Chapter Eight Animancy
The impact of Albus and Scorpius' detentions had never been starker than on the final week of September. After several frustrating weekend evenings sitting in the dusty abandoned classroom, pouring over the same pieces of parchment that Albus and Bertie had copied from the book, the promise of a coming full moon had given them some renewed vigour. This bubble burst quickly though, as Bertie informed them that the full moon would be on a Tuesday night when the other two would again be cleaning the suits of armour.
"Merlin's beard, we are never going to get a chance to read the thing again!" said Scorpius, throwing his head back in frustration.
Bertie rolled his eyes, "Just leave it with me, ok?"
"What do you mean?" asked Albus, who had just finished reading a page about 'The Basics of Animancy' for the fifth time, and it still made little sense.
"I'll read the book and copy it out, at least it means we'll have something new to talk about when we meet up" replied Bertie, looking determined. "Just let me borrow your invisibility cloak"
Albus stared straight at him, mouth agape. Give Bertie his cloak? What would happen if it ended up getting lost or stolen? However, remembering that Bertie was much more risk-averse than either himself or Scorpius, he relented and agreed to let Bertie borrow it.
As Tuesday arrived and Albus finished yet another night of detention, he stayed up to wait for Bertie to arrive back from their disused classroom. It was after midnight when he heard the portrait door swing open, followed by the sound of faint footsteps. Forcing his eyes to stay open, Albus stood up and watched Bertie pull the cloak from over his head.
"Well?" asked Albus, anticipating a large number of pages to have been translated.
Bertie's head was low and he had a frown on his face, he took a deep breath before handing the book to Albus. "I copied out a couple of pages, and-"
"A couple of pages? That's it?"
"Let me finish," said Bertie, exasperated. He pulled a piece of parchment out of his bag and handed them to Albus. "Just look for yourself"
Albus took them and scanned them, immediately noticing what the problem was. The entire thing was written in a runic text that Albus simply didn't understand. He read it a couple more times, hoping that something would leap out at him, but there was nothing. Having half a mind to scrunch the parchment up and throw it away, Albus instead gave it back to Bertie and fell back into his chair.
"I had a flick through the rest of the book, there's just pages and pages of that same writing in it. I suppose none of us really paid it any attention before" said Bertie in a small voice.
Albus simply gave a small nod in acknowledgement, then stared into the dying embers in the fireplace. It felt as if they would never work out the mysteries of the book now. He gently touched the weathered leather cover and placed it inside his pocket.
"Al?" said Bertie, watching his friend carefully.
"I just don't know what else we can do"
Bertie bit his lip, "We'll figure it out, we always do. It's only runes, there'll be loads of books in the library about them". He did his best to sound encouraging.
Standing up and sighing, Albus trudged towards the staircase that led up towards the boy's dormitory, "The library" he scoffed, "It's always the library". He finally turned back to Bertie, who hadn't moved, "Sometimes, I think this book doesn't want to be read…"
The following days and weeks again yielded little progress. Albus and Scorpius had become so overwhelmed with homework that they were doing well to find spare time to eat, let alone sit in the library translating runes. The blunt axe of expulsion was still hanging, precariously, over their necks. They'd even turned down Bertie's offers to translate the runes by himself, deciding that they would have a better chance of completing the work together.
October flew by, as did another full moon. Bertie once again, under the safety of the invisibility cloak, ventured out to transcribe more pages. And once again, he returned with a handful of pages of runes.
"This is ridiculous," said Scorpius, during a precious lunch break. He was in the process of angrily demolishing a pumpkin pasty with as much vigour as a starving hippogriff. "We're going to be in our eighties by the time we work this out", his voice raised to be heard over the sound of the thunderstorm outside.
Albus and Bertie didn't answer, this mirrored what they'd been saying to each other for the last few weeks. Instead, they glumly ate their lunch and got ready for their next lesson, a surely uplifting trip down into the dungeons for Potions. They were about to get up and leave when they spotted seven individuals stomping into the Great Hall, all looking like they'd just emerged from a swamp. They were caked head to toe in mud, and all wore annoyed expressions on their faces. It was a few moments before they recognised them as the Gryffindor Quidditch team.
James didn't say a word as he walked past Albus, he picked up an apple, and then walked straight back out of the Great Hall again. Meanwhile, Leon stood next to Bertie and stuffed a handful of grapes into his mouth.
"Extra practice going well?" asked Albus. The first game of the season was just a few days away, and Caprice Flynn had been dragging the team onto the pitch at every single spare moment.
Leon pointed his thumb at Scorpius and said, "Can't talk with green", he then looked around at him with a sympathetic look, "Sorry, Caprice's orders"
Sighing, Scorpius stuffed his books into his bag and finished the remnants of his pasty, "See you in Potions then". He quickly left the Great Hall.
Once he was out of earshot, Leon continued, "It's been mixed" he admitted, "Just a new team gelling, that's all"
"Newland!" called Caprice Flynn from further along the table, her right eye was welded shut by a large excess of mud, "Get cleaned up, double time! I can't have my players getting detentions for being late to lessons!"
Leon dropped a scotch egg back onto its plate and stood to attention, "Yes miss, right away!" He sprinted out of the Great Hall to confused stares.
"Is it just me, or does he seem more stressed than usual?" asked Bertie
Thankfully for Leon, he did manage to make Professor Marlowe's Potions lesson in time, bursting through the door with damp hair and missing a sock, just as Marlowe was about to begin the lesson.
"Good afternoon, Mr Newland," he said, indicating the empty space on a desk next to Matt. He only continued once Leon was in place. "Today we shall be continuing to look at antidotes. You will find today's recipe on page ninety-six of your textbooks, good luck"
The class quietly opened up their books and read the recipe for a 'Mouth Itching Antidote' and gathered their ingredients from the store cupboard. This was a known routine now. Marlowe's lessons had become particularly directionless of late, they were simply spending their time making the potions, with no discussion of theory whatsoever. He would spend almost the entire lesson sitting behind his desk, flicking through bits of parchment and only looking up to tell people to stop messing around.
Albus ducked underneath a lump of frogspawn that Caedus had thrown from another desk, he was still doing his best to goad him, Scorpius, and Matt into starting another fight. He set his ingredients down and counted them out, double-checking the recipe as he did so.
To Albus' left, Rose had already set her cauldron boiling and was steadily dropping some chopped-up leaves into the water. They were still barely talking outside of lessons, and even conversation in them was hard to come by. He quietly watched her as he divided her frogspawn into small groups and dropped them in, one by one.
She glanced up and caught Albus' eye, "Can I help you?"
Albus snapped his head away, "No, it's fine" he said, shortly, then turned his attention to his own potion.
In truth, the lesson had been nearly a complete waste of time. The potion itself was incredibly simple for them, especially as they'd spent the previous lessons making similar antidotes. Before long, most of the class was just sitting and chatting, Professor Marlowe didn't look up at them.
Rose, who had completed her potion long before anyone else and had already packed her equipment away, had her head buried in a red-backed textbook.
Albus gathered up some offcuts of his ingredients and dropped them in a nearby bin, then looked at Rose's book. Suddenly finding the urge to talk to his cousin, he coughed slightly to get her attention. Her gaze flicked to him momentarily.
"Spellman's Syllabary?" he said, pointing at the name of the book she was reading, "What's that?"
"Ancient Runes textbook," she said, not looking at him.
"Ancient Runes? But you don't take Ancient Runes" said Albus, wanting to keep the conversation going.
Rose sighed and closed the book, still looking steadfastly away from Albus, "We have to choose which subjects we want to take next year soon, you should be researching as well". She checked the time and stowed the book in her bag, ready to leave as soon as Marlowe dismissed them.
Albus also packed away, after helping Bertie dispose of his slightly anaemic-looking potion. He whispered, "She doesn't seem like she's got over it yet"
"Maybe ask her about something other than what she's reading?" suggested Bertie, with a shake of his head, speaking as if Albus was completely clueless.
"Class dismissed," said Marlowe, from the front of the class.
Rose immediately swivelled on her stool and hopped off it, making a beeline for the exit. Albus watched her go, and glumly picked his bag up, following her out of the classroom.
Scorpius caught up to him, "What was that about?" he asked.
Shrugging, Albus replied, "Just asked about what she was reading"
"Oh, right," said Scorpius as they walked up the stairs that led out of the dungeons. "What was she reading then?" he asked, blankly.
"Spellmans Syllabary" replied Albus, nonchalantly hopping over a dungbomb that had presumably been dropped by Peeves, "It's an Ancient Runes textbook, apparently". Albus stopped dead in his tracks, causing Bertie to walk into the back of him.
"Ow," he cried, rubbing his nose, "What's the matter?"
Albus slapped his hand onto his forehead, "I'm an idiot" he said, to no one in particular.
Scorpius and Bertie looked at each other, confused. Bertie tapped Albus on the shoulder. "What do you mean?"
"Ancient Runes!" said Albus. He took off up the stairs, pushing past several other second-years to try and catch up to Rose. As he reached the bottom of the Grand Staircase, he could see the back of her head a couple of flights ahead of him.
"Rose!" he called up to her. She ignored him and sped up.
Eventually, Rose caught up to a group of slow-moving first-years. Unable to get past them, Albus caught up to her and managed to grab the back of her robes.
"Hey!" she snapped, slapping Albus' hand away, "What was that for?"
Albus leaned against the wall to get his breath back before he answered, "Sorry. I just wondered if I could borrow your runes book"
Rose blinked at him, "What?"
"I'm…interested in maybe studying it next year" he replied, "I don't need it for long, just want a quick overview, you know". He thought that sounded convincing enough.
Taking a moment to gather her thoughts, Rose eyed Albus carefully. Satisfied, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath, "Why are you so interested in it all of a sudden?"
"I just am," said Albus, a little too quickly. He tried to cover this up by producing a small laugh.
Rose's eyes narrowed dangerously, "It's not like you to suddenly take an interest in anything academic" she studied his face again, "Something is going on here, tell me what"
Albus gave a derisive laugh, "You're mental, nothing is going on at all"
"You'll forgive me if I don't believe you" sighed Rose, "Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to get to Herbology, unless you want us both to be late". She pointed her nose up at the ceiling and turned away, strutting defiantly up the stairs.
"Wait a second!" Albus chased after her, nearly knocking a painting off the wall in the process. Ignoring the protests of the thin witch depicted in it, he caught up to Rose and walked alongside her.
"What now?" she snapped, still not meeting Albus' eyes.
Albus paused for a moment, watching a group of nosy-looking Ravenclaws walk by. "Why can't we stop this?" he asked, seriously
"Stop what?" said Rose, flicking a strand of hair out of her face.
Albus couldn't stop himself from sounding annoyed, "You know what" he said, "I just want to be able to talk to you again"
Rose glanced at him from the corner of her eye, "Like you're doing now?"
"Like properly talk, not just this passive-aggressive…" he trailed off before he got too worked up. "Look, I know I was an idiot and everything but can't we-"
"Just shut up!" said Rose, cutting across him, "You being an idiot that time has nothing to do with it!"
"Then what is it about?" said Albus, half laughing
Rose rounded on him, poking a finger into his chest, "You should know!"
"I don't!"
"Both of you, shut up!" Bertie had been following them up the stairs.
Albus and Rose jumped and faced him. He was looking bemused by it all, looking between them both with a slight smile, shaking his head. He was laughing to himself as he continued walking up the stairs.
"Oh, Al, what are we doing?" said Rose, putting her head in her hands, "Why are we like this?"
Albus rubbed the back of his head, "Families" he said, simply.
Rose allowed herself to laugh, then looked at him sincerely, "I'm sorry, I've been horrid to you. I must seem like a complete hypocrite after everything I said to you last year"
"It's fine, Rose, I get it," Albus said, smiling warmly, "Let's just agree to not stay mad at each other for longer than a couple of days next time"
Rose nodded, "Agreed". She paused and pondered something for a moment, her face turning serious, "There's something I should probably say to you, I-"
A loud bell rang out around the castle, signalling that their next class would start in just a couple of minutes.
"Oh no," said Rose, her previous train of thought breaking in front of Albus' eyes, "You can't be late for Herbology!" she handed him her copy of Spellman's Syllabary, "Here, you can borrow it for a bit, just get it back to me in one piece!"
They both ran up the stairs and raced their way towards Herbology, together.
That Saturday evening, Albus, Bertie, and Scorpius were sat in their usual disused classroom with the Grimoire and several stacks of parchment. As much as they hoped that the parchment was for all of the pages they would end up translating, in actual fact, they'd been brought there so that Albus and Scorpius could finish off their week's homework.
This left Bertie to read through Rose's textbook and complete the painstaking task of translating the page he had transcribed just the other night. There was no talking from any of them. Albus and Scorpius were both cursing Professor Binns for setting them such a dull essay to write, and then their ire was turned on Professor Mutati, who had taken little pity on them for not having had the chance to practice their 'Beetle into buttons' spell.
Scorpius gave up on writing his essay conclusion and looked up at Bertie, who was reading Spellman's Syllabary intently. "How are you getting on, Bertie?"
Bertie raised a finger to tell him to be quiet, and his quill continued to dance on the page of his parchment.
"Think we should help?" Scorpius whispered to Albus, who was struggling to remember what the easiest type of beetle to transfigure was.
He shook his head, "Best not, he seems happy enough"
"I can hear you, you know," said Bertie, glaring at them. He dropped his quill onto the table and rubbed his head, "This is going to take ages"
Albus stood up and walked over to Bertie's desk, "Let me do some for a bit," he picked up the syllabary and the parchment Bertie was working on and returned to his desk.
Bertie leant back in his chair and didn't protest, "I think that page might be describing a spell. My translation is a bit wonky, but I'm pretty sure I see the word 'incantation' there"
"Nothing about the laboratory yet then?"
Bertie shook his head.
Albus looked through what Bertie had been able to translate. The English was slightly broken and it took a certain amount of concentration to read what was written down, but he felt like he had the gist of it. There appeared to be something describing a wand movement, but it was hard to make out what it could be. Albus then saw the word 'Incanto', this was as far as Bertie had translated.
Dipping his quill into the inkwell, Albus started to translate the apparent incantation. His quill hovered over the parchment; a blob of ink was hanging off the end precariously. His eyes darted between the pages Bertie had transcribed and the Syllabary as he tried to make sense of what he was reading.
Slowly, he started to translate the letters. An 'X' symbol meant 'G', at least that's what Albus thought it said. He scribbled it onto the page, despite not being completely sure what the Syllabary was trying to say.
"G…E…L" he whispered to himself, double-checking the book after every letter. He kept on writing, shaking his head as he started to doubt what exactly he'd been writing. "This doesn't look like any spell I've seen, it's just gibberish!"
Bertie looked over, "What does it say?"
"Gelwefongalgi" replied Albus slowly, "You don't think that's in incantation, do you?"
Bertie shrugged, "It could be, this book's really old remember"
"Suppose so," said Albus, scratching his head, "Might as well try it and see what happens"
Bertie picked up a page he'd translated earlier and read through it, "I think this bit describes the spell in a bit more detail, look" he pointed out a paragraph, "This looks like it might be that lichen spell that Vitanster taught his students"
Grabbing his wand, Albus looked excited, "Really? Let's try it!"
Scorpius bit his quill down and stood up, "Slow down, Albus, we should make sure we know what we're doing before we try out any new spells"
"It's lichen, Scorpius, it's hardly going to blow something up," said Albus, rolling his eyes.
"I'm with Scorpius," said Bertie, taking a step back, "We should spend some time researching that spell more before we try it"
Scorpius gave him a thankful nod, "Two versus one. Now let me have a quick read of that". He grabbed the page before Albus could protest and scanned it. "You've only translated up to the incantation and the wand movements, there's nothing about what to cast it on, or how long it takes to work, or any potential side effects"
"Side effects?" Albus laughed, "Why would there be side effects?"
"It's ancient magic that hasn't been used in the last thousand years! Of course, there'll be side effects!" said Scorpius, looking bewilderedly at Albus, "Let's just hold on before we do something that we end up regretting"
"Lighten up," said Albus, taking the parchment back from him and reading the passage out aloud. "A suitable surface is required when attempting this spell". Albus looked up and around the room, "Are there any loose stones in here?"
Scorpius glared at him, "You're not seriously going to try it?"
"I said, lighten up!" said Albus again, "The spell probably won't even work"
He walked over to a cobweb-covered cupboard at the side of the room, opened the doors and searched through it to find a stone. Reaching into the bottom drawer he pulled out a stack of small flint tiles, perhaps they were once used in Transfiguration lessons in years gone by. Albus returned to the table and laid out one of the tiles, re-reading the passage as he did so.
"Looks easy enough," he said, pulling out his wand and opening his mouth to say the incantation.
"Wait!" said Bertie, pulling the tile away from Albus.
Albus looked shocked, "What?"
Bertie hesitated for a second, taking a deep breath. "This magic killed Vitanster's students," he said, plainly. He took a moment to gauge the look on Albus' face, but he was looking at him blankly. "We shouldn't underestimate it just because it's the first spell Vitanster taught his students", he continued. "There's a reason he waited before getting them to try this spell, and it's probably because any type of Animancy is dangerous to perform"
Scorpius gave a sigh of relief, "That's that settled then". He reached out to gather up the reams of parchment spread across the table. "Now let's just all go to bed and worry about all this in the morning"
"No," said Albus, firmly. He pointed at the Grimoire, which was next to Bertie's left hand. "Have you seen anything in there about why it might be dangerous?" he asked Bertie, who shook his head slowly.
"Thought not" continued Albus, "If there was anything dangerous about it, don't you think Vitanster would've made that clear at the start of the book?"
"Y..yes. But-"
"So why are you worried about it?"
Bertie raised his voice, "Because you're being reckless!"
Silence followed this, and Albus had to regain some of his composure before responding. Scorpius looked between the pair of them and quietly gathered the rest of the parchment, placing them carefully inside Bertie's bag and subtly pushing it towards him. He stood up and pushed his chair under the desk.
"I think we should go" he carefully suggested, before tapping Bertie on the shoulder to get him to stand up too.
"Wait," said Albus, not looking at either of them.
Bertie and Scorpius exchanged a look then sat back down again, cautiously eyeing up Albus.
Albus looked at them, "Fine, I won't do anything in the book yet" he did his best to contain the annoyance in his voice. "I just want to know what we're actually intending to do with this book"
"We find the laboratory," said Bertie, immediately. "I thought that was the whole point?"
Scorpius nodded, "I agree. Once we find Vitanster's laboratory maybe we can start to investigate the spells"
Albus let out a long sigh, "Fine!" he said, louder than he wanted to, "The laboratory it is". With that he stood up and threw his bag over his shoulder, ready to leave.
The other two both exchanged a relieved look and stood back up again, making straight for the door as quickly as they could. Albus glanced down at the desk, the small piece of flint was still sitting there. He looked out into the corridor, Bertie and Scorpius were whispering to each other, but not looking at him. Weighing things up in his head for a moment, Albus picked up the tile and pocketed it.
After bidding Scorpius goodnight, Albus and Bertie returned to the Gryffindor common room together. As it was after dinner the room was busy, but the atmosphere was calm, people were gathered around small tables completing homework or playing chess.
Bertie waved at Leon, who was sitting by the fire with Matt, who himself was wading his way through a History of Magic essay. He went to join them but let out a long yawn.
"Tired," he said shortly, turning to Leon, "I think I need an early night". He looked back at Albus, "How about you?"
Albus shook his head, "No, I'm not that tired actually", he said honestly.
"I'll see you later then" replied Bertie, nodding. He left the common room up the stairs and turned away out of sight.
Albus watched him go, standing still in the middle of the room.
"You ok, Al?" asked Leon
"Yeah" replied Albus, shortly, "Just need the toilet"
Leon snorted, "Thanks for letting us know!"
Albus ignored him and walked out into the passageway just outside the common room. He opened the door and entered the tiled boy's bathroom. A couple of fourth years were standing by the sinks, washing their hands and throwing water over each other. They both watched Albus walk into one of the cubicles and lock the door. He sat on the closed toilet and waited for the two boys to leave, which they soon did. Sure they were gone, Albus reached into his pocket and pulled out the flint tile that he'd taken from the classroom.
Turning it over in his hand he inspected it, nothing was out of the ordinary, it was a normal piece of flint.
"Gelwefongalgi" whispered Albus, without his wand. He practised saying it a few times then pulled his wand out from his jeans.
Pointing it at the tile he waited and prepared himself. For the first time he felt the nagging doubt that it might be a bad idea to try the spell out, Bertie and Scorpius had both got to him.
"Come on, Al," he said to himself, trying to fight the nagging voice telling him not to try it.
Taking one deep breath, then two, Albus pointed his wand at the tile and said, clearly, "Gelwefongalgi".
Nothing.
Albus stared at the tile and almost willed it to do something. It didn't. It looked as dull and plain as it had when he first picked it up.
"Idiot," said Albus, "Why did you think that would work?"
He left the tile on top of the toilet and unlocked the cubicle, stepping out into the dark and empty bathroom once more. Albus yawned, he felt tired all of a sudden, as if it was only the adrenaline of wanting to try the spell out that was keeping him awake. He walked back through the common room, gave Leon and Matt a quick 'goodnight' and went straight up into the dormitory.
Bertie was sat up in bed reading a charms magazine, he smiled at Albus as he walked in. "You ok?"
Albus shrugged, "I think so, just felt tired"
Bertie laughed, "You were fine earlier"
"Well, I'm not now ok?" he snapped back. He saw the surprised look on Bertie's face and softened his tone, "Sorry, it's been a long day"
"It's ok, I understand"
Albus changed into his pyjamas and got into bed, letting out another long yawn, "I'm sorry for anything I said today, you were right, it was a stupid idea to think about trying that spell out"
Bertie looked surprised but grateful, "Apology accepted. I'm glad we're going to focus on finding the laboratory instead, but what made you change your mind?"
Thinking that he might've worked out that he tried the spell, Albus tried to work out what Bertie was thinking by inspecting his face, there was nothing there. "No reason, I just had a bit of time to think about it, that's all"
Bertie looked somewhat satisfied. Putting his magazine inside his bedside cabinet, he put the candle by his bed out and settled down to sleep. "That's good. You know, if you're up to date with your homework we should go and see Hagrid tomorrow, you've hardly seen him this year and he's missing you"
Albus too extinguished his candle and fluffed his pillow up. He smiled at Bertie, "That would be nice"
Settled down, they closed their curtains and fell straight to sleep. Albus had no trouble at all.
