Don't judge a book by its cover.

Hermione felt she of all people should know this lesson well, but it ashamed her to have it reinforced the way it did. For the first time in decades, exchange students were coming to Hogwarts. On top of that they were from Japan! There was so little information on Eastern magic. Hogwarts' library had only a few handful of books and Flourish and Blotts had even less. A wealth of information that had yet to be explored.

So she was a little disappointed to see the exchange students. Unlike last year, there wasn't this big display or grand entrance. In fact, they apparently arrived on Hogwarts Express (though Hermione hadn't seen them). There wasn't any uniforms either, each one causally dressed.

But their sorting.

Everyone was talking about it. Usually most people were polite enough when first years were being sorted, but that never really stopped anyone from making silly bets or harmless guess as to where people would end up. House Pride and everything.

The first two seemed to be easy. The first was a blond boy, lollipop hanging out of his mouth. Despite his lazy slouch, Hermione recognized that burning need to know, so Ravenclaw mostly. She was correct.

He was followed by a purple haired girl with an eyepatch. Hufflepuff, her classmates guessed. They were right.

Then it went down hill. Next up was a silver haired boy with a scowl on his face. He had a skull necklace hanging from his neck, playing with what looked to be a lighter. Everything about him screamed thug or at the very least a bully that no one wanted to cross.

"Slytherin," Ron joked.

"Hufflepuff!" the Sorting Hat shouted.

That… didn't make any sense.

It got worst when he was followed by a black haired boy with an even frostier scowl. The Sorting Hat shouted out Gryffindor and the boy stalked over to their table. Harry scrambled out of his seat, making room for the Japanese boy and not wanting to challenge someone who looked ready to murder someone.

The next two, a redhead boy with glasses and a black haired girl ended up in Ravenclaw. The bouncy brunette girl also ended up Gryffindor and everyone watched with stunned horror as she bounced over to the older Japanese boy. She was all smile, "Hahi! I'm in the same house as Kyoya-senpai!"

Everyone watched with a bated breath, worried they were going to have to pull the older boy off from attacking her because what was that girl thinking? Clearly he didn't want to deal with anyone! Except the boy just pulled out the seat next to him (Neville dove out of it as soon as he read his intent) and made her sit.

"Well," Ron said. "At least none of them are Slytherins?"

He spoke too soon. The next person up was a purple haired boy (it looked like he was related to that first girl… maybe cousins?). The Sorting Hat barely touched his head before screaming out Slytherin.

"Well he does look shifty," Ron defended.

Another brunette girl was up next. She looked friendly and cheerful. "Maybe she'll end up with us," Harry said. "Like the other girl, Haru?"

"That or Hufflepuff. She's got all the classic signs," Fred said.

"SLYTHERIN!"

"You must be kidding," George said.

"She looks so nice!" Ron said, sounding completely betrayed.

"We really shouldn't judge a book by its cover," Hermione reminded everyone.

The brunette girl's brother, a white haired boy, went off to Hufflepuff.

"Tsunayoshi Sawada!" McGongall called out.

"Totally Hufflepuff," Seamus whispered.

Hermione agreed before instantly chiding herself. What had she just said minutes before?

"SLYTHERIN!"

Silence. 'Okay,' Hermione thought. 'I know I just said we shouldn't judge a book by its cover, but I don't think I would have ever seen that coming. I thought maybe he would be like Neville and up here, if not Hufflepuff.'

That was when chaos broke out.

"YOU STUPID HAT," the silver haired boy yelled out.

"Unacceptable," Kyoya hissed. Was that a pair of tonfas?! What was he doing with tonfas?!

"Hahi! Unfair!" Haru agreed.

"We extremely want Tsuna here!"

"Kufufu, excellent we got Tsunayoshi."

"KEEP YOUR HANDS TO YOURSELF, PINEAPPLE HEAD!"

"WILL YOU MONKEYS SHUT UP!"

Hermione watched in stunned horror as a shouting match took place. The rest of her classmates seemed to be in the same paralyzed horror as they watched their newest member of the Gryffindor House leap at the purple haired Slytherin.

"Hieee! Stop fighting!"

She didn't even realize the last exchange student (one Takeshi Yamamoto) got himself sorted into Gryffindor before joining the chaos.

Just who were these exchange students?!

Ahaha so that's where everyone else ended up.

If you're following this story on tumblr you'll note this is chapter 4 instead of chapter 3. That's because I've swapped the two. Also yes, that's Spanner. He shows up in the next chapter of WWBtF.

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