Since when did cars fly?
The sun was high in the sky when Kokichi woke up on September first. He glanced over to the analog clock on the dresser to see that it was currently 9:45 am. Begrudgingly Kokichi rolls out of bed after Dynamite decided that on the few days Kokichi sleeps in, that he was going to be his owner's personal alarm clock. Which was really unfortunate because while staying at the Leaky cauldron Kokichi managed to get some of the best sleep of his life.
Normally at home he would be up by 5:00 the latest. It’s best to be out of the house as early as possible. And he would go to sleep late in the evening if at all, due to Mr.Tsumiki and his friends gambling with each other loudly late into the night.
The Leaky cauldron was quiet and he had the room all to himself, if you don’t count Dynamite. Who for an owl that practically vibrated with energy at any given moment, made for a very good roommate. When Kokichi was trying to sleep or read some of this year's textbook the little Owl would be dead silent or go off to hunt a mouse somewhere in London’s many alleys.
“Morning Dynamite.” Kokichi greeted sleepily and was greeted with a happy chirp.
Kokichi pulled the covers off himself and quickly started to get ready for the day. He put on blue pants with a white t-shirt and his gray shoes. To finish the look he pulls a dark gray poncho with a skeleton print and hood over his head before tying his checkered bandanna around his neck. He glanced at the clock that now read 1:00 before putting all his belongings in his truck and wrestled Dynamite back into his cage before heading off to grab a cab to Kings cross station.
Waving over a taxi was a little harder than expected, due to the driver taking one look at dynamite bouncing in his cage and deciding they don’t get paid enough to deal with that and driving off. But eventually Kokichi got one to pull over and hops in before the driver can change his mind.
“Kingscross station, fast as you can please.” Kokichi instructed as the driver gave him a nod and started to drive off.
By the time Kokichi got to the station it was 10:50 am. He jumps out of the cab, grabs his stuff, and pays with some of the money Snape had given him during their shopping trips. The driver just gives Kokichi an unimpressed look.
“It’s gold!” Kokichi cried as he ran into the station, not bothering to look back to see the driver’s reaction.
As Kokichi runs through the station looking for platform nine and ten, he notices that people are giving him looks. Which, fair. A 12 year old with purple hair and a trunk and an owl running about like a maniac is probably not something you see everyday.
Kokichi finally slows when he spots platform nine in the distance. He double checks to make sure he didn’t lose anything while running around before walking up to the pillar between platforms nine and ten.
Coming up from the other direction is a short girl with dark red hair and reddish brown eyes. She’s wearing a light brown sweater with a white blouse underneath paired with a skirt the same color as her hair and brown stockings and a black cloak hanging over her shoulders. Kokichi would have mistaken her for a Weasley if he was sure that she was Japanese. She must be another one of the transfer students.
“Platform nine and three quarters?” Kokichi asked and the girl nervously nodded her head in confirmation.
“Nervous?” Another nod
“That’s alright, we can go through together if you want.”
“Really?” The girl asks.
“Yeah, I’ve done this a hundred times already. It’s easy.” He lies
“Ok” she says cautiously
The two line up with the wall, with the girl in front and Kokichi just behind her.
“Alright, now on the count of three we’re going to run as fast as we can, ok” Kokichi instructs, pushing down his own nerves.
The girl gives a quick nod
“Ok then…” Kokichi starts.
“One”
“Two”
“Three!”
The two run as fast as they can towards the wall, Kokichi closes his eyes and braces himself for the impact of hitting a cold, tough, brick wall, but it never comes.
Kokichi opens his eyes and looks around. He’s standing on a crowded brick platform with an arched ceiling made of glass allowing natural light to shine through. In front of him on the tracks is a giant black and red steam engine.
“For someone who’s done this hundred times before you sure look amazed.” The red hair girl states
“It just never loses its charm.” Kokichi says with an impish grin.
The girl just gives him a look before speaking again.
“We should go find seats.” She states “ the train leaves in five minutes.”
Kokichi looks at a clock hanging over the wall they just passed through to see that she’s right.
“Well then we better get going Ms…”
“Himiko”
“Well then Himiko, let's go!”
With that they made their way onto the train and found an empty compartment towards the back of their train and put their truck on the top rack.
“You never told me your name,” Himiko said as they both take a seat across from one another.
“Oh, sorry. I’m Kokichi Oma! And this…” he gestures to his owl “is Dynamite.”
Himiko nods her head again, leaving them both in an awkward silence.
BOOM!
“Kokichi! There you are!” A familiar pair of gingers shouts
With that Fred and George make their way into the compartment and take a seat on either side of him.
“Who’s this?” George asks
“Kokichi!” Fred said with a gasp “don’t tell me, we leave you alone for a week and you go and find yourself a girlfriend.”
Kokichi nearly chokes on his own spit at that, while Himiko just looks offended.
“ What! No! We just met like ten minutes ago.” Kokichi shrieks “plus, she is not really my type anyway, no offense Himiko.”
“None taken, you're not really my type either.” She says with a shrug.
“Damn, rejection from both sides.” George chimes it
These a pause before everyone’s attention turns to the compartment door as it slowly slid open.
“Hello can I sit in, oh hi Kokichi” Shuichi says awkwardly from the doorway, his stuff being dragged behind him. He’s wearing black slacks that a white button up shirt tucks into with a detective's cap resting on his head.
“Hey Shuichi!” Kokichi said “here, come sit with us, I’ll introduce you to everyone.
“Oh-ok” Shuichi said as he quickly put his things onto the rack before taking a seat next to Himiko.
“Shuichi meet Fred, George, and Himiko. Fred, George, Himiko, meet Shuichi.” Kokichi says.
“So are you two transfer students like Kokichi?” George asks.
They both nod.
“Yeah…” Shuichi starts “It was quite a surprise when Dumbledore and the other Professors came to explain everything. My Uncle is… what do you call them, Oh muggles. We had no idea there was a magic community right under our noses.”
“You live with your uncle?” Himiko asks
“Oh, yeah, my parents are, um, busy people, you know.” Shuichi said with a sad smile.
CHOO CHOO
Shuichi is saved from further questioning by the chugging of the train as it pulls out of platform nine and three quarters.
The group gathers by the window to see the landscape fade from the city of London to the wide open countryside, With grass covered hills and fields. The sky was now a light blue and the sun was high above the horizon.
Knock knock knock
“Want anything from the trolley dears?”
Kokichi looks away from the window to see an old lady pushing a cart full of candy Kokichi’s never seen before.
“Um, does anyone here got money?” Fred asks sheepishly, “He can’t afford it, at least not now.”
Both Fred and George look extremely embarrassed about this. Well that’s not right.
“Sorry guys, I’m in the same boat.” Kokichi says.
“Me too,” Himiko chimes in “My parents currently have all our money so, I can’t buy anything for now.”
“Oh I think I have some, my parents sent my uncle some muggle money to be exchanged .” Shuichi says as he reaches into his pocket and pulls out a small bag and opens it “Is this enough?”
Inside the bag looks to be about 50 of those gold coins Snape had given him in Diagon. But based on Fred, George and Himiko’s reaction it must have been worth quite a lot.
“WHAT THE!!!” Fred cries
“DO YOUR PARENTS OWN GRINGOTTS OR SOMETHING!!!” George shouted.
“What’s Gringotts?” Kokichi asks
“It’s a wizard bank.” Himiko says “and Shuichi, are you aware of how much money you're currently holding?
““No. How much is it?”
“It’s about $250.”
“Oh” Shuichi said as he started to pale. “Well, do you guys want candy?” He asks sheepishly.
“Sure.” Kokichi said as he turned to Fred and George. “So, Gred, Feorge, what should we get?”
“You’re asking us?!” They say together.
“Well it’s not like any of us know what these are.” Kokichi says, gesturing to the cart.
A smile slipped onto both of the twins' faces.
“We’ll take five chocolate frogs, and one box of Bertie Botts Every flavor beans.” George says proudly.
“That’ll be five galleons dears.”
Shuichi handed off the money for the candy and for some reason Fred closed the cart door just as we were about to open the frogs.
Kokichi opened the box with a yelp. The chocolate frogs JUMPED out of its packaging and on to the window. Kokichi reached up to grab it but it jumped onto George’s head.
George swiftly grabs the frog and hits its head before handing it back to a stunned Kokichi.
“How did you do that?!” Kokichi asks
“You just gotta hit them once and they’ll stay down.” Fred says while George nods his head and smiles smugly at Kokichi's side.
With that explanation of how to catch your chocolate frogs out of the way the group started to munch on their frogs and tried some of the every flavor beans.
Kokichi got one that was flavored like coconut, Fanta would have been preferred but it wasn’t bad. Poor Shuichi got a sock flavored one and spat it out onto a napkin and Fred used a vanishing spell to dispose of it.
Guess the box wasn’t kidding when it said every flavor.
At some point Himiko suggested that we all get into robes before it gets too late. So they all took turns getting changed in the cart. Kokichi, Shuichi, and Himiko were dressed in the standard uniform while Fred and George’s had red highlights on the robes and a gold and red tie.
“So you two are Gryffindors then.” Shuichi says as they all came back in and found their seats.
“Yeah, all Weasley are Gryffindors.” George says.
“The hat takes one look at us and sends us to the house of red and gold.” Fred chimes in. “What house do you guys think you’ll be in?”
The three of them just looked at each other and shrugged.
“No idea.” They said in unison.
“Really?” The twins asked
“Well, I have done some research on it but I am not sure which one I would fit into.” Shuichi starts. He goes into a rant about this finding and what he had dug up on the history of the founders, this is where Kokichi started to zone out a little.
He turns his head to look out the window before closing his eyes and doing a double take.
“Is that a flying car?” Kokichi asks, cutting Shuichi off.
They all turn to look at what Kokichi’s talking about. Just outside the window, maybe five yards away, is a flying light blue car. Taking a better look at it, Kokichi could just make out two fingers inside. One with black hair the other with ginger.
“That’s Dads CAR!” George proclaims as they all press themselves further into the window. “ Is that Ron and Harry? Did they miss the train?
“Clearly,” Fred says from Kokichi’s side. “Mum’s gonna kill him for this if he gets caught.”
“Fred I think he is caught, I doubt we were the only ones to notice them driving in the air with your Dads flying car.”
“Damn your right.” Fred says.
“Rest in peace baby bro, you had a good run.” George says with fake tears in his eyes.
Kokichi, Shuichi, and Himiko just looked at the twins in stunned silence.
I’m sure it’s some kind of magic, but since when did cars fly?
*****
As the train came to a stop, the group could make out the Hogwarts castle in the distance. The Twin said to leave their belongings on the train and that they get moved to their dorms after the sorting.
They made their way off the train with the flood of students When they heard a booming voice call out from by some boats.
“First year and transfer over here.”
“Well, guess we should get going.” Shuichi says
Himiko nods her head and starts making their way over to the giant who had called them.
“Will your brother be okay?” Kokichi asks the twins.
“He should be fine.” Fred says
“Yeah plus Harry’s with him so he’ll probably survive their little joy ride.” George adds on with a shrug.
Before Kokichi could ask who Harry was, he heard Shuichi calling for him.
“Kokichi, come on we’re gonna miss the boats.”
“See you at the sorting Kokichi!” The twins called as they made their way to some self pulled carriage.
“Four to a boat.” The giant calls as Kokichi walks back to Shuichi and hopped in a boat along with him and Himiko, plus one other addition.
She’s Japanese so she must be the final transfer student. She has dark red eyes and long brown hair tied back into two low ponytails and is dressed in Hogwarts robes like the rest of the students.
As the boats take off from the dock Shuichi tries to make some small talk with her.
“Hi, I’m Shuichi, what is your name?” He asks
The girl just gives him a look before turning to look over at the castle with the first years.
“Well isn’t she just a chatterbox.” Kokichi deadpans before giving Shuichi a little nudge.
After a moment they copy the girl and turn their attention to the castle as the boats gently lean up against the docks. The giant, Hagrid, leads them up into the castle and to these giant doors that open into the “great hall” or so they say.
Then McGonagall came out and gave her spiel about the houses and house cup before she took all the first years to be sorted leaving us transfers to wait for our turns in the wall.
You would think one of them would have struck up a conversation, but both Himiko and Shuichi were far too nervous to try and the girl with long hair is continuing her silent streak from the boat, So Kokichi just waited patiently for McGonagall to come back.
About fifteen minutes later McGonagall opened the door and led them into the hall. As they walked into the great hall Dumbledore was finishing his explanation of their transfer to the other students and was telling them to play nice and all that jazz.
“Now,” McGonagall starts “when your name is called please sit on the stool and then after that hat has made its decision, go to that respective table.”
“Harukawa Maki” McGonagall called
The girl with long hair made her way up to the stool and took a seat as McGonagall lowered the Sorting hat onto her head. After about 30 seconds of anticipation emanating off the seated students the hat yell
“SLYTHERIN!!!”
The Slytherin table erupted with applause as Maki made her way over. She took a seat on the very end of the table, the end closest to the teacher, and continued her “no talking” streak.
Kokichi couldn’t focus on her for long though, as his name was called next.
“Oma Kokichi” McGonagall says.
Kokichi looks back at Shuichi, who gives him a quick, nervous smile before making his way up to the hat and sitting on the stool.
McGonagall lowers the hat over his head and falls just above his nose, completely covering his eyes. Kokichi stares into the darkness for a moment before he hears the hat talk.
“Mmmm, another transfer, well now let’s see. Hufflepuff will do you no good, maybe Gryffindor, but, no you're not stupid enough to throw yourself into danger with thinking, like most of them. Perhaps Ravenclaw? But, no, I know here you’ll fit best. You check off all the boxes.
“I do?” Kokichi questioned.
“Yes you do.” The hat states. “You're ambitious, resourceful, determined, clever, and you also have the heritage that Salazar wanted in his students.
“What do you mean heritage? I’m muggle born.
“That’s where you're wrong boy, but no more debating. It’s clear where you belong.”
“SLYTHERIN!!!”
The Slytherin table erupted once again in applause as McGonagall pulled the hat off his head and he’d made his way over to the green and silver table. As he looked for a place to sit he spotted a seat open next to the blonde boy who was in the book shop.
Oh, he knows where he’s sitting. He thinks as a mischievous smile spreads across his face. He plops down next to Goldilocks 2.0 before anyone could object.
Next up is Shuichi, the students at the other tables looked just about ready to riot if that hat says Slytherin again. Luckily, that’s not the case
The hat rest on his head for about ten seconds before shouting
“RAVENCLAW!!!”
The Ravenclaw applauded so loudly it hurt Kokichi’s ears, but he couldn’t help but clap along with them for Shuichi.
Last but not least is Himiko, the hat doesn’t stay on her head long either before yelling
“HUFFLEPUFF!!!”
More applause happens for Himiko before fading to allow Dumbledore to speak again. Kokichi glances at the staff table and notes that his favorite dungeon dwelling professor is absent.
Weird.
“Before the feast begins I have a few announcements.” Dumbledore starts “First we ask that no student venture into the forbidden forest, second we ask that students substan from flying near the whooping willow, due to the fact that it has recently sustained damages. We would also like to introduce you to your new DADA teacher for this year, Gilderoy Lockhart.”
At that half of the students cheered and the other half rolled their eyes.
“With that out of the way let the feast begin!” Dumbledore proclaims before disappearing from the hall as food appears on everyone’s plates.
“Why are you sitting here?” The blonde boy, Draco Says. Goldilocks 2.0 still fits him better.
“Because the seat was open, obviously.” Kokichi says with an exaggerated eye roll.
“You know that’s not what he meant.” A girl with short black hair snarls.
“And who are you?” Kokichi asks
“I’m Pansy Parkinson, and don’t think Draco didn’t tell us about that stunt you pulled at the bookstore, you filthy mudblood.” Pansy spat
“Draaaaaaaaco, Pansy’s being mean.” Kokichi pouted.
“We’re not friends you mudblood.” Draco replied coldly.
“Why not?” Kokichi asked “ First, I don’t know my biological father and the hat said he was a wizard so I think I'm a half-blood. Second, I grew up with muggles all the way in Japan. I know little to nothing about wizarding society. Who better to show me the ropes than a Malfoy!”
“He’s got a point Draco.” A dark skin boy with buzz cut black hair says.
“I suppose he does Blaise.” Draco says
“I promise I’ll be good.” Kokichi chimes in.
“Fine Oma, I will allow you to sit with us, if you're really not a mudblood then the last thing we want is for you to learn from one.” Draco says
And with some of his fellow snakes won over for now Kokichi started picking at his food, ignoring Pansy’s objections to this argument.
*****
Once the feast was over Kokichi followed the other Slytherins to their dorm in the dungeon and made his way to his room. As luck would have it he gets to share with Draco, Draco’s two goons, and Blaise. Kokichi claims the bed closest to the window, gets in his pajamas, and flops onto the bed while pulling the curtains shut. Even though he was the first in bed, Kokichi is the last to fall asleep. He couldn't stop thinking about what the hat had said.
Kokichi doesn’t really think about his biological father, like at all, but for the first time in 12 years Kokichi wonders, just who was his father? Soon Kokichi is lulled to bed by the whistling of the wind outside. He can always question who his father is tomorrow, plus he needs the sleep because, who wants to be tired for their first day of classes?