Hey everyone! I'm sorry for such a long wait for this, but July was a busy month! I hope you're not too annoyed with me, because this chapter is twice as long as the last one. Hope you like it. :)

Fred and Dom had thrown a party in the Gryffindor Common Room to celebrate James and Roxanne making their house Quidditch teams. James had tried to convince Emily that the party was for her too, if she wanted to share it, but she just rolled her eyes and walked up to the dormitories for the night. The whole Weasley/Potter clan was invited and as the night grew on, Dominique, James, Fred, and I took turns escorting our cousins back to their dorms with the Marauder's Map and the invisibility cloak that my father had given James and I to share during our time at Hogwarts.

Victoire, Louis, and Lucy were the first to want to travel back to their dorms; each wanting to get enough rest for the Ravenclaw and Slytherin try-outs.

Dom offered to bring Louis and Victoire back to the Ravenclaw Common Room one at a time, but Victoire insisted on going without the cloak and map, and that Dom could just bring Louis instead. She reasoned that if she met any teachers patrolling the corridors, she would just explain that she had picked up extra rounds for the night. Being head girl, they wouldn't suspect a thing and would let her be on her way.

Dom rolled her eyes at Victoire's knack for always having an answer to everything. "Come on Louis," Dom said stalking out of the Common Room after Victoire. The invisibility cloak was thrown over her shoulder and the map was sticking out of her back jeans pocket.

Louis followed closely behind, not wanting to be left by either of his sisters.

After Dom returned with the map and cloak, it was my turn to take Lucy down to the Slytherin Common Room.

It was an odd feeling escorting someone older than you to somewhere that the older person has been more times that you have, but it was the only way we could get the map and cloak back for the rest of the night.

We tip-toed down the dark corridors; lit only by the dim torchlight and the light of our wands. I directed my wand toward the map every so often to check for teachers or Filch and his semi-demonic cat, Mrs. Norris.

I left Lucy outside the entrance to our common room and swung the cloak around myself once again. It really was quite a lot roomier with only one person under it.

Now that I only had one wand, I had to pay more attention to what was in front of me instead of the map.

As a consequence of this, I heard a cat-like screech somewhere behind me. Every muscle in my body tensed up as I pressed my back up against the wall.

It was Mrs. Norris, which meant Filch wasn't far off. I quickly whispered, "Nox," and hoped Mrs. Norris couldn't hear my heart pounding in my chest.

"Psst!" I heard someone whisper somewhere above my head. I jumped at the sound.

"Silly boy. Quit your panicking so you can think clearly now! There is a shallow opening in the wall next to me. Do you see it?"

I could just make out a set of dark eyes narrowed at me from a painting just above my head. "Yes." I answered warily.

"Then what are you waiting for? Do you want to be seen? Get in there!" The portrait hissed.

I obeyed only for fear of being caught by , or worse, Filch.

As soon as my back end cleared the opening, the wall slid over the entrance, much like the entrance to the Slytherin Common Room. Only, there was no Common Room on the other side and the only light source was that coming from my wand.

I was trapped.

'Great. Way to go, Albus. If you had only paid a little more attention to the map, we wouldn't be in this mess.'

I had begun to reprimand myself when the man in the portrait appeared in the previously empty frame in front of me. I immediately relaxed knowing that if he got me in here, he could get me out.

"Hello again." He said slowly, not looking the slightest bit cheerful.

"Why did you help me? It would've been more amusing to you to watch me get discovered."

The faintest of smiles played at the corners on his mouth. "A tempting suggestion, but you are a member of my house, I absolutely detest Filch and his dreadful cat, and you have your Grandmother's eyes. Also, you look so like your father."

My interest peaked as he mentioned my grandmother and father, and most importantly the trait the three of us shared.

"How do you know my Grandmother?" I demanded.

"We were friends once upon a time. Many years before you were born." He gaze seemed distant, as if recalling a painful memory.

"Dom says not to listen to the portraits," I said still skeptical of the sallow-skinned man's intentions.

"Yes, Bill's younger daughter has never seemed fond of us paintings ever since one mentioned how different she was from her siblings. I remember hearing that she had a message from her mother that she had to relay to her brother and sister. She couldn't solve the riddle at the Ravenclaw Common Room entrance so she demanded loudly that she needed to get inside. A painting near the entrance overheard her and made a rude comment about her tactic, saying she would never get anything in life if she was always demanding what she wanted. Then it told her that she was very different from the Ravenclaw siblings."

"Who cares if she's different from Victoire and Louis? It doesn't make her less great as a person. And how do you know my uncle Bill?"

"Oh, I have no doubt that Dominique's difference from her brother and sister has made her great. I've heard she's given Slytherin a run for its money when it comes to Quidditch with her apparently phenomenal keeping skills. As for your question about your uncle; he was a student of mine for 7 years. I taught all of your uncles." He looked as though he regretted it somewhat; probably because of Fred and George. "I taught some of your aunts too, and both of your parents. Even Professor Longbottom." He sneered as he greatly stressed the word professor.

"Who are you?" Those were the only words my lips could form upon hearing how much he knew about my family. It was only fair that I know something about him.

"Silly boy, surely your parents have mentioned me before." By the tone of his voice, he was clearly appalled.

The only thing I could offer him was a blank look.

"Oh Merlin. We even share a name!" He said throwing his hands in the air.

I felt my eyes widen as I recalled my father describing my namesakes to me when I was little and I had asked why my name was so weird.

I began to compare my father's description to the man standing before me.

They matched perfectly.

"You're Severus Snape."

"Professor Severus Snape to you, Mr. Potter."

"Right, sorry." I ran my fingers through my hair anxiously. "Listen, I kind of need to get back. They'll be wondering what's taking me so long."

"Yes, of course. I'll make sure that wretched cat is gone before I slide the wall back.

The man disappeared for a moment before the wall slid aside to make an opening.

I had relit my wand, and was about to swing the cloak around myself when the professor spoke again.

"Mr. Potter." As soon as I turned my attention back to him he continued, "If you need anything, you know where to find me."

"Thanks, Professor. For everything."

"Anything for a member of my house; especially Lily's grandson." The distant gaze returned in his eyes.

I turned away with a weird feeling in my gut as I took the map out of my pocket and held my wand to it. His slight obsession with my grandmother was a bit odd, but where would I be without it? Detention maybe, I thought to myself.

The party was winding down as I entered the Gryffindor Common Room.

"Where were you?" James demanded upon seeing me.

"Trying to dodge Mrs. Norris."

"Oh. I thought for sure you had been caught by Filch." James said.

"Thanks for going out there and trying to find me." I said sarcastically.

"And risk getting caught, myself? No thanks. Mum would probably send a howler if she caught wind of both of us getting detention on the same day."

I rolled my eyes. James: the Gryffindor, the brave one, the fearless one. And still scared of his mum. Not that he didn't have a reason to be. Even our father was scared of her sometimes. Especially when she threatened him with her famous bat bogey hex, though none of us had ever seen it in action.

Once the party had ended and most Gryffindors were up in their dorms with only a few still lingering in the Common Room, Fred took Roxy, and James took Molly back to the Hufflepuff Common Room. Dom and I played "rock, paper, scissors" to decide who had to take Rose to Ravenclaw Tower. I won, and as I waited for Dom to return so I could retire to my own dorm, I fell asleep curled up on the end of the couch opposite James. He smacked me with a pillow multiple times in the face to wake me up.

I took the cloak and map from Dom, and wasted no time getting back to the Slytherin dormitories and sliding into my bed.

There was no one from the Weasley/Potter clan trying out for the first time today, but everyone seemed to feel obligated to go and support Victoire, Louis, and Lucy.

Dominique, James, Fred, and I walked onto the pitch with droopy eyes and wobbly knees. Rose should've been just as tired as us, but if she was, she didn't show it. I thought it was odd not seeing Scorpius at all. He was usually hanging around James or Dom, but he was out of sight. Well, at least until I looked around a little and saw him sitting with Kyle.

Victoire began tryouts as Fred and James each stretched out on a bench seat to take a nap in the mid-September breeze. James told me to wake him up if anything interesting happened. Dom had even brought a blanket that she had already wrapped around herself and she seemed as though she was fighting a constant battle with her eyes to stay open.

As it neared mid-day and the try-outs dragged on, Lucy and Molly offered to get some food for all of us in the Great Hall. Rose volunteered to go with.

I figured that this counted as interesting, so I shook James's shoulder to wake him up, and in turn, he woke Fred.

Lucy asked what they wanted, and being the jokesters they are, they each gave her a ridiculously long order as if they were very important people at a fancy restaurant. As the list grew longer, Lucy just rolled her eyes and walked off the pitch with her sister and Rose.

The three came back with food wrapped in several napkins for me, Dominique, Roxy, and themselves. For Fred and James, they brought them each a small package wrapped in a single napkin.

"What is this?" James said with his nose wrinkled as he held up a piece of toast. "I asked for-"

"If you would've taken it seriously, you would've gotten more." Lucy interrupted.

James was determined to act as though it didn't bother him and settled for taking half of my sandwich. Fred followed suit by taking half of Roxy's. The two of us knew better than to say anything, because we knew it would just tempt our older brothers to do it more. Purely because they knew it annoyed us.

Soon, the Ravenclaw try-outs ended and Louis was welcomed back to the team as a keeper.

There had been a short break between the two scheduled try-outs. As soon as the Ravenclaw try-outs had ended, James and Fred had sprinted to go get more food from the Great Hall, and I decided to tag along.

The two shoveled food into their mouths vigorously as I played with a salt shaker. Tipping some salt onto the wooden table, I used the tips of my fingers to shape the salt grains into little piles. I had tried to make a message out of the tiny piles, but it just looked like a bunch of jibberish. Frustrated, I swept the salt into one, larger pile.

I lowered my face so it was level with the table and blew the pile of salt at James who was sitting across from me.

James just shrugged and continued to eat his food, as if considering it was a gift from the heavens that his food was now properly seasoned. Not that he would really care about that.

His seemingly forgiving attitude, however, had not lasted long, because as soon as I turned my attention from him, he threw the salt shaker at me. It bounced off my arm, and clinked as it hit the floor.

"You're lucky it didn't break." I warned James.

"No. You're lucky it didn't break. It touched you last." James pointed out.

"You're so immature!"

"Says the boy who blew salt at me minutes ago."

I gave him a pouting look of defeat, and sighed loudly. After Fred and James had finished stuffing their faces, we walked back to the Quidditch Pitch.

We were all settled in our usual spot in the stands; I had even convinced Kyle and Ethan to sit with us, when Lucy waved me down from the pitch, calling my name.

I walked down the stairs to where Lucy was standing on the pitch. "Um, Lucy? Why do you have two brooms?" I had a bad feeling about this.

"Because Colin wants to see more of your seeking skills." Lucy said thrusting the second broom into my arms.

"What? Now? In front of all these people?" I asked gesturing to the stands. "Wait…this is my broom!"

"I've known about this for awhile, so I sent a letter to your parents so they could send me this," she said tapping the wax-coated wood of the broom handle with her fingernail. "And Al, you act like you've never played Quidditch before. You'll be fine. Besides, they'll all be watching me." She grabbed my arm, all but dragging me to Colin and the rest of the Slytherins.

"Thanks for warning me ahead of time, Luce." I mumbled as she pulled me to the other side of the pitch. I looked up at my cousins in the stands. Scorpius had taken my seat between Kyle and Rose.

"Great, you're here." Colin said just barely taking notice of me. "I think everyone is here now…" He stood on his tip-toes to better survey the crowd around him. "Perfect. We can start."

After weeding out the bad flyers, he separated everyone into teams. Well, everyone but me. Colin released the four balls used in Quidditch. The quaffle, two bludgers, and my object of interest: the snitch.

I watched the snitch flutter past me. I knew that I should've mounted my broom and started pursuing it immediately, but I thought it was best to wait for direction from Colin.

He turned around and spotted me with my broom handle resting on my shoulder; the other end on the ground. "What are you waiting for?" He asked seeming surprised to see me still standing there. "I want to see how fast you can catch it."

About to make a rude comment, I opened my mouth to protest, but thought better of it before I could utter a word. Instead, I flew off angrily into the air.

I hovered above the mini-Quidditch match surveying the area for the small golden sphere. Eventually, I caught it, but not until after Colin had switched all new players into the Quidditch scrimmage game. I flew back down to Colin. "Great. Now I want you to do it again. But faster this time."

It was what I expected him to say and I suppressed the urge to roll my eyes. I released the snitch from my fist, and allowed it a few seconds to dart away to give it a fair chance, then began the chase.

Colin made me do this repeatedly, expecting faster results each time, which he didn't always get.

Catch, release, repeat. Catch, release, repeat. Eventually, it became a mild form of torture, and soon, I was sure I could do it in my sleep. I had even tried, involuntarily of course.

I had been looking for the snitch for the fourth time. A wave of drowsiness had come over me from the lack of sleep, because of the party. I slowed my speed and laid my head on my arms that were folded on top of my broom handle. My eyes suddenly felt like lead weights. The next thing I knew, Colin was calling my name. Apparently I had dozed off, because my broom was gradually speeding up as it plummeted toward the ground. I pulled up hard on my broom to level out. Colin told me to keep my head out of the clouds and to try to stay awake. I wanted to grab one of the beater's bats and chuck it at his big head. He thinks he knows everything.

Colin made me catch the snitch seven times before he told me I could stop. He called everyone over to announce who had made the team. Of course, Lucy was welcomed back as a chaser.

After announcing the whole team, Colin began to walk off the pitch. "Wait! What about me?" I called.

He turned with his eyebrows furrowed. "What about you?"

"You just had me on a wild snitch chase for the last few hours, and then you walk off without saying a word to me?"

A cold smile appeared on his lips. "You're an excellent seeker; especially at your young age. I think you'll be a valuable addition to our team next year." Then he turned and walked off the pitch.

Lucy swooped in and crushed me in a bear hug. "You were great, Albus!"

I patted her back awkwardly. I hated giving my cousins hugs. "Thanks…so were you, Luce."

Then I noticed Scorpius standing behind Lucy. He looked up at me looking a little guilty.

"What do you want?" I spat.

"Nothing. Just to say that I'm sorry for being such a jerk lately." Scorpius said examining his shoes.

"Yeah, and…I mean… what?" I was fully prepared to tell him off like he had done during the times I'd tried to talk to him, but now he was apologizing?

Scorpius smirked. "You heard me."

"Yeah, but why were you so mad at me?"

"Well…" He looked at his shoes again. "I was a bit jealous, I guess."

"Jealous? Of what?"

"Of Colin taking such an interest in you. Remember when I said that my dad was too busy with work to practice with me much?" I nodded. "Well, Colin practiced with me most of the summer, and then he promised to continue practicing with me during the school year. But then I got sorted into Gryffindor, and you were sorted into Slytherin. And then you became his new favorite." Scorpius explained.

"That's still no reason to be a git to me."

"I know. I shouldn't have taken it out on you. I think you've been tortured enough today, anyway." He said with a small smile.

"You've got that right. You can have him back if you want." I said smiling back.

"After seeing you out there, taking his every order? No thanks."

We laughed and went to the Great Hall for dinner.

As always, thanks for reading, and reviewing if you've done so!