They stood, staring at each other, for several minutes. "So… I started a war?" asked Albus, trying his hardest not to squeak. The sensation of terror washed over him, and he stood shocked to the spot, drenched in terror and shivering with fear.
"Not started! No, not started… You just helped us to find the problem before it got out of hand. Imagine what would have happened if we didn't know? Death eaters would be dying left right and centre and we would dismiss them as accidents! Fenir Greyback died a few weeks ago from an unusually bad case of Spattergroit. I thought it was just a disease that got out of hand, but now I'm not so sure. If it was them, we need to be careful… they're obviously really crafty."
"Don't you get it? I am their main victim. I exposed them. I don't think they'll take very kindly to that, do you?"
"Albus, you don't know-" "Of course I do! I saw Anthony at his arrest, and he looked at me, and he knew. He knew it was me. He'll tell all his what-ja-ma-call-its and they'll come after me!"
"Albus." Dad took one step forward and Albus hurriedly took two back. "Albus, be sensible. You're a clever boy. He is in PRISON. He has not had a chance to talk to anyone but the guards since you last saw him. Anyway, we had been onto this trail for a long time. It's just that I was putting it off because I didn't think that it was going anywhere, and you gave us more proof, so we looked into it and solved the case. What you did was a good thing!"
"If you say so," Albus muttered, slinking off to his room.
"Al… look, I know this must be scary, but let's ignore it while you're home. It's nice to finally spend a little time with you without Lily." Lily had gone to visit Uncle Charlie with Mum. "Let's talk about school. I hear Hagrid has a big event coming up…"
Albus returned to school on the next day. Although he had fully recovered from his tiredness, a heavy cloud of war hung over him. Rose and Scorpius found company within their dorms and between themselves. Neither of them approached Albus, and Albus didn't feel like approaching them. Although, of course, they both knew about the arrest and why it happened, neither of them had the slightest inkling of what it had caused. Albus spend most of the next week curled up in his dad's office, thinking about the horrible things that Anthony would do if he got his hands on him.
Rose popped her head around the door. "Sorry… to… um… well… but Hagrid has had the babies, or rather Madam Olympe has." Albus shot to his feet, "Where?" "In the cabin." Scorpius was outside the door, and all three of them shot down towards the cab in together.
Hagrid was waiting outside for them, beaming. "Two boys and a girl! Originally, I wanted to call then Aragog, Buckbeak and Norberta-"They looked at each other, biting their lips,"- but Olympe wasn't having it, so in the end we settled with Harry, Ron and Hermione." He beamed again as they entered the wooden cabin. "Here they are, our little tykes." Albus' jaw dropped. Though new-born, the triplets being washed in the tub were each the size of Lily. "That's Harry, see, that's Ron there and that one's Hermione. Galloping gargoyles, I sound posh. It's Olympe, see. She wants the kids to speak properly, so I have to learn to 'speak properly' for them."
"So… How soon will they grow up?" asked Rose, bending down and tickling a giggling Hermione's tummy.
"A' abou' the same rate as you lot, actually. To muggles, it would just look like they were having growth spurts all the time." A colossal tidal wave of water hit them, and Harry and Ron, who were sitting completely naked on the side of the up-tilted and empty bathtub, were looking at their fists, of which in Harry's there was a yellow plastic duck head, and in Ron's the corresponding body. Everyone paused for a moment, shocked by the force of the water. Harry began to wail. Ron joined in, and soon all three were bawling.
"I weel pour zee water from zee zinc," sighed Olympe.
"Oh, give them here," snapped Albus agitatedly, snatching the broken rubber duck and holding them out to Rose, who mended it and put it back in the tub.
"Sorry 'bout that. You'd better get going or you'll all get detentions for being out late."
Shocked by the force of the water… shocked by the force of the words….
"We need to talk."
Rose and Scorpius barely stifled sighs of relief. "Rose can stay in our guest room. It has one-way access to the dorms, and a special private owl to send messages to the dorm telling them where you are."
"I didn't know that!"
Scorpius shrugged. "I saw Slughorn coming out when he was watching Anthony, so when he left I decided to peek in." Once they had entered the Slytherin common room and finished admiring the guest room, they sat down on the bed to talk. "Look. This thing with Anthony wasn't just a blip. There are more of them. Tens, maybe hundreds. And," he paused, looking at the blue and green eyes staring expectantly at him "- we're going to war."
Rose nodded at Scorpius who replied with a vague "Yes, yes, I thought that too."
"What is WRONG with you? I said, WE ARE GOING TO WAR!"
"You're lucky the room is sound-proof," remarked Rose. "Al, I've been in contact with your dad, and although he said it would cost him his job to put it in plain writing, he has been hinting that that was why you were in such a mood."
"I'M NOT IN A MOOD-" Rose and Scorpius bit their lips. "Ok, ha ha, I'm in a mood," Albus muttered sulkily. "I'll recap all the details I know. "I'll start from the beginning-"
"A very good place to start," sang Rose, quietly. "Oh, stop it, Rose. Do you want me to tell you this or not? Right, anyway, so as we all know, Anthony is Anti-Death eater. From-" he swallowed, "-investigations, they have discovered that there is a society of Anti-Death eaters, but we don't yet know its name or the amount of them. We just know that they could be anywhere. Both Mr and Mrs Serpentias had high up and very respectable positions in the ministry, so no one knows what jobs they might be in.
"The Aurors were following the trail two or three years ago, but they found nothing. This means that they must be very good at covering their tracks. However, we do know that the mark themselves with a multi-coloured dark mark. "So, their aim is to eliminate all remaining death eaters. However, the remaining Death Eaters are not doing anything to continue the ideas of Voldemort. Fenir Greyback died recently of Spattergroit, but they're investigating that 'cause they're not sure it was an accident.
"So, we're going to war. Dad said something about a distinguer curse being placed, but I don't know what that is."
"I do." Rose looked worried. "The distinguer curse is something that the Aurors came up with a few years ago. One side of the war- and only one side- can place a distinguer curse on the other. Then, for ten days after both sides acknowledge the war, the young people cursed by the distinguer curse must pick a victim, who will then be doomed and certain to die or be seriously harmed at some point in the war. If the war lasts under ten days, it doesn't count. If the cursed side don't pick, they will all die."
"Oh. Ah. Well, we'll deal with that when it comes to it."
"So, when is your dad going to announce the war?"
"He said that it would be on the nearest important date, which was Lily's birthday, which is tomorrow. He's doing a 'talk' so that's when we'll hear it for real."
The next day at breakfast, Professor McGonagall stood up. "Students, we have an announcement from Mr Potter, head of the Auror department." There was a small smattering of claps, but most of the students were frowning, confused, at each other. It was highly to have announcements from out of school. Usually, it meant that there was a trip abroad, but McGonagall's face suggested otherwise. Albus, Rose and Scorpius looked at each other grimly.
"Good morning. I…." He faltered. "I am sorry to announce that the arrest of Anthony and his parents have brought to light some information previously unknown to our team of Aurors that there is a society of people who are really against post death eaters. It is my unpleasant job to announce that they have declared war on us." The whole hall gasped. Imogen and some other first year girls began to cry. Rose put her arm around Immy's shoulders.
"It is also my unfortunate duty to announce that a distinguer curse has been placed. Some may know the precise definition, but put simply it means that either one of you is doomed in this war, or all of you. We must choose soon, so please… please may I ask all of you who are under seventeen to come up and choose a marble from this bag." He faltered again. The underage students slowly began to queue up.
"There is no visible difference between the marbles," Dad mentioned. Soon, everyone who hadn't turned seventeen yet had taken their marble and sat back down. "The marble of the… cursed student will now glow." Dad flicked his wand. Albus' heart froze as he stared at his marble. Suddenly, there was a scream from behind him, and Rose hit her head into Albus' back. As Albus immediately cradled her head, he saw Rose's marble, glowing red, abandoned on the table behind her.