Quidditch, Romance, and Near Death Experiences (8/25)
Title: Quidditch, Romance, and Near Death Experiences
Author: thanku4urlove
Pairing: Yabu/Takaki, Yamada/Daiki
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 ALMOST FORGOT TO POST AGAIN why @ myself this is what happens when my sister is out of state and I'm left to fend for myself I can't function on my own apparently
Previous Chapters: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7
All of the relaxation Yabu managed to instill in the Hogwarts champion the night before was completely gone by the time the next morning rolled around, Takaki sitting stock still at the breakfast table, not touching anything Yabu put in front of him.
“Come on, you have to eat.” Yabu wheedled, but Takaki just shook his head.
“I don’t think I can. I don’t want to try.”
“You’ll do awesome today!” Came a chipper voice from their left, Yabu turning to see Yuto give a smile and a wave to Takaki before sitting down at the Gryffindor table with his friends. He was the first out of a good amount of people that wished Takaki good luck on the First Task, and while Yabu found it rather heartwarming, it was hard to tell if Takaki felt the same, since his face had maintained its unmoving mask of discomforted ambiguous horror since the moment he’d opened his eyes.
The champions were to report on to the Quidditch pitch at nine a.m., and at eight forty-five Takaki got unsteadily to his feet, clearing his throat a few times before saying,
“...Okay. I need to go now.” The words were more to himself, and Yabu stood up with him, rubbing his shoulders.
“You’re going to do great, okay?” He insisted, placing his hands on the sides of Takaki’s face, moving it forwards and back into a nod when Takaki didn’t nod of his own free will. “It’ll be fine.”
He pulled him in for a strong kiss before sending him on his way, feeling a bit proud of the slightly increased confidence he seemed to have caused as Takaki walked out of the Great Hall.
“Well… He looks like a mess.” Hikaru noted, walking up. “How do you think he’ll do?”
Yabu sighed. “Yeah, there’s a sixty percent chance he might die.” He answered, and Hikaru laughed.
“Oh come on, overly supportive lover boy. Where’s that optimism?” He clapped Yabu on the back. “At least give him a fifty percent chance.”
Yabu laughed at that, Hikaru promising to save him a seat as Yabu assisted the teachers in herding students up to the stands surrounding the Quidditch pitch. There were three closet-sized boxes in the middle of the grassy arena, standing at an equal distance from each other. All of the walls were see-through, and the only thing inside each closet was a small table, with a box resting on it, a white cube that was roughly a foot long on each side.
After some high-energy waving Yabu managed to find Hikaru in the crowd, nudging a few stragglers along on his way through the mass of black robes to get to his friend.
“...This is the First Task?” Hikaru asked him as he sat, surveying the scene in front of them, craning his head around a particularly tall Gryffindor student to get a better look. “What does this even mean?”
Yabu could only shrug, nerves beginning to wind in his stomach. He caught sight of Inoo and waved, catching the Ravenclaw boy’s eye. Their friend starting in their direction, and Hikaru groaned.
“Why are they letting him bring the devil into the stands?”
Inoo had his cat sitting on one of his shoulders, and looked to just have rolled out of bed; his hair sticking out in a few different directions, and his eyelids barely open. He looked barely half awake as he sat down next to Yabu, the cat hopping down to curl into a ball in his lap. Though, to be honest, Inoo looked only half awake a good deal of the time, so Yabu wasn’t sure what to think.
“Who said you could bring your cat?” Hikaru asked and Inoo turned to him, slightly irate, and Yabu could tell instantly that their friend wasn’t just fresh out of bed; he was exhausted.
“I was up all night working on an Arithmancy paper. Do not test me; I will drop him on your head.”
That did the job excellently, Hikaru shutting up and turning away, eyes wide and lips pursed. Yabu couldn’t help but laugh, reaching around to rub both of his friends on the back.
At nine-thirty the Quidditch stands were completely full and Matsuoka Masahiro, the Ministry official heading the Magical Games and Sports department, weaved his way through the crowd, coming to a stop in front of the commentator’s microphone. The three champions and their respective headmasters began walking onto the pitch, Imai Tsubasa behind them, and Matsuoka started speaking.
“Welcome all to the First Task of this year’s Triwizard Tournament!”
Cheers and claps rang up all around Yabu, who rubbed his palms nervously on his thighs. The backs of the three chambers on the field opened and one champion stepped into each, instantly looking around. Yabu could see, even from the distance he was, that Takaki looked pale. Each headmaster ran their wand down one side of the chamber, and then Tsubasa followed up on each, giving all three of them a light tap with his wand. Yabu swallowed.
“The three champions have now entered their spaces for this task. While we can see them, they cannot see out. Their task is nothing more than to exit their individual chambers within an hour. They can use only their wands, as well as whatever is provided within the box in front of them. The task begins… Now.”
At the word ‘now’ a painfully loud bang rang out, sounding almost like a gunshot. Yabu jumped horribly, nearly falling off the edge of his seat. It was loud enough for the champions to hear, too; they hadn’t reacted to any of Matsuoka’s words, but at the noise the all looked around a bit. Nikaido from Beauxbatons jumped slightly too, while Akito gave a determined nod. They knew what the sound meant; the task had begun.
Takaki was inspecting his box, picking it up and looking at all sides. It was smooth, blank, and white, identical to the boxes the other champions had, and didn’t appear to have any openings. Akito tapped his box with his wand, his lips forming some spell Yabu couldn’t decipher, and his box opened up, spilling a endless jet of water into his chamber, splashing all down his robes and onto the floor. He made a face of surprise, reaching in and pulling out another box. It was only slightly smaller than the one it had been inside, but identical otherwise.
“Kiriyama has his first box open.” Matsuoka said, eyes scanning the field as he commentated the task. “The water was one of the worser things he could receive, and especially so close to the beginning; the longer he’s in there, the higher the water will rise. He’d better hurry!”
Takaki had managed to get his box open by then, but instead of spilling water, cornish pixies had erupted from it, and they were pulling viciously at his hair and his robes. One of them had his wand, and he was chasing the creature around the tiny space, trying to catch it. Along with the pixies, his box had also rendered a second one similar in nature, but it had been knocked to the floor.
“Is that a werewolf?” Hikaru asked, his voice hushed. He was pointing to Nikaido, Yabu tearing his eyes away from Takaki’s--slightly comical, he had to admit--struggle to see what Hikaru meant.
The Beauxbatons champion already had his second box opened, his wand raised against a creature that was stalking him around the small room. Yabu realized with a jolt of horrified fear that it was a werewolf, barely able to believe his eyes. The creature was up on its hind legs, bent nearly double and covered in fur, bearing its teeth and swiping with its claws, eyes wild and aggressive. With a word and a wave of his wand however, Nikaido had caused the monster to disappear, a small plush wolf toy lying in its place.
“A boggart!” Matsuoka exclaimed, and Yabu couldn’t help the sigh of relief that passed his lips, echoed by the entire crowd; the masses had all fallen silent and turned to watch the werewolf. He felt silly afterwards because really, there was no way they would stick a werewolf and a student in a small chamber together, but it had looked incredibly real. It was obvious by the shaken look on Nikaido’s face that for the initial few moments, he’d thought so too.
Takaki had managed to fight off all of the pixies by now, a few new scratches on his face, and tapped the second box with his wand. The chamber was enveloped in complete darkness.
“...what happened?” Yabu asked hesitantly, but Hikaru could offer no more than a shake of his head.
“Our Hogwarts champion has encountered the instant darkness powder!” Matsuoka’s voice was loud with amusement. “Good luck with that one.”
Unable to watch his boyfriend for now, Yabu turned to look at Akito. The water was unstoppable it seemed, still spilling endlessly into his chamber, up to his knees by now and soaking his clothes. He opened his second box as Yabu watched, and out popped a red envelope. Yabu couldn’t help but wince; he’d seen those before, and getting a howler in the middle of the Triwizard Tournament seemed five times worse than fighting off pixies, or even a boggart. The chamber was sealed, but even so they could still hear the shrill shrieking coming from the letter.
“You? In the Tournament? I can’t believe it!”
Akito grabbed the letter with a hand, his face turning a bright red as he stuffed it into the water. All in all, the champions had to open seven boxes before getting to the key inside. But the key wasn’t obvious in any manner, either; Hikaru had his eye on Nikaido, who was getting through his boxes the quickest, hitting Yabu’s arm when he finally opened his last one. The box was incredibly small, maybe an inch long on all sides, Nikaido reaching in with his thumb and forefinger and pulling out a thirteen inch long black feather.
“What are they supposed to do with that?” Inoo asked, but all Yabu could do was shrug in response. Nikaido seemed as lost as they were for a while, staring down at the object in his hands, then around at the walls holding him. Finally though, his face lit up, and he held the feather like a writing quill, pressing the pointed end to the wall, at a spot that was centered and just under eye level. The whole wall in front of him fell away, and he squinted in the sunlight that was pouring down at him.
“The first one from his chamber… Nikaido Takashi, from Beauxbatons Academy of Magic!”
Wild cheers erupted from the Beauxbatons students, with the other two schools applauding as he gave a hesitant smile and a wave, stepping from his box. Almost instantaneously a loud chime sounded and he gave a slight start, Matsuoka speaking up again.
“That was the hour mark--there will now be a one point penalty for every minute the remaining champions are in their chambers.”
Thankfully though, it didn’t take long for Takaki or Akito to finish. Akito was completely drenched up to his shoulders when he pressed the point of his feather to the wall, and Takaki’s face was covered in soot; about five boxes in he’d singed his eyebrows off. They emerged a few seconds from each other to thunderous applause, both around the four minute mark, clutching their feathers tightly in their hands. Akito’s was grey, and Takaki’s was brown.
“Congratulations to the Durmstrang and Hogwarts champions for completing the First Task!” Matsuoka declared. “The scoring is relatively straightforward this time: for finishing within the time limit Nikaido Takashi has received the full one hundred points, while Takaki Yuya and Kiriyama Akito both have a four point deduction. That feather is your clue for the Second Task. Well done today!”
That signaled the end of the event, and even from his seat in the stands, Yabu saw Takaki’s knees weaken in relief. Akito was beaming, despite how wet and doubtlessly freezing cold he was in the biting November air, saying something to Takaki and clapping him on the back. He did the same to Nikaido too, who smiled and responded, and students began spilling onto the Quidditch pitch to talk to the champions. Yabu got up to do the same, slipping between people and urging his legs to hurry. There was already a crowd around Takaki when he got there but he managed to push his way through them, wrapping his boyfriend up in a tight hug. He felt Takaki relax in the embrace for a moment before hugging him back, his arms settling around the small of Yabu’s back.
“You did it!” Yabu exclaimed, planting a quick kiss on Takaki’s lips, who blushed a bit at the public display of affection, something Yabu had stopped caring about long ago. “That wasn’t so bad, was it?”
“Well, the oxygen in the room was running out.” Takaki told him with a small sigh. “And my whole face hurts.” He was doubtlessly talking about the box had more or less blown up on him, Yabu nodding sympathetically as he tried his hardest not to stare at his boyfriend’s disturbing lack of eyebrows. “Other than that though, I’m fine.”
Inoo and Hikaru had met up with them at that point, all hanging back while the Daily Prophet snapped a few pictures, trying their hardest not to giggle. Takaki was completely unaware of how he looked, just giving Hikaru a confused glance when their Slytherin friend asked if he’d left anything down at the Quidditch pitch. It wasn’t until they were all in Ravenclaw common room and Takaki tried to kiss him that Yabu pulled back, an apologetic expression on his face.
“I love you and everything, but... We need to get you another set of eyebrows.” He said, Takaki frowning.
“What do you mean?”
He raced to the mirror on the right wall, letting out a shout as he reached up to touch his now naked brow bone.
“The press took photos of me looking like this!” He shouted, Hikaru and Inoo howling in laughter.