Yo, so somebody pointed out that Charlie's not in Hogwarts anymore, and I know that, but he left just before they started and I really wanted Charlie and Caleb to meet :/

Also, I'm completely ignoring Hogwarts Mystery because I haven't played it… I'm sorry… ;-;

Please indulge me :')

...

not all houses are homes.
_

He goes to the left.

As he enters his dorm, he avoids eye contact with the other residents.

"Who are you? Don't ignore me."

London doesn't look at the others as he unpacks.

"Hey, new girl, answer me!"

London whips around. "I am not a girl."

The girl who spoke was Asian, she had warm sandy skin contrasting with her dark hair tied into low twin buns. She had an air of elegance and superiority, and if London was a normal boy he'd have been intimidated. "Well," the girl speaks, condescension dripping off her words, "this is the girl's dormitory, is it not?"

"Jane, wait." A different girl, an indigenous looking one, tilts her head. "What do you mean?" She addresses London. "I mean, you have a vagina don't you?"

"I refuse," London seethes, "to dignify that with a response."

"The point," the other girl, Jane, interjects, "is that you are born female, and no matter how tomboyish you are, you will always be a girl." She flicks a stray hair out of her face. "It's simply common knowledge."

There was a pause where all that could be heard was the sound of the wind outdoors.

London bows his head. "Despite what you may think," he starts, "know that you will never have the satisfaction of being correct. Despite my genitals, I am male in every sense of the word."

"Okay so, this is awkward. My name is Sofia," the brunette says softly. "Nice to meet you..."

"I wish I could say the same," London snaps sharply. He sighs after a pause. "It's London Klement."

A look of realization crosses Jane's face. "I get it now! You're family lied! There are no twins!"

"Don't—" London struggles to control his tone. "How crude," he says instead. Before he can say anything else, Jane speaks again.

"So London Klement doesn't exist, only Lenka-"

London suddenly starts laughing. Once he calms himself, he grins emptily. "Wow, shut up. If you cannot control yourself—" he pauses to regain composure. "Well, simply don't say anything, I suppose. You don't gain anything from disrespecting me, because I'm not her."

"You, Lenka, are a girl—"

"Okay!" Sofia interrupts loudly. "How about if we can't get along, we just don't talk! Compromise? Please? I really don't fancy sitting around and listening to you two bicker."

"Finally," London says with a sigh, "something somewhat intelligent."

"C-Caleb! Caleb, w-wait up!"

Caleb blinks, coming to a stop as Brianna catches up to him. Her face is somewhat flushed, and she's panting slightly.

"U-Um, hi," Brianna says quietly, now that she's actually facing him. "S-S-So, uh, you know o-our little group? Um, from the train?"

"Yeah."

"S-So, I want to, um, spend time at the library with everyone later..?" Brianna trails off timidly, glancing away from him. "I mean, i-it's been a few weeks since classes started, but w-we haven't spent much time together..?"

Caleb smiles reassuringly. "Yeah, that sounds nice. I have potions with Stef next, so I'll tell her." He pauses thoughtfully. "I don't think I have any more classes with Ravenclaw today, and London's particularly evasive."

Brianna nods. "Th-Thanks, Caleb. I think I have Defense with Ravenclaw this afternoon, so I'll invite him."

"Great. See you in Herbology."

"'Sup, Caleb," Stef mutters to him from her usual spot on the "Slytherin Side".

"Hey."

"Professor Bitch is doing his thing again," she informs him, scoffing when he gave her a pointed look at the nickname. "Oh, grow up."

Caleb rolls his eyes, watching Snape go to town on Potter, again.

"What did Snape say?" Stef questions, watching Harry's face begin to flush, whether it was from anger, embarrassment or what, Stef didn't know.

"I bet he's just being his jerk self…" Caleb mutters bitterly.

She stands abruptly, her poofy neon hair flopping slightly. "Uh, Professor? Can you lay off Potter? I mean, it's wonderful watching you do your thing, but I'm incredibly eager to learn and I'm just really excited to learn the shrinking potion or whatever."

Caleb buries his face in his hands. "Stef, sit down…" he groans quietly, though, to his surprise, Snape actually backs off, not without a dark glare towards Stef.

Stef smirks cockily, as she falls back onto her chair. "See? I'm friggin' awesome, Dempsey."

Caleb was about to come back with something about her just being Slytherin when—

"Wow, Dumb-sey, real loyal you are, hanging with those suckers," Michael says from a row behind them, next to Eric.

"Jesus, I would too if I were him." Stef scowls. "Who'd want to hang out with you? I'd rather chew off my own foot."

"Silence!" Snape snaps suddenly. "In the back, why are you speaking while I am teaching?"

Stef immediately replies. "Sorry, Professor, that Gryffindor boy was talking about how he was going to sabotage Min's potion, and I was trying to convince him not to."

Immediately, Min perks up from her seat behind Stef. "It's true…" Min says, tilting her head and averting her gaze, a light flush gathering on her cheeks.

Snape scowls. "Negative ten points for Gryffindor."

As Snape turns away and continues his lecture, Stef looks to Min, flashing a thumbs up. Min winks.

"Dude!" Caleb hisses, barely audible.

Stef just puts her hands up in surrender, before laying her head down in a discreet manner.

Typical, Caleb thinks with an exasperated scowl.

When London came to Hogwarts, he didn't want it to be like this.

Unfortunately, he just had to have a breakdown in front of the school.

Lenka Tatiana Klement; born to Angelica Klement nee Dorjsuren, heiress to the Mongolian pureblood family, the Clan of Dorjsuren, and Pavol Klement of the notorious dark Klement family.

Rumour was that the Klements had two children; twins, a boy and a girl. The girl was well known as Lenka Klement who allegedly became sickly, but the boy was a complete mystery; he didn't talk much outside of pleasantries..

London knew this rumour to be a lie. He was the only child of the Klements; his mother lost her ability to reproduce shortly after he was born. It was a lie spread by his parents, born out of their shame. They didn't want to suddenly pull London out of public activities and give off the impression of weakness, so they lied.

London would go out as a boy and support their lies.

He'd thought he'd be able to avoid attention when he went to Hogwarts, but no.

In Ravenclaw, they either hate him or love him. They either think he's a shame or they support him. No matter what, it was an unspoken rule that nobody would allow anyone to know that London was transgender. The former group to hide their shame, and the latter to save him from bullying. Either way, he was uncomfortable with friends, and so stayed alone.

Outside of Ravenclaw, he was still bullied due to his incident in the Great Hall, as well as for his strange way of speaking and his intellect.

As for his little group on the train, they were the only tolerable ones. Others would become entrapped by misconceptions, rumours and lies, something that he had no patience for.

Speaking of which—

"You'd like to spend time with me?"

Brianna blushes, fidgeting slightly. "U-Uhm, yes…"

London blinks. "...All right," he says awkwardly, drawing his attention back to Professor Quirrel.

London found Professor Quirrel rather...odd. What was someone with such a horrible stutter and lack of confidence doing teaching children? It'd likely be torture to the professor.

Immediately after Defense was over, London would disappear.

Or, rather, he cast a small notice-me-not to avoid attention and made his way to the library.

"Thanks for coverin' me earlier, Min," says Stef.

"I mean, it's part of the deal!" replies Min cheerily.

"I hope you don't intend to use our alliance in such idiotic ways so often," Simone butts in, with her no-nonsense expression. "I won't be getting you out of detention, McKendrick."

"You won't need to," Stef answers, rolling her eyes. "I gotta go hang, see ya."

As Stef left, Simone blinked. "Hang from what?"

Stef makes her way down the halls when she collides with someone.

"Oi!" Stef snaps, before blinking.

It's the Boy Who Lived, the Muggleborn Fuzzball, and Carrot Top, and she'd run straight into them. Well, she'd collided with Boy Who Lived, and now the other two were glaring at her.

They'd met during flying lessons— prepare for some nostalgia;

Stef had been totally chill, ready to fly, and so was Caleb. They were just, again, chilling together with their school-issued brooms, when Longbottom did some dumb shit and broke his body.

"Who's that kid?" Stef had asked while Hooch began to escort him to Pomfrey.

"Neville Longbottom," Caleb replied. "Wimpier than I am, but he's a good kid, I think. Seems nice. I'm not exactly sure where the bravery kicks in, though I'm not one to talk."

Stef rolled her eyes. "Dude, confidence."

"Hush. He gets picked on a lot like...right now, Malfoy's being a—"

"Shut up, Malfoy," Patil snapped. The Slytherins were being douches, again, and Stef was so sick of it.

Then Malfoy picked up Neville's Remembrall.

Stef groaned and began to step in because Malfoy wasn't making Slytherin come off too well when Potter stepped up.

And now it was a frickin' fight between houses, and Stef has to be a bitch. Great, Malfoy.

"Sorry, Caleb," she muttered in advance.

Caleb facepalmed. "Stef, please don't."

And the moment Potter's feet left the ground, so did Stef's.

Stef had been playing with brooms for years; writing theories on how to make them for when she was older. She knew how to use a broom- and she was good at it. She watched their bitch fight go down, and when Malfoy threw the Remembrall, she shoved him off his broom.

Of course, she wasn't trying to kill or maim him (as much as she wanted to), so she caught him and his broom, landed, and shoved him to the ground.

Malfoy was stammering. "I- h-how? My f-father will-"

"Oh shush, you brought this upon yourself. How dare you? You aren't making a good name for us, you aren't fit to be Slytherin, Mouth boy."

"How dare you—!?"

"No!" Stef snaps. "How dare you!? You've just thoroughly damaged my pride in our house, as well as our reputation! What are Slytherins known for? Cunning! You see, it isn't cunning when you challenge the frickin' wizarding world's messiah while bullying! I'm going to—" Stef took a sharp breath in before her face contorted into a sickly sweet smile. "Sweetie, you and I will be having words, now McGonagall's here, act innocent. Or is that too difficult for you?"

And now she was known as the girl who saved Malfoy. His friend.

Ew. As if.

"Yo, might wanna watch out, lots 'o students rounding corners, y' know."

"You watch it! You're the one who ran into him!" snaps Weasley.

"Oh, yeah! My manners! Sorry 'bout that then," she says, smiling sheepishly. "We ran into each other. I wasn't trying to tackle you or anything."

"Why are you acting pleasant?" Potter blurts abruptly.

Stef blinks. "Uh. Is it a crime?"

"I mean…no, but, it's just…"

"You're Slytherin!" finishes Weasley, gesturing at her uniform.

Stef frowns. "Well, that's mean and prejudiced, judging me by the colour of my tie. Here I thought you were better than Malfoy."

As she walked away, she hears Potter ask what prejudice means. For the first time ever, she's the smart kid! Ha! That time around those nerds paid off.

And it seemed as though her nice-girl charade worked. Hopefully, the bad Slytherin reputation won't hinder her progress.

The group studied together. They studied. Wink wink.

"My brain is dying," Caleb groans, slamming his head against the table.

"Don't do that!" hisses Stef. "But seriously, can we take a break for like, ten seconds. I need it before the rest of my brain cells melt."

"So, Bri! I hear you get on with Snape! How do you do it!? He hates me! He hates everyone!" Caleb whines.

Brianna giggles slightly. "I don't know what you mean. I just learn."

They all knew that Snape, for some reason, tolerates Brianna. They weren't completely sure why, but the girl was kind and soft but stubborn and hard working. She'd set her sights on Snape the moment she'd arrived, and was determined to befriend him as much as she could with the age difference.

"Nah, man. You pursued him and it worked. Somehow," says Stef.

Brianna smiles. "He just seemed so sad."

"Pissy, more like."

"Professor Quirrel…" London mumbles quietly.

The others turn to him.

"What about Professor Quirrel?" Brianna asks.

"I mean, there's just something so… off about him, y' know?" Stef says. "He's hiding something behind that big fat turban, I know it."

Caleb nods. "I gotta agree. I spend lots of time looking at people, but he acts like there's always someone else there, someone else watching, and he talks to himself a lot. But not in the normal way, like having an actual conversation with himself."

"That is weird," London agrees. "But leave it alone. It isn't your problem."

Brianna nods hesitantly. "Y-Yeah, he seems really nice. Maybe a bit nervous, but so am I…"

"Yeah, but, remember that forbidden corridor?" Caleb questions.

Stef nods. "Yeah! That was really weird, too. Why would they do that?"

"Maybe it has something to do with Quirrel's weirdness?"

"Okay, both of you," London interjects, "stop. Don't put your noses where they don't belong. I don't want to hear any more of this nonsense."

Caleb and Stef exchange a look, and London knows that they'd ignore him.

London sighs. "Look, this theory- this idea you have of Quirrel's anxiety being relative to the corridor is absolutely—" he cuts off abruptly, eyes glazing over.

"...Uh, London?" Stef blinks, snapping her fingers. "Lonnie? Hello?" She waves her hand in front of his face.

"I-Is he okay..?" Brianna asks worriedly, biting her nails.

Caleb taps London's shoulder and he seemingly comes back to the present.

"Are you okay, London?" Caleb questions, concerned. "Do you need to see Madame Pomfrey?"

London blinks. "...No. No, I'm fine. Anyways, it's baseless. Your idea. I…" he pauses. "I have to go, please excuse me."

"London, wait-"

"I'm sorry to cut this off so abruptly, but I really must be leaving," London says quickly, gathering his things.

Stef frowns, standing up. "Hey, man, wait…"

But before Stef can finish, London is gone.

"Well… that was weird." Stef sighs. "But there's nothing we can do 'bout that. Cal, you thinkin' what I'm thinkin'?"

Caleb nods, refocusing on Stef. "Yeah, and I have an idea, but we'll need Brianna's help."

"Me?" Brianna blurts incredulously. She coughs. "Um… I mean, why me?"

Caleb smiles. "You're good with potions. Do you think you could brew a potion that can trick Madame Pomfrey into thinking Stef and I are sick, but not sick enough to render a stay in the medical wing?"

"I could… but that's a very specific criterion to find, and I'm only a first-year…"

"I think I might know someone who can help with that," Stef states.

"So, what do you think?" asks Stef.

"I think that you're up to something and I don't want part of it," snaps Simone, arms crossed.

"Come on! It's an alliance, help me out!"

"I won't help you out if it has chances of getting me expelled or suspended, McKendrick."

"Please, Horowitz, I'll owe you a favour."

Simone scoffs. "Yeah, like you could give me anything. I doubt you're from a family of note."

Stef clenches her jaw before leaning in closely to Simone. "Ever heard of Stuart and Isobel McKendrick?" she whispers, eyes dark.

Simone pulls away, eyes wide with surprise. "I…" Simone's eyes close. "I'm sorry for your loss."

"If you won't do this as a favour, do it as repayment," Stef says lowly. "You owe them that much."

"Are you Brianna Pierson?" A girl with thin-framed glasses and freckles approaches Brianna from the crowds, finding seats at their house tables.

"I-I am, yes?" Brianna squeaks shyly, adjusting her sleeves nervously. "Y-Y-You are..?"

"A friend," the girl states blandly, before dropping a thick book with a page marked on the table in front of her. With the book out of her arms, Brianna can see a green tie tucked neatly into her uniform vest. A Slytherin?

"Wh-What's this?" Brianna questions.

The girl tilts her head. "A recipe," she replies simply. "Courtesy of McKendrick."

Brianna blinks, looking down at the book. "Thank you…-" she begins to say, but when she looks back up, the girl is gone. She sees the other Hufflepuffs staring at the tome curiously, so she clumsily stuffs it into her bag. She turns to scan the Slytherin table, but the blonde-haired girl had already blended into the crowd.

She bites her lip.

What kinds of people does Stef know? Cunning and ambitious were the house's main traits, and while she could see Stef's ambition from a mile away, maybe she'd been blind to her cunningness.

That worries her.

"I-I di-did it…" Brianna murmurs to Stef and Caleb, holding the cauldron in her hand. Stef reaches out to take it, but Brianna pulls away. "Wait. Y-You aren't going into the forbidden corridor, are you?" Brianna asks, trembling slightly. "Th-That's dangerous…."

Caleb's brow furrows; he's horrible at lying. But before he can even open his mouth, Stef speaks.

"Don't worry, Bri," Stef says softly. "We're just gonna tail Quirrel for a while, and maybe hang out in the kitchen. Don't worry."

"O-Okay." Brianna nods, handing Stef the cauldron. "I think this is ridiculous, s-so… Don't get caught."

"We won't," Caleb assures because they won't get caught. He's sure of it.

Brianna sighs. "S-So, don't take large doses of this, or you'll get sick for r-real. Only a tablespoon is necessary, and you'll show symptoms that'll have Pomfrey sending you to your dorms. B-But she'll likely check up on you two every hour, s-so I don't think this idea is the best… Anyways, effects will last for an hour or two, any longer and you should be worried…"

"Don't worry, Brianna. We got this."