Chapter One

- THE BLACK LAKE -

"James, don't!"

But it was too late; Albus gawped and Rose peered over his shoulder in silent horror. From across the corridor, James launched a wad of thick pink Droobles bubblegum from what appeared to be an enchanted slingshot, and howled with laughter as it whizzed straight through the bars of Albus' brand new owl cage with an unpleasant squelch.

Ignoring the triumphant shrieks of the magical slingshot ('Bullseye! Ten points!'), Albus raced back into his compartment and took the cage down from the luggage rack.

"I'm sorry, Blanche," he told his snowy owl, whom he had only known for a day or two. She flapped uncomfortably as he plucked the stringy bubblegum from her beak.

Albus glared over his shoulder. "It took me ages to get all of it out of her feathers last time!"

A twinge of guilt appeared on James' otherwise jubilant face and he extricated himself from the crowd of cheering, back-slapping second years. "C'mon Al," he said, lowering his voice. "It was only a joke!"

Albus frowned darkly as he fed the bed a consolatory owl treat. "...tell that to Blanche."

Rose, who had been watching over the whole exchange with her arms crossed tightly across her chest, scoffed at her cousin's lack of backbone. "You can't just let him get away with it!" she said, pointing across the corridor as James slid back into his compartment to another round of worship from his friends. "Look how smug he is!"

Albus looked up from the disgruntled owl just in time to see his older brother re-enact the assault with a broad grin on his face. "It doesn't matter," he mumbled. "Blanche is alright now, aren't you Blanche?"

The owl hooted and turned her back.

"Fine," Rose huffed, getting up from her seat. "If you won't do it, then I will."

Before Albus could even try to stop her, Rose had slid open the door and marched across to the second year compartment.

She cleared her throat loudly. "Where did you get that, James?"

The laughter in the compartment died down almost immediately. James glanced down at the slingshot in his hand as if he had never seen it before in his life. "What?" he asked innocently. "This?"

Rose narrowed her eyes and nodded tersely.

"OK, OK," James conceded with a sigh. "Uncle Ron gave it to me."

Rose's eyebrows shot up her forehead in mock-surprise. "Oh? Does my mum know my dad's been sneaking you confiscated items?"

The compartment had fallen into complete silence, and the eyes of everyone inside it darted nervously between James and Rose.

"Er... I don't suppose she does, no."

"Oh, well then!" Rose smiled sweetly. "I suppose I'll send her a quick note now – well, supposing poor Blanche's wings aren't too sticky to fly -"

James' eyes widened and his voice dropped to a near whisper. "Don't, Rose!" he pleaded, jumping from his seat and steering his younger cousin out into the corridor, away from the prying eyes of his classmates. "If you tell your mum, she'll tell my mum and I won't get any pocket money for weeks -"

"I suppose you should apologise to Al, then." Rose pursed her lips and her dark brown eyes twinkled victoriously.

James' mouth twisted this way and that, as if he was finding something very difficult to chew. Finally, after a minute or so, he sighed. "Fine. But it's his fault for leaving her cage open."

Grinning, Rose bobbed cheerfully back over to her own compartment and opened the door to find Albus apologising profusely to Blanche, who was still perched with her fluffy white back to him.

"Al?" Rose said, beckoning James into the compartment. "I think James has something to say to you."

Albus watched his brother warily.

James took a deep breath. "I'm sorry, Al. It wasn't really fair of me to, er... gum up your owl." He turned impatiently to Rose. "Can I go now?"

"But James," Rose said wickedly, "Weren't you just saying that you would clean Blanche up yourself once we get to Hogwarts?"

James grit his teeth and nodded stiffly. "Of course."

Rose smiled and stepped out of the doorway to let him by. "I thought so. See you later!" she called after him as he stormed back across the corridor. Putting on her most sickly, sing-song voice, he added, "Love you, cous!"

Fortunately, the slamming of James' compartment door censored his reply.

"Well that was fun." Rose said, plopping back down on the seat opposite to Albus, whose eyes were still wide with amazement. "And by the way – for that, you owe me twelve chocolate frogs."

The look of wonder quickly disappeared from Albus' face.

The remainder of the journey proved uneventful, and by the time the Hogwarts Express chugged into Hogsmeade station all twelve boxes of Rose's Chocolate Frogs were littered across the compartment floor.

Albus tugged his robes over the top of his head, patting his hair down flat immediately afterwards. The offending tuft of hair stood straight back up. "Rose, do I look alright? James said if I look really tidy, I'm more likely to get sorted into Gryffindor." His fingers fumbled anxiously with the knot of his tie.

Rose had to stop herself from rolling her eyes. "You look fine, Al. Besides, James got sorted into Gryffindor and he's pretty scruffy."

Albus considered this for a moment and then shrugged.

"Shall we go, then?"

Packed tightly side-by-side, Albus and Rose were jostled out onto the platform by the bustling crowd. The cool wind nipped their cheeks immediately, and a light drizzle landed in silver beads on Rose's bushy red hair.

"You don't think there are any Thestrals around here, do you?" Albus whispered, peering over the crowd of bobbing heads. Almost as soon as he asked, the crowd began to thin as all but the first years were led off in another direction.

"I think they're probably over there," said Rose, rolling her eyes as Albus let out a sigh of relief that deflated his entire body. "Looks like you don't need to worry about being eaten this time round."

Before Rose could take full advantage of Albus' terror, the ground shook slightly and all of a sudden the sweeping rain stopped falling on the two of them.

Face scrunched up in confusion, Albus looked up to find a crooked pink polka-dot umbrella above their heads.

"Didn' want yeh getting' a cold fer yer first week at Hogwarts."

"Hagrid!"

Albus stood back, watching with great amusement as Rose tried her best to pull the Gamekeeper into a hug, her small arms only stretching the width of his belly and her head barely coming up to the first brass button on his heavy moleskin coat.

Hagrid chuckled deeply into his thick grey-flecked beard and patted Rose gently on the head.

"Yeh alrigh', Rose? I take it neither o' yeh get seasick – the Lake's lookin' pretty rough tonight and I don' want anyone barfin'."

"We're fine," Rose giggled. "Well, I don't know about Al, he's looking pretty green already."

Albus gawped indignantly. "No I'm not! I'll be fine!"

Hagrid looked over Rose's head at Albus and his weathered face softened, the corners of his beady eyes wrinkling.

"Yeh are lookin' a bit peaky, Al," Hagrid said, before clapping his hands together. The sound it made was like a gunshot; several nearby first years ducked. "But don' worry, yer father looked no differen' when he was in his firs' year. Let's get yeh both a boat, eh?"

As soon as Hagrid had turned away to drag up a boat, Rose chatting fervently as she skipped along after him, Albus smiled proudly to himself. The news that even his father, Harry Potter, had looked nervous on his first day at Hogwarts had cheered him up considerably.

Feeling a lot more hopeful, Albus hopped into the boat after Rose, his stomach squirming ever so slightly as it rocked precariously underneath them. In the distance, he could hear Hagrid bellowing directions to the first years still loitering on the shore.

"Go in tha' boat on the left – no, not tha' one -"

The instructions were followed by a loud splash and several screams.

"Oh bugger... I told yeh, the one on the left!"

The water rippled as Hagrid ran by the help a very sour-looking boy clamber out of the water. Rose and Albus exchanged nervous glances until, no less than a minute later, Hagrid appeared by their boat, holding up a small blonde boy by his collar.

"Rose, look after this one, will yeh? He's jus' taken a bit o' a plunge, so he's a bit shaken... yeh know..."

The boat trembled as Hagrid dropped the boy quite unceremoniously onto the seat opposite Albus.

"Cheers, Rosie." And with that gruff thank-you, Hagrid hopped back into his own boat with a loud creak that made a lot of the first years draw breath.

Albus stared at the boy opposite, not quite sure what to say. His robes were sodden and his shoes squelched every time he moved.

Rose cleared her throat politely. "Are you alright? You look a bit... wet."

"I am a bit wet," the boy snapped, one shivering hand slicking his blonde hair back into place. He glanced between the two of them, frowning. "How come you two know the giant?"

Rose's face hardened. "His name's Hagrid, not the giant."

Albus was quick to interrupt, very wary that Rose was one snarky comment away from tipping the boy back into the water. "He's a family friend."

The boy, whose gaze had been fixed challengingly on Rose, looked curiously across at Albus. "Really? My family's friends are a lot less... hairy." he said, his lip curling.

Rose's next question was barely audible over the grinding of her teeth. "And which family would that be?"

The boy puffed out his chest with pride. "Malfoy, of course."

Albus' mouth fell open. Rose, on the other hand, did not seem surprised in the slightest, and continued to glare at the boy with narrowed eyes.

"Surprise, surprise -"

Whatever Rose was about to say was drowned out by an almighty slosh as every one of the boats began to drift away from the shore together and draw ever closer to Hogwarts castle.

For a moment, the three eleven-year-olds forgot to glare at each other as they watched the dim moon disappear behind the Astronomy Tower, the warm amber glow of the Great Hall windows replacing the eerie moonlight.

"This is it then?" Albus breathed.

And, for perhaps the first and only time, Rose and Scorpius spoke in complete agreement.

"This is it."

Author's note: I'm re-posting this fanfic and making a proper go of it, in light of the whole movie series ending. This is just my interpretation of what would happen next. I'm trying to stick quite close to J.K's style without copying it completely.

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