Hello friends! I'm back and ready to write some more and I really, really love next gen fanfics, so I thought I'd give it a shot myself! I also really love Rose/Scorpius, so you will definitely be seeing a lot of those two. I started out kind of fluffy with basic introductions, but I'll make it more detailed and from individual characters' perspectives. I hope you guys like it!
Complete and utter chaos. This was the only way to describe the Potter household the morning of James' first train ride on the Hogwarts Express. James was in the midst of an excited ramble to a patiently nodding along Teddy, while Ginny was frantically stuffing her son's socks in his trunk, Albus was misty-eyed, Lily had free-falling tears, and Harry couldn't believe his son was already eleven.
Harry shook his head, "James?" There was no response from James, but Teddy visibly perked up, looking hopeful that he would be relieved of current predicament. Harry let out a laugh and walked over, kneeling down.
He placed his hands on James' shoulders, "Buddy," James finally stopped mid-chatter, "I promise, you're gonna be fine. You're gonna get on that train, make a ton of friends, say hi to Uncle Neville, and have so much fun. Plus, Fred is gonna be with you the entire time."
"Daaad, I know, I'm just a bit worried."
"About what? Teddy, Victoire, and Dominique told you everything, and Vic's head girl, you can go to her for anything."
"I know," James took a deep breath, "But what if I can't find Fred on the train, or Fred finds cooler friends, and doesn't want to sit with me on the train, or we don't get sorted into the same house, or we do get sorted into the same house, but Fred doesn't want to be friends with me," he took a deep breath, "you know," he said looking up at his Dad, "because he finds cooler friends, or Fre-" Ginny, who'd finally managed to stuff all of James' clothes into his trunk, ruffled his head.
"If there's one thing I know, it's that there is nothing in this world that can separate you and Fred. You're basically attached at the hip!"
"What? Mum that was one time! It was an accident!" At this, Teddy's eyes widened comically as he made an "x" with his arms and shook his head while Al did a face palm.
Ginny looked confused for a moment before her eyes narrowed. "James?" James bounced on the balls of his feet before quickly looking at the clock and exclaiming "Oh look at the time, Mummy dearest, we had better get going, we can't have your favorite son miss the train!" To which Al let out an indignant "Hey!" and Lily looked at her brothers before repeating a "Hey!" Al turned to Lily, "No, no, Lils, James said Mum's favorite son, you're not her son." Al's comments did not have the intended effect on Lily, whose eyes welled up and, with an exaggerated frown on her face, hugged Ginny's leg.
"Mummy, I'm your favorite, right?"
At this moment, Harry could not imagine someone having a more chaotic morning. A couple minutes' drive away, Angelina Johnson-Weasley was having similar problems.
"Roxie! Wake up! How are you still asleep? We have to go drop Freddie off!"
"Mphmh"
"Roxie!"
"Fine," she mumbled, dramatically throwing her leg off the bed and rolling off.
George let out a laugh at his daughter, scooping her up into a hug, stage-whispering, "Roxie, wanna slip some WWW supplies in Freddie's trunk before Mummy finds out?"
Roxie's eyes suddenly popped open, fully awake as she gave a big grin and ran towards the storage room.
"Hey!" Angie exclaimed, "I heard that!" But even she couldn't keep a grin off her face; her baby was going to wreck an absolute havoc on Hogwarts.
"Remind me again, Potter, why are we sitting in a car?"
"It'll make the experience more fun for the kids, Gin."
"Easy for you to say, Harry, you've got a seat all to yourself, you selfish git," Ginny complained, motioning to herself and Angie, who were stuffed in the back two rows of the minivan with a total of eight kids and an owl, including Rose and Hugo, who had insisted on coming to send their cousins off. When Ginny suggested they say their goodbyes at home, out of her fear of overcrowding, both Rose and Hugo put on their well mastered puppy faces, saying they needed to provide moral support for Al and Lily, to which Ginny knew she didn't stand a chance.
This is exactly how Ginny and Angelina found themselves in the middle of the Potter minivan with Lily, Roxy, Hugo, and Teddy, while Fred and James were in the back seats, with both Rose and Al, while James and Fred's trunks and their shared owl, Butternut, sat in the trunk.
"Well, Gin," George turned back, smirking, "maybe next time, you should learn from your big bro and yell 'shotgun'."
Ginny narrowed her eyes at him, "maybe next time," she said, pursing her lips, "you should get your own bloody car."
After a whole lot of tears and goodbyes, as well as listing some items in a panic that would need to be owl-d in later, James and Fred were off.
The next four years were an absolute blur.
Fred, along with James, had been almost immediately sorted into Gryffindor, much to James' immense relief. With them, their Professor Longbottom's son, Finley had also made his way into his father's house. One surprising event this year was the sorting of muggle-born triplets, all of whom ended up in three different houses. Evans, Isabella walked to Gryffindor grinning, followed by her sister, Evans, Reyna, who walked to Ravenclaw pouting at her sister, and finally, Evans, Sophia who unexpectedly walked to Hufflepuff while looking longingly towards her sisters. At least they're not identical, thought McGonagall as the sorting then ended with Zabini, Alfred, who was welcomed to Slytherin.
Also surprisingly, this year, an unheard-of number of students had been sorted into Hufflepuff and Slytherin, leaving Gryffindor and Ravenclaw with only six new students each. Along with the three boys, three girls, Isabella Evans, and twins Ava and Anna Zhang, had also joined the house. In Ravenclaw, however, there was only one girl, Reyna Evans, who looked a bit worried about this after her sorting. Both Neville and Flitwick were a bit put out at their low number of incoming first years, but McGonagall, on the other hand, was relieved. She had hoped that a low number of Gryffindors meant less trouble; she had thought wrong.
In their first year alone, James, Fred, and to everyone's surprise, even Finley to an extent, had caused too much chaos for Headmistress McGonagall to handle. So, after giving this a lot of thought, and after a particularly nasty incident with dungbombs and a missing toilet seat, she decided to pair all of the Gryffindor classes with the Ravenclaws, hoping their focus would influence the Gryffindors in her favor; once again, she was wrong. What McGonagall was dealing with now, was some slightly mischievous, highly focused Ravenclaws, and one slightly annoyed Ms. Evans.
In their second year, the numbers seemed to have evened out a bit for the new first-years, especially considering both Al and Rose had been sorted into Ravenclaw, along with their new and unexpected friend, Scorpius Malfoy. Fred couldn't wait to send a letter to his Uncle Ron. McGonagall, having learned from mistake of placing all the Gryffindors and Ravenclaws in a separate group, decided that students would randomly be assigned to a section of a class, at least until the classes become more difficult during sixth and seventh year.
Third year brought many new excitements for the boys. For Finley, this meant that he was no longer the only one with a professor-parent; Olivia Longbottom, a Hufflepuff like her mum, had joined him at Hogwarts. Along with her, Dominique Weasley and Louisa Wood were both sorted into Slytherin.
The Gryffindor quidditch team suddenly had a huge opening, as three seventh years had graduated, for a chaser and two beaters, which Isabella, Fred, and James respectively happily filled.
As fourth year started, Fred and James were wrecking as much havoc as ever, while Finley walked the fine line between creating chaos and being studious, or at least trying to; his father was a professor, after all. Of all the Gryffindor males, he was a definitive favorite, as at least he tried to keep his friends in line. Maybe not the line McGonagall preferred, but a line, nonetheless.
Another increasingly common occurrence was the bickering between James and his fellow Gryffindor, Isabella. Fred thought they had an odd dynamic, as they were friends, mainly due to their love, or better yet, obsession, for quidditch, but when they argued, people would not believe it was an argument between friends. They really just didn't get along.
After a particularly heated argument in the middle of fourth year, Fred swore he caught the two arguing whether or not Headmistress McGonagall's Animagus had markings around her eyes where her glasses would normally be. For three and a half hours. No one believed him, telling him he needed to stop exaggerating, as James and Isabella were perfectly normal, talking quidditch strategies the next morning at breakfast.
"Oh, for the hundredth time, I swear guys, they argued non-stop last night," Fred complained, while scarfing down his toast.
"And for the hundredth time, Fred, you're just saying that 'cause you slept in. Again," Reyna said, sharing a look with Sophia, both of whom had become regulars at the Gryffindor table, "I'm not buyin' any more of your excuses."
Finley laughed while Fred sighed dramatically, "Did I sleep in? Of course I did, what's new? But they just never shut up!" With that, he turned to his cousin and friend, "Oi! What're you two so chipper about? Tell 'em how late we were up talking last night."
Isabella and James pulled an innocent look and glanced at each other in faux confusion.
"Us?" started Isabella, "We would never do that to you, mate."
"Yeah Fred, look at these two! They're the picture of innocence," Finley added as James nodded along.
"As if this face could ever do anything wrong," Sophia added, ruffling James' hair.
Fred looked up at Reyna pleadingly.
"Come on, Fred. Should I believe my one of my two bestest, most fantastically amazing sisters in the history of the universe," motioning towards Isabella, who smiled brightly, "or some sleep-deprived rando?"
Fred frowned and Reyna couldn't control herself anymore and she burst out laughing and squeezed Fred's cheeks together.
"Awww Freddie, we're just pulling your leg," she said as Fred's ears tinted pink and he gave another exaggerated sigh, "We all know how annoyingly obnoxious these two are," and, turning to the two in question, she added "next time why don't you two fight in the common room like normal people so poor Freddie and Finley here can get their beauty rest?" while whacking each of their heads with her planner, her Gaelic accent becoming stronger as her volume increased.
"Yes mum, sorry mum," James saluted at Reyna.
"Mum? I'll show you mum. How about I tell your mum? I'm sure she'd love to hear what her amazing son is up to, don't you think?"
"Nope my dearest Ravenclaw princess, please don't bring my poor mother into this, I'll do anything," he babbled.
Sophia laughed as James paled until she realized she'd forgotten her own planner. "Oh sod it all I've forgotten my planner again," she looked at James with pity, "why don't you two walk me to my common room and then we can go to potions together?" she asked, nodding at Izzy and James, who got up and ran out within the blink of an eye.
"That's what I thought, Potter," Reyna responded, raising a smug eyebrow at Fred.
"Eh I think she's more of a queen," Fred commented as James and Izzy ran out, grinning at Reyna who rolled her eyes at the joke, "ya know, cause that's what your name means."
"Astute observation as always, Mr. Weasley," Reyna complemented sarcastically as Finley snorted, "Good one, mate."
Reyna then proceeded to grab her planner and the two boys, "Come on slowpokes, they're gonna beat us to class."
"So," Finley whispered to Fred, grinning and waggling his eyebrows, "Freddie, huh?"
Fred's ears once again gave him away, pinkening almost immediately. Stupid ears, he thought. "Oh, shut it, Fin."
Hope you guys liked it! Please review, I'd love to hear your thoughts/suggestions/things you might want to see in future chapters! Thanks for reading:)
~Risa