Chapter Two: The Hogwarts Express

Hope was awakened by a whooshing sound. She screeched and fell out of the tree landing hard on the ground. Footsteps rushed towards her.

"Merlin, are you okay?" a boy's voice asked her. Hope sat up and looked at him. He had white blond hair and steely gray eyes filled with worry. Pale skin shone in the sun and he was already in his school robes and pointy hat.

"I'm fine," Hope nodded. The boy offered his hand and helped her up.

"May I ask why you were in a tree?" he asked.

"I was sleeping."

"Why?"

"Well," Hope hesitated, but something made her trust this boy. "I came here last night. My mother doesn't want me to go to Hogwarts, but I want to go, so I ran away. I'm Hope, by the way."

"I'm SS. Why didn't your mother want you coming to Hogwarts? It's the best school there is," SS asked.

"She says it's dangerous. She wanted to homeschool me."

"Oh, I'm sorry." SS glanced at the fireplace. "Listen, my parents are coming soon. It may not be wise to tell them you ran away. Just say that you were dropped off earlier." Hope nodded just as the whooshing sound filled their ears again. A wealthy looking couple walked out of the fireplace, pulling a trunk and a cage with a spotted owl. The man wore a silver suit and was SS's double and the woman had rich brown hair and a noble air. They seemed very sophisticated.

"Scorpius, who is this?" the woman asked her son, waving a hand at Hope.

"This is Hope. Her mother dropped her off earlier," SS, Scorpius, explained. Hope smiled charmingly.

"Hello. You must be Scorpius's parents. Pleased to meet you," Hope said pleasantly. The woman smiled. The man pulled out a pocket watch, glanced at it, and snapped it shut.

"Ten minutes to eleven. Let's go," he said, dragging his son's trunk and walking into King's Cross's. Once inside, Scorpius and Hope gained trollies for their trunks. As the adults led the way the children fell back until they were out of earshot.

"Scorpius?" Hope asked, stifling a giggle.

"Think my name's funny, do you?" he declared in a pompous matter. Hope giggled harder

"Yes," she choked out. Scorpius glared at her for a minute before sighing.

"It is a rather sophisticated and ridiculous name, I must admit. Why do you think I go by SS?" Soon they were both laughing. In fact they were laughing so hard that they nearly hit SS's parents with their trollies. His father scowled.

"I'm glad you two are getting along but if you don't want to be late I suggest you pay attention to where you are going," he told them sharply. SS looked at his shoes, embarrassed. His mother patted his shoulder.

"Why don't you and Hope go through the barrier first?" she suggested. SS nodded and both he and Hope began to run at the metal barrier between platforms nine and ten. Both already knew how to get onto the platform since they had already learned all about Hogwarts from their parents. They passed through the barrier like it was air. Platform nine and three quarters materialized in front of them. The Hogwarts Express gleamed in the sun. Suddenly, SS's parents appeared behind them. Hope smiled at SS.

"See you at school," she grinned and walked away into the crowd and onto the train. She was loading her luggage when she felt a tap on her shoulder. SS stood behind her grinning. Hope smiled. "I thought you were saying goodbye to your parents?"

"I did. They're not big on PDA, so it was rather short," SS explained and shrugged. "Fancy finding a compartment?" And they began to walk down the halls. Finally they reached the last car and found a semi empty compartment. Hope opened the door and poked her head in.

"Excuse me, but everywhere else is full. Mind if we sit in here?" she asked. The boy and girl inside looked up. The girl had golden brown eyes and red frizzy hair. She wore an expression that said "I'm better than you." The boy had dark hair and glowing green eyes. His face was kind and welcoming.

"Yeah sure," the boy nodded and began moving over so they could sit. Hope walked in but when SS started to the girl shrieked.

"You can't sit here!" she declared, her eyes narrowed.

"Why not?" SS asked angrily, almost like he recognized the girl.

"Because we don't sit with Malfoys," she hissed. The boy's eyes widened. Hope felt confused.

"Are you really a Malfoy? Are you Scorpius?" the boy asked, astonished. Color crept onto SS's cheeks and he looked down, shameful. Hope still didn't understand.

"Yes, I am. But I'm not my father," SS assured them.

"Why does it matter?" Hope asked, voicing her confusion.

"It matters because our parents detest each other. And we can't be seen with the enemy," the girl growled, clenching her wand angrily.

"Enemy!" Hope declared in shock. The boy glared at the girl.

"Rose, I think it is fine. There's no more room. It is not like we're promising to be best friends forever," he reasoned. And with that stated the boy sat next to the girl, Rose, and Hope and SS took the opposite bench. Rose was still glaring daggers at SS. The boy stuck out his hand. "I'm Al." Hope shook it.

"I'm Hope." Al smiled. They spent the first half an hour of the ride in stony silence. Suddenly the door opened. A boy with red wild hair that stuck up everywhere poked his head in. He was flanked by two muscular boys, one with brown hair, the other blond.

"Hey Al! Rose!" he greeted the other two. He gazed at Hope, eyebrows high. "Who are you?"

"My name is Hope," she responded, smiling serenely. He nodded.

"I'm James and this is Heath Irons and Stanton Atwood," James gestured to the two boys behind him. His eyes traveled around the compartment before landing on SS. His eyes narrowed. "Aren't you Scorpius Malfoy?"

"Yes," SS replied, eyes narrowing slightly. James just stared for a minute before looking back at Al and Rose.

"You guys want to come and sit with us?" James asked them. He then addressed Hope, "You can come too, if you want." Rose stood at once, grabbing her bag.

"Thanks James," she smiled in relief and ran out of the door. Irons, the blond one, led her back to their compartment leaving James and Atwood. James's eyes fell on Al.

"You coming or not?" he asked. Al looked uneasy. James turned to Hope. "What about you?"

"I'm good where I am," Hope responded. She was beginning to dislike this boy. James glared.

"Al? Are you coming or not?" He was getting angrier.

"I…I think I'll stay. Your compartment is already pretty full," Al mumbled. James's eyes narrowed into brown slits of fury.

"What would Dad want you to do?" he hissed and left. Hope shut the door and turned back to the boys. Al was looking at his shoes and SS was staring at him with a peculiar expression on his face.

"Why did you do that? You could have sat with your brother," SS asked him.

"That was your brother?" Hope declared, shocked. Al nodded sadly.

"He's one year older. And Rose is my cousin," he explained. "I have a sister, Lily, who is two years younger than me."

"Why did you stay here?" SS repeated.

"I don't know, it just seemed right. It's unfair to judge anyone before you know them," Al mumbled. Hope smiled. This boy she liked. He was nice. But a question was burning in her mind.

"What did Rose mean when she said that your parents detest each other?" she asked.

"Our parents were never really found of each other," Al started.

"That's an understatement," SS interrupted. Al chuckled.

"True. But they've reached an understanding, I think. My dad doesn't talk about it much," Al said.

"Yeah, neither does mine."

"But who are your parents?" Hope asked curiously. Al sighed.

"I'm a Malfoy. My father is Draco Malfoy," SS said. Hope nodded. She knew that.

"Why is that bad?" SS was surprised.

"Your mum never warned you about the Malfoy family?" Hope shook her head.

"We never really talked about wizard families. She liked to pretend that we lived in our own little bubble," Hope sighed.

"Did she ever tell you about Harry Potter?" Al grumbled. Hope nodded.

"Of course! He's the Boy Who Lived!" Hope cried. "She's told me the stories, save the nasty parts. I always had trouble believing he was a real person. My mum told me that he had some children, it was in the Daily Prophet."

"Yes, he had three children," Al mumbled, "Two sons and one daughter named James Sirius, Albus Severus, and Lily Luna."

"Albus Severus…Albus…Al?" Hope wondered with confusion. Al nodded miserably.

"Unfortunately. And James just loves to brag about it," Al groaned.

"That make sense. You don't want to disappoint your father," SS wondered. Al nodded.

"And the whole family thinks I'm going to be a Gryffindor because James is and so were my parents and my Aunt and Uncle and all my cousins and I'm terrified!" Al moaned, putting his head in his hands.

"I get it," SS whispered. Al looked up and Hope turned. "My parents were in Slytherin, as was my whole family. But I don't want to be like that." Al and Hope grinned.

The candy trolley came after an hour and they all bought some sweets and were soon happily talking about anything and everything. Al was just in the middle of telling them a hilarious story when he accidently fell off his broom and crashed into James, shoving him into a mud puddle, when there was a tap on the compartment window. A screech owl was flying outside the window, a letter tied to his leg. Al opened the window and the owl flew gratefully into SS's owl cage. Hope pulled the letter off his leg and pulled it open.

Dear Hope,

I HAVE NEVER IN MY WHOLE LIFE BEEN SO WORRIED! HOW DARE YOU RUN AWAY TO HOGWARTS! DO YOU HAVE AN IDEA HOW WORRIED I WAS WHEN I WOKE UP AND READ YOUR NOTE? DID YOU EVEN CONSIDER MY FEELINGS? I CANNOT BELIEVE THIS! I DID NOT RAISE YOU TO ACT LIKE THIS!

Hope, I'm sorry for being mad, but I worry so much for you. The world is very dangerous and I worry for you so much. I hope you stay safe in Hogwarts. Please stay safe. You are the strongest, smartest, most beautiful girl I know. I know you will do wonderful at Hogwarts. You are so much like your Father. I love you so, so much. Write when you get the chance. I love you.

Love,

Mother

"Who's it from?" SS asked, opening the window so the screech owl could fly out. SS then reached into his owl cage and petted his spotted owl. "Oh," he said, noting Al's curious expression, "this is Basil."

"Cool. I have an owl too," Al told him, reaching under the seat into a cage and he pulled out a little owl the size of his palm. "His name is Steve."

"Steve?"

"My sister Lily named him," Al told SS and turned to Hope. "Who was the letter from?"

"It was from my Mother. She was mad at first but she said I was like my Father. She said to stay safe and she loves me," Hope told them. SS smiled.

"She sounds nice. I was worried you'd be in trouble," he said.

"What'd you do?" Al asked Hope. She grinned and launched into the story, talking until they arrived at school.

Rose instantly regretted her decision of switching compartments. All James, Heath, and Stanton talked about was Quidditch and how much they detested Slytherins and how they were going to make SS and Al pay. Rose sighed with annoyance. They refused to talk to her or even acknowledge her presence. So she buried her head in her text books and read all the way to Hogwarts, fuming over Al's decision to stay. He was her favorite cousin and they were supposed to be like the next Harry and Hermione. But he had betrayed her. These thoughts consumed her as she read about levitation charms.