Albus's jet-black hair was a mess. He was nervous, and when he was nervous, he couldn't stop running his hands through it, which just made it stick up more. He was was downright terrified. Sure, his dad had told him they wouldn't care what house he was sorted into, but James would, and Grandpa Weasley would probably be a little disappointed if he was sorted into Slytherin, though he'd try to hide it.
"C'mon Albie!" His cousin Rose grabbed Albus's hand and tugged, pulling him after her through the train hallway, her bushy red hair bouncing behind her.
"I told you not to call me that!" Albus hissed as Rose stopped short to open a compartment door, and he tripped over her trunk, barely managing to keep himself from falling. The compartment held a portion of the Weasley cousins, all squished together, with many hanging out the window talking to family on the platform, and friends in other compartments. Bright red hair bonded most of them together, but other than that, features varied drastically. As they entered the small train carriage, Rose shrugged unapologetically and turned to talk to Lucy, leaving Albus to wedge himself between Louis and Olivia.
"Are you excited, Al?" Olivia, Albus' older cousin, asked conversationally. She had bright red hair that was chopped into a short, spikey 'do.
Albus nodded, but his heart had been thumping in his chest since the night before and refused to let up. He ran his hand through his hair again. Olivia must have noticed, and seen the mildly terrified look on his face because she nodded sympathetically. "Dad says I should try to convince you that you've got to face a troll or something to get sorted, but it's really not that bad."
He smiled a bit. "Yeah, your dad tried to convince me to send him a toilet seat. I think Mum actually wanted me to, but she says I'm not allowed."
Olivia laughed, as the compartment door opened again and more redheads poured in, talking loudly over each other. Rose and Albus shared a look, and pushed past their cousins back into the corridor.
"Let's find somewhere a bit more quiet." Rose decided, leading her cousin further down the train. "What class do you think we'll have first? I hope it's Transfiguration. I've heard Professor Abram is positively brilliant…" She continued to talk as she entered another compartment. "Mom said no magic outside of school- which is totally unfair, Dad and Uncle Harry say she did magic before she came to school- so I couldn't practice, but I've been reading nonstop and- Oh. Sorry. Do you mind if we join you?" A pale young boy with blonde hair was sitting by the window, paging through a copy of Hogwarts: A History, Volume II by Hermione Granger.
The boy shook his head, barely glancing up from the large text.
"I'm Rose Weasley. And this is my cousin, Albus Potter." Rose stuck her hand out.
The boy's eyes shot up. "Um… I'm Scorpius." He said awkwardly, reaching over the book to take her hand, and nodding to Albus.
"Scorpius? Malfoy, right? Oh! I think our parents went to school together. Anyway, are you reading Hogwarts: A History, Volume II? I've already read it, of course, and Mom is a very helpful resource, but I love going back and rereading my favorite parts." Rose chattered on, oblivious to Scorpius's uncomfortable silence.
"I've read it through as well," Scorpius offered shyly. "I was just rereading it to find out what it said about sorting."
Albus suddenly developed more of an interest for the conversation, as Rose stuck her head out the window, waving madly to her parents and brother who watched from the platform as the train pulled away. "Oh? What does it say?"
"Not much." Scorpius told him regretfully. "Just that the Sorting Hat originally belonged to Godric Gryffindor and that it is able to see into a person's mind and determine their defining traits. And that it is never wrong."
"My dad says that the hat takes your opinion into consideration." Albus shared.
"Your dad? Harry Potter?" Scorpius questioned.
"Yeah…?" Albus looked at Scorpius strangely, wondering why he would know his father by name, before realizing he must just be well informed about the Heads of Office at the Ministry of Magic.
"What house do you want to be in?" Rose asked Scorpius kindly.
His face darkened. "My father wants me to be in Slytherin."
"And you don't want to? My cousin Olivia is in Slytherin, and so is my friend Monica Longbottom, and they're quite nice." Rose said heatedly, jumping to defend the house. There was a slight negative stigma around being a Slytherin in the wizarding world, and Rose had seen her friends faces when talking about how the whole school would avoid them sometimes.
"My whole family has been in Slytherin. Anyone who wasn't was disowned." Scorpius said flatly.
"Woah." Albus breathed. He couldn't imagine being raised in a family like that.
Scorpius shrugged, staring out the window at the fast passing landscape determinedly.
"But- Ow!" Rose began heatedly, only cutting off when Albus jabbed her between the ribs. She rubbed her sides, glaring at him. He jerked his head to Scorpius's rigidly set mouth.
She frowned and bit her lip. "Well, do you play Quidditch?"
The blonde boy's face lit up. "Yeah, do you?"
The cousins glanced at each other, and laughed, nodding. The conversation flew from there, ("I got a Nimbus 3000. Took me a whole year of saving, AND helping Grandma Weasley de-grome the garden every month!" "I wish they'd allow 1st years on to house teams", "Uncle Harry was the only one to do it in like, over a century!"), until the food trolley rolled to a stop at their compartment.
"Food, dearies?" The old lady offered.
"Ah, yeah." The three kids fumbled around in their pockets. Rose and Albus pulled out homemade lunches and only gave the food trolley lady a few sickles for a chocolate frog each, while Scorpius handed over a few galleons for some Pumpkin Pastilles, a chocolate cauldron and a chocolate frog.
Albus quickly tore open his chocolate frog, biting it's legs so it couldn't hop away, and turned over the card that accompanied it. "Awww, I got Uncle Ron again." He said with disappointment.
"Every time Dad gets his card he keeps it." Rose giggled. "He's got a shoebox full now. Mum keeps getting on him to get rid of them, she says they clutter up the house." She pulled out her own card. "Oh look! I got Aunt Minnie!" She announced with delight. "Who'd you get, Scorpius?"
"Professor Longbottom," He mumbled through a mouthful of chocolate, holding it up for the other two to see.
"He looks so… regal!" Rose laughed. "You should see some of the pictures Mum has! He was a pudgy little lad, wasn't he? Well, at least he grew up well."
Scorpius and Albus smiled, and the three eleven year olds turned their attention to their lunches with Albus and Rose sharing funny Weasley family stories in between bites, and Albus teasing Rose for her insatiable appetite. (She stuck her tongue out at him.)
"The Hogwarts Express will be arriving at it's destination shortly. Please be sure you are dressed in proper school attire and leave all belongings on the train. They will be transported up to the castle separately." A voice sounded throughout the compartment, startling the talkative threesome. Albus's heart began to pound again, and his hand jumped to his hair as the voice repeated it's message a second time.
After Rose and Albus had changed into their school robes, (Scorpius already had his on) they sat in silence, glancing nervously at each other every few moments until the train slowed and pulled into the station. They filed out of the compartment and off the train quietly amid the loud chatter of older students.
"Firs' years, Firs' years, over here! Firs' years, this way!" Hagrid's voice boomed over the talkative children, and Albus sighed with relief, pushing his way to Hagrid's cheerful, smiling face, which poked out above the crowd, illuminated by the large lantern he held up above his head. He lead the group of nervous eleven year olds to the edge of a lake, where many small rowboats were lined up. "Right then, no more than four to a boat! Four to a boat!"
Albus, Scorpius and Rose shared a boat, along with a blonde, freckled girl named Amelie MacMillan. Rose looked over the side of the gently rocking boat with poorly disguised apprehension. "Don't worry, Dad said the giant squid is really quite nice." Albus whispered to her reassuringly, squeezing her hand.
"Yer all settled then?" Hagrid situated himself in a boat, his massive frame causing it to sink quietly deeper into the water, and looked around. "Alright!" The boats lurched forward in unison, and they were off. As the boats brushed under hanging ivy and rounded a bend, a gasp rippled through the students, and Albus caught his first glimpse of the castle.
"The books just don't do it justice!" Rose whispered, and Albus nodded in agreement with speechless wonder. Hogwarts was majestic, towering over the lake in an intimidating, yet welcoming way. Lights glowed from windows high up into the sky, and reflected off the lake, lighting up much of the sprawling grounds.
The first years talked excitedly with hushed voices, as if they didn't want to break the spell the castle cast. The boats reached the side of the lake below the regal building and jerked to a stop.
"Everyone out, careful there, don't fall in, whoops, there ya go." Hagrid herded them out of the boats, and led them, trudging up to the castle doors, where he paused and looked around. "Ready?" before turning back, and knocking three times, loudly.
The pause after he knocked felt like an eternity to Albus, before the doors swung open to reveal a handsome young man who smiled warmly at them, winking at Albus and Rose. "Alright then, Hagrid? Nobody eaten by the giant squid this year, I hope." He joked.
Hagrid chuckled and a few of the first years looked at each other anxiously. "Not this year, Professor, luckily."
"I'll take it from here, thank you Hagrid." Professor Longbottom nodded at the groundskeeper, who smiled encouragingly at the students before entering the castle and disappearing through great big double doors that Albus assumed led to the Great Hall his parents had told him about. "Alright you all, come in. Stand over there please, there you go, quickly now, you're letting all the warm air out. Right. I'm Professor Longbottom, Deputy Headmaster, Gryffindor Head of House, and Herbology Professor. I look forward to getting to know you this year, especially my future Gryffindors. But I want you all to know that even though I may not be your head of house, you can come to me at anytime. We do have high expectations for you, but we are not unreasonable. So long as you work hard, and follow our guidelines, you shall succeed here at Hogwarts.
"I should warn you that we do not accept rule breakers, and those who do choose to break the rules can have House points taken from them, or even receive detention. There are Four Houses at Hogwarts, Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff and Slytherin, each house with their own strengths. Each house has four Prefects who have been assigned to show our new students the ropes, and help you throughout the year. There is also a HeadGirl and HeadBoy in each house who can help you should you need it. In a few moments, you will be sorted into your houses, where you will join your housemates for the Welcoming Feast. If you would all wait here, I will be back to collect you soon." With that, the professor turned and strode through the double doors to the Great Hall.
Whispers erupted throughout the group, and Albus turned to Scorpius and Rose who looked back at him his fear-stricken faces. "It's ok." He said quietly, pushing down his own insecurities. The minutes seemed to stretch on forever as he anticipated the return of his new professor, and the whole group seemed to be holding their breath when the doors finally swung open.
"This way please, line up in alphabetical order." Professor Longbottom instructed.
Scorpius, Rose and Albus exchanged helpless looks as they found their places in line apart from each other, and the professor led them through the large doors.