[One-shot] Mr. New Prefect
Title: Mr. New Prefect
Author: keeconk
Pairing: Koki.Shige
Rating: PG-13
Word count: 4,235
Disclaimer: Hogwarts and every character in it belongs to J.K. Rowling, Koki and Shige depends to whoever owns them, and I own nothing but the plot.
Summary: As a new prefect, Shige found himself struggling to do all his responsibility, and an intimidating senior didn't make it any easier at all.
Beta reader: alkoi
A.N. There are many disagreements on how Rowlings made the prefect system in Hogwarts. Many believe it’s full of flaws while some think that it’s just unexplained thus the confusion. In this fanfiction, I decided to go with this one. There are probably two prefects chosen every year, in their 5th year. They keep the title in the 6th and the Head Boy and Head Girl are chosen when they got to the 7th year. So a person holds a prefect position for the total of three years. Changes to the original Harry Potter series were done consciously to fit the adapted story.
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Despite of the fact that he was a prefect, Shige wasn’t particularly happy with his responsibility as one, especially not when instead of using his Sunday night to do his pre-class reading for his Potion class, he had to stay there watching over the juniors (and a couple of seniors). Professor Slughorn was his favourite, of course, and that would be the reason why he wanted to impress the Head of Slytherin so badly. Slytherin wasn’t exactly a muggle friendly house, especially for an awkward muggle like Shige, so he was more grateful to have someone like Professor Slughorn as a head of the house.
Rumour had it that the previous Head of Slytherin was pretty obsessed with house points, and Shige couldn’t imagine how bad it was back then because as far as it was at the moment, he knew that Professor Slughorn was really strict to those that lost some house points because of misbehaving.
“Oi, Kato! Stop spacing out and at least pretend that you are interested in watching over us cleaning the house,” one of the juniors laughed at him, waving his wand to move the dirty cloth over a bucket of water.
“I told you no magic!” Shige frowned, walking to the brunette right away and taking his wand away from him. “You can have it back once you’re done cleaning the common room.”
Yeah. Those that lost points usually had to do some core cleaning without magic and quite often, Professor Slughorn would make sure they scored really high for their tests to make up for their lost points. Shige wasn’t particularly fond of being in-charge of this house-drill. He would rather spend his time studying, but then again, he still had to impress Professor Slughorn because he still wanted to be invited, as always, to those parties the head of house held for talented students. He wouldn’t want to suddenly stop getting invitated, wouldn’t he?
Leaning his bum to the head rest of one of the arm chairs, Shige tried to concentrate on his job and make sure that they did what they were supposed to do. Most Slytherins were troublemakers but not stupid, so it was very rare for Shige to keep on seeing the same faces over and over again. Yet, there was one face that he kept on seeing each time he was on duty.
“What did you do this time, Tanaka?” Shige asked when Koki walked pass him with a wiping cloth on his shoulder.
“None of your business.”
“Just curious. You don’t have to be so cold,” Shige looked at him discontentedly.
“Well…” Koki started, turning his head to Shige, his dark spiky hair framing the manly face, adding more intensity to his already rather scary behaviour. “… Professor McGonagall caught me being out of bed after bedtime about two nights ago. Not a big deal. Only ten points deducted considering that it was the headmaster that caught me.”
“What did you do so late anyway? Aren’t the 7th year people supposed to have quite a late bedtime?”
Koki tilted his head to Shige, an amused smirk curved on his strong face as his fingers ran through his black hair. “Aren’t you too curious for your own good?” he smirked. Much to Shige’s surprise, the older boy stepped closer and pinched his cheek hard. “Technically I’m still your senior. Show some respect, you little new prefect,” he smirked again.
Shige rubbed his cheeks as he frowned, watching Koki walk away to wipe the dust off the old oak coffee table. “And technically I’m taller!”
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The day couldn’t get any better for Shige. He managed to get O for his Herbology class, which for the past five years of his life, he tended to get either E or A, and since he really wished to take the subject for his N.E.W.T, Shige was extremely happy about it. Not only that, he received another invitation from Professor Slughorn that weekend. He loved this particular gathering. It was always filled with dazzling and awesome people, and he always felt honoured that Professor Slughorn let him to be part of it.
“Oh, Mr. New Prefect! Be careful, you wouldn’t want to lose your badge,” someone greeted him as he walked through the school’s hallway.
Shige turned his head towards the opened yard besides the hallway, the sun blinding his vision for awhile but it didn’t take him more than seconds to adjust his eyes to the brightness and soon he noticed who it was. “I hope you’re keeping yourself away from trouble, Tanaka.”
“Oh~. Is Mr. Prefect worried that something bad might happened to me?” Koki grinned, hopping away from the big rock on the green yard beside the hallway and quickly heading to Shige’s side to walk with him. “How considerate of him,” Koki added.
“That wasn’t my intention with that statement,” Shige rolled his eyes. “Although we could say that I’m worried you’re gonna cost us some house points again.”
“Awww~, that’s so sweet of you, Mr. New Prefect,” Koki grinned, wrapping his arm around Shige.
“W-what are you doing?! People would think that we’re friends!” he stuttered, not particularly comfortable with what the older guy was doing.
Shige didn’t have any personal grudge with Koki. He just wasn’t sure what to do or say when the year seven student was around. Koki was intimidating in so many different levels, especially because despite of the fact that he always managed to get house drill, Professor Slughorn was so fond of him. Shige didn’t understand how it was even possible. Koki wasn't in the Quidditch team, nor was he a prefect or any sort. As far as Shige concerned, Koki was pretty much just someone that often made Slytherin lose loads of points.
“I have a question, Kato,” Koki said at the end.
“What question?”
The older man stepped closer, a little bit too close for Shige’s cup of tea, making him contemplate taking a step back but he was a little bit scared that it would make him look weak. A Slytherin shouldn’t be weak and Shige shouldn’t allow any space for weakness.
“I’ve been wondering… aren’t you supposed to be in Ravenclaw? What is a smart ass like you doing in Slytherin?” Koki asked. “And aren’t you a mud blood?” he added.
There was disgust in Koki’s voice and heck no, Shige didn’t like how it sounded. There were very few of his kind in Slytherin. In fact, he could count how many of them were in the house with just one hand. Among all people, Shige didn’t expect it to come from Koki simply for the fact that Koki was the type that seemed to not care about anything at all.
“It wasn’t my fault that the hat decided to change my house at the very last minute!” Shige replied, feeling extremely uncomfortable with how much closer Koki had gotten to him after he replied to the older boy, making him just a step closer to the hallway wall.
“It changed its decision?” Koki tilted his head as he leaned forward, leaving only an inch between them.
“Y-yes. And would you mind? I have class to go to right now. Besides you should have known about it! Everyone was supposed to be there!”
Koki kept silent, stepping back a little after digesting Shige’s answer to his brain. “Well, I skipped. It was just a hassle to attend it,” he said, running his fingers through his hair.
“Oh… well… I’m l-late! You’re in my way!” Shige gulped as he forced himself to push Koki away completely.
Very little did Shige know of the amused smirk that curved widely on the older guy’s face as he left the other.
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Shige remembered the day he got his badge. He literally jumped around his house, running happily to his mum, as if he were a child, to show her his shiny prefect badge. It meant a lot for him because at least it would be something that his parents would be able to understand and he didn’t have to explain to them what it was all about. Being a muggle wasn’t exactly as nice as most people thought it would be. When most children would ask their parents on, let say their math or science homework, Shige had to work his bum off understanding Potion or Arithmancy all by himself.
“You seem to have very little appetite today, Shige,” Tegoshi pointed out as he shoved a piece of roasted chicken to his mouth.
Looking up, he gave Tegoshi a faint smile. Tegoshi was one of his roommates, and they had almost every class together so Shige couldn’t deny the fact that they both knew each other pretty well. “I’m just distracted,” Shige answered.
“Heeee~, that’s pretty rare. Mr. New Prefect can actually get distracted,” Tegoshi teased him with a sly smile on his face.
“Oh shut up. Don’t you dare use that nickname on me as well! Aren’t you supposed to be my bloody mate?” Shige rolled his eyes. “And it’s lunch time. Don’t let people hear you,” he whispered.
“Chill, Shige. The whole Slytherin knows that Tanaka calls you Mr. New Prefect. Well, you are a new prefect anyway.”
“But still! It’s enough that he calls me that every day! The day Nishikido calls me that too, I’m gonna transfer school to Cambridge and be a straight A’s muggle,” Shige kicked Tegoshi’s leg under the table.
“I think he already calls you that,” Tegoshi laughed. “And what do you mean by a straight A’s muggle?”
“Well, it’s like getting all O’s for your subjects,” he explained.
“But A is not as good as O.”
“Goodness gracious, Tegoshi. This is exactly why you have to take Muggle Studies. We don’t have O, E, or even T. All we have are A, B, C till F with A+ as the highest and U or ungraded as the lowest,” Shige rolled his eyes.
“Wow. Why so complicated?”
The prefect just sighed, feeling a little uninterested in explaining more muggle related stuff to Tegoshi. It was pretty clear to him that the shorter guy was interested in muggles, but his little SLytherin pride prevented him from admitting it and taking Muggle Studies as one of his elective subjects.
Standing up to leave, Shige sighed again for the nth time that day. Things hadn’t been going as great as it did the previous day. Shige woke up slightly later than usual and he didn’t have time for his pre-class reading, so he had to quickly go for breakfast and rush off to class right away; which was a big embarrassment because he literally tripped over his own legs and fell right in front of his class just moments before his professor came. It was already as humiliating as it was and one of his classmates were laughing and calling him a clumsy Mr. New Prefect.
To complete his little misery, not only couldn’t he concentrate in class because he felt so unprepared not knowing things that came out in class, he would have less time to prepare for his next day’s classes because once again he had to watch over house drill that night. He would be lying if he said he couldn’t stop thinking about his soon-to-be-wasted night instead of concentrating on his remaining classes.
Throwing his text book to the couch on the common room, Shige flopped on the leather couch as he closed his eyes, feeling his mental tiredness for the day creeping on his entire body. Unlike Tegoshi who was in the Quidditch team, Shige was the type that got easily exhausted; even when it was just in a form of mental exhaustion.
“It seems that we have a date tonight~,” someone disturbed Shige’s little resting as he set himself down right beside the prefect.
Shige’s eyes flew open spontaneously, both from the fact that he didn’t understand what the newcomer was talking about and from the fact that the voice sounded bloody familiar to his ears. “A date…? What?!”
“Like I said, a date,” Koki grinned, leaning to the backrest contently.
“I beg you pardon?! What did you mean that we have a date tonight?” Shige blinked as he shifted away from Koki, suddenly feeling that the big glorious Slytherin Dungeon getting smaller when he saw Koki next to him.
As if his day wasn’t already bad, Koki just had to move closer to him, his face didn’t look too pleasant for Shige because the younger boy would sense something fishy behind the sly expression he plastered on his face. “S-stay where you are, Tanaka!” he exclaimed.
“Booo... Stop being such a daft, Kato. And by date, I meant the house drill tonight. Stop being paranoid. You reacted as if I was about to rape you. Let’s hope it’s just gonna be the two of us tonight so it’ll be a lot more fun than usual,” Koki smirked, standing up and ruffling Shige’s hair before he walked away.
A creepy chill crept on Shige’s spine, and he made a mental note to switch shift before the house drill started. The last thing he wanted was supervising Koki cleaning the Quidditch team’s broom in a dark storage room with just the two of them there.
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There was a huge smile on Shige’s face. That was the one day that he knew would make the sucky past few days a lot better because there was nothing else that would make him feel a lot better but attending Professor Slughorn’s tea party. People called it the Slug Club, and Shige didn’t have any objection being part of the club.
“Professor Slughorn!” Shige waved his hand when he entered the very familiar chamber.
“Shigeaki Kato! My top scorer in class!” Professor Slughorn greeted him back.
Shige always liked to come to the party because it was full of the greatest people in Hogwarts. “A toast to Hogwards’ brightest and best” as Professor Slughorn always said on every meeting because only selective people could attend it. Even though Professor Slughorn was the Head of Slytherin, there were only 2 Slytherins that were invited to it; Shige him and this one unknown person that never showed up for the past few years since Shige started to be invited.
“Am I late, Sir?” Shige asked.
“No, not at all. You are quite early as usual. But you’re gonna be excited because this time the Slytherin stars are all present,” Professor Slughorn grinned.
“Oh really?” Shige beamed up.
He had been wondering who this mysterious other Slytherin was. Since he started to come to this gathering, the seat next to Shige had always been empty, something that he didn’t really mind but it did make him feel a little bit nervous to be the only Slytherin each time. According to Professor Slughorn, this mysterious guy would be someone that muggles would call as a Chemist, or someone that Professor Slughorn referred to as the Potion genius.
“Mr. New Prefect! A familiar face was sitting on the empty chair next to Shige’s, and Shige pretty much froze on the spot when he realised whose it was.
“T-Tanaka!” he exclaimed, couldn’t believe that the secretly awesome Slytherin was the most intimidating person in his whole life.
“You weren’t date for our date the other night. I was disappointed that it was Parkinson and not you. I was so sure that it was gonna be you,” Koki leaned back to his seat, sipping on his tea.
“I-It wasn’t my turn to watch over the house drill!” Shige lied. He totally begged Parkinson to switch places with him. “And what are you doing here?”
“You’re a bad liar, Kato,” Koki commented as he shook his head. “And I’m here because it has been ages since I came. So I thought I should do so because it is my last year of Hogwarts.”
Shige was about to reply Koki back when the Potters and Rose Weasley came in. He didn’t have any problem with those three, but he could sense the change in Koki’s expression the moment they walked in. Al and Rose, as how most Gryffindors called them, were one of the smart arses like Shige, while James was really good with Quidditch. It wasn’t weird to see them there, especially knowing of how much history their parents had with the school and the magic world in general. They were almost like the “royal blood” to Shige. Staring in awe, Shige slowly sat down on his seat.
“It seems that we missed a flower and a red headed dude,” Koki commented, turning his head away from the newcomers and grabbing the cookies that weren’t far away from where he sat.
“Surprise, surprise. Look who we have here tonight, the next Master of Potions? Finally decided that you would want to hang out with a half blood like me, Tanaka?” Rose rolled her eyes. Her seat was right opposite of Koki’s, and Shige had to admit how much he didn’t like the way Koki and Rose were staring at each other, almost as if they wanted to kill the other party right away.
“For your information, Weasley, my fellow Slytherin over here is a mud blood and I have no problem with that. Go whine to your stupid brother and mind you own business,” Koki replied.
“You did not just call Hugo stupid, you snobbish daft!”
Shige swore that a war was about to break out and he was thankful that the other guests had arrived because if he had to sit there any longer and watch Koki and Rose flaming their Slythering-Gryffindor rivalry around, he would actually run to Koyama and hide in Hufflepuff forever. He knew that everything about Koki defined their house that it wasn’t such a surprise to see the older guy showing disgust towards the Gryffindors.
“Belt up, Rose. Not worth it. He’s just butthurt that the hat changed its decision from Gryffindor to Slytherin,” James commented.
“Eh?!” Shige almost choked on his tea.
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It might be out of guilt, which Shige wasn’t sure why he felt guilty anyway, or maybe because he was rather curious of what James said at the tea party, but what mattered was that Shige was there in Koki’s room with a small basket of cookies in his hands. His mum sent them to him, and since Koki seemed to really like cookies when they were in the Slug Club, Shige figured out that it would be a good excuse to knock on the senior’s room door. He was glad that at least Koki was alone because it wouldn’t have to be more awkward that it already would be if someone else were there.
“Are you for real?” Koki blinked, quickly grabbing the basket away from Shige. “Thanks. I’m starving.”
Shige just smiled awkwardly, stepping closer to Koki’s bed before then settling himself at the edge of the bed once he got there. The room didn’t feel any different from his room, although he was quite jealous that Koki had the bed by the big window and a little bit further from the door than the rest of the beds.
“So… as I was saying… I was just curious about what James… I mean Potter… said at the tea party.”
“Wow Kato. Do you even know how to socialise properly? People don’t just usually ask right away, you know,” Koki frowned.
“I’m s-sorry.”
Shige was expecting Koki to kick him out from the room but instead; he just stared at Shige, shaking his head with an amused smile on his face. “Yeah. Bloody hat changed its decision on the very last minute. A Slytherin Tanaka? That never happened before. We have been in every single house but Slytherin,” Koki explained.
It surprised Shige on how Koki made it sound as if it wasn’t much of a big deal. Shige didn’t know much about the Tanakas’ history. All he knew was that Koki’s older brother was in Ravenclaw, and there was one in Gryffindor and Hufflepuff as for then. Shige thought it was just because, let’s say, their family never stuck on only one house in particular and he had no idea that Koki was the first Slytherin in the Tanakas’ history.
“It changed your’s too, right?” Koki asked, his voice surprisingly a lot less intimidating thna it usually was.
He nodded, not sure what to say because honestly, Shige didn’t really care about which house he was being put in. He was already so happy that he got to enter Hogwarts and he shouldn’t be complaining about anything else that seemed rather unpleasant. “Yeah. It doesn’t really matter which house for me though,” Shige answered.
“Really? Why?” Koki crawled closer to Shige closing the gap between them.
“I don’t know. I’m a muggle, I’m happy enough to be here. Besides, a muggle in Slytherin, that’s pretty rare,” Shige replied.
“Interesting. As expected from Mr. New Prefect,” Koki grinned, ruffling Shige’s hair, which Shige had noticed was some sort of habit of the older guy.
“Sto-stop it, Tanaka! And stop calling me that!” Shige protestedas his hand tried to shove Koki’s away from his hair.
“The name is Koki~,” the other chuckled. If there were moments in his life that he thought he was dreaming, Shige would think that this was one of them because he swore that he saw Koki smiling sincerely.
“I know that your name is Koki!” he said at the end.
“Then…” Koki leaned forward, a sly smirk was on his face. “… you better call me with that… Shigeaki~,” the older guy continued, whispering to Shige’s ear in a voice that Shige swore would permanently freeze him on the spot because shit, he didn’t just think of the way Koki called his name as hot.
“I… no… I mean, I don’t even know you that well… that I… No… I mean…”
“Ssshhhhh…” Koki frowned to him, his index finger leaned against Shige’s lips, causing Shige to blink in surprise, and even more because he was sure that Koki was closing the gap between them even further. “You talked too much, smart arse,” Koki grinned as he kissed Shige.
Shige really wished that he pushed Koki and ran right away… but he didn’t.
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Shige was glad that Koki never came to the tea party anymore. He was also glad that Koki had stopped calling him Mr. New Prefect, although he wasn’t particularly happy with the fact that Koki called him with Master of Potion #2 because Shige almost had a perfect score for his Potion O.W.L trial exam, and he was #2 because Koki had perfect score back then. Not only that, Shige was happy that his results were all great and he couldn’t wait to study for the second trial exam before the real O.W.L exam next semester.
And for that reason, Shige decided to stay at school during winter break. Studying was too important for him so he couldn’t afford to be all too happy about Christmas. He was Japanese and his parents didn’t celebrate Christmas anyway. Besides, school would be rather quiet and it would give him the perfect environment to study.
Stretching his arms, Shige closed his textbook and quickly packed his stuff. As much as he wanted to stay in the library for the rest of the day, being the only prefect that stayed around for the break, Shige had to watch over the last house drill before the official holiday started. He wasn’t particularly happy with it, especially because he knew who would get house drills in odd times of the year like this,
“Yo!” Koki grinned when Shige entered the common room.
“Why aren’t you home yet, Koki? Everyone else had headed back for the holiday,” Shige frowned.
“House drill. I have to stay for the whole break as well because I just lost our house 150 points,” he grinned.
“What did you do this time?”
“Setting Professor Longbottom’s robe on fire.”
Rolling his eyes, Shige then stared at Koki not so amusedly. He couldn’t believe that the other guy could be this childish, especially considering the fact that Koki was already on his last year of Hogwarts. “I’m not surprised. Would you mind not getting into trouble? We’re going to lose again this year if you keep this up.”
Koki just laughed as he took Shige’s hand and pulled the younger boy down to the leather couch with him. “Well, because if I stopped getting into trouble, I would have to actually think of a way to ask you out for a date. That’s troublesome.”
Shige could only roll his eyes. “Stop being such a weird boyfriend.”
Author: keeconk
Pairing: Koki.Shige
Rating: PG-13
Word count: 4,235
Disclaimer: Hogwarts and every character in it belongs to J.K. Rowling, Koki and Shige depends to whoever owns them, and I own nothing but the plot.
Summary: As a new prefect, Shige found himself struggling to do all his responsibility, and an intimidating senior didn't make it any easier at all.
Beta reader: alkoi
A.N. There are many disagreements on how Rowlings made the prefect system in Hogwarts. Many believe it’s full of flaws while some think that it’s just unexplained thus the confusion. In this fanfiction, I decided to go with this one. There are probably two prefects chosen every year, in their 5th year. They keep the title in the 6th and the Head Boy and Head Girl are chosen when they got to the 7th year. So a person holds a prefect position for the total of three years. Changes to the original Harry Potter series were done consciously to fit the adapted story.
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Despite of the fact that he was a prefect, Shige wasn’t particularly happy with his responsibility as one, especially not when instead of using his Sunday night to do his pre-class reading for his Potion class, he had to stay there watching over the juniors (and a couple of seniors). Professor Slughorn was his favourite, of course, and that would be the reason why he wanted to impress the Head of Slytherin so badly. Slytherin wasn’t exactly a muggle friendly house, especially for an awkward muggle like Shige, so he was more grateful to have someone like Professor Slughorn as a head of the house.
Rumour had it that the previous Head of Slytherin was pretty obsessed with house points, and Shige couldn’t imagine how bad it was back then because as far as it was at the moment, he knew that Professor Slughorn was really strict to those that lost some house points because of misbehaving.
“Oi, Kato! Stop spacing out and at least pretend that you are interested in watching over us cleaning the house,” one of the juniors laughed at him, waving his wand to move the dirty cloth over a bucket of water.
“I told you no magic!” Shige frowned, walking to the brunette right away and taking his wand away from him. “You can have it back once you’re done cleaning the common room.”
Yeah. Those that lost points usually had to do some core cleaning without magic and quite often, Professor Slughorn would make sure they scored really high for their tests to make up for their lost points. Shige wasn’t particularly fond of being in-charge of this house-drill. He would rather spend his time studying, but then again, he still had to impress Professor Slughorn because he still wanted to be invited, as always, to those parties the head of house held for talented students. He wouldn’t want to suddenly stop getting invitated, wouldn’t he?
Leaning his bum to the head rest of one of the arm chairs, Shige tried to concentrate on his job and make sure that they did what they were supposed to do. Most Slytherins were troublemakers but not stupid, so it was very rare for Shige to keep on seeing the same faces over and over again. Yet, there was one face that he kept on seeing each time he was on duty.
“What did you do this time, Tanaka?” Shige asked when Koki walked pass him with a wiping cloth on his shoulder.
“None of your business.”
“Just curious. You don’t have to be so cold,” Shige looked at him discontentedly.
“Well…” Koki started, turning his head to Shige, his dark spiky hair framing the manly face, adding more intensity to his already rather scary behaviour. “… Professor McGonagall caught me being out of bed after bedtime about two nights ago. Not a big deal. Only ten points deducted considering that it was the headmaster that caught me.”
“What did you do so late anyway? Aren’t the 7th year people supposed to have quite a late bedtime?”
Koki tilted his head to Shige, an amused smirk curved on his strong face as his fingers ran through his black hair. “Aren’t you too curious for your own good?” he smirked. Much to Shige’s surprise, the older boy stepped closer and pinched his cheek hard. “Technically I’m still your senior. Show some respect, you little new prefect,” he smirked again.
Shige rubbed his cheeks as he frowned, watching Koki walk away to wipe the dust off the old oak coffee table. “And technically I’m taller!”
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The day couldn’t get any better for Shige. He managed to get O for his Herbology class, which for the past five years of his life, he tended to get either E or A, and since he really wished to take the subject for his N.E.W.T, Shige was extremely happy about it. Not only that, he received another invitation from Professor Slughorn that weekend. He loved this particular gathering. It was always filled with dazzling and awesome people, and he always felt honoured that Professor Slughorn let him to be part of it.
“Oh, Mr. New Prefect! Be careful, you wouldn’t want to lose your badge,” someone greeted him as he walked through the school’s hallway.
Shige turned his head towards the opened yard besides the hallway, the sun blinding his vision for awhile but it didn’t take him more than seconds to adjust his eyes to the brightness and soon he noticed who it was. “I hope you’re keeping yourself away from trouble, Tanaka.”
“Oh~. Is Mr. Prefect worried that something bad might happened to me?” Koki grinned, hopping away from the big rock on the green yard beside the hallway and quickly heading to Shige’s side to walk with him. “How considerate of him,” Koki added.
“That wasn’t my intention with that statement,” Shige rolled his eyes. “Although we could say that I’m worried you’re gonna cost us some house points again.”
“Awww~, that’s so sweet of you, Mr. New Prefect,” Koki grinned, wrapping his arm around Shige.
“W-what are you doing?! People would think that we’re friends!” he stuttered, not particularly comfortable with what the older guy was doing.
Shige didn’t have any personal grudge with Koki. He just wasn’t sure what to do or say when the year seven student was around. Koki was intimidating in so many different levels, especially because despite of the fact that he always managed to get house drill, Professor Slughorn was so fond of him. Shige didn’t understand how it was even possible. Koki wasn't in the Quidditch team, nor was he a prefect or any sort. As far as Shige concerned, Koki was pretty much just someone that often made Slytherin lose loads of points.
“I have a question, Kato,” Koki said at the end.
“What question?”
The older man stepped closer, a little bit too close for Shige’s cup of tea, making him contemplate taking a step back but he was a little bit scared that it would make him look weak. A Slytherin shouldn’t be weak and Shige shouldn’t allow any space for weakness.
“I’ve been wondering… aren’t you supposed to be in Ravenclaw? What is a smart ass like you doing in Slytherin?” Koki asked. “And aren’t you a mud blood?” he added.
There was disgust in Koki’s voice and heck no, Shige didn’t like how it sounded. There were very few of his kind in Slytherin. In fact, he could count how many of them were in the house with just one hand. Among all people, Shige didn’t expect it to come from Koki simply for the fact that Koki was the type that seemed to not care about anything at all.
“It wasn’t my fault that the hat decided to change my house at the very last minute!” Shige replied, feeling extremely uncomfortable with how much closer Koki had gotten to him after he replied to the older boy, making him just a step closer to the hallway wall.
“It changed its decision?” Koki tilted his head as he leaned forward, leaving only an inch between them.
“Y-yes. And would you mind? I have class to go to right now. Besides you should have known about it! Everyone was supposed to be there!”
Koki kept silent, stepping back a little after digesting Shige’s answer to his brain. “Well, I skipped. It was just a hassle to attend it,” he said, running his fingers through his hair.
“Oh… well… I’m l-late! You’re in my way!” Shige gulped as he forced himself to push Koki away completely.
Very little did Shige know of the amused smirk that curved widely on the older guy’s face as he left the other.
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Shige remembered the day he got his badge. He literally jumped around his house, running happily to his mum, as if he were a child, to show her his shiny prefect badge. It meant a lot for him because at least it would be something that his parents would be able to understand and he didn’t have to explain to them what it was all about. Being a muggle wasn’t exactly as nice as most people thought it would be. When most children would ask their parents on, let say their math or science homework, Shige had to work his bum off understanding Potion or Arithmancy all by himself.
“You seem to have very little appetite today, Shige,” Tegoshi pointed out as he shoved a piece of roasted chicken to his mouth.
Looking up, he gave Tegoshi a faint smile. Tegoshi was one of his roommates, and they had almost every class together so Shige couldn’t deny the fact that they both knew each other pretty well. “I’m just distracted,” Shige answered.
“Heeee~, that’s pretty rare. Mr. New Prefect can actually get distracted,” Tegoshi teased him with a sly smile on his face.
“Oh shut up. Don’t you dare use that nickname on me as well! Aren’t you supposed to be my bloody mate?” Shige rolled his eyes. “And it’s lunch time. Don’t let people hear you,” he whispered.
“Chill, Shige. The whole Slytherin knows that Tanaka calls you Mr. New Prefect. Well, you are a new prefect anyway.”
“But still! It’s enough that he calls me that every day! The day Nishikido calls me that too, I’m gonna transfer school to Cambridge and be a straight A’s muggle,” Shige kicked Tegoshi’s leg under the table.
“I think he already calls you that,” Tegoshi laughed. “And what do you mean by a straight A’s muggle?”
“Well, it’s like getting all O’s for your subjects,” he explained.
“But A is not as good as O.”
“Goodness gracious, Tegoshi. This is exactly why you have to take Muggle Studies. We don’t have O, E, or even T. All we have are A, B, C till F with A+ as the highest and U or ungraded as the lowest,” Shige rolled his eyes.
“Wow. Why so complicated?”
The prefect just sighed, feeling a little uninterested in explaining more muggle related stuff to Tegoshi. It was pretty clear to him that the shorter guy was interested in muggles, but his little SLytherin pride prevented him from admitting it and taking Muggle Studies as one of his elective subjects.
Standing up to leave, Shige sighed again for the nth time that day. Things hadn’t been going as great as it did the previous day. Shige woke up slightly later than usual and he didn’t have time for his pre-class reading, so he had to quickly go for breakfast and rush off to class right away; which was a big embarrassment because he literally tripped over his own legs and fell right in front of his class just moments before his professor came. It was already as humiliating as it was and one of his classmates were laughing and calling him a clumsy Mr. New Prefect.
To complete his little misery, not only couldn’t he concentrate in class because he felt so unprepared not knowing things that came out in class, he would have less time to prepare for his next day’s classes because once again he had to watch over house drill that night. He would be lying if he said he couldn’t stop thinking about his soon-to-be-wasted night instead of concentrating on his remaining classes.
Throwing his text book to the couch on the common room, Shige flopped on the leather couch as he closed his eyes, feeling his mental tiredness for the day creeping on his entire body. Unlike Tegoshi who was in the Quidditch team, Shige was the type that got easily exhausted; even when it was just in a form of mental exhaustion.
“It seems that we have a date tonight~,” someone disturbed Shige’s little resting as he set himself down right beside the prefect.
Shige’s eyes flew open spontaneously, both from the fact that he didn’t understand what the newcomer was talking about and from the fact that the voice sounded bloody familiar to his ears. “A date…? What?!”
“Like I said, a date,” Koki grinned, leaning to the backrest contently.
“I beg you pardon?! What did you mean that we have a date tonight?” Shige blinked as he shifted away from Koki, suddenly feeling that the big glorious Slytherin Dungeon getting smaller when he saw Koki next to him.
As if his day wasn’t already bad, Koki just had to move closer to him, his face didn’t look too pleasant for Shige because the younger boy would sense something fishy behind the sly expression he plastered on his face. “S-stay where you are, Tanaka!” he exclaimed.
“Booo... Stop being such a daft, Kato. And by date, I meant the house drill tonight. Stop being paranoid. You reacted as if I was about to rape you. Let’s hope it’s just gonna be the two of us tonight so it’ll be a lot more fun than usual,” Koki smirked, standing up and ruffling Shige’s hair before he walked away.
A creepy chill crept on Shige’s spine, and he made a mental note to switch shift before the house drill started. The last thing he wanted was supervising Koki cleaning the Quidditch team’s broom in a dark storage room with just the two of them there.
------
There was a huge smile on Shige’s face. That was the one day that he knew would make the sucky past few days a lot better because there was nothing else that would make him feel a lot better but attending Professor Slughorn’s tea party. People called it the Slug Club, and Shige didn’t have any objection being part of the club.
“Professor Slughorn!” Shige waved his hand when he entered the very familiar chamber.
“Shigeaki Kato! My top scorer in class!” Professor Slughorn greeted him back.
Shige always liked to come to the party because it was full of the greatest people in Hogwarts. “A toast to Hogwards’ brightest and best” as Professor Slughorn always said on every meeting because only selective people could attend it. Even though Professor Slughorn was the Head of Slytherin, there were only 2 Slytherins that were invited to it; Shige him and this one unknown person that never showed up for the past few years since Shige started to be invited.
“Am I late, Sir?” Shige asked.
“No, not at all. You are quite early as usual. But you’re gonna be excited because this time the Slytherin stars are all present,” Professor Slughorn grinned.
“Oh really?” Shige beamed up.
He had been wondering who this mysterious other Slytherin was. Since he started to come to this gathering, the seat next to Shige had always been empty, something that he didn’t really mind but it did make him feel a little bit nervous to be the only Slytherin each time. According to Professor Slughorn, this mysterious guy would be someone that muggles would call as a Chemist, or someone that Professor Slughorn referred to as the Potion genius.
“Mr. New Prefect! A familiar face was sitting on the empty chair next to Shige’s, and Shige pretty much froze on the spot when he realised whose it was.
“T-Tanaka!” he exclaimed, couldn’t believe that the secretly awesome Slytherin was the most intimidating person in his whole life.
“You weren’t date for our date the other night. I was disappointed that it was Parkinson and not you. I was so sure that it was gonna be you,” Koki leaned back to his seat, sipping on his tea.
“I-It wasn’t my turn to watch over the house drill!” Shige lied. He totally begged Parkinson to switch places with him. “And what are you doing here?”
“You’re a bad liar, Kato,” Koki commented as he shook his head. “And I’m here because it has been ages since I came. So I thought I should do so because it is my last year of Hogwarts.”
Shige was about to reply Koki back when the Potters and Rose Weasley came in. He didn’t have any problem with those three, but he could sense the change in Koki’s expression the moment they walked in. Al and Rose, as how most Gryffindors called them, were one of the smart arses like Shige, while James was really good with Quidditch. It wasn’t weird to see them there, especially knowing of how much history their parents had with the school and the magic world in general. They were almost like the “royal blood” to Shige. Staring in awe, Shige slowly sat down on his seat.
“It seems that we missed a flower and a red headed dude,” Koki commented, turning his head away from the newcomers and grabbing the cookies that weren’t far away from where he sat.
“Surprise, surprise. Look who we have here tonight, the next Master of Potions? Finally decided that you would want to hang out with a half blood like me, Tanaka?” Rose rolled her eyes. Her seat was right opposite of Koki’s, and Shige had to admit how much he didn’t like the way Koki and Rose were staring at each other, almost as if they wanted to kill the other party right away.
“For your information, Weasley, my fellow Slytherin over here is a mud blood and I have no problem with that. Go whine to your stupid brother and mind you own business,” Koki replied.
“You did not just call Hugo stupid, you snobbish daft!”
Shige swore that a war was about to break out and he was thankful that the other guests had arrived because if he had to sit there any longer and watch Koki and Rose flaming their Slythering-Gryffindor rivalry around, he would actually run to Koyama and hide in Hufflepuff forever. He knew that everything about Koki defined their house that it wasn’t such a surprise to see the older guy showing disgust towards the Gryffindors.
“Belt up, Rose. Not worth it. He’s just butthurt that the hat changed its decision from Gryffindor to Slytherin,” James commented.
“Eh?!” Shige almost choked on his tea.
------
It might be out of guilt, which Shige wasn’t sure why he felt guilty anyway, or maybe because he was rather curious of what James said at the tea party, but what mattered was that Shige was there in Koki’s room with a small basket of cookies in his hands. His mum sent them to him, and since Koki seemed to really like cookies when they were in the Slug Club, Shige figured out that it would be a good excuse to knock on the senior’s room door. He was glad that at least Koki was alone because it wouldn’t have to be more awkward that it already would be if someone else were there.
“Are you for real?” Koki blinked, quickly grabbing the basket away from Shige. “Thanks. I’m starving.”
Shige just smiled awkwardly, stepping closer to Koki’s bed before then settling himself at the edge of the bed once he got there. The room didn’t feel any different from his room, although he was quite jealous that Koki had the bed by the big window and a little bit further from the door than the rest of the beds.
“So… as I was saying… I was just curious about what James… I mean Potter… said at the tea party.”
“Wow Kato. Do you even know how to socialise properly? People don’t just usually ask right away, you know,” Koki frowned.
“I’m s-sorry.”
Shige was expecting Koki to kick him out from the room but instead; he just stared at Shige, shaking his head with an amused smile on his face. “Yeah. Bloody hat changed its decision on the very last minute. A Slytherin Tanaka? That never happened before. We have been in every single house but Slytherin,” Koki explained.
It surprised Shige on how Koki made it sound as if it wasn’t much of a big deal. Shige didn’t know much about the Tanakas’ history. All he knew was that Koki’s older brother was in Ravenclaw, and there was one in Gryffindor and Hufflepuff as for then. Shige thought it was just because, let’s say, their family never stuck on only one house in particular and he had no idea that Koki was the first Slytherin in the Tanakas’ history.
“It changed your’s too, right?” Koki asked, his voice surprisingly a lot less intimidating thna it usually was.
He nodded, not sure what to say because honestly, Shige didn’t really care about which house he was being put in. He was already so happy that he got to enter Hogwarts and he shouldn’t be complaining about anything else that seemed rather unpleasant. “Yeah. It doesn’t really matter which house for me though,” Shige answered.
“Really? Why?” Koki crawled closer to Shige closing the gap between them.
“I don’t know. I’m a muggle, I’m happy enough to be here. Besides, a muggle in Slytherin, that’s pretty rare,” Shige replied.
“Interesting. As expected from Mr. New Prefect,” Koki grinned, ruffling Shige’s hair, which Shige had noticed was some sort of habit of the older guy.
“Sto-stop it, Tanaka! And stop calling me that!” Shige protestedas his hand tried to shove Koki’s away from his hair.
“The name is Koki~,” the other chuckled. If there were moments in his life that he thought he was dreaming, Shige would think that this was one of them because he swore that he saw Koki smiling sincerely.
“I know that your name is Koki!” he said at the end.
“Then…” Koki leaned forward, a sly smirk was on his face. “… you better call me with that… Shigeaki~,” the older guy continued, whispering to Shige’s ear in a voice that Shige swore would permanently freeze him on the spot because shit, he didn’t just think of the way Koki called his name as hot.
“I… no… I mean, I don’t even know you that well… that I… No… I mean…”
“Ssshhhhh…” Koki frowned to him, his index finger leaned against Shige’s lips, causing Shige to blink in surprise, and even more because he was sure that Koki was closing the gap between them even further. “You talked too much, smart arse,” Koki grinned as he kissed Shige.
Shige really wished that he pushed Koki and ran right away… but he didn’t.
------
Shige was glad that Koki never came to the tea party anymore. He was also glad that Koki had stopped calling him Mr. New Prefect, although he wasn’t particularly happy with the fact that Koki called him with Master of Potion #2 because Shige almost had a perfect score for his Potion O.W.L trial exam, and he was #2 because Koki had perfect score back then. Not only that, Shige was happy that his results were all great and he couldn’t wait to study for the second trial exam before the real O.W.L exam next semester.
And for that reason, Shige decided to stay at school during winter break. Studying was too important for him so he couldn’t afford to be all too happy about Christmas. He was Japanese and his parents didn’t celebrate Christmas anyway. Besides, school would be rather quiet and it would give him the perfect environment to study.
Stretching his arms, Shige closed his textbook and quickly packed his stuff. As much as he wanted to stay in the library for the rest of the day, being the only prefect that stayed around for the break, Shige had to watch over the last house drill before the official holiday started. He wasn’t particularly happy with it, especially because he knew who would get house drills in odd times of the year like this,
“Yo!” Koki grinned when Shige entered the common room.
“Why aren’t you home yet, Koki? Everyone else had headed back for the holiday,” Shige frowned.
“House drill. I have to stay for the whole break as well because I just lost our house 150 points,” he grinned.
“What did you do this time?”
“Setting Professor Longbottom’s robe on fire.”
Rolling his eyes, Shige then stared at Koki not so amusedly. He couldn’t believe that the other guy could be this childish, especially considering the fact that Koki was already on his last year of Hogwarts. “I’m not surprised. Would you mind not getting into trouble? We’re going to lose again this year if you keep this up.”
Koki just laughed as he took Shige’s hand and pulled the younger boy down to the leather couch with him. “Well, because if I stopped getting into trouble, I would have to actually think of a way to ask you out for a date. That’s troublesome.”
Shige could only roll his eyes. “Stop being such a weird boyfriend.”