The scarlet train chugged out of the station and Albus Potter soon lost sight of his waving parents. He gazed out the window for a minute as his fears for the coming year kept battling each other inside his head. The summer full of his brother's taunts came back to him. What if he did end up in Slytherin? Or worse what if he was a dreadful wizard just barely better then a squib? What if he ended up failing all of his classes? What if …

"Come on! We have to find a compartment before their all full!" Rose cried exasperated. She tossed her curly red hair as she headed down the train without even waiting to make sure Albus followed. Albus knew Rose better than anyone; she was smart, kind, and had many other great qualities but her patience was most definitely not one of them. She unfortunately got both Aunt Hermione's quick temper and Uncle Ron's stubbornness which combined made a fierce girl that no sane person would want to cross.

Knowing it was best not to argue, Albus grabbed his trunk and his tawny owl, Hestia, then followed the determined Rose through the train. To their disappointment, nearly all the compartments they passed were full with Hogwarts students. Suddenly, a head popped out of the one to their left. With her blonde hair, brown eyes, and freckles she was easily recognized as their fourth-year cousin Dominique. By the longing stares of passing boys, it was easy to tell that she had inherited her mother's veela blood.

Surprised she smiled, "Oh hey guys! Did you find somewhere to sit? You can sit with me if you have nowhere else to go."

Albus grinned sheepishly, "Um thanks but I think we should sit with first years you know get to know people."

She shrugged, "Okay sure. See you later."

Dominique was always nice and he loved his cousin but he didn't think he could stand the long train ride with all her giggling friends. Rose gave him a knowing smile and the two continued their search. It wasn't long before they located the rest of the Potter-Weasley Clan. James and Fred were with a group of friends laughing as Fred told the story of how he jinxed the Syltherin Quidditch team so they could only talk in rhymes for a whole week. Molly was found gossiping about some Hufflepuff prefect. Victoire stared gloomily out the train window while some friends tried consoling her. Roxanne and Lucy were telling people of their plan to try out for the team this year. Albus waved at each of them but only Roxanne said hello.

To their great relief, Albus and Rose finally found a space where only one first-year girl was sitting with her head down reading a book. "Excuse me," Rose asked politely, "do you mind if we sit here?" She lifted her head and her waist-length straight dark hair fell away from her face. Her bright blue eyes met Albus' green ones and he saw pain flash there before she began to turn to Rose. The girl had a small almost pixie like face and he noticed with a start that on the left side she had three jagged scars that reached from below her eye down to her jaw line. He gave a little shudder when he realized that the only thing that could mark a face like that was a claw.

"Of course no problem," she replied a smile transforming her face. "My name is Diana Ceres by the way."

Rose gave a wide smile in return that made her brown eyes crinkle, "Nice to meet you I'm Rose Weasley and this is my cousin Albus."

Diana laughed closing the book. Albus grinned when he saw it was The Golden Trio a book his Aunt Hermione wrote the previous year because she was tired of so many others writing about the second war and getting it absolutely wrong, "I would definitely be lying if I said I didn't know who you two were. Albus looks just like his dad so it's sort of hard not to recognize him."

Albus grimaced as he dragged his luggage onto the shelf. He sometimes really hated looking like his father. Rose was busy stowing her own luggage so Albus decided to ask the question that had been bugging him since he entered, "So how did you get the scar?"

Rose viciously elbowed Albus in the stomach, "Excuse my cousin apparently he is a rude insensitive oaf."

Diana had paled but she quickly recovered, "No it's okay I don't mind. I got it when I was six. My dad had taken me to his work and I got a bit too close to an angry hippogriff."

He winced and was about to reply when Rose interrupted now cradling her brand new snow white fluffy kitten named Caspar. The feline was only a few months old but had already developed a pompous attitude. Rose of course did not care and adored the little beast.

"I'm sorry," she said sincerely. "That must have really hurt."

Diana shrugged, "It was a long time ago. So what house do you think you'll be in?"

"Well apparently," Rose's cheeks flushed as she fumed, "Albus and I shall be disowned if we are in any house but Gryffindor." She threw up her arms exasperated causing Caspar to tumble onto her lap, "My father is just too pig headed sometimes. I mean really what's wrong with the other houses! Aunt Luna was in Ravenclaw and Aunt Hannah was in Hufflepuff for goodness sake. The man acts like there is only one path I'm allowed to take."

"Well it appears you two have some expectations that need meeting," Diana chuckled.

Rose continued ranting about her father until Albus, who knew full well how long she could go on, wisely intervened with another question directed at Diana. "So do you like Quidditch?"

"Are you kidding!" she replied ecstatic. "I love it! During the summer, I go to every Puddlemere United game!"

Albus himself was a devoted Puddlemere fan and they spent awhile talking about players and comparing teams' stats. Rose rolled her eyes at their enthusiasm; she herself found the sport utterly boring and would much prefer to read a good book. The two then began swapping stories of going to games and Rose joined in. Diana had the best ones out of all of them.

"No way!" Albus cried.

"I'm serious!" Diana laughed, her eyes shining. "The seekers were just dreadful and the game had been going on for five straight hours. My dad was just so fed up with it all and we were getting up to leave when the snitch came to hover right in front of us. He just snatched it out of the air. The ref saw it and blew his whistle. He flies over and tells my dad to let it go but he flat out refused saying he caught it so he should get to keep it. The ref kept insisting that he wasn't allowed to grab it only a seeker could catch the snitch. My dad just looks the man straight in the eye and says 'well I'm sorry but it's not my fault their only chance of catching it was if it flew up their arse.' An hour of arguing later and security escorts us out of the pitch but they actually let him keep the snitch. The game was declared officially over and a rematch was scheduled for the next week. That night he takes me to the Leaky Cauldron to celebrate and shows of his prize to everyone in the joint. Some blokes there had been at the game and actually thanked him saying they owed him for saving them from having to watch another minute. Then later as I get ready for bed he comes to me, hands over the snitch and says 'I want you to have this so you can remember that when everyone else is being a blundering fool your dear old dad here knows how to get the job done.'"

They were all laughing so hard that they clutched their stomachs in pain as tears rolled down their faces. Albus laughed so hard he fell off his seat and onto the floor causing a new round of giggles from Rose and Diana. They eventually calmed down and were wiping tears off their faces when the trolley came.

That morning Albus had been too nervous to eat so now his stomach was grumbling like a snoring dragon. He bought about five of everything there and 20 chocolate frogs. He knew Rose loved to collect the cards and it turned out Diana was an adamant collector also. Albus ate his weight in sweets while the two girls swapped cards.

Rose groaned as she opened a frog "Ugh another Uncle Harry. I already have like fifty of them it seems the makers of these can't get enough of him."

Diana laughed, "Yeah I know what you mean. Once I bought ten and every single one was Harry Potter."

Albus rolled his eyes, "My dad hates it. He says he gets tired of seeing his own face every time he wants a bit of chocolate."

Rose and Diana laughed. The three continued chatting about Quidditch and their fears for the coming year. Albus, and he had a feeling Rose too, was glad to have a friend not related to them. Diana was funny and Albus found her easy to talk to but one thing he noticed about her was sometimes she got a far off look in her eyes as if remembering something and her face would get etched with pain. During those times he glanced at Rose but his talkative cousin didn't seem to notice.

They changed into their robes as the train began to slow to a stop. He followed the crowd of students out of the train with Diana and Rose trailing next to him. Someone behind him smacked his head and Albus spun around furiously.

James was standing there bearing his cocky grin, "So little bro have you been brushing up on your Parseltongue because trust me that is the way to make it big with all the Slytherin blokes."

Albus glared at his obnoxious older brother and shoved him. James left smirking and walked back over to his friends.

"I take it that's your brother," Diana said laughing.

He sighed dramatically, "Yes unfortunately but do not think I've given up on the possibility he's adopted."

"Oh please," Rose countered. "At least you don't have Hugo following you around everywhere. I can't believe that boy; he's scared of everything! He won't even sleep in his room if he thinks he sees a spider there."

"Come on Hugo's really sweet."

"Well of course he acts that way around you! He worships the ground you walk on," she said exasperated.

Albus smiled remembering the cute red haired little nine-year-old that would follow him talking a mile a minute and asking thousands of questions.

"Firs' years! Firs' years over here!" cried a gruff voice that Albus recognized from most family gatherings. Rose, Albus, and Diana followed the call to where the smiling, bearded, half-giant stood waiting. Hagrid waved when he saw them approaching.

"Albus! Rose! How you two doin'? Don' forget your comin' to my place for tea nex' week."

"We wouldn't miss it for the world," Rose called back to him. They continued on to where some boats lined the lake. The all climbed into one where there was just one solitary boy with sleek blonde hair. As they prepared to depart, Albus recognized their fellow passenger as the Malfoy boy they saw on the platform. He elbowed Rose and she glanced at the boy too.

"Um hi, its Scorpius right?" she greeted tentatively.

Scorpius looked up at them nodded and turned his head back down to look at his feet. Rose shrugged and gave up trying to talk to the boy. Albus did the same and began looking at the lake they were now skimming smoothly across. It was pitch black and reflected the night sky above it. Once he swore he saw a tentacle shoot out of the water but when he told the others they didn't believe him. Then, it came into view. Hogwarts was more amazing then he even imagined. All the windows in the castle shined twinkling lights onto the cool water below and the towers spiraled high into the sky just kissing the stars. It lay elegantly sprawled on top of the hill and ivy crawled daringly up the face of the stone walls. He recognized the Whomping Willow looking almost peaceful as it stood gently swaying. Albus felt his jaw drop when the boats landed on shore with a thud.

"It's amazing," Diana whispered.

He and Rose could do nothing but nod in agreement. Hagrid herded all the first years forward and towards the large castle door. He knocked on the towering entrance and a few minutes later a beaming Neville answered.

"Thanks Hagrid I'll take it from here."

He nodded and left to enter the Great Hall.

Neville turned to them all smiling and said, "Welcome to Hogwarts."