Hullo. I'm Helen and I'm your author for this fic! I hope you like it, and if you do, please leave a review telling me so! If you have any suggestions to make, then please review and do so. You can always message me if you want to say something privately.

CP Coulter owns Julian Larson, Logan Wright, Derek Seigerson, and any other characters that I happen to mention that sound oddly familiar to you from a certain fanfiction that I like to call Dalton.

J.K. Rowling owns pretty much everything else.

Follow me on tumblr: flightofdeathfrench . tumblr . com

Please?

Without further ado, I present to you…

Chapter 1

Julian Larson pulled the Sorting Hat down over his head. It fell across his eyes and came to rest on his nose. His ears were pushed forward. It was very uncomfortable, and it smelled musty.

"Hmmm," said a voice in his head. Julian waited patiently. "Smart, very smart… Ambitious… Common sense… Curious… Do I detect some pride?" The Sorting Hat paused, Julian waited with baited breath. "SLYTHERIN!"

The Slytherin table erupted, and Julian pulled the Sorting Hat off his head. He set it down carefully on the stool and glanced at the line of first years behind him, all looking nervous. Some were biting their nails, some were playing with their robes, others were carrying their wands in their hands.

Julian smirked at them, glad that he'd already gone and they had yet to. He strode across the rows of tables, completely at ease in front of people. He sat somewhere in the middle of the Slytherin table and, grinning, high fived the boy across from him.

He hadn't really cared what House he was in, honestly. He knew he probably wouldn't be a Hufflepuff, because he wasn't nice to people. He knew he probably wouldn't be a Gryffindor, because he wasn't necessarily brave. He figured it boiled down to either Ravenclaw or Slytherin, and he didn't really care which one.

Derek Seigerson tugged the Sorting Hat over his eyes. He puffed out his chest. He knew he'd be in Slytherin because his parents had been in Slytherin. And you usually get into the House your parents are in, or at least that was what his dad told him.

The Sorting Hat almost made him a Ravenclaw. ("You want to exceed here, you're very smart, you enjoy schoolwork… That makes you a Ravenclaw.") But then Derek shook his head and thought, "No way, I'm a Slytherin." And lo and behold, the Hat shouted "SLYTHERIN!" into the silent Great Hall, and Derek took it off, grinning.

So maybe the rumors were true. Maybe you really could choose your House. He wouldn't tell his parents though. Because they'd be quite upset if they knew he was almost a Ravenclaw. That was the second best House, of course, but Derek wanted to carry on the family legacy of being in Slytherin. It was a point of pride, even though Slytherins got a bad name, especially since the Second Wizarding War in which quite a few of them had turned into Death Eaters.

"Well, well, well. Logan Wright, eh? Let's see. You've got mighty plans for your future, don't you? And you're wise. And you have a temper that you cannot control? That would make you perfect for…" Logan sighed. He already knew what he'd be. What his parents were and their parents and their brothers and sisters. "SLYTHERIN!"

Oh, well. He'd already known he'd be in Slytherin. As much as he hoped that he might be a Gryffindor, Logan knew he wasn't brave enough. He yanked off the Sorting Hat and threw it back onto the stool. He strode over to the Slytherin table and took a seat, sulking, next to a few other new Slytherins whose names he hadn't been paying attention to.

His parents probably would've disowned him if he'd been Gryffindor anyway. And Logan didn't belong in Gryffindor. He really was a Slytherin…

He'd heard that sometimes if you asked the Sorting Hat to be in a certain House, you might actually get in that House. But that was probably just a rumor, because the person who told him that (Cal Johnson from down the street, who was a Hufflepuff and who he probably wouldn't be allowed to play with when they went back home next summer) also said that Harry Potter had almost been put into Slytherin but he asked for Gryffindor. And that was just totally fake. Logan discounted most of the stuff Cal said.

'Dear Mum,

I'm in Slytherin! I'm so glad. Are you glad? It was terrible because the Sorting Hat smells so bad, but I'm glad to be in Slytherin.

Can't write much now, but I'll write you tomorrow to tell about my first day of classes.

Oh, and I haven't made any friends yet but I'm sure I will.

Love,

Julian'

'Dear Mum and Dad,

Slytherin! The second I put it on my head the Sorting Hat shouted 'SLYTHERIN!' Of course. Let's just hope Amanda gets in Slytherin too…

Love,

Derek'

'Dear Dad,

I'm in Slytherin! Fantastic! I'd write more but I have to go to bed now because classes start tomorrow as you know.

Love,

Logan'

"Excuse me." Julian cleared his throat and poked the prefect nearest him. The boy looked up from his game of Wizard's Chess, annoyed.

"Yes?" he asked.

"Could you direct me to the Owlery?" Julian asked, telling himself to be brave, be brave, this guy wasn't going to kill him. Or yell at him. Just for asking a simple question.

But the guy did roll his eyes. "Does anyone know where the Owlery is who can take this kid there?" he called in a loud, lazy voice.

"I do." Another first year that Julian had seen be Sorted after him popped into view from an armchair next to one of the big green lamps.

"You're a first year," the prefect drawled.

"I've been here before with my father," the boy said calmly, standing up. "I know where it is, it's easy."

"The Owlery is all the way across the castle," another boy said, standing up from where he'd been sitting on the floor because all the other seats were taken. "You can't find it that easy."

"You're a first year, too," the prefect said. "It's attack of the first years! Everybody run!" There was laughter that echoed across the dark walls of the common room.

The blonde boy who had first stood up glared around at everyone. Julian just stood there. These people were Slytherins, he was a Slytherin, he should laugh too. So he chuckled faintly, something reminiscent of an actual laugh.

"My name is Derek," the brunette boy who was shorter than Julian said, sticking out a hand.

"Julian." Julian shook.

"Logan," the blonde boy said distractedly, still glaring at everyone.

"Do you really know where the Owlery is, Logan?" the prefect said, saying his name like it was a bad thing.

"Yes." Logan turned fiery green eyes on the prefect. "And I will take Julian there."

"Can I go too?" Derek asked, holding up a letter he had in his hand. "I have to take this up there to my owl."

"Do you remember the password?" the prefect asked, suppressing a laugh.

"Of course." Logan rolled his eyes.

"'First years are idiots,'" the three first years said together.

"I came up with that one," another boy said, laughing at his own genius. "Do you like it?"

Logan just turned around, and Derek and Julian, after glancing at each other nervously, followed their new friend.

Once they were out in the hallway and Derek and Julian had flanked Logan, Logan said with more than a hint of pride, "My father is on the board of directors at Hogwarts."

"So that's how you know where the Owlery is?" Julian asked, sounding stupid but he had to make conversation.

Logan rolled his eyes and didn't respond as they passed a tapestry of a boy killing a snake with a gleaming sword. "That's new," he said, pointing to it.

"That's Neville Longbottom!" Derek said excitedly, pausing to look at it. Logan grabbed the sleeve of his robe and pulled him away.

"Of course it is," Logan snapped. "Why wouldn't they have a picture of him here?"

"Don't you like Neville Longbottom?" Julian asked, tripping over his feet in the effort to keep up with Logan, who was walking very fast.

"I do," Logan said, "it's just…he's a teacher here."

"I know that," Derek said, rolling his eyes. "Everyone knows that."

"So I'm just saying it's not unusual for there to be a tapestry of him! There's ones of Harry Potter and Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley and Rem-"

"We get the point," Julian said loudly, cutting him off. "If you literally list every single famous person in the Second Wizarding War we'll be up till like midnight."

"I think that's the norm," Logan said grumpily. "For Slytherins. I think they are always really overtired. That's why they're so pissy." He crossed his arms over his chest.

"Speaking of pissy…" Derek said, laughing.

Julian laughed too, but then caught sight of Logan's face and stopped laughing. "You don't like Slytherins, do you?" he asked.

"Of course I do," Logan said, looking at him like it was the single most ridiculous thing he'd ever heard.

"No, you don't," Derek said wisely. "But don't worry."

"We'll keep it a secret," Julian said, putting his arm around Logan. "Now do we go right or left?" he asked, peering down the corridors on either side of them.

"I have no idea," Logan said, and the three of them burst into laughter.

And that was how Julian Larson, Derek Seigerson, and John Logan Wright the Third became best friends on their first day at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.