Cyril bounced around excitedly as he looked at the red, smoking train. It had the words Hogwarts Express written in beautiful, black script upon it. But, before he could run toward it, a majestically manicured hand came down onto his shoulder, attempting to calm him down. Cyril glanced up at his mother, a slightly guilty expression on his face.

Cyril's father came around his other side and gazed seriously at him. "Now Cyril, if you are in Hufflepuff, I will have to disown you. You will have to spend every summer and winter break, at Hogwarts, alone."

Cyril furiously nodded, taking those words to heart. Not that his father had meant for him not to. There was no way he was going to be in Hufflepuff, though.

The calm air only lasted about five minutes before Cyril was bounding off again, towards the Hogwarts Express.

His father sighed as he stared after his small son.

"Don't worry. He may not look like it, but he'll be in Slytherin. I've seen how devious he can be." A sharp glint came to his wife's eye as she stared after Cyril.

Compartment doors slammed shut all around Cyril as he walk-hopped down the train. He peered into several, looking for somewhere to sit. He saw a room with only three people in it and decided to try there. He slipped in through the door and sat down, beaming at everyone.

"I'm Cyril Black! What house do you want to be in?" He addressed all of them.

"Hufflepuff." A boy said, the other two nodded consent.

Cyril stood up and walked out the door, not saying a thing. He found his way to another compartment and stepped inside. Two girls and a boy sat in here, chatting about how they couldn't wait to get to Hogwarts.

"Hi!" Cyril announced himself, and they all looked up.

"Hello." One girl raised her eyebrows at him.

"My name is Cyril Black!" Cyril sat down beside her.

The girl next to him nodded, "I'm Alariya Fallon."

"Natalie Greengrass."

"Alec Fallon."

"Oh, so you're twins?" Cyril nodded toward the two Fallons. They looked quite similar, Alariya had straight, dark brown hair, and golden brown eyes. Alec matched her hair and eye color exactly.

The two nodded.

"What houses do you guys want to be in?" Cyril asked excitedly.

Alariya and Alec both said, "Slytherin," at the same time. While Natalie stated with a smirk that she was in her second year and was already in Slytherin.

"Oh, good!" Cyril exclaimed, delighted he had found people who he could sit with. "My father wanted me to socialize with Slytherins!"

"And who would that be?" Natalie asked, narrowing her eyes.

"Why, you guys of course!" Cyril smiled at her, misunderstanding the question.

"No, who is your father?" Natalie gave an exasperated roll of her eyes.

"Nathaniel Black, of course!" Cyril chirped happily. He turned back to the twins, "You know, I have twin sisters! They are in fourth year now. Evelyn and Gwendolyn."

"Nathaniel Black?" Natalie asked incredulously.

"Yup! And my mother is Hazelle Black!" Cyril turned back to Natalie, though he didn't know why Natalie was asking these questions, he was okay with answering.

"Nathaniel Black..." Alec pondered, trying to remember where he had heard the name from.

"Are you dense?!" Alariya exclaimed just as Natalie was saying, "How can you forget him? He is only one of the richest men in Britain!"

"A very powerful Ministry official too, might I add!" Alariya gave an exasperated look to her brother.

"Oh, right. Him," Alec muttered, embarrassed he had forgotten who Nathaniel Black was.

"You know my father?" Cyril asked brightly, and they all turned to look at him.

"He's denser than you," Alariya whispered to Alec, who nodded.

The train slowly came to a stop, and it took a couple minutes for Alec and Alariya to get off. They had still been staring in awe at the distant castle. Cyril wasted no time in bouncing off the train, to investigate his surroundings, though. He could see all the older kids getting into carriages drawn by skeletal looking horses, and almost went to join them, when Natalie dragged him back.

"First years go over there." She pointed toward where a very, very large man was ushering the first years toward a dock. "I'm going over to the carriages, because I'm a second year."

"Oh..." Cyril looked back and forth between the dock and the carriages with the odd looking horses, "Well, have a nice time with those horses! See you in Slytherin!" Cyril bounded off to join those in his year.

"I'm not sure he'll be in Slytherin..." Natalie muttered before realizing what else he had said, and exclaimed incredulously, "Wait, what horses?!"

Cyril found himself being pushed into a small boat with three other students, before he could even understand what was going on. As he looked around he saw that there were many small boats that the first years were getting into. They all seemed to point towards Hogwarts, which he could see on the other side of the lake they were on.

Then he realized that the three students with him were those two boys and a girl that had said they wanted to be in Hufflepuff. Cyril's eyes narrowed and he quickly turned away from them, gazing into the depths of the lake. He could hear them whispering about him.

"That boy..."

"So rude!"

"I bet he'll be in Slytherin."

"Hufflepuff isn't that terrible!"

At this Cyril turned around and raised his eyebrows, a sneer just visible on his features, "Hufflepuff is for losers, wimps, and fools. My father said so himself!"

The soon-to-be-Hufflepuffs glared at him, and this time they lowered their voices so much he couldn't hear anything besides a "psssst" sound. Cyril turned back to look at the lake's surface and stared intensely at it. He thought he could see something moving in the depths. A long, tentacle like thing.

"There's a squid in there!!!" Cyril shouted, excitedly, and leaned over the side of the boat to get a better look.

A gruff voice sounded from a boat near them, "Don't lean too far!"

But, it was too late. Cyril yelped and made a loud splash as he tumbled into the chilled water. From a near by boat, Alec and Alariya's eyes widened and they scrabbled to the side to look for him. An intake of breath could be heard from many first years, and the large man was trying to grab at Cyril. However, Cyril was sinking fast and evaded his grasp. Seaweed and leafy plants floated all around Cyril, making the moonlight waver and make shafts of light disappear. Fish gave Cyril surprised looks before scuttling away through the water. Cyril looked around, his cheeks puffed out in an effort to keep in some air. Finally, he looked down.

There it was again. The tentacled thing was swimming lazily beneath him, waving in all sorts of directions. Cyril almost lost all his air in a gasp as he saw a large, murky, dark blue eye peer up at him. It was huge! As large as Cyril himself! It stared at him with a growing curiosity, before the beast reached out a tentative tentacle towards him. Cyril's eyes widened as the slimy limb circled around his waist, hugging him so hard. A rushing motion came over him, though, and he squeezed his eyes shut.

Soon, Cyril couldn't take it anymore, and he opened his eyes a crack, just to see the frothy water moving... down? No, he was going up. Briefly, he wondered how that was possible, until he felt a squeeze around his middle and looked into the eye right next to him once more. The squid was helping him? But, by now, Cyril's air was running out and he was gasping at the water. The liquid merely filled his throat and made him choke. A shriek of a sound rang through Cyril's ears. As he tried to cover his ears, attempting to muffle the ringing, spots popped before his eyes, and he scrabbled his hands at his throat, in desperate attempts to get air. Just as Cyril was losing consciousness, his sight mostly blackened, and his arms had fallen limply to his sides, they broke free of the water.

Air rushed through to his lungs as Cyril coughed and spluttered all the water out. His eyesight was fuzzy, and a low sound rang through his ears still, but he was mostly okay. Shocked gasps sounded once more from all around as they saw the hyper first year emerge, even more gasps could be heard as they saw the tentacle wrapped around him and an eye just under the water. The large man popped his head above the water a second later, his bewildered look soon turning to pride.

"Tha's my girl, Tenny," he smile through his bushy hair and reached out to stroke the tentacle wrapped around Cyril. Below the water, the large eye closed, happily, before 'Tenny' placed Cyril back in his boat.

Cyril's face was flushed and he was trembling, but his eyes were bright with adventure as he gazed at his savior. "Thanks, Tenny!" he exclaimed leaning over the side of the boat again. The tentacle reached out and softly pushed him back into the boat.

The large man smiled again, "Stay in yer boat, young'un."

Cyril nodded, a comically serious expression on his face.

"All righ'." The man got back into his boat, but turned to Cyril, "Ya' cold...? Er, wha' was yer name?"

"Cyril Black!" Cyril exclaimed, before shivering violently. Then he nodded, "Yes, I'm cold..."

"Pleased ter meet ya', Cyril. I'm Rubeus Hagrid, if yer was wonderin," Hagrid raised his voice at the end, so every first year could hear his name. Then he got out a bright pink umbrella and waved it at Cyril, saying, "It's ter get the water off yer." He then carried on waving the umbrella, muttering something under his breath. A moment later Cyril let out a shocked yelp, as he felt buckets of water fall onto his shoulders, soaking his new robes.

"Sorry," Hagrid said gruffly, that bewildered look coming back. "I- Er, have my jacket." Hagrid shrugged out of his enormous coat and handed it to Cyril who nearly buckled under the weight of it. Cyril struggled to get his arms through the sleeves, and when he succeeded, he noticed his arms only went about halfway down the sleeves, though, and the other half merely flopped about.

Cyril cuddled up in Hagrid's coat the rest of the boat ride, glaring at the soon-to-be-Hufflepuffs. They returned his glares, not fazed at all by his plunge into the depths or the menacing jacket encasing him.