Chapter One: The Quidditch Final

Albus Severus Potter, much like his brother and sister, was not an ordinary child. For one thing he had no idea what a plug did and for another he had never once used a telephone, but perhaps his most unusual quality was that he was a wizard. Albus had just turned fifteen years old and was about to begin his fifth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Up until his fourth year, Albus had been dreadfully disappointed by Hogwarts, he had always expected to have adventures like his father before him, the infamous boy who lived – Harry Potter. However, Albus had not been so lucky and, in fact, had quite the opposite experience. Unlike his entire family, who had been sorted into Gryffindor, Albus had been sorted into Slytherin (much to the delight of his older brother James Sirius who liked to tease him but to the dismay of Albus himself). It wasn't all bad, however, Albus did manage to make one friend, his name was Scorpius Malfoy and he was the son of Draco Malfoy, a man with whom Harry had never quite gotten along with (to say the least) until fairly recently. Scorpius and Albus became friends almost immediately and had remained so ever since.

In their fourth year Albus and Scorpius had managed to steal a time turner and endanger their entire existence when they changed the past. After this, Albus figured he quite liked having adventures with his best friend and after finishing out the rest of his school year much happier than the way he had begun it, he decided he would have many more and there was no better time to start than fifth year.

The Summer between Albus' fourth and fifth year had been considerably better than the previous three combined. He no longer dreaded his inevitable return to Hogwarts and, for the first time since starting the school, was looking forward to the first morning of September when he would get back on the Hogwarts express – the magnificent Scarlet coloured steam train which transported Hogwarts students from Kings Cross Train Station in London to Hogwarts in the Scottish Highlands.

There were many reasons that had made that Summer so good, one of which was that he had managed to convince his dad to have their floo network connected to the Malfoys so Albus was able to see his friend almost every day, another was that James had been gone for most of it (he had been working in Weasleys Wizard Wheezes – the joke shop owned by their uncles Ron and George – to earn himself enough galleons to buy himself a new broomstick for his final year at Hogwarts) and so wasn't spending his time teasing Albus and their younger sister Lily Luna. Finally, Albus was enjoying his Summer even more so that year because he was now getting along with his father better than he had been for the past few years. Since his "escapade" (as Harry had taken to calling it) in fourth year, Albus and Harry had become much more comfortable around one another, they were by no means best of friends but they now had a respect for each other they had been missing before.

On the morning of July 31st Albus was awakened by Lily (who would soon be starting her third year at Hogwarts) and his mother Ginny who both looked like they had forgotten something extremely important.

'Come on Al' said Ginny hurriedly 'we slept in! The game starts in less than an hour'. For Harry's birthday Ginny had bought the entire family tickets to the quidditch match of the season – Puddlemere united facing off against the Chudley Canons for the quidditch cup (this was the closest the Chudley Canons had come to winning the cup in almost 130 years) – and they would be joined by Molly and Arthur (Albus' grandparents on his mother's side) as well as Hermione and Ron and their two children Hugo and Rose.

Albus climbed out of bed and pulled on his clothes (today he was sporting a bright orange Chudley Canons sweater – given to him by James, who actually enjoyed quidditch - which was enchanted so that their motto 'Let's all just keep our fingers crossed and hope for the best' flashed orange and brown across both the front and back) and ran downstairs. When he arrived in the kitchen he found his dad trying to pull on his jersey while at the same time trying to put on his socks (one was half way on his foot and was inside out and the other was on the floor, and was also inside out). James was also in the kitchen though he was already dressed and was enjoying a large bowl of porridge which he had covered with honey. After everyone was dressed and Harry had fixed both his socks and his jersey, everyone (except for James who had savoured his porridge) ate a hurried breakfast and headed to the fireplace.

James stepped into the fireplace first, took a handful of floo powder, threw it to the ground and shouted 'The Burrow!' before he disappeared in a magnificent emerald blaze. Lily was next and Albus soon followed. When he arrived in his grandparent's fireplace he was greeted immediately with a hug from his grandmother.

'Albus!' exclaimed Molly with joy 'how wonderful it is to see you' He could see that Hermione, Ron, Hugo and Rose had already arrived but they weren't in the living room.

Soon after, there was a brief stir and then Ginny appeared in the fireplace. 'Morning mum' she said with a smile before being grabbed and hugged by Molly. This was repeated yet again when Harry arrived.

After everyone had been hugged by Molly (and forced to eat a slice of toast because they looked peckish) they headed out. They had to rush to make it on time to the portkey Arthur had managed to set up.

'How's things at the ministry Harry?' asked Arthur (Mr Weasley had recently retired from his position in the department for the misuse of muggle artefacts which he was thrilled with because it gave him a lot more time to focus on his ever-growing collection of plugs).

'Well, there were rumours of a garden gnome rebellion' Harry looked at Arthur and smiled weakly.

'That slow, eh?' said Arthur with a sigh, 'I suppose it's better than a centaur rebellion or a goblin uprising, at least you can put your feet up'.

Ginny was walking ahead with Hermione both were speaking excitedly about the fact that the Chudley Canons may actually win this year but nobody was more excited than Ron who was talking to James and Molly about how this was finally going to be their year and how all of the years of disappointment would finally be worth it.

Lily walked with Hugo as they discussed how excited they were to get started in third year because they could now take elective subjects.

In the back Albus walked with Rose. Before they started Hogwarts, Albus and Rose had gotten along quite well but when Albus was sorted into Slytherin and Rose into Gryffindor the two became rather distant, it was only the year before that they had started to rekindle their friendship (while Scorpius had taken to asking out Rose at least once a week).

'O.W.L.S this year' said Rose 'I wish I could just take them now and be done with it, I've already learned all of our course books for this year'

Albus looked at her in bewilderment 'but you haven't bought the books yet'

'I know' she replied 'I checked them out of the library last year and learned them by heart. What about you?' she asked 'are you nervous?'

'Not yet' said Albus 'though I expect I will be as soon as I have to start studying for them' They then went on to talking about the match which Albus was surprised by how much he was looking forward to it (both he and Scorpius had spent some time playing quidditch during the Summer and he was finally beginning to see why everyone loved the sport so much).

When they arrived at the portkey (which was in the form of a rusty old bicycle) everyone grabbed hold and they were soon standing outside a large quidditch stadium (and Molly was mumbling about how she was too old to be using portkeys and how she was only there to see Celestina Warbeck).

After arriving and taking their seats in the minister's box (a perk Hermione had said came with the job) Ginny took out her notepad and began to hastily scribble notes for her column in the Daily Prophet. Not a minute later a tall man with an emerald green cloak stepped out into the centre of the pitch, held his wand to his throat and spoke in a magnified voice.

'LADIES AND GENTLEMEN. WELCOME TO THE 2021 QUIDDITCH LEAGUE CUP! TODAY WE HAVE PUDDLEMERE UNITED' as he said this one half of the crowd roared manically 'PLAYING AGAINST THE CHUDLEY CANONS!' the other half of the crowd then cheered even louder. 'BUT BEFORE THE GAME BEGINS, PLEASE WELCOME THE ONE, THE ONLY MRS CELESTINA WARBECK TO PERFORM HER HIT SINGLE BEAT THOSE BLUDGERS BACK BOYS!' and with this the entire stadium roared (especially Mrs Weasley who had been wanting to see Celestina live for years).

After finishing her song, Celestina was met with a standing ovation from most of the crowd before bowing gracefully. The tall wizard in the emerald robes then returned to the centre of the field.

'THAT WAS MRS CELESTINA WARBECK! NOW, CAN WE HEAR SOME APPLAUSE FOR PUDDLEMER UNITED?!' as he said this, seven people (three men and four women) flew over his head in their navy-blue robes and created their club emblem (two crossed golden bulrushes) in the air. At the same time the Puddlemere United fans went crazy.

'AND THE CHUDLEY CANONS?!' continued the wizard. At these words the Chudley Canons flew into the stadium and enchanted the air to make enormous bludgers fly across the pitch and explode into large orange fireworks which formed the team motto before the Puddlemere United fans.

After the excitement died down a little, the wizard in the emerald robe continued. 'VERY GOOD, VERY GOOD! NOW. LET THE GAME. BEGIN!' With these words the snitch was released and the game begun.

'Chudley Canons Goldstein is in possession; he narrowly dodges that bludger' said the man in the emerald robes who was the commentator for the match.

There was a collective 'ooooh' from the crowd as the bludger turned once again and narrowly missed the man on the broom.

'Goldstein shoots, HE SCORES! That's ten nil to the Chudley Canons' The crowd roared.

'Puddlemere now in possession, Smith ducks, she dives, passes to Lynch, she's going for it… she shoots, SHE MISSES! The score remains ten nil to the Chudley Canons. Very nice save from the Canons keeper Wright who is now on his third year with the club and has clearly trained hard for today'.

The game raged on for over three hours before the Snitch was even sighted (by the Chudley Canons seeker Walsh) before being lost again for another two hours when it was once again sighted (this time by the Puddlemere seeker Thomson) who, after narrowly dodging a bludger to the head, caught the snitch and ended the game.

'AND HE'S DONE IT!' yelled the wizard 'THOMSON HAS CAUGHT THE SNITCH AND GIVEN PUDDLEMERE 150 POINTS WINNING THEM THE GAME WITH A SCORE OF 470, OPPOSED TO THE CHUDLEY CANONS 460!'

For days after the match everyone seemed to be talking about it, Molly was just glad she had finally been able to see Celestina Warbeck who, in her opinion, was even better live than she was on her albums. James was judging each player by their broom and was constantly asking who flew the fastest so he could decide which broom to buy himself when they went to Diagon Alley and Ron seemed to have entered a deep depression ('if only Goldstein had scored those two shots he could've won us the game!' 'They did so well this year, they will definitely win next year' 'Maybe they just need a new manager, I mean that Donelley is really no good when you think about it').

After Harry's birthday (which was celebrated with a cake after the quidditch match) was done with August flew by. The final weeks of August were scorching hot and Albus spent most of the days in the fields near Malfoy Manor playing quidditch with Scorpius (both were getting rather good at the game and had become even more enthused with the sport after seeing the recent match). It was apparent, however, that the weather would be short lived as the last week of the month was filled with wind, storms and hail.

On the twenty-seventh of the month Albus woke up early and got dressed in his warmest clothes. When he went downstairs he found Lily sitting by the fire scribbling a note which had tiny love heart bubbles surrounding it, upon seeing Albus she hastily shoved it into an envelope. Albus simply raised his eyebrows and smiled.

'Please' pleaded Lily 'don't tell James! You know what he's like, he'll only make fun of me!' Albus laughed aloud.

'Ha, ha! I'm sorry but a love note, really? Who are you sending it to?' asked Albus

'That's none of your business but please, don't tell him'. Begged Lily, Albus smiled yet again before walking to the kitchen.

He walked in to see Harry cooking a large batch of pancakes.

'Morning' he said with a smile before waving his wand, a second later five plates flew out of the cupboard and landed smoothly on the table. Another wave of his wand and the pancakes flew, two to each plate.

'Lily, Ginny, James!' called Harry. A moment later Lily and Ginny had arrived but James was still absent. 'James!' he called again.

When James finally entered the kitchen, he did so red faced and pink haired.

Everyone at the table began to laugh except for Ginny.

'Which one of you did it?!' asked James angrily. 'I know one of you replaced my comb with the one uncle Ron gave me last year!'

'I thought you would've thrown that out' said Albus.

'I did, or at least I thought I did'. James looked around the room before running upstairs. When he came back down twenty minutes later everyone had finished their pancakes and his hair was back to normal. After he quickly ate his pancakes which had gone cold, the family headed to the fireplace and a couple of minutes later they were all standing in the Leaky Cauldron.

Hey there, I just want to say thank you if you read the first chapter of my new fan fiction. I'm hoping to write this one and continue through with Albus' sixth and seventh years. The story will mostly be about Albus and Scorpius though other characters will come into play. I don't know how often I intend to upload though it will likely be a chapter or two every week, though some weeks I may not upload.

I'm still in the early stages of this story but I have almost finished the second chapter, I will upload it when I feel it is ready. Anyway, yeah, thank you for reading, I hope you liked it and I'd be happy and grateful to receive any feedback, positive or constructive.

Thank you.

Oh, I almost forgot, this story will more than likely contain Cursed Child spoilers so please be wary if you are yet to read the story, however, I will put a spoiler warning on any chapter which contains spoilers.