A/N: I've been itching to write a Next Generation story since last July, when Deathly Hallows came out. I went through numerous first chapters and beginnings, before I settled on this. Hope you enjoy!
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, or any of his kids Or any of Ron and Hermione's kids. Or Bill and Fleur's. I think you get the picture.
The door to the train slid shut. Albus looked out the window, down at his smiling parents and little sister.
"Come on, Al, it'll be fine. Why are you so worried?" Rose slid down the vinyl seat and next to Albus, putting her arm around him. He quickly shrugged her off.
"Easy for you to say." he muttered. As silent as he was on the outside, the idea he could be in Slytherin was eating away at him on the inside. He knew that what his father had just told him about his almost being in Slytherin was supposed to make him feel better, but what if it ran in the family? What if he inherited some sort of gene that his brother and sister didn't get, a gene which would put him in Slytherin?
Shut up, he told himself. You're being an idiot. James was in Gryffindor. So was Victoire. Do you really think you won't be?
He exhaled. He remembered his father's other words; The Sorting Hat takes your choice into account. He didn't exactly feel calm, but he wasn't so nervous now.
He glanced over at Rose, who was reading Hogwarts: A History in the corner of the vinyl seat. She looked just like she did every time she read, spinning one lock of her dark red hair over and over with her finger, rarely blinking as she absorbed the information. Her big brown eyes moved side to side, never leaving the book.
Suddenly, he heard a knock at the door. He stood up whereas Rose didn't pay any attention to the small noise. He opened the door, and a skinny blond boy was standing there, a trunk on the floor next to him, a small owl in a cage in one hand.
"Everywhere else is full. Can I sit in here?" the boy asked, his voice quiet. Albus liked the privacy of just him and his cousin, but he didn't want to be making enemies before he even got to school.
"Sure. I'm Albus" he said as he moved out of the doorway. The boy looked relieved, and he walked into the little area. He hoisted his trunk up onto the rack, and put his owl up next to it.
"I'm Scorpius. Scorpius Malfoy." Albus nodded, remembering stories that Uncle Ron had told at Christmas every year. They all mentioned a boy named Draco Malfoy, who had apparently despised his Uncle Ron and his dad. Albus quickly sat down in his seat, and Scorpius sat down across from Rose.
"Erm, Rose? Rose? ROSE!" Rose heard Albus yelling. She looked up from her book, noticing a new person in their compartment.
"Hi. I'm Scorpius." the boy said plainly. She nodded. This is the boy dad told me to stay away from, was running through her mind.
"Oh, um, I'm Rose Weasley." Wow. Very original, Rose. She ran her fingers through her hair, twirled it around her finger, and returned to her book. He's cute. She stopped concentrating on her book, and instead peeked out over the top of the pages. He was listening to Albus talk about his broomstick, nodding and biting his lip. She realized he wasn't going to do anything interesting, so she returned to her book.
Albus looked at his cousin, who was absorbed in her book. He could have sworn she had been looking at Scorpius. Rose? She only ate, slept, and read. She barely talked to girls, much less boys.
"So," said Scorpius, biting his lip, "Do you want to play a game of Exploding Snap?" He pulled a deck of cards out of his pocket. He hesitated, looking as if he had made a mistake.
"Sure. I've played a couple times." Oh, you liar. Albus hadn't just played the game; he beat his Uncle Charlie at the game. His Uncle Charlie, who had never lost a game before! He decided he'd play Scorpius for fun.
"So, I guess I'll deal?" Scorpius seemed unsure, but when Albus nodded, he quickly shuffled the deck and handed out the cards.
They played Exploding Snap for what seemed like days. The game still hadn't ended when Victoire burst into the compartment.
"Al, what are you doing? We're going to be at Hogwarts in twenty minutes! You two better change into your robes." Victoire gave Scorpius a once-over, and floated out the door.
All of the sudden, all of the cards in Scorpius' hand burst into flames, and quickly disintegrated. They put the cards away, and pulled their trunks off of the shelf, tugging the black robes off out of the trunks. Scorpius grabbed the rest of his uniform, and headed down the hall and into the bathroom. Albus turned away from his cousin, tugged off his jeans and put on his black dress pants, buttoned the starched white button-down over his t-shirt, and put on his black tie. He then tugged on the robes, and snapped his trunk shut.
He shoved the trunk back on top of the shelf, and pulled his owl down. He flung the black cloth off of the top of the cage to reveal a Scops Owl, small and gray. The owl opened his yellow eyes, blinked, and hooted loudly. It still had food and water. Albus flung the black cloth on top of the cage as he heard the door slide open.
It wasn't Scorpius, as he had expected. It was James. He was in his Hogwarts robes too, only unlike Albus' they had a big Gryffindor crest on the chest. Albus hoped deeply he would have the same robes this time next year. James sat down next to him, and Rose closed her book.
"So, I noticed the Malfoy kid came in here. What's his name . . . Scorpion?" James looked at Rose, whose ears turned red. So she was looking at him! Albus hoped sincerely that his cousin didn't have a crush on Scorpius. He seemed nice enough, but he was the son of Uncle Ron's least favorite person in the world.
"Scorpius. His name is Scorpius." Rose snapped at her cousin, causing him to shrink back. He had always been slightly frightened of his eleven-year-old cousin ever since she set a flock of fluffy yellow canaries on him last Christmas. He had given her a little bruise when he hit her with his broomstick while he was weaving between the trees, and she had immediately attacked him with the birds, causing him to fall off his broomstick and spend a week in St. Mungos.
"Okay, then. You enjoy the rest of the train ride." James backed out of the door, and hit Scorpius, who was walking back into the compartment with his jeans in his hands. James shuffled to the side and headed down the hall. Scorpius entered the room, and slid the door closed.
"Who was that?" Scorpius asked, putting his jeans into his trunk. He closed the trunk, and turned to Rose.
"Oh, that was my cousin James. He's Al's older brother." Rose put her book into her trunk, and pulled a wicker cat basket down from the shelf. She opened it to check on her kitten. A little ginger kitten peered up at her with blue eyes. The cat meowed, and Rose closed the cat basket again. There was still cat food and water in the basket's tiny bowls. She put the basket back, and sat down.
When Scorpius sat down, they just talked about what house they wanted to be in. Albus refused to settle for anything but Gryffindor. Whenever Rose tried to convince him that Ravenclaw wouldn't be terrible, he refused to listen.
"Al, I know you want to be in Gryffindor. So do I! But Ravenclaw wouldn't be terri-" Rose continued her hopeless quest to convince her cousin that Ravenclaw wouldn't be bad.
"What? What did you say, Rose? Yeah, I want to be in Gryffindor. Were you saying something else?" Al continued to ignore Rose by opening a magazine. She sighed, and turned away from him.
"So, Scorpius, what house do you want to be in?" Rose decided that questioning Scorpius would at least give her something to do for the remaining five minutes. She looked at him, and she was pretty sure that her ears were about the same color as her hair.
He looked at Rose. She was waiting for him to answer. "Well, my parents were both in Slytherin." He noticed Albus was now peering over the top of his magazine, listening to him. "But I don't know. Maybe the Sorting Hat thinks differently. Maybe I'll go somewhere I didn't think I would go. Maybe I'll be in Gryffindor." He grinned at Rose, whose ears turned even more crimson.
"We've arrived at Hogwarts! Please take your trunks and various possessions and exit the train!" Immediately, the train buzzed with the noise that people were making by pulling their trunks off of the rack, picking up various pets, and exiting the train.
Albus grabbed his trunk off of the shelf and grasped his owl's cage in his other hand. He slid the door open and ran off the train and into the darkness of the night sky.
"Firs' years! Firs' years, come over here!" A huge man who Albus assumed was Hagrid towered over the first years. He was huge, with a big white bushy beard and thick white hair that touched the middle of his back. He was wrinkly and tanned, and he was missing most of his teeth. He was wearing a pair of brown pants that sixteen third years could have fit into, a large white button-down that was missing the top button, and a pair of shoes the side of sleds. He was carrying a lantern the size of the floor lamp in Grandma Weasley's living room. He looked like he could have been very powerful years ago, but it looked like the only way he could hurt you now was if he sat on you.
Albus looked past Hagrid and across the lake. There, glimmering in the reflection of dozens of torches, was what Albus had been dreaming of since June. It was huge, made of gray stone with towers and turrets everywhere.
It was Hogwarts, and it was exactly as he had dreamed it would be.