Thank you for choosing this story!

To learn about the House of the Brave project, please visit my profile page.

Hope you enjoy and please review :)

Disclaimer: This is a work of fan fiction using characters and places from the Harry Potter world, which is trademarked by JK Rowling. However, all plots are my own and are in no way endorsed by JK Rowling or anyone affiliated with the Harry Potter universe.


Chapter 1: September 2016

Before Louis knew it, summer was over, and it was time to board the Hogwarts express and head back to school for another year. As Louis climbed the stairs into the train, he found himself feeling much less nervous than he had the previous year. This year, he wasn't walking into the unknown – he knew exactly what to expect. In fact, he looked forward to spending the year with Justin and the astronomy club once again. The only thing that worried Louis was that David Flint and the Slytherins were sure to be back again this year as well, and Louis feared what they might do.

Louis located Justin in the crowd still down on the train platform and waved at him, so that Justin would know which door of the train to board at. After saying goodbye to his parents, Justin headed over, tossed his trunk up to Louis and then climbed aboard himself.

"Good summer?" Louis asked conversationally as the two began the search for a compartment.

"Alright, you?" Justin returned.

"Pretty good," Louis replied. "Excited for astronomy club."

"I wonder if we'll get any new members," Justin mused.

"Of course we will," Louis replied. "Astronomy club's awesome, these first years would be foolish not to join."

"What I really want to know is what we're going to do this year," Justin pointed out.

"What do you mean?" Louis frowned.

"Well with the telescope project over and done with, what's left?" Justin wondered.

"Tons!" Louis exclaimed.

"Alright, give me an example," Justin replied. "And don't give me some generic thing we could study. What kind of project could we work on?"

"Well we could…" Louis hesitated. "Well I certainly don't know, I'm only starting my second year. I'm sure Ben has plans though, we'll just have to wait and see."

"He's not president yet," Justin pointed out.

"He will be," Louis replied confidently. "We'll have the vote as soon as we get back. It's not like anyone else would get it, he'll be the only seventh year in the club."

Before Justin could respond, Louis' younger cousins, James and Lucy, appeared at the door of the compartment.

"Hey guys, how are you?" Louis asked, opening the door and letting them in.

"We were hoping we could share your compartment," Lucy said hopefully. "There aren't any empty ones left."

"Oh sure," Louis nodded. He glanced over at Justin. "Justin, help me get their trunks up there." He hoped Justin wouldn't mind, but he remembered how nervous he'd been his first day and he'd hate to turn his cousins away and make them uncomfortable by having to sit in a compartment with strangers.

"Thanks," James said gratefully, bringing in the trunks.

"By the way, James, Lucy, this is my friend Justin Spinnet. Justin, these are my cousins Lucy Weasley and James Potter," Louis said, making the introductions. "James, Luce, we were about to go find the candy trolley, you want to come with us?" he offered, guessing that they would elect not to come. He wanted to finish his conversation with Justin and knew that they would probably just want to talk about what classes would be like and how the sorting would go.

"Thanks, but we're fine," Lucy replied. "We'll just sit here for a while."

"Suit yourself," Justin said. "But I'm not giving either of you any of my licorice wands." He rose and followed Louis out into the hall, catching onto what Louis was doing.

Out in the corridor, Louis set the pace, heading towards the front of the train, as the trolley lady usually worked her way from front to back.

"I just hope that Ben decides to prioritize astronomy club over whatever else he's got going on," Justin said, continuing their conversation.

"Hasn't he always?" Louis frowned.

Justin shrugged. "I worked with him quite a bit last year," he reminded Louis. "And all I can say is that we could've gotten our parts of the project done a lot quicker if he hadn't always been running off for this reason or that."

"Hmm," Louis pondered on that for a minute. "And here I thought Caleb was the least devoted member of the team, what with his preoccupation with Quidditch."

"But Caleb was never president," Justin pointed out.

"True," Louis had to agree.

As the boys passed through the doors from one car to the next, they suddenly found themselves confronted. It seemed the second year Slytherin boys were sitting in the first compartment and the biggest and bulkiest of the five was standing out in the corridor, handing the trunks in one by one to be thrown up onto the luggage racks.

"And what do we have here?" David Flint's voice sounded from inside the compartment. "Invite them in, Darian, do be polite."

The boy in the corridor, Darian Reed, jerked his head in the direction of the open compartment and Louis and Justin reluctantly entered.

"Nice to see you again," Louis spoke first, hoping that civility would get them out of this, whatever it was. "Good summer?"

"Splendid," Flint replied. "Why don't you take a seat so that we can discuss how this year is going to progress?"

When the Gryffindor boys hesitated, Flint nodded at Reed and suddenly Reed, who was significantly stronger than Louis and Justin put together, was shoving them onto the bench.

"We really do need to be getting back," Louis said nervously. "Our cousins – "

"Can make it an extra few minutes without you," Flint assured them. "Don't worry, this won't take long."

"Maybe we could discuss this at a later time – "

"No, I think now's the perfect time," Flint shook his head. "Wouldn't you boys agree?"

He looked around the compartment and received nods from all four of his cohorts.

"That settles it," Flint nodded, gesturing for Reed to bring in the final trunk and shut the door.

Louis gulped. What did Flint want to talk about and why did he want to do it now, here? Surely he wasn't going to do anything harmful to Louis or Justin while they were still on the train, with prefects patrolling the halls and all?

"Right," Flint began once the door was closed. "Now there seems to have been some sort of miscommunication last year as to the responsibilities of the various parties currently present, particularly in regards to schoolwork."

"Shouldn't it be – "

"Shut up, Justin," Louis hissed to his friend. There was no point in Justin saying anything at this point, as it would only serve to anger Flint further.

"You should listen to your friend," Flint said to Justin. "Now as I was saying. Schoolwork. Now, we Slytherins have quite the many various responsibilities. Social engagements and the like. The sorts of things a Gryffindor couldn't possibly understand. As a result, we often find ourselves lacking the time to get through all the menial assignments our dear Professors so often give us in homework."

"On the other hand, the two of you seem to have so much free time on your hands that you've elected to join the astronomy club, a club nobody in their right mind would join if they had any other options available. So, in order to occupy some of this free time you both seem so desperate to fill, whenever we five find ourselves inundated with work and we see fit to do so, we will be passing it over to you both."

"But wouldn't you rather do the assignments yourself?" Justin piped up. "How else will you learn the material?"

Next to Flint, one of the other boys, Anthony Pearle, scoffed.

"Only a Slytherin could possibly understand," Flint said, by way of explanation. "Do we have an understanding?"

Justin opened his mouth to protest and Louis elbowed him in the side. As terrible as the situation was, it would be even more terrible if they both had to miss the welcoming feast because they were in the hospital.

"We understand," Louis spoke for the both of them, eyeing Darian Reed and the fist he was continually making and unmaking. The boy looked like he was itching to punch one of them in the face and Louis was loathe to give him reason to.

"David, are you sure we should – " one of the other boys, Alec Roper, spoke up.

He was interrupted by the fifth member of the gang, Arthur Pritchard. "Shut your trap, Roper, we've talked about this."

Flint glared in Roper's direction for a moment and then turned back to Louis and Justin.

"Well if that's all settled, I suppose you're both free to go. I suspect we'll be seeing you both soon enough."

Darian Reed opened the door to the compartment and Louis practically shoved Justin out the door in his eagerness to get out of the Slytherin's compartment. It had been crowded and uncomfortable and nerve-wracking in there, and Louis' heart was beating erratically from fear.

Without another thought of finding the candy trolley, the two boys bolted back towards their own compartment, putting as much distance as possible between themselves and the Slytherins whilst on a moving train.

Once they were a full car away, they slowed down to catch their breath.

"Welcome back to Hogwarts," Louis muttered sarcastically.

LlLlLlLlLlL

The rest of the ride to Hogwarts was a quiet one. Neither Louis nor Justin said much of anything, and simply listened to James and Lucy prattle on about their first-year problems. When they finally reached the castle, they parted ways, Louis and Justin heading to the carriages while James and Lucy made their way to the boats.

The sorting was predictable. Both James and Lucy were sorted into Gryffindor, something Louis was not at all surprised about. If anyway was going to have been sorted into a different house, it would have been Molly into Ravenclaw, and if that happened, it seemed doubtful to Louis that any of the Weasley cousins would break the mould.

That night, Louis tossed and turned, imagining how this year was going to play out. Last year, the Slytherins had only bothered him and Justin now and then, but from the sounds of their conversation earlier, it now seemed that they were going to be expecting Louis and Justin to do all their homework. Louis wondered if they would even have time for astronomy club this year, with all the extra work they would have to do.

The first week of classes wasn't particularly interesting. They were only doing review, and the basic assignments they were getting seemed to be easy enough that the Slytherins didn't bother either of the boys right away. By the end of the week, when the notice was posted for the date of the first astronomy club meeting, Louis was feeling much more optimistic.

"Is there even any point in voting?" Louis wondered as he and Justin headed to the astronomy club room. "Who else would even be eligible for president?"

"Greg and Arnold will both be in sixth year this year," Justin pointed out. "Maybe one of them will decide to run."

"I can't imagine anyone would vote for either of them," Louis frowned. "They've only ever been moderately interested in the club."

"Don't forget we need to elect a vice-president and project manager as well," Justin pointed out.

"Seems a lot of leadership for such a small club," Louis frowned. "Why not just have a president?"

Justin shrugged. "It's the way it is. When we're senior members, we can question it. For now, I think we just have to go with it."

When they arrived at the astronomy club room, it was like a reunion. Most of the members hadn't had a chance to reconnect with each other since returning to Hogwarts, so the first half hour mostly consisted of greetings and exchanges about how everyone's summer had been. With no official leadership in place yet, it took a while for everyone to get settled down and ready to address official business.

"Alright, now I realize I'm not president or anything," Ben said, calling everyone to order. "But as the only remaining member of last year's leadership, I think it's only right that I take the lead while we elect this year's new leadership team. At the beginning of next month, we'll be welcoming new members into the group, and we'll want to be ready and organized by then so that we can show them a good star-gazing time."

Louis found it exceptionally strange to be sitting in the astronomy room and to have Ben taking charge. The club didn't seem the same without Melody barking the orders and Caleb by her side. But then again, Louis supposed this was something he'd have to get used to. Members would be leaving them every year, and new ones would join. Membership was ever-changing. Everyone else had been through this before, and they'd managed just fine.

"So let's not prolong the inevitable," Ben declared. "I'm going to pass around three scraps of parchment, and on each one, each of you may write one of the three leadership positions, and the name of the person you think best suited for the position."

Everyone grew very silent as Ben passed around the bits of parchment. Louis wondered vaguely whether it was fair to have things done this way – it would be far too easy for Ben to simply vote for himself, after all. Then again, his would only be one vote, and he'd have to vote for the other positions as well. And it wasn't as though he could occupy all three positions.

Louis glanced down at his three bits of parchment and then looked around the room. Who did he want to vote for? Ben was the obvious choice for president, but just because he was the eldest in the room didn't necessarily mean he deserved it. On the other hand, neither Greg nor Arnold would make a good president, at least not in Louis' opinion, so he went ahead and put down Ben's name for the top position.

There were still two more positions available, and again, Louis found himself looking in the direction of Greg and Arnold. Logic would dictate that the two of them get the two supporting roles. But Louis just wasn't comfortable voting for either of them. He glanced at the remaining members of the group. If he was voting purely based on who was most committed to astronomy as a discipline, it was obvious who Louis should vote for. Trent was dedicated to pursuing astronomy as a career and was already talking about how he was going to apply to MAI when the time came. His mind made up, Louis put Trent's name down for project manager, and then put down Dorothy's name for vice-president, because she was very organized and Louis thought that would be a good quality for a vice-president to have.

Getting up out of his seat, Louis dropped his votes into a basket Ben had set up at the front of the room and then waited for the rest of the club to fill out their own ballots. When everyone had placed their votes, Ben cast a tallying spell on the basket, and the slips of paper started flying around the room, grouping themselves according to number of votes. A piece of chalk began to move of its own accord and began to write the results on the chalkboard.

For president… surprise, surprise, Ben won by a longshot.

For vice-president, the winner was Arnold. Louis shrugged when he saw this, figuring most had just voted for the eldest of the group. It wasn't a big deal to Louis really. Arnold would do just fine.

Finally, the chalk revealed the winner for project manager, and to Louis' surprise, it wasn't Greg as he'd expected. Though he was only a fourth year, and not even a senior yet, the position went to Trent Mitchell.

With the three names announced, everyone began to clap in congratulations of their new leaders. Arnold stood to join Ben at the front, while Trent just sat in his seat stunned. Greg looked a little put out, but Louis couldn't imagine he was that shocked. His interest in astronomy was as a hobby, while Trent's was a passion and a lifelong goal.

"Alright, well I'd just like to say thank you to everyone for putting their faith in me," Ben said, sounding like his speech had already been prepared. "I have lots of plans for our little club and I look forward to sharing them with my new leadership team and also with you all. I won't let you down."

Everyone turned to Arnold and he made an uncomfortable sound.

"Right, well I don't know what to say exactly except that I hope to help make this year our best yet!" he said. "Oh, and thanks for voting for me."

"Trent?" Ben prompted, looking at the final elected member.

Trent nodded and stood, slowly making his way to the front of the room.

"Right," he said. "Erm… first of all thank you to everyone who voted for me. I'm truly honored that you all have so much faith in me. I hope to live up to your expectations, but I hope you'll all bear with me as I try to navigate this new role. I hadn't expected this so early in my education, but I'm really excited to prove myself. Also this is going to look great on my application to MAI, so thanks for that as well."

Everyone laughed at that last comment and then the club was dismissed, so that the leaders could confer amongst themselves.

Heading back to the common room, Louis questioned Justin on who he'd voted for.

"Not Ben," Justin revealed. "Though I'm sure I was the only one. Did vote for Trent though, I think he deserves it."

"Who'd you pick for president then, if not Ben?" Louis wondered. "Surely not Arnold or Greg?"

Justin shook his head. "Kelsey," he replied. "Thought it might be nice to get a Gryffindor in leadership for a change."

Louis rolled his eyes. "Of course you did," he muttered.