Raising Albus

CH 11 Harry's New Elves

Thanks to FriendofMolly for encouragement and helpful tweaks.

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Two thousand and twelve started out as a reasonably normal year for Harry and Ginny. There was progress on all fronts with the Auror Department, and progress with all the other responsibilities that Harry was carrying. Oh, there was drama in the Middle East, but little of it involved danger to the Aurors under Harry's supervision. Drama in the Muggle world was not always drama in the world of the Magi.

Ginny's Quidditch column was popular, and she was doing some editing of material being submitted by what they called 'stringers,' Magi who were mostly avid fans of one team, who knew their favorite team much better than Ginny ever could. The best stringers could get articles published in their own name, and although Ginny had a very flexible schedule she was close to working full time. During the Quidditch season Ginny put in long hours on the weekend getting her part of the paper put together.

Harry also learned that Donna Lionheart was helping Ginny with the column. It seemed that Ginny had a hard time remembering what she had written before, and the further back it was the harder it was for her to remember. Donna had a fantastic memory for Quidditch, although she was no great writer.

"There is a good reason Bill and I were in Hufflepuff," Donna admitted. "Neither of us was smart enough to be in Ravenclaw or had the bravery to be in Gryffindor."

Most of the teaching of the children was being done by other people, including Molly and Audrey, and Jean Granger in the case of Albus and Rose. Ginny did put in a reasonable number of hours with the home schooling, but of course she did not have to clean the house or make most of the meals, because of the house elves. Harry and Ginny took turns standing over Lily trying to get her to finish her homework. They had to do very little of this type of supervision with James.

Albus had to be watched for other reasons. He and The Department for the Regulation of Underage Magic had continued their battle. Albus was caught performing magic for the most trivial of reasons. He never came close to revealing anything magic to Muggles. He never got mad when they asked him what he was doing, and tried to be reasonably honest. Often enough Albus had no idea why the Department Inspectors were mad at him, and often they would not tell him. Harry and Ginny emphasized to Albus that he had to keep magic secret from Muggles, except Uncle Dudley and Grandmum Jean, of course, but otherwise supported him, and if Albus did not get mad and Harry only became mildly annoyed, Ginny on occasion exploded at one of the inspectors.

Since music lessons were in Muggle space it was one, regularly scheduled place where The Department for Underage Magic could try and catch Albus at magic.

Toward the end of January Albus was at a music lesson, and the door to the studio opened and everybody's sheet music blew on the floor, except Albus's. One of the other students asked, "Al, what kind of magic did you do keep your sheet music from flying?"

"I guess the wind just didn't catch it," Al suggested, as he made one of the pages flutter to the ground. He picked the music up and put it back on the music stand.

The teacher volunteered, "We usually use clothes pins, these things with springs, to hold music when it is windy." She brought out four clothes pins and pinned her music to the music stand.

Al realized that he had been holding music onto the stand with magic, and that he would have to stop.

That night there was a letter from Ursula Crabbe, again, this time not only complaining something had happened but saying that, "Albus used magic to hold his music on his music stand, and other people noticed."