A/N: Woo, people actually read the first chapter. Here's the second.

As per someone's review I thought I'd clear a few things up. Koden Lighthand isn't meant to be liked, and his name is sort of frilly yes, haha. His anger towards Malfoy and that Slytherin crowd will be made clear next chapter. I wasn't really going to get into much of Koden just yet, but give it some time. Their first day hasn't even started.

I'm really sorry that Albus is such a bore. I figure him to be a more broody version of Harry, but not much of an overthinker. Their new son is named Sirius because honestly, I thought Sirius was too big of a character to Harry to be just a middle name. I mean... really?

*************More reviews pleeeaassse*************************

Bolts and Carriages

It was Koden Lighthand that stepped off the train of the Hogwarts Express first. He had never anticipated Hogwarts so much than at that moment. "Come on Albus, race you to the Thestrals!"

Albus was struggling through the crowd of students now pouring out of the train. "Oi! That's not fair! I can't see them!" shouted Albus stuck behind a nervous and frightened looking first year. Darting around her, he sprinted off and smacked something hard and heavy.

"'Ello Alby!" thundered a voice from above. Albus looked up, rubbing his now swelling head, and saw Hagrid, standing above him grinning. Shaggy black hair that was now strewn with some grey stuck out all around his head and on his face. He had a slightly worn out look and a few cuts and bruises around his face.

Mortified, Albus checked if anyone around them had heard Hagrid. When he was sure, he turned back to Hagrid, face entirely red. "I told you not to call me that," said Albus in a low tone.

"Nonsense! You love the name! 'Ave a good summer then?" said Hagrid, completely ignoring Albus' attempts to escape him.

Albus contemplated his answer. It had been, of course, a miserable summer. If he told Hagrid that, though, he would never be able to escape him. Making his decision he sprinted faster and called after him, "Yes it was great, Hagrid. Bye!"

Finally Albus caught up with Koden, who was on the first of the carriages to the school. "About time," teased Koden, now hopping in.

Scowling, Albus climbed in after him. Soon their friend and fellow Gryffindor Glyn McKinnon strolled in behind them. "Thanks for leaving me behind. Nearly toppled over a little girl on my way to get here. Looked a Hufflepuff if you ask me…"

Glyn was a tall boy with sandy colored hair cropped short on his head. Small brown freckles covered most of his face and he had a wide jaw. He played Chaser on the Gryffindor Quidditch team, and was quite a ladies charmer. In fact, he had had more than a handful of girlfriends in the past year alone. Albus had always looked up to Glyn, especially since it was Glyn who had suggested that Albus be a Chaser on the Quidditch team with him when Lily showed more talent in Seeker than he.

Panting, another figure entered the carriage. "Nobody told me we were meeting in this carriage!" The figure was of Patrick Archer. Clutching his chest and regaining his breathe, he took a seat next to Glyn, who looked completely put out.

Suddenly the carriage jerked to a start and Glyn nearly slid out of his seat and onto the floor. He quickly grabbed the window opening and stopped himself. "Don't give you any warning, do they? These Thestrals…" Glyn muttered, looking out past the window.

"No, but all the better. I want to get there as fast as I can," said Koden in his usual passionate way.

Albus was certainly not curious as to why Koden was so eager to get back to school. Koden did not like his home life in the least and it was with torture each year that he left Hogwarts and returned to his family. Since he never spoke of them or his background to anybody, Albus had a bit of difficulty understanding the situation, but he never pressed his friend.

The winding trail up to the castle seemed slower than usual, but Albus decided that he was just excited to possibly get to see Enry another time before the night was over. Glyn and Patrick talked the majority of the way up until they hit the iron wrought fences where the light from the castle flooded into their carriage and stopped the flow of conversation so that the four boys could glance up at the shining castle.

Seconds before the Thestrals stopped, Koden hopped out of the carriage and raced up the steps to the front door. Albus quickly followed, perhaps desperately thinking of a last minute glimpse from afar of Enry's carriage. But when he looked back over his shoulder at the carriages he realized he had no idea which one she would even be in, and abandoned his hopeless sighting with the warmth of the castle embracing him.

Nevertheless he walked the remainder of the steps and through the front door into the familiar Great Hall and joined his friend whose brown hair stood up nearly on every end. It was strange, to Albus, that Koden could ever look so crazily happy in his life.

"I'm back… we're back!" Koden corrected himself, throwing an arm around his friend and steering him into the Great Hall where the teachers all sat on a long table. They looked up at the sound of the students and knew it was a new year at Hogwarts.

Enry had steered her way through the crowd almost as if she were invisible. She squinted her eyes for the familiar carriages and was happy to spot one near the very end that wasn't quite full yet. Without even asking, she sat herself down and stared at the others in the carriage with her.

A dishevelled looking girl with brown hair and freckles wearing a gleaming prefect badge under her Ravenclaw's stared back. Enry thought she looked familiar and then remembered that it was Rose Weasley who attended her Herbology class. Beside her was a boy, with freckles and the same brown hair. He was much taller than her but his Gryffindor badge was only ticked with four lines.

Looking to her right she saw a Hufflepuff boy with black hair who grinned at her. "Well would you look at that! Not every day you see one of each of the houses in a carriage together. Berkley Strongweld's the name, I don't believe I've seen you around school. Quite interesting hair might I add. Did you do it yourself, or is it natural?"

Barely moving her lips she mumbled, "It's a family gene…" and turned her head away from them all. Even though she had turned away she could feel the eyes of each of them on her, until finally the carriage door was shoved open. In strode Scorpius, with a seventh year Slytherin flanked behind him.

"White, what in the bloody blazes are you doing in here?" exclaimed Scorpius, feigning surprise at seeing her.

"Trying and failing to escape you," replied Enry, unafraid to speak her mind in the presence of the other students, one of them being top of their grade and close to the new Head Boy.

A muscle in Scorpius' mouth twitched before he broke into a grin. "Don't mind if I sit here do you? No? That's a good lad," he said, shoving the Hufflepuff boy over and making room for himself to sit down. The carriage lurched to a start and Rose broke the silence by talking to the tall boy beside her. Carefully glancing the two of them over, Scorpius leaned in to Enry. "There's a meeting after the dinner, if you'll join us. In the dungeons behind the statue of Doyle the Deranged. It is very advisable that you attend."

"I don't take well to threats, Malfoy," Enry said coolly, not looking at him.

"I don't take very well to being made a fool of," Scorpius retorted.

Finally looking at him she whispered rapidly, "And just what do you think you will accomplish with this whole Renegade business? The Dark Ages are over, Scorpius, and you and I know it too well. With Potter as minister, there's no way you're going to even be able to rise to power. I have no interest in any such things, and I don't care what punishments I'll receive, it is better than being faced with the humiliation of attempting a rise to power and then failing." Having said it all in one breathe, Enry had to stop and regain all of her breathe.

"You're a silly girl, White. I never said anything about a rise to power. This is strictly an interest in the dark arts. The kind that has been banned so harshly now that it is nearly impossible to even think of the kinds of things you are accusing me of. Now, whether this will lead to anything like that or not, I could not tell you. I can tell you however, I am nothing like the Dark Lord. I don't have time to care about Mudbloods or Muggles. My dreams are different, and you'll soon find out what they are if you attend that meeting. I highly suggest it, especially as you are accusing me of completely different things."

Scorpius spoke much slower and clearer than Enry had and she felt embarrassed for having jumped to conclusions. She swallowed and looked at the others, who were still talking. "I'm not interested, Malfoy. And that's just the answer you'll have to live with. I have no interest to know what your dreams are."

The carriage rolled to a stop and Scorpius was the first to shove his way off the carriage. He was clearly angry, and was most certainly going to inform her parents of her blatant refusal to participate in anything he wanted her to. She half shrugged to herself as she got off the carriage. She was the last one to, and the carriage rolled away when she began walking the steps.

It was going to be a long year.

Not too long after Albus and Koden sat down at the Gryffindor table, the hall began to swell with students and noise.

Koden looked at his friend curiously. He seemed to be struggling to see something somewhere in the crowd. "Wondering where Rose is?" asked Koden, now also trying to make out familiar faces through the swelling crowd. Albus shook his head. Pondering on who or what Albus was looking for, Glyn and Patrick found their seats beside them on the table.

"Thanks a lot you twits," said Glyn irritably, shoving Albus with his elbow.

"Hey look! I see Rose and Hugo!" said Patrick excitedly, pointing somewhere near the centre of the crowd.

"That's great, Pat, but I don't have a clue where they are," Koden huffed miserably. His eyes were moving up and down the crowd, but he only managed to see brilliantly white hair and the Slytherin girl attached to it. "Looks like White has taken a fancy to Malfoy," laughed Koden, seeing her lean over and say something to him.

"Who?" asked Glyn, snapping in to the conversation.

"Oh, that nasty, strange Slytherin girl," answered Koden, pointing over to the Slytherin table where Malfoy was now talking energetically to the table.

"I don't find her that nasty," Glyn frowned, spotting her. His hand found it's way to his hair and he tousled it a bit, taking the habit from Albus. "Makes nice conversation in classes and such."

"Good looking to boot!" Patrick put in.

Albus merely shrugged, his back firmly to his friends.

Koden laughed. "Not the best looking Slytherin though. That Nabiki takes the cake."

"Yes but she's a right crazy bird," Patrick noted, spotting her easily.

Etheline Nabiki was a fifth year Slytherin with golden blonde hair and sharp green eyes. Her face was pale and looked very soft and smooth, free of blemishes. Incredibly pretty, there were rumours all around Hogwarts of her being part Veela.

The Great Hall filled until soon everyone had found their place at their tables and were talking excitedly to everybody around them.

Hugo had taken his seat across from Koden but was looking as grim as ever. "Can you believe I had to share a carriage with Malfoy the entire way up?" Hugo asked. Koden was quite interested.

"Did you hex him into the great slimy git that he is?" Koden asked conversationally. Glyn and Patrick laughed, however, Albus did not but merely stare at Hugo.

"Why was he in your carriage?"

"No idea," Hugo shrugged. "He was talking to some girl though. She looked right pissed if you ask me. Didn't seem interested in talking to him. She's that Slytherin with the white hair…" Hugo trailed off.

"Enry?" Albus asked, and almost instantly regretted it. It was almost taboo in Gryffindoor to speak of Slytherin's by their first name unless it was condescending.

A silence passed over the table but was immediately taken by Professor McGonagall.

"May I have your attention please," she said in her calm voice, though looking slightly frazzled. The Great Hall came to a hushed silence as she cleared her throat and looked around at them all. "First, may I say that I welcome you all back to Hogwarts! It's another year, and I trust we will all try to make the best of it. I lend my most important advice to our fifth and seventh year students. O.W.L's and N.E.W.T's are only a few months away…"

"More like several," snorted Glyn under his breathe.

"… So that means study hard! Time to put all your schooling to the test. Filch, our caretaker, reminds us that there are to be no more Blasting Pixies in the hallways, and those caught will be given a week's worth of detention."

"Oi Filch you great big git you won't catch me!" came a voice from one of the tables and the hall erupted in laughter.

"Mr. Wordsworth, you'll be the first. See me in my office after the meal," McGonagall said sternly, looking at the Ravenclaw table. "As I was saying, no more Blasting Pixies. As always a reminder to stay out of the Forbidden Forest if you value your life. Important announcements this year include two new staffing changes. Please join me in welcoming Professor Cecil Roach, our new Transfiguration teacher."

A tall, slightly hunchback man with frizzled black and gray hair stood up and bowed courteously to Professor McGonagall. He had slightly squinted eyes and a look of sheer madness had overcome him.

"I know him! He's an Auror!" informed Hugo. "Works with Dad at the ministry. Barking mad, Dad says."

"I don't know. The hunchback really sells him for me," Koden smiled as the applause came to an end.

"And our new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Kingsley Shacklebolt."

There was an instant uproar in the Great Hall. "No way!" and "THE BOLT!" were some of the few things that could be heard. At the table, a tall black man stood up gracefully and nodded to the hall.

"That's so awesome!" Albus said, now finally taking an interest in the things that were going on. "Dad told me there was going to be someone interesting for D.A.D.A, and it was Shacklebolt all along!"

"Professor Shacklebolt," Glyn corrected.

Koden was grinning ear to ear. "Will be far more interesting than that twit last year from Romania. We'll pass our O.W.L's with flying colors."

Minutes passed in the Great Hall as McGonagall tried to settle them all down. Finally once it was completely silent, she began speaking again. "We cannot also forget the other staff so let us welcome them in another year at Hogwarts."

This applause was almost pathetic compared to Shacklebolt's and lasted nearly ten seconds before McGonagall spoke again.

"I will not keep you waiting any longer. Let us eat," she said, waving her wand and instantly every plate, bowl and goblet on all of the tables were filled and the noise in the Great Hall shot up again.

"About time!" Patrick said shovelling everything near him onto his plate.

Koden was hit almost instantly with the hunger that he didn't know he even had. He grabbed lots of roast beef, potatoes and all sorts of hams and meats and began wolfing them down. Looking over at Albus he was glad to see that he had joined in and was smiling and talking and drinking his pumpkin juice.

Glyn, it seemed, was the only one who wasn't that enthusiastic about eating. "What's wrong, mate?" Koden asked through a full mouth.

"Just seems kind of, off," Glyn mumbled.

Albus looked up at Glyn, fork still in his mouth. "Wuff off?"

"We have two Auror's as teachers, now. I wonder how, and why that could've happened."

Koden swallowed his forkful and looked from his friends and then back down at his plate. Now that Glyn had brought it up, it did seem kind of strange.

Patrick was still chewing when he said, "Will make it harder to pull pranks, that's for bloody sure!"