Chapter Ten – Into the Forest

'Vampires, though most likely originating in either Europe or the Near East, can nowadays be found almost anywhere in the world,' lectured Professor Selwyn. 'They are dark, magical, humanoid beings that roam the night feeding on the blood of living creatures. Vampires are usually pale and gaunt in look, and have sharp fangs for puncturing the throats of their victims…'

'You still want to do it this Saturday?' whispered Scorpius to Albus.

They were sat in the second row from the front of the classroom. It wasn't an ideal location for secretive planning during lecture, but Professor Selwyn had seldom noticed any whisperings as he taught.

'I reckon it's the best chance we've got. Molly's gonna be at the match, along with the rest of the school and the teachers, and we'll be able to just slip out unnoticed,' replied Albus.

The first Saturday of November was the traditional date given for the first Quidditch match of the school year: Gryffindor vs. Slytherin. Albus had decided he would rather miss it anyhow since he didn't think he could bear even more insults and taunts by the Gryffindors; which were surely to come his way if he attended the match.

'Yeah… but that would mean that, if we run into something while we're in there, no one would hear us screaming for help…' answered Scorpius.

'We'll be fine. Trust me. Like I told you, my dad always snuck out into the forest, and he always came back alive.'

Scorpius still didn't seem quite sure of this plan they had concocted.

It was to his benefit though, thought Albus as Professor Selwyn dragged on about old European vampire outbreaks. Even though it had defied all logic, and even though Rose and her friends had stopped supporting that rumour, many students at Hogwarts still believed Scorpius to be the Lost Child. It didn't help that Johnathan Drake and his gang of bullies encouraged this story everywhere they went.

Albus had his doubts about their plan too, however. It was quite farfetched, their plan. The boys had figured that the best way of finding out the Child's identity – or whether they even existed – was to talk to someone who had been privy to Voldemort's inner circle. That was, of course, a rather difficult task to achieve, as the majority of the old Death Eaters had been confined in Azkaban since before they were born. Albus hardly imagined the guards at the ancient prison would accommodate two 11-year-old boys who wanted to interview Corban Yaxley. And regardless, he was sure his father had already thought of that. Since the Child hadn't yet been caught, Albus figured the old Death Eaters must have either lied or were not aware of the Child's existence in the first place.

Scorpius had then offered to write to his father, Draco Malfoy, and inquire whether he'd heard anything about the Child (that was not already in the papers) during his short time as a Death Eater. Mr Malfoy's reply came in the mail soon after. It contained a rather short, concise message: 'Of course not. I would advise you to stay away from this nonsense, Scorpius. Ignore these Gryffindor buffoons. I will see you at Christmas,' it read.

But Albus had a better idea. True, it was daring, borderline insane, but he was sure nobody – not even his father – had thought of it. Albus and Scorpius were going to try and speak with Severus Snape.

When Scorpius had initially heard Albus' plan he had laughed himself silly. Severus Snape had been dead for almost twenty years, after-all. But that did not necessarily mean they couldn't talk to him. Albus remembered the stories his father had told him about a certain stone he had used to talk to his dead parents and friends during the Battle of Hogwarts. The Resurrection Stone was one of the fabled Deathly Hallows, and the only known way to truly resurrect the dead… in some form.

The only issue with the plan was that Albus and Scorpius didn't know exactly where Harry had dropped the stone on that fateful day. Albus knew that his father had dumped it somewhere near a clearing in the forest, the one that had once belonged to the – now infamous – Acromantula colony, but he had no clue where to look for it.

The boys had since snuck into the Forbidden Forest twice already. They went in at times in which most students and teachers were busy with one thing or another, and therefore would have a lower chance of catching them going inside the forest. Each time they walked in a different direction, to try and cover as much ground as they could.

They hadn't been to the forest in over a month, however, due to the fact that Albus' cousin and Prefect, Molly Weasley II, had caught them as they walked out of the forest on a Hogsmeade weekend. Ever since then she kept an eye on the two boys, which was inconvenient.

'Now, as some of you may know, there are three major vampire settlements in the world, two of which are in Europe,' continued Professor Selwyn. 'Krovograd, the largest in the world with over a thousand inhabitants, is said to be hidden deep in the forests of Belarus. Sápadt Város, the other big vampiric settlement on the continent, is presumed to be somewhere in Hungary. And the last major vampire town – that we know of – in our world is the underground city of Ville Grave, which is located underneath one of the famously haunted cemeteries in the city of New Orleans in the United States. That is not to say that these are the only settlements that exist. There are many more, smaller, vampire communities out there, but these are the "big three" as they're often called.'

'Professor,' called Scorpius as he raised his hand in the air.

'Yes, Mr Malfoy?'

'Are there any vampires in the Forbidden Forest?' he asked in a frightful tone.

'Ha! Good question Malfoy,' said Selwyn. 'I'm afraid not. These beings generally prefer abandoned buildings, secluded castles, or underground lairs over forest dwellings. The only vampiric community in Britain can be found in London, and it consists of only a few dozen individuals I should say.'

That seemed to have reassured Scorpius a little. The fact of the matter was, they had barely encountered any creatures on their previous visits to the Forbidden Forest. Nothing more intimidating than a few Bowtruckles, birds, and deer. They of course chose to only go into the forest during daylight hours, as they felt it was the safest thing to do. When going deep enough in the forest, the sun's rays could scarcely penetrate the thick cover of the trees. It was hard enough to see even without the added complication, and fear element, of night-time darkness.

This time they had to do it right. It was the perfect opportunity. The entire school would be attending – and focusing solely on – the first match of the Inter-House Quidditch Cup. Albus had even learned how to perform the Four-Point Spell – a charm that caused the caster's wand to behave as if it were a compass and point north – so they would be able to navigate better in the forest.

'Professor, Professor,' interrupted Connor Finnigan. 'Who do you think would win in a fight, a vampire or a Dementor?'

Everyone laughed.

'Well,' said Professor Selwyn when the laughter died down. 'contrary to popular belief, vampires are not, strictly speaking, dead. While it is true that they can live for hundreds of years, they do eventually succumb to mortal death. All evidence suggests that they do possess souls, in which case, a Dementor would pose just as much of a risk to a vampire as it does for any other living, soul-bearing being. Does that answer your question, Mr Finnigan?'

'But we still don't know for sure who would win in a fight then, do we?' he asked with a cheeky smile.

'Considering the fact that the vast majority of the Dementor population is, and has been since nineteen ninety-eight, enclosed and sealed in a remote cave, therefore making the chance of an encounter between the two highly unlikely, I wouldn't lose any sleep on that question Mr Finnigan.'

'But – '

'Mr Finnigan, this is a class about vampires and their characteristics and abilities, not about theoretical death-matches between different dark creatures. You will learn more about Dementors in your future years.'

The rest of the day passed by rather swiftly with a short period of Potions followed by Herbology. Their last period, however, had been Albus' least favourite. Flying and Physical Education was the class Albus had been having the most trouble with. His skills on a broom roughly matched those of a mountain troll, and his running and jumping skills seemed to equal those too. He also hated the fact that Johnathan Drake, Luke McLaggen, and Phineas Gordon kept laughing and mocking him every time he had made some embarrassing move.

'I hate Thursdays…' said Albus as he sat down across from Scorpius in one of the chairs at their common room.

'At least tomorrow we're pretty much free,' replied his friend.

'Yeah, d'you reckon we should go to the library again to find more spells we could use?'

'I don't think we'll have the time to master them by Saturday really… Let's just relax tomorrow, play some Gobstones, we deserve it.'

Soon after lunch the next day Albus and Scorpius went over to sit in one of the empty classrooms on the second floor. They spent their time playing Gobstones and joking about Michael Poults, the weird boy in their year, and his various – and seemingly unending – eccentricities. Albus had found the young Ravenclaw rather amusing at first. However, by the end of October, he had to admit that his tendency to ask so many convoluted, long, and incomprehensible questions – therefore extending their classes by several minutes sometimes – very much annoying and unhelpful. His extreme and over-the-top friendliness – to the point where it had seemed ungenuine – did not help his case either.

'Do you think he will ever learn to formulate a question in his head before he opens his mouth?' asked Scorpius in a mixture of frustration and amusement.

'I don't know, but if he ever tries to convince me to join his study group again, I'll hex him.'

They both giggled.

'Whatcha doin' Pygmy Puff?' asked a voice from the doorway to the classroom. Albus had recognised it immediately. His brother James had always liked calling him by the nickname their mother had given him when he was 3 years old, especially when other people were present.

James had just entered the classroom followed by his two best mates: their cousin Fred Weasley II and William "Ton" Harrington. He was soaking wet from head to toe, which made his brand new Gryffindor Quidditch team robes look more mahogany than scarlet.

'Playing Gobstones, what do you want James?' replied Albus.

'We were passing by, and I heard your voice. Is it so wrong of me to check on my little brother?' he asked back in a fake angelic voice. Albus made a face at him.

James and his group had been dubbed the true heirs of both the Marauders and Fred and George Weasley by many of the students – and some of the teachers (though much less fondly). Not only did he and his mates have a major tendency for rule-breaking, but Albus' older brother had also excelled in Quidditch. Once the Captain and oldest member of the team, Raphael Morgan, had finished his seventh year, everyone knew it was only a matter of time before James Potter II would be replacing him as Seeker for the Gryffindor Quidditch team.

'Are you coming to see me crush your housemates on the pitch tomorrow?' inquired the older Potter.

Fred snorted. 'More like see him crash on the pitch tomorrow.'

'Ignore him Pygmy Puff, he's just jealous because your amazing brother was picked over him for the team.'

'I might come, though I'm not sure about you winning really,' replied Albus.

'You might come?' retorted James. 'What does that mean?'

'Well – '

'Are you going in the forest again?'

'How did you – '

'Oh please,' interrupted James, 'our dear cousin keeps checking on you, and I saw you two coming back in the castle with twigs in your hair a few weeks back. I'm not stupid, Al, I know two plus two equals three.'

'I – '

'Don't get me wrong, I fully approve of this. Why, we've been in there a couple times ourselves – ' started James.

'Hear, hear,' said Ton.

'We'll make a true rascal out of you yet,' said Fred in a surprisingly good impersonation of McGonagall.

'But why are you sneaking in the forest?' finished James.

'I – er – can't tell you.'

'Ooooooh so mysterious, Pygmy Puff, tell me, are you on a, top-secret mission?'

'Er…'

'Well pop, pop, cheerio good man!' said Fred, now in a perfect imitation of their Uncle Percy. 'We shouldn't keep you waiting, what with all your secret plots and your plotted secrets. Scurry off now chaps, go on,' he told James and Ton who giggled as they began walking back out of the room.

'Just be careful Pygmy Puff! Our mum will gut me if you get hurt in there and she finds out I let you go!' called James as he and his mates disappeared through the doorway.

Saturday morning came cloudy and cold to the Hogwarts grounds. Albus and Scorpius woke up to the excited atmosphere of their common room. Huge banners of silver and green hung from the walls and windows, and a large crowd of Slytherins was chatting spiritedly in the middle of the room. The boys had to weave through the flock of fellow students to go up for breakfast.

At quarter to nine, the students began to trickle out of the Great Hall and off to the Quidditch pitch. Albus and Scorpius decided to wait for the rest of the school to leave the hall before trying to enter the forest. They passed their time drinking pumpkin juice and going over their plan in hushed voices.

'We keep going north-west this time,' said Albus. 'We'll walk for thirty minutes – '

'– and if we can't find anything, we go straight back,' finished Scorpius.

'And if we meet anything dangerous?'

'Incendio and Flipendo.'

'And we scarper.'

'No use being brave if you end up dead,' agreed Scorpius with a smile.

When at last the final group of jabbering students had left the hall, Albus and Scorpius ran back down to the dungeons to retrieve the package of Demon Dung fireworks and Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder they'd borrowed from Janus Flint. They figured they could use those to distract anything that might try and chase them. Once they had hidden the powder and the fireworks in their pockets, they climbed back out of the dungeons while looking around for anyone who might see them.

'The coast looks clear,' whispered Albus.

'Go on then,' Scorpius muttered back.

They advanced across the Entrance Hall and through the great oak doors. Walking out into the cold November air they –

'HULLO guys!'

The one person Albus had wished to see the least (maybe other than a teacher) was Michael Poults. The sandy-haired boy had sneaked up on them as they were trying to slip through the Entrance Hall.

'Oh, hey Michael…' said Scorpius with obvious annoyance.

'Skiving off Quidditch eh? Me too,' he winked, oblivious as always to any indication he wasn't welcome at a certain situation. 'I find it kind of dull and stupid, to be honest. I prefer a good, spirited chat or a game of Wizard's Checkers over the…'

Albus' temper was soaring as Michael Poults kept going on and on about Wizard's Checkers' benefits. He had the unfortunate combination of the ability to talk for hours at a time along with the lack of ability to understand nuance.

'…and, of course, there's the high risk of brain injury in Quidditch which – '

'Okay Quidditch isn't stupid, we're not skiving off, and you can't even skive off something you're not obligated to attend!' yelled Albus as his annoyance boiled over. He quickly realised his mistake.

'Oh, so what are we doing then guys?'

'We?'

'Well, all of my friends are – er – at the Quidditch match right now so I thought maybe I can hang out with you guys for the day,' replied Michael.

Albus doubted these friends of his even existed. Which caused, for the very first time, for a tinge of pity to be added to his overwhelming annoyance with Michael Poults. It cannot be easy, being this unpopular with everyone at the school, even the teachers.

'I mean er – '

'Look Michael,' intervened Scorpius before Albus could do any more damage, 'we were actually hoping to be left alone for this so – and don't take this the wrong way – but we would rather not have you with us for – '

'Wait, are you guys breaking the rules?' asked Poults in a hushed tone. When the boys looked at each other in silence for a split second he seemed to have taken it as confirmation. 'In that case, I think I should definitely come with you. You know, to make sure nobody is telling on you,' he said pointedly.

Albus turned to Scorpius again. His friend's eye was twitching, which made him look slightly psychotic. Was this kid really blackmailing them into hanging out with him?

'Er…' began Albus.

'I guess so…' muttered Scorpius through gritted teeth.

'EXCELLENT!' shouted Michael.

'SHHHHHH! Shut up,' the boys silenced him.

'Sorry.'

'Come on now, we haven't got much time,' whispered Scorpius.

They advanced through the misty grounds in a haste. As they walked, the boys could hear William "Ton" Harrington's commentary at the distance.

'And Molly Weasley takes the Quaffle, passing it on to Smith, now Webb, now Weasley again, back to Webb who – drops it…

'Meanwhile, James Potter, the brand new and promising Gryffindor Seeker seems to still be scanning their side of the pitch for the Snitch. Fun fact, did you know that James Potter's initials are J.S.P? Also, a common abbreviation for Jagged Scaly Peni– '

'Harrington!'

'Sorry Professor. And now he's making a rude gesture at your handsome commentator… tut, tut, J.S.P, tut, tut.'

The forest looked dark and menacing this morning as there was very little light to begin with due to the heavy, dark grey clouds above. Once Michael realised where they were headed, his happy demeanour shifted to fear and feeble panic.

'Wait, are we – you guys want to – but – the Forbidden Forest?!' he protested.

'Like we said,' began Albus, 'you don't have to come.'

'I – I – er…'

'No, no, no. Now that we know you're gonna tell on us if you don't, you're coming with us,' said Scorpius in a threatening tone.

'What? Oh no, I'm not going to tell on you! I'll go straight to my dormitory, yes I – '

'Save it. You're coming or I'll hex you.'

That seemed to have done the trick. Michael swallowed heavily and kept following them. Without another word, the three boys had looked behind them one last time and entered the forest through one of the paths.

'Why are we even going in there?' inquired Michael in a trembling voice.

'We're trying to find this special stone – '

'The Resurrection Stone? I know your dad dropped it in here somewhere.' Albus and Scorpius paused. 'Read about it in The Second Wizarding War: The Story of Harry Potter,' he clarified at the odd looks the other boys gave him.

As they advanced through the forest, Albus laid his wand flat in his hand and muttered 'Point Me.' His wand immediately shifted to point northward.

'Neat trick,' said Michael.

'Thanks.'

'I like learning extracurricularly myself, you know. Where did you – '

'Merlin's hat, not now Michael, please,' whispered Scorpius.

The further in they went, the darker it got. The trees of the forest grew much closer together in these parts.

'Can you light up your wands? I can barely see ahead,' asked Albus.

'Lumos,' murmured Michael and Scorpius.

The trio kept walking through the thickening woods, the lights of their wands barely penetrating the thick mist and darkness ahead. It was quiet, too quiet. There were no birds or squirrels about and even the leaves on the trees didn't shift with a light breeze. The air stood still. It somehow felt even colder here than on the open grounds.

'What was that?' Michael asked suddenly.

'What was what?' Scorpius queried back.

'I thought I heard like a clicking sound in the distance. Over there.'

Scorpius held his wand high and aimed it at the spot Michael had pointed at. 'I can't see anything,' he said.

'We'll keep an eye out,' muttered Albus. 'Let's keep moving.'

The path became progressively slimmer as the boys walked deeper and deeper into the forest.

'What do you reckon?' asked Albus as he glanced at his wristwatch, their thirty minutes were almost over.

'Well, I don't see a hollow anywhere, and all the stones here look normal to me. I guess we can start heading back,' Scorpius said in clear disappointment.

'Please don't go,' said a voice which made them all jump a mile in the air.

'Who – who's that?!' called Albus. They looked around frantically, unable to spot the source of the voice.

'You are looking for the stone that Harry Potter dropped in here, all those years ago, are you not?' asked the voice. It was girly and soft, yet quite odd. 'You are so close, the spot is very near here, where the spiders used to live.'

'W – who are you? How – how do you know?' asked Scorpius, he now sounded truly afraid.

'I am – I was – a girl. I haunt this forest,' replied the voice.

'Are – are you a ghost?'

'You can call me that… I fell in the battle. That same battle when the Dark Lord was defeated.'

'L – Lavender? Lavender Brown?' asked Albus in wonder.

'Oh, you know me! Clever boy. And who might you be?'

'I'm Albus, I'm Harry's son.'

'Why that's wonderful,' said Lavender in excitement. 'If you follow me, I can lead you to the stone's location. Right through here.' As Lavender said these words, a small, glittering little drop of silver lit up to their right.

Albus looked at Scorpius who gave him a look that said, "might as well." Michael seemed dumbstruck with fear. Albus gave his friend a nod and proceeded to walk towards the drop of light. It led them off the path and into the woods ahead.

The trio followed the light in silence while their robes got caught on branches and the ends of their trousers got ripped on little thorns. They walked for several minutes before Albus spoke.

'Er… Lavender? How much further is it?'

'Not long, sweet boy, we'll be there soon.'

'Guys, I'm not sure about this…' Michael seemed to have gained enough courage to speak up.

'Oh no, please, that stone has caused so much misery in this forest, you must come,' begged Lavender.

They kept following her through the dark trees. The little ball of light seemed to pick up the pace every time Scorpius raised his wand to get a better look at it.

Lavender led them through a couple more thick bushes before the drop of light came to a halt. It stopped at the very edge of a large crater, with old webs scattered around it.

'That must be the place!' called Scorpius.

'Is this it? asked Albus. 'Is that where the stone is? Lavender?'

'Oh, the stone?' she replied.

Michael began tugging Albus' robes.

'Not now Michael. Yeah – er – the Resurrection Stone, the one that my dad dropped here.'

'Oh…'

'Not now Michael.'

'A boy came here, several years ago, he took the stone, and killed my sisters, and then he left… No… the stone is not here sweet boy,' replied Lavender. Though it was still girly and sweet, there was some roughness to her voice now, some savagery.

'What? What do you mean killed – What boy? I – What Michael, what is it?!'

But Albus didn't need to ask what it was, as Michael pointed upwards, he spotted the exact reason for his fervent tugging…

A gigantic, perhaps the size of a carthorse, eight-eyed, eight-legged, black, hairy, spider hung from the boughs above them. It was attached via the thinnest of webs to the drop of – what they'd believed was light – which led directly into its horrible mouth. To his horror, the spider began to speak to Albus in that same gentle voice.

'Come now sweet boy, let us have you for dinner,' it said as it clicked its horrible pincers and descended upon them.

Without thinking, Albus grabbed his Demon Dung fireworks pack and threw it at the monster. The pack exploded as it hit the spider's face, unleashing a shower of sparks that stunk like dung.

The trio bolted as the giant spider screeched in pain. They ran with Michael at the front before another massive spider – this one the size of a large dog – jumped onto him and pinned him to the ground.

Albus heard Michael screaming in horror.

'Flipendo!' he called, and the eight-legged horror flew off the petrified boy.

'Er – Albus, I think we might have a problem,' he heard Scorpius' trembling voice behind him.

Albus turned around and saw what must have been around twenty of them, all black, hairy, and ginormous, facing the boys from the branches and clicking their pincers.

*CLICK* *CLICK* *CLICK* *CLICK*

That sound made Albus' stomach turn with shock and disgust. The cluster got closer and closer as they crawled on their webs and down towards the boys.

Albus looked at his friend and said, 'get ready to grab Michael and run.'

He pointed his wand at the spiders – he had to wait for the right moment – and then looked again at Scorpius to make sure he got the message.

The spider closest to them jumped off its web –

'Incendio!'

A jet of bright yellow flames burst out of Albus' wand. It caught the monster square in the face; it lit up and roared in agony. Albus pointed his wand at the ground around them and began to light the bushes on fire. They got their chance.

Scorpius threw down the Instant Darkness Powder and the boys fled through the pitch-black darkness.

Albus ran, the fastest he had ever run in his lifetime. He ran as –

A sharp, searing pain at his ankle stopped him and Albus dropped hard on the ground. One of the spiders held his entire foot in its disgusting mouth.

'HELP!' he called.

His wand fell out of his hand, he didn't have any fireworks left, and the others were far off already… that was it. It was all about to end. Like this… this horrible –

*SPLAT*

An even more enormous figure had smashed the spider flat with a massive wooden club.

'BAD SPIDY!' yelled the giant as he spun his club to strike at the oncoming horde. They fought each other viciously with the club swinging dangerously and the spiders jumping around the massive figure, trying to strike at him.

Albus pulled his bleeding foot from under the squashed spider. It hurt like hell. He tried to get up but failed to hold himself properly. Albus then looked around for the other two boys. As if on cue, Scorpius and Michael ran towards him and helped him up.

Albus turned his head back to the fight in front of him. It was over. The giant roared at the retreating spiders while shaking a nearby tree off its roots.

'Wh – what the hell is that?!' stammered Michael.

'This – this – ' Albus told through his pain, 'this is Grawp, I'm assuming, Hagrid's half-brother.'

'Hagrid's what?'

'Half-brother. I never met him in person, but Hagrid said he lives in a big mud hut in the forest. I reckon that's him…'

The giant threw the tree in the general direction of the fleeing spiders and then turned to Albus.

'Studen? STUDEN!' he roared, shaking the entire forest.

'Hi Grawp – ergh – Nice to meet you, I'm Albus, these are Scorpius and Michael, we're friends of Hagrid. Thank you for – '

'FREN HAGGER?' said the giant. 'COME GRAWP!'

With one motion Grawp grabbed Albus by his waist – careful not to scrape his wounded foot – and held him in his arms. He then proceeded to walk in the direction of the castle.

'COME GRAWP!' he roared at Scorpius and Michael when he noticed they were not following him.

'Grab my wand please!' called Albus.

The boys obliged and started walking behind the giant.

They advanced through the forest in enormous steps. The boys had to break into a run to keep up with Grawp.

The woods around them soon became sparser again. Thin rays of sunshine could now be seen through the canopy. Albus was on the verge of passing out at this point, his leg was hurting fiercely. That spider must've been venomous, he thought as he fought to stay awake.

Several minutes later they came out of the forest. Albus could hazily see a massive group of celebrating students all clad in red. His brother had won Gryffindor the match.

Albus could hold no longer, he had only managed to hear faint screams as the group spotted them before everything started going dark.

'What in Merlin's pants is this?!' he heard Neville's voice say…

Albus woke up to the dim light of the hospital wing. The soft, white covers of his hospital bed brushed against his skin. His leg still hurt though not as badly. Albus blinked and raised his head slowly.

'Oh, thank Merlin!'

'Hey, he woke up!'

'Bloody hell Al, you're thick as a troll, going after the Acromantulas…'

Albus was surrounded by his brother James, his cousins: Molly, Rose, Roxanne, Fred, Victoire, and Dominique, and his friend Scorpius. They all stared at him; most in pity, others – Rose and Molly – with a mixture of worry and disapproval.

'Wha – ' he began.

'You got bitten. Acromantula venom,' explained Scorpius. 'Madam Longbottom took care of your foot pretty fast, but she said you should rest here for a couple of days…'

'And you're bloody lucky the Acromantulas got you or I would've been way worse,' said Molly as she grabbed his ear painfully.

'OUCH! Molly stop!' he yelled. 'How many points did we lose?' he asked his friend, dreading the answer.

'A hundred…'

'WHAT?!'

'Each…'

'Serves you right you dolts!' barked Rose from the edge of his bed. 'You could've been killed! You could've killed Michael Poults!'

'Yeah, I kinda wish we did you know…' said Scorpius bitterly. 'That Rat… you know he ran straight to Professor Longbottom and snitched on us? "They made me do it!" he said "They forced me to go in the forest sir! I tried to stop them!" The prick.'

'Yeah well, it is technically true… we did sort of force him to go with us so he wouldn't tell,' replied Albus with a shadow of a grin. The surrealness of the situation began creeping on him.

James and Fred laughed.

'There's my Pigmy Puff!' said his brother with a wink. 'Don't worry, you'll earn them points back.'

'And if not, well, you're sort of a hero in Gryffindor now!' said Fred giggling.

'Great…' muttered Albus.

'Did you see that I won the match Al? I caught the Snitch like it was a garden gnome,' said James as he mimed his catching of the snitch.

'T'was spectacular,' added Fred.

Albus wasn't really in the mood to discuss Quidditch right now. He could already imagine the "hero's welcome" he would get in Slytherin once they realise Scorpius and Albus had lost them 200 points the same day they lost their first match against Gryffindor…

'Do mum and dad know that I'm here?' he inquired of his brother.

'Yeah, they sent Athena with a letter this afternoon. Said they'll be here tomorrow morning.'

'Great… now dad's gonna chew me out too…'

'At least you weren't here for Professor McGonagall and Professor McGarth…' said Scorpius. 'They were furious, never seen them like this. McGarth said she'll see to it that we're expelled if we so much as set another toe out of line. Said she would've never expected this behaviour out of Slytherins. I had to tell them why we went in there too – '

'I mean really what were you thinking?!' Rose burst out again. 'Going into the forest to find the Resurrection Stone and talk to Snape… bloody idiots… Didn't you think McGonagall would've already thought of talking to him? He was a Headmaster here; his portrait is in her office!'

Albus had never felt this dumb in his life. Of course, McGonagall had already talked to Snape, why did he not think of that?

'But it wasn't all for nothing,' said Scorpius suddenly. 'We know that the stone is not in the forest anymore.'

'What do you mean?' Rose and Molly asked in unison.

'Well, the spider said some "boy" came a few years back and took it.'

'What? It's gone? Are you sure?' inquired Molly.

'They could have lied – I mean – we haven't seen it, but why would they? Why lie about this?'

'So somebody has the Resurrection Stone now…' Molly seemed to be thinking fast.

'D'you think it was the Child who took it?' asked Albus.

'Maybe. Maybe it was somebody else who wanted to talk to Voldemort. Maybe that's how they found out about the Child.'

A shiver went through Albus' spine.

'Al, you've got to tell this to your dad, okay? And Professor McGonagall. They must know about this.'

Albus agreed. Soon after, Madam Longbottom came out of her study to shoo his visitors to their beds. In the darkness and silence, he thought of the Child; who were they? And the stone, who could have taken it? And why? 'Several years ago,' it had said; that could be anything between three and nineteen years…

He soon drifted into an uneasy sleep. Albus dreamt that night about giant spiders. Spiders and snakes. Crawling, slithering around him.

A hooded figure walked by him. Albus tried to reach it, to take off its hood and reveal its identity, but the figure kept flying away. It laughed a cold, high laugh as it landed out of reach. Snakes slipped around Albus' feet as the figure lowered its hood.

It revealed a face. A horrific, snake-like face, with pale white skin and dark scarlet eyes with cat-like slits for pupils. It looked at Albus and smiled a terrible smile…

Albus woke up in cold sweat. He shook his head and muttered, 'Just a dream,' turned over onto his other side and fell asleep again.