A/N: I do not own Harry Potter or his kids or nieces and nephews or anyone else that Jo made up. Some characters are mine, though, so I do own them. Also, I may have made up some of the kids' ages and houses, and stuff, but...
By the way, this is a Newgen fic, meaning, for those of you who don't know, it centers around Harry's kids, Hermione and Ron's kids, et cetera. Please r/r. It makes me a better writer.
Anyway, Chapter One: The Hogwarts Express.
"Come on, Al," James shouted impatiently to his younger brother. "If we hurry, we can sit with Roxie and Lucy. Hey, Rosie!" This was directed to his cousin. "Hurry up, will you?"
Albus followed his brother without question; so far, Hogwarts was James's territory much more than his. Rose, however, stayed behind, sneaking a glance at Scorpius Malfoy, who was beginning to look thoroughly depressed.
"What's wrong?" Rose asked him after a minute.
"I'm fine," he tried to say, before bursting into tears.
Rose was at a loss for words; the blond boy crying shocked her into silence. Before she finished debating with herself whether or not to give him a hug, however, he sniffled and wiped away his tears.
"What's wrong?" she finally tried again.
Scorpius sighed and started talking. "It's just… I don't know; everyone's going to hate me. Because of my dad. 'Cause he was on the Death Eaters' side and…" He tried to keep from crying again.
"You know," Rose said to him, "my mum always says you can't judge a book by its cover."
Scorpius smiled in spite of himself. "What's that mean?" he asked.
"Oh, it's a Muggle saying, 'cause she's Muggle-born, you know," Rose explained with a laugh. "It means like you shouldn't judge someone before you get to know them."
At this point, their conversation was interrupted by Rose's cousin James, who had returned to look for her.
"Rosie!" he shouted, quite unnecessarily, considering the fact that he was two feet away from her. "Are you coming or what?"
She glared at him in such a Hermione-ish way that he swallowed and quickly backed away.
"If you don't hurry, all the seats will be taken," he explained. He looked back and forth between Rose and Scorpius for a moment, and then said to him, "You can come too, if you want."
Rose smiled at Scorpius and gestured for him to follow her.
The compartment to which James led them was nearly full. Louis Weasley, the third child and only son of Bill and Fleur, lounged on the seat across from Fred, George's son. Louis seemed to have inherited enough of his mother's looks to make him into a male version of a veela; he was very popular with the girls. Fred, darker than the other Weasleys, owing to his mother Angelina's complexion, was as much a prankster and fun-lover as his father and his namesake. Fred's younger sister, second-year Roxanne, however, was very studious and was even now poring over her new schoolbooks. Lucy Weasley, Percy's third-year daughter, was explaining some of the finer points of second-year Herbology
(her favourite subject) to Roxanne, who nodded absentmindedly.
Albus was sitting in a corner of the compartment, staring out of the window. There was just enough room for James to squeeze through to sit by his brother and Rose and Scorpius to sit together across from them.
"So," Louis started nonchalantly, "who in here's a first year?"
"Me," answered Rose immediately, seconded by Albus.
"I am, too," replied Scorpius a second later.
"What house do you guys think you'll be in?" Fred asked them seriously.
"Gryffindor, right?" James teased.
Louis gasped in shock and then argued, "No way! Hufflepuff's better."
"Wait a minute!" Rose said, nodding to Scorpius. "He doesn't even know who we all are. We should all introduce ourselves. Look, I'll start. I'm Rose Weasley, and I'm a first year."
"Okay," said the blond Weasley. "I'm Louis Weasley, I'm a fourth year, and I'm in Hufflepuff."
"I'm Lucy Weasley," said the girl sitting next to him. "I'm in my third year, and I'm a Ravenclaw."
Everyone turned to stare at Roxanne, who was completely oblivious to the conversation surrounding her. When she looked up, she glanced at everyone confusedly until Lucy had pity on her enough to say, "We're introducing ourselves, Roxie."
"Oh," the dark-skinned girl said softly. "Roxanne Weasley. Second year. Hufflepuff, like Louis. Your turn, bro," she finished, with a glare to Fred.
"Fred Weasley. I'm Roxie's brother. I'm fourteen, starting my fourth year, and I'm in Gryffindor, like my mum and dad were."
"James Potter," announced James proudly. "I'm in Gryffindor, 'where dwell the brave at heart.' Like my mum and dad, and most of our family, until all of them-" he nodded toward the four Weasleys closest to the door "-came along. Oh, and I'm a second year."
The green-eyed boy by the window looked to the seat opposite his. "I know we're doing this for you. The rest of us know each other. I'm Albus Potter. I'm a first year."
"I'm Scorpius… Malfoy." He winced, as if afraid someone might hex him.
"And he's a first year, too," Rose finished for him.
"So," Fred asked again, "What house do you think you'll be in?"
"I want to be in Gryffindor," Rose said. "Dad said he'd disown me if I wasn't. He was joking, I think, but…"
"I want Gryffindor, too," said Albus, "but it might be cool to be in Slytherin. You know, just because none of the Weasleys or Potters, I don't think, were in Slytherin for generations. And my dad said it didn't matter to him whether I was in Slytherin or Gryffindor."
"I'll be in Slytherin," stated Scorpius matter-of-factly. "All my family have been for a long time.
But I don't know if I want to be."
"My dad said that the Sorting Hat considers your choice, too," Albus told him.
"No, it doesn't," interjected James.
The brothers glared at each other for a minute. Then Roxanne spoke again.
"Are you sure?"
Albus nodded. "Yeah, Dad said it let him choose Gryffindor over Slytherin."
"And my mum said that it almost put her in Ravenclaw," added Rose.
"Well," Scorpius said after considering what the other first years told him, "I don't know what my parents will say if I'm not in Slytherin. Dad was really serious about it."
Rose looked at him for a minute, thinking about what he said. Then she clapped her hands excitedly. "I have the perfect solution!" she shouted. "You can be in Slytherin, and Al and I will try to get in too, so you won't be without friends."
"Hey, that sounds good," Albus agreed.
Scorpius smiled. "I think I'd like that."
Their conversation was interrupted by the approach of the food trolley. After several minutes of debating, each person in the compartment got something different to share with the others, and they laughed and teased all the way to Hogwarts.
Victoire walked in when the Hogwarts Express was nearing its destination. Bill and Fleur's eldest daughter was Head Girl at Hogwarts this year, and she considered it her mission to meet and befriend all the first years by the time the train reached Hogsmeade.
"I'm Victoire Weasley," she announced to everyone in the compartment as she opened the door. "I'm a seventh year, in Gryffindor, and I'm-"
"Head Girl, we know!" interrupted Louis with an exasperated sigh. He rolled his eyes at Scorpius and explained, "My older sister. She's absolutely devoted to being the best Head Girl in history. She's been driving us crazy all summer."
"-Head Girl," Victoire finished. The only indication she gave that she heard her brother was a glare. "Now, what are your names?"
The older students just looked at each other and rolled their eyes. Albus said, "You know us already, Victoire."
"Yeah," Rose chimed in. "Why are you asking us stupid questions like that?" She laughed at her eldest cousin, and the others in the compartment, with the exception of Scorpius, laughed with her.
"Just humour me," Victoire shouted angrily. "Can you at least manage that?"
Rose rolled her eyes at Scorpius before innocently saying, "I'm Rose Weasley."
"Albus Potter."
"Scorpius Malfoy," muttered the blond boy.
"Really?" Victoire seemed pleased. "So you know Teddy, too!"
"Lupin?" Scorpius questioned before breaking into a huge smile. "Yeah, he's my, like, second cousin or something." He paused for a moment as he ran through his family genealogy. "Yeah, second cousin. My grandma and his grandma are sisters. He's nice."
"Well, he's my boyfriend," Victoire told him, her cheeks reddening slightly.
"Cool," Scorpius replied.
"Anyway," Victoire started again, suddenly businesslike, "I don't know what you've heard from your parents about how Hogwarts was when they were there, but it's different now. The house rivalries, you know, like Gryffindor and Slytherin, are gone now. Well, nearly gone. We're all friends, pretty much, and we don't always sit according to house tables. So whatever house you're in, you could easily meet people at your table from any of the other houses. Houses no longer stand in the way of friendship, and neither does blood status, if you're wondering. Anyway, I'll talk to you later. Bye."
And with that, Victoire left the compartment. The eight students in there weren't left alone for long, though, because the two other Weasleys, who had seen Victoire leave, both barged in within a minute.
"Sorry if my sister bothered you," said the older of the two girls. "She's absolutely crazy."
"By the way," the younger added, "She's Dominique, sixth year, in Ravenclaw."
"Not that it matters," Dominique argued before turning back to Scorpius and nodding toward her cousin. "She's Molly, fifth year, and she's in Ravenclaw, too."
Scorpius grabbed his head with both hands and jokingly moaned, "I'll never remember any of this. I'm horrible with names."
"You're a Malfoy," Molly pointed out, tossing her long dark hair. "Draco Malfoy's kid, then."
"How do you know?" asked Scorpius, amazed.
"It's obvious," remarked Roxanne in her soft voice. "It's all in the expression."
"You know what would be cool?" asked James, determined to have all the attention focused on him. "If we could be Animagi."
"That makes no sense," said Dominique.
"Yeah," Molly agreed. "We weren't talking about anything like that."
"Yeah," James said defensively, "well, I was thinking about it."
"How," asked Scorpius, "in Merlin's name, do you jump from my expression proving my ancestry to 'Let's be Animagi'?"
"Hey, we're going to be there soon," James said, blushing.
"Gotta go," Dominique and Molly announced simultaneously.