Not Another Potter Story
By: Prince Raoden

Summary: All is not what it seems after the defeat of Voldemort, and no one knows this more than Harry Potter's son Albus. Who is this new dark lord, and will our savior once again be able to stop him?

Chapter 1: Because I'm Potter

Harry Potter was always a courageous, rash, smart young man, and many of those traits passed down to his son. Albus Potter was born on February 8th and as a toddler got into more mischief than two parents, their other slightly older son James and various family friends could manage. But Harry and Ginny always laughed off the flying toys, multiplying desserts and, in one instance, the destruction of their living room.

Then tragedy struck. On Albus' third birthday, the family of four went to a muggle zoo and Ginny Potter was attacked and killed by a death eater. The death eater got away.

Harry, who was a part-time auror at the time, threw himself into his work after the murder. He became full time and took extra shifts whenever possible. He wanted to know who killed his wife and if there was an underground band of death eaters still active. As the years went on Harry took care of them less and less, although he didn't mean to neglect his children. Albus and James ended up being partly raised by their Grandma Weasley during the fall and winter months, and babysat by Teddy Lupin in the summer.

Then, when Albus was seven, Harry Potter disappeared.

.

.

"Hurry or we'll be late!"

Albus ran after the small crowd that was pushing itself through the muggles towards platform 9 ¾. He always seemed to be last in line, even behind the younger Hugo. "Hold on!" Albus yelled, but the group didn't slow down.

When Albus finally reached the platform, only James was waiting. "Hurry up or you'll make us miss the train!"

Between breaths, Albus said "it wasn't me - who spent - an hour this morning packing - last minute stuff – and then had to do his hair!" He ran past his brother with his cart and grabbed James as he barreled through the entrance.

They landed in a heap on the other side and Albus laughed while James rolled his eyes and picked himself up off the ground, a small smile on his face. As James finished dusting himself off and running his hands through his hair the whistle on the train blew.

Aunt Hermione rushed over to the two, tisked and then grabbed their trunks to put on the train. "Hurry, boys, or you'll miss the Express!"

Uncle Ron picked Albus up off the floor - "Aw, Uncle Ron! Put me down!" - and carried the struggling boy onto the train's steps, where James was already waiting.

"Now you two be good," Hermione said, fussing with James' and Albus' wrinkled clothing. "No fighting, with others or between yourselves."

"Unless it's a Malfoy." Ron interjected.

"No, not even with Malfoy's!" She glared at Ron then looked back to the brothers sternly. "Especially not Malfoy's. Or Slytherin's." Then she smiled. "You two have a good time and I'll see you both over Winter Break."

The train whistled a final time and started moving.

The two Weasley's backed away from the train and waved at their child, Rose, who was leaning out the train window. The little girl yelled "bye mum, bye dad, bye Hugo!"

Harry and James scurried up the steps before the train started moving too fast and started looking for a compartment. James quickly found one with three other second year Gryffindor's in it. A brown haired kid said "C'mon James, Freddy here says he found a spell for tattoos!"

"Just a sec!" James said, looking longingly at the compartment, then back to his brother. "Al, you'll be fine getting to Rose's compartment, right?"

Albus rolled his eyes. "Of course. It's not like I could get lost on a train."

"Okay." James gave Albus a lopsided smile. "If you need anything, I'll be right here. And if Slytherin's give you any trouble…"

"Go to you and you'll blast some sense into them, I know I know. Just go with your friends, I'll be fine." He gave his older brother a reassuring smile.

"Alright midget, I'll see you later!" James ducked into the compartment before Albus could hit him.

Albus continued down the aisle, looking into each compartment as he went. He was looking for Rose, but when he found her surrounded by other giggling girls he decided to continue looking. He shifted the strap of his bag on his shoulder and continued searching.

He passed many open compartments, but he didn't want to sit alone. Finally he found one with only two other young boys, and they looked friendly enough. He knocked on the door and the African boy answered.

"Hello, come in! Would you like to sit here? The more the merrier!"

Albus sat down next to the other boy, a brown haired boy with thick, square glasses. He set his bag on his lap. "Thanks, my name is Albus."

The boy next to him opened his mouth but the african interrupted. "It's nice to meet another friendly face, Albus. I'm Loba Fawcett, second year, Ravenclaw, been pureblooded for ages. Not that I'm against muggleborn or half bloods, no! That's just how we ravenclaws introduce ourselves, you see, with blood status. It helps to show who knows more about the wizarding world, and help muggleborns adjust. Now this here – (he pointed to the brunet) – is Michael. Michael… um…"

"Borage," the boy said with a slightly nasally voice. "Michael Borage. First year, pureblood if you care. I wanted to be in ravenclaw, but now I'm not so sure." He gave a pointed look at Loba.

"Ah yes," Loba said, ignoring the look, "he's Michael Borage. And you are?"

"Albus Potter. First ye-"

"Potter! I know all about your family, we learned about the war last year in history. And then your brother came-"

"Silencio."

Loba's mouth kept moving but no sound was coming out. Albus looked over at Michael who was putting his wand away and was impressed that he could do that spell. "You talk too much," Michael said.

Loba looked angrily at the brown haired boy before turning his gaze to Albus. He mouthed 'do you think I talk too much?'

Albus had to agree but didn't want to offend Loba, so he shrugged. "I dunno, not really?"

While Loba smiled and started babbling away silently, Michael glared at Albus. "Fine, take his side. I'm leaving!" Michael grabbed his bag and slammed the compartment door.

"Wait," Albus started but the boy was already gone. He sighed and looked to Loba who finally stopped talking.

After a few moments Loba mouthed 'what's his problem?'

Albus shrugged. "Sorry, but I don't know the countercurse, unless you know it? No? We could find an older student…"

Loba waved Albus off. For the rest of the train ride the two had fun trying to communicate. Albus remembered something his dad used to do and began writing in the air with his wand. He tried to show Loba how to also. Loba tried, but he couldn't get his lines as clear as Albus'. Eventually they settled on Albus just trying to read the colored boy's lips, which worked alright. Eventually Loba pointed to his wristwatch and held up all his fingers. Ten minutes to go.

"Oh, wow that was fast. We should get changed into our robes then." The two boys got their robes and tie out from their bags and put them over their clothes, Albus' with a solid black tie and Loba's colored blue and bronze. As they finished tying the ties, Loba helping Albus with his, the train began slowing. When it came to a stop they both exited the compartment and got off the train.

"This is where we part," Loba whispered, his voice starting to return. "I go to the carriages, and you on the boats. Hogwarts is beautiful at night, you'll love the first sight. It's the best part of this year for you! Besides the sorting, of course. Try to get into Ravenclaw, it's the best house! Of course, the others are good, too, but we ravens are the best."

"Alright, Loba, and thanks for letting me sit with you. I have to say goodbye to my brother now."

"Sure thing, Albus, see you around!" The black boy waved at Albus as they went their separate ways from the train.

"Into the boats, kids," Hagrid, who Albus had seen a few times at New Years dinner, shouted over the crowd. "Don't wanna be late for your first day at Hogwarts!"

Albus looked for his brother but didn't see him so he went to the boats instead, not wanting to be the last one in. He saw a boat with Rose in it and hurried over. "Hey Rose."

"Al!" she said excitedly. "I missed you on the train." When Albus didn't move, she said, "well, get in!"

Albus sat across from her when two other girls came over. "Oh, hey guys! Al, these two are Tracey and Stacey. We met on the train. You don't mind if they sit with us, do you?"

Albus smiled. "Of course not," he said. He really didn't want to be sitting with three girls, but it was only for the boat ride over, and he hadn't seen Rose at all on the train, so he didn't mind too much. When the two girls sat down and the boat started moving, Albus gave the two girls a smile. "Hi, I'm Albus Potter. It's nice to meet you."

One girl giggled and the other elbowed her. The one not rubbing her side held out her hand. "Tracey Graves. It's nice to meet you too."

Albus shook her hand and then looked from Tracey to Stacey. "Then you're Stacey, right? Are you two twins?"

"Triplets, actually," Tracey said, "but Casey isn't magical."

"Boy was it a surprise when we got our letter!" Stacey added.

Albus nodded. "So you're muggleborn then?"

Stacey narrowed her eyes. "So what if we are?"

"Guys!" Rose said, "Al isn't a pureblooded bigot."

"Oh, well in that case, yes we are muggleborn. We didn't even know about magic until three months ago, and even then we didn't believe it! We can barely believe it now." Stacey smiled. "It's amazing, this entire underground world." She blushed. "Sorry, I'm talking too much again aren't I? I babble. A lot."

"Not as much as this guy I rode the train with," Albus said. "His name's Loba, and he's a second year ravenclaw. Well, he just kept talking and talking until finally this other kid, first year like us named Michael, he cast a silencing charm on him." He continued when the two muggleborn's looked confused, "It made no sound come out of his mouth when he talked."

Stacey and Tracey laughed, but Rose looked thoughtful. "Silencing charms are pretty high level, aren't they? Like second or third year?"

Albus shrugged. "Well, Loba couldn't take it off so I know it's not first year. But Michael's pureblooded so maybe his parents taught him some magic or something."

Rose began to speak but then they heard gasps all around. The four children turned around and saw their first glimpse of the huge, beautiful castle.

"Wow," Rose said and the other three children agreed.

Only moments later the boats came to a stop at the shore. "Outta the boats now kids. We're hiking up the hill."

When the group made it up the hill, Hagrid threw open the castle doors, which scared quite a few of the first years. "Inside now."

When everyone was inside and Hagrid shut the doors and left, Neville entered.

"My name is Professor Longbottom," the tall professor said with a smile. "I'll be bringing you all into the hall to be sorted in just a few moments. While we wait I'm going to be telling you a bit about the sorting system.

"Students are sorted into four houses: Gryffindor for the brave, Ravenclaw for the knowledgeable, Hufflepuff for the loyal, and Slytherin for the cunning. Your house is where you'll stay for your entirety of Hogwarts and it will be like your family. Any questions?"

Tracey raised her hand. "What if I don't get in the same house as my sister?"

Neville smiled reassuringly. "Common rooms are open to any house, however you have to be invited by a member of that house to enter. Also, after the first week of school students are welcome to sit at whichever house table they want to in the Great Hall for meals. Besides all that, I'm sure you two will be in some classes together. Any other questions? No? Then let's get you all sorted!"

Neville opened the doors and ushered the first years inside. It was huge. There were four giant tables sitting at least one hundred students at each table. Then there were two tiers of teachers tables, with many of the older teachers sitting at the farther, taller table and the younger ones seated at the lower table in front of them.

"When I call your name please come up, sit on the stool and place the sorting hat on your head. Alcott, Tina."

A young girl with blonde pigtails walked slowly up to the stool and put the hat on her head. After about ten seconds, the brim of the hat opened and shouted "Hufflepuff!"

Yellow stripes started growing on the girls tie, and her robes became outlined in yellow. The table with a badger over it started cheering and the girl ran over to that house with a smile.

A few names were called and then "Borage, Michael."

The hat was placed on his head. It took nearly a minute before the hat finally shouted "Slytherin!"

Michael walked slowly to the table that was uncharacteristically cheering.

Albus looked away from the boy he sat with on the train as the professor called the next person, "Calcott, Amelia," who was sorted into Gryffindor.

A few minutes later "Graves, Stacey" was sorted into Gryffindor and then "Graves, Tracey" was sorted into Ravenclaw.

They went through another dozen people and Albus was starting to get bored until Professor Longbottom called out "Potter, Albus."

Albus walked cautiously up to the hat like he'd seen the other students do before him. He gingerly took that hat from the stool, sat down and placed it on his head.

"Well what do you know," a voice said in his head, "another Potter. I suppose you'll want to go to Gryffindor, right?"

Albus smiled. "Like my father."

The hat laughed. "You want to be like your father do you? Well then I know where you should go."

Albus held his breath.

"Slytherin!"