I wrote this after seeing the final movie in theaters at midnight on opening night and have finally decided to post it. I hope it won't be too awful and if you have any ideas about future chapters please review or PM me.

Chapter 1

"Um… can I sit here?" a girl asked Albus. He nodded mutely and she slid into the compartment, taking the seat opposite him and looking out the window. After a few minutes in a compartment with his brother he had gotten tired of the noise and slid into an empty compartment to get some quiet.

"I'm Albus," Albus said after a moment. "Are you a first year?" he asked. She nodded

"Yeah," she said. "What about you?"

"First year," he said. "What house do you want to be in?"

"Gryffindor or Slytherin," she said. "My dad was in Hufflepuff and my mom was in Ravenclaw and they fight over which house I'm going to be in constantly so I don't want to be in either."

"Everyone in my family has been a Gryffindor so I guess I want to too. My older brother teases and says that I might be a Slytherin," Albus said. The girl crinkled her nose.

"Don't you just want to be your own person?" she asked. Albus didn't reply so she continued. "You're not your mom or your dad or your brother or anybody other than you. Why do you want to be in Gryffindor just because they were?"

"I- I don't know," Albus said. "I guess I've never really thought about it."

The food trolley interrupted their conversation. Albus bought a few snacks and the girl managed to round up enough coins in her pocket for a chocolate frog. She nibbled it slowly, trying to make it last before peeking at the card. Albus glanced at it and saw Ptolemy before the girl tucked it into her pocket.

The girl slipped into a different compartment to change into her robes after a while before coming back in her robes. Once the train stopped she disappeared into the crowd and Albus realized he hadn't gotten her name. He'd have to look for her during the sorting.

Albus was extremely nervous during the sorting, but he was also thinking about what his dad and the girl had said. Why should he want to be in one house just because his family had been in that house? And just because some awfully bad people had come from one house didn't mean good people couldn't come from that house too.

"Potter, Albus."

With his nerves calmer, Albus climbed the steps and sat onto the stool. The ratty old hat was lifted onto his head.

"Hmm…" he could hear it say. "You're very brave, but very determined… Gryffindor or Slytherin?" it mused.

"Where does the girl go?" he thought, and then realized that the hat heard him.

"What girl?" it asked.

"On the train, there was a girl and she was talking to me. Told me that I shouldn't want to be in a house just because my family had been there and I shouldn't want to not be in a house because some bad people had come from it. She said I should just be my own person," he thought.

"Slytherin!" the hat declared for all to hear. Albus could see James's shocked eyes as he hurried to the Slytherin table. Oddly, he wasn't too disappointed that he wasn't going to be with his brother. Away from his parents and brother and friends, it would be a good time to figure out who he really was, even if he was a Slytherin.

The girl was one of the last students to be sorted and Albus learned that her name was Cade Wiley. She was sorted into Slytherin and sat next to Albus on the bench.

"I don't care what you're brother says," she said to him after the sorting was over. "We're going to have fun no matter what anybody says."

Quidditch

"Stick your right hand over the broom and say UP," Madam Hooch's daughter, Madam Hooch, instructed.

"UP!" everyone shouted. Albus and Cade glanced at each other as the broomsticks jumped into their hands and grinned. There were a three in the Gryffindors and they were the only Slytherins who were able to do so. Madam Hooch showed them how to mount the broomsticks and let them kick off. Since the time Albus's dad had been at school the rules had changed. First years were allowed on the Quidditch teams, but it was rare, being as many of them had never ridden a broomstick or simply had no talent. But none the less the Slytherin captain looked at Albus and Cade with interest as they both took to flying immediately.

"Madam Hooch," the Slytherin captain , a lean fifth year boy, said. "I want to take these two out to the Quidditch field and test them out. They look like they might have some potential. Madam Hooch nodded and the boy brought the two first years out to the Quidditch field.

The two first years took turns experimenting with the Bludger, Quaffle, and catching golf balls that the Captain, whose name was Thomas Ringtown, tossed into the air.

"Well," Ringtown said. "You're too small to be Chasers or Keepers, but your both fantastic with the golf balls and Bludger." An idea seemed to pop into his head. "You'll be Seeker," he said to Albus. "You'll be a Beater, but if he isn't at a game you fill in for him." The two nodded and grinned at each other. "Our first game is against Gryffindor so train hard."

Albus gulped. James was a Gryffindor Beater.

First Game

The whole schooled seemed to be in the stands before the game started. Albus was thinking about the letter he had gotten from his father. He had told him about making Slytherin Seeker. Harry had told him it was great and to be cautious of his brother if Slytherin won. Albus had already known that.

"You're going to do great," Cade whispered. Albus smiled at her and they mounted their broomsticks. Albus looked for his brother and found him with Gryffindor's other Beater, their cousin, Freddie Weasley who was a second year.

"Let the game begin!" Madam Hooch said, blowing her whistle after she gave her expectations of the game. The Bludgers flew into the air and Chasers dived towards the Quaffle. Cade smacked the Bludger away from Albus as his eyes scanned the field for a flash of gold. The Gryffindors were in the lead by ten points, thirty to twenty, when he spotted it. Cade noticed where he was looking and hit a Bludger towards the other Seeker as he dived after it. It gave him a good head start and he didn't waste it.

Albus had his hand stretched out by the time the Gryffindor Seeker caught sight of the Snitch. Several tense seconds then… Albus looked at his palm. There sat the Snitch.

Beaming, Albus held it over his head and the Slytherins roared with delight and the Gryffindors howled with defeat. James scowled and the Gryffindor Seeker shot him the finger. Honestly, Albus didn't care. He'd just helped his team win his first Quidditch game! His chest swelled with pride.

"I told you," Cade said afterwards. "I told you you'd do great!"

Albus grinned at her. "You did great too. There's no way I could have gotten to the Snitch in time if you hadn't hit that Bludger at their Seeker," he said. Cade seemed a bit proud about that, but she hid it well.

"Albus!" James roared. That was all he had time to say before Cade and Albus disappeared behind the older, taller Slytherins.