Chapter 17- Overcharge

The drive back to King's Cross Station was relatively quiet, and for Albus it seemed remarkably short. He stayed awake since his brother told him that Brennen knew about the hatch, turning it over and over in his head. He knew James hadn't lied, after all, it all made sense when he thought about it.

So, this was the reason why the prefect punished him so severely when he explored around, and in a way that prevented his movement. But for the life of him Albus couldn't understand why, still trying to find out how he figured out he even been there in the first place.

Albus recalled how Scorpius had insisted on accompanying him when he finally managed to evade outside supervision and angrily wondered if he too was involved. He forced himself to calm down- he must be covert about the whole ordeal if he wanted Brennen to suspect nothing. He'll probably try again to conjure a new excuse in order to stop him, most likely with the helpful aid of Professor Pechman (was he also in on this?).

They got off at the station and were among the first to enter platform 9¾, his sister crying accompanying them all the way. "Sorry I'm not staying much. I have a lot of work to complete in the Prophet after those two weeks", his mother sighed, hugging them one by one (including Lily) before boarding the train. "…Scoop from the inside… And I just wanted to write a bit about Quidditch...", she trailed off.

"What?", Ginny asked when none of the children got on the train, "Did I forgot something?". "Um, where are our wands?", Rose apprehensively asked. "Oh no, I knew it!", she put a hand to her forehead. "Ron left them in his room without telling anyone...", Rose's face fell in an almost comical way, "Lucky I remembered!", she pulled the three wands out of her pocket (his niece almost collapsed).

Albus watched her give them to her and his brother, and then watched as Lily and Hugo accompanied them to the train. "Listen Al", his mother spoke in a low tone, despite the station being almost empty, "I know you worry about the tests but I'm sure you'll pass them. I'm just sure of it".

He preferred not to think about it too much, but in some respects, he already accepted that this will be the last time he will travel to Hogwarts, but still, "It's not the thing that worries me the most right now", he said in complete honesty. "Well, I'm glad to hear that", she handed him the wand.

For a moment, he thought he felt a jolt of pain from the sensitive spot where his knuckle met James' jaw. But, seeing his mother's surprised reaction, he realised she felt it as well. He almost laughed in relief, "It's not the thing that worries me the most right now", he repeated, letting the longed surge of energy to wash over him once more.

He waved to Lily on his way, more out of duty than a desire for a real farewell and began to absentmindedly walk down the train's corridor, staring solely at his wand. He didn't exactly know how to explain it, but he had a feeling that the fight with his brother let him regain control of it, like he somehow won it back from him.

"Al, in here!", Violet called him into a compartment in the end of the train. The surge of power subsided, yet it still itched under his skin as he advanced towards her, like a buried snake waiting to bite. "You look like you're in a good mood", she didn't seem very joyful as she turned her head inwards to Scorpius, who already sat inside, "I found him like this", she whispered.

The pale boy didn't cry, but he looked very close to it- his grey eyes glistening from wetness as he stared out the window in an obvious distress, Umbra gently purring on his knees. Albus slowly inhaled, he didn't care at the moment about anything but the new feeling that washed over him. And so, still holding to the wand, he entered the compartment, afraid it will disappear.

"Now maybe tell us what happened?", Violet sat down next to Scorpius, putting a comforting hand on his shoulder, "It's clear that not everything is fine". But he remained frozen, continuing to stare out at the platform, which now begun to fill up with people. Albus knew he was afraid to move, since then he wouldn't be able to control his emotions.

"Don't force it, Vi", he said, returning his attention to his wand, "He will tell us whenever he wants, if he even wants to". Now that he had checked the thin cracks along the wood, he felt some kind of flow inside. In fact, he even felt a slight tingling all around him, akin to this of electricity.

He shouldn't have spent so much time on the candle, he realised in frustration- in two weeks he made the equivalent amount of progress with it as he did with the fire for months. More, even, since he could increase the amount of the former. He wondered if he should discuss this with the transfiguration Professor. Surely, the thin man had an answer for that, but, on the other hand, he was also a bit dodgy…

"It's my mum", Albus looked up at Scorpius, whose face was full of tears, "She's sick", he wheezed. "Well, I'm sure she'll feel better...", Violet started to comfort him, "No, she's not", his pale face was completely wet now. Albus needed more power now to pay attention to him than when he overcharged the bulb.

"But I thought wizards had a cure for everything...", Violet looked confused, "Not if the curse is also magical by nature", Scorpius impatiently said, even now he couldn't stop himself from correcting her. "Curse?", this word managed to garner Albus' full interest, "What kind of curse?".

The pale boy looked hesitant, "Blood curse", he finally said, wiping his red eyes, "It passed down in her family". "And you found out about it only now?", Albus couldn't block his interest. Violet sent him a warning glance, her purple eyes telling him to stop talking, trying to cover up for her insensitivity from before.

"Come on!", he urged him, "Maybe we can help". Scorpius snorted in doubt, "Even Fort couldn't overcome it", he dismissively stated. The name was familiar to Albus, coming up again and again in the adults' conversations during the last two weeks, "Fort? Who is he exactly?", he inquired.

"My dad's boss", Scorpius whispered, "And the most powerful wizard to ever live". Now it was Albus who almost snorted- he would have heard about him if that was true. "He managed to slow it down but...", the pale boy barely managed to intake air, his voice unstable, "…As my dad said… he would have been… more successful... if I had never… been born…", now he really lost control, crying so much he choked.

Albus raised no more questions and watched as Violet tapped on Scorpius' back in an attempt to cheer him up, confused. But he himself understood, the curse weakened his mother, and her pregnancy probably accelerated the process. It still seemed awful on his father's part to tell him that, he thought, after all, it's been more than twelve years since it happened, and obviously not the pale kid's choice.

It took a good few hours until Scorpius truly calmed down, and much of it was thanks to the vast amounts of sweets Albus bought him from the trolley witch. "I noticed you didn't let go of your wand since the morning", Violet eventually told him when things calmed down, Scorpius quietly snacking on a chocolate frog next to her, his eyes still swollen (the card itself was gnawed by Umbra on the cabin's floor, Herpo's little figure in it busy sending out balls of light from his hands in a failed attempt to scare her off).

"Oh yeah, I didn't notice", he lied, feeling his palm sweating, aching from both the constant pressure and the blow to the back of his hand (which turned purple by now). He left the handle for a second and quickly grabbed it again, discovering with relief that this time the feeling of connection he had with it still existed.

"Scor!", he called as the train began to slow down. Scorpius turned his gaze towards him, his eyes seeming like stones encircled by blood. "Vi is right! You'll pass those tests no matter what", Albus grip tightened around his wand, "So we'd better invest energy in finding some cure. Even if we fail, at least we tried!". A cautious smile spread across the pale face.

They got off the train against the backdrop of the beautiful sunset, the warm air around announcing summer's official arrival, bringing an unfamiliar feeling to Albus- one of hope. He went down with Scorpius and Violet near the main entrance and forced himself to look at the bony creature that pulled them to this point. He'll find answers to all his questions, he promised to himself while staring at the milky eyes, tired of living in the dark.

Later, as Albus entered the school gates, he felt a slight energy current in the air, and until he reached the dungeons, he realised that it was magic he sensed. He shouldn't have been surprised by it, he thought, trying to get used to the strange new feeling, after all, it was probably the most enchanted place in all of Britain.

He surveyed the common room as they entered it, but the only prefect he saw was Campbell, who seemed even more annoyed than usual. "He's not here", Scorpius seemed to read his mind, in a way that Albus wasn't fond of, "He has some personal matters to take care of at home. I'm not sure he will even return this year", he finished in a gloomy voice.

They were held with the rest of the Slytherins on the narrow stairs leading down, moving slowly as each student-year entered their own floor. "He swore me to tell no one", Scorpius quietly apologized, "Never mind then", Albus said. In truth it was better that way- now he'll be able to explore the dungeons without fear of being caught.

They finally reached the bottom floor, "Do you realise we'll be in the upper floor next time will return here?", Gavin asked Aidan aloud, and then waved to Albus like he just now happened to see him, his smile barely visible under his eagle-like nose. Albus ignored him and went to arrange his section between those of Scorpius and Rollo, having a hard time doing so with one hand, the other still firmly clasping the wand.

He moved the curtains, separating himself from the rest, and took his night light in his left hand, making sure all his belongings were in their proper place. He was about to lie in his bed, his body suddenly remembering that it hadn't been rested the night before, when something else caught his eye.

He used to Umbra sitting at the hatch, trying to scrape her way to the shrimp beyond, but now she was with Scorpius, for once leaving the crustacean alone. "Hey there Shrimpy", Albus brought the light closer and observed the small animal resting in a complete stillness on the other side of the scraped glass, now at least three times its initial size since he first saw it.

He continued to stare with half open eyes, beginning to dose off without noticing while still standing. Suddenly, the shrimp moved, and turned his bulging eyes in the direction of the light, as if looking straight ahead at Albus. It woke him just enough to see the other creature arriving.

The eyes radiated yellow, and the face was a mockery of a human one, like a disturbing combination of a fish and a monkey. It sent a grey arm forward, and snatched the shrimp back into its gaping mouth, crashing it with its sharp broken teeth. And, in the same speed in which the merman arrived he also disappeared, but not before winking at Albus, as if thanking him for enticing him towards his dinner, leaving him frozen in shock, his tiredness forgotten, his mouth open in a silent shout.

Despite being so tired, he didn't manage to get proper sleep that night, the radiating power buzzing in his body and the small shrimp final moments rehashed in his head. It was silly, but something in what happened shook him to his core. It was even less the way the animal vanished, and more the speed at which it happened- the way that its entire life just disappeared, in an instant…

He failed to sleep well, having his regular nightmares, but also didn't truly get up until the double defence against the dark arts lesson the next morning. "Flipendo!", Albus literally made a whole somersault backwards before landing on his back, all the air escaping his lungs. "You're sure you slept? you look like a zombie", Violet asked as he got up groaning, his whole body a bundle of pain.

Professor Flitwick joined that class this day, and, in addition to the pillows he provided, he also made the floor softer, though, at the moment, it still felt like hard stone to Albus. "I just lost focus for a second, and we call them inferi", he didn't want to explain how his dreams about the crooked tree and green space left him even more exhausted when he woke up. "Maybe try to be gentler instead", he angrily added, glad the 'Weather in a Bottle' stayed in his other uniform this time.

"Sorry, but you know I can't control it yet", she shrugged. Next to them, Aidan laughed, but just like last time, it didn't last long, and he got a yellow beam of light straight into his face, falling backwards in a rather humorous way. He as well got up grunting, as Gavin, who did it, loudly mocked him.

Albus glanced sideways in the direction of Patricia and Belinda, who practiced with each other. He already experienced firsthand the ability of the arrogant girl with this charm but was surprised to see that her oily black braided counterpart keeping up. For a moment, bouncing around, evading the knockback jinxes, he saw the flicker of a gold medallion around her neck, like that of Violet's mother.

"If you don't concentrate, you'll end up flying again", she herself drew him from his daydreams, "Or do you have a crash that I'm not aware of?". "Shut up!", he said towards her smirking smile, feeling his face turn red, and only barely evaded the next yellow beam she sent his way.

"Hey love", just before the end of the lesson, Ayers came to give Violet some advice on her spell making, not that Albus understood why- if anything, the purpled eyed girl was too good at it. The Professor had just finished with Scorpius, whose beams were too weak, and with his partner Rollo, who managed to perform the magic intermittently, surprised time and time again, whether he succeeded or failed.

The Professor moved on to the tall and thin Temira and short and full Gabby, not even stopping to look at Albus. He felt his hands tingling once more, though something was different now- at last he felt some connection with his wand. He raised his hand and said the jinx's words, but nothing happened. Violet, who didn't even bat an eyelid, couldn't hide the pity that crossed her face.

It pushed Albus over the edge. He concentrated on his hand the same way he focused on the fire before, and, like he did with the electricity inside the lightbulb, amplified the energy. To his surprise, his surge of power materialized in the air, creating strong enough wind to make Violet take a step backwards. "Ha!", he rejoiced aloud, filled with a sense of transcendence, a second before he saw black.

"What happened?", he jerked up, just for Hannah, the matron, to push him back into the bed. "Calm down", she said, "You're exhausted, you need to rest". But he wasn't tired, on the contrary, he was lively and full of energy. Not only he had a rest without any nightmares, but, at last- he managed to use his wand!

As she shoved a steaming blue drink into his mouth, he also noticed Scorpius and Violet sitting next to him. "Is lunch over or are we already late for potions?", he asked, turning around, unable to hide his joy. "It's been three hours, Al", Violet quietly said, "We just got back from Pechman".

"We brought you some sandwiches...", Scorpius carefully begun, but couldn't even finish his sentence before Albus stormed them like a starving animal, gulping down huge bites without chewing. He was in the middle of a bite when he suddenly noticed that something was missing.

"Where's my wand?", he coughed, forgetting to swallow. His hunger was gone as he glanced around with such sharp movements that his neck got stiffed. "Here", Scorpius barely took the wand out of his bag before Albus snatched it, almost laughing as the connection sensation nevertheless continued.

"Relex! stay here and don't exert yourself!", Hannah said. "But I'm already feeling better", he tried to get up once again, only for the matron to push him back down. "You feel that way because of the invigoration draught I gave you", she said. As if in a cue, Almos Alton, the blond sleepyhead kid from Hufflepuff, burst into the hospital wing, making loud trumpeting noises from the elephant's trunk that for some reason dangled from his face.

He seemed more stressed by Peeves, however, who trailed behind him and threw food at him as if he was a freak in the circus. "How do these things always happen to him?", Hannah sighed and went to direct the hazy kid towards a vacant bed. Then she tried to converse with the poltergeist, who just stuck his tongue out in response and began throwing bedpans at her (he wasn't particularly known for his nuisance making's variety).

Albus took advantage of the opportunity and jumped up, quickly rushing by the numerous rows of beds with white sheets and bursting free out of the hospital wing, Scorpius and Violet racing after him. Luckily, the transfiguration class was also on the first floor, so his path wasn't too long. He couldn't wait to use his wand again!

"Hey, where are you going?", Scorpius gasped, "Hanna said you should stay back there". "Or what?", Albus laughed out loud, "She'll punish me?". "Listen!", Violet finally managed to catch him before he entered the already packed class, "You looked awful, as if you were dead". "But I didn't die, did I?", he dismissively smiled.

"Who died?", Doyle appeared from behind and scanned them with his dark brown eyes, his drop shaped ruby earring continuing to dangle even after he stopped. The bell rung in the background, yet none of them entered. "Albus isn't feeling well, sir", Scorpius said in a shaky voice. "He looks fairly full of life to me", the Professor's smooth face didn't change expression while inspecting him, focusing on the wand he tightly held in his hand.

"You wanted to talk to me", the thin man said, his eyes borrowing into those of Albus, more as a statement than a question and he found himself blubbering away. Under the Professor sharp stare, he couldn't stop himself from describing how he practiced controlling electricity like he did with the fire and how he used it in his last lesson.

Albus explanation became slower and slower however, and before he could describe how he felt magic around him the effect of the drink given to him by the matron completely dwindled away. His head spun, staying on his feet only thanks to Scorpius and Violet's support.

"We'll take him to rest", she said and started dragging him away from the Professor, who didn't stop them, his waxy face expressionless. "Wands channel magic, but also limit it", he quietly said, tilting his head. But only Albus, who was still completely focused on him, heard it.

"Take me to my bed", he didn't understand the sudden anger that arose in him, "I will not be able to rest in the hospital wing anyway", and indeed there were still muffled trumpeting sounds heard from the distance. They agreed, probably more out of fear that he would otherwise run away and helped him all the way to the dormitory.

The adrenaline hid the severe exhaustion behind, deeper than any muscle fatigue he experienced before, and Albus found that even the simple task of breathing became a challenging one. "You sure you're fine?", Scorpius anxiously asked as he finally collapsed onto his bed.

He nodded, staring at the empty hatch above, from which a soft green glow spilled in, fearing he'll vomit if he'll open his mouth. He should have never spoken to the Professor, he understood, the wand still tightly gripped in his hands. After all, how one with the ability to borrow into others' minds could ever be trusted?...