Quidditch, Romance, and Near Death Experiences (15/25)
Title: Quidditch, Romance, and Near Death Experiences
Author: thanku4urlove
Pairing: Yabu/Takaki, Yamada/Daiki, Yamada/Yuto, Hikaru/Keito
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: Sorry for not posting next week! I adopted a kitten last week, and he's only eight months old, so he's been a bit of a handful. But he's settling in really well!! He's still afraid of the dog, but he still zips around the house like a menace (when he isn't sleeping, that is). I've been tweeting a lot about him but that's just bc I'm in love
Previous Chapters: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14
Once their drinks were empty they collectively decided that it was too cold to just walk leisurely around the little village, making a last, “just in case” stop in Honeydukes as they wound their way back to the castle. Inoo and Daiki stopped in front of the chocolate frog selection, Yabu watching their argument about the true value of chocolate frog cards with amusement. Daiki stopped mid sentence, mid word, getting on his tiptoes to look as best he could over Inoo’s head.
“What?” Inoo asked, turning, Yabu looking in the direction Daiki was peering in. Their newfound Gryffindor friend had a contemplative frown on his face.
“I think that’s my friend Keito.” He said, pointing, and as Yabu looked closer, it was someone else that caught his eye
“Is that Hikaru?” He asked Takaki, nudging him and pointing too. Takaki looked, confusion on his face when he saw who Yabu was pointing to.
“Yeah, I think it is.”
Hikaru was standing by the window in front of the eclectic lollipop display, holding an incredibly realistic looking sugar mustache up to his face, making a silly expression in the direction of Daiki’s friend, who was pink faced and smiling. Hikaru honest-to-god giggled at the Gryffindor student before putting the lollipop back and returning his attention to the display.
“They look… Friendly.” Inoo remarked, his eyebrows raised, Yabu deciding to walk over and say hello.
“Hikaru!” He exclaimed, waving to catch his attention. Hikaru’s eyes went wide in surprise, taking a small step away from Keito.
“Hi Daiki.” Keito greeted. He was smiling but Hikaru wasn’t, avoiding their eyes as they walked up.
“What’re you guys doing?” Takaki asked, the insinuation in his voice heavy and obvious. Keito was a bit too pink faced to answer, glancing over at Hikaru.
“You, um… You guys know about the student I’m tutoring, right?” He asked, and they all gave him blank expressions. Daiki seemed to know what he was talking about though, pointing.
“Hikaru is your tutor?” He asked Keito, who nodded. “Why didn’t you tell us?”
Keito just shrugged a little bit, Hikaru picking back up again.
“We just ran into each other, that’s all.”
Yabu had known Hikaru long enough to know that his explanation wasn’t the entire truth, raising an eyebrow. He didn’t know why Hikaru would lie to them, but he didn’t want to press him for what was really going on in front of everyone, especially Daiki, who they didn’t really know well. Inoo chuckled a little.
“I was wondering what a self-respecting Gryffindor was doing, hanging out with a Slytherin like you.” He said. Hikaru glanced at his feet, laughing bit.
“Yeah, we’re not hanging out. Don’t worry about that.” His answer was a little squirrely, Yabu looking to Keito, surprised by what he saw. Keito’s smile had worn down a little, and he had an expression close to perplexity on his face. “I just got here; I thought you guys were staying back to try and figure out that clue.” He pointed to Yabu. “You talked about being worried that Takaki hadn’t figured it out yet.”
“Well, I wanted to go to the library,” Inoo said, his important tone making them laugh as he placed a hand on his chest. “But they wanted to go shopping. I mean, it all worked out because we ran into Daiki; we showed him the feather and he said it could be from a thunderbird.”
“Sure, whatever that means.” Hikaru said with a laugh, and Takaki nodded.
“Exactly.” He said with a small sigh. “I don’t know.”
“We were planning on heading back to the castle now,” Yabu said, gesturing. “Do you want to come?”
Hikaru shrugged the offer off, waving a hand.
“Nah, there’s a few things I want to do here. I’ll catch up with you guys later though, okay?”
They nodded and said their farewells, Yabu and Takaki trekking up to the castle hand in hand.
“It looks like Hikaru made a new friend.” Takaki said with a small, insinuating grin. Yabu nodded, not really in the mood to smile back. The entire interaction had him a confused.
“Yeah, I knew Keito was getting help from someone, but he didn’t tell us who. Did Hikaru not tell you guys anything?” Daiki asked, and all three of them shook their heads.
“I mean, he would just not show up for dinner sometimes, but we didn’t really think too much of it.” Inoo answered. Then he completely stopped walking, turning to Takaki and Yabu with his hands on his hips.
“We’re going to the library now.” He insisted. Takaki let his head fall back.
“Do we have to?” He asked, his question drawn out with a sigh. Yabu wasn’t too keen on going to the library either; he was in the mood for a long, hot bath to warm his fingers and toes, then some quality time in front of the Hufflepuff common room fire with a cup of hot chocolate and his boyfriend.
Inoo gave them both exasperated looks, and Takaki side stepped him, patting him on the shoulder.
“We’ll meet in the library next week, okay? The second task is like a month away; we have plenty of time.”
As promised, they did meet in the library the next weekend. Unfortunately though, they didn’t get much of anything done. Takaki was dreading the second task to an incredible degree, and it showed in his behavior, avoiding even thinking about the task at hand, which in turn lead to him not studying up for it, or even talking about it.
On the completely other side, Inoo was wrapped up in everything the feather could mean. He was overthinking it, Yabu thought, but he was having so much fun doing so that Yabu couldn’t bring himself to tell Inoo to stop, despite the sea green color Takaki developed on his face when he began spouting a new theory. Unluckily for Takaki, he had a new theory nearly every other day. He’d made a list of all the gold things he could think of and was going through it, telling Takaki to prepare for everything from treasure hunting to a particularly intricate and dangerous transmutation spell.
“You know, you’re really not helping.” Takaki told him, running his hands through his hair as he looked over the list. “How am I supposed to get ready for all of these?”
Inoo just shrugged, turning back to his books. On a positive note, they seemed to have gained a new friend, and he was an incredibly good stress reliever. Daiki joined them for their library meetup the week after Hogsmeade, and had been hanging out with them quite regularly ever since. He was incredibly kind and incredibly funny, able to put a smile on Takaki’s face regardless of how stressed he looked. Daiki was also easy to get along with, he and Inoo becoming close quickly, though Chinen was able to wrap Daiki around his little finger as soon as they two of them met. It was nice to have him around though, and Yabu liked him quite a bit.
The weekend before the second task was a Quidditch match: Ravenclaw vs. Slytherin. The match was nasty and cold, the snow falling incredibly thickly into the arena. Aside from a few dark shapes moving throughout the sheet of white, it was hard to tell what was happening during the game. As a result Daiki had a hard time commentating, leading instead to hilarious anecdotes or obscure observations, riddled with muggle references that Yabu himself only got about half the time, Takaki telling him that they were about movies and TV shows.
“I have no idea how this match is ever going to end, because the Snitch is bound to be completely impossible to see in this weather… The Seekers are going to have to just close their eyes and use the Force for this one.”
“...the force of what?” Yabu asked, Inoo and Takaki just laughing on either side of him.
“Remind me that we need a Star Wars movie marathon.” Was all the explanation Takaki gave. Eventually, after a few dragging, miserable hours, Hikaru caught the Snitch and the match was won. They exited the stands as quickly as they could, Yabu using his Quidditch captain cred to enter the locker room to talk to him. Hikaru was heckled by them all as he was dusting the snow off his shoulders and out of his hair, Inoo complaining that he should have caught the tiny golden object at least half an hour earlier for the sake of his poor frozen fingers and toes.
“You get on a broom and try it!” Hikaru protested loudly, but he was smiling, exhilarated by his long earned win. His eyes were bright, his cheeks and face pink from cold, a red ring around his face where the goggles had been, and Yabu knew the adrenaline he must be feeling, unable not to smile back. They didn’t get the chance to say much more however, because Hikaru bounced from one foot to the other while Takaki spoke, excusing himself once he was finished and rushing quickly back out into the gale. He promised he would return, Inoo calling the question of why he was going in the first place and getting no reply. They all watched him go, Yabu raising an eyebrow.
“What’s he doing? It's a blizzard out there.” Takaki asked, but Inoo didn’t seem concerned, taking a seat on one of the benches. Yabu simply shrugged, having no reply, deciding that as long as he could stay here and warm himself up a bit before they had to walk back up to the castle, he didn't care too much.
“Slytherin won the match, and you guys are bound to win against Gryffindor.” Takaki said, rubbing his palms up and down Yabu’s arms as he spoke. “It looks like you and Hikaru are facing off again after all.”
“Except this time I’m going to kick his ass.” Yabu answered firmly, and Takaki laughed. “But are you ready for next week? For your face off with the thunderbird?”
“Face off…” Takaki muttered, trailing into a sigh. “I mean, how am I supposed to get ready for that? I know some stunning spells and some shielding spells and stuff, but how useful is that going to be? And I don’t even know what the objective is. I won’t know until I get there.”
“Because thinking fast and performing under stress it something that makes a good champion.” Yabu reminded him.
“Which is why I’m tied for last place.”
“No, you’re tied for second.” Yabu said with a smile. “And you were only behind first place by four minutes! You’re not as underprepared for this as you think you are.”
Takaki didn’t quite believe him, and Yabu could tell, but he hoped that his words were at least doing a bit of good. Takaki seemed much less terrified the morning of the second task than he had the morning of the first, but that could have been him trying to hide it, or simple denial.
“Okay.” He said, getting to his feet from the Hufflepuff table. His voice was high and squeaky and he coughed, but the cough didn’t help, sounding the same when he spoke again. “I’ll… See you guys later.”
“Best of luck.” Hikaru said, saluting him. Yabu reached out, giving his hand a squeeze, and after a quick well wish from Daiki, he was gone.
Yabu got up shortly afterwards to help teachers direct students yet again to the Quidditch pitch, trekking up the stands about twenty minutes later to the seat that had been saved for him. The champions’ tent was on the left side of the pitch, and next to it was a was a large covered barn, Inoo taking a seat, Yabu sitting down just as a large screech erupted from the wooden structure.
“Well, it is some kind of bird.” Hikaru remarked. Matsuoka Masahiro climbed up to the announcer’s stand, clearing his throat loudly.
“Welcome all, to the Second Task!”
Yamada knew he was supposed to be excited. He should be acting more like Yuto next to him, who was bouncing in his seat, staring excitedly down at the Quidditch pitch. Matsuoka had just announced the commencement of the Second Task, the whole school sitting in the stands with their eyes on the grounds, the excitement palpable, but Yamada couldn't even find it in himself to muster up a smile. The past week--and maybe even the past few months--had sucked. And that was just putting it plainly; Daiki had all but stopped talking to him.
After the Yule Ball, Yamada was able to tell instantly that something was wrong. Daiki was fine and friendly, sure, but didn't much speak to him if they weren't together in their little friend group. As his boyfriend act with Yuto wore on Daiki spoke with him less and less. It was him specifically, he could tell; the older Gryffindor was avoiding his eyes, and never addressing him in conversation. It was subtle, his other friends not seeming to notice, but it was painful all the same. Their visit to Hogmeade together seemed to have been the final straw. Yamada had picked up on Nakajima Kento and his friends following them on their way to Madam Puddifoot’s, so he spun Yuto around and kissed him quickly in an attempt to make them stop. Their lips couldn't have touched for longer than half a second, and Yuto had giggled about it for the next thirty minutes, but Daiki had just mumbled out some excuse about needing to go to Zonko’s and walked off. Yamada had barely seen hide or hair of him sense, and it was driving him crazy. He missed Daiki so much it hurt.
"Look!" Keito exclaimed, pointing down to the field. The event was finally starting properly, Professor Kimura walking out slowly. He strode to the center of the pitch with purpose in his step, something held in his hands. Once he reached the middle he stopped, extending his arms and opening his hands. Yamada saw something flit away and through the air, but it was too small to tell other than a tiny glimmer of gold. Yuto though, let out a gasp.
"A snitch?" He whispered in disbelief. "Are they going to be playing Quidditch against each other?"
Once the field was empty again, Kiriyama Akito slowly walked out. His steps were hesitant, taking in the space he was in and the multitude of people watching him. He didn't even have his wand, dressed simply with a pair of protective goggles on. He stood there for a moment, facing the barn, the entire audience waiting with baited breath for something to happen.
Professor Ohno and Imai Tsubasa walked out from around the barn, each grabbing one side of the rightmost set of doors on the structure and pulling them open.
A grey hippogriff burst forth, flapping and squawking. Kiriyama actually smiled at the sharp taloned, razor clawed beast, removing his goggles and beginning to whistle a tune. The song was clear and loud through the crisp February air, catching the hippogriff's attention instantly. The beast touched down, pausing and turning sharply to look in his direction.
"He's got it interested!" Matsuoka was saying, his voice slightly hushed but charismatic all the same. "I wonder what he's up to."
The hippogriff took slow and steady steps towards him, watching with intense curiosity, and when it was a mere few feet away Kiriyama swept into a low, gracious bow. Slowly, after a moment of consideration, the hippogriff bowed back.
The crowd clapped as Kiriyama began to whistle again, reaching out to scratch the creature under the chin, stroking it lightly.
"He’s befriended it!" Matsuoka exclaimed. "But that was only half of his challenge--and the easier half, I fear."
"...they have to use the hippogriff to catch the snitch." Keito said, his voice quiet with disbelief. Yamada realized that he was right, looking down at the field and wondering how on earth that could even be possible.
Kiriyama had heard Matsuoka's words as well, looking around in an attempt to see what else it was he needed to do. His entire body froze for a moment when he saw the snitch, understanding dawning on his face, the hippogriff nudging his still hand in insistence for more attention. After some eye contact and rather dramatic gestures between the champion and the animal, the hippogriff crouched down on its front legs.
“Did he just… Talk to it? Somehow?” Yuto asked them, but Yamada couldn’t offer more than a shrug, watching as Kiriyama climbed onto its back, replaced his goggles in front of his eyes, and the hippogriff took to the air.
It was a magnificently large creature, its wingspan impressive as it ascended. Kiriyama was holding tightly to its neck, his eyes going so wide when he looked down that Yamada could see the whites from his seat in the stands.
"How is he supposed to catch the snitch like that?" Poor Kiriyama didn’t look like he wanted to be in the air; letting go of the hippogriff’s feathers to reach out for anything sounded terrifying to Yamada too. He hoped desperately that the champion didn’t fall.
After a great deal of dipping and weaving, the hippogriff's head turned sharply and it dived, Kiriyama letting out a loud shout. The beast was flying more aggressively and with more speed, unlike the confused flapping and turning it had been doing previously, Yamada understanding what was happening around the same time the Durmstrang champion seemed to. The gold and shiny snitch had caught the hippogriff's attention and it was following it around the field like a predator after prey, snapping its sharp beak.
The snitch made a circle around the stadium, close enough to the stands for the action to get up close and personal. The ball made a quick u-turn right in front of them, the hippogriff stopping short in confusion, Yuto gasping at the proximity, all of them watching as Kiriyama reached a quick hand over his head and caught the little golden ball, holding it up for the judges to see.
"Kiriyama Akito from Durmstrang School of Magic has caught the snitch!" Matsuoka exclaimed, his voice loud and elated. "In an incredible demonstration of camaraderie with his hippogriff, Kiriyama has completed the second task in a mere twenty-seven minutes! Well done!"
It took some coaxing but the hippogriff eventually touched back down, Kiriyama's legs shaking as he dismounted. He gave the beast's neck another affectionate stroke before Professor Ohno approached, leading it back to the barn. The field was reset, Professor Kimura letting another snitch fly, and the second contender stepped onto the field.
"Next up is Nikaido Takashi from Beauxbatons!"
There was a muffled laugh from up above them in the stands in the silence that followed, and it was a sound Yamada would recognize anywhere, turning sharply to see Daiki with his hands covering his mouth and his eyes disappearing into a smile, turned to face a Ravenclaw student that Yamada vaguely recognized. He was sitting with a whole group of students that Yamada found familiar, but the only one he knew by name was Yuto's Quidditch captain. Seeing Daiki up there and watching him smile like that sent a twinge of pain through Yamada's chest and he couldn't handle it anymore, getting to his feet.