Chapter 3

The first of September was especially cold that year. Autumn had come early. Two large bird cages were perched on top of two trunks of the luggage of a family coming towards the barrier between platform 9 and platform 10.

"Come on, James first!" Ginny said.

James rolled his trunk forward into the barrier and disappeared to the amazement of the muggles, that is non-magical folk, around them. Then, Albus and his father approached the barrier, with Albus cringing away at the last moment but his father held him in place. Albus screwed up his eyes instead.

All of a sudden Albus realised that they had emerged onto platform 9 ¾ and that they were not smashed up on the wall they had just left behind. When he opened his eyes, all he could see was the people and the rolling mist, showing first one person then another. The parents were in various stages of disarray at their children going away to Hogwarts. Albus stepped forward and saw the train. It was scarlet red and it seemed to have been painted recently.

"Dad, you don't think that the Sorting Hat will put me in Slytherin, do you?" Albus asked, so that only his father could hear.

Harry knelt down until he was level with his son. Albus was the only one of his children that had inherited Lilly's green eyes.

"You were named after two great headmasters of Hogwarts. One was a Slytherin, and he was the bravest man I know."

"But what if I am?"

"Then Slytherin would have earned itself a very fine wizard. But, if it matters that much to you, the Sorting Hat does take your choice into account. It did for me."

Albus stared at his father. Harry had never before told anyone that he had asked the Sorting Hat to not go in Slytherin. He closed his eyes...

Hmm, " said a small voice in his ear. "Difficult. Very difficult. Plenty of courage, I see. Not a bad mind, either. There's talent, oh my goodness, yes - and a nice thirst to prove yourself, now that's interesting... So where shall I put you?"

Harry gripped the edges of the stool and thought, "Not Slytherin, not Slytherin."

"Not Slytherin, eh?" said the small voice. "Are you sure? You could be great, you know, it's all here in your head, and Slytherin will help you on the way to greatness, no doubt about that - no? Well, if you're sure - better be GRYFFINDOR!"

"It did that for you!"

"Yes. All you need is to ask and it will. Now let's find the rest of the family."

At that moment, out of the mist came Hugo Weasley. He said, "We've been looking for you everywhere!"

He took Albus's hand in his own and pulled him over to where they could now see the rest. Harry was trailing behind in fits of laughter! If Hugo had turned around, which he did not, he would have seen that his cousin was rather surprised by what was happening.

"Hi," Albus said, sounding immensely relieved, now that Hugo had stopped holding his hand so tightly.

Rose was already wearing her brand new Hogwarts robes. She smiled and waved crazily at Albus.

"So, was the parking alright?" Ron said, "I managed it, and I passed my driving test. Hermoine here didn't think I could, that I'd have to Confund the examiner."

"Well I did think you could. I just didn't express that very much," Hermione protested weakly.

Ron led Harry off so the others wouldn't hear him. "Actually I did Confund the examiner, but it was because of such a small thing that it didn't matter. To me anyway," Ron said.

"What did you do?" Harry asked even though he didn't really want to know.

"Um... Well... I..."

"Just tell me."

"Fine! I went the wrong way round a roundabout!"

"That's not too bad is it?"

"I crashed into two cars and everyone was screaming."

"Quite bad then."

Meanwhile, Lilly was talking to Hugo about what house they were going to be in once they at last got to go to Hogwarts.

"If you're not in Gryffindor, we'll disinherit you," said Ron, "but no pressure."

"Ron!" Hermione said.

"He doesn't mean it," said Ginny, "he's only messing with you."

But Ron wasn't paying attention anymore. He caught Harry's eye and nodded to a spot on the other side of the platform. Where the mist had thinned for a moment you could see Draco Malfoy, his wife and his son, Scorpious.

Draco looked round at that moment and saw the Weasley family staring at him. He nodded covertly and turned away.

"Now Rosie, make sure you beat Scorpious in every test, and you Albus," said Ron.

"Don't tell them that. They'll be enemies from the start and we were supposed to be friends now," Hermione said.

At that moment James came running up to them.

"Guess what I saw! Teddy is over there!" James said, pointing vaguely towards where he had just come from. "And he's with Victorie. He's snogging her! And I went up to them..."

"You interrupted them! You are so like Ron," Ginny said, shaking her head.

"Anyway, I went up to them and asked them what they were doing."

It will be so nice if they got married. Then, Teddy will really be part of the family," Lilly said to herself dreamily.

"He already comes over for dinner three times a week. He might as well just come and live with us," Albus said.

"Yes, he can have my room if he likes, and I can share with Albus," said James, seeming to like the idea.

"No. You can only share a bedroom when I want the house demolished." Harry said.

James looked up hopefully.

"And that will be a long time," Harry said, while checking his battered and old watch. "It's nearly eleven o'clock. Everyone needs to get on the train."

Ginny stepped up and hugged James. "Don't forget to give Neville our love" Ginny said.

"Mum! I can't give a Professor love," James said.

"But you know this one,"

"Outside yes, but at school he's Professor Longbottom. I can't give him love,"

James shook his head at his mother's foolishness and aimed a kick at Albus.

"Bye Al, watch out for the thestrals," James said before hugging his father and jumping onto the train intent on finding his friends.

Albus turned to his father. "You said the thestrals were invisible!" he said.

"And they are. But it doesn't matter to you. First-years get to Hogwarts by the boats, not the carriages," Harry said calmly.

Ginny kissed Albus goodbye.

"See you at Christmas," she said.

"Bye Al," said Harry, as his son hugged him. "Don't forget Hagrid's invited you to tea next Friday. Don't mess with Peeves. Don't duel anyone 'til you've learned how. And don't let James wind you up."

Albus pulled back from the hug and stepped up into the train. Ginny closed the door on him. Harry stepped forward to embrace his wife.

"Everything will be fine," he said. "It has been for nineteen years."

Albus waved goodbye from inside the Hogwarts Express. The train started to roll forward out of the station. Harry ran alongside the train, waving with all his might. He didn't want his youngest son to grow up too soon.

Albus walked along the train until he found the last carriage. It was the only one empty in the whole train. He opened the door and sat down. Someone knocked on the door and came in.

"Could I come and sit in here. All the other compartments are full," he said.

"You already have, but yes," Albus said.

"Hi. I'm Sam Grigg," said the boy, holding out his hand.

Albus took Sam's hand and shook it.

"I'm Albus Potter. So, are you muggle-born?" Albus asked.

"What's a muggle?"

"Non-magic people. You must be muggle-born."

"And being a muggle-born means?"

"Having non-magic parents of course."

"Of course," Sam said, though still not truly understanding why it seemed so simple to Albus.

They heard a voice coming down the corridor.

"The sweet trolley's here. Do you want anything from the sweet trolley?"

The two boys rushed outside to see the sweet trolley coming slowly, slowly towards them. The woman pushing it seemed too old to be alive. She had greasy grey hair that was pulled back into a ponytail. Albus stepped up to the grotesque lady.

"Can I have some of everything please?" Albus asked. The lady passed him a bag of sweets.

"Me too!" Sam said quickly, not wanting to be in the woman's company for more than a minute. The lady gave him a bag too and was handed the money for both.

The boys went back into the compartment and sat down with their sweets laid out on the extra seats. There was every sort of sweet you could imagine and more! There was Bertie Bott's Every-Flavour beans, chocolate frogs, pumpkin pasties, cauldron cakes and so many more! Sam held up a box.

"What are these?" he said, while pushing the box into Albus's hand.

"They're Bertie Bott's Every-Flavour beans," Albus answered.

"So, are they every flavour, or just the normal kind?"

"They are every flavour. My brother told me that he had even got a booger flavour one before. You have to be careful with them."

But Sam had already snatched the box back and opened the lid. The first one was, luckily, blueberry. The second though was earwax flavoured, which is frankly one of the worst you could get.

"Urg! Yuck! That now was disgusting," Sam exclaimed. He put the box down. "I'll try something else."

He ripped open a packet to find that the contents had just jumped out onto the window.

"What's that?" Sam asked, very scared of the sweet that he was just holding.

"That is a chocolate frog. It tends to jump if you're not holding it securely enough," said Albus.

"That'll explain it."

Sam held up a card that he found in the back of the packet and examined it carefully. The card had a picture on the front.

"Wow!" Sam said, looking at the picture closely. "How is it moving? Is it some sort of trick of the light?"

"Don't all pictures move? All the ones I see do, at least in the wizarding world." Albus said.

"They don't in the muggle world."

"How strange."

A girl walked into the compartment. Her hair was perfectly done and she wore her skirt too high. She leaned against the door.

She said, "Has anyone seen a cat. This guy, Billy Wood, has lost one. The silly boy. It answers to the name of Smuggles, and it has bright orange fur." She paused for a moment. "So have you seen it?" She seemed rather bored with the prospect of walking round the train talking about a lost cat.

"No we have not," Albus said.

"I'll go away then, won't I," she said.

"Exactly," Albus replied.

"Fine!" she said, and turned abruptly. She slammed the door behind her and stalked off.

Rose came striding up to the pair of boys, having just passed Nancy Greengrass, looking extremely angry.

"What did you do? Nancy is mightily angry," Rose shouted.

"Who's Nancy?" Albus asked innocently.

"Didn't you hear what she said as soon as the train started going?" Rose said.

Albus and Sam shook their heads.

"She said that no one was to mess with her 'cause she's Nancy Greengrass and she's going to be in Slytherin so everyone had better watch out," Rose said.

"And that's must be why she got really annoyed when we asked her to go away," Albus said.

"Anyway, Albus, who's your friend? He doesn't seem to want to introduce himself," Rose said.

"I don't see you striving to introduce yourself, do I?" Sam said in his defence.

"Now that is very true. I'm Rose, Rose Weasley," she said.

"I'm Sam Grigg. It's nice to meet you. I have just one question. How do you know Albus?" he said.

"I'm his cousin,"

The train shuddered to a stop a few hours later. The students, now in their pristine robes, stepped out of the carriages to find a darkening sky red with the sunset happening at that exact moment. Soon enough the platform was full to bursting with children swarming around the platform trying to find their friends. A loud voice was heard above all the others.

"Firs'-years! Firs'-years over here!"

Hagrid was there, like his father said, to see them across the lake.

"C'mon, follow me. Anymore firs-years? Mind yer step, now! Firs-years follow me!" he shouted over the noise of the crowd.

The first years made their way towards the boats moored on the edge of a dark black lake. Albus and Sam climbed into a rowing boat with Rose and a boy following closely behind. The boats jolted forward as soon as the last person had sat down. One boat in the middle of the pack was rocking and tipping, the three boys inside running from side to side in a frenzy of energy. The fourth boy, the smallest one in all of the boats, was leaning over the side as if he was about to fall in. All of a sudden, with a final push the boy fell face first into the murky glom of the lake's waters.

Hagrid shouted over the water, "What d'you think you're doing, pushing a defenceless boy out of the boat!"

The boats slowed down to pick up the boy who had fallen out. The boy climbed in and Hagrid gave him his coat to wear. The coat on him was too big and it swamped him. The boats turned the corner towards the castle. There was a loud "oooooh" as the students saw Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry for the first time. The maze of turrets and pasageways could be seen from where they were sitting, staring up at the castle, wide-eyed at the beauty.

The boats carried them through a curtain of ivy that hid an opening in the cliff face. They journeyed through a tunnel towards the heart of Hogwarts. They emerged in an underground harbour, and clamboured out onto the rough pebbles and rock path leading towards the front door. The door was large and wooden and had a large bronze door knob on the front. Hagrid paused at the front door.

"Is everyone here?" Hagrid asked.

He reached up and grabbed the door knob in his mighty hand and knocked three times on the door.