Albus Severus Potter (A Harry Potter fanfic)

Gone

'Finish writing about the development of the Wolfsbane Potion for homework. Don't forget to write about the latest changes, which happened after the Battle of Hogwarts. It's a key point to write about. And I want no less than 16 inches of work,' said Professor Langdon.

'What?!' Albus whispered to Rose. 'That's so much!'

'It's not that much,' said Rose, as she looked at her work which was already about 12 inches.

'But I've only done this much.' Albus looked at his poorly written 2 inches of work.

'It honestly wouldn't be as much as if you had actually worked in the lesson.'

'But I was talking. So were you. How did you manage to do so much while you were talking.'

'It wasn't that hard: you talked for ages, I said a few words and then you talked for ages again.'

'Oh.'

'Yeah.'

'Quiet at the back there,' called out Professor Langdon. 'I'll be collecting in your essays tomorrow, so they'd better be ready.'

The silence broke instantly, and chatter broke out among the students. Albus swept his books into his bag, which landed with a thud. He turned to Rose, who was putting her books in her bag properly.

'You're going to break something one day. Maybe not your books, but maybe your bottle of ink, your quill, your arm...' said Rose, putting away her own quill and ink properly.

'They have Unbreakable Charms on them,' pointed out Albus.

'Yeah, but your arm doesn't.'

'So? It's not like I can break that by putting my books in my bag.'

'The charm makes your stuff heavy. And we have a ton books. And I might break your arm one day out of annoyance. Or boredom - whichever comes first.'

Albus shot her a look of fake sadness, to which she replied with a sarcastic smile.

'What do I write about for this anyway?' asked Albus.

Rose opened her mouth to answer, and then closed it again.

'Why don't you try and figure it out yourself for once?'

She hurried off through to catch up with her friends, while Albus, who couldn't get through the crowd, was stuck wondering how to get his homework done.

∞

After dinner Albus headed up to the Common Room with a some of the other Gryfindor's, including his friends. As they walked up the stairs, they suddenly moved to the right. The groans of the Gryffindor's echoed thorugh the space. The Gryffindor's began to walk towards their Tower, which was now a lot further away. Albus, who was in the middle of the crowd, noticed someone join the crowd - his brother. Albus caught up to him.

'Hey,' he said.

'Hmm?' James looked up. 'Oh, hi.'

'What? Did someone steal your Zonko's?' Albus teased.

James stared blankly at Albus. 'Yes, and now my heart is broken, and will never be whole again,' he said sarcastically.

After this, James hurried forwards and Albus lost him in the crowd. It had been a while since Albus had seen James, because James had missed the all of last weeks Quidditch practices.

Later, when Albus reaslied he had to finish his Wolfsbane essay, he decided to find James in his dorm. Albus went up the stairs and found James' dorm.

'Hey.'

'What?' James said, he sounded annoyed.

'What's up with you today? Never mind.' Albus decided against finding out what was wrong. 'Help with this essay.'

'Hmm?'

He read the title, and went to get a book from his trunk. After a little rumaging, he found a large, book.

'Here, there's loads in it.'

Albus opened it and looked down the contents.

'Thanks,' said Albus, and he left to do his essay.

∞

The next day, Albus headed to Potions with his 16 inches of half-decent work. He spotted a few friends sitting at a table near the back, and sat down with them.

'Hey, did you do the homework?' asked Tom.

Albus looked up at him. 'Err, I tried.'

Tom breathed out, visibly relaxing. 'Thank god. At least I won't be the only one with a bad essay.'

'Hey! Who said mine was bad?!' said Albus, pretending to be appalled.

'I did.'

'Oh well that sucks.'

'Yup.'

The boys half-laughed at their nonsensical conversation.

∞

In the evening Albus headed to Quidditch practice. The team was trying as hard as they could to get Albus back in shape for the Quidditch matches, Albus had told the Gryffindors that he had to prepare for the Tasks, and later that he had to recover. Now, the Gryffindors reserve player had caught some disease and had to go to St Mungo's.

Everyone was just warming up - doing laps, passing around the Quaffle, hitting the Bludgers to and fro. After a while, Albus noticed James hadn't arrived, James almost never missed practice.

'Hey, where's James?' Albus asked the Keeper - one of James' friends.

'No idea, I think he decided to ditched everything today, wasn't in any of his lessons. Well, not the ones with me anyway.'