lacks experience" he straddled his broom and hovered again, "We'll soon fix that though!" he said, before flying back down to the pitch.
Albus and Bertie spent a few moments watching Leon being mobbed by the rest of the second-years, his expression had turned from shock to sheer joy as he relayed every second of his trial flight to them.
Scorpius leant over, "Now that this is finally over, can we talk about that damn book at last?"