AU: Hogwarts, because I'm feeling extra spirited about The Cursed Child.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything, and that includes Naruto and Harry Potter (I wouldn't want to own Harry Potter anyway, JK Rowling should never sell it to anyone. Bless you, JK Rowling.)
Pairings: NejiTen, if you really milk it here.
There were only a handful of times when Tenten felt mortified beyond relief. The first was her first time at a swimming pool - she'd ran in naked, because it looked like Bath Time with Friends. The second was when she tripped over her own shoelaces in front of the entire school during an assembly, and dacked the Principal on her way down.
Accidentally setting her pet owl Ryu loose in the Hogwarts Express and it's subsequent derailing of the Trolley Lady's cart, however, was a different story.
She cringed, dumped her luggage onto the ground, and retrieved Ryu from the wreckage in front of her. Smoothing down his light-brown feathers, Tenten tucked him into his cage, which was lying askew on the floor.
Only then did she register the Trolley Lady's furious glare, and the stifled laughter emanating from the onlookers. Ickle Firsties, they muttered.
Ryu hooted.
"Watch where you're walking, loser!"
"Sorry!" Tenten kept her head down, mortified, while helping the Trolley Lady recover her wares. "I'm so sorry."
The lady smiled tightly, eyes softening slightly when she realised how many people were whispering about them in the compartments. "It's quite alright, dear," she walked off in a huff, and Tenten retrieved her trunk from the ground.
She honestly had no clue why they needed to haul their things onto the actual train; the staff could have easily magic-ed up a huge luggage compartment for them.
Frowning, Tenten hurried past the crowds of people poking fun at her, and almost cried in relief when she arrived at an empty one a few minutes later. Well, mostly empty.
Sitting inside were two children who appeared to be her age, their eyes were unnaturally light - almost white - and their dark, black hair cascaded down their backs. She perked up. They looked scary, sure, but they were all girls, right? Girls stuck together until the end, right?
Sliding open the compartment door gleefully, she waddled inside with her trunk and owl. "Hello! I'm Tenten!" She swung her trunk onto the sturdy shelf overhead, and set Ryu down beside it.
Tenten sat down next to the girl in boy's clothes, immediately trying to spark a conversation with her. "So, how are you?"
The other girl spoke up, so quietly that Tenten had to lean in to her to hear. "Why are you here?"
Okay, not what she was aiming for.
"There weren't any other seats," she replied earnestly, "and there's plenty of space in here. I don't see why I can't?" She ended with a rising pitch, because the girl she was siting next to turned to glare at her.
"You're intruding on our space." Her tone was strangely deep for an eleven year old girl; was she even eleven?
Tenten scowled, regardless. "It isn't your space. This is a public space, and the last thing I'll do is move aside for you self-entitled toshpots!"
She huffed, moving to the other end of the compartment - as far away from the creepy duo as possible - and pulled her Standard Book of Spells out of the trunk. Tenten didn't want to converse with two girls anymore; in fact, she would be better off having no friends than friends who trampled over other people.
The Hogwarts Express did not chug past Hogwarts itself until a few hours later. But when it did, Tenten couldn't help but stare out of the window, marvelling at the enormity of the castle and it's glittery reflection on the Lake's surface. It was beautiful.
The train conductor robotically issued a notice for 'first years to leave their baggage in the train for collection', which she sighed in relief at. Although Hogwarts looked splendid, the last thing she wanted to do was haul her trunk and owl up what were undoubtedly several flights of stairs. She threw her book back into the trunk, then left the compartment to change into her robes in the female bathroom, which was empty save for a few, taller girls who were applying make up in the mirror.
Locking the door of a cubicle behind her, she removed her Muggle clothes and changed into the smooth, cleanly-pressed ones her den-mother had prepared beforehand. The robes were all black, and had no House badge like the ones she'd seen on others around the train.
Tenten suddenly felt her stomach lurch. She'd only been able to find a few, minute details about the Sorting Ceremony in Hogwarts: A History over the summer holidays. Would she need to undergo an elaborate exam tonight? She didn't want to; she barely even knew anything about magic!
And, if she even passed, which house would she be sorted into? Hufflepuff, Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, or Slytherin? Slytherin, now there was a house she would avoid until her dying breath. Tenten didn't think she was a bad witch - the worst thing she'd ever done so far was run into the pool naked! She was eight years old at that time! Surely, they wouldn't judge her too harshly. Would they?
A sharp knocking at her cubicle brought her back to the present, and she pulled a billowing, black robe over herself. Unlocking the door, she became face to face with a girl with shocking, pink hair and vibrant, emerald eyes.
Tenten stepped out, smiling shyly. "Sorry!"
The other girl grinned, "It's alright."
She was also holding a pile of colourless robes in her arms, and Tenten noted the girl could very well be her new friend, if she was also a first year.
Having waited for the older girls to finish their makeup, Tenten strode towards the wide mirrors and released her hair from her twin buns. It fell down, stopping mid-back, and she brushed it down hurriedly. Mother had told her to make as good an impression as possible on Hogwarts, but seeing how she'd already gained a reputation for being infernally clumsy, there was little else she could do other than appear presentable - at the very least.
Tenten braided her hair back expertly, making sure not to leave a single strand out of place, then found herself in a predicament. She didn't want release the braid, or everything would loosen and she'd have to restart - there wasn't enough time left for that!
Luckily, at that moment, the bold girl walked out of the cubicle in her uniform - first year, yes! - and washed her hands in the sink beside hers. They smiled at each other shyly.
"Need help?"
Tenten thanked the heavens for this girl's existence. "Yep!" She popped her lips at the 'p', "Could you tie my hair at the end, please?"
She motioned to the blue hair ties sitting on the ledge, which the girl took and tied off her hair with. "So, what's your name?"
"Tenten," she replied chirpily, pleased with their progress, "yours?"
"Sakura," Sakura grinned, which Tenten returned, and the train suddenly lurched. They looked at each other, excitement coursing through their veins. Upon exiting the bathroom, Tenten and Sakura made their way down the same corridor to their compartments. "Aren't you the girl who's sitting with the Hyugas?"
"The who?" She responded dumbly.
"The Hyuga family? Neji and Hinata?" Seeing the lack of recognition in Tenten's eyes, Sakura began to look exasperated. "The boy and girl with white eyes?"
"Them?" Tenten gasped, Sakura nodded, her head bobbing up and down several times. "What's so important about the Hyuga family?"
The compartment door in front of them slammed open. "What's so important about the Hyuga family?" A blonde girl screeched at no one in particular. Sakura looked at her apologetically.
"This is Ino, a friend of mine. Ino, this is Tenten."
Ino threw a quick smile at the brunette before they were all suddenly ushered out of the train carriage. All three of them merrily linked arms with each other, though that ended in roughly two seconds flat when they all needed to walk in single-file.
A gargantuan man wearing a thick, red coat greeted them on the platform, shouting "First years!" over and over again until Tenten, Sakura and Ino eventually joined the end of the cue.
The Hyugas, as Tenten now knew them as, were at the very front and stood before the large man like marble statues. She decided to ignore those two girls for the rest of her schooling life, if that were even possible. If it wasn't, she would make sure that it would happen.
The large man, who introduced himself as Jiraiya, turned his back on them after making sure all the first years were present, and led them all to a separate walkway, where they were greeted by the shimmering, black lake she'd seen through the window earlier.
Jiraiya separated them into groups of three - Tenten was happy that she was with Ino and Sakura - and escorted them into little wooden boats, each with a lantern hanging from a decorative hook at the front.
He instructed them to hold on tight to the sides, and to keep their feet planted firmly inside the deck of the boats, "or else the giant squid'll eat you all". Tenten wasn't sure if he was bluffing or not, but nothing about his expression said otherwise. Giant squids didn't exist, did they?
Ino shrugged at the question. Sakura only grinned.
The boats seemed to be moving farther and farther away from Hogwarts, as they were all entering a dark tunnel that obscured the castle from their line of sight. Jiraiya made a fruitless effort to calm down the chatter arising because of this, and continued to lead the way in his own boat, no doubt enchanted to support his body weight.
It was during this brief period of darkness that Tenten started to learn more about her new friends. Sakura was a pureblood from the Haruno family, who were known throughout the wizarding world for their generosity and high levels of intelligence, rather than their semi-impoverished state. Tenten liked that Sakura didn't place more emphasis on money as her self-worth; in her opinion, there was more to life than coined commodities.
Ino was a half-blood, and was Sakura's childhood friend. According to her, they lived across the valley from each other, and regularly played in the surrounding flower fields, which were constantly in full bloom as her family ran a magical florist.
"What about you?" They asked, after a few more minutes inside the tunnel. Tenten could see a light peeking out from the end.
"Muggle-born," she replied, proudly, "I live in Mayweather's Home."
Their eyes widened marginally, which Tenten predicted. Florence Mayweather's Home was a busy orphanage in London Town; no doubt, they were trying to be polite by nodding their heads as though she were telling them the weather.
Tenten was glad that they didn't pursue the topic any further, not because it was sensitive - no, she'd made peace with that a long time ago, having been raised in an orphanage her entire life - but because the boats had finally reached the end of the tunnel.
Hogwarts looked even more magnificent up close, and Tenten found herself staring, wide-eyed, at it's majesty. If the stone castle could speak to them now, Tenten was positive that she was saying, "Welcome."
"Wo-ow," they sighed in unison.
"It's so big," another blonde boy in the adjacent boat was the last to marvel at Hogwarts' size, as they pulled into a harbour a few seconds later. A tall, blonde woman in dark green robes that billowed at her wide hips strode towards them, heeled shoes clacking against the ground.
She looked imposing, standing before them while they were all still sitting in their boats, dumbfounded, and Tenten had the impression that she was not someone to trifle with.
The woman waited for the last of them to clamour out of their boat before speaking, "Welcome, boys and girls, to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry." She let out what Tenten supposed was a rare smile, "You may refer to me as Professor Senju, and nothing else." The blonde from earlier huffed indignantly, earning him a stern glare. "The start of term banquet will begin shortly, however - I beseech you to remain patient until then." Turning around briskly, "Follow me."
They trailed after her, feet slamming down on what seemed like hundreds of flights of stairs until they reached a large corridor with fire-lit lamps lining it's walls. Tenten could hear the muted murmur of hundreds of people talking, behind a particularly large door beside them. Professor Senju crammed them all into a small room across from the large door, and crossed her arms over her large chest.
"Now, when we enter the Great Hall for dinner, you will all be sorted into one of the four houses: Gryffindor, Slytherin, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw. Each house has its own noble qualities, and each house has produced its own fair share of remarkable witches and wizards." The excitement in the small, cramped room was palpable. Tenten noted the way Professor Senju's eyes were scrutinisingly scanning each student, as though she was already Sorting them herself.
"Regardless of where you are placed, the Sorting is a very important ceremony because during your time here at Hogwarts, your house will be like your family. You will eat with your house, attend class with your house, sleep in the same dormitories, and spend your free time in your house common room. If you perform any triumphs, your house will be awarded points. However, if you breach the school rules, your house will have points deducted accordingly. The house with the highest number of points at the end of the school year will be awarded the House Cup - great honour, I hope every one of you will be a credit to your house." She ended on a high note, smiling down on them gently after the onslaught of information.
After a moment of silence, "The Ceremony will begin in a few minutes. I suggest you all neaten yourselves up before we walk in." Her eyes, glistening, briefly fixated themselves on a spiky-haired boy's disgruntled robes in distaste. She walked towards the door and pulled it open, leading them out into the corridor yet again. They separated themselves into groups of two before lining up behind her.
The doors suddenly opened, unassisted, and Tenten was attacked by the thunderous applause that followed them as they walked past long, brown tables with golden platters and cutlery lying on them.
She tilted her head up, staring at the ceiling in amazement. If one could call it a ceiling, that was: there was an inky, black sky at the top, dotted here and there with twinkling stars.
"It's enchanted to look like the sky outside," she heard Sakura whisper beside her. Ino giggled.
When they finally reached the front of the Hall, Tenten saw a long table stretched out across it's width. Jiraiya, and the people she assumed were the other staff members of Hogwarts, were sitting behind the table. They all smiled pleasantly at the fresh faces looking at them in awe. It was then that she noticed the sheer number of ghosts floating about in mid air when she looked over her shoulder. She didn't know if they were supposed to be there, but decided to ignore their presence for now; if no one was telling them to go away, then they were probably there for a reason.
A wizened old man reclining in the tallest, most ornate chair, tapped his drinking glass with a small, golden teaspoon. "Welcome, boys and girls, to another year at Hogwarts. I have a few announcements to make: as per our caretaker, Mr. Kabuto's, request, students are not to run in corridors, and neither are they to send any more toilet seats into the air, or any other offence to that effect." Tenten thought that this was an odd announcement to make, and saw the old man's eyes flicker towards the far side of the room.
"Furthermore, the Forbidden Forest is as out of bounds as always, though I must impress upon you the severe danger you will be subjected to should you venture into it." He smiled pleasantly. She was unsure of why the school would make this Forbidden Forest so accessible to students, if it was reputed to be that dangerous to them, but shrugged it off. It seemed unlikely that Tenten would ever find the energy to venture into the forest, especially not when there were many other places to explore inside of Hogwarts. "This all being said, I wish you all the best of luck this year."
He sat back down, revelling in the heart applause that followed his speech. A grubby, black hat started to sing almost at once, frightening some of the first year students out of their skins. None of them had even noticed the hat on the stool in front of them, save for the Hyuga girls up front, who seemed to be severely unimpressed by it. Even so, Tenten highly doubted that they were expecting it to burst into a song about Hogwarts.
Tenten danced along to it, which was honestly more akin to swaying side to side with Ino and Sakura flanking her sides than dancing. When the song ended, another applause erupted in the Great Hall. Professor Senju caught their attention again when she picked up the hat and held out a lengthy scroll in her other hand.
The Hall went eerily quiet. "The Sorting Ceremony will now commence." Oh no, Tenten thought. She still wasn't prepared! Was that hat going to ask her hard questions about magic? She'd only read the Charms textbook so far! This couldn't be happening! "When I call your name," she began, "you will sit upon this stool, and The Sorting Hat will sort you into your houses."
Tenten smiled weakly, still uncertain about what the hat would do, but had no time to continue nervously appraising her own anxiety.
"Tenten." The Professor called out the first name on her scroll, golden eyes scanning the crowd for her presence. Sakura elbowed her in the ribs, prompting Tenten to robotically walk up to the wooden stool. She sat down, and felt the Hat's worn fabric envelope her vision.
Curious, a small voice whispered into her ear as soon as the drone of voices in the Hall died out, how very curious.
What's curious? She asked, hesitantly. The Hat didn't seem to be gruelling her for magical theory, at the very least, so she felt somewhat relieved. Who are you?
The Hat, it replied bluntly. It was the most obvious answer, after all.
Tenten inwardly apologised.
It ignored her apology in favour of whispering to itself. Definitely promising. Brave, yes, and driven. No doubt an intelligent one, perhaps a Ravenclaw?
She felt her heartbeat spike at the word. There was a definite choice for her! She belonged to a house!
The Hat seemed to pick up on her excitement. No, no, I see something bigger for you. It'll have to be "GRYFFIDOR!"
The Hat was promptly removed from her head, and she felt all the tension from the morning until this moment ebb away. The applause was deafening; she leapt off the stool exuberantly before plonking herself down next to a tall girl with spiky brown hair.
The girl shook Tenten's hand happily, "I'm Temari, Gryffindor prefect. Congratulations on being the first of Gryffindor of the cohort!" They grinned at each other, even though Tenten had no idea what a prefect was or what it's implications were.
She watched the next few students being Sorted into their houses, sympathising with the terrified looks on their faces. There wasn't another Gryffindor until 'Uzumaki, Naruto', the boisterous blonde, sped up towards the Hat and over to the Gryffindor table within the span of a few seconds.
Ino and Sakura were the next two to be called out; Tenten didn't realise she was gripping the edges of the seat until a wooden splinter dug into one of her fingers. She watched Sakura run over to the Ravenclaw table, crestfallen, but perked up when Ino flamboyantly strutted over to sit down beside her. They grinned at each other.
Professor Senju called out Hyuga, Neji, and the entire Hall froze. Tenten felt infernally confused.
What was the big deal?
Seeing how Ino was also engrossed in watching the Hat silently sort Neji, she gently tapped her on the shoulder. "Why is she so hyped up?"
Ino rolled her eyes. "He is Hyuga Neji! Hyuga family extraordinaire! Prodigal son of the Minister for Magic? Is this ringing any bells?" Tenten shook her head but remained silent, even when he was sorted straight into Slytherin moments later (to the Slytherin table's delight, she suspected, and he was the first of the cohort to join them). He certainly seemed to fit the Slytherin caricature. A harrowing thought hit her. Prodigal SON? Neji was a BOY?
The shock most have registered on her features, though it was heavily mistaken for extreme surprise. The other first years surrounding her patted her back, ruefully shaking their heads and scorning Hyuga Neji's arrogance.
"Hyuga, Hinata."
"HUFFLEPUFF!" This snapped Tenten back into attention. How was it that the two Hyugas were sorted into such different houses? Weren't Hufflepuffs meant to be kind? Tenten hadn't seen any of that kindness on the train.
She watched the dark-haired girl timidly walk over to the Hufflepuff table, then strengthened her resolve to the ignore them - Neji more so than anyone.
Hope you've enjoyed this so far, please review!
-misspandalily