Quidditch, Romance, and Near Death Experiences (2/??)
Title: Quidditch, Romance, and Near Death Experiences
Author: thanku4urlove
Pairing: Yabu/Takaki, with more to come
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: magic!
Genre: Fantasy, Romance, AU (Hogwarts)
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Summary: it's the wave of a wand, and dust blown off the cover of a spellbook. It's learning incantations and kicking off the ground on a broomstick. It's magic. It's a new year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, full of Quidditch, romance, and near death experiences.
A/N: I just watched the Dear con DVD so I really don't have much to say here except that they're all such beautiful human beings and Yabu's voice is amazing and Takaki is an angel and Keito's just really h*ckin attractive fuck
Previous Chapters: 1
The name “Triwizard Tournament” was familiar to Yabu, though he couldn’t put a finger on what the event was; many students knew though, an excited buzz going through the Great Hall. Kitagawa let them chatter amongst themselves for a moment, raising a hand for the sound to die down before speaking again.
“As I can see, many are aware of what this tournament is, but for those who do not, let me explain. It is an ancient, friendly competition between three wizarding schools: Hogwarts, Beauxbatons, and Durmstrang. The competition is to be held every five years, with the schools taking turns on who hosts it. There is one champion selected from each school, and these three champions take part in three magical tasks. It is an excellent way to establish worldwide connections, and while there has been trouble maintaining the tournament over the years, with updated rules and regulations, it has been agreed to be given another try.”
“I wonder what happened.” Takaki muttered to Yabu, sounding slightly concerned. Yabu just shrugged.
“Beauxbatons and Durmstrang will be bringing their eligible contenders to Hogwarts in October, and the selection of the champions will take place on Halloween. The prize will be, of course, bragging rights, the honor of their school, and one thousand Galleons in prize money.”
That brought a loud amount of a talk between the students, excitement traveling throughout the Great Hall in waves.
“As the tasks are incredibly difficult and dangerous, requiring a high level and understanding of magic, if YOU are a student under seventeen years of age, YOU will not be permitted to enter.” Kitagawa declared, having to raise his voice a bit as the excitement from the underage students turned to protests. “I will be personally ensuring that no one under seventeen is able to submit their names for consideration.”
“Hey, we could do that.” Yabu murmured to Takaki, who gave a snort of laughter. Takaki did not look interested at all in entering, but Yabu couldn’t help but admit that he was. While difficult and dangerous, sure, there was something incredibly compelling about winning a thousand Galleons. Besides, Yabu figured; he had taken Professor Ninomiya’s Potions O.W.L, and he couldn’t think of anything that could be much more difficult or dangerous than that.
“And with that, I bid YOU goodnight. Sleep well, and enjoy your classes tomorrow morning.”
Talk exploded exponentially once Headmaster Kitagawa had finished and taken a step back, and as part of his Head Boy duties, Yabu was now in charge of rounding up all of the Hufflepuff first years and showing them to the common room, as well as demonstrating how to enter. It was like herding cats, and Takaki helped him collect them all up, waving an arm and requesting that all the eleven year olds please follow him. Thankfully they didn't have to walk far; Hufflepuff common room was the closest common room to the Great Hall, on the right down the hallway from the kitchens. He led them to a stack of barrels and asked them to crowd around, Takaki bringing up a few stragglers.
“Alright!” Yabu said, pulling out his wand. “Does everyone here know the rhythm of Helga Hufflepuff’s theme?”
He was met with a majority of headshakes, only a few nods, and he suppressed a sigh.
“Well, learn it. Stick with people who know, and don’t hesitate to ask for help, okay?” He turned towards the barrels, pointing to the one two from the bottom, in the middle of the second row.
“To reveal the entrance, simply tap the rhythm on this barrel. If you mess it up you won’t be able to enter, and will have to wait for someone to help you in, so be careful.” He tapped the barrel as loudly as he could to demonstrate, the lid swinging open. He helped them into the common room, Takaki taking a seat on one of the yellow and black overstuffed couches while Yabu showed the first years their rooms. When that was done he was finished for the night, sitting next to Takaki with a sigh.
“Good job.” Takaki told him, reaching back to put an arm around Yabu’s shoulders.
“Thanks.” Yabu leaned in to give him a quick kiss, trying to fight back his exhaustion. He felt more drained than he thought he ought to be, but at the same time, it had been a long day.
“Are you ready for tomorrow?” Takaki asked, Yabu smiling a little.
“Sure.” He answered dismissively, laying his head on Takaki’s shoulder and closing his eyes. He hadn’t seen anywhere near enough of Takaki over the summer and he had missed this, Takaki giving him an affectionate chuckle and kissing the top of his head. Yabu would be content with just sitting here, at his second home and in this honey-colored common room, on the worn couch and in Takaki’s arms.
Yamada could feel Keito’s eyes on him as he removed his contacts, and when he straightened up, even though Keito was now a blurry mass, he could still see the slightly mortified expression on his friend’s face.
“How many times now have you watched me take my contacts out?” He asked, amused, and Keito just shook his head, that familiar concerned and borderline disbelieving expression on his face as Yamada sat back on his bed. They were in the Gryffindor common room, getting ready for bed. Keito and Yamada had slept in beds next to each other since their first night at Hogwarts, and ended up walking to their classes together, which ended up being a good thing; Yamada had a feeling that without him, Keito would have found himself lost in the castle more often than not. They were together often, but were more of casual acquaintances until Yuto had met Keito and cemented their friendship.
Watching Yuto and Keito become friends had been incredibly amusing to Yamada. For him, he and Yuto had already been friends all throughout grade school, going to the same institution and put into the same classes when they were kids. Yamada’s Hogwarts letter had been an incredible surprise, with no one else in his family able to do magic, but Yuto--who was a half-blood, Yamada learned it was called--was immensely excited, introducing him to this entire magical world he’d never known existed. The Nakajimas had been incredibly helpful to their family, showing them everything from where to buy his books to how to board the train.
“I thought you were a muggle!” Yuto had told him on the train ride. “I’m so glad we get to go to Hogwarts together.”
About a week in, Yamada was trying to tell Yuto about Keito when he gasped.
“Okamoto? Like Okamoto Kenichi’s son?”
“No idea.” Yamada had responded, and Yuto had gone on to gush about someone in the Ministry of Magic with the coolest job in the world, doing the same ranting when he and Keito met, with Keito silent and completely pink faced. But Yuto had been able to break Keito out of his shell, and now that the long and stuttering of a process was complete, the three of them were incredibly close.
“The Triwizard Tournament must have been what my dad was talking about.” Keito said. “When he told me I wouldn’t want to come home for Christmas.”
Yamada nodded. The announcement was exciting, and as a result he wasn’t feeling nearly as tired as he should be.
“Daiki’s brother too.” He said. “I wonder who our school’s champion is going to be?”
Keito just shrugged, Yamada laughing a little. He didn’t know many upperclassmen, anyone in sixth or seventh year that would be able to put forth their name. He laid down, turning his light off in the hopes that the darkness would bring him some drowsiness.
“Are you ready for classes tomorrow?” Keito asked.
“I guess.” Yamada responded. They wouldn’t know their exact schedules until the next morning; they knew what classes they’d signed up for, but not when in the week they were happening. “As long as we don’t have Potions first thing in the morning this year, I think I’ll be able to survive.”
Keito chuckled lightly in the darkness. They’d had Potions in the mornings last year, and trying to cook up concoctions while half asleep had proved dangerous.
“I’m a little worried about Divination, but at least Yuto will be there.” Keito said. In all honesty, Yamada was worried about Divination too and he wasn’t even in the class; he’d just heard stories about Professor Shibutani from his friends.
But Keito and Yuto didn’t have Divination until Tuesday, finding out at breakfast that all three of them had Herbology together in about fifteen minutes. They hurried with the other Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs down to greenhouse three, met with a batch of thick, black, and slug-like plants called a bubotubers. They were tasked with emptying the bubotuber pods of their pus while Professor Joshima told them about all the important--and highly corrosive and painful--magical properties the pus had. While not exactly fun, per se, class wasn’t without excitement. Near the end Keito volunteered to being their full pail up to the front and tripped, saved very narrowly from splashing it all down his front as a few fellow Gryffindors rushed forward to steady him. He sloshed only a small bit onto the floor instead, burning a hole in his shoe.
They parted ways once class was over, Yuto and Keito heading back to the castle while Yamada continued down the grounds and to the hut of the groundskeeper. His Care of Magical creatures class took place on the grounds in front of the hut, bordering the Forbidden Forest. They were greeted by the sight of Professor Ohno, standing in front of his hut, his hands on his hips as he watched all of the students approaching. There was usually some kind of fence or tank set up, where they would see whatever creature it was they would be taught about that day. Today though, all Professor Ohno had with him was what Yamada assumed was a crate, covered in a cloth.
“Get excited.” He told them, once class had officially began. He didn’t particularly sound excited himself, but excitement from Professor Ohno was a rare occurrence. “I was approached with a project idea, and after getting permission from the Headmaster, I’ve decided to go ahead with it.”
“You’re giving us a project?” Hashimoto Ryosuke piped up from the back. There was a collective sigh when Ohno nodded. Then he removed the sheet covering the crate at his feet, and the sighs turned into sounds of delight.
The mesh metal container was filled nearly to bursting with small squeaking balls of fluff. They came in just about every color, all mixed together, and Ohno raised his voice to regain the class’ attention.
“Pygmy puffs.” He declared. “You all will be caring for your own personal pygmy puff for six weeks. Of course, you will be required to keep a log of the things you feed them and record their sleeping patterns. Don’t worry too much; they are relatively easy to care for. If you wish to officially adopt your pygmy puff when the project is over, make sure you come talk to me.”
The little balls of fluff were distributed, Yamada ending up with his hands full of a pink one. It squeaked at him, and he couldn’t help his smile; its hair was rather soft, but it stuck straight out, making them nearly completely circular, a small head and four little legs poking out of the mass. Its face was almost rodent-like but less pointed, with large eyes. It made it’s way up Yamada’s arm and nestled into his neck, and they spent the rest of the class learning about them, like what they ate--which was just about everything, as it turned out--and other ways to care for them. Nobody was really listening though, everyone caught up on what they wanted to name theirs. Yamada’s ended up falling asleep, making a small, purring type of snore, and Yamada moved it gently from his shoulder to his pocket, letting it continue to nap.
“It looks like you!” Daiki insisted when Yamada pulled the pygmy puff out at lunch to show him off. Yamada looked down at the creature with a laugh, unsure of whether or not to be offended.
“How?”
“It’s adorable!” Was Daiki’s answer, and he picked the fluff up, still snoozing, petting its tiny head. “Our Care of Magical Creatures class isn’t doing this project. I want one.”
Yamada’s chest was tight with some high, nervous feeling that Daiki was notorious for giving him whenever he got compliments, and he bit his bottom lip to hold in a smile.
“I have to care for it for six weeks, but you can help me if you want to.”
Daiki beamed at that, and that was when the little pygmy woke, squealing in high pitched surprise and leaping from Daiki’s hands. Daiki shouted in alarm and the pygmy puff landed on the table, its claws skidding across the wood as it ran to Yamada and jumped into his lap.
“It doesn’t like me.” Daiki said, Yamada chuckling and shaking his head, meeting Daiki’s eyes.
“Don’t worry, he will.”
“Now, you will throw your raw egg to the floor. Let it fall as it will, and when it does, be careful not to disturb it; the slightest of movements could mean the difference between losing all of your socks, or losing all of your toes. Not that I have to worry about that.”
Professor Shibutani chuckled, prancing a little at his own quip, and Yuto sent Keito an incredulous look, though if it was about the joke or about the raw egg fortune telling--called ovomancy, they had been told--Keito wasn’t sure.
“Okay!” Shibutani exclaimed, clapping his hands. “Get started! Use the chart in your books.”
“...we’re dropping eggs on the floor.” Keito said once chatter in the room had started up, and Yuto nodded, laughing at the expression on Keito’s face. “We’re dropping eggs on the floor, and looking at the yolks.”
Yuto nodded, still giggling, and Keito could barely believe it; they’d done some implausible things in the class, sure, like reading tea leaves and using star charts to tell the future, but this egg catastrophe was on a whole new level.
His father had laughed for nearly half an hour when Keito told him he’d be taking Divination--as well as Muggle Studies--when elective options opened up. Keito wasn’t taking Divination because he believed in it though, only here because Yuto had begged someone to take it with him. And Yuto himself had only taken Divination because the professor was a centaur. Professor Shibutani was half man, half horse, and it was incredible to watch him do just about anything, from teaching to walking around the classroom, his red painted hooves loud against the lofty wooden tower floor.
“You ready?” Yuto asked through giggles, holding up one of the six eggs they had from a basket in the middle of their table.
“Sure.” Keito said, wincing a little as Yuto let the egg go. It cracked loudly on impact, the insides spilling out onto the floor. Professor Shibutani walked up to them, shaking his head and clicking his tongue.
“Not a clean break.” He said. “I see turmoil ahead; a curse disguised as a blessing.”
Yuto gave a solemn, pseudo-serious nod, choking back giggles again as soon as the teacher walked away. He jotted down what Shibutani said to him, and then it was Keito’s turn.
His egg fell open evenly, the shell splitting completely in half instead of splintering.
“Okay.” Yuto opened his book, standing over Keito's egg. “It’s a little… Lumpy on one side, and kind of diamond-shaped, so…” He squinted back and forth between the egg on the floor and the book in his hands. “You're about to experience some unbalance in your life, but…” He frowned, turning his head to look at the egg upside down. “It's either going to make you smile, or get you eaten by the giant squid. I can't tell.”
That had Keito laughing too, opening his book to the egg chart as Yuto picked up his second egg, smashing it on the floor.