London is a sprawling, dirty metropolis filled with hordes of people and unfamiliar smells. With loud cars, little more than metal cages, swarming around like ants. Everything is too close, squeezing her spirit and crushing her body. It makes her long for the simple countryside fresh air she grew up around. The clear skies and starry nights. The clean streets and babbling brook. The Thames is nothing like The Elwy--London's river is pitch black. Death-like. If she went for a swim, she'd get sick. She'd grow too cold. Sink to the foundation. Add to the pile of bones surely lurking at the bottom.
Needless to say, Natsumi doesn't like the city. She hardly likes most forms of Muggle technology, much less this hulking mass of transportation that's bigger than the house she grew up in. It's so intimidating to walk past the steam of the engine, the high-pitched whistles, the shouts of workers directing students where to go. Her mother had warned her about leaving last minute, because every year, it seems like every student came to the station at the latest possible moment to board the train. So she came early. Spent the morning sitting pretty in her own booth looking outside at the slowly changing platform. It's pandemonium out there right now: yelling parents, shoving students, owls escaping cages...Yes, thank goodness she came early. She wouldn't have been able to handle the crowd out there. She can barely handle the passing students in the hallway glancing in at her. Every so often a curious look is sent her way or maybe even a bold hello. It's horrifying. She'd much prefer to dissolve into the background as a drop of ink does in a pool of water. It would be easier to blend in if it weren't for her appearance--Bad enough that she inherited her father's obnoxious hair, she had to go and get her mother's face alongside with it. From far away, she can be mistaken for English, but up close, the truth is evident.
You don't belong here says her grandmother's voice over and over in her head, come home. Come home. It sings as a siren does to sailors lost at sea, and all at once, she wonders if the creatures could ever sound as sweet. Grandmother was a singer, the one on her mother's side, and growing up, she was sure that there was no other voice as lovely as hers. Who else could have sung her to sleep in safe arms? Singing songs of the old country. Of spirits and demons, and the clever travelers they encountered. Of love and loss and gods and--
She doesn't realize she's humming until someone asks what it is. The door to her compartment is open. Someone is leaning in, hands resting on the frame.
"It's pretty." Natsumi keeps her head down to avoid eye contact with the stranger, but she can tell they're a girl. She can tell she's a Muggleborn by her shoes (they always have the strangest shoes!): odd looking, semi-clog-shaped, made of clay-colored leather with a buckle coming across the top of the foot, creating an arch shaped window. Her calf length white socks don't look very functional, either, they're semi-sheer, "You have a good voice."
Her face grows warm at the compliment; the proper thing to do is to humbly deny it, but she wants to accept it so badly... "Um, I--Thanks." Her throat clears, "Thank you." She tries for a more confident tone, "It's, um, it's a song," Obviously, Natsumi, of course it's a song, "--Uh, it's a song my grandmother used to sing to me." Her hands play with the fabric of her clothes, unused to having someone's attention on her for so long.
"I like it." The voice of the Muggleborn stranger is unfailingly kind, "Can I sit here? I was looking for a good space to wave goodbye to my family outside."
"Of course!" Her reply is enthusiastic, but not at all loud. She scoots aside, away from the window to allow the girl room, even if she hardly took up any space at all. The stranger rushes to the window, opening it up to stick her head out and bounce wildly. Seeing that her back is turned, Natsumi assumes it's safe to lift her chin upwards.
"Mum! Dad! Tuney! Up here!!" Although her voice projects far, Natsumi can see from her seat that she doesn't need it to, her family is quite near. "Tuney! Tuney!!" The girl she's calling, a tall, skinny blonde Natsumi assumes is a Muggle, refuses to acknowledge the calls. The two adults with her, on the other hand, are happily waving back to their daughter on the train, telling her to write often and to be safe. As the train pulls away from the platform, the two even chase after it. The sight is enough to both warm her heart and tighten her ribcage with jealousy.
"Crikey O'Riley, you've got gorgeous eyes--" Damn. She's turned around and looked at her, don't look at her, please, "You're not from around here, are you?"
Her eyes return to her lap, where it's safe, "Um, thank you, I--" she swallows, hoping a distraction would come to her rescue, "--I'm not from London." Please don't ask for specifics, please don't ask for--
"Yeah?" The girl takes a seat across from her and leans in, her arms resting on her legs, "Where from?" Damn.
"W-Wales."
"I figured, what with your accent and all." Natsumi lets out a breath of relief once it was clear that the other wouldn't insist that she wasn't from Wales, "And I can tell by your shoes that you're not a Muggleborn." She holds in a laugh at that, "Purebloods n' half-bloods always have the most interesting shoes, don't you think? Never any tennis or heels or sandals, you know?"
What a peculiar girl, "I, um, I always thought that Muggleborn shoes were a little strange." Her hands continue to fuss with her skirts.
The stranger laughs melodically, good natured, "What do you mean? My mary-janes are perfectly normal, thank you very much!" She lifts her foot up, pointed, showing it off, "But I suppose that's fair--The unfamiliar is always a little strange, right?"
Right. But giving human names to shoes is Natsumi's limit. She nods her agreement before finally daring to look up at the other. Yes, she really was quite pretty: bright red hair, golden in the sunlight, decorated with barrets, framing a gentle face speckled with freckles (spaces where the sun kissed her, she thinks), and bright green eyes, the color of a leaf in direct daylight. Her candy yellow formless dress rests just above her knee, looking soft.
"I'm Lily," The girl offers up her hand eagerly, "Lily Evans."
For a second, Natsumi stares at the hand as if it were tampered with or foreign somehow. As if she had never seen a hand in all her natural life. Timidly, after seeing the kind girl's smile falter slightly, she takes her hand and gives a weak shake, "Ak--Natsumi." Her throat clears, "My first name is Natsumi."
"And your last?" She hasn't let go of her hand.
"Oh! Yes, um, it's," Natsumi tries to pull her hand away, but Lily has a very firm grip, "Akiyama." She braces for questions.
"Natsumi Akiyama." Lily repeats, shaking the other's hand with each word, "It's good to meet you."
Natsumi bows her head towards the other politely, "It's good to meet you too."
"Can I ask--What does it mean? Your name? I mean, I've always heard that Oriental names all mean something, so I'm just curious."
Oh dear, "Well, um, firstly," she smooths out the fabric on her lap, "that, um, word you used...Oriental...It's not very, um," her thumbs rub the pads of her fingers, "I--it's not a good um...it's very rude..."
"Oh!" The other redhead exclaims, "Oh I see, I'm, I'm so sorry, it's--I didn't know, it's such a common word, I--"
"I understand." Unfortunately. "Just, please don't use it again."
"I'm sorry." Natsumi's hand is sandwiched between hers. Natsumi freezes, "I promise I'll never say it again, I won't even think about that word."
Blood flushes her face again, "I--I forgive you, I promise." How strange to have someone begging for forgiveness like this. She doesn't like it at all. Especially when the other seems genuinely apologetic and kind. There's such a need for kindness now-and-days... "You didn't know, um, most people don't know." Unfortunately.
"And now I do." The expression in Lily's eyes can only be described as fierce determination, "And I'll make sure to remember it." What a peculiar white girl. She looks at their hands, what a forward white girl.
"Thank you." That's all she can manage, "Sincerely."
Her smile could light up the world.
"--Do you, um, still want to know the meaning?" Is she so starved for company that she'll just talk to the first stranger that gives her a name? Yes. Absolutely.
Lily nods enthusiastically, "I'll tell you mine first, if you're shy; Lily is pretty straight-forward, it's just a flower." She shrugs, giving a giggle, "Evans just means Son of Evan, it's Welsh too! My grandfather is from Swansea!"
Natsumi nods, "I figured, we have a lot of, um, Evans over there."
"Yeah? I bet you've even met some of my family, then!" The girl looks excited at the prospect, "That's so cool, I've only been to Wales a few times, and only to visit my nan--What part are you from?"
"We, um, we live in a small wizarding community near Saint Asaph."
"Whoa, Saint Asaph? I hear it's a really tiny city."
"Mm." A nod, "One of the smallest in the UK. It's, um, really lovely--Lots of greenery, fresh air, and nature, you know. The Muggles are nice."
"I'd like to see it someday--Will you show me around?" Very forward. They've hardly met and she's already inviting herself over.
"I'd, uh, yeah, I can do that." What are the chances that they'd actually stay in contact after this train ride? "I haven't seen much of the Muggle side, though."
"I can navigate Muggle territory quite easily, thank you very much!" Her words earn a hearty chuckle from Natsumi, "You just worry about that wizarding side."
"Will do." A moment of comfortable silence--Lily looking almost expectantly at her... "...Oh! Oh, um," Scatterbrain. "My name, right--well," she presses her lips together, "My first name, Natsumi, is made up of two characters--" A pause, "Characters are like..." She draws in the air with her finger, "Those complicated glyphs you see in Mandarin and Japanese...We call them Kanji."
"The pictographs?"
"No--I mean, they're not all pictographs. They're mostly, um, what's the word...ideographs." Oh she wishes she had a notebook to illustrate.
It's as if the other read her mind: one-handedly, Lily digs into her little bag to pull out a decorated, well-worn notebook and a strangle glittery blue quill, narrow like a straw, with tuffs of blue feathers at the end, "Show me?"
She feels so on display...But somehow it's comforting to have Lily's eyes on her. Maybe it's just because she's one person rather than a crowd, or because Lily is a girl. Boys make Natsumi nervous, and not at all in a good way.
She takes the notebook gingerly and opens it up on her lap, quill in her left hand, waiting for an ink bottle--"Oh, it doesn't need ink--I mean, the ink is already inside. You just start writing." The taller girl clarifies at the sight of Natsumi's confusion.
"Fascinating..." She studies the ink-filled not-quill for a second or two before assuming a writing position. Lily scoots closer for a better look. "You see, some characters are pictographs...like rì." She writes out 日 on the paper, "This means sun, or daytime. It comes from this old pictograph," she draws a circle with a dot in the center, "In Japanese, it's pronounced hì."
"He?"
Another nod, "It has other pronunciations to go along with other meanings, like nichi or ka."
"How can you tell the difference?"
"Context; you'll know how it's supposed to be used based on the characters surrounding it."
"That's so cool--And the ideographs?"
A sigh of relief, she was afraid she was boring her, "Those are a little harder sometimes," She jots down 下, "In Mandarin, this is xià. Meaning down. In Japanese, it's shita. It can mean down, below, inferior, or younger. When you look at the character for the opposite, it starts to make sense," beside it, she writes 上, "This is shàng. It means above, superior, or up. In Japanese, it's pronounced jō."
"Jou?" A nod. "I think I get it--The little pole and flag are under the bar for under and above the bar for above."
"Yes, that's exactly it."
"That's amazing...And you know all this? All the words?"
"Well," Natsumi licks her lips, "it's a lot of kanji to memorize, um, I'm sure nobody in the world knows all of them without some sort of cheat involved."
"I think I'd go mad if I had to learn more than ten." The taller girl admires the glyphs on the paper, "And your name? How do you write it?"
"There's a few ways to, um, spell my name in Japanese--The most popular one is Natsu and Mi, which is 'summer' and 'beauty'. Then there's Na and Tsumi, which is 'vegetable' and 'picking'." She writes out the first, 夏美 in her clearest and best script before writing out the second, 菜摘.
"Can I guess? Is it beautiful summer?"
Natsumi flushes again, "No, it's vegetable picking."
Lily's laughter doesn't make her feel embarrassed, "I love it--And your last name?"
She continues, "Akiyama is made from 'autumn' and 'mountain'," She writes 秋山 alongside the correct spelling of her name.
Her new companion hums, "Vegetable picking on the autumn mountain? I like it. It sounds like a good time." She rests her cheek on her free hand, "I assume you're Japanese alongside Welsh?"
"Japanese, yes." She confirms, "On my mother's side."
Something unspoken is exchanged between them. Lily nods, not prodding further, "All me and Tuney got in our blood is Welsh with a splash of English, though mum swears she has a French great-great-grandfather--Me n' Tuney both think it's rubbish; Tuney's my big sister, she's a year older than me."
The memory of the blonde girl with a sour face on the platform returns, "I think I saw her--What does Tuney mean?"
"Oh," Lily giggles to herself, "Tuney is just my nickname for her--Her first name is Petunia, like the flower," she takes back the blue not-quill to illustrate, "See? They grow like crazy in my mum's garden back home. Her prized petunias, she calls them."
"Very pretty." Natsumi agrees, admiring the simple drawing Lily made.
"What's my name? In Japanese, I mean--" she almost sounds embarrassed, "What's the Japanese character for Lily?"
"Um, well," Natsumi scratches her cheek, "it doesn't have a character, it's spelled out with one of our alphabets: Hiragana."
"You have more than one alphabet?" The not-stranger is astonished.
"We have three: Kanji, Hiragana, and Katakana. Kanji are glyphs, Hiragana are for knowing how to pronounce the glyphs, and Katakana is for foreign or borrowed words."
"And you have to learn them all?"
Another nod. Lily's eyes look like they're bulging out of her head, "Good lord."
"It's a process, but it's really quite easy once you start learning. It just takes discipline." Natsumi takes back the not-quill, "The lily flower in Hiragana is yuri." She writes out ゆり nearby Lily's drawing, "However, a Japanese person would pronounce your name as Ri-lii," Her mouth morphs the R and L sound together, so it almost sounds like she's saying both Ri-rii and Li-lii at the same time, "and that's spelled with Katakana," Underneath ゆり, she writes リリー. Then, as an add-on, she writes ペチュニア underneath the drawing, "This is how you would write your sister's name, Pechunia."
"Tuney would love this," Lily's fingertips brush over the words, "she's so smart, you know--She's going to save the world, someday."
To Natsumi, the girl came off as unpleasant, but perhaps she was just having a bad day, "That's a very noble cause."
"Tuney is a very noble person!" Her chest puffs, it's obvious she's proud to have her as a sister, "You got any siblings?"
"Um, yes," Natsumi clears her throat, "Just one. An older half-sister."
She says no more, and Lily gets the message, "I see." she scoots over so that she's sitting next to Natsumi, and it's then that the later notices that, during the entire language lesson, she has still not let go of her hand, "I've only got Tuney, but Sev's kind of like a brother to me, sometimes. He's certainly a right prat like a brother would be." Natsumi nods along, wanting to take back her hand, but too afraid to--What if she offends her new companion? "I know what you're thinking: why am I friends with him if he's a right prat?" Well, not exactly, but just about, "He's actually the one who told me I was a witch before I knew I was a witch--Sev's a half-blood, he lives near me n' Tuney. I should actually be out looking for him--"
As if waiting for his cue, a pale faced boy with greasy locks of hair and an aquiline nose enters the compartment, "Lily--" He notices Natsumi with a look that does not display kindness. She wants to shrink into herself and disappear, "--I was looking for you."
"Sev!" Oh no, "Come sit, I've made us a friend," Oh no. "This is Severus Snape. Sev, this is Natsumi Akiyama."
Natsumi bows her head to him, "Pleasure to meet you, Snape." It's lovely how English wizarding culture encourages the use of family names for strangers--It alleviates so much from her shyness.
Severus eyes Lily and Natsumi's linked hands with curiosity as he sits down, "Pleasure." It does not at all sound like a pleasure. He turns his attention back to the energetic girl, "I thought we were going to meet at the front of the train."
"Oh yeah yeah, I know, but I wanted to wave goodbye to mum, dad, n' Tuney, and I needed a good view, so I came into her compartment and--Well, we got distracted."
It seems Severus can't stay mad at Lily; his stern, offended face melts at the sight of her smile. His crush is rather obvious, if Natsumi does say so herself, but that's none of her business.
Severus nods once and addresses her, "Akiyama, did you say? The Welsh branch?"
Natsumi sits up a little straighter, "Yes," a head bow in confirmation, "Through my mother, Hideko Akiyama."
Severus almost looks intrigued, "Your mother went to school with my mother--Ravenclaw, correct?"
As Natsumi answers 'yes', Lily gushes, "That's so cool! It must be nice going to get the same education that your parents got." It is. Natsumi can't imagine entering a world where she didn't know anyone or had any history in. She's itching to become a falcon alongside the rest of her family.
"Pureblood?" Severus prompts.
The word brings a tightening in her throat, "Yes." Certainly not one of the Sacred Twenty-Eight, but that's partly due to her family's late immigration to the United Kingdom (among other frivolous technicalities). The main branch in Japan is considered more revered, but only as a courtesy; Akiyamas aren't proud about their blood status, only their accomplishments. And accomplishments is something they have in excess.
Severus hums, and she knows he's looking over her mixed features. Taking note. Judging. Storing information for later use.
She averts her eyes.
"A half-blood, a pureblood, and a muggleborn." Lily smiles, grabbing Severus' hand with her free one, creating a link, "Look at us, we're the diversity cabin."
Natsumi tries for a smile, unsure of how to feel.
-
The rest of the train ride to Hogwarts is a mix of uncomfortable and cozy. Lily and Severus, having known each other for a good amount of years, hold a close bond that Natsumi can only dream about. They share words with only a look and laugh at inside jokes that sound like complete nonsense to her. On the other hand, Lily is remarkably skilled at making her feel welcome and included (contrast to how much Severus makes her feel unwanted and intruding). For every story that she shares about her and Severus, she asks a question to Natsumi relating to it. Do you have any pets? What are your neighbors like? What was your first case of accidental magic? Natsumi almost feels like she's being interviewed for the Prophet. The attention is overwhelming, at times, but it's nice. It makes her feel like maybe Lily actually cares about becoming her friend.
"You made your baby cousin disappear?" Lily squeals in guilty laughter as Severus spares a small snerk.
"He wouldn't stop crying." Natsumi confirms, looking down at her lap, "He--He was fine, though, um, they found him later a few kilometers away under a tree."
"That's one way to deal with an annoying relative--How old were you?"
"Um, about three."
Severus' eyebrows raise in interest, "That's quite young. Most cases are closer to six or nine."
Natsumi blushes, as if she had anything to be embarrassed about, "I, um, I suppose it was motivated by emotion, then."
Lily nods, "Oh yeah, I hear all cases of accidental magic are caused by strong emotion--Fear and happiness and anger and all that."
The cabin door opens, and a tall girl imposes herself against the frame, intruding on the trio's space. Her brown eyes make eye contact with Natsumi, and the young girl looks down in nerves, "Natsumi." It is a greeting and a command, "You should have changed into your robes by now." And a critique, "All of you." She gazes at Lily and Severus with disinterest before turning back to Natsumi, "Father says to write him when you're sorted."
"Yes Mao. Of course, Mao."
Natsumi expects that she narrowed her eyes at her because Lily moves closer, protectively. As if she thought Mao was a threat--But that was silly. Mao would never harm her.
"Get dressed. We're almost there." The door slides closed, the girl's long black hair trailing behind her as she walks down the hall.
"What a cheese weasel." A what. "What was her problem?" Lily looks properly offended and miffed.
"--What do you mean?" Did Mao look at them wrong?
"She was rather...rude." Severus says, hands in his lap.
"Rude? She was a total chump! Don't tell me that's your sister?"
Severus snorts at Lily's words, and she throws a fierce look at him. Natsumi twiddles her fingers, "Yes, that was her."
She scrunches her nose, displeased, "Let me guess: her name means Gag Me With A Spoon?" The suggestion evokes some amusement from Severus, but Natsumi only grows more nervous, "Wh-what? No, of course not--That would be--"
"Akiyama." Severus stops her, "She's joking."
"--Oh." Natsumi's face grows hot with embarrassment, "I'm sorry."
Lily rubs her arm in comfort, Natsumi forgets to be uncomfortable with the contact, "No need to be--I'm just...Surprised that you two are related..." Severus snorts again, and Lily sharpens her glare at him. Natsumi thinks about the sour-faced Petunia left on the platform--There's a story there...Perhaps Snape will tell her it.
"Mao isn't bad." She reassures, "She, um, just doesn't like strangers, she was probably stiff about that..." Not to mention the huge disagreement she and mother got into this morning, but that's personal. Natsumi doesn't air her family's dirty laundry, thank you very much, "Come, let's just get changed." Natsumi tugs gently at Lily's hand, and the girl (to her credit) drops the subject and follows. On the way to the bathrooms, she starts up a conversation about fashion trends and asks about witches' styles.
Natsumi's grateful to have made such a friendly acquaintance right off the bat.
The title is from the Sarah Mclachlan song, Possession. The current cover image was composited by me.
howdy-do fellow kids
This fic is a commission from the lovely and will probably be about 10-15 chapters? Give or take? Shorter than Serpentine, but just as fun! Also please be warned: though this chapter started out light and fluffy, there's going to be really bad, unhealthy relationship dynamics in future chapters!! Every chapter will have a CW stating what you need to know.
On that note: there will be ZERO dub-con or non-con in this fic, please douse yourself in cold water if that's what you're looking for! Or better yet: seek therapy.
Idk about you guys, but personally I feel a good playby for Natsumi is Erika Sawajiri as she was in the drama Hotman (though younger, obviously.) Oh, and also: please comment! u.u