Chapter One
First Encounters
Warning: The following story contains Deathly Hallows spoilers and will make next to zero sense for those who have not read the epilogue.
Characters Contained: Albus Potter, Rose Weasley, Scorpius Malfoy, more OCs than you can count
Disclaimer: I neither own nor make a profit off of anything from the Harry Potter universe.
Status: One shot. Complete for now. I may continue along this train when I'm more awake and it's not midnight.
Other: Written for my friend, Blair. Good luck with everything, mmkay?
Albus waved out of the window until several moments after his father and mother's figures had disappeared from view. The platform was still within sight, but the smoke from the train's engine had long since blocked the view of it.
He pulled back from the window and glanced uneasily to his left and right. He knew that he needed to find a seat before all of them were taken – James had already warned him that he would end up sitting in the aisle during the endless teasing on the way to the station. The only time the question of where to sit had occurred to him while he was packing, though, he had always assumed that he would be sitting with James.
But on the way James had made it clear that he had his own friends to sit with.
Albus was going to have to make it on his own. Well, mostly on his own. Beside him, his cousin Rose was nervously chewing on her bottom lip and occasionally standing on the tips of her toes to get a better look down the length of the train. She needed to find a seat as well.
"Shall we start looking?" Rose wondered suddenly, craning her neck again to look as far down the train as she could.
Without much hope for thinking of a better idea, Albus nodded. After a moment's hesitation he pointed down the passage to the left, striking off in the lead after Rose nodded her agreement.
After a few moments of walking through the interior of the train, Al started to relax a little. He had been on a few muggle trains with his family, and this wasn't that different than one of them. From how James told it, Al had half-expected that the corridors were going to be patrolled by terrible monsters.
That was James talking, though. Who in their right mind could ever believe a word that came out of that boy's mouth? Not Al. No siree. From this moment on, he was going to shove all of the preconceptions from his mind that James had given him. It would make it a lot easier to do this.
Even with that new resolution in mind, Al kept his gaze on the carpeted floor for the first half of their journey, concentrating more on keeping his balance on the lurching train than on actually looking for a good place to sit. Thankfully, Rose took up the slack and scrutinized the compartment through each window that they came across. The first few compartments, they found, were full of older students, none of whom looked anything like his smirking brother. And none of whom looked like they wanted a few scrawny first years to sit with them.
"Oh, where are the ones with open seats? They can't really all be gone. My mother told me that the train always has one more compartment. It's magical, you know, so that they can account for having more students one year, or…"
Albus was half ignoring Rose as he checked one more compartment window. When she started to get nervous, she talked. It was a Rose thing, and it usually didn't do much good to listen.
"It's the last one," Rose noted, cutting off her long spiel and peering over Albus's shoulder. She was shorter than he was and shoved down on his head to get his messy black hair out of her line of sight.
Albus frowned, ducking his cousin's hand and straightening up a few paces back. He didn't bother smoothing his hair down from where it had been mussed -- it always stuck up at odd angles anyway. "There's someone in there, you know."
He didn't know why that was so important, but it seemed like it was. There was always supposed to be an empty compartment on your first year, or you were supposed to sit with people you knew and liked. The boy occupying the compartment seemed to be messing up that particular theory. The look Rose gave him was enough to quell further arguments, though. Sometimes Albus thought she was a bit too much like his aunt.
Seeing that Albus wasn't brave enough to offer any more objections, Rose brushed off her new Hogwarts robes, knocked once on the compartment door, and strode inside after sliding the door open. Albus hesitated for half a heartbeat before following. Whoever the boy inside was, it was Al's duty to keep his cousin from steamrolling him.
"--and there's nowhere else open, so I really don't see that you have much of a choice in if we sit here or not," Rose was saying, focusing on the sole occupant of the compartment as Albus squeezed in behind her.
The boy that seemed to be bearing the brunt of Rose's bullying Albus noticed with a small start, was the one his uncle had pointed out while they were getting onto the train. He had pale blond hair that had been slicked back in a way Albus's hair would never manage, a sharp, narrow face, and a pinched expression as he watched Rose state her case.
"So, really," Rose continued, breaking Albus's train of thought, "you can't tell us we can't sit here. And besides – it's not as if we'll bother you."
"Of course you won't," Albus heard the boy mutter under his breath. "You've already done plenty of that to last you all the way to Hogwarts, haven't you?" Aloud, he said, "Do what you want. I'll make sure my father arranges for a private compartment next time."
Looking slightly annoyed, but also rather pleased with herself, Rose sat down and motioned for Albus to take the seat beside her. Not without a bit of apprehension, Al took the indicated seat across from the pale boy.
"I'm Rose Weasley, by the way," Rose announced extending a hand. Albus could recognize the overly cheerful tone in his cousin's voice -- she was trying to make amends for bullying her way through their first encounter with the boy.
The pale boy simply looked at Rose's hand, his lip curling slightly until she hastily withdrew it, looking slightly hurt.
"I'm Albus Potter," Albus piped up pointedly. If this was how the boy was going to act, he understood why his uncle had instructed Rose to wipe the floor with the boy on their tests. He didn't really feel sorry for not stopping Rose's bullying now.
There was a moment in which Albus thought the boy was going to continue ignoring their efforts at being friendly, but then the boy sighed and waved one hand airily. "My name is Scorpius Malfoy. And I didn't need you two to introduce yourselves, did I?" The pale boy's gaze lingered on Albus's messy black hair, then switched to Rose and her prominent freckles and reddish brown hair.
Albus and Rose exchanged glances. It didn't seem like the Malfoy boy was going to make very good conversation.
"So, what do you think about Teddy?" Rose asked, turning away from Scorpius and bravely trying to break through the cold silence. "I think he's in love. Isn't it sweet?"
"Er… yeah."
Scorpius was giving Albus one of those looks. The kind James always used on him when he thought Albus was participating in something exceptionally childish.
If this train ride was going to determine what his classmates thought of him, Albus sincerely hoped things would take a turn for the better very, very soon. He was also beginning to hope that something would wipe that arrogant expression off of Scorpius' face. He knew that his dad had said to try to get along with everyone, but Albus was afraid that the boy wasn't likable enough for anyone to get along with.
"Do you think he'll propose once Victoire finishes Hogwarts?" Rose prompted, eager to keep some sort of conversation going.
"Er, well…"
"Anything off the cart? A little sugar is the best way to fight down the nerves."
Albus grinned as a slightly plump witch poked her head into the compartment. He was saved! Even if everything else was going less than swimmingly, sweets were certain to make the world a brighter place.
Within moments, Albus had nearly emptied his pockets buying a bag ofBertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans and several boxes ofChocolate Frogs. Rose had watched him with a slightly disapproving expression on her face -- her mother had apparently cracked down on any and all consumption of candy after discovering Hugo had gotten a cavity. Scorpius had watched as well, and Al thought he might be acting as if he'd like to buy something, but was afraid it might ruin the aloof air he had been cultivating if he stood up to do so.
"James had one of these get away from him the other day," Albus told Rose conversationally, retaking his seat and holding up the candy box for inspection. "He squashed it with one of my new books when it tried to hop into the garden. I'm going to be hungry every Charms class; the book still smells a bit like chocolate."
Albus knew he had said the wrong thing as soon as the last word had left his mouth. Rose perked up, her expression brightening as she rummaged for her bag and lifted free her copy of The Standard Book of Spells: Grade 1; she had gotten it for her birthday only a few months ago and, as James had bluntly described it, had not shut up about it since.
"We should test each other on the way!" exclaimed Rose, her face shining with excitement. "Mum said that memorizing the spell books early on helped her quite a lot when she first started. I bet there's a spell in here for cleaning off your book, too."
Albus could only gawk. His aunt had said something similar when she'd given him his copy of the book as a present, but he'd thought she was joking. His dad had laughed after all. How was he supposed to memorize such thick books?
Desperate to drag his mind away from that panicky line of thought, Albus opened his bag of Every Flavor Beans and addressed Scorpius out of sheer desperation. "My brother told me the yellow ones are always okay to eat. Have you heard that?"
Not waiting for a reply, Albus dug through the bag until he found a yellow bean, ignoring how Scorpius was watching with a suddenly open interest.
As Albus popped the bean into his mouth, the compartment grew silent again as both Rose and Scorpius watched the dark-haired boy's face slowly turn pale, then a delicate shade of green.
"He's going to be sick," Rose whispered, wide-eyed.
Albus shook his head fiercely, struggling to swallow before making a face.
"Well?" Scorpius frowned. Apparently he had forgotten that he was too far above them to participate in any sort of conversation.
"Eggs," Albus managed in a slightly strangled voice. "Rotten eggs."
Scorpius' lip twitched slightly. Almost, Albus noted, as if he'd been about to actually smile. "I think I know now why father has never bought them for the house."
That statement even had Rose's attention.
"You've never had them?" Albus asked. "Ever?"
Scorpius' cheeks colored slightly, and he hurried to regain his previous composure. "Obviously not. Rotten eggs, did you say? Why would I eat anything like that?"
Albus shook his head, digging into the bag, then leaning forward to force a red colored bean into Scorpius' hand. "Everyone eats them. My brother's told me only kids from Muggle families don't have them -- you have to try at least one before Hogwarts, right?"
For a moment, Albus was sure that he had been too bold. It wasn't like they were friends enough to be trading sweets, right? Scorpius was likely to throw the bean on the floor just to spite him. Before Albus could sink down into his seat, however, Scorpius lifted an eyebrow at the sweet, then popped it into his mouth.
Scorpius was silent for a moment, and then-- "Cherry."
"Oh, I love cherry! Just let me have one, Al?" Rose pleaded, having watched the entire exchange with bated breath. "I can't stand it any more. Don't tell Mum, though. She'll be so displeased…"
Finally grinning again, Albus dug into the bag for first Rose, then Scorpius, who had held out his hand expectantly.
For the next half hour, Albus was content to share his bag of sweets and participate with the other two in guessing flavors and daring one another into sampling the dodgy-looking beans. Scorpius remained as aloof as he could while attempting to eat a pepper-flavored bean, but the atmosphere had lightened considerably.
Feeling slightly drowsy, Albus sank back into his seat. In a few more hours he would be at Hogwarts and he would have to give in to that gnawing anxiety in his stomach again, but for now he was going to relax.
"Scorpius, have you started memorizing the books yet?"
Well… at least he would relax as much as his cousin would allow.