A few weeks passed by without any particularly interesting happenings. Rose, as usual, was excelling In all of her classes and writing at least two more rolls of parchment than was required for any homework she was set. Nalia and Tilda were enjoying their first year classes, with Tilda proving to have a natural flair for Herbology, and Nalia feeling most comfortable in the history of magic class. In her eyes, you could not hope to fully understand something unless you knew it's history. Albus and Scorpius however, Instead of their classes,had been rather more focussed on another matter. The topic of the strange events surrounding Mr Gibbous had proven entirely too tempting for Albus to resist and he had managed to convince Scorpius that they must find out what on earth could be going on.
That morning, as usual, the gang all gathered for breakfast together in the hall. It was an unspoken rule that they always sat at the house table of whoever arrived in the Great Hall first, which just so happened to be Rose that day. The group congregated round the Gryffindor table, looking thoroughly exhausted from their first few weeks of class. They all ate their breakfast whilst having the usual discussions, moaning about the amount of homework being set or Filch, seeing whose house was in the lead for the house cup, the upcoming quidditch team trials and the days lessons. All of a sudden, the morning post owls swooped over with a cacophony of hoots, wing flapping and screeches. The owls brought packages, parcels and letters of every size and shape to the students. Today Albus, Scorpius and Nalia all had post. The first one to arrive was Newt with a letter from Albus's father:
'Albie,
I was glad to get your letter you sent with Newt. I haven't had any owls from the school about your behaviour, so I can only assume you are doing well. Your Mother and I are really pleased with you. I also assume you now know about the Wizarding Championship at Draíocht this year. Are you planning to go?
Also, of course Scorpius can stay with us over Christmas, as long as you're happy to share your room. The auror office is being kept very busy recently so your mother and I have had to turn our spare room into an office so we can work from home should we need too. Rose is coming over for a few days over Christmas too with Auntie Hermione and Uncle Ron, they'll be setting up in the back garden in one of the enchanted tents. Your Gramma Molly and Grandpa Artie will be coming for dinner on the day, so let Scorpius know about the jumper! I am also going to talk to Dudley about Nalia and what their plans are, so she may be staying and sharing with Lil, who by the way, accidentally turned the ferret blue (long story).Hope you and James are looking after each other.
See you soon,
Dad x'
Albus was excited to receive the news that that Scorpius could stay should he want too and asked him there and then. Scorpius was ecstatic at the prospect of spending Christmas somewhere fun and festive with a big family, even more so when Albus informed him of the tradition of everyone who was going to be present being knitted an 'Ugly but surprisingly comfy' Weasley jumper by his Gramma. For Scorpius, Christmas could not come soon enough that year. The next owl to arrive was for Nalia. She had used the school owl to write to her father, even though Ozzy was fully recovered at this point. This was due to the fact that he was simply too young, small and inexperienced. Nalia did not want him to get lost or hurt, especially if as was to be believed, that demon of a cat belonging to Filch was responsible for his original injuries. She had written to her father when she first arrived at Hogwarts, the day after her induction in fact, but had only just heard back. Albus had assured her time and time again that it was fine,that her father was okay and hadn't forgotten her, but was not so certain himself. As a result he was delighted to see Nalia receive her letter.
'Is that from your Dad Nali?' Asked Scorpius gently. 'Yeah' said Nalia between splutters of laughter. 'The reason it took so long is cause he couldn't figure out, and here I quote him directly, 'how to get the infernal bird to take the bloody letter'. He'd been trying to get him to take it in his beak but obviously the owl refused. He didn't realise he had to tie the letter to its leg, I forgot to mention that!'. Albus could just imagine the look on Dudley's face when the owl arrived outside his window, let alone whilst he was trying to figure out what to do when he realised he couldn't use muggle post to respond. He imagined it looked something like watching monkeys use tools for the first time. He was still being amused by this imagery when Autumn came crashing from the ceiling into the large pot of porridge on the table, much to the amusement of everyone present. 'Keep telling dad she can't land properly with heavy stuff' Scorpius muttered, his pale complexion turning slightly pink. After wiping Autumn down with a napkin and checking she was okay, with a concerned Newt cooing over her, Scorpius opened his package.
There was a note that simply said 'Dad' and under It was a travel case full of expensive gifts. Sweets from honeydukes, gold encrusted dragon hide gloves, a brand new sneakoscope, pumpkin juice, a gem encrusted Herbology set and brand new dress robes from Madam Malkins'. Scorpius did not look enthusiastic about the gifts and Albus actually felt sorry for him. He would much rather get a loving letter like the one he had got from his father than expensive gifts with nothing more than the word 'dad'. Scorpius clearly felt the same way. To cheer him up, the gang agreed to meet in the Hufflepuff common room (as it was the cosiest and closest to the kitchen) after class to study and have a catch up. Albus also had planned to try and get the others on board with a way of finding out more about Mr Gibbous. he had been formulating for a while. They must dog out what secrets Filch and Mr Gibbous were hiding and a guaranteed way to do that was to break Into his office, but doing so would not be easy. When Filch wasn't guarding his office, Mr Gibbous usually was skulking about somewhere near, so Albus and Scorpius would need some help.
That evening, once classes were over, Albus and Scorpius made their way from the Herbology greenhouses to the Hufflepuff common room. Whilst they were walking, they chatted about potions the next day. It would be the first potions class of the year, with Professor Slughorn, also their head of house. He had a reputation of being a 'collector' of promising students and as Harry Potter's son, Albus was a prime target. Scorpius was also desirable as someone who had shown a considerable aptitude for potions and the Malfoy's had always been an influential family. Horace Slughorn observed students throughout their first year for talent ,then tried to get them in the 'Slug club' during the following year. Quite frankly, Albus could not think of anything worse than sitting in the potions classroom with a load of other promising students and being forced to make small talk with them over food. They were just discussing deliberately sabotaging their potions, or using exploding cauldrons from Weasley's Wizard Wheezes rather than their proper ones, when they arrived at the stack of barrels just past the kitchens that concealed the entrance to the Hufflepuff common room. 'Erm...Scorp…which barrel do we need to tap again' asked Albus. 'Oh no, you haven't forgotten have you? I was talking to Nali when Tilda told you…. erm' responded Scorpius. They tried tapping the required knock (to the tune of Helga Hufflepuff) on the top left barrel. This resulted in a rather large load of vinegar exploding onto them, drenching their robes, so the boys were somewhat less than impressed.
Just then, clearly more amused by the vinegar soaking than the boys, Nalia and Tilda came round the corner and started giggling. 'Wrong barrel by any chance boys?' Nalia chortled, and Scorpius went bright red. Smelling of vinegar at this precise moment was not ideal, it was covering the smell of his Welsh Green Dragon Mist aftershave. Albus muttered something about the barrels being 'a stupid way to get into a common room' and stepped aside so the girls could let them in. Nalia gently rapped 'Hel-ga Huf-fle-puff' on the barrel that was two from the bottom, in the middle of the second row. The front of the barrels all swung forward simultaneously, to revel a passageway with a steep incline. 'Luckily for you I'm sure Dedrius will lend you some clothes, so you don't stick out the common room' smirked Nalia, still very amused by vinegarageddon. The boys both mumbled something along the lines of a 'thanks' and they all ascended up the steep incline to the common room, where Rose was already waiting, helping a Hufflepuff with their transfiguration homework.