AN: Hello again everyone! Long time no see. It's been over half a year I think since I posted anything new but here I am with another HP fic. It took me awhile to finally get this one right and it went through one and a half previous versions which I just didn't like so I threw them out and started over.

I've placed a few Easter-eggs so see if you can spot them. I'll also try and cross-post this to AO3 eventually. I'm not a member there yet so I don't know how all that works but I'll get there eventually.

Before we jump into the story, I'd like to thank (and apologize to) my beta GKWriter. He was kind enough to review the first version of this story for me which was intended to replace HPCC because I just didn't like the story. Unfortunately, the version I came up with was still too much like HPCC for my taste and a lot of it felt contrived and generally lacking in the plot and theme departments so I threw it out (hence the apology).

Lastly, I'd like your guys' input on how this story compares with my previous ones as this is the first one where I consciously tried to apply the method John Truby outlined in "The Anatomy of Story" and I want to know how it turned out.

Now that my long-winded author's note is done with, I won't bother you until the end of the fic.

Enjoy!

-Pandalien

1

The train had already started to move out of the station and they still had yet to find a compartment. "Come on Rose. Why can't we just pick a compartment?" Al complained as he followed his cousin down the corridor.

"Because we can't pick just any compartment," his red-headed cousin replied without turning to face him. "We have to sit with someone at the very least, but it should really be the right someone. We don't want to get in with the wrong sort."

Al rolled his green eyes before suggesting that they just go find James and sit with him. Something which Rose vehemently protested. "He may be obnoxious sometimes but he's not bad Rose."

"You were just complaining about him teasing you," Rose shot back.

"That's just brother stuff," Al defended. Now it was Rose's turn to roll her eyes.

The two of them continued down the line of cars for a little way farther when Al came upon a compartment that was empty save for a thin platinum blond boy who was watching the countryside fly by the window with a great air of boredom. "What about this one, Rose?" Al asked, reaching for the door handle.

He had just begun to unlatch the sliding door when his cousin stopped him. "Not that one," she whispered.

Without dropping his voice like Rose, Al began, "Why are—"

But he was interrupted by her hurried shushing. "That's Scorpius Malfoy," she explained.

That was all Al needed to hear. "Oh," he replied dumbly as he let go of the door and it fully latched back into place with a faint click. Al followed his cousin away from the compartment, now seeing for the first time what she'd meant by being careful about who they got in with. If anyone qualified as being the "wrong sort" it was Scorpius Malfoy.

Sure, their parents were at least civil with each other now, on the rare occasions they actually met. But being so closely related to a former Death Eater, even one whose hands were relatively clean, had a certain stigma. In any case, the Malfoys had a reputation for being into the dark arts and all sorts of other nefarious things that Al was sure he wanted no part of.

They continued to search, but in the end, they wound up sitting with James anyway. This was partly due to their own indecision, but mostly due to James catching up with them and very nearly dragging them to meet his friends. James's friends were a rather boisterous lot and their sense of humor was rather crasser than their mother would have liked and which Grandma Weasley would probably have hexed them for. Al realized that this was why James had never brought them over for any of their family gatherings.

"So, Al, you're gonna be joining us in the lion's den right?" a thick, sandy haired boy with brown eyes named Adrian asked jovially as he mussed Al's hair.

"I don't know…" the dark-skinned Jackson said with mock skepticism as Al straightened his hair back out. "He's got that Slytherin look about him."

"Not a chance," the blond-haired Zane interjected with a smirk. "He's definitely a chip off the old block. He even looks like Harry Potter. I bet he'll be just like him."

Al caught his brother and cousin rolling their eyes at the exchange. They obviously thought it was silly but Al wasn't so convinced.

He'd never admitted this to James because he knew that he'd never have heard the end of it, but he wasn't sure he wanted to be a Gryffindor. If he got sorted into Gryffindor, then he'd just become another of the Potter-Weasley brood, forever in the shadow of his famous family. It didn't help that whenever people looked at him, all they seemed to see was a miniature version of his father who was probably the most famous of them. His mind briefly wandered back to his first encounter with that god-awful reporter, Rita Skeeter. That had been when he'd first realized just how much interest the world took in his family. When she'd written her book about the DA, she hadn't kept her commentary restricted to the adults. "…and the second Potter son, Albus Severus, named for two Hogwarts headmasters with murky pasts seems to be similarly murky. Those who've met him have described him as being more 'dark and brooding' than any child his age had any right to be. But of course, what can be expected when you live in the shadow of the Boy-Who-Lived, the Chosen One, the Hero of the Wizarding World? I think anyone would be desperate to find a way to stand out if they were in his shoes. We can only hope that this urge to stand out doesn't manifest itself in leanings toward dark magic."

Al pushed the memory from his mind. He had enough butterflies in his stomach thanks to the fast approaching start to his first year at Hogwarts. He didn't need to stir up old ones to add to the new by revisiting old memories and their associated anxieties.

So instead, Al silently watched the countryside fly by the window while everyone else continued to talk and have fun. While he wasn't sure he wanted Gryffindor, he was definitely sure he didn't want Slytherin. But that just left him with Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff and he wasn't sure he was smart enough for Ravenclaw and, no offense to Teddy, Hufflepuff didn't sound too appealing either.

The hours slipped by as Al pondered the sorting and before he knew it, the train had stopped at Hogsmeade station and he was making his way to the boats with the other first years.