"Thor, don't push me! You almost made me drop my owl!" Loki re-adjusted his grip on Muninn's cage as he and Thor rushed through the barrier to Platform 9 and three quarters.

"I am sorry brother, I can't help it, I'm so excited!" Thor pushed past Loki and spun around, looking in all directions to see as much of the platform as he could, almost hitting several people with his own owl, Huginn's cage. Loki was also taking in the sights, his eyes flickering all around, looking at all the people and listening to passing conversations. One in particular caught his ear:

"What house do you think you'll be in, Steve? With all that recklessness, you'd have to be Gryffindor."

"I'll be in whatever house the hat thinks is best, Bucky."

Loki had been thinking about the houses ever since he had received his letter. He'd gone over them a hundred times in his head, and he'd always come back to the house with the worst reputation, Slytherin. Ambition, cunning, slyness, he could relate to those. But he could also relate to the wittiness and cleverness of Ravenclaw. He was jolted out of his thoughts by Thor's arm clapping heavily around his shoulders.

"Don't just stand there, Loki! We've still got a few minutes before the train leaves, let's try to make some new friends!" Trapped by Thor's much bigger arm, Loki was dragged over to the boys whose conversation he had just briefly listened to. "Hello, friends! I am Thor and this is my brother, Loki!"

"Hey! I'm Bucky and this is Steve." Bucky looked as if he was about to say more but he was interrupted by sudden loud rock music. All four boys turned to look, along with most of the people around him. Another boy, already dressed in his Hogwarts robes was marching his way through the crowed, smiling cockily and lifting his sunglasses to the top of his head. He was followed by a boy and a girl who seemed to be half heartedly trying to stop him from drawing attention to himself.

"That's Tony Stark, isn't it?" said Steve.

"Yeah. He's supposed to be really smart along with being really rich, but everything else I've heard about him makes him sound like a real jerk." said Bucky as he turned back to Thor and Loki.

"Well, you've never actually met him, have you, Bucky?" said Steve. "I'd describe you as a jerk to other people, but we're still friends, aren't we?" Bucky and Thor laughed at that. Loki smiled, then noticed the clock.

"Thor, we have 2 minutes until the train leaves. We'd better get going, or all of the compartments will be full."

"Mind if we join you? Steve and I don't take up that much room." As he spoke, Bucky threw his arm around Steve's shoulders and grinned.

Thor grinned right back and replied, "Of course you must join us, new friends! We will all find a compartment together!" Then he grabbed Loki and proceeded to drag him over to the train while Steve and Bucky followed. As they moved through the crowd, Loki noticed a group of rather sinister looking students, dressed perfectly in their robes. He also saw that they were wearing some kind of badges, but they were too far away for him to see the details. They also passed Stark again, who was being lectured by the boy a girl who had been following him. Loki took the opportunity to steal Stark's sunglasses off of his head. Steve saw it, but didn't say anything. Stark could stand to lose one pair of sunglasses. Besides, it was kind of funny.

On another part of the train, Clint and Natasha were settling into their own compartment. Clint had taken out his hearing aids for the time being. Natasha wouldn't care if he messed up with his lip reading.

"What house do you think we'll be in, Nat?" She looked up from petting her cat. Clint knew immediately that he'd said the wrong thing.

"I'd rather not talk about houses, Clint."

"I just wanted to know if you thought we'd be in the same houses-"

"Which is why I don't want to talk about it."

"Well, Nat, even if we were in the same house, which honestly isn't very likely we'd still be in different dorms so I don't see-"

Nat's head was turned down, so Clint couldn't be sure what she said, but he thought it was, "I just don't want to be alone."

Suddenly Nat's face changed to one of concentration. "What is it, do you hear something?" Clint put his hearing aids back in and quickly adjusted to the chatter of people on the train as he picked up on the conversation that Nat had heard.

"We shouldn't have wasted time 'making friends' Thor, now there are no more empty compartments!"

"We're standing right here, Loki."

"Don't argue, Bucky, we just met them."

Nat and Clint's compartment door was flung open by Thor, who greeted them enthusiastically. "More new friends!"

"Do you mind if we try to fit in your compartment?" said Steve. Nat thought he looked kind of funny sticking out from behind the other three while still attempting to smile kindly. "Your compartment is the least full we've found." Nat and Clint exchanged a glance which involved Nat trying to give a stern look and being shot down by Clint's puppy eyes.

"We can make room, right Nat?" They both moved over to the window as Thor, Loki, Bucky and Steve fit themselves into the compartment. There was some awkward silence, then Thor spoke.

"Loki, are those not Starks sunglasses?"

Awhile later, after the candy lady had come by, they were all chatting comfortably with each other as the fields rolled by outside the window. The conversation had again shifted inevitably to houses.

"You two are siblings, right? So that means you'll be in the same house probably," said Clint as he bit the head off of a chocolate frog. Loki raised his eyebrows.

"Nah, I don't think so," said Bucky. "They don't really give off that sibling vibe. I would have never guessed you two were brothers if you hadn't said so."

"What do you mean, Loki and I are very close," said Thor.

"We don't really act the same though, Thor," Loki replied.

"What do you mean, of course we act similarly, we do everything together."

"That's not the same as acting the same Thor-"

"Never mind, I'm seeing the brothers thing now," interrupted Bucky. "But I still don't think you two belong in the same houses. I mean, I know we've only just met each other, but I'm seeing Gryffindor for you, Thor, and Ravenclaw for Loki."

"Really?" said Steve. "I was definitely seeing Slytherin for Loki."

"Isn't that the evil house?" asked Clint. Natasha hadn't been really paying attention, but now she looked up.

"Not necessarily," said Steve. "Slytherin qualities are ambition, cunning, and resourcefulness. Sometimes that combination can lead to a bad person, but so could many personality combinations."

"You really think that?" said Nat. Her face was hard to read, but Clint thought it was briefly in between hope and relief before it went back to her usual mask. "Well, Clint is definitely a Hufflepuff."

"What do you mean I'm a Hufflepuff, I'm clearly Gryffindor," said Clint, who was splitting the Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans into equal groups for everyone to share.

"Yes, not Hufflepuff, I can tell," said Loki, completely strait-faced. Steve, Bucky and Natasha laughed.

Just then, the door of their compartment flew open with a bang. It was Tony Stark, and the girl and boy who had been following him earlier. "Hey gentlemen and lady, I seem to be missing a pair of sunglasses-"

The other boy put his arm out in front of Tony and said, "Do not give them the whole spiel you gave the last compartment, that is how you do not get your sunglasses because what you do get is everyone in the compartment trying to kill you."

The girl spoke up. "I'm sorry, everyone, this is Tony and James, and I'm Pepper." She glanced back at the two boys, who were now arguing in whispers.

Tony stopped for a second to say "No, his name is Rhodey," and went back to arguing.

Pepper turned back and smiled at the group. "Have you seen a pair of sunglasses, Tony can't seem to find them anywhere."

They all spoke at once.

"Nope, no sunglasses here," said Nat.

"Loki, you had the sunglasses, right?," said Clint.

"Sorry, haven't seen them," said Steve.

"What sunglasses?" said Loki and Bucky.

"Loki, give me the sunglasses," said Thor.

Thor took the sunglasses out from under Loki's seat and handed them to Pepper.

"Thank you-"

"Thor."

"-Thor." Pepper held the sunglasses up in between Tony and James' still ongoing argument.

Tony looked down and said, "Hey, you found my sunglasses!" and Pepper herded the boys out of the compartment.

Thor, Loki, Bucky, and Steve were on the same boat as they crossed the lake. Clint and Natasha were unfortunately stuck with Tony, and Pepper. Rhodey was left to ride with some of the strange group that Loki had spotted earlier. When they rounded the corner to their first view of Hogwarts, Loki had to admit, it was incredible. It even rivaled the palace of Asgard. And the inside of the castle was just as amazing as the outside. The Great Hall's seemingly nonexistent ceiling was almost enough to distract him from his nervousness.

Almost.

He listened as the professor called their names. Bucky was the first of their group. He went up right behind Banner, Bruce, Ravenclaw.

Bucky sat down on the stool and waited. And waited. And waited. Loki started to wonder what could possibly be taking so long. Nearly five minutes passes before the hat finally shouted "HUFFLEPUFF!" Bucky seemed disappointed and upset as he took his place at the table. Loki saw Steve give him a thumbs up. It did not seem to improve Bucky's mood.

Next was Clint. Unsurprisingly, he was also placed in Hufflepuff. He sat next to Bucky and immediately started up a conversation which was probably mostly speculation about which house Natasha would be in.

Then, after many other people, it was Loki's turn. He forced himself to be calm as he walked up and he prepared himself to wait awhile. But he barely had the had on for a few moments before the hat yelled "SLYTHERIN!" His head was swirling with thoughts as he made his way to the table. The hat had barely taken two seconds to decide. He'd thought that it would have been a little bit longer than that! He calmed himself just in time to see Thor walk up to the front.

Thor, of course, was in Gryffindor. The hat barely needed to touch his head.

Loki watched the other students he had met on the train be sorted, Pepper into Ravenclaw, Rhodey and Steve into Gryffindor, Natasha into Slytherin and, somewhat surprisingly, Stark into Ravenclaw.

Loki hoped that their newly made friend group did not separate because of the house differences. Despite what he had said to Thor, he really didn't want to end up all by himself. He looked down the table and noticed that most of the strange group from the platform was there.

The feast was enjoyable, but there was really no one for Loki to talk to at the Slytherin table, and he wanted to be left alone to think for a while about why the hat would so quickly place him in the "evil" house.

When the feast was over, Thor waved to Loki enthusiastically as the students left the Great Hall. Loki waved back slightly and then followed the rest of the Slytherin first years past the Ravenclaws down to the dark, creepy common room. Dark and creepy was ok with Loki, as long as he could get to bed. He barely noticed the other people in his dorm as he pulled the drapes of his four poster bed closed and lay down. Apparently he was had been more tired out by the day than he thought, because he fell asleep almost instantly, Tony Stark's re-stolen sunglasses falling out of his hands and onto his chest.