Albus Potter, Friends and Foes

Ch 37 Back to School

Saturday morning the Potter and Granger-Weasley families ate breakfast together. Cleo was with them.

"You are going to have to go back to Malfoy Manor after breakfast," Hermione told Cleo. "You and Scorpius are coming back Monday January third, and the Hogwarts Express leaves Tuesday."

"Are we all taking the train this time?" Rose wondered.

"Everyone except Albus and Cleo," Harry replied. "I think they would be safer if they take the Floo, and I think the train is safer if they are not on it."

"Louis told me that Scorpius and I really need to be riding the train if we are prefects," Rose added. "He said that if we do a good job there is nothing keeping us from being head girl and boy our seventh year."

"Do you want to be head girl?" Cleo wondered.

"I would really like Scorpius to be head boy," Rose replied. "He needs to bring honor back to the Malfoy family, and that might help. Of course I would not mind being head girl, but I think it is more important for Scorpius than for me."

*

Harry did go into work for about four hours Saturday, January first, twenty-twenty-two. They talked about guarding the Hogwarts Express. The older train engine and a few older train cars were going to follow the newer train by about a quarter of an hour, hopefully confusing any wizard or witch who wanted to cause harm to the train. Again the special Range Rover with the train wheels was going to proceed the train down the tracks.

In the afternoon he met with Teddy, and explained what had happened with the Dementors and Albus, and how Cleo had come to rescue Albus.

"It sounds like Jezebel," Teddy thought, "but not on her own. She is rather cautious about using Dementors. I am reasonably sure she is in contact with The Lord of the Dementors, but I have no proof of it. For all that I have learned about Jezebel and her island, there are plenty of things I don't know."

"Why are you so sure it was not just Jezebel?" Harry wondered.

"Because she would not have had a chance to capture Albus if a Dementor had sucked out his soul," Teddy responded. "She has given a few people to the Dementors, but only after she is finished with them." Teddy pondered some more. "Of course, if the people never came to the island I would have no idea what Jezebel and her allies did. So I am not really sure of anything."

*

Sunday morning the family gathered at the New Burrow in the morning. Everybody wanted to hear about the Potter family vacation. The family was getting large, and so before breakfast Albus announced, "I was attacked by Dementors while we were on vacation. On my own I could not fight them off, but somehow Cleo appeared and together we produced Patronus and fought them. I really don't want to talk about it."

Of course this didn't prevent people from talking about it.

By this time the family was large enough that they opened the wall to the dining room and used three tables. One was for the older generation, Molly and Arthur, Andromeda, Bill and Fleur, Percy and Audrey, George and Angelina, Ron and Hermione, Jean Granger, Ginny and Harry at the table this Sunday, fourteen people.

The second table was for the children who were married and had children. This table included Teddy and Victoire with Maria, Molly and Rich Hudson with their son Kyle and daughter Scarlet, Fred II and Miriam with their son Barack and daughter Issa, and finally Roxanne and Frank II Longbottom with their son Wilkie and daughter Irma, fifteen people.

The last table was for the children who did not have children. This day it included, Louis, Dominique and her husband 'Frank' du la Fontaine, Lucy who was accompanied by Bob Hudson, James, Albus, Ivana Romanoff, Lily, Rose and Hugo, plus little Minerva, who felt very grown up being at this table. Of course at four and a half she was twice as old as the oldest of her nieces and nephews, except for Barack, who was actually a month older than she was. This made a total of twelve people at this table, for a total of forty-one people all together.