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Chapter 4: Staircase Riddles

Albus was beside himself with joy, happiness, excitement, and every good feeling there is! He took the hat off, set it down on the chair, and ran off to the Gryffindor table where he was greeted by his cousins and brother who cheered him up by saying, "Well, I guess I was wrong Al, you did get in Gryffindor. But I did hear that sometimes the Sorting Hat goes bonkers and puts some kids in houses they would never belong to. So just make sure that for your whole time at Hogwarts, you should make sure the Sorting Hat never gets near you so it can't tell you that it made a mistake and you belong in Slytherin!"

"You can't trick me Jamesie!" retorted Albus. He knew his brother hated it when he was called that. It was a girl name! He always preferred his real name, James.

That joy was short-lived though, for it was overtaken by surprise along with many other soon to be shocked people heard:

"Riddle, Merope," Neville said. After about almost a second later, his eyes bulged out from his head! "A-Albus," he said to Dumbledore's portrait. (Albus was named after him). Even Dumbledore looked surprised. That was because 'Riddle' was the last name of Voldemort's dad's side, thus his own last name! 'Merope' was the first name of Voldemort's mother! Thus the name of a descendant of Salazar Slytherin!

In all of the tension, nobody noticed a scared-looking, timid girl with dark brown hair make her way up to the front. She put the Sorting Hat onto herself and immediately, it yelled, "GRYFFINDOR!"

Neville looked shocked, yet relieved. Dumbledore just smiled. They must've decided to talk about it later, because things went on.

"Slemon, Vall."

"RAVENCLAW!" yelled the Sorting Hat as Vall proudly walked over to them, smiling to himself.

"Weasley, Rose," said Neville smiling at her. Rose ran up to the three-legged stool and did the procedure. "GRYFFINDOR!" She ran down and sat beside Albus who beamed at her.

"Xover, Yale."

"SLYTHERIN!"

Zolke, Mills."

"SLYTHERIN!"

"Well everyone. That now concludes the Sorting Ceremony. I would now like to say a few words. Dumbo, Penguin, Leftover, Change! Now tuck in!" said Dumbledore.

"FOOD!" yelled Vall who was quite fat.

Everybody quickly picked up their utensils and 'tucked in'!

Albus turned to Rose. "Merope Riddle? What do you think Rose? I was terrified until she didn't get into Slytherin!"

"I really don't know what to think either!" replied Scorpius.

Rose was too busy eating to pay attention. Just like her dad. Not that either of them were fat.

"Well we could talk to Dad. He's going to be here because of the whole, you know, the whole Dark Mark thing," said Albus.

"Yeah, we could. Albus, what do you think all your cousins and their parents will think if me?" Scorpius asked worriedly.

"Oh. Did you ask that because of Fred?" Albus asked seriously with his eyebrows raised. Scorpius just nodded.

Albus started off, "Welllll, all my uncles and Dad will most likely assume that you're a pure blood supremacist without knowing any facts. Once we tell them, you'll be fine. Well, maybe Uncle Ron will still be a bit, well, you get what I mean. Now Mum and Aunt Hermione will need to know the facts. Aunt Angelina will need to know more. Aunt Audrey really doesn't know. Aunt Fleur does have quite the temper though. She was in the Order. Um, well let's just say that we need to explain all the facts to them."

Scorpius looked stunned. "How many aunts and uncles do you have?"

"I have four first aunts and five first uncles. I obviously have more indirect ones because I'm a Potter and a Weasley which makes me a Prewett and my great-grandmother was a Black, and well, I'm mixed with mostly pure blood relatives. So my point is that I have more aunts and uncles just not too direct ones because, well, since all pure blood families are somehow inter-related," smiled Albus. He himself was surprised that he actually said all of that in one breath.

"What are we talking about here?" asked Rose after gobbling up everything she had. Albus then explained to Rose about how different conversations lead to others.

"Wait, I thought you had two twin uncles?" Scorpius asked, confused.

"Oh, Fred, he was Uncle George's brother. Ever heard of Weasley's Wizard Wheezes? Fred and George used to run that. Fred died in the Battle of Hogwarts. Stinkin' Augustus Rookwood got him with a Blasting Curse. I'm glad he got the Dementor's Kiss. Stupid Death Eaters!" explained Albus. He muttered the last part.

"W-Well, the bad ones only, right? S-Some of them really didn't want to though," stuttered Scorpius.

"Well, the ones that were eager to join then wanted to back out since they had no idea what they were in for. Or the ones that were forced to join," said Albus. "Like your father or Regulus Black. Dad told me Regulus Black was a Death Eater, but then backed out and tried to do something which would make it easier for Voldemort to be destroyed," Albus said enthusiastically for knowing so much.

"Yeah! Mum, Dad, and Uncle Harry told us a lot about what they found out when they were on the run during the New Regime!" piped up Rose.

Albus said slowly, "Speaking of the 'Golden Trio'…" The three turned around to see Harry, Ron, and Hermione, along with Dean and another Auror, Fay Dunbar. The Great Hall watched Neville run down and meet them.

They walked up to the front and said hello to Dumbledore. Then he spoke, "I believe it is time for dessert!" The feast food which consisted of fries, potatoes, roast chicken, stuffing, baked turkey, salads, and many more wonderful dying for foods disappeared and instead, pudding, ice cream, cookies, and many different Honeydukes (a sweet shop in Hogsmeade village near the school) sweets. People immediately 'tucked in' again.

When they were done, Neville got their attention by using the Sonorus charm again. "Okay everyone, calm down now. The headmaster has something to say."

"As most of you know, Auror Harry Potter often comes to Hogwarts to give Defense Against the Dark Arts speeches. To those first years, well now you know! Now though, you all know this other Auror, Ronald Weasley. Also, Hermione Weasley will be here with us for the time being. So you will welcome them and treat them with the same respect as you do your teacher, or you should do at least," said Dumbledore with an unnoticeable twinkle in his eye. (His portrait wasn't too big). He went on merrily, "You will do the same with Aurors Dean Thomas and Fay Dunbar. Thank you! Off to bed now, pip pip!"

Immediately, there was a scramble as the prefects' voices could be heard saying, "First years follow me!" along with each one's respective house.

Albus, Rose, Fred, Dominique, James, Victoire, and Scorpius (Who was timidly following Rose and Albus who dragged him along to get it over with.) scurried up to the front to say hello to, well, their parents, dad, and aunt and uncles, that kind of thing basically.

"Dad! Uncle Ron! Aunt Hermione! This is Scorpius!" exclaimed Albus. He would take it slow.

Ron narrowed his eyes, faltered his smile, and tilted his head slightly, then said, "Scorpius Malfoy?"

"Yes, he's my friend. Rose's too. Don't worry; I know what you're thinking. He doesn't care about blood status or anything like that," explained Albus.

Harry nodded, not quite convinced, and Ron looked very well not convinced! Hermione however, smiled at them and said, "Okay well, you kids should go to bed now. We'll be in a tent right outside the Gryffindor common room."

"Okay bye!" Rose said.

"Well I have to go to the Owlery to send a letter to my mum and dad to tell them what house I got in," said Scorpius.

"We'll go with you!" Rose exclaimed. So the three of them got down and ran up to the Owlery on the seventh floor. All of them, growing up in Wizarding families, knew how the staircases move, walls pretend to be doors and verse visa, and worst of them all, Peeves! So they watched their steps as they went and looked closely at suspicious looking walls and doors.

When they finally reached, they opened the door and went up some steps until a room filled with all different types of owls came to their sight.

Albus recognized his own Snowy Owl, Hedwig. It was named after his father's Snowy Owl who died in the Battle of the Seven Potters. She had been a very loyal and intelligent owl. Albus' owl seemed to have those exact same traits. He often wondered if Hedwig the First came back as Hedwig the Second.

"Oh look! There's some paper and pencil. There's my owl, Sophie!" piped up Scorpius.

He took the paper and pencil to write his letter. After about 2 minutes, Scorpius put down the pencil and tied the paper to Sophie. "Take it to Mum and Dad okay? Malfoy Manor." Sophie nipped her beak to Scorpius in response, and then flew out the window.

"Well, let's get to the common room now," said Albus yawning. The three went outside the Owlery only to find that they had absolutely no idea how to get to the common room. They knew how to get to the Owlery, well, because, everyone knows the Owlery is on the highest floor! Every magical person does at least.

"Well let's just go the way we came and ask somebody in the Great Hall," Rose suggested.

"Just one teensy weensy problem," said Albus, "The staircases!"

Scorpius suddenly looked alert as if he had gotten an idea. "Er, let's just go on one of them and eventually we'll find somebody who can help us!"

So they took the staircase which they thought was the one they came from and went down the stairs.

As they were, they saw someone going down a few staircases below them. They walked faster to get a closer look and could see clearly that it was none other than Merope Riddle!

AN:

Hey everybody! This is my first author's note! I just wanted to let you guys know that I can sometimes get a little busy with school and stuff... I'm in high school... I also want to let you know that I have all the chapters done of this; the story is complete, but I have to edit and revise it as I go because I wrote this when I was younger, so it needs revision. I don't want to make it sound amateur. That's why... so yeah, it think that's it... BYEEEEEE Please review.