Hi, it's me, again. I've been working on this story for a while, and I've been told it's one of my best. But I'll let you guys be the judge of that.

Chapter 1:

Day 0

"WHEEE!" the joyful screams of Lillian Luna Potter as she happily skied down the mountain. "Best Christmas EVER!" she cried.

"I concur," James said, pulling into the line for the ski lift.

Ever since the winter of 1999, when Hermione introduced skiing to her two best friends, they went every year. Even after they had kids, the Potters and Weasleys continued the tradition.

Albus grinned. "Come on!" he said to his friends, "let's get on the lift!"

"Too bad Hugo's missing out on all the fun," Rose said. She hesitated, and then added, "I think I'll rub it in his face once we get back to the hotel."

"That's so mean!" Roxanne said.

"Yeah, that's kind of the point!"

Fred's eyes widened in mock horror, "Rose," he scolded, "you know how to behave better than that! You ought to be ashamed of yourself."

Scorpius laughed so hard, that he didn't notice the large pile of snow he was skiing straight towards - - that is, until he fell in headfirst.

"You okay?" asked Rose, holding back a giggle. She stuck her hand out and the Slytherin gratefully took it. Twenty years ago, if you were to say that a Slytherin boy would gladly take the hand of a girl from a different house, just about anyone would laugh. But this was no joke. The friendship between Albus Potter, Rose Weasley, and Scorpius Malfoy was not only real, it was genuine.

The two cousins had only met Scorpius last year, but already, the three were inseparable.

Albus was the quietest one. Being the son of Harry Potter, he had quite a reputation to live up to. He was a talented artist and good with animals. Albus also suffered from ADHD, but despite his short attention span, Albus was usually fairly well behaved, that is, unless Scorpius sucked him into one of his pranks.

Scorpius, despite his heritage, was a good kid. The Slytherin boy was friendly and talkative- - almost everybody seemed to like him. He was also quick and slim- - which was good, because he was planning on trying out for the Slytherin quidditch team the following year. He inherited his father's looks for the most part, but his personality he got from his mother. Scorpius also had a great sense of humor, and rarely took anything too seriously.

Lastly, there was Rose. Rose Weasley had long, wavy auburn hair and large brown eyes. Even though she was in Ravenclaw, Rose hated to read - - in fact, she couldn't! Rose had Dyslexia, which made her school life quite difficult. If there was one thing Rose hated, it was injustice. She would often play devil's advocate with her friends, family, and teachers, just to make sure that the other side was heard. Her intentions were usually good, but her short temper and insubordinate attitude often landed her in trouble. But she was also very clever and could see things between the lines that few others could.

Their friendship led to a lot of controversy in the wizard world. How was it that despite their pasts this friendship could still thrive? Perhaps it was Albus's gentle hand, or Rose's ability to see different perspectives, or Scorpius's outgoing nature. Maybe it was a combination of all three, who knows? But in the end it wouldn't matter, because they would soon need each other more than ever.

And of course we cannot forget little Lily. Lily Luna Potter was Albus's little sister. She had red hair, blue eyes, and the face of an angel. At age ten, she was only the princess of the family, but also the baby (that is, if you didn't count Padfoot, the Potters' family dog.) Lily was hyper and jumpy, not unlike many girls her age. She often would use her cuteness to her advantage. Lily was an expert at puppy faces and could spontaneously burst into tears whenever she got into trouble.

"Hey, look at this!" Rose called. She then proceeded to ski sideways on the large piles of snow on either side of the run. She finished her trick with a perfect jump into the ski lift line.

"Show off," Albus grumbled.

"I heard that!"

"Do we have to go?" Lily whined, "couldn't we just stay for one more day?" She put on her best puppy face. "Pweety pweeze?"

"Sorry, Lil'," said Harry, "but school starts up again for the boys in just a couple of days."

"So what?" Lily said, "it starts for them, not for me." She put on a very serious poker face, "Tell you what, how about you go back with Albus and James, while Mummy and I stay here for a few more days. Then she could always apperate us home."

"But you always vomit whenever we apperate."

Lily hesitated, taking that into consideration. "That's a chance I'm willing to take," she decided.

"I have a better idea," Albus piped in, "how about Scorpius and me - - "

"Scorpius and I," Ginny corrected.

"Whatever. How 'bout Scorpius and I stay here for the night, while you guys all go home."

"Or," James said, "we could leave them here." He walked over to his brother, putting his arm around him and pretending to cry. "I'm going to miss you, bro."

James, a fourteen, was the oldest of Harry's children. He was loud and mischievous, truly living up to his grandfather's name.

Scorpius came up to the Potters. He was holding a large suitcase. "Excuse me, Mrs. Potter, where can I put this?"

"Now would you look at that," Ginny said, "Scorpius, you are the most polite boy I have ever met. Kids, you could learn something from Malfoy." Wow, Ginny mused, I never thought I would say that.

"Albus will take them for you," Harry told him. "You're our guest, you shouldn't have to work."

Malfoy shrugged, "Oh, it's really no trouble, sir."

"He can pack for me," James offered.

Lily still hadn't given up her fight. She tugged on her mother's sleeve. "Can we at least ski down the mountain one last time before we leave? James could take us."

"Well . . . " Ginny hesitated, glancing at her husband thoughtfully. Harry nodded and the two came to a silent agreement, a few minutes couldn't hurt.

"Stay on the run."

"And come back soon," Harry added, "or Scorpius's father will have our necks!"

On their way to the ski run, they passed the Weasleys loading their car (or some of them, anyway. George and his kids had left a day earlier.)

Rose waved to them. "I thought you were leaving," she said.

"We are," said Albus, "but our parents are letting us go down the mountain one last time."

Rose put her hands on her hips. "So basically, Lily put on a cutesy face, and your folks took pity on you."

"Pretty much," James agreed.

"Cool," Rose said, dropping her bag, "I'm in." She turned around and called, "MUM, DAD! I'M GOING TO SKI DOWN THE MOUNTAIN ONE LAST TIME WITH THE POTTERS," she hesitated, then added a bit smugly, "HUGO CAN PACK MY BAGS FOR ME. BYE!"

Ron and Hermione glanced at each other thoughtfully. "She's your child," Hermione decided.

Ron smiled sheepishly. " . . . So should I run after her or what?" he asked.

"Nah let her have fun."

That caused both Hugo and Ron to look at her oddly. "Mummy," Hugo said slowly, "are you feeling alright?"

"He's your child, too," Hermione said.

Hugo looked up at his parents hopefully, "Can I go skiing with them?"

"Sorry, Hugo."

"But that's not fair! I didn't get to ski this entire trip!"

"That's because you had high-altitude sickness. Next time drink more water."

"Whatever," Hugo mumbled, "I hate skiing, anyway."

"Why are you always so stiff around adults?" Albus asked Scorpius as he did a zigzag pattern down the mountain.

"Easy," Scorpius said, narrowly missing a ditch, "if you act all polite to grown-ups, you can get away with almost anything. After all, who would expect sweet little Scorpius of super gluing the Hogwarts toilets?"

Rose scowled. "I knew that was you!"

"I'm surprised you didn't tell anyone," James said, "if I had pulled a prank that elaborate, I'd be bragging to everybody I knew."

Scorpius smirked. "See, that's the difference between us Slytherins and you Gryffindors. Gryfs like to blab about their work, and that's how they caught. Slytherins keep quiet. We don't mind if we don't get credit for our work; we just want the results. That's why we rarely get into trouble," he paused, and then added kind of haughtily, "We're just naturally superior that way."

"Not true!" James protested. "Gryffindors RULE!"

"Yeah!" his brother agreed.

Rose rolled her eyes. Boys, she thought. It was almost amusing how they always fought over such trivial matters.

Suddenly, she stopped in her tracks. Rose sensed something was wrong. Something was very wrong. Everything was silent. She heard a slight cracking sound, and time seemed to stop for a moment. The ground began to tremble. It couldn't be . . . could it? She turned around and her worst fears were confirmed. "AVALANCHE!" she screamed.

Just so that we're clear, this is NOT a romance.

And before you guys all attack me for having them as friends, there is a reason why it could work. Children have an innocence that we lose as we get older. Even though they have different beliefs, I think the friendship could still thrive if they became close before they knew who they really were. Their ethics are different, but I think that's not too much of a problem. Think of it as an Israeli becoming friends with a Palestinian. And let's not forget that children have a natural rebellious nature.

There will be a story of their first year at Hogwarts, but for some reason I decided to publish this one first.

I know it starts out a bit slow, but I can assure you, it gets better.

Please review!