It's been a while, I know. But I'm taking my GCSEs at the moment and my free time has pretty much been revision, revision, coursework, revision these past months so I won't apologise for my absence, if you don't mind. My grades mean more to me than fanfiction, to be perfectly honest. We have a bit of a break now, before the next lot of exams, so I'm trying to update while I have the choice. I hope you enjoy. I spent almost a month trying to complete this chapter alone, so it may be a while before the next one.
Reviews make me happy.
x Aly x

Chapter Three: The First Letter, The First Lie.

Harry had just been drifting off to sleep when Caius had arrived outside of his window; he'd tried to ignore him for the longest time but the bird would just not let him be and kept tapping and scratching at the window. Eventually he'd had to get up and let him in, frowning when the bird gave him what appeared to be a reproachful look. He'd never liked the owl - the thing always seemed to be glaring at him. He took the letter from his leg and, with a slight nip to his hand, the blasted bird took off out the window, swiping Harry with his wing on his way out.

He read over the letter, the frown remaining on his face. Slytherin; his son had been sorted into Slytherin. Of course he had nothing against Slytherins – not anymore, anyway – but it was still a shock. His son. In Slytherin. It wasn't so much that he was disappointed; no, he was proud of his son. Extremely proud, in fact. Albus had accepted that Slytherin was obviously where he was meant to be and was already making friends.

No, Harry was not disappointed. Rather, he was concerned. He'd never have expected his son to be sorted into Slytherin. Al wasn't like that; he had none of the characteristics of a typical Slytherin. Of course, few Slytherins could say they had the characteristics of a 'typical' Slytherin, simply because the house had changed so much since the war; was still changing. Still, he knew Albus would find it difficult to fit in in the house; he was just so different from the others.

Not only that but, if Harry was correct and Voldemort was in deed returning, Slytherin was where Al would be most vulnerable, surrounded by the children and grand-children of Death Eaters, most of whom would probably end up serving the Dark Lord when he did resurface.

But he knew he couldn't explain any of this to Albus. No, the boys – and the rest of the Wizarding world – had to stay oblivious to Voldemort's impending return until they were absolutely sure. Though, Harry didn't see how much more sure they could be. Voldemort was returning. He'd seen it with his own eyes. Or, rather, Voldemort's eyes. However, Kingsley had convinced himself and half of the order that it was possible that Harry could have been under the influence of Leglimens(?) at the time of – what they referred to as – the vision. And so they had resolved to keep the public in the dark about their discovery, at least until they had more information.

His reply, therefore, was severely lacking in information and, to be honest, truth. He hated lying to his son – hated lying to anyone – but it was necessary and so, when Albus received his father's letter, he was extremely disappointed.

xXx

'Dear Albus,

I can't say I'm thrilled that you've been sorted into Slytherin and we both know your mother won't be at all happy, but I hope you know that I am very proud of you, regardless of your house. I hope Scorpius will turn out to be a good friend – better than his father was, at least – and I'm sure Louis will tire of Caden eventually. As for Scorpius visiting over the summer – I have no problem with it so it's entirely up to the Malfoys. And your mother, of course.

I'm glad that your dorm-mates are okay, though. I'll admit, I am a little worried about you being surrounded by the children of Death Eaters but that is probably just my Gryffindor prejudice shining through.

Everything is fine here. Teddy will be leaving soon for Romania in a couple of days so he's been hanging around a lot. We've been staying at Grimauld Place for the past few days; Kreacher isn't looking so good so Lily demanded we stay with him. You know how she dotes on him; why exactly, I will never know.

She misses you but I have to admit, she's been so busy with Kreacher that she hasn't had much time to get very upset. That's probably a good thing. The others all say hi. I haven't told them about your sorting yet – I'm going to tell them soon, though. I'll write again when I do.

Be good, Al, listen to your Professors and don't get into too much trouble. Don't let your brother bully you and, finally, have fun.

Love always,

Dad.'

"Stay out of trouble?" Louis repeated when Albus had finished, "He does know you, right?"

Albus rolled his eyes, folding the parchment letter and putting it back in the envelope. He ignored Scorpius snickering beside him and reached for another slice of toast.

"Merlin, Al, do you ever stop eating?" Louis teased, prompting Al to scowl at him.

"Why don't you go back to Caden and leave me in peace! It's not my fault I'm hungry."

Louis, surprisingly, looked horrified at the idea of being sent back to the other boy, "Merlin, no! He's a Magpie, Albus! A Magpie!"

On Albus's other side, Scorpius frowned, "He's a what?"

"A Magpie." Albus repeated, shaking his head, "He supports the Montrose Magpies; Louis hates them. They're Puddlemere's main rivals."

Scorpius glanced across Albus at Louis, looking surprised, "You're a Puddlemere fan?" He asked, grinning when Louis nodded, "Father's going to love you." He said, chuckling, "He's a huge Puddlemere fan; Marcus Flint used to play for them and he gave father a lot of the memorabilia he was given when he left."

Albus noted with amusement that Louis' eyes had gone wide while his friend was speaking and now his cousin was leaning forwards, talking quietly with Scorpius. It was nice that they were getting along but, feeling a bit of a third wheel, Al slipped out of his seat and, after a brief glance around the room, he made his way over to the Gryffindor table, where his brother and cousins were all crowded around a parcel.

"What's going on?" He asked, startling James and making him drop the package, which let out a suspicious hiss.

His brother turned to glare at him, "None of your business, snake." He growled.

Victoire, the oldest of their many cousins and the current head girl, frowned at him and slapped him on the arm, "James Potter!" She exclaimed in her thick French accent (picked up from her mother, of course), drawing the attention of several other Gryffindors near them, "'E is still your little brother, no matter what 'ouse 'e is in! Your father told you to look after 'im!" She put a reassuring arm around Al's shoulder's, "We don't care about your 'ouse, Ally, do we?" She said, glaring threateningly at her sister and cousins.

Domi grinned at Albus, "To be honest Al, we kind of expected it, with the amount of time you spend with Louis. That boy was always going to be a Slytherin; we're just sorry he dragged you down with him."

Though he knew she was kidding, Albus couldn't help but scowl at her. That was a mistake, as Lucy immediately began giggling.

"Oh and look, he's already perfected the Slytherin Scowl!"

Molly rolled her eyes but Al saw her lip twitch as she tried to hide her smile.

"Shut up." He laughed, taking a seat beside Victoire, who was refusing to release her hold on him. James still frowned at him but he handed the package over, explaining that it was from Uncle George and supposedly contained enough pranks for the whole school year.

"Who wants to open it?" Asked Roxanne, glancing around at the others. When no one volunteered, she sighed and took the box herself, "You're all chicken." She muttered, already unwrapping it.

Albus leaned back as she opened it, as did a few of the others. You could never trust George completely, it wasn't that he always intended for these things to happen but the man was terrible at packing and things tended to blow up … literally.

Roxanne rolled her eyes, emptying the contents onto the table. Her eyes went wide, taking in the large amount of products spread out before her. Like her father, she had a talent for trouble. Her twin brother, Fred, was the quieter of the two but Roxie always managed to rope him into her schemes. If there was trouble at Hogwarts it could be assumed that the twins were behind it.

Al had to admit, George had been good to them this year: 3 Punching Telescopes, 2 Portable Swamps, 5 Trick Wands, Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder, 3 Skiving Snackboxes, a huge box of Canary Creams, an Anti-Gravity Hat, a Snake in a Tin, a Demon Box, a large bunch of Never-Miss-It Mistletoe and a pair of Sleepy Spectacles.

Smirking, Victoire stood, "I'm going to pretend I know nothing of thees." She informed them, "In return, I want you to be careful thees year. No opening the Demon Boxes in front of Peeves, eet took us hours to calm 'im down last time. And no 'anging the mistletoe in doorways, eet causes pile-ups and disrupts classes."

Roxanne did her best to look innocent but Vic simply snorted and sauntered off.

"We're going to have so much fun this year." Roxy cried when the head girl was completely out of sight, "Especially now we have an extra pair of hands." She smiled pointedly at Albus, who – wide eyed – tried to protest, only to be ignored as Roxanne went on to explain some of her plans.

James grinned, slapping his brother on the back, "Don't worry Alby, I'll look out for you."

"What do you want?" Al asked suspiciously, knowing better than to believe his brother was just being nice.

James's grin widened, "You know me so well." He paused briefly, "I need to borrow the cloak."

Albus frowned at him for a moment. When James had first started at Hogwarts their father had given him both the Marauder's Map and the invisibility cloak – mistakenly, some might add, as it was these that aided him in his trouble-making – but James had kindly given Al the cloak for his 11th birthday.

"What happened to you not needing it? You said you could make do with only the map. I haven't even used it yet!"

James rolled his eyes, "I'll give it back to you tomorrow, I promise."

Al eyed his brother suspiciously, "What do you need it for?"

"Nothing really." When Albus gave him an unimpressed look, James backtracked, "I'm taking Anna Koski to Hogsmeade after school."

Anna Koski was a Hufflepuff in the year below James. She was very beautiful and highly sought after by the boys of Hogwarts but she had a very protective family. Albus only knew this because James had recounted an event the year before when the oldest Koski boy had put a second year Slytherin in the hospital wing for daring to curse his little sister.

"Hogsmeade trips start next week; you can't wait until then? Besides, why would you want to take her to Hogsmeade?"

"I can't just sit around waiting for Teddy to get his act together and stop being so oblivious." His voice had dropped so the others couldn't hear him but he spoke forcefully, looking both upset and frustrated, "Anyway, he's dating Vic now and it's obvious he doesn't feel that way for me."

"You're giving up." Al said simply.

James scowled at him, "Potters never give up. I'm simply moving on. Anna's been after me since the middle of last year, I'm giving her a chance."

Al hesitated for a moment, "Don't hurt her, James," He warned, opening his backpack to get the cloak, "She's a nice girl with … very scary brothers."

James simply rolled his eyes, taking the cloak and ushering his brother to the door, where Scorpius, Louis and Rose were waiting for him, "I can look after myself!" He called after him.

xXx

The pranks started at lunch that same day. Albus was eating his lunch alone as Rose was helping out in the library and Scorpius and Louis, who had been working together in potion, had both gotten clean-up detention when their potion exploded in their professor's face, the cauldron melting into the table. He was reading the latest edition of Seeker! magazine when the first squawk sounded. He looked up, startled, only to find himself sitting opposite a large canary. Behind him, the whole Gryffindor table burst out laughing.

Sighing, Albus allowed a small smile to grace his lips, just as another two Slytherins let out squawks and transformed into great canaries.

Albus frowned. They should have turned back by now. At least the first one should have been moulting his or her feathers. He glanced back at the Gryffindor table but they didn't seem fazed by the delay. Had Uncle George changed the formula? He glanced up at the head table; Professor Periwinkle looked on with fascination as yet another student transformed into a yellow-feathered monstrosity. The other teachers remained unfazed, by now more than used to Weasley pranks.

Shrugging, Albus turned back to his lunch. Taking a bite of his sandwich, Albus suddenly found himself with a mouthful of feather and an inability to hold his sandwich. He opened his mouth to spit out the soggy feathers but all that came out was a cough and a squawk. Behind him there was a thump as James fell off of his bench.

xXx

"Albus is in the hospital wing." Ginny announced, entering the kitchen with a folded piece of parchment held up between too fingers.

"What?" Harry panicked, momentarily forgetting his headache, "What happened? Is he okay."

Ginny nodded, handing him the parchment, "It was just a prank. Apparently he's stuck as a canary for the time being. Something about the ingredients of canary creams reacting when baked into bread. They put it in the sandwiches."

Harry sighed, rubbing his temples, "James, I suppose."

"You'd think he'd look out for his brother, him being the oldest, but it seems to be him that does Al the most damage."

From the corner of the room, Draco snorted, "And that is why Malfoys only ever have one boy."

Ginny scowled, "Are you still here?"

Draco had been in and out of Grimauld Place since the incident at the station and was spending the majority of the day running after Harry. Ginny wouldn't mind – in fact it gave her a bit of a rest – but Harry seemed to be confiding more in his childhood rival – someone who had worked for the man who had tried to kill him – than in his own wife.

"Don't you have a job or something?"

Harry groaned, resting his head on the cool wood of the table. He did wish they wouldn't fight, it only made his head worse.

"I've been given the week off, Weaslette, we've been over this. Look, we both want the same thing, right? To help Harry? Well-"

"I don't understand." Ginny said suddenly, cutting Draco off as he prepared to launch into his 'Harry comes first' speech.

"Well that's not unusual." Draco muttered at the same time as Harry asked, "What don't you understand?" his voice muffled by the wood.

Ignoring Draco's comment, Ginny turned to her husband, "When did you two suddenly start being civil to each other. The last I remember, you were glaring at each other from opposite sides of the Great Hall during clean-up!"

Draco frowned, glancing between the two Potters, "You never told her." He concluded after a moment, "I can't believe you didn't tell her!"

Harry's head snapped up and he scowled a Draco, "Oh and I suppose Astoria knows." He snapped.

Ginny, completely lost in the conversation, dropped down into a chair to watch the two argue.

"She does, actually." Draco replied, "She's always known. We didn't marry for love," He added, "You of all people know that!"

Looking suddenly very uncomfortable, Harry glanced over at Ginny, and then back to Draco, "Do we have to talk about this now?"

Draco hesitated for a moment, then "No. No, I suppose not." He decided.

There was an awkward silence, in which Ginny tried to catch up on what was going on, and then,

"I suppose I should go to work." Draco was shrugging on his coat and reaching for his briefcase, his gaze firmly fixed on anything but Harry, "I'll be back around tomorrow evening."

He was making a beeline for the door and, on impulse, Harry reached out as he passed and grabbed his left forearm. The reaction was instantaneous – Draco snatched his arm away with a hiss, his right hand flying up to rub his stinging forearm.

Three pairs of eyes widened and Draco rushed to roll up the sleeve of his shirt. He let out a pained whimper at the sight before him; the Dark Mark that had faded into a scar not three years ago was now a dark grey, the snake writhing slightly on his arm.

"That's not possible." Ginny gasped.

Harry groaned, sliding further down into his chair, "I didn't expect this to happen so soon; he shouldn't be strong enough yet."

"He shouldn't be alive." Ginny corrected, her earlier argument with Draco forgotten as she patted his back comfortingly.

"But he is."

xXx

It was two weeks later – mid-September – when news finally reached Hogwarts of trouble at the Ministry.

People had been staring at Albus all morning, whispers breaking out behind him wherever he went. No-one would tell him what was going on though, not even his dorm-mates. Scorpius was just as confused as him, as was Louis, and the other boys kept skirting around the question. It wasn't until the end of their second lesson that one of the girls finally took pity on him and handed him her copy of the Daily Prophet.

"'Ministry in Chaos – Harry Potter Missing'!" Albus cried, staring down at the paper in his hand.

The girl – a petite girl with long dirty-blonde hair and a kind looking face, despite her Slytherin robes – smiled reassuringly at him, "It's not what it seems." She paused, glancing around at the emptying corridor, "I'll tell Slughorn that you'll be late."

Albus stared after her as she hurried after the rest of their class, who were quickly departing for their next class.

"What does it say?" Scorpius asked, as he and Louis peered over Albus's shoulders at the paper.

Albus glanced over the article, rolling his eyes at the mentions of 'The Chosen One' and 'The Boy Who Lived' and 'Defeater of the Dark Lord'.

"Dad's taken a month off work for … something to do with a Phoenix. The Ministry thinks it has something to do with a new Dark Wizard."

Louis inhaled sharply, his eyes going impossibly wide, "The Order of The Phoenix?" He asked, breath tickling Albus's ear.

He shoved him back and whirled around to face him, "Yes. Why?"

"Oh, Al." Louis breathed, "They … they were the ones that fought against You-Know-Who-"

"-Voldemort." Al corrected, "Fear of a name only increases fear of the thing itself." Then, "Dad's rebuilding the organisation that opposed Voldemort. But … why would … what does that mean?"

"I don't know." Louis replied honestly, glancing between his two friends, "But I don't think it's good."

I always though of Victoire as having a French accent like her mother. Being the oldest, I imagine she spent a lot of time in France with her maternal family, less so than her two younger siblings, so in my head she always has a French accent, while the others didn't. I think they can all speak French though, at least a little. I think Fleur would have made them learn.