Albus Potter waved both hands almost manically out of the window, his father's final words playing over in his mind as his family got smaller and smaller. He had actually almost been put in Slytherin? The very idea felt foreign to him. Hadn’t his relatives always said how very much a Gryffindor his dad was? Could it be possible that his dad had been lying to make him feel better? Albus doubted it.

His family disappeared from view as the train rounded the corner and he turned around to face his cousin, Rose. Her eyes were bright with excitement but her head craned round to get one last lingering look of the platform at Kings Cross. She withdrew her head from the window and looked at Albus. She smiled, her silver braces, courtesy of her muggle grandparents, prominent on her white teeth.

‘We’re going to Hogwarts! Can you believe it, Al?’

Albus grinned back, unable to find suitable words to describe how he was feeling; nervous excitement didn’t quite cover it. ‘Should we find a compartment?’ He walked ahead of her along the corridor, behind a stream of other students. Albus only glanced inside each compartment before moving on, he knew who he was looking for.

‘That one was empty,’ said Rose, pointing to the compartment they had just passed.

‘I know,’ said Albus simply.

‘Are you looking for James? Because we already passed him.’

Albus didn’t answer, he had found who he was looking for. A boy was sitting alone, a book open on his lap, but he was looking out at the city that was speeding past the window. Rose’s brow was furrowed as she took in the boy’s white blond hair and slim pale face.

‘But isn’t that Draco Malfoy’s son?’ she asked Albus. ‘My dad said not to become friends with him.’

‘No he didn’t,’ replied Albus. ‘He only said that you couldn’t be his girlfriend.’

Rose’s cheeks blushed crimson. ‘You’re going to start trouble with him, aren’t you?’ She asked apprehensively, pulling him a little further down the carriage so they were no longer in front of the Malfoy boy’s compartment.

‘No I’m not,’ said Albus. ‘He looks lonely. I just want to talk to him.’

‘But he probably knows lots of dark magic and will curse you the first chance he gets. What would your dad say if you were in the hospital wing on the first day?’

‘And what would your mum say if she knew you were judging people before getting to know them?’ Albus said back, and he knew he had got her. Rose bit her lip, unsure of what to do.

‘Look, you don’t have to join us if you don’t want to. We don’t have to be best friends, just because we’ve come to Hogwarts together. We’ll always be cousins. No matter what.’

Albus made his way back towards the compartment door and placed his hand on the handle. Rose made a noise somewhere between a whimper and a grunt. Looking back Albus saw that she was nibbling at her bottom lip, unable to decide whether to follow his lead or not.

‘Well?’ Albus asked but Rose remained silent and still.

Tired of waiting, Albus slid open the compartment door and walked in. ‘Do you mind?’ he asked the boy, who had turned around upon hearing the door open, and was now looking between Albus and Rose.

Rose hesitated then said ‘I’ll see you at Hogwarts,’ and continued down the train. The tight red curls of her hair bouncing along behind her.

‘Your dad’s Draco Malfoy, isn’t he?’ said Albus.

The boy surveyed Albus through dark grey eyes, before nodding. ‘My name’s Scorpius,’ he said.

Albus couldn’t quite suppress a snort, which Scorpius noticed and scowled.

‘What kind of a name is that?’ asked Albus.

‘A better name than yours, no doubt,’ Scorpius replied coldly.

‘As a matter of fact, my father says that I’m named after the two greatest headmasters Hogwarts has ever seen. Both of whom he knew and respected,’ Albus said.

‘Which are?’ Scorpius asked.

‘Albus Severus Potter,’ Albus said proudly.

‘Oh,’ was all Scorpius said. He lowered his gaze from Albus, and looked down to his knees.

‘What?’ asked Albus, as he took the seat opposite Scorpius.

‘Well, you’re a Potter so you will be in Gyffindor, and I’m a Malfoy so I will be in Slytherin, and Gryffindors and Slytherins aren’t ever friends.’

‘I don’t think that’s true,’ Albus said. ‘And you never know, you might not be put in Slytherin.’

‘All my family was,’ Scorpius said quietly, and turned back to look out of the window.

‘My dad says you can choose where you want to go and it will be taken into consideration.’

‘Maybe I want to be in Slytherin,’ said Scorpius defiantly to the window.

‘Maybe I do too,’ said Albus.

Scorpius’ head, spun round. ‘You want to be in Slytherin?’ he asked incredulously.

Albus shrugged. ‘I don’t know. I don’t think it really matters what house you’re in.’

This wasn’t entirely true. Albus was terrified of what James would do. James was always going on about how much he disliked the Slytherins, and more than once he had mentioned the names of particular members of Slytherin house whom he may or may not have jinxed, he always conveniently forgot to mention exactly what had happened which caused him to end up in detention when his parents were around.

‘Would you like anything off the trolley?’ An elderly women had slid open the compartment door and was smiling pleasantly at the two boys. Scorpius’ eyes widened at the sight of the trolley she was pushing and he jumped out of his seat. Albus was quick to follow.

‘Would you like anything?’ Scorpius asked, pulling a couple of galleons out of his pocket. ‘We can share.’

‘Are you sure? I’m quite happy buying my own,’ Albus said, but Scorpius wouldn’t take no for an answer and he forced Albus back into his seat.

‘What do you like?’ he asked again.

‘I like anything,’ Albus told him reluctantly.

Scorpius got a bit of everything, except liquorice wands. ‘I hate liquorice,’ he said, as he held out a black jellybean to Albus, who took it happily.

They whiled away the journey, talking about their favourite Quidditch teams, what they were excited about at Hogwarts, and most of all their families and lives at home, as both seemed to be fascinated in the others.

‘We live in London in my mum’s family home because her parents both died a while ago. She says it’s because she’s attached to it, I was even born there. She only had me when she was nineteen, you see. That’s not the real reason though, it’s because London keeps my dad busy so he doesn’t go mad reflecting on the past. That’s what happened with my granddad. After serving his time in Azkaban everything had changed. He was so used to having power and status that when he suddenly was openly detested and had nothing to do he couldn’t take the strain. We lived with him at the manor after I was born, but he died when I was three, and we moved away. Grandma said that dad was a coward for running away from his memories instead of facing up to the fact that he had made mistakes in the past.’ Scorpius’ voice drifted off and he said something inaudible to Albus.

‘My parents don’t like to talk about what happened, they say they’ll tell us when we’re older, but I don’t think they will. Uncle Ron sometimes lets things slip when he’s drunk, though. He told us that your dad was supposed to kill Albus Dumbledore, that’s who I’m named after.’

‘But he didn’t, he couldn’t do it. I bet you think that it was his entire fault that Dumbledore died just like everyone else. It’s not like he had a choice. Join the death eaters or be murdered, along with his family. He was only seventeen, what else was he supposed to do? I’m not ashamed of him,’ Scorpius said, ‘but people think I should be. He was good enough to turn away. He never wanted to do anything wrong, only please the people he cared about.’

Albus was surprised to see Scorpius looking bitter. His eyes were glistening with something that could be rage, but before Albus could contemplate this, Scorpius had turned away, perhaps from embarrassment at his outburst. The sky outside the train had turned navy, and white stars glistened overhead. In the distance, large black mountains were prominent on the horizon.

‘You need to get into your school robes. I think we’re nearly there,’ said Scorpius, his voice calm once more.


*


Albus’ legs trembled beneath him as he got off the Hogwarts Express. Hundreds of Students, all dressed in immaculate black robes were bustling around him, making their way down the platform at Hogsmeade Station. He saw Rose walking down the steps some carriages ahead of him. She waved enthusiastically, clearly enjoying herself. He felt a hand grab him on his shoulder and Scorpius begin to steer him towards the half-giant Hagrid, who was calling out to the first-year students.

‘All righ’, Al?’ Hagrid called out as they neared, ‘Where’s tha’ cousin of yours, Rosie?’

Albus pointed to behind Hagrid, who turned around quickly, almost knocking over a couple of second-years that had stopped to have a gossip.

‘Do you know him?’ Scorpius asked in admiration.

‘Yeah, that’s Hagrid; he’s the grounds keeper. Him and my dad are friends.’

‘Isn’t that a bit strange? I mean, he looks like a giant,’ said Scorpius, anxious that he hadn’t offended Albus.

‘He’s only half-giant. But if you want to see someone really big I’ll take you to see Grawp. He’s over sixteen foot tall!’ Albus sniggered at the look of horror depicted Scorpius’ face and wondered whether he should mention that they were both actually very nice.

They followed Hagrid and the other forty or so first-years down the platform, but instead of going with the other students towards what Albus knew would be the thestral-drawn coaches, they went in the opposite direction. Soon enough they came across a row of small rowing boats bobbing gently up and down on an enormous lake, its black waters reflecting the moonlight.

Scorpius helped Albus into one of the boats. He had been apprehensive about water since James had pushed him into a pond at The Burrow when he was a toddler. The little boat jerked, and together the fleet began to make its way across the lake as one. Albus’ heart was beating hard and fast with nerves beneath his chest, and he had to grip on tightly to the sides of the boat to stop him from shaking.

‘I can’t wait for the feast,’ Scorpius was saying, though Albus was barely listening, he was sure he had just seen something moving beneath the surface of the lake. ‘My mum says the opening feast is always the best, and Hogwarts food is supposed to be amazing.’

‘You’ll get your firs’ look of Hogwarts in a mo,’’ Hagrid called to the students.

Everyone craned their necks to try and see, but there was no need. The branches of the willows that had been leaning over the banks cleared and Hogwarts castle could be seen standing high and tall in front of them. The black silhouette of the many towers and turrets broken by bright light coming through the many hundreds of windows. All of Albus’ worries suddenly disappeared and he was one of many saying ‘wow.’

‘Off you get,’ Hagrid called, as many hadn’t noticed that they had reached the shore. ‘Jus’ you wait ‘til you get inside.’


*


Albus’ knees were once again threatening to buckle beneath him. He was walking across the great hall beside the long house tables, each holding what seemed like thousands of students, all of whom were watching, hoping someone would make a mistake. Albus looked determinedly away from them and glanced upwards. The ceiling above him mirrored the black cloudless sky outside, and floating beneath it were hundreds of lit candles that cast a golden glow across the spectacular hall and its occupants.

The deputy head, Professor Fawn, who had just lead them into the hall, stopped in front of the new students. She smiled, her deep brown eyes looking over them affectionately, as though they were her own children. ‘I will call out your names in alphabetical order. When your name is called you will need to come to the front, sit on the stool and I shall place the sorting hat on your head.’

‘Isn’t that the hat that your dad pulled Gryffindor’s sword from?’ Scorpius whispered into Albus’ ear. Albus nodded. He did not want to open his mouth unless it was entirely necessary. Judging by the nausea that was bubbling in his stomach, he was close to being sick.

Professor Fawn’s eyes landed on the pair of them for a moment, but she did not say anything. Instead she glanced down at the parchment within her hands and started to read from the list, ‘Adair, Rachel.’

Albus watched as the names of students from Adair to Littler were called from the group and sorted into their new houses. He felt Scorpius tense next to him and he realised that ‘Malfoy’ would be coming up soon. Sure enough, the next name to be called was ‘Malfoy, Scorpius.’ Scorpius looked towards Albus, who smiled at him.

‘Remember you have a choice,’ he whispered, trying his hardest to keep his lips as still as possible.

Scorpius sat down on the three-legged stool and surveyed the hall with his grey eyes, much like he had looked over Albus. But then the hat was placed on his head, and it slid down so far, it obscured his view. Albus crossed his fingers for Scorpius, knowing he was probably more scared than he was letting on. The hat was still and appeared to be doing nothing, but a moment later the hat called out ‘Gryffindor!’ from a tear at the brim, for the whole hall to hear.

Scorpius’ face broke into a grin as he walked towards the table that was cheering for him. Albus let himself look around, and saw his brother James whispering into the ear of the boy next to him. At that moment he would have liked more than anything to whack James around the head. He could imagine what he must be saying to his friend and couldn’t help but think that Scorpius probably deserved to be in Gryffindor a lot more than James did, regardless of who either of their relatives were.

‘Potter, Albus.’

Albus looked up at Professor Fawn. He had briefly forgotten where he was standing, but had remembered in an instant and his fears and worries returned once more. Slowly he made his way to the front and he could feel the eyes of everyone in the hall upon him and hear the whispers as people connected him to his father, the man who had defeated the darkest wizard, not only of the century, but that the world had ever seen.

Albus saw Scorpius’ face looking up at him from Gryffindor table, and saw him give the thumbs up before the hat fell over his eyes and he found himself looking at the inside of the very ancient hat.

‘It’s another Potter is it?’ the hat said to him. ‘I suppose you want to be in Gryffindor like your brother and father wanted. Very clear that I should steer clear of Slytherin they were.’

James asked to be in Gryffindor too? Albus thought to himself.

‘Yes,’ the hat replied, causing Albus to jump slightly. ‘But he would have suited Slytherin, just like your father.’

I don’t mind where I’m put, Albus told the hat, I want to be in the house that suits me best.

‘Well, I see no doubt about where you belong. Gryffindor!’

Albus knew the last word had been shouted out and the hat was no longer just talking to him. As the hat was taken from his head he saw the Gryffindor table alive with cheers, just like it had been for Scorpius. While he made his was to sit with his new housemates he glanced towards the Slytherin table on the other side of the hall and he almost felt disappointed. But this feeling disappeared as he sat down next to Scorpius who was grinning jubilantly.

The final students were sorted into their houses ending with ‘Weasley, Rose’, who bounded quite happily towards the cheering Ravenclaws. Albus was ecstatic that he was quite possibly the truest Gryffindor the Potter family had seen in over fifty years, and couldn’t help but wonder how many other Potters before him would have done well in Slytherin.