A/N ANOTHER thing I wrote for English class. I write lots of fanfiction for English… actually only the two that ive posted… but yeah. Just… stuff… REVIEW!
In Your Shadow
This year wasn't as bad as I anticipated. When I arrived at Hogwarts, I was headstrong, stubborn, and terrified. I have to admit, my life flashed before my eyes a bit when I was sorted into Ravenclaw. I mean, I knew my mother didn't care. She's Hermione Granger! She had certainly had her moments when she didn't fit in with the jocks in Gryffindor, but it wasn't her that was the problem. When people look at me they don't think 'that girl has red hair and freckles and is named Weasley… she must be a Granger!' No. They look at me and all they see is Weasley. Weasley, the old, Gryffindor, wizarding family. And Weasley's didn't get placed into Ravenclaw. Sort of like how Potters don't get placed into Slytherin, but, hey, look at Al. I guess the sorting went a bit differently than we anticipated, to say the least.
Weasley? Yes, when I say that I do mean The Weasley. As in 'yes, my dad was Uncle Harry's side kick.' I get asked that question so much. You'd think kids this age could find better celebrities to obsess over. Like singers. Or actors. Or more impressive people than my parents. And you'd think the novelty would've worn out by now. Since the war, this school has had seven other Weasleys (how are we still a big deal!?)! And when I sat on the stool, waiting to be sorted, I could see the Gryffindor table waiting to applaud; waiting to welcome me into their family, not that I wasn't technically blood kin to about half of them anyway, but it wasn't just my family. It was everyone! It took most people a few seconds to realize what had happened because most of them hadn't been listening anyway, under the assumption that a Weasley at this school couldn't possibly be anything but a brave and true Gryffindor. But, sure enough, that moldly old hat surprised them all, for a third time that night, and shouted 'Ravenclaw.'
It took a while for the stares to die down at first. It's not every day that the daughter of Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger comes to Hogwarts. I mean, after Al, I was probably the most exciting arrival of the year. My cousin's may be Weasleys, but their parent's weren't 'The Harry Potter's side kicks'. I'll let people keep their stupid hero worship, but, believe me, there are days when I would give anything to be Uncle Bill and Auntie Fluer's daughter instead of my parents'. I love them, but there's seriously nothing special about them. Oh, except the expectations I was born with, to somehow be both of them at the same time. Missing a question in class wasn't an option when you're the daughter of Hermione Granger. And a Weasley kid losing a quidditch match?! Unheard-of! Though in that respect, people were going to have to deal with it, since there are Weasley/Potter kids on all the teams except Hufflepuff, and Hufflepuff doesn't win, anyway.
At this point, you're either thinking 'what does she mean 'this year wasn't so bad?' it sounds terrible!' or 'why is she complaining so much? I'd kill to have famous parents instead of my boring ones!' Well, for starters, no, you wouldn't, an dif you would, seek help, you are not well. And just because I have famous parents doesn't mean they're not boring, it just means they used to not be boring. Now their just parents. Pretty good parents, I'll grant you that, but normal, boring parents nonetheless. Yeah, though, I did say that this year wasn't as bad as I thought it'd be after that first day or week or so. Don't get me wrong, being The Weasley Kid isn't easy, but I have perspective: my Potter cousin came at the same time as me, and even he can't handle all that attention. And he's my best friend, so sometimes I can go unnoticed by his crowd of fangirls. Not to say I'm using my best friend… that's just a perk. Though the fangirls do get bloody annoying!
Oh yeah! Friends! I have another. Well, I have a few others. Actually I have quite a few others, but this one's special because if you already thought I wasn't your every-day Weasley, wait till you hear this: Malfoy. Scorpius Hyperion Malfoy… Yeah.
Wait, that'd not all of it though! Don't go thinking I went out of my way to be friends with the son of the most pathetic death eater of all time or something! Actually, well, I sort of went out of my way to not be friends with the son of the most pathetic death eater of all time. Ravenclaw or not, I am wholeheartedly my father's daughter, and Malfoy is like a swear word in our house! My mom tries to keep my dad from prejudicing me too much, but she kind of, well, failed… horribly. I, in fact, had the pleasure of sharing a detention with him in which I sort of set a pot of Devil's Snare on him. Harsh, you say? Maybe, but It was well worth it. We're past the… plant-throwing phase of our relationship now.
Crush?! No! Not at all! He's just… a good friend! And come on! I'm not that much of a rebel! Do you think I want to go around with Malfoy as a last name when I get older?! No thank you! He's my… best friend. That's all! Everybody just assumes things because he's a guy! But yeah, anyway, back to the point. I'm just saying that I think I've found my place here. People are putting a little less pressure on me now, and I think they might even be starting to see me as my own person. And now I have great friends. And a giant family that can and will hex anyone that bothers me too much. So, yeah, all in all, this year wasn't actually that bad.
- Rose Weasley: smart-female-side-kickJr.
Have you ever wished that your parents had given you a choice about your last name? Like, maybe just waited a few years and asked you something like 'hey, son. Would you rather have the last name of an abusive, criminal, coward, bastard… jerk-person? Or your awesome mom's last name?' Seriously, people don't think your going to hex them or are trying to resurrect the Dark Lord when your last name is Greengrass. When people hear 'Greengrass' they think of bunnies and sunshine and… grass. But my last name isn't 'Greengrass.' My last name is Malfoy. See? Don't even try to tell me the first thing you thought of when you heard of that was bunnies. You thought 'Merlin's Beard! That's the kid of that bloke who tried to kill Albus Dumbledore and Harry Potter and… a bunch of other people.' It's okay. Don't feel guilty. That's what everyone thinks. And, in all fairness to the jerk who is my father, his trying to kill people didn't actually work, but that'd not cause he's a good person or anything. It's cause he's a coward. And that is a terrible reason to not have committed murder. I honestly do wish I could tell you he saw the error of his ways, but that would be a blatant lie.
Now he might not be what you people would call 'evil,' but to me he is the very epitome of the word. Some people who know him now who knew him when… when he was younger, say that my mother brought out the best in him. Well my mother's dead now. Yeah. Died earlier this year. But that's not the point, okay!? I don't want to talk about that! I'm just saying that the people who say that are crazy. Maybe when I was a baby or something, that might've been true. I don't know. But there is no way the man who beat me over Christmas break for being placed into the bloody house I belong in is better than he used to be. I don't think it's possible for him to ever have been worse.
And two of them might be my best friends, but the reason I hated the Weasley and Potter kids when I first got to Hogwarts, and the thing that still bother's me about them is that they are worse about prejudice than anyone else in the school, and still have the nerve to complain about living in their parents' shadows. Their parents are heroes! Everyone loves them without having to do anything. Everyone hates me for my family. Well, I suppose Al wasn't that bad, but Rose… don't even get me started on how bad Rose was when we first met. She was a tragic little saint who was going to be in her daddy's house and get O's in all her classes. Well, I guess I was a bit prejudiced against her too. And I guess I said I wanted to be in Slytherin. That was a lie, mind you. But yeah… she didn't make a very good first impression on me, but I guess that's a two way street. Whatever. Not important. Now we're best friends so… yeah.
And before you even start, just because I have a best friend who happens to be a… smart… pretty… girl, it doesn't mean that I have to like her. Well, yeah, I like her, but I don't like-like her. So yeah. And I know that I said it first but I know you were thinking it. Stupid people and their… assumptions.
Anyway, Al's my best friend too. I just don't spend as much time with him because he's in a different house than me. Oh yeah, Rose is in my house. We're Ravenclaws. Yeah, I guess she's a bit of an outsider in her family, too, and I respect that a lot in her. So's Al. I mean, how often is a Potter sorted into Slytherin? Well, I'm not actually sure when the last time that happened was, but I'm pretty sure not for a while. I don't really care about that stuff, though. People aren't defined by their families. I know I'm not. I don't want anything to do with my family now mom's gone. I'm not even sure if I'm going home.
I don't much like vacations. Rose and Al had me over to their house last new year, but there's no escape this time. I've got to go home and face my father. Well… at least I have next September to look forward to.
- Scorpius H. Malfoy (preferably Greengrass)
Albus Severus Potter. Who names their child Albus Severus Potter?! I hate my name! James got my granddad's name and Dad's godfather's name. Big deal. No one questions the name 'James,' and no one asks his middle name. Lily got the names of Dad's mum and Auntie Luna and no one cares about them. Sorry to Auntie Luna, but she's not the first person people think of when they think of the war. Nor is Lily, and, come on, Lily is just such a normal name. And don't get me wrong, I have nothing against not being normal—normal is boring—but I firmly believe that there is such thing as taking certain eccentricities too far. Especially without the consent of the person who's life it will effect forever!
So yeah. Being named after not one, but three famous people from the most famous event of the last twenty… thirty… a lot of years may not be my ideal situation. And, yeah, I guess I have occasionally been known to, you know, hog the spotlight a bit. But who doesn't? All I'm saying is even I want a break from that some times! And having hundreds of eyes focused on me, all belonging to people who have already connected the name Albus with Dumbledore, Severus with Snape and Potter with Harry, Ginny and James, and who all expect me to be placed into Gryffindor like my brother, is not exactly my favorite kind of attention to receive. I guess every once and a while I might name-drop a bit; just, you know, casually slip the fact that my dad saved the world into conversation, and, yeah, my connections with aurors and, well, heroes won't hurt on job applications later in life, but right now I am 11 years old and do not want the pressure of being the second potter kid!
Actually, for the first time in my life, I felt bad for James. He may be a prat, but I'm the one who wound up in Slytherin, so I guess I can't talk. But seriously, if this is what it's like to come to a school as the second Potter kid, I cant even imagine what it would be like to be the first. Well, I'm sure he loved it, being a Gryffindor and all, and hanging out with the cousins, but it still must've been hard.
Okay, I feel like I've been a bit rude to my house, and I'd just like to get one thing cleared up: I love being a Slytherin. I love it. It was AWKWARD as all get out at first—I mean, come on! Everything about me screams 'POTTER!' I've got his bloody green eyes that everybody thinks he's got a copy right on or whatever for Christ's sake!—but it got better after a while. There were just two problems at first: 1) James. He spent a bloody MONTH rubbing it in my face how he gets to hang out with everyone in the family all the time, while I'm stuck with the Slytherins. Well, the laugh's on him, cause not only did I start to get along with Slytherins, but I also got the Fat Lady to start telling me the password to their common room through… a number of lies I won't get into just now. Anyway, the second thing is that some stereotypes are just true. Meaning Slytherins, while generally fine once you get to know them, can be jerks. Well, I'm actually sure I'll be just as bad next year to the newbies, but this year it was bad. They all were very... hostile to me at first. But of course the moment they saw my map, they knew they'd been wrong. I knew I got the right thing from dad as a going-to-school present. James got an invisibility cloak, and if you're stealthy like me, you don't need one of those. I got a MAP that tells me where EVERYONE IN THE CASTLE IS! Yeah. James is totally jealous. He just won't say, is all.
Oh, and I know you think I'm shallow because the way I said it just now it sounds like I bought my friends or something, but believe me, it's not like that. I mean, my dad's Harry Potter! Don't you think he taught me better than that? Geez. No, the map just made them realize I was a worthy ally. I actually did become a genuine friend to some of them. The rest are just… associates.
Anyway, my best friends aren't in Slytherin. Rose and Scorpius. Oh yeah! Scorpius isn't in Slytherin! What's up with that? Well, they would both make rubbish Slytherins—wouldn't survive a day!—but it does suck that I don't get to see them. And, by the way, if they tell you they don't like each other, don't believe them. Lies. All of it. I'm pretty sure they kissed, over break and just are denying it. But don't give up on our dense, young friends just yet (feel free to ignore the fact that Rose is older than me… thanks.), because it will happen. And the sooner the better. They may be my best friends, but seriously, they are SO dense! Ah well. I suppose that's just part of their Ravenclaw charm.
One reason I love having those two as friends is that they can relate to me. I mean, we all have our own stuff, burdens to bear and all that, but we all have to deal with one thing in common: We hall have to live in our parents' shadows sometimes. The cousin's think they can help us, and talk to us about it, but they always had each other there all the time. They don't know what we feel like. We're the ones to have to live away from our families—I mean actually away from them—but still have to deal with the expectations that are there even when our parents aren't. They always have their head quarters in their common room where they have each other, and are accepted by their peers just because a hat put them into the house people wanted them to be in.
So together, Rose, Scorpius and I can live in our respective parents' shadows, but maybe we can also show everyone who we are a bit too. I mean, who knows. We might even live to witness the first Weasley-Malfoy marriage in wizarding History. We shall see.
- Albus Severus Potter, proud member of the Slytherin class of 2024
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