Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or its characters.

Shadows of the Past

Chapter One:

Hogwarts

Albus Potter walked down the aisle of the Hogwarts Express, nerves threatening to burst out of his stomach. His trunk rolled along behind him as he followed the bouncing red hair of his cousin Rose. She was sneaking a look into every compartment they passed in an effort to find one that was empty, but thus far they'd had no luck. They were almost to the rear of the train, and Albus was about to suggest that they give up and try to squeeze in with someone else, when Rose let out a triumphant "A-ha!" and surged through the open door of the very last compartment.

"Told you we'd find one!" Rose declared as Albus entered the compartment after her.

He smiled at her before turning to lift his trunk onto the luggage rack above the seats. It turned out to be a more difficult task than he'd expected. His trunk was crammed full of so much stuff that it was quite heavy, even with the featherweight charm that had been placed on it. After almost a full minute of huffing and puffing, Albus finally succeeded, and rewarded himself by collapsing onto the seat unceremoniously. He was not amused to find Rose staring at him with a poorly-disguised smile on her face.

"Well let's see you do it then!" Albus challenged her.

"You wouldn't make a lady stow her own trunk, would you, Mr. Potter?" Rose said, still having trouble containing a laugh.

Albus glared at her, which finally sent her over the edge. He was only able to hold the glare for a few seconds before Rose's laughter became infectious, and he cracked a smile of his own. Albus stood up, and together they grabbed her trunk and heaved it onto the luggage rack with relative ease.

The two of them plopped down on opposite sides of the compartment. Within seconds, Rose had her wand in hand and was practicing the movements of some charms spell she'd been obsessing over for the past week.. Albus sighed quietly at his cousin's antics. She'd barely been able to let the wand out of her sight since she'd gotten it from Ollivander's a few days ago. "It's just so exciting to have my own after all these years!" she'd said at least a dozen times since then.

"I heard that," Rose said absently as she examined her wand thoughtfully.

Before Albus could open his mouth to respond, the compartment door opened. In the corridor beyond was a tall boy with a mop of thick brown hair, a round face, and inquisitive eyes.

"Hello," he said a bit sheepishly, "mind if I join you? Most of the compartments are pretty full."

Rose glanced at Albus who shrugged his shoulders.

"Sure, we've got plenty of room," Rose said, the very picture of warmth.

Albus stood to help the boy with his trunk, but sat back down when the newcomer lifted it onto the rack without much apparent effort. He sat down next to Albus, who scooted closer to the window in order to give their new acquaintance room.

"Are you a first year too?" Albus asked, guessing that the boy looked about his and Rose's age.

The boy nodded.

"My name's Rose," Rose said, "and that is my rude cousin Albus."

"Hey!" Albus said.

"Oh, sorry. He goes by Al," Rose clarified.

"Not that. Whaddya mean I'm rude?"

"Well you didn't even introduce yourself before you started interrogating our friend," his cousin said, adopting the bossy voice that her mother sometimes used.

"I wasn't interrogating him," Albus complained.

"Whatever you say. Try to mind your manners!" Rose chided him.

The tall boy looked back and forth between Rose and Albus before shaking his head slightly and saying, "It's alright, I didn't mind. I'm Ewan."

"Nice to meet you Ewan," Rose said. Albus nodded in agreement.

"Do you know what house you're going to get sorted into?" Ewan asked. From what Albus had gathered while looking for a compartment, that was the question of choice when confronted with an unsorted first year. The nerves he'd felt in the corridor flared again and he struggled to recall his father's words of comfort on the platform.

Rose shrugged. "Well, our parents were in Gryffindor along with most of our family, but we do have two cousins in Ravenclaw. What about you?"

"Oh, well both my parents are er... 'muggles' so I don't really know," Ewan said, putting emphasis on the word muggles. "I read about all the houses though, and Gryffindor does sound pretty cool."

"Your parents are muggles?" Albus asked at the same time that Rose excitedly said, "You've been reading ahead?"

Again, Ewan looked back and forth between them before saying, "Yes, to both questions."

Albus barely suppressed a shudder at the thought of Rose and Ewan filling the entire ride to Hogwarts with discussions of schoolwork, but he was spared that cruel fate when the door to the compartment opened again. Albus looked over to see a girl with platinum blond hair and a sharp jaw standing just outside the door. Behind her stood a large and impressive looking trunk with the letters KSP displayed on the side in silver writing.

"Excuse me, would you guys mind if I sat with you? I think you have the only compartment with less than five people in it already," she said.

"Alright, come on in," Rose said after trading glances with the two other occupants.

"Thanks," the girl said, sounding slightly relieved.

She seemed to be having even more trouble with her trunk than Albus had with his own as she moved into the compartment. Quickly, he stood and offered his help. Together they lifted the trunk onto the rack next to the others.

"Thanks," the girl said gain, taking a seat next to Rose.

Rose, apparently deciding not to leave manners to chance this time, took the liberty of introducing herself, Albus, and Ewan to the new girl. She nodded to each of them in turn before fixing Albus with an intense stare.

"I'm Kris... and you wouldn't happen to be Al Potter, would you?" she asked.

Albus nodded.

"And then you're one of the Weasleys?" Kris asked, turning her gaze to Rose.

Rose nodded as well. "How'd you know?" she asked.

"Well the two of you might look just a little bit like your parents," she said dryly. "And how many other Albus's do you know?"

Ewan looked at Albus and Rose with some confusion.

"Are you famous?" he asked

Albus shook his head, "Just our parents."

"Why?"

Kris scoffed at him. "You must be muggleborn if you don't know about Harry Potter."

Rose's eyes glinted with what Albus recognized as annoyance. "Is there a problem with that?"

"Oh no, not at all," Kris said quickly. "I'm sorry if I came off like that. It's just that everyone grows up hearing about it, so I was surprised you didn't know."

"Don't worry about it," Ewan said with a smile. "You were right in any case, my parents thought my letter was a prank when I got it. It wasn't until Professor Longbottom made the cat float that they believed Hogwarts existed."

Rose and Albus laughed at the thought of Neville making some poor muggles' cat zip around their living room. Kris smiled politely.

"Anyway," the boy said, his eyes shining as he recounted what must have been an exciting day for him, "once I got my books I decided to read up on Hogwarts first since I was going to be there soon. I never got around to reading anything that mentioned anyone named Potter though."

"It's kind of nice to meet someone who's never heard of me actually," Albus said, causing Ewan to beam at him.

Ewan turned to Kris. "What house do you think you'll be sorted into?" he questioned, just as he'd asked Rose and Albus before.

"Oh, well, I'm not entirely sure," Kris responded casually. "My father was in Slytherin, but my mother was in Ravenclaw. I guess I don't really mind where I end up. The sorting hat won't put me anywhere I don't belong, right?"

Albus felt slightly relieved at the girl's words, feeling some of the nerves dying down. That sorting hat was supposed to know best.

"I heard from a boy in Diagon Alley that Slytherin has... a reputation," Ewan said a bit uncomfortably.

"Not anymore," Kris said, evidently catching on to what Ewan was implying. "Slytherin gets a bad name because it's where the ambitious people go. Everyone thinks about Voldemort when someone says Slytherin, but they forget the fact that almost half of the Ministers for Magic are from Slytherin. It's got good people and bad people, like any other house."

"One of the bravest men my dad knew was in Slytherin," Albus piped up, the conversation from the platform coming back to him now. "He was a hero that helped defeat Voldemort."

Ewan looked confused for a moment before he blurted out, "Who's Voldywart?"

The other three began laughing, and Ewan slowly turned a light shade of red.

"Sorry," Rose said smiling, "You just said it a funny way. I guess we should explain that since you're bound to hear the other students mention it a lot." Rose launched into a somewhat abbreviated explanation of the war against Voldemort, causing Albus to roll his eyes as she entered into full-bookworm mode. Ewan seemed fascinated by the history lesson, while Kris looked at Albus with what he would describe as an amused smirk.

"Wow!" Ewan said when Rose had finished her lecture. "I can see why your parents are famous!"

Albus felt his cheeks burn slightly, as they did whenever one of his parents was recognized in public.

"Well of course they're famous. They were Gryffindors after all," Kris said with an amused expression.

"What do you mean?" Ewan asked.

"Just that it's not the quietest of houses. It's kind of hard not to be noticed if you're living up to the boldness of the house."

Rose furrowed her brow thoughtfully as Albus nodded. He supposed that it made a certain amount of sense. A sense of panic began to fill him as he thought about the future. Would his parents expect him to do great things after being sorted into Gryffindor? They'd never mentioned anything like that, but in his family you practically had to be famous just to fit in. He wanted to make everyone proud, but he didn't want to be the center of attention...

Before he could think any further about what his parents might expect, his train of thought was interrupted by another member of his family. The door to the compartment had been thrown open rather roughly, revealing Albus's annoyed looking brother, James, flanked by a couple of his friends.

"Hey, Al. Mom told me that I had to check on you guys once the train was on the way," James said dramatically.

"Well I think we're do-" Albus began before James cut him off.

"Okay, great." James looked like he was about to go before he paused, his eyes brightening. "Hey, do you guys want to see a cool spell?"

Instantly, Albus became suspicious. He had been pranked too many times by James to ask him to demonstrate anything. Before Albus could reply though, Ewan's eyes lit up as he excitedly answered in the affirmative.

"Alright!" James said, producing his wand with a flourish that Albus had seen him practicing in the mirror at home. James made a big show of clearing his throat and assuming a balanced stance before abruptly pointing his wand at Albus and saying, "Aguamenti!"

A jet of water shot out of the end of the wand, completely soaking Albus. James's friends roared with laughter in the corridor, while James himself dipped into a mock bow for the occupants of the compartment. Albus stood up, and was about to tell James off before Kris beat him to it.

"Very impressive," the blond girl said, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

James's smile turned into a glare as he regarded the girl. "I think so, it's a pretty advanced spell," he retorted.

Kris smiled, "Too advanced actually. I was under the impression that it wasn't taught until fifth year at the earliest, which means..." Kris quickly reached out from her seat by the door and snatched James's wand away, "this is a trick wand." She punctuated her statement by easily snapping the wand in half, revealing that it had no magical core inside.

"Well, so what?" James asked, clearly upset that someone was raining on his parade.

"So, maybe you should actually do something impressive next time you decide to show off," Kris replied with a smirk.

James's expression went from flustered to shocked to angry before he slammed the compartment door shut and stalked off. Kris dropped the pieces of the fake wand onto the seat next to her before looking at Albus. "Your brother?" she asked.

"James," Albus said nodding.

"Not very impressive, is he?" she said dismissively.

Rose's laugh sounded a bit forced. "He's not so bad."

Kris simply shrugged. "Do you need a towel or something?" she asked Albus. "I should have stuff in my trunk."

"No, it's okay. I think the water's charmed to vanish after a minute." He had seen James use wands like that before. In fact, he was pretty sure that they were invented by his Uncle. Sure enough, within a few minutes Albus was completely dry.

Rose asked Ewan a question about the books he'd been reading, and they started excitedly chattering about Hogwarts as Albus stared out the window. The terrain was moving by quickly, but they were still quite a ways from the school. Suddenly, Albus's body realized just how early it had been forced to wake up, and he had to stifle a yawn. Apparently that didn't help, because as he watched the landscape flying by outside his window, Albus began to feel drowsy...

Albus's eyes snapped open, and he felt a moment of anxiety as he scanned the unfamiliar surroundings before he realized where he was. He took a moment to rub the sleep out of his eyes before sitting up straight and stretching. That was when Albus noticed how empty the compartment seemed.

"Uh, where is everyone?" Albus mumbled to Kris, who was currently the compartment's sole other occupant.

"Your cousin went to have a word with your brother I think, and the other boy—Ewan—said something about the restroom." There was a newspaper sitting on her lap, but she didn't seem to be reading it at the moment.

"Oh, what did I miss?" Albus asked, not really sure what else to say.

"Nothing really. There was a lot of conversation, but nothing too interesting. The snack trolley came by a while ago, your cousin got you some chocolate frogs. Here." She said, tossing three of the packages to Albus, who deftly snatched them out of the air, despite his grogginess.

"Thanks," he said.

"Nice catch," Kris said, appearing genuinely impressed.

"Thanks," Albus said with a smile. "My family plays Quidditch a lot so catching things is kind of second-nature now."

"Runs in the family?" Kris asked.

"I guess."

Kris continued looking at Albus, who began to feel a bit uncomfortable under her gaze. Apparently noticing, the girl smiled, softening her features quite a bit. "Sorry. People tell me I stare sometimes."

"It's okay," Albus said.

"You know. You're not really how I thought you would be," Kris said a bit offhandedly.

Before Albus could ask exactly what she had thought he would be like, Ewan came bouncing back into the compartment, still as excited as ever. "I can't believe magic!" he exclaimed. "Even the bathrooms are—" he stopped upon seeing the look that Kris was giving him and meekly took his seat again. Albus chuckled slightly, seeing that Rose might have a rival when it came to looks of disapproval.

Albus started slightly as the enchanted lights in the train jumped to life. He looked outside to find that it was later than he had thought; the sun had sunk almost completely under the horizon.

"Glad to see you're awake!" Rose's teasing voice called from behind Albus. He turned away from the window as she entered the compartment and sat back down across from him. "I was just talking to James. He said we'd be arriving soon, so you should probably change into your robes," she said, looking between Albus and Ewan.

The girls already had their robes on, so they chatted amicably while the boys rummaged around in their trunks for their school uniforms. Albus was glad his mother had been kind enough to put his uniform on top of his belongings as he saw Ewan rummaging around in his trunk as he awkwardly stood on his seat so he could reach the luggage rack.

When Ewan finally managed to locate his robes he jumped down from his seat and then looked at the girls uncomfortably. "Er, should you two step out in the hall, or...?" he asked.

"Don't be silly, just put them on over your regular clothes," Rose told him as Kris snickered.

"Oh, right," Ewan said, looking embarrassed.

As Albus shrugged his robes on, he felt his apprehension beginning to build. He wasn't so worried about where he'd be sorted now, but the thought of having to go in front of the entire school as an ancient magical object judged his character wasn't his idea of fun. Putting on the robes made the fact that he was on the way to Hogwarts seem more real, and that got butterflies fluttering in his stomach again.

Hoping to settle his nerves, Albus absently opened one of the chocolate frogs that Rose had gotten him. The frog tried to jump away, but Albus grabbed it absently as he looked at the card to see who he'd gotten. A pang of homesickness hit him as Albus saw a familiar face smiling at him.

"Who's that?" Ewan asked.

Albus handed him the card.

"Oh cool, your dad is on collector's cards?" Ewan said, flipping it over. "Most famous for his opposition to, and eventual defeat of Lord Voldemort in 1998, Harry Potter is currently the head of the Auror's Office for the Ministry of Magic. He is married with three children and still harbors a love of Quidditch," Ewan read aloud.

Sensing that Ewan was about to ask a question, Rose explained to him what Aurors were. He nodded along and when she was finished asked, "So he's like a police officer."

"More like the police officer," Kris said, joining the conversation.

"That's putting it a bit simply, but close enough," Rose added.

Ewan nodded and moved to hand the card back to Albus who shook his head. "Keep it. I've got plenty back home," he said.

Ewan thanked him and tucked the card into one of his robe pockets before he began speculating about what kind of food there would be at the opening feast. Rose, who had inherited her father's appreciation for food, began talking about all sorts of wonderful dishes that she was just dying to have. Albus did his best to appear interested, but the knot in his gut made it difficult for him to contribute much.

Before long, the train lurched and began to slow. The lights of a village in the distance grew brighter as the train got closer, and Albus knew that they were almost there.

As soon as the train stopped, Rose practically jumped out of her seat. She pulled her trunk off the luggage rack roughly, causing Albus to have to duck to avoid being hit in the head. "Sorry!" Rose said, bouncing up and down slightly as she pulled her trunk into the corridor. Ewan grabbed his trunk and followed her out. Albus carefully pulled Kris's trunk down and handed it to her. She thanked him, and grabbed his arm before he could reach for his own trunk.

"You don't need to be nervous," she said with a smile. Apparently she had the ability to read minds.

Albus just smiled back and nodded, not sure what to say. She waited for him to get his trunk down before they followed the others into the crowded corridor. The combined conversations of the students on the train had raised the noise level in the corridor to a dull roar, so Albus just did his best to tune the sound out.

After what seemed like a long time, Albus stepped off the train behind the others, pulling his trunk along after him. He barely had time to get his bearings before he was being jostled towards the carriages by the mass of students on the platform. Albus's attempts to stick with his friends seemed fruitless until he head a familiar voice call his name.

"Al?" the gruff voice said.

Suddenly, he was lifted off his feet, pulled away from the river of students, and set gently in front of the biggest man he'd ever met. "Hey, Hagrid," Albus said happily, smiling up at his parents' friend.

"Nice ter see yeh Al. How're yer parents doin'?" Hagrid asked through a thick mane of hair that was just beginning to see streaks of grey.

"They're great," Albus said, feeling a lot better now that he had seen a familiar face.

"Ah, well that's good ter hear. Alright' now, come an' stand over here, I've gotta job ter do an' all," Hagrid said with a wink and a smile. Turning from Albus, he raised the lantern he held in his hand and started shouting for the first years. Rose was the first to reach him, dragging Ewan along by the arm behind her. The muggleborn boy looked up at Hagrid wide-eyed, clearly never having seen someone that large before.

"Hey, Hagrid!" Rose said brightly.

Hagrid greeted her happily before directing her to where Albus was standing nearby. Rose walked over to him, pulling along a stumbling Ewan who was still staring at Hagrid. "Hey, Al. I got a little worried when I couldn't find you after I got off," Rose said with a touch of concern.

"I just got caught in the flow. Hagrid rescued me though." Albus felt a touch of embarrassment at Rose's motherly concern, but she was always like that.

Rose chided him about being more careful, making Albus's ears burn even more, before she went back into her excited-beyond-expression mode and resumed the bouncing she'd started in the train corridor. Albus suppressed a laugh at her antics as the trio was joined by other first years that trickled over to Hagrid out of the main stream of students. Among them was Kris, who walked over to stand between Albus and Rose.

"Wow, that must be the biggest man I've ever seen!" she said.

"He's a big softy though," Albus replied.

"You know him?"

Albus nodded, quickly explaining to Kris how his parents had befriended Hagrid during their time at Hogwarts. She nodded at his explanation and said, "It must have been nice being friends with the groundskeeper. He could probably get you out of trouble if you ever got caught outside the castle after hours."

"Well, I never really thought about that, but I guess so," Albus said with a laugh. He was well aware of his parents' tendency to skirt the rules at Hogwarts, despite their adamance that Albus should abide by them.

By now the only other people left on the platform were a few lingering students that apparently didn't feel any need to hurry to the carriages Albus could see up a path in the distance. Hagrid did a quick headcount. Satisfied that he had gathered all of the first years, he loudly cleared his throat, causing all conversation to abruptly end. Hagrid indicated that everybody should follow him as he set off down the platform. Rather than leading the group to the carriages that the other students were congregating around, Hagrid took them to a dock which currently housed several large wooden boats.

"Alrigh' now, everyone an' yer trunks in the boats. Four to a boat," Hagrid commanded.

The students did as instructed and clambered into the boats with their trunks. Albus tossed his trunk into the nearest boat before nimbly hopping aboard. He turned around and helped his three companions get their trunks aboard, and soon they were all situated and waiting to depart. Albus noticed that, despite not being tied off by any visible means, the boats remained motionless in the water, even as the students in them shuffled around.

"Everyone alrigh'?" Hagrid asked. Getting no response, he nodded. "Okay. Let's go."

As he spoke the last word, the boats suddenly lurched into motion. They quickly left the safety of the harbor behind as they moved out across the surface of a lake that seemed pitch black save for the reflections from the village they had just left.

Rose was excitedly telling the other passengers everything she knew about the lake. Apparently it housed a giant squid that had supposedly been raised by Rowena Ravenclaw. In the distance, a speck of light that Albus took to be Hogwarts got larger and brighter as they moved. Before long, the speck had resolved itself into many different lights, which marked the windows dotting the various towers of the castle. Albus heard more than one student gasp in awe at the school, and he had to admit that it was impressive, even if you'd been expecting it.

As they drew even closer, the sense of scale started to kick in, and Albus was even more impressed. He looked over and saw that Ewan's eyes seemed to be permanently stuck open as wide as saucers.

The boats continued onwards, eventually passing through a hidden cave mouth that was cut into the rock under the castle. The cave extended into a long—and Albus suspected, magically constructed—tunnel. The tunnel seemed to stretch under the school itself.

"They must be taking us up through the dungeons," Rose mused aloud, her voice echoing off the smooth rock walls of the tunnel.

Albus nodded, but his mind was elsewhere. The sorting was fast approaching, and he was concentrating all of his effort on clamping down his stubbornly rising nerves. Albus looked up ahead and saw a round-faced man garbed in black robes standing on a dock waiting for their arrival. The boats glided to a smooth halt at the dock, and all the students climbed out, leaving their luggage behind at Hagrid's gruff instruction.

"Thanks for getting them here Hagrid," the man said before raising his voice and addressing the students. "If you would all come over here in front of me please," he said with a smile. The students quickly complied and Albus found himself standing at the front of the crowd next to Rose, who was beaming at the man in front of them.

"Hi, Neville!" she whispered excitedly.

Neville winked at her and Albus before addressing their fellow students. "I am Professor Longbottom. If you would all follow me, the sorting will begin shortly."