Remix for floweranza
Title: A Place to Belong
Rating: G
Group/Pairing: Arashi friendship - no pairings (they're all 11-12 after all)
Warnings: AU - Harry Potter universe
Notes: This is a remix of a Harry Potter drabble - I wanted to expand with Harry Potter canon plus the way floweranza worked Arashi into it. The original focused on Nino, and this focuses on Jun as he rides the Hogwarts Express for the very first time.
Link to Original Story: Beginning
Link to Original Writer: floweranza and you can find a few more of her Harry Potter themed drabbles linked in her writing journal, pogonipky.
The plastic carrier bounced on Jun’s knees as the car puttered its way along the A22. They’d left home early to hopefully “combat the London traffic,” his father had said with utmost seriousness. Jun didn’t know too much about the traffic situation on account of having no driving license. He was only eleven after all.
And very recently eleven at that, his mother kept reminding him. She wasn’t in favor of this whole wizard school business, and the fact that Jun would be spending the whole year in Scotland now pleased her even less. But as the very strange headmaster, Johnny, had explained when he was over for tea, Jun was a very “elite” young man. A wizard with magical powers, capable of doing “so many great things.”
Well, Jun had been happy to hear such a thing from this Johnny. After all, there wasn’t all that much that kept Jun engaged in his schoolwork at home. He had below average grades and only enjoyed recess. He’d accidentally set one of his Gran’s draperies on fire on the family’s last visit, and soon after, his family had received a visit from Johnny from the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
That magic was real was overwhelming enough a concept. But that Jun was going to school to learn to control such a power within himself? He could hardly believe it. Knowing that there were other children out there who were special made him feel a little better about setting Gran’s drapes up in flames.
There was a rather noisy ‘ribbit’ sound from inside the carrier. He still wasn’t sure about the toad though. When Johnny had visited, he’d brought a supply list for first years, and shopping had been tons of fun. Well, not tons of fun for his mum. They’d gone in to London and visited Diagon Alley, and between books, robes, wand and trunk, it had cost a good amount of money. Jun had asked for an owl. His mother had waved her few remaining wizarding coins at him and scowled.
And thus the toad. He’d christened him (her?) Toady for lack of a better name. Toady was a noisy sucker, but he was magical and apparently that allowed the shop in Diagon Alley to charge them a good deal of money. His father kept grumbling that Jun should have just grabbed any old toad from the pond near their house, but the supply list had been fairly insistent.
They made it to London in decent time, their car weaving through traffic to King’s Cross station. “They want to charge me how much to park here?” his father was complaining, and Jun shrunk in his seat.
Though Jun himself was rather pleased about being a wizard, his parents were not altogether supportive. His mother had cried as soon as Johnny left that day. He already felt like he was greatly inconveniencing them by having them drive him to catch the Hogwarts train. He clutched Toady’s carrier and frowned, hearing his parents argue about whether to wait until the train had departed or to leave once Jun had located “a school chum or two.”
He didn’t want to be left alone on the platform, and his mother was bickering with his father about this. He wasn’t going to see his parents until Christmas, after all, and it wasn’t like he had any school chums yet. He’d only just discovered his powers. None of his friends from primary school were coming along. They couldn’t even know that Jun was going away to Hogwarts. The story in the neighborhood would be reform school, and it only embarrassed his parents further. But what else could they say?
His father waved off a porter lest the man ask for a tip later. He pulled Jun’s trunk out of the car’s boot and retrieved a little trolley while his mother handled his schoolbag full of books. Jun himself carried Toady and his brand new wand (mahogany, twelve and one quarter inches, with a unicorn hair core), nervously looking around the station in hopes that there’d be some other wizard-looking folks walking about.
They tried locating Platform 9 3/4 with some trouble. He’d had to yank on his father’s sleeve, begging him not to ask people about it. Sure, he knew about magic now, and so did his parents (much as they didn’t like acknowledging it), but they couldn’t just ask anyone where the train for the magical school was. They ended up loitering in between Platforms 9 and 10 for nearly twenty minutes until a girl with bushy hair went through the wall with her parents. That was enough for Jun’s father. He abruptly left the trolley and headed for the car without a word or even a goodbye for Jun.
Jun turned crimson in embarrassment, feeling tears start to well up. His first official day as a wizard was going pretty badly. His mother patted his shoulder, setting the book bag down on top of the trolley.
“Your father loves you very much,” she assured him. “But this is a lot for us to take. Please understand.” And then his mother pushed the trolley straight through the wall.
Jun held Toady’s carrier tight against his chest and shut his eyes, following after her. And amazingly enough, when he opened them again, there was a large steam locomotive and several brightly painted carriages on the platform, a track leading out of King’s Cross that he hadn’t been able to see before. Johnny hadn’t been pulling their leg. The Hogwarts Express was real, and he was going to ride it. He wiped his eyes and smiled.
But his mother wasn’t doing so well. There were other parents hugging their children goodbye, and they were all dressed like wizards. He couldn’t see any other Muggle families in their immediate vicinity. Diagon Alley had given his mother so much stress that she’d complained of a headache for a few days after. Being on Platform 9 3/4 with a bunch of witches and wizards was not helping.
She parked the trolley next to the rear train carriage. It looked like she was going to be making a quick exit as well. “I’m sure they’ll let you board early and get settled in a good seat,” she said, wrapping her arms around him tightly. “Promise to write and tell me all about your new school and your new friends.”
Stay, Jun thought. Mum, please stay. But he couldn’t get the words out and just clung to her. He’d never really been away from home before. He’d been brave at home, thinking about all the different spells he was going to learn out of his new school books and how he was going to learn to ride a broom and be the best wizard he could possibly be. But now his parents were abandoning him at King’s Cross because they were embarrassed. Johnny had called him elite and special. To Jun’s parents though, he was something to be ashamed of. Something that made them sad.
“I’ll write as much as I can,” he said quietly, words getting lost in his mother’s sleeve as he hugged her tight. “I’m sorry.”
“Just don’t do anything to cause trouble,” she told him. “I don’t want this to hurt your Gran any more than it already has, Jun.”
He nodded and released her, standing dumbly next to his trolley. “I’ll be okay.” He wasn’t really convinced of this.
“Well,” his mum said, looking around nervously. “Your father’s probably livid about his parking charge. I should be moving on.”
“Okay.”
And with that, she headed back through the wall without another look for him. He sighed, shoulders sinking. Johnny had said that Hogwarts was the best place for Jun, and that everyone there was a wizard or witch just like he was. But maybe being a wizard wasn’t such a good thing.
He looked around at the other families, seeing siblings and parents and even a few grandparents. Everyone was chatting merrily. There was talk of rooming assignments and about the different professors, although Jun wasn’t familiar with any of the names he was hearing. Well, standing on the platform was just going to make him miserable. Maybe some of the Hogwarts Express magic would sink in if he just boarded. It had to beat standing here by his lonesome.
One of the porters took his trunk and other belongings off to the baggage car, showing him where to board. Several compartments were already occupied, and he kept moving until he reached the next car. He saw one that had two boys about his age inside talking. Well, he wasn’t going to make any friends if he didn’t try to be friendly.
“Hi,” he said, and his voice sounded so loud. The two boys - one tall and chubby, the other with striking blond hair and a sneer - turned to look at him. “I’m Jun Matsumoto. I’ll be a first year. Could I sit with you?”
The blond boy stood up and approached, eyeing his clothes with a rather disapproving eye. Jun was already regretting asking to sit in this car, but he was stuck now that the boy was looking.
“Never heard of you. What are you wearing?”
Jun looked down in confusion. “Um. Levi’s?”
The blond boy was in dark clothes, already wearing his Hogwarts robe over them. “Typical Muggle, eh?” the chubby boy said, and Jun swallowed slowly. Johnny had said that he was pretty unique - a wizard born from Muggle parents. But Johnny hadn’t said that this was apparently a bad thing. The way the boy had said Muggle sounded like being a Muggle was the worst thing in the universe.
Jun took a step back, out of the compartment, wishing he hadn’t chosen to be friendly at all. “Never mind, I’ll sit somewhere else...”
But blond boy was enjoying this, grabbing Jun by his sleeve. “Where you going? Off to see if you can sit with some other Mudbloods? Going to talk about how pathetic your parents are?”
“My parents aren’t pathetic,” Jun protested, wishing he had the courage to punch the guy in the nose. And Mudblood? What was that? It wasn’t Jun’s fault his parents had no magical ability. It didn’t make them any less of a person.
“Did your mum save all her worthless Muggle money to buy you that stupid toad?” the bully continued.
Jun’s grip tightened on the handle for Toady’s carrier. That did it. It was his first day, and he’d wanted to make a good impression so he wouldn’t be sent to reform school for real, but this boy had no right to talk badly about his mother. He was just about to fumble around in his back pocket for his new wand when he heard another voice in the compartment.
“Oi! What’s that smell? It smells like an inbred Malfoy.” Jun turned to see a rather mischievous boy come hurrying up, a sleepy looking boy arm in arm with him. “Making fun of other people when you can barely wipe your arse without your mum’s help?”
The blond boy, Malfoy, scowled. Jun could see a rather noticeable dot on the mischievous boy’s chin. It seemed important, but Jun couldn’t put his finger on why. Should he know this boy? But either way, dot-chin boy and his sleepy friend had gotten Malfoy interested, and they scampered off down the corridor. Malfoy and his fat friend gave chase, and suddenly, Jun was alone in the compartment. Well, if he saw the dot-chin boy again, he’d have to thank him. His whole career at Hogwarts could have been jeopardized if he’d tried to use magic. Since he was not only unskilled but underage.
He sat down next to the window and settled Toady’s carrier on the seat beside him. Glancing out at the platform, lots of parents were leaving and it looked like the train would be underway shortly. He just hoped Malfoy and his bully friend wouldn’t come back to this compartment. It would be a long trip to Hogwarts, but maybe it was better for Jun to just stay alone.
He wished he’d brought one of his schoolbooks along though because staring out the window or staring at Toady would probably be occupying the next several hours. Jun’s quiet ended as a tall, lanky boy came running up, pausing in the doorway to Jun’s compartment.
He was out of breath and panting heavily. “Have you...have you seen...a cat?” The boy flailed his hands about. “Like, this long and this tall, kind of ginger looking? Her name is Curry.”
Jun had seen only people thus far on the Hogwarts Express. He especially hadn’t seen a cat named Curry - and how would the cat know its name was Curry anyhow? “No, I’m sorry.”
“Wow! You have a toad!” the boy said, switching from his worry about the cat to Toady almost instantly. He hurried over and crouched down, smushing his nose against the carrier to stare the toad down. “So cool!”
For the first time since his trip to Diagon Alley, Jun was rather pleased with his magical animal purchase. “Thanks. His name is Toady. I couldn’t think of a better name.”
“I think it suits him,” the boy said, grinning from ear to ear. “I’m Masaki Aiba, by the way. I’m a first year.”
Jun felt a swelling in his heart. Not only did this Masaki Aiba think his toad was cool, but he was another first year! And he hadn’t made fun of Jun or called him a Mudblood or anything yet. “Jun Matsumoto. I’m also a first year.”
Aiba smiled again, and it was pretty infectious. It was good to know that there were nice wizards. Not everyone was mean like the Malfoy kid.
“It’s nice to meet you. We should be friends. I mean, if we get Sorted together. Well, if we don’t, I haven’t met anyone else with a toad yet, and I’d love to play with him. I love animals. In fact, I already know what I want to be when I graduate!”
Jun blinked. Aiba sure was an excitable, chatty person. He’d be fun to eat with from time to time, but if they were in the same dorm, Jun wondered how long it would take someone like Aiba to fall asleep. “What do you want to be when you graduate?”
“Duh,” Aiba said as if it was obvious. “A dragon tamer!”
Jun shrank in his seat. “A dragon tamer?” There were dragons out there? It was crazy enough that there was magic and magic schools and train platforms you reached by walking through a wall. But real dragons?
“Yep, I’m going to be good at it, I just know it.”
It sounded pretty dangerous to Jun. But his conversation with Aiba was pretty short-lived as a boy with dark hair poked his head in the compartment. “Yo, Aiba. One of the prefects said they saw a ginger cat up at the front of the train.”
Aiba turned to look at his friend. “Really? Ahhhh, thanks Yoko, you’re awesome!” Aiba turned back to Jun and looked almost disappointed. “Well, I better go find my cat. I’ll see you later, Jun!”
The Yoko kid waved, and he and Aiba ran off in search of Curry the cat. And finally the train lurched and started moving forward. Jun missed Aiba already. His compartment was empty once more, save for him and Toady. He watched the buildings of central London change to the office parks and houses of the suburbs and within a short while, there were fields of green stretching as far as Jun could see.
How many witches and wizards lived off in the distance? Throughout the country? How many of them were as confused as Jun felt?
Toady made another noisy ribbit inside his carrier, and Jun felt bad that he hadn’t given him any crickets to eat since they’d left that morning. A witch came by with a snack trolley, and Jun was still pretty unsure of the wizarding currency.
All the candy looked a bit suspicious, and he pointed half-heartedly at a pumpkin pastie. “One please. And um, my toad’s a little hungry, I think...”
He just held open the coin purse with whatever leftover money had remained after Toady’s purchase. The witch was kind-hearted though, plucking only a few coins out of it. She handed Jun a small wrapper containing his pastie, and it smelled pretty good and was warm in his hands. She rummaged around in the cart for a while and found a small plastic tub.
“He’ll eat slugs, yeah?” she asked, and Jun shrugged. He opened the carrier and let the witch dump the slug in. Toady offered another ribbit, and Jun closed the lid, sliding the carrier further down the seat. He didn’t really want to watch Toady enjoy his lunch. The trolley continued along the corridor, leaving Jun with his snack and Toady with his.
His parents had been so concerned about getting him to London and getting him away from them (or so it felt like) that they hadn’t packed him a proper lunch. But the pastie’s pumpkin filling was quite good, and Jun’s remaining money would be able to buy him a few snacks once he got to school.
His pastie was nearly finished when there was some more commotion in the corridor.
“Planning to kiss up? You best not be Sorted with us!”
His heart started to race at the sound of Malfoy’s voice again, but the snack trolley witch scolded him, urging him back into his compartment. The door slammed, and Malfoy’s voice was muffled within. A boy walked past Jun’s compartment then, arms full of books, but then he halted suddenly.
Jun took another nervous bite of his snack when the boy poked his head in. Well, it was more like the boy’s eyes. His pile of books obscured the lower half of his face. “Hi, I’m suddenly in need of a new seat. Do you mind?”
If the boy had books, even school books, maybe he’d let Jun borrow one to read. He nodded, and the boy set the books down on the seat across from Jun and sat down in quite a huff. Like the Malfoy kid, this boy was already in his Hogwarts robes, and from the material, Jun could tell that they were more expensive than his own.
His new seatmate had a round face and kind of a large forehead, barely obscured by a few strands of fringe. When he talked, Jun could see that the boy had large teeth too. Then again, kids at school had teased Jun about his own face, so maybe it was a little rude to judge the boy with the books so harshly right off the bat.
He instead focused on finishing his snack, sneaking glances as the boy arranged the school books to his satisfaction. He wondered why he was carrying all of them with him. There was no way he could read all of them during the ride. Like Aiba with the cat from before, this boy liked to talk. But unlike Aiba with the cat from before, this boy was grumpy.
He was complaining under his breath. Something about Malfoy and “...hope he gets into Slytherin with all the other bullies” and “...gonna pass out if this rickety train goes over that one bridge.”
The boy finally settled down with a rather large book in his lap. He’d struck out with Malfoy earlier, and Aiba had been the one to start their conversation. This boy was in a bad mood, but it sounded like it was Malfoy’s fault. Maybe they had that in common.
“What are you reading?” he asked quietly.
The boy looked up. “Hogwarts, a History.” He then squinted at Jun. “You don’t recognize it? It’s a best seller. It’s one of the most important books ever.”
Jun looked at his sneakers. “I’ve never seen it before.”
His seatmate leaned forward, eyeing him curiously. Not the mean kind of look Malfoy had had, but a genuine curiosity. “You don’t know Hogwarts, a History? Pardon me for asking, but are your parents wizards?”
He didn’t mind the boy asking. It was better than listening to him complain and mutter under his breath. “They’re not. They’re Muggles.”
“Both of them?”
He nodded. “Both of them.”
“Wow,” the boy said. He actually closed the book and set it beside him. “I’ve never met anyone with Muggle parents before. But the Sakurai family’s been a pureblood family for generations so it’s not like I get to socialize with...”
And on and on and on the boy went, talking about things Jun had never heard of or didn’t understand. Jun wasn’t sure what the boy was getting at, but he was talkative just like Aiba, and Jun could see this being a problem. But the way this boy said Muggle wasn’t mean. He said Muggle like it was something unique and interesting, kind of like Jun thought having magical abilities was something unique and interesting.
“...I had a question,” Jun finally interrupted him, stopping the boy midway through some story about his father being Very Important and working for the Ministry of Magic, whatever that was.
“Oh,” the boy said, brows furrowing.
“This...this Sorting business,” Jun said quietly. “Everyone’s been talking about it. What does it mean?” The only sorting Jun had done in his life was separating his clothes into whites and colors for his mum to wash.
“You really don’t know anything, do you?” the boy said bluntly. He grabbed the famous Hogwarts book and moved to squish himself between Jun and the window. He let the book rest half on his lap and half on Jun’s. He could see four crests, each labeled as a different house at the magical school.
Jun eyed each crest in turn while his book-loving friend rambled on about each house and its history. The terrain was already changing outside the window - his friend was rather long winded, but at least it made the ride go faster.
“Does it really matter which house you’re in?” Jun asked. He just hoped he wasn’t Sorted with Malfoy. Maybe it would be helpful to be Sorted with that boy who had the mark on his chin. Not that Jun needed protection from some skinny kid with a snotty attitude.
“Of course it matters,” the boy grumbled. “Every Sakurai for generations has been Sorted into Ravenclaw. My father was a Ravenclaw, and he was Head Boy!”
Wit, creativity, and wisdom Jun read on the pages before him. Well, Sakurai hadn’t been all that witty or creative thus far. And Jun didn’t know if parroting a bunch of facts out of a book could really be considered wisdom, but if Sakurai’s parents were anything like Jun’s, then they probably had a lot of expectations for their son. Although wizarding parents were probably different from Muggle ones, at least if their kid was equally magical.
Sakurai eventually picked up the book and returned to his side of the compartment. Jun didn’t much care which house he was put in, but maybe it was a good idea to get Sorted with Sakurai. Jun had never been the best student in Muggle school, and he didn’t expect a magical course load to make him any better at doing his homework. Sakurai seemed like enough of a know-it-all that maybe he would be able to give Jun some help.
Before he knew it, he’d fallen asleep and only woke when he felt Sakurai poking him in the shoulder with one of his books. “Oi, time to go,” the boy said, and Jun blinked awake. It was completely dark outside. There was definitely no going back now.
He grabbed Toady’s carrier while Sakurai gathered up his obnoxious number of books. They filed slowly out of the carriage, and Jun noticed that the boy was a lot quieter now that they were out with the rest of the students. Even if Sakurai knew Hogwarts, a History cover to cover, he was just like Jun now. A new kid at a new school.
They were directed over to a lake, and the air was pretty chilly this far north, even at the tail end of summer. Jun wished he had his robes from his trunk, but that was already getting carted off. Sakurai walked behind him as they moved to where the water was lapping against the boats at the shore.
“Those don’t look so sturdy,” Sakurai was complaining, voice a bit strained from having to carry all his books. “I like boats and all, but what if it tips over? What if we drown? You know there’s all sorts of creatures living in the lake!”
Well, Jun hadn’t known that, but now he did. And then he felt a book hit the back of his head, and all of Sakurai’s precious textbooks fell into the mud at their feet. By the time he turned around, Sakurai was nearly in tears and Malfoy and his friends were heading off to another boat.
“I’ll hex him,” Sakurai was saying, sniffling. “I’ll learn every last jinx, and I’ll get him.”
He didn’t get a chance to help his new friend. Jun was forced into the boat, and it was Aiba tugging on his sleeve. “Come on, ride with me! Yoko’s a second year, so he gets to go in the carriage. And nobody wants to ride with Nino. He was complaining about getting seasick,” the anxious boy was saying. “Can you get seasick on a lake?”
Jun didn’t know who Nino was. Had he met him already? Aiba probably knew everyone on the Hogwarts Express by now. Jun watched Sakurai pick his books up out of the mud, but the boat soon filled with other first years, and it set off from shore, powered by some sort of magic. Aiba linked arms with him and smiled.
“Maybe if we stand next to each other in line, the Sorting Hat will know we’re friends! We can get put in the same house!” Aiba exclaimed, and Jun just nodded. All he could think about was Sakurai and his books in the mud.
--
The Great Hall and Hogwarts Castle itself were overwhelming, and Jun was suddenly grateful for Aiba’s clingy nature. The boy had pretty much attached himself to Jun, even though he was taller as they waited in the queue for the Sorting Hat to be placed on their heads.
The next seven years of Jun’s life - who his friends would be, who he’d live with, who he’d have classes with every day - all came down to a magical hat shouting out his house. Malfoy and his friends had already celebrated their way over to the Slytherin table, and Jun just hoped the hat wouldn’t have the same idea for him.
Sure, Jun was slightly ambitious. But only slightly. And Sakurai had hinted pretty strongly that someone Muggle-born was unlikely to go there, so Jun had that to rely on. He hadn’t seen Sakurai since the boats had left, so he could only imagine that the boy was further back in the queue of first years.
Aiba’s friend Yoko and some other Hufflepuffs were waving from their table, and Aiba waved back. “I’m going to ask the hat to put me in Hufflepuff,” Aiba was telling him as they shuffled forward. “Do you want to go with me?”
Jun wondered if it was as easy as all that though. And if Sakurai was going to follow in his family’s footsteps, then he’d be off to Ravenclaw. He was kind of torn. Aiba was nice, if noisy, and he’d been awfully fond of Toady. But Sakurai had explained things about magic and the wizarding world, if in more detail than Jun had required. And he was pretty smart too. He kind of wanted to get put with both of them, but that was probably hoping for too much.
“Everyone’s staring at me,” came a voice from behind them. It was dot-chin boy - and dot-chin boy just happened to be the Nino nobody wanted to ride the boat with down by the lake.
“They’re staring because you’re important,” his sleepy friend, Ohno, was saying. The two of them were inseparable already. They’d probably get put in the same house.
“What do you mean important?” Jun interjected while Aiba was communicating with the Hufflepuff table in some crazy hand gestures.
“You don’t know who Nino is?” Ohno gasped, and Nino poked him on the cheek.
“He doesn’t have to know.”
Jun sighed. Wizards sure were just as weird as the Muggle kids Jun had gone to primary school with (although it’s not like he’d known what a Muggle was back then). “Forget I asked then.”
Ohno just gave Jun an easy smile. “Nino’s the Boy who Lived.”
“Lived to wait in the longest queue ever,” Nino complained, seemingly pleased that Jun had no idea what any of that meant. Boy who lived? Weren’t they all alive here? Well, except for the ghosts wandering around the castle. Jun hadn’t expected that either.
It was Aiba’s turn, and a rather mean looking professor with dark greasy hair waved him forward impatiently. He was the head of Slytherin House, Jun recalled, although all the names and faces and houses and history were starting to blur together. “Today, if you don’t mind. Lot more to be Sorted out.”
Jun watched nervously as Aiba hurried up to sit down and have the Sorting Hat placed on his head. He could see the Hufflepuff table grow silent as Aiba’s face changed. Was the Sorting Hat talking to him? Jun couldn’t hear a thing. But Aiba seemed to be thinking awfully hard about something, his face going from happiness to confusion to what might have been alarm before finally settling on calm.
“Gryffindor!” the hat shouted, and the Hufflepuff table, at least the part with Aiba’s friends, let out a sad moan. The Gryffindor table wasn’t so put out though, cheering Aiba’s arrival and offering a cup of pumpkin juice to him as he arrived.
The professor gave Jun a very hard look then, and he moved as fast as his legs could carry him.
“Well, if it isn’t Jun Matsumoto,” he heard inside his head once the hat descended, “with the Muggle parents.”
He didn’t know if he was supposed to acknowledge anything, but the hat seemed to know him instantly.
“You’re brave to have come so far, Jun Matsumoto, not knowing how special you are,” it assured him. “This one’s for Gryffindor!”
He beamed from ear to ear, getting up and making his way over to the Gryffindor table. There’d be no Malfoy, and Aiba was clapping and smiling. And the other Gryffindors were happy to have him. Nobody was giving him a dirty look as he approached. Nobody was calling him a Mudblood. Everyone here had magical abilities just like him, and they were welcoming him.
“Sit down here! Here, next to me!” Aiba was saying, patting the bench next to him.
But Jun’s arrival was quickly forgotten as Nino took a seat and the Sorting Hat was placed on his head. There were whispers up and down the Gryffindor table, and as Jun looked around, he could see whispering going on at each table in the Great Hall. Why was Nino so special? What could a boy the same age as Jun have done that was earning all these whispers? It clearly made Nino uncomfortable.
To Jun's surprise, Nino was also placed in Gryffindor, and he came walking over looking rather pleased with himself. Unlike when he and Aiba had come over, there was a bit of a delayed reaction. But when the cheers did come, they were overwhelming. The Slytherin table, however, seemed to exhale in relief at Nino's placement. Whoever or whatever Nino was, he was somebody Jun wanted to know more about. Ohno with the round cheeks joined them, and now Gryffindor had four boys Sorted in a row. Jun wondered if the Sorting Hat was playing tricks or if fate had just queued them up together.
The Hogwarts food was tasty, and once the excitement about Nino's Sorting had died down, Jun focused more on his dinner than where other kids in the queue were being placed. Most of the noise was concentrated on the tables behind them - the raucous cheers of a Hufflepuff announcement, the polite clapping of Ravenclaw and the thunderous, almost menacing roars from the other end of the Great Hall where Slytherin was gathered.
It was only when Aiba poked him that Jun thought to look at who was getting the Sorting Hat on his head. It was the very last person in the queue, someone hurrying into the Great Hall as though he'd missed the start of the Sorting. Perhaps he'd been drying off his books.
“Oh, it's Sakurai,” Aiba was saying. “He was being all stuffy on the train.”
Stuffy? Well, Jun couldn't exactly disagree with that. The boy had been rather particular. “Maybe he'll end up in Slytherin then,” Jun said, trying to pretend as though he agreed with Aiba's assessment of the boy. And then he felt awful, twisting his hands around the tablecloth.
Sakurai had been nice to him in his own peculiar way. He didn't really want the boy to end up in Slytherin - it was a one-way ticket to seven years of bullying, Jun suspected. He was expecting to hear a loud “Ravenclaw!” and then nearly spilled his pumpkin juice when the Hat shouted “Gryffindor!”
Aiba made a dismissive noise as Sakurai, face horrified, came trudging over. “Well, he must be really brave or something.” Nino seemed equally amused by the Sorting Hat's decision.
Although Jun was marveling at his luck, getting placed together with both Aiba and Sakurai, it seemed as though Mr. 'My Father was a Ravenclaw and Head Boy' seemed like he wanted to cry. Ruined books and the only Gryffindor in his family? It had probably been a rather rotten day for Sakurai.
However, there was a change in the boy's face, the same kind of surprise he'd had in his eyes when he'd discovered that Jun was Muggle-born. He hurried over and got right up in Nino's face.
“Oh my god, that mole! You're the Boy Who Lived! Did you know that you're in Hogwarts, a History?”
Sakurai's depression was easily avoided in favor of some new knowledge. Jun smiled and sipped his pumpkin juice, looking around the table. Know-it-all Sakurai. Friendly, quiet Ohno. Boisterous Aiba. The Boy who had apparently Lived. And him.
Sure, he didn't know anything about Hogwarts or magic or what waited just around the corner, but as his fellow first year Gryffindors started chattering and bickering with each other, Jun felt as though something had clicked. Something he couldn't put his finger on, but being with the other four, knowing that these were going to be the people who would come to know him most in the next several years...well, it felt good.
His parents had left him at the platform that morning, but here he was at Hogwarts. And he was here to stay.
Rating: G
Group/Pairing: Arashi friendship - no pairings (they're all 11-12 after all)
Warnings: AU - Harry Potter universe
Notes: This is a remix of a Harry Potter drabble - I wanted to expand with Harry Potter canon plus the way floweranza worked Arashi into it. The original focused on Nino, and this focuses on Jun as he rides the Hogwarts Express for the very first time.
Link to Original Story: Beginning
Link to Original Writer: floweranza and you can find a few more of her Harry Potter themed drabbles linked in her writing journal, pogonipky.
The plastic carrier bounced on Jun’s knees as the car puttered its way along the A22. They’d left home early to hopefully “combat the London traffic,” his father had said with utmost seriousness. Jun didn’t know too much about the traffic situation on account of having no driving license. He was only eleven after all.
And very recently eleven at that, his mother kept reminding him. She wasn’t in favor of this whole wizard school business, and the fact that Jun would be spending the whole year in Scotland now pleased her even less. But as the very strange headmaster, Johnny, had explained when he was over for tea, Jun was a very “elite” young man. A wizard with magical powers, capable of doing “so many great things.”
Well, Jun had been happy to hear such a thing from this Johnny. After all, there wasn’t all that much that kept Jun engaged in his schoolwork at home. He had below average grades and only enjoyed recess. He’d accidentally set one of his Gran’s draperies on fire on the family’s last visit, and soon after, his family had received a visit from Johnny from the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
That magic was real was overwhelming enough a concept. But that Jun was going to school to learn to control such a power within himself? He could hardly believe it. Knowing that there were other children out there who were special made him feel a little better about setting Gran’s drapes up in flames.
There was a rather noisy ‘ribbit’ sound from inside the carrier. He still wasn’t sure about the toad though. When Johnny had visited, he’d brought a supply list for first years, and shopping had been tons of fun. Well, not tons of fun for his mum. They’d gone in to London and visited Diagon Alley, and between books, robes, wand and trunk, it had cost a good amount of money. Jun had asked for an owl. His mother had waved her few remaining wizarding coins at him and scowled.
And thus the toad. He’d christened him (her?) Toady for lack of a better name. Toady was a noisy sucker, but he was magical and apparently that allowed the shop in Diagon Alley to charge them a good deal of money. His father kept grumbling that Jun should have just grabbed any old toad from the pond near their house, but the supply list had been fairly insistent.
They made it to London in decent time, their car weaving through traffic to King’s Cross station. “They want to charge me how much to park here?” his father was complaining, and Jun shrunk in his seat.
Though Jun himself was rather pleased about being a wizard, his parents were not altogether supportive. His mother had cried as soon as Johnny left that day. He already felt like he was greatly inconveniencing them by having them drive him to catch the Hogwarts train. He clutched Toady’s carrier and frowned, hearing his parents argue about whether to wait until the train had departed or to leave once Jun had located “a school chum or two.”
He didn’t want to be left alone on the platform, and his mother was bickering with his father about this. He wasn’t going to see his parents until Christmas, after all, and it wasn’t like he had any school chums yet. He’d only just discovered his powers. None of his friends from primary school were coming along. They couldn’t even know that Jun was going away to Hogwarts. The story in the neighborhood would be reform school, and it only embarrassed his parents further. But what else could they say?
His father waved off a porter lest the man ask for a tip later. He pulled Jun’s trunk out of the car’s boot and retrieved a little trolley while his mother handled his schoolbag full of books. Jun himself carried Toady and his brand new wand (mahogany, twelve and one quarter inches, with a unicorn hair core), nervously looking around the station in hopes that there’d be some other wizard-looking folks walking about.
They tried locating Platform 9 3/4 with some trouble. He’d had to yank on his father’s sleeve, begging him not to ask people about it. Sure, he knew about magic now, and so did his parents (much as they didn’t like acknowledging it), but they couldn’t just ask anyone where the train for the magical school was. They ended up loitering in between Platforms 9 and 10 for nearly twenty minutes until a girl with bushy hair went through the wall with her parents. That was enough for Jun’s father. He abruptly left the trolley and headed for the car without a word or even a goodbye for Jun.
Jun turned crimson in embarrassment, feeling tears start to well up. His first official day as a wizard was going pretty badly. His mother patted his shoulder, setting the book bag down on top of the trolley.
“Your father loves you very much,” she assured him. “But this is a lot for us to take. Please understand.” And then his mother pushed the trolley straight through the wall.
Jun held Toady’s carrier tight against his chest and shut his eyes, following after her. And amazingly enough, when he opened them again, there was a large steam locomotive and several brightly painted carriages on the platform, a track leading out of King’s Cross that he hadn’t been able to see before. Johnny hadn’t been pulling their leg. The Hogwarts Express was real, and he was going to ride it. He wiped his eyes and smiled.
But his mother wasn’t doing so well. There were other parents hugging their children goodbye, and they were all dressed like wizards. He couldn’t see any other Muggle families in their immediate vicinity. Diagon Alley had given his mother so much stress that she’d complained of a headache for a few days after. Being on Platform 9 3/4 with a bunch of witches and wizards was not helping.
She parked the trolley next to the rear train carriage. It looked like she was going to be making a quick exit as well. “I’m sure they’ll let you board early and get settled in a good seat,” she said, wrapping her arms around him tightly. “Promise to write and tell me all about your new school and your new friends.”
Stay, Jun thought. Mum, please stay. But he couldn’t get the words out and just clung to her. He’d never really been away from home before. He’d been brave at home, thinking about all the different spells he was going to learn out of his new school books and how he was going to learn to ride a broom and be the best wizard he could possibly be. But now his parents were abandoning him at King’s Cross because they were embarrassed. Johnny had called him elite and special. To Jun’s parents though, he was something to be ashamed of. Something that made them sad.
“I’ll write as much as I can,” he said quietly, words getting lost in his mother’s sleeve as he hugged her tight. “I’m sorry.”
“Just don’t do anything to cause trouble,” she told him. “I don’t want this to hurt your Gran any more than it already has, Jun.”
He nodded and released her, standing dumbly next to his trolley. “I’ll be okay.” He wasn’t really convinced of this.
“Well,” his mum said, looking around nervously. “Your father’s probably livid about his parking charge. I should be moving on.”
“Okay.”
And with that, she headed back through the wall without another look for him. He sighed, shoulders sinking. Johnny had said that Hogwarts was the best place for Jun, and that everyone there was a wizard or witch just like he was. But maybe being a wizard wasn’t such a good thing.
He looked around at the other families, seeing siblings and parents and even a few grandparents. Everyone was chatting merrily. There was talk of rooming assignments and about the different professors, although Jun wasn’t familiar with any of the names he was hearing. Well, standing on the platform was just going to make him miserable. Maybe some of the Hogwarts Express magic would sink in if he just boarded. It had to beat standing here by his lonesome.
One of the porters took his trunk and other belongings off to the baggage car, showing him where to board. Several compartments were already occupied, and he kept moving until he reached the next car. He saw one that had two boys about his age inside talking. Well, he wasn’t going to make any friends if he didn’t try to be friendly.
“Hi,” he said, and his voice sounded so loud. The two boys - one tall and chubby, the other with striking blond hair and a sneer - turned to look at him. “I’m Jun Matsumoto. I’ll be a first year. Could I sit with you?”
The blond boy stood up and approached, eyeing his clothes with a rather disapproving eye. Jun was already regretting asking to sit in this car, but he was stuck now that the boy was looking.
“Never heard of you. What are you wearing?”
Jun looked down in confusion. “Um. Levi’s?”
The blond boy was in dark clothes, already wearing his Hogwarts robe over them. “Typical Muggle, eh?” the chubby boy said, and Jun swallowed slowly. Johnny had said that he was pretty unique - a wizard born from Muggle parents. But Johnny hadn’t said that this was apparently a bad thing. The way the boy had said Muggle sounded like being a Muggle was the worst thing in the universe.
Jun took a step back, out of the compartment, wishing he hadn’t chosen to be friendly at all. “Never mind, I’ll sit somewhere else...”
But blond boy was enjoying this, grabbing Jun by his sleeve. “Where you going? Off to see if you can sit with some other Mudbloods? Going to talk about how pathetic your parents are?”
“My parents aren’t pathetic,” Jun protested, wishing he had the courage to punch the guy in the nose. And Mudblood? What was that? It wasn’t Jun’s fault his parents had no magical ability. It didn’t make them any less of a person.
“Did your mum save all her worthless Muggle money to buy you that stupid toad?” the bully continued.
Jun’s grip tightened on the handle for Toady’s carrier. That did it. It was his first day, and he’d wanted to make a good impression so he wouldn’t be sent to reform school for real, but this boy had no right to talk badly about his mother. He was just about to fumble around in his back pocket for his new wand when he heard another voice in the compartment.
“Oi! What’s that smell? It smells like an inbred Malfoy.” Jun turned to see a rather mischievous boy come hurrying up, a sleepy looking boy arm in arm with him. “Making fun of other people when you can barely wipe your arse without your mum’s help?”
The blond boy, Malfoy, scowled. Jun could see a rather noticeable dot on the mischievous boy’s chin. It seemed important, but Jun couldn’t put his finger on why. Should he know this boy? But either way, dot-chin boy and his sleepy friend had gotten Malfoy interested, and they scampered off down the corridor. Malfoy and his fat friend gave chase, and suddenly, Jun was alone in the compartment. Well, if he saw the dot-chin boy again, he’d have to thank him. His whole career at Hogwarts could have been jeopardized if he’d tried to use magic. Since he was not only unskilled but underage.
He sat down next to the window and settled Toady’s carrier on the seat beside him. Glancing out at the platform, lots of parents were leaving and it looked like the train would be underway shortly. He just hoped Malfoy and his bully friend wouldn’t come back to this compartment. It would be a long trip to Hogwarts, but maybe it was better for Jun to just stay alone.
He wished he’d brought one of his schoolbooks along though because staring out the window or staring at Toady would probably be occupying the next several hours. Jun’s quiet ended as a tall, lanky boy came running up, pausing in the doorway to Jun’s compartment.
He was out of breath and panting heavily. “Have you...have you seen...a cat?” The boy flailed his hands about. “Like, this long and this tall, kind of ginger looking? Her name is Curry.”
Jun had seen only people thus far on the Hogwarts Express. He especially hadn’t seen a cat named Curry - and how would the cat know its name was Curry anyhow? “No, I’m sorry.”
“Wow! You have a toad!” the boy said, switching from his worry about the cat to Toady almost instantly. He hurried over and crouched down, smushing his nose against the carrier to stare the toad down. “So cool!”
For the first time since his trip to Diagon Alley, Jun was rather pleased with his magical animal purchase. “Thanks. His name is Toady. I couldn’t think of a better name.”
“I think it suits him,” the boy said, grinning from ear to ear. “I’m Masaki Aiba, by the way. I’m a first year.”
Jun felt a swelling in his heart. Not only did this Masaki Aiba think his toad was cool, but he was another first year! And he hadn’t made fun of Jun or called him a Mudblood or anything yet. “Jun Matsumoto. I’m also a first year.”
Aiba smiled again, and it was pretty infectious. It was good to know that there were nice wizards. Not everyone was mean like the Malfoy kid.
“It’s nice to meet you. We should be friends. I mean, if we get Sorted together. Well, if we don’t, I haven’t met anyone else with a toad yet, and I’d love to play with him. I love animals. In fact, I already know what I want to be when I graduate!”
Jun blinked. Aiba sure was an excitable, chatty person. He’d be fun to eat with from time to time, but if they were in the same dorm, Jun wondered how long it would take someone like Aiba to fall asleep. “What do you want to be when you graduate?”
“Duh,” Aiba said as if it was obvious. “A dragon tamer!”
Jun shrank in his seat. “A dragon tamer?” There were dragons out there? It was crazy enough that there was magic and magic schools and train platforms you reached by walking through a wall. But real dragons?
“Yep, I’m going to be good at it, I just know it.”
It sounded pretty dangerous to Jun. But his conversation with Aiba was pretty short-lived as a boy with dark hair poked his head in the compartment. “Yo, Aiba. One of the prefects said they saw a ginger cat up at the front of the train.”
Aiba turned to look at his friend. “Really? Ahhhh, thanks Yoko, you’re awesome!” Aiba turned back to Jun and looked almost disappointed. “Well, I better go find my cat. I’ll see you later, Jun!”
The Yoko kid waved, and he and Aiba ran off in search of Curry the cat. And finally the train lurched and started moving forward. Jun missed Aiba already. His compartment was empty once more, save for him and Toady. He watched the buildings of central London change to the office parks and houses of the suburbs and within a short while, there were fields of green stretching as far as Jun could see.
How many witches and wizards lived off in the distance? Throughout the country? How many of them were as confused as Jun felt?
Toady made another noisy ribbit inside his carrier, and Jun felt bad that he hadn’t given him any crickets to eat since they’d left that morning. A witch came by with a snack trolley, and Jun was still pretty unsure of the wizarding currency.
All the candy looked a bit suspicious, and he pointed half-heartedly at a pumpkin pastie. “One please. And um, my toad’s a little hungry, I think...”
He just held open the coin purse with whatever leftover money had remained after Toady’s purchase. The witch was kind-hearted though, plucking only a few coins out of it. She handed Jun a small wrapper containing his pastie, and it smelled pretty good and was warm in his hands. She rummaged around in the cart for a while and found a small plastic tub.
“He’ll eat slugs, yeah?” she asked, and Jun shrugged. He opened the carrier and let the witch dump the slug in. Toady offered another ribbit, and Jun closed the lid, sliding the carrier further down the seat. He didn’t really want to watch Toady enjoy his lunch. The trolley continued along the corridor, leaving Jun with his snack and Toady with his.
His parents had been so concerned about getting him to London and getting him away from them (or so it felt like) that they hadn’t packed him a proper lunch. But the pastie’s pumpkin filling was quite good, and Jun’s remaining money would be able to buy him a few snacks once he got to school.
His pastie was nearly finished when there was some more commotion in the corridor.
“Planning to kiss up? You best not be Sorted with us!”
His heart started to race at the sound of Malfoy’s voice again, but the snack trolley witch scolded him, urging him back into his compartment. The door slammed, and Malfoy’s voice was muffled within. A boy walked past Jun’s compartment then, arms full of books, but then he halted suddenly.
Jun took another nervous bite of his snack when the boy poked his head in. Well, it was more like the boy’s eyes. His pile of books obscured the lower half of his face. “Hi, I’m suddenly in need of a new seat. Do you mind?”
If the boy had books, even school books, maybe he’d let Jun borrow one to read. He nodded, and the boy set the books down on the seat across from Jun and sat down in quite a huff. Like the Malfoy kid, this boy was already in his Hogwarts robes, and from the material, Jun could tell that they were more expensive than his own.
His new seatmate had a round face and kind of a large forehead, barely obscured by a few strands of fringe. When he talked, Jun could see that the boy had large teeth too. Then again, kids at school had teased Jun about his own face, so maybe it was a little rude to judge the boy with the books so harshly right off the bat.
He instead focused on finishing his snack, sneaking glances as the boy arranged the school books to his satisfaction. He wondered why he was carrying all of them with him. There was no way he could read all of them during the ride. Like Aiba with the cat from before, this boy liked to talk. But unlike Aiba with the cat from before, this boy was grumpy.
He was complaining under his breath. Something about Malfoy and “...hope he gets into Slytherin with all the other bullies” and “...gonna pass out if this rickety train goes over that one bridge.”
The boy finally settled down with a rather large book in his lap. He’d struck out with Malfoy earlier, and Aiba had been the one to start their conversation. This boy was in a bad mood, but it sounded like it was Malfoy’s fault. Maybe they had that in common.
“What are you reading?” he asked quietly.
The boy looked up. “Hogwarts, a History.” He then squinted at Jun. “You don’t recognize it? It’s a best seller. It’s one of the most important books ever.”
Jun looked at his sneakers. “I’ve never seen it before.”
His seatmate leaned forward, eyeing him curiously. Not the mean kind of look Malfoy had had, but a genuine curiosity. “You don’t know Hogwarts, a History? Pardon me for asking, but are your parents wizards?”
He didn’t mind the boy asking. It was better than listening to him complain and mutter under his breath. “They’re not. They’re Muggles.”
“Both of them?”
He nodded. “Both of them.”
“Wow,” the boy said. He actually closed the book and set it beside him. “I’ve never met anyone with Muggle parents before. But the Sakurai family’s been a pureblood family for generations so it’s not like I get to socialize with...”
And on and on and on the boy went, talking about things Jun had never heard of or didn’t understand. Jun wasn’t sure what the boy was getting at, but he was talkative just like Aiba, and Jun could see this being a problem. But the way this boy said Muggle wasn’t mean. He said Muggle like it was something unique and interesting, kind of like Jun thought having magical abilities was something unique and interesting.
“...I had a question,” Jun finally interrupted him, stopping the boy midway through some story about his father being Very Important and working for the Ministry of Magic, whatever that was.
“Oh,” the boy said, brows furrowing.
“This...this Sorting business,” Jun said quietly. “Everyone’s been talking about it. What does it mean?” The only sorting Jun had done in his life was separating his clothes into whites and colors for his mum to wash.
“You really don’t know anything, do you?” the boy said bluntly. He grabbed the famous Hogwarts book and moved to squish himself between Jun and the window. He let the book rest half on his lap and half on Jun’s. He could see four crests, each labeled as a different house at the magical school.
Jun eyed each crest in turn while his book-loving friend rambled on about each house and its history. The terrain was already changing outside the window - his friend was rather long winded, but at least it made the ride go faster.
“Does it really matter which house you’re in?” Jun asked. He just hoped he wasn’t Sorted with Malfoy. Maybe it would be helpful to be Sorted with that boy who had the mark on his chin. Not that Jun needed protection from some skinny kid with a snotty attitude.
“Of course it matters,” the boy grumbled. “Every Sakurai for generations has been Sorted into Ravenclaw. My father was a Ravenclaw, and he was Head Boy!”
Wit, creativity, and wisdom Jun read on the pages before him. Well, Sakurai hadn’t been all that witty or creative thus far. And Jun didn’t know if parroting a bunch of facts out of a book could really be considered wisdom, but if Sakurai’s parents were anything like Jun’s, then they probably had a lot of expectations for their son. Although wizarding parents were probably different from Muggle ones, at least if their kid was equally magical.
Sakurai eventually picked up the book and returned to his side of the compartment. Jun didn’t much care which house he was put in, but maybe it was a good idea to get Sorted with Sakurai. Jun had never been the best student in Muggle school, and he didn’t expect a magical course load to make him any better at doing his homework. Sakurai seemed like enough of a know-it-all that maybe he would be able to give Jun some help.
Before he knew it, he’d fallen asleep and only woke when he felt Sakurai poking him in the shoulder with one of his books. “Oi, time to go,” the boy said, and Jun blinked awake. It was completely dark outside. There was definitely no going back now.
He grabbed Toady’s carrier while Sakurai gathered up his obnoxious number of books. They filed slowly out of the carriage, and Jun noticed that the boy was a lot quieter now that they were out with the rest of the students. Even if Sakurai knew Hogwarts, a History cover to cover, he was just like Jun now. A new kid at a new school.
They were directed over to a lake, and the air was pretty chilly this far north, even at the tail end of summer. Jun wished he had his robes from his trunk, but that was already getting carted off. Sakurai walked behind him as they moved to where the water was lapping against the boats at the shore.
“Those don’t look so sturdy,” Sakurai was complaining, voice a bit strained from having to carry all his books. “I like boats and all, but what if it tips over? What if we drown? You know there’s all sorts of creatures living in the lake!”
Well, Jun hadn’t known that, but now he did. And then he felt a book hit the back of his head, and all of Sakurai’s precious textbooks fell into the mud at their feet. By the time he turned around, Sakurai was nearly in tears and Malfoy and his friends were heading off to another boat.
“I’ll hex him,” Sakurai was saying, sniffling. “I’ll learn every last jinx, and I’ll get him.”
He didn’t get a chance to help his new friend. Jun was forced into the boat, and it was Aiba tugging on his sleeve. “Come on, ride with me! Yoko’s a second year, so he gets to go in the carriage. And nobody wants to ride with Nino. He was complaining about getting seasick,” the anxious boy was saying. “Can you get seasick on a lake?”
Jun didn’t know who Nino was. Had he met him already? Aiba probably knew everyone on the Hogwarts Express by now. Jun watched Sakurai pick his books up out of the mud, but the boat soon filled with other first years, and it set off from shore, powered by some sort of magic. Aiba linked arms with him and smiled.
“Maybe if we stand next to each other in line, the Sorting Hat will know we’re friends! We can get put in the same house!” Aiba exclaimed, and Jun just nodded. All he could think about was Sakurai and his books in the mud.
--
The Great Hall and Hogwarts Castle itself were overwhelming, and Jun was suddenly grateful for Aiba’s clingy nature. The boy had pretty much attached himself to Jun, even though he was taller as they waited in the queue for the Sorting Hat to be placed on their heads.
The next seven years of Jun’s life - who his friends would be, who he’d live with, who he’d have classes with every day - all came down to a magical hat shouting out his house. Malfoy and his friends had already celebrated their way over to the Slytherin table, and Jun just hoped the hat wouldn’t have the same idea for him.
Sure, Jun was slightly ambitious. But only slightly. And Sakurai had hinted pretty strongly that someone Muggle-born was unlikely to go there, so Jun had that to rely on. He hadn’t seen Sakurai since the boats had left, so he could only imagine that the boy was further back in the queue of first years.
Aiba’s friend Yoko and some other Hufflepuffs were waving from their table, and Aiba waved back. “I’m going to ask the hat to put me in Hufflepuff,” Aiba was telling him as they shuffled forward. “Do you want to go with me?”
Jun wondered if it was as easy as all that though. And if Sakurai was going to follow in his family’s footsteps, then he’d be off to Ravenclaw. He was kind of torn. Aiba was nice, if noisy, and he’d been awfully fond of Toady. But Sakurai had explained things about magic and the wizarding world, if in more detail than Jun had required. And he was pretty smart too. He kind of wanted to get put with both of them, but that was probably hoping for too much.
“Everyone’s staring at me,” came a voice from behind them. It was dot-chin boy - and dot-chin boy just happened to be the Nino nobody wanted to ride the boat with down by the lake.
“They’re staring because you’re important,” his sleepy friend, Ohno, was saying. The two of them were inseparable already. They’d probably get put in the same house.
“What do you mean important?” Jun interjected while Aiba was communicating with the Hufflepuff table in some crazy hand gestures.
“You don’t know who Nino is?” Ohno gasped, and Nino poked him on the cheek.
“He doesn’t have to know.”
Jun sighed. Wizards sure were just as weird as the Muggle kids Jun had gone to primary school with (although it’s not like he’d known what a Muggle was back then). “Forget I asked then.”
Ohno just gave Jun an easy smile. “Nino’s the Boy who Lived.”
“Lived to wait in the longest queue ever,” Nino complained, seemingly pleased that Jun had no idea what any of that meant. Boy who lived? Weren’t they all alive here? Well, except for the ghosts wandering around the castle. Jun hadn’t expected that either.
It was Aiba’s turn, and a rather mean looking professor with dark greasy hair waved him forward impatiently. He was the head of Slytherin House, Jun recalled, although all the names and faces and houses and history were starting to blur together. “Today, if you don’t mind. Lot more to be Sorted out.”
Jun watched nervously as Aiba hurried up to sit down and have the Sorting Hat placed on his head. He could see the Hufflepuff table grow silent as Aiba’s face changed. Was the Sorting Hat talking to him? Jun couldn’t hear a thing. But Aiba seemed to be thinking awfully hard about something, his face going from happiness to confusion to what might have been alarm before finally settling on calm.
“Gryffindor!” the hat shouted, and the Hufflepuff table, at least the part with Aiba’s friends, let out a sad moan. The Gryffindor table wasn’t so put out though, cheering Aiba’s arrival and offering a cup of pumpkin juice to him as he arrived.
The professor gave Jun a very hard look then, and he moved as fast as his legs could carry him.
“Well, if it isn’t Jun Matsumoto,” he heard inside his head once the hat descended, “with the Muggle parents.”
He didn’t know if he was supposed to acknowledge anything, but the hat seemed to know him instantly.
“You’re brave to have come so far, Jun Matsumoto, not knowing how special you are,” it assured him. “This one’s for Gryffindor!”
He beamed from ear to ear, getting up and making his way over to the Gryffindor table. There’d be no Malfoy, and Aiba was clapping and smiling. And the other Gryffindors were happy to have him. Nobody was giving him a dirty look as he approached. Nobody was calling him a Mudblood. Everyone here had magical abilities just like him, and they were welcoming him.
“Sit down here! Here, next to me!” Aiba was saying, patting the bench next to him.
But Jun’s arrival was quickly forgotten as Nino took a seat and the Sorting Hat was placed on his head. There were whispers up and down the Gryffindor table, and as Jun looked around, he could see whispering going on at each table in the Great Hall. Why was Nino so special? What could a boy the same age as Jun have done that was earning all these whispers? It clearly made Nino uncomfortable.
To Jun's surprise, Nino was also placed in Gryffindor, and he came walking over looking rather pleased with himself. Unlike when he and Aiba had come over, there was a bit of a delayed reaction. But when the cheers did come, they were overwhelming. The Slytherin table, however, seemed to exhale in relief at Nino's placement. Whoever or whatever Nino was, he was somebody Jun wanted to know more about. Ohno with the round cheeks joined them, and now Gryffindor had four boys Sorted in a row. Jun wondered if the Sorting Hat was playing tricks or if fate had just queued them up together.
The Hogwarts food was tasty, and once the excitement about Nino's Sorting had died down, Jun focused more on his dinner than where other kids in the queue were being placed. Most of the noise was concentrated on the tables behind them - the raucous cheers of a Hufflepuff announcement, the polite clapping of Ravenclaw and the thunderous, almost menacing roars from the other end of the Great Hall where Slytherin was gathered.
It was only when Aiba poked him that Jun thought to look at who was getting the Sorting Hat on his head. It was the very last person in the queue, someone hurrying into the Great Hall as though he'd missed the start of the Sorting. Perhaps he'd been drying off his books.
“Oh, it's Sakurai,” Aiba was saying. “He was being all stuffy on the train.”
Stuffy? Well, Jun couldn't exactly disagree with that. The boy had been rather particular. “Maybe he'll end up in Slytherin then,” Jun said, trying to pretend as though he agreed with Aiba's assessment of the boy. And then he felt awful, twisting his hands around the tablecloth.
Sakurai had been nice to him in his own peculiar way. He didn't really want the boy to end up in Slytherin - it was a one-way ticket to seven years of bullying, Jun suspected. He was expecting to hear a loud “Ravenclaw!” and then nearly spilled his pumpkin juice when the Hat shouted “Gryffindor!”
Aiba made a dismissive noise as Sakurai, face horrified, came trudging over. “Well, he must be really brave or something.” Nino seemed equally amused by the Sorting Hat's decision.
Although Jun was marveling at his luck, getting placed together with both Aiba and Sakurai, it seemed as though Mr. 'My Father was a Ravenclaw and Head Boy' seemed like he wanted to cry. Ruined books and the only Gryffindor in his family? It had probably been a rather rotten day for Sakurai.
However, there was a change in the boy's face, the same kind of surprise he'd had in his eyes when he'd discovered that Jun was Muggle-born. He hurried over and got right up in Nino's face.
“Oh my god, that mole! You're the Boy Who Lived! Did you know that you're in Hogwarts, a History?”
Sakurai's depression was easily avoided in favor of some new knowledge. Jun smiled and sipped his pumpkin juice, looking around the table. Know-it-all Sakurai. Friendly, quiet Ohno. Boisterous Aiba. The Boy who had apparently Lived. And him.
Sure, he didn't know anything about Hogwarts or magic or what waited just around the corner, but as his fellow first year Gryffindors started chattering and bickering with each other, Jun felt as though something had clicked. Something he couldn't put his finger on, but being with the other four, knowing that these were going to be the people who would come to know him most in the next several years...well, it felt good.
His parents had left him at the platform that morning, but here he was at Hogwarts. And he was here to stay.