Chapter 1
Two brothers alone in a garden are enough for a tragedy to start.
Under the blinded stars, laying over grazing grass.
James and Albus. Albus and James.
They are so different, yet so alike in their unlikeness.
Sometimes, Albus wishes he was born James. Bright, blinding, perfect. The golden child.
Sometimes, Albus thinks , he can never love anyone as much as he does his brother.
" Do you think I'll be head boy ? " James asks, his voice brimming with excitement. Tomorrow, he goes to Howarts.
Albus would die before admitting he will miss him.
" I give it two days before you get expelled."
James rolls his eyes, though his lips twitch upwards.
" I'll be the youngest Gryffindor Captain, Al. I swear. I'll try out the moment I step foot in that castle. "
Albus frowns, something shifting in his stomach.
" How do you know you'll be in Gryffindor ?"
James looks at him then, his face full of bewilderment, as if Albus is the silliest person in the world.
" Why wouldn't I be ? Dad was, and so was Mum. Gryffindor is where we belong. "
There is a surity in James's voice which Albus has never felt before. He wishes he knew how to borrow some of it from him.
Instead, he smiles, a practiced mechanism, his heart burying whatever doubts rise within.
" Honestly, Al, I don't know what I'd do if I wasn't sorted into Gryffindor, " James whispers after some time, soft and vulnerable. " I mean , Hufflepuff is fine I guess. Teddy was Hufflepuff. And Ravenclaw..well.. Uncle Ron says it's okay. "
" What about Slytherin ?" Albus asks.
A laugh escapes James, the notion so unbelievable it is funny.
" Al, be serious. A Potter in Slytherin? Come on. "
Their Mum calls them for dinner before Albus can reply.
He tries to forget that moment, he really does. James is just eleven, what did he know? What was so wrong with Slytherin anyway?
He asks his dad, who averts his gaze. He says it is just ill placed prejudice, but Albus is pretty sure his dad belives it isn't all that ill placed.
James promises to write to Albus every week, about the castles and the magic and his friends.
Albus is delighted, though he refuses to let himself show it, granting James a minute smile.
The whole family bids James farewell in Platform 9 and three quarters, their parents almost in tears while Lily clings back with Albus.
As Albus watches James disappear with the moving train, he feels his father place a sturdy hand on his shoulder.
" It'll be you in just two years. " Harry says, his voice warm. It is meant to be placating, instead it twists Albus's stomach more.
James is sorted into Gryffindor, as Albus finds out, from his parents over the dinner table while they read James's letter.
The promised letters to Albus are forgotten. That ignorance is a stab, but soon morphs into a dull ache as the days pass.
When James comes back, he seems older. Happier, almost. He can't stop talking about the school, his friends, quidditch and everything and everything and everything.
Their parents are ecstatic, Lily is enchanted.
James doesn't even glance at Albus.
Albus hates the school already.
The tragedy has begun.