The engine of the Hogwarts Express made an extradorinarily loud noise as it pulled away from Kings Cross Station. Albus Potter looked through the window at the back of the train as his family waved at him and his cousin Rose. With a small jolt of pain he realized that he would not be seeing them again until Christmas vacation which was nearly four months away. He shut that thought into the back of his mind and focused on the excitement he was feeling about finally going to Hogwarts.
His older brother James had been to Hogwarts for the past two years and every time he came home for vacations he always told the greatest stories of the exciting things that happened there, and even though James also complained a lot about the homework and classes Albus could barely wait to be there.
He turned to look at Rose. "Wanna go get a compartment?" He asked causually, still feeling the excitement flow inside him.
"I just hope there's one left." She said in her bossy voice that she shared with her mother. Rose sometimes got on Albus's nerves, but somehow they had ended up becoming best friends, and he didn't know what he would do without her.
"I think there will be." Albus said. "It's a pretty big train."
They began to walk down the train's hallway. Albus was surprised when they were nearly to the end of the train that all the compartments were at least partially occupied. He was beginning to think that he and Rose would have to stand all the way to the station when they passed a compartment only occupied by one person.
"Let's go in here Rose." He said, taking her hand.
She hesitated, peering into the compartment. "Isn't that they boy my Dad told me not to get too friendly with?" She asked.
Albus looked into the compartment again, and so it was. He couldn't remember the boys name but he was sure that it was the one who Uncle Ron had warned them against, Draco Malfoy's son. Albus stood for a second, unsure, but then decided to go in anyways. He pushed open the door, and pulled Rose in behind him.
The boy looked up at the opening of the door, and for a second the three of them stood there in silence, taking each other in. Finally Rose took a step forward and spoke. "Do you mind if we sit here?' She asked.
The boy shook his head, and Albus looked at Rose, who shrugged, and shut the door behind her. The two of them sat down at the seat across from the boy. Albus noticed that they boy looked very pale, and blonde hair, his eyes were a bright blue, and his robes looked somewhat worn.
Again the three of them sat in silence for a few minutes until for the first time the boy spoke, sounding uncertain, and small. "You're Harry Potter's son right?" He asked Albus.
Albus was not surprised by this, he was asked questions like it quite a lot. "Yeah." He responded. "He's my Dad."
The boy nodded and turned his attention to Rose. "And you're Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger's daughter?"
"Yes." Rose answered. She, unlike Albus, seemed surprised by this question. Albus knew that although his Aunt and Uncle were fairly well known because of their part in defeating Voldemort they had never reached the level of fame that his father had, and Rose was probably not used to being considered special because of her parents.
"I'm Scorpius Malfoy." The boy said. "I don't know if your parents have ever talked about my dad…" He trailed off, looking away quickly.
"A bit, yeah." Albus said, also looking away. His father had never said anything outright bad about Draco Malfoy, but there was a definite tone of voice that he often used when speaking about him that caused Albus to think that there was a definite negative feeling that his father had toward Malfoy.
"Well I'm sure whatever they said it wasn't good." The boy paused. "I don't blame them." He said finally. "My Dad did a lot of bad things when he was younger, and so did my grandparents, and now no one likes us. No body wants an ex death eater working for them either." Scorpius looked down, and Albus again noticed his worn robes.
"Well it was usually pretty neutral." Albus said.
"I want to change that." Scorpius said. "I want to make it so that when people think of my family, they think of something good."
"How?" Rose asked.
Scorpius just shrugged, and looked away again, but Albus couldn't help thinking that perhaps he had just made his first friend at Hogwarts.
