Harry Potter : the next generation

chapter 12

Al sighed. They were already over a month into the term, and things hadn't improved one bit. James was still obsessed with Rose and Scorpius.

            "Ravenclaw," he snarled almost daily. "Neither of them should be in Ravenclaw. That pure-blooded prat should be in Slytherin with the rest of his Death Eater friends, and she should be in Gryffindor with us."

            Al knew by now that pointing out that Scorpius didn't have any Slytherin friends wouldn't help; nor would saying that Rose and Scorpius were both happy where they were, or even that the Sorting Hat was never wrong. He'd tried telling his brother each and every one of those things at one time or another, only to find that anything he said only made James angrier. He was tired of making James angry.

            What happened? he wondered. At home, they'd always been friends, running around together, playing with their Uncle Fred and George's fireworks. And when there had been big family gatherings – which, somehow, the Lupins had always showed up to, even though they weren't actually related – things got even better.

            James, Fabian, Gideon, Rommy, Rose, Lily, Hugo, Trina, Al, and even Thecla: all of them had always had a good deal of fun together, playing Quidditch or racing each other on their brooms, setting off fireworks, running around crazily, planning wild schemes, and occasionally doing something that got them all in a good deal of trouble.

            Al wasn't a natural troublemaker, but James could always convince him to tag along; somehow, when James was around, he always found himself getting involved. And, no matter how much trouble he'd gotten in afterwards, it had been fun.

            Back then, James and Rose had always gotten along. James was the leader of their group, but Rose had been an eager participant in many of his schemes. She never tagged along with them for the more outlandish things, the ones that usually ended up with James, Rommy, Hugo, Fabian, Al, Trina, Lily, and Gideon ending up grounded for a week; somehow, Rose seemed to have a sixth sense about exactly how much they could get away with. Or maybe it was just a healthy dose of common sense, combined with the ability to walk away; she'd never told their parents about whatever he was planning, but she'd never agree to participate, either.

            During those schemes, Al knew that they were going to get in trouble and that he should've sat out, but went along because he wanted to fit in. He had the feeling that Rommy Lupin often felt the same way.

            We were all one big group, Al thought. He'd assumed everything would continue the same way through Hogwarts: James had sent letters home from school all year talking about how much fun he, Fabian, Gideon, and Rommy were having together, at least. Trina, Thecla, Hugo, and Lily weren't at Hogwarts yet, but Al had been sure that, by his third year, everything would be exactly as it had been at home.

            But it wasn't. Rose was in Ravenclaw, and friends with a Malfoy, and James was furious. Rose was happy, Scorpius nice, and Al couldn't fault either of them; but he was also unhappy that James was taking it out on him for being friendly towards both of them.

            I want to be friends with James's crowd, too. Just because I'm friends with Rose doesn't mean I want to stop being friends with them. Truth be told, he was rather lonely: although he sat with Josh Leith and Eric Foster during classes, he felt like a third wheel. Josh and Eric never actively made him feel unwelcome, but sometimes he got the distinct feeling that they let him sit with them because they felt sorry for him, what with not having any other friends in Gryffindor in their year.

            We just don't have enough in common. Josh and Eric had both been raised by Muggles, and were best friends in part because they could talk about all the aspects of ordinary Muggle life that Al didn't know anything about. Any time he was around them, he felt rather left out; he knew he could ask them to explain their jokes, but by the time they could explain, the joke had long since stopped being funny.