Harry Potter : the next generation

chapter 8

Al spent the weekend trying to get to know the other members of his class: he was shy, and it took him a lot of effort before he could work up the nerve to talk to anyone.

            I wish Rose was in Gryffindor, he thought. She would have made friends with everyone, and once she'd started talking, it would have been easier to tag along with her.

            Instead, he found himself alone, struggling to muster the courage to walk up to the others and start talking. Eric Foster and Josh Leith were both nice, but they were quickly becoming best friends, and he felt left out even though they were willing to include him.

            Leonidas was boisterous and loud, and was completely obsessed by Quidditch.
"It's the only lesson I'm really excited about, broom-flying, because I'll get to be on a broom again. I can't remember the last time I've gone so long without riding a broom. My parents have let me ride one for years," he boasted to Al. But Leonidas was good-natured enough, and Al didn't actively dislike him; he just couldn't see them becoming best friends.

            I'm definitely not making friends with Nick, he thought. Nick Shea had found a group of older boys to make friends with, and most of the girls were grouped off into pairs or trios: Al didn't pay much attention to them, even though they outnumbered the first-year boys eight to five.

            So he spent much of his time alone, wishing Rose was there.

            Maybe I should have asked for Ravenclaw, he thought wistfully. He loved Gryffindor, but it would have been so much easier to make friends if Rose had been there. He was sure she was probably the most popular first-year in Ravenclaw already.

            But I don't belong in Ravenclaw, either. I'm not smart or witty or anything like that. For what seemed the millionth time, he half-wished he hadn't said anything, that he'd just let the Sorting Hat make its choice.

            I wonder if Rose wishes she was in Gryffindor? he wondered. He wished he could talk to her, but he didn't know where the Ravenclaw common room was.

            As the hours wore on, though, he decided to get up and go outside. I can always go see Hagrid, he thought. He knew he wasn't scheduled to have tea with him until the end of the week, but he didn't think Hagrid would be too upset if he dropped in.

            So he headed down to the grounds. He didn't go straight to Hagrid's hut; instead, he ambled around, half-hoping Rose and Scorpius would be outside. He kept away from the Forbidden Forest, wandering down by the lake. There was a small group of first-years staring at the Memorial Wall and the statue that served as Hogwarts' war memorial: the wall, lettered with the names of those who had died fighting during both wars against Voldemort, was the base for a statue that showed the magical world uniting to fight a masked Death Eater.

            Their voices carried; Al could hear a student explaining the statue to a Muggle-born, could see a handful of others gawking at the statue or searching for names, but he hung back, not really wanting to go nearer. He knew his dad's parents' names were on the statue, along with his Uncle Bill's and both the men he was named for, but he hadn't known any of them. He knew the statue meant more to the people who'd survived the war than the curious congregants here.

            "Do you have family on the wall?"

            Al realized that someone was speaking to him and turned. A Ravenclaw girl, a fellow first-year by the look of her, was standing next to him. She held a book in one hand.

            He nodded. "My Uncle Bill's name is up there; he died in the Battle of Hogwarts. So are my Gran and Granddad Potter; they died when my dad was a baby, during the first war."