Roxas nearly bolted when he saw Hannah. Xion, Naminé and Luna more or less forced him into the compartment.
"She couldn't possibly have freaked you out that bad," said Tania in some amusement.
He remembered a smidgen of the things she said and shuddered, trying to fight a blush. Xion looked amused, but also took some pity on him.
"Hannah, try to tone down the perversion around Sky. He's not as...worldly... as we are thanks to hearing the upper years chat."
"I would have thought he'd pick up that sort of thing from Professor Ignis."
"You really see Professor Ignis as the type of person to sleep around and then boast about it? He's still taking the idea of dating Professor Wayfinder slow!" said Tania.
"I concede that point. But we're hormonal teenagers who thanks to you have access to the internet and all it's perversions! I wouldn't be surprised if some of the pure bloods started using the old classrooms on a schedule once they realize you didn't bother to put much of a lock on the 'computers' you and Shadow set up!"
Fifth years and older were allowed to visit those sites. The fourth and below were more or less restricted to different computers, and Shadow made it clear that he expected that restriction to be upheld.
To that end, Flitwick installed age lines around them to insure that the younger students didn't get onto the wrong computers.
Hannah looked at the slightly freaked out Roxas and took pity on him.
"Alright, alright... I'll tone down the girl talk. But I won't hold back when it's just us!" said Hannah.
Roxas slumped in relief.
"So what house are you going to be sorted in?" asked Susan.
"I have no idea."
Roxas had been present when the three houses did an impromptu house warming early for the first years that were being lead by Sprout. Apparently she had wanted in on the mischief and had volunteered to allow Minerva time to do her paperwork before the year started.
As a result, when they found out Gryffindor refused to use the internet, or even acknowledge the latest muggle trends (such as blue jeans and t-shirts, rather than stuffy robes that had to remain black unless they wanted the ire of the Mother Lion on them), most subconsciously chose to be sorted into other houses.
The Slytherins could put up with muggleborns in their precious house if it meant pissing off the Gryffindors...and by extension the headmaster. The more they took in, the fewer brash idiots they had to deal with.
As they chatted (with Roxas poking at his frogs with curiosity, because they freaked him out when he first saw them move) it didn't take long for him to leave the compartment to change into his bland robes.
That was when he ran into the "red-haired menace" as Hannah had called him.
Ron Weasley.
Something about him screamed "coward", which was pretty much the same instant assessment he generally got around Pete. That cat-creature was definitely a coward who followed Maleficent around.
Roxas heard the boy speak, but didn't really pay any mind to the words. At least until instinct made him duck and roll into a crouched battle position, the standard keyblade out in full glory.
Ron looked rather smug at tricking Roxas to expose himself as a Keyblade Wielder with a single hex.
He still didn't know why the red head had done it. And wouldn't until a week later.
"GRYFFINDOR!" shouted the hat.
Stone cold silence, not because of the rare transfer from home-schooling, but because of the simple fact that it was the FIRST time the hat shouted that house all night.
The lions shifted uncomfortably. For the first time in who knew how many years, the first year dorms in Gryffindor tower would remain barren. Aside from a fourth-year transfer, the lions hadn't gained a single new student.
More shocking was the fact that Slytherin had openly accepted no less than five new muggleborn students without a peep of protest.
Tania's light bumping of her head against the wooden table was the only sound that could be heard.
Of course the hat wouldn't just let their scheme to give Gryffindor a wake-up call go without some mischief of his own. That and Roxas did fit the profile of real bravery and courage compared to the rest of the lions.
Still, at least now she had an "in" with the lions that Dumbledore wasn't aware of just yet.
It took a scant week before Dumbledore summoned "Sky Windheart" to his office to discuss something. His dorm mates (save Ron who had been booted out last year and now had his own room away from the others) assumed it had to do with fixing some minor scheduling or other school related matter. After all, it was bound to be awkward coming into formal schooling from a home-school environment.
Instead Dumbledore showed Roxas the sorting hat, and had him place his hand inside.
Considering it had been around longer than Dumbledore, and he had put his head in it last night, Roxas did so with a confused look.
That confusion turned to shock as he felt something latch onto his hand. A familiar sensation of being accepted by a Keyblade...and from the hilt he was guessing it was an old, practically forgotten one.
Roxas slowly removed his hand, noticing with some concern the smug expression on Dumbledore's face.
"Can you tell me what the name of that blade is, Mr. Windheart?"
Roxas answered without knowing how he knew this. Much like he had known the names of his usual keyblades.
"A Keyblade."
"Not a Keyblade. You see that my dear boy is known as the lost Sword of Gryffindor. The fact you were able to draw the sword from the hat means that you are Gryffindor's heir. Only a true Gryffindor could remove that sword and not have it vanish."
Roxas knew he was lying. He knew Dumbledore knew exactly what the blade in his hand was, and he suspected the old man wanted him to counter Tania as the "heir of Gryffindor". Suddenly Ron's strange attack on the train made perfect sense.
Ron was given the task of "outing" Roxas as a Keyblade Wielder.
Unfortunately for Dumbledore, Roxas wasn't some newly instated user. He was a dual-wielder and one who had fought and died on the field of battle. He had been manipulated by the best.
And this fake was using wasn't enough trickery to overcome Roxas' natural suspicion of him. Roxas allowed the keyblade to disperse, he could decide about what to do with this new development later. He was polite when the old man allowed him to leave. But Roxas still caught the smug look in his eyes.
"He what?!" shrieked Xion in fury.
Roxas waited until after classes before he showed them his new Keyblade.
"What's it name?" asked Aqua, her face furious that Dumbledore had known the location of a second Keyblade.
"Nightmare's End, Reality Shift," said Roxas.
Xion's anger faded the moment she heard the name.
"Did you just say 'Reality Shift'?" asked Xion. Roxas nodded.
Xion summoned her Keyblade.
"This is Mirage Split, Reality Shift," she calmly said, as they compared the blades. Aside from a difference in the metal color, they could have been twins. Closer inspection revealed that the two could fit together, like pieces of a puzzle.
"I think these two go together. Which makes sense, considering two of the four Founders were Keyblade Wielders," said Aqua after a close examination.
"Which means we'll have to discreetly work on our combination attacks. Good thing we were already in sync to begin with," said Xion.
"In the meantime, I want you to be extra cautious around the headmaster and his known pawns. Odds are he'll try to parade you around as the new 'heir of Gryffindor' for drawing that sword," said Aqua.
Roxas nodded.
"I knew he was up to something the moment he corrected me and called it the 'sword of Gryffindor'. He knew what it was I had, but he deliberately tried to keep me ignorant," said Roxas.
"This place is suck a pain in the arse. I cannot wait to get this all over with," said Xion exasperated.
"Here, here," said the others.
"Oh, and before I forget...these are yours to grade," said Axel, dumping a large stack of parchment on an unprepared Roxas.
"You're a jerk, you know that?" said Roxas grumbling.
"Hey, I have to deal with a bunch of hormonal girls after my blood all day long. I'm not grading their chicken scratch when I have a perfectly able minion...I mean assistant to do it," said Axel. Then he smirked. "Besides, isn't it the sacred duty of all older brothers to give their younger siblings a hard time just because?"
"You spend too much time with Sirius," said Xion.
"And you spent an unhealthy amount of time with Narcissa," countered Axel without a hint of hesitation.
"Agreed!" said Aqua and Roxas, who vaguely knew Narcissa. His exposure had been thankfully minor. Xion had years of it, and look how she ended up!
Xion pouted. She liked Narcissa.
Heir of Gryffindor found! Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw next?
Roxas scowled openly at the paper. Thankfully he had kept Colin from taking any pictures, so there wasn't any real photos of what he looked like. All the article said was that a fourth-year student had discovered the lost "Inheritance of Gryffindor" almost two years after Xion not-so-subtly declared her rights as the Heir of Slytherin.
Naturally this set the magicals in a tizzy, two missing heirs of the Founders being 'discovered' mere years apart. Both of them of breeding age, no less.
Never before was he as glad Xion...no, Tania, had more or less publicly declared him her boyfriend. The look on her face would have scared off a dragon, she was that mad.
So what she did next didn't rock the boat. Oh no, it outright capsized the damn thing with the shockwaves she sent through the rumor mill of the school.
Tania got up, stalked to where Roxas was, and to the complete disbelief of the entire school and multiple scheming minds, kissed him on the mouth.
The silence was so complete that you could literally hear a needle drop on the stone floor.
Tania made a show of looking left, right and behind her.
"Any of you girls try to make a move on my boyfriend will have to answer to me. I don't give a damn if he is the so-called Heir of Gryffindor, he's mine," said Tania flatly.
Roxas was still shell shocked by the kiss, but the relief he felt at her public and very clear declaration was still visible if you knew how to look.
Didn't stop Axel from laughing his ass off though.
Hannah was cackling, Susan was shaking her head in amusement, and the two blonds were still snickering at the look on Roxas' face when he realized what Xion was doing. The fact he hadn't resisted her kiss, and didn't do a single thing to deny her public declaration meant that there was a slew of disappointed girls in the school.
The fact he tentatively kissed her later at dinner meant that the entire school knew that he was officially off the market. No sane person wanted to try and pry Titania Potter-Black away from the first male she ever showed an interest in.
His fan club was disappointed (as was her rather massive one), but there was also a sense of inevitability. Like they had known she was going to stake her claim on the new boy somehow, but no one had anticipated it would be that.
Either way, Tania's circle of friends (in which Roxas was absolutely included, if only to give Neville some guy friends to commiserate with) found the way she handled it absolutely hilarious.
By this point they had known she was rather possessive of her friends.
They just hadn't counted on her being that possessive of her new boyfriend to the point she would throw a freaking boulder rather than a stone into the freaking rumor mill.
Case in point, the second the press caught wind of the very public and very clear sign of possessiveness towards a boy, the headlines had a field day of a new "power couple" in Hogwarts.
And while the Quibbler was no longer under the jurisdiction of Luna (one of her cousins kept the paper alive in memory of her father...she stayed on as journalist only) there was still a full interview given by Tania and Roxas two days later. The only interview either of them would give.
Dumbledore kept trying to drag Roxas in for private discussions, but he successfully kept the old man sidelined by simply bringing Axel with him. As his legal and magical guardian, he had every right to be there considering he worked at the school. He didn't need permission to join Roxas, he could go any time.
Frankly Tania couldn't wait for Halloween, when the dignitaries from the three schools would be showing up. That was the other big thing this year, though she was going to put up a charm around the damn cup to keep her name out of it.
She wasn't an idiot. A tournament with an extremely high death rate, and the fact Dumbledore had apparently cottoned on to the revelation she was obviously cutting all ties with him to take him down later? Yeah, he'd totally allow her to be forced into the stupid thing just in the hopes of seeing her killed off for him, without lifting a finger.
And to that end the entire group was scouring the tournament rules, by-laws, and all known legalities concerning participants.
There were a few rules that had been added over the years concerning involuntary participants. It all boiled down to the same thing.
If a student was entered without their consent or knowledge, then they could contest the entry itself and have the goblet decided if the entry was valid. If it was deemed invalid because of an illegal entry, then magic would give a very clear and violent demonstration of why it shouldn't be tricked into harming children.
As this was the version for students, there was a great deal more leeway for involuntary participants.
However if the participant were tricked into going through the first task, then they had no choice but to compete in the other tasks.
Another thing they discovered, to the surprise (and delight of the girls) was that every time a Tri-Wizard tournament was held, there was always a ball. It was meant to instill inter-school unity and make it easier for students to mingle in a relaxed setting.
This was when Tania hit upon an ingenious idea.
The Hogwarts music club would provide the music for the ball, including the waltz.
At least now they had time to prepare a proper showing for the other schools.
"So how are we going to impress the Bulgarians and the French?" asked Susan, rubbing her eyes from reading too much.
Xion looked at Roxas.
"Keyblade battle between two skilled fighters? With the lower magics on the side?"
"Works for me. Gives everyone a good demonstration of what we can do, and allows us to let off some steam," agreed Roxas.
"Lower magics?" asked Hermione.
"Fire, Thunder, Blizzard, Aero... you get the idea. All the level one stuff," said Xion.
"Oh, carry on then."