After the train pulled in at the station all the students stumbled out. Everyone was still a bit confused and dazed by the appearance of the Dementors. Especially Vlad. He had no idea why the creatures hadn't affected him, they had made everyone in their compartment feel really sad and according to Ron, like he'd never be happy again, Harry had even passed out! But for some unusual reason, Vlad felt as normal as ever, except slightly put out by the creatures.

After the Dementor had disappeared and Professor Lupin handed them all some chocolate, they waited for Harry to wake up. When he did finally get up Lupin handed him some chocolate like he had everyone else.

"Here have this. Don't worry it's chocolate." Harry grabbed the the chocolate and took a small bite.

Vlad's thoughts were interrupted by Ron, and he was suddenly brought back into the carriage he was riding in.

"What house do you reckon you'll get?" The redhead boy looked like he actually was interested in what Vlad had to say.

"Well they all sound like they're pretty ok," Vlad provided truthfully. "What houses are you guys in?"

"Gryffindor." They all answered at the same time.

"Cool, it must be good house if you guys are in it." Vlad said with a genuine smile.

"Yeah, it is! But the one house you've gotta watch out for is Slytherin." It was strange, hearing Ron say this, he had thought Slytherin was full of people with loads of ambition, surely there's nothing wrong with that?

Hermione turned to Ron, "Oh come on, Ronald. Not all Slytherins are bad." Though she didn't sound thoroughly convinced of what she was saying.

ooo

Upon arriving at the castle, Vlad was asked by Professor McGonagall to stay in a room beside the Great Hall until everyone had settled in the hall and she came to collect him.

He sat and waited for about half an hour, he had no idea what was going on in the there, all he could hear was cheering then a pause, only for it to start again. Vlad noticed that the cheering had not continued for some minutes, it was then that the Professor walked into the room.

"Mr Dracula, I apologise for the long wait. We had to get through the First Year's sorting ceremony. You will be sorted the same way however due to your special circumstances, we put you last, and you will be personally introduced to the students by The Headmaster." The Professor was stern but Vlad felt as though she would be an excellent teacher.

McGonagall lead him out of the small room through a door that opened right into the Great Hall. Every pair of eyes turned to look at him. He felt excruciatingly small and insignificant being stared down by such a large group of people. He'd never seen so many people all at once in his life, considering his Dad was always leaving him and Ingrid at to go to lavish parties with their mother, and even when they moved to Stokely the school wasn't this big. Then again, Stokely Grammar wasn't trying to fit all of Britain's Wizarding Children into one room.

An old man with long silvery hair was standing behind a lectern at the front of the room. This must be Headmaster Dumbledore, Vlad thought to himself. He seemed to command the room just with his presence. Then the man spoke.

"I'd like you all to extend your warmest welcome to our new transfer student, Vladimir Dracula," He heard a few whispered questions at the sound of name, mostly coming from the table with the blue ties, but it was nothing too overwhelming, maybe his secret was still safe. "He will be joining our Third Year students. I hope you all treat him with the respect you have for all your other peers. Vladimir, if you don't mind." The Headmaster was gesturing toward a stool with a hat resting on it.

Vlad sat down and put the hat on, he suddenly felt a presence push into his mind. He jumped up threw the hat off. "Why was that… that thing trying to get inside my head?!"

He was shaken, all his childhood he'd been told that entering someone's mind without permission was highly offensive. He had also been told that if they were Breathers permission wasn't necessary, but that was beside the point.

Dumbledore was dumbfounded, no student had ever felt the hat before, only someone with a major potential for Mastering Occlumency could, and at such a young age it was unlikely. "It's ok Vladimir, it's only the hat's way of figuring out which house to place you in." Dumbledore said in a soft voice.

"Why would anyone want a hat to look inside your mind to determine what kind of person you are?" Vlad retorted.

"Please Mr Dracula, just sit down and let the hat sort you." This was McGonagall, she placed a hand on Vlad's shoulder and raised her eyebrow at him.

"Fine." he grumbled indignantly.

When the hat was placed back on his head he let it into his mind.

Sorry for giving you a scare, child. But my, aren't you interesting. Only someone of great power, such as yourself, could have sensed my presence pushing into their mind. Though the most curious thing I see is, your secret. It's been a long time since a vampire has come though these halls.

Oh no! Vlad thought, had his secret been found out? Was this stupid hat going to tell everyone?

Stupid? The hat asked, sounding a bit miffed. I'm hardly stupid, and to answer your question, no. I won't tell anyone your secret. Though with the right mind anyone should be able to figure it out.

Now, on with your sorting. Placing you will be difficult, I admit. You possess traits of all four houses, kind, hardworking, studious, brave, cunning and ambitious. The question is now, which prevails?

Just place me where I belong, Vlad thought. I don't want any preconceived ideas of the houses changing your choice. I just want to fit in.

Okay then, if you insist. Vlad swore he could hear the hat smiling.

"SLYTHERIN!" The hat shouted to the hall.

He was welcomed by polite applause from the table of the his far right. Everyone else looked slightly disheartened, and for some reason confused. He stood up and made his way over to the table and sat down on the end of it facing the rest of the hall. He made eye contact with three people on the other side of the hall. Harry, Ron and Hermione all looked at him differently to when they had been talking together on the train. They looked almost disgusted, well Hermione just looked sad, but the other two expressions were definitely disgust.

ooo

After Dumbledore finished saying a few words, food appeared on the plates that were previously empty. It looked amazing, better than anything Renfield had ever made.

Once most people had finished eating their meals, Vlad heard a small group of people get up and move to stand opposite him. Vlad looked up, standing in front of him was a small group of boys around his age with one obvious leader. There was a boy with platinum blonde hair (the leader), two boys who seemed to only be there to intimidate with their muscles, one boy with dark skin and hair, he was moderately slim, and one other boy who was lanky with light brown hair.

The leader sat down, and the others followed. "The names Malfoy, Draco Malfoy." This boy clearly thought he was important, he didn't really feel like being friendly with someone who thought so highly of themselves, it reminded him too much of home. Vlad new the only way to get this boy to leave him alone was to either insult him, or to act like he didn't care who he was. So Vlad brought up his own façade of self-importance that he usually only used during the rare times his father took him out. Sometimes you need to be an arse to survive.

"So?" Vlad answered looking back at his half finished meal.

"So what's your name?" The boy, Draco, was clearly trying to be polite until he had what he wanted.

"You know who I am." As Vlad spoke Draco became more and more irritated.

"Okay Dracula, you want to play? Lets play. You will answer my questions or I guarantee I will ruin your life here." Vlad smirked, something he normally tried not to do, he had picked it up by copying his sister and dad all the time. You never know when it might come in handy.

"You don't scare me Malfoy, but, just to humour you, I will answer your questions." Vlad felt awful, he wasn't making the best first impression on his house mates, he was't even being himself.

"What's your blood status?" Draco's question triggered a memory from his lessons on wizard society with Antoinette, 'Only purebloods will ask for your blood status, they're the ones you must be on the good side of. Even though as a vampire you are above them, they don't know you are, you have to keep them believing you're on par with them.'

"Pureblood."

"Where are you from, not the UK, I'd recognise your surname." Vlad almost sighed with relief, he knew that in the Breather world the name Dracula was known everywhere because of the story written about his father many years ago. Clearly though, the story was not popular, or maybe wasn't even known, in the wizarding world.

"My family comes from Romania, we moved to here a year ago."

"What was with you and the hat earlier?"

"Nothing really, I just don't like the idea of something poking around in my head. Back at home it is considered terribly rude to invade someone else's mind." Vlad answered all of Draco's questions truthfully, not seeing a need to lie about anything thus far.

"Where did you go to school before now? Why did you move to Hogwarts?"

"I didn't, I was homeschooled by a tutor selected by my father. And the reason I came to Hogwarts? Well, as I said before, I only moved to the UK last year, but the school year had already started. Is that all?" Vlad asked with a bored tone, even though he was actually kind of intrigued by what Draco might want to know more of. Chances were though that he was just trying to sus out the weird new kid who threw the Sorting Hat.

"For now." Draco and his gang got up and went back their original places at the table.

ooo

"Hey Draco, do you really think he was telling the truth? I've never heard of anyone who could tell that the Sorting Hat was in their mind until it starts talking." Blaise Zabini asked next to him.

"I don't know Blaise, but I'm going to get to the bottom of it." Draco responded with a serious tone. He got up, as Dumbledore finished his goodnight speech, with the other students and disappeared into the crowd.