A/N: We've come to an end. I'd like to extend my thanks to all of you who accompanied me on this little journey, your kind comments made it more than worthwhile.


"Where are you going?"

Argh! I thought he was busy in his office. The week before school started was as overloaded as always and I could usually rely on not being missed for a while. Well perhaps idiotic to expect that on the first day. I half turned while opening the portrait, best not to lose momentum or I might yet be called back. "I'm going to say goodbye to Percy."

"You will have to start saying Professor Weasley."

"I know, Dad."

"That will be Professor Snape to you."

"Not a chance." One foot outside, one inside.

"You're going to call me Dad in class?"

I couldn't help myself, I turned back to grin cheekily at him. "I thought Severus."

His eyebrows climbed to high heaven. "Good luck with your detentions."

"Thanks, Dad!" I was eighty percent out of the portrait by now. Freedom was within my reach!

"Don't be late, we're leaving in half an hour!" he called after me. "Why do you want to go there anyway, you will see him tonight!"

"Secret!" I was out! And away!

"Don't run!" he ordered, sticking his head out into the hall as I skidded around the corner.


Percy had insisted I pass by his office before we left to Kings Cross station, as he had some Weasley wisdom to pass on before I started my career as Hogwarts student extraordinaire. Weasley wisdom and one secret. Like all the other Professors he had been here over a week already, doing the last prep for the new school year, but had refused to tell me anything, even through my daily nagging.

"Where are you off to, little Snape?" Professor Basil Fronsac's portrait called after me.

"Not so little anymore!" I shouted gleefully.

"Ask the hat for Ravenclaw!" he said, then immediately forgot about me to fall into a house fight with Professor Burke, the worst witch of them all. One day I was going to do something to her yet, she kept telling slytherin students to be nasty to mudbloods.

I closed my ears and left them to it, speeding up. After six years I could traverse the corridors blindfolded. I ran up the stairs, past the Great Hall where soon I would be sorted with boatloads of firsties, and up the main staircase to Percy's classroom.

My favourite Weasley was now our history Professor, and he flourished. He never went into the Ministry, as according to him being my babysitter had awakened his inner teacher. If all my 'why this' and 'why that's' were to blame, then frankly I was thankful for it. Without Voldemort's return or the Ministry splitting he never had any reason to break from his family either, and was currently happily engaged to one Audrey Smith who he had met two years ago on a trip to the States. She was quite likeable and Percy was going bald.

"I'm here!" I skidded around the open classroom door. "What did you want to tell me?!"

He turned from his desk and frowned. "Go back out, knock, and enter the room like you have manners."

"Wha!"

He grinned.

"Nice one!" I laughed and sprinted into the room. "Tell!"

"Breathe, Albus." He pointed to a chair in the first row and I plonked myself obediently into it. He's trained me well. In turn he leaned his bum back against his desk, stretching his legs out, taking his bloody time.

"I bet your dad told you no running in the halls. I'm honestly surprised you survived all these years, I like to take some credit for it, what do you say?"

"Yes." He has saved me from many scrapes and will probably save me from more in future. "A lot. Weasley Wisdom, please, and the secret."

"It would be wise to learn some patience."

I pulled a face.

Percy reached behind him and brought a small package from the desk and lobbed it over to me. "It is tradition that Mum would make us a sandwich for the Express. Here's yours."

"Grandma made it?" We've come quite a ways and have truly been adopted into the family. Dad had enough aunts and uncles to spare, but no living parents or grandparents. Molly saw a gap and filled it.

"Yes. It's going to be the worst sandwich she has ever made because she is always nervous about the sorting, so expect dry corned beef but eat it anyway, you can't survive on the tea trolley alone. She told me to make sure you wear clean socks, washed behind your ears and said to remind you that a second brushing of teeth won't go amiss, the compartments are small and you don't want to be the smelly kid."

"She wrote me already. Word for word, Percy." And I was probably going to see her at the station.

"She is scared she might miss you on the station," he said as if reading my mind. "Now, this is important, if anyone asks about the sorting then you have to tell them that there's a troll they will have to fight."

"Why?"

"Tradition, ickle firstie."

"Okay." Tradition was the key word of the day, he need not say more. After all that's why I was heading for the station, albeit trunkless, to start my school career in the proper, traditional way by arriving on the Hogwarts Express.

"You still want to be in Slytherin?"

"Yes." How would I change my mind from yesterday to today? Even Dad asked me the same this morning, after telling me to wash behind my ears. Huh. If so many people were reminding me, might there be a reason? I felt behind my ear and checked my fingers. It smelled fine.

"Have you asked the hat yet?" Percy asked.

"No." My stomach twisted just thinking of it. I have never put the hat on. In all these years not once. Truth be told I was scared to death of the hat. That will be the last test on whether I belong. Dad said I should quit worrying when I got my Hogwarts letter, that it's a done deal, but I can't help it. "I don't want to jinx it."

My fear was deeper than just exposure. What if it sent me back? Frankly it could put me any House it pleased as long as it kept me here. No assurance from anyone that the hat was just a weak spell and not an entity with special powers had managed to assuage this fear. At some point my life before had ceased to matter. Ceased to exist actually. If I remembered anything it was vague flashes when I encountered something familiar in the Muggle world. Like you would forget all about how it felt to be a toddler but remember that one time you got shouted at for putting a pin in a socket. It felt impossible that I had once been an adult. Dad said I shouldn't worry about it, that I probably never was a great one, and second time lucky.

"Just tell it what you want, it defers to the student's preference if they have any. We will all be happy for you wherever you end up."

"Harry said I'm going to be a Hufflepuff."

"Is that so."

"Ron said they would make a whole new house just for me and call it after a pest."

"I figure if the hat could do that then Fred and George would have been the founders of said house," he said seriously, trying and failing to hide a smile. "I think we can exclude Ravenclaw."

"I'm smart!"

"I will remind you of the time you gave me octopus arms."

"It was an accident!"

"I know. But it makes my point for me, if you were a pure Ravenclaw it would have been on purpose, for the advancement of magic, and I would have had the correct number of appendages, not twenty six."

We both shuddered. Every time Percy sneezed he grew another tentacle. It took some fast explaining to convince Dad it was not a prank. It also set Percy off on a teaching tangent on whether it was called tentacles or arms and legs. That was fun to watch, but only from a distance, not when you were stuck to a chair being pontificated at.

"Mind your manners when you're in class, my godson will not be called a spoiled brat, is that clear?"

"Yes, sir. What about the secret only Weasleys know? Will you tell me now?"

He told me.

And just in time also. Behind him the classroom's Floo flared emerald green and Dad's face appeared. "Are you two about done? We will be late." He frowned at Percy. "There had better not have been an exchange of sweets, Weasley."

"Oh, that reminds me." Percy grinned and dug into his pocket to bring forth a galleon. He tucked it into my hand. "For the trolley. Share with your friends."

"Step through the Floo," Dad said. "I don't trust you not to get distracted on the way back."

I put the galleon in my pocket and it made friends with the one Minerva had given me at breakfast, clinking merrily together. I swore not one knut will go towards a pumpkin pasty, pumpkin juice or anything pumpkiny, even if whatever friends I made were allergic to everything else on earth.

"Thanks, Percy!" I hugged him hard.


Kings Cross station. In my six years I had been through the station countless times, as we traveled quite often over summers. But never at the start of the school. Not that I hadn't tried! But Dad refused to take me when I still needed to be accompanied, and afterwards made me promise to stay away until it was my time. According to him it was an experience that added to my first day and not something to squander on mere curiosity.

He was right.

The station was packed with wizarding families and pets, all milling about and noisier than the Egyptian Bazaar we had been to three summers ago. I had gotten lost there, and remembering, I automatically stuck my hand into Dad's. Oh, God, was I too old for that now?

He gave my hand a reassuring squeeze and niftily pulled me out of the way of a trolley stacked high with trunks, a birdcage balanced precariously on top, tucking me close to his side. "Try not to get trampled."

We jostled and pushed our way through the crowd—did that kid's ferret wave at me?—until suddenly it parted and I could see the train in its full glory. The scarlet steam engine stretched off into the distance, a sign above saying Hogwarts Express, eleven o'clock.

"Maybe we can go home, this was a silly idea."

"Aww look who is an ickle firstie, ready to set the school ablaze," Ron Weasley's familiar voice teased from behind. Hands mussed my hair.

We turned to find Harry and Ron, flanked by Hermione and Ginny. All with shiny red and gold prefect's badges pinned to their robes. They looked large and intimidating, even though I had seen them last week squabbling over the last piece of Molly's pecan pie.

"We'll take him, Professor," Harry said. "No trunk?"

"It would be stupid to bring a trunk all the way here and back," I said and sniffed, pulling my nose in the air. I dropped Dad's hand surreptitiously. "I can make my own way."

"Of course you can," Ginny said, smoothing my hair back down with her fingers. "And you'll want to say goodbye to your Dad proper. We'll be in the front carriage anyway, did Percy tell you what you needed to do?"

I nodded.

"Good luck then squirt." She pushed something hard and round into my hand.

I had no time to tell her to stop calling me that for Molly and Arthur descended on us, and Molly immediately found some dust on my face, the woman's eyes were military grade radars! I was hugged and given last minute advice in loud voices to be heard over the crowd. My hair kept being messed up by the boys and fixed by the girls, Ron the worst offender until Hermione slapped his hands away. We felt like every other family. Beside us a boy was telling his sister to 'gerroff' and I winced in sympathy for the headlock he was in. Arthur pressed something into my pocket.

Then, finally it was just me and my Dad. "Here, this one is open, Albus."

"Percy said the best ones are at the back."

"Professor Weasley," he corrected again.

"We're not in school, Dad."

"Make it a habit from now, you don't want to embarrass yourself."

"I won't." I grabbed his hand and pulled him down the platform. "Hurry, maybe someone took it already."

"In that case you take the next carriage, there will be enough place for everyone," he said, but did stretch his legs to keep up when I said no other carriage would do. "Is this part of the secret? Do I get to hear about it?"

"Tonight, if it worked. Here!" Second to last carriage. Peering in through the window I saw no one, and made for the door but he pulled me back.

"Not so fast, Albus. Empty your pockets, you don't need that much money on the train."

"Aww." I handed over three Galleons.

"All of it."

I gave the last and he exchanged it for a few sickles, then pressed a package in my hand. "Lunch, there's enough to share and make sure to eat the apple."

"Yes, Professor, sir!" I saluted smartly and climbed the steps. There I turned and threw myself at him. "I'm going to be Slytherin! Bye Dad, love you!"

Behind him a family stood waiting patiently for us and—oh hell they heard, didn't they? Well it could have been worse, I could have been crying—I was not going to cry!

"Albus are you listening?"

"No. But I'm sure it's something like, behave, don't be the first one to lose points or don't fall out of the window. If I do lose points it will be Ron, he—"

"I said I love you, behave, don't fall out of the window. In you get."

The kid behind him grinned.

Then Dad stood back and finally—finally!—I was able to slip into the compartment. I only just sat down when the door opened again and the kid from the platform asked: "You waiting for anyone? Only I think all the others are full."

"No it's just me." I got up again to help him with his trunk and we struggled it overhead. "Why is it so heavy! Did you pack the kitchen sink?" Oh, not good. "Sorry! I meant—"

"Nah it's okay, Mum probably did. Half my closet is in there, she says the castle might be cold and she put extra food 'cos the trunk guy said it will stay fresh forever so we are experimenting."

"It's not cold, you'll be alright if you have slippers." The train whistled and gave a jerk. We both turned to the window to open it and hung out together, calling out a last goodbye. Dad walked a couple of steps with us when it finally started moving, but the kid's Mum ran all the way, frantically waving a scarf and shouting last minute instructions. "Don't forget to brush your teeth and wash behind your ears!"

"Mum!"


Then it was just us. I closed the window and he went over to do the same to the door.

"How do you know you'll be in Slytherin?" he asked. "The book said the sorting is a secret, but I heard a kid say we'll have to fight a troll. Was he right? Do you know what will happen?"

My days of lying were long since past and I didn't really want to fib to the kid who was supposed to be my best friend forever. For that was what Percy had told me. Second to last carriage, first compartment, and whoever sits with you will be a friend for life. Weasley tradition since his great grandfather's time, and his dad sat there first and his mum joined soon after. All of them had sat in this exact spot on their first trip to Hogwarts and it was a family secret.

"I do know," I admitted, "but I can't say. They want it to be a surprise."

"Okay. Just tell me this. Has anyone ever died from it? 'Cos I can tell you right now I won't be able to best a troll unless it's about knee high."

"No. But last year one boy fainted and the year before someone sicked up, it was awful."

The nine hour journey passed too fast. Then we were in the boats, breathing in awe at the sight of the castle, and all too soon lined up outside the Great Hall by Professor Moody. I still say he's why the boy fainted. The kids bunched together in fright at the scarred man and he grinned wickedly. The ghosts passed through us right on cue and my new friend clutched my hand. I nearly told him it was going to be just a hat right there and then, but the doors opened and it did not matter any more for he could see it for himself.

"Bloody hell, that was awful," he whispered once the song had finished. We watched as Jennifer Adams was called forward and the hat fell over her eyes. Hufflepuff. "So we are agreed, yeah? Slytherin?" he asked.

"Yes." Up at the teacher's table Dad sat between Poppy and Minerva, and when he caught me looking he gave a small smile. I straightened up. "Slytherin. You can ask the hat what you want, but if you're somewhere else we will still be friends."

"Won't be as much fun if we don't share a dorm though. Midnight feasts and all that, Mum was in a boarding school and she said the best part was no parental supervision…" He followed my gaze. "Uh… but your Dad looks alright."

Poor kid. I don't know when last I had been awake at midnight, but nodded anyway. Between Poppy and Dad any feast we managed to have will have to be fruit at nine o'clock, best not to say it now.

"Jamie Oliver!" Moody called, and Jamie trotted forward, nearly forgetting he had been holding my hand. Slytherin. He threw me a thumbs up and jogged to the cheering green and silver table.

Three more kids, then at long last. "Albus Snape!"

Afterwards I would never remember walking to the stage and sitting down on the small stool.

"Good luck, laddie," Moody said, plonking the hat on my head.

This was it. I squeezed my eyes shut. "Please don't send me back, please don't send me back!"

Back where—ah, our little Insert. About time we met.

"Please don't send me home!"

Isn't home the Dungeons by now, Albus Snape? You've been part of this world since you took your first breath in this very hall, and the only place I send the first years to is their new Hogwarts' House. Now, we have a sorting to do, where shall I put you?

"Please be Slytherin! Please be Slyther—"

"Slytherin!"

Huh. Just like that? I clamped my fingers around the hat's brim lest Moody pluck it off. "Are you not supposed to try and convince me otherwise? Everyone said I would be in Gryffindor. You didn't even think about it."

Everyone didn't hear you ask so nicely, little Dumbledore-Snape. You'll do fine anywhere you're put, after all, you've managed well enough so far.

I removed the hat in a daze and turned to the teacher's table, searching out Bat Dad. Dad's eyebrows were raised to high heaven yet again, he was starting to get eyebrow raising wrinkles, but no one else looked surprised. Farther down the table Percy was clapping loudly, smiling wide, and Moody gave me an encouraging push from behind towards my House table.

Finally! School!


The End.

Thank you for reading!

A/N: Third in the series: A Boring Day.