Okay, here's chapter 2! Huge thanks goes to the lit club gang for the support.
and a HUGE thanks to Sappho82 for the awesome beta reads. Her fics are awesome, go read them if you haven't yet.
I can't describe how much fun writing this is !
Can't wait to write some moar.
Reviews are highly appreciated!
Yuzu was sitting at the Great Hall in a long table with a lot of people staring at her. She tried her best not to care too much, she had just followed Harumi, her new friend she had just met on the train. None of the school staff had pulled her aside at any point to explain what she needed to do. Back at the train station, all the first-year students had been gathered to small boats and Matsuri had suggested Yuzu would join them to lose her "lake virginity" but Harumi assured Yuzu that she was not expected to do that.
"First year sorting is starting soon, I'm sure they will tell you what to do." Harumi reassured Yuzu. The brunette turned and started talking to another girl on her other side, catching up after the summer break.
"So, this is the Gryffon-y house?" Yuzu asked cheerfully from a boy sitting next to her.
"Gryffindor," came the prompt reply.
"Oh, sorry. My bad. Gryffindor… right," Yuzu blushed, turning back to Harumi and tried to get her attention to request assistance. She barely had time to tug on Harumi's robes when people around her in the table suddenly stopped talking. All eyes turned to Yuzu's direction.
Oh geez, what did I do now… HARUMI, HELP!
"Excuse me, are you Yuzu Aihara?" A calm voice rang in Yuzu's ears. People started to whisper to each other, Yuzu heard some of them mention her new last name. The voice was familiar, the same from the train earlier.
Aihara Mei. Great. Just what I need right now… more attention.
"Y-yes—" Yuzu started to say and turned around.
"You were supposed to come with the first-year students. Professor Udagawa was looking for you, you're late. Follow me, please," Aihara Mei stated matter-of-factly. She did not sound angry and did not show any signs of being even remotely interested in addressing the fact that they shared the same last name.
People from other tables started to get curious too, some of them rose up to get a better look at what was happening at the Gryffindor table. Yuzu got up as quickly as she could. The Great Hall was almost silent.
"WHOOOO! GO YUZU!" Matsuri bellowed from across the hall. Some students laughed, and Yuzu decided it'd be best just to smile and wave as she followed the dark-haired girl back to the Entrance Hall. Other students started to whistle loudly and the two girls were escorted out of the Great Hall with a huge applause.
Why is she so indifferent towards me, we share a freaking last name…
Yuzu stared at her step-sister with a meaningful look when they got to the empty hall. Mei kept walking towards a small door in the back of the Entrance Hall.
"Hey! Aren't you even a bit curious—" Yuzu wanted to ask the other girl if she was even mildly interested to get to know her step-sister but Mei cut her off.
"The first-year students are waiting in that room; you can probably find your way from here by yourself." Mei pointed at the door in the corner and stopped. Yuzu kept staring at her step-sister, dumb-founded.
ARE. YOU. SERIOUS. NOTHING? Fine… Have it your way then…
The blonde flew past the other girl, brushing against her shoulder on her way by accident and was almost about to turn and apologize, but decided against it. Yuzu walked to the door without looking back and opened it feeling irritated. About 20 young children inside a small room turned abruptly when Yuzu entered the room. Realizing she might be scaring the kids; Yuzu forced a smile on her face.
"Hi, everyone! I was told to come here with you," Yuzu said nervously.
"Oh, great! You must be Aihara Yuzu then," a young handsome professor was standing there with the students. "I'm Professor Udagawa, we just went through the orientation but I'm sure after the sorting, someone from your house can explain the gist of it all."
"Uh—sure. Nice to meet you all!" Yuzu kept smiling, feeling utterly confused.
"Now, everyone. If you could just form a line and follow me to the Great Hall and we can get the sorting ceremony started!" Professor Udagawa said rather excitedly.
Yuzu tagged right behind the professor; her strategy was to be as invisible as possible. They walked to the Great Hall and as expected, all eyes turned to watch them as they marched through the whole Great Hall to the front. Yuzu wished she could just disappear right there and then, but did her best to look cool and kept smiling.
They were placed in a line, facing the whole school. There was the Sorting Hat sitting on a chair in the middle, Harumi had explained everything about the sorting in the train. The whole Hall fell silent and the Sorting Hat burst into a song.
After the song ended, Professor Udagawa walked next to the chair and opened a large scroll.
"When I call your name, please step forward and place the Sorting Hat over your head and take a seat in the chair! First we have our transfer student, Aihara Yuzu!"
Relief overcame Yuzu when they called her name out first for the Sorting. Her last name apparently caught a lot of attention amongst the other students and the chatter only stopped when the Headmaster raised his voice and asked for the crowd to settle down. Professor Udagawa was holding the Sorting Hat and gesturing for Yuzu to sit in the chair.
"No need to worry, just take a seat," the professor said kindly. Yuzu took a seat and raised the Sorting Hat on her head.
I just want to be in the same house as Harumin…
The Hat barely touched her head when she heard the Hat talking, "Another Aihara, interesting… And friends seem to be important… Yes… GRYFFINDOR!" Yuzu felt a weight lifting off her shoulders and sighed. She got up and the Gryffindor table was roaring loudly.
Well, that was easy…
Harumi was thrilled to see Yuzu return and had gotten up from her seat.
"I knew it! This year is going to be awesome!" the brunette was jumping from excitement; she gave Yuzu a long hug. Yuzu saw Aihara Mei, sitting at the end of the table staring at her hugging Harumi, she quickly averted her gaze when she noticed Yuzu staring back at her.
The two girls sat down, all of the students around them started introducing themselves and Yuzu politely greeted each one.
I suck with names, not going to remember half of you guys, sorryyy~~
"So, Aihara?" Harumi lowered her voice. She gave Yuzu a meaningful look and Yuzu was about to give an answer but the whole Gryffindor table started to rumble loudly, the sorting was still going on.
"I'll explain later!" Yuzu shouted over the noise, holding her ears.
The evening festivities were coming to an end. Students were finishing the desserts; cheerful conversations were still going on in each of the house tables.
"OK, don't look now, but the other Aihara can't take her eyes off you. She just keeps glancing this way like every minute," Harumi said quietly, Yuzu resisted the urge to turn and see what Harumi was talking about.
"Oh yeah, I tried to ask her when she dragged me to the Entrance Hall earlier if she was even a little bit curious why we share the last name, but she kept ignoring me. So, I just decided I'll ignore her too," Yuzu pouted.
"Oh, did you hear that she was appointed as the new Head Girl?" the brunette asked before stuffing the last piece of cake on her plate in her mouth.
"I heard, yes. Does that mean she'll be scolding us on a regular basis?" Yuzu grinned.
"Probably, yeah. But don't worry about it too much, just let me know if she gives you too hard a time, yeah?" Harumi gave Yuzu a kind smile and placed her hand on Yuzu's shoulder.
Yuzu noticed the tables were suddenly cleared and the Headmaster had risen. After a few words, the people started singing the school anthem. Yuzu kept looking around curiously, all of the students seemed to have fun singing in different tunes, she gave a quick look to Mei's direction and noticed she was mouthing the words along the other students as well.
I guess she's not that scary after all. She looks kinda adorable when she's singing...
The song ended and people started slowly getting ready to go to their dormitories. Yuzu followed Harumi and they headed out of the Great Hall. After what seemed like endless flight of stairs, they eventually arrived in the common room of the Gryffindor house. Harumi kept walking towards the girls' dormitories but turned around before reaching the flight of stairs leading upstairs.
"Oh, right. I don't know if we will share a room. I've been with the same people since my first year," wondering out loud, Harumi noticed the Head Girl approaching them. "Oh shit, prepare yourself, Yuzu, here she comes—"
"W-what? Who—" Yuzu spun around.
EEH?! What does she want now…
"I've been informed by the Head of our house that you, Yuzu, will be sharing the dormitory room with me and our classmate, Cecilia." Mei said blatantly.
Fuuuuuuuu—What?! … WHAT?!
"Oh, Ceci is totally cool! She's in our Quidditch team, the best Seeker of the whole school," Harumi's eyes lit up when she started talking about Quidditch. "Oh, wait. I think I saw her here just a while ago—"
Harumiiiin, you're not helping… Why. Are. You. Not. Picking. Up. On. My. Obvious. Panic. Here.
"Ahem, I wouldn't be surprised if she snuck out again," Mei sighed. "She has a tendency not to follow the rules, please, don't get any stupid ideas like that from these people, Yuzu."
"W-what? Yeah, right. Yes… No?" Yuzu was heard her name but took a while to register what Mei had just said. She felt her heart pounding in her ears, face turning red and kept hoping Harumi would save her from this situation somehow. Harumi seemed to be still occupied looking for Cecilia in the crowd. Some other classmates came to talk with Harumi and gave curious glances to Yuzu's direction.
Yuzu felt cool fingers close around her wrist and a small yank pulled her towards the staircase.
"I need to get some sleep, let's go," Mei said, dragging the blonde along with her.
"Oy! AIHARA!" Harumi yelled when she noticed Yuzu and Mei had disappeared.
Both turned around. There were students gathered around Harumi, some of them were fooling around with some joke shop items, they had some candy that changed their voice and some of them were making a lot of noise, making it difficult to hear what Harumi had to say.
"Right, you're both… Mei, could you give her some slack here! Yuzu, I want you to meet—" Harumi laughed when she realized that both of the girls had reacted to the last name.
"You can meet them tomorrow, Yuzu." Mei was starting to get annoyed at the loud crowd goofing around the common room.
She seems a bit miffed. What's the big deal?
Yuzu spread her hands to gesture there was no arguing with the Head Girl and followed her up the stairs. Mei snatched fireworks from a young student's hand when they passed them on the stairs. "Do you have to do this every year… Go to sleep, Evelyn!"
They got to the dormitory room and it had 3 large beds, Yuzu noticed her bed was in the middle and her bags had been delivered to the room.
I would give my right leg to be in the same dorm with Harumin right now, I have so much cute clothes I wanted to show her too…
Yuzu was brought back from her thoughts when she heard the door closing. She didn't dare to turn around, she heard the Head Girl cast an Imperturbable Charm on the door and the muffled sounds coming from the common room died immediately. Her heart picked up the fast pace again, she tried to keep her breathing steady and not let the other girl see how nervous she was.
Is she like worried someone might hear us? Or she just doesn't stand any distractions? It's quite creepy to be quiet like this… Should I say something? Aaaagh… Heck, she made this awkward, not me. Can she see how nervous I am? I hope she doesn't notice...
"I heard from my grandfather this summer that my father had gotten married and there was a girl of my age who would be transferring to Hogwarts." Mei said with a low voice that startled Yuzu. "I hope you will not interfere with my studies and I hope you will follow the rules, you took our family name so I expect you to live up to it."
Yuzu's mouth fell open. She had a hard time believing the words actually came out her stepsister's mouth. Yuzu was feeling really dispirited for the whole first encounter with her newest family member.
"So, this is what you have to say? You find out you have a step-sister and all you can think is that you hope she will follow the stupid school rules?" Yuzu asked, without turning around. "It's not like I had a choice, I was still a minor few months ago and it was mother's choice to take the Aihara family name for us both."
"I just ask you not to interfere with my life, that's all." Mei said coldly. Yuzu turned around to face Mei, she did not even care anymore that her face was probably as deep shade of red as the velvet curtains on the beds.
"Are you serious?! We were so excited with Mama to have you as part of our family, without even meeting you. We were planning to have a Christmas party for the whole family, you included! How can you be so cold about this? Aren't you even a little bit curious what kind of person I am? I'm your sister now, it should mean something!" Yuzu was getting really agitated about the whole situation. Nothing so far had gone the way she had imagined, meeting with her new stepsister.
"I'm not going home for the Christmas holidays, apologies if I have disappointed you, but I'm not the kind of a person you think I am," Mei continued, her tone had softened a bit. Yuzu was examining the dark-haired girl in the dim light and in her opinion, Mei looked a bit lonely.
"Well, I'm dragging you home for Christmas and there's nothing you can do about it!" Yuzu said with determination. Mei lifted her eyebrows and looked a bit surprised at the blonde girl's resolve. The two stared at each other for a while.
Oh my god, she's pretty…
"I didn't have any high expectations for meeting you. You should have not gotten so excited about meeting me either. When I saw you in the train today, hanging out with those two delinquents and dressed so inappropriately—" Mei started but Yuzu was getting triggered.
"I was inappropriate?! Who was it that just basically groped me in front of my two new acquaintances, who by the way are—" Yuzu raised her voice, she barely had time to react when the dark haired girl lunged at her. Standing inches away, Mei's face was totally expressionless when she grabbed Yuzu by her nape and pulled her closer, pressing her lips against the blonde's.
! What is she— damn, her lips are so soft…
Yuzu stood there, arms hanging uselessly in the air, unable to move or react. She felt her whole body go numb, strange tingling in her fingertips and her head was a buzz. Her eyes were closed tightly, she was too afraid to open them. The Head Girl was working her tongue against Yuzu's lips, forcing them open and began to caress the blonde's tongue with her own. Yuzu was sure her knees would give in any second when she registered the other hand sliding under her robes and behind her back, Mei pulled her closer and the hand was moving lower. Yuzu heard herself moan in between the strokes administered by the Head Girl's tongue.
Why—please, Mei… I can't… We can't…
Yuzu flinched when she felt a hand fumbling her ass. She regained control of her body and her head snapped from the haze of mixed emotions. Her eyes shot open and she pushed the dark-haired girl away.
"MEI! WHAT THE HELL?!" Yuzu screamed.
Mei was wiping her lips, looking quite unsurprised by Yuzu's reaction.
WHAT. THE. ACTUAL. FUCK. What the hell was that…
Yuzu was glaring at the girl standing in front of her. Her heart was racing, she felt adrenaline rush through her veins and her ears were humming. Mei avoided eye contact and didn't say anything, she just turned away and walked to the large trunk located next to her bed. After opening the trunk, she quickly found what she was looking for and grabbed a small pile of clothing and some small bottles.
"I'm going to the bathroom. You should start unpacking your things," Mei said, walking past the infuriated girl standing in the middle of the room, eyes wide and closely following Mei around. Mei opened the door and disappeared to the hallway, the muffled sounds of people still fooling around in the common room filled the dormitory again.
Feeling utterly confused, Yuzu staggered closer to the bed and let herself fall face down on the soft mattress. She buried her head in her pillow and wanted to scream. She laid there for a while, trying her best to make some sense to what had just happened.
Aaaagh… This makes no sense at all…
She was getting ready to confront Mei, once she came back from the bathroom but as time passed, she was getting the nervous feeling in her gut again. Feeling restless and having an urge to talk to someone, she decided to head back to the common room to see if her friend was still goofing around.
"Hey! Yuzu! You came back! C'mon, let's meet everybody!" Harumi saw Yuzu as she approached and ran towards her. Seeing Harumi get all excited at the prospect of introducing her to people, she decided to push the Head Girl out of her head for a while and enjoy her time in her new school. There would be plenty of time later to deal with whatever was the problem with her stepsister.