4

The crimson red steam engine barreled through the countryside, with trees, meadows and farms flashing by. Albus Potter sat facing the window, nose pressed up against the glass, staring intently at the landscape as though it was the most fascinating sight in the world. His compartment was far from empty- it was packed with eager first years nervously discussing what houses they hoped to be put in- but Albus was too afraid to join in. He wasn't afraid of his fellow students, like many other shy children, but rather of the topic which they were discussing. Only a few hours ago, he had finally worked up the nerve to ask his father the question that he feared the most:

"What if I'm in Slytherin?"

The words had haunted him since his eleventh birthday, the day his long-awaited letter from Hogwarts had finally come. They followed him wherever he went, hanging over his head like an imperturbable fog. They ruined his appetite, clouded his vision and muddled his thoughts. They crept into his mind during the day and danced through his dreams at night. No matter how hard he tried, Albus couldn't escape those words.

But now, new words had joined them. "The Sorting Hat takes your choice into account. It did for me." Was that really what he had heard his father say? Albus was sure he had been mistaken. Had the hat really tried to put his father, the famous Harry Potter, into a house other than Gryffindor? There wasn't a braver, more courageous wizard alive and everyone knew it. Albus was puzzled by his father's words, but they bounced through his head nonetheless, joining his earlier chant: "What if I'm in Slytherin? What if I'm in Slytherin?"

"I'm going to be a Hufflepuff, of course," said Trevor Macmillan, puffing out his chest just like his father.

"I actually don't think Ravenclaw sounds that bad," replied Aislinn Finnegan, unwrapping a chocolate frog.

"Did somebody say Ravenclaw?" asked Rose Weasley as she slid open the compartment door. Aislinn nodded and Rose shuddered. "Oh, I would just die. All that studying! That's all they do, you know, is study all the time." She struck a grand pose and said rather pompously: "Good thing I'm going to be in Gryffindor!"

"Well, of course you are," said a small, thin boy seated in the corner, who no one seemed to know. "You're a Weasley!"

"And Albus is going to be in Gryffindor, too, of course," Rose continued as though the boy hadn't even spoken, taking a seat next to her cousin.

Albus was jerked suddenly out of his thoughts. "What? Oh, yes, of course I'll be in Gryffindor." He didn't sound convincing, even to himself. Noticing for the first time that everyone was looking at him, Albus turned quickly and went back to staring out of the window, remaining there, motionless, for the rest of the ride.

It was evening when the students clambered off of the Hogwarts Express. The upperclassmen piled into the long row of carriages drawn by invisible thestrals, leaving the first years standing around in a nervous clump, waiting to board the boats that would take them to the castle. An elderly giant, his back stooped with age and his long black hair and beard streaked with grey, led them slowly and laboriously down the hill to the water, his lantern held high.

"Yeh all right, Albus?" Rubeus Hagrid asked as Albus stepped shakily into one of the tiny boats. "Yeh're lookin a bit green." Albus managed to nod and Hagrid said nothing more, but he didn't seem entirely convinced.

"Get a grip, Albus," he muttered to himself as the castle came into view. The girl in the boat next to him stared at him funny, but Albus didn't notice. He needed to be brave, and start acting that way now, if he wanted to even have a hope of getting into Gryffindor. He stood up straight as he climbed out of the boat and marched up the castle steps with his classmates, feigning confidence with every step.

The door was opened by a small, young-looking professor with scraggly hair and pale blue eyes much too large for her face. Albus recognized her at once: Luna Lovegood was a close family friend and often came for tea on the weekends. She winked playfully at Albus and Rose as they filed in, then closed the door quietly behind them.

"I'm Professor Lovegood, and I teach Astronomy here at Hogwarts," she began in a way that sounded as though the majority of her thoughts were somewhere else. "I am also the head of Ravenclaw house. Now, in a few minutes you will be going into the Great Hall to be sorted; as soon as the Sorting Hat has calmed down a bit. It was pitching a fit earlier about the dust inside of its cabinet- it can be quite fussy, you know." This got a few nervous laughs and weak smiles out of the jittery first years.

"Don't be nervous," Luna continued. "Really, Hogwarts is nothing to worry about. The Forbidden Forest isn't scary during the day, the stairs to the Divination Tower only lead to a different place every other Thursday, and the girls' bathroom on the second floor has been locked with an Unbreakable Seal charm. You all will be just fine." And with that, she removed a scroll from the pocket of her robes and pushed open the doors to the Great Hall.

As soon as he entered, Albus found himself wishing that his last name started with an A or a B. The curious, eager gazes of the students at the long house table bore into him and made him feel as though he was melting into a puddle on the floor. Albus tried to stand up straight, but couldn't stop shaking. He spotted the long, crimson-draped table where the elder Gryffindors sat, and wanted more than anything else in the world to be sitting on the bench next to them right now, with this ordeal over. He stared at the hat, perched on its stool, looking a bit disgruntled but nevertheless ready to put Albus's bravery to the test.

"Alton, Nerissa."

"SLYTHERIN!"

Albus gulped. It had only taken a few seconds for that girl to be handed the fate which he was trying so hard to avoid.

Time crawled by at an almost molasses-like pace, until finally:

"Perkins, MacKenzie."

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

"Potter, Albus."

He stepped forward slowly, his legs feeling like jelly, and collapsed into the stool. He would beg, he decided. He would beg and plead with the hat to put him in Gryffindor, get down on his knees if he had to, right there in the Great Hall in front of everyone. It would work. His father couldn't possibly have lied to him.

Then Albus felt the floppy cloth of the hat coming to rest on the top of his head, and suddenly his whole mind went blank. All of the things he had decided to do, everything he had wanted to say, were chased out of his head. The only thing that remained was the chant that had bounced around in his brain all day, all summer, all year, ever since that letter had come. "What if I'm in Slytherin? What if I'm in Slytherin?"

"Slytherin, eh?" he heard the hat say quietly into his ear. "Well, if you insist."

Albus didn't realize what had happened until he heard the hat shout it out for the whole Great Hall to hear:

"SLYTHERIN!"