Merlin was so shocked by his friends' fate that he missed almost the entire sorting. He only snapped out of his thoughts when the stern looking witch called "Emerson, Marvin" for proboably the third or fourth time. He shook his head as he made his way up to the stool, aware of the stares burning into his back. He sat upon the stool and the hat was placed upon his head.

'You!'

Merlin winced at the hat's accusing tone. 'Yes me.'

'Where were you all of this time? The school almost broke apart because of your absence! Have you any idea of the trouble you caused?' The hat bellowed into his head.

'Hey, hey, please give me a moment to explain. I left only for a day to experiment in a safehouse but the spell went wrong and I was put to sleep for a long amount of time. I didn't intend to cause this mess.' Merlin hurried out hoping to display how truly sorry he was.

'.' The hat almost seemed shocked. "You... didn't mean to leave. Oh dear I do see the problem." The hat seemed to deflate as it realized it had been wrong all of these years.

'Just sort me for now, okay? I will find a way to come talk later.' Merlin suddenly became aware of the hushed conversation and the confused looks.

'Very well, Emrys. Welcome back to' "SLYTHERIN".

The hat roared the last word to the hall and light clapping broke out at the green and silver table. Merlin grinned widely as he made his way over to the table before sitting between a boy with dark skin and a rather frightening looking girl.

The woman from before stood at the podium and tapped her wand against it. The wand gave off several loud bell noises that quickly silenced the hall.

"Now I would like to welcome all of the new students to Hogwarts. And the rest of you," She took a deep breath and there was a warm smile on her face as she finished her sentence. "Welcome back. First I would like to announce that Professor Slughorn is the new head of Slytherin house. Next, we have a new teacher with us this year. I would like to introduce Professor Kerrigan."

A woman with short brown hair stood up, waved, and sat back down.

"She will be teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts. I would like to request that you refer to the house board in your common room for a list of rules. The major ones that all students must follow are at the top. Now, you may eat."

Merlin was slightly startled by the short speech before shaking it off and digging in to the food. He couldn't believe how much there was! There was more food here than at some feast in Camelot. At least he was allowed to eat this food. He grinned before taking another bite of some kind of pasta.

"So, Emerson, why are you here?" The girl next to him said in a slightly screechy voice.

"Umm excuse me?" Merlin replied. He wasn't sure what the girl had meant.

"Why are you here all of a sudden? Did you transfer?" The girl asked again in the same annoying voice.

"Uh yeah, kinda." Merlin scratched the back of his head as he raced for an excuse. "What's your name?" He asked to sneakily divert attention away from himself.

"My name is Pansy Parkinson, and this is my sweetie, Draco."

The boy, Draco, scowled at Pansy before muttering under his breath and returning to his food.

"Okaaaayyyy..." Merlin wasn't sure if they were actually in a relationship or not, but who was he to question other people's business? He turned away once he saw she was distracted by her friend a few seats down and finished his dinner.

Dessert came and went, and soon he was following a crown of green and silver deep into the dungeons.

"Valiant" Said one of his fellow seventh years to a blank wall before it opened and they went inside.

Merlin flinched at the password, remembering a time far gone. The word fit the snakes better than they will ever know. Merlin snorted at that and made his way into the familiar common room. It was almost exactly as he remembered. He felt instantly at home. He walked up the staircase to his room and jumped into the bed. It was so soft!

He dressed in his nightclothes and waited for sleep to take him away after such a stressful day.

Unfortunatly for him, he had been having trouble sleeping ever since the accident. He sighed before getting out of his bed and opening his trunk. He groaned when he realized that he must have forgotten to brew more. He had been living out of this trunk for the past week at the Leaky Cauldron while he got his shopping done.

"Are you alright over there?" The same boy from earlier, Draco, had peered his head out of the curtains around his bed and was peering at Merlin. "Did you forget something?"

"Err, this may sound kind of odd, but you wouldn't happen to have any dreamless sleep potion would you?" Merlin looked sheepish but at the same time he prayed that this boy might have some or he would be up brewing it half the night.

Draco's face softened. "You too?" He asked.

"Yeah. I've been through some pretty bad stuff lately." Merlin should be jumping around on the inside but now he was only worried for Draco.

"Is that why you transferred? No, wait, you don't need to answer that." He sat up and opened his trunk, rooting around before pulling out a vial and handing it to Merlin.

"Thanks" Merlin said with a soft smile.

They both went back to their respective beds, and Merlin smiled as he dreamed of adventures with his new friends.

Even Draco.

Whew! That was fun to write! So a few things, Prof. Kerrigan is an OC, and she is going to be a very minor character. As for Merlin's last name, I was getting tired of it being Emrys in every fic I read, so I decided to shake it up a bit. I know Merlin is normally in Gryffindor to protect Harry but guess what? Harry doesn't need protecting so Merlin goes smack bang into the middle of Slytherin. Thank you to all of my lovely guest reviewers since I cannot thank you via your profiles. Thank you everyone who followed, favorited, or even just read. That means YOU reader. Yes, you. I love you.