Albus Severus Potter sat in the comfortable compartment with his cousin, Rose Monica Weasley. He looked most like his father, only no glasses and no scar. His eyes were the same as his father's, the same as his grandmother's. Rose looked much like her mother. The same frilly hair, but with the classic orange of a true Weasley. Her father had passed on a few freckles that dotted her nose. Her icy blue eyes shone with the knowledge within her.
The two cousins had just rounded the corner of Kings Cross Station, aboard the Hogwarts Express, leaving behind their parents and younger siblings. Rose sat, knitting a scarf, across from Albus.
"Who's that for?", Albus asked her.
"Peckley.", Rose replied, her attention on her knitting. Peckley was the Weasley house elf. He was homeless and jobless when he asked a pregnant Hermione if he could work for them. He was not thought of as a house elf, but a part of the family. He was never punished, mistakes happen. But even before Rose was born, Peckley was there. He knitted with Hermione, he washed the dishes, and helped around the house. When she was little, Rose sometimes was left with Peckley when her mother couldn't stay home. Peckley was a free elf. He was a part of the family. He and Harry got along very well, and this might have been because he looked very much like Dobby. He and Kreacher were at every family gathering. He was tied with Hermione and Rose most over everyone else.
Just then, the trolly witch came along, Albus grabbed three chocolate frogs and Rose got licorice wands.
James walked into the compartment his friends following him. He was just like his grandfather in personality, not in looks. He had Ginny's charming eyes and deep brown hair, a mix of both his parents hair colors. He had a couple of freckles and was the most popular second-year Albus knew of. Everyone loved him. Beater for the Gryffindor Quidditch team, A+ student and troublemaker. He was always causing trouble for the professors and he was a natural with the girls.
"Hey little bro.", he said, sitting beside Albus. "Thought I'd drop Lotte off with you guys. You don't mind if I sit with my friends do you?"
Albus shook his head.
"Good! Come on Lotte! You don't have to stand out there!", James said to a girl standing in the compartment door. Charlotte Longbottom was the 11-year-old daughter of Neville and Hannah Longbottom. Neville had married Hannah Abbot, later having Charlotte(Lotte) Genevieve Longbottom. Lotte was a short girl with a fair face like her mother. Her hair was very long and wavy, and it was a chestnut color to match her father's. She had her father's bright brown eyes and her own graceful air. All in all, she was quite a lovely girl. She and Albus had been friends since before they could remember. Lotte was well known in the Potter-Weasley family, having known them forever.
"Hello Lotte!", Rose exclaimed. Lotte smiled.
"Hi guys.", she replied, her eyes gleaming with relief. James obviously was a little too much for her right then. After all, he was chatting about getting in trouble and what punishments they could possibly throw at him, and that wasn't much comfort to a first year. James left with his gang and Lotte went over to Albus. She stood on the seat (because of her being shorter) and put her luggage beside Albus's. A crashing sound came from behind the compartment door. One of James's friends came crashing in cursing, a cat on his shoulder. It was scratching him in pure fury and anger. Lotte jumped down from the seat and grabbed the cat off of the boy, without fear. At the sight of who was holding him, he calmed down and began to lick his paw. Lotte set his down on the seat next to Albus, and he crawled into his lap. Lotte turned back to the boy, anger blazing her brown eyes, and began to scold him.
"How dare you curse at my Jack!", she hollered at him, "What did you do to make him so angry?! Did you insult him, me, one of my friends? He is harmless unless you anger him you know! How dare you curse my little angel!"
Behind her, Jack was purring intently as she scolded the boy on his behalf. The boy looked absolutely horrified.
"I...I...said h-he l-looked like a...rat...and that you-you looked like a hippie.", the boy stammered, fear in his eyes. He ran out of the compartment after that, fear of what the fuming girl would do. She turned and sat down beside Albus. Jack crawled onto her lap, still purring.
"What was that about?", Rose asked, still knitting as she had the whole time Lotte had exploded.
"He called my angel a very unkind name.", she answered. She turned to Albus and Jack jumped over Rose. He laid down beside her and began to sleep.
"Did you get the frogs?", Lotte asked Albus. He nodded and held up his three frogs. Lotte held up three more. They began to open them. Albus opened an Albus Dumbledore card (of which he had 17, he kept them all.), an Alastor Moody card, and a Lily Potter card. Lotte opened a Severus Snape card, a Nymphadora Lupin card, and a Fred Weasley card. She smiled.
"Guys! Look! I got a Severus Snape card! And I got Tonks and Fred!" Albus looked over in surprise.
"Those ones are SO rare!", he exclaimed.
"What did you get?"
"Mad-Eye Moody, Dumbledore, and grandma."
"You got Moody?! Wow! I don't have him yet. You have your grandma's eyes.", she said, pointing to Lily's eyes. Albus smiled.
"Yeah, I do.", he said with calm happiness. Lotte turned back to her cards. She traced her Snape card with a delicate finger.
"You've waited so long to find his card, I'm surprised you're not crying tears of joy.", Albus told her.
"I'm holding them back.", she responded. Snape looked up at her with a soft scowl. She didn't care. Severus Snape was her hero. She had always asked what he was like. Headmistress McGonagall had told her all she knew. She was allowed to ask the portraits anything she wanted, as her father was a professor. And she did, she knew the Dumbledore portrait very well and knew even more than Harry Potter himself about the old potions master. But his face was always absent from his portrait for some reason. She asked Dumbledore why and he had told her that it was because he liked his quiet. But she knew why he was really gone. Lily. Harry had had a portrait of his mother put in the castle, knowing that Snape and Lily would one day find each other.
Lotte lifted up the Nymphadora Lupin card, though, everyone still called her Tonks. Her vibrant hair lit up the card, along with her cheery smile. Her picture brightened the whole compartment. Lotte put down the Tonks card and looked at Fred. She had heard so many stories about him.
Just then, there came loud crash of the door being burst open. Three other students stood there, two holding up the other. Lotte recognized one of them. An icy looking blonde boy by the name of Scorpius R. Malfoy. His eyes resembled his father's, just like his hair and face. But there was no cold harshness to his appearance, he looked tired and scared.
"Here, take this, we don't want 'im.", one of the other boys sneered. They let Scorpius go and he fell to the floor. Lotte left up and grabbed his arm to lift him up. The other boy threw his luggage in after him. It hit Lotte in the face, knocking them both down. Rose shot up.
"How dare you!? You get out! Right now!", she shouted. The two boys walked away with scowls but still triumphant. Rose lifted Lotte up, but didn't touch Scorpius. Lotte bent down to pull some of his luggage off of him. She helped him up to discover dark bags under his eyes and a bruise on his left cheek. He seemed ashamed. Lotte just smiled softly as he looked away.
"Don't feel bad,", she told him,"I have one too." She moved her hair back to reveal a bruise the size of a lemon. Scorpius seemed to calm down a bit.
"You're that Longbottom girl, Charlotte, is it?", he asked. Lotte smiled.
"Yes, and these are my friends, Rose and Albus." Scorpius cast his eyes down.
"I know you don't want me in here, our fathers never got along." Lotte simply shook her head. She scooped up one of Scorpius' trunks and lifted it up on top of hers. "I don't care what our fathers did, that was years ago. Are we our parents, or new people?" Her statement brought a smile to everyone's face. A little while later, the three of them were chatting joyfully over odd things and the topics of the Quibbler. Rose and Lotte stayed in the compartment to change into their robes, while the boys left to change in another compartment with James.
They arrived at Hogwarts, the night sky foggy and blurred. Lotte held tight to Albus and Scorpius' hands, while Rose hung onto Albus. They started towards the sound of a half-giant's booming voice, ready to begin their journey...