Chapter Two: At Hogwarts

When Albus and Scorpius finally got to Hogwarts, everyone swarmed around Albus, leaving Scorpius alone.

Polly Chapman said excitedly, "Albus Potter! A Potter! In our year! And he's got his hair!"

"And he's my cousin. Nice to meet you. I'm Rose Granger-Weasley," Rose added quickly.

The Sorting Hat had been carried in when the students were talking, and now it bursted into song.

"I've done this job for centuries,

On every student's head I've sat.

Of thoughts I take inventories,

For I'm the famous Sorting Hat.

I've sorted high,

I've sorted low,

I've done the job through thick and thin.

So put me on and you will know,

Which House you'll be in."

Professor McGonagall announced, "Granger-Weasley, Rose."

Rose stumbled to the ancient, three-legged stool, and put the Hat on her head, then waited with baited breath.

"Gryffindor!"

"Potter, Albus." Albus walked hesitantly to the stool, and put the Sorting Hat on his head. It dipped right over his eyes.

A little voice sounded inside his head, "Hmm… There's a lot of courage, oh yes, and you're very shrewd. Resourcefulness, yes. Determination… loads." And before Albus could realize what all that is about, the Sorting Hat had announced, "Slytherin!" to the whole entire school. Albus shell shocked, sped to his seat at the Slytherin Table. Nobody moved aside to give him a seat. Nobody smiled or cheered for him. All the faces Albus passed were in shock. Then, like the buzzing of bees, people broke out in whispers.

"Slytherin?"

"Whoa, a Potter in Slytherin?"

Albus ignored it all, and found a seat by himself at the end of the Slytherin Table.

Next was Scorpius's turn. "Slytherin!" Albus, still in shock, shuffled aside a bit so that Scorpius could sit next to him. "Slytherin, eh?" Scorpius said. Albus ignored him, and his mind was still swirling, when the feast ended. His mind was so full of thoughts, the next day, he didn't notice that Flying lessons, which he had been looking forward to the most, were first up on his Monday timetable.

"Well, what are you waiting for? Everyone stand by a broomstick. Come on, hurry up. Stick out your hand and say, Up!" The sharp voice of Madam Hooch sounded in Albus's ear.

"Up!" everyone shouted.

Rose's broom was first to jump into her else's were still on the ground.

"Come on, now, I've no time for shirkers. Say "UP."

"Up!" Everybody shouted again.

Brooms sail up all around, except Albus's.

"Up. UP. UP." Albus said. But his broom didn't move an inch. It didn't even roll around. He stared at it in disbelief. He could hear giggles and jeering from the rest of the class.

"Merlin's beard, how humiliating! He really is nothing like his father, isn't he?" snickered Polly Chapman.

"Albus Potter, the Slytherin Squib."

Madam Hooch went ahead and blew her whistle, to signal the time to take off. Albus grabbed his broom and kicked off hard, a bit too hard. He rocketed towards the Forbidden Forest, his broom completely ignoring his frantic wishes to go back, to stop.

His broom carried him into the Forest, and deposited him on a tree. Albus, never having tree-climbing lessons before, was stuck, like a cat on a tree. He could hear Madam Pince's voice crying, "Boy! Where are you?" He could also hear another voice. No, another pair of voices. It was Professor Horace Slughorn, the Potions Master, and Professor Minerva McGonagall. Slughorn was saying, "Minerva, I don't know what the fuss is about. It's only a bit of Bicorn Horn and Boomslang skin, probably just some naughty student brewing something that they shouldn't."

"Horace, the last time something like that happened, a student died. We all thought it had been a student but it was really Barty Crouch Jr." said the exasperated voice of Professor McGonagall.

"But all the same, bringing up something that trivial to the attention of the Ministry-"

"You call a student being murdered trivial?" Professor McGonagall thundered.

Albus was so surprised that he fell off the tree, and landed with a THUMP, right in front of Professor McGonagall and Professor Slughorn.

"Potter! What are you doing here?" gasped Professor McGonagall.

"I…uh…flying lessons…got stuck on a tree…" mumbled Albus, embarrassed.

"Well then, you'd better get back to class. Ah, here comes Madam Hooch now," said Professor McGonagall, as the teacher came galloping into view. Albus allowed himself to be ushered away by Madam Hooch, but not before he caught Slughorn saying to Professor McGonagall, "I still don't think it's a matter of much importance, Minerva."