"All right, Malfoy, which ingredient goes in first," Sonora Grey demanded adamantly as she followed Albus and Scorpius to Herbology. Scorpius rolled his eyes at her. She was interrupting their conversation again. Sonora grabbed the back of his robe and stayed him with a jerk.
"Hey! This is serious!" she growled menacingly. Scorpius looked at his friend incredulously.
"If I'd had known I was going to be held hostage, I wouldn't have agreed to be on our house's team!" he grumbled as he tried in vain to loose her grip on his clothes.
"You can be replaced," Sonora threatened.
"Good. Replace me!" he retorted and tried again to pull away. Sonora grabbed him by the collar and held him back. Albus tried to contain his snorts of laughter.
"Malfoy, if you lose us a hundred house points..!" she bellowed.
"Oh, go on, Sonora!" Albus exclaimed, "Scorpius is by far the best Slytherin at potions in our year. He was neck and neck with Rose on the midterms. You're yanking on the wrong collar!"
"Did he come in head of the class?" Sonora demanded of Albus as Scorpius tried to squirm away.
"He came in second," Albus admitted.
"Then we've still got work to do!" she declared and with a final brutal shake she released him. Scorpius smoothed out the wrinkles in his robes indignantly, but did not run away.
"Now what's the first ingredient?" she demanded again.
"Wormroot?" he responded in an exasperated tone.
"Are you asking me or are you telling me?" He rolled his eyes again.
"I'm telling you!" he grumbled. Suddenly, a blue blob shot past Albus' left ear and hit Scorpius square in the chest.
"Euagh!" Sonora cried at the purple ink drenching her shirt. The three of them turned toward the source of the attack and got a glimpse of red hair from behind a yew bush.
"James Potter!" Sonora bellowed furiously and James' pink face emerged from behind the shrub, followed by Quentin and Randy, who were laughing hysterically.
"Yes, Miss Grey?" James answered sarcastically.
"Look what you did to my robes!" James came out from behind the bush curiously, looking her up and down.
"I think you look absolutely lovely," he commented snidely, "You too Malfoy." Scorpius scowled at him as he tried to prevent the purple ink from destroying his Herbology book. Sonora grabbed Albus and held him in a full nelson, pointing her wand at his throat.
"Put me right, now! Or I'll turn your brother into a slug!" James suddenly looked very concerned.
"Not Albus! I don't see how I could go on living after such a staggering loss!"
"I like slugs," Randy commented, "They're cool!"
"Well, it depends on the kind of slug, really," Quentin corrected, "What kind of slug would Albus be?"
"Lemme go!" Albus demanded trying to pull away.
"Wait a minute, Al," Randy cautioned, "I don't think you are thinking this through much. I mean, slugs don't have homework…"
"What's going on here?" demanded Rose as she made her way down the path behind a pile of books.
"Sonora Grey is going to try to turn Albus into a slug!" Quentin explained excitedly. Rose looked at Sonora doubtfully.
"Do you even know how to do that?" she asked.
"Please," Scorpius responded tartly as he rung the ink out from the hem of his robe, "She couldn't even turn a fried egg!" Sonora shot Scorpius a glare, but she released Albus. Rose caught sight of the result of James' attack and sighed in exasperation.
"James, really!" she cried, and she cast a drying off spell on both Scorpius and Sonora.
"What?" James asked innocently, "It's just a joke."
"A joke is supposed to be funny you halfwit!" Scorpius corrected, "This is called an assault!"
"I thought it was funny," Randy commented antagonistically.
"Don't you have some place to be?" Rose asked him irritably. The three Gryffindor boys looked at each other, shrugged, and ran off through the frosty grass.
"Honestly!" Rose exclaimed again, and she went past them down toward the greenhouse.
"Here!" Sonora began again once she was sure Rose was gone. She pulled a piece of parchment from her notebook and thrust it at Albus, "These are the things we need for the potions contest that can probably be found in the greenhouses. You can look for those during potions classs." Albus took the parchment and stuffed it into his pocket.
Professor Longbottom was there to greet them at the greenhouse door, as usual. As each student passed, he collected a piece of parchment that contained the homework assignment.
"I hope you aren't too attached to your brother, Albus," Scorpius commented as he struggled to remove a soaking wet, blueish wad of parchment from his Herbology book, "Because I may have to murder him." Albus chuckled to himself.
"We may have to seek retribution for this one, mate." he agreed. When it was Scorpius' turn to hand in his homework, he held out the stained parchment to his teacher. Professor Longbottom took one look at it and rolled his eyes.
"What happened, Mr. Malfoy?" he asked impatiently.
"James Potter," Scorpius growled in lieu of an explanation. Professor Longbottom sighed and gingerly accepted the soaking, wet homework assignment and directed Scorpius to his seat.
After the lecture, Professor Longbottom allowed them the rest of the hour to collect the ingredients they would need for the potions contest. The Slytherins and Gryffindors shot each other suspicious glances as they scattered around, preparing the essential components. Sonora whispered orders to them as they worked, so the other team wouldn't hear. Albus had to admit that he felt somewhat overwhelmed with the task. Many of the potions required very specific preparations for the different ingredients.
"Here's Midnight Nettle!" announced Donner Bumgarner as he eagerly grabbed the snippers, "We need that!"
"Shhh!" the Slytherins hushed him. The Gryffindors had taken notice and were peeking at them through the greenery.
"Don't take it now!" Scorpius cautioned, "It has to be gathered under a new moon!"
"It doesn't say that!" Malcolm Ward hissed, consulting the spell book they'd found in the library.
"I'm sure of it," Scorpius insisted, "It doesn't work unless you gather it at midnight under a new moon."
"And just exactly how are we supposed to do that when we've got a curfew?" Scorpius shrugged.
"Leave it to Schlegel to give us an impossible task."
"It's not impossible," Albus assured him, "We'll come up with something." They left the plant untouched, to the confusion of the Gryffindors.
"Do you notice anything weird about Rosie?" Albus whispered to Scorpius as they searched among the rows of plants.
"That's somewhat of a loaded question."
"She seems off a bit," he remarked, "And she isn't paying attention in class. That isn't like her at all." Scorpius looked over at Rose. She appeared to be daydreaming with a troubled expression on her face.
"She was acting sort of strange in the library yesterday," Scorpius recalled.
"How so?"
"Well, she had this genealogy book out. But she acted like she didn't want me to know she was reading it. I thought maybe she'd found some of the potions we needed for the contest and was trying to hide the book so no one else could find it."
"Rose wouldn't do that!" Albus insisted defensively.
"Well, anyway, I got the book off of her and then I saw what it was. I asked her about it and she went off in a huff. It was as if I'd accused her of something bad. I didn't know what to make of it."
Albus carefully digested this new information. He'd noticed Rose's strange behavior ever since they'd returned to school. Something was bothering her, but he couldn't figure out what. He resolved to speak to her about it as soon as he could get her alone.
After lunch, the Slytherin second years had a free period. Scorpius retreated to their room in order to escape Sonora's constant hounding. Albus joined him as he'd received a parcel in the post from his Uncle George's shop and he thought it prudent to open it in privacy.
"Dear Albus," he read aloud, "We're developing a new product and we thought you might like to test it for us and give us your imput. Love, Teddy."
"What is it?" Scorpius asked him eagerly. Albus removed the string that bound the parcel and opened it to reveal a small tube. Along with it was a small piece of parchment which Albus opened and read aloud.
"Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes proudly presents the first-ever password protected fusion strips! When a victim is touching these invisible strips and utters the magic words, they are magically fused to whatever surface you want! The possibilities are endless!" Albus looked up from the package, a wide grin on his face.
"You know, I think James has been asking for this for a good, long time!"
Scorpius laughed wholeheartedly and nodded his agreement.
Albus got his opportunity to speak with Rose that evening after dinner. He found her in their usual retreat under the stairwell, reading from a small book with a colorful jacket.
"Hi, Rose!" he greeted cheerfully, "What's that you're reading?" Rose looked up in alarm and closed the book quickly.
"It's nothing. It's just some notes I've been taking." Albus took a seat beside her.
"You've been acting sort of strange," he pointed out to his cousin, "You seem to be bothered by something. You aren't even interested in the potions contest! Scorpius noticed it too. He said you were acting weird in the library." Rose stared at Albus with narrowed eyes. She seemed to be discerning something before responding. Albus looked back with genuine concern. Rose wasn't only his cousin, but his closest and oldest friend. He hated to think that something was upsetting her that she couldn't tell him.
"What is it, Rosie?" he pressured.
"You have to promise not to tell a soul," she insisted and Albus nodded emphatically.
"And you won't think less of me?" she added.
"No, Rose. How could I ever?" Rose smiled at him warmly and she pulled a photograph from her notebook and set it before Albus.
"I'm trying to find out who this is," Rose explained.
"Isn't that your grandfather when he was a kid?" Albus asked. She picked up the photograph and stared at the boy in the photograph.
"I believe that is my grandfather," she explained, "But I don't believe it is Wilbur Granger." Albus didn't understand.
"Well, who do you think he is then?" Rose shook her head.
"I have no idea…at least not yet." Albus looked at the photograph again.
"But Rose," he argued, "I don't understand. How could he be anyone but…"
"This is Wilbur Granger," she interrupted as she set a photograph of a playful toddler on the floor beside the first, "Look at the photographs, Albus. They aren't the same boy." Albus examined the photographs. The younger boy had fine, blonde hair, the older boy thick, bristly curls of a darker shade.
"It's just the hair," Albus told her, "Lots of people's hair gets darker as they grow up. My hair was much lighter when I was a baby, but now it's almost black."
"It's not just the hair!" Rose insisted with a crack in her voice, "Look!" Albus stared at her in alarm. She looked to him as if she might start to cry. He looked back to the photographs.
"I guess…they do look pretty different," he admitted. Rose gave a sigh of relief.
"My mum won't even speak to me about this," she confided to him, "She and I had a bit of a row over it before I got on the train." Albus could sense his cousin's pain in her eyes. She'd always had a very close bond with her mother. He knew Rose must hate to have this contention between them.
"But, Rose…I mean…how could he not be who he says he is? Wouldn't his family know? And what do you reckon happened to the real Wilbur Granger?" Albus could see that his objections were causing her more distress. She reached for her shoulder bag and dumped out several small books onto the floor.
"What are these?" Albus asked her, picking one up.
"They're muggle story books," she told him, "I borrowed them from the public library."
"Well, what are they for?" She took the book Albus had picked up and opened it.
"It's a book of muggle legends and folklore," she explained, "It has a story in it called The Legend of the Changelings." She turned it to the page she wanted it and read aloud.
"A changeling is a fairy child, whose mother disguises him to look like a human child. The fairy waits until a human mother is neglecting her own child's cradle, then sneaks in and replaces her sleeping babe with the changeling, stealing away with the human child, into the night. The changeling takes on a strong resemblance to the human child and an outsider might not even know the difference, but the child's mother always knows immediately that her child has been stolen." Rose stopped reading out loud and handed the book to Albus. He skimmed the rest of the story. It went on to explain the different ways a mother might trick the changeling into revealing itself or get the fairy mother to fetch back her own child. Albus finally looked up at Rose curiously.
"All these books have variations of the same story," Rose informed him, indicating the muggle books on the floor.
"But, Rose, you don't think that your grandfather is a fairy's baby, do you?"
"Of course not," she assured him, "But what if something like this actually does happen? I mean, look at all these books, Albus. They're stories from all over the world! Britain, Germany, Africa, even some American Indians told a version of the same story! What if it's based on truth?"
"Dad does say that some legends are based on truth," Albus admitted and Rose nodded.
"I think my mother's father was switched with Wilbur Granger."
"But Rose, how do you know? You haven't got any proof!"
"Proof?" Rose exclaimed, holding up the two pictures.
"That could just be a coincidence."
"My mother is the only one in her family that can do magic."
"I know but…don't you think his family would have noticed their son was missing? It said in the story that the mothers always know the changeling isn't their child." Rose seemed troubled by this argument.
"Maybe who ever changed him used some sort of magic to deceive them?"
"But why would anyone want to switch him in the first place?"
"I don't know," Rose admitted bitterly, "But I mean to find out." Albus fell silent. He glanced down at the multiple books on the floor. Rose's hypothesis seemed uncharacteristically farfetched to him.
"Mum isn't being very helpful," Rose remarked after a long pause.
"No?"
"I know she knows something but she won't tell me. She just wants me to forget about it." Albus' eyes followed the pattern of the floor. For a long time he didn't know what to say.
"Well…Maybe she's right," he finally suggested, "I mean, it could be something really bad. Maybe something you don't even want to know."
He anticipated an angry reaction from his cousin, but was surprised when she only sighed again.
"I've thought of that," she answered, "But I'd rather know the truth."
Albus reckoned he couldn't blame her. If it had been his grandfather, he expected that he'd also want to know.
"Aren't you going to tell me that it doesn't matter?" Rose asked quietly. Albus look up again in confusion.
"Huh?"
"Aren't you going to say that it doesn't matter who he is or where he came from, that it has no baring on who I am at all? That I'm still me?"
"Well…you are still you…" Albus agreed awkwardly. He couldn't quite work out what she was getting at.
"My mother says that it doesn't matter who your parents are and that a witch or wizard should be judged on their own merit, not on their family."
"I reckon that's about right."
"She thinks I should be focused on school and on being a moral person, that worrying about my ancestry is a meaningless waste of time."
"Well, you're already one of the most brilliant and moral people I've ever met," Albus assured her, "So if you're ancestry is meaningful to you, then I don't think it's a waste of time." Rose smiled at him.
"Will you keep it secret?" she asked him, "I don't want my mum angry with me, or anyone else." Albus nodded and Rose brightened up considerably.
"I'm glad I told you, Albus," she said with a renewed vigor.
"I'm glad too." And with that, they packed up her books and went their separate ways.