Albus Potter's first year at Hogwarts .

Chapter 1

He (Albus) likes her (Sasha); she (Sasha) likes him (Albus). Simple? Of course not. No matter how much he tried to impress her, she ignored him. No-one is sure why. James had noticed the constant displays and how she always gave him the cold shoulder. He decided to take action.

One Saturday in November he was strolling along, racking his brains for an idea to get them together when he heard a small explosion and turned to see orange smoke floating calmly upwards. Eager to see the cause, he hurried towards the hill, from behind which the orange smoke is floating, and stumbled around to see Albus and his friend David covered head-to-toe in purple and green dust. They were laughing heartily whilst Sasha strode up, looking appalled. James had arrived just in time to see:

"Albus! What have you done?" If looks could kill, James thought.

"Hi Sash!" Albus cried, oblivious to her expression. "We were just experimenting with some things Uncle Charlie sent over from Romania. Look, if you mix salamander scales with dragon nose hair, then melt slowly and sprinkle in two ground up black widow spiders you get a small boring glob. We added five fist-sized lumps of coal, four cups of the juice of a glibousimous hagferium, and some liquefied moonlight and then a hair from my clothes fell in and we got this!" He declared triumphantly, holding out and large bubble the size of a coffee table that seemed to contain something dark with no distinct features, that was wriggling violently.

"What is that?" She shrieked.

"Dunno. What do you think Dave?"

"Not a clue." He replied.

By now Sasha was steaming and looked murderous. "You complete idiots! What if that is illegal, dangerous or both?! You could get yourselves or, more importantly, other people hurt or even killed!" She was screaming by now and had attracted the attention of a few passers-by who were looking wonderingly at the balloon in Albus' arms and at Sasha who was crimson with anger. "Right," she muttered, regaining some control. "I am going to find a teacher and I want you to stay right here. Understand?" Her voice was now quiet, but even more menacing. The boy's nodded meekly. "And you lot," she said in a low voice, pointing at the crowd. "Make sure they stay. Because if you don't, remember, I know exactly who you are and can quite easily get you detentions for the rest of the month." Everyone knew she meant business. With a final withering glare at the boys she stormed off in the direction of the castle, murmuring death threats and ways to kill them violently as she went.

"Whoa!" James gasped as he stepped forward. "You really pushed her this time! If that thing is in anyway dangerous you two are gonna die!"

As soon as she was out of sight, Albus and David started cackling again.

"That was great! The best reaction yet!" David yelled.

Albus fell on the floor and tried to regain his composure.

"'What is that?'" Albus mimicked and started hooting with laughter again. David sat down beside him and they discussed the finer points of her response.

"'You complete idiots!' Why does she always have to be such a moody cow? 'What if that is illegal, dangerous or both?!'" He was lying on his back, tired out. "I mean her face! Priceless! But seriously what it wrong with her? No wonder no-one likes her."

"Personally," A rather wobbly voice said from behind them. "I would say what's wrong with you! You horrible boys! I used to think you were just being silly, but I can see I am now a fairground attraction. Roll up, roll up, come try your hand at winding up Sasha. Well, guess what boys, you just reached the top of the scale. You win!" Tears poured down her cheeks as she shouted at the schoolboy. "And you know what the worst thing is?" Now her voice was throaty and she was yelling to pretty much anyone who could hear her – so anyone in England. "I liked you, Albus! I actually liked you! But now, I'm not so sure..." Sasha trailed off, tears still welling in her eyes and trickling down her cheek. She span around and ran off sobbing.

"Sasha! Wait!" Albus cried. He and David had been staring at her, shocked.

"Well Potter, I hope you can explain all of this." Said a cold voice. Right behind the boys was Professor McGonagall herself. "I was told by Miss Cloudiet that you have been producing potentially dangerous substances and I arrive to see you cruelly gossiping about her. As I said before, I hope you can explain this to me. Follow me." Albus and David stood up slowly and trailed after her timidly. She gathered up the ingredients and passed the struggling blob to James.

"James, I want you to take this to Hagrid, explain the story and ask him what he thinks it is. Be very careful though and do not burst it."

James rotated around slowly and carefully walked to Hagrid's hut. Every so often he would stop and get a better grip on the writhing object which took all his effort to carry in the first place. Eventually he reached the door. Suddenly he wondered how he was supposed to knock. He decided to shout instead.

"Hagrid! Hagrid! Let me in! HAGRID!"

The tall, beefy half-giant opened the door. "Oh, it's yuh James. Though' it was somethin' urgen'."

"It IS!" With that he shoved the globule at Hagrid who grasped it gently, staring. "Albus and David made it by accident, they were experimenting. Have you any idea what it is?"

"Come in James. Can you...can yuh remember how it was made?" He gestured absently towards a chair whilst staring at the blob.

"Well, they had got some things from Uncle Charlie in Romania and decided to try them out. First they mixed salamander scales and dragon nose hair together. Then they melted it and...erm...oh yeah, sprinkled in two ground-up black widow spiders. They got a sort of gooey blob and so added five fist-sized lumps of coal, the juice of a glibousimous hagferium and somehow got there hands on some liquefied moonlight. Then something exploded because one of their hairs fell in and they got covered in purple and green powder and the smoke coming off was orange. They got this and then Sasha walked off and got Professor McGonagall. They started to discuss her reaction and she came up behind them. She started to cry and screamed at them and she heard and said that she liked Albus – if you get me – and stormed off. Now they're being reprimanded by Professor McGonagall." James breathed deeply. He looked at Hagrid who was staring at the blob like it was the most amazing thing ever. Hagrid took a huge breath.

"This...this is a-a-" He stammered, overwhelmed by what he was saying. "A...a dragon." He put so much stress on the words that James was nearly blown over.

"A what?" James mind whirled. He didn't know you could make those, let alone make one some easily and quickly. He thought they had to be born.

"A dragon. No-one ever knew where they came from until a certain wizard thought he found out, whilst doing an experiment. He found that if you used the simplest ingredients mixed with liquid moonligh' you could create one of nature's greatest wonders. Most dragons are still born, but, if they aren't breedin' well or somethin', we can make one. But this one, because it has human hair in it, it will probably be different. We may have to...to...to kill it." He mumbled.

"Why?" James asked, shocked at the thought of killing it.

"It may have things wrong with it. Also I reckon they musta breathed on it a bit so more human things went in. Probably more than one hair fell in, they just didn't notice. Wha-?" Hagrid gasped.

The leathery case was slowly splitting, letting shining liquid run out of it. James grabbed a bucket and placed it underneath and Hagrid placed the glob on a sort of mop drainer.

"We'd best not touch it, the stuff it there cold be poisonous."

Without speaking James and Hagrid grabbed towels and started mopping up around the bucket. Most of the liquid had gone now and the leathery case was being torn open. Whatever was inside was taking the escape from the case in its stride. Soon black claws the size of kitchen knives stuck out and finally, after about ten minutes a medium sized deep purple dragon was there with the scraps of the bubble on the floor. The dragon was about the size of a packing crate and was covered in scales, but it was quite smooth, and its claws looked lethal. Hagrid immediately examined it and then turned to James.

"It looks...Ok. There doesn't seem to be anything wrong, maybe the hairs didn't affect it." He shrugged. "I might as well look after it, until it's big enough to enter the wild."

Suddenly the door slammed open.

"Well?" said a slightly exasperated sounding Professor McGonagall.

"It's a Peruvian Vipertooth dragon." She drew in breath sharply and Hagrid spoke. "I think. An' surprisingly it's Ok. I woulda thought the hairs woulda done somethin' but it's fine. I thought we should look after it until it can go to the wild. There is a two in Bulgaria that he could go to. But he's much too small now." McGonagall was pale.

"Ok." She said quietly. "Just don't let it run loose. And don't get too attached, I know what you're like Hagrid!"

He nodded somewhat reluctantly. "Off yer go James, but don't tell anyone wha' it is. We don't want nosey parkers peepin' in and annoyin' us." James suspected he had to keep it secret for other reasons too, but he kept his mouth shut.

"Bye Hagrid, bye Professor."

"Good day Potter."

He strode back towards the castle, he reckoned it was nearly lunchtime and he was hungry.