chapter one: meeting.

Hello, and welcome to my first fanfiction. (: Or rather, first in a

while... XD I couldn't think of a name, so I ended up calling it

Project Prologue Potter as I sketched out ideas as a sort of code

name. Then I couldn't be bothered to change it, haha.

I hope that this will end up being long, as I have quite a few ideas.

You'll notice that I put Luna Lovegood's daughters in there... 8D

Loads and loads of characters will eventually be introduced, I'm so

excited!

As for pairings, as this is in the future, I suppose I can do what I

like... -cackle- I'm still thinking of ideas, but this is hopefully

not going to end up being one of those cliché fics where all the

Potter and Weasley children end up in Gryffindor and the only main

characters are the ones mentioned in Deathly Hallows' prologue. I

don't think that will quite be the case here. D Aaand yeah, slash

will probably end up there, so if that's not your thing you better

clear off early.

It will hopefully span out over years if people seem to like this for

some bizarre reason... reviews would be nice.

- - -

If there was one thing Albus hated, it was the rain.

It made your hair wet, and if it was rather messy like Albus', it went

all weird at the top. Your clothes became soggy and stuck to you so

that you began to resemble a moving clump of wet newspaper, and you

started feeling cold. Even if you were wearing three protective layers

of warm jumpers like Albus was. And you also couldn't see anything,

especially through a window, as Albus had now discovered.

He stared at the foggy window for quite some time, wondering whether

he should change into his robes yet or not. It was quite a while until

they reached Hogwarts, and it was rather cold anyway, so he eventually

decided against it. He would have liked some quiet time to think and

fret, but it was impossible in a carriage full of hooligans. One of

which was his brother. The others were mostly assorted friends, pretty

much all of them being fellow Gryffindors that James had befriended

during his time at Hogwarts. The others were numerous cousins; James

was known for spending a lot of time with his family.

"Are you all right, Albus?" a concerned voice spoke from the side of

him. Albus had been waiting for this. It happened every five minutes.

"I'm fine, Rose," he replied back mechanically. "What about you?"

"A bit scared," she laughed, after a while. "Partly because of all the

noise and partly because this is the most you've said for an hour.

You're really all right?"

"Yep."

"Okay..."

And that was that. They fell back into silence. At least Rose was

actually trying to socialise with these people, smiling and laughing,

albeit warily. Albus, however, had been staring out of the window, his

head resting on his palms, for ages. He rather thought James had given

up on him by now.

The thing was, Albus wasn't a particularly sociable person. There was

James for that, and Lily. He was the odd-one-out of his family.

Whenever their cousins and uncles and aunts and goodness-knows-whats

came around, it was always Albus who was the one that departed

upstairs first, or discreetely left the house. The only cousin he

spent much time with was Teddy (who'd left Hogwarts now anyway) and

Rose - but she was probably going to go into Ravenclaw and leave him

all alone in some other random house. Probably not Gryffindor.

Gryffindor.

That had been the source of all his recent troubles and thinking. You

see, Albus thought a lot. And usually he came to some sort of

conclusion at the end of his session. But this time he hadn't. What if

James' taunts came true? What if he did end up in Slytherin? His whole

family would probably hate him for ever. He was sure Dad had just

pretended that Gryffindor didn't really matter that much. If it did,

why did he get sorted into Gryffindor? His dad was brave, everyone

knew that. He was the saviour of the wizarding world, for crying out

loud (although lots of Ministry officials liked to pretend that he

didn't do as much as he had, although this was decreasing after the

rise of Minister Kingsley Shacklebolt). Albus would never do anything

like that. Even his middle name was Slytherin.

Dad had said that you could ask the Hat to be placed in Gryffindor.

But what if the Hat just said no? 'You're much too Slytherin to be put

in Gryffindor.' Even if he did choose to be put in Gryffindor... he

would always live knowing that he didn't belong there, either. He was

doomed. Doomed...

"Are you all right, Albus?"

"I think I'm going to go for a walk," Albus murmured in a strangled

sort of voice. "Maybe have a look around or something?" Rose's mouth

was slightly agape as he looked at her with a forced smile. Rose knew

how he would hate going for a walk by himself around some strangers.

It must be really bad.

"I'll come with you."

"...okay then. Come on."

James and his friends made no attempt to stop them. Clearly they

hadn't been particularly exciting company. Then again, James only

found company exciting if they had three or more dungbombs with them,

and Albus certainly did not.

As soon as they closed the carriage door behind them, they made their

way across the corridors of the train, glancing into compartments on

their way past. All of them were filled with laughing, happy people.

Maybe they'd find some sort of empty carriage where they could just

talk to eachother. Or just stare out of the window again. That would

be cheerful...

"Hello, Albus. Is that you?"

Turning around, he came face-to-face with two short girls that he most

definitely recognised. Once you'd met Cirrus and Alto it was kind of

hard to forget their appearances. Rose smiled in greeting at the

Scamander twins.

"Hello, how are you?" Rose prompted politely as Albus didn't say

anything, merely glanced at Rose for support. He was bad at speaking,

and every time he met the Scamander twins he just gazed at their

eccentric exteriors. Both of them had long blonde hair and huge bright

silver eyes. And both of them wore the strangest jewellery Albus had

ever seen. Radish earrings. And necklaces of Butterbeer corks. People

either avoided them completely or were attracted to their oddness.

"Oh, we're fine," Alto replied at once, with a smile. Rose smiled back. Silence.

"That's a very nice look, wearing three jumpers. Is it warm? Are you

looking for a compartment?" Cirrus asked, looking back at Albus, who

nodded, now looking at the ground.

"Would you like to come to ours?" Albus nodded. "Come on, then! It's

right at the end of the train, really quite nice, you know. I don't

know why everyone always avoids the one at the end, because it's

probably the best in my opinion..."

The twins nattered on, Albus trying to listen and keep up at the same

time, the twins walking at their usual groundbreaking speed. When they

stopped it was very suddenly, outside the end compartment. Now Albus

saw why everyone avoided it. It was absolutely miniscule, and it was

quite a squeeze just getting in the door itself, especially whilst

wearing three layers of clothing. However, they managed it, and sat

down politely next to eachother at the end. It was only now that Albus

noticed that there was someone else in it.

He hadn't looked up yet, but when he did, Albus realised that he

looked rather familiar. Rose was staring at him thoughtfully as well.

His hair was blonde like the girls', but more of a white-blonde than a

silver. And his eyes were a harsh grey, his nose and chin slightly

pointed. Albus thought he looked rather formiddable, but lonely at the

same time. He stared back with furrowed eyebrows, then glanced at

Cirrus and Alto.

"Who's that?"

"This is Rose Weasley, our friend, and this is Albus Potter, our other friend."

"Nice to meet you. I'm Scorpius."

"Scorpius Malfoy?" Rose asked, still looking thoughtful. The boy

nodded, his eyes narrowing a bit at the mention of his surname,

glancing back out of the window. Now Albus remembered, he was the boy

at the station. The one his uncle had told Rose to beat in every exam.

"Which house do you think you're going to be in?" Scorpius asked very

suddenly, making Albus jump, who had just relaxed and had been looking

at the door wistfully.

"Well, my dad said I might be in Gryffindor, but my mum said I might

be in Ravenclaw, so I don't know really."

"Not... not Slytherin?"

"I bet I'm in Slytherin," Albus muttered gloomily, partly to himself.

"You do?" Scorpius asked, looking a bit shocked. "I thought you'd be

in Gryffindor."

"R-really?"

"Yeah, my mother said Potter was one of the Gryffindor family names."

"I don't think all families are in the same house," Rose said, looking

thoughtful again. "I mean... our cousin Victoire, she's a Weasley and

she's in Ravenclaw."

"And Fred's in Hufflepuff."

"Mmhmm, and loads of Weasleys have been in Gryffindor..." she trailed

off after she realised Scorpius wasn't listening anymore. He was

staring out of the window instead. They lapsed once again into

silence. The Scamander twins, who had been listening with mild

curiosity were now reading the same magazine. Albus noticed that the

book was upside-down, and wondered vaguely whether he should go get

dressed.

"Erm... we better go get into our Hogwarts robes now," Albus mumbled,

nudging Rose's arm. Rose looked confused, as she was already wearing

hers, but nodded in understanding as Albus gave her a significant

look. Scorpius didn't even seem to notice, and just nodded with a wave

of a hand, still staring glumly out of the window, and the two

departed hurriedly.