The Cursed Chronicles: Year 6

Chapter 20

Albus and Katrina made their way to the great hall. Katrina had to support Albus, as he was still racked with pain from his recent encounter. They reached the great hall and sat at the Slytherin table, where Scorpius, Bella, Sabrina, and Parisa were already.

When he saw them, Scorpius shot up and met them.

"Are you okay, Al?" He asked. Al could only manage a weak nod, which wasn't exactly reassuring. Katrina met professor McGonagall's eye as they reached the table. She seemed a bit worried. With Scorpius' help Katrina got Albus sitting at the table, although he had to lean against her for support.

"Students!" Professor McGonagall called the room to attention. "I am sure you all heard the voice in the halls." The students whispered in agreement among themselves. "I have called you hear to tell you not to worry. The security at Hogwarts has doubled since last year for the sake of the Triwizard tournament, and tripled for, as I am sure all of you are aware, the events that occurred at Hogwarts around this time last year. Even now, in response to the recent event, we are calling for it to be quadrupled." Students were again whispering among themselves, so the headmistress had to raise her voice. "The tournament will continue as planned," she announced with a twinkle in her eye. "Classes will resume as usual. There is no need for panic. The situation will be dealt with promptly. You may return to your activities."

All most all of the students left promptly following the conclusion to her announcement, but Albus, Scorpius, Katrina, Bella, Parisa, and Sabrina did not. There was a heavy silence. Lily, Hugo, Rose (who pointedly sat as far away from Scorpius as possible without being too suspicious), James, and Dominique joined them at the Slytherin table.

"So what are we doing?" Lily asked.

"Who says we're doing anything?" Albus asked, his head still on Katrina's shoulder.

"Well obviously we're doing something," James answered, looking around at everyone. "Right? I mean, we're Weasleys and Potters, so..." He noticed Albus, who had gotten increasingly pale. "Merlin, Al, are you okay?" Al tried to nod, but failed. Instead, he weakly shook his head. Katrina gave him a worried glance.

"Albus, maybe we should take you to the hospital wing." Albus shook his head and struggled to sit up.

"No, I think I'm-" Katrina shrieked as he passed out.

"Well," Scorpius started, looking down at his friend, passed out on the floor. "I think we're going to have to take him to the infirmary now." Rose glared at him.

"You think?" Scorpius looked away quickly, went rather pale, and didn't speak again for a long time. Katrina determined that she would investigate further later. With the help of James, Lily, and Scorpius she carried Albus to the hospital wing, Bella, Parisa, Sabrina, Dominique, Rose, and Hugo following.

Madam Pomfrey hurried him to a bed, took his temperature, and then his blood, then hurried off to figure what was wrong with him. They all sat around his bed silently.

"I hope he's okay by eleven," Katrina said. "It would be disappointing if he missed the first task after all of his hard work to find where and when it is."

"Oh, did he find out where it was?" Rose asked, she being the one who helped him figure out when it was.

"Yes, we figured it out together on Christmas Eve." Lily raised an eyebrow.

"Did you now." Katrina turned a little pink at the look on her face.

"Yes."

"So where is it?" James asked.

"In the room of requirement."

"And how did the two of you come across this fact?" Lily asked suspiciously.

"Well, we were taking a walk-"

"Just the two of you. On Christmas Eve. For so long that the girls and I had to come looking for you."

"Yes," Bella said in agreement. Katrina glared at her.

"You're supposed to be on my side," she hissed. Bella smiled innocently. Scorpius grinned.

"Plus, on Christmas morning, Albus was acting all weird, so I confronted him about it, and he told me that after everyone left on Christmas eve-" Katrina's eyes widened and she turned bright red.

"Stop!" she said desperately, putting her hand over his mouth. "I don't like where this is going." Sabrina held her back.

"Keep going," Lily demanded.

"And he told me that they were sitting on the steps and they noticed some mistletoe-"

"So?" Lily urged eagerly.

"So Katrina kissed him on the cheek." He grinned, and Katrina punched him.

"Ow!"

"My brother has a girlfriend!" Lily said gleefully. "I'm never gonna let him hear the end of this!"

"I am not his girlfriend!" Katrina protested with considerably less stuttering than Albus when he was consulted with the subject. "We haven't even talked about what happened, much less acted upon it!"

"So you admit that there was something behind it, no just the demand for action because of the pressuring mistletoe?" Katrina put her hands in the air.

"Stop pressuring me!"

"Who's pressuring you?" Katrina jumped.

"Albus, you're awake!"

"Ya, and I'm feeling tons better now. What time is it? I didn't sleep through the first task, did I?"

"No," Katrina answered, thankful for the change of subject, though she didn't like the 'We'll talk about this later' look in Lily's eye.

"It's about 2:00," Scorpius informed him. "And we were just talking about-"

"Where the task is taking place." Katrina finished for him, although she knew perfectly well that was not what he was going to say. "We were also about to talk about how stupid Rose and Scorpius are being."

"What?" Rose asked.

"Nothing," Katrina responded, sharing a look with Albus, which unfortunately only confirmed Lily's suspicions.

Then Madam Pomfrey came back.

"Out, out!" she cried, pushing everyone out of the room, leaving Albus alone.