Hinata sat in the library waiting for his sure untimely demise.
This is it, thought Hinata as he waited for his terrifying and probably homicidal tutor. This is how I die.
His friends had given him brief and mournful goodbyes when he left the table at dinner. Hinata took a spare moment to hope Izumi and Sakimukai would take care of Natsu and protect her from the older kids at the orphanage. Hinata gave a heartfelt groan. He hadn't even gotten to play Quidditch yet!
The door to the study room opened. Hinata braced himself. An angel walked in.
Hinata shook his head and looked again. A third year with a Slytherin tie walked up to Hinata's table. His entire aura had the most calm and comforting nature that Hinata had ever felt. Under the library's warm glow, his hair seemed to shine bright silver.
"Hello," the boy said politely. "You must be Hinata. My name's Koushi Sugawara, but you can call me Suga. I'm your Potions tutor!"
Hinata thought there must be some mistake. This boy couldn't be about to kill him! He let Hinata call him by a nickname!
When he realized he was still staring at him, Hinata gave a quick high pitched "N-nice to meet you."
Suga looked vaguely perplexed before apparently deciding to move on. "I thought we would go to the Potions classroom so you can see all the different potions ingredients in person. I checked with Professor Irihata and he told me that it would be fine."
Hinata nodded quickly, still uncertain what was going on.
Suga led Hinata down to the dungeons while gently steering the conversation around Hinata's first couple of weeks at Hogwarts.
"Wow," Suga remarked. "You must be really excited for the game this Saturday."
"It's going to be awesome!" Hinata told him, almost skipping down the hall. "Bokuto told us that both me and Kageyama would both get to play even though Ravenclaw's like one of our top rivals or something."
He looked at Suga. "Do you play Quidditch?"
Suga laughed. "No, not me. The Slytherin teams mostly filled with the older students and I'm not the best at sports anyway." Suga paused. "I do like flying, though."
"Flying is the best thing ever," Hinata sighed in agreement. "It's like, when I'm up there, being at the top of the world-the highest point ever and I can see everything."
Suga nodded and opened the door to the Potions classroom.
"Professor Irihata told me to mainly focus on the different ingredients you'll need to know for the week. Why don't we start by me showing you how to find different ingredients in your potions case, alright?"
Hinata nodded and slowly watched as Suga revealed all the different compartments that he never even knew his case had-let alone what was in them.
By the end of the potions tutoring, Hinata was able to correctly state where all the ingredients in his case were stored but still had trouble identifying them by sight.
"That's really good progress for today," Suga told him, pleased. "Next week, we'll work on the specific properties of some of the basic ingredients. Good job for today, though!"
Hinata beamed. "Thanks, Suga! You're a really good teacher."
Suga sent him a warm smile in return. "I'm glad I could help."
"I'm really glad I came," Hinata continued without thinking. "My friends told me you were really scary and were going to be super mean. But, you're not like that at all." Hinata stopped when he realized he could have accidentally offended Suga. "Ack, I'm sorry. I didn't mean it like that. You're really, really nice and my friends were probably just thinking of someone else."
Suga smiled sadly. "No, they were right." Hinata widened his eyes, looking slightly panicked. "Oh, no, sorry, not about me specifically. My family is what you would call a, well, a rather dark family. Historically, they've been very...traditional. Not very open to change."
He paused and started again with a kind of quiet hopelessness. "I'm not, though, I promise. I think, no, I know that my family has had it wrong on a lot of things, especially their political agenda." He met Hinata's eyes. "Hinata, I promise you that you will never have reason to be afraid because of me."
"I believe you," Hinata said immediately.
"Oh," Suga said, taken aback. "Um, most people rather don't agree with that so instantly."
"Well, you've been really nice to me," Hinata answered, logically. "You talked to me about Quidditch and you helped me with all the Potions stuff." Hinata paused, thinking. "Besides, just because your family thinks something doesn't mean you do. My sister Natsu and I disagree all the time!
"My friends and I were just being stupid," Hinata admitted. "I'm sure once people get to know you, they'll see you're really cool and not scary like at all."
Suga gave a somewhat wistful smile to Hinata. "Thank you, Hinata. That's very kind of you. I really hope you're right."
Hinata smiled.
"Well," Suga remarked, changing the subject, "I need to finish my homework and you need to go get some sleep for the big game. Why don't I walk you back up?"
"Awesome!" Hinata replied. He couldn't wait to surprise his dorm by showing them he hadn't gotten murdered by his "supper scary" Potions tutor.
ooooooo
"You should tell Irihata," Iwaizumi said firmly from his side of the small practice room.
"What good will that do?" Oikawa asked absently while trying the shield charm again. As usual the spell emerged but still looked fairly translucent and weak. Frustrated, Oikawa ran his hand through his hair.
"He's your Head of House, Oikawa," Iwaizumi prodded, gently. "He'll have your back if you tell him Sora's discriminating against you."
Oikawa sighed. "With what proof? It's not like he said anything about me being muggleborn or was spouting off about blood purity. All he did is imply I'm not powerful enough for the shield charm," Oikawa looked down at his wand before muttering "which he might be right about."
Iwaizumi watched his friend for a moment, taking note of his slumped shoulders and furrowed brow. "Oikawa...you know that Sora isn't right, don't you? You're just as powerful as everyone else there."
Oikawa shrugged. "Maybe...but everyone else already has this stupid shield charm down."
Iwaizumi walked over to Oikawa's side. "So what? I struggled with the basic levitation charm for ages in first year. Just because you've gotten straight O's in everything doesn't mean you're weak now because you're having trouble. If Sora was a good enough teacher, you could have just gone to him and already have it down."
"No one else needed this much help," Oikawa commented, still looking down.
Iwaizumi sighed. "Look, Stupidkawa, I'm not saying this again. You're a great wizard. Merlin, you're the best in our year and everyone knows it. One teacher being a dick isn't going to change that. Okay?"
Oikawa gave a wane smile before giving a mock gasp. "Iwa-chan, you cursed. You cursed twice."
Iwaizumi rolled his eyes and gave Oikawa a light whack to the back of the head.
"Mean, Iwa-chan!" Oikawa yelped with finally a little bit of energy.
"Come on, let's go catch the Quidditch game." Iwaizumi said, heading for the door.
Oikawa hummed. "You go on. I'll catch up in a bit. I want to practice this charm a few more times."
"Oikawa," Iwaizumi said, warningly. "Wearing yourself out isn't going to help with the spell."
"Thirty more minutes, I promise" Oikawa told him. "I'll meet you in the stands."
Iwaizumi sent a glare but finally subsided. "If you're not there by then, I'm coming back down and showing you why you'd need a shield."
Oikawa stuck out his tongue and watched him leave.
Alright, he steadied himself and called for his magic. This time, for sure.
ooooooo
"You look...more cheerful than I expected." Tetsuro Kuroo commented as he and his friend looked out to the Quidditch pitch.
Kenma blinked and realized that a minuscule smile had snuck onto his face when he wasn't paying attention.
"Have you decided to finally get fired up about Quidditch?" Kuroo joked. "Hufflepuff is our historical rival...even if they're supposed to be kinda weak this year."
Kenma gave a small shrug and fidgeted slightly in his Quidditch gear.
"Although, Bokuto's team captain this year so Akaashi's probably helped him some with strategy. That traitor!" Though as Kuroo rubbed his hands together and looked eagerly at the pitch, Kenma noted he looked more anticipating than angry.
Kenma followed his gaze absently.
"It should be...interesting." he finally remarked softly.
"Oh, ho, Kenma's getting interested in a Quidditch match." Kuroo commented curiously. "Do tell what's making you think that?"
Kenma frowned.
"We need to get down," he noted rather than answering.
Kuroo sighed but subsided, probably due to familiarity with Kenma's taciturn nature.
"Besides," Kenma began, feeling slightly mischievous. "Shouyou's on their team."
"Wait? Kenma?...Kenma, stop walking away! WHO'S SHOUYOU?!"
ooooooo
Hinata felt like he was going to throw up.
He tried to pay attention as Bokuto gave the team a rousing and incredibly energetic opening speech. As a member of the opposing house, Akaashi was not actually allowed into the Hufflepuff changing room right before a Ravenclaw game. This meant that Bokuto had gone on for nearly ten minutes about energy and team work and how they were going to beat Kuroo and his stupid hair.
"Captain," Futakuchi interrupted, having finally reached his limit. "We're going to be late for the starting pitch."
"Oh," Bokuto stopped suddenly. "Right. TEAM TO THE PITCH!"
The team gave an answering shout and followed Bokuto out. Bokuto veered back to walk beside Kageyama and Hinata.
"Hey, so I know this is your first game and all. So, you might be really nervous, right?" Bokuto asked them in a loud whisper.
Hinata nodded emphatically while Kageyama gave a hesitant nod.
"Well, don't worry. You two have some of the best natural Chaser instincts I've ever seen and Koki's definitely got your back if you need any help."
Hinata did feel slightly better with that.
"Just, whatever you do, don't start fighting!" Bokuto finally told them before heading back to the front of the group.
Hinata sighed.
"Look," he started, meeting Kageyama's eyes. "I know we got off on the wrong foot but I-"
"I'm not going to throw to you unless I know you can score to win." Kageyama cut him off. "I don't think you can, so I'm going to throw to Koki."
"WHAT?!" Hinata yelled. "Didn't you just hear what the captain said?"
Kageyama nodded. "I won't fight with you. I'm just not going to throw to you."
Kageyama stepped onto the field before Hinata had a chance to respond.
That...That...That STUPID JERK! Hinata thought furiously. I'll show him I can score. I'll make him throw to me!
Hinata raced to the field and took to the air as Professor Oiwake blew the whistle to start the game.
An older Ravenclaw Chaser immediately took control of the Quaffle and headed towards the goals.
Hinata saw Futakuchi quickly counter and send a Bludger flying towards her. She swerved to dodge it but her throw was off, allowing Bukoto to easily catch it and throw it to Kageyama.
"HEY, HEY," Bokuto shouted excitedly.
Kageyama raced to the other end of the field, narrowly dodging a Bludger sent by Ravenclaw's Beater Tetsuro Kuroo.
Hinata, who was closer to the goal, frantically tried to get Kageyama's attention. Instead Kageyama made a desperate but accurate toss to Koki, who was quickly surrounded by both Kuroo and the other older Beater. Attempting to toss it back to Kageyama, Ravenclaw Chaser Watari intercepted the ball.
Hinata nearly growled as he watched Watari swiftly dodge both Futakuchi and Aone and score a goal before Bokuto could make it. The announcer duly noted the score: Ravenclaw up by 10.
The game continued with Ravenclaw gaining two goals for every one Hufflepuff made. Even after about an hour into the game, Kageyama still had not thrown to Hinata once. If Kageyama lost this game by being stupid, Hinata was going to kill him.
Hinata flew up to Kageyama.
"If you don't start throwing it to me, we're going to lose, Stupid." Hinata called to him.
Kageyama growled and flew away.
The Ravenclaw Chaser Misaki had made it most of the way to Bokuto before a Bludger from Aone made her lose her hold on the ball. Kageyama caught the ball before it hit the ground.
From half-field, Hinata watched him survey the pitch. The Ravenclaw team had apparently realized that Kageyama was refusing to throw to Hinata so had instead used double the numbers to block in Koki.
Kageyama hesitated before trying to make it down the pitch on his own, quickly being blocked by the other Ravenclaw Beater. The ball was intercepted again.
Idiot, Hinata thought furiously at Kageyama as a Ravenclaw Chaser scored another goal.
Kageyama was thrown the ball again and faced with a similar conundrum. He hesitated, clearly torn.
This was Hinata's chance. He dove, swiftly getting into Kageyama's line of vision.
Hinata saw Kageyama look towards him before finally giving a quick jerk of his head. Hinata couldn't explain how, but in a moment of almost telepathy, he knew what was about to happen and raced forward.
Kageyama threw a long toss while Hinata was still moving. With barely a glance, Hinata snatched it from the air before racing, unobstructed, to the Ravenclaw goal. Without stopping, he threw it to the goal, making it in an entire second before the Ravenclaw Keeper Yaku could reach it.
One of the Ravenclaw Chasers made a frantic gesture and Professor Oiwake whistled for a time out. Hinata landed and rushed to his team.
"THAT WAS AMAZING, YOU TWO!" Bokuto shouted. Aone gave a firm nod to his side and even Mad Dog's glare slightly lessened.
"I'm not sure what was up with you two earlier. But, keep playing like that and we might be able to catch up!"
Kageyama and Hinata gave each other a brief considering look before nodding.
The whistle sounded and the teams took to the sky.
It soon became apparent that the Ravenclaw team had decided that Hinata was important enough to block, too. After an interception, Kageyama took note of the Beater and Chaser that were hovering around Hinata before throwing it to Koki for a score.
Hinata frowned, thinking. He had to get away from the guard.
Bokuto barely caught a Quaffle thrown by Ravenclaw Watari and threw it back to Kageyama. Hinata recognized his chance. He flew at a ninety degree angle to the ground, followed by one of the Beaters, before angling up and to the left. Hinata felt the wind flying through his hair and looked back to see the Beater failing to keep up. Hinata motioned toward Kageyama who saw him and threw the Quaffle while Hinata was flying past. Hinata reached out his arm to catch it and speed to the opponent's goal...and missed.
Hinata watched as the ball went flying past, a few inches from his hand. Ravenclaw Misaki caught it and quickly used it to score on Bokuto. Hinata looked at his empty hand before up to Kageyama's glare.
"What are you doing, Idiot?!" Kageyama asked, furiously.
"I-I don't know, I just looked for it and it flew by." Hinata answered, confused.
Kageyama let out a loud huff. "Next time, don't look for it, just be there!"
The boy angrily flew off as Hinata nodded. Don't look.
Watari had the Quaffle and headed for the goal before being stopped by Futakuchi. Koki intercepted the Quaffle and threw it to Kageyama.
Just be there, Hinata thought and raced to mid field. While flying, Hinata closed his eyes and reached out his hand...He closed his hand the second he felt something land in it and opened his eyes to see the Quaffle.
Hinata grinned and quickly maneuvered to the hoops, scoring another goal.
"Did you just-Did you," Watari, the Ravenclaw Chaser, stuttered. "Did you just catch that with your eyes closed?!"
All of the flyers in the immediate vicinity paused. "HUH?!"
"Yeah," Hinata nodded absently. "Kageyama told me not to look, so I closed my eyes."
The gathered Quidditch players looked at Kageyama, who looked just as thunderstruck.
"I didn't mean-I didn't think," Kageyama shook his head. "Stupid Hinata, it could have hit your stupid head."
"Oi," Hinata complained. "You threw it at my hands, I knew it wouldn't hit me!"
The amassed flyers looked even more baffled.
Professor Oiwake blew the whistle. "If you all are done loitering around. You might want to go back to the Quidditch Game you're in the middle of playing."
The flyers shook off their curiosity and flew off, noticing that Ravenclaw Misaki had almost made it to the Hufflepuff goals.
"Just-just keep doing whatever you're doing," Kageyama told him before flying off. "I'll bring the ball to you."
Bokuto barely blocked and threw it back to Koki only to have it intercepted by a smirking Kuroo. He threw it off to one of his team's Chasers, who was able to score the second time. Ravenclaw was still in the lead by forty points.
Hinata angled down his head and focused. The next time Kageyama got the ball, Hinata glided quickly to the other side of the field. Sticking out his hand and feeling the impact, Hinata raced to the goal. We can still catch up…
Moments before Hinata threw the ball, Professor Oiwake blew the whistle.
"RAVENCLAW'S CAUGHT THE SNITCH!" The announcer yelled. "NEW RAVENCLAW SEEKER KENMA KOZUME GRABS IT SECONDS BEFORE HUFFLEPUFF'S RESIDENT MAD DOG!"
Hinata looked up to see a slight silver and blue figure with multi-colored hair clutching something in his fist. Hinata sighed and flew down to meet his team.
By the time he got there, the Ravenclaw team was cheering and holding up an uncomfortable looking Kenma. At least, Kenma looks like he's enjoying Quidditch! mused Hinata before going to his team's changing room.
"YOU GUYS WERE AWESOME!" Bokuto shouted excitedly. Akaashi, whose presence in the room no one apparently cared about following a game, gave them a small congratulatory smile.
"But, we still lost," responded Hinata, confused.
"Meh, we lost most of the games last year, too," reassured Bokuto, absently. "Besides, Ravenclaw has a number of older players and Kuroo's been talking about their new Seeker all Summer."
Akaashi cleared his throat.
"The point is," Bokuto continued. "That was the best game we've had in years. Ravenclaw is especially strong this year and we were only behind by four goals before they caught the Snitch. If we keep this up, we might have a shot at the House Cup!"
Bokuto took on a longing expression as he thought of the coveted award. The two Beaters took this opportunity to approach Hinata and Kageyama.
Aone nodded at Hinata and gave a quiet "Good job" which Hinata nervously thanked him for.
"What was up with that throw," Futakuchi asked Kageyama. "That was almost pinpoint accuracy at 50 yards away."
Kageyama gave an embarrassed shrug. "I practiced throwing a lot in the field outside my house."
"And you!" Futakuchi said, turning to Hinata. "That had to be the fastest I've ever seen anyone go using a school broom. And those turns!" Futakuchi shook his head. "We're definitely using those in the next game."
Hinata smiled at the second year.
"Hey, hey," Bokuto interjected, apparently finished with his Quidditch glory fantasy. "Futakuchi is right. We're definitely going to adapt those plays!"
Futakuchi and Bokuto started talking strategy with Akaashi quietly interjecting every now and then. Standing in the Quidditch changing room and surrounded by his team discussing future matches, Hinata thought that-even with the loss-he had never been happier.