The Elementals by Namacub95 (best book club books for discussion .txt) 📕

mother. She turned to look at Keith with a look of annoyance

"What do you want Down-?" The rest of Shauna's sentence was cut off as Keith pressed his lips to her's. Keith was in bliss then he was lying on the ground looking up at Shauna. His hand flew to his jaw where she had punched him. Then she turned without a word and walked away.

"Shauna! Wait! I'm sorry!" It was no use she had disappeared into the crowd.

Keith pushed himself to his feet rubbing his sore jaw which would have a rather large bruise tomorrow to prove his idiocy.

Albus, Rose, Scorpius and Alice were biting back laughter as they had seen the whole thing.

"Shut up." Keith grumbled as they burst into laughter.

Chapter 19: Christmas Gift From No One

The car journey home from King's Cross Station was quiet, normally it would be anything but and that's what made Albus nervous. He suspected that his parents had probably received a letter from Professor McGonagall about his abilities and he wondered if that's why the car was so quiet. James and Lily were probably quiet because the tension in the car could be cut with a bread knife and all this made Albus sink a little deeper into his seat and dread arriving home.

Inevitably the car stopped outside their house in Godric's Hollow and even Albus had to admit he was a little glad to see it. Trunks were then dragged out of the car boot, into the house and up to their rooms.

Albus sat in his bedroom until dinner was ready, he wondered why his parents hadn't wanted to talk to him yet but he knew, just like he knew that the Chudley Cannons wouldn't win the Christmas Eve match, that they would pull him aside eventually.

Dinner like the car ride mostly silent, the most conversation that happened was James asking Lily to pass the gravy. After that however the conversation picked up a little and Albus internally sighed in relief.

After dinner Ginny asked Albus to help her with the dishes, Albus knew there was no escaping it and grabbed a dish towel.

"You never told us how school has been." Ginny said, apparently it would be just his mother talking to him.

"You know...really boring." Albus answered drying a plate "Nothing very exciting...well Keith kissed a girl and she decked him but other than that not very much to say."

"Really? I'm sure there must have been more than that." She was prompting him to bring up the letter, he knew it.

"Er...Ellesheil and me...we..uh...broke up." Albus said hoping after this statement his mother would drop the subject.

"I'm sorry to hear that." Ginny replied, Albus could feel the sympathy in her voice but he knew she wasn't done yet but it could hurt to hope right? "Albus, I know that you know what I'm talking about."

Albus sighed "I really don't want to talk about it."

"Albus we need to talk about this." Ginny said putting down the plate she was washing and drying her hands "Professor McGonagall sent us a letter just after Halloween, she said that you were one of those elementals and she explained all the risks. Albus you could be killed doing this."

"I know mum." Albus said looking up at his mother, he could tell she was worried "But everyone's counting on me! It's not just me mum! Rose, Shauna Longbottom, Keith, Scorpius and Alice are all in this with me!"

"I know Albus, but your father and I just want you to be careful."

"But mum! What if something happened? You're saying I should just stand aside and let my friends be killed!"

"No Albus I'm not saying that." Ginny replied placing a hand on Albus's shoulder "I just want you to make it out of this, whatever it is alive. Please Albus, think before you run off and be a hero."

Albus looked down at his hands then back up at his mother.

"Don't worry I'll be fine." He promised.

There was no more mention of elementals, it seemed that his parents had dropped the subject but there was always a sense of unease in the Potter home.

Before Albus knew it he was being shaken awake by Lily on Christmas morning, grumbling he threw his duvet over his head. Lily said something inaudible under the thick duvet then he fell onto his bedroom floor with a dull thud.

"Ow!" Albus groaned rubbing his now sore ribs "What are you playing at Lily?"

"I told you if you didn't get up I'd trail you out of bed." She said with an air of nonchalance. Albus rolled his eyes at his younger sister, ever since they discovered she was a magical prodigy she acted like she owned the world.

Dragging himself down the stairs he couldn't help but smile when he smelt his mother's traditional Christmas morning breakfast of toast, bacon, sausages and eggs wafting from the kitchen. He had almost no control over his feet as they pulled him towards the kitchen.

Everyone was sitting at the kitchen table, James wolfing down his breakfast while Lily rolled her eyes at him. Albus slid into his seat beside James and eagerly tucked into his breakfast.

After breakfast Lily ferociously attacked her presents followed by James then Albus as he was the last to finish his breakfast. They had all received more sweets and chocolate than they could possibly eat and many items that they never expected. Finally Albus pulled the last gift towards himself; it was a large white box with string tied around it and no card. Untying the string and lifting the lid off the box he peered at his gift.

It was an outfit; there was a long-sleeved white shirt, a white sash, white trousers and white boots with black straps and some red material. He lifted out the red material and unfolded it, curious to know what it was. It was a...dress? A red dress that would reach about his knees that had a side split up until the waist and short sleeves with a white triangle symbol on the chest.

"Hah!" James laughed when he caught sight of it "Someone sent Al a dress!"

"It's not a dress idiot." Lily replied walking over to examine it "It's a tunic. You know you wear it over your clothes."

"I know what a tunic is Lily." James replied.

"Who sent it?" Ginny asked taking the box from Albus.

"Dunno." Albus answered with a shrug. Who would send Albus an outfit like this? He bet it was one of James and Fred's jokes. He caught sight of his father who had a strange expression on his face somewhere between confusion and remembrance.

"Albus. What's that on the floor?" Lily asked pointing to his feet. A small piece of parchment lay beside his right foot and Albus stooped to pick it up.

It was time the gauntlet was passed to you and your generation young fire elemental. Wear this uniform with pride like the fire elementals that came before you.

Albus passed the note to his mother and took the box from her before refolding the tunic and placing it back inside the box. Albus gathered up all his presents in his arms and turned to his parents.

"I'm going to go put these in my room." He said before running up the stairs, he really needed to write to his friends.

Chapter 20: New Years

All of them had received a uniform, the only difference it seemed was that each tunic was a different colour with a different symbol on the chest and Rose's uniform came with black fingerless gloves. No one knew who had sent them their uniforms and each theory was as unbelievable as the one before, eventually they gave up the topic.

As soon as Christmas was over Albus was looking forward to seeing his friends at New Years. He hadn't had any contact with Scorpius, Alice, Keith and Shauna apart from their letters which were often brief.

The days flew by and sooner than he imagined he was standing in the Burrow after flooing there with his parents. Almost instantly Rose threw her arms around his neck in a crushing hug.

"Rose!" Albus gasped struggling for air "You saw me at Christmas!"

Rose took a step back from Albus as he gasped for much needed oxygen.

"I know." she grinned.

"Is that Al?" Yelled a voice from outside. Keith suddenly appeared at the back door to the kitchen his cover in a layer of white snow. Albus walked over and they clasped forearms.

"Missed you mate." Albus said.

"Same here."

"Where's everyone else?" Albus asked noticing that the only teenagers here were himself, James, Lily, Rose and Keith.

"Fred declared a snow war." Keith explained. "Rose, Alice, Shauna and me against Fred, Lucy, Molly and Roxanne."

"COME BACK HERE AND TAKE IT LIKE GRYFFINDORS!" came a shriek from outside. Keith and Albus exchanged a look

"Shauna is very competitive." Keith said.

"That is the understatement of the century." Albus replied.

Albus, Rose, Keith, James and Lily all trooped outside to find Shauna and Alice huddled behind a large snow wall. They didn't hear them approach as they were too busy trying to keep the snow wall from collapsing on top of them. Alice looked frantic while Shauna was busy preparing another snowball.

"It isn't going to last much longer!" Alice said covering her head with her hands as snowballs thumped into the wall behind them.

"It'll hold long enough for Downes to drag his arse out here and fix it!"

"Lucky I'm here then!" Keith grinned. Shauna and Alice's heads snapped up to look at the group and both smiled at Albus. Alice pushed herself to her feet and pulled Albus into a hug. Albus stood there for a second before hesitantly wrapping his arms around Alice. They stayed like that for a few minutes before a snowball collided with Albus's arm causing both of them to jump apart.

"You guys joining or what?" Fred asked a snowball in one hand. Rose shook her head

"I'm not. I'm going to wait for Scorpius." She replied.

"Then Lily and James join us and you guys can have Al and Keith." Molly said.

Rose made her way back to the safety of the Burrow while everyone else began to pelt each other with snow balls. She stamped her feet on the kitchen floor to rid her shoes of snow and walked into the warm living room. All the adults were talking about work or other boring topics so Rose paid no attention to them, instead she settled herself into an empty armchair and waited.

Finally there was a loud knock on the door of the Burrow, by the time the adults looked up Rose had opened the door and flung her arms around Scorpius's neck. Draco Malfoy stood staring inside the Burrow as if trying to ignore his son and Rose embracing.

"It's so good to see you Scorp." Rose said into his shoulder.

"You're acting like you haven't seen me in years!" Scorpius laughed. Rose's response was muffled and nobody understood what she had said. Finally Rose stepped back from Scorpius and allowed him to say goodbye to his father before Draco Malfoy walked away and disapparated.

"Thank you for letting me come." Scorpius said in a slightly sheepish voice directed at Mrs Weasley. Mrs Weasley smiled at Scorpius and almost instantly Scorpius relaxed.