Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Gundam Wing Goes to Hogwarts ❯ Hogwarts ( Chapter 2 )

Chapter 2: Hogwarts

“Isn't it beautiful?” Treize sighed. “Imagine how it will look in another year when the vines have propagated.”

“It is rather nice,” Zechs agreed. “It has a very relaxing feel about it.”

“Precisely. I think we should add seating areas and walkways. People may enjoy coming here for picnics.”

“That's a good idea. We have parks in the residential domes, but nothing this open and expansive. It will make people feel less closed in.”

“And maybe it will make Noin feel better about the place,” Treize added.

“Good point.” Zechs looked up at the sky. “We should go. Quatre wants everybody together this afternoon in time for an early evening departure.”

“What excuse are we using this time for disappearing without leaving on a shuttle? We're planning to be gone for more than just overnight.”

“We're going to the Winner resource satellite.” Zechs grinned. “The same pilot Noin bribed last time is flying a shuttle there, although apparently she had to agree to two dates this time. They already went on one.” Zechs snickered. “Sally told me Noin got home really late and was looking rather rumpled.”

“Indeed?”

“But apparently her humor has improved, so maybe it's a good thing.”

“Getting laid always improves my humor.”

“So that would explain why you're a giggling idiot most of the time.”

“I am not!” Treize exclaimed, offended. “I am the perfect gentleman at all times.”

“Except when you're trying to get my pants off.”

“Can I help it if your exquisite beauty strips me of all self-control?” Treize purred.

“Don't start!” Zechs growled, but his cheeks turned pink. “Let's go.”

They returned to the residential dome and found the rest of the Gundam pilots and their children gathered at Quatre's house. Noin and Sally were there, too. Noin looked rather bemused.

“The shuttle will leave at midnight,” Noin said, “so you should go before morning. Is there anything else I need to know?”

“Treize and I just had a thought that it would be nice to add picnic areas and walkways to the new dome,” Zechs said.

“That's a great idea!” Sally said immediately. “It would be like getting out in the open.”

“Hmm…” Noin stroked her chin. “That is a pretty good idea. I'll look into it.”

“Great!”

“So are we ready to go?” Heero said grumpily. “I want to get away from these damn sprites! They've been hassling me nonstop.”

“They missed you!” Duo said.

“How can they miss me?!” Heero demanded. “They're everywhere I go!”

“Maybe it's different groups of sprites,” Trowa said.

“True,” agreed Quatre. “It's not like we can tell them apart.”

“How do we know they can't go into the book, too?” Wu-Fei grumbled irritably.

“Don't say that!” Heero groaned.

“I haven't finished the third book yet,” Roku spoke up. “So will we just fall into the middle somewhere?”

“I imagine we'll end up wherever you stopped reading,” Quatre replied. “I planned to use you as a guide.”

“That'll make it more fun if we don't know what's going to happen,” Trowa said.

“With the added benefit that we won't know how badly we screwed things up until we get back,” Wu-Fei added sourly.

“Cheer up, Fei!” Duo said. “We'll be experiencing literature firsthand. I would think a scholar like you would be excited about that.”

“Thrilled. What if Quatre brings the whole thing to life? What then?”

“You're such a pessimist. I must not be screwing you enough.”

“How is that possible?!” Wu-Fei exclaimed.

“Can we not get off-topic here?” Quatre interrupted.

“These books take place in England, right?” Treize asked. “We've been there before.”

“Yes, but it will be a different era from our previous visits,” Roku said. “These stories are based in the twenty-first century.”

“That's not too backward an era,” Trowa noted.

“Are you kidding?!” Duo exclaimed. “They didn't even have space travel! It took hours to get from one side of the planet to the other!”

“But they were still pretty good at killing each other off despite those limitations,” Zechs said with a smirk.

Heero perked up.

“This isn't going to be dangerous is it?” Noin asked. “If this alternate universe is too real…”

“I'm sure it will be no riskier than anything else we've done,” Quatre said encouragingly.

Everyone else wisely stayed silent.

“Well, Sally and I should get out of your way. You'll only be gone for a few weeks, right?”

“Two at the most,” Quatre said.

“All right.” Noin and Sally gave everyone hugs and left the house.

Quatre looked around, his expression turning sour. “I suppose everyone has finished stuffing all their excess baggage into Roku's storage space?” Innocent looks appeared on everyone's faces and Quatre shook his head in disgust. “Treize and Zechs, what about your things?”

“I'll dash home and get them,” Treize said. “We have just a few small cases.”

Once Treize returned with their bags, Quatre nodded and pulled out his spell book. “I don't really see any reason for delaying, so everyone scrunch together.” He held the book up and intoned gravely, “Take us to the world of Harry Potter as it exists in Roku's mind.” Then he opened the book and read from the first page.

The world blurred and shifted and they found themselves standing in the middle of a wide lawn in front of a towering castle. Behind them was a large, deep blue lake. A dark forest bordered on both. The sun was just starting to sink into the west and long shadows stretched across the lawn.

Roku bounced up and down on his toes, his long braid swinging. “That's Hogwarts!” he said excitedly. “It looks just like I imagined it!”

“It's huge!” Alexa said.

Jett stared up at it with large eyes, clinging to Duo's hand.

There were no people anywhere in sight, but lights were starting to shine from the castle's windows.

“Everything seems very real,” Wu-Fei remarked. “It even smells like England.” He sneezed and a little smoke curled out of his mouth.

“Try to keep that under control,” Duo said.

“Sorry, but you know how climate change affects me.”

“Let's get up to the castle,” Quatre suggested.

They marched up the wide lawn to the front doors of the castle, which stood open. Inside the doors was a large entryway, from which several halls, doors and staircases could be accessed. As they entered, a tall, skinny man with stringy hair, squinty eyes and a perpetual scowl appeared out of a side hall.

“Who are you?” he demanded loudly. “Strangers ain't allowed in Hogwarts without permission!” He strode purposefully into their path and stood with his hands on his hips, glaring at them and blocking the way. A big striped cat took up position next to him, apparently prepared to back him up.

“Good evening,” Quatre said affably. He put on his most disarming expression. “Would it be possible to speak to the headmaster?”

“What fer?” The skinny man leaned forward, his scowl deepening. His accent twisted the vowels interestingly.

Treize stepped forward. “I'm sure you'll understand, my good man, when I say that not all matters should be discussed casually in the open.” He smiled and tapped a finger against the side of his nose.

The man's scowl shifted to a thoughtful expression, although he still looked quite irritated. “Well, that's true enough,” he muttered under his breath. “All right, then!” he said more loudly, “you just follow me and keep yourselves to yourselves. Folks are just sittin' down to dinner, so you can see the Headmaster in the Great Hall.”

“Thank you.”

The man turned and led the way, the cat trotting at his side. The Great Hall was indeed great. A vast room that could contain hundreds of people comfortably, it had four long tables running most of the length of the room with benches on either side, crowded with young people from middle school age up to their late teens. The students were all wearing black robes with differently colored stripped scarves around their necks. At a long table across the far end of the hall, several adults were seated, most of them also dressed in black robes. Quite a few also wore tall pointed hats. But one venerable gentleman with flowing white hair and a long white beard was dressed in blue robes. His pointed hat was bright blue with stars twinkling on it.

As they entered the hall, everyone turned to stare at them and an explosion of whispered comments burst out. The adults watched them approach with wary expressions, but none of them spoke. When they arrived in the empty space in front of the rear table, their guide addressed himself to the man in the blue robes.

“Professor Dumbledore, sir, this lot here says they need to speak to you.” He sketched something of a bow and stepped aside, fixing a dark glower on the Gundam pilots.

Dumbledore stood up. “Good evening and welcome to Hogwarts,” he said in a rather cheerful voice. “How may I be of service to you?”

Treize made a polite bow. “Professor,” he said, “may I begin by saying our visit is nothing sinister.” Dumbledore raised his eyebrows. “We are visitors to this fine country and hoped to establish ourselves in familiar surroundings during our stay.”

“You are wizards?” Dumbledore inquired.

The other teachers seated at the table were studying them with expressions that ranged from open curiousity to naked distrust.

“Some of us are,” Treize acknowledged, “and some are not.”

“What?!” One of the teachers leaped to his feet. His greasy black hair fell into his dark eyes and he had to fling his head back to get it out of the way. “Muggles in Hogwarts?!” His infuriated and scandalized expression was echoed on quite a few faces, including among the students.

“Muggles?” Treize murmured and he glanced at Roku.

“It means non-magic people,” Roku whispered.

“Ah.” Treize looked at the man who had spoken, but he addressed himself to Dumbledore. “I gather the ability to practice magic is considered a requirement for residence here, Professor Dumbledore,” he said graciously, “but I think you will find that each of us has skills you may find of value.”

“Indeed?” Dumbledore's eyes were twinkling. He appeared intrigued.

The black haired man was not. “Professor Dumbledore,” he said stiffly, “these… trespassers should be escorted off the premises at once!”

“Do you think so, Professor Snape?” Dumbledore replied. His lips twitched. “Have you forgotten that there are dementors guarding the entrances to Hogwarts? How do you suppose they got in?”

A comical look of shock came over Snape's face. The other teachers began to speak excitedly among themselves and the chatter among the students shot up.

Dumbledore's eyes fell on Roku. “This young man here seems of an appropriate age to be a student here. Is he by any chance a wizard?”

“Yes, I am, Professor Dumbledore,” Roku spoke up proudly.

“Prove it!” Snape demanded immediately, his eyes narrowed angrily.

“Small magic, please,” Quatre murmured, but loudly enough for Roku to hear.

Roku pulled three small balls out of his storage space and began juggling them. Then he tossed them into the air and all three disappeared in a flash of light. A gasp of surprise swept the hall. One of the teachers, an enormous man easily three times the size of any normal person, applauded loudly until a sharp look from one of the other teachers silenced him.

Dumbledore was grinning delightedly. “Well done!” he said. “Very well done! I think you need to be sorted into a house.” Roku grinned happily. Dumbledore held out his hand and an ancient pointed hat appeared in it. “Mr. Filch, get a stool please.”

The squinty-eyed guide who had brought them to the Great Hall fetched a tall stool from the side of the room and placed it in the middle of the open space in front of the teachers table. A stern looking female teacher with a tall black hat took the old hat from Dumbledore and came around the table, stopping next to the stool.

“Sit here, please,” she said briskly to Roku. “What is your name?”

“Roku Winner,” Roku said as he climbed onto the stool.

The woman placed the hat on his head. The hat immediately began to mutter.

“What's this? What's this? This is most unusual! Most unusual indeed! Are you sure you need to be here? Not sure what you plan to learn. Very interesting!”

Roku grinned delightedly. “I've never met a hat that talked before! How did you learn to talk? Did you used to be a person? Is there a spell on you? Do you like being a hat? I've never been a hat, but I've been a lot of other stuff, like one time I was a girl and I've been a bird and a dragon, but I'm usually a tiger, but right now I'm being a human `cause most people are more comfortable with that because sometimes they're scared of tigers especially since I'm getting really big now, but I'm not as big when I'm a person, but I think that's because tiger's grow up faster than people. So can you be anything other than a hat?”

There was a moment of stunned silence and the hat's little pointed tip stood straight up. “Gryffindor!” it suddenly cried out and flung itself backward off of Roku's head.

The female teacher stared pensively at Roku as she retrieved the hat from the floor.

The students with red and yellow scarves around their necks began to cheer and they leaped to their feet excitedly. “Yay! Gryffindor!” they cried. “Come sit with us!” several called out, beckoning to Roku. Roku scurried over and squeezed in next to a boy with bright red hair. The youth pounded Roku on the back and others reached out to ruffle his hair and tug on his braid.

Quatre smiled indulgently and leaned toward Duo. “Please remind him what he should not talk about,” he said in a low voice.

Duo looked at Roku for a moment and Roku nodded.

Dumbledore clapped his hands. “Quiet, please! Everyone please settle down!” When some semblance of order had been restored, Dumbledore looked down at the others. “Well, that was quite interesting, I must say. But if you don't mind, I'd like to continue this in private. So if you will all please follow me. Professor McGonagall, if you would please join us.” He came around the table and led the way out of the Great Hall. Filch trailed after them, but he was left behind when Dumbledore led them up a hidden staircase that suddenly appeared in a wall in front of them. At the top was a large, comfortable study filled with all sorts of interesting items, including a beautiful bird with bright red plumage resting on a gold stand.

Once inside, Dumbledore took a seat behind a desk covered in papers and regarded them over the tops of his glasses. “It is most unusual to have so many people show up at Hogwarts at once,” he said. He blinked at them expectantly.

“We often travel together,” Treize said, “as we are bound by family ties.”

“I see.”

“But as it happens, Roku asked if he might spend a year studying at Hogwarts, so we all decided to come.”

“Normally, only students, teachers and staff live at Hogwarts,” said Professor McGonagall.

“Of course,” Treize replied. “We are prepared to serve in whatever capacity best benefits the school.”

“We already have a full complement of professors for all of our courses,” McGonagall said with a slight frown. “And only wizards serve as instructors here. You said some of you are not wizards?” She looked around, studying their faces.

“Actually, Roku and Quatre here,” Treize put a hand on Quatre's shoulder, “are the only wizards in the group. The rest of us have, um, other talents.”

“What kind of talents?” Dumbledore leaned forward eagerly.

“Well,” Wu-Fei said slowly, “I don't mean to be critical, but I have noted a dismaying lack of academic depth in your curriculum. Magic and social studies seem to be the only two discipline areas taught, which I personally find woefully inadequate. While it might seem like mathematics and the sciences are at odds with a study of magic, I have not found it to be so in my instruction of Roku. I believe training in additional subjects would round out your students quite nicely.”

“Really?” Dumbledore's eyes were sparkling. “What else?”

“Physical education,” Zechs said promptly. “At the very least, if you want to turn out people of quality, they should have some training in swordsmanship.”

“That's true,” Treize agreed. “Fencing tones the whole body and hones the mind. No one can consider himself to be a true gentleman if he cannot fence.”

Dumbledore chuckled gleefully. “These suggestions are fascinating! What do you think, Minerva?”

Professor McGonagall sniffed. “I think it would just distract the students from their more important studies.”

“On the subject of magical studies,” Quatre said, “why are the students taught to be so dependent on their wands? You don't really need wands to do magic.”

“No wands?!” McGonagall exclaimed, scandalized.

“That's right,” Quatre said. He held up a hand. “Illuminus!” A bright ball of light appeared above his hand. He lowered his hand and the ball of light remained floating where it was.

Dumbledore applauded. “Excellent! We must really have a class in Wandless Magic, Minerva! Imagine if even only a scant handful of the students learned! What a delightful concept!”

McGonagall poked a suspicious finger at the floating ball of light. It floated away from her fingertip. “There might be some value in it,” she admitted grudgingly.

“Three new courses,” Dumbledore said, making notes on a piece of parchment with an enormous quill pen he dipped in a bottle of dark red ink. He looked eagerly at the remaining Gundam pilots.

“I would be very interested in assisting in the Care of Magical Creatures class,” Trowa said. “I have a way with animals, you might say.”

“I'm sure Hagrid would appreciate the help,” Dumbledore replied. “He is a little nervous about teaching a class.” His eyes fell on Duo, Heero and Hadeya.

“I don't think we have any useful skills to teach Hogwarts students,” Duo said quickly. He plopped an arm around Heero's shoulders. “Although, if you need enforcers, we're your men.”

“Enforcers?!” Heero spluttered. Hadeya quickly slipped back a few steps so Duo could not involve him, too.

“As it happens,” Dumbledore interrupted him, “we are in the middle of a small security crisis so additional security personnel might be helpful, although you look a little young.”

“Our age has nothing to do with it,” Heero grumbled. “We've been fighting bad guys for years.”

“Well, then, it's settled.” Dumbledore stood up. “We'll add three new courses to the curriculum and give students the option of signing up for them if they have free time in their schedules. I'll speak to Hagrid about you joining him,” he nodded to Trowa, “and I'll let Filch know he will be getting two assistants. Now, if you would all be so good as to actually introduce yourselves, I'll see about assigning you quarters, offices and classrooms.”

With smiles and handshakes all around, Treize introduced everyone. McGonagall still looked like she did not approve, but she also shook hands and offered to show everyone to their quarters after dinner. After that, they all returned to the Great Hall, where dinner was still going on. Snape nearly had apoplexy when Dumbledore announced that the newcomers would be teaching classes and that an announcement would be posted in the morning.

“You cannot possibly be serious!” Snape shrieked. “These… these Muggles are an insult to the very history of Hogwarts!”

“Oh, do calm down, Snape!” McGonagall snapped. “There is no need for such melodrama.”

Snape's mouth fell open in consternation, his face alternately going pale and then turning bright red. Then he flung himself down into his seat with his arms crossed, his face twisted into a bitter and furious expression. At one of the long tables, where the students wore scarves of green and white, furious whispers were exchanged and several of the students threw angry looks at the Gundam pilots. One boy, whose pale blond hair was almost white, kept staring across at Roku, who was sitting between the boy with bright red hair and another boy whose dark curls ranged over his head in a most unruly way.

Roku glanced over his shoulder at the light-haired boy. “Who is that boy, Ron? He keeps staring at me.”

Ron Weasley, the red-haired youth, looked over his shoulder and groaned. “That's Draco Malfoy. Just avoid him, Roku. He's a royal pain in the behind and not worth knowing.”

“He's probably jealous,” said the dark-haired boy on Roku's other side, who was no less than the famous Harry Potter. “He's jealous of anyone who shows real talent.”

A girl with thick curly hair sitting across the table, who had introduced herself as Hermione Granger, leaned forward. “He thinks just because his family is an old wizarding family that he's better than everyone else, so he hates it when someone is better at magic than he is.”

“Which is nearly everyone!” Ron snorted. “He's nothing but a useless git!”

“Ron!” an older boy said sternly from above Ron's head. “Do not talk about other students in such a derogatory way!”

Ron groaned. “Shut up, Percy!” he muttered under his breath.

Percy held out his hand to Roku. “I'm Percy, Roku. I'm Head Boy at Hogwarts. If you need anything or have any questions, don't hesitate to come to me.”

Roku shook his hand. “Thank you, Percy.”

Percy walked off and Ron blew out his breath in a loud snort. “Don't go to him, Roku!” he exclaimed. “Percy has a huge head with nothing in it.”

Harry and Hermione snickered.

“Percy is Ron's brother,” Hermione explained.

“I know,” Roku said. “They smell like each other.”

Everyone stared at him.

“You can smell that they're related?!” Harry exclaimed.

Roku nodded.

“That's amazing! Is that magic?”

“No. I just have a good sense of smell.”

“So I wanted to ask you before,” Hermione said, “what spell did you use to transform the balls into light? We've been learning transfiguration, but we haven't learned how to turn objects into energy, because you can't change it back. It's very destructive.”

“It's not destructive,” Roku said. He held out his hand and the balls reappeared on his palm.

Hermione stared. “How did you do that? Where's your wand?”

“I don't have a wand.”

“No wand?!” Hermione, Harry and Ron all stared at him. “How can you do magic without a wand?” Hermione demanded. “How do you focus your magic energy?”

“I think about it?” Roku said tentatively.

Hermione drew herself up importantly. “Just thinking about it might work for very simple spells, but complex spells require the direction provided by a wand. We shall have to get you a wand immediately. We must speak to Professor McGonagall about it before we go to bed.”

Roku blinked at her uncertainly.

“Better just do as she says,” Ron advised in a whisper. “Hermione doesn't brook any nonsense when she gets like this.”

Harry nodded solemnly in agreement.

“Anyway,” Hermione continued, “we'll have to talk to McGonagall to find out what year you'll be in and what classes you'll be taking, so we'll do that as soon as dinner is over.”

“Thank you, Hermione,” Roku said.

“You're welcome.” Hermione gave Ron and Harry a superior look. “It's so nice to finally meet someone who appreciates me.”

Harry and Ron just groaned.