"I'm going to miss you so much sweetie," Lily cooed as she stroked her son's unruly hair. "I'm not going to see you for months. Oh I shouldn't let you go, we can run away, and stay with Bulma." Lily said quickly as Gohan squirmed to get out of his mother's arms.
"It's not like I'm shooting off into space, again," Gohan said. "I'll be right up the road, I'm sure with the right spell, you could actually see me from the house." Consoling his mother who didn't want her son to leave the home. "I'm coming home on the holidays anyway so it'll be a few months, tops before I'm back." This was enough to get her to loosen her grip on him so he could get onto the train.
"Bye sweetie, make lots of friends, have fun, fall in love." Lily cried out as she wiped a tear from her eye.
"Mom!" Gohan shouted in embarrassment, he groaned as many of the boarding students and waiting parents snickered at the child.
"If the purebloods start giving you crap, just don't do anything we'd need Shenron to fix."
Gohan chuckled and shook his head as he headed down the line of cars to find either an empty room or one without a lot of people in it. As he passed by a door he heard it open and could feel the air move, which meant someone was trying to grab him.
"Wotcher Gohan," Tonks shouted, hoping to startle the kid she met last week. When he didn't even react in the slightest, she frowned. "Come on." groaning that her plan failed at the first step.
"Hello Tonks," Gohan smiled at his neighbor. "How are you today?" asking politely.
"Come in, join me and some of my friends." she waved him into the compartment. "Everyone, this is Son Gohan. He's my new neighbor." introducing him to the group of students, two nearly identical redheaded teenage boys and a girl with curly brunette hair.
"I'm Fred," Fred greeted quickly, grabbing his hand.
George nodded. "And I'm George." This boy took his other hand and the two of them violently shook the limbs.
"Fun note, this is the one time we're going to do this part honestly. As mum always tells us we need to be fair when meeting new people." Fred rolled his eyes.
George chuckled. "Yeah, surprisingly didn't work out the way she intended. We just make a new game to see how long it takes before people can't tell us apart anymore."
"Hestia Jones," the girl extended a hand to Gohan. "Sixth year Hufflepuff."
"Pleasure to meet you." Gohan flashed a smile.
"You have an interesting accent. Where's it from if I may ask?" Hestia said as she hadn't heard someone speak like that before.
"China," Gohan answered. "I grew up there, born here though." He further specified.
"That's wicked, what's it like in China?" George asked.
"Not that special actually, I lived with my mom and dad alone in Mt. Paozu." Gohan shrugged. "Besides training I never did a whole lot," Avoiding the awkward topics of aliens, cyborgs and monsters, as while very exciting, was far from normal which meant outside those instances his life was fairly mundane.
"Ooh training, what kind?" Hestia inquired. "Spells or something?"
"Nothing like that, I didn't even know I was a wizard until I got my letter," Gohan rubbed his nose.
"So you're a muggleborn?"
"I don't think so, my mom's a witch, my dad's not magic," answering to the best of his ability as he wasn't entirely sure where his dad's psychic abilities fell on that spectrum.
"But how did you not know, I mean, you must have had accidental magic at times?" George scratched his head confused.
"They probably just thought it was something else." Gohan shrugged as he couldn't even tell the difference between his magic and his ki right now, which he simply attributed that detail to inexperience with one.
"So who are your parents?" Fred asked.
"Well my dad is Son Goku and my mom is Lily Evans," Gohan smiled. "My dad is currently not alive right now."
Tonks started to cough into her hand at hearing that specific phrasing. "That is certainly, one way to put it."
"I've come to terms with it," he lied, Gohan was still struggling with the notion that he was responsible for his father dying, simply due to him not being able to maintain control of himself during his fight with Cell.
"Lily Evans?! The Lily Evans," Hestia gasped.
"I'm going to assume you mean if we're related to that Halloween Night, then probably." Gohan nodded as he still didn't really see the importance of the situation.
"You had one of Hogwarts' best students as your mother, you must be incredibly gifted." Hestia continued.
"Maybe, I mean, I probably picked up some things watching her but we didn't have lessons about it."
"Besides the floating thing you do," Tonks rolled her eyes.
"That's, well," Gohan stammered unsure how to explain that him flying was just something anyone could do.
"So what did you train in then?" Fred asked, thankfully shifting the conversation away from its current topic.
"Oh, martial arts." Smiling at the answer. "My dad's a very skilled martial artist, he was runner up in the twenty-first, twenty-second and won the twenty-third world martial arts tournaments. So he and his friends trained me to protect myself and others."
"Wait," Hestia sputtered. "He's fought in the WMAT?"
"The what?" Fred and George turned to their muggleborn friend.
"The WMAT, the Tenkaichi BudÅkai, it's like the biggest fighting tournament in the world. It started thousands of years ago, like the Greek Olympics to determine who was the strongest being on the planet." Hestia gushed as she, like most of the muggle borns, were huge fans after the last winner defeated Cell, WMAT fever was all the rage.
"Yeah, it's a shame we were all too busy at the time, my dad would probably have liked to keep his title."
"He'd have to fight the world champ though so good luck." Hestia smirked as she would have liked to see that fight.
"He unfortunately died, during the Cell incident," Gohan sighed.
"I guess he would have lost then since Hercule Satan defeated Cell." Hestia commented without thought for how that might be taken.
For a brief moment Gohan's control over his power slipped and a howling wind buffeted the train, shrieks of surprise could be heard throughout the train before Gohan clamped down on his ki before he blew up the train. "Rrrright," Gohan dragged out his response for a moment. "We're probably getting close to the castle, so we should probably change into our robes right?" Gohan asked as he lifted his shirt off.
"Yeah, but we should HOLY SHIT!" Tonks shouted as she and the rest of the compartment were flashed Gohan's muscular body. "You have abs, like, a lot of them?!"
"Yeah, I said I trained," he shrugged as he pulled the robes on over his torso and stored the now folded shirt in his trunk before putting it back on the rack with ease. "I'm probably gonna have to keep up with that at the school, I'd hate to slack off just because I didn't have anyone to train with."
"So," Fred smiled as he sensed an opportunity, nudging his twin who quickly caught on to his duplicates thought process.
George quickly pulled off his own shirt and donned his robes. "So we," pointing to the guys in the compartment. "Just changed. Maybe you ladies should as well."
The twins wiggling their eyebrows in unison as they hoped the girls would take off their tops like they had just done.
"Ha ha," Tonks said as she opened the door and shoved the Weasley brothers out. "Nice try."
Stepping out of his own volition. "Really?" Gohan raised an eyebrow at the attempt.
"Oh you're too young to look at girls like that anyway," Fred rolled his eyes.
"Yeah Gohoney," George chuckled. "When you get older you'll understand."
"I've been around a three hundred year old pervert, I understand more than I probably should," Gohan realized that his chance at childhood innocence had likely been unceremoniously murdered sometime ago. "And I will be damned if I let Gohoney become a thing." He said as he declared his intent to stamp out that nickname.
After the girls had changed into their robes, the boys were let back into the compartment. The conversation had started again with what they had all been up to over the summer break when Tonks smirked and called out the door. "Hello cousin." Waving frantically ensuring she would attract his attention.
Draco cringed as he had hoped to bother the Potter child before getting to the school. He had wanted to not see his cousin at all. "Aww, little Dracie Wakie is ignoring his Tonksie." she pouted. Tonks was in the position to be friends with the Potters due to Sirius being Lord Black and having brought back Andromeda into the family after he became the head of the house a few years ago. So she was aware of the animosity between the Malfoy and Potter family. She was also aware of the issues between her Potions Professor Snape and the Marauders but she was explicitly told not to get involved in that. But her cousin who loved to throw around his Pureblood name was a fair target.
"Sh-shut up blood traitor." Malfoy spat as he tried to walk away before the older girl could embarrass him.
"What?" Tonks faked shock. "You don't want people to know you're related to the half-blood Hufflepuff. But I thought family was so important to the Malfoys."
Stomping his foot in anger as she was poking at his family's pride. "Yes, hello cousin, lovely meeting you and your blood traitor friends, I have to go now, terribly sorry, we'll talk later, maybe never." Quickly spitting out the barest minimum of a conversation before leaving followed by his two bookends Crabbe and Goyle.
"This year is going to be fun," Tonks smiled as she now had a dedicated target for her last year of school before she went on to join the aurors. She'd been inspired by Uncle James and Aunt Amelia who loved telling her stories of their jobs when they were over to see the Tonks' or Sirius.
After the train pulled up to Hogsmeade Station the older students disembarked to get in the carriages pulled by strange, black, winged horses. Gohan however had to gather with the other first years, he was able to see Harry and Susan from a while ago and waved when they saw him. He could hear that one girl he met in the bank talking with some other people on the other side of the group.
They were led to the boats by a tall bearded man and got in as groups of four. "Ron Weasley," a red haired boy introduced himself as he sat across from Gohan.
"Do you know-?" Gohan started to ask before he was cut off by the redhead.
"Which ones did you meet?" Ron sighed, as he figured that this other first year ran into one of his siblings.
"Fred and George." Gohan answered as he was now certain this was the twins' younger brother and this was not the first time this had happened apparently.
"Don't blame me for anything they do alright?" Ron asked, sounding like he was pleading with Gohan.
"I can do that, Son Gohan." Gohan extended his hand out for the red head to shake, he turned to the people sitting with him and Ron in the small dinghy.
The blonde and brunette girls rolled their eyes in contempt at the half-saiyan, leaving him to awkwardly draw back his hand from them and coughing to avoid a weird silence. "Not, uh, much for conversation, I know some people like that." hoping he could break the ice somehow.
"Don't worry none of that, some people just aren't worth talking too." Ron said disdainfully.
"Like a Weasley," Tracy Davis spat in annoyance at the young boy. This comment caused the two to begin bickering while Gohan and Daphne Greengrass watched on.
"Finally," Gohan said as he hopped off the boat to get away from the two arguing children. He saw the door at the top of the stairs and not wanting to possibly be dragged into the conversation, sprinted up them, forgoing discretion as he didn't regulate his speed. Gohan appeared at the top, the next moment, and now had to wait while the rest of the students caught up, who were all surprised to see one of the students already waiting for them since they hadn't seen anyone ahead of them.
To his shock, Ron was still arguing with the girl and quite a number of the students were looking annoyed at this. Hagrid quickly left the group of young children and went to get Professor McGonagall so the sorting could begin.
"Weasley."
"Davis."
The voices of Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy called out over the sounds of the two bickering children. "Can you stop." both of them said commandingly.
To Gohan's ever increasing surprise, both kids ceased their argument and stomped away from each other, seemingly back to unsaid sides of the group. To the muggle borns and a few half-bloods, like Gohan, this was unusual behavior. But before he or anyone else could think of the right way to ask the question that was on their minds Professor McGonagall collected the waiting children and led them into the hall.
After an out of tune limerick by an enchanted hat the sorting began. "Huh, so that's how they do it." Gohan hummed to himself as he watched students put on the hat, it would call a name and they would in turn go to a table. "I wonder if it's random?"
"Gohan Son," McGonagall called out to him as he was one of the last few people left waiting.
Confidently striding past the tables he sat on the stool and felt the hat placed on his head. "Aheh," the hat chuckled. "Ahahaha," it's laughter rising in volume. "BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" suddenly the only sound one could hear was the hat's nearly psychotic laughter filling the hall as it seemed to struggle to breathe from laughing even though it didn't have lungs or need oxygen.
"Should we be worried about that?" Aurora Septima asked Bathsheda Babbling who was sitting next to her waiting for the sorting to be over.
It wasn't until nearly five minutes later that it was able to control itself enough to speak to Gohan. "Oh, my boy, I want to put you into Slytherin just to see what happens. They wouldn't survive the week." the hat continued to giggle. "So that's not an option, too hard to explain what happened or hide that many bodies."
"You are a smart one, that's for sure, but, you don't value knowledge, and I can see why, you've not ready anything in a book before that's helped you when it really counted." The hat reasoned as it read through his memories. "Yeah, definitely not a Ravenclaw then."
"You are deathly loyal, as you'll kill to protect those around you, and you are a good finder, so maybe the Badgers is the house for you." Pondering.
"But no, bravery, courage, the willingness to not run from danger." Seeing each and every time that Gohan stepped up when it mattered. "I am proud to name you. GRYFFINDOR!"
The crowd cheered for his placement. "And, don't be afraid to show off, you deserve some recognition you know and thank you, I hadn't heard about this Cell fellow, but it's painfully clear to me how much of a threat he was. So, if you could, try and keep the castle safe, I do very much care for the children."
"Sure thing hat." Gohan bowed respectfully before heading to his table, where the last of the students were parsed out to the various houses.
"Don't get too many foreign students," Flitwick commented as there were very few non-English witches and wizards in the school. "But it's nice to see that number grow."
"Oh didn't I tell you," Minerva smirked as they dined on their food. "That is Lily's son."
A few gasps were let out around the table. "Lily, Lily Evans?" Severus quickly interjected.
"Mhm, she's come back to England, a widow, unfortunately." Minerva responded as she explained her meeting with Lily in Gringotts.
"Oh, I do remember that charming young man she married. That's such a shame, he never had anything but nice things to say about other people." Pomona sighed as while no one really got to truly know Goku, he left an impression on the people he met.
"I hope he's taken after his mother in regards to his spell work then." Flitwick commented as the teachers chatted about their expectations for the year.
After the feast and an ominous announcement from the headmaster, the students were led to their separate dormitories. "So Gohan," Harry said as the boys climbed the stairs up to the seventh floor. "How are you liking it in the magical world?"
"It's alright, it's the first day though so," shrugging. "We'll have to see how things go."
"Just keep an eye out, some of the students here can be pretty bad." Harry warned as he knew that many of the Slytherin students had Death Eater parents, but he was told multiple times by his father, Uncle Sirius and Uncle Remus that there can be dangers in Gryffindor as well. Peter Pettigrew had yet to be found after that Halloween night when the Potter home was attacked.
The staff was having their start of the year meeting. "So first impressions?" Dumbledore said with a twinkle in his eye, opening the floor to anyone.
"There is another Potter brat in the school, the only saving grace is that Black never felt to punish the world by breeding," Snape said flatly.
"Ah yes," Albus mused as he was stroking his beard. "Well Severus, I cannot make you like James or his friends, but so long as you do not let it affect how you teach his son, then there is nothing to be done about that."
"Let's skip all the boring stuff and the erumpent in the room." Flitwick uncharacteristically bounced in his seat. "Lily Evans has returned and has a son."
"Yes, that is quite a change of events," Dumbledore nodded. "I hadn't seen hide nor hair of that family since they left Halloween night, I have been unable to even locate them afterwards to get their accounting of the events of that night."
"Maybe their son knows?" Pomona suggested.
"If not then we'd just need to talk to Lily herself." Minerva added on as a possible option to find out what had happened that night.