Disclaimer: I don't own Cardcaptor Sakura, Sailor Moon, Lord of the Rings, nor Harry Potter. They are the sole property of the original creators, i.e. not me. This story is merely to entertain; mainly me. So please don't hurt me legal persons.
Off to Hogwarts We Go
The day the trio would be going to Diagon Alley had finally arrived. Sakura packed only a few belongings, as she was to buy new school supplies anyway. She also had to bring Kero; not only for her protection, but also to send reports back to Touya, to make sure that 'the kid' behaved himself.
Since it was a Sunday morning the elementary was deserted, which was lucky, as no one wanted to explain the entire luggage situation. The portkey wasn't hard to find at all, as it was sitting next to a middle-aged man wearing a bright purple cloak. Oh, yeah, he wasn't out of place at all. The man was undoubtedly British, shown by his accent, so it was a good thing that Sakura, Tomoyo, and Syaoran all had on their charms-Tomoyo's was shaped like a camera. The trio and Kero said their good-byes, held onto the portkey and in a flash, were gone.
The group arrived with a horrible thump in a field just outside of London.
"I'm sorry about the rough landing, I guess I should have warned you," the man in the purple cloak said, then introduced himself as Barnaby. He's a representative of the Ministry of Magic, and was in charge of helping the Japanese minister keep his magic users under wraps.
Looking around, Sakura could see London not far in the distance, but far enough to avoid prying muggle eyes. She also noticed several other groups of teenagers arriving just as hers had, painfully. However, Sakura's landing hadn't been nearly as painful as the others had, she judged by hearing there sounds of agony. That's when it hit her. She leapt up to as quickly as she could to see whom she had landed on. "I'm so sorry Syaoran-kun," Sakura said as she helped him off the ground.
"That's all right, Sakura-chan, it wasn't your fault," he said while rubbing his bruised backside. Sakura turned her attention to her other friend.
"Tomoyo-chan, are you okay?" Tomoyo just brushed herself off.
"Yes, I'm all right," she replied. "I'm just not looking forward to doing that any time soon."
Once everyone was on their feet Barnaby gathered everyone together to announce that the transportation to Diagon Alley would be arriving shortly. Nearby, there was a small group of kids discussing which schools they were all to be attending. The trio then decided to spend the time waiting for the cars to arrive by seeing if they could find anyone else enrolled at Hogwarts.
In their search, the trio only found one other person that would be attending Hogwarts. She was a shy, polite girl their age, with violet eyes and short black hair, with a sort of purplish tint, that framed her elegant, but extremely pale face. The girl was quite familiar looking and not just because she sort of resembled Tomoyo, but Sakura could have sworn she'd seen the girl before. Tomoyo seemed to read Sakura's thoughts.
"Have we ever met, before now, I mean," inquired Tomoyo.
"I don't believe we've ever met, but there's no doubt you've all seen me on the news before," the girl answered.
"You can't be Sailor Moon?" asked Sakura, then eyed her suspiciously. "Can you?"
"No, but close. My name is Hotaru Tomoe, also known as Sailor Saturn."
Just then, Kero popped up from Sakura's bag, where he was hiding. "You're a Sailor Soldier? Oh, I just loved the game 'Sailor V'." Hotaru just laughed.
"Is he your guardian?" she asked.
"Yes," said Sakura, then quickly added, "but his true form is much bigger."
"Oh, I wasn't laughing at him, I was just reminded of Usagi Tsukino, or Sailor Moon as you know her. She loved that game as well. She and all the other sailors were upset that I had to leave, but as the youngest I had no choice. They made me bring Usagi's guardian, Luna, but I'm not complaining, she's great company. I was glad she was coming, since I was afraid I wouldn't know anyone or be able to make any friends." Hotaru then bent down to pick up Luna, who had been sitting quietly by her feet, to show them.
"Aww, she has a cute crescent moon on her forehead," said Sakura.
"Why thank you," Luna replied. No one even blinked at this event, seeing as how Kero was practically a talking plush toy, the trio didn't have any reason to be surprised by a talking cat.
"I heard there are four different houses at Hogwarts," said Hotaru. "Which one do you think you'll get?"
"I don't know," Sakura replied, "but I hope we all get the same one, that would be so great. Even if we don't, I hope we can all still remain close friends."
"I hope so too," said Hotaru. "It's always been hard for me to make new friends."
"Well now you're in luck, Hotaru-chan," said Tomoyo. "Sakura-chan is great at making friends, so if you stick with us you'll have more than you can handle."
"Oh, Tomoyo-chan, I don't make friends that easily," Sakura said, waving her hand, as if trying to move the thought aside. "But even if we do get different houses, I'll make sure you have plenty of friends, Hotaru-chan."
"Thank you," was all Hotaru could say to this.
"Oh, my, gosh!" exclaimed Sakura. "We've completely forgotten our manners, here you've introduced yourself and we've yet to introduce ourselves." The others looked slightly embarrassed at this realization. "I'm Sakura Kinomoto, and these are my friends Tomoyo Daidouji and Syaoran Li." Tomoyo smiled and Syaoran gave a slight bow.
"Well, I'm very pleased to meet you all." Just then the cars arrived to take the new students to acquire all their necessities for the school year.
"Hey, let's hurry so we can all be in the same car," Sakura said as she grabbed Hotaru's hand and ushered the rest through the crowds towards the cars.
"Energetic as usual I see," said Tomoyo as her friend herded them through the swarming masses. The car ride was quite silent, as no one had seen London before; their faces were crowded around the windows taking in the sights.
The cars arrived one by one, to avoid too much attention, at a sad looking pub seemingly unnoticed by the passing muggles, called the Leaky Cauldron. The group filed out of the car into the dingy pub and awaited further instructions.
Barnaby had gone ahead of the students so as to ensure that he could instruct everyone in small groups instead of leading them into Diagon Alley in one giant blob of people. He showed Sakura's group to the brick wall and opened the passage to the alley. Barnaby also instructed the group to first go to Gringotts bank to exchange their money, then after they had obtained all their items, were to return to the Leaky Cauldron to be assigned a room until it was time to leave for their schools.
Gringotts bank was interesting, to say the least. Never before had any of them seen a goblin. "Ho-e!" was the only response to these creatures. With money in hand the group was ready to shop.
They started with buying their wands at Ollivanders. Ollivander sized them up and started pulling out one wand after another for them to try until they finally found the wand that suited them. Syaoran ended up with an ash and dragon heartstring; Sakura with a unicorn hair and mahogany; Tomoyo with a unicorn hair and willow; and Hotaru with dragon heartstring and maple. Tomoyo still couldn't believe she had any magical powers, let alone be able to wield a wand.
The next stop on their supplies list was their uniforms. For these they had to be fitted at Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions. After all their robes had been fitted they finished off the rest of their list.
Once all the supplies had been purchased, there was still a bit of spending money burning holes in their pockets, so they decided to buy some ice cream and relax before they got their rooms.
While they devoured the ice cream, the group couldn't help but look around in amazement. There were so many interesting things in this place, especially the people. They walked around in the strangest outfits, cloaks, and whatnots and talked about brooms and something called quidditch. It was all quite fascinating, but it was time to be assigned a room.
As the group settled in over the next couple days, they got to know one another extremely well and traded stories about their heroic adventures, over ice cream, of course.
The day finally came when the group was to go to Hogwarts. Since theirs was the only group going to King's Cross station, they didn't have to worry about fighting over cars. Upon arrival at the station, the group was informed to go to platform nine and three-quarters to catch the Hogwarts express, and if they had any trouble they should seek someone carrying an owl.
When the group arrived at the spot where the platform should be they were slightly confused, but realized it was no doubt a platform created by magic so it wouldn't be as easy as just walking to where it was supposed to be. They tried to think of how they'd be able to hide something like a train platform when Syaoran leaned against a nearby wall to think and just vanished.
"Bingo!" yelled Sakura happily, as Syaoran walked back though the barrier to retrieve his belongings.
"Very smooth, Li-kun," Tomoyo grinned.
"I knew it was there the whole time," he tried to say slyly while blushing like mad the entire time. Hotaru just giggled at the silliness of her new friends. Luckily they arrived mildly early so very few people, if any, had seen Syaoran's little fall.
The group found a compartment easily enough and stashed their trunks overhead. Now they just had to wait for the other kids to show up. The kids started to arrive slowly at first, but as the clock ticked closer to 11 o'clock the platform was soon full of students and parents waiting for the departure of the train.
Staring into the crowd, the group couldn't distinguish one person from the next. One group, however, stuck out like a sore thumb, as they all had noticeably red hair. As they had nothing better to do, the four watched the group of redheads as they made their way through the crowd and noticed that one of the redheads was making his way to his friends.
"Hey, doesn't the one with the glasses look familiar?" asked Syaoran, referring to one of the redhead's friends. Sakura and Tomoyo couldn't help but laugh. Hotaru just stared. Sakura finally calmed down enough to explain the humor in this.
"He looks incredibly like this guy Eriol Hiiragizawa," said Sakura. "We always made jokes about him looking like Harry Potter. We only know a little about this Potter guy, but Eriol-kun always took offense, so we couldn't resist."
"I see," said Hotaru, she and Luna exchanged glances, suggesting 'lunatics'. Luna and Kero were conveniently hiding up by the luggage so as to avoid being trampled by the many students shuffling through the compartments.
"You know, I never actually believed that Harry Potter existed," said Tomoyo. "I thought he was some made-up person whom Eriol-kun could compare himself to and pretend to be more important than."
"Come to think of it, it was Hiiragizawa-kun that told of us about Harry Potter," said Syaoran.
"Yeah, maybe we should have asked him if he knew anything about this school. Then we'd at least know what to expect from it."
It was just about 11 o'clock and the train was getting ready to leave when the compartment door opened to reveal the redhead they were watching earlier, along with his friends. "Aww, this compartment is taken too. I don't think there are any empty ones left," said the redhead.
"Yes, but it's the least full and we have to sit somewhere," replied a girl with extremely bushy brown hair. She then turned her attention to Sakura's group. "Do you mind if we share this compartment."
"Of course not, come in, the more the merrier," said Sakura cheerfully.
The Eriol look alike spoke, "What year are you guys in? You look our age, but aren't the least bit familiar."
"Well I'd imagine that we're not familiar as we'd never met nor attended this school before," said Syaoran. "But you are right about us being our age if you are in fact 15."
"Well, if you've never been here before, how are just starting at 15?" asked the bushy hair girl. "Everyone starts at age 11 for their first year."
"We didn't know that we had to start at a certain age," said Sakura. "We just got letters stating that Japan was to regulate magic using, and were told to attend this school." Just then the whistle blew, signifying the upcoming departure of the train. "Oh, we've been terribly rude. Please let us help you put your things away, then we can all sit down and get to know each other."
Sakura, Tomoyo, and Hotaru helped with putting the luggage away while Syaoran sat and glared. Something he was all too good at. Sakura knew it was useless to try and get him to help. 'Stubborn as always,' thought Sakura.
Once they were all settled in, Sakura began the introductions, "I'm Sakura Kinomoto, and these are my friends, Syaoran Li…" she gestured towards Syaoran whom she knew wouldn't willingly give his name; then signaled for the others to continue.
"Tomoyo Daidouji."
"Hotaru Tomoe."
The redhead was the first to speak up, "Ron Weasley, and this is Hermione Granger and Harry Potter," he gestured towards each respectively.
"So why is Japan only just now regulating magic?" Hermione inquired.
"I suppose it's because the Ministry of Magic didn't have jurisdiction over Japan until just recently," said Hotaru. "But it is rather odd that this would be happening just now-I mean, there's been an awful lot of magic using long before now. It doesn't make sense that they'd only be just starting to regulate. Nothings changed from the past, or at least, I don't think it has."
Ron, Hermione, and Harry briefly exchanged glances. They knew why this sudden change occurred, but were reluctant to talk about it. Tomoyo, however, was quick to pick up on things and noticed the furtive glances. "What do you guys think could have happened," she asked, fully knowing there was something they weren't saying.
"Well, you see…" started Ron.
"It's like this…" Hermione tried to continue.
Harry then decided to take over the explanation. "Have you heard the stories of Voldemort and the boy who lived?" Ron and Hermione flinched at the mention of Voldemort.
"No," all four replied.
"Well, he was an evil wizard who sought power, and would stop at nothing to achieve his goals. Even if it meant the destruction of anything and anyone that might stand in his way," Harry continued. "Anyway, about 15 years ago his reign of terror was brought to an halt when he tried to destroy one last family. He was able to put an end to the man and woman. Because of a powerful charm his attack on the child was sent against him, and Voldemort was thrown out of his body. The small part that survived was biding its time until it could come back to power and seek revenge on the child. Just this summer he'd done everything but claim his revenge."
The four just stared, mouths agape, while Ron and Hermione fidgeted nervously.
Tomoyo was first to snap out of the shock. "You were the child weren't you?" she asked of Harry.
"Yes," he replied.
"Then is that how you got that scar?" she asked, but then added, "I don't mean to offend you or anything, but it's nothing that could have come about by anything but magic."
Harry looked at her curiously for a second, "My, you're perceptive. Are you sure you've never heard of me?"
"Well, I've heard mention of your name and that you're a great wizard, but that was all," Tomoyo replied. They both stared at each other for a while. Everyone, including Sakura, who was rarely perceptive about peoples' emotions, couldn't help but see the connection happening between the two. Syaoran couldn't take any more, and could tell the others were getting just as antsy waiting for someone to change the mood.
"Ahem," was all Syaoran could think of, but it was nonetheless effective, as Tomoyo and Harry broke eye contact. They blushed furiously as they noticed everyone was watching them.
As the express chugged along, both groups were getting well-acquainted and becoming fast friends, even Syaoran warmed up a bit. Then the woman pushing the cart of goodies came strolling by to offer something to eat. Sakura's group had all remembered their packed lunches with enough to share so no one had to spend any money. The woman then continued her journey only to reveal three sinister looking teenage boys, who were most definitely up to no good.
"Why hello, Potter," said the shortest of the three. "I see you're trying to expand your little group of outcasts."
"What do you want, Malfoy?" Harry asked angrily.
"Nothing," said the boy innocently, or at least tried to be. "I just wanted to see if the famous Harry Potter had any run-ins with a certain someone over the summer. I mean, it would have been a terrible tragedy if you were to survive after another encounter with you-know-who."
"Jeez, stop beating around the bush and tell us what you really think," said Hotaru, trying to pour on the sarcasm. The blonde hair boy was about to say something obscenely mean to someone who would dare talk back to him, but stopped dead in his tracks. He saw before him a vision of beauty. Her violet eyes, her black hair outlining her thin, pale face. The boy could only mouth wordlessly for a few seconds before he could find his voice.
Trying to recover from that embarrassing display he tried to be as smug as possible. "I'm Draco Malfoy, and who might you-I mean-how dare you speak to me like that. I demand to know who you are." Well, he didn't completely fail.
"I'm Hotaru Tomoe, and I dare to speak to you in any way I please." All Draco could do was to make a few indignant sounds before just turning and walking away. Everyone then turned to Hotaru.
"I have never seen Malfoy act like that around anyone," said Hermione.
"Way to go Hotaru-chan," said Sakura. "You sure showed that meany."
"What the…meany? Sakura-chan…" said Syaoran. "Are you seriously that oblivious, and what are we? Four?"
Sakura gave a little "humph" and tried to ignore him, but couldn't contain it, "What do you mean oblivious?" Tomoyo just laughed, and Syaoran just rolled his eyes.
"Couldn't you tell that Malfoy was completely in to her?" asked Ron. "Hey, you know we could use this to our advantage. Maybe he won't be able to bother us that much this year, so long as she's around."
"That's true, but she'd have to be in our house to keep him in line," said Hermione.
"Oh, yeah, weren't you talking about the houses earlier, Hotaru-chan?" asked Sakura.
"Yeah, but I knew that there's four of them, nothing more," said Hotaru.
"The four different houses are Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin," Hermione stated matter-of-factly. "The ones in Gryffindor are said to have courage. Hufflepuffs are loyal. Ravenclaw is for those who have a ready mind. And Slytherin houses those three," referring to Draco Malfoy and his lackeys, later identified as Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle.
"So which houses are you all in?" asked Hotaru.
"We're all in Gryffindor," Ron said proudly. "What houses do you think you'll all get?"
"I don't know," said Tomoyo, thinking hard. "How do we get placed into the houses anyway?"
"You get sorted by the sorting hat," said Harry.
"Sorting hat?" the four asked in unison.
"You'll find out once we get to Hogwarts," Ron smiled wryly. The four could do nothing but sit and look bemused.
After several long hours the train finally found its way to Hogsmeade Station where the adventure of school would begin. The train came to a halt and Sakura's group started to gather their belongings. Hermione stopped them before they collected all their things, "You don't have to do that, your things will be taken to your rooms for you."
"Oh," said Sakura. She and the others dropped their stuff and followed after Harry and Ron, who had already left the compartment.
Upon leaving the train the first years were herded over to an extraordinarily large man as the exchange students were called over by an elderly woman with square rimmed glasses, who introduced herself as Professor McGonagall. The group was to be briefed about the situation and then be sorted to their houses. The briefing took place in McGonagall's office, where they discussed everything that had already been in the letters. They also discussed the different courses they would be taking during the school year. In addition to the regular curriculum the four exchange students would have regular check ups to test their skills in both the traditional magic and their own brand, so as to gage their magical aptitude.