Read and please, please comment! This is my first story and I'll only write more if someone wants to read it.
Chapter 1
After saying a half-hearted goodbye to his parents Albus followed Rose onto the Hogwarts Express, his mind hardly soothed by his father's reassurance. He followed Rose on auto-pilot into the only remaining carriage.
"You're nervous, aren't you?" Rose said.
"Aaww, look, the girl's a genius!" he replied sarcastically, smiling only slightly, and to be honest: only joking slightly. She rolled her eyes at him,
"Whatever." They sat together talking and joking for a while, they bought chocolate frogs when the trolley came round, then they talked and made fun of James, until finally Rose said, "Anyway we'd better get changed, we'll be arriving soon."
"Kay, back in a moment" Albus left the carriage, made his way to the toilets, changed and when he returned, Rose too was changed into her new, black, robes and was just putting her elegant hippogriff hair and hawthorn wand into her pocket: another reminder for Albus that he had a wand made out of materials that had only ever been used to evil ends, the dreaded mix of willow and dragon heart-string. This would have been fine, had it not felt so at home in his hand, when he was holding it he felt powerful: although nobody knew, spells had burst out of him, they had come into his head, and when he tried them out they had looked powerful, a silvery substance had spilt out of his wand and condensed into the unmistakable shape of a Cobra, it was only there for a second before it dispersed, but it shook Albus to the core. As he thought this, and felt the train pulling to a stop outside his new school and all at once he wished he hadn't eaten.
As they got off the Hogwarts Express, along with the massive rabble of older, bigger students Albus heard Hagrid calling "Firs' years come this way."
Albus followed Hagrid to a small bay by the Hogwarts Lake where a small fleet of boats were waiting for them.
"No more than 4 to a boat, hurry up now, come along there." Albus hurried over to a boat where Rose was already waiting. Soon after, 2 boys came and joined them, one of which was Draco Malfoy's son, the other he didn't know.
With a bump the boats started off and it wasn't long before the star struck students were staring at the imposing, yet beautiful face of Hogwarts Castle. They were so dumbfounded they didn't see the fast approaching shore, so they all jumped when the boats sprouted legs and walked them safely to shore.
"All o' yer, in the castle now, move it, come on now. We gotta get to the castle fer the sortin'"
They all went inside and were immediately blasted with warm air, drying them instantly. They made their way to the hall; legs shaking and only stopped once they reached the massive oak doors of the great hall. Professor McGonagall (apparently the daughter of one of the teachers when his father was at school) gave them a once over - checking their robes and ensuring their hats were straight before leading them briskly into the Great Hall. A great hush fell over all the students present, as the youngest among them all trotted up to the front where a wooden stool sat, with a slightly bedraggled and burnt hat on top.
It opened its mouth and started to sing
Insert sorting song of your choice
Then Professor McGonagall started to call out names
"Malfoy, Draco" and the sorting hat would answer one of the 4 houses
"Slytherin!" After each callout there would be a round of applause, particuarly from the chosen house, and then the next name would be called.
"Weasley, Rose"
"Gryffindor!"
"Grinth, Peter"
"Ravenclaw!"
"Diggory, Percy"
"Hufflepuff!"
And finally when he was the only one left standing there, which seemed strange to him, surely it should have been done in alphabetical order?
"Potter, Albus"
Albus walked up to, and sat on the stool, all the while his brother yelling
"You'd better be in Gryffindor" so everyone could hear. Al blushed. When he place the hat on his head the hat didn't give him time to think 'not Slytherin' before it shouted out. Al's stomach dropped as if it had a beozar in it. At first he thought there must have been a mistake, then the hat repeated it again he felt hot tears prick the back of his eyes. He blinked them away furiously and walked slowly to the last remaining seat on his House's table, very conscious of everyone's eyes on him, trying to see how he would react.
