Doors

Chapter 1: Slytherin

Albus Severus Potter:

As the train pulled away from the Platform 9 ¾, I stared at my mum and dad, smiling and waving, holding Lily's hand. Rose, James and I trudged through the aisle.

"James?" I felt my throat go dry as I looked from compartment to compartment. I turned to see why my barely passable brother hadn't answered me. I frowned. Where'd he go? I turned back around to face the front and I found Rose gone as well. That's odd, I thought.

"Al!" I heard someone call my name. "Albus!" It was Rose. My frown faded into a subtle smile as I all but skipped towards her. As I reached for the door, James threw it open, smirked, and said, "you're welcome," and strutted off to who knows where, I turned to Rose, who was sitting on the seat to closest to the door on the right.

"Why should I thank him?" I spat angrily, Rose notice my angry and narrowed her eyes slightly, a red lock fell down her face. I chuckled, bloody hell, she really was Aunt Hermione's daughter. My chuckle threw her off, making her think I was only joking about being angry at James.

"He found Molly, and these seats." She said as a matter of fact. My eyes shifted to the pale, red-headed girl beside Rose. I didn't even see Molly when I came in.

"Molly!" I said holding my arms out for a hug. She dismissed the hug and instead gently patted my hand.

"Nice to see you as well, Albus." Her gazed returned once again to the window on the right.

"Are you going to sit?" Rose asked, ushering me to seat. I sat directly across from her.

"Where'd James go anyway?" I inquired.

"He said he had other… arrangements." A soft colour rose to Rose's cheeks. "Oh." I smiled, mostly because James was gone but a little bit because of Rose. Rose opened her mouth to get mad at me or say something, when a faint click of the door shifted all of our attentions. A pale, blonde haired, grey eyed kid stood at the door, looking more uncomfortable than a first year after being sorted into Hufflepuff. He cleared his throat and stuck out his hand.

"Scorpius Hyperion Malfoy." He said proudly. Rose sort of stumbled out of her seat, causing her cheeks turned to the colour of her hair, she politely shook his hand.

"Rose Weasley," She smiled, she moved her free hand to point to me, "and this is,"

"Oh- uh," I stammered, "Albus Severus Potter." I said, shaking his outstretched hand. He turned his gaze to Molly, still holding his hand out. She dismissed him with a wave of her hand and a mumbled, "Molly Weasley, the second." Malfoy raised a quizzical eyebrow, but decided not to bother her again. He returned to talking to Rose and me.

"Do you mind, Love?" Scorpius asked gesturing to the seat beside me. "All the other seats are taken." He said smoothly. Rose blushed but retained her composure. She pushed her shoulders back in the most Hermione like fashion.

"Yes, you may." She said briskly and coldly. "And don't call me love." She added quickly in a, I-am-better-than-you-so-don't-even-bother sort of tone. I couldn't help but smile. Scorpius Malfoy nodded, and despite just being shot down, still had a small smirk dancing on his lips. He moved forward, shut the door and sat beside me.

Towards the end of the train ride, I'd decided Scorpius Hyperion Malfoy was an alright bloke and that we might just be able to be friends.

As we reached Hogwarts James stumbled into the compartment, smirking. "Just want to get my-" His finger was pointing at his bags, but his eyes glowered at my seat mate. "What is he doing here?" James snarled dragging his words as he said he. I rolled my eyes and looked at my brother.

"He was sitting in your empty seat." I said standing and emphasizing your more than empty. James snatched his luggage, growled at Scorpius one more time then exited the compartment, "We're here." He grumbled just before disappearing into the crowd. I backed up towards my seat and when I hit it with my leg, crumpled into it. Scorpius caught my eye and flashed me a lopsided smile. "Race you off the train?" He suggested.

"You're on!" I smiled in return just before dashing out the door, dragging my luggage behind me. As I raced down the aisle, pushing past other first years, someone grabbed my arm and yanked me inside a compartment, slamming the door after me. I heard Scorpius yelling at me, rushing past the door, trying to catch up to the non-existent me. I turned to face the person who made me lose the race; it'd been a fun idea and might have been when Scorpius and I could've bonded over something. I came face to face with James. But in a way this wasn't my brother, this James had gentle sort of worry in his eyes.

"Don't be friends with him." He blurted out, in a pleading tone.

"It shouldn't matter who I'm friends with." I huffed I turned on my heel, gripped the door, and thought that was the end of the conversation. Then James whirled me around so fast my head went a little fuzzy.

"It won't matter." He was talking so fast, and my head was still reeling, it was hard to follow. "When you get sorted into Gryffindor, it won't matter. You'll be his enemy." This sparked a flame in me. He just assumed I was going to be just-like-him!

"What if I'm not in Gryffindor? What if I'm in Slytherin?" I snarled. James smiled.

"You're a Potter. You'll be in Gryffindor." He said in a proud, matter-of-factly way.

"Yeah, whatever." I grumbled, leaving the compartment. I hoped I was in Slytherin. Just to be different and not just known as another potter.

Scorpius Hyperion Malfoy:

"Ha! I beat you, Potter!" I smirked triumphantly as Albus approached. I swear I heard him murmur, "Sod off, Malfoy." And was about to confront him about it when a voice boomed.

"Gather Round!" Headmaster Finnigan was collecting first years at the front for sorting. Professor Longbottom placed the sorting hat on a small black stool at the front of the hall. He unravelled a scroll and began to recite names. I stared at the endless amount of Hufflepuffs and Gryffindors get sorted.

"Alice Longbottom." Professor smiled. A lean, blonde girl glided towards the stool. She look up at the Professor, smiled and perched herself on the stool. She was gorgeous, but what was her name? Oh well, I smirked; I'd have to make myself more acquainted to that. She gently shut her eyes as the sorting hat was put on top of her head. The tattered old at looked so out of place on her perfect head.

"Ravenclaw!" It bellowed. Ravenclaw? That's adequate, I thought. My eyes followed the girl to the Ravenclaw table as the Hat continued.

"Scorpius Malfoy." I snapped from my daze and dragged my eyes to the front, where Professor Longbottom was staring at me with one eyebrow raised. Hell, it was my turn. I strutted to the front and sat on top of the stool.

"Another Malfoy, eh?" The hat inquired. Before I had to time make a stupid remark like well at least I'm not a hat! It yelled, "Slytherin!" I hopped off the stool and saw a very proud Weasley in my direct line off path, her copper curls bouncing as she switched her weight from foot to foot. As I walked past Rose, I smirked.

"Good Luck." I paused for a second and without thinking about it, quickly added, "Love." She whirled around to smack me but I was too quick. I'd already slipped into my seat at the Slytherin table.

Albus:

"Slytherin!" It yelled pulling me from my trance of worry, great. Malfoy was in Slytherin. My heart began to race. My palms were suddenly sweaty.

"Albus." Someone hissed in my ear and elbowed me in the ribs.

"Whaa?" I looked up to see Professor Longbottom looking at me the same was he'd looked at Scorpius. My turn already! I took a single step forward, my legs wobbled; I followed with another step and another and another, slowly making my way towards the stool. I sat on the stone cold stool. Shivers went up my spine. A large, tattered, old hat was place on my head.

"A Potter? I suppose you wish to be placed in Gryffindor House as well, boy?" He murmured. I took a shaky breath.

"No." My voice cracked, and I cleared my throat. "I want to be in Slytherin." I said proudly. The hat chuckled darkly.

"You are different from the other Potters," I smiled and what I thought was a compliment. "In ways both good and bad." The hat concluded, wiping the smile clean off my face.

"SLYTHERIN!" It bellowed. I walked towards my table, taking a seat beside Scorpius, and watch the rest of the crowd dwindle as they were sorted. Molly was sorted in Gryffindor. Just like her father.

"Rose Weasley!" Professor shouted. She approached the stool cautiously, and forced herself to sit. The hat was placed on her head. She stiffened as the hat whispered to her.

"Gryffindor!" It hollered. My heart sank. She was my best friend, and she wasn't even in the same house as me. After the sorting was finished, Headmaster Finnigan stepped up to the podium. The golden owl woke itself from its slumber. It spread its wings, reaching each end of the podium.

"Welcome to Hogwarts. We have a few announcements! First off, welcome first years! We have a few rules, all of you should follow," He said eying the Slytherin table, "Firstly stay out of the Forbidden Forest. It's forbidden." He said cracking a smile, a couple of chuckles went around. "Secondly, I'd like to introduce our new chamber, on the third floor." He gestured his hand towards the door where Prefects began to summon us down the halls. I shoved a roll in my mouth, and followed as we walked to the stairs.

"Watch the stairs!" Some Hufflepuff Prefect yelled. I looked at him like he was absurd until, one of the staircases on my far right began to move. My jaw dropped. The stairs moved! Brilliant! We all made our way to the third floor. Even the older years seemed to be confused as to what was on the Third floor.

"This," The headmaster said, re-appearing at the front, pointing at two large wooden doors. Rusted silver, climbed around the doors making an arc. Polished silver twisted and turned like wisps of wind, moved in the middle towards the centre of the doors, where the smashed together to form a golden, shimmering Phoenix. "Is the Chamber of Commons." He said. "In this Chamber all four houses can converse and relax together. A common, common room." He smiled; his eyes twinkled as his smiled line grew more and more pronounced. And with that the mass of witches and wizards raced to try and see the inside of the Chamber.

Scorpius:

Every witch and wizard in the school seemed to be dying to get into the Chamber, though I wouldn't admit it out loud; I wanted to see the Chamber, too. I looked to my left and saw Albus getting bumped and shoved by people trying to get past. He rolled his eyes and began to descend the stairs, I ran over to him. "Albus!"I shouted. He turned around.

"Yes?" He smiled, I smirked in reply.

"Aren't you going to look at the Chamber?" His eyebrows knit together, then his face relaxed and he shrugged and started down the stairs again. I grabbed him by the arm and pulled him towards the front of the mob. Once we'd reached the front, he stopped resisting and gave in.

The Chamber was about as large as the Great Hall, but had a homier feel to it, the ceiling rose so far I wasn't sure there was one, and the magical incantation to make the roof look like the weather outside didn't help. It had many, many doors. Each door a different symbol. A door with a small blue book, led to a library. The Ravenclaws would love that. Another door had two wands crossing each other to form an X, that door led to a small duelling area. I wondered how they kept kids in line and out of trouble in that room, I thought, but out of the corner of my eye I saw a thousand Knights carved out of the stone walls. There were dozens of other doors, each one labelled accordingly with a simple drawing. The chamber itself was one larger room with a bunch of couches and chairs surrounding a10 foot by 10 foot circular fireplace, in the centre of the Chamber.

But the thing that caught my attention the most was the four doors, one in each corner of the room. On the left closest to the entrance was a shiny blue door with a grey eagle with bronze talons painted on it. On the right closest to the entrance was a yellow door with a black badger painted on it. In the back and to the right was a scarlet door with a radiant golden lion, but the most interesting door of all of them was in the back left corner of the Chamber, a silver door with an evergreen snake painted on it.

I turned to Albus, "Oi!" He looked at me; I nodded my head in the direction of the door. He nodded and we made our way to the door.

The door was 6 feet tall, and had a silver door handle. I reached out a griped the handle and twisted, the snake moved its head to face me. It hissed and nodded, and then the door moved inwards. A long spiralling staircase was behind the door, I looked over my shoulder at Albus, he did a quick, shaky nod. And with that we started down the stairs. A low creaking came from the door as it slowly closed behind us; I swallowed my fear and plunged into the darkness. The stairs seemed to continue for hours on end, I knew it'd only been close to 5 minutes but my feet told me longer. Finally we reach a 4 foot tall, square door. It was made of smoke grey stone, the same as the floor and walls, except for the snake engraved into the middle of a stone. Albus was a ghostly white, I shrugged, but in the small space we had it looked more like an awkward twitch. I pushed the stone in and it worked, the other stone surrounding the one with a snake, all began to shift into each other until there was a gap in the wall.

When we climbed through the hole in the wall we found ourselves in a dark dungeon with silver and grey accents around the room. We were in the Slytherin Common Room. I turned around to look at the hole; apparently Albus had the same idea. And to little surprise the hole was gone. Nothing but a small grey fireplace was left behind. "What the bloody-" I was cut off when two third year girls entered the Common Room.

"Why aren't you in the new Chamber?" She snarled. I held my hands in the air, palms spread, surrendering.

"Sorry." I smirked. "We're first years, and we were REALLY excited to see our rooms." I paused waiting for a reaction when I got none I continued. "We're also reeeally exhausted." She smirked.

"Don't bother lying, I really don't care, Malfoy." I blinked, I was taken aback, I didn't know anyone at the school except for Albus and Rose, oh and that Molly something. "My name's Persephone Lestrange." She said, and for the first time I really looked at this girl and took into account what she looked like. She looked a lot like my great-aunt Bellatrix… Wait. Did she say her name was Lestrange?

"Lestrange?" I croaked. A wicked smile crept along her face.

"Yes." She said smugly. "Bellatrix Lestrange is my grandmother. " I opened my mouth to say something but she didn't give me the chance. She stuck her perfectly manicured, in black and green nail polished, hand in my face. "And yes, that makes our parents cousins, which makes us second cousins." She strode over; she smiled and pulled me into a hug. And then gave me a noogie. "Welcome to the family, squirt." I pushed her away, she made her signature wicked smile, then it faded to some softer. "Have you met Eris?" She asked in an almost tender way.

"No?" I replied I looked over at her friend, assuming… But her friend just shook her head. I looked back at Persephone and raised an eyebrow.

"Eris is my sister." She said clarifying. "She was sorted into Ravenclaw." She said in a bitter tone, but it got my attention. What was the name of that girl from earlier? I tried to remember but I seemed to be blanking.

"Is she blonde?" I asked without even thinking, but I barely remembered those two details about the girl. Persephone's eyes sparkled as she nodded. "Cool." I smirked. But then I began to process these thoughts. If Eris is Persephone's sister that makes her my cousin, too. I frowned, damn there goes that idea. Persephone scowled at me.

"Why are you frowning?" She asked I shook myself out of the daze.

"I-uh was j-just thinking it sucks that I haven't met my own cousins." I stammered an excuse. Persephone continued her glaring; she abruptly turned on her heel, grabbed her friend's wrist and left the room to go upstairs. I stared at the empty staircase.

"Nothing like family, eh?" I jumped. I'd forgotten Albus was here. I attempted to smirk even though something and I couldn't place what, was unsettling me.

Albus:

Scorpius seemed jumpy after his cousin left. He pushed his hand through his hair. "You know," He started, "I'm just going to check out my room," he paused, then corrected himself. "Our room, then I'm just gonna crash for the night." He paused pushed his hand through his hair again and sighed, "Night" He finally said putting his hand in the air as he walked toward the staircase, his back facing me.

Weird, I thought, but I shrugged it off. I decided to go see if anyone I knew or anyone in my year would be in the Chamber of Commons. When I reached the doors I realized I had absolutely no idea how to open the doors. I remembered the golden phoenix. It reminded me of the engraved snake in the passage. That gave me an idea. I placed my hand on the phoenix and pushed. And to my luck, the doors opened.

The Chamber was empty when I entered. I frowned, I hadn't thought of the idea that people might not be in here. I glanced at the passage in the back left corner of the Chamber; it led to our Common Room. Maybe Rose was in her Common Room! I thought, I sauntered over to the back right corner of the Chamber.

The Gryffindor Door was as tall as our door, but it was scarlet with a glittering Golden lion painted on it. I reached for the golden door knob. The lion, knowing I wasn't a Gryffindor, snarled, bearing its teeth, and raising its paw menacingly. I quickly withdrew my hand from the handle. Stupid door lion. I turned on my heel, ready to leave when the front doors creaked open.

"Hello?" A soft dreamy voice spoke. It was Alice. I only knew who she was, we'd never really met. I only knew of her because of Neville- erm I mean Professor Longbottom. Alice was beautiful. She looked a lot like her mother. Her light golden blonde hair fell down her back to just above her waist. A neat black ribbon was tied on her head, making a bow on the right side of her head. Her bangs were slightly offset towards my right. She wore a short blue dress, like a variation of the dress Alice wore in the muggle film they called Disney Alice in Wonderland. I smiled and walked towards her.

"Alice." Her head titled slightly. She looked at me but her eyes seemed distant.

"Hello." She smiled, her dreamy voice making my insides flutter. "Do I know you?" She asked, tilting her head the opposite direction, my smiled widened.

"I'm Albus Potter." I said holding out my hand. Her soft delicate hand cupped itself around mine, and I thought we were going to shake hands, but instead she pulled me in for a hug.

"I have heard much about you." She said pulling out of the hug. Her smile was genuine. She turned and began leave the room. She glided towards the Ravenclaw door. I followed her, mesmerized. When she reached the Ravenclaw door she turned, showing her brilliant smile. "Goodnight, Albus." And then she opened the door and the shut behind her with a soft click. I reached for the handle but flinched away, remembering the Gryffindor door. I stood there for a minute thinking about her, just staring at the door. After another minute I left, turning and walking down the long Chamber to the Slytherin passage.

Scorpius:

I lay in bed, not trying to sleep, but not trying to stay awake either. Albus was a Potter… Rose was a Weasley… But they're my new friends… What would my father say…? The door creaked open. A thin line of light was cast upon my face, I pretended to be asleep. Albus opened the door fully, a couple of groans erupted from our other roommates. Sod off, I wanted to shout at them but since I hadn't even met them yet, I continued to pretend to be asleep. Albus shut the door and crept into his bed beside mine. I guessed he was going to fall asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow. I'd assumed that would happen to me, too.