A/N – This is the first chapter of what will hopefully be a fairly long story about Albus and Scorpius. I like to read but not write slash, so this is strictly a friendship fic. Oh, and it will definitely feature some Draco at some point, so stay tuned for that.

I own very little of what follows. Évidemment.

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Albus Potter was a little shell-shocked.

Hogwarts was ten – no, one hundred times more amazing than his parents and James had ever made it sound. He drank in the awesome structure from across the lake, marvelling at its soaring towers and the sheer size of its walls. He stared so long that he didn't realize that someone had come up beside him and was staring, too.

"What are we looking at?" the stranger inquired. Albus turned to see a boy roughly his age, sporting expensive-looking robes and a too-clever face for an eleven-year-old.

"It's great," Albus said a little defensively, choosing to skirt the obvious question.

"Another day, another medieval castle. Don't be such a girl. Let's get a boat before all the good ones are gone." The clever-faced boy renewed his grip on the handle of his trunk and began to stroll briskly toward the edge of the lake.

"Albus!"

The strange boy stopped. So did Albus. James was approaching, shouldering his way through the throngs of students.

"Albus? Really?" Asked the boy with interest, drawing closer again.

"Yeah, Albus, really," Albus replied, a bit indignantly. "Why? What's your name?"

"Scorpius Malfoy." He said it without any inflection at all, as though he had never heard a more ordinary name in his life.

Albus, however, snorted. "You can't really talk, mate." He tried to disguise that he had heard that name before, and must have succeeded because the other boy didn't seem to notice.

Scorpius abandoned pretence and made a face. "I suppose 'Bill' or 'Lou' would have done just as well, but at least I'll probably be the only Scorpius on the roll call. And I'll definitely be the only Malfoy."

"Who's a Malfoy?" Said James, arriving within earshot.

"I am," said Scorpius, extending a hand. James looked at it as though it were infected and then glanced at his brother.

"I'm going to find my friends. Dad said to make sure you figured out the boats so here goes: They're right over there. Get in one." He turned around and strolled off into the crowd.

"He is so charming. You'd swear he took lessons," remarked Scorpius, watching James go with a quirked eyebrow.

"Do people always do that when they find out you're a Malfoy?" Albus asked, a little taken aback.

Scorpius shook his head. "Most people don't know their history. Every now and again you get a real nutter who goes on for ten minutes or so about how I'm the spawn of evil and all that fun stuff, but you learn to live with it. God sends no crosses, and whatnot. Let's get a boat, yeah?"

Albus nodded – why not? – and they followed the other first years down to the edge of the lake.

"By the way," Scorpius said, as he pushed through an uncertain cluster of young students and clambered into a vacant boat. Albus hesitated for a moment, then awkwardly excused himself and edged through the same group before settling himself across from his new acquaintance. He looked around for his cousin, Rose, whom he had not seen since the pandemonium of disembarking from the train. He intended to invite her to share the boat, but she was nowhere to be found. "Was that your brother?"

"Yeah," said Albus, glancing around automatically to make sure that James was not nearby before he added, "He's kind of a jerk."

"Bet your father told you all kinds of horror stories about my family growing up," Scorpius said, leaning forward expectantly.

"No," said Albus, looking faintly puzzled. "Why?"

"Because your dad's Harry Potter," Scorpius said impatiently.

"How did you know that?" Albus asked, surprised.

"My dad told me, at the station. Don't worry, Potter, I don't read minds." He paused. "Yet."

"Well, yeah," Albus said, deciding that the best way to deal with Scorpius' uncanny ability to offend in as few words as possible, and sometimes with tone of voice alone, was to ignore it. "But he never told us about you. James didn't even really know about the wizarding wars until he went to school and everyone kept telling him that his dad was a hero. Then he started looking it all up and now he goes about with his nose in the air like everyone else owes him because our dad got rid of some evil wizard."

Scorpius nodded as a blonde girl with a toothpick between her teeth joined them in their boat, followed seconds later by a frowning boy with green hair. The green hair distracted Scorpius from the topic at hand immediately.

"Why?" he demanded. The green-haired boy cast a decidedly poisonous look his way. "I mean, not that green isn't a perfectly acceptable colour," Scorpius added, trying to pull off consoling and only half-managing.

"He tried to Vanish away his freckles on the train," the girl explained, speaking around her toothpick. "It was worse before. There were boils. Also he hasn't spoken since so I'm not sure if he's just embarrassed or if maybe he managed to Vanish his tongue."

"Well, that is just extra special," Scorpius drawled. "Did you Vanish your tongue? Blink twice for yes."

All of a sudden, the boats lurched forward. Scorpius' eyes widened and he latched on to the sides with a white-knuckled grip. Albus tried not to giggle and failed.

"Shut up, you," Scorpius said, his eyes still huge in his face. "I can't swim."

The green-haired boy seemed to be considering testing the validity of that statement.

"So what house do you think you'll be in?" The girl with the toothpick asked conversationally, looking around at them all.

"Dunno," said Albus. He hesitated before he added, "My mum and dad were in Gryffindor, though."

"You don't want to be in Gryffindor, though, surely," Scorpius said, wrinkling his nose.

"Better Gryffindor than Slytherin," Albus said defensively.

"Oh, careful now," said Scorpius, smirking. "My family has a long tradition of being sorted into Slytherin house."

"So Slytherin for you, then," the girl said.

"I don't actually care much for tradition," Scorpius replied.

"Well, my dad was in Gryffindor," the girl explained, "but it's Ravenclaw I'm after. Wit beyond measure, etc."

"I could live with Ravenclaw," Scorpius agreed. "I don't think I'm cut out for Gryffindor."

"What about Hufflepuff?" Albus asked curiously.

"Don't ask stupid questions," Scorpius admonished, looking aghast. "Me! Wearing yellow! Absolutely not."

"Perish the thought," agreed the girl, grinning a little.

"Quite right! Did you decide on a house yet?" Scorpius zeroed in on Albus.

"I don't know," he replied slowly. "I think I should want Gryffindor, but people already expect me to be just like my dad, and I don't... know if I want that to follow me."

Scorpius nodded, a little sombre for once. "We are in exactly the same boat."

"In every sense," the girl said, glancing at their surroundings.

Scorpius grinned suddenly. "What's your name?"

"Sterling," she replied.

"Sterling what?" He asked. "I can't possibly judge you before I know you unless I know your last name, and that's just not any fun at all."

"Finnigan," she said. "Judge away, by all means."

"My dad knows a Seamus Finnigan," Albus volunteered.

"That's my da," she said cheerfully.

"Mazel tov," Scorpius declared, a little sarcastically. "I'm Scorpius Malfoy; this is Albus Potter." He put a little bit of extra emphasis on Albus' first name, and grinned infuriatingly when Albus glared. "And who's the green-haired fellow?"

"Byron, I think he said," Sterling replied. Byron nodded, looking sullen. "MacKinnon?" She guessed, which elicited a roll of the eyes from the silent boy. "No? I can't remember."

"Cut off his head and look for a tag," Scorpius suggested. Byron looked murderous.

"Cheer up, Byron," Albus said kindly. "I bet someone at the castle will know how to un-Vanish your tongue."

"Speaking of," said Sterling. Albus turned and realized that they had nearly completed their journey across the lake. The castle loomed above them, its windows brilliant squares of light in the gathering darkness.

"Alright, it's a bit great," Scorpius admitted, and Albus looked at him blankly for a second or two before he remembered their initial conversation. Scorpius had his head tilted impossibly far back as if trying to see the very top of the highest turrets, and he didn't pause to look at Albus when he added, "Don't say I told you so or I'll beat you."

"I told you so," Albus said anyway, and when Scorpius cast him a disgruntled look, he returned it evenly. "Try it," he said flatly. "I have a brother." Not that he usually came out victorious when he and James came to blows, but he had learned a trick or two.

"I can't fight you in here anyway. The boat would capsize and my robes would get wet." Scorpius swept an imaginary speck of dust off his shoulder. "And we cannot have that."

"Well, that, and you'd drown," Sterling said practically. "You can't swim."

"These are dry-clean only robes!" Scorpius exclaimed, sounding scandalized that she had diminished their importance in favour of something as silly as not drowning.

"I'll make a note." Sterling seemed to be amused by Scorpius' behaviour, which Albus rather admired.

By then, it was time to disembark. There was a little bit of confusion when they all stood up at once, and Scorpius grabbed Albus' arm in a panic when the boat rocked dangerously. When they got themselves in order, Scorpius was first off, followed by Sterling, then Albus, and finally, silent Byron. They and the other first years arranged themselves along the wharf, and Albus found himself at the front of the crowd quite by accident. Nobody, it seemed, wanted to be first up the stairs. Albus turned around as someone pushed their way forward and tapped him on the shoulder. It was Rose, looking a little worse for wear.

"You abandoned me," she accused, her voice rising so high on the second word that people around them turned and stared.

"I looked for you," Albus protested. "I lost you getting off the train and then I couldn't find you again when it was time to get on the boats – "

"I had to ride all the way with two boys who talked about nothing but last week's quidditch match between Falmouth and Tutshill, and a sneering girl who said that if I asked her very nicely, she could make my hair look 'less appalling'."

Albus let out a startled laugh before he could stop himself, and could only be grateful when Rose smiled grudgingly instead of swatting him upside the head.

"Oh, well," she said. "We're here now, and I'm too excited to be angry! Did you meet anyone worthwhile?"

"Actually – yeah," Albus said, taking a half-step back so that she could see Scorpius standing on his other side. "This is Scorpius Malfoy. Scorpius, this is my cousin, Rose Weasley."

Rose looked keenly at Scorpius. Albus was not worried whatsoever that she would behave as James had, because Rose had always been interested in finding things out for herself.

"It's a pleasure to meet you," Scorpius said, and Albus thought he detected a note of uneasiness.

"And you," she replied, sounding so absolutely genuine that it made Albus smile. "We're fourth cousins, once removed, you know."

Scorpius was about to reply when the entire group fell silent as the door at the top of the stairs opened. A cheerful-looking witch in deep red robes appeared before them and surveyed them all while the silence grew.

Then: "I love greeting the first years because this is the only time I get respectful silence from students." She beamed. "So this is Hogwarts. I expect the big castle tipped you off. And the first thing we have students do here is get sorted. There are four houses that you may be sorted into – Hufflepuff, Gryffindor, Slytherin, and Ravenclaw. Each house represents different personality qualities, and the sorting hat will ensure that you end up with your own kind. Since your housemates are also your classmates, roommates, and essentially your second family, it's important that you all get along. Also, you have opportunities to gain or lose house points, depending on your behaviour throughout the year, and the house with the most points at the end of it wins the House Cup. And you want to win the house cup, it's wonderfully shiny. I think that's everything you need to know right now. Don't look so worried, firsties. The Sorting's not so bad – nobody's died in years, honestly – " (she grinned, and Albus hoped that was a joke) "and once it's over, there's a feast. Everybody likes feasts right?"

They all stared at her.

"Right," she said decisively. "Come up here. Come on, now, hurry up." They all hurried up the stairs, jostling together and stepping on one another's feet. They were led into a small antechamber, in which they were expected to wait. "Arrange yourselves in alphabetical order," the witch instructed. "I'll go see if they're ready for you."

She vanished back around the edge of the door.

Confusion reigned for a minute or two while people milled around, asking one another their last names. Albus wished Rose luck on her sorting and she beamed at him before heading to the back of line. Finally, they got themselves properly ordered, and Albus found himself directly behind Scorpius.

Everyone's voice dropped to a whisper, and Albus could feel the anxiety in the room pick up a couple of notches. Edging his shoe into a crack between the cobblestones, he dug at the packed-down dirt with his toe. He could hear Scorpius whispering furiously and realized that he was praying: "Don't let me trip on my robes, don't let me trip on my robes, please, please, please..."

Before they knew it, the cheerful witch was back. "The Sorting is about to start! Come on!"

Reluctantly, they all climbed the stairs. Albus took a deep breath, thankful that he wasn't first.

"Don't forget to smile," the witch said to them. Then she opened the door all of the way and went through it. The girl at the head of the line hesitated for a split second before she followed, across the entrance hall and through the great double doors at the far side.

Albus nearly forgot all about the imminent Sorting Ceremony when he entered the Great Hall. There were a million stars scattered across the ceiling above him, so clear that he might have thought there was no roof, if he didn't know better. The room was cavernous – Albus thought it might be the biggest room he had ever stood in – and the light from hundreds of candles flickered off nearly as many faces. That was when his stomach flip-flopped violently and he realized that all of the first-years, himself included, had come to a halt in a scraggly line before the Sorting hat.

"When you hear me call your name, have a seat on the stool and put on the hat. When it calls out your house, you may go and sit down at your house table," the witch instructed them. Albus tried to look inconspicuous among his fellow first-years, knowing that James would definitely get on his case later if he looked too stiff and frightened. He tried to coach himself: Walk slowly, don't trip on your robes, try not to look like you might pee your pants...

"Ainsworth, Matilda!"

And so it began.

'Ainsworth, Matilda' wound up Slytherin. Albus tried to guess if that were a good omen or not. 'Bigsby, Bartholomew' was sorted into Hufflepuff. After that, he began to lose track as his nervousness grew. Sorting didn't look hard, but there were so many people watching. He didn't want to humiliate himself.

"Finnigan, Sterling!"

The world snapped back into focus. Albus watched intently as Sterling settled herself onto the stool and tugged the hat onto her head. She looked absolutely calm.

Almost a full minute passed, which was longer than the hat had spent on anyone so far. Finally, the hat came to a decision: "Gryffindor!"

As in the case of every student sorted thus far, applause erupted from the appropriate house table. Albus saw a brief flash of disappointment cross Sterling's face as she removed the hat and slid off the stool, and he recalled that she had wanted Ravenclaw. Still, she took it in stride and Albus saw her flash a friendly smile at her new housemates as she joined their table.

"Framb, Joseph!"

It continued. The line progressed slowly forward until it was Scorpius' turn. Albus saw him straighten his shoulders as his name was called. He strolled confidently up to the stool, sat down upon it, and stuffed the hat on his head. There was a pause.

Then: "Ravenclaw!"

Something was wrong. Well, not wrong, per se – but Albus had gotten used to the pattern of it. A student's name was called, he or she sat down on the stool and put the hat on, their house name was called out, and then they went to sit among their housemates to the sound of thunderous applause.

This time, there was no applause. Albus got a sinking feeling that more people knew their history than Scorpius had let on. One or two people from other houses – Albus saw a flash of blonde hair and recognized Sterling – belatedly applauded a few times in the uneasy silence. He glanced over at Scorpius to see how he was taking it, and was somehow not surprised to see his new friend looking absolutely, flawlessly unfazed. However, he completely ignored Albus as he strolled past him, and Albus suspected that had he caught Scorpius' eye, he would have seen everything his face wasn't showing.

"Potter, Albus!"

Albus heard a thundering in his ears, and realized it was his heart. It completely drowned out the sound of James hissing, "Gryffindor or bust!", and the subsequent snickers from the people sitting around him.

The walk up to the hat was surreal, and he completely forgot what it was like later. When he sat down and gingerly put the hat on, he found it comforting when it slipped over his eyes and obscured the hundreds of faces turned his way.

"Albus Potter," greeted the hat warmly, and Albus started a little. "My. You are not what I expected."

"What does – I mean, what did you expect?" Albus asked, wondering if he should be worried about the answer.

"James was such an easy sort," the hat explained. "You, on the other hand – you're much smarter than you let on. You remind me of the Finnigan girl, though I put her in Gryffindor, and that is not the house for you – you know how to walk away from a situation without feeling like a coward. Besides, I suspect that Ravenclaw might need you in the end, to teach them that the value of a person is not found in who his parents were."

"What does that mean?" Albus interrupted. "Are you talking about me, or – "

"I won't spoil the ending for you," the hat said, sounding like it was smiling (if it could do that sort of thing). "Here it is, then. RAVENCLAW!"

It took Albus half a second to realize that it had shouted Ravenclaw aloud, and that there was a respectable amount of applause from the appropriate house table. Scorpius wolf-whistled as Albus removed the hat and came to join him in Ravenclaw. There was an empty seat next to Scorpius, and he slid into it, grateful that the spotlight was no longer on him.

The rest of the sorting passed fairly quickly. Rose was sorted into Gryffindor – no surprise, really – and the hat was soon stowed away until next year's sorting. There was a brief moment during which the noise level in the room increased dramatically. Albus turned to Scorpius, intending to express his relief that the ceremony was over, when all of a sudden the voices around them died away. Albus looked toward the head table to see that a witch with greying blonde hair had risen to her feet.

"Welcome, one and all, to another year at Hogwarts. I am your Headmistress, Mezora Franklin. As I repeat to the students every year, you will be expected to behave yourselves during your time here at school. If you have a problem with another student, work it out amongst yourselves. I certainly don't want to see you in my office, and I'm sure you don't want to be there. Kapish?"

And then the feast appeared. From one end of the house tables to the other, dishes and tureens overflowed with more types of food than one could ever hope to have at even the most lavish Christmas meal. Albus was dazzled. He couldn't wait to try everything within reach.

"So, essentially, we're on our own," Scorpius said, breaking into his reverie.

"Yeah," said Albus. "But, mate, look. Mashed potatoes." He helped himself to a healthy dollop and offered the bowl to the other boy.

"Essentially, that woman just told us to administer our own discipline because she doesn't want to. Why do we pay these people?" Scorpius sounded like he was about to clamber right up onto his soapbox.

"You don't pay them at all," Albus pointed out, giving up on passing him the potatoes and handing them off to the person on his other side. "Anyway, it's good, isn't it. I don't plan on getting into trouble, but it's bound to happen."

"I plan on getting into trouble," Scorpius said. "I don't buy into this House Cup nonsense. There's no point in winning."

"There is a point in winning, actually," said the boy sitting on Scorpius' other side. Several heads turned their way, and conversation quieted slightly as though all of Ravenclaw were trying to overhear. "It's prestigious. Your house gets the actual House Cup."

"Like we're four-year-olds," Scorpius said condescendingly. "Like, 'if you behave yourself in the store today, I'll give you a lolly'."

Albus felt the mood at the table darken. The stares of the other students became a little less subtle, and a little more hostile.

"Well, I wouldn't expect any loyalty from you," the boy said, his face reddening.

Scorpius rolled his eyes. "Oh, you've caught me. I was planning on betraying you all after dinner."

"I wouldn't be surprised," the boy snapped.

"What's your name?" Albus interrupted, leaning forward to see past Scorpius.

The boy looked disconcerted. "Solomon Smith."

"I'm Albus Potter."

"What's that got to do with anything?" The boy demanded, brow knitting.

"Just this," said Albus, and by now the attention of the entire table was raptly focused on the three of them. "If anyone's got a right to have a problem with Malfoy here, it's me. And I haven't got one."

"He's going to lose us the House Cup," the boy protested.

"He was joking, mate. Lighten up," Albus said.

"I wasn't," Scorpius said, turning to Albus.

"You were," Albus said firmly.

Scorpius' gaze was wide and bright, and for a moment Albus worried that he was going to say something spectacularly self-damning, just to spite him. However, the moment passed without incident, and Scorpius turned to Solomon.

"He's right. I was joking. The House Cup sounds smashing. Someone told me it was wonderfully shiny."

Albus wondered where he had picked up that flawless sarcasm. Solomon didn't even seem to notice that Scorpius was once again taking the piss, because he just nodded slightly and starting scooping himself a mound of whatever was in the dish at his elbow, without seeming to care what it was. Albus saw his hand shaking and suspected that Solomon didn't get into confrontations often.

The rest of the feast passed without incident, though Albus noticed that if anyone needed a salt shaker or a jug passed along, they went out of their way not to ask Scorpius. The Headmistress' closing words were unremarkable and Albus, trying to keep his eyes open, barely registered any of them. Then it was time for bed; the Prefects led the first years to the dormitories, informing them of the procedure they would have to follow to get into Ravenclaw tower in the future.

Albus and Scorpius, tuckered out from the excitement of their first day, the long train ride, and the heaviness of the feast, dragged themselves up the stairs behind the others. When they got up to the dormitory, they found their fellow roommates already getting ready for bed. All three of the other boys cast glances their way as they entered the dormitory, but only one got up from where he knelt beside his trunk and came over to greet them.

"Hey," he said. "I'm Ryerson Kelly. You're James' brother, I'll wager."

"Yeah," said Albus, a little cautiously, as James' friends were generally no friends of his.

"He and my brother are pals," Ryerson said. "James came to our place this summer. Nice fellow. And you're a Malfoy," he added, looking at Scorpius, not without a little curiosity. "Not to worry, I don't judge."

"Oh?" said Scorpius, wearing the same blank look Albus had seen when he had heard the distinct lack of applause after his sorting.

Ryerson half-grinned. "If we all turned out like our fathers I'd be half-plastered and waiting on the dole," he explained, startling a laugh out of Albus. "Have you met Evan and Newton?"

The two other boys grunted a hello, one after the other, without looking up.

"I look forward to the sparkling conversation in our dormitory this year," Scorpius drawled.

"Ah, well. They'll come around," Ryerson said, lowering his voice so that the two other boys wouldn't hear.

Albus yawned, looking at the two remaining beds. "Which one do you want, Scorp?"

"Not Scorp," Scorpius said, sounding mildly revolted. "Anything but that."

How about Bighead Obnoxiousface? Albus thought, then immediately rejected it as having too many syllables.

"What would you like better?" Ryerson asked tactfully.

"Malfoy will do. I'll obviously be calling him Potter as his first name is absolutely beyond the realm of ridiculous. And I see no reason not to continue the surname trend with you, as your surname sounds like a first name anyway."

"If my name is beyond the realm of ridiculous, yours is five or six counties over from that," Albus returned.

"It is if you shorten it to Scorp," Scorpius retorted.

"I'm sleeping in this bed," Albus said, ignoring him and choosing the one closest to the window and leaving Scorpius with the one next to Evan's. "It's bigger."

"I'm not sleeping next to him," Evan muttered.

"What did you say?" Scorpius asked sharply.

"I'll swap," Ryerson said quickly.

"No, it's okay," Evan said, looking mortified.

"No, it isn't," Scorpius said.

"Let's not make a great fuss out of it, lads," Ryerson said. "Evan, move your trunk, I'll take the bed next to Malfoy's."

There was a tense moment as Scorpius glared at Evan while the other boy tried not to make eye contact. Then, wordlessly, Evan picked up his trunk and hauled it over to the next bed. When Albus climbed into a bed a few minutes later, the room was still quiet. He went to sleep with mixed feelings about the day behind him, and the one ahead.