Chapter Text
His sister tells him about Hogwarts at the end of her first year, her dark eyes lit with a never-seen-before spark. She’s unpacking as she does so, taking out dusty tomes with words like “ Potions ” and “ Charms ” written on the cover with a just barely legible font, worn from scratching against the cheap leather of her bag. Mari is not a particularly expressive person, and she’s never been, truly, more prone to bouts of disembodied silence and scrunching up her nose at the food on their old dinner table; which just makes the sporadic excitement dripping from her words all the more befuddling.
Yuuri, in his bubbly astonishment, is sure that Hogwarts will be absolutely brilliant.
After his first few moments of uncontrolled magic (causing his pillows to start floating when he’s bored and doesn’t have any friends to play with; changing the colour of their living room lights to pink because pink is awesome , and other minuscule demonstration of a power he can’t quite get a hang of) he spends the days leading up to August the year he turns eleven unable to sit still. He’s constantly biting his lower lip, jiggling his legs, pulling at his parents’ sleeves to get them to lean down so he can ask them if the owl has come yet. His dad is quite nice about it, reassuring him it will arrive, telling him that he must simply wait. Yuuri’s mom, on the other hand, hears him whining about Scottish birds in the middle of the night and promptly threatens to take away his pork cutlet bowl serving on Saturdays, which works disturbingly well.
The moment he sees the snowy white owl perched on his bedroom window, a rolled-up parchment held carefully in its beak, he jumps up from his bed, an unidentifiable warmth in his chest. Without hesitation, he tears open the waxy red seal, bursting with anticipation, and reads it over and over again before he lets his family see it, let alone touch it.
Yuuri never admits that his fretting and insistence was because he was afraid the letter wouldn’t come. He remembers clearly the day when Yakov visited his family, shortly after Mari got her Hogwarts letter and no one in the house could even make sense of it. Yakov was a tall man who frowned incessantly, but spoke with words tinged with kindness. It was a bit of a shock, for the Katsuki family, to realize there was magic in the world, and even more to accept the fact that Mari was magic, herself. When she was told, his sister pretended not to care about it, in her usual nonchalant fashion, but all it took was magic jelly beans for her to grow suspiciously interested.
The older wizard took a look at Yuuri, a tiny seven year old boy, chubby, short and completely unremarkable, hiding behind his mom, and said, “Sometimes it runs in the family, you know. Maybe your brother can join you soon.”
With those freely given words, simply just by implying that there existed a chance , miniscule as it may be, one in a million, that Yuuri could be magic , like his sister, could learn with her, could become a part of a whole new world... opened up a different universe for Yuuri. A universe where flying carpets were real , where pictures moved on paper, where his sister could get out of doing the dishes by using her wand (even if she got scolded for it by some strange version of the magical government. It still wasn’t fair that Yuuri had to make his bed.)
So now that Yuuri’s standing in front of Platform 9 ¾, it’s kind of surprising that he’s terrified.
“Maybe I can like, go after the first day,” Yuuri tries to tell his mom, shying away from the intimidatingly solid and pain-inducing red brick wall, “It’s not like the first day is important, anyway.”
“Oh my god, do you even listen to me?” Mari sighs, huffing and crossing her arms over her chest, “Hogwarts’s first day is like, the most important day of your whole school career! You get Sorted, dummy.”
“Right, I’d forgotten that,” Yuuri lies, pulling at the ends of his sleeves and looking down at his feet in an attempt to steel himself. He takes a deep breath, closing his eyes, “Okay.”
What if I cross that Platform, what if I go to Hogwarts...and it doesn’t want me? What if I’m the worst wizard (I can barely believe I’m a wizard anyway) in my whole year? What if everyone laughs at me because I’m a muggleborn? What if I don’t make any friends, like what happened in elementary? What if -?
“Come on, short stuff,” Mari grabs him by the wrist, rolling her eyes at him, smiling, “Let’s go together, all right?”
Slowly, Yuuri smiles back, struggling to keep his anxiety in check, like his mom always advises, softly touching the back of his neck. He knows it’s not good to panic. It’s Hogwarts ! How can it not be perfect, after everything he’s heard?
Still, his hand goes instinctively to check his pockets, where his instructions for a sudden panic attack are stored, just in case. He really hopes none of the other boys in his year find out.
“On the count of three, okay?” his sister reminds him, waggling her finger at him, “Don’t start running before I say three, or I will make the evil monsters in the Forbidden Forest eat you.”
“Mari,” his mom chides, giving her a pat on the head, “Leave your brother alone.”
“T-there are monsters?!” Yuuri squeaks.
Mari snorts and pulls him by the wrist again, “Don’t worry, kiddo, if you’re good, I’ll protect you. You just make sure you don’t embarrass me, alright? So, yeah, help me grab our bags, and let’s do this.”
“Let’s do this,” Yuuri echoes, slightly disbelieving, “I’m going to do this.”
“Have fun!” his parents call at them, smiling.
He turns, getting a good look. Yuuri knows he’s going to see them again by Christmas; knows that they’re probably going to send him lots of really embarrassing letters, and they’ll mess it up because they still don’t get Owl Post. He’s pretty sure an eleven year old boy shouldn’t be so scared of living without his parents. He’s old now, after all.
Still. He tries to burn the image of his parents into his retinas.
“One,” Mari starts counting, smirking when she sees him jump, startled, “two...three!”
They go.
Yuuri closes his eyes. No matter how many times Mari’s gone through that brick wall before, while he stood there with his parents, waving enthusiastically and grinning, it still feels terrifying when he sees it in front of him, getting closer with each step. His feet clumsily move on his own, one in front of the other, and he holds his breath. A peculiar feeling, like a gust of wind passing by his side, reaches him, just before he starts hearing the unmistakable whistle of an old train, the sound of dozens of people talking and the racketing of suitcases against the ground. He opens his eyes again.
“Wow,” he breathes, stunned, just in time to hear Mari’s soft whisper.
“It’s like a dream, isn’t it?” she smiles at him again, which is actually quite nice. Recently, Mari’s been prone to yelling at him, refusing to let him into her room (even though she’s at Hogwarts all the time so it’s not like she’s using it), and calling him names. Mom says it’s just puberty, and that it will happen to him soon enough, a prospect that he finds absolutely horrifying.
“Yeah,” Yuuri murmurs, not quite sure what to say.
The platform is bubbling with life, wizards and witches ( wizards and witches ) of all ages and backgrounds gathered near the train: parents fussing over school robes, children trying to get away from their parents’ attempts at goodbye kisses, owls and cats yapping away, and Yuuri is so, so terribly lost.
“Well, I’ll see you later,” Mari chirps up suddenly, already moving to go, and Yuuri turns towards her, catching her arm in a vice-like grip.
“You can’t leave me!” he begs, tugging at her,“I’ll like, get kidnapped or something!”
His sister rolls her eyes and shakes off his hand, huffing, “I think you’ll be just fine if you get inside the train. Don’t worry, the only stop is Hogwarts.”
“B-but what if like, a wizard thinks I’m a muggle?”
“Muggles can’t get into this platform,” Mari reminds him, raising an eyebrow, “You should relax a little, Yuuri. Hogwarts is fool proof. And I plan on spending the train ride with my friends.”
As she walks away, dragging her suitcase behind her, Yuuri sees her cat, perched on top of her shoulder, hissing periodically at nothing in particular. It sort of feels like he’s been abandoned. All around him, families are preparing to say goodbye.
Yuuri clutches his bags tighter to himself, taking care not to shake his owl’s cage too much. She’s a tiny thing, completely black, that he named “Kuro”. He, um, he knows it’s not very original. Yuuri looks up at the train, which seems so incredibly old compared to the ones he takes with his parents, all with plugs for their phone chargers and windows to see the scenery, equipped with reclinable seats. This train looks almost like something out of a movie, shooting off black smoke overhead, red and black instead of the cool, modern colours he’s used to. The Hogwarts Express .
He steels himself, biting his lower lip, and takes a step forward...
...only to bump into someone who’s moving towards the train already, making Yuuri drop all his bags and fall on his butt, Kuro squawking unhappily. The impact hurts, though he’s more surprised than anything, and a voice calls out, “Merlin, are you okay?”
It’s the person he accidentally crashed with, a girl about his age with short brown hair who’s already wearing the Hogwarts school robes. She’s looking down at him, her eyebrows furrowed in concern, holding out her hand to help him up.
“Um, yeah,” he mumbles, feeling embarrassed but taking her hand, getting to his feet. He’s not even in Hogwarts yet and he’s already messed up, “Sorry about that.”
“Don’t worry about it at all!” the girl exclaims, shaking her head enthusiastically, so fast that Yuuri’s kind of worried she’ll get a crick in her neck, “I’m so clumsy that I didn’t even know where I was going!”
“Yuuko, what -?”
Behind the girl, a guy comes up, frowning at them, his eyes narrowing when he sees Yuuri. He crosses his arms over his chest and glares at him, “What did you do, jerk?”
“He didn’t do anything , Takeshi!” Yuuko swats at the boy’s arm, sounding upset, “I made him fall! Don’t be so mean or we won’t get any friends!”
“That’s alright,” Takeshi says, looking satisfied and huffing, “I don’t need friends when I’ve already got you. Most first years are going to be annoying, anyway. They’re so immature.”
“ You ’re a first year, Takeshi!”
“Irrelevant.”
“Um,” Yuuri says, clutching Kuro’s cage to his chest, feeling out of place, “I’ll just, um, go now.”
“Nonsense!” Yuuko smiles at him so brightly that he feels something similar to looking directly at the Sun, if the Sun was about his height and carried about twenty pounds of textbooks, judging by how her suitcase almost knocked him out, “You should ride in the train with us! We can get to know each other that way!”
“Um,” Yuuri hesitates, looking the other way, where his sister went off to, but then he turns back, seeing Yuuko and Takeshi both waiting, expectant (albeit if the boy looks slightly reluctant), and he remembers how his sister said, I’m spending the train ride with my friends , so he lets himself smile back, just a little, and mumbles, “Okay.”
…
“Katsuki, Yuuri!” the headmistress, a wiry young woman with a near-crazy look in her eyes called Minako, reads, and oh god .
“Come on, Yuuri,” Yuuko whispers from behind him, giving him a light push and a thumbs up, smiling brightly. Takeshi scowls at him. “Don’t worry about it.”
Easy for you to say , Yuuri thinks, but steps forward all the same, feeling his legs almost as if they’re completely detached from his body, moving robotically. He shuffles awkwardly until he gets to the stool the Headmistress is standing behind, scratching the side of her nose and eating some pretzels with the other hand. After a moment’s hesitation, in which he looks up at her and thinks, Huh, he sits down.
“Right-o, there you go,” the headmistress mutters, dropping the hat unceremoniously on his head, making him wince.
Hoo-hoo-hoo, what do we have here?
Yuuri’s eyes go wide. The Hat is inside his head ! Mari never told him about this!
Ahh, a young’in. Hmm, your sister’s here in the crowd, isn’t she? She’s a Gryffindor, ay, but you’ve got none of the Lion in you. No, you’re a much gentler fellow, even if you have a bit of a spark.There’s only one place for you, Yuuri Katsuki, and that’s -
“HUFFLEPUFF!” the Hat bellows, startling him, and he jumps, looking up at the headmistress. Grumbling, she takes the Hat off, shooing him towards the table with the yellow badger over it. Everyone sitting there is clapping, although most look like they’re bored and just waiting to have dinner (which Yuuri can perfectly understand, after all), so he slowly makes his way there, trying not to fidget with the end of his robe’s sleeves.
“Welcome, welcome!” an older girl smiles at him, and she gestures at another first year boy in front of him, black-haired, “This is Phichit, one of your housemates. I hope you both have a great time at the badger house!”
“If you dare to steal food, I will straight up murder you,” a scary looking teenager threatens them, grabbing his fork like it’s a dagger and pointing it at them, “I do not share.”
“Shut up , Andrew! Don’t scare the first years!”
“I’m Jean Jacques, a transfer student from Canada,” a smiling teenager says, “Ignore the criminals.”
“Hi,” Yuuri mumbles tentatively at Phichit, feeling weirdly out of place, “I’m Yuuri.”
There’s nothing for a some time, the boy looking at him with big dark eyes, his face expressionless. And then his lips stretch in a wide smile, and he cocks his head to the side, beaming at him, “Hi, Yuuri! I’m so excited to start school! Also, I love your name! It’s so fun to say! Yuuuri …”
Somehow, Yuuri realizes as he giggles at Phichit trying to draw out the u’s in his name, hollowing his cheeks and stuffing food into his mouth as he does so, he knows they’re going to be great friends.
…
“Our common room is near the kitchens,” is the first thing they get told when they meet the older Hufflepuffs, and it’s honestly the most important. Certainly the aspect of Hufflepuff life that really seals the deal for Yuuri.
“Food is essential,” Yuuri informs Phichit as they get ready to bed. Hufflepuff’s gotten the least new students this year, their prefect told them, so they’re rooming in twos this year. And they had begged to be roomed together.
“It’s almost as if you two’ve known each other for years instead of a night,” Celestino muttered when he saw them. He’s their Head of House, an Italian guy who likes to wave his arms around a lot and greet ghosts (there are ghosts ) enthusiastically.
“You are so, so right,” Phichit giggles, throwing himself onto his bed, on the other side of the small cozy room, “Ahhhh, I’m so tiiiired.”
Yuuri sits on the edge of his own bed, wondering if Kuro's comfortable in the Owlery, fidgeting and pulling at the edges of his sleeves, “Hey, Phichit?”
“Yeah, Yuuri?” the boy smiles at him.
“I think you’re a really cool roommate,” he mumbles, looking down at his lap, feeling his cheeks heat.
Phichit rolls on the mattress until his stomach is touching it, lifting his head up, “I think you’re a really cool roommate, too, Yuuri.” He pauses. “Wait. I think I left my pajamas back at home.”
Yuuri snickers, “Really? On the first day?”
“Don’t laugh, it’s a serious problem! They have baby goats on them! They’re adorable !”
“Hmph,” he hums, letting his back fall onto the bed. He itches to take his robes off and get into more comfortable clothes, but he feels way too lazy to actually do any of that. He kind of just wants to talk to Phichit forever.
While they were shyly making small talk at dinner, the boy told him he was from Thailand, and didn’t even get mad when Yuuri started asking rapid-fire questions about the country, overwhelmingly curious. Apparently, his family moved to England because of his mother’s work, and Phichit got to attend Hogwarts.
“And you learnt English recently?” Yuuri asked, awed, “That’s so impressive.”
Phichit’s chest puffed, proud, “Well, I am a very fast learner. And anyways, you don’t look that British yourself.”
“My family’s from Japan,” he admitted, “I just like the food they make, honestly.”
“ Food ,” Phichit murmured, enchanted, eyes glazing over.
Now that it’s dark outside and it’s finally time to sleep, Yuuri achingly misses his parents. He knows other boys in his class think it’s weird that he’s still so attached to them, but Yuuri desperately needs them. He doesn’t really have that many friends at school back in elementary, so he’s not truly going to miss any of them. But his parents? Who put him to bed every night? Who held his hand after he felt like he was going to throw up from shaking too much? Who tell him how much they love him just before he falls asleep?
He feels homesick, really.
“Yuuri,” Phichit calls from his side of the room, throwing a pillow at him. He catches it by reflex, blinking in surprise at the other boy, “Do you wanna play cards?”
Yuuri’s never played cards with another boy his age before. He doesn’t even know any games.
“...Sure,” he tells his friend , letting himself smile slightly.
Maybe Hogwarts is going to be okay, after all.
…
Their first class the next morning is Potions, which Yuuri is ridiculously excited about. Whenever Mari tries to describe Potions, she always shrugs and tells him it’s quite similar to cooking, only with creepier ingredients and a grumpier teacher.
Yuuri’s pretty sure he’s going to do okay, though, because if there’s something he loves, it’s cooking . Back when Mari was younger, they both spent hours and hours playing together, even if it mostly consisted on him doing whatever his sister requested and following her around, but the year she went to Hogwarts for the whole term, Yuuri felt her absence like a part of his body was missing.
His mother decided that a much-needed distraction was as good reason as any to teach him how to cook. So at seven years old, still too small to properly reach the counters to help her, his mom set him in charge of rolling balls of rice, made him watch the fire if she needed to go out, always reminding him to be careful, taught him where she kept ingredients and how to store them… She was always carefully helping him, her warm hands wrapping around his own, strikingly smaller, her smile gentle as she looked at him. Yuuri still can’t cook by himself, according to mom, but he’s done a lot of cutting and stirring in his life; just enough to feel the smallest thread of confidence wrap around his heart.
Phichit and he go to the Great Hall together, nervously chatting about new classes (“Do you know what Divination is? My book is super weird…”, “I can’t believe there’s a lesson called Flying !”), and have breakfast before checking their schedules.
“Potions is with Slytherins. Apparently it’s in the dungeons? I don’t know what they mean by that, but we should ask.” Yuuri informs his friend diligently.
Phichit rubs at his eyes, letting out a soft yawn, “I s’ppose we’d better head there, then.”
The Potions classroom, Yuuri realizes with a sense of dread, is pretty terrifying. It actually is in the dungeons. The professor is, just as Mari told him, also disturbingly creepy.
“I’m Professor Yakov Feltsman,” the tall, gruff man announces, narrowing his eyes and pointing at them with his wand, “If any of you call me ‘Yakov’ I will use your your eyes in our next potion.”
Yuuri gulps, glancing at Phichit sitting beside him, looking at Professor Feltsman with his relaxed smile on his face. Well, at least he’s not alone here. Phichit has his back, after all.
“Now, first things first,” Feltsman told them, waggling his wand in their faces, “Potions partners are not from the same house. In my class, you work instead of gossipping, is that understood?”
Crap .
“Good,” Feltsman nods approvingly after no one says anything, taking out a huge book that looks about a thousand years old and setting it on his desk, making a loud noise. Yuuri jumps a little, startled. “Now I’ll assign you all partners.”
The Professor starts calling names and matching them. After the first three, Feltsman says, clearing his throat, “Phichit Chulanont, with Michele Crispino.”
“Talk to you later,” Phichit whispers at him with a smile, before leaving.
And then Yuuri’s alone, biting his lip to try to control his nerves. He absently taps his desk with his fingers, looking at the Professor anxiously.
“...Katsuki Yuuri, with Victor Nikiforov,” Feltsman finally gets out, and he even perks up a little at his partner’s name, looking up from his register to supposedly glance at the boy. Actually, the entire class turns to look, which Yuuri finds kind of odd.
Victor Nikiforov is much taller than him, and he’s extraordinarily thin. His hair is caught between a shade of pale blond and light grey, reflecting the dim light that comes from the shimmering flasks in the back of the room, almost the picture-perfect description of what a young wizard should be like. He turns towards Hufflepuff’s side of the classroom when Feltsman says his name, and then icy blue eyes find his.
For a moment, Yuuri can’t breathe.
Nikiforov stands up from where he’s sitting, with a natural grace that makes Yuuri feel like a huge air balloon, his short hair bouncing on his head delicately. The green and silver scarf wrapped around his neck makes him look like an eleven year old model.
“Yuuri, is it?” Victor asks him when he reaches his place, smiling.
“Uh-um, yeah,” Yuuri mumbles, gazing at him dreamily, “I’m Yuuri. You must be Victor.”
“I am,” the Slytherin boy answers dryly, cocking his head to the side, “Want to go to the work bench?”
“Oh, sure,” Yuuri flushes. God, he’s so embarrassing. Staring at someone like that. “Yeah…”
Victor gets safety goggles for him, letting out a small laugh when Yuuri falls over himself trying to thank him, and they go step behind their huge cauldron (which was one of the things Yuuri felt most excited about while doing his shopping in Diagon Alley, to be honest. A huge cauldron! Like witches have in the stories!).
Feltsman starts writing instructions on the board, with regular chalk (for some reason, Yuuri kind of expected magical chalk to be a thing. Oh well.), giving them short pointers and cocking his head towards the storage room, warning them to never go in alone and always use protective wear.
“A few decades ago, the students didn’t wear gloves,” the Professor huffs in indignation. “Not even labcoats!”
“The 90s were wild,” one of the Slytherins snickers.
During the class, they don’t really do anything. Feltsman informs them that their first real lesson will involve plain water, and threatens them with taking away house points if they try to make stuff explode without his permission. So Yuuri spends the entire hour peeking at Victor Nikiforov, hiding behind the cauldron. The boy doesn’t talk much; just sits there and stares out the window, ignoring most of Feltsman’s directions.
“Hey,” Yuuri dares to say, after a few minutes, voice low as not to get in trouble, “Maybe we should write this down…?”
“Oh,” Victor blinks in surprise at him, his long fingers wrapped around a long dark brown wand, “Sure, you can take notes.”
Pause. Yuuri doesn’t really want to say anything, but he powers through. He’s going to make new friends and be more outgoing, he has to. “Aren’t you gonna do it, though? Do you have a really great memory?”
The boy stares at him as if he’s from another planet, “I’m Victor Nikiforov.”
Yuuri stares back, uncomprehending, “Yeah, you have a cool name.”
“No, I mean ,” Victor purses his lips, frowning in confusion, glancing to check if their Professor’s looking at them, “I’m like, Victor Nikiforov .”
“Is this a wizard thing?” Yuuri mumbles, cheeks flushed, gaze falling to his feet, “I’m sorry, I’m a muggleborn.”
“ Oh ,” his partner makes a small noise of understanding, which means yeah, it’s probably a wizard thing. “Oh, sorry. I just.” Victor hesitates, looking at Yuuri strangely, “I’ll take notes,” he says, some seconds later. “Maybe we can...compare them, later?”
“Yeah!” Yuuri grins, enthusiastic.
“Do you two have something interesting to share with the class, Katsuki?” Feltsman’s voice reaches them, and he flushes, embarrassed.
“N-no, sir.”
“Good.”
It’s going to be a long day.
…
The first week of classes passes without much agitation, though Yuuri keeps being amazed at everything magic he manages to do. When Professor Baranovskaya teaches them Wingardium Leviosa and Yuuri’s feather actually levitates , he almost starts crying. Phichit pats him gently on the back, muttering, “There, there.”
Yuuko and Takeshi both ended up in Gryffindor, which they seem excited about.
“We’re having such a great time!” Yuuko tells him, eyes shining, “And Takeshi’s actually studying for once.”
Takeshi mumbles, “Baranovskaya is scary. And Feltsman is our head of house. It’s not fair !”
Yuuri winces at that, “Ouch. Ours is called Celestino. He says ‘Ciao, ciao!’ a lot and steals food from the kitchens.”
“He’s an inspiration to us all,” Phichit yawns, stretching out on the grass. The four of them are outside, taking a break until it’s time to go to their Common Rooms for lights out.
“And Yuuri ,” Yuuko hisses at him, “I heard you got partnered up with Victor Nikiforov in Potions!”
“Here we go,” Takeshi murmurs, sounding pissed.
“Yeah?” Yuuri blinks, resting his head on his knees, “He’s, um,” he blushes, remembering being caught staring, “He’s really cool! And he told me we could study together.”
Silence.
“Um, Yuuri,” Phichit starts, tentatively, but he’s immediately drowned out by Yuuko’s squeal.
“Merlin’s beard, Yuuri! You don’t know who he is, do you?” she asks, sympathetic, “He’s one of the best wizards in the last century ! He’s a magical figure skating champion already! And , if that wasn’t enough, he’s a genius! I heard that he took classes when he was little, and has already completed the Hogwarts curriculum!”
“His family, conveniently, is loaded and completely pureblood,” Takeshi kicks a stone with his shoes, brows furrowing, “I’m sure he’s just a spoiled rich boy, Yuuko.”
“You can’t say that, Takeshi! We haven’t talked to him yet.”
“Not for lack of trying,” her friend comments dryly, “You almost jumped on him in our shared Defense Against the Dark Arts lesson.”
“Well,” Yuuko flushes, looking down, “I’m a magical ice skater, and I really wanted to meet him. It’s not because of his looks!”
“Sure,” Takeshi mutters.
“I swear!”
“I didn’t know he was so famous,” Yuuri realizes, embarrassed, “And he probably only said we could study together to be polite. Oh god, he must think I’m so dumb.”
“If he does, then he ’s dumb,” Phichit says loyally, punching him softly, “Don’t be nervous, Yuuri. He’s just a first year, like us, even if he’s supposedly super smart. And he must like you.”
“W-what?” Yuuri’s cheeks heat, “N-no, I don’t think so. Even if I didn’t know he was like, a wizarding celebrity, he’s still...too much. He looks like something out of a magazine! He probably has much cooler friends.”
“I think you’re the coolest friend ever,” Phichit says firmly.
It’s startling.
Yuuri’s never really had any real friends, but he guesses that Phichit’s popular enough to have thousands . He’s handsome, funny, and easy to talk to. Besides, who wouldn’t want to be Phichit’s friend, when the way he smiles at Yuuri makes him feel important ? He was sure that Phichit would still be his friend (he seems way too honourable to abandon him, even if he should) but he wasn’t expecting any sort of praise.
“Thanks,” he smiles, touched. Maybe he won’t be Victor Nikiforov’s best friend, but having Phichit is not settling, at all.
…
Honestly, when Yuuri sees that his next class is ‘Flying’, he freezes.
“A-are we going to really fly?” he asks Phichit, feeling out of place. He’s been noticing stuff lately, in the week they’ve been here, that sound completely natural to half-bloods and purebloods but befuddle him. Things like certain expressions (he’s never going to get used to Yuuko shouting “Merlin!”), the way most of them don’t really look that amazed at magic, but they argue about who’s going to get a difficult spell right first, how they all sound bored during History of Magic, but Yuuri hangs onto every word, astounded. Even Phichit sounds foreign to him, sometimes, in the magical sense, when he talks about magical objects and how he and his family live. He always apologizes profusely after, for not explaining, but Yuuri doesn’t mind.
He just feels a little left out, is all. His family is great, and he wouldn’t change them for anything , but he wishes he’d read a book or something before coming here. It really made the second conversation with Victor awkward.
“Um, Victor,” he said shyly, “I didn’t know you were like, famous. I-I’m sorry!”
“Don’t worry about it,” his partner said, sounding slightly disappointed. “It was okay.”
“A-and you don’t have to go over notes with me, if you already know the material,” he rushed to add, feeling the urge to run away.
Victor hesitated, his blue eyes flickering up and down Yuuri’s profile. He smiled a little, tentatively, “Can I still do it, anyway?”
“Y-yeah, of course. I’d be really grateful! I’ll study a lot to thank you!”
Phichit stops for a second, “Oh yeah, you mentioned it the first day. Flying is an introductory class to broom riding. Most people suck at it, myself included.”
“You ride a broom ?” Yuuri asks, awed, “Like in the movies?”
“Yes!” Phichit nods happily. Yuuri’s been teaching him some Muggle culture, as well. His friend is fascinated with mobile phones, and has been begging for one all week, despite Yuuri’s hesitant refusals. He doesn’t really know if phones are allowed in the school, actually. “There’s a Quidditch - that’s a sport that’s played on the brooms - tournament at Hogwarts. Each House has a team.”
“Ooh,” Yuuri stares at him, “That is so cool. Mari never tells me about this stuff! She only told me about like, magical bands and stuff! She’s so mean about it when I ask, too.”
Phichit laughs, “Come on, let’s get going.”
They have Flying with the Gryffindor first years, and Yuuri, as expected, sucks at it too.
“Maybe you can try it with a more relaxed tone of voice?” a boy from Gryffindor asks, coming up to help him. “I’m Leo, by the way.”
“Thanks, but I’m pretty sure it’s just lack of talent,” he shrugs. It’s his tenth time trying to get the broom to just go to his hand, but it refuses to lift off the ground. “How are you doing?”
“Um,” Leo smiles sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head, “I’ve played Quidditch since I was little.”
“That’s so cool ,” Yuuri breathes, “Are you going to join the Gryffindor team?”
“First years aren’t allowed to join,” the boy answers, not sounding particularly upset, “It’s fine, though. I’ll try out next year.” He pauses, and then looks at Yuuri, smiling, “I can help with your broom, if you want. I’m guessing you’re a muggleborn.”
“Is it that obvious?” Yuuri groans, cheeks flushed, “I’m the worst…”
“Nah, you’re just a little behind on things. Don’t worry, you’ll catch up in no time,” Leo smiles at him.
“Leo!” Phichit calls suddenly, walking up to them holding one of the brooms the teacher lent them. “You met Yuuri! He’s my friend!”
Leo nods, “Yeah.”
“You guys know each other?” Yuuri asks, curious.
“We have History of Magic with the Gryffindors, Yuuri,” Phichit reminds him, “Leo was behind us.”
“Oh, right,” Yuuri’s flush deepens, “Sorry!”
“It’s fine. Now, let me teach you the best pose for summoning your broom…”
…
All in all, the fall term goes by quickly.
Yuuri learns how wacky the Headmistress is when she teaches Transfigurations to the Hufflepuffs, and the way she seems crazily determined to make them all do their best.
“There’s no slacking off in this class, first years!” she likes to say, even though she reads a book that has ‘ Igrumilda and Jonathan’s story: Love Through The Ages ’ while they’re practicing changing a cup into a quill. She also makes them run around the classroom if they get a question wrong. Phichit tells him it’s because she was a famous dancer before coming to Hogwarts.
“T-that doesn’t mean she has to make us do exercise,” he whined at the time, panting.
Potions with Victor continues, the taller boy helping quietly, sending him small smiles. They learn the best time to extract ingredients, how to stir potions, which temperature is the best depending on the brew and elixir, and thousands of other stuff that Yuuri can barely remember. True to his word, he and Victor meet up every two weeks to go over notes during free time, going up to the library. It’s painfully obvious that his partner knows all the material by heart, but he takes the time to walk Yuuri through every step.
At first, he was patient and slightly reserved, almost wound too tightly. But as the weeks go by, he relaxes a little more, teasing Yuuri and playfully bantering with him, making fun of him when he falls asleep without meaning to the days he’s exhausted. Somehow, even though it’s only two hours, and even though everyone stares at them while they’re in the library, muttering about Yuuri behind their backs and squealing at Victor’s presence, it’s one of the things that leaves a warm feeling in Yuuri’s chest, that gets him through the week when he achingly misses his parents.
Mari shows up, once in a while, to smack his head and remind him not to tarnish her reputation. Yuuri, in turn, reminds her to write back to their mom. She mutters about “mama’s boy”. It’s cool.
Leo starts their broom riding lessons with high hopes, and Phichit tags along happily, but it’s terribly clear after the first few that neither Hufflepuff will ever be a famous Quidditch player. So they just turn into lazy afternoons in the Hufflepuff Common Room with Leo hanging out with them, playing Exploding Snap (which is somehow about exploding cards? Magical games are wild). Sometimes Yuuko and Takeshi come by, too, and Yuuko keeps sneaking in mentions of teaching Yuuri magical figure skating (“I think you’d love it, Yuuri!”). Leo satisfies Phichit’s curiosity about smartphones, despite Yuuri’s alarmed warnings, which only intensifies his obsession.
“You both are so lucky,” Phichit whines one day, “Why don’t I get any phones?”
“I could buy you one,” Leo offers, the poor, clueless fool, “My mom’s a muggle, and she wouldn’t mind.”
The boy’s eyes widen, and his voice comes out breathy and awed, “You’d do that?”
“Yeah, sure -”
“I love you, Leo!” Phichit cries out, throwing himself at the Gryffindor and wrapping his arms around his neck, “Yes! A phone !”
Yuuri tries to contain his laughter at Leo’s deer-caught-in-the-headlights expression, awkwardly patting Phichit’s back, “You’ve really done it now.”
He doesn’t tell anyone about his birthday, too embarrassed to do it, really, but apparently Mari ran her mouth, because when he wakes up on November 29th, not only are his parents’ presents stacked by his bed, but Phichit jumps on his bed and throws a wrapped box at him, grinning.
“Happy birthday, Yuuri!” he sings, eyes bright, “You’re old now.”
“I’m not old,” Yuuri mumbles, still not fully awake. His hands sluggishly take the wrapping paper apart, until he sees his present underneath. It’s…
“It’s a Flying Carpet!” Phichit tells him, beaming, “They were banned in Britain up until a few years ago, but new legislation brought them back! My dad loves them, so I told him to choose a cool one for you. That way, even though we aren’t great at riding brooms, you can still fly a little!”
For a moment, Yuuri doesn’t know what to say. He’s just staring at the carpet (it’s a shimmering mix of the colours blue and purple, entwined together beautifully), heart beating terribly fast. He thinks of how excited he was to fly, when he saw that in their schedule, and how down he felt after he couldn’t even get the broom to come to him. He didn’t think Phichit noticed, but he did. He’s...he’s never gotten a birthday present from a friend before. And he’s certainly never received anything as thought out as this. After a few seconds, he realizes he’s crying.
“T-thank you, Phichit!” he burst out, hugging his friend close, “You’re the best!”
“Awww, Yuuri!”
Leo gives him a Crystal Ball, telling him it was his favourite thing to play with when he was little, and he thinks someone muggleborn would like it.
Yuuko, on her part, buys him magical skates, adding belatedly that Takeshi contributed to the gift.
“You have to learn how to skate, Yuuri,” Yuuko insists, “I think you’d be great at it! And magical skating is really fun! There’s so many colours !”
“I’m pretty sure I’d be just as bad at it as Quidditch,” Yuuri tells her, but takes the gift, because the skates look really cool, and they have little wings at the ankles, “But it sounds fun. Maybe I could see you skating sometime?”
“Yes!” Yuuko cheers, “Takeshi and I go to skating club. It’s gotten so popular since Victor joined. You should come check us out!”
“I’ll think about it,” he promises.
Mari’s gift is some clothes and magical sweets, because she is the best sister.
“You didn’t have to tell everyone about my birthday,” he mutters at her while she ruffles his hair fondly, “It was embarrassing. I’m not nine anymore, Mari.”
“Oh, shut up,” his sister huffs, smiling, “Go and have fun with your friends, dummy. Mom and dad will probably call on your phone later.”
A few days later, when he’s studying Potions with Victor, the other boy suddenly says, sitting up in his chair, “It was your birthday!”
“Um, yeah,” Yuuri smiles a little, “It was really fun. When’s your birthday? And don’t worry about it, I didn’t tell anyone.”
“Mine is Christmas Day, actually. And still, Yuuri.” Victor looks guilty, “I heard some of your friends mention it this weekend at skating club. Happy belated birthday, Yuuri. I’m sorry I didn’t get you a present.”
“Are you kidding?” Yuuri mumbles, almost falling asleep. He always gets tired during their lessons, even though he’s ridiculously excited to see Victor every time, “Our studying sessions are already a gift.”
“Oh,” says Victor, blushing pink.
Yuuri realizes what he’s said, and jumps, cheeks flushing, “I m-mean, you help me a lot! Potions is really hard!”
“Okay, Yuuri,” Victor smiles at him. After a few seconds, he adds, quietly, “I like studying with you, too.”
When it’s time for Winter Holidays, he’s surprised to find that, for the first time ever in his entire life, he wants to stay at school instead of going back. He wants to hang out with Leo and Phichit, he wants to make cute cupcakes with Yuuko when the house elves let them into the kitchen, he wants to study in the library with Victor, staring out the window and smiling sheepishly when the other boy notices and smacks his neck without any force behind it. He desperately wants to keep going up to the Gryffindor Common Room to have tea with his sister while she continues to tell him about her weird boy bands, despite his many complaints about it. He wishes he could stay in school, learning about Goblin Wars, making stuff Vanish with the Headmistress cackling with delight in the background, and working on his and Phichit’s Sun model in Astronomy.
But...he misses his parents.
He shares a compartment with all his friends on the way back, although the Gryffindors go see their other friends every couple of hours. Victor stops by, for a few seconds, looking incredibly uncomfortable in front of Phichit, but shyly waving and saying hi to Yuuri before making his way down the corridor.
Yuuri wonders, absently, which are Victor’s friends. He’s never really talked about them with Yuuri, even though he definitely mentions Phichit and Leo a lot, so he’s not sure. He thinks Victor may hang out with Chris and Georgi from Slytherin, from what he’s heard. He’ll ask him after winter break.
Yuuri says goodbye to everyone at the station, promising to Skype Phichit (because otherwise his friend refuses to let go of his arm, gesturing to his new phone, which has gotten him in trouble at least a dozen times already, but with the Headmistress strangely likes), and send texts to the rest. He was too much of a chicken to ask for Victor’s number, but he’s planning on sending him a birthday gift for Christmas.
Mari finds him right before he’s going to walk out of the Platform, and grabs his arm, yawning, “Man, that train ride was long. Ready to go back home?”
“Yeah,” Yuuri smiles at her. “What about you? Excited to be able to make mom buy all of your dumb CDs?”
“You’re such a brat.”
His parents hug them the moment they see him, showering Yuuri and his sister with affectionate kisses and ruffling their hair fondly.
“Yuuri, you’ve grown!” his mom breathes, rubbing his cheek with her gloved hand, “You look so much taller!”
“Yeah, mom,” he mumbles, flushed.
“You’re both getting so old now,” his dad sighs, smiling, “Well, what can you do about it? Now, who wants some hot chocolate?”
…
On Christmas day, right before he’s about to walk down the stairs, he walks sluggishly to where Kuro is, not completely awake yet, attaches the small box he’s clumsily wrapped with a cute blue paper that reminded him of Victor’s eyes, and watches her fly away.
Yuuri bites his lower lip. He hopes his friend likes his present.
He made Victor a bracelet, just a handmade little thing with string and materials he’s got lying around the house. But he likes to add a finishing touch to everything he makes, so he charmed it to say positive things, like “ Good luck with your skating practice! ” and “ Remember to get your stuff and not forget !” or “ You’re doing great, Victor!” .
And yet, Victor’s rich, apparently, and a celebrity. So he probably has many rich, very important friends who buy him really cool stuff. He’ll think Yuuri’s present is dumb, most likely. Well, it’s not like he can do anything about it now.
…
January is a swirl of packing and arriving at Hogwarts once again, carrying his bags with icy wind snapping at his back as they leave the Hogwarts Express. His friends chat about their holidays, their noses tinged with pink because of the cold, while Yuuri stays a little quieter, drinking in the sight of all them together. It’s nice, sometimes, to remember he has friends here. Back home, Phichit, Yuuko, Takeshi and Leo seemed so far from reality, almost imaginary, so much that he’d felt as if he’d made them up, for a while.
“I’m not looking forward to more Astronomy classes,” Phichit groans, “Not after we pissed off the Professor by messing up our Sun model.”
“I didn’t know muggle glue wouldn’t work on magical stuff!” Yuuri whines, “Give me a break, we’ve only just come back to school.”
The Gryffindors just roll their eyes.
When Yuuri sees Victor again after the first few days of class for their first studying session, his friend can barely meet his eyes, looking down at his feet, his pale grey hair covering the upper part of his face.
“Hi, Victor,” he says tentatively, worried he’s messed up. Victor never replied to the letter and present he sent, so he’s not too sure it was welcome, “How was your break?”
“Your present was great,” Victor blurts out, cheeks red, and runs away.
“O-okay,” Yuuri whispers, standing alone in the library. “I’m...glad you liked it?”
“Don’t worry,” Phichit waves him away when Yuuri tells him about his worries regarding Victor, “Nikiforov’s got a flair for the dramatics, if what they say is true. It’ll be back to normal in no time.”
“I hope so. He’s a really good guy,” he sighs, curling up on his bed and getting under the blankets. It’s terribly cold in the Hufflepuff dormitories, even though they’re next to the kitchen and its heater.
“You talk about him as if he’s a marriage prospect,” Phichit teases, and ducks when Yuuri throws a pillow at him.
“Well, you talk about Leo...as if he was your girlfriend!”
“He bought me a phone , Yuuri. We have a bond .”
Yuuri groans, “I’m going to sleep, so you and your phone can be alone together.”
“You’re just jealous because mine is cooler,” his roommate smirks, leaning against the wall next to his bed.
“I really don’t care, Phichit.”
“Denial will only bring you pain.”
Victor doesn’t say anything more about the bracelet, but he always wears it around his left wrist, and sometimes, when he thinks Yuuri isn’t looking, he looks at the words writing themselves on it, and smiles, so tentatively but sincerely that it hurts to even look at it.
…
During Yuuri’s first month back in school, Yuuko finally got him to attend one of her and Takeshi’s magical figure skating practices after promising him help with his Charms homework. The two of them head out to the ice rink on Saturday morning after breakfast in the Great Hall.
“I’m so excited!” she sighs dreamily, “You’ll love it, I’m sure. All of my muggleborn friends think it’s awesome.”
“Don’t get your hopes up,” Yuuri says, uneasy, “Even if I like it, I’ll probably completely suck at it. I don’t even know how it works !”
“It’s very similar to muggle skating,” Yuuko explains, “In fact, many wizards participate in muggle events, too, since there’s so few of us. The main differences are the skates and wandless magic.”
“Oh, yeah,” Yuuri scratches the back of his head, “The skates you gave me were a bit weird.”
“They have wings!” she smiles, “And they adapt to the shoe size of whoever is wearing it. I’m pretty sure the blades are slightly charmed, too. The element that’s most influenced by magic is the artistic part of figure skating.”
“Hmm-hmm,” Yuuri nods, figuring it’s better not to ask. He can begin to see the ice rink set up near the edge of the Hogwarts grounds, a white surface with grey barriers closing it in. Yuuko’s told him that the Headmistress enjoys figure skating herself and summons the rink every weekend.
“Yeah! And anyways…”
… The rink isn’t empty, despite Yuuko mentioning that practice starts a little later.
Victor is skating.
He’s wearing a black t-shirt and loose trousers, strikingly different from the refined robe and perfectly-aligned tie that Yuuri’s used to. He’s got sky blue skates, the same colour as his eyes, and he’s gliding around the ice elegantly, his pose speaking of innate grace in its delicate perfection. His arms are swaying to the flow of a song that’s not even playing, the only sounds coming from the way the blades cut the ice without mercy. His body is moving as if he’s surging and letting go, contracting and relaxing periodically in fluid motions.
Suddenly, as Yuuri’s watching, enraptured, Victor carefully sets one leg behind the other, and jumps , spinning in the air, moving his arms until they're pressed to his chest before extending them, as if he’s balancing on an invisible line. Yuuri lets out a small squeak of surprise. Victor’s only off the ice for a few seconds, so fast that Yuuri can’t quite see what he’s doing, feet and legs blurry in the black clothes against the starkly white ice, until he lands on his right foot, the ice making a soft chipped noise. He raises his left leg at the height of his waist as he rests his weight on his right one, his head pushed back while his chest is slightly tilted forward. Even though it seems incredibly natural, the way Victor tenses in advance speaks volumes of the number of times he must have practiced it. It’s unbelievably thrilling to watch.
“Wow…” Yuuri breathes, staring at him with wide eyes. Did Victor really just do that? He didn’t just imagine it, right?
“Victor!” Yuuko calls, and his friend turns, startled. “Didn’t the Headmistress say you’re only allowed jumps when she’s watching?”
“It’s only a toe loop,” Victor smiles at her, but then freezes, “Y-Yuuri?”
“Oh my god , Victor, that was absolutely amazing !” Yuuri babbles, running until he’s against the grey barriers, “How did you do it?! That’s so crazy! It looked like you were gonna fall! You were flying !”
Victor flushes, but puffs his chest proudly, “Thanks, Yuuri. It’s just a lot of practice.”
“I could practice for hours and still get it wrong,” laments Yuuko, walking up to where Yuuri is, “Victor’s a fountain of talent. What are you doing here so early?”
“I, uh,” Victor looks down at the ice, “I wanted to skate. And I had nothing better to do.”
“It was so cool ,” Yuuri tells him enthusiastically, “Can you do it again? Please?”
“ Yuuri ,” Yuuko scolds him, “Jumps are really difficult. Don’t have him bouncing around all day.”
“Oh,” he says, embarrassed, “Sorry, Victor.”
“It’s f-”
“Well, hello there, everyone,” a familiar voice comes from behind them, and they all turn to see the Headmistress. Yuuri almost does a double take when he sees she’s in athletic clothing . “I see Mr. Nikiforov has decided to start without the rest of us.”
“I still can’t believe you made us get up at this hour, Victor,” Professor Feltsman, huddled up in a huge coat , says. He walks quickly until he’s next to the Headmistress and glares at Victor, “It’s inhuman.”
“Sorry, Professor,” the boy answers, smiling cheekily.
“And what do we have here?” the Headmistress glances at Yuuri, “A new recruit, Yuuko?”
“I brought him here to see us skate, Headmistress. I’m still trying to convince him to join.”
Takeshi and a few other students (Jean Jacques, a third year Hufflepuff, amongst them) arrive a few minutes later, all carrying a gym bag. They don’t really pay much attention to Yuuri, even though Takeshi whines at Yuuko about leaving for their rink without her. After a few minutes, they start to take out their skates and prepare themselves to get on the ice. Yuuri stands behind the barrier, simply watching, his eyes never leaving Victor’s lithe figure. His friend moves as if he was born skating, seamlessly dancing on the ice, almost, so smooth and flawless that it takes Yuuri’s breath away. Victor does a few more jumps in the two hours they spend there, all coached by Feltsman (who apparently skated in his youth), and every time his feet lift off the ice, in a whirlwind of black clothing, Yuuri cheers. Victor laughs at his enthusiastic praise, waving, his nose tinged pink from the cold.
Somehow, even though Yuuri was resigned to endure figure skating for Yuuko’s sake, time flies.
“Did you have fun?” Yuuko asks him, grinning, when she gets off the ice.
“It was...entertaining,” he admits, blushing, “But I definitely cannot do any of that.”
“I believe in you!” she insists, punching his shoulder playfully, “And I don’t know, but I get a feeling that Victor would like you to learn too, you know.”
“W-what has that got to do with anything?” he stammers, looking at her in confusion, “I’d probably just embarrass myself, anyway. Victor’s way too pro for me.” He sighs.
Yuuko just smiles.
…
Phichit gets caught tweeting in class five times in two weeks. For the first time in Hogwarts history, they make a rule specifically forbidding phones during class hours.
“No one can stop me, Yuuri,” his best friend confides in him when they’re studying together in their room, each one on their respective beds, “They can try to cage me, but I am free .”
“You could just, you know, tweet later,” Yuuri tries, “That way we won’t get so many House points taken away. Jean Jacques has started twitching every time he sees your phone.”
“Hmph,” Phichit huffs, “I don’t believe in the system.”
Yuuri makes sure to shake his head disapprovingly every time he sees him use the smartphone in History of Magic.
In February, Victor and he make their first potion: The Cure for Boils, which Yuuri is ridiculously excited about.
“I know it’s really simple, but I’ve never done this before,” Yuuri says, sheepishly, “Sorry if I mess it up, though.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Victor smiles at him, “If you mess it up, I’ll make you drink it so you can get boils.”
“That’s so unfair, Victor!”
They add the crushed snake fangs, his partner snorting when Yuuri can’t bring himself to look at the mortar as he smashes them to pieces. After that, they’ve just have to let it brew for some minutes, so Feltsman arranged for them to have two hours of Potions, one before and one after the break. When they come back, Victor adds the horned slugs.
“Only one ingredient left!” Yuuri cheers, and moves to finish it with the porcupine quills.
“Wait!” Victor grabs the sleeve of his robe, pulling slightly, making Yuuri trip a bit until he almost crashes against Victor’s chest. “Um, you have to take it off the fire first.”
“Oh, right,” Yuuri flushes, mortified. He should know that; he’s been staring at the instructions for the last two hours. Quickly, he shuffles his feet until there’s a little more distance between them. “Thanks.”
“N-no problem,” Victor mumbles.
The Cure for Boils turns out perfect. Pink smoke is swirling over the cauldron just as it should be, even if it’s mostly because Victor carefully monitors everything Yuuri does. They get full marks. Actually, Yuuri’s been getting top marks in Potions since the beginning of the year, thanks to his constant note-taking, but he never stops asking for the study lessons.
…
Yuuri doesn’t really realize it’s Valentine’s Day until Leo goes to sit behind them in History of Magic holding a fluffy pink card, while Celestino goes on and on about the early 13th century.
“What’s that?” he nods at him, curious.
“It’s a Valentine’s Day card,” Leo murmurs, checking to see that their Professor isn’t looking at them, “A Ravenclaw girl gave it to me. It was really awkward.”
“It’s Valentine’s Day?” Yuuri cocks his head.
Phichit chuckles, hiding his phone in a pocket inside his robe, “Aww, Yuuri. Yeah, it is. I bet your friend has gathered a crowd today.”
He wrinkles his nose, “Yuuko?”
“Victor,” his roommate clears up, rolling his eyes, “Every girl in first year likes him, apparently. I still think his hair looks a bit weird, since it’s grey.”
“I like his hair,” Yuuri defends him loyally, “It gives him character.”
Celestino continues talking about the early History of the Hogwarts Castle, so they all stop talking and pay attention, mindful to get their notes sorted out before their Professor hands out another surprise exam.
Yuuri doesn’t think much about the holiday after that; he knows no girl likes him, so he doesn’t really expect anything. When he meets Victor for their Potions study session that afternoon, though, he’s astonished to find the library table overflowing with gifts.
There’s boxes of chocolates, flowers, cards, plushies of different cute animals, scented candles, bags of sweets, pink notebooks with swirly handwriting on the front… all piled up next to Victor’s seat. The boy looks terribly uncomfortable, looking down at his Potions notes and ignoring the swarm of girls staring and pointing at him, giggling behind their hands.
“Hey,” Yuuri greets him, hesitant. Victor’s shoulders are taut with tension, his knuckles white around his quill, “Wanna come to study at the Hufflepuff Common Room?”
For a second, Victor looks startled, glancing up from his book to set his eyes on Yuuri, mouth open slightly in surprise.Shortly after, he nods quickly, gathering up all of his things. Just as they’re about to leave, Victor looks back at his batch of Valentine’s Day gifts and mutters a spell under his breath, shaking his wand. They all disappear.
“Whoa,” Yuuri breathes, awed, “Where are they now?”
“In my room,” Victor mumbles, as they walk down towards the entrance to the Hufflepuff Common Room, “I don’t want them, anyway.”
“But it’s chocolate ,” Yuuri frowns, confused, “Why wouldn’t you want chocolate? It’s the best thing ever!”
His friend turns towards him slightly, lips pursed, “I don’t like sweets that much. I’m an athlete, after all.”
“Oh,” Yuuri says, feeling dumb. “Right. Yeah, you’re really slim. Um.”
Not like me , he thinks, unable to help glancing down at himself. He looks ridiculous, standing next to Victor, tall and thin, while he resembles a circle shape more than anything else.
“W-we can eat chocolate, if you want,” Victor blurts out, just as they get to the entrance to Hufflepuff, “It’s fine if I skip my diet for one day. Yakov always tells me to have fun, anyways.”
“No, you don’t have to,” Yuuri mumbles, opening the door to the Common Room. He nods at Phichit, lounging in the sofa taking funny pictures of Leo, who’s trying to cover himself with a pillow, “I won’t make you.”
“I want to eat chocolate, though,” his friend insists, grabbing Yuuri’s wrist suddenly. He turns. Victor’s icy blue eyes are determined, and his lips are set in a thin white line, “Would you eat chocolate with me, Yuuri?”
“...I guess,” he whispers, feeling something warm in his chest. “I mean, if you really want to.”
“I do,” Victor says, determined. “Let’s eat chocolate, Yuuri.”
They don’t study that afternoon. They just hang around in Yuuri’s bedroom, sit on the floor, play Wizarding Chess, and stuff their faces. Victor makes a mess with the chocolate, even getting pieces of the confection in his hair and on Kuro’s fur, causing her to scratch him, which makes Yuuri laugh so hard he almost can’t breathe. His friend whines at him laughing, but he doesn’t seem to mind that much. All in all, Yuuri doesn’t get any presents on Valentine’s Day, but it still feels like a gift.
…
Exams and the Easter holidays arrive almost hand-in-hand, which is hell. Yuuri’s parents send him encouraging letters, telling him to ‘focus on his studies!’, while Mari begs him not to say that she’s failing Charms.
Whenever Yuuri gets too stressed, he goes to figure skating practice and simply watches . It’s unbelievable how completely relaxing it is to observe the kids in the school smoothly glide their way around the ice. Victor, as always, is flawless. Somehow, it seems like he was born to be on the ice, from the way every shade of colour in his body compliments the pale light of the rink, to the expression of absolute and undeniable joy he gets when he sets a foot into the ice, how he softens slightly, as if he can truly relax there. Yuuri doesn’t know too much about skating, even though he’s picking up on a few things from talking to the Professors while he hangs out at the rink. He’s still in dark about most things, but he knows enough to realize that there’s magic in the way Victor skates, and it has nothing to do with wands.
Amusingly, Victor seems to enjoy Yuuri watching him, even showing off a bit when Yuuri’s there. He even demonstrates the Salchow jump to Yuuri, and preens when he claps enthusiastically.
Studying at the library becomes Yuuri’s way of life, carrying tonnes of books around in his bag. Phichit joins him sometimes, sticking his tongue out as he studies, highlighting the most important passages. Leo, on the other hand, just says, “I don’t like studying.” and aces all of his subjects.
“Some people deserve to burn,” Takeshi mutters, grumbling, and for once, Yuuri agrees with him.
In the end, he passes every subject, even Flying (thanks to Leo’s advice, to be honest). He even gets top marks in Potions and Defense Against the Dark Arts, despite the fact that he has to stare at Professor Baranovskaya while he does his practical exam.
“If this is mid term,” Yuuri whines, “I will die at finals.”
Yuuko rubs his arm reassuringly, “There, there.”
Mari decides to stay for the Easter holidays this year, for the first time since she started school at Hogwarts, which Yuuri doesn’t quite know how to feel about. She says it’s because some of her friends can’t go home and she doesn’t want them to be alone in the castle. Still.
Yuuri’s never been chocolate egg hunting without his sister, since his parents consider it too Western to celebrate all of them together. This year, he won’t go at all.
He rides the train back with Phichit and the Gryffindors again, saying goodbye to Victor before they get on the Hogwarts Express.
“Eat lots of chocolate!” he tells him, smiling. He’s going to miss Victor, this few weeks. “Do it for me!”
His friend rolls his eyes, “So demanding. Would you do extra Potions work if I asked you?”
“For a true friend?” he punches him on the shoulder softly, “Sure!”
“Weirdo,” Victor mumbles, but he sounds pleased.
…
During Easter, while he’s playing around with the flying carpet in his room (a flying carpet is much less entertaining when he’s got orders from Phichit not to fly anywhere with it in case of muggles seeing him, but it still rocks), he remembers his other present.
Yuuri hesitates, for a moment, but then he slowly walks towards his wardrobe, crouching to get the the compartments where he keeps his footwear, and takes out his magical skates.
They’re a shade between grey and very dark blue, with black laces tied at the centre. The small white wings, which shocked Yuuri so much when he saw them for the first time, are fluttering softly, as if half-asleep.
He stares at them. He leaves them back on their drawer.
Takes them out again.
Stares at them some more.
Looks down at himself, at his unathletic, pork-cutlet-bowl-loving body.
He quickly shoves them in the wardrobe again.
But the next morning, during breakfast with his parents, Yuuri remembers how Victor lights up every time he’s on the ice like he’s flying rather than skating. He thinks of the way Yuuko still hasn’t given up on him, reluctant as he is, dropping hints whenever she gets a chance.
Something inside him stirs, waiting to awaken.
…
The first exciting thing they do when they come back from break is go exploring to collect Flobberworms.
“I can’t wait to catch a magical worm ,” Yuuri breathes, just as they’re getting ready to head out.
“ We won’t be catching them,” Victor reminds him, rolling his eyes, “It’s the third years that actually get to do that. We just stand around and point.”
“The school system is so unfair.”
Yuuri and Victor overshadow Jean Jacques and his Hufflepuff Potions partner for the day, crouching on the ground and showing the Third Years where to get them. Every time Yuuri sees one, he jumps, yelping, and proceeds to clutch at Victor for the next five minutes.
“They’re just so cool ,” Yuuri marvels at the brown worms. They look like a living, herbivorous croissant. “I want to keep one, Victor. Won’t you get me a Flobberworm?”
“You already have Kuro,” Victor laughs, ruffling his hair and ignoring his protests at the gesture, “Besides, you’d get bored of it after a while.”
“Lies and slander, Nikiforov. Flobberworms are the best. I can’t believe you’d say that.”
They all go back into the Potions classroom to get the mucus out of the collected worms, even if it makes Yuuri tear up a little when they have to squeeze the poor things to get it. Victor, fulfilling his role as Best Potions Partner Ever, pats his back reassuringly.
In the middle of April, Yuuri and the Gryffindors throw Phichit a surprise party for his birthday.
They get all his Ravenclaw friends to come, and even some older Hufflepuffs, like Jean Jacques, mostly through advertising the fact that the house elves like Phichit, so they’re making unbelievable amounts of delicious food. Yuuri sets up his phone as a stereo, Leo brings so many paper cups that it’s difficult to count them, and says, “It’s an American thing, don’t ask.”
Yuuri tries to invite Victor, but the Slytherin declines, “...I don’t really know most of the people going.”
“Oh, come on,” he whines, pleading, “You’re a cool guy! I bet everyone would love to meet you.”
“Yeah,” says Victor, not sounding excited at all, “Still, I’d rather stay studying. Sorry, Yuuri.”
All in all, it’s a pretty great party, judging by the way Phichit starts to cry and proceeds to hug every single person at the party.
“You are a beautiful iPhone,” he whispers in Yuuri’s ears when it’s his turn, “ Thank you .”
…
In May, after they harvest Kelp plants in the Black Lake for Herbology, Yuuri attempts to make Kelp facial cream using Leo (when his sister immediately shoots him down) as his test subject, because he’s too easily convinced.
It doesn’t do much for his skin, but the Gryffindor walks around with a slightly greenish tinge on his face for the whole month. Leo ignores his babbled apologies, waving it away with one of his usual calm smiles, “It’s fine. It’s like what you said about Victor’s hair: it gives me character , right?”
He blushes, “Y-yeah. Still, don’t ever let me convince you to do this stuff again.”
Leo grins, “You can try it on Takeshi, next time. That’d be fun to see.”
Spring in Scotland is just as wet as the rest of the year, but the Sun comes out every couple of days, blessing them all with a few hours of lying on the ground while reluctantly filling out their Astronomy worksheets. Phichit likes to tear blades of grass and throw them into people’s laps whenever he’s bored, which is most of the time.
Yuuri and Mari go on a picnic together, on a day where she says she’s “feeling sisterly”, even though Yuuri knows full well that one of her friends cancelled their trip to Hogsmeade at the last minute. They walk up to the Great Lake together, messing around with their wands, trying to trip each other up and running away before the other manages to do the same to them. Yuuri always has the advantage in these kind of challenges, because Mari becomes absolutely useless without her wand, while he can properly hold his own empty-handed.
Their lunch drags on for hours, encompassing the entire afternoon, licking their fingers clean after having desserts from the kitchens and letting the hours go by as they talk about anything they can think of.
“Hey, Yuuri,” Mari mumbles at one point, her face pressed against the picnic blanket, fingers curling around his robe, “I’m glad you’re making friends here, even if they’re annoying.”
Yuuri grins, burrowing closer to her and curling against her side. He’s reminded of the time when they were both little and used to sleep in the same bed all the time, “Thanks, Mari.”
“You’re a nerd,” his sister sighs sleepily, and hugs him close to her.
…
June is midterms all over again, except this time it’s happening .
Phichit teaches him some breathing exercises before exam week, so expertly and smoothly that Yuuri asks him if he’s been doing them since he was little. His roommate cheerfully informs him that he found them on WikiHow ten minutes ago.
“The Internet is amazing , Yuuri!” Phichit breathes, clutching at the front of his robes, “I don’t think you understand how great it is!”
“L-let go of me, Phichit!”
Yuuri figures that he shouldn’t question something that works, so he spends his free time at the ice rink. Despite what he thought would happen during finals (which was that skating practices would be cancelled), the kids in school seem almost even more eager to let out some steam, endlessly repeating what Feltsman teaches them. Victor goes up to Yuuri sometimes, when he’s trying to recall the name of a planet for his Astronomy notes, and gets him to talk to a human being for some time, poking at his head with his cold fingers, making funny faces and dramatic reenactments of wizarding soap operas on the ice, which never fails to bring Yuuri to tears with laughter.
Yuuko, the angel that she is, teaches him a hot cocoa spell. Even though he gets weird looks for drinking hot beverages in June, Yuuri enjoys the heck out of it.
It’s not after he’s done with exams and he still hangs out at the rink, when he’s less distracted by yellowing parchment and strange Latin words, that he notices the Headmistress watching him.
She’s not always at the rink, since she has many responsibilities, apparently (Yuuri has yet to see her doing anything except teach them Transfigurations) but she seems to enjoy it greatly. He’s always thought the Headmistress to be young, but it never shows as much as when she’s hooting at some fifth year for performing a particularly impressive spin, or the way she cackles at Feltsman’s exasperated frown after Victor cheekily ignores all his instructions.
Yuuri notices her considering gaze on him after a few days, the thoughtful tilt of her chin when she looks at him, the sly curl of her lips. He thinks about asking if he should leave, if he’s bothering the skaters or riling Victor up too much, when Feltsman always whines about how difficult he is, but he doesn’t dare. The Headmistress, on her part, doesn’t say anything to him.
The last day of classes, after they get their reports card (Yuuri again passes all his subjects, thank god), right before he’s hurrying from the second floor to downstairs to get his stuff and head towards the train, the Headmistress asks him to wait for a moment.
“Um, sure,” he mumbles, scratching the back of his neck nervously, “Is there something I did wrong, Headmistress?”
She doesn’t speak for a few moments, expression completely blank. Yuuri’s never really thought the Headmistress to be uptight and super orderly. Even her appearance defies expectations: her hair is tied in a bun, but there’s strands of brown hair falling around her shoulders, messy and unrefined and she likes to wear jeans under her black robes, strangely enough.
The Headmistress grins suddenly, her eyes lighting up, and she leans down until their gazes line up with each other perfectly. Her voice is soft but determined as she asks, “Yuuri, would you like to learn ballet?”
…
Victor’s sitting on an empty compartment on the Hogwarts Express.
He sighs at the familiar scenery, letting his body slouch against the huge seats, strands of grey hair getting into his eyes. Victor takes out one of his favourite novels from his book bag, letting his fingers trace over the familiar edges of the cover, feel the worn corners and the tattered spine.
Just before he begins to read, he thinks of Yuuri Katsuki.
He was inside the compartment with his friends again, not that it’s surprising by now, smiling and laughing. He looked up when Victor passed them, shyly going in to mutter a quiet, “Hello,” and wished him happy holidays. Yuuri even offered him a seat in the compartment, “even though I’m sure you have your fan club waiting for you, cool guy!”
Victor bites his lip.
Maybe one day he’ll be brave enough to step in.
For now, he opens his novel, enjoying the way every thought in his mind becomes muffled at the sight of printed words, and loses himself.