"Alright, Gryffindor first years, this way! We don't have all night."

"Ravenclaw first years, over here, please!"

"Oi! You lot, over here, we're going down."

"Hufflepuff! I'll be showing you first years where to go!"

Various older students were corralling the first years of their respected house into separate areas outside of the great hall. They were waiting for the main wave of students to pass and get into their common rooms before leading the first years. It seemed to be taking a long time, so the first years decided to go about introducing themselves.

"Name's Brendon Boyd Urie." The boy with big lips grinned as he stuck his hand out to Frank, "See this scar on my eyebrow? I got it when I was foolin' around, first discovering my magic, and I fell off the staircase banister."

"Wow. Hi, I'm Frank Iero." Frank laughed, "I don't have a story of how I got my nonexistent scars."

"I've got a cool one from this time my uncle's owl nearly took off my finger." A red headed girl grinned, "Hayley Williams, by the way. Nice to meetchya." She held out her hand to a boy with light colored hair.

He nodded, letting out a soft "owch" before introducing himself. "I'm Spencer Smith. My mom works at St. Mungo's, I bet she could of gotten rid of that entirely."

Hayley shook her head. "Hell no! I like it! It makes me look tough." She stuck her tongue out at him with a giggle. He rolled his eyes with a smile growing on his face.

Jamia smirked, "That'll really help with the backing of Slytherin behind it." She waved with the cascade of her fingers, "I'm Jamia Nestor. Both my parents come from Slytherin too."

"Oo! Fancy full blood!" Hayley giggled, mimicking Jamia's wave.

"The only kind of blood to have." Jamia continued to smirk.

Spencer frowned, "Hey, we can't all have two magic parents. My dad's great, even if he is a muggle."

Jamia rolled her eyes, "Fair enough. Better than some mudblood..." She sighed, looking around at some of the other students rushing past.

Frank frowned. He didn't like that word. It just felt so ugly as it rolled off the tongue. Why would someone ever like calling someone that? He turned to the last boy to introduce himself. The small framed boy, who Frank had only heard speak earlier before they were sorted, was standing off to the side of the group with his head tilted down.

"Hey." Frank smiled at him, walking over to stand next to him. "I'm Frank. What's your name?"

The boy looked up with fearful eyes. "I... I'm Tyler?" He phrased it as more of a question than anything. His eyes flickered back to the floor fairly quickly.

"Nice to meet you, Tyler." Frank nodded, "So, how's your experience with all this stuff?"

Tyler seemed hesitant to answer. Frank didn't have time to ask if anything was wrong, however, because the Slytherin prefect had decided that it was time to go down to the common room.

"Alright, scoot your butts on down the stairs. I'll tell you when we'll divert." He instructed as he gestured the first years to follow.

Frank walked alongside Tyler, in the back of the group. Jamia walked next to Hayley, who was recounting the story of the owl and her finger to a readily engaged in the retelling Spencer. Brendon was bouncing down the steps, almost jumping like a frog. The continued to make their way down, until their prefect whistled at them, making a motion to leave the stairs and follow him down a dimly lit hallway.

"Is this where we get murdered?"

"Shut up, Smith, that would of been more fun to do on the stairs."

The prefect lead them to a stone wall. The first years looked amongst each other with confusion until the prefect turned to them. "This is the entrance to our common room. You'll need a password to reveal it, however, and it changes frequently. Every two weeks to be exact. You can find new passwords on the message board."

"What's the password?" Brendon asked as he bounced on his toes.

The prefect gave him an annoyed look. "I'm getting to it." He said before turning back to the wall and clearing his throat. "Malevolent."

With that word, the wall began to split, leaving a small passageway that lead to a room that was illuminated in an emerald green light. The prefect motioned for them to follow him down the corridor as they continued to awe.

"This is your common room where you can mingle, do homework, etcetera." The prefect explained as they entered the main room, "To the sides of the room you will see corridors that will take you to your dorms; one for boys and one for girls. I'd recommend going to sleep, and unpacking as all your things are there, but you can mingle for a bit longer, seeing as  you'll be spending the rest of your time at Hogwarts together."

Everyone nodded as they attempted to take in every aspect of the common room. There were windows to the murky waters of the lake, green lights that hung down from impossibly high ceilings, and various pieces of furniture littered throughout the area. It was almost like something out of a movie rather than a place they would actually be living in.

"Classes start promptly tomorrow, so don't stay up too late." Their prefect said, turning to face the group. "We're aiming for the house cup this year. Ravenclaw snatched it last year, thanks to Gaskgarth's work on the quidditch field." He said with a taste of bitterness to his tone before shaking his head. "Just don't mess this up for us, got it?"

"Yes sir." Brendon said, bringing his hand to his head in salute.

The prefect rolled his eyes before veering off in the direction he said that the dorms were. Once he was gone, Jamia ran towards one of the black couches littered around the room and jumped onto it with a laugh.

"We're actually in Slytherin!" She sang gleefully as the others either took spots on other furniture in the room or walked around in observation. She laughed as she sat upright. "Isn't this exciting?" She asked with mischief gleaming in her eye.

"I wouldn't of expected it." Hayley said as she threw her legs over the arm of the chair she had chosen, "My mom was a Gryffindor, this'll break her heart. Dad was a Hufflepuff, though, hard to gauge his reaction."

"My mom was Slytherin, dad a Ravenclaw." Brendon grinned, "She'll be so proud." He put his hand over his heart as he said it, before bursting out in laughter.

Spencer laughed from where he sat next to Brendon on another black, leather couch. "My mom was a Ravenclaw. She even helped win a house cup! I mean, before Gryffindor was the school favorite there for awhile."

Jamia groaned with the roll of her eyes. "So boring when the same house wins over and over and over again... Unless it becomes our house in that boat, of course." She grinned.

The group continued in a quiet mumbling as Frank walked up next to Tyler, who was observing the window that looked onto the lake. Tyler barely seemed to notice him. His hands were twisting nervously in front of him.

"Hey." Frank smiled, "You okay?"

Tyler hummed as he turned to Frank. "Oh... Oh, um, yea! I'm okay, thanks." He smiled. He looked back out at the murky lake water right after something seemed to have swam by. "What do you think is in there?" He asked, softly.

Frank grinned, "I heard it's a giant squid."

Tyler's eyes grew wide as he looked out at the water, "That's so sick..."

"Oi, You two!" Jamia called out, making Frank and Tyler turn back to the rest of the group. "I remember Frank saying he was a pureblood, but what about you quiet boy?"

Frank heard Tyler intake a sharp breath. The skinnier boy seemed to be terrified to respond.

"His name is Tyler." Frank spoke for him, "Guys, it's late, maybe we should go to our dorms."

"Sure!" Jamia agreed with a nod, "Right after Tyler shares a bit. Everyone else has." She threw herself over the couch, landing on her feet like a cat. "What's he so scared of?"

"I'm just tired..." Tyler spoke, quietly, before looking down.

"Tell us your blood status and we can all go to bed." Jamia argued, crossing her arms.

"It's really not that important, Jamia." Frank frowned.

"Yea, dude, don't push him." Brendon yawned, rubbing his eye. "We can talk tomorrow."

"I'm not a dude." Jamia snapped at Brendon before turning back to Tyler, "Just say it. What are you, some kind of mudblood?"

Tyler remained quiet. The air in the room seemed to grow in awkwardness by the second. Jamia's eyes grew wide.

"You are, aren't you? Muggle born mudblood? Tarnishing our house?"

"I didn't even know muggle borns could get sorted here." Brendon whispered with a look of confusion at Spencer, who shrugged.

"What's it matter?" Frank argued, feeling both anger at Jamia for putting Tyler in the spotlight and bad for Tyler for being put in the spotlight. "Muggle or magic parents, he's still here. What does blood have to do with anything?"

Jamia looked offended by Frank's words. "Why would you defend him? He can't even speak for himself!"

"Piss off!" Frank yelled, locking his arm around Tyler's. "Why would you be a bitch to him? You don't even know him!" With that, he pulled Tyler away towards the dorms. Jamia looked lost for words, while Spencer and Brendon pushed themselves up off the couch to follow after the two.

They followed the short tunnel until they came upon a room with an open door. There were four beds that could be concealed by drapes with trunks at their base. The boys hurried in. Brendon closed the door.

"I didn't mean anything by my comment, dude, I'm sorry." Brendon blurted, "I've just never heard of... That, you know?"

"It's fine." Tyler said with a weak smile, "I'm just... I got told off on the train by some older kids, so I was afraid to say anything..."

"Oh, damn..." Spencer whispered, "I'm sorry."

"Don't listen to them." Frank said as he moved towards his bed, "It doesn't matter where you come from. Just try to stay away from her, okay?"

Tyler smiled. "Thanks, Frank. That's the nicest thing I've heard since I've been here."

"Slytherins gotta stick together." Frank grinned.

"Musketeer status." Spencer added, earning confused looks from Brendon and Frank.

"Muskewhat?" Brendon asked with a raised eyebrow.

Tyler giggled, exchanging a knowing look with Spencer. Spencer laughed, nodding at Tyler. "It's a muggle thing."

---

Gerard and Patrick jumped down the steps as they followed their prefect, along with the rest of the Hufflepuff first years, down. Everyone was quiet when the Prefect, a pretty blond girl by the name of Jenna, began to speak again.

"Our common room is down by the kitchens!" She explained as they veered away from the stairs, "The house elves that work there usually tend to keep to themselves, but they do love a pop in from time to time."

"That food was actually made? Like, not just appearing out of nowhere?" A boy with short curls on top of his head, Max, asked in amazement.

Jenna laughed, shaking her head. "No, silly. Magic can do many things, but it can't make food appear out of thin air."

Max let out a soft 'oh' as the group continued to follow Jenna. Gerard sped up his pace a bit to walk along side the prefect.

"How many house elves does a place like this have?" He asked.

Jenna hummed, a thoughtful look crossing over her face. "I can't be too sure. I've never counted or asked." She shrugged.

"What do house elves look like?" Patrick asked as he skipped to gain pace with Jenna and Gerard.

"Oh, I know!" The Melanie girl jumped up behind them, waving her hand in the air, "My family had one until I accidentally gave her a hat because her ears looked cold. She was a sweetheart and volunteered to stay on, thou, and she got to keep the hat."

Melanie giggled before she looked at Patrick, "House elves are little guys, probably going up to your knees, and they serve a master in whatever helpful way they're needed." She smiled as she spoke, but that wasn't the thing that drew attention to her as they walked. Her hair, at least the blond half of it, was turning a shade of light pink right before their eyes.

"Dude!" Max gasped, making Melanie stop her speaking and look at him with curiosity. When she noticed the whole group looking at her, relazation crossed over her face.

"Oh! I'm sorry, is it changing?" She asked with a laugh, patting her hair. "Sometimes when I get going it starts to change without me thinking about it."

"How does it do that!?" Max asked.

Jenna tilted her head at Melanie, temporarily abandoning the trek to their common room. "Can you change any more of your appearance?"

A smile widened on Melanie's face as she nodded. She let out another giggle at everyone's looks. The other girl in the group, a curly haired girl named Elisa, gasped.

"Are you a metamorphmagus?" She asked with a gleam of amazement in her eye.

Melanie nodded, earning both confused and amazed looks from the group.

"Please help the boy that doesn't know anything about anything in this world." Max said, raising his hand.

Patrick nodded, pointing at Max, "I'm in his same boat."

"It's something extremely rare." Jenna said as she stepped up to Melanie, asking to look at her hair with a soft voice. When Melanie nodded, Jenna held onto a few strands of her hair as they faded back to blond. "I've never seen someone that actually has it! Only stories..."

"Since the day I was born." Melanie smiled, "I like the half dye. Mom said it was black when I was first born, but it was blond by the time an hour had passed." She shrugged, "I consider the colors the first piece of me."

"That's so awesome." Jenna said, letting Melanie's hair fall back into place. "I could ask so many things, but we should really get down to the common rooms before it's too late!" She gestured for the group to begin following her once again.

Melanie skipped along, chatting happily with various members of the small group. Gerard observed the stone walls, trying to make mental notes of where to travel later when he would have to do it by himself. The others sorted into his group seemed extremely nice. He liked them already.

It already did kind of feel like home.

"Here we go!" Jenna said as they came upon a wall and barrel. "You've gotta tap it in a very specific order." She showed them several spots on the barrel. "It should sound a bit like our house founder when you..." She tapped on the barrel twice, then three times.

The wall next to the barrel opened up in a circular passage, revealing the entrance to a very inviting room on the other side. The group flooded inside before the entrance to the common room could reseal. There were yellow hangings to leave a warm feeling in the lower level room. Fat arm chairs were littered around the room, with a few placed facing a fireplace that was decorated with colorful plants. It felt very reminiscent of something light hearted and nature filled.

"Home sweet home." Jenna smiled, gesturing around the room. "Welcome to your common room!"

"Those chairs look so comfy." Max whispered loudly as he hurried over to jump onto one of them.

"Very!" An unfamiliar, almost echoed voice responded to Max.

Everyone looked around, trying to find it's source, except for Jenna. She rolled her eyes, knowingly. "Stop trying to scare the first years, Jon." She replied to the voice.

A soft groaning could be heard before a silvery, see through, figure floated up from behind one of the arm chairs. He had short hair and stubble that lined his chin and rose up his cheeks. He was wearing Hogwarts robes, and a very dulled scarf with Hufflepuff colors.

"You ruin all my fun." The ghost said, shaking his head as Max fell out of the arm chair he had just jumped onto. The ghost snickered, floating down to give the appearance that he was standing on the floor. "Sorry about that."

"Guys, this is Jon." Jenna introduced them to the ghost, who waved.

"You're a ghost." Max gasped, looking at him with wide eyes.

Jon rolled his eyes. "And you're alive." He shrugged, "I've been dead since the dark lord went out on this very campus."

Gerard tilted his head at the ghost. "You were here for the battle of Hogwarts?"

Jon grinned, but Jenna shook her head. "Jon, it's late. The first years can hear about it later."

"Can't the first years hear about it now?" Gerard asked, earning nods of agreement from Elisa and Patrick.

"When they don't have classes first thing in the morning." Jenna said, shaking her finger playfully at Gerard. She laughed before gesturing to some corridors off to the side of the room, "There are your dorms, one for boys and one for girls. Your stuff is in there too."

"My toad!" Melanie squealed, darting off towards the rooms that Jenna had pointed out. Elisa hurried after her, seeming to not want to go by herself later.

Gerard and the two other boys looked between each other with unsureness. The ghost boy floated over to them.

"I can show you to your dorms." He said as he floated back away from them, "C'mon."

The three boys shrugged, deciding to follow the ghost. Gerard was at the front of the group, somehow. He didn't think too much about it, however, as the ghost lead them down the corridor. They were quickly upon an open door, where their beds and trunks were waiting.

Max hurried over to his, which was closest to the door, hugging it tightly. Patrick decided to walk over to his bed and push on his mattress. He seemed satisfied before climbing onto it with a sigh. Gerard walked over to the furthest bed, slowly. This was really it. He was going to be living here, in this house, at this school!.. It was really happening...

"I'll see you guys later." Jon said, floating back through the wall.

"Bye Jo-oh he's gone." Max frowned as he sat himself on his trunk. He looked around the room, grinning at the bed behind him. "Hey, we get new ties, check it out!"

Gerard looked at the new, house themed, attire rested on the bed. He smiled as he picked up a yellow and black themed tie. "Neato." He looked up at Max, "Just a question, do you know how to tie a tie?"

Max shot him a sheepish grin. "A clip on one." He admitted.

Gerard turned to look at Patrick, but the strawberry blond was already snoring lightly on the bed. Gerard laughed, setting the tie back on his bed.

"I guess we'll cross that bridge when we get there." Gerard shrugged with a yawn, "We should get to sleep, though."

Max nodded, popping up and walking to his bedside. "I bet they're cozy with how fast he fell asleep." He laughed as he jumped on the bed. He made a satisfied noise as he burrowed his way under the covers.

Gerard shook his head, laughing softly. He grabbed up his tie, setting it on his trunk, before pulling back the covers on his own bed. He crawled up onto the mattress and made himself comfortable. He didn't bother to change, however, because he suddenly felt overly exhausted. He tugged the blankets up over his frame with a yawn.

This place was so unfamiliar, yet so much like home already. It was different, but in a good way. Gerard could see himself becoming good friends with the others in his house. Where he lived, he never could of dreamed to find friendship so fast.

Gerard yawned, sliding one arm under his pillow as he made himself comfortable. He hadn't been here long, but he was already feeling ready to tackle the next day.