Disclaimer: Harry Potter characters are J.K. Rowling's. OCs are mine.
Chapter 1: The Hogwarts Express
Even as the train rounded the first corner, a dark haired boy hung halfway out of the train window, and continued to wave farewell to his father until a red-headed girl tugged on his shirt, saying, "Come back, people are staring. Plus, you might fall out." The boy sighed, and reluctantly allowed the girl to pull him back. "Now, c'mon. I don't want to be the last to find a place to sit." The boy rolled his bright green eyes, but nonetheless, followed his cousin.
A dark haired girl looked on and smirked. Those two were just like her and her twin brother before-
The girl closed her dark blue eyes as the look of amusement on her pale face turned to a grimace. She did not want to think about that. Sighing, she opened her eyes and started to look for a carriage. Near the end, she found a seat with just one passenger, a blond boy who was looking out the window.
"Um, can I sit here?" The boy turned to her, surprised that anyone would ask to sit anywhere near him. She noticed that his eyes were a warm gray, and, for reasons unknown to her at the time, her cheeks started to turn a slight pink.
"Uh, s-sure." He quickly turned away, blushing as well. The girl sat down away from the boy, hoping he wouldn't start a conversation, for she was sure that she would start stuttering. He didn't, and it was quite peaceful, until they heard the two cousins coming up the isle, arguing loudly. The two passengers looked up as they heard the dark haired boy.
"C'mon, Albus! Unless you want to sit with those 5th years over there, who look a lot like Slytherins, I suggest we sit over there!"
"But Roooose! Your dad said-"
"Forget it! I'd rather sit with a fellow 1st year, instead of some random 5th year Slytherins. You don't even have to talk to him! Just sit there and pretend he doesn't exist or something."
The girl looked at the blond boy, who looked away, hurt and a little embarrassed. She felt sorry for him. It seemed like he got picked on quite a bit. She looked back up as the cousins stopped at her carriage.
"Do you mind if we sit here?" The red haired girl, Rose, stood at the door with a look of mild surprise at another person being in the compartment with the boy. A grumpy looking boy, Albus, was standing slightly behind her, his arms crossed.
The dark haired girl looked at the blond boy "I don't care," he mumbled without turning. The girl looked back at the Rose accusingly. Her gaze softened as she realized Rose didn't mean to upset the boy. She slid over to the window, directly in front of the blond boy. Rose sat next to her, while Albus sat next to the blond one.
After a few minutes of awkward silence, Albus finally spoke up. "Um, so, what's your name?" he asked the dark haired girl.
"Uh, Jane. Jane Joyner. But, call me Janie." Janie realized she didn't know any of their names, yet they all seemed to know each other. Well, technically, she knew Albus and Rose's names, but she thought that she better ask anyway. "Um, and your names are…?"
"Oh, my name is Albus Potter, but I guess you can call me Al" He waved to Rose. "She's Rose Weasley. Call her Rosie and she'll probably hex you." He looked at the blond boy. "And he's Scor-"
The boy suddenly looked up. "I'm Scorpius. Scorpius Malfoy. You can call me Scorpio," he said, glaring at Albus. Rose snorted, and Scorpio turned his glare at her with stormy gray eyes. "What? You think my name's funny?"
Rose shrugged. "A bit. It's not as funny as Al's." She smirked.
"Hey! My name's not funny! Dad said that I was named after the two greatest Headmasters ever!"
Rose raised an eyebrow. "When'd he tell you that?"
Albus crossed his arms. "Right before I got on the train."
"Wait, wait, wait. Who are the greatest Headmasters?" Janie asked, a look of confusion on her face.
"What are you, a Mudblood-" Scorpio started.
"Do not use that word!" Rose growled, a look of murder in her brown eyes.
Scorpio raised up his hands. "Sorry!" He looked at Janie apologetically. "Sorry. It's just," he sighed, "my dad always says it, and, well, it kinda gets stuck in your head after a while."
"If that's a word for Muggle-born or something, then, yeah, I guess I am a Mudblood." Her fellow passengers looked at her in shock.
"Did- did you just call yourself a Mudblood!?" Rose exclaimed.
Scorpio winced and covered his ears. "Quiet down, will ya?"
Janie smirked. "Don't worry. I've been called names that are much worse than that." She turned to Albus. "So, can you tell me about these famous Headmasters that your named after now?"
Albus looked at Janie in confusion. "Huh?" Janie raised an eyebrow. "Oh. Oh yeah!" He looked down. "Well, I know one of their names was Albus, and the other's is Severus, who was a Slytherin, and apparently one of the bravest men my dad knows. Other than that, there isn't much else I can tell you." Janie's face fell slightly. "B-but I'm sure the History of Magic professor will explain it all better than I ever would. Although I have heard from James, my brother, that the professor is extremely boring."
Janie shrugged. "Oh, well. I can wait." She grinned at Albus. "So, uh, do we get food on here? I'm starving." Her stomach growled, reinforcing this statement.
He looked back up enthusiastically. "Uh… Yeah! James said that the train's trolley has the best sweets ever!"
"Sweeeet." Janie grinned, hoping everyone would get the pun. Immediately, Rose and Scorpio started snickering, but it took a little longer for Albus to get it. Once he did, though, the look of realization on his face was priceless, and Scorpio burst out laughing.
Rose rolled her eyes, and quietly said to Janie, "Don't worry about him, he's a bit slow," making the latter giggle uncontrollably.
Unfortunately, Albus heard, and tried to kick Rose in the shin as hard as he could, but she quickly moved her leg away, causing him to kick the bottom of the seat. He yelped in pain, and immediately started to rub his big toe through his shoe. This, along with everything else that had happened, nearly made Janie and Scorpio roll on the floor laughing, while Rose just had a bit of a giggle fit, for she was used to Albus being obliviously funny.
After about thirty minutes, in which Janie and Scorpio finally calmed down, the trolley came, loaded with all kinds of sweets, snacks, and even some beverages. "Anything from the trolley?" the trolley lady asked. Automatically, the four children started searching their pockets for money. Rose pulled out five galleons, Albus ten, and Janie and Scorpio pulled out about the same amount, about 25-30 galleons each.
"Dang Janie, where'd you get all that money?" Albus marveled.
Janie shrugged. "I guess even by magical standards, my parents are pretty rich." Even though they're not here anymore, she thought, but moved on quickly, not wanted to dwell on that. "By the way, if we put all our money together," Janie paused as she quickly added it all up, "we would have at least 70 galleons, at most 80, which, unless that's not a lot of money here, would be enough to buy one of everything on that trolley, right, Ma'am?" Janie turned to the trolley lady, who was speechless at the amount of galleons the four first years had, but eventually, she nodded. Janie grinned. "Good, 'cause I have another 70 galleons that are eager to be spent so we can have two of everything." At that, Janie pulled out, as she said, another 70 galleons, which made the trolley lady so happy she almost fainted, and she gladly gave the first years what they asked for: two of everything.
After an hour or so of chatting and bonding over candy, Albus finally brought up the question that everyone had secretly been avoiding.
"So, uh, what houses do you think you guys are going to be in?"
"I'm probably going to be in Slytherin. I can't think of anyone in my family who hasn't been in there. Besides, my dad would probably be pissed if I got in any other house." Scorpio abruptly stopped talking after mentioning his father, which made Janie have a feeling that the two weren't very close.
After a bit of awkward silence, Rose spoke up. "If our parents found out that we were in Slytherin, we'd probably be dead."
"Well, I definitely want to be in Gryffindor," Albus stated plainly.
"And why is that?" Janie asked, wanting to know as much about the houses as she possibly could before getting pinned down with the question.
"Well, for one, you get into Slytherin by being a Pureblood or Half-blood, not to mention you have to be cunning and ambitious, which I am neither."
"Obviously," Scorpio muttered. Janie giggled, and Albus shot him a look.
"Secondly, you have to have creativity and wisdom to be in Ravenclaw. Plus, you have to answer a riddle every time you want to go in the common room."
"Example?" Janie asked simply.
Rose jumped on this quickly. "What has no flesh, fur, bones, or feathers, but still has fingers and a thumb?"
"A skeleto- no, no bones…" Scorpio thought for a moment, and then shrugged. "I give up."
Rose turned back to Janie expectantly. Janie pondered it for a moment. "A- Hm… Yeah, a glove," she answered hopefully.
Rose looked surprised. "Er, well, actually, yeah. You should be in Ravenclaw."
Janie shrugged. "You're the one who understood it enough to give the riddle."
"Yeah, but it took me hours to figure it out, and you just answered it in a matter of seconds!"
"Can I get back to what I was saying?" Albus asked rather loudly.
"Carry on, Professor Killjoy," Rose answered mockingly. Janie giggled.
Albus just glared. "Anyway, last, even though they say Hufflepuff takes in the loyal and honest-"
"Neither of those, either," Rose threw in quickly, adding to Janie's new fit of giggles. Albus ignored them.
"-they really just take in those that are rejected by the other three houses."
"Good Lord, it's perfect for you, Albus!" Scorpio exclaimed with mock enthusiasm. Finally, Janie gave up trying to hold in her giggles and burst out laughing, tears steaming down her face.
"So, wait. Are you saying that Gryffindor only takes in the brave and stupid?" Janie put in once her laughing fit had subsided.
"Well… No, not exactly…" Albus wasn't sure how to respond to this.
Rose snickered, and Janie just waved it off. "Whatever, but from what I gathered from you, I want to either be in Gryffindor, or Slytherin. Although, now that I think about it, I probably won't get into Slytherin 'cause of my heritage."
Scorpio shrugged. "It would be cool if you did get into Slytherin. That would prove everyone wrong." He smirked.
"Hm, good point. Slytherin it is, then!" She grinned and turned to Rose. "I think you would do well in Ravenclaw."
Rose fidgeted. "Well, I'm not quite that smart, I don't think…"
"Which came first, the phoenix or the flame?" Janie asked quickly.
"Oh, uh, the phe- wait, no. Oh! It's a loop, er, or a circle, and a circle doesn't have a beginning, does it?"
Janie smirked. "Perfect. You definitely deserve to be in Ravenclaw."
"Oh, uh, really? Cool, I guess." Rose was still a bit confused from the riddle.
"What about me?" Albus piped up, unknowingly leaning closer to Janie.
"Whoa, back off a bit. Anyway, when did I become the master of where you guys are going? I'm a Muggle-born, remember?" Albus's shoulders slumped. Janie sighed. "Fine, I guess you would be in Gryffindor, maybe Hufflepuff."
"I think we already figured that out," Scorpio pointed out.
Janie shrugged. "He's the one who asked. I'm just smart enough to use the information that was already given." Albus crossed his arms and pouted. Rose rolled her eyes at his immaturity.
"By the way, why don't you want to be in Ravenclaw? You definitely seem smart enough."
Janie shrugged again. "I just don't want to have to answer a riddle every time I want to go into the common room."
"I would suggest that you all put on your uniforms. In about thirty minutes, we'll be at the school." The four looked up to a beautiful witch with strawberry-blonde hair to her waist and bright blue eyes. They also noticed that she had a blue badge with a bronze 'P' in the middle.
"Victoire!" Rose and Albus exclaimed at the same time.
"Is it true that you were snogging Teddy?" Albus asked eagerly.
"Wha- who- who told you that!?" Victoire stuttered, completely taken aback, her face flushing to a slight pink.
Janie and Scorpio glanced at each other. Janie raised an eyebrow, and Scorpio shrugged.
"James interrupted you and Teddy, and then ran and told pretty much half the family." Rose said in a matter-of-factly tone.
The color drained from Victoire's face, then flushed to a dark pink. "I'm gonna kill him," she muttered murderously, and then stalked off, still muttering death threats under her breath.
"You don't want to mess with her, she's part Veela," Rose told Scorpio and Janie quietly.
"She won't hurt us because we're her little cousins."
"But she will hurt James."
" 'Cause he's an annoying prick." Albus grinned.
Janie looked out the window. "Even though I still don't know what all that was about, she's right about getting our uniforms on. It looks like the train is slowing down."
"Boys, out," Rose ordered.
"I was about to go anyway," Albus retorted.
"So was I. The thought of you half-naked is horrifying." Scorpio shuddered.
Rose's face started to flush to a scarlet and looked like she was about to lunge at boy's throat, when he quickly ran out of the compartment, nearly knocking Albus over. Quickly, Janie got up and closed the curtain before Rose could attack Scorpio.
Rose sighed in resignation. "Might as well hurry. It looks like the train slowed down even more."
Janie just smiled and started to change as quickly as she could, excited about the first day of a magical school.