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Albus Potter and the Deathly Hallows | ||||||
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Category: Post-Hogwarts Characters:Harry/Ginny, Other Genres: Action/Adventure, Drama, Humor, Romance Warnings: Death, Intimate Sexual Situations, Violence, Violence/Physical Abuse Story is Complete Rating: R Reviews: 77 Summary: Albus has his challenges during his first year. Cleopatra is obviously his soulmate, and has brilliant insights into magic, except she cannot do it like anyone else. Albus has to help her while keeping peace between the two brightest and most competitive students at Hogwarts, Scorpius and Rose. It doesn’t help that people are out to get Albus. Harry is not sure he can keep everyone safe. Then you have Ginny and Cleopatra. Hitcount: Story Total: 79349; Chapter Total: 2788 Awards: View Trophy Room Author's Notes: Again some reasonably major changes because of my two faithful Betas. Arnel and FriendofMolly. I have more major rewriting to do, some of it because of reviews. Your reviews do make a difference. |
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Two of the eight classes the first year students were taking were double classes, and for the classes that Al and Cleo were in they were both the same day. Wednesday morning, the class all filed into the dungeon area of Hogwarts Castle. The first year students were taught in a newer classroom close to the original Potions classroom, which was still in use for the older students. The teacher introduced himself as Dragon Chen. He seemed to be very young. “For centuries the Chinese have been acknowledged to be the BEST at Potions, and as you would suspect we have a new textbook by a Chinese Teacher,” Dragon said. The names of the two authors of the book were on the front cover, in Alphabetical order, so of course TT Chang was before Hermione Weasley. The lesson, a Boil Cure Potion, turned out to be reasonably easy even for Scorpius. Cleo, with her cooking experience, and her instincts for magic, had no problem with it, and Al and Rose had done all the experiments in the book over and over. As the class was beginning to start to make their potions Albus felt that his mind was being probed. He fingered the ring on his right hand and the probing was stopped by the spells on the ring. He could feel Cleo being probed, and tried to stop it, without much success. Albus felt the probing was almost certainly from Professor Chen, but he didn’t have any way of proving it. To Cleo the probing was like an angry fly continually tormenting her. She was extraordinarily uptight through the entire class. When the class was over Cleo whispered to Al, “Someone was probing my brain.” “Let’s go to the Portrait Room to talk,” Al said. The Portrait Room was on the same floor as the Great Hall, and held portraits of most of the people who had been killed in the Battle of Hogwarts and some of other people killed in the long battle against Tom Riddle. Since the portraits had been commissioned sometime after the battle they held only a fraction of the owner’s personality, but occasionally they had good advice. The room also had an abundance of comfortable, semi-private seating areas where a couple or small group could go to talk. Albus found an area where they could talk privately. When they were sitting down Cleo said, “I like it when you are in my mind, but when that other person wanted to be in there I felt like I was being RAPED. “Well, I don’t really know what it would be liked to have your body violated, but he was VIOLATING ME MENTALLY and I DON’T LIKE IT.” Cleo and Al talked for about an hour before going to lunch. After lunch, Al took Cleo into his room. He found the bag with the other ring in his trunk, and he and Cleo sat on his bed as he fished out some instructions. Pointing something out to Cleo, Al said, “There is a ring in this bag. The problem with giving this ring to you is that it assumes we will end up married, if we are not already married. It says that the ring will not feel right if, there is a lot of legal language here, look at this.” Cleo had slipped her hand into the bag, and as soon as she touched the ring in the bag she felt the mate to the ring in the bag on Albus’s right hand. Cleo slipped the ring on her right hand as Albus became more and more concerned. “We ought to ask Professor Snape about this,” he said. “He may know how we can use these, and if it is safe to have you wear the other ring.” Albus put the parchments back in the bag and put it away, without realizing that Cleo had the other ring on her finger. Cleo thought she could see through Al’s eyes better than before. Al may have had reservations, but she had none when it came to Al. The couple just made it to Herbology in time, where they joined up with Rose and Scorpius again. After classes were finished Cleo asked Al, “How do you keep track of what day what class is. One week is one way, the next week is different?” Albus took out the parchment with their daily schedule on it, and showed it to Cleo. “The day that is colored is today,” Al said. “Every day a different section is colored, and that colored section is today’s schedules.” “They are all colored,” Cleo said. “Monday is red, then orange, then yellow, then blue, then green.” Al said, “Today is yellow, but I don’t see the other colors.” Cleo said, “Close your eyes, and try to see what I see.” Al did, and he saw all five colors on both weeks. At dinner Albus found Victoire, and asked her, “How do the class schedules get color coded, so you see what day of the week it is?” Victoire said, “I don’t know, but the class schedules come from Professor McGonagall.” Albus send a message mentally to Cleo, telling her to follow him to see Professor McGonagall after dinner, and to bring her schedule. Cleo acknowledged Al’s message, saying she would follow him. So after dinner Albus went up to Professor McGonagall, and Cleo followed. “May I ask you a question, Professor?” Albus asked. “Come on up to the table,” Professor McGonagall said. Albus and Cleo went up to the head table. “I only see the color of the day, Professor,” Albus said, showing his schedule. “Cleo’s schedule is the same, but she sees all the colors.” “All the colors are there,” Professor McGonagall said. “I just hide all but the current day’s colors.” “I cannot see the hiding,” Cleo said. “The parchment is sort of colored. Can you duplicate this on real white paper?” Al duplicated the schedule on white paper. There were no colors. “I can add the colors,” Professor McGonagall said. She tapped her wand once, and they all could see all the colors. Then she tapped her wand again to hide all but today’s color. “I can see it now, sort of,” Cleo said. “Everything but today’s schedule has, well, it’s sort of like that other green, but it’s anti-upwards away from the green in color, but I can see it. I guess that is what is doing the hiding, but I can see through it.” “A color anti-upwards away from green?” asked Professor McGonagall. Cleo looked at Albus, who said, “Cleo sees magic, sees the world differently, just more, but it is hard to explain.” “Can you explain it?” asked Professor McGonagall. “Not yet, but I should be able to, eventually,” Albus said. “Please do that, and thank you for asking,” Professor McGonagall said as she dismissed them. Albus Severus went to bed worried. He could see a lot more magic, and why it worked, when he was looking at it through Cleo’s eyes. It was just exhausting trying to learn such a new and different way of seeing. It didn’t help that Cleo was a very intense person. Al prided himself on being very cool, collected, and organized. Cleopatra was almost exactly the opposite, intensely passionate and enthusiastic, extraordinarily talented, and with ways of looking at the world and organizing her knowledge, that were strange at the best, and often bizarre. Al knew he had promised Professor McGonagall that he would explain what Cleo was seeing to her. Albus was not all that confident that he could explain to himself what Cleo was seeing. Learning how to understand and explain it to others was going to be very difficult. Al had only known her for a few days, but she was already part of him. He could not imagine spending the rest of his life with anyone else. Al thought his parents were soulmates, as were some of the other couples he knew, but what did it mean to be a soulmate when you were both eleven? And he knew, he knew because she told him, but he also knew when they were sharing their bodies most intensely, that Cleo was developing. She wasn’t a little girl, and he could see it and feel it, but he was still biologically a little boy. Was Cleo going to share in his dangerous adventures? She had come to Hogwarts with an Elf shadow as well. Al had kind of resigned himself to his fate, but the thought of losing Cleopatra was more than he could bear. For better or for worse, she was part of him, and he knew that he was part of her. Cleo looked at the ring on her hand, and thought about Albus Severus Potter. The melodies and colors and directions associated with Albus just about overwhelmed her. She thought she would go crazy, with all the magic they were learning, without Albus there to steady her and help her. Cleo knew that she should be meeting other people, and she was. But it was hard not sleeping together, not being in the same room at night, knowing that Albus was close, but not close enough. Thursday started with Muggle Studies again. This time Al thought he could see a lot clearer how Cleo was looking at the green area that was “not in this world,” and for the first time he could sort of see it. Seeing through her eyes was getting easier, in one way, but harder in another. Al didn’t feel he was just riding on the surface of Cleo’s thoughts. They didn’t have Charms, which was a relief. Professor Appleleaf was really good at getting everybody to succeed at spells, and the people who could not do the spell on Tuesday could by the end of class on Thursday. Rose and Scorpius were class helpers, working one on one with students having problems. With Professor Appleleaf’s encouragement Al and Cleo worked on the same simple transformation, Cleo trying to do it without being totally overwhelmed by the experience, and Albus trying to see and understand what Cleo was seeing. On Wednesday Ginny was contacted by Hudson Harrison, the Firebolt Broom executive who had been at all her matches and done almost all the adjustments to her broom. He wanted to visit and talk to her and Harry, and Ginny immediately agreed to meet that evening. Hudson had the letter from Al, and asked Ginny and Harry if they minded. He knew that the Potters were a little publicity shy, and if they were going to do this Al and James would be featured in advertising. Harry said, “James has wanted to play professional Quidditch since he was a small child. I assume the publicity would not hurt his chances to be picked up by a professional team.” Hudson agreed and said it would not hurt Al’s chances either. Harry and Ginny both rushed to tell Hudson that Al was very firm in not wanting to play professionally. He had a lot of other things he wanted to do. They did not want the broom adjusted under false pretenses. Hudson said that his offer was in no way dependent on Al wanting to go into Quidditch professionally. After some more pleasant discussion and a lot of remembering of past meetings and games Hudson left with Ginny’s extremely expensive professional broom. Thursday at dinner, Al was getting worried. He had not heard from either his parents or the Firebolt Broom Company. He was getting ready to write two more letters when he received a note as dinner was ending from Headmistress McGonagall saying that he had a visitor. When Al went up to the head table, the Headmistress took Al to a small side room, where Hudson Harrison waited for him, his mother’s Firebolt in his hand. They spent the next couple of hours with Al flying and Hudson making adjustments to the spells and to the arrangement of things on the broom. Al wanted to know if they could hide what broom it was until the game, and with a special spell the broom looked like a very ordinary Firebolt. When the camouflage came off the broom was going to have both Ginny Weasley Potter and Albus Severus Potter written in gold on it. Al came back to the Slytherin common room late, after his workout with Hudson Harrison. He was carrying the disguised broom; it looked like a Firebolt Student Edition, still a very good broom. He called the Quidditch team into his room and took off the spells. “I have my mother’s Firebolt Special Edition,” he said. “This is what a fifteen … thousand … Galleon broom looks like.” “Holy Kneazles!” “Merlin!” “No shit!” “Fantastic!” “Who did you have to kill to get that?” Everybody in the room was stunned by the broom. “I really am not as good as James,” said Al, “Although I will work really hard to get better. At least with this broom if we both see the Snitch at the same time I’ll be faster.” The team agreed to a practice schedule that allowed enough time for study, but would get them in shape for the upcoming Quidditch match on October seventh. Al did ask the team, “May Scorpius also practice with us? With work, next summer he may make an acceptable chaser by next year, even if only a reserve.” The team agreed. Saturday, September eighth, Rose and Scorpius were arguing about something, and they went up to the library to look up something and see who was right. When they left the breakfast table Saturday morning Al and Cleo were left. Al said to Cleo, “Do you want to explore stranger parts of the castle, Cleo?” “Is it safe?” asked Cleo. “It’s been safe enough since Dad defeated Riddle,” said Al. “There are some areas where you do not want to go, but we can avoid them. I want to meet all the people who are here, see everything in person that I can, not just read about it in books. Will you come with me?” “Oh, Al, may I?” said Cleo. “I’ll try to be brave.” “I want to see if we can meet Moaning Myrtle today,” said Al. “Who is Moaning Myrtle?” asked Cleo. “The ghost who haunts a girls’ bathroom,” said Al. “Before I go into a girl’s bathroom I want you to go in and make sure it is empty. I don’t want to get in trouble for going into a girls’ bathroom.” Cleo went into the bathroom and called, “Is anyone here?” “Only me, Moooaning Myrtle,” said Moaning Myrtle. “No one wants to meet me.” “Albus Potter wants to meet you,” said Cleo. She then peeked out the door and said “Al, it is OK to come in. Moaning Myrtle is here, but otherwise the room is empty.” Albus came into the bathroom. “Hi, Myrtle,” said Al looking around. “You have to be Harry Potter’s son,” said Myrtle. “You look like him, except you do not have messy hair.” “I try to keep my hair neat,” said Albus. “I’m Albus Severus Potter, and this is Cleopatra.” “Why do you want to meet me?” asked Myrtle. “Well, you ARE one of the more unusual features of the school,” said Albus. “Feature of the school,” wailed Myrtle. “Not a beautiful young girl that tragically,” at the word ‘tragically Myrtle put her hand on her head and tilted her head back in a most dramatic manner, “met her end in this bathroom, but a feature of the school!” “I didn’t mean to insult you, Miss Myrtle,” said Al. “I just wanted to meet you and maybe become your friend.” “You meant ‘Moaning Myrtle’ didn’t you,” said Myrtle suspiciously. “No,” said Al. “I said Miss Myrtle, and I really hoped that we could become friends, and that you would not feel you needed to be so sad all the time.” “Why ‘Miss Myrtle’?” asked Myrtle. “You are a lot older than we are,” said Al, “and I thought you deserved some respect.” “Not ridicule? Everybody else makes fun of me, or is scared,” said Myrtle. “I was a little worried when I came in,” said Al, “but I do not think I’m scared now. You look more sad and lonely than scary.” “Are YOU scared of me? BOO,” said Myrtle to Cleo. Cleo jumped back when Myrtle shouted at her, grabbed on to Al’s hand, and looked at him. “It’s all right, Cleo,” said Al. “She’s just a ghost.” Cleo looked at Myrtle and said, “Al was nice to me when other people were not. He is a nice person, Myrtle!” “But I’m a GHOOOOOOOST,” said Myrtle flying around the room. “You’re almost as silly as Nick, the almost headless horseman,” said Al, chuckling. At this Cleo began to giggle, although she kept holding on to Al’s hand. When Cleo began to giggle Al started to laugh, and before long both of them were laughing. Myrtle looked at them suspiciously. “Are you laughing at me?” asked Myrtle. Al stopped laughing and said, “I really think it’s your choice, Myrtle. You can laugh with us and become our friend. I’m really laughing at the situation, at me and Cleo and you, not laughing at you. Be our friend.” “I haven’t had a friend since I was tragically killed,” said Myrtle. “Then it’s about time you had a couple of friends,” said Cleo. “Do you have to stay in this bathroom?” “I’m more visible when I am near water, for some reason,” said Myrtle. “I think it has to do with where I was killed. People do not usually see me when I am not near water. Oh, I have seen all sorts of things, but usually I stay here.” “Would you be visible down by the lake?” asked Al. “I don’t know,” said Myrtle. “Let’s try,” said Al. “I’ll follow you,” said Myrtle. So Al and Cleo went out of the girl’s bathroom and down to the lake, followed by an almost invisible Myrtle. When they arrived at the lake Myrtle went in the water, and as long as she was hovering over the water or had been in it she was very visible and easy to talk to. When it was time for lunch Myrtle bid good bye to Al and Cleo and went back to her bathroom. “I think she could be a useful friend,” said Al. “Maybe,” said Cleo. “She is a bit of a drama queen, though.” Al looked at Cleo, who was rather dramatic, herself, and Cleo looked back at Al. “Am I a drama queen too?” asked Cleo. “Am I that bad?” Al giggled. “Well, you are rather excitable and usually excited,” he said with a big smile on his face. “Oh, AL” Cleo remarked sort of slowly and quietly, and she took a breath, and then rapidly and excitedly said, “It’s just that Hogwarts is so fantastic. I’ve spent the last six years at the Malfoys, and it was almost like a prison, and then I climbed on the train, and AL it was like the start of one of the sappy movies, or maybe the middle of one, where things start to go right, and ALL OF A SUDDEN THINGS STARTED TO GO RIGHT, and you offered to help me get into Gryffindor, and I did, and you’re my friend, and Rose is my friend, and I have lots of other people I know. I’M HAPPY. I’ve dreamed all my life about being happy, well I sort of knew I would be, and I was not all that unhappy at Malfoys, but Al, Hogwarts is fantastic!” They arrived back at the castle just as lunch was starting. Cleo saw her other roommates and waved, and asked, “Do you think Albus Potter and I could join you for lunch?” Hannah McGonagall waved them over. “Sure,” a giggling Hannah said, “As long as Albus does not mind eating at the Gryffindor table surrounded by pretty girls. I’m Hannah McGonagall. Professor McGonagall is my great aunt or something. I met her before I went to Hogwarts. She’s a lot nicer when she isn’t being headmistress. She’s already bawled me out here.” “I’ve already have lots of pretty cousins,” said Al, a great big smile on his face. “I’m comfortable being surrounded by feminine beauty.” At this a couple of the girls giggled. Hannah said, “Where did you go, Al, Cleo?” Al said “We were talking to Moaning Myrtle, first in her bathroom, then down by the lake. She’s not so bad, a little melodramatic maybe, but all right for a ghost.” One of the other girls looked a little concerned, and said to Al, “Does your mother go around hexing people all the time? My mother said your mother was rather twitchy.” “The only people I can remember my mother hexing were a couple of people from the Department for the Regulation of Underage Magic who were bothering me. She was in a lot of trouble for that, too,” said Albus. The other girl, a very oriental looking girl with short black hair, said, “My mother thinks your mother still does not like her, and she’s a little, I’m not sure afraid is the right word. I mean my mother is an Auror, one of the top people in the department, so I guess she’s not afraid of much, but she says she’d just as soon not get your mother mad at her again.” “Who are you, and is your mother Ms. Chang?” asked Al. “Chloe Koizumi, and my mother is Cho Chang,” said Chloe. Standing up and striking a fighting pose she said, “I want to grow up and be a fighter like my mother and your father and the other Aurors, except mum says they do not do all that much fighting any more. I guess I’ll have to be an International Auror and go where there is danger and excitement. Mum was in Ravenclaw, but I think I’m in Gryffindor because I’m brave and tough.” Al kind of laughed at this display of bravado, and said, “Is that what your mother wants, you to be a brave fighter and all?” “She wanted me to be in Ravenclaw and get some safe job,” said Chloe. “All my family is boring. Even my little sister Cara is boring. All they want is nice safe jobs, to be smart and make money. I’m going to try and be a Beater so I can WACK things. I’ve already beat up one of the boys who made fun of me.” “Chloe is sort of a fun person to be around,” said Hannah, “except we’ve already gotten in trouble a couple of times.” “I’m much safer with you, Al,” said Cleo. “Your mother is an Auror, Chloe,” Al said. “She’s one of the supervising Aurors. Being an Auror isn’t exactly a safe job.” “She’s a supervisor with a desk job,” dismissed Chloe. “She doesn’t do fun stuff anymore. She does lead raids sometimes. Leading a raid sounds SO exciting! ” Al thought he was going to have to work hard to find out what was going on between Chloe’s mother and his mother. Al knew that his mother had a temper, as did Grandma Weasley. James had occasionally been the target of both of them, as had most of the cousins. Al had really worked hard to avoid the wrath of his mother and grandmother, with amazing success, not that he never did anything, but that he was very good at not getting caught. Of course, Lily was always the target of her mother and grandmother, but Lily did stupid things over and over, and was caught over and over. The rest of weekend Al spent plenty of time with Quidditch practice. The first match was between Gryffindor and Slytherin, and Al was not very confident in the ability of his team to make a good showing. Al did help Cleo with her homework, plus taught her a couple of additional Charms. Cleo was always so happy, so eager to do new things and meet new people, she seldom lacked for something to do, even when Al was busy with Quidditch. Both Al and Cleo reviewed the names of all the people they had met or did things with each evening, and as they did the number of people they knew steadily grew. Sunday night, both Al and Rose wrote to their parents. Al wrote, I guess it is all right being in Slytherin. I’m making new friends here. Scorpius and Rose are almost alike, scary alike and scary smart. If they get all the answers on tests they are not satisfied. They both want to know more. Sometimes I think they are not satisfied unless they know more than the teachers. Scorpius had a girl living at his house, a guest, Cleopatra Desiree Smith. I’ve never met anyone like her. She is almost as good at wand work as I am, and is as smart as they come. She just does magic differently, and it is really strange, but exciting, working with her. She is also the most enthusiast person I have ever met. I think she speaks in exclamation points!!! She is in the same dorm room as Rose, and the four of us study together. Your loving son, A.S. Potter Ginny read the letter about four times. She had heard about Cleo for years, but had never met her or had anyone describe her. She was going to have to meet this Cleopatra Desiree. She imagined her looking like a young blond little Fleur, or maybe as a cross between a young Fleur and Luna Lovegood. Luna was scary smart, too. Albus was still small for his age, so she would probably be a little girl. Ginny was anxious for the first Quidditch match when she would see the boys. Ginny then thought about the prophesies, and Albus meeting his soulmate. This Cleopatra was THAT female. It was really scary. Hermione and Ron also received a letter from Rose. Dear Mum and Dad, I expect you have heard that Albus was sorted into Slytherin. He is rooming with Scorpius Malfoy. I am rooming with Patty Finnigan and Chloe Chang Koizumi, and also with a girl who has been staying at the Malfoy’s, Cleopatra. Cleo and Al seem to have become good friends, and maybe that is why she and I seem to be spending a lot of time with Albus and Scorpius. We have all our classes together. They call us the Auror dorm, and Hanna McGonagall, Christy Shook and Olivia Wood are in our dorm room as well. Cleo is nice, but a little strange. She is so enthusiastic, so excited, she can be a little hard to live with. Albus seems to be able to calm her down a little. Cleo seems to be a little in awe of Albus. He is the best at actually doing magic, although I’ve been able to do everything so far. Scorpius is always trying to answer questions is class. It’s very frustrating! Every time I have my hand up his is up too. He hasn’t answered a question wrong yet. Of course I haven’t either. Every time I come up with some odd fact he has a different one. Mum, Dad, how do you deal with an insufferable know-it-all like Scorpius? Rose Hermione read the letter, and handed it to Ron. He saw the part about the ‘insufferable know-it-all,’ and looked at Hermione, and laughed, and laughed, and suddenly said, “NO! NO WAY.” “No what, Ron?” Hermione asked. “I just realized how I dealt with an insufferable know-it-all. I fell in love and married her. That’s SCORPIUS MALFOY she’s studying with.” “Scorpius is Al’s roommate, dear,” Hermione said. “I wouldn’t make too much of it.” |
| Reviews 77 |
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