Growing Names and Minds
It took a while for the school and it's students to get used to the existence of the Grandline students. Luffy and his brothers weren't the only ones who were found unusual from the eight of them. Koala was often found sitting around or actively talking to the giant squid in the lake. Thatch wasn't much of an oddball, but others found it unusual how he was so skilled in using a kitchen knife as a weapon... and how he was a good cook in general. Robin was Robin; being calm but morbid at times stressed everyone out, and her odd wand movements which she uses to perform spells took them by surprise each time. She never moved her wand the way she was told, yet the results are all the same, which confused everyone, especially the teachers.
The thing that was found most unusual about the students, however, was how they use their magic to fight. In Hogwarts, learning defensive spells like Protego or Stupefy were usually taught to anyone from year 5 and up. These students, however, confessed to knowing them since the very beginning of their school years. They were taught how to cast offensive and defensive spells their entire lives. They were also taught how to turn simple spells, like Wingardium Leviosa, into something to use as an attack. They were taught theories and went through courses of offensive training as to get their fighting game on the max.
It was strange, much more strange than what you would be used to in a wizarding school. The students themselves wouldn't say, as most of them didn't have a clue themselves; but currently, the eight sitting under the glass roof of the Great Hall all knew, so they had to get ready.
Whitebeard's message, after all, is not one to ignore.
Everyone sat where people would be least likely to eavesdrop, at the Hufflepuff table; Thatch had personally ensured with kind pleas for his new friends in the House to not question or listen to anything exchanged. The Hufflepuffs were surprisingly easy to convince, but not because they were gullible. They were actually a bit suspicious, but trusted Thatch and the others not to cause trouble.
The group sat at the table. They all had some sort of semblance of seriousness expressed; it seemed that even Luffy was keeping his eye on the conversation. At first, after the explanation of the old Head's message, there was silence among the eight. Then Robin spoke up, voice low.
"Should we assume that there was no hint on what might cause this?" she asked.
"Not yet," Ace replied, "Pops said that they didn't manage to find any more clues just yet."
"We have to search for something," Koala said, "The library's open for nearly all of us, and we can always scavenge the castle. You never know what documents might be hidden in the floorboards."
"I'd like to add that whatever's gonna happen, it's at such a large schale that it'll reach here, to Britain," Law mentioned, "This is gonna be absolute mayhem..."
"And we don't know what it even is," Sabo sighed, running a hand through his hair.
"We've got to keep focus," Luffy spoke, "Protect those in danger of being harmed. The Heads and others will gather info, will let us know what's gonna happen. We need to rely on them for now. While they do that, we can't slack off either. We gotta keep training and getting stronger, if something happens and we'll have to face it. It's not only the people here in danger, it's the people we care about who are elsewhere."
Normally, people would be surprised to hear such commanding words from the boy, but those who knew him also knew not to underestimate him when it comes to combat. He has an incredibly high battle IQ.
"Lu's right," Ace murmured, "It's all we can do right now."
"I just hope everyone back at home are alright," Thatch said, propping his elbow onto Ace's shoulder, glaring at the table, "They were probably told about this immediately. God fucking damn it, they better be safe!"
"The crew's gonna be worried," Luffy mumbled, and Robin gave his shoulder a comforting squeeze.
"They have faith in our strength, and we should have faith in theirs," she told him, "There is no proof that we will all be okay while it happens, but we will heal."
Silence reigned the group, the chatter of the table blocked by everyone's worried thoughts. Luffy, ever the glutton, still ate a ton, but did not stop thinking about the situation. He was not very worried - they had faced tons of battles before - yet it was still something to think deeply about. Now that he had seen everyone's serious faces, it was hitting him that this will be one of the most dangerous things to happen in the century. It will be something big, with a lot of sacrifices. Hopefully, no one gets terribly harmed, but Luffy had to accept that something might happen. It's difficult, to think of his friends and the ones he cares about getting hurt. It's more painful than him getting hurt. He knows that no matter what happens, he will try to help them when needed. It's what friends do!
Suddenly, Koala slammed her fist on the table. Her strength nearly made the cups tip over, and a small bit if determination shone through her eyes.
"I'm gonna go research on prophecies and stuff in the library," she said, getting up from her seat, "Sabo, care to join me?"
"Sure," the blonde replied, also standing, similar determination on his own face. Luffy and everyone that was left watched as the duo exited the Grand Hall, silently wishing their luck.
"Ya think they can find anythin'?" Kid mumbled out loud. Law, who was sitting near him, sighed, loud but tired.
"Let's hope so," the man replied, head tilted down for his hat to hide his eyes, "but anyways, let's schedule groups to explore every inch of this castle for a clue, like Koala had said..."
-----
Days passed, and Luffy became a piece of work in every single class. Teachers were sick of his mess-ups, although Professor Hagrid seemed to find it a little funny as well as annoying. Luffy ignored them though. He didn't care what they thought, none of those spells would matter to him anyways! His dream is to be free, and to be free means to be the strongest, not the smartest.
The search for an explanation on what might happen continued. They had discovered many things: a tunnel leading to a secret chamber with a statue of a man identified as Salazar Slytherin that has a mechanical mouth; another tunnel in a statue of a witch that led to a sweetshop; a third tunnel at the base of the Whomping Willow that led to a broken-down house that was impossible to get out of. The number of secret tunnels was, in Luffy's opinion, kinda funny. Ace didn't think so.
"What's with these people and the fucking tunnels?!" he exclaimed when they found yet another tunnel behind some sort of mirror, this one being blocked by a wall of rubble.
One day, Luffy and Robin were sitting by the lake, simply lazing about. Lessons ended, and they had some free time. Ace and Sabo went to explore some other place with Thatch, and Luffy didn't want to be alone. Robin was leaning on a tree, reading a book which Sabo had found for her and drinking tea. The strawhatted boy was bored, so he made it his goal to observe the lake from the top of the tree and reach out into the depths with his observation haki. He sensed a lot of life near to bottom, and one ginormous lifesource somewhere there too.
Excited at the big lifesource, Luffy subconsciously leaned forward to the lake, smiling widely. Suddenly, his feet were swept from under him by a mysterious force, and he tumbled to the grassy ground, getting a mouthful of leaves and grass. Before Robin could comment, mean laughter erupted from some place away. Luffy looked up curiously.
A group of Slytherins were near the edge of the lake, staring at him and smirking. There was nothing remarkable about them; they were quite boring-looking, with dark hair and darker eyes. Luffy missed the people back at home, at least they looked somewhat interesting with colourful hair and clothes!
"Did you do that?" the strawhatted boy asked, looking at one of the students who had his wand out.
"Do what?" the boy asked back, tauntingly.
"Knock me over," Luffy explained, completely oblivious, "'Cause that was sneaky, I should've noticed you... I guess I was distracted."
He laughed, and the Slytherins scowled at him. Another boy, shorter than the first, pointed his wand at him.
"Incendio!" he said, and Luffy felt warmth appear on his head. He instantly knew that his hat was set on fire.
Luffy gave a shout of surprise and outrage. He took of his hat and rushed to dip it into the lake, putting the fire out. He had gotten some water on his hands, which made his energy sap a little, but it wasn't too much. He ignored the mocking laughs from the Slytherins behind him and concentrated on his hat.
He pulled his soggy hat out of the water and examined the charred area which had been caught fire. It was the brim of the hat, on the right. Cold fury swept through him, uprooting the little kindness he had first shown the Slytherins, sweeping it away like a tornado. This hat was given by Shanks, a memento of his goal, Shanks' treasure. If he hadn't put it out, the hat would've burnt away, and with it would have gone his dream.
He turned to glare at the group, subconsciously releasing haki. His eyes shut them up really quickly. Robin did not move from her place, but her eyes gazed watchfully, making sure the young Captain didn't go too far.
"This hat is my treasure," he said, anger clear in his voice, "You nearly destroyed it. I don't like those who try to destroy something precious to me!"
He threw a well-coordinated punch at the face of the boy who set it on fire in the first place. His punch was so powerful that the boy flew back, and rolled away before finally stopping. Immediately, the group started running away, terrified of Luffy's strength. The strawhatted boy watched the cowards run, anger still boiling under his skin.
Robin summoned a hand on his shoulder. She squeezed it lightly.
"Luffy, calm down a bit," she said gently, "Put those fools out of your mind. Shall we go look for your brothers?"
Luffy was still angry, but took a deep breath and tried to let it go. Robin is a smart friend. If she is telling him to do something, then it is probably a smart thing to do. He knew he acted out a lot. He always reacted with his emotions. His friends are always there to stop him from acting stupid, or to help him after he had done so.
He was so glad to have them.
After a few more seconds of just standing there and breathing, Robin's comforting hand still squeezing his shoulder, he turned to her and smiled.
"I'm hungry," he announced, "Let's go to the kitchen!"
-----
The days after were a blur of exploring, lessons, friendly fights, and a thick pack of fun times with his friends. There was a Quidditch match between Slytherin and Gryffindor somewhere in the middle, whcih Gryffindor won, although Luffy doesn't remember much of that other than lots of yelling and partying. He remembers how his friends smiled and stifled their laughs as they sneaked into the party (Law being dragged in by Kidd and Robin, who had somehow become friends with him), and how Kidd got dunked with a bunch of Butter Beers (he chased Luffy, the obvious culprit, around the room and out to the hallway, screeching and dripping all over the place), and Sabo's disappointed moans of the lack of wine (rich fucker) which he said through smiling teeth. He also remembered a lot of party tricks by Koala which was actually just Fishman Karate in disguise, Thatch and Ace juggling fire, and a lot of bouncing around.
Even if he had fun, Luffy knew that the Slytherins who weren't his friends disliked him more than ever. Word got around about how he punched the boy, and people were now ever so slightly scared of him. A few more people tried to pick fights with him, to prove the rumours wrong, or to test him, it didn't matter. Either way, they were taken care of, whether by Luffy or his brothers. Neither Ace nor Sabo had taken kindly to his brother being threatened. They knew he could defend himself, but according to Ace 'we are your big brothers and also want to kick ass' is a valid excuse for defending him. Luffy knew it was because they were all getting couped up. Not fighting for such a long time was suffocating for all of them.
The teacher had put them detention after detention, but that didn't bother the trio. Sabo and Robin would do some (admittedly complicated) magic to create clones and send them off to detention while the three boys skipped away in the opposite direction.
Anyways, the brothers made big names for themselves in Hogwarts for being aggressive and skillful fighters. They were all kind of proud of that. Some of the others, like Law for example, had also gained a reputation of being cold and/or unusual, which put them all in the spotlight.
An exception was Thatch, because... it was Thatch. He was bright and kind and really cool. Even the Slytherins didn't really have anything bad to say about him. Luffy would be severely offended if someone didn't like him!
(Ace had groaned something about favoritism when he loudly proclaimed his thoughts to his brothers. Sabo just laughed fondly and ruffled his little brother's hair.)
All of that aside, winter came a little too soon, and Luffy woke up one day to Sabo saying something with dark anticipation laced in his tone.
"The winter solstice is in a week."
They were eating breakfast. At that news, neither Ace nor Luffy slowed down, but their eyes snapped to stare at their blonde brother and they subconsciously shuffled closer to him as sources of comfort.
"Nothin' from the Heads?" Ace asked, mouth full of jam.
Sabo shook his head no. Luffy frowned, noticing the worried crease in his brother's brow.
"Maybe we'll get something today," the strawhatted boy said, "It's usually a week beforehand that people fighting great evil get to know what the great evil is."
"Like in Percy Jackson," Ace offered.
"Exactly!" Luffy sang, "Also, I'd like to live to celebrate Ace's birthday. No use dying when it's so close!"
"You're idiots," Sabo groaned, "You're both reckless, carefree idiots and I hate you."
"Same," a drawling and tired Trafalgar Law said, who had sneaked behind them.
Luffy turned his head and grinned at the lanky man. The entirety of the Gryffindor table glared at him, but did not attempt to kick him away. They knew from experience that if they told him to leave they'd get a mouthful of Luffy's fist. Or Sabo's fist. Or Ace's flame. Or all three at once. The point is, the mysterious Grandline students cared deeply of their friends from their school, which mystified the Gryffindors. Why would they even tolerate the tattooed and the redhead Slytherin?
"Traffy!" Luffy cheered, "What's up?"
"This," Law replied bluntly, holding something up. Luffy's mind blanked. He stopped eating.
It was a letter with a very familiar marking on it. The simple skull and crossbones that was stamped on was the logo of Grandline Uni.
"The others are ready," Law whispered, "Room of Requirement. Now."