The food was as delicious as his father had always told him and amongst the friendly chatter of other students and Scorpius' cheeriness, Albus struggled to remain glum.

"This chicken is even better than my mother's!" He remarked in amazement before taking another big bite, "How's the lamb chop?"

Scorpius mumbled what sounded like "great" but Albus couldn't be sure as it was muffled by a napkin catching stray gravy.

Albus grinned happily and surveyed the rest of his table, there seemed to be no order to where everyone sat. Students who looked tall enough to be teachers in Albus' mind sat next to other first years and chatted to them politely about upcoming lessons, what they had to look forward to and which teachers they should avoid, "Madame Hooch is fair but don't mess about in her flying lesson or you will be cleaning Quidditch kits for a month!"

The younger students listened attentively, pleasing the older ones with gasps of amazement as the conversation moved on to the extraordinary creatures, not all friendly, inhabiting the lake.

"Of course, you will probably see a lot of them through our common room window. We are very lucky to be situated beneath the lake itself." Daisy was telling a young girl to her left.

Unable to help himself, Albus leaned over Daisy's friend and blurted. "Under the lake? Our common room is under the lake?"

"Of course it is Al!" Scorpius joined in, "How can you not know that? It's common knowledge among Slyther…" He broke of awkwardly and Albus had the impression he was about to say all Slytherin families knew about the common room before remembering that Albus was from a family of Gryffindor's. "Sorry Al I forgot." He faltered.

Albus grinned, too excited to care, "So we can actually see the creatures swimming by?"

"Yes. Sometimes we even see the giant squid!"

A gentle tapping of a glass announced the end of the feast and after a few notices from the headmistress, prefects from all tables were calling to first-year students,

"First years follow me please!" Called a quiet but frim voice from the head of the Slytherin table.

Albus looked up and noticed the voice belonged to an immaculate boy with perfectly combed hair despite the long journey. He seemed rather reserved for a prefect in Albus' opinion, standing patiently expecting to be obeyed rather than bustling about rounding up the new students as a few of the other prefects were.

Albus fell into line behind Scorpius and in front of the blond-haired girl who has sat on his other side.

"Hi…" She said meekly, as they made eye contact, "I'm Irma".

"I'm Albus."

"Err… yes I know."

Albus flushed deeply but forced a polite smile as he glanced over to the Gryffindor table wondering if Rose was as excited to see their common rooms as he was. But to his surprise she didn't seem at all excited, in fact, she was stood at the back of the line hesitating to leave a heated conversation with a small group of other red-haired students and his brother James. She noticed him looking and shot him a worried tight smile and before he could respond, he was nudged forward and led out of the great hall by the two Slytherin prefects.

"We just go through this door here," The prefect instructed leading them through a door off the grand entrance hall and down a long winding stone staircase. Several stairs and corridors later, they stopped outside an ordinary looking stretch of wall, "This is it. The entrance to your new temporary home".

Albus looked up and down the corridor for another door or maybe a portrait to give a password to like you did with the fat lady but saw nothing but wall. A few of the other first years were looing similarly confused but most them seemed to be waiting expectantly or even bored.

"Horace Slughorn." The female prefect said clearly, "In honour of our head of year who retired last term. "She told them but most of them weren't listening as at that moment the stone wall in front of her slid smoothly aside to reveal the Slytherin common room.

The first-year students crowded in eagerly, looking around the long dungeon room. Albus's attention was immediately drawn to the large arched windows on either side of a big fireplace currently alight with a welcoming crackling fire. The lake lapped gently against the window, its cyan colour causing the common room to have a slight green tinge to it. Albus swerved his way around a very comfortable looking leather sofa and stood in front of the window, squinting to see any creatures. He thought he could see something in the distance and leaned forward eagerly so his nose was almost touching the glass, "Hey Scorpius, come here, I think I see something!" Scorpius and a few other first years eagerly crowded around the window. There was definitely something approaching, "Do you think it's the giant squid?" Scorpius asked breathless with excitement, "Wait where did it go?" The shape had suddenly vanished. They all leaned closer desperate to be the first to find it again and identify it. Suddenly a face appeared less than a centimetre away from the glass causing all the students to jump back in shock.

"Aghhhh she made me jump!"

The girl in question who wore her hair in pigtails and had rather large round glasses, began laughing hysterically at their reaction, though she couldn't be heard inside the common room, before whizzing away into the deep lake.

The male prefect spoke, his eye's twinkling, "Ah yes," He said quietly, "I should have mentioned Moaning Myrtle does like to meet our new students. It seems to quite amuse her".

"Not like Moaning Myrtle to have a sense of humour from what I've heard!" A chubby looking boy laughed.

"Only when it is at the expense of someone else." The female prefect smirked, "By the way, I'm Maxine and this," She indicated the other prefect, "is Gregory. Whilst you are here, if you have any problems please come speak to one of us or the head girl or boy. Now feel free to have a quick look around the common room but then I would suggest you all head straight to your beds. First years are on the ground floor. Boys to the left and girls to the right."

She then joined Gregory on one of the two sofas near the fire.

"Nice room isn't it Al?" Scorpius asked picking up a book from a shelf and studying it.

"Yeah better than id have imagined for a dungeon." Albus grinned looking around. Although the walls in here were stone too, the room felt warm and comforting. There was a round table with a few chairs around it that looked perfect for exploding snap and another couple of smaller desks that would be handy for last minute homework he thought. "I'm exhausted!" He yawned.

"Stressful day for you," Scorpius chuckled, "But yeah I'm tired too. Lets find our beds".

Together they made their way down the corridor Maxine had pointed out earlier and were soon in their soft beds snuggled under green duvets with their suitcases at the foot.

"I think this year is going to be a lot of fun Al." Scorpius commented sleepily, "and hopefully it won't be too stressful".

"Hmm." Albus agreed half-heartedly. As it was only now he was lying down and had no distractions that his mind wandered back to the great hall and the vexed look on Rose's face. But still, maybe it wouldn't be that bad. Daisy had said someone was always the centre of gossip and it never lasted long. It was with that reassuring thought that he fell into a deep slumber dreaming of racing Moaning Myrtle around the great lake while he rode the giant squid.