Magical Paw Prints, 5/9
Title: Magical Paw Prints
Chapter: 5/9
Rating: G
1 2 3 4
- - -
November passed quickly and turned to December, the days gradually getting colder until one day the rain turned into slushy snow. It was far from the perfect first snow straight from fairy tales but even then the sudden whiteness cheered up the people living in the castle. Before they noticed, weeks passed and finally came the day when the Hogwarts Express started its engine at the Hogsmead station and sped towards London, taking most of the students home to spend a well-earned Christmas holiday.
“Finally,” Hokuto cheered when they had all settled comfortably down in their compartment, “One more lesson and I’d have become crazy!”
“Says the one who’s supposed to be the cleverest of us,” Kouchi chuckled in amusement and Hokuto shrugged.
“The fact that I am clever doesn’t mean I should be especially fond of studying.”
“And yet you get good grades, lucky bastard,” Shintaro murmured. It was a well-known fact that Shintaro struggled in most of the theoretic subjects. Juri supposed the boy was probably a bit jealous to Hokuto, too. After all Shintaro was the one of them who had been born in a wizard family while Hokuto had never even seen a post-owl before coming to Hogwarts.
“It’s okay,” Kouchi smoothed over the matter and they changed to nicer topics. When the witch with the tea trolley stopped by their compartment they all bought enough candies for at least three two-way train trips.
“How could we teach you two the spell,” Taiga wondered aloud when they were munching their sweets. Jesse glanced up from the Chocolate Frog cards he was arranging into the proper order and Juri nodded, frowning a bit. He felt like he was so close to understanding how the spell actually worked. There was just something he couldn’t quite catch.
He already knew all the basic techniques of different transfigurations with a wand. He knew how to change things into animals. He even knew how to change a person into an animal, but it wasn’t the same as the Animagus spell.
“How do you do it?” he asked, even though they had been discussing the same thing over and over again for the whole year. “No, how did you do it the first time?
“It was an accident,” Kouchi said with a shrug, “I thought about changing and that was it. I really don’t know.”
“Maybe you’re just good at it,” Taiga suggested at Kouchi, leaning back and crossing his arms on his chest. “I guess I just needed to try many times enough. I did nothing different to my former attempts when I first changed. But you, you just did it,” he said and pointed at Shintaro.
“I knew I could do it,” Shintaro said thoughtfully, frowning as he reminisced the events of that evening in his head. “In fact, until that I had doubted if I would ever learn. It felt bad but I didn’t think I could help it.”
“But?” Juri asked curiously. Shintaro had never told them this part before.
“I got angry at myself,” Shintaro said with a small smile, “and embarrassed. I didn’t want to be worse than you guys. I suck at most things at school but that’s the one thing I really wanted to learn. I decided I would learn, without giving up, no matter what. And then, I just… realized I could do it.”
Juri listened to Shintaro’s honest words in a silent awe. He had supposed there had been something like that going on in Shintaro’s mind but he hadn’t really known for sure. He had known Shintaro many years enough that he usually saw when something was bothering the other. The problem was he never knew how to ask about those things.
He suddenly realized he was feeling thankful to Shintaro, for telling them about his insecurities like that. It made him feel slightly better, to know that someone thought the same things as he did. Juri had been reluctant to admit it even to himself but the truth was he was just as afraid of not learning the spell as Shintaro had been.
“What about you, Hokuto,” Jesse asked curiously and Hokuto glanced at Shintaro when he started.
“Oh, I guess I forgot to explain,” he said, picked his wand from the table, and raised it in the air. “Expecto Patronum!”
Juri’s jaw dropped when he looked at the misty white cloud that seemed to come out from the end of Hokuto’s wand and took the shape of a large yet slender wildcat.
“Wow,” he whispered when they all followed how the cat played in the air around them for a moment before landing onto the luggage rack above Hokuto’s head. It wrapped into a tight roll and slept there until slowly fading away.
“I never knew you were so good at the Patronus Charm!” Jesse said, staring at the cat until there was nothing to look at anymore.
“I've been practicing a lot,” Hokuto said with a shrug and smiled sheepishly. “I do it sometimes. I love the feeling of finally learning how to do some very tricky spell. Anyway, one night I just wanted to see how long time I could make my Patronus stay visible. While I looked at it playing around, I got this small idea.”
“Oh,” Kouchi said, sudden understanding lighting his face, “One’s Patronus--”
“Usually reflects what their animagus form would be,” Hokuto finished his sentence with a nod. “I remembered it that night. I already knew what my Patronus looks like so I kind of had something I could base my transfiguration on. The cat obviously isn’t a lynx but it seems to have been close enough.”
The others nodded, quietly digesting the new piece of information. Juri wondered if he should work harder for his Patronus Charm in order to actually make it corporeal if nothing else worked, but he wasn’t sure if it would help at all. Who knew if his Patronus would be one of those that had nothing to do with his Animagus form?
“Say, Juri,” Taiga said thoughtfully, “When you did the whiskers trick--”
“It’s not the right charm,” Juri interrupted, “I read the Animagus Charm is either-or. One either changes or not, there’s no such a thing as in-between.”
“Yes, I know,” Taiga pressed, “but how did you come up with the whiskers? And the hair color? Why did you choose those?”
“I didn’t,” Juri said and tried his best to remember the first time he had managed to grow the whiskers. “They just appeared from somewhere.”
“Say, have you tried to think about them when changing?”
“Not really. To be honest, I’ve been avoiding doing that since it's obviously a wrong charm.”
“Try!” Taiga encouraged, “There's nothing to lose, is there?”
Juri sighed, not really believing it could help him much. He closed his eyes and did his best at concentrating on the thin whiskers and the black-and-white color that his hair would probably change into.
The familiar tickling feeling was there again, and Juri mentally rolled his eyes. It was no use trying. Though he had to admit it was rather funny how the whiskers sensed things. He actually felt the tiny puffs of air from both Shintaro and Kouchi’s breaths. He knew when either one of them moved. The amazing smell of Kouchi’s Pumpkin Pasties on the table crawled into his nose and made him lick his lips.
“It worked,” Shintaro whispered and Juri looked up towards the boy’s voice. “It worked!”
Juri blinked once, twice, and once more. He looked at his paws, shook his head so that the semi-erect ears flapped against his head, jumped down from his seat, and eagerly waved his tail.
It was weird. He didn’t know any other way to describe the feeling. At the same time, he found it extremely exciting. In fact, everything in the world felt good and exciting. He had learned the spell. His best friends were around him. Shintaro was smiling at him. And the best of all was the sweet smell of the Pumpkin Pasties.
“You did it!” Shintaro repeated and slipped down from his seat. He kneeled in front of Juri, sinked his fingers into Juri’s black-and-white fur and eagerly scratched the behinds of his both ears. The feeling was absolutely heavenly and Juri couldn’t help a pleased noise, something between a whine and a growl. He tilted his head to guide the scratching fingers just on the right places and swiftly waved his tail when Shintaro finally happened to find the tickly spots.
“I was right,” Taiga said smugly and leaned in to take a closer look, “not bad!”
“Sit, Juri,” Shintaro tried and even though Juri realized it was stupid, for some reason he didn’t mind and gladly sat down. It proved to be definitely worth it, with the way Shintaro’s eyes were shining when he leaned in to hug him. “Good boy,” Shintaro praised and Juri let out a small bark, just to try his voice.
“Careful,” Kouchi laughed and glanced at the door, “we don’t want anyone to hear you!”
“It’s okay,” Hokuto chuckled and he too crouched onto the floor to pet Juri’s fur, “we’re in the last car. Why would anyone--”
“Finally!” Kento happily exclaimed as he slammed the sliding door of the compartment aside.
“We’ve searched through the whole train,” Fuma added from behind him.
The five boys and the dog froze in shock. The guilty atmosphere was probably visible since Kento glanced around curiously, hesitating to step across the doorstep.
“Uh, did we disturb something?” he asked.
“No, no, you didn’t!” Hokuto rushed to say and sat back on his seat again.
“Good,” Fuma said bluntly and stepped in, taking a place next to Kouchi and raising his eyebrows. “Where’s Juri, by the way? And whose dog is that?”
Juri let out a panicked whine but Shintaro scratched him more vigorously, forcing up his most innocent (and definitely the fakest) smile.
“We found this little furball wandering by the corridor. He probably jumped into the train at Hogsmead. And Juri went to the toilet just a second ago.”
Kouchi, Taiga, and Hokuto let out a collective sigh.
“Maybe you should take the dog to the conductor. I mean, someone might be missing their dog already. We can take him when we go back to our car,” Fuma offered and the five boys gasped a sudden “no,” all at the same time.
“I… I’ll take care of him,” Shintaro stammered, “I’ll ask my dad to Apparate to Hogsmead with the dog when we arrive at London.”
“Why not just leave him to the people at the King’s Cross station and they’d do the same thing?” Kento suggested and Hokuto rolled his eyes.
“Oh, come on. If the kid wants to play it’s his pet just let him? It’s not like his parents would allow him to keep it anyway. They already have one.”
Kento shrugged and glanced out from the door of the compartment, probably hoping to see Juri coming back. Juri chuckled, but the noise came out as a mere sniff.
“He seems to be very well trained,” Fuma said and crouched next to Juri just like Hokuto had done a moment ago, “I mean, such young Border Collies are really energetic. If you don’t train them properly, they might come up with all kinds of nasty pranks; they’re very intelligent, you know. When you have one of these you must always offer them something interesting to do or they’ll find their own ways to entertain themselves. The owner might find all their shoes full of holes and hidden around the house, for example.”
“How do you know all that,” Kouchi asked and Fuma grinned at him.
“My uncle’s wife is a muggle who owns a dog breeding farm. She has a dozen of these,” he explained and scratched Juri’s sides.
Kento and Fuma stayed for a while but then the train started to slow down and they had to get up. Their luggage was still in the other end of the train.
“I just wanted to wish Juri nice holidays and remind him about the Astronomy homework he promised to let me copy from him. He was supposed to give me his notes in the train,” Kento said with a frustrated frown.
“We’ll pass on the message,” Hokuto promised and waved his hand at the two boys when they stepped out of the door. “Have nice holidays!”
“You too,” Fuma answered with a warm smile before they had to rush away. Juri waited for another minute, until Kouchi peeked out of the door and nodded.
“The road is clear. Quickly, now. The train will stop in any moment and the corridor will be full of people again.”
Juri changed back and flopped down on the floor, leaning his back against the edge of the seat next to him.
“That. Was. So. Close,” he sighed and shook his head. Only now that the dog’s blissful lack of worries wasn’t disturbing his thoughts anymore he realized how close he had been to revealing their secret.
“I don’t think they suspected anything,” Hokuto said cheerfully and got up, stretching his arms and throwing his last Bertie Bott’s Every Flavour Beans into his mouth at the same time. (“Ew. Dust, marshmallow, and probably cabbage - what a mixture!”)
In a few more minutes they saw the lights of the station behind the window. Once they had gathered their things they started to move towards the door. They got out of the train and Shintaro nervously looked across the mass of people.
“What is it, Shin,” Juri asked and Shintaro made a face.
“I’d rather not meet Kento and Fuma again and have to explain them where I lost the dog.”
“Then you’d just have to say you changed your mind,” Hokuto said with a shrug and waved his hand. “I’ll go now. My parents are probably by the parking lot - they always wait there. Have a nice Christmas, everyone! See you in the New Year's eve!”
“I’ll send you all an owl before that. Happy Holidays!” Shintaro called after him.
At the same time Taiga and Kouchi spotted their parents in the crowd and wished Juri, Shintaro, and Jesse a nice Christmas.
“Are you all right? You look rather pale,” Kouchi asked Jesse whose attempt to smile failed pitifully.
“Too many Chocolate Frogs,” Jesse said, “I’d better run, too, before my father tries to walk through every platform sign on the muggle side. He always forgets the number… Happy Holidays, everyone! See you!”
Juri hardly had time to answer to the greeting before Jesse vanished into the crowd. Taiga and Kouchi took their leave as well, and Juri found himself standing by the platform alone with Shintaro.
“So,” Juri said and looked up into Shintaro’s eyes, “I guess we should go too. Mum sent me an owl yesterday; she said she’ll Apparate here and get me and Subaru home once she’s finished cooking our dinner, and it’s almost the time.”
“Yeah, same here. I’ll need to find Ryu and Natsume,” Shintaro said. He glanced around to make sure no-one was paying attention to them and quickly reached to brush the back of Juri's hand with his fingertips.
“See you,” Shintaro said, and his smile made Juri wonder if he’d ever get used to the fluttering feeling in his chest that the smile caused every time. On the other hand he liked the feeling and didn’t really want to get used to it at all. “Send me an owl once you’re safely back home.”
“I will,” Juri promised and smiled as well. “Have a nice Christmas.”
-
After a bit more than a week Juri smiled when he opened his window and let the familiar grey owl in. The owl was carrying a bunch of envelopes, and waited patiently when Juri looked through them. There was one thicker envelope for him and five smaller envelopes, one of which was for him and the four others for Jesse, Hokuto, Taiga, and Kouchi. Juri carefully opened the threads that had been holding his letters, making sure the others were still tied tightly on the owl’s legs, and then let the big bird free again.
He left the window open to let in some fresh air and sat on his bed to open the envelopes. Even before taking the parchment out of the bigger envelope Juri knew it was Shintaro’s usual daily message. He had been sending such letters to Juri almost every day since the day they had separated at King’s Cross. The text itself was nothing very special - Shintaro was just telling him about the small events of his everyday life on the Christmas holiday - and yet they were more than special. Juri couldn’t quite explain it but it felt good to know that Shintaro was thinking about him even when they were too busy to meet in person despite living in the same town.
The other, identical to the other boys’ envelopes (Shintaro had obviously written only one letter and multiplied it with a spell), held in a short note:
Hi everyone!
Mum sent greetings and said you’re all very welcome to come to our house tomorrow around noon and stay overnight or as long as you wish.
Juri, Kouchi, and Taiga, just use Floo Powder; you know the address. Mum just cleaned the fireplace this morning. Hokuto, dad will pick you up at 11:55 from your back yard. I suppose you should inform your parents beforehand so they won’t be too surprised. Jesse, you have a fireplace in your home don’t you? Is it connected into the Floo Network? If not, answer me (the owl will wait) and dad will pick up you too.
See you tomorrow everyone!
Shintaro
Juri grinned at the thought of Shintaro’s father Apparating to the back yard of Hokuto’s home and knocking on the windows of their living room.
He had met Hokuto’s parents a few times; they were very nice people, but very, very muggle. They had nothing against the magical world and they were always really friendly but for some reason, even after their son having gone to Hogwarts for six and a half years already, their reactions to magic were still exactly the same as they had probably been when they had entered the Platform Nine and Three Quarters for the first time: wordlessly confused.
Juri knew Hokuto's parents had been a bit concerned when Hokuto had announced his future occupation was going to be one of the wizarding world but after Hokuto had shown them some very informative numbers about how much an average Healer in the Saint Mungo’s Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries was paid per hour, they had immediately stopped worrying. They only had a very vague understanding of how to convert Galleons to pounds but a big number was a big number even when one didn’t know how big it exactly was.
Juri folded the letters away and started to gather a pile of things he’d need during the next couple of days.
-
On the next morning Juri dragged his bag downstairs and sat by the kitchen table where his mother had already set the breakfast dishes.
“Morning,” he greeted his little brother who was sitting on the other side of the table and nodded, his mouth too full of bread to allow him to answer verbally.
“Juri, dear, here’s a small present for the Morimotos,” their mother said and placed a bright-colored box on the corner of the table, “Please try to remember to take it along when you go.”
“I will, mum,” Juri said, spreading butter on his toast and trying to wordlessly make the cheese slicer do its work without his physical help. The cheese slicer shivered on the table but refused to move and Juri frowned at its unusual disobedience.
“Don’t bother,” Subaru sighed, his voice muffled with bread, “Sora dropped it onto the floor and I think it’s sulking. It didn’t work for me either.”
The tiny Chihuahua pricked up her ears when she heard her name and Juri shook his head, throwing a very scolding look towards her.
“You were walking on the tables again, miss?”
“I'm afraid you’ll just have to slice your cheese in the traditional way,” Subaru chuckled and Juri rolled his eyes because really, what could have been more traditional than making the cheese slicer work on its own with magic? His grandfather prided himself with having never done anything without magic; he always said only children and muggles used their cheese slicers and toothbrushes by hand.
“Morning,” Hyoga, the next in their line of brothers, murmured when he shuffled into the kitchen and slumped on his usual chair, dozing off by the table before reaching his hand towards the big kettle of black coffee that their mother had just brought to the table.
“Stayed late at work last night?” Subaru asked and Hyoga nodded drowsily, even though the smell of coffee seemed to bring him slightly closer to awakeness.
“There were dozens of wizards who have bought muggle fireworks and cast all kinds of spells on them. Not good. Some wizards were reselling the modified rockets in the muggle market. Even worse. The misused rockets couldn’t handle the magic, and some spells were simply badly cast. Either way, our team had ten places to visit once the rockets started to explode in the muggles’ storerooms. Most of the muggles were easy to Obliviate but a few were really pig-headed and refused to believe they had bought flawed rockets even after we had cast the Memory Modifying Charm on them trice.”
“Why don’t you just cast a very strong charm at once?” Subaru asked and Hyoga let out a short joyless laugh.
“Have you ever seen a person getting Obliviated? Some people react very strongly even to the lightest Charms and walk in haze for days after that. We can never know beforehand who can only take the lighter spell, and who are the though individuals that need multiple Memory Charms on them, so we always start lightly, just in case.”
Subaru nodded slowly and looked down at his cup of tea, and from the look on his face Juri knew he was thinking about his own future. Subaru still didn’t know what he wanted to do after leaving school. For Juri himself it had been clear for a long time already. He had already talked about the future apprenticeship contract with the owner of Quality Quidditch Supplies in Diagon Alley.
From the very first time he had flown on a broomstick he had known he wanted his future career have something to do with flying, and during his first years in Hogwarts he had dreamed of becoming a professional Quidditch player. Eventually he had realized the game was his favorite hobby but not something he'd want to do for living. For a while he had considered applying for a job in some of the biggest broom factories in Britain but in the end he had decided he wanted to do something with a more personal feeling. A small broom and Quidditch supply shop was the best place for the kind of detailed handcraft job Juri wanted to do.
The two youngest brothers were just finishing their breakfast when they heard a small knocking noise. Their mother opened the kitchen window, let a brown owl in, and thanked him when taking the letter.
“Kazu’s owl!” Subaru cried out and ran to pet the bird and give him some water from their family owl’s cup.
Their mother smiled when reading the message, “He says he’ll come home this evening and bring along the whole family.” She scribbled a short answer, gave the letter to the owl and sent him out to the bright morning air. Subaru was thrilled about the news and Juri smiled too, even though he wouldn’t be able to meet his oldest brother this time. It would have been nice to be at home of course but Juri didn’t feel very bad about having other plans. Kazunaru’s children were several years younger than Juri; it would take a few more years before his relationship with them would start to resemble one of an uncle and his nephews instead of Juri being an occasional baby sitter for the two- and four-year-old toddlers.
The clock was getting closer to eleven and Juri took his dishes to the kitchen counter.
“The present on the table,” his mother reminded, and Juri picked the packet along when going to get his shoes, jacket, beanie, and mittens from the hall. He would need them in the evening even though his way of traveling didn’t require warm clothing.
After checking once more he had everything he needed Juri stepped in front of the fireplace and scooped a handful of Floo Powder from the small bucket that stood on the floor next to the fireplace. He was just about to throw the powder into the fire when the flames flashed bright green and one more brother stepped out from the fire. Juri yelped in surprise and the powder slipped from his fingers, spreading onto the floor.
“Oops, sorry,” Koki said and took his wand from the pocket of his long winter coat. With a one wave of Koki's wand the powder flew back into the bucket. “You going somewhere? On the New Year’s eve!”
“Shintaro invited us to celebrate New Year together in their place,” Juri explained and made a face, “Geez, give one a warning before appearing just like that!”
“Alright, next time I’ll send an owl to tell you I’m going to arrive at ten forty-seven and-” Koki glanced at his watch, “-fifteen seconds.”
“Please do,” Juri chuckled and tilted his head. “Is it okay for you to leave the bar tonight? Don’t you have customers there?”
Koki laughed and assured his small pub in Hogsmead was in good hands.
“Even a barkeeper sometimes needs his holidays. Tonight is one of those nights. Say, are all your friends of age?” he asked in a low voice after checking their mother wasn’t listening.
“Almost,” Juri said and raised his eyebrows, “Shintaro and Jesse are still sixteen. Why?”
Koki grinned and fished a small paper bag from another pocket of his coat, slipping it into Juri’s pocket instead.
“Don’t tell mum I gave you this, and make sure the underage ones won't get caught,” he whispered and winked at Juri who raised his eyebrows. He knew Koki would never let a minor drink anything but juice and butterbeer in his pub. Apparently he wasn’t that strict about it on his free time.
“Shame on you,” he hissed, “corrupting your innocent little brother and his friends just like that!”
“No, shame on you,” Koki chuckled back, “for being so easily corrupted. Have a nice evening and tell your friends greetings from me!”
“Thanks, bro. Have a nice evening too,” Juri said with a grin. He took a new handful of Floo Powder, threw it into the fire and stepped in when the fire was flaming green.
“Nightingale Crescent,” he said in a loud voice and closed his eyes. He had tried to keep his eyes open for a few times during the traveling but it had always resulted into such a horrible headache that he never wanted to try it again. There was nothing much to see anyway.
When he felt stable ground under his feet again he opened his eyes and smiled at the sight; the familiar living room and all his friends sitting around room, chatting and laughing.
“Juri!” Shintaro cried out and waved his hand from the sofa, “Welcome!”
Juri went to leave his coat and shoes by the hall and came back to the living room, placing the present onto the side table before sat onto the sofa between Hokuto and Taiga.
“Mum said it’s for your whole family,” he explained and pulled his legs onto the sofa too, wrapping his arms around his knees. “Did you guys have a nice Christmas?”
“You should have seen my parents’ faces when I opened the present from you,” Hokuto chuckled, “I don’t think they have ever seen a book that would cry in such a heartbreaking way when you try to put it away into the bookshelf.”
“I hope it wasn’t too much for their humor?” Juri asked with a grin, “The shopkeeper warned me its tears might wet the other books around it.”
“No, it’s okay. It stopped crying immediately when I took it down again.”
“Where do you keep it, then,” Jesse asked curiously.
“Once I took the book in my room it immediately crawled under the bed and stayed there. I think it likes the darkness, and maybe the dust, too. I think it eats dust balls. Sometimes it licks my ankles when I sit on the edge of my bed.”
“Say, Hokuto,” Shintaro said slowly, frowning, “Your room must be full of wizard-made things. How do you keep it all secret? I mean, your family friends must be all muggles. What if someone ever saw something?”
“There’s a spell for that,” Hokuto explained, “When a muggle-born kid gets their letter to Hogwarts, a staff member from the school will always come along. Do you think any grown-up muggle would ever believe the letter is real and not just a prank, unless they saw someone doing magic in front of their eyes?”
“Of course they wouldn't. Hasn’t that been the ministry’s aim for hundreds of years already?”
“Exactly. So there will always be an adult wizard or witch to explain things to the muggle-born kids’ parents, and also to help at arranging things. The first visit to the Diagon Alley and so on. You know, it’s not easy nowadays. In the past one simply sent their kids to Hogwarts and told all the relatives it was a boarding school on the other side of the country. Now everyone has mobile phones and net connection; it’s not easy to just vanish like that anymore. We had to tell our relatives and family friends that I’m going to a very strict and very conservative school that doesn’t allow the students having mobile phones or laptops.”
“What about your friends? What did you tell them when you left your muggle school?” Shintaro asked curiously and Hokuto shrugged.
“The same story. But, you know. When your schoolmate moves away and only comes back for summer holidays… Well, kids forget quickly. I don’t have many muggle friends anymore, to be honest. Kouchi is my only childhood friend left and he’s a half wizard too.”
“Oh. I’m sorry,” Shintaro said and looked guilty for having made such inconsiderate questions until Hokuto shook his head and smiled.
“Hey, it’s okay. No muggle friends isn't the same as not having friends at all! I do have friends, and they are the best people in the world.”
Everyone looked at each other, nodding quietly at Hokuto’s words, and Juri was quite sure they were all feeling the same: a bit embarrassed yet incredibly happy and thankful at the same time. They sat in a comfortable silence for a while, until Taiga reminded Hokuto he had been supposed to tell them how one kept a room full of a young wizard's school books and other magical things as a secret.
“Oh, right. There’s a spell for that,” Hokuto said, “The witch who came to visit that time cast it on my room. All muggle-borns are taught the same spell later at school so we can reinforce the spell every year. Of course it's illegal for an underage wizard to do magic at home, but the ministry always makes this one exception since it's for the safety of our people."
Everyone shared an understanding nod, and Jesse tilted his head.
"What kind of a spell is it?"
"I’d say it’s something between a Confundus spell and a very mild Muggle-Repelling Charm," Hokuto said and frowned, "It couldn’t be a strong one or my parents wouldn’t be able to step into my room either.”
“I think there’s a similar spell on my room,” Jesse said thoughtfully, “But I don’t know how to do it. I guess my mum has always done it for me. On the other hand, about half of our friends are wizarding people anyway so it's not that much of a problem.”
“Same for my home,” Kouchi said and nodded, “but I’d like to learn the spell too.”
“I’ll show you later,” Hokuto promised.
“Hello boys! Welcome,” Shintaro’s mother suddenly said from the door and everyone turned to answer and thank her for letting them stay overnight. She laughed, told them it was nothing, and asked them to help her with the lunch since there were so many of them.
“Here,” Juri said as he picked the present from the side table and gave it to Shintaro’s mother, “my mum sent it.”
“Thank you, dear,” she said with a warm smile, just like she always did. Juri knew Shintaro’s family liked him but for a moment he wondered if Morimoto-san would think of him so well if she knew how Juri and Shintaro’s relationship had changed just a little time ago.
“Juri and Hokuto, could you please get a full bucket of potatoes and peel them?”
“Sure,” Juri said with a grin. Peeling potatoes might not be the most glorious work in the world but Juri was happy to receive the task anyway - it was almost like a proof that he kind of belonged into the family. At the very least it meant he was a close friend enough to know where the potatoes were stored, having taken care of the chore many times with Shintaro.
“Shintaro, please show the others where the tableware is and set the table together.”
“Yes sir,” Shintaro said with a salute and opened the doors of the huge old cupboard that was full of plates, glasses and other tableware.
“Let’s see, there are the six of us, mum, dad, Ryu and Nacchan; that makes ten in total,” Shintaro counted and pointed at one pile of plates. “Those should be good.” Taiga nodded and took half of the plates, carried them into the table, and then came back to get the rest. Kouchi and Jesse brought the glasses and Shintaro picked the forks and knives from the basket where they were stored.
“Shintaro, dear. Don't you see the tablecloth is dirty? Please change it before spreading the plates.”
“One command at once!” Shintaro yelled back to the kitchen, but took the tablecloth to the laundry basket and went to get a new one from the linen cupboard.
Meanwhile, Juri led Hokuto outside to the cellar of the house.
“Do people still use these,” Hokuto asked, sincerely amazed, “I’ve never seen real food being stored in a cellar - outside of Hogwarts, of course.”
“Where do you store your food then?” Juri asked curiously, “It can’t all fit in your fridges, right?”
“It does though,” Hokuto chuckled, “But my mum likes storing things in the freezer too. We don’t need a cellar like this.”
“Weiiiiiird,” Juri teased and Hokuto made a face at him.
“Fuma said the same, after I had spent fifteen minutes explaining him what a fridge is and how it works.”
“How does it, then?” Juri asked and tilted his head, “I mean, how do you change electricity cold or warm depending of the device? Are different colored electricities different temperature too?”
For a few seconds Hokuto was quiet and stared at Juri. Then he started to laugh and shook his head, wiping tears of mirth from his eyes.
“No, Juri, it’s not electricity that’s warm or cold, or bright or colorful or anything! It’s just like…electricity is like fuel. Or like magic. It’s the thing that makes devices work. I’ve heard there’s actually quite a lot in common between magic and electricity. The both seem to deal with the magnetic fields. Or electricity does, and magic is close enough that it messes up all the magnetic fields and wins every time.”
“But how does it make your fridges cold and ovens hot, and lamps bright?” Juri pressed, still unable to understand how electricity worked even though he had been listening to Hokuto, Kouchi, and Jesse’s conversations for six years already.
“They all have different things inside. Wires, printed circuit boards, electric circuits and such. Fridges also have a system that circulates water inside them. There’s a motor system that makes the water cold enough that it keeps the fridge cold, too. I don’t know how it really works but…”
“Then what about ovens? Is there warm water?”
“Well, no, there’s a thermostat - well, in fact I think there’s a thermostat in a fridge too - anyway, there is a…thing inside the oven. Some kind of a heating element that gets hot when you switch the oven on. It stays hot until the whole oven is hot enough, and then switches off. And when the oven starts to cool down the thermostat reacts and switches the heater on again.”
“Right,” Juri said, even though he hardly understood half of what Hokuto was saying. “What about lamps? And televisions? And Jesse’s father’s navigator? More thermostats?”
“No, um… Lamps have a wire inside the glass. When the electricity warms the wire it starts to glow, and when the temperature is high enough it glows really brightly. Televisions have either plasma displays or liquid-crystal displays… I don’t know much of them so don't ask. And, uh. I think the navigator works on batteries.”
“Batteries are those small finger-sized pieces inside of Shoki’s alarm clock,” Juri said knowingly, “he said he was surprised they work even in Hogwarts but he always keeps cursing how fast the batteries discharge.”
Hokuto nodded and turned away, as if he was looking around the cellar again but Juri managed to see him covering a smile. Whatever, Juri thought. He was a wizard. He didn’t need to understand electricity or the devices that muggles had invented to compensate their lack of magic.
“Did Fuma get it when you explained him?” he asked, even though he didn’t really believe so. Fuma might be smart enough to be a Ravenclaw but he was a wizard-bred brat to the core, just like Juri himself.
“He didn’t,” Hokuto said and made a face, “So, uh. The potatoes?”
Juri opened a big carton sack that stood in the corner and filled up the bucket next to the sack. Then he tied the sack tightly again, and with Hokuto’s help he dragged the bucket up the stairs. Hokuto locked the door of the cellar and they carried the bucket into the house.
“There you are,” Shintaro’s mother said when they stood by the kitchen door again, “I was already wondering if you decided to peel them by hand down there!” She waved her wand and the potatoes flew from the bucket into the sink that was half full of water. Another wave of the wand and the water formed a whirlpool that cleaned the dirt from the potatoes. After rolling in their watery carousel for a minute the potatoes rose, one by one, from the water and a peeling knife hovering in the air peeled them. After that they landed neatly onto the table next to Morimoto-san where she cut the potatoes by hand and threw them into the big pot where carrots and onions were already boiling.
“Half an hour,” she said and gave an accepting nod to the already set table, “Thank you for helping me! You can go now; I’ll call you when the food is ready!”
The boys climbed upstairs to Shintaro’s room.
“Where are Ryutaro and Natsume?” Juri asked, having wondered about it for a while already. The doors to Shintaro’s siblings’ rooms were open and Juri had only seen empty rooms when passing by.
“They left with my dad after he had brought Hokuto and Jesse here. They’re at Diagon Alley, buying rockets and other things for the night,” Shintaro said and closed the door while his friends scattered themselves around the room, each one finding a comfortable place to sit on.
“Finally,” Kouchi sighed once the door was tightly shut, and his smile was wide and eager, “I’ve been dying to tell you!”
“Let me guess,” Taiga said and smirked, “You’ve been outside and played in the snow like a kid - or like a carefree animal.”
“Something like that,” Kouchi said and rocked back and front with Shintaro’s chair next to his table, “No, really, it was amazing! You can’t even imagine it; I could just climb up the upright tree trunks and sit on the top of the trees and look around. I never realized how fun it could be to be such a small animal! And imagine the feeling when you can just run along the branches and jump and land onto the branch of the next tree and the next, and the next one after that…… it’s the best feeling in the world!”
“You only say that because you haven’t seen how the ground looks like when you’re higher than any tree top or house in the whole country,” Taiga said from the edge of the bed where he was sitting, “I’ve always wanted to be able to fly and now that I finally can…”
Taiga didn’t seem to have words to the feeling and Juri understood why, even though he hadn’t had time to try his newest spell again after the first time in the train.
“I still don’t get it though,” he said and crossed his arms on his chest and pouting, “Why is Shintaro a wolf, when I’m a sheep dog?” Everyone laughed, and Juri gave himself a mental pat on the back. He liked being able to make his friends laugh.
“Sheep dogs are cute,” Hokuto offered and Juri made a face at him.
“But wolves are cooler,” he complained but grinned right after that, “Even though Shintaro must be the most domesticated wolf to ever have existed.”
“The cleverest one you meant to say,” Shintaro retorted and they laughed again. All but one did.
Juri suddenly noticed the strain in Jesse’s smile, and felt a bit guilty for whining about his Animagus form, even if it had been only a joke. He really liked his Border Collie, and at least he knew the spell already.
To make up for his tactlessness Juri did his best to change the topic of the conversation as quickly as possible, and when Shintaro’s mother called them for the lunch, Juri purposefully waited until everyone else was in the stairs. Jesse was the last in the room with Juri, and Juri grabbed his best friend’s arm right before he managed to step to the stairs.
“You will learn it,” he said quietly and tightened his grip for a moment, hoping he could somehow make Jesse feel better.
“Will I though?” Jesse asked in a quiet voice, “What if I can’t? I wonder if it’s because I’m just half a wizard.”
“Come on,” Juri said and rolled his eyes, “Look at Hokuto! His parents are like the mugglest muggles to ever have muggled and he can do it!”
“But he’s a Ravenclaw,” Jesse objected, “He’s supposed to learn things quickly.”
“Shintaro is a Hufflepuff and he learned quickly,” Juri chuckled and finally managed to make Jesse smile a little bit.
“Of course he would; his family is full of the wizardest wizards… how was it?”
“Close enough,” Juri said and grinned. “It’ll be all right. I know it will.”
“Hey you two, come on! We’re hungry,” Kouchi called them from the other end of the stairs and Juri and Jesse rushed downstairs.
The meat soup made by Shintaro’s mother was probably the best that Juri had ever tasted. His own mother was a great cook too but soups were not her specialty. Juri and the others ate their stomachs full, mostly talking about school related things so that also Shintaro’s brother and sister could take part into the conversation.
“I’ll need to get ‘Exceeds Expectations’ in at least Arithmancy and Ancient Runes,” Ryutaro sighed and shook his head, “I really don’t know how I’m going to make that happen.”
“Look who’s talking,” Taiga snorted, “The teacher loves you, in case you haven’t noticed, and not without a reason. You’re the best in our Arithmancy class.”
“It’s easy for you to say, not everyone is as my-paced as you are,” Ryutaro defended himself, “I actually have to work for my good grades!”
“Then how do you explain being one of the best in Ancient Runes too?” Hokuto asked with a sly grin and Ryutaro made a face at them.
“Fine, fine. I know I don’t suck at those subjects okay? It’s just that--”
“It’s just that you stress too much,” Shintaro and Natsume said at the same time. Ryutaro glared at his younger siblings, even though he probably hadn’t had much faith in their moral support anyway. Juri chuckled at Ryutaro’s grimace - he knew there was no trusting in his brothers in such a situation either. In a pinch all five Tanaka brothers would be ready to defend each other from any dangers without hesitation, but when it came to everyday things like school they never forgot to tease each other about everything that could possibly be turned into a joke.
Sometimes people were surprised when they saw Juri and his friends. Many thought it would have been more normal, in some way, if Juri had been close friends with Ryutaro who was the same age with him, instead of Ryutaro’s little brother. Juri had sometime wondered about it himself as well but in the end the answer was simple enough that it didn’t really require answering.
It had nothing to do with their ages, really. He liked both brothers well enough, but something had always worked better between Juri and Shintaro than Juri and Ryutaro. Maybe Shintaro’s humor and interests matched with Juri’s better? Juri couldn’t quite explain it. Anyway, at school Ryutaro had his own friends and Shintaro had his own, and Juri belonged to the latter group.
“Why do you need such good grades from them,” Natsume asked, “Do you want to read books written in Runes?”
“I’ve been thinking about trying to get a place in Gringotts after school,” Ryutaro said and frowned, “but I’ll have to find out how to apply for the job.”
“Gringotts,” Natsume asked confusedly, “Aren’t there goblins to take care of everything?”
“Not everything,” her older brother explained, “There are many things that a wizard can do, too. Curse-breaking, and feeding the dragons that guard people’s vaults, and such things.”
“Oh,” Natsume said and leaned against her palm, thinking about it. “I’m not sure I would like it though. I don’t know what I’d like to do after I leave school.”
“You will find out,” her mother said gently and Natsume sighed.
“I guess. What will you guys do after leaving school? You’re going to leave next spring aren’t you?”
“I have a place as an apprentice in the Quality Quidditch Supplies in Diagon Alley,” Juri said and everyone nodded knowingly. Juri had been talking about it for a while already.
“I'll become a Healer. I’m trying to get into Saint Mungo,” Hokuto said and everyone nodded again.
“Well, I still have another year Hogwarts,” Jesse started, “but I’ve been thinking about Muggle Relations Department in the Ministry.” The information was neither new nor surprising to Juri; he had known for a long time that Jesse was interested in such a thing. However, some of the others looked surprised.
“Muggle Relations Department? What are you going to do there?” Hokuto asked and tilted his head, “Something like Juri’s brother does?”
“Well, maybe? I’m not interested in becoming Obliviator though. And I don’t want to deal with stupid jokes that some ignorant wizards like to arrange for muggles. I was thinking about improving the relationships between the wizard and muggle worlds, things like that.”
“How will that work?” Shintaro asked thoughtfully, “I mean, since there are all those International Statutes of Wizarding Secrecy?”
“I don’t know,” Jesse said truthfully, “But I’d like to help wizards to understand better the muggles' way of thinking, at least.”
“Sounds good,” Kouchi said with a laugh, “and quite a lot more ambitious than my dreams.”
“What do you want to do, then,” Natsume asked, openly interested in everyone's plans.
“Ministry work for me too, I guess. I’d like to get a job at the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes but I’ve heard it’s difficult to get a post there. They have to deal with serious things sometimes. Maybe I’ll just become a dishwasher in the Leaky Cauldron, or maybe your brother would hire me, Juri?”
“Don’t say such stupid things,” Juri chuckled, “At least your grades won’t be a hindrance to your plans. You’ll get better work than dishwashing at Koki’s cramped pub.”
“What about you Taiga,” Natsume asked. Her eagerness was cute and Juri could have sworn he wasn’t just imagining when he thought he saw something more than pure academic interest in her eyes when she looked at Taiga.
“Hit Wizard, in the Magical Law Enforcement Squad,” Taiga answered without hesitating and in a second Juri knew his premonition had been right, with how the look in Natsume’s eyes immediately got even more adoring.
“Isn’t it terribly difficult to get in?” she asked and Taiga shrugged.
“I will get in. I have excellent grades and I already checked I fulfill all the other requirements as well.”
The boy’s bluntness and unwavering confidence obviously made an impression into the fourteen-year-old girl and Juri could hardly cover his amused smile. His eyes met with Shintaro’s and from the way Shintaro rolled his eyes Juri concluded he wasn’t the only one who had noticed Natsume’s crush to their friend.
“Oi, little sister,” Shintaro complained, “why aren’t you asking me what I want to do after school?”
“Oh, but you won’t be leaving the school yet are you? Besides, why would I want to choose the same occupation as you do?” she asked and made a face, obviously annoyed that her older brother had distracted the conversation away from Taiga.
“I want to become a teacher,” Shintaro announced, ignoring his sister, and everyone, even his parents, raised their eyebrows in surprise. That was new information more than anything else.
“Care of Magical Creatures?” Juri suggested, everyone knew it was Shintaro’s favorite subject.
“I had been thinking about that, too, but lately I’ve become interested in Transfigurations, and I think I am good enough that I could become a teacher one day.”
“Why not?” Jesse said and was the first of the people around the table who smiled widely and nodded, “You’re right. I’ve never thought about it but you are good at Transfigurations. Remember that toad episode? That was really impressing!”
“A toad episode?” Shintaro’s father took part into the conversation for the first time, “What toad episode?”
Shintaro threw a murderous glance at Jesse who grinned sheepishly, and then smiled at his father widely enough that everyone could see the fakeness of the expression.
“It’s nothing, really. I was just… practicing. Animal Transfigurations, that’s all.”
“Toads,” Ryutaro said slowly before the understanding spread on his face and he looked up at his little brother. “Shintaro. Was it you who changed every owl at the school Owlery into toads?”
“Shintaro?” his mother asked, not sounding necessarily angry, but in a tone that demanded for an answer and accepted no objections.
“Well, I…” Shintaro stammered, “Uh, it was an accident? I only meant to practice with our family owl, and I was going to change it back immediately. It… didn’t work. Or it kind of did. The spell somehow got spread to the whole Owlery. But it was nothing serious! No owls were hurt, even when they started to slip down from their perches; and the Transfiguration teacher had no problem at changing them all back.”
“Did you apologize properly,” his mother asked nervously and Shintaro rolled his eyes.
“Of course I did, I…”
“Son,” his father said in a serious tone, “Are you saying you cast a Transfiguration spell on a whole tower of owls and each one’s Transfiguration was complete? When did you do that?”
“Uh, last winter, before Easter Holidays,” Shintaro said hesitantly, and Juri understood his feeling. Both the tone of Shintaro’s father’s voice and the look on his face were unreadable. He also saw Jesse’s expression and guessed Jesse was already regretting saying anything at all. Jesse hated causing harm to his friends, and a disciplinary family hearing in the lunch table was definitely something that counted as harm.
“That’s great!” Shintaro’s father suddenly said and Shintaro’s eyes widened in surprise. “Such a demanding spell, and you were still merely a fifth-grader! I’m proud of you! You really might have what it demands to become a teacher!”
His pleased reaction was a happy surprise to everyone, most of all to Shintaro who basked in the warmth of his father’s praises and smiled in a way that made Juri want to smile too. He was happy and proud for his boyfriend, even though he couldn’t say it in public just like that. He made a mental note so he would remember to say it to Shintaro later. He was determined to catch a small moment with just the two of them alone before the night anyway.
“It was very interesting to hear about your plans,” Shintaro’s father said and smiled at each one of them, “Treasure your dreams, and eventually you will definitely reach them.”
After the lunch the boys pulled on their shoes, jackets, beanies, and mittens and rushed out into the snowy whiteness. They had been a bit worried, afraid of Shintaro’s siblings wanting to join them but the fear was unnecessary. As soon as the lunch table had been cleaned, Natsume went to her room to change her clothes, came back to announce she had promised to meet her friend in afternoon, and vanished into the green Floo Powder flames. Ryutaro simply preferred staying inside so the six boys ran out of the house without other people, just like they had wished.
- - -
Chapter 6
Chapter: 5/9
Rating: G
1 2 3 4
- - -
November passed quickly and turned to December, the days gradually getting colder until one day the rain turned into slushy snow. It was far from the perfect first snow straight from fairy tales but even then the sudden whiteness cheered up the people living in the castle. Before they noticed, weeks passed and finally came the day when the Hogwarts Express started its engine at the Hogsmead station and sped towards London, taking most of the students home to spend a well-earned Christmas holiday.
“Finally,” Hokuto cheered when they had all settled comfortably down in their compartment, “One more lesson and I’d have become crazy!”
“Says the one who’s supposed to be the cleverest of us,” Kouchi chuckled in amusement and Hokuto shrugged.
“The fact that I am clever doesn’t mean I should be especially fond of studying.”
“And yet you get good grades, lucky bastard,” Shintaro murmured. It was a well-known fact that Shintaro struggled in most of the theoretic subjects. Juri supposed the boy was probably a bit jealous to Hokuto, too. After all Shintaro was the one of them who had been born in a wizard family while Hokuto had never even seen a post-owl before coming to Hogwarts.
“It’s okay,” Kouchi smoothed over the matter and they changed to nicer topics. When the witch with the tea trolley stopped by their compartment they all bought enough candies for at least three two-way train trips.
“How could we teach you two the spell,” Taiga wondered aloud when they were munching their sweets. Jesse glanced up from the Chocolate Frog cards he was arranging into the proper order and Juri nodded, frowning a bit. He felt like he was so close to understanding how the spell actually worked. There was just something he couldn’t quite catch.
He already knew all the basic techniques of different transfigurations with a wand. He knew how to change things into animals. He even knew how to change a person into an animal, but it wasn’t the same as the Animagus spell.
“How do you do it?” he asked, even though they had been discussing the same thing over and over again for the whole year. “No, how did you do it the first time?
“It was an accident,” Kouchi said with a shrug, “I thought about changing and that was it. I really don’t know.”
“Maybe you’re just good at it,” Taiga suggested at Kouchi, leaning back and crossing his arms on his chest. “I guess I just needed to try many times enough. I did nothing different to my former attempts when I first changed. But you, you just did it,” he said and pointed at Shintaro.
“I knew I could do it,” Shintaro said thoughtfully, frowning as he reminisced the events of that evening in his head. “In fact, until that I had doubted if I would ever learn. It felt bad but I didn’t think I could help it.”
“But?” Juri asked curiously. Shintaro had never told them this part before.
“I got angry at myself,” Shintaro said with a small smile, “and embarrassed. I didn’t want to be worse than you guys. I suck at most things at school but that’s the one thing I really wanted to learn. I decided I would learn, without giving up, no matter what. And then, I just… realized I could do it.”
Juri listened to Shintaro’s honest words in a silent awe. He had supposed there had been something like that going on in Shintaro’s mind but he hadn’t really known for sure. He had known Shintaro many years enough that he usually saw when something was bothering the other. The problem was he never knew how to ask about those things.
He suddenly realized he was feeling thankful to Shintaro, for telling them about his insecurities like that. It made him feel slightly better, to know that someone thought the same things as he did. Juri had been reluctant to admit it even to himself but the truth was he was just as afraid of not learning the spell as Shintaro had been.
“What about you, Hokuto,” Jesse asked curiously and Hokuto glanced at Shintaro when he started.
“Oh, I guess I forgot to explain,” he said, picked his wand from the table, and raised it in the air. “Expecto Patronum!”
Juri’s jaw dropped when he looked at the misty white cloud that seemed to come out from the end of Hokuto’s wand and took the shape of a large yet slender wildcat.
“Wow,” he whispered when they all followed how the cat played in the air around them for a moment before landing onto the luggage rack above Hokuto’s head. It wrapped into a tight roll and slept there until slowly fading away.
“I never knew you were so good at the Patronus Charm!” Jesse said, staring at the cat until there was nothing to look at anymore.
“I've been practicing a lot,” Hokuto said with a shrug and smiled sheepishly. “I do it sometimes. I love the feeling of finally learning how to do some very tricky spell. Anyway, one night I just wanted to see how long time I could make my Patronus stay visible. While I looked at it playing around, I got this small idea.”
“Oh,” Kouchi said, sudden understanding lighting his face, “One’s Patronus--”
“Usually reflects what their animagus form would be,” Hokuto finished his sentence with a nod. “I remembered it that night. I already knew what my Patronus looks like so I kind of had something I could base my transfiguration on. The cat obviously isn’t a lynx but it seems to have been close enough.”
The others nodded, quietly digesting the new piece of information. Juri wondered if he should work harder for his Patronus Charm in order to actually make it corporeal if nothing else worked, but he wasn’t sure if it would help at all. Who knew if his Patronus would be one of those that had nothing to do with his Animagus form?
“Say, Juri,” Taiga said thoughtfully, “When you did the whiskers trick--”
“It’s not the right charm,” Juri interrupted, “I read the Animagus Charm is either-or. One either changes or not, there’s no such a thing as in-between.”
“Yes, I know,” Taiga pressed, “but how did you come up with the whiskers? And the hair color? Why did you choose those?”
“I didn’t,” Juri said and tried his best to remember the first time he had managed to grow the whiskers. “They just appeared from somewhere.”
“Say, have you tried to think about them when changing?”
“Not really. To be honest, I’ve been avoiding doing that since it's obviously a wrong charm.”
“Try!” Taiga encouraged, “There's nothing to lose, is there?”
Juri sighed, not really believing it could help him much. He closed his eyes and did his best at concentrating on the thin whiskers and the black-and-white color that his hair would probably change into.
The familiar tickling feeling was there again, and Juri mentally rolled his eyes. It was no use trying. Though he had to admit it was rather funny how the whiskers sensed things. He actually felt the tiny puffs of air from both Shintaro and Kouchi’s breaths. He knew when either one of them moved. The amazing smell of Kouchi’s Pumpkin Pasties on the table crawled into his nose and made him lick his lips.
“It worked,” Shintaro whispered and Juri looked up towards the boy’s voice. “It worked!”
Juri blinked once, twice, and once more. He looked at his paws, shook his head so that the semi-erect ears flapped against his head, jumped down from his seat, and eagerly waved his tail.
It was weird. He didn’t know any other way to describe the feeling. At the same time, he found it extremely exciting. In fact, everything in the world felt good and exciting. He had learned the spell. His best friends were around him. Shintaro was smiling at him. And the best of all was the sweet smell of the Pumpkin Pasties.
“You did it!” Shintaro repeated and slipped down from his seat. He kneeled in front of Juri, sinked his fingers into Juri’s black-and-white fur and eagerly scratched the behinds of his both ears. The feeling was absolutely heavenly and Juri couldn’t help a pleased noise, something between a whine and a growl. He tilted his head to guide the scratching fingers just on the right places and swiftly waved his tail when Shintaro finally happened to find the tickly spots.
“I was right,” Taiga said smugly and leaned in to take a closer look, “not bad!”
“Sit, Juri,” Shintaro tried and even though Juri realized it was stupid, for some reason he didn’t mind and gladly sat down. It proved to be definitely worth it, with the way Shintaro’s eyes were shining when he leaned in to hug him. “Good boy,” Shintaro praised and Juri let out a small bark, just to try his voice.
“Careful,” Kouchi laughed and glanced at the door, “we don’t want anyone to hear you!”
“It’s okay,” Hokuto chuckled and he too crouched onto the floor to pet Juri’s fur, “we’re in the last car. Why would anyone--”
“Finally!” Kento happily exclaimed as he slammed the sliding door of the compartment aside.
“We’ve searched through the whole train,” Fuma added from behind him.
The five boys and the dog froze in shock. The guilty atmosphere was probably visible since Kento glanced around curiously, hesitating to step across the doorstep.
“Uh, did we disturb something?” he asked.
“No, no, you didn’t!” Hokuto rushed to say and sat back on his seat again.
“Good,” Fuma said bluntly and stepped in, taking a place next to Kouchi and raising his eyebrows. “Where’s Juri, by the way? And whose dog is that?”
Juri let out a panicked whine but Shintaro scratched him more vigorously, forcing up his most innocent (and definitely the fakest) smile.
“We found this little furball wandering by the corridor. He probably jumped into the train at Hogsmead. And Juri went to the toilet just a second ago.”
Kouchi, Taiga, and Hokuto let out a collective sigh.
“Maybe you should take the dog to the conductor. I mean, someone might be missing their dog already. We can take him when we go back to our car,” Fuma offered and the five boys gasped a sudden “no,” all at the same time.
“I… I’ll take care of him,” Shintaro stammered, “I’ll ask my dad to Apparate to Hogsmead with the dog when we arrive at London.”
“Why not just leave him to the people at the King’s Cross station and they’d do the same thing?” Kento suggested and Hokuto rolled his eyes.
“Oh, come on. If the kid wants to play it’s his pet just let him? It’s not like his parents would allow him to keep it anyway. They already have one.”
Kento shrugged and glanced out from the door of the compartment, probably hoping to see Juri coming back. Juri chuckled, but the noise came out as a mere sniff.
“He seems to be very well trained,” Fuma said and crouched next to Juri just like Hokuto had done a moment ago, “I mean, such young Border Collies are really energetic. If you don’t train them properly, they might come up with all kinds of nasty pranks; they’re very intelligent, you know. When you have one of these you must always offer them something interesting to do or they’ll find their own ways to entertain themselves. The owner might find all their shoes full of holes and hidden around the house, for example.”
“How do you know all that,” Kouchi asked and Fuma grinned at him.
“My uncle’s wife is a muggle who owns a dog breeding farm. She has a dozen of these,” he explained and scratched Juri’s sides.
Kento and Fuma stayed for a while but then the train started to slow down and they had to get up. Their luggage was still in the other end of the train.
“I just wanted to wish Juri nice holidays and remind him about the Astronomy homework he promised to let me copy from him. He was supposed to give me his notes in the train,” Kento said with a frustrated frown.
“We’ll pass on the message,” Hokuto promised and waved his hand at the two boys when they stepped out of the door. “Have nice holidays!”
“You too,” Fuma answered with a warm smile before they had to rush away. Juri waited for another minute, until Kouchi peeked out of the door and nodded.
“The road is clear. Quickly, now. The train will stop in any moment and the corridor will be full of people again.”
Juri changed back and flopped down on the floor, leaning his back against the edge of the seat next to him.
“That. Was. So. Close,” he sighed and shook his head. Only now that the dog’s blissful lack of worries wasn’t disturbing his thoughts anymore he realized how close he had been to revealing their secret.
“I don’t think they suspected anything,” Hokuto said cheerfully and got up, stretching his arms and throwing his last Bertie Bott’s Every Flavour Beans into his mouth at the same time. (“Ew. Dust, marshmallow, and probably cabbage - what a mixture!”)
In a few more minutes they saw the lights of the station behind the window. Once they had gathered their things they started to move towards the door. They got out of the train and Shintaro nervously looked across the mass of people.
“What is it, Shin,” Juri asked and Shintaro made a face.
“I’d rather not meet Kento and Fuma again and have to explain them where I lost the dog.”
“Then you’d just have to say you changed your mind,” Hokuto said with a shrug and waved his hand. “I’ll go now. My parents are probably by the parking lot - they always wait there. Have a nice Christmas, everyone! See you in the New Year's eve!”
“I’ll send you all an owl before that. Happy Holidays!” Shintaro called after him.
At the same time Taiga and Kouchi spotted their parents in the crowd and wished Juri, Shintaro, and Jesse a nice Christmas.
“Are you all right? You look rather pale,” Kouchi asked Jesse whose attempt to smile failed pitifully.
“Too many Chocolate Frogs,” Jesse said, “I’d better run, too, before my father tries to walk through every platform sign on the muggle side. He always forgets the number… Happy Holidays, everyone! See you!”
Juri hardly had time to answer to the greeting before Jesse vanished into the crowd. Taiga and Kouchi took their leave as well, and Juri found himself standing by the platform alone with Shintaro.
“So,” Juri said and looked up into Shintaro’s eyes, “I guess we should go too. Mum sent me an owl yesterday; she said she’ll Apparate here and get me and Subaru home once she’s finished cooking our dinner, and it’s almost the time.”
“Yeah, same here. I’ll need to find Ryu and Natsume,” Shintaro said. He glanced around to make sure no-one was paying attention to them and quickly reached to brush the back of Juri's hand with his fingertips.
“See you,” Shintaro said, and his smile made Juri wonder if he’d ever get used to the fluttering feeling in his chest that the smile caused every time. On the other hand he liked the feeling and didn’t really want to get used to it at all. “Send me an owl once you’re safely back home.”
“I will,” Juri promised and smiled as well. “Have a nice Christmas.”
-
After a bit more than a week Juri smiled when he opened his window and let the familiar grey owl in. The owl was carrying a bunch of envelopes, and waited patiently when Juri looked through them. There was one thicker envelope for him and five smaller envelopes, one of which was for him and the four others for Jesse, Hokuto, Taiga, and Kouchi. Juri carefully opened the threads that had been holding his letters, making sure the others were still tied tightly on the owl’s legs, and then let the big bird free again.
He left the window open to let in some fresh air and sat on his bed to open the envelopes. Even before taking the parchment out of the bigger envelope Juri knew it was Shintaro’s usual daily message. He had been sending such letters to Juri almost every day since the day they had separated at King’s Cross. The text itself was nothing very special - Shintaro was just telling him about the small events of his everyday life on the Christmas holiday - and yet they were more than special. Juri couldn’t quite explain it but it felt good to know that Shintaro was thinking about him even when they were too busy to meet in person despite living in the same town.
The other, identical to the other boys’ envelopes (Shintaro had obviously written only one letter and multiplied it with a spell), held in a short note:
Hi everyone!
Mum sent greetings and said you’re all very welcome to come to our house tomorrow around noon and stay overnight or as long as you wish.
Juri, Kouchi, and Taiga, just use Floo Powder; you know the address. Mum just cleaned the fireplace this morning. Hokuto, dad will pick you up at 11:55 from your back yard. I suppose you should inform your parents beforehand so they won’t be too surprised. Jesse, you have a fireplace in your home don’t you? Is it connected into the Floo Network? If not, answer me (the owl will wait) and dad will pick up you too.
See you tomorrow everyone!
Shintaro
Juri grinned at the thought of Shintaro’s father Apparating to the back yard of Hokuto’s home and knocking on the windows of their living room.
He had met Hokuto’s parents a few times; they were very nice people, but very, very muggle. They had nothing against the magical world and they were always really friendly but for some reason, even after their son having gone to Hogwarts for six and a half years already, their reactions to magic were still exactly the same as they had probably been when they had entered the Platform Nine and Three Quarters for the first time: wordlessly confused.
Juri knew Hokuto's parents had been a bit concerned when Hokuto had announced his future occupation was going to be one of the wizarding world but after Hokuto had shown them some very informative numbers about how much an average Healer in the Saint Mungo’s Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries was paid per hour, they had immediately stopped worrying. They only had a very vague understanding of how to convert Galleons to pounds but a big number was a big number even when one didn’t know how big it exactly was.
Juri folded the letters away and started to gather a pile of things he’d need during the next couple of days.
-
On the next morning Juri dragged his bag downstairs and sat by the kitchen table where his mother had already set the breakfast dishes.
“Morning,” he greeted his little brother who was sitting on the other side of the table and nodded, his mouth too full of bread to allow him to answer verbally.
“Juri, dear, here’s a small present for the Morimotos,” their mother said and placed a bright-colored box on the corner of the table, “Please try to remember to take it along when you go.”
“I will, mum,” Juri said, spreading butter on his toast and trying to wordlessly make the cheese slicer do its work without his physical help. The cheese slicer shivered on the table but refused to move and Juri frowned at its unusual disobedience.
“Don’t bother,” Subaru sighed, his voice muffled with bread, “Sora dropped it onto the floor and I think it’s sulking. It didn’t work for me either.”
The tiny Chihuahua pricked up her ears when she heard her name and Juri shook his head, throwing a very scolding look towards her.
“You were walking on the tables again, miss?”
“I'm afraid you’ll just have to slice your cheese in the traditional way,” Subaru chuckled and Juri rolled his eyes because really, what could have been more traditional than making the cheese slicer work on its own with magic? His grandfather prided himself with having never done anything without magic; he always said only children and muggles used their cheese slicers and toothbrushes by hand.
“Morning,” Hyoga, the next in their line of brothers, murmured when he shuffled into the kitchen and slumped on his usual chair, dozing off by the table before reaching his hand towards the big kettle of black coffee that their mother had just brought to the table.
“Stayed late at work last night?” Subaru asked and Hyoga nodded drowsily, even though the smell of coffee seemed to bring him slightly closer to awakeness.
“There were dozens of wizards who have bought muggle fireworks and cast all kinds of spells on them. Not good. Some wizards were reselling the modified rockets in the muggle market. Even worse. The misused rockets couldn’t handle the magic, and some spells were simply badly cast. Either way, our team had ten places to visit once the rockets started to explode in the muggles’ storerooms. Most of the muggles were easy to Obliviate but a few were really pig-headed and refused to believe they had bought flawed rockets even after we had cast the Memory Modifying Charm on them trice.”
“Why don’t you just cast a very strong charm at once?” Subaru asked and Hyoga let out a short joyless laugh.
“Have you ever seen a person getting Obliviated? Some people react very strongly even to the lightest Charms and walk in haze for days after that. We can never know beforehand who can only take the lighter spell, and who are the though individuals that need multiple Memory Charms on them, so we always start lightly, just in case.”
Subaru nodded slowly and looked down at his cup of tea, and from the look on his face Juri knew he was thinking about his own future. Subaru still didn’t know what he wanted to do after leaving school. For Juri himself it had been clear for a long time already. He had already talked about the future apprenticeship contract with the owner of Quality Quidditch Supplies in Diagon Alley.
From the very first time he had flown on a broomstick he had known he wanted his future career have something to do with flying, and during his first years in Hogwarts he had dreamed of becoming a professional Quidditch player. Eventually he had realized the game was his favorite hobby but not something he'd want to do for living. For a while he had considered applying for a job in some of the biggest broom factories in Britain but in the end he had decided he wanted to do something with a more personal feeling. A small broom and Quidditch supply shop was the best place for the kind of detailed handcraft job Juri wanted to do.
The two youngest brothers were just finishing their breakfast when they heard a small knocking noise. Their mother opened the kitchen window, let a brown owl in, and thanked him when taking the letter.
“Kazu’s owl!” Subaru cried out and ran to pet the bird and give him some water from their family owl’s cup.
Their mother smiled when reading the message, “He says he’ll come home this evening and bring along the whole family.” She scribbled a short answer, gave the letter to the owl and sent him out to the bright morning air. Subaru was thrilled about the news and Juri smiled too, even though he wouldn’t be able to meet his oldest brother this time. It would have been nice to be at home of course but Juri didn’t feel very bad about having other plans. Kazunaru’s children were several years younger than Juri; it would take a few more years before his relationship with them would start to resemble one of an uncle and his nephews instead of Juri being an occasional baby sitter for the two- and four-year-old toddlers.
The clock was getting closer to eleven and Juri took his dishes to the kitchen counter.
“The present on the table,” his mother reminded, and Juri picked the packet along when going to get his shoes, jacket, beanie, and mittens from the hall. He would need them in the evening even though his way of traveling didn’t require warm clothing.
After checking once more he had everything he needed Juri stepped in front of the fireplace and scooped a handful of Floo Powder from the small bucket that stood on the floor next to the fireplace. He was just about to throw the powder into the fire when the flames flashed bright green and one more brother stepped out from the fire. Juri yelped in surprise and the powder slipped from his fingers, spreading onto the floor.
“Oops, sorry,” Koki said and took his wand from the pocket of his long winter coat. With a one wave of Koki's wand the powder flew back into the bucket. “You going somewhere? On the New Year’s eve!”
“Shintaro invited us to celebrate New Year together in their place,” Juri explained and made a face, “Geez, give one a warning before appearing just like that!”
“Alright, next time I’ll send an owl to tell you I’m going to arrive at ten forty-seven and-” Koki glanced at his watch, “-fifteen seconds.”
“Please do,” Juri chuckled and tilted his head. “Is it okay for you to leave the bar tonight? Don’t you have customers there?”
Koki laughed and assured his small pub in Hogsmead was in good hands.
“Even a barkeeper sometimes needs his holidays. Tonight is one of those nights. Say, are all your friends of age?” he asked in a low voice after checking their mother wasn’t listening.
“Almost,” Juri said and raised his eyebrows, “Shintaro and Jesse are still sixteen. Why?”
Koki grinned and fished a small paper bag from another pocket of his coat, slipping it into Juri’s pocket instead.
“Don’t tell mum I gave you this, and make sure the underage ones won't get caught,” he whispered and winked at Juri who raised his eyebrows. He knew Koki would never let a minor drink anything but juice and butterbeer in his pub. Apparently he wasn’t that strict about it on his free time.
“Shame on you,” he hissed, “corrupting your innocent little brother and his friends just like that!”
“No, shame on you,” Koki chuckled back, “for being so easily corrupted. Have a nice evening and tell your friends greetings from me!”
“Thanks, bro. Have a nice evening too,” Juri said with a grin. He took a new handful of Floo Powder, threw it into the fire and stepped in when the fire was flaming green.
“Nightingale Crescent,” he said in a loud voice and closed his eyes. He had tried to keep his eyes open for a few times during the traveling but it had always resulted into such a horrible headache that he never wanted to try it again. There was nothing much to see anyway.
When he felt stable ground under his feet again he opened his eyes and smiled at the sight; the familiar living room and all his friends sitting around room, chatting and laughing.
“Juri!” Shintaro cried out and waved his hand from the sofa, “Welcome!”
Juri went to leave his coat and shoes by the hall and came back to the living room, placing the present onto the side table before sat onto the sofa between Hokuto and Taiga.
“Mum said it’s for your whole family,” he explained and pulled his legs onto the sofa too, wrapping his arms around his knees. “Did you guys have a nice Christmas?”
“You should have seen my parents’ faces when I opened the present from you,” Hokuto chuckled, “I don’t think they have ever seen a book that would cry in such a heartbreaking way when you try to put it away into the bookshelf.”
“I hope it wasn’t too much for their humor?” Juri asked with a grin, “The shopkeeper warned me its tears might wet the other books around it.”
“No, it’s okay. It stopped crying immediately when I took it down again.”
“Where do you keep it, then,” Jesse asked curiously.
“Once I took the book in my room it immediately crawled under the bed and stayed there. I think it likes the darkness, and maybe the dust, too. I think it eats dust balls. Sometimes it licks my ankles when I sit on the edge of my bed.”
“Say, Hokuto,” Shintaro said slowly, frowning, “Your room must be full of wizard-made things. How do you keep it all secret? I mean, your family friends must be all muggles. What if someone ever saw something?”
“There’s a spell for that,” Hokuto explained, “When a muggle-born kid gets their letter to Hogwarts, a staff member from the school will always come along. Do you think any grown-up muggle would ever believe the letter is real and not just a prank, unless they saw someone doing magic in front of their eyes?”
“Of course they wouldn't. Hasn’t that been the ministry’s aim for hundreds of years already?”
“Exactly. So there will always be an adult wizard or witch to explain things to the muggle-born kids’ parents, and also to help at arranging things. The first visit to the Diagon Alley and so on. You know, it’s not easy nowadays. In the past one simply sent their kids to Hogwarts and told all the relatives it was a boarding school on the other side of the country. Now everyone has mobile phones and net connection; it’s not easy to just vanish like that anymore. We had to tell our relatives and family friends that I’m going to a very strict and very conservative school that doesn’t allow the students having mobile phones or laptops.”
“What about your friends? What did you tell them when you left your muggle school?” Shintaro asked curiously and Hokuto shrugged.
“The same story. But, you know. When your schoolmate moves away and only comes back for summer holidays… Well, kids forget quickly. I don’t have many muggle friends anymore, to be honest. Kouchi is my only childhood friend left and he’s a half wizard too.”
“Oh. I’m sorry,” Shintaro said and looked guilty for having made such inconsiderate questions until Hokuto shook his head and smiled.
“Hey, it’s okay. No muggle friends isn't the same as not having friends at all! I do have friends, and they are the best people in the world.”
Everyone looked at each other, nodding quietly at Hokuto’s words, and Juri was quite sure they were all feeling the same: a bit embarrassed yet incredibly happy and thankful at the same time. They sat in a comfortable silence for a while, until Taiga reminded Hokuto he had been supposed to tell them how one kept a room full of a young wizard's school books and other magical things as a secret.
“Oh, right. There’s a spell for that,” Hokuto said, “The witch who came to visit that time cast it on my room. All muggle-borns are taught the same spell later at school so we can reinforce the spell every year. Of course it's illegal for an underage wizard to do magic at home, but the ministry always makes this one exception since it's for the safety of our people."
Everyone shared an understanding nod, and Jesse tilted his head.
"What kind of a spell is it?"
"I’d say it’s something between a Confundus spell and a very mild Muggle-Repelling Charm," Hokuto said and frowned, "It couldn’t be a strong one or my parents wouldn’t be able to step into my room either.”
“I think there’s a similar spell on my room,” Jesse said thoughtfully, “But I don’t know how to do it. I guess my mum has always done it for me. On the other hand, about half of our friends are wizarding people anyway so it's not that much of a problem.”
“Same for my home,” Kouchi said and nodded, “but I’d like to learn the spell too.”
“I’ll show you later,” Hokuto promised.
“Hello boys! Welcome,” Shintaro’s mother suddenly said from the door and everyone turned to answer and thank her for letting them stay overnight. She laughed, told them it was nothing, and asked them to help her with the lunch since there were so many of them.
“Here,” Juri said as he picked the present from the side table and gave it to Shintaro’s mother, “my mum sent it.”
“Thank you, dear,” she said with a warm smile, just like she always did. Juri knew Shintaro’s family liked him but for a moment he wondered if Morimoto-san would think of him so well if she knew how Juri and Shintaro’s relationship had changed just a little time ago.
“Juri and Hokuto, could you please get a full bucket of potatoes and peel them?”
“Sure,” Juri said with a grin. Peeling potatoes might not be the most glorious work in the world but Juri was happy to receive the task anyway - it was almost like a proof that he kind of belonged into the family. At the very least it meant he was a close friend enough to know where the potatoes were stored, having taken care of the chore many times with Shintaro.
“Shintaro, please show the others where the tableware is and set the table together.”
“Yes sir,” Shintaro said with a salute and opened the doors of the huge old cupboard that was full of plates, glasses and other tableware.
“Let’s see, there are the six of us, mum, dad, Ryu and Nacchan; that makes ten in total,” Shintaro counted and pointed at one pile of plates. “Those should be good.” Taiga nodded and took half of the plates, carried them into the table, and then came back to get the rest. Kouchi and Jesse brought the glasses and Shintaro picked the forks and knives from the basket where they were stored.
“Shintaro, dear. Don't you see the tablecloth is dirty? Please change it before spreading the plates.”
“One command at once!” Shintaro yelled back to the kitchen, but took the tablecloth to the laundry basket and went to get a new one from the linen cupboard.
Meanwhile, Juri led Hokuto outside to the cellar of the house.
“Do people still use these,” Hokuto asked, sincerely amazed, “I’ve never seen real food being stored in a cellar - outside of Hogwarts, of course.”
“Where do you store your food then?” Juri asked curiously, “It can’t all fit in your fridges, right?”
“It does though,” Hokuto chuckled, “But my mum likes storing things in the freezer too. We don’t need a cellar like this.”
“Weiiiiiird,” Juri teased and Hokuto made a face at him.
“Fuma said the same, after I had spent fifteen minutes explaining him what a fridge is and how it works.”
“How does it, then?” Juri asked and tilted his head, “I mean, how do you change electricity cold or warm depending of the device? Are different colored electricities different temperature too?”
For a few seconds Hokuto was quiet and stared at Juri. Then he started to laugh and shook his head, wiping tears of mirth from his eyes.
“No, Juri, it’s not electricity that’s warm or cold, or bright or colorful or anything! It’s just like…electricity is like fuel. Or like magic. It’s the thing that makes devices work. I’ve heard there’s actually quite a lot in common between magic and electricity. The both seem to deal with the magnetic fields. Or electricity does, and magic is close enough that it messes up all the magnetic fields and wins every time.”
“But how does it make your fridges cold and ovens hot, and lamps bright?” Juri pressed, still unable to understand how electricity worked even though he had been listening to Hokuto, Kouchi, and Jesse’s conversations for six years already.
“They all have different things inside. Wires, printed circuit boards, electric circuits and such. Fridges also have a system that circulates water inside them. There’s a motor system that makes the water cold enough that it keeps the fridge cold, too. I don’t know how it really works but…”
“Then what about ovens? Is there warm water?”
“Well, no, there’s a thermostat - well, in fact I think there’s a thermostat in a fridge too - anyway, there is a…thing inside the oven. Some kind of a heating element that gets hot when you switch the oven on. It stays hot until the whole oven is hot enough, and then switches off. And when the oven starts to cool down the thermostat reacts and switches the heater on again.”
“Right,” Juri said, even though he hardly understood half of what Hokuto was saying. “What about lamps? And televisions? And Jesse’s father’s navigator? More thermostats?”
“No, um… Lamps have a wire inside the glass. When the electricity warms the wire it starts to glow, and when the temperature is high enough it glows really brightly. Televisions have either plasma displays or liquid-crystal displays… I don’t know much of them so don't ask. And, uh. I think the navigator works on batteries.”
“Batteries are those small finger-sized pieces inside of Shoki’s alarm clock,” Juri said knowingly, “he said he was surprised they work even in Hogwarts but he always keeps cursing how fast the batteries discharge.”
Hokuto nodded and turned away, as if he was looking around the cellar again but Juri managed to see him covering a smile. Whatever, Juri thought. He was a wizard. He didn’t need to understand electricity or the devices that muggles had invented to compensate their lack of magic.
“Did Fuma get it when you explained him?” he asked, even though he didn’t really believe so. Fuma might be smart enough to be a Ravenclaw but he was a wizard-bred brat to the core, just like Juri himself.
“He didn’t,” Hokuto said and made a face, “So, uh. The potatoes?”
Juri opened a big carton sack that stood in the corner and filled up the bucket next to the sack. Then he tied the sack tightly again, and with Hokuto’s help he dragged the bucket up the stairs. Hokuto locked the door of the cellar and they carried the bucket into the house.
“There you are,” Shintaro’s mother said when they stood by the kitchen door again, “I was already wondering if you decided to peel them by hand down there!” She waved her wand and the potatoes flew from the bucket into the sink that was half full of water. Another wave of the wand and the water formed a whirlpool that cleaned the dirt from the potatoes. After rolling in their watery carousel for a minute the potatoes rose, one by one, from the water and a peeling knife hovering in the air peeled them. After that they landed neatly onto the table next to Morimoto-san where she cut the potatoes by hand and threw them into the big pot where carrots and onions were already boiling.
“Half an hour,” she said and gave an accepting nod to the already set table, “Thank you for helping me! You can go now; I’ll call you when the food is ready!”
The boys climbed upstairs to Shintaro’s room.
“Where are Ryutaro and Natsume?” Juri asked, having wondered about it for a while already. The doors to Shintaro’s siblings’ rooms were open and Juri had only seen empty rooms when passing by.
“They left with my dad after he had brought Hokuto and Jesse here. They’re at Diagon Alley, buying rockets and other things for the night,” Shintaro said and closed the door while his friends scattered themselves around the room, each one finding a comfortable place to sit on.
“Finally,” Kouchi sighed once the door was tightly shut, and his smile was wide and eager, “I’ve been dying to tell you!”
“Let me guess,” Taiga said and smirked, “You’ve been outside and played in the snow like a kid - or like a carefree animal.”
“Something like that,” Kouchi said and rocked back and front with Shintaro’s chair next to his table, “No, really, it was amazing! You can’t even imagine it; I could just climb up the upright tree trunks and sit on the top of the trees and look around. I never realized how fun it could be to be such a small animal! And imagine the feeling when you can just run along the branches and jump and land onto the branch of the next tree and the next, and the next one after that…… it’s the best feeling in the world!”
“You only say that because you haven’t seen how the ground looks like when you’re higher than any tree top or house in the whole country,” Taiga said from the edge of the bed where he was sitting, “I’ve always wanted to be able to fly and now that I finally can…”
Taiga didn’t seem to have words to the feeling and Juri understood why, even though he hadn’t had time to try his newest spell again after the first time in the train.
“I still don’t get it though,” he said and crossed his arms on his chest and pouting, “Why is Shintaro a wolf, when I’m a sheep dog?” Everyone laughed, and Juri gave himself a mental pat on the back. He liked being able to make his friends laugh.
“Sheep dogs are cute,” Hokuto offered and Juri made a face at him.
“But wolves are cooler,” he complained but grinned right after that, “Even though Shintaro must be the most domesticated wolf to ever have existed.”
“The cleverest one you meant to say,” Shintaro retorted and they laughed again. All but one did.
Juri suddenly noticed the strain in Jesse’s smile, and felt a bit guilty for whining about his Animagus form, even if it had been only a joke. He really liked his Border Collie, and at least he knew the spell already.
To make up for his tactlessness Juri did his best to change the topic of the conversation as quickly as possible, and when Shintaro’s mother called them for the lunch, Juri purposefully waited until everyone else was in the stairs. Jesse was the last in the room with Juri, and Juri grabbed his best friend’s arm right before he managed to step to the stairs.
“You will learn it,” he said quietly and tightened his grip for a moment, hoping he could somehow make Jesse feel better.
“Will I though?” Jesse asked in a quiet voice, “What if I can’t? I wonder if it’s because I’m just half a wizard.”
“Come on,” Juri said and rolled his eyes, “Look at Hokuto! His parents are like the mugglest muggles to ever have muggled and he can do it!”
“But he’s a Ravenclaw,” Jesse objected, “He’s supposed to learn things quickly.”
“Shintaro is a Hufflepuff and he learned quickly,” Juri chuckled and finally managed to make Jesse smile a little bit.
“Of course he would; his family is full of the wizardest wizards… how was it?”
“Close enough,” Juri said and grinned. “It’ll be all right. I know it will.”
“Hey you two, come on! We’re hungry,” Kouchi called them from the other end of the stairs and Juri and Jesse rushed downstairs.
The meat soup made by Shintaro’s mother was probably the best that Juri had ever tasted. His own mother was a great cook too but soups were not her specialty. Juri and the others ate their stomachs full, mostly talking about school related things so that also Shintaro’s brother and sister could take part into the conversation.
“I’ll need to get ‘Exceeds Expectations’ in at least Arithmancy and Ancient Runes,” Ryutaro sighed and shook his head, “I really don’t know how I’m going to make that happen.”
“Look who’s talking,” Taiga snorted, “The teacher loves you, in case you haven’t noticed, and not without a reason. You’re the best in our Arithmancy class.”
“It’s easy for you to say, not everyone is as my-paced as you are,” Ryutaro defended himself, “I actually have to work for my good grades!”
“Then how do you explain being one of the best in Ancient Runes too?” Hokuto asked with a sly grin and Ryutaro made a face at them.
“Fine, fine. I know I don’t suck at those subjects okay? It’s just that--”
“It’s just that you stress too much,” Shintaro and Natsume said at the same time. Ryutaro glared at his younger siblings, even though he probably hadn’t had much faith in their moral support anyway. Juri chuckled at Ryutaro’s grimace - he knew there was no trusting in his brothers in such a situation either. In a pinch all five Tanaka brothers would be ready to defend each other from any dangers without hesitation, but when it came to everyday things like school they never forgot to tease each other about everything that could possibly be turned into a joke.
Sometimes people were surprised when they saw Juri and his friends. Many thought it would have been more normal, in some way, if Juri had been close friends with Ryutaro who was the same age with him, instead of Ryutaro’s little brother. Juri had sometime wondered about it himself as well but in the end the answer was simple enough that it didn’t really require answering.
It had nothing to do with their ages, really. He liked both brothers well enough, but something had always worked better between Juri and Shintaro than Juri and Ryutaro. Maybe Shintaro’s humor and interests matched with Juri’s better? Juri couldn’t quite explain it. Anyway, at school Ryutaro had his own friends and Shintaro had his own, and Juri belonged to the latter group.
“Why do you need such good grades from them,” Natsume asked, “Do you want to read books written in Runes?”
“I’ve been thinking about trying to get a place in Gringotts after school,” Ryutaro said and frowned, “but I’ll have to find out how to apply for the job.”
“Gringotts,” Natsume asked confusedly, “Aren’t there goblins to take care of everything?”
“Not everything,” her older brother explained, “There are many things that a wizard can do, too. Curse-breaking, and feeding the dragons that guard people’s vaults, and such things.”
“Oh,” Natsume said and leaned against her palm, thinking about it. “I’m not sure I would like it though. I don’t know what I’d like to do after I leave school.”
“You will find out,” her mother said gently and Natsume sighed.
“I guess. What will you guys do after leaving school? You’re going to leave next spring aren’t you?”
“I have a place as an apprentice in the Quality Quidditch Supplies in Diagon Alley,” Juri said and everyone nodded knowingly. Juri had been talking about it for a while already.
“I'll become a Healer. I’m trying to get into Saint Mungo,” Hokuto said and everyone nodded again.
“Well, I still have another year Hogwarts,” Jesse started, “but I’ve been thinking about Muggle Relations Department in the Ministry.” The information was neither new nor surprising to Juri; he had known for a long time that Jesse was interested in such a thing. However, some of the others looked surprised.
“Muggle Relations Department? What are you going to do there?” Hokuto asked and tilted his head, “Something like Juri’s brother does?”
“Well, maybe? I’m not interested in becoming Obliviator though. And I don’t want to deal with stupid jokes that some ignorant wizards like to arrange for muggles. I was thinking about improving the relationships between the wizard and muggle worlds, things like that.”
“How will that work?” Shintaro asked thoughtfully, “I mean, since there are all those International Statutes of Wizarding Secrecy?”
“I don’t know,” Jesse said truthfully, “But I’d like to help wizards to understand better the muggles' way of thinking, at least.”
“Sounds good,” Kouchi said with a laugh, “and quite a lot more ambitious than my dreams.”
“What do you want to do, then,” Natsume asked, openly interested in everyone's plans.
“Ministry work for me too, I guess. I’d like to get a job at the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes but I’ve heard it’s difficult to get a post there. They have to deal with serious things sometimes. Maybe I’ll just become a dishwasher in the Leaky Cauldron, or maybe your brother would hire me, Juri?”
“Don’t say such stupid things,” Juri chuckled, “At least your grades won’t be a hindrance to your plans. You’ll get better work than dishwashing at Koki’s cramped pub.”
“What about you Taiga,” Natsume asked. Her eagerness was cute and Juri could have sworn he wasn’t just imagining when he thought he saw something more than pure academic interest in her eyes when she looked at Taiga.
“Hit Wizard, in the Magical Law Enforcement Squad,” Taiga answered without hesitating and in a second Juri knew his premonition had been right, with how the look in Natsume’s eyes immediately got even more adoring.
“Isn’t it terribly difficult to get in?” she asked and Taiga shrugged.
“I will get in. I have excellent grades and I already checked I fulfill all the other requirements as well.”
The boy’s bluntness and unwavering confidence obviously made an impression into the fourteen-year-old girl and Juri could hardly cover his amused smile. His eyes met with Shintaro’s and from the way Shintaro rolled his eyes Juri concluded he wasn’t the only one who had noticed Natsume’s crush to their friend.
“Oi, little sister,” Shintaro complained, “why aren’t you asking me what I want to do after school?”
“Oh, but you won’t be leaving the school yet are you? Besides, why would I want to choose the same occupation as you do?” she asked and made a face, obviously annoyed that her older brother had distracted the conversation away from Taiga.
“I want to become a teacher,” Shintaro announced, ignoring his sister, and everyone, even his parents, raised their eyebrows in surprise. That was new information more than anything else.
“Care of Magical Creatures?” Juri suggested, everyone knew it was Shintaro’s favorite subject.
“I had been thinking about that, too, but lately I’ve become interested in Transfigurations, and I think I am good enough that I could become a teacher one day.”
“Why not?” Jesse said and was the first of the people around the table who smiled widely and nodded, “You’re right. I’ve never thought about it but you are good at Transfigurations. Remember that toad episode? That was really impressing!”
“A toad episode?” Shintaro’s father took part into the conversation for the first time, “What toad episode?”
Shintaro threw a murderous glance at Jesse who grinned sheepishly, and then smiled at his father widely enough that everyone could see the fakeness of the expression.
“It’s nothing, really. I was just… practicing. Animal Transfigurations, that’s all.”
“Toads,” Ryutaro said slowly before the understanding spread on his face and he looked up at his little brother. “Shintaro. Was it you who changed every owl at the school Owlery into toads?”
“Shintaro?” his mother asked, not sounding necessarily angry, but in a tone that demanded for an answer and accepted no objections.
“Well, I…” Shintaro stammered, “Uh, it was an accident? I only meant to practice with our family owl, and I was going to change it back immediately. It… didn’t work. Or it kind of did. The spell somehow got spread to the whole Owlery. But it was nothing serious! No owls were hurt, even when they started to slip down from their perches; and the Transfiguration teacher had no problem at changing them all back.”
“Did you apologize properly,” his mother asked nervously and Shintaro rolled his eyes.
“Of course I did, I…”
“Son,” his father said in a serious tone, “Are you saying you cast a Transfiguration spell on a whole tower of owls and each one’s Transfiguration was complete? When did you do that?”
“Uh, last winter, before Easter Holidays,” Shintaro said hesitantly, and Juri understood his feeling. Both the tone of Shintaro’s father’s voice and the look on his face were unreadable. He also saw Jesse’s expression and guessed Jesse was already regretting saying anything at all. Jesse hated causing harm to his friends, and a disciplinary family hearing in the lunch table was definitely something that counted as harm.
“That’s great!” Shintaro’s father suddenly said and Shintaro’s eyes widened in surprise. “Such a demanding spell, and you were still merely a fifth-grader! I’m proud of you! You really might have what it demands to become a teacher!”
His pleased reaction was a happy surprise to everyone, most of all to Shintaro who basked in the warmth of his father’s praises and smiled in a way that made Juri want to smile too. He was happy and proud for his boyfriend, even though he couldn’t say it in public just like that. He made a mental note so he would remember to say it to Shintaro later. He was determined to catch a small moment with just the two of them alone before the night anyway.
“It was very interesting to hear about your plans,” Shintaro’s father said and smiled at each one of them, “Treasure your dreams, and eventually you will definitely reach them.”
After the lunch the boys pulled on their shoes, jackets, beanies, and mittens and rushed out into the snowy whiteness. They had been a bit worried, afraid of Shintaro’s siblings wanting to join them but the fear was unnecessary. As soon as the lunch table had been cleaned, Natsume went to her room to change her clothes, came back to announce she had promised to meet her friend in afternoon, and vanished into the green Floo Powder flames. Ryutaro simply preferred staying inside so the six boys ran out of the house without other people, just like they had wished.
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Chapter 6