"I will see you at breakfast tomorrow Mr Hikari. Unfortunately I will not be available to introduce you to the school at tonight's feast, so I will have to wait until tomorrow night. Classes will start for you tomorrow morning. Are you satisfied with that?"
"Ah, yes," he answered in surprise and smiled at her before following Professor Longbottom out of the office with his armful of books, robes and other bits and pieces.
"Right, to the Gryffindor Common Room we go," Neville announced cheerfully as he stepped off in the direction of the seventh floor.
Sighing, Sora grimaced a little before quickly following. This was going to be a long night.
Chapter 3
As soon as the duo entered the Gryffindor Common Room a fairly young and dark haired woman stood up from the couch where she was seated and approached them with a smile.
"Professor Vane!" Neville greeted brightly as he carefully placed the cat on the table, Sora following his example and gratefully dropping his armful onto the table as well. "Sorry for taking so long. I hope you weren't waiting long?"
"Only five minutes or so Professor Longbottom," she soothed and turned brown eyes on Sora curiously. "So this is Mr Hikari. I must say, I'm intrigued."
"Pleased to meet you," Sora greeted, sounding a little confused.
"Oh, sorry Mr Hikari. This is Professor Vane. She's the head of Gryffindor and she teaches Arithmancy," Neville quickly introduced with a smile.
"Oh, you're the maths teacher," the brunette keyblader replied unenthusiastically.
She flicked her eyes over him with a raised eyebrow. "We call it Arithmancy here at Hogwarts Mr Hikari. I would also appreciate it if you would show a little more enthusiasm while I'm within hearing range."
"Sorry…"
"Quite alright." She turned to Professor Longbottom with a smile. "Neville, you can go if you like. Thank you for taking care of him in my charge. I know it was your time off."
"Hey, no problem. Do you want me to hang around and help unpack?"
"No, it's alright. If you want to go, go."
Taking a deep breath, the herbology professor turned regretful eyes on Sora. "I'd better. I had a stack of marking I was going to do today, and I was planning on getting some weeding done. Some of the plants are looking a little choked."
"It's alright. Thank you for taking me shopping," Sora said with a smile.
The man relaxed and smiled, nodding gratefully. "You're welcome. Well, I'll see you at dinner Romilda. Goodbye Mr Hikari."
"Bye," the brunette echoed and the two watched as Neville walked swiftly out of the Gryffindor tower.
"Right," Professor Vane began the moment the portrait shut. "Let's go and get you settled in upstairs." She grabbed the cat cage and a few books with a smile and waited for Sora to quickly gather the rest before setting off up the stairs to the boys' dormitories.
They entered the dormitory and Sora noted curiously that it only had eleven beds. He could have sworn that Gryffindor would have had more than this?
"This is the fourth year boys dorm. You'll be sleeping in this bed over here," the Gryffindor head instructed and placed the cat carrier on the bed, along with the books she'd carted up. "There's a trunk for you at the end of the bed to place everything. That includes books, clothes and any odd bits of whatever it is you may own. I don't care, as long as it's nothing dangerous or inappropriate like pornography, although I doubt Professor Longbottom would have let you anywhere near the magazines if his life depended on it, which it does. As long as you keep your area clean, I don't care what you do. Understood?"
"Clearly," Sora answered with a nod.
"Good. Now, you can keep those clothes, seeing as I was told you turned up in nothing but your pyjamas. "
"If I'd known I was going to be transported to another world during the night I would have worn warm clothes and packed a bag full of stuff," the brunette grumbled.
A grin quirked at the corners of the female teacher's mouth. "I have no doubt of that. Now, another thing. I think it's best that you don't reveal that you have come from another world. We might accept that, but a lot of the students here will not."
"Then what do we tell everyone?"
"That you're an undiscovered wizard that was muggle born."
"Muggle…?" Sora asked, recalling that Neville had used that same word earlier.
"Non-magic user. Your parents can't use magic."
"Oh… So… we're keeping this secret?"
"Yes. Unless you don't want to? It would be in your best interest to do so for the first week or so at least."
"Maybe then…"
"Alright. Now, have you used magic before?"
"I know a few spells."
"Using a wand?"
"Um… no, none. Sorry."
The female head smiled sadly and shook her head. "You're in for a shock Sora. Normally you would be in sixth year because you're sixteen, but because of your inability to use magic we've dropped you back two years. I hope you don't mind."
"I'm used to it."
"Anyway, I'll talk to one of the students and get her to show you the basics and start you on the first year spells. You can practice those in your own time."
"Okay," Sora agreed, actually mildly excited to be studying for the first time ever. It's amazing what new subjects could have you revved to actually learn something. Especially magic. He'd always found those lessons in Merlin's attic fun.
"Now, we have an hour before the other students get in, so I'll leave you to unpack yourself, if that's okay. I have a few errands to run. Don't bother getting changed into the uniform unless you wish to. We're not expecting you to join us for dinner tonight. I've asked the house elves to send up a tray of food and leave it in the common room for you on the table."
"Um… thank you."
"You're welcome. I'll see you in about an hour." With one last smile Romilda Vane swept out of the fourth year dorms and Sora was left alone.
Sighing, he turned to the now irritable cat that was sitting on his bed. "Well Baubles, it's just you and me for an hour."
The black and brown cat purred in response, her tail twitching inside the cage.
"Just let me settle in and then I'll let you out," Sora sighed and quickly started stacking books up in his trunk, the robes on the other side. Within five minutes he was done, and the keyblader sat down on the bed and lifted the latch of the cage, opening it and dragging his new pet out, who was glaring at him with her blue eyes. He patted her a few times, and within seconds she was purring happily and tilting her head as he scratched behind her ears.
After she started getting itchy feet, Sora put her down and watched as she shook herself, did a couple of laps of the room and came back to the brunette, sat on his feet and then proceeded to lick herself.
Shaking his head, Sora just looked at her in amazement. Cats were incredible.
…And he finally had a pet called Baubles. Just wait until he told Riku.
"Whoa… who are you?" a black haired boy asked as he entered the room, blinking and staring in confusion.
Sora looked up from the piece of parchment he'd been doodling on and smiled at the teen. "Oh, hey. My name is Sora. I'm starting tomorrow."
"Albus," the boy greeted with a smile as he placed his books on the bed next to the brunette's. "I'm Albus Potter."
"Nice to meet you," Sora greeted again and sat up, earning a growl from his new pet as the bed moved. "Are you a wizard?"
"Um… yeah. Everyone here is," the black haired teen replied in confusion. "Aren't you?"
"I guess…"
"Why are you starting so late? Transferring? And you look older than fourteen years old."
"Professor Vane says I'm an undiscovered muggle born," Sora replied with a shrug. "I'm starting tomorrow."
"In fourth year?"
"Yeah."
"You can't be fourteen."
"I'm sixteen actually," Sora replied with a sheepish grin as he rubbed the back of his head.
"I'm confused," Albus replied with a shake of his head. "Anyway, do you want to come down and meet my family? If you're in Gryffindor you may as well get to know the Weasley and Potter family now." The black haired wizard flashed him a grin.
"Sure." Hopping up off the bed, Sora patted his new pet, earning a purr from her. "I'll see you later Baubles. Be a good cat until I get back."
"Baubles?" Albus asked in confusion.
"My cat. I got her today. Isn't she cute? I always wanted a cat, but mum always told me no because dad's allergic to cats."
"That's a shame. My Aunty Hermione likes cats. Uncle Ron hates them though. I'm not sure why. He's always bad mouthing Aunty Hermione's cats and they usually end up arguing about them."
"He doesn't like cats?"
"I don't know. I've asked but Aunty Hermione insists that Uncle Ron is just being silly and there's nothing not to like about cats. Dad says they've always been like that though."
"Sounds like a rather confusing family," Sora replied as they walked down the stairs to the Gryffindor Common Room. It was now filled with students in black school robes with what he assumed was the Gryffindor symbol on the front.
"You get used to it. Come on, before Hugo runs away." Albus grabbed his arm and dragged Sora over, who was blushing under the confused looks he was getting as the common room got a little noisier. They approached a group of red headed students that were laughing, a red headed girl yelling at a laughing male. "Hey guys!"
"Albus! What took you so long?" the red headed male who was laughing yelled. "Hey, who's this? Surely you're not dumping the snake for him."
"Score and I aren't dating! And he's not a snake," Albus retorted with a scowl.
"He's in Slytherin. That makes him a snake," the teen retorted with a sneer before focusing on Sora. "So who's this?"
"Oh, this is Sora. He's starting tomorrow in fourth year."
"Nice to meet you Sora," A frizzy haired red head greeted with a smile as she looked up from her book and held out a hand. "My name is Rose Weasley. I'm also in fourth year."
"Nice to meet you too," Sora greeted as he took the hand and shook it with a smile.
"Anyway, this is my older brother James," Albus introduced, waving a hand towards the red headed male that had addressed them before. "My younger sister Lily," he gestured to the red headed girl that had been yelling at James earlier.
She was red faced, obviously angry but nodded back politely. "Nice to meet you."
"Nice to meet you too," Sora replied with a smile before turning his attention to the others.
"You've met Rose, my cousin," Albus continued with a smile. "This is Hugo, her younger brother."
"Hey again," Hugo greeted with a grin and a wave. "I was wondering if I'd run into you again."
"Yeah, same here," Sora replied with a smile, noting him as the 'Mr Weasley,' the headmistress had addressed him as earlier.
"And that's it for the time being."
"The time being?" the brunette asked in surprise.
"There's more of us, but that's it for the moment," Albus explained with a grin and flopped down on the couch.
Sora sat down gingerly on the arm of one of the couches and observed the group of red heads in front of him. Lily and James had quickly gone back to arguing, loudly too, about a guy that Lily apparently liked and James was teasing her about it. Hugo had a grin but was focusing on him curiously, as was Rose, who had put her books aside.
"So how come-" Hugo began but was cut off by a shrill whistle that pierced the air, making silence settle like a heavy blanket in the common room.
Everyone turned to face Professor Vane, who was standing in the common room with a smile as she walked over to the group of red head's, and Sora. "Alright everyone, there's someone I want to introduce to you. This is Sora Hikari, he's starting tomorrow and is going to be in fourth year, due to some circumstances."
Sora blushed as everyone turned curious eyes to him. "N-Nice to meet you all," he said with a smile and rubbed the back of his head awkwardly.
"Make him feel welcome alright? If he gets lost help him out. He's essentially a first year. Treat him nicely."
There was a wave of nodding heads and Professor Vane smiled, apparently satisfied.
"Right, you can go back to what you were doing."
The chatter started up again and the Gryffindor Head turned to the group. "Hello everyone. I see you've already met Mr Hikari."
"Yeah," Albus replied with a grin in the brunette's direction. "We've met."
"Miss Weasley, can I talk to you for a minute please?" the woman asked with a kind smile.
The red head blinked in surprise and nodded standing up. "What about?"
"Come over here please. Mr Hikari, you too." The trio moved into a space in the corner, away from prying eyes, and Professor Vane waved her wand. "Miss Weasley, I want you to take on the duty of teaching Mr Hikari the basics of magic. All the first year curriculum from scratch. Also, help him out with homework and assessment if he needs it. I have faith that you can do it far better than some of the teachers here."
"Alright, I can do that," she replied curiously, preening slightly at the compliment. "Can I ask why?"
"You can. This is the first Wizard School that Mr Hikari has been to. He was an undiscovered muggle-born wizard. The ministry has only just become aware of this fact and decided to take action."
Her brown eyes widened and fixated on Sora curiously. "Why so late? Surely it would be better for him to be privately tutored then?"
"The ministry decided that Hogwarts would be a much better place for him to study. Can I trust you to teach Mr Hikari the basics up until now?"
"Certainly. I take on the role with honour," she answered determinedly and smiled at the brunette. "I look forward to working with you Sora."
"You too," the keyblader answered with a smile.
"Thank you Miss Weasley. If you need any materials or text books feel free to ask."
"Thank you, but I'll get mum to send all my books over from home, Professor Vane."
"Alright. Well, I'd better get going. Are you going to join us for dinner Mr Hikari?" the woman asked with a smile.
"I'll see how I feel later. It's been a long day and I'm pretty tired."
"I can imagine. Well, if I don't see you, sleep well and I'll see you at breakfast tomorrow morning. Miss Weasley, thank you."
"No, thank you Professor Vane," Rose replied happily.
The dark haired witch stood up and with one last nod and smile she left the Gryffindor common room.
"So you have no magic training whatsoever?" Rose asked the moment the older witch left the Gryffindor Tower.
"Well… I have a bit… none with a wand though."
"Then we'll start tomorrow. I'll borrow out a charms textbook from the library tomorrow and we'll get started then. Unless you want to start now?" She asked, eyes narrowing almost excitedly.
"Uh… no thanks, I'd better not." His first attempts with a wand hadn't left him thrilled at the thought of using one for classes.
"Alright," Rose sighed in disappointment. "We start tomorrow after dinner though, after homework."
Sora sighed and slumped a little. "I guess things don't really change, huh?"
The red headed Weasley laughed. "Nope, sorry. Anyway, we'd better head over. People are going to begin to wonder if we're away much longer."
"Yeah…"
Smiling, the duo headed back over to the curious group. Despite drilling Rose for answers, she didn't say a word, leaving Sora to explain what the Gryffindor Head wanted from them.
tbc~
