McGonagall sighed as she took a sip from her fire whisky. "It was the strangest thing!" She said to the other teachers with her "Something just felt wrong about Tokyo!" She said, her face flushed with alcohol.

"I don't know, are you sure you weren't imagining it? You didn't have a translation charm and it can be unnerving to be somewhere foreign," Flitwick asked.

"It felt like being a deer among wolves. Like when the Marauders or twins plan a prank in front of you," She said causing everyone to shiver at the thought.

Watching prankster work was kind of terrifying.

"They're scared of Kaneki. I saw him do a little girl's hair and it should've been cute but her dad was terrified of him. That's not a normal response to a child!"

"He was being targeted by a gang, right? Maybe he joined a rival gang?" Pomona suggested.

McGonagall's eyes went wide as she considered it and realized how well it fit but she sighed when she realized it was still all just speculation. Taking another sip of her drink she hummed in acknowledgment.

"He doesn't act like he's part of one though! He's polite, has a humble elegance, and seems well educated in a proper muggle education. Nothing about him screams thug, so why would a rival gang take him in? How would it benefit them?" Flitwick asked

"But that's just it! What if he was high ranked?! He would have money, Probably not dissimilar to a pureblood student. Besides, it explains how that man recognized Kaneki!" Pomona insisted.

"Oh! You might have a point!" McGonagall exclaimed, "One of the places we visited was Tsukiyama Manor. The place was huge, it screamed money! Kaneki seemed to be good friends with the master of the house too. I would say it adds up,"

"Did you know the younger Slytherins have taken a liking to him? Honestly, most of the younger years like him. Apparently, he's pretty motherly and doesn't have much house bias. He really reminds me of Lily at the age," Pomona said.

"Potter's keep you on your feet don't they?" Flitwick reflected, getting two getting some sort of affirmation from the other two.

…

Tsukiyama was eating breakfast, "bacon" to be precise, when a rather large albatross flew into his large dining room. He'd gotten rather used to them but back when the first one flew in it had given Kane quite the scare.

He smiled, Kane had finally confided in him about his gender dysphoria. It wasn't like he hadn't suspected it when he had years ago asked to be called Kane instead of Karen but it took courage to come out and he was glad his cousin trusted enough to confide in him (Just a stab at what JK Rowling has been tweeting recently. It rubs me the wrong way as a part of the LGBTQ+ community).

He took the letter from the albatross, no doubt something from Kaneki, and gave the bird a bit of his food and some water. She cooed happily at the food (yes the birb just ate human) and Tsukiyama pet her gently. Hinami would've loved to see her, he thought with a sad sigh. Four weeks and they were no closer to finding the girls.

Tokyo, Japan

21st Ward

Tsukiyama Estate

The Largest Bedroom

Looking at the letter he was surprised to see the unnervingly specific address and the crest in the wax seal. It wasn't how Kaneki usually sent his letters meaning this was probably from someone else. The idea had him both curious and on edge as he tore the envelope open with his letter opener and began to read the odd letter.

Dear Anteiku,

As the people, Kaneki most considers his family (according to a charmed quill) you are invited to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry to watch the first task of the Triwizard tournament. There's a portkey included and when you're ready to leave make sure everyone is holding it and say "Boggart". We look forward to your arrival.

Tsukiyama grinned widely, far too widely to be anything good.

…

"Kaneki! Charlie told me something great! Ron said excitedly.

"Ron! Keep it down!" Hermione admonished, following close behind "we're in a library at least try to be respectful!"

"Sorry!" Ron said both quietly and sheepishly.

"So, what did Charlie tell you?" Kaneki asked, smiling fondly at the two's playful bickering.

"These dragons are from a preserve. That means they're trained to recognize certain commands from dragon tamers. That means if you learn the commands you could effectively buy yourself a lot of time!" Ron explained animatedly.

"I can't believe I didn't think of that! Most animals that work with humans have some sort o training. That super helpful! Could you tell Charlie thanks for me?" Kaneki asked.

"They are still wild animals though. They can be unpredictable, protective, and incredibly food motivated so you shouldn't rely too much on commands and still work on expanding your spell arsenal," Hermione warned, telling Kaneki the parts Ron had forgotten to mention.

"Yeah, I wasn't planning on skimping out on spells. I was just working on a few actually," Kaneki told her.

"Oh! Before I forget here's the explanation of the commands," Ron said, giving him a thick letter, of multiple pages.

"Thanks, I'll meet you two back in the common rooms later, " Kaneki said with an amicable smile before shifting his focus back on to his book.

…

Kaneki had been busting his ass off learning as much as he could about how to face dragons with helpful pointers from Charlie along the way. Unfortunately, he was already sick of this tournament before the first task even started.

One day during class the champions got called up to the headmaster's office. Honestly, Kaneki hadn't been paying too much attention to it though. Rize had a bad habit of getting more annoying whenever he was stressed or anxious about something. Naturally, it was a bit hard to focus when everyone had Rize's face randomly and suddenly superimposed over their own. (Think DDLC Monika vibes) So when the headmasters told them about family day he'd been too busy trying to block out the rising sense of unease from seeing Rize's young, feminine face over Dumbledore's old man body.

It really was disturbing how good Kaneki had gotten at hiding how broken his mind truly was.

He had just assumed that since his parents were dead and the Dursleys certainly wouldn't agree to come to Hogwarts. He thought he would just be alone again (as per usual).

He really should've known that things never went that smoothly.

…

When the day arrived Kaneki had seen Fleur, Cedric, and Krums family appear in the great hall back to back in around two-minute intervals at breakfast. It had been 10 minutes since Krum's family had arrived and there didn't seem to be any indication of anyone else arriving when Hermione got too curious to not ask.

"Kaneki?"

"Hmm?"

"Isn't your family coming?" She asked. At this point, Ron was also glancing over at the two.

"No," He said in a flat but polite tone.

"Not even your aunt and uncle?" She asked.

"Especially not them!" Kaneki said, a shiver running down his spine at the thought of seeing them again.

Just as the words left his mouth though, he heard the "Oomph" of people and luggage being deposited on the ground via port key and felt an impending sense of doom when he turned to see who had just arrived.

"Please don't let it be the Dursleys, please don't let it be the Dursleys!" He chanted over and over ad he looked over.

. . .and for once it wasn't the Dursley. No, it was arguably worse.

"OI GET OFF OF ME YOU STUPID SNAKE ASS!" Someone swore loudly in Japanese.

"SHUT UP ILLITTARATE BUNNY BOY! DO YOU THINK I'M NOT TRYING!?" Someone else yelled back.

Kaneki physically winced when he heard the familiar voices. He slowly and stiffly turned to look and, of course, there was Tsukiyama (the only one who landed on his feet), Ayato, Nishiki, and Kimi.

Kaneki just sat there openly gaping at the sight in mild horror. While Kimi tried to calm down Ayato and Nishiki, Tsukiyama looked around before enthusiastically waving in his direction. "Ka-ne-ki kun!" he exclaimed in glee.

God, why was it always him? He thought as he proceeded to deliberate if it would be that bad to just punch one of the ghouls to relieve some stress.

…

Hey y'all I have Instagram. It's mostly just art but if you wanna see it or dm me then you can find me at lifeless_tree

Online learning sucks so much! How does it manage to suck the life out of my favorite subjects?!

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