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Chapter Text

No one ever told Shiro just how hard this was supposed to be. The inevitable feeling of falling, falling without a safety net to catch you and hold you up. Falling into the arms of the demons he had been trying so hard to run away from.

And here he was, embracing what he had always been told was wrong, what he had been told was dangerous.

Because- well, they always told him, back at the orphanage, that he was weird, that he was a mistake. So finding himself in a train filled with a thousand of mistakes like him was both intimidating and nice.

He had stuck by the side of the guy he had met on the train (Matthew Holt, he said his name was). He had learned more from him on the train ride than with Coran, the big funny guy with the orange moustache that had come to get him at the orphanage to explain him everything about who he was.

A wizard, apparently.

Which, I mean- yeah, cool. But also what the fuck.

Matt was the son of the headmaster, professor Samuel Holt. He was a 2nd year Ravenclaw (the smart house, basically) and his mother, Madam Coleen Holt was the healer of the school. He also had a little sister who would be going to Hogwarts in a few years- Katie.

And now Shiro was on a boat and being led to the castle of Hogwarts with a small group of first years like him, all buzzing with excitement and nervousness.

There was another few kids on the boat with him, but only one caught his attention. He looked way too mature to be an eleven year old kid, too distinguished. He was stoic, although the way he fiddled with his robe’s sleeve suggested a hint of nervousness.

Shiro couldn’t see clearly in the dark, with only the small yellow squares of the windows of the faraway castle and the lantern as source of light, but he could distinguish the boy’s messy hair and the black glasses framing his eyes. They glinted yellow in the dark, but Shiro was almost sure it was just because of the light, and that his eyes were actually green.

He was startled out of his thoughts when the boy turned towards him, likely sensing the intensity of his stare, and he turned quickly back to the castle, feeling his face flush red.

Shiro thought he heard a faint chuckle come from the boy.

When they finally arrived to the castle, they were quickly rushed inside by a woman: Professor Sanda, the deputy headmistress. She led them into the “Great Hall”, and Shiro was stunned for a moment.

The room was huge, with four tables hosting teenagers dressed in red, green, blue and yellow, and one smaller table in the back of the room, with the teachers sitting at it.

There was also a stool in front of the teacher’s table with a hat on it. Shiro guessed it was the Sorting Hat Matt had told him about on the train.

Professor Sanda said something about a sorting ceremony, but Shiro wasn’t listening any longer. His eyes were already scanning the room.

He quickly spotted Matt at the table of teens dressed in black and blue and was gifted with a bright grin and small wave, that he returned with a shy smile of his own. The rest of the tables lacked any friendly faces, so he decided to turn to the teacher’s table instead.

He caught Coran’s eye, who gave him a wink while he twirled one end of his orange moustache. He was sitting next to an extravagant looking guy dressed in dark green who kept muttering to himself. From Matt’s tales, Shiro recognised him as Professor Slav, the divination teacher. Shiro already disliked him.

Another teacher, near the empty seat of Professor Sanda, had a scarred eye and he glared at any student who even looked in his direction. Professor Iverson, likely. The potion’s teacher.

Finally Shiro’s eyes stopped on Headmaster Holt. He was sitting at the center of the table. Sanda’s empty seat to his right and another woman (who he guessed was his wife, Madam Holt) sitting to his left. His hair was grey and his eyes monitored the room. When they stopped on him, for a moment, Shiro thought he’d seen something in the Headmaster’s eyes. A flash of something, maybe surprise, maybe amusement.

Suddenly he felt the hair on the back of his neck straighten, like whenever he felt eyes on him. And as he turned around he found his suspicions were correct.

The boy from the boat was still staring at him. Studying him carefully. But he didn’t look away like Shiro had when he’d spotted him. On the contrary, his eyes narrowed and the intensity in his gaze seemed to deepen.

Now with the light of the Great Hall Shiro could see the boy clearly. He had bronze skin and hair like salted caramel (he was hungry, okay? And the colour was very similar). His eyes were emerald green behind the lenses of his thick, black glasses. Everything about him was neatly tidied, from his hair to his clothes, which looked of first choice and expensive, compared to Shiro’s second hand uniform.

(Hey, not his fault, really. The school’s founding was apparently short because of some guy that had studied there ages ago- Harry-something. Someone had used the school’s money to buy him the most expensive broom at the time. Who even was that guy??)

The boat kid finally looked away from him as the first kid (Rax Balmera) was called up. Shiro took a silent breath of relief. The guy was intimidating, but not scary. Frankly, he figured they could be friends too…

”Shirogane, Takashi.”

Shiro startled as his name was called. They were already at the S… how long had he been staring at the guy for??

Judging by the redness now present on the boy’s cheeks he figured a lot more than could be considered justifiable.

He quickly made his way over to the stool and to Professor Sanda, who put the Sorting Hat on his head as soon as he had sat down.

Ah… an orphan, I see… you’re new to this whole gig, aren’t ya? You remind of another one before you. He grew up to be a great wizard.

Uhm… okay..? was all Shiro could think of as a response. He was seriously hoping that if him and this guy- whoever he was -where so similar, the Hat would take only a few moments to sort him, and he’d be able to get all this attention off himself.

But just like him, you’re difficult.

Anddd his hoped were crushed.

You’re very loyal and hard working, and also very ambitious… but you’re also caring, and brave. Mmh… you’re not the brightest, that’s for sure.

Ouch. That’s not nice, Hat.

Oh well, I’m not supposed to be nice. I’m meant to be fair. Even though that doesn’t really go well most of the time. Just look at the Weasley’s! Ginny should’ve been a Slytherin, how did I not see that…

Uhh-

Now, that surely rules out Ravenclaw… oh, and Hufflepuff too, that’s for certain.

Huh? Why?

You’d be wasted there, no one cares about Hufflepuff. Main characters don’t go there. Unless you’re Newt Scamander, sure, but then again we all know how that turned out for him, just look at the movies…

…

…

So..?

Oh, right. Sorting. Uhm… let’s see…

God. Hod long had he been sitting there? Half a century?

Ahh, I know exactly where to put you…

”GRYFFINDOR!” The Hat announced loudly to the whole Great Hall, and the table of teens dressed in red clapped (and some kids even cheered, wow) as Shiro quickly made his way over to the table.

By pure luck he was sitting on the side of the Gryffindor table that faced to the Ravenclaw one, and when he turned in his seat he saw Matt staring at him intently.

He gave a small shrug and an approving nod, and then they turned back towards the Sorting Ceremony.

A couple names were called, before Professor Sanda read a name with a slightly different tone. Just a tinier bit more approving than the one she had used up until now.

”Wright, Adam.”

The kid from the boat stepped up to the stool with his chin raised high and his hands closed into fists by his sides.

Ah. So, Adam, huh?

It took the Hat only about ten seconds before putting him into Slytherin. The cheers from the green table were far louder and enthusiastic than the ones Shiro had gotten from the Gryffindors, and despite what the Sorting Hat said he wasn’t stupid. He was able to tell that whoever Adam Wright was, he or his family were very famous and appreciated.

Shiro turned towards Matt to see him frowning slightly, almost worried, as his eyes followed Adam to the Slytherin table. When he noticed the Gryffindor staring at him he just shrugged and mouthed “old friend”.

When he turned back, the second and third years next to him were muttering something about the Wright’s reputation, and a legacy being carried on, but Shiro wasn’t really listening. Because the kid was staring at him again.

Adam had his eyes fixed on Shiro, still judging, maybe a tad bit disappointed.

Shiro hadn’t heard a lot about the Slytherin house from Matt, or really about any house that wasn’t Ravenclaw, but he was more than certain that the kids from the Slytherin house weren’t always well seen by other. Either things had changed for some reason or people were just that afraid of the Wright name.

Whatever, Shiro thought, like I’d let what some kids think about a uniform colour decide for me.

If Adam Wright wanted to be his friend, so be it. Shiro wasn’t about to let anyone stop him, much less himself.

~*~

The Gryffindor kid was cute. Really cute. And that was all that Adam had to say about his first night at Hogwarts.

He had a Japanese name… Takashi, for sure. And then something with an S…

Oh, whatever, they were in the same year, they would share some classes, he’d figure it out.

He was clearly a muggleborn, or at least had grown up without the mention of magic. Adam considered himself a good observer, and he could tell as much.

Also, the kid had stared at him for a good five minutes straight, almost not blinking, like a cat.

Adam couldn’t tell if it was adorable or creepy. But considering he had returned the stares he probably wasn’t in the best position to judge.

However, if the kid was a muggleborn…

His family was a descendant of the Travers family, after his great grandma had married a Wright, and the remaining Travers had died, his branch of the family inherited everything, including the bad mouthing. It had taken a lot of time, money and good acts to get the people to realise that the Wright’s were different from the Travers’.

However, they were still a pureblood family, which meant that his contact with the wizarding world was limited to purebloods and (occasionally) halfbloods.

Being the heir of a pureblood family as important as his was hard, and he couldn’t afford to slip up and make any mistakes. Things were expected of him.

But then again Adam had never really been good with expectations.

And the kid was interesting, so sue him. He would have Takashi become his first friend.

He wanted to be different from the rest of his pureblood family. He wanted to be the black sheep of the family. He wanted to befriend a muggleborn.

And who knows, maybe Matt could introduce them. Him and Adam were old friends from childhood, and he had spotted the two chatting together on separate occasions during the day, from the train to dinner.

Yeah, Matt is his best bet to get to know this Takashi guy.

But damn, he was really cute.

Chapter Text

Allura shouldn’t have been as nervous about the situation as she was. Yet here she stood at the train platform next to her father as what she could only refer to as pure, unfiltered nervousness invaded her.

”You’ll be fine” her father had repeated once again as they were escorted into King’s Cross by a few Aurors.

(Because that’s what happens when your father is the Minister of Magic, you get a bunch of serious-looking guys following you around everywhere.)

”Alright, in you go. Make me proud.” Alfor said, and then, with a gentle smile he added: “and you will, don’t doubt it.”

Allura nodded, straightening her back slightly. She pulled nervously at the hem of her skirt to straighten it (she had chosen to wear her uniform already, because there was no way she was doing it on a train filled with teens), then pressed a kiss to her father’s cheek when he lowered himself and got on the train.

She found an empty compartment easily enough, especially because no one was really on the train yet. The few who were already filled had sixth and seventh year students who couldn’t wait to get away from their parents and to their last year’s at Hogwarts.

She also passed by a compartment with three boys inside, from the third or fourth year. Two of the faces looked known to her, and she soon recognised one as Matt Holt, Headmaster Holt’s son. The other was some kid she had probably seen at one of her father’s parties as a child.

The third boy she didn’t know, but they locked eyes while she passed. Those grey, warm eyes sent a shiver down Allura’s spine for some reason, so she chose not to sit there, especially since they looked cozy enough on their own.

Instead Allura settled in a compartment near the start of the train, since in her opinion no one would want to sit close to where the teachers were.

She went to greet Coran first. He was her father’s old friend and the herbology teacher at Hogwarts, and Allura was more than up to talking with him for a while. But eventually, when she went back to her chosen seat, she found it had been occupied.

A girl was sitting on the seat in front of her pick, a blonde with pigtails and soft, pastel oversized clothes. She was nervously tapping her fingers against her thigh, staring out the window and straining her neck, probably to spot her family.

Allura took a deep breath and sat in front of the other girl, who jumped at her sudden appearance.

”Oh- hi, uhm… my name is Romelle” the girl greeted with a shy smile.

”Allura” she answered back, extending a hand, which Romelle shook hesitantly.

”So… you’re Allura Altea? Like… the Minister’s daughter?”

Allura tried not to look to stiff. She wanted to make friends, and hopefully Romelle would be a good one.

”Yes, that’s me.”

Romelle nodded in awe, and then went back to looking out the window.

”My father is a muggle, my mom’s a witch. I didn’t know about any of this until June,” she chuckled weakly “it was a shock for pa, he didn’t know he’d married a witch, but he was so very excited for me”

Allura smiled slightly. She hadn’t known a lot about not being like others expected, so she couldn’t entirely relate, but she liked that girl already.

“You’ll  make them both proud, I don’t doubt it”

Romelle smiled warmly, and Allura felt the smallest flutter to her stomach.

What.

Now Allura might’ve not known a lot about muggles and magic yet, but she believed to be a quite observant person emotionally. And she was pretty sure that that tug to her heart was not platonic.

Before she could consider her feelings further, the compartment’s door opened again, making the two girls straighten and look to the newcomer.

It was a boy. And not just a boy, but a kid Allura knew very well, whose mere presence in the room made her scowl and Romelle quiver.

Lotor Daibazaal.

Son of Zarkon, a powerful pureblood who was rumoured to have been picking back up Lord Voldemort’s work from decades prior.

Lotor stood awkwardly in the doorway, and when his eyes crossed Allura’s he seemed to freeze slightly, probably recognising her as the Minister’s daughter.

”Oh, uhm… sorry, all the other seats are taken…”

Allura was about to answer with something by childish, like “that’s too damn bad” and then slam the door on his face, but she was beaten by Romelle.

”Of course, come in”

The minister’s daughter was pretty sure her neck had cracked from how fast she had snapped her head towards the blonde, who just shrugged back.

Lotor gingerly took place next to Romelle.

”I suppose you already know who I am” he said, slightly nervous, and then he looked to Allura “and I already know who you are”

Romelle then extended a hand towards him.

”I’m Romelle. Are you up for some pumpkin pastries?”

~*~

Hogwarts was massive.

That was Romelle’s only thought as she wandered around the halls, staring at the big armours and large corridors. And that was also probably the thought that went through the heads of all the other muggleborn first years.

They were quickly led through a series of halls and rooms, and Romelle felt the excitement in her grow the more she saw.

But the Great Hall? That was a whole different story.

It was massive, with a magical ceiling that looked like the sky.

She barely registered when the deputy headmistress called the first name.

”Altea Allura”

Everyone started muttering under their breaths, and Allura looked green in the face. Romelle gave her hand a reassuring squeeze, before letting her go up to the sorting hat.

It took a few seconds that were clearly nerve wrecking for Allura before the hat yelled “GRYFFINDOR!”

Loud cheers came from the table of kids dressed in red. Allura looked extremely relieved as she ran off to the table, giving Romelle a warm smile as she passed. Her eyes looked like two bright stars.

Wow. Romelle was SOOO gay.

The deputy headmistress called a few more names before Lotor’s, but the change in the room was evident. The temperature seemed to go down by several degrees, and said boy looked like he wanted to bury himself alive.

Romelle gently nudged his arm, and Lotor finally moved.

The hat barely hesitated before announcing “SLYTHERIN!”. Lotor looked resigned as he walked over to the table with the kids wearing green. There was no cheering this time.

The rest of the wait was agonising for Romelle. When they finally reached the ‘P’ she almost jumped as she heard her name get called.

”Prince Romelle”

Romelle jumped, and quickly made her way to the stool. The deputy headmistress placed the Sorting Hat on her head.

Ahhh. You’re a Prince and a Halfblood… some might call you the Halfblood Prince, haha

Uhh- what?

Ugh, knew you wouldn’t understand it. Anyway… yeah, you give off major sunshine minor character, golden retriever girlfriend vibes

What

Yup, we need some more yuri in this story. We love to piss off the ol’ JK Rowling

What??

Don’t worry about it, go make your house proud

”HUFFLEPUFF!”

Romelle blinked away her confusion as she sat down at the table with the kids wearing yellow.

Okay- the hat was insane.

But… Hogwarts seemed to be very interesting. And Romelle already knew she was about to experience some really weird stuff.