Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoy writing it!

Please drop me a review to let me know what you think, good or bad.

As usual, J.K. Rowling owns Hogwarts and all that Harry Potter-y stuff, and CP Coulter owns Julian, Derek, Logan, and all that Dalton stuff.

Just so everyone knows: There will be a few chapters for each year of school. So there will be an average of five for each year, maybe, depending on how much goes down that year. So expect this fanfic to be…long.

Chapter 2

"Cheer up." Julian took a sip from his pumpkin juice. "He'll write back tomorrow."

"You said that yesterday," Logan said glumly, head in his hands.

Julian patted Logan's back. "D'you know where Derek is?" he asked, craning his neck to look around the Great Hall, full of students eating their breakfasts, taking their time because it was a Saturday.

"No." Logan sighed. "I wish he'd write me back."

"He will. I promise." Julian caught sight of his new friend, smiled, and waved Derek over. "Derek's here," he said to Logan, pulling his hand away so he could continue eating.

It was the first Saturday of the year, and Derek would be ditching them for Quidditch tryouts, as Julian and Logan had been reminded multiple times each hour for the past week.

"Ugh." Derek sat down. "I have Quidditch tryouts today and I freaking cannot feel my butt."

"Too much information," Logan said into his hands.

"Derek… I've never seen anyone fly a broom like you do at eleven years old. Except maybe Harry Potter but I've never seen him fly a broom in real life…though there's that one picture in Harry Potter Weekly... Anyway. Logan," Julian jerked his thumb at Logan, "can't even get 20 feet off the ground."

"Shut up," Logan groaned, lifting his face out of his hands and staring down at his breakfast. Julian took a piece of bacon from his own plate and threw it onto Logan's.

"Eat," he commanded. "You'll be hungry."

"What's got you down?" Derek asked Logan, stuffing scrambled eggs into his mouth.

"My dad still hasn't written me back," Logan said, pushing the bacon around on his plate with his finger.

Julian grabbed Logan's hand, made his pointer finger and thumb close around the bacon, and brought his hand up to his mouth. "Eat," he said.

Logan glared at him, but he opened his mouth and allowed Julian to gently push the bacon inside Logan's mouth. Then with his other hand, Julian pushed up on Logan's chin so his mouth closed.

"I can't make you chew," Julian said when Logan sat there with the bacon just sitting inside his mouth.

"Could you two be more of a couple please?" Derek asked, annoyed, mouth full of half a roll.

Julian whipped his head around to face Derek. "I'm straight," he said testily. "So no, we can't be a couple."

Derek held his hands up (one holding half a roll) in surrender. "Okay. Sorry. Didn't know it was such a sore subject."

There was an awkward silence. "It's not," Julian said after a minute. "I'm fine with whatever somebody chooses to be, you know?"

Both Derek and Julian became aware that Logan had been oddly silent during this whole conversation, so in unison, they turned toward Logan. "Logan…" Julian poked Logan, who was staring at what was left of Julian's bacon in his hand. "What about you?"

"Me?" Logan looked up. "Oh, I'm straight too." He laughed. "Sorry, I just got lost in thought."

"What about?" Derek asked curiously.

"Nothing," Logan snapped. He stuffed the rest of the bacon in his mouth, and Julian applauded him.

"You're eating on your own!" he exclaimed, grinning.

"I have to go to Quidditch tryouts," Derek said, standing up, still holding his half a roll. "See you guys later?"

"Yeah," Julian said.

"Try not to get into too much trouble while I'm gone," Derek said jokingly.

Julian rolled his eyes. Logan stared at his empty hand.

"Look!" Logan pointed to the lake and when Julian whipped his head around to look, the blonde doubled over in laughter. "Made you look," he said through his laughter.

Julian glared at him. "I thought maybe you saw the Giant Squid."

Logan made a psh noise and continued walking. They had a few hours to kill before lunch, so Julian and Logan had decided to walk down to the Quidditch pitch to see if they could catch part of Derek's tryout.

"You're a jerk," Julian said, pushing into Logan with his shoulder. Logan stumbled sideways, only to right himself and push Julian with both of his hands.

"Hey!" Julian exclaimed, pushing Logan back. Julian was strong and Logan almost fell, but he didn't. He threw himself at Julian, though, angry eyes flashing dangerously. Julian toppled backwards, not expecting Logan's full weight to be thrown at him. He landed in the grass and immediately threw Logan off of him, glaring at the blonde as he scrambled to stand up.

Logan grabbed his hand and pulled him back down, but then he didn't do anything else. Julian was back in the grass, angled toward Logan, body tensed, waiting for Logan to attack. But Logan looked strangely calm all of a sudden.

"What was that?" Julian asked. "I didn't do anything!"

Logan didn't respond, just stared at Julian, as if he was memorizing his face but that made no sense because Julian would be around for the next nine months.

"Sometimes," Logan said, staring at Julian still, "I get…angry." He didn't say anything else, and Julian was a little afraid to say anything, so they laid there in the grass looking at each other for awhile until Julian decided it was awkward. He stood up and brushed off his pants, then he reached out and offered a hand to Logan. Logan took it and stood up. And then, still holding hands, they walked to the Quidditch pitch.

There were some people sitting in the stands in small groups of two or three, and Julian and Logan sat in the very top row near the center of the pitch, because Logan liked heights. They made Julian a bit squeamish but he wasn't about to tell Logan.

Julian rolled up the sleeves of his robes, because it was pretty hot that day. The sun came through the clouds, and you could tell that the players on the pitch were squinting. Derek would have lots of complaints about this later, surely.

"He's so annoying," Logan said as Derek zoomed onto the pitch on his broom and took one of the Quaffles from the captain. Grinning, he tossed it up in the air, caught it, flew straight for the goals on one end of the pitch, and threw the Quaffle easily into the smallest ring. There was an appreciative 'ooh' from the assembled Slytherins.

"He's kind of…" Julian searched for a word that wasn't too mean, watching Derek fly around the pitch on his broom. (First years had been allowed brooms ever since it had gotten out to the general public that Harry Potter was allowed to have a broom of his own in his first year.) "Arrogant."

"Try really arrogant." Logan sighed. "Oh, well, I guess we all have our problems."

"Yeah, we do," Julian agreed as Derek threw the Quaffle into the bigger hoop. He could tell that Derek was grinning, loving this. "He'll make it," Julian said confidently. "He's really good."

"He wants to be a Chaser, right?"

Julian just looked at him. "Haven't you been paying attention at all? He drew a freaking chart."

Logan rolled his eyes. "I know. But wasn't the Chaser part the biggest section of the pie chart?"

"No, Seeker was." Julian leaned in to whisper conspiratorially in Logan's ear. "I think Derek wants to be Harry Potter."

Logan laughed. "A Slytherin Harry Potter… The irony."

Julian laughed, too, and a sunbeam hit the two of them, blinding them momentarily so they couldn't see anything.

"I'm a Chaser?" Derek stared at the list, open-mouthed.

Julian put an arm around his new friend and said, "It's okay. Really. You were so good at it during the tryouts, I'm sure you'll be great. Besides. You're a first year! It's great that you're even on the team." He squeezed Derek's shoulder and pulled him away from the list posted on the bulletin board in the common room. He led him to the hallway that led off into the boys' Slytherin dorms.

Derek stopped just outside their room. "Wait. What if Logan laughs at me?" he whispered.

"He won't," Julian replied softly, calmly. "He's not mean like that…to his friends."

They were both silent for a moment, remembering the first time had Logan gotten angry – like really angry – at them. It was only the second day of school, and he'd put the wrong amount of frog's hearts into his cauldron in Potions class, and it had turned a sickly yellow color and started fizzing. Julian and Derek had laughed and Logan had pushed them both into the wall. Julian's shoulders had hurt for the rest of the day.

"And besides, Chaser was the third biggest part of your pie chart." Julian smiled and clapped Derek on the shoulder in a big brotherly way. "You'll be absolutely fine."

Derek just sighed. "I wish I was Seeker."

"Seeker's boring," came a voice from the doorway. The two brunettes turned, surprised, to see Logan standing there. "You just look for this little thing and when you can't find it, you're just floating there all bored." He paused and when Julian and Derek just stared at him, he added, "It's boring."

Julian blinked. Was Logan honestly trying to comfort someone? Or was Julian dreaming?

"C'mon, let's go to lunch." Logan walked past Julian and Derek, who had no choice but to follow him, still stunned.