#matt writes

Scientists bustle around the room, checking vitals and preparing for whatever they plan to do next. In the center of the organized chaos is one man—sleaked black hair, daggers for brown eyes, a permanent smug look.

Yona hates him.

There's nothing she can do about it. Even if she could get out of the shackle on her ankle and try to claw the asshole's eyes out, two soulless droids guard the only way in and out, and if they fight anything like how her friend hovering above them does... she'd quickly find her bone-count tripled. So she sat still, not liking anything about what's going on, but forcing herself to watch anyways.

"The memory cable is ready," one scientist says to the man, Yona's royal-thorn-in-her-behind, Li.

Li grinned, turning to the droids guarding the room and nodding to one of them, his hand going to the Admin Stone in his pocket. He didn't need to be touching it for every little order he gave the droids, though rumors say that holding it does tend to have things run quicker.

The droid turns and leaves the room. Yona can barely wonder where it's going before Li catches her eye.

"You want me to beg?" She snapped, clenching her fists.

Virgil had been born into the Pureblood house of Avery. He had been raised to be every part a Slytherin. Despite this, however, he never really fit the mold. Virgil just learned how to act and play the part and this worked well for him. Well, it worked for him until he actually got sorted.

On the train ride to Hogwarts, he had sat with his "friends", aka the people that he grew up with and pretended to share interests with. He also stayed with them on the boat ride and while they were waiting to be sorted. That was as far as they cared for him, however.

Virgil hadn't been sorted into Slytherin like he was supposed to be. Granted he hadn't fought the sorting hat very hard to be put there (after 11 years he was tired of pretending to be someone he wasn't) and the hat hadn't seen him as belonging to that house despite his lineage. Instead, he was placed into his true house. Hufflepuff.

As Virgil stood and approached the cheering Hufflepuff table he could feel the glares and dirty looks of his, now former, friends. He knew that now that he was in the Hufflepuff house, there was no chance of them continuing to associating with him (not that he really had a problem with that considering they never actually had anything in common). It was very likely, that Virgil had made enemies out of them, just by being sorted into a different house. Virgil was startled from these thoughts when another newly sorted first year sat next to him. The sorting soon finished and as the feast appeared the fellow first year turned to him with a grin.

"Hey!" he said, "My name's Patton! What's yours?"

Virgil stared at the kid for a moment, shocked that this boy would choose to approach him; him the son of a death eater. "Virgil," He replied, quickly covering his surprise. He already felt the walls he had built up since he was a kid, crumble just the slightest at the kid's obvious optimism.

If it was possible, Patton's grin grew bigger. "It's great to meet you, Virgil! I'm sure we're gonna be best friends!"

Virgil's eyebrows scrunched together in confusion. "But you don't even know me. We only just met," Virgil said. "Why would you even want me as a friend?" Patton's grin didn't fade in the slightest. "I can just tell," He said before turning to his food.

The entire interaction left Virgil confused, but he quickly hid that fact and turned back to the feast.

~x~x~

His fears had come true. Not only had he received a howler from his father as soon as news of his placement, but Virgil also had made some enemies. It wasn't surprising that the people he grew up with were bullies, but they had decided to make him one of their first and main targets. This didn't bother Virgil much though. The thing that bothered him was that when they realized they couldn't get to him, they started targeting his one friend. Patton.

Patton had managed to worm his way past Virgil's defenses. No one else wanted to approach him as word quickly spread of who his family was (a big part of which was played by the howler). Despite knowing this about him, Patton still stuck by his side. Even when he was being targeted by the Slytherins, he stuck by Virgil. For the first time ever, Virgil felt as though he had a true friend. One that he could actually trust.

That being, Virgil almost refused to let Patton go places alone, fearful that the Slytherins would get to him when he couldn't protect him. Which is what lead to the situation they were in now. The pair had been wandering the halls, exploring the castle when they had been cornered by them. Immediately Virgil had pushed Patton behind him protectively.

Just as things seemed like they were about to escalate though they heard someone running down the hall. "Hey!" They yelled, running directly at the main Slytherin. As the person, now identifiable as a Gryffindor in their year, reached them the Slytherins turned to face him. Using the momentum of his running the Gryffindor punched the other in the face. The Slytherin dropped to the ground from the force and the unexpected pain.

The shock of this was quickly overridden by a thunk and the second bully falling to the ground. Behind where he had been standing was a first year Ravenclaw holding a heavy looking textbook.

"You two better get out of here and we better not find out you've been bothering these guys again," The Gryffindor said, glaring at the Slytherins. "Got it?"

The Slytherins nodded, still in a haze, before running off. That was when the two Hufflepuffs were startled from their stupor. "Are you two okay?" The Gryffindor asked.

When Patton attempted to move out from behind him, Virgil kept him there, not quite trusting these two strangers. They may have run off the pair of bullies, but that didn't mean they weren't going to take their own shot at him.

"We're fine, they'd only just cornered us when you... got here. Who are you two anyway?"

"My name is Logan," The Ravenclaw said, putting his textbook away, "and this is Roman. What are your names?"

Virgil glanced at Patton and the two made eye-contact. Before Virgil had a chance to overanalyze things Patton was already pushing past him and holding out his hand with that grin of his back on his face. "I'm Patton and this is Virgil! Thank you, both for the help there," he said. "You could say, that Logan really schooled that one bully!"

Virgil snorted before he could help himself. As much as he would deny it he really did love the other boy's puns and jokes, despite how lame they could be. Logan on the other had groaned at the joke while Roman chuckled. Roman then took Patton's hand and shook it.

"It is fantastic to meet both of you! Though I do wish it could have been under better circumstances," Roman said before taking his hand back. "How often do they bother you? Has it happened before?"

At this question, Virgil decided to speak up finally. "They've been bothering me since the beginning of the year. They only started targeting Patton when they realized that they couldn't get to me."

Logan and Roman shared a glance. Logan adjusted his glasses slightly before saying, "Well, they won't be doing it again." The way he said it confused Virgil. Logan said it with a conviction he wasn't used to hearing.

"Absolutely!" Roman quickly added. "We're going to be Protecting you both from now on. If they even try to bother you they'll have to go through us."