STOP!

Don't read this. Seriously. I'm currently in the midst of planning a rewrite of Years 1 & 2 so there's really no point in reading something that won't even be true anymore. By all means, read and review Year 3 or another one of my stories, but this is pointless.

The Hallows of Hogwarts

Chapter 1: The Hogwarts Express and Heavy Luggage


The last sight Albus had of his family was his father, holding Lily close to him and his mother squeezing her hand and the three of them waving with their other hand before the train's smoke blew in front of them.

Sighing, he and Rose turned away, only to discover that the corridor was completely devoid of everyone except themselves and their luggage. James had probably run off to find his third year friends. Bugger that, he could have help lifted their trunks, Albus could barely drag his and Rose hardly could either. And James had apparently taken both of their owls with him. "Shall we find some seats then?" Rose asked him, oblivious to the facts.

"Rose, you and me can't get our luggage off the ground. How do you suppose we'll find a seat and get our things in there?" Albus asked his cousin. She smiled and shook her red curls at him beaming.

"Not a problem!" Rose turned and kicked over their luggage so it faced each other and wouldn't topple over. She brushed off the top, picked up her robes and plopped down on top of hers, smoothing out her uniform neatly. Albus hesitated.

"But what if someone needs to get through? Won't we be blocking their way?" He asked her pointedly.

"But then in order for them to get through, they will have to simply help us find seats and get our luggage there or else they will be stuck." He sighed and sat on top of his trunk as Rose ripped open a Chocolate Frog and handed him one too.

"If it's my dad, give it to me, he loves seeing himself. I'll post it to him with my letter tonight." But Albus's card was Merlin. He stowed it in his pocket (he had six of him) before biting of the head of the frog. Rose's head bent over as she read off her card. "Helga Hufflepuff, one of the four celebrated founders of Hogwarts, Hufflepuff was particularity famous for her dexterity at food related charms. Many recipes traditionally served at Hogwarts feast originated with Hufflepuff."

The word Hufflepuff brought a horrible feeling in Albus's stomach. What if he was sorted into Hufflepuff? Sure they were nice and all, and he did like Hannah a lot, but James would laugh at him probably, saying that's where all the leftover students go or something.

Unfortunately, this brought up the dreaded conversation that all first years had by requirement of nerves.

"What house do you think you will be in?" Rose was looking at him expectantly, but with concern. Did she think he was suited for Slytherin or Hufflepuff?

"I don't know," he admitted. Really, Albus didn't. Yes, his whole family was in Gryffindor but the knowledge that the Sorting Hat had considered his father a Slytherin was astonishing. Didn't people always say how Al was just like Harry? Albus wasn't smart or brave or witty or anything special, he just was.

"Neither do I," Rose whispered to him. He was grateful for that. If anything, she had generations of Weasley Gryffindors to live up to, eight generations almost, in fact, up until Dominique Ginerva Weasley got herself sorted into Ravenclaw and then the twins, Lucy and Molly were seperated into Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff. Albus studied Rose for a moment. She was brave and loyal, but she was witty too, judging by her ability to shoot out insults, particularly at James. Maybe Dad is right, he thought. Perhaps the Sorting Hat sorts you not what you are like, but where you want! This cheered him up greatly, for perhaps he and Rose wouldn't be separated by houses after all if they asked the Sorting Hat to be together.

"Mum gave me this," Rose added helpfully, picking up a brand-new copy of Hogwarts, a History. "She thought we could use the train ride to read it and learn…"

Gratefully, Albus took the thick tome from his cousin, cracking the binding open as he turned over the cover. Aunt Hermione knew how much he loved history. Rose often said that she suspected the only reason her mum kept buying her books was so even when she passed them off to Al, he'd at least tell her what it said afterwards. Uncle Ron would just shake his head and hand his nephew another Chocolate Frog card, as he claimed you'd learn more facts about a person off of the back of one than anywhere else. Albus's collection was in the six hundreds now.

"James was right, Albus. The way you're going on, you won't end up in Gryffindor for sure." She said critically.

"Well, maybe I don't want to be." He retorted, half mumbling it to himself. But Rose heard him anyways.

"Well, I am!" She declared, her pale blue eyes bright. "I don't like sitting still and reading like you or Hugo. I'm going to be a Gryffindor, Al!" Albus shut the book quietly and looked at the cover. The Hogwarts crest, same as the one on his acceptance letter last summer was embossed over it. Inside the purple shield, four corners dedicated to each house glinted.

A bubble of fear floated. "You don't think I'm Gryffindor material then?"

Rose studied him, her features softening. "You're a still a Potter and Weasley," she assured him. "You'd have to practically beg to go anywhere else!"

"Dominique, Lucy and Molly are in different houses." Albus protested.

Rose waved her hand like their cousins were an irritating mosquitoes. "Domie's just like Aunt Fleur who went to Beauxbatons and Aunt Audrey's a muggle and Uncle Percy's boring, that's why. The rest of us are all in Gryffindor, even Teddy!"

"Albus! Rose, what on earth are you two doing out here?" Victoire Weasley said, sounding distressed as her heels came clicking at them.

Cousin Vic was beautiful, Albus knew and so did a boy who leaned out of his compartment after her. She had hair as red as Rose's, in a bob that curled close to her shoulders. Freckleless unlike Rose and even James, she had the same brown eyes as Lily, only Veela-shaped eyes and was dressed as stylish as Auntie Fleur, even under her robes. But Grandma said that Vic resembled her dad, Uncle Bill the most in the family, as evident by the Head Girl pin on her robes.

"Our trunks are too heavy," he admitted, as Rose scrambled to her feet.

With a quick swish of her wand, both trunks lifted themselves off the floor. "Let's find you two a compartment," Victoire said, as she turned around and caught the boy staring out at her. "CRANSTON! You're a prefect, why in the name of Merlin didn't you help these two out?"

The boy Cranston quickly ducked back into his compartment as Victoire set out with first years and trunks in tows, poking her head around in search of two seats.

As they walked the length of the train, Albus saw James with their owls up in the luggage rack in with Fred and Louis and some others. Despite their blindingly obvious different appearances, one would have thought that the three of them were triplets in attitude but thankfully, Victoire swept on by without even regarding her younger brother.

Finally, she stopped, two compartments till the end and opened the door, ushering them inside. "Hey kids," she said. "First time at Hogwarts too?"

The three inside nodded. Two girls and a boy, they were no taller than Albus, so Rose was the tallest. The second-tallest among them was the brunette girl, with a gap in her front teeth and the shortest was the other girl, with very long blonde hair and grey-green eyes.

"Let me know if you two need anything, I'll be patrolling or in Compartment C," Victoire advised them before heading out.

"Are you two Weasleys or Potters?" the boy asked. He had black hair too, but unlike Albus, he had dark-toned skin.

"I'm Rose Weasley, and this is my cousin, Albus Potter." Rose introduced them diligently. "How'd you know?"

The boy seemed taken back. "Everyone knows who Harry Potter is! And most people know the Weasleys…WWW, the Harpies, the Ministry."

"I don't." the gap-toothed girl said gently. "Who's he?"

"Err, I forgot, Amelie." The boy said, sounding a bit embarrassed. "It's another wizarding thing, you wouldn't have known."

"You're muggleborn?" Rose said in delight. "My grandparents are muggles! My grandpa and my little brother are a bit obsessed with them, to tell the truth."

"Yes," the girl said faintly. "I'm Amelie Van Meer."

"And I'm Miranda Avalon," the blonde one offered. "And he's Martin Goldstein, both of us from wizarding families so we know who you are."

Martin Goldstein stared at them both eagerly as Albus and Rose took their seats across from them before he burst back into conversation. "My brother fought in the Battle of Hogwarts too," he bragged. "A true hero, he was, member of the DA and all."

"Oh yeah," Albus said, gratefully grasping his history lessons. "Dumbledore's Army. Our parents were in that. And our Herbology teacher, Neville Longbottom, led them into the Battle."

Martin nodded as Miranda and Rose turned to Amelie and picked up a conversation. "Yeah, I can't wait for his class and for Defense. Is it true that your dad comes in sometimes to talk?"

There was something uncomfortable in Albus's throat now. He tried to quietly cough. "Er, yeah, but just as a guest speaker…because he's Head of the aurors department and he was in the Battle of Hogwarts."

"Hey, Martin, got any favorite Quidditch teams?" Rose asked as it came apparent they were explaining Quidditch to Amelie. Martin forgot about Albus in his support for the Wasps, so Albus pulled out Hogwarts, a History again, settling down to read.

Hogwarts's first seven years of schooling were a time of great testing and trials. Although no documentation survives from this era, historians believe that besides the four themselves, there would have been difficulty originally finding teachers of enough knowledge and ability as well as saving muggleborn students from the perils of their families…

"Al…Al, Albus. Albus!"

"Wha—?" He murmured, looking at and blinking hard at Rose.

"You fell asleep." She complained, raising up her left eyebrow, a quirk that was completely and only that of Rose Nymphadora Weasley. "It's at least two o'clock and I'm starving, Al."

His own stomach grumbled as he straightened up. Al observed, "Where's everyone else?"

"Some boy came by who knew Martin and they went off together, Miranda went with them and Amelie fell asleep too," Rose pointed to the girl slumbering with her jacket pulled over her bare legs and shorts.

"James has our lunch money, I bet." He grumbled, stretching to his feet quietly.

"We saw him down on the other side of the train," Rose remembered quickly. "C'mon!" They sometimes stumbled, usually walked quickly down the aisles as the train clacked it's way along. If it was two, Al thought. Then they have five more hours to go, to arrive at seven.

The prefect Victoire called Cranston stuck his head out the compartment now at the sight of them. "What's wrong with you two now?"

"We're looking for James Potter." Rose told him bluntly. "He's probably fooling around with Louis and Fred Weasley too. Do you know them?"

Cranston snorted. "What prefect doesn't know them? They pulled a prank last year that ruined my effing date…the rats are in compartment D, down the hall on the right." He said irritably. "Put in a good word for me with Vic, won't ya?" Neither of them answered, but hurried off towards the compartment he had pointed out. Sure enough, noise was spilling out as they opened the door on Fred, Louis and James.

"Hey! What you lot want?" Asked James indignantly.

Rose rolled her eyes and grumbled over her breath, so Albus spoke louder. "We just wanted to get our lunch money and my owl."

"Err…" James said nervously almost. "About that."

"You didn't use it all!" Albus cried out.

"I didn't!" he protested.

"We lost it," Fred grumbled. "Lousy trolley lady raised the price of the Droobles and I couldn't get enough." Fred was tall and stockily built, with brown skin and short dreadlocks, at a completely contrast with Veela-influenced looks, broomstick-thin Louis and dark haired and freckle-faced James.

"So we made a bet with every compartment until that kid played," Louis cut in. "He looked like a gullible first year. Could have beat Merlin probably, the way he played."

"What did you play him against?" Albus asked bitterly, frustration rising.

"Gobstones," James said dejectedly. "I dunno, I just had a bad game I guess. Sorry, Al."

"What compartment?" Rose asked bossily.

"Uh, E." Fred recalled. "Hey, are you going to challenge that kid?" Rose didn't answer, she simply marched out, dragging Albus in tow, leaving his owl, Archimedes, behind.

"My owl!" Albus protested, as she dragged him along.


Welcome! This is the beginning of my series that I started May 3rd, 2008. So, what did you think? Any guesses yet what house I'll sort them into? When will Scorpius Malfoy show up and how will he play into this?

When I first wrote this chapter, I was writing it for fun, with no idea how far my imagination would end up leading me. I hope you will join me on this journey as the next generation board the Hogwarts Express and leave Jo's books far behind.