Chapter One
Hogwarts

Albus sat beside the window of the carriage, accompanied by his cousins Rose and Lucy Weasley, and their close family friend, Alice Longbottom. The three girls were talking quietly among themselves, Alice and Lucy – who were Second Years and best friends – giving Rose some friendly advice.

Albus himself was, on the other hand, staring through the window, taking in the beautiful, rich scenery. Absentmindedly, he found himself stroking the head of the snowy white owl he had fallen in love with the second he had walked into Eyelopes Owlery. His father had named it Hedwig, after his first owl. It had been the first time he had ever spoken to his children of his past.

The girls conversation was cut off and Albus' thoughts disrupted by the compartment door opening. A young boy with white-blonde hair and pale blue eyes was standing in the doorway, sheepishly looking from face to face.

"Do you mind?" He asked them, as though particularly unsure of the answer they would give. "It's only, everywhere else is full."

"Not at all," Albus answered for the group. "Please, join us."

The boy smiled, sitting on the same seat as Albus, on the end closest to the door. "I'm Scorpius, by the way. Scorpius Malfoy." He held out his hand, which Albus shook.

"Albus Potter." Scorpius' eyes opened wide in shock. "These are my cousins, Rose and Lucy, and Lucy's best friend Alice."

The girls waved quietly, before returning to their quiet conversation.

"That's a beautiful owl you've got there," Scorpius commented. "What's his name?"

"Her," Albus corrected him, receiving a confused look from his companion. "It's a her. And her name is Hedwig."

"Wait – did you say your name was Albus Potter?" Scorpius asked, but backtracked upon seeing the look on Albus' face. "It's only, my dad's mentioned a Harry Potter a few times. Apparently he saved my dad's life during the War."

Albus was thoroughly shocked. "My dad saved lives during the War? I mean, I knew he fought, but … saving lives?" Shaking his head, he quickly continued, "Nah, can't be the same guy. He would've told us."

"Hang on a minute," Alice jumped in to the conversation. "Dad's mentioned something about the War once or twice – no, it was about his Seventh Year. Something about hiding out with a whole group of people and then your dad came in and there was this huge battle-"

"-The Battle of Hogwarts," Rose added knowledgably.

"-Right, yeah, the Battle of Hogwarts. Anyway, that was fought, and the good side won, and the bad guys were defeated. But he said it was all because of your dad, Albus."

Albus sat for a moment, processing his thoughts. Could it be true? Could his dad be some sort of a war hero? And why had he never been told about it?

It was almost five o'clock now, and all the occupants of the carriage were now engaged in several loud conversations – Albus and Scorpius were, most notably, having an animated discussion on the topic of Quidditch.

"I support the Comets – they're a shoe-in for the cup this season."

"No, no, no. Don't discount the Harpies just yet," Albus replied, to his new friend's astonishment. "Hey, don't give me that look! My mum used to play on the team!"

"Well what happened?" Scorpius demanded incredulously.

"She had kids," Rose replied with a smile on her face. Albus chose to display his utmost displeasure by poking his tongue at her.

"Yo! Al!" James, Albus' older brother, burst into the compartment, followed by his cousins, Fred and Louis Weasley, who were also his best friends. "You should really think about putting on your uniforms, although I see Rosie doesn't need me to tell her that. And just so you know-"

But the rest of James' sentence was cut off by the appearance of a silver stag in the centre of the compartment.

"James, what did you do?" Lucy, Alice and Rose hissed, which James simply ignored. He was too busy staring at his father's Patronus, terrified that he was about to be punished for something he probably did.

"James," his father's voice said exasperatedly, "you know very well that just because you forgot," they could hear the sarcasm in Harry's voice as he said this, "to pack your History of Magic books does not mean that you don't have to take the class."

Now it was James' turn to sigh.

"I'll be sending Kreacher up to the school with them this evening, just as soon as he arrives back from his date," the two Potter boys made a face – after all, it is a strange thing to think of, their ancient House-Elf dating! "And James," James' head snapped back in the direction of the Patronus, "I'm also sending the Cloak – for your brother." Upon hearing this, the boy began to grumble. "It's only fair, James. You have the map – I know you do, I'm not as stupid as I look – " the girls erupted into fits of laughter, "so Albus gets the Cloak."

"Fair's fair, I guess," James muttered, exiting the carriage.

The Patronus laughed. "Al," the young boy looked up, surprised that the Stag hadn't disappeared yet, "the Cloak's already in your trunk. Mum sneaked it in for you, since I noticed James looking at the map." Al had a huge smile on his face. "Now, there are some ground rules: use it all you want, just don't get caught." Albus' eyes opened wide. He was surely not expecting his dad to say that! "Oh, and Al … Use it well."

And the Patronus was gone.

They arrived at Hogsmeade Station not long after dark. Alice and Lucy rushed out of the compartment to find the others, leaving Albus, Rose, and their new friend Scorpius to join the crowd of students on their own.

"FIRS' YEARS! FIRS' YEARS, THIS WAY! FIRS' YEARS! O'ER HERE WITH ME!"

They followed the sound of Hagrid's voice until they finally reached the man himself.

He would have been easily twice as tall as the average man, and probably four times as wide. Scorpius and many of the other First Years stopped in their tracks, as though stuck to the ground, as they took in his appearance. His hair, wild and mattered, stood up in all directions, and his beard, which no one would have cared to touch, looked as though it had bits of everything strewn throughout it.

In a reaction the other First Years would come to admire, Albus and Rose both gave Hagrid a great, big hug. In truth, the two – along with all of their Weasley cousins – had known the half-Giant Hagrid since birth, as their parents were some of his closest friends – and had been since they had attended Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry.

"'Ow you doin', young Albus an' Rose?" Hagrid smiled down at the two of them, returning their hugs.

"All righ'," he continued. "We all 'ere?" Hagrid seemed to take the lack of replies as a confirmation of the required students' presence, as he said, "OK. Le's go, then!"

The fact that they began to walk in to opposite direction to the carriages seemed to confuse most people, including Scorpius.

"Where are we going? Isn't the school that way?" He pointed back towards the carriages, which now would have been easily a couple of hundred yards away.

"Yeah, but we don't use the carriages this time," Albus informed him quietly. "We'll be heading up to the school via the boats, across the Black Lake."

"Isn't there some sort of big creature in there?" someone else asked.

"The Giant Squid lives in the Black Lake, yes," Rose replied matter-of-factly.

"He's nothing to worry about," Albus added. "He's really a gentle creature – as long as you don't set off fireworks in his home like my idiot brother."

"James set off fireworks in the Black Lake?" Rose asked her cousin, hardly believing what she was hearing.

"Yeah, it was his end-of-term prank. Didn't you hear? Mum was ranting on and on about it for weeks. He's lucky she let him back on the train this morning!"

The rest of the conversation was put on hold while Hagrid gave them his instructions.

"Everyone divide into groups of three for the boats. Anyone left over can come with me."

Five minutes later, Albus, Rose and Scorpius found themselves sitting in a little rowboat on the centre of the Black Lake.

"This is insane!" Scorpius exclaimed, holding onto the edge of the boat for dear life. "What's even in here?"

"Aside from the Squid, there's many, many other creatures, including a colony of Grindylow and a city of Merpeople," Rose calmly replied.

"Did you read that in some book?" Scorpius, who was quickly becoming accustomed to Rose, asked her.

"No!" she replied indignantly. "If you must know, my mother told me."

Here we go, Albus thought, sighing.

His fears were, however, put on hold. Rose didn't blow up in Scorpius' face as she usually would; Instead, she proceeded to ignore both of the boys. Apparently, Albus had done the wrong thing by continuing to talk to Scorpius.

After standing nervously in the Entrance Hall for the better part of ten minutes, a familiar face emerged from the Great Hall.

"Good evening," he said, a smile adorning his face, "my name is Professor Longbottom. I am the Herbology teacher here at Hogwarts, and also the Head of Gryffindor House. There are a total of four Houses here at Hogwarts. They are Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin. While you are here, your House is like your family. Your triumphs will earn you points and any rule breaking will lose you points. At the end of the year the House with the most points will win the House Cup," Neville finished his speech, allowing them a moment to digest the information.

"Now, in a couple of minutes we'll enter the Great Hall. I'll call your name, and you'll come forward. I'll place the Sorting Hat on your head and it'll sort you into your house."

Just as he finished saying this, a little boy, dressed in his Sunday best, slipped through the doors and said to Neville, "Professor McGonagall says they're ready for you now."

"Thanks, Frank," Neville replied, patting his head and sending him back inside. "That's Frank, my son," he informed the First Years. "He spends most of his time giving Hagrid a hand, but if you see him 'round, say hello!"

Frank was nine years old, and would be in Lily's year at Hogwarts. Since both of his parents worked full-time, he spent most of his days giving the Hogwarts staff a hand.

"Let's go in, shall we?"

The gathering of students followed Neville into the Great Hall, ooh-ing and ah-ing as they did.

"The ceiling's bewitched to look like the sky outside. I read about it in Hogwarts: A History," Rose was saying to anyone who would listen.

"You are so like your mother," Neville told her. She beamed, as though that were the greatest compliment anyone could ever give her. Albus, on the other hand, wasn't sure that it was.

When the group reached the front of the Great Hall, they stopped and found hundreds of eyes staring at them. As a boy who is already particularly self-conscious already, Albus did not like this at all.

"Ok," Neville picked up a long piece of parchment and readied himself for the sorting to begin, "let's get started, shall we?" Taking a look at the first name on the list, his face broke into a genuine smile. "Rose Weasley."

Albus' cousin walked slowly up to the very front, muttering to herself on her way.

"Is she always like this?" Scorpius asked Al, looking almost worried.

"Nah," Al replied, a smile creeping onto his face. "Usually, if you insult a book – or her reading of that said book – she's much worse."

Nodding his head, Scorpius replied, "Good to know."

As soon as Scorpius had finished speaking, it was evident that the Sorting Hat had made its decision.

"GRYFFINDOR!"

"Wonderful, we've got the first one for the season!" Albus could hear James saying from behind him. Rolling his eyes, he pulled a face at Scorpius, who laughed.

By the time Keira Smith and Hayden Roberts were sorted into Hufflepuff, Lucy Jones into Ravenclaw and Jacob Moss into Slytherin, it was Albus' turn to be sorted.

Aware of the eyes burning into the back of his head, Albus walked towards Neville and sat on the stool, staring out into the crowd but not really seeing anybody or anything. He was saved his troubles, however, when the hat slipped over his eyes.

"Ah, yes," he heard the hat say in his head, "yes, very interesting. Yes, a lot like your father – a thirst to prove yourself, and a spectacular amount of potential. But where to put you…"

"I'm happy to go wherever you think is the best for me," Albus whispered, finding himself surprisingly calm as he did.

"Well well well, young Mr Potter. You just showed courage and bravery in the face of your biggest fears. That makes my decision a lot simpler." The hat stopped talking to Albus and announced its decision to the entire Great Hall. "GRYFFINDOR!"

Much to his surprise, Albus found himself feeling incredibly relieved. His family was cheering; he had a wide grin etched upon his face as he joined them at the Gryffindor table.

James was hugging him.

James was choking him.

Now James was being hexed by Victoire for almost killing him.

Albus, however, was not paying attention to any of this; He was too busy watching Scorpius be Sorted.

The hat spent even longer with Scorpius than it had with Albus; It was plain for everybody to see that his friend was terrified.

Seconds later, Scorpius sighed in happiness when the hat yelled, "GRYFFINDOR!"

Albus could already imagine his father's voice in his head: "It looks like the Malfoys really have changed."