Disclaimer I don't own Harry Potter
Albus Severus Potter, lay in bed unable to sleep. His alarm clock read 6am. Had he been above ground there would have been sunlight to greet him, but his present position was in the dungeons of Hogwarts. He was a Slytherin. It had been his worst fear for the last 3 months of his life, with his older brother James making fun that he would end up here but he had. The moment when he had willingly accepted entering Slytherin came to his mind easily.
"Ambition and determination are nothing to be ashamed of you know. You are full of both, more than your father and Slytherin will help you to achieve those goals!" came the voice of the Sorting Hat.
"But every bad wizard came from there." Albus replied desperately. He didn't want to be in Slytherin, he didn't want to be in the house that had been responsible for Vordermort and his Death Eaters.
"It is not the house itself that is evil. Many great wizards have come from the House of Slytherin and dark wizards have come from the House of Gryffindor. No house is by nature good or evil."
"Really?" Albus said still disbelieving. And then he remembered what his father had said about Severus Snape.
"Yes, even Godric Gryffindor himself was no saint. Champion of Muggleborns maybe but he was no Helga Hufflepuff." Albus was quiet at the thought of this. Things had always seemed simple to him. Gryffindor is good, Slytherin is Evil. But apparently this wasn't the case.
"Well, if that's the case and I really do fit, then I guess I'd better join -"
"SLYTHERIN!" Albus looked at the Gryffindor table, he saw the shock on their faces. As he walked over he felt particular guilt when he looked at the downtrodden face of his brother. But there was nothing he could do, the Sorting Hat had been so insistent, that he was a Slytherin.
"No use dwelling on it now." he muttered sadly. He decided he would write to his parents and see what they had to say about it.
Dear Dad & Mum
Well it happened. I'm in Slytherin. I asked the Sorting Hat to put me into Gryffindor and we almost argued for a while but it placed me in there. I'm in a room with three other boys. One of them is Scorpius Malfoy, he told me that the Sorting Hat nearly put him into Ravenclaw. He kind of reminds me of Aunt Hermione cause all he does is practice spells and read books it seems he's quite quiet too. There is another boy, Jason Dressen, he seems really friendly actually, I would have thought he would be the type to go into Hufflepuff really but apparently not. There's another boy Dexter, he's been pretty quiet too though. Anyway I'll write again when I have more to say, the others will be up soon (It's six o'clock in the morning).
Love Albus Potter
Albus neatly folded the letter and made his way to the Owlry. He couldn't help but marvel at the size of Hogwarts as he walked around the corridors. Each corridor dawned with lavish decorations. When he finally reached the Owlry he held out his hand and a white Owl flew onto it.
"Here you go Snowey, take that to Dad will you." he said, whilst tieing the letter to his leg. He left and wandered into the great hall where he saw his brother and his two cousins eating. He walked over and sat down.
"Told you you'd be in Slytherin!" James said, looking quite pleased with himself.
"There's nothing wrong with being a Slytherin!" Albus said heatedly, feeling quite embarrased.
"Well you are the first of the whole entire family to be sorted into Slytherin you know." Rose Weasley piped up with a matter-of-fact like voice.
"What are they like anyway? Bet that Malfoy boy is a snivelling cowardly fool just like his father. Death eater spawn." came James voice, he spat out the word death eater like it was the most disgusting thing in the world.
"Actually, he's a lot like you," Albus replied looking at Rose. "Brought a miniature library with him, he's also really good at spells and really quiet."
"Then what Merlin's name is he doing in Slytherin?" Fred Weasley exclaimed as he sat down on the table with his cousins.
"Well he says that he was nearly put in Ravenclaw."
"Anyway, you'd do well to stay away from those Slytherin lot, never any good they are. Especially that Malfoy boy, he father and grandfather were death eaters, he's probably no better!" said James.
"I'm one of those 'lot'." Albus replied coldy. He felt annoyed, he just didn't see what the big fuss was about Slytherin now he was in it. So without another word, he picked up his plate and walked over to the Slytherin dining table and sat beside the very boy who had been in question. Scorpius had a book open in one hand and his fork shoveling food into his mouth in the other.
"Morning." Scorpius uttered, simply acknowledging his presence before going back to his food.
"Hey Albus. So what were the Gryffindors saying then?" asked Jason, saying the word Gryffindor with a slight sneer.
"They were just wondering how I ended up in Slytherin and asking about you guys."
"Which of us?" said Scorpius, his eyes now fixed on Albus. Albus looked away.
"Well, urm, you." Scorpius frowned.
"They said?" Scorpius asked again, his eyes trained on Albus' face. Albus felt uncomfortable.
"Doesn't really matter." Scorpius glanced over at the Gryffindor table, looked back at Albus and nodded.
"So what lesson we got first then?" Jason asked with a smile. Scorpius pulled out his timetable and had a look.
"Potions, Slughorn, dungeons." came Scorpius's reply.
"You know, you have a real talent for using as few words as possible." Jason replied with a small chuckle.
"Personally, I find that a rather endearing trait of his." came the sweet voice of Alice Stockwood who sat down daintily. She was followed by Nicola who strangely seemed to glide rather than walk.
"So do any of you know what Professor Slughorn is like?" asked Dexter as he sat down on the table table.
"Rather nice actually, actually... well as long as you've got connections." piped in a second year. Scorpius sighed.
"What's up?" asked Alice who noticed how Scorpius' face fell.
"Doesn't matter." came his curt reply. "Anyway, off to the library." he stood up and left without another word.
"He really doesn't like talking, does he?" said Jason, causing the rest of the Slytherin first years to laugh.
"So Albus, you know when the quidditch trials are?" asked Dexter.
"Boys and quidditch." sighed Alice. "I'm off back to the dungeons. I'll see you guys at potions." she said airily as she stood up from the bench and left. She looked back at the boys and gave them a smile before walking off.
"She seems nice." said Dexter.
"I dunno, there's something about the way she acts that's a bit..." Albus's voice trailed off. The words came to his mouth before he'd even thought about it. But he wasn't sure he liked all her little giggles and smiles that seemed to be directed his way.
"Anyway Al, do you mind if I call you Al?" Jason asked, Albus shook his head and Jason continued. "I saw that firebolt of yours. Old model, but still a lot better than most other brooms. How'd you get it, there weren't many built." Jason asked.
"Was my dad's. He got it as a present from Sirius Black. Won quite a few matches with it too. James wanted it but he got one of those Nimbus 5000s instead."
"Really, those are quite expensive?" Dexter piped in.
"I know, but we aren't really short of money." Albus flushed feeling embarrassed. That was an understatement. The Potter-Weasley family were currently very well off, his Dad was head Auror, his Uncle Ron was deputy and also owned 50% of Weasleys Wizardly Weases. "Anyway, I'd rather have the firebolt." he neglected to say that the reason he wanted the firebolt was out of pride. His father had used it to win many matches as a seeker and he planned to do exactly the same thing.
"Good luck with the tryouts. I hope both you and Scorpius get in, it's rare for two first years to be in a team." said Jason cheerily. "Anyway lets get to potions."
-x-y-z-
"Come in! Come in!" came a loud cheerful voice. The source was an old, overweight man who had a large grin on his face. Professor Slughorn, the Slytherin housemaster. Albus entered the room with the rest of the Slytherins and Gryffindors. It was a large room in the dungeons, lit with torches. All over there were shelves with weird looking liquids in all sorts of oddly shaped flasks. Malfoy, Jason and Dexter were already sitting on a table so he went to join them. On the table next to him, his cousin, Rose was seated with a blonde haired girl, Cassie Wood and one boy, Ryan Thomas (who he'd met him once before briefly as Ryan's dad was friends with his.)
"Welcome to Potions!" boomed Proffessor Slughorn's voice. "Here I will teach you the precise art of brewing potions. With potions one can heal the gravest of wounds, bewitch minds, even control the senses."
The whole class was focused on him most looking rather interested. Well all but one. Albus glanced at Scorpius who looked thoroughly bored.
"Right, who can tell me what you get from stewing horned slugs, with dried nettles, crushed snake fangs and porcupine quills?" Slughorn asked. Immediately Rose Weasley's hand shot up in the air.
"Your name?"
"Rose Weasley sir."
"Hermione and Ron's daughter I'm guessing?"
"Yes sir."
"Anyway, the answer."
"Brisbane's simple boil cure potion, Sir. It can be used to cure all manner of boils and warts."
"Very good, just like your mother. 10 points to Gryffindor!" Slughorn said in good spirit. Albus rolled his eyes at this. Rose wasn't just like her mother, she was almost exactly the same. Jason whispered something to Scorpius causing his shoulders to shake a little at this point.
"Right if you'll take out your cauldrons and get into pairs, we'll be brewing exactly this boil cure today. There will be 20 points awarded to the house of the person with the best potion. At this point the class descended into light chatter as they paired off.
"Scorpius, you'll work with me right?" came Alice's voice from the table behind, she gave him a bright smile.
"Actually we'd already decided to work together." Jason replied with a smirk on his face. It was obvious why they both wanted Scorpius.
"What about you then Albus?" she turned to Albus and smiled.
"Sure." the words came to his lips before he had even thought about it. Dexter went to go work with Mary who had also been sitting on the table with Alice. Nicola wordlessly sat by Cassie Wood
"So, Albus, you any good with potions?" Alice asked.
"Never tried."
"Me either." she said and started giggling. "Anyway, I guess we should get started, I'm sure we can help each other out." she said with another smile.
For the next hour and a half there was light chatter in the class as people struggled on with their potions. Albus and Alice's potion was definitely not right, it was smoking black and smelled like charcoal. They weren't the only ones though. Dexter and Mary's solution was turning as solid as cement. However Rose Weasley and Ryan Thomas seemed to be getting along fine. As for Scorpius and Jason; Scorpius had his wand out and his cauldron was stirring itself whilst other ingredients were adding themselves to the cauldron. Whilst doing all this he was idly listening to Jason chattering.
"Right, if you'll stop there everyone, take a small vial of your potion and bring it to the front." called out Slughorn. Albus dipped his vial into the solution and pulled out his solution and went to hand it to Slughorn.
"Not bad," said Slughorn looking at his vial. He then took a look at Rose's vial.
"My dear girl, this is nearly perfect. 10 points to Gryffindor. Just like your mother you are." said Slughorn said brightly. Rose looked positively happy at this and walked off with a bounce. However Malfoy went up next to hand in his potion. He, oddly had a large smirk on his face. Slughorn took a good long look at his vial.
"Wow... this is amazing. I couldn't have brewed a better potion myself!" he looked up at Malfoy. "Judging by your blond hair and chin, you must be Scorpius Malfoy right?" Scorpius nodded. "Well, I'm most impressed, 20 points to Slytherin!" Malfoy smirk increased in size. Rose turned back to give him a look of pure indignation an loathing, to which he simply gave a small chuckle and gave the know-it-all a taunting look. She then packed her books and stormed off. Malfoy however strutted over to the table, looking thoroughly pleased with himself.
"You see that? The look on that arrogant Weasley's face when Scorp here brewed the better potion." Jason said animatedly.
"Scorpius is excellent!" Alice said sweetly. Scorpius blushed a little.
"She's going to have it in for you now, Scorpius. She hates not being first. And even worse, her dad told her to beat you at everything." Albus said. Scorpius frowned at that news.
"Well I think Scorpius will hold his own." came Jason's voice.
"Well she deserved to come second anyway. Did you see the way she was desperate to answer all those questions, total know-it-all." Dexter said.
"Hey that's my cousin," Albus replied heatedly. Though he knew even in his family people said the same thing.
"Well, it is kind of true you know? And we're your family too now." Jason replied. Albus had to agree on both points. After all his was going to spend the majority of the next seven years living with the people he was currently talking to. He had to admit, so far, Slytherin had been much better than he thought it would be.
"Anyway, what we got next?" asked Mary.
"Herbology, Hufflepuff, Longbottom." Scorpius piped in. Jason rolled his eyes causing everyone else to laugh, even Scorpius let out a small chuckle.
-x-y-z-
Herbology had been fairly uneventful until the end when Albus had awkwardly delivered the message his mom had left for him. The professor also expressed his regret that he didn't have him in Gryffindor with him. Next up was Defense Against The Dark Arts with Professor Ryan Ridgeway.
"Right come in and sit down." came his voice, it was quiet but projected an aura of command. He was a tall dark haired man with a thin build. "Books away please, we'll be doing simple wand work today." Everyone silently put there books on the floor.
"In this class, I will be teaching you how to arm yourself against things in the world that might seek to attack you. I believe in a practical approach so all theory will be left to homework. But here... here you will learn by manner of dueling." at the mention of dueling the whole class burst into quiet excited chatter. Ridgeway raised his wand and with a swish all the tables and chairs moved to the sides of the room creating space in the middle.
"Right, who hear knows the procedure for a duel?" Rose Weasley's hand went up instantly. "Your name?"
"Rose, Sir, Rose Weasley."
"Right Rose, go stand in the middle then. Anyone else?"
"Surely you know how, you've read books about it right." Jason whispered to Scorpius. Scorpius nodded. Jason then pushed Scorpius forward resulting in him being in front as a volunteer.
"Your name?" Ridgeway asked
"Scorpius Malfoy."
Whispers went up in the room from the Gryffindor side as people. Albus could clearly hear the words death eater and dark arts come up more than once. He saw a look of anger quickly flick through Scorpius' face and then it passed. He watched as Scorpius and Rose took their positions. Albus felt unsure as to who to root for. Rose was his best friend after all, she always had been, but who couldn't be seen cheering for a gryffindor now, not against a slytherin. He watched as the two of them walked back facing each other. Rose's face focused Malfoy looking calm.
"Bow and then disarm only."
The suspense was high in the class, so silent one could have heard a pin drop. The two of them bowed and then;
"EXPELLIARMUS!" shouted Rose as she flicked her wand. However Scorpius had jumped out the way before the curse could hit him.
"IMPEDIMENTA!" shouted Scorpius with a flick of his wand. The jinx hit Rose's legs causing her to fall to the ground. "Finite Incantatem." he said afterwards removing the jinx.
There were laughs abound from the Slytherin house. Even Nicola, who he hadn't seen speak was laughing at Rose. Rose stood up though looking thoroughly annoyed. Her face was red and contorted in raw anger. Albus sighed. This was not going to go well, he knew his cousin was just as hot heated and stubborn as her parents, maybe even more so.
"Stupefy!" she shouted. The curse hit Malfoy in the chest and he was thrown against the ground. There were cheers from the Gryffindor crowd.
"Take that death eater spawn." someone called out loudly. Albus watched as Scorpius' eyes narrowed into slits and his face contorted with anger for a second before it passed away.
"I said disarm only!" came Ridgeway's voice. "Ten points will be deducted from gryffindor."
"Sorry sir." Rose apologized.
"Again!" came Malfoy's voice, it was sharp and piercing.
"Go on then."
"Expllia-"
"Protegro!" shouted Malfoy. The shield errected stopping Weasley mid spell.
"Petrificus Totalus!" he called out quickly. This froze Rose in place completely. "Expelliarmus!" Malfoy said afterwards. Rose's wand flying out of her hand. This was greeted with cheers from Jason, Alice and Dexter. Albus held his tongue. He definitely felt that Rose had been out of order as far as stunning Scorpius went, even if she had been ridiculed by his house. But at the same time Rose was his best friend. It was an awkward position to be in and he didn't like it.
"Finite Incantatem." Ridgeback uttered, his wand pointed at Rose. "Great demonstration Scorpius, 10 points to Slytherin."
Rose, who was able to move again, meekly walked back to where the Gryffindors were standing. Scorpius walked back to Jason and Albus a wide smile on his face.
"Wow, you totally humiliated her." Jason said brightly. "Glad I pushed you forward."
"You're really in for it now." Albus sighed. "She's never going to forget this. She can hold a grudge for years."
"Don't care." Scorpius simply replied. He looked utterly un-phased. Albus looked over to the other side of the room and his eyes met with Rose. She gave him a questioning look and he shrugged. He couldn't side with her, she'd started it.
"So I hope you all learned something from that excellent demonstration.
Now, could you all please get into pairs. You are going to take it in turns to learn to disarm each other with the spell Expelliarmus. I'll be walking around helping you."
Albus saw this as as good a time as any to talk to Rose. So he walked over to the Gryffindor lot, amist some of the looks he was getting from the room.
"Partner up with me, Rose?" he asked.
"Sure." she replied warmly.
"So, why did you do it?" he asked. He was curious what had caused Rose to completely disregard the rules and stun Malfoy.
"He broke the rules, he didn't try and disarm. Anyway, he's an arrogant toerag, haven't you heard what my Dad and yours said about his father." she replied, as if it made perfect sense.
"You sure it's not just because he's better at potions than you?" Albus asked raising a knowing eyebrow.
"He probably just got lucky, you'll see I'll beat him in everything else like Dad told me to!" she whispered back. Albus shrugged. It was just like Rose to be goaded into finding someone to compete with, he was just glad it wasn't him this time around. She had a habit of taking these sorts of things to the level of obsession. "Anyway, lets get on with the lesson!" she stated with a bit more vigour. Albus rolled his eyes.
The two of them practiced disarming each other. Rose managed to remove his wand every time without fail, Albus however took 3 tries before he could get the spell to work properly for him. He knew that it was his father's favourite spell. Well not just him, everyone knew that that was the spell that had ended Voldemort. After a while he grew bored and decided to strike up a conversation with Rose again.
"So what are the people like in Gryffindor then?" Albus whispered when he went over to Rose to collect his wand.
"Oh they are really nice. Though they kept on asking questions about mum and dad. How are they anyway, probably all dreadful, the lot of them."
"Oi, I'm in Slytherin too." he replied heatedly.
"Yes, but you're not like them."
"Them?" he asked. "What do you know about them. You've not spoken to anyone in my house." he felt irritated. Everyone seemed to have this terrible view of Slytherin. Even he had been duped into thinking that it was bad, but since he had arrived nobody had treated him badly. Even worse, he saw the look that graced Scorpius' face every time someone mentioned the word death eater. It wasn't right.
"I've read about them, almost every dark wizard has come from Slytherin. Almost all the death eaters were in there too. It's not a coincidence!" Rose replied.
"So are you saying that I'm going to become a death eater?" he asked sarcastically.
"No..." Rose replied. Her face flickered with uncertainty as if she was unsure what to say next.
"Good. Now as my best friend. I would really appreciate it if you were nicer about my house." Albus asked with a smile.
"Okay, I'm sorry." she said with a smile. "Now can we get back to the lesson?" Albus rolled his eyes again. He wasn't at all surprised to find that she wanted to spend as much time as possible focusing on lessons. "Oh and don't forget, James, you and I are meant to go down to Hagrid's this evening for tea."
"I'll be there." Albus replied and then he remembered his brother. "Warn James that if he makes one statement about which house I'm in I'll hex him." he said as an afterthought. He was slightly dreading how James was going to treat him now. The two of them had always been close, but James had always gone on about how the Slytherins had done X, Y and Z, and what pranks he and Fred played on them. He didn't want to be painted with the same brush.
The rest of the lesson passed without much strife. Rose had insisted on spending more time working and disarming him than talking, despite the fact that she seemed to have mastered his Dad's spell perfectly well.
-x-y-z-a-b-c-
"Hey, they posted the quidditch tryout date." came an excited voice.
Albus turned to the entrance of his dorm to see Jason walking excitedly. Scorpius and him had been in the room quietly getting on with their homework assignments.
"When?" Scorpius and Albus asked at the same time causing Jason to laugh.
"Wow, you two are really eager. And it's on Saturday, so you two had better get some practice in." Jason replied.
"How about now?" Scorpius asked looking at Albus. Albus was surprised, he and Scorpius hadn't really talked much, yet here was Scorpius asking whether he wanted to practice quidditch together. He felt bad that he was going to have to let him down.
"Sorry, but I have to go to Hagrid's hut with Rose and James." Albus replies remorsefully.
"Oh." says Scorpius, his face fell a little before resuming its normal state.
"Tell you what, how about we wake up early tomorrow and practice." Albus suggests feeling guilty.
"Fine." Scorpius replied.
"Hey, I'm coming too, you need someone to keep right?" said Jason excitedly.
"I think we took that for granted." Albus replied his face breaking into a smile. Scorpius let out a long laugh that seemed so very unlike him, causing the other two to look at him.
"What, it was funny." he huffed indignantly. Albus had to admit it was.
"Right, I've got to go see Hagrid. I'll see you two later."
-x-y-z-a-b-c-
Albus stood around at one of the exits to the castle. He was calmly waiting when he heard a voice call out.
"Tarantallegra!" shouted the voice. Suddenly Albus lost complete control of his feet and they started moving around with no control of his legs. He knew it was his brother James. As if on cue, his older brother appeared, in a fit of laughter. Albus tried to focus on stopping his legs moving around but they wouldn't.
"Hey, stop this!" Albus cried out.
"Finite Incantatum!" came Rose's voice.
"Awww, Rose you're no fun! You're meant to be on my side!" James lamented.
"What do you mean by side?" Albus asked, though he was fairly sure he wasn't going to like the answer.
"Well, we are Gryffindors and you are a slimy Slytherin." James replied, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"Yes, I'm a Slytherin." Albus replied. He was swiftly growing tired of this, first Rose and now James.
"James, leave him alone, there's nothing wrong with Slytherin." Rose said pleadingly.
"Nothing wrong... nothing wrong with slytherin?" he replied bewildered. "Which house did Voldemort and his followers belong to? Even one of your roommates is the son of a death eater!"
Albus was rarely one to get very angry but at this point he felt anger surge through him. How could James even be considering comparing him to death eaters. Before he was even fully aware he launched himself at his brother.
"Protegro!" Rose cried out. A shield appeared between the two brothers knocking each other both onto the floor. "Will you two stop it! You're brothers!"
"Stop what? I didn't start it, he did!" Albus shouted.
"You were going to hit him!" Rose replied. She then whirled around to face James, her face fierce. "And you! Stop winding him up, I know you've been doing it all summer and it's horrid! If you bring up this Slytherin business again, I'll hex you!" She then removed the shield. "Now apoligise and hug like brothers." she demanded.
"What?" Albus and James asked at the same time.
"Do it!" She shouted. The two boys stood up and walked over to each other. "Now hug." They awkardly put their arms around each other.
"Mental she is." Al whispered.
"Just like her mother." James agreed.
"Right, now lets get to Hagrid's, we are late." Rose chimed in again.
"Alright miss bossy." James replied. Rose turned around and stared him down. "Okay, okay, going." James replied, holding his hands up as if surrendering.
Ending it there cause I don't actually see the point in continuing any further. This chapter was meant to be the introduction chapter for Albus, so the next chapter will be for Jason. Story may seem a bit slow at the moment but I promise you it will pick up. I just want to make sure that I set up all the relationships right and let you guys get a feel for the characters and their personalities. Anyway, as always read and review people. Even it its just three words, say something, it gives me inspiration to write more.