For as long as I remember we've always taken a trip before school started. When the Weasley/Potter clan goes anywhere, it's a tad chaotic. After a couple years we discovered this small beach. It wasn't much, but none of the Prophet Reporters ever show up there. We've tried a lot of different things before, most leading to panic and general disarray.

The earliest one I can remember is when we all headed to the circus. It was fine until the second act. Molly got scared of the clowns and Uncle Percy had the hardest time calming her down. She started sending off those miniature bat bogey hexes that I think every girl in our family has perfected by the age of 5. As we were leaving, the ringmaster saw Teddy and his metamorphous hair. He called it the newest 'phenomenon.' The ringmaster flat out tried to kidnap Teddy. He was only distracted by the flying elephants. I'm not quite sure who did it but someone had some brilliant accidental magic. I bet it was Victoire. I doubt she'd ever be able to live with her "Teddy bear." (I have since concurred that she has a very rare disease known HNV, horrible nickname virus. The only other person I think has it is Granddad. He has all these weird names for Gran like Mollywobbles. Although, who ever came up with Rosie must have a very acute case. If anyone ever tries to call me that, they will suffer my wrath.)

Camping was interesting until James and Fred had the brilliant idea that it would be wonderful to get Roxanne, Lily and Hugo lost. I've never seen Aunt Angelina look so frightening. Hugo still comes running into my room in the middle of the night screaming.

Mum was trying to smear sunscreen over Hugo's pale skin. He kept shifting to try to avoid her. "Hugo, honestly, just stay still. You're worse than your father."

"But Mum, we're going to be late. We're late every year. Uncle Harry has to go pick up Teddy first and we'll still find a way to show up later than them," Hugo whined.

"There's a little thing called magic, dear." Mum rubbed in the last strand of white on his forehead.

"Why do we have to go by car then?"

"I'm sure your father would like to show off his driving skills. He was rather proud of getting his license."

"WAIT! DAD'S DRIVING?" I was frantic. I had been hoping to read Mum's new revised version of Hogwarts, A History, one last time before I left for school. With Dad driving, I'd be lucky to do anything but try to get over the overwhelming urge to be sick.

Dad walked into the kitchen clutching the blanket, umbrella and picnic basket. He set them down on the wooden floor and tapped them with his wand. All our equipment shrunk and Dad shoved it into his overcrowded pocket. "Hey! I'm not that bad. I was able to pass."

I tried to hide my smile when Hugo muttered under his breath, "barely."

Hogwarts has the largest population of house elves in all of Europe, with nearly 250 house elves on staff at all times. Helga Hufflepuff suggested it when they first built the school. "House elves should hath a sanctuary from tallt [looking down upon] masters." House elves remain virtually hidden through out the school. They're responsible for the laundry of the students, the cook-

"I'd put the book away if I were you," Albus joined me under the shade of the umbrella.

"Why?"

"My git of a brother is planning something. He stole all the plastic buckets and is filling them all with water. I doubt he's using them to build sandcastles."

I shuddered. It could be worse. James could be using potion or sand, which was absolutely impossible to get out of my hair. "Is it just James or does he have help?"

Albus glanced down the beach. "He's got Louis and Fred helping for sure. I think Lily might be involved. She's wearing her I'm-little-miss-innocent face."

I groaned. I hated that face. Lily's brown eyes would go bigger and rounder than you thought possible. She'd plaster on a huge smile emphasizing the wide gap where her front teeth should be. She tugged on the strands of red hair framing her face. Lily would start giggling madly and you just knew something was coming.

"They won't be able to do anything. Any minute now, the adults will pull out the food and any other thought will go flying out of their heads. Weasley stomachs are like bottomless pits."

"Everyone else might but James is just such a idiotic, conniving, evil, the absolute biggest-"

I cut him off, not really wanting to hear what my older cousin was (or what obscene language Albus knew). "He's doing it again. Isn't he?"

"Doing what?" Albus asked, running his fingers through his agitated hair. "James isn't doing anything."

"Al, you're lying. Because for one, James is always doing something." Albus gave a small smile at that because there was nothing truer. "It's about Slytherin." I waited for the confirming nod.

"How'd you know?"

"I'm not blind. He's been going on about it for months." It was the most annoying thing. Albus didn't have a single quality of a Slytherin. He couldn't even lie without giving himself away.

Albus dug his hands in the sand and let it sift through his fingers. "It's not just James. The entire wizarding world wants to know what house I'm in. Skeeter wrote that bloody article about it."

I'd read the article. It was really poorly written. She didn't know anything about Al at all. She used generic adjectives and the entire point was to spark a controversial debate. That's no way to write. "It was a bad article."

Albus gave a sigh. "It doesn't matter how bad it was. It was on the front page of the Prophet."

"It was small and at the bottom."

"It doesn't matter Rose. It was on the front page!"

I shrugged. "I doubt anyone read it."

He shot me an accusing look. "You did."

"Well I read everything I can get my hands on. Anyone else would have skipped over it."

"Dad's gotten letters about it," Albus muttered.

"That's- People actually wrote telling him where you should go."

Albus shoved his hands deeper into the sand. "It's currently a tie between Ravenclaw and Gryffindor. Some old witch thought I'd do well in Hufflepuff. She stopped us in the street about it. James tried to send a hexed letter about Slytherin but Dad caught him."

I couldn't help smirking. Only James would try that with Uncle Harry in the house. "You'll be where ever you want to be."

"Everyone wants me to follow Dad. I'm his spitting image apparently. I'm supposed to follow in his footsteps."

I couldn't concern a snort. "That'll be hard to do."

"It's not funny Rose."

"Of course it's not. It's only funny if you actually were going to try following in Uncle Harry's footsteps. It's next to impossible."

Al didn't look any more reassured. "It's like a sandcastle," I said trying to phrase it differently.

"Rose, you did not just compare my life to a mixture of sand and water."

"It's a metaphor, honestly Al. They all start with the same ingredients and yet each one turns out differently. Mine won't be the same as yours. Molly's is nothing like Roxanne."

"Rose this isn't about sand castles. This could affect my entire life! Your house is who your friends are. It affects your later life. Some people don't hire people from certain houses. Everyone has that bit of prejudice. I'm going to be stuck as a Slytherin forever. I'd rather just never leave the beach."

Albus had gone into ranting mode. I was all but doomed. I could only stand so many theatrics. "Well then I'd need to find a new favorite cousin."

He didn't look up at me. "Lucy's always an option."

Desperate times call for desperate measures. Al hated his full name just as much as I hated being called Rosie. I think his parents were the only ones able to say it without him getting angry with them. "Albus Severus-"

His head shot up. "Don't call me that, Rosie!"

I took a deep calming breath. "I'm trying to help you here. Let's not get into battle of the names."

"Wait, what?"

I couldn't believe I was doing it but I was worried about having friends at Hogwarts, at least real friends who understood me. The ones that knew when to let me read or drag me off to the Quidditch pitch, the ones that knew how to calm me down. Al knew all that. Sometimes I thought he knew more about me than I did. "You're getting sorted first."

"Yeah, 'P' before 'W.' Dad said the sorting was alphabetical."

"I know. So you're getting sorted first. Where ever you're sorted, I'll try to follow you."

The corners of Albus' mouth twitched. "Even Slytherin?"

"I'll think maniacal thoughts." Albus' face exploded into a grin.

This is for Morning Lilies' Forgotten Families Competition on HPFC. My pairing was Rose and Albus. My prompt was sand castles.