Chapter 3- Reassurance
Even though Albus tried to get information about both the wand and the curious letter, he continually failed at that for the rest of the days leading up to the departure for Hogwarts. He tried to be covert about the whole ordeal, regretful that he showed such an interest in the matter in the beginning. But his father was better at evading the subject then Albus was acquiring about it, somehow always managing to gaslight him when the subject came up. And, admittedly, as the time past, Albus worries simmered down a bit. He was still mad at the lies, but new more pressing ones, mainly how he will manage in the boarding school and a fear of what will happen if he gets separated from the rest of his family, getting sorted into the notorious Slytherin house, grew firmly at the back of his head.
Not to mention that he researched for some explanations and came to several conclusions on his own. Mainly, he read how different wizards presented their ability in different ways and how often there is a period of adjustment with their wands. None of those calmed him down completely, but it was better than nothing. He could not raise the issue of the letter, of course, since sneaking into his father study would have caused mountains of trouble, as it was basically the only rule in the house he truly cared about, even smacking James at the one time he tried it.
Like that, the days hurried by, and the worrisome day came not before long. Albus woke up abruptly, surprised, not remembering when he fell asleep. The sounds from outside, those who woke him up, began again, and he got up, opening his window, to check what all the commotion was about. The sun was already fully exposed, emitting her soft light on the beautiful green valley below, and, up in the air, two tiny figures moved, shouting to each other, looking like two small flies on a background of a gorgeous picture. Even though he couldn't recognize their faces, Albus knew it was his mother and brother by the red and brown fleshes of their hair.
Ever since James got his broomstick in their trip to 'Diagon Alley' he spent every possible spare time he could perfecting his flight, even breaking tradition, and going so far as to waking up early to train with their parents (both proficient flyers) before they went to work. Albus, who wasn't very fond of leaving the ground behind with only a small piece of wood beneath him and wasn't very good at it, never joint in and preferred to fill his time reading his new textbooks for school or spend time with Lily, who was terrified of heights.
He left the window open and turned, yawning loudly, starting to organize his bad and putting random clothes on himself. Only after about five minutes did he remember that today was the day he was supposed to go to Hogwarts. After quickly reassuring himself he wasn't late, he got out of his room and went down the stairs, mad at himself. He was known for being organized, but this time he failed preparing for his impending departure, constantly rearranging his school equipment.
He entered the kitchen, where he found Lily sitting red eyed with steaming Choco drink in her hands. Their father sat next to her and tried the best of his abilities to cheer her up, "Alice and the twins will visit you, it wouldn't be so bad…", he raised his head, acknowledged his son, and returned to his daughter, who saw Albus and ran to hug him, crying loudly. "There, there", Albus tried to cheer her up as well, but didn't really knew what to say, he preferred to be asked some over complicated history of magic fact then deal with his sister unstable emotions.
He understood her, However, remembering how he felt the previous year when James left. But at least then he had Lily to accompany him, and while he missed James, he did have some rest from his bullying when he was gone. Albus, who became used to his sister jealousy by now, calmed her down and then went and sat with her on the elongated table, immediately offered a drink himself by Scrubby. So tiny he was, even in comparison to regular house elves, that Albus didn't even noticed him working all this time near the sink.
He slowly began eating breakfast- bacon and eggs, thinking to himself what to expect in school. He wanted to bombard his father with new questions that rose in his mind but was afraid that it will trigger Lily again. With the three questions- the situation with his letter, his wand and the last one, that he told no one- not even his sister, about his future schoolhouse, in particularly burning in his head. While he wanted some reassurance in his assumptions about those subjects, the fear that started to bother him the most was whether he will end up in Slytherin.
Albus knew it was childish and out of his hand, but the fear still grew firmly in his heart, not in small part thanks to his brother constant not so stealthy reminders. He hated to admit it, but while he could explain everything else that happened to him, he could not imagine a situation in which he will end up in Gryffindor, or any of the other houses for that matter.
After all, he wasn't courageous, especially in comparison to someone like his brother. And while he did consider himself to be intelligent and hardworking, trades desirable in the houses of Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff respectably, there was no doubt in his heart that most of all he was ambitious and wanted to prove himself, a trade that was infamously desirable in Slytherin. But wanted characteristics from each house aside, what they been was another story completely. Just the thought of associating with the house that produced more dark wizards than all the others combined made him feel sick.
A faint laughter distracted him from his grim thoughts, and soon his mom and brother entered the kitchen in a big commotion. Ginny's broomstick, the 'Firebolt' was placed on her shoulders in a cool manner and James' new broomstick, the 'Nimbus 3000' was cradle in his hands like a newborn baby. "You have a long time before even considering being a captain", sniggered Albus' mom while leaning her broom against the wall, "You're still a newbie". "I'm…", James started but was cut off when Lily began crying again and ran to embrace him as well, and he had to continue while bearhugging her with one arm, holding his broom awkwardly in his other.
"Now, with Jonson out of school, I will be the best flyer, he told me so himself". "It's not all about how best you can fly, it's about how good your team is", Ginny said, "trust me, I learned it the hard way". "Remember Krum?", Harry heartily entered the conversation, "the guy was the greatest Quidditch player ever and never won a single championship". "Poor lad, just quitted after his last defeat", Albus' mother nodded her head in displeasure, "Although I heard that now he is running for office in the Bulgarian ministry, so at least his popularity wasn't completely tarnished".
The conversation died down shortly after as they focused on their meal, preparing for the departure in a disorderly manner as soon as they finished. A stressed hour later, following a lot of shouting and going up and down looking for missing items, with Lily constant crying in the background, they were finely ready. After making sure one last time that nothing was absent, they got into the blue family car, putting their belongings in the magically expended trunk, the parents in the front and the kids in the back, with Lily in the middle seat, separating the brothers.
James, of course, began picking on Albus as they started driving, describing in detail how terrible the dungeons in Hogwarts were and how everybody hated the Slytherin snakes who constantly lurked there. But fortunately, after he got threatened by their mother to get bat bogey hex (a threat she stood behind), he altered his attention to their sister, asking her questions about various flower properties from her small handbook and zapping her with a bee shaped toy he got from the joke shop whenever she got an answer wrong.
Albus took the break from the teasing and stared outside the window, watching the rural backdrop gradually transformed into an urban one. A sharp turn caused his wand to poke him threw his pants, reminding him of its existence. He reached inside his pocket and caressed the handle, feeling the cracks in the old wood. He expected the euphoric feeling similarly to the one he experienced in the wand shop, but again he felt nothing special. He couldn't help but wonder to himself whether something was done to the wand as he watched his father relieved expression when he handed it to him shortly before the departure.
Closing his eyes, he imagined himself wielding the wand, defeating rival duelers with ease in front of an adoring audience. "…And Albus defeat another challenger," the voice was heard in his head, " will anyone be able to beat the undisputed champion from Slytherin?". He quickly opened his eyes, blinded briefly by the sudden burst of light. He couldn't deny it, James's taunting got to him, what began as another silly teasing truly started to unravel him.
He captured his father looking at him threw the rear-view mirror and swiftly pretended to look at the passing view, trying to hide his worry. He kept glancing outside and only stopped from time to time to take turns questioning Lily about various interesting things he remembered from his readings. After a surprisingly short amount of time, they reached London and soon after parked near King's Cross station. The family exited the car, and the parents continued forward with Lily, leaving the brothers behind to carry their own belongings.
The air was cold, with haze so dense that it became impossible to see things afar. Albus breathed heavily, struggling to carry his heavy trunk, but his honor denied him from asking James, who walked beside him with a suspiciously light carry, for any help. Thankfully, the walk wasn't very long, and they were already nearing the entry. Albus wandered to himself whether his brother even bothered to take any spare clothes with him when a strange voice came from their side.
A man with tattered clothes jumped out from behind a nearby parking car and blocked their way. He had thin and hollow face, with grey messy long hair and mismatched eyes, one blue and one milky white. But weirdly enough Albus got a weird scent, that of a perfume, coming from him. "Hey kids, nice looking birds you've got there", he growled, exposing his straight white teeth, "mind lending me them, haven't eaten in a while", his face contorted into an ugly gaze as he looked at them. "Get lost", James immediately stepped forward, puffing his chest, "or I will make sure you will be sorry for that".
The man snorted with laughter and menacingly began advancing toward them. "Get back", James reached his pocket, but the man closed the distance with a surprising speed, catching him and forcing his hand behind his back before he managed to reach his wand. "You're not going to help your brother?", the man asked Albus, easily holding his furious combative brother in check. "Nah, you always fighting anyway", he smiled at the surprised expression on the man's face, "and you the one that say struggle build character or something like that".
James stopped struggling and squinted his eyes at the man, "Teddy?", he asked as he was let go. "In the flesh, stupid ", Teddy returned to his normal tone, and clasped him with one arm, "I knew that, I just played along", James retorted, clearly embarrassed. "Of course you were", the former said, rolling his eyes, and quickly stepped to greet Albus as well, taking one of his heavy bags from him. "How did you know?", he asked Albus as they entered the station, getting a suspicious look from the guard at the entry, "was it my voice?". "No, your voice was pretty good", Albus said, "but the teeth gave it away, and in all honesty, you are a bit exaggerating with your cologne, you need to spray it, not to bath in it".
"Well, it because it's the favorite…", he swiftly changed his words mid-sentence, scratching his chin, "I need to remember the teeth, I always forget about them". "I know why you are taking bathes in this disgusting cologne", James, who seemed to get over his embarrassment, smiled mischievously, "trying to impress the one who bought you this, aren't you?". "Perhaps", Teddy grinned, "but from what I've heard, you yourself have worse problems. Sending love letters to two girls at the same time, are we?".
"Don't believe what you hear from dad, he doesn't know what he's talking about", James paused for a moment, "there are three of them". Both he and Teddy burst out laughing, scaring a young woman next to them who strolled with her baby. Their laughter intensified as the woman looked back at them, eyeing Teddy with terror and holding her child closer to her chest. "You're getting pretty good at this", James exclaimed with admiration, " truly unrecognizable", Albus cleared his throat loudly, but was ignored.
They got closer to the barrier between platforms nine and ten, where the hidden passage to the Hogwarts train was, when Teddy suddenly stopped them. "Since I already finished school, don't want the others to see", he said to Albus' brother and took him aside, speaking to him quietly and handing him a small paper bag. Albus watched suspiciously as James' eyes became big and a smile so widespread filled his face it seemed to be stretched from ear to ear.
"What did you give him?", he asked Teddy as the two returned but was instead unceremoniously pushed with his brother through the wall barrier, transforming immediately into the busy Platform 9¾. The change was instant, with overwhelming commotion and large amount of people surrounding them, reminding Albus of one of his family gatherings. Both he and James started following Teddy closely, who seemed to know where he was going and was nearly invisible in the packed crowd.
Albus didn't manage to ask anything in the newfound commotion and instead looked around, observing everything. From worried adults clutching their children like they never going to see them again, cool looking teenagers joking loudly with each other and wide-eyed kids, clearly before their first departure, carrying their trolly in a complete shock. Everybody busy in their own business, mostly ignoring their surroundings.
The three of them reached a small clearing in the middle of the crowded platform, were the Weasley and Potter families waited, invisible in all the train soot. "Did you get them?", asked Ron enthusiastically, ignoring the disapproving nod from his wife, who held her kids in each one of her hands. "I got James over here", Teddy put Albus' beg down, "you should have seen him, he almost cried". And then, ignoring the objection from Albus' brother he removed a straight shiny brown wand from his pocket and with a sweep motion turned his clothes back to their original look- flowing dark blue elegant robes with a golden fastening.
Then he closed his eyes and with expression of pain turned his face features back to normal as well, and no less than a few seconds later a young man with dark blue eyes and sharp jaw line, combined with his trademark blue hair, emerged. "Someone looks fancy today", Harry whistled, "Yea", Ginny chuckled, "should I warn Bill?". Teddy have seemed to lose some of his cool, "I'm just…", his smile tumbled a little bit and he seemed to be lost for words, "…going to say goodbye one last time to the train, to savor some old memories…", he finished weakly and quickly disappeared back into the crowd after embracing the rest of the kids. Hermione disapproval became more prominent as the other adults chuckled at Teddy's vanishing form.
The time of the train departure came quickly, and they all began the ceremonies goodbyes, with James not wasting any time and taking his leave as fast as he could, wanting to get a good cabinet with his friends. "You'll write to me, won't you?" Albus asked his parents quietly, capitalizing on the momentary absence of his brother. "Every day, if you want us to", answered Ginny. "Not every day", said Albus quickly, "James says most people only get letters from home about once a month". "We wrote to James three times a week last year" continued Ginny. "And you don't want to believe everything he tells you about Hogwarts", Harry put in, "He likes a laugh, your brother, kind of remind me of my father".
"If you're not in Gryffindor, we'll disinherit you", his uncle words caught his attention, "but no pressure", and he hugged his daughter farewell. "He doesn't mean it", said Hermione outraged, but Ron was no longer paying attention. Catching Harry's eye, he nodded covertly to a point some fifty yards away, "Look who it is", he whispered. They all turned to look who he was talking about, the steam had thinned for a moment, and three people stood in sharp relief against the shifting mist.
A man with a somewhat receding silver-blonde hair, which emphasized his already pointed chin and a dark coat bottomed up to his throat, stood next to a beautiful woman, with heart shaped face and flowing dark brown hair and a bit of sickly pale white skin. Between them stood a kid that resembled the men as much as Albus resembled Harry.
The man caught sight of the group staring at him, nodded curtly, and turned away. "So that's little Scorpius", said Ron under his breath, "make sure you beat him in every test, Rosie. Thank God you inherited your mother's brains". "Ron, for heaven's sake", called Hermione, half sterned, half amused, "don't try to turn them against each other before they've even started school!". "You're right, sorry", said Ron, but unable to help himself, he added, "don't get too friendly with him, though, Rosie. Grandad Weasley would never forgive you if you married a pureblood".
"Hey!", James had reappeared, he had divested himself of his trunk, owl and trolly, and was evidently bursting with news. "Teddy is back there", he said breathlessly, pointing back over his shoulder into the billowing clouds of steam, "Just seen him! And guess what he's doing? Snogging Vicky!". "You interrupted them?", asked Ginny, "you just like Ron…". "He saw me and told me to get lost. He's snogging her!", James added as though worried he had not made himself clear. "Oh, it would be lovely if they got married!", whispered Lily ecstatically, "Teddy would really be part of the family then!".
"He already comes round for dinner about four times a week", smiled Harry, "why don't we just invite him to live with us and have done with it?". "Yeah", exclaimed James enthusiastically, "I don't mind sharing with Al, Teddy could have my room!". "No", said Harry firmly, "you and Al will share a room only when I want the house demolished". He checked his battered old watch, "It's nearly eleven, you'd better get on board". "Don't forget to give Neville our love!", Ginny told James as she hugged him. "Mum! I can't give a professor love!", shaking his head at his mother foolishness, he vented his feelings by aiming a kick at Albus, "see you later, Al. Watch out for the thestrals".
He laughed, permitted his mother to kiss him, gave his father and sister a fleeting hug and then leapt onto the rapidly filling train. They saw him wave and then sprint away up the corridor to find his friends. "Thestrals are nothing to worry about", Harry told Albus, "they're gentle things, there's nothing scary about them. Anyway, you won't be going up to school in the carriages, you'll be going in the boats". Ginny kissed Albus goodbye, "See you at Christmas". "Bye, Al", said Harry as his son hugged him, "Don't forget Hagrid's invited you to tea next Friday. Don't mess with Peeves. Don't duel anyone till you've learned how. And don't let James wind you up".
"What if I'm in Slytherin?", the whisper was for his father alone, the moment of departure has forced Albus to reveal how great and sincere that fear was. His father crouched down so that Albus's face was slightly above his own. "Albus Severus", Harry said quietly, "you were named for two headmasters of Hogwarts. One of them was a Slytherin and he was probably the bravest man I ever knew". "But just say…", Albus began but his father cut him off, "…Then Slytherin House will have gained an excellent student, won't it? It doesn't matter to us, Al. But if it matters to you, you'll be able to choose Gryffindor over Slytherin. The Sorting Hat takes your choice into account".
"Really?", Albus hopes immediately soared, "It did for me", Harry smiled at him. Albus wanted to ask more about the subject but now the doors were slamming all along the scarlet train, and a blurred outline of parents swarming forward for final kisses and last-minute reminders was created. Now full of newfound energy Albus hugged his family members as quickly as he could and jumped into the carriage with Rose, the door closing behind him. Students were hanging from the windows near them. A great number of faces, both on the train and off, seemed to be turned toward Harry.
"Why are they all staring?", demanded Albus as he and Rose craned around to look at the other students. "Don't let it worry you", said Ron, "It's me, I'm extremely famous". Albus laughed with the rest and once the train began to move, he watched as his parents started walking alongside it, and Lily started sobbing again. The train quickly gained speed and moved faster than the parents on the station could keep up. And not before long the train turned on the curved tracks and the adults' filled platform disappeared altogether.
