Chapter 1: The Hogwarts express

Albus stared out the window as his parents and the platform rapidly disappeared into the fog. When it finally flew out of sight, he opened up his muggle backpack and took out his wand. He had purchased it yesterday at Ollivander's. Nearly ten inches, made out of willow and unicorn hair and with a crisscross pattern on the wood that made his eyes blur when he looked at it for too long, this had been one of the first wands Albus picked up. He remembered that feeling of warmth in his fingers, and the sensation that he and his wand were one united force that could, combined, do anything. He felt that warmth seep through his body on the nippy autumnal morning.

He looked around him. He was on a carriage of the Hogwarts Express, and going off to his first term at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, the best place (and probably only, thought Albus. He had never really thought about it before) in the country to learn the magical arts like both his parents had done, and their parents before them. He was excited to be off at last, naturally, but he was a bit nervous to leave his parents and sister, all of whom he loved dearly. "Don't worry," he remembered Teddy, his dad's godson, joking last night when he expressed his fears at dinner. "You miss them for one week, then you forget all about them." He remembered his mother answering this with a playful shove.

In the cosy train carriage there were two other people: his cousin, Rose, and his brother, James. Rose, who was in the same year as Albus, was desperately trying to catch one last glimpse of her parents. James, who had been looking at his ancient spider called Henry, and poking him with his wand tip (Henry was now flashing a multitude of bright colours), looked up.

"Forget it, Rose. That's the last you'll see of them until Christmas."

Albus snorted derisively. "Always the caring one, James," he said, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

"Sarcasm heard, identified and acted upon, little bro," grinned James, turning back to Henry.

"Oh, stop twittering, you two," Rose snapped. The boys were instantly silent. Quiet and studious, Rose wasn't much of a talker, so when she did speak, everyone took action at once. Also, she had an over-powering sense of girl power that you just couldn't fail to notice. Despite the rest of the family being, so far in Gryffindor (One of Hogwarts' four houses), everyone was sure that Rose would be in Ravenclaw (Which, as James put it, was the "house for swots").

The three of them sat in an awkward silence (not including Henry, who was now squealing like a whistle). Finally, Rose looked at Albus, and asked Albus, "May I practice some spells on you?"

"Um, yeah, sure, just tell me what to do," said Albus.

"Thanks. Ok, first put that pencil in your pocket on the table." Albus did as he was told, glad for the distraction from the feeling that someone was Transfiguring his stomach into a muggle washing machine. "Ok, good," she said, pulling out her wand. Albus had never seen it before. It really was beautiful, with miniature roses made out of wood and small, blunt wooden thorns adorning its side. Then she cried, with clear diction, "Wingardium Leviosa!" The pencil rotated itself and begun to rise, point up, towards the ceiling, but went a little too far, and ended up making a dent and a mark. Rose hastily rotated the pencil until the rubber end was facing up, and moved it up and down to erase the mark. The pencil dropped with a clatter to the table. "Reparo," she muttered. The hole resealed itself. "A little more practice," Rose muttered, blushing.

Albus, however, was astonished. "Rose, is that your first time doing magic?"

Rose blushed even more furiously. "Like I said, it needs practice."

"Rose, that was amazing!"

"Thanks! Now you try. Maybe… Expelliamus? Your dad was good at that one."

"Ok." He pulled out his wand and pointed it at Rose, who was holding hers aloft. "Expelliamus!" Albus cried, and, much to the surprise of both of them, Rose's wand flew out of her hand and hit Crookshanks, her dozy cat, on the nose.

"I swear that cat's immortal," Albus complained after receiving a vicious scratch down his arm from Crookshanks. "Hasn't he been around since your mum's days?

"Crookshanks is half-kneazle," Rose said, surprised. "Kneazles can live for up to one hundred years and-"

"Ok, Ok, I get it!" Albus interrupted.

"Ok, fine. That was an impressive bit of magic you did there."

"I know." Albus felt confused. "I never expected to be able to do it."

Suddenly the doors to the carriage slid open, and a dreamy voice floated in. "You're Harry Potter's son." Albus looked in surprise at the person who was standing in the doorway. She was obviously the trolley lady, but was not the aging witch that James had described in the car. In fact, she was reasonably young, with pale blonde hair and baby blue eyes. "And are you Luna Lovegood?"

"Uh-huh." She cocked her head and looked at him. "The last time I saw you was at your parents wedding. They had to go for some photos so I took you to get your nappy change." She looked up thoughtfully. "You peed on me." Albus blushed furiously then glanced menacingly at James and Rose, both of whom were having ferocious coughing fits to hide their laughter. "This isn't my main job, you know. I'm actually a famous zoologist." Albus remembered his parents marvelling at her name being on his booklist. "I do know them, but I'm having a mad moment, and could you remind me of your names?"

"I'm Albus, that's my brother, James, and that's my cousin, Rose, who's Ron's daughter."

"Oh, of course. I am sorry."

"That's Ok. Did you know that my sister was named after you?"

"Lily Luna, yes. Well, I won't stay and bore you three for too long, but I'm not the only familiar face you'll find at Hogwarts. I'm sure you've heard that Professor Longbottom now teaches Herbology, and I'm sure you'll find that there are a few other names you'll know." She went away mysteriously, leaving them each a chocolate frog.

"Before anyone mentions it, that was not funny." The others collapsed into laughter.

As they tucked into their chocolate frogs, Rose asked, "What was that about familiar faces, by the way? I mean, I knew about Professor Longbottom, obviously, but who else is at Hogwarts that we know? Teachers, I mean."

"I don't know. I was just thinking about that. Madam Hooch has just retired, so maybe we know the replacement? I'm not sure. I'm trying to think back to dad's old Quidditch stories," said James thoughtfully. "Hey, I got Agrippa," he said, showing them the card. "Here, you can have it, I have six of them." Albus sighed. James was always quoting his father's stories.

Albus looked over Rose's shoulder. "Hey, you got dad! Let's read, then," he said, snatching the card off Rose before she could reply. As it happened, she just muttered "Boys," and turned her attention back to making Albus' pencil float.

"'Renowned for his title as the boy who lived, Harry Potter saved the wizarding world from near disaster. Bearing a lightning scar from the time Tom Riddle attempted to kill him, he played a large role in ending both the first and second wizarding wars.' Cool!"

Albus looked at his own card. It was the card that had actually been his father's first; Albus Dumbledore, after whom he was named. Dumbledore had been Headmaster of Hogwarts in his parents' day

The rest of the journey passed quietly. As the shadows cast by the autumnally gold trees began to lengthen, all three of them changed into their Hogwarts robes and kept an eye out for Hogsmeade station. But, as the hours passed, Albus grew dozy. When they arrived at Hogsmeade station, Albus, without even realising it, had fallen asleep.

Rose woke him by shaking him gently. "James wanted to leave you," she said, "but I decided it would be best if you didn't miss the sorting ceremony."

The two first years dragged their luggage off the train and dumped it on a pile with everyone else's and began to search for Hagrid. This only took seconds, even in the dark, as Hagrid positively towered over the students.

"'Ello, you two. Albus, isn't it, and Rose?" Albus nodded cheerfully, but Rose, clearly overwhelmed by this gentle giant of a man, said nothing, looking at Professor Hagrid's giant belly. Albus trod on her toe. She nodded, still transfixed by his massive form. They selected a boat into which all three of them climbed.

"So, um, got any pets?" asked Hagrid once the boats had started to move.

"Nope. I did have a pet rat, but someone 's manky old cat ate him on the same night I got him," Albus growled, looking pointedly at Rose.

Rose immediately became defensive. "Well, you can stop being like that, we've trained Crookshanks to catch mice, she probably thought that Nimbus was just another big one-"
"That beast chased him right out of the Leaky Cauldron and all the way down Diagonally, and you can stop talking about it as if it were all cute and fluffy because it's not, and I have the scratch mark to prove it-"

"Oh, stop bickering you two. You sound so much like Ron and 'Ermione." He smiled. "I remember when they had an argument almost exactly the same as the one you just had. I don't think in my wildest dreams I would have thought that they would get married." Rose curled herself around Crookshanks, blinked awkwardly and scowled at Albus, who promptly turned away and made it clear that he wouldn't be the one to break first, and admit that they were wrong.

They fell silent and listened to the gentle splash, splash, splash of the waves against the side of the boat. It took Albus a couple of seconds to realise that everyone else had gone quiet too. "Wow," Rose whispered. But then he saw it.

Lit up spectacularly before them was Hogwarts castle itself. Even at the distance they were from it, Albus fancied he could already hear the buzz of hundreds of voices catching up on each other's summer holidays. He only stopped looking when a large stone cavern blocked it from view.

The first years all climbed out of their boats, one by one. Albus and Rose had to get out first as Hagrid's size threatened to capsize them in the freezing water. They all climbed up the slippery stone steps, clinging tightly to the handrail which consisted of little more than an old piece of frayed rope.

When they reached the massive mahogany front doors, Hagrid told Albus and Rose that he had to go and take his place at the staff table and asked them to knock on the door, to which they agreed. Hagrid ran off to the other side of the castle, assumingly to go in the back way. Albus tried to reach up to the large brass knocker but Rose pushed him aside, muttering something about him being "on the brink" of falling down the polished marble steps. Pulling up her robe sleeves, she took out her wand (Dragon heartstring, twelve and a half inches) and, with a neat flick, muttered, "Wingardium Leviosa!" The knocker rapped twice on the door. This was greeted by a general round of applause from the class (except for Albus, who really had been nearly falling over and was still on the floor, bruised and embarrassed). Rose blushed as the towering doors opened and they stepped into the warmth.