"Shiro, I thought that House you belong to is for intelligent witches and wizards. Obviously you were sorted wrong, because you must be completely mental to be asking this," William Verdent growled. At the demand of Konata and request of Blaze, Shiro had retreated back to Konata's house. The moment the door was closed behind them, Shiro questioned if Konata and Blaze could come stay at his house for the rest of the summer. As you can see, it didn't start out well.
"Please, Mr. Verdent… It's in their best interest…" Shiro insisted, trying his best not to sound too desperate, irritated, or whiny.
"It's not like this is against our will or anything, Blaze and I do want to go through with this," Konata chimed in.
"I have a voice too you know," Blaze muttered under her breath. She cleared her throat and added, "She's right."
Mr. Verdent rubbed his temples, wishing for an Asprin. "If you must stick together, wouldn't you all be better off here? Isn't the Muggle world safe from all this wizard war madness?"
Shiro shook his head patiently, letting out a soft sigh. "Nowhere is 'safe,' Mr. Verdent… But my village has so many protective jinxes on it that it's probably one of the securest places to be. See, it's hidden as it is, but if you do find it, you can only enter if you've lived in the village for at least 5 years, though if you haven't it sort of goes through your mind and only permits your entrance if you have purely good intentions."
"I don't want any type of magic mumbo jumbo going through my daughter's mind!" Mr. Verdent snapped, his face growing increasingly red. Mrs. Verdent touched his arm, her expression completely gentle. It would have been the direct opposite of her husband's, if not for the mutual concern and slight fear shining in their eyes.
"Please, Will… Trust him. Konata does… We should too," she murmured. Mr. Verdent groaned, jamming his glasses farther up onto the rim of his nose.
"Fine, fine…" He sighed. "I guess you're right. But how in ruddy hell do you expect us to go without hearing from you kids for an entire bloody year?" A tense silence enveloped them as the trio quickly dove themselves into thought. Suddenly, Konata snapped her fingers and bolted out of the room. She returned less than a minute later, grasping what appeared to be a Galleon in her hand.
"This is my coin I got from the DA… Whenever the date for meetings was changed, it would warm up to alert us whenever Harry's master coin was changed," Konata explained. She turned to Shiro. "You've got a Muggle phone, right? So I can call my parents before we head off to Hogwarts. By the time we can't contact them by phone, you'll be old enough to use magic out of school… D'you think you'll be able to edit the Protean Charm so that your coin is the master coin just for mine?"
Shiro bit the inside of his cheek, tossing the idea around in his head. "Yeah… I'll bet I can." Konata nodded and turned back to her parents.
"Then, I'll leave this coin with you. I'll change Shiro's coin every night to let you guys know I'm okay. I can't give you a specific time that I'll change it, just that it'll be at night… So if you feel it warm up, you'll know I'm in good shape," she confirmed.
Another silence occurred, this one longer than the last. Finally, though, Mr. Verdent said, "I dunno. What do you think, Jillian?"
Mrs. Verdent smiled sadly. "It's a brilliant idea… I suppose we'll just have to go along with it." At these words, Konata sprung forward and hugged her parents, giving both of them a kiss on the cheek. Afterwards, the girls packed up all their belongings, said a few more good-byes to Mr. and Mrs. Verdent, then proceeded on their way to Shiro's home.
It took a while to get past all the protective jinxes, but at long last the trio made it into the village in which Shiro lived. They retrieved Sakura from a neighbor's house ("I didn't want her home alone," Shiro told the girls), and then entered the Ueda home. Nothing had changed since Blaze and Konata's last visit: same carpeting, same bookshelf arrangement, same sofa, same photos above the fireplace. It made Konata's heart throb to see that they had stopped taking new pictures since their parents' death.
"Wow, we haven't been here in years," Blaze commented conversationally, glancing gradually around the room. There was a noticeable drop in her expression when her eyes landed on the shelf over the fireplace. Konata, however, didn't seem to notice her friend's remark.
"You said you didn't want Sakura home alone…. Where are the Dopples? Doing work for the Order?" she inquired hesitantly. Shiro's demeanor darkened; Sakura looked abruptly eager to leave the room.
"We… don't know. They've gone missing," he replied in a very low whisper. Konata covered her mouth with her fingertips, immediately regretting that she said anything. Shiro sighed softly, offering a meek smile. "It's tragic, yes, but don't look like that… They're part of Order of the Phoenix- they expected this type of stuff to happen." It took quite a bit of effort for Konata to refrain from pointlessly saying "Yeah, but, still…"
The four teens were spared from an awkward silence when they heard the doorknob jiggle. All at once, they turned to see the front door be swung open; they instinctively whipped their wands out and held them at ready.
"Whoa, whoa, hold your fire! It's me!" Standing in the doorway with his hands up in mock surrender was Satoshi Ueda. The girls all let down their guard, though Shiro only slacked his arm a bit.
"Prove you're Satoshi," he demanded seriously.
Satoshi blinked, obviously not suspecting this not-so-warm welcome. "Satoshi Vincent Ueda. Patronus is a coyote. In love with Catherin Lumbach, cousin of my best friend Jeffrey Knumlach. My longest lasting relationship was with Blaze Alexanders, that spectacled chick right there. I sleep with a rainbow teddy bear."
At the last statement, all three girls exploded into giggles. Shiro himself was resisting the urge to break out laughing, but managed to muster the question, "What's that teddy bear's name?"
"Doodles," Satoshi declared proudly without hesitation. "Now let me and my woman in this house, boy!" Before anyone could ask what he meant by "my woman," he stepped inside to reveal that an average-height, blue eyed girl with bleach blonde hair and mid-length symmetrical bangs was standing behind him on the doorstep. In short: Catherin Lumbach.
"Oy, Catherin! It's great to see you!" Konata piped up- she and Catherin had had a comfortable friendship for years, even if they didn't hang out as often as they did other companions. Tilting her head ever so slightly, Catherin flashed a joyful smile that would make anyone understand why Satoshi loved her.
"Same! You too, Shiro. And hi there, Blaze!" It was all Blaze could do to nod in response- when two girls have dated the same guy, things can never be quite right between them again. Making sure not to look Blaze in the eye, Catherin followed Satoshi to the couch and sat beside him, snuggling against his side and moving forward a bit so he could put his arm around her shoulders. With a casual wave of his wand, Satoshi conjured up 3 armchairs for the trio and let Sakura sit on his right. Crossing her arms lightly, she raised an eyebrow.
"Ew, Satoshi, you've gone and grown your hair out…" She looked at Catherin skeptically. "Do you actually find that attractive?" A lovely laugh chimed out of Catherin's mouth. Grinning, she touched her finger against the small goatee growing from Satoshi's chin, then ran her hand over his now scraggly hair that would reach down to his shoulders if he didn't have it pulled back into a low ponytail.
"Nothing about this man can ever be unattractive," she persisted airily. Chuckling, Satoshi nuzzled his nose against his girlfriend's.
"Isn't she the best? She's the best."
"Oh, gag me with a spoon," Sakura grumbled with a roll to her eyes. Satoshi slid his arm out from behind Catherin, digging his fist playfully into the top of Sakura's head and wrapping the other arm lightly around her neck.
"I wouldn't be talking, little Miss Snog-Colin-Creevey," he teased. Sakura's cheeks flushed crimson, and she mumbled something about going to bed.
"Speaking of bedtime… We've got to make sleeping arrangements," Shiro pointed out. "There's the room Sakura used to share with Sana, Mum and Dad's old room, my and Satoshi's room, and the twins' old room. Perhaps all of us should share rooms, as uh, safety precautions…" Satoshi wolf whistled at the last suggestion.
"'Safety precautions?' Yeah right. You little devil, you just wanna share with Konata," he accused, waggling his finger. Sakura's blush was nothing compared to how red Shiro's face turned. Satoshi laughed, getting to his feet and stretching. "It's no big deal though, I mean, no matter where you put me up I was gonna see to it that I share a bed with Cit-Cat. I'll just shrink your bed so it's pocket-sized and make mine bigger…" Satoshi nodded at his plan, making a hand motion that signalized that a blushing Catherin should stand up. "Well, good night, everyone. See you in the morning." With that, he kissed Sakura on the cheek, Shiro on the head, took Catherin's hand, and disappeared upstairs.
It was shortly decided that Blaze would bunk in Sana's old bed, while Konata and Shiro shared the master bedroom. They were both timid at first about sleeping together, but by the time they'd changed into pajamas they decided there was no real harm in it. After calling her parents to wish them a good night, Konata climbed into the queen sized bed and slid under the covers, her hair being ruffled gently by the fan overhead. " 'Night, Shiro," she yawned.
"Good night my sweet." The couple kissed, laid down, found comfortable positions, and fell asleep instantaneously.