Disclaimer: I do not own either Naruto or Harry Potter, and intend to make no profit from this work.
Also: Children using foul language in this chapter. You have been warned.
Hinata first saw him in the Great Hall.
They were First Years, and had just gotten off the boats that had brought them over to Hogwarts not too long ago. As Hinata sat down next to Kiba, she fidgeted. It wouldn't be long before Professor Tsunade would start calling for them to go up to the Sorting Hat, and Hinata was dreading it.
"Don't worry, you are a Hyuga," her father had said that morning, as they'd waited on Platform 9¾. "You will do well, no matter what House you get sorted into."
As long as she was sorted in either Gryffindor or Slytherin, he'd probably thought. Or if not him, definitely Hinata's crotchety grandmother. Either way, this pressure was doing nothing for Hinata.
I just want this to be over, she thought. Letting out a sigh, Hinata leaned her cheek on her palm and started observing her fellow First Years. Kiba was talking to a silent boy wearing dark sunglasses, curious about his silence and why he had a pet scorpion rather than something normal. ("Like my puppy, Akamaru! Say hi Akamaru.") Kiba was the only boy Hinata knew really; they were neighbors and childhood friends. His family was the only Wizarding family that had a close magical affinity with dogs, hence why he got Akamaru as a pet. And then there was—
"...Sasuke Uchiha!"
Hinata blinked, just as the Great Hall erupted in excited whispers. She leaned back as a boy with pale skin and dark hair that matched his eyes stood up and walked over to the Sorting Hat. He walked in slow, certain steps, his chin held high and almost haughty. Despite being eleven, Hinata could see a glint in Sasuke's eyes that implied older age, at least mentally. She watched him, still in shock. Her father had been right after all.
Kiba elbowed her side, whispering, "Dude, that's him!"
Another boy, chubby and previously chomping on chips, whispered to a lazy looking boy across the table. "Can you believe that that was the same kid who turned Orochimaru to dust? As a baby, no less?"
"Just what we need," the lazy boy sighed. "Someone to make the rest of us look bad."
If Sasuke heard what everyone was whispering, he didn't react to any of it. Once he reached the stool, he simply sat down and waited for the Hat to be placed on his head. The Hat came to life, raised its brow as it looked down at Sasuke, and it spoke low to him. After a minute or so of speaking:
"Gryffindor!"
Sasuke smirked, his eyes narrowing just the slightest. Once the Hat was removed from his head, he strut over to the Gryffindor table, where he was welcomed with open arms.
"Look at that," Kiba said, snorting. "You think he was born with it, or it's just Maybelline?"
Despite her small amused smile, Hinata elbowed him gently on the side, a reminder to behave. (At least a little.)
"Okay, and next up is-is..." Shizune paused in her announcement, her eyes widening at the next name. She shared a look with Tsunade, who was frowning at her, and she sighed.
"Naruto Uzumaki!"
The Great Hall suddenly went silent. Faces went pale, some faculty grimaced, and others even scowled. Hinata looked around at the other First Years, feeling confused. She recognized the name, sure—her father had warned her about some "Uzumaki" that might be in her year—but Hinata wasn't sure why. She turned to Kiba, but froze when she saw him glaring at someone at another First Year table, his eyes slit dangerously. Hinata followed his eyes and found who he was looking at.
Blonde, spiky hair; tan skin, his face carrying whisker-like marks along his cheeks. A smile wide enough to reveal canines as sharp as fangs. Eyes bluer than a clear sky, than any form of blue Hinata had ever seen. And when he stood up from his spot next to a frowning red haired boy, his grin widening enough to look like something sinister, smug even, his shoulders were squared. Like Sasuke, he looked certain, but had an energy that made Hinata tingle with some strange, new electricity.
"Who...who is that?" Hinata asked in a whisper.
"Naruto Uzumaki," a pink-haired girl answered with a scowl, though the glare in her green eyes wavered. "The Demon Child."
"Demon Child," now that was a name Hinata recognized. Her heart pounded furiously. He was the boy everyone feared? The boy that was supposedly the offspring of a demon? Hinata swallowed, but didn't move her gaze from him.
He walked towards the front of the Great Hall like he owned it. Regarding the Hat with a wink and finger guns, the boy named Naruto Uzumaki sat down in the stool. The Hat narrowed its eyes at Naruto and barely touched the boy's head before—
"Slytherin!"
Naruto chuckled under his breath and nearly leaped off the stool. When he got to the Slytherin table, he was regarded with mostly cool eyes before an older blonde haired girl smirked up at him and nodded for him to sit next to her. Soon after that, the Great Hall erupted into murmurs again.
"Man, what are the chances, huh?" Kiba said, shaking his head. "The Boy Who Lived, and the Demon Child both under Hogwarts' roof."
"This ought to be...interesting," the boy with the sunglasses said.
"You say 'interesting', I say a disaster." He sighed, but then shrugged, smirking a little at Hinata. "But hey, it's only seven years. No way it can get worse than this, right?"
Hours later, these three First Years were sitting in the Common Room of the House they had been sorted in. Hinata sat in the middle on the couch, with Shino and Kiba on either side of her. With the exception of Shino, they were all wearing wide-eyed stares and near gapes. Not even Akamaru's soft yipping, his head poking out from Kiba's robes, could bring Kiba to smile.
"...My mom is going to kill me," he said, raking his hands in his hair.
"I...I am going to get disowned," Hinata said, nodding her head, resolved to her doom.
"My sister is going to kill me!"
"Neji is so not going to let me live this down."
Kiba pulled at his hair, his voice rising in pitch. "They're going to slice me to bits and feed me to our dogs!"
"My grandmother will literally drain my blood, chop me up, grind my bones, and make me into a meat pie to feed my father and sister for Christmas dinner," Hinata rambled, grasping her pale face with trembling hands.
Shino looked at both of them, and raised an eyebrow. "I think you two are taking this a little too seriously."
They both turned to him, their eyes wild.
" 'T-too seriously'?!" Kiba snarled. "It's fucking Hufflepuff, dude!"
Shino stared, his eyebrow still raised.
"You know, 'Reject House'? The House that does nothing?! That has done nothing!"
"Well, that's just not true," Shino said, adjusting his sunglasses. "As a matter of fact, a lot of influential figures have come from Hufflepuff, such as Newt—"
"You know what, fuck you. You don't get it." Kiba turned to Hinata and grasped her shoulders. "Hinata, how the fuck did this happen?"
"I-I don't know!"
"I mean, I know we aren't exactly geniuses from our family, but we're fucking pureblood, man—!"
"I know, I know."
"We were practically bred for Gryffindor!"
"I know."
"And you and I both know you've got the brain of a Ravenclaw—"
"No shit."
Kiba was nearly shaking her. "So, how...?"
"I don't know, Kiba!" Hinata nearly wailed, lifting her arms to flail. "Nothing in my life ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever prepared me for this—"
"Um, excuse me?" Said a voice from the dorms. Soft, polite, unassuming. "Could you guys please keep it down in there? First day of school is tomorrow."
"Oh, yeah, sure man," Kiba said.
"S-s-sorry about that," Hinata added, her voice now soft.
They waited until the person went back to bed before turning to each other again.
"See that?" Kiba hissed manically. "We can't even get scolded like the shitty little First Years we are!"
Hinata groaned and leaned back against the couch, rubbing her hands down her face. What is my life...?
In turn, Kiba leaned back and bewailed (in a whisper) at the ceiling, much to the amusement of Hufflepuff's paintings, "These are going to be the worst years of our lives!"
Akamaru whimpered in slight (?) agreement as Hinata and Kiba mourned their dignity away.
Meanwhile, Shino was staring at them, his eyes narrowed behind his glasses. Then he shook his head.
Idiots, he kept thinking.
Overall, it was going to be a long seven years.
