白虎 ロキ

Chapter Six:

挨拶

Greetings

"We have one more new professor to introduce—Professor Gaara, who will be teaching a second language. Since this is the first year that a second-language class has been taught at Hogwarts, all students will be entering into the first level…"

The second smallest wizard at the High Table stood up—and though it was hard to see from so far away, Harry could tell that he had shocking red hair and pale skin, and was noticeably shorter than the rest of the staff—except, of course, for Professor Flitwick. And unlike the rest of the professors, Professor Gaara didn't wear a cloak, just a simple red button down and slacks, with what looked like a small flask on his hip.

Harry heard some of the older students murmuring on about his appearance—honestly, he was just relieved they were no longer focused on him. But it was only when he heard Hermione talking to herself about the "mark on his forehead" did he notice the strange blood-red symbol on his head…did it mean something? Did it have to do with the language he was teaching? Maybe he'll ask later. Or would that be rude? Harry probably wouldn't be the first to ask him about it—in fact, Harry was willing to bet he'd been asked dozens if not hundreds of times since he's arrived here. He's probably about as tired of it as Harry is of people asking about his scar.

…but still. You don't go about putting that on your own face without expecting to be questioned about it. Unless where he's from it's not that unusual…

Maybe he'd just wait until someone else asked…

The professor bowed before sitting down again, which resulted in another round of excited and curious whispers, with students (Hermione) trying to recall which cultures practiced bowing. Hermione seemed awfully determined that he must be from an Asian country.

"He looks awfully young though, doesn't he?" Fred—George?—muttered.

"Well, you know they say people from Asian countries tend to age much better," someone interjected, "I'm sure he's much older than he looks."

Harry tried to squint to see for himself, but quickly gave up. Glasses suck.

Gaara was given an empty classroom and told to decorate as he saw fit. In the end he simply transfigured the desks to resemble those of an average shinobi academy classroom.* He didn't bother decorating the walls and instead left them plain. There was a chalkboard pushed off to the side which Gaara wheeled to the front of the classroom. On the desk in the front of the room he piled some books and parchment. With that he considered himself done.

Gaara was never much of an interior decorator.

When Harry and his new friends, Ron and Hermione, first stepped into Professor Gaara's classroom they didn't know what to expect.

The professor was already there when they arrived, facing the chalkboard with his back to them, so they quickly scurried into their seats. Within the next few minutes the rest of the class arrived, and the moment the last student stepped into the room the door seemed to slip shut of its own accord, and the professor began to speak.

"Hajimemashite, watashi wa Sabaku no Gaara desu. Anata no sensē desu. Nihongo o oshieru tsumorimasu yo. Dōzo yoroshiku onegaishimasu." As he spoke, he wrapped a small amount of sand around a stick of chalk and used it to write the following on the board:**

はじめまして、私は砂漠の我愛羅です。

あなたの先生です。

日本語を教えるつもりますよ。

どうぞよろしくお願いします。

The majority of the class stared in total bemusement, completely lost. Hermione, meanwhile, was bouncing in her seat—Japanese! He was teaching them Japanese!

Once he finished talking (and writing), he moved to the side of the board and turned to face them finally, and—

Whoa.

Harry knew the twins had said he'd looked young, but…this was insane. Harry could've mistaken him for another student! He looked to Ron and Hermione to find them just as shocked as he was. The professor seemed to take note of all their expressions however, because what he next said was—

"Before you say anything, I am well aware that I am considered young by your culture's standards."

Our "culture's standards"? What's that supposed to mean?

"However, in my culture I am considered to be a full-fledged adult."

Harry meanwhile noted that while he looked young, his voice was a different story. The others were probably right, he must be older than he looks…

"Just how old are you?" It was Malfoy who interrupted.

Professor Gaara stared him down until he began to fidget in his seat, and finally looked away. Gaara continued staring as he answered, "If you must know, I am nineteen years old."

"Nineteen?!" Hermione shouted, before quickly covering her mouth and flushing in embarrassment. "S-sorry, Professor!"

"It is fine. Like I said, I am considered rather young by your culture's standards. However, I assure you that I am more than qualified to teach you."

"Still," Ron whispered, "Nineteen? I thought he'd just looked young, I didn't expect him to actually be…" Ron squeaked when he noticed the professor was staring right at him. Gaara maintained the awkward eye-contact for what felt like a minute straight, before finally looking away.

"For those of you who haven't figured it out already, I am going to be teaching you Japanese."

He erased what was on the board with the help of some more sand and wrote three new characters, then four more under it.

日本語

にほんご

Finally, under that, he wrote in romaji: NI - HO - N - GO.

Gaara then tapped the board while looking at the class. "Nihongo—it means Japanese. To start off, we will be going over vowels, and then basic greetings and the like. Because you do not yet know how to read hiragana or katakana, I will be writing them in romaji. Afterward, I will teach you five basic hiragana, and your homework will be to study what I've taught you during this class period. Be sure to take notes."

Erasing what he'd previously written, Gaara began writing more letters as Harry and many others scurried to get out their parchment and quills—Hermione, of course, was already ready and had already taken some notes.

"Nihongo, unlike English, only has five vowels," Gaara began.

A - I - U - E - O

Hermione's hand shot up in to the air. "Yes…?"

"Hermione Granger, sir. What did you mean when you said English doesn't have five vowels?"

Gaara frowned thoughtfully. "While English does only have five letters to represent vowels, in actuality it has closer to twenty vowels."

"Twenty?!" Ron quickly covered his mouth. "…sorry."

Gaara ignored him. "For example: ee as in bee, ih as in bin, ey as in hey, eh as in head, ahh as in bad, ir as in bird, ah as in bond, uh as in fun, oh as in bone, oo as in food, uu as in foot, au as in fawn, ai as in hide, ow as in bowed, oi as in boy…that's fifteen examples of different vowels that you will find in the English language. It's for this reason that many people find it difficult to learn English, because there is often no way to predict how a vowel is pronounced by how it is written."

He paused to look over at the class only to find them staring at him open-mouthed and gaping. "But like I said, nihongo is easier in that it only has five vowels. We will go over those now."

"Repeat after me. Ah. Ee. Oo. Eh. Oh."

The class did their best to mimic him.

"Again. Ah. Ee. Oo. Eh. Oh."

They tried again and did a little better this time. Hermione, of course, performed perfectly. As she whispered advice to Ron, Gaara moved on to the next subject matter. "Now we will go over some greetings. We will be starting with good morning, good afternoon, good evening, and good night."

O - HA - YO - O - GO - ZA - I - MA - SU

"The full, polite way to say good morning is ohayōgozaimasu, though people will often shorten it to simply ohayō. Repeat after me: ohayōgozaimasu."

Harry did his best mimic him, and felt a little better when the professor nodded approvingly at him. "Notice that I wrote the second o separate; this is because nihongo is pronounced in beats, unlike English which is more of a stress-based language. Each character is to be pronounced for approximately one beat, however since you are only able to read romaji I will be illustrating this by spacing the letters out appropriately. Now repeat after me, once more: ohayōgozaimasu."

This time the class got it nearly perfect.

"Good. Now, you may also notice that the final u isn't very vocalized…it is common with Japanese speaking people to pronounce su in this way—we will go over this more later. But for now, let's move onto the next greeting: konnichiwa."

KO - N - NI - CHI - WA

"Notice how I have written it—notice how the n is by itself. In nihongo, there are many instances where n is pronounced as a syllable by itself. Listen to me say it and then repeat after me: konnichiwa."

Harry did his best to pronounce it right. It seemed to him almost like the n was being drawn out—so he tried to mimic that. His chest then swelled with pride when Professor Gaara seemed to focus on him when he nodded approvingly at the class. "Good. Konnichiwa means good afternoon, however it is often used interchangeably with hello. Next is good evening: konbanwa."

KO - N - BA - N - WA

"Notice again how it is written, with the two n's being separate. Now repeat after me: konbanwa."

Harry listened carefully to how Professor Gaara pronounced it, realizing the n sounded similar to hmm.

It can't be that much different than saying "mmm" when you think something tastes good…

Nnn…nnn…konnnbannnwa…konnbannwa…konbanwa. Harry said it aloud. The professor nodded approvingly again. Japanese isn't that hard, Harry thought.

"Good. The next greeting is oyasuminasai—or, good night."

O - YA - SU - MI - NA - SA - I

"Repeat after me: oyasuminasai."

This time Harry was able to repeat it easily, and he noticed that many of his other classmates had similar experiences—even Ron seemed pleased with himself.

"Excellent. Now, like ohayōgozaimasu, oyasuminasai can often be shortened to just oyasumi. Repeat after me: oyasumi."

The class recited as told, and the professor again nodded approvingly.

Ron groaned quietly, "How many more…?"

Again, Professor Gaara seemed to catch him—did he have magical hearing or something, Harry wondered—and stared Ron dead in the eye as he answered: "We will be going over twelve more before we move onto hiragana."

Ron choked, "Twelve?!"

"Yes."

After that they went over sayōnara (goodbye), arigatō gozaimasu (thank you), sumimasen (excuse me/I'm sorry), iie (no), ittekimasu and itterasshai—which were difficult and confusing because they had another weird thing where you were apparently supposed to pause where the double consonants were, and also because they didn't really have any English equivalent (Professor Gaara explained them as "I will go and come back" and "please go and come back"—apparently it was a thing in Japan where you and a family member would say those when one of you is leaving the house), tadaima (I'm home), okaeri nasai (welcome home), itadakimasu (thank you for the meal—to be said before eating), gochisōsama deshita (thank you for the meal—to be said after eating), hajimemashite (roughly the Japanese equivalent of "how do you do?"), and yoroshiku onegaishimasu (Japanese equivalent of "nice to meet you"). Finally, Gaara told them, they were done with vocabulary for the day.

"Now," he said, "we will be going over our first five hiragana—there are forty-eight in total…"

As he trailed off, Ron whispered to Harry and Hermione urgently, "Forty-eight?!" Harry shared the sentiment. "Bloody hell."

Gaara wrote five characters on the board:

あいうえお

He turned to the class, "Do you remember the vowels we went over earlier?"

Harry nodded, as did most of the class.

"Can you repeat them?"

Uh…

In the end, it appeared only Hermione, Malfoy, and Nott could recite them. Harry made a mental note to ask Hermione for help later.

"Good." Gaara paused. What was it that Filius-sensē had mentioned? Points? "Five points to each of you." He'll figure out the details of that later…

Hermione beamed, while Malfoy and Nott high-fived.

"Now, repeat again—ah, ee, uu, eh, oh."

This time the entire class succeeded in reciting the vowels. Gaara then gestured to each of the characters on the board individually, one by one.

"Ah." He pointed to the first one.

"Ee." He then pointed to the second.

"Uu." The third.

"Eh." The fourth.

"Oh." Gaara then pointed at the final one all the way on the right.

"These characters are written in romaji as A, I, U, E, and O."

あいうえお

A - I - U - E - O

"These are the first five hiragana you will be learning—memorize them by next class. There will be a quiz." Then before anyone could object or get in a single question—

He disappeared in a whirl of sand.

Harry and Ron gaped while Hermione began stuttering out objections.

"B-but—how did he do that?! You can't apparate on school grounds! I read about it in Hogwarts: A History! It's impossible!"

Harry and Ron shared a look.

"And besides! What was that with the sand?! And where was the crack?! It was completely silent! That's not how it's supposed to—"

Harry and Ron each put a hand on one of Hermione's shoulders and began steering her out of the classroom, having already packed her stuff up for her. "C'mon, 'Mione, you can ask him about it next class…"

Hermione perked up. "Dinner! I can ask him about it at dinner!"

.

.

.

Professor Gaara did not show up for dinner.

*Kishimoto never really tells us much about the academy in Suna, so I'm just imagining it looks pretty much the same as the one in Konoha, except with a lot less color and a lot more tan. And sand. Lots of sand. I'm betting that stuff gets everywhere.

**Sand is tiny and hard to see, so no one notices that he is actually using sand to move the chalk—they instead assume that he's just using whatever spell it is that all of the other professors use to magically write on the board.

A/N: Sorry I'm late, I got a cold and I had to do a bunch of research and reviewing and I was worried about getting things wrong and then there was a problem with uploading and things kept disappearing and—UGH. Anyway, here it is.

Please notify me if you catch any mistakes, thanks…I'll be going over it again myself later once I'm feeling better, but sometimes I don't notice if something is missing or off or just looks funny (like an asterisk without an explanation at the bottom—I'm pretty sure I got all of those, but I could be wrong), so please notify me if you catch anything like that, thanks.

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Ja,

- BL.