Chapter Four

The prickling within Harry's scar caused him to yell in alarm. Nineteen years, he thought in desperation. After nineteen years, why would this happen now? Why? All he could do was panic. He got up and started to pace around the room, lost in thought.

Albus grunted impatiently as Adrian shook him awake.

"Come on, mate," he said impatiently, "Breakfast is over in fourty minutes. I have to have my food."

Albus simply rolled over and slowly stepped out of bed, puffy eyed and tousle haired, giving Adrian a look of supreme dislike. Muttering to himself, he began to get dressed, cursing Adrian every few seconds for waking him up.

They met Rulna on the way down.

"They've already gone down to the Great Hall," she mused. "I tried to follow them but then they started running."

"Can't imagine why," snickered Adrian. Albus nudged him in the ribs.

"At any rate, we really ought to get down there," Adrian said impatiently. "Only twenty minutes until first class."

Adrian, Rulna and Albus sat down at the Gryffindor House table just as the owls were flying overhead. To his surprise, he saw his father's owl, Pigwig, soaring through the air. It dropped a large parcel addressed to him. Albus opened it and began to read.

My scar hurt again for the first time in nineteen years last night. Do not panic, I am sure it was nothing. To insure your security, I am sending you two tools I made great use of here in Hogwarts. Please be careful.

Dad

Albus opened the parcel. He pulled out a blank piece of parchment with a note attached to it, but there seemed to be nothing else in the parcel. He read the note attached to the parchment:

Tap with your wand and say "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."

Albus did as the note instructed. To his astonishment, line of ink began to spider out from the point his wand had touched. Gaping at it, he watched as the lines formed a map. The map depicted Hogwarts. His eyes scanned the newly born map that now filled out the once empty piece of parchment. Specks of ink moved around like game pieces on a game board, each with a name below them. Looking around, he spotted a dot named "Hannah Abbot" sitting in the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom, and another with the name "Herschella Weatherby" was walking up the charms corridor towards the grand staircase. Every other dot in the school filled the great hall, which was a mass of ink dots. Albus flipped the note over, not wanting anyone else to see it. However, on the other side, he spotted a single line of text which stated.

Tap again and say "Mischief Managed."

Doing as he was told, the map suddenly disappeared as suddenly as it had materialized. He made to put it back in the parcel, and his hand brushed something on the way in. Feeling his way around, he held up a new object he had not spotted before; a silvery white cloth cloak. He saw a note attached to the inside.

This was my father's before he died. It was time it was passed down to you. Use it well.

He quickly stowed the silvery white fabric inside his robes. He felt like nobody else but he should see this and already had the feeling many people were craning their necks to see. He was right. As he looked up and down the hall, Petunia Parkinson was scanning his table to see what he had gotten, and Rulna turned her dreamy gaze in his direction, her eyes whirring around excitedly. Albus quickly got up and headed straight for his first class.

At dinner that night, the gang of five sat together, Erin gossiping with Rose, Adrian arguing with Rulna, and Albus, sitting and reading the note attached to the silvery fabric. For the first time, he noticed something scrawled on the back of this note as well.

Erised stra ehry oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi.

Frowning at this, he disregarded the text completely and joined Adrian in trying to convince Rulna that there was no such thing as a Feral-Drone Garaso.

The common room was peaceful; the fire crackled soothingly in the fireplace; the lion purred lightly as it looked on with the Gryffindors, all playing chess or doing homework. The gang of five collected at a table and started doing their homework together. Each of them seemed to specialize in answering a particular subject; Rose in transfiguration, Adrian in Charms, Erin in potions, Rulna in Herbology and Albus in Defense Against the Dark Arts. They were all particularly surprised for Rulna's proficiency in Herbology; they assumed she would have made up some wild plant and used it to explain every possible question. After their homework was finished, they sat around and chatted for awhile. Shortly before midnight, they all went up to bed. Tonight, Albus found Wood's constant Puddlemere United talk extremely annoying; and finally shut him up by chucking a remembrall at his face, which pounded his nose and knocked him back into his bed. Albus quickly drifted into a dreamless sleep, clutching the silver fabric in his fists.