our small, stupid conversations mean more to me then you'll ever know 

Upon arriving at the castle, Brandon followed Lily into the great hall, he wasn't that bothered about the sorting, at this point he was so hungry he'd even eat the vegetables. Finding their seats at the Gryffindor table, Brandon was surprised to see their other friends (Rosa, Helen and Toby), already sat there.

"Where were you two? We looked everywhere!" Rosa exclaimed as they sat down.

"We had a whole compartment to ourselves, where were you?" Lily countered.

"We ended up sharing a compartment with Albus and scorpion, no what's his name?" Toby mused with a frown.

"Scorpius." Helen answered with a roll of her eyes. Brandon laughed loudly.

"Oh I bet that was fun." He said.

"It was... interesting." Toby agreed.

"Apparently Scorpius lives near you, is that true?" Rosa asked Brandon curiously.

"Yeah, he lives in the next village, his parents and my parents are friends, it's annoying." He answered with a sigh, he disliked Scorpius Malfoy, that boy was nothing but shady to him, and he could swear that the Malfoy boy had tried hitting on Danny, whom had been very creeped out.

"I ship them." Rosa commented, all four of them looked at her with frowns.

"Actually... I see your point." Lily said as she thought about it.

"He tried to hit on Danny." Brandon stated.

"Who? Scorpius?" Lily asked, Brandon nodded.

"Who's Danny?" Helen asked with a sudden interest.

"My... Friend." Brandon told them shiftily.

"Awe." Rosa seemed to know the truth.

"Is that why you don't like him?" Toby asked.

"That and he's annoying." Brandon shrugged.

The first years walked in, they looked bedraggled and a few were sniffling. Looking at them, Brandon could only think that they looked ridiculous, and they would have to seriously prove themselves, he didn't have high hopes for the kids.

"They look a right state." Toby spoke exactly how Brandon felt.

"They look a bit... sickly." Brandon agreed.

The sorting began, and Brandon was just glad all the ones who were sniffling weren't going to his house, if he had to wake up because some kid was crying he was not going to be happy.

"Hey, you think this lot will spill about the parties to a teacher, like that kid last year?" Helen asked.

"No, I'm sure they'll hear the story of the kid and think twice." Rosa said.

"That was rough last year, even I felt sorry for the kid." Brandon agreed.

"I knew you had feelings!" Lily joked, he rolled his eyes and punched her on the arm.

"Oh that's just rude." He told her, she laughed at him.

All of a sudden, the food appeared in front of them, all five of them cheered and dug in. Some sort of stew seemed to be on the menu, but it was delicious, and Brandon could swear he had never eaten anything like it before. The group was silent as they all ate, digging into the delicious food that had appeared, Hogwarts was amazing like that sometimes.

When they had eaten, Professor McGonagall stood to say some words, of which they ignored, because to them it was a load of rubbish, then they were dismissed to go to bed.

"Did you hear what McGonagall was saying?" Rosa asked.

"You actually listened to that?" Toby asked her in surprise.

"She started talking about not letting bad things keep you down, it was really weird." Rosa explained.

"She's probably just running out of things to say." Lily told the girl comfortingly.

"Lil is right." Brandon added.

"Okay, I guess you're right." Rosa nodded.

"Come on, we haven't had chance to catch up yet." Helen pointed out.

"Alright, let's go." Brandon nodded.

Once in the common room, the group bagged a corner and sat catching up about their holidays. Helen had been to Greece to visit family, Toby had been on a skiing holiday in the alps and Rosa had been on a road trip around Europe. Lily had just spent the time with her family, of which she had already told Brandon. Now it was Brandon's turn, and he knew Lily would find a way to make him tell their friends about his boyfriend.

"I just hung around with my muggle friends mostly, it's not that interesting of a story really." He told them.

"Friends as in Danny?" Rosa asked craftily, Lily grinned at her.

"Yeah, tell us about Danny." Lily added. Brandon sighed.

"Danny is kinda... my boyfriend." He admitted. Rosa, Helen and Toby made the same surprised noise.

"How long?" Rosa asked at once.

"Over a year." Lily answered with a glance at Brandon, who had buried his head in his hands.

"And you only just told us!" Toby asked, sounding disappointed.

"I'm sorry guys, I just..." Brandon trailed off.

"He's not like us is he? That's why you didn't tell us." Helen asked, Brandon just nodded.

"I'm ashamed of you, so what if he's not like us, do you think we'd care? Brandon Fawley, I am beyond angry with you!" Rosa yelled at him, he looked at her aghast, he hadn't expected his friends to be angry with him.

"What Rose means Bran, is that we care about you, a lot. We're your friends and we're just.... Disappointed that you would hide something like that from us." Lily explained.

"Guys, I'm sorry, I really am, I just didn't know how to tell you." Brandon was in trouble; he didn't know what to do.

"Just telling us, that's how." Toby answered.

"Bran you can't keep stuff like that from us. What if he hurts you and we have to beat his ass? Or what if you hurt him and we have to put things right?" Helen asked.

"I- "He didn't know what to say.

"Bran, you need to tell us stuff, okay. If you do anything like this again, we'll all kill you." Lily said.

"Now off to bed with you." Rosa ordered, he stared at her.

"What? But I-" He began, but she cut him off.

"Now, go on. You're still in trouble." She told him, he sighed and walked to the dormitory, which he shared only with Toby. There were only two Gryffindor boys in their year.

He quickly got ready for bed, unpacking only a few things, and wishing he had told his friends earlier. He hated them being angry at him.

He knew at least, that they would forgive him in time.