Disclaimer: Everything related to Harry Potter is property of J.K Rowling and I do not own anything. Everything presented here is just for fun!

Chapter 1

The Famous Potter

Albus Potter had never realised just how famous his family was until he arrived at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry for the very first time.

Naturally he knew they weren't a normal wizarding family, as he had grown up seeing his father constantly being stopped in the middle of the street by completely strangers, sometimes even just to admire his presence; and many people recognised his mother from that famous Quidditch team she had been part of during her youth. But since Albus didn't read the newspaper or those silly gossip magazines, he didn't know that they were all, in fact, celebrities.

It was just a matter of time before he connected the dots and figured everything out, of course. His father had been the saviour of the whole Wizarding World more times than he could remember, so it was expected that everyone would want a picture of his children on the cover of their magazine. And by extension, know all about their daily lives.

As he stood there, awkwardly waiting at the entrance of the Great Hall along with all the other new students, he felt the unnerving sensation of being watched. Not by a couple of curious students, but by almost the entire group of children. Boys whispered to one another without taking their eyes off him, and girls giggled and blushed as soon as he stared at their direction. It felt as though he was some kind of animal trapped in a cage, brought to be observed. The whispers grew louder by the second until finally one of the boys spoke.

"Dragon Heartstring, is it?" he said, making a noticeable effort to refrain his voice from quivering. Albus just looked at him with a puzzled expression.

"Sorry?" he croaked, trying to keep his cool as he confirmed that he was, after all, the centre of attention.

"Your wand. I read it in the newspaper last week." The boy stated. "Dragon Heartstring. And, um, was it..." he scowled, deep in thought.

"Hornbeam wood." declared another boy behind Albus, which almost made him jump, turning his head around immediately to face the boy who had just spoken. Albus smiled sheepishly.

"Uh, Yeah. Yeah, it is." He confessed as he moved closer to his cousin, Rose, who was standing next to him.

"So can we see it then?" asked the boy with a sort of starstruck expression, as if Albus' wand was some kind of legendary magical artefact. Albus just stood there for a couple of seconds, trying to maintain his gracious smile while panic washed over him like the waves of a stormy ocean. He took a deep breath and simply nodded, putting his shaking hand down his cloak's pocket to take it out, and as he did he felt everyone around him hold their breath, staring expectantly at his hand. He could even see Scorpius Malfoy, —that kid his uncle had told him about at the station,— unenthusiastically standing on his tiptoes outside the circle of spectators to get a better angle. But as soon as he was about to pull out his wand, professor Flitwick appeared from the other side of the door and made everyone come out of their Albus Potter fixation to be guided to the sorting ceremony.

And from that very first moment Albus realised he didn't like the attention. Not. One. Bit.
That feeling that he was, somehow, public property. The knowledge that there were newspapers distributed all over Britain telling their readers all about his life, and making them feel like they had the right to know every little detail about him. It overwhelmed him.
James, Albus thought, probably enjoyed every second of it. Albus' older brother loved being the centre of attention. He enjoyed the starstruck gaze of girls, the special treats, or simply just feeling important. For Albus, however, everything felt like one massive sham. It felt as though he was taking credit for something he hadn't done.
It was perhaps because of his highly individualistic nature that he didn't want to live in the shadow of his parents. He was ambitious, but he wanted to be praised for his own merits. He was truly very similar to his father: he had a need to prove his own worth, and a determination as strong as dragon skin.

As he slowly crossed the Great Hall, silently admiring the flickering lights and cloudy skies for the very first time, a great idea seeped into his mind. He had heard his uncle Ron say countless times that there wasn't a single good soul that came from Slytherin. And he was feeling quite sure that his father wouldn't mind if he was put there —he had said so himself at the platform before leaving—. So an innocent idea popped into his head: he decided he was going to be the very first good Slytherin. The best one. And with that thought in mind, he walked towards the stool underneath the tattered hat, while behind him the Gryffindor house confidently made some room in their table for the new Potter boy.

"Ah! Another famous Potter." cried the Sorting Hat as soon as it touched Albus' head, making the young boy gasp and clutch the stool beneath him. "I would be lying if I told you I wasn't excited to meet you tonight."

Albus kept quiet and tried to keep his mind blank.

"How interesting," purred the tattered hat. "Your brother wanted to be placed directly in Gryffindor, no excuses, but you…you seem…" it paused for a second. "Unsure."

Albus remained silent, scared of thinking the wrong thing. Scared of making a mistake.

"Don't be scared, dear boy, for in the end the decision is mine, not yours. And I do not make mistakes. There's nothing you can hide from me; but are you sure you're making the right choice? Your father might not like this little idea of yours, don't you think?"

Albus shuddered and shook his head.

"Not just a Slytherin," he argued, eyes tightly shut. "A good Slytherin," he replied quietly inside his head, and the Sorting Hat chuckled.

"I like the way you think, Albus Potter," he whispered in Albus' ear, and then his voice roared like a thunder inside the Great Hall.

"SLYTHERIN!" was the word, and it was followed by the most uncomfortable silence, mixed with isolated gasps here and there. And then, seconds later, cheers and applauses slowly began to emerge from the Slytherin table. The rest of the school was left with their mouths open, especially James Potter, whose mouth was so wide he could have swallowed the entire Gryffindor table.

However Albus —his whole body still trembling by the whole experience,— felt satisfied and walked slowly to sit with the rest of his Slytherin house.

It was only when Rose Weasley was sent to Ravenclaw that Albus realised that for the first time in his life he was completely alone in this new group of students. He had always had either his brother or his cousin to keep him company when he needed it, and as he looked around his table, he saw nothing but strange faces dressed in green and silver. He cautiously scanned the faces of everyone around and soon realised that the other 5 boys that had been sorted into Slytherin along with him had the same lost and scared expression. They were all together in this; alone, excited and a bit overwhelmed by this whole experience.

"I'm sorry." said a voice next to him. Albus turned around and saw a short boy with a fashionable hairstyle looking at him with a smiling face.

"Sorry for what?" he asked.

"Oh, C'mon. You wanted to be put in Gryffindor." the boy replied, "I really have no idea why that old hat put you here in Slytherin. I reckon the old thing needs to retire."

"Oh, It's fine." said Albus, laughing at the boy's joke. "I actually wanted to be in Slytherin."

"You did?" Asked the boy, now looking confused.

"Yeah! I think Slytherin house is pretty cool." Albus added with a secure smile.

"I'm sure you're pretty alone in that thought," snarled the boy. "Most people I've talked to would give anything not to be put in Slytherin. It doesn't have a very good reputation, innit?"

"What about you?" asked Albus.

"Oh, It's alright. Some of us simply belong here." the boy replied, suddenly sporting a huge smile that looked very genuine. "It's my family's tradition, just like those kids over there. That's Andrew Crabbe and Augustus Schelden." He said, pointing at two kids sitting a couple of meters down the Slytherin bench. "We go way back because our families have always been in Slytherin. And that's Scorpius Malfoy next to you. Same thing, innit?"

"I s'pose," mumbled Albus, looking at Scorpius sideways, but the blond boy didn't reply or acknowledge them.

"I'm Thomas Bletch, by the way. You can call me Tom." said the boy, extending his hand for a shake.

"Albus Potter," Replied Albus, shaking his hand.

Tom chuckled loudly. "I know."

And before they knew it the sorting ceremony was over and Professor Sprout stood up to give her usual speech.

By the end of the feast Albus Potter headed back to Slytherin's common room along with the rest of his house, admiring the castle next to Tom, with a content stomach and a smiling face. And although the night had been a happy one, Albus' mind was still uneasy with the notion that he would have to tell his parents about the sorting ceremony, and despite what his father had said to him in the station, he still felt like something might go wrong.

After taking the mandatory common room tour, he finally settled by the fire and wrote a short and simple letter to his parents telling them all about his first day and the big news, and prayed that his father wouldn't appear the next morning at the headmaster's office demanding a re-sort.

And just a couple of days later at breakfast, his owl entered the Great Hall hovering elegantly towards him with a small letter in its beak.

"Dear Al:

You mother and I are very proud of you, no matter what house you chose to be in (Remember that we talked about it at the platform?), so don't worry about us, just concentrate on your studies and have fun! We'll write to you again soon enough.

Love you,
Your Dad.

P.S: Here's a little secret for you: Before I asked to be put in Gryffindor, the sorting hat wanted to put me in Slytherin! Apparently we have a lot in common. Don't tell anyone!
P.S.S: As I write this to you, your brother's letter just arrived. Don't expect him to talk to you for a day or two."

And with that letter he declared the case closed. Albus was now officially a proud Slytherin.
He soon learned that being a Slytherin didn't mean at all being bad, or cruel, or a prat, like his uncle had said countless times. There was a beautiful balance of loyalty, support, and hard work. And although they tended to be a much more isolated group than the rest of the houses, Albus quickly discovered that he really liked his house, because they protected each other, and between the wonder of learning about the castle and going to classes, two years at Hogwarts came and went quickly and peacefully.

As the end of his second year at Hogwarts transitioned to his third, Albus started noticing that things weren't quite the same as they used to be. The wonder of the castle itself still thrilled him, but he quickly started to realise that girls looked at him differently. Their expressions brimming with rehearsed smiles and blinking eyes. There were whispers and chuckles every time he walked next to them, and it all felt very strange; almost alienating. But the moment when everything changed for him was the day he discovered that the magazines those girls carried with them regularly wrote about his life and relationships, encouraging them to go after the "Emerald-eyed Potter pie", as one particular magazine, Witch Weekly, liked to call him.

It happened around the second week of his third year. He was walking back to the castle after a disastrous Quidditch practice when he passed by a group of Hufflepuff girls sitting on the stone benches just outside of the castle. They started chuckling as soon as he approached, which made him lose his already worn out temper and snap at them.

"What are you laughing at?" he snarled with an exhausted expression. His face a faint scarlet and his hair disheveled after spending all afternoon shooting through the sky on the broom he was now holding in his right hand. The girls immediately froze, with their eyes open wide, and Albus could see one of them was holding a magazine on her lap, open on a page that showed some moving pictures, but Albus couldn't make out what they were.

"Let me see that." he demanded, already suspecting what it was all about, but nothing could have prepared him for what he saw.

It was him. A picture of his summer holidays with his father and his siblings—the time they went fishing to the lake. The picture, taken from a secret location without him knowing, showed him on a boat, shirtless and holding a fish in his right hand, talking cheerfully to his brother. The title of the article read "Albus Potter caught shirtless enjoying his summer holidays".

A hot sting of embarrassment grew from his stomach to every inch of his body—His face suddenly burning red as he stared at his naked chest in the small black and white picture. The realisation that almost everyone in school had probably seen this, as if his body was some kind of entertainment for the whole Wizarding World, made his blood boil with shame and anger. He didn't dare raise his head and look at the girls sitting in front of him; it was all too embarrassing, too humiliating. His eyes burned with the sheer strength of it.

He dropped the magazine, which fell on one of the girl's lap, and without raising his head he picked up his broom and ran into the castle, heading directly to his common room without paying attention to anyone in his way. He reached his dormitory and let himself fall on his bed, where he silently started to cry.

After this traumatic incident he began following the articles about him in the magazines almost obsessively, just like the rest of the girls. He cautiously inspected the information that they revealed, trying to figure out how they got it. He started to write down every single thing that he said,—from simple jokes to full scale conversations— and to whom, just so he could figure out which comments made their way to the magazines, and thus which students couldn't be trusted. But after months of work, and much to his own dismay, he realised that almost any piece of information that he confided to someone would eventually end up being some juicy gossip on some teen magazine. He had to face the harsh reality that most people would simply spill everything just to show that they know more. To have their own minute in the spotlight.

And so he slowly stopped trusting more and more people, leaving him with just a handful of people he could call "friends".

"I can't take it any longer, Lorcan, these magazines are going to drive me insane!" He told one winter day to his friend Lorcan Scamander while creasing the paper of a magazine he was holding in his hands and throwing it away. Lorcan and his twin brother Lysander were the only Gryffindor friends he had. Their parents were old friends so they knew each other from a very early age.

"Calm down Al, they're all just silly rumours. Stop paying attention to them." Lorcan replied absently, his attention fixed on his drawing. It was Friday and he had just finished his Potions class, so they were killing some time before dinner at the Great Hall.

"It's easy to say that about the first 20 articles, but this is starting to get ridiculous!" Albus snapped, absently looking at the beautiful landscape that Lorcan was drawing, albeit done on the piece of parchment that was supposed to be his Transfiguration essay. He crossed his arms on the table and let his head rest on top of them. "I don't even know what to do anymore..." he mumbled. Lorcan raised his head for a minute and studied his friend, collapsed next to him.

"Well...have you ever considered to actually start dating someone?" he muttered, directing his attention towards his own drawing once again. "Maybe the magazines will give your relationship some, y'know, respect and privacy." he finished airily, adding some trees to the background of the landscape.

Albus stared at the horizon with his mouth agape, slowly twisting into a grin. What with Gryffindors and their brilliant ideas.

"You're a genius, Lorcan! That's it! It's so simple! I just have to find a girlfriend, someone quiet, who doesn't require much attention..."

Lorcan made a low groan and shook his head in disapproval. "You're such a Slytherin, Al. Luring a poor innocent girl into your evil plan."

"No, no, listen. Lorc," Albus shook Lorcan's shoulder gently to grab his attention. "Lorc, list— Lorcan, Listen to me, I can be a good boyfriend, I suppose. As long as she doesn't...you know, follow me around all day. And then the magazines will have to leave me alone, since I'm already, you know, taken." Albus couldn't hide his grin, the plan was brilliant. Brilliant indeed. "Thank you Lorcan! You're a genius!" he said, as he got up and started running out of the Great Hall.

"Where are you going?" Lorcan asked, halfway between amusement and confusion.

"To find Rose! She'll think of someone, she always does!" Albus replied, without stopping.

Shortly after, Albus met Emily Stark, a third year Ravenclaw, who was friends with Rose. She was about a head shorter than Albus, had blue eyes and long brown her. She was rather shy, very quiet, and had the tendency to resolve all her problems by owl.

The day Albus asked her out, she almost fainted.

They went together to Madam Puddifoot's Tea Shop during one of the trips to Hogsmeade.

Emily looked just as nervous as Albus felt. Neither of them had done anything like this, and the place was filled with other students holding hands and snogging. He wasn't exactly an outgoing kind of person, so it took him a couple of terribly awkward minutes to get into some sort of conversation. But after a short while Albus decided that he actually liked Emily. He didn't really fancy her in a romantic fashion, but then again, he thought that 14 years old was still too young to meet the love of your life. Still, he thought that he liked her enough to feel comfortable with them being a couple. And by the end of the week both got what they wanted: Albus was in an official relationship, and Emily got to snog Albus Potter.

Barely a couple of weeks later, every girl at Hogwarts was diagnosed clinical depression when they found out that Albus Potter was now in a serious relationship with Emily Stark.

"Congratulation, little bro. You're finally using your big head to get something more than good grades!" Had said James, happy for his brother's first true girlfriend. She was, after all, rather beautiful.

Albus never quite understood how his brother could go around snogging girls just because he was a Potter. He didn't understand how it didn't bother him to appear on magazines or cling to his father's fame. But then again James had always been one of those people who just go with the flow, taking what they are offered, doing what they can get away with.

The days slowly started growing warmer, and the magazines no longer wrote anything about Albus (or rather, just a couple of times per month). Time flew, and before anyone had realized, it was time to go back home for another summer holiday.