Midnight Lessons

Yukimura Seiichi

During their first week, Yukimura and Sanada found all of the hidden rooms in the common room as well as two more room that Akiteru had not included in his map and that many of the older students were surprised to learn existed. After they found all the common room had to offer, they began to explore the corridors after class.

The amount of time they spent wandering down twisted corridors and searching for hidden rooms was not enough for Yukimura, who began to explore by himself at night after Sanada and Yanagi forced themselves to study for class or sleep. Usually he came back to the common room before the prefects began patrolling, but there were several times when Yukimura was forced to hide behind thick curtains or make a break for the common room so he did not get caught. He did not want to be responsible for losing his house points, but he enjoyed his late night excursions and the secrets he uncovered too much to stop.

On the fifth floor, behind a tapestry of pureblood households, he found a circular room with large, comfortable chairs and several filled bookcases. On the fourth floor, there was a painting you could walk into, though Yukimura did nothing more than stick his arm in elbow-deep. He learned that the suits of armor on the second floor would point you to the bathrooms if you asked nicely, but the suits of armor on the fourth floor would try to stab you with their lances.

The oddest room he found was on the seventh floor corridor. He had been looking behind a statue when he heard prefects coming down the hall on their nightly patrol. Yukimura planned to hide behind the columns in the corner—he had done it before and knew he was small enough to squeeze behind them if he held his breath—but as he walked by the wall, there was a door he did not remember being there. The footsteps increased in volume and Yukimura, realizing he did not have much time before he was discovered out of bed, went inside the mysterious room.

Ducking into the small cramped closet, Yukimura coughed on the dusty air from the old cauldrons and dirty glass vials. After the prefects had passed and Yukimura deemed it safe to leave, he opened the door and found himself in the dungeons near the entrance to the Slytherin common room. He turned around to look at the door again, but there was no door behind him. He thought he was losing his mind.

Once in his room, he drew the curtains around his bed, lit a lamp, and pulled out Akiteru's map. Akiteru had drawn an arrow pointing to the room on seventh floor corridor and had written: dueling room? Yukimura had checked the corridor before but there hadn't been a room where Akiteru said there was so Yukimura had assumed it was a mistake. Tonight, however, there had been a room, but it was not a dueling room like Akiteru had said.

"I'll have to ask him when I get the chance," Yukimura said to himself.

Sanada turned in his bed, mumbling in his sleep, and Yukimura decided to get some sleep as well.

On Monday morning before class, Yukimura, Sanada, and Yanagi checked the notice board in the common room for the new password ("Coronella austriaca"). Below the new password was a flyer for dueling club:

DUELING CLUB
(Third years and above.)

Learn new offensive and defensive spells, and test your skills by dueling against other students!

Interested students should contact Professor Reyna for more information.

"Why is it only third years and above?" Yukimura asked, frowning. "I was looking forward to dueling."

"Professor Reyna is in charge," Sanada said. "Akiteru said it was really intense and even a lot of third years can't keep up. Professor Reyna probably keeps the younger students out so they don't get hurt."

"Hmm. That's boring."

"Only you would think that not being attacked is boring, Seiichi."

"Flying lessons are the first weekend of October," Yanagi said, looking at another notice. "We have lessons with Ravenclaw."

Just like that, Yukimura forgot about dueling club. "Flying lessons?" he said excitedly. "How long are they? Do you think they'll let us keep a broom on grounds if we do really well?"

Sanada had also brightened up at the mention of flying. "I wonder what brooms they'll have us use."

"Cleansweeps, probably. The old ones are pretty cheap."

"Our first brooms were Cleansweeps."

"Yeah. They were good brooms."

"You've both flown before?" Yanagi asked, sounding impressed.

Yukimura nodded, eager to explain. "Genichirou and I live away from any muggles and our parents let us fly as long as we stayed by our houses. I have an old Nimbus—I got it for my birthday when I was nine—but I had to leave it at home since first years aren't allowed brooms. I don't even care about playing Quidditch, I just want to be able to fly on weekends."

"Quidditch?" Yanagi asked.

"Haven't you heard of it?"

Yanagi pointed to another flyer on the notice board.

SLYTHERIN HOUSE QUIDDITCH TEAM TRYOUTS
NOW ACCEPTING FIRST YEARS!

Tryouts will be held at noon on Saturday, September 28th in the Quidditch Pitch.

Participants should not bring a broom to tryouts, as brooms will be provided.
The use of enhancing spells and potions is strictly prohibited and will result in disqualification.

Onlookers are welcomed.

At the bottom of the page was an enchanted picture of a Snitch that spiraled and zoomed from edge to edge.

"They're accepting first years?" Sanada asked, surprised. Yukimura was just as shocked.

"They don't normally do that?" Yanagi asked.

"No," Sanada said. "But Akiteru said our house hasn't won the House Quidditch Cup in nearly ten years now. Maybe they're desperate…"

"Or there was a policy change," Yanagi said.

"The three of us should tryout together," Yukimura said suddenly. "It will be fun."

"We've never played Quidditch before," Sanada said. "Unless you count tossing that old ball back and forth."

"But we know all the rules and we can both fly really well. Can you fly, Yanagi?"

Yanagi shook his head. "I've never touched a broom and I don't know how to play Quidditch either."

"Flying lessons are after tryouts," Sanada said. "He couldn't learn to fly in time."

Yanagi had quickly become one of his best friends and Yukimura wanted to play Quidditch with him and Sanada. It wouldn't be a big deal if they didn't make the team, but Yukimura felt as if he had to at least try since he was given the opportunity.

"Of course he can!" Yukimura said. "We could teach him how to fly and how to play Quidditch."

"The professors wouldn't allow it," Yanagi said. "We wouldn't have any way to get a broom, either."

"I know plenty of ways to get out of the castle and onto the grounds without being spotted. We could sneak to the Pitch, unlock the broom shed, and teach you everything you'd need to know by Saturday. Genichirou and I can practice as we teach you."

"What if we get detention? Or lose the house points?" Yanagi asked.

"Then we get detention and we'll earn the points back twofold!"

Yanagi stared at Yukimura, who smiled. Yanagi's silence meant he was having problems coming up with a solid argument against Yukimura's plan.

Sanada sighed and asked, "Can we at least get breakfast before you start planning like this?"

"We should eat before class," Yanagi agreed.

Yukimura hummed. "Alright, but I won't drop this. We're going to do this."

They ate breakfast at the Slytherin table and then went to the Gryffindor table where Marui and Jackal were sitting.

"One second," Marui said. He scarfed down the rest of his French toast then took a long drink from a cup.

"That was mine," Jackal said.

Marui patted Jackal on the shoulder and bounced to his feet. They made their way towards class. By the time they reached the Grand Staircase, Marui was talking about candy, as he often did.

"I bought an entire bag of Drooble's Best Blowing Gum from a fifth year—the gum changes color every few seconds! I can't wait to go to Hogsmeade. I heard we start going as third years."

Marui reached into his pocket and pulled out a piece of gum as they walked up the stairs to the third floor. He blew a small red bubble that floated up above their heads then a larger blue one that floated down behind them.

"Gross," Niou muttered behind them, picking the bubble from his white hair.

"Sorry," Marui said, already blowing another even larger green bubble. He didn't sound sincere at all. In fact, it sounded like he was trying not to laugh, his voice thin and stretched as he smiled.

"No, you're not."

Marui sucked the bubble back into his mouth and grinned. "You caught me," he said then turned back around.

"Do you two not get along?" Yanagi asked.

"Never talked to him before in my life," Marui said. "It's just that he's a Slytherin. I don't like Slytherins."

"We're Slytherins," Sanada said.

"You guys are different," Jackal said.

"Yeah, what Jackal said," Marui said. "The rest of your house is full of jerks. They don't talk to anyone from the other houses unless it's to call them a you-know-what or to talk down to them. It was the same way when my parents went here."

"Genichirou's brother has friends in every house, and Fuji is friends with a lot of Hufflepuffs," Yukimura said. Marui looked at Yukimura expectedly, waiting for more names, but Yukimura could not come up with another example of a Slytherin that was friendly to people from other houses. Yukimura frowned. "I'm sure there are others."

"Gryffindors don't make the effort to talk to Slytherins either," Yanagi pointed out.

"Why would we want to if you guys are just going to treat us like dragon dung?" Marui asked. "Luckily we only have Defense Against the Dark Arts and Astronomy together or I think there'd be a bloodbath by the end of the year."

Yukimura continued to frown. His parents had both been in Ravenclaw, but Sanada's entire family was Slytherin. He grew up learning that Slytherin was a great house that produced strong witches and wizards. Why was there a feud between Gryffindor and Slytherin anyways? It didn't make sense to him.

"I've been meaning to ask," Yukimura said. "Can first years try out for your house Quidditch team?"

Marui shrugged. "Dunno. Haven't checked the notice board."

"Have you looked, Jackal?"

"I don't even know what Quidditch is," Jackal said.

"Are you a muggle-born?" Yanagi asked.

Yukimura and Sanada turned to stare at the Gryffindor. Jackal turned red at the sudden attention.

"Uh, yeah, I am," he said, nodding awkwardly. He looked nervously at Yukimura, Sanada, and Yanagi, who was also watching Yukimura and Sanada's reactions.

Yukimura smiled. "Like I said on the train, that doesn't matter." Sanada nodded in agreement.

"It doesn't matter," Yanagi said quietly, like something else entirely was on his mind.

Jackal looked a bit relieved, though he was not completely at ease. Yukimura could not blame especially after his poor first impression on the train and what Marui just told them about how Gryffindors view Slytherins. Marui changed the topic back to candy, which lightened the mood.

They took their seats in Defense Against the Dark Arts. They knew their professor had arrived when the door slammed shut and Marui's gum shot out of his mouth and into the garbage.

"No gum, Marui!" she scolded as she walked past at a frightening pace towards the front of the room. "The next time I have to remind you, I'm taking points."

They had been learning about werewolves. According to older students, she would teach a dark creature then a spell, a creature, a spell. Last class she said they had finished werewolves. If what the upperclassmen said was true, then they were learning a spell today. Yukimura sat anxiously on the edge of his seat, eager to learn something new.

"Hand in your homework on werewolves and get to your feet—we're learning a new spell today," Professor Reyna ordered. With a wave of her wand, everyone's scrolls floated up and piled neatly on her desk. "Everyone, out of the way, to the back of the room."

Yukimura smiled as they hurried to the back of the room.

Professor Reyna waved her wand again and the desks began to move, sliding into one another. As she rearranged the desks, she asked, "Who can tell me something about the Wand-Lighting Charm?"

Yanagi spoke without being called on (Professor Reyna did not call on people, she waited for someone with the confidence to speak): "To illuminate the end of a wand, the caster must call out the incantation Lumos. If correctly incanted, the end of the wand will then illuminate and cast light in the immediate vicinity of the caster. It can also be used to illuminate unseen entrances."

"Word for word out of the book, but there's nothing wrong with that. Five points to Slytherin."

The desks continued to slide around the room, rearranging and banging loudly into one another.

"Can anyone think of any uses for it?" Professor Reyna asked.

"To light the way," Marui said.

"Besides the glaringly obvious."

"To blind your opponent?" Fuji suggested.

"Good, you're thinking outside of the box! But unfortunately, this charm is not that powerful. The charm to summon sunlight would work better for blinding. Any other ideas?"

"Are some dark creatures sensitive to light?" a girl from Gryffindor said.

"Very good. We will not talk about any such creatures this year, but we will in the future."

The last desk slid into place. Professor Reyna had created a small maze out of their desks with dead ends and paths along the wall. Professor Reyna stood on the same side of the maze as them.

"I want everyone to repeat the incantation on three," she said. "Remember, it's Lumos. One, two—"

"Lumos," the class echoed.

"Again." The class repeated to incantation. Professor Reyna nodded, as close to pleased as she could be with the class. "Enunciation is key as the wand movement is relatively simple. You should have covered the movement already in Charms. It's a single loop, like so."

She demonstrated and had each of them come forward and show her their wand movement. She was surprisingly patient with those who did it incorrectly, helping them until they did it perfectly. Eventually, she had gone through everyone in class.

"I want everyone to line up behind where I am standing. If you are afraid of the dark, now is your time to overcome your fear." She waved her wand and the curtains closed and the lights on the chandelier disappeared. The room was pitch black. Sanada shifted anxiously besides Yukimura.

She lit her wand and began to move through the maze of desks. She quickly finished the maze without hitting a dead end. Yukimura and the other students realized why she had moved the desks—it was an obstacle course.

"The counter-charm to extinguish the light is Nox." The light at the end of her wand disappeared, leaving them in darkness."First student, go."

Yukimura did not know who was first in line until he heard Oshitari say, "Lumos," and a light appeared on the tip of his wand. It was much smaller than Professor Reyna's and not nearly as bright. Oshitari slowly made his way through the maze. Several times, his light went out, and he had to recast the spell. After nearly four minutes, he had made it through and cast the counter-charm.

One by one, students went through the maze. Some struggled to light their wand and very few made it through the maze without having to recast the charm at least once. Jackal had to recast as many times as Oshitari. Marui and Fuji had to recast twice. Yanagi and Niou made it through with just one recast. Sanada nearly made it through without having to recast, but stubbed his toe on a desk corner and lost focus, his light extinguishing. Yukimura managed to make it to the end of the maze without recasting, though his light had dimmed significantly.

It was harder than they thought to hold a charm and focus on another task at the same time. Yukimura assumed that was the point of the exercise.

When the last student had finished, they ran the maze again in the other direction and then put their desks back into place. As they left the room, Professor Reyna shouted at them, "Next class, I'll be adding hazards to your path. Practice before then or you'll end up in the Hospital Wing with a busted ankle."

In the corridor, Yukimura turned to Sanada and Yanagi and said, "You know, it would be easy to get across the grounds at night now."

"He's never going to give up," Sanada said.

"It's true, I won't. You're my friend and I want to play Quidditch with you."

Yanagi smiled and Yukimura knew he had won.

"Alright," Yanagi said. "Teach me to fly."

After everyone had gone to sleep and the common room was empty, the three left the common room. They stuck close to the walls and went slowly, peering around corners for prefects, or ghosts, or worse, Peeves the poltergeist, who they had yet to encounter but had heard horrible stories about.

They made it out of the dungeons without getting caught, but Yukimura knew the next part was the hard part. They had to get to the other side of the castle and out onto the grounds, and the only way there was through a major corridor.

"You have dragon footsteps," Yukimura whispered to Sanada. They were crouched at the top of the grand staircase that led out of the dungeon.

"I can't help it," Sanada replied, blushing.

"It's alright," Yanagi said. "My robes are making noise."

"Let's go," Yukimura said suddenly.

They dashed across the open room and down a small, narrow hallway without stopping. Yukimura led them through the castle. They did not see a single prefect, though a stray cat managed to make them jump in surprise. For a moment, Yukimura thought Sanada was startled enough to jinx the poor thing.

Out on the grounds, they fumbled through the dark for several minutes before Yanagi thought it was safe enough to light their wands. The castle was behind their backs and the silhouette of the Quidditch Pitch was in front of them.

They quickly made their way to the Pitch, circling it in search of the broom shed. They found the building after several minutes; it was small and old with several cracked, dirty windows and shingles missing from the roof.

Sanada and Yanagi extinguished their wands but Yukimura kept his lit.

Sanada tugged on the heavy iron lock on the door. "We can't get in."

"We could break a window," Yukimura said.

"We do not need to break anything," Yanagi said. "Sanada, could you move?" Yanagi stepped forward and pointed his wand at the lock. "Alohomora." The lock opened and fell to the ground with a heavy thump.

"What spell was that?" Sanada asked.

"The Unlocking Charm. I read about it in a book."

"You're really smart, aren't you?" Yukimura asked.

"I don't know how to respond to that."

Yukimura laughed and Sanada smiled.

They went inside. There were several barrels of old brooms with tattered ends. Newer brooms were hung on the wall. The small shed smelled like fresh cut grass and dirt.

Yukimura took a broom out of the barrel, grasping it tightly in his hand. It was different from his broom at home, cheaper, but it looked like it would fly. He took out two more brooms, one for each of them, and turned to his friends.

"I think I found the Quidditch balls," Sanada said, pulling a small chest out from a shelf. He opened it, revealing a large red ball, two round black balls strapped down, and a tiny golden ball kept under a lock. "This is it."

Yukimura led the way to the Pitch, carrying the brooms and his lit wand, and Sanada and Yanagi carried the chest several feet behind him. The Quidditch Pitch had hundreds of seats raised in the stands around a grassy oval field. At either end of the Pitch were three golden poles with hoops on the end standing at various heights.

They set down the chest in the center of the Pitch. Yukimura picked up the large red ball, surprised at how light it was.

"This is the Quaffle," Yukimura said. He tossed it to Yanagi, who rolled it in his hands. "Each team has three people called Chasers that handle the Quaffle. They toss it back and forth and try to get it into the hoops. A goal with a Quaffle is worth ten points."

"There's the Keeper," Sanada said.

"Right." Yukimura nodded. "The Keeper flies in front of the goalposts to stop Chasers from scoring."

Sanada picked up a small bat. "This is a Beater's bat. Beater's use it to hit Bludgers—those black balls. Beater's protect the Chasers while aiming to hit opponents."

"I don't think we should mess with the Bludgers since they're enchanted to move around," Yukimura said. Sanada nodded in agreement and put the bat back.

"What about the golden ball?" Yanagi asked.

Yukimura smiled. "That's the Golden Snitch. It's crazy fast. Seekers spend the entire game trying to catch it. The game doesn't end until it's caught. You get one-hundred and fifty points for it."

"So you don't necessarily win if you catch the Snitch, then," Yanagi said.

"You usually do," Yukimura answered, "but not always."

Yanagi nodded. He asked, "What do you want to play?"

Yukimura held his hands up and Yanagi tossed the Quaffle back to him. "I think I'll be a Chaser. What do you think sounds interesting, Yanagi?"

"Chaser sounds the simplest." Yukimura tossed the Quaffle back to Yanagi, who tossed it to Sanada.

Yukimura smiled. "I think the three of us should tryout as Chasers. That way, if we all made the team, we'd be playing together. We need to practice flying first, though."

Sanada nodded in agreement.

Within half an hour, Yanagi had taken the sky and was circling the Pitch with Yukimura and Sanada.

After two hours, they touched down to the ground, passing the Quaffle to get a feel for it as they returned to the broom shed. It was difficult to catch while holding a broom, but they quickly adapted.

"What if one of us doesn't make the team?" Yanagi asked.

"We'll make the team," Yukimura said confidently. When the Quaffle made it around to Yukimura again, he put it back into the chest.