Title: Dealing With the Devil [3/?]
Author: Grevola
Rating: PG 13
Notes: Don't own HP or GW. Part of the Sorting Hat Arc. Follows "Anything You Can Do". Hiiro realizes he's in need of a sneaky individual with flexible morals. Too bad Duo doesn't do anything for free. Some bad language in this part.

-_-_-_-

Relena Darlian hauled her books back up the steps to the Gryffindor tower, mentally cursing Professor Vector's love of essays. The idea of turning in essay work for Arithmancy seemed so counter intuitive! She was perfectly capable of preforming the calculations and spellwork the subject required, why did she have to spend hours writing up how she did it? But Hermione Granger had to raise her hand three minutes before the bell and ask a stupid question and now they had to write a ten inch essay on the use of non-regular polygons as focal points in protective magics. Not counting the three mandatory diagrams. Once again Relena looked over her schedule- she was taking all the normal classes, and three electives. Surely she didn't need all three. And surely Hermoine didn't need to be in every single one either. Especially Muggle Studies. The sort of stupid, off topic, useless know-it-all remarks she made... it was enough to make Relena want to hit someone.

Her mood and headache were not improved when the portrait of the Fat Lady swung open to reveal Dean and Seamus trying to out shout each other as they cornered Percy Weasley about something. A couple of second year girls were hovering on the edges of the argument, twittering to themselves, and a group of fifth years brushed past her and out the portrait hole, looking for a quieter place to study. One of the boys jostled her as he hurried past, making her drop her stack of books. Sighing, the blond third year just rubbed her forehead and began gathering her things. She wondered if it counted as eavesdropping if the conversation she was overhearing was being shouted right in front of her face.

"... right there in the same room!"

"-in the dressing room-"

"Please, let's be-" But Percy was cut off almost before he started.

"Don't want him looking-"

"When me mam finds out-"

"That's enough!" She finally shouted, slamming the last book on the stack. The common room went completely silent, and both Dean and Seamus stared at her, their eyes gone huge. "What on Earth has you all so worked up?"

"Don't you know?" Seamus said, "Hiiro Yui is queer!"

"And where," her voice dripped ice, "did you hear that?"

"Well, Peeves was singin' it..." Dean mumbled.

Relena and Percy exchanged long-suffering looks. The Prefect awkwardly patted Dean on the shoulder, "Come now, Peeves was calling Professor Lupin a werewolf all day yesterday, and you didn't believe that, did you?"

"Well, no..." Now both the boys stared absently around the room, clearly embarrassed.

"Then that's settled," Relena said, "maybe next time you'll think a rumor through before you make fools of yourselves." With that, she brushed past the group and up the stairs to the girl's dorms, effectively breaking up the small meeting as she went. Really, she thought to her self, how could you even tell if Hiiro were queer? He never seems to give anyone a second glance.

But even if Hiiro hadn't started noticing that the students around him were growing up, they had certainly started watching him. That afternoon at lunch, she listened as Meiran explained that it wasn't strange that Hiiro was attached to other boys, rather "I can't believe he'd be interested in anyone as useless as Harry. I mean, Oliver Wood? Sure! There's a nice strong guy you could hope to learn something from. But Harry's just so... Meh!" The Chinese girl waved her hands to indicate her lack of words.

"Do guys where you come from really date old guys, and like, their teachers and stuff?" Lavender Brown asked. She was trying to look horrified, but she sounded positively eager.

Meiran shrugged, "Not so much any more, but it used to be super common between apprentices and teachers. Reminds me," She turned in her seat and shouted something across the Great Hall in Chinese. There was a crash, and a spluttering, and then some loud and obviously rude remarks from Wufei Chang in response. Shortly professor Flitwick hurried over to calm his student down.

Meiran just giggled and turned back in her seat, "I should have known he'd never slept with Master Oh- he's wound way too tight."

The other Gryffindor girls tried to hide their giggles and look suitably appalled, but they weren't terribly convincing. Relena joined in, but she had been given a classical education before she started at Hogwarts, and some of the stories of the Greeks and their students suddenly seemed to make a lot more sense. She glanced down the table to Hiiro who was poking his food rather harshly with his fork and glaring sullenly at those around him. In fact, the only person he didn't seem to be glowering at was Harry himself, who was chatting rather obliviously with Hermione and Ron. Relena was just wondering if he'd even heard the rumor of Hiiro's supposed infatuation when the Weasley twins passed by her on their way to that end of the table.

"-given him half an hour already," Fred said as he walked by.

"He's had as much food as he's going to," George replied, "fair's fair."

And then they were standing one behind Harry and the other behind Hiiro. "So Ron, has he asked you to be the best man yet?" Fred asked.

"What are you going on about now?" Ron asked, looking warily between his siblings.

"Well we figured Yuy was the sort to do things properly," George said as he put one hand on Hiiro's shoulder, "So has he offered to make an honest man of you yet Harry, or does he expect you to make the first move?"

"What are you going on-" Ron began, but Fred smacked him on the back of the head.

"Oh come off it Ron! You're not going to tell me you've left defending Harry's honor up to us are you?"

"Seriously Harry, maybe you'd better make us your best man, or nothing will get done right."

"What are you talking about?" Harry finally asked looking from one twin to the other, and completely missing the growing expression of horrified embarrassment on Hirro's face.

"What, you mean-"

"-you were completely-"

"and utterly-"

"unaware that this-" George shook Hiiro's shoulder hard for emphasis, "young man"

"-is madly in love with you?"

"What?!" Harry dropped his glass, pumpkin juice slowly staining the table cloth. Not even Hermione Granger was distracted enough from the unfolding scene to siphon it up with her wand.

"Just think about it!" Fred said.

"The way he follows you around," George continued.

"He's always looking at you,"

"Casting those funny little spells,"

"Lurking around the pitch during practice,"

"Taking all your same classes,"

"Stalking you in other words."

Harry's eyes grew wide and his face paled as he looked over at Hiiro, "You-"

"He would hate to see Harry hurt!" Relena finally snapped, "Which doesn't mean he is, or is not, in love with him. And I think this has gone quite far enough. Whether or not Hiiro has a crush on Harry is between them and none of your business. Now both of you get out of here before I find a Prefect."

"My my Relena," Fred said, "didn't know you were such a stickler about rules."

"Yeah," George's hand tightened on Hiiro's shoulder until the knuckles were white, "Besides, it's only fair that we try and protect our friends."

"Make sure they're not getting mixed up with creeps and weirdos."

"Oh give it a rest!" Meiran shouted, "Hiiro's harmless."

"You're not helping!" Relena snapped at her friend, "Hiiro has been nothing but a kind and helpful student, and we've all known him for years. I hardly think-"

But she was cut off by the sound of a bench scraping hard against the stone floor. Hiiro stood up and with what looked like a casual shrug pulled his shoulder out of George's grasp. "Relena," he said, "I can fight my own battles. But I only fight those worthy of my choosing." And with that he turned and walked from the hall with a great deal more dignity than most thirteen-year-olds ever hope to muster.

There was an awkward silence at the Gryffindor table until he was out of sight through the doors to the main hall. The the whole table seemed to erupt with chattering voices.

"Oh Hiiro," Relena sighed to herself as he left. It was probably for the best that he'd managed to escape from the bullying, but having her efforts to help thrown back in her face like that stung unreasonably.

Further up the table a couple of sixth years were debating whether the bagpiper in the Weird Sisters was actually gay, and some students at the Ravenclaw table behind them were trying to think of all the famous gay wizards they'd ever heard of. Down the table, the twins had moved on to talk Quidtich with a second year who was on the reserve team, and Ginny Weasley had taken Fred's place behind Harry and Ron. "You don't like Hiiro back, do you Harry?" She asked, "You aren't gay are you?" Relena noticed the other girl looked slightly ill at the very thought.

"What? No!" Harry said, "I just, I mean, no. Of course not. I'm not a fag, thanks, I think I've got enough troubles with out that."

"Right on, Harry!" Ron said.

Hermione rolled her eyes at all of them, "Really, would it have mattered to you that much Ron if Harry were queer? You wouldn't just stop being friends with him would you?"

Now it was Ron's turn to look green under his freckles, "Well, er, no, I mean, he's my best mate, but well. It'd be different."

"How exactly?" Hermione asked.

"Well, I mean..." Relena watched the wheels spin behind Ron's eyes, and she just knew he was about to dig himself a deeper hole, "What I mean is, what if he got a crush on me? I mean, it'd tear us all apart, one of us got a crush on one of the others."

"I see." Hermione said, and she was suddenly back in full ice princess mode, "Well. Bully for you. Now if you excuse me, I've got a Muggle studies lesson to get to."

And as that seemed to be the end of the matter, Relena reluctantly gathered together her own books and made her own way out of the hall and toward Professor Burbage's classroom. As the staircase she was on swung into a new position, she noticed a couple of figures tucked into the corner that had been underneath the steps a moment before. One was Hiiro, his eyes slightly reddened, and his face set in grim determination. With him was Duo Maxwell, a Slytherin boy she knew very little about except that he always seemed to be in trouble, even with Snape. And right now his animated face seemed to be shifting between being furious and frightened. But she saw him finally put an arm around Hiiro's shoulders and lean in until their heads were nearly touching as the stairway finished it's shifting and settled down. The image gave her something to think about all through her next lesson, so she didn't even notice when Hermione got them extra homework again.