Harry Potter and the Story Without Delphi

Chapter 22: Albus. Albus. Albus.

"Albus you must have imagined it!"

Albus slammed his quill on the table and glared at Scorpius. It had been three days since Albus had seen the ghost, but neither of his friends took it seriously.

"I did NOT imagine it Scorpius!" Albus said through gritted teeth, "If I had the luxury of imagining things there are millions of other things I would have thought of first."

Scorpius raised his eyebrows.

"Like what exactly?"

Albus had a thought, then shook his head quickly, a little embarrassed.

"Were you just blush-"

"Forget that! I swear I saw him Scorpius! Maybe I should write to Grandma Molly or Uncle George..."

"Don't! Have you lost it? Why in Merlin's name would you get their hopes up for nothing?"

Albus felt the blood rush to his head. He was sick of being told that he had made up what he say in that hallway. He knew that he was on to something that could change his grandma and uncle's lives. However, he was also sick of arguing.

"Where's Nova?"

Scorpius shrugged.

"I'm not sure, why?"

Albus paused, then spoke again.

"I have something to talk to her about."

"You can try the library?"

Albus almost laughed out loud at the thought of Nova is the library. Truthfully, he didn't have anything specific to say to her, but he wanted to get away from Scorpius's judgment.

"Maybe I'll try the library then."

Albus left the common room, thoughts of his strange encounter still filling his brain.

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On a whim, Albus decided to take a longer route to the library that cut involved deserted hallways and corridors. He wanted time to think about what he had seen, and what he should do about it. It seemed wrong to keep it from his grandmother and uncle, but he had to admit Scorpius was somewhat right. He would hate to build up their hopes, only to destroy them.

Suddenly, Albus was surprised to hear a soft sobbing noise coming from further down the hallway. This particular hallway was nearly always deserted. Scorpius, Alba, and he had a particular talent for finding deserted spaces, a place of refuge from the dirty looks and snide comments.

So who would be in this hallway, Albus thought, unless it's...

Albus ran down the hall, and surely enough, Nova was against a wall with her face in hands.

Albus felt a sudden pang in his chest.

"What's wrong? Are you ok?"

Nova quickly removed her hand from her face, a moment's look of shock in her eyes. Then, she began to laugh nervously.

"Haha...hey didn't expect to see you there."

"What happened?"

Nova paused, then continued her nervous laughing.

"Oh, I wasn't crying...I was...uh, practicing."

Albus looked at her deadpanned.

"Practicing for what exactly?"

"Uh...a a play?"

Albus sighed, then tried to make his voice softer.

"Nova...there aren't playing at Hogwarts."

Nova threw her hand up in the air, then facepalmed.

"I know that! Honestly, just don't worry about it I'll be fine I swear."

Albus grabbed her shoulder gently and turned her to face him.

"Nova, you're going to tell me what happened. Does this have something to do with the summer?"

Nova laughed again, this time not nervously but sadly.

"Your memory is way too good."

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Albus.

I tried to think for another word, any sliver of another memory. But all I could remember was the word, Albus. Was it an object? A place? Maybe even a name...

All I knew what that Albus, whoever or whatever it is, was the key to my freedom. The key to escaping my misery, this awful trance.

Albus. Albus. Albus.

A/N Thank you for reading! Special shoutout to  Eliza_potterhead394  and Jeejeeshel for commenting last chapter! All comments and votes are highly appreciated.