CHAPTER SIXTEEN
THE GLOBAL REVELATION
O
Over the last few months of classes, a cloud seemed to loom over the entire school. Several Muggle-borns in Hogwarts had lost family to the tragic incident. There was a moment of silence during the first feast after break, during which a Slytherin was given detentions for the rest of the year for his vocal reenactment of a Muggle being eaten by a dragon.
Tension between Slytherin and the other houses was more prevalent than Albus had ever seen it, including before the Quidditch matches. It didn't help that Slytherin was playing Hufflepuff next—the Hufflepuffs were fueled by righteous anger and were ready to thrash their opponents for the comments that a couple of them had made about the tragedy.
In fact, Hufflepuff beat Slytherin so thoroughly that Devon Elbiell, a second year Chaser on their team, set a new school record for goals scored in a game. The sun was behind clouds the whole morning, which apparently made it harder to see the Snitch because it didn't glint, and so Euan Yodelhop didn't catch the Snitch until Hufflepuff had scored over sixty goals (though it was also possible that he wanted Slytherin to be further embarrassed). The final score was seven hundred and ninety to two hundred, which meant that if Gryffindor were to take the House Cup, they would have to win by over six hundred points to Ravenclaw.
"It's… not impossible…" said Dominique through clenched teeth and closed eyes when Albus met her in the halls. "But I'd prefer not to think about it right now. We'll just try to get as many goals as possible without worrying about the score; James can worry about when to get the Snitch."
Albus tried to ask Victoire whether she thought they were going to be able to win, but Victoire shushed him and hurried away, looking harried, hair everywhere and her nose pressing against the inside of one of her books; Albus remembered that she was taking her N.E.W.T. exams soon.
None of the Gryffindor players seemed to be able to relax in the days leading up to the match; everywhere Albus saw a member of the team, they looked exhausted and stressed. In sharp contrast to the way that the days dragged themselves to Easter with their fingertips, it was a sprint to the finish in the last month of classes: teachers crammed them full of material, and studying was pretty much the only pastime that could be seen; in every part of the castle, books were open, notes were laid out, and bags were forming under most students' eyes. But despite the pressure, it was sad to know that they would be leaving this place in a few short weeks.
O
Finally, the last Quidditch match was upon them, and Albus went out with most of the school to the pitch so they could see if Gryffindor could overcome this enormous deficit.
"Where's Wilcox?" asked Alec, looking over at the staff stands.
"Don't know," said Aidan, furrowing his brow. "Probably doesn't matter to him; Slytherin has barely any chance of doing better than third place."
"He should still be here," said Albus. "It's the last match of the Quidditch season."
"It's the last match of the Quidditch season!" announced Barry shortly after Albus uttered the exact same sentence; his friends laughed. "Gryffindor versus Ravenclaw! Now I want to remind everyone of what's at stake here… Gryffindor needs to win by over six hundred—not just score six hundred, they need to win by more than six hundred points if they're going to take the Quidditch Cup! Ravenclaw, on the other hand, would have to win by nine hundred and thirty or more, so Gryffindor shouldn't be complaining.
"You may have known this already. Here's something you might not have known! If Ravenclaw beats Gryffindor by exactly one hundred and sixty points, then there will be a three-way tie for second place! If Ravenclaw beats Gryffindor by more than that, they will take second and Gryffindor will take last. And if Gryffindor doesn't lose by more than a hundred and fifty, they take second place.
"But since both teams are probably aiming to win big, neither Seeker will probably be catching the Snitch until it becomes clear that neither team is pulling ahead. Of course, Hogwarts official Quidditch rules state that any match that exceeds six hours must end with a Seeker face-off, and if they take more than an hour to end the game, then the final score stands without the Snitch. We're in for a long one, folks, because if neither team is dominates, that'll probably be where we end up.
"So, if you don't want to be here for seven hours, fans, let's give these teams a reason to take first place! Let 'em hear you cheer!"
The stadium was filled with louder cheers than had preceded any of the five previous games. The fans were all dying to see the action.
Several hours later, they were simply dying to leave.
As Barry had predicted, the fact that neither team was dominating meant that neither Seeker was attending to the Snitch. Albus actually saw it once, fluttering near Kalina Moon's head; she tried to punch it. He wondered vaguely whether Kalina had one blue eye and one purple eye like her sister; Albus had never seen Kalina up close. And Mia had a Hufflepuff sister, too—Mavis. He wondered what her eyes were like.
His brother was playing in the game, but Gryffindor was down by thirty and unable to get closer, so it became very hard to stay focused. Some people were taking naps; Albus wondered how they could possibly do so in such bright sunshine. Others had brought studying materials with them and only tuned in for a couple seconds at a time.
Albus got into a long discussion about the Global Revelation with Aidan, Alec, and Eftan while the match progressed, which carried them for about a half hour, and then they switched to the next Quidditch World Cup, which would take place shortly before their third year. The general consensus was that Peru had gotten extremely good, but no one knew who they would be playing. India and China had gotten much better in recent years, also, and they were now contenders where they had never been competitive before.
They thoroughly covered the topics of exams, third year electives and career options, and Muggle methods of communication before a whistle finally sounded signifying that the six-hour mark had been reached, and Gryffindor was down by a score of eight hundred and eighty to eight hundred and twenty. It had already broken several school records—Dominique had just broken Devon Elbiell's new goal record—and now it was time to see who would take second; whoever lost the Seeker duel would take fourth. Slytherin was secured at third.
The Seekers took the field alone. The stands were mostly empty now—most people had left—but a good number of students returned just to see the end of the match.
James was significantly better than Kalina, though, and it wasn't hard to see that. Within a minute and a half, he'd pulled out of a dive with the Snitch. Kalina was looking rather pouty about it. Albus caught sight of her as they meandered back into the school, and saw that her eyes were just like her sister's.
As he was thinking about Mia, she popped up beside him, looking rather happy about the fact that Hufflepuff had taken the Quidditch Cup for its sixth year in a row.
"Hi, Albus," she said with a soft smile.
"Hey, Mia!"
"I was wondering… if you wanted to study for the Charms exam, sometime soon?"
Albus bit his lip. "Er… Sorry, I kind of already made plans to study Charms with Holly."
Mia blinked slowly. "Oh. But… she doesn't even have Charms with us…"
"Well, no, but we do cover pretty much the same material between the two sections… Besides, she's kinda worse at Charms than everything else, so she needs a little extra help." He shrugged. "You're welcome to join us?"
"No," she said stiffly, "I don't think I will."
And she walked swiftly away.
Alec hurried over to Albus. "What was that about?"
"Mia wanted to study with me, and then she didn't," said Albus, still trying to understand it.
Alec smoothed his hair out and walked swiftly after her.
Eftan caught up with Albus next and rolled his eyes at Alec; they both laughed.
"Where's Aidan?"
"Gloating," said Eftan. "I ditched him. If I have to hear about how perfect and flawless and handsome Euan Yodelhop is again, I think I'm gonna throw up."
"Finch-Fletchley is madly in love with Yodelhop," said Sylvester, pulling up beside Eftan. "They were meant to be together."
Albus recalled that Sylvester wasn't Aidan's biggest fan.
"So, time to start studying our hats off?" asked Eftan.
Albus nodded. "Time to start studying everything off."
"I bet Finch-Fletchley would like to study everything off of Yodelhop," interjected Sylvester.
O
Wilcox was not around much in the following week, as Albus noticed on Tuesday when he was yet again absent from the staff table. He asked Professor Desulgon about it in Transfiguration, and got an explanation.
"Professor Wilcox is attending several international meetings," said Professor Desulgon to the class. "He's well respected in magical law as well as education. I believe he is strongly pressing for a global revelation in the fear that… more bad things will happen if we don't."
Now Wilcox was on the side of those pressing for a revelation. It seemed as though there was no stopping it now.
Albus looked behind him to see the headmaster's son's reaction. Exo was barely paying attention; his head was in his hands and he was rubbing his temples.
"You okay?" he asked.
Exo grumbled. "Headaches."
A connection formed itself in Albus's head—this was exactly what Uncle Bill went through on the day of the full moon. Headaches and slight sickness. Maybe it was worse for younger children. Maybe Exo was part werewolf.
He did eat a lot of meat. But not rare meat. And he didn't have any scars. And his personality didn't seem to change… did it?
He recalled Exo lashing out at Riley in the Astronomy tower. Tonight was another Astronomy class, and another full moon. He decided to pay close attention and see if his conjecture that Exo was part-werewolf was accurate.
Every time he thought about Exo's affliction, it confused him a lot. He wished Exo would be trusting enough to tell him. Or maybe he'd just find out one day.
Transfiguration ended, and dinner started, but Exo was nowhere to be found. In fact, he didn't even show up for Astronomy that night.
O
Albus crossed the common room to where he saw the group of Gryffindor first year girls sitting around Rose, curious about what they were up to.
Lucy bumped Albus with her shoulder as she passed. "Hey, kid," she said. "Good luck on your first final exams!"
"Thanks," grinned Albus as she winked.
She put a hand to her chin. "'First final' exams? That's an odd phrasing, but I guess it makes sense… I mean, how else would you—"
Abruptly, a large pie appeared out of thin air next to Lucy's head, flew towards her, and splattered all over her robes. She cringed and went rigid from shock as James's head appeared a short distance away, floating in the air.
"UNENDING VENGEANCE!" he bellowed.
He turned and ran out of the common room as Lucy whipped out her wand and stormed after him, shouting, "C'MERE, YOU CREEP!"
Albus laughed along with most of the room's occupants. He walked over towards Rose and the group of girls surrounding her.
"Not in the library?" he asked her.
"Everyone else is in the library," said Rose. "It's actually pretty quiet in here."
"Apart from the occasional pie to the face," he reminded her.
Rose nodded. "Apart from that. Now quiet for a moment; I'm trying to remember Gaimond's Law."
"Gaimond's Law states that—"
"SHUT UP!"
She put a hand up. "This is the first thing I've forgotten all day! If I've forgotten this and can't remember it, then there's probably more that I've forgotten and won't remember on the exam and then before you know it I miss four or five questions!"
"What a tragedy that would be," said Candy, rolling her eyes.
"NO!" shouted Rose suddenly, and they all jumped. "No—I remembered it! Gaimond's Law states that the average Kinesis of a spell varies by a degree of four point nine percent with the phase of the moon."
"Good job!" said Pallie. "What's Kinesis?"
"Kinesis is the potency factor of the manifestation of a spell," recited Rose.
"What phase of the moon makes spells the most powerful?" asked Wendy.
"The full moon, that was too easy," said Rose. "Give me another hard one!"
"They're all too easy for you," laughed Dori. "Want to move onto Charms now? We're done with Transfiguration."
"I guess so," said Rose. "Hey, Albus, want to help us study for Charms?"
"Actually, I was just about to go study with Holly," said Albus.
Rose grinned broadly.
"All right then," she said, and she leaned into her circle of girls, tittering quietly with them. Albus heard his name once or twice among the whispers, and Holly's, too, as he gathered his stuff back up and turned to leave for the library, getting red in the face.
He stepped into the library and found Holly; she was waving brightly to him. He laid down his books beside her and opened his Charms notebook.
"This book is terrible," said Holly, gesturing to her Charming book. "It's so vague on all the definitions, and Plinky's so strict."
"Yeah," said Albus, though he was pretty sure that definitions were the thing the book did best, and that Plinky was very lenient on exact wording in essays.
"So what do you want to study?"
Albus shrugged. "I don't know… You were the one who asked me to study, so I figured you'd know what you wanted to study…"
"But you must need to study, too!" insisted Holly.
"Not… really?" said Albus, trying not to sound too big-headed. "I mean, I guess I know all the basic stuff, which should be enough, he hasn't really tested us on more than the basics all year…"
"You didn't have to study?" said Holly, eyes shining. "You only came down here because I said I needed help studying?"
"Er…"
Holly threw her arms around him. "Oh, thank you! You're such a nice guy!"
Albus's ears had never felt so overheated. He laughed and awkwardly put his arms around her, too, until she broke off and turned back to her book.
"So, what's this whole thing about the caveats for Ritell's Rule for Animation Charms?"
Albus zoned out a little bit, recreating the hug in his head.
"Albus?"
"Oh, I think that's the one where you have to loosen your fingers around the wand if you want to animate an inanimate object," said Albus, snapping slightly back.
"Yes, I know," said Holly. "I was asking about the caveats? I don't understand that."
"Oh. Sorry, I'm…"
He didn't want to say "distracted," because she might then follow up with the question of what was distracting him, and he didn't want to admit that it was her.
"Sleepy," he finished instead.
"Oh," said Holly. "Do you need to get back early tonight?"
"No, not at all," said Albus.
Holly beamed at him. "You're so nice!"
His ears started to burn again.
O
Alec and Mia had started studying together every day. Apparently Alec really had asked her after she had declined Albus's offer to study together. Every time Albus hit the library, Mia was there with Alec. Aidan observed that this was very healthy for Alec—he was, incredibly, actually studying for sizeable periods of time. He was even studying on his own so that he could impress Mia when they studied together.
Meanwhile, the rest of the school was stressing; it had finally become the day before the exams. Charms and Potions were first for the first years, so Albus was meeting with Holly a lot for Charms preparation. She was scooting her chair closer and closer to him every day, and on the day before the exam, her chair was pressed right up against his as she pored over their notes a final time, looking sleepless.
"If I pass this, I'm gonna cry with joy," she said, massaging her scalp.
"Of course you'll pass, you'll do great," said Albus.
She smiled. "You know, that's what all my friends say… They refuse to study with me."
"What? Why?"
"They say I stress way too much for someone who's going to get the highest grade in the House," she mumbled. "But I really don't like Charms."
"Well, they should probably be nicer to you, and you shouldn't stress as much. I know you'll do fine."
Holly smiled and leaned her head against Albus's arm. It instantly went numb, as if contact with her head had eradicated all feeling in his arm.
She was about to fall asleep, so Albus woke her up and escorted her back to Ravenclaw Tower; she looked like to hit the floor and sleep there.
"I should study more," she said, yawning.
"No, you should sleep," said Albus sternly. "At this point, staying up later is just going to hurt you. We're not supposed to be out this late anyway. I know Madam Kohl doesn't care about staying in the library late during exam time, but you still have to get a decent amount of sleep."
"Okay," said Holly glumly.
She stepped away from him as they reached the top of the staircase, and knocked with the eagle-shaped knocker.
"What happens when an unstoppable spell meets an unbreakable shield?" mused a soft, melodic voice.
Holly glanced back at Albus sheepishly.
"What? I don't know the answer to that," said Albus, laughing.
"No, I know the answer," said Holly. "But I'd prefer if you didn't… We're not supposed to give the answers to anyone outside our House, see."
"Ah," said Albus. "That's okay, I'll head back now."
"Thanks."
Albus nodded and departed; he glanced back at Holly, who was whispering to the knocker; it answered, "Well put," and the door swung open to admit her.
Albus racked his brain for the answer to the question which had been asked, but he wasn't coming up with anything. It hurt his head to think about it. He wondered whether all Ravenclaws were informed of the various answers to the various questions, or whether they were just all smart enough to know the answers.
He tuned in to his surroundings, because he was hearing faint voices. He allowed the voices to lure him off of his path to Gryffindor Tower, and heard Helio Wilcox yet again; this was surprising to him, because Wilcox had not been present much since the last Quidditch match of the season; he was often at the Ministry, offering his guidance.
He was speaking with Professor Desulgon. "…boy, he's mad at me," said Wilcox. "He's furious that I didn't even show up the last time. Said he had to miss classes and then explain to everyone where he was, you know how he hates doing that."
"I worry about your son, if the global revelation is honestly going to happen," said Professor Desulgon. "You know how Muggles view… those like him. In their 'motion pictures' and the like."
"Yes, I know," said Wilcox, sighing.
Albus's pulse quickened; should he follow them and try to hear more? He might finally hear about what Exo's condition is.
But then he pictured James, in his Invisibility Cloak, stalking them, and for some reason, the thought that he was doing something which his brother would do made him feel terrible about it. He was betraying the trust of too many people by listening in to the conversation that the men were having which they thought was private.
He gathered up his courage to do the right thing, and he turned and walked away from the discussion, back to Gryffindor Tower, without paying attention to another word they said. He was glowing with inner pride on his moral choice.
Immediately after closing the portrait door, he wished he'd stayed to eavesdrop.
O
Exams were hell, to say the least, but it wasn't total hell. Albus felt that he did remarkably well on all exams, except the practical portion of Charms, during which he'd completely forgotten the incantation to the Softening Charm; it was the only one he'd forgotten to study, as he learned afterward by examining his notes. He'd kept Professor Plinky waiting for a good minute before finally remembering it, right before Plinky was about to have him move on to the next task of making an open wine bottle dance across the desk without spilling any of the liquid. Unfortunately, he was shaky on this after his experience with the Softening Charm, and he'd gotten Plinky more than a little wet (but at least he hadn't shattered the bottle like he heard Sylvester did).
When he described this failure to his friends, Alec was unsympathetic. He rolled his eyes and told Albus that the only reason it was such a shock was because Albus had never failed something that thoroughly before; after a few brushes with that experience, he said, it's not so crushing anymore. Alec then went on to brag about how he had aced his Charms exam (due to the copious amount of studying he'd done with Mia).
Alec's confidence was significantly lower, though, after the Potions exam; Alec was highly aversive to most material that wasn't shooting spells at things. On the other hand, Albus was thrilled with his Potions work.
The other tests went very well for most of them. Their most painless exam by far was Transfiguration, which was also their last exam; Professor Desulgon decided to give a much more basic test than usual. After the simple written portion, he randomly divided the first year students into groups of three, and gave them seven easy tasks to do in Transfiguration; each of the three members of the group got to pick two of the tasks to perform, and they were to pick one task to be successfully completed by everyone. Hardly anyone did a bad job on this exam, and when it was over, there was a feeling of contentment throughout the class.
Professor Desulgon caught their attention when the last group had finished, and he cleared his throat.
"We've run slightly over our allotted time, I hope you don't mind, seeing as how this was your last exam. Have a phenomenal summer, everybody!" He walked to the door and opened it. "I will see you all next year, unless I manage to tick off Professor Wilcox enough in the next three months that he bans me from the cas—"
"GOOD AFTERNOON, STUDENTS."
The booming voice made them all jump. It echoed throughout the castle; it seemed to come from the walls. Wilcox was magically enhancing his voice.
"I WOULD LIKE YOU ALL TO TAKE A MINUTE OF YOUR TIME TO LISTEN TO THIS ANNOUNCEMENT, AS IT WILL AFFECT ALL OF YOU FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIVES. THE DECISION ON THE GLOBAL REVELATION HAS FINALLY BEEN REACHED BY THE INTERNATIONAL CONFEDERATION OF WIZARDS."
Immediate silence followed that remark, and for a few seconds, all that could be heard was the echo of Wilcox's voice in the walls, and the maniacal cackle of Peeves somewhere in the distance. Professor Desulgon stared at the ceiling with wide eyes, pressing his mouth into a thin line. He looked deathly nervous.
"AGAIN, THE DECISION HAS BEEN REACHED ON THE QUESTION OF THE GLOBAL REVELATION. AFTER MUCH DEBATE, AND A LOT OF ANALYSIS ON WHICH WOULD BE THE LESSER OF TWO EVILS, THE INTERNATIONAL WIZARDING COUNCIL HAS ALMOST UNANIMOUSLY MADE THEIR CHOICE. THOSE IN DISAGREEMENT WERE SMALL ENOUGH IN NUMBERS THAT THEY HAVE BEEN OVERRULED FOR THE OVERALL GOOD OF THE WIZARDING COMMUNITY.
"THE GLOBAL REVELATION WILL TAKE PLACE ON INTERNATIONAL ADELINA NELSON DAY THIS YEAR; ON JULY 15th, 2018."
Professor Desulgon's mouth became the thinnest of thin lines. The entire class stared either at the ceiling or out the door, despite the fact that the voice seemed to be coming from everywhere.
"THIS IS APPROXIMATELY ONE MONTH FROM NOW, WHICH WILL GIVE PEOPLE ENOUGH TIME TO TAKE CARE OF ANY AFFAIRS WHICH THEY MAY DEEM NECESSARY IN THE WAKE OF THE REVELATION, SUCH AS MOVING FROM THEIR PRIMARILY MUGGLE DWELLING PLACE IF THEY CONSIDER IT AS A DANGER TO HAVE CONTINUED RESIDENCE THERE. WE MUST STRESS TO ALL MEMBERS OF THE COMMUNITY, HOWEVER, THAT WE BELIEVE THAT MUGGLES AS A SOCIETY ARE PERFECTLY CAPABLE OF HANDLING THIS INFORMATION; WE BELIEVE THAT THEY ARE TRUSTWORTHY, AND THAT ANY OVERREACTIONS TO THE REVELATION WILL BE ISOLATED INCIDENTS WITH NO CONNECTION TO THE GENERAL MUGGLE ATTITUDE.
"BUT WE MUST BEG YOU, PLEAD YOU, NOT TO USE MAGIC IN FRONT OF MUGGLES, OR OTHERWISE REVEAL YOURSELVES TO THEM, UNTIL AFTER THE GLOBAL REVELATION; WE ALSO IMPLORE YOU NOT TO SHOW OFF AFTERWARDS OR MAKE YOURSELVES A TARGET IN ANY WAY. FOR AS THE WIZARDING WORLD HAS OUR EXTREMIST GROUPS, WHO HAVE IN SOME WAY CONTRIBUTED TO THE NECESSITY OF THE REVELATION, THE MUGGLE WORLD IS SURE TO HAVE THEM AS WELL, AND THEY ARE SURE TO INHIBIT THE SMOOTH TRANSITION TO A REINTEGRATED WORLD. DO NOT PUT YOURSELF IN UNNECESSARY DANGER; FOR A SHORT TIME AFTER THE REVELATION, WE SUGGEST THAT YOU TAKE SECURITY MEASURES TO AVOID BEING A VICTIM OF AN UNFORTUNATE INCIDENT. WE DO NOT THINK IT IS LIKELY, BUT IT IS POSSIBLE. YOU WILL HAVE MORE INFORMATION ON THE SUGGESTED COURSES OF ACTION DELIVERED TO YOUR HOUSE WITHIN THE NEXT WEEK.
"AGAIN… THE GLOBAL REVELATION WILL TAKE PLACE ON JULY 15th, 2018. THANK YOU. HAVE A SAFE SUMMER."
The ringing silence consumed them. Though the test was over, and Professor Desulgon was still holding the door open, no one moved or made a sound. It was hard to imagine that anyone was even breathing; the entire announcement had felt like one long held breath, and that breath didn't seem likely to escape them until July 15th, 2018.
Albus glanced over to his friends. They were all looking a little nervous about the enormous news that had just been delivered to them. He glanced around the class as a whole, and everyone seemed to be in the same general uneasy state. Looking at the reaction to this announcement, Albus was filled with reservations about having supported the decision. If this was the feedback from the proclamation, how could anyone have thought that the global revelation was a good idea?
He glanced over at Professor Desulgon, who was staring at all of them collectively, a look of severe apprehension on his pale face.
"All hell's gonna break loose," he whispered.
Guess you're going to have to wait until the second book of the series to find out what Exo's condition is...! Some of you have already probably guessed it, of course. Tune in next week for the final chapter of the book, appropriately titled "All Hell," a very short installment, but which is so important that it definitely deserved its own chapter; and, on the same day, I'll do the first upload of Albus Potter and the Lunar Eclipse! Thanks for sticking with Albus all this way so far, we've still got a long way to go, and many new adventures within Hogwarts itself which are yet to come!