All was well, but still Harry looked into the billowing steam clouds that followed the Hogwarts express. A sense of uneasiness had settled in the bottom of his stomach, but he just passed it off as being in relation to watching his favorite child's face disappear into the distance. Harry knew that he wasn't supposed to have a favorite, and he made excuses to himself about it every now and then. He told himself that they were each his favorite for different reasons; James for being so like the Weasley twins, with his exorbitant sense of mischief and skill for trickery, Lily for being a sweet and curious little firecracker, and Albus for being....well, so like he had been when he was younger. Maybe that was precisely why Albus was his favorite and he also had a feeling it was why he still felt uneasy after the train had wandered around the corner and started it's journey to Hogwarts.
Still, he mouthed something that looked like "Constant vigilance, Albus", into the void where both his sons had gone before he felt Ginny lightly squeeze his arm. Taking that as his signal, he joined hands with his wife and daughter and left platform 9 and ¾ behind.
On the Hogwart's Express, James and his friends had found compartment 15, which just so happened to be the trolley that Rose and Albus were sitting in. James once again proceeded to torment Albus.
James was still stuck on the Slytherin issue and was standing in the compartment and pointing at his brother.
He sniggered before he said, "You know what I bet the next headline of the Daily Prophet will be Al? Behold! The youngest Potter boy becomes a SLYTHERIN!"
Color rushed to Albus' cheeks and he started to say, "But dad said----" But he couldn't get his sentence out over the howling of James and his two companions. Rose was being squished against the window by James, and her eyes were glinting angrily at him. She looked as if she was trying to form a sentence, but was simply too enraged to do it.
James, a bit flustered that he wasn't getting a grand reaction from his younger brother, proceeded to stick his face right in Albus'.
"Slytherin, Al. You'll be in with those slimy sons of snakes...the house that Tom Riddle was in...."
This did get to Albus and he could feel the anger bubbling up inside of him. His fists were clenched in sweaty balls at his side, and angry tears were starting to well up in his eyes. He'd been so excited to go to Hogwarts this morning and now James was ruining it for him. His older brother seemed to take sport in tormenting him and poor Albus hadn't a clue why. He was about to scream at Albus to bugger off when another unfamiliar voice spoke up.
"You are the Potter who should have been the Slytherin, James. It seems to me like you'd do anything to get what you want. Your goal now is to get a rise out of your brother and I can see you are getting very frustrated that it's not working. I dare say I don't think you'll give up until you get him really riled. Personally, my advice is to come off it and go back to your own compartment."
The voice was coming from behind a very large and old looking volume of
"Hogwarts: A History" in the corner of the compartment next to Albus. The only part of the girl you could see above it was a mop of smooth dark waves and the only thing below were the immaculate robes ending in two rather dainty feet.
James was turning a shade of red that almost matched the color of his flaming hair. He elbowed the handsome dark haired boy on his right, who had let out a small bark of laughter at the girl's sharp words and then turned to address of the cover of "Hogwarts: A History".
"Who are you to be telling me I should have been a Slytherin? And what if I want to sit in this compartment and spend time with my brother anyway?"
Albus rolled his eyes at the statement. James' idea of spending time with him was incessantly torturing him in someway or another. Sometimes, in a rare moment, James would be tender to him and Albus knew when it came down to it his older brother would stick up for him, but he couldn't help feeling there was a more sinister emotion behind James' tormenting remarks.
The girl behind the book cleared her throat and then lowered the tome ever so slightly, so James could see the bridge of her nose and a set of brilliant blue eyes. She fixed him with a piercing stare and said, with what sounded like a smirk in her voice, "Last time I checked it wasn't cool for second years to hang out with first years. At least that seems to be the general opinion of that attractive Hufflepuff you were ogling before, James. I think she just walked past the compartment."
James quickly jumped up and dragged his two friends with him. His promptness wasn't only because of the hot embarrassment that was now creeping up the back of his neck but it was also because of the peculiar feeling the girl's eyes had given him. He felt like his entire history of wrongdoing had been exposed to her and she was examining every sin he had ever committed. He had felt as if she could see through him. Her blue eyes had cut into him as surely and sharply as Godric Gryffindor's sword had lopped off Nagini's head. Before he left the compartment, he shot a scathing look at Albus and Rose and then slammed shut the door behind him.
Rose fixed a rather confused but grateful stare at the girl behind the book and said, "Thank you." just as Albus asked curiously, "So who are you anyway?"
The girl behind the book turned a page noisily and then put the volume down. This revealed a pretty but sharp featured face that held two of the bluest eyes Albus had ever seen. The girl's ebony curls fell just past her shoulders and served to make her complexion look more glowingly pale than it already was. Albus had a fleeting thought that the girl sitting next to him was very beautiful.
Something made Rose giggle a bit in the seat across from him and Albus only realized that he had been staring after Rose addressed him in an amused tone.
"Albus, your mouth is hanging open."
"Oh, right sorry."
The girl let this exchange smoothly pass between the cousins before she spoke.
"My name is Athena Morgana LeFay, and it is a pleasure to meet you both. I am also going to be a first year at Hogwarts."
Though the girl spoke in a quite a formal fashion, Albus couldn't help but notice her tone was a great deal warmer than it had been when she had been scolding James and he was grateful for it.
Just as she finished her introduction and gave them a small smile the lunch trolley clattered toward their compartment. Rose bought a stack of cauldron cakes and a chocolate frog, Athena oddly enough bought nothing, and since Albus wasn't very hungry he decided that just a single chocolate frog would suit him. As soon as he opened it he shoved it hastily in his mouth before it could start moving. Rose had decided to eat her chocolate frog as well and stopped in the middle of an animated conversation about Hogwarts that she had gotten into with Athena.
"Look, Albus!" Rose excitedly exclaimed, "I got your Dad's card!"
Albus looked at the card in her outstretched hand and indeed did see his father blinking back at him from the card.
"Who'd you get?"
Albus looked down at his own card and was surprised to see his namesake before him. Albus Dumbledore looked up at him from the chocolate frog card, his twinkling blue eyes boring unmercifully into him. Albus had a sudden thought that there was something unusually familiar about that gaze before Athena, who had been staring out the window quickly rounded on him.
"Could I please have that?" she asked politely and with what Albus thought was a rather apologetic looking smile.
Before he could even get his "Er---sure" out of his mouth she had daintily procured the card from his hand.
Athena turned to Rose and said, "He got Albus Dumbledore, one of the cards I am missing from my collection."
Rose looked at her incredulously.
"You collect chocolate frog cards?"
Deadpan, Athena answered, "Yes."
And that is when the three of them dissolved into fits of laughter. They knew she was telling a fib, they simply didn't know why. And even though this was cause for wonder and suspicion upon the cousin's part, there had been something extremely humorous in the way she had answered. Their fits of laughter seemed to break the remaining tension that had existed between the cousins and their new acquaintance.
"So, are you excited for the sorting?" Rose asked, aglow with possibility as she nervously cast a glance at the descending dusk outside the window, checking if they were close.
Athena frowned fleetingly before answering, which Albus couldn't help but think to be a particularly odd thing to do when talking about getting sorted into Houses. He thought the whole thing would be dreadfully exciting, though he had to admit he was a bit nervous as well.
"I've heard the sorting hat has added a few things to his opening salutations." Athena said rather darkly.
Albus' eyes brows shot up into his mop of unruly black hair.
"Like what?"
Athena sighed and Albus had a briefly odd thought that she looked a bit like someone he knew when she sighed in that particular manner.
"I really can't say," she said in hushed tones, "Apparently it makes some people a little uncomfortable."
Rose shifted anxiously in her seat. In fact it was more of a squirm.
"Oh." She said curtly, reminding Albus of her mother, "Well I guess we'll see then won't we? What house do you think I'll get sorted into?" The discomfort had passed and the enthusiasm was back. At the sound of the eagerness in his cousin's voice, Albus could feel his own excitement swirling within him, despite his brother's earlier teasing.
Athena peered intently at her with her peculiar eyes and seemed to throw something around in her head for a bit before answering.
"Gryffindor or Ravenclaw I think," she offered a kind smile, "upon first impressions anyway."
Rose seemed contently smug with this and then back in her seat.
Albus craned towards Athena his eyes wide and glittering.
"What about me?"
"Certainly you are no Slytherin," Athena snorted, "But with you I honestly say I haven't a clue."
"Oh." Al slumped back in his seat, but perked up a little when Athena smiled at him and leaned forward.
"But don't worry I am sure the sorting hat will sort you out, after all that is what it is for!"
Before they knew it, the cousin's and their mysterious friend where dissolved into giggles again.
As the ride wore on Al noticed that more students were making their way from compartment to compartment but none were actually coming in theirs, they were only stopping to stare. He thought he saw his father's name mouthed in reverence by a couple of the students that stopped to gawk and fidgeted a bit in his seat because all of the eyes looking at him made him uncomfortable. He had the brief thought that his father must have felt the a little bit like this on his first train ride to Hogwarts. The thought comforted him in an odd way and the three companions engaged in happy conversation until the compartment door opened.
They all stopped, stunned for a moment before a smile wound it's way across Albus' face.
"Victoire!" he sniggered at her, "I can't believe you and Teddy..."
"Oh, put a lid on it Al!" she proclaimed good-naturedly and reached out to ruffle his hair.
"Hullo V," Rose exclaimed softly, not shying away when her older cousin leaned over to plant a kiss on her head.
"Who's your new friend?" the beautiful 7th year asked curiously, peering at the girl that sat nest to Albus, the top of her black trussed head once again buried in "Hogwarts; A History."
Once again Athena's strange blue eyes popped over the top of the heavy book, followed by the rest of her fine featured face.
"Athena Morgana LeFay. It is very nice to meet you."
Albus noticed something flicker in his older cousin's eyes.
"Merlin's beard! LeFay? You wield a powerful last name."
Athena's mouth twitched a little bit and she shrugged.
"I believe my branch is only distantly related to the LeFay's of Avalon."
Rose started to chitter excitedly about not having made the obvious connection before but Albus' mind was elsewhere.
Morgana LeFay, yes, he remembered Aunt Hermoine telling him something about her once. What had it been? She had been a famous student of Merlin's, half sibling to King Arthur. And the LeFay family was the only wizarding line to know of Merlin's seven secrets.
"BLIMEY!" he suddenly shouted, very loudly and stopped whatever conversation had been carrying on while he had been lost in thought. He suddenly realized every member of the party in his trolley was peering at him expectantly.
"Oh sorry." he muttered and then fixed his gaze onto Athena.
There was an awkward silence for a moment before Albus started to ask the question that had been eating inside of him for the past two minutes, "So Merlin---"
Athena cut him off right away, "If I knew any of the Seven Secrets I couldn't tell anyway because it would become too much of a liability for myself and my family. As far as I know there is one secret hidden in each family branch. I am not a secret keeper, on Merlin's grave." She added for extra measure to ward off their disbelieving stares.
"Well whether you are or you aren't I would sure like to have a LeFay in my house!" Victoire told her before turning to her cousins, "And of course another Potter and another Weasley too. But you must promise to be on your best behavior! I will be your Headgirl after all. Gather your things, the train's pulling into Hogsmeade! I have to run and change into my school robes!" she said rather breathlessly. Then, with a wink, "See you all at the Gryffindor table."
Rose was still shaking her head, "I can't believe I didn't make the connection. Mum would be so disappointed in me---"
"Oh come off it Roe. I am sure poor Athena is tired of putting up with all of that Merlin's seven secret business from people anyway. Come on, we're here!"
With that, the trio jostled out onto the platform at Hogsmeade and took their first steps towards their first year at Hogwarts and their first great adventure.
