Disclaimer: Wow, I don't own Harry Potter!

Chapter 25- Working

Now that its years passed, I realize I needed to really talk to my dad before I went to Hogwarts for my fourth year but we were both very stubborn and he was very busy. I'm thankful my Uncle George and was able to help me learn a few things about my dad and my future:

Remember when you were little and you never realized bad stuff happened or was happening? And then when you're older and a tad wiser you realize how bad the past was or how bad even the present was? That's how I felt in my remaining days off until Hogwarts began.

The day after the Fiasco at the ministry, it was probably one of the worst days ever. Everyone was pissed at me. And do I mean everyone. From the youngest to the oldest, they were livid. Gran and mum screamed at me for a good half-hour, then squeezed me until I could breathe. Lily slapped me, James won't talk to me, Rose sent me a howler that cent my cereal flying, Hugo wrote me a very angry letter, and it went on and on and on.

The only people I haven't heard from were Uncle George and Dad.

Dad, I haven't seen since that night, he's been both staying at the office and leaving late and going in early. I have an odd feeling that despite him being busy he's attempting to avoid me. It hurts, I'll freely admit it but you wont here me say a word because I refuse to back down, I wont lie I said a few mean things but I wasn't lying, Dad would have done the very same thing.

"Albus," I looked up from my book to see my mum standing in the doorway of my bedroom. Her red hair was swept up in a bun and she wore a simple muggle outfit, that told me she was doing some cleaning (she always wore jeans and a shirt while cleaning, it was her thing), and her brown eyes looked tired, but she had a smile on her face as she addressed me. "Your Uncle George was wondering if you would help out at the store today, it's only him there, Angelina and the children went to visit her family. Don't think you're off the hook though, you will be working, George knows this."

I felt a mixture of happiness and dread fill in my chest. I was happy I'd get to see my godfather but not so excited to hear my lecture from him.

I nodded to her, placing my Advanced copy of Transfiguring Triumphs on my one bookshelf I frowned remembering that I was grounded until next summer, meaning I couldn't talk to any friends this summer (except Scorpius, mum said I couldn't become a complete hermit) and I wasn't allowed to go to Diagon Alley. Plus I had to come home on the Holidays and continue punishment, then I'd be free in…July.

Yes, everyone I may have disobeyed my Father and ran after a maniac's crazy laughter, instead of listening to my dad and getting away safely, but did I deserve that much? Alright I'll admit I'll be at Hogwarts almost the entire time but it still sucked.

"Yeah I'll go." I said with my back turned, I wasn't in the mood for company. "I'll go now."

"Al." I heard her murmur and I almost turned around but I didn't, for I was to annoyed with the world at the moment to even feel bad.

I pretended I was searching for something, as I waited for her to leave. She did leave after a few sighs, that made me feel like I just had one Hagrid's rock cakes, but it took a bit.

I scratched my ear as I walked to the fireplace, wary of what was to come and wondered if I was going to be attacked by a prank monkey that would tell me my wrongdoings, then command me to clean up the mess from the new mini portable llamas (they do everything a real llama can do, even spit). It wasn't going to be to enjoyable.

I shut my eyes tight blocking the view of the sitting room and said my destination rather morosely, before everything was just soot and spinning.

Feeling my feet hit the ground, I opened my eyes to the purple colored walls that had hundreds of papers stuck to them showing the ideas of my Uncle, and the scrap filled tables which George used to work on the inventions.

I stepped out into the back room of W.W.W. also known as the Invention Room and just like every other time I came back here I turned around and looked at the photos on the mantle. There were five of them neatly aligned. The first was a picture of Aunt Angelina and Uncle George on their wedding day, Uncle George didn't wear a shirt, no one really knows why he did that, except maybe Angelina. The second was the same one in Gran's old picture album, the one with the entire family that was taken in Dad's fourth year.

Like always I skipped over the middle until last and my eyes landed on the one farthest right. The photo was of a three year old Roxanne and five year old Fred, peaking around the corner of a door to get a look at screaming Angelina whose hair was bright pink and cowering George. I was told the picture had been taken by Uncle Charlie when one night George and Angelina had been set to go out, while Charlie babysat. To make a long story short the kids didn't want them to go so they decided to become troublemakers using their poor mum and made it look like George did it, needless to say they didn't go out.

The one between the middle and the last was of Uncle Fred and Uncle George taken while at some old Hag's house named Muriel during the war. One of the last photos of the dynamic duo.

I felt my lips twitch as I got to the middle one, that had been the hardest photo to take ever. It was of everyone taken last year, in front of the Burrow, mimicking in a way the first one. On the far left was Bill, Fleur's petite arms wrapped around him, right next to them was there kids. Victoire was looking boldly at the camera her eyes shining, Louis in the middle with his arms around his sisters, smirking, and then came Dominique her short highlighted hair falling into her eyes now and again. Charlie stood next to them his eyes sad as he crossed, and re-crossed his arms, looking at everyone. Percy stood next the ever pompousness still there after years of Audrey's failed attempts at stopping it, he held his wife's hand as she looked at him vaguely annoyed, her head barely reaching his shoulder as she tried to step on his foot. Molly was the same height as her mother, her curly-ish hair was being ruffled by a breeze, Lucy sat on the ground, beside them she held her knees to her chest, frowning now and again (it wasn't easy being the youngest). And then came gran, she was beaming and simultaneously swatting George who stood next to her at the same time. Angelina was next to her husband, shaking her head fondly at him. On the ground sat both Fred and Roxanne, their eyes both sparkling with mischievousness handed down to them by their father and Uncle. On Angelina's other side was Ron, and his not so covetous looks to the table with the food on it not far away. Aunt Hermione stood by smiling, her arms were around Rose (who was attempting to kick Hugo who was on the ground in the head). And coming into the home stretch was my lot, Mum stood first, she looked up at my dad adoringly and back to the camera, Dad wasn't much better with the sly smile that crossed his face every few seconds as he caught mum. And then there was Teddy, James, myself and Lily. Teddy was looking a bit sad but smiled as he stared at my parents, James stood staring off into space, while I hugged a squealing Lily.

A family. A bit disjointed but a family who loved each other.

I scratched my ear again, it was a weird tick I picked when I was younger, that almost always gave away my nerves, fear or confusion. So nine times out of ten you see me doing that I'm either nervous, afraid, or completely lost. The other time is when my ear is itchy.

Purposefully I walked out to the store. The place was dead, the only person in there was Uncle George at the register.

Uncle George turned as I came down the stairs, a smile was on his face which I took as a good sign, so I gave a hesitant smile back.

"Hey, Al!"

I gave him a sort of lopsided wave, " Hi, this place is dead."

I decided to be straightforward with the guy. I came down here for nothing. I'd probably get another dressing down and a cuff on the back of the head before going home and bang my head off the wall.

My Uncle just continued smiling at me, "I wanted some company, thought you'd like this better than staying home being tortured by chores."

I gave him a nod in agreement, "Yeah, its not much fun there at the moment." I moved closer to him, and hopped up onto the counter. "I'm getting the silent treatment from James, Lily and mum keep giving me disappointed looks and Dad…well I haven't seen him."

I tried to not the hurt show in my voice but Uncle George heard it despite my attempt. The single-eared man, sat up with his elbows on his knees, gave me a curious look. "Don't worry so much Al, kids do stupid things and everyone knows that but we just worry."

"But that's the thing!", I huffed out running my hands through my hair, "I thought dad would be proud of me, for being brave despite not being a Gryffindor. He went on adventures all the time when he was kid, why can't I?"

"Al…"

I shook my head feeling stupid tears gather in my eyes, "No, just forget it." I just couldn't, wouldn't deal with this now. If he wanted to scold me, he should just do it. We weren't here to talk about how I ruddy felt.

My godfather stood up and leant next to me on by the register, "I will not forget it. Al, I think you that you think you know your dad completely, and the thing is you don't."

I felt something stir inside me, I knew my dad just fine thank you. I opened my mouth to say such when the other man cut me off, "You may know the parts of the stories of what he did at Hogwarts, but you don't know it all, kid. Your dad, he had a hero thing -still does, I suppose-, he felt it was his duty to save anyone and everyone. Don't get me wrong he saved so many people, but on these adventures he lost a lot of people too. A lot of people who knew Harry Potter didn't survive the war, not that anyone blames him, we'd all be dead if it wasn't for him. Everyone who fought that day knew the risks of fighting." Uncle George looked far away deep in memories, I never would know, never wanted to. "We all have lost people, kid, Harry more than anyone and his family is everything to him, he doesn't want you to suffer like he did. And Albus, he suffered, he suffered more than anyone."

The silence was deafening, my mind tried to wrap my head around everything he said but it was to much gloom and doom from the funniest man in the world. It was wrong, and I could feel it.

Dad was dangerous. Uncle George didn't outright say it but it was there and I wonder did I want to one day be known as dangerous? And did I want to be a hero like him? No, I didn't want that pressure, the weight of the world on my shoulders, I didn't want to bring Scorpius or Jill or Will Boot or Collin Creevy or his little sisters Amy and Cori or one of the Finnigans. And the list goes on and on, I could see my future in that minute of silence. I could see me in ten years, hardened and mature from seeing people around me gone, I could see my innocence gone, I could see the best and worst of myself as a hero, I could see me becoming my dad. I didn't want that. I wanted to be me.

I may look like my dad, sound like him, but never will I be my dad.

A weight came off my chest, it was as if I had an epiphany. I didn't need to be my dad for people to except me. Maybe it was my overreacting mind that came to that or my inner therapist, but I felt so free.

Smiling I turned to Uncle George, who had taken to staring at me, and hopped of the counter to give him a quick hug, "Thanks, Uncle George."

"Uh, your welcome." He sounded surprised and dead confused.

"I don't have to be like my dad to be like excepted, you helped me see that, your holiness."

He barked out a laugh, as the door opened inviting many people in, all coming maybe from school shopping and such. Thankfully I had moved away from my uncle by then so I wasn't caught hugging him.

It seemed to get busy from there and the two of us worked like dogs until the evening when the place emptied again.

I huffed out a sigh as I sat by my uncle, "Never will you here me call this place dead again. That was crazy."

Uncle George chuckled and patted me on the back, "It'll get worse after people come in from after dinner time."

I felt a whimper start to build, my feet were killing me and my head hurt from hearing shrill screams of little brats begging mummy and daddy for this or that. Seriously, people need to get leashes for their kids…And muzzles.

The door opened just then to reveal five people, the first to enter was a man who looked amazed at what he was seeing, probably a muggle married to a witch. The second was a women of Asian dissent she looked about my parents age, she had long black hair and was looking around the place familiarly. And then there were three kids, two girls and a boy. The youngest girl had dark brown hair like her father and was about Lily's age, the boy had spiky black hair and was maybe thirteen. I felt stomach to that weird flip flop thing as I stared at the girl who I recognized as Kai Wint. She had shiny black hair, milky white skin and was looking incredibly bored compared to her siblings.

You see before I met Victoria, I had a bit of a crush on Kai since we played Quidditch together last year. She was a chaser, she was really good, Scorpius was actually afraid of her. Kai was in Ravenclaw, and never looked at me twice.

I stood up ready to help when I heard uncle George mutter something under his breath. I turned to him and saw he was rolling his eyes, I opened my mouth to ask him what was wrong when I heard a soft Scottish accent speak, "Hello George."

"Hello, Cho, how are you?' Uncle George seemed to not be all to fond of the older women for some reason, I don't know why, her daughter was very pretty.

And for second I felt very guilty, Victoria and I had just broken up, I shouldn't be thinking any of those thoughts, yet. I immediately dismissed this, she was the one who crumpled my poor heart with her delicate fist, I was a free man.

"I'm well, thank you." Cho said smiling and then asked, "How have you been? And your family?"

"Oh, we're all well, Angelina's off with the kids to visit her parents, so I have Al helping me out today." He said proudly, to my amusement. I couldn't decide if he was proud I was working with him or that he got rid of the Missus.

For the first time the women turned to me and her eyes widened, "Oh my…" I sent her a small smile and she looked rather uncomfortable (which seemed to amuse a certain Weasley to my left).

"I'm sure," My uncle drawled, "you can remember Harry and my little sister, Ginny. This is their youngest son Albus." My Uncle turned to me, a suspicious glint in his eyes. "Al, this is Cho Chang, she was in school with our lot."

I quickly wracked my brain for a mention of a Cho Chang or her other children, but I came up blank.*

Cho shook her head in what seemed to be wonder, "Its nice to meet you, Albus and its now Wint, I married Ben over there he's a muggle, that's why he's so amused by all this. I'm sure Harry's mentioned me before."

"Actually, Mrs. Wint, he's never." I said this rather innocently, and was rewarded by Uncle Georges barley suppressed laughter and a rather red blush on the women's face. It hit me that she went out with my dad for two minutes or something.

"Oh, well, yes." The woman shifted nervously as it became quiet. The boy, walked over then luckily to diffuse the awkwardness of everything with an old product that allowed you to walk on walls.

"Mum, can I have this?" I didn't recognize him at all which made me feel bad as he looked at me, "Hey, your Albus Potter. You're an amazing seeker, you got the snitch right under my nose last year, I'm on the Ravenclaw team with Kai."

Ok, so all I got from that was I actually played the hyper boy in Quidditch and he was a Ravenclaw.

I must have looked rather lost at the moment for Uncle George spoke up to the bouncing boy, "Oh, well, my boy your ole mum would know an awful lot about people catching the snitch under other people's noses'."

I choked back a laugh as Cho's eye twitched, "Yes…well, I suppose you can have it Akio," There we go, "tell Hua she, too can pick something,"

Akio grinned and ran off to tell his younger sister, I presume. I wondered if I could sneak off and help Kai?

I looked around quickly, she was nowhere to be found. I gave a sigh, she probably went out to meet friends or a boyfriend. What girl would want to be in a joke shop? Ok, so most females in my family would and maybe a few of my friends but…

"That's my middle child," Cho remarked to Uncle George, "He's going into his third year, Hua is my youngest she's going to be a third year, while my oldest is Kai, she's going to be a fourth year."

Uncle George nodded, I could tell he didn't care one bit but decided he should polite, lest lose potential costumers, "Hm, that's nice Al here is also going to be a fourth year. Isn't that right, kid?"

"Yeah".

Cho looked surprised as she regarded me with interest, "Really? I wasn't aware you were in the same year as Kai, what house are you in?"

I held back a sigh, sometimes the reaction people had when they hear you're in Slytherin isn't exactly welcoming. "I'm a Slytherin."

Oh, there it is. The slight disgust in her eyes, made my chest tighten with annoyance, "Harry's son is a Slytherin? Never thought I'd hear that, I assumed you would be in Gryffindor like your father…and mother."

I looked at her angrily for a split second, "My brother is a Gryffindor, but like me, my little sister is a Slytherin. Our father doesn't care what house we're in, neither does my mother. People tend to make assumptions, when they meet me, I suggest you hold back next time."

I stomped off, catching a glimpse of her mortified face and Uncle George's gleeful smile. I hated when people did that. People assumed Slytherins were all evil in her time. People still do, but to a lesser extent.

As I walked to the back I tried to think of a way to redeem Slytherins in the eyes of the older Wizarding community. It wasn't until I bumped into someone did I realize how far away with my thoughts I was.

"Oof!" I coughed out as I collided with someone who was obviously a girl from her shriek.

The girl, I realized belatedly was Kai and I muttered, "Bollocks."

"Hey! Watch it." She squealed, I gulped as she gave me an annoyed glare.

I kneeled to grab the muggle mobile she dropped to hid my blush, "Uh, sorry," I stood up straight and handed her the phone, I felt embarrassed when I noticed she was a bit taller than me, "Here."

She sniffed, "It's fine, you're just lucky you didn't trample over my new boots."

I looked down at her shiny red boots that went to her knee, she was wearing skinny jeans that hugged her figure and bright red sleeveless shirt. She looked really pretty.

"Oh, they're nice."

She squinted at me with her head tilted to the side, "Do I know you?"

That stumped me. I mean not only do we both play Quidditch, in the same year but Victoria was her best friend. We had met plenty of times.

I nodded slowly, "Yeah, we've met before. I'm Albus Potter."

"Oh, I think I remember your name." She muttered, tapping the phone against her chin. "Victoria mentioned you once or twice."

Nice, real nice.

"Um, Kai, we've met." This was beyond uncomfortable, "Victoria and I used to date, and we went to Hogsmeade once or twice all of us."

Kai gave a shrug, "Oh."

She began to walk away, to my displeasure, but suddenly she turned around her shiny hair flipping behind her shoulder, "Hey, can you tell me where I find those Daydream potions?"

My stomach sank, "Sure," I pointed over to the display that held edible lightning bolt scars (Now that was a funny day, when dad found them), "They're just behind there."

Kai smiled at me, "Thanks."

She walked away for real this time a sway in her hips, making me swallow thickly. I shook my head once, Girls.

Authors Note: Hey, here we go, you all know the drill Review please! Oh, and if guys want to give me some ideas for filler chapters, that'd be cool.

*Al honestly had no idea who she was at first because he was a tad preoccupied with other things.