Chapter 11

Scorpius tapped his quill on his knee. A blank piece of parchment lay in his lap. He was stalling, afraid of the letter he would receive in response. He knew he probably would show up at Al's front door anyway, but he still wanted his parents' approval.

Albus sat on the top bunk, going between passing notes to Tomoka, whose dorm was apparently right next to theirs, in order to talk about privacy and the chink in the wall, and writing his History of Magic essay. Albus reread his previous two sentences and began to write another, getting one step closer to finishing his essay on the goblin wars or the enslavement of house elves or whatever it was he was supposed to be writing about.

Scorpius hopped up onto Al's bed and said, "I can't do it, Al. I can't ask them. I don't know what to say. I don't' want them to say no."

"They probably won't." Al said just as Tomoka jabbed a roll of paper into his pack.

"I don't know, Al," he said. "You don't know my parents."

"Do you need me to write it?" Al said.

"Yes."

"Fine, then you write my essay," Al handed his friend the parchment. "Wait. No, never mind, give that back to me. I don't think it's a good idea for you to write my essay."

"Thanks, mate," Scorp said. "I really appreciate it."

"No problem. It's what mates are for."

"You want to iWHAT/i?" Rosie exclaimed.

The friends were walking the grounds so they could converse without other people listening in.

"Albus Severus Potter!" she said, her thick hair starting to grow with her passionate frustration. "Do you not understand that this is practically illegal! In fact, I think it iis/i illegal!"

"But, Rose, it's important!" Albus said. "The Hat told me that he needed me to do something for Hogwarts. I want to know what it is."

"Why don't you just ask McGonnagall if you can talk to the Hat?" Rosie asked.

"Yeah, what's she gonna say? No?" Aurelie said.

"She could ask why we want to talk to the Hat," Scorp said.

"So then you tell her." Aure said.

"No." Al said. "We can't do that. I have this feeling that she's not suppossed to know about this."

"And if your feeling is wrong?" Rose challenged.

"We'll deal with that if it happens."

Rose sighed, "You're so foolish..."

"You know, Al, I really think we should get help from someone on the iinside/i, if you know what I mean," Aurelie suggested, "someone we trust."

"It's a good idea," Scorp said, "but I don't know..."

"I don't know if Neville would do it..." Al said.

"Who?" Aure asked.

"Neville is Mr. Longbottom's first name," Rose explained. "He's a friend of the family."

"Oh, okay," Aurelie shook it off. She oftentimes forgot that Albus was the son of the famous Harry Potter, and that he and Rose were cousins. They honestly looked nothing alike. However, though Aurelie knew that Harry Potter was Albus's father, she didn't actually know anything about him, besides that he saved the Wizarding World, is a war hero, and defeated the evil Lord Voldemort. She knew little about that time in history.

"I think Neville would definitely help us. He has complete faith in Hogwarts." Rose said.

"But it's not Hogwarts he needs to have faith in at this point, it's us," Sorpius reasoned. "We're the ones making the request. What if he doesn't believe us, and thinks we're going in to steal something?"

"Well, I don't think he would put that past you, Malfoy," Rosie said, "but Neville Longbottom trusts me. And Albus. Not James so much."

Albus and Rose laughed. James was such a prankster, and he had a habit for pranking Neville particularly well. Just last Christmas, James pulled another great one. The dining room in the Burrow doesn't have a particularly high ceiling, considering how tall all the Weasleys (and Neville as well) are, so James had climbed up on a chair and placed a balloon up on the ceiling above Neville's seat. Then, he set a pinecone on Neville's chair, knowing he would not look down to see it, and that he would jump out of fright.

The entire prank went according to plan. Everyone was gathered round the table, and was sitting down. Neville sits in his seat, letting out a yelp like a little girl, and jumping high enough to reach the rafters, where his head bumped the incredibly fragile balloon filled with paint (which James had enchanted to burst on impact), which burst all over him, covering Neville in purple paint. It was /i was laughing. That is, except Neville.

"Why?" Scorp and Aurelie asked in unison.

"If you come to Christmas with us, you'll see," Rose and Al both said remarkably in unison as well. The only difference was that Albus gave a pointed look at Scorpius, whose heart picked up pace suddenly, worried of his parents' reaction.

Scorpius and Albus walked to the Great Hall, talking about what they wrote about in their latest essay. There was so much homework that he got at Hogwarts, it was really annoying. Though, Albus knew it wasn't as bad as Muggles had it. He still kept in regular correspondence with his friend, Daniel, who has been telling him all about his "adventures" in Muggle school. Albus had to admit, being at a magic school was iway/i better.

The boys sat down at the table and began eating their breakfast. Scorpius had eggs and bacon. Albus took a little of everything he could see. He took after his Uncle Ron in the eating department. It was one of those unfortunate Weasley characteristics. Tomoka tried to talk to the tired boys about her usual nonsense. Eventually, after listening to Tomoka blather on about the differences of Shakespearian theater and modern theater to Scorpius (he didn't understand that there was anything different about the two), the owls came down from the ceiling, dropping post everywhere!

One letter landed right in front of Scorpius. He picked up the letter, holding it in his shaking hands.