Disclaimer: I own none of these characters.
Note: Dialogue between Arisa and Suzuka in Japanese will be italicised from this chapter onwards.
"You think that's it?" Suzuka asked, pointing slightly to their left.
"You mean how those people are walking into a pillar and vanishing?"
"Yeah, that."
"I mean, it's probably on the same level of insanity that Nanoha can come up with."
"Is Nanoha-chan now our reference point for how outlandish something is?"
"Yes," Arisa deadpanned. "Yes, she is. Come on."
They watched as a middle-aged orange-haired woman guided several kids through the pillar, but that was not their main focus. What had caught their eye was the absurd amount of luggage that was on the carts which everyone else seemed to be using, while Arisa and Suzuka only had one suitcase each. Suzuka leaned over to whisper to Arisa as the woman herself stepped through to the other side.
"Did we miss something or did they overpack?" she asked, somewhat nervously.
"I think they overpacked," Arisa whispered back. "I'm pretty sure we packed everything we needed already…"
Hesitantly, the two walked right up to the pillar and stopped to stare at it. It certainly looked completely solid.
"I guess we should follow?" Suzuka said uncertainly.
Before a reply could be given, Suzuka was shoved to the side and a new voice, thick with arrogance, chimed in from behind them.
"Tsk. Not only are there two mudbloods in the way of the platform, but one is a lowly foreigner? Disgusting."
Arisa turned to face the newcomer, her face contorting in anger. She didn't exactly know what the term "mudblood" entailed, but she understood enough from the tone of voice. The newcomer was a boy her age, slightly taller than her, with white-blonde hair. He sneered at her. Her hands clenched into fists and her entire arm tensed. Their eyes met; warm green on cold grey. A challenge, left unsaid, passed in their gazes. Slowly, deliberately, he turned in the direction of Suzuka and spat on the ground between them.
A loud crack sounded throughout the platform. The boy stumbled back, clutching his nose. The green eyes burned with fury. She pulled Suzuka to her feet and stormed through the fake pillar onto the hidden train platform.
"YOU BITCH!"
The taller form of the boy flew through the barrier and slammed into Arisa, knocking both blondes to the ground. They rolled around, trading blows, punching, clawing, kicking; whatever they could do, they did. All that was in the minds of both of them was to do as much harm to the other. The scuffle drew the attention of every single person on platform nine and three-quarters. Suzuka reached forward awkwardly, wanting to stop the fight but unable to do anything about it.
The struggling hurricane that was the two flailing students came to a stop, with the boy squeezing Arisa by the neck. She responded by smashing her forehead into the already injured nose. The grip on her throat loosened, and she rolled over to gain leverage and began punching him viciously. After three to his face and one to his chest, the boy let out a loud, feral roar and threw Arisa off of him. She landed a mere three feet away. Almost at the exact same time, they both leapt to their feet and lunged at each other. There was no grace in their movements, no thought. The only thing driving them both was rage. As hard as they could, they both threw everything they had into their right fists. Both blows landed, forcing both to stumble back.
When they made to go at each other once more, other students had closed the distance and grabbed them, holding them back. A trickle of blood escaped Arisa's mouth, but she paid it no heed. The boy shook off the people restraining him violently, dashing forward. He begins kicking Arisa's stomach violently, even as more bystanders surged forward to pull him away. Finally, a commanding voice cuts in. Arisa drops to the ground, coughing out blood.
"Enough, Draco. We're in the public eye," the man who spoke grabbed the boy by the collar and pulled him to the side.
"As for you…"
His eyes skimmed over Arisa, then Suzuka. He smirks and turns to walk further up the platform, the boy named Draco in tow. Arisa continued glaring at them even as they walked away, hardly aware that Suzuka was wiping blood from her face.
"Arisa-chan, you shouldn't have done that," Suzuka chided.
"He was asking for it," Arisa answered through gritted teeth.
The general sentiment shared by the bystanders aligned with Suzuka, however. The ginger-haired woman they had seen earlier had walked up to them and offered Arisa a handkerchief, which she took gratefully.
"That was… not a good idea," the woman said. "The Malfoys are one of the most prominent pureblood families out there. They're not going to let this slide."
"I don't know any of this 'pureblood' or 'mudblood' business," Arisa coughed. "But he had it coming. He insulted Suzuka."
The woman looked a bit surprised at Arisa's slight Japanese accent, not having expected it. It wasn't heavy enough to impede meaning or mispronounce words, but it was heavy enough to be noticed. The exchange was cut short as a train pulled into the station. Arisa thanked the woman for her concern and boarded the train with Suzuka.
Most of the train compartments had filled up at an unreasonably fast rate. Unable to find an empty one, they settled on a random occupied one. Poking her head in, Arisa spoke. One of the boys, black-haired and rather slim, flinched right as she opened her mouth, though she didn't really think anything of it.
"Excuse me, could my friend and I join you two?" she asked.
"Oh, it's you. Sure, come in," the other boy, red-haired, noted, gesturing to the empty seats across from him. "I saw your fight with Malfoy earlier. Glad someone taught him a lesson, but my mum was right. They're not just going to forget about this."
Arisa entered the compartment, followed by Suzuka.
"I'm Ron Weasley," the redhead said.
"Harry Potter," the other boy offered.
"This is Suzuka Tsukimura. She doesn't know any English," Arisa responded, gesturing at the purple-haired girl beside her. "And I'm Arisa Bannings; well, it's actually Alisa, but they can't pronounce that in Japan so I'm used to Arisa. Just use whichever one."
"Japan?" Harry asked.
"Why didn't you two go to the Japanese school then?" Ron added.
"We were spending the summer here in England. Suzuka and I stumbled into the Leaky Cauldron by accident. We didn't even know there was a school like this in Japan."
It was at this moment that Arisa noticed that Harry's glasses were held together in the middle by tape and nothing else. She pulled out her wand and held out her left hand at Harry.
"Pass me your glasses," she demanded.
He looked confused by complied nonetheless. She held the glasses up in front of her, pointing her wand at it.
"Reparo," she whispered.
The glasses frame visibly realigned itself in an instant. Arisa removed the tape and handed the newly-repaired glasses back to its owner.
"You learnt that on your own?" Ron said, disbelief evident in both his face and his voice.
"Ahhh, well I did spend the past week translating Suzuka's books to Japanese for her," Arisa said a bit sheepishly, scratching the back of her head.
The train suddenly lurched forward, causing all four of them to struggle to stay in their seats. As soon as they pulled away from the station, Arisa opened the window and began taking in the view. A soft breeze filled the train compartment.
"Suzuka, look!" she called. "We can see the Big Ben from here!"
Suzuka tried to squeeze in beside her to look out the window.
"Wait, Arisa-chan, I can't see… ouch, my foot!"
"Sorry, Suzuka."
They shifted awkwardly, with Arisa trying to give Suzuka room to get closer to the window. Their antics and proximity to each other didn't escape the notice of the other occupants of the compartment, though they elected not to say anything. Finally, they gave up as the train picked up speed and London disappeared into the distance.
"So… what House do you two want to get into?"
"House?"
"There's four of them, each one named after one of the four founders of the school," Ron explained. "Gryffindor, Slytherin, Ravenclaw, and Hufflepuff. Each one has different qualities… if that word can be applied to Slytherin, I wouldn't know."
He made an expression of distaste after the last phrase.
"My whole family have been Sorted into Gryffindor. I'm fine with anything as long as it's not Slytherin, though."
"What's so bad about Slytherin?" Arisa asked.
"Remember Malfoy? The one you fought? People like him get put into Slytherin. Pure-bloods, mostly."
"Oh. What is this pureblood thing, anyway?"
"It's what we call families who have always been magic users. Some of them consider themselves superior to ones who come from muggle families. The Malfoys are in that category."
"I see," Arisa said simply. "Well, as long as I'm with Suzuka and not in Slytherin, I don't really mind."
The conversation died abruptly right there, as both sides found that they had nothing much to say. The rest of the train ride passed in silence, with Suzuka falling asleep on Arisa's shoulder while she was staring out the window.
It was nightfall when the train finally came to a stop. Arisa shook Suzuka awake. Her shoulder was completely stiff after supporting Suzuka's head for several hours. Some older students came in and herded them off the train, grouping them with other (presumably) new students. They saw Malfoy among their group, but neither him nor Arisa were foolish enough to pick another fight so close to the school and in the presence of so many other people.
Impossible to miss was the massive castle which stood a decent distance away, separated from them by a lake. Their attention was then drawn to an impossibly-large man; far bigger than should have been possible.
"FIRST YEARS!" he boomed. "FIRST YEARS, OVER HERE. FOLLOW ME TO THE BOATS!"
Like a flock of sheep, everyone began following the giant of a man down to the edge of the lake, where a fleet of rowboats awaited. The trip across the lake took no more than ten minutes, after which they were led into the castle itself. The giant man, whom Arisa overheard Harry calling "Hagrid", left them at the door. They stampeded up several flights of stares, eventually stopping at the top where a rather stern-looking lady was waiting.
"Welcome to Hogwarts. I am Professor McGonagall," she said curtly. "In a moment, you will all be Sorted into your respective Houses. When your name is called, proceed up the middle and sit down on the stool. When the Sorting Hat determines your house, one of the prefects of that House will guide you to the proper table. Any questions?"
There was some slight murmuring among the crowd, but nobody raised their hands or stepped forward. Arisa took the chance to quickly translate the instructions to Suzuka.
"No questions? Very well, please arrange yourselves by surname."
The first-years scrambled to get into a line. Arisa placed Suzuka near the back of the line before taking her own place as second in the line. They then walked through a set of double-doors to a massive room. Four tables lay parallel to each other, with four different banners hanging above each table. Names began to be called out.
"Abbott, Hannah!"
The blonde girl in front of Arisa made her way up the middle, visibly nervous. She actually yelped when the hat which was placed on her head suddenly shouted.
"Hufflepuff!"
An older student stepped forward from the table beneath the yellow banner and took her to said table.
"Bannings, Alisa!"
Arisa took a deep breath, steeling herself. She exhaled, and began walking. The closer she got, the more intimidating the idle hat looked. When she neared, Professor McGonagall lifted the hat. She took a seat on the stool and closed her eyes as the soft leather of the hat was rested upon her head. She found that she could actually hear the hat thinking.
'Hmmm,' the hat mused. 'Top of your class back in Japanese muggle school, eh? Ravenclaw might be a good fit for you… Yes, I think that is the right one…'
"Ravenclaw!" the hat shouted, jerking uncomfortably on her head.
On and on, more students were divided among the four Houses. Draco Malfoy to Slytherin. Harry Potter to Gryffindor. She paid little heed to the other students, only interested in one result.
"Tsukimura, Suzuka!"
The hat was placed on the purple-haired girl. Moments later, the entire hall grew silent for Arisa and the hat shouted.
A/N:
This got finished a lot faster than anticipated. Anyways, I'll just put this out there right now: Nanoha and Fate won't be appearing for a while.
Also, I really hope I'm not moving things along too quickly. Pacing a story properly has never really been my strong suit. I'll admit I did kind of rush the part where they enter the Great Hall to be Sorted, but I didn't want to leave it to the next chapter.