The Scapegoat

"Finite Incantatem."

Albert looked at the wooden door that had nearly been torn to pieces, and the corner of his eye twitched.

"Merlin's beard, what do we do now?"

The three Weasleys stared at the wrecked door, swallowed in unison, and involuntarily took a step back. They still had not realized what had just happened.

"Should we..." Fred raised a hand and gestured for them to make a quick escape. It would be bad if they got caught.

"Don't be stupid. Powerful wizards usually use Tracking Spells. They can tell who came here recently." Albert reached out and pressed a hand to Fred's shoulder, reminding him that it was best not to run.

"Then what do we do?" George looked at Albert uneasily.

"I should be able to fix it. I think the spell is... Reparo." Albert quickly calmed down, raised his wand at the ruined wooden door, focused, and cast the Repairing Charm.

The planks that had been torn from their hinges flew back onto the door. The cracks slowly sealed up, and it was soon almost restored to normal.

However, before the door could be fully repaired, it suddenly opened from the inside.

All four of them froze on the spot. Professor McGonagall stepped out from behind the door, looked at the slowly repairing wooden door, then at the four of them standing before her. The atmosphere immediately became rather awkward.

"What on earth are you doing?" Professor McGonagall's face twitched as she fixed the four of them with a stern glare. Just moments ago, she had heard something from the hidden door in her office. When she came to investigate, she discovered that someone had actually torn apart her office door?

The sight had left her utterly stunned.

"Sorry, Professor. We didn't know Open Sesame was a spell." Albert immediately straightened up and apologized, admitting his mistake. "I think this was just... an accident."

"Say no more, Mr. Anderson. Come in, all of you." Professor McGonagall looked at them expressionlessly and told them to enter her office.

"It was only an accident, Professor," Albert repeated softly. Behind him, the twins and Lee Jordan held their breaths, too nervous to say a word.

"A very good Repairing Charm. However, Mr. Anderson, I must remind you that Open Sesame is an Unlocking Charm from centuries ago. Modern wizards do not use such crude magic." Professor McGonagall looked at Albert and said, "If you have read the Standard Book of Spells, Grade 1, you would know that people now prefer the more delicate Alohomora."

"I know. But Alohomora didn't work on that door."

"Because the door has an Anti-Alohomora Charm cast on it," Professor McGonagall explained. "That is why your spell failed. This is Charms knowledge. I believe Professor Flitwick would be delighted if you asked him about such matters."

"I will."

"No next time, gentlemen, or it will be detention." Professor McGonagall seemed unwilling to blame them. She turned, picked up a sheet of Parchment from her desk, handed it to Albert, and instructed, "This is the first-years' timetable. Help me put it up on the Gryffindor notice board."

"There won't be a next time, I promise." Albert gave a light cough, took the new students' timetable Professor McGonagall handed him, then hurriedly shoved the twins and Lee out of the office.

"That scared me to death." Only after they were well away from Professor McGonagall's office did they dare speak again.

"We actually tore apart Professor McGonagall's office door?" Lee Jordan still looked utterly incredulous.

"We got lucky. No points were deducted, and we didn't get detention." Albert opened the timetable Professor McGonagall had given him and glanced at it. Their first class next Monday was Charms class.

"Still, that was brilliant, Albert. Your door-opening spell actually tore the door apart." Fred's eyes gleamed with excitement.

"It was an accident. I didn't know it was a spell." Albert tapped the Parchment with his wand, and the timetable split into two, then two became four.

He handed the timetables to the other three.

"Why isn't there a flying lesson on here?" George looked a little disappointed after reading the timetable. He had been looking forward to flying through the sky on a broomstick.

"Don't you think there are rather few classes?" Albert frowned after looking over the week's schedule. Hogwarts felt more like a school that left its students to fend for themselves.

"Too few classes? Are you mad?" Lee looked at Albert in disbelief, as though he had been hit by some strange spell.

"At a Muggle school, there would be at least half again as many classes." Albert thought about it and quickly guessed the reason.

There were only so many professors at the school. If each year had two lessons a week, then each professor would need to teach twenty-four classes a week. The sixth and seventh years from all four Houses had lessons together.

Saturday and Sunday were days off, which meant their schedules were packed for the entire week.

Now that he thought about it, it was not impossible to understand.

"What are you thinking about?" George asked.

"Nothing. Come on, let's keep looking for classrooms." Albert stuffed the timetable into his pocket and led the way toward the Marble Staircase.

So far, the four of them had found the Transfiguration classroom and the History of Magic classroom on the second floor of the castle, as well as an abandoned lavatory. Albert remembered that it was the entrance to Slytherin's Chamber of Secrets, and that there was a dangerous basilisk inside.

Since it was a girls' lavatory, they merely passed by and had no intention of going in, lest anyone misunderstand.

Their exploration of the castle had been fairly rewarding. Near the corridor outside the Charms classroom on the fourth floor, the four of them found another Secret Passage behind a tapestry. It led to the area near the Corridor of Armor and the Trophy Room.

"I think all the tapestries at Hogwarts hide Secret Passages," Lee Jordan joked as he emerged from the passage.

It could not be helped. Every Secret Passage they had found that day had been hidden behind a tapestry, so the misunderstanding was hardly surprising.

"I'd wager most people can find these passages." George looked a little disappointed. He had hoped to find a more concealed passage that nobody else knew about.

"We'll find one. Let's go in and take a look at the Trophy Room." Albert suggested it. In truth, he was a little curious whether the medals and trophies were made of gold and silver.

"George, Fred." Lee Jordan pointed at a display case. "Look at this. Charlie is your brother, right? He even won a Quidditch Cup for the House."

"That was not long after Charlie joined the team. He always hoped to win the Quidditch Cup again before graduating." George looked a little gloomy at the rows of Slytherin trophies. Gryffindor and Slytherin had never gotten along.

"Those Slytherin lot sometimes stop at nothing to achieve their goals," Fred muttered. Then he added, "Percy told me."

"Yeah, the lot from Slytherin Academy are the worst," Fred chimed in. "Percy said that whenever Slytherin falls out of first place by a few points, they will stop at nothing to target the House ahead of them. Snape especially favors his own students and never deducts points from them. Lots of students at school dislike him and always call him Old Bat."

Albert's face twitched as he listened to the twins.

It was fine to joke, but they should not dump every bit of blame on Percy's head. He was their brother, after all, not a scapegoat!