Hogwarts
by Diana-san

The first time Uchiha Sasuke met Haruno Sakura, he was sure she was the most annoying girl in the whole wide world. Yet, he was okay with that.

The door to the compartment opened as a pink-headed girl all decked out in her robes stood there. "Can I sit here? All the other compartments are full."

"We're—" Sasuke begins.

"Sure! Go right ahead!" Naruto answers with a wide grin as he hops from his seat across from Sasuke to sit next to him. Sasuke could only grumble at the annoyance of having less personal space now that Naruto was next to him.

The girl smiles as she takes a seat right across from the boys. "I'm Haruno Sakura. What are your names?"

"Uzumaki Naruto!" Naruto eagerly pipes up.

Sasuke remains quiet as Naruto answers for him. "This is Sasuke over here."

"Uchiha Sasuke," Sasuke corrects as he eyes Sakura to make sure she had heard him.

Sakura didn't give any notice to him, however, as she stares at Naruto. "Your face… there's a scar…" she points in surprise.

Naruto chuckles in embarrassment as he raises a hand to touch the scar on his cheek. "Ah, looks cool, right? Almost like whiskers!"

"You're the Boy Who Lived! Your parents defeated—" Sakura lowers her voice to a hushed whisper. "—You-Know-Who."

Naruto gives a sad smile. "Yeah… I am."

Sasuke senses the awkward silence building up and holds up a chocolate frog in his hand as he sticks it in front of Sakura's face. "Chocolate frog?" he asks mainly to break the weirdness and change the subject from Naruto's parents.

Naruto's expression quickly changes as he takes out more treats from a box next to him. "Yeah, Sasuke bought out the whole trolley! We have tons of goodies so feel free to have some."

Her nose crinkles as she shakes her head and pushes his hand down. "No thanks. My parents are dentists. I do not want cavities."

"Dentists?" Naruto echoes.

"It's a muggle profession," Sasuke explains to Naruto.

"But why would they want to work as dentists?" Naruto asks.

"Because my parents are muggles," Sakura explains matter-of-factly.

The confused expression on Naruto's face seemed to grow from a Level One to a Level Five. The blond-headed boy turned to his friend. "Sasuke… Hogwarts is for wizards, right? Not muggles?"

"Idiot," Sasuke mutters under his breath.

Sakura chuckles. "I am a wizard, if that is what you are wondering." She takes out her wand as she points it at Naruto. "You have some chocolate on your nose by the way," she points out as she flicks her wrist slightly to cast a spell. Immediately, the smudge of chocolate disappears from Naruto's nose and he wipes his nose in amazement.

"A mudblood, then," Sasuke states. The word sort of slipped out and before he could even apologize, Sakura turns to look at him.

"I prefer to not use that term," Sakura answers coldly. "Being muggle-born does not make me any less of a wizard than the two of you."

Reacting quickly, Naruto elbows Sasuke and chuckles nervously. "Sasuke didn't mean that! Right, Sasuke?"

Sasuke is silent as he attempts to mumble an apology but Sakura was already standing up. "We'll be arriving soon. The two of you better change into your robes quickly. I'll be visiting the bathroom."

As the two boys watch Sakura exit the compartment car, Sasuke could tell that he already messed up big time.

Despite his earlier remarks that may or may not have cost him some friend points with the girl, when Sakura returned from the bathroom, she seemed to be in a cheerier mood as she sat down again in her seat. Her nod of approval came as she saw that the two boys had listened to her suggestion to change into their robes. Seeing her, he notices how proper Sakura carries herself in the way she sits and talks. Even her pink hair falls with grace each time she turns or moves. Sasuke was sure that she was the prettiest and smartest girl on this train. Just like he was sure that Naruto was the dumbest person abroad on this train.

"So your hair… is it supposed to be pink? Or did you mess up a potion?" Naruto asks as he inspects a strand of Sakura's hair.

"Yes, it's natural," Sakura remarks as she edges away from Naruto. "But if you try to touch my hair again, I will turn your hand into putty."

Sasuke smirks as Naruto's face turned into a look of terror. "Don't mind Naruto. He wasn't born with social skills."

Naruto scowls and sits back in his seat with another chocolate frog in hand.

"You two knew each other before?" Sakura asks as she points at the two boys.

"Our parents knew each other. So we grew up together," Sasuke responds. A hiss sounds from his bag as his snake, Aoda, slithers out and crawls down to the seats before settling on top of Sakura's lap. Aoda lowers its head as it finds comfort on the girl's lap.

"Aoda likes you," Sasuke comments, although he could feel a teensy bit of jealously forming in his chest. He tries to shake it off as it is ridiculous to be jealous of your own pet snake.

Sakura smiles but glances worriedly at the bag on her left. "Um, except I don't think he'll think too kindly of Katsuyu."

"Katsuyu?" Sasuke echoes. Immediately, out of the corner of his eye, he notices something wiggling in Sakura's bag. Aoda must have sensed it too because he hisses at the bag and then quickly cowers back in fear as it slithers back up the wall and into Sasuke's bag, although not before shooting Sasuke a dirty look, as if he was to be blamed for it.

Sakura chuckles as she takes out the thing from her bag. "Katsuyu. My companion slug."

"Ewwwww," was Naruto's first comment. "Better put that away before Gamakichi here eats that thing for lunch."

Sakura shoots Naruto a dirty glare. "You keep your slimy frog away from my Katsuyu."

Naruto quickly covers his frog's ears. "Don't say that! He'll hear you!"

It wasn't long before the train arrives at Hogwarts and all of the wizards are shuffled into boats to get to the school. As they file down the Great Hall, Sasuke immediately notices his older brother, Itachi, sitting over at the Slytherin table. Itachi smiles and waves but Sasuke looks straight ahead instead.

Sakura nudges him from behind. "There's someone looking at you," she whispers.

"Ignore him," Sasuke replies back.

"I can't… he's looking at me now," Sakura whispers back.

Sasuke turns back his head and sure enough, Itachi was now focusing his attention on Sakura. Sasuke shoots his brother a dirty look as he quickly pushes Sakura forward in front of him.

He and the rest of the first years then crowd around the front as the Headmaster, Hiruzen Sarutobi, smiles down at them with a twinkle in his eye. "Let the sorting begin!"

Sasuke watches as one by one, the other students get sorted into the houses. Soon, the line gets smaller and smaller until it was just his group left. Naruto goes first and immediately, the sorting hat shouts out Gryffindor before even touching the blond hair on top of the Uzumaki boy. Sakura follows after and Sasuke is barely breathing as he holds his breath to see what house she gets. It seems to take the hat some time and from his guess, Sakura was either going to be placed in Ravenclaw or Gryffindor.

"Gryffindor!" the hat shouts. Applause is heard from the Gryffindor table as they now got two new students in a row.

Sakura hops off the seat and walks over to her house table but not before giving Sasuke a small smile. Gryffindor. He has to get into Gryffindor.

With bold steps, he marches up to the seat and sits down. Sarutobi places the sorting hat on him and immediately, the hat begins to speak to him.

"Hmmmm, what an interesting little mind you got, Uchiha Sasuke," the sorting hat snickers. Was it a snicker? Do hats snicker?

"Place me in Gryffindor!" Sasuke orders it.

"Gryffindor?! Well, I see… you do have some of the qualities fit for a Gryffindor. Hmmm, so you got a little crush, eh? On the previous girl? She was a difficult decision as well. But not so much as you. Hm… Gryffindor… Ravenclaw… or Slytherin?"

"Not Slytherin," he grits his teeth.

"Oh? But you are an Uchiha. And like the Uchihas before you, they have all been placed in the prestigious Slytherin."

"I don't want to follow in my brother's shadows."

"Yes, yes. I see.. hm, let me see then. How about we place you in…" the hat mumbles. "SLYTHERIN!" it shouts out loud to the Great Hall.

The Slytherin house table whoops and yells loudly with applause as Sarutobi removes the hat from Sasuke. The boy's mouth drops open. "Traitorous hat," he growls at the sorting hat.

He sulks as he makes his way over to the Slytherin table. As he passes by Naruto and Sakura, he gives a silent yet sad stare.

He sulks in the dorms for the next three days. Aoda notices his master's depression but instead of comforting him, Aoda rolls its beady eyes if that was possible and goes back to sleep as it slithers back into its corner of the nightstand.

Itachi notices the moody attitude of his younger brother and immediately, he guesses as to the reason of why. After all, it was strange for his brother to show any emotion beyond mildly displeased and annoyed. As a smile curls up on Itachi's face, a plan slowly begins to hatch in the prefect's mind.

Despite not being placed in the same house, Sasuke still sees Sakura quite often since they have every class together. It wasn't hard to spot her bright pink hair from the sea of first year students. In Charms, he watches in amusement as Naruto blows up a feather instead of levitating it and is in awe as Sakura manages to float a feather all the way to the ceiling on her first try.

A knock comes at the door and the whole class looks up to see an older boy enter the classroom. "Sir, may I please borrow my younger brother for a moment?"

"Ah, yes. Prefect Itachi, is it not? Go ahead, Sasuke-kun, run along now. Class shall be ending shortly so gather your things as well," Iruka sensei responds as he resumes to helping a student with the levitation lesson.

Sasuke grumbles but does so as he packs his books and things with him. He follows his brother out of the classroom but not before giving a fleeting glance at Sakura, who in turns, gives him a curious gaze.

"What is it?" Sasuke asks abruptly as the two of them step out the door and into the hallway.

"That girl who sits next to you in class… she's really beautiful, isn't she?"

Sasuke turns to look at Itachi with an incredulous gaze. "Why?" he asks, almost accusingly.

Itachi only gives a whimsical smile as he pulls out a small vial from his robes. "Wouldn't it be great if she falls in love with you, dear little brother?"

Immediately, Sasuke could see where this was heading. "Oh no you don't!" he shouts as he tries to swipe the vial away but Itachi is quicker and a head taller than him. "Or what if she falls in love with me instead?" Itachi jests.

Sasuke halts in his steps as he stares down his brother. "What do you want?"

"Chore wheel," Itachi simply states. "You have to do your chores to the utmost perfection. No slacking, no half-attempts, nothing less of perfection."

To anyone, it would sound like an almost ridiculously request but given Itachi's utmost desire for perfection and order, it was understandable. Sasuke had been slacking when it came to doing his chores. It wasn't hard to slack off given how Itachi did end up cleaning up after his mistakes with almost no complaints. But obviously, the prefect had probably just been silently stewing the past three months until this moment. "Fine," Sasuke grumbles as he holds out his hand. "Now hand it over. All of them. I know you made more than one."

The next day, Sakura had a slight bounce in her steps as she practically floats into Potions class. She drops her books on the desk besides Sasuke as she happily announces her good news. "Professor Tsunade has agreed to take me on for extra lessons in Herbology."

"What? But you're only a first year! And why would you want more work?" Naruto questions. The idea of doing extra work was beyond Naruto's imagination.

"Because, Herbology is fascinating. Many plants provide ingredients needed not only for potions but also medicine," Sakura states.

Sasuke rubs his chin. "So you will be spending your afternoons at the greenhouses?"

Naruto frowns as he furrows his eyebrows. "But we were going to go ask the third years if they can help us buy chocolate frogs. I need to find all the cards and collect 'em all!" he whines a little.

Sakura shrugs. "You two boys will just have to go on without me."

Before Sasuke could reply, the door opens and Professor Orochimaru walks through the door, bringing in an ominous air about him. The kids in the class shudders in unison as they all have heard the rumors about the professor from the upper class students. Sasuke only grumbles because he was going to tell Sakura that he would deliver her some chocolate frogs if she wanted.

After Potions class, Sakura waves goodbye to them as she hurries to go see Professor Tsunade about her schedule. Naruto only grumbles besides Sasuke which only brings Sasuke to question why Naruto was so upset.

"What?" Sasuke asks in annoyance as he watches Sakura's pink hair disappear around the corridor hall.

"Without a girl, how are we going to ask the third years to help us? You know they'll only laugh at us!"

Sasuke rolls his eyes. "Don't worry. I'll ask my brother."

"Oh thank god!" Naruto sighs in relief as he hugs Sasuke. "You're the best friend I could have ever hope for."

"Get off me."

Naruto grins. "Hey. Ask him to get me some things from Zonko's Joke Shop too."

Asking his brother was a mistake. Itachi only laughed in his face and then walked off. Fortunately, there were some nice third year girls he was able to convince to get him chocolate frogs in exchange for Itachi's pictures. He had to dig through his luggage to find last year's Christmas photo card but it was worth it as the girls came back with a big haul of chocolate frogs. Surprisingly, the girls also listened to Naruto's request of some prank items from Zonko's as they handed him several sugar quills and frog spawn soaps. He didn't want to guess what was in the other black bag that Naruto had asked to remain shut.

As he sits in his room with the stash in front of him, he wonders what is the proper way to send them to Sakura. If he sent her a bunch of chocolate frogs, surely Naruto would be onto him and tease him for the rest of his life. He stares at the frog spawn soap. He wonders if it was wise to send such a thing to Sakura. After all, she and her slug thing were definitely appalled at Naruto and Gamakichi during the train ride.

Putting the soap aside, he wraps up the chocolate frogs as he packages it and hands it to Aoda. "Deliver this for me, Aoda."

Aoda sighs but opens up his mouth to reveal his sharp fangs as he bites down on the package and slithers away. But before he delivers the package of chocolate frogs, Aoda comes back discreetly and finds the frog spawn soap as he carries it to deliver it to his friend, Katsuyu, with an evil laugh in mind. The snake leaves Sakura's room as he hears her shout angry words cursing at his master, Sasuke.