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Title and Author: The Choices We Make, by Slytherin Redeemed

Fandom: Harry Potter

Summary: Albus Severus confronts his fear with a little help from his father and the Sorting Hat as his time to be Sorted into one of the four Houses of Hogwarts has arrived.


THERE ARE SPOILERS FOR
HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS
IN THE FANFICTION BELOW! IF YOU HAVE NOT READ THE BOOK
AND WOULD NOT LIKE IT TO BE SPOILED FOR YOU, THEN
DO NOT GO ANY FURTHER!

Please read and heed that warning.

The Choices We Make
By Slytherin Redeemed. Beta-Read by Vivian Allen.


The Sorting was a long process. Albus Severus Potter shifted from foot to foot as he stood in the crowd of first-years standing in the gap between Gryffindor and Ravenclaw tables. It was nerve-wrecking, really, and as the middle Potter child took deep breaths, he wondered if his father and mother felt like this when they were being Sorted; if James felt like this when he was being Sorted. He looked at the black-robed students around him, and relaxed slightly when he saw a familiar face; there was Rose Weasley, and she looked just as apprehensive as he did. He shook his head; he was going to owl his father first thing the very next morning, and he was going to ask whether or not it was perfectly normal to have butterflies in your stomach while you were getting Sorted.

"Nervous, Potter?" a voice commented thinly from the side, and when Albus turned, he saw Scorpius Malfoy staring at him, gray eyes narrowed, one eyebrow raised.

"What's it to you?" Albus whispered as another student was called up and promptly Sorted into Ravenclaw.

"Nothing, really," the Malfoy child answered truthfully with a nonchalant shrug. "Afraid you'll be Sorted into Slytherin?"

Albus nearly choked as he glared at the blond-haired child next to him. "What makes you think I'll be Sorted into Slytherin?"

Malfoy sneered at him. "I would have more respect for Professor Snape if I were you, Potter."

The middle Potter child flinched as he looked at Scorpius. He really did look so much like his father, Albus guessed, remembering pictures from the Prophet. "It's not that I don't respect Professor Snape, but—"

"Malfoy, Scorpius!"

Scorpius threw Albus one glance over his shoulder as he walked up to the Sorting Hat, and then mouthed, "We'll talk later."

Albus frowned, green eyes darkening, but he realized that Scorpius—Scorpius Malfoy—had been called up, and the Headmistress was nearing the letter P, getting closer and closer to it by every kid that got Sorted. He wasn't surprised when the Sorting Hat boomed "SLYTHERIN!" the moment it had been placed on Scorpius' head, but he looked at the Malfoy boy in open-mouthed shock when the gray-eyed child found him, met his eyes, and nodded in his direction.

He chanced a sweeping gaze of the Slytherin table; they looked very uptight, most of them he assumed from Pureblood families—although Albus guessed they were the lesser-known families, because several of the more powerful ones had died out—and then there was Scorpius at the edge of the table, already chatting with someone Albus thought the Malfoy boy knew from somewhere else. Then he turned his head, and looked at the Gryffindor table. There was his brother, James, looking at him and giving him a large grin; there was Teddy Lupin, smiling at him and giving him a thumbs-up sign; and there was Victoire Weasley, and his cousin was also smiling at him.

The Potter boy took another deep breath as he closed his eyes; Gryffindor or Slytherin? Gryffindor had always been the "traditional" Potter house; his dad and mum had been in Gryffindor, his dad's dad and mum and his mum's dad and mum had been in Gryffindor, his brother was in Gryffindor, dang it all, even Lily was going to be in Gryffindor—and Albus knew that by instinct immediately. And Slytherin—Gryffindors had always looked at Slytherin as the dark, evil House. After all, Voldemort came from that House, and his lot of followers mostly came from it.

But despite Slytherin and it being stereotyped dark and evil, his father spoke highly of one of them. Spoke very highly of one of them. Back at King's Cross, right before he boarded the train with Rose, Harry had pulled Albus Severus aside. He had asked his father the question he'd always wanted to get an answer to—"What if I'm in Slytherin?"

His father's answer was patient, and Albus could immediately remember his father crouching down to meet his eyes. "Albus Severus," he had started his answer, "you were named for two headmasters of Hogwarts. One of them was a Slytherin and he was probably the bravest man I ever knew."

Being a child, Albus protested quickly: "But just say—"

And Harry reassured him gently, "—then Slytherin House will have gained an excellent student, won't it?" His father's following words comforted him, and Albus smiled in the memory of them, "It doesn't matter to us, Al. But if it matters to you, you'll be able to choose Gryffindor over Slytherin. The Sorting Hat takes your choice into account."

"Really?" Albus had asked in wonder.

And his father said, "It did for me."

Slytherin didn't look as bad as it did when his father spoke to him about Severus Snape, but he thought about his brother, his sister, his cousins. What would they think if Albus Severus Potter—and it always came down to their last names, because Potter was a Light name, was a Gryffindor name—was Sorted into Slytherin? Would they turn away from him, like Uncle Sirius' family did when he was Sorted into Gryffindor instead of Slytherin? Would they ignore him for the rest of his life and never treat him like family again? Or would they just accept it, like his dad said?

"Potter, Albus Severus!"

Albus looked up in shock, before he received a push from the back—it was probably Rose—and he started walking toward the Sorting Hat. There were more butterflies in his stomach, now, and he felt a little dizzy, but he made it to the stool, and the Hat made it on his head.

"Nervous, are we, young Mister Potter?" the Hat said to him, and Albus resisted a shiver; those were nearly the exact same words Scorpius Malfoy—who was staring at him intently—had said to him.

"Slytherin isn't the worst of Houses, you know," the Hat told him as it hummed quietly. "Are you nervous about what your friends and family will think if I place you in Slytherin?"

Albus was silent, but he gave a small nod anyway.

"That's less Gryffindor, you know," the Hat reprimanded him, "because if you were really a true Gryffindor at heart, then the House you're in won't matter to you, would it? You heard me when I sang earlier. Gryffindors are chivalrous, are brave, and are not afraid. They face their problems and look them in the eye.

"But, look at you!" the Hat continued to ridicule him. "You're sitting on this stool with me on your head, worried about what your friends and family will think if a Potter is placed in Slytherin."

Albus' eyes darkened, before he argued quietly, "Father said Severus Snape was probably the bravest men he knew."

"Ah, Snape," the Hat chuckled, "the man was a fool. He was brave, but he was a fool nonetheless." The Hat was silent for a few moments, before it asked him, "What of Ravenclaw? Or Hufflepuff? Have you not thought about those Houses? Or were you simply to caught up in thinking about what consequences may come if you're Sorted in to Slytherin?"

"I'm not smart," Albus Severus said to the Hat, "place Rose in Ravenclaw if you want, but not me. I'd only shame the House." He paused about the second choice. "And I'm not a Hufflepuff, either. Sure, I'm nervous and all about being Sorted into anywhere else but Gryffindor, but..." He finished lamely, and could not think of an excuse to eliminate Hufflepuff as a House of choice.

"You're willing to do anything to please your family and friends, even if it's hard for you," the Hat mused as it searched Albus' mind further. "And you're willing to do whatever it takes to keep them happy. Not only is that Gryffindor selflessness—more recklessness, but that comes from your father, so it's expected—that's Slytherin will. You're willing to use that Gryffindor selflessness to protect those you love, but that selflessness isn't all Gryffindor; take a look at your father's best example. Severus Snape. Cunning and ambitious and Slytherin as he was, he set his own life on the line to protect your father." It paused to take a breath, "Are you sure Slytherin is the wrong House for you, young Mister Potter?"

"But wasn't sacrificing himself Gryffindor all the same?" Albus questioned.

"Only the Gryffindors would let their name become synonymous with bravery and self-sacrifice," the Hat commented.

His father's words came back to him. "—then Slytherin House will have gained an excellent student, won't it? It doesn't matter to us, Al." The reassurance strengthened the young child's resolve, and as words floated back to his mind—"Albus Severus, you were named for two headmasters of Hogwarts. One of them was a Slytherin and he was probably the bravest man I never knew."—he told the Sorting Hat, "I guess you know where to put me then, huh?"

Albus Severus could picture the Sorting Hat smiling brokenly as it whispered into his mind, "I've known all along." It remained silent for a moment, and then told the Potter child, "It's the choices you make that make you who you are, Mister Potter. Your father knows that. You should know that as well."

Then the Hat opened its mouth and bellowed, for all the students and staff to hear, "SLYTHERIN!"

-fin-