Chapter 7 : Pass by the chimney

Since their meeting with Dumbledore and the latter's approval that they stayed at Hogwarts a little longer, the twins had abandoned all caution in being discreet around the school. The only thing they wanted was to make the most of being with Akira, whom they wouldn't see again until the next summer holidays. Therefore they often hung out with her despite her reluctance. Indeed, she would have preferred that they stuck to their old plan which consisted in being around students of their own house since they weren't supposed to know her. This had even earned them looks of the other students and especially of the Slytherins who were wondering why Matsuo - whom they had integrated in their group due to his hatred for Mudbloods - was now friend with one of them.

But the one who suffered the most in this situation was Arcturus who was sad that she spent all her time with two students she "barely knew" rather than with him. He even began to avoid her, which was rather an accomplishment knowing that they were in the same house in the same year so they were doing everything together.

At first, Akira hadn't intended to tell him anything about the twins - not even what happened with the Gryffindor student that Matsuo had knocked out even if Arcturus had witnessed partially the scene - but seeing him in such a state of despair, she decided to put him into the confidence. She chose the most appropriate moment which was at the end of an Arithmancy lesson. It was the perfect topic to start the conversation since the Professor was getting on the nerves of both of them.

"Watterston exaggerates. I made a miscalculation at the beginning of the exercise and he counted it totally wrong." Akira complained when leaving the classroom as they just received a noted homework in which she got a really bad grade.

"Mine had some ink stains on it and he refused to correct it at all." Arcturus replied sadly while showing her his homework on which he must have spilled a whole bottle of ink because it was covered with it.

He then fell back into his silence which prompted Akira to put things straight once and for all.

"Follow me." She told him before taking him into a classroom that was used as a storage room for Dust's muggle objects.

"If you want to talk to me about Watterston, I don't want it. I've already had a rather painful week without adding to it." Arcturus said while opening the door to leave.

But Akira was faster than him and she closed it before he stepped outside. This move somewhat surprised Arcturus who observed her with wide eyes without daring to say anything more.

"I wanted to see you about the two students that always hang with me." She confessed to him.

"I don't want to talk about them either." Arcturus exclaimed angrily which wasn't usual for him.

He made another attempt to get out but Akira stopped him again much to his annoyance.

"What I'm about to tell you will interest you because they're not really exchange students from an other wizarding school."

"I already noticed that. They're acting strangely and never went to class. Not to mention that they appeared suddenly out of nowhere without anyone notifying us of their arrival." Arcturus pointed out as he had finally decided to speak to her to say what he had on the heart.

"That's normal since they're not supposed to be here." Akira told him bluntly.

"Why ? Who are they then ?" Arcturus asked her as his anger was changing into curiosity.

"You promise to not repeat that secret to anyone ?"

"Of course." Arcturus answered quickly as he was impatient to learn the truth.

"Well, they're young people from my village."

"Your… village ? So there's other wizards than you there ?" Arcturus asked while scratching his head.

"No. I'm the only one."

"So that means they're not wizards ?" Arcturus added with concern.

"Indeed. They're muggles that didn't know anything about magic until the beginning of the school year." Akira admitted as Arcturus was looking at her with horror.

"But muggles can't enter Hogwarts. It's magically impossible."

"Dumbledore said that the friendship they've for me was the reason why they managed to do so." Akira explained to him.

"No way ! So there's two muggles at school and Dumbledore knows about it ?"

"Yes. But since they've nothing to do there, I've been trying to send them home but without success." Akira added while thinking about the last three months that had been rather difficult for her. "And I think it's only a matter of time before someone else than Dumbledore spotted them since they don't really fit into this wizarding world."

"That's why you kept watching them from afar. I thought you had a strange behaviour but I'm reassured now." Arcturus commented with a big smile as he wasn't mad at her anymore now that he knew the whole truth.

"That's good for you but remember. What I just told you is an absolute secret. Nobody must know anything, never."

Arcturus didn't answer but mimed a zipper that he closed over his mouth. Obviously, he had regained his usual good mood, which reassured Akira who could now focus all her attention on the twins without Arcturus being jealous about it.

And she had plenty to do as the month of December began, accompanied by a freezing cold and large snowflakes much to the delight of the twins who rarely saw such wonderful spectacle at Konoha.

As a white carpet of snow began to form in the grounds, Matsuo and Tatsuno insisted on getting out as much as possible to take part in all the snow day activities they saw the students doing. They even tried their hand at flying broomsticks - Akira allowed them to do so as the thick mantle of snow could break their fall - but their lack of talent in this area soon made them give up. Instead, they engaged in snowball fights, building a snowman or an igloo and even skating on the frozen lake with their shoes.

Now that Arcturus was aware of their secret, he gladly joined them for these muggle activities but the twins sometimes forgot that they weren't in Konoha and therefore couldn't use their ninja talent on him. It happened on several occasions that they let themselves be carried away by the excitement to the point of forgetting about their strength, like when they threw Arcturus violently on the ice as the latter was simply trying to catch them for one of their ice skating games or when they half stunned him by throwing a snowball that the cold had transformed into a block of ice at full power.

"Are you okay ?" Akira asked him with concern while helping him to get up after he collapsed on the snow-covered ground.

"Couldn't be better." Arcturus replied cheerfully before plunging back into the snowball game with the twins that stayed at a good distance from Akira to not be scolded by her.

With three walking disasters to keep an eye on, Akira didn't see the time pass as the Christmas holidays finally arrived. The only thing that allowed her to realize that it was soon Christmas was the decorations that had appeared throughout the whole castle. This phenomenon intrigued the twins since they weren't celebrating Christmas in Konoha and all the traditions that revolved around it were therefore foreign to them. Akira took on her to explain them to Matsuo and Tatsuno but the only one that caught their attention was the exchange of gifts.

"It's like for birthdays ?" Tatsuno eventually asked with bright eyes as himself, his brother and Akira were wandering in the hallways while avoiding the Slytherins since the latter threatened Matsuo for rubbing shoulders with a Mudblood as they were unaware that he was one himself.

"Sort of. Except that you're not the only one to receive presents. You also have to give to others." Akira made it clear for them.

"So I should give something to that guy ?" Matsuo said while pointing at his brother. "He never gave me anything on my birthday so I don't see why I should !"

"You didn't either ! And since our birthday is on the same day, it never crossed my mind to give you anything. Letting you blow half of the candles on our cake and open half of the presents is already enough."

"I do so because they're also mine !" Matsuo replied angrily.

Their argument continued until they realized that there was no need to fight since they couldn't buy anything for each other – or even for Akira – since they were stuck in the castle until that celebration. Therefore, instead of looking forward for the gifts, they waited impatiently for the Feast as they missed the ones taking place at the beginning of the school year and at Halloween.

This meal was done in small committee since majority of the students left the school by train the day before to return to their family. Since there were only few students, they all gathered around one table which allowed the three ninjas to eat together for their last evening. It also allowed Akira to keep an eye on the twins as the excitement of the party seemed to have gone to their head to the point of making them a bit louder and talkative than usual. When it was the case, she would give them a nudge to make them stop before they caught the attention of one of the Professors who would be curious to know why these two foreign students were here.

But her heart began to ache when she realized that she would miss their cheerfulness after becoming used to have her two best friends by her side at Hogwarts for so long. This feeling even prevented her from falling asleep, even if it was already late since the Feast last at midnight.

"Put yourself together. That's only a goodbye." She tried to convince herself as she was beginning to sniffle but no one could hear her since her dorm was completely empty on this Christmas night.

She eventually managed to sleep but the grief didn't disappear during the night. She was apprehending the morning as Dumbledore informed them the day before to come in his office during breakfast to send the twins back home. The only thing that managed to pull her out of her bed was the gift that was at its foot. She knew right away that it was from Arcturus, like for the past two years.

She was wondering what he might give her this year as she gifted him in return the English-Japanese dictionary that she put in her suitcase a long time ago just in case she would need help to translate some words. However, since she never had the opportunity to use it and since Arcturus told her that he had an interest in the language she was speaking with the twins – and also as she had nothing else to give him since she already offered him a calculator when he began Muggle Studies – this dictionary was perfect for him.

She took his gift and realized immediately that he also got her a book. It wasn't really a surprise since he had worked all summer at Flourish and Blotts but she was still eager to find out what it was all about. Therefore, she teared off the kraft paper to discover that its title was "The Worst Creatures in England, How to Protect Yourself From Them". The cover wasn't more reassuring as a sharp-toothed animal was looking at the reader from a dark forest. Just looking at its terrifying appearance, Akira wondered how Arcturus managed to buy such a book since he was easily scared but she got her response when she read the note that came with her gift.

"I'm pretty proud of myself for finding you something that's not related to Quidditch for once. I also thought that you might find this guide helpful with your new Care of Magical Creatures lesson, just in case Kettleburn decides to introduce you to fearsome creatures."

"Like a Chimaera." Akira sighed as she was still having nightmares about their Halloween encounter with one.

In order to not be late for the departure of her dear teammates, Akira put her book aside and hurriedly dressed up warmly as it was snowing heavily outside.

She was the last one to arrive in front of the Headmaster office as Matsuo and Tatsuno were already waiting in front of the gargoyle statue, displaying the same morose look as her. They had removed the wizarding robes they had borrowed and were carrying their backpacks over their shoulders. They didn't look anymore as wizards but as sad muggles that didn't want to leave and Akira had the perfect gift at the bottom of her pocket to sheer them up.

"Here." She said while handing them each a Chocolate Frog. "It's magical so don't show it to anyone when you're in Konoha."

The twins' lips began to quiver upon receiving this present and without warning, they both threw themselves on Akira to hug her much to her astonishment.

"What's gotten into you all of a sudden ? You were never so emotional when I was away for an entire year." She pointed out to them as the twins finally let her go.

"But it's the first time that the three of us really had fun together. We never do that in Konoha between our missions, our work at the hospital and so on." Tatsuno said while wiping his eyes with his sleeve.

"Yeah. We'll miss the time passed here." His brother added as he wasn't in a better state.

"Are you serious ? You had fun hiding all the time and risking being injured by spells you don't even know about ?" Akira asked them with disbelief.

"Since everything went well in the end, I'm tempted to say yes." Tatsuno admitted.

"Let's go in the Headmaster office before I hear an other nonsense." Akira encouraged them as she was afraid that the twins and herself wouldn't have the strength to leave each other if they waited a bit longer.

The twins obeyed as they knew they didn't have the choice and the three of them went into Dumbledore's office. The latter was already waiting for them with the bag of Floo Powder that he had shown them a few weeks ago opened on his desk.

Akira stood back as the twins each took a handful of it to follow Dumbledore's instruction. One after the other, they threw it into the fireplace which turned the fire from orange to green. They then took one last look at Akira before announcing their destination aloud while stepping inside the flame that was higher than them.

As soon as they both disappeared, the office became very empty just like the heart of Akira who had appreciated having her two teammates with her even if everything didn't go well. It's always like this, you really appreciate people only when they're gone.

Merry Christmas everyone !

I hope you're having a nice day, contrary to our poor Akira who's going to miss her two best friends. Without the twins around, her days at Hogwarts will be rather calm. But it's not so sure since problems always happen when you expect them the less.

However, I'll let her get some rest in the next chapter. Since I won't be able to write next week, I'll publish it few days after the New Year but don't worry, you'll eventually have it.