A/N: Alrighty, so this is Chapter 1. It's very different from the prologue, and most of the chapters are going to be more like this until the last few chapters. This picks up just after the end of the Epilogue of Deathly Hallows.

After getting on the Hogwarts express with seconds to spare before the train left, Albus and Rose were ditched by James, who had been fetched by Fred. The two of them then started going from one compartment to the next, and each time they entered a compartment their entrance was almost immediately followed by people screaming and running out.

Albus and Rose were then left to their own devices, having to seek out their own compartment to sit in. Every compartment had something wrong with it. Many were full, but the others had problems of their own. One was full of smoke, another had a roof that was leaking milk, one didn't even seem to have seats, and yet another looked normal, but once you entered your head inexplicably jumped off of your head and ran around for a bit. Albus found it quite a struggle to get it back, only being able to do so when a Hufflepuff prefect took pity on him and helped him out.

"The name's Howard Seymour," the prefect said, introducing himself, before asking the obligatory "You're Harry Potter's kid? You look just like him."

Albus seemed to get this wherever he went. He looked quite similar to his father, the famous boy-who-lived, and it seemed that people would compulsively point it out to him. Albus responded with a meek "Yes."

"You want me to help you find somewhere that your brother and cousin haven't booby trapped?" Howard asked him, dragging the two away from the compartment without waiting for an answer. Clearly James and Fred's infamy spread far in Hogwarts.

"Thanks," muttered Rose, seemingly disappointed that Howard had straight away introduced himself to Albus without paying her a second thought.

"So what's it like, being the son of the Boy-Who-Lived? Does he tell you many stories about fighting You-Know-Who? Have you ever fought a dark wizard, yourself? You probably haven't, you're only eleven, and as if any wizard could get past your dad. Or witch, of course. Though my girlfriend Hepsie has quite a temper on her, I bet she could take on even the most experienced Auror after they've badgered her," and Howard seemed to be having his own conversation, Albus and Rose completely bewildered by his ability to keep it up so well. They quietly followed him until he opened the door to a compartment with two other first-years in it. There was a tall black-haired boy with his nose held high and a small blonde girl who did nothing but look out of the window. "Well, here ya go. Nice talking to you, but I've got to run now. I promised my friends I'd sit with them, and they'll probably be wondering where I am. Catch you later… Alfred isn't it?"

"Albus," Albus corrected. He suddenly realized that in all the time that Howard had been talking, he hadn't once asked his or Rose's names.

"Right, Albus. I remember now. Hopefully you get sorted into Hufflepuff! It'd be great to have someone so nice in our house. Anyway, I'd best be off now. Bye!"

And with that, the four first-years were left to awkward silence for about five minutes. It seemed to Albus that the two others didn't know each other either, so he decided to break the silence.

"Hi, I'm Alb…"

"I know who you are," interrupted one of the two others. "You're Harry Potter's son, Albus Potter. Hard not to know that. I'm Carrow. Cameron Carrow."

Rose broke her silence too, and introduced herself. "I'm Rose, I'm Albus's cousin."

"You're a Weasley?" Cameron asked, to which Rose nodded, slightly intimidated by his harsh tone. "I could've guessed from your hair alone."

The entire conversation seemed to be lost on the other student in the compartment, a very small blonde girl. Albus saw that Cameron didn't look too happy to be sitting with them, so he turned to introduce himself to the girl. "Hi, what's your name?"

"I'm Chanelle," she answered softly, turning to look at Albus. "I'm sorry, but I don't know who you are, my family aren't wizards or witches. I think I'm the first one."

At this statement, Cameron seemed to gag in disgust, for which he earned a very sharp glare from Rose. Rose shot angrily "Well it seems that some people still have a problem with muggle-borns attending Hogwarts. I for one am happy to meet someone of such interesting heritage. My grandparents are muggles, on my mother's side, and they are lovely people. I'm sure your family is just as nice."

Cameron groaned, "That's what I get? Harry Potter's son, a mudblood and a mudblood sympathizer? I'd honestly prefer Malfoy over this sludge."

Chanelle's face went bright red, and she returned to looking out the window. Rose was about to start lecturing Cameron about all of the reasons why muggle-borns are no more disadvantaged at magic than anybody else when Albus interrupted her, saying "Don't bother. It's wasted on him. It's like trying to convince a Chudley Cannons fan that scoring is important to Quidditch."

Cameron burst out laughing at this remark, and said "Well I think I know a thing or two about Quidditch. I support the Wimbourne Wasps…"

And from that point there was no turning back. Albus and Rose were both diehard fans of the Pride of Portree, and suddenly the three of them were arguing like crazy over who was going to do better in the upcoming Quidditch season. This conversation carried them most of the way to Hogwarts, until Chanelle turned back from the window and asked, "What's Quidditch?"

This stopped the conversation dead in its tracks. Cameron muttered something along the lines of "typical mudblood" and returned his nose to its position near the ceiling, but Rose then went into a detailed explanation of what Quidditch is. Chanelle was amazed by the sport, and also confused as to how everybody could pay attention to all four balls at once.

Eventually, the four students realized that they were probably close to Hogwarts, and had to get changed into their robes. Albus and Cameron left the room momentarily to let the girls change, and they then gave the boys the same courtesy once they were done. Their conversation suddenly turned into a discussion as to which houses they would all go into.

"You get sorted into a particular house based on what traits you have," explained Rose. "Gryffindors are brave, Hufflepuffs are loyal, Ravenclaws are smart and Slytherins are cunning." She then leaned in close to Chanelle, whispering "Cunning is code for evil."

Cameron confidently announced "I just know I'll be in Slytherin."

Rose and Chanelle had a small chuckle about this, barely audible.

"My entire family's been in Slytherin for generations," Cameron continued. Rose snorted, but put it off as needing to blow her nose.

"We're very proud of it."

At this point Rose completely lost it and Chanelle started laughing, too. Albus and Cameron were very confused.

"What? What's so funny?" Cameron kept asking them, but it was to no avail as the two kept laughing for several more minutes. Cameron let it go and, once the two girls had calmed down, Cameron turned to Albus.

"What house do you think you'll be in?" he asked.

"I don't know. All of my family's in Gryffindor, obviously, but my brother is convinced I'll end up in Slytherin."

"Would that be such a bad thing? I can tell you're alright, even if you are Harry Potter's son, so surely you at least might be in Slytherin."

"I don't know. I guess it depends what the Sorting Hat says."

The conversation continued along these lines for a bit longer. Rose was convinced she'd either be in Gryffindor or Ravenclaw, but said that it didn't really matter to her either way. Chanelle had no idea which house she might go into, but hazarded a guess that she would be in Hufflepuff.

Eventually, the train arrived at Hogwarts, and the four students got off of the train and onto the platform. They were confused as to what to do at first, but eventually Albus heard a familiar voice cry out "Firs' years! Firs' years over 'ere!"

Albus ran up to the giant of a man through the crowded platform, with the other three following in his wake.

"Hagrid!" he yelled out.

Hagrid looked around for a bit trying to figure out where the voice had come from, and eventually he spotted Albus in the crowd. "Al!" he yelled out. "It's so good ter see ya!" he remarked as Albus approached him and hugged him. Hagrid had often been at the Potter's house on important occasions, and Albus got to know Hagrid very personally as the two had become quite good friends.

After a minute, Hagrid had to return to calling all of the first-year students over, and once he was satisfied that he had everybody, he lead them towards the lake. Once at the lake, the students were told do get into boats. Albus got into one with Rose, Cameron and Chanelle, though Cameron looked less than pleased when Chanelle got on with them, and his nose remained firmly attached to the outer atmosphere for most of the duration of the boat ride.

After a while, the four of them could hear gasps ahead of them, and they got a bit worried, but then they got their first ever view of the castle. Hogwarts.

It was just as amazing as Albus had heard it described to him so many times. The mere sight of it was breathtaking. Albus couldn't wait to get there and explore all of the halls, finding the hidden passages and spending hours seeing every nook and cranny of the awesome structure. As they got closer, and he could see the castle in more detail, he realized that the descriptions he'd heard could never do it justice. It was the most amazing thing he'd seen in his life. He didn't take his eyes off of it from the second he saw it to the time he was dragged out of the boat by Rose. Hagrid then lead the students up to the castle, leaving them in the hands of Neville Longbottom.

Albus had also met Neville a few times in the past, and Neville seemed to recognize him. Or perhaps he just looked for the first-year that most closely resembled Harry Potter.

Either way, Albus got distracted by the splendor of the halls around him as Neville lead them towards the Great Hall. He barely took notice of a word that the professor said, only understanding what was going on after he asked Rose, who scolded him for not paying attention, and then Cameron, who actually told him what was happening.

"He says we're about to go into the Great Hall to get sorted in front of everybody. Apparently it's a big deal, even though half of us know which house we'll be in already."

Albus then pondered the point of the whole ceremony for those people who were already so confident of their house. If your house didn't matter in the long run, then why was Neville making such a big deal about it now? And why did it have to be in front of the whole school? And if you already knew which house you were bound to be in, what was the point in putting the hat on at all?

Neville then opened the doors to the Great Hall, and the first years walked through the tables to the front. Some of the students were amazed by the Great Hall and the vast number of older students seated at the tables, but most of them were absolutely awestruck by the ceiling of the Great Hall. Rose leaned over to Albus and said "It's charmed to look like the night sky!" which dragged Albus out of his thoughts and into the world around him. He looked up in awe, but then a familiar voice dragged his gaze away from the roof and towards the Gryffindor table at the edge of the hall.

"Albus!" he heard James yell. When he looked over, James and Fred were both hissing at him and pointing to the Slytherin table on the other side of the hall. Albus walked much more quickly towards the front after that.

At the front of the Hall was a table with people who Albus assumed to be the teachers. On one end was a middle-aged woman with very long dark brown hair and one of the biggest pointed hats Albus had ever seen. Next to her was another witch, this one with a much smaller hat and much shorter auburn hair. The next one was a dark-skinned witch with very foreign-looking robes, and then there was Hagrid. Even at the teachers' table, he absolutely dwarfed everybody. Alongside Hagrid was a very old wizard whose hair was completely grey and confined only to the sides of his head. Then, in the middle of the table, was one of the shortest people Albus had ever seen. He recognized him as the Hogwarts Headmaster, Filius Flitwick. Next to the Headmaster was an empty spot, which Albus assumed was Neville's, and beyond that was a quite young witch with straight hair and a very stern look on her face. The next teacher along was also quite young, but his face seemed to radiate kindness. Finally, at the end of the table, there was a young witch with a quite mad look on her face and much frizzled black hair.

When the first-years arrive at the front, they all stood before a ragged old hat. It looked big enough to fit over the entire body of some of the smaller students, and also looked as though it was about to fall to pieces. Suddenly, a tear started to move and the hat started singing.

After the Sorting Hat's song was done, Neville started calling students up to be sorted.

"Abbott, Jonty!"

A blonde-haired boy made his way from the crowd and sat on the stool. Neville placed the hat on his head, and barely a moment later the hat cried to the whole school, "HUFFLEPUFF!"

One of the tables erupted in cheers, with some students giving the boy a standing ovation as he made his way to the table. Albus could see that some people were exchange small bronze coins among each other. Apparently people placed bets on which house the first student would get sorted into.

"Badcocke, Nelle!"

A quite tall brown-haired girl approached the front, and this time the Sorting Hat stopped for a few moments. And it kept thinking. And thinking. An older Gryffindor student yelled out "Hurry up already!" after a few minutes of waiting, but eventually the Sorting Hat yelled out "HUFFLEPUFF!"

It might have been getting both of the first two students, or it might have been the fact that they had to wait so long for the result, but the Hufflepuff table seemed to cheer even louder for Nelle than for Jonty. Albus wondered if people had had time to place bets while the Sorting Hat was thinking, and his thoughts were then confirmed by two Ravenclaws exchanging small change.

"Bell, Vincent!" was the next one called up, and he was the first to join Gryffindor. "Bishop, Kip!" joined Ravenclaw, and then "Bloodworth, Emily!" was sorted into Slytherin, meaning that all four houses now had a first-year student. "Brownlow, Lilian!" was also put into Gryffindor, then "Bulstrode, Cody!" went to Slytherin and "Bunker, Radcliff!" to Ravenclaw. After that, it was finally Cameron's turn.

"Carrow, Cameron!" yelled Neville, placing the hat on Cameron's head. However, no sooner had the hat touched his head as it yelled out "SLYTHERIN!"

Cameron punched the air as he made his way to the Slytherin table, sitting amongst a group of fourth-years he seemed to already be acquainted with.

"Curtis, Yvonne!" was the next to be sorted, joining Gryffindor, but Albus then tuned out for a while. He knew that his name was a fair way down the alphabet from here, so he just stood there waiting, his feet getting tired. He suddenly felt sorry for Rose, knowing that her name was right at the end of the alphabet, starting with a 'W'.

Albus came back to attention when a string of boys all went to Gryffindor, "Longbottom, Matt!", "Low, Howard!" and "Macmillan, Kieran!" were all put in the lion house, and next up was "Malfoy, Scorpius!"

Rose turned to Albus, reminding him that this was the boy that her father had pointed out at King's Cross. Albus recognized the name Malfoy, and tried to place it, but he couldn't, and any hope of recognizing the boy was gone when he was briskly sorted into "SLYTHERIN!"

"Nott, Roxana!" followed Malfoy to Slytherin, and then "Ollivander, Denise!" went into Ravenclaw. Albus braced for his own sorting, suddenly getting very nervous as Neville made his way into the 'P's.

"Parker, Elise!" went to Gryffindor. "Parkinson, Victoria!" went to Slytherin. "Pierson, Norman!" also went to Slytherin. Then, the wait finally over, Neville called "Potter, Albus!" to the whole hall.

This was it. Albus slowly approached the stool at the front of the hall. Everybody went quiet, and then a quiet muttering started to spread. Most people knew who he was, the others were quickly told by their classmates. Everybody was on the edge of their seats, expecting greatness from the second son of Harry Potter.

He sat on the stool, and Neville then placed the Sorting Hat on his head, winking at Albus as he did so. The hat starting talking to Albus.

"Hmm, yes, I see. A very cunning young boy, much like your father in that respect. Hmm. But a thirst! A thirst to prove yourself! Yes, that is very strong. Yes. Perhaps Slytherin might be a good idea, they could help you so much. Hmm."

"Please not Slytherin, please not Slytherin," Albus whispered to the hat as quietly as he could.

"Oh, you are very much like your father. He also asked to be sorted elsewhere. Well, if not Slytherin, then we'd better follow tradition, hadn't we? GRYFFINDOR!"

The Gryffindor table erupted in cheers and celebration. Everybody got off of their seats and clapped him. Albus breathed a great sigh of relief, happy that he'd been sorted into the same house as his father. And his mother. And his brother. And his grandparents. On both sides. And all of his cousins. And his aunt and uncle. And basically everybody he was related to since the founding of Hogwarts. He hadn't let down the Potter legacy. As he approached the Gryffindor table he could see so many of his relatives joining in the applause. There were his cousins Victoire, Dominique, Louis, Molly and Fred, and of course his brother James. But they were scattered across the table with their own friends, so he just sat with the other first-years.

He sat down at the Gryffindor table next to a boy he remembered to be Kieran Macmillan, and hoped that Rose would also be sorted into Gryffindor. As the cheering began to settle down, Neville called out "Prewett, Gabrielle!" and people mostly returned their attention to the Sorting Hat. It was a very long wait for some of the students down the end of the alphabet, and some of them were clearly started to get restless. Things got very confusing when "Tate, Lily!" and "Thorburn, Lilly!" were both sorted into Ravenclaw, and both of them looked really similar, too. After them, "Thorne, Samuel!" went into Hufflepuff and it was Rose's turn.

"Weasley, Rose!"

Rose approached the stool and Neville put the Sorting Hat on her head. It didn't take long for the Sorting Hat to call out "GRYFFINDOR!" and for the first time Albus got to join in with his new house in cheering someone joining their table. Rose came over and sat next to him, smiling.

Chanelle was the last student to be sorted. Albus didn't realize her last name was even further down the alphabet than Rose's, and once she was sorted into "HUFFLEPUFF!" Neville took the Sorting Hat away. The Headmaster, Filius Flitwick, then stood up. After standing up, in order to be seen by the whole school, he climbed onto the table and stood in clear view of everyone.

"Good evening everybody! For those first-years who do not know who I am, my name is Filius Flitwick, and I am the Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. I hope you all enjoy your education here this year. As a former teacher of forty years, I understand how important this stage of your life is. The things that you learn at this school will not only prepare you for your exams, but also for your life. Now, before we get to the feast, I'd like to mention a few things. First, allow me to introduce our new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Fred Smith!"

The young wizard stood up, smiling from ear to ear, and everybody in the great hall clapped politely for him. After a brief moment, he returned to his seat, still beaming.

"Professor Smith kindly agreed to take on this role after Professor Anderson's very sudden and very unfortunate death two weeks ago. I understand that he was much loved among the students at the school, who had him for their entire time here, and nobody will ever be able to truly replace him. It is a sad day whenever a member of staff dies, and we have been fortunate enough for that to not happen for quite some time. Professor Anderson will not be forgotten. Now, to housekeeping issues, the Forbidden Forest is forbidden, as you would imagine, and your consequences for entering will both be from the teachers along with from the many dangers of the forest itself. Do not enter it."

Albus started to hear people muttering around him. He caught people saying things like "What do you think's in there?", "How hard is it to get in?" and "I heard there's a giant living in there!"

Professor Flitwick cut off these mutterings, saying "Now, I believe you'll all be quite hungry after that long Sorting Ceremony, so I won't keep you waiting any longer. However, I will remind you that even though tomorrow is a Saturday, you are still expected to be at the Great Hall for breakfast at the normal time so that you can receive your class schedules for the term. Now, without any further ado, let the feast begin!"

Suddenly, plates full of food appeared on all of the tables, and everybody began stuffing their faces with food. Albus thought it was the best food he'd ever eaten. It was all delicious, and he had as much of everything as he could, until finally he couldn't eat anything else for fear of it all coming back up. He resigned himself to getting to know the other students, but Rose seemed to be able to eat a lot more than him. He started getting to know the other first-years. He was sitting next to Kieran Macmillan. Kieran was a pureblood boy, and a mad Quidditch fan, but he was a bit disappointed that he hadn't been sorted into Hufflepuff. Next to Kieran was Howard Low. Howard was a muggle-born, and was absolutely mesmerized by everything. He seemed ecstatic to be there, and was really looking forward to their classes. Next to Howard was Matt Longbottom. Matt was the third cousin twice removed of Neville Longbottom. Or was it second cousin three times removed? No, it can't be three times removed, it must be second cousin twice removed. Or was it? Albus couldn't remember at all. But the specifics didn't matter; they were related is all that mattered. Next to Matt was Vincent Bell, another muggle-born. However, in contrast to Howard, he seemed bored out of his mind. He didn't care about magic, and wished he was at a "normal" school with his other friends. Across from Vincent was Lilian Brownlow. Lilian spent basically the whole feast telling everybody and anybody that "My mum's a witch, but my dad's a muggle, so they didn't tell me I was a witch until I got my letter from Hogwarts!" She thought it was the most entertaining story in the world, and every time somebody introduced themselves to her, she would tell it again. Albus was certain he'd heard it no less than fourteen times by the end of the feast. Next to Lilian was Yvonne Curtis. Yvonne was a muggle-born, but also quite a talkative girl. She kept on asking Matt questions about everything to do with Hogwarts, assuming that he would know since he was related to Neville. Next to Lilian was Brianna Holt. Brianna had hardly eaten a thing, and looked like she was about to fall asleep. She kept yawning louder and louder, probably trying to get the attention of one of the older students so that they could take her to her bedroom. Next to Brianna was Elise Parker. Elise was engaged in a deep discussion with Rose, who had to speak between mouthfuls of food, about something to do with magic. They were both so smart that Albus could barely keep up with what they were saying.

Eventually, the feast was over. When the first-years were told to follow their fifth-year prefects, Brianna yelled out quite loudly "Finally!" gaining quite a bit of attention from the students around her, who looked more annoyed than anything else. One of the prefects was Evan Mathewson, a long-haired boy who appeared to be no taller than any of the first-years, yet his hair easily went down to his waist. The other prefect was a tall, blonde and very attractive girl, Dominique Weasley, Albus and Rose's cousin.

"Alright, first-years!" yelled out Evan, whose voice was more than deep enough to compensate for the lack of height he had. "Our common room is on the seventh floor. This means we will have to go up several flights of stairs to get there. Watch out, though, because the stairs like to move around a bit. Keep close to me and Dominique and make sure you keep watch of where you're walking. A step on the stairs might vanish, and then you'd trip, and you don't want that trip to be to the hospital wing on your first day here."

Evan led the first-years towards the Gryffindor Tower, and Dominique walked at the back with Albus and Rose in case the back few students got separated from the rest of them.

"So, what do you think of Hogwarts so far?" Dominique asked them, with a tone of excitement in her voice. "It's pretty cool, isn't it?"

"Yeah, it's great! I can't wait to look around. Do we have any free time? Do we get maps of the place?" asked Albus.

"Well, tomorrow is Saturday, so you'll have free time basically all day," Victoire answered. "But we don't get maps; you have to sort of figure it all out yourself. Don't worry about going to breakfast early, by the way. If you don't get there early enough to get your schedule you can just go to Neville's office and get it from him there. He's really laid back about that kind of stuff. Better than Professor Abel, anyway. God, I'm so happy I'm not in Hufflepuff."

"Who's Professor Abel?" asked Rose.

"She's the Transfiguration teacher, and the Head of Hufflepuff. She's got a stick up her arse, and nobody really likes her. She doesn't like us either. I don't get why she teaches if she hates students so much."

"Are there other teachers like her? Strict ones, I mean." asked Albus, momentarily terrified.

"Uh, not really. She's the worst by far. Maybe Professor Smith will be, and I hear that Professor Babbling's a bit harsh, but you only have her if you do Ancient Runes anyway, so she doesn't matter."

"Oh, that's a relief."

The three cousins chatted for most of the rest of the walk to the Gryffindor common room. Every time they walked passed a painting, Howard and Yvonne would get very excited about it. Even Vincent looked quite interested about the fact that they kept moving around and talking to each other. Eventually, they all arrived at a wall with a large painting of a quite fat lady. Evan stopped them all, and looked at the painting, saying, loudly enough for all of the first-years to hear, "Albus Dumbledore!" Albus looked up at Dominique, and she winked at him. Albus Dumbledore was the Headmaster of Hogwarts that Albus had been named after.

The painting swung backwards, and revealed a small tunnel. "That's the password to enter the common room, guys. Remember it: 'Albus Dumbledore'. If you forget it, you're trapped out and can't get back in." He stopped suddenly, and instructed to everyone, "Say it after me. Albus Dumbledore."

A few of the first-years muttered "Albus Dumbledore", but most of them just stayed there in awkward silence. Albus could hear the other Gryffindors chatting to each other on the other side of Evan.

Evan wasn't satisfied with this. "I'm not going to let any of you into the common room until you've all said it. So promptly, repeat after me. Albus Dumbledore"

This time most of them said it, "Albus Dumbledore."

"Nope. Not good enough. Say it again."

"Albus Dumbledore." they all chorused back at him, even Dominique said it so that he'd hear it louder and let them in.

"Louder!" Evan shouted, with flamboyant hand gestures.

"Albus Dumbledore!" they all shouted back at him.

"LOUDER!"

"ALBUS DUMBLEDORE!"

They could hear everybody in the common room suddenly get quiet.

"Good. Now you'll all remember that, so all of you will be able to get in the common room. Oh, and it changes every couple of weeks, if you don't know what it is you can just ask me or Dominique or one of the other prefects."

Evan led them into the common room, and then directed them all to their bedrooms. Albus said goodbye to Rose and Dominique, and then made his way into his room. He saw that all of his stuff was already in there, and his bed was already made. He put his pajamas on and then went to bed, but couldn't sleep all night. He was anticipating his classes, and was up well past midnight, too excited to sleep.