The Amazing Adventures of Albus and Rose
A/N: This is my first real fic. I have posted a oneshot, but that's pretty much it. I'm looking for honest thoughts. Tell me what you thought, and please, please point out any mistakes! I'd love to hear your views and how you think I could improve my writing. Constructive Criticism is my friend. But if you found absolutely no errors, and it was perfect in every way shape and form, I wouldn't mind being told so either ;)
Disclaimer: I am not making any sort of profit through this fic, and I in no way own Albus, Rose or anything you recognize. That belongs the the magnififcent J.K. Rowling. She is a brilliant author and I am but a lowly, dedicated fan of her work.
Chapter One:
Albus Severus Potter bobbed alongside his family of five, swerving through and around wizards and muggles alike. He thought that he, his brother, sister and parents must have looked quite out of place to all muggles, navigating their way through a large, sooty station like this one, with two trolleys squeaking, and two owls hooting. Some people were looking over at them with questioning looks on their faces, while others seemed to find it amusing. One woman had looked at the owls and had seemed absolutely disgusted, but why, Albus did not know.
As excited as he was to finally be going to school, a cloud of worry was hanging over him. Everyone in his family had been sorted into Gryffindor house. If he wasn't, would they all think of him the same way they did now? Would they be disappointed him? He felt nauseous. There were four houses at Hogwarts; he needed to be in one. And he absolutely could not be in another.
His main fear was that it wasn't impossible. He couldn't be certain about the future and there was still a chance that he could be sorted into Slytherin. As James was constantly reminding him, you could never know. And he certainly wasn't feeling brave right now.
His attention shifted as the voice of his father sounded behind him.
"It won't be long, and you'll be going too," he said, to Lily, Albus noticed. At least Lily wouldn't have to worry about what house she'd be sorted into for another couple of years. Albus was only a few hours away. He swallowed.
"Two years," Lily sniffed. "I want to go now!"
Some more people were looking at them. Albus looked at his father. It was like everyone said. He really was a replica of his dad, and Lily had inherited her looks mainly from her mum, with brown eyes and flaming red hair. Albus glanced over at his brother. James had hair like his, but his eyes were blue. When James saw Albus looking at him, he smirked, knowing exactly what to say to get his baby brother riled up.
"Hey, Al, d'you know what house you're gonna be in?" James asked, and Albus paled. Gryffindor, he thought. I'll be in Gryffindor, and tried to believe it himself, even though knew he couldn't be sure. He desperatley hoped his brother couldn't tell just how concerned he actually was. In the car he had been able to keep up the act of truly believing he was to be a lion, but could he keep it up now? He didn't want James to see just how scared he really felt.
"It'd be a shame if it weren't Gryffindor, wouldn't it?" James continued happily. "But you never know, I sometimes think you could be a Slytherin-"
"I won't! I won't be in Slytherin!" Albus interrupted, trying to sound firmly convinced.
Hearing her son's outburst, Ginny rolled her eyes and turned her head to James. "James, give it a rest!" she said.
"I only said he might be," said James, and he grinned down at Albus. "There's nothing wrong with that. He might be in Slyth-"
But at that moment, James had caught the stern look from his mother's eye, and so fell silent. The five Potters approached the barrier. Deciding now was a good time to reunite with Platform Nine and Three-Quarters, James gave his brother one last cocky glance before taking his trolley from his mum and vanishing through the brick wall between platforms nine and ten.
Albus soon realised the amazing opportunity he now had- both his parents and no James. He took advantage of his brother's absence right away.
"You'll write to me, won't you?" he asked. Ginny smiled.
"Every day, if you want us to," she said.
Albus recalled one of the many conversations he'd had with James concerning Hogwarts. James had said that kids rarely got letters that often, and as much as Albus wished he could stay in contact with his family, there was no way he'd want to be seen as some sort of mama's boy.
"Not every day," he said, just a beat too soon to make it sound nonchalant. "James says most people only get letters from home about once a month."
"We wrote to James three times a week last year," said his mother, and Albus was immensely relieved to hear this.
"And you don't want to believe everything he tells you about Hogwarts. He likes a laugh, your brother." said Harry.
The family pushed their second trolley forwards, gathering speed. Albus winced as they reached the barrier, but no collision came. Instead, they emerged onto a platform obscured by thick, white steam pouring from the familiar Hogwarts Express.
Through the mist, Albus could only make out blurry outlines of people. James seemed to have disappeared off somewhere. Needless to say, this didn't trouble Albus in the least. However, he did want to see his cousin Rose and her family. They were supposed to meet here with them, but Albus couldn't make any faces out and was worried that maybe Rose wouldn't see him.
"Where are they?" he asked anxiously, trying to find someone that could be Rosie.
"We'll find them," said Ginny reassuringly, but it wasn't long after when she spotted them.
"I think that's them, Al," she said.
A group of four people emerged from the mist, standing alongside the very last carriage. Their faces only came into focus when Albus, Lily, Ginny and Harry had drawn right up to them.
"Hi," said Albus, feeling relieved to have found them.
Rose, who was already wearing her brand new Hogwarts robes, beamed at him. Uncle Ron and Harry started talking about something or other while Albus gave a glance at Rose. She was looking just as worried as he felt and rather suddenly Albus realised that Rose was his best friend, and the only one who could understand him. Albus swallowed, trying to rid himself of the nervous lump that had formed in his throat. New thoughts of sitting in front of the whole school with that hat being placed on his head were forming in his mind. Not Slytherin, not Slytherin, he chanted in his head, as a sort of mantra.
Back on the platform, they found Lily and Hugo, Rose's younger brother, having an animated discussion about which house they would be sorted into when they finally went to Hogwarts. They seemed quite excited about it, though, not worried as Albus and Rose were. Albus couldn't see what was so exciting about it. Wasn't your house like your family? Families were important. If anyone knew about families it was Albus.
"If you're not in Gryffindor, we'll disinherit you," said Uncle Ron. "But no pressure."
"Ron!"
Lily and Hugo just laughed- But when Albus glanced over at Rose, both could see how worried the other was- and both could see how worried they were.
"He doesn't mean it" said Hermione and Ginny, but no words could ease the butterflies fluttering in Al and Rosie's stomachs. Looking up at his father, Albus noticed Uncle Ron catch his eye and nod to a point some fifty yards away. Following the men's gaze, both Rose and Albus saw three figures outlined sharply against the shifting mist.
"Look who it is."
A man with sharp features and pale skin and hair stood next to a beautiful woman with dark hair and eyes. A small boy who resembled the aforementioned man strikingly was standing between them, his mother's hand resting on his shoulder. Albus saw the man give a curt nod in his father's direction, and then shift his attention back to his son.
"So that's little Scorpius," Uncle Ron said, and Albus could barely hear him. "Make sure you beat him in every test, Rosie. Thank God you inherited your mother's brains"
"Ron, for heaven's sake," said Aunt Hermione, half-stern and half-amused. "Don't try to turn them against each other before they've even started school!"
Wondering what all this about, Albus craned his neck to get a better hearing range. It seemed to be concerning Rosie in one way or another.
"You're right, sorry," said Ron, but he bit his lip, and looked unable to help himself when he said: "Don't get too friendly with him, though, Rosie. Grandad Weasley would never forgive you if you married a pure-blood."
Rose was blushing, but Albus had a feeling he was the only one who noticed. She flushed easily. Albus knew this from years spent with her and James, who liked to pick on her. Everyone's attention was diverted from this, though, as James reappeared onto the platform. Al saw that he no longer was with his trunk. He seemed to be excited about something, like he had some sort of knowledge that no one else did.
"Hey!" he sauntered over, panting.
"Teddy's back there," he breathed, pointing over his shoulder. "Just seen him. And guess what he's doing? He's Snogging Victoire!" He waited for a wave of reactions that did not come. Albus was not surprised, frankly. He had seen the relationship between Teddy and Victoire coming for ages. In fact, it surprised him even more that James had not.
James continued as if they didn't understand. "Our Teddy! Teddy Lupin! Snogging our Victoire! Our cousin! And I asked Teddy what he was doing-"
"You interrupted them?" said his mother. "You are so like Ron-"
"-and he said he'd come to see her off! And the he told me to go away. He's snogging her!" James added, as if worried he had not made himself clear.
"Oh, it would be lovely if they got married!" whispered Lily ecstatically. "Teddy would really be part of the family then!"
"He already comes round for dinner about four times a week," said Harry. "Why don't we just invite him to live with us and have it done with?"
"Yeah!" said James enthusiastically, and Albus suddenly saw where this was headed. He hoped his parents had enough common sense to refuse.
"I don't mind sharing with Al- Teddy can have my room!"
"No," said Harry, ad Al breathed out a sigh of relief that he had not realised he had been holding. "you and Al will share a room only when I want the house demolished. It's nearly eleven, you'd better get on board."
"Don't forget to give Neville our love!" Ginny told James as she hugged him.
"Mum! I can't give a Professor love!"
"But you know Neville-"
James rolled his eyes. He'd gotten quite good at that lately.
"Outside, yeah, but at school he's Professor Longbottom, isn't he? I can't walk into Herbology and give him love ..."
Shaking his head at his mother's foolishness, he vented his feeling by aiming a hard kick at Albus, who winced and rubbed the spot where James's shoe had made contact with his skin.
"See you later, Al," he said, and Albus knew that James was not done with him. "Watch out for the Thestrals."
"I thought they were invisible? You said they were invisible!" Albus said, worried that he'd gotten all of James's helpful hints about Hogwarts completely wrong. But James only laughed at Albus's state of confusion and permitted his mother to kiss him, gave his father a fleeting hug and then leapt on the rapidly filling Hogwarts Express. He waved, and then sprinted up the corridor to find his third-year friends. Albus was still thinking of what else he might have gotten wrong.
"Thestrals are nothing to worry about," his dad told him. "They're gentle things, there's nothing scary about them. Anyway, tou won't be going up to school in the carriages, you'll be going in the boats."
Ginny kissed Albus goodbye.
"See you at Christmas."
"Bye, Al," said Harry, as his son hugged him. "Don't forget Hagrid's invited you to tea next Friday. Don't mess with Peeves. Don't duel anyone 'til you've learned how. And don't let James wind you up."
This was the moment. This was the last and only chance he would have to ask his dad what had been bugging him for so long. Albus sucked in a breath and looked up at his dad's eyes, identical to his own. This was the moment. Now.
"What if I'm in Slytherin?"
He whispered it so slightly, hoping no one but his father could hear him, though he had a feeling his mum could hear. She was pretending not to be, though, and was waving to Rosie, who was already on the train.
His father crouched down to Albus's level and spoke very quietly.
"Albus Severus," he said. "you were named for two headmasters of Hogwarts. One of them was a Slytherin and he was probably the bravest man I ever knew."
Oh no, his dad didn't understand.
"But just say-"
"Then Slytherin will have gained an excellent studen, won't it? It doesn't matter to us, Al. But if it matters to you, you'll be able to choose Gryffindor over Slytherin. The Sorting Hat takes your choice into account."
Albus looked at his father with a mix of relief and wonder plastered on his face.
"Really?" he asked.
"It did for me," said his father.
He never told any of us that, Albus thought, but he was also thinking about what his dad had just said. You can pick your house …
The doors were starting to slam all along the scarlet train, and blurred outlines of parents were swarming forwards for final kisses, last minute reminders. Albus jumped into the carriage and his mother closed the door behind him. Students were hanging from the windows nearest them, and they all seemed to be looking at his dad.
"Why are they all staring?" demanded Albus, as he and Rose craned round to look at the other students.
"Don't let it worry you," said Uncle Ron. "It's me. I'm extremely famous."
Albus, Rose, Lily and Hugo laughed. The train began to move, and Albus was watching his dad walk alongside it, feeling very excited. The train turned a corner and Al could no longer see his father.
He turned his face away from the window, just as most of the other students were doing now.
This was it. He no longer had anything to worry about; he'd choose Gryffindor and spend the rest of his schooling career in happiness. There was nothing to be scared about- his only emotion was excitement.
Rose was smiling at him, looking nervous, though Albus couldn't figure out why. They walked to an empty compartment in silence. Albus wondered where Lucy was, but then realised that she must be with Molly. The two were so alike, and were almost always together. Thinking about this, Albus realised that a lot of the Potter-Weasley clan had one person they could really relate to- like James and Fred, Lily and Hugo, or Rose and himself. Victoire and Roxanne were always together, too, now that he thought about it.
Rose took her seat and Albus plopped himself down across from her. Rose kept glancing out the window and fidgeting with her fingers. Albus shot her a questioning gaze, and she returned it with a weak smile. He cocked his head.
"What's wrong, Rosie?" he asked.
She raised an eyebrow. "I thought you knew."
What could be bothering her that much? Now he was really confused. He must have looked it, too, because Rose gave a shaky laugh and rolled her eyes.
"I'm worried about the sorting, silly. And I thought you were, too." she said, looking at him funny.
Oh, thought Albus. That explains it. Stupid me, I completely forgot.
"Nope!" he said confidently. "I have some important information that calmed my nerves right away!"
Rose looked at him quizically. "Like a calming charm, or something? I haven't heard of anything like that before."
"No, no, not at all. Okay get this-"
Rose huffed. She was impatient sometimes. "Spit it out, Al," she said, her nervousness fading slightly.
"- the sorting hat-"
"Yes?"
"It takes your choice into account. So if you want to be in Gryffindor, you can just say- or think, rather- I want to be in Gryfffindor. And poof. There you go," he said, looking both ecstatic and superior at the same time.
Albus could see the wonder spread across his cousin's face, and slowly her muscles seemed to relax. He hadn't even noticed they were tensed. Probably because Rosie was almost always tense anyways.
"Really?" she asked.
Albus gave a small laugh. Wasn't that exactly what he had said we his father told him?
"Well, that's what my dad said, at least," he said, sounding proud. "And I trust him." he added as an afterthought.
Rose's brow furrowed. "I trust him too." she said, stiffening her back and sitting up taller. She seemed offended at what Albus had just said.
"No, I never said you didn't." said Albus hurriedly. "It's just-"
But what it was just, Rosie didn't know, because at that precise moment, the trolley lady walked by, and Rose and Albus were too preoccupied with all the treats sitting on top of the tray.
"Anything from the trolley?" said a light, chiming voice. The trolley lady was old and grey, and her voice didn't seem to match her appearance in the slightest.
Rosie shot Al a greedy glance. He returned it by licking his lips.
"Yes," said Rose politely, taking out a bag that was chalk-full of galleons. "Yes please. We'll take some of everything, thanks." and she placed four galleons into the palm of the little old woman, who was now smiling warmly at them. Albus stood and scooped up an armful of sweets before promptly plopping himself down again, making himself look quite piggish. Rose snorted, and the lady smiled and walked off to sell more goodies.
For the next hour or so, Al and Rosie were busy eating pumpkin pasties and Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans, swishing licorice wands and reading chocolate frog cards. Al was just opening one, and after catching the frog and stuffing it in his mouth, he took out the card. His eyes popped open at the picture on the front.
"Hey, Wosie! Hey, Wosie wook at dis! Ibth your mum! I didn't know she was famous!"He said,still eating the chocolate frog. He was flashing the purple card in front of Rose's face. "Wead it!" he exclaimed. "What doeth it thay?"
Rose took the card from him in a bemused sort of wonder and looked down at her mother. Her chocolate-frog mum looked just like her real mum, except maybe a little bit younger. Across the top of the card was a ribbon that had her mother's name: Hermione Jean Granger. Al could see Rose's face go from shock, to awe, to a giant grin, and he got impatient, wondering what it said. He wanted to find out more about his apparently famous Aunt.
Rose had read the back of the card, and was flipping it over to look at the picture of her mother on the front. Deciding to be nice to Albus, she flipped it over again to read it aloud to her cousin.
" Hermione Jean Granger," She read." is a witch that attended Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry from 1991-1997. In the school year of 1997-1998, she left to accompany Harry Potter and Ron Weasley on a mission to defeat Voldemort, the most evil wizard of all time. In 1998 Harry Potter killed Voldemort, making the world safe once more. Hermione was known for her high intelligence and bravery, making her a Gryffindor. In 2004, she married Ron Weasley and together they had two children." She put down the card in her lap and started to subconciously chew on her fingernails, while her brow furrowed in confusion.
The two cousins met eyes and stared for a second or two at each other. Albus gulped down his frog.
"Woah," breathed Al, looking down at his fidgeting hands now. "I didn't know our parents did all of that."
Rose nodded silently in agreement. Both of them were thinking of this new shocking fact, and why on earth did they only know now?
Rosie was the first to speak the identical question in both their heads. "Why didn't they ever tell us?" she asked him. He shrugged, but felt angry at this. The whole wizarding world probably knew about his famous family, and he had to wait until he was eleven. What possible reason could his dad have for not telling him? Well, it explained why everyone had been staring at the family earlier when the train was leaving.
The compartment door slid open to two giggling cousins. Both Al and Rosie's heads shot up and saw Molly, looking proud and wearing a Head Girl badge, along with Dominique who had decided to wear her shiny strawberry-blond waves down. Dominique giggled again, a habit of hers that was extremely annoying. Molly looked down at all the treats spread across their seats and tutted.
"That's not very good for you." she said pompously, puffing out her chest and resting her hands on her hips. Rose shot her a glare. Al was pretty sure that Molly was one of Rosie's least favourite cousins.
"So?" Rose said, still glaring. "It's not hurting you, is it?"
Molly looked somewhat taken aback, but ended up just huffing in disapproval. Dominique giggled again, and swooped down, helping herself to their treats. Al didn't mind much. He was full anyways.
Now that Dominique had a sizeable portion of their candy, she and Molly turned to leave, just as a question formed in Al's head. He was about to ask them, but they had already left.
Instead he turned to Rosie. "Do you think they know? About our parents?"
She was still glaring at the spot where Molly had just been, but turned to face Al when he spoke.
"I dunno. Probably." she said in a clipped tone, and Albus knew that now wasn't the best time to be pestering her with questions. So they didn't talk for a few minutes, while Rose continued on, qiuetly steaming.
Rose always did have a short temper, especially when it came to Molly. To her, Molly was like sandpaper grinding down on her nerves. Albus didn't completely disagree with her. Molly was a piece of work sometimes, the way she acted like everybody else was a piece of work.
Albus looked out the window to see rolling hills of green and some cows that seemed to be quite startled by the passing train. Well, it did only run a couple of times a year. They wouldn't be used to a large scarlet train interrupting their grazing times.
He pressed his cheek against the cool glass, looking out the window with a collection of thoughts swirling around his brain. Things like, What will Hogwarts be like? And Why didn't dad tell me about his fame?, and a whole bunch of other things. All this excitement, this nervousness, this anticipation- it was making him feel a little queasy and he missed his parents. His parents that wouldn't tell him anything.
Hills truned into trees and trees turned into more hills, but that turned into a small village, before becoming more trees and hills. After a few more rounds of hills, trees and villages, a voice chimed on throughout the train, as if on an intercom.
"We will be reaching Hogwarts in five minutes' time. Please leave your luggage on the train, it will be taken up to the school seperately."
Rose looked up at him, again, looking exactly how he felt. Albus hurried and changed into his robes, and then him and Rosie filed off into the corridors of the train, slowly moving in a line of excited and chattering students. When they got off the train, it was onto a dark platform in a town, which he could only presume was Hogsmeade. He felt kind of jumbled and confused, and quite small. He was only eleven. Some people here were seventeen. He gulped, but didn't know why.
A large shadow and a big, booming voice. "Firs' years, firs' years over here! Firs' years!" it said, almost sang. Albus looked up to see a massive man with a long mane of tangled hair, and a beard to match. He broke into a grin. Hagrid.
Rose followed Albus, grinning just as widely, and they both gave Hagrid a hug when they were close enough to him. He was so large that their arms were nowhere close to even reaching around his whole body. When they broke free, he smiled down at them and patted their heads affectionately before calling out again: "Firs' years, firs' years come with me!"
Albus looked around at the other kids who had come for their first year at hogwarts as well. There was a rather large boy next to him, still stuffing his face with sweets from the train. Albus watched as he pulled out a chocolate frog from his full pocket. He opened the case, and the frog jumped out immediately. The boy made no movements, just watched as the little brown frog hopped away into the darkness, with a frown of disapproval plastered on, inbetween two fat cheeks.
Noticing Albus ws looking at him, he cheered up considerably and turned to Albus.
"Hi! M' name is Octavian Taylor! Whass yours?" he said rather quickly, but friendly. Albus's hand was suddenly in a tight handshake with Octavian, and Albus was quite mortified to find that the other boy's hand was quite sticky, and also a little sweaty.
"Erm-" said Al. He was staring now at the two interlinked hands, and trying to politely pry his hand from Octavian's, but to no success. He may have been fat, but he had an iron grip. "Erm, well- I'm Al, short for Albus" he said, and was immensly relieved to find that he was no longer shaking hands. "Albus Potter." said Al, continuing. He watched as Octavian's jaw dropped and he thought that the boy now looked like an overweight fish.
"Are you related to Harry Potter?" he asked, and Albus was bothered by this. Everyone knew his famous family but him.
"Yeah, he's my dad." said Albus a little bitterly, and Octavian's mouth was hanging open, partially-chewed food right there, for all to see. Disgusted, Al looked away. Octavian looked like he wass about to ask something else when another voice sounded from behind Albus.
"Potter, eh? I've heard about your dad. The Defeater, they're calling him. Bet you like that. Isn't it nice being famous?"
Albus whipped around to see a boy with a pale face and platinum-blond hair. He had sharp features and was quite lean. A smirk was set on his lips.
"You're that boy," said Albus, remembering him from the station. "You're that Scorpion kid."
Immediately after Albus said it, the smirk was gone, and replaced by a scowl. "It's Scorpius." he said, slowly, almost growling. But Albus noticed that he didn't sound too proud of his name anyways. And who would be, with a name like Scorpius?
Al was about to come up with a witty remark for Scorpius, but was interrupted when Hagrid told them all to follow him, and they started boarding the boats.
Across the lake they went, and while Albus thought that it was all quite amazing, Rose looked like she was about to be sick. He wasn't aware that she got sea sickness. He'd have to ask her about that later. When Hogwarts came into view, a chorus of oohs and ahhs came from all the boats around them.
It looked nothing like a school. It was giant- it was a castle. And it was magnificent. Albus looked at it, outlined against the starry nighttime sky. It was brilliant, and if there were any worries about his year to come, they were gone now. Turrets and towers jutted out from the walls of the castle at every angle, and Albus felt kind of nostalgic at that moment.
In a few minutes they had reached the castle, and Hagrid was helping kids get out of their boats. Octavian was hard to lift, even for Hagrid. Albus guessed that it also had something to do with the overflowing state of his robe pockets.
"Alright, everyone, o'er this way!" called Hagrid loudly over the excited chatter of approximately fifty eleven-year-olds. Immediately ensuing Hagrid's booming voice, the chit-chat halted and people started to follow him. Albus could hear Scorpius bragging loudly about his new, extremely expensive broomstick to somebody -or-other. Lots of the kids looked as if they were about to be sick and Albus assumed that they worried about their sorting. Even with his knowledge that he could choose what house he wanted to be in, he felt pretty nervous, too. What if the hat had changed and suddenly wouldn't sort him based on his wishes; what if that was only for his famous father? He swallowed. He'd find out soon enough, because Hagrid was now raising a gigantic fist and knocking three times on the castle door.