More Warnings: The rating of this story is subject to change and get higher. If you don't want to be around when that happens then don't be ^^ Also… please ignore any typos or mistakes. If they're really bad then I'll change them, but if they're easy enough to figure out then I probably won't.

Also… (yes, the warnings never end) I'm sure I've mentioned it but some of these things may be wrong. I haven't read the books in a few months, and though I'll be backchecking what I write I could get some things wrong.

More Pairings: 2+1 and 4+3. Whether this is unrequited or not has yet to be determined.

(yes… to me, that's simple writing. Feel sorry for my English teacher.)

(ps… does anyone have a fairly good idea of how the classrooms are set up? I can never figure this out… mail it to me if you would be so kind, ne? =)

Chapter 5

"Okay, so that was weird," Duo commented, watching as Dumbledore stood and began speaking. Duo normally didn't listen to speeches anyway, and it seemed Harry's redhead friend was the same.

"It's not normal that a group of people that all know each other all go to the same house. It was either by chance or set up."

"Or maybe it was fate," Trowa mused quietly. The bushy-haired brunette snorted softly and Duo's eyes moved to watch her carefully. She seemed to feel his gaze and returned his look, only to flush and look away again quickly. Duo watched her a few moments longer before turning his attention to Harry.

"So, your friends got names or what?" he asked. Harry looked at him, surprised. Apparently he'd actually been paying attention to Dumbledore. Listening in for a second, Duo vaguely heard the headmaster talking about rules and dangers. He tuned him out again – if he never heard the rules the first time, then he wouldn't feel so bad about breaking them later.

"Oh, sorry. This is Ron," he said, gesturing to the boy with red hair. Ron nodded in greeting. Harry gestured to the bushy-haired brunette on the other side of Ron. "And that's Hermione."

Hermione didn't react to her introduction, merely keeping her eyes trained on the headmaster. Wufei frowned at her rudeness.

Quatre smiled in greeting to both of them, regardless of whether Hermione was paying attention or not. "My name's Quatre. That's Duo, Wufei, Heero and Trowa. I'm sure we'll be getting to know each other better anyway, since we all seem to be the same age and are in the same ho-."

"Shh!" Hermione shushed them loudly, causing Quatre to stop speaking abruptly and flush a bright scarlet when many others at the Gryffindor table looked at them. There weren't many to the one side of the table, but in the younger ranks many smaller children turned their heads and leaned forward to get a better view.

"Look, Herm. I don't care if you're listening to his big fancy intro speech or not," Duo hissed, gesturing to Dumbledore. "But it is pretty fucking rude to shush someone when they're speaking. It's also rude to pretend to ignore someone who is speaking to and about you. Right now I don't really like you, but Harry seems like a good guy. So I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt. If you're rude to my friends again then you're asking for it, understand?" Duo growled. Hermione stared at him, wide eyed, as did Ron and Harry. Heero shook his head, shoving Duo in the shoulder.

"Stop freaking them out, idiot."

Quatre smiled. "It's all right, Duo, really. Thanks though."

Duo shrugged, crossing his arms over his chest in defiance. Dumbledore's speech had finished, and suddenly all the tables had food on them. Duo's jaw dropped.

"…Well that was quite a shock," Wufei mumbled, staring at the food sitting on their plates and in bowls and on platters around them. Duo grinned in appreciation.

"I don't know how they did it… but this totally rocks," he exclaimed, grabbing the nearest platter and dumping a variety of food on his plate. He ignored the shocked looks Hermione and Ron were still giving him; Harry seemed to have shaken it off. When –and possibly before- he was done taking food, Heero snatched the platter from him and took the rest. Once empty the platter disappeared from the table.

"Hungry, Heero?" Quatre asked, smiling as Heero merely grunted in response. His appetite had nearly tripled in less than 6 months, thanks to both Duo's food preparations and his own cajoling. Quatre would be the first to admit he was a mother hen to those he cared about – and Trowa and Wufei had put on a few more pounds as well.

"Heero's always hungry," Duo grumbled, pausing slightly before shoving more food into his mouth. "He keeps stealing my sandwiches when I go into the fridge for the mayo. Sneaky bastard…" Duo shot a mock glare at Heero, who was obviously trying to suppress a grin.

"Oh, those were your sandwiches?" Trowa asked, apparently surprised. "Heero never told me where he got them. I'd figured he'd made them. He had one almost every day when he ducked into the garage."

Duo froze, staring at Trowa for a few seconds before looking at Heero. Quatre stopped as well, watching the braided pilot carefully, judging how serious the reaction would be. Wufei choked slightly, beginning to chuckle quietly. Duo glanced at him, a small smile appearing on his lips before he let his head fall on the table and started laughing loudly.

Heero raised an eyebrow at Wufei, who was shaking his head slowly. "Duo was so furious," the Chinese boy began. "That he actually came after me with a rake trying to get me to tell him where you were. The second time it was a muffler. The third time it was your laptop, and a threat to place the blame on me for its destruction."

Heero's eyes widened and Duo froze.

"….Oh shit."

"Duo," Heero said, voice dangerously low and eyes flashing menacingly. "Tell me you didn't threaten my laptop."

"Ehe…heheh…" Duo laughed nervously, smiling at Heero. Heero's eyes narrowed and he grit his teeth. Duo glanced at everyone at the table. "It was nice sitting with you all… GOTTA GO!" he hollered, jumping up and racing towards the double doors at the other side of the room. He could hear Heero close behind him.

Just as they were coming within a few feet of the door it opened, and a somewhat tall platinum-haired boy stepped through, wearing an arrogant look on his face. He arched an eyebrow at the two boys running towards him, and moved to step to the side, changing his mind at the last second. They could move to accommodate HIM.

Duo, counting on the boy moving, never slowed his pace. His eyes widened when the boy hadn't moved, and as a last-ditch move he launched himself to the side, slamming into the closed door with a thud. Heero collided with the boy in the doorway, sending both of them flying into the hall on the other side of the door.

By now a few people were standing and some teachers were rushing towards them, several looking concerned and others furious. Duo ignored them, crawling forward a bit and peeking around the door he'd run into.

"Yo… Heero? You okay buddy?" A groan sounded from one of the two boys and Duo kept crawling towards them. He was hurting a bit from his crash, and besides that he didn't feel like standing up only when he was likely to get knocked down again by Heero. He blinked in surprise at the two figures; Heero was lying on top of the boy, who appeared to be shaking his head. Duo smirked. "Heero, ya wanna get off the kid now? He's prolly traumatized."

Heero responded by rolling to the side, taking a deep breath before sitting up slowly. "You know what, Duo?"

Stopping a few safe feet away, Duo sat. "What?"

Heero rubbed his shoulder a bit. "Whenever you do something stupid something bad seems to happen to me."

Duo chuckled in response, as there were now teachers approaching them quickly. One of them was McGonagall, and she had a very cross look on her face.

"Gentlemen! I realize that you are both new to this school, but there is NO running inside these walls! Also – you two were not given free reign of the castle, so there was no reason to be trying to leave the Great Hall!" she scolded, hands on her hips. Duo didn't feel like mentioning that he'd been trying to escape Heero, not the Great Hall.

The boy with platinum hair groaned, sitting up slowly and shaking his head. "What the bloody hell…"

Duo grinned. "You okay, kid? You took a nasty hit there."

Heero turned to the boy. "I apologize for knocking you down. You weren't the target I'd intended to hit," he added, looking pointedly at Duo.

McGonagall stepped forward, peering at the boy. "Are you all right, Mr. Malfoy? I do believe a visit to Madam Pomfrey would-."

"No," the boy cut her off, effectively stopping her suggestions. "I'm fine, Professor." He glared at Duo and Heero before standing slowly and brushing off his robes, which were black but embroidered with silver and green hems and a patch on the left side of his chest. The chest was of a snake, and before Duo could get a closer look the boy had marched away.

Duo frowned and moved to stand, noticing Heero doing the same. He brushed off his robes, dully noting how they were plain black, and looked at the group of students. Harry was among them, and he was glaring for all he was worth at the Malfoy boy. Duo saw that his glare was returned just as readily as the boy made his way into the Great Hall.

"All right," McGonagall announced, turning to the students that had rushed up. "Back in your seats! The supper is almost over. Come on now, everyone inside."

Slowly the students obliged until only Harry was left, waiting for Duo and Heero. When they had flanked him he started moving back to the table. Harry didn't ask why they had used him as a barrier – he had figured some sort of fight would have ensued had they not run into that Malfoy.

"So, Harry, who was that kid?" Duo asked, looking at Harry curiously. Harry smirked.

"That was Draco Malfoy. Congratulations, you've just had the pleasure of running down the biggest git in the entire school."

***