Chapter 1: The First Half of the Ride
"Don't worry! It's me… I'm famous!" Albus could still hear the words of his Uncle Ron lingering in his ears. He chuckled to himself. He didn't want his cousin Rose to over hear him. He knew that it couldn't be Uncle Ron who was famous… But who was? The train lurched as it started to move forward. Albus gazed one last time out the window to see his parents' faces. Albus waved to them, loving the fact that he and his father looked the exact same (except for the scar), and they waved back. He hates having to wait until the holidays to see them again.
Albus could feel Rose tugging on his shirt, and his glasses slipped down his nose. "Come on Al," she urged, "we need to find a compartment." Albus pushed his glasses back up and turned around to see Rose's bushy flame hair bouncing while she spoke. He stared into her brown eyes. The freckles that were splattered across the bridge of her nose, stopped right underneath her eyes. She was already dressed in her school robes, obviously excited to start at Hogwarts.
Albus grabbed the handle of his trunk, and the handle of his owl's cage. "Okay, Rose. Let's find somewhere to sit." He said, and then added under his breath, "I don't want to keep you waiting."
Since Rose didn't said anything about his under tone comment, he assumed she didn't hear him. Rose grabbed her luggage as well, and the two cousins made their way down the corridor.
While they were walking, Albus had peered into the glass doors. He saw the copper brown hair of his brother, sitting in a compartment with all his friends. Even though he loved James (only as a brother), Albus knew they should not sit with him. Rose had stopped directly in front of him, and he slammed into her.
"Merlin, Rose! Why'd you—" Albus had started to say.
"Because I want to sit with James. We don't know anyone else!" she said back to him.
"His compartment is full of his friends! We'll have to find somewhere else."
Rose sighed with defeat. They both picked up their belongings and continued their trek down the corridor. Albus and Rose were almost to the end of the train's corridor, when they managed to find a compartment with only two people in it. There was a girl with bright, hot pink hair and green eyes, and a boy with slicked back platinum-blonde hair and steel grey eyes. Neither of them were talking to each other, but seemed to like being in each other's presence. Albus had just put his fingers around the handle of the door, when Rose pulled his arm back.
"What're you doing Rose?" He asked a little loudly. Before he had spun around, he noticed the boy and girl looking at them.
Rose lowered her voice. "That boy in there is the one that father told me to beat on every test, Scorpius Malfoy. Al, our whole family hate the Malfoy lot, and probably vice versa!" Rose was speaking so fast that Albus could only see her mouth moving, but couldn't really understand what she was trying to say.
"Merlin, Rose! You don't know the boy! He could be incredibly different from his father! You never know! I think we should sit with them!" Albus could feel his temper rising with every word he spoke. By the end of his sentence, he was shouting. He saw the boy and girl in the compartment looking very worried.
"If you even put your hand on that handle again, I will go straight to your brother." Rose said, trying to threaten him.
"Rose, don't! At least sit with them until the Trolley Lady comes around. If you want to leave then, we can."
Albus saw the comprehension in Rose's face. "Alright. It sounds like a good plan. But I promise you, I won't like it."
Albus smiled. "Thank you Rose!" He hugged his cousin, and then once again they picked up their trunks. Albus pulled open the sliding door. Both the boy and the girl looked up as if they hadn't known what was going on outside their compartment just a few minutes ago.
"Can we join you in here? We can't find anywhere else to sit." Albus said, trying to sound sincere.
The boy stood up and motioned for Rose to take his seat. "Of course." he replied.
Albus and Rose helped each other lift their trunks onto the luggage shelf. Albus lifted the cage of his owl, Athena, onto the top shelf as well. Rose however, stashed her cage underneath her seat, and sat in the boy's spot. Albus sat beside the boy (across from Rose and the pink haired girl), and nobody talked.
About five minutes had passed, when the girl with pink hair motioned to the cage under Rose's legs. "What kind of animal do you have in there?" she asked kindly.
Albus knew what was in the cage, but he noticed that Rose made sure the door was closed. Both of them remembered the story Aunt Hermione had told them about Neville's toad, Trevor. Rose unlocked the clasp, and a small fluffy body came strolling out of the cage.
"Aw!" The girl squealed, "It's so cute! What's it's name?" The fluffy cat wove it's way between Rose's ankles and made it's way over to the other girl.
Rose glared nervously from the girl to the cat. Albus thought that maybe Rose was thinking that the girl would steal it. Rose cleared her throat to answer, "Her name is Daisy."
"What a cute name for a cute cat!" The girl squealed again. Albus frowned. This girl was so bloody annoying. The blond haired boy chuckled.
"I think while we are all talking about names, we should introduce ourselves." He stated. Albus looked at him incredulously. Even though the boy looked like a spitting image of his father, Albus could already tell just by the sound of his voice that the boy was different. Rose coaxed Daisy back into the cage.
The girl nodded. "Good idea!" she exclaimed. She pointed to herself, and as she did, Albus noticed that her hair had turned from the bright pink to a pale black, and her eyes turned from green to black. Albus and Rose looked surprised, but didn't say anything. "My name is Evelyn Zabini," the girl continued, "I am a Metamorphmagus, as you can see, and this is my actual appearance." She gazed at Albus and Rose, who didn't look shocked. "Why don't you two look more astounded?" she asked them.
Albus decided to reply this time. "My father's godson Teddy is one too." He stated.
"Oh…" She hung her head. Her hair started turning to a dark blue and her eyes to a bright gold.
Rose's eyes lit up. "After seeing Teddy being able to change himself like that, I've always wanted to meet a Metamorphmagus my own age!" she exclaimed.
Albus, the boy, and Evelyn started laughing. "What?" Rose asked.
The boy looked at Rose and replied, "Nothing. Let's just continue introducing ourselves. My name is Scorpius Malfoy. My father has created a very bad reputation for our family name, mostly because he said he acted like a bloody coward during the war. My mother is extremely kind, and neither of my parents want me to be in Slytherin if I can help it."
Albus and Rose shared a look. Rose's said 'wow, you were right. He is different' and Albus' look said 'I knew it'.
Rose asked Albus if she could go and introduce him at the same time as herself. Albus gave her a quick nod. "Okay. My name is Rose Weasley, and this is my cousin Albus Potter—"
Scorpius jumped up. "A P-Potter, and a Weasley! My father said to be careful around your families!" He exclaimed. Evelyn pulled Scorpius back down by his arm.
"Scorpi! Sit down and let them finish!"
Rose gave Evelyn a thankful look, and stared daggers at Scorpius. "My father said to beat you on every test! I think I just might try!" She yelled, her face turning the beet red that Uncle Ron's did. Scorpius blushed out of embarrassment.
"Sorry…" he muttered.
Rose smiled. Albus thought something strange, but quickly shook it off. "Anyway," Rose started to continue, "My mum is the head for the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, and she works to fight the laws surrounding house elves. My father is an Auror. Albus here—"
"I can speak for myself Rose." Albus interrupted.
"Sorry Al." she replied, looking downcast.
Albus glared around the room, and then he saw five heads floating at the door. One had the Weasley red hair, another had copper brown hair, and the other three were blond. He groaned. Great… Just what I needed for my cousins and brother to show up, only to see me sitting with Malfoy.
James, his copper brown hair and brown eyes glinting evilly, used his 'Quidditch muscle' to slam open the door and grab Albus by the collar of his shirt. Albus noticed that Rose looked worried, so he tried to struggle against James' grip. "Bugger off, James!" Albus tried to shout at his brother.
James smiled forcefully at everyone in the compartment, and said, "I'll just be borrowing Al here for a moment." With that, James managed to pull Albus out of the compartment, despite Albus' struggling, and slam the door shut. James set Albus on his feet.
Albus saw his cousins surrounding him, looking very worried. Dominique and Victoire looked the most worried. That's probably because they're girls… Albus thought to himself. Louis tried to smile at him, but it turned out to look like a nervous grin.
"Albus Severus! I know how I was teasing you about being in Slytherin, but you didn't have to sit with a pair of them!" James shouted next to Albus's ear, and he grabbed back onto Albus's collar.
Freddie, the son of Uncle George, just stared daggers at Albus while James was yelling. Albus assumed Fred didn't want to be involved with their brotherly fighting, but Albus shot Fred a pleading look. Fred violently shook his head. Albus sighed.
"James Sirius, you don't even know what Scorpius is like. His parents don't want him in Slytherin because of their family name." He replied back to his brother, surprisingly calm.
James made an 'o' with his mouth, but was still holding onto Albus. Albus could hear the sound of wheels making their way over to the group of them.
"What's going on here?" shouted a young witch. Her strawberry blonde curls fell loosely around her shoulders, and an emerald hat was on her head. The trolley of candy was in front of her. Then, a man with a round face and wavy black hair made his way through the large (in Albus's opinion, since it consisted 70% of his family) crowd. Albus recognized Neville from all the times that Harry invited him over for dinner during the summer.