Chapter 2: Chance encounter

Tsukishima Kei was a tall, quite good-looking boy. Surely a lot of girls would fall head over heels for him if it wasn't because of his attitude. He was mean to others, perhaps his favorite thing to do ever was to mock people and he had a talent in it. He was a sarcastic little brat. Maybe this is why he hadn't gotten any friend at all. Not that he needed any. At least that was until he sat in that compartment on the Hogwarts Express. To his defense he was there first and that stupid kid was just pushed against his compartment door and destroy his peaceful trip. He saw a bunch of older kids maybe twelve or thirteen were laughing as tears were filling the other kid's eyes. What a pathetic brat, Kei thought, crying for something like that. And just about when he got up to find another quieter place to sit one of the older kids said," Oh come on, we just wanted a little extra sweet for the road, surely you've got some extra sickles with you, right Mud blood?" and the rest started laughing even more. Kei was not a hero and he certainly did not care for that little pathetic brat. But those kids were really annoying and loud and they even dare to disturb his favorite song playing. He just had to do something about that. He got up, open the compartment door, scanned his surroundings for a moment then look at the older kids and smirk," Thought I heard something, turns out to be a bunch of losers asking for some change. What's the matter? Your Mom forgot to pack her baby boy some food for the trip."

One of them stepped closer to him and glare at him," Little kids like you should just stay where you are and keep out of our eyesight or your mom will have a hard time trying to recognize you, punk."

It would have been very intimidating if the other kid wasn't several inches shorter than Kei. And it seemed like there were others who realize this to for there were the sound of suppressed laughter appeared. Obviously, Kei had noticed this and smirked. He was definitely going to make fun of the boy when someone shouted "Excuse me, prefect coming through... let me pass please... EVERYONE PLEASE GET BACK TO YOUR SEAT NOW! Nothing to see here..."

Getting in trouble on the first day he entered school did not seem like a good idea to Kei. He prefered to lay low, lower than the teachers range anyway, getting into trouble now would mean that he would be kept an eye on. And that would mean it's going to be tough to have have any fun later on. Having thought of all this he decided to leave the crime scene before the prefect reached it. Apparently the others thought of this too for they too are going away but they didn't do it without a lot of snarls and threats. Kei got into his compartment, ready to close the door but then he saw a small figure still sitting on the floor. "How long do you plan to sit there crying? It's really pathetic" Kei said and he take his seat, leaving the door open. The kid got up and went into the compartment, closing the door as he went in.

"Thank you very much about that," he mumbled, "sorry for causing you trouble." He looked up, watching Kei's reaction but there was none because Kei had already gotten his headphone on and didn't catch a word he had just said. So he said it again, louder this time, enough to caught Kei's attention. "It was nothing, those guys were bothering me anyway," was the reaction he got.

"I'm Yamaguchi by the way. Yamaguchi Tadashi. Nice to meet you."

"Tsukishima. Tsukishima Kei. Nice to meet you too."

The trip went on again, no noise, no one annoying him, for the next two seconds. Then his compartment door was brutally opened again. And in come a boy with a messy bright orange hair. Kei didn't even have the time to show his irritated face, the boy started talking.

"OOOOhhh you're the one back there right? I saw you there. You were really cool you know? You should have seen those guys' face when that dude tried to scared you, even his friends find it funny. It was really cool of you. Oh right this is the guy you were standing up for, isn't it? You are really lucky to have a friend like this you know. And that reminds me, you shouldn't cry just because those guys were mean to you, you should-"

"Whoa whoa whoa, hold up," interrupted Kei, "first, we are not friends, we barely know each other, second, those guys were bothering me with all the noise so I put a stop to that. Nothing more. And who on earth are you coming in here like you own the place?"

"Me? Oh yeah I haven't introduced myself yet," He stood up straight and now Kei could look closely to the boy. He wasn't much. He was short, thin, look really weak and not so much smart. There was nothing of his that stand out much except his bright orange hair. And he was obviously looking forward to going to Hogwarts because he was fully dressed in robes and it hadn't been half of the journey yet.

"I'm Hinata Shouyou. Nice to meet you all."

The rest of the journey went smoothly, as smooth as it can be with a hyperactive orange haired brat that wouldn't stop talking anyway. Shouyou talked all the way to Hogsmeade about all sort of things in the world and through this Kei found out quite much about the boy. He's muggle born, apparently knew nothing about the racism towards muggle born. He has a younger sister, his parents are nice and they recently had a fight on whether to let him go here and his mom won. And he loves volleyball. Most of his rambling on the journey was either about how awesome all the magical things was (and Yamaguchi joined him with it) or about volleyball (Yamaguchi just listened and sometimes tried to change the subject) even though he had never admitted it and would probably deny if someone mentioned it, Kei knows how Shouyou felt. He too had experienced all this, being a half blood himself.

The first Hogwarts letter the Tsukishimas ever received was for his brother, Akiteru, Kei was only 4 then so his memory was fuzzy. He remembered a fight between his parents, his dad wasn't exactly happy to know about his mom secretly being a witch. It was very intense and there was shouting and tears. He didn't remember who was crying then, perhaps it was him. And then there was the time his mother first brought him and Akiteru into Diagon Alley. He remembered how both of them were so amazed and excited and a bit scared all at the same time. And after that first time, he slowly got used to everything, he went there with Akiteru and his mother all the time for the next few years, sometimes his dad accompanied them, then finally it was his turn.

"Ooohhh wooooww look at that! We're here," said a certain annoying orange-haired boy. Kei looked outside and true enough, they were at Hogwarts. He had been so lost in his thought that he didn't even notice how much time went by. The journey had ended. They had finally arrived at Hogwarts.