**DISCLAIMER** I do not own the original plot of Harry Potter or any of the original characters.

Chapter 1

It was September 1st, and platform 9 ¾ at King's Cross station was packed to the brim. There were families everywhere. Teary-eyed parents were seeing their children off onto the scarlet red train that was resting at the platform; trolleys were roughly being pushed into each other at the entrance to the luggage carriage; and the whole platform was awash with noise from parents shouting to their sons and daughters, the excited squeals of first years who were boarding for the first time, and the screeches of various owls that circled the train.

Not everyone was so excited to be leaving, however. At the platform entrance, a small boy could be seen huddling close to the floor, appearing to tie his shoelaces; but, having been crouched in that position for well over 5 minutes, it didn't take much to realise that something was wrong. The boy was of average height, wearing a checkered shirt, faded jeans and a pair of converse shoes; and he sported a head of the most unruly black hair imaginable. He bore a striking resemblance to that of his father, who was crouched beside him, trying his hardest to console his son.

"But what if it doesn't listen to me?" Albus pleaded.

Harry rested his hands on his son's shoulders. "Albus Severus Potter. I promise you, the sorting hat will listen. The day that I was sorted, I was just as nervous as you are now – but the hat spoke to me. It understood."

Albus shut his eyes and exhaled deeply. "Okay dad. Thank you… I'll do my best."

Harry smiled down at his youngest son. "Just remember, whichever house you are sorted into, your mother and I will be so proud of you. You're going to be just fine." He patted the boy's shoulders, and together they rose from the floor and began to walk further along the platform, trying in vain to find a carriage that was quiet enough for the nervous boy to relax in throughout his journey.

All of a sudden, a large puff of smoke rose from the front of the train, and dragged back toward the rear; a whistle blew in the distance and doors began to slam.

"Come on. We'd better hurry." Harry said. Albus nodded and stopped once they reached the next set of doors.

"This one should be fine." He smiled at Harry. "Thanks dad. I'll be okay now."

"Good lad." Harry watched as his son climbed into the carriage; and once he was safely on, he signalled down the platform at his wife and daughter to join them. Ginny and Lily hurried back towards Harry, and made it just in the nick of time. The train began to pull away as Ginny reached the carriage doors; she waved to her son as the train started to retreat; he leaned out of the carriage window and waved back to his mother and sister.

"Bye mum! See you at Christmas!" Albus shouted back; he felt a lump beginning to form in his throat as his family started disappearing into the distance.

"Goodbye Albus!" Ginny yelled from the platform. The tears were beginning to appear; suddenly she was aware of a cascade of water escaping down her cheeks. Harry wrapped his arms around her shoulders and pulled her into a tight hug.

"I'm sorry, Gin. I didn't mean to be so long; I should've brought him to you sooner." He pressed a kiss onto the top of her head and held her closer.

"It's okay. I think he needed you more than me." Ginny pulled away slightly and wiped away the tears from her eyes. She looked up at him. "Are you sure he'll be alright?"

Harry smiled and pulled her back into his chest with one arm, and his daughter with the other.

"He's going to be just fine."

As soon as it started, it was over. Albus desperately tried to suppress the tears; it just wasn't fair – he couldn't help but feel he had been cheated out of a proper goodbye. He felt sick to his stomach, and realised that at this moment he wanted nothing more than to be tucked up at home in bed with a mug of his mum's hot chocolate.

Swallowing roughly, Albus decided that he needed to pull himself together. This was what was happening, and there was no way he could escape it.

Tentatively he began to make his way through the train, searching for an empty compartment to sit in. Albus soon realised that this would prove to be a task in vain; at every turn there were compartments full of excitable students, eagerly discussing what the year ahead would bring, and getting very hyper, very quickly on the sweets that the trolley was bringing round. He sighed, and decided that instead of looking for an empty compartment, he would try to find the quietest one instead.

After what seemed like ages trawling through each and every carriage, Albus eventually came upon a compartment that only held one occupant. The occupant was a small, slight boy; unremarkable in every way, apart from the mop of slickly gelled back, pure white hair that adorned his head. The boy was sat back with his hands resting in his lap, and he was gazing out of the window at the beautiful countryside scenery that was passing them by; he appeared to be deep in thought.

Albus took a deep breath, and slid the compartment door open. The boy did not seem to notice, so Albus closed his fist and rapped his knuckles 3 times firmly on the window. The boy jumped and whipped his head around to face Albus, a look of shock upon his face.

"I… I'm sorry…" Albus stuttered. "I didn't mean to startle you. I was just wondering… well, everywhere else is full. Can I sit here?"

The boy relaxed and shrugged. "Free country." He nodded towards the opposite seat, indicating for Albus to sit down.

Albus stepped into the compartment and quietly sat down opposite the boy. He seemed to be a strange sort; very quiet and unassuming, but with an air of something unconceivable about him. Albus cleared his throat and spoke.

"My name's Albus, Albus Potter. Nice to meet you. You are?" He offered his hand for the boy to shake.

The boy flinched; just barely visibly, but enough for Albus to notice. "I'm Scorpius Malfoy." He gingerly reached for Albus' hand and shook it twice, before letting his hands drop back into his lap and returning to gazing out of the window.

A few moments of silence passed, and Albus began to feel increasingly uneasy. He decided it would be a good idea to try and make conversation with the Malfoy boy – anything had to be better than this awkwardness.

"So… how are you feeling about the sorting?" Albus asked.

Scorpius looked back at him and raised an eyebrow. "You don't have to talk to me, you know. I know you are aware of who my family are and what they did. I'm not exactly the most popular around here."

Albus shrugged. "Yes, I know who you are. But what's past is past. None of it's your fault – my dad told me never to hold grudges against the innocent."

Scorpius looked at him with surprise. "Really? He said that?" He turned back to look out of the window. "To be honest, my father never really spoke about the past. Only ever to explain to me why sometimes people spit at us in the street."

An awkward silence fell between the two, and Albus could not help but think that his plan to converse with Scorpius was failing somewhat. He could not take this atmosphere any longer, and decided to give talking to the boy one last go.

"Yeah, well… that's their problem, isn't it. Not your fault. You weren't even born then." He clapped his hands together. "So! We were saying? About sorting?"

Scorpius began to perk up at Albus' words; the Potter boy didn't seem so bad. In fact, he was the first person outside of his family to speak to him as a human equal for months.

"Well…" Scorpius began. "I can't help but think I will automatically be in Slytherin, being a Malfoy and whatnot. I'm not sure I want to be though. I don't want to be seen to be continuing my family's legacy or whatever."

Albus grinned. "Well, in that case, I have some top secret information that I think you just might be interested in!"

Scorpius' ears pricked up. "You do?"

"Yeah! I mean, don't tell anyone I told you, but my dad said to me that you can speak to the sorting hat in your head, and tell it what you would or wouldn't prefer. He said that's how he ended up in Gryffindor. But that's a secret, 'kay?"

Scorpius smiled. "Seriously? That's awesome! 'Course I'll keep it a secret. Man that makes me feel better about things!" His grin widened. "So, where are you thinking of asking for?"

Albus scoffed. "What do you think? Gryffindor, of course! My whole family are Gryffindors. I don't wanna let them down."

Scorpius nodded. "That makes sense. I'm not sure where I want to ask for; Anywhere, as long as it's not Slytherin." He suddenly looked downcast, and Albus could not help but feel sorry for the boy.

"Hey… you know what? Forget it. I bet that if you didn't say anything, the hat wouldn't place you in Slytherin. You're just not the type."

Scorpius' eyebrows shot up in surprise. "Seriously?"

"Yeah! I mean, you don't seem like the sort to me."

Scorpius sat for a moment in thought. "Hey… don't bite my head off or anything, but I have an idea…"

Albus cocked his head ever so slightly to one side. "Yeah? What is it?"

"Well… I'm kind of scared not to say anything to the hat, just in case it puts me in Slytherin… but I guess there's not much point of a sorting hat if you choose, and the hat doesn't…" Scorpius trailed off and looked back out of the window. Gathering all the courage he could muster, he took a deep breath and continued; "I guess what I'm saying is, I'd like to see if you're right about me not being a Slytherin at heart, but I don't want to do it alone."

Albus was stunned. His initial thought was to back out and scream no. He wanted to badly to be in Gryffindor and to make his family proud; but after a moment of deep thought, he realised Scorpius was right. There really was no point in a sorting hat if you chose for yourself.

Albus extended a hand. "Alright. I promise I won't let anything slip to the hat, as long as you promise to do the same."

Scorpius smiled and took Albus' hand. Gently shaking it, he confirmed his promise.

Despite himself, Albus could not contain his excitement. They were finally here, inside Hogwarts, waiting to go into the Great Hall for the first time! It might still be true that his stomach was churning with nerves at the thought of the sorting, but his heart was pumping with adrenaline and he felt giddy with excitement; he turned to face Scorpius and grinned.

"You ready?"

Scorpius looked positively ashen, but he gulped and nodded. "As ready as I'll ever be!"

Suddenly, the doors to the Great Hall swung open, revealing Professor McGonagall on the other side. Albus had seen pictures of her from his dad's old school days, and he saw that what his brother had told him was right; she did not look even a day older than she did in the photos.

She surveyed them all with a stern look, and instructed with a firm voice.

"Follow me."

McGonagall turned and swiftly led the way down the centre of the Great Hall, the rabble of first years giggling and whispering behind her. Albus looked up to the ceiling as they walked, and saw nothing but a breathtaking view of the night sky; barely any clouds to be seen, and all the constellations so clear that he felt he could reach up and take the stars for his own. He gently nudged Scorpius in the ribs and pointed upwards. "Look!"

Scorpius looked up and gasped. "Wow!" he breathed. "My father told me about that before, but I had no idea…" he looked back at Albus and smiled; Albus' face broke into a grin in return. Albus turned his attention to the Gryffindor table, where he could see that his brother had scouted him out and was sending him a thumbs-up. Albus smiled at him and returned the gesture; and all of a sudden they were at the front of the Great Hall, and ready and waiting to be sorted.

Professor McGonagall grabbed a large roll of parchment off of the stool containing the sorting hat and let it unravel to the ground; and with her other hand, she picked up the old, worn hat, and raised it to shoulder height.

"Now. When I call your name, you shall come up to the stool and be seated. I shall place the sorting hat upon your head, the hat will call out the name of your house, and you will go and join your housemates at your house table. Is that understood?"

A murmur of affirmation rippled through the crowd of first years, and it was begun.

"Avery, Samuel!"

Albus watched with baited breath. Samuel looked to be the smallest boy in their year, and was clearly not dealing very well with being first to be sorted; he was a nervous wreck walking up to the stool. Absolutely petrified, he took his seat, and McGonagall placed the hat upon his head.

A few moments passed, and then suddenly; "HUFFLEPUFF!"

A roar of applause erupted from the Hufflepuff table, and Samuel, looking unsure whether to be more relieved or thrilled, went to take his seat at the end of the table.

Albus leaned towards Scorpius. "Hey, that didn't look so bad!"

Scorpius nodded. In all honest, it looked much easier than he had anticipated; but he knew that he had to be wary, and focussed on not freaking out when it was his turn to approach the stool. With this in mind, he decided to take nothing for granted until his own sorting was over.

The sorting passed quickly and smoothly; the next two girls were sorted into Slytherin, then there was a Gryffindor, a Hufflepuff, another two Gryffindors, and a Ravenclaw. Following this was a hatstall; the poor boy (Davison, Leo) sat upon the stool for around 8 minutes, while the look of panic on his face gradually grew more and more severe; eventually the hat screamed "RAVENCLAW!" and Leo disappeared off to the Ravenclaw table as fast as his legs could move.

A few more Hufflepuffs, a Slytherin, a Ravenclaw, another Slytherin… and then;

"Malfoy, Scorpius."

Albus turned to Scorpius and lightly punched his shoulder. "Go on mate. You're gonna be ace. Remember our promise!"

Scorpius nodded, face unwavering, and he swiftly moved towards the stool. He took his seat, and suddenly he felt the weight of the hat on his head; it slipped down and covered the top of his eyes. There was a moment of silence.

"Hmm…" murmured a voice. Scorpius flinched. So this is what Albus meant when he said you could talk to the hat; you could talk to it in your mind…

"Yes, that's right," murmured the voice again. "I'm right here. I can see everything you've ever thought, everything you've ever done. There's no point hiding the conversation you had with your new friend. I see everything."

Another moment of silence passed. "You'll be glad to know that you do not possess enough of the qualities of a Slytherin for me to place you there. However, I am torn between two of the other houses. Do you have any preference whatsoever between the other three?"

Scorpius gently shook his head no. "I'm glad I'm not in Slytherin," he thought. "But otherwise… do what you think is right."

A few seconds passed and Scorpius waited in anticipation; just when he thought he could take it no longer, the hat opened its' seam and bellowed "RAVENCLAW!"

A smile broke out across Scorpius' face as the hall erupted into cheers; this was it. He was not in Slytherin. This was the beginning of his new life. He felt the hat being pulled away from his head, and his eyes immediately sought out Albus. Albus grinned at him and mouthed "Nice one!"

Scorpius grinned back, and hurried off to sit at the end of the Ravenclaw table. He sat and waited as patiently as he could for his new friend's turn on the stool. Eventually it was time.

"Potter, Albus."

Scorpius watched as Albus pushed his way through the small group of first-years and made his way up to the stool. As it had with him, the hat settled over Albus' eyes; a few minutes passed and Scorpius realised he was wringing his hands under the table. He looked over at Albus' brother, seated at the Gryffindor table; the older boy was frozen entirely, eyes fixated on Albus, unblinking.

A few more moments, and as if in slow motion, the hat's seam began to open…

"RAVENCLAW!"