Albus Potter and the Battle to Finish
Year 1: Chapter 3
Al, like many first years, had an irresistible urge to sneak out of his dormitory once he was lead there. A few things stopped him, first, he would need to Marauders' Map or the Cloak, both of which his father kept, Second, his dorm-mate, Guylan, threatened to nark on Fred when Fred tried to leave. Out of all Al's dorm-mates, he knew Fred the most, but he liked Connor the most. Connor Finnigan, who Albus had met several times when they were children, told Fred not to leave, Guylan not to nark if any one did, and Warren to stop crying for his mom. Warren didn't respond, but stopped crying.
By now, it was 10 o'clock, and Guylan and Warren long ago fell asleep, and Fred, shortly after those occurrences, snuck out. That left Connor and Al talking, both of whom were night owls, about anything they could think of.
"How's your little brother?" Al asked.
"Eh," Connor said, "Brendan's okay, trying to charm some girl down the street with red hair."
Al almost choked. "Connor, we live on the same street and the only red head's my little sister."
"Or maybe the little girl had brown hair, I'm not sure, my older sister got me faded and I was a little off, a lot of things were looking red, even the sidewalks." Connor said.
"Ah," Al said, "Was that the day when you asked me if I had red hair?"
Connor nodded.
"Then it wasn't Lily, she was at my grandparents with Hugo and Roxanne that day."
"Why?"
"I have absolutely no clue," Albus said as the door opened.
A boy with brown mousy hair walked in clad in his silk teddy bear pajamas. "Can you two be quiet? Some of us would like to sleep thank off you very much." The boy said in a snotty attitude that made Al remember the stories his dad told of his Uncle Percy when Uncle Percy was a younger kid.
"No." Connor bluntly said.
"Well, it's after hours and I could," The boy was cut off.
"What?" Connor asked. "You aren't old enough to have power."
"True, I'm a second year, but my sister Mary is Hufflepuff Prefect and she could," Connor once again cut off the boy.
"What?" Connor asked. "What could a Hufflepuff prefect do? She wasn't a witness and the only witness is the unpopular Mark Anderson who accuses the younger brother of two of Hogwarts' most popular kids of being up a bit late." Connor said in finality, "So what are you going to do?" Connor asked as he stood up and moved his arms so that is seemed like he was going to punch Mark.
"Uh, I," Mark stuttered as he began running out the door, "This isn't over!"
Connor and Al laughed.
"Nice Connor."
"Thanks Albus."
Al shuddered. "Call me Al."
Connor smirked and nodded. "Call me Finn."
The next day, Al, Finn, Rose, and McKenzie all sat next to each other for breakfast. McKenzie told the others how she got lost on her way down to the Great Hall when Rose left early.
"It was scary, I mean unlike you three, I didn't have anyone to tell me beforehand a basic set-up of Hogwarts. So I kept wandering, and I ended up in Slytherin territory. One of the boys called me a mudblood. I told him to get a life, but he kept calling me a mudblood, and then Scorpius Malfoy told the boy to back off, and he did. It was so cool." McKenzie rambled on and on.
"I guess Scorpius Malfoy is actually nice." Finn said. "Who knew it Al?" Finn asked.
"Hey, Finn!" A small voice called from the next table over, Hufflepuff."
Finn turned and saw the source of the calling. "Hey Aurora!" Finn called
"Finn, it's Rory." Rory said, she seemed to be a good friend since she knew his current nickname, "What's your first class?" Rory asked as she pointed to her schedule.
Finn grabbed Al's schedule seeing as he left his schedule in his room. Glancing at the times, he answered. "Rory, it's Saturday, there aren't any classes."
"It Saturday?" Rory asked.
"Yeah," Finn slowly said, "Gosh Rory, do you mix up your days again?" Finn asked in a baby-mocking voice.
"That was one time that I walked down stairs in my teddy-bear nighty because I thought it was Sunday and not Monday, give me a break." Rory said angrily and a few Hufflepuffs in first and second year looked at the group.
Albus, Rose, and McKenzie were trying to hold back laughter as Finn talked. "Well, at least you looked cute in a short little nighty covered in," Finn never finished what he was saying because Rory dumped syrup on his head which spilled all over his robes and uniform.
Rory turned away from the Gryffindors and walked out off the great Hall with one of the Hufflepuff girls who turned to look at the spat following her.
It was then that James Sirius Potter walked in, once could tell this by the sighs of many first, second, and a few third year girls (and very odd boys).
"Hey Al," James said as he ruffled his brothers hair, sitting down and piling his plate with pancakes. "I'd ask where all of the syrup is, but it seems young Finnigan has taken it all."
"The syrup's right here." McKenzie said as she pointed to syrup.
"Don't." Rose said to McKenzie. "James is just joking around." Rose's voice was a little too loud because James turned around.
"And who is this lovely lady?" James cockily asked.
"McKenzie Parker." McKenzie blushed as she sighed her name and giggled.
Al, Finn, and Rose groaned at James's groan, though Al could tell that deep down, Finn wanted to know James did it.
"So, Al," James said, "You gonna go visit Hagrid today?"
"Uh," Al said as he tilted his head ever so slightly to his friends.
"Bring 'em." James said as he wolfed down his breakfast. "Hagrid doesn't mind, though sometimes your friends do." James finished his breakfast in another bite and stood up. "I got to go, I'm already in second year, and I've lost a whole year of dating last year, so I've got a date."
Al smirked. "You've got a tutor, not a date."
"Those technicalities can easily change." James said as he walked away.
"So," Al said as he turned to Finn, McKenzie, and Rose, "Are any of you interested in visiting Hagrid?"
"Sure." Rose said.
"Can I wash up first?" Finn asked as he gestured to his now syrupy uniform.
"Sure." Al said and turned to McKenzie, "What about you?"
"Who's Hagrid?" McKenzie asked.
"Hagrid's the Keeper of Key's, Game-Keeper, and one of my dad's first friends." Al responded. "James and I are supposed to go for tea with him like my dad and his friends used to."
"Hey Al," McKenzie said, remembering something she meant to ask him the previous night.
"Yeah?" Al replied as he stuffed his mouth with pancakes.
"If you're Albus Potter, then your dad's the famous Harry Potter, right?" McKenzie asked.
Al nodded. "Yeah, he is."
"That's really cool." McKenzie said.
"Not really." Al said a bit snappy.
"I was just saying, you get to know an important war-hero first-hand. Not many people do." McKenzie said and if Harry Potter and Hermione Granger were watching the scene, each would have a feeling of déjà vu.
"I do." Rose sheepishly said and Finn gave a small laugh at Rose's stupidity.
"I mean, if you're a buff on History, it's great, but if you want to be normal and not have people say, 'oh that Potter boy.' Then it really isn't all that great." Al said. "I guess I'd feel how you were if I were you."
"The grass is always greener on the other side." Rose said. "And speaking of green grass isn't the grass green on the way to Hagrid's?"
"Why are you so intent on getting to Hagrid's?" Finn asked.
"This boy with brown hair at the Hufflepuff table, I think his name is like Puck or something, he keeps staring at me, and it's really weird." Rose shuddered.
"Welcome to my world." Al said.
"No," McKenzie said and they all looked at her, "Welcome to Al's dad's world."
The four all took pleasure in taking a small time of laughter for that joke.
Scorpius Malfoy may have been a pureblood and noble twenty years back, but nowadays, Slytherin was back to its normal ways of being cruel, cunning, and ambitious. This also meant that he didn't have many friends, his only friends, or partial friends, Al, Rose, and McKenzie, were all in Gryffindor compared to his Slytherin. He had written to his mother and father telling them of his house, and they wrote him back telling them how proud they are of him. They signed it 'Love, Mom and Dad.' And Scorpius is sure that that is the biggest lie they've ever told. Love.
"Are you going to eat anything?" A familiar voice asked. It was his cousin Teddy Nott.
Scorpius took a bite of his breakfast. "Satisfied now?" He asked Teddy, and Lavender, his other cousin, who he knew had Teddy ask him.
Lavender and Teddy nodded.
"Very." Lavender coldly said and it wasn't a wonder to Scorpius that her mother, who had raised her entire (seriously) life, went to Durmstrang and got expelled.
"Glad to know." Scorpius said.
"I bet you are." Lavender coldly said and Teddy smoothly scooted further from her, so as not to endure her wrath. "Can you tell me why my pure-blood cousin was talking with a blood-traitor, a half-blood, and a mudblood, and also protected the mudblood?"
Scorpius rolled his eyes as he grabbed his knapsack and stood. "Because blood purity doesn't mean anything nowadays, nor should it."
If Scorpius hadn't just walked off, he could've heard his cousin Lavender reply, "You're wrong, it should."
Teddy glared at Lavender who scowled and turned back to her breakfast.
When Al, Finn, Rose, and McKenzie made their way up to the Gryffindor Common Room, it dawned on Al that he had absolutely no idea where Hagrid's Hut was, except outside. Hoping to find his brother, he walked into the Second Year boys' dormitory.
"James?" He called.
"Sorry bucko, no James, he's with his tutor." Mark Anderson said.
Al stood there for a second; Mark's voice was a lot nicer than the night before. "Are you at all mad at me for last night?" He asked, curious if Mark had just been joshing them.
"Last night?" Mark asked and Al was wondering if he was sane. "Oh," Mark's face lit up, "You mean when my twin brother Mark came into your room? Sorry about that, he likes to suck the fun out of most things. I'm his brother Emmett, I'm," Emmett was cut off.
"James's friend Emmett Anderson, you're really good on a broom and like Herbology." Al said recalling how James told Lily and him about his friends at Hogwarts, he heard a lot about Emmett. "I heard Mark Anderson last name, but the names didn't click."
"It was ten at night nothing clicks unless you're the extremely hyper James and that's when your thinking gets done." Emmett said.
Al laughed a bit.
"So why'd you come in here again? You were looking for James, right?" Emmett asked.
"Yeah, I was trying to figure out how to get to Hagrid's Hut, but I suppose you don't know that," Al said.
"Oh, I do." Emmett said and Al stared at him. "You see, James didn't want to go to tea alone, and I didn't mind going since my mom used to make me go to tea with me Gran." Emmett said and then told Al how to get down to Hagrid's.
"Thanks." Al said. "I should go find Finn and hope that he didn't wander off on his own trying to find Hagrid's and get stuck in one of those trick stairs James told me about.
"Bye." Emmett said as he sat on his bed to study Transfiguration.
James Potter thought that getting a tutor would mean getting a hot babe as a tutor, sure, his tutor was a girl, but somehow, Kathryn Klinth, a red-headed fiery girl who held a grudge against him, wasn't what he was expecting. Anyone, even Maddy Puck, the third year freak, would've been better than Kathryn Klinth. From what James knew, she had three younger sisters and a younger brother, she enjoyed torturing boys after her dad left her mom, and, apparently, she was the best pupil in Transfiguration.
"Potter," Kathryn said angrily at him, "Why did you ask for a Transfiguration tutor? Potter, I may be the best kid in the class, but I know that if I died, the best in the class would be you, well, maybe if hadn't blown up the feather during the exams. But I Emmett and I are good friends and he mentioned once how you fake your stupidity for laughs, he also said that every charm you're told to practice you easily master the first time in your dormitory away from your audience."
James cockily grinned, "You seem to know a lot about me; do you really care that much?" Kathryn's face distorted. "Aww, does wittle Kathryn have a crush on the great James Sirius Potter? No doubt because of how hot, manly, sexy, and-" James never finished what he was saying as Kathryn proved her Gryffindor status by punching him in the nose causing him to bleed. Kathryn grabbed her books and walked out. "Does my experience frighten you Kathryn? 'Cause there's nothing to fear, I'm still a virgin!"
James got kicked out of the library that day and made a mortal enemy: Madam Irma Pince (and possibly Kathryn Klinth).
