Sophia had a hard time containing her laughter, despite the fact that she had to go the whole night without sleep. She would have never guessed that Albus Potter would do things like this. James was the prankster among them, at least he was when they were in school, but she supposed they were brothers. She stomped a few more times on the roof, just like Jack had shown her. This was surprisingly fun, maybe she could volunteer to do it again later.
She wished things didn't have to be so complicated. She wished she knew why Albus was here. Was he truly banished from society, like he claimed, or was that just an excuse? He hadn't seemed to realise that he had taken the truth serum, and seemed genuinely upset when he did realise it, but could he have been faking it? He didn't seem to believe her when she said she wanted to help him either. What did he think of their group, and of her? He was holding something back about why he wanted to stay here specifically.
Why did it matter to her what he thought? She usually didn't care what other people said about her, she had heard a lot of it. The Muggle girl, the weirdo who used Muggle technology. Many had accused her of being bad with magic because she used Muggle things. She had proven many of them wrong, at least those in the Order. She hoped to show the others in her Hogwarts class someday too, but that seemed impossible as of now. Her dream of joining the Department of Technology was further away than ever.
She also worried about Mary. Of course, it was natural to be upset at the person who killed her brother, but she had been remarkably hands-off about it since then. Did she plan something extra sinister, or had McLaggen told her not to antagonise Albus? If the latter, why? It would be just like him to take advantage of her anger towards Albus to make her do something awful. But why would she listen to what McLaggen said, and what could Sophia do to prevent it. The few times they had been in proximity to each other today, Mary hadn't looked friendly. Why would she be, when Sophia spent most of the day with the man that killed her brother? But they both knew that there was more to the story. The question was, did Albus know that as well? Had he been looking for them when he was out walking? He had said he wasn't after their group, but that didn't mean he wasn't looking for someone. She should have worded her questions better, but she had worried he would realise she knew more about what had happened than what he had said. Had he recognised her, when he first came falling down here? She didn't know if he had seen them or not and she couldn't ask without revealing secrets it would be better if he didn't know.
"What's he doing now?" Jack grumbled. He was one of the ones in McLaggen's pocket, who added nothing of value to the group, other than usually being the one for tasks like this, guarding the guest room or being security for field tests. Logan Piers had done similar tasks for McLaggen. He and Mary had had several discussions about that. Mary didn't trust McLaggen and his big ideas, but Logan didn't see anything wrong with it. When Mary had pointed out that Logan worked for the very Ministry McLaggen was angry at, Logan had just shrugged and said it didn't matter. Mary had worried that he would end up in a position with conflicting loyalties. That must be hard to think about now. She really needed to check on her later today, preferably without Albus nearby.
"You want me to check on him this time? He can't see us, anyway."
"He's deliberately activating the charm again and again. He must suspect that one is in effect."
"Yes, he probably does. But that doesn't mean he knows we check on him every time. How could he know that?"
"Maybe he can hear the sound of it from inside. It's creepy what these Aurors learn."
Sophia yawned. "I am so not cut out for this job. Why did Cormac have to go make me his Minder? I didn't ask for it."
"You were the one wanting to allow him to stay."
That wasn't how Sophia remembered it. McLaggen had made the offer, she had just defended him afterwards. But whatever story McLaggen told was what Jack believed. He hadn't been there anyway.
"That doesn't mean I wanted to be in charge of him. Luckily, I've been able to keep him distracted, he hasn't asked too many questions I can't answer yet."
"What would be a question you can't answer?"
"He kept asking what we want, what our goals are. I know what I want to do, but I can't speak for everyone else. I tried telling him we're an independent group, and he seems to accept that, at least for now." No need to say more than absolutely necessary to Jack. She probably shouldn't have mentioned that at all.
Jack yawned as well.
"You know, you don't actually need to be here. I'm his Minder, I can keep watch alone."
"Didn't you just say you didn't want to do this?"
"I don't. But I don't have a choice now, do I? You do."
"Cormac told me to stay here with you though."
"He wouldn't know. It's not like he's ever outside his building during the night." Sophia wondered what exactly went on in there, but she had a sinking feeling that she didn't want to know.
A series of low thuds could be heard from the room. Jack groaned as he went towards the opening. It was a window that allowed them to see him, without him seeing them.
"More burpees?" Sophia asked. That had been hilarious. He was surprisingly fit. She supposed he had to be, working in Law Enforcement.
"No. It seems he rolls a ball of some kind from the bed and down on the floor. Then it rolls away, and he goes to pick it up. Where'd'he even get the ball from?"
"He has a wand, you know. He probably Transfigured one."
"Why is he doing this?"
"I don't know. Maybe he's bored?"
"I mean, why isn't he sleeping? Any sane person would have gone to bed by now."
"Maybe he's having trouble sleeping. I gave him quite the fright earlier, maybe it affected him more than I thought." Sophia doubted that was why, but it was a good excuse. Albus might even use that excuse, if they confronted him about what he was doing. Albus had seemed a little scared when she activated her defence bubble, but other than that, he was hard to read. What was going through his head?
Jack grumbled some more. The ball game seemed to become longer and longer. It was almost 5am, so a few early risers, such as Greg came over to see what the status was.
"Has he been doing that all night?" Greg asked as he saw Albus playing ball.
"No," Jack grumbled. "Only for the last hour or so. But he's been up all night, walking around, jumping, dropping things. It's like he deliberately sets off the Caterwauling charm."
Greg chuckled. "Well, you could just turn it off, you know. Check once every hour that he's still there, then don't mind what he's doing."
"Cormac wouldn't like that."
"Cormac isn't here. Either way, I'm off on my morning stroll. Have fun watching the Auror play ball with himself."
Jack grumbled as Greg walked away. He didn't notice that Greg slipped two small bottles to Sophia. She briefly examined them. Two doses of Wideye Potions. Potions was Greg's specialty. He was a former Healer, and his skills had come in handy more than once, when experiments had gone wrong.
She wondered how much of what happened around here Greg actually knew. He was sharper than many of them gave him credit for. His persona of a kind older gentleman hid a mind that was sharper than most. Fred and he were a dynamic duo. Mary was lucky that Greg wanted to teach her. She was a trainee Healer and would probably be given a full-time job at St. Mungo's soon. Sophia didn't look forward to that, Mary was one of the few people here she got along with, and she would be a lot less available once she had a full-time job.
"He's making more and more noise. Shall I just get him out of there?" she asked after Greg was out of earshot.
"Might as well. You should try to avoid him sleeping during the day though, so he doesn't continue this tomorrow."
"Ask Cormac if you need to be here. He really doesn't warrant two of us missing so much sleep."
Jack just grumbled but didn't contradict her. Sophia didn't know why she encouraged this. She would much rather he had to stay and watch him, so she could sleep. Assuming he was going to continue this the next night as well. Albus might be used to staying up several nights in a row, but she wasn't.
She opened the door a little more forcefully than she intended. Albus looked up with a mischievous grin that was soon replaced by a polite confusion.
"You're up early."
"You haven't slept at all."
"I know, but why are you up early?"
"Because you haven't slept at all! Every time you moved around; I was woken up."
"You were?" Albus sounded genuinely apologetic. "I didn't know that. I'm sorry. You should have said something. I was just trying to make the time pass faster, since I couldn't sleep anyway."
Sophia didn't know what to say to that. She knew, from their little talk yesterday, that he probably had done this deliberately. Though she didn't know why. What was it he was trying to do here? Annoy them? For what reason?
"Whatever. Since we're both up anyway, I thought I could show you what I found yesterday. Come on."