The first Quidditch match of the season was in 5 days; Slytherin vs Gryffindor.
And was Albus prepared? Not by the slightest bit.
Albus hated not being able to say no to his friends, which always led him to do stupid things for them. And somehow, he'd earned himself the Keeper position on the Gryffindor Quidditch team. The only Quidditch experience he'd had in the past was portraying a practice pawn for James whenever he practiced off season. Albus never considered playing the game for real. Scorpius seriously owed him big time.
The whole school was buzzing about Quidditch, which didn't ease Albus's nerves about the upcoming match. What made it worse was when everyone found out he was the new Keeper for Gryffindor's team. Now there was even more pressure on him to do as well as James did. Albus really despised being compared to his popular, all-around brother. It really made him feel like more of a loser than he thought he already was.
You need to have more confidence, boy, Godric Gryffindor repeated in Albus's mind for what seemed like the thousandth time that day.
Oh yes, he was still pestering Albus mentally. Which really didn't fix his self esteem issue at the moment.
Easy for you to say, Albus retorted. You're Godric Gryffindor! You're basically the face of bravery.
Godric didn't reply, which Albus expected.
Mondays were always dreadful, but this one was especially horrid due to his anxiety. Albus couldn't stop replaying worst-case scenarios in his mind of everything that could go wrong on Saturday's match. He knew that was only making it worse.
After completely bombing a History of Magic exam and nearly singeing his own eyebrows off from getting too close to a particularly grouchy fire crab in Care of Magical Creatures, the day was finally over. He ended up stumbling into the Gryffindor common room, near exhaustion, and sending a candlestick holder crashing into the wall. Great, now his powers were acting up.
Through his experience with his abnormal reincarnation powers, Albus learned that venting his feelings to someone usually helps whenever he's feeling stressed. This comes in handy so he doesn't end up magically causing everything in the room to combust or something.
For this particular situation, Albus, for some reason, didn't really want to share his confidence issue with Holly. He found it embarrassing to talk to his girlfriend about how lousy he currently felt. And Albus knew Scorpius was probably about to have a mental breakdown from the amount of stress about Quidditch, so that option was out. There was one other person that Albus knew he could always rely on no matter what.
He cautiously rapped his knuckles against Rose's door, knowing she might be studying and not in the mood to talk. He heard shuffling behind the closed door, and quiet footsteps heading over to open it. Albus recognized Rose's footsteps, which were light like a dancer's. She wasn't stomping, so that was a good sign that she probably wasn't angry that she got interrupted. Albus took a deep breath, ready to get everything he was feeling off his chest.
Rose swung her door open, and a smile spread across her face when her eyes landed on Albus. She was wearing a Gryffindor Quidditch jumper, plain gray sweatpants, and her frizzy hair was tied up in a messy bun, with her wand stuck in it like a pencil. Those were her ideal studying clothes. And judging by the array of open books and clutters of balled up parchment scattered around the room, Rose had been studying for quite some time and wasn't about to quit. Typical Rose.
"Hey, Al. What brings you here?" Rose asked, smiling. Then her face suddenly fell. "Wait, we don't have Quidditch practice today, do we? God, I can't keep track of the schedule when I have so much studying to do! Do you realize exams are in a month and I-"
"Rose, chill! We don't have practice today!" Then Albus muttered almost inaudibly, "At least I don't think we do..."
Rose rolled her eyes. "What do you want, Albus?"
Albus sighed, looking down at his hands and fumbling with his fingers. "I need a therapy session."
He and Rose established the phrase "therapy session" for when the two need to vent to each other when either of them are feeling moody. Albus needs one every once in a while, while Rose had a set date every single month for her session. Rose explained it was the day she always started her monthly. (Her monthly is even punctual!) Albus really wished he and his cousin weren't so close sometimes.
Upon hearing 'therapy session,' Rose immediately opened her door farther and allowed Albus to come inside. Then she shut the door, which Albus guessed was for privacy, and even locked it.
Rose then went to her bed and swept everything off of it with her arm onto the floor, surprising Albus. She took therapy sessions extremely seriously. Finally, she patted the bed for Albus to sit, and he obliged.
"So...wait, what are you doing now?" Albus watched as Rose dug under her bed, pulling out two small boxes, containing chocolate frogs. She handed one to him.
"I figured this would help," Rose said, shrugging.
"I'm not a stereotypical teenage girl who needs chocolate when she's stressed out," Albus grumbled, rolling his eyes.
Rose laughed and slapped his arm. "Do you want the chocolate or not?"
Albus had already bitten the chocolate frog's head off. And he had to admit, it was making him feel a bit better.
"So, what do you want to talk about?" Rose asked seriously, ready to listen to Albus intently.
"Well..."
How were you supposed to say "Hey, I feel like a loser!" without sounding absolutely pathetic? Albus knew he could tell Rose anything, but he also knew she would most likely tell Scorpius anything humiliating that he might say.
"I...I just...well...I-I'm scared," he stammered.
It was a truly lame thing to say, but it was all Albus could think of. Yes, he was scared. Scared about the Quidditch match, scared of screwing up, scared of humiliation. Terrified of his powers. He was always scared.
"Scared?" Rose replied. "Of what?"
Albus sighed, feeling his lip begin to quiver. "Everything."
He let his tears flow freely. As emotionally corrupt as he always is, Albus rarely cried. Usually he kept everything bottled up for Merlin knows how long, resulting in random spats of anxiety during stressful times. It was normal for him, though he didn't want it to be.
Selfishly, Albus thought the coma messed him up the most out of his friends.
The coma. It always crept back into his mind one way or another. Every problem Albus has had recently has led back to it. The coma was a dull throb in his mind that never went away.
And so he vocalized everything to Rose while resting his head on her lap. He spoke of his plaguing thoughts about the coma, his powers, Godric Gryffindor, Quidditch, school, teachers, even Rose and Holly. Everything bottled up made its way out of Albus and into the open, releasing the cement block size of stress off of his shoulders.
Albus felt like he could properly live now.
~ ~ ~
Omg Albus... 😢 I just want to give him a hug!
I absolutely love writing in Albus's POV. He's such an emotional character and I feel like I relate to him the most out of the four. And I love his and Rose's relationship ❤️
Also, I'm sorry that this chapter is so short and it was sad and that it kinda sucked. And I apologize for the amount of filler chapters lately with no big events happening. I just figured you guys needed a break from all the chaos.
ALSO, I kinda got distracted writing the second half of the chapter because I was simultaneously watching Dan Howell's YouNow oops 😂
Anyways, I don't mean to be lame and trying to make up excuses, but I've had a pretty busy week. I somehow managed to get walking pneumonia a week ago, yet I went to a concert on Friday night. It was the worst/best week ever 😁
So question of the week: Who is your favorite YouTuber?
For me, that is an impossible question to answer. But my main favorites are Dan Howell, Phil Lester, Shane Dawson, Tyler Oakley, Kingsley, and Cr1TiKal.
Alright, you know the drill! Vote, comment what you thought AND your answer to the question of the week, and PLEASE share my story if you can! Since this chapter was so short, I might update this weekend! Thanks for reading! *infinite kissy faces*