There's Something About Albus
by sweaterweather21

Last Chapter: Cat and Dahlia attempt to cheer Annie up but end up helping Albus and Scorpius with a top-secret espionage mission.

Chapter 6: The One with the Restricted Section
In which Cat suffers the consequences of a mishap and witnesses something suspicious in the library.

Something must've gone wrong in my brain
Got your chemicals all in my veins
Felling all the highs, feeling all the pain

Never Be the Same - Camila Cabello

Cat hated Potions. Perhaps it was a strong word, but she definitely resented the fact that it had never come easily to her. More accurately, she hated the fact that Scorpius was better than her at something.

If you didn't count playing Quidditch or picking up girls, that was. And Cat didn't.

She wasn't bad at Potions, not exactly. She had always excelled at the theoretical portion of their exams. And unlike her childhood best friend, she meticulously completed all the homework for the class and actually studied for the exams. She even had a higher mark overall in the class.

But it had been Scorpius who had achieved an 'O' on his O.W.L.s without hardly breaking a sweat, while Cat had only managed an 'E,' even after taking advantage of all of Köhler's extra brewing practice hours before the exam.

It was the brewing process itself that made her antsy. And the dank, claustrophobic Potions classroom didn't help matters. She blamed it on a bad first brewing experience in first year, when she stirred her Boil-Cure potion clockwise instead of counter-clockwise, and gave herself a nasty bout of acne for a week. Could you really blame a girl for being nervous around a cauldron after that?

She and Scorpius had been partners in Potions ever since. Cat had recruited him immediately after that first class, bribing him with unlimited access to her Charms notes in exchange for his natural talent for brewing potions. They had worked out a system. Cat would read the instructions from the textbook aloud as they went, and was also in charge of preparing all the ingredients. Meanwhile, Scorpius was in charge of the cauldron, adding the ingredients and stirring to meet the specifications of the recipe.

It was a good partnership, usually.

Except that today he was off his game.

Cat had already had to remind him twice to preheat the cauldron, and that was before he used the wrong dilution of aquaphiore as the base and had to start over.

She squinted up at the blackboard, attempting to read Professor Köhler's notes on advanced brewing techniques, but she had forgotten her glasses in the dormitory. To make matters worse, almost everyone else around her had already started brewing, and fumes were quickly taking over the dungeon classroom.

They were supposed to making the Wideye Potion, a minor healing potion used to wake patients from mild comas or drug-induced sleep. However, the potion was also notorious for its use as a stimulant, and could regularly be found on Hogwarts' black market around exam time. Cat privately questioned why Köhler thought it was a good idea to brew it in class.

Cat herself had been tempted to take a dose of Wideye last year while studying for her O.W.L.s, but had refrained in the end. Annie was more daring, however, and reported that while the potion allowed her to pull an all-nighter, its side effect was the lingering taste of cinnamon in her mouth for a week. This had occurred while she was still dating Sam, who confirmed the side effect after presumably sampling Annie's mouth, and the whole situation had put Cat off the potion enough to avoid ever going near it again.

But Professor Köhler had other ideas, assigning the Wideye Potion to his sixth-year class, either ignorant of its presence in the black market or in an attempt to ensure the quality of any vials of it that might end up there. Either way, he seemed more critical than usual as he paced the aisles of dungeon classroom, commenting on Minnie Longbottom's inadequate method of dicing snake fangs and Malcolm Bole's apparent inability to count the proper number of dried billywig stings.

Cat breathed nervously and double-checked in her textbook that she was dicing the snake fangs correctly. She glanced at Scorpius, usually Köhler's favorite student, to make sure that the base of the potion was simmering, but instead realized he was instead leaning back in his chair, the potion forgotten, his eyes narrowed at the back of someone's head. She followed his gaze to a mane of dark red wavy hair, its owner the indisputable Rose Weasley.

Cat nearly diced her finger off.

"Scorpius!" she hissed, and there was a clatter as all four of the legs of his chair suddenly returned to the ground.

He swore under his breath and returned his attention to the cauldron, but he still kept looking up to glare at Weasley every so often.

Cat puzzled over this as she continued to chop. The obvious explanation hit her like a Stinging Hex – Scorpius had a crush on Weasley! That would explain their strange stalking of the redheaded witch on her date at the Three Broomsticks last weekend and why Albus hadn't seemed quite as concerned as his blonde-haired best friend. It also explained his weird pleasure in seeing her date go badly.

But as far as Cat knew, nothing had thawed between Rose and Scorpius. Their everyday interactions were still less than civil, usually barbed with insults or occasionally jinxes, if one got angry enough. And Scorpius had a girlfriend, Jaqueline, and they were apparently amorous enough to leave marks on each other. The hickey she saw on his neck too weeks ago was still all-too-vivid in her memory.

Cat frowned. Nothing made sense. Snapping out of her reverie, she looked down at her prep work and noticed that she had completely pulverized the snake fang. Internally, she blamed Scorpius for mucking everything up as she stood to grab some more of the ingredient from the stores on the side of the classroom.

Unfortunately, this act did not go unnoticed by Professor Köhler.

"You should have already added that ingredient to the mixture by now, Miss Zabini," he stated simply as she passed by.

Cat tried not to look too hard into his steely blue eyes. "Yes, sir," she responded. "I'm right on it."

"Best not to hurry," Köhler added with a stern look. "These are NEWT level Potions. They require patience."

Cat nodded, and returned to her desk.

To her dismay, Scorpius had done nothing in her absence. The cauldron was still simmering, but just barely, and he hadn't even begun adding the standard ingredient. "What is up with you today?" she demanded impatiently.

"Nothing," he muttered defensively. "Now just dice those fangs already so I can add them in."

Cat scowled, but resolved to be patient with Scorpius today. If he was really hung up on Rose Weasley, he had bigger problems than potion-brewing.

Her resolve lasted about ten minutes, when she noticed the potion almost boiling over.

"What are you doing?" she hissed at him. "The potion is supposed to be at medium heat. It's not supposed to boil at all!"

"If you're so worried about it, why don't you take over?"

Cat fumed. Her anxiety about potion-brewing was a sore spot for her, and Scorpius knew it. There was a reason he was always the one standing in front of the cauldron, but blinded by her frustration, Cat did something out of character. She lashed out at him.

"You know what? Maybe I will. Apparently you can't do anything right today."

Cat had lit the match, but Rose Weasley was about to start the fire.

"Can't do anything right today? How about ever?"

The remark wasn't loud. It had been directed at her partner, Marisol Chadwick, but intentionally loud enough for Scorpius to hear it, and he was obviously not in the mood to back down from the fight. Abandoning the potion, he stood up and walked around to the front of the desk, where he tapped Weasley on the shoulder.

"Excuse me, Weasley?" he asked with faux-politeness. "Is there something you wanted to say to me?"

Cat groaned. This was not going to end well. Because if Scorpius wasn't backing down, neither would Weasley. But her attention was diverted away from them temporarily when the potion finally began to overflow.

She let out a small yelp, and missed Weasley's response to Scorpius as she waved her wand over the whole thing and casted a stasis charm, wondering why her partner hadn't had the forethought to try the same thing.

Cat had about a sixty second window with the charm before it would start to have adverse results on the potion, so she consulted the book for the stirring pattern: three times clockwise, pause for ten seconds, repeat four times.

She took a deep breath, and canceled the stasis charm. She could do this.

But Scorpius and Rose were determined to make this more difficult for her.

"Just because I don't have my wand up my arse the whole time—"

"Nothing gets through your thick skull, nothing at all—"

"Maybe if you thought about the people around you for ONCE in your life—"

"How dare you say I'm selfish, Malfoy! We all know the real egotistic jerk is YOU!"

Cat was still breathing heavily, about halfway through the stirring process. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed poor Marisol Chadwick doing the same thing, except Albus Potter had stepped in to help her. She fought back a twinge of jealousy. Why hadn't he stopped to help her?

She was almost finished when a horrible thought struck her. She didn't know the wand movement to complete the potion! It was written down in the text, but it wasn't one she was familiar with. She couldn't perform it if she tried.

At her wit's end, Cat cast a second stasis charm, knowing that it would affect the outcome of her potion, but past the point of caring. She leafed to the index section of the book to try to find a guide to the stabilizing wand movements, but she was starting to sweat now, knowing she was running out of time. She only had sixty seconds before the whole thing would blow up in her face, probably sooner, and she was cursing herself for letting Scorpius do all the brewing all these years. Not to mention the fact that Socrpius and Rose's argument was escalating, attracting the attention of several classmates now, though Köhler had temporarily disappeared to his office.

"Hey, Scorpius…" Cat tried to interrupt. "I could really use your help over here!"

Her words fell on deaf ears, for Scorpius was too invested in his argument to notice.

"You sit there all high-and-mighty, Weasley, but don't you dare pretend you understand my life!" It was a testament to how upset Scorpius was that his hair, usually perfectly coiffed, was in a complete disarray, tendrils sticking to his forehead.

Rose was equally as incensed. Her dark red hair was frizzier than normal and seemed to be sticking out in all directions. "I know enough. Enough to know that I should have known better. You've always been a slimy, Slytherin scumbag and you always will be. Nothing more than the spawn of a Death Eater."

She didn't spit in his face afterwards, but she might as well have for the effect her words had on Scorpius. It was a well-known fact that Draco Malfoy had been a Death Eater, but it was equally well-known that Scorpius hated to be reminded of the fact.

Cat's eyes grew big, and she made eye contact with Albus, who attempted to cut in.

"Hey Rose, let's stop for a second here. I know you didn't mean that."

With his words, Weasley took a small step back, but her eyes remained darkened and narrowed in on Scorpius. The tension between the two was palpable. Cat was used to their typical exchange of barbs and insults, but this felt different. There was a heightened sense of emotion behind their words, and neither was holding anything back. Both were going for the jugular.

But in the meantime, her Wideye Potion was equally as volatile.

"Umm, Scorpius!" she tried again, with more urgency, but her blond friend was still oblivious to her existence.

"You're right, Weasley," Scorpius said with a small smile, except there was nothing friendly about it. It was almost sinister the way his teeth flashed for the briefest of seconds. He took a step forward, closing the gap between the two of them.

"I am Death Eater spawn. But at least I'm making my own name for myself. You're just another Weasley. It'll be easy to surpass the expectations that come with my last name, but you'll never live up to yours."

Rose blanched, making Cat think she was about to pass out, but recovered a second later, her face hardening. She was literally shaking with anger, and drew her wand quickly before Albus and Marisol even had time to protest. The action drew the attention of the whole Potions classroom, including Professor Köhler, who had emerged from his office, which meant that everyone witnessed Cat's potion blowing up in her face.

She sat in shock for a few seconds as the magenta potion dripped down her face, trickling down her neck and staining her white blouse. She didn't bother to wipe it off as she stood up slowly, training her gaze on the partner that had abandoned her.

"Scorpius Malfoy, I am going to MURDER you!"

And that was how Scorpius completely pissed off two witches in the span of one Potions class.

Cat ended up spending a grand total of four hours in the Hospital Wing after Potions. In addition to being practically hyperactive as a result of the exploded Wideye Potion, her eyeballs had grown to twice their usual size, causing temporary blindness. Annie kindly informed her later that she had looked like a frog on Adderall.

What made it worse was that she had been taken care of not by one, but by two very attractive wizards while she was still in that state. Scorpius had stalked off afterwards, but of course Al Potter, ever the gentleman, had volunteered to walk her to the Hospital Wing. Annie had also volunteered, but keeping Cat from wandering off in her hyperactive state had been most decidedly a two-person job. And to top it all off, Healer Osbourne was on-call in the Hospital Wing. The young healer was only a few years out of Healing School, but he could also pass for a male model. There had been a problem last year with girls faking illnesses and visiting the Hospital wing with the hope that Osbourne was working.

In her current condition, Cat would have much preferred the no-nonsense manner of Madam Pomfrey. Luckily, the time passed quickly, as Osbourne gave her some Daydream Essence to distract her while he worked and some Murtlap Tentacle to numb the pain in her face.

The first thing she saw when her sight returned two hours later was Healer Osbourne's gigantic bicep. He was leaning into her to take her heart rate, but Cat couldn't tear her eyes away from the way his arm muscles fought against the short-sleeves of his pale blue Healer's robes. She told herself the staring was a result of her injury, which was only partially true, but she was too wired to care if he noticed.

Osbourne made her stay another two hours until she had passed a battery of vision tests. Then, he released her conditionally, reminding her that she probably wouldn't get any sleep that night until the potion completely wore off and that she should avoid straining her eyes any further in the next 24 hours.

Cat obliged gratefully. Pomfrey usually mandated overnights for these types of incidents.

Her stomach growled painfully as she left the Hospital Wing, so she ran down to the Great Hall and managed to catch the tail end of dinner. Luckily, there was still some roast beef left, so she cobbled together a sandwich, ate some green beans, and washed the whole thing down with a glass of pumpkin juice before heading off to the library. Scorpius was still nowhere to be found, and all three of her girl friends had refused her offer of studying. Annie had been in the middle of regaling Dahlia and Cecily with the story of the Potions' incident, but Cat wasn't really in the mood, so she skipped dessert and made her way up to her favorite section in the library. Thanks to Scorpius, she not only had to review the material on Wideye potions for the exam, but she had completely missed her History of Magic lecture in the afternoon. She would have to find someone from class to borrow notes from.

She spotted a likely candidate, well-known for his note-taking ability, just before she passed through the entrance to the library. He also happened to be rather cute, so Cat felt compelled to double back first and check her reflection against a nearby suit of armor just to make sure all the swelling from the potion had gone down. Her eyes still looked a little wider than normal, but she figured it wasn't going to get any better, so she took a deep breath and headed inside.

Benjamin Goldstein was sitting in the main study area of the library, a pencil tucked charmingly behind his ear as he copied out an essay. Cat approached him with a smile.

"Hi, Benjamin," she greeted shyly.

"Oh, hi Cat," he returned, looking up from his essay and removing the pencil from behind his ear. "How are you? I heard about the incident in Potions this afternoon."

She grimaced, and then tried to hide it. Benjamin wasn't even in NEWT Potions, so the news of her unfortunate incident must have circulated around the whole castle by now.

"Umm, yeah. That happened."

Benjamin looked uneasy, so she quickly added on to her statement. "But I'm fine now, so that's all that matters. How are you?"

She forced a smile, and he smiled back so genuinely that Cat temporarily forgot about the disaster that had been her morning.

"Pretty well, actually. The Amateur Arithmancers Club had its elections today, and I was voted president."

"Merlin, Benjamin, that's incredible!" Cat exclaimed, though privately she was surprised by the existence of a club dedicated to the study of Arithmancy. She wasn't even really sure what Arithmancy was, but decided not to mention that in front of Benjamin. He was a Ravenclaw after all; he might be offended by her complete lack of knowledge.

Luckily, he didn't seem to notice. "Yeah, I'm pretty thrilled about it actually. The club does some neat stuff, and it'll look good on my resume when I apply for some internships this summer."

"Well, that's great." Cat managed. The thought of a summer internship had never struck her. Ever since she was a girl, her mother had drilled into her head the importance of a coming-of-age party the summer after sixth year to the point where she had forgotten there were other things people could choose to do with their summer besides getting fitted for a ball gown and practicing their curtsies.

"What kind of internships are you interested in?"

"Well, there's one primarily," Benjamin began, and Cat was immediately transfixed by his description of the Undersecretary's Internship, which was apparently a highly competitive summer position within the Ministry of Magic, working directly for the Senior Undersecretary to the Minister. Cat had only ever had a passing interest in politics, but to hear Benjamin talk about the projects he would assisting with and the people he would be rubbing elbows with gave her a new appreciation for the field. And to think she usually spent her summers working on her tan by the family pool. The most intellectual pursuit she achieved had been reading a few novels.

"For what it's worth," Cat commented after a lull in the conversation. "I think you would be an excellent candidate for the job."

"Thanks, I appreciate it," Benjamin responded, dazzling her with another wide smile. He ran a hand through his short curly hair. "Do you have any plans for the summer?"

Cat froze. After listening to Benjamin talk about his goals so passionately, she felt silly telling him about her coming-of-age ball.

"I'm not exactly sure yet," she responded, a beat too late. "I mean, we usually holiday somewhere, and my mother has been talking about Portugal this year, but nothing like your internship. It sounds incredible! You would be doing such important work."

Instead of taking in the compliment, Benjamin turned the conversation on its head. His eyes serious, he shot Cat a long look.

"You know, it's definitely not too late to apply for an internship of your own. Madam Pince has a whole rack of flyers advertising internships in whatever field you can think of: magical law, potions ingredient harvesting, spell-crafting, and even magical sports management. I'm sure there's something you would like to do."

Cat's ears perked up at the mention of spell-crafting. She had yet to have a formal session with Professor Flitwick, but that hadn't prevented her from continuing to theorize on her own outside class. However, the likelihood was slim that her mother would allow her to participate in a program like that. An internship for the Ministry of Magic? She might as well chop off all her hair and start dressing like a boy if she wanted to give her mother a heart attack.

"I'll look into," she said noncommittally.

"You really should," Benjamin responded, so earnestly that Cat felt badly about lying to him so easily. The corner of his mouth titled up then, a little mischievously. "For a Slytherin, you're actually pretty smart."

After the more serious topic of conversation, his sarcasm took her aback, but she followed it up with a remark of her own. "Ambitious for a Ravenclaw, aren't we? I thought you all are supposed to keep your noses in books the whole summer."

Benjamin actually laughed out loud, and Cat felt inordinately pleased with herself. Somehow they always ended up teasing each other about their respective houses. It was beginning to feel like an inside joke.

"I've been procrastinating enough talking to you," she said after another shared smile. "I should go and start some of my homework."

Benjamin pushed some of his textbooks aside. "You could sit here if you want?"

Cat was flattered, as well as tempted, but she was more productive alone, in her secluded corner of the library. Plus, she had a letter from her mother to open and respond to, and these tasks were always better conducted in private.

"Thanks, but I've already distracted you too much. See you around, though!"

She walked off slowly, and attempted one of those over-the-shoulder smiles Cecily always swore worked like a charm. She wasn't sure how well she pulled it off, but she thought Benjamin had looked a little disappointed when she declined his offer of sharing a table.

He was definitely cute, she decided internally. Cute enough to make her forget that the whole reason she approached him in the first place was to borrow his History of Magic notes, but there was no turning back now. As she made her way to the back of the library, she tried to quiet the squirming feeling in her stomach that signaled the beginnings of a crush. She would have to ask Annie if he was single. There would be no more pining after unavailable guys.

Cat breathed a sigh of relief when she saw that her favorite table was unoccupied. It was quiet, save for a group of second-year Ravenclaws on the edge of the section frantically trying to finish a group project. She had business to take care of, the kind of business that called for privacy and her favorite corner of the library. She had a letter from her mother.

In her last brief missive to her mother, Cat had danced around the topic of her upcoming spell-crafting lessons with Flitwick. She had mentioned private sessions with the diminutive professor and her burgeoning interest in the field of spell-crafting, but failed to link the two together. But she shouldn't have worried so much about how to present her extracurricular interests to her mother at all, for Natalia Hyde had dismissed all mention of academics and her career interests in her typical airy tone that made Cat question if she had even mentioned the topics at all.

Darling Catalina,

Your mum misses you something awful! You have no idea the burden these preparations are taking on me. My skin has been positively ghastly from the stress, and I've had to schedule an extra appointment per week with Madame Appiel to keep up my appearance.

I've officially booked the Water's Edge Hotel as the location of your ball. The event coordinator showed me around the other day, and once I saw their newest addition—an outdoor balcony jutting out over the water—I was sold. This has to be the place where my darling daughter celebrates her seventeenth birthday. And the best part is that the venue has a capacity of 400 people – enough for all the most important people of society to attend!

Speaking of the invitees, do send me a list of any personal acquaintances you wish to invite. I always love to see your school friends, just make sure they are comfortable dressing for such a formal (& spectacular!) event.

I am glad to hear about your involvement at school. Just make sure all your extra studying isn't getting in the way of socializing a little bit. I heard from Marigold Davis that Zachariah Nott is single now, and he's such a fine young man. Surely you wouldn't be opposed to a date? I could always contact Daphne Nott and set something up, if you wish. I don't want to tell you what to do, but if you don't start looking now, all the eligible wizards will be taken by the time you graduate!

But don't fret, darling. You are beautiful and will have a wonderful life, I am sure of it. The man of your dreams is out there.

Your father also sends his love. Give Matty a kiss for me as well.

All my love,

Natalia

Trying to resist the urge to scream, Cat forced herself to take a deep breath. She purposely hadn't mentioned her stupid ball at all in her last letter, but it was like her mother didn't even read her words before sounding off about the newest developments for an event that was still almost a whole year away. There was no discussion of any of the developments in her life that she had written about. Instead her mother had dedicated a whole paragraph to her prospects—a boyfriend was the last thing on Cat's mind.

Well, maybe not the last thing on her mind. But certainly not with any of the wizards her mother wanted to set her up with. Zachariah Nott may be a "fine young man" according to Marigold Davis, but Cat knew for a fact that he could be found lighting up a joint in the Astronomy Tower every other night with his other stoner buddies from Slytherin.

Cat laughed out loud a little at this, a harsh chuckle that contained more derision than mirth. What would her mother say to that?

She scribbled off a few sentences in response, acknowledging the tragedy that was the stressed-out state of her mother's skin as well as an inane sentence about the Water's Edge Hotel, "a good choice," despite the fact that she had already indicated her preference for the bloody event to be held at home. She signed off with "Love, Catalina" but her feelings for her mother were more complicated than that at the moment.

To distract herself, she threw herself into her Potions homework. Scorpius had mentioned sheepishly that in addition to an essay on the applications of the Wideye Potion, they had to schedule another session to re-brew the damn thing and write a short paper on the dangers of inattentive brewing.

She inwardly cursed Scorpius's stupidity and its consequences, but managed to finish up the homework pretty quickly. Next, she moved onto Charms, reading a chapter of the text in advance of the next lesson. But Charms was a dangerous topic of study for Cat, because for every time she managed to stay focused on the required material, the next five times she would get side-tracked and delve into the possible modifications for a particular spell. This time was no different. They were covering Aguamenti, the Water-Making Spell, but Cat spent too much time deriving the incantation from its original Latin and theorizing about its wand movement, and before she knew it, it was almost midnight, and the library was closing.

With some regret, Cat closed her notebook and began stuffing her books into her bag. She was just fixing the drawstring when a movement in the Restricted Section caught her eye. From her table in the middle of the History of Magic section, she had a clear view down the aisle to wrought gates of the Restricted Section, which had been thrust open without her noticing.

And just as suddenly as it appeared, a tall figure with dark hair disappeared into nothing. Cat wasn't sure she had seen anything—she wasn't wearing her glasses, after all—but after she blinked, she noticed the gate had been closed once more.

Abandoning her bookbag, she marched down the aisle toward the Restricted Section to investigate. She told herself it was her duty as a Prefect to look into infractions such as these, but to tell the truth, she was more curious than anything. That figure had looked familiar.

She thought she felt a strange gust of air moving in the opposite direction as she arrived at the Restricted Section, but turned her attention to the gate.

It was closed but unlocked, as it should be. Fifth-years and above were allowed access with the permission of a professor, but it was the habit of Madam Pince to accompany students on their forays into this section. Cat had spent enough late nights in the library to know that the matronly librarian usually locked it right before she closed the library itself, a little after midnight.

Cat peered through the gate, not exactly sure what she could find that would provide proof that someone had been there. She looked down the length of the shelves—there! There was a book out of place. It must have been disturbed in the last day, because Pince was maniacal in making sure all the spines were lined up before closing the library at night.

Breaking the rules herself, Cat tugged at the gate. The hinge squeaked quietly behind her, and she was all too aware that her jurisdiction as a Prefect didn't necessarily cover this sort of investigation, but by this point, her curiosity was too much to handle.

Gingerly, she pulled the disturbed book further away from the shelf. It was a burnt orange color, with a loopy golden text on the front. It read: "The Art of Concealing Magical Signatures: Advanced Wards" by Hephaestus Emberton.

Cat frowned. That was rather underwhelming. She had expected a book on dark magic, or at the very least forbidden jinxes.

She didn't have much time to examine that particular book, however, because she heard the tell-tale curse words of Pince as she straightened up the section of books left haphazardly by the second-year Ravenclaws. Shoving the book back in place, she did her best to quietly slip out of the section, making sure the gate closed behind her.

She was just sliding the straps of her book bag on her shoulders when Pince herself walked by. The elderly witch admonished her slightly for still being in the library, but not as strictly as she could have. Cat nodded, and headed toward the exit, still thinking about her strange sighting in the Restricted Section.

She still wasn't entirely sure of what she had seen. It could be her mind playing tricks on her, but the figure had looked an awful lot like Albus Potter.

Author's Note: Hope you all enjoyed the latest chapter. What was your favorite part? I would love to know what you thought. As a side note, I wasn't going to mention Albus at all this chapter (until the end), but I couldn't resist sneaking him in early and having him appear in Potions class. Was it really him in the library? And what do you think he's up to?

Either way, thanks for reading! The next chapter should be up within the next two weeks.