Chapter 6

Gohan soon found himself at the end of the long table belonging to the Gryffindor house sitting next to Al's cousin he briefly met on the train named Rose. Diagonally across from him, his brother James and what seemed to be a bunch more relatives or friends, too many people to remember at that moment. Rose seemed to be friendlier than when they met on the train, even offering up a smile when Gohan joined the table. Gohan couldn't help but wonder if it was because the sorting was over or perhaps it was the company that he had on the train that had made the girl so grumpy earlier.

After a few hushed introductions while the final First Years were sorted, the last boy heading to Hufflepuff house, the Headmistress Professor McGonagall said a very brief speech regarding the student body having a nice new term. Then to Gohan's amazement the tables filled with the most food Gohan had ever seen (and the amusement of the those sitting closest to him who heard the loud grumble his stomach made at the sight).

Gohan wished that he had a camera to capture the variety and sheer amount of food, mostly just to make Vegeta jealous because not even at Bulma's biggest buffet feasts had there been that much food. Granted, Bulma was only feeding around a dozen friends as opposed to hundreds of school children and faculty. All the students seemed to be as excited as Gohan at the sight of the food, and the rush to fill up their plates began. The amount of food even the smallest First Year was piling on her plate would have made Goku proud, and because of that the vast amount of food Gohan was eating didn't seem so odd which he was thankful for, because after a long train ride the half-saiyan was starving.

Not long after the initial rush to fill their plates, Gohan's ears perked up to some of the conversation around him. Most of the discussion was being had by the upperclassmen, who were mostly catching up about their respective summers, the other First Years seemed to be just as content as Gohan just listening in. Gohan happily half paid attention while also gorging himself with a variety of delicious foods, until he heard the name of his very first wizard friend join the conversation.

"Can you believe Al's really in Slytherin? I thought you were just yanking his chain James. What will your Dad say?" A blonde haired boy sitting next to James asked.

James shrugged at his friends question while glancing over at his little brother sitting at the green and silver table. "He'll be fine, always knew he was more slithery than the rest of us." Gohan glanced the way of his friend as well, what he saw was his fellow black haired boy sitting at the very end of his assigned table, head down, looking like he was trying his best to not be seen.

At the sight of his friend looking like he wished he would disappear, Gohan couldn't help but ask, "So, what's the big deal with Houses anyway, I mean I get you sleep there and all but the rest of the day, classes and everything is with all the houses right?" Gohan said, subconsciously defending his friend.

There were a few gasps heard around those closest to his end of the table, and a few mumbles of 'muggle-born'. No one actually deigned to give Gohan an answer, whether they were afraid of giving the wrong opinion or just didn't feel like bothering with a young First Year he didn't know. James' voice broke through the various rumbles however, understanding the meaning behind Gohan's question.

"Of course I know my dumb little brother isn't evil, but I mean, there's a reason why Slytherin has produced the most dark wizards in history. Most Slytherin's are bad news." James stated diplomatically.

"Yeah I'd stick to the best house kid. Don't need to get yourself in trouble messing around with the snakes. " Another boy Gohan hadn't seen from farther down the table spoke, sounding like he was trying to impart wisdom on not just him but the other First Years gathered around the table. His point seemed to be taken as nods of agreement made their way around the table like a wave.

Gohan wasn't sure what he thought about that, over the past day and a half, he'd had a really good time with Albus playing, hanging out and talking on the train ride. Maybe Gohan just didn't have the best choice in friends, after all, his best friend was a seven-foot tall green former demon who once wanted to kill his father, maybe they had a point?

Gohan kept to himself the rest of the feast, continually stuffing himself with food, and with all of the activity and excitement around him, no one seemed to notice. The ravenous boy was only finally cut off from finishing off the last slice of pie on the plate when the plates cleared themselves and Professor Longbottom dismissed the students to bed.

The trek up to the Gryffindor common room seemed to take no time at all, Gohan tried to make note of all the things the Prefects who led them spoke about, but Gohan also couldn't help but stare around in amazement, observing the huge halls and staircases that made up the castle. The moving paintings were particularly amusing to him, but the older kids rushed the group off before anyone really had a chance to look too closely at the décor. Gohan had once thought that Capsule Corp. was large but it was nothing compared to this.

Once inside the comfy common room, which was decorated in more red's and gold's like the banner above the dining table, the Prefect boy led the First Year boys up the stairs while the girls took the other stair. The rest of the older students milled about not yet ready for bed, pulling out magazines and games and plopping themselves into the large squishy couches and chairs around the room.

Once inside his dormitory, Gohan realized that there were five other boys who would be sharing the room with him. Gohan tried his best to remember all of his new roommates names as they went around in a circle introducing themselves per the suggestion of the Prefect who had just departed their room. Eddie Trenworth, Dwayne Knight, Rory McGregor, Ben Jones, and Sebastian Hsu Gohan repeated back to himself silently.

The boys talked a bit, a couple of them seemed to already know each other, which Gohan thought was understandable if they had wizard families too. None of them seemed too surprised that Gohan didn't have any wizard family, they had apparently been paying attention to the conversation Gohan was a part of at dinner, Rory was a muggle-born too, but apparently even he knew that Slytherin was the 'bad house'.

"I got my textbooks early, my birthday was in February. I read almost all of them! But yeah, all the bad guys come from Slytherin Gohan, it's just how it is." Rory tried to explain to his fellow muggle-born, the other boys had already started rummaging through their trunks trying to find their pajamas to go to bed having known about Hogwarts House rivalries all their lives it seemed. Gohan acknowledged the other boy but was still confused about how a hat and a house could really determine if someone was evil or not. Too many of his Dad's former rivals and enemies could now be counted as friends for him to actually believe that kids in a different dorm room were doomed to be his enemies for life because a weird hat said so.

Gohan noticed Rory was still staring at him, he was a few inches shorter than the half saiyan, and looking up through his sandy hair with earnest blue eyes and a splattering of freckles across his nose gave him a very unthreatening appearance which Gohan couldn't help but notice was looking for approval. Not wanting to appear rude, Gohan gave a quick reply to the smaller boy "Guess I really need to get reading my history book, I only got my textbooks yesterday, I really need to catch up."

Rory's eyes widening and he nodded, "Oh man, I was so confused until I read my textbooks, they really help! Ask me any questions if you want, I even wrote to Professor Longbottom to ask questions, he seems really nice, I can't wait till we have Herbology…" Rory enthusiastically kept rambling on, Gohan smiled back to the boy in thanks. He really did need to learn more about this crazy world he had suddenly been thrust into. Rory seemed to have finally run out of steam from his rant and turned to his own trunk to get ready for bed like the rest of the boys. Gohan only then realized that the one bed that didn't have a trunk had to be his.

Eddie, if Gohan remembered correctly from their quick introductions had the bed to the left of Gohan, which made the bed to the right Ben's. Ben was already snoring in his bed; the dark curly haired boy hadn't even bothered finding his pj's before hopping into bed. Gohan chuckled, that would definitely be his Dad if he were here. Turning back around to his own bed, Gohan was interrupted in his thought when the tall strawberry blonde haired boy, Gohan identified as Eddie blurted out teasingly,

"Hey Gohan, so did the train lose your trunk or what?" Eddie was already in his pajamas but clearly was not quite ready for sleep.

"Oh, no, I have these instead," Gohan answered pulling the capsule case out of the pocket of his pants. Choosing the capsule for clothes Gohan decided to toss the pill onto his made bed, trying not to make too much of a mess of their room. After the puff of smoke, Gohan's duffle he had packed lay on the duvet, while the bag that he bought with his Mom and the Potter's lay next to it.

"Wow, that was wicked! Is that from Triple Dub?" Eddie exclaimed, but Gohan only looked back at him in confusion. "You know Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes?" Eddie realized that Gohan was still confused, "That's right, you're a muggle born sorry, didn't realize that muggles had such an awesome storage unit, thought it had to be magic."

"Yeah, they're called Hoi Poi capsules, they're pretty common back home." Gohan responded while he moved the piles of school clothes and hangout clothes he had made into the small dresser/desk on the side of his bed. Gohan's school supplies appeared after a second flash of smoke, which Eddie once again deemed "wicked" before the other boy turned back to his own twin bed and hopped in. Gohan realized he was the last one out of his bed and quickly dressed and turned out the light. Despite all of the amazing things Gohan had experienced that day, he soon found he was just as tired as his roommate Ben and was likewise out just as fast.

The next morning Gohan woke when the first rays of sunlight emerged through the long window of the boys' dormitory. Sitting up and quietly stretching out, Gohan noticed that he was the first one up and quietly crept through the room into the bathroom with his school robes to change for the day. Ready to go a few minutes later, Gohan checked his watch that informed him it was seven o'clock. Classes didn't start until nine, so he figured it mustn't be out of the ordinary that his roommates were still asleep.

Gohan quietly left the room and walked down to the common room with his school supply capsule, planning on packing his shoulder bag with the appropriate supplies for the day. The common room was quiet too, a couple of older girls were sitting in the corner reading with steaming mugs of tea not even looking up at the new presence, and besides them it was empty. Gohan fixed up his school bag for the day; according to his schedule he would have Charms, History of Magic and Potions today, the appropriate textbooks now lying neatly in his bag. The thought of writing his mom a letter telling him he got to school okay briefly flashed through his mind before the telltale rumble of his stomach changed his plans. Gohan recalled the Prefects the night before telling everyone that the Great Hall opened for breakfast at seven, so Gohan decided it was the perfect time to grab some food.

Making his way to the Great Hall was a bit more challenging than Gohan had originally thought it would be. Despite normally having a good sense of direction, Gohan soon realized that always knowing where North was didn't matter in a castle where the staircases had a mind of their own and had moved since the night before. Luckily Gohan's entire thought process wasn't yet entirely consumed with thoughts of breakfast and he realized he could focus on the energies in the castle to help navigate himself to the Great Hall.

Gohan soon found that there were plenty of small energy signatures all over the castle, four large main concentrations he quickly labeled in his mind as the respective dormitories. There were also a few individuals dispersed around the rest of the castle which Gohan decided must be the teachers. Lastly there was a final slightly larger concentration of energies, not quite as large as the dormitories, that Gohan decided had to the Great Hall and he quickly set off in that direction, thoughts of food hurrying the young saiyan along. (Later when Gohan was less preoccupied with breakfast the scholarly boy would think about other huge concentration of tiny energies that felt much different than those of the humans around the castle.) But for now, food.

Reaching the Great Hall, Gohan saw the familiar tables that were set up from the night before. There seemed to be less food out than the feast the night before, he was slightly disappointed, or rather his stomach was if the sound it made was any indication. However, there were a lot less students in the room eating at the early hour, Gohan could only count about a dozen students spread throughout the tables and less than half of the staff table was occupied, so logically it made sense there would be less food.

While Gohan was looking around, the familiar sight of messy dark hair caught his eye. Gohan perked up and decided to walk over to what he considered his first wizard friend. Sitting at the end of the Slytherin table almost like he hadn't left the night before Albus was staring at his breakfast plate when Gohan had reached him.

"Good morning Albus, mind if I join you?" Gohan asked, being polite before he took a seat across from the other young wizard.

"Err I guess, don't think it's against the rules?" Albus picked up his head, Gohan sat down, and then noticed the other boy looked rather disheveled with dark circles under his green eyes.

"I don't see why it would be, if it is, they'll let us know I'm sure." Gohan said gesturing towards the staff table where a few members of faculty looked to be reading the morning paper while eating. "Didn't know you were a morning person too, all the other boys in my dorm were still sleeping when I left." Gohan continued the conversation, eager to catch up with his friend.

"Err not really usually, just couldn't sleep good, so decided to come down here." Albus replied eyes back on his plate. Gohan realized he must still be upset about last night.

"Is it about the sorting?" Gohan gently questioned while starting to pile his plate full of food. Albus sighed with a shake of his head so Gohan knew he was right.

"I'm sure everyone has said that you shouldn't talk to Slytherin's like me Gohan. Probably came straight from my brother's mouth." Albus rolled his eyes.

"Well they might have said something like that, but I like deciding who my friends are for myself." Gohan said with a smile, hoping to cheer the other boy up.

"Really, don't get in trouble because of me, I'm not worth it." Albus sighed again, dejectedly pushing a sausage around his plate.

"Hey, don't think you can scare me off that easily! I'm known to be pretty persistent when I want to be friends with someone, and nothing you've done so far has changed my mind. And don't take offense but you're not nearly as scary as my best friend back home." Gohan joked while taking a large bite of a scone thinking about everything he used to do to Piccolo when he wanted to spend time with his mentor.

"You're a weird kid Gohan." Albus said but the upturn of his mouth showed Gohan that Albus was pleased that he was there. "Sooo tell me, is what my brother said true, and is Gryffindor the most amazing place in the whole entire world ever?" Albus asked voice dripping with sarcasm.

"Well, there's a lot of red and gold, and lions around…" before Gohan could finish vaguely describing his new home, he was interrupted by another familiar voice.

"Hey guys, mind if I sit here too?" The blond haired boy Scorpius quickly sat down next to Gohan with a friendly air about him, his blue and bronze tie neatly arranged, clearly he was ready for the day.

"I am so excited to start classes today I couldn't sleep!" The blonde rattled on just like he had on the train. The trio of boys fell into comfortable conversation just as they had the day before, mainly Albus and Scorpius talking while Gohan stuffed himself with food much to their amusement.

"Alright there 'Hungry Hungry Gohan'?" Albus laughed when Gohan briefly came up for air, employing his little sisters nickname from their last dinner at home.

"It's just all so good, don't tell my Mom, but the food is almost as good as her cooking!" Gohan laughed taking another bite of poached egg with his toast.

"Well, well what do we have here, a slimy snake trying to corrupt a poor Ravenclaw and Gryffindor?" Another familiar joking voice spoke up from behind Gohan and Scorpius who were sitting together opposite Albus.

"Shut up James." Albus replied obviously knowing it was his brother without having to look up.

"Have you written home yet Al? Mum and Dad are gonna be so disappointed you know." James asked clearly egging his little brother on.

"Go away!" Albus gritted through his teeth obviously trying not to let his brother get the satisfaction of upsetting him.

"Don't get your panties in a twist little brother. Oh and Gohan there's plenty of room over at the Gryffindor table, no need to hang out with this one." James replied with a smirk finally leaving the boys at the Slytherin table to join his friends who had also just arrived at breakfast.

"Annoying prat." Albus mumbled, but looked up quickly to make sure the other boys hadn't left at his brother's encouragement.

"Not gonna lie lads, so glad I'm an only child." Scorpius chimed in to try and diffuse the atmosphere the older Potter boy had created.

"Yeah…I guess," Albus replied, his mood obviously back to where it was when Gohan first arrived. Scorpius again came to the rescue by pulling out his class schedule.

"Sooo looks like I get to have History of Magic and Astronomy with you Gohan! And Transfiguration, and Charms with you Albus!" Gohan quickly pulled out his own schedule from his bag, eager to see what classes he had with his friends as well.

"I've got Potions and Herbology with you Albus! And I get to see both of you today in class! Charms first, History of Magic, then Potions, for me." Gohan chimed in, he hadn't gotten much opportunity yet to look at his school books, so besides a rudimentary understanding of what the courses meant he had no idea what to expect from any of the classes.

"Ooo and we have flying lessons on Thursday with everyone!" Scorpius exclaimed, clearly excited he would get to have class with both his friends.

"What, flying lessons?" Gohan asked, perplexed, no one he had met so far seemed to be capable of flying, not even the older students. Gohan and his Mom had talked it over before he left. They had agreed that it would be best to not show off his powers around school before he knew what wizards and witches were capable of. Try and be normal for a bit Gohan, it could be exactly what you need. His mother's words echoed around his mind, he agreed to try and be as normal as he could, mostly just to not draw too much attention to himself. The reminder of that strange prophecy Mrs. Potter had brought with her that crazy first evening serving to promote maintaining a low profile until he found out more.

"You know, flying for Quidditch, we showed you a bit when you were over." Albus filled in. Gohan rubbed the back of his head feeling a bit dumb to have forgotten that wizards flew on broomsticks of course. "Oh yeah that's right," Gohan blushed.

"Don't worry, there's a bunch of kids who have never flown before, it's really not that scary." Scorpius supplied mistakenly interpreting Gohan's blush as fear, but Gohan appreciated the sentiment and gave a small smile back. Soon breakfast was over and the trio of boys headed off in different directions to search for their respective first classes of the day knowing they would see each other later.

The first class of the day the Gryffindor students went to Charms class, which they had with Hufflepuff. Gohan didn't know anyone in Hufflepuff yet so he found himself sharing a table with his roommate, Eddie.

"Hey Gohan, saw you eating breakfast at the Slytherin table with the Potter kid." Eddie said as class wasn't due to start for another few minutes.

"Yeah, I was up early, he was down there too, why?"

"So is he like super dark? Still can't believe a Potter was sorted into Slytherin!"

"We're friends from the train, he's a nice kid. I don't get it why does everyone care where Albus was sorted?"

"Oh bugger, I completely forgot, you don't know!"

"Know what?"

"Dude, the Potter family is totally famous, I guess you wouldn't know cause you're muggle-born and all. I mean Harry Potter like literally saved the world. So yeah that's kind of why it's weird his own son was sorted into Voldemort's house." There was a lot Eddie said that didn't make much sense to Gohan; he really needed to get reading about the wizarding world. But besides missing the context, what Eddie said didn't seem to add up, Mr. Potter didn't seem famous, he was kind, goofy, and a good cook, but most of all, he seemed completely normal. Gohan's supposed that maybe Mr. Potter was just like his own Dad and didn't make a big deal about winning fights. Eddie seemed to take Gohan's lack of response to mean he had made his point.

"Plus he's hanging out with the Malfoy kid, that means he's bad news. Probably just trying to get attention from his dad is my guess."

"Albus isn't like that, he's just a regular kid…I think… and Scorpius is really nice." Despite trying to be nice to his roommate, he couldn't help himself from defending his first friends.

"Whatever you say Gohan, but hey if you want, wake me up and I'll have breakfast with you! I usually am up early, but man did I pass out last night." Eddie laughed clearly not taking offence at Gohan's defense but also obviously not really believing him. Before either boy could say more, the professor entered the room and class started.

Gohan learned that the first day of classes was really boring even though he was literally going to magic school. The professors all just talked about the syllabus, and what they expected from the class in terms of homework and exams. The expectation of one hour of homework a day in Charms made the other students around Gohan groan, but he couldn't help but think that his mother's expectations of schoolwork were much higher than the teachers. Despite his lingering disappointment that he hadn't even gotten to use his wand yet, Gohan was glad to get to see both Scorpius and Albus in History of Magic and Potions respectively.

After classes had ended for the day, Gohan had decided that he would write his Mom a letter before dinner. Gohan sat on his bed trying and failing to write a letter to his Mom, he had absolutely no idea what to do. The only letter he had ever had was the Hogwarts letter he had received, and that was hardly a personalized letter. Besides that he had only read about letters in a few of the novels him mom had made him read for literature. And those were always only love letters, he was definitely not writing his mother a love letter.

Gohan was disrupted from his letter writing frustration with the creak of the door opening and his roommate Ben walking in. Gohan hadn't said much to Ben besides introductions because the other boy had fallen asleep so quickly the night before. Ben was about the same height as Gohan, his hair was just as dark as his but instead of sticking out in all directions, it was medium length with tight curls. The other boy strode over to his bed depositing his book bag on top of his covers before sitting down. Ben's eyes traveled to the ever-growing pile of wadded up paper Gohan had started to collect next to him and a smile started forming on his face.

"Writing a letter home? Need some help?" The other boy simply stated kindly.

"Uh yeah, I've never written a letter ever. I mean in my entire life, I have no idea what to do." Gohan confessed to the other boy, the stress of the situation manifesting in his typical Son head rub messing up his already wild hair.

"I can help, I've been reading and writing letters from Hogwarts basically since I was born," it was Gohan's turn to stare in confusion at the other boy, Ben chuckled before further explaining himself. "I'm the youngest of my family, my older brother started Hogwarts when I was just one, and my sister is in her final year this year. I basically grew up with them through letters, so I'm an old hand at it now."

"Oh wow," Gohan said, not really knowing what to say back, he had no siblings, but a part of him felt sad that Ben didn't get to see his brother and sister when he was growing up.

"So, writing to Mum and Dad?" Ben continued.

"Yeah my Mom," Gohan replied not really feeling like explaining his Dad at the moment. Ben didn't question further, and together the two boys started drafting out a letter for Gohan to send home.

"Talk about the train ride, they always like hearing about it, and the feast. Obviously what house you got." Ben rattled off, clearly thinking about the many letters he had received from his brother and sister over the years "Oh, talk about today's classes and what you thought of them. If you don't your Mum will think you're slacking, trust me I've heard about it every year." Gohan laughed.

"Sounds like our Mom's would get along, my Mom sent me with regular school work to complete as well, I'm supposed to send it home for her to check every two weeks." Gohan winced realizing he should get a start on his Calculus worksheets when he had some free time.

"Wow, and I thought my Mum was bad, Professor McGonagall once had to write home to tell my Mum to stop Owling teachers about my brother's homework grades…obviously I'm not supposed to know that, but my parents got into a huge row when my Dad saw that letter." Ben rolled his eyes, showing he was clearly embarrassed by his mother's antics.

"Lets remember to never let our Mom's meet okay." The boys dissolved into a fit of laughter, each trying to imagine a mother crazier than their own.

With Ben's guidance, Gohan was able to write a nice letter home that he hoped his Mom would enjoy. He was grateful Ben helped with the letter, it was a lot more fun writing it and getting to know the other boy better at the same time. Gohan decided that he would send the letter the next day between classes because by the time the two boys got done with Gohan's letter it was time for dinner, and dinner was something that Gohan was definitely not going to be late for.

Thanks for reading, review and let me know how you're liking it so far!