Author's notes:
I got this prompt for Harry Potter AU from Sappho82 (Go read her fics if you haven't yet, awesome stuff)
Here it is.
This story will not include any major characters from Harry Potter books/movies/etc. Possibly none.
Oh and for those who are not familiar with all the HP terminology, 'no-maj' is the US equivalent for 'muggle'
"I'll be just fine, Mama! You're late for work, get going! See you at Christmas!" Yuzu flashed her mother a huge smile and waved.
Now… Let's see, I need a trolley to move all this stuff.
Yuzu spotted a row of trolleys, ran to grab one and returned to her mountain of luggage. She was starting a new school year, transferring to a new school and had packed the whole arsenal of everything essential for impressing her new school mates. She was particularly excited because she had just turned 17, only one year of studies left before she was free as a bird to pursue whatever career she wanted.
Yuzu had moved to London with her mother a month ago, her mother had fallen in love on her business trip overseas, they had gotten married in Paris on a super romantic trip shortly afterwards. This all came as a surprise to Yuzu when her she returned home from her school year at the prestigious Ilvermorny, the magic school they had back in the US. At first she was devastated by all the things she would be leaving behind; she had to drop her dear subscription to WickedWitchWeekly, the best fashion oriented newsletter there was for any witch who cared about their appearances. She also found out that they wouldn't have her favourite DarkRoast-CitrusRoot-MorningDew-Latte she always got from the school's coffee shop in the morning before the classes - she cried for two whole days.
When the bitter shock subsided, she started to see things in a more positive light. Moving to a new country would be exciting, getting new friends and tons of new life experiences, she stopped feeling so sad about moving. Her friends were jealous she would be meeting a lot of British guys, Yuzu had to admit that she did find their accent extremely attractive.
Yuzu hadn't met her new family members yet, but she was about to, her new step sister was also attending Hogwarts and apparently was in the same year too. Her new step-father had been out of the country, he had to travel a lot with his work so meeting him would have to wait until Christmas. Yuzu was positively thrilled when she found out she'd finally have a sister.
Yuzu gave a glance to a giant clock on the wall. Shit, 10:45, better get moving. Now which platform was it… She dug the administration letter she had gotten on the same day they moved to London from her new cute and shiny handbag she had gotten just to celebrate the fact that she was about to start a whole new life. 9 ¾, what the heck does that even mean… While she was walking ahead of the station's main hall, she saw signs indicating to platforms 1-10. Yup! Has to be there…
She found the platform 9 and 10, but there were no other signs or platforms in between. Aaagh, this is one of those trick portals again. Why doesn't it just say so in the letter?! Flick this switch if you wish to enter, say these magic words and TA-DUUH, here you are. How hard is it to give decent directions…
Her head was turning left and right, trying to catch a glimpse of something remotely familiar. A wand. An owl. A fricken' broomstick, give me something, come on…
A tall girl, silvery long hair pushing a big cart in front of her, carrying a suitcase with a familiar crest on it caught Yuzu's attention. JACKPOT! The same crest that was in my letter! While she was cramming the letter back to her bag and pushing her cart to follow the silver-haired lady, she took a look around to see where she went but found no sign of her anywhere. Shit, where did she go… This way I guess, but I didn't see the exact spot. Ugh.. that was so close too.
Yuzu was starting to feel panicky and one glance at the clock told her it was already 10:55. OH, COME ON! THAT COULD HAVE NOT BEEN THE LAST… in the same second, another silver haired girl came running, almost crying.
"Niiiiiinaa, why did you not wait for me," she was nearly in tears. Yuzu was about to stop her and ask directions but this time she saw it. The girl ran straight to a solid wall and disappeared.
Ok, let's give this a shot. Yuzu pushed her cart ahead and ran towards the same spot. Right before hitting the wall, she closed her eyes and expected some sort of impact but there was none. She opened her eyes and saw a totally new platform, a huge train with "Hogwarts Express" written clearly on it. MADE IT! WOOHOOO! Yuzu wanted to scream, but that'd be too uncool thing to do, there were still a lot of people on the platform saying goodbyes to their families. She pushed the trolley to the nearest door and started heaving her heavy luggage inside the train. She got all of her huge bags inside when the conductor whistled to sign that the train was leaving.
"Phew, that was close…" Yuzu said, now standing in the middle of the corridor with all of her luggage. She saw a carriage half-empty towards the front of the train and started dragging her luggage towards the small door. Yuzu saw a petite, twin-tailed girl sitting in the carriage through the small window, the girl looked up and saw Yuzu and gave a quizzical look.
Wow, that's some eyebrows on that one…
The girl with the eyebrows got up from her seat and walked up to the door.
At least she seems helpful…
"I don't know who you are exactly, but this carriage is for prefects only," she stated right after opening the door and blocking Yuzu's way.
"Oh, apologies. What are prefects? Elsewhere must be quite full by now, could I just slum with you guys for-" Yuzu started but was interrupted before she could finish her sentence.
"No. Like I said. Prefects only. You should have just been here earlier if you wanted a good seat. Now if you would excuse me, I have work to do. The train started moving," the twin-tails closed the door and returned back to the carriage.
Wow, well, sorry for asking… Guess I need to find somewhere else then.
Yuzu took as much of her luggage that she could carry on one go and started walking towards the other direction on the corridor. The small compartments looked full, full of excited students already catching up on the latest rumours after the summer. A few gave Yuzu a curious look when she passed by.
Great… Not the most impressive entrance, I need to make a new one later. Yup, this is nothing. Just need to find- oh this one looks quite empty.
Yuzu found a compartment that had only two people in it. She carefully knocked on the glass door before opening it. Why did I do that?
"Hi guys! I'm sorry but is this seat taken? I was running a bit late today and everywhere is so full! If it's no trouble, could I join you two?" Yuzu asked politely. Never hurt to be polite, now did it?
The other girl chuckled loudly and gave Yuzu a long judging look from head to toes. This girl had a very delinquent aura about her, her hair was dyed pink and she had huge earphones resting on her shoulders. Yuzu was quite familiar with the no-maj equipment.
"Ah, of course. Excuse this one, she's an idiot," The other girl hurried to greet Yuzu. "I'm Harumi, or you can call me 'Harumin' like everyone else does. I haven't seen you around, are you new?"
"Yes, just transferred for my last year! I'm Yuzu, by the way, uh… I'll be right back, I have more stuff just lying on the corridor floor over there." Yuzu left her luggage on the corridor in front of the door and hurried to get the rest.
When she returned, her luggage had already been moved to the compartment.
"Oh, wow, you guys didn't have to do that! Thank you!" Yuzu was positively beaming.
"Don't thank me, she's the dork who has a pleasing complex," the pink-haired girl sneered.
"Ah, yes, and this stubborn git here is Matsuri, don't mind her, she has no decent manners. But she's OK once you get to know her." Harumi excused for her friend.
"Nice to meet you both! So which year are you guys?" Yuzu asked and started to lift her bags on the shelves. Harumin was about to get up and help but Yuzu gestured her to sit down. "No need, I can get the rest, no problem."
"I'm in my seventh, like you, you said you were in your last year just now right?" Harumi asked and Yuzu nodded. "And this one is starting her fifth year, so still a small cub, ain't you?" Harumi teased.
"Shut it! I'm still a better Chaser than you," Matsuri blustered. Yuzu was done with her luggage and took a seat next to Harumi. She was enjoying the small banter going on.
So they play Quidditch, wonder if the teams here are any good…
"Hah! Just because you won the cup, in controversial circumstances, might I add, doesn't make you a better Chaser," Harumi was getting worked up, talking about the subject.
"Wait… So you two play for different teams? How does that work here, houses and all that? I know practically nothing," Yuzu chimed in.
"Oh, right. Where'd you transfer from?" Harumi was intrigued.
"Ilvermorny." Yuzu replied and saw Matsuri looking rather puzzled. "That's in the United States, I was in the Thunderbird house, the best one of course. Well, I might be a bit biased... But we had a really good Quidditch team in our house!"
"Did you play?" Matsuri was clearly getting more interested about the new transfer student.
"Haha, no. I'm no good on a broom. But I was in the cheering squad for our team!"
"What's a 'cheering squad'?" Harumi asked.
"Oh, you guys don't have cheering squads… that's too bad. Well, we kind of just made sure the audience was on board with our team and made up all kinds of chants and songs, usually about the other team," Yuzu was rambling on and noticed the two of her new acquaintances looking really confused. "But enough about my past life, I want to know more about how things really work at Hogwarts."
"Well, we have 4 houses. I'm in Gryffindor, she's in Slytherin. I guess we're like the worst rival houses or something like that. Slytherin has all the "bad boys" if you're into that… or "bad girls", whatever floats your boat," Harumi explained.
"So, Matsuri here "floats your boat" or you guys just friends?" Yuzu asked, very curious. There had been a strange tension between the two earlier. Harumi's cheeks turned as bright pink as Matsuri's hair suddenly.
"Whaaa- no, no, no," the brunette was shaking her head.
"Hah! As if… I have tried, many times, but this one just keeps turning me down every time," Matsuri smirked.
"Ahem, we're just… friends I guess, I can't seem to shake her off, no matter how hard I try," Harumi explained.
"Sorry if that was too personal, you guys just have this weird chemistry so I had to ask," Yuzu said apologetically.
"No it's fine. I guess we kind of gave off some strange 'quarreling couple' vibes, you're not the first one to ask… We actually live in the same neighborhood back at home, maybe that's why we hang out a lot." Harumi pondered and studied Matsuri carefully for a while, as if she was trying to figure out how they ended up being so close friends. "Uh… Yeah, that must be it… So, Yuzu, wasn't it? Did you have to leave a sweetheart behind when you moved here?"
"Nah, I didn't have anything serious going on. Never really found 'the one', you know? I did date occasionally, but it never moved anything inside me. You should feel something special right? Like butterflies or whatever they say you have when you meet someone like that." The blonde queried.
"So you've never kissed anyone?" Harumi teased.
"I volunteer!" Matsuri exclaimed and jumped forward. Harumi took a careful swing and bashed the pink-haired girl back to her seat.
"Idiot! Ugh- sorry, she gets impossible sometimes," Harumi apologized.
"Haha! No worries! Uh… no I haven't really kissed anyone." Yuzu was feeling embarrassed.
Great, now they think I'm a total dweeb…
The conversation went on and the train reached the countryside. They were only interrupted when the trolley came and all of them bought some snacks. Yuzu was glad she had found people she got along with already and it was easy to talk to them too, they kept comparing the differences between the cultures of their schools. It was only when Yuzu got to her story part where she explained her morning and how she almost missed the train when she remembered something she wanted to ask about.
"Oh, right, what are prefects?" Yuzu asked while opening a chocolate frog box.
"Prefects? Well, they are usually whining little know-it-alls, but I guess the official answer would be that they help the school staff to keep order with the students. And there's also a Head Boy and a Head Girl. Why? Did you already meet some?" Harumi looked curious.
"Yeah, I guess. A girl with twin-tails and uh- let's just say that she had very unique eyebrows," Yuzu tried to stay polite.
"HAHA! She's a prefect, a great example of one too! I feel sorry for you, what did you do?" Matsuri was laughing and banging the table with her hand.
"I tried to go to the area that was apparently reserved for 'prefects only'," Yuzu said, trying to imitate the way the twin-tails had been speaking.
"Hahaha, I would have liked to see that!" Matsuri was still laughing, barely able to form sentences.
"Ahem, yes. That was Himeko, also a 7th year student. So I guess they didn't make her a Head Girl… nah, she's too mean to be a Head Girl," Harumi was contemplating the idea. "But wait… Who did they choose this year?"
"Uh, this Head Girl business sounds serious, so she'd be like the Queen bee of the prefects?"
"Well, that depends, on some years we have actually had pretty decent Head Girls and Head Boys. I remember at least one who was never a prefect even," Harumi explained.
"So you don't know who it is this year?" the blonde was eating her chocolate frog and her words came out a bit slurred.
"Nope. They will give the announcement after the feast, before the sorting. Oh, right, you might have to go through it with the first-year students. HAH! Don't remember that ever happening." Harumin gave a wide smile, and gave an encouraging pat on Yuzu's back.
Ugh… So much for my grand entrance. I'm going to look ridiculous with the kids up there.
The three of them kept imagining strange situations with the sorting and guessing which house Yuzu would be placed in. None of them seemed to notice the scenery changing and daylight fading. They were interrupted when the compartment door was suddenly opened without a warning.
"You should be in your school robes already! We are nearly there, please hurry." A tall dark-haired girl stood in the doorway.
Geez, she's pretty… Wait… Why is she just standing there?
The dark-haired girl did not move. She was staring Yuzu and looked like she was about to ask something but decided not to.
Uh, shit… do I have chocolate on my face or something? Why is she not leaving?
"You're going to watch us change, or what, Aihara?" Matsuri snapped, also wondering why this girl did not leave already.
Wait… Aihara? As in… AIHARA?! FOR REAL? Does she know who I am? That's why she's there just staring, right? Maybe she's not sure and I just need to introduce myself…
Yuzu got up and walked to the door.
"Hi, I'm also… I'm Yuzu! Nice to meet you!" Yuzu tried to introduce herself.
Whaaaaat am I saying.. "I'm also… I'm Yuzu!" UGH, why can't I form normal sentences…
"Are you going to wear that under your robes?" was the reply from the taller girl. She was clearly referring to the shirt with buttons opened up so low that one could clearly see her cleavage. "School rules clearly state that the outfits should be decent and unprovocative, also, discreet jewelry is allowed but those earrings are too flashy."
Is she serious… she's pretty serious, right? Why do I feel so guilty about this, this outfit was totally fine in the US. How am I supposed to know what's 'discreet' in a totally new culture.
"W-what?" was the only thing Yuzu managed to blurt out.
"Hide the goodies and less bling, Yuzu," Matsuri felt like she needed to translate this into a simpler language Yuzu would also understand.
The dark-haired woman in the doorway gave Matsuri a deadly stare. She took a step closer to Yuzu and was now standing inside the compartment.
"Please, stand up," the mysterious girl said with a low tone. Yuzu jumped up, the tone was simply too commanding.
Eeeh? Wait I'm too close… What is she…
Yuzu was so close to the strange girl that she could smell the faint perfume on her. The dark haired beauty grabbed the front of Yuzu's shirt and started buttoning it up.
Whaaaaaa… Why is this happening?
Yuzu was suddenly feeling very aware of the two cold hands brushing against her breasts. Just the slightest touch she could feel through the fabric and the small swift movements when the girl worked her way up made the little hairs in the back of her head stand up.
I can't just push her away, can I?
The girl apparently decided that the outfit was now covering enough and stopped. Yuzu's head suddenly felt really light and dizzy.
"Just get ready, and try to look decent," the girl earlier identified as 'Aihara' said with a blatant tone, turned around and disappeared to the corridor.
"Whaaa-" Yuzu waited for the girl to disappear far enough. "WHO WAS THAT?!"
"Aihara Mei, she's in my house and my year. She's kinda OK, doesn't usually get on your face like the other prefects. Well… except for you, Yuzu. She just studies like crazy and gets the top grades in everything." Harumi explained.
Why is my heart racing like crazy…
"Hah, I've heard some pretty nasty rumours about her. I heard she's like… crazy between the sheets and all," Matsuri tried to keep her language PG-13 rated.
"That's bull, I've never seen her show even the slightest interest for anyone and most of the guys, and some girls too, from my house and my year have tried to get her attention. I almost feel sorry for her sometimes, some people don't know when they should just drop it."
"Uh, this is a bit awkward… I think… uh-, nevermind," Yuzu was about to explain the complicated family situation but decided to wait for some more confirmation that this girl was indeed her step sister before she started to spread more useless rumors about her. Yuzu tried to remember which bag had her school robes, but her mind was still racing. She grabbed the first bag that was on the shelf closest and started rummaging through it.
"Haha, Yuzu is already smitten! Totally smitten! She totally got to you, right?" Matsuri was teasing the blonde girl, nervously going through her bags.
"Eh? W-what? No- it's just… I'll explain later, OK?" Yuzu said while reaching for another bag on the shelf.
"So you're going to pretend that awesome groping scene we just witnessed felt like nothing then?" Matsuri kept poking.
"Leave her alone, would you?" Harumi sighed and climbed to stand on the seat and opened her trunk that was on top of her on the shelf. She pulled her black robes and closed the trunk. "C'mon, Matsuri, you should get dressed too."