Chapter Text
Albus Potter rushed to the last class of the day. He would usually have double herbology that afternoon. However, all classes had been canceled for the quidditch match. He was the last to arrive because Professor Flitwig had held him back to chat about how excellent his last essay was.
He looked around the transfiguration classroom and found the only free seat was at the back, next to a Slytherin girl called Ivy Saint Claire. Albus tried to recall if he’d ever spoken to her before but couldn’t think of a single exchange. She was a very pretty girl, with long black hair and a perfect smile.
“Good morning,” He said, sitting down.
“Hi,” Ivy barely glanced at him as she answered. She was hunched over a small leather-bound book and was copying a paragraph onto a piece of parchment.
Albus was happily surprised that he recognized the book even without being able to read the cover. It was an anthology of poems by Padrig Broadus, a Welsh poet from the second half of the 1800’s.
Albus didn’t think he was a particularly good poet but one of his works had stayed with him.
“The night has a thousand eyes,
And the day but one;
Yet the light of the bright world dies
With the dying sun
The mind has a thousand eyes,
And the heart but one;
Yet the light of a whole life dies
When love is done.”
“The night has a thousand eyes” is my favorite of his,” Albus said to the Slytherin.
“What?” She looked at him confused.
Before Albus could ask why she was copying it if she didn’t like his work, Professor Frost’s shrill voice rang out from the front of the classroom.
“All right everyone quiet down, we’ll be starting on tranfiguring objects into live animals…”
Albus liked Professor Frost. He’d been terrified of her up until his third year when he’d finally figured out that he wasn’t awful at magic. His wand had been the problem.
His first three years had been truly terrible. He’d struggled through every single class. Whereas when his classmates failed at spells, at least something happened, often a fire or a small explosion but it was at least something. When Albus tried, nothing happened: his napkin didn’t turn into a teacup, he couldn’t make his feather levitate, and the book he tried to accio from across the room didn’t budge.
But somehow, he had figured out that if he focused his magic out of his fingers, his spells worked every time and didn’t even need a wand. He’d started holding his hand in his left hand as he cast the spells with his right. The last thing he wanted was to draw more attention to himself by going completely wandless. Since then, he has excelled in all his classes and become what his brother calls the teacher’s pet. It turns out that when you are the best student in the class, the teachers are very nice to you.
“The Night Has a Thousand Eyes is my favorite Padrig Broadus poem,” he explained, pointing at the book. “Although it’s only my favorite because all the others are rubbish.”
“Oh,” she flicked her hair over her shoulder. “I haven’t gotten to that one yet, but I do agree that it’s not very good.”
The class went by quickly. Before he knew it, everyone was packing up their books and trying to catch their transfigured frogs. Ivy had been one of the first out of the room, followed by Scorpius Malfoy and Austin Mansfield. Albus always waited for most of the class to leave before he got up to avoid the overcrowded hallway.
As he packed up his things, he noticed a book on the floor. It was the poetry book that Ivy had been reading. He picked it up and put it in his bag to give her back the next time he saw her.
A small piece of paper was underneath it on the floor. It had a crude map of what Albus presumed was the library. One of the walls circled in red ink. On the other side, “press the second flower from the bottom” was scrolled in neat, loopy handwriting. Albus tucked the paper into the book and headed down to lunch.
As he sat down, Albus pulled out his own book, a retelling of Greek mythology, and grabbed a sandwich from the pile in front of him. He was soon immersed and successfully blocking out the people around him when someone slapped him on his back and sat beside him.
“Hiya Ally! Ready to watch me dominate, in the match later?” It was James, his older brother.
“Don’t call me that,” he sighed, turning the page. James pulled the book out of his hands and closed it. “I was reading that, you twat.”
“Well, I need to talk to you,” his brother’s sudden change of tone surprised him.
“What is it?” he asked. Albus had never seen James look so serious.
“I think Lily’s dating someone.”
“Okay,” Albus said, confused. “Good for her.”
“No, you don’t understand. It’s one of the Scamanders,” James said through gritted teeth.
“I’m still not seeing the problem,” Albus said. “Do you not know which one it is?”
The Lysander and Lorcan Scamander were identical twins. They had spent a lot of time with them as children as their mother, Luna, was good friends with Albus’ family.
“I know which one it is, you cunt. It’s Lys. That’s not the issue, the issue is that she’s much too young to be dating anyone, let alone someone older than her.”
“James, she’s fourteen. Don’t be a hypocrite. You were already dating when you were that age. And he’s barely a year older. I don’t think there’s anything to be concerned about.”
“You don’t know what you're talking about Ally, you don’t know what it’s like. What if he pressures her into doing stuff, I wouldn’t have a choice but to kill him. Then I’d go to Askaban, and I would not do well in prison.”
“Okay, first of all, rude! Second, calm down. We know Lys. He would never hurt a fly, let alone pressure Lily into anything. Honestly, I’m more worried about him getting pressured into stuff by Lils.”
“You’re probably right. At least it’s someone we know and not some slimy Slytherin.” Albus inwardly cringed at that. He had very nearly been a “slimy Slytherin” himself.
“I really don’t like this,” James said. “I never had to worry about cos you’ve never dated but if Lily is anything like me then we’re in real trouble.”
“You do know that just because I don’t tell you about my love life doesn’t mean it’s non-existent, I’m not a blushing virgin.”
“What?” James looked so shocked at what Albus said, that he almost took it back.
“This is the worst day of my life,” he muttered to himself.
“
Jamie, I truly don’t think we need to worry about Lys, but I’m here if you need help with the shovel talk...”
“Who is it?” James suddenly cut him off.
“Who’s what?”
“Who did you sleep with?” James was now not only gritting his teeth but his face had turned redder than the quidditch uniform he was wearing.
“Oh,” Albus suddenly realized that he was in a position of power over his brother and that James had something he wanted. “I’ll tell you if you let me have the map for the afternoon.”
“Why do you need it?”
“Someone forgot a book in my last class, and I don’t want to spend all day looking for them,” Albus lied. He actually wanted to check out that corner of the library. “Besides, you’ll be playing. It’s not like you'll need it.”
“Fine.” James sighed before rummaging in his bag and pulling out the thick folded parchment that was the marauders' map. “Now tell me who it was.”
“Sam Colby,” Albus told him, snatching the map out of his hand.
“Sam Colby! But he’s in my year.” James said aghast.
“And Lucas Wood and Eli Quin,” Albus said as he quickly got up and grabbed his bag and book. He headed out of the great hall, leaving his brother speechless, looking like a drowning goldfish.
Albus knew James would be surprised that he not only wasn’t a virgin but had hooked up with three guys, all of who were older than him, and one of which was James' friend. Albus had never meant to keep it from his brother. However, the truth was that they weren’t that close. James had been horrible to him in his first few years at Hogwarts and then tended to ignore Albus unless he needed something. So he didn’t feel too bad for shocking his brother that way and, besides, he’d gotten the map.
Albus went straight to the library. He sat at his usual table against the far wall and pulled out this homework while he waited for everyone to head down to watch the match. It was the first match of the year, Gryffindor vs Ravenclaw. He finished his potions essay just as he heard the roar of the crowd through the open window.
The match had begun. Albus got to work.
First, he pulled out the map, tapped it with his finger, and whispered: “I solemnly swear that I am up to no good.” He sat back and watched as the map revealed itself.
Just as he thought, there was nothing remarkable about the bit of wall that was circled. He scanned the map one more time to make sure that no one was in the area. The coast was clear. He got up and made his way through the labyrinth of bookshelves to the section of wall that was hidden in the very far corner.
It didn’t look any different than the rest of the library. Books lined the wall from floor to ceiling on mismatched shelves. He read the book titles. The whole section was a jumble of different subjects and genres. It looked like this was where the oldest least used books had all been stored. Albus took the scrap of parchment out. He reread the note. “Press the second flower from the bottom.”
Suddenly, he saw it. The inside of the last bookshelf was intricately carved. The note hinted to start from the bottom, so he crouched down and pulled books of the selves to reveal the entire picture. It was beautiful. The carving depicted a tree. Every branch, root, and leaf was amazingly detailed, and the longer he looked, the more three-dimensional it looked. Clamitis grew around the trunk and hung off the branches. There were five clamitis flowers in bloom.
Albus counted two up from the bottom and pressed the flower. Nothing happened for a few seconds, and then the bookshelf started moving upwards until the bottom was just high enough for him to duck underneath without too much difficulty.
The wall behind it wasn’t a wall at all but the mouth of the tunnel. Albus couldn’t see where it led. He was too tall to enter standing up, so he bent over and went in. He had always suspected that there were secret passages that weren’t on the map. He was pleased to be proven right.
As the bookshelf slid back into place behind him, a string of fairy lights hung from the ceiling. He walked down the tunnel until he heard voices coming from around the corner.
“You know, I genuinely think we’re getting somewhere with this;”
“I think we’re hitting a dead end.”
“Don’t be so negative.”
“Either way, I appreciate you guys helping me with this.”
It was Ivy, Scorpius, and a third voice that he struggled to place for a few seconds before realizing it must be Austin. Albus was surprised they weren’t at the match.
“I think it is pointing us towards a poem,” Ivy said
“Do you have any idea how many poetry books are in the library?” Austin commented
“Well, I think we need to look into her more,” Scorpius added.
Albus turned around to leave, glad the Slytherins hadn’t seen him. He worried for a second that he’d be trapped by the bookshelf, but as he approached it opened back up.
Back in the library, he found a new table. There weren’t any near the secret tunnel entrance, so he chose one where he could see everyone who exited and waited for them to leave. While he sat there, he wondered what they were doing. At first, he’d presumed that it was just a private room they hung out in, but it sounded more like they were researching something or someone based on what Scorpius had said.
It wasn’t long before the trio appeared, and headed towards the exit. Albus seized his opportunity and called out to them.
“Hey, Ivy!” Madam Pince shot him a nasty look from her desk making him wince.
“Hello again,” she said turning around.
“Here.” he pulled the poetry book out of his satchel, making sure to keep the scrap of paper. “You dropped this, in transfiguration.”
“Oh, thank you.” she smiled at him “I’ve been looking for that.”
“You're welcome.” He then addressed the boys that were waiting for her. “You guys not at the match? I would have thought you’d want to check out the competition.” Scorpius was the keeper, and Austin was a chasser for the Slytherin team.
“I’m not sure I would call Gryffindor competition,” Scorpius said. He ran his hand through his almost white hair, making his shirt rise, revealing a slither of milky skin. Albus definitely didn’t stare.
“I was talking about Ravenclaw,” he joked.
“And what about you, not supporting your brother today?” Scorpius smirked at him.
“I don’t go to any of the matches,” he shrugged. “Crowds aren’t my thing.”
“Anyway, thanks for the book,” Ivy said. “I’ll see you around, Albus.”
“See ya.” he waved back awkwardly as they left.