Chapter 1
Luffy opened his eyes and brightly jumped out his bed, loudly exclaiming about how well he slept. The summer air was wafting through his open window, spilling into every inch of the dorm room, bright and light and oh so cheery as it always is.
"Morning, Lu." Sabo grinned, having woken up just mere minutes before. He was polishing his metal wand - it's a fucking pipe, Ace had always snorted - and examining it closely. Ace, who was also awake but did not want to be, just glared at his little brother from under his blanket as a way of greeting. He had thrown the blanket over his head to block out the sun. It did not help.
Luffy, Ace, and Sabo all lived in the same room in the East wing of the dormitory building. They haven't been together their entire lives, obviously: children get a place to stay in Grandline Uni when they're born, but it only becomes completely mandatory to attend at twelve years of age. Or you can go earlier, by choice. Two of the three brothers, Ace and Luffy, had been in the school since they were born, as they didn't have normal caretakers. Dadan, one of the groundskeepers, and Makino, a lunch lady, were their only parental figures. They only met each other when Luffy was seven: Ace was brought from the South wing. Sabo joined shortly after — he was Muggleborn — and meeting the two black-haired boys turned him into a bigger rebel than he originally was.
The room was like an ordinary dorm room. A door to the bathroom and three separate beds, although with how clingy Luffy is to his brothers, they never stay separate for long. The walls were decorated from horrible hand-drawn pictures (Luffy), to diagrams of spells and theories (Sabo), to taken pictures of the sky, the trees, and the sea (Ace). They all had their little hobbies and trinkets covering the entire room. They did not mind invading each others space.
Luffy chuckled lightly at the sight of his eldest brother still hiding under the blankets. "Sabo, I'm hungry!" he exclaimed like usual.
"Let's go to Makino then. Or do you want me to make something?" Sabo replied. "Ace, get up!" he then turned to say, pointing his wand at the blanket covering Ace. The blanket floated upwards and hung in the air, leaving a grumpy and now angry Ace to hug himself because of the suddenness. Luffy laughed again and scrambled the room as Ace threw a blast of fire in his direction.
He banged the door of the room and skipped down the hallway to the stairs, already having memorized the way to the cafeteria but not to any of his classes. That's Nami's job. And she's good at it too. Luffy has no idea how she does it.
The sun also shining through the windows of the hallway, but Luffy didn't bother looking through them. They look how they always did in the summer: the vast, unending grass spreading outside, so horribly unkept that if someone jumped out the window they'd either land softly on the taller grass or break a few bones by landing on the rock-hard flat grounds. Further out, barely visible to the human eye, was the forest named the Woodlands, with the tallest of trees and the most treacherous of paths. Students studied Herbology there. Luffy and his brothers had spent all of their free time running in the forest before they all found other friends. If their dorm was in the West, the view would have been of the deep sea that contained the Coral House, the home of the Fishmen. North dorms windows would show the school building, while the South would show the Quidditch training grounds.
As he thought about his friends and of food food food, he stomped outside and ran off towards the school building, where the cafeteria was located. He passed Chopper, who was carrying some young Mandrakes to the forest for plantation. The young boy was studying to be a doctor, and Luffy believes that a damn good one he will be! The boy was fifteen, with light brown hair and a childlike complexion, despite his age. He also had deer horns growing on his head: he said it was a childhood spell mishap that he decided to keep. He greeted Luffy cheerily, and Luffy just smiled at him and continued running. Chopper waved at him as he passed.
He reached the building and ran inside. Everyone scrambled out of his way as not to get run over. The entrance hall was probably the largest room in the building, second to the cafeteria. The roof of the hall was made entirely of glass, showing off the naturally bright blue sky. The hall was lined with botticino marble columns which were being encircled by vines made of bronze. The floors were also the beige marble, the walls were a rich dark oak, the windows wide and cracked open, the curtains tied back to let more light float in. This sort of aesthetic is seen all over the building. There were some open areas where students were sitting on couches and chatting away. Two sets of stairs were on each side of the hall. At the end of the hall were some humongous double doors, which were open. They led to the cafeteria.
Luffy barged in and stopped at in the middle of the humongous room, panting. There were small separate tables, like those plastic tables in Muggle schools he keeps hearing from Sabo, except they were hard wood rather than plastic. People everywhere had plates upon plates of breakfast. Each table had some dishes in the middle, constantly refilling by itself as it finished. The strawhatted boy then took a deep breath and yelled loudly:
"FOOD!"
Everyone ignored him. This was the most normal part of the day: Monkey D. Luffy, calling for food.
Luffy looked around. He immediately spotted his friends sitting at a table near the top left corner. Nami, Zoro, and Ussop were there. They were looking in his direction, smiling and waving him over. Jinbei, Brook, Sanji, Franky, and Robin were probably elsewhere. Jinbei's in the Coral House, Sanji always helped at the kitchens before class, Robin probably already had breakfast and was off reading in the library, Franky was in the mechanical labyrinth in the basement, building and building like always. And Brook wasn't a student, he was a haunted skeleton and he was living in the Woodlands. Anyways, while not all of his friends were they, there were enough to have some fun!
He "shishishi"ed lightly and stretched his arms towards his friends table. He clutched the legs of the table and then shot himself forwards. All of them automatically lifted their plates and drinks as he slammed into the table and nearly destroyed it.
"Luffy!" Ussop huffed, completely done with the menace, "Stop that! It will be the tenth this week!"
The grinning boy merely grinned wider and laughed. He then proceeded to stretch his arms out and steal everything from Zoro's plate, who was the only one not bothered — or he was bothered but just tired of fighting him on it — by Luffy's attempt at destruction. The swordsman eyed his captain.
"You're still in your pajamas, Luffy." he commented lightly.
"I know," Luffy replied, but his face was stuffed with food, so all that came out was some strange sound. He swallowed and continued. "I wanna go to the sea! Or the forest! Let's go on an adventure!!"
"Well, your first lesson is Herbology with Ussop, so you'll be going outside to the woods anyways." Nami said, "I'm having Transfiguration with Robin. So do you, Zoro," she added to the swordsman, who scowled. Zoro did not like Transfiguration. Professor Yassop wasn't a great teacher, even if he was a good guy.
"Hey, Luffy. You forgot your wand again," Ussop pointed out, resuming on his meal of butter and raspberry jam.
"I don't need it though!" Luffy whined. It's not exactly true, but it wasn't a lie either. There were some people, like Luffy and Ace and Old Man Whitebeard, who did not need wands to perform magic. Or at least some kinds of magic. Ace can turn into and control fire, Whitebeard makes earthquake thingies that Luffy doesn't quite get, and the strawhatted boy is a rubber man! Apparently some people got these powers because of some ancient mistake caused by magic, but Luffy didn't know nor care about that.
Nami sighed. "Luffy, just because you're rubber doesn't mean you can perform Cheering Charms without a wand."
Luffy huffed, consumed the last bit of Ussop's orange juice, and got off the table. He was about to leave when he noticed Robin and Sanji heading their way, Sanji twirling around the woman.
"Yo, Robin, Sanji!" Luffy cheered, waving at them happily.
"Morning," Sanji said, and stopped twirling. He then spotted Nami and immediately lit up and twirled again in her direction, complimenting her every move with hearts in his eyes.
"Good morning, Luffy," Robin said with a smile. "I am glad to see you are as cheerful as always."
"Yeah! I had some good food! Anyways, I'm gonna go get my wand now," Luffy said, turning to leave.
"I think you could wait a few minutes," Robin replied, "I heard from Professor Kokoro that some of the Heads might be coming this morning."
That made every person in the room pause. The silence was deafening. Then almost instantly everyone started screaming.
"Wait what?!"
"The Heads? Did I hear that right?? The motherfucking Heads?!"
"Oh god, I hope it's Head Whitebeard or Head Shanks! They're so sick!!"
"Shanks might come?!" Luffy yelled, so happy that he was bouncing — quite literally. His friends smiled at his happiness.
There were four Heads of the school, the creators of the very walls and the very island the student body was standing on. Head Whitebeard, Head Shanks, Head Kaido, and Head Linlin, although people call her Big Mom for some reason. None of them were frequent visitors of the school, and neither were any of them exactly what you'd call friends, but they were all known to be extremely powerful and work together when needed. It was said through many records that they had literally conjured up the island in the middle of the Silent Sea, and have been teaching ever since. All of them except for Shanks, who was the successor of the original Head, Gold Roger.
It was mainly Whitebeard or Shanks that visit, and Kaido and Big Mom only sent an occasional message. Any of their visits were extremely welcome... except Luffy didn't like Kaido or Big Mom much. Shanks was better than all of them anyways!
But he still had to respect them and not get into fights and gosh darn it Luffy we don't like 'em either but just deal with it!
"Yes," Sanji said, momentarily distracted from Nami's presence, "Lady Kokoro said they have an announcement about... something. Not sure what but it's big."
"How many will be there?" Ussop asked, shaking in his boots. Everyone ignored his obvious fear.
"Probably Whitebeard or something," Zoro said, "He's the usual. Not like any of the others might come."
Just as he said it, a chilling aura spread the room, and Luffy immediately snapped his head towards the cafeteria doors. Haki, he recognized.
It's Shanks' and Whitebeard's Haki.
Everybody was called to attention — some cowering, while others, like Luffy, grinning widely — as two figures entered the room. One was extremely tall, reaching ten feet. He had a big white coat thrown over his shoulders. His body was muscled and strong, his eyes were sharp and old. He had a long, white moustache. The other was easily over six feet tall, with bloodred hair and a scruffy beard. He had a black cloak thrown over his shoulders, concealing a missing arm that only Luffy and his brothers knew of.
Everybody was standing as a sign of respect for the two Heads, Head Whitebeard and Head Shanks. Nobody said a word.
Two Heads at the same time? they all wondered, Is the world ending?
The two almighty men started walking towards the other end of the cafeteria, which had four podiums, each for each Head. Shanks' and Whitebeard's were the second and third podiums, respectively. Luffy watched them pass with excitement in his eyes. He desperately wanted to just jump up and wrap his rubbery limbs around Shanks, but he couldn't. Shanks is powerful and respected. Luffy had to control himself a bit for now. Maybe he can hug him later or something.
The two reacher their podiums and stood silently for a few seconds. Everyone watched them with bated breaths. Whitebeard then smiled and spoke.
"At ease," he said, "We come with exciting news!"
Everyone sat again, but continued gazing at the two men in awe.
"Today," Shanks said, "we got a really cool request from the Ministry of Magic in Britain."
Silence still. You could almost hear people's heartbeats. Whitebeard's eye twitched from Shanks' unprofessionalism.
"They had requested a student transfer programme," Shanks continued, "in order to... what'd it say again–? Oh right. To 'build friendly relations between different magical schools of the world.'" He said, reading off of a letter. "A small group of students will depart from one school to the other."
"Shanks, the other two, and I," Whitebeard picked up from there, "had agreed to accept this offer. We will be sending a certain number of students — we will not confirm how many — to the wizarding school in Britain, the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. You have the right to refuse to go.
"This is a really big step for our wizarding education. It will give a chance for Grandline to branch out to other schools and strengthen relationships with the foreign school. It will also be a good and hopefully fun learning experience for those who will go."
Shanks grinned widely. "We will let you know who is going to go tomorrow morning. You will be departing first of September. Today is... uh..." he turned to the older man next to him.
"June 18th." Whitebeard huffed.
"Yeah," Shanks turned back to the students, grinning again, "So yeah. You've got some time to research, get ready physically and mentally, et cetera. Best of luck to y'all."
Then the two Heads left the room just as suddenly as they came. No normal goodbye. Dickheads.
When their Haki presences have only become tiny pinpricks in the distance, people started talking. It was like someone dropped a bomb in the middle of the room. Among the chaos, Luffy turned to his friends in glee.
"Holy shit," Zoro said simply.
"Holy shit indeed," Robin hummed, sipping her coffee calmly, but the way her eyes were frozen in place gave away her shock.
Every one of the people on the table had varying degrees of shock, fear, and excitement on their faces. Luffy had never felt more like jumping through the roof and flying towards the sun as he did now.
"Guys," he said, "Hear me out–"
"This is the only time ever I will hear you out," Ussop said.
"Imagine all the people I could scam," Nami said dreamily, "How many rich assholes I could rob."
"Especially considering the fact that Britain has the highest percentage of purebloods compared to the rest of Europe," Robin said, "I'd say you can rob a lot of rich assholes, Nami."
"Don't British people only use those stupid wands?" Zoro said irritably, "That's weak. Who will I spar with?"
"Of course you only think of violence, stupid Mosshead," Sanji muttered.
"What did you say, Curlybrows?"
"Both of you shut it!" Nami hissed, hitting both of the boys over the top of their heads. Sanji simply had his heart eyes again while Zoro glared at her. Neither said anything.
"I wonder what technology they have there?" a new voice spoke up, and they all turned to see Franky and Chopper nearing up to their table.
"Good morning guys!" Luffy said brightly. The newcomers greeted him the same way.
"I doubt they would have anything like you make, Franky," Robin said, "I have heard that their school building was an old and large castle, with lanterns and a dungeon and towers."
Everyone collectively oohed.
"Do they have dragons?!" Luffy asked, eyes shining. "Can they be my friends?!?"
"Dragons are illegal," Nami reminded him. "And they can kill you! Why would you want one, idiot!?"
"They're cool!" He got hit over the head for that.
"Who would they pick though?" Ussop wondered, "They didn't specify if they would pick the top students, or those in need of more studying."
"Maybe they'll pick one from each wing!" Chopper said, "One North, one South, one East, and one West!"
"Maybe it's a certain age group," Robin said, "They didn't specify age either. Maybe only those eighteen and over."
"No!" Luffy said angrily, "No way!" He was seventeen, and the others were all one or two years older than him except Chopper and Ussop, who was his age.
"Oh the money!!" Nami said again. You could practically see large Galleons popping out of her eyes.
"Whatever they do, we won't know until tomorrow," Zoro said, "Shouldn't we get going to class soon?"
"Oh right," Nami snapped out of her daydreaming. "Luffy, go get your wand!"
Luffy grumbled again, but got up and left. He stretched his arms and stole more food from tables. Nobody tried to stop him, as they were all distractedly talking about the transfer programme. Who will be the fated students to go to Hogwarts? Will it be fun there? Or will there be many new faces of danger to fight against?
—————
Luffy stared at Shanks, then turned his eyes to Whitebeard. Then to Shanks. Then Whitebeard. Then Shanks again. This continued until he was sure there wasn't a single joke being told to him.
He was in an office with ten people, including himself. The Heads were both there, sitting at the large table. His brothers, Sabo and Ace, were there. Robin, too, looking like she was in a trance of shock. There was also Trafalgar D. Law, a doctor-in-training that sometimes worked with Chopper. That was the only reason Luffy knew the guy even existed. There were also some other people that Luffy didn't care about: some dude whose hair was bread-shaped, a redhead with red lipstick and a permanent scowl, and a girl with orange hair and a magenta cap with goggles, oddly similar to Sabo's. For some reason, Ace seemed to know the bread-haired one and Sabo knew the girl: each pair was grinning at each other nervously. Law also knew the redhead, but they were glaring at each other. Luffy was too excited to wonder about that.
Because he was going. He grinned in Robin's direction, who smiled back weakly. He was going on an adventure!!
Shanks lightly cleared his throat, successfully bringing attention to himself. He smiled kindly at the students in the room.
"I think you all know why you're here," he said, eyes alight with amusement at Luffy's bad attempt at controlling his face, "But we'd still like to say it professionally enough to seem like a shock. I will read out each of your names."
"Trafalgar D. Law,"
Law smirked.
"Koala,"
The orange-haired girl's face barely twitched, but her eyes were shining.
"Eustass Kidd,"
The redhead grinned, looking sharp and determined.
"Portgas D. Ace,"
Ace grinned, looking at Whitebeard with elated eyes. The old man beamed at him.
"Thatch,"
Bread-hair guy looked oddly relaxed. He glanced at Whitebeard, who beamed at him as well.
"Nico Robin,"
Robin tucked her hair behind her ear, smiling.
"Sabo,"
Sabo grinned widely, looking extremely happy.
"And Monkey D. Luffy!"
Luffy showed his signature D smile.
"You all have been invited to participate in the New Beginnings Transfer Programme, where the wizarding world will face growth of friendship and international development! Are you in?"
All of them had echoed the exact same phrase:
"Yes! I accept!"