My New Year's Resolution: FIND TIME TO WRITE CHAPTERS!!

I feel so bad because I've been so busy with school and all. This time I'm going to make time to write! I'm really sorry for not posting, and thanks for the hits and reviews! I promise I'll post more, and thanks for being patient! Here it is, the long awaited and long overdue Chapter 3!

Generation Next

Chapter Three

The next morning, Albus felt slightly disappointed to find Scorpius had already dressed and gone down for breakfast. As fast as he could, and quietly enough to not wake his other two roommates, Albus dressed and headed down to the Great Hall. He passed few students, and assumed most didn't wake this early. He glanced at his watch. It was only seven, and their first class was at 9:30.

He walked through the doors to the Great Hall and looked towards the Gryffindor table. He felt strangely relieved to not see his brother there yet. He wasn't sure why he was so relieved. He then looked towards the Slytherin table. He saw Scorpius sitting by himself farther down the table from the other Slytherins who were early risers as well. Gathering up courage, he made his way slowly towards the young Malfoy boy.

'Hey, thanks for last night… Hi, I think we got off to a rough start… Is that true about your grandma…' No matter how many times he ran it through his mind, Albus just couldn't think of a good way to start a conversation. By the time he'd actually reached Scorpius, whatever courage he'd gathered up was lost. So he simply sat down across from him. Scorpius seemed to take no notice, completely engrossed in the same book he was reading on the train. There was a moment's silence. Albus would have guessed that Scorpius didn't even know he was sitting there, except he noticed his ears were becoming slightly pinker with each passing second. Finally, after almost an hour, with the Great Hall quite full and noisy, Scorpius looked up from his book.

"Did you want something?"

"No, not really. Just thought I'd sit here."

Scorpius' eyebrows narrowed slightly, but he didn't say anymore on the matter. Suddenly a great whoosh filled the room as over a hundred owls flew into the Hall. A large eagle owl landed beside Scorpius, as well as a smaller tawny owl. The eagle owl snapped his beak ferociously at the poor tawny owl, clearly wanting to be the first to deliver his mail. However, with a slight scowl and scolding, Scorpius took the tawny owl's mail first.

"It's the Daily Prophet," he said, after both owls had left. He gave a small, light laugh and passed it to Albus.

Albus looked on the front page. A little farther down, but still on the front, was a picture of the Sorting. More particularly, a picture of him being sorted. Above it, in big bold letters:

YOUNGEST POTTER BOY IN SLYTHERIN!

"How'd they get the picture? How did they know!?" a sudden image flashed in his mind: his parents waking to the morning's Daily Prophet…

"Look at the author." Albus glanced beneath the headline. Rita Skeeter. "Her daughter is a third year now. The Daily Prophet keeps up quite well with the school news."

Albus looked back down at the paper. He scanned most of the article. He gasped, reading a line out loud.

"'We've never felt more ashamed' say Potter's parents. His mother is weeping uncontrollably, and his father seems beside himself with rage'!" Albus looked up to Scorpius.

"I doubt that's true. More than half of her stuff is made up anyway. I'm sure your parents will be proud of you regardless of which house you're in." Scorpius blushed suddenly then went back to reading his letter. Albus could tell that Scorpius was clearly not comfortable with casual conversation. Albus looked back at the article, then decided it wasn't worth his time. Scorpius folded his letter and stood up.

"I think I'll go to the library," he said. Albus smiled.

"That doesn't sound like to bad an idea. Me too." He stood up and walked towards the doors with Scorpius. They were barely half the way down the hall when a rather loud group approached them. Albus felt his stomach sink.

"James, isn't that your brother?" James looked over to Albus and Scorpius. "He's Slytherin, right? Ha ha. That sucks. And he's with a Malfoy too. Ten points, huh?" James glared at Albus, as if this misery was his fault. Albus quickly averted his eyes and continued walking. There was a loud clatter, and Albus saw countless quills, pieces of parchment, a few books, and the Daily Prophet dance through the air. He turned to find Scorpius sprawled on the floor. James and his friends laughed, and Albus didn't even need to ask what had happened.

"S-sorry" Scorpius stuttered, collecting his belongings. "I-I wasn't watching where I was going…"

"Yeah, that's right Malfoy. Better watch out next time, or I'll smash your pointy face in!"

Albus was shocked to hear his own brother speak with such nastiness.

"Yes-Yes I'm sorry!" Scorpius' face burned a deep scarlet, one that would match Uncle Ron's ears, and he picked up the rest of his ink-stained parchment. He stood up and continued towards the library, as if nothing had happened. Albus shot a dark look at James then turned to follow Scorpius. Just as he turned, he was met by a busy blur of red-brown hair.

"Rose!"

"Albus! I read the article! That's so sad that your parents want to disown you." Albus sighed. His Aunt Hermione tried to talk sense into her, but Rose simply hung off of every last syrupy word that Skeeter wrote.

"Rose, you know none of that is true-"

"You really shouldn't hang out with that Malfoy boy," She continued. Either she was oblivious to Scorpius standing right behind her, or she knew and simply wanted to further stress how Albus shouldn't hang out with that Malfoy boy.

"I'm sure I can pick my friends on my own Rose. And you don't have to be so rude," he added in an undertone "He can hear you."

Rose frowned slightly, but continued on her way. Albus followed Scorpius to the library, where they stayed for an hour before class started. Scorpius didn't mention any of the events from earlier, but merely leafed through a few books. Albus picked up the schools' copy of Hogwarts, A History and read the first page.

"I already read that book." Scorpius said, glancing over Albus' shoulder. "I've read most of our books already."

"Then you'll definitely have to sit by me in Potions!" Albus said with a smile. Scorpius looked at him with a hint of a smile, then turned away quickly.

"Potions is in the dungeons, so we'd better hurry if we don't want to be late," he said, collecting his books. Albus followed him through the school to the dungeons to attend the first class of his first year at Hogwarts.


A.N.- I've been debating for a while, and I don't think I'm going to describe their first day. Also, I need to reread book one so I can get an idea about which classes are actually taken in the first year. I know Potions is one, so I had that be first in the day. That should be okay. If not, I'll fix it later. I'm sure Slytherins have the same classes as Gryffindors, just mixed up. I know Slytherins and Gryffindors have Potions together and in HP1 it was later in the day, but I made it first period for now.