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SIYE Time:5:34 on 29th March 2024
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The Next Generation
By werekitten

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Category: Post-DH/PM
Characters:None
Genres: Angst, Drama, Fluff, General
Warnings: None
Story is Complete
Rating: PG
Reviews: 202
Summary: “I won’t! I won’t be a Slytherin!” So says the youngest son of Harry Potter and Ginny Weasley just before he leaves for his first year at Hogwarts. Albus Severus Potter’s worst nightmare is to be sorted into Slytherin, house of the Dark wizards. Despite reassurances from his father, he still worries that it might come true… and it does. How does little Al cope with being a Slytherin? And can his family accept it? *This is actually a H/G story, although it doesn't sound like it from this summary*
Hitcount: Story Total: 55776; Chapter Total: 5233





Author's Notes:
I'd like to thank all of you who left reviews telling me what you thought of it. I think I responded to all of them, but I've compiled all my arguments as to why Harry is not entirely out of character, so here they are:
Throughout the books, we have seen countless times when Harry gets angry and says things that he really doesn't mean. Most of OotP, for ex, or when Ron leaves in DH. That is exactly what happened here. Harry lost his temper and said things he really didn't mean. He allowed an old, half-forgotton grudge cloud out his sense of reason -- he got out of controll. Many of you also mentioned that he seems sincere when he tells Al that Slytherin is a good House at the train station, in DH. I've chosen to interpret this as Harry being so sure that Al will get in Gryffindor (after telling him to ask the Sorting Hat), that he doesn't mind endorsing Slytherin. It's easy to speak well of what you hate when don't think it will harm you. And also, think about it -- would this be an interesting H/G story if everything was just perfect between them?
Well, that said, I'd like to welcome aboard my wonderful new beta, Staci (Anamarie) from Perfect Imagination, and my awesome new Brit-picker/beta Helen (Bryher).
And, finally, my usual plea for reviews. School just started, and you all remember how exhausting/scary your first day of high school was, don't you? I don't have as much time to write now that school's started, but I always find more time after reading a review. So... please?




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It was a very bleary-eyed Harry who stumbled into his daughter’s room the next morning to wake her up. He was unshaven, and his hair was, if possible, more wild than normal. The shadows under his eyes clearly said that he’d had a sleepless night.

He paused at the door for a second, just watching his daughter sleeping peacefully. She looks so much like her mother… With her eyes closed, it was easy to pretend that they were chocolaty brown instead of green like his own, and Lily’s red hair was exactly the same as her mother’s.

Harry sighed, thinking over again what had happened last night. What on earth had possessed him to become that angry? He’d been so surprised and, quite frankly, devastated by Ginny’s departure that he hadn’t had time to apologise to her. Looking back, Harry had no clue why he’d gotten so out of control. He knew that Al wasn’t like Voldemort, knew that a Slytherin could turn out okay, even wonderfully. Just look at Andromeda Tonks, to name one example. Or Snape, and Malfoy wasn’t so bad now, and even Slughorn could be pleasant at times.

But somehow, all his shock had clouded out his sense of reason last night. Harry knew from experience that once you started yelling, it was very hard to stop.

I deserve this, he thought morosely. I deserve to have my wife leave me, and Al should probably disown me, not the other way around. I was the world’s biggest prat last night — I deserve every misfortune that ever existed.

Sighing again, he went over to his daughter and gently shook her awake. He smiled as she sleepily opened her eyes. “Good morning, sweetie. It’s already nine o’clock — are you becoming a teenager on me?” He laughed a bit, but even to his ears it sounded rather fake and hollow.

Lily sat up slowly, and a shadow seemed to pass over her eyes. She was looking at him very intently. “Dad,” she said slowly, her voice serious, “Where did Mum go?”

Harry froze.

“Er…” He couldn’t speak, didn’t know what to say. How does she know? he asked himself. Very late last night (earlier that morning, really), he had decided not to tell Lily that Ginny had left for Merlin-knows-where. He had planned to say that she was on a business trip in Australia.

“Your mum…” he hesitated. Finally, he decided to go with his plan. “She had to leave for a business trip to Australia. She, erm, well, it was very urgent, so she didn’t have time to say goodbye.”

Lily nodded slowly. “And that’s why you were yelling last night, right? You didn’t want her to go?”

Harry gaped again. She heard that? Well, I guess we weren’t exactly quiet… He sighed to himself At least she’s provided her own excuse — I don’t have to think one up. Ginny had told him many times what a terrible liar he was. “Yes, that’s right. I didn’t want her to leave.”

Without warning, Lily burst into tears and jumped off the bed. “Why are you doing this?” she shouted accusingly, her voice broken up by sobs. “How can you lie to me, just like that? I’m not stupid — you and Mummy fought about Albus, and she divorced you and left!” She stared at him, fury and sorrow clear in her eyes.

Shocked, Harry impulsively pulled her into a hug. Lily remained stiff in his arms, turning her face away and refusing to meet his eyes. “Shhh, Lily, it’s all right,” he said softly, stroking her hair. Gradually, she relaxed into his arms, still crying.

He continued to try and comfort her until her sobs had faded out to the occasional whimper.

He re-positioned her so that she was looking him in the eye again. “Now, Lily, please listen to me.” He knew that he had her full attention. “Your mother and I are not divorced, and, I hope, unlikely to do so.” He sighed. “She has quite a temper, and I said some enormously stupid and unfair things about Al last night. In other words, I was a git and she got mad at me for it.” He hesitated before continuing. “I’m not sure where she went last night --- she Apparated.” He took a deep breath and looked his daughter in the eye, willing her to believe him. “I’m going to spend as much time as possible looking for your mother, but I’m warning you — if she doesn’t want to come home, she won’t.” He could tell that Lily was very close to tears again, so he tried to put in a smile. “But I’m sure she will, sooner or later.”

He hoped with all his heart that he was telling the truth.

Lily bit her lip and nodded again. “All right. But… I miss Mum.” Tears started leaking down her cheeks again.

Remorse filled Harry. Oh, no, he thought. This is all my fault! Ginny’s gone and Lily’s crying… what have I done?

~*~*~


A l walked next to Tyler as they headed for their first Herbology class after breakfast. He was quite relieved to be heading out to the greenhouses, simply because it was impossible to get lost. Hogwarts was a veritable maze of corridors, secret passageways, hidden doors, and other tricks and traps that made it impossible for an ignorant first-year to get to class on time. Herbology, on the other hand, was straight out the front doors of the caste and in plain view right in the middle of an otherwise-empty lawn.

But Al was looking forward to Herbology for another reason, too. Neville — Professor Longbottom — would be teaching it, and Al had seen an opportunity to prove himself. Al had heard his mother ask James to send her love to Neville at the train station, and had heard James refuse to do so. Al knew his brother well — he was rather cocky and considered himself ‘cool’. Sending a teacher love… that was way too un-cool for James.

So Al had decided that he would do it instead. It was a small, insignificant thing, really; he wasn’t sure why it was so important to him — he just knew that he had to show that he could do better than James.

And so he did. As the students trickled into Herbology, most began to look around in wonder at the strange, colorful, and magical plants that covered every available surface in the greenhouse. Al, however, went straight up to Neville -- No, Professor Longbottom, Al reminded himself — and, smiling slightly, said, “Professor? Just wanted to say, my mum sends her love.”

Neville grinned back. “Thank you, Mister Potter.” The twinkle in his cheery brown eyes told Al that he was trying very hard to treat him like an ordinary student who he had never met before.

As Al re-joined the Slytherin boys, Raymond gave him a dirty look, presumably for using his connections to the teacher. Just a minute later, the lesson began as most of the others had. Neville gave a short speech welcoming them to Hogwarts and explaining the importance of Herbology. It was clear that he loved his subject.

The day continued in a normal fashion, or at least, Al supposed so — it was only his second day at Hogwarts, so he wasn’t quite sure what normal was. But getting lost three times, being stopped by Peeves twice, and causing a large boil to appear on his palm by absently tapping it with his wand seemed like normal, for Hogwarts.

After lunch, the Slytherins had History of Magic with the Ravenclaws. Al was quite looking forward to the class. Although his father had warned him that it was dull (earning a disapproving look from Aunt Hermione), Al had always enjoyed reading about Goblin Rebellions, and, as Uncle Ron had assured him, there was plenty of that in Binns’ class.

So he was hurrying along after lunch, trying to get to class on time, and quite intent on watching the walls for the portrait of Humphrey the Hairy Hungarian that the Bloody Baron had told him was very near the History of Magic classroom. He was so intent that he didn’t notice Miri coming out of corridor right in front of him, and he bumped into her and knocked the book she was reading out of her hands.

His first thought was Wow, Ravenclaws read while they walk. His second was to pick up her book, and his third was to greet her. “Miri!” he said happily. “I was wondering when I’d get to see you. Do you like Ravenclaw? How’s Minnie doing?”

But she refused to meet his eye. She snatched her book back out of his hand, rather roughly, Al thought, and tucked it into the bag hanging over her shoulder. Still not saying a word, she hurried off in the direction Al had been heading — towards History of Magic.

“Miri, wait!” he called after her. She paused only to throw a cold glare over her shoulder.

Al was hit by an overwhelming sense of dj vu. Even as he ran after her, he knew what had happened, why she had been so nice on the train, and was now so cold. First James, now Miri… why can’t people accept Slytherins? he demanded angrily in his head, not sure if he would ever understand the answer.

But you hated yourself, just after the Sorting, a little part of him said cruelly. You hated Slytherins, too. Can you blame Miri, James, or anyone else? Can you really say that it’s unfair without being a hypocrite?

Al shook his head to clear it as he reached the History of Magic Classroom, noting vaguely on his way in that Humphrey really was quite hairy. He was careful to sit far away from Miri, who was sitting next to Rose, apparently arguing over something. Merlin, I hope it’s not me, he thought. It was bad enough that his Sorting was ruining his own friendships — he didn’t need to ruin anything for Rose, as well.

At the end of the lesson, Al found himself quite disappointed. Professor Binns was just as dull as everyone said. He had managed to stay vaguely attentive, which was more than the rest of the Slytherins could say, but only because he liked the subject. The Ravenclaws were so intent on getting the nuggets of information out of Binns’ monotonous stream of words that they paid attention very well.

When he finally got into bed — after doing some homework, heeding Aunt Hermione’s warnings about how procrastination would lead to doom — Al was quite pleased with how his day had gone. Most of the classes had been interesting and fun, and he and Tyler were quickly becoming best friends. As for Miri… I’ll just forget about her, he told himself firmly. After all, she can’t be a very good person if she doesn’t like Slytherins, he added, not really believing it.

And so he tried to fall asleep, to forget about Houses and prejudices and angry brothers and discriminatory friends.

~*~*~


Ron chewed his lunch in the cafeteria at the Ministry, watching as Harry picked at his food across the table. Ron frowned. His friend had seemed distracted all day, getting lost in his own thoughts during the middle of a conversation, and frowning at random moments. And Harry looked a mess, too. Large bags darkened his eyes, and it was easy to see from his rumpled appearance that he hadn’t really cared about getting ready for work this morning.

And they usually used their lunch hour to go over business for the rest of the day. Today, Harry wasn’t speaking at all, and he was hardly eating anything. This, more than anything, disturbed Ron — not eating was always a sign that something was seriously wrong, in his opinion.

So, swallowing his food before speaking (a trick he had learned from years with Hermione), Ron asked hesitantly, “Harry? Is something wrong, mate? Because you’ve seemed a bit strange all day…”

Harry looked up sharply when Ron spoke — apparently, he had been absorbed in his thoughts again. He stared at Ron for several seconds before replying. “Nothing,” he said rather harshly. “Everything’s fine.”

Ron knew this to be a lie, but he also knew Harry well enough to know that he wouldn’t talk about his feelings if he didn’t want to. “All right, if you say so.” Deciding to change the subject, he asked, “So, have you got word from Albus yet?”

This time, Harry nearly jumped out of his seat, completely confusing Ron.

Harry looked at Ron intently. It seemed almost as if he was warring inside himself. “No,” he said at last, and Ron was positive that this was not the truth. “Nor James, either,” Harry added quickly.”

Ron sighed inwardly, but decided to just accept the fact that Harry didn’t want to talk about whatever it was. This sort of thing had been happening much less frequently than it had back when they were at school — not only had Harry calmed down after his defeat of Voldemort, but he was also able to confide in Ginny very easily, and she was usually able to help him sort out the problem. Ron wondered if Harry hadn’t done that, and if so, why not. And while his mind was on his little sister… “Is Ginny mad that they haven’t written? How is she, by the way? And Lily? Coping all right with the boys gone?”

This was, apparently, the wrong thing to say, for Harry suddenly pushed his chair back from the table, and gathered up the remains of his nearly-uneaten lunch. “They’re fine,” he said gruffly, and walked away.

Ron stared after his best friend in confusion. Something must really be wrong.

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