Harry Potter: 19 Years Later

Chapter 52: Therapy Session

The first Quidditch match of the season was in 5 days; Slytherin vs Gryffindor.

And was Albus prepared? Not by the slightest bit.

Albus hated not being able to say no to his friends, which always led him to do stupid things for them. And somehow, he'd earned himself the Keeper position on the Gryffindor Quidditch team. The only Quidditch experience he'd had in the past was portraying a practice pawn for James whenever he practiced off season. Albus never considered playing the game for real. Scorpius seriously owed him big time.

The whole school was buzzing about Quidditch, which didn't ease Albus's nerves about the upcoming match. What made it worse was when everyone found out he was the new Keeper for Gryffindor's team. Now there was even more pressure on him to do as well as James did. Albus really despised being compared to his popular, all-around brother. It really made him feel like more of a loser than he thought he already was.

You need to have more confidence, boy, Godric Gryffindor repeated in Albus's mind for what seemed like the thousandth time that day.

Oh yes, he was still pestering Albus mentally. Which really didn't fix his self esteem issue at the moment.

Easy for you to say, Albus retorted. You're Godric Gryffindor! You're basically the face of bravery.

Godric didn't reply, which Albus expected.

Mondays were always dreadful, but this one was especially horrid due to his anxiety. Albus couldn't stop replaying worst-case scenarios in his mind of everything that could go wrong on Saturday's match. He knew that was only making it worse.

After completely bombing a History of Magic exam and nearly singeing his own eyebrows off from getting too close to a particularly grouchy fire crab in Care of Magical Creatures, the day was finally over. He ended up stumbling into the Gryffindor common room, near exhaustion, and sending a candlestick holder crashing into the wall. Great, now his powers were acting up.

Through his experience with his abnormal reincarnation powers, Albus learned that venting his feelings to someone usually helps whenever he's feeling stressed. This comes in handy so he doesn't end up magically causing everything in the room to combust or something.

For this particular situation, Albus, for some reason, didn't really want to share his confidence issue with Holly. He found it embarrassing to talk to his girlfriend about how lousy he currently felt. And Albus knew Scorpius was probably about to have a mental breakdown from the amount of stress about Quidditch, so that option was out. There was one other person that Albus knew he could always rely on no matter what.

He cautiously rapped his knuckles against Rose's door, knowing she might be studying and not in the mood to talk. He heard shuffling behind the closed door, and quiet footsteps heading over to open it. Albus recognized Rose's footsteps, which were light like a dancer's. She wasn't stomping, so that was a good sign that she probably wasn't angry that she got interrupted. Albus took a deep breath, ready to get everything he was feeling off his chest.

Rose swung her door open, and a smile spread across her face when her eyes landed on Albus. She was wearing a Gryffindor Quidditch jumper, plain gray sweatpants, and her frizzy hair was tied up in a messy bun, with her wand stuck in it like a pencil. Those were her ideal studying clothes. And judging by the array of open books and clutters of balled up parchment scattered around the room, Rose had been studying for quite some time and wasn't about to quit. Typical Rose.

"Hey, Al. What brings you here?" Rose asked, smiling. Then her face suddenly fell. "Wait, we don't have Quidditch practice today, do we? God, I can't keep track of the schedule when I have so much studying to do! Do you realize exams are in a month and I-"