Into double digits on the chapter uploads! I feel like a few announcements are in order. Please read all of them... :) I NEVER write this much before a chapter, so you KNOW that important stuff is hidden inside these massive blocks of text. It might clear some things up.
Firstly, THANK YOU SO MUCH to everyone who's reviewed this story. It means so much to me and andyicefox to know that people care. If you haven't reviewed, but you like this story, please do so! It only takes five seconds to make my day a little brighter. If you have suggestions, I'd love to hear them! If you have no suggestions, tell me to keep it up! You guys are the best.
Secondly, this first book might be a little slow, action-wise. andyicefox and I were trying to figure out ways that it could pick up the pace a little, but we decided that this was our best story line. Just know that this story is pretty much a massive stage-setter. Apart from Quidditch, there is very, very little in this book that doesn't happen for a reason. I don't think I've named a single character (apart from generic students) who doesn't play an increasingly important role in the series. Almost every detail matters (you can thank andyicefox for this). The mention of Fenrir Greyback is important. The people who have disappeared are important. Heck, the color of Mia Moon's eyes is important! Dismiusa is important, but not for a while, and not exactly in the way I've suggested. (ooh, suspense!)
Thirdly, to address some stuff that might become confusing or concerning in the future. Albus's wand is as important as was Harry's. Professor Desulgon will explain this more in Chapter 14, but because that's not being uploaded for a month, I figured some people might want to know right now so that they're not confused. The reason Albus's wand is so "powerful" is because it's an experimental wand. The discovery of maturation processes have made wands better than ever, just as any Muggle product will usually improve with time, and Albus's is even more of a special case. Made with Devil's Snare tendril, it's extremely aggressive and invasive, with a personality of its own that may even influence Albus's personality. And with silver lime, with some strange sentience, next chapter it's going to (spoiler alert! Skip rest of the paragraph if you hate spoilers) allow him to get a glimpse of what Legilimency is like! However, staying as "realistic" as possible, controlling this ability is far, far beyond his reach. No eleven-year-old would be a Legilimens. And I can tell you that he won't begin to delve into mind-magic until the same year as his father began studying in the same branch (of course, Harry didn't do so well. Maybe Albus will be more successful.)
And lastly... I've been messaged a couple times by people asking to know if I've decided what the second book will be named, and what that name might be. Well, andyicefox and I have decided to let you all know, because we're just that nice. :D Not only do we know what the second book is called... we know the names of all seven of the books, and we already know what every chapter in the second book is to be called and most of the chapters in the third. Currently we are outlining book four, with a strong idea of what's in books five, six, and seven. Anyway, the second book is entitled Albus Potter and the Lunar Eclipse. The first chapter of the second book will be posted not the weekend after, but the same weekend as the last chapter of Albus Potter and the Global Revelation.
Thank you very much if you read all of this! If you only skimmed, that's okay, I still love you. Without further ado, here are your normally-fonted words.
CHAPTER TEN
TINSEL AND TENSION
O
As it turned out, Harry wasn't just doing overtime. He was doing overnight.
The Ministry needed him there at all hours, in case they needed to wake him for a case. There was something extremely important going on, and Harry couldn't tell them in his letters exactly what it was. He would be home on Christmas, briefly. Ginny spent her days sulking in the kitchen while half-heartedly doing chores, bemoaning the fact that Harry hadn't been this busy since Gallen Ingot was running through the streets, and wondering what could possibly be so important that Harry was being kept from his family on Christmas.
Their Christmas Eve family dinner was spent mostly in silence; they traveled to the Burrow to be with Albus's grandmother, and although there were so many Weasleys there that it was hard to count, the absence of Albus's father was prevalent, and hung over the family dinner like a curtain. Friendly chats were started, but they always seemed to stop more quickly than usual.
When they returned to their house, Albus went up to his room and began work on an essay that he had to submit to join the kids' activist group Don't Do Dark!, which would gain him extra credit in Defense Against the Dark Arts. When he was about halfway through the essay, James walked in.
"You're doing homework?" sputtered James. "What are they doing to first years these days!"
"It's for DDD!," Albus answered. "Don't Do Dark!, you know?"
"Oh, right," said James. "I joined that. You send in an essay and they send you back their congratulations and then you never hear from them again. It's just something to put on a resume."
"What's a resume?"
"Never mind. Mum just got an owl from Dad, by the way. He says he'll be back tomorrow morning and he can stay throughout most of the day."
Albus's mood brightened immediately. "Awesome!"
"Mum's still mad that he can't stay the whole day, though," he said out of the corner of his mouth as he left. "I wouldn't go downstairs. She's in a mood."
Albus sighed. Didn't Mum know that, with being all depressed about Dad having to stay in the office all the time, she was just making it impossible to even slightly enjoy the holiday?
Apparently not. He let his head fall into his left hand and continued writing his essay.
When he was finished, it was pitch-black outside. He folded up the letter and put it by his bedside table—he would send it after Christmas, he didn't want poor Flibley flying on a holiday. He extinguished his lamp and lay his head down on the pillow.
Tomorrow, he would see his father again for the first time in four months. The thought made him smile as he drifted off to sleep.
O
"Hey, kid."
Albus opened his eyes to see his father sitting on the edge of his bed. He leapt out from the covers and threw his arms around Harry in a big hug. Harry laughed and prised his son off to kiss him on the forehead. "Merry Christmas, Al."
James and Lily were already up; Lily was always up at the crack of dawn. Albus ran downstairs to see three large piles of presents, and he was filled with the kind of joy that he had been lacking all break. He sat down at the head of the pile which had all the presents labeled in his name, and his eyes fell on a long, thin package on the bottom; James had an identical package.
"Presents first, food later?" said Harry, and his kids all nodded in ecstasy. He laughed. "Yeah, that's what I thought, that's how it always works. Except there's never any 'food later,' because you always get enough chocolate to choke a hungry hippogriff."
"One at a time, youngest first?" said Ginny, smiling and leaning on her husband's shoulder.
Without waiting for a response, Lily dived into her pile and extracted the smallest present, which was from Uncle George. It was a little box with several air-holes—air-holes?—and when she opened it, two squeals sounded out—one loud squeal from Lily, and a soft little squeak that issued from the box.
"Oh, a Pygmy Puff!" said Ginny, smiling widely. "Miniature puffskeins. I had one once."
Lily hugged the Pygmy Puff close to her face, and it hummed softly in contentment. It was a little salmon-colored ball of fluff with big, sparkly eyes, exactly the kind of thing that Lily loved. She was visibly overjoyed.
"Albus, you next," said Harry. "Open one!"
Albus immediately reached for the long, thin package, and his mother and father shared identical smiles as he tore through the wrapping paper and ripped the top off the box so fast that he surprised even himself.
He gasped as he glimpsed a shining black handle, and he recognized the broom immediately. It wasn't a Soundsplitter, of course, that would have been an insane Christmas gift. But it was a Sheerer 720, a good broom that Albus had ridden on his last day of Flying lessons. It was more than a good broom, in fact; he remembered the experience.
James's jaw dropped. "Albus got a Sheerer 720?"
"Why don't you open your gift that looks like that," said Harry quickly.
James tore open his own box, and looked actually a little disappointed that he got a Sheerer 720 as well. He examined the black handle, and turned to his parents.
"But why couldn't Albus have just gotten my old broom? Why does he have to get the same broom at two years younger? I didn't get a Sheerer 720 when I was in my first year!"
"Oh, come on, James," sighed Ginny. "Tell me you're not going to make a stink out of this on Christmas."
But James was slightly less festive in unwrapping all of his other presents, and he made sure his family was acutely aware of it. At the end of the wrapping session, Harry looked over to Ginny, and she nodded at him.
Harry walked over to James and put a hand on his shoulder. "Hey, kid. Come with me, okay?"
James was even less pleased than before, and he let out a loud huff as he scrambled to his feet and stomped after Harry.
"Now, you won't be able to take your broom to Hogwarts yet," said Ginny. "First years aren't allowed their own broomsticks. But you can have it for next year, maybe go on the reserve squad for the Gryffindor team like you said in your letter."
"Maybe," said Albus, still admiring it. It was the best of his presents—he'd received a good amount of joke equipment from Uncle George, like he usually did on Christmas, books, like he usually received from Uncle Percy and Aunt Hermione, and several other luxury items for his stay at Hogwarts, like amazing chocolate and a self-cooling pillow and self-warming blanket set. His favorite, by far, was the broom, but it was also the one that had caused a bit of a dispute between James and their parents. He felt like he couldn't enjoy it as much when it was making James be rude on Christmas; he wished that James was more mature.
There were footsteps coming down the stairs—the talk had been a bit longer than Albus was expecting. He turned around to see James's feet coming down the stairs, followed by Harry's. He braced himself to see a continued pout on James's face and a look of futility on his father's, but he was completely wrong. Harry looked content, and James did not look happy—he looked overjoyed.
Wondering what it was that Harry had done—promised James a Sheerer 1080 later, or a Firebolt, or a Soundsplitter, maybe?—Albus turned back to his broom and began to examine it with a good deal more satisfaction than earlier.
"Well, now that you're home," Ginny said quietly to Harry as he sat back down beside her on the couch, "you can explain what's going on that you can't even stay for the whole Christmas."
"Murders and kidnapping," replied Harry calmly; Ginny gave a start. "Yes, that's the worst of it. We're pretty sure that part's going to stop now, though, we've taken precautions."
"What in the world has been going on?" whispered Ginny, looking nervous.
"It's happened six times now," replied Harry. "There's a call. 'We need Obliviators, there's a Muggle out in blah-town who just saw a blah.' We send a couple Obliviators, and they don't come back. Six times, this has happened. Six. We're dealing with people who have planned this out for a while, and I think there's going to be some bloodshed before this is over."
Ginny dropped her voice so low that Albus could only barely hear her. "Shit."
"Deep shit," said Harry, even softer. "Deep, deep shit. We've stopped all that by sending Obliviators in groups of no less than seven now, but it's running the department dry; they're hiring new Obliviators left and right, even dragging people in from different departments to do Memory Charms, and they usually suck. But that's not where it all stops. There's been disappearances. People just go missing. John Solomon dropped off the face of the earth a couple weeks ago, you remember him, the guy who gives those lectures on being vigilant against the Dark Arts, he teaches about how to cast anti-Dark protective enchantments, he always wears gloves? He missed three of his planned speeches in a row, and no one can find him. Hugh January's gone missing—I was hoping not to have to tell you that on Christmas…"
Ginny had her hands to her mouth and her eyes were watering. She and Harry, Albus knew, were acquainted with Hugh January, the seven-fingered man who worked in Luna's wand shop.
"We're going to have to tell Luna to be careful," said Harry. "Her twins would be what, eight years old now? She's got a young family, she needs to be cautious. There's always attacks on wandmakers, they stock up and then they try to cripple the supply lines, or kidnap them for supplies. I bet that's what happened to Hugh. And the outspoken ones, like John Solomon, they're always the first to go, too."
"You really think…?"
"I don't know what to think," said Harry. "But I know how I feel. This has the same feel as… I mean… the disappearances, the kidnapping, the murders, it just feels like…"
"Don't say it," said Ginny, real tears falling now.
"It feels like Voldemort all over again."
"It can't be that serious," said Ginny, not really trying to argue with Harry but trying to assure herself. "It can't be."
"I don't know," said Harry. "What about the mulunctapoli? What about using them as attack weapons, or to produce MM again? Hell, they could have people all over the government already if that's the case. And I have to say… If I were to guess what it feels like to be in the middle of a conspiracy like there was when Voldemort was in power, I'd guess it's something like this. Half our people are dead nervous, half of us are dead calm. People are panicking, and I think it's getting to their heads—the head of the Auror Department, Obydin Auchland, just suddenly decided that he was in favor of revealing the Wizarding world to Muggles! How can anyone be in favor of that! He and Helio Wilcox are doing the most damage, convincing everyone it's a good idea, what they're thinking, I don't know—"
"You know Helio," said Ginny. "He's a great man. And you know exactly what he's thinking, and you know it's not about whether it's a 'good idea.' Helio does believe that Muggles can be trusted with the information, but that's not his driving point. His driving point is that they'll find out eventually, whether we want them to or not, especially with all this so-called 'activism' that's going on, people trying to do as much magic as possible in front of Muggles—"
"And they freak out," said Harry. "Imagine the state of the world if they all found out at once."
"Not everyone is like your aunt and uncle, Harry—of course they'll freak out at first, but so would we, initially, if we were in their place, you can't deny that."
"But we should deal with all that later," insisted Harry. "We should worry about letting the Muggles know when Ministry officials aren't being attacked, and when there aren't daily disappearances and murders. Imagine if Muggles found out about us, and then found out that the wizard government was teetering on the verge of anarchy."
"There, I agree with you."
"I'm just so nervous, I almost want to refuse to be alone with anyone anymore. I mean, there are thousands of greater wizards than I am, but I've become sort of a symbol, haven't I? And I've got the—the wand," he whispered, taking a glance at Albus, who pretended to be leafing through Aunt Hermione's book on the history of magical comedy. "People have got to know about that, I didn't exactly keep it quiet when I got it from our good old friend Tom. I'm worried about the target that it makes me…" He dropped his voice the lowest yet, but Albus had very acute hearing. "And the target that it makes our kids."
Ginny was silent for a while, and then she took a deep breath.
"Is there anyone that—if—if worst comes to worst, that we can absolutely, undoubtedly trust? Besides Helio Wilcox?"
It was Harry's turn to pause, and he had a lengthy one as well.
"Falagair. Alana Falagair, we can absolutely trust her."
Ginny frowned. "The buxom blonde babe who bounces around your office ceaselessly?"
Harry chuckled. "That's the one. As loyal a friend as I've seen, and I've got to admit, she's got brains in that rack of hers—" He smashed his hands against his face and groaned. "Oh, Merlin. She's got brains in that head of hers. Forgive me."
Ginny was laughing hard, though, probably letting herself laugh to relieve the tension. "You are forgiven. Though I have to say, that first situation would have been hilarious—"
"Yes, yes," said Harry, reddening. "Well, as I was saying, she reminds me a bit of Adelina Nelson. She's got the same kind of inner fire, and she's not afraid to throw herself in front of the wand for a friend. You can trust her, and you can trust Lynwood Chinch. He's gotten me out of some tight spots in the past and present. And Killian Aubrey—him, too. He's young, but very talented, and very loyal. And, as you said, Helio Wilcox, of course."
"So what else is going on?" asked Ginny. "You said—"
"Sightings of former Death Eaters? Yeah, Fenrir Greyback was spotted just a couple weeks ago; although he was never really a Death Eater, he never had the Dark Mark. But I was confident he was dead—he avoided capture for so long—he worries me as much as anyone else. Not to mention the fear factor he brings with the stigma of his name."
"Where was he sighted?"
"Several places, no real pattern. He appears to be looking for something, and I really hope he doesn't find it."
"Any other former Death Eaters sighted?"
"Well, there was—"
A knock came on the glass sliding door. Harry tensed, but relaxed when he saw that it was a large-chested young blonde woman with a radiant smile who was waving at him. He checked a Sneakoscope that stood on a shelf, and when he was sure that it wasn't even slightly reacting, he opened the glass door and she stepped in.
"Good morning, Ginevra," said the girl.
"Good morning, Alana," said Ginny stiffly.
"Alana Falagair, these are my kids, James, Albus, and Lily," he said, pointing to each of them in turn; they all waved.
Alana smiled. "How nice to meet you! Harry has told me so much about all of you."
"Really," Albus heard Ginny mutter to herself. "I didn't know you spent that much time talking to each other."
"I think you should come visit the hospital, Harry," said Alana, her tone suddenly becoming dead serious. "I'm so, so sorry to, ah, drag you away from your family on Christmas, but it's seriously urgent. Luna Lovegood was just attacked."
"Luna's in the hospital?" screamed Ginny, jumping to her feet.
"No, her five attackers are," said Alana calmly.
"Why do we need to visit them?" asked Harry, stepping forward.
"We need to find out why they tried to attack her, who they're working for, all that," replied Alana. "I wouldn't drag you out of your house on Christmas if we thought we could do it another day, but these guys seem to be dead set on their cause. We have to force them to breathe—they're trying to kill themselves at every opportunity. We need people in to take a look before they succeed."
With a mournful look back at his wife, Harry began to follow Alana Falagair out of the house. Ginny gave him a nod that said it was all right; if he needed to go, he needed to go. He smiled back at her in gratitude, blew her a kiss, and then mouthed, I'll make this up to you.
But the moment the door closed, Ginny turned around and marched out of the room, snorting like a bull.
Albus followed her into the dining room as she muttered to herself, "—run off with your little stalker, on Christmas, no, that's fine—"
Her head whipped up when she saw Albus. "What?"
"Is everything okay?" he asked, trying to keep his voice from trembling.
"No," said Ginny quietly, and she sank into a chair slowly. "No. It's Christmas and nothing is okay. I thought, maybe your father could spend an—an hour with us—of course she's not sorry to drag him out of the house on Christmas, she doesn't know what it's like to have a family, how would she know exactly what she's doing?"
She sighed and leaned back, tilting her head to stare at the ceiling. "That was a horrible thing to say," she muttered to herself.
A silver stag suddenly soared into the room, and Ginny looked up, waiting. The stag walked over to her and nuzzled its head against her side, though it was made of light and it didn't seem to be actually touching her physically. Then it spoke.
"Ginny… I am so, so sorry. First I should let you know that Luna is safe, her family is going under Ministry protection, and I made sure she's with people we know we can trust. Second, I want you to know that, however I may seem to put work ahead of family, it truly is because I want my family to still be here after this is over. I can't lose loved ones. And I don't want other families to lose loved ones, either. That's why I have to do whatever I can to prevent this storm from hitting. I'm sorry, Ginny. I love you."
The stag faded, and Ginny stared into her lap, still angry, tears still falling. She muttered something involving the words "regardless" and "one Christmas."
Albus had no idea how to respond. He just said, "Er…" and then sidled his way back into the family room where the presents and tree might take his mind away from what he'd just heard, though that was seriously wishful thinking.
O
All in all, Albus was immensely relieved to get back to King's Cross and board the Hogwarts Express again. The mood in the house had become unbearably tense. This made Lily even more upset that she wasn't going to Hogwarts for two more years, which made her pout even more on the car ride to King's Cross, which made their mother even more agitated, which made the mood infinitely more tense; it was like a never-ending cycle of bad moods.
When he got on the train, he was again in a compartment with the same friends: Jonah, Toby, Sylvester, Eftan, Alec, Aidan, and Parker. Eftan was already showing Jonah "The Dark Knight" on his phone.
"What's that?" said Jonah.
"A gun," explained Eftan. "It fires metal bullets which go through other people's bodies at seven hundred miles an hour, sometimes killing them, depending on the kind of gun. They're Muggle substitutes for wands, except all they do is kill—"
"What's that?"
"It's a grenade. If you pull the pin out, it explodes—"
"What's that?"
"It's an automatic weapon, it fires lots of bullets for killing lots of people at a time—"
"What's that?"
"It's another gun, for Christ's sake! It's just a really loud one!"
"Why are Muggles so fascinated with killing each other?"
"Hey, from what I hear about Voldemort, they're not the only ones."
"What's that?"
"IT'S ANOTHER—"
"Relax, I know it's a gun, I'm teasing you. Seriously, though, this 'phone' thing is amazing."
"Here, I'll show you how this thing can play music now," said Eftan, going out of the movie and pressing an icon on the screen that looked like a music note.
"How was your Christmas?" asked Toby, turning to Albus.
"It was… terrible," said Albus, and he left it at that.
Toby didn't pursue the subject, thankfully.
"I was talking with my dad about the whole mulunctapoli thing," said Toby. "He says that if there really were people breeding mulunctapoli, there's no way they wouldn't have tried to make MM again. And he says that if they made any more MM, there's no way that people wouldn't have found out about it. So he thinks it had to have come from the wild."
"But Wilcox said that they were certain there were no mulunctapoli left in the wild after the extermination," noted Albus.
Toby waved his hand. "It was the 1300's or something. How perfect could their methods have been that long ago?"
"But then why haven't we found any mulunctapoli at all until seven hundred years later?"
Toby pondered this. "Maybe they hibernate?"
"Or maybe the people who found them kept them quiet," suggested Sylvester, who had been listening. His pet snake coiled slowly around his neck.
"That's a possibility," said Albus. "Or maybe they really do just have a colony deep in the forest, and they didn't emerge to the edge until now."
Or maybe Wilcox and Valon stirred them up, he added in his mind.
"Hey, Albus, how was your Christmas?" asked Alec, clearly having missed the beginning of the conversation.
"Terrible," mumbled Albus.
"Oh," said Alec. "Why?"
Albus didn't respond, and Alec took the hint.
After a very long train ride, he changed into his Hogwarts robes, got some Chocolate Frogs off the trolley with Thonner Gaimond and Bowman Wright cards, and disembarked from the train. He climbed into one of the carriages, pulled, he knew, by the invisible thestrals. Aidan and Alec followed, but Eftan stayed back to follow Jonah and explain the Internet to him. Jonah, Parker, Eftan, and Sylvester climbed into one carriage, and Toby joined Eben, Kolby, and a Hufflepuff boy named Allen Tibbett.
Aidan and Alec sat across from Albus, and the seat next to him was unoccupied for a moment until, without warning, Holly Glissendale climbed into the carriage and sat herself next to Albus.
Numbness trickled down all of his limbs, but knowing that his reputation as a mentally stable individual was at stake, he managed to smile warmly at Holly. Aidan and Alec glanced at each other, and then raised eyebrows at Albus as Holly bumped him with her elbow and said, "Hey, how was your Christmas?"
He paused briefly and reddened again. "Great!"
Thanks for sticking with Albus! Next week's chapter is also short, I know I've had a bunch of short ones (comparatively) but next week's is the last short chapter before a couple of long ones. See you for next week's upload! Uploads every weekend, all the way to the finish line!