Albus Potter and the Healing Springs

Albus was still upset that he and Ronnie hadn’t made up and a week had already passed. Even Alex’s awkward attempts to reunite his friends proved to be futile. Albus was also a bit annoyed that he just become Ronnie’s friend and they had somehow got into an argument that has lasted almost as long as their friendship. The bitter cold months were approaching and it was evident to anyone at Hogwarts that it would not be long before all of its students were equipped with heavy coats, gloves, and scarves; it was as if the weather was a mirror-image of Albus’ irritation. The leaves were almost dead on the floor and Filch, the caretaker,was fulfilling his usual role as the school’s prat.

“I saw him walking around with some cat; her name is Mrs. Norris,” said Ronnie disgustingly. “What an odd name for a cat.”

“Oh I love cats! I have one back at home. She’s a kitten actually; her name is Peeky!” said Alex happily.

“Why didn’t you bring her to Hogwarts?” asked Albus very interested. He always wanted a pet but he wasn’t very good with animals. Plus, he wasn’t entirely sure what pet he’d want. An owl? A cat? A toad?

“I wanted to get to know the place before I brought Peeky here, but hopefully I can bring her next year,” explained Alex.

Ronnie would only really talk to Alex which it made it awkward for Albus. Albus sent his letter to his parents in the morning before he forgot to. From everything that has been going on, he kept postponing his attempt to send it. He didn’t add anything to it, especially nothing about how he had fallen off his broom, but James sent his own letter telling them anyways.

“I can’t wait to see what mum and dad say,” giggled James. “I mean, come on, little brother, Dad even bought you a toy broom like he did me. And even then you could control it!”

Albus threw an irritated look at James. His brother had been extra annoying latey, and with managing his leisure time and homework time and the perpetual feud with Ronnie, the last thing Albus wanted to hear was James’ usual mockery.

“Why don’t I send them all the detentions you get every week from Professor Belikov for bothering the first years? I’m sure they’ll be thrilled to hear about it!” sneered Albus, content with James’ hostile facial expression. Both of them knew it was true, but James was not one that enjoyed being ridiculed. Albus, of course, loved turning the tables on his brother.

“I’d keep my mouth shut if I was you, little brother. Don’t want your girlfriend over there to hear you saying such things, now do you?” whispered James, audible only for Albus. That did it. Albus turned on his heel and walked in the other direction. He needed some time alone, without Ronnie, without Alex, and especially without James. Two steps later, however, Albus realized that he still had Charms class to attend. He still was not in the mood to be around people, though, so he took a slightly longer route. Alex and Ronnie, having only briefly paused to hear fragments of the spat between the two brothers, walked to Charms together, only a bit confused at Albus’ anger.

“Spongify, the softening charm,” said a tiny man in dark blue robes. Professor Flitwick, the Charms professor. His tiny body matched his squeaky voice perfectly.

“Students. Watch carefully,” said Flitwick as he grabbed a rock from a basket next to his desk and started waving his wand around. Flitwick then plummeted the rock at a Hufflepuff student, since the class was comprised of both Gryffindors and Huffelpuffs. Yet instead of wails of pain as it hit the Hufflepuff boy’s arm, the class still remained silent as ever.

“You see class! Spongify can even turn a rock into a softball! Now, you try! Remember, Spongi-fy!” and the class darted to the basket of rocks. All except Albus, Ronnie, and Alex. Ronnie and Albus both refused to be the ones to get the rocks, and Alex was looking at the Hufflepuff boy he remembered as Jonathan.

He was just sitting there, playing with his quill. Alex watched him closely. “Why?” he whispered to himself. “He’s not doing anythinginteresting, just messing about with his quill …”

“Greenfield!” yelled Flitwick and Alex quickly looked up, Flitwick was staring right at him. “Grab a rock, your wand and get to work! You and your friends! Same applies to you Willingham, get moving. Come on!”

All four of them stood up and walked up to the front desk. Alex put his hand in the basket and reached for a rock. He skulked back to his desk to join Albus and Ronnie.

“What’s up with you? Don’t tell me you’re upset about getting in a little trouble,” Ronnie asked Alex jokingly.

“What? Oh! Nothing, just thinking,” said Alex with a little too much enthusiasm.

“Right, okay then,” Ronnie answered, not buying his claims for even a second.

Albus seemed to be in a distant planet, unnerved by Ronnie’s and Alex’s joking. He was still in a bad mood from the spat before class, and he was hoping that maybe the spell will lighten his mood.

“We better get to work then?” asked Alex. “Who wants to try first?”

Ronnie gave him an annoyed look; it was obvious that despite her joking, spells were not her strong point, and she was slightly irritated that Alex had suggested she be the first to try an entirely new one. “No, why don’t you let Albus do it. Since he obviously always knows what’s best about everything,” she snapped, perhaps with a little more rage than she intended.

Alex looked at Albus sympathically and Albus shook his head. He was completely tired of all this fighting, and didn’t know why Ronnie was so mad at him. She was the one that pushed him off his broomstick! She deserves to be on the bad end of this mess! Albus thought to himself. He knew she felt bad; he saw her looking at him from behind the door in the Hospital Wing. She was definitely guilty, but was too stubborn to admit it. Albus was tired of trying to mend this friendship if she didn’t want to as well.

“Fine I’ll do it then,” snapped Alex. “Spongify!”

Alex pointed his wand at a medium sized rock and then stared at it. “Has it worked? I guess Ill have to try it out.” In the middle of saying that, Alex threw the rock at Ronnie.

“Oi! You did it wrong! I thought you were suppose to be good at everything?!” yelled Ronnie.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to-“

“Just let me do it!” snapped Ronnie as she pointed her own wand at the rock and said “Spongify!”

Ronnie threw the rock at Albus and he didn’t remark. It didn’t hurt at all; Ronnie had done it right.

“That’s great Ronnie! I’m really proud of y-” said Alex before Ronnie interrupted him.

“Yeah, yeah. Just keep trying, it isn’t that hard,” said Ronnie while looking a little disappointed that she had gotten the spell right and Albus hadn’t been harmed.

“I guess you do everything better when you’re mad, Ronnie. First flying, and now this,” said Alex smiling weakly and Ronnie smiled while rolling her eyes, finding an underlying film of playfulness in Alex’s tone.

Ronnie and Alex kept working on the charm, but Albus was thinking of other things. Had it been Jones that he heard the other night screaming in the corridors? He was a prefect; who would attack him? He showed up a few days after their encounter in the Gryffindor common room with bruises but assured to everyone that he was alright.

But it’s impossible. That couldn’t have been him, because Albus was sure he had imagined it all. How would a huge creature be in Hogwarts? Wasn’t this suppose to be the safest place to be? Albus didn’t want to ask but he conveniently overheard some Gryffindors ask Jones what happened to him. He said that he didn’t remember a thing, but that he was alright now even though he felt very weak. His bruises were very noticable the first time Albus saw them, but they started to fade away.

The class was coming to a rather abrupt end. Rocks littered the classroom floor and only a one (Ronnie’s) had actually turned into the spongy-rock they were supposed to be. It was lunch now and they were heading for the door out of the classroom. As Alex walked through the arch doorway he bumped straight into the Hufflepuff boy named Jonathan.

“Sorry, I wasn’t looking where-” Jonathan started. His voice was soft and deep. He had a very strong accent, too. His hair was brown and his eyes were a bright, emerald green.

“No, It’s my fault I wasn’t concentrating,” Alex explained.

“Come on!” Ronnie shouted after Alex. “We haven’t got all day, you know! We’ve got some Defense Against the Dark Arts to learn! Don’t want to miss a lesson, now do we, Awex?” giggled Ronnie because of the nickname she just came up for Alex. This was a sign that Ronnie’s mood was clearly improving, in spite of Albus’ presence next to her.

After a long awkward pause Alex finally spoke “Hey, ermm, do you want to, maybe, come and hang around with us?”

“Well, I’ve got a lot of Potions work to catch up on…” Jonathan started. “Sure. Lead the way,” he said smiling.

“Oh! Hello stranger?” said Ronnie looking confused as the two walked up to them.

“Hi,” Jonathan said awkwardly as all four of them walked to Defense Against the Dark Arts. Coincidentally, they had that class together, too, in addition to their Flying lessons. It seems they had the whole of Tuesday together! The trio didn’t even notice its whole Tuesday was with the Hufflepuffs last week, and frankly, Alex was a bit more content about the idea than he should have been.

Stepping into Professor Belikov’s, all four of them took their seats. The room had a staircase at the opposite end of the classroom that lead to a door that remained closed. Albus hoped, simply for the sake of the fact that the stories his brother had told him about the Dark Arts, that the door remained closed. All the tales James had recounted about these soulless creatures called Dementors terrified Albus.

“I am Professor Belikov. In this classroom, you will show me the utmost respect possible. My philosphy is that before you can even stand a chance against the Dark Arts, you must first learn proper discipline. Seeing as you will all be here for several years, I have enough time to drill it in you. After you have been taught what you must know, only then can you know how to defend yourself properly. That is where this class will help you,” declared Professor Belikov.

His voice caught the entire room’s attention and everyone had been holding his breath. All of the children, after just these few sentences, respected the Professor, but Alex in paritcular clinged to every words and already began taking notes. Perhaps it was because he was such a strong advocate of discipline, but Alex was now looking forward to DADA with Professor Belikov as often as possible. “Why does Alex try so hard?” Thought Albus.

“Now, do not mistaken me for the nanny the caretaker is. I believe there is a higher level of respect, well above walking around with a cat and complaining about students out of bed.” Professor Belikov scrunched his nose in obvious dislike; this comment appealed the most to Albus, who, despite the fact that he was not a troublemaker, was constantly annoyed by Filch.

The rest of the class consisted of Professor Belikov’s disciplinary theory. Alex seemed to have fallen in love with the professor and Albus had taken a newfound interest in the subject; but then again, so did everyone else. Even Ronnie couldn’t take her eyes off him; but truth be told, it was obvious that all the girls were just staring at him because of his devilish good looks.

The class was dismissed promptly and Albus, Alex, Ronnie, and Jonathan walked out together. Hoever, instead of voicing their remarks on Professor Belikov, they all remained mostly silent.

As they walked, the four of them only issued small, awkward sentences. Through all the small talk, though, they had managed to arrange to meet up again after they had eaten.

After about ten minutes, the four were stood in the entrance hall saying nothing.

“Why don’t we go down to the field and let him introduce himself?” Albus whispered to Ronnie and Alex. The four of them walked out the huge front doors and sat down on the green grass in a tight circle.

“So. um, this is awkward but, can you like introduce yourself?” Ronnie asked laughing, breaking the ice and returning to her usual, bubbly personality.

Jonathan half smiled. “Sure, ermm. Well, my name’s Jonathan, but please, call me Johnny. Ermm. I’m from Liverpool. And… . well… . yeah. Ermm,” There was a long pause. Too long Albus thought. Johnny finally piped up. “God, I’m terrible at introducing myself,” He said laughing, following Ronnie’s lead.

The quartet parted ways soon after, but Albus thought he heard Alex mention something about seeing Johnny soon.

***

A week had passed since the Charms class on which they met, and Johnny had slowly started to become a really good friend of Albus, Ronnie and Alex. They had learned a lot more about him in this week and they often exchanged stories from each others’ common rooms. They always liked to meet by a tree in the corner of the grounds.

“And then Sarah Whitehall said she’d seen a real life unicorn fighting a troll!” Ronnie told them, eyes beaming.

“That’s stupid! A Unicorn couldn’t do that!” Johnny argued.

The Hufflepuff common room seemed to be a lively place full of gossip from what Johnny was saying.

“I heard a girl in the common room say she looked a Basalisk right in the eye. And survived!” He explained, his face filling with excitement.

“Not possible at all!” shouted Alex. “I’ve read in ‘The Monster Book of Monsters’ that no one has ever survived looking a Basilisk in the eye. If you even see a reflection of the thing, you’re bloody petrified!”

“Way to ruin the story,” said Ronnie. But after she saw Alex get a little upset she added “Wait no, you’re right, that is impossible. Maybe someone can find a spell to be able to do that one day! Maybe you Alex, eh?, since you’re so smart.” Ronnie winked at Alex, to which Alex turned red.

Albus hardly had any input in this conversation however, instead he sat playing with some grass. Their argument had made the two fight for an input in any conversation. Ronnie often winning.

“Wait, Johnny, earlier, did you say that you had to catch up on some Potion’s work?” asked Alex, and Johnny nodded. Alex got a little hopeful and asked. “So Slughorn is back?”

“Nope, we’ve got a substitute. Her name is Professor Verana,” said Johnny with a hint of sadness.

“Is she mean? She better not be mean,” asked Ronnie immediately almost jumping out of her seat.

“I would rather have her mean than as useless as she is. She left all this work, but didn’t even teach,” said Johnny very upset.

“I wonder how I’m going to do; hopefully I do well. Maybe then I’d be able to help you,” said Alex very enthusiastically. Johnny gave him a weird stare, and then smiled.

A few hours later they continued to laugh with each other as the sun set on yet another fun filled day. They said their goodbyes to Johnny as he walked back to his common room and Albus, Ronnie and Alex made their way back to Gryffindor Tower. Alex, once again trying to make conversation.

“You know, I really could help Johnny with his Potions homework. If only there was a way I could go into the Hufflepuff common room, that would make things a lot easier,” said Alex.

“But we’re Gryffindors. He can’t come to ours and we can’t go to his. I wonder what that’d be like though,” said Albus as he started to think of fun possibilities.

“Yeah I know, don’t worry. Plus, I’m pretty sure it’s against the rules,” said Alex.

“And we wouldn’t want Awex to get into any trouble,” said Ronnie amusingly.

“Right,” said Alex a bit annoyed. “So tomorrow we have Transfiguration, Astronomy and then Herbology. Oh! Herbology’s with the Hufflepuffs! What a great- Oh no,” said Alex, sounding horrified. “Transfiguration is with the Slytherins!”

Albus’ eyes brightened. Another chance to talk to Bella!

“Say… Alex. Can you come and give me a hand with my trunk in our dorm? Please?” Albus asked him. Unsure, Alex agreed.

When they reached their dorm Albus slammed the door shut and turned to Alex.

“Right! Can you PLEASE distract Ronnie during Transfiguration so I can talk to Bella. Please?!”

“Well ermm, didn’t Ronnie say she was-“

“Don’t you dare say anything about Bella! You’ve said enough about her already!” shouted Albus, shaking with anger.

Albus continued to stare at Alex until he finally gave in. “Fine! I’ll distract her!” He said angrily as he stormed out of the boys’ dorm.

As he reached the bottom of the stairs however, Ronnie came dashing up to him.

“Alex! Can we talk outside a second?” looking anxiously up at the boys’ dorm. They both walked out of the portrait and into a dimly lit, empty corridor.

“Can you like, keep talking to Albus all lesson so he doesn’t go and talk to that cow, Bella? Please?”

“Ermm, but I just-“

“Alex. It’d be a huge help. You know how much of a bad influence she is,”

Alex was lost. He didn’t know what to do! Ronnie gave him a threatening look andAlex gave in. “Oh, Alright then!”

He stormed off, wondering how in the world he was going to get past tomorrow. Maybe I’ll get lucky and someone will kill me in my sleep tonight, he thought