4. Humiliation and Exultation

Alastor Moody was more excited than he'd ever been in his life. The spring holidays had arrived and he would be spending them with Stewart Pomfrey's family. He'd finally get to meet Poppy, whom he'd heard so much about. He'd also be meeting Rolanda, Griffith's younger sister. Though he'd already met Jules and Joss, Percy's older brothers, and his cousins as well, he looked forward to spending time with them outside of Hogwarts. Rremly was spending the holidays with the Pomfreys, too. The boys had made plans for some grand times together over the next week. Rremly had insisted that they plan some time to do the work assigned to them for the week. The others had made faces, but admitted it was a good idea.

Now, on the train ride to King's Cross Station, Alastor was becoming nervous, a fact that was not unnoticed by the others. "Relax, Al, my parents'll love you!"

"They don't care that I'm Slytherin?" Alastor asked anxiously.

Stewart rolled his eyes and shook his head. "Which House you were Sorted into doesn't matter to them, mate. You're my friend, and that's what counts."

"My parents do care what House my friends are in," Alastor muttered, glancing over at Percy and Griffith, who were playing Exploding Snap by the window. Rremly was reading, as usual, while Belladonna polished her wand.

Stewart, who was sitting across from Alastor, leaned forward. "What was that, Al? I didn't quite hear you."

"Never mind, Stew," Alastor spoke more loudly than he intended, drawing the attention of the others.

Abandoning the cards, Griffith and Percy sat down with Alastor and Stewart. "What's wrong?"

"Al is worried that my parents won't like him because he's a Slytherin," Stewart explained as Rremly marked his place in his book and set it aside.

Griffith gave an exasperated sigh. "Mate, you worry too much."

"I second that," was Belladonna's reply.

"Yeah, just relax. Everything'll be fine," Rremly piped up.

Alastor looked from one friendly face to another, a smile slowly appearing on his own face. "You guys are right. I don't need to worry."

"Good, because we're here," Rremly announced quietly.

They all scrambled out of their robes and into Muggle clothes before jumping down and going to the luggage van for their trunks. Chatting amongst themselves, they followed Stewart over to where his family waited with Griffith's, Percy's, and Rremly's. Belladonna said a quick goodbye before dashing over to her mother, who was so pale that it appeared she never caught sun in all her life. Alastor didn't see his own family, but didn't much care. The less he saw of them, the better. Just as Stewart was about to introduce him to Mr. and Mrs. Pomfrey, Calla's strident voice reached their ears.

"Alastor Adelais Moody! What do you think you're doing?"

Fighting the urge to cringe, he turned towards his mother, his eyes automatically seeking the floor. "I'm going to spend the holidays at Liddell, with Stewart's family, Mother."

"And just where did you get an idea like that?" Calla asked.

Risking a glance up at her face, he saw that she was very angry. A movement at her side caught Alastor's eye and he noticed that Aurelius had an odd look on his face. "Er, they invited me and-"

"I don't recall giving you permission to go, Boy," she answered coldly. "Now come along!"

Feeling wretched and humiliated, Alastor glanced apologetically over his shoulder at the other boys, who all had looks of mingled disgust and loathing on their faces. Sighing, Alastor turned and followed his mother and brother from the train station, towing his own trunk and Aurelius's behind him. This was not a good start to his spring holiday.

That evening, his pride sore as well as his bottom, Alastor banged on his brother's bedroom door. "Come in."

"How could you do this to me, Aurelius?" Alastor demanded of his brother. "You promised you would talk to Mother and Father."

Aurelius raised a sardonic eyebrow at Alastor. "I did talk to them, Alastor. They said no."

"Why didn't you tell me, then?" demanded Alastor, fighting back tears as he remembered how humiliated he'd felt earlier.

Aurelius looked puzzled. "I'm sure I did, Alastor."

"You didn't," Alastor shot back, doing his best to control his emotions.

"Oh," Aurelius looked upset. "I'm sorry, Alastor. I didn't mean for you to go through what you did today."

Alastor sniffed, somewhat mollified. "All right, then. Just make sure you tell me next time, please, Aurelius?"

Aurelius smiled and nodded. "All right."

Nodding back, Alastor returned to his room and wrote an owl to Stewart.

Stew,

Talked to my brother. He said he'd talked to our parents, but they'd said no. He thought he'd told me, but I guess he forgot to. Sorry about the mix-up. Apologize to your parents for me, too, please? I'll see you on the train back to school.

Alastor

The spring holidays were absolute misery for Alastor. The thought that he'd been so close to spending the holidays with his friends haunted his every waking moment. In an effort to distract himself, he did the homework that had been assigned for the holidays, even going so far as to check and double-check his answers. When he had done all he could in terms of homework, he pulled out his schoolbooks and began to read ahead. By the time Calla took Alastor and Aurelius to King's Cross at the end of the holidays, he was a good one to two weeks ahead in his classes.

"Al!"

"Hi, Stew!" Alastor called back, waving at his friend.

He started over to where Stewart waited, but Calla drew him up short: "Boy!"

"Yes, Mother?" He turned back to her reluctantly.

Before she could begin lecturing him, a smooth, baritone voice inserted itself. "Ah, Mrs. Moody, hello."

"Who are you?" Calla asked suspiciously as Alastor looked up into the kind blue eyes of the man he recognized as Stewart's father.

The kind eyes moved from his to look at Calla. "Forgive me, I'm Patrick Pomfrey."

"Patrick Pomfrey?" she repeated, not offering her hand to be kissed. "I don't believe the name is familiar."

Alastor glanced at Stewart, who was standing at his father's side. The other boy shrugged. "Well, my boy, Stewart, is friends with your son, Alastor."

"He is?" Calla blinked and looked down at Stewart as Mr. Pomfrey placed a hand on his son's shoulder. "Oh, yes."

Alastor stifled a laugh at his mother's discomfiture. "I'm very sorry that Alastor was unable to spend the spring holidays with us. Might he be allowed to spend a month or so with us during the summer?"

"The summer?" Calla repeated yet again.

Alastor was stunned. Spend the summer holidays with his friends? Mr. Pomfrey had to be joking! Glancing up at the man, Alastor noted the friendly smile on his face. "Yes, Mrs. Moody. Spend the summer with Stewart and his other friends."

"I'm sorry, but no," Calla replied firmly.

Alastor felt his stomach drop. Gathering his courage, he asked, "It's because of Griffith, Percy, Belladonna, and Rremly, isn't it, Mother?"

"Don't ask questions, Boy," Calla snapped at him.

A voice Alastor recognized as belonging to Stewart's sister piped up, "Why do you call him 'Boy'? He has a name."

"Poppy, hush," the woman's voice was just as sweet as the girl's and Alastor looked up at Stewart's mother.

Calla studied the newcomers with some impatience. "Your wife and daughter, Sir?"

"Yes," Patrick replied, sounding proud. "Iris and Poppy."

The girl was holding her mother's hand and looked curiously up at Calla. "Hello, Mrs. Moody."

"Mrs. Pomfrey," Calla returned the other woman's greeting stiffly, clearly angry.

After a tense silence, Mrs. Pomfrey asked, "Pat, did you ask Mrs. Moody if Alastor could spend part of his summer with us?"

"He did, Madam, and I already gave my answer: no." Calla's voice was cold.

Alastor looked pleadingly up at the other two adults. He didn't want to spend the whole summer the way he had just spent the last week!

"Mrs. Moody, please be reasonable. It will be beneficial to everyone."

"How?" asked Calla shortly.

Mr. and Mrs. Pomfrey exchanged looks. "Well, your son will meet other children and learn to play with them nicely. Secondly, you and your husband will learn to let go of him. Thirdly, he seems like a nice and perfectly well-mannered boy and we would love for him to spend part of his summer with us."

"Well," Calla actually looked like she was softening. "I suppose it can't hurt him."

Alastor felt like whooping and jumping for joy, but restrained himself to smiling broadly and saying, "Thank you, Mother."

"You're welcome, B-Alastor," she answered stiffly.

A glance at Stewart told Alastor that the other boy was quite happy with how things had worked out. "Come along, Stewart, you'll miss the train."

"Go on, Boy," Calla told Alastor when the boy remained by her side.

Flashing her a dazzling smile, he ran off to join Stewart and his family.