A/N: Harry Potter – After the Epilogue continues the storyline from the Harry Potter – After the War fan fiction adventure. Beginning with Albus and Rose's first trip on the Hogwarts Express, we'll be going along with them on their magical journey at Hogwarts and beyond!

I hope that you enjoy this story as much as I continue to have fun with imagining what life is – and will be – like for Harry Potter, his family, their friends, and the rest of the Wizarding World!

As always, all thanks and appreciation to J.K. Rowling for creating the Harry Potter universe that we all love to come and play in so much!

**ATE Yr1 - Chapters 1-12; Yr2 - Chapters 13-24(Dec 2016); Yr3 - Chapters 25-36(July 2017); Yr4 - Chapters 37-48(Dec 2017); Yr5 - Chapters 49-60(July, 2018); Yr6 - Chapters 61-72(Dec 2018); Yr7 - Chapters 73-83(July 2019); Yr8 - Chapters 84-96(December 2019); **Yr9 - Chapters 97-109 - The final year; and this epic story is finally complete!**

Chapter One – Hogwarts – Express and Impress

"I'm free!" James declared enthusiastically once their family and platform nine and three-quarters was out of sight. He stood up and started walking toward the door. "I'm going to meet up with Ollie and the rest of our mates, so you're on your own, Al." He was already stepping out into the aisle, but grinned as he shot his parting comment at his brother. "If I don't see you again before the sorting ceremony; have fun in Slytherin!" With that, he was gone; deciding not to wait for Al to respond to his favorite jibe of the day – make that jibe of the month; at least when it came to his brother.

"Don't let him get you riled up," Rose told Al once James was gone. "Has he been doing that to you all morning?"

"Only before breakfast, while we ate, while we cleaned up and loaded the car, during the entire drive to the station, and a couple or three times since then," Al answered with a sigh that was more of an expression of annoyance than of sadness or regret. He was actually relieved that James had blown him off instead of hanging out for the entire trip as Ginny had suggested at breakfast. "How was your trip here?"

He actually directed that question to all of his travel companions; and the three Witches smiled at him. Rose had picked the compartment because she'd recognized one of the other Witches – and they'd still had enough room for three more. She knew Gwendolyn McCormack through Al and his family – and Ginny's close friendship with Gwendolyn's parents. Rose didn't know Bristol Wagtail, but Al had met her several times before through Gwendolyn because Bristol's father was one of Kirley McCormack's Weird Sisters band mates. They'd already learned that Gwendolyn and Bristol had come to the station together, and while Al and Rose hadn't seen their parents on the platform; Gwenog wouldn't have been there for sure since she'd have been at the Harpies' practice pitch with her team. It was a bit strange for Al to see that Gwendolyn and Bristol were good friends too; but then they'd known each other all of their lives too – just as he'd known Gwendolyn and her brother, Jonah, for as long as he could remember.

"Dad managed to get us to London in one piece," Rose answered first. "Other than the ride being a bit wild, and Hugo doing some mildly annoying whining about not getting to go to Hogwarts too; it was alright." She turned to Gwendolyn and waited for her to go next.

"I came with Dad and Jonah," Gwendolyn advised them. "We took the Floo to the Leaky; met up with Bristol and her family there; and then we all took a bus to King's Cross since our parents don't have cars."

Bristol laughed. "Could you even imagine either of my parents driving one? I can't."

"The Floo would have been loads faster than driving anyway," Rose said as Gwendolyn shook her head in response to Bristol's question. "Did you take a Muggle bus or the Knight Bus?"

"The Knight Bus," Bristol answered. "Mum says that the Muggles get freaked out if we get on one of their buses with our trunks and cages."

"I wasn't thinking about that," Rose admitted. "Muggle-repelling charms probably don't work very well on a crowded bus either; and we got stared at quite a bit just with gettting my things out of the car at the station."

"Mum shrunk our trunks so we could carry them on the Floo easy-enough; but we did take up quite a bit of space on the Knight Bus," Bristol said next; and then added – "we included my two older brothers; so we had eight spots on the bus plus all of our things." She smiled at Al. "At least your brother stayed with you until your parents were out of sight. Mine flat-out refused to mess up their precious reps by hanging out with a pair of firsties."

"Have they been bugging you about the sorting ceremony?" Al asked; and Bristol shook her head and laughed again.

"Lee went through that with Ron last year, so he didn't try it with me; and Ron must've gotten bored with it after last year. That wouldn't work for me anyway; since I know I'll be Gryffindor."

"I don't care what house I'm in as long as I can play Quidditch and it isn't Slytherin," Gwendolyn declared; and smiled at Al. "Gryffindor would be great, but they already have loads of really good Quidditch players; so I might not get to play every year on their teams."

"At least they have the junior and senior teams now," Rose pointed out. "Uncle Harry got to play from first year, but Dad and Aunt Ginny had to wait for years before getting their chance to play."

"It was like that for my Mom too," Gwendolyn said with a nod, "though since she was a Beater; that isn't surprising."

"Are you going to start talking Quidditch for the entire trip?" Bristol asked. "I might need to go for a walk around the train if you are."

"We can do that later," Al offered; though he'd have been happy to talk Quidditch with Rose and Gwendolyn. "What would you like to talk about instead – music?"

All three girls laughed, and Bristol shook her head. "I get loads of that every day at home, Al – especially now that Ron's starting to do so well with the Graves Robbers. We've got the weekend off before classes start on Monday, so what will we do over the next two days; and what do you think our classes will be like?"

"Some of us will have Quidditch tryouts tomorrow," Gwendolyn advised her friend with a grin. "The Junior teams are always picked on the first Saturday, and the Senior team tryouts are the second weekend; since they have until November for their first matches."

"I wish we did have at least one day of classes first," Rose told them. "Then we'd have had some assignments to do on the weekend."

"Are you kidding?' Bristol asked. "Why, in Merlin's name, would you want homework instead of a free weekend?"

"So we can practice the magic," Al answered before Rose could. "We'll be at Hogwarts, Rose. We can practice magic anyway – and you've already read at least as far into our textbooks as I have – and tried a few spells at home too."

"You have?" Gwendolyn exclaimed; feigning wide-eyed shock. "Did your Dad arrest you?"

"No, he didn't, and if you haven't tried a few spells from the books too; you might be one of the few kids that haven't."

"The Ministry doesn't make a big deal of that anymore if you're only practicing your lessons – unless the underage Witch or Wizard does something around Muggles; or that's dangerous," Rose pointed out.

"Using some of Uncle George's wheezes are a bigger deal than practicing something like levitation or color-change charms," Al offered. "James got in more trouble for trying to sneak a headless hat into our cousins' house one time we were visiting them than he would have for practicing magic at home – not that he was interested in studying during his holidays from Hogwarts last year."

"Or anytime he's at school either from what we heard of his first year," Rose added with a grin. "The cousins he's talking about are Muggles on his Dad's side of the family," Rose explained to Bristol when she looked confused at Al's comment. "Only his Dad's first cousin knows about them being Wizards and Witches. His wife and kids don't know anything about our world."

Bristol nodded. "The cousin that your Dad grew up with. I read about that somewhere. Could you even imagine growing up and not knowing you're a Wizard or Witch?"

"We'll have Muggle-born classmates," Gwendolyn pointed out; "so you can ask them what it's like; though I've heard the stories for both Al's Dad and Rose's Mum; so it doesn't seem that weird to me."

"I guess," Bristol conceded; "but it must still be hard to deal with the magic without anyone to help you with it."

"Mum had a happy childhood," Rose told them. "I don't know how often it goes badly for Muggle-born kids the way it did for Uncle Harry; but then it's not always very good for kids in normal magical families either."

"True, which is why none of us want to be in Slytherin," Bristol suggested. "They're the worst of the worst at Hogwarts – and everywhere else."

"Not all of them are," Al said quietly and sincerely. "There are some good ones now and then."

"You sound like your Dad, while mine was just telling me to beat Scorpius Malfoy on every test and not get too friendly with him," Rose teased with a laugh. "What did you think about that?"

Al shrugged. "I doubt it'll be a problem for either of us – unless he ends up in the same house with us."

"From what I've heard about the Malfoy's, he'll have a tough time in whatever house he's sorted to," Bristol suggested. "Their old buddies are either in prison or dead; none of those surviving families on their side of the war will have anything to do with them; and nobody on our side will ever trust them."

"Suddenly I'm feeling so much better that we'll only have all of the kids of the bad guys hating on us," Rose joked. "All of our cousins have had to deal with that at school."

"Maybe we should switch to another compartment," Gwendolyn suggested to Bristol; though she was grinning at Rose. "Hanging out with Auror kids could be bad for our health this year."

"Let's just see how it goes," Bristol suggested. "We can always disown them later if things get tough." She was grinning too; but might have been half-serious – it was hard for Rose or Al to tell.

The conversation moved along, and they settled in for the long trip. Bristol and Gwendolyn did go for a walk about an hour into the journey, but Rose and Al stayed in the compartment and instead had cousins visiting them. Dominique and Lucy were the first to check in on them; Victoire and Molly visited while taking a turn patroling the train; and Louis stopped by while doing the rounds to check in with all of his Quidditch mates. He was the Junior team Captain and Keeper this year; so he was also checking out the firstie talent both for Gryffindor and the competition – even before the sorting ceremony. Louis also had fun teasing Al during his little visit about being the only Wizard in a compartment with three beautiful Witches, but Al didn't mind the jokes; and preferred to be sharing the trip with Rose – and with Gwendolyn; since she was one of the handful of friends he had grown up with – in her case; thanks to their mothers' close friendship.

When the trolley stopped at their compartment, they each picked out some treats and drinks to go along with the lunches they'd brought; and then they had a bit of a pot-luck lunch so that they could share the different candies – and the food from home where those choices were particularly good. That, and a lot of talk about what it was going to be like for them at Hogwarts, kept them busy for quite a while; but the trip began to drag on and on by late-afternoon as the novelty wore off and they began to get restless and were past-ready to get to Hogsmeade station.

They knew when they were getting close to Hogsmeade when more and more of the students could be seen walking around the train wearing their school robes; and they eventually put theirs on too. For Rose, that meant putting it on again; though it had taken her a while to realize that it was going to be too uncomfortable to wear it for the entire trip. It was dusk by the time they arrived, and the train aisles were soon clogged with a swarm of students as they rushed to get off of the train. Instead of trying to rush for the exits too; Al and the girls waited for the first mad dash to wind down before getting in line as the chaos calmed a bit. That's why they were barely out on the platform when Hagrid called for the first-year students to follow him down to the boats while the rest of the students lined up for the carriage rides.

"Hello Albus, Rose," Hagrid said in welcome when he saw them. The kids were already well-along in getting loaded into the boats by then; and he waved their little group into the boat next to the one he would be in.

"Hi, Professor Hagrid," Rose answered for them; smiling and happy to see him again. "Our Mums and Dads send their love – even if James and Al have to be too cool to tell you."

"James said that, not me," Al reminded her; and Rose laughed.

"Okay, but I beat you to it."

They didn't have time to talk with Hagrid right then as he continued to get the rest of the firsties into the boats; and Al guessed that there were eighty or ninety in their class; most of them looking wide-eyed and amazed as they kept one eye on Hagrid while also taking in everything else around them. Since they'd been closer to the back of the pack than the front, it wasn't long before they moved out across the lake; torches flickering in the breeze and barely lighting their way in the darkness. When the castle came into view; there was a collective gasp of wonder; and while Al was as impressed as his classmates; he also noticed Hagrid's look of amusement mixed in with pride for his school. He'd known how much Hagrid loved Hogwarts, but experiencing the moment made it more real – and helped him understand a bit better why his father felt so strongly about Hogwarts too – despite all of the bad that had happened to him back then.

Once they were docked at the landing, Al and the group in the first few boats were among the first to disembark; and then they moved toward the stairs leading up to the castle to make room for all of their fellow first year students. Hagrid made sure that he had all of the kids out ofthe boats first; and then led the way until waving them through the doors into the school. There was another flight of stairs to climb; and one of their Professors waited for them at the top.

"Welcome to Hogwarts," Professor Clearwater told them; her tone warm and welcoming. "I am Professor Clearwater, Head of Ravenclaw; and one of your Transfiguration teachers. In a few moments, we will be entering the Great Hall for the sorting ceremony; where you will each be placed in one of the four Houses. They are Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. Your House will be your home and the students will be your family while you are here at Hogwarts." She smiled while taking a moment to look around at the kids lining the stairs below her. "Many of you may already know that the four Houses compete each year for the House Cup, and through your good deeds and accomplishments; you may earn points that aid your House to be awarded that worthy honor – or lose points instead through your misdeeds." She looked at her watch and nodded. "Wait here for a moment, and when I return; we will begin the processional into the Great Hall."

"Professor Clearwater dated our Uncle Percy when they were students at Hogwarts," Rose whispered to Gwendolyn and Bristol once the Professor was out of earshot; and both girls grinned at her.

"That could be good or bad for you in Transfiguration," Bristol suggested. "If they had a bad break-up; that might not work out very well for you."

"James did okay in her class; so we should be okay if she's teaching the first-years again this year," Al suggested.

"It's a wonder James did well at anything when he doesn't try very hard with his studies – except maybe for DADA," Rose added with a nod of agreement.

That was the last comment they had time for before Professor Clearwater returned and encouraged all of the firsties to follow her. Their first experience in the Great Hall was thrilling and enchanting. Al and Rose were as impressed as most firsties always were each year; and they walked in silence toward the front of the cavernous room. The candles, magical ceiling, and everything else about the place kept them busy while looking around and trying to take it all in. Getting lined up at the front took a couple of minutes, and since they'd been near the front of the group; Al and Rose were in the front row with a full view of the Professors' table. There were now eighteen Professors, though only sixteen were at the table. Al knew that Firence didn't come to the Great Hall for meals; though he could if he chose to do so. Other than making eye contact with the Professors he did know, like Neville; Al didn't have time for more than that before Professor Clearwater was ready to go; and Professor McGonagall stood up. The buzz of conversations dimmed to near-silence almost immediately.

"Good evening," she began; her voice easily resonating throughout the room; her tone clipped and concise. "To our newest students – welcome; and for all those returning – welcome back!" She'd glanced around the room and along each of the four long rows of tables; and then returned her attention to the students standing at the front of the hall.

"For those of you who do not yet know me, I am Professor McGonagall; Headmistress of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Before we begin the sorting ceremony; I have a few announcements to make."

Al half tuned-out as Professor McGonagall advised – or reminded – her students of some of the rules at Hogwarts. He knew all of them because his cousins, brother, and Teddy had all talked about them before; and none were a surprise. There was the Forbidden Forest rule and the ban on using any of the various types of magical mirrors in classrooms or the library were just two of them; so it took a few minutes to get through all of that before Professor Clearwater was asked to begin the sorting ceremony. She already had the stool in place; and then set the sorting hat on it so that it could sing its song.

Welcome home, young Wizards true;

And our lovely Witches too!

At Hogwarts you will find your place;

Learn a magical thing or two.

While this castle is your home away from home;

Your House is your family.

So my job tonight, if I do it right;

Is to take a look at you and see.

If you have the nerve, are daring, and chivalrous at heart;

Then brave Gryffindor may be the place for you to start.

The just and true and loyal;

In Hufflepuff may toil;

But if you are keen for learning, and have a witty mind;

Then fair Ravenclaw will surely be where you will find your kind.

Finally, in Slytherin, the cunning will find a friend;

So let's get started, try me on, for this song is at and end!

Professor Clearwater opened a scroll and called for the first student to be sorted. Al knew that he had a while to wait, and that Rose would be near to the last firstie called to be sorted; but he watched as avidly as any of the kids while the first half-dozen kids were sorted. There weren't any long pauses for any of those kids, and they all seemed happy-enough with the choices the sorting hat made for them; so hd began to relax just a little. He thought about the song that the sorting hat had come up with this year, and wondered whether the hat was a bit biased toward Gryffindor; since it seemed to give that House more weight in the song. He knew from the stories he'd heard from his family that the sorting hat did have a connection to the Sword of Gryffindor; so maybe there was something to that; though maybe it really was just the way the song turned out this year.

Al's focus and interest returned to the sorting ceremony each time that one of the kids he at least knew of or had met through his parents' friends and co-workers were called to be sorted. While those Quidditch, Auror, and Ministry of Magic kids were sorted into Hufflepuff or Ravenclaw; the only kid that Al knew of through Quidditch to be sorted into Gryffindor was Andy Kirke. That wasn't exactly promising for the Quidditch team prospects, since his father, Andrew, had been a Beater for the Cannons – and, according to Uncle Ron; he and his partner, Jack Sloper, were the worst Beater duo ever to play the game.

They were about half-way through the ceremony when Scorpius Malfoy was called forward; and that name seemed to bring a short pause to the buzz of quiet conversations that had been going on as the sorting dragged on with so many students. Scorpius seemed to just ignore everything around him as he stepped up and sat on the stool; and he seemed to be confident and self-assured. The hat didn't even touch his head before shouting out "Slytherin!" To Al it almost seemed as though the hat didn't want to touch the boy; but that had to just be his imagination and a few too many stories about the Malfoy family taking him there. He wasn't the only one having a reaction to Scorpius, though; and his welcome to the Slytherin table was just one step above the silent treatment. That had Al feeling a bit guilty over his own thoughts; but that didn't really do anything to change his first impression of the other boy.

It wasn't much longer before Gwendolyn was invited to come and sit on the stool; and she smiled at Al before stepping forward to do that. By then there had been a few pauses in the action as the sorting hat seemed to need extra time to choose the right House for the student; so it wasn't really a surprise when Gwendolyn seemed to have a little conversation with the hat. Finally, after long moments; the hat shouted out – "Ravenclaw!" Gwendolyn received a loud round of cheers from her new House mates; and happily hurried over to join the other new Ravenclaw firsties.

"Gryffindor's loss there," Rose whispered to Al; and he nodded.

"Let's just hope that won't mean losses in the games too," Al whispered back – "especially if we're playing in those matches."

"We can hope to be," Rose had time to add before the next sorting choice was made. Al was the next of their little foursome to be called; and he squeezed his cousin's hand before letting go and a bit hesitantly walking up to the stool and turning to sit down. The students had gone quiet again, just as they had for Scorpius; but this time there was a definite sensation of anticipation – along with an undercurrent of ungly anger coming from many of the students at the Slytherin table. Al wondered that he sensed all of that; but then his attention was all for the sorting hat as it was placed on his head and it spoke to him.

"Well, well – another Potter this year! Welcome, my boy! Let's see what we have here." There was a pause that was only accompanied by a few 'hmms'; a 'quite like your father', and a 'with a touch or two of your grandmother and mother too' before the hat seemed ready to make a decision. "With great hope and honor, I choose for you to be," the hat said only to him before shouting – "Gryffindor!"

Al stood as soon as Professor Clearwater lifted the hat from his head, and felt a bit dazed as he walked over to the Gryffindor table. All of the students there were cheering for him; though he did catch James mouth – 'must've made a mistake' to him before having a laugh about it with his friends. Victoire greeted him with a hug and kiss on the cheek that had the other firsties even more amazed than those who didn't yet know him already were; and then he sat down next to Andy Kirke and tried to keep enough space there for Rose to sit with him – while hoping with all of his heart that she would be in Gryffindor too.

Rose liked her last name just fine, but it was a pain when it came to alphabetical order. For the ceremony, that was a physical pain; since all of the students at the tail-end of the group were stuck standing still for a long time while waiting for all of the other firsties to be sorted ahead of them. She smiled when Bristol was finally called; and the other girl sighed in relief; ready to just get it over and done with instead of worried about it – despite professing a certainty that she'd be sorted to Gryffindor. That assertion soon proved to be spot-on; and the sorting hat was barely on her head before it sent her off to join Al and the other firsties at the Gryffindor table. While the sorting was supposed to be done based on what was best for each student, Rose had still been keeping track of the number of kids being sorted to each House; and wondered how often there was a big mis-match – or if that ever happened. This year, Hufflepuff had a slight lead over the other Houses; Gryffindor and Ravenclaw were in the middle; and Slytherin had the fewest so far. That didn't exactly worry her; but it did have her thinking a bit too much about James razzing Al so much about being in Slytherin. Her name was called; and it was time to move.

"A Weasley!" the hat told her, sounding quite pleased. "We have so many this year, maybe we should just change the name of the school to Weasley's School for Witchcraft, Wizardry, and Wheezes, eh?" it joked; and Rose laughed. The hat paused for a moment. "Your mind shines as brightly as your mother's my dear; but your heart is destined to be brave – Gryffindor!" Only the last word had been shouted out for all to hear; and there was another loud round of applause as Rose hurried over to join her cousins at the Gryffindor table. She got her hug and kiss from Victoire first; and then sat down between Al and Bristol as they managed to nudge their neighbors into making enough room for her.

"It talked to you too?" Al whispered once she was sitting down; and Rose nodded; her smile bright and happy. "What was so funny?"

"It joked with me about having to rename the school with so many Weasleys here this year. Weasley's School for Witchcraft, Wizardry, and Wheezes does have a nice ring to it; don't you think?"

"Did it say anything else?" Al asked next after they'd both laughed; and Rose shrugged.

"It told me my mind shines as brightly as Mum's; but that my heart is destined to be brave Gryffindor. You?"

"I'm like my Dad with a touch of my Grandmother and Mum mixed in," he answered; and decided to skip telling her the part about the hope and honor.

"Did you ask which Grandmother?" Rose teased; and Al laughed again.

"No, but either would be a compliment."

"True," Rose agreed before their attention was brought back to the sorting ceremony.

Madison Whitby was the daughter of Quidditch stars Kevin Whitby and Laura Madley; and the Hufflepuff students seemed to be very happy to get her in their House; and shortly after that, Ray Wood was sorted to Gryffindor. Al knew Ray through Ginny and the Harpies; since his mother was the Harpies' Keeper for Ginny's first three seasons – and their World Cup championship run. Oliver Wood was his uncle too; so there was a lot of Quidditch background in Ray's family – even if his side of the Wood family wasn't quite as famous.

The last student standing this year was Davis Zabini. The older students didn't pay any attention to him, since he had older siblings at Hogwarts and it wasn't a big deal anymore; but Al paid attention to him because it was the first time he'd seen one of the 'Azkaban kids' in person. He did know from James and his cousins that all of the kids of parents in the prison hated the Potters and Weasleys; but hearing about that wasn't at all the same as experiencing it – which he did when Davis looked right at him with an expression of contempt while walking toward the Slytherin table once he'd been sorted to that House. For Al, it wasn't simply the expression on the boy's face; he sensed the dark animosity from the other boy – just as he was still sensing a dark emnity directed his way anytime certain Slytherins looked his way – or maybe even just thought about him. That was new for him; and Al expected that it would take some time to figure out those feelings and sensations, but since he could also sense a lot of good feelings in the room; it wasn't entirely unpleasant or worrisome.

With the sorting ceremony finished, Professor Clearwater took the stool and hat with her and went to sit with the other Professors and school staff at the head table. Professor McGonagall waited for her; and then called for the feast to begin. The tables were suddenly loaded down with platters and bowls of food; and the noise level rose dramatically as the students were free to fill their plates; enjoy the meal; and, for the firsties, get to know their table mates. The House ghosts entered the Great Hall then too; and Sir Nicolas came along the Gryffindor table beginning at the back end of the room; welcoming 'his' students.

"You're Nearly-Headless Nick!" Andy exclaimed; and Al groaned silently; suspecting what was coming next.

"Why are you called Nearly-Headless?" one of the other boys Al hadn't yet met asked.

"I prefer to be called Sir Nicolas," the spectre said with an impatient sigh, but if you must know – this is why I have been given that other, unwanted name."

On the 'this' he showed all of the firsties why he was nearly headless; and the reactions ranged from gagging to fascination. The fact that he continued to talk while his head was tilted far to the side had a few of the older Gryffindors closest to them laughing at the ghost and the firsties. Sir Nicolas moved on then; and Al tried not to think about what they'd just seen while trying to enjoy the amazing food.

"One of these years, he's going to be shocked when none of the kids ask him about that," Rose suggested; earning laughs from Al, Bristol, and a couple of the other kids that overheard her.

"Wasn't your Mum the one to ask in her first year?" Al asked; and Rose nodded.

"Yeah, and she still wishes she hadn't. Now we know why."

While Al mostly talked with Rose and Bristol; they did begin to meet the kids sitting closest to them. The boy who had asked Sir Nicolas why he was nearly headless was Romeo Remilard, a Muggle-born Wizard; and he was already becoming mates with Dave Wilson – another Muggle-born student. Anna Donaldson and Fiona Birch rounded out the group across the table from them; Al spent a bit of time talking with Andy Kirke; and Rose and Bristol were also able to talk with Amelia Hart; who was sitting next to Bristol's right side. The only other kids that Al did know, Ray Wood and Sonny Towler, were sitting at the end of the table; and too far away to talk with them.

The feast continued for quite a while, until most students were stuffed beyond all reason; and then it was time for the Prefects of each House to lead their fellow students up to their Common rooms and dorms. For the Gryffindors, that meant a long trek up to the seventh floor; and that was quite a feat for some after over-indulging during the meal. Victoire was Head Girl, so she led the way with the other Gryffindor Prefects; and she explained how to get into the Common room through the hole behind the portrait of the Fat Lady to her cousins and the other firsties.

"Password, please," the Fat Lady requested; and Victoire smiled.

"Purple Pygmy Puffs."

"Correct – and aren't they the cutest things?" the Fat Lady said with a nod before the portrait swung open to reveal the large hole that led into the Gryffindor common room.

The room had obviously been made to be magically larger than the physical tower allowed; and all of the firsties looked around in amazement at what was basically the sitting room of their home away from home for the next seven years. Victoire had a few more instructions and announcements for the firsties before setting them free; and Al and Rose did the same thing that most of the other firsties did – went to meet up with family members and older friends.

While the sorting hat had just been teasing Rose, they did have a lot of cousins to check in with. Dominique and Lucy were together, since they were also best friends and Quidditch team mates; so Al and Rose had a little visit with them; but kept it short so they didn't get in the way of their cousns' reunion with other friends. Al and Rose did get hugs from both girls, along with congratulations for being in Gryffindor; but Al was the sole recipient of the teasing from the other girls with his cousins – either for getting the hugs; or for not hugging them too. Louis was talking Quidditch with his buddies when they crossed paths with him, and while there weren't any hugs between the guys; Louis was happy to share a hug with Rose; have both of them in his House; and hoped they'd each do well at the Junior team tryouts in the morning. Molly was as busy with her Prefect duties as Victoire was with Head Girl responsibilities, so they didn't talk with her for more than a moment or two, but then of all of their older cousins; Molly was the least-close to Al and Rose anyway.

There were quite a few friends that they knew through their parents' friends; and they didn't get to visit with all of them before Daniella Rivers and Jensen Scott called for the first year girls and boys respectively so that they could take them to their dorm rooms. Since they were five years younger, Al and Rose didn't know Daniella and Jensen as well as some of their cousins did; but they had been at family parties for the Aurors with them at least once a year; so the two teens greeted them by name and welcomed them as they gathered their groups and headed for the two seperate staircases.

When Jensen led the firstie boys into their dorm room; they could see that it was magically expanded beyond what would be the actual size of the tower to make room for the ten beds needed for their group. Since their trunks had already been delivered to the foot of each four-poster bed; they obviously did not get to choose their neighbors. Al guessed that some care had been taken for that, though; since some of the boys who were already making new friends were also neighbors too.

He hadn't really done that yet, though it amused him to think they might have paired him up with Rose and Bristol if they had co-ed dorms. Since it was a round room, everyone had two neighbors – except for the two boys on each side of the doorway. Al's bed was at the other end of the room from the door, and his neighbors were Ray Wood on his left and Romeo Remilard on his right – from a sitting in bed perspective. As they each went to check out their beds and relax before getting ready to go to sleep; Romeo had nodded at Al; but continued to talk with his other neighbor and new friend; Dave Wilson. Ray had the same issue with his neighbor; so that pretty much paired them up so they'd each have someone to chat with about their first experiences at the school.

"This is better than my bed at home," Ray told Al as he hopped up on it and checked it out; "but it's going to be weird not having my own room."

"I was just thinking that too," Al admitted. "This will be a lot different than home." He smiled as he thought of Lily. "My sister will be thinking the same thing now that she'll be an only child for the next two school years. She wanted to come here with James and me so much; I wish she could have."

"My sister is happy to have our parents to herself," Ray advised Al with a nod and laugh. "If Lily's starting here in two years; they'll be in the same year too." He looked around the room and then smiled as he turned back to Al. "Do all of those stares bug you?" he asked quietly. "You get that way worse than my cousins ever do – even when we're at one of Uncle Oliver's games."

"It just seems weird to me, but they'll get over it soon enough," Al answered with a shrug. "James likes the attention and milks it for all he can."

"No wonder he's best mates with Ollie," Ray said with a nod. "They're both show-offs and like to have fun – usually while playing pranks or goofing around."

"At least you get to send your cousin home if you've had enough of him," Al pointed out. "I'm stuck with James – at least until we're adults."

"We'll be stuck with both of them while we're here," Ray reminded him. "I know I'll be watching out for the wheezes and pranks from Ollie this year."

"Same here with James," Al agreed with a nod. "He'll be trying to prank me for sure. Are you trying out for the team tomorrow?"

"Yeah, you?"

"Rose and I both are. She wants to be a Keeper like her Dad, but will be trying out for Chaser with me; since Louis is Captain; so the Keeper spot isn't open. She might try out for the reserve Keeper if she doesn't make the team as a Chaser."

"Then I guess we'll be going after the same spots – unless you're going to try and beat James out at Seeker."

"I don't want to do that," Al said seriously. "My brother is a bad winner when it comes to Lily and me; and an even worse loser. It just isn't worth it either way; but then I prefer playing as a Chaser anyway – even if everyone else in my family thinks that being a Seeker is the best job on the team."

"Well, it won't bother me at all if the three of us beat Ollie out for the Chaser jobs," Ray suggested. "He's gotten quite a bit better this summer, though, so that probably isn't going to happen."

"Did you play Quidditch with him much over the holidays?" Al aasked. "I'm pretty sure that we had at least a few of my cousins at our house nearly every week day to play on our pitch all summer – except when we were away on vacation. Ollie was over for the practices Louis set up for the players that were on the team last year too, but I tried to avoid James and Ollie as much as possible whenever they were together."

"Melissa and I went to hang out with our cousins once or twice a week; and they stayed with us the week training camp opened this year too. Sometimes Mum wishes that she still played for the Harpies; but changes her mind when she sees my uncle and her friends looking sore and beat up for the first few weeks of the season."

"My Mum might still give it a go if she gets the chance; though Aunt Gabrielle isn't in any hurry to retire to make room for Mum on the Harpies' team – and I seriously doubt that she'd ever play for anyone else."

"At least you got to see your Mum play for the Harpies when she covered for your Aunt Gabrielle," Ray said. "My Mum couldn't try to do that 'cause she was having Melissa and me too close to when Mrs. Summers took time off to have her kids."

"Mum says she only did that because it was easier than reporting on the Harpies games would have been if she'd done that instead for those seasons," Al said with a laugh. "I remember the last season she played better than that first one, and it was really cool; but I don't know how I'd feel about it if she played while we're here at Hogwarts."

"My cousins don't seem to mind – even when the girls put up posters of my uncle in the girls' orms. They might not feel the same way about that if it was our Mums, though."

"One of the guys in James' dorm did bring in an old poster of Mum after Christmas last year; but he thought it was a great joke."

"Thanks for the good idea," Ray teased; and Al laughed.

"Go ahead," he offered. "I'm sure that Mum could find one of your Mum's posters for me if I asked her." He looked at his watch. "Speaking of talking to someone, I promised Lily that I'd have a mirror chat with her tonight; so I'd better do that before it's too late."

He hopped off of his bed and went to open his trunk. He'd left his mirror in there; since he hadn't expected to use it while on the train or during the feast; and smiled when Ray got out his own mirror; apparently planning on making a call home too – and looking relieved that he hadn't been first to suggest it.

"Hello, Lily," Al said quietly as he sat on his bed again. His mirror chimed softly three times before his sister's smiling face appeared in his mirror. She certainly looked much happier than she had when they'd left on the train.

"Hi, Al," she said happily. "I knew you wouldn't forget to call like James did last year – not that he really forgot us that fast like he said he did. Tell me about everything."

"Hi back; I miss you; and it's nice to see you looking happy again," Al said first; and Lily laughed.

"I miss you too, and Mum and Dad took me out for a play day to help cheer me up. I guess being an only child until Christmas won't be so bad after all."

"What did you do today that was so much fun?"

While Lily had wanted to hear all about his day too; she did give him her report first before prompting him to tell her all about his trip, the sorting ceremony, and the feast. She also wanted to say hello to Ray; and they all had a laugh when she also had a little chat with Ray's sister while the two brothers just looked on while holding their mirrors so that the girls could see each other. Both calls were ended when Al noticed that a couple of the guys were getting ready to change into night clothes; though Lily teased him about that before wishing him good night – and good luck at the tryouts on Saturday.

Al and Ray both got changed then; went to the washrooms; and then climbed into their beds and settled in for the night. All of the boys seemed to be waiting for the first to take the big step of dousing the bedside lights; so Al was first to do that after getting a nod of agreement from Ray. Since he was tired out by then, and had a Quidditch tryout in the morning; Al didn't wait for any of the other guys to follow his lead; and he was soon sleeping soundly – and dreaming of what he hoped would be a great start to his first year at Hogwarts.

When he woke in the early, pre-dawn light of morning; it took Al a moment to realize where he was; and then he was fully-awake and sitting up in bed. None of the other guys were awake yet, so he tried to be quiet as he grabbed his bathroom kit and a change of clothes before heading for the shower – wanting to beat the pre-breakfast rush that his cousins and Teddy had assured him happened most mornings. He wasn't alone when he got there, but didn't know any of the older boys; and tried to ignore the fact that he really was just a kid compared to the taller teens. He had returned the smiles and nods they'd directed toward him; but then they'd all just mostly ignored him as he got ready for his shower. That first experience had been uncomfortable, but he survived it – even after there were quite a few more guys in the room by the time he was ready to get dressed. Ray had been there too by then; so at least he had company in that club and they could joke about it a bit as they crossed paths.

Once he was ready to go, he went back to his dorm room, where half of the guys were still sleeping; and put his things away. He followed the instructions for dealing with laundry too; though leaving that for the school House Elves to do for him seemed weird too. The last thing he did before heading to the common room was to check the Wizarding Wireless Web for the weather forecast; and then he grabbed his Quidditch gear bag and quietly left the room. He still had lots of time before needing to move on to the Great Hall for breakfast; but he was hoping to have time to talk with Rose before going there with her – and then on to the Gryffindor Junior Team tryouts.

The comparative quiet in the common room seemed almost shocking compared to the noise level from the previous night; but Al wasn't alone in the room either as he picked an armchair not far from the stairway to the girls' dorms so that Rose would see him when she came into the room. He was already becoming sure that he was going to miss having someplace to go to be alone when he wanted to do that; as he could do at home. Louis was the first familiar face he saw in the room, but he was with a couple of his mates, and only stopped to wish Al a good morning and nod approvingly when seeing that Al had his Quidditch gear with him too. They'd gone out into the hall right away, but Al continued to wait as several of his cousins and a few friends passed through the room before Rose made her appearance. By then, Ray had caught up with him; and they both stood as Rose and Bristol walked over to them.

"Good morning, Al," Rose said cheerfully; leaving her Quidditch bag over her shoulder and expecting that they'd all head for the Great Hall. "Hi, Ray. Have you met Bristol Wagtail before? No? Bristol, this is Ray Wood. His Mum played Keeper for the Harpies with Al's Mum for the first three seasons she was in the league. How many years was she with the Harpies before that, Ray?"

"For ten years total," Ray answered. "She always says that the last three were the best, though."

"No doubt, with three League Championships and a Quidditch World Cup," Bristol suggested. She smiled at Rose. "Don't look so surprised – most of the Weird Sisters' kids are either Harpies fans or Prides faithful. I've probably heard as many Harpies stories from Aunt Gwenog as you've heard from Al's Mum." She laughed at the look of confusion on Ray's face. "The band members and their wives are all our unofficial aunts and uncles for their kids," she explained. "Don't the Harpies' kids do that too?"

"Not in my case," Ray answered first; and Rose and Al both laughed.

"Technically, yes for us – at least for some of the Harpies," Rose said; speaking for both of them. "Aunt Gabrielle is our real Aunt Fleur's sister, though, so that one probably doesn't count the same; and you both know that Aunt Angelina is actually our Aunt for real too." She paused for a moment and then continued. "We call Alicia our aunt because she's such good friends with Aunt Angelina; but I guess that's it for the current players – at leat for me. Aunt Gwenog might turn us into wood lice if we called her Mrs. McCormack, but then I don't see her nearly as often as Al does; so that's a bigger deal for him than me anyway."

"Now that sounds familiar," Bristol agreed with another laugh and nod. "We should get going in case we get lost finding our way to the Great Hall – unless you want to wait and follow some older teens there."

"We can find our way," Al said confidently; picking up his bag and settling the strap onto his shoulder. "Ladies first," he offered with a wave and half-bow.

"Practicing the Gryffindor chivalry already?" Rose teased; and Al grinned.

"Minding my manners as ordered," he countered. "Put in a good word for me next time you talk to my Mum – you never know when I'll need that to make up for when she's cross with me."

"James has that covered for you every day," Rose suggested as they reached the portrait hole and took turns climbing out. "Most of the trouble you do get into is thanks to him too."

"True, but I usually went along with his schemes; so I can't complain about sharing the consequences." Al didn't mention that when he did go along with James' schemes that it was usually because that was easier than refusing and then dealing with the consequences of defying James when he really wanted something; but then that really was still ultimately his own choice.

Those comments gave them a topic for the walk to the Great Hall; and kept them entertained until they sat down near the front end of the table. Al was happy to make sure that he left James lots of space between them and the second year group; though he knew his brother would be among the last to get to the hall. He was definitely not a morning person; but could stay up half the night watching WWMN shows, playing his favorite mirror games, or surfing on the Wireless Web. James hadn't even stopped in to see Al after getting to the common room after the feast, but he did check in with him when he got to the Great Hall with Ollie Wood and a group of guys that were all carrying Quidditch bags. They dropped their bags off where they were going to sit, and only James and Ollie continued on to where Al was sitting with Ray and the girls.

"Did you have to call Mum and cry yourself to sleep last night?" James said with a coarse laugh instead of starting with any pleasantries. "I see you've brought your gear. That's probably a waste of time. You know that Louis won't give you a break just because you're his cousin, but if you cry when you mess up your tryout; maybe he'll take pity and offer you a job cleaning up the locker room for us after practices and games." He turned to Rose next and smiled. "Are you trying out to be Louis' back-up? You might have a shot at that, if only a really slim one – and only because there won't be much competition when there's no chance to actually play in real games for Gryffindor."

"I might; but I'm trying out for Chaser first," Rose advised him.

"You'll have a lot of competition for that today," James said; shaking his head. "Try not to embarrass the entire family when you don't even make the practice team; since I doubt you've got any chance at all against the rest of our mates."

"Ditto that for you, Ray," Ollie told his cousin with a grin. "If Louis gives Al that job in the locker room; you'll be totally out of luck!" He laughed and looked at James for a moment before continuing. "Maybe Ray and Al think that they'll be like you and me last year if they hang out together."

"Not going to happen," James declared; "but you can't blame them for wanting to imitate us – even if they don't have a chance of measuring up."

"Wow, thanks for all of that love and encouragement," Rose told him sarcastically. "Best of luck at the tryouts to you too, James."

"We are the best," James shot back glibly. "Luck is for copycats and losers like Al and Ray here." With that, the two boys sauntered off; leaving Al, Rose, and Ray all more than a bit annoyed.

"Why does he do that?" Rose demanded quietly so that only Al, Ray, and Bristol would hear her. "He knows that we're fair Quidditch players; so it's just stupid to razz us like that."

"He thinks it's funny," Al answered; trying to just shrug it off as he usually did. "Gryffindor won the Quidditch Cup last year, but he doesn't seem to remember that was thanks to Victoire and the Senior team; not the Junior team. His team only won one match, while Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw each had two wins."

"But their team had the most points," Ray reminded them. "Ollie must've told me that a hundred times or more this summer."

"That's what James kept telling us too," Al said with a nod; "but that only matters for a tie-breaker; and those extra points didn't matter in the end anyway." He shrugged and smiled. "James did practice hard all summer, though; so he's bound to do better against the other Seekers this year."

"And with that, I think it's time to change the subject," Bristol told them.

"Okay," Rose agreed amiably. "Are you going to the tryouts to cheer us on?"

"Not if we're going to be talking sports all through breakfast too," Bristol countered. "I'd rather hear about what it was like in the boys' dorms last night; or talk about nearly anything else."

Rose, Al, and Ray helped her out with that; and it wasn't long before the food appeared on the tables and they were kept busy filling their plates and enjoying their first Hogwarts breakfast. Gryffindor had the first time slot for their tryouts; and Rose, Al, and Ray went there early to get ready for them. They were among the first to get to the stadium; and had their gear on and were waiting for the rest of the hopefuls to arrive when Mr. Peakes cmae onto the pitch to meet with Louis. After speaking with the junior team Captain for a few moments, Louis got Al's attention and waved him over. Rose and Ray came with him; and Louis did the introductions.

"Mr. Peakes is our flying instructor, Quidditch coach, and referee," he told them – and introduced. "Mr. Peakes, my cousins, Albus Potter and Rose Weasley; and Ray Wood – Ollie's cousin." He smiled at the three younger kids. "Mr. Peakes would like to get the flying tests out of the way; and he might be able to save some time with that if he has a few really good fliers to test first – and maybe discourage those firsties that aren't as ready as they might think they are for playing Quidditch. Would you like to volunteer?"

"Sure," Al agreed; as Rose and Ray nodded their willingnoess to help with that too.

"Good," Mr. Peakes told them. He eyed the Firestorm 250's that Rose and Al were holding. "I'll guess that your parents made sure that you know how to use those safely before letting you fly them; but let's do this by the book before I set you loose to show us what you can do."

By the book meant demonstrating safe take-offs, hovering near the ground; and landings before they moved on to low-level flying and turns. Finally; Mr. Peakes let Al, Rose, and Ray have some fun; and Al led the way while Rose and Ray tried to keep up as he sped around the stadium and tried to lose them with sharp turns, steep dives, and blasts of speed while going vertical and soaring high above the stadium. They'd passed their tests long before landing again; and Mr. Peakes seemed very happy as he pretended not to notice that half of the first year prospects had gone to sit in the stands with the other Gryffindors that were watching the action instead of lining up to be next for the flying tests.

Louis was happy too, since Mr. Peakes was able to do just one more batch of firstie tests; and then he was able to get the tryouts started once three more of Al and Rose's classmates passed their tests too – if not with flying colors as Al, Rose, and Ray had. Once Mr. Peakes left the pitch to watch over the tryouts from the bleachers; Louis called all of his player-candidates to gather around him. He had twenty-six teens and tweens; and everyone looked excited and hopeful.

"All right, boys and girls, welcome to the tryouts for Gryffindor's Junior Quidditch team! If we haven't yet met; I'm Louis Weasley, your Captain and team Keeper. Including the places on the reserve squad, we have thirteen positions available; and I wish all of you the best of luck! We'll start with the Beater tryouts; follow that up with the Chasers; and wrap up with the reserve Keeper and both Seeker positions. We don't have much time to get all of that done; so let's get to it. Where are my Beater candidates?"

Five Wizards and one Witch stepped forward to answer that call; and Louis gave them their instructions and then sent them up with the bludgers to duel it out. Rose, Al, and Ray had seen the McClaggen brothers, Tiberius and Brock, play Quidditch while practicing with Louis and the other guys during the summer; so they weren't surprised when they defended their spots on the Junior team; while the lone Witch and one of the other boys earned the reserve team spots. Louis had selected his Beaters first so that they could test the Chasers as they took their shots against him; and that had the other three firsties looking very worried when they found out that they'd be facing bludgers as well as trying to score goals on their team Captain.

Al was a bit surprised when both of the Beater hopefuls that hadn't made the cut stayed for the Chaser tryouts; so there were sixteen candidates competing for the six spots. Louis advised them that each Chaser would get five shots against him; and they'd do extra rounds if there were ties – though he reserved the right to cut players if they had troubles with dodging the bludgers. He had Ollie Wood lead off; and Al, Rose, and Ray were near the bottom of the pack. There was catching the quaffle as part of the test too; though that was just making an easy catch as a quaffle was tossed to each player when it was their turn to go in one-on-one against Louis.

To be fair, Al and Rose did have a slight advantage over many of the teens, since they had played Quidditch with Louis fairly regularly; though it had only been this past summer that their parents had let them play full-out with their older cousins. Al actually wound up in first place with four goals on his five shots; while Rose and Ollie tied with three each. There were four more teens with two goals each, including Ray; but Louis cut one of them because he'd been hit by bludgers two times during his five scoring attempts. That also saved another round with the Chasers; so Louis moved on to the reserve team Keeper tryouts. There were only two candidates interested in being Louis' back-up; and he had Ollie, Al, and Rose test them with three shots each. They did that using both sets of goals; so it didn't take long; and a second-year boy won that little duel with just two of nine saves while the other teen only managed to stop Rose once while Ollie and Al scored on every attempt.

Finally, it was time for the Seeker duels; and James looked fired up and very confident as he stepped forward along with three more boys – two older, and one firstie.

"Should I even bother asking what James' chances are?" Ray asked. "I would have liked to make the team with you too; but it was still fun watching Ollie when he realized you'd out-scored him, Al – and that he'd only managed a tie with Rose for second."

"James had Mum and Dad work with him whenever they could all summer," Al advised him. "He's got a really big advantage there."

"And that's not even including the practices he's done with Aunt Gabrielle," Rose added; and then smiled at Ray. "Al and I have gotten a lot of help from them – and from our cousins too; so we can't say much about that."

"And you actually know how to use those brooms," Ray pointed out. "I didn't think that'd be a big deal until we did our flying tests. I can't complain, since Mum is letting me use her Firestorm; but your brooms definitely are better than mine."

"Maybe, but you're using a more famous broom; since your Mum won those championships with it," Al said; and Ray laughed.

"I guess, but my cousins are all flying brooms with those kinds of stories – not that Uncle Oliver is using that as an excuse to buy new brooms so he can pass the old ones along to his kids."

"No – that's just an added bonus," Rose mimicked; trying to sound parental.

Louis was just sending the Snitch into the air then, so they turned their attention to the Seeker duel. James and his three competitors took off together, but the McClaggens were already airborne with the bludgers; and sent them scattering to avoid their two-pronged attack. It was watching out for the Beaters and bludgers as much as the other Seekers that kept the competition close; but James still managed to catch the snitch at just-past the ten minute mark to defend his spot on the team. He then stood next to Louis as the other three boys took to the air again and battled it out for the reserve team spot. Dante Cole, one of James' room mates, managed to make the catch after another seventeen minutes, though by then, Louis had waved off the McClaggen's to make that easier for the Seekers – mostly because they were running out of time by then.

"Congratulations to everyone who mad the team and reserve squad," Louis told everyone once the last five players had landed and they had the bludgers and snitch back in the case. "Thanks to everyone who tried out or came to watch and support us. We need to make way for Hufflepuff now; but I'd like the team to head back to the school with me; and we'll have a short team meeting before I'll let you get on with the rest of your day."

With that, tryouts were over, and all of the players hurriedly packed up their gear and brooms; and Al, Rose, and Ray went with Louis and the rest of their team to the school. Louis led them to an empty classroom on the second floor; and they sat down around three worktables for the meeting. Louis began by handing out the practice schedules; moved on to talk about what he wanted to try and do with the team this season; and tried, with mixed success, to talk down the big egos in the room that he didn't think they deserved to have coming off of a one-win season – despite the fact that the Gryffindor teams were also reigning Quidditch Cup Champions. They still had more than an hour left before lunch when he set them free; so they all headed for the Gryffindor common room before splitting up.

"That was nice of James to congratulate us," Rose told Al after James and Ollie had run on ahead so that they could get a jump on spreading the news that they'd defended their places on the team.

"Did he actually do that?" Al asked. "I couldn't really tell for sure."

"If there was a congratulations in there, it must have been hiding out with the compliments that I didn't hear either," Ray offered; smiling at Rose and Al. "At least Ollie was happy that I only made the reserve squad."

"You scored two goals, and have never practiced against Louis," Rose reminded him. "Ollie practiced with him all last year and only managed one more."

"I'm okay with that, Rose," Ray assured her. "I'd only have been mad if I hadn't done my best – and I did do that. What are you guys doing for the rest of the day – and weekend, for that matter? Now that tryouts are done; we don't have anything on the schedule except meals until Monday morning."

"We don't have much time for it before lunch, but I'd like to explore the castle and go for a walk outside too," Rose told them.

"That'll help us get around to our classes next week," Al agreed with a nod. "I'm good with that plan. Is there anyone else you'd like to invite to go along?"

"Bristol will want to come, and maybe I'll ask Cora too," Rose answered. "She's our new Beater team mates' sister," she added. "Bristol and Cora are my dorm neighbors."

"That must be weird for you," Al suggested.

"Why weird?" Ray asked; and Rose and Al both laughed.

"Because my Mum and Cora's Dad dated for a while when they were at Hogwarts," Rose explained.

"Maybe you'd have been sisters if that had gone better for your parents," Ray suggested slyly; earning more laughs.

"Most of Rose's cousins think that it's even funnier that her Mum dated Viktor Krum too," Al advised Ray; and grinned at the change in expressions on his new friend's face.

"Seriously?"

"Yep," Al confirmed. "They went to the Yule Ball together the year of the last Tri-Wizard Tourney. Viktor was his shcool's Champion."

"Wow, and I thought that my Mum had stories – not that I want to hear them. Melissa's the one who pesters her to hear about all the Wizards that were in love with Mum when she was playing for the Harpies."

"Let's move on and not go there," Al told them. "Rose might like those stories too; but I prefer not to even think about either of my parents like that."

Rose was tempted to tease her cousin for a while; but gave him a break – mostly because she knew he'd be dealing with James at least for the first couple of weeks until the novelty of having Al around to bug and prank wore off. Her cousins did usually get along well-enough when James wasn't trying to impress anyone or in the mood to try and rile Al up; but that was going to be a problem for Al when James was always going to have people around – and he loved to show off.

When they reached their common room, they split up long enough to put their bags away; and Rose had Bristol and Cora with her when she rejoined Al and Ray. While they didn't have time for a full tour of the school, they did get a start on that; and covered parts of each floor on their way down to the Great Hall. Once there, they went to sit at the same places they'd been at for breakfast; and that was likely to be where they'd sit for most of their meals for the rest of the year; since everyone else seemed to automatically do the same thing. They still had a while to wait for lunch, but kept themselves entertained easily-enough; and they had help with that from the handful of relatives or friends stopping by to check in with them before going to sit down at one of the tables too.

"Congratulations," Gwendolyn told Al and Rose when she came over to see them. "I already heard that you made your team. I hope that I'll get to be on my team this year too." She'd been on Al's side of the table; and had given him a hug. "Congrats on making it on the Reserve team, Ray," she added; though she didn't hug him too.

"How'd you find out so fast?" Rose asked; and Gwendolyn shrugged.

"Peter and Pauline are keeping an eye on how tryouts are going for the other teams; and got the scoop from some of their Gryffindor friends. You know them?"

"Yeah," Rose agreed. "We don't see them much, but their parents get together with ours and the rest of their old Hogwarts gang once or twice a year; and they do that with the kids sometimes. Their Dad's an Auror, so we've got that connection with our fathers too."

Gwendolyn nodded. "I wasn't thinking about that for them," she admitted. "What are you guys doing after lunch? We've got the last tryout spot; so I've got a bit of time if you want to hang out for a while."

"We're just going to tour the school and then go outside and take a look around," Rose answered. "You're welcome to join us if you'd like – though the boys will be outnumbered."

"That sounds good; and they'll survive," Gwendolyn said with a nod. "I'll meet up with you after we're all done eating; and do that until I'll need to get to the Quidditch pitch."

She left then, and Al, Rose, and Ray were soon diverted with questions from the kids closest to them. A few of them had been at the tryouts; but the others wanted to hear all about it – and they were impressed that Al and Rose had both made the team. While the feast had been amazing and their first breakfast had likely been special too; the lunch menu was more normal, so while the food was still good; it wasn't a major meal and they were able to get started on their exploration of the castle fairly quickly. Al and Ray ended up doing that with six girls because Gwendolyn brought along two of her room mates – Toni Hopkins and Renee Bradley. Al and Rose knew both girls through their parents' jobs at the Ministry of Magic; though, as usual with those connections, they hadn't seen them more than once or twice a year unless it was just in passing in Diagon Alley or at the Ministry.

"We heard that the Hufflepuff tryouts were a bit of a mess," Gwendolyn reported as they climbed the stairs up to the first floor. "They've got two firsties on the team this year too – Madison Whitby at Seeker and Tory Summers is one of their Chasers."

"That doesn't surprise me," Rose told her. "Why was it a mess?"

"Some of the second and third year boys gave Myra a hard time over picking two first-year Witches; and didn't think the tryouts had been fair."

"Three out of four of their parents are Professional Quidditch players – or were," Ray pointed out. "Why would those guys be surprised? That sounds more like sour grapes to me."

"It is," Gwendolyn agreed with a shrug; "but those guys were hoping to finally get a chance to play now that two of their best junior team players are in fourth year."

"Francine and Alex," Al said with a nod. "They are really good; but so are Madison and Tory."

"Are we going to be talking Quidditch all of the time when we're around you?" Bristol asked a bit plaintively. "How about we talk about which secret passages we've each heard about and see if we can find them instead?"

Her suggestion was readily agreed to; though that didn't keep Gwendolyn, Rose, Al, and Ray from talking about Quidditch a bit more too. They made sure that they wrapped up their tour near to Ravenclaw tower so that Gwendolyn could stop in and get her Quidditch gear; and then she had time to walk with them around one side of the school grounds on her way to the stadium before leaving them to go to her tryouts. Renee and Toni went along to cheer her on, but since tryouts were only open to House students; Al, Ray, and the girls continued on their walk after wishing Gwendolyn good luck.

"Did you see Scorpius Malfoy leaving the pitch?" Rose asked Al quietly as they walked away from the stadium. "He was all by himself; but I think he must've made the Slytherin team." She paused for a moment while thinking about that. "I wouldn't say he looked happy; but he did seem very proud of himself."

"I saw, and you're probably right," Al agreed. "Should we scare our parents and try making friends with him so he isn't lonely here?"

Rose laughed. "No, but if he's getting the cold shoulder in his own House; we're not going to do anything to make it worse for him." She shook her head and sighed. "It might be nice if we could get along with the Slytherins; but you know that half or more of them have lots of reasons to hate our family – from their perspective. We'll need to be careful around here if we want to stay out of trouble with them."

"All true," Al said; and then nodded ahead of them. They'd fallen a dozen paces behind the rest of their friends while having that little chat. "Let's catch up; and not think about stuff like that unless we have no other choice about dealing with that lot."

They did that, and enjoyed spending the late afternoon outdoors. They walked along the edge of the lake; wandered past Professor Dumbledore's tomb; and eventually worked their way back to the Quidditch stadium in time to meet up with Gwendolyn after the Ravenclaw tryouts. They didn't need to ask her how it went; since her smile was brilliant as she temporarily left the group she was with to meet up with them and share hugs with Rose and Al.

"Congratulations," Al told her enthusiastically. "We knew you'd make your team too."

"So did I; but that was still amazing – and Landon Graves made the team too. It's been a good Quidditch day for firsties!"

"Yes it has," Rose agreed. "Landon's one of Lysa's kids, right? Al knows all of them a bit better than I do; so I get the Quidditch and Weird Sisters' Graves mixed up sometimes."

"He is Lysa's second son," Gwendolyn confirmed. She looked over her shoulder and nodded toward one of the kids in the group who was watching her. "We've got a short team meeting before dinner; so I'd better catch up with them." She smiled at Al. "If I don't see you later after dinner, have a good night. Maybe we can all do something together tomorrow."

"We can do that," Al agreed; and then smiled when Gwendolyn hugged him again before hurrying off to catch up with the other Ravenclaw players.

"Has Gwendolyn always hugged you that often?" Rose asked Al; smiling a bit slyly. "I don't seem to remember her doing that so often anytime I've been around the two of you. Is there something we should know?"

Al laughed. "I can't say that I've really thought about that, Rose; but you can't actually be surprised that hugs and kisses go along with pretty much every friends and family get-together when Mum and Dad are around. James is the only one of us who seems to have a problem with that – and I doubt that he minds nearly as much as he pretends to hate them."

"Did he actually answer your question or dodge it?" Ray teased; and it was Rose's turn to laugh.

"Let's give him a both on that one; and let him off the hook," she suggested. "Aunt Ginny even managed to make a hugging convert out of Gwenog Jones – McCormack – so he probably has a hereditary issue with them."

"Sure," Bristol agreed; "because those green eyes of his aren't a pair of hugs and kisses magnets anyway." She grinned at Rose and the other girls. "Did I say that last part out loud?"

"Yes, and I'd say that it worked as planned by the looks of Al blushing like that," Cora told her.

"Is this a good time to change the subject back to Quidditch?" Al joked; and laughed when Cora and Bristol answered that question with an emphatic – "No!"

The girls did move on from teasing him to talk about what they could do on Sunday to keep busy. When they got back into the castle, the girls wanted to freshen up before dinner; and teased Al about doing the same – just in case they did meet up with Gwendolyn after dinner for a while. Though the girls had him blushing again over that, Al and Ray had still gone on to their dorm room too and done washroom breaks before going back to the common room to wait to go on to dinner once the girls were ready too. James and Ollie passed them on the way out of the common room; and James detoured close enough to slap Al on the back of the head and offer yet another round of razzing that was intentionally meant to embarrass Al in public.

"Waiting for your girlfriends again?" he asked; and then laughing along with Ollie. "We haven't seen either of you hanging out with any other guys all day."

"Maybe their best mates are going to be Witches," Ollie suggested. "I could write Mum and see if she can send some of Belinda's and Olivia's old dolls here if you think you'll need them so you can play with the other girls, Ray." The two boys snorted with laughter at his offer.

"Thanks, but I won't need them," Ray answered; looking as annoyed as Ollie had hoped he would be. "What have you guys been doing all afternoon – or have you just been following us around and working on your bad jokes?"

Ollie laughed again. "The jokes are a gift – we don't need to work on 'em; and we've been having fun while you've been trying to figure out how to get around this place without getting lost."

"Yeah, we pranked a couple of Slytherin firsties; got one of your Muggleborn room mates to try a wheezes-gone-bad chocolate; and hid Lacey's Pygmy Puff under a headless hat for a half hour or so before she noticed it was missing."

"Slow afternoon," Al muttered; and James and Ollie laughed again.

"We've still got the rest of the weekend to get warmed up before we start classes on Monday," Ollie told him. "Let's go, James. Maybe we can catch a lone firstie or two on the way to dinner and have some more fun." Al and Ray watched them leave before saying anything they might overhear.

"I wish James wouldn't do that," Al said quietly. "He always takes his pranks too far; and I really don't get why he thinks that's funny."

"I know what you mean," Ray agreed. "We'd better be even more careful now, though; since I have a feeling they won't be happy until they pull some pranks on us."

"No doubt," Al agreed. "James brought a lot of wheezes with him; and he can always get our cousins to get more for him on Hogsmeade weekends – or mail-order them if they won't do that for him."

"That's a not-so-cheery thought," Ray told him. "I love your uncle's store as much as the next Wizard; but I'd never use half of those wheezes on anyone."

"Me either," Al said with a nod. "Here come the girls."

"Good. Let's get out of here and hope that James and Ollie aren't actually waiting somewhere along the way to ambush us."

"I doubt they are. We haven't gone to the Great Hall the same way even once yet. They wouldn't know for sure where to set that up."

"Set what up?" Rose asked them as she, Cora, and Bristol joined them.

"James and Ollie have been pulling some pranks this afternoon," Al explained. "Ray and I are probably high on their hit list; but I don't think they'll try anything while we're on the way to dinner."

"Not unless we go to the Great Hall the same way every time," Rose agreed. "What'd they do?"

Al and Ray told them what little they knew about the pranks that James and Ollie had so enthusiastically bragged about to them; and that they were hoping to catch a lone firstie or two on the way to dinner. The news that they were supposedly just getting warmed up for the start of classes on Monday had all five of them deciding that they'd be careful; though Rose and Al didn't think that Cora and Bristol would have much to worry about from James. They both had older brothers, and unless Cora's brothers either helped or approved of the pranks; James and Ollie would likely avoid getting their team Beaters mad at them.

They made it to the Great Hall early again; and had a few more chats with cousins and friends while waiting for the food to appear on the table. That meal was definitely a few steps down from the feast on Friday night; but still really good. Depending on the perspective of the student, the reviews would have ranged from way better than at home to barely-edible – though there were only a few, rich-family snobs at that end of the spectrum. Al, Rose, and the rest of their little group enjoyed the meal and chat time with their room mates; and then they went back to their common room with most of the students in their House. The older teens could do other things until later in the evening; but the first and second-year kids were mostly expected to be in their common rooms or dorms after dinner – at least until they'd need to be at the library, Astronomy tower, or elsewhere for evening studies or night classes.

The Gryffindor common room was very busy, and while there were other things to do; quite a few of the teens were watching a show on the large WWMN mirror that was on the wall across the room from the fireplace. There weren't enough chairs available anywhere near it for Al, Ray, and the girls to watch the show and hear much of it over the buzz of conversation in the room; so they didn't even try to do that.

"Wow, this is exciting!" Bristol said with feigned enthusiasm. "What exactly are we supposed to do until bedtime?"

"We could surf the Wizarding World Web or play a game," Al suggested.

"You have one of those portable gaming mirrors?" Cora asked him; and Al nodded.

"Rose and I both do," he confirmed; reaching into his pocket to get his and holding it out to her. "Have you used one before?"

"We have the game system and mirror network on the mirror in our sitting room at home," Cora answered. "Is it much different?"

"No, but there are a few tricks I can show you," Rose said as she got her mirror out too. "Anyone else want to link up for some gaming?"

Bristol and Ray wanted to do that, but they both needed to go to their dorm rooms to get their mirrors first; and they both had older models than the integrated versions that Al and Rose had. Cora was especially impressed; and they eventually had a few more of their room mates hanging out with them – including Romeo and Dave. Since those two boys were both Muggleborn, the mirrors were all-new to them; though they baffled some of the kids with their talk of the Muggle gaming systems. That wasn't an issue for Al and Rose, since they each had one or more of those gaming systems at home; and Al had played them with his Muggle cousins on nearly every one of their annual visits to seen them; and that earned them some bonus points with Romeo and Dave.

The gaming and hanging out together did keep them entertained until it was time to head for their dorms; and Al pretty much got ready for bed shortly after getting there. Once he was in bed, he did another quick mirror chat with Lily; and let her know that he and Rose had made the Junior team with James and the rest of the returning players from last year's team. He'd introduced her to Romeo and Dave too; since they'd been interested in finding out about the communicator abilities of his mirror when they saw him using it again. Once he'd ended his chat with Lily, Al settled back and was soon well on his way off to sleep.

He woke suddenly in the darkened room; instantly awake as he lay still and listened. His room mates were all sleeping; but he heard the stifled laughter coming from the stairway landing for their dorm room; and then heard the sound of something rolling across the floor toward his bed. Seeing what it was wasn't necessary; since a little flash of insight told him exactly what was happening. Grabbing his wand from the nightstand; he pointed it toward the sound and whispered "Wingardium Leviosa!"

Al knew that his charm had worked because the rolling sound stopped; and he somehow knew where the object was as he levitated it back out of the room and into the stairway. "Colloportus!" he whispered next; closing and locking the door to their room. When he heard the sound of gagging coming from the other side of the door, he knew that he'd acted just in time; and tried not to laugh as he was sure that his brother and Ollie were not having as much fun with their late-night prank as they'd expected.

Tucking his wand under the covers, laying back, and closing his eyes; he pretended to be asleep for a long time; half-expecting James to open the door and try to figure out who had put a stop to their prank. That didn't happen, so he eventually held up his wand again and whispered "Alohomora!" to unseal the door again. He didn't try to open it; knowing that the dungbomb smell would linger for quite some time. Putting his wand back onto the night table; he lay back down again and let his mind drift while waiting for sleep to come again.

They hadn't started classes yet, and though he had read quite a bit of his textbooks since getting them the day after he and James had gotten their letters – and he'd gotten his wand; he hadn't actually tried to do many spells yet. As he considered that, though, he found that he wasn't really surprised that he was able to do those three spells correctly – and that they'd worked to stop James' prank. The revelation did have him feeling pretty good about starting classes on Monday, and even happier that he wouldn't be spending the rest of the night trying to get the smell of dungbomb off of himself and his things either. When he did eventually get back to sleep, there were happy dreams waiting for him; and he was in a great mood when he woke up – once again with the pre-dawn light just barely putting its blush on the windows of their room.

While having his shower, Al decided not to say anything about the dungbomb incident to anyone – not even Rose. Pretending that he had no idea that anything had happened at all seemed the best course; and word would likely get back to James if he started talking about it with anyone else. None of his room mates had woken then; so they'd have nothing to talk about either. He was sure that James and Ollie wouldn't be bragging about a prank-gone-bad; and maybe that'd have them thinking twice before trying anything on him or Ray again – at least for a while.

Since he had lots of time after getting ready before needing to go for breakfast; he went down to the common room; wrote a letter to his parents and Lily; and had that done by the time Rose met up with him at the table he'd been working at.

"Good morning, Rose. How are you today?"

"Good so far," she answered. "Writing home?"

"Yes, and if you'd like to send a letter home too; Winter could take both of them for us – and Mum or Dad would get yours on to your Mum."

"Thanks, Al. I'll do that in time for you to send her off tonight. Winter and Blizzard seemed happy enough when we stopped by the Owlry on our tour yesterday; though I guess that Blizzard is used to it after last year."

"Probably too used to it," Al agreed. "James didn't send a lot of letters during the winter or spring unless he was just sending a note back with Mum and Dad's owls."

"Are you going to offer to send a letter for him too?" Rose teased; and Al laughed.

"I could, but then if he sent one; he'd have to admit that he's been lying to me about only being allowed to send one letter home every month or so."

"I doubt he's even had a mirror chat with your parents – or Lily."

"Lily and I had another chat last night; but I haven't talked with Mum and Dad yet. I'll probably do that tonight; since we'll want to get to bed early."

"Definitely," Rose agreed. "I've talked with Mum and Hugo once already; but Dad was busy doing something with Uncle George."

"Maybe they're already getting ready for the first Hogsmeade weekend here," Al suggested.

"Or trying to get a new wheeze ready for then," Rose offered. "Dad really likes doing that – even when the testing doesn't work out so well for them."

That had Al thinking about James and the dungbomb; but he managed to resist the urge to spill his guts to his favorite cousin. Rose sat with him while they waited for Ray and Bristol; but Cora went on ahead to the Great Hall with a few of the other girls in their dorm. James and Ollie came through the common room, but other than exchanging nods and good morning wishes; they didn't stop to talk with them. The only problem that Al had with that first time crossing paths with James was being able to hide the grin when he smelled the very strong scent of soap and shampoo on both boys – a testament to just how hard they must've needed to scrub to get the smell of the dungbomb off of themselves. He suspected that the House Elves doing the laundry would not be impressed with the smell of their clothes either whenever they got around to doing that job. If James was suspicious of Al, he didn't show any signs of that while he and Ollie were in sight; and Al let out a silent sigh once they were gone.

"Is James feeling alright?" Rose asked. "He didn't even try to pick on you."

"Either he's waiting for a bigger audience; or is just tired from staying up half the night playing games with Ollie on their mirrors."

"Or both," Rose agreed with a shrug. "He must be loads of fun for the Professors in all of his first classes of the day."

"He'd like his classes a lot more if they started at noon," Al said with a nod and smile."

"And then ended for the day at one," Rose added. "I guess he did well-enough last year – considering that he hardly ever studied."

"I guess that works for him; though his Hogwarts letter was the worst of all of our cousins."

"Our Dads can't say much about that to him; but I'd really like to do as well as Victoire and the rest of the girls."

"Me too," Al agreed; "though keeping up with Victoire is a tall order. I'm not sure I'd even want to try being Head Boy and Quidditch team Captain on top of taking all of those NEWT classes."

"If we could do that, at least we'll get to see how she does it this year," Rose pointed out. "Speaking of Victoire, we haven't talked at all about what James told us about before we got on the train. What do you think about her and Teddy?"

"I don't," Al admitted. "Mum would probably say that Teddy's even denser than Dad was; and that she's glad that Victoire finally caught her Wizard."

Rose laughed. "He just needed to spend some time without her around to realize how much she meant to him." She laughed again at Al's expression. "Okay, we'll change the subject; but you get that better than you're willing to admit."

They didn't need to wait much longer for their room mates to catch up with them; and breakfast was served shortly after they sat down at the Gryffindor table. Qidditch news from the junior tryouts was still big news, but they also talked about everything from what their classes would be like to the latest fashion and fads – though it was mostly the Witches in their group carrying that part of the conversation. For some reason, Al and the other guys didn't want to discuss the fashion choices of any Wizards – and especially not each other.

After breakfast, Gwendolyn, Renee, and Toni met up with them; and Al and Ray again had six girls with them as they all went outside to hang out and enjoy a nice day. They went for a walk, and then sat down by the lake and ended up doing a bit of experimenting with their wands and fledgling knowledge of the spells that some of them had read about in their textbooks. That was fun, and more than a little comical sometimes; but they had fun and it kept them entertained for a while.

In the afternoon, they went to the practice pitch to watch Victoire lead a bunch of the older players through a mini-workout and scrimmage that was mostly meant as a warm-up ahead of the Senior Team tryouts on Saturday. Gwendolyn and Rose joined Al and Ray for that, but the other girls decided to do 'anything else' instead; though they only ended up watching a group of guys play fanged Frisbee instead. The Quidditch watching took up an hour and a half of their afternoon; but that still left lots of time; so they went for another walk outside; did a bit more exploring around the castle; and checked out the library for a while too before splitting up to go back to their dorm rooms and get ready for dinner.

The last part of that was a bigger deal for the girls than it was for Al and Ray; but the guys didn't have to wait for long this time before Rose and her room mates were ready to go with them to the Great Hall. While having dinner, they heard all about a couple of new pranks that James and Ollie had pulled off on a total of three Slytherins; and it was news to Al and Rose when Scorpius was pointed out to them as one of James' victims. That didn't surprise them, since they'd yet to see him walking around with any of the other Slytherin students; but it definitely made Al and Rose feel uncomfortable – especially when James knew all of the same stories about his father and Draco Malfoy; and still decided to prank Scorpius anyway.

Once dinner was finished, it was straight back to the Gryffindor common room again – or almost straight back for Al and Rose. They went to the Owlry first so that Al could send Winter off on her trip home; and then they caught up with their friends again. They spent an hour or so hanging out in the common room; but then Al, then Rose, decided to head for their dorm rooms. Al was the only kid in the room when he got there, and he got his bookbag ready for the morning before getting ready for bed. He'd done both by the time Ray and a couple of the other guys joined him; and everyone was in the room by the time he'd finished having a mirror chat with his parents and Lily. That had been fun, but by then, Al was ready to get to sleep, so he did that; and left his room mates to stay up and talk as long as they wanted.

Getting up early was never a problem for Al, but for the first time so far; there were more than just a few guys in the washroom when he went to have his shower. He followed the older boys' lead and made it a quick shower; and that was aparently necessary on weekday mornings when there were around one hundred boys trying to get ready for the day. He didn't bump into James or Ollie; but then he hadn't expected to – unless Ollie started his day earlier than James ever did at home.

Once he was ready to go, Al grabbed his bookbag and headed for the common room. Ray assured him that he'd catch up soon; and Al didn't end up waiting for very long before Ray, Rose, and five other girls joined him there; and they walked to the Great Hall together. For all of the firsties in the hall, breakfast was just something to do while waiting for the Professors to begin handing out schedules. They began doing that when there was still nearly an hour to go before first class; and they started with the first and fourth-year groups at each table. Since the only difference in first year class schedules was the class times, and which Houses they would share classes with; it didn't take Professor Longbottom very long to pass out the firstie schedules. He stayed with them long enough to answer a few quick questions, but then sent them on to get the textbooks they'd need for their first morning classes – including his first period Herbology class.

"Herbology will be okay," Rose told Al as they headed for Gryffindor tower, "but we've got Professor Dawlish for Charms instead of Professor Flitwick. You know he's given most of our cousins – and James – a hard time of it 'cause of our Dads."

"I know," Al said with a nod. "You'll just have to win him over with your charm and talent; and I'll try to survive."

"We've got Professor Perks for Potions," Rose continued; and then grinned at Al. "I guess we can't be in the Slug Club this year. He only invites students he's teaching."

"I'll manage to survive that disappointment too," Al joked. "That study period for the end of the day will be nice on Monday – and we have Wednesday afternoons off."

"Works out great for two of our Quidditch practices," Rose agreed. "We'll only have to rush to get to our Friday afternoon practices."

"Which should be fun after double potions," Al suggested.

"Won't that be your favorite class?" Rose asked; and Al laughed at the look on her face.

"Funny, but just because Gwendolyn will be in that class with us does not mean it'll be my favorite. I expect that DADA will be – like it is for most of us."

"Funny, our double DADA class will be with Ravenclaw too," Rose said; pretending to be surprised. "How convenient for you!"

"You're scaring the kids, Rose," he warned; while laughing too. "I like our schedule. Hopefully we'll like the classes just as much."

They had time to make the trip to their dorms for books and get to the Herbology greenhouse; so everyone in their class was there early and ready to go by the time Professor Longbottom joined them. He began by checking attendance; and then he gave them a quick summary of what they'd be doing in their first year classes. He then proceeded to do a hands-on lesson about basic handling of plants, soil, and the tools they'd be using to work with the plants they'd be permitted to handle. They would only be getting lectures about dangerous plants; though Neville – Professor Longbottom – promised to show them at least some of those specimens.

Professor Longbottom awarded five points each to Al and Rose during the class for answering two of the more challenging questions he posed to his students; so they were in a great mood when he set them free to hurry on to their Charms class. There had been a fun, easy-going air in the greenhouse for Herbology; but that wasn't the case at all when Professor Dawlish walked into the Charms classroom and quite curtly demanded his student's undivided attention. He took attendance first too; scowled at Al and Rose in turn as he looked up at them for a moment after calling their names; and then advised them that he was going to be a very demanding teacher. He went on to give them a long list of rules and expectations for his classes and assignments; and only after all of that did he finally get around to their first lesson.

While he seemed to be out to prove just how demanding he was going to be, that didn't work out for him when he picked on Al and Rose for two of his first four questions; and they each answered them correctly. They went on to answer three more between them – once he'd successfully picked students that were unable to answer them; and it was obvious to Al and Rose that he was annoyed by their success. He didn't award points to any student; and ended the class by piling quite a load of work on them that they'd need to have completed, and the assignment handed in, for their Double Charms class on Friday.

"Are we still having fun?" Rose joked as she and Al walked toward Gryffindor Tower to switch out their textbooks before going for lunch. "Now I know exactly what Dad's meant the few times he's told us some of their early Auror days stories."

"Professor Dawlish was an Auror when our Dads – and Professor Longbottom – joined up after the war," Al added for their friends' benefit.

"I didn't know that," Bristol told them. "The way you're talking about those stories doesn't sound good, though, so maybe I won't ask for the details."

"That's probably a good idea," Rose agreed. "Al and I don't need to do anything to get on his bad side; so we should just leave it there and move on."

"Since it's lunchtime next; I'm all for that," Ray said enthusiastically. "You guys did great in those classes; but my brain is on overload."

"At least we answered the questions he threw at us," Cora pointed out. "The kids that couldn't are probably wishing they'd at least read the first chapter of our Charms book before class."

"I thought that nearly every first year Witch and Wizard would," Rose said with a nod. "Even James opened his texts a few times before starting last year – and he's about the least-enthusiastic student I know."

"Which is why he was probably still doing his summer revision last night for second year," Al suggested with a grin. "He told Mum and Dad he had it covered, but I don't think that they actually checked."

The rest of that conversation as they walked was more like story time as they took turns relaying sibling or relative study horror stories – though none of them were actually scary at all. They didn't wait around to go as a group to the Great Hall for lunch, but Rose, Bristol, Al, and Ray did stick together for that walk too – mostly because they were sticking with the safety in numbers plan for getting around the school without worrying about bullying or pranks from James, Ollie, or anyone else. Lunch was quick and easy; and then they had extra time left to get to the Potions dungeon.

For that trip, they had to cross paths with quite a few Slytherin students that had been going to and from their common room and dorms; so Al and Rose definitely got an up-close-and-personal taste of the animosity that so many Slytherin teens felt for them – and everyone in their family. Nothing was said to them directly, but they could overhear some nasty comments; and the glares and scowls were venomous enough. Compared to that, the Potions dungeon seemed downright cheery!

Professor Perks was very cheerful too; and she was as interested in her new students as she was in the subject. She made quick work of checking attendance; handed out her class overview for them to read over later; and jumped right into their first potions lesson. Since she'd been in their parents' year at Hogwarts, Professor Perks knew Al's and Rose's parents; though they hadn't been friends at school or in the same House. While that connection got them noticed, it also didn't seem to be a factor when she was soon impressed by them; and she awarded them a total of fifteen points by the end of the class – five each for questions they'd answered; and five for Al's potion. Rose had correctly made the potion too; but he'd finished his about a minute sooner to earn those points first.

"You guys are two for three on the day," Ray told Al and Rose as they left the Potions dungeon. "Good thing for Gryffindor that you're in our House. What are you going to do until we have our first Quidditch practice?"

"Get started on our homework?" Al suggested with a grin for his friend. "Yes, we know that your brain is still on overload, and we have until Friday to get our Charms and Potions work done; but Herbology is due first thing Wednesday morning and we'll get more work dumped on us all day tomorrow."

"Then if those are our only choices; I vote for getting right to the Potions homework – before everything we just learned dribbles out of my head," Ray decided with a sigh. "We can study the Herbology and Charms after dinner."

Al and the girls were okay with doing that; and they went back to their common room to sit at a pair of tables with some of their fellow firsties while the others opted to have some fun instead. While they mostly worked with Ray, Bristol, and Cora; Al and Rose joined in to help when Romeo, Dave, and Marla Cattermole – the fourth girl at theirtable – needed them. For Romeo and Dave, that was mostly because of their limited experience so far with the Wizarding World. They seemed to catch on quickly-enough, though, and it was fun getting a look at their start to the study of magic from a very different perspective. That was particularly interesting for Al; since it gave him a glimpse of what it might have been like for his father during Harry's first days at Hogwarts when all things magical were new and unfamiliar to him.

"What a surprise – Al and Rose are actually studying during study break!"

He had to turn around in response to the snidely-spoken comment, but Al had already known that James was in the room – even though he didn't even think about why he knew that. His brother was with Ollie, as usual, and most of the guys from his dorm room.

"Hi James," he said as easily as he could while ignoring the tone of the remark. "How's your first day been?"

"We just finished double DADA with Slytherin; so that was great for us – not so hot for them," James answered with a laugh. "Did someone forget to tell you that study periods are for goofing off?"

"You can do enough of that for all three of us," Rose told him before Al could answer; smiling sweetly at him. "Since you're back from class, though, I guess we need to pack up, get our Quidditch gear, and head for the pitch."

"You do," James agreed. "Don't be late – not that I expect that the rest of us will even notice you're there half the time."

"Unless they're getting hit by a bludger or have the quaffle bounce off them," Ollie added with a snort. "At least they'll be good practice for our Beaters."

"Sure – they can pretend that Al, Rose, and Ray are Slytherins," James agreed. "If they try their very best, they might even be able to suck as bad as the Slytherin players do," he added; laughing too before the boys moved on and headed for the stairs to the boys' dorms.

"I guess you were right about James saving up for a bigger audience," Rose told Al as they both started packing up; and Ray did the same. "Maybe we should have tried out for Beater instead just so we'd have an excuse to bash bludgers at his head."

Al laughed quietly. "You might've done well-enough at that, Rose; but I'm lousy at Beater."

"Only because you're too nice to really try and hurt anyone with a bludger," Rose countered. "I'd make an exception for James when he's acting like that, and with a head as big as his; he'd be an easy target for any Beater."

"You mean he doesn't act like that all of the time?" Ray joked; and earned a few more laughs from the others at the table.

"My brothers get like that too," Cora advised them; and then smiled at Al. "That was worse this past summer; so maybe it's because of the company they were keeping last year at school."

"Maybe," Al agreed; smiling too as he stood up and picked up his bag. "Meet you back here?" he aske Rose; and she nodded.

"Okay," she agreed; and was already standing too. "I'll hurry."

She did that, and beat Al and Ray back to the common room by about ten seconds. They hurried out to the practice pitch; and actually made it there before James and Ollie. Louis, and some of the other players were there and getting ready to go; and he nodded in welcome as they put their bags down and started to get their gear on too.

"I heard that you've had a good first day in your classes," Louis told Al and Rose. "Nice job getting those points for Gryffindor. You'll give Victoire a run for it if you keep that up."

"Thanks," Rose said with a bright smile at his compliment. "How was your day?"

"We start with DADA and end the day with Care of Magical Creatures, so that's good; but then I have Arithmancy and Herbology stuck in the middle on each side of our lunch break," Louis answered.

"You've only got that problem because you let your Mum badger you into taking Arithmancy," Tiberius told him. "I don't know why you're bothering with it."

"Aunt Ginny used her Arithmancy for playing Quidditch," Rose told him. "She had my Mum help her with that too back when she first started playing for the Harpies. I'd think that'd help Beaters a lot too – working out all of the angles between you and where the other players will be when you hit the bludgers at them."

"Now you sound like Victoire," Louis teased; "though that is the main reason I didn't fight my Mum about taking Arithmancy. It should help with my Potions work too."

"Not having Potions first thing in the morning would have helped me more," Tiberius interjected; "but no – we've got it first thing on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I'll still be half-asleep for them."

"Only until the first explosion of the day," Louis predicted with a grin. "Let's hope it won't be your potion blowing up; since we sit at the same table."

They continued to chat as they got ready; James, Ollie, and the rest of their team mates quickly joining them and getting ready too. Louis got their training started with a physical warm-up and exercises on the ground; followed that up with a flying warm-up that he had James lead; and then they got to work on some actual Quidditch training. Louis worked with his reserve team Keeper and all six Chasers on learning some offensive and defensive plays. Tiberiuus led the other three Beaters for their training session; and their two Seekers pretty much just had fun while trying to catch the snitch.

Starting next Monday, they were only going to have an hour to practice before needing to give up the pitch to the senior team, but that time slot was open this week; and they could work a bit longer. Mr. Peakes was with them for about half of their practice; and had been at the stadium with the junior Hufflepuff team for the first half hour. After they were finished with the position training, Louis had them play a twenty-minute long scrimmage; and then wrapped up their practice by handing out a homework assignment.

"Did you get hit in the head with a bludger?" James asked him when Louis dropped that news flash on his team. "What's up with the homework? We get enough of that from our Professors."

"Get used to it," Louis advised him seriously. "I'm going to do whatever it takes to have a better season than we did last year; and if doing a little studying will give us an edge; then that's what we'll do." He grinned then before adding – "We can't all just have a mirror chat with our Mum to get Quidditch advice from a professional."

"Yeah, you'd have to call one of your aunts instead," James shot back. "Too bad that doesn't seem to help Al and Rose."

"Says you," Louis said; shaking his head. "I'm one of the Keepers; so I know exactly how many goals all of our Chasers scored today – and they were one and two."

"No way," Ollie exclaimed; and Louis laughed.

"Way, so keep that little news flash in mind for Wednesday," he suggested. "They're working together to do that; and you need to work with them if we're going to have a chance to do well this year."

They still had lots of time to get to the Great Hall for dinner, so Al decided to grab a shower and get changed after getting back to his dorm room and putting his gear and broom away. Most of the other guys didn't do that; but he knew that Rose had when they met up in the common room to head for the Great Hall together. The rest of their friends had gone on ahead without them; so they were on their own for that walk.

"I like what Louis is doing with our team so far," Rose told Al once they were in the seventh-floor hallway. "James was being a pain; but we'll just have to ignore him."

"He won't do that during games either," Al said with a nod. "Even James wouln't try to mess with us while we're trying to win a match."

"Let's hope so," Rose agreed; and then grinned. "Tiberius and Brock don't seem to be much like we've been told their father was when he played that match on your Dad's team."

Al laughed. "Maybe I was thinking about that; since I had an itch at the back of my head all through that practice."

"I don't think that we'll have to worry about getting hit in the head by them," Rose suggested. "They are pretty good – even if they're a bit too sure of themselves."

"Which is why they get along so great with James and Ollie," Al added with a nod. "We'll need to figure out how to fit in with them; though I'll never be like James."

"Me either," Rose agreed; and then laughed. "Maybe we're exactly what the team needs this year – a couple of players that aren't completely full of themselves."

"Louis isn't like that either," Al pointed out. "He's somewhere between James and Ollie, and you and me."

They were making their way down one of the flights of stairs by then, and as they reached the second floor; they fell silent and things got awkward when they met up with Scorpius Malfoy as he joined them on the stairs and followed just a couple of steps behind them. They'd looked at each other in surprise; but none of them said anything for a long, drawn-out moment. Finally, Rose took a soft breath and broke the silence.

"We should just get this over with," she said as much to Al as to Scorpius. "Hi, Scorpius. I'm Rose Weasley, and I'm sure you know that this is my cousin, Albus – Al – Potter." She stopped, turned, and held out her hand to the other boy. For a moment, she wasn't sure if Scorpius would do anything; but then he took her hand and shook it for a brief moment before letting go and then shaking Al's hand just as briefly.

"Hello," he said quietly; the greeting nearly as clipped as the handshakes. He seemed to be as uncomfortable as they were.

"Are you out exploring the castle?" Rose asked; trying to keep things going. "Al and I did that a lot on the weekend; but we had our first team practice after classes today. We heard that you made your house team too. What position do you play?"

"Chaser," Scorpius answered; "and I was just going for a walk." He looked around; and Al sensed he was suspicious – even though Scorpius didn't let that show.

"You're braver than we are then," Rose told him with a smile. "We're usually with at least a few of our new friends when we're out of our common room."

"Yeah, and that's just because we're worried about my brother and his buddies pranking us," Al added. "I'm one of his favorite targets for pranks and jokes." He'd said that to try and help relieve Scorpius' suspicion, but they'd started walking again, and if it had helped at all; the effect of his effort didn't last long.

"We've hit the firstie jackpot!" Al had been looking back at Scorpius; and turned his head in time to see James and Ollie step in to block their way from the first floor hallway. "I'd say that you're at least top two, if not number one, Al; and it was nice of you to save us the time and be out here with your main competition for those spots – and one of my new favorite Slytherin firstie targets."

He glanced at Ollie; and then both boys suddenly threw something – directly at Al and Scorpius. Al's wand was in hand before he even thought about it; and he shouted – "Protego!" His shield blazed to life; and the two little pouches hit the shield and released two puffs of powder. James and Ollie jumped back out of the way; and they all watched as the powder quickly drifted to the ground. Al waited until that had happened before dropping his shield.

"What is that stuff? Bulbadox powder?" Al asked James. "You're such a git!"

"And then some," rose agreed. "Thanks, Al."

"You're welcome," he said with a nod. "You okay, Scorpius?"

"I'm fine," Scorpius answered curtly. He looked angry; and Al sensed that he was as mad at Al for stopping the prank as he was at James and Ollie for trying to pull it on him. Al moved closer to Rose to let Scorpius pass when he started down the stairs again; and James and Ollie let him pass too.

"How'd you do that?" James demanded. "You haven't even taken a DADA class yet.

"I've read ahead, and seen it done before," Al told him. "That's a lousy prank to try and play on anyone, James."

"It would have been hilarious for us," James disagreed, "but we're out of time now; so run along; and we'll try to do better next time."

"Thanks so much," Rose said sarcastically; taking Al's hand and tugging it to get him moving. "Come on, Al. Let's get out of here."

"Isn't that cute?" Ollie asked James. "Are they kissing cousins too; or just into holding hands?"

"I have seen them kiss before," James offered after laughing at Ollie's jibe; "so I guess that's a yes, they are."

"Make that a pair of hippogriff-sized gits," Rose told Al; ignoring James and Ollie when they both thought that was hilarious. Getting their prank targets so annoyed with them was almost as good for them as the prank would have been. They didn't follow Al and Rose, though, or at least not right away; so the rest of the walk to the Great Hall was quiet and uneventful.

"We thought you were going to be late," Ray told them when they sat down in the two spots their friends had saved for them. "Did you get lost?"

"We had a little run-in with James and Ollie," Al explained – "and Scorpius Malfoy had crossed paths with us just before that happened; so James and Ollie tried to prank all three of us."

"Al stopped them," Rose added. "He got a shield charm to work, which was really good for us; since our cousins had thrown pouches of Bulbadox powder at us."

"What a pair of gits," Bristol said emphatically.

"That's what we said," Rose agreed with a laugh. "I wouldn't wish anything bad on them; but it might be good for someone to teach them a lesson or two." She shook her head. "I'd say that my uncles never meant for their wheezes to get used like that; but they were probably as bad or worse than James when they went to school here and were learning to become prank masters."

That comment gave them a launching point for their dinner conversation; and Romeo and Dave were particularly interested in hearing about Weasley's Wizard Wheezes from two of the family members of the store owners. The two boys had already been introduced to some of the basic wheezes, and tried a few of them; but they were amazed at nearly everything that Al, Rose, and the other kids told them about magical pranks and jokes products.

Getting back to their studies after dinner took a bit of effort for some of them, and this time; they had to deal with finding a place to do that in the croweded, noisy common room. They ended up at the worst tables, closest to the WWMN mirror that was playing music videos too loudly; and that also had them furthest away from the warmth of the fireplace. It was still barely the start of autumn, but the nights could be chilly in the castle.

This time, Al and Rose mostly just worked through their own assighments, and only offered a bit of help here and there when one of their friends asked for it. Since they'd both read much further into their textbooks than what was needed for the reading assigned to them in Herbology, Charms, and Potions; they could get to work on the assignments right away while more than half of their classmates needed to do the reading first. That was why they had all three of their assignments finished by the time they were all ready to head for bed; and they were feeling pretty good about getting that done instead of having the work pile up on them as it probably would for many of the students in all seven years.

James was likely in that minority group; since he didn't seem to be taking his studies all that seriously and it looked as though he was doing more goofing off than work anytime Al saw him. He'd still managed to be a solid 'E' student in his first year, though; so Al didn't worry about that at all. He was just glad that James didn't try taking any of his brand of fun to the firsties in the room – himself and Rose included.

Al and Ray eventually led the charge for their dorm room, but the other guys weren't far behind them; and they were all getting ready for bed at the same time. A lot of the younger teens and tweens were doing the same then, so the bathrooms were a bit crowded; but it wasn't as bad as in the mornings because most of the older teens stayed up later and had more homework to do – or needed more play time. Al didn't have any bedtime mirror chats, but he and Ray did talk for a while once they were settled into their beds for the night before turning out the light and trying to get to sleep.

His early-morning routine was already becoming set by Tuesday; and Al preferred what he was doing over the mad dash that most of the guys had to deal with – even if that meant having a bit of extra time between when he was ready to go and when they all needed to be in the Great Hall for breakfast. With three of their classes covered on Monday; they were going to have had at least a taste of all of them except for Astronomy by the end of the day; and Al was particularly excited about getting his first experiences with Transfiguration and DADA – especially since their DADA was the double-period version; and they'd be taking that class with Ravenclaw.

They had their morning meal in the Great Hall first, and Al's day got off to a great start when Winter arrived with the other Owls; bringing a letter and a small package of treats from home. His parents had sent a letter; Lily had written one for him too that included some art for him to decorate his dorm room with – if he wanted; and the treats were a little selection of his favorite chocolates and candy. He advised Rose that his parents and sister had sent their love and congratulations; and that his Dad had forwarded her letter to her parents at work on Monday. That post, and a couple of others that arrived for their classmates, provided the main entertainment while they ate; so that had nearly everyone in as good a mood as Al was in by the time he'd finished reading those letters and sharing a few of the treats with Rose and their new friends.

After breakfast, they needed to get through History first before getting to the fun classes; and that was a combined class with Slytherin. Al, Rose, and their new little gang were in the classroom early; so they were able to watch as most of the Slytherin kids arrived – along with the other three-quarters of the Gryffindor firsties. The two groups did not mingle; and there was an obvious split down the middle of the classroom; with the Gryffindors on the left and the Slytherins on the right.

"At least he isn't sitting at a table by himself," Rose leaned close and told Al quietly. She didn't have to say his name for Al to Know she was talking about Scorpius.

"That's Davis Zabini," Al reminded her. "He might be getting a hard time from the other Slytherins too." He glanced over to where the two boys were sitting. They weren't talking to each other or anyone else around them, and while Scorpius seemed unaffected by that; Davis looked as though he'd rather be anywhere else other than Hogwarts. "I expect that all of the prison kids have had it tough growing up – and while they're here at Hogwarts."

"Probably," Rose agreed; as they both kept their voices low. "From the looks I've seen us getting from them; it's obvious that they don't like us much either."

"No," Al agreed; "though that list of haters for our family is long and distinguished in Slytherin."

Professor Binns floated into the room through the blackboard then, and promptly got his class underway; so Al and Rose focused on that – or at least they did as much as was possible considering the Professor's incredibly boring teaching style. His was the second class so far where it appeared there was no chance of earning House points; but it seemed that some of their fellowstudents thought that it was a great time to catch up on sleep with short morning naps.

When the Professor set them free and again floated through the blackboard and out of the room; the Gryffindors needed to hurry to get to their first-ever Transfiguration class. That worked for Al and Rose; since the Slytherins had another class to get to as well; so they only had to deal with some glares and a few nasty comments muttered between some of the other kids as they went their separate ways. Al didn't expect his luck to last with that, knowing the problems his cousins had all experienced with certain Slytherins; but he'd deal with any of those problems when needed.

Professor Clearwater was teaching their Transfiguration class; and she was already there as her students began filing in. While she was around the same age as many of their parents, she was also vibrant and attractive; and Al could tell that some of the other boys – including Ray – were interested in her for more than her subject knowledge. He thought that was funny; but then since his own relatives included Veelas and other beautiful women; his perspective on that was probably just a lot different than it was for most Wizards.

While he wasn't one of her newest group of smitten, junior admirers, it didn't take long for Al – and Rose – to become Professor Clearwater's favorite Gryffindor firsties. By the end of the class, they'd earned ten points each for their House; answered every question she threw at them along with several that none of their classmates could answer; and they'd both managed to successfully accomplish the first Transfiguration she taught them. They were the only two students to do that before the end of class; though the most fun for all of them had been with the attempts gone wrong instead of the two that had gone right.

Those Transfiguration mess-ups had given them one of their lunchtime chat topics, and they enjoyed the break and meal; but it was their first DADA class that had all of the Gryffindors fired up and ready to start their afternoon adventure into Defense Against the Dark Arts. Gwendolyn, Renee, Toni, and Landon Graves met up with them after lunch for the walk to the DADA classroom, and the Gryffindors and Ravenclaws mixed and mingled before class – unlike the total segregation that had happened in their History of Magic class.

Professor Proudfoot came into the room a few minutes before his class was to start, and while Al and Rose knew him through their fathers and the Aurors, he'd retired from that job in twenty-oh-six to take the teaching job with Hogwarts; so they didn't know him nearly as well as they knew many of the current Aurors. When he made eye contact with them while taking attendance, they each received warm, welcoming smiles, and he obviously remembered them despite being just two of many Auror kids; so being Harry's and Ron's children did count for something with the Professor. He didn't waste any more time than needed on the attendance, introduction, and course overview; and then he had his large group of kids get right to work on their first lesson – the Protego shield charm.

That lesson began with a mini-lecture about the theory behind the magic and protection charms that they sat at the work tables for and took notes on; and then Professor Proudfoot had them pair up to practice and attempt to produce the shield charm. Al only needed to see the grin on Rose's face when she quickly paired up with Cora McClaggen to know that she was having some fun with him; but he didn't try to avoid being paired with Gwendolyn – and didn't mind either; since they were friends. With more than forty kids in the combined class, they needed to spread out around the room for that practice; so Al, Gwendolyn, Rose, Cora, and most of the others in their regular group ended up at the far end of the room from the work tables.

"I heard that you did this charm once already," Gwendolyn said softly to Al; smiling at him brightly. "You go first so that I can see how; and then you can help me learn it too."

"Okay," Al agreed; smiling too. She watched as he raised his wand and said – "Protego!"

Nothing happened.

"If that worked; I missed it," Gwendolyn joked; and Al laughed.

"It didn't. Let me think about it for a moment." He closed his eyes; picturing the scene with James and Ollie throwing the pouches of Bulbadox powder at him, Scorpius, and Rose. He could summon how he'd felt, and what his reaction had been; and he was smiling again when he opened his eyes and looked at Gwendolyn. "I didn't do it right – you have to want it to happen; not just say the word and wave your wand correctly." Raising his wand again; he said – "Protego!" again; this time with more force both in the word and his thoughts and emotion. His shield instantly appeared; shimmering a brilliant blue about two feet in front of his wand point and about four feet in diameter. It was basically round too; though he intuitively understood that the shape had been of his own imagining instead of a constraint of the charm.

"Well done!" Professor Proudfoot called out from the other side of the room. "Ten points for Gryffindor!"

Al lost his shield instantly when Gwendolyn laughed and hugged him; and he was grinning while the rest of their friends – and a few others around the room laughed at them. Gwendolyn stepped back again; and laughed too.

"Way to go, Al," she told him. "Help me with it now?"

"Definitely," he agreed.

Doing that wasn't quite as easy as it sounded, but Gwendolyn was smart and fiery; and she earned five points for Ravenclaw when she was the second student to produce a visible, fully-formed shield. Al hadn't messed that up for her with a hug, but she had another one for him once her shield had winked out on its own after about ten seconds. There'd been more laughs directed at them for that; and yet another round when Rose teased Al about helping Ravenclaw to earn those points instead of helping out his fellow Gryffindors. He didn't think that was fair, considering the fact that she'd been angling to have him paired up with Gwendolyn anyway; but he didn't say anything to her about that. He and Gwendolyn did keep practicing, though, and they helped their friends too; so their little group had the most success during the class.

Gwendolyn and Landon needed to hurry to get to their Quidditch practice after class, so they'd rushed off to do that while Al, Rose, and the rest of their friends headed for their common rooms at a slower pace. Many of their classmates were going to just hang out and play until dinnertime, but Al and Rose talked Ray and Bristol into going with them to the library so that they could study in relative quiet instead of trying to work in the noisy common room.

"Do you guys ever take time off to just have fun?" Ray asked after they'd met up again after visits to their dorm rooms and started walking toward the library.

"We took most of the weekend off," Rose reminded him; "and we haven't even got two full days of school done with to be able to answer that question for what we'll have time for during the weekdays."

"I've had fun today," Al declared seriously while making it sound as though he was joking; and the others laughed.

"You're just saying that 'cause of those hugs from Gwendolyn in DADA," Ray shot back. "I'm not complaining, Rose," he added; getting back on topic. "I just hope that it won't be all work and no free time around here."

"We'll figure that out once we know how much time it'll take each week to keep up with our assignments," Rose suggested. "Our first Astronomy class is tomorrow afternoon instead of at night, but we won't have classes on Wednesday afternoons starting next week; so that'll give us more time to get our work done – and maybe leave us with at least one free evening to play too."

"Which we can use to play nap time before getting up for that eleven o'clock Astronomy class," Bristol reminded them with a smile. "Maybe I should have taken Mum up on her offer to home school me."

"Did she really offer to do that?" Ray asked suspiciously. "My Mum offered to help pack my bags about a minute after I got my Hogwarts letter; and have me camp out on platform nine and three-quarters until the first."

"We're both making that up – or at least your mother was just teasing about that," Bristol said after laughing at his little tale along with Al and Rose.

"Mum might not have actually let me do that," Ray conceded; "but she definitely teased me about doing it."

They had time to exchange a couple of related parent-kid-Hogwarts stories; but dropped that when they got to the library. They'd already done a tour of the place while exploring on the weekend; so they just went to find an empty work table and then got set up and started on their assignments – beginning with DADA. While Ray had been the most reluctant of them to get going on their work early; he was happy later when, after dinner, they finished up their last assignment after only another half hour or so of work; and were able to goof off for the rest of the night while most of their fellow Gryffindor firsties still had most of their work left to get done. The four of them spent the rest of the evening playing games and chatting about anything and everything; and then they headed for their dorm rooms when they were ready to have some quieter time before going off to sleep.

Starting the educational part of their Wednesday with a double dose of Herbology was something that maybe less than half of the Gryffindors were at all excited about; though they were all interested in their first combined class with Hufflepuff. The highlight of the morning before that was the Owl Post at breakfast; and this time, it was Rose on the receiving end of a letter and package from her parents. Lily had sent another letter to Al with that post; but Rose kept that quiet just in case James caught sight of it and started razzing Al about getting two letters from home already. As far as Al knew, James hadn't even sent Blizzard out on his first delivery yet; though he hadn't actually ben to the Owlery to check since sending Winter out on Sunday night.

Al, Rose, and their regular group were in the greenhouse early, so they again got to watch most of the rest of their classmates arrive while waiting for Professor Longbottom. They knew some of the Hufflepuff kids, but Al really only knew Tory Summers very well out of the entire group of Hufflepuff firsties. Their mothers were still good friends from their years with the Harpies, though in Vicky's case; she still played for the Harpies and managed to continue to be one of the top Keepers in the league. Tory stopped to chat with him and Rose when she first got to class; but then went to hang out with her Hufflepuff friends after that.

While he really liked Professor Longbottom a lot, Al had to admit to himself that Herbology was not going to be one of his favorite subjects; their second class just re-enforcing his low expectations from their first class. He didn't have any trouble with the lesson that was taught to them during the first period of the double class, or with working with the plants after that until shortly before lunchtime; but he just didn't find it all that interesting. Sure, that would change as they got into working with more dangerous plants over the years, and maybe he'd like it better then; but plants just weren't his thing. Rose enjoyed the class more, and she happily went above and beyond to earn five points for Gryffindor for her work with the plants; so she was a happy camper when they were set free for lunch.

"It's no wonder we have our study afteroons scheduled on Wednesday," Ray said as they walked toward the castle from the greenhouses. "We'll need the time off to recover from that class."

"I liked it," Rose told him. "Weren't you having fun?"

Ray laughed. "I had that kind of fun all spring and summer helping out with the gardens and lawn at home. This isn't much different – except I don't get paid an allowance to do the work."

"Would you be happier if you did?" Rose asked curiously; and Ray laughed again.

"I always feel better when I have money, but that wouldn't happen anyway; so I won't get to find out if it would matter or not."

"Maybe Rose could pay you in hugs," Bristol suggested. "That seemed to work for Al in DADA yesterday." She'd directed that at Rose; but had been grinning slyly at Al.

"Is there any chance that you could all just stop doing that?" Al asked hopefully.

"Don't you like Gwendolyn?" Bristol asked innocently; and it was Al's turn to laugh.

"In case you don't know, Ray, that's a very good example of a no-win question for Wizards," he said first before answering Bristol. "Of course I like her – we've known each other since we were babies; and her Mum is one of my Mum's very best friends." He laughed again. "Ask Rose sometime about my Dad's infamously lousy dating record at Hogwarts; and maybe you'll understand why I'm not in any hurry to go there – just in case being a really lousy boyfriend is hereditary."

He earned some laughs for that; and the girls let him off the hook in thanks for his entertaining answer. They went to their dorms first to drop off their Herbology books and pick up Astronomy; and then they headed for the Great Hall to have lunch. As they got used to the school day routine, their midday meal didn't take as long to eat; so they had time to do a bit of wandering around the grounds before going to the Astronomy tower for the only day-time class they'd have for the year. As with most of the core classes, there were now two Professors teaching Astronomy, and they'd gotten Professor Sinistra for their first year class.

That introduction to Astronomy lesson was mostly about getting the kids ready for what they'd be doing in their classes; along with passing on a list of rules and an assignment that would have them ready to do the practical work that would include using telescopes and other tools of the trade. Professor Sinistra didn't need the entire class time; so the Gryffindor firsties were left with more than half of their couble study period remaining when she set them free for the day.

Al and Rose still had Ray and Bristol with them for studying in the common room when they got back to Gryffindor tower; but the rest of their classmates apparently felt the need to again take that time off to relax and recover from their classes. They got all of their Herbology assignment finished; and then Al, Ray, and Rose needed to pack up; get their Quidditch gear; and head for the pitch for their second practice of the week. They were there early again; and Al was especially happy to get ready to go before Jaems and Ollie joined them. He, Rose, and Ray joined Louis and a few others to do a bit of flying while waiting for everyone to be ready to start their workout; so they were fired up and smiling by the time Louis ordered them to land and get on with the physical part of their workout.

Louis switched that up a bit so that it wasn't just a dull repeat of the same workout they'd done on Monday; and then they moved on to the real flying warmups before taking a quick break. That was when James finally managed to successfully prank Al; and he and Ollie were rolling on the pitch with laughter the moment Al put his water bottle to his mouth and then couldn't remove it. Al growled in disgust; and that got Rose's attention.

"What is it, Al?" she asked.

"Lip-lock lipstick," he managed to garble out around the bottle. "Cherry flavor." He sighed. "Better get Louis."

Rose did that; explained what had happened so that Al didn't have to try talking around the bottle any more than necessary; and Louis earned bonus cousin points for not laughing at Al's predicament. He also immediately called Victoire using his mirror to get advice; and she ended up coming out to the pitch – by herself – to help Al with getting un-stuck. The whole process took about twenty minutes; and that would have really pretty much ruined their practice for the day if they hadn't had the option of staying and working late. That wouldn't be an option starting next week when the senior team had the second afternoon practice time; which was probably the only reason that Louis didn't let James have it for screwing up their practice.

"How are we ever supposed to play as a team if James and Ollie are going to keep doing things like that?" Rose asked Al and Ray when they were walking back toward the castle. They'd been the last to leave after offering to deal with the Quidditch set for Louis – since it was already becoming obvious to them that Louis would be stuck doing that after every practice if they didn't step up to take turns. James and Ollie had been first-out – just as they'd been near-to-last to get to the practice.

"We won't," Al admitted with a shrug. "Ollie's really good; but his idea of working with us amounts to telling us to pass him the quaffle and then stay out of his way."

"That's how he plays with us at home," Ray advised him – "though Belinda and Olivia don't put up with him when he tries to do that with them."

"Then we should work on ways to play while dealing with that," Rose suggested thoughtfully; and then grinned at Ray. "If we did some extra practices; do you think that you could pretend to be your cousin for us?"

"I can try," Ray agreed, "but if I turn into a total git like he is; it's your fault for asking me to do that for you."

"Hopefully you'll be able to help us without taking the acting that far," Rose told him. "I'm not even sure how to try and work that kind of attitude into our game play."

"Once he has the quaffle, about all we can do is try to run interference," Al suggested. "If we know the moves he's going to try every time; we can try to block the defense before they can get to him. He only passed to one of us when he had nowhere else to go; and that might be something we can work on too."

"Especially since we weren't in a position to deal with those passes when he made them," Rose added. "I don't mind taking the heat if I make a mistake; but it sucked to get razzed by James and Ollie when we couldn't do anything with those bad passes."

"I don't know if you'll get much more of that," Ray told them. "The few times I saw Louis when they were giving you a hard time; I get the feeling that he's about ready to have a little privat chat about that with James and Ollie."

"You think so?" Rose asked hopefully; and Ray nodded.

"Yes, but that's really just the feeling I got; so don't quote me on it."

Rose nodded; and then turned to Al. "You probably don't want to talk about the prank; but are you going to want to hide somewhere after dinner? You know that James will be shooting his mouth off about it to anyone who will listen."

"That's tempting, but let's just work in the common room as planned," Al decided. "He'll just razz me more if I try to avoid his moment of glory – annoying as that's going to be for me."

"My Mum would lose it on me if I tried to prank my sister like that," Ray told him. "Does he get away with stuff like that at home?"

"Yes," Al admitted – "unless he gets caught by Mum or Dad. He doesn't pick on Lily too often, but I've given up on saying anything to Mum and Dad."

"Because he makes it worse for you if you rat him out?" Ray guessed; and Al nodded.

"Pretty much. Let's change the subject to anything that isn't about my brother and his stupid pranks and jokes."

Rose and Ray were good with doing that for him; and they managed to get to their dorm rooms and into the Great Hall for dinner before Al was on the receiving end of a lot of jokes and razzing over James' prank. Whether that was guys pretending to have their mouths stuck on their glasses, food, or utensils; or a litany of made-up one-liners; Al did his best to have fun with it while privately wishing that he could do anything to stop James from being such a git without stooping to his level and retaliating. He'd never done that before; and had no intention of going there; since he didn't want anyone to feel the way he did right now – not even James.

While he didn't expect another prank attempt so soon after his big success; Al was on the lookout for James for the rest of the evening. He'd keep doing that from now on; though James had managed to pull one off even though he'd been watchful all along. James did leave him alone; but two of his cousins couldn't resist teasing him just a bit. Dominique and Lucy stopped by the table he was working at with Rose and the others; leaned in on each side to kiss him; and then pretended to be stuck there for a few long moments while his friends laughed at them. Since he knew that they loved him; he laughed too; but then that started an entire new round of jokes at his expense – along with several offers to trade his two beautiful cousins for other boys' relatives.

Other than a short visit to the Owlery to see Winter and give her – and Blizzard – some treats; Al was in the common room until he and Rose had their homework done; and then he opted to head for his dorm room then instead of just hanging around and chatting or watching the WWMN. He instead ended his night with a mirror chat with Lily that included telling her about James' prank along with the rest of his news for the day; and then he did some bonus reading in his Transfiguration text – even though he was ready for their class in the morning.

He was still awake when Ray and some of the other guys caught up with him and started getting ready for bed; and he was grateful that they seemed to be finished with the jokes for the day and let the prank entertainment come to an end.

Now that they had been to at least one class for each subject, the only additions to their class schedule for the last two week days was the start of their flying lessons for Thursday during last period; and three of their double-classes – in Transfiguration, Charms, and Potions. Those three classes were with Hufflepuff, Slytherin, and Ravenclaw respectively; and Al was looking forward to all of them – even Charms with Professor Dawlish. First up on Thursday morning was Transfiguration, though, and most of the Gryffindor firsties seemed excited about that class while having breakfast.

While the combined classes were fairly large, that didn't make a difference for the lectures; and though it was a bit more difficult during the practical work time when they were encouraged to attempt the spells and charms they were being taught; the Professors seemed to be able to manage that well-enough too – at least for Al's limited experience so far. Professor Clearwater kept her lecture interesting and mostly entertaining; and then set her students free to practice the Transfigurations she'd taught for the second-half of the class. Al and Rose each earned some more points for their House during that class; and then Al earned five more in their afternoon DADA class with Professor Proudfoot.

The only little glitch in their day came during last period, when Mr. Peakes exempted Al, Rose, Ray, and the other three firsties that had tried out for their Quidditch team from flying lessons; since they'd already proven the skills required to pass the flying test that all of the firstie students would eventually need to pass too. They'd split up when leaving the courtyard where the flying lessons were taught, and while their classmates opted for some outdoor play time; Al, Rose, and Ray had been on the way to their dorms to get their books for studying when they were confronted by Mr. Jigger. Jerry Jigger was Mr. Filch's protégé, and while the old caretaker was still technically in charge, he was slowing down in his old age to the point where Mr. Jigger did most of the work that Mr. Filch had once done on his own. The younger man wasn't as mean as Filch, but he was slowly working on it – and had just as much personal baggage when it came to dealing with Wizards and Witches in a world where squibs were still held in fairly low regard.

"Ah, and what would three firsties be doing out and about when they should be in class?" Jigger asked as he blocked Rose and the boys from continuing through the entrance hall. "Getting into trouble, I'm sure."

"We're just coming from Flying lessons," Rose told him. "Mr. Peakes gave us exemptions from the lessons because we passed our tests last Saturday morning before being allowed to try out for our Quidditch team. We're just on our way to our dorms to get our books so that we can study instead."

"A likely story," Jigger declared derisively; "and you're foolish to attempt such a ruse with me that is easy-enough to prove false." He grabbed Al and Ray by the shoulders; and nodded curtly for Rose to lead the way back to the courtyard as if he couldn't trust having her at his back or thought that she'd just run off if given the chance. "Let's just see about this, and when I'm done with this lesson; you'll know better than to try lying your way out of trouble with me!"

Mr. Jigger seemed quite happy as he dragged them back to where the flying lessons were still just getting started; and then he was chargrined to find out that Rose had, in fact, been telling him the truth; and that there were three other students that had also been exempted from the flying lessons that Mr. Jigger did not need to be concerned over for being out of class. Mr. Peakes had been polite about it, but that didn't help the three kids with how the caretaker now felt about them. Mr. Jigger had followed them back to the entrance hall; and then he'd left them with the ominous warning that he'd be keeping an eye on them.

"I may have to go and hang out with some of the other guys, Al," Ray told him once Jigger was gone. "You seem to be a trouble magnet."

"Not compared to our parents," Al joked; including Rose in that 'our' part of the comment.

"Let's hope that our Hogwarts years go quite a bit better than it did for them," Rose said more seriously. "Having James and Ollie as the worst bad guys in our lives really isn't so bad by comparison."

"For us," Al agreed. "I don't know if we can say that for other kids and teens they pick on – especially when they seem to make a point of going after Slytherins like Scorpius."

"This is way too serious," Ray told them. "Let's talk about something else – like how the Harpies will do this wekeend; or the buzz around the common room about the senior team tryouts on Saturday."

"They got stuck with the last spot of the day this year," Al said. "Victoire and our other cousins probably won't even catch much of the Harpies' game."

"I'd wonder if we'll be able to watch the game in the common room; but then we'll be at the tryouts to support our cousins and House mates anyway," Rose advised them.

"We will?" Ray asked; and Rose laughed.

"Okay, Al and I will be because we should and want to see how well our cousins and their friends do. You can stay and watch your Harpies' game – and borrow one of our mirrors if the game isn't on the big mirror in the common room."

"You can use my mirror as long as you don't spend the entire time talking with my sister, Lily, instead of watching the game," Al ammended. "She'll likely be at the game with Mum – and Dad, if he isn't stuck at work."

"He's the boss at Auror Headquarters," Ray pointed out. "Can't he take a day off whenever he wants?"

"Technically, yes," Al agreed with a nod; "but he doesn't – and is there anytime one of the other Aurors needs him."

"Which is why I have no intention of ever being an Auror – or working for the Ministry of Magic at any job," Ray promised fervently.

Ray's pronouncement led to a chat about jobs that he would like to do instead until they split up to go to their dorm rooms and get their books. They decided to do their work in the library until dinnertime, so Rose left a note for Bristol and Cora in case they wanted to join them there; and then they were off and soon working on their Transfiguration and DADA assignments. Bristol met up with them, but Cora didn't; and the four kids managed to get all of their assignments finished by the time they needed to go to the Great Hall for dinner; so they had the rest of the evening off.

"Don't look so glum," Al counseled Ray as they walked to their dorm room to get rid of their books before going to dinner. Ray had been frowning as they walked through the common room and saw most of the other firsties having fun and laughing it up. "We'll only have the Charms and Potions assignments we'll get tomorrow left to do for the whole weekend."

"That's true," Ray admitted; "but nearly everyone else seems to be having way more fun than we are."

Al laughed. "They are, but Rose and I are planning on having fun when we can really enjoy it – like when our Hogwarts letters come out."

"That's what you get for having over-achiever parents with high expectations," Ray joked; and Al laughed again.

"My Dad didn't take his NEWT year, and while that does apply to my Mum; her expectations came down quite a way after James' first report."

"Then you do at least have him to thank for that," Ray suggested. "He's helped me a lot with appreciating my little sister since we've been here," he added with a grin. "Don't tell her I said that, though. I'll deny it if you try."

Al appreciated having a night off to just take it easy, and James and Ollie were busy annoying some of the second-year girls with obvious success; so they didn't give Al a hard time either. After dinner, he hung out in the common room with Rose, Ray, and Bristol for a while; went up to his dorm room early; and ended his night with some extra reading and a mirror chat with his parents and Lily – mostly to get the latest news from the outside world and hear about their plans for the weekend. Getting to sleep took a while, especially after the rest of his room mates arrived and didn't seem to be in any hurry to turn in; but Al did eventually sleep; and was up and ready to go, as usual, before dawn.

The morning had started out great, and had continued to be fun through until the start of Charms class. While the subject was alrady a favorite for Al and Rose, they soon found out that their Friday morning version of the class was going to also be very annoying. Professor Dawlish began to make a point of ignoring them whenever they raised their hands in response to his questions – unless no other kids did the same. That only happened once, since Scorpius Malfoy was able to answer all of the other questions that their classmates couldn't; and he was instantly Professor Dawlish's favorite student.

During the practice half of their double class, when they were allowed to work on the charms they'd been taught in the first half; Al and Rose each correctly performed each of those new charms long-before any of their Gryffindor and Slytherin classmates. Those successes were completely ignored by their Professor as he pretended not to notice; and then he enthusiastically awarded points to Scorpius and Slytherin when he eventually learned how to do those charms too – with lots of one-on-one help from their teacher. For his part, Scorpius seemed to take the praise quite humbly, and didn't even look toward Al or Rose even once; but he did have a small smirk on his face and a look of pride and superiority that mostly shone in his eyes.

"Now I know exactly how Mum felt in Professor Snape's class," Rose said; and then smiled at Al. "No offense meant, Al."

"You lost me on part two of that one," Bristol told her; and Rose laughed.

"Al's named after Professors Dumbledore and Snape," she explained. "Professor Snape was even worse with most of our parents – and probably all Gryffindors – than Professor Dawlish was in there with us today. Some of the stories are pretty awful."

Bristol laughed too. "Then I'm even more confused about why Al would be named after him," she admitted.

Rose shrugged. "That's a longer story, but my personal short version of it is that sometimes bad people do good things; and Al's Dad chose this way to thank Professor Snape."

"You should be fun to have around when we get to the more recent events in History of Magic," Bristol told Rose. "Have you read that part of the textbook yet?"

"Yeah, and it's amazing that Hogwarts teaches that rubbish," Rose answered. "Half or more of the current Professors were here; yet that text is full of half-truths – and that's being kind. Half the time while I was reading that, it seemed as though Vodemort and his Death Eaters were the good guys."

"Geez, Rose – don't say his name!" Ray exclaimed; and Rose laughed again.

"He's been dead for more than nineteen years; and even that History of Magic textbook confirms he did die at the Battle of Hogwarts – though some of us do have the advantage of first-hand accounts from members of our own families. When will people get over being afraid of his name? I'd call him Tom Riddle like Al's Dad usually does the rare time he even talks about the war; but hardly anyone makes the connection to the Dark Lord."

"Most of the grown-ups in my family will never say the 'V' name," Ray answered seriously. "I didn't know he had that other name either; so I guess you're right about that." He shook his head as if to clear it. "We have got to stop talking about such serious stuff. We've got Potions this afternoon with Ravenclaw. That'll be more fun than Charms was; but I still need a fun break before we spend the afternoon in a dungeon."

"Maybe Professor Perks will teach us how to make love potions," Bristol suggested; grinning at Al. "That'd be fun for Al and Gwendolyn to work on together!"

"Teasing them about that would be fun," Rose told her, "but if you're suggesting that they use it too; I think that it's already too late for them."

Al rolled his eyes and groaned while Bristol, Rose, Cora, and Ray all laughed. "You are seriously scaring the kids," he stated while blushing a bit and trying not to laugh along with them. "Don't you have anything better to do?"

"Nope," Bristol assured him glibly; and then went on to prove that with some willing help from Rose and Cora. That kept them entertained straight through lunchtime and until Professor Perks got their afternoon class started.

Potions had not been a favorite subject for their fathers, but Al and Rose loved the class a lot. Having a Professor that didn't hate them probably helped with that a lot; but they also just really liked the subject. Getting to make the potions they'd read about, and were just starting to be taught, was a blast that would hopefully never be a literal or physical description of their potions work. This class was again practically an opposite of the Charms class; and Al and Rose managed to earn fifteen more points for their House between them for the questions they answered correctly and successfully creating their potions. Gwendolyn earned five points for Ravenclaw along the way too; and she was also one of the handful of kids to finish a proper batch of their potion. Bristol had made sure that Al and Gwendolyn were paired together for the class despite her disappointment over not learning about love potions yet, and though Al wished that he wasn't getting razzed about that so much; he and Gwendolyn did work well together – at least as well as he and Rose did.

They were set free for the weekend once they'd all finished cleaning up from their potions work, and then Al, Rose, and Ray had to hurry to get to their dorms; grab their Quidditch gear; and get to the practice pitch. Despite the fact that the second-year Gryffindors had a dobule study period for their afternoon classes on Friday, Al, Rose, and Ray still made it to their practice before James and Ollie did. Al was keeping an eye on James from the moment he'd arrived; but Louis hopefully dealt with that worry before getting their workout started.

"Effective right now," Louis announced, "I want everyone here to know that pulling any pranks like we had on Wednesday during practices or games is not allowed on my team!"

"Don't you mean 'our' team?" James asked with a grin; and Louis turned his attention fully on his cousin.

"I mean my team," he advised James. "If you want to keep playing on it; then you will not mess up any practices or games by pulling pranks on your team mates." He paused for a moment before continuing. "Just to be clear on how serious I am about this, if anyone actually wants to find out the hard way; they'll sit out the next match we play – or just flat-out be off the team."

"No way!" James protested; his expression one of total disbelief. "You wouldn't do that!"

"I would do it; and will," Louis promised seriously. "The other Houses all have talented players and decent teams this year; and we can't be distracted from our training just to have a bit of that kind of fun. Let's have our fun out on the pitch winning our games this season." He smiled at James. "You've got some Seeker rematches this year that will hopefully go better for us than they did last season. Put a bit of effort into that instead of messing with your team mates. We can't learn to play as a team that way; and we won't win if we don't work together."

"Aye Aye, Captain," James said a bit petulantly while saluting with a one-finger salute that Louis decided to ignore – or possibly didn't know the meaning of the gesture; since his experience in the Muggle world was small compared to James, Al, and Rose.

Louis put them to work then, and they actually had a fairly good practice. Ollie still wasn't really working at all with Al and Rose, other than to try and get them to throw the quaffle to him anytime they had it in hand; and Ray in particular took advantage of that on the reserve squad by getting a few interceptions. Despite the complete lack of help from their 'lead' Chaser, Al and Rose each got their scoring and play-making chances; and they did well-enough playing against Louis. James was a happy camper because he caught the snitch several times and his back-up didn't even come close to catching it even once. The only problem that Al saw with that, though, was that James wasn't really trying his hardest; and he was doing a lot of showing off. While James would probably live with Louis' ban on pranks during practices and games; that didn't stop him from buzzing Al whenever he felt like it; and he usually added some put-dwon or joke on the way past. He also made one attempt to keep Al from seeing a bludger that was hit at him, but Al sensed the imminent danger in time and dodged out of the way even before he saw the bludger.

After practice, Al and Rose packed up their gear and headed over to Hagrid's cabin. They'd adjusted the time for Hagrid's invitation after finding out what their Quidditch training schedule was going to be, and they weren't going to have as much time for the visit; but they hadn't wanted to disappoint Hagrid by canceling. It didn't take long to cross the school grounds; and Hagrid had obviously been waiting for them because he came outside to grett them while they were still fifty yards away from his home.

"Welcome!" he said enthusiastically when they finally reached him. "Come in, come in! How's your first week of school been? You're likely ready for the weekend, I'll wager."

"Thank-you," Rose answered as she preceded Al into the cabin and passed Hagrid. "We've mostly had a really good week; and we're happy to have the weekend off – though we have our assignments to do too."

"Of course you do," Hagrid agreed; smiling happily as he followed Al into his home. He closed the door behind him; and walked past his two guests when they both stopped to look around with wide eyes and amazed expressions on their faces. "Come and sit down. I have fresh-made rock cakes and cold drinks; and can't wait to hear all about your first week here at Hogwarts – not that I haven't heard lots about the two of you from the other Professors. You've done well to make the Gryffindor Quidditch team too; though I wasn't surprised to hear that." He glanced over toward the fireplace and shook his head. "Some guard dog you are, Fang. Come over here and say hello to Al and Rose."

Hagrid's dog wasn't the same Fang that had been his faithful companion when Al's and Rose's parents had been at hogwarts; but they knew that Hagrid had chosen his new pet because of it's resemblance to the first Fang. The dog grudgingly obeyed; allowed Al and Rose to take turns scratching him for a few moments; and then he retrieved the treat that Hagrid offered before returning to his spot by the fire and settled down to enjoy his snack while watching them incuriously.

"I like your cabin," Al said as he and Rose both sat down at the table that was sized for their host; and required climbing up to get onto the chairs. While they'd heard the stories about their parents' years at Hogwarts; it was obvious from first sight that there were lots of little details missing from those tales – or Hagrid had changed his cabin a lot over the past nineteen years.

"Thank-you," Hagrid answered. "It's not much even compared to your homes; but I can't imagine living anywhere else."

"It's brilliant here," Rose declared. She pointed toward one wall that was fairly covered in pictures. "Are those pictures of Norbert, Aragog, and all of the other animals we've heard about?"

Hagrid bobbed his head; and his smile broadened. "They are," he confirmed. "Your Uncle Charlie sent me that picture of Norbert from his dragon reserve. I've taken a couple of trips there during the summers, and seen him myself; but I still miss him."

"You'd need a bigger place if he still lived here," Rose teased; "so it's probably for the best that he's at the reserve instead."

"He's happy there," Hagrid told her; and then changed the subject. "We can talk about my animal friends another day. There's not very much time before we'll be needed at the castle for dinner; and you both must have loads to tell me. Have you had any problems with bullies?"

"Not unless you include James, Ollie, and their pranks," Al answered. "We're mostly staying in groups when we're not in our tower or classes; and haven't had any other problems."

"Your brother reminds me too much of your Uncles Fred and George," Hagrid said with a nod. "They were always in trouble too; and usually it was for taking their pranks too far. James should take more care – especially with your father the Head of the Aurors and all."

"Uncle Harry was the Ministry's undesireable number one before he was an Auror," Rose pointed out with a grin she directed at Al. "Maybe James wants to grow up to be exactly like his father."

Hagrid and Al both laughed. "Well, if that's so; he's off to a good start here – when it comes to detentions and getting into trouble,' Hagrid offered. "The two of you won't have that sort of trouble; and I hope you'll visit me more often than James does. Neville – Profesor Longbottom – tells me that he's too cool to hang out with Professors – even if we are old family friends."

"He's too cool to hang out with younger brothers too, so don't feel too bad about that," Al advised him. "We will come for regular visits; and don't worry about our reputations nearly as much as James does. How was your first week of teaching?"

Al's question sent Hagrid off on an entertaining chat about his Care of Magical Creatures classes. He was disappointed that he didn't have any NEWT students this year, but his third-year students had found their introduction into magical creatures wilder than they'd apparently expected; while his older students wereused to his teaching methods; so they weren't suprised by his somewhat extreme start to their school year. He was quite proud to report that there'd only been one student injury in his classes this week; and that was apparently a record for a first week of school. While Al had successfully turned the conversation away from their own adventures, Hagrid did get back to that eventually; and they managed to cover the basics on both sides by the time they needed to get to the Great Hall. They walked there together; but Hagrid left them and went into the Hall through the entrance that the Professors and staff normally used. They weren't the last to arrive; but also didn't have to wait long before the food appeared on the tables and they could dig in.

Dinner was good; Al and Rose were the main entertainment; and they told their friends all about their visit with Hagrid while enjoying their meal. They had fun with that, and their friends had mostly been amazed; but it was time to get to their Charms and Potions assignments after that – especially for Al and Rose after they'd missed all of the after-school study opportunities while they'd been busy with Quidditch practice and their visit with Hagrid. That hadn't been a problem for the rest of their friends. They hadn't studied at all either; yet had still opted to take the rest of the evening off and get their assignments done on Saturday and Sunday instead. That left Al and Rose as two of just a couple of dozen students actually doing homework in the common room while most of their fellow Gryffindor played and had fun. It was too noisy, and James felt the need to stop by three times just to razz them; but they still managed to get their Potions assignment completed before conceding defeat and packing up their books for the night. Al decided to just go up to his dorm room then; while Rose went to hang out with Bristol, Cora, and the other girls.

That choice turned out to be good and bad when James and Ollie walked into the room about ten minutes later as Al was sitting on his bed and quietly surfing the Wizarding World Web on his portable mirror. The two boys had stopped for a surprised moment or two; obviously expecting to find the room empty; and then James grinned at his brother as he crossed the room to stand at the foot of the bed; Ollie just a step behind him.

"Did you need to be alone to call home to Mum and cry about how much you miss her and want to go home?" he taunted; and Al just turned his mirror so that James could see the Quidditch site he was looking at.

"Nope. I'm good. This is the first time you've stopped by in a week. Is there something you'd like?"

"Yeah. I just wanted to stop by and let you know that just because we've been banned from pranks while we're doing Quidditch with the team doesn't mean that you're off the hook from them."

"I didn't expect to be, but thanks so much for the heads up on that," Al said dryly. "Since you didn't expect me to be here, I'll guess that you were going to share that news with me by example. Leaving notes just isn't your style."

"That was the plan," James admitted easily; "but it'll be more fun for us now anyway; right, Ollie?"

"Definitely," Ollie agreed. He pulled out his wand; while James took something else out of his pocket.

"Petrificus Totalis!" Ollie shouted.

Al was already jumping off of his bed by then; grabbing his wand from the night table; and said "Protego!" His shield deflected Ollie's spell harmlessly into the wall; but James laughed as he immediately dropped what he'd been holding onto Al's bed and it turned into a swamp.

"Nicely done, Ollie," James complimented his friend. It would have been better if he'd been bound and stuck neck-deep in it too; but this works better than what we had planned anyway." He wrinkled his nose. "We'd have never been able to mask the smell enough that he'd have just climbed on the bed and fallen in later."

"Probably not," Ollie agreed; and grinned at Al. "Our work here is done. Have fun trying to get any sleep tonight, Al."

"Maybe Ray will let Al bunk with him," James suggested with a snort. "I'll come and get that back from you – in a day or three; or maybe a week at most."

Al just glared at his brother.

"He's speechless," Ollie declared. "You don't think he'll start crying right here in front of us, do you?"

"No, I won't," Al said shortly; and then turned and pointed his wand at his bed. He spoke quietly enough that the other two boys couldn't hear him; but their eyes went wide when the swamp disappeared and Al's bed was again as clean and tidy as it had been before their prank. Picking up the little box that was the container for the swamp; Al tossed it to his brother. "Nice catch," he complimented when James snatched it out of the air easily. "Maybe I'll tell you how to unlock it again – in a day or three or a week at most." He climbed back onto his bed and got ready to return to his Wizarding World Web play time. "You're a git, James. Why don't you just go bug someone else and leave me alone?"

"How'd you do that?" James demanded instead; and Al shook his head.

"Instead of asking me that, maybe you should be really glad that I'm not just like you, James. It would have been just as easy to move that swamp – and drop it into the floor underneath the both of you. One of us doesn't find stuff like that funny, though; so just get out of here and have a good rest of the night anywhere that isn't close to me. I've had enough of your kind of brotherly love to last for quite a while."

"You're no fun at all," James accused; and Al shrugged.

"If by that you mean that I'm sick of just letting you prank me all of the time without doing anything about it, then yeah, I'm no fun anymore. You're more fun when you're not trying to impress your friends at my expense; but getting you to just leave me alone is probably too much to expect."

"Definitely," James agreed; grinning again and not even remotely sorry over his attempt to humiliate his brother and make him look bad with his room mates and new friends. "We love a good challenge."

"Yes we do," Ollie agreed; now undeterred too. "Catch you later, Al."

"When he least expects it," James added; both boys laughing as they headed for the door.

Once they were gone, Al put his mirror in his lap and thought about what had just happened for a while. He tried to remember where he would have learned how to deal with the portable swamp with magic, but couldn't picture anything – and couldn't explain how he not only knew that but was also able to pull it off. That seemed to be true for all of the magic he'd tried to do so far, and while that was exciting; it made him a bit nervous too. He wasn't surprised, since he was his parent's son; but he also sensed that this was different for him that it was for James. His brother had talked to him a lot about his first year at Hogwarts, and while a lot of that had been bragging about getting to learn about magic and use it while Al couldn't; he'd never mentioned having things happen to him that Al had already experienced in just his first week. While he mused about that for quite a while, he didn't gain any major insights before eventually going to sleep; and he wasn't thinking about any of that at all by morning.

Whether students were in their dorms, at the Great Hall for meals, or anywhere else around the school or grounds; Quidditch was the word of the day thanks mostly to the senior team tryouts. The buzz at breakfast centered around the Slytherin and Ravenclaw players; since their tryouts were in the morning; and then the school grapevine was on overload at noon as those results were passed along; and the Hufflepuff and Gryffindor tryouts in the afternoon were speculated about in light of the morning news.

Some players, including Victoire, had spent half the morning outdoors; trying to learn what they could about this season's versions of the Slytherin and Ravenclaw team; but Al and Rose managed to convince some of their friends to either get their assignments finished in the morning or at least get a start on them before taking the afternoon off to watch Qudditch – whether that was going to the tryouts or watching one or more of the pro games. Al and Rose did get their weekend assignments finished by lunchtime; and they were happy to join in on the Quidditch chat time while they ate that meal.

"Victoire must be happy that none of the fourth year Slytherins made it on the Senior team this year," Rose suggested to Al after they'd heard that the Slytherin team from last year had stayed intact. "I wonder how close that competition was this year?"

"I don't know," Al answered; "but we heard the stories from last season; and the other teams will have their work cut out for them against Slytherin. They did come in second to Victoire's team last year; and it might have been closer for the Quidditch Cup if their Junior team had done a bit better."

"Or if Hufflepuff hadn't gone for the snitch catch and closer loss instead of letting Slytherin get the blowout," Ray added. "That was a tough choice for them. I think they learned it from the Harpies."

"Probably," Rose agreed. "There are more pro teams using that strategy when needed now too; so it does happen a lot more often than it used to before our team turned that into a winning game plan."

"At least the Ravenclaw fourth years have changed things up for their team," Al said; moving on to the more interesting of the two tryouts of the morning.

"They've got a good trio of Chasers now," Ray said with a nod; "but we'll hopefully have the edge at Seeker and Keeper."

"We'll have some pretty good Chasers too," Rose reminded him. "Victoire's biggest problem might be having too many good ones to choose from this year with Lucy and Olivia trying out for the Senior team this year."

"That'll be tough," Ray agreed – "especially when their team won all three games last year; and they only lost one NEWT year player."

"Would you like to make any predictions?" Rose asked her friends; and Al was the only one in their group to take the bait.

"I wouldn't bet against Lucy and Olivia. They were playing great every time we saw them play at our house this summer – and they both want to play in the show after graduating."

"Then that'd be even tougher for Victoire if they win a spot of the team over Heather or Dominique." She paused for a moment and then laughed at herself. "Okay, make that winning a spot from Heather. They won't beat Dominique – she's just too good."

They had to wait until nearly the end of the afternoon to find out the results of the Gryffindor tryouts; but after lunch; Al and Ray went outside for the afternoon with a group of five girls and two other guys to hang out and have a bit of fun while waiting for the team tryouts. Ray brought a fanged Frisbee to toss around; they played with some of the charms and spells they'd been learning; and just happened to be between the castle and Quidditch stadium when the Hufflepuff team left the pitch after their tryouts.

"I do believe that we have our first major Quidditch upset of the day," Al whispered to Rose, Bristol, Cora, and Ray. "The way that Alex is smiling right now; he must've won the Seeker duel."

"Do you think so?" Rose asked; and Al nodded.

"Yes, and that's too bad for Meghan; but I'm happy for Alex." Since Rose and Al knew Alex Jordan and Meghan Crumb, if not as well as some of the kids that were a bit closer in age to them; Rose felt the same way.

"Did you get any other news flashes just at a glance?" Ray joked; and Al laughed.

"I don't know all of them, but Alice Longbottom made the team for sure too, and the way they're chumming around; I'd say that Tina and Calvin Johnson are the new Beater team for Hufflepuff."

"They're our Aunt Angelina's niece and nephew," Rose explained for Ray and Bristol. "We see them now and then at Uncle George and Aunt Angelina's house."

"I'd ask if there are any kids or teens you don't know; but Al just told us he doesn't know all of the Hufflepuff players."

"Not by sight, anyway," Al confirmed. "We hear about most of the other House players from our cousins, though." He looked over to where the group of Hufflepuffs were already well on the way to the castle. "I'd say they've got yet another good team this year – and they've had lots of them pretty much since Teddy started playing for Hufflepuff in his second year."

"Teddy?" Cora asked; and Al nodded.

"Teddy Lupin. He's my Dad's Godson – and in his second year of Auror training."

"And the best Chaser Hufflepuff's had in twenty years," Rose added – "not that I'm biased or anything."

"They have some really good ones right now," Al reminded her; "but Teddy could play professionally if he wasn't set on being an Auror."

"I could picture Teddy and Victoire playing on a team together; except that the Harpies don't hire Wizards," Rose joked; earning a round of laughs.

Al and Rose only had Ray, Bristol, and Cora go with them to watch the tryouts while the others decided to go back to their common room to hang out and play games. There were quite a few teens gathering to try out for the team; but a fairly small group of spectators. They were the only firsties there; and there weren't very many second or third-year Gryffindors either. The stadium seemed practically empty; and the sounds and voices echoed around the pitch. Victoire eventually decided that everyone who had signed up for tryouts had arrived; and got right to work – starting with the Beater positions.

Six players stepped forward, and they all looked confident enough for the job; but it didn't take Jensen Scott and Stanley Stebbins long to prove that they were still the best Beaters in Gryffindor House; and Victoire only had two uninjured players to choose from for her reserve squad. With that out of the way, Victoire changed things up and surprised some of the teens when she called for the Seeker tryouts next.

"We're doing the Seeker tryouts first this year because we need the best Seeker possible for our team," she explained after the minor buzz died down. "Some of you know that I'd much rather play Chaser for our team, so I'm actually pulling for the rest of you to beat me, but I will still try my very best; so you'll need to earn the spot to get it." She smiled at the three boys and one girl who had stepped forward when she'd made the call for Seekers while getting ready to fly on her Lightningbolt 300. "When we're ready, Belinda, could you please release the snitch for us?"

A few moments later, they were off; and the chase was on! Unfortunately for Victoire, none of her competitors even gave her much of a challenge. Her Lightningbolt was just too fast; Scott and Stanley made that even worse as they batted bludgers at all of the Seekers; and she was flat-out just too good. She caught the snitch in less than five minutes; and then sent the others up again to choose her reserve team Seeker. Al understood why she'd set up her tryout that way; but that choice led to a delay while the other four teens battled it out for the reserve team job that messed up the flow of the tryouts. Brandon Starkey had been James' back-up Seeker on the junior team last season; and he eventually earned that same job on the senior team – and seemed very happy to get it.

With that done, and her own position on the team rather emphatically decided; Victoire put her Chaser prospects up against Belinda Wood and let them battle it out with her – and their Beaters – for the six spots on the team and reserve squad. Al's prediction with Rose's addendum about Dominique proved out; and Dominique, Olivia, and Lucy took the top three spots in that order. Victoire looked upset when her friend Heather only managed to make the reserve team; but Heather either wasn't too disappointed, or hid it well. Victoire was happy for her sister and cousin, and the difference between the top three and next-best trio had been obvious to everyone – not to mention how many of the Chaser-prospects that hadn't been able to score even a single goal against Belinda.

Keeper tryouts were next, and though three hopefuls stepped up to have a go at it with Belinda; they were at least slightly delusional if they thought they'd have a chance of beating her out for that job on the team. She went on to prove that as convincingly as Victoire had won the Seeker job; and a NEWT year Wizard ended up as her back-up on the reserve team and making it even that far for the first time.

"That went well for our families," Ray said happily as they got up and headed for the exit. "Five of seven players between the Weasley and Wood families."

"We're five for seven on the junior team too," Rose reminded him; "and the McClaggens have the other two spots."

Ray laughed. "I guess we can include those pesky Potter boys in your clan if you insist," he conceded; and then smiled at Cora. "Why didn't you try out for the team this year? Rose would've loved having another Witch on the team – even if that would have meant that Al was out of luck."

"I doubt that I could have played better than any of you, but I didn't try out because my brothers are Beaters; and I'm totally against playing a game where they have an excuse to hit me with bludgers," Cora answered. "In fact, I'm good with never getting hit by one; so you won't see me playing Quidditch – even if my Dad and brothers are nuts about the game."

"Like some others we know," Bristol added meaningfully. "I'll keep you company here on the ground while our slightly-insane friends have fun with that game."

"My Mum would agree with you on that," Rose assured Bristol. "She thinks I'm nuts to play – even though Dad thinks it's brilliant."

"Which is funny, considering that your Mum only dated Quidditch players at Hogwarts," Cora chimed in with a laugh – "including my Dad. Have we mentioned that before?"

"Yes, we have," Rose confirmed. "I've always thought that was funny too, though; so I'm sure we can milk the story for a long time. Dad wasn't technically playing Quidditch for a team by the time they started dating after the war; but I think that it still counts; since they did like each other before that and just never got around to the dating."

"Yeah, well they did have that whole war thing to deal with at the time," Al pointed out with a grin. "That messed things up for a lot of couples – my parents included."

The girls were happy to take that topic and run with it; but Al and Ray stayed out of that chat as much as was possible; and the excitement for the day had pretty much ended with the conclusion of the Gryffindor tryouts. Sure, there was a lot more Quidditch talk going on at dinner and in the common rooms of all four Houses after that, but while Al and Rose had a fun, quiet night hanging out with their friends; their play time hadn't been anything even remotely extreme on the fun scale. They also made time to write letters to send home; Al took them to the Owlery so that he could get Winter on her way; and he wrapped up his day with a bedtime mirror chat with Lily.

Their first week at Hogwarts had been amazing; with the really great moments far out-weighing the handful of not-so-fun experiences. Al was sure that the non-stop action wouldn't last, or at least they'd get settled into a routine that would feel more normal. That didn't mean that their magical education adventure would get boring; since he was certain that learning about magic would always be fun. Add in the Quidditch matches and practices to go along with the magic study and play opportunities; and they all had a lot to look forward to in the coming weeks and months. It was too soon to even be thinking about Halloween yet with so much to look forward to between now and then, but as he went off to sleep; Al was in a really great mood and enthusiastically looking forward to his continuing Hogwarts adventures. While it had been just over a week since coming to school; it was as though he was already a different person than the shy, nervous kid that had been so afraid of even being sorted before getting on the Hogwarts Express. Regardless of the reeason for the quick changes in him, the new, more-confident Albus Potter was quite certain that whatever happened to him next; he was ready to handle it – and that he and Rose were going to have a brilliant first year at school with their cousins and friends!