AU Yeah! August 6: Hogwarts AU
For the hundredth time, Maki wondered how they kept talking her into this kind of thing.
Otonokizaka Tiger and Dragon Academies for Young Mikos and Priests was in trouble. After the second and final fall of the evil priest Tom Marbero Ridoru, everyone who was anyone family-wise was sending their children to suddenly chic Hogwarts Academy in Scotland in the United Kingdom. Even before the war, the number of mikos and priests in Japan had been in decline. The rate of mystically gifted children born to Normies had also gone down. Combined, this wasn't something a small, if prestigious academy like theirs could survive.
Schools like Beauxbatons in France and Durmstrang in northern Norway were competing in strange contests that seemed to have little to do with training children to handle powerful forces, but which helped keep their student recruits coming in. Marching bands, magically-enhanced acrobats and cheerleaders, and of course a strange pastime called Quidditch.
The boys' school, Dragon, had done its part, learning to play a fairly competent Quidditch game, but so far only six students at Tiger had even tried to do anything on their end. Some of the tougher girls helped the boys practice Quidditch by playing against them, but as the boys' team grew in size, they'd sent the leader, Rin Hoshizora, back to Tiger to see if she could help build up the performance part of the contests. It had already been announced that the famous Triwizard Tournament was going to be held again this year, and be a "Poly-wizard" tournament. A strong performance there would give them a leg-up on competing Korean and Chinese academies, and perhaps stop the drain of magical talent off to Hogwarts.
The difficulty, Maki mused, was that this was not the first attempt at Tiger to compete in performances. There was even a Room of Showmanship that was filled with blessings to augment musical, dance and purely magical performance of all sorts. But one small problem prevented them using it. It was less than 150 cm in size, in fact.
The fledgling Magical Performance Club had floundered, mostly due to student indifference to such pursuits. It was seen as hopelessly Normie and vulgar by most mikos-in-training from good families. But one remained: the club president Nico Yazawa. She was holed up in the Room of Showmanship when she wasn't in classes. And when she was, it was sealed by rituals that belied her mediocre marks in both Surface and Transformational Prayer.
Her family had a good pedigree, but no longer owned any assets. Her father had perished in the first wizard's war, being one of the few priests from Japan to go to the aid of the beleaguered British magicians. Because the government didn't approve of its citizens fighting for other countries, far afield, an initial move to pay a hefty survivors benefit to Nico's family had been stalled, then reduced by half, and then again, forcing her mother to work long hours at a couple of shrines.
Tiny and red-eyed, Nico'd been widely rumored to be part imp. The way she reacted to that suggestion didn't help her case.
"She likes you!" Honoka Kousaka, Tiger's Performance Club leader had assured her.
"It's true," the Headmistress's daughter, Kotori Minami agreed. "She watched Maki heal at the infirmary. Just stood there for a half hour watching, until she thought Maki might see her, then she ran away."
"I reluctantly agree, Maki-chan. You know that she often haunts the Room of Musical Enhancement when you're there, correct?" Umi Sonoda had added. She was the choreographer for the girls. She prevented Honoka from attempting wild magical feats that might harm the other students.
Maki shook her head, not liking where the conversation was going.
"And so," Honoka said, smiling and taking Maki's hands in hers, "You're the only one who can reach her!"
She looked at Maki like the nonsense she was spouting was plain common sense and logic. Maki felt a headache come on.
Nonetheless, accompanied by her friends, the shy, gentle fellow Healer Hanayo Koizumi and Rin, the ex-Quidditch player, here Maki was. She knocked on the door, only to find herself painfully shocked and thrown back against the opposite wall. She nearly lost consciousness as her head thocked against the wall, even protected as it was by her miko headgear.
Apparently, the Room was now protected by strong hex runes, what the English magicians called medium-strength wards. Rin was all for simply blasting the door off its hinges - and she knew a good prayer for it. But that, Maki told her, a bit stiffly, risked destroying the very things they had come to gain. Hanayo said, bluntly, that Maki must, instead, make a bargain with Nico, at the very least, if not befriend her. But she offered no suggestions as to how Maki could do that with someone they couldn't even talk to.
Finally, Maki had an idea. She approached the table outside the Room. She took Nico's magically animated fliers (which showed her performing with girls Maki had never met - they'd probably transferred out before she could get to know them). She very gently set them by the table, then transfigured it into an ordinary piano. She also magically fetched some of the performance images the six of them had taken at their own club's performances, and set them down by Nico's.
She sat at the piano and began to play. She tried to remember which songs had made the surly girl stay around and listen the most. Sure enough, eventually the door to the Room of Showmanship cracked open. Maki smiled without being too overt about it.
Coincidentally, the Head Miko of her House, Nozomi Toujou, came by just then. She looked over what Maki had created, and she spoke up. "You know, Maki-chan, those fliers of yours will just make Nicocchi sadder." Maki considered that. "We'll see," she said. She went on playing. She saw Nico's shadow creep towards the back of the piano. Even if Nico was two years ahead of her, being able to turn invisible was still impressive: still, why hadn't she noticed she still cast a shadow?
Just as Maki was musing that normally a friend would say something like that, Rin seemed to read Maki's mind - fortunately, she was not gifted in those sort of prayers, so it was probably just her normal sympathy and intuition. Aloud, she said "Maki-chan, Nico doesn't have any friends to tell her when her spells work or not, and I think she doesn't want to show them to the teachers because she's reading advanced books and stuff from the restricted scrolls." But she said it softly enough only Maki, and not Nico, would hear. Hanayo and Nozomi nodded.
It was a pity the Head Miko wouldn't do this, Maki thought. A pity she wasn't part of the fourth and fifth-years' plan to revive magical performances. She reluctantly concluded being there for moral support was as far as the very spiritual girl was willing to go in this matter. It was a double pity that Nozomi's best friend, Eli Ayase, actually supported the grumpy little half-imp in keeping them out. She hated the idea of performance magic, and felt like the combined Otonokizaka Academies should save themselves with something much more dashing and honorable - training the students to go hunt what the evil British coven had called Death Eaters, for instance.
But now was now, and here was here. Maki had studied with an actual portrait of Nico's group. All the girls in the portrait, even Nico, had wanted to help. It was quite sad to see the contrast between the Nico in the image and the one skulking around now. Long story short, Maki had learned, and practiced, Nico's favorite song from back then, and that's what she switched to playing. From the location of Nico's shadow, she wasn't moving.
But when she heard sobbing coming from where Nico was hidden, for some reason, she couldn't bear it. All her plans went out the window. She stopped playing, jumped up, moved behind the piano and grabbed where she thought Nico was. She felt a body squirming to get out of her grasp, but didn't relinquish her hold. Even when sobbing was interrupted by threats, Maki didn't let go. And when it was just bitter weeping again, she just held Nico tighter.
Meanwhile, around the corner, it was time for Plan B. Honoka, Umi and Kotori had remotely fetched Nico's and their images, and a pre-arranged bundle of prayers and blessings enveloped them. When the aura diminished, Nico's image had been mirrored in the Muse portraits. At first, she looked around wildly, then shrugged, and joined in the dancing. Because Nico was a quick study, fairly soon her face was lit up with a smile as she twirled around with the Muse girls, several feet up in the air, where Nico could be any height she wished.
Still clutching Nico tightly, Maki asked to see her. She assured the girl that they all wished her well, and would support her, but there was something Maki wanted to show her. Slowly, Nico faded into sight. Her tear-filled eyes and childish face made Maki want to hug her again, but she resisted. Hand in hand, they went to where Honoka, Kotori and Umi were waiting, with Nozomi, Hanayo and Rin trailing behind. Maki thought she caught a glimpse of blonde hair just peeking around the far corner, but it dashed away too quickly to be sure.
Nico seemed outraged to see they'd purloined her moving fliers, but when she looked at the Muse images, and saw herself dancing happily with the other girls in Muse, she was simply frozen in shock. She looked up into Maki's eyes like a little girl who had never been told "Otanjoubi omedetou" before. Maki nodded. Impulsively, Nico initiated hugging Maki, and impulsively, Maki reciprocated.
All was well. But why did Maki suddenly not want to let go?