"Rose, do you really think I'll be sorted into Slytherin?" It was obvious that Harry's parting words to Al had done nothing to abate his worry. He sat with his cousin on the Hogwarts Express, nibbling on a sugar quill his mum had tucked into his bag.

Rose let out a huge sigh and frowned at him as she looked up from her Defense Against the Dark Arts textbook. "Albus Severus Potter, you will be sorted into whichever house best fits your inherent traits. You may be sorted into Slytherin, but you may also be sorted into Gryffindor. So please, relax!" After shoving her textbook into her bag and rummaging around for a minute, she pulled out the book An Introduction to Hogwarts. Her mother, Hermione Granger-Weasley, had created it for Muggleborn students as part of her An Introduction to the Wizarding World series. It was a much easier read than her favorite book, Hogwarts: A History, and it was almost 500 pages shorter, so Rose carried it around when she was pressed for space. She could tell that Al was not going to calm down, no matter what she said, so she handed the book over to him. "Turn to page 713."

"You don't have to prove it to me, Rosie. I believe you."

She rolled her eyes. "There's a quiz on that page that is supposed to help you identify which house you are likely to be sorted into."

"Oh!" Al grinned and flipped hurriedly to the page after asking Rose to repeat the number, almost dropping the sugar quill in his rush. "Found it! 'Which house will you be sorted into?'" He read aloud. "Did you do this quiz?"

"Yep. I'm either a Gryffindor or a Ravenclaw."

He sighed and shook his head. "Well, that's obvious to anyone with a brain. I guess I'll give it a try." He paused and took a breath. "Alright, let's see... question number one: 'Which of these animals do you like the best? Fox, bear, cat, wolf.'" He nodded as he thought. "I suppose it's a cat. After all, what is a cat but a little lion? And a lion is very Gryffindorish."

"Al, 'Gryffindorish' isn't a word. And cat was the Slytherin answer." She smirked when Al's jaw dropped.

"No way! I don't believe you!"

"A cat is considered a Slytherin because cats are loners that look out for themselves. Also, cats tend to want to be leaders, or the 'top cat' so to speak."

Al shook his sugar quill at her. "No way! What about Aunt Minerva? Her Animagus form is a cat and she was Head of Gryffindor when mum and dad were in school!"

Rose nodded. "Exactly, she was Head of Gryffindor, which isn't exactly someplace someone with no ambition gets to.And how many times did she use that power to sneak up on you when you were trying to snitch some of her ginger snaps?"

"I forgot about that... I guess she was kinda Slytherin sometimes too..." Al grinned sheepishly and kicked his feet a little; they dangled in the air since he was rather short for his age.

She merely rolled her eyes again. "Slytherin does not mean sneaky or bad. Honestly, Al, a Slytherin is someone for whom ambition is their main goal in life."

Al crossed his arms with a pout. "Your dad says that all Slytherins are evil."

"Yes, and my mum says that my father is insane, so who are you going to believe?" She saw him open his mouth to speak and cut him off. "Never mind, just finish taking the quiz, all right?"

Al's gaze returned to the book. "Oh. Um, question number two is: 'Which of the following colors do you like the best? Yellow, green, orange, purple.'" This time he really took his time thinking about his answer, nibbling some more on his sugar quill. His reply of "I think I'll go with yellow," was interrupted when a blonde boy stuck his head in the door.

"Hello. Can I sit in here?" Al glanced at the stranger and looked away, feeling trapped.

Rose nodded. "Of course! I'm Rose Weasley." She stood up and held out her hand to him.

The boy smiled at her as he stepped in the door. "I know. I'm Scorpius Malfoy. My father said to avoid you, but as you can tell, I don't listen well." They shook hands and then Scorpius turned to Al, who seemed to be contemplating the book in his lap very deeply. Scorpius held out his hand, saying, "You must be Albus Potter," but Al never even looked up; his eyes felt permanently attached to the book in front of him. He wanted to speak, but he just could not make the words come out.

Scorpius held his hand out for a few more seconds before finally dropping it. Both he and Rose frowned at Al. "If you don't want me here that's all you have to say." He turned back towards the door and offered Rose another smile as he left. "I'll see you around, Rose."

Rose turned and glared at Al. "That was probably the rudest thing you have ever done. I am ashamed to say that I am related to you. I don't think even James has ever completely ignored someone before!"

Al finally looked up from his book, his words nothing but a whisper when he finally spoke. "I couldn't speak Rosie. I just couldn't speak."

For the rest of the trip to Hogwarts, Rose fussed at Al for being rude. He had been oddly subdued and kept repeating to her that he couldn't say anything, that he didn't know why, and after some time she had finally given up and settled in to read her Defense Against the Dark Arts textbook for the third time. She completely ignored Albus and his rapidly disappearing sugar quill, even as they were told to put on their robes by Victoire when she passed by with the other prefects. It wasn't until they had shrugged on their school robes that Rose turned to look at her cousin.

Maybe it was simply his worry over the sorting that had made him act so rudely to Scorpius. He looked almost scared now; his face was ghostly white. He was even biting one of his fingernails, an old habit of his that Rose knew Aunt Ginny had weaned him from when he was eight. He was rarely this nervous about anything and Rose felt horrible for antagonizing him when he was so upset. "Listen, Al, it will be fine, I promise. I will still be your friend no matter what houses we end up in. You know that, right?"

"It's not..." Al's voice trailed off. She wouldn't understand if he told her he was less worried about the sorting than he was about being unable to talk. So, he simply nodded and offered her a tremulous smile. "Yeah, I know." He gathered his things up into his trunk as they felt the train coming to a stop. "Let's just get ready to go."

Rose patted him on the back before she strode into the hall of the train. She was quickly separated from Al in the crush of people, but she knew he would be fine.

Their compartment was near a door to the outside, and the flow of people quickly pushed him through it. He heard a loud voice calling "Firs' years this way! Over here! Firs' years!" and recognized it as "Uncle Hagrid," whose rock biscuits Al had teethed on as a baby. He fought his way through the crowd, keeping his eyes down in an effort to avoid attention. The noise created by a few hundred teenagers was giving him a headache.

When he finally arrived by Hagrid's side, Al offered him a grin before returning his gaze to the ground. Hagrid beamed down at him and patted his shoulder gently before continuing to shout for the first years. When it had calmed down some he was able to see Rose among the other first years, but she was standing next to that boy, Scorpius. Al stayed beside Hagrid.

Finally, the older students had all boarded the waiting carriages and Hagrid called for all of the first years to follow him. He led them down a dark and narrow path, and as they rounded a bend, the castle came into view. The children gasped at the sight.

Al had been to Hogwarts before to visit people with his parents, but he had never before seen it from this part of the grounds. The sight of the huge castle towering over everything inspired both awe and trepidation in him. Hagrid stopped at the end of a dock and instructed the first years to get into the prepared boats. He saw Rose waving at him from a boat that she was sharing with Scorpius, so he headed towards her, preferring even the scowling boy as a boat-mate over complete strangers. He clambered into the boat and sat quietly in front of Rose, staring at the water so that he wouldn't be expected to speak to anyone. Another girl who Al didn't know climbed into the back of the boat and introduced herself to Scorpius. Al thought he heard her say her name was Topaz, but he wasn't sure.

"Forward!" Hagrid cried, and all the boats started off towards the castle. They quickly traversed the lake, perhaps a little faster than Al was comfortable with, and approached the cliff that Hogwarts stood on. He knew from Uncle Ron's stories that they would get to the castle by entering an underground grotto, but it was far stranger to experience it for himself than it was to hear someone talk about it. His nerves were being torn to bits by anxiety as he disembarked from the boat. He followed behind Rose, slowly nearing a path in the rocks that Hagrid had already gone through. He bumped into a wall in the dark and felt slime beneath his fingertips. With a shudder, he huddled closer to Rose's back and rushed through the darkness. When they finally emerged onto the grounds of Hogwarts, Al had to stifle a sigh of relief at a familiar sight. His parents' good friend, Neville Longbottom, stood at the open front doors to the castle.

"Welcome to Hogwarts!" He greeted them with a smile and a wave as they approached. "I'll take over, Hagrid. Now, come on in." He ushered them into the entrance hall where Al heard awed whispers about the grand staircase and the huge room itself. He was lat the sight than the others, as this was a place where he was comfortable. The things in the hall were innately familiar to him; his first visit to Hogwarts had been when he was only seven weeks old. He had tripped on the steps of the grand staircase when he was two. James had locked him in the broom cupboard off the hall when he was seven. The Great Hall doors were the most familiar things he had seen since he left home that morning. He smiled at Professor Longbottom, a man who knew him almost as well as his family, and received a wink in return.

"Now, in a few minutes all of you will be sorted into houses. Your houses will determine where you will eat, where you will sleep, and who you will attend classes with, but they will not determine who you will become friends with. Your house will become something of a family to you though, as these will be the people you see day in and day out.

"While you are at Hogwarts you will gain and lose house points. You can gain house points by being good and excelling in classes. If you misbehave you will lose house points, which will lead to your house becoming upset with you, so I would avoid doing that. The house that has the most points at the end of the year will win the House Cup, which is a huge honor. Ravenclaw has won it for the last three years.

"Now, when you enter the Great Hall I will be calling you forward in alphabetical order. You will then sit on the stool in the front of the hall and place the Sorting Hat on your head. Forget what your siblings may have told you; this is virtually pain free." He paused to smile at them all again and then urged them to form a single file line. He had just begun to open the doors to the Great Hall when he turned back towards them. "Oh, yes, and, before I forget, let me introduce you to our resident ghosts."

Almost all of the first years jumped as twenty-five or so ghosts flooded into the entrance hall. Most of the passed through without even a glance at the children, but one ghost who looked to be about fifteen or sixteen stopped and waved at them. "Hello! I'm Colin Creevey. Don't be afraid of us, we are quite docile." The ghost grinned and shrugged. "I wish someone would invent a ghost camera so I could finally capture the look of shock on the first year's faces, Neville." He flew through the wall after the rest of the ghosts, calling back to them, "See you in a minute!" With that, Professor Longbottom threw open the doors to the Great Hall.

"Come on, hurry on in now. There are a bunch of you to sort and the older students are waiting for their food." The line of eleven-year-olds quickly proceeded into the hall and the doors were pulled shut behind them. The hall quickly grew quiet as the first years were ushered up in front of the Head Table. Professor Longbottom proceeded to pull an old and battered hat out of thin air, which he then placed on a stool in front of them. You could have heard a pin drop in the hall, which was why Al started when the hat began to sing.

"Oh, I am a Thinking Cap,
you place me on your head.
I can read your every thought
yes, every thought, I said.

If you believe in courage
and find blending in a bore,
without a doubt you'll find your place
in the house of Gryffindor.

Future Ravenclaws will find
that they are all quite smart.
This is because knowledge
fills their brains and hearts.

Slytherins are the ones who
will end up leaders of the land,
because they are ambitious and
know when to take a stand.

A friend from these fellows
is a friend who you can trust.
Loyalty lies in the last house,
as Hufflepuffs are just.

I will tell you which House
will fit you best.
As I'm the Sorting Hat
and I'm a brim above the rest."

Al giggled a little at the song, which was rather silly, but his laughter died when Professor Longbottom called out the first name of "Anders, Michelle."

The tall, blonde girl climbed onto the stool and Professor Longbottom set the hat on her head. The whole hall seemed to hold its breath until the hat announced "HUFFLEPUFF!" at the top of its lungs... not that hats had any internal organs. The hall erupted into cheers and the sorting continued relatively quickly from there. Around fifty or so other children would be first years along with Al and Rose. After forty-six children had been sorted, including Scorpius, who had been quickly labeled a Slytherin, it was Al's turn.

At Professor Longbottom's call of "Potter, Albus," Al walked forward and sat upon the stool. The hat was perched upon his crown, and Al could see that almost every single student's eyes were upon him. His gaze fell to the floor at the sight of so many stares, but it jumped back up when he heard a voice.

"So, another Potter then? And this one is so much like his father. Your brother was more like your mother; only Gryffindor would fit him. But you, my dear boy, could do well in Slytherin, just as your father could have."

Al wanted to tell the hat, No, please, anything but Slytherin, but the words felt like they were caught in the back of his brain. How was Al supposed to tell the hat what house he wanted to be in now?

The hat snickered in his ear. "Don't worry; I can still hear your thoughts. Unfortunately for you, I don't think I'll listen as I did for your father, because no house fits you half as well as SLYTHERIN!"

Al knew that the hat's last word had been spoken aloud as everyone in the hall let out a gasp. Al felt like gasping too. He had worried about being in Slytherin, but his worries had never even touched upon what other people's reactions would be. The son of Harry Potter being sorted into Slytherin... no one would believe it if the whole Great Hall had not witnessed it.

Professor Longbottom removed the hat from Al's head and he stumbled towards the green trimmed table, vaguely noticing that the Slytherin crest had appeared on his school robe. The stares finally turned away from him, but only because the people around him had begun to whisper to one another. Seating himself at the very end of the Slytherin table, Al hardly noticed that he had not received the cheers and clapping that the other new students to the house had. He kept his eyes on the table in front of him until Rose was called up to be sorted. His hope that she would end up in Slytherin was dashed by the hat's quick call of "GRYFFINDOR!"

Headmistress Aurora Sinistra, who had been appointed after Aunt Minerva resigned, stood as soon as Rose reached the Gryffindor table amidst applause and cheering. All Al knew about her was that she was a bit odd, though quite intelligent. She smiled at all of them as the clapping died down. "I know you are all anxiously awaiting your food, so I will try to make this short. Welcome to Hogwarts! I am glad to see all of you who have returned and all of you joining us for the first time. Have fun this year, study hard, and stay out of trouble. Now, let us eat!"

The tables in the hall were suddenly laden with food that made Albus's mouth water. He reached out for a piece of chicken on the plate in front of him, only to have an upper year smack his hand away. "Hey, hey, hey! Older students get to serve themselves first!" The boy grinned at him. "I'm just kidding. Help yourself! I'm Jeremy. You're Albus, right?"

And that was when it happened again. The words felt like they were caught inside of Al. He wanted to talk to the boy and introduce himself, but he just couldn't. In fact, the boy's stare upset him so much that he could not look up from his plate, even when the boy sneered at him and said, "Fine, you can just be a high and mighty Potter then," and turned away from him. Al lost his appetite. He picked on some bread for the rest of the meal, but he never looked up from his plate or said a word to anyone.

The end of the meal brought Al much relief. He stood when everyone else did and headed towards the seventh year Slytherin prefect who called for the first years to follow him. There were eleven other Slytherin first years, but they had already seemed to have formed groups, so Al stayed to the back of everyone and trailed behind as they made their way into the dungeons. He noticed that Scorpius had not attached himself to any group either, but instead strode directly behind the prefect, essentially leading all of the other first years. The role seemed to fit him as much as tag-along fit Al. He barely registered what turns they had taken to get to the dormitories, but the next thing he knew they were standing at the entrance to the common room, a blank stone wall that was really a door. The prefect admonished them all to remember the password (fairy floss), pointed out where the girl's and boy's dormitories were, and then ignored them. Some of the first years began to drift around the room and look at various things on the walls and on a large bulletin board near the doorway. Al simply headed towards the dormitory, hoping to escape from the strangers who he was expected to live with.

Once inside the dormitory, Al took a deep breath, glad to be alone for a moment. The room was circular and contained six beds, each with a trunk at the foot of it and a nightstand next to it. The bed nearest the door to the common room was rather isolated, and Al was glad to find his trunk was already there. He changed quickly and tossed his uniform into the trunk before climbing into his four-poster bed, pulling its forest green curtains tightly closed. He huddled under the covers in the sudden darkness and started to cry.

The numbness he had begun to feel that afternoon on the train when meeting Scorpius had only strengthened as more and more strangers appeared around him, reaching its strongest point when Al was sorted into the dreaded Slytherin House. But now, the darkness inside of the bed curtains seemed to melt away the feeling, leaving nothing but sadness in its wake.

He had never felt this way before. His aunt, Audrey, who had been a teacher before she married Uncle Percy, had home schooled all of the Weasley and Potter children from the time they were four or five. When Al was with his cousins he felt normal. In fact, he was comfortable with almost all of his family members, most of whom he had seen at least once a week at Grandma Molly's Sunday dinners from the time he was born. He never went anywhere without one family member or another, mostly because the press tended to attack anyone related to Harry Potter. Al knew he was shy and that most of his family called him a worry-wart; James made fun of him because of this all of the time. But he had never before felt the way that he did today, surrounded by all of these strangers. Words becoming frozen in his throat and emotions being numbed until they almost disappeared were new phenomena--ones that Al did not like.

As Al thought about his family, he wondered what they would have to say about him being sorted into Slytherin. Uncle Ron tended to be quite vocal in his denouncements of Slytherins, but most of his other family members never even mentioned houses. He knew that Aunt Audrey had been a Ravenclaw and that Aunt Fleur had never been sorted since she had not attended Hogwarts. He figured that at least his parents would accept him being a Slytherin, as they had both said that they did not care which house he was sorted into. So, that was all right; even if James and the rest of his relatives didn't like it.

The door opened and Al heard a bunch of feet tromp into the room. "Looks like prissy Potter already headed off to sleep." The voice traveled through his thick curtains and Al could almost see the sneer that he heard in the boy's voice.

A second boy chimed in. "Poor baby. I guess the big day must have worn him out."

Al wanted to jump up from the bed and protest, but the boy's words had paralyzed him. His voice was completely trapped inside of him. Tears that had begun to slow down were renewed, but they were completely silent. Not even a single whimper escaped from Al's tightly closed lips.

A voice spoke from right next to Al's bed, and it was finally one he recognized. Scorpius sighed and then addressed the other boys. "Listen guys, leave off him, alright?"

"Aw, does Scorpius have a crush on the ickle Potter boy?" Another voice echoed from the farthest side of the room.

Scorpius growled. "Shut up, Bole. Unlike you, I don't get my jollies by making fun of other people."

Bole huffed loudly. "You shut up, Malfoy. You think you're better than the rest of us too, don't you?"

"Better than you, anyway." Scorpius sounded like he was smirking at Bole, and Al felt a little bit better. At least one Slytherin wouldn't tease him, even if he and Al didn't become friends. The numbness was still there, but there was a small feeling of happiness underneath it and the tears had stopped.

The boys were all shuffling around the room, making sounds like they were going to bed. Scorpius had not moved from his place next to Al's bed, so it seemed like he would be the one sleeping in the bed nearest Al's. Finally all of the noises stopped and it seemed as though the other boys were asleep. Al's eyes, which were swollen and probably red, started to drift close. He whispered in the direction of Scorpius's bed the first word he had spoken in hours. "Goodnight."