Albus Severus Potter sat in his usual seat in the compartment of the Hogwarts Express, banging his head against the window. There was no one else in the compartment to stop him from killing his brain cells.
It was his last year at Hogwarts, his bloody last year, and he was spending the first part of the train ride alone, due to the fact that his two best friends were Head Boy and Girl, and were currently in the Prefects compartment arranging patrols and holding a prefects' meeting.
Just. Bloody. Brilliant.
For lack of something better to do, he changed into his school robes. He sat back down, surpised to feel slightly more comfortable and at home with the Slytheirn crest gleaming on his chest. Not to mention the Quidditch Captain badge.
He managed to yank a book free from his trunk, which turned out to be Quiddich Through the Ages. He sighed in contentedness. There were worse things you could do while you waited for your best mates to come back from their Prefects meeting. You know – like bang your head against a window.
He lost track of time, absorbed in his favourite book, until suddenly the compartment door banged open, and in walked his best mates.
Walked was a loose term for what they were doing, though. Scorpius strutted. He always had, and although it annoyed Albus to no end, probably always would. He dropped heavily in the seat next to Ablus and put his head in his hands. Ablus didn't need to ask why, though – at that moment, Rose stumbled in, snogging the bloody face off of Lysander Scamander. Lovely.
"Oi, you two. Get a room," he growled in annoyance as they collapsed onto the seat opposite from him. "You're bloody disgusting, and I do not want to have to put up with this all the time."
They broke away from each other, thank Merlin.
"Albus, this is a room. It's not our fault you're in it."
"Rose bloody Weasley, you are insufferable," groaned Albus as the his absolutely wonderful cousin her boyfriend.
"Honestly, you'd think it would bother them that they have two blokes sitting here watching them kiss," Albus said, nudging Scorp's knee with his own. Scorpius peeked his head above his hands so he could roll his eyes.
"Rose Jean Weasley, don't make me forcefully separate you both." Albus heard Rose grumble, presumably at the use of her full name, before hearing a mumbled, "Like you'd even try," from Lysander.
Albus rolled his eyes. Sometimes, they made it too easy. He flicked his wand, glad of the time he had spent practicing non-verbal spells over the summer. His silent shield charm sent them flying apart.
"Was that really necessary?" drawled Lysander in the general direction of Albus. His eyes were still glued to Rose. Bloody brilliant.
"You're irritating," Scorpius responded, "and it's frighteningly disgusting to watch. Don't you Ravenclaws have better things to do, anyways? Read all the school books before term has even begun? Master every spell before we've even learned it?"
"I've done all that," grinned Lysander, although it was absent of malice. He gave Rose another kiss (of course) goodbye and departed, presumably to find his twin brother.
"Must you both be so vile to him?" Rose asked haughtily. Conversations like this were a trend, and it was because she and Lysander were so. Bloody. Disgusting. Generally, everyone took it in good nature but -
"We've been back on the Hogwarts express for three seconds, Rosie," Albus complained. Rose grimaced at the use of her nickname. "And you couldn't even spare us for that long. Now, if you don't mind, I'd like to have a useful conversation with the both of you."
Scorpius gave him a dubious look, flipping his blond hair out of his eyes as he did so. "If this is going to be a lecture about those two going at it, you should save it. We both know they won't listen." His voice took on a mild drawl, but Albus noticed the grin he shot at Rose. Bloody best mates. Weren't they supposed to defend you?
"We can save the conversation about Lysander sucking my cousins face off like a bloody dementor for another day." Best mates, sometimes. Oi.
"Well someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed," grumbled Rose. Albus didn't care. He did not. Bloody. Care.
"I'll have you know, my bed is against the wall, and therefore I can only wake up on one side of it, no matter what," Rose looked like she was about to say something, so Albus continued, cutting her off. "This is actually important. It was something dad told me, said it was top secret."
"Top secret? Top secret as in you shouldn't be telling anyone, top secret?" asked Scorpius, looking at him in a slightly confused way.
"Yes. Now shut up so I can tell you," Albus said, shooting him a glare.
"Al," said Rose thoughtfully, before he could continue, "I think I'm going to get you a dictionary for your birthday. Maybe then you'll understand what 'top secret' really means."
Albus just looked at her. "He said I could share with you two, you numbskulls. It's not as though he would tell me something without knowing my two best mates would hear about it, too. Now, are we all done with the interruptions?" They nodded silently. Scorpius' eyes, especially, seemed to be urging him to go on.
"Well, dad and Teddy, actually told me and Lily all this. Basically, as Head Auror, Dad has had to assign Ted to an interesting assignment. You know about the Clave in the Ministry of Magic, right?"
Rose nodded, while Scorpius shook his head. Before Albus could explain, rose jumped in to Scorpius' rescue. "I read about it somewhere," she said. "Basically, the Clave is a branch of the Ministry of Magic. And they're responsible for anything supernatural that happens in the world. So they're made up of Shadowhunters and Downworlders, and they keep demon activity down low, while the rest of the ministry is focused on controlling magic. But they all work together to keep all of this from the Muggles. The Shadowhunters call them Mundanes, I think."
"I knew most of that," Scorpius said in response, "I just didn't realize they were so closely tied with the Ministry of Magic."
"Most people don't," Rose replied. "The Minister always likes to keep it really secretive. I think people thought it would be different with Kingsley in charge, but it's still the same. We all just keep to ourselves, really."
"Exactly," continued Al. "Anyways, ten years or so after our war with Voldemort, they had a war of their own. Basically, the Seelie Court, which is made up of the fey people, teamed up with some evil guy named Jonathan or something who was in league with demons. They were going to destroy all the Shadowhunters and Downworlders and all of that. So the Shadowhunters and Downworlders teamed up and defeated them. But after the war, they put some super tough terms onto the Seelie so that it could never happen again. The thing is, it made the whole Seelie Court really mad, and now they think it is going to happen again, only this time, they're going to involve the wizarding world."
"Why would they involve the wizards, though? And how?" mused Rose, after Al had finished explaining.
"Wands," Al replied solemnly. "They have their own type of magic. But if they could channel it through wands, it would probably be disastrous."
"Why did your dad tell you this, though?" asked Scorpius. "It's not as though it involves us."
"Well, the Ministry doesn't think it's a huge problem, so they'd only let Dad assign one Auror to the case. They don't really think we're going to be involved. So now, Teddy is working with the Shadowhunter war heroes, and so is Dad, sort of. But he told me this because they're also putting people in Hogwarts – as professors, I think. They're undercover, though, so I don't think anyone else will know."
"How do they put non-wizards in a wizarding school?" asked Scorpius. He looked nervous, and Albus couldn't blame him. As the son of a Death Eater, people usually blamed him whenever something went wrong at Hogwarts.
"Warlocks, I think. I'm not really sure. I guess we'll find out at the welcome feast tonight," Al said.
"I guess we will," replied Scorpius with a sigh.
The feast started the same as usual. McGonogall stood up and spoke a few brief words, and then the food appeared.
"D'you reckon those are them, then?" asked Scorpius, gesturing to the High Table where the teachers sat.
Albus looked up from the chicken he was rather enjoying where Scorp was pointing. "Probably," he said. "They're the only ones we don't recognize."
Sitting next to a bemused looking Professor Longbottom was a man wearing bright pink, sparkling robes. His hair was spiked up, and looked like it had glitter in it. He also looked like he was wearing makeup. He was talking and gesturing wildly with his hands as he did so. Although Al realized on closer inspection that his gestures, while broad and sweeping, did have some control of them. Sort of.
Beside him, a woman was sitting. She was watching him as he talked, and she looked faintly amused. Compared to the Professor beside her, she looked perfectly normal. It was a funny contrast, really.
"I wonder what they'll be teaching," Al muttered to Scorpius.
"Are they even qualified to teach anything?" Albus shrugged in response.
"What're you two whispering about?" said a voice to Al's left. "You shouldn't keep secrets, you know."
"Oh, put a sock in it, Nott," Scorp responded. "We're just wondering who the new teachers are and what subjects they'll teach, is all."
Callum Nott was in their year and dorm in Slytherin. He wasn't bad, really, although he often liked to pry into other people's business. Al didn't like him, but he didn't hate him, either. He wasn't really allowed to hate him – the bloke was Scorpius' cousin. He was like Scorpius, though. Neither of them held the pure-blood beliefs that their parents did; their immersion in the culture of Hogwarts had wiped that out of them. Nott's dad, though, hadn't been a Death Eater like Scorpius' dad had been, and he didn't hold quite as tightly to the pure-blooded ideals that Scorp's family had. Ironically, he had been Albus' first Slytherin friend, until Scorpius had changed enough. Now, Al could barely stand the guy.
The rest of the meal was passed mostly in silence, as all the boys ate as much as they could before the end of the feast. Finally, the pudding came out and then disappeared, and McGonagall stood up to give her beginning of year speech.
"Welcome, students, to another year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry," she said, her voice ringing out around the hall. Albus tuned out the rest of her speech, looking across the hall at the Gryffindor table. Lily was talking away to Rose animatedly, while Rose appeared to be trying to shush her and listen to the speech.
"We have two new teachers this year," continued McGonagall, winding down her speech. Al elbowed Scorpius, who was too busy staring off into space to pay attention to what McGonagall was saying. Bloody best mates.
"Would you please welcome Madame Carstairs, who will be in charge of the infirmary this year," she said, as the woman stood up and gave a tentative wave before sitting back down. "And, we have a new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher," McGonagall continued. "Would you please welcome Professor Bane."
The man beside Professor Longbottom stood up and gave a sweeping bow. He lifted his hands and a bunch of purple light shot in an arc between them. It looked like wand sparks, but he didn't have a wand. Definitely a warlock, and a bloody cool one at that.
Most of the school watched in horror, but Al knew he was openly grinning. It was bloody awesome. As if sensing his enthusiasm, the man – Professor Bane – caught Al's eye and winked. When his eye opened, a cat's eye stared back at Al.
