"So anyway, yeah, it was crazy weird, dude, but I dunno, I guess I'm kinda excited to go to this Hogwarts place. Gotta make some friends first, though, but hey, you'd be my friend, right?"

Arthur stared out the window lazily. "I'm not good at making friends."

"But you seem cool! And I just asked to be your friend, didn't I? So that was easy, right?"

"That's not how you make friends."

"Wha- you just said you weren't good at making friends!"

Just then, the compartment door opened again and another boy entered, a short one with short black bangs. He sat down very quietly, unlike Alfred had before, and bowed his head in greeting to the others. Alfred's face twisted into a huge grin and he turned to face the other boy. "Hey, dude! I'm Alfred F Jones! What's your name?"

The quiet boy looked up in slight surprise. "Ah. My name is Kiku Honda. Preasure to meet you." He bowed his head once again. "Am I interrupting something?" He had a weird accent that Arthur couldn't quite place his finger on. Maybe if he asked later he'd receive an answer. But for some reason the boy couldn't pronounce the letter 'l'. First an American, now a guy from Merlin knows where in the world.

"Nah, you're fine, bro." Alfred turned to face Arthur. "Why haven't you introduced yourself?"

Arthur looked ahead at the boy and said, "My name is Arthur Kirkland. Nice to meet you."

Kiku nodded. "Thank you for retting me sit here. There is not much room in this train. I hope you don't mind."

"So dude, where are you from? Your accent is all weird."

"Ah, I am from Japan. Engrish is my second ranguage, and I cannot pronounce some of the retters."

"That's awesome!" Alfred exclaimed.

"Your English is good," Arthur said. He didn't usually compliment people, but this boy was pretty good at English considering it was his second language and he was only eleven years old.

"Arigatou."

"What does that mean?!" Alfred's eyes lit up excitedly.

"It means thank you in Japanese, I berieve."

"Woah, I love it! Can you teach me more Japanese sometime?"

"If you want me to."

It fell silent, with the occasional exchange of dialogue between Alfred and Kiku. Arthur remained silent, staring out the window, and only towards the end of the trip did he decide it was time to change into his robes.

He left without a word, taking the bag which contained his robes and headed into a bathroom stall, changing quickly. The robes didn't have a house colour yet, as he had not yet been sorted; however, he was certain he'd be sorted into Slytherin. He'd be receiving an angry Howler from his mother if he wasn't, and that would be embarrassing to receive in the middle of the Great Hall. He'd heard a lot of stories from Allistor and Dylan about people who got lectured by their parents via Howler in the Great Hall as a form of public humiliation if they'd been sorted into the 'incorrect' house. Arthur was positive he'd be in Slytherin.

He wasn't Hufflepuff material, and he doubted he was Ravenclaw material. There was no way he'd be sorted into Gryffindor, considering all of his family and ascendants were Slytherins.

It's going to work out.

Arthur left the bathroom once he was changed and headed back to the compartment, passing by Kiku on the way. Clearly Kiku had worked out that Arthur had gone to change into robes and had gone as well. That meant Arthur would be left with Alfred - great.

"Welcome back, dude!" Alfred cheered as Arthur returned to his seat.

"Stop saying dude all the time. It gives me a bloody headache." Arthur rubbed his head to emphasise his point.

"Sorry, bro."

"That doesn't help either."

"So what, am I supposed to just sit and do nothing?"

"That would be ideal!"

Alfred sighed. "I've never understood British people. If only Hogwarts was in America, then I wouldn't be so confused. And why is the weather so bad here? It's so weird! I'm cold, like, all the time! It's annoying!"

"The weather is like this half the time."

"Oh, boy. Hey, I should go change into my robes too! See ya, dude!"

Arthur didn't say anything as Alfred stood up and ran out of the compartment. Instead, he looked through one of his bags and picked out the book he'd been reading earlier, and opened it to where he'd left off, entering the fictional world once again.

"-and the weather's bad, and everyone sounds so posh, and the tea sucks and it rains all the time and there's nowhere fun to go and people say sorry way too much and they use all the wrong terms, like, what is a pavement? It's a sidewalk. And it's chips, not crisps! And why are the large portions of fries so small?! This Hogwarts place better have burgers. I hope they have burgers. English burgers suck..."

Alfred's voice cut off as soon as he entered the compartment. Arthur looked up to see Alfred staring awkwardly at him. "I heard everything you said, so no need to pretend you weren't talking."

"U-Uh, no offence, dude!"

"None taken. Anyway, I'm busy right now."

Alfred paused and sat down opposite Arthur, Kiku sitting next to him. They engaged in conversation again, Alfred talking excessively and Kiku looking very confused, probably trying to translate everything in his head at top speed as Alfred spoke twice as quickly as most people. Arthur felt sorry for Kiku, but it was none of his business; just because these people were in the same compartment as him didn't mean he had to feel obliged to speak to them. He was perfectly fine with his book and himself for company.

That was what he fooled himself into thinking all the time. But friends would be nice...he just wasn't very good at socialising with people. Therefore people always wrote him off as 'antisocial' and kept their distance from him. It sucked, but he was used to it. Always being alone. Having no one to partner with in lessons.

The thought made him upset, so he continued reading, immersing himself in the book as the sound of Alfred's voice became a mere background noise.

The minute the train stopped, Alfred ran up to the window and pressed the side of his head against it, looking out at the station in Hogsmeade. They were all escorted off the train, and the first years were led off to the boathouse by a giant man named Hagrid. (A/N: Yes, he exists in this story ;p) Alfred stared up at the man, astonished. At this age, he was only 4'10", so looking up at this man was both scary and interesting.

They headed down to the boathouse, and Hogwarts came into sight, a ripple of 'woah's and 'ahh's spreading across the audience of first years as their wide, curious young eyes took in the sight of the majestic school. Hagrid beckoned them to get on a boat, three people to each boat. Arthur got into the back of the boat, with Alfred at the front and Kiku next to him. Alfred's eyes were wide as he stared onwards at the castle, as was Kiku. Even Arthur's breath hitched as he gazed onwards at the beautiful illuminated castle.

The boats moved closer towards the castle until they reached it, and were instructed to carefully leave them and move in an orderly fashion up the stairs towards the castle entrance, where a woman stood in the large doorway to welcome them to Hogwarts.

"Good evening, first years, and welcome to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. In a moment, you will enter the Great Hall and be sorted into your houses, before joining the table of your house and the Feast will begin. The rest of the students await you in the Great Hall. We shall proceed." She turned around and began walking, before one of the kids at the front spoke up.

"U-Uh, Professor, where are our suitcases?"

"All luggage will be found in your dorm rooms once you have been Sorted. Now, follow me."

Nobody dared ask how the dorm rooms had already been decided when none of them had been Sorted yet, but they followed the woman towards the large doors that were the Great Hall's entrance. Arthur didn't realise Alfred was standing next to him until he heard a 'wow' from next to him and turned to see the blonde boy, whose eyes were shining from behind the clear lens of his glasses.

Kiku was also with him, next to Alfred, and he had been silent since the train journey ended. He murmured a word in Japanese which Arthur didn't understand, and then the doors opened and even Alfred fell silent.

They were greeted by four long tables, with a raised platform at the end and another table, evidently for the staff. In front of the staff table was a chair with a hat perched on the end, the Sorting Hat, and the four house tables had students with colour-coded uniforms - red for Gryffindor, yellow for Hufflepuff, blue for Ravenclaw and green for Slytherin. Arthur stared at the table of Slytherins and first saw Deirdre, who waved and smiled, then Finn who did a small wave, then Allistor and Dylan who stood up from their seats and frantically waved before being hissed at to sit down by a Prefect ("do you want to lose points on the first day?").

They formed a large crowd in front of the chair with the hat on, and were then called up on one-by-one after a starting speech from the headmaster - stuff that Arthur already knew, like the third floor corridor and the Whomping Willow and everything that they had to be aware of (Allistor had told him some stories) and things that were to be expected of them.

It goes in alphabetical order according to last name, and Arthur was towards the middle of the alphabet. Out of Arthur, Alfred and Kiku, Kiku is called up first. He sits down on the chair and the hat is placed on his head.

A few moments later it yells out "RAVENCLAW!" upon the Great Hall, and he goes to sit down as his robes turn blue.

Arthur shrugged slightly. Ravenclaw isn't too bad. I could be friends with someone from there. Next to be called up out of the names Arthur recognised was Alfred, who, two seconds after the hat was placed on his head, was immediately sorted into-

"GRYFFINDOR!"

Of course.

The friendship ended there. As Alfred's robes turned red and he headed to the Gryffindor table, he grinned at Arthur. Arthur remained stone cold, not even looking at Alfred. When he was called up, the Sorting Hat needed no time to decide. The hat had barely touched his head before it called out, "SLYTHERIN!"

Arthur looked down as the stripes on his robes turned green by magic and his brothers waved from the Slytherin table, making room for him to sit down. He didn't run like most of the other kids did, but instead walked steadily and sat in between Allistor and Dylan, who put their arms around him and congratulated him, their friends admiring him and some of the girls cooing over how 'cute' he was.

It was really patronising.

The rest of the first years were sorted, and the headmaster made one final speech before waving his hand and an array of dishes appeared on the table. Allistor and Dylan grinned, and watched as Arthur stared at the variety of food that lay before him.

"Dig in!" they said, and started helping themselves as Hogwarts became alive with the buzz and excitement of the new school year.

But, in all honesty, all Arthur could do was dread.

That night, in the dorm, Arthur ran into three strange people in his year who were all seated on one bed. He scowled. "You do know you're only allowed one bed each? You can't share." He sat on the bed by the window. It helped with his insomnia, sleeping where he could look out the window and see the moonlight. The boys looked up from where they were. One had silver hair, one had blonde hair and one had brown hair. The silver-haired one had very oddly coloured eyes, while the other two looked fairly normal, the blonde one with a ponytail which made him look slightly like a girl.

"What are you, a Prefect?" the silver one asked.

"Would you rather I shared a bed with you?" the girly one asked with a wink at the end.

"We're not all sharing this bed! Mine is over there!" the brunette one said, pointing towards another bed.

Wow. They're weird. Arthur slightly regretted starting up a conversation with them. "Okay. I'm not a Prefect. If I was I wouldn't be in this dorm, I'd be in the fifth year dorm, idiot. And no, you cannot share a bed with me. And if that is your bed, why aren't you over there?"

"We are just hanging out here, mon cher. Is there a problem?"

Arthur rolled his eyes. "What is it with all these foreigners in Hogwarts this year? Weird. Anyway, I'm not going to argue with you. Just pretend I don't exist." He sat down on his bed and faced away from them, staring out the window.

Truth is, his heart was beating. He didn't like talking to people. He didn't know why he'd felt the need to confront those three, but he already disliked them. He decided not to let it bother him. In the end, they moved off the blonde guy's bed and into their own, and the lights went out and everybody slept. Everybody except for Arthur. It took a while before he managed to fall asleep, and that was thanks to the moonlight.

Tomorrow, classes would begin. And there was a certain Gryffindor boy Arthur would have to try to avoid.