(Thank you to knightofbluh on tumblr for writing this chapter, anyone who has a tumblr should follow her)

Kai-Tze

"Earth to Kai-Tze, earth to Kai-Tze Leon, hello, are you brain dead?" Benjamin drawled playfully to his taciturn cousin-friend. The third years were jammed in the middle of the Gryffindor crowd at the table, barely able to move despite the dispersing crowd. The brunette Benjamin snapped his fingers in front of the asian-looking Kai-Tze who rolled his blue eyes which he inherited from his grandfather.

"No, and what?" He replied.

"Didn't you hear that the Quidditch team members had to stay back?" Benji adjusted the leather strap of his toolbag which was perpetually slung over his shoulder.

"I did," Kai-Tze answered somewhat irritably. To anyone else, he was nearly emotionless, but Benjamin who'd known him practically from birth was able to read the almost unnoticable edge in his voice. "I'm just trying to navigate out of this crowd."

"You're just disappointed that Yue's not in Gryffindor so that her dear, older brother can take care of her, eh ,sister -complex?" Benji said, wagging his eyebrows. And earning a smack over his tousled brown hair by Kai-Tze. "Aye, I'm just stating the obvious." He whined.

There was another roll of blue eyes. Kai-Tze stalked over to the corner where cousins Collin and Patrick had reappeared in after absconding from their firework stunt.

But really, could you blame Kai-Tze for being worried over his kinda socially awkward younger sister? He was supposed to take care of her. That was his duty as an older brother, and it is most certainly not a sister-complex.

While Benji was animatedly chatting with the upperclassmen, Kai-Tze hung back and listened, trying to reorganize his thoughts. Benji was steering the conversation with his latest Quidditch tactics, praying that this year, their house would win back the cup from Hufflepuff. Kai-Tze nodded when needed, but didn't give any input, he wasn't as talkative as Benji was anyway.

He let his thoughts drift back to this morning. His disappointment to find out that his parents couldn't make it to see them off again this time was still weighing on him. He knew that they were both busy with their heavy duties of being the Head Healer of 's and being an Auror that he shouldn't be complaining. But it did not stop him from having wistful sighs when he saw other students with their parents happily boarding the Hogwarts Express. Sometimes he was envious of Benji being able to lament the fact that his mother taught Herbology and his father was a stay home dad. At least he got to see them most of the time. He shook his head, trying to clear it. Grow up. Kai-Tze, you're thirteen. He silently thought, stuffing his childish wants to the back of his head.

He had kinda tuned out his teammates' aimless chatting as they walked up the everchanging stairwells to the Commonroom. He deftly stepped over the missing step in the stairs and absently caught his tripped up cousin by the scruff of his collar. "Thanks Kai-Tze," Benji grinned, "You're a life-saver." Three years and he still hasn't memorized the layout of the stair well. It was hard to believe that Benji was actually quite a genius, what with his creation of various muggle-wizard mechanisms that he made with his constant tinkering and also his tactical expertise in Quidditch, which was one of the reasons Benji was chosen to be in Quidditch team since last year when they were still both Second years.

Kai-Tze was in the Quidditch team the same reason his mother was in it. They were made to fly. If there was one thing that could make stony-faced Kai-Tze smile, it was the feeling of wind in his hair 70 ft in the air. He played Chaser with the other two seniors, occasionally substituting as a Beater if there was a change in tactics. He had good reflexes and body coordination, but currently not as much muscle to properly smash a Bludgeon into somebody else. Collin had patted his back after his second time as Beater, "You'll get that muscle mass soon," he had laughed, "Then you'll be a regular Beater like your mom.". Kai-Tze hoped not, he liked Chasing better, and it was partially his claim to last year's victory against Ravenclaw when he did a death defying 'limp-drop', halting all broom activity and just dropping straight down with gravity, that allowed him to intercept the passed Quaffle to ricochet it into the scoring hoops.

Now he was just itching for more practices and matches. There wasn't much room in the town where 's headquarter's was located to play a proper game of Quidditch anyway. He trudged into the dorms, ignoring the raving mess of a House warming party they were having in the Common area. The blue-eyed Leon was very sure his cousin would be overdosed with butter-beer by the time the professors came to shoo them to sleep. The beer would probably be spiked too. Which was bad. The boy consumed butter beer faster than a dehydrated man guzzling liquid. He methodically began stripping the layers of uniform off, donning a t-shirt. Might as well get some reading done, he thought, opening his Potions textbook to the dog-ear on page 67, where he had left off re-reading for the third time on the train. He had to get good scores on his exams so that he wouldn't disappoint his father and grandfather's legacy.

Nearly half an hour and about 20 pages later, Benji came stumbling in with the rest of their roommates, giggling unabashedly. "Hey, y' missed all the fun, Kai-Kai." Making the other three of their roommates erupt into a fit of giggles. Kai-Tze was about to say something about the nickname, but decided that it wasn't worth the effort, so he clamped his mouth shut as they all flomped into beds. Benji carefully hung his leather toolbag that he had brought everywhere on the lampstand. Heaven forbid anything happen to his precious tools. They fell fast asleep in a matter minutes, exhausted by the trip. Just before Kai-Tze was about to drift into the void, Benji said something, "Y'know, I think this year's gonna be all right."

Kai-Tze sincerely hoped that Benji had not just inadvertently jinxed them.