HA 9e: History

HIM AGAIN: Chapter 9: Human Intelligence - History

That boy - that one, with the orange hair and funny glasses - know who he is?

What? Him, sitting next to the window, staring into space?

-He’s Brian Potter. You know, Harry Potter’s son! Ronald Weasley’s nephew!

He was in the papers, wasn’t he - with a full colour family photo album in the middle of the Daily Prophet! It must be awesome, having such a cool family! And being so famous, for doing nothing but being born!

-Tried to say hello to him; just said hi back and then ignored me! And I was staring at him for ages-

-Probably thinks he’s too high and mighty for us-

-Nah, bet he’s sick of it all - must be so annoying, not being able to go outside without getting your picture taken-

-D’you reckon he’s asked his dad about it all? You know, the juicy bits they don’t print in the papers or teach you in History? I bet he has - and his dad’s Chief Auror - so he probably knows more spells and stuff than all of us put together! And he’s in our year!

-Hey - what if he has his dad’s cloak and map? You know - he’s supposed to have an Invisibility Cloak and this special map of Hogwarts that-

-I asked him - and he said yes - so I bet there’ll be a few good pranks played by the end of this year-

-He doesn’t look much like his parents, does he? I mean, his mum’s got orange hair and so has he, but other than that-

-What’s all the excitement, what’s all the fuss? It’s ancient history, it doesn’t matter any more! So his dad’s Chief Auror and destroyed some mouldy old Dark Lord - so what? I wish the papers would get over it. And it’s like with old folks. “During the war-”

-Oh, he’s gone and gone off now! I think you annoyed him; he looked well angry just then-

-Who cares? He was all quiet and odd anyway, I bet he’s screwy. Anyone know what the Sorting Ceremony’s like? Or about any of the Houses? My whole family’s been in Ravenclaw-

-Dunno, but I’ve heard that Gryffindor’s quite…

Albus stood outside the compartment door, fuming. He clenched his young hands into fists and shoved them inside his robes, before setting off to pace up and down the corridor. It wasn’t their fault - how could they understand something that had happened before they born? How could anyone understand anymore?