Leave Out All The Rest

Everything

Leave Out All the Rest

Chapter 37: Everything 

POV: Albus

"Oi! Oi!"

At my ignored protests that started several halls away, I was shoved into the Headmistress' office with more force than was necessary. I stumbled down the short steps, almost crashing into one of the chairs in front of the regal desk. 

Alice Longbottom scoffed. "Woman up, Albie. I didn't even grab you that hard."

I turned to her, glaring. "Don't call me Albie!"

She smirked, bringing her hand up to her face, inspecting her nails lazily. "I did warn you karma was a bitch, didn't I?"

"Aha!" I pointed an accusatory finger at her. "I knew you had no business being in that classroom. You were just waiting around, biding your time before you could have an excuse to drag me here. I'll accuse you of slander of character, Ali. I swear."

"First, don't call me Ali," she said, raising a finger of her own. Then, as she raised another, she added, "Secondly,  I have class with you, you dimwit. It's not my fault you've never noticed because you've been so busy all these years checking out a certain Gryffindor girl. Third of all, you're right; this is my revenge."

"How was I supposed to know you were snogging Lysander Scamander in the abandoned Divination classroom?" I shouted. "Neville said he hadn't seen you and asked to borrow the map. He was worried—and threatened to take it from us unless we let him use it! If your father doesn't trust you, that's not my problem."

"He's only paranoid because Dominique went and got knocked-up. Had her teenage pregnancy been revealed outside of Hogwarts, then he wouldn't care too much about a secret snog or two."

I grimaced. "Please don't tell me you're shagging Scamander."

The Hufflepuff prefect rolled blue eyes at me. "Is that seriously what you got from all of this?" Before I could answer, she let out a giant, satisfactory sigh. "Anyway, be a good boy, will you, and wait for the Headmistress here. She'll want to hear all about you punching that Slytherin git."

"Alice," I groaned as she started walking away, "You can't leave me here!"

"McGonagall's already been notified," she said, tapping her prefect badge as if that bound her by honor to tell the Headmistress everything. "Off the record, though, nice punch, Albie. Broke the tosser's nose beautifully."

"Don't call me—ah, bloody hell," I huffed as she walked back the way she had dragged me in from, the echo of her snicker all she left behind. I turned back to the chair I almost broke my own nose on, placing my hands on the headrest. A sound of defeat escaped my mouth. 

Mum was going to kill me. 

In my five years at Hogwarts, I have never entered the Headmistress' office. I was not the type of student to misbehave (alike my dearest brother), nor was I the type of student who needed one-on-one praise (alike my dearest cousin Rose). I obeyed all rules as were decreed by the school, and I was an average student. I was good at being under the radar.

But now I had to go and break some bloke's nose. 

"Mum doesn't forgive chivalry," I mumbled to myself. "She's going to kill me via Howler. My first Howler, too. Ever. But she won't care about that. Even though James has ten now, in just this year, but sure, let's just punish Albie for—"