Kurapika took a deep breath to calm himself from the sight of vivid red, but that proved counterproductive when his nose was filled with the scent of iron. Though he knew it was just the inconveniently colored train ahead of him, he couldn't help but feel the sticky warmth on his hands, see the carnage carved into his lids when he closed his eyes.
"Excuse me, are you okay?"
Kurapika startled at the voice, forgetting that he was in public, not alone in a forest of blood. Beside him was a boy, younger than himself, probably an eleven-year-old first year. He wasn't wearing Hogwarts robes yet, just a green jacket and shorts.
"I'm alright."
"Reallly? 'Cause you were just kinda staring at the train, and it's gonna leave soon!"
"I appreciate the warning," Kurapika said, keeping his voice level. "You should be boarding as well, yes?" He hoped his English was fine. He'd been learning for a while, but between his native language and nearby French, English wasn't very relevant to speak.
Until now.
But it was difficult to worry about how he sounded when his hand was being grabbed and suddenly he was being dragged to the door of the train.
"Yeah, so come on! Let's go!"
The boy smiled so widely and genuinely that Kurapika almost felt like smiling back.
Almost.
His hand was not released once they were on the train. The boy seemed to be looking into each carriage, but Kurapika was just thinking he was thankful to have a view that wasn't full of red. Instead, he mostly saw the green jacket of the boy, and the strange green tint to his black hair.
"Oh, there's room in this one!" the boy said, and Kurapika was pulled into a carriage and released.
There was already someone in this carriage. A younger boy, perhaps a man, possibly even a professor, with a small suitcase – a briefcase? – tucked next to him as he dozed against the window. His small, round glasses were askew, pushed to an angle by the glass. The green boy took a seat next to his sleeping form.
Kurapika looked away from him and sat just in time for the train to start moving.
"My name's Gon!" the boy across from him said, still smiling. "Gon Freecss! What's yours?"
Kurapika hesitated. He'd put together a fake surname for this. He had to be natural at saying it. "I am Kurapika Rukat."
"Nice to meet you! Who do you think the sleeping guy is?"
Kurapika looked back at the man and saw his eyes twitch from behind his glasses.
"Paladiknight. And he's not sleeping anymore."
The man lurched up at that. "Wha?! How'd you know that?!"
"Your eyelids were too tense. You were forcing them closed."
"I meant my name!"
Kurapika scoffed at the man's attitude, praying the man wouldn't turn out to be a professor. "Your surname is emblazoned on your luggage."
"Oh…" he acknowledged, but his face was still scrunched in annoyance.
"Hey Kurapika, you're not a first year like me, are you?" Gon asked.
"I'll be a third year, actually."
Paladiknight huffed. "No way! I'm a third year, and I've never even seen you!"
Gon and Kurapika's eyes widened. This dude was thirteen?!
Kurapika recovered his neutral affect. "I'm a transfer student. I spent two years at Beauxbatons." Technically, he had spent one year at Beauxbatons, but thanks to Izunavi's help, the records wouldn't reveal that.
"Why'd you transfer?" Gon asked.
Kurapika looked out the window, watching the greenery blur by. His reflected eyes almost seemed red, but he knew it was just in his head. He had grey contacts to prevent that.
"I needed a change of scenery." What was he supposed to say? 'I've actually been moving constantly all summer after witnessing the carnage of the massacre of my clan, and pretty much all of France now holds painful memories!'?
Gon opened his mouth, likely to ask more questions, but Kurapika was saved from interrogation by the squeaking of wheels outside their carriage.
A large man was pushing a cart full of treats down the train hall.
"You guys want anything from the trolley?" he asked the boys.
"Sorry sir, I don't think I have the money!" Gon said.
"Yeah, no way can I afford extra snacks right now. I barely had enough for all the books for this year," Paladiknight groaned.
Gon's stomach rumbled loudly enough to echo in the small car.
"Just a moment, sir."
Kurapika rustled around in his satchel for his coin pouch. He didn't have a lot left over besides what he'd set aside, different accounts to spend each year on school supplies plus savings for after graduation, from his parents' will, but Paladiknight looked awfully dejected at his lack of coinage, and Gon seemed quite hungry, so Kurapika knew he would feel guilty later if he didn't do something now.
He pulled out a small handful of sickles. "Three chocolate frogs, please."
The large man handed him the treats and continued down the train, and Kurapika passed Gon and Paladiknight each a box, receiving wide-eyed stares in return.
"I can't pay you back for this," Paladiknight reminded him.
"I'm aware."
Paladiknight glared suspiciously, but Kurapika met his gaze with a blank face until he relented to look at his treat.
A brown frog leapt across the carriage to land on the window, and Kurapika saw that indeed, Gon had already opened his box.
"Woah! That's so cool!" He ran after the frog, stepping up onto the seat next to Paladiknight to reach the frog desperately jumping away from him.
"Hey, watch it!" Paladiknight snapped, pulling his suitcase away from careless green boots.
"Sorry, Mister Paladiknight!" Gon laughed as he finally grabbed the frog.
"Geez, I'm not that much older than you! You can call me Leorio." He sent Kurapika a meaningful look. "Both of you."
Kurapika nodded.
"Fank you sho much, Kurapika!" Gon said through a mouthful of chocolate.
"Yeah, thanks," Leorio concurred, still holding the squirming chocolate in his fingers, likely waiting for it to stop moving before he took a bite. Kurapika didn't blame him.
"Hey, what's this?" Gon held up a pentagonal card from his box.
"Haven't you ever had a chocolate frog before?" Leorio asked.
"Nope! I grew up on a small island. My Aunt Mito said there weren't any other wizards there!"
Leorio sighed. "It's a chocolate frog card. They've all got different famous wizards on 'em. Some people collect them."
"Who's this guy, then?" Gon asked, holding the card out so that Leorio could see.
"Oh, that's Headmaster Netero. He's pretty common."
"Aw, man. Who'd you get?"
Leorio held up his card. "Some dude called 'Nasubi Hui Guo Rou'."
"That's a king," Kurapika said, remembering reading the name. "He rules over the Kakin Empire, far east of here. Legend says he used his significant magical strength to rise to power."
Leorio hummed, eyeing his card as though it would suddenly explain more to him.
Kurapika opened his own box, catching the frog as it leapt out. He pulled the card out from beneath it, but Leorio grabbed it before he had the chance to read the name.
"Ging Freecss? Who's that?"
Kurapika snatched the card back, reading enough to respond, "An auror."
At the same time, though, Gon said, "My dad!"
Kurapika felt silly for not recognizing the surname right away.
"Your dad's an auror?" Leorio asked, incredulous.
Not just an auror, Kurapika thought, but one famous enough to appear on a collectible card?
Just who was this boy?
"Yep! That's why I'm gonna become an auror, just like him!"
"Would you like the card, Gon?"
"Sure, thanks! You can have my Netero card!"
Kurapika smiled and accepted the card, deciding not to tell Gon he had absolutely no interest in collecting chocolate frog cards, and instead tucking it safely inside his satchel.
He'd learned how much small trinkets could matter when you lose someone, and you never knew what might happen.
"So Kurapika," Leorio started, "are you getting sorted with the first years? Y'know, since you're new to Hogwarts and all?"
Kurapika nodded. "I had assistance in my registration from a Hogwarts employee, and he assured me the process would be as smooth as possible, but I'll be crossing the lake with Gon and the other first years."
"Yay!" Gon cheered. "Leorio, what house were you sorted into? What was sorting like?"
Leorio opened his suitcase, pulling out black and yellow robes. They were likely starting to get close to the castle, so he would need to put them on soon.
"I'm a Hufflepuff. The hat kinda talks to you while it's figuring out where you should be. It took a little while for it to rule out Gryffindor for me."
Kurapika hummed. He didn't much care what house he'd end up in. The only thing that mattered now was avenging his clan. It was possible Slytherin could offer him connections to the darker side of magic that could help, but they were rumored to be, well, evil.
Still, he had to remember what Izunavi had said. Since they haven't been convicted of any crimes, the Phantom Troupe members could very well be attending Hogwarts.
It messed with something in Kurapika's head to know they weren't much older than him. How could monsters like the Spiders wear student robes and blend in like any other children at Hogwarts?
The carriage was filled with Gon's chatter for the rest of the ride, with occasional responses from Leorio or Kurapika himself, and then the train was finally groaning to a halt.
Gon immediately plastered himself against the window to see the castle.
"Look! There's the boats we'll take across, Kurapika!"
With a glance out the window, Kurapika could indeed see the lights of the boats being pulled ashore for them to board.
"We'd best get going, then."
The three of them joined the crowd pouring off of the train, leaving their luggage behind to be transported by house elves later.
They were about to separate, Leorio to board a carriage while Gon and Kurapika boarded a boat, when Kurapika froze.
The carriages of Hogwarts were always referred to as horseless. Why, then, were these dark, skeletal creatures bridled to them?
"What is this?" he asked, stepping closer to the nearest one. It had grey, cloudy eyes, like those of a blind man, but it didn't seem to have any trouble staring into him.
"What's…what?" Leorio asked. When Kurapika turned to face him, he and Gon both looked concerned.
"The— this horse thing! I had thought the carriages moved by themselves."
Leorio's expression tensed even more. "Yeah, they do. There's no horse thing."
"So you can see them too, huh?" a new voice said. Kurapika pivoted to see a younger boy with white hair. Though there was a dark look in the boy's eyes, Kurapika was just glad to be feeling slightly less insane.
"What are they?"
"Thestrals," the boy answered, and Kurapika vaguely remembered reading about them before. "You can only see them if you've watched someone die."
Kurapika thought back to the carnage of his village, of slightly twitching limbs attached to bodies without eyes, too far gone for him to do anything but cry.
He wondered if the boy had seen something similar, what someone so young could have experienced to see them as well.
"Hi! I'm Gon!" And just like that, the tension was shattered. "Are you a first year too?"
"Yeah. I'm Killua."
"Nice to meet you! Let's go get on the boats now so we can get sorted!"
Killua nodded and started down the path to the boats without looking back. Gon, on the other hand, looked towards Kurapika before starting off.
"I suppose I'll see you later," he said to Leorio before acquiescing and joining the younger boys.
"Yeah. Later," Leorio mumbled, still seemingly confused by the discussion of thestrals. Kurapika couldn't blame him. If there wasn't somewhere else to be, he'd have wanted to stay behind and figure out more.
Kurapika followed Killua and Gon onto a boat with a large man at the front, and once they were seated, it pushed off from the shore.
Soon enough, the large man was leading them across the cobblestone to the grand doors of Hogwarts.
In the sea of eleven-year-olds, Kurapika was miffed to realize he was not taller than many of them. At least he had a couple of inches of height on Gon and Killua. Leorio was the same age as him, though, and several inches taller.
The bars across the large doors moved with just a motion from the large man leading their group. When they opened, the kids were led to a small stairway. The man stood at the top of the stairway to address them.
"Hey, kids. I'm Professor Mackernasey. In a couple minutes, you'll go through those doors and get sorted into a house. Just listen to the professors and keep your mouth shut, and this'll be over soon."
Killua seemed less than satisfied with the speech, but Gon was still smiling.
When Professor Mackernasey started moving again, the first years and Kurapika followed him into what was obviously the Great Hall. It was lined with torches, and additional light was provided by the floating candles and stars in the projected night sky. It almost looked as though the ceiling didn't exist at all, but Kurapika had read that it was only enchanted.
Apparently, he needed to find a better book than Hogwarts: A History to get his information from, since it hadn't said anything about the thestrals.
The Great Hall was filled with rows of dark wooden tables, each one with plenty of students sitting on the benches, staring at the new students as they entered.
At the front of the hall was another long table, on the elevated stage area of the room, which the professors were seated at. In the center of it, in the most ornate golden chair, was a bearded old man, bald except for the grey ponytail on his head. Kurapika immediately recognized him as master wizard and headmaster Isaac Netero.
In front of the long professors table sat a small wooden stool, and next to the stool stood a short blonde girl. If Kurapika hadn't read up on the professors, he would have assumed she was a fellow student. Thanks to the directory he'd studied, he knew her to be Professor Krueger, their charms instructor.
The mass of first years came to a stop at the bottom of the few steps up to the stool.
"Hello, first years! Welcome to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry! I am Professor Krueger, and this—" she pulled a tattered old brown wizard's hat from behind her— "is the Sorting Hat!"
Kurapika was familiar with it from reading, but no one seemed able to settle on one answer of how it worked, so he wasn't sure what to expect when it was placed on his head.
"I'll be calling each of you up to the stage one at a time to be sorted, in alphabetical order! First up is Kortopi Bordeau!"
A small child who looked like they had a long mop for hair stepped up onstage, sat down, and had the hat placed on their head. Kurapika and those around him were clearly trying to figure out what the process was.
There was silence throughout the room, aside from hushed whispers at the tables around them.
After several moments, the hat's mouth opened, and it yelled out, "HUFFLEPUFF!"
Professor Krueger picked up the hat, and Kortopi Bordeau ran to join the Hufflepuff students at their table. Kurapika followed the boy with his eyes, trying to find Leorio in the mass of yellow and black.
He finally found him by the glint of candlelight off of his glasses, talking to a red-faced boy in a beanie. He seemed happy. Kurapika allowed himself a small smile.
The crowd of first years lessened as more were called up and sorted.
"Next is Gon Freecss!"
Killua gave Gon a light push as he stepped up to the stool. Kurapika kept his eyes on the hat again as it was placed on Gon's head.
It was only a few seconds later that the hat was yelling out, "GRYFFINDOR!"
Kurapika watched as Gon walked over to the sea of gold and red, immediately being swallowed into conversation with a boy with a ridiculous pompadour.
Several names later, Kurapika's stomach still dropped when Professor Krueger called, "Kurapika Rukat!"
This doesn't matter, he reminded himself. He would learn all he could and graduate, then he'd become an auror so he could hunt the Phantom Troupe. This would only determine the colors he wore along the way.
He sat on the stool and felt the warmth of the tattered hat land on his head.
Hmm, ooh, lots of potential here!
Ah. So the accounts reporting the hat as sentient were correct.
Such a researcher. Most definitely a Ravenclaw trait, but…
Ravenclaw would work for him. It really didn't make much of a difference, but being surrounded by students who would respect his diligence in studying might be nice.
So hard working! Not to mention patient, planning to wait until after graduation to start on your revenge. Revenge that stems from a strong sense of justice. And you're loyal! Not only to the memories of your people, but also to the friends you just met! All certainly traits that indicate you would fit in as a Hufflepuff!
Kurapika wouldn't object to being in the same house as Leorio, but Hufflepuffs did tend to be taken less seriously, from what he'd heard.
You want to be seen as a threat? That's not the only Slytherin trait I see in you! You're especially cunning and strategic! You also seem comfortable in lying for a good reason, such as that last name you've invented. Your goals are so important to you, you'd do anything to accomplish them! Now that's a Slytherin's ambition!
True, he would do anything to avenge his people against the Phantom Troupe.
Ah, yes, picking a fight with the infamous Phantom Troupe. No matter how much strategy goes into it, that's certainly a stubbornly brave move. You certainly have the courage and willfulness of a Gryffindor.
Kurapika wouldn't quite mind Gryffindor. It would put him with Gon after all, but he had heard that they tended to be a rather rambunctious group, and that sounded… annoying.
Still, I can't overlook your intelligence. Your wit. You have not only logical intellect, but also wisdom, though it may be born from dark circumstances. You are capable of creative, innovative solutions to your problems, and I hypothesize that this will come quite in handy. Between this and your studious personality, it's clear that the best place for you is…
"RAVENCLAW!"