Albus's PoV

All in all, Albus's first day was not that bad. He wasn't sure what to expect from the Slytherin house, but so far everyone in Slytherin who talked to him had been friendly and helpful. The only hiccup in his day was what had made him late for class.

James.

James had spotted Albus in a corridor as he was making his way to Transfiguration. Long story short, James cornered Albus and wanted to know everything about Slytherin: "Where's the common room? What's the password? Is everyone in there sketchy and mean? How are you okay with being in Slytherin? You should have been put in Gryffindor with me. What is Mum and Dad going to think?" and so on and so on. Albus could barely get an answer out before James hit him with another question.

"I'm going to be late for class if you don't let me go," Albus had said, glaring at his older brother.

"Oh, come on, Al," James said, rolling his eyes. "It's not that big of a deal."

"Maybe not for you, but I don't want to make a bad impression on the first day," quipped Albus.

"Maybe the Hat did put you in the right house," James laughed. "Speaking of, the Hat seemed to be in rare form last night. I thought little Joey Dursley would've surely been placed in Hufflepuff."

"Have Mum and Dad taught you nothing? Anyway, Alice is in Hufflepuff and she's very smart," said Albus. Smarter than you, he tacked on in his head.

James let up for a moment, so Albus pushed past him and made his way towards his class. He heard James shouting something from behind the turn, something about missing his baby brother.

Albus started talking to himself, fuming about how he was going to be late and it was all James' fault when he rounded the corner and saw none other than Scorpius Malfoy stuck in an apparent trick step.

"This is really embarrassing," started Malfoy. "My foot sunk in and I can't get it out."

"I'll try to pull you out," offered Albus.

It really was lucky that James didn't see this scene, thought Albus. He would've never shut up about it.

Albus jumped the trick step and gripped Malfoy under his arms and pulled. It took almost five minutes to get Malfoy out but his foot finally came free.

"Thanks," said Malfoy. "I thought I was going to miss Transfiguration completely."

"If we don't run," interjected Albus, "we will be really late!"

Albus was reflecting on this comical event when Rose ran up to him at their meeting place: the entrance to the library.

"Oh, good. You're here," said Rose. "I've already got so much homework but I wanted to talk to you first and ask you about how your first day went."

They found an empty table far away from the librarian's desk. Albus recounted the events of his day and got shushed by a passing prefect as Rose burst into a fit of giggles as he described the trick step situation.

"Well, now I can't exactly blame either of you for being late," whispered Rose. "When I learn a bit more about casting spells and such, I'm going to hex James so bad. He is so annoying."

"He'll just hex you back when you least expect it," said Albus.

"I'll still get some satisfaction out of it," sniggered Rose. "We should start our homework, but, Al, first we need to set one thing straight. Since we are different houses, we need to see each other everyday. So we can do homework together before we go to dinner.

"Everyday?" asked Albus.

"Yes. Everyday," said Rose. "I will not let you get behind on your homework."