Disclaimer: Harry Potter belongs to J.K. Rowling.

Children of Lies

Chapter One: A Boy Discovers

The sound of the Hogwarts Express rang through eleven-year-old Albus's ears as he stared at the looming train, luggage cart held tightly in his hands. His father stood next to him, looking for their relatives. Albus wanted to find them, too, especially Rose who was a first year like him, but his eleven-year-old brain forced his eyes to take in everything around him. He has made this trip twice before to see Jamie off, but now it was his turn. He couldn't believe it.

While Albus had been looking about, his father had disappeared from his spot next to him and he had been replaced with Ginny Potter who was yelling, "I think that's them, Al!" in his ear. His head whipped around to see the approaching figures of Uncle Ron, Auntie Hermione, Rose, and Hugo.

"Hi!" greeted Albus, relieved to see his relatives. As his father and Uncle Ron helped load his trunk onto the train, Albus and Rose talked animatedly to each other. Both were deathly afraid about their house placement; Albus wishing to avoid Slytherin and Rose praying to be placed into Gryffindor to please her father.

After managing to get Albus's trunk onto the train, they found Lily and Hugo talking about a similar topic as Albus and Rose had just been, but their conversation was slightly different. Both nine-year-olds were slightly more convinced they would be placed in Gryffindor than their older siblings. Albus heard Uncle Ron call out, "If you're not in Gryffindor, we'll disinherit you, but no pressure."

Next to him, Lily and Hugo were laughing hysterically, but Albus didn't share their mood. Instead, he paled slightly, but no one seemed to notice. His brain seemed to run through different situations, each one worse and worse. In the background, he heard someone mention the Malfoy family who were probably nearby and Jamie running over to scream, "Teddy Lupin is snogging Victore!" as if that wasn't old news. In the future, Albus would realize that his older brother had harbored a crush on Teddy, but at that point in time, all thoughts were about his impending doom. He was just thinking about how he would be sorted into Slytherin and afterwards his parents would personally come down to Hogwarts to disinherit him and he would have to spend the summers living in Hagrid's cabin when James yelled, "See you later, Al. Watch out for the Thestrals," at him.

Al gasped and retorted, "I thought they were invisible? You said they were invisible!" James just laughed and turned to say farewell to his parents. Then he turned around and sprinted over to the train, climbing on. He waved good-bye and disappeared into its depths.

"Thestrals are nothing to worry about. They're gentle things; there's nothing scary about them. Anyway, you won't be going up to school in the carriages: you'll be going in the boats," explained Harry. Albus became a little more relaxed at hearing this.

"See you at Christmas," said Ginny, kissing her son.

"Bye, Al," said Harry, giving his son a hug. "Don't forget Hagrid's invited you to tea next Friday. Don't mess with Peeves, don't duel anyone till you've learned how, and don't let James wind you up."

Al looked at his father awkwardly and then mumbled, "What if I'm in Slytherin?" as he saw his mother waving good-bye to Rose from the corner of his eye.

Harry couched down so that he was shorter than his son and whispered, "Albus Severus, you were named for two headmasters of Hogwarts. One of them was a Slytherin and he was probably the bravest man I knew."

"But just say-" started Albus, but was cut off by his father.

"Then Slytherin House will have gained an excellent student, won't it? It doesn't matter to us, Al. But if it matters to you, you'll be able to choose Gryffindor over Slytherin. The Sorting Hat takes your choice into account."

"Really?" gasped Albus, eyes growing wide.

"It did for me," admitted Harry.

The doors were starting to close along the train and Albus quickly sprinted to the closest opening. Ginny close the door behind him and Albus started to notice everyone's faces seemed to be looking at his father. "Why are they all staring?" asked Albus.

"Don't let it worry you. It's me. I'm extremely famous," said Ron with a grin. Albus grinned back and laughed along with Lily and his cousins. Suddenly, the train began to move and quickly sped away from the station. Once the adults and their too-young-for-Hogwarts relatives were out of sight, Albus quickly went to look for a compartment. He soon spotted James and the blonde head of his cousin, Louis.

"Jamie! Jamie!" called out Albus, "Wait up!"

James turned around and looked at his brother with one eyebrow cocked up. "What is it, little bro?"

"What compartment are you sitting in?"

James rolled his eyes. "You can't sit with us, you know."

"What? Why not?" questioned Al.

"You're a first year. I'm a third year. It's just the principle of the thing. I've got my rep and all that. Can't be seen with a first year too often," said Jamie as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "You understand, right Al?"

Albus didn't understand, not at all, but he said, "Okay. I get it, I guess."

"Great. Thanks, bro. You're the best," said James and ducked into the compartment.

"Sorry, Al, but you know how Jamie is. I'm sure you can find Rosie or some of our other cousins." With that, Louis followed Jamie into the compartment. Even Albus' too-nice-for-his-own good cousin didn't want to spend time with him.

Albus sighed and said, "Okay. Come on, Rosie. There's bound to be an empty compartment somewhere… Rosie?" He turned around when he heard no response and saw that his other cousin was gone. With a sigh, the boy decided to go looking for a compartment on his own. He walked down the train and, to his disappointment, it seemed as though all of the compartments were taken by large groups of people. When he was about to give up and go beg Jamie to let him sit with him, he came across what seemed to be an empty compartment. He wrenched open the door and was surprised to see a lone boy, probably a first year, sitting there. His hair was the most shocking shade of blonde Albus had ever seen, a messy mop on his head. His beautiful silver eyes started up at Albus in shock as his hand was stuck deep inside a bag of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans.

"Wow. He's so beautiful," thought Albus. "Errr… sorry. I was wondering if I could sit here?"

"You're that Potter boy," said the blonde, still in shock.

"Um… excuse me?"

"I saw you at the platform," explained the boy, "with your family."

"Oh uh. Okay," said Albus. "Is he from a family of crazy Harry Potter fans?

"Oh uh sorry. This must be odd. Please. Sit down," said the boy pointing to the seat across of himself. "My name's Scorpius Hyperion Malfoy."

"Albus Severus Potter. You can call me Al, I guess," said the dark haired boy, feeling a little weird using his middle name, but had done it to follow in the other boy's example. He extended his hand and Scorpius shook it. Albus was a little happy to discover that he wasn't, in fact, sitting with a Harry Potter fanatic. When he and Scorpius' hands met, however, Albus found his skin warm under the touch and he didn't understand why. When Scorpius let him, he quickly retracted his hand and did his best to stifle his blush.

"So what house do you want to be in?" asked Scorpius, a big, warm grin on his face. Albus felt transfixed by the grin and, once again, he didn't understand why. He pegged it down to the fact that Scorpius was prettier than most boys and he just wasn't used to that. After all, Albus found him prettier than Louis who was part veela. Many times he and everyone else he knew found themselves transfixed by Louis' beauty as well as his two sisters, Dominique and Victore, and their mum, Fleur.

For that reason, Albus found himself shouting, "Are you part veela?" at Scorpius.

Scorpius sat there, shock-still, trying to absorb and understand the question. When he finally did, all he could say was, "What?"

"It's just, errr, you're prettier than my cousin, Louis, and he's part veela, so I thought maybe you might be," stammered out Albus, blushing. He realized how stupid he must have sounded.

Scorpius, blushing slightly, laughed, and said, "No. No, I'm not. But uh thanks for thinking I'm pretty, I guess."

"Well, um… I guess I want to be in Gryffindor," admitted Albus, trying to hide his embarrassment by changing the topic. "My family is generally placed there. I'm a Potter and a Weasley so I should be there, right?"

Scorpius sighed and said, "Yeah. Typical. But you don't seem to be so sure you'll end up there."

"I don't know. My brother Jamie is always saying how I'll be in Slytherin and my cousin, Victore, is a Ravenclaw. I guess that means it's not for sure, especially since Victore has Weasley as her last name. I feel like I'm doomed to disappoint my family. I mean, I'm already bullocks at Quidditch and my mum was on the bloody Harpies!" explained Albus.

Scorpius chuckled. "Your dad seems like an upstanding bloke. I'm sure they'll understand. Besides, you'll probably be in Gryffindor, anyway, so there's nothing to worry about."

Albus sighed, looking down at his hands, and said, "Yeah. I guess so. So long as it's not Slytherin, yeah?" Without notice, Scorpius' eyes widened in shock, but he decided not to say anything. He wasn't sure himself if he actually wanted to be placed into his family house. He didn't want to be "just another Malfoy" after all.

"Anyway, what house do you want to be put in?" asked Albus.

"Errr I'm not sure, you know? They all seem so great," said Scorpius with a smile. He tugged at his scarf nervously.

Albus nodded, but then noticed the colors of the scarf: green and silver. "You're not a first year, are you?"

Scorpius looked at Albus oddly. "Of course I am. Only a first year would sit alone like this."

"But you're wearing a Slytherin scarf," pointed out Albus.

"Oh. This?" asked Scorpius, holding up a piece of his scarf. "It was my dad's when he was at Hogwarts. It's really warm, so…" Scorpius trailed off.

"But you want to be in Slytherin, yeah?" asked Albus. He felt terrible about what he had previously said and stupid for not making the Malfoy-to-Slytherin connection. Sure, he had heard the rumors about the house, but Scorpius seemed so nice and wanted to be there. They couldn't all be bad then, right?

"Um… it's complicated, I suppose," admitted Scorpius, shrugging his shoulders. "I don't think you'd understand." The second those words were out of his mouth he regretted them.

"Why not?" asked Al.

"It's a Malfoy family thing, I guess," said Scorpius. It took all of his willpower not to shout, "It's because you're a Potter! Everyone loves your family! Everyone wishes mine were dead!"

"Oh err… okay," said Al, leaving it at that, and turning to the window. Outside, the train rolled past forests and mountains. Albus couldn't fathom how long they had been traveling; just that he was sure a decent amount of time had passed. Outside, the train rounded a lake and just as it had appeared, it was gone. Albus wondered if any magical creatures lived in those woods, but then he berated himself. Those were ordinary England woods. Of course there were no magical creatures.

Suddenly, there was a knock on the door. "Trolley, dears?" asked an elderly woman. Albus and Scorpius looked at each other and grinned.

Two minutes later, the compartment found itself filled with two of each of every candy the trolley sold. Albus sat there, munching on a liquorish wand, as Scorpius struggled with a chocolate frog package. Suddenly, the package tore open and the frog popped out, landing on Albus' face. Albus started to scream and swat at the frog, but all he really managed to do with squash it against his face. "Oops. Sorry about that," said Albus, slightly blushing in embarrassment.

Scorpius sighed. "It's fine. I don't really like those things, anyway."

"Here, you can have mine to make up for it," said Albus, throwing the package at the blonde. Scorpius caught it and thanked him. "So what card did you get?"

Scorpius reached into his box and pulled out the magical piece of cardboard. "Cliodna." Albus did his best to stifle his laughter, but Scorpius noticed anyway.

"What? What is it?" yelled the Malfoy.

"It's just… Cliodna is a goddess of beauty," snickered Albus. Scorpius proceeded to bludgeon the Potter boy with a pack of Drooble's Best Blowing Gum.

"Anyway, I'm sorry," said Albus after Scorpius was done talking out his frustrations.

"Huh? For squishing my chocolate frog? I'm over that, you know," asked Scorpius, looking at the other boy in confusion.

"No, I mean, for insulting Slytherin. I was out of line," sighed Albus.

"You shouldn't apologize. I'm not in Slytherin yet," said Scorpius with a smile, trying to make Albus feel better.

"Still, your father was in Slytherin and I'm guessing your mother was, too, yeah?" stated Albus. "I basically insulted your family."

Scorpius chuckled. "But that doesn't mean I'll be in Slytherin and I'm not yet. Besides, why do you care? If I'm in Slytherin and you're in Gryffindor – which you probably will be – it's not like we'll be friends. There's that whole house rivalry thing. We'll hate each other."

"Not be friends? But…" said Albus, suddenly finding interest in his lap. He had envisioned himself and Scorpius expanding their friendship from then on. He was enjoying the boys company and the last thing he wanted was to grow to hate him.

"No. We probably won't be. It's a pity, but…"

Albus didn't hear the rest of what Scorpius said. At that moment, he told himself that no matter what, he wanted to be in the same house as the blonde.

To Be Continued…

A/N: Here we are, then. The actual start of the story. For the first 500 words or so, I used the same dialogue from the epilogue of Death Hallows. I feel dirty doing this, but I want to try to make this work with canon as much as possible. The second half of the chapter was fun to write and I hope I didn't make the meeting too unrealistic. They are eleven, however, and eleven-year-olds make fast friends. I hope I didn't mess up too bad. As for Scorpius not wanted to be in Slytherin, it makes sense. He's aware of the scrutiny of the public towards his family and feels like it's his duty to redeem the Malfoy family. He feels like being placed in another house would help him do it, but at the same time, he knows Slytherin would make his family proud.

Anyway, chapter 2 will probably be released in a few days. I just wanted to get chapter 1 out the next day because I figured just leaving you all with a prologue would be unfair. And thanks so much for the reviews: 7 in one day? Holy cow!

Anyway, please review. I'd like to know what you think on this chapter.