Magical Paw Prints, 2/9
Title: Magical Paw Prints
Chapter: 2/9
Rating: G
1
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The first morning of the new school year started like any ordinary day as people on different stages of wakefulness wandered from the dormitories to the Great Hall.
Jesse had just joined Juri and his roommates who were having breakfast when an owl-shaped piece of parchment fluttered through the air, stopped abruptly as if it had hit an invisible wall and fell, splashing right into Juri’s cup of pumpkin juice.
“Careful! I borrowed this book from Hagiya; he’ll totally kill me if it gets all sticky!” Shoki cried out and pulled the precious object aside.
Juri fished the wet origami bird from his cup and opened the folds, revealing a short message. The ink had gotten messy but the text was still readable and Juri glanced up at the Ravenclaw table where Hokuto shrugged and smiled at him apologetically.
Let’s meet at the library in the lunch break, the message said. Juri raised his thumb up in the air and Hokuto nodded as the sign of a successful exchange of information.
During the breakfast the Prefects of the Houses walked around the Hall handing every student a piece of parchment, except for the sixth year students who got two.
“How did your O.W.L.s go? What classes will you have?” Juri asked, trying to peek over Jesse’s shoulder and noting how the said shoulder was once again an inch higher than it had been two months ago. “Seriously,” he whined, “stop growing already! You’re like a freaking giraffe!”
“Can’t help it though,” Jesse chuckled and handed his new timetable for Juri to see. “I don’t know about my classes yet. I passed everything with at least ‘Exceeds Expectations’ but I’m not sure if I can do the N.E.W.T.s for all of these subjects next year. I’ll have to talk with the Head of House about it. My appointment will only be right before lunch time so I guess I’m free to come and go as I wish until that.”
“Lucky you,” Juri murmured as he eyed at his own timetable that looked pretty much the same as it had been on the previous year. He still started every week with a double lesson of Astronomy. That day’s first lessons, however, were Care of Magical Creatures and Herbology, both subjects he liked.
“I’ll walk around the school with dad’s navigator,” Jesse decided and folded his O.W.L. results and the appointment time parchment into his pocket, “I wonder what will happen if I take it close to the charms class…”
“Whatever,” Juri chuckled and the Gryffindor boys finished their breakfast chatting, comparing their timetables, and wondering when the Quidditch practices would start.
When the bell rang and everyone got up to leave to their lessons Jesse vanished upstairs, waving the navigator in the air while he went.
“I don’t get those things,” Kento murmured amusedly and Juri nodded in a perfect understanding. They shuffled through the hall and out of the doors, heading towards the old greenhouses, one of which had recently been modified to be the new classroom for Care of Magical Creatures.
They were in the middle of a deep discussion about last year’s Quidditch Cup when something big attacked them and the both of them let out surprised yelps, meriting two identical laughs from the guys who had tried to tackle them.
“Morning,” Hokuto greeted and rushed to walk in front of Juri and Kento, his back towards their direction of travel.
“Hey Gryffindor kittens, we were looking for you in the Great Hall!” Hokuto’s Ravenclaw roommate, Fuma, said and stepped between Juri and Kento, throwing his arms over their shoulders. “You could’ve sent us a word you were here already!”
“Wouldn’t that have robbed you the opportunity to surprise us and hear Kento scream like a girl?” Juri asked and Fuma laughed, admitting Juri was right.
The four boys barely made it to the classroom in time and their teacher, a relatively young witch, took a deep breath when she saw them. Tanaka Juri, Matsumura Hokuto, Nakajima Kento, and Kikuchi Fuma were not bad boys per se; they were honest and good-hearted boys, and it was obvious they really loved her subject. If only they had been less noisy and carefree she wouldn’t have needed to fear for their safety on every single lesson. She couldn’t help liking them but at the same time she was secretly relieved it was their last year in the school.
On the lesson they were divided in pairs and each pair was given a small cage of bright blue half-an-inch tall insects called Billywigs. Their task was to observe the Billywigs and make notes of their behavior.
“They’re funny,” Hokuto said thoughtfully and peeped through the small holes of the cage. The tiny insects were hovering in the air and their swift gyrating made a low humming sound.
“They’re exactly like you when you’re overly tired,” Juri teased and finished his drawing. He put his quill away and waited until the ink on the parchment was completely dry.
“Want to color it, too?” Hokuto asked and fished a flat packet of crayons from his bag.
“Sure, thanks,” Juri said and opened the packet. Plastic crayons were one of the most useful muggle inventions that Juri knew, and it wasn’t the first time he used them; Hokuto liked drawing and often carried them around, and always let his friends use them as well.
In fact, the crayons were the original reason Juri knew Hokuto.
It had been early spring in Juri’s third year in Hogwarts. Juri and Jesse had been sitting in the library for the whole evening, tall piles of books about Transfigurations on the table next to them. Hokuto had been finishing his homework in the library on the same evening. He had been about to leave, passing Juri and Jesse’s table, when the strap of his bag had suddenly gotten stuck somewhere. Hokuto had accidentally dropped the bag and its contents had spread around the floor. Juri and Jesse had seen everything, and had gotten up to help the Ravenclaw boy to collect his things, crawling around the floor after his parchments and weird colorful sticks.
Until that day Juri had never seen crayons like that. He had only used colored pencils or chalk whenever he had wanted to draw something.
“What’re these?”
“My crayons. Muggle-made plastic pencils,” Hokuto said with a shrug. He thanked them for the help and introduced himself in the same breath, smiling sheepishly.
“To be honest I’ve been watching you two lately. I couldn’t help noticing you were up to something.”
Jesse threw a nervous glance at Juri who just smiled, hoping it would look even moderately convincing.
“We’re just reading, out of curiosity.”
“You’re studying,” Hokuto pointed out and tilted his head, “and definitely not for the lessons. Those books aren’t anything you’d need on our level.”
“It’s nothing, really,” Juri insisted, wishing he could have just changed all the books on the table invisible.
“You’re trying to learn something on your own,” Hokuto continued guessing and eyed at the books with such a curious look that Juri bit his lip hard enough that it almost bled.
“Fine, fine! Don’t say it aloud!” he hissed and beckoned Hokuto to sit next to them. “Promise not to tell anyone!”
“I promise,” Hokuto said slowly, “if you take me along.”
Juri and Jesse hadn’t had any choice but accept Hokuto’s demand. At first they had been slightly insecure about it. However, soon enough they had gotten to know Hokuto better and realized he was better companion than they had ever imagined. He wasn’t just a funny, clever-witted, and trustworthy guy; he also had a weird effect on the librarian and basically any female adult around. Hokuto only needed to ask politely and smile, and their Transfigurations teacher immediately signed him a permission to access the older collection that, due to the fragility of the books, wasn’t stored in public use anymore.
“Is everyone ready?” the Care of Magical Creatures teacher asked in the end of the lesson, “Good. I’ll now write down a few homework questions for you. Please answer them with your textbooks and own notations-- Kikuchi. What did I say about touching the Billywigs!” The whole class stopped packing their things and looked at Fuma and Kento’s table. The teacher’s loud question was well-founded but unfortunately late.
“Fuma?” Kento asked with a frown when the boy next to him tottered on his place, “Are you all right?”
“Sure,” Fuma murmured, fighting to keep his balance and forming a dizzy smile, “Just. Feels funny.”
“Look! He’s levitating!” the girl by the next table cried out and pointed at Fuma who indeed hovered an inch or two above the floor.
“Since you had to do the exact opposite of what I told you to do, couldn’t you at least have done it fifteen minutes earlier so everyone could have taken notes of the effects of the Billywig poison?” the teacher asked in a very fed-up tone and shook her head. “Someone take him to the hospital wing before he floats away on his own! Matsumura, Tanaka, and Nakajima. You’re his friends; I guess I can trust you?”
“Sure,” Juri said cheerfully and poked Fuma’s shoulder with his index finger, making the boy slowly rotate around in the air like a very slow and very big Billywig, “We wouldn’t leave our littlebird Ravenclaw in trouble.”
“Stop it Juri,” Fuma whined and his posture faltered again, “going around like this makes me feel sick!”
In the beginning they only needed to take a firm grip on Fuma’s sleeves and drag him along but it seemed like the effects of Billywig poison changed as time went by. They were only halfway on the path towards the main castle when the levitating effect faded away and Fuma crashed on Hokuto’s arms like a paralyzed Flobberworm. At the same time the dizziness seemed to only get worse.
“Stop laughing and help me,” Hokuto growled at Juri and Kento, his face bright red when he tried to hold up Fuma’s whole weight, the boy leaning his head on Hokuto’s shoulder and pressing his cheek against Hokuto’s.
“Sorry,” Fuma stammered with a confused giggle, absolutely clueless of what was happening around him. “You’re warm. I like it.”
“It’s like dragging a drunken friend back home,” Juri grinned and stepped closer to save Hokuto, supporting half of Fuma’s weight from the other side.
“What would you know about being drunk?” Kento asked and raised his eyebrows as he took Fuma’s school bag and threw it on his own shoulder. Juri just rolled his eyes at him.
“Why do you think I do? Seriously. I have three older brothers, one of which is a barkeeper.”
“Oh, well. You have a point.”
They barely managed to get to the castle when the bell rang again to mark the end of the break. By the corridor they met Taiga and Kouchi who were just about to climb upstairs.
“Juri! Where have you been? Come on, they say the new Divination teacher is really strict about students being punctual!” Kouchi said and frowned at Fuma’s giddy appearance. “What’s wrong with him?”
“Billywig poison,” Hokuto gasped and fought to stay on his feet and keep Fuma’s wandering fingers far from his sides at the same time.
“Oh. I’ve read about that,” Taiga said and nodded sympathetically, “it affects some people stronger than others.”
“I-it’s not that bad,” Fuma giggled and Hokuto slapped the back of his head with his free hand.
“Shut up, idiot. Come on guys!”
“Just go, Juri,” Kento offered, “The hospital wing isn’t far anymore and I’ll only have Potions on the next lesson. The teacher will understand.”
Kento took Juri’s place by Fuma’s side although Fuma was still mostly hanging on Hokuto and Juri thanked him, feeling both relieved and guilty. If there had been a slightest possibility of someone being in a real danger, he would never have left his friends like that. However, in the current situation Kento and Hokuto didn’t necessarily need him along so he supposed it was safe to rush after Taiga and Kouchi. He didn’t really want to be late from the first Divination lesson either.
They made it time and the rumors about the new teacher turned out to be scarier than the man really was. He was a very strict teacher and held them in the classroom until the last minute but he had an interesting way of teaching and the lesson passed quickly.
As soon as the bell rang again Juri, Taiga, and Kouchi rushed downstairs, devouring their lunches in a record time. In less than fifteen minutes they were on their way towards the library.
Hokuto, Shintaro and Jesse were already waiting for them in their usual spot in the farthest possible corner of the big library, having a hard time trying to be silent enough that the librarian wouldn’t chuck them out due to disturbance of peace.
They had been gathering together like this for years already, the group accidentally growing when Juri, Jesse, and Hokuto hadn’t yet learned to be very secretive. Kouchi had been Hokuto’s friend since childhood and he had been quick to notice Hokuto had a secret he didn’t know about. Shintaro and Taiga, on their behalves, were Juri’s childhood friends and neither of them had hesitated to ask what was going on after they had accidentally overheard some pieces of the others’ conversations.
After that they had all become more careful in order not to let anyone else know about their illicit activities. (Bless Shoki, Kento, and Fuma who had absolutely no tendencies to stick their noses into other people’s businesses.) From Shintaro’s suggestion they had started to spread the idea of the six of them being a very tight-knit inter-house study circle. The cover story seemed to be taken well among the people around them; at least no-one ever questioned them.
Not that anyone ever had any reason to be suspicious - they really did study together. What the other people never knew about was that after the mandatory exercises they opened new books and studied all the theory and practice about transfigurations. After all the reading they had come into the conclusion that mastering the transfiguration of inanimate objects would help them in learning more advanced kind of transfigurations. Constant practice made miracles and sooner than later the six of them ended up being the favorite students of their Transfigurations teacher.
Being mere sixth graders Jesse and Shintaro couldn’t obviously practice anything during the summer but nothing had stopped the older boys from trying everything they could. Unfortunately, none of them had been very successful.
“Nothing,” Taiga said with a shrug, “I had lots of time and I’ve been trying many times but nothing works.”
“Same here,” Hokuto sighed. “I only managed to change all shoes in our house into bats. You should have seen my parents’ faces when they looked for the shoes and found the colony of bats hanging from the ceiling in our hallway… Of course I changed them back again but it took ages to find the last one that had gone hiding.”
“Do your parents let you do magic inside the house?” Kouchi asked curiously, “As soon as I turned seventeen my mother announced I have to go out to the potting shed if I want to do anything like that. She doesn’t quite trust my skills yet. I guess that’s because as a kid I had this habit of breaking things even if I as much as glanced at them. Even after all these years she’s worried over her antique china. She doesn’t forbid dad from using magic indoors but I don’t think she likes that either.”
“My father’s the same,” Jesse said and grimaced, “he’s really interested in magic and eager to know more about everything but he’s afraid his computers will get all messed up if mum does too much magic in the house. I guess that’s why he rarely brings his work laptop and the company’s cell phone home.”
Juri, Taiga, and Shintaro shared a blank look across their muggle-bred friends. The three of them, all coming from old wizard families, had never needed to think about such problems. The Kyomoto mansion was secluded enough in the countryside that their family rarely had to deal with anything related to muggles. Juri and Shintaro’s families lived in a small village where only a rough fifth of population was magical folk but since they had both been homeschooled before going to Hogwarts they hadn’t had much personal contact to muggles before getting to know Kouchi, Jesse, and Hokuto. Even among them only Hokuto’s family was purely non-magical.
“I learned something during the summer!” Juri announced as victoriously as he could without raising the volume of his voice too much. That immediately aroused his friends’ attention.
“No, really?”
“Show us!”
“It’s nothing much but I guess I could show you quickly,” Juri said and glanced around to make sure no-one was anywhere close to see them. Then he repeated the same thing that he had shown to Jesse in the train on the previous evening. The whiskers tickled his nose and he smiled when the color of the hair hanging in front of his eyes changed.
“Cool!” Shintaro gasped and Juri felt his cheeks getting warmer under the boy’s admiring gaze.
“It is quite effective,” Taiga said and there was a hint of apology in his expression when he frowned, “but are you sure it’s the real charm? I mean, I never heard anyone changing only partially?”
“I know,” Juri admitted and let the whiskers and color shrink back into his skin, “that’s what I thought, too. But at least I was able to do it without my wand!”
“That’s surely something,” Taiga agreed. “Now, I guess we’ll just have to continue practicing. Let’s meet in the hideout after the afternoon lessons!”
“Uh, about that,” Shintaro said and looked slightly distressed, “I forgot to mention earlier. I passed the corridor last night when going to sleep. It’s gone again.”
“Shit,” Jesse moaned and Juri let out an annoyed sigh. It had been the same last year. Two years ago they had accidentally found a secret entrance to a room that no-one else seemed to know about. Ever since that they had used the room for practicing and hanging around whenever they felt like that. However, in the beginning of the previous year they had noticed the door had been gone. They had been disappointed by the loss of the room that had become so useful to them but it couldn’t have been helped. Not until one evening when Shintaro had noticed a familiar-looking painting hanging on the wall, not far from the entrance to the Hufflepuff common room.
They hoped it was no big deal this time, either. They would just have to find the same painting again.
“Fine,” Juri said, “we’ll start in the evening. There’s not much to do in the library anymore anyway.”
He was right; the long afternoons and evenings of the past three years had been enough to go through the whole enormous library and Juri was pretty sure they had read through every single book that could tell them something new and useful about the Animagus charm.
After that the conversation slid into other topics and the six boys spent the rest of the lunch break chatting in the library until it was time to go again.
“Will you have lessons today?” Juri asked Shintaro when they were walking along the corridors.
“Yeah, I already met the Head of the House in the morning. I’ll have History of Magic in the fourth floor.”
“We’ll have Charms in the next room!” Juri said and couldn’t help a surprised smile.
“Just go before me,” Taiga said and nodded towards the staircase that led towards the Slytherin dungeons, “I need to get my textbook from the dormitory before the lesson.”
The boys took their leave, each to their own classes. Juri and Shintaro walked slowly upstairs, Shintaro talking animatedly all the time. Juri laughed whenever Shintaro said something funny, took part into the conversation whenever he felt like that, and enjoyed their time together. It had been a while; Shintaro’s family had traveled abroad for almost two months in the summer so Juri hadn’t had the opportunity to hang around with him after the beginning of July.
Shintaro had been Juri’s friend since forever. In a way Juri could have said they were best friends even though it was very different than his friendship with Jesse was. The two of them had always lived in the same town and they had played together a lot ever since the early childhood. There weren’t many people in Juri’s life who could make him feel as comfortable as Shintaro somehow managed to do.
In fact, there were many things that only Shintaro could make him feel.
Things like the fluttering sensation in the bottom of his stomach whenever the boy as much as hung around in the same room. Things like the way his heartbeat immediately sped up whenever Shintaro smiled at him. Things like he suddenly forgot how to breathe and talk when Shintaro stood close enough for Juri to sense the scent of his shampoo and the warmth radiating from Shintaro’s body.
What made it even worse - or better - was that every now and then Juri felt like he might not be alone with his feelings.
He had first noticed it around last Christmas, and every now and then after that. They were small things but Juri was quite sure he wasn’t imagining them. Sometimes, when their eyes met or when they were hanging around without the others, just something in Shintaro’s look and behavior gave Juri the tiny bits of courage and hope that he needed to nourish his own shy feelings from day to day.
“What are you thinking about, looking so confused? Are you even listening to me?” Shintaro suddenly asked, alarming Juri from the depths of his thoughts.
“Uh, not really,” he admitted with an embarrassed laugh and Shintaro rolled his eyes.
“Thought so. Is there something bothering you?” There it was again, the look that forced Juri to turn his own eyes away in order not to give away his true feelings right then and there.
‘You are,’ Juri wanted to say.
“Nothing much,” he said.
“You know there’s no way I’m going to believe you,” Shintaro chuckled, “but it’s fine if you don’t want to talk about it right now. It’s okay if you want to wait until you’re ready to talk. See you after the lesson!” Shintaro waved his hand and jogged to the door of the History of Magic classroom. Once left alone, Juri stared after the other for a long time.
By dinnertime it already felt like any ordinary school day for everyone except maybe the first-years who always needed a week or two to get used to all the weird that older students simply called ‘going to school.’ Having already spent six years in Hogwarts, Juri quickly returned to his usual lifestyle: lessons, food, having fun, homework, having more fun, sleeping, and going through it all again on the next day. Weeks passed and before anyone noticed it was October.
Juri and Hokuto were sitting in the Great Hall and playing wizard chess. Some time ago also Taiga had sat down next to them, reading a ridiculously thick book about the most common herbs in potions, and eventually Kouchi had found them as well and just sat by the table to follow his friends’ game. Right when they had all managed to fall into a blissful inactivity their peace was disturbed by Jesse and Shintaro who rushed in and ran through the Great Hall.
“The painting,” Jesse said in the middle of gasping for breath, “we found it!”
“No, seriously?”
“Where is it?”
Jesse and Shintaro promised to show them, and the older four collected their things from the table, trying to look like they were doing nothing wrong. They weren’t, not really. Not yet. It wasn’t forbidden to enter empty rooms around the school. Sure, they mostly needed the room to study forbidden things but nobody knew that anyway. Besides, it wasn’t the Animagus spell that was forbidden; being an unregistered Animagus was. What they did would only start being wrong after they learned the spell, right?
The painting was hanging in the middle of some other paintings on the corridor that lead to the staircase of the astronomy tower.
“There you are!” Juri sighed and rolled his eyes. “Why can’t you stay in just one place?”
The old wizard in the painting raised his very grey and very bushy eyebrows and let out a disapproving sniff.
“Why don’t you try hanging on the same wall for four hundred years, sonny? Do that and then come to ask the same if you still feel like asking.”
“The young nowadays,” a witch dressed in a royal purple dress robe said in a heavy-hearted and strongly disapproving tone, “No respect towards the elderly and always thinking they know everything the best.”
Juri snapped his mouth shut, feeling annoyed and strangely embarrassed at the same time for actually being scolded by an ancient piece of canvas.
“Sorry for his impoliteness, Sir,” Taiga rushed to say, “Would you please tell us where the switch is this time?”
“I wonder, I wonder…” the old wizard murmured.
“Please? We’d really appreciate your help,” Hokuto said and tilted his head, flashing a coaxing smile to the old wizard, “It’s an honor for us to be acquainted with such an experienced and wise wizard like you are.”
“Hmm hmm,” the wizard grunted and stroking his long beard, obviously not above of Hokuto’s flattering. “Well then, I suppose not all youngsters are hopeless, even these days. The switch is on the torch on the opposite wall. Yes, that one.”
Jesse reached to grab the torch and pulled a bit, causing a clicking sound somewhere inside the stone wall.
“There you go,” the old wizard said and nodded towards the wall next to the torch, and when the boys looked very carefully, they could see the outlines of a passageway. “Just step through the wall. It’ll lock itself once you turn the torch on the other side.
“Thank you very much!” the boys said and did as instructed.
Despite the new location their little hideout looked exactly the same as it had been before summer holiday. Even the book that Jesse had forgotten to take home with him was still on the table.
The secret room was small and cozy, exactly the right size for six boys to spend their time. There were no windows but the ceiling was high enough that the room didn’t give a cramped feeling. There was a table with six chairs around it, a whole bookshelf full of interesting books, a sofa, a few armchairs, and a thick furry mat covering the cold stone floor. All in all, from the very beginning the hideout had been exactly like they wanted it to be. They didn’t know how or why but it didn’t really matter to them.
“Finally!” Hokuto sighed and threw himself on the sofa, rolling onto his stomach and looking around the room like he wanted to see everything at once.
“I’ve been thinking,” Taiga said when they had all settled down around the room, “maybe we’re doing something wrong.”
“Something like what?” Shintaro asked from his favorite armchair and stretched his arms and legs across the arm rests. (When had that guy grown tall like that too, Juri found himself wondering.)
“Maybe we’ve been trying too much,” Taiga continued and frowned, “maybe we should just try…I don’t know.”
“Like trying and not trying at the same time?” Jesse asked and Taiga tilted his head.
“Well, yes… and no.”
Kouchi leaned back on the sofa where he was half-sitting and half-lying on Hokuto’s legs, and crossed his arms across his chest.
“That’s ridiculous. How could we do that? It’s not like we can simply decide to stop wanting to learn it and just ‘poof’ do it right away,” he said, and snapped his fingers to emphasize his words.
What happened next was too sudden and too quick for anyone to understand. In fact, at first the only ones who even noticed were Taiga who had been looking at Kouchi, ready to throw an icy question about him having any better ideas, and Hokuto whose mouth dropped open when he realized there was a red-furred squirrel sitting on his knee.
Everyone turned to look at Hokuto when he let out a loud wail of surprise and scrambled to sit up. The loudness of the noise probably scared the little animal that let out an ear-splitting shriek, stormed up the back rest of the sofa and straight up by the rough stone wall.
Juri’s eyes widened when he realized what had happened and apparently the others caught up with the situation at the same time.
“You did it!” he yelled in disbelieving awe, “It worked!”
For a moment there was a full mess in the room when everyone yelled their cheers to Kouchi. Too bad the squirrel didn’t seem to appreciate their praises. He let out a series of screeches and rocketed around the walls, darting from one place to other in an incredible speed.
Jesse was the first to get the problem.
“Shut up!” he suddenly hollered, “Can’t you see he’s scared!”
His words made everyone fall silent at the same time. They had all gotten up and stood around the room, staring at the squirrel who finally found a safe location behind the fancy decorations on top of the bookshelf.
“Hey, little one,” Jesse said in a low voice and slowly inched closer to the bookshelf, “It’s all right. We’re not dangerous.”
The tiny creature stayed behind the decorations and shivered violently but at least it didn’t run away when Jesse reached up to brush his fur with his index finger.
“Kouchi? It’s all right. Come down here?”
Slowly, carefully, Jesse coaxed the nervous squirrel to relax a bit.
“I’m going to lift you down,” he said in a soft voice and stretched to catch Kouchi in his hands. He held the small animal close to his chest and kept murmuring him in a comforting voice until he stopped shivering and dared to look around in a much more composed way.
“Feeling better already?” Jesse chuckled and allowed Kouchi to jump onto the table where he stood up on his two tiny feet, stretched his little arms, brushed the tufts of hair on the tips of his ears, and marveled at his beautiful fluffy tail. The way he looked at himself looked as if he was standing in front of a mirror in the fitting-room of some clothing shop, and the human-like movements on a squirrel looked so funny that none of his friends could help smiling.
Shintaro stepped slowly closer to the table and then crouched next to it, leaning his chin and crossed arms against the table.
“Don’t worry, you’re a very handsome squirrel,” he said and grinned, “But how did you do that?”
Kouchi looked at him and shrugged.
“Can you change back?” Shintaro asked and Kouchi nodded. He made a graceful leap down to the floor and his friends gasped in surprise when his small character suddenly grew on his real size. His tail and fur withdrew back into his skin and sharp claws and big black eyes changed back to his own.
“Wow,” Kouchi said and a visible shiver ran through his spine, “that was…weird.”
“What happened to you?” Juri asked, still rather thunderstruck by the surprise.
“The question is, who made the squirrel freak out,” Kouchi pointed out and glanced at Hokuto who scratched his neck and flashed him an apologetic smile.
“Sorry, mate,” he said, “you totally scared the shit out of me too.”
“How did you do that?” Shintaro repeated his question and Kouchi sat down on the fluffy mat, roughing his hair and grimacing.
“I have absolutely no idea,” he admitted, “It just happened. I didn’t think I was doing anything.”
“Can you do it again?”
The other five were hardly breathing as they did their best to see every small movement Kouchi made, and the boy’s laughter had a hint of embarrassment in it.
“It feels weird when you’re staring at me like that. It’s not like you could actually see the spell,” he said and suddenly shrunk into pocket size again. He glanced at his friends, made a chuckle-like noise, and jumped back to the table. Without stopping he continued up to Jesse’s shoulder where he sat down, looking as adorably smug as a squirrel ever could.
“I’m a bit jealous,” Juri admitted to Jesse in the evening when they were back in the Gryffindor common room, sitting on the massive armchairs and enjoying the warmth of the fire in the fireplace. They had all tried the spell but no-one had been able to make it work, and Kouchi could only shrug apologetically for not being able to be any more helpful. He didn’t know what it was that he did differently than the others so how could he give advice to anyone else?
“It’s all right,” Jesse consoled him, “You will learn.”
“But when?” Juri insisted, “What else can we do? We’re already the best students of the school when it comes to transfigurations. Hell, I could change you into a squirrel anytime. But how can I change myself?”
“At least your whiskers are cute,” Jesse offered and Juri snorted, unable to decide if he was more annoyed or amused about it.
“By the way,” Jesse said and fiddled with the hem of his sleeve, “are you going to do something about… Shintaro?”
“What about him?” Juri asked and threw an indifferent glance at Jesse.
“Don’t try to act stupid. You know what I’m talking about.”
“I know,” Juri sighed, defeated. Of course Jesse would see right through him. He always did.
“You like him,” Jesse said like it was no big deal at all, “and you know he’s not going to freak out just because you’re both guys.”
Juri knew. In their secret hideout they had talked about many things, and they had once brushed across that one too. Juri still remembered how blunt and carefree Shintaro had been, simply saying he didn’t mind other people’s orientations; straight or gay or anything else, he didn’t care as far as they were decent people. That time Juri’s feelings towards him had been purely friendship-based and he hadn’t thought much about the whole matter. He had never thought the piece of information would ever be relevant to his interests.
“What are you afraid of?” Jesse asked quietly, and Juri wrapped his arms around his knees, staring at the sparkling flames.
“I don’t know,” he said truthfully. He really didn’t know what was stopping him. “He’s one of my best friends. Maybe I just don’t want to risk it.” The mere thought already made something inside him twist, causing an uncomfortable heavy feeling in his chest. He didn’t want to lose Shintaro. He couldn’t. He closed his eyes and hid his face behind his arms and knees for a while.
“Even if you might get something better instead?” Jesse asked and his soft voice reassured Juri’s alarmed feelings. “Hey, you’re a Gryffindor! Where’s your courage?”
“Look, who’s talking!” Juri snorted and narrowed his eyes knowingly when looking at his friend, “How about you and Morikawa? Why don’t you go and confess to her instead of preaching to me?”
Jesse startled, and glanced quickly around.
“Don’t be so freaking loud!” he hissed through his teeth and Juri rolled his eyes.
“She’s not here. What kind of a jerk do you think I am, seriously?”
“Fine, fine I got it,” Jesse murmured, “Just drop it already!”
Juri did as asked and stopped teasing Jesse about his adorable crush. However, later when Juri was already lying in his bed, he found himself wide awake until the small hours. He couldn’t help thinking about Jesse’s words and pondering about what to do.
- - -
Chapter 3
Chapter: 2/9
Rating: G
1
- - -
The first morning of the new school year started like any ordinary day as people on different stages of wakefulness wandered from the dormitories to the Great Hall.
Jesse had just joined Juri and his roommates who were having breakfast when an owl-shaped piece of parchment fluttered through the air, stopped abruptly as if it had hit an invisible wall and fell, splashing right into Juri’s cup of pumpkin juice.
“Careful! I borrowed this book from Hagiya; he’ll totally kill me if it gets all sticky!” Shoki cried out and pulled the precious object aside.
Juri fished the wet origami bird from his cup and opened the folds, revealing a short message. The ink had gotten messy but the text was still readable and Juri glanced up at the Ravenclaw table where Hokuto shrugged and smiled at him apologetically.
Let’s meet at the library in the lunch break, the message said. Juri raised his thumb up in the air and Hokuto nodded as the sign of a successful exchange of information.
During the breakfast the Prefects of the Houses walked around the Hall handing every student a piece of parchment, except for the sixth year students who got two.
“How did your O.W.L.s go? What classes will you have?” Juri asked, trying to peek over Jesse’s shoulder and noting how the said shoulder was once again an inch higher than it had been two months ago. “Seriously,” he whined, “stop growing already! You’re like a freaking giraffe!”
“Can’t help it though,” Jesse chuckled and handed his new timetable for Juri to see. “I don’t know about my classes yet. I passed everything with at least ‘Exceeds Expectations’ but I’m not sure if I can do the N.E.W.T.s for all of these subjects next year. I’ll have to talk with the Head of House about it. My appointment will only be right before lunch time so I guess I’m free to come and go as I wish until that.”
“Lucky you,” Juri murmured as he eyed at his own timetable that looked pretty much the same as it had been on the previous year. He still started every week with a double lesson of Astronomy. That day’s first lessons, however, were Care of Magical Creatures and Herbology, both subjects he liked.
“I’ll walk around the school with dad’s navigator,” Jesse decided and folded his O.W.L. results and the appointment time parchment into his pocket, “I wonder what will happen if I take it close to the charms class…”
“Whatever,” Juri chuckled and the Gryffindor boys finished their breakfast chatting, comparing their timetables, and wondering when the Quidditch practices would start.
When the bell rang and everyone got up to leave to their lessons Jesse vanished upstairs, waving the navigator in the air while he went.
“I don’t get those things,” Kento murmured amusedly and Juri nodded in a perfect understanding. They shuffled through the hall and out of the doors, heading towards the old greenhouses, one of which had recently been modified to be the new classroom for Care of Magical Creatures.
They were in the middle of a deep discussion about last year’s Quidditch Cup when something big attacked them and the both of them let out surprised yelps, meriting two identical laughs from the guys who had tried to tackle them.
“Morning,” Hokuto greeted and rushed to walk in front of Juri and Kento, his back towards their direction of travel.
“Hey Gryffindor kittens, we were looking for you in the Great Hall!” Hokuto’s Ravenclaw roommate, Fuma, said and stepped between Juri and Kento, throwing his arms over their shoulders. “You could’ve sent us a word you were here already!”
“Wouldn’t that have robbed you the opportunity to surprise us and hear Kento scream like a girl?” Juri asked and Fuma laughed, admitting Juri was right.
The four boys barely made it to the classroom in time and their teacher, a relatively young witch, took a deep breath when she saw them. Tanaka Juri, Matsumura Hokuto, Nakajima Kento, and Kikuchi Fuma were not bad boys per se; they were honest and good-hearted boys, and it was obvious they really loved her subject. If only they had been less noisy and carefree she wouldn’t have needed to fear for their safety on every single lesson. She couldn’t help liking them but at the same time she was secretly relieved it was their last year in the school.
On the lesson they were divided in pairs and each pair was given a small cage of bright blue half-an-inch tall insects called Billywigs. Their task was to observe the Billywigs and make notes of their behavior.
“They’re funny,” Hokuto said thoughtfully and peeped through the small holes of the cage. The tiny insects were hovering in the air and their swift gyrating made a low humming sound.
“They’re exactly like you when you’re overly tired,” Juri teased and finished his drawing. He put his quill away and waited until the ink on the parchment was completely dry.
“Want to color it, too?” Hokuto asked and fished a flat packet of crayons from his bag.
“Sure, thanks,” Juri said and opened the packet. Plastic crayons were one of the most useful muggle inventions that Juri knew, and it wasn’t the first time he used them; Hokuto liked drawing and often carried them around, and always let his friends use them as well.
In fact, the crayons were the original reason Juri knew Hokuto.
It had been early spring in Juri’s third year in Hogwarts. Juri and Jesse had been sitting in the library for the whole evening, tall piles of books about Transfigurations on the table next to them. Hokuto had been finishing his homework in the library on the same evening. He had been about to leave, passing Juri and Jesse’s table, when the strap of his bag had suddenly gotten stuck somewhere. Hokuto had accidentally dropped the bag and its contents had spread around the floor. Juri and Jesse had seen everything, and had gotten up to help the Ravenclaw boy to collect his things, crawling around the floor after his parchments and weird colorful sticks.
Until that day Juri had never seen crayons like that. He had only used colored pencils or chalk whenever he had wanted to draw something.
“What’re these?”
“My crayons. Muggle-made plastic pencils,” Hokuto said with a shrug. He thanked them for the help and introduced himself in the same breath, smiling sheepishly.
“To be honest I’ve been watching you two lately. I couldn’t help noticing you were up to something.”
Jesse threw a nervous glance at Juri who just smiled, hoping it would look even moderately convincing.
“We’re just reading, out of curiosity.”
“You’re studying,” Hokuto pointed out and tilted his head, “and definitely not for the lessons. Those books aren’t anything you’d need on our level.”
“It’s nothing, really,” Juri insisted, wishing he could have just changed all the books on the table invisible.
“You’re trying to learn something on your own,” Hokuto continued guessing and eyed at the books with such a curious look that Juri bit his lip hard enough that it almost bled.
“Fine, fine! Don’t say it aloud!” he hissed and beckoned Hokuto to sit next to them. “Promise not to tell anyone!”
“I promise,” Hokuto said slowly, “if you take me along.”
Juri and Jesse hadn’t had any choice but accept Hokuto’s demand. At first they had been slightly insecure about it. However, soon enough they had gotten to know Hokuto better and realized he was better companion than they had ever imagined. He wasn’t just a funny, clever-witted, and trustworthy guy; he also had a weird effect on the librarian and basically any female adult around. Hokuto only needed to ask politely and smile, and their Transfigurations teacher immediately signed him a permission to access the older collection that, due to the fragility of the books, wasn’t stored in public use anymore.
“Is everyone ready?” the Care of Magical Creatures teacher asked in the end of the lesson, “Good. I’ll now write down a few homework questions for you. Please answer them with your textbooks and own notations-- Kikuchi. What did I say about touching the Billywigs!” The whole class stopped packing their things and looked at Fuma and Kento’s table. The teacher’s loud question was well-founded but unfortunately late.
“Fuma?” Kento asked with a frown when the boy next to him tottered on his place, “Are you all right?”
“Sure,” Fuma murmured, fighting to keep his balance and forming a dizzy smile, “Just. Feels funny.”
“Look! He’s levitating!” the girl by the next table cried out and pointed at Fuma who indeed hovered an inch or two above the floor.
“Since you had to do the exact opposite of what I told you to do, couldn’t you at least have done it fifteen minutes earlier so everyone could have taken notes of the effects of the Billywig poison?” the teacher asked in a very fed-up tone and shook her head. “Someone take him to the hospital wing before he floats away on his own! Matsumura, Tanaka, and Nakajima. You’re his friends; I guess I can trust you?”
“Sure,” Juri said cheerfully and poked Fuma’s shoulder with his index finger, making the boy slowly rotate around in the air like a very slow and very big Billywig, “We wouldn’t leave our littlebird Ravenclaw in trouble.”
“Stop it Juri,” Fuma whined and his posture faltered again, “going around like this makes me feel sick!”
In the beginning they only needed to take a firm grip on Fuma’s sleeves and drag him along but it seemed like the effects of Billywig poison changed as time went by. They were only halfway on the path towards the main castle when the levitating effect faded away and Fuma crashed on Hokuto’s arms like a paralyzed Flobberworm. At the same time the dizziness seemed to only get worse.
“Stop laughing and help me,” Hokuto growled at Juri and Kento, his face bright red when he tried to hold up Fuma’s whole weight, the boy leaning his head on Hokuto’s shoulder and pressing his cheek against Hokuto’s.
“Sorry,” Fuma stammered with a confused giggle, absolutely clueless of what was happening around him. “You’re warm. I like it.”
“It’s like dragging a drunken friend back home,” Juri grinned and stepped closer to save Hokuto, supporting half of Fuma’s weight from the other side.
“What would you know about being drunk?” Kento asked and raised his eyebrows as he took Fuma’s school bag and threw it on his own shoulder. Juri just rolled his eyes at him.
“Why do you think I do? Seriously. I have three older brothers, one of which is a barkeeper.”
“Oh, well. You have a point.”
They barely managed to get to the castle when the bell rang again to mark the end of the break. By the corridor they met Taiga and Kouchi who were just about to climb upstairs.
“Juri! Where have you been? Come on, they say the new Divination teacher is really strict about students being punctual!” Kouchi said and frowned at Fuma’s giddy appearance. “What’s wrong with him?”
“Billywig poison,” Hokuto gasped and fought to stay on his feet and keep Fuma’s wandering fingers far from his sides at the same time.
“Oh. I’ve read about that,” Taiga said and nodded sympathetically, “it affects some people stronger than others.”
“I-it’s not that bad,” Fuma giggled and Hokuto slapped the back of his head with his free hand.
“Shut up, idiot. Come on guys!”
“Just go, Juri,” Kento offered, “The hospital wing isn’t far anymore and I’ll only have Potions on the next lesson. The teacher will understand.”
Kento took Juri’s place by Fuma’s side although Fuma was still mostly hanging on Hokuto and Juri thanked him, feeling both relieved and guilty. If there had been a slightest possibility of someone being in a real danger, he would never have left his friends like that. However, in the current situation Kento and Hokuto didn’t necessarily need him along so he supposed it was safe to rush after Taiga and Kouchi. He didn’t really want to be late from the first Divination lesson either.
They made it time and the rumors about the new teacher turned out to be scarier than the man really was. He was a very strict teacher and held them in the classroom until the last minute but he had an interesting way of teaching and the lesson passed quickly.
As soon as the bell rang again Juri, Taiga, and Kouchi rushed downstairs, devouring their lunches in a record time. In less than fifteen minutes they were on their way towards the library.
Hokuto, Shintaro and Jesse were already waiting for them in their usual spot in the farthest possible corner of the big library, having a hard time trying to be silent enough that the librarian wouldn’t chuck them out due to disturbance of peace.
They had been gathering together like this for years already, the group accidentally growing when Juri, Jesse, and Hokuto hadn’t yet learned to be very secretive. Kouchi had been Hokuto’s friend since childhood and he had been quick to notice Hokuto had a secret he didn’t know about. Shintaro and Taiga, on their behalves, were Juri’s childhood friends and neither of them had hesitated to ask what was going on after they had accidentally overheard some pieces of the others’ conversations.
After that they had all become more careful in order not to let anyone else know about their illicit activities. (Bless Shoki, Kento, and Fuma who had absolutely no tendencies to stick their noses into other people’s businesses.) From Shintaro’s suggestion they had started to spread the idea of the six of them being a very tight-knit inter-house study circle. The cover story seemed to be taken well among the people around them; at least no-one ever questioned them.
Not that anyone ever had any reason to be suspicious - they really did study together. What the other people never knew about was that after the mandatory exercises they opened new books and studied all the theory and practice about transfigurations. After all the reading they had come into the conclusion that mastering the transfiguration of inanimate objects would help them in learning more advanced kind of transfigurations. Constant practice made miracles and sooner than later the six of them ended up being the favorite students of their Transfigurations teacher.
Being mere sixth graders Jesse and Shintaro couldn’t obviously practice anything during the summer but nothing had stopped the older boys from trying everything they could. Unfortunately, none of them had been very successful.
“Nothing,” Taiga said with a shrug, “I had lots of time and I’ve been trying many times but nothing works.”
“Same here,” Hokuto sighed. “I only managed to change all shoes in our house into bats. You should have seen my parents’ faces when they looked for the shoes and found the colony of bats hanging from the ceiling in our hallway… Of course I changed them back again but it took ages to find the last one that had gone hiding.”
“Do your parents let you do magic inside the house?” Kouchi asked curiously, “As soon as I turned seventeen my mother announced I have to go out to the potting shed if I want to do anything like that. She doesn’t quite trust my skills yet. I guess that’s because as a kid I had this habit of breaking things even if I as much as glanced at them. Even after all these years she’s worried over her antique china. She doesn’t forbid dad from using magic indoors but I don’t think she likes that either.”
“My father’s the same,” Jesse said and grimaced, “he’s really interested in magic and eager to know more about everything but he’s afraid his computers will get all messed up if mum does too much magic in the house. I guess that’s why he rarely brings his work laptop and the company’s cell phone home.”
Juri, Taiga, and Shintaro shared a blank look across their muggle-bred friends. The three of them, all coming from old wizard families, had never needed to think about such problems. The Kyomoto mansion was secluded enough in the countryside that their family rarely had to deal with anything related to muggles. Juri and Shintaro’s families lived in a small village where only a rough fifth of population was magical folk but since they had both been homeschooled before going to Hogwarts they hadn’t had much personal contact to muggles before getting to know Kouchi, Jesse, and Hokuto. Even among them only Hokuto’s family was purely non-magical.
“I learned something during the summer!” Juri announced as victoriously as he could without raising the volume of his voice too much. That immediately aroused his friends’ attention.
“No, really?”
“Show us!”
“It’s nothing much but I guess I could show you quickly,” Juri said and glanced around to make sure no-one was anywhere close to see them. Then he repeated the same thing that he had shown to Jesse in the train on the previous evening. The whiskers tickled his nose and he smiled when the color of the hair hanging in front of his eyes changed.
“Cool!” Shintaro gasped and Juri felt his cheeks getting warmer under the boy’s admiring gaze.
“It is quite effective,” Taiga said and there was a hint of apology in his expression when he frowned, “but are you sure it’s the real charm? I mean, I never heard anyone changing only partially?”
“I know,” Juri admitted and let the whiskers and color shrink back into his skin, “that’s what I thought, too. But at least I was able to do it without my wand!”
“That’s surely something,” Taiga agreed. “Now, I guess we’ll just have to continue practicing. Let’s meet in the hideout after the afternoon lessons!”
“Uh, about that,” Shintaro said and looked slightly distressed, “I forgot to mention earlier. I passed the corridor last night when going to sleep. It’s gone again.”
“Shit,” Jesse moaned and Juri let out an annoyed sigh. It had been the same last year. Two years ago they had accidentally found a secret entrance to a room that no-one else seemed to know about. Ever since that they had used the room for practicing and hanging around whenever they felt like that. However, in the beginning of the previous year they had noticed the door had been gone. They had been disappointed by the loss of the room that had become so useful to them but it couldn’t have been helped. Not until one evening when Shintaro had noticed a familiar-looking painting hanging on the wall, not far from the entrance to the Hufflepuff common room.
They hoped it was no big deal this time, either. They would just have to find the same painting again.
“Fine,” Juri said, “we’ll start in the evening. There’s not much to do in the library anymore anyway.”
He was right; the long afternoons and evenings of the past three years had been enough to go through the whole enormous library and Juri was pretty sure they had read through every single book that could tell them something new and useful about the Animagus charm.
After that the conversation slid into other topics and the six boys spent the rest of the lunch break chatting in the library until it was time to go again.
“Will you have lessons today?” Juri asked Shintaro when they were walking along the corridors.
“Yeah, I already met the Head of the House in the morning. I’ll have History of Magic in the fourth floor.”
“We’ll have Charms in the next room!” Juri said and couldn’t help a surprised smile.
“Just go before me,” Taiga said and nodded towards the staircase that led towards the Slytherin dungeons, “I need to get my textbook from the dormitory before the lesson.”
The boys took their leave, each to their own classes. Juri and Shintaro walked slowly upstairs, Shintaro talking animatedly all the time. Juri laughed whenever Shintaro said something funny, took part into the conversation whenever he felt like that, and enjoyed their time together. It had been a while; Shintaro’s family had traveled abroad for almost two months in the summer so Juri hadn’t had the opportunity to hang around with him after the beginning of July.
Shintaro had been Juri’s friend since forever. In a way Juri could have said they were best friends even though it was very different than his friendship with Jesse was. The two of them had always lived in the same town and they had played together a lot ever since the early childhood. There weren’t many people in Juri’s life who could make him feel as comfortable as Shintaro somehow managed to do.
In fact, there were many things that only Shintaro could make him feel.
Things like the fluttering sensation in the bottom of his stomach whenever the boy as much as hung around in the same room. Things like the way his heartbeat immediately sped up whenever Shintaro smiled at him. Things like he suddenly forgot how to breathe and talk when Shintaro stood close enough for Juri to sense the scent of his shampoo and the warmth radiating from Shintaro’s body.
What made it even worse - or better - was that every now and then Juri felt like he might not be alone with his feelings.
He had first noticed it around last Christmas, and every now and then after that. They were small things but Juri was quite sure he wasn’t imagining them. Sometimes, when their eyes met or when they were hanging around without the others, just something in Shintaro’s look and behavior gave Juri the tiny bits of courage and hope that he needed to nourish his own shy feelings from day to day.
“What are you thinking about, looking so confused? Are you even listening to me?” Shintaro suddenly asked, alarming Juri from the depths of his thoughts.
“Uh, not really,” he admitted with an embarrassed laugh and Shintaro rolled his eyes.
“Thought so. Is there something bothering you?” There it was again, the look that forced Juri to turn his own eyes away in order not to give away his true feelings right then and there.
‘You are,’ Juri wanted to say.
“Nothing much,” he said.
“You know there’s no way I’m going to believe you,” Shintaro chuckled, “but it’s fine if you don’t want to talk about it right now. It’s okay if you want to wait until you’re ready to talk. See you after the lesson!” Shintaro waved his hand and jogged to the door of the History of Magic classroom. Once left alone, Juri stared after the other for a long time.
By dinnertime it already felt like any ordinary school day for everyone except maybe the first-years who always needed a week or two to get used to all the weird that older students simply called ‘going to school.’ Having already spent six years in Hogwarts, Juri quickly returned to his usual lifestyle: lessons, food, having fun, homework, having more fun, sleeping, and going through it all again on the next day. Weeks passed and before anyone noticed it was October.
Juri and Hokuto were sitting in the Great Hall and playing wizard chess. Some time ago also Taiga had sat down next to them, reading a ridiculously thick book about the most common herbs in potions, and eventually Kouchi had found them as well and just sat by the table to follow his friends’ game. Right when they had all managed to fall into a blissful inactivity their peace was disturbed by Jesse and Shintaro who rushed in and ran through the Great Hall.
“The painting,” Jesse said in the middle of gasping for breath, “we found it!”
“No, seriously?”
“Where is it?”
Jesse and Shintaro promised to show them, and the older four collected their things from the table, trying to look like they were doing nothing wrong. They weren’t, not really. Not yet. It wasn’t forbidden to enter empty rooms around the school. Sure, they mostly needed the room to study forbidden things but nobody knew that anyway. Besides, it wasn’t the Animagus spell that was forbidden; being an unregistered Animagus was. What they did would only start being wrong after they learned the spell, right?
The painting was hanging in the middle of some other paintings on the corridor that lead to the staircase of the astronomy tower.
“There you are!” Juri sighed and rolled his eyes. “Why can’t you stay in just one place?”
The old wizard in the painting raised his very grey and very bushy eyebrows and let out a disapproving sniff.
“Why don’t you try hanging on the same wall for four hundred years, sonny? Do that and then come to ask the same if you still feel like asking.”
“The young nowadays,” a witch dressed in a royal purple dress robe said in a heavy-hearted and strongly disapproving tone, “No respect towards the elderly and always thinking they know everything the best.”
Juri snapped his mouth shut, feeling annoyed and strangely embarrassed at the same time for actually being scolded by an ancient piece of canvas.
“Sorry for his impoliteness, Sir,” Taiga rushed to say, “Would you please tell us where the switch is this time?”
“I wonder, I wonder…” the old wizard murmured.
“Please? We’d really appreciate your help,” Hokuto said and tilted his head, flashing a coaxing smile to the old wizard, “It’s an honor for us to be acquainted with such an experienced and wise wizard like you are.”
“Hmm hmm,” the wizard grunted and stroking his long beard, obviously not above of Hokuto’s flattering. “Well then, I suppose not all youngsters are hopeless, even these days. The switch is on the torch on the opposite wall. Yes, that one.”
Jesse reached to grab the torch and pulled a bit, causing a clicking sound somewhere inside the stone wall.
“There you go,” the old wizard said and nodded towards the wall next to the torch, and when the boys looked very carefully, they could see the outlines of a passageway. “Just step through the wall. It’ll lock itself once you turn the torch on the other side.
“Thank you very much!” the boys said and did as instructed.
Despite the new location their little hideout looked exactly the same as it had been before summer holiday. Even the book that Jesse had forgotten to take home with him was still on the table.
The secret room was small and cozy, exactly the right size for six boys to spend their time. There were no windows but the ceiling was high enough that the room didn’t give a cramped feeling. There was a table with six chairs around it, a whole bookshelf full of interesting books, a sofa, a few armchairs, and a thick furry mat covering the cold stone floor. All in all, from the very beginning the hideout had been exactly like they wanted it to be. They didn’t know how or why but it didn’t really matter to them.
“Finally!” Hokuto sighed and threw himself on the sofa, rolling onto his stomach and looking around the room like he wanted to see everything at once.
“I’ve been thinking,” Taiga said when they had all settled down around the room, “maybe we’re doing something wrong.”
“Something like what?” Shintaro asked from his favorite armchair and stretched his arms and legs across the arm rests. (When had that guy grown tall like that too, Juri found himself wondering.)
“Maybe we’ve been trying too much,” Taiga continued and frowned, “maybe we should just try…I don’t know.”
“Like trying and not trying at the same time?” Jesse asked and Taiga tilted his head.
“Well, yes… and no.”
Kouchi leaned back on the sofa where he was half-sitting and half-lying on Hokuto’s legs, and crossed his arms across his chest.
“That’s ridiculous. How could we do that? It’s not like we can simply decide to stop wanting to learn it and just ‘poof’ do it right away,” he said, and snapped his fingers to emphasize his words.
What happened next was too sudden and too quick for anyone to understand. In fact, at first the only ones who even noticed were Taiga who had been looking at Kouchi, ready to throw an icy question about him having any better ideas, and Hokuto whose mouth dropped open when he realized there was a red-furred squirrel sitting on his knee.
Everyone turned to look at Hokuto when he let out a loud wail of surprise and scrambled to sit up. The loudness of the noise probably scared the little animal that let out an ear-splitting shriek, stormed up the back rest of the sofa and straight up by the rough stone wall.
Juri’s eyes widened when he realized what had happened and apparently the others caught up with the situation at the same time.
“You did it!” he yelled in disbelieving awe, “It worked!”
For a moment there was a full mess in the room when everyone yelled their cheers to Kouchi. Too bad the squirrel didn’t seem to appreciate their praises. He let out a series of screeches and rocketed around the walls, darting from one place to other in an incredible speed.
Jesse was the first to get the problem.
“Shut up!” he suddenly hollered, “Can’t you see he’s scared!”
His words made everyone fall silent at the same time. They had all gotten up and stood around the room, staring at the squirrel who finally found a safe location behind the fancy decorations on top of the bookshelf.
“Hey, little one,” Jesse said in a low voice and slowly inched closer to the bookshelf, “It’s all right. We’re not dangerous.”
The tiny creature stayed behind the decorations and shivered violently but at least it didn’t run away when Jesse reached up to brush his fur with his index finger.
“Kouchi? It’s all right. Come down here?”
Slowly, carefully, Jesse coaxed the nervous squirrel to relax a bit.
“I’m going to lift you down,” he said in a soft voice and stretched to catch Kouchi in his hands. He held the small animal close to his chest and kept murmuring him in a comforting voice until he stopped shivering and dared to look around in a much more composed way.
“Feeling better already?” Jesse chuckled and allowed Kouchi to jump onto the table where he stood up on his two tiny feet, stretched his little arms, brushed the tufts of hair on the tips of his ears, and marveled at his beautiful fluffy tail. The way he looked at himself looked as if he was standing in front of a mirror in the fitting-room of some clothing shop, and the human-like movements on a squirrel looked so funny that none of his friends could help smiling.
Shintaro stepped slowly closer to the table and then crouched next to it, leaning his chin and crossed arms against the table.
“Don’t worry, you’re a very handsome squirrel,” he said and grinned, “But how did you do that?”
Kouchi looked at him and shrugged.
“Can you change back?” Shintaro asked and Kouchi nodded. He made a graceful leap down to the floor and his friends gasped in surprise when his small character suddenly grew on his real size. His tail and fur withdrew back into his skin and sharp claws and big black eyes changed back to his own.
“Wow,” Kouchi said and a visible shiver ran through his spine, “that was…weird.”
“What happened to you?” Juri asked, still rather thunderstruck by the surprise.
“The question is, who made the squirrel freak out,” Kouchi pointed out and glanced at Hokuto who scratched his neck and flashed him an apologetic smile.
“Sorry, mate,” he said, “you totally scared the shit out of me too.”
“How did you do that?” Shintaro repeated his question and Kouchi sat down on the fluffy mat, roughing his hair and grimacing.
“I have absolutely no idea,” he admitted, “It just happened. I didn’t think I was doing anything.”
“Can you do it again?”
The other five were hardly breathing as they did their best to see every small movement Kouchi made, and the boy’s laughter had a hint of embarrassment in it.
“It feels weird when you’re staring at me like that. It’s not like you could actually see the spell,” he said and suddenly shrunk into pocket size again. He glanced at his friends, made a chuckle-like noise, and jumped back to the table. Without stopping he continued up to Jesse’s shoulder where he sat down, looking as adorably smug as a squirrel ever could.
“I’m a bit jealous,” Juri admitted to Jesse in the evening when they were back in the Gryffindor common room, sitting on the massive armchairs and enjoying the warmth of the fire in the fireplace. They had all tried the spell but no-one had been able to make it work, and Kouchi could only shrug apologetically for not being able to be any more helpful. He didn’t know what it was that he did differently than the others so how could he give advice to anyone else?
“It’s all right,” Jesse consoled him, “You will learn.”
“But when?” Juri insisted, “What else can we do? We’re already the best students of the school when it comes to transfigurations. Hell, I could change you into a squirrel anytime. But how can I change myself?”
“At least your whiskers are cute,” Jesse offered and Juri snorted, unable to decide if he was more annoyed or amused about it.
“By the way,” Jesse said and fiddled with the hem of his sleeve, “are you going to do something about… Shintaro?”
“What about him?” Juri asked and threw an indifferent glance at Jesse.
“Don’t try to act stupid. You know what I’m talking about.”
“I know,” Juri sighed, defeated. Of course Jesse would see right through him. He always did.
“You like him,” Jesse said like it was no big deal at all, “and you know he’s not going to freak out just because you’re both guys.”
Juri knew. In their secret hideout they had talked about many things, and they had once brushed across that one too. Juri still remembered how blunt and carefree Shintaro had been, simply saying he didn’t mind other people’s orientations; straight or gay or anything else, he didn’t care as far as they were decent people. That time Juri’s feelings towards him had been purely friendship-based and he hadn’t thought much about the whole matter. He had never thought the piece of information would ever be relevant to his interests.
“What are you afraid of?” Jesse asked quietly, and Juri wrapped his arms around his knees, staring at the sparkling flames.
“I don’t know,” he said truthfully. He really didn’t know what was stopping him. “He’s one of my best friends. Maybe I just don’t want to risk it.” The mere thought already made something inside him twist, causing an uncomfortable heavy feeling in his chest. He didn’t want to lose Shintaro. He couldn’t. He closed his eyes and hid his face behind his arms and knees for a while.
“Even if you might get something better instead?” Jesse asked and his soft voice reassured Juri’s alarmed feelings. “Hey, you’re a Gryffindor! Where’s your courage?”
“Look, who’s talking!” Juri snorted and narrowed his eyes knowingly when looking at his friend, “How about you and Morikawa? Why don’t you go and confess to her instead of preaching to me?”
Jesse startled, and glanced quickly around.
“Don’t be so freaking loud!” he hissed through his teeth and Juri rolled his eyes.
“She’s not here. What kind of a jerk do you think I am, seriously?”
“Fine, fine I got it,” Jesse murmured, “Just drop it already!”
Juri did as asked and stopped teasing Jesse about his adorable crush. However, later when Juri was already lying in his bed, he found himself wide awake until the small hours. He couldn’t help thinking about Jesse’s words and pondering about what to do.
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Chapter 3