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They’re an odd assemble of boys, that’s what they are. It’s not Michael’s constant changing hair color and it’s not the fact that Calum has a puppy for a pet and not the usual owls either that has students staring. It’s the fact that they wear different colored robes and neckties. It’s the fact that most times during breakfast, lunch or dinner, you see four boys from four different houses eating together at the end of any of the four tables. It’s the fact that the odd-colored hair Slytherin boy is attached to the cute Hufflepuff’s hip. It’s the fact that the timid and intelligent blond Ravenclaw is always with the reckless and loud Gryffindor boy with the curls. It’s the fact that the four of them are always together.
Because really, this never happens. If you ask any of the students, the last time they know that people from four different houses were friends was when Hogwarts was instituted and that’s the founder of each of the houses. So this phenomena as most students call it is definitely once in a lifetime. Students usually stick to their houses but these four boys beg to differ.
You see, it’s not always been the four of them.
In the start, it’s always been Michael and Calum. The Hufflepuff boy and the Slytherin boy.
They grow up in two different wizarding families. Michael’s family has always been interested in muggle technology and he grows up learning about the muggle way of life, the muggle technology, muggle music and even more surprisingly, he grows up in a muggle neighborhood. It’s not that his parents are ashamed of being wizards, not at all, that’s not the case at all. His parents are very proud wizards and it’s already the 21st Century, after all. It’s the time for wizards to start using technology. In this era, his parents are innovators. Michael dreams one day of using magic on muggle technology, as in the words of his muggle friend who knows of his wizardry, it’ll be ‘cool as balls.’
Calum, on the other hand, lives in a very wizard family. He grows up watching Quidditch games with his family and travelling through portkeys and the Floo network. He grows up watching his father apparate and disapparate from the second floor to the first floor. He grows up watching utensils move by themselves in the kitchen as his mother chop up the onions. He grows up listening to Wizard music and watching Wizard sports. So what sticks to Calum is Quidditch. He’d watch Quidditch matches over and over in this television set gifted to their family by the Clifford’s. His father would buy him souvenirs from the Quidditch games Calum misses because his mother thinks he’s too young to go. Calum dreams to be a Quidditch player one day, as great as Viktor Krum and as swift as Ginny Weasley.
Despite differences, their families are surprisingly best friends. And naturally, Calum and Michael who are of the same age click together. They have very different interests, Calum loves Quidditch while all Michael listens to is Green Day. The first time they met at seven years old, Calum has an action figure of Viktor Krum with him and Michael refuses to go downstairs to meet the family friends because he’s too sucked up in this video game his father regrets buying him for his birthday.
That’s what pulls them together, their differences. They get to sit next to each other in that family dinner and it’s Michael who first starts talking, maybe he’s just a natural blabbermouth. Calum’s Viktor Krum action figure is sitting next to his bowl of soup and Michael frowns, asking why his doll is there and who even is it.
Calum pouts, getting defensive as he takes his Viktor Krum action figure from the table and shoves it to Michael’s face. “It’s Viktor Krum! The most amazing Quidditch player! Although he’s retired so I won’t be seeing anymore of his games...” Calum’s excitement turns into a tone of sadness and something in Michael’s insides clenches. He doesn’t understand why he doesn’t want this kid with fluffy cheeks to be sad.
His parents are talking to Calum’s parents about Mali-Koa being sorted into Gryffindor and all the years missed and Mali-Koa is happily joining their conversation. They don’t seem to mind the two boys much.
“S’alright.” Michael says, reaching out and patting Calum’s back in comfort. “You don’t know maybe one day when you’re much older you can go see him? You know my dad told me that sometimes when bands break up, they come back for a reunion concert or to proceed their jobs until they run out of ideas for songs.” He tries, unsure of what he just said but the thought of some of his favorite bands getting back together comforts him sometimes. Michael sometimes wonder why he’s born years late when some of his favorite bands have broken up. But that’s alright, Michael has their old music to listen to anyway.
Calum smiles again, his cheeks bunching up. “Thanks, Mikey.”
Michael raises a brow at the unfamiliar nickname but he likes it when it comes from Calum. “I’ll come with you to Krum’s next quidditch game. That’s a promise.”
Michael reaches out a pinky finger and Calum stares at it curiously, wondering what the other boy is doing but Michael takes Calum’s hand that isn’t holding the Viktor Krum action figure and twines their fingers together.
And for the rest of the dinner, they talk about Michael’s favorite bands and his favorite video games and promises of playing them together are made. They talk about Calum’s love for Quidditch and all the Wizard things Michael failed to be interested about. And for the first time that night, Michael feels like he has a friend and his Wizardry is something that he looks forward to now, especially that he knows he’ll be going to the same school as Calum. He can’t wait to turn 11.
*
“But I don’t want to marry Mali-Koa. She’s fourteen and she’s… she’s scary!” Michael yells, throwing a fit. He’s ten now and Calum’s his best friend. They’re entering Hogwarts together soon, all thanks to Michael being born later into the year. He’s a bit worried though, because what if they don’t get put in the same house? He doesn’t really know how to function without Calum. Although, he’s sure that they’ll never be in the same house. Calum’s just too Calum and he’s just too… Michael.
But that’s not Michael’s worry right now, his worry is his parents telling him that he should marry Mali-Koa.
The thing is, Mali-Koa is really pretty and really confident and really tall. Mali-Koa doesn’t really like him, though and he’ll prefer marrying Calum over Mali-Koa anytime.
His parents sit across him. “But that’s a family pact, you still have so much time and in a few years your age difference won’t seem that big.” They tell him with patient smiles. Michael doesn’t understand why does it have to be Mali-Koa, he wonders why it can’t just be Calum when they’re from the same family?
He crosses his arms over his chest and frowns, defiant about this whole ordeal. “Can’t I just marry Calum instead?”
His mother looks over at his father, eyes blown wide and his father almost chokes on his own spit.
“Boys don’t marry boys, Michael.”
Something pierces Michael’s heart, and his ten-year-old heart doesn’t know what’s happening, why he’s feeling this or why he feels like he can’t breathe. “Why?”
His mother sighs, eyes downcast as he pats Michael’s legs. “That’s just how it is, Mike.”
*
He’s sixteen now and his hair is of green, to represent Slytherin, he says. It’s not some special power, or anything, it’s just hair dye and he has too much fun with it. He’s in his fifth year now, far from being that silly ten-year-old who threw a fit at his parents but he still thinks that he wants to marry Calum.
He’s in Slytherin and Calum’s in Hufflepuff. They make a great pair. Often times, people are terrified when they walk down the halls without Ashton or Luke with them. Michael thinks it's mostly because of him, but he's pretty sure that he hears people say that a friendship between a Hufflepuff and a Slytherin is the scariest type of friendship. Frankly, Michael doesn't see why someone would be afraid of the actual pup that is Calum.
Michael doesn't mind though, because that way, he gets to spend more time with Calum and that's all he can ever ask for.
*
You see, it’s not always been the four of them.
In the start, it’s always been Ashton.
He’s friendly, he really is. He’s always chirpy and happy and nice. He’s always there to help and he’s always there to stand up for others. You see, Ashton’s mother is a muggle and his father’s a pure-blood. Ashton knows of Harry Potter and how his friends stood up against Voldemort, he learned that all by himself. Why? Because his wizard father walked out on them by the time he turned two. He doesn’t know why, he’s only seen photos of his father through the weird moving photographs hidden in the basement he found when he was ten and looking for his old football. He doesn’t learn that he’s half-wizard until a lady in an ankle-length dress knocks on their door a day after his 11th birthday.
Of course, his mother is against this, she doesn’t want Ashton to go to a wizarding school away from home. She doesn’t want Ashton becoming like his father. There’s a reason why she’s hidden his wizard blood for almost a decade... She’s hysterical when the apparently teacher from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry starts explaining of Ashton’s magic after they sit on their living room.
Ashton’s aware of the magic that he can do. He’s not stupid, he knows what he can do. Sometimes when kids at school make fun of him for not having a father for Father-Child day at school, the kids’ feet blow up until they don’t fit their shoes and that’s his cue to run. He knows that it’s bad, and that you shouldn’t do that, but he knows what he can do and he doesn’t know how to control his ability… whatever this maybe at this point.
And this thing… is from his father… the father that he never knew. He looks up at his mother as the teacher talks to her in a solemn voice, it’s calming and convincing. From what Ashton can understand, his mother knows of his father’s wizarding background. Ashton clenches his fists in his lap. He doesn’t know what he’s feeling, is it anger? Is it confusion? But as his mother and the teacher talk, the flower vase on the coffee table explodes and it sends shards shattering to the floor.
His mother shrieks in surprise and Ashton just stares in fear of what he has done. The teacher who has introduced herself but Ashton didn’t really catch her name, pulls out a stick? Or is that perhaps a wand? Yes. That’s a wand, like the one Ashton’s seen in the movies. The teacher pulls out a wand from the sleeve of her dress and utters a word Ashton can’t decipher. Then, like magic, the vase completely repairs itself. No cracks, no glue marks. It’s like it never exploded.
His mother takes him under her arm and hugs him so close and so tight, whispering that it’s alright and he doesn’t know what he was doing. This is where the teacher interjects. “That’s the thing, Anne-Marie. In Hogwarts, we can teach Ashton to control his magic. It’ll help him control what he has. Don’t you like that, Ashton?” The teacher turns to him and Ashton doesn’t know why… but he nods.
He doesn’t know why he did, maybe it’s because he’s afraid of this thing in him but he wants to know what it is, he wants to know how to control it, but maybe, it’s only just because he wants to learn more about the world his father has deprived of him when he left them. Maybe because he wants to stop being afraid.
And after an hour of Ashton explaining what he has done or what he can do, Anne-Marie sighs.
A month after the meeting with the teacher, the same teacher turns up to their doorstep with a trunk for Ashton, his books and robes and necessities ready. Anne-Marie watches as Ashton leaves with the teacher.
And in the train station where he doesn’t know anyone, is when he realizes that he doesn’t know anything… that he doesn’t know anything about this world he’s entering. So in that train ride to Hogwarts, when he has found a compartment where no one bothers to come in, he pulls out his copy of Hogwarts: A History.
You see, this is where he learns of his father’s world. This is where he learns of dragons and founders and ghosts and magic spells he can’t wait to learn. This is where he learns of Harry Potter and Voldemort.
By the time the train arrives at Hogwarts and they all need to change into their robes, Ashton already knows the history of Hogwarts from start to the latest in the copy he has.
He doesn’t know why, but he already feels closer to his father.
And by this time, Michael and Calum and Luke aren’t even in Hogwarts yet. So it’s just Ashton. It’s just Ashton trying to fit in, it’s just Ashton trying to make friends but it seems like as he has been so cooped up with reading the history of Hogwarts, everyone has already made their own group of friends.
He’s chirpy, he’s cheerful and he’d stand up for anyone. He gets sorted into Gryffindor and the Sorting Hat tells him that he’s one brave child, full of courage, full of curiosity and full of will. The Sorting Hat tells him that he’ll fit in Gryffindor so well.
If he does, then, why does he not have his own group of friends?
His first year goes on like that, with him being the social butterfly, jumping from one group to another but sometimes when Ashton just feels like crying because he misses home and his mother almost never mails, no one is there to listen to him, no one is there to make him feel better. For a year, it’s always been just Ashton.
*
You see, it’s not always been the four of them.
In the start, it’s always been Luke and his brothers.
Luke has always looked up to his brothers, Jack and Ben. They always tell him to toughen up because he always cries and often times keeps things to himself. They try to bring him outside because there are days when Luke just buries his nose in his mother’s math books, trying to understand mathematics that is way too advanced for his age. Jack and Ben are the kind of people that Luke will never be.
Luke’s always been the timid, quiet one of the three of them. There’s always been nothing special about him and sometimes his parents worry about him not having friends. It’s just that he doesn’t like people, that’s not it at all. He just doesn’t know how to do it. He’s tried before, but his classmates just make fun of him, often, they avoid him because of the fact that his mother’s a teacher. Luke doesn’t mind not having same-aged friends as long as he has his brothers with him.
But his brothers can’t always be with him. Luke’s greatest fear comes in a form of a tall man in robes with buck teeth.
Luke doesn’t understand much of what happens, but it’s a week after his birthday party (which has been celebrated by his family by giving him cake) when a man stumbles to their front door and his mother rushes for help. Luke hides behind his mother as the man gets up from the floor and Luke just watches intently. His father and brothers are not home so whoever this man may be, he knows that he has the responsibility to protect his mother.
“Excuse me, is there a Mr. Luke Hemmings here?” The tall man starts and Luke sees his mother frown.
“Yes? Why do you need my son?” Luke hears his mother say and he feels a hand on his shoulder, pushing him behind her.
What Luke loves about his mother is the fact that she doesn’t need his father or his brothers to protect him at all costs.
“You must be Mrs. Hemmings, I see. I am Neville Longbottom, a professor from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Can we get inside, please? Your son Luke Hemmings has magical capabilities and is qualified to attend our school of magic. I’ll explain more details as we get inside.”
Liz Hemmings is a teacher. A math teacher, to be exact. She makes sure that her students get the best of their education, she makes sure that her sons make the best out of their education as well. Liz freezes on the spot though, Luke doesn’t understand why. If his mother is a teacher, why does she seem so afraid of this other teacher?
Nevertheless, Liz lets the strange professor inside their house. Luke stares at him curiously. He doesn’t dress like how his father would do as his father won’t definitely wear a robe that runs past his legs. And he looks curiously around their house, as if everything is new to him. Professor Longbottom catches Luke staring and smiles at him politely.
Luke blushes hard and looks away.
When they get inside and Liz has set down some drinks and snacks on the coffee table in the living room, Professor Longbottom starts talking.
It’s something about wizards and magic and wands and hidden societies and then, in the middle of their conversation where Liz just listens and listens, Professor Longbottom retrieves a wand and performs simple levitating magic in front of them, where the glass of orange juice floats in midair and Luke’s mother gasps.
What happens next are just a series of blurs to Luke.
Professor Longbottom talks to his parents in private and Luke is left to wonder on his own about his magical capabilities. He’s sitting in his room, with Jack knocking on the door but he doesn’t answer. His father and brother have come home an hour ago and now his parents and the professor are talking.
Luke is pretty smart, frankly speaking, the boy is a genius. He knows what he can do and he has seen what he can do. It appears when he’s happy, mostly, sometimes when he’s alone in their backyard, Luke can make flowers spurt out of the ground he’s standing on. Sometimes when he’s confused, this is when the grass under his feet die.
And sometimes, Luke can’t control the magic coming from him.
*
Professor Longbottom manages to convince Luke’s parents. Of course, they’re always surprised but then two days later, he’s shopping for robes and books and wands with Professor Longbottom helping them out. It’s pretty odd, Luke thinks. But he’s excited, he’s so excited that he stays up late reading all his books and reading the notes Professor Longbottom gave to him about the wizarding world.
Luke is so excited, but he is also scared, because this means that he’ll be separated from his brothers. His brothers who have protected him all his life. He’s going away from them soon and Luke doesn’t know if he can do that.
A night before his departure to Hogwarts, his brothers come to his room and pull him into a big hug.
His trunk is sitting beside his bed and his copy of Hogwarts: A History lies on his study table. Jack sits beside him and Ben sits across the both of them on Luke’s bed.
“We’re going to miss you.” Jack starts.
Luke smiles softly. He’s always been the baby of the family, after all.
“Yeah, when some wizard kid pulls a prank on you, don’t be afraid to mail to us or something. I’ll be there whooping their asses.” Ben tries to make it light and Luke laughs.
“You’re nothing to an Avada Kedavra, Ben.”
“A what?”
“Nothing.”
Luke spends the night talking to his brothers until the sun comes up and Liz scolds them for making Luke stay up. He’s tired but he’s happy that he got to talk to his brothers for a long time before leaving for a boarding school. He figures that he can sleep on the train later.
The whole of their family leaves for the King’s Cross Station, with directions from Professor Longbottom on how to get there. And with direct directions on how to enter platform 9 ¾. It’s not a very sad goodbye, really, Luke thinks it’s because they don’t want to make him feel bad for leaving but Liz doesn’t let him go for a long time and his brothers keep playfully punching him on the arm as they say their goodbyes. Andy only smiles at him proudly.
Luke doesn’t enter the train until it whistles and it demands him to get on the train. His brothers help him carry his trunk up and he waves goodbye to them until he can’t see them anymore.
When Luke finally gets a good look inside the train, this is where he realizes that he is afraid.
He is afraid because his brothers aren’t here to tell him to sit with them. He is afraid because he doesn’t know anyone. He is afraid because he doesn’t know how to do things alone without his big brothers guiding him. He’s afraid of the big change happening in front of him. The students in their robes are intimidating and Luke looks so out of place with his shirt and shorts.
You see, it’s always been Luke and his brothers until a second-year Gryffindor with soft curls come up to him with the biggest smile Luke has seen directed to him by someone who’s not his immediate family.
“Kid, do you wanna sit with me?” The older boy calls out from his compartment where he sits alone, he has a huge smile and Luke looks behind him, wondering if that statement is really meant for him.
“Me?” He turns to the older boy again, his eyes wide with surprise as he points to himself.
The boy nods, still wearing that biggest smile Luke has ever seen. “Of course! Unless you have friends to sit with?” The boy’s voice falls at the end of his sentence and Luke quickly shakes his head in response. He doesn’t want to upset the friendly Gryffindor.
“No, I’m a… a muggle-born? And I really don’t have any friends.” Luke says as he pulls his trunk inside the compartment and then closes it behind him, he feels slightly uncomfortable with using the new terms. “My name’s Luke.” He introduces as he sits across the friendliest person in the entire train, probably.
“Are you really?! That’s amazing! I’m half-blood and my name’s Ashton. I’m from Gryffindor. Man, I hope Gryffindor gets a lot of new kids this year! It’s definitely the most amazing house.” Ashton talks with so much enthusiasm and with so much body language. This makes Luke smile. How can one person be this friendly?
Luke doesn’t think that Gryffindor is the best house, though. Sure, it has produced Harry Potter and Albus Dumbledore but all houses have its different perks. He knows that Ashton is just talking with biased opinions but Luke doesn’t say that.
“Hope you get into Gryffindor! It’d be amazing! I could show you around and all that stuff if you get sorted into Gryffindor!”
Personally, with the things Luke has read, he thinks he’ll be more or less a Ravenclaw.
But he doesn’t say that.
“If I don’t get sorted into Gryffindor will you still show me around?”
Ashton blinks at him for a second, smile faltering for a beat but it comes back up with a nod that sends his curls bouncing. “Of course! Only if you don’t mind being with a loud Gryffindor. You look like a Hufflepuff to me.”
“Really?”
And then Ashton goes on about a story with Hufflepuffs and their kindness and how he feels like Luke would be a good Hufflepuff just from his looks. And the next minute he’s telling a funny story of the stairs on the way to the Gryffindor tower, and then he’s going on about jumping chocolate frogs and jellybeans that taste of everything. Luke laughs, he’s never laughed this hard with anyone other than his brothers but when it’s Ashton who’s telling him funny stories of a world he has yet to find out, he just feels like he’s at home, like he’s comfortable and like he has known this person for all his life.
Their conversation about dragons is interrupted by a rapping on their compartment door. Luke’s head snaps to the door and sees two boys. One is tan with a shy smile and the other is a paler boy who’s frowning and rapping on their compartment door. Luke is a little intimidated but Ashton opens the door for them. “Yeah?”
“Hi, my name’s Michael. We’re sitting with you. This is Calum and his sister sucks.” Michael says and huffs as he sinks down next to Luke. Luke scoots closer to the window to give more space for Michael but really, he’s just scared.
Calum follows inside next and he sits beside Ashton who welcomes them with a huge smile. It looks to Luke that Ashton’s so happy about their new company even though there has been a rude interruption. His brothers don’t really like strangers interrupting them.
“M’really sorry about my best friend. We’re sitting with my sister but she annoys him a lot so he pulled me out of the compartment.” Calum explains and Ashton says that it’s totally fine.
Calum goes on an explanation about the whole history of him and Michael while Michael just try to shut him up by wrestling him in the small train compartment. Ashton just laughs at the two boys until there are tears in his eyes and Luke’s the only one who seems to be trying to make them sit down.
The trolley lady arrives to their compartment and this is when the two best friends settle down to buy chocolate frogs. Ashton tells Luke that these are the jumping chocolate frogs he has been telling him about earlier into the ride.
When Luke gets his chocolate frog card, Michael stares in awe.
“No way, Luke! That’s Albus Dumbledore! He’s the only one that I need to complete my collection!” Michael says as he grimaces at his Merlin card. “Do you want to trade?”
And really, Luke doesn’t even know much about this but he nods and hands Michael his card.
Michael yelps in joy and Calum tells Ashton how lame Michael really is. Michael sticks his tongue out at Calum and says that Luke is his new best friend. Then, Calum and Michael have another banter and him and Ashton are laughing again.
If this is what Hogwarts has in store for Luke, then he doesn’t really mind being away from his family for a long time.
*
He gets sorted into Ravenclaw and Michael’s in Slytherin while Calum is surprisingly in Hufflepuff.
Ashton hops over to him during dinner that evening and tells him that he’ll still be touring him no matter he says. Luke is more than happy to agree.
When Ashton leaves, he looks over to Michael who’s already fitting in with the Slytherins and they all look so enamoured by him. Then, he checks up on Calum who’s already in a conversation with a bunch of older girls as he’s the younger of Mali-Koa, who’s apparently a really famous Gryffindor.
And then here is Luke, enjoying his pumpkin juice because no one dares to talk to him. But that’s fine, tomorrow, he’ll have three of his friends, anyway.
*
You see, sometimes, it’s Luke and Ashton. Sometimes it’s Michael and Calum. Sometimes it's Luke and Michael, Calum and Luke, Ashton and Michael, Ashton and Calum. But most times it’s Luke, Calum, Michael and Ashton. That’s something constant that won’t ever change. It’s always the four of them