We Will Shine {Book 6 in the Star of Gryffindor Series}

Chapter 52 - The Problem with Adalyn Lostry

~Astra~

"Merlin, she found plans?" Albus whispered as Wren walked away. "This is so much better than just knowing where the manor is."

"Now we've just got to find a way to see them," I said. "Think your dad will keep them in his office long?"

"Doubt it. We'll have to sneak in and find them soon." He pursed his lips. "I think Dad will notice if we take them, though, even if it's only for an hour..."

"We can use Colette's spell!" I exclaimed. "The copying one!"

"Perfect!" Albus grinned. His gaze wandered over towards where Wren and James were sitting, though, and the smile faded. "Do you think she'll be all right?"

I honestly had no idea. The cruciatus curse was brutal, and it wasn't the kind of thing you could recover from in an hour or two. Especially for Wren, who was probably having to deal with a lot of bad memories attached to it, too. However, maybe all those bad memories meant she had dealt with this enough that maybe she knew how to cope a little better?

"I'm sure she'll be fine," I heard myself saying, ignoring the fact that I probably sounded a little heartless. I wasn't! It was just that there were more important things to be done, and Albus and I couldn't afford to waste a second.

Albus nodded unsurely, but didn't argue when I suggested we figure out exactly how we were going to get our hands on the plans. We spent the next hour or two brainstorming ways to make sure Mr. Potter would be out of his office and classroom the next day.

While we could have tried to sneak in during breakfast, Albus pointed out that there was a chance he would notice we weren't in the Great Hall, and ask us about it in class later that day. Our best bet, we decided, was for one of us to get into enough trouble to make Mr. Potter come and break it up. Nothing that would get Kimmel involved, of course; it needed to be the right amount of trouble. A good, old-fashioned duel, like what used to happen every time we ran into Ciara Malfoy and Nico Jasper when we were younger.

The problem was then deciding who we would duel, and who would do the actual dueling. Albus didn't want to get in trouble. He was worried he would get written up, even though I pointed out that there were literally three weeks left of this term, and no way he could possibly get written up twice more and lose his position in that time. I didn't care so much about getting in trouble, but I really wanted to find the plans. It sounded a lot more fun.

"It'll be a lot more normal for you to get into a duel," Albus argued. "I've never started one. I just get dragged in by you. Besides, I'm more likely to get taken the Kimmel, aren't I? Since I'm a prefect?"

"But I'm more of a nuisance. I have a history of getting in trouble, so I'm more likely to get taken to Kimmel.

"Your head of House isn't your dad," Albus pointed out. "People don't like to get him when I get in trouble. And the whole point is to get him out of his office."

I gave an exaggerated sigh. "Fine. You can find the plans. But we've got to figure out who I'm dueling, and why."

Albus pulled out a small notebook from his bag. "The obvious choices are Nico Jasper, Eric Prince, or Marcus Dillam."

"Not Jasper," I said, shaking my head. "He'll fight back too much, and it'll get violent enough for Kimmel to get involved."

"And Dillam's such a wreck that I think if you tried to fight him, he'd just cry," Albus said.

"But I feel like Prince might be the same way, now," I said, frowning. "After Wren and Ciara told the whole school about how she's related to Severus Snape, she never really got back to normal, did she?"