Hello everyone! Sorry for the little hiatus, I was on vacation, but I'm back now! :D So here we go.

Everything is JK Rowling and CP Coulter's, not mine. :)

Chapter 11

Julian was full of questions that Logan didn't feel like answering. From the minute they got on the Hogwarts Express, Julian wanted to know every little detail about Logan's summer. It was question after question, from how was your summer? to did you eat lots of food? And it was completely ridiculous. Logan answered the questions, Derek watched, and Julian never ran out of things to ask. It probably stemmed from the fact that Julian and Derek had been sending letters full of detail all summer, while Logan had been pretty unresponsive in his own letters.

"How was your summer?"

"Bad."

"Why?"

"Just was."

"Why?"

"Boring."

"Why was it boring?"

"Are you a broken record?"

"No."

"Well you sound like one."

"Don't look at me like that."

"Like what?"

"Like you're disappointed in my existence, that's your disappointed-in-my-existence look. Isn't it, Derek?"

"It is, Julian."

"Thank you, Derek."

"Why do I feel like you guys are ganging up on me?"

"We aren't ganging up on you, Lo. You're just being standoffish."

And thus went the train ride. None of them had had a particularly enjoyable summer holiday, as was the way with summer holidays, and they decided that for the next holiday they would definitely have to see if they could get together at one of their houses. Julian and Derek were pretty sure they'd be allowed, but Logan was worried that his dad wouldn't want him to; either that or his dad would want him out of his sight for a summer. Having barely spoken to each other, only when absolutely necessary, ever since Logan had told his father he may like guys, Logan was fairly certain his father didn't quite like him anymore. And that hurt a lot. But he couldn't tell his friends.

Or…maybe he could. He'd told his father, a beyond impossible task, and it was already known that Derek and Julian didn't mind if a boy liked boys. They'd said that within the first few weeks at Hogwarts in first year, and Logan had never forgotten; in fact, he'd heard it, time and again, an echo in his mind, those words.

"Could you twobemore 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."

So he could probably tell them and they wouldn't mind… And he was itching to tell someone who wouldn't mind. Cal had minded; Logan's father had minded – a lot. But maybe Julian and Derek wouldn't mind.

When the train stopped in Hogsmeade and Julian and Derek stood up, Logan didn't. He was lost in thought, trying to figure out whether to tell them or not.

"You coming, Lo?" Derek asked as he retrieved his bag with the clothes he'd worn to King's Cross in it from the rack above their heads.

"I actually have something to tell you," Logan said, standing up slowly.

"Okay, shoot," Julian said, pulling down his own bag.

"I'm gay." Logan said it before he could decide otherwise because it was stupid to spend too much time deliberating.

Julian dropped the bag on his toe, yelped in pain, but still stared at Logan. Derek froze.

Logan's heart pounded in his chest and suddenly panic flew through him.

What had he just done?

He ran out the door of the compartment, down the almost-empty corridor, and off the train. He dashed across the platform to where the carriages were parked, waiting to take them up to the castle. He got onto one of the carriages, not waiting for Julian and Derek, and sat there wondering what he'd just done. He'd said it, he'd told them he was gay. Why? Was he an idiot? Did he always have to act so rashly? Their faces, they were so surprised and they could have said 'Oh that's okay with us' but they didn't, they just stared!

He leaned his head against the window, and watched the first drops of what would become a thunderstorm streaming down the pane of glass. He was probably friendless now. Not that he'd had many friends in the first place.

The carriage arrived at the castle, Logan jumped out, and ran all the way to the dungeons, though everyone else was going into the Great Hall for a feast. He wondered if Julian and Derek were talking about him. He wondered what they were saying. He wondered if they hated him. He wondered if Julian guessed that he liked him. He wondered if they were enjoying the feast. He wondered if they'd think it was awkward to share a dormitory with him now.

He was on his bed, face buried in his pillow, dark green curtains drawn around the bed, when he heard the door open softly.

"Stop being an idiot, Lo," came Julian's voice, not harshly.

Logan didn't move.

"We don't care," Derek added.

Logan still didn't move.

"It doesn't matter to us, Logan!" Julian insisted. "You're Logan. It doesn't matter if you like guys." He paused. "And open the curtain."

Logan stayed completely still, trying to let it sink in that he may not have lost his two best friends.

"Logan!" Derek shouted, and Logan jumped, not expecting it. "OPEN THE CURTAIN!"

Logan opened it just a little, only a crack, to be defiant.

"Logan," Julian warned, and then laughed a little. "See, Lo? You're still the same person. We don't care who you like."

"Yeah, it actually leaves more girls for us," Derek reasoned, going over to Logan's bed curtain and opening it all the way. "Come on. Come to the feast."

"You don't hate me?" Logan asked, just to clarify, as he stood up.

"No," Derek said, just as Julian said, "Never." Logan felt a smile stretch across his face without him putting it there.

And together, they walked off to the feast, Logan full of relief that he hadn't lost everyone just because of who he loved.