Chapter Text
~~Petunia~~
At the end of the prior school year, Dylan Lupin-Black graduated from Hogwarts and, according to Uncle Harry, had gotten a job within the Ministry. She wasn’t entirely sure what it was he did, but she knew she’d be able to ask when she saw him over the summer. Her family would be visiting Uncle Harry and Aunt Ginny and she knew that Dylan, Mr. Sirius, and Mr. Remus would be visiting at some point as well. There was also a good chance her family would spend a little more time at Potter Manor this year since this was Alex’s first year at Hogwarts.
He’d gotten his letter and was extremely excited to be joining Petunia and their cousins at Hogwarts. Lily was going to join them this year, too, along with some more Weasleys and apparently the children of a couple friends of Uncle Harry’s. She was curious to see who her brother was going to befriend at school and what house he’d be sorted into. Hufflepuff seemed the most likely option, but she knew he could end up in a couple of other houses as well.
One thing that was definitely going to be different was that her family wasn’t going to be visiting her grandparents this year. From what she’d (over)heard, her grandparents still refused to apologize over what they’d said during Christmas holidays. She knew that they’d been horrible to Uncle Harry because of his magical status, but she hadn’t expected her grandparents to hold those same views towards herself and her brother. Especially because, according to the biography she’d read, her father had always been treated extremely well because he was their own child as opposed to Uncle Harry. But apparently the presence of magic in their grandchildren somewhat dimmed the love they had for them.
Petunia found herself writing to her friends from the first day of holidays, with a couple of her friends mentioning younger siblings that would also be attending Hogwarts along with her brother the following year. They all seemed to be excited, and Alex was asking her question after question about school. Her parents certainly found it amusing how excited for school he was.
~~~~
About a month and a half into summer holidays, they were invited over to Potter Manor and packed what they’d need before heading over. They were also planning to visit the Burrow for about a week or so shortly after getting to the Manor. While they were staying with her aunt and uncle, they were also going to be heading to Diagon Alley so Alex and Lily (and any other Weasleys starting school this coming year) could get their robes and wands and so everybody could get their new books and potion supplies and any bigger robes as needed. Petunia definitely needed some new robes as she’d outgrown hers over the course of the prior year.
Uncle Harry showed them to their typical rooms in the Manor and it didn’t take long for James, Remus, and Lily to grab Petunia and Alex and run off with them, heading out into the yard to practice some flying and Quidditch. She was thankful for the practice to make sure her skills were still good enough to remain on the Ravenclaw team and she knew that her brother would likely either try out for the Hufflepuff team this coming year or he’d wait until his second year to do so.
“So, Alex, are you excited to go to Hogwarts?” Lily asked, her eyes sparkling a little as the group sat down and drank some cold drinks to cool down from their Quidditch practice. Petunia just smiled a bit as she watched the interaction while drinking from her own glass. Alex nodded emphatically.
“I can’t wait! I wonder what house I’ll be in! I know Petunia’s in Ravenclaw and James and Remus are both in Gryffindor like your parents and some of Petunia’s friends are in Slytherin and Hufflepuff as well as Gryffindor and her own house. I think I might be in Hufflepuff but I’m not really picky over which house I get put in. Are you excited?” Alex responded, talking so fast Petunia would’ve had some difficulty understanding him if she hadn’t had so much experience listening to him talk this way. Lily just chuckled a little before answering.
“I’m excited too! I’m pretty sure I’ll be in Gryffindor like the rest of my family, but I’d be ok with any of the houses! I’m also excited to see the Quidditch games and have my dad as one of my professors! From what everybody’s been saying, he’s a really good professor!”
“He is,” James said, “but don’t expect any special treatment just because we’re related. He treats us like everyone else, which is actually kinda nice since we already stand out a bit.”
“I think mum would kill him if he gave us any preferential treatment, too,” Remus added, which made everyone laugh. From what Petunia had seen of Aunt Ginny, that sounded accurate.
“I can’t wait to watch more Quidditch like we saw at the World Cup! Especially because Tunney’s on her house team!” Alex said, using Petunia’s nickname. He started calling her that when they were little and he couldn’t fully pronounce her name and she loved it. A couple of her friends at Hogwarts had also started calling her that as well as ‘Tunia’ from time to time.
“Personally, I’m excited for the Hogsmeade trips this year,” Remus said, reminding Petunia of that addition to their third year. She’d already gotten her permission slip signed. Alex looked over at her with a pleading look which just made her chuckle.
“Yes, I’ll get you some sweets from Hogsmeade, I promise,” she told him, watching as his eyes lit up and he hugged her. Remus and James promised the same to their little sister. Petunia and Remus were also starting new electives this coming year. Petunia had chosen Care of Magical Creatures and Ancient Runes while Rose had chosen to take Divination instead of Ancient Runes. The “Aunt Luna” that’d been mentioned was apparently the new professor of Divination. Petunia knew a number of her friends were taking Care of Magical Creatures like she was but not all of them. A number of them were also taking more than the required 2 electives, Scorpius was even taking Muggle Studies.
One thing Petunia was excited for in their later years was the opportunity to take Alchemy. That was a class Petunia and Rose were interested in taking once they’d heard about it from Dylan when asking him about the additional electives offered to the older students.
~~~~
A few days later, Mr. Remus, Mr. Sirius, and Dylan came to stay for a bit and visit so they all got to ask Dylan about how things were and what his job was like. He also asked the incoming third-years what electives they’d chosen to take, commenting on Care of Magical Creatures and Divination since he’d taken both of those classes. He apparently quite liked Care of Magical Creatures, in part because of Professor Hagrid, who had a soft spot for their entire family because of how nice they always were and how long most of them had known him.
They also visited the Burrow during the day a few times to meet up with some of the Weasleys and play some larger matches of Quidditch. Alex had even joined in and was proving himself to be a pretty good Keeper. Petunia realized he’d probably try out for his house team if possible either his first year or second year at Hogwarts.
What Alex had been looking for was their trip to Diagon Alley, which they finally made a few weeks before classes were to start. Petunia just needed new robes, new books, and some new potion ingredients so she’d go with her dad and the other Weasleys and Potters her age while her mum took Alex to get all the first year supplies along with Aunt Ginny, Lily, and a few more of the Weasleys who were also starting their first year.
~~Alex~~
Once the large group (they met up with the rest of the Weasleys for the annual Diagon Alley trip and there were a LOT of them) got to Diagon Alley, they split up so the older students, including his sister, could get the supplies they needed and get a room for them all to have lunch together at the Leaky Cauldron. His mum was going with him (and the other first-years) to get his wand, cauldron, robes, etc. Lily was starting this year, as were Hugo, Roxanne, and Lucy Weasley. Alex was already close with Lily, but he was starting to get pretty close to Hugo too. He figured they’d both end up in Gryffindor just like most of their family.
He and his mum went into Ollivander’s, and he felt his eyes go wide as he looked around the store at all of the wands stacked floor to ceiling in rows upon rows of the store. He remembered Petunia telling him about what it was like to have a wand choose her, and he’d even borrowed one of her books to read about the different wand woods and cores and what each one meant.
The wand that Alex was chosen by was Pear and had a unicorn hair core just like his sister’s. His was 11 inches long and was supple. He couldn’t wait to show Petunia his new wand, knowing that she’d basically memorized the book on wands before giving it to him to read.
After getting his new wand, he was taken to Madam Malkin’s to get measured for his first set of school robes and then they headed to get the rest of his supplies. He didn’t spend as long looking at books at Flourish and Blotts as his sister had her first year (and every year since), but he did spend a bit of time looking through the books not related to his courses. His mum allowed him to get a couple books that weren’t on the list, and one of the ones he got was a compendium of magical creatures. While his sister would be learning about some of them this year, he’d be interested in the concept since he found out about magic and since Tunney had written him about the magical creatures that were on the Hogwarts grounds.
The other book he’d gotten was about magical plants beyond what his Herbology textbook had. The idea of there being magical plants was exciting and he was pretty sure he’d end up liking the Herbology class at Hogwarts, or he was at least hoping he would. Though he’d heard that the professor was quite nice.
After the group of first-years finished their shopping, they met up with the rest of their group, who were already in a private room at the Leaky Cauldron, so they could all get lunch together. Alex sat between his sister and Lily, and across from Hugo, and he almost immediately took out his new wand to show both his sister and his dad before looking through the menu on the table in front of him. He also animatedly told Petunia about the two new books he’d been able to get at the book store, and she told him about a couple new ones she’d gotten too as some extra reading during the year.
A few weeks later, Alex finally got to board the same train as his sister and he found himself in a compartment with Lily, Hugo, Roxanne, and Lucy while his sister sat with her own friends, namely the ones she hadn’t really seen over the summer. There were two others who joined their compartment who introduced themselves as Lorcan and Lysander Scamander, twins who were the sons of one of the elective professors. It didn’t take long for Alex to decide he liked them as the group talked on their way to the school, only breaking the conversation when they all needed to change into their school robes partway through the journey.