All characters and settings belong to their respective franchises.

Earlier…

Yuki was broken out of her musings by the sound of clapping, causing her to catch sight of the nurse, Poppy, marching down between the queue of beds. "Lights out, lights out," the old healer announced primly, "A quarter to nine. Time for shut-eye. That goes especially for you, Miss Tsukumo." The woman trailed off with a glare aimed at the blonde.

Yuki allowed a tiny grin to tug at the corner of her lips instead of responding, silent as she continued to recline comfortably against her cot. It being a Friday, the hours in between had been relatively eventful, with a number of students—and the occasional teacher—trickling in every now and then. She managed to draw some curious looks, while others seemed content to simply ignore her. From her vantage point, she decided to stave off boredom by watching out for what made Hogwarts different from her own Alma Mater of Tokyo Tech, other than the more European aesthetic.

The first and most obvious were the uniforms, with people garbed predominantly in robes and cloaks, which to her, was just too on-the-nose. The students were typically standard, while the adults were more varied, the colors equal parts bright and dark, simple and intricate. The simplest seemed to be of that Snape fellow, who made intermittent stops alongside a student or two, some looking like they had suffered an accident of sorts; if their disheveled robes or discolored skin was anything to go by.

Curiously, she managed to catch the man stealing more than a few discreet glances from the boy, Harry, who would be resting despite having made a full recovery in her book. Yet, contrary to Madam Pomfrey's wishes, every now and then, the child would get out of bed and wander the infirmary, either to sate his boyish curiosity or simply to stretch his legs, with the healer relenting after remembering that her usual brand of persuasion wouldn't work, much less be appropriate.

The other detail that stood out to her were the pointed hats in the same vein as Albus and Minerva, but they were very few and far between, indicating the apparel to be less than favorable or merely worn on occasion. She was betting it to be more of the former. Taking into account where she was, the young sorceress didn't waste the opportunity to witness firsthand how Pomfrey would administer treatment, naturally curious of how magic operated in comparison to sorcery. Pomfrey would employ simple healing spells with a swish of her wand and the utterance of a word, or hand the student a vial filled with what Yuki presumed was a potion to imbibe. Or even both depending on the severity. One student came staggering in with an extra arm growing out of the top of his head, and another missing both eyes, both of which were met with exasperation but dutiful action by the healer.

Strange, but not the weirdest maladies she had the pleasure of encountering. They were tame compared to one's skin being peeled off and hung to dry, or having one's head crammed into their own ribcage, but nobody really needed to know that. Some of the students would catch a glimpse of Harry and approach the lad, asking him the usual questions like what his name was or why he was there. It would be when he provided them with his name that Yuki noticed something...odd in their reactions, most notably from older students and staff.

There would be a slight shift in their expression, and some would flicker their eyes to his forehead just above the left lens of his glasses. Some would shake their heads and put on a smile, as if in confirmation of something, or perhaps in disconfirmation. There was one whose reaction was more explicit, with their eyes widening almost to saucers and backing away slowly before spinning on their heels and leaving.

There was another such student, a boy of about her age, who just so happened to take up the neighboring bed, separated only by a green cubicle curtain. His was more conventional - a broken arm - which he explained to the healer as being the result of dueling with another student. Despite not even asking, Poppy's more-than-exasperated demeanor implied the boy was a regular, and after handing him a vial, she ordered him to lie down while his bones mended and he would be free to go by the afternoon.

Yuki took this in with some measure of surprise, that bones could be mended in a few hours by simply drinking a potion. If such a concoction were to be introduced to conventional medicine, she could only imagine the nightmare pharmaceutical companies and the medical industry in general would have.

With the curtain next to hers drawn halfway, only the bottom half of his body could be seen, his black pantaloons ending in mismatched socks, but before he laid himself down, the first thing that had caught her eye was his striking mane of red hair that ended just above his shoulders, followed by a handsome face, his chocolate brown eyes having been glued to a textbook that he held with one hand while the other was in a sling. Leaving him to his own devices, it didn't seem to take long for the young man to gain notice of her.

"What are you in for?" She heard him ask, and she darted her gaze in his direction, but said nothing. "Sorry, uh, forget it."

Oh boy. "Got caught in an explosion," she decided to answer.

"...I see," the boy replied. "Was it a spell?"

"You could say that."

"Hm," the boy hummed curtly. "Name's Bill. Bill Weasley."

Yuki pursed her lips. "Tsukumo."

"...Pardon?"

"Yuki Tsukumo," the sorceress said more clearly, deciding to use the Western order.

"Oh, you're…Japanese?" Bill realized. "Huh."

"You?"

"Hm? Oh, I was dueling with someone," Bill revealed. "I got sent flying and bashed my left arm against a tree. The back of my head missed a rock by an inch when I fell the rest of the way down. Lucky duck. I would have spent a full night here, otherwise."

"Hm," Yuki hummed in understanding, even though she could only presume that this "dueling" involved magic.

"So, what did it?"

Yuki blinked, sending another glance at Bill. "Did what?"

"The explosion."

Keeping her composure, Yuki hummed to herself in thought, not willing to divulge much of the truth. Her formal lack of knowledge on magic notwithstanding, she provided instead, "I messed up the pronunciation."

From what she could pick up on the incantations used, they consisted entirely of Latin, though there could be variations based on one's native language. She figured that flubbing the words carried with it certain consequences based on the book she read. At least she hoped that was the case here; she wasn't too keen on gleaning info from fiction.

Bill seemed to take this explanation in stride with a sharp intake of breath. "Ah, that's always a nasty blunder." Only the really lucky ones would end up with minor drawbacks if they happened to get an incantation wrong. Much of the more serious incidents came more as a result of the mana output one would spend to power a spell. If a meager amount was used, the worst would be a release of pressure that wasn't any different from a gust of wind. Go with more, then that same pressure would stack. "So, what House are you in?"

House? Must be how they sort students. "Try to guess," Yuki teased with a challenging tone, and she could sense a grin from Bill's next words.

"Oh, so we're going with that," the redhead chuckled, then cleared his throat as he started with, "Mm…Hufflepuff."

Not like I could frisk the guy any other way. "No."

"Ravenclaw?" Bill followed, sensing an intelligence behind the girl that went beyond mere teasing. She definitely wasn't in Gryffindor, and if she wasn't a Ravenclaw, then the only other House she could be in would be…

"'Fraid not," she said with a sigh, and after a moment of waiting, realized that Bill had gone quiet. "Bill?"

"Uh, sorry!" The redhead finally responded, "So, you're with Slytherin! I never…I've never really seen you around before."

"You must have just missed me." Yuki perceptively sensed the shift in the boy's tone. "Is there a problem with me being in Slytherin?"

The blunt question took the boy aback, but Yuki could tell that it was more on not wanting to come off as rude. "N-No! Not…not really," Bill denied feebly, wishing to Merlin that he could just bury his head into the hard castle floor. "You're fi-it's fine! It's perfectly fine that you're with…Slytherin."

Bill fidgeted and lightly smacked his forehead with the spread of his book, the cracking of his voice alone giving him away like that time his mum caught his younger twin siblings jinxing their baby brother. "So long as you're-gah!" He cut himself off, not wishing to deepen the hole he was already knee-deep in. "Hey! You're…your English is…pre-pretty good!"

Yuki smiled despite this, more amused at the redhead's flailing. "Thanks. Yours too."

From there, Bill managed to regain some of his lost composure. "Sorry. I-I'm really sorry."

"Why do I feel like you're apologizing more for me than to me?" Yuki continued to tease, causing Bill to splutter once more.

This small back-and-forth would go on for another few minutes before Yuki found Harry staring at the both of them, the boy standing squarely between the feet of their beds, a small blanket draped over his shoulders. "Oh, hey Harry," Yuki greeted the boy, and motioned for him to come near as she spotted something held between his hands. "What's that you got there?"

The boy did after some mild hesitation, shuffling over and climbing onto the bed, with Yuki having scooted back to make some room. Crossing her legs, she cut Pomfrey a quick glance, the healer sending her a disapproving scowl before the woman returned her focus to a clipboard she was filling out with a quill.

Bill reached for the curtain to slide back the portion that obscured his view of the neighboring cot, grateful that his dominant right arm was spared. The first thing he caught sight of was the young boy's back facing him, not that it did anything to bar his view of Yuki, with her long, light blonde hair, her own ruby red oculars peering down at whatever Harry seemed to be presenting to her. The young Weasley found himself staring, almost hypnotized by such a vivid eye color.

"What's that Harry?" Yuki asked the boy, and the young lad shrugged.

"Dunno," Harry mumbled softly, eyes glued to the trinket. It was the glass bauble that he had been given to play with, which kept changing color in the way it glowed.

Yuki held her hand out, and the boy freely surrendered it to her. Rolling the ball between her fingers, the sorceress couldn't deny that she found the consecutive shifts in color mesmerizing. "Who gave this to you?"

Harry looked up to meet her gaze and answered, "The old man did."

"Did he?" Yuki hummed. Doesn't seem to be anything special, 'cept maybe for the color changing. She stole a brief glance from Harry. The kid probably didn't have much in the way of toys. Must be why he can't seem to let go of the thing. "When did he give it to you?"

Harry pursed his lips in thought. "After I woke up."

"Did he give you anything else?" Yuki asked slowly. "Did he tell you anything?"

Harry shook his head. "He just said that I can keep it if I wanted."

"Do you want to keep it then?"

Harry nodded. "It's pretty."

Yuki closed her eyes and beamed at him. "Yeah, it is."

Bill, who had offered his ear to the exchange, addressed Harry by asking, "I beg your pardon, but could the old man that you're referring to be Professor Dumbledore?"

"That's…yeah," Yuki answered for the boy with a nod after catching herself, wishing to maintain the facade of being a student. "He made a stop here this morning for some reason. I didn't catch much of it."

"Um," Bill paused in his next question, but Yuki seemed to pick up on it.

"Oh, Bill," Yuki began with a clearing of her throat, alternately gesturing a hand between both boys. "Harry, Bill."

Harry slowly turned his head to catch a glimpse of the redhead, who gave him a friendly smile, his brows waggling. "Nice to meet you, Harry," Bill introduced himself cheerfully.

No sooner than he did, Harry turned his head away and curled into himself, with Yuki having returned his bauble. Bill merely chuckled at this display.

Yuki snorted. "Easy there, Harry. Bill here doesn't look like he'll bite."

"Hey," Bill admonished her blithely, "you're not helping." His eyes then shined with some curiosity as he stared at Harry, who looked to be about his youngest brother's age, so he couldn't possibly be a student. Could he be a student's younger sibling? Was he in the infirmary for a fever? Not his place to ask, and he just knew that his mum would pull at his ear if he did.

"So, Bill, what year are you in?" Yuki asked, putting on an intonation of someone that belonged.

"Ah, I'm in my Seventh," Bill answered easily. "Been studying up for NEWTs. Which…includes Dueling practice, which should explain…well." The redhead abashedly shrugged his shoulders with a tight smile, and wincing when the motion caused his left shoulder to throb. "What about you?"

"I'm in my Fifth," Yuki answered just as easily. "I wasn't doing so hot trying my hand at some advanced spells. I thought I could brute force my way through one, which…is how I found myself here."

Bill nodded, not at all a stranger to backfiring spells. "You should have seen me in my Second Year. Tried doing a Confringo on the first try. Nearly blew my whistle. Ended up spending a full two days here. It wasn't fun."

Yuki kept playing along. "Not really my kind of spell," she mused.

"Hm? Oh, then…what? A stunner?"

Yuki tugged at the corner of her lips. "I don't really like to duel. Transfiguration is more my thing."

"Oh?"

"Yep," Yuki lied through a thin smile. "I'm more of an intellectual type. It can get boring, but it beats having to end up with stitches."

"Stitches?" Bill asked, his face scrunched in slight confusion.

Yuki quickly realized her fumble. "I once read that Muggles have to get stitches for more serious injuries."

Bill perked up in understanding. "Ah, right. Nasty stuff," he remarked with a hiss. "Guess they have to make due without magic somehow."

"Right," Yuki said drily.

"What's magic?" Harry chimed in, aiming the question at Yuki.

"Hm?" Yuki turned to the bespectacled boy and saw the inquisitiveness in his expression, her own face furrowing mildly. "What, Harry?"

"What's magic?" Harry repeated just as innocently.

Hearing this threw both teens off, with Bill looking like he had just been told a rumor of his dad having run off with a Veela woman he had met at a Romanian pub. Even his baby brother knew what magic was.

Yuki kept her features leveled. His relatives must have made it a point not to tell him anything. "Haven't you ever heard of magic, Harry?" The boy shook his head in the negative. "Remember what granny and Madam Pomfrey did this morning? When they gave us some food?" He nodded. "That was magic."

Harry blinked, tilting his head. "Really?"

"Really," Yuki nodded. "Can you show him, Bill?"

Pomfrey was quick to intervene before the redhead even had a second to respond, having stormed up to the three. "No magic in the infirmary! It's policy for students to abstain from wasting mana while in recovery."

Yuki groaned. "Come on. Not even a minor spell?"

Poppy sniffed. "Not even a flick. Your wand, if you please, Mister Weasley."

The healer held her hand out, her fingers motioning for him to surrender the item, with Bill not raising a protest, signaling that this had been requested of him before; perhaps more than a few times to Yuki's speculation. "Now you, Miss Tsukumo."

Yuki's eyes widened, and Poppy must have caught on to her own mistake, as the girl had clearly been lacking a wand upon her arrival, especially after a thorough search and some passing remarks from Minerva. "You already took it," the sorceress deadpanned.

This seemed to assuage the healer of her blunder. "Yes," Poppy started with a heavy clearing of her throat, "well. Please try to observe policy, both of you."

With that, the woman stalked off, just as the double doors were opened once more and another pair of students entered, this time…the two of them fused together.

Despite the lack of a wand, Bill decided to surprise Harry, having snuck a wink at the boy when Poppy's focus was trained on Yuki. He gestured for the lad to face him, and when he did, mouthed, "Accio."

To Harry's shock, the glass bauble he was holding vanished and reappeared in the older boy's raised hand. Next, assuming the role of a stage magician, swiftly enclosed his fingers around it and blew into the gap. He then showily spread his hand open to reveal said bauble to his captivated audience, gone, and back in Harry's grasp.

Harry beheld both the trinket and Bill with stars in his eyes, the same wonderment he possessed when Poppy made food appear seemingly out of thin air the first time. "That's magic," Bill whispered, grinning. "You can do it, too."

"Really?" Harry asked, his mouth hanging open. He glanced down at the bauble to confirm to himself if that had really occurred, then back up at Bill. "Can I?"

Bill smiled. "Well, of course. You are a wizard, aren't you?"

Harry blinked, his face falling into confusion. "A what?"

"A wizard," Bill repeated, like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Blimey, Harry, you don't even know what that is?"

The bespectacled boy shook his head.

Bill's good-natured smile faltered, baffled that the boy seemed sincere in his ignorance. He genuinely didn't know? "Haven't you…been told by your family yet?"

Upon the mention of this, Harry didn't outwardly react, falling into an unreadable silence as he stared blankly back at Bill, with the latter quietly assessing him.

The Gryffindor student cut Yuki a glance, hoping for some clarification, when all she could spare him with was a shrugging of her shoulders.

"Well, why don't I just show you how," Bill still offered kindly after the momentary perplexion, which managed to snap Harry from his stupor. "Hm. You're obviously too young for the more complicated spells, so some simple ones ought to do. Take what I did, for example. It's one of the easiest spells around, and doing it at the basic level only requires for you to see what you want to summon to your side. Hence, why it's called the Summoning Charm. Do you understand?"

Pressing his lips thin, Harry nodded eagerly, wishing to try it. Yuki just watched with a smile, deciding to let the scene play out in order to test something.

Or confirm it.

After instructing him on how the spell was done, Bill was confident that Harry could pull it off, if even a little, since his own youngest brother managed to do it by summoning one of his old hand-me-down toys. Even without a wand, the Summoning Charm was as basic as one could get. It used to be thought of as rather complicated before one was even admitted into Hogwarts, but from a survey that was conducted on the Quibbler over a decade prior, families revealed that even toddlers were able to do the most rudimentary execution on instinct, or from copying their elders. At first, many thought this to be a sign of natural talent, and many ended up flaunting it as such. When a following survey was conducted, it was revealed that the spell was just that easy in comparison to some of the more complex spells, and that it had little to do with one's own aptitude.

Biting into his lip, Harry bore into the handkerchief Bill provided deeply enough to burn a hole through it, the folded cloth deemed an easy target since anything heavier would prove dangerous if it were to somehow accidentally land on the young boy's head. Knitting his brows, Harry struggled to visualize the cloth coming to his held out hand, and with that, muttered softly, "Accio."

"..."

Harry repeated the spell, making sure that the handkerchief was clearly in his sights and nothing else.

"..."

The boy's scowl softened. "It's…not working."

Bill's own expression furrowed, bemused over the failure, but nonetheless shrugged. "'S alright, Harry. Is this your first time trying magic?"

Harry nodded silently, downcast as he stared at the handkerchief lying neatly on the bed, it not even having moved an inch, still as unruffled as the moment he received it. He reached out to grab the cloth, staring at it for a bit longer before handing it back to Bill, with the redhead gratefully taking it.

Bill paused midway after grabbing hold when he felt some resistance. "You can let go now, Harry."

Harry, having momentarily pulled his attention away to take his bauble from Yuki, whipped his head in Bill's direction, "Hm? Yeah, go-"

Harry's words were cut short when both he and Bill found themselves taken aback once they got a better look of the handkerchief between their hands, and finding that it had become unraveled, the other end still clinging to the boy's palm.

Yuki pensively observed this phenomena. Adhesion? Is that his Innate Technique?

Bill gave another tug, with Harry doing the same, the two going into a light tug-of-war of sorts before the cloth finally seemed to relent. "Huh, looks like you can do magic," Bill declared proudly after examining his handkerchief.

Harry brought his left hand closer to examine, the wonder in his eyes returning; had that really been…magic? He wanted to do that again. This time, he tested it on the loose cover of the bed, and found the fabric clinging to his hand in the same vein that the handkerchief did. He repeated this a few more times until he started feeling drowsy. Falling back, Yuki caught him in her arms.

He's only awakened to it, so of course he'd get tired. "You okay, Harry?"

Harry nodded after catching his breath, with Yuki helping him to sit upright. He then felt a rumbling in his stomach, with the blonde feeling the same. "Heh, looks like we could both use something to eat, Harry." Soon enough, Poppy attended to the trio; but not before reprimanding Bill over still using magic and coaxing Harry into performing, with the witch escorting the latter back to his own bed.

As they were eating, Bill, who was also given some food to help in his recovery, couldn't help but steal a few looks from Harry. Could it be him? His thoughts swam with what he knew of the Boy-Who-Lived. Other than the name, the most recent information to go around of the one who defeated the Dark Lord was that he wore glasses. Yet, the telltale sign that denoted him from fakes and children being passed off as him was, of course, the scar. There had been cases of those claiming to be the Boy-Who-Lived, either willingly or at the behest of an adult, usually their parents.

To his knowledge, this trend had been rather short lived, mostly because a few of those very same children perished at the hands of Death Eaters, so for him to find a boy who uncannily resembled the fabled hero was a bit concerning as it was curious. He had neglected to check since he didn't believe it to be important, even now. Still…

"Um, Yuki," Bill called to the blonde, who was busy with her sandwich, "do you know anything about Harry, and why he might be here?"

Yuki paused while chewing her food before replying, "Not really." This just makes it easier. "Maybe he's just sickly?"

"Hm," Bill chewed on the suggestion. "How long has he been here?"

"As far as I know, he was already here before I came along," Yuki shrugged. "He could be related to one of the teachers, or even a student. Not really sure. Why?"

Bill pressed down on his lips. "Do you think…he could be the Boy-Who-Lived?"

Yuki was quick to catch herself, careful in her response and the timing of it. Feigning confusion, she was keen to keep up her act. "Eh? Seriously?"

"I mean," Bill mulled over his next words, continuing in a low tone, "he kind of looks like him, don't you think?"

Yuki appeared to reflect on this, and replied, "Could he? Do we…even know what he does look like?"

"Well, from what I've heard fairly recently, he's started wearing glasses," Bill revealed to Yuki's inward surprise. "At least, according to what my parents heard."

So, for some reason, they've had their eyes on the kid, and on a community wide scale. That doesn't sound good. Could he be someone important? Or, perhaps of importance? This was starting to feel familiar. "Come on. There can't be a shortage of wizards sporting the latest eyewear, so what makes Harry any different?"

"That's precisely it," Bill was quick to point out. "His name. Everyone knows him as Harry Potter. The Boy-Who-Lived. The one who vanquished You-Know-Who."

What the fuck? Yuki decided to take a gamble. "Well, back home, we haven't been that much in touch with the news here in Britain, so pardon me for being a tad out of date."

Bill took this in and nodded in understanding, since this was a primarily British issue, albeit, Wizarding Britain, so other magical communities might not be on the pulse of things as they were.

"But, just for the sake of it, what if he was the Boy-Who-Lived? What then?"

Bill shrugged. "Well, that should be for Professor Dumbledore to decide."

"True," Yuki conceded, and inwardly found this information even more telling. Definitely feels like familiar territory.

Just something about the entire situation felt off to her, her paranoia continuing to act up since having met that Dumbledore character. Whoever he was, she had every reason to believe that he was more than just a humble Headmaster of a school. That was as far as she could go with for now. "Come on, Bill," she started before taking another bite of her sandwich, "I don't think it's the right time to be talking about stuff like that. Besides, I really don't think it can be that simple. I mean, come on. The famous Harry Potter? Here?"

It was an attempt to downplay the topic, and it seemed to do the trick with Bill going back to his steak and potatoes, with a side of milk. Yet, the Gryffindor student wasn't entirely dissuaded. "I mean, he could be," he posed with a shrug, running his knife through his meat. "Whatever the case, there is his scar."

"What did it look like again?" Yuki asked, her tone sounding genuine in wanting to be "reminded".

Bill seemed to chew on it, and not just the piece of steak in his mouth. "Lightning shaped, I think. On his forehead"

Uh huh. I'll be pretty damn surprised if the kid doesn't have some kind of prophecy about him. The whole fucking trifecta. "Well, hate to burst your bubble, Bill, but this Harry; the Harry that we just so happen to now know and love, is as unblemished as a newborn. He doesn't have a scar."

"You sure?" Bill asked, to which Yuki nodded.

"Yep. I got a good look at his forehead some time after we started striking conversation," Yuki stated, which might as well be true. She found no such scar on Harry's forehead, which could mean one of two things based on what she managed to gather from that fateful day. She hadn't disclosed it to anyone; much less to Minerva, of an oddity she picked up upon administering RCT on the boy, and not just his abnormally high reserves of Cursed Energy which, upon healing him, only skyrocketed afterwards.

The reason for that being, another presence, almost like a separate soul. It was faint, but there. It felt like a distinctly malevolent element that was oddly familiar based on her studies and dealings with Curses back home, and in no small part thanks to the Tsukumo Clan library that was rife with knowledge on everything Jujutsu.

Including Cursed Objects.

It could very well explain why there had been such an abundance of Cursed Spirits back in Privet Drive. Either borne, or drawn in by Harry's status of being a living Cursed Object. What was strange was that the curse afflicting him didn't seem particularly powerful or resilient, and might have been sustaining itself on his Cursed Energy, allowing for the gradual brewing of negativity in the ensuing years he had lived there. Whatever the case, the damage had been done, and all she could do now was figure out a way to keep Harry from being used, because that is exactly the impression she was getting from this place since putting two and two together, and Bill only seemed to reinforce this speculation.

Bill took this detail in with a shrug. "Huh. Oh well. I mean, I guess it really shouldn't matter. I personally don't feel as strongly as my folks do on the issue."

"Why is that?" Yuki asked, taking another bite of her sandwich.

Bill pursed his lips. "Well, they happen to be big supporters of Professor Dumbledore."

Knew it. The guy feels too much like a politician. No two ways about it. "So? They like Professor Dumbledore," Yuki shrugged. "I do, too."

"...Do you sing his praises everyday like he's God's gift to man?"

Yuki shot Bill a long, scanning look and saw his withered expression, the young man probably having yearned for just such an opportunity to bare this all out to someone who wouldn't judge him, or rat him out. "...I would be remiss to tell you that I do, so no," she intoned flatly.

"I mean, I love them, but yeah, it can get weird," Bill said with some underlying embarrassment. "Plus, I heavily suspect that they're part of some secret fan club. Don't tell anyone else that I told you that."

From how the redhead hissed out that last part, Yuki could only nod. "I'm almost scared to ask."

"Uh, yes," Bill said knowingly with a nod back. "They have effigies of him."

"...You want a bite of my sandwich?" Yuki pleasantly offered.