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Disclaimer: Disclaimer: Naruto doesn't belong to me, otherwise the NejiTen would be canon.

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Enjoy.

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Chapter 2. Magic

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She listened attentively to the teacher's instructions regarding what they had to do in that class, even making a couple of notes on the page of the book so as not to forget anything. Potions class wasn't her forte and for that very reason she tried to make an effort, she started to put the necessary ingredients on the table and looking out of the corner of her eye at the classroom she noticed that she was the only one who didn't have her cauldron on the fire for that moment. She inhaled deeply, she was in her sixth year and since her first year that subject had shown that it would be her personal nemesis.

She saw that she was short of ingredients, so she made her way to the cupboard where the large jars of whatever they required rested, repeating to herself at every step which ingredient she needed. She opened the doors and went to the area where the mushrooms were, noticing that the jars weren't labeled and therefore she couldn't tell at a glance which was the jar containing the jumping mushrooms and which was the one with the death mushroom, she always confused them. She stretched her hand hesitantly towards one of them and regretted it, tempted to bite her thumbnail as she tried to remember what she knew about what it looked like and what was which one.

She could feel the gaze of the teacher of that class glued to her, clearly waiting for her to pick the right mushroom. Then again, she was in her sixth year and by now she should know how to tell them apart without a problem. She bit her lip trying to look confident, she was about to reach out again when she thought she saw that inside one of the jars something was moving, so that was the one she took. She smiled as she saw out of the corner of her eye that the professor nodded, which meant she had chosen well, and those were the ones she needed for the potion she had been assigned.

Happy to have guessed correctly, she opened the jar, and it was then when all the mushrooms that were stored there began to jump, coming out of the jar and scattering all over the floor. She cursed in her mind quickly putting the lid on to prevent the few that were left inside from escaping, she had completely forgotten that the jumping mushrooms got their name precisely from that, that they jumped. The teacher rolled his eyes as the laughter of several of her classmates could be heard, including the now familiar hissing of the vipers reminding her that she wasn't supposed to be in that place, that it wasn't where she belonged and that she would never fully fit into that world.

"Miss Ama, I hope you will leave everything tidied up before you leave the classroom," she nodded resignedly as she turned a deaf ear to the laughter that continued.

As she had thought before, potions wasn't a subject she was good at. She had known she was a witch for exactly as long as she had been at the school, so she had been figuring out what things in the magical world she was good at and what things she wasn't. She was the first witch in her family, and the reality was that at first she had found it impossible to believe everything that the man who had come to her house had explained to her. For that very reason it hadn't been so easy to adapt to her new school and the strange subjects they dictated to remembered perfectly the day that her whole life had changed, it was almost as if it had taken a 180-degree turn, starting with the strange man who had shown up at her door and asked to speak to her parents. Maito Gai, that was the name of the teacher who with an animated tone of voice and excessive thumbs up had explained to them all about the magical world and that she was a witch. She hadn't been able to believe it at first, she was just an ordinary girl, but there was a letter with her name on it and the seal of a school she had never heard of in her life but was supposed to go to for her new school year.

Her parents were as dumbfounded as she was while the man on only emphasized that there was no mistake, there was magic in her blood, she was a witch and her place was in the magical world. Her father had asked that they speak alone, saying that it must be some kind of sick joke or an attempted scam, but they would play along with the man who clearly wasn't going to go away right off the bat. With that plan they had agreed to be guided to a place called Diagon Alley where they should shop for all the supplies she was going to need at the new place. The list was extensive and strange, that was probably it, they would clone his credit card as soon as he swiped it.

All thoughts of it being a joke disappeared as soon as they were in the place and everything around them was completely strange, not only the clothes but the sight of different creatures, and magic everywhere, there really was magic! The first stop was the bank where there were some small people that she later heard were called goblins, then moving on to the stores to go shopping for new books. Within the list there was mention of having a magical companion, a pet or sort of thing, which they could find at the Magical Menagerie.

Part of herself said it was almost like going into a pet store, except the animals she saw there were not just cats and dogs, many animals she didn't even know existed. She was going through several of the cages until a beautiful owl caught her attention. Its face was white with some yellow feathers and all the plumage on its body was brown, also with some yellow streaks. The best thing was that besides having it as a companion she could also use it to send messages to her parents since she had been told that cell phones wouldn't be useful at school. Jidanda, that would be the name of her owl.

In the wand shop she had listened to the shopkeeper explain many things about the differences between the different cores that existed, as well as all the possible types of wood. Personally she felt he was speaking to her in some language she didn't understand, so she had only smiled and nodded when she was handed a wand to try out. That was her first spell, if it could be called that to have waved the wand and a blast of air coming out of the tip, still unable to believe anything that was happening she believed the man when he told her that the ideal wand for her was a wand was made of elm and unicorn tail hair.

That night when they had returned home after a busy afternoon of shopping she still felt immersed in some kind of reverie, perhaps a hallucination or a vivid dream from which she was going to wake up at any moment only to realize that nothing had been real, that she was just a Muggle and that all the magic she had witnessed didn't exist, nor did the word Muggle.

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The day she had to go to the train station she saw everywhere without being able to believe how many students were there, how there were some who were already older and acted with total naturalness and others who, like her, looked around somewhat surprised by what was around them. She fearfully boarded the train, it was the first time she would go far from home alone. She had once thought that the idea of studying in a country boarding school sounded interesting, but only as an idea, not as the reality that now surrounded her. What she had never considered was that if she were to go away to study, it would be in a school of magic.

When they arrived at the huge castle that was the school she was speechless, she was among only other children her age who were in their first year and many of them looked as dazzled as she was. As they advanced she could see paintings that moved and greeted them, even in the distance something that looked like a ghost, not knowing if she should scream in fear. Among her companions there were also some who looked jaded, showing a certain smugness in their gaze towards those like her who were fascinated by everything.

In the Great Hall, which was a huge place that lived up to its name, they were made to wait in front of a hat that would sort them by houses. She didn't understand it, per se she didn't understand much of what was going on, but when the first student passed by and the hat was put on, it spoke, it was a talking hat! No, it wasn't just a talking hat, apparently it was also one that could read minds or something like that, and that's why it was in charge of doing that initial classification.

Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin, those were the options given by the hat and according to that each student had to go to one of the 4 long tables that were there and that were characterized by a color. She listened to where each one was sent and the corresponding applause from the chosen table, noticing with curiosity that all those who had the smug look and looked unfriendly were sent to Slytherin, who were the ones at the green table. When her turn finally came she slowly approached the chair, sitting down while concentrating on trying not to let her fear be perceived and hiding any possible thoughts she didn't want to be read by the hat, just in case.

"Interesting, very interesting," she heard it pronounced still scared, it was weird to have a talking object in her head so she raised her eyes as if that way she could see it, "there are many things about you, there really isn't a completely defined place, so you could fit in Hufllepuff or Gryffindor," despite having seen which were the tables it mentioned, the truth is that she was still in the phase that they spoke to her in a different language and she didn't know the difference between one and another, "you have no idea what I'm talking about."

"I'm sorry," she excused herself apologetically.

"Oh no, don't apologize. Only the brave ones are able to accept what they don't know," she felt herself blushing at the compliment, "Gryffindor!" the table where they all had red scarves with gold burst into applause and just as the students before her had done she headed towards that place, being greeted with smiles and words of welcome.

'Bravery, courage and chivalry', those were the qualities that characterized the Gryffindors and she soon realized that she liked her house, finding that fellowship was also something that abounded, being thanks to them that she slowly began to familiarize herself with all the strange things that the castle had.

She wasn't just referring to the stairs that changed places, the paintings that talked or that it was precisely a painting that gave her access to the common room when she pronounced the password. She was referring to the completely different subjects, not seeing language or mathematics but transformations and potions, also the mealtime was fascinating, everyone seemed to find it normal that the food appeared by itself on the table, no one was surprised by that nor by the fact that it was always delicious and at the ideal temperature.

Potions class had proven from the beginning to be somewhat complex for her, and it was in that class that she first heard a word directed at her that she didn't understand at first. She remembered that from her table her spoon had fallen off and instead of using her wand to make it float as she had learned in another class, she ducked. That's when that hiss came from the mouth of one of the snakes, she knew it wasn't a good thing because they were the ones who uttered it and by the tone he used. Still from the ground she had raised her head to see the 3 gazes stuck on her.

One gaze was a very light color almost white, the other was coal black and the third was a strange violet color, they all had the same hint of superiority but there was something akin to hatred in the boy with silver hair and strange colored eyes, he being the one who spat the words. Mudblood, it was something derogatory to which her housemates jumped to her defense at once and the professor had to intervene before the situation was resolved otherwise. She just picked up her spoon, and returned to the cauldron without understanding what exactly was the insult she had just received.

She knew she shouldn't let herself be affected by the situation, nothing good could ever come out of a Slytherin's mouth, much less when they were in a group. Because they called themselves snakes when in reality they were just a nest of cowards who had to go everywhere in company and used this to protect each other. On the only occasions that a viper was seen alone, it rarely opened its mouth, but only made its verbal attacks in heaps.

Unable to shake off the discomfort of what had happened and knowing that it hurt a little even if she hadn't understood it, she decided to seek out Gai. He was the teacher who had told her she was a witch, and who when she saw him in the halls would smile at her giving her encouragement while giving her a thumbs up, to him she asked what that word meant. She saw him furrow his huge eyebrows and for once since she had known him erase his characteristic smile, changing it to an annoyed gesture as he asked her to tell him where she had heard such an expression. She shook her head and Gai insisted, so she made up that she had read it somewhere.

The third time Gai insisted that she give him the exact names of the students who had referred to her in that way she refused again, she wasn't going to accuse anyone, all she wanted was to be able to understand what the meaning of what they had told her was and that was it. The man furrowed his huge eyebrows once more before exhaling heavily and changing his expression, he explained to her that in the magical world there were some wizards who believed in purity of blood and not mixing with Muggles, so they rejected half-bloods or the Muggles-borns.

She was a muggle-born, that didn't mean there was anything wrong with her blood, only that in the past one of her ancestors had had magic and it had skipped a couple of generations until it reappeared in her, that was all. The man's characteristic smile returned and he gave a thumbs up in her direction, she shouldn't pay attention to that kind of comment or feel lesser, blood wasn't an indicator of what kind of wizard or witch someone was.

There were many pure-bloods who were nothing more than archaic wizards who contributed nothing to the magical world other than trying to perpetuate a classist and retrograde system. And there were great wizards who had changed the history of magic without having a lineage, creating their own. Everyone made their own path and defined what kind of wizard or witch they wanted to be, regardless of blood or family, that was what she should always consider.

Through her years at school she had found those words to be completely true, so now that she was in her sixth year she wasn't deterred when one of the snakes referred to her in a derogatory way, wanting to mock her origin. She was a good witch, she was a good student who wasn't ashamed because her parents were Muggles, besides she was a proud Gryffindor and the Sorting Hat had sent her to the right place that first day.

As she chased the last few mushrooms that were still jumping from side to side in the classroom, she kept thinking about that topic, about how some people thought they were superior without having any merit beyond their blood that was backed by an ancient surname. In how having been surrounded all their lives by magic they had made something that for her was still something spectacular and that never ceased to amaze her, something mundane and almost boring.

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All corrections and comments are always well received, they help me improve a lot.

I hope you like it!

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Regards, Sally K.