1. 7. Detention

Though Albus was not excited about the prospect of detention, or what his parents would say about it when they found out, he at least had a goal in mind for their Thursday potions class. It almost gave him something to look forwards to. He reflected sadly that this was not exactly the life he had expected at Hogwarts. But at least he had made a sure friend.

"Look, I'll do the detention. You've had a hard enough time already," Scorpius insisted on the eve before their plan was to be put into action.

"Scorp, you're the only one of us that has any chance to get good marks in potions and you know it. If you get Mendar mad at you this early on, you're going to regret it. Your dad will kill you."

"I can't let you sacrifice yourself Al. It was my idea after all that she was a vampire."

"It's ok, I don't think I can really do much worse than I already am," Albus countered and they were forced to finish their conversation at that point because their three roommates had just entered the dorm.

The next morning, Albus performed his usual nonfunctional act during charms. But he was so unfocused that he didn't even care. After a similarly dismal transfiguration lesson, they ate lunch, but he and Scorpius didn't dare discuss their plan. There were too many people around.

And then they were headed to potions. Albus clapped Scorpius on the shoulder as they entered the classroom and took up their cauldrons.

"Today we will be continuing the prickling potions that you began last class." Mendar waved her wand and as though time hadn't passed. There was Albus's potion simmering away right where he had left it.

"Please continue until you have reached the final stage of the potion. Your drafts have cured over the past two days and are ready for the next ingredients. Take care not to add the daisies too quickly, this is a volatile stage of work. Let us just say, you do not want to accelerate the process. Please begin."

Albus glanced sideways at Scorpius and grinned broadly. Scorpius gave him a pained expression.

"Al," he started to say as they began chopping the first ingredients, earthworms.

"It's fine Scorp. I'll see you on the other side."

It was not until half an hour through the class that they came to the daisies. Al took a deep breath, staring at his bouquet. It was almost beautiful. He held the entire bundle over his cauldron, wondering what would happen.

"Al, no!" Scorpius called suddenly and the next thing he knew, the other boy was trying to grab the flowers from him.

"Let go!" he shouted at Scorpius, but his fellow Slytherin hung on, attempting to rip them out of his hand.

Suddenly Albus slipped and fell sideways, Scorpius coming along for the ride. Both let go of the flowers which rose up in the air in an arc and then descended, straight into Rose's cauldron. There was a fantastic explosion of sparks and hot water. Heavy smoke filled the air. Through it, Albus could just barely make out the shocked faces of other students, and the livid face of Rose. Before he knew what had happened, Rose was rushing towards him and Scorpius, her own flowers in hand. Before either could stop her, she had thrown them directly into Albus's cauldron. A second explosion went off, showering them all again.

"Enough!" Professor Mendar roared and the smoke and mess cleared instantly. "You three, come to the front. Everyone else, continue with the lesson."

Rose sent the other two a nasty glare as they proceeded to the front. When they stopped in front of Mendar, they saw that she was looking even paler than usual.

"What part of 'lack of integrity' was not clear to you during my first lecture?"

She glared at them each in turn and then shook her head. "I am not here to babysit children. If this is how you insist on behaving, you will pay the price. Detention, my office, beginning at 6 tonight and ending at 8. Understood?"

Rose looked like she was about to cry. "But Professor Mendar, they started it!" she burst out.

"We did start it," Scorpius said, carefully not looking at Rose. "It wasn't her fault."

"Yes, Miss Weasley but you certainly retaliated in kind, did you not? Actions and reactions will both be punished. I expect you see you promptly here this evening at 6."

By the time class ended, Albus was feeling quite terrible. He had never meant to involve Rose in their scheme. He hadn't meant for Scorpius to get in trouble either for that matter.

"Why did you fight me on it, I was the one who was supposed to do it," he said miserably to Scorpius as the exited the classroom.

"You're my friend, I can't let you have all the fun on your own," Scorpius insisted, half smiling.

His smile faded as they turned a corner to see Rose waiting for them, her face red and furious. "You ruined everything! I was getting good marks before now. I-I hate you!" she shouted and then hurried away.

Albus felt a lump rise in his throat. Scorpius glanced sideways at him. "I think she was talking to me," he muttered at the look on Albus's face.

"Some fun this is going to be."

At 6 o'clock, they made their way back to the dungeons after a hasty meal. Rose was already there when they got to the door. She didn't say anything to them. Professor Mendar greeted them with boxes of vials containing slimy looking ingredients.

"These need to be relabeled and resorted. The policy is not to use magic, although it hardly seems necessary with you lot. Please place them in this cabinet as you finish them, I'll be grading homework and assignments if you have any questions." She walked back out into the classroom, leaving the three of them in her office.

They set to work. It was tedious and boring. Rose grabbed a box and took it as far away from the other two as possible. Albus and Scorpius, though ashamed as well as bored out of their minds, kept glancing at each other significantly and also at Mendar, who was currently facing them, grading papers. However, at about 7 she started grading potions, which required her to move to a cauldron in order to drop vials of student sample inside to gauge their work.

"This is as good as we are going to get," Scorpius mutter to Albus, who nodded.

"Ok, you keep watch, I'll look around. If she comes, tell me quick and I'll pretend I dropped a vial and it rolled away."

"Good thinking."

Rose, who had determinedly kept her gaze away from them up until now, glanced over when Albus moved away and then stared at him as he began to pop open drawers and rifle through contents.

"What are you doing?" she hissed.

"Um, I ran out of labels," Albus invented. "Just looking for more."

"There's more labels right there," Rose said, pointing at a desktop a few feet away.

"Oh, good," Albus said, ignoring her and continuing to peruse the drawers.

"Find anything?" Scorpius asked.

"Nothing yet," Albus answered.

"What are you two up to?" Rose asked, accidently dropping a vile, which cracked as it hit the floor. "Oh damn." She looked around surreptitiously and then pulled out her wand. "Reparo!" she said, directing her wand at the vial, which healed itself.

"We're not supposed to use magic," Albus hissed at her.

"Or look through drawers!" Rose shot back.

"Scorp, I don't see anything. You try looking, I'll switch you," Albus said and the two swapped.

While Scorpius began to search with Rose glaring at him irritably, Albus gazed out of the window of the office at Mendar, who was busy with her assignments. He glanced down to see a waste paper bin. There was something inside it that looked like a sweets wrapper.

"Um Scorp," he said, bending down to retrieve the item.

"What, is she coming?" Scorpius asked, accidently cracking his head on a table edge.

"Look at this," Albus said, glancing at Mendar and then holding up the wrapper.

"A blood pop!" Scorpius exclaimed triumphantly. "So she really is a vampire!"

"What?" Rose said incredulously, forgetting the labeling to stare at them.

"Scorp had this idea that Professor Mendar is a vampire. He's seen one before. We've been trying to prove it ever since," Albus explained to Rose, who was looking completely shocked. "We were trying to get detention, well, it was only supposed to be me, not you two. But I wanted to get detention so I could be in her office and search it."

Rose stared at them like they had just sprouted fangs themselves. Then she turned thoughtfully to stare at Professor Mendar.

"She is kind of pale," she admitted, shrugging.

"Thank you!" Scorpius declared victoriously.

"Yeah, but maybe she only had this blood pop to use in a potion or something," Albus insisted.

"Oh yeah, well what about this?" Scorpius said. He had just opened a small drawer in the top of Mendar's desk and pulled out a tiny vial. It was labeled "Repellere Allium solution."

"That means garlic repellent," Rose gasped. "Oh my god, she is a vampire!"

The three stared at each other for a moment before Albus glanced back at Mendar to see that she had just finished grading and was moving in their direction.

"Quick!" he hissed and the three dove to cover their positions. Not a minute too soon. When Mendar entered, it was to find Albus holding up a vial squinting at the label, Rose counting vials and Scorpius standing a few feet from her desk. She narrowed her eyes, but before she could ask, Rose said, "hey Scorp, can you help me read this one, it's all faded."

Scorpius hurried over to her as Mendar sat down at her desk and pretended to help decipher the label. "Thanks," he whispered to her.

Rose shrugged, not looking at him.

They finished their detention and headed back up the stairs. When they figured they were out of earshot, they all turned to stare at each other.

"What is a vampire doing, teaching at Hogwarts?"

"Do you think anyone else knows?"

"Do you think she'll try to suck our blood?"

Albus shivered. "Should we tell someone?"

The other two swallowed and the Scorpius said, "there's no way the other teachers don't know. I heard that Dumbledore let a werewolf teach at Hogwarts once."

"Teddy's dad," Rose said, turning to stare at Albus.

"Right," Albus replied. "Then maybe she isn't a bad vampire. Maybe McGonagall is doing her a favor, just like Dumbledore was for Professor Lupin."

They continued to ponder this in silence for a few moments before Scorpius suddenly turned to Rose. "I'm really sorry for getting you involved in all this," he said, blushing.

"Me too," Albus agreed.

"Oh well, it's no big deal," Rose said, looking away from them. "If I hadn't of been there, I wouldn't know that Professor Mendar is a vampire. That's pretty exciting."

Scorpius smiled and Albus laughed.

"We should go back," Rose said quickly and the three headed back towards the great hall. At one point, Rose stopped next to a staircase. "Um, I go this way," she said uncertainly.

"Right. Well see you later Rose," Albus said.

"Good night," Scorpius said.

Rose left and the two boys glanced at each other. "That went pretty well," Scorpius concluded and they laughed and headed back to their dorm.