The Cursed Chronicles: Year 6

Chapter 1

"Lily! James!" Albus knocked on the wall of the stairwell, which was the wall of Lily's bedroom, on his way down the stairs, then bounded into the kitchen, jumped onto the dining table and knocked on the ceiling which was directly below James' bedroom. "Get up! Get up! We're going back today!" he could hear James groan, but Lily was getting up and dressing in her bedroom.

"Going back where today?"

"Why, Hogwarts of course! Now come on, get up! We're going to be late!"

"Albus Severus Potter, get down from that dining table this instant." Albus happily complied, and ran to his mother, giving her a big hug. It was hard for Ginny to stay mad when her son was so happy. "What's got you so excited?"

"I get to go back to Hogwarts!" he exclaimed, getting out the eggs and bacon so he could help his mom prepare the traditional going back to school breakfast. Ginny shook her head as she turned on the sink to wash her hands.

"I've never seen you so excited to go back to Hogwarts," she commented.

"Well this year people aren't going to bully me, or tease me, or shove my head into toilets-"

"They shoved your head into toilets?"

"-this year, no one will pick on Scorpius and I. Scorpius even has a fan club."

"Yeah, it's scary." Lily walked in, tugging her luggage behind her and rubbing her eyes. "Albus has one too. You know something is wrong when you walk into your dorm and find posters with your brother's face on them plastered all over the walls." Ginny snorted as she washed the dishes. Albus glared at her.

"That's-creepy," he decided. "But it doesn't change that I'm excited to go to Hogwarts this year." He sat down at the table and then listened closely. Snoring. When his mother wasn't looking, he jumped up on the table again and knocked on the ceiling as hard as he could. There was a loud thunk as James fell out of his bed.

"Albus Severus, so help me if I see you on that table again you will not be going to Hogwarts this year!" Albus jumped down from the table.

"ALBUS!" James half yelled-half groaned in frustration.

"What did you do this time, Al?" Harry asked sleepily as he came down the stairs.

"Stood on the table and woke up James," Ginny explained, handing Albus his food, and kissing Harry. "Nothing unusual."

"Scorpius!" Albus waved to his friend from across the station and ran to him. "How was your summer?"

"Amazing. An entire three months of reading and writing."

"Scorpius, only you would find that an entertaining summer."

"But the books were so interesting and I was writing to my friends."

"Well, I am pretty fabulous," Albus admitted. Scorpius laughed. Out of the corner of his eye, Albus saw Rose entering the train with her friends. She waved at Albus and Scorpius, but didn't wait for them. "Where's Rose going. I thought after an entire summer of not seeing each other, you guys would be eager to spend some time together." He wiggled his eyebrows dramatically and Scorpius couldn't help but laugh at how ridiculous he looked.

"Well, both Rose and I are old enough to date now, but we decided not to date each other because we wanted to see how we like other people before we commit to each other." Albus gave him a weird look.

"You guys overthink things too much. You really just should have asked her out, made out and had it over with." Scorpius returned the weird look.

"I thought you thought she hated me."

"Oh, you guys were completely oblivious. Katrina and I lost some money to each other over you guys. I got 20 galleons for Rose making the first move, but she got 30 for it happening at the Quidditch finals after Slytherin winning."

"Wow. Just wow."

"Yeah, we even made a ship name."

"You made a ship name."

"Yes. Scorose is my OTP."

"I'm going to kill you someday."

"I look forward to it." The train whistle blew. "We'd better get on the train," Albus observed. As they hopped onto the train they waved goodbye to their parents.

"Goodbye!" Albus' father called. "I hope you like the surprise!" Albus tried to ask what he meant but the train was already moving, and Scorpius, who was not interested in jumping off trains again anytime soon, pulled him inside. They went inn search of a compartment. They came to Rose's, but it was full of her friends, who giggled when they saw Scorpius, so they wisely decided to pass it. They found an almost-empty compartment.

"Hello." A young Asian girl was the only occupant of the compartment.

"Hey," Albus said and sat down, Scorpius following suit. "My name is-"

"I know who you are." She interrupted abruptly. "Both of you," she added. Albus glanced at Scorpius.

"I apologize, but we don't know who you are."

"That's okay," she said. She extended her hand an the boys shook it in turn. "Sidney Harper. But most people call me squidney..." She didn't seem to enthused about the nickname."

"We'll just call you Sidney, if that's all right," Scorpius replied and Sidney brightened.

"Our parents went to school together, you know," she informed them.

"Really? Who are your parents?"

"Well, dad's a muggle, but my mum's a witch. Her name was Cho Chang when they went to school." There was an awkward silence.

"Didn't she-"

"Yeah she dated your dad for a while," she confirmed. "I'm not too invested on the subject though, to be honest. Mum's always been a bit emotional. She's always in tears over something, but she still manages." She paused, searching for another topic of conversation. "So how was the homework for the new 6th years? The new 4th years had this super long essay on the Grindelwald incident, and..."