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How Sakura had managed to escape remained a mystery. When they were asked if they knew anything, Yato and Hiyori simply shrugged.
They told Professor Tenjin about Kugaha, who hadn’t been seen since he managed to escape. It seemed he wouldn’t be returning any time soon now that his cover was blown.
Yukine’s leg had been healed, allowing him to leave the infirmary and join Yato and Hiyori in the privacy of the secret room Yato had abandoned in his third year at Hogwarts. They sunk onto the sofas and Yato and Hiyori explained to Yukine what had happened: their disappearance from the infirmary, how they’d saved Sakura, Yato’s past, and about Hiyori’s Time-Turner.
“So that’s why you kept vanishing!” Yukine pointed an accusatory finger at Hiyori. All the times she had vanished without explanation and brushed their questions away were finally answered.
“Sorry,” Hiyori said sheepishly. She had returned the Time-Turner out of guilt, saying that she couldn’t cope with the workload.
Yukine turned his attention back to Yato with a frown. “So, this Father guy…do you live with him?”
Yato looked taken aback, aware of both Yukine’s and Hiyori’s eyes concentrated on him expectantly. No more secrets.
“I ran away when I got my acceptance letter,” he said. “I stole money, the Nimbus 2000 and the invisibility cloak, and ran.”
Yukine’s eyes slid to Hiyori at the same time as they met his. “Where did you go?”
“The Leaky Cauldron.”
The trio was silent for a moment, drinking in this new information. Hiyori recalled how she encountered Yato in Diagon Alley, clothes dishevelled and eyes shadowed. No wonder. He didn’t have a home to go to.
“What are you going to do this summer?”
Yato shrugged. “Same thing.”
“You can’t live there forever,” Hiyori said. It was harsh, but it was true. Whatever money he had left wouldn’t last him another two years until he graduated, let alone one.
“You can stay with me,” Yukine said before Yato could make an excuse. “If you want…”
Yukine scratched his nose, blushing under the touched look Yato had on his face.
“Really?”
“You’d do the same for me,” Yukine answered simply.
Yato smiled at the floor. “I’d like that.”
“Can I visit you?” Hiyori asked suddenly. She bit her lip when both boys looked at her in surprise. It would be nice if she could see them over the summer. “If you'll have me…”
Yukine smiled, exchanging a look with Yato who looked equally happy at the prospect of her staying with them.
“I think we’d like that.”
~
Following the events of that night, Professor Daikoku’s missed classes and ailing health finally made sense. The rumours circulating the school for the last few day were true. He was a werewolf.
Yato wandered up to the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom on the final day before they would be sent back home on the Hogwarts Express. Maybe he should apologise. After all, this wouldn’t have happened if he hadn’t ended up in the Shrieking Shack.
Summer warmed the classroom and sent faded sunlight through the latticed windows as Yato padded across the room, his shoes tapping lightly on the stone staircase which led to the back office. He knocked gently, pushing the door open when he heard Professor Daikoku telling him to come in.
Yato looked around in surprise.
The side wall was stacked with suitcases and old chests, leaving the rest of the office bare except for a few piles of books, and Professor Daikoku, who glanced up at him from his desk. His face was lacerated with claw marks, along with a nasty bite which peeked out from his shirt collar. His skin was pale and weathered, but his eyes were warm and dark.
“You’re leaving?” Yato asked.
Professor Daikoku shuffled the papers in his hand into the briefcase in front of his – the same one from the Hogwarts Express, Yato noticed – before tying it shut. He stood up, walking around the side of the desk before resting his hand on it.
“Someone let slip about my condition,” Professor Daikoku said, “and not many people are keen about a…well, people like me, teaching their children.”
Professor Daikoku knew this and, even though the headmaster would try to quell the parents’ worries, he’d resigned.
He didn’t sound sad as he explained this, like it was just a fact of life, but the forced positivity in his voice told Yato that he was disappointed.
“I’m sorry…” Yato said.
“You have nothing to be sorry for.” Professor Daikoku brushed the apology away. “I’m not leaving with nothing.”
Yato cocked his head. Professor Daikoku’s eyes glinted and a smirk tugged his stoic expression apart. Yato guessed he meant more than just possessions. His mind flashed to the image of Professor Daikoku back in Hogsmeade over Christmas, seemingly on a date with…
“You and Madame Kofuku…?”
Professor Daikoku let the smile take over his face. He turned around, walking over to a chest and fiddled with the clasp, piling more books into it. “She knows.”
“Oh.”
The rattles of clasps and footsteps filled the room as Yato watched Professor Daikoku – though technically he wasn’t his teacher anymore – pack the last of his things and pick up the battered briefcase.
He stopped in front of Yato, a satisfied smile on his face. “I’m sure we’ll meet again, Yato.”
Professor Daikoku left the room, his footsteps growing distant from Yato, watching him from the small balcony until the door clicked shut behind him.
~
Yato knew without asking that it was Nora who had revealed that Professor Daikoku was a werewolf. Her self-satisfied smile at the King Cross Station after they had arrived back in London as she watched him pretend to ignore her was proof enough.
Hiyori pulled him along by the arm, following Yukine as he made his way to the luggage carriage through the crowds of students reuniting with long-missed friends and family. Their bags bumped each other as they swung them onto the trolley, Coo Phone ruffling his feathers unhappily as he made eye-contact with Hiyori’s owl, sandwiched next to him.
Smiles plastered on their faces as they made their way through the exit one by one. Yukine, and then Hiyori departed, leaving Yato to linger a moment as he faced the portal, hands gripping the trolley.
Nora could carry on thinking she had won, but this year, Yato had gained so much more than she ever would: a family, small and broken, but still good, lessons and teachers he wouldn’t forget, and finally a place to call home.
Now, with somewhere to go and somewhere to return, Yato vanished.