Yo, Shishi! Where's your lovely little girlyfriend?" Satoshi called a couple days later. Shiro hesitated before walking over to him: he was surrounded by numerous guys Shiro barely even knew.
"She caught a pretty bad cold, poor thing. Madam Pomfrey won't let her leave the castle," Shiro answered, leaving footprints in the crunching snow as he ventured over to his brother.
"You tell her about Luna?" Satoshi inquired, motioning for Shiro to sit with him. Shiro brushed some snow off a bench and sat beside his brother, glancing at the others uncomfortably.
"Yeah… She took it very well. In fact, she told me how her first kiss was with Neville. Go figure."
Satoshi laughed for a moment, and then sighed dreamily. "I remember MY first kiss."
Shiro crossed his arms. "Yeah, right. And I remember opening my eyes for the first time."
"C'mon midget, even dudes like Sato don't forget their first kiss," one of Satoshi's cronies remarked. Shiro furrowed his eyebrows. Midget? That was a new one: he was rather tall for his age.
"It's true," Satoshi assured him. Shiro's shoulders fell. He agreed he was a midget? Oh, right. He was talking about his first kiss. "It was way back in my first year…"
"Of course it was," Shiro muttered under his breath. Satoshi either ignored or didn't hear him.
"It was with a nice blonde girl named Julia McElliot. I had just started getting into girls… Dad was a bit pissed about that- he started at the same age, and he didn't want me getting a girl pregnant before we married, like he did to Mum." Shiro flinched slightly. 'Yeah, tell EVERYONE our family's secrets,' he thought bitterly.
"I'd had exactly four girlfriends before her," Satoshi continued. "Ah, the term 'girlfriend' is so innocent when you're 11. Basically you just think she's cute; carry her books on occasion; say hi to her at least 10 times a day; when someone asks if you have a girlfriend, you tell them 'yes' and state her name, and for some reason, it makes you feel incredibly proud.
"So, anyway. Me and Julia had been 'together' for 2 weeks."
"That was a record time for a relationship to last in our group," one of Satoshi's friends pointed out.
Satoshi nodded, beaming with pride. "Julia and I were heading up to our dorms- she's a Gryffindor too, see. We walked in the common room, and when I turned to say 'good night,' she gave me one right on the lips and ran off giggling like a fool."
Shiro whistled. "So what did you do about it?"
"The natural thing to do: the very next morning, I ended us." Shiro felt his heart shatter. Satoshi had given him such good advice on how to ask out Konata… Was he saying that now that they kissed, he should dump her? Satoshi seemed to pick up on his discomfort. "But see, this doesn't relate to you at all. One, Konata was your SECOND kiss, not your first. Two, I was real young and even more stupid and naive than I am now- yep, that's possible. You and Konata are at a good dating age. Besides, you two were made for each other. Hell, a ghost even told you so!"
Shiro shuddered. Even though he knew he could trust the spirits of his deceased loved ones, the thought of the undead still sent shivers down his spine. "So, er… You said she was a blonde. You certainly have a thing for blondes, huh?"
Satoshi grinned. "You bet I do. My favorite hair color on a chick. I admit, I do find Blaze pretty damn attractive, but a girl that could beat me in a staring contest and arm wrestling isn't exactly the type I'd want to date. Catherin, on the other hand… Things are getting real serious between me and her." A few of his group members gave sharp claps and "woots;" someone even went "You bet they are!"
"How long have you two been together?" Shiro questioned.
Satoshi leaned backward to stare at the sky, grinning amusedly. "Well, you see, Catherin has thought I'm cute since her first year- good taste, that girl. Her twin sister, Caitlyn… Yeah, she was pretty chill too. Catherin REALLY digged me, though. Remember that one time, when I was a third year, Jeffrey asked me to come to one of his family reunions with 'im? Well, the Lumbach twins were there. I started flirting them up; they both giggled, but Catherin was going real red in the face. She ran off before I was done.
"Caitlyn's a Ravenclaw, but I don't think you've seen her because she's always surrounded by her friends. Catherin kind of hangs back with a couple of friends, but she can be a real partier when you get her up to it. At the Quidditch Cup? Damn, that girl was FEISTY. Loved it. So, we started chatting, and we agreed that we wanted each other too much. We didn't want to really start until we were older, so we could do some more… stuff." Shiro had a feeling the "stuff" Satoshi had in mind wasn't innocent in the least.
"Nevertheless, when we heard about the Yule Ball, we agreed we'd hang out then. I think she might be the first chick I actually LOVE." Shiro suddenly got a very strange feeling inside. Satoshi was just now finding someone he loved after trying different girls for 5 whole years, yet Shiro had found his love after liking less than 5 people… Was he wrong to say he was in love with Konata? Or was he just lucky, and found his love a lot quicker? Or, perhaps Shiro was just keener on finding someone he loved, not just a bunch of girls that he liked.
"On a slightly different topic… Caitlyn ended up going with Fred- you know, the Weasley twin- to the Yule Ball," Satoshi told Shiro abruptly.
Shiro tilted his head a bit. "Huh? I thought Fred was going with Angelina Johnson?"
Satoshi shook his head. "At the last minute, he handed Angelina to George and decided he much preferred Caitlyn." Satoshi motioned for Shiro to come closer, and whispered in his ear, "Don't tell anybody, but I saw Fred and Caitlyn snogging in the hall. They haven't admitted to dating though."
"Why are you telling me this exactly?" Shiro whispered back.
Satoshi pouted. "Don't you want to know all about your oniichan's social life?" Shiro wondered if he was blushing or not. He hadn't called Satoshi "oniichan," a Japanese term for "big brother," since he was little. Satoshi laughed and ruffled his hair."Now that I'm in a talking mood… Wanna hear how I met my BFF's Fred an' George?"
Shiro started to reply something along the lines of "Do I have a choice?" but ended up saying "Actually, sure." He'd known that he met Jeffrey when he moved into a house in their village with his father; however, Shiro didn't have the slightest clue how he'd come to be friends with the twins. He just… was.
"Ah, I remember it like it was 4 years ago… We were in our second year, and in Potions class…" Satoshi recalled dreamily.
Professor Snape stood at the front of the dungeon, scribbling ingredients onto the blackboard. He paused for a moment at the sound of snickering; when he glanced over his shoulder, however, the students were simply staring at him with bored expressions, so he returned to the board.
Satoshi sat with his elbow propped up on the desk, his chin resting atop his hand. He kept glancing at Jeffrey at the back of the room, wishing he was hanging out with him instead of stuck in this Hell-hole. His eyes drifted lazily to the red headed twins beside him. They were the ones who had been snickering. They had their hands clasped around something… Satoshi's eyes widened a bit: they were dung bombs.
He nudged the boy closest to him with his heel. "Where did you get those?" he whispered without moving his mouth or looking at him.
"Bought them," the red head replied in the same manner. Satoshi smirked very softly and tapped his hand against the twin's. The twin glanced down, and the faintest grin appeared on his face: Satoshi also held a dung bomb.
Except for the scratching of Snape's chalk, it was deathly silent in the classroom. Until… BOOM! Fred and George chucked their bombs underhand, right onto Snape's desk. He spun around, eyes blazing with abrupt rage, and yanked his robes to cover his nose. The students did the same, but the only thing in THEIR eyes was tears from the smell and laughing so hard.
"WHO THREW THAT!" Snape bellowed furiously. Nobody answered, but Satoshi and the twins laughed a bit harder.
"50 POINTS FROM GRYFFINDOR!" Snape shouted. The Gryffindors then reduced their hysterical laughter to small snickers. Once it died down altogether, leaving the room dangerously silent as they waited for the smell to waft away, Satoshi gave a miniscule nod at the twins and released his capsule. Everyone squeezed their noses tighter, almost suffocating with the combination of the gas and their rib-breaking mirth.
"Make that 100 points," Snape growled. The Gryffindors didn't care as much as they should have, though: the look on Snape's face was priceless. Satoshi slid his hand under the table, and felt two hands give him a low-five.
The twins and Satoshi left Potions class laughing their guts out. "Great minds think alike!" they exclaimed during a gasp for breath. They eventually calmed down and sat against a wall together.
"How come I'm not friends with you guys?" Satoshi asked.
The twins shrugged. "Good question," they said.
"I'm Fred," said one.
"I'm George," said the other.
Satoshi shook both their hands. "I'm Satoshi. 's a pleasure."
"Same," the twins told him.
Satoshi stood up straighter. "You know who you guys gotta meet? My pal Jeffrey. He's a Gryffindor too, you've probably seen him… Oi, there he is now!"
Jeffrey trotted over, waving Satoshi down. "Yo, that Potions class was SICK! You know who threw those dung bombs?"
Satoshi and the twins raised their hands; Jeffrey grinned broadly and let out a sharp laugh. "Epic! You guys are geniuses. Geniuses!"
"We've been told," the twins said, grinning proudly.
"So, Jeff, where were you?" Satoshi inquired. "You normally stalk me everywhere."
"Ah, you see, my cousins just started their first years here, so I've been showing them around." He grinned at Weasley boys. "They're twins, y'know. I could hook you guys up."
Fred and George smiled at each other in amusement, then looked back to Jeffrey. "Sure thing."
"They were only kidding, yet here Fred is, snogging one of the twins in the hallway." Satoshi clicked his tongue, smiling.
Shiro had been enjoying the story for the most part, until something dawned on him. The pleasure in his demeanor was replaced with annoyance. "I knew Snape didn't like you, and I SORT of got why, but… Geez, Satoshi! You could've gotten expelled for doing that to him!"
"Oh, he threatened me with expulsion when a couple of Slytherins pointed the blame my way." Satoshi shrugged. "I'm just too well liked to get banned from this place." A few of the guys behind him grinned and punched his arm, or gripped his shoulder, or ruffled his hair.
Shiro just sighed and got to his feet. "I'm gonna go visit Konata up in the hospital wing… See how she's doing…"
"Hey, before you go…" Satoshi called. Shiro glanced over his shoulder. "Is that a new scarf?"
Shiro instinctively glanced down at his neck. His old black and dark blue scarf had been replaced with a hand-sewn sky blue one. He couldn't help but smile. "Yeah, it was my Christmas present from Konata. She made it herself."
A chorus of "aw" rang out from Satoshi and his friends. "Cool, cool. The color really brings the bright flecks in your eyes," Satoshi remarked. Shiro dashed off before his brother or any of the other guys could see him blush.