I woke up late into the morning thankful that classes didn't start until the next day. Today I could relax, be reacquainted with Hogwarts and ultimately decide what classes I would take this term.
I got dressed and walked lazily down to the Great Hall for whatever was left of breakfast. When I got there the Goblet of Fire still stood brightly blue in place of the podium and I imagined that quite a few people had already thrown their little parchment pieces into its flames, eagerly waiting to see if they would get the chance to be famous or what have you.
I sit and dish myself some buttered toast and tea and taking a couple small sausages for a change. Talon came swooping down from the high windows to drop a package on the table in front of me. He hoots and I pull a piece of bacon for him and then a blood sausage when he hoots dissatisfied.
"Oooh presents already?" Albus swoons excitedly. When I look up Scorpius, Hugo, and Louis are with him.
"None for you." I grin devilishly and begin undoing the twine used to keep the box closed. Inside is an assortment of sweets a new quill and a plain black journal with a note attached to the front.
'The journal is so you can write to Hayato. He desperately wanted it, just write and he will be able to read it in his journal. Same for when he wants to write to you. He also spent hours indecisive about what other sweets to buy for you. Convinced him you didn't like many sweets so he insisted on getting Talon treats as well. He wanted to get all the kinds that the shopkeeper suggested but tearfully agreed to just three.
Oh and happy belated birthday Love.
-Mum
P.S. There's Licorice Wands for Albus and Scorpius.'
I scoff and dig into the box to find two packages of licorice wands.
"Here you gnomes go." I huff and toss the boxes to them.
I grin at the next letter seeing that it's in Hayato's messy writing.
'Dear Aiko,
Here's the stuff I wanted to get you and some stuff for Talon. Oh and Albus and Scorpius. I didn't know what to get your friends so mum got the licorice wands. I hope they like them and I hope Talon like his treats. Can you tell him they're from me? Because I like Talon and I want him to like me too.
I miss you. I know you're going to be the best at school.
Love you time a bajillion,
Hayato Promethius Ironwood (<- Did I do a good job, Aiko?)'
Smiling at the letter I fold it back up and stick it inside the journal.
"Hayato says 'You're welcome you moochers'." I chuckle and Scorpius shakes his head.
"He's too nice. Sweet kid." Albus takes a sweet and inspects it
"Yeah he hopes you like them." I confess.
"I'll do one better and love them." Scorpius grins and hugs his pack of sweets.
"Pick anything except for the Fizzing Whizbees." I say and push the box toward Louis and Hugo so that I can continue eating.
After a moment I hear Louis give a disgusted snort, "Did your mom forget your birthday?"
"Sure you can absolutely read my private letters." I say, the scorn clear in my voice.
"It was just there on top." Louis defends and a smile breaks out across my face. With one motion I have my wand out and pointed at my box of treats.
"Louis I bloody hate you." Albus speaks up just before I wave my wand, making my box disappear.
"But my sweets." Louis sputters.
"No my sweets." I say pointedly and return to my toast.
"I didn't mean to read it?" Louis groans.
"But you did." I sigh, feigning some hint of sympathy.
"Alright fine. Bigger issue; who forgets their kid's birthday?" Louis deflects and it sparks the anger in me.
"My mum forgets. And so does my dad if you needed to snoop so badly. They forget everything not immediately important and that includes but is not limited to my birthday. Bigger issue; invasion of privacy."
"Sometimes you're actually the worst Louis Weasley." Scorpius pouts having missed out on the other sweets as well. "Have you ever in the history of Albus and I knowing Aiko heard us talk about her family?"
Albus answers while Louis flounders and Hugo shakes his head after his own careful consideration, "The answer is no. You never have." Hugo, Albus, and Scorpius all give Louis irritated looks.
"Look it's just really bloody weird that your mum would forget your birthday. My mum would never-"
"Because your mum cares! She thinks you're important and special and worth her time. My mum doesn't-" I stop short and seethe.
"How does a mother not care?" Louis scoffs and something in my will breaks.
"She just fucking doesn't." I burst and am instantly embarrassed. Pushing my plate and tea cup away I get up from the table and quietly run-walk out of the hall wandering as if on autopilot down to the fields beside Hagrid's hut. On last minute I decide to sit in the gardens surrounded by the tall stalks of summer wheat and half-grown giant pumpkins that were already almost the size of me.
I couldn't say why it was so meditative all I knew was the surroundings along with the crisp breeze calmed all my particles.
Talon found me almost as soon as I sat in the middle of the pumpkins asking permission to go on the hunt that I promised him. I send him off to it and take a deep breath. No one had questioned me about my parents since 1st year and I had been grateful for it.
My mum and dad weren't bad parents. Hayato and I never needed for anything. We're kept healthy physically. They're just both emotionally absent. Mum more so than dad. It was strange to anyone else but it is my life. Birthdays and whatnot were just days. Mum and Dad didn't even celebrate their anniversary. They went to more annual meetings than anything else.
They weren't bad parents. Just not typical parents. I guess.
Thinking about it was getting me wound up so I took a deep breath and laid back against a conveniently deformed pumpkin and closed my eyes letting the chill of the breeze seep into my skin giving me pleasant goosebumps. I focused my senses on specific things; the sound of the trees rustling in the wind, the smell of the lake mixing with the aromas of the garden, I busied my hands with a dead vine loose in the dirt within reach. Immersed in picturing my breaths travel from my head all the way down to the base of my spine and then down through my toes.
Pleasant. Pleasant. Pleasant.
"Excuse me."
I screamed. Jumped up to my feet but twisting my ankle in the process.
"Damn it all to hell." I moan, bent over and balanced on one foot while I cradle the other.
"Sorry. Sorry." Strong thin arms snake around me just under my arms and hold me steady. I look over to my assaulter and scream again this time I fall straight on my butt and let out a yelp.
"Who the bloody hell are you?" I massage my injured ankle.
"Sorry. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to startle you." The girl in her Durmstrang coat scrunches her face in concern. "My name is Asta. What's your name?"
"Aiko." I hiss through my teeth trying to stand up on my injured foot.
"Do you have an infirmary here?" Asta frowns.
"What kind of school do you think this is? Of course. Wouldn't happen to have a broom on you so I could get there would you?"
"I can float you there." She grins charmingly.
"Absolutely not." My brow furrows and I begin to wonder if I could hop all the way to the hospital wing.
"Fine." Asta huffs and I expect her to walk off but instead she comes closer scooping me up at the waist and knees.
"Wah!" I yelp and she laughs at me.
"You're going to drop me!" I squeak.
"No I won't."
"You will. I'm too heavy. Put me down." She laughs at me more.
"Aiko, right?" I nod. "Whoever told you you're too heavy is an-" She pauses with a searching look on her face. "What is the English word for a very stupid person?"
"Moron." I offer but she shakes her head. "Idiot?"
"Yes, they are idiots. They are idiots and you are an idiot for thinking they are right."
"Excuse me?!" I huff indignantly and again she laughs.
"Now tell me where your infirmary is." I begin to tell her and she looks up at the castle, face sculpted skeptically at the thought of walking all the way to the Hospital Wing. "I believe our nurse can help your simple injury." And she begins walking down to the lake instead. It's then that I remembered that Durmstrang Institute travels by boat and of course they'd be docked in the lake just like the last time they had come to Hogwarts.
"If you hold onto me you will be more comfortable." She comments and my eyes narrow. "And I am less likely to drop you." Begrudgingly I wrap my arms around her neck and rest my head on her shoulder. She smells minty but also herbal and crisp. Shamelessly, I breath her in. Such a wonderful aroma.
Minutes later she holds me a little tighter and warns me that she would be stepping onto the ramp to the ship and it would feel unsteady but not to worry. Even with the warning however I tighten my arms around her.
"This would have been easier if you'd just had a broom." I complain.
"Do you carry brooms around?" Asta scoffs.
"Well no but I also don't go startling strangers." She laughs again but this time it's deeper and I can feel it in her chest.
"I'll remember that next time then." She smirks and continues to carry me below deck and through what felt like an unending number of halls until we go through one door that opens up to a more familiar hospital wing.
"Helbreder Livia." Asta calls and a small woman bordering between young and old walks out from a smaller study room.
"Oh and what is the matter here?" Her voice is warm and sweet nothing like Madame Pomfrey who can have the worst bedside manner.
"She hurt her ankle." Asta tells her and Helbreder Livia cocks her head to one side and sighs.
"Put her on a bed please." She requests and then walks back into her study for a second, reappearing with her wand twirling between her fingers. Asta sets me on the closest bed and sits beside me.
"I'm going to take the shoe and the sock off?" Helbreder Livia hums and I look at her quizzically.
"I haven't even said which ankle." I state stupidly. Helbreder Livia smiles gently.
"Unless your ankles shrink when hurt I think it is the swollen one." I sit back silently as I finally take a good look at my ankle and see how swollen it really had become and for some reason I was embarrassed for Asta to see it.
In fact as I tried to ignore the twinging in my foot while Helbreder Livia turned my foot back and forth I saw Asta for the first time. Registering her features. Her cheekbones and jaw line are sharp but her cheeks give her face some roundness. Her eyes are an amber color and seem to have a smirking glimmer at all times. Her hair is closely shaved on the sides but judging from the messy bun the rest of her hair is thick and long and in an unnatural shade of deep blue. There's an unfamiliar flutter in my stomach and then a pain in my foot that makes me jump.
"There is a break." Helbreder Livia frowns. "Small and simple to fix. Do you want a potion for the pain?"
"No. It doesn't hurt that much." She nods, not questioning my decision, and goes to a large potion cabinet. She picks through the mismatched vials and bottles until she finds what she's looking for. It's in a glass decanter that looks like it should hold large amounts of whiskey instead of medicinal potion and as if reading my mind she smiles and says how children break bones often and her patients are almost always children.
She portions me out some of the potion into a small glass cup. It smells awful and tasted even worse, making me curl in on myself and shiver. Asta laughs at me and I get the strange feeling in my stomach again.
"Stay here for a couple hours just so I can see you are reacting well to the medicine and then you can figure out how to get back to your room." Helbreder Livia grins. "I doubt you want to spend the night on a strange boat."
"I definitely don't." I feel like I've said it too quickly and apologize but Helbreder Livia waves me off.
"It was nice to meet you-" She trails off and I tell her my name. "Aiko. Feel better." Then she disappears back into her study.
"See the helbreder fixes you nicely." Asta grins and I narrow my eyes at her.
"What does that mean? 'Helbreder'?"
"Healer." Asta responds simply and I nod but don't continue with conversation just sit there looking at my bare bruised ankle.
"Sooo can I know more about you?" Asta says and I don't even need to look up at her to know she's smirking.
"What do you want to know?" I shrug, shielded and tight lipped. Asta moves and tells me to get more comfortable, helping me to maneuver up to sit at the head of the bed, propped up with a pillow at my back.
"How old are you?"
"Just turned sixteen." I look everywhere except for at Asta.
"I'm sixteen too. Now you ask a question." I suck my teeth and look around, fiddling with my hands. "You don't talk to people much do you?" I shrug and shake my head.
"Do you have any brothers or sisters?" I try and Asta nods.
"Two sisters. They're twins and older and one of them is married." It's strange to see that Asta talks about her sisters in a lukewarm manner but I know I have no room to judge.
"I have a little brother. He's six and truly amazing."
"He makes you feel better." She says it as a statement and not a question.
"He's amazing." I repeat again and once that barrier was broken we fall into comfortable talk, exchanging questions and the only thing I'm uncomfortable about is the strange feeling in my stomach.
Asta tells me more about her sisters and I tell her more about Hayato. She mentions that she'd like to meet such an awesome kid and without thinking I tell her that she could. I feel alien in my own mind because talking to Asta starts becoming the easiest and most natural thing I've ever done. I tell her about Scorpius and Albus and she congratulates me on having such wonderful friends and she tells me about her best friend Sven who was actually a part of the Durmstrang delegation. She reveals that he wouldn't have really had a choice though because Sven is Headmaster Frylund's son.
We're laughing and joking until the door to the infirmary opens and someone rushes in. When I get a full visual of the situation I see that it's Louis and I can feel my spirit fall slightly.
"I've been looking for you EVERYWHERE. It was lucky a few 2nd years saw you coming down here." He huffs and straightens his robes and looks back to the Durmstrang student that I assume led him here and thanks him. The perturbed student bows out.
"I got hurt and Asta brought me here because I couldn't walk." I explain plainly.
"Are you okay?" Louis' face becomes even more frantic.
"I'm fine." He fusses some more and Asta stands up.
"She said she's fine man." Louis looks taken aback. "She's fixed up and resting now."
"How did you even get hurt?" Louis looks passed Asta to me.
"Just slipped Louis. Was in Hagrid's garden and got startled by something. You know how it can be around Hagrid's." Asta looks back at me, brow furrowed, and I try not to smile at her.
"I'm glad you're okay." He sighs and I thank him.
"You can go ahead and go. I'll be here a while." He moves to protest but I stop him. "Let the others know that I'm okay if they were wondering. And no Lily can't go into my room for the treat box."
"I wasn't-" Louis starts but sighs. "Hope you're back on your feet soon." We nod to each other and Louis leaves.
Asta sits back on the bed and looks me over.
"It's complicated." I explain and she laughs.
"I wasn't going to ask." She says almost convincingly and then laughs again. "But now I will. Who and why?" This time I laugh.
"That's Louis. Actually, yesterday he admitted to having a crush on me the entire time I've had a crush on him and ever since I've only gotten mad at him. He left me on the train then this morning he snooped in a personal letter. Which is why I was in the garden in the first place. I was trying to be alone."
"Doesn't sound like a relationship that's going to work." She grimaces and I burst out laughing.
"Oh and another girl who has a massive crush on him tried to curse me at the feast last night just because he told her he was going to Hogsmeade with me and not her. He's my best friend Albus' cousin so he has some of the family fame and he's handsome. And she's well let's say from what I saw she's fanatical." Asta looks positively appalled and I chuckle. "Trust me it's new for me too."
"A beautiful girl like you shouldn't have to deal with things like that." Asta says softly and inexplicably I begin to blush. "You don't believe you're beautiful?" This time she's astonished.
"I didn't say that." I try to divert but it doesn't work.
"Aiko." Just my name from her mouth makes me soft and how she says it is accusatory.
"Listen I wasn't raised to think much of myself, okay?" I shrug and she shake her head furiously.
"Not okay. Not okay at all." She points to my injured foot. "Beautiful." My knee. "Exceptionally cute." My fingers. "Lovely." Arms. "Perfect." Finally she gets to my face and runs her long strong fingers along my jaw. "Gorgeous."
I forget myself. I forget who I am and where I am. And with forgetting myself I lean forward to close the distance between us and kiss her gently on the lips. Just as in every instance of forgetting one's self I snap back into my body and fumble over every moment in my retreat. Jumbling an apology and trying to look everywhere but at her.
"I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I don't know why I did that."
"I don't either but I'm glad you did." Asta smirks.
"But I'm not- I mean I've never-" I can't complete a single thought. "You were here just now when I said I've had a crush on Louis Weasley for the last five years right? And I've never even looked at another girl like that. I'm not-"
"Calm down." Asta shushes me. "Let's not make a big deal of it right now. Until you know what you are I just want to know more about you." I let out a long held breath.
Asta steers our conversation elsewhere and we end up on the topic of school. Her parents sound lovely and supportive and I admit my jealousy of her; recounting the conversation I had had with my parents the morning before. I reiterate that I didn't think they were bad parents but that I felt alone a lot. Singled out between them and that I felt that I needed to protect Hayato from their tendency to be cold and misunderstanding.
"What do you want to do after school ends?" Asta questions and I roll my eyes. "It's a fair question." She defends.
"I dunno." I shake my head. "I've thought about it so much and for so long that I don't even know anymore. I'm not really good enough at anything to make it a profession." Asta glares at me. "I'm really not. I'm good at being a student. I'm good at getting good grades. But I'm not good at anything I can do for work."
"What about being a teacher?" She suggests and I groan.
"So I can lecture to hundreds of unappreciative brats for the rest of my life? No thank you." I laugh sardonically.
"What if you just take N.E.W.T level classes for your favorite subjects?" She gives a small shrug. "That way you have all the classes to do really whatever you wanted after your seventh year. No pressure right now." I look at Asta as if she's personally given me life.
"That's a great idea!" I shout. "I was so focused on narrowing things down that I never considered on broadening my horizons." I can feel myself grin from ear to ear and when I look at her I want to kiss her again but I look away shyly.
She saves me again and suggests getting back to my room. I agree and she pardons herself to retrieve something. When she returns she's carrying a broom and we both break out into laughter.
Asta picks me up and I hold the broom behind her back as she carries me back up to the deck of the ship. She sets me down to lean against the side railing of the ship. She helps me straddle the broom so I'm not putting too much pressure on my injured foot and then climbs on behind me, wrapping her arms around me and taking hold of the broom. Before I can ask who's going to fly she kicks off and I can only grip the broom to hang on.
"You should have bloody warned me!" I shout and I can feel her laughter down my back where it leaves a tingling sensation. We land at the front entrance of the castle and after leaning the broom against the stone wall she picks me up, not hearing a word of my insistence to try and hop my way to my common room. So instead I give her directions and she makes me laugh. We get plenty of strange looks but most out of character for me, I don't care.
When we get to the barrels Asta looks at me dumbly and I giggle.
"Put me down please." She obliges this time and I tap happily on the barrel in order to open the passage to the common room. Without more than a second's thought Asta picks me up again and walks through the passage into Hufflepuff's homey common room.
"Where's your room?" She asks and I ignore the stares from the few people in the common room including Louis and Albus and point to the round door that leads to the girls' dormitories. Once to my dorm I point out my bed and she sets me on it.
"As soon as you leave they'll bring Albus' sister to get into the dorm." I grimace.
"Then maybe I won't leave." Asta smirks and I push her away playfully.
"Even if I wanted you to stay, you can't."
"Is there a rule against girls in the girls dormitory?" Asta raises an eyebrow and I go pink. The butterflies in my stomach make me forget that she is a girl.
"You should go back to your ship." I tell her and she nods.
"I will see you tomorrow beautiful Aiko." She stands and kisses my forehead which melts all my insides. "Rest." She says firmly and disappears from the dorm.