This is not my best chapter, but to get everything in, these scenes just had to be a little choppy…
For those people who keep asking…YES, the Digimon ARE going to play a part in this. In fact, you'll get your first glimpse in an estimated…(checks plans) Chapter or two, actually. It depends on how everything works out. It's just that there are a few other things that need to be established beforehand, not a lot, just a few.
Oh, and most people's Maho-Kiso is revealed in this chapter. I don't think anyone got them all right, some, however, were very close. Kudos to all, and on with the show…
Disclaimer: I don't Harry Potter or the characters of Digimon Frontier. I'm just weird.
Chapter 17: A Problem For Kouichi
Monday afternoon. After a mostly uneventful morning of Charms and Care of Magical Creatures, Kouichi was trekking down the 3rd-floor main staircase, en route to the Slytherin bathrooms. He needed a shower to get the dust and cement chunks out of his hair, which had occurred when Malfoy's miss-fired Blasting Charm hit the bust of Morgan the Malevolent in Flitwick's classroom. He was really rather lucky it hadn't hit him.
Izumi smiled and waved at him as she went past, going the opposite direction with another Ravenclaw girl. He waved back with a small grin, but shied away from talking to her when the other girl gave him a downright poisonous glare.
He was a few steps past them, about half-way down the flight, when there was a huge BANG from behind him. Before he could turn to see what it was, something large and cold, with the indefinite feeling of a spell, hit him in the back with enough force to send him tumbling head-over-heels to the foot of the stairs.
"Kouichi!" Izumi exclaimed, leaving her friend's side to race down after him. She paused a moment to look back up where the shot had come from. Three second-years… Two Gryffindors and a Ravenclaw…were running from the scene and laughing.
"Those little brats…" she muttered, then raced down to where Kouichi was regaining his senses.
The boy sat up, having landed in the middle of the seconded floor, and looked rather dazed. Izumi ran down to him and helped him back to his feet. "What hit me?" he asked groggily.
"Some brat's spell." Izumi rolled her eyes. "Probably a random prank…But are you okay, Kouichi?"
"Fine…fine…"
"You're sure?" Izumi pressed. "Remember what happened the last time you fell like that."
Kouichi winced. "Gee, thanks for reminding me…" he muttered, a bit sarcastically.
"Sorry. Just making a point." Izumi felt the back of his head, as though checking for blood. "You're sure you're alright?"
"Yes, I'm sure." he sighed, straightening back to his full-standing position and starting off towards the dungeons. "Thank you…See you at dinner, all right?"
"…All right." Izumi smiled a bit an waved him off, then she glanced back up where the attack had come from. Something about this didn't feel quite right…
. . . . . .
Defense Against the Dark Arts with Professor Tonks.
Definitely one of the strangest experiences of Harry's young life, and that was saying something.
At the start of class, she'd asked everyone to take out their self-assessment essays that she'd assigned for homework the previous class. Then, she promptly conjured the tables into separate groups spread out across the room and marked each with an element name and the corresponding 'Kanji' symbol. Whereupon finishing this task and gathering the class (still profoundly separated into Gryffindor and Slytherin) in the middle of the room, she wrote several lists out on the four chalkboards around the room, the last two scrunched together on the back boards.
The lists turned out to be the second part of their self-analysis. Each section contained a list of certain kinds of likes and dislikes. Whichever ones they had the most in common with, they were told to report to the corresponding group. Those who were confused were to come and confer with the Professor. The transfers, knowing their Maho-Kisos already, simply crossed to whichever group they belonged in and sat down. It took almost half an hour for the rest of the class to figure out where the heck they all went.
To Harry's surprise, neither he, Ron, or Hermione were anywhere near each other. Ron's list had several references to strategy (in the form of chess) and dislikes in confrontation (in the form of spiders, and of his Keeper-problem the year before), which Tonks insisted made him an Earth element.
Harry himself had mostly activities (such as Quidditch) in his 'likes', and events where he had to sit still (Detention, Homework) in his 'dislikes'. As such, he was judged a Fire Element early on, and took a place next to Kouji and Takuya. This situation he found rather baffling, as he'd never met two friends who were more polar opposite of each other. And yet, here they were the same element, while he and Ron were on separate sides of the room…?
It took a few moments for his frazzled brain to realign with the rest of his senses.
Turned out, most of the people in their class were Fire, including a rather lot of the Slytherins. This number, unfortunately, included Draco Malfoy. He was at the opposite end of the table, looking sulky and almost vulnerable without Crabbe and Goyle hovering over him…They'd both been placed in the Earth elements, with Seamus and Ron, and looked vaguely lost without their leader.
Almost immediately, Tonks got them started on tasks to begin to 'build' their elements. Fire Elements were going between two different kinds of spells…Lumos Maximous, which was an advanced version of the Lumos spell, and Incesto Pyro, an attack spell that they aimed at targets several feet away.
It took a moment for everyone to get used to the noise (Malfoy), the hand motions (Harry), the reactions (Dead) and the pronunciation (Takuya and Kouji), but once they'd all gotten it down, you could tell there was a slight difference. Some of them, like Harry and Takuya, were much better at Incesto Pyro, but Kouji, Dean and the rest were far above them at Lumos Maximous. After a while, Tonks told them to only focus on the one spell they were best at.
The first hour of this was entertaining, but soon Harry started to get bored. He let his mind wander, eyes slipping lazily to the other tables around him.
The Wood students, all six of them, were simply 'practicing their strengths'. Unfortunately, poor Neville was having problems figuring out what his strength was, outside the greenhouse, and was just trying to get his wand to do something.
Over at the Earth table, they were doing a very simple shielding spell. This was new to all of them, since most of their Defense training (other than Umbridge) had been in how to fight back, not defend. As it was, Ron and the others were only getting very thin, papery shields that looked like very, very pale Patronus barriers.
The Water table were mixing some sort of healing salve, the kind that Madam Pomfrey created that combined potion making and a spell from their wands. The occupants of said table were almost completely female, including, but not limited to, Lavender Brown, Parvati Patil and most of the other Gryffindor girls.
We say most, because Hermione and two other Muggle-borns were in the diminutive Metal group, casting a spell on several small objects to make them sprout wings and fly several inches off the ground. However, only Hermione and Kouichi seamed to be really understanding the spell…actually, the former looked a tad bit bored.
Harry wondered momentarily if the rumors had gotten to Kouichi's ears yet. He wasn't really sure he believed them himself, but, as stories tend to do in a crowded place like Hogwarts, he was sure they'd spread to at least Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff by now. Though everyone seamed to be avoiding the subject in speech when the Japanese students were present, he knew he couldn't be the only one who noticed all the glaring…
He sympathized, in a way. After all, he'd had his own share of unfair rumors…2nd year, when everyone had thought he was the Heir of Slytherin…4th year, when they'd all assumed he'd cheated to enter the tournament…Last year, when everyone and his dog thought he was a lying show-off…
Of course, the only problem would be if the rumors weren't unfair, in which case he didn't know what anyone was going to do.
Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted one of the few girls at the Wood table lifting her wand away from her own table, pointing it towards the Metals. She aimed carefully, a suspicious smirk spreading over her face before whispering a small spell.
Something that resembled a long, thin chain of gold light shot from her wand and hit the book Kouichi had been charming, which suddenly blew up in mid-hover. The Slytherin transfer, who'd been focusing on the book, jumped back in surprise, his face covered in soot and small flakes of paper.
"Oooh dear, that's a bit smart, ain't it?" Tonks clicked her tongue, hurrying over. "Everyone a'right now, gents?"
Kouichi was trying to get the ash off, so he just nodded. It was Hermione who answered. "Yes ma'am, we're all fine. But the book…"
"Oh, easy enough to fix." Tonks produced a handkerchief from her pocket and rubbed it over Kouichi's cheek. Obviously, it held some kind of a charm, as it got the black off better than before. "Ere we go…No 'arm done. Just a misfired spell, right?"
Harry glanced back at the girl, still sitting at her table. She was snickering, but hiding it behind her hand, and looked rather pleased herself.
'Misfired spell'…Right.
. . . . . .
It turned out that Kouichi was encountering quite a few 'misfired spells'. As in, at least one every hour or so.
Besides being knocked down the stairs, tripped by jinxes, and having various things blow up in his face, there were a few things people seamed to have saved special. His books, schoolbag, pens, homework, and anything else he set down outside of the Slytherin common room would suddenly disappear, turning up later with the help of a spacey Ravenclaw girl, Luna Lovegood In the middle of one of his usual daydream-walks on Wednesday afternoon, he somehow found himself shut in a broom-closet and was stuck there until Flitch opened it to yell at Peeves for knocking around his brooms, and he was none too pleased when it turned out to be a student trying to find his way to the door.
Sometime around Friday afternoon, the other transfers started to get a bit concerned, anxious, and, in Kouji's case, annoyed. Enough so that, after failing to get the information out of Harry or the other 5th-year boys, he dragged Takuya along to follow his brother and wait for one of these would-be attackers.
They caught one, a Gryffindor 2nd-year, about to launch a jinx from an alcove on the third floor. Kouji came from one side and Takuya from the other, dragging him back in to the small room and nearly knocking the boy off his feet.
"Hey!" snapped the younger student. "What is your problem?!"
"That's our question." Takuya glared, blocking the only exit. There was a certain fire in his eyes that those who'd seen him fight would recognize as anger.
Kouji's dark eyes flashed the same way as he face down the younger boy, who's name he vaguely recalled as being Jack-something. "Care to explain what you were aiming you wand at, kid?"
The 2nd year looked between them, then gulped nervously as he started to loose his edge. "W-Well, everyone knows 'bout it…"
"About what?" Takuya took a step closer.
"What yeh all were talkin' bout at the Quidditch pitch…One o' the girls heard yeh, every word…"
"Heard what?" Kouji snapped, voice rising almost threateningly.
"That he's a bloomin' Dark Wizard, 'at's what we heard!" the boy exclaimed, his nerve starting to snap. "It's all over the bloomin' school, it is! A Dark Wizard, ere, in Hogwarts, o' course we're gettin' at him! He's gonna get 'xpelled anyway, when the 'eadmaster finds out!"
With that outburst, he broke past Takuya and ran off down the hall at full speed. For a second, Kouji looked as though he could go after him, but his body slowly relaxed. He looked at Takuya, and his friend looked back with concerned eyes.
. . . . . .
"Expelled?"
The color drained out of Kouichi's face when he heard what Kouji and Takuya had found out, and he leaned against the wall for extra support. It was dinnertime, dessert to be more precise, but they weren't eating. Their small group had gathered outside the Great Hall for an 'emergency announcement' of the gravest kind.
As it was, even Junpei looked as though he'd lost his appetite at the news. Izumi had one hand over her mouth, trying desperately to think of what to say. Tomoki was, like Izumi, speechless in surprise, though he didn't try to hide the fact that his jaw had come unhinged. Takuya was standing closest to the doors, looking almost guilty for having been the barer of bad news. And Kouji was besides his brother, trying figure out some way to help.
Kouichi stared blankly at the ground, coming to terms with it all. "…Dark… Kegareru…Why…"
"Just calm down." Kouji put a hand on his shoulder. The elder twin didn't respond, but slide down to the ground and put his head on his knees.
"There's no way it can be that bad." Izumi tried to work out her own fears, as well as the others, out loud. "I mean, they're not just going to throw you out over a stupid rumor. If you explain it to Professor Dumbledore, I'm sure he'll understand. He'll work everything out, everything's going to be just fine…"
There was a sudden bang that made them all jump. Dessert was over, the doors had opened wide, and the other students were departing to their dorm rooms, talking merrily, with hardly a notice of the transfers. However, there were two figures who did indeed notice them, and they approached with steady gazes.
'They' were Professors McGonagall and Snape, both wearing neigh-identical impartial expressions. They paused a few steps away from the transfers, looking at the boy curled against the wall.
"Mr. Kimura?" the boy looked up at McGonagall's voice.
Snape motioned with his hand. "Get up. The headmaster has been looking for you."
Kouichi hesitated a moment, then stood and followed the teachers nervously. The others sent each other anxious glances. Now what?
TBC…
Oh, god, I am so glad to have that chapter out of the way. Freakin' hard to write, I tell you, and it still doesn't sound right. Dammit, this is always harder than it seams at first glance…
I am assuming that there are some more fifth-year Gryffindors, other than Hermione, Lavender, and Parvati, seeing as they've named five boys in the year. I've estimated maybe 12 Gryffindors and 13 Slytherins in Harry's year, so 25 in total.
As for the other's Kisos, (since I can't figure out a time introduce them tactfully…)
Junpei - Earth
Tomoki - Wood
Izumi - Water
Yes, Lumos Maximous is from the 3rd movie. Incesto Pyro is something I made up.
Oh, and Hogwarts is a high school…A magic high school, sure, but still a high school. So I made their tricks and jeers as close to real life as I could stand to. Forget what biologists say, teenagers are the most vicious creatures on the face of the earth.
