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DucksRMagical Joined: 28 December 2006 Posts: 2495 Location: Going through LeakyCon withdrawal	Posted: Sunday 12 October 2008 03 18 04 pm    Post subject: Re: Albus Potter and the Tracks They Left Behind in topic:Albus Potter and the Tracks They Left Behind Thanks, Obladi! Questions, comments, and general reviews always appreciated! Chapter 27: Slytherpuff Matt's birthday was a few days after the Dueling Tournament. Albus and his friends didn't throw him a party like they had last year. That had mostly been done to cheer him up since he had been in the Hospital Wing at the time. This year they went down to the kitchens and got a cake, and then ate it in their dormitory. By the time the Quidditch match arrived the following Saturday, Albus was utterly exhausted. Between Quidditch practice and homework, he hardly had anytime to sleep. Throw in a trip down to the kitchens for Matt's birthday after Quidditch practice the other night, and Albus was ready to sleep through an entire day. Albus yawned, got out of bed, and looked out the window. He had been hoping that the raging blizzard would have let up, but it hadn't. Wonderful, he thought, James wouldn't be catching the Snitch quickly in this weather. A few hours later, Albus bade his friends goodbye and headed down to the changing rooms at the Quidditch pitch. His friends had bundled themselves up in as much scarlet and gold clothing as they owned and were ready to huddle against the howling wind for a few hours of Quidditch. John, Matt, and Amanda didn't seem to mind the weather at all and were excited about the match. Rose, on the other hand, clearly would have rather spent the afternoon in the castle studying. Kaden still liked football better than Quidditch and Albus had a feeling he wouldn't have minded the storm if he was watching a football game. "Ok!" Georgia shouted a few minutes after Albus entered the changing rooms, "Everyone come over here!" "I know the weather isn't ideal," Georgia began once everyone was gathered around her, "But we've played in worse than this!" "Yeah, if you count that flood we played in during third year," Fred muttered, "But other than that...." Georgia glared at Fred, "Anyway, we're playing Hufflepuff, so we'll win. Harper's still captain, but it's her last year, so she'll be dead set on getting the Cup. That means she'll have trained his team even harder. They've got a new Keeper, though. Someone named Tanner Royce. He's a fifth year. Other than him, the team's the same as last year. So, with that, get out there and kick some badger ass!" Albus grinned to himself as he picked up his broom and started to walk to the door. Georgia was a great captain, but wasn't much for long winded speeches. "Albus," Georgia whispered and put her hand on his shoulder. "Yeah?" "You're, er, less nervous this match, right?" "Oh, yeah," Albus smiled, remembering how he had told her he was extremely nervous the last match. In reality, he'd been too preoccupied with the new map. Sure, he'd been a little nervous, but not as much as Georgia thought he had been. This match, however, he wasn't nearly as distracted, although he still was a bit nervous. "I'm a bit nervous, but not as much." "Good," Georgia grinned and walked out the door and onto the pitch. Albus followed his cousin onto the pitch and was immediately hit by the forceful winds that were prevailing. "Welcome to the Gryffindor versus Hufflepuff match!" Todd Smith's voice sounded over the pitch. It sounded faint and kind of far away in the wind. "It's bloody cold out here so let's make it quick! "Here are the Gryffindors! Captain Georgia Weasley, followed by Ryan O'Malley, Albus Potter, James Potter, Bradley Weasley, Fred Weasley, and Heather Weasley! "And the Hufflepuffs! Captain Jessica Harper, followed by Shawn Ames, Lisa Galivant, Andy Kaper, Stacey Manson, Anna Reilly, and Tanner Royce!" Professor Oteski motioned for Georgia and Harper to shake hands and as soon as they did so, Albus and the rest of the players rose into the air. Oteski released the balls and Heather immediately took possession of the Quaffle. "And Heather's got the Quaffle! She passes to Fred, then back to Heather, and to Albus." Albus caught the Quaffle and started flying towards the Hufflepuff goals. He was amazed that he had actually caught it since the weather was so awful. He could hardly see two feet in front of him. His robes were already soaked with snow and ice and he was frigidly cold. Nevertheless, he kept flying towards the goal until he had to stop short and toss the Quaffle back to Heather, since he almost flew straight into an oncoming Hufflepuff chaser. Heather caught the Quaffle and flew it the rest of the way to the goal. She threw it in and it easily went past Hufflepuff's new Keeper. "Goal! Ten-zero Gryffindor! Now hurry up and catch that Snitch, James! I'm freezing my bloody-" "Smith!" Patil shouted, "Watch your language!" "Sorry, Professor." The Quaffle was now back in play and was in Hufflepuff possession. Albus wasn't even sure which Chaser had it, but he knew it was a Hufflepuff. Whichever Hufflepuff had the Quaffle managed to take it to the Gryffindor goals, but Georgia saved it. Fred took the Quaffle and flew it back to the other end of the pitch, scoring another goal for Gryffindor. The game continued this way for the next half hour. Hufflepuff managed to score two goals, but Gryffindor scored about eight. Albus currently had the Quaffle and was flying straight at the Hufflepuff goals. He narrowly avoided a bludger and both Hufflepuff beaters, but soon he was within throwing distance of the goals. He faked to the right and then threw the Quaffle at the left hoop. Royce tried to save it, but he wasn't quick enough. "Goal! Albus Potter has scored against Hufflepuff! The score is now 90-20 Gryffindor!" Albus was ecstatic. That was the first goal he had ever scored in a Quidditch match. Up until now, all he'd done were assists. Albus took a victory lap around the pitch and then caught the Quaffle from Heather. Albus managed to score another goal and Heather scored two more in the next half hour of the match. Hufflepuff scored a few more goals, but were still far behind. By now, Albus was sure he had turned into an icicle and was getting a bit sick of flying around in the cold. He was even getting a bit of a headache from it. Albus wasn't even sure if he'd know if James or Galivant caught the Snitch, due to the increasingly bad visibility and snowfall. The blizzard seemed to be getting worse by the minute. If Hogwarts actually called off Quidditch, they would have called it off a while ago. A few minutes later, cheers broke out in the stands and Albus was sure someone must have caught the Snitch. He was very happy to land his broom and knew he'd be even happier when he finally got into the warm common room. The rest of his team was shouting in glee and were surrounding James. He must have caught the Snitch, Albus thought. The rest of the Gryffindors were swarming the pitch and soon James was lifted onto a few people's shoulders. Albus joined the throngs of his house and started his way back to the castle. On his way back to the common room, numerous people stopped him in order to congratulate him on the win. Albus was thrilled that they had won, but all he really wanted to do was find his friends and get into some warm robes. James loved the attention he got after winning a Quidditch match, but Albus could take it or leave it. Right now, he could leave it, since his headache was getting worse. The party in the common room was just getting started when Albus entered a few minutes later. Someone must have snuck down to the kitchens because there was an entire table filled with food. Someone else had obviously gotten into Hogsmeade because just about everyone had a butterbeer in their hand. Somebody shoved a butterbeer into Albus's hand as he made his way through the crowd. James was in the thick of it as usual and was rehashing how he caught the Snitch. "And I saw it lurking near one of the goal posts. Galivant was on the other end of the pitch, so I knew she had no hope..." James was saying to a couple of giggling girls. The rest of the team was nearby and were digging into the food that was on one of the tables. "Great job, Albus!" Georgia shouted as he passed, "I knew you could get over those nerves!" "Thanks," Albus smiled as he went up the stairs to his dormitory. Albus quickly changed out of his cold, wet robes and felt a bit better afterwards. He went back down to the common room and it was even fuller than before. It looked like all the Gryffindors had returned from the pitch and the party was in full swing. Albus found his friends sitting at their usual table and they all seemed to be enjoying the party. "Albus!" John shouted as Albus sat down, "Brilliant playing!" "Definitely," Matt agreed. "You're quite a good Chaser, Albus," Rose said, "Although I honestly don't know why they didn't cancel the match with this blizzard..." "Cancel the match?" John stared at her, "Never!" "If it was football, it would've been canceled," Kaden commented. "Yeah, because you wouldn't be able to run around in two feet of snow," John laughed, "But Quidditch is in the air, so it doesn't matter." "Will you two just quit arguing about football?" Rose sighed. "Just trying to turn Kaden into a proper wizard," John shrugged. "Quidditch is hardly the definition of a proper wizard," Rose said, "I believe potion brewing is a bit more important and I'm sure Kaden could teach you a thing about it, Mr. Exploding Potions." "That was Goyle's fault," John muttered. "Why don't all three of you just quit arguing?" Albus snapped. His head was pounding and listening to his friends' arguing was not helping. "What's with you?" John asked, "We're not fighting anymore than normal." "Maybe it's got to do that he's been flying around in a blizzard for the past two hours?" Rose suggested, "If they'd just have canceled the match-" "They don't cancel Quidditch!" John shouted and then turned to Matt, "You understand this, don't you?" "It's true," Matt agreed, "Quidditch isn't ever canceled for trivial things like blizzards." "I think the weather just makes it more interesting," Amanda commented. "Not you too!" Rose groaned. "Football's only played in the warm months anyway," Kaden said, "They wouldn't even schedule an outdoor football match in the winter." "Well that's boring," John replied. Albus leaned his head on his hand and closed his eyes while trying to drown out his friends conversation. John, Rose, and Kaden continued to argue about the merits of Quidditch and football. Matt and Amanda stayed out of it for the most part and seemed kind of amused with the entire thing. Albus wasn't, though. He wished they'd just shut up. Albus's head was steadily feeling worse, like he was being hit with a bludger over and over again. Besides that, he still hadn't completely warmed up from the match and was shivering, despite his dry robes. "I think football would be a decent sport if it were played on brooms," John said. "Oh come on, John!" Rose sighed, "Be serious! You can't play football on brooms. How would you kick the ball?" "Not to mention that Muggles play football!" Kaden shouted, "Muggles can't fly!" "I'm not saying that Muggles should play football on brooms. I meant if football were ever played by wizards, it should be done on brooms." Football on brooms, Albus thought, what an insane idea. His friends were now trying to merge football and Quidditch. "Albus, are you all right?" Matt asked. Albus opened his eyes and lifted his head off his hand. "I dunno." "You don't look that great," Matt said concernedly. John, Rose, and Kaden stopped arguing and looked at Albus. "Yeah, you look worse than Matt does when he gets sick," Kaden said loudly. "Thanks," Matt muttered. "Matt's right," Rose said, "You do look awful, Albus." "I've got a headache," Albus mumbled. "You should go see Madam Pomfrey," Kaden told him. "I think I'll just go to bed," Albus got up from his chair, "I haven't really slept much the past few nights. I'm probably just tired." Albus stumbled over to the dormitory door, feeling worse than he had a few minutes ago. He collapsed into his bed and fell asleep minutes later. ****** Albus awoke with a start and he wasn't sure how much time had passed since he went to sleep. He still felt extremely tired and his head still hurt. He groaned and closed his eyes again, wanting only to sleep for a few days straight. Right when he was about to drift off again, someone threw the curtains back and Albus's bed was flooded in light. "Ugh," Albus groaned and covered his eyes with his hands. "What was that for?" "You've slept almost an entire day," someone said. Albus moved his hands and slowly opened his eyes. John was standing over his bed with a look of concern on his face. "And I'd like to sleep a bit more if you don't mind," Albus mumbled. "You slept through dinner last night, and breakfast and lunch today. Aren't you hungry?" "Not really." "Are you sure you're ok?" John asked, "Rose sent me up here to check on you." Honestly, Albus wasn't sure he was ok. He couldn't remember the last time he had slept an entire day. But right now all he wanted was for John to go away so he could sleep some more. "I'll be fine once I sleep some more," Albus replied and rolled over away from John. "If you're sure," John said quietly and closed the curtains. It didn't take Albus long to fall back asleep. He had some strange dreams that involved Teddy telling him his broom broke and he'd have to play Quidditch without it by running around on the ground. Then, instead of a Quaffle, the match was played with a football. Albus woke up briefly after one of these dreams, only to find that the dormitory was dark. He could hear Ethan's muffled snoring and an owl hooting outside. Unfortunately, he didn't feel any better than he had when John woke him up. In fact, he now felt worse. Every one of his muscles were aching, like he had fallen from his broom during the match. But Albus couldn't recall falling from his broom. When had the match been anyway? Yesterday or the day before? Albus couldn't even remember and he didn't even know what day it was currently. "Albus!" Someone shouted. Albus was dreaming about Quidditch again and someone was hitting him with their beater's bat. "Quit it," Albus mumbled. "Albus, are you all right?" "Go away," Albus said, "And stop smacking me with that beater's bat." "Beater's bat?" they repeated, "That's it, I'm getting Professor Potter." "I'll go," someone else said, "You stay here with him." Whoever had been hitting Albus with the bat had stopped, and he was grateful. Georgia had taken the bat away and was now yelling at its owner. Then she announced that they would be playing football instead of Quidditch. James complained loudly, since there weren't any Seekers in football. "Albus, wake up!" "I think Kaden said you'll have to play defense, James," Albus mumbled in his sleep. "There isn't a Snitch in football." "Hang on, Albus, John's getting your dad." "My dad? He'll have to play defense, too." "What's wrong?" someone new shouted. "He's been sleeping since after the match, Professor Potter. I think he's sick." "Since after the match?" "Er, yeah. We thought he was just tired, but he's been sleeping for two days." "The match?" Albus muttered, "Did we beat Slytherpuff yet?" Albus felt himself being lifted out of his bed and into someone's arms. He rested his head on their shoulder and shivered as his blanket fell back onto the bed. Albus fell back into a deep sleep and next woke up as he was being laid down on another bed. Albus heard people talking all around him, but he couldn't make out what they were saying. Someone poured a few disgusting potions down his throat and forced him to swallow them. There was more muttering around him, but Albus soon drifted off to sleep again. The room was quieter when Albus next woke up. He opened his eyes and looked around. Where was he? Albus was certain he had fallen asleep in his dormitory, but now it looked as if he was in the Hospital Wing. The place was nearly deserted, save for Madam Pomfrey sitting at her desk. Albus yawned and tried to sit up, but he was still dizzy. The good thing was that his head felt much better. However, his body still ached. Madam Pomfrey looked up from her desk and got up once she saw that Albus was awake. She grabbed a few bottles and put them on a tray, which she then carried over to Albus's bed and set it on the bedside table. "Good, you're up," Madam Pomfrey said as she poured one of the potions into a cup, "You gave us all quite a fright." "What time is it?" Albus asked, still confused about what he was doing there. "Just after six o'clock." "Er, and what day?" "Monday," the nurse said as she thrust the cup under Albus's nose, "Drink that." Albus downed the potion quickly, "Yuck. It's really Monday? I've missed classes?" "I'd say so." "Er, what exactly happened? I mean, I went to bed in my dormitory and now I'm here..." "You're ill," Madam Pomfrey said, "You've caught the flu. Your friends told me you slept for almost two days and then they went to get your father since you weren't getting any better and had started becoming delirious. You've been here since around lunch time." "Oh. Well, how long do I have to stay?" "Another two days, probably," Madam Pomfrey told him. "Now I want you to drink these other two potions and eat that bowl of soup." Albus nodded and Madam Pomfrey strode back over to her desk. Albus thought back and could vaguely remember being taken out of his dormitory, but it was only a foggy memory. The last thing he could really remember well was the Quidditch match. He was very happy he hadn't fallen ill before the match. No sooner had Albus drank the first potion that the doors to the Hospital Wing swung open and John, Matt, Rose, and Amanda came bursting through. Madam Pomfrey got up quickly from her desk and met them halfway. "Is Albus awake?" Rose asked. "Yes, he's only just woken up. I suppose you can visit him for a few minutes. But calmly! He needs to rest!" "Albus!" Rose shrieked when she ran over to his bed, "Thank Merlin you're all right!" "How are you?" Amanda asked. "Doing better?" John asked. "Well," Matt said with a half smile on his pale face, "This is a switch." Albus grinned at them, "Yeah, can't really remember a time where it was [i]you[/i] visiting [i]me[/i] here." "What exactly have you got anyway?" Amanda asked. "Flu," Albus answered, "But I'm getting better. Not nearly as tired as before." "I would hope so," John smirked, "You slept two days." "I'll probably sleep another two," Albus said, "Pomfrey said I've got to stay another two days." "We'll be here together, then," Matt replied. Albus looked at his friend, who was looking a bit exhausted himself. "When's the full moon again?" "Tomorrow," Matt sighed. "Did you take that new potion?" Albus asked. Matt nodded, "Yeah, and I'm more knackered than usual." "He fell asleep in History of Magic and almost fell asleep in Potions," John said. "Well, you didn't sleep through two whole days like I did," Albus pointed out. "I've done it before. I've slept through more than two days actually. I think four is my record." "All right!" Madam Pomfrey announced, "Time for you lot to be off to bed, especially you, Matt. And Albus needs to rest." "See you tomorrow," Albus said as his friends left the room. "Sure will," Matt replied. Albus slept on and off throughout the night and the next morning. He was still tired, but felt much better when he woke up late the next morning. His dad had stopped by earlier before class, but Albus fell back asleep after he left. Madam Pomfrey was fussing over him and giving him numerous potions to drink. Albus was the only patient in the entire ward, so the nurse's fussing was all focused on him. The nurse had been giving Albus what must have been his tenth glass of water that morning when the doors to the ward opened. Matt stumbled inside and walked shakily over to the bed next to Albus's. He collapsed onto it and winced in pain. Madam Pomfrey immediately put down the water pitcher and descended upon Matt. "You're here earlier than usual," she said as she felt his head, "And you're burning up." "Why are you here earlier?" Albus asked once Madam Pomfrey had gone to get another potion. "Tired," Matt mumbled, "Fell asleep in Defense and your dad told me to come here." "Is it the new potion?" "Yeah, it doesn't exactly help much, does it?" "I thought you said they were going to find something to counteract the part of it that makes you tired," Albus said. "They are, they just haven't found it yet." "Oh." Madam Pomfrey returned a moment later and gave Matt a few potions. He drank them and was asleep minutes later. Albus wasn't really tired, but he fell asleep anyway out of lack of anything else to do. John, Rose, and Amanda stopped by after dinner to see Albus and Matt, but Madam Pomfrey didn't let them stay long. Matt had been asleep anyway. Shortly after their friends left, Madam Pomfrey woke Matt up and took him down to the Whomping Wilow.
DucksRMagical Joined: 28 December 2006 Posts: 2495 Location: Going through LeakyCon withdrawal	Posted: Wednesday 8 October 2008 01 12 42 pm    Post subject: Re: Albus Potter and the Tracks They Left Behind in topic:Albus Potter and the Tracks They Left Behind Thanks, Obladi! I try to have Kaden use Muggle expressions like 'crap' instead of wizard ones like 'Merlin'. Although I'm not entirely sure if 'crap' is a common term used by British kids. Questions, comments, and general reviews are always appreciated! Chapter 26: Filch? Dancing?! Albus and John were immediately bombarded by Kaden when they entered the common room. Rose, Amanda, and Matt were standing just behind Kaden with smirks on their faces. "Did your cauldron really explode?" Kaden asked excitedly. "The potion did," John replied, "And it was completely Goyle's fault, really. I gave him directions as to what to do and he screwed it up." "You know," Rose said, "You're not exactly the best potion brewer either, John." "Are you two all right?" Amanda asked. "Oh, yeah. Madam Pomfrey sorted everything out," Albus assured her. "So what are you doing tonight, Albus?" Kaden asked excitedly as he followed Albus and John to the dormitory door. Albus groaned inwardly. He had been planning on grabbing a quick dinner with his friends after he changed robes, and then head to the Room to try out the new map. They had all the paw prints (John had gone up to the dormitory ahead of Albus with the rat and got the print from it. Albus didn't want to know what happened to the rat afterwards) now, so Albus was impatient to try it out. But they wouldn't be able to if Kaden was around. "Dunno," Albus shrugged. Kaden spent the entire evening with Albus and his friends. Normally, this really wouldn't have bothered Albus, but that night his cousin was driving him mad. All Albus wanted to do was try out the map, but he couldn't think up a good excuse for them to go somewhere and not let Kaden follow. So they spent the evening in the common room, working on homework. Albus and his friends were far too busy the next few days to try out the new map. Albus had Quidditch practice on Tuesday and Thursday and dueling practice on Wednesday. Rose had dueling practice on Friday. John normally had his practice on Saturday, but due to the Quidditch match, it had been rescheduled for Sunday. Any bit of time where neither Albus or his friends had any practices, Kaden was around. It wasn't until Saturday, following Slytherin's spectacular loss to Ravenclaw, that they were finally able to try out the map. Kaden had been recruited to tutor a fellow first year in Potions and was going to be spending a few hours in the dungeons after the Quidditch match. "Come on, let's go try it now," Albus whispered to his friends after Kaden left the common room. "Got the prints?" Matt asked. Albus nodded and grabbed his bag. They quickly left the common room and ran for the Room of Requirement. They almost bumped into a Ravenclaw prefect, but luckily he was feeling generous and didn't scold them for running in the corridors. Matt paced three times in front of the empty wall and as soon as the door appeared, the five friends ran inside. Albus set his bag down on the table and everyone crowded around it. Albus pulled out all four prints and the map. "All right," Albus unfolded the map, "Rose, you're good with the charm, right?" Rose nodded, "I've practiced it and it works every time." "Good," Albus stared at the map, unsure of how to begin, "Er, maybe I should do what I did last time to get it to tell us we've got to prove we know the Marauders?" "Probably," Rose agreed. "Wait!" John shouted, "Can I do it this time?" "Sure," Albus shrugged and handed John the map. "Excellent," John grinned and pointed his wand at the map, "I solemnly swear that I am Messr Padfoot." Ink appeared on the map, but not nearly as much as when Albus had done it earlier in the year. 'No, you're not.' The ink disappeared as quickly as it had appeared. "What?" John shouted, "But it worked last time!" Albus's hopes plummeted. Why wasn't it working now? Was it on some kind of a timer? Like it could only work on a certain day of the month? He had been so excited about getting the new map to work, and now it wouldn't even tell them to prove they knew the Marauders. "Let me try," Matt grabbed the parchment and pointed his wand at it, "I solemnly swear that I am Messr Moony." 'No, you're not.' The map said once again. "This sucks," John muttered, "It worked last time." "Maybe it's got to be Albus," Rose suggested. Albus wordlessly grabbed the map and pointed his own wand at it, "I solemnly swear that I am Messr Prongs." The ink he had been expecting to appear rose to the surface of the parchment and formed the familiar words. 'Messrs Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs welcome you to the Marauder's Map, Second Edition.' "Ha!" Albus grinned in excitement, "There it is!" "But why didn't it work for us?" John asked dejectedly. "Does that mean we can't be Padfoot and Moony?" "Dunno," Albus sighed. He really hoped his friends would be able to be Padfoot and Moony. Who else could be Padfoot and Moony? The map wouldn't even work without someone to be Padfoot, Moony, and Wormtail. Albus couldn't do it alone. 'Mr. Prongs disagrees with you and insists that you are not Prongs. However, you could be the second Prongs.' "See? Why didn't it say 'However, you could be the second Padfoot' when I did it?" 'When four boys, who are Gryffindors, are linked together through friendship and mischief, they may present themselves as the next generation of Marauders. These four friends must each represent one of the Marauders, for if even one is missing, this map will not work. Before this goes any further, you must prove that you know the secrets of the Marauders. Prove that you know, and you may continue along the path of discovery.' 'The path of discovery? I never knew you were so poetic, Mr. Prongs.' 'Oh, believe me, Mr. Padfoot, I am not. Mr. Moony came up with that whole thing.' 'Then I pay my compliments on the wording to Mr. Moony.' 'Mr. Moony advises that whomever is reading this ignore Mr. Prongs and Mr. Padfoot and start proving that they know the Marauders.' 'Mr. Padfoot agrees with Mr. Moony and also advises that if whomever is reading this has no idea who the Marauders are, that they quit while they're ahead.' 'The Marauders wish you good luck.' "Well, now what?" John asked. "I guess we've just got to transfer the paw prints," Albus said tentatively. Rose picked up the paw prints and the map, setting them down in front of her. She pulled out her wand and muttered an incantation at the werewolf print. Then she muttered another incantation at the map. The werewolf print appeared on the map, just as it had been on the other piece of parchment. "That, was bloody amazing," John said in awe. Albus agreed. He was forever grateful that his cousin was so brilliant. Albus didn't think he'd ever be able to pull off something like that. At least not until he was at least in fifth year. Rose repeated the procedure with the dog, stag, and rat prints, positioning them in the exact same way that the little mark that the Marauders had put on the map. "There," she said once she was done. The five friends stared at the map for a few seconds, waiting for something to happen. The paw prints weren't doing anything and neither was the map. No new ink had appeared and the paw prints weren't disappearing or anything. "Er," Albus began, "Maybe I've got to tell the map that we know the Marauders?" "Worth a shot," John shrugged. Albus pulled the map over to him and tapped his wand to it, "I, Albus Severus Potter, the second Prongs, know the Marauders." The paw prints quickly faded until there was nothing left but a blank parchment. Albus glanced up and looked at his friends before returning his gaze to the new map. 'Prongs agrees that you do know the Marauders, and is especially impressed that you managed to get a werewolf paw print.' "It worked!" Albus shouted happily. 'Due to your obvious knowledge of the Marauders' secrets, we shall now tell you more about this map. When the Marauders were seventh years, they realized that within a few short months, they would be gone from Hogwarts, and the school would be left without their chief mischief makers. 'Prongs suggested-' 'Do you always talk about yourself in the third person, Prongs?' 'Only when I have a stroke of brilliance, Padfoot.' 'Not too often then, right?' 'Oh, get on with the explanation, Prongs.' 'Calm yourself, Moony. You're letting your furry self show.' 'Shut it, Prongs.' 'All right. Anyway, I (happy now, Padfoot?) had a stroke of brilliance that the Marauders could find a way to ensure that they would never be gone from Hogwarts.' "I knew it!" Rose shouted in glee, "I knew that was what this was about!" 'The Marauders decided to create another map. The first map was only the beginning. The Marauders wanted to find a way to put themselves into a map, in order to help the next generation of mischief makers. That is what this map is about. 'However, not just anyone would be able to have access to the map.' 'Yeah, we wouldn't want any old dunderheads stumbling upon it.' 'Right, Padfoot. Or even worse, having Slytherins get their slimy paws on it.' 'I shudder at that thought, Moony. Anyway, the Marauders had to figure out a way to ensure that only those worthy would be able to access this map. The Marauder's Map is actually quite simple to figure out, compared to this one. All you have to do to open that is say a certain phrase. For this map, you have to be a certain person to open it. 'You may or may not have figured out that in order to get the first bit of information out of this map, you have to be a blood relative of one of the Marauders. However, not everyone representing the Marauders must be related. Because, you know, we might not all have kids.' 'Yeah, you wouldn't want to be passing along any genes, Prongs.' 'Better mine than yours, Padfoot.' "That's why only Albus could do it!" John shouted. Albus felt immense relief from this. John and Matt would be able to represent Padfoot and Moony. "So really, only James, Lily, Teddy, my dad, and I could get it open," Albus said. 'The rest of you must be Gryffindor boys, because we want you to be like us.' 'Lily won't like that, Prongs.' 'I know, Moony, but Lily doesn't know about this. I don't plan on telling her, either.' "Guess that counts out my sister," Albus commented. 'So, now you've proven that you know the Marauders. Your next step is to prove that you are the next Marauders.' The ink slowly faded once again until the parchment was as blank as before. Albus stared at it for a few moments, thinking about what he had just found out. The map wasn't going to work yet. He had been so sure that all they'd have to do was prove they knew the Marauders. But now they had yet another thing to do. They had to prove that they were the next Marauders. How were they going to do that? "That was weird," John said. "I'll say," Matt agreed, "They didn't even really tell us what it was a map of." "Yeah, they just said they wanted to make sure they'd never leave Hogwarts. Like the map is a part of them," John replied. "To be honest, it sounds a bit like a Horcrux," Rose commented. "Yeah, but it's not like they put their souls in there, Rose," Albus pointed out. "It's like the Marauder's Map. It's just enchanted." "I still wish we knew what it was a map of," John muttered, "I mean, this isn't fair! We spend weeks getting those paw prints and we still haven't figured the map out." "I knew you'd have to do something like this," Rose said, "Otherwise it wouldn't matter if there were four of you to represent the Marauders. If it was just this, Albus could have done the whole thing himself." She made a good point. Albus hadn't really thought about that, but it was true. They had to do something that required each of them to represent one of the Marauders. "I guess we've got to prove we are the Marauders, then," Albus said, "Wonder what that involves." "Maybe we've got to do something the Marauders would have done," Matt suggested. "Like become illegal Animagi?" John grinned mischievously. "No!" Matt sighed, "I told you, you're not doing that!" "I don't think that's it," Rose began, "How would you go about proving to a piece of paper that you're illegal Animagi?" "Maybe we've got to pull a huge prank or something," Albus said. "Again, how would you prove that to the map?" Rose asked. "Well, does anyone have any other ideas?" Albus asked. "We'll think of something," Amanda said, "I mean, there's got to be a way." "Of course their is!" Rose said, "We've just got to go to the library and see if we can find anything there." "We can't do anything anyway until you've got that Sileo Altus charm down, Rose," Albus pointed out. "Right," Rose replied, "It's coming along well. I just need to get some practice. Anyone want to be my tester?" "I will!" John shouted and jumped up out of his chair. "Ok, come here," Rose got up and went to the other side of the room. Albus watched as the two of them worked. First, they had to think up a secret, which took a good bit of time. John finally suggested that the secret be 'Filch likes to dance in the moonlight with a long handle mop with Frank Sinatra music playing in the background.' Albus burst out laughing at that. "Filch? Dancing?" "Yes," John said in a serious tone, "I saw him once. He was rubbing the mop head to his face and had on a look of pure joy." "And soon you won't be able to tell anyone about it," Amanda grinned. "What a shame." "Yes, it is, isn't it?" John laughed. "You lot can still spread it around, though." "Ok, John, let's try it," Rose said. Rose pointed her wand at herself and recited the charm that would make her the secret keeper. Then, she pointed her wand at John and said a slightly different charm. "Now you say the secret, John." "Filch likes to dance in the moonlight with a long handle mop with Frank Sinatra music playing in the background," John smirked. "Good," Rose replied and then performed another charm on John. "I'm not ready to try including other people yet, so John will only be able to talk about Filch's little habit to me." Rose waved her wand around in an intricate pattern and then said one last incantation. She lowered her wand and stared at John. Then she turned to face Albus. "There. Now you can try asking him about it, Albus." Albus grinned, "All right. So, John, heard anything interesting about Filch lately?" "Yeah!" John shouted, "Actually, just the other night I saw him and he was-" John's mouth continued moving but no sound was coming out of it. Albus and Amanda burst out laughing. John looked like a fish out of water. "I think it worked!" Albus shouted. Rose was staring at John with a slight look of disappointment. "Not quite. He wasn't even supposed to be able to move his mouth. You know, in case people can read lips. I guess it's a start, though." "Definitely. I mean, this is a really advanced charm. You can't have expected to get it on the first try," Albus pointed out. Although, he did kind of think Rose expected to get it on the first try. "I suppose," Rose sighed, "I'll just undo it." Rose waved her wand around and muttered some more incantations. "Ok, he should be able to talk about it now." "Heard anything funny about Filch recently?" Amanda asked. "Yeah, he likes to dance with a long handle mop by moonlight while Frank Sinatra plays in the background," John told her. "Looks like the countercharm worked," Albus said. "But that's not even what we'll need," Rose pointed out, "We're not going to perform the countercharm on Kaden. Not for another few years at least." "Yeah, but it's lucky for John that it worked," Albus grinned, "Otherwise he wouldn't be able to share Filch's secret joys of life." ****** Over the next few days, John actually did share that Filch liked to dance with a long handle mop by the moonlight with Frank Sinatra playing in the background. All he had to do was mention it to a few other Gryffindors at meal times and the bit of gossip was soon spreading throughout the school. The reactions from students ranged from hysterical laughter to raised eyebrows to exclamations of 'Who the hell is Frank Sinatra?' Albus couldn't help but smirk every time he heard his fellow students mentioning the story. Filch, on the other hand, was actively trying to find the culprit. There wasn't really any point, since he wouldn't be able to find who started it, but he tried. He spent the days prowling the halls and listening in on students' conversations, trying to find out any sort of information regarding the false story. Whenever the students noticed him, they would burst out laughing, which would cause Filch to start muttering about 'rotten students' and 'ought to whip them all'. Filch's main suspect was Kaden, which Albus found kind of funny. Kaden of course had laughed the loudest when he heard the story. Since Filch had developed an intense dislike for Kaden since their detention months ago, he gave Kaden ominous stares every time Kaden passed him in the corridors. Kaden just found this funny, since he knew John had invented the story. The story about Filch provided a nice break from the intense studying that all the students were occupied with. Like usual, the teachers had increased the homework after the holidays. Albus was happy it wasn't yet his O.W.L. year and he couldn't imagine how he would manage to cope with that in three short years. Along with homework, Albus also had Quidditch and dueling practice. Both Georgia and Kate had increased practice times in order to prepare for the upcoming match and tournament. The third dueling tournament was to take place the first weekend of February and Quidditch on the following weekend. Albus now had Quidditch practice on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. Dueling practices were as usual, not mandatory, but were now not only on Wednesdays, but on Fridays as well. The only day Albus had off was Sunday, which didn't give much time for him to try and figure out how to prove he was like the Marauders to the new map. The morning of the Dueling Tournament was cold, snowy, and blustery. Albus was very happy the Quidditch match wasn't that day. He got up a few hours before the tournament started and went down to breakfast with his friends. "I can't wait until I can duel next year," Kaden said in between bites of egg. "It's not really as cool as it's made out to be," John commented, "A lot of waiting around time during tournaments." "That's because there's so many of us," Rose explained, "In the regular Dueling Club, the one that you can only be in if you're fifth year or above, not everyone gets on the teams. It's like Quidditch and you have to try out." "That sounds better," John said, "But I don't know if I'd make the team." "I know I wouldn't," Amanda replied. "You're getting better," Albus assured her, "You might make it by the time you're a fifth year." "Yeah, that's the point of the junior's club," Rose said, "So you can get better. They don't expect us all to be expert duelers." "Albus is," Amanda grinned, "He's brilliant." Albus felt his face turn red, "Well, I'm not that great...I mean, there are loads of people who are better than me." "Not on our team," Amanda continued, "He's beat almost everyone on the team." "Yeah, everyone except Malfoy," Albus muttered. He still hadn't managed to beat Malfoy during their practice duels. "That's good, though!" Rose sighed, "You're both excellent duelers, so you've got a good team!" Albus shrugged. He kind of would rather just be able to beat Malfoy than beat the other teams, but he didn't mention anything about it. Albus and his friends continued their talk about dueling throughout breakfast and as they sat around the common room afterwards. Soon, it was time for them to go down to the dueling chamber for the tournament. They passed Filch on their way down the stairs, and he was muttering to himself as usual. "Damn kids...better when Umbridge was around...wonder if she'll come back...she'd let me whip them..." "I swear he's gotten more mad over the year," John muttered to Albus as they passed him. "Dad says he's getting senile," Albus whispered back. The dueling chamber was packed with students, just like the past two tournaments. Albus and Amanda squeezed their way through the crowd to their usual table, where their team was sitting. "Hi Albus, Amanda," Kate greeted them. "Ready to win?" "Definitely," Albus grinned. The tournament got under way a few minutes later. It was much like the past two tournaments, with a lot of sitting around time. Albus was happy that he and Amanda were on the same team so they were able to talk to each other in between duels. Albus won both of his duels, just like the last two tournaments. So did Malfoy and once again, Albus found that he was kind of happy and kind of angry about that. Amanda won one of her duels, which Albus was very happy about. He knew half her dueling issues were from nerves and the fact that she thought she wouldn't do well. Rose, John, and Matt each won one of their duels as well. Albus clapped for them even though they were on other teams, which earned him glares from Malfoy. Albus didn't care, though. Malfoy could sulk as long as he wanted, it wasn't going to stop Albus from cheering for his friends. The points were tallied after the last duel and John's team was declared the winner. Albus was slightly disappointed, but there were still three more tournaments before the final. Harry announced the point totals for the entire year and Rose's team was in first place so far. In second was the team led by Hufflepuff Paul Galivant and in third was John's team, led by Albus's cousin Bradley. Albus didn't think that the inter-house dueling was decreasing the rivalry between houses. Albus wasn't anymore fond of the Slytherins than he had been in the beginning of the year. None of the Slytherins really got along with the Gryffindors on his team, and vice versa. He wasn't exactly sure how it was working with the regular dueling club, but he had overheard Stanley complaining about how uncooperative the Slytherins on his team were. But that was months ago and he didn't know what had been going on with it recently.
DucksRMagical Joined: 28 December 2006 Posts: 2495 Location: Going through LeakyCon withdrawal	Posted: Sunday 5 October 2008 12 07 12 pm    Post subject: Re: Albus Potter and the Tracks They Left Behind in topic:Albus Potter and the Tracks They Left Behind Awesomey! That's a cool word, too! Thanks, Obladi. Comments, questions, and general reviews are always appreciated! Chapter 25: Explosion Potion Despite the fact that Quinton Willinson was no longer at Hogwarts, Albus still dreaded the Slug Club meeting on Saturday. His rational side told him that it wouldn't be nearly as bad with Willinson gone, but Albus still wasn't looking forward to it. Kaden, on the other hand, spent the days leading up to Saturday talking non-stop about the Slug Club meeting. Albus had already explained in detail what they involve, but that didn't stop Kaden from constantly wondering aloud about what the meeting would be like. Saturday arrived quickly and Albus was still without an excuse to not attend the meeting. Georgia had not called for Quidditch practice that day, mainly due to the fact that the Ravenclaws booked the pitch all morning and the Slytherins had it all afternoon. The two houses were scheduled to play each other the following Saturday. "It's time for the Slug Club meeting, Albus!" Kaden shouted excitedly a few minutes before eleven. Albus sighed and got up out of his chair in the common room. "See you lot in a little while," he said to John and Amanda. "Have loads of fun!" John laughed. "See you later," Amanda grinned. Albus, Kaden, and Rose, who had also decided to go, set off for the dungeons. Albus hoped he would only have to stay for a little while, maybe an hour at most. Just long enough for Kaden to see what the meetings were like. The meeting was held in the Potions classroom and a few students were milling about when Albus, Rose, and Kaden walked into the room. Albus recognized most of them from last year's meetings. A few of his cousins were there as well, but not all of them. James wasn't there, but Albus knew he had dueling practice that day. Albus was also happy to note that Felix Willinson was not there. Of course, after what happened with Quinton and his father, Albus guessed he shouldn't be surprised that Quinton's cousin wouldn't be invited to the Slug Club. There was a table full of food along one of the side walls and most everyone was crowding around it trying to get some lunch. Slughorn had a plate of food in front of him and was sitting at a large table in the front of the room. Albus led Rose and Kaden over to the table and picked up a plate. "What is this stuff?" Kaden pointed to a platter of some sort of meat. "Pheasant," Albus replied. Slughorn always served pheasant at his meetings. Albus tried it last year and hated it. Kaden shrugged and piled the pheasant onto his plate. Once Albus and his cousins had gotten enough food, they sat down at the table across from Slughorn. Shortly after, everyone else had sat down at the table as well. "Good to see you all again!" Slughorn greeted them and then turned to Albus. "And Albus and Rose! I'm very happy that you two decided to come! Haven't had you come in quite a while now. How have classes been going?" "Good," Albus replied. "Excellent, excellent," Slughorn nodded, "We also have someone new here today. This is Kaden Dursley," Slughorn gestured to Kaden. "He's Albus's cousin and is turning out to be quite the Potions brewer! Lily's genes must be coming out in you!" Kaden grinned, "Potions is fun. Loads better than Transfiguration." Slughorn laughed, "Don't let Professor McGonagall hear you say that. But I daresay I agree with you." Kaden laughed as well and then took a large bite of pheasant. Albus watched him as he did so, wondering if he'd like it. Kaden chewed for a few moments before a big smile appeared on his face. "This stuff is excellent!" "I'm glad you like it!" Slughorn said. Albus chuckled to himself. Of course Kaden liked the pheasant. If there was one thing Albus had learned about his cousin over the past six months, it was that he'd eat pretty much anything. This was obviously something he had inherited from his father. Slughorn soon launched into a lengthy explanation of what he did over his holiday and who he had spent time with. ("Barry Ryan used to play for Ireland, you know.") Albus found the whole thing rather boring but he noticed that Kaden seemed to hang on Slughorn's every word. Rose seemed to be paying attention as well, but probably only out of courtesy. Albus let his mind wander as Slughorn continued talking about his dinner with Barry Ryan. Matt was supposed to return to Hogwarts the next day, which meant that in as little as twenty-four hours, they could be having the map working. Well, if they could sneak away to the Room of Requirement, that is. Albus hoped Rose would have that charm working soon. Then they could just do all of this with Kaden. It would make it a whole lot easier. Of course, Matt still hadn't said that he agreed to tell Kaden even with the charm. Albus kept forgetting about that part. But why wouldn't he agree? The charm seemed like it would work well. Albus, Kaden, and Rose wound up staying until the end of the meeting. Kaden was enthralled by the entire thing and Albus knew he would refuse to leave early. Albus was incredibly bored by the time the thing was over and Rose looked as bored as Albus felt. Once the meeting was finally over, the three of them said goodbye to Slughorn and left the dungeons. "That was so cool," Kaden grinned. "Boring's more like it," Albus replied. "How can you think it was boring?" Kaden stared at Albus, "Slughorn knows so many famous people." "Trust me, it gets old after a while," Albus said. "Well, are you two going to the next one?" Albus looked at Rose. She didn't look like she wanted to go to the next one either. "Er, well, I might have Quidditch practice." "And I'll probably have too much homework," Rose explained. "I'd go even if I did have too much homework," Kaden told them. "That really isn't a good idea," Rose warned him. "You'll get behind." Albus laughed as Rose launched into a discussion about how important time management is and how homework should always come first. The three of them were nearly to the common room by the time Rose finished, and Kaden was wearing a blank look on his face much like the one Albus had worn during the Slug Club meeting. ****** "Got any idea what time he's coming back?" John asked shortly after lunch the next day in the common room. "No idea," Albus shrugged. Albus, John, Kaden, Rose, and Amanda were all sitting around their usual table in the common room. Rose and Kaden were playing chess and it was apparent that Rose was going easy on Kaden. The two of them had been playing the same game for fifteen minutes. If Rose wanted to, she probably could have beat Kaden in five minutes. John and Amanda were both working on the Transfiguration essay that was due the next day. Albus had already finished that particular essay and was watching Rose and Kaden's chess match. "Queen to D3," Kaden said. The queen gave Kaden a menacing glare and then reluctantly moved to the square. "Bishop to D3." Rose's bishop smashed Kaden's queen to pieces. "Checkmate," Rose grinned. "Crap," Kaden muttered as his king dropped its sword in defeat. "You're getting a bit better," Rose said as she repaired all the pieces with a wave of her wand. "Do you have Quidditch practice today, Albus?" John asked. "Yeah. Georgia managed to reserve the pitch for an hour after dinner. The Hufflepuffs weren't too happy, but Georgia got it first." "I hope Matt gets back before you leave," Amanda said. "Me, too," Albus agreed. "But Amy didn't say when he'd be coming back." "He's going to have a load of homework to make up," Kaden announced. "That sounds like something you'd say, Rose," John laughed. "How's your essay coming, John?" Rose smirked. "Yeah, yeah. I've got the first paragraph done," John grumbled. "I've only got one more to go," Amanda said. "Want to play again, Rose?" Kaden asked. Rose shrugged. "Sure, why not." Rose and Kaden set up their pieces and started to play again. Albus watched them. It was pretty funny to watch the two of them play chess. Kaden would sit there forever figuring out what move to make and once he made it, Rose would smile and move one of her own pieces within seconds. Rose's moves usually involved killing one of Kaden's pieces. The portrait hole to the common room opened a few minutes later and Albus looked up. Matt was just climbing through and headed straight for Albus's table once he noticed them. "Hey, Matt!" Albus grinned, "Welcome back!" "Hi Albus," Matt grinned back. He looked tired, but happy. There was still a yellowish bruise on his forehead, but other than that he looked fine. John, Rose, Amanda, and Kaden all looked up from what they were doing and greeted Matt as well. Matt grabbed a chair from a nearby table and sat down next to Albus. "How are you?" Albus asked. "All right," Matt shrugged. "Er, Kaden," Albus began, "You know how you said Matt's got a lot of homework to make up?" "Uh-huh," Kaden nodded as Rose declared checkmate once again, "Crap!" "Well, it would probably be a good idea for him to go see all the teachers now about it. So, we'll all go with him to do that, since we're in his classes. We'll help. You can stay here since you'd probably be bored." "Ok, I've got my own homework to start on anyway." "Good," Albus replied, "John? Amanda, Rose? You can come with us." "Sure, anything to put off finishing this essay," John closed his book and stood up. Once they were out of the common room and into the corridor, Matt turned around and looked at Albus. "You're not really making me go collect all my homework are you?" Albus laughed, "No. Just had to think of an excuse for Kaden to stay there while we went to the Room." "Good," John said, "I don't really want to go collect your homework with you." "You won't have to. I've already gotten it. They owled it to me over the holiday. I've already finished it all," Matt explained. "You're farther along than John, then," Rose laughed. "Shut it, Rose," John said. The five friends continued their walk to the Room of Requirement, which manifested itself in its usual form for them. They walked into the Room and settled onto the usual scarlet and gold furniture. "So," Albus began, "What happened with this new potion?" "Well, it didn't work the way it was supposed to, but Amy already told you that," Matt said. "Did it help at all?" Rose asked. "Nope." "And you'll still have to keep taking it?" John asked. "Yeah, that's what stinks," Matt sighed. "It didn't work the way it was supposed to, but it did other stuff." "I thought it wasn't going to have any bad effects," Albus said. "They weren't really dangerous side effects. It just made me really tired." "But you're always tired before the full moon," John pointed out. "I know, but the potion made it worse. Usually I can at least go to morning classes on the day of the full moon but with the new potion I'll just sleep right through them. It makes me tired as soon as I start taking it, which is a week before the full moon, just like the regular Wolfsbane was." "So you'll be tired for an entire week?" Amanda asked. "Dunno," Matt shrugged, "The Healers are trying to find a potion to counteract the fatigue, but I doubt they'll have one in time for next month." "I don't get why you have to keep taking it if it doesn't even work," John shook his head. "Because they have to make sure it wasn't just a fluke or something. That's the thing about these studies, they have to do multiple trials to analyze the effects and stuff." "There's a chance it might work next month?" Amanda asked confusedly. "I suppose, but I doubt it." "You don't seem that upset or anything," Rose commented. "I honestly didn't think it was going to work. My parents told me not to get my hopes up about any of these experimental potions. Plus, this was only the first one I've tried. They'll come up with others." "I just hope one of them actually works," John replied. "Me, too," Matt agreed, "You've got no idea how much I wish that. "Let's not talk about it anymore now, though. You've got to tell me if you got the stag print! It's been driving me mad for weeks now." "Oh, yeah!" Albus grinned. He had almost forgotten about that. Almost being the key word. The new map was always on Albus's mind now. "We got it. Rose and I did." "Brilliant!" Matt exclaimed. "And I've got the transference charm all worked out," Rose told him. "John's just got to get the rat print," Albus said. "I'm working on it!" John replied, "It's harder than you'd think to spot a rat during Potions." "Well, we've got Double Potions tomorrow, so try then. Slughorn'll be having us brew the whole class probably, so just keep your eye out," Albus told him. "I will. I'll pay more attention to potential rats than to my potion," John grinned. "I wouldn't suggest that," Rose smirked. "It'll explode or something, since you've got Goyle as a partner." "Eh, I'll take one failing grade if I can get the rat print," John shrugged. "Well, try to get the rat without destroying your potion," Rose sighed. "Just think, this time tomorrow, we may have the map working," Matt commented, "That would be awesome." "We'll have to get away from Kaden first," Amanda pointed out. "And I'm not entirely sure the map will work after we do this," Albus said, "It almost seems too simple." Albus had been thinking this for a few days now. They had had an incredibly easy time getting the prints. Almost too easy a time. Dogs, stags, and rats were quite common and anyone who could cast a simple Petrificus Totalus charm could get those prints. The only one that would be difficult for the average wizard to get was the werewolf print. Even so, Albus didn't think the Marauders would make it this easy to access the map. "I've been thinking the same thing," Rose agreed. John groaned, "That would suck." "We'll get it eventually," Albus assured him. "Plus, the map said we had to be like the Marauders. We haven't done anything that only the Marauders could have done so far. We got a bunch of paw prints. Anyone can do that." "Not anyone could get a werewolf print," John pointed out. "I know. But it's not something only the Marauders could have done," Albus told him. "Speaking of the Marauders," John turned to Rose, "How's the Sileo Altus charm coming?" "The what?" Matt asked. "Oh, yeah, we've got to tell you about that," John said. "Want to explain it, Rose?" "Sure," Rose shrugged, "It's a charm I found in a book at my house. It's a way to make sure someone keeps something a secret. Kind of like the Fidelius Charm, only it's for verbal secrets, not places. Whomever performs the charm is the Secret Keeper and only that person can undo the charm. After the charm is performed, the person can't talk about the secret with anyone except the Secret Keeper and anyone else who was involved in the charm performing. It's a way to keep Kaden from telling anyone that you're a werewolf." Albus held his breath as Rose explained and hoped that Matt would think it was a good idea. Albus watched as Matt thought about what Rose had said. Albus couldn't really tell what he thought. Matt looked a bit surprised, almost like he didn't think Rose would have ever found a charm to do that. "Well, what do you think?" Albus asked after a few moments silence. "I'm not sure," Matt said quietly, "Will it really work?" "I'm pretty sure it will," Rose said, "The only thing that will overcome it is Veritaserum." "And what if Kaden drinks Veritaserum?" Matt asked. "When would he drink that?" John raised his eyebrows. "I don't know," Matt sighed, "But he could." "I really don't think he would." "What if he did? What if he spewed all about me in the middle of the Great Hall or something?" "I doubt he's ever going to drink any Veritaserum," Rose said. "Is there even any of that in the castle?" Amanda asked. "There's some in Slughorn's private Potions cupboard, but that's it," Albus answered, "But that's locked anyway." "See? Hardly any chance of Kaden drinking any," John said. "Yeah, but still... I don't know..." Matt groaned, "I just don't really want to tell him." "I know. Just think about it, ok?" Albus gave Matt a half smile. "All right," Matt sighed, "We don't need Kaden yet, do we?" "No," Albus replied, "I'm not sure when we'll need him. The map just said we had to be like the Marauders, which means we'll need someone to be Wormtail at some point." "And I want to test that charm out before we use it on Kaden," Matt said. "We will," Rose assured him, "I've got to practice it anyway." "So, anyone got any secrets we can practice with?" John grinned mischievously. ****** "Settle down, settle down," Slughorn barked at his class. Albus turned around in his seat. He had been talking to John, who was sitting behind him next to Goyle. Albus was sitting next to Limbert and Matt was looking thoroughly miserable next to Maloy in the next row over at the front. Slughorn was still plowing forward with his inter-house partners in class, but Albus didn't think it was helping to decrease the hostility between Gryffindor and Slytherin. So far, the best that had happened was silent loathing during practical lessons and jinxing and hexing at worst. Based on the little duel between Ethan and Garth Octavius the previous week, it was only a matter of time before things really got out of hand. "Thank you," Slughorn said once everyone was paying attention, "Today you'll be brewing the Confusion Potion I taught you about on Friday. He waved his wand at the blackboard, "Directions are on the board. You have the entire class." "Light the fire," Limbert grunted as he got up from his chair. Albus nodded and pulled out his wand. Albus and Limbert had come to an unspoken agreement with brewing potions. Limbert would collect ingredients while Albus lit the fire and unpacked all the various scales and knives. Then, Albus would prepare the ingredients while Limbert added them and stirred the cauldron. Albus was fine with this since Limbert was a better Potions brewer than he was. Limbert returned with the ingredients and Albus started chopping them. He never said anything to Limbert while they worked and Limbert never said anything to Albus besides the occasional 'pass the asphodel' or something of the like. Albus listened to everyone else in the class as he chopped up ingredients. He thought it was especially amusing to listen to John and Goyle. "No, that's not clockwise," John groaned, "You're stirring counter-clockwise." "Oh." "Stir it the other way!" John shouted. Albus stifled a laugh and glanced to his left, where Rose and Leigh Montague were having a similar conversation. "They've got to be chopped finer than that. It says minced, not diced," Rose instructed. "They look fine to me," Leigh snapped. "No, they won't work like that. Let me do it," Rose grabbed a knife and started mincing the shrivelfig. "Fine. You do the whole thing if you're so smart," Leigh huffed. "You can stir the cauldron. Clockwise," Rose replied. Albus wasn't close enough to either Amanda or Matt to hear what was going on at their tables. It looked like Amanda and Dalila Avish were working much the same way Albus and Limbert were, since neither of their mouths were moving. Malfoy appeared to be yelling at Matt for something, but Albus couldn't quite make out what it was. Matt got up from the table with a bowl full of something and then emptied it in the bin. When he returned to his table, he started carefully chopping something up. Albus was guessing it was more of whatever he had thrown away. Albus continued mincing his shrivelfig and listened mostly to John and Goyle. Limbert kept smirking every so often, which gave Albus the impression he was listening to John and Goyle, too. "Keep stirring CLOCKWISE for another minute," John said slowly and clearly, "Then switch to COUNTERCLOCKWISE. I've got to go get something. Don't do anything besides the stirring." Goyle grunted and Albus heard John get up. Albus felt a prod in his side and looked up to see John standing next to him. "What?" Albus whispered. John pointed to a corner of the room, near the cupboard of ingredients. There was a large rat sitting there. Albus shuddered and looked back at John. "I'll be back," John winked at him. Albus tried to concentrate on his shrivelfig, but he couldn't stop glancing up at John. He was almost to the cupboard now, and the rat still hadn't moved. Albus watched as John pointed his wand at the rat, but he couldn't hear what spell John was using due to the noise in the room. Luckily everyone was concentrating on their potions and not paying an ounce of attention to John. Albus grimaced as John picked up the rat and shoved it inside his robes. Albus was incredibly happy that John was willing to do the rat print. The thought of putting a rat in his robes creeped Albus out. John went into the cupboard for a few moments and came back out carrying a jar of something. Probably a cover story, Albus thought. "Got it," John whispered to Albus on his way back to his desk. "Excellent," Albus said. Suddenly there was a loud explosion from somewhere behind Albus and he felt a hot liquid land on his head and drip down the back of his robes. "Ouch!" he and Limbert shouted at the same time. "Boody Hell!" John exclaimed as the orange potion landed on the front of his robes. Pandemonium erupted in the classroom. Everyone stopped what they were doing and turned to stare at the exploded potion. Albus turned around and saw that the explosion had come from John and Goyle's cauldron. Goyle was wearing a stupefied expression on his face and was staring into space while holding his ladle in the air. His face was covered with potion as well as his robes. His hair was singed and there was a small fire on his table. Albus could feel the potion burning down his back and it hurt like hell. It felt like his skin was on fire. He got up from his chair and felt his back. His robes were burnt straight through. John's and Limbert's were as well. "What did you do?" Slughorn asked as he strode to John and Goyle's table. "Uh...," Goyle stared up at the ceiling. "You must've gotten potion in your mouth," Slughorn shook his head. "Hospital Wing. Who else got hit?" "I did," Albus, John, Limbert, as well as Karina and Celeste Yeardly (who had been sitting behind John and Goyle) said at the same time. "Hospital Wing, all of you," Slughorn replied, "If one of you could please make sure Mr. Goyle arrives there, that would be appreciated." Limbert immediately dragged Goyle out of the room with Celeste following. Albus and John walked a little ways behind them and Karina behind them. "Idiot," John muttered as they climbed the stairs out of the dungeons. "What did he do?" Albus asked. "Not a clue," John shrugged, "Not what I told him to do." "I heard you talking to him. It seemed pretty straightforward." "Well, he's dumber than a troll," John groaned, "Merlin this stuff burns." "At least we didn't eat any of it," Albus pointed to Goyle, who was stumbling down the corridor like he was drunk. "True," John laughed and then lowered his voice, "Hey, it was worth it since I got the rat." "That thing's not still in your robes, is it?" Albus glanced warily at John. "Er, yeah, haven't had a chance to take it out." "I just hope it stays stunned." "It should," John said as they followed Goyle and Limbert into the Hospital Wing. Madam Pomfrey was already busy taking care of a girl who had gotten bitten by something in Care of Magical Creatures and told them they would have to wait. Once she had finished healing the girl, she moved on to Goyle, since he wasn't able to sit still and was wandering around the room tripping over things. She took care of Limbert, Celeste, and Karina, and then moved on to the bed Albus and John were sitting on. "You lot again?" she sighed, "I'm surprised it's only the two of you." "Well, Matt, Rose, and Amanda were all too far away to be hit by the potion," Albus explained. "I swear the lot of you are exactly like your grandfather and his friends," Madam Pomfrey shook her head as she handed Albus a potion. John, who had just started drinking his own potion, choked and coughed the potion up onto the bed. He turned and grinned at Albus, who grinned back. Well, Albus thought, that was the general idea of the map. Madam Pomfrey sighed and with a wave of her wand the potion was cleaned up. "Drink the rest of it," she instructed them. Madam Pomfrey applied some sort of salve to their burns and a few minutes later they were allowed to leave. The nurse told them to go directly to their dormitory to get new robes and that she didn't want to see them in the Hospital Wing for the next few weeks. "Fat chance that'll happen," John smirked as they started back to Gryffindor Tower. "Yeah," Albus agreed. It seemed like one of them was always winding up in the Hospital Wing. Albus himself had already been there twice since returning to school after the Christmas holiday. "Next Quidditch match is what, in three weeks?" John asked. "Just about," Albus said. "Then you might be back there soon," John joked. "Shut it," Albus replied, "I didn't land myself there last match."
Scellanis Joined: 11 September 2002 Posts: 6409 Location: Pretending to be a sea slug with 'go faster' stripes...	Posted: Thursday 25 September 2008 03 29 15 pm    Post subject: Re: Broomsticks and Owls in topic:Broomsticks and Owls Aww I want it for Paddy!! *giggles* He will look extra special grumpy if I give him another doggy costume.
DucksRMagical Joined: 28 December 2006 Posts: 2495 Location: Going through LeakyCon withdrawal	Posted: Wednesday 24 September 2008 07 53 25 pm    Post subject: Re: Broomsticks and Owls in topic:Broomsticks and Owls Never did I ever think I'd want to put Benny in a costume, but oh my gosh, that is the cutest thing ever!!! Too bad it's out of stock. Benny's afraid of Halloween, though, and spends the night at the kennel. He could wear it other days.
Paul Joined: 4 November 2001 Posts: 3020 Location: Ministry of Magic and Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, England	Posted: Wednesday 24 September 2008 05 52 48 pm    Post subject: Re: Broomsticks and Owls in topic:Broomsticks and Owls Hee hee - you had me scared there for a moment. She seems quite innocent though...I'll let Naughty Wizard Girl stay unless she does anything too mischevious! I've just noticed there's a new Harry Potter Dog Costume that's appeared on the Robes and Costumes pages too...awww, he looks so cute. Accio bone!....woof!
DucksRMagical Joined: 28 December 2006 Posts: 2495 Location: Going through LeakyCon withdrawal	Posted: Wednesday 24 September 2008 11 52 57 am    Post subject: Re: Albus Potter and the Tracks They Left Behind in topic:Albus Potter and the Tracks They Left Behind Thanks, Obladi! Just thought I'd mention that it was exactly a year ago that I posted the first chapter of [i]Albus Potter and the Secrets Within[/i]. Hard to believe that it's been a year already. Chapter 22: The Stag Albus, Rose, and Hermione went to the Leaky Cauldron the next day to meet Matt and Amanda, who was also being dropped off there. John had arrived earlier by Floo and went with them as well. When they got there, both Matt and Amanda were already there. "Hi!" Albus greeted them as he stepped out of the Floo. "Hi Albus," Matt grinned, "How was your Christmas?" "It was brilliant," Albus replied, "Wait till you see what I got." "What?" Amanda asked. "Can't show you here," Albus whispered. "I'll show you when we get back." "Let's go now," Matt said impatiently. "You kids go ahead," Hermione told them, "I've got a bit of shopping to do." Albus bade goodbye to his aunt and turned back to the Floo. Within seconds he was back in Rose's living room. A few minutes later all his friends were back as well. Matt and Amanda stared around the room. "Nice house," Amanda smiled. "Yeah," Matt agreed, "Kind of looks like mine." "Thanks," Rose replied. "So, Albus, what did you get for Christmas?" Matt asked. "This," Albus pulled the Invisibility Cloak out of his cloak pocket. He had been carrying it around with him ever since Christmas. Matt let out a gasp. "Whoa! You really got the Cloak? That's completely amazing!" "I love that cloak," Amanda grinned. "And to think we stole it just a few weeks ago," John snorted. "Shush!" Albus hissed, "Uncle Ron and Hugo are here." "Oh, sorry." "But this isn't all," Albus continued, "James got the Marauder's Map." "He didn't!" John shouted. "He did." "You two are so lucky," Matt replied. "But we'll have our own Map soon anyway," Amanda pointed out as she dug around in the bag she brought. She produced a crumpled piece of parchment with a paw print on it that was slightly smaller than the werewolf print. "You got it!" Albus took it from her. "We're halfway there now." "I hope it'll work. Newton wouldn't stay still and the parchment is kind of wrinkled." "I'm sure it will work," Albus said. "Good thing we didn't have the prints go directly on the map," Matt replied. "So today we get the stag print," Albus announced. "Right after lunch." Everyone agreed and headed into the kitchen to scrounge up some food. Ron had already created an enormous sandwich and was eating it when Albus and the others walked in. They all liked the idea of making giant sandwiches and were soon eating alongside Ron. Albus thought John's sandwich looked disgusting because it was piled high with turkey, pickles, and peanut butter. Rose shuddered as she saw him bite into it, but he thought it tasted delicious. "I can't believe you ate that entire thing," Rose screwed up her face in disgust after John ate the last bite of his lunch. "It was good," he shrugged. "Hey, Uncle Ron," Albus began, "We're going to go explore the forest." "All right. Have fun. But try and be back by three. Teddy's coming over and so are James and your dad. We're all going to play Quidditch." "Sure, we'll be back by then," Albus was excited about playing Quidditch. It was always better when Teddy was there. Once they were all done with lunch, Rose and Albus led the way outside and over to the forest. The forest was situated next to the large open field that was next to the house. Albus and Rose went exploring in it quite a bit and knew their way around it well. The group crunched across the snow laden field until they came to the forest's edge. Rose found the path they usually took and lead the group down it. "Keep your eyes pealed for a stag," she told everyone. "This reminds me of the forest near my old house in Australia," Matt commented after a few minutes of walking. "How was Australia this year?" Albus asked, remembering that his friend just returned to Britain the previous day. "It was all right. No different than usual. It was boring of course, and my grandmother kept telling us how we should visit more often." "You're not going to, are you?" John asked. "Don't think so. Mum and Dad don't really want to. Plus they want to go visit my Uncle Jack in New York this summer." "That would be fun," Amanda replied. "Yeah, I hope we get to go." The group continued walking into the forest until Rose announced that it would be better if they sat completely still and waited for a stag to walk by. She said their movement would scare the creatures away. Albus sat down in the snow behind a shrub with his friends and watched and listened for animals. After a half hour of waiting, Albus was bored. How long was it going to take for a stag to cross their path? He would much rather just walk around to find one. Rose seemed perfectly content to sit still, as did Matt. John had made a large pile of snow balls, along with a snow wizard. Amanda was busy creating a snow witch to go along with his wizard. "I'm bored," John sighed as he made yet another snow ball. "How long is this going to take?" "I don't know," Rose shrugged, "We don't see stags that often in here, so it might be a while." Albus glanced at his watch, "Well it's just after two, so if we don't find one soon, we'll have to go back." He stared into the forest and willed a stag to come. Albus was getting frustrated by this point. They needed that stag print for the map! There was no place else to find one. What if they couldn't find a stag before the end of the holiday? They would have to wait until the summer to search again. Albus couldn't wait that long. He needed the map now. "Wait," Matt stood up and turned around, "I think I hear something over there." He pointed to a cluster of bushes a couple meters away. "I don't hear it," John replied. "Shush!" Matt whispered, "You know I can hear things you can't." Matt started slowly making his way towards the cluster of bushes. Albus and the others followed behind, nobody saying a word. "Wands ready," Matt whispered. Albus pulled out his wand and pointed it towards the bushes, his mind racing with excitement as he went. This was it! They were going to get the stag print! Part of Albus's mind knew that this wasn't necessarily a stag, but he didn't pay attention to that. What else could it be? Most of the animals in the forest were too small to be rustling the bushes this much. As Albus got closer to it, he could distinctly hear the footprints of the animal, and they were much too loud to be a rabbit or a squirrel. There weren't many large animals in the forest, stags being some of the few. It could be a doe, but Albus hoped it wasn't. The group was now only a couple feet away from the bushes. Everyone had their wand pointed at them, waiting for the animal to make its appearance. The moment Albus saw the leaves part, he shouted, "Stupefy!" "Stupefy!" Rose, John, Matt, and Amanda all shouted at once. Whatever was in the bushes jumped to the side and missed all five stunning spells. "Whoa! What the bloody hell do you lot think you're doing!" It was Teddy. The noise Matt had heard in the bushes was Teddy. Albus lowered his wand and sighed. So much for finding a stag. Now that Teddy was with them, they would no longer be able to look. Albus turned to his friends and saw them all put their wands away. Teddy fully emerged from the bush and walked over to where Albus was with a bewildered look on his face. "Do I even want to know what you're up to?" "Er," Albus began, trying to think up an excuse fast. "We're just taking a walk in the forest and you scared us!" Rose announced, "Sneaking up on us like that, what did you think we'd do?" "Shriek, maybe?" Teddy gave them a lopsided grin, "But not attack me." "So you were trying to scare us?" Rose said exasperatingly "A bit, yeah," Teddy laughed. "Worked, didn't it?" "I'll say," Rose muttered. Albus listened to the two of them but didn't add anything. He was forever grateful that his cousin was a better liar than he was. "It's kind of cold to be going for a hike," Teddy commented, "But Ron said you were here, so I figured I'd see if I could find you." He eyed John's pile of snowballs and grinned, "Planning on having a snow ball fight?" Teddy didn't wait for an answer and picked up a few of John's snowballs. He threw one at Albus and the other at Rose. "Watch it!" Albus shouted as the snowball made contact with his face. He spat out the snow and bent down to make his own snow ball. He aimed it at Teddy but Teddy jumped out of the way and it hit Matt instead. "Hey!" Matt shouted as he picked up one of John's snowballs and threw it at Albus. It landed square on Albus's chest. A few moments later, a huge snowball fight broke out. It was every man for himself for a while and Albus was getting pummeled by Teddy's snowballs. He tried to get Teddy back, but Teddy was too quick for him. Instead, Albus decided to focus on Matt, who was trying to get Albus back for the snowball that had hit him instead of Teddy. Rose eventually joined Albus in his attempt to get Matt, while Amanda evened out the odds by joining Matt's side. John, who seemed to be the only one with enough skill to hit Teddy, was having a one-on-one fight with the blue haired boy and was actually doing well. The six of them were completely soaked by the time the fight ended. Matt and Amanda surrendered to Rose and Albus after the cousins decided to create about twenty snowballs and lob them constantly at their two friends. John surrendered to Teddy a few minutes later, once Teddy decided to charm a pile of snow to turn itself into snowballs, resulting in a never-ending supply of ammunition for Teddy. John didn't know that spell and was stuck hand making his snow balls while Teddy continuously sent snowballs at him. "Who's up for Quidditch?" Teddy asked as they were walking back through the forest to Rose's house. "M-maybe after I d-dry off," Albus shivered. The snow had completely penetrated his cloak and was now freezing it into an icicle. His friends nodded in agreement. "Sounds good," Teddy replied, "Harry and James should be at the house by now. A little while later, Albus found himself back at Rose's house, where everyone was waiting for the Quidditch match to start. Albus, along with his friends, ran upstairs to dry off and change quickly. "Ready?" Teddy jumped up from the chair he was sitting on once Albus and his friends descended the stairs. "Who hasn't got a broom with them?" "Me," Amanda said. She was the only one. John and Matt, who both had brooms, had brought them knowing they would play Quidditch. "We've got spares," Ron announced, holding a couple brooms in his hand. Once everyone had a broom to use, Teddy started to take charge of creating teams. "All right. Let's see, we've got Me, Harry, Ron, James, Albus, John, Matt, Amanda, Hugo, and Rose, are you playing?" "Sure, why not?" Rose shrugged. "Good, then we've got ten players. That's five per team. So each team will have a Seeker, a beater, a Keeper, and two chasers, that'll work. I'll be one of the Seekers," he turned to Harry and James, "Which one of you will be the other?" "You can, James," Harry offered, "I'll do whatever is needed." After a few minutes of organizing, the two teams were created. Albus's team consisted of Teddy as Seeker, Ron as Keeper, Hugo as the only Beater, and Matt and himself as the two Chasers. On the other team, James was Seeker, Amanda was Keeper, John was the Beater, and Rose and Harry as Chasers. The two teams trooped outside into the cold winter day. It was just starting to snow a little, but Albus didn't mind. He would keep warm while he was playing anyway. Harry and Ron conjured goal hoops and everyone flew into the air. Hermione released the balls (only one Bludger, since there were only two beaters) and threw the Quaffle into the air, then conjured herself a chair to watch. The match was nothing like the ones at Hogwarts. It was much more informal, and in a way, Albus enjoyed it more. There was only friendly competition between the two teams and no one got angry when someone dropped the Quaffle, which happened a lot. The two teams were pretty evenly matched in terms of Chasing skills. Albus, who was the only real Chaser on either team, was easily the best. Harry was a decent Chaser, but it was clear that Seeking was his real skill. Rose was absolutely dreadful and was the first to admit it. She wasn't a big fan of flying in the first place and didn't like to take her hands off her broom in order to catch and throw the Quaffle. Matt was better than Rose, but dropped the Quaffle numerous times. Albus and Matt scored more points than Harry and Rose did. Ron, of course, was a very good Keeper and Amanda was as well. Albus was kind of surprised at this, because she never really played Quidditch before. Maybe she could try out for the Gryffindor team once Georgia left. John was an amazing Beater and Albus already knew that he'd be trying out for the team after Bradley and Ryan left. Hugo was also a very good Beater and it was obvious he had received all the Quidditch genes in his family. Then, of course, there were the Seekers. Both Teddy and James were amazing Seekers and by far two of the best players on either team. After about an hour of playing, during which Albus was sure both Teddy and James had seen the Snitch but ignored it in order to drag the game on longer, both Seekers flew directly up into the air. Everyone stopped what they were doing to watch. A few seconds later, they both came flying back down and James had the Snitch clutched in his hand. "I got it!" he shouted. "That puts your team ahead," Hermione announced, "You won 270 to 210." "Yes!" James exclaimed, landing on the ground. Albus and the rest of the players landed after him and congratulated him and his team for winning. "Ha! I beat you at Quidditch, Teddy!" James gloated. "Yeah, yeah, good job," Teddy sighed, "Knew I shouldn't have trained you that well." "You'll be saying otherwise when we win the Cup this year!" James grinned, "We already beat Slytherin." "I know, I was there," Teddy laughed, "Anyway, I'm just joking." Despite the fact that his team didn't win, Albus was happy. He loved playing Quidditch with his family, even more than playing on his House team. It was even better with his friends there, too. He walked back into the house with his friends and family, cold but very content. Hermione had made a plate of sandwiches for them, which everyone ate enthusiastically once they had dried off. After all the food had been eaten, John Flooed back to his house and Albus, Rose, and Hermione went with Matt and Amanda back to the Leaky Cauldron to meet their families. It had been a short visit, but a fun one nonetheless. Albus only wished that they had managed to get the stag print. He and Rose were planning on trying again the next day, and the next if it was necessary. They had three more days to do it and Albus was determined to succeed. ****** Albus and Rose spent as much time as they could in the forest looking for stags the next day. When they weren't in the forest, they spent their time in the library in Rose's house, looking for a charm to keep Kaden quiet. "There's books in here that aren't in the school library," Rose announced as they walked into the room after a particularly cold jaunt in the forest. "I'm still not sure we should take a break from looking for a stag," Albus replied. "It's too cold out there now. Plus there's a storm coming and it won't do us any good if we get lost out there." Rose went over to a book shelf and Albus followed. He had been in this room plenty of times before, just never to look for a specific charm. "How are we supposed to find one charm hidden in all these books?" Albus sighed, "We don't even know what it's called." "That's what this is for," Rose slammed a heavy book down on the table nearest to the shelf she pulled it off of. Albus looked at the book, "[i]An Encyclopedia of Charms[/i] by Filius Flitwick. That's who Mum and Dad had for Charms, isn't it?" "Yes," Rose confirmed as she opened the cover, "It's a rather ingenious idea, really. All I've got to do is take my wand, point it at the book, and say 'I need a charm to keep someone quiet' and it will flip to the right page." "That would certainly speed things along," Albus replied. "Try it." "All right," Rose pointed her wand at the book, "I need a charm to keep someone quiet." The book's pages immediately started turning until they stopped about a quarter of the way into the book. Rose peered at it and then shook her head. "Nope, that's not it. This one's just a silencing charm." "Maybe you've got to be more specific," Albus suggested. Rose nodded. "I need a charm to prevent someone from talking about something." The pages started turning again and stopped a few seconds later. Rose sighed after she read the description. "This one charms a person's mouth shut." Albus laughed, "Well that would definitely keep Kaden from talking about the map!" "People might notice, though," Rose smirked, "Although it does have it's advantages. I'll try something else." "I think you'd better tell the book exactly what we need the charm to do. Tell it that Kaden has to not talk about a specific thing." "Good idea," Rose poised her wand above the book, "I need to keep Kaden Durlsey from revealing secrets about Matt Eckerton. He must only be able to talk about these secrets with five other people and not mention them to anyone else. He should be able to converse normally about other topics." "That ought to be specific enough." Albus watched as the book hesitated for a few moments and then turn its pages to one of the last ones. Both Rose and Albus leaned over the book while Rose read aloud. "'[i]The Sileo Altus Charm is the most complex and intricate of the silencing charms. This charm has the ability to keep a person from revealing one specific piece of information to others, unlike other silencing charms which prevent a person from speaking at all. The charm also has the ability to involve others, which will result in the person the charm is cast on to be able to converse about the secret with those specific people. When done correctly, this charm will last forever or until the counter charm is performed. The Sileo Altus Charm keeps a person's secret safe much like the Fidelius Charm keeps a person's location secret and is said to be just as safe.'[/i] "Then there's a whole bunch of spells that are required," Rose scanned the remainder of the entry. "There's a spell that has to be performed on each person who is involved, one on Kaden, one on the secret-keeper-" "There's a secret keeper?" Albus asked. "Yeah, I guess so. Then there's the overall charm," Rose continued, "It sounds complicated. But I'm up for it. This doesn't really tell me how to do it, though. There's just a list of spells." Albus glanced at the entry, "Oh, it says there's more information in [i]Charms of Protection[/i] by Natalia Journo." "You're right, I hadn't noticed that," Rose leaned over the book again and read the title of the recommended book. "I think we might actually have that one." Rose jumped up from her seat and ran across the room. Albus sat back and watched her. He had no idea how she could possibly know if she had that book or not. The entire room was filled with shelves and shelves of books. Albus wouldn't even know where to look to find the book they needed. Rose returned a few minutes later with a book in her arms and a smile on her face. "We do have it! This was easier than I thought it would be." "I think doing the actual charm is going to off-set the ease of finding it," Albus pointed out. Rose shrugged, "I think I can figure it out within a few weeks." She sat back down and opened the book. Albus watched as his cousin flipped through the pages of the book until she found the charm they were looking for. He was very happy that Rose was so eager to learn new charms. It certainly helped that she was good at it, too. Albus had made a lot of progress in charms ever since Professor Cedonia arrived, but he was still average. Rose was easily the best in their class. That and her eagerness to learn would certainly help if she was going to master this charm. Rose read in silence for a few minutes and then turned to Albus. "All right. This explains it pretty well. First, of course, we've got to tell Kaden the secrets. Then we've got to pick the secret keeper. I'm thinking that I'll have to be the secret keeper since the secret keeper is the one to perform the charms." Albus nodded, "I'm fine with that. We've just got to make sure Matt is. What does the secret keeper do?" "Just perform the charms. And the secret keeper is the only one who can perform the counter charm on Kaden. Normally the secret keeper would be the only one the person could talk about the secret with as well. But we'll use another charm to ensure that Kaden can talk about the secrets with you, John, Matt, and Amanda as well." "That sounds good," Albus replied. "What else?" "Well, the secret keeper performs a charm on themselves, which turns them into the secret keeper. Then they perform a charm on Kaden. Then Kaden will recite the secrets in detail. After that, the secret keeper performs another charm on Kaden. Then charms are performed on the rest of the people involved. Then a final sealing charm on everyone, including Kaden and the secret keeper, and it's done." The idea of all those different spells made Albus's brain hurt. "Wow, that's a lot of charms. We've never done ones that are a combination of multiple charms." "The transference charm is one of those, but it only uses two. This one is five." "What's the counter charm involve?" Albus asked, thinking that maybe there would be a time when Kaden would mature and they wouldn't have to rely on magic to keep him from spilling secrets to Malfoy. "Erm, it seems pretty much like the actual charm," Rose looked back at the book, "You pretty much go backwards, using different charms." "Makes sense." "I'll start practicing as soon as we're back at school," Rose shut the book and got up. "I'll bring the book. Mum'll never know, she's got way too many to keep track of." "All right," Albus got up and followed her to the door, "Now we've just got to find that stag." "It's going to have to wait until tomorrow, Albus," Rose pointed to the window. It was white with swirling snow and the wind was howling. "Mum and Dad'll never let us out in that." ****** Albus was getting quite fed up with the stag search by the time late afternoon arrived the next day. He and Rose spent the entire morning in the forest, taking a break for lunch, and then returning in the afternoon. Albus looked at his watch and saw that they would have to be starting to return to the house soon. "We're never going to find a stag!" he groaned. Rose, who had brought the charm book they had found the previous day, looked up. "You've just got to be patient. I told you one won't come if we're noisy." "We've been quiet for the past two hours," Albus said flatly. "You're not being quiet now," Rose whispered and returned to her book. Albus sighed and stared out into the forest. So far Albus had seen no less than ten rabbits and four owls, but no stags. He was getting very cold sitting in the snow and his cloak had long since soaked through. Albus was determined, however, and refused to go back to Rose's house until they found a stag. It had seemed so simple at first, to stun a stag in the forest and get its footprint. This was not supposed to be the hardest print to get. Looking back, even the werewolf one seemed easier. Sure, they got locked out of Hogwarts, but they never got in trouble for it. The dog print had been the easiest, since Amanda had a dog. The rat would be easy, too, once John managed to catch one. Albus pulled out his wand and started to poke at the snow wizard he had constructed earlier. The wand melted holes into the snow wizard until it started to resemble a piece of snow swiss cheese. Albus was just beginning to do the same to the snow hippogriff that had been formed after the wizard when Rose poked him and hissed, "Albus, look!" Albus raised his head and looked in the direction Rose was pointing. Directly in front of them was a majestic looking doe, standing completely still and staring just to the left of where the two cousins were sitting. "It's just a doe," Albus whispered back, "It won't work." "I know, but there's usually a stag around when there's a doe." Albus sat completely still with his wand facing towards the doe. Rose did the same and the two of them didn't move for a good five minutes. The doe inched slowly ahead, walking to the left of Albus and Rose. Then Albus heard a rustling behind the doe and excitement washed over him as he saw a huge stag appear from behind a cluster of trees. "This is it," he whispered to Rose. She nodded but didn't say anything. The stag walked towards the doe, who had turned around to look at her mate. "On the count of three. One...two...three. Stupefy!" Albus shouted. "Stupefy!" Rose shouted at the same time. The doe shot off like a rocket as soon as the cousins shouted the spell. The stag started to follow but was hit by Albus's stunner. Rose's spell hit a nearby tree and burned a small hole into the bark. "Excellent shot, Albus!" Rose grinned at him as they ran towards the stag. "Thanks." "Let's hurry. We won't have much time before he wakes up," Rose reached into her robes and pulled out a piece of parchment, a bottle of ink, and a paint brush. The stag was even bigger up close. Its eyes darted around nervously as Rose painted the ink onto its front hoof. Albus quickly pressed the parchment onto the hoof and pulled it away. A perfect hoof print appeared on the parchment. "This one's good," Albus showed it to Rose. "Good," she put the stopper on her ink and stowed both it and the brush back in her cloak, "Now let's go. He won't be happy when he wakes up." Albus didn't need telling twice. He blew onto the parchment a few times to dry the ink and then put it in his cloak. The two cousins ran through the trees and back to the house. It only took them a few minutes as they weren't very far. Albus was thrilled that they had actually managed to get the print. The only print left was the rat one and then they would be able to try out the map.
Comma Joined: 4 September 2008 Posts: 14	Posted: Tuesday 23 September 2008 08 07 16 pm    Post subject: Re: A Gaunt Tale in topic:A Gaunt Tale No one's replied in quite a while, but I figure I'll put up the rest of the prologue really quick. It's 3,771 words long - longer than what I've been posting - but I'm up to chapter 8 already in my rewrite so I'm just going to go ahead and post the rest. --- (Prologue, last part) Katalina waited until the last minute of the train ride to change into her Hogwarts uniform. She was dreading the sorting ceremony. She didn’t care at that point in time how she was to be sorted. All she knew was that she didn’t want to be sorted at all. Slytherin was the last thing she wanted, but at the same time, she wanted it more than anything. She hadn’t waited eleven years to get away from her father just so she could be taken back home for being sorted in a house he considered to be wrong. However, she didn’t want to be in the same house as Lucius Malfoy or Narcissa Black or even her own brother. They repulsed her in a way that words could even begin to describe. Her father often spoke of how they had propper beliefs of their kind, how they knew what sort of witches and wizards they should associate with and which sort they shouldn’t. Her own father made her sick with his constant preaching of the old ways. She never would have told him so to his face, but he really did aggravate her. She felt her stomach turn in apprehension as she followed an extremely tall man, along with the rest of the first years, to a fleet of small boats fit to seat four people. She joined the girl that had been in the compartment with her earlier, along with the boy she had left with, and found out they were Lily Evans and Severus Snape, who both already seemed to loathe James Potter, who was the boy in the round glasses. They seemed nice enough, so she decided to keep close to them as they got off of the boats after a long ride and were ushered into the castle. “Come on, firs’ years!” the tall man was saying to the few who were straying off. Katalina was starting to wonder if maybe he was a giant, or at least part giant. “This way! Come on!” They followed him to a halt as the doors opened. Katalina, Lily, and Severus all craned their necks to see over the crowd in front of them. An old witch in green robes with her hair in a tight, neat black bun stood at the door. Katalina decided immediately that should she stay here, she wouldn’t even think about crossing this witch, as she didn’t look particularly tolerant. After the tall man introduced her as Professor McGonagall, they followed her down a hallway and into an empty classroom, and they stopped inside. She shut the door behind her and turned to face the crowd. “Welcome to Hogwarts,” she said. “You will all be sorted into your houses very soon. The Sorting Ceremony is very important – while you are here, your house will be like your family. You will have classes with the rest of your house, sleep in the same dormitory as those in your year in the same house, and spend free time in the house common room. “The four houses are Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. Your triumphs at Hogwarts will earn you points for your house. Rule-breaking will lose house points. These points will be counted at the end of the year, and the house with the most points is awarded with the house cup. I hope each of you will be a good addition to the house you are sorted into. “The Sorting Ceremony will take place in front of the rest of the students in a few short moments. I shall return when we are ready for you,” she concluded, her hand on the doorknob. “Please wait here quietly.” Katalina’s stomach churned even more as excited whispers broke out when McGonagall left. Lily looked almost as nervous, though Severus didn’t quite as much. “What do they do to sort us, exactly?” she asked Katalina quietly. “I don’t know, my brother wouldn’t tell me.” “D’you know what they do?” Lily asked Severus. “My mother said something about a hat,” he said. “Th… that’s all?” Lily asked, sounding surprised, but still relieved. “Oh, good. I was worried we were going to have to do actual magic. I’ve practiced some, but I didn’t know if it was enough or not. Have either of you practiced anything?” “Only a bit,” Severus said. “My dad made me learn a few things,” said Katalina, looking around the empty classroom. “Not much though, since I didn’t have a wand until a few weeks ago.” “What sort of things?” Lily asked curiously. Katalina was thankful that McGonagall came back before she had the chance to answer. She didn’t feel like telling anyone she had been forced to learn about dark magic before she even entered school. McGonagall guided them away to the Great Hall, where there were four tables of students. She saw her brother at one and assumed it to be the Slytherin table. Her suspicions were confirmed when she spotted Lucius Malfoy, a prefect with platinum blond hair. They all stopped at the Great Hall, where a hat sat upon a stool up near the teacher’s table. McGonagall stood next to the hat. They stood through a song sung by the hat, but Katalina was too busy trying to hold down the sweets she had eaten on the train to listen to it. She almost hoped it would sort her into Slytherin just for being a Gaunt, but there was really no telling. She didn’t want to go home. The first Slytherin to be sorted was Bellatrix Black. Katalina gave a slight grimace when that name was called, having come into contact with this girl before. The hat shouted Slytherin after having barely touched her hair and, looking rather smug, she hurried over to sit at the Slytherin table next to a girl that Katalina assumed was her sister, Narcissa Black. The next to be sorted was Sirius Black, one of the boys that had been in the same compartment as her and James Potter. He was sorted into Gryffindor. A few more names later was Lily, who was also sorted into Gryffindor. Shortly after was Katalina. Katalina walked slowly up to the hat, wondering what would happen. She picked it up and put it on her head as she sat upon the wooden stool in front of the Great Hall. She couldn’t see the faces looking up at her, as the hat covered her eyes. She heard a voice in her ear, and she assumed it had to be the hat. “Gaunt, eh? Doesn’t seem like the lot of them…. Witty, yes, definitely, but not prejudiced. No, definitely not…” Put me in Slytherin, please, I need to stay here… she thought. “Slytherin?” Her heart jumped when she comprehended that the hat could read her mind. “No, definitely not Slytherin, you don’t belong there. I’d say… GRYFFINDOR!” She flinched slightly, though the Gryffindor table seemed to be cheering and clapping. She took the hat off of her head and walked slowly over to the table Lily had joined. She sat between Sirius Black and Lily, as Lily had been glaring at Sirius upon accidently sitting down next to him. “Sev’ll probably be in Slytherin like he wanted,” Lily said. “Where were you hoping to go?” “Slytherin,” she said quietly. “I really didn’t want to, but I… my dad told me he’d pull me out to be homeschooled if I was sorted anywhere – ow!” She rubbed the back of her head when she felt something hit it. She looked behind her and saw the culprit – a balled up piece of parchment. She picked it up and unfolded it, and immediately recognized the handwriting to be her brother’s. There were only five words written upon it: Dad’s going to kill you. “… said he’d pull me out if I was sorted anywhere other than Slytherin…” she finished with a sigh, staring at the paper. She looked behind her at the Slytherin table, where her brother was looking quite smug. She glared at him for a moment before turning back around. “What’s that?” “My brother…” she grumbled, crumbling the paper back up and putting it in a pocket in her robes. “Not important.” “Your brother’s here too?” “Yeah, Slytherin. He’d be home if he were in any other house.” She bit the side of her fist, staring up at the front of the Great Hall for a moment, then she looked back at Lily. “My dad’s going to kill me.” “I don’t think he’d actually kill you,” Lily said comfortingly. “I mean, he’s your dad, after all, right?” “My dad is the root of all evil,” she said, shaking her head. “You have no idea what he’s like.” –– After a week at the school, Katalina started to become confident that maybe her father would let her be, let her stay at Hogwarts as a Gryffindor. However, on one weekend when she was sitting outside on the grounds with Lily and Severus, the three of them attempting to look up things for the Potions essay they had been assigned, her hopes were shattered. She flinched as she felt someone poke her sharply in the shoulder, at which she looked up. “What do you want?” she asked her brother. “I thought you didn’t know me?” Despite her bored tone, she was absolutely horrified at the look on his face. “Oh, I know you,” he said happily. “You’re my sister who’s going to be leaving tomorrow.” At once, her heart stopped for a moment, her stomach turned to lead, and breathing became a very hard task. She blinked at him, silently praying he was lying. “Y– you’re – you’re not – you’re lying,” she managed to stammer, shutting her Potions book and standing up. He handed her a piece of parchment. “McGonagall told me. She didn’t look very happy about it. You’re supposed to go see the headmaster, it should all be there. Hope you have a nice first year.” He walked back towards the castle. Katalina sat back down on the grass near the lake with Lily and Severus, unfolding the parchment and reading: Miss Gaunt, Headmaster Dumbledore requires that you come to his office at once. Please see me in my office immediately and I will take you there. Professor McGonagall Katalina looked up, her mouth hanging open a little. Lily and Severus stared back apprehensively. At lack of words, she swallowed and handed Lily the letter. Severus also read it over her shoulder. “B– but that could mean anything, couldn’t it?” Lily asked. “It might be about something else entirely!” Katalina shook her head, taking the letter back and putting it in her pocket. “I’ll let you know…” she said, picking up her Potions book. She stood. Lily stood up as well, and so did Severus. “I’m coming with you,” she said. “McGonagall probably won’t let you –” “Then we’ll follow you to her office, if it is true you might get rushed off too fast to tell us anything so we should go with you.” Katalina looked between the two of them. Even though it had only been a week, they had been good friends so far. Keeping them in the dark would have been wrong. Slowly, she nodded. “You can follow me there, but don’t try to sneak around McGonagall if she tells you not to follow her to Dumbledore’s office.” “Of course not,” Lily said, shaking her head, “that would loose house points for Gryffindor, I wouldn’t do that!” “All right… come on, then.” They hurried to the castle doors. Katalina stopped once inside and looked from Lily to Severus, who stopped in front of her. “Why –?” began Lily. “If I’m being sent home,” Katalina said quietly, looking around the entrance hall, “then I will come back. I don’t know when, it might not be next year, but I’ll come back before our seventh year.” “How’re you planning to talk your father into it?” Severus asked. “My mum knows him because of Voldemort, says he’s really stubborn.” “V– Voldemort?” Lily said, looking between them. “He’s real? I heard people saying there were rumors.” Katalina nodded, her head stooping to look at her feet. “And my dad’s his number one supporter. He’s been around for quite a while now, he’s only just let people that aren’t on his side start to know that he exists.” “I… is he powerful?” asked Lily nervously as they began walking again. “From what I’ve heard, he is,” said Severus. “He’s openly said that he believes himself to be more powerful than Dumbledore.” “More powerful than Dumbledore?” Lily repeated incredulously. “That’s mad, Dumbledore’s supposed to be one of the greatest sorcerers to have ever lived, according to our History of Magic textbook.” “Voldemort’s extremely pompous,” said Katalina quietly as Bellatrix and Narcissa Black passed them on their way outside – if either of them heard her say that, she would have been on the floor, there was no doubt in that. “He’s under the impression that he’s the most powerful sorcerer to have ever walked the earth, and so he thinks he’s better than Dumbledore.” They hurried on to Professor McGonagall’s office, and she looked somewhere between frustrated and very tired when they got there. She looked at the three of them, particularly at Lily and Severus. “I do apologize,” she said, “but I need to speak with Miss Gaunt in private, if you don’t mind.” Lily looked most disappointed. “Yes, professor…” she said quietly, turning to walk out of the office along with Severus. As the door shut behind them, Professor McGonagall sat behind her desk and motioned for Katalina to sit in the chair across from it. She did as instructed and stared at her knees, waiting for McGonagall to say the words she was absolutely dreading to hear. “Miss Gaunt,” she began, “it is to my understanding that your family has been sorted into Slytherin for generations, is that true?” “Yes, ma’am,” Katalina said, not bothering to look up. She was just waiting for it to come. She heard a sigh. “That is what your father told us…. He seems to believe you… aren’t ready to come to Hogwarts yet, for whatever reasons.’” Katalina was happy to hear skepticism in McGonagall’s words at this, but not entirely sure she was happy to hear the words themselves. “If Hogwarts had any say in it, you would be staying, but your own father has more of one than we do. He… he has written to us asking that you be removed from Hogwarts to be homeschooled.” Katalina nodded gravely – there was no point in protesting it. “The letter said I had to speak with Professor Dumbledore?” “Yes,” said McGonagall, standing. “He will give you more details pertaining to… to the situation.” Katalina stood and followed Professor McGonagall, wondering what else need be explained. She already knew the details – her father wanted her in Slytherin, and she ended up in Gryffindor. In a family like the Gaunts, that was utter blasphemy. She did her best to memorize as much of the hallways as she could in her last minutes here, on her way to Dumbledore’s office. She had never imagined Hogwarts would be so amazing, since she avoided asking her brother questions about anything as often as possible. After a few flights of stairs and a walk down a corridor on the second floor, Professor McGonagall stopped in front of a statue of a gargoyle. “Ice Mice.” The statue of the gargoyle leapt aside. Katalina tilted her head slightly, contemplating both the rotating spiral staircase in the opening of the wall and the headmaster’s strange choice of passwords. She stepped onto the stairway with Professor McGonagall. The gargoyle moved back into place behind them as the stairs took them up, much like an escalator in a Muggle shopping mall – she had always found those rather fascinating. It stopped in front of a door, behind which Katalina could hear not one, but two voices. Her heart sank – one belonged to her father. “… just don’t think she is ready to work with other witches and wizards her age yet, Dumbledore,” she heard him saying as they approached the door. “Much the same was the situation with my aunt, Merope Gaunt. I’ve heard her parents withdrew her for the same reason.” “Not so much,” said a second voice calmly; Katalina assumed this was Dumbledore. “Marvolo Gaunt withdrew Merope from Hogwarts because he was infuriated she wasn’t sorted into Slytherin, I remember it quite well as I was working here at the time as a Transfiguration teacher. I suppose you didn’t know about this?” “That was the situation?” he asked curiously. He could be a good actor when he needed to be…. “My, I never knew, my father told me his sister just had problems working around other students. I’m merely worried that my daughter may have that very problem, I wouldn’t ever take her from as fine a school as Hogwarts just because she was sorted into the ‘wrong’ house.” Professor McGonagall knocked on the door as they approached it, her lips thin. She obviously trusted Timothy Gaunt about as far as she could have thrown him. Katalina couldn’t blame her at all for this. She opened the door when a voice from inside told her it was fine to do so, and Katalina followed her into the office. If it weren’t for the situation in play at the moment, Katalina would have taken a moment to look around at the place. It was rather interesting, really. It was definitely in one of the towers of the castle, as the room itself was somewhat circular. There were strange little silver instruments strewn about different tables, and portraits of old headmasters on the wall, all snoring – though, Katalina noticed, they would occasionally open their eyes to see what was happening, then quickly shut them and continue snoring. Situated on a perch next to the desk in the room was a large, red bird, about the size of an eagle or a hawk, with long tail feathers. It looked like the descriptions she had heard of phoenixes, so she assumed it was one. Katalina took a seat in a chair next to her father in the office and did her best not to look him in the eye. She guessed the man sitting behind the desk in the office was Dumbledore. He looked old, even ancient, with long white hair and a white beard past his belt. His nose appeared to have been broken once or twice, with as long and crooked as it was. He didn’t look overly angry about the situation as McGonagall did, but he gave off the impression of being able to hide such things rather well. “Miss Gaunt,” he said, “I am very regretful to inform you that you will not be able to remain at Hogwarts.” Katalina nodded, choosing to look at the phoenix next to the desk rather than at any of the other people in the room. “I’m terribly sorry, dear,” she heard her father saying. She felt like hexing him. “I’m just not sure you’re ready to cooperate with other students.” “She has done fine so far.” Katalina tried to suppress a grin at Professor McGonagall’s words. “If anything, she’s more advanced than most other first years. Any teacher here will attest to it.” “Oh, no doubt she’s good with magic itself,” Timothy said calmly. “I taught her a bit myself before she entered school so she would know what to expect. As I said, I’m merely afraid she will have problems getting along with other students.” “Why?” Katalina managed to keep herself from recoiling at her own words as she looked at her father. “Because I was sorted into a house you don’t think a Gaunt should be in?” She knew she would regret this later. He wouldn’t do anything with McGonagall and Dumbledore standing by, but he would later. A flash of something like infuriation came across his face for a moment, but he managed to keep calm. “You know that isn’t the case, Ka –” “Then why did you tell me that you’d pull me out of Hogwarts if I wasn’t sorted into Slytherin when I got my letter? Al said you told him that your granddad did the same thing to our great aunt, except she was put in Ravenclaw. You’re just upset because things didn’t go the way you wanted them to and I got sorted into Gryffindor!” Now the flicker of anger stayed burning upon his face as he glared at Katalina. His eyes were narrowed and when he spoke, it was barely in more than a hiss. “What have I told you about back talking me?” “I’m not back talking you, I’m telling the truth!” “They don’t need to know anything about the ‘truth,’” he shot back at her. She realized quite suddenly that his voice seemed like a hiss for the simple reason that it was one. “They do need to know the truth, and there’s no point speaking in Parseltongue, I’ll just translate everything you say.” She crossed her arms and glared at him indignantly. He stared back, his eyes cold as ice. Katalina wasn’t sure where her sudden nerve was coming from, but she was sure her father would beat whatever was left of it out of her later. Something kept her going, though, and she absolutely detested whatever it was. “Even if you pull me out, I’m going to come back,” said Katalina, pointing at him. “I might not be able to for a few more years, but I will.” He turned from Katalina to look back at Dumbledore. “When will I be taking her home?” “As soon as she has packed her things,” said Dumbledore. Professor McGonagall escorted Katalina out of the office and up to the seventh floor, where the Gryffindor common room was located, explaining on the way that they would be leaving by Portkey. She had only traveled by Portkey once before and hadn’t enjoyed it at all, but she wasn’t much in the mood to protest anything else. She was still leaving Hogwarts and was probably going to be in quite a bit of trouble with her father when she arrived home. She was going to be forced to learn about the Dark Arts and the old ways. As she packed, all she could think of was whether or not there was some way to get out of it. The only conclusion she could come to was to sneak back to Hogwarts – she just wasn’t sure how that was going to work.
GodrictheGriffon Joined: 27 December 2006 Posts: 3953 Location: Beside the veil, waiting for Sirius.... And Midnight! I wonder how long your location can be?....	Posted: Tuesday 23 September 2008 02 20 27 pm    Post subject: Re: Broomsticks and Owls in topic:Broomsticks and Owls He-he! For Halloween I think that I'll be a dementor with a Hermione wig on. Or the Naughty Wizard Costume. J/K. Paul's never going to live that one down.