Albus Potter and the Healing Springs

Right before him, Taylor Jones hit the floor as everyone in the Gryffindor common room gasped. A few kids immediately ran to get help, and Jones' friends came to his aid. Albus stood there frozen, confused, and scared. 

Taylor Jones wasn't speaking, his pupils turned microscopic so you could only really see a pool of blue in his eyes. Tracy Edwards checked his heart and it was still beating. "He's still breathing!" she screamed while a flood of tears ran down her face. 

"Not dead," Albus thought. "Thank goodness he's not dead," 

It took a few moments for Neville to come through the portrait hole accompanied by Madame Pomfrey. 

She didn't ask anyone what happened, she just had Neville pick him up, and they scurried off. Everyone made sure to get out of their way as they went through this process. Alex and Ronnie were still by the couch, staring in shock, very similar to everyone else. 

Albus didn't know what to feel, or think. He started walking off slowly to the dormitories. Zoning out on the world, he couldn't hear anyone, not even Alex calling out his name behind him. 

All Albus could think about was that he was right. Taylor Jones and the Blast-Ended Skrewt had a connection. Jones had just entered the next phase of whatever they were going through. 

Alex grabbed his shoulder, and stopped him. That's when he was taken out of thought, and suddenly the outside world was coming back to him.

Everyone looked scared, tears were running down Taylor Jones' friends. Tracy Edwards evidently left to be with him at the hospital wing. 

It seemed as thought Ronnie suddenly appeared next to Albus when she quietly asked, "What's wrong?"

"I have something to tell you. The both of you," spatted Albus. 

"Albus, please, calm down a bit. Come sit," guided Alex. The trio then sat on a couch next to the fire place. Majority of the Gryffindors went up to their dorms to discuss their theories as to what happened. 

Albus sat staring into the fire, shocked. He did believe the conspiracy before, but watching Jones collapse so suddenly proved to him that there was definitely something wrong going on. He had no doubt about it. 

"Albus, tell us what happened!" demanded Ronnie. 

"I visited Hagrid, the Skrewt was alive but clearly drained of any strength. But just likes Jones, still alive. The thing that bothered me though was that on my way to Hagrids I saw Jake Webster running out of the Forbidden Forest," recounted Albus.

"I knew it! I told you!" shouted Alex. 

"This isn't exactly a good thing though, is it?!" screamed Ronnie.

"Let me finish!" shouted Albus, and the two went quiet. "He just kept running, and after I told Hagrid that it was him causing all the trouble, he didn't believe me," 

"It is kind of hard to believe, but the truth will come out sooner or later. Do you think we should go to McGonagall about this?" asked Ronnie. 

"I don't know what we should do. I wanted to ask Jones if he could remember what attacked him. We need to find this monster," said Albus. 

"But what exactly would we do if we did find this monster? We've been here for a few months, yes we know some spells, but we aren't up for actual fighting," said Alex. 

Albus spent time wondering where the monster could be hiding, but never about what he would do if he found it. So he strayed from answering Alex's question directly. 

"Christmas break is coming up, I don't want to bother McGonagall with this right now. Let's wait until after our vacations to tell her," Albus pitched. 

Alex and Ronnie agreed with the motion, and decided it was time for them all to go to bed. 

But before departing, Ronnie stopped Albus. "You know what the only good thing about all this is?"

"What?" asked Albus. What in Merlin's beard was going through her head? Nothing about this was good.

"You're focusing on more important things, and stopped obsessing over Bella," 

"Goodnight" said Albus very annoyed. 

Ronnie just laughed as she went up the stairs to the girls dormitories. Alex and Albus went to theirs, and got into bed quickly. It had been a long night for everyone, especially Albus. 

As hard as it was to admit though, Ronnie was right. He had stopped talking about Bella constantly. Even stopped thinking about her. Ever since their last encounter, he's been too preoccupied that he feels as though he hasn't even seen her for weeks. 

It was no matter though, because there were more important things going on. It wasn't until Albus was barely awake did he realize that he forgot to mention the statue he saw. "It wasn't important though," he thought to himself just before he drifted to sleep. 

* * * 

Albus was running through a haze, not knowing where he was going. The world seemed to be spinning, and it suddenly took hault. About twenty feet away from him, he could only see what he made out to be two large frames...

... and then he woke up. 

"Albus, if you don't get ready soon we'll be late for class!" yelled Alex. 

"Our first class is potions, I'm not in a rush to see Professor Verana," whined Albus. 

Alex laughed and then left the room to meet up with Ronnie and wait for Albus down stairs. 

While Albus was getting ready, he tried to remember what he dreamt about. He didn't have much recollection, but he could remember that it wasn't a nightmare. That was a relief. 

It wasn't until he was about to leave, that Albus noticed that Jake Webster had already left the dormitory. He didn't seem like the type to get to class early. 

Albus wanted to question him, but he needed more proof. He also had no idea what he would say. Albus was never the kind of person to get involved in situations that didn't exactly involve him, but this was starting to. He then went off to meet his friends before he kept them waiting too long. 

"I'm sorry to say I'm not very impressed by the very little progress that we've been making in this class," declared Professor Verana. "Or shall I say, that you've been making?" 

The classroom had changed over the past few months that they've had Verana. She displayed pictures of unrelated material on the walls that were supposed to be "funny" such as pixies telling jokes, or ogres playing Quidditch. 

The supplies was out of order, and many bottles and potions were broken and spilled. However, Verana made no effort to clean any of it up. 

As time went by, Verana also kept getting sloppier and sloppier herself. It seemed that she put on an act the first month, and slowly became more and more unprofessional. Where did McGonagall get this lady, Albus thought. 

Everyone quit arguing with Verana, even Alex gave up on trying to get a real lesson out of her. She was in no shape or form, a good teacher. Because of her lack of teaching, it basically felt like there was no teacher. 

So potions class was what it began as, a place where Albus could catch up with Rose and the rest of the Ravenclaws. 

"Have you guys heard what happened?" asked Ronnie. 

Rose, Laura and Kara all nodded with worried looks. Jane looked really sad though. 

"Are you okay?" asked Ronnie. 

"Jane saw for herself what was happening.." explained Rose. 

"I had to go to the hospital wing to send Madame Pomfrey a message from Professor Churchill, and there I saw him, laying down looking very pale with bloodshot eyes. Madame Pomfrey had a team of witches helping her get him ready to send to St. Mungos. I overheard them say he is dying," recounted Jane. "Don't go around telling people though, it's his personal business," 

The small group of friends didn't say anything, just looked at eachother and the floor in silence. 

"His poor family, Chrismas vacation is next week and he'll be spending it at St. Mungos," said Alex. 

"I'm sure they'll spend it with him there," said Kara. 

After hearing the news of Taylor Jones' state, Albus wasn't able to enjoy the time he had to spend with his friends during their free period. In his next class, Transfiguration, Albus seemed to have been captivated by Bella again now that he was around her again, but went back to being sorrowful in Charms. He didn't even take part in informing Johnny on everything that was happening. 

By the time their classes were over with, the trio was depressed. From hearing about Taylor Jones and talking about Taylor Jones, they had no idea what to think anymore. 

Half way to the Gryffindor common room, Alex told his friends he was going off to the library. Alex was the only one who hadn't given up on the Healing Springs, and had a few more books in mind to finding details about it. 

"Do you really want to spend your last day at Hogwarts in the library? You do remember that we are leaving for vacation right," reminded Albus. 

"Much more reason as to why I need to go now! I hope to find at least one book that will help. I'll be able to read it over the break," explained Alex. 

"Have fun then," said Ronnie with a light smile.

It wasn't that Albus and Ronnie didn't approve of Alex's curiousity, but they weren't completely thrilled about it either. Plus all the time he was spending alone in the library made them feel bad. 

"Why don't we follow him? Surprise him or something," pitched Ronnie. 

"Sure! We'll be able to help him find a book afterwards," 

Albus and Ronnie started too late, and couldn't find Alex. However, they knew he was going to the library so they just made their trip there. 

Madame Prince the librarian greeted the two as they walked in, but they still couldn't see Alex. 

As they looked around a bit, they found Johnny looking through a couple of books. 

"Hey, do you know where Alex is?" asked Ronnie. 

"Erm - nope, I - I can't say I do," said Johnny nervously. 

"Uh okay.." awkwardly replied Ronnie. 

Right then, Alex showed up with three medium sized boxes. 

"Johnny they've finally came-" said Alex. "What - what are you guys doing here?!" 

"We were just going to come help you look for a book, what are you doing?" asked Albus. 

"What's in those boxes?!" yelled Ronnie. 

"You guys - I can't tell you!" said Alex. 

"Why can't you?" asked Albus. 

"Fine - it won't be much of a surprise now anyway. These are your Christmas presents. I was going to give them to you guys on the train tomorrow," explained Alex. 

"I want mine now! Wow I didn't even know we were exchanging gifts!" said Ronnie. "I wrote you guys something, so I'll give them to you tomorrow," 

"I got you guys something too," said Johnny with a smile. 

Albus seemed to be the only one who didn't have anything to offer his friends. Too preoccupied with all the attacks, family problems, and Bella. He felt really and had a day to figure out what he could give his friends.

"Yeah, I do too," he lied. 

"So do you want yours now or tomorrow?" asks Alex as he gave Ronnie her present. 

"I'll wait," said Albus as Ronnie opened her present. 

"Oh my gosh! Thank you!" yelled Ronnie, which caused Madame Prince to shush them. Inside the box was golden embroided Quidditch gear. "How much did this cost you?!" 

"Don't worry about it. Really it's nothing," humbly said Alex. 

So Alex was rich? Truthfully now thinking about it, Albus didn't know much about Alex's not Ronnie's home lives. There still seemed to be a lot more to learn about his bestfriends. 

"Wait so have you just been planning these presents the whole time? Or have you been actually researching," asked Ronnie as she tried on her new Quidditch gear. 

"Half of both," laughed Alex. "But now I can devote the rest of the day to looking for a book. Otherwise I'll have to look in my library at home," 

"Well we will help you then. Where should we look?" asked Albus. 

"Anywhere really. I was thinking of some history books since Professor Longbottom told me the legend started a decade or so ago," said Alex. 

"Alright then, let's do this!" exclaimed Ronnie now fully geared up. This caused Madame Prince to shush them again. 

The four of them split up looking for a book, a few of them had some mention of the Healing Springs, but no details. The most they could find is that no one had found it. What a help that was.

An hour passed by and they were still looking for information, using their last day at Hogwarts before break to research. The upside to this was that no one else was in the library anymore so they had their privacy. 

"I found something," said Ronnie. 

"About the springs? Please tell me theirs a map in there," joked Alex. 

"Nope, not about the springs," said Ronnie flatly, which caused her friends to give her confused looks. "Listen to this, 'During the second wizarding war in which Harry Potter defeated Lord Voldemort, many of his followers (also known as Death Eaters) were deceased as well. Including his most trusted follower, mass murderer Bellatrix Lestrange. She was killed by Molly Weasley in her attempt to protect her children. No word of Bellatrix Lestrange's husband Rodolphus. The Lestrange line was supposed to have ended until it was discovered that they have one child," 

"You can't be thinking-" started Albus. 

"I told you!" yelled Ronnie. "Bella is evil! It's in her blood,"