[START]

Define 'Normal'...

Chapter 1: First Days Daze

To him at the very least, normal is being up at five or six so that there can be a light jog around the block before breakfast at seven and school at half eight.

Normal is worrying about test results, the conflicted look in the mirror at the new uniform, wondering if you'll fit in in the new school, worrying about making friends and being alone.

Normal is cereal for breakfast because there isn't enough time, or you don't have enough energy, for a full English every day of the week. Normal is trying not to fall asleep during a lecture whilst also taking notes and doing work. Normal is picking between TV and studying.

Normal is monotonous, it's rote, boring, mind numbing even! Dragons, castles, ghosts, magic, a battle between good and evil, a quest to defeat a dastardly Dark Lord and his minions, fame, fortune and glory. So many would pick the latter over their everyday lives in a heartbeat, so many would drop everything for even a chance of such excitement and wonder.

But to Harry Potter, normal was perfection. The siren song of adventure and the mystique and wonder magical world held no sway over his heart and paled in comparison to the experience of a regular high-school existence. Instead of having to fuss over learning enough spells and training up to beat a murderous psychopath, Harry far preferred the terror of rushing through an essay due in a few hours because he had spent the evening playing games on his computer.

Granted, many people would too, but Harry was one of the few who would throw away bona fide magic just to achieve it. The only one who would actually kill a man deemed to be "The Darkest Wizard in a Century" in a duel that left even Albus Dumbledore (one of the greatest wizards who'd ever lived) speechless and run away before the world could even begin to praise him for it. Already gone before the dust had even the faintest idea of settling.

An alliance with the goblins, a healthy amount of small bribes and a deft use of a memory charm and a Confundus where necessary. Harry Potter smugly coined his actions the "Reverse Lockhart", Obliviations used so that he wouldn't have to take credit for a ridiculous feat he had actually performed (instead of using them to take credit for ones he hadn't). His chuckles to himself on the plane had been met with equal measures of interested amusement and sceptical worry.

But Harry didn't care, he'd played the biggest prank in history (in his books), he'd gone through 4 whole years at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry as someone nobody really gave a damn about (as the none famous member of the Potter clan). Dealing with scathing remarks from his classmates and even his family for his normalcy. His excellent grades were always shunted to the side and disregarded because Charlie Potter was the Boy Who Lived, the baby boy who had killed the Dark Lord at 1 years old and the one destined to defeat him should he ever return. Harry's own rescue of the Philosophers stone and little Ginny Weasley at ages 11 and 12 respectively simply written off as fabrications of a desperate child trying to step out from his famous brother's shadow. His first duel with the resurrected Dark Lord at 14 and outright lies of an attention seeking brat.

But he had quite literally spat in the face of an entire nation when, at 15 years of age, he had swatted aside the Hogwarts Headmaster to utterly massacre the Dark Lord Voldemort in full view of the Minister of Magic, his staff and a slew of Daily Prophet reporters and photographers. Retroactively proving his previous feats as fact, snatching away his only brothers very claim to fame and further usurping his families own glory by rising higher than they ever could. Although he had not been out for glory himself, he could only smirk and chuckle that along the way he had snatched away the very thing that his parents and brother had valued higher than him.

Before vanishing without a trace.

...

The alarm on his black and green flip phone reminded Harry that he had places to be and he couldn't continue to reminisce on the kitchen table for the rest of the day. It was the first day of school after all, and he doubted the teachers at Akademi High would take kindly to a tardy so early in the school year.

A school year that began in April was an odd concept for Harry to wrap his head around, one of many in your face culture shocks the fifteen-year-old had been greeted with in his flee over the Pacific to escape Britain. So instead of being left with a whole nine months to prepare for the upcoming school year and assimilate with the new culture and people, he in fact only had four before he was expected back in the classroom.

Technically, he actually only had the month of January to himself, and even that had been utilised by cramming nine whole years of Japanese Muggle education into his brain in preparation for high school entrance exams in February.

Thank Merlin for magic.

Dressed in a slate grey blazer with four giant gold buttons, worn over an orange jumper and a white shirt. Harry almost considered skiving when he began to feel the suffocation of the layers, tugging awkwardly at his crimson tie before undoing his top button and sighing in relief.

The ensemble was completed by a pair of blue trousers and Harry almost laughed when he stopped in front of the mirror and imagined Fleur's horrified expression upon seeing the clashing colours,

"She'd definitely have some kind of aneurysm." He murmured aloud with his lips curled up into a silly grin before he scooped up his heavy book bag, grunting at the straining backpack stuffed with: his lunch, a pair of notepads and every textbook for the courses he would be taking that year, due to simply not knowing at all what classes he'd be taking that day.

The door clicked closed and Harry locked it behind him with a jangle of his keys. Stuffing them into his pockets and turning to make his way to school, a route that became more and more populated with similarly dressed guys and gals as he got closer and closer to the big white walls that Akademi High School was situated behind. A four-story building in a modern mixture of glass and snow white walls, sat at the bottom of a tree lined path that students marched towards with a mixture of trepidation and awe.

Harry noticed a slew of adults (parents most likely) snapping pictures of children under the gentle pink petals of the cherry blossom trees and a slew of trios, pairs and quartets forming as friends excitedly, nervously and all sorts of relevant emotions made their way down the paved entryway to the school building proper. The lot of them supervised by a blonde woman in an all red tracksuit that Harry assumed must be one of the P.E. teachers, a few of the older students greeting her as Taiso-sensei who would smile, wave and return their "Hello's". Harry passed her by in silence and stopped before the entrance.

Nervousness made him cold and his heart hammer in his chest, the same symptoms that roared through his system when the row boats cut across the Black Lake towards Hogwarts castle all those years ago...

SLAM! Someone ran into the back of him as he was gripped by nostalgia.

"Ah, erm, sorry about that." Harry began as he wheeled round, immediately realising that stopping dead in front of the school's main entrance wasn't the best of ideas. His eyes found a black-haired gent blinking and shaking his head and readjusting a shoulder strap on his backpack and a white headband that lay beneath the scruffy and spiky side swept fringe of his hair. Sporting the same uniform as Harry and a quick and easy grin to boot,

"Hey, don't worry about it. I should have been watching where I was going anyway." He replied with a shrug, his silver/grey eyes quickly raking over Harry and bringing to the other boy's attention that the guy was about a head taller than him.

"Oh hey! I remember you! You were here for my entrance exams in February. Congrats on passing them." The boy's surprised demeanour had morphed into to a jovial tone and a bright smile as he offered a firm handshake and his name, "My name's Masuta Budo, it's a pleasure to actually meet you."

Harry wracked his brain to see if he could remember the boy from two months prior but failed to make the connection, as his hand was nearly shook off and dropped by the enthusiastic fellow first year. He instead just shook his head and decided to respond,

"Oh erm, my name is Ha- no, Potter Harry. It's a pleasure to meet you, Masuta-san." Harry offered a short bow after his stuttering, careful reply and offered slight confusion at Masuta's impressed expression,

"Wow, your Japanese is really good! I'm surprised." He mused cheerily, a bright proud smile on his face before he hopped forward with a more excitable grin. Harry was unable to come up with more than a muttered thanks before his wrist was snatched up in the boys and he was dragged indoors, "Anyway, let's seize the day! No point lingering out here and getting walked into again."

The chilly breeze of the early spring was replaced by a wave of body heat as they made their way indoors to the school's shoe lockers. The two parted briefly to find their own preassigned lockers and change out of their outdoor footwear before making their way further into the school.

Harry was quite quickly made aware that he was the focus of a few glances and muttered comments, standing out quite prominently from the other faces in the crowd with the pale palour of his skin, high cheekbones, messy raven hair and piercing green eyes. Physical features that immediately outed him as a foreigner before he'd even uttered a sentence.

Some seemed a breath more hostile or unwelcoming than the others more curious remarks, and Harry made an effort to remember those faces as people to avoid. He'd heard plenty of rumours (and seen some evidence first hand) of a level of hatred or mistrust which seemed to stem entirely from his status as a foreigner. They didn't bother Harry too much, as racists and xenophobes were something that Harry was already intimately familiar with. Although they were insanely unlikely to draw sticks of wood and fire beams of light in an effort to murder him, he knew better than to underestimate the hatred of the intolerant and decided to exercise a healthy level of vigilance.

If Masuta noticed any of this, he gave no indication, complaining about the lack of grip the school assigned slippers had on the shiny, smooth floors instead. Harry couldn't help but agree when his foot slipped on the squeaky-clean ground for the umpteenth time as he made his way to a map of the school mounted on the wall (and surrounded by a cloud of muttering students and fellow first years).

Rising to his tiptoes to look over the head of a scowling, pink haired girl, Harry was incredibly fortunate to find his classroom was only around the corner to the left and offered a weak goodbye to the exuberant Masuta as he made his way over. Only for the boy to scurry on after him a scant few seconds,

"So, what class are you in Harry-kun?" An airy question Harry found far easier to answer,

"I'm in class 1-A." He replied to another impressed expression,

"And you're clever too! I mean, not surprising if you got into this school but…" Masuta trailed off, fidgeting a bit with the drawstrings of his backpack before shaking his head and resettling his smile onto his face, "I guess it's nice to already know somebody in my class, I hope we can continue to get along. Feel free to call me Budo!"

Harry allowed himself a moment to register that this ball of energy was his classmate and suppressed a sigh. He seemed perfectly fine, kind and friendly, but keeping up with this level of energy may actually be this year's trial. If this was an improvement on Dementors or Basilisks was up for debate...

A few short minutes later, passing through and by crowds and clumps of students, the two slipped into the 1-A classroom. A full fifteen minutes before homeroom and the start of the school day, and Harry was mildly surprised at the lack of students within.

Three actually. His eyes were immediately drawn towards the front of the room on a row of desks by the window where a boy and girl were in… 'heated' conversation. To be more upfront it appeared that the girl, sporting carrot orange hair that could have easily fallen past her ankles if they weren't held up in long pigtails that fell to her calves, was berating a dark-haired boy with finger wagging and jabs as he desperately and awkwardly tried to placate her. Harry mumbled to himself and snickered, only repeating it when he was implored to by Masuta beside him,

"Oh, well…" He gave himself a 'why not?' kind of pep talk in his mind and let a small smirk appear on his face, "What do you think, childhood friends or star-crossed lovers?"

It wasn't as funny aloud as it sounded in his head, but he was rewarded by a small snicker from his companion and a mock serious expression as he cupped his chin in his hand,

"If they are truly lovers, I feel tremendous sorrow for our poor friend over there." His sly response, the two shared a grin, "Why don't we go rescue him?"

Harry felt an instant bout of trepidation but gave a nod and followed along after his confident stride,

"Good morning, classmates!"

The girls head snapped round to them with a harsh glean that pierced the pair of them, orange and fiery (Harry gulped beside himself), whilst the boy turned to them far less violently and offered a little wave and smile as a means of hello,

"Erm, nice to meet you. I'm Potter Harry, and this is Masuta Budo-san. I hope we get along." Harry greeted quickly, trying to avoid an awkward atmosphere settling over them when Masuta wasn't able to recover and continue his hello.

"Hello, Potter-san, Masuta-san. I'm Yamada Taro, it's nice to meet you too." The boy, Yamada, greeted serenely prior to nudging his now silent, staring companion to do the same,

"Najimi Osana, nice to meet you or whatever." She gruffly acquiesced, folding her arms and unleashing a huff from pouting lips,

"You seem like quite a character." Masuta replied cheerily, ignoring Harry and Yamada's disbelieving expressions at his choice of words and the two inched away a little as the young lady explosively demanded to know if the headband wearing boy was making fun of her.

"So yeah, Osana and I have known each other since we were little. We're neighbours." Yamada explained with a smile to Harry, the two deep in easy conversation after about five minutes,
"That's pretty cool." Harry replied to Yamada with a gentle smile, appreciating how laid back and easy to talk to he was as their respective companions went at each other, "I guess it's a bit of a relief to come to a new school with your best friend."
"Haha, yeah. It's a massive relief actually, but don't tell her that. She'll go on about how hopeless I am without her." He murmured that last bit with a hand awkwardly scratching away at his own scalp, Harry chuckled, "What about you, if you don't mind me asking…"

Catching his drift, Harry offered a placating smile and head shake,

"I moved here during the winter. I was a bit late to start school, so I decided to self-study for the entrance exam and just start here instead." He acquiesced without much reluctance,

"Where is it you moved from?"

"England. My friends back home will be preparing for exams right now actually." Harry almost laughed at the idea of his friends still preparing for their OWL's as he entered a new school year.

"Wow! So, you're from England?!" Masuta's cry drawing the pair back to the other two, whose bickering had seemingly ceased when they weren't paying attention, "You must have aced the English exam then."

A statement rather than a question, delivered just prior to a sharp bark of laughter accompanied by a surprisingly apologetic look from Yamada and an eye roll from Najimi. Harry smiled initially before folding his arms and forming a mock-offended pout on his face,

"Honestly Masuta-san, are you going to be surprised by EVERYTHING I say and do?" He huffed and was rewarded by the ghost of a smirk on Najimi's face and a little chuckle from Yamada as he played along,

"Indeed, Masuta-san. You're treating Potter-san like he's some sort of zoo animal." He jokingly scolded the suddenly pink faced boy, "It isn't particularly welcoming, nor polite."

The two descended into laughter at his stammering, red faced apology and were even rewarded with a feminine laugh also. But Najimi was only smirking at the boys discomfort, drawing the quartets attention to another classmate of theirs who they hadn't noticed had entered the room (alongside a slow trickle of more of their classmates). Her green eyes twinkled with mirth as she laughed sweetly, though her eyes widened a bit at being caught,

"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to eavesdrop, I just couldn't help overhearing." She replied with a gentle voice, brushing aside one of the long locks of hair that framed her face (which was tied into a long, high ponytail by a large white ribbon) with a sheepish smile,

"It's alright."/"Well you did." Harry and Najimi spoke in unison, Najimi giving him a narrow eyed sideways glance that Harry refused to return,

"Erm, nice to meet you." Harry's polite greeting,

"Oh, you too." She replied warmly as her smile broadened, "My name's Monika."

The four turned five chatted away for a scant few minutes longer before parting to find their seats, marked by sheets of paper with their names on them taped to the back of their chairs.

Harry moved to the back of the room and his eyes returned to the girl in the far corner, sat by the window, the third person in the room when he and Masuta had entered earlier. A slender and clearly tall young woman with a head of silky-smooth purple hair hiding behind a hardback novel with a title that Harry couldn't read.

As he walked over to that back corner, he noted that her fingers seemed to clench the novel tighter and tighter as he approached. Harry didn't know how he should feel or respond to that fact but thought he should maybe ignore it as the girl was blatantly shy or something.

Though, by a quirk of fate, he did find that the seat he had been seeking was the one right in front of hers and slotted his bag under his desk. An involuntary groan of relief seemed to make her flinch and he scratched the back of his head, inhaled sharply and bit the bullet,

"Erm, hi there. It's nice to meet you."
A squeak was his reply as and she made a gesture of… embarrassment? Harry didn't actually know how to describe it other than the fact that she burrowed her face deeper into her book,

"I- erm… greetings." A muffled return, there was a bit of muttering that was entirely unintelligible before she dropped her book down to the desk and revealed her scarlet face.

Harry took in a quick breath between his teeth, she was startlingly pretty. Purple hair matched by glittering amethyst eyes that couldn't quite meet his, and she nervously fiddled with the red bow around her neck (that the female population of the school had instead of the males ties) with gentle, dainty hands, drawing his attention to her pale neck that was attached to a rather voluptuous figure,

"Potter Harry." He smiled cordially and offered his hand, wondering if that was a bad move when he was met with another 'eep' and the girl proceeded to fidget and play with her long smooth hair and blush even deeper,

"K-K-Kuroyanagi Y-Yuri." She managed eventually, and returned the gesture with a weak, nervous shake of the hand. He smiled and she all but snatched her book up and hid behind it once more, Harry decided to leave her alone after that and gently settled into the seat in front. Not really sparing her a glance until a little while later when their teacher directed them towards the assembly hall after taking the register.

Thus, began the first day of Harry's far more "normal" school days. A day Harry approached with , honestly, he was in the muggle world now. There was no way that anything close to the madness he'd experienced whilst at Hogwarts could occur here.

[TO BE CONTINUED]


I got Yuri's last name (and the rest of the Doki's from an amino post that I would gladly link if this website would allow such things).

And this is kind of a three-way crossover because I would like to explore an entire school and how the Doki's interact and operate before + outside of the Literature club but didn't quite have the patience to come up with an entire school full of students myself. And Akademi High was just sitting there with all sorts of characters and ideas I could implement into my plot.