Chapter 1 - The Sorting

James sighed and stared out the window at the passing scenery, trying to block out the nervous babblinngs of his younger brother.

"What's Potions like? Is the headmistress nice? Are the exams hard? I'll bet they're really hard. Do first-years get a lot of homework? Oh, I'll never keep up! I'll fail everything, and then what'll Mum and Dad say?"

James looked longingly toward the compartment across the hall, where his Gryffindor friends were all sharing jokes and laughing heartily. Then he rolled his eyes and tried to inturrupt his brother's cascade of worries.

"Listen, Al --"

"And what if I'm in Slytherin? Oh, I'll just die if --"

"Al? Albus. Would you just calm down for a minute? It's not all that bad."

"-- says there's this ghost that's always throwing --"

"ALBUS SEVERUS POTTER!" James bellowed. "DO ME A FAVOR, AND SHUT IT!"

Several heads poked out of the neighboring compartments, and James could hear students snickering down the hall.

Albus winced. "Do you have to say the whole thing? I hate it when you do that. It's embarrassing."

James hid his smirk and then looked into Albus's anxious green eyes with fake sincerity.

"Albus, never be ashamed of your name. You were named after two great headmasters of Hogwarts," he said, mocking his father's serious tone.

"James," whined Albus. "I already know that. Dad's told me about a hundred times. But it's not funny. My name still sounds awful. Don't call me that. Please?"

Albus looked pleadingly up at James, and he laughed.

"All right, Al, as long as you shut up and quit asking me questions."

James looked up as a cheerful witch with a rolling cart piled with sweets passed, calling out, "Anything from the trolley? Chocolate Frogs, Licorice Wands, Droobles Best-Blowing Gum, Fizzing Whizbees, Sugar Quills, Bertie Botts Every-Flavored Beans...?"

James suddenly realized how hungry he was. "I'll be back, all right?" he told Albus, who nodded down-heartedly. James hurried into the hall and hailed the witch. "What is it you'd like, dear?"

"I'll have a couple of everything."

James hefted his lumpy bag of sweets back to his compartment a little guiltily, the jingle of Wizarding coins in his pocket considerably less. Albus cheered up a little at the sight of his favorite treats and was silent for a minute as he happily chose his candies from the bag James held out to him.

For a while, James amused himself by seeing how many Sugar Quills he could levitate at a time. Albus tried unsuccessfully, and James laughed, demonstrating again. It took several tries, but Albus was finally able to make one of the quills hover above his head for fifteen seconds before drifting down and landing neatly back into the sweet bag.

"Did you see how long it took for me to get it right? Oh, I'll be just terrible in Charms!" he said worriedly.

"No, no, Al, that was good! Took me more tries than that, and I couldn't even get it to stay up that long! And yours feel right back into the bag, but mine just floated to the other side of the room," James replied.

"No, it wasn't good, it was horrible --"

"Well, if that's the way you want it..."

Just then, the compartment door slid open and a tall girl with sparkling blue eyes and a large amount of bushy red hair came in.

"Hi, Albus! Hi, James!"

"Hi, Rose," said Albus.

"Can I have a Chocolate Frog, James?" asked Rose as she sat down. "What's wrong, Al?"

"Nothing. I'm just worried about going to Hogwarts," Albus replied.

"Oh, it'll be fine," said Rose absent-mindedly. She was leaning forward in her seat and craning her neck so that she could see the compartment a few doors away. Her eyes became distant, and her plump lips turned up at the edges to form a dreamy smile. James stood and followed Rose's line of sight. A thin boy with sleek, blonde hair, a pointed face, and gray eyes was purchasing some sweets from the jolly woman with the cart.

"Rose! You're slobbering over that Scorpius Malfoy boy?" James spluttered incredulously.

Rose gave a startled little jump, and then her ears turned scarlet. James recognized the reaction from his Uncle Ron.

"I -- well -- he seems nice," she stammered, and then muttered something about going back to sit with Victoire before leaving the compartment.

James shook his head disbelievingly and sat back down. Albus, back to his worried self, distractedly took a bite out of a Licorice Wand and then rummaged around in the bag at his feet until he withdrew his brand-new copy of "The Standard Book of Spells, Grade One." He opened up to where the paged was marked, and then buried his nose in it.

James sighed, and then opened his own bag and pulled out Greatest Seekers of the Age. He opened it, grabbed a packet of Bertie Bott's Every Flavored Beans, and began to flip through the pages of to find an interesting section. He paused at the page entitled "Ginny Potter" to look into the fierce brown eyes of his mother. He smiled and began to read the section called "Greatest Catches." A few minutes later, a bell rang from the front of the train, signaling to the students that they would be at Hogwarts soon. James hurriedly stuffed his book and the remainder of his sweets into his bag. He searched the compartment any candy wrappers, and discovered Rose's discarded Chocolate Frog card on the seat beside him. Without so much as glancing at it, he crammed it unceremoniously into his bag with the rest of his belongings just as the train began to slow. It came to a screeching halt, and he shouldered his bag and forced his way into the crowded hallway with Albus. He spotted the long, shining blond hair of Victoire and waved. She flashed him a dazzling smile and waved back. Rose stood beside her. James waved to her, too, but Rose just threw him a filthy look and turned her back on him with her freckled nose in the air. James shrugged and forced his way forward as the que began to move toward the exit of the train.

* * * * * * * * *

At the feast, James' stomach growled loudly as he waited impatiently for the Sorting to end. His friend, Trinton Carter, mumbled in his ear, "I'm starving. When's the feast gonna start?"

"I dunno," James muttered back. Trinton groaned and slumped forward, burying his face in his arms. James sighed. They were only just starting on the L's... He sighed again as he searched the anxious line of first-years waiting for their name to be called so that they could put on the Sorting Hat and discovered that Rose was yet again staring dreamily at Scorpius Malfoy. James caught his eye and scowled at him. Taken aback, Malfoy loked surprised, but then scowled back. Seeing this, Rose looked up to see who he was looking at, and, spotting James, folded her arms and averted her eyes, her bottom lip sticking out slightly.

James turned away from Malfoy and continued to sweep the crowd for Albus as "Lysen, Jacob" stepped up to the three-legged stool. "Gryffindor!" shouted the hat. James applauded with the rest of the Gryffindors as Jacob sat down with them, seeming very pleased.

"Malfoy, Scorpius!"

Scorpius strode up to to the stool and placed the Hat on his head. The Hat paused, and then shouted, "Ravenclaw!" Scorpius, a mildly surprised look on his face, got up and took his place amongst the cheering Ravenclaws. James shot a sideway glance at Rose. She was beaming.

James slumped back in his seat as the Sorting slowly progressed through the M's and O's. He listened, uninterested, to the names that were being called. "Orwed, Diane -- Ravenclaw!" "Otter, Dylan -- Hufflepuff!" "Partin, Adrian -- Gryffindor!" "Pendil, Sorsha -- Slytherin!" "Pire, Victoria -- Gryffindor!" "Plugar, Heather -- Hufflepuff!" At "Posentry, Eric -- Slytherin!" James sat up and waited for Albus to be called up. "Potter, Albus!"

Trinton sat up. "Hey, James, isn't that your little brother?" he asked with half-interest.

"Yeah," James said absent-mindedly, watching as Albus walked up to the stool and retrieved the Hat, shaking with anxiety. James held his breath as Albus's quaking hands lowered the Hat onto his head. The Hat considered for a minute, and then bellowed, "RAVENCLAW!" Trinton yawned and slumped down on his arms again.

James, though a little surprised, grinned at Albus as he made his way toward the Ravenclaw table. The Ravenclaws clapped and patted him on the back as he sat down near Scorpius.

Finally, Rose was called up to try on the ragged hat. As the Sorting Hat drooped down to cover her eyes, James saw Scorpius look up interestedly.

"Ravenclaw!" the Hat declared. Rose emerged from under the Hat, positively glowing. She trotted happily off to the Ravenclaws, forgetting her grudge against James and waving at him as she passed. As she reached the Ravenclaw table, James saw the relief in her face when she discovered that the seat on the direct right of Scorpius was unoccupied. She sat down beside him, smiling.

James looked away, disgusted, but was distracted as "Zare, Sydney" joined her House table and mountains of food appeared magically in the dishes in front of him. He pulled a plate of steak and kidney pie, and then paused.

"Hey, Trint, wake up. The feast started," he said, poking Trinton in the ribs with the blunt end of his fork.

Trinton flinched. "Wha'? Huh?" he said blearily, raising his head.

"The feast started," James repeated.

Trinton jumped in his seat. "What?!" He began piling his plate with everything in reach. James followed suit, smiling.

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