Albus Potter, Classmates and Elves

Ch 54 A Problem Like

This is the last chapter in this book. The next book is already started, Albus Potter, Friends and Foes.

I want to thank my two fantastic Beta readers. Deb has contributed some key dialogue. Both Diane and Deb have questioned some of what I have written, and in responding to their critiques they have made the book much better.

*

Minerva looked over the Great Hall Sunday morning. Albus and Cleopatra were eating with a group of MELL students, including Scorpius and Rose, Jesus and Ginny. The Ravenclaw Magi and Elf Language Learners, Jean-Louis Felion, Gabrielle DuMond, and Sarah Firewalker, were sitting across from Albus, engaged in some sort of discussion. Interspersed among the Magi were the Elves they were raised with, and Minerva assumed the discussion had something to do with the Elfish language.

Albus was the acknowledged leader of the MELL students, at least once Galadriel was gone. Galadriel seemed to be the acknowledged leader of the group that included Elves, but she and her consort Thorin the Goblin were busy meeting with all the beings that shared Elf and Goblin DNA, and the pair only occasionally showed up at Hogwarts.

Actually, Albus was probably the acknowledged leader of all the students, despite only going into fourth year. Everyone knew that he knew all the spells, even seventh year and beyond. He also knew many of the most prominent leaders of the magical community, including all the Magi who had been Chief Mugwump, the Prophets in Switzerland, Kingsley Shacklebolt, and even herself. Albus was not the kind of leader to force himself into a position of leadership, but the kind that others would acknowledge as leader because of who and what he knew and how he handled himself.

Then you had Cleopatra. She was as powerful a Magi as she had ever met, and her magic was way too close to being out of control. She almost levitated the whole castle, for Merlin's sake! Magic was very powerful, and Minerva had encountered way too many Magi who had lost control of their magic, often with tragic results. Luna Lovegood's mother was only one of many Magi she knew or knew about who had died or been seriously maimed, or who had killed or maimed others, by not controlling their magic.

Someone with Cleo's powers ought to be able to advance magical knowledge, but Cleo neither really understood her powers nor was particularly interested in understanding them. What do you do with a problem like Cleopatra?

*

"Cleo and I have to meet with Professor McGonagall," Albus announced as the two of them arose from the table. Gabrielle DuMond made a face indicating her displeasure. She looked at Rose and Scorpius, and then at Jesus and Ginny, noticing that none of them were going to accompany Albus and Cleo, before starting in again on the discussion on how to translate certain terms into Elfish. Gabrielle was brilliant, but she seemed to think that abstract knowledge was the key to solving all problems. She was also jealous of Jesus and Ginny's closeness to Albus. Gabrielle was ambitious, but not a particularly good politician.

Albus and Cleo met Professor McGonagall, and the three walked side by side up to Professor McGonagall's office. The Professor was wearing a lightweight dress that flattered her figure, something much more comfortable than robes in the middle of the summer. Albus was wearing what they called Bermuda Shorts, the legs long enough to have a wand pocked that would hold his wand, and a lightweight shirt with a collar.

Cleo was wearing what Muggles called a sun dress, except it was a distinctly Cleopatra sun dress, with the wand pocket, two other pockets, and decorations of growing plants and flowers that seemed to emphasize the fertility and expansiveness that was Cleo. There was a distinctly feminine way most female hips moved, but it seemed to be exaggerated in Cleo, and her dress seemed almost charmed to emphasize instead of hiding her sexy walk. As a female Cleo's excess on top, and the way she celebrated it, made Minerva regret that she had never nursed a baby. Minerva never understood how a female with all the excess shape of Cleo could make you think maternal thoughts, but that was part of the mystery that was Cleo.