Albus (A Next Generation Harry Potter Fanfiction)

First Impressions

Albus Severus Potter gave his father a final wave as the train trundled away from the platform. His parents, Ron, Hermione, and everyone else wishing their children good luck and goodbye slowly diminished in a cloud of smoke and noise, until the red brick of King's Cross station changed first into the grey height of London, then into the rolling green fields of the countryside.

Other students bustled past him, complaining loudly as they looked for a spare seat, some of them hugging each other with a high-pitched screech, chatting and laughing about what happened last summer. One fairly short boy, with white-blonde hair pushed past him particularly hard, causing him to almost block the aisle for everyone else, who immediately started exclaiming things like 'first-years!' and 'can they not get in the way so much?' Albus turned his head down and moved up the train, away from the commotion to look for someone he knew. His brother James maybe, although he knew he wouldn't want to sit with him, or Rose Weasley, who he'd known pretty much as soon as he could talk. Compartment after glass compartment he rushed past, each filled with people who didn't feel completely out of place. Everyone he saw seemed so much older than he was, and as much as he wanted to sit with her, he couldn't see Rose anywhere.

After what felt like an age of moving through groups of strangers, he reached the front of the train. The very end compartment, to his relief, had only two other boys that looked about his age. As he stopped in front of the glass door, they looked up from their conversation expectantly. Albus reached for the handle and hesitantly walked in.

"Hi, um, everywhere else is full, and, er, I don't really know anyone," he said cautiously, fully aware the two boys were unlikely to let him into their little friendship group, but to his relief, one of the boys, who had mousey brown hair and chocolate on the side his mouth, smiled and nodded.

"We're new too. That's Sam, and I'm Alex," he said, holding out a slightly chubby hand which Albus shook before sitting down next to Sam, who was a lot thinner and more wispy than Alex. He assumed the two of them had just met this morning, as he thought if they knew each other already, Sam might've told Alex about the chocolate on his lips. This put him at ease, knowing he would have somewhere to hide from the rest of the school until he was sorted into Gryffindor and he could make proper friends.

"I'm Albus, but call me Al. It's easier, and it's what everyone calls me," he said, smiling politely. The two boys nodded again, and he started to suspect the conversation would run dry after an hour or two. Sam started to stare out the window, and Albus relaxed and thought about rummaging through his bag for a book he brought to read.

Alex, however, had other plans for talking on the way. Not once did he stop, and Al could see the other boy getting as irritated as he was, especially after the sun went down and they started getting out their robes and books. His talking eventually descended into an irritable noise that simply played on the ear, instead of forming any words or sentences that would come from an intelligent human.

"You guys thought about what houses you want to be in yet?" Alex asked, just after Albus had got back from escaping to the toilet for twenty-odd minutes.

"Gryffindor," Sam said proudly, as if this was a discussion he actually wanted to be a part of. Albus wouldn't mind being in a house with him. He was a little quiet, but after hours of incessant talking the only one he wanted to be shot of was Alex.

"Me too," he said. "Both of my parents were in Gryffindor, and my brother James is. It's the best one,". He took a deep breath and looked at the two boys. "I just hope I'm not in Slytherin,".

Sam nodded along, the both of them blocking out Alex, who restarted his talking, this time about wanting to be in Ravenclaw because they get the best results. He remembered what his Dad said about being able to choose the house you're in, and he hoped Alex would wish for Ravenclaw really really hard when it came to it. It crossed his mind to tell them, but he kept his mouth shut. For all he knew, it could be a big secret between his Dad and Dumbledore, the headmaster at the time. Instead, he tuned back in to the conversation. "Well, I never had any family at Hogwarts, but I read about it and they say loads of great wizards came from Gryffindor," Sam was saying. "My Mum went to Beauxbatons, because we used to live in France, but when we moved to England for a change Hogwarts sent me a letter instead,".

Alex piped up again. "Harry Potter was in Gryffindor when he killed You Know Who,".

Al looked at the floor. He didn't really like telling people exactly who his father was, because they tended to look at him or treat him differently, as if he was better. There were so many people he wanted to shout at to tell them to stop avoiding eye contact or asking for his father's life story, because it wasn't Al they cared about and it wasn't him they were interested in. He could never dream of being as great as his father, and he'd heard from James that that was nothing short of what many people at Hogwarts expected. Him and his Dad were different people. For a moment, he thought about changing the subject, but the whole school knew who he was so he might as well tell the two boys anyway.

"I know," he said. "Harry Potter's my Dad,"

Sam stared at him with wide eyes, and even Alex shut up. "Wow," the skinny boy said, holding Al's gaze for a little longer before looking back outside. Albus smiled to himself. He liked Sam, and he felt he'd found a friend. Fantasies went through his head of him introducing Sam to Rose when they all got sorted into Gryffindor, going to classes together, not having anyone irritating in his friendship group, and best of all, the though of Sam and Rose not looking at him different just because he was the son of one of the most powerful wizards in the world.

Albus spent the rest of the ride absolutely relieved he'd told them about his family. Alex was quiet for the whole journey, which disappointingly continued only another half an hour or so. It was like he was treating Albus like some kind of royalty. The boy still had chocolate round his mouth anyway, so Al probably was better than him, just as he thought. As the train pulled into the Hogwarts platform and he stepped off alongside Sam with Alex trailing behind him, he imagined his father walking where he walked for the first time all that time ago, whether he felt he'd found where he was meant to be as well. He could see the castle in the distance, brilliant lights that shone down from inside its walls, waiting for him.

"Albus!" he heard a girl call from behind him. It was Rose. He turned around, grinning, as she hurried up to him. Luckily it looked like she'd also made friends on the journey, as she waved over a group of about six girls that Al hoped Alex could talk to to give him and Sam a break.

"How was your journey? I couldn't find you anywhere, and I walked pretty much the whole length of the train," Albus asked, after quickly introducing her to Sam and letting Alex introduce himself as they headed towards the carriages.

Rose winced. "I know, I'm sorry. I assumed you'd be with James or something. Before we went, your mum told us to head straight to the back, because you get the best view of everything disappearing. It was actually really cool," she said. "Excited to see Gryffindor?"

As the carriages clunked along they chatted about school. How excited they all were, swapping stories of which houses their parents were in and what they'd said about it all, or what spells they'd learnt already. Albus felt bad for one girl, Matilda, whose entire family had been in Slytherin, and although she said she wouldn't mind being put there Al could see it in her eyes she wanted to go to Gryffindor just like the others. There were just so many great stories about the house, and by the time they finally reached the magnificent castle, Albus could hardly wait.