A New Problem (formerly Albus bc idfk)

Chapter 1: The Train

There was a girl Albus had never seen on the Hogwarts Express. And she was standing right in front of him.

She sat down and immediately pulled out a book.

"You're American, right?" Scorpius asked the girl.

"My dad got a new job in London and my parents didn't mind the thought of me being away for most of the year," she responded quietly. "Lucky for me, I didn't either. Any more pointless questions?"

The quip went right over Scorpius's head. "Nope," he said, then turned to me. "What about you, Albus?"

"Albus?" she said, "As in Albus Potter?"

Scorpius smiled at Albus and nodded. "The very one," he responded.

Albus scowled at him. "Yeah, my dad's the famous Harry Potter, but don't expect me to be all amazing and powerful like him. That'd be my brother, James."

Scorpius nudged him. "I thought you'd made up."

"I wasn't talking about him at all," the girl said. "My friend at Hogwarts told me about you. And you must be Scorpius." She smiled at him for the first time. "She thinks very highly of both of you and I hope that her faith wasn't misplaced."

"I'm Lena, by the way. Lena Scamander," the girl said with a wry smile. "I have famous relatives, too."

Albus and Scorpius laughed. They both knew exactly how that felt. "Who's your friend here?" Albus asked.

"What house is he?"

"Hufflepuff, like our great-grandfather Newt."

"No, you're right, we don't know him," Scorpius told her after a moment.

She smiled and brought her book back up.

"I wonder what house she'll be in," Scorpius wondered.

"I was in the Thunderbird house in Ilvermorny. It favors adventurers. I was also chosen for the Wampus Cat house, who chooses strong people," Lena said. Seeing that they had no idea what she was talking about, she explained about the American school, Ilvermorny.

Lena laughed. "Not really. Can you explain the Hogwarts houses?"

"We have four, as you already know," Albus started, "Slytherin, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Gryffindor. Scorpius and I are both in Slytherin. Our houses are named after the founders."

"Good thing they had interesting names,"Lena put in. "What if Gryffindor's last name was something really generic and common?"

Albus and Scorpius laughed. This girl knows what she's doing, Albus thought. She's intentionally making Gryffindor look bad, just to get on our good side.

There's more to her than I had thought.

"As I was saying," Albus said, nervously smiling at Lena, "each house has certain qualities they look for in their students. Slytherin, the snake, looks for cunning ambitious, and prideful people. Hufflepuff, the badger, looks for the hard-working and kind people. Ravenclaw, the eagle, chooses the creative and those with a want for knowledge. And Gryffindor the lion chooses the brave and noble of heart," Albus finished with mock pomposity.

"Slytherin doesn't like Gryffindor, do they?"Lena asked aptly.

"No we do not," Scorpius answered.

Suddenly, the door slid open. "Anything from the trolley, dears?" asked a kindly old witch. "Oh! Someone new, I see. Here's a chocolate frog, dear. I hope you have a wonderful year. And you boys," she added, "best stay out of trouble from now on, understand?"

Albus and Scorpius nodded fervently while Lena examined her chocolate frog.

"That's the trolley witch," Scorpius chimed in. "She's been here since before our dads even came to Hogwarts."

"She seems nice," said Lena.

Albus looked at Scorpius, and they both smiled. "Not always," Albus said mysteriously. Lena looked at him quizzically.

"Oh, they're lots of fun," said Scorpius. "Each one has a famous witch or wizard card in them, along with a chocolate frog that jumps around."

She opened the packaging and let the fog bounce around for awhile on her lap. She giggled. "This is hilarious," she said after the frog jumped into the door and then slid down. The spell had worn off, and it was just a piece of chocolate. "Oh! I got Hermione Granger! She's always been my role model."

"Did you know that we use your great-grandfather's book in the Care of Magical Creatures class?" Scorpius asked. "It's very informative, you know, with the danger level and all."

Lena raised an eyebrow. "Everyone, everywhere, uses my great-grandfather's book. In America, in France, in Japan, all over the world. He was the leading magizoologist."

"I get your point," Albus joked. "I was just trying to make conversation."

They talked for a while after that, until the conductor told them that they were nearing Hogwarts.

"You should probably put your robes on," Albus told Lena after the conductor had finished. She raised an eyebrow at him. "We'll give you some privacy," he said, pulling Scorpius out of the compartment. They shut the door and stood in front of it to prevent anyone from going in.

After a few minutes, Lena knocked on the door and opened it.

"What are you two doing?" she asked, surprised.

"Helping you,"Scorpius said simply. He glanced out the window. "Oh, look, we're here."

The village of Hogsmeade was passing by, the lamps already lit in the gloaming. The three of them waited in their compartment as the droves of Hogwarts students poured out of the train and onto Hogsmeade station. Once everyone else was off, they followed suit. Albus and Scorpius led Lena to Hagrid, who explained that she would be going across with the first years because she was new.

They waved to her as she followed Hagrid and the first years away from the platform, and then they boarded the last carriage to Hogwarts.