Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or Bleach, and I'm writing this purely for entertainment purposes. No harm intended, no profit made.
…..
Chapter 2:
Laura Madley watched as the new Hufflepuff girl plucked onion chunks out of the lunchtime stew. She did it with her fingers. The bland-faced New Girl made sure she got every one of them, then proceeded to eat her lunch with quick, precise movements.
Twist of bread, dip it in, scoop with the spoon, bite, chew, chew, chew, swallow.
The Great Hall was noisy on that day, especially at the Hufflepuff table. People everywhere were talking, gossiping, and shouting over each other, but New Girl looked like she hardly noticed. The banging of utensils, the rustling of papers and books, the spilt pumpkin juice, the elbows and open mouths and prodding fingers, none of it seemed to touch her. New Girl sat there alone and silent, looking bland as ever, eating her stew.
Laura Madley thought that New Girl was quite odd.
There were actually three of the New Students in Hufflepuff, not just New Girl. Further down the table sat Shuuhei Hisagi and even further down, surrounded by his new friends, was Hanataro Yamada. Laura remembered their names well enough.
Hisagi liked to roll up the sleeves of his robes, exposing old, odd-looking scars and bulging muscles. There was a metal armband around each bicep and a matching choker around his neck, something exposed whenever Hisagi tugged uncomfortably at the black-and-yellow tie. Three vertical scars ran down his face, like cracks in a wall. His face was tattooed and scarred, how thrilling!
Half of the Hufflepuffs suspected Hisagi was an escaped convict; the others half thought he was a retired mercenary. Had he killed 69 people before retiring from a life of violence? Or did was June 9th his childhood sweetheart's birthday? Or had he been a prisoner of cell number 69? Or was he just a very lewd person? It was more fun not to know.
Hisagi slurped at his meal, not seeming to care (or even notice) that most of the people were watching him, even whispering a bit. He rushed through lunch, hefted a load of books into his arms, and rushed to meet up with the blond Ravenclaw that was also New.
"Oh! Hello, Shuuhei," said the Blond, who was standing by the entryway. "Shall we go to class together?"
"Yes, let's go," said Hisagi, and gently touched the Blond's elbow with his fingertips. They swept out of the Great Hall long before lunch was actually over.
Yamada, on the other hand, looked like he was having a grand time talking and fooling around in the midst of all the lunchtime chaos. He had made friends with Macmillan, Stebbins, and Summerby, though Laura remembered how pale and shy he'd been on that first night.
He had looked rather longingly at the Gryffindor table when he'd been sorted, and sat down nervously among the Hufflepuffs. His eyes had been downcast, as if he hadn't expected to make friends, as if he was already resigned that people would dislike him. He had definitely cheered up since then, as Macmillan, Stebbins, and Summerby found him quite likable and welcomed him to their group.
Laura imagined that the poor kid had a tough time making friends from whatever school he previously came from. Although he did seem to enjoy hanging around the new Kuchiki girl and the Kotetsu sisters, who had been sorted into Gryffindor. Laura figured they must have gone to the same school.
Hanataro Yamada was friendly, and charming in his own way. Shuuhei Hisagi was exotic and wonderfully dangerous-looking. The New Girl was none of these things.
Which was why when Laura looked over at New Girl, she had to struggle to remember that New Girl's name was Nemu Kurotsuchi.
"Look, that creepy Slytherin girl is coming this way," Hannah Abbot said to Susan Bones, who passed the message on to Rose Zeller, who whispered it into Laura's ear.
The Creepy Slytherin Girl with the odd braids walked up to where Nemu was sitting. Her large friend, Marechiyo Omaeda, followed closely behind.
"Sorry to interrupt, but I need to speak with you about some… things. If you don't mind?"
"As you wish," replied New Girl, putting down her spoon and standing even though she clearly wasn't finished. She followed the other two without another word, eyes half-lidded and hands folded in front of her.
Laura didn't see Nemu for the rest of the day, not even at dinner. But Nemu was sitting quietly in one of the armchairs when Laura returned to the Common Room that night. The New Girl's Potions assignment was lying on the end table and the writing was so neat that Laura could read it upside down.
"Oh, h-hello!" said Laura, a bit awkwardly. "You're Nemu Kurotsuchi, aren't you?"
"Yes, I am. And you're Laura Madley."
"Yes, that's right…"
Blank-looking green eyes blinked up at her and Laura wasn't sure what to say, or why exactly she had greeted the odd girl in the first place.
When Nemu didn't offer any further conversation, Laura sat down in one of the other armchairs and, a bit red-faced, took out her own Potions assignment to work on.
She glanced towards the New Girl a few times, and noticed that Nemu didn't really seem to be doing anything besides sitting.
A half hour later, Shuuhei Hisagi stepped into the Common Room. As Nemu rose to greet him, Laura realized that the New Girl must have been waiting for him all this time.
"I have a message from Captain Soifon," Nemu said, and they moved off into a corner of the room to talk. They spoke in whispers, but Laura shamelessly eavesdropped and caught the word "Hollow" many times.
"Yamada should know too," said Hisagi, when their conversation seemed to be at an end. "I'll pass it on to him."
"No, the Captain insisted that I should tell him personally," said Nemu, and turned towards the dormitories.
"Wait, you can't just walk into the boys' dormitories!" cried Hisagi, looking scandalized. "Especially not this late at night."
"Alright then. I will wait until morning."
At dawn the next morning, Hanataro Yamada woke half the House up with his shrieking. Laura found out later that it was because he woke up to find Nemu Kurotsuchi hovering over him, almost nose-to-nose.
Odd. There were many odd things about Nemu Kurotsuchi.
Nemu had the embarrassing habit of walking around the girls' dormitory naked. She stripped before going in the shower, then didn't bother getting dressed again after she dried off. She slept without pajamas. In the mornings, she brushed her teeth in the nude, only bothering to get dressed when she was about to leave the dormitories.
Though Laura was only in the third years' Potions Class, she heard from Hannah Abbot that Nemu was quite good, even becoming one of Slughorn's top students. Her fingers were extremely deft, Hanna said, and she could brew difficult potions without making a single mistake. She got best marks on every assignment.
"Oh, come on, Kurotsuchi," whined Zacharias Smith one day, trying to wheedle her into letting him copy her essay. "I won't look at the whole thing, just the bit about the Everlasting Elixirs."
"It's against the rules," Nemu replied in a monotone voice. "Please don't ask me again."
Smith sneered. "Don't be so stuck-up. It's bad enough that you're so swotty. You're almost as bad as Granger. No wonder you haven't got any friends except old Slughorn. If you like being the teacher's pet so much, maybe you should-"
"Maybe you should leave her alone," Hisagi said, frowning menacingly from across the library. He got up, right bicep flexing.
Smith went white and scampered away.
"No fighting in the library!"
"Yes, Madam Pince."
"Thank you," Nemu later said to Hisagi, while looking down at her hands, "for your support earlier, but it was unnecessary. I did not need for you to intervene." There was a bitter little bite to her voice that Laura was shocked to hear, but in the second that it took for Laura to look up from her book to Nemu's face, the blankness took over again and those large green eyes were dull and bland.
Nemu was quiet and bland and odd, and Laura wondered how she could be so interesting at the same time.
"Hey, umm, Nemu?" said Laura, approaching the New Girl that Friday. New Girl was sitting in one of the Common Room armchairs, hands folded in her lap, gazing at nothing.
"It's a Hogsmeade weekend, and er… me'n some of the other girls were planning on lunch tomorrow at the Three Broomsticks. Would you like to come with us?"
Those green eyes blinked up at her. Several heartbeats passed in silence, and Laura felt her face growing warm.
"Yes. Thank you for inviting me."
"Oh," said Laura, the answer coming out in a huff of relief. "That's great. We'll meet you here at noon, then?"
"Yes, alright."
Nemu stood to go, and in that graceful sweep of sitting to standing, Laura found herself fixated by New Girl's legs. Resting under the hem of those black robes as she sat, Nemu's legs had seemed round and soft. But as soon as Nemu stood, they hardened like steel and Laura was sure that those were probably the strongest legs she had ever seen on a girl.
When Saturday came, the Three Broomsticks was crowded and noisy. Once again, the mess and the noise didn't seem to bother New Girl, who sat quietly and ate her shepherd's pie.
At a table further in, Laura saw the Creepy Slytherin Girl sitting with her large friend and many other Slytherins. To their right, there was Hisagi, who was sharing a table with the Blond. A rowdy table in the middle of the pub was mostly occupied by New Girls, including the Kotetsu sisters in Gryffindor.
"Hey, look!" exclaimed Kiyone Kotetsu, standing up and waving in their direction. "It's N-"
But her sister grabbed her arm and whispered a few words in Kiyone's ears, so that the shorter girl sat down again, her greeting unfinished.
"What was your old school like?" asked Rose, passing out the butterbeers at their table.
"It was a very good learning institution."
"Did your school have any good Quidditch teams?" asked Megan.
"No, it did not."
"Were you the top of your potions class back there, like you are now?"
"I was adequate."
The girls' voices lowered into mischievous whispers. "Which of the boys do you like best in our House? Tell us, Nemu!"
"For sexual purposes, Justin Finch-Fletchley would be the most attractive."
Rose and Megan squealed and giggled loudly at this response, but Laura sat with her chin in her hand and wondered how odd it was that Nemu said such a thing with no passion. As if she was simply stating a fact, as if she had no interest in boys at all.
"Say, Nemu," said Laura, "what do you like best about Hogwarts?"
Nemu was silent for a while, and stared into her mug. Her eyelids drooped a bit, her lashes brushing her cheeks. "I like the grounds, how I can walk and walk and there would still be grass under my feet and sky above my head," she responded in quite a different tone of voice.
It was then that Laura realized something about New Girl. The blankness in that face was actually a strange sort of sadness, a quiet melancholy. Yet, it did seem that inviting Nemu to go with them was a good idea. Laura saw just the tiniest of smiles on Nemu's face before the outing was over.
"Quidditch tryouts are next week," Megan mentioned off-handedly, as they walked back. "D'you think Cadwallader will be Seeker again?"
Laura thought she saw Nemu's eyes light just a little at the mention of Quidditch tryouts.
A few days later, Laura walked by the Quidditch pitch and wasn't surprised to see Nemu in the stands. She was watching the tryouts.
"Hello, Nemu!" said Laura, coming to sit beside her. "I didn't know you liked Quidditch. Do you play?"
"No." Her voice wasn't quite as dull as it usually was. "I don't play. We didn't have such things at my… old school. It seems intriguing."
Laura watched the yellow-clad players soar around the pitch. She watched Nemu watching them.
The Quaffle was bright red in the morning sun, being tossed back and forth between the Chasers. One of the younger ones fumbled and dropped it, and Laura heard an odd huffing noise from Nemu, then realized it was a quiet laugh. The crack of Beaters' bats against the Bludgers was loud and sharp.
"Laura, please tell me how this game is played," said Nemu, and Laura hurried to explain. She listed off all the rules she knew, all the famous players her older brother was so fond of, all the techniques she'd read about in those Quidditch magazines.
"It really is fun," said Laura. "You should try it! I didn't bring my own broom to Hogwarts, but we can borrow some from Madam Hooch, and if she'll lend us a Quaffle, we could-"
"Oh," Nemu suddenly interrupted. "Don't move an inch. There's a Bludger coming towards your left."
"Summerby, you idiot, don't knock it into the stands!" someone yelled, and Laura felt the Bludger whiz by the left side of her head, missing her face by inches.
There was a tremendous thump and Laura, who had closed her eyes in fear, looked up to see Nemu holding the still-wriggling ball in her bare hand.
"I can't believe it!" Laura gasped. "You actually caught that thing?"
Without a word, Nemu rose to her feet, holding the Bludger effortlessly in her hand. She jumped up in one graceful motion, tossed the ball in the air, and then swung at it with her other arm.
Another loud thump and the Bludger was sailing through the air with enough force to knock Summerby off his broom.
"Wow…"
In seconds, the Hufflepuff Quidditch players were swooping down into the stands, crowding around them, shouting in amazement.
"That was incredible, Kurotsuchi!"
"Did she use a Repelling Charm?"
"No, she used her bare hands! I saw it myself!"
"Amazing!"
"You'd make one hell of a Beater, Kurotsuchi."
"Why don't you try out for the team? We could just get rid of Summerby."'
"Hey, that's not fair!"
"Try out for the team, Kurotsuchi! You can fly, right?"
"I'm sorry," said Nemu abruptly, "but I shouldn't." Stiffly, she dipped into a little bow of apology and walked away, leaving them gaping after her. Only Laura saw the look of regret on her face.
"We'll keep you open on the reserve team, if you ever change your mind!" one of them called.
When Laura caught up with Nemu and tried to talk to her about it, she was met with stony silence. Nemu didn't bring up Quidditch for the rest of the day, or the rest of the week.
However, Laura somehow suspected that Nemu would show up again at the Hufflepuffs' first practice, and her suspicions proved correct. The New Girl was sitting in the stands, hands in her lap, gazing up into the sky while her Housemates practiced, much like when she watched the tryouts.
What surprised her was that there was a broom lying by Nemu's feet this time.
"You've got a broom!" exclaimed Laura, plopping down next to Nemu. "So did you join the team after all?"
"No, I haven't," replied Nemu. "I just thought it would be nice to watch them practice."
"Where did you get that?" said Laura, eyeing the broomstick. It was slender and seemed much smaller than a normal one, and was made of very dark wood.
"It's mine," said Nemu. "I made it."
Laura laughed. "You're joking."
In response, Nemu drew her wand and gave it a tap. There was an odd whirring noise, and the broom flew up into the air in a jerky movement. It hovered at about eye level, and Laura could see the initials N.K. etched into the handle. There was also a strange symbol next to N.K. that Laura squinted at but couldn't make out.
"That's a thistle flower-head," said Nemu, as if reading Laura's mind. "It's the symbol of my… old school."
"D-did you really make that thing? I don't think you should use it. It doesn't look too safe."
"It's safe enough. I borrowed one of the brooms Madam Hooch uses for her first-year flying lessons. After I took it apart and put it together a few times, I knew the rudimentary concepts behind a flying broomstick. Then, I made my own."
Laura imagined that Madam Hooch couldn't have been to pleased to discover the New Girl had "taken apart" one of the brooms.
"So, are you going to join the team after all? I know you want to, Nemu. Otherwise, you wouldn't have gone through all that trouble."
Nemu lowered her head so that she was staring into her lap again.
"I haven't seen you fly yet, but I'm sure you're quite good," Laura continued, trying to catch Nemu's eye. "Much better than either Smith or Summerby, because those two are hopeless. And wouldn't it be great to have a girl as a Hufflepuff Beater? There haven't been many of those, ever."
"I shouldn't," said Nemu. "My… father would disapprove of me playing silly games. It would be unproductive."
"Quidditch isn't a silly game!" said Laura, a bit indignant. "A lot of our players take it quite seriously, and they work very hard for the team. Some of them even want to become professionals after they graduate from Hogwarts."
Her breath hitched when Laura remembered Cedric Diggory, and how proud he'd been of every little victory, not for himself, but for his House and his teammates.
"I shouldn't," said Nemu, and there was no pleasure in her voice. "I'm a member of the Gobstones Club and I promised the captain that I'd give priority to the club."
Laura's eyes widened in surprise. She hadn't known that New Girl joined the Gobstones Club.
"Schoolwork is also very important," Nemu continued. "Professor Slughorn told me that my grades were exceptional, and that he wanted me to join his select group of students. It would be unpleasant if my grades were to drop because I have no time to study. I really shouldn't."
"I shouldn't, I shouldn't, I shouldn't," Laura mimicked nastily.
She stood up, finding herself red-faced with impatience. "What about what you want to do, huh? I know how it is. You do what your father wants and never have any fun. The captain of the Gobstones Club wants you to prioritize Gobstones, so you do what she wants. Stupid old Sluggy thinks you're brilliant and wants you in his stupid old club, so you do what he wants. Even that weird Slytherin girl you follow around all the time! Don't think I haven't noticed. She tells you to drop whatever it is you're doing and you do what she wants, too! Well what about Nemu Kurotsuchi, who wants to play Quidditch? Shouldn't she get what she wants?"
"It's just a game," Nemu said softly. "It shouldn't matter."
"Even if it's the silliest game in the entire world, if it means something to you, then it means something to you."
Laura panted, not realizing that she had been talking so loud. She looked at Nemu, who was bowing her head so low that strands of her hair were touching her hands.
Suddenly, New Girl stood. Laura gasped when Nemu grabbed her by the shoulders and pulled her into a hug. It wasn't soft, like she was expecting, but hard and bruising.
"Thank you," said Nemu, pulling back. There was that tiny smile again.
She grabbed the handle of her self-made broom and mounted in a nimble little hop.
"W-wait a minute!" cried Laura. "Are you sure that's safe?"
Without waiting for an answer, Nemu took off towards the other players. Her broom was jerky and hard to control, but she was as graceful as a swan spreading its wings in the air.
Laura grinned and felt like cheering.
In the next match against Gryffindor, Nemu took the position of Beater. Her Bludger broke Ginny Weasely's right arm.
Hufflepuff won the match, and Nemu, looking absolutely sweet in her canary-yellow robes, didn't quite cheer and throw up her arms. But Laura knew the New Girl was happy, truly happy, by the excited pink flush on Nemu's cheeks and that wide smile.
"I quit the team," said Nemu, as they sat up late that night on Laura's bed. Laura had insisted Nemu put on a robe before allowing her on the bedspread, and they were sharing a celebratory box of chocolates.
"What! Why?"
"Once was enough," replied New Girl, smiling softly.
Nemu's hair was undone and it flowed down her back. There were a few dark strands falling over her eyes and Laura reached over to brush them behind Nemu's ear. She smiled back.
"By the way," said Nemu, "since I don't need my broom anymore, would you like to have it?"
Thoughts of falling off and breaking her neck on the ground flashed through Laura's mind.
"No thanks," she said hurriedly. "I've already got one at home."
"Oh. Then I suppose I'll turn it over to Madam Hooch. She can use it for her first-year flying class."
Thoughts of first years falling off and breaking their necks on the ground flashed through Laura's mind.
"On second thought, I'd love to have it! Thanks."
….
Notes: Thanks so much for reading! Please feedback and let me know what you think!