Don't worry, guys. I'm using the English names for the Digimon, since I don't know the Japanese ones any better than the rest of you…Oh, and the Kouichi-no-eye-contact thing doesn't have anything to do with culture. He's just shy…really shy.
I know there were other questions asked, but I'm not on the computer with the internet, so I'll try to remember next time.
Disclaimer: You know I don't own Digimon…And do I look like J.K. Rowling to you?!
Chapter 9: Riding The Hogwarts Express
"Heave-ho." Junpei, Takuya and Kouji lifted Kouichi's trunk into the back of the last car. One last shove from the oldest transfer and it was secure.
Takuya leaned back and took off his hat a moment, wiping the sweat off his forehead. He glanced at Kouji out of the corner of his eye and grinned.
"Remember what happened the last time we were on a train no one else could reach?"
Kouji not-so-subtly knocked his goggle-wearing friend up the side of the head with the flat of his hand, but there was a passive grin on his face. The others mirrored the expression.
The train's whistle shrieked a warning, there was only five minutes before departure time. Kenkyo cleared her throat. "Okay, guys and gal. A quick warning: If you get into any trouble at Hogwarts, I'll be the one who hears about it, and the detention will be nothing compared to what's waiting for you at the shrine. Get it?"
"Got it." Takuya nodded.
"Good." the whistle blared again, and Kenkyo gave Tomoki a slight tap on the back of the shoulder. "Now get on the train, all of you, don't want to get left behind…Oh, and Kimura-san…"
"Yes ma'am?" Kouichi turned back as Izumi jumped into the train.
Kenkyo reached into the sleeve of her robe and produced a small, circular flask filled with some kind of translucent-blue potion. There were graduated marks along the side of the bottle.
She handed it to him with a very serious expression. "If you start getting a head-ache on the train, take a couple of sips of this." she instructed, not exactly companionate but with visibly good intent. "Then, when you get to school, you'll want to drink a glass a day for a week, then half a glass each night for the next week. It should help you adjust to the innate magic within the school boundaries. Understand?"
Kouichi nodded, taking the bottle and slipping it into a pocket of his carry-on bag. Kenkyo smiled. "Good. Now get going."
The last transfer jumped onto the train not a moment too soon. The whistle blew one last time and the engine began to pull away from the hidden platform. Kenkyo stood on the edge, waving good-bye.
"Have a good term!" she called. "And Kanbara-san…Stay out of trouble!!"
. . . . . .
Harry watched the platform disappear out the window, then leaned back in his chair with a sigh. It'd seamed like the summer had taken forever, but here he was…finally going back to Hogwarts. After the living hell Umbridge had made it last year, he was rather looking forward to a nice, normal semester. Well, as normal as a place like Hogwarts ever got.
He turned back towards the compartment. Ginny had gone off with Luna Lovegood and a couple of other fifth-year girls. Hermione and Ron, prefects as they were, were down at the first car getting their yearly 'orders'. He was sure Hermione was enjoying herself, but Ron was probably bored out of his wits.
He went back to looking out the window. London was rushing by now, the buildings nothing but blurs as they sped past. He wondered vaguely how Number 12 Grimmauld Place and the Noble and Ancient House of Black was holding up with its only heir dead…
He promptly shoved that particular train of thought into the very back of his head.
He tried to let his mind wander for a little while. He thought about the Weasley's new store and how well they seamed to be doing. He thought about the boy they'd met in the station…Kouichi, he'd called himself…and wondered if the transfers would be sorted with the first-years at the banquet tonight.
And then he thought about Voldemort, and his mind registered on the large, moving black thing he'd seen on Privet Drive.
He'd completely forgotten about it. He hadn't told Mrs. Weasley, or Lupin, or even Ron and Hermione. What on Earth could it have been? Was it some new spell that Voldemort was trying? Or some kind of mutated monster…?
The door slid open and a harried-looking Ron and Hermione entered. Hermione took the seat next to the window, leaning her forehead against the cool glass, while Ron plopped down next to Harry.
"Phew…" he gasped. "One more lecture from the Head Boy and I might scream…"
"Who is it this year?" Harry asked.
"A Ravenclaw. Mathew Ellsworth." Hermione said automatically. "And Head Girl's a Hufflepuff…That nice, smaller girl, Heather Lovett. They make for quite an… interesting… leadership."
As usual, Harry had no idea who they were.
"It was the usual talks." Hermione muttered. "Although they did brief us on what to do if there was any sort of crisis…"
"'Crisis' as in Voldemort." Harry concluded. His friends both nodded, and Ron shuddered just the slightest bit. "Do they really think he'll come to Hogwarts?"
"No." Hermione reached into her bag and pulled out a book. "But they can't be too careful."
Ron leaned back and put his hands behind his head. "Still…It'll be nice to be back, huh?" he sighed. "Maybe this year we can make it through without all the life-and-death situations…"
The dark shape on Privet Drive crept into his mind once again, and Harry leaned forward. "By the way…There's something I need to tell you guys…"
"Janpu, get back here!"
All three of them jumped at that shout. Through their open door came a large, green frog, leaping forward as though he was making a break for it and landing at Ron's feet. He was followed by a boy with brown hair and eyes, dressed in orange and yellow, who launched himself from the compartment across the hall and snatched the animal in mid-dive. He took with it Ron's left shoe, which was yanked off as the new boy slid into the wall.
"Gotcha!" he exclaimed with a satisfied laugh, clutching the bright green thing in both hands. "Thought you could get away from me, huh?"
The frog croaked disdainfully, upset at being caught. Harry, Hermione and especially Ron stared at the boy blankly for a moment. He continued lying on the floor, blinking up at them, until he noticed the shoe caught in his right elbow.
"Er…Sorry." he said awkwardly, handing it back to Ron and starting to slide down so he could stand back up. Harry noticed another hearing-aid…thing…in his ear.
An annoyed sigh came from the door. "Takuya, I swear, you don't have a brain to your body."
Harry blinked, and opened his mouth to identify the one in the door as Kouichi Kimura…but then he realized that he wasn't. His hair was a darker, purer black, and quite a bit longer, tied in a pony tail like Bill Weasley's. There was a blue bandana holding the bangs away from the same navy blue eyes. He was leaning against the doorframe, arms crossed over his chest, frowning at his friend.
"Aw, lighten up, Kouji." Takuya rolled his eyes, getting up. "It's not like I hurt anybody."
Kouji opened his mouth to respond, but was interrupted by a female voice from the cabin behind him. "Don't start, you two. It's too early."
The blonde girl from before…Harry tried to remember her name and came up with 'EE-zoo-me'…came out of the compartment across the hall, giving the boy Koo-gee a slight tap on the shoulder to move out of the way. He slipped back where she had come from, sitting down. She gave them a slight bow, helping the orange-clothed boy to his feet.
"Sorry about that. Takuya-kun gets a little…hyper…when he's cooped up."
"Hey!" Tah-koo-yah protested, but then Izumi straightened her bow and realized who she was talking to.
"You're…" a wide grin spread over her face, and she turned back to the compartment. "Isn't this a coincidence! Kouichi-kun! It's your friends from the station!"
There was a noise of some sort of confusion. Izumi opened the compartment doors all the way to show that the quiet blue-haired boy was sitting next to the window, an odd look on his face. He turned just a little pink, giving Harry a very small smile and dropping his eyes down.
"…Hello." he muttered in a very quiet tone. "Thank you again for your help before…"
"No problem." Harry grinned supportively. Jeez, this guy was either gravely shy or under a permanent Quietus charm. You had to strain you ears just to hear his voice.
Izumi was now trying to figure out a way back to her seat, but it wasn't easy. Kouichi and the boy who looked like him were on one side, with a bag stuffed into the last seat marking Takuya's spot. On the other side were two boys with brown hair, one younger and smaller, the other older and quite a bit bigger through the waist. And, unfortunately, though they were all slightly smaller than the usual occupants, they didn't all quite fit.
"Oooh, Junpei!!" Izumi rolled her eyes, elbowing the larger boy to get him out of her seat. "I wish this compartment was larger or something, I can't imagine being cramped up like this the rest of the trip…"
"Then why are you blaming me?" the boy demanded.
Hermione cleared her throat. "We have room in this one." she interrupted. "A couple of you could move over here, if you'd like."
Izumi looked up. "You don't mind?" the three shook their heads. "Thank you! Come on, Takuya-san, let's give the twins a little room to breathe…"
She grabbed Takuya by the arm and pulled him across the small (barely a meter wide) corridor. She took the seat next to Hermione with a smile and Takuya, shrugging, sat next to Ron.
Izumi turned to the other girl with a large grin. "I'm sorry, I never properly introduced myself before. I'm Izumi Orimoto. I'll be turning sixteen soon, so I guess that makes me a sixth year around here."
"Jeez, Izumi, just tell them your blood type why don'tcha?" the boy in orange muttered.
"Takuya…" she muttered threateningly.
He grinned, tipping his hat back. "My name's Takuya. Takuya Kanbara. Nice to meet you." he nodded back towards the opposite compartment, the occupants turned slightly to face them. "The big guy over there's Junpei Shibuyama, the oldest of our little group…and the little one next to him is Tomoki Himi."
Tomoki grinned at them with a cheery, "Hi!" Junpei gave a slight wave and a smile, digging for something in his bag.
"And I guess you already know Kouichi-kun over there." Izumi nodded to the boy by the window. "But the one next to him is Kouji. They're twins, if you can't tell at a glance."
Kouji gave a very small wave with an indifferent look on his face. Seeing the two of them next to each other, Harry couldn't believe he'd gotten them confused. Sure, their faces were exactly the same, and they were both very quiet, but it seamed to be for different reasons…Kouji gave off the air of being untrusting and was radiating self-confidence, but Kouichi's silence was defiantly caused by pure shyness and self-doubt…bit like Neville, actually, but with a less pathetic feel.
Hermione smiled. "It's nice to meet all of you." she said, very politely. Harry wondered if she was mimicking Kouichi from the train station as a way to act. "My name is Hermione Granger."
That got her a few confused looks, except from Kouichi, who was staring out the window, and Kouji, who merely looked a tad bit curious.
"Hir…Her-my-own-ee?" Izumi pronounced carefully.
"Yes, that's right." Hermione nodded.
Izumi's face spread into a grin and she clapped her hands in front of her. "Oooh, that is such a pretty name! I've never heard it before…"
"Neither has anyone else…" Ron muttered to Harry under his breath, then turned to Takuya. "I'm Ron Weasley, by the way. Think I may have seen you in my brother's shop."
"Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes?" Takuya's grin widened. "Oh yeah, that was a blast. Kouji didn't like it though…Not enough humor in him."
Kouji lobbed something that looked like a pencil across the hall. It bounced off the lens of Takuya's goggles, then fell out the door and rolled down the corridor. Takuya just laughed at the prank and turned back to Harry.
"I don't think we know who you are yet." he said brightly. "Don't think that's quite fair, is it?"
Harry grinned, quite enjoying this boy. "I'm Harry. Harry Potter."
Izumi snapped her head up, sending long strands of blonde hair into Hermione's face, Tomoki's shot around, and Junpei dropped his bag with a clatter. Even Kouji reacted, his eyebrows shooting up very suddenly. Kouichi didn't really respond, just continued staring out the window.
Takuya rubbed his head, looking very confused. "Why does that sound familiar?"
Izumi nearly fell off the chair. She, Junpei and Tomoki all wore identical looks of disbelief, and Kouji's face was more than a little annoyed. "Takuya-san…" Tomoki groaned.
"You really are a world class dunce." Kouji rolled his eyes.
"What? What did I say?" Takuya asked blankly.
Izumi straightened, leveling her glare at him. "You didn't pay attention to Kenkyo-sensei's History lessons at all, did you?"
Takuya's face went blanker than ever. "We had history lessons?"
Izumi groaned loudly, joined by all the transfers save Kouichi. Hermione, Harry and Ron stared at them, half-amused and half immensely confused. Junpei reached across the corridor and grabbed him by the arm. "Let's see if this jogs your memory: Motarasu Konton no Makasu."
Takuya's face registered suddenly in surprise. "You're pulling my leg, right?!"
Hermione blinked. "Moe-tar-se…what?"
The transfers glanced at each other, then Izumi spoke. "Motarasu Konton… It's our name for…" she gritted her teeth. "Him. The literal translation, I believe is… 'Bringer of Chaos'. Makasu means 'to defeat', so, put it together and it's 'The One Who Defeated The Bringer of Chaos'…It's just a title."
Ron was confused. "It's a long title." he said. "You sure make a big deal out of it, don't you?"
"Not too different from around here, is it?" Hermione said briskly with a smile. "All the You-Know-Who and Boy-Who-Lived hype is the same…It's just a different language."
Tomoki cocked his head, looking at Harry. "You want us to stop talking about it?" he asked. "We will, you know. It's not polite to go on and on about stuff like that."
Harry was just a tad bit surprised, but nodded blankly. Takuya leaned back in his seat with a wide yawn. "Yeah, it's depressing anyway…Let's talk about something more useful, like what the heck is a 'house'?"
That explanation lasted a good half an hour, going through the sorting process and the difference between the houses and their histories. The Transfers seamed to be paying very close attention, but Hermione quite wisely stopped Ron's rant on the evils of Slytherin before it got too out of hand.
From there the topic switched to the translation charms they were all wearing, to comparing Hogwarts uniforms with the garuken and sailor fuku of the Japanese, to school and the slight differences between cultures. Hermione was fascinated by the way Japanese wizards were taught, in their after-school 'cram sessions' at local shrines, but Ron was confused.
"Why couldn't they just have a place like Hogwarts somewhere? It wouldn't be that hard, would it?"
"Oh, Ron, don't be silly." Hermione's eyes gleamed with a familiar interest. "Japan is far to small to hide a huge place like Hogwarts, especially seeing that it's the pinnacle of Muggle technology…"
"Why does that make any difference?" Harry asked, as blank as Ron.
"Because Hogwarts knocks out every Muggle device within seventy-five miles!" Hermione said, obviously quite proud of herself for knowing that. "Even Japan's largest island is only about three hundred miles across, and it's densely populated with Muggles, too. There's now place to have it without risking discovery."
"Makes more sense than what Kenkyo told us." Takuya muttered under his breath.
"She said the exact same thing, it was just more technical." Izumi corrected. To Hermione, she said. "You're pretty much right, the smaller shrines don't project as much energy. It's just enough to cause little glitches in cell-phone connections and things like that during practice."
There was a slight growl from across the corridor. Junpei laughed awkwardly as he stomach let out a second one. "Okay, enough talk like that…I'm hungry. When's lunch?"
"You're always hungry." Tomoki piped up from next to him.
"I'm afraid I'm going to have to side with Junpei…" Takuya's stomach growled as well. "We haven't eaten all day."
Harry was trying very hard not to laugh. "The snack cart should be coming around soon." he mentioned. "They've got all sorts of stuff, you can get something then."
"In the meantime…" Izumi reached into her carryon bag. "Kenkyo-sensei and I made a little something this morning."
She pulled out a long, triangular package, undoing the wrappings around it to reveal several white triangles with rounded edges.
Junpei perked up instantly. "Rice balls!"
Ron was confused. "But they aren't balls."
"We know that." Takuya grinned, taking one of the triangles. "It's just the translation charms again. The proper term is Onigiri, but there's really no right English was of saying it."
"Want to try one?" Izumi held them out to the others. "They're all pretty mild, so you might want to try the salmon first…"
Hermione took one and bit into it. She made a bit of a face. "It's…interesting." she admitted after a while. "Not exactly bad, but…interesting."
Harry reached over and took one. The transfers were each rather enjoying thiers, so he figured they couldn't be too bad. And Hermione was right, it was rather interesting. That was the only word for this odd white-rice-and-fish-taste that filled his mouth. Interesting.
"Kouichi-kun, do you want one?" Izumi asked. He was the only transfer who hadn't taken one, and he didn't respond at all. "Kouichi-kun?"
Tomoki got up and crossed over to him. He leaned down so their faces were level, then straightened with a sigh. "He's asleep again."
"Again?" Takuya exclaimed. "Jeez, is something wrong with him? He's never slept this much before, has he?"
Kouji finished his onigiri, reaching over to tap his brother on the shoulder. "Nii-san." he said, shaking him gently. "Nii-san. Wake up. Come on, Nii-san."
Ron leaned over to Takuya. "What's he saying?"
"'Nii-san." Takuya swallowed a mouthful of rice. "'Dearest Older Brother' It's just a nickname, lots of people use it. My younger brother calls me the same thing."
"Nii-san." Kouji gave him a bit more forceful shake. "Wake up."
His brother turned his head, opening his eyes blurrily. "What is it?"
Kouji sighed. "Come on, Nii-san, you can't sleep the whole way there."
"Why not?"
"If you do that, you'll be up all night." Izumi said brightly. "Then you'll be all tired tomorrow, and that's when we start class. You can't fall asleep on your first day, after all."
Kouichi gave a slight yawn and sat up fully, stretching. Izumi handed him a rice ball to wake him up, and he ate rather slowly, listening rather than talking as the conversation started up again. By the time the snack cart came they'd covered the main teachers at Hogwarts and the difference between Western and Eastern wands. (There wasn't much, save the cores. Takuya and Junpei's Fireball dragon-heartstrings, a lot like the West, but Izumi and Tomoki both had Kappa tendons, while the twins had a kitstune or fox-demon tail hair each.)
The cart soon rattled away, leaving them with piles of Chocolate Frogs, bags of Bernie Bott's Every Flavor Beans, and several boxes of something called Pocky, which was explained as a common Japanese snack food. It was a long, thin wafer, like a pretzel stick without salt, dipped in different kinds of flavorings. According to the transfers, normal Pocky was good, but the Wizarding kind played weird tricks like setting off small explosions in your mouth, turning your teeth different colors and making your tongue disappear. It was almost as fun as the Every Flavor Beans.
In what seamed like only a few minutes, the sun was setting outside their windows. Harry, Ron, Takuya and Izumi were now in a hot debate over Quidditch, Ron and Takuya about the teams that were playing, and Izumi comparing Harry's Firebolt with her Inazuma 300. Tomoki and Junpei were playing Exploding Snap, while the remaining three were just trying to make sure no one got hurt.
Checking her watch, Hermione declared that it was about time they all changed into their robes, and she and Izumi went down to the lavatory to do so. When they returned, both Junpei and Ron nearly fell off their seats.
Harry tried not to laugh at their reactions. He didn't know about Izumi, but he did notice that Hermione's…body…had changed more than a little over the summer, and the special cut of the wizarding robes showed it off wonderfully. He reached over and discretely closed Ron's mouth before the girls could notice.
Izumi did a slight turn in the hall. "Well? How does it look?"
Kouji kicked Junpei in the shin, snapping out of his trance. Takuya grinned. "Not bad." he smirked. "Guess Madam Malkin really does work magic."
Izumi whacked him over the head with a random book.
There was the shriek of a whistle and the train began slowing down. The lights of Hogsmeade station were starting to reflect off the window.
They'd arrived.
TBC…
Long Chapter. Really long. O.o You may all gasp now. I had a hard time figuring out what should and shouldn't go in here, and I still think my timing was way off…
Heh…Heather Lovett is the name of a good friend of mine. (She works very hard, so she'd fit in Hufflepuff…) Mathew Ellsworth is the guy our entire AAP wing was trying to set me up with last year. (Think Bill Gates with a TI-89 programmable calculator.) Just random names from my normal life…
For some reason, when I hear Hermione's voice as I write, I don't hear much of an accent, British or otherwise. Same goes for Harry and (especially) Draco Malfoy. But Ron and the rest of the Weasleys all have very heavy accents…So you might find that in my writing.
