The train slowly pulled into the Hogsmead station, much to the dismay of one compartment. The group of people who sat in the compartment had just start an impromptu party and weren't quite ready to end it yet, even the shyest of the group, one Neville Longbottom.
Draco grinned as Ruishi danced, a pocky stick in each hand while the two red headed twins, for Weasleys even Draco would admit they weren't that bad, attempted to take said pocky away. Neville was stealing manga from Hermione who was fixing the strange muggle device that she had brought with. He had learned the hard way not to say the word mudblood in front of Ruishi when he turned that cold gaze on him.
Even Crabby and Goyle where having a blast, or at least Draco assumed they were, with how they and Lee Jordan were playing with that tarantula. Draco shuddered, while he may not be afraid of spiders, that didn't mean he liked them and he planned on staying over here 'thank-you-very-much'.
The train shifted to a stop and immeadiatly the party ended. With a soft sigh they stood as Fred and George Weasley both shook Ruishi's hand at the same time.
"That was bloody"
"Brilliant, mate!" The two of them spoke as one person.
"We are so,"
"Having you"
"Do all of"
"Gryffindor's parties!" Fred, or was it George finished.
Ruishi laughed, his green eyes lighting up at the thought, "I plan on once a week house parties, I just need someone to get food and drinks."
"We can do that,"
"Can't we Gred?"
"Yes, I do believe we can, Forge!"
"Hey Lee!"
"Lets go!"
"We need more butter beer!"
And then the three of them were gone.
"How do you plan on having weekly parties?" Hermoine asked frowning slightly as she mentally went over the rules and couldn't remember if parties were against the rules or not.
"I don't" Ruishi grinned unabashedly back, "I'm going to teach Fred and George and they will." He shrugged, "I've got more important things to worry about than weekly parties, though I do plan on making several of them."
Draco frowned, "You'll need a way to keep them secret. I doubt the teachers will be too impressed, even if its allowed."
"Hence the twins." Ruishi said as if that explained it all. Oddly enough, it did. Draco just shook his head and left the train. The others followed, Crabby and Goyle immeadiatly flanking him as Ruishi and Hermione followed arguing about something or another, probably spell work related.
"Firs' years! Firs' years, o'er here!" The loud bellowing voice stopped everyone of the first years who turned to look at the giant of a man.
"Bloody hell!" Draco had heard of the man, his father had made sure of lecturing his son on the beast that lived on the school grounds but he had never thought he'd be that huge.
"Draco!" Hermione chastised and Draco did look ashamed at his slip of the tongue as Neville stared in shock while Ruishi grinned at his friends.
"Sorry! He surprised me, that's all." Draco tried to explain as he backed away from the furious girl.
"He is rather tall." Ruishi butted in craning his head back to look at the giant of a man. "I wonder who he is?"
Draco cleared his throat and rather pompously said "That's Hagrid, the gamekeeper. Father says that he's got about as much magic as a toad and the intelligence of one to boot." Draco grinned then, "However, word around the streets is that the man's not only a half-giant, but bloody brilliant when it comes to magical creatures."
Hermione, Neville and Ruishi stared in shock.
"What? Father practically owns knockturn alley, and I've learned a lot wandering the streets down their. Just don't ever tell father that."
"I never took you for wandering the streets, Draco." Ruishi inputted politely.
"So I was bored, give me a break, sides, I never took you for being a guard of the highest order, Harry James Potter." Draco drawled and Ruishi laughed.
"Ruishi, Dear, Ruishi, I have never gone by the name of Harry Potter. That name is so dull compared to my real name."
Hermoine and Neville looked at each other confused as the four of them entered a boat and sat down. Ruishi merely smiled mysteriously at them and leaned back. "That all apart of history that never needs to be repeated. Lets just focused on the future and work out how were going to meet up once we end up in separate houses."
"Huh? Separate houses?" Neville spoke up and Draco snorted.
"You really think were going to end up in the same house? There's no way I'm ending up anywhere other than Slytherin, I have Neville pegged for a Hufflepuff, Hermione is definitely a Ravenclaw and Ruishi…" Draco trailed off, "Well, I don't know where your going."
"If I have a choice, no where." Ruishi said, frowning slightly before grinning, "I plan on being the odd man out. But If I must, I'll be Gryffindor so we can take Hogwarts by storm." The wide challenging grin made both Draco and Hermione shake their heads while Neville grinned too.
"I... I think" Neville spoke softly but confidently and Draco had to reassess his original declaration before shrugging it away. There really wasn't anything wrong with Hufflepuff. After all his great-great-grand-uncle was a Hufflepuff, not that the Malfoy's ever let that get around. Draco shooed the thoughts away as he focus on Neville.
"The houses... they're strange, ya know? Almost like the headmaster doesn't want the Slytherins and Gryffindor's as friends and the Ravenclaws to be studious and the Hufflepuff's loyal." Neville quieted down after that.
Hemione frowned, "Neville's right." She decided, "They say that they encourage house unity by point systems and fair Quidditch Ravenclaws and Hufflepuff's have never won the Quidditch cup. And Slytherins and Gryffindors have always come to blows."
The three boys stared at her, "Where'd you learn that?" Draco asked shocked.
"Oh it was all in Hogwarts: A History Volume one. I really didn't think it would be a good book, seeing as it only went over the Quidditch matches and the house point system. I'm not into sports and I figured that I would learn about the point system when I came here." Hermione explained as she pulled out the worn thick leather book. "I'm rather shocked that sports was the first Hogwarts book, but I'm not surprised. The wizarding world doesn't have much common sense."
The four friends slowly boarded the boats, Neville and Draco hanging on to every word Hermione said as Ruishi carefully watched the area around him. Ruishi grinned at his friends as he lead them to the boats and they all entered.
"So we all agree then?" Ruishi asked wondering how they went from A Hogwarts A History. To troll munching goblesnackers. Ruishi wasn't even sure he wanted to know what those were.
"To what?" Hermione asked as she looked up at Ruishi, Neville and Draco silently agreeing.
"Not joining any houses. I'm sure we can think up enough reasons not to and its not like arguing shows any single trait." Ruishi grinned as the giant yelled for everyone to duck. They did and all four of them gaped in surprise at the castle as they appeared on the other side.
"Wow." Hemione said excitedly.
"Sugoi" Ruishi breathed, slipping into Japanese as he stared at the castle, homesickness pinging in his chest.
"I could never..." Draco trailed off as Neville stared with his mouth open.
"Trevor!" Neville interrupted causing the other three to look at him. He grinned sheepishly as he held up the toad. "I found him in the water. I didn't want him to get eaten by the squid."
"Are you sure he's a toad?" Hemione asked silently asking for Trevor. "Hey Neville? I think I know why Trevor keeps running away. I'll have a full list of things you'll need to keep Trevor happy." Hermione informed after looking at Trevor for a while.
"What do you mean?" Ruishi asked politely seeing Neville flintch.
"Someone misinformed Nnevi. Trevor is clearly a frog and not a toad. Toads don't have webbed feet or a tounge. And Trevor has both. Who ever misinformed you need to be grabbed by an ear and shown exactly the differences." Hermione ranted. "It's shameful, you should always know what the animal is before handing it out! Always!" She was about to continue, but between the boats hitting the dock and the giants booming voice she had to stop.
"I think its over." Draco muttered quietly to Neville who smiled nervously.
"At least it's for you rather than against you." Ruishi told him and a blush rose on Neville's cheeks. "Don't worry, your secret's safe with us." Ruishi grinned and Neville blushed harder as Draco laughed and Hermione glanced back confused, having missed the entire conversation as she was listening to Hagrid and Professor McGonagall talk.
"What?"
"Nothing" Neville blushed harder and the other two boys laughed harder. Ruishi relaxing for once since his almost death. He couldn't help but grin even wider at the thought. They were at Hogwarts and in one piece.
Author's note:
Hello all my dear and wonderful readers. I must apologize for the crazy long wait for the next chapter, specially since I finally got up darkened hero some (long) time ago. I also must apologize for any mistakes as I am no longer working with Microsoft word (thank the heavens) and find my self often confused, no matter how simplistic the program is. (You should have seen me playing around in notebook for a while before I got libreoffice -.- it was a train wreak and never happening again... and yet so sad that it was that difficult -.-) I also want to apologize for the next long wait as I will be studying for my upcoming uber huge only 1/3 of the people who take it pass test. I can pretty much guaranteed that I won't be getting out any more chapters for either story until sometime after December. (I so can't wait for a vacation after my test, I'll probably spend it writing and fixing my stories... they seem to be in desperate need of some work -.-) But those are my new plans, aside from joining the petition for the MA rating on fan fiction as I do plan on blood and gore in Darkened Hero (Harry's evil. Of course there's going to be nasties, and he's the son of Orochimaru which makes it even better.)
Right, so good evening my dear readers and sorry once again for the uber late update and thank you for the patience to put up with me and my habits (A.k.a never being able to get a chapter up within a reasonable amount of time)
Ja Ne,
Sakura Onichi