Chapter Text
The purchases of the other school supplies went as one would expect, at least for the woman.
Chuuya was still wondering why the hell wizards were so stereotypical that it hurts. Literally, what's with a fucking cauldron and all that stuff!? He really had to hide his expression of utter bewilderment and amusement at it. Well, considering that magicians existed, that stereotype had to have come from somewhere; but still... It kept surprising him.
They had also passed by the pet store. The original plan had been to get him an owl, because apparently wizards were dumb enough to still use the card system instead of using the damn phones. Seriously, why did they have to use a system that takes days to get a single response instead of something faster!? Ugh, they were all idiots. But outside of his personal problems with the wizard's way of communicating; pets, right.
«Where are the dogs?»
«There are no dogs here, Mr. Nakahara.»
«But I want a dog.»
«You can't, there aren’t.»
«Can we get a dog?»
«No.»
«I want a dog.»
«You can't have a dog at Hogwarts, only toads, owls or cats are allowed.»
«Can I have a toad but not a dog?»
«Exactly.»
«This place sucks.»
He ended up choosing a calico cat instead of an owl. Not even he knew why, but finally had the name ‘Lucien’ seemed like a better option than any other owl. It was an extremely adorable kitten who looked to be only a few months old. McGonagall didn't like the idea and she made sure to let him know that, but the ginger wouldn't change his mind. He had been denied his dog before, so now he was going to get a cat.
Lucien seemed comfortable as he dozed on Chuuya's shoulder, who followed the teacher through the streets of London. They had stored everything in normal shopping bags (he had to admit that he was surprised when he discovered that the cauldron was foldable), which hid all the magical items they had gotten in the Diagon Alley. The whole situation was still suspicious for the boy, whatever the test was, she’s really taking a while to perform it...
He fiddled with his new wand nervously. He didn't like the feeling of being in the dark in something like this, he hated being in the dark, but he had no say in this situation, he just had to wait.
“So…where exactly are we going now?” The ginger asked, the spell that the woman applied to him was still present, it was annoying because his words did not feel like his, but he could bear it.
“Now we’re going to Hogwarts. Given how you lived and that you have missed 3 years of school, it is necessary to go earlier so you can work on your English and start catching up with the missed subjects.”
“Wait, I'm going into fourth year?”
“The idea is, if you manage to advance quickly in the lessons, you could even join your other classmates in a few months to continue your education at a more relaxed pace.”
Chuuya frowned, the idea of having to work faster to catch up on what he missed was not foreign to him, this was not the biggest challenge he would have faced, he must be able to do it, if he already did it before when the Sheep rescued him, he would do it again. Besides, the only alternative would be to be around a bunch of 11-year-olds. It wasn't new news for him since there were even younger people in the Sheep, but he wasn't thrilled at all. He also wasn't happy having to be around unfamiliar teenagers in general. Damn... What had he just gotten himself into again ?
He shook his head, he couldn't be thinking about that right now, worrying too much about those things instead of thinking about how quickly he had to adapt could lead him to death instead of survival.
“Understood then, there will be no problem.” After saying that, the younger boy received a strange look from McGonagall that confused him. He frowned. "What?"
“It's good to see a young person interested in studies instead of complaining.”
That left him with a little more doubt than he should have, did normal teenagers complain about having to study, then? He pursed his lips, he had to learn more about the normal behavior of a teenager if he wanted to be able to blend in with the others. He didn't mind fighting if someone started to annoy him, or just ignore them if it was more convenient; but it would be tiring to constantly hear mockings towards him since he didn't look like an ordinary teenager.
After a while they arrived at a train station, it looked different from the trains located in Japan because of the shape they had, in addition to all the people walking from one place to another. Was there really a train that would take them to school? Wouldn't it be dangerous if they wanted to remain anonymous? If so, the train had to leave them near the school... Although there was also the risk that someone would follow them and discover the establishment.
The only logical answer was that it was a hidden conveyance that only wizards knew about, and if they were at this station, it must be here. He looked around, unable to identify anything out of the ordinary, the wizards were doing well then.
"Where is the?"
“Where is the what, Mr. Nakahara?”
“The conveyance we are going to take to go to school. I can't see it because it's probably hidden, but you know where to find it; so, where is it?”
He again received the surprised look from his teacher, as if she had not expected that question. Wasn't that logical?
“It's surprising that you came to that conclusion on your own, boy, but you're not wrong. Right now we are going to the platform where we will take the train that will take us to Hogwarts.”
He tilted his head in confusion, where was the surprise? The conclusion he had reached before was logical... But he would not debate it with the eldest, he would only let her guide him towards the hidden platform.
He felt the little cat he had previously adopted move and stretch on his shoulder. He watched it out of the corner of his eye, observing how the kitten looked in all directions. It had fallen asleep earlier so it was surely getting used to the new views and environment. Chuuya couldn't help the small smile that appeared on his face when in the end Lucien just ended up giving up and snuggled back into his shoulder to sleep.
“Mr. Nakahara, are you completely sure about his choice of pet?” An Owl would be more practical…” And there was the questioning about his choice of pet again, he just sighed.
“I'm sure, I won't change my mind, Lucien is staying. Be grateful that I listened to you when choosing a cat because otherwise I would have picked up a stray dog.”
The oldest sighed. “Understood, Mr. Nakahara.” She paused briefly as she looked around, they were near platforms 9 and 10. “Come, this way. I need you to trust me and do what I tell you.”
Well, that was suspicious, was he already going to start the test? Finally, then he could stop worrying about it. He felt the nerves run through him, although his attention was diverted to the other important fact... The little cat on his shoulder, if a confrontation started, something could happen to it, and he didn't want that to happen. He cautiously took the little kitten so that it wouldn't wake up, and hid it in his clothes so that it would be safe and wouldn't fall or something if he had to move suddenly. Whenever…
“Here, what you'll have to do is run against that wall when no one is paying attention.” McGonagall's voice brought him partially out of his state of alert. His eyes went to where he was indicating, seeing one of the walls that served as posts, which supported the arches of the station. He must have noticed that he was not at all enthusiastic about the idea, since the oldest spoke again. “Trust me, it won’t hurt, I promise.”
His eyes narrowed, ‘I promise,’ sounded unreal to say, when you made a promise, where he came from you only promised it to those close to you; saying something like that to a stranger was a complete ‘I'm going to betray you but I want you to trust me.’ He didn't know if the same applied here, he would be careful, but if that was the truth then it could be that they were taking him to a secluded place so that civilians wouldn't find out... Or that the test was in the same school.
Wait, that actually sounded a lot more reasonable than everything he'd been thinking. The test being at school ensured that it was hidden from civilians, and that there were more controlled conditions or something like that. Doing it anywhere else was stupid, how did he not think of that before?
With his dilemma already resolved, he looked at the wall in front of him, run then eh... His hands clung to the shopping balls he had, and trying to prevent Lucien from falling, he made sure that no one was paying attention and ran towards that wall. His common sense was screaming at him that this was a bad idea, and he was already prepared to crash into something, instead… He almost fell, in fact. His body that was waiting for the impact felt like a sensation like something he could only describe as magic enveloped him, and suddenly it was gone.
His eyes suddenly opened, and he began to look around him. It was... A pretty normal station, looking up he could see that what was different was the name, 9 and... 3 diagonal 4? How was that supposed to be read? He heard noise next to him and could see McGonagall emerging from where he himself did, she was still carrying the rest of the shopping bags.
“I haven't done this in a while,” the woman spoke as she straightened her clothes. Following this she took out a clock from one of the pockets of her clothes. “The train should arrive… Now.”
The sound of a whistle was heard. Lucien flinched in the ginger's clothes as he turned to see where the sound came from. A scarlet steam train emerged from the station tunnel, he couldn't read what was in front of it, but that didn't reduce the presence that the transport imposed. It was huge, it could easily hold a large number of people inside. Was this the school's personal train? Wow…
“This is the train that is going to take us to our destination, Mr. Nakahara. I got them to make a trip today to properly get you to school. ”
“Does the train normally not make trips?”
“Because it is a train that takes students to and from Hogwarts, its trips are limited to when the school year starts or ends, in addition to winter holidays.”
"Oh.. I understand."
“Come, since it's just us, the train won't wait long.”
The ginger nodded to what he had been told, and quickened his pace behind the woman, who was boarding one of the cars in front. Once inside it, he observed the entire carriage out of habit, looking for any danger. He didn't find any, but if he could tell that it was quite spacious and comfortable, had they applied some kind of magic to it to make it bigger or something? At the point they were at, he could imagine anything.
“Usually this part of the train is assigned to the prefects and teachers, but since this is an unusual situation, there will be no problems if you are here.”
Oh, of course, the best only for those favored in school. He didn't know what a prefect was but he assumed it must be a position of some importance in the school.
He sat in front of the eldest after having organized his belongings on the seat next to him. The little cat that must have woken up a couple of minutes ago finally poked its head out from under his clothes to look around. Apparently it decided that it didn't want to be there anymore, because he jumped out of where he was to settle into his lap. Chuuya directed a hand towards the kitten to pet it.
“So… Until I manage to catch up with the others, I'm going to have separate lessons, right?”
"Indeed. There was discussion about what to do with you due to your unusual case, and finally that conclusion was reached that it is ideal so that you can relate better with your colleagues.”
“Eh… Sure, relate…” He still didn't like the idea, he didn't know how to act around normal teenagers. He would have to learn quickly while he didn't have to integrate into normal classes yet.
Suddenly, he remembered something she had told him the day after they met, that he was the second student they received from Yokohama in the entire history of the school. That was strange, and she knew the teacher thought it strange.
“...Who was the first student?”
"Excuse me?"
“Who was the first Yokohama student you received?”
“Oh,” McGonagall sighed, looking tired all of a sudden for some strange reason. “I was hoping you would ask about that sometime.”
"It is bad?"
“No, just…” The woman denied. “He is one of the most problematic students I have ever had.” She paused briefly, she was staring into space, as if the person they were talking about was there. “Dazai Osamu, he is still a Hogwarts student, in fact… He is also going to start his fourth year. The main reason we chose to put you in fourth is so that you have someone to help you familiarize yourself, although he…”
The way the woman denied made it clear to Chuuya that the damn Dazai Osamu was not good news. The ginger grimaced at the thought of the boy, he sounded like an absolute headache... And his expression transformed into one that showed slight horror as he realized what was implied.
“Wait, you guys want me to get on with him !?”
“It's like that, do you know him?”
“No, but it sounds like an absolute hassle.”
“It is... But the director believes that he can help you adapt to student life more easily. Still, he will not be asked to be next to you, we teachers will take care of that until you catch up with the other students.”
That was a great relief for the boy. Even though he was Japanese, he didn’t want to be around him. He already felt a strange and chilling sensation running through his body; he had a very bad feeling about that strange boy and didn't even want to begin to think about interacting with him. Ugh, was he feeling sick? Disgusting.
-
The trip to Hogwarts did not have any major complications. After the small talk about that other student from Yokohama, there were several moments of silence, occasionally interrupted by questions about the school or the life of wizards. By the time they reached their destination station, night had already fallen and he already knew a little about his teachers, the workings of the castle, and something apparently called Quidditch and a world cup that was taking place today. Although it was entertaining to hear about the sport and stuff, he still found the idea that there were no traces of technology for magicians ridiculous. This was going to be unbearable...
As he got off the train and took a quick look at where they were, he could see that it was a small, peaceful-looking town. Lucien was more active than ever, circling around his shoulders, as if it was excited to be here.
“Heh, happy to be somewhere other than that store, buddy?” Chuuya stroked the kitten's head, earning a purr from it. He smiled and then looked at the older woman. “We still need to make another trip, right? This doesn't look much like a school…”
“That's right, there is a carriage over here that will take us there.”
Chuuya didn't even say a word about it, clearly it would be carriages and not cars or something similar.
After walking for a few minutes, they arrived at the indicated carriage. A large dark-colored horse, without a mane and with large skeletal wings, was in front of them. Their appearance was terrifying at first glance and gave the ginger chills, who stared at them for a good couple of minutes.
“Mr. Nakahara? What happen?"
“Ah… Nothing, I was just surprised by those… Horses? What are they?"
"Horses?" A confused McGonagall asked, before her expression transformed into one of understanding and sorrow. “Oh, Mr. Nakahara Can you see them?”
“See what?”
“The Thestral. They are-,” it seemed like the woman wanted to explain herself, but in the end she ended up denying. “Nothing, don't worry about them. Come on up, we have to get to school before it gets even darker.”
The woman's words left him with more doubts than answers, this was already beginning to annoy him, he wasn’t a child to be treated like that . He snorted sullenly as he climbed into the carriage. The door of this was then closed, and they left for their destination.
Because his back was turned he couldn't see much, so his mind began to wander in the direction of what he would expect, the test... He still had no idea what it was, he felt like he couldn't know, he had to be on alert at all times, and do his best to survive. After a while, the teacher told him it was time to go down. When he did so, all thoughts of the test dissipated from the ginger's mind to be replaced by the most genuine wonder he could ever have had in his life.
In front of them stood a gigantic castle with several towers, worthy of fairy tales, it looked ancient, and the lights coming out of it gave it a majestic aura. He couldn't imagine the amount of people it could hold, it was something he had never seen before. The large lake that also accompanied the castle was nothing to joke about.
“Welcome to Hogwarts, Mr. Nakahara. Accompany me to enter the castle.”
“...Wow... Ah- Uh, yeah, sure.”
He hurried to follow McGonagall's pace into such an imposing place. What awaited him inside did not disappoint at all, it was still enormous and you could perceive the magic that accompanied the place. It was perfect for accommodating a large number of people, no wonder there was only one magical school in all of Great Britain as the teacher had told him.
"Where do we go now?"
“We will go to the Great Hall, there the Sorting Hat will be waiting for you and will assign you the house to which you will belong, and you will be able to eat after all this long trip.”
“And the test?” Chuuya asked without thinking because his mind was somewhere else, then he realized what he had just said, shit.
"Test? What are you talking about?" McGonagall's voice sounded confused, something that made that feeling pass to the ginger.
“Uh… The test to prove that I’m worthy of studying here, right?” He was suddenly feeling like a fool asking that.
"Oh no! No, no... There will be no test, you are already worthy of that just for being a wizard like the others, right now the only thing missing to complete your registration process is for the hat to assign you to a house as I told you on the train.”
He was now more confused than before. Was there no test? Seriously nothing at all? Chuuya really couldn't believe it, he didn't make sense of all this... Was it an England thing? Oh…
Oh
Right.
Things in the world of light are not the same as the world where he came from. When you don't have to fight for your life, it makes sense that things like this are allowed. He completely forgot about that and assumed it would be the same. How idiotic of him.
“Ah… Yes eh- Yes, of course. I was only joking." The ginger tried to hide the erroneous thought he had had, although he did not know if he had managed to convince the eldest. “Where is the Great Hall?”
“...Follow me, it’s over here. You can leave your baggage, it will be brought to your room when your house is selected.”
The boy hesitated, but left his baggage as instructed, although he still kept Lucien on his shoulder since he didn't want to leave it alone there. He ignored the look that the oldest woman gave him and followed her until they entered the Great Hall, where a huge room was waiting for them with 4 extremely long tables and one at the back where he could see some people sitting. Several of the chairs there were empty (it was quite late, so he wasn't surprised) and from the people who were sitting, he could guess from the description that they were the headmaster, the potions teacher, and the care of magical creatures teacher... The looks they gave him were quite disparate, the potions professor, Snape, looked judgmental, the care of magical creatures professor, Hagrid, looked excited, and the headmaster, Dumbledore, had a look that the boy couldn't read.
Another thing to notice was the roof, which did not seem to exist, and reflected the sky on the outside. Chuuya would have believed that there was no ceiling if it weren't for the fact that on the train McGonagall told him about the spell it had.
And finally… On a stool at the back of the dining room sat an old hat that looked like it had been through a lot. That must have been the Sorting Hat. According to what he had been told, this ceremony made the new students nervous, but the ginger couldn't care less. When the teacher told him to go to the stool and sit down, Chuuya did so without question.
He waited for the eldest to lift the hat before sitting on it, Lucien rubbing against his cheek as the hat was placed on his head. He remained silent for minutes that seemed eternal. It could be heard humming and mumbling things that he couldn't understand. Was it that difficult to put it in a house? Did he have no qualities for any?
"This is all a nuisance, I don't care what house I'm going to be in... I just want to be able to have enough strength to protect the Sheep." Chuuya thought.
That thought somehow seemed to have changed something in the Sorting Hat, because finally and after those 5 minutes of hesitation, it began to speak more clearly to everyone present.
“Oh, a peculiar student we have around here. You're not the first in your class, before I've seen another boy like that. Even so, the differences mark you, your heart is loyal without a doubt, you will be a perfect Hufflepuff, although it doesn't convince me at all, is that the house in which you will stay like that? I don't believe it, your courage is one that can win, and for this reason I have to establish... A Gryffindor you are going to be!
After that revelation, he could hear two pairs of applause behind him. The ginger turned to see how Hagrid and Dumbledore were the ones applauding while Snape remained silent. A hand rested on his shoulder and he could see the calm, almost proud smile that McGonagall gave him. That made the ginger feel strange, and he stirred to get the hand off of him.
“Uh… I'm a Gryffindor?”
"That's right, and as the Head of that house, I officially welcome you to Hogwarts, Mr. Nakahara."