Albus Potter, Friends and Foes

Ch 39 Ordinary Wizarding Levels

Albus, Cleo, Rose and Scorpius walked out of Hogwarts Castle the first Saturday in May, and made their way towards the lake and the forbidden forest. The day was sunny, warm but not hot, with a slight breeze blowing. It was perhaps the most perfect spring day they could imagine.

There were tulip beds around the castle walls. Early tulips were past their peak, but the late tulips were still blooming. On the very edge of the forest was a glade of bluebells. Crocus snuck up at the edge of the grass, and into the grass, somehow having avoided being eaten by the sheep and other animals that grazed on the lawn and kept it short. Albus thought there must be some magic that kept the crocus from being eaten, they were so plentiful. Iris were growing in the boggy areas around the pond. The whole outdoors was a riot of spring colors and smells.

Albus could see why Christians celebrated Easter in the spring. All of nature seemed to be celebrating the return of life after the cold and dead of winter. Somehow it was easier to believe that death was not the end of everything in the spring. He had met people who had moved on to the other side of life, not ghosts who were afraid to move on but people who had. Still, it was hard to imagine anything more peaceful and wonderful than a day so perfect, and to share it with your friends.

Albus glanced at the map he carried. Celia Hernandes and Francisco Villodas were in the forbidden forest, but not too close to the pond. He knew that the map would buzz if those two were too close. It was hard to fully enjoy the spring day when there were dangers, always dangers, haunting him.

He and Cleo were going to have to confront Jezebel eventually, and there was no guarantee they would win. Even if they did win, what would the cost be? Over fifty good people died at the Battle of Hogwarts, and many more died before that final battle.

Cleo squeezed Albus's hand. "You think too much sometimes, Albus. Just relax! Smell the flowers, the grass, the lake. Smell spring." Cleo closed her eyes and took a couple of deep breaths, her face in a radiant smile.

Albus did his best to relax. He slipped into Cleo's mind, riding of the surface of her thoughts, wallowing in her sense of smell, so much more sensitive than his although his was not bad. Cleo could lose herself in nature in a way he could not. Cleo could just experience in a way he could not. In some ways his mind was always the observer, and it was hard for him to just live in the moment.

Albus spread out a blanket, and the couple lay down on it. They moved next to each other, holding hands, breathing together. Cleo tried to project to Albus spring, this perfect spring day. She could feel him start to relax.

Ahhhhhhhhhh.

Rose had been watching Albus and Cleo. Both were laying down, holding each other, eyes closed, breathing deep, seemingly asleep, but every once in a while one would smile, sigh or giggle. She turned to Scorpius and told him, "I wish I could relax as totally as Cleo. I need to think about things and talk about them."

"Me too," Scorpius replied. "I don't see how two such different people can be so much a couple."

"I don't either," Rose responded, "except there is something incomplete in each of them that the other furnishes. Albus can be too much, almost like a machine sometimes. Too much in control. Cleo softens him. And Cleo needs Albus to control her at times out of control emotions."

Scorpius picked a few crocus, to keep from covering them with the blanket he was going to spread on the grass. "Pretty flowers for a pretty witch," he proclaimed as he presented the flowers to Rose.

"Thank you," a giggling Rose beamed, sniffing the flowers. She turned to Scorpius and hugged him. She was reasonably tall, and thin, but Scorpius was taller, and although he was also thin his figure had matured. They were, she reflected, definitely female and male, and she relished in the feel of bodies touching. They separated and lie down on the blanket, held hands, and relaxed. Their breathing matched, and they tried to just relax, laying on the blanket, enjoying the perfect spring day.