Busy Day. Opening Movements.


Please Read and Review. I'd like to know what I'm doing right (to keep doing it), and what I'm I doing wrong (to correct it).
Parenthesis indicate a language other than English, in this case Gobbledegook.


Hogwarts;
Great Hall
Gryffindor Table

Gradually, the students began to arrive to the Great Hall, alone, in pairs or in small groups, taking seats at their respective House tables.

Harry and Shinji were busy having a quiet talk at the middle of Gryffindor Table. The subject absolutely and very deliberately unrelated to what they actually wanted to talk about. They stuck to safe subjects, like the differences in teaching methods at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in England, and the ones taught at the Mahoutokoro School of Magic in Japan.

The table began to fill a few minutes later. Among the first to arrive was Ron Weasley, who sat quite far from Harry, but not before glaring at him. When he noticed Shinji at Harry's side, his eyes narrowed for a moment. Then, Ron turned towards the Staff Table, as if Harry and Shinji didn't merit his attention. Harry noticed it, with a small pang of regret. But he didn't had time to do anything. Shinji looked down at the table, keeping silent. Despite his personal opinion about Ron Weasley, he didn't want to put a wedge between he and Harry.

Fred and George sat to Harry's right. One of the two put a small bag on the table, and pushed it towards Harry. "Good morning to you, Harrykins. My not so talented brother and yours truly had a long discussion last night, while you were resting under the ever so vigilant eyes of Madame Pomfrey; and realized we had, contrary to our usual conduct, made a terrible mistake."

The other twin took the flow of the talk without missing a beat, "As my not so handsome brother was about to say, we would like to correct said mistake, and, hopefully, take you on your word. That is, if your more than generous offer still stands."

The two chorused, "We want in, Harry!"

Harry had to laugh, "Well, my esteemed gruesome twosome," he mimicked their way to talk, "I will have to check on with my partner, before reaching a decision. I hope we can agree on the appropriate terms." He took the bag in his hand, and pocketed it. "I'll let you know later today, tomorrow morning at the latest. Now, in the meanwhile, I'd like to introduce you to my new friend, Mr. Shinji Ikari." He gestured towards Shinji, who had been watching the exchange intently, wondering what they were talking about.

"Ah! Our visitor from beyond the horizon!" One of the two shook Shinji's hand, then the other followed, "Welcome to Hogwarts, good sir. A friend of Harry is a friend of ours."

Shinji smiled at the two, and shook their hands enthusiastically, he didn't considered himself a fun person, but that didn't mean he didn't like the Weasley Twins, they were among his favourite characters from the books. "Thank you, good sirs!" he joined the talk. "Your fame precedes you. Would you happen to have some interesting candy at hand? I would like to try some. At home, we have no chance to sample such wares."

"Oh, woe!" one twin put his wrist to his forehead in an over-dramatic gesture. The other pretended to faint, "Oh, the sad state of fun at the other side of the world. My brother and I shall endeavour to remedy such situation at once." He then stage whispered to Shinji, "That will be three sickles for a sampler pack, containing different magical candies and chocolates. To be delivered after dinner. We will include the notes on what exactly each type of sweet does, to prevent unwanted effects at inopportune times."

Shinji put the money on the table, to be scooped discreetly by the closest twin. "A pleasure to do business with you, Ikari."

"Shinji, please. Ah, could you also include some candy appropriate for my sister? Nothing that could change any part of her, but any visual effect occurring not inside her would be, I think, of her liking."

The twins looked at each other, then at the Ravenclaw table, where Rei and Luna were talking. Both smiled, and turned back to Shinji "Count on it! Has she ever sampled things like chocolate frogs?"

"Uh, no. Neither have I."

"Two chocolate frogs will be delivered to you along with the sample pack. Now, if you excuse us, we have to pick up our schedules."

They stood up, and walked to their usual seats. They turned around as one and added, "Shinji, would you be so kind to introduce us to her? She is very, very pretty." Then stage whispered again, smiling widely, "We are still within the five-minute window, right?" and before leaving, both winked; one with the right eye, the other with the left.

Seeing Shinji's expression, even Harry had to snicker. A moment later, laughter spread all over the Gryffindor table. Even Shinji joined in, once he understood the joke.


Hogwarts;
Great Hall
Ravenclaw Table

Rei waited patiently, until Luna Lovegood joined her, smiling widely to her new, and at the moment, only friend. Rei tilted her head, studying the small blonde witch for a moment, a gesture that was immediately copied by Luna. "How do you keep the Nargles away, Rei?" she asked.

"It might be my diet. I am vegetarian." She paused, remembering the bacon she had eaten last night. Her brow furrowed. That had been very uncharacteristic of her. 'Why did I consume a piece of meat? And I would have expected to dislike it. That was not the case.' she thought. One more question to pose to Shinji when they had the chance to talk at length. She shrugged.

"Mostly vegetarian, it seems…"Rei added, hesitating a bit

Luna put her hands on her ears. Rei blinked twice and tilted her head to the other side, thinking.

"Your earrings are safe, Luna." She said once she realized the reason. The blonde lowered her hands slowly.

"Are you sure? These are fresh and juicy…"

"I would never take something from you without asking first."

Luna's eyes misted for a moment. "Thank you."

A burst of laughter from the Gryffindor Table made them look at their classmates. For some reason, Shinji's face was red as a tomato. Intrigued, Rei blinked twice.


Hogwarts;
Great Hall
Staff Table

Remus Lupin dragged his feet towards the table. He sat heavily on his designated chair. He mused his hair, and sighed. He had stayed up way later than his usual bedtime. He had spent the night walking all over the castle, checking the secret passages, trying to pick some trace of Sirius Black.

Albus Dumbledore entered the Hall while Remus leaned back on his chair, trying to rest his eyes before his first class of the day. He still felt the effects of his latest clash with his furry little problem.

"Are you feeling well, my boy?" Dumbledore asked, in his grandfatherly way.

"Yes, Professor Dumbledore. I just had a bad night. Couldn't sleep and spent some time wandering around."

"I see. Well, hopefully, this night things will be better. I myself had an urgent matter to take care of at the Ministry, nothing really important in the big scheme of things, but rather urgent. Sadly, I missed the Sorting and the Welcoming Feast. But, Alas, some things cannot be left for later." He sighed.

Dumbledore sat at his throne, and surveyed the Great Hall. To his surprise, he noticed two new students who weren't First Years. "Who are those?" he pointed discreetly at Shinji first, then at Rei.

Lupin followed the gesture and narrowed his eyes to see them better. "Ah, exchange students. From China, I think. I didn't really pay much attention at the sorting. Sorry."

"Don't worry, my boy. First day is always hard on the nerves." Dumbledore said, eyeing the newcomers, wondering if they fit with Trelawney's Second Prophecy. 'Could she be the Trice-Born Maid? How can that even be possible? And how could she have destroyed a world? Hmm… Dyonisus' Disciple? Could that be a teacher or a mentor? A school, even?" the words of the prophecy chased themselves around his mind. He had to raise his occumency shields to keep control of his facial expresion.

Dumbledore decided to find out more about the two newcomers. The chance they would be involved in the prophecy was slim, but it just wouldn't do to not to take every possibility into account.

"An altar of bad faith… what does that mean? Could they have been betrayed by the Malfoy family at some point? I'll need to investigate their known associates. Ones who are not Death Eaters or Pureblood supremacists." He removed his half-moon glasses, and rubbed the bridge of his long and crooked nose. "I hate disentangling meanings from prophecies."


Hogwarts;
Great Hall
Gryffindor Table

While the Gryffindor students waited for their schedules to be delivered, Hermione Granger arrived at the Gryffindor Table. She furrowed her brow when she noticed Ron and Harry were seated quite apart one from the other, and that Harry was talking to somebody she didn't know, even by sight. She hesitated for a moment between seating next to Ron or Harry. Finally, her curiosity won.

Inevitably, Shinji's first meeting with Hermione Granger was a barrage of questions! She didn't even wait for the introduction!

"Hi! You must be Shinji Ikari, the new exchange student. Did you have a good trip to England? What are your favourite subjects? Are you good at Potions? Have you chosen your Electives?"

"Hermione!" Harry exclaimed, while Shinji was still trying to articulate an answer. "Let him answer a question!"

Hermione blushed. "Um… Sorry. I…"

Shinji smiled at her, "Ah… um… Don't worry, Miss Granger. I am curious too. This place is very different from my old school." He looked around for emphasis before continuing. "Well… We had some problems in the trip here. We are… well… magical travel just doesn't sit well with me if it is long distance. So we had to come in a ship. A storm almost sank us… but, well, we were rescued right on time." Shinji gulped. He felt somewhat guilty about the counterparts he, Rei, and Misato had had on this world. The three had died in that same sea.

However, thanks to Destiny and Death, the refugees from Tokyo-3 had taken their place. Silently, he decided he would pray for their counterparts later. He had never been religious back in his original world, but after meeting both Death and Destiny, he was very willing to believe there was some higher power.


Eventually, a critical mass of students gathered. So, of course rumours began to fly fast.

According to some, Harry Potter had actually destroyed a Dementor! Almost no one believed this, despite some credible witnesses. Others said that Potter had fainted like a damsel in distress, and had to be rescued by an Auror contingent traveling incognito in the Hogwarts Express. Yet others argued that there had been no Dementor in the train, and that the whole event had been just a ruse, the purpose of said undefined ruse was a total mystery.

In any case, Draco Malfoy lost no time in visiting the Gryffindor Table for his usual round of mocking. Accompanied by his two gorilla-like bookends, of course.

"Hey, Scarhead! Is it true you fainted? Of course you did!" His eyes almost sparkled in malicious glee.

Shinji was about to grab Harry's forearm, when to his surprise, it was Harry who laughed. "Well, yes! I did!" Malfoy was about to redouble his efforts, but when Harry's words registered, the surprise took all his momentum away. All around Harry, the students gaped at the Boy-Who-Lived.

Harry continued. "It was the most hideous thing I have ever seen. It looked awfully like… I don't really know how to describe it, pale skin, straight pale hair, almost sticking to its head, beady blue eyes almost devoid of colour. It came to our compartment, opened the door before any of us could do or say anything." He looked around, at the strange expressions of his neighbours. "The thing opened its maw, looked at me with those vacuous eyes, rattled its breath ominously, and said…"

Hermione was about to speak but Harry moved his elbow to touch her hand, distracting her. He continued. "… with a voice that sounded like a ferret from Hell…" then, he mimicked Malfoy's sneer and voice, "'When my Father hears of this…' I thought I was about to die of fear."

The table erupted in laughter! Malfoy retreated back to the Slytherin Table, utterly humiliated.

At the Staff Table, a sallow skinned man stood up, sneering at the Gryffindors before sitting down again. "Twenty points from Gryffindor, for making a scene." he drawled, while the clear deposit for House Points extended downwards, jus enough for twenty jewels.

The Gryffindors moaned collectively. The first class hadn't even begun, and Snape had already docked them points.

"Let me guess," Shinji said, lowering his voice. "Snape."

Most other students nodded, but Hermione said, almost without realizing it, "Professor Snape, Harry."

Harry snickered again "Me? It wasn't me this time!".

Hermione blushed when she realized her mistake. "Oh, sorry, Ikari, your voice and Harry's sound almost the same. But back to the point, he is a professor and deserves respect."

"From what I've heard, and now seen, the man is not a teacher. I would bet he didn't even give the safety measures talk before putting the First Years to brew the first potion." He waited a second, letting the information sink.

"Safety measures? What safety measures?" Neville Longbottom asked. Harry smirked to himself, knowing that Shinji was going somewhere with this.

Shinji began to tick off his fingers. "How to correctly prepare the ingredients. Potentially volatile combinations. How to clean and prepare your equipment. How to safely add ingredients to a potion in the making. How to recognize the signs that a potion is becoming unstable. What to do and what NOT to do in such cases. At Mahoutokoro we are not even allowed to get near the potions lab unless we have practiced with a lot of dummy ingredients. We must prove we can manage the correct procedures, and we have drills to practice evacuation of the classroom in case there's an accident, plus emergency procedures in case a student gets harmed. It's not as simple as just getting a bezoar into somebody's mouth. We are issued safety equipment before our first lesson, and we must learn to use it. Any student who doesn't prove to be able to safely manage equipment and ingredients is not allowed into the Potions Classroom."

All the students looked at him, Shinji began to feel the need to squirm under the attention, but he managed to resist it.

Predictably, it was Hermione who first spoke, "Honestly, Ikari; I hadn't thought about that… it sounds like you're studying muggle chemistry, not potions."

"Well… after all, muggle chemistry developed from what was thought of as alchemy, so yes, there is a lot of overlap."

"I'll need to research on this later." She wrote a note and stuck it in one of her books. At that point, Professor McGonagall made the rounds at the table, delivering the course schedules. "Miss Granger, I need to talk to you about your schedule. It will take only a minute and then you'll be able to come back to the table." She turned towards Shinji, "Mr. Ikari, welcome to Hogwarts, I expect you will behave accordingly to Mahoutokoro's standards. Come talk to me about your electives at your first free period. Normally, we would have seen to this matter after the Welcoming Feast, but with Professor Dumbledore's unexpected absence, it was not possible."

Shinji stood up, and bowed deeply to the older witch, "Thank you, Professor McGonagall, I will. In the meanwhile, would it be too bold of me to accompany the rest of the group and see the classes for myself?"

McGonagall looked at him for a couple of seconds, "Certainly, Mr. Ikari. I think you would be in good company with…" she wanted to suggest Hermione, but her convoluted schedule wouldn't be easy to follow without access to a Time Turner. "Mr. Longbottom here." Neville raised his head, surprised. "Mr. Longbottom, I trust you will mentor Mr. Ikari during his first week as a Hogwarts student."

Neville looked around, to find Shinji smiling. "It would be an honour, Mr. Longbottom." The foreign student extended his hand, Neville only hesitated a moment before shaking it.

"Then it's settled. Now, if you excuse me…" she kept on delivering the rest of the schedules, while Hermione followed her.

Harry checked on his schedule, and showed it to Shinji, who read the first entry, "Our first class is Adivination, 9:00 a.m. That should be interesting." He sat back on the bench, thinking. "Well.. let's see what Trelawney has to say about me…"

Hagrid entered the Great Hall. He smiled from ear to ear as he approached the Gryffindor Table.

"Hello, Harry, Hermione, Mr. Ikari. Boys." He looked around the table. "Good day ta you all." He smiled widely, "I look forward to having ya all in ma firs' class! A'll see ya der!" he walked to the staff table, sitting on an enormous chair.


Diagon Alley

After a tasty (but somewhat greasy) breakfast, Misato used her portkey to travel to the Leaky Cauldron. Once she had paid for a room for the day, she walked towards her first destination of the day.

Gringotts.

She bowed courteously to the guards. "May you have a profitable day, good guards, may you direct me to the New Accounts Manager?"

The two guards looked at each other, arching their wispy eyebrows. The older one answered, "Manager Handaxe. Third desk on the left."

"Thank you. May your blades be always sharp and your gold everflowing."

The guards allowed her to pass unimpeded, and without the usual sneer at her back. "(Must be a foreigner.)" The younger guard said.

"(Most probably. Good mannered wizards are as rare as hairy fishes around here.)"

Both turned back to their job.


One hour later, Misato Katsuragi had opened four vaults. One for the Ikari Clan business, and one each for Shinji, Rei and herself. Handaxe had been nicely surprised when he had been asked about possible investments in the Muggle world.

"Certainly, Miss Katsuragi. But it is somewhat frowned upon in polite company." His distaste was somewhat obvious.

"Then, it will be just a matter of not discussing it in such company, wouldn't it?" She pocketed the keys issued. "From what I have seen, most magicals simply expect Gringotts to keep watch over their money, and don't even explore possible ways to increase their wealth, am I right?"

"Indeed you are." He put a series of documents in a luxurious folder, stamped with the sigil of Gringotts, and slid it towards Misato. "Here are your first account statements, we will owl you your statements each month, to any address you'd like."

"Now, about that, I have no permanent residence at the moment. I would like for Gringotts advice. I would prefer a small apartment, I mean, flat; or a small house either here in Diagon Alley or in Muggle London, close to the Leaky Cauldron. Rented, with an option to buy it if it proves convenient."

"I'll gather a selection of available properties for your perusal. It will be available at," he looked at an strange dial, "12:38 P.M. Please be punctual. A Junior Manager will accompany you to examine the properties, and prepare the initial parchmentwork. Final approval and contract will be handled by Steeldagger, your Account Manager."

"I will be here on time." Misato stood up. "May your enemies fear your name and your vaults be always full." She bowed, and walked out the door.

"(Now, that's a witch who knows the value of time. At least on a first impression.)" Handaxe mused.


Author Notes:

Typos corrected.

A little tidbit I added during the editing. I am aware that Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter) and Spike Spencer's (Shinji Ikari) voices are not really alike.

However, in the Latin American dubbed versions of both Neon Genesis Evangelion and the Harry Potter movies, things change.

Starting with Prisoner of Azkaban, Harry and Shinji share the same voice actor, Victor Ugarte. He has dubbed Shinji in all versions of Evangelion to date. Beginning with the original dub, two redubs of the series, the Rebuild movies, the Netflix dub, including both NGE movies. I think he and Jesse Conde (Fujutsuki) are the only ones who have worked in all versions of NGE.

And, just to top it off, Ugarte also dubbed Nigel Planter (renamed Harry Popote, "Popote" means "Drinking Straw") in The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy.