Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or Kuroko no Basket!
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Adie led Teddy with her into the arena, she was constantly glancing at her phone waiting for Hermione to call and let her know they had arrived. She couldn't help the smile crossing her lips as she felt the bubbled of excitement in her stomach as they reached the locker room.
"Hi," she greeted the rest of the team who had already arrived.
"Hi!" Teddy beamed waving.
"You're late!" Riko grumbled looking at her crossed and Adie blinked and glanced around the room to see the others looking slightly worried and even a little amused. Meeting Teppei's eyes Adie arched a brow.
"Sorry," Adie said, "didn't think I was that late."
"You're not," Koganei spoke up, "she's just stressed because Kuroko and Kagami aren't here yet."
"Oh?" Adie said looking around realising that the pair was missing. "Have anyone called them?"
"Their shoes fell apart last night and they are out trying to find new shoes," Hyuga explained with a frown.
Adie shook her head, "both of them?"
"Yeah, they seem to do everything together," Riko grumbled. "If they're not here soon with the right shoes I will put them in a Boston Crab hold!"
Adie sweatdropped, she was very glad she wasn't Kuroko or Kagami at the moment. She sat down at the bench beside Izuki and kept wisely silent. Teddy sat beside her again, his chest puffed out looking proud and a focused look on his face. Adie felt her lips twitched amused.
Kagami and Kuroko came rushing into the room looking like they had run the whole way there, both breathing heavily as they stopped in the middle of the room.
"Do you have the shoes?!" Riko demanded with narrow eyes.
"Yes," they both panted and Riko nodded pleased and told them to sit down.
The tension in the locker room was high, the nerves before the match was starting, it didn't help that they had a late start on their match. Shutoku and Rakuzan were playing each other first, so they planned on going as a team to watch the game.
...
"Like you know we have the last match today," Riko spoke up. "We play after Shutoku and Rakuzan since we're so late in the tournament we're the only two matches today."
The others nodded having heard this before. Adie let her mind drift and wondered if her friends were here yet, and wasn't brought out of her thoughts before she heard someone mention Rakuzan. She looked up and saw the others looking serious and thoughtful.
"Rakuzan is the strongest team here," Hyuga said, "they're the favourites to win the whole tournaments, they have won the two big titles five years in a row. That's impressive, and this year they are considered to have the strongest team they ever had."
Adie saw the slight fear, but also excitement in her team as they heard this. The challenge was burning in Kagami's eyes as he stared at the Captain.
"Because of Akashi?" Kagami asked glancing over at Adie as he asked.
"Not only because of him," Hyuga answered, "also because of three other players. Three of the crownless generals are on Rakuzan."
"Hayama, Nebuya and Mibuchi," Adie spoke up, "they're good. They are going to prove a challenge for any who meets them."
"You've seen them play?" Riko asked looking at her with a calculating look in her eyes.
"A little," Adie shrugged, "but I don't know anything that Teppei won't know about their playing styles."
Riko nodded but looked a little disappointed. Adie just shook her head.
...
Hermione Granger frowned as she stared at the large arena and wondered how they were going to find Adie in there. She turned to see Ron and Ginny looking around curiously with wide eyes and she saw them jump slightly a few times. She was suddenly glad Arthur wasn't there, he wouldn't have been able to hide his fascination of all the muggles around them.
"Where are we meeting her?" Ron asked.
"I'm not sure," Hermione said.
"Why don't you just call her?" Ginny asked glancing at her. "I bet she's with her team preparing for the match,"
Hermione nodded and pulled out her phone dialling the number. She heard the summing tone and waited.
"Hello?" Adie's voice sounded a little distracted and Hermione could hear some noise from the other end.
"Hi Adie," Hermione said.
"Hermione!" Adie exclaimed happily. "You're here?"
"Yes, we're standing just outside," Hermione said, "you didn't tell us that the arena was so big!"
She heard Adie laugh softly at the other end.
"Sorry," Adie said, "we're just about to leave the locker room now. We're going to watch the first part of Shutoku vs. Rakuzan. Why don't we meet on the way?"
"Sure," Hermione said, "but…where do we go?"
"Just head inside and then to the left," Adie said, "we should run into each other on the way."
Hermione agreed and heard someone call for Adie at the other end so they ended the call.
Adie smiled as she put her phone back in her pocket and followed the others that had already left the room. She looked around and found Teddy seated on Teppei's shoulders, just like he liked. Barely able to keep from skipping forward to see her best friends faster she kept pace with the others but didn't pay any attention to their conversation.
"Adie!"
The team stopped abruptly when someone yelled Adie's name loudly attracting some attention from the surrounding crowd. But the woman with bushy brown hair didn't care as she ran toward Adie who was grinning and meeting her.
"Hermione!" Adie exclaimed hugging the woman tightly and hiding her face against her shoulder.
They hugged for a long time while the team stared wide-eyed at the two women, only Teppei seemed to realise who it was and was smiling slightly. Teddy was almost buzzing in excitement but kept quiet for now.
"Hand her over," a male voice suddenly interrupted and Teppei wasn't the only one who jumped before looking to the side to see a tall, lanky redhead standing there watching Adie and Hermione.
Hermione reluctantly pulled back and let go of Adie who turned and threw herself at the other newcomer with an excited call of: "Ron!"
Ron twirled her around a couple of times as he hugged her and even lifted her off the ground as he did. Adie finally pulled away before starting to look around again causing the others to do the same and notice a girl with long red hair standing to the side watching, her hazel brown eyes shining in merriment as she watched Adie.
"Ginny!" Adie said hurrying over to her and hugged her tightly, but this one was softer and tender, Teppei caught the worried look in Adie's green eyes as she looked at the younger girl when she pulled back. "I'm so glad you could make it."
"Hi!" Ron protested, "what's with the gratitude? What am I? Chopped liver?"
Adie grinned and threw an arm around Ginny who smiled and leaned into the older girl. "Of course. Ginny is the one I've been waiting for the most!"
Ron mock glared at her before he turned his attention to Teddy who was beaming down at him.
"You're happy to see your uncle Ron, aren't you Teddy?" Ron asked the boy.
"Yes!" Teddy nodded and moved so he could come down and hug Ron who caught him from Teppei's shoulders easily and pulled him close. Hermione was there soon after hugging the little boy herself.
...
"Ah," Adie said taking note of the curious and confused looks of her team. "Introductions… Guys, this is my best friends and family, Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley, and his little sister Ginny."
She then proceeded to name the team and when she finally reached Kuroko the three visitors jumped and gaped in shock.
"Wicked," Ron gasped as he stared at Kuroko.
Kuroko blinked confused and glanced at Adie who looked amused and tried to hide her laugh.
"That's brilliant," Ginny said smiling slightly. "He's adorable, can we keep him?"
Adie couldn't hold her laughter now and leaned against the wall laughing so hard at the confused looks on their faces, they also seemed wary and almost looked like they would jump in to protect their shadow.
"Honestly," Hermione sighed rolling her eyes, but her lips twitched amused as well. "I can't take you guys anywhere! You're scaring the poor folks!" She swatted Ron and Ginny on their arms as she smiled at the team. "I'm sorry about them. I don't have them house trained yet."
Adie who had just gotten control over her laughter started to laugh again at the offended looks on Ron and Ginny's faces. She wiped her eyes as she finally managed to stop laughing.
"He's not a pet, Gin," Adie finally said shooting Kuroko an apologetic smile. "Behave or you'll scare them away."
"So, you're here visiting Adie-san?" Riko asked looking at them curiously.
"Yeah," Ron smiled easily. "Decided that we should come and watch her play since you all reached this far."
Ginny and Hermione nodded in agreement.
"It's great meeting you," Teppei grinned goofily, "I've heard a lot about you."
"Same here," Hermione said. "Thank you for being there for her."
Teppei just grinned his best grin like to say of course, and Adie smiled softly.
...
Adie led Hermione and the two Weasley's into the stands and found a group of empty seats, she sat beside Hermione at the end of the row and the team was in front of them.
The court was empty still, well almost, only a few people who were clearly working on getting the court ready for the game was there.
"Never been to a basketball game before," Ron said looking around curiously as the stands were filling up rather quickly.
"Never?" Koganei turned in his seat to look back at Ron with a shocked look on his face. Adie chuckled at the look. "But Adie-san…"
"She never played on a team like this back home," Ron said with a shrug, "so there was no reason to go and watch her play."
"It's not like the matches in our school, are they?" Ginny asked leaning toward Adie.
"Not quite," Adie smiled.
They were interrupted by loud cheering and looked down to see Shutoku enter the court, some already dressed in their jersey while some had the team jacket on.
"Picture you two playing for them," Hermione snorted making Ron and Ginny look at her, "the jersey would clash horribly with your hair!"
Adie snorted amused and heard laughter from some of her teammates in front of them.
"It's the qualifying veterans 11 years straight!" someone close to them yelled excitedly. "The King of veterans, Shutoku High School!"
Adie glanced down to see the focused and determined looks on the Shutoku teams faces, she wondered if she had seen Midorima ever look so focused before. She could guess that this match meant more to him than the rest of his team, not that it wasn't important to them because she knew it was. But for Midorima it meant going against his old Captain, someone the Generation of Miracles still respected and even feared. Adie knew it, and she was not overly pleased by the fact.
"And here they come!" A guy behind them said, his voice was hoarse with anticipation and excitement.
"The strongest High School… The emperor since the beginning of time… Rakuzan High School!" his friend continued.
The cheering and excitement were incredible, especially for the British witches and wizard that hadn't really seen anything like this before. At least not in a muggle game setting.
"Wow," Ginny said looking slightly surprised. "They sure are excited."
"It's the clash of two of the Generation of Miracles," Izuki explained turning slightly in his seat looking back at Ginny.
"Clash between the Generation of Miracle?" Ginny blinked confusedly.
"Huh? You don't know?" Tsuchiba asked raising a brow. They shook their heads.
"Well, the Generation of Miracles consists of six players, even if the sixth player is often overlooked," Teppei started to explain. "They come from Teiko middle school, an all-star team, each of them has their own exceptional talent. They won their national tournaments three years in a row. They're a team so strong that they made people fear them, their strength. No one was able to stand up to them, even as they were just middle schoolers."
Adie nodded when Ginny and Ron looked to her, while Hermione looked thoughtful.
"They're legends among high school basketball," Riko continued and they looked at her. "They are easily the best players in the league, and are often called 'monsters' because of their talents."
"Hm, and two of them are playing against each other now?" Hermione asked. "They didn't go to the same school?"
"No, they decided to split up," Hyuga said, casting a glance at Kuroko who sat quietly listening to them. "They went to different high schools so they could challenge each other, seeing that they were the only ones that could challenge them."
The British sat in silence as they thought about it, looking down at the court where the players were getting ready.
"Just who are these players?" Ron asked curiously looking at the court trying to determine who they were.
"Midorima Shintaro, player for Shutoku," Adie said, "he's the one with green hair and glasses. He's good, the best shooting guard around."
Ron nodded and Adie saw him looking at Midorima.
"Who's the other one?" Ginny asked.
Adie smiled a little before she answered.
"Akashi Seijuro," she said and saw recognition in their eyes as they glanced over at her.
"Your boyfriend?" Ginny asked surprised.
"Yes," Adie nodded. "He's the former Captain of the Generation of Miracles, and now the current Captain of Rakuzan. He's point guard, and very good. And he knows it." She rolled her eyes at the last comment.
"Who is he?" Ginny asked leaning forward studying the Rakuzan players.
"The one with maroon-red hair," Adie said, "he's talking to his coach."
Adie watched as her three visitors stared at Akashi who looked seriously at his coach and nodded at something he was told.
"Hm," Ron said with narrow eyes and Adie sighed, she hoped he wouldn't go all overprotective on her because she had just gotten her team to back off and she didn't fancy going through it all over again.
"That's two, but who are the other four?" Hermione asked after a moment.
"Ah, we're playing one in our next match against Kaijo," Teppei said. "Kise Ryota, he's their ace. Then there is Aomine Daiki from Too."
"Arrogant jerk," Kagami muttered making Adie laugh and roll her eyes.
"Murasakibara Atsushi from Yosen," Teppei continued like Kagami hadn't said anything.
"You mentioned the sixth player, you only told us about five," Hermione said.
"The sixth member isn't well-known," Teppei smiled and Adie knew he had not mentioned Kuroko on purpose, "he's the phantom sixth man, Kuroko Tetsuya."
"Eh?" they asked and looked at Kuroko who looked at the game with a deadpanned expression.
...
"Who will you cheer for, Adie-san?" Fukuda asked making Adie look at him.
"Her boyfriend, isn't that normal?" Ginny asked before Adie could say anything looking confused. "Right?"
"But she knows the coach at Shutoku as well," Furihata said backing Fukuda's question.
"You do?" Hermione asked.
"He's the father of an old classmate of mine from back when I attended elementary school here," Adie smiled. "Nakatani-sensei is one of the people teaching me basketball. His son Daichi was the only one in my class that Dudley couldn't scare away."
"Huh," Ron muttered. "So, who do you cheer for?"
"Well, I wish both well, but I guess it would be fun playing Seijuro in the finals," Adie said.
"Yes, it would," Teppei agreed.
...
"Hm," Adie mused as she looked at Akashi, he was good but not overwhelmingly so right now.
"Ok, I get that he is good," Ron was saying from Adie's right and Adie saw him looking at Akashi. "But, is he better than the others down there? I mean, he's not really doing anything special…"
"He's not going all out," Adie mused scrunching her brow as she looked at Akashi. "Ron, you should recognize what he's doing."
"Huh? I should?" Ron asked confused as he looked down again in deep thought. "He's playing chess."
"I would guess Shogi," Adie said, "but yes. It's a strategy; he's not underestimating Shutoku…"
...
"Ok, I'll see you after the match," Adie said getting up, it was almost the end of the second quarter and time to go and get ready for their own match.
"Ok," Hermione nodded. "Good luck."
"Thank you," Adie smiled and looked at Teddy who was looking excited where he was seated on Hermione's lap.
Adie ruffled Teddy's hair lightly before waving at the others before following her team out of the stands. The familiar excitable nerves that always came before a game was starting to make themselves known.
...
Adie frowned when she saw Kagami falling down due to Akashi ankle break, she saw the cold mask on Akashi's face and knew that he was upset about something but she couldn't tell what. She moved forward and reached down to help Kagami back to his feet.
"What was that?" Furihata asked sounding scared.
"Akashi doesn't like being defied," Kuroko said. "You challenged him and besides… he doesn't like you, remember?"
"B-but…that was ages ago!" Kagami protested.
"He's not someone to let go of a grudge that easily," Kuroko said.
Adie sighed and rubbed her brow tiredly.
"Come on," she said. "Standing here is doing us no good."
They looked at her for a moment and she could tell they wanted to say something, but thought better of it and just nodded.
...
"What is up with this game?" Hermione asked stunned as she watched. "Wasn't Shutoku keeping up with them?"
"Seems like Adie's boyfriend has stepped up his game," Ginny frowned, "but…did you see how he pushed down one of Adie's teammates? Adie won't like that…"
"I know," Hermione said, "she did seem a little upset."
"But just why would she date someone like that?" Ginny asked and Ron nodded in agreement.
"She must see something in him that we don't," Hermione sighed. "She's good at that."
Ron muttered something under his breath but didn't say anything to make Hermione angry at him and Teddy was frowning slightly.
"Sei-nii is nice!" Teddy defended him. "He just doesn't like Kagami-nii-san."
"Why is that?" Hermione asked the little boy, but Teddy just shrugged.
...
Adie smirked as Miyaji smacked the back of Midorima's head after Akashi had performed an ankle break on him and scored. It was clear that the green haired player was losing confidence, but the smack had him and Takao looking at Miyaji startled.
"Just what he needed," Adie commented even as she kept an eye on Akashi who looked confident. She might keep him in a favour, but that didn't mean she couldn't see the good points in Shutoku as well.
"This game isn't set up and locked yet," Kuroko said and Adie glanced at him with a knowing smirk. "Because Midorima and his team haven't given up yet."
"That's right," Adie agreed.
Teppei was nodding but he was looking worried.
"They haven't given up?" Kagami asked.
"Hai, he's trying to do something," Kuroko said not taking his eyes off Midorima.
Adie raised a brow as she saw Midorima take the position to shoot, and she actually laughed when he saw Takao pass the ball so it landed perfectly in Midorima's hands so all he had to do was shoot. Stunned silence filled the hall for a moment as everyone was shocked at what they had just managed to do.
Akashi looked shocked as he looked at Midorima, Adie knew he hadn't expected this. Honestly, she thought Akashi would benefit from this. He needed to see his former teammate as something more than a pawn he could use.
...
"Oh, oh," a voice said from behind and Ron looked over his shoulders to see an older man with brown hair and slightly saggy clothes coming down the stairs between the rows. His eyes were narrowed on the court, but his hands were stuffed in his pocket as he walked. "Looks like they have gotten better." He mused to himself.
"Kagetora-ojiisan!" Teddy beamed from Hermione's lap and the man glanced to the side and they couldn't miss how his face broke into a wide grin.
"Teddy-chan!" he said. "You're here to see your mum play? How do you like Midorima and Takao's play so far? And Akashi?"
"They're good," Teddy said. "And we're going to see mum play against Kise-nii-chan."
Kagetora nodded and looked at the three sitting with Teddy with a curious look.
"Who are you watching with today, Teddy-chan?" Kagetora asked.
"We got visitors from England today," Teddy said. "They came to watch mum play."
"I see," he said smiling widely. "I'm Aida Kagetora."
"Huh? The same last name as Adie's coach?" Ginny asked.
"I'm her dad," he beamed proudly. "So, you're Adie-chan's family? She has talked about you."
"Yes, we are," Hermione confirmed with a smile.
"Mind if I join you?" Kagetora asked.
"Not at all," Ron said and the older man joined them.
...
Adie felt like the room was frozen, her eyes locked on Akashi who had just given a very serious and disturbing speech to his own team. Her heart throbbed painfully as she watched her boyfriend, just what had him react like that? He had been serious, she knew that and that was what had her so disturbed.
"I don't like this," she mumbled. "I really don't like this."
Where was the Akashi Seijuro she knew and loved? She blinked, wait, loved? That had her pausing for an entirely other reason. She loved him? She stumbled slightly barely noticing Teppei reaching out to steady her.
"Adie? Are you ok?" his question was ignored.
Adie stared at Akashi, the cold look on his face scaring her more than she wanted to admit. They were back to playing and the entire Rakuzan team had changed. Their aura was darker, more determined.
Adie jerked aware when Teppei shook her shoulder lightly and she blinked to find him looking at her worriedly.
"Sorry, Teppei," she said, "just…worried."
He pursed his lips but didn't say anything. She could tell he was concerned and also had heard what Akashi had said.
...
Adie watched Shutoku thank their fans after the match, their brave faces almost crumbling but they remained strong.
"They are a good team;" Adie said softly.
"Yeah," Kuroko agreed beside her.
Adie sighed and turned to get ready to warm up before the match. She paused when Akashi stood in front of her. The realisation from earlier making her heart beat faster and harder, but this wasn't the time to express herself, she also pushed the slight fear and worry she felt for him away. She was sure it was nothing, he was still her Akashi.
"Congratulation," Adie said.
"My victory was certain," he said coolly. "Are you ok?"
"I'm fine," Adie said not wanting to tell him her worries from earlier. "Excited about our match."
He nodded. "I'll try and watch it."
Adie smiled before it slipped off her face.
"Seijuro…" she started and he arched a brow. "Why…why did you tell Midorima that you wanted him as your enemy?"
Akashi looked at her for a moment.
"It's better that way," he finally said. "Do you best today. I am waiting for you in the finals."
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AN: Thank you for reading! XD I really appreciate the response I've received on this story! :)