Hinata Hajime had always thought of himself as normal. There was nothing particularly interesting about Hinata Hajime that was particularly special or interesting. Or, at least, there wasn't anything interesting about he that he had noticed. His parents had often thought that strange things happened around him. For example, he had this one strand of hair that would grow back as soon as it was cut and stuck up at an odd angle. He also had the strange habit of turning up in unusual places with no memory of how he'd gotten there; one time, during a class game, he'd ended up on the roof of the school, and another time he'd ended up sat on top of his car.

Hinata's entire view of himself had changed on the day that he'd received a letter from Hope's Peak Academy of Witchcraft and Wizardry; a letter which was followed by a visit from a tall man, who explained that Hinata was, in fact, a wizard.

In some ways, his parents were glad to hear the news, because it made sense with all the weird things Hinata did (although Hinata himself never saw these things), but they were also somewhat shocked and horrified. The man did a good job of convincing them that there was nothing wrong with it. In fact, he did such a good job of convincing Hinata's parents that he was starting to suspect that it might have been magic.

It wasn't magic, however, that got him to Shibuya Station on the first day of the new school year; it was his father's car. That being said, Hinata had no idea which train to get on, considering that he'd been given a ticket that said nothing other than "Ticket for School Train" on it. He just hoped the answer would present itself after he arrived. He considered asking the statue the dog that guarded the station which train to get on, but then he realised that talking to statues was pretty stupid. He also realised that magic and the idea of being a wizard in general was pretty stupid and came to the conclusion that this was some giant joke being played on him by some of his friends in order to make him look like a total dick, and decided to call his father and ask to be picked up.

He felt incredibly stupid and angry now, considering that he had bought new school supplies, like a wand and robes and all this other crap. He felt even more stupid when he realised that he had believed he was actually doing magic with the wand, and that when the tall man who claimed to be Hope's Peak's headmaster had done some fancy tapping on the wall outside some shopping centre and led him down some small alley into a load of shops selling magical items, he had believed that it was real. It was probably a trick. There was nothing special about him. Magic wasn't real. Hinata thought he might cry.

At least, he felt completely disillusioned with the whole thing, until he heard a soft voice ask, "How long is it until your sister moves up to Hope's Peak, Naegi-kun?" and a bright, cheery reply of, "She starts next year, actually, Kirigiri-san. Why do you ask?"

Usually, Hinata didn't listen to stranger's conversations, and usually, on a busy station like this, the conversation of students a little older than him talking in loud tones wouldn't catch his attention, but this time, the students had said the words he wanted to hear.

Usually, Hinata didn't follow totally random strangers, but this time, those strangers were heading to the one place he wanted to be. And so he followed the trio; a tall, blonde boy with glasses who contributed to most of the conversation by making pretentious "hmph" sounds, a short boy with messy hair and a hoodie, and a girl with long, light coloured hair who seemed perfectly happy to just let the hoodie-boy talk. The three of them were lugging small suitcases behind them, like Hinata himself, though Hinata's was larger, which made him wonder if he had to leave certain things at school when the year ended, and suddenly stopped at one of the large pillars marking the platform. Hinata almost collided with them, and had to freeze completely to avoid bumping into them.

He could feel himself pale in shock as the tallest boy leant against the pillar in a completely casual manner, and then slowly melted into it. The other boy sighed, then extended his hand, indicating fo the girl to go first, and she just walked into the pillar. It was like she was swallowed by it. The remaining student looked from left to right before walking through the pillar in the same way.

It was starting to dawn on Hinata that this was the way to get to his train. He gulped, felt his grip around his suitcase tighten, and just walked towards the pillar, purposefully, not even noticing that he was slowly picking up speed and getting faster and faster and faster until -

The bang he was expecting did not come. Instead, he felt like he was passing through a cold shower for a second, and then, nothing. He opened eyes he didn't even realise he'd closed, and found himself on another platform, with another train. This platform was lined with students in the uniform he'd purchased for Hope's Peak, and their parents were dressed weirdly and hugging them and saying goodbye, and Hinata knew that this was his train, despite the fact he still had no idea where he was. He glanced back to the ticket in his hand, which almost felt warmer, and a tall, smiling man with wild hair and a disheveled uniform said, "Yeah, this is the right train."

"Oh," Hinata looked from the ticket to the man and his gravity-defying hair. "Do you, um, work on the train?"

"More than that, Hinata-chi," he beamed. Hinata was momentarily distraught, because he had no idea how this strange man knew his name, but before he had a chance to ask, he was told, "I work at Hope's Peak. I'm the Divination teacher, and I see great things in your future."

Hinata didn't have any idea how to respond to that. "Then why are you on the train?"

"I..." The man rubbed the back of his neck. "I got lost and forgot where the school is. Don't worry though, the train will take us there!"

He grimaced. He didn't very much want to be sat on a train with this man, let alone be in a lesson taught by him. He left, dragging his case behind him, and popped his ticket in the scanner. The barrier opened for him, and Hinata was glad for a second that witches and wizards at least used modern traveling methods. He left the Divination teacher a good way behind him. The man was looking for his ticket.

The train to Hope's Peak had compartments, which Hinata found odd; the train he used to ride into school had no such thing. He wasn't even sure he'd ever been on a train with compartments on in his life. He searched for a free compartment for a while, but had no luck. He gave up, deciding to take a seat in the compartment with the least people in. In the end, he settled for one with a small girl curled up in the corner. He slid the door open and peered inside. "Do you mind?" he asked, before dragging his case in.

The girl didn't reply.

"Excuse me?!" he called, a little louder. "Do you mind?"

This seemed to startle the girl, and she looked up at him before smiling and nodding. Hinata pulled his case in, and, with a little difficulty, attempted to place it in the luggage rack. It was nice that the train had one of those. Hinata hadn't been on a train like this, ever.

He took the seat furthest away from the girl, not wanting to disturb her. She was sat by the window, intensely watching the screen of what looked to be a 3DS. Her eyes reflected the image slightly, seeming to gleam pink, and her hair dangled in front of her face, loose with wavy ends.

"I'm Hinata Hajime," Hinata said, before realising the girl had headphones in.

The compartment was silent, bar the sound of her fingers tapping furiously. Hinata came to the conclusion that this was going to be a long ride. He should have brought a book.

"Nanami Chiaki," the girl suddenly said, somewhat quietly, almost a mumble.

"I'm sorry?"

The girl hit pause and looked up. "Nanami Chiaki," she repeated. "It's my name."

"Oh," Hinata nodded his understanding. "Pleased to meet you, Nanami."

"Same to you, Hinata-kun," she nodded back, smiling slightly. Her gaze flickered down slightly, and she resumed play, but Hinata noticed she'd taken one of her headphones out, and assumed this was invitation to carry on conversation.

"What are you playing?" he asked, leaning forward.

She shrugged. "It's a muggle game; you've probably never heard of it."

Hinata's brow furrowed. "Muggle?"

"You don't know what a muggle is?" She didn't look up at him.

"Well, no," Hinata admitted, "and I quite like to think I'm at least a little big on the gaming scene. I mean, I played Dangan Ronpa-"

"It's not a company," she chuckled, toggling the L and R buttons, "it's a term. For non-magical folk."

Hinata nodded. "That'd be why I didn't know what it meant."

"Ah." She hit a button and looked up at him. "Sorry. Didn't consider you might be muggle-born."

"Are you, um, muggle-born too?" Hinata asked. "Only I find it kinda strange that a witch would be playing on a, uh, muggle console."

Nanami returned her gaze back to her game. "No. Half-blood."

Hinata made a gurgling confused sound, and was about to ask what that was before Nanami glanced up quickly. "My dad's a muggle, but my mum's a witch," she explained, her gaze returning to her game quickly. "Or it could be the other way round... I don't really remember..."

"Surely you see one of them doing magic, and don't see the other one doing it?" Nanami began to frown, and Hinata began to panic he'd done something wrong. "I mean," he continued, despite her darkening expression, "wouldn't one of them have taught you about the wizarding world and..."

She rolled her eyes upwards at him, glaring. Shit. He'd made a mistake. Hinata looked down, worried he'd ruined his first chance at making a friend.

The train started to move. The compartment was silent.

"I'm playing Ace Attorney," Nanami said, finally.

"The pointy lawyer games?" Hinata asked. Nanami nodded.

"You can watch, if you like," she mumbled. Hinata didn't need much more of an invitation; he was nervous enough about starting a wizarding school, let alone starting it alone. He moved into the seat next to her.

As she played, she told him about Hope's Peak, and about the wizarding world. Hinata made sure not to ask about her family again. He learnt about it's weird customs and laws and sports and he laughed and he joked and he looked into those gleaming, soft pink eyes and he knew that it was going to be a long ride.

A long ride indeed.


author's note: originally it was going to be actual hogwarts in england but i was talking to caitlin and i decided against that so now its japan and hopes peak and i know nothing about japan and its education system and i did a hella amount of research for this but hey w/e

ps. i sorted people into houses and kind of want to write an actual hogwarts au so stick around because i might write that as my christmas thing