Chapter One - Hogwarts
They all rushed about the house, packing up our trunks, grabbing owls, and saying goodbye to the house. It was Lily Potter's first year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and she could hardly be more excited. Her older brothers James and Albus were already attending Hogwarts and Lily had been made to spend two entire school years alone during Albus's first two years.
"Where's my wand?" Albus demanded of his brother, who simply laughed evilly. "Dad! James took my wand and won't give it back!" Albus called to Harry, who was helping Lily pack her robes into her trunk.
Ginny walked into the room, giving James a particularly cold glare; much like her mother, Molly Weasley's own vicious stare. James, at this, pulled Albus's wand from his sleeve and handed it to his brother.
"Are we all ready, then?" Lily asked as she closed her trunk and gathered Incendia, her flame-coloured cat into her arms.
"You'll have to put Incendia into her cage, Lily," Harry told his daughter and held up the cage for her.
Lily sighed and gently placed the cat into the tiny cage, her face having fallen.
There was a knock on the door and Albus rushed to the door to receive his waiting cousins. Hermione, Ron, Rosie, and Hugo stood waiting in the doorway, the children all bearing huge smiles on their faces.
Harry and Ginny came to the door and both hugged each of the parents.
"Are you ready to go?" Ron asked, motioning to the van waiting in the driveway.
"I think so," Harry answered as he picked up Incendia's cage. The cat meowed pitifully.
"Is that yours, Lily?" Hugo asked in wonder at the creature.
"Yeah, I just got her yesterday! I named her Incendia," Lily answered him. The cat was, of course named after the spell "Incendio" which is used to start a fire.
The family gathered up all of their belongings which they would be taking to Hogwarts and packed them into the car, on which Hermione casted a few spells to make all of the trunks fit into its small interior. There were not quite enough seats within the vehicle either, so Lily sat on Ginny's lap; as she had done every year.
They arrived at King's Cross before too long; but they all had reached a state of extreme discomfort at the lack of space in the car.
Each of the children was quite accustomed to going to platform nine and three-quarters (which involved running straight into the barrier between platforms nine and ten); having done it each year that they saw their siblings off. Platform nine and three-quarters was bustling with all sorts of wizard children. James, Rosie, and Albus rushed off to greet their friends whom they had not seen all summer but Lily and Hugo remained close to their parents.
"You two had best be going before the train leaves," Hermione told her son and niece.
Ginny bent down to kiss Lily atop her head and Harry handed his daughter her cat, which was growing quite nervous from all of the noise and activity about her.
Hugo did not have any sort of animal with him. He was not fond of animals and though owls were practical, he could just use one of school owls to send letters home.
Lily and Hugo boarded the train, unsure of which compartment to sit in. They found Rosie, who Lily wished to sit with but Hugo did not want to be seen with his older sister – it seemed childish to him.
Finally, Lily and Hugo settled on a nearly empty compartment, occupied only by a pale, nearly white-blonde boy and a dark haired girl. The boy, who Lily recognized as Scorpius Malfoy, spoke to the girl in rather a soft but sinister sounding voice.
"If your sister ends up in Gryffindor, I wouldn't be surprised if your parents completely disowned her," he laughed, and the girl responded with a displeased grunt.
"I suppose you wouldn't care if your sister was a disgrace to the family," the girl responded angrily.
"I haven't got a sister," Scorpius responded rather matter-of-factly.
"I know that; but if you did have a sister…" she answered, trailing off before simply standing up and leaving the compartment.
"What's wrong with Gryffindor?" Lily asked curiously, thinking of how every member of her family was a part of it.
Scorpius seemed startled as Lily spoke; his head whipping around so that he could face her.
"You're the kid of those Weasleys; the blood traitors aren't you?" Scorpius asked when he saw her face, recognizing it as being very similar to Ginny's.
"We're not blood traitors! They ended all that years ago!" Hugo shouted angrily at Scorpius.
Scorpius and Hugo glared at each other angrily for a moment before Lily cut in. "Don't argue you two. Just because our parents didn't get along doesn't mean that we can't!"
Scorpius and Hugo continued to glare.
Lily got up and moved over to Scorpius and held out her hand. "Lily Potter," She said.
Scorpius stared at her hand before reaching out his own and in a voice so very like his father's and his grandfather's said, "Scorpius Malfoy," he said before adding with a glance at Hugo, "Slytherin."
"Hugo and I are first years so we haven't been sorted yet. James said that it hurts getting sorted but mom says that they just put the hat on your head and you don't feel a thing at all. Albus says that it even lets you suggest what house you want to be in! Both he and dad almost got sorted into Slytherin!" Lily told Scorpius, who stared at her, unsure of how she had said all that in one breath.
"There was no question of me being placed in Slytherin," Scorpius said proudly, looking again at Hugo who watched him in slight disgust.
"I think I'll probably be in Gryffindor – my whole family was," Lily said happily.
"I'll be in Slytherin for sure," Hugo said almost as proudly as Scorpius had spoken.
"Well I don't think it matters all that much what house anybody's in. My dad told me about his friends from all different houses who were all amazing in their own way. In Gryffindor there's Albus Dumbledore, in Ravenclaw there was Luna Lovegood, in Hufflepuff there was Cedric Diggory, and in Slytherin there was Severus Snape," Lily told both of the boys.
Hugo scoffed at the name of Severus Snape. He didn't have respect for anyone in Slytherin; especially Severus Snape. His father had told him that Snape had been his potions teacher and the head of house for Slytherin. Ron had hated potions class and it wasn't just because of his lack of ability.
"Hugo! Dad told me that Severus Snape was one of the best men he knew, even if he wasn't their favourite teacher. Did you know that Albus's middle name is Severus?" Lily told him.
Hugo blushed slightly then turned away and buried his nose in his stack of frog trading cards. Lily turned back to Scorpius and said, "I wouldn't mind one bit if I were a Slytherin."
Scorpius smiled a little before turning to stare out the window at the passing scenery. Lily dragged Incendia's cage over to her and pulled open the door. She gathered the orange cat onto her lap and began to stroke her short, soft fur. Scorpius turned to the cat in slight disgust; and Lily noticed this.
"You should hold her," Lily said to Scorpius whose face grew even sourer at this proposition. He reached out his hands anyway and dragged the cat onto his lap. She reached up her paws and, placing them on his left shoulder, licked Scorpius's face tentatively. Scorpius seemed slightly taken aback by this, but allowed Incendia to brush her face against his.
"She likes you," Lily giggled. Scorpius forced a pained smile at this.
"We should change into our robes," Hugo said after a few moments of silence. Lily showed her agreement by taking Incendia back from Scorpius, putting her in the cage, and taking her robes from her trunk.
Soon after having put on their robes, a voice was heard throughout the train: "We will be reaching Hogwarts in five minutes' time. Please leave your luggage on the train; it will be taken to the school separately."
Lily, Hugo, and Scorpius gathered their belongings into their trunks and once the train came to a stop, they all pushed through the crowd out onto the platform. "First years! First years over here!" a female voice called. They all stumbled towards the voice and found that it belonged to a large, muscular-looking woman. Scorpius wandered off to join his Slytherin friends with the third years.
The woman led them down a tree-lined path through the dark. Several people gasped suddenly, and Lily looked up to see why. Hogwarts sat in front of them.
"Everyone get into the boats! Only four in each!" the woman called. Hugo began to climb into one boat, and Lily followed. Two little girls, who were obviously sisters, joined them in the boat. One of the girls immediately stuck her hand out to Lily and introduced herself and her sister. "Anastasia Coleman. This is my sister Yvette. We're twins, but not identical." Yvette smiled shyly at Lily as Anastasia shook both Lily and Hugo's hands.
"What house do you think you're going to be in?" Lily asked.
"I don't have any idea!" Anastasia said. "We're muggle-borns, you see. Yvette read a little bit about Hogwarts and wizards and all that, but we don't know much. I can't even remember the names of the houses!"
"I think I'll probably be in Gryffindor," Lily said. "Both of my parents and my older brothers were Gryffindors."
"I'll probably be in Gryffindor too," Hugo said proudly.
"What do the houses mean?" Yvette finally spoke. Her voice was small and she spoke very timidly.
"Well, Gryffindor is for the brave and courageous people. Slytherin is for the wise and cunning, Ravenclaws are intelligent and knowledgeable, and Hufflepuffs are loyal and hard-working," Lily told her.
The boats came to a stop as Lily spoke and they all stepped out into a cavern beneath the castle. The group walked silently to the massive front doors and the woman knocked, rather more loudly than expected, on them.
The door opened and a rather serous looking wizard stood immediately inside. He led the first years past the great hall and into a room just large enough to accommodate them all. They remained there for a moment before the wizard returned and led them to the great hall.
Once inside they saw just why the hall was called the great hall. It was massive. There were five tables in the room – one for the staff, and one for each of the different houses. At the front of the room, their sat a stool with an old looking wizard's hat seated atop it. The hat had a sort of mouth on it, and as they all stared at it, the mouth opened and it sang a song which described each of the four houses. The entire hall applauded as the song ended.
The wizard that had led them in, who now introduced himself as Professor Marks began to call off names. As each name was called, its owner went to the stool, put the hat on his or her head, and the hat called out a house after a moment. This was the sorting hat.
"Coleman, Anastasia!" Professor Marks called out. The small girl practically sprinted to the hat and hastily placed it upon her head.
"Hufflepuff!"
"Coleman, Yvette!"
Yvette moved rather more slowly than her sister. She was shy and did not want to be in front of the crowd. She placed the hat on her head, allowing it to fall down over her eyes.
It was quite some time before the sorting hat called out the name of a house. The entire room was staring very intently at Yvette for the entire time, and she shrunk back at this. Finally the hat called, "Gryffindor!"
The entire room gasped. How could this tiny, nervous girl be in Gryffindor? Hufflepuff perhaps, like her sister, or Ravenclaw. But Gryffindor?
"Potter, Lily."
Lily rose and calmly took her seat on the stool, placing the hat on her head. Almost the instant it touched her, the hat screamed, "Gryffindor!"
Lily saw Scorpius's face fall. He had hoped that she would be in Slytherin, but it was not to be. Lily gazed sadly at him and went to join the cheering Gryffindors. She sat next to Yvette, who was receiving rather more attention than she would have liked.
"Weasley, Hugo."
Hugo stepped up to the stool and placed the hat on his head. After a second it called out "Gryffindor!" And Hugo sat next to his cousin at the table.