The adults returned and we were told that we were allowed to leave. I quickly left the room so that Albus could change, thankful that (due to the fact that I had been very cold the night before and my admittance into the hospital had been rushed) I was wearing gray sweatpants and a threadbare, giant red jumper that I had pinched from Jason-a seventh year from the year before.
Albus came out of the room wearing a plain gray t-shirt and a pair of jeans with red and black trainers. This was when I realized, sadly, that I was bare foot on cold tile. Amazing.
"You guys ready to head home?" Mr Potter asked the two of us.
It was then that I realized what I was doing. Both Albus and I knew that when he said Scorpius and Romana could come it was just a ploy-they weren't coming. I wouldn't make them do that, plus Mrs. Potter would probably have a hemorrhage. Anna would be devastated, though.
"Can my sister come?" I asked quietly.
"What?" Mr Potter asked.
"Can my sister come?" I asked, just slightly louder.
"Yes, of course." Mr Potter said. "We will need to go get her, and explain what is happening to the Malfoys anyway."
I nodded and grabbed onto Mr Potter's arm for the side-along apparition. Albus took hold of his mum's arm and soon enough, I felt like I was being squeezed through a tincy tube. We landed in what I realized was Astoria's vegetable garden.
"Of course," I grumbled. I didn't like the vegetable garden and took great pains to avoid it due to the fact that snakes liked it very much.
"What?" Albus asked cluelessly.
"Snakes love Astoria's vegetable garden." I explained. "I'd prefer not to run into one, so let's go please." At that, I started picking my way through, trying to avoid stepping on any of the plants.
"A snake afraid of snakes?" Mr Weasley snorted causing me to ball my fists. This was going to be a loooong break.
"Not afraid of them," I growled. "It's just that I have tendency to insult them."
"One time, Allie." Scorpius reminded from a tree just outside of the garden. Along with him in said tree were David, Jacob and Evan.
The tree was quite large in both height and width, with branches growing every which way, it was the perfect tree for climbing.
Scorpius swung down from the tree and I rushed to go see him. He hugged me.
"I'm so glad you aren't dead," Scorpius said softly.
"You can't get rid of me that easily, Scorp." I laughed. "Where's your mum and dad? Oh, and Anna?"
Scorpius pondered this. "Anna is cliff-diving with the triplets and Josh," He noticed my shocked expression. "They lost a bet." I nodded. "Mum is baking and dad…oh, dad is with Teddy in the study." With that, he noticed Albus, Mr and Mrs. Potter, Mr Weasley and Professor Granger-Weasley.
"Oh! Hey, Albus, Professor…people I don't know," Scorpius greeted then turned to me with a fake smile and started speaking through clenched teeth. "Aladdin, what are these people doing here?"
Yep, he was pissed.
"Look, I'm sorry," I hissed quietly. "But I can't talk right now. I'll explain later."
With that, I walked into the house through the backdoor, the Gryffindors following close behind me.
"Well, this isn't what I was expecting," Albus remarked upon entering the light and airy home.
"What were you expecting?" I asked jokingly. "Smoldering cauldrons, potions ingredients in jam jars everywhere and tortured souls?"
"Not the tortured souls," Albus admitted causing me to give him a dead-pan glare.
"Not the tortured souls," I muttered under my breath whilst shaking my head. I turned away from him and headed to the kitchen where Astoria was.
Though it had been years, Astoria still held herself with the pride and dignity of any pureblood. Her blonde hair was pulled into a messy bun and the clothes she wore were covered in flour and other food ingredients, yet her posture was impeccable.
She has just closed the oven door when she turned and noticed our little gaggle.
"Aladdin!" Astoria smiled rushing over to me and giving me a hug. "Dear, we were so worried! Are you all right?"
"I'm great," I assured. "I do need to talk with you and Draco, though."
Astoria nodded and lead me to the study, pointedly pretending that the Gryffindors were not there. Once we reached the solid oak door, Astoria knocked and we waited for it to open.
After just a few moments of waiting, the door swung open to reveal a frazzled Teddy. His teal colored hair was stuck up in all directions and it was clear that he was stressed.
"Teddy?" Mr Potter gasped from behind me.
"Oh, this day just keeps getting better and better," Teddy muttered, opening the door wider and herding us all in.
"You're supposed to be dead!" Professor Granger-Weasley gaped at Teddy as she shut the door.
"Well, obviously I'm not," He growled, heading towards Draco who was flipping open several books, looking through them, scowling, looking at a different book, cursing and so on so forth.
Draco's study was the thing from a Ravenclaws dreams. With no windows, the room was lit by a bevy of lamps placed all over the room. The walls were twenty feet high and covered in built in bookshelves. The room was thirty by forty with a desk right in the middle. Stacks of books were everywhere, of every height imaginable.
"Draco," Astoria said quietly, trying not to shock him. "Draco! Draco!"
His head snapped up. "Sorry, what?"
Astoria rolled her eyes, "Aladdin's back."
Draco shifted his eyes to me and smiled. "How you feeling?"
"Better." I shrugged.
That was when he noticed the people behind me and his eyebrows raised. Standing up to his full height, Draco crossed his arms over his chest. "Explain."
It was then that I explained everything that I had learned in the last hour about Albus and I's…condition.
Draco let out a long breath. "So…switch off?" He asked. "They stay here two days, half a day at your place…"
"Draco," Astoria chided.
"What?" He asked. "I wouldn't trust them with a pet rock let alone Aladdin."
I grimaced at this statement, knowing he wouldn't take what I had to say well.
"Actually," I sighed. "I was thinking that Anna and I would go to their house for Christmas, then here for Spring Break."
Astoria gaped at me, "Aladdin!"
"No," Draco said shaking his head. "Absolutely not. Especially since you've practically got a bounty on your head."
Some of the Gryffindors seemed shocked at this statement.
"Exactly." I said causing him to narrow his eyes, asking 'what are you saying'. "Because of that, they wouldn't even think to go to a house full of Gryffindors."
Astoria nodded slightly. "She has a point."
Draco sighed, his eyes still narrowed. "Only if you take Romana and Scorpius with you." He decided.
"Excuse me?!" Mrs. Potter demanded.
"That is my deal," Draco said.
Mrs. Potter glared daggers at him. "Fine."
In the end, Romana and Scorpius had a bittersweet outlook on it. Romana was excited to see James and Scorpius was happy to see Rose…though slightly scared on what might occur with Ron Weasley there. Anna was fine, just as long as she wasn't being left alone again.
We packed up and Mr Potter shrunk all of our trunks so that they would fit into our pockets. Anna was nervous about side-along apparition and clutched her cat very tightly, but Mr Weasley was very kind to her-considering her being in Gryffindor and all.
I had made sure to leave Jo with the Malfoys so that when the check came, they'd be able to send it to me. I was praying this was in no way interfering with any of the decrees.
When my feet touched down on the ground, I looked around and noticed that we were at the end of a small dirt path. This dirt path lead to a house made of wood that stood several meters in the air. I was slightly reminded of a muggle book that I had read as a child called Wayside story about a school that had all of the rooms stacked one on top of the other. The way the house leaned precariously at the top made me believe that it was held up by magic. A sign on the gate said The Burrow. The small, pointed head of a gnome was running through the bushes.
"This is where my mum grew up," Albus explained as we walked down the path. "There were seven kids, so there are seven rooms. One pair of twins," He whispered the last part quietly at my inquisitive glance. "But Uncle Fred died in the war." I nodded. "We all get together every holiday and stay here. The adults get the bedrooms and we kids sleep on the floor in the living room."
I groaned in my head at this. I really should have just stayed at the Malfoys.
Upon walking into the house, our trunks were unshrunken and put in the pile of other kids' trunks. The adults went to explain what was going on to the other adults, leaving us to tell the kids whenever they asked.
"I'm going to go find Rose," Scorpius said just as Romana said, "I'm going to go find James."
With that, they took off, leaving Albus, Anna and I in the family room. Sighing, I collapsed on the couch, my face buried in a pillow.
"Hey, let me sit down," Albus chuckled, causing me to flip onto my back and sit up, collapsing back onto his lap once he sat down. He started to play with my hair as I looked at the ceiling. It was soothing and I closed my eyes as tiredness tugged on my being.
Anna walked over and kneeled next to me. "Allie?"
"Yes?" I yawned tiredly.
"I'm bored," She complained causing me to groan.
"Anna," I said, turning my head to look at her. "I'm really tired-why don't you go ask Scorpius or Romana?"
"I can't find Scorp," Anna pouted. "And Romana locked the door."
Sighing, I sat up. "What do you want to do then?"
"Can we do a puzzle?" Anna asked.
I grumbled to myself, running a hand down my face. "I suck at puzzles!"
"Well, I would be playing with Josh and thee triplets…" Anna trailed off.
I narrowed my eyes at her.
"Are you sure you're not a Slytherin?" Albus laughed at Anna.
Anna nodded furiously. "I asked," She explained. "But the hat said only when Slytherin changed dramatically."
I turned to Albus to see him looking slightly puzzled. "Anna always gets me in trouble at the orphanage whenever we try to sneak out," I explained. "She is extremely clumsy."
"Hey!" Anna exclaimed in protest.
"What the hell are you doing here?!" A surprised voice exclaimed from behind us.
Turning around, I saw a Weasley that I knew was called Fred. I hated Fred with a burning passion due to his vicious pranks on multiple Slytherins.
"When you said every Weasley, you meant every Weasley," I grumbled to Albus.
Albus rolled his eyes and turned to Fred. Upon explaining everything, Fred's jaw dropped.
"So I have to deal with her every holiday?!" Fred demanded in shock.
"Yep," I said cheerfully, not wishing to correct him. Maybe I could get some much deserved revenge…
"I'm going to be dead," He gulped.
An almost exact version of Fred came up right behind him. In fact, I doubt I would have been able to tell the difference except for the obvious age gap and the fact Fred dos was missing an ear.
"And why would you be dead, son?" Fred dos questioned with a bemused smile.
"Her." Fred pointed at me. "She will kill me!"
I rolled my eyes, "I won't kill you."
"So you're the snake that's staying with us this holiday," Fred dos said, eyeing me up and down, then held out his hand. "George Weasley."
"Nice to meet you, Mr Weasley." I greeted.
"Please," Mr Weasley scoffed. "Call me George. Only my brother goes by Mr Weasley."
"Which one?" Albus chuckled.
George explained, "Ron. Geez, not even Percy is called 'Mr Weasley'."
"Really, George, do you have to insult me at every chance?" Mr Weasley glared at him from the opposite doorway.
"Absolutely little bro," George smiled crookedly.
Mr Weasley shook his head in annoyance and looked around the room. His eyebrows furrowed. "Where are the other two?" He asked.
"Other two…?" I asked in confusion, looking at Albus to see if he knew what he was talking about.
"You mean Slytherins?" Albus tried to clarify and Mr Weasley nodded. "I think Romana went to go hang out with Rose and Scorpius, James."
"Oh, OK." Mr Weasley said heading towards the stairs. "I'm just going to go check on them."
Albus and I turned to each other with wide eyes, each thinking the same thing-
Shit.
Updates, updates, uppie uppie updates!
This is amazing! I go from not updating for a month to updating five times in a week! Yay!
By the way, about George, he seems just too laid back to hold a grudge (even though he has more of a reason-twin brother and all) and I decided to give Harry an ally in the whole 'snakes aren't evil' thing.
So, I hope you enjoyed that. To all of you who have been here since the beginning...
you are amazing.
To those just joining-you are still amazing and I love you!
OH, by the way, I REALLY NEED TO KNOW
IMPORTANT QUESTION!
What house do you all think I am in?
Gotta go,
RE