Albus (A Next Generation Harry Potter Fanfiction)

Family?

Their voices could be heard slowly getting louder as they trapsed down the hallways, turning right and left and poking their heads around ajar doors to look for Mrs Norris. Childish laughs and insults swung around the corner, the two of them grinning their heads off as they finally appproached the Slytherin common room. As the door opened and they wandered inside, they were both disappointed they hadn't seen the cat, whether or not she was blue. Al knew he'd be getting that sickle off Scorpius. They'd only been learning Transfiguration for a week or so, and so far they'd only started changing feathers into twigs. Scorpius was pretty good at it (better than Al, that was for sure), but colour change wouldn't be coming up for months or even years.

"I know how to do it, I swear," Scorpius was protesting as they walked into the dorm. "I've done it before. Not on cats, sure, but can't be that much of a difference."

Al started to laugh and say for the hundreth time that he didn't believe him, when he noticed his owl perched on the bed. A jolt went through him as he remembered the letter he was expecting from his parents. He excitedly picked up the square brown envelope on his bed, stroked Jasper's snowy white feathers and opened it. This could be it, his father saying he would write to the school about him being put in Gryffindor. Al wasn't sure how often people changed houses, or if it was even allowed, but his Dad could make it happen.

"I'll practise it on your owl," Scorpius said menacingly, raising his wand, but Al had stopped laughing along with him.

"Shove off, Malfoy. We'll go look for the cat in a minute," he responded, not in an angry way but more of a dismissive one, as he opened the cracked seal with his dirty fingernail.

Dear Al,

Your mother and I are so proud of you! After the first week James had already managed to get himself in detention. Hopefully you won't inherit those genes from me like he did.

There were a lot of genes from his father he hadn't inherited, Al thought, grimacing.

As for being in Slytherin, I stand by what I said on the platform. Whether or not you asked the hat to be put in Gryffindor, there was obviously a very good reason for you to be where you are, and it was not because you are going to become a bad person. I've never heard of anyone swapping houses, and I am not going to look into it. We all feel very strongly that you can stay in Slytherin. Maybe it will give you a better chance to be yourself, and in any case it will be good for you to not live under your brother's shadow for once. He's influenced you badly enough already!

Al skim read the rest of the letter angrily, but that was it. No more talk of houses, the rest of it was pointless drabbles of information and things they thought might make him laugh.

Your sister misses you very much, and so do we. I've sent Jasper with some chocolate frogs, unless he's dropped them on the way which is a possibility as we let Lily tie the package on.

Lots of love,

Dad

The package had fallen off, Al thought as he threw the letter down crossly. He almost felt hot tears spring up in his eyes, but he choked them down. Was he really stuck?

"What was it?" Scorpius asked innocently from his bed, still pointing his wand at the owl, hoping they could go back to the argument they'd been having up until then.

"My Dad. He says I can't go into Gryffindor," Al said quietly. He didn't care if Scorpius wouldn't want him to go. He was a Malfoy boy, anyway. Al shouldn't even be talking to him. It was wrong, all wrong.

"Yeah, because you're in Slytherin," Scorpius said, confused. Maybe he didn't quite understand that Al was serious. "The best house," he added, making Al's blood churn even more.

"No, I mean it. I can't stay here. I have to be with my family," Al finished, screwing up the letter into a tight ball in his fist. "You wouldn't get it. You're where you're meant to be."

"This is where you're meant to be, Al. Why would the hat put you here? Come on, let's do something fun, like go find the cat," Scorpius said tiredly, glaring at Al's blank face.

"No," Al mumbled. He didn't feel like playing games anymore. Perhaps he could go himself to talk to Professor McGonagall. It would be a pretty long shot, but if his parents really wouldn't even send an owl at the very least, it would be worth a try. He brushed his hand through his messy hair, wondering where his hairbrush had gone. He hadn't seen it in days.

"Fine," Scorpius snapped angrily, hopping off the bed and almost tripping over his too-long robes. He flounced out of the room, probably going off to find someone else to drag about the castle looking for the flipping cat.

Al stared at the floor, alone in the dorm for a few long moments. He knew any attempt he could make on his own would be futile without the support of his parents. Ever since the hat had shouted the words that had pretty much ruined his life, he'd been striving towards the inevitable point when his parents would intervene and they would come up with some explanation of why Slytherin was completely unacceptable and why he absolutely had to swap into Gryffindor. Now, it felt like this day might never come.

After several minutes of just staring with a blank look on his face, Sylvian, the boy that didn't believe them about Mrs Norris, burst in and asked him where Scorpius was.

"How should I know?" Al said miserably. He was even being associated with the Malfoys now. Being accepted into Slytherin felt like the worst thing in the world to him at that moment. Sylvian left without saying anything else to him, and suddenly Al felt bad. It wasn't Scorpius' fault that the hat had got it wrong, and Al had treated him like it was. He slowly got up and dragged his feet into the common room.

"Found it in the Room of Requirement," he heard. It was the rowdy 5th years, and he didn't have Scorpius for protection. Could this day get any worse? He tried to sneak past as quietly as he could, but thankfully they were all engrossed in something over by the fire so not much stealth was needed on his part.

"What is it?"

"Did you say it actually belonged to Salazar Slytherin?"

Al kept his head down, waiting to hear 'Potter', but nothing came. They were too busy looking at whatever it was to notice anyone else in the common room. The dark brown door slammed behind him and he trotted off down the castle corridors, expecting Scorpius to be around here somewhere probably trying to prove he could do that spell. Instead, after turning through an archway in the direction to where they'd seen Mrs Norris before, he noticed the flash of ginger hair that belonged to Rose.

"Oh, hi Al," she said happily. Al was silently thankful she wasn't surrounded by giggling 11-year-old girls, but he didn't have time to talk to her anyway. He needed to find Scorpius so he could apologise for overreacting.

"Hi," he said, briefly pausing to acknowledge her, but carrying on walking in the other direction.

"James wanted to tell you he got into the team," she said, rushing up to catch him up and stopping right in front of him. She was blocking his way, and of course it was great his brother got on but he really had more pressing matters. "He's Seeker."

Al smiled and tried to push past. "Look, tell him that's great, but I don't really have time to talk. Have you seen Scorpius?" he asked, not even waiting for an answer as his feet carried him away from Rose, standing still and blank in the middle of the corridor.

"No," she mumbled at Al's disappearing figure, before turning around and walking alone back to Gryffindor.