The Little Hero

The day after next, Albus looked for Bernie during the break. Together, Slytherins and Hufflepuffs had just practiced Wingardium Leviosa, the Levitation Charm, in Charms. Of course, they had all had their trouble with it at first – all, except Matthew McDowell, a Hufflepuff who immediately and effortlessly managed to make his feather hover. The feather was their first object to practise on, but McDowell made even hover an entire chair. He had probably already practised at home with his older brother. This was forbidden, but not verifiable.

At the end of the first double lesson on Monday, almost everyone was able to make their feather fly, and in the second lesson on Wednesday, they could make erasers, mice, ink pots, flower pots hover – well, one of the latter got broken –, and finally chairs. Albus had even lifted a table. McDowell's advance was gone.

The only one who couldn't get anything to hover, not even the feather, was Bernie, however desperately he tried, and however patiently Professor Flitwick kept encouraging him and explaining it to him.

"Maybe there's something wrong with your wand," he said caringly. "Remember the wrist movement: Just swish and flick!"

Bernie did, but nothing happened. Flitwick had the wand handed to him and did the same. A shower of red sparks sprayed from the tip of the wand. Indeed, there was nothing wrong with the wand.

"Well, young man, it does happen that students have to struggle at first. Just keep practising patiently, and pay close attention to the lessons so that you at least master the theory, you will surely get it at some point. And you" – he turned to the Hufflepuffs – "stop grinning!"

In fact, almost everyone had grinned at first, including the Slytherins, except two: Albus out of pity, Scorpius out of tact. When Jennifer saw their earnest faces, she too stopped grinning, then Lance Ogilvy, then one by one the other Slytherins.

While Flitwick, over a hundred years old and somewhat hard of hearing, strode to his desk to climb the pile of books on which he used to perch, the Hufflepuffs murmured spiteful remarks: "Muggle!" – "Why do we always get the trash?" – "They'd never dare send such a guy to Gryffindor or Slytherin!" – "Not even a Squib!" – "Hey, Malfoy, call him a Mudblood, for someone like him it's a compliment!"

They didn't even try to speak low enough that Bernie couldn't hear them, they wanted him to.

So, during the following break, Albus looked for Bernie. There had to be a way to help him. To Albus, magic was the most natural thing in the world, he couldn't even imagine that someone literally couldn't do magic at all. Perhaps it was simply because Bernie had never experienced magic with the Muggles. On the other hand – Albus' dad either had never experienced it before coming to Hogwarts, and Roy certainly hadn't, nor had Hermione, and they had still been able to do it. And the Sorting Hat had sent Bernie back to the Muggles ... Anyway, he liked Bernie, and now he was at Hogwarts, he would help him! But where the hell was he?

Albus noticed that there were no Hufflepuff first-years in the playground at all. There was only a remote part of the schoolyard left, behind a spur and therefore not visible, where he had not yet searched. Albus had a bad feeling and sped up his pace.

As he approached, he heard disturbing shouts the wind was blowing towards him:

"Muggle, muggle, where's the smartphone?" Albus turned the corner and saw Bernie desperately trying to get something back that the others were throwing at each other. It was his smartphone. Albus saw it hitting a rock and getting broken. McDowell then pointed his wand at Bernie:

"Wingardium Leviosa!"

As if pulled up by a rope, Bernie now hovered one foot above the ground. Under the raw laughter of his classmates, he rowed his arms and fidgeted with his legs to find a hold somewhere. McDowell, who obviously was enjoying the role of the leader, now gave him a punch in the gut that made Bernie's body convulse.

"Stop it right now! Leave him alone!" Albus drew his wand to gently lower Bernie, who was writhing in pain. McDowell, robbed of his victim, turned around along with his horde, while Albus strode towards him in anger. McDowell was almost a head taller than him, but this was nothing Albus cared about at that moment. In his rage, he also ignored the fact that McDowell's buddies were looking distinctly menacing.

"You should be ashamed of yourselves! He didn't do anything to you, and you only dare because you know he can't fight back! You're really a kind of heroes!"

"But you," McDowell answered, literally looking down at him, "you can fight back, can't you, Potter? Well, fight back! Because we don't like Slytherins, especially when they nose into our business! Such noses have to be punished!"

Without any warning, he punched Albus right in the face. Immediately, blood flooded out of his nose. The others seemed to have just been waiting for it and hit him as well, and when he fell to the ground, they kicked. Albus tried to protect his body with his arms and not lose his wand. Between two kicks he put one of the boys out of action with Wingardium Leviosa, but this only made the others angrier. Albus wouldn't have been able to tell later how long the unequal fight lasted; it seemed not to end at all, but perhaps it was only a minute or less.

Suddenly, McGonagall's voice thundered: "Stop now!"

The Hufflepuffs flinched and stood as if frozen. With his face covered in blood, Albus struggled to his feet and saw Bernie standing next to McGonagall; apparently he had been the one who had called her to help. Since the Headmistress' voice, magically magnified, had been heard throughout the schoolyard, students from all houses and years now quickly flocked together.

"Is it true," she asked McDowell sternly, "that you put a levitation charm on Mister Wildfellow and then beat him?"

The Hufflepuffs dropped the gaze.

"And is it true that Mister Potter tried to stop you and that's why you and your friends beat him up like that?"

The Hufflepuffs were silent. This was confession enough.

"Fifty points off Hufflepuff! But for each of you, the personal consequences will be far more serious. I expect to see you in my office this afternoon at five o'clock."

"Excuse me, Professor." Marietta Loughlin, the Hufflepuffs' Prefect, now turned to her. She was the girl Albus had seen on the Hogwarts Express. "As their Prefect, may I attend the meeting?"

"You may!" replied McGonagall. "And now for you, Mr Potter."

Somehow, she still sounded stern; as a first-year, Albus hadn't yet got used to this being McGonagall's normal tone.

"No doubt it would have been wiser to call for help immediately. Nevertheless, in a moral sense, your behaviour was an example everyone should learn a lesson from. Therefore, fifty points for Gryffin... for Slytherin!"

Apparently it had slipped the aged Headmistress's mind for a moment that she was talking not to little Harry, but to Albus, who looked like Harry without his glasses, and that he was a Slytherin. She now pointed her wand at him:

"Episkey!"

Albus' nose abruptly stopped bleeding, and the scratches on his face disappeared.

"MacAllister!" she now turned to Roy, who had come running with the other students. "Take your little hero to Madam Pomfrey for a thorough checkup!"

"With respect, Professor," Roy said, grinning, "I don't think the word 'little' is appropriate in this context." He put his hand on Albus's shoulder. "Come on, Al."