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A twig.
A sick twig, for even in the Great Hall’s flickering candlelight, the boy’s complexion was wan. His eyes were the richest green shade Shouto had ever seen, and they were currently darting across the Hall in awe. Was he from a Muggle family? It would explain the wonder which made his eyes sparkle. His dark robes were too big for him, hanging on his shoulders and drowning his hands in the fabric. It was strange because everyone went to Madam Malkins to get their uniforms, or perhaps this was a hand-me-down from some older sibling?
“Midoriya, Izuku.”
The twig marched to All Might. If his eyes had been sparkling before, now they were brighter than the sun. Midoriya Izuku, his mind repeated. The name fit him well. Not only midori was the colour of his eyes but also of the tint of his curls. Shouto wondered if midori would also be part of Midoriya Izuku’s house colours.
“Gryffindor!” The Sorting Hat shouted.
Too bad that the red and gold had claimed him. Shouto knew he had no chance to be sorted in Gryffindor.
“Todoroki, Shouto.”
He walked up to the stool, sitting on it. The Sorting Hat was obscuring his view. He was glad. It meant his scar was hidden.
“Oh? A Todoroki?”
Why did it seem so surprised by ‘a Todoroki’? His three siblings had all attended Hogwarts as well. It wasn’t like the Sorting Hat had never encountered his family...
“My apologies for confusing you,” the Hat whispered, reading his thoughts. “I am pleasantly surprised. Your family’s the only one whose members were sorted in all four different Houses. I wonder where you will go.”
Shouto considered his options. He wasn’t brave enough for Gryffindor. He had never seen himself as friendly since friendship wasn’t part of his vocabulary, thus removing his chances for Hufflepuff. Only Slytherin and Ravenclaw remained. His father would want him to go to Slytherin, which meant Shouto didn’t want to go in this House. He decided Ravenclaw was his best option.
“You have a rational reasoning, Todoroki Shouto. You wish to be in Ravenclaw?”
Somehow he found himself thinking about the twig, about Midoriya Izuku’s glimmering eyes and his ample dress.
“Gryffindor!”
So much for debating which House he wanted. Hopping off the stool as All Might took the Hat back, Shouto strolled to the Gryffindor table. The twig smiled at him, offering one hand.
“Hi Todoroki-kun! I’m Midoriya Izuku,” he greeted.
Shouto shook his hand, silent. His zeal was infectious and Shouto’s lips almost curled. The twig didn’t seem disappointed by his lack of response because he leaned forward, murmuring to him.
“I talk a little too much sometimes so if I bother you don’t hesitate to tell me! I still hope we’ll be good friends.”
“Gryffindor is your new home,” All Might had told them, his beam plastered on his face.
Shouto considered any place outside the Todoroki Abode a better home than the latter. He was sharing a dorm with a few more students of his year, including Midoriya the twig.
“Kirishima Ejirou!” was the first to introduce himself, his hair as red as their bed’s crimson drapes. “We’ll have the time of our lives, guys!”
“Iida Tenya,” accompanied by hand gestures and square shoulders. Shouto found him a little serious albeit friendlier than himself. “I am proud to meet my fellow classmates for my next seven years in this prestigious school!”
“Shouji Mezou.” He, on the other hand, was a calm individual with the built of a fifth year. Aside from Shouto, he was the only one who didn’t have an abnormally high amount of energy. “Nice to meet you.”
The twig was next. Shouto already knew Midoriya since he had talked to him during dinner. He hadn’t been lying when he had said he could talk a lot, but Shouto found it refreshing since dinner time for him had always rhymed with complete silence. When Shouto introduced himself, he was the least expressive. His comrades didn’t mention his lack of enthusiasm, simply offering their friendship similarly to Midoriya.
He didn’t outright rejected it but he made no moves to befriend them either. Midoriya had grown close to Iida and their fellow Gryffindor, Ochako Urakara. While Shouto sat beside them for breakfast and occasionally for dinner, he didn’t feel much included in their conversations. He didn’t mind. He was already content to be away from the Todoroki Abode.
During his numerous classes, he met other first-year students. According to All Might, their cohort consisted of forty students. Among them, he found Momo Yaoyorozu, a Ravenclaw, who corresponded most to the definition of friends. Then again, it was rather mutual respect and being past acquaintances that made them sit next to each other in their Charms Class. The spells they were learning, much to Shouto’s dismay, were spells he already knew. By training him, his father had made sure by training him that he wouldn’t bring disgrace to the family name. While Shouto received thirty points for his House, he didn’t feel any pride in gaining them until he noticed the Gryffindor students’ smiles, particularly Midoriya’s beam.
Midoriya, on the other hand, had trouble controlling his magic. According to All Might, his power was too intense to be channeled through his wand, which explained the explosions resulting after executing one single spell. At the end of the lesson, his hands were covered with superficial burns. Unable to see the grimace marring his features, Shouto had created ice to apply on his burns.
“But that’s a spell we don’t learn before we’re in our fourth year,” Midoriya had pointed out, stunned. “You’re awesome, Todoroki-kun, for mastering it so soon.”
Shouto had soon learned that Midoriya ’the twig’ Izuku was more than a simple twig. He did look a little lost from times to times, but Shouto knew better than to underestimate his intelligence. Midoriya had a good eye and an impressive knowledge of spells, although he couldn’t do them all. Still, he could recite almost every spell that existed along with their consequences and how to counter them. It was the same in Potions; he had memorised enough ingredients and concoctions to rival an encyclopaedia.
It wasn’t only before winter that Midoriya’s status as ‘the twig’ really was upgraded.
Hogwarts was enchanting covered in snow. The thick white blanket fell over the premises in one night. Even the Black Lake was covered with a frost layer. On that morning, Shouto was wrestled out of bed by an overexcited Kirishima. The only one reason he didn’t stay mad was because his frown made Midoriya laugh. He didn’t exactly laugh himself, but he allowed a smile to grace his features. Smiling was easier in Hogwarts than at the Todoroki Abode.
During breakfast, Kirishima declared war. “Hey, Bakugou, wanna have a snowball fight? Gryffindor against Slytherin!”
Of all people he had decided to challenge, it had to be Bakugou Katsuki, a loudmouth whose favourite target occurred to be Midoriya. Shouto didn’t really like his arrogant attitude and brash temperament, but what he disliked the least was his incessant picking on Midoriya. Shouto had tried standing up for the twig, but Midoriya had always told him to drop it with a bashful expression and somehow remained civil, even friendly, to ‘Kacchan’.
Before he knew it, Shouto was whisked in the fight along with other Gryffindors. Some students older than them eventually joined and soon, it was chaos. While the Slytherins had established a strategy — a hierarchy where the most athletic were focusing on the offensive and the others, making the snowballs —, the Gryffindors’ strategy was improvisation. Shouto was only on this battlefield to protect Midoriya... but he soon discovered he needed no help. Everyone had agreed beforehand that it would be an old-fashioned fight with no wands allowed, but Midoriya’s magic was bubbling and acting on its own. It wasn’t lashing out and attacking but rather shielding Midoriya from stray snowballs. Midoriya was glowing in the middle of the field, untouchable, his eyes narrowed down.
It dawned on Shouto that Midoriya was no twig. His strength was hidden but present, even overwhelming when he decided to unleash his magic.
They got back in the Great Hall drenched in sweat, late for their respective classes. While All Might praised their ‘initiative to hold activities with other Houses that create healthy competitiveness’, Aizawa had stared at them, calling them idiots with just one look.
On that same eventful day, Midoriya approached him with a plan of his own. It wasn’t worst than Kirishima’s, but it certainly wasn’t his best.
“You want to sneak out in the library at night?”
He would’ve expected Midoriya to melt in front of his perplexed expression but it seemed to harden his resolve even more. “Yes. It’s about a villain.”
Shouto’s stomach lurched. “Why do you wanna know about a dark wizard?”
“Toshinori-sensei told me about a villain he had fought, but I don’t think anyone knows about him. There’s no data on him. I want to know more. If Toshinori-sensei told me about it, surely he wants me to investigate more.”
Toshinori Yagi, known as All Might by most, was their Charms Professor and also Head of Gryffindor. He had taken an instant liking to Midoriya, so it didn’t surprise Shouto that the twig was privy to such information. It didn’t annoy him either, but he wondered if All Might had anticipated what Midoriya would do afterward.
“And why are you telling me about it?” Shouto inquired, somehow already knowing the answer.
“You’re the only one I know who mastered the Disillusionment Charm.”
“It doesn’t make you actually invisible, Midoriya.”
“But it’s better than nothing!” He stepped forward, his hands joined in front of him as if to do a prayer. “Please, Todoroki-kun. We won’t stay long, I promise.”
Shouto’s mind was telling him this plan was doomed. If they were caught, they could face expulsion in the worst case scenario, and in the least only lose points. If they went, there was no guarantee the library had a book on this dark wizard. If they went and found it, then Midoriya could ask for more of those trips. Shouto’s best option was to say no. But his heart was saying yes.
“We better not get caught,” he settled on saying.
Midoriya had jumped in the air, one fist raised in triumph, before hugging him quickly. Shouto was glad he couldn’t burst in flames or it would’ve happened.
They didn’t get caught, in the end, but they also found no books. Midoriya rummaged through the Forbidden Section for a good hour before Shouto demanded they go back to the dorms. After casting the spell on both of them, he led the way to the Gryffindor Tower, a crestfallen Midoriya following him. They were halfway there when they heard some noises.
On autopilot, Shouto spotted a door and shoved Midoriya inside, closing the door behind them. He listened to the sounds on the other side, one ear pressed against the door, immobile. He recognised Present Mic’s booming voice and Aizawa’s noncommittal grunts. Shouto was glad the former’s voice was so loud because they never would’ve heard Aizawa. The latter was a stealth master. When silence returned, Shouto turned around, planning an apology for his forcefulness, but found Midoriya a few meters away, looking in a mirror.
Frowning, he joined him. The mirror was towering above them, its frame covered in dust. Arching above the mirror’s curve were letters engraved in the metal. Shouto glanced at Midoriya who was staring at his reflection. He stood, unblinking, his body rigid as his breath shuddered. There was a different glint in his eyes, as if he didn’t see himself but something else, something more.
Shouto decided to peruse behind him but saw nothing. “What is it?” He finally asked.
“I-I don’t know. This mirror’s not normal.” He moved aside, gesturing his previous spot in front of the object. “See for yourself.”
He complied, expecting to see his own image, perhaps distorted, or even aged, but what formed under his eyes left him speechless. First, there was no scar marring his left eye. He touched it, perhaps foolishly, and met roughened skin instead of smooth one. Second, he was surrounded by his siblings who were all smiling. He had never seen them all wearing smiles, or even being near him except for his older sister. Third, his mother was smiling at him, one hand on his shoulder. He could almost feel her coolness but refrained himself from touching his own shoulder. He didn’t want to feel any disappointment since he knew it was but a fantasy.
“What are you seeing?” Midoriya’s voice drew him back to reality. The freckled teen smiled sheepishly, “You don’t have to tell me. It can be personal. Sorry for asking.”
“I’m seeing my family,” Shouto answered. It caused no harm since Midoriya was unaware of who in his family he was seeing. “What about you, if I may ask?”
“It’s… hard to explain.” Shouto decided not to push it as he noted Midoriya’s grimace, looking torn between saying and not saying. “You must miss your family a lot if you see it.”
“I do.” Part of it, though. “I’ll see them in summer.”
“You don’t go back to your family during Christmas?”
Shouto shook his head, his hair falling in his line of vision. “No.”
Midoriya opened his mouth then closed it. He ended up clearing his throat and offering they go back to the dorm. They encountered no one, not even a ghost, and the Common Room was empty. They slipped in their bed, but neither found sleep on this night.
“Merry Christmas!”
Shouto groaned, rolling on one side still wrapped in his sheets. Cracking one eye open, he found himself staring at Midoriya. He jostled to disentangle himself from the blankets, his grogginess vanishing.
“What are you doing here?”
“I decided to spend Christmas here,” he answered, as if he had had the idea of the century.
“Weren’t you supposed to go see your mother?”
“Yeah, but I told her that you’d be alone with no friends, so she agreed with me when I said I wanted to stay with you.”
Shouto’s heart threatened to stop. Midoriya wasn’t like him. Midoriya had a place he could call home and a mother who was eager to see him again, and yet he had chosen him over them. He, Shouto, who didn’t talk much, who provided him ice after each Charms lesson, who had helped him complete his Transfiguration essays at 3am, who had been coached by Midoriya to perfect his knowledge on Potions. Could it be this fleeting thing called... friendship?
“Now open it up.” A small box with an oversized red bow fell on his lap. “I’ve waited two hours for you to wake up.”
“What time is it?” Shouto asked, suppressing a yawn and rubbing his eyes.
“It’s nine,” Midoriya sighed. “Open it!”
Shouto obeyed, unwrapping the box methodically. He could hear Midoriya’s inner groaning at his slowness. He was surprised to see it was a shard of glass, polished to form an oval.
“I took it from the mirror. I noticed you didn’t have a photo or anything of your family, so I thought you could just look at the mirror and see them.”
He was right. Shouto eyed the shard and saw his mother’s smiling face. He felt warm.
“Thank you. I… don’t have anything for you,” he admitted, shame reddening his face.
“It’s ok! You’ll only have to buy me two gifts for my birthday in July,” Midoriya suggested, playful.
Shouto nodded, still gazing at the shard in his palm. So this was friendship if Midoriya projected in his future time with him. It was nice. It was wonderful.
“You know I first didn’t think much of you.”
Midoriya’s smile fell. Shouto wanted to hit himself. Why did he open his mouth? He knew he could be a monster in the morning until he ate something. He kept on talking, trying to repair his mistake.
“My father always told me first impressions weren’t the best judge for a person’s character. For once, he was right. You looked sweet, a little dreamy and shy, but sweet. You’re sweet, but you have an inner strength that surprised me and impresses me. You’re also hard-working and determined. What I want to say is… you’re not a twig.”
Midoriya smiled, unsure, “Thanks…?”
“I’m not the best with this.”
This time, his laugh was honest. “Yeah, but it’s ok. You don’t have to be the best at everything.”
Shouto sighed, wishing his father could see it this way. He had been glad to learn he could stay at Hogwarts for the Christmas vacations. Being alone didn’t bother him if it was the price to pay to be away from his father, but Midoriya had surprised him by staying as well. Shouto was happy for the mirror shard, but his true Christmas gift was Midoriya himself.
“I’m glad I met you,” he whispered to him. “That you’re my friend.”
Midoriya beamed back, then rushed to his side, sitting on the bed beside him. He was holding what looked like a sweater with All Might’s face on it. “Look, my mum made it for me.”
“She sounds like a nice person.”
“You mean she’s awesome because…” Midoriya showed him an identical sweater, declaring, “she made a second for you!”
He chuckled, putting it on. “How do I look?”
Midoriya put his own, retorting, “How do we look?”
They giggled, or rather Midoriya giggled because Shouto certainly did not. When they calmed down, they watched the snow fall from the windows, warm in their sweater. Shouto was glad he had thought about Midoriya during the Sorting ceremony. He was convinced the Hat had put him in Gryffindor because Shouto had unconsciously wanted to know more about this twig who was everything but a twig.
“Merry Christmas, Midoriya.”