Albus Potter and Friends

With the Sorting Ceremony and feast now over, the school gradually silenced once again. Professor McGonagall, too, looked slightly tired and full-stomached. She rose to her feet and swept her arms wide.

“I hope you have enjoyed the feast, and once again, I’d like to welcome you to a fresh year at Hogwarts, where your magical education awaits. Needless to say, you will all need to be well-rested for your lessons in the morning. Prefects, and Head Boy and Girl, if you could escort your respective Houses to the dormitories in an orderly fashion. Goodnight!”

With a great scraping of benches and low rumbling of the students’ footsteps, the Hall slowly emptied. Albus and Scorpius followed their new House into the corridor, where they were directed by the Prefects.

Albus stifled a gasp as he looked around the magnificent castle. Above, great masses of staircases joined walls and doorways together, criss-crossing in every direction imaginable. And yet they weren’t ordinary staircases; every so often one would disconnect from a wall and move to a new one. How ever would Albus find his way around in such a place?

“Up this way, please!” The loud commanding voice of a Gryffindor Prefect interrupted Albus from his awe. He felt Scorpius pull his sleeve impatiently, leading him into the group of students now making their way up a long and winding staircase.

But there was more to Hogwart’s greatness than the magically charmed staircases. On the large sweeping walls portraits of every size loomed down on the students, their occupants easily able to move and talk.

“Ah, the first years… hopefully they’ll be as good as the last lot…”

Albus felt Scorpius jump beside him as a nearby portrait wisely studied the new students. Albus laughed as his friend gave an embarrassed smile and continued to walk on in a normal fashion as though nothing had happened. There was so much about this school he had learnt already that none of his family had told him – how much was there left to this school?

“Here we are – the Gryffindor common room.”

The congregation, after several minutes, had finally stopped outside a large portrait of a fat lady. The two boys, much like every other first year, swung their heads around wildly. There was no sign of a common room here…

The Prefect continued to talk. “The password is Snidget.” With those words, the Fat Lady portrait swung forwards to reveal a tunnel – which in turn led to the Gryffindor common room itself.

“Wow!” Scorpius exclaimed excitedly, seeing the comfy scarlet chairs sitting by a roasting fire. The circular room had that overall warm feeling, cosy yet large enough to fit the entire house.

“For the first years, Gryffindor will be like your family. Any time not spent in class or in the Hall eating is most likely to be spent here.” The Prefect pointed to two sets of staircases, each on the opposite sides of the room, where older students were already climbing. “Those staircases lead to the dormitories. On my left, the girls dormitory, and to my right, the boys. Your things will already be up there.”

“Come on Albus! We want to get good beds!” Scorpius once again tugged at Albus’ sleeve excitedly, almost breaking into a run to get get ahead of the other first year boys. They ran up the staircase until they came up to their vacated room near the top of the tower.

The room, although small, was occupied by six large poster beds, complete with hangings of the same scarlet colour as the chairs from the common room. Their trunks were sitting by the ends of the various neatly-made beds, obviously brought up from the train.

The first year boys changed into their pajamas, excitedly chattering away between themselves about the school day tomorrow. Among himself and Scorpius, there were three other boys – Jackson Feist, a tall, dark haired Muggle-born, the thin pale boy Douglas McCulloch, and the lively Thomas Andrews, of whom Scorpius’ family were friends with.

It wasn’t until Albus climbed into the fully warmed bed that he realised how tired he was. Nearly as soon as his head hit the pillow, he fell into a peaceful sleep.

--

Albus’ first day at Hogwarts began with an excited albeit nervous Socrpius awakening him with a pillow. Albus lazily rolled over in bed, feeling annoyed at the disruption to his lovely dream where he topped every class there was and was made Quidditch captain.

“Come on Albus, hurry up! Before we know it, breakfast’ll be over and we’ll be in our first class!”

Smiling in spite of Scorpius’ excitement, the eleven-year-old jumped out of bed and hastily changed into his robes. The two boys, now fully dressed and equipped for their lessons made their way down the dormitory staircase, through the common room and down to the Great Hall. The four tables were lined up just as they had been the previous night, although now they were laden with vast amounts of sausages, bacon, eggs and every other type of breakfast food imaginable. It was then that Albus saw who he guessed was their Head of House, a thin man dressed in long sweeping robes of navy blue. According to the students near him, the man was Professor Robinson. Albus wondered why the Professor wasn’t at their Sorting last night. Surely he should have been?

“Ah, so here we have some of our new first years, ready to set the world on fire! Although – not literally, I hope.” Professor Robinson beamed down at Albus and his friends with radiating pride. He pulled out a few squares of something which bore resemblance to a whiteboard. With a tap of the wand he handed the first year boys the squares – which turned out to be their timetables. As quickly as he had come, the head of house continued to move down the table.

“Hey, look at this! It looks like we have double Herbology first… didn’t you say you knew the Professor, Albus?”

“What? Oh – yeah…” His voice trailed off as he continued looking at what subjects he had that day. It appeared that he only had three subjects that day, each the length of a double period. Herbology, Transfiguration and Charms. Professor Longbottom, a close friend to both of his parents was the Herbology teacher, while as for Transfiguration and Charms, he had no idea…

“Hey Al!” The voice of his older brother James rung through his thoughts. James squeezed in between his brother and Scorpius, snatching the timetable from his brother and quickly scanning it.

“Herbology with Longbottom, Transfiguration with Robinson and Charms with ol’ Flitwick. Not a bad day, not a bad day…”

“Robinson teaches Transfiguration?”

James nodded. “Ever since McGonagall became Headmistress, but apparently it was hard finding a suitable new teacher because McGonagall was so good and had done it for so long.” Albus’ brother shrugged, pouring himself a goblet of pumpkin juice. “I’ve never had McGonagall so I can’t really compare. Robinson isn’t bad, you’ve just got to watch out for his hidden strictness. He tries to act all jolly all the time but really, he’s a grumpy old fool. Anyway, I’d better go, I’ve got Potions first and I don’t need Flint to get up my – well, you know what I mean – on the first day. See you guys later.” And with that, James picked up his bag and made his way for the exit.

“Should we make our way down to Herbology, then?” Albus asked his friend. Scorpius nodded, picking up his shoulder bag and following Albus out of the Great Hall and out into the sunshine.