You Named Your Lion What?

"How did things go today, Pidge?" Shiro asked as Pidge joined the others in the dining hall.

"Pretty well. I finally figured out what was jamming the cloaking on McGonagall so that should be back up and running for our next mission." Pidge looked up from her plate to see everyone staring at her. "What?"

"Did you just call your Lion, 'McGonagall?'" Lance asked. "As in Minerva McGonagall?"

"Yeah. So what?"

"So what? You can't do that! You can't name the Green Lion after her!"

"Why not? I like McGonagall. She's the best." Pidge started to eat, not looking at Lance. Shiro sighed as Lance glared.

"I know she's the best! But she was the head of Gryffindor House! Her color was red so you can't name the Green Lion after her!"

"That's stupid logic, Lance. Besides, McGonagall always wore green robes because she knew that it was the best color. Leave your Slytherin bias out of this."

"The Red Lion should be McGonagall!" Lance started to argue. "After all, not only is it red, like Gryffindor House's color, but look at the way the Red Lion acts with Keith!"

Everyone looked down the table at Keith, whose head had shot up at the mention of his name. "What about the way Red acts with me?"

"McGonagall was a fierce lioness! She was super protective and possessive of her Gryffindor cubs! Like how the Red Lion tried to break into the Blade of Marmora base or flew after you and Allura!" Lance explained, making large gestures with his arms. "So McGonagall should be the Red Lion!"

"Who said I want to call Red anything other than Red?" Keith complained.

Lance waved Keith's comment off. "Come on, Hunk, back me up on this!"

"Whoa, I don't want to be dragged into this, no way!" Hunk crossed his arms in front of him.

"It doesn't matter. I've already started calling the Green Lion, 'McGonagall' so that's that. Case closed, Lance." Pidge rolled her eyes.

"Hang on, I know I said that I don't necessarily want to call Red anything else, but I didn't know that giving other names was an option before. So why can't Red be McGonagall?" Keith asked, surprising everyone. "What Lance said before makes sense. If anything, you should name the Green Lion after a Slytherin."

"There weren't exactly a lot of good Slytherins to choose names from!" Pidge argued. "Hunk, back me up on this!"

"Oh boy." Hunk looked between his Garrison teammates. "I already said that I don't want to get involved. Besides, all I know is that I match the colors of the best Hogwarts House."

"Hufflepuff? Are you serious?" Lance looked at his best friend, betrayed.

"That's up for discussion." Keith added.

Shiro sighed. "Uh huh…so what exactly would you name Yellow, then, Hunk?"

"Uh…I mean, there's Cedric."

"Who died!" Lance reminded Hunk.

"Hufflepuff can't be the best house when Gryffindor had all of the Weasleys. And Hermione. And Harry. And – "

"Shut up." Hunk moaned.

"Wow…I guess Keith actually does know some Earth pop culture." Lance teased.

Keith flushed. "Shut up. Everyone knows Harry Potter. Oh and Neville! And Dean and Seamus!"

"Shhhhh." Hunk placed a finger on Keith's mouth. "Anyone not in Gryffindor is just salty, okay? Nothing personal. Especially us Hufflepuffs because we aren't treated nicely by the rest of you!"

"Tonks was a Hufflepuff," Shiro mused aloud, not expecting the others to hear him. Hunk was the only one as Keith remembered more characters in Gryffindor.

"Oh and the Marauders!"

"So the Yellow Lion should be named after this Tonks person?" Allura asked. Her and Coran looked at each other in confusion.

"I like Cedric though…Tonks could work," muttered Hunk.

"Keith, do you really want to bring up the Marauders when that technically includes Pettigrew?" Shiro asked, causing Lance and Pidge to snort.

"Okay, fine! James, Remus, and Sirius!"

"You might want to put some ice on that burn, Keith!" Lance laughed.

"And who from Ravenclaw would you name Blue after, Lance?" Keith glared.

"That's none of your business, mullet!"

"You can't think of anyone except for Cho Chang, can you?" Pidge raised an eyebrow. "And I think that if we're naming them after characters they act most like, then the Red Lion should be Molly based on how Red is with Keith."

Everyone was quiet for a moment as they thought about it.

"Actually…that makes a lot of sense." Keith agreed.

"You really want to fly in a Lion that you call Molly?" Lance asked, a grin appearing on his face.

"No, but Weasley works. Represent the whole family instead." Keith grinned as Lance's disappeared.

"Well, that still leaves Blue and Yellow, unless Hunk's decided." Pidge declared.

"Wait, what about – "

"Shhh." Shiro cut Allura off as the other Paladins continued to debate the issue. "I might have contributed but I don't really want to be included in this."

"What are they talking about, anyways, Shiro?" Coran asked. "These people and houses and colors?"

"It's from a famous Earth story. A fictional story but probably one of our most famous stories." Shiro explained. "Harry Potter was about a boy named, well, Harry Potter in a fight of good versus evil. He went to a wizard boarding school called Hogwarts that had four separate houses that the students were split into for classes and other activities. As you've already heard, they each had names and colors associated with them. And of course, different characters. It was a pretty big thing back home to figure out what house you would have belonged in if you went to Hogwarts Castle and show that pride."

"It sounds very interesting." Allura said. "I hope someday that we can learn more about this story if it's such a big part of your lives. But why don't you want to take part in this naming activity? It's okay to give the Black Lion a nickname. In fact, if it makes this more enjoyable to you, I don't mind renaming the Castle of Lions after this Hogwarts."

"Why don't they just name each of their Lions after the corresponding House instead of a random character?" Coran asked, watching as Lance seemed to argue with Keith over something.

"I'm not sure they've thought about that." Shiro admitted with a fond smile on his face. "Besides, the Houses all had animals associated with them too. Gryffindor was the only one that was a lion."

"That makes sense then." Allura said.

"Shiro! What do you think of those suggestions for Blue?" Lance grabbed their attention.

"Uh…sorry?" Shiro looked a bit sheepish. "Allura and Coran wanted to know what we were talking about so I was explaining Harry Potter and the way fans act about it at home. So I didn't hear them."

"I want to name Blue after the best Ravenclaw character but they don't agree with me!" Lance complained. Shiro looked at the other three.

"They don't agree that that's the best Ravenclaw character or with you nicknaming Blue after them?"

"I want to call Blue 'Lovegood' after Luna!" Lance declared.

Coran started coughing, having scooped some goo into his mouth just as Lance spoke. Allura covered her mouth in amusement as Shiro's eyes widened.

"Uh, Lance…no offense but I don't think the rest of us are going to be comfortable with that," Shiro tried to explain.

"Why not?" Lance's expression made Shiro double take. Lance knew exactly why they weren't comfortable with it.

"Lance, I'm not going to say it. Either pick another character or just leave it as Blue."

"Aw, man!" Lance rested his chin on his folded hands. "I really wanted to hear you say that you liked 'Lovegood' with a straight face."

"Ignoring Lance's crisis, there's no way you could have explained all of Harry Potter to Allura and Coran so quickly," Pidge looked at Shiro.

Shiro shrugged. "I gave a bit. I was more explaining what the houses were and why they were important to this conversation. I didn't really get into what the story was about. I was going to but we were interrupted."

"Cedric!" Hunk burst out, startling everyone. "Sorry. I just decided that Cedric is a better name for Yellow than Tonks."

There were several sighs heard around the table. Keith rolled his eyes.

"Look, not that this hasn't been fun, but I still don't see the point in actually calling Red anything other than Red. Like, it was fun to joke and tease, but I don't think it's fair to Red or the others to decide these things."

Pidge shrugged. "Green enjoyed me calling her McGonagall after I mentally showed her what I was thinking of so that's more of something she decided than me."

"Before all of you get back into this name discussion, I have a quick question about this story." Coran said, having stopped coughing. "Shiro mentioned that it's a story of good versus evil but he didn't exactly explain what the evil was."

"You didn't get to tell them about You-Know-Who?" Lance gasped. "Shiro, how could you? You of all people should have an easy time explaining it in terms they would understand."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Shiro's eyes narrowed.

"Uh duh? Harry fights against a guy who's been trying to kill him for ages. A guy that a lot of people thought were dead that wasn't and used some kind of dark magic to come back to life. Sound familiar at all?"

"If you're suggesting that Zarkon is Voldemort –" Hunk started to say only for Lance to cut him off.

"Oh man, I just realized! Shiro, you're Harry!"

"Lance, I swear, if that's a crack about the scar on my face – !"

Pidge snorted at that, covering her mouth as Lance gave Shiro a large grin. Hunk started to chuckle and Keith pressed his lips together, clearly trying not to laugh. Allura and Coran looked at each, still confused.

"Shiro, I don't understand why you seem upset about that. After all, he is the hero in the story, isn't he?" Allura asked.

"Shiro the hero!" Lance practically shouted, his grin now larger. Keith started laughing, no longer able to hold it in.

Shiro simply groaned and put his face in his hands. "I'm never going to hear the end of this…"


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