Sebastian Benald woke up to the sound of a woman screaming. His eyes shot open as he tried to get a bearing on his surroundings. As his consciousness returned to him he could not immediately recognize his room. The walls' peeling paint were covered over with layers upon layers of news clippings from articles of various academic journals. A single candle holder hung from the ceiling and dangled haphazardly. The box he kept his clothes in lay turned over after having fallen over halfway through the night.

Sebastian shot to his feet in order to investigate the source of the scream. As he did so his bed creaked dangerously and he looked at it worriedly, hoping that it wouldn't break. It had been a massive pain the last time it had cracked and had taken a while to fix. Now, the frame had a few holes in it and one corner of the bed was being held up with old books. All of his books were piled around the room, completely filling up the underneath of his bed, and the books that wouldn't fit there sprawled elsewhere on any surface he could find or build off of the walls.

He whipped open the curtain that divided his little room from the rest of the hallway. He looked out to the rest of the room in order to find where the scream came from. The apartment where he lived was quite small. There was the main room which held the kitchen and living area in the same room that was about the size of a classroom which was attached to a hallway that led to a single bedroom and a bathroom. He slept at the end of that hallway, tucked in a corner right next to the bathroom and the bedroom.

He could see easily who had screamed now. Persephone was standing in the kitchen with her hand clasped over her mouth. The kitchen was split up in several parts. There was a normal counter space they used for cutting and preparing but it alternated in usage between preparing food for consumption and preparing potions ingredients.

In front of Persephone on the counter was a letter and it took Sebastian only a moment longer before figuring out what the letter had to be. Excitement, dread, and apprehension immediately consumed him and he nervously walked over to pick up the letter.
Persephone watched him with wide eyes as she barely hoped or dared to breathe. He picked up the letter out of the other letters that it had come with. His fingers ran over the letter shakily with nervousness. He stared at the words on the envelope in awe.

Mr. Sebastian Benald,

The Hallway turned Bedroom

23 Westward Alley

Lower Alleys, London

Sebastian tore into the letter, unable to wait any longer to see what was inside.

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

Headmistress: Minerva McGonagall

Dear Mr Benald,

We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted to Hogwarts through the NEWS (Notably Exceptional Wizard Search). You were selected for your exceptional abilities in several fields of magic including your potion brewing, and thorough knowledge of Charms, Transfigurations, Runes, Herbology, and Arithmancy. With this, in addition to our own evaluations of your merit, you have met all of the standards in being accepted to Hogwarts through the NEWS program. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment. In addition you will find a grant of 200 galleons to cover the cost of school supplies. You will be taking more intensive courses than your peers with the intent for you to complete an Apprenticeship by your seventh year at Hogwarts.

Term begins on 1 September. We await you owl by no later than 31 July.

Yours sincerely,

Neville Longbottom

Deputy Headmaster

Sebastian forgot how to breathe. He couldn't quite understand the words that were on the page. He knew the meaning of all of them individually, yet when read together, they seemed to form an incomprehensible message.

Persephone couldn't stand the wait any longer and she tore the letter of his hand in order to look at what it said. After only a second she let out another scream. She wrapped him up in an extremely tight hug and it brought him out of his shock.

He started screaming as well.

They stayed that way for a while, screaming at each other in excitement. Sebastian broke free of her hug and started jumping up and down in excitement. Blood rushed to his head and his hearing dropped away. Some of the strongest feelings of happiness and pride welled up inside him and he just had to express it somehow.

The door to their apartment swung open and a man that Sebastian recognized as his neighbor, Mr. Oakes.

"What's wrong?!" he yelled out in a panic.

"He got in!" Persephone yelled back at him.

It took Mr. Oakes a second to recognize what she had meant by that but in a second his face lit up in excitement.

He started to shout and jump around with them too.

Sebastian calmed down a little bit after a minute of celebration enough to remember something.

"Did she get in?" he asked aloud. The thought grew in his head until he was running out of the apartment at top speeds.

He barely heard Persephone's cry of "Don't forget your shoes!"

He ran out of the apartment and out onto the staircase that led down to the road. The apartment was on the third floor of the building and he took the wooden staircase two at a time. He ran past some neighbors that he recognized and were just starting their days. Some waved to him but he was too excited to stop and greet them.

He went past all of them, not realizing that they had gathered around the stairs in order to see if he had been accepted or not. He didn't even spare a thought for that as he continued in his non stop dash to reach his destination.

He passed over alleys, past stalls opening for the day, past some people just waking from a night on the streets, and past others trying to find something to eat for breakfast.

And finally, he reached the tavern that was his destination. He went in through the swing doors and looked around wildly in order to see if she was there.

He saw a crowd of people around the bar and tried to push his way through them. When they realized that it was him, they let him through without issue. In the center of the circle stood Alexis White, who was reading through a letter she was clutching in a death grip. She was staring at the page intently and was as pale as a ghost.

And then her face lit up and she looked up at him with the largest smile he had ever seen on her.

Sebastian let out a shout and hugged her as hard as he could.

Alexis started shouting and jumping up and down.

The gathered crowd started shouting and jumping.

Sebastian sat next to Alexis as a cake was pushed in front of them. The cake was decorated with green, blue, red, and yellow quarters with the emblem for Hogwarts in the center. Alexis's father, Edmund, stood there with a large smile on his face. He was the owner of the Crow's tavern where they were currently holding a celebration party for the two of them.

Persephone stood to the side, still crying tears of joy. She had not stopped crying since they got the news that morning, and it was now well into the evening. She was getting comforted by some of the regulars of the tavern and trying and failing to keep herself composed.

People had been coming up to Sebastian and Alexis all day in order to send them their well wishes and Sebastian still couldn't get over the fact that he was actually going to Hogwarts.

"I always knew that you were going to get in," Alexis whispered to him during a time that no one was near them. "What I was worried about was me getting in."

"I could say the same," Sebastian said.

"Oh, please," Alexis said sarcastically. "We both know that you are the genius between the two of us. I probably only got in because your knowledge just rubbed off on you."

"Well, you had to be smart enough in order for it to work," he said with a smile. "None of the others were nearly as successful as you were. My plans in order to flood the halls of Hogwarts with Alley kids may not have lived up to my full expectations, but I got one so it wasn't a complete failure."

Alexis pushed him playfully and laughed at his joke. Soon, they were given slices of the cake, with Alexis getting Gryffindor red and Sebastian getting Ravenclaw blue.

"You think those are the houses you're going to get?" Edmund asked them.

"Yeah, like I'm going to be the one to be put into Ravenclaw." Sebastian said. "I think Slytherin is the most likely for me. Ambitious enough to get into it I think."

"Well, you're not humble enough to be a Hufflepuff," Alexis said. "Although I think I'm going to get Gryffindor. I have to be the bravest girl in the world in order to be able to deal with you for long periods of time without dying of shock."

That got a laugh from the crowd around them as cake was passed around to them all.

"To the kids!" Edmund cheered as he raised his mug.

"To the kids!" The crowd cheered as they all took swigs.

The crowd spread out through the tavern and Sebastian and Alexis sat back down to eat their cakes.

"Well, who would have thought it," said a man approaching them. "Two of our very own are on their way to old Hogwarts."

Alexis and Sebastian stopped eating to stand up and give a little bow. Sebastian couldn't help but feel a little bit of pride. The Rogue, the leader of the people of the Lower Alleys, had come to the celebration for them.

Garold Turner was smirking down at them. The man was nearing forty and had come to power immediately after the war. The alleys were a dangerous place in that time as recruiting grounds for the wrong side of the war, while receiving very little protection from the right side. The previous rogue had been persuaded to the side of the Dark Lord and had led the Alleys into a dark age alongside the rest of the world.

Only a few days after the fall of Voldemort himself, Garold overthrew the old Rogue. He then proceeded to work tirelessly to whip the alleys back into shape. It took years for the Alleys to resemble any kind of normalcy, but because of his leadership they were able to find it.

He was one of the longest recorded Rogues by leading for almost 20 years. He was universally respected and revered.

So for him to come to their celebration was a big deal for Sebastian and Alexis.

"I wish you the best of luck," he said with a smile. "But make sure you don't forget where you come from while you're out there changing the world."

The celebration lasted for a few more hours before Persephone eventually brought them back to the apartment. Sesbastian flopped down onto the couch and stared up at the ceiling in thought. Persephone sat down next to him and started playing with the hair on his head.

"I'm going to miss you, you know." Persephone said quietly. Sebastian looked up at her and thought back to the first time that he met her.

A loud "oof" came out of Sebastian's mouth as he was banished out of the shop.

"Stop stealing my books you bloody rat!" The shop owner screamed at him before slamming the door shut.

Sebastian laid down on the stones for a second before he saw some aurors approaching him. They had their wands drawn and Sesbastian scurried to escape them.

'That's the last time I come to Diagon Alley,' Sebastian thought to himself as he ran away from the aurors. He ran down Knockturn in order to lose them before he started to slow down.

But, to his surprise, the aurors had decided to continue chasing him down the alley. Panic grew in him as he tried to run from them again. But there was only so much that he could do before they caught up to him. They were fully grown men while he was only a seven year old child.

He kept up the chase for at least a dozen alleys but just when he was reaching his limit, he was pulled inside of a building.

He briefly panicked at being seized and he struggled against his captor until they said "Will you stop that or I'll just knock you out to the aurors."

He stopped panicking and saw the aurors run past none the wiser. He stayed there for about three minutes before feeling safe enough to exit out into the alley again.

He took the opportunity to look at the person who had grabbed him. It was a girl who looked to be in her late teens or early twenties. She wore a knife attached to her belt and her brown hair cut short. She looked like she was ready to fight and someone that he didn't want to pick a fight with.

She was looking him up and down, assessing him. "Hey kid."

He perked up at being addressed. "You magical?"

He gave a slow and cautious nod.

"Good," she said. "The way I see it, you owe me for saving you from them. So you are going to work for me for a while. I need help from someone with magic to brew some potions for me. When I feel like you've paid me back enough you can leave, but until then, you work for me. Got it?"

Sebastian didn't see a way out of the situation. From how muscular her arms were and the knife on her belt and the other knives she very obviously had hidden on her, he knew that he would have to cooperate with her. So he let her drag him away down some alleys that he was not familiar with. When she finally stopped dragging him along she pushed him into a tavern.

"Edmund!" She yelled out. "Give this kid something to eat!"

A man came out from behind the counter and looked at her annoyedly before taking a glance at him. He gave a small sigh before going into the back to bring out some chicken for him to eat.

"Eat this," she commanded. "I won't have someone in my employ starving on me. Just think of this being a little more you have to pay me back."

Sebastian quickly ate the chicken as fast as he was able to, fearing that her kindness would turn and take the food away from him.

After he was finished scarfing the food down she led him from the tavern, leaving a few coins behind on a table. Before he was dragged out, he saw a girl peeking out from under the counter standing next to the man the woman had called Edmund.

After a few more alleys the woman led him up a few flights of stairs and let him into an apartment. "This is where you will be staying. I'll set up a little room for you in the hallway and that's where you'll sleep. Right now I'm going to teach you how to brew some potions for me. Go over to the sink and wash your hands. Oh, and my name is Persephone."

Scorpius stopped reminiscing to look back at Persephone.

"Thank you for taking me in when you did," he said quietly.

"What are you talking about," she said with a snort. "I needed someone to brew my potions for me."

"Liar." he said as he closed his eyes, falling into a comfortable sleep.

The parade for them was entirely unexpected and entirely overboard. In the grand scheme of things, they were just two random alley kids, but today they were being celebrated by everyone. Garold had turned August 31st into a festival to celebrate the first true Alley kids to be able to go to Hogwarts.

Alexis was embarrassed to be receiving so much attention, but Scorpius was revelling in it. The acknowledgement of his hard work motivated him to work even harder and shock Hogwarts. His legs couldn't stop bouncing and he urged to get to Hogwarts already.

But first they had to deal with this festival. Stalls were set up for food and merchandise, show duels were being run deeper down, Rogue court members were out patrolling to make sure nothing too illegal was happening.

Sebastian watched and cheered on as Persephone fought against a middle aged man with her knives. She rolled around, threw some knives, and cut up her opponent, all without magic.

Sebastian saw her throw out a potion that summoned a pillar of fire, which he recognized as one of his own.

Later, he saw performative dancers jumping in the sky in highly choreographed movements.

Somehow Garold had got several small dragons for entertainment along with a few thestrals and a blast ended skrewt for the battle arena.

Fireworks lit up the sky late at night and Sebastian sat with Alexis as they stared at them until what felt like until the sun came up.

And then the sun did come up, and Sebastian and Alexis were gone, and the Alleys went back to normal.

A/N: And there we have the last part of Chapter 2. Note, most of these are posted on the first draft because I just want to get it out of my hands as soon as it's written. I'll fix grammar when I finish, I'm too lazy to do it now.

I'll talk about some fun facts about the chapter because I always enjoy those when authors write them.

In the Harry scene I revealed that Dudley had married Daphne Greengrass. When I was planning this, I wanted to pay respect to the established fandom of Harry Potter while putting my own ideas into it. So, I used the character entirely created by the fandom and put my own spin on her. I might post a one-shot about the history I wrote out for her. And I've had her backstory written for a while. Back when I wrote this whole story in a notebook, even.

Paul is a character that is very heavily inspired by Maurice from Fiery Gray's series. It's still my favorite fanfiction series of all time and I couldn't help but include an homage to my favorite character. Also fun fact, Paul was Paula for most of the planning of the story.

I think the Scorpius scene is the only way that I'm directly contradicting the epilogue. I killed off Draco and Astoria in order to make other parts of my story work, and that made me have to go away from canon compliance. Also I haven't read the Cursed Child or the Fantastic Beasts movies. Death of the Author is real. Trans people are valid

The Abby scene was originally from Neville's perspective and Violet was actually the first character I ever created. She has gone through a lot of revision over the years.

I'm pretty shamelessly lifting the Lower Alleys from The Pureblood Pretense. And I don't feel bad.

Anyways, next time Chapter 3: Letters to Hogwarts begins.