Authors Note: Other than the few characters I've created, the characters in this story belong to J.K. Rowling. I began this story in 2007 under a different title and username, The Adventures of Albus Potter. 14 years later I have finally finished constructing my plot and created multiple alterations to my original unfinished tale. The story starts off from the ending of the 7th book, the majority of the plot written before "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child."
DESCRIER
Albus Potter doubted the hope he felt welling up inside his heart as the Hogwarts Express let off a piercing whistle and lurched into motion.
His father had told him the sorting had would give him a choice. He couldn't help but feel his fate still would be sealed based on some hat's judgment.
Albus Potter sighed and shivered with uncertainty when he couldn't see his father's hand raised in farewell to him anymore. He shut the compartment window and took the window seat beside his cousin, Rose, who vivaciously chattered on about all the books she read about Hogwarts.
Both his brother James, cousin Victorie, and family friend, Teddy, had all been sorted into Gryffindor. Summer after summer, Albus would listen enthralled with their adventures, classes, and tales of what students in the other houses were up to. Even his parents and most of their friends were Gryffindors and would tell him some stories every blue moon of their adventures.
Albus desperately wished he could be like his family, brave and optimistic. But he knew he was the black sheep. Always cautious, quiet, listening, and observing. He could read his siblings' intentions in the blink of an eye and could spot their mischief from a mile away. Catch silent glances between his parents and words left unsaid.
His stomach twisted into knots. Would the sorting hat take his choice into consideration? What if it didn't and he was cast into Slytherin, the bane of his family's stories? What would his parents say? What would James and Lily think?
Rose became silent, probably realizing he wasn't listening to her talk about the founders of Hogwarts.
"The hat's not going to sort you into Slytherin, Albus." Rose confidently took his hand in hers and gave it a squeeze.
Rose was just as brave and optimistic as the rest of his family. She always went out of her way to include him though, occasionally pushing him into her adventures around the lake and hillside where their families called home. But nothing like the trouble James, Lily, and Hugo would concoct.
"Look, you know that you don't fit the description of a Slytherin" Rose whispered. Al doubted that and lifted an eyebrow.
"Don't worry about the hat. Besides, it's not like the world would end if you were. Which you won't be!" Rose grinned with confidence.
Albus was one of the bravest and kindest of her cousins. He had always kept most of his thoughts to himself and could read anyone like an open book. She was sure his conscientious nature would prevent him from landing in the house her dad had endlessly bashed during his tales of school.
He was her best friend. She wouldn't let the boy who never poked fun at her rants about books or who endlessly rescued her from her clumsiness during adventures for magical herbs and creatures around their hillside be doomed to fate based on a hat.
She'd tirelessly researched the sorting hat over the past month in her mother's little home library when Albus had finally opened up to her about what had been eating at his mind. At the time, she didn't completely understand his concerns. Their whole large family were Gryffindors through and through! The more she read, however, the more she struggled to deny his concerns. She knew her cousin though, he simply couldn't be put in Slytherin… right?
"No room here, better luck elsewhere mate." Will Locksly nodded to the platinum blond boy in the empty compartment and continued down the train.
He knew he shouldn't have worn his brown "muggle" jumper and denims. He just couldn't wrap his head around this whole magic thing. A month ago he was going for walks around London with his schoolmate and his terrier, talking about teachers and dreading pre-algebra next semester. His mother had even taken on a second part-time job at an abysmal restaurant to buy him some new threads and school supplies. But here he was in his new brown jumper with a rucksack full of texts on "charms" and "potions" and a balled-up black cloak shoved under his textbooks. The black cloak that the entire population on this train was wearing proudly.
It was just another late evening watching the tube with his mum, sitting in their tiny London flat jammed with her plants, Christmas lights, and his doodles covering the wall, when a large black owl had incessantly pecked at their single window and somehow turned his world upside down. An offer to attend a school called Hogwarts for witches and wizards. He'd dropped his ramen dinner in shock when his mum read the letter that the owl had been clutching. His noodles spilling all over the futon they were crammed onto, his bed.
He'd been seeing things that summer. His doodles would move or blink now and then. He had chalked it up to psychosis or some unresolved trauma about the father he never knew. Didn't tell a soul about it though. Just kept asking his mates if they saw anything odd about his sketches.
He'd almost begged his mum to get him tested when he'd fallen out of a tree in St. Jame's Park. He'd been sketching a raven that'd flown out of his pages and into… reality? He had definitely hit his head during the fall and his raven was nowhere in his sketchpad. He didn't want to go back to the juvenile psychiatric ward he had hazy memories from as a 6-year-old.
The letter had been the final straw. His mother was dumbfounded but actually accepted the situation when a giant man had come to collect him and take him shopping for "the basics" in Diagon Alley. His mother had even been provided with a "support group" of other muggle families who had magical children. The experience had been surreal. He'd kept feeling the sensation of electricity flicker around his fingertips every time he touched his Cypress-wood wand, surprise consistently washing over him to remind him all this was indeed happening.
Will rapped gently on a nearly empty compartment with a boy and girl sitting together, frowning. Relief flooded through his body when they asked him to join.
"Mind if I join?" A boy in muggle attire with dusty blond hair, brown eyes, and freckles splattered all over his face asked nervously. Albus suspected he'd been declined quite a few times already by the tightness in his voice. Their compartment was nearly at the end of the train too. How many compartments had this boy asked already?
"Not at all!" Al and Rose expressed simultaneously.
"Thanks, I'm Will Locksly. Just figured out I was a wizard this summer," Will smiled with relief and took a seat across from him.
"Wow, really? That must've been a bit of a shock! I'm Rose Weasley, and this is Albus Potter, my cousin," Rose interjected.
"Nice to meet you," Albus said and shook the boy's hand. "We're both first years too."
"So how'd you'd find out you were a wizard?" Rose asked, leaning forward on her seat.
Albus temporarily forgot about his concern with his fate and the sorting hat. Will told them about the owl, shopping at Diagon Alley, and about his sketches moving on him.
"Honestly thought I'd done it and was going mental" Will explained when he told them about a drawing flying out of his sketchpad. It was certainly more unusual. Albus couldn't remember hearing of anything quite like that, certainly of the portraits moving and speaking and disappearing though. Maybe Rose had read about magic like this somewhere.
Since Will didn't know anything about Hogwarts, Rose and Albus told Will all about the enchanted stairs, portraits that talk, ghosts that wander through the halls, and just about everything else. Will's mouth was agape and his eyes were wide with wonder.
"Albus here is scared that he will be sorted into Slytherin, even though he has all the characteristics of a good Gryffindor," Rose said confidently. Albus rolled his eyes and gave his cousin a nudge, swallowing back the fear that was starting to bubble in his chest again.
"What's a Gryffindor," Will asked, curious.
"Well, you see there are four houses that every first year is sorted into," Rose replied in her matter-of-fact manner. "Slytherin is the worst lot of them all, Hufflepuff kind of takes anyone, Ravenclaw takes brains, and the best of them all is Gryffindor, for those who are loyal and brave," Rose continued.
Will laughed. "Not biased at all, I see?"
Albus clenched his teeth at his cousin's description. "There's obviously a little bit more to it than that. Rose spent that past month researching the founders of each house. She could probably give us an hour-long presentation on the houses if we let her."
"I'm just summarizing," Rose snapped, cheeks turning pink. "That's how my dad likes to explain it at least. I figured it was more concise than an hour-long presentation." Albus smiled. He loved egging his cousin on every now and then.
"How are you sorted into the houses" Will inquired.
"The sorting hat of course!" Rose carried on. "The headmistress will put in on our head when our name is called and it decides what house to place us in. I think it may somehow be connected to the Egyptian feather of truth that supposedly weighs souls in the afterlife, but I wasn't able to find anything more on the subject in my mum's library. I'm hoping the Hogwarts' library may be more illuminating. My mum has told me so many stories about it, especially the restricted section!"
Albus laughed. His cousin was such a Gryffindor, bravely seeking trouble in the name of knowledge.
"Wicked!" Will exclaimed, enthralled by Rose's knowledge and description of Hogwarts.
Rose felt a blush of pride sweep over her cheeks again. It was nice making another friend who was interested in the knowledge she sought from all her readings.
Another wrap on the door and a pleasant elderly woman with a trolly popped her head into their compartment. "Anything off the trolly, dears?"
"Yes, please!" Rose felt her stomach growl. She inherited her love of food from her dad. He had such good taste in sweets and made the best dinners.
"Three chocolate frogs, please." Albus exchanged for a handful of Knuts and handed one to each of them.
"By Merlin!" Am I seeing correctly? You must be Harry Potter's son!" The trolly lady exclaimed. "Why I remember the first time I saw the boy-who-lived, he bought my whole lot! Great man, your father."
At that, she closed the compartment door. Al's face was twisted in confusion, meeting her own perplexed eyes as he handed her and Will a chocolate frog.
Albus had gotten a Dumbledore card with his chocolate frog. "This is Albus Dumbledore, the man my dad named me after. He was headmaster at the school when my parents attended."
Rose looked at her own. "I got Merlin, again! I must have at least twenty of him by now."
"Who did you get, Will?" Albus asked.
"Harry Potter" Will offered, brown eyes meeting his own, waiting for details.
Albus felt a wave of shock wash over him. His father? How could that be? He was already perplexed by what the trolly lady had said, something about the boy who lived.
"What does it say?" Rose jumped hastily into the seat next to Will to peer over his shoulder at the card. "That's my uncle!"
Will read. "Known as the boy who lived, he was the only wizard to survive the death curse as an infant, battled and defeated the dark lord Voldemort during his 7th year attending Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry. Now successful Auror for the Ministry of Magic."
Surely the card was wrong. Well, the last part about being an Auror was true. His dad was just a student at Hogwarts though, just a normal student.
"They never told us much about Voldemort of the final battle" Rose whispered across the compartment, now clutching the card in a shaking hand. Will's chocolate frog had jumped out of the window during the shock. Albus found himself giving Will his chocolate frog and taking the card into his hand, watching the portrait of his father smile back up at him.
"Your father is a war hero?" Will asked, looking back and forth between Rose and him.
"I… He…" Albus didn't know what to say. He swallowed. "My parents, both of our parents," he nodded to Rose, "had told us they were at the battle of Hogwarts when the Dark Lord was defeated. They've always been very quiet and hush-hush about it all. I always figured it must have been a very traumatic experience. That maybe they'd talk about it more someday when I'm older."
"I've never been able to find anything about the final battle in my mum's library," Rose hissed, "despite having asked her about it a million times." She looked angry, her brows furrowing together and her wavy, red hair standing on end.
Albus felt colder than ever. His future and his past were now even more uncertain. His parents, aunts, uncles, and grandparents had been lying to him. To all of them. Did James know? Did Teddy and Victorie know about this boy who lived?
Will could've cut the tension in the compartment with a knife. He felt the tug of the hollow pit in his stomach where he kept all questions he had about his own father. The things he'd never know. However, his mother had never lied to him, she'd just shut down the conversation anytime he'd ask. He'd only pluck up the courage once a year to ask about him.
"5 minutes until we arrive," Will heard a polished voice call out in the hall, "Please ensure uniforms are in order, ties are tied, shirts are tucked. And first years, to the docks please, others to the carriages."
Will frowned. "I should change…"
Rose and Albus gave him privacy as he pulled his wrinkled robes and uniform out of his rucksack. Will met his new friends off the train and hopped into a small boat with them and others students. He breathed a sigh of relief that it was dark and no one could see just how badly wrinkled his cloak was.
"There it is, there's Hogwarts," Al breathed in awe. Will followed his gaze and turned to look behind him, the dim glow cast stark shadows against a large turreted castle looming out of the rocky mountainside of the loch above them.
"It's magical." Will felt his jaw open and electricity hum off of his wand tucked away in his wrinkled robes.
The tension Rose and Albus had held walking off the train and into the boat seemed to have dissipated for a moment. All thoughts cleared as they felt the tug of the boat pull them closer to whatever adventures awaited them inside.