I can tell that we are going to be friends
The station was busy, as usual. Muggles in work suits hustling through their day. Mums holding tight to their children. And there he was, holding a fucking owl. His dad insisted on taking all the bags, so he was stuck walking around with nothing but the bird. Albus wondered how none of the muggles seemed to notice. No one else was carrying around pets, nevermind owls. Then again muggles miracuously never notice wizard antics. “Hurry up Al!” Lily had skipped far ahead, clearing brimming with excitement. Their mum managed to keep up with her, she was the only other person with the athleticism to match Lily's energy. Albus was walking slower than average, causing a decent gap between them. “You can go ahead Al, I’ll catch up” his dad huffed, clearly struggling with the bags. “Give me some” he said, reaching for the cart of haphazardly stacked trunks. His dad swerved the cart out of his reach, almost causing everything to fall over. “AL” his sister called again. Albus didn’t really have an excuse to be walking this slow. Thanks to his stubborn dad he wasn’t carrying anything. He could say he’s tired, never been a morning person. Or a proper sleep schedule person. But it’s nearly noon and the rest of his family have been up for ages. The truth is, he’s never looked forward to going to hogwarts. Not since the first time he got on that train. Not since he was sorted into slytherin. Al cringed at the memory. The horror on his brother’s face. The whispers from Ravenclaw. Not since he became an outcast. Sure things have improved since first year. He has friends. Plus Fred graduated last year, so that’s one less person to be compared to. Now he only has to compete with Lily, Hugo, Louis (which he constantly forgets since he attends Beauxbatons), and Rose. Oh god Rose. As if being prefect isn’t enough she was also made quidditch captain over the summer. Merlin knows why, she has no people skills. But that never affected anyone’s popularity when they're a Granger-weasley and star-chaser. “Ready Al?” Albus snapped out of his thoughts. They were standing in front of the brick wall leading to platform 9 ¾ . It suddenly occurred to him that this may be one of his last times going to the platform. Al isn’t sure how he feels about that. It’s undeniable that he doesn’t enjoy school, but granted he has no idea what to do when he graduates. Everyone in his family moved on to do great times right after Hogwarts, but after six year of a magical education he still hasn’t discovered any special talents. Or just any talents. Albus is a perfectly average student, and it kills him. He spends hours studying for tests that James or Teddy could just wing. But this year is going to be different. It’s decided. This year he’s going to have fun. “Yeah I’m Ready” _____________________________________________ The platform is brimming with magic. He can feel it in the air. He can see it through floating trunks and hear it through escaped fireworks. It’s nauseating. He completely lost sight of his mother and sister. Only a train full of magical kids can make them disappear into the crowd. Their fire red hair nearly always stands out. As they made their way through the energetic crowd his father kept a hand on his shoulder, likely to keep from losing him. Though it’s not like Albus is sprinting off to the train. Despite his new promise their walk feels like a funeral march. “Well, you may take your luggage” his dad announced, holding up his hands and taking a step back from the cart. Albus grabbed his dark brown trunk by the worn down leather handle. Its the same one he took every year since his third. His father looked down at the four remaining bags and frowned. “That’s it?” “The rest are Lily’s” “All those are Lil’s?” he asked with awe. Al snorted, “Are you really surprised?” A loud whistle interrupted their conversation. “I think that's your cue” said his dad with a small smile. Albus sighed dramatically before slowly turning around to face the steaming red and black train. His father ruffed his hair affectionately before he walked away. _____________________________________________Albus cautiously opened the door of the compartment. Millie told him to go to this particular one, and he knows too many troublemakers to be trusting. In the middle of the compartment was a muggle office chair. “Hello Albus” said Tav, as she slowly turned around in the chair. Her hair was a lot shorter than last year. Over the summer he helped her cut it shoulder length, but her beach waves made it bounce up a little higher. She had a sunburn across her nose and cheeks, giving her a permanent blush. “Did you bring that chair all the way here to do that?” “Potentially” she said, in a mock serious voice. “You're an idiot,” He scoffed. They made eye contact for half a second before both bursting into laughter. “So how did you get it here? Did you roll it through the train station” “I mean yeah. I didn’t know how to magic it and I can’t stand the hogwarts chairs, their so uncomfortable” “I guess you’ve never been good at transfiguration” “Oh shut up! I’m better than you” “Everyone is better than me” Tav rolled her eyes, “let’s not get all emo” “I’m not being emo. Not all emos are sad. Olivia dresses emo and she practically farts rainbows. Quit falling for stereotypes” “Wow. I’ve never seen you so passionate” “Fuck off I’m passionate about everything” “Not transfiguration” _____________________________________________Albus stared out the window as green hills passed by them. Tav’s chair has been rolling randomly around the compartment. He could probably spell it to the floor but its their only form of entertainment at the moment. He could always explore the train, but he felt too tired to bother. They’ve been sitting in silence for some time. Albus didn’t mind silence with Tav. It never felt awkward or painful. “Do you remember speed drifting?” Tav asks, unknowingly ruining his only moment of quiet since last school year. His house was never quiet. “Yeah” Over the summer Albus spent a few weeks with Tav’s family in America. One of her mums was American and they still lived there despite her going to school in England. Ms. Greengrass, her other mum, was extremely paranoid and wanted to be as far from english purebloods as possible. Well, thats what Tav told him. She never struck Albus as paranoid, especially after introducing them to illegal sporting. It’s a competition called speed drifting, and it’s not criminalized in some parts of America. Of course Tav fell in love at first sight. But for the first time he can understand why. It looks really fucking cool, and way cooler than quittich. Instead of sitting on their brooms, competitors balance on top of them. And instead of a game with quaffles and snitches they race and do tricks. Tav compared it to skateboarding. Albus has seen skateboarders in muggle movies, but he found drifting a lot cooler. “So I was thinking, why don’t people do that here?” “Because it’s illegal” “Well technically nothings illegal unless you get caught” Al sighed, he had an idea where this conversation was going. “I started messing around with my mom’s old broom and I was kinda getting the hang of it. Maybe with more practice we could learn to drift” “We?” “C’mon” “You know I hate quittich” “Well this isn’t quittich. Anyways”, she continued as if the matter was setted “if we get good than mayb-” Tav stopped mid-sentence as the compartment door slid open.
Olivia poked her head into the compartment and smiled at them. Her teeth starkly contrasted with her black lipstick.
“Hey guys!” She said cheerfully.
“Hey”
Olivia walked into the compartment and jumped into the seat next to Al. Scorpius trailed behind her, much more hesitant. No doubt that was because of Albus. Scorpius came from a well known deatheater family, the Malfoys. They were a powerful and wealthy family, until after the second war. Unfortunately for him, the Malfoy reputation followed Scorpius around. Tav and Scorp are cousins, so Albus has met him once or twice, but things were always awkward between him. Albus never hated Scorpius. He never assumed Scorpius was like them. Albus isn’t like most of his family, so who’s to say Scorpius is. He looked straight ahead where Scorpius sat next to Tav. He thought of one of the many pureblood portraits hanging at Hogwarts and compared it to the boy in-front of him. Scorpius had the classic high cheek bones, though his cheeks weren’t sunken. He had platinum blonde hair, the defining trait of a Malfoy. As Al looked at him more closely he released for the first time that Scorpius didn’t inherit the usual grey eyes, instead his were bright blue. They were such an extraordinary color that Albus struggled to believe they were human. They reminded Albus of clear beaches from holiday ads. Scorpius looked at him skeptically, having caught onto Al’s staring.
“We’re almost there” Olivia exclaimed, breaking Al’s trance, “we should probably change into our robes”
____________________________________________
Albus stared hungrily at the empty dishes. He heard something-travis and groaned. They were only at “T”. The sorting wasn’t near to over and he was starving. He perked up at the sound of a familiar name.
“Layla Thomas-finnigan” announced the professor, voice already dulling from reading so many names.
A little girl nervously approached the stool. The professor carelessly droped the hat onto her head. It balanced ontop of her tightly coiled head. She squeezed her eyes shut as soon as it fell ontop of her. Although he couldn’t hear much, Albus noticed the Griffindors whispering to eachother. Of course they knew who she was. Just like they knew who he was. A booming voice interrupted his thoughts.
“SLYTHERIN”
The poor girls face contorted into a mixture of fear, horror, and disappointment. Albus had very sudden flashbacks to his sorting. Instinctively he looked over that the griffindor table, and cringed at the memory of his brother’s face even though he wasn’t there. In the background he could hear the dull Rhythmic clapping of the slytherins around him. It was a no different response than they gave the other students. Somehow that helped settle the anxiety Albus was feeling on Lyla’s behalf. He looked across the table and made eye contact with Millie. Her eyes were filled with sympathy. Him and Millie weren’t particularly close but in this exact moment they understood eachother better than anyone.
Albus always knew of Millicent, the same way he knew of Lyla. Their parents were friends from school. A Potter-Weasley and a Patil-Brown were bound to meet. Around every holiday before Hogwarts they would get dragged to boring adult parties with their parents. Albus and Millie never talked much. She typically got along better with Rose. They would spent the entire evening obsesssing over quittich together and Albus would stay out of their way (He always found the sport extremely boring). But that changed after the sorting ceremony. The cruel hat placed both Millie and Albus in Slytherin, alienating them from their friends and family. On the bright side they became much closer during that first year. Despite being very different Millie became what Rose use to be to Al. They don’t talk much but Albus knows that if he ever needed help he could count on Millie, and vise versa.
The sorting continued on uneventfully. After the last name was sorted and great hall bursted into motion, hungry students not bothering to what for the feast to be announce before diving in. Albus just finished fulling his plate when Millie caught his attention. She motioned towards the other end of the table where the moppy first years sat in silence. Albus immediately spotted little lyla starring at her feet.
“I’ll be back in a sec” he said to Tav, who nodded in response.
He grabbed his plate and followed Millicent. During the sorting ceremony students are seated with their houses and year. Each house has a table with first years at one end and seventh year at the other. However, all order disappears during the great feast. Students migrate around the hall to sit next to their friends. Their was even a couple of daring Griffindors who moved to the professors’ table. They seemed to be chatting with professor Longbottom. Albus sat at the very end of the table next to Layla and across from Millie. He nudged Layla gently. She glanced up to him and back down at her empty plate.
“Remember me?”
“Yeah…Albus” she murmured.
“I’m Millie” the quittich caption announced to the group of first years. She looked around the group of nervous kids and back at Layla before smiling and stating, “I can tell that we are going to friends”