Potter. Albus Severus Potter. (twoheaded) wrote in thesocieties, @ 2011-02-01 20:07:00 |
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Entry tags: | ! log, ch: albus potter, ch: lily potter |
Log: Al and Lily
Who: Al and Lily
Where: Astronomy Tower
When: Monday, 10 January
What: Running into the Mirror of Erised
After dinner, Al headed from the Great Hall straight to the Astronomy Tower. It was his own fault that he'd left his second telescope there last night, but now that he was headed into his last few months of school, his mind was wandering more frequently than he was used to. He blamed this newfound absentmindedness on the anxiety of being so close to, and yet so far away from, getting out of Hogwarts forever.
Despite his much-professed dedication to physical laziness, Al would have been embarrassed to have people witness his Summoning his telescope from across the castle, and so he resigned himself to climbing up the Astronomy Tower and collecting his telescope. On his way there, he was delayed by a second-year who wanted to ask if there were any exceptions to the age requirement for Hogsmeade visits (and who insisted on sharing his desperate need to go), and Al, only half-listening to the conversation, somehow found himself offering to look for a Revealer at Dervish & Banges. The kid was grateful when he left, and Al realized he had to write down a reminder of this promise so he'd remember when Hogsmeade Weekend actually rolled around. He scribbled out a reminder in his notebook and, tucking the pencil back into his pocket, he turned back toward the staircase of the Astronomy Tower.
"There you are!" Lily Potter said, spotting her brother. Oh, duh, she should have known he would be at the Astronomy Tower! She mentally kicked herself for not looking there first and then picked up her pace so she could get to him before he could make a quick getaway. "What are you doing?" she asked once she was at his side. "I hope you're not planning on meeting a girl up there. That's so gross and like everyone does it, so it's not even creative."
"Yes, because I care so much about being creative," Al said dryly, before he realized that was probably the wrong response. He raised his eyebrows at Lily before starting to walk again. "I forgot something up there, so I need to go get it. No girls involved."
"WRONG. I'm a girl and now I'm involved. Don't even think about trying to lose me," she said. "What did you forget? It must not be very important. Can I have it?"
Al thought, regretfully, that it'd be impossible to lose Lily between here and the top of the Astronomy Tower. That realization didn't stop him from trying to take the steps two at a time, however. "My second telescope. And, no, you can't have it. Why are you coming up here?"
"To find you. Mission accomplished," she said, giving him a smug smile and copying the way he took the steps two at a time. "I have a very important thing to ask you."
He sighed, loud and heavy. "What is it?"
"I need to ask to borrow something of yours, and I need you to say yes. So, will you say yes?" she asked, looking at him expectantly.
"Depends on what it is." Al paused, considering. "And it depends on why you want it."
"Well you know what I want! THINK about it," she said. "And I want it because I want to go exploring to find the secret society pool, but you can go with me. It would be fun!"
Immediately, he shook his head. "It's not on...it. I've checked." It was unlikely that anyone else was on the stairs (who'd be using the Astronomy Tower at this time of the day?), and it was not as if talking about the map would be easily understandable to anyone who didn't know of it, but Al still preferred vagueness. Mostly because being secretive was fun. "And I'm busy, anyway, and I can't let you use it if I'm not there. Try looking for the pool without...it."
She turned on him, accusation all over her face. "You're just trying to protect your society's pool, aren't you? I knew you were in a society, and now I know which!"
"Yeah. I'm in Wand & Quill, and I'm trying to distract you from finding our secret pool. Now that you've uncovered my secret, I suppose I can tell you. The pool's up here." He gestured upward, his eyebrows raised skeptically. "Nice trick, huh, hiding a pool in the Astronomy Tower?"
"REALLY?"
"No. Not really." He threw a look of disbelief at his sister. "None of that's true. Obviously. I'm in the same society as you--honour society--and I don't know where the pool is, but it's probably not up here."
She studied him for a moment longer and then said, "I guess you're telling the truth. You're probably not fun enough for the one with the pool. You must be in the other one!"
"Yes. I'm in the Circle of the Heliopath, and the reason why I can't go with you to find the secret pool is because the other society has constructed a trap there to catch members of my society." Al rolled his eyes, mostly for his own benefit, to keep himself feeling sarcastic. "And, anyway, I'm fun."
"Prove it," she said skeptically, not sure which part of his story she believed least or most or if she believed any of it at all. But he was in a society she knew that. She folded her hands across her chest. "If you're fun, then you'll want to break in and not get caught by their trap."
Al raised his hands in an exasperated gesture. "What do I look like, a Gryffindor? I don't have to prove anything to you. Believe what you want, I don't care." Sighing, he picked up his pace again, and when he rounded the winding corner of the staircase, he jerked to a halt to avoid colliding with a mirror.
"Whoooooa," Lily said, coming up behind him. "That is so cool. Is that--" Before she could finish asking if the mirror was an entrance way into the society hideout, she got a good look at the mirror's reflection and she stopped in her tracks, transfixed.
The Mirror of Erised. So it was true. Al stared, too startled to think of any words. The version of himself in the mirror was recognizably Albus Potter, only...different. The reflection Al was standing straighter than Al actually was--in response, Al stopped slouching--and was holding a potion vial in each hand: one vial containing something stormy looking gaseous substance, and the other containing bright, bright sunshine. But here, outside the mirror, Al was mostly amazed by the look of confidence on mirror!Al's face. The confidence didn't look fake at all. Al took a step back from the mirror and said the first thing to come to mind. "I don't think that's me."
"It's you," Lily replied, slowly. "And James and me and... Grandma Lily and Grandpa James. I think." She reached for the necklace she was wearing in the reflection, but her fingers only grasped hair. She wrapped her finger around a ringlet and held on, watching her reflection intently. Older Lily looked successful, happy and loved. She was wearing both a Captain's badge and a Head Girl's badge, and she was surrounded by all of her family. "Do you think that's the future? We look really happy! I'm pretty,and I like my hair." It was long. Still red, but longer.
Al glanced over at Lily, but she appeared sincere. Or at least not obviously lying. He was truly in her reflection, then, and Lindsay said he was in hers, too. Did it mean something that he was alone in his? It probably made him a selfish person. He looked back into the mirror, but it was the same: just him, with those vials and that alien confidence. And no one else. "I don't know if it's the future," he said hesitantly. "It's something else, though. Something that doesn't actually exist right now." Except it did exist, in a reflection and now in his mind. "And I can only see me. No one else."
"But I'm standing next to you." She waved her hand in front of him.
He batted her hand away. "Yeah. But you're not in my reflection. Just me. No you, no James, no Grandma Lily and Grandpa James. But I look happy too. I guess. But not really older, so it's probably not the future."
"Did you wish me away?" she asked, eyes narrowed at him, turning away from the mirror.
"No! I didn't do anything!" And his reflection wasn't really doing anything either, just standing there with the vials. Alone. Al's stomach wrenched, and he looked at Lily apologetically. Even if he didn't do anything, the fact that he was alone in the mirror was a bad thing, wasn't it? "I don't know why I'm alone in there!" He glanced back to the mirror, but it was gone.
"Don't get upset," she said, eyes wide. "Unless you want me to give you a hug. Anyway, you scared it away."
And now he scared it away. Great. Al just shook his head. "No. I don't need a hug. I think I didn't look into the mirror all the way or something. Sorry." Maybe that was even true. He looked up the last few stairs. "I'm going to get my telescope now."
Lily gave him a hug anyway. Because he looked like he needed it, and because it would annoy him. "I'll go with you."
He made a face but accepted the hug tensely, mostly because he could claim the hug was a suitable substitute for the two of them using the map to look for the Wand & Quill pool. Or it was evidence that he wasn't a selfish person, maybe. At any rate, it possibly made Lily feel better. "Thanks. But you really don't have to. I promise, I'm not sneaking away to some secret society thing."
"I don't mind," Lily said quickly, but then she thought better of it. Al probably was sneaking off to some secret society thing and if she left him alone, she could follow him. "But if you want to get rid of me, I suppose I have other things I'd rather be doing, like everything else practically."
Al shrugged. The implied insult was barely an insult at all. "Fine by me. See you, then," he said, heading up the stairs.
"Yeah, bye." She shrugged, trying to mimic Al's dismissive attitude, and then turned and headed down the steps, taking them two at a time, just like she and Al had on the way up.