Albus Potter and the Hidden Tower

Chapter Fifteen: The Blank Book

Albus's eyes glazed over. He wasn't really reading the paper in front of him, just looking at it.

The basis of the Pocket Locking Charm lies in a variant of the Locking Charm, "Colloportus." The incantation is "Occludus poke," but it's composition is most interesting. While the Locking Charm is entirely derived entirely from Latin, the Pocket Locking Charm adds an adapted Anglo-Saxon noun as a modifier, lending the spell a fundamental difference to—

"Albus?" someone asked. "Hello?"

"Yeah." Albus closed the book. It was Finn. "You alright?"

"Yeah," said Finn. "I just... when was the last time you went out under the Cloak?"

"A month or so ago," said Albus.

He hadn't gone back to the Chamber after that night he overslept. He'd flirted with the idea, even going to far as to remove the Cloak from his trunk and cast it over his shoulders, but something stopped him whenever he tried walking out the door to the dormitory.

"Why?" Albus asked.

Finn rubbed his hands together. "I think I've found something."

"Meaning?"

"Remember that piece of parchment I found the other day?"

"The one that's impossible to read?"

"Sure," said Finn, his smile unwavering. "I've figured it out. Where it goes, I mean."

Albus instinctively glanced around the common room. It was nearly empty. The minutes left in the day were winding down, and the windows showing the lake outside were dark and murky.

"Is it important?" Albus asked.

"No," said Finn. "Well, kind of."

"Even then, don't worry about it."

"Consider it my birthday present to you."

Albus looked at Finn sharply. "You know?"

Finn nodded. "Talia told me. She had the idea to do something, and I suggested this. You almost caught us talking about it a few weeks ago."

Albus remembered; Talia had hit him on the nose.

"She'll join us," said Finn, "if you're up for it at all."

Albus felt flattered. He didn't like advertising his birthday, but his parents had thrown a celebration for his eleventh that was anything but quiet. This would be his first birthday away from home, and the casual nature of it all felt oddly... nice?