Do you like it? I wrote it all when I was 9 or 10 I think, but now I'm going over it and revising it…

Chapter 12: The Journey to Answers

That night, Albus got almost no sleep. He kept waking up from nightmares. He was sure Merope, Rose, and Scorpius were experiencing the same thing. Albus' nightmares had the same scene playing over and over again. Crouch was cursing his friends with that same Dark curse he used on Aunt Hermione. And Albus couldn't do anything about it because he was being transported from the Great Hall and the bathroom repeatedly by his new method of magical transportation. Every time he got so close to help his friends, he was transported right back to the Great Hall. Every time he ran to the bathroom from the Great Hall, he got transported into the bathroom and the same process went on.

He at least had something to look forward to the next day: answers! He needed to know what was going on! Yes, he overheard something, but it wasn't that much! He wanted to know the life story of Mr. Bartemius Crouch Junior. And it wouldn't hurt to find out a few facts about Senior! Was he a Death Eater too? How did he die? Did he support his son in his Death Eater-ly goals? Or was he some good guy in the story? Who knows? It seemed like everyone did but him!

So Albus just toughened it up and hoped morning would come soon and open the gates so he could get out of the Land of Nightmares, which by the way, was as far away as possible from the Land of Dreams. At least in Albus' head it was.

Albus yawned, wanting to sleep, but without nightmares. Hey! He could ask Madam Macdonald for a Potion for Dreamless Sleep. Well, I want answers more than sleep, and it is morning anyway, why else would the sun be out there to wake me up, he thought shrugging as he pulled off his comforter slowly.

He saw that Scorpius was still sleeping. He didn't want to wake him up, he looked so peaceful. But of course, he had to be having a nightmare. So Albus decided to wake him up.

He crept over to Scorpius before realizing today was a weekday and the other boys were already out of bed at lessons. Albus looked at the time: ten sixteen. The boys must have been told not to wake Scorpius and him up.

Albus tapped on Scorpius' shoulder and faintly muttered, "Scorpius?"

Nothing happened. He tried again, "Scorpius." This time he said it loudly and clearly and goaded Scorpius' shoulder a bit harder.

"Rose," mumbled Scorpius. Albus assumed it was a nightmare. Scorpius obviously fancied Rose, she was the one that would've been hurt the most in his nightmare.

"Scorpius!" Albus said, now shaking Scorpius, desperate to help Scorpius get rid of the misery in his dreams.

"NO!" yelled Scorpius as his head shot up after the final shakes. "Oh," he murmured after seeing Albus.

"Nightmares too?" asked Albus sadly.

"You too?"

Albus nodded in response.

"Well, let's get up and ready. Judging that everyone else is gone, and we've been sleeping this long, gives me the idea that we don't have to go to classes," joked Scorpius, trying to cheer up the solemn aura in the room.

"Yeah, we'll just go to the tent. Wait, what about Rose and Merope?" asked Albus. "We can't go up there."

"Hey, maybe if we explain to the shield the circumstances, it'll let us in," suggested Scorpius.

"Um, that works with portraits and gargoyles or any of the guards to get into a certain room at Hogwarts. Not with the shield," explained Albus.

"Oh. They'll wake up when they want, I guess."

"Yeah," replied Albus awkwardly nodding with his hand behind his back. "So, let's get ready. You can have the bathroom first."

"Oh, okay." Scorpius opened up the drawers of his miniature dresser to pull out some clothes. He didn't bother getting his Hogwarts robes out though.

He went over to the bathroom to freshen up and get ready while Albus pulled out his clothes so he could go right in when Scorpius came out.

After about five minutes, Scorpius came out and Albus went in. Then after about five minutes, Albus came out and the two walked out of the dormitory quietly.

They walked out of the portrait where they encountered the Fat Lady.

"Oh boys, I heard what happened, I'm so sorry! If you need any help, come to me, I know! I'll sing to cheer you up!" The portraits around groaned. Scorpius and Albus thought to just walk into the tent two feet away from them, but the Fat Lady started her torturous screeching already. Why, oh why were they so caring about a portrait's feelings?

She went on with her high, shrill voice which was much shriller than Walburga Black's portrait in Grimmauld Place. That's where Albus' whole family went every summer for a few weeks.

Since she was so preoccupied with her singing, the boys took their chance to sneak into the tent to see Ron and Dean covering their ears.

"Which one of you set her off?" joked Dean bending down and covering his ears more tightly.

"Neither one of us. She just said she heard about what happened and thought that singing for us would cheer us up!" shouted Albus over the screeching.

"Typical Fat Lady," scoffed Ron. Dean nodded in agreement.

The Fat Lady finally stopped singing when she realized that the boys were gone. "Oh, I must have cheered them up already so they went on. Of course, they didn't tell me because they didn't want to interrupt my beautiful singing."

"Talking to yourself is the first sign of madness," said Dean in a sing-song voice.

Everyone laughed.

Ron cleared his throat amusingly and said, "Well, your father is in the Headmaster's office, along with Fay. A few Ministry employees demanded that they talk about all this at the Ministry of Magic, but Harry downright refused. And Kingsley told them that all this should happen at the choice location of the kids, or Aurors, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah."

Kingsley, Kingsley Shacklebolt specifically, was the Minister of Magic. He was also a very close family friend of the Potters and Weasleys. What Zabini said was partly true. Kingsley Shacklebolt was part of the Order of the Phoenix.

The order of the Phoenix was the secret organization that Dumbledore had formed when the First Wizarding War started to fight against the Dark forces, also known as Voldemort and his Dark forces.

Albus' paternal grandparents had been members of the original Order before they were killed by Voldemort. His maternal grandparents had been part of the second Order.

His parents had never actually gotten the chance to be in it when Voldemort returned. But they got to when the remaining Death Eaters were running amok.

Anyway, Albus didn't brag about very personally knowing the Minister of Magic. He was very modest about it. He was modest about everything special about his family and him. Just like Harry.

"And, you'll get the answers to your questions after the meeting, no need to worry," said Ron firmly.

"Hey, where are the girls?" asked Dean.

Albus responded, "They didn't come here yet? Then they must still be sleeping."

"Why di—ohhhhh, we're not to be trusted," said Ron, realizing the answer to his question before he asked it.

"Yep," said Scorpius, nodding.

"We can get Fay to go in there or something," said Ron.

"Or one of her dorm mates," suggested Dean.

Right then, there was some giggling and whispering form outside the tent. Scorpius opened the flap to see Kaitlyn, Caroline, and Marina just walking into the common room.

"Hey, Caroline!" exclaimed Scorpius.

She turned around. "Yeah?"

"Can you wake up Rose and Merope?"

"Sure. But what happened in there yesterday?"

"Just wake them up please."

"Okay." Caroline turned back and walked up the stairs along with her friends, probably to get something during their free period.

"Nosy much?" said Scorpius stiffly. He had never liked nosy people.

Albus raised his eyebrows. "She was just curious. Who wouldn't be?"

"Me," Scorpius smirked.

"Oh really? Come on; think about if something happened in a bathroom and all you knew about it is that there was some Dark wizard that apparently was a surprise to the Aurors included. And of course some kids," responded Albus smartly.

Scorpius just huffed and turned the other way, not wanting to admit that he himself could ever be nosy.

He was saved, because Harry and Fay came walking in looking quite grumpy. Albus understood why as soon as he saw some Ministry people come in behind them.

"Oh, you guys are awake, good. Where are Rose and Merope?" asked Harry, pretending like the Ministry workers weren't behind them.

"We asked Caroline if she could wake them up. Since we aren't trusted," replied Albus stiffly. Ever since he fell, Albus always tried to make a big deal about the fact that boys weren't allowed in the girls' dormitories. He thought it was ridiculous.

Harry nodded understandably while Fay smirked. She wasn't one of those close family friends. But she was a pretty good friend to her fellow workers. Did she go to Hogwarts with them? Albus thought she did.

The girls must have already been getting ready when Caroline 'woke them up' because just then, they walked through the door.

"Oh, well, I had no idea there was a party in here, did you Merope?" joked Rose humorously. Rose was like that, starting the day with something to laugh about after last night's incident.

"No, I had no idea! Why weren't we invited?" replied Merope, playing along with the joke, but barely stifling her snigger.

I love that smile thought Albus dreamily. Until he realized what he was thinking. Um, awkward moment for me and my mind.

"Oh, you girls are here too. Well, let me just escort these wonderful gentlemen out," started Fay, turning around to give a fake smile to the Ministry employees. "Then your dad and uncle can take you kids to the Headmaster's office. I hear you have an 'answer session' planned," winked Fay.

"Yes we do. Thank you so much Fay," winked Harry back.

She smirked and turned, then sarcastically drew out her hand to the Ministry workers and walked out, giving them another one of her 'perfect' fake smiles before rolling her eyes just so they could see her.

Harry clapped his hands together low in front of him before saying, "Okay, well, come on kids. You definitely deserve some answers."