Welcome to part one of the Mystic Series, a story set in Hogwarts before the time of Harry, but after the time of the Marauders. Each story centers around a couple, with this one being, of course, Spamano. More information about the universe can be found on my profile.

Enjoy, and feel free to let me know if you have any questions.

September 1st, 1980

The first time Lovino met Antonio, he was severely pissed off.

"Feliciano? FELICIANO! WHERE THE HELL DID YOU GO, YOU IDIOT?" Lovino glared angrily around the platform in search of his stupid little brother, yelling in his native language as he stared down anyone brave enough to try and shush him. For the first time he was glad that this was England and no one here could understand what he was screaming so loudly in Italian. He was already pissed enough; he didn't need any scandalized looks from stuck-up British parents.

He sighed, scanning the platform once again for tan skin and a bouncy curl so similar to his own. It was just his luck that at every new place they went to it took all of three and a half seconds for his brother to wander off on his own, but it took forever for him to come running back, crying about being lost.

Lovino stomped across the platform, his things bumping around in the cart behind him as he tried to find his brother. He almost knocked over a blonde boy in his haste, ignoring his indignant cries about messed up hair in favor of muttering irritably under his breath. "Feli, tell me where you are right now, or I'll- oof!"

He was knocked forward by someone running straight into him, hugging him from behind. He spun around, glowering and ready to tell the pervert off only to meet the wide, happy grin of his brother.

"There you are, finally! Where the hell did you run off to?"

Feliciano, long used to his brother's curses, just smiled and started babbling loudly in English. "Sorry, Lovino! I got distracted by this adorable little kitty, and then I got lost and I was really scared, but-"

The train whistle blew, cutting off Feliciano mid-sentence and reminding everyone that the locomotive was set to leave in a few minutes. Almost immediately a mad dash began as students snatched up their stuff and began piling through the doors while parents waved from the platform. Lovino cursed colorfully under his breath and addressed his brother. "Hurry up, we have to get on. Where's your trunk?" Together, they managed to get both of their trunks onto the train and began dragging them down the corridor, winding around people looking for friends or putting luggage away and peeking through the windows as they went.

"Oh, look, fratello, here's an empty one!" Feliciano, accidently using the Italian word in his excitement, led the way into a vacant compartment.

"Finally," Lovino muttered. After a lot of heaving, shoving and, in Lovino's case, swearing, the twins managed to get Feliciano's trunk into the luggage rack. They were about to start on Lovino's when something caught Feliciano's eye and he ran off just as quickly as he had the first time, leaving Lovino with a trunk stuck halfway through the door and no help whatsoever.

"Damn it," he muttered angrily, kicking the ridiculously heavy trunk and resisting the urge to clutch at his now-aching foot. It had been hard enough with Feli's help; there was no way he'd be able to even lift up the stupid thing on his own, let alone get it into the rack.

Lovino sighed wearily and plopped down on his trunk to wait for his brainless fratello. He was alternating between cursing about his brother and damning his temporary chair to the fiery pits of hell when he heard a voice from behind him.

"Do you need some help with that?"

"GAH!" Lovino jumped, tumbling backwards off the trunk and landing in the hallway. He groaned softly, rubbing the newly-formed bump on his head and gingerly sitting up. His eyes flew open, however, when he heard laughter above him. Whipping around, he glared up into amused green eyes, a dark scowl gracing his features. "What the hell are you laughing at, bastard?"

The taller boy stopped laughing, though he couldn't quite hide a joyful grin. "Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you," he ran a hand through his curly brown hair, smiling apologetically at Lovino as he scrambled to his feet, "I just saw you sitting here with your trunk and I thought you might need help."

Lovino smoothed down his robes, refusing to meet the other boy's gaze while his cheeks burned bright red. Figures, school hadn't even started yet and he was already making a fool of himself in front of upperclassmen. Never mind that this one seemed to be a few tomatoes short of a bushel.

"I don't need any help," he grumbled, crossing his arms and staring resolutely off to the side. A second later he recalled the rest of the boy's words and his eyes narrowed. "And I wasn't scared!"

The other boy laughed again and Lovino couldn't help but glance at him out of the corner of his eye, though he looked away quickly when his gaze was met.

"Of course; my apologies." Lovino raised an eyebrow, searching his face for any form of sarcasm. However, the boy just grinned once more and continued speaking, oblivious to the angry aura of his companion. "But even if you don't need it, do you mind if I help anyway?"

Lovino was confused, and glared suspiciously at the older boy. Why would this guy want to help someone he barely even knew? Not to mention it was him, and he could admit he hadn't been exactly pleasant in the past few was probably some kind of trick, and yet… he looked down at his trunk and sighed. "Whatever, fine. But only because this thing's fucking heavy and my stupid brother disappeared again."

The other boy smiled a little indulgently and put down the bag slung over his shoulder to grab one end of the trunk.

"Of course." Together, they hauled the trunk up beside his brother's with much more ease than he and Feliciano had. Lovino glanced at the other boy, who was still grinning at him like an idiot, then down.

"Thanks, I guess," he muttered, fiddling with the sleeve of his sweater.

"No problem! My name is Antonio Fernandez Carriedo; it's a pleasure to meet you!" Lovino's vision was suddenly filled with a bronzed hand, and he stared for a moment before hesitantly extending his own. "Lovino. Lovino Vargas," replied, giving a firm handshake.

They stayed like that for a moment, then the train started moving and Antonio took a seat before Lovino had a chance to kick him out. "You have an accent; are you here through the exchange program as well?" For a moment, Lovino contemplated cursing him out for assuming he was allowed to stay and making him leave, but the bastard had already made himself comfortable and it really wasn't worth the effort. He rolled his eyes and sat down opposite Antonio.

"Who said having an accent makes you part of the exchange program?" Antonio, ignoring the Italian's grouchy tone, merely raised an eyebrow.

"Well, are you?"

Lovino rolled his eyes. "Yeah, me and my brother are from Italy." Antonio nodded, staring at him thoughtfully.

"I thought so. You look Italian," he added in answer to Lovino's raised eyebrow. "I'm from Spain. This is my third year in the program," he offered, though Lovino hadn't bothered asking. He opened his mouth, then closed it when he realized he really didn't know what to say to the sunny Spaniard. They sat there, Antonio smiling at him while Lovino refused to make eye contact, staring awkwardly down at his hands. He wracked his brain for something, anything to break the silence when he heard a rustle of cloth and looked up to see Antonio taking a large tomato out of his bag. Lovino's eyes widened as he stared at the fruit.

Antonio noticed the look and smiled. "Do you want one?" He asked, holding out the tomato while he dug another from the backpack. Lovino took it, turning it over in his hands before glaring warily at Antonio.

"It's not poisoned, is it?"

Antonio laughed. "No, not at all! Do you want me to try it first to prove it?" He winked, eyes laughing even if he wasn't. Lovino rolled his eyes and took a bite rather than deigning that with an answer.

"I hope you like it. It's from my garden at home." Lovino raised an eyebrow, taking a bite out of the, admittedly delicious, fruit.

"You grow tomatoes?" Antonio nodded enthusiastically, delighted, for whatever reason, that there was something about him Lovino approved of. He shrugged, and the continued eating in comfortable silence.

Lovino was just taking his last bite of tomato when the door burst open. He jumped again and almost choked on his favorite food. Two boys, a blonde and an albino, rushed in, completely ignoring Lovino; instead, they lit up when they saw Antonio.

"Toni, there you are!"

"Dude, where the fuck have you been; we've been looking all over the train for your sorry ass!"

Antonio looked up, grinning at the two of them. "Sorry, amigos, I got distracted." He turned back to Lovino. "These are my friends, Francis and Gilbert."

Lovino narrowed his eyes as he came face-to-face with Gilbert's self-absorbed smirk and Francis's perverted leer. He was already quite sure he wasn't going to like them. With a slight nod, he turned to look out the window and attempted to tune them out. Gilbert, however, was having none of that. He bounded forward, eyes widening when he got a glimpse of Lovino's face. "Oh, hey, it's you!"

Lovino glared, not liking that he was now both uncomfortable and confused. "What the fuck are you talking about? I've never seen you before in my life, dickhead!"

Gilbert looked confused. "Huh? But… wait, never mind, you're different. I don't think the other kid even had a frown setting, but you're stuck in spits-on-puppies mode," he confirmed after getting a better look at the Italian.

"But that wasn't nice, Toni," the Frenchie piped up with a smirk before Lovino could ask what the hell he was going on about, "keeping such a cutie all to yourself; I'm hurt." Francis all but purred, leaning dangerously into Lovino's personal space. His eyes widened, and he scrambled back against the window.

"Stay the fuck away from me, you perverted-"

"Leave him alone, Francis." All attention turned to Antonio, who was suddenly standing in between his friend and Lovino. While the tone was polite, something about his expression implied a threatening undercurrent. They stood frozen for a few minutes before Francis chuckled.

"Ah, so that's how it is," he smirked. "My apologies, mon cher, I hadn't realized." He turned, tossing a wink over his shoulder and heading out to wait in the hallway, dragging Gilbert with him. Antonio turned back to Lovino, looking a bit sheepish.

"Sorry about them. They can be overbearing sometimes, but they're pretty nice once you get to know them." Lovino just nodded, mind still going over the exchange between Antonio and Francis. Though he didn't quite understand what it meant, for some reason thinking about it made his stomach feel funny.

"Anyway, I should probably go," Antonio said, though he made no move towards the door as he continued thoughtfully. "If I leave them alone for too long, I just know Gil will try to hijack the controls; he's always wanted to try the whistle."

Lovino glared down at the floor of the compartment, trying to crush the part of him that was disappointed.

"Sure, I don't care." The Spaniard smiled once more and headed towards the door.

"Alright, then. I'll see you around. Who knows, maybe we'll be in Gryffindor together!" A wave, and he was gone. Only a few minutes later Feliciano bounced in, humming quietly to himself.

"Hi, fratello, I'm back! Oh, you got your trunk up; I was worried it would be too heavy." Lovino didn't quite meet Feliciano's gaze, and quietly muttered that he'd gotten help. Feliciano, oblivious to his mood, lit up.

"Wow, the people here are so nice, huh? Aren't you glad grandpa sent us?"

Yes. "No. Of course not," Lovino scoffed and rolled his eyes, ignoring the pair of green ones that were floating through his mind. And after the ceremony, he absolutely refused to admit that he was upset about being sorted into Hufflepuff.

.

September 1st, 1984

"Lovino? Fratello? Are you alright?" Lovino blinked and turned to see his brother looking at him, concerned. His mouth quickly situated itself in its usual frown.

"Of course I am. Why wouldn't I be?" Feliciano shrugged, tilting his head.

"No reason, it's just that you looked really distracted and you were staring at the Gryffindor table for a long time." Lovino's eyes widened for a moment before he looked away and grabbed a roll from one of the baskets to hide his blush.

"Just shut up and eat, Feli."

"But…"

"Hey, look, there's some pasta!" Lovino gestured to a serving plate a few feet down, and Feliciano's eyes immediately lit up.

"Really? Yay!" As he starting heaping his plate with enough pasta to feed an army, Lovino sighed quietly in relief and got his own food, grateful that his brother was so easily distracted.

Once they had all eaten, Dumbledore stood up and began speaking. Lovino rolled his eyes and tuned the old man out as usual. It wasn't until Feliciano nudged him and pointed excitedly at the headmaster that he began listening again.

"And once again I would like to thank all of our foreign students who have come back to spend another year with us, as well as extend a warm welcome to the first years just starting this program. I'm glad to see that even though it has been seven years since we began to accept students from other countries and send some of our students elsewhere, we are still having such good results.

"Now, after that wonderful food and such a long journey I am sure you all would enjoy a nice, long rest, so it's off to bed. First years, please follow your house prefects to find your way to your common rooms."

The Italians got up and followed the rest of the Hufflepuffs, who were all trailing after his friend Bella and that quiet Canadian guy in his year. Lovino watched the bespectacled boy trying vainly to wake the sleepy Greek boy with the cat on his head, snickering quietly.

"Lovi! Hey, there you are Lovi, I was looking for you!" Lovino turned around, violently crushing the butterflies suddenly doing a conga in his stomach only to stiffen as he was caught in a warm hug.

"G-get off of me, you bastard! And don't call me that!" He untangled himself from a laughing Antonio, attempting to glare though he could feel his cheeks darkening as they always did around the cheery Spaniard.

"Sorry, Lovino," he grinned, completely unapologetic, and turned to Feliciano. "And hello, Feli; it's so good to see you!"

"You too!" Lovino crossed his arms and scowled while his little brother hugged Antonio and began to prattle incessantly. "It was nice to be home, but I missed all my friends over the summer since postage to other countries costs a lot, so it was hard to write to Ludwig and Kiku, and you, of course. Lovino missed you too, even if he doesn't want to say. I know because he would always sigh a lot whenever we had tomatoes at dinner and he kept writing letters to you and then throwing them awa-mmph!"

Lovino clapped a hand over Feliciano's mouth, blushing furiously and avoiding Antonio's gaze. "Let's go, Feli. We should be going back to the common room right now."

Feliciano nodded happily, seemingly oblivious to Lovino's discomfort. He looked around and almost jumped up and down with delight as he saw a group of Ravenclaws walking in the opposite direction. "Oh, there's Ludwig, and Kiku's probably there, too! I'm going to go say hi!" Lovino's eyes immediately darkened.

"Hell no, you stay away from that damn potato bas-" Feliciano skipped off before he could finish, and Lovino groaned wearily. "He never listens."

"Probably something he learned from you," Antonio commented, and Lovino shot him a glare.

"And just what is that supposed to-"

"Come on; I'll walk you to your common room." Lovino looked ready to protest, but eventually just sighed and fell into step next to Antonio. The bastard would never leave even if Lovino did say something anyway.

They walked along, Antonio talking about different things that happened over the summer while Lovino pretended not to listen. After winding through countless corridors and several flights of stairs, they reached the archway that led to the Hufflepuff common room. Lovino turned to say goodbye, then froze. Antonio was much closer than he expected, looking at him with an unreadable glint in his eye.

"Wha-?" He was silenced when Antonio leaned closer. Holy shit, was he going to do what he thought he was going to do? Antonio swallowed, looking a bit nervous, and Lovino leaned forward almost against his will. All at once Antonio pulled back slightly, grabbing something from the pocket of his robes and putting it in Lovino's.

"Here, I noticed there weren't any at the feast tonight," he whispered, and suddenly he was back to normal, shooting Lovino a grin and a wave as he began his long trek across the castle. Lovino stood immobile for another few moments, wide-eyed, before he pulled the object from his pocket. He gave a breathy laugh that was almost a sigh and slumped against the wall, eyes never leaving the perfectly ripe tomato in his hands.

What had he done in a past life to deserve falling in love with such an idiot?