Chapter 2 – Welcome to Hogwarts!

The train had stopped and all the students were pouring out of it. Albus still sat in his compartment dressed in his robes and waiting for the crowd to thin out a little. The entire train ride he was ignored by his brother, who ran off to talk to his friends. He and Rose had spent the entirety of the ride together, sharing their worries about which house they would be in. Victoire even stopped by to say hello to them and she even bought them some treats to eat for the ride. Albus still had a Chocolate Frog in his pocket that he decided to save for later. Rose, who had been in her robes the entire trip, came into the compartment with a curious look on her face.

"Any particular reason you're not in a hurry to get off?" Albus snapped out of his own thoughts and worries.

"Yeah let's go" He shot up and passed Rose to walk out of the train. Waiting for him outside, holding a lamp, was a familiar smiling bearded face.

"Ah, there yer are Albus. C'mon you two, all the other firs' years are headed to the boats" Hagrid spoke to them while ushering them along the narrow path to the boats. Albus could hear all of the excited students talking and gasping and pointing upwards to something he could not see yet.

"Wow, Albus look! Just like in the pictures" Rose said as the castle that was Hogwarts came into their view. Albus almost forgot about his worries as he stared across the lake at the school.

"All right everyone on the boats! No more'n four to a boat" Hagrid shouted so as to be heard over the rambling students. Albus and Rose stepped into the same boat and were joined by their cousin, Molly Weasley. (Molly is the daughter of Percy and Audrey Weasley) She was never as close to her cousins, like Rose and Albus are, due to the fact that she is a lot like her father; even now she had a serious look on her face and her ginger hair was pulled back into a ponytail. Albus and Rose greeted her with smiles and tried talking to her about what house she wanted to be in. Molly simply said she was going to be in Gryffindor and was surprisingly much calmer than her cousins. Albus tried to calm himself by remembering what his dad had told him, while looking up at the castle.

The boats took off with a shout from Hagrid. The three cousins had a boat to themselves while the rest had filled up. The students were quieter now; they were too busy staring up at the school. Albus' attention broke away from the castle when he heard noise behind him, from the train station.

"Is that another train?" Albus asked looking back at the station.

"Probably just the train we came in on leaving" Molly explained without ever looking away from the castle.

They passed under a dark tunnel and ended up on a pebble beach. They exited the boats and Hagrid ushered them all towards Hogwarts. Up a flight of what Albus thought to be ancient stone steps, the students all stood in front of the huge oak front door. After checking to make sure everyone was here, Hagrid knocked three times on the door. Immediately the door opened revealing a round faced man wearing a plain red robe. Albus recognised Neville right away.

"Hi there Neville" Hagrid said and patted him on the back, unbalancing him.

"Hi Hagrid," Neville patted Hagrid's arm as Hagrid passed him to get to his spot at the head table in the Great Hall. Neville turned to the new students with a smile and asked them to follow him. He led them past the Great Hall, where the new students could hear plenty of chatter, and into a small chamber. Albus and Rose were sent into the far corner, and could barley see Neville over the heads of the other students.

"Well everyone," Neville said with a beaming smile, "Welcome to Hogwarts. For those who don't know," he glanced towards Ablus, but tried not to bring any attention to him. Albus was thankful Neville didn't point him out, thinking that the other kids might look down on him for knowing a teacher so well. "my name is Professor Longbottom. I'm going to ask you all to wait here while we prepare for the Sorting Ceremony. The Sorting is an important ceremony that will decide what house you will be in while you stay here. Think of your housemates as a second family, since you'll be eating, sleeping and going to classes together. The four houses are Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin. Throughout the year houses will be awarded points for good behaviour, and lose points for bad. When the year comes to an end the house with the most points wins the house cup. So everyone should strive for each of their houses"

Neville went off into the Great Hall, and the first years began chatting amongst themselves. Albus heard a few people wonder what the Sorting was. He was surprised to hear that not everyone knew about the Sorting Hat and wondered if they were more nervous then he was.

Neville came back rather quickly and gathered the students up in single file. Guiding them to the front door of the Great Hall, he stood and waited as the line went through the doors. Neville patted Albus on the back as he passed. When everyone else was in Neville made his was to the front and placed a stool down with a pointy wizard's hat on it. Albus saw James seated at the Gryffindor table to the far left, but he wasn't paying any mind to his younger brother. Hagrid on the other hand was watching Albus closely, and he waved when Albus looked up at him. One seat was empty at the head table, which Albus assumed Neville would fill after the ceremony. Albus didn't recognise most of the people sitting at that table other than Headmistress McGonagall. He had seen her picture many times before and his father often spoke of her as a wonderful teacher. Harry also told Albus that she looked the same as she did almost twenty six years ago, except now with more gray hairs.

The hat had been singing out of its wide ripped mouth, while Albus had been looking around the room. Albus somehow noticed the ceiling last. Rose, who was behind him, poked him.

"Isn't it wicked?" she said referring, to the ceiling, "My mum said it's bewitched to look just like the sky outside"

Albus stopped starring at the ceiling when the room started to applaud. The hat had finished singing and now Neville was instructing the first years to come up once their name had been called. Albus was in the middle of the line, but Neville wasn't calling people out by their place in line. Eventually Neville called out a name Albus recognised.

"Malfoy, Scorpius! " Scorpius sat on the stool and the hat was placed on his blonde head. The hat didn't take long to decide which house to put him in. "SLYTHERIN!" it shouted and Scorpius walked over to a cheering table with a smile on his face. More names were called that Albus did not recognise and every time a table cheered. It seemed to Albus that no matter what house you were accepted into people cheered. It made the boy calmer and the words his father spoke to him echoed in his head.

"Potter, Albus!" Albus almost missed hearing his own name; he was so caught up in his thoughts. He made his way to the stool and sat. He saw his brother look up at him before the hat covered his eyes. Albus thought it was quieter inside the hat. In fact Albus didn't hear anything. His hands clenched his knees. "Not Slytherin, not Slytherin, not Slytherin…"

"Not Slytherin, eh?" said a small voice "Where have I heard that before…? Well no matter – GRYFFINDOR!"

Albus nearly jumped off of the stool when he heard the hat shout. He placed the hat back on the stool, and with a beaming smile made his way to sit at Gryffindor's table. He found an available spot in the middle after Victoire, who's a Prefect of Gryffindor, congratulated him.

Afterwards, Trevor Sinclair and Nelson Vanderbuit got into Hufflepuff, Katherine and Elena Tripe got into Slytherin, Elizabeth Valkerie got into Ravenclaw and of course Rose and Molly Weasley got into Gryffindor along with Oswald Umbertin. Neville closed his scroll, and was about to remove the stool and hat from the room when Headmistress McGonagall stood and raised a hand, telling him to stop. She addressed the students.

"Welcome everyone," she said with a small smile, "to, what I hope will be, another wonderful year at Hogwarts. Before we begin the banquet, I would like to inform you all of something."

Alex's gray cloak hood made him seem ominous as he stood just outside the Great Hall, not facing the doors. Instead he looked around at the huge hallway, and up at the tall ceiling. Harry, Ron and Kevin stood with him waiting for Charlie. Charlie had gone inside the Great Hall to see where the Sorting ceremony was at. Alex saw him approaching from his left, coming back from the back door of the Great Hall. He approached the group of men waiting for him.

"She's introducing him now"

"Introducing him? Is she mad?" Ron said.

"As if this kid won't get enough attention already" Kevin said glancing over at Alex, who pretended not to hear their conversation.

"This student is not accustom to the way we do things here. It is my hope that the house he ends up in will be able to assist him with that. He has been a victim of a horrible tragedy and it is visible upon looking at him. I expect everyone to treat him as they would any other new student here." McGonagall looked across the room with a very stern expression. The volume level rose slightly as students began to chatter about this particular student.

"What could possibly be wrong with him, that the Headmistress would have us all notified of his existence?" Albus overheard another Gryffindor student say.

The doors to the Great Hall opened and in walked two men with ginger hair, a younger man with long black hair, a boy wearing a gray cloak and Harry Potter.

"Blimey, it's our dads!" Rose said in a hushed tone.

"And is that Uncle Charlie?" Albus asked. He had only met Charlie once when he was younger; but he recognised him now from photo's he had seen. Seeing as Albus knew three of the people that walked in and that the man with long black hair was too tall to be a first year student; Albus assumed the boy in the cloak was the student the Headmistress was talking about. Harry and Ron tried to maintain a serious expression, but couldn't help but glance over at their children. A lot of the students recognised Harry; some were in awe and some were just curious as to why a famous Auror was at Hogwarts. The group of five stopped before the stool with the old pointed wizard's hat on it. McGonagall looked down at the boy with the cloak, from where she stood to address the Great Hall.

"Please remove your cloak, child" McGonagall told him sounding both stern and kind. The boy in the cloak looked up at Charlie, who patted his shoulder. With some hesitation, the boy untied the cloak first and removed it all at once, leaving him in his black robes.

There was an instant gasp from the people that first saw, and the more people that saw, the louder it got in the room. Albus found it difficult to see him fully but he could definitely make out – red skin? – and shaggy brown hair.

"Blimey are those scales?" Albus heard another student say, but he couldn't tell which table it came from. McGonagall raised her voice "Silence!" and everyone stopped talking, "We will have quiet for the last student to be sorted" McGonagall looked at the boy, "Turin, Alex" She waved her hand, gesturing for him to sit on the stool. With a little shove from Charlie, Alex walked up to the stool, and sat down before resting the hat on his head. The room was dead silent, and the Sorting Hat did not speak for what seemed like ages. Until finally…

"GRYFFINDOR!"

The room remained silent. Some people from the Slytherin table could be heard and seen holding back laughter. Most people looked toward the Gryffindor table, who were all looking at each other. Harry, Ron and Charlie were all looking at them too. Harry looked directly at his two sons – James mouth was agape –and Albus was frantically looking around at his table. No one clapped – no one cheered? It almost infuriated him. They clapped for everyone else – why not for Alex Turin? Alex, who had stood and placed the hat on the chair, was staring at the room unsure of what to do. All Albus could think about was how good it felt to be accepted by a cheering table and so he stood and clapped as loud as he could. Everyone looked at him and he kept clapping – eventually turning a little red from all the attention. James was the next to stand and clap and cheer; followed by Victoire and then Rose and then the rest of the Gryffindor table. Alex looked over at Charlie unsure of what to do. Charlie with a small smile gestured from him to walk over to the table. Alex walked as everyone continued to cheer; he took the open spot that Albus made next to himself. Rose and Albus were on either side of Alex when they sat down. Harry was looking over at Albus with a big grin on his face. McGonagall had announced the banquet to begin and the Great Hall was alive with chatter once more. The Gryffindor table went on as if there wasn't a boy with scales at their table. Alex looked around at all of them now, pleasantly eating, then down at his own plate – which was now full.

"Pretty cool, huh?" Albus said then continued to take a bite of a lamb chop from his plate. Alex simply nodded and was drooling slightly as he stared at the food. Rose, who was sitting next to him, glanced over as she ate; looking at all the fine red scales that outlined Alex's face. When Alex finally started eating, he ate quickly and devoured everything on his plate. People looked at him, more shocked by the sudden lack of food than his scales. Alex grinned shyly then let out a loud burp, making everyone laugh.

"You're mad woman" Harry said to Minerva McGonagall. Ron, Kevin, Charlie and himself were each given a spot at the staff table. Harry sat next the Headmistress.

"Let's not talk about this now Potter. We'll discuss it later in my office" Minerva said putting a piece of roasted chicken into her mouth, "Besides he's doing just fine thanks to your boy"

Harry looked over in time to see Alex burp and everyone laugh. Harry grinned – feeling a great amount of pride for Albus and the great kindness he had just shown.

A/N: Edited and cleaned 26/10/2011. Details on my profile.