The One Who Took the Blame

The One Who Took the Blame

"Arresto Momentum."

Albert stared at the wooden door that had nearly been torn to pieces, the corner of his eye twitching uncontrollably.

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

The three Weasleys stared at the wrecked wooden door, swallowed in unison, and instinctively 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 were caught.

"Don't be stupid. Skilled wizards usually use Homenum Revelio. They can tell who has been here recently." Albert put a hand on Fred's shoulder, reminding him not to run.

"What do we do, then?" George looked at Albert uneasily.

"I think I can fix it. If I remember correctly, the spell should be—Reparo." Albert quickly calmed down. He raised his wand at the ruined wooden door, focused, and cast the Mending Charm.

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

However, before the wooden door could fully repair itself, it suddenly opened from the inside.

All four of them froze at once. Professor McGonagall emerged from behind the door. She looked at the slowly repairing wooden door, then at the four standing before her. The atmosphere instantly became rather awkward.

"What on earth are you doing?" Professor McGonagall's face twitched as she glared sternly at them. Just moments ago, she had heard a disturbance from the concealed door in her office. When she came to investigate, she found that someone had actually torn apart her office door. The sight had stunned her.

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

"That will do, Mr. Anderson. Come in, all of you." Professor McGonagall looked at the four of them expressionlessly and told them to enter her office.

"It was just 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 Mending Charm. However, Mr. Anderson, I must remind you that Open Sesame is an Unlocking Charm from several centuries ago. Wizards today do not use such crude magic." Professor McGonagall looked at Albert. "If you had 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 been cast with the Anti-Alohomora Charm," Professor McGonagall explained. "That is why your spell did not take effect. This is knowledge of Charms. I think Professor Flitwick would be pleased if you asked him about these matters."

"I will."

"No second time, gentlemen, or you will serve detention." Professor McGonagall apparently did not intend to blame them. She turned, took a piece of Parchment from her desk, and handed it to Albert. "This is the first-years' timetable. Help me put it up on the Gryffindor noticeboard."

"There won't be a next time, I promise." Albert cleared his throat, accepted the new students' timetable from Professor McGonagall, then quickly nudged the Twins and Lee in the back and hurried out of her office.

"That scared me to death." Only after they had gone far from Professor McGonagall's office did they dare speak again.

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

"Pretty lucky. We didn't lose any points, 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.

"But 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 original timetable split into two, then two into four.

He handed the timetables to the other three.

"Why isn't there Flying Class?" After reading the timetable, George was a little disappointed. 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 timetable. Hogwarts felt more like a school that left its students to fend for themselves.

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

"At Muggle schools, there are at least twice as many classes." After thinking about it, Albert guessed the reason.

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

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

Thinking about it now, it was not that hard to understand.

"What are you thinking about?" George asked.

"Nothing. Let's go. We'll 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 class classroom and the History of Magic Class classroom on the second floor of the castle, as well as an abandoned washroom. Albert remembered that it was the entrance to the Slytherin Chamber of Secrets, where a dangerous basilisk lurked.

Since it was a girls' washroom, the four merely passed by and had no intention of entering, lest anyone misunderstand.

Their exploration of the castle had been fairly fruitful. Near the corridor outside the Charms classroom on the fourth floor, they discovered another secret passage behind a tapestry. Its other end was near the Armor Corridor 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 was a little disappointed. He had hoped to find a more concealed passage that no one else knew about.

"We'll find one. Let's go in and have a look at the Trophy Room," Albert suggested. 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 shortly after Charlie joined the team. He's always hoped to win another Quidditch championship before he graduates." George looked at the row of Slytherin trophies with a hint of gloom. Gryffindor and Slytherin had never gotten along.

"Those Slytherins sometimes stop at nothing to achieve their goals," Fred muttered. He added, "Percy told me."

"Yeah, the lot from Slytherin are the most annoying." Fred chimed in. "Percy said that whenever Slytherin falls from first place, they'll stop at nothing to target the Houses ahead of them. Snape especially favors his own students and never deducts points from them. Lots of students in the school dislike him. They always call him Old Bat."

Albert's face twitched when he heard the Twins.

It might be a joke, but don't pin every bit of blame on Percy. He was still their brother, not some scapegoat!