The Deer Champion

Harry had never really been this nervous before if he was being honest.  He knew that Ino had said it would be a few hours but even then, he was obsessively checking the clock.

He didn’t know where they were staying or even really where they went so Harry had been holed up in the library.  As it was a public place, hopefully the others will find them at some point.  They had stopped by the common room and grabbed their bags to do homework, but Harry couldn’t concentrate long enough to do anything.

Hermione was almost easily working on her homework (well fine tuning it, again), Ron was attempting to finish the end of his essays.  But Harry had his book and paper in front of him but he kept glancing at the clock and the entrance to the library, not even pretending to be working on his homework.

His mind was just a jumbled mess.  He had so many questions and so many thoughts and he didn’t quite know what emotions he was feeling but he was certainly feeling them.  As soon as the foreigners had left, Harry lost all ability to focus on anything else.  Well, to be fair, he lost all ability to focus on anything else when Shikamaru verified that she was the other Evans.

So, he had another cousin?  That doesn’t make sense because as far as he knew only Aunt Petunia was his mother’s sister.  So, he had a sister?  But it asked for Evans which was his mother’s maiden name instead of Potter.  So maybe a half-sister?  But he couldn’t really wrap his head around the idea of his mom cheating on his dad.  Plus, that was including the fact that Shikamaru looked way too much like the older Nara (who might be her dad if he went by her comment last night?).

Even though he had only known her for a bit more than a day, Harry actually liked Shikamaru.  Well, he liked all of them but right now his focus was on his maybe half-sister. 

He knew that Hermione was curious about them and their culture and was especially looking forward to talk to Ino.  Ron was in awe at how Shikamaru was actually able to nap in the Great Hall because it was usually way too loud to even attempt to nap.

In the corner of his mind, Harry acknowledged the thought of introducing Chouji and Neville, but the rest of his mind was occupied by other things.

Harry was thankful that his friends were just silently supporting him right now and just leaving him to his thoughts.  He didn’t think he could have held a conversation if they even tried to talk to him.

Finally, Harry heard footsteps, and with like every footstep sound, his attention zeroed in on the entrance to the library.  To his delight yet made him made nervous, it was Shikamaru, Ino, and Chouji who entered.

Well, Shikamaru looked slightly haggard and was holding a huge black object.  Chouji seemed to be giving Shikamaru sympathy and Ino just looked pleasantly pleased with himself.

Straining his ears, he could hear Shikamaru muttering to Ino, “Never again” and “Should have escaped when I had the chance”.

Harry was startled when the huge black object in Shikamaru’s arms actually moved and a pair of almost glowing green eyes seemed to look at him.  This was when he realized that Shikamaru was carrying a very large cat.

Shikamaru looked down at it, said something in her native language before setting the cat on her shoulder.

To Harry’s surprise, despite how large it was, it easily settled around Shikamaru’s neck and shoulders.  Chouji looked amused and Ino seemed to be commenting about pet hair.

And then the foreigner trio was in front of the Hogwarts trio.  Hermione and Ron had looked up at the commotion and thus saw them approach.  Hermione actually looked curious yet elated at the idea of someone else having a cat.

“So, you were going to show us around?” Ino immediately asked as soon as he stopped next to the table.

“Where did you even go?  And is that a cat?”  Ron couldn’t help but ask slightly incredulously.

“I think they called it Diagon Alley?”  Chouji tentatively explained.

“This is Shika no Kage.  Or Shikakage for short.”  Shikamaru explained but didn’t say anything else.

Ino rolled his eyes at the lone female and explained, “Shika means deer and kage means shadow in our native language.  The Nara aren’t very inventive with naming things.”

Shikamaru somehow shrugged her shoulders even with the large cat.  “I’m named Shikamaru, my dad is Shikaku, I don’t think you should be that surprised by our naming ability.”

Ino snorted in agreement while Chouji just gave an amused grin.  “I’m just surprised you even got a pet.”  Chouji commented.

“To be fair, she adopted me rather than me adopting her.”  Shikamaru couldn’t help but point out, “She found me on the street and refused to leave until I successfully bought her, so I didn’t really had say in the matter.”

“The shop owner did say that kneazles choose their own owners, even if she is only ¾ kneazle.”  Chouji pointed back out.

Ron’s eyes widened at the comment that it was a kneazle, but Harry and Hermione didn’t really know what was the big deal.  Well Hermione looked like she somewhat understood what was happening, as if she read something about it, but didn’t realize the full implications like Ron.

“Showing us around?”  Ino pressed again.

The Golden Trio stared at him dumbly for a second before they started packing their things.  “We can stop by where ever you sleep to drop off your bags, we already dropped off ours.” Ino continued.

That’s right, the foreigners didn’t know about common rooms or really anything about Hogwarts in general.  “Let’s head to the common room and then we’ll show you around.”  Hermione immediately said as she stood up.

Harry was slightly thankful for Hermione speaking up as he couldn’t really gather his thoughts.  Where his head was buzzing before with questions, was now completely quiet from the confusion of the cat and why Shikamaru looked slightly haggard.

“So, what happened to you?”  Ron couldn’t help but ask Shikamaru as they started leading to the common room.

Shikamaru scowled while Chouji patted her back in support.  Ino just beamed, but before he could comment Shikamaru declared, “Never go shopping with Ino.”

Ino looked slightly offended by this and the Golden Trio exchanged a look at the declaration.  That sounded like something they didn’t really want to know about, at least not right now.  “So, what did you get at Diagon Alley besides…Shikakage?”  Harry asked slightly hesitantly.

“Wands and school supplies.” Chouji helpfully answered.

“Oh, you didn’t have wands before?” Hermione asked interestedly.

The foreigners exchanged such a quick look between themselves that Harry thought that he imagined it. “Don’t need them where we are from.”  Ino finally shared.

After that, it descended into slightly awkward silence as neither side knew what to say to that.  Quickly though, they were at the Gryffindor common room.  “Oh, we’ll be taking classes with the 4^th year Gryffindors starting tomorrow!” Ino almost freely informed.

“Oh, so you sorted into Gryffindor?” Ron asked as they stopped in front of the portrait.

“Something like that.” Ino said and then sent an amused look at a slightly scowling Shikamaru.

“We’ll let’s show you the common room then.  I’m guessing you have your own rooms?” Harry quickly offered.

The other three nodded.  Ino and Chouji looked slightly alarmed at the talking and moving portraits but Shikamaru just made a comment in their native language that calmed them.  Harry couldn’t help but wish he knew the language they were talking in because he was curious on all the comments.

As soon as they entered the common room, it almost went completely quiet as everyone looked at the foreigners who had entered.  “They were sorted into Gryffindor.” Hermione quickly reassured the populace before anyone could protest.

Harry vaguely heard a question and answer occur behind him in their native language though.  As soon as they realized they were Gryffindors, people started coming forward to meet the foreigners.

Shikamaru was slouched and had her eyes closed, though her cat was actively watching everyone and everything.  Ino easily fell into socializing with as many people as he could handle while Chouji would interject a couple of times.

To Harry, this looked natural, like it was a common occurrence; Shikamaru silently collecting information, Ino socializing and getting new information, and Chouji being the middle ground between the two and keeping others at ease.

Harry quickly looked around the common room, and as soon as he saw Neville, he waved him over.  Neville hesitated for a bit before he made his way over.

“Neville, this is Chouji, Chouji, this is my friend Neville.” Harry quickly introduced the two as the crowd was dispersing.

Chouji gave Neville a warm smile and Neville returned a warm but nervous smile.  Shikamaru had opened her eyes halfway and was actively watching the interaction.  Ino for once was just quietly watching the interaction.

Shikamaru made a comment in her native language to Ino, but Chouji seemed to hear it as he sent an amused looked at her.

“We were just showing them around, why don’t you join us Neville?”  Harry continued on.

He was personally determined to make these two friends, he thought that Chouji could be really good for Neville.  Neville hesitated and looked like he was going to deny it before Chouji commented, “I would appreciate if you did help show me around Neville.”

Neville gave a hesitant but warm smile and nodded in agreement.  Chouji just returned the smile and Ino made a comment back to Shikamaru which made the female snort softly.

Soon they were outside the common room again.  “We should split up!  It’ll help us learn the place easier and be a great way to get to know each other.”  Ino basically chirped.

Shikamaru sent Ino such an unimpressed look that it made Chouji snort.  “Chouji can go with Neville, I’ll go with Ron and Hermione, and Shikamaru can go with Harry!”

Harry wasn’t really expecting it to be so easy to talk to Shikamaru one on one, but apparently Ino could tell he wanted to talk to her alone.  Hermione glanced over at Harry but he gave her a tentative smile and she quickly agreed.  She already started walking off with Ino and Ron quickly following behind as she started to give some history about the school.

“You look like you like to garden Neville, why don’t you show me the outside?”  CHouji prompted.

Both Harry and Neville were slightly startled at that level of insight from the guy.  Shikamaru had a lazy smirk on her face before Neville agreed and started to show the way to the greenhouses with Chouji asking questions about the class.

Harry stood there slightly awkward while Shikamaru just half lidded her eyes.  He was hit by an epiphany to show the Quidditch pitch, it was outside but away from Chouji and Neville and should be separated enough for a quiet discussion.

“Let’s go to the Quidditch pitch.”  Harry finally stated as he started taking steps to lead the way outside.

Harry heard Shikamaru mutter a word that sounded like “troublesome” but quickly followed him.

They walked in relative silence outside with Harry sometimes pointing out different classrooms that were used or pointing down the way to other parts of the castle.

Shikamaru didn’t really comment or answer back, just following him slouched over with her hands in her pockets.

As soon as they got outside though, the cat perked up.  Shikamaru opened her eyes a little wider and made a comment to the cat in her native language.  As they were walking, Shikamaru seemed to be telling the cat something and the cat looked like it understood.

Finally, when they were closer to the forest, part way to the Quidditch pitch, Shikamaru stopped.  Harry stopped a bit further away, not expecting the reaction.  Shikamaru crouched down and the cat, Shikakage, got off of her shoulders.

Harry would swear that the large cat seemed to grow even larger as soon as it was on the floor.  Because there was no way that the cat was this big but able to lay on Shikamaru’s shoulders.  And yet, the more Harry stared at the cat, it seemed to slowly grow just a little larger by the second.

“Don’t cause any problems, I’ll know if you do.  Make sure to come back around dinner though.”  Shikamaru finally told the cat in English as she slowly stood up.

The cat just gave a meow before trotting off into the forest.  Harry was about to tell Shikamaru that the forest was dangerous when she commented, “Nothing in the forest will harm her.”

Harry looked at her incredulously, but decided that if Shikamaru had that much confidence in her cat, it’d probably be fine.  Plus, the cat was huge.

Shikamaru jerked her head to indicate that Harry should continue.  Hesitating a moment, Harry then started to walk towards the pitch again.

Once on the pitch, Harry realized he didn’t quite know where to start.  Shikamaru looked around before she determinedly started to make her way off of the pitch to a sunned part of the grass.

Without wasting any time, she sat on the grass in the sunlight and just closed her eyes to relax.  Harry awkwardly stood there for a second before sitting next to her.  “Go ahead and ask.”  Shikamaru muttered as she turned her face towards the sun.

“Are you my sister?”  Harry asked the first question that came to his mind.

“Half-sister.  We share a mother.”  Shikamaru almost immediately answered.

“So my mom che-“

“Lily Evans did not cheat on James Potter.” Shikamaru stated in a slightly sharp tone before continuing, “My actual mother is Lily’s cousin and couldn’t bear children.  Lily had offered to carry the child with my father’s DNA implanted.  As soon as I was born, my mother blood adopted me, so I have 2 mothers technically.”

That thawed something in Harry’s chest, to know that his mom didn’t cheat on his dad.  That was his biggest worry for this whole thing.  “How come I never knew about you?”  Harry questioned after a few seconds of comfortable silence.

“Lily knew that as soon as I was born, she would have no say in my life.  Only a few people even knew of my birth.  And as far as I know, your parents passed away when you were very young, so there was no one to tell you.” Shikamaru pointed out logically.

Harry couldn’t help but grimace at the reminder of his parents’ death.  “And you never came to find me?”  Harry couldn’t help but ask with a bitter undertone.

Shikamaru actually opened her eyes and looked at Harry.  Harry met her eyes but had to admit that it was a very heavy scrutiny. “If your parents had lived, we might have met at some time, but it was never a thought that we would have a true connection.  Plus, we had no legal say in your life so your next of kin was the most logical choice.”  Shikamaru finally commented, still scrutinizing Harry heavily.

Harry couldn’t help but grimace slightly at the blunt answer.  While it was completely logical, didn’t mean he liked it.  Harry probably would have much rather lived with a half-sister than the Dursley’s.

“You don’t like your next of kin.”  Shikamaru stated almost casually.

Harry jolted a little but couldn’t find it in himself to try and lie.

Shikamaru gave a groan with another mutter of “troublesome” before commenting, “We can look into the wills and see if we had any legal hold over where you go.  If we do, we’ll go on from there.”

Harry almost gave himself whiplash with how fast he moved his head to stare at her.  “You would do that?”

“As troublesome as it is to have another male in my life, you clearly are suffering with whoever you live with currently.  I’m not promising anything, or even if we’ll take you in, but we can see if we have any legal holding and try to get you a better place.”  Shikamaru finally admitted after a few seconds of silence.

Harry didn’t quite know how to feel about that.  “Worse comes to worse, we can talk to your current guardians.” Shikamaru mentioned offhand as she started to close her eyes again.

Harry didn’t even fight the grimace at the thought of Shikamaru meeting the Dursleys.  He liked Shikamaru, but from past experience, people tended to listen to the Dursley’s rather than whatever he said.

Harry jolted a little when he glanced at her and made eye contact with her half lidded dark eyes.  She seemed to look into his very soul and made a soft grunt before almost reluctantly commenting, “Don’t dismiss our help before we even try.  The Nara are very big on family, and I know you don’t know this, but I was transported with all 3 of my dads.”

Harry did a double take and the question was basically in his facial expression.  “Troublesome.  Back home, the Ino-Shika-Cho group is well known.  If you are born into any of the families, you are guaranteed to have an extra 2 parents that aren’t blood related.  I just happened to be with all of mine.”  Shikamaru explained grudgingly.

Harry couldn’t help but feel a little bitter at the fact that Shikamaru had 3 fathers while he had no one.  “Do you love them?”

Harry had surprised himself with the question, he hadn’t meant to ask.  He flushed slightly in embarrassment as Shikamaru fully opened her eyes again to look at him.  “Yeah, as troublesome it is to be surrounded by males all the time, I love all of them.”  Shikamaru stated truthfully.

“Tell me more about your friends and Hogwarts.”  Shikamaru finally almost demanded as she fully laid in the grass with her eyes shut.

Harry hesitated as he wanted to know more about her family but finally relented.  He didn’t lay down with her but he sat there and told her all about his friends and his true home, Hogwarts.

It was getting dark by the time Harry had mentioned they should get to dinner.  Shikamaru gave a soft sigh but sat up reluctantly.  “It’s so cold here that it’s hard to really be comfortable enough for a nap.”  Shikamaru complained as she heaved herself onto her feet before offering a hand to Harry.

Harry was slightly surprised at the show of strength as Shikamaru easily hauled him onto his feet.  After hauling him up though, Shikamaru started to stretch.

During this time, Harry took a better look at her outfit, even though it was getting dark.

She was wearing something that reminded him more of muggles than wizards.  She was wearing a green vest like thing with what looked to be a mesh shirt underneath, well the shirt sleeves were mesh.  The vest looked slightly bulky and had many pockets. 

There was a slab of metal on her left shoulder with a design etched on it but Harry couldn’t make out the symbol.  Her pants reminded him vividly of muggle runner’s pants that stopped mid-calf, though there was a black bag strapped against some white cloth on her right thigh.  He briefly wondered what was in the pouch.

The weirdest thing though was her shoes.  The shoes reminded him of like combat boots, but the toes were completely exposed.

And she was wearing earrings?  This was honestly probably the first time that Harry truly looked at her. 

At the start, it was easy to notice that Shikamaru’s outfit was somewhat similar to the older males of the group.  Though the Akimichi had what looked to be like armor over the outfit.  Chouji and Ino were both wearing something different but seemed to be at least relatively similar style.

Harry wondered if green vest meant something specific.

Even in the dark, Harry had to admit that she was becoming really pretty.  She was obviously at minimum a year younger than him.  For some reason, it didn’t thrill Harry the thought of others noticing.

That actually surprised him, he barely knew her, why would he care?  Is this what happens when you have a sibling?  God Harry wasn’t thrilled at that idea.

Wait, Shikamaru was giving him an irritated look, “This was why I don’t need more males in my life.” 

Harry opened and closed his mouth a couple of time trying to come up with something to say and it wasn’t going well.  “I can more than easily take care of myself.”  Shikamaru immediately continued.

Harry flushed and sheepishly rubbed the back of his head which just made his hair messier.  Shikamaru still looked irritated as she started to walk back to the castle.  Harry quickly followed her and walked by her side but didn’t say anything in fear of drawing her ire.

They were passing by the Forbidden Forest when they heard a meow.  Looking over, it was hard to make out Shikakage from the darkness that was starting to descend.  “Did you cause any problems?”  Shikamaru immediately asked the cat as it trotted over.

It was actually slightly terrifying to see almost nothing but glowing green eyes, but Harry told himself it’s because of how creepy the forest is and it was getting dark.  The cat meowed again and the two females held an intense starring contest.

Finally, Shikamaru commented, “As long as I don’t have to hear about it, I don’t care.”

Shikakage meowed and started purring loudly.  Shikamaru snorted softly before turning and heading back to the castle again.  Harry quickly caught up with her and they both continued on their way to the castle but now with a furry companion.

Harry was slightly amazed how easily Shikamaru led the way to the Great Hall.  Harry glanced back at the cat still following them, and he swore it was even larger than when it entered the forest earlier.  He was absolutely asking what the hell was a kneazle when he met up with Hermione.

Finally, Shikakage meowed and Shikamaru turned her head slightly to say “You don’t have to go in with me, you can go explore and I’ll feed you later.”

The cat gave one last meow before trotting off down another hallway.  Harry stared after it for a second before looking back at the owner.  She was slumped with her hands in her pockets and did nothing more than shrug her shoulders.

It wasn’t long until they were entering the Great Hall and Shikamaru didn’t even pause to look for people before she was moving to the Gryffindor table.  She sat down and laid down her head while Harry sat across from her.  He sat there a little awkwardly for a second before she grunted and Harry took that to mean he could start eating.

“Fawn, don’t sleep at the table, they’ll consider it rude.”  A voice said behind Harry.

Harry actually jumped in his seat and almost fell off of it, if it wasn’t for the steadying hand stopping him.  Shikamaru raised her head to glare at the person behind Harry and commented back, “Well I find it rude that they’re making me go to class, so I guess we both can’t have what we want.”

Harry heard a snort behind him and he finally turned his head to look at who scared him but also prevented him from falling out of his chair.

It was the older Nara.  The man looked down at Harry and gave a smirk before he sat next to Harry.  Harry gave an awkward grin back.  “Name’s Shikaku kid.”  The elder Nara finally introduced himself and held out a hand to shake.

Harry shook the hand and was amused to note that even the elder Nara was slouching in his seat.  “So, what got you so irritated?”  The elder finally asked the younger.

“Well, dad, congratulations, you have another soldier for your overprotective army.”  Shikamaru scathingly commented.

Shikaku snorted before he started to laugh.  Shikamaru did nothing more than glare at the man before laying her head back down.

“I thought I only had to warn Ino not to scar the general populace.” Another voice spoke behind Harry.

This time while he did jump again, he didn’t almost fall out of his seat.  He turned his head again to see the elder Yamanaka.  The blonde gave Harry a disarming smile that reminded Harry vividly of the moment he was smiled at and everything screamed in him not to irritate the blonde.

“I will have you know, that I am not scarring anyone.”  Shikaku commented good naturedly.

“Then why are you cackling?”  The Yamanaka couldn’t help but ask with a raised eyebrow.

“Ah, Shika just said something funny.” Shikaku explained before snorting again.

He then made eye contact with the Yamanaka and it wasn’t long before the blonde also snorted.  “That temper is all her mom’s.”  The Yamanaka commented before turning to Harry, “I’m Inoichi.  If you need any help with the Nara, I’m willing to help but I can’t guarantee anything.”

Harry gave a confused smile and also shook Inoichi’s hand.  “Where’s Chouza?” Shikaku asked.

“Making food.” Inoichi quickly answered though he kept glancing at Shikamaru’s resting form with his lips twitching.

Shikaku nodded before commenting to Harry, “As far as I’m aware, you aren’t happy with your next of kin.”

Harry was amazed and kind of creeped out on how the elder Nara seemed to figure that out so quickly.  As far as Harry could tell, only the Yamanaka could do the weird mind magic.  “You get used to it.  Don’t let their laziness fool you, they’re both highly competent.”  Inoichi commented to Harry who had a slightly stupefied look.

Shikamaru did nothing more than grunt and wave the man away and Shikaku just smirked.

“We can look at the wills and see if we have any legal power, but minimum we will be talking to your guardians probably towards the end of the year.” 

Harry could do nothing more than nod at the man as Inoichi patted him on the shoulder, “Don’t worry about it, the Nara keep their word.”

Well, Harry wasn’t really worried about them keeping their word, more of worried about them interacting with the Dursley.  The adults narrowed their eyes minutely but Harry blinked and it was gone.

"Ready for classes Shikamaru?" Inoichi finally asked which caused the sole female to look up and give a poisonous glare.

The blonde quickly held his hands up in surrender and took a small step backwards.

"Shikamaru usually isn't this irritable but she isn't thrilled about being forced to go to classes starting tomorrow" shikaku basically muttered to Harry.

He could do nothing more than nod; he kind of got that simply from her comments earlier. "Make sure she physically goes to class, anything else, they can figure out" Shikaku continued.

Harry kind of sent Shikaku a confused look at the statement but the man just smirked back. Why were the Nara so weird?

"Have you seen Ino or even Chouji for that matter?" Shikamaru asked from the folds of her arms.

"They're already up with Chouza getting some food," Inoichi explained before looking at Harry, "Your friends should be down soon."

Harry gave a slightly relieved grin at that declaration. "That means I should get these two up to eat before they either fall asleep or start a shogi match." Inoichi told Harry conversationally while he tapped Shikamaru's arm.

Giving a groan, she got up but looked like she honestly could fall asleep standing up. Shikaku also looked like he was willing to nap but wasn't as sleepy as the female Nara.

"See you later Harry." Shikamaru lazily drawled while she started to leave the hall.

Harry could hear Shikamaru start to complain about it almost being too cold to nap while Shikaku looked like he agreed with the sentiment and Inoichi rolled his eyes.

It wasn't long before Hermione and Ron entered the hall followed by Neville.

Ron looked slightly harried but Hermione looked ecstatic and Neville looked happy. Harry briefly wondered how he looked to them. "We'll be seeing them in class tomorrow," Harry couldn't help but comment to the others as they sat down near him.

Hermione just beamed at Harry and he briefly wondered just what they talked about with Ino. Ron gave him a deadpan stare but Neville just smiled. "Shikamaru didn't state clearly enough how you shouldn't go with Ino," Ron couldn't help but complain as he started to grab food.

Hermione looked slightly offended and swatted Ron's shoulder. "Ino was perfectly pleasant!" Hermione scolded.

Ron turned to Harry and told him "They talked almost the whole time, about anything and everything."

Harry gave Ron a commiserating look; he knew how overwhelming Hermione could be when she got going, let alone coupled with a similar person.

"Chouji said he would be my partner as long as he doesn't have to pair up with Shikamaru," Neville interjected.

The Golden Trio gave the shy lion an intrigued look at this statement. It was rare to see Neville so excited about school things unless it was Herbology. They also wondered at the statement about being partnered to Shikamaru.

Eh, they'll find out tomorrow. They all lightly talked about what each of them discussed while eating dinner. ‘It was a good day,’ Harry couldn't help but think.