Their faces only came into focus when Harry, Ginny, Lily, and Albus had drawn right up beside them.
"Hi," said Albus, sounding immensely relieved.
Rose, who was already wearing her brand-new Hogwarts robes, beamed at him.
"Parked all right, then?" Ron asked Harry. "I did. Hermione didn't believe I could pass a Muggle driving test, did you? She thought I'd have to Confund the examiner."
"No, I didn't," said Hermione, "I had complete faith in you."
"As a matter of fact, I did Confund him," Ron whispered to Harry, as together they lifted Albus's trunk and owl onto the train. "I only forgot to look in the wing mirror, and let's face it, I can use a Supersensory Charm for that."
Back on the platform, they found Lily and Hugo, Rose's younger brother, having an animated discussion about which House they would be sorted into when they finally went to Hogwarts.
"If you're not in Gryffindor, we'll disinherit you," said Ron, "but no pressure."
"Ron!"
Lily and Hugo laughed, but Albus and Rose looked solemn.
"He doesn't mean it," said Hermione and Ginny, but Ron was no longer paying attention. Catching Harry's eye, he nodded covertly to a point some fifty yards away. The steam had thinned for a moment, and three people stood in sharp relief against the shifting mist.
"Look who it is."
Draco Malfoy was standing there with his wife and son, a dark coat buttoned up to his throat. His hair was receding somewhat, which emphasized the pointed chin. The new boy resembled Draco as much as Albus resembled Harry. Draco caught sight of Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny staring at him, nodded curtly, and turned away again.
"So that's little Scorpius," said Ron under his breath. "Make sure you beat him in every test, Rosie. Thank God you inherited your mother's brains."
"Ron, for heaven's sake," said Hermione, half stern, half amused. "Don't try to turn them against each other before they've even started school!"
"You're right, sorry," said Ron, but unable to help himself, he added, "Don't get too friendly with him, though, Rosie. Granddad Weasley would never forgive you if you married a pureblood."
"Hey!"
James had reappeared; he had divested himself of his trunk, owl, and trolley, and was evidently bursting with news.
"Teddy's back there," he said breathlessly, pointing back over his shoulder into the billowing clouds of steam. "Just seen him! And guess what he's doing?
Snogging Victoire!"
He gazed up at the adults, evidently disappointed by the lack of reaction.
"Our Teddy! Teddy Lupin! Snogging our Victoire! Our cousin! And I asked
Teddy what he was doing—"
"You interrupted them?" said Ginny. "You are so like Ron—"
"—and he said he'd come to see her off! And then he told me to go away! He's snogging her!" James added as though worried he had not made himself clear.
"Oh, it would be lovely if they got married," whispered Lily sarcastically.
"Teddy would really be part of the family then!"
"He already comes round for dinner about four times a week," said Harry.
"Why don't we just invite him to live with us and have done with it?"
"Yeah!" said James enthusiastically. "I don't mind sharing a room with Al—Teddy could have my room!"
"No," said Harry firmly, "you and Al will share a room only when I want the house demolished."
He checked the battered old watch, which had once been Fabian Prewett's.
"It's nearly eleven, you'd better get on board."
"Don't forget to give Neville our love!" Ginny told James as she hugged him.
"Mum! I can't give a professor love!"
"But you know Neville!—"
James rolled his eyes.
"Outside, yeah, but at school he's Professor Longbottom, isn't he? I can't walk into Herbology and give him love…"
Shaking his head at his mother's foolishness, he vented his feelings by aiming a kick at Albus.
"See you later, Al. Watch out for the thestrals."
"I thought they were invisible? You said they were invisible!"
But James merely laughed, permitted his mother to kiss him, gave his father a fleeting hug, and then leapt onto the rapidly filling train. They saw him wave, then sprint away up the corridor to find his friends.
"Thestrals are nothing to worry about," Harry told Albus. "They're gentle things, there's nothing scary about them. Anyway, you won't be going up to school in the carriages, you'll be going in the boats."
Ginny kissed Albus good-bye.
"See you at Christmas."
Albus jumped into the carriage and Ginny closed the door behind him. Students were hanging from the windows nearest them. A great number of faces, both on the train and off, seemed to be turned towards Harry.
"Why are they staring?" demanded Albus as he and Rose craned around to look at the other students.
"Don't let it worry you," said Ron. "It's me. I'm extremely famous."
Albus, Rose, Hugo, and Lily laughed.
The train pulled away and Rose watched her family wave the train off, before her and Albus turned away to face the corridor.
"D'you reckon we should find somewhere to sit? Dad said the compartments fill up quickly…" Albus muttered to Rose, looking slightly nervous at the few faces looking at him through the compartment windows.
"Yeah alright" Rose replied cheerfully, not noticing the faces like Albus had, and they set off up the corridor, quickly looking in each compartment trying to find an empty one. Whilst searching for an empty compartment, they had to stop every now and again to say hi to their various cousins and family, although they dodged Rose's cousin and Albus' brother James and their cousin Fred, who were going into their third year at Hogwarts, and were the two biggest troublemakers since Fred's father and his twin. Finally, after about an hour they found a compartment with a single boy in, looking out the window. Rose was about to open the door when Albus grabbed her arm.
"What?" Rose hissed.
"Don't you know who that is?" Albus whispered.
"No, why should I?"
"The hair? Your dad pointed him out at the station. That's Scorpius Malfoy."
Rose stayed silent for a moment, waiting for Albus to expand. When he didn't she replied "And? What difference does it make who he is?"
"Your dad told us to stay away from him."
Rose sighed "Dad told us to not get too friendly with him, not stay away from him. And besides, with James as your brother and Lily as your sister, since when have you ever listened to what anyone in our family has said?"
Albus blinked once, before shrugging "Fair point," he agreed and moved his hand away from Rose to let her open the door.
Rose slid the door open and the boy looked up, slightly cold grey eyes strayed over them, lingering on Rose's hair and Albus's eyes. "Hi" Rose said brightly as she walked into the compartment and plonked herself down on the seat opposite him, "I'm Rose, and this is my cousin Albus."
"Hey," Albus nodded as he sat down next to Rose, looking at the boy warily.
"I know, I recognized you two from the station, my Dad mentioned you. I'm Scorpius, Scorpius Malfoy." Malfoy turned away to look out the window again; Albus rolled his eyes and leaned back, whilst Rose found herself looking Malfoy over, her blue eyes taking in his pale blonde hair, almost white in colour (which if she didn't know better, she would swear had been spelled to be that pale), his long fingers, which trailed up his chin and over his cheek, and the almost longing look he was giving the countryside as it sped past them. She was woken up from the trance by Albus clicking his fingers in front of her face, "Rose? Tu-est ici?" He murmured to Rose. Malfoy turned his head to look at them, a quizzical look on his face.
Rose shook her head "Oui, je suis ici" She replied. Malfoy looked at them both, looking slightly confused.
"French?" He said, raising a pencil thin eyebrow.
Albus looked at Malfoy, almost as if he had forgotten he was there. "Yeah," he said, "we've got a French aunt, and she taught us how to speak French."
"Oui, et nous détesté ça tous les temps. Fleur tante était très ennuyeux" Rose muttered under her breath. Albus opened his mouth when the compartment door slid open. "Finally!" A high pitch voice said, as a silver haired third year girl, already wearing her Hogwarts robes, despite the journey only being an hour in, walked into the compartment and threw herself down onto the sofas next to Albus, who turned to Rose in horror. "I've been looking for you two everywhere! At first I thought you'd be with Roxanne or Molly, but when I went to find them I couldn't, and nearly missed getting on the train trying to find them beforehand on the platform, but then I saw you go out the door into the second carriage from the first, and tried to catch up with you, but I got waylaid by a couple of my friends from Gryffindor…"
Rose rolled her eyes and leaned back against the cushion, closing her eyes. As she prepared to tune out, she heard Malfoy's quiet voice say "Erm, sorry, but who are you?"
"Oh. Hi. My name's Dominique Weasley." Rose opened her eyes. Despite disliking Dominique, as did the vast majority of the family, watching her turn her charms on someone was always funny.
Malfoy smiled, "I'm Scorpius, Scorpius Malfoy, pleased to meet you." He held out his hand for her to shake. Dominique smiled and shook it.
"I'll see you later Rose, Al…Scorpius," she said as she slid to her feet, flicking her hair behind her as she strode out the compartment, shutting the door behind her. Rose looked across at Albus to see he was grinning as well. Malfoy's hand was still outstretched where Dominique had left it.
"And that makes how many boys now?" Rose asked Albus nonchalantly.
"Hmmm, well with Scorpius here that makes at least twenty. Best hurry up and join her fan club Scorpius, she lets them hang out with her sometimes." Albus chuckled and Rose joined in.
Malfoy looked confused, "Erm, I'm confused, who was that?" Rose and Albus burst out laughing.
"That, Scorpius, was Dominique Weasley. Our cousin, and part Veela." Rose said as Albus kept laughing.
"Oh…part Veela?" Scorpius gulped.
"Yep."
"I didn't do anything stupid did I?"
Albus grinned, "No actually, you weren't affected much, just asked who she was, and said who you were, then she left. I've seen much worse. Possibly the shock to your system."
Rose smiled "Like that one guy in Paris, what was it he said again?"
"Est-ce que tu crois au coup de foudre au premier regard ou est-ce que je dois repasser?" Albus said.
"Do you believe in love at first sight or should I walk by again? Really? I'm 11 and even I know that's cheesy."
Rose and Albus turned to Malfoy in astonishment.
"What?"
"You speak French?" Rose exclaimed.
"My grandmother lives in Paris, I've visited her a few times, and she told me that you should always try and speak a native language, so she would teach me basic French as we walked around Paris and did her charity work." Malfoy explained, shrugging his shoulders. Rose looked a bit shocked still, whilst Albus was laughing.
The compartment door slid open and they all looked up to see an elderly lady poke her head in, "Anything off the trolley dears?"
All three of them rose to their feet and bought a veritable mountain of food. The scene on any normal train would have looked weird, but on the Hogwarts Express, it was normal: Scorpius sat there chewing a liquorice wand, looking at Merlin on the chocolate frog card whilst Albus grabbed at the frog from the same packet that was trying to escape out the window, and Rose was looking suspiciously at a purple bean from Bertie Bott's Every Flavoured Beans, the packet of which lay open on her lap. As the mountain of liquorice wands, pumpkin pasties, chocolate frogs, beans, jelly slugs, cauldron cakes, and acid pops began to slowly vanish, the sky darkened slightly and Victoire stuck her head round the door to tell the trio that they would be reaching Hogwarts soon, so it would be best to put their robes on now. Albus' catcall of "How's Teddy?" earned him a hand gesture and a reply of "Foutre le camp" that set everyone off laughing again.