A Hint of Magic--JE, Arashi

[iverin]

Title: A Hint of Magic
Series: Johnny's Entertainment
Characters: Matsumoto Jun and the rest of Arashi
Rating: G
Disclaimer: Not mine, not real, etc.
Summary: Arashi goes to Hogwarts. 'Nuff said.
Notes: I don't know why I wrote this, but it's the longest fic I've ever written. Beta by honooko. ~2500 words.
Edit: windrette and I apparently agree on the houses; she drew ADORABLE Ohmiya at Hogwarts here. Please check it out!


"Alright, guys, from the top. We need to practice the tech stuff once more."

"Roger!" "Got it!" "Yup!"

The five members of Arashi took their places, ready to mark through their dance moves on stage one final time. Jun was at the back, silently going over the hardest part.

Without warning, the floor beneath him lurched. There was an immense flash of green light, followed by brilliant white, then black.

The slow, rhythmic sound that surrounded Jun made him want to keep his eyes closed, enveloped in his warm layers. It was just better to sleep...

Wait, layers? Just a moment ago he'd been wearing jeans and a loose shirt, but now he felt... almost constricted. He opened his eyes and looked down.

Black, totally black. It reminded him vaguely of a school uniform. He smoothed his hands over his lap, looking in awe at the strange folds of his clothing.

"Oh, you're awake," chimed a somewhat familiar voice. Jun looked up at the boy across from him. He had neat, fluffy brown hair and sported an absolutely electric smile, along with... something Jun could only describe as robes. The other boy waved to Jun a little. "Sorry for barging into your compartment, but the other ones were pretty full. Hope you don't mind. My name's--"

"Aiba?" Jun interrupted.

"Well, yeah, how'd you know?" Aiba looked pretty impressed, downright surprised. Jun was confused.

"We work together, Aiba."

Aiba laughed. "You're just a first year, right?" Jun looked down at his robes and saw that, unlike Aiba's, his own lacked anything distinguishing, just a regular school crest... That marked him as a Hogwarts student. For a moment he thought that he must have gone crazy, but then a sense of comfort and realization washed over him. Ah, yes, of course he was a student and he was going for his first term! Moreover, he was excited about it! How thrilling!

"Yep," Jun replied proudly.

"I'm in Gryffindor!" Aiba said, pointing to the emblem on his chest. "Maybe we'll be in the same house, huh?"

"I hope--"

Jun was interrupted by the door to the compartment sliding open quickly. A harried-looking boy stood in the doorframe, glancing over to the side as if watching for someone. He muttered a curse and ducked into the compartment as Aiba and Jun stared at him, a little dumbfounded. As he sank into the seat, he quickly pulled his outer cloak over his head and ducked down.

"...Nino?" Jun asked with just a hint of disbelief.

Nino peeked out from under the edge of his cloak. "Maybe. Who're you?"

"Jun... Matsumoto." He added his family name as an afterthought.

Aiba swung his legs a bit and smiled at the new arrival. "Ah! You're a first-year, too!"

"Yeah," said Nino, glancing at Aiba. "Who're you?"

"Masaki Aiba, but Jun over here keeps calling me Aiba. That's fine!"

"You know each other?" Nino's tone was still wary, almost hostile.

"Sort of..." Jun replied. As time passed he was slowly forgetting just how he knew their names.

Nino finally poked his entire tousled head out of the cloak, apparently deciding that he was safe from whatever required hiding. He still kept warily glancing at the door for several minutes as Aiba attempted a cheery, if somewhat odd conversation with both of the younger boys.

"My favorite class is transfiguration," he said, looking happily at Jun. "There's just something about turning things into other things... You really never know what you're going to get! And I love Care of Magical Creatures, too. They're going to let me help out this year!"

"...I should've guessed," muttered Jun softly.

Just then, there was a polite knock on the compartment door, followed by a slow opening of the door.

"Excuse me," said the boy in a slow, even tone. His hair was a bit singed and his face looked dirty for some reason. It was obvious that he didn't look like that normally. It took Jun a few moments to realize that it was none other than Sho standing there, clothed in black, blue, and silver.

"I'm looking for... Aha." Sho's eyes lit upon Nino, who grinned up at him wickedly. "That wasn't a very nice trick you pulled."

Nino cackled for a few moments. Interspersed with his laugher, he tried to respond. "But... you screamed... LIKE A GIRL!"

"Yeah, ha-ha," said Sho, whose next words were interrupted by Aiba exclaiming, "Oh, Sho!"

Sho turned on a charming smile as Jun stared in vague confusion. "Masaki! I didn't see you earlier. How was your summer?" And thusly, while Jun continued to stare, Aiba and Sho--who was leaning impossibly coolly on the doorframe--launched into a discussion of the virtues of various spells and what they wanted to learn in the coming year. Why did he know all of these people? The reasoning was getting fuzzier and fuzzier.

"Your mouth is hanging open," said Nino in a low voice, looking sideways at Jun. Jun quickly closed it and turned to face the boy who sat next to him. "So..." Nino ventured after a silence, sounding a little friendlier. "What house are you hoping for?"

"Maybe Gryffindor, like Aiba..." Jun thought, yes, Gryffindor would suit him just fine.

Nino smiled wickedly. "Oh them? They're just glory hounds. The real guys are all in Slytherin. Best Quidditch team at the school, I'm told. Gonna make Keeper by second year, just watch me."

Jun barely resisted the urge to roll his eyes. Slytherin, honestly? He should have figured that Nino would be a little elitist. He could tell by looking, though, that his own pure-blood family was far superior to the other boy's--what??? His thoughts were going in stranger and stranger directions, Jun thought, and he wasn't quite sure why it all felt so abnormal.

Nino leaned a little closer to Jun. "Anyway, that guy right there?" He pointed to Sho. "His dad's a high-up in the Ministry. Typical rich kid. They say he's the smartest in the year above us." Nino scoffed just a bit. "Bet they're exaggerating."

"Well, I'll see you later," Sho said suddenly, giving Aiba a little wave. "And, hey, next time you try to play a trick," he said good-naturedly to Nino, "make sure there aren't a bunch of girls around. They get upset when you mess up their robes." He shifted a bit and reached out to muss up Nino's hair before leaving the compartment.

Nino's mouth fell open in indignation, and his hands flew to his hair, which he frantically smoothed down and rearranged. Jun suddenly had a moment of panic and retrieved a mirror from inside his robes to check his own hair. Nino looked sideways at Jun. "You carry a mirror?"

"You never know when you're going to need it," answered Jun, matter-of-factly.

Nino mouthed "weird" and sunk low into his seat again, crossing his arms and staring absently out the window. A somewhat awkward silence fell in the compartment as Aiba and Nino stared off at the passing scenery and Jun tried harder to remember how he knew who they are were.

After a while, Aiba spoke again, a little softly. "Sho's my best friend," he said with a smile, still looking out the window. "He's really smart, and talented. He's going to grow up and work for the Ministry, for sure. Isn't it nice to have a plan like that?"

"I'm going to be a famous Quidditch player," Nino said, brightening slightly.

"Oh, that's nice!" Aiba grinned. "I like Quidditch, too. Maybe I'll even try out this year."

Nino's eyes narrowed a little. "What's your favorite team?"

"The Falcons!" Aiba practically bounced in his seat.

Nino smiled approvingly and sat up straighter. "Did you see that wicked win against Puddlemere last year?"

Jun tuned their talk out and glanced around the compartment. Up in the luggage racks across from him--presumably Aiba's--were a normal trunk and a cage that contained a white ferret. Jun smiled, thinking it was somehow completely appropriate for Aiba to have a pet like that. He imagined with a smile that Nino probably had a dog back at home that he couldn't bring with him. Something gold zipped past his nose.

"Oops," Aiba said, ducking his head a little at Jun's frown. Nino and Aiba were waving their wands about, enchanting a tiny Quidditch figurine that Aiba had apparently pulled out of his bag. It zoomed around between them and they deflected it with tiny zaps of golden energy. "You should play, too, Jun!" Aiba chimed.

They proceeded to play some sort of Quidditch-man air hockey until the train neared Hogwarts and the sun was low in the sky.

When Aiba realized what time it was, he hopped to his feet. "We're almost there!" Nino and Jun joined him in standing, Jun readying his belongings for unloading and straightening his robes as Nino simply stood.

"Oh," Nino said suddenly. "I wonder if I ought to go get my stuff from the other compartment." Without waiting for any kind of response, Nino opened the door and was surprised to find himself face-to-face with an older boy. The two stared at each other for several moments, and an odd half-smile formed on Nino's face. "'scuse me," he said, ducking under the other boy's arm.

"No problem," said the newcomer, looking after Nino and tipping his head just a little. Once again Jun's mouth dropped open as he stared at Ohno in the doorway. "Masaki, don't forget to come to the Great Hall right away for choir rehearsal before the feast."

"Sure thing!" Aiba replied with another bright smile.

"Nice to meet you." It took a moment for Jun to realize that the rather soft comment was directed at him.

"Oh, likewise." Ohno wore Hufflepuff colors. He couldn't help but think how appropriate it was.

The students all left the train and Aiba and Jun parted ways. Jun watched with a secret smile as Aiba bounded over to Sho and Ohno and they all walked over to the carriages together. The three of them seemed close, patting each other on the back and walking nearer each other than the other students. They also seemed to know everyone. Jun had to tear his attention away from them as he was herded toward the boats with the other first years.

Everything seemed so familiar, though Jun knew he had never been there before. The approach to the castle was just as breathtaking as he had imagined. Jun swore he saw other familiar faces in the group of first-years, which made things feel even less strange. By the time they reached the castle, he had shaken off all feelings of strangeness and was simply enjoying the experience.

As students jostled around in the entrance hall, waiting to enter the Great Hall, Jun found Nino again. Nino looked slightly excited, and Jun couldn't help smiling, too. This was it. This was the beginning of their time at the best wizarding school around!

The massive doors opened and they were led to the front of the hall, past all of the older students. Jun spied Sho sitting at the Ravenclaw table very near a prefect; Aiba was at the Gryffindor table sandwiched between two lovely older girls; Ohno sat over at the Hufflepuff table, staring off into space. He could have sworn that Nino kept glancing over at Ohno, and somehow he wasn't surprised at all.

Other students' names were read and one by one they were sorted into houses. Nino approached when his name was called and took a seat. The hat was placed on its head. His eyes kept darting over to the Hufflepuff table, even as the hat yelled "Slytherin!" Nino smiled quickly as it was pronounced and hopped up off of the stool to go join his cheering new housemates.

"Jun Matsumoto!" Here it was. The moment of truth. Jun, too, took his place on the stool and was crowned with the hat. A voice suddenly sounded as though inside of his head.

"Let's see, let's see. Loyal, many talents, but so ambitious and a little vain. If you control yourself and learn to grow, you'll do well in SLYTHERIN!" The hat shouted the last word for all of the hall to hear, and cheers again erupted from the Slytherin table. Jun chanced a look at Aiba, who actually seemed a little downcast but who flashed him an encouraging smile anyway. Breathing deeply, Jun took his seat beside Nino and was clapped on the back by a few older boys. He watched with mild interest as the last few students were sorted.

Then, just before the feast began, several students rose from their seats and formed three lines on the stairs at the front of the hall, among them Aiba and Ohno. Ohno stood near the front. As they sang, Jun happily noted that the entire hall was especially transfixed by Ohno's beautiful, clear, soaring solo. Hearing that voice made him feel firmly at home at Hogwarts. At the end of the song, they all turned back to the table--all except Nino, who stared, watery-eyed and slack-jawed, at Ohno.

Jun snapped his fingers in front of Nino's face. "Wake up."

Nino started and turned swiftly to face the table. "How do you join the choir?" he asked the older boy beside him. Jun laughed.

Finally, the food blossomed on the tables and the feast began. Jun and Nino fully enjoyed themselves, and Jun could have sworn he heard Ohno's voice over the dull roar of the students' voices declaring how delicious the food was, and Sho's rich laughter, and snatches of an elaborate Aiba explanation interspersed with random foreign words. Yes, his future at Hogwarts held a lot of promise.

He reached for another helping of potatoes and never noticed the shouted warning. "LOOK OUT!" Someone had taken to bewitching a particularly hard roll that was flying across the hall--straight at Jun's head.

He took the hard biscuit to the back of the neck, and everything went white for a moment.

Jun opened his eyes slowly, blinking up at concerned staff and the rest of Arashi haloed by the green spotlight above.

"Hey, he's awake," someone called over their shoulder.

"Don't scare us like that!" Aiba's voice, he was sure, even though he couldn't see the faces above him well.

A hand tugged at his shoulders, and gently he was pulled to his feet. "What... happened?"

"You were being a genius, as usual," shot Nino. Ohno frowned, and Sho shot him a glare. "What? He was. You were standing on the edge of the platform, not paying attention," Nino explained, pointing to the faint line on the stage's surface. "And you slipped when it started to move. Hit your head pretty hard, but you were only out for a couple of seconds."

"We ought to get him checked out, anyway," said Ohno softly, eyebrows knitting together a bit in concern.

Jun rubbed the back of his head, which somehow didn't hurt at all. "I'm fine, guys."

"Don't care!" Aiba fussed, grabbing Jun by the arm and dragging him backstage. "Doctor time. They can work some magic and we can finish."

"NO MORE MAGIC!"