Archive of Our Own

The only sound was the quiet rustling of her father’s paperwork. He had brought it to the breakfast table today, leafing through it with one hand while he raised mouthfuls of white rice neatly with the other. Shiori tried not to watch; it was better not to. She kept her eyes on the precisely cut up grilled fish and corresponding portion of rice set in front of her, listening to her mother sipping tea to one side, the click of her father’s chopsticks and her sister’s shallow breathing to the other. Breakfast was, largely, a silent affair for the Kuro family. Her father had taken to ordering coffee to their home, shunning kissaten, calling them the hovel of those ‘creative types’ that he so disdained. By this point, he was somehow even more intimidating prior to drinking a cup, served as black as their name. Shiori could hear the maid coming with the coffee now, which would brighten the atmosphere considerably. Sometimes she wondered if the cups were charmed with something to make her father more agreeable. If there was such a charm that she could learn herself, she would appreciate it - she hated to come under her father’s scrutiny these days, as she grew closer to coming of age.

Coffee arrived, and her father set down his paperwork to drink it, suggesting its importance. He had never been in such a habit of drinking it before he went to the States. Shiori heard the room relax slightly and allowed herself to resume eating. There was a small ‘tsk’ from her father as he set down his coffee cup and she froze, eyes flicking up to see who or what had caused this sound of disapproval. He wasn’t looking at any of them, instead down at his paperwork again, mouth set in a tight line, glaring down his nose at the print - his classic look of annoyance.

“Next weekend we’ll be attending a welcoming event,” he announced. Shiori forced her face to remain placid. “The ministry has an intake of new workers beginning the following Monday. You will both come to it, to make a good impression.”

Clearly there was more that he wanted to say, but the table fell back into an uneasy silence; the maid returned and waited by the servant’s entrance to collect the crockery, as the head of the house rose and left, followed by his wife and then his daughters. Shiori and Rin exchanged a glance once they had passed the maid, communicating in silence. They paused at the intersection of two corridors, watching both Orochi and Wayuu go left and through the sliding doors of Orochi’s office. Whatever he wished to say, he would say it there to his impartial wife. An agreement passed between them as Rin looked back the way they came, checking for servants exiting the dining area, and Shiori removed her tatami slippers, handing them to her sister. Rin crossed to the right and entered an unused tearoom reserved for when they received guests, and Shiori crept backwards into the dining room, edging around the chabudai and squeezing through the smallest gap she could manage in the servants’ door.

A hallway ran parallel to the left corridor where she and Rin had split up, the rooms set between them. Now that the maids would be attending to their own breakfast after cleaning, Shiori should be left well enough alone in this back passageway, giving her a prime position to eavesdrop in. There was a sliding door set in the back of the office for maids to bring tea for Orochi and his guests, though he wouldn’t call for any after breakfast. Set between the sliding door and the office proper was a screen just out from a small closet where her father kept what his handful of English and American colleagues called ‘smoking jackets’. They tended to go unused, and so Shiori utilised this area between door and divider as a hiding space, crowded against closet with her fingers pressed on the door to feel vibrations through the flimsy screen if a servant approached. She had done this many times before without issue, though Rin refused to take on the task herself for fear of being caught.

“The ministry is putting pressure on every team to modernise after the boom in the muggle government. So, they’re adopting the same tactics, bringing in westerners from here there and everywhere. I voted in support of this, of course, because we need to set ourselves apart from all those backwards neighbours of ours… But they seem to have decided to let just about anyone in!”

There was a quiet noise of passive curiosity from Wayuu, enough to keep her husband going. Shiori could see the shape of her father through the divider, pacing back and forth, hands behind his back. Her mother must have been sitting across from the desk, probably eyeing the wood grain of the table. Her father paused, smacked a hand on the desk, the noise muffled by paper or some file.

“I got my men to research these people,” he stated, tapping at the paper. “Some of them aren’t pureblood. Some of them are transferring for muggle relations. I agree we must modernise along with the muggles; we can’t be outdone… But the ministry has already blurred many lines between the muggle government and ours. It will put our civility at risk. Just listen to some of these common names! Gerald Tonks, muggleborn, and they want to put him in charge of magi-tech innovation. Suzanne McKinnon, half-blood, in charge of streamlining our currency… And worse yet, Lyall Lupin, who is to aid reformation of magical creature laws. He’s married to a pureblood Japanese woman - and he’s muggleborn. It makes my skin crawl.”

“That shouldn’t be legal - mixing with that sort,” Wayuu agreed, voice finally taking on some venom. Shiori grimaced. She went to school with ‘that sort’ and they were, for the most part, lovely. She highly doubted any of their flaws were due to their breeding, seeing as ‘her sort’ had just as much of a propensity, if not more, for being distasteful.

“No, it shouldn’t. And now, well, it was bad enough with the influx of internationals… That sort of mixing was hard enough to stomach. But apparently our ministry wants to promote mixing blood with muggles and mudbloods!”

Something in Shiori surged, and she pushed back the screen door as quietly as possible before slipping out. If she continued to listen, she’d regret eating all of her breakfast - the sort of anger she felt, hearing her father talk like it was still the 1800s, made her stomach clench until it began to cramp.

Rin was huddled in the corner by the door of the tearoom, half asleep by the time Shiori returned. Last night her parents had had one of their frequent arguments that, as Orochi consumed more liquor, tended to get loud. Rin’s room was close to theirs, evidenced in the bags under her eyes; Shiori was more fortunate, to sleep further along where her faked ‘sleep talking’ couldn’t wake anyone. Perking up at the sight of her sister, Rin shuffled into the corner to make space for Shiori by the door.

“Well?”

“He’s furious because the ministry is employing muggleborns and half-bloods to modernise the systems,” Shiori sighed, stretching her legs out in front of her.

“Of course,” Rin hummed, drumming her fingers on her knees, which were pulled up to her chest. “He hates that sort of thing. Or, those sorts of people.”

“It’s ridiculous,” Shiori hissed, watching the sun slowly filter in through the shaded window. “I wish he’d get with the times.”

“I mean, he’s kind of old… Aren’t people his age just like that?”

Shiori paused, hesitated. Were they? Was that something she should abide by? Even if she tried to convince herself of it, something in her protested - she had muggleborn friends, and she didn’t think any less of them. She tried not to treat them any differently, though sometimes she might have asked too many questions… Rin always said that Shiori was only friends with them for the novelty. But that couldn’t be true.

Standing up, Shiori put her slippers back on and held a hand out to help Rin up.

“They’re not all like that. There are loads of half-bloods and stuff; some people must think it’s ok to mix.”

------

In truth, Shiori and Rin were very sheltered. Their friend groups had been closely monitored growing up, until at 7 they began attending Mahoutokoro. Even though some half-bloods and muggleborns attended, Mahoutokoro was a small wizarding school, and the ratio of purebloods to non-purebloods reflected that. Wayuu and Orochi had been privy to most of the class rosters and had always ensured that, should anyone not of ‘their sort’ be in that class, their daughters steered clear. Sometimes this was enacted by simple rumour spreading, sometimes by inciting fear in their daughters of those peers… This was harder to carry out once they had begun to board there at 11. It became more difficult to keep tabs on who was in what class, especially due to Shiori’s unfortunate habit of hardly ever writing home. At least, they agreed, Rin would tell them everything.

- -------

“It’s fashionable to wear a haori over,” Shiori explained, pulling the garment on. Rin watched her curiously, as she had never seen the muggle magazines Shiori told her about. It must be something her friends’ parents sent to them; Rin didn’t know anyone who received things like that.

“I guess it looks stylish,” Rin hummed, but she didn’t sound convinced.

“It is. Geisha have been doing it for ages, ‘cuz only men used to do it.”

“What, and you want to look like a geisha?”

Shiori turned to look at Rin properly, tilting her head.

“No. I just… They look nice, don’t you think? With all the makeup and fancy kimono and the way they style their hair. It’s pretty.”

“One of my friends said they have to sleep with gross rich men to get those things,” Rin returned sagely, and Shiori grimaced.

“I’d rather die than do that.”

Rin burst into peals of laughter, falling back on the bed at Shiori’s adamance. Her sister had always been the one to avoid even speaking with the sons of their parents’ friends, while Rin tended to be far better at coping with it. Shiori was certain that each one could become a potential suitor, once they came of age - she didn’t want to give their parents any ideas. She far preferred the idea of being single and travelling, something Rin thought was, on all accounts, pretty funny - who would want to be a spinster like that?

“You’ll have to one day,” Rin laughed, voice sing song. Shiori rolled her eyes.

“No, I don’t think so. I think I’ll find a clever way out of it. I’m good at that, you know.”

“What, like how you only sleep talk when you have to sleep near mother and father’s chambers?”

“Shh, they might hear you!” Shiori complained, swatting at her little sister’s head. She was always so insolent. “Anyway, why would you want to? Guys are gross. I heard they don’t always clean themselves after peeing.”

“Shiori, don’t talk about that stuff!”

“Well you’re the one who wants to just accept your fate of having that near you,” Shiori snorted, glad she had managed to rib her sister back a bit. Rin groaned and sat up again, checking her hair over in the mirror.

“Did I mess it up?” she asked, and Shiori checked her over, rearranging a few hairs.

“No, you look cute still.”

“I’m not cute - I’m meant to be pretty, or radiant. I’m not a kid!”

“You’re only 14, that’s young enough to call cute!”

“I don’t like it. I’m trying to be adult.”

“I don’t see why, all the adults I’ve met are grumpy,” Shiori pointed out, before turning around once more before the mirror, admiring the way the haori looked over her furisode. It looked cool, she thought, though she doubted her parents would allow her to wear it out. Sighing, she pulled it off and hung it back in her wardrobe, deciding it wasn’t worth the hassle today.

The journey to the event was full of lectures from Orochi about how Shiori and Rin - especially Shiori - were to conduct themselves. Wayuu looked on in quiet disdain, a silent threat to her daughters if they complained or stepped so much as an inch out of line. While neither Wayuu or Orochi thought highly of the guests they were to be welcoming, appearances were everything, and other people of high status would be attending.

Before they had been allowed to leave, their mother had her hair stylist redo both Shiori and Rin’s hair, tutting about Shiori looking ‘more like a wild dog’ than the daughter of aristocrats. Her hair was now pulled up too tightly, pinching the skin at her temples and the nape of her neck so that she knew she would have a headache soon enough. There was nought to do about it, at least not until they had finished their introductions and she was able to escape her parents’ gaze for long enough to loosen it. Knowing this only put Shiori in a sourer mood, and Rin sat stiff next to her, fearing one of her sister’s outbursts.

Inside the venue, people in professional dress of all cultures milled around, some holding glasses of sake or wine, some foreigners looking half-lost as they eyed the food on offer. Shiori wanted to corner some of these foreigners and find out what it was like where they were, what they ate at functions, if their etiquette dictated dragging their daughters along to every monotonous event. Each fact she could collect from people she deemed different enough was like scraping an extra inch closer to some kind of escape that for now, she could only dream of.

One of the hosts, a Ministry worker named Saito, accosted them by the door and pressed drinks upon Orochi and Wayuu, before offering the service of introducing them to their newcomers. Shiori watched with a kind of grim satisfaction as her parents pretended to be delighted by the prospect, finding it irksome yet amusing to see her parents plaster mild, pleasing smiles on their cold faces, stepping closer together than they’d usually tolerate as if to find some sanctuary from the people they feared would contaminate their population. Rin and Shiori stood one to each side of their parents and walked in time, one step behind at all points. Rin kept her eyes on her hands, which were folded neatly over her gauzy obi, while Shiori’s gaze roved all over the gathered officials, taking in faces, seeking out something new.

One group caught her attention, near the buffet. A man in an ill-fitting suit and robes that appeared to have been at least twice repaired with limited finesse holding a plate in one hand, hair thick and unruly in a golden-brown mop. Arm linked with his stood a woman who must have been at least a handful of inches taller than him, clearly Japanese, with hair intricately styled and wearing an immaculate, if not slightly outdated, kimono. Lagging behind them somewhat, looking distracted, stood a girl who might have been roughly Shiori’s age, though tall like her mother. Her hair was long, golden brown, slightly dishevelled like she had touched it too many times since arriving. As Shiori’s gaze settled on her, her eyes flicked up to meet hers, both girls seeming surprised by the contact. Shiori was struck, suddenly, by the apparent amber of the girl’s eyes, even from this distance. They almost looked to glow in the ambient lighting of the room.

As quick as their gazes met, they were parted by Shiori being called to attention to meet Gerald Tonks, who she pretended to have never heard of before. She supposed she would be introduced to the curious family in due course, though patience was not her forte.

The rounds of introductions took far longer than Shiori expected; she had only heard three names on the night that she eavesdropped on her father and couldn’t have imagined there to be so many new ministry officials joining at one time. Apparently, the ministry was quite serious about modernising as rapidly as their muggle companions were and had adopted the same tactic by calling a dazzling number of foreigners in to play. Shiori already knew she would remember perhaps not even half of their names and hoped she wouldn’t be called upon to recall any of them. Usually she could coast through social interaction using her natural charm, but when her parents watched she found it harder to conduct herself in a way that didn’t appear, and feel, mechanical. Faces blurred into one another: blue eyes, blonde hair, light brown hair, freckles, pale skin, hooked noses and narrower faces than Shiori had regularly been exposed to. Some stood out - Suzanne McKinnon’s son, Marlon, had tightly curled blonde hair and greener eyes than seemed possible. He had a grin that spoke of trouble, and Shiori wondered if he would attend Mahoutokoro, or if he was older than she assumed. They might be able to get along. Gerald Tonks was soft spoken, and kind faced, meek in the way he held his body but with an endearing habit of lighting up whenever his subject of choice was brought up.

Shiori tried her best to know people from all the things they didn’t realise they showed, as a friend had taught her to do. The ways people lit up or shut down, how they slouched or tensed, how they smiled just a degree different than before… Alas, she wasn’t particularly observant. Sometimes she seemed to miss cues without reason, other times she misinterpreted them to meet her own expectations. It was hard for her to tune in to several people’s quirks, though she could know each in and out of someone’s character if they were close. Her connection with Rin had been almost telepathic until just this year, as her sister seemed to distance herself into slightly different circles in school, which became gaping canyons Shiori couldn’t cross. She knew every twitch of her cousin Anzu’s face - those meaning discomfort, annoyance, disagreement, those meaning she was plotting some kind of joke. The letters from a man named Alphard that her mother had hidden from her, each resonated with specific emotions and held patterns of speech that aided Shiori in feeling she knew him, even as they had never met and she didn’t know what relation he was to her mother, who he wrote to.

As it was, she was presently distracted by thoughts of the family she had noticed in the beginning. They seemed misfitted even in such an eclectic group of people who all came from different departments and walks of life. Some instinct drew Shiori to them, but she couldn’t find an exit to skirt out of a conversation, even if it was just to powder her nose; her mother’s grip on her shoulder was vice like, nails digging in through the fabric of her furisode.

After introducing the Kuros to a man from Canada that Shiori immediately forgot, Saito excused himself in a hurry, seeing someone at the door that was clearly important. Shiori thought her parents would be offended to be abandoned so suddenly, and without much of an apology, but her father’s stance seemed to loosen just slightly even though they were still surrounded by people he would feel sick to shake hands with.

“Well, I’m glad the meet and greet is over,” Wayuu muttered under her breath as the Canadian walked off to attend to his empty plate, and Orochi cast her a quieting glare even though he nodded minimally in agreement. There was no mistaking it; the Kuros had clearly come to stand around looking professional and intimidating, without speaking to anyone they were really here to meet.

After a few moments of milling around uselessly, the four of them each looking in different directions - Wayuu towards the bar, Orochi towards the smoking room, Rin towards the lounge area and Shiori towards that family, who had moved and she could no longer locate - Wayuu turned to her daughters and looked down her nose at them, quickly rearranging Shiori’s hair where it had loosened minutely, Shiori forcing back a visible wince and the impulse to bat her mother’s hands away.

“Now, stop getting under your parents’ feet. Go and make good impressions,” she ordered, and Orochi turned on them also in silent consideration.

“Yes, show them how those of good breeding are raised.”

There was a silent threat from their imposing parents that Shiori and Rin could hear as clearly as what was actually said, but both were too glad to be told to leave to think on it. Shiori might be what her parents called a troublemaker, but by any standard she was well behaved, not because she wished to be but to protect her skin. There were enough scars already, as far as she was concerned, and it made getting changed with the other girls at school difficult. She knew Rin felt the same.

The two girls walked away in tandem, though stalled as they began to drift in separate directions. Rin looked to Shiori questioningly, surprised her sister didn’t want to sit down and complain obnoxiously about how her feet hurt in these shoes or how she wasn’t allowed to drink anything alcoholic. In truth, Shiori wasn’t even thinking about that, even as the balls of her feet began to throb after a decent amount of time standing up in uncomfortable shoes she only wore out to fancy functions. She wanted to find those people, and she didn’t want to take Rin with her; even if she loved and cared for her sister, she didn’t trust her not to report anything back or even let something slip by accident to their parents. She wasn’t a bad liar but hated to lie anyway for fear of being caught, and it gave her too many tells.

“I’ll be going over there,” Shiori stated without much explanation, gesturing to the buffet. “I could hardly eat with mother and father watching over me like hawks, ready to lecture me on eating too much and becoming bloated.” It was an easy excuse to make, and not untrue - Shiori tended to eat a lot, since she was growing and all, but her parents disdained it. They didn’t want her to grow taller, or to broaden. They wanted her small, narrow, manageable unlike her hair which tended to become unruly. Rin watched Shiori carefully for a moment, weighing up her options before inclining her head in agreement and setting off to socialise like she had been instructed.

At first there was no one that Shiori recognised at the buffet table. After scanning the groups of people loitering nearby, she noticed the Canadian man who she had last spoken to and looked quickly away before she could be noticed. He had been overly friendly, and he might try and strike up a conversation, even though he was with other men in western suits, talking animatedly. Tracing the steps she thought the family might have taken - they would likely go to one of the dining tables, to eat, right? - Shiori kept looking, intent on her targets.

And there they were. As expected, they sat at a table with no one else, just the three of them. The man and woman were talking quietly about something, the woman’s face kind and encouraging, the man seeming uncomfortable, posture stiff. Their daughter sat by them, appearing to be staring out into space. Shiori glanced back, knowing her father would likely not appreciate her going to speak to this family, who looked so out of place, and was satisfied that she was not being watched. Wayuu and Orochi stood just off from the bar, each nursing a drink and speaking to another Japanese couple that Shiori had seen at their house before. ‘Their sort’.

“Good evening,” Shiori greeted, trying to school her voice to keep from wavering in her excitement. She had to control herself, keep the tone her parents had instructed her on tirelessly; feminine, passive, pleasing to the ear. The family looked up at her in synchrony, the man seeming confused to be approached, the daughter startled and the woman smiling easily. “I’m Shiori Kuro. I noticed you were new here and wanted to introduce myself.”

Bowing quickly, Shiori looked down at her hands where they were crossed neatly over her midriff and waited for a response. There was a beat where nothing was said, and Shiori suddenly wondered if she should have spoken in English instead - the mother looked Japanese, but maybe she wasn’t, or hadn’t been brought up here… But before she could retry in English, the man spoke, his unruly hair sticking up in many ways even though he had clearly used product on it.

“Good evening. I’ve met your father - Orochi Kuro, yes? Your family are highly esteemed in the Ministry. It’s kind of you to introduce yourself.”

The Japanese was stilted, but Shiori could easily understand it. Often the westerners who came didn’t even try, instead speaking in English from the get-go, sometimes talking so quickly that Shiori took a moment to catch up.

“My name’s Lyall Lupin. This is my wife, Hope Lupin, and my daughter, Remus Lupin.”

So, it was them. Shiori had had a feeling that this man with his elbow patches and stubble would be Lyall Lupin, who her father had spoken scathingly about on that night after dinner, a week ago now. She was immediately interested - her father had mentioned something about magical creatures. She hadn’t expected the Ministry to bring people from abroad over for that sort of thing, since most of what her father spoke about was relating to money, day in and day out. She smiled brightly, her teeth showing, before realising that wasn’t proper and quickly dulling the smile down.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Mr and Mrs Lupin, and Remus. Remus, it might be forward to say so, but you seem to be around my age. Will you be attending Mahoutokoro?”

If Remus was going to Mahoutokoro, Shiori could find out more about her interesting family. There was a kind of magnetism to them, or maybe just one of them. Shiori couldn’t tell yet. She didn’t believe in that kind of thing, really - that you would be drawn to certain people didn’t fall in with any of the rational teachings she knew of, even though magic could be illogical and strange. All the same, she had been driven to distraction wishing to talk to these people, especially this unprecedentedly tall daughter. She wanted to believe she hadn’t just latched onto someone who looked as misfitted as she felt.

Lyall interrupted before Remus could answer, asking Shiori to sit down with them, and Shiori obliged even though it wasn’t cautious to do so. Her parents or Rin could notice her at any moment, and even though her family knew nothing to condemn the Lupins properly, they would find some reason to steer Shiori from them. If Lyall had met her father, her father would remember who Lyall was and know he was that one who ‘made his skin crawl’ for marrying a Japanese woman. Now wasn’t the time to worry about that, though. Now was her chance to do something interesting at one of these dreary events where everyone’s nose seemed to be chained to the ceiling.

“Remus will be joining the 5th boarding year class. She’s sixteen,” Hope explained, seeing her daughter was stalling in replying. Maybe she was worried about her Japanese? Shiori reasoned, eyeing Remus curiously. If that was the case, Shiori could help her with it - her English was perfect, as far as her tutors had been concerned, though her parents still managed to fault it somehow. She didn’t know if she would be a good tutor, though.

“That’s the same year as me!” Shiori replied excitedly, eyes lighting up. She held a hand out to Remus, an action that wasn’t traditional for girls like her. Remus looked at her hand warily before gently taking it, allowing Shiori to shake it enthusiastically. “Let’s be friends. We might even board together; a bed opened up in my dormitory this year.”

A strange feeling overcame Shiori all of a sudden, a woozy tingling under her skin. Looking into Remus’s eyes, she saw swirling pools of amber that were warm, yet guarded at the same time. This close, she could see that cosmetics had been applied to her face, to cover still slightly visible scars that ran over her skin like webs of forked lightning. Breath catching, Shiori’s gaze snapped back to the other girls’, knowing she had been allowing her eyes to wander over Remus in a way that wasn’t appropriate. She shifted in her seat and released Remus’s hand, looking behind her to see her parents’ friends departing from the bar, Rin standing with them now. She would be expected back.

“I’m sorry, but I have to go back to my parents now. It was good to meet. Thank you,” Shiori rushed, before turning and walking back to her parents as quickly as she could manage. There was a tugging feeling just below her breastbone, and that tingling feeling again that ran up and down her spine as if many pairs of eyes were set on her. Only a few paces from her parents, Shiori felt something strangely shaped press against the nape of her neck under her clothes, her face contorting a little in discomfort. It was soft, soft like people said kisses were like, and cold…

Orochi, Wayuu and Rin watched as Shiori lifted a hand to the back of her neck, slipping her fingers under the neckline of her furisode and picking up whatever had slipped down there. Bringing her clasped hand out in front of her, she unfurled her fingers, revealing a small, slightly crushed sumire flower on the centre of her palm. Frowning, she looked at it in a daze, still dizzy and unsure of her footing. She looked up at her parents and realised they were watching, quickly trying to compose herself. The violet must have fallen from some unseen arrangement she had walked by, surely...

But Orochi looked almost stricken by the flower that Shiori still displayed as she crossed the final steps towards her parents. Wayuu, as well, seemed paler than ever, mouth drawn into a tight line. Shiori looked between them in confusion, wondering if she had done something unsightly in her lapse. The dizziness was tiring, and it made her want to lie down and sleep for hours.

“Did someone give you that?” Wayuu asked, voice sharp as broken glass, and Shiori winced and shook her head. They all knew that Shiori had simply found it down the back of her clothes, had seemingly produced it from thin air. How it had crept down between Shiori’s skin and the fabric, she didn’t know, but she doubted it was an occurrence worth mentioning.

“I found it,” Shiori mumbled, voice too quiet to be clear which was something her parents would usually reprimand her for. Instead, they shared a taut glance, and Shiori decided she had missed something that, ultimately, she didn’t care about for the time being. She felt too ill to analyse their strange actions.

Shiori took Rin’s hand in hers gently, lifting it palm up. Smiling at her sister, kind but apparently weary, she produced the flower again from her hand, which had curled protectively around it of its own accord. Shiori didn’t want to give the flower away, suddenly - she wanted to hold onto it. It had looked crumpled before, but now it seemed to have perked up, which made no sense. The petals were smooth and the colours vibrant, and yet just a moment ago they had been pressed in on themselves, slightly creased. Maybe she had imagined it. Either way, she was being ridiculous - there was no reason to cling to this random flower.

“Sumire is for sincerity,” Shiori stated, voice soft and uncertain to her own ears. She felt that the way the room was tilting around her, so too was her tone - lilting up and then down. It made her feel sick. Why did she feel overtaken by fever suddenly?

Placing the flower into Rin’s hand gently, Shiori took a deep breath to try and calm herself. Her parents and Rin watched as the sumire crumbled to ash in her sister’s hand. Seeing the grey flakes of what had been a beautiful flower, Shiori blinked twice, wondered if she was imagining it, and then fainted.

-

Rin could hardly recall what had happened after her sister fainted. She watched many people turn to them in shock as Shiori made impact on the floor, hitting her head hard. Sure, she had seemed woozy but… This was a lot worse than she had been prepared for. Somewhere to the other side of the room, where she was sure Shiori had been coming from, was some other commotion - a family of three hurriedly moving, like they were coming towards them, and then turning to the exit instead. Rin could hardly take it in. Her parents looked horrified to have been embarrassed by their daughter, and as Shiori began to open her eyes again they were unfocused, confused.

Rin took the initiative before anyone else could make a fuss, further embarrassing her parents. She swept down in a way that was probably not ladylike and hooked her arm under Shiori’s upper back, hoisting her into a sitting position. Her sister groaned, protesting being moved, but Rin paid it no heed. There was a time for gentleness, and this wasn’t it.

She thought her sister was trying to say something, was looking for something, maybe. She seemed feverish. But before Rin could lean in closer to hear her, Wayuu and Orochi finally burst into action, Orochi taking his eldest daughter’s other side and hefting her to her feet. Shiori swayed as soon as Orochi let go, but Rin held on tight, exercising most of her strength; she was only 14, frail - or as her parents put it, dainty - but she did well in her athletic extracurriculars, so she could just about manage her older sister’s weight.

“Let’s go, now,” Wayuu hissed, closer to Rin’s ear than she expected, making her jump. Orochi cast her a scathing glare for the startle.

Rin hefted Shiori’s limp body into their carriage, knowing that this wasn’t the most elegant way of doing things. Her mother had followed out, though such heavy lifting was below her, even though she would likely complain that Rin had made a scene or made this scene worse. Once Shiori was inside, Rin stepped up with more elegance, though sweat beaded her brow. She turned, expecting her mother to follow in, but Wayuu only stared up at them.

“The servants will expect you home - Saito will floo ahead. The physician will visit, to determine this wasn’t some charade.”

Shocked by her mother’s callousness - wouldn’t it seem odd for Wayuu and Orochi to stay while Rin and Shiori left? - Rin could only look at her in confusion as the door shut itself and the Kirin began to tread away, on some silent signal.

-

Halfway home, Shiori began to stir. Rin had been falling asleep in her seat, still unhappy that their parents had abandoned them but glad that she was able to relax like this. She opened her eyes a little, seeing her sister shift in her position stretched out over one of the carriage benches, first only moving her foot a little, then starting to lift her head.

“What’s going on?” Shiori asked, voice low and tired. Rin hummed, sitting upright to try and wake herself properly.

“We’re on our way home.”

It didn’t seem to bother Shiori that neither Wayuu or Orochi were here; maybe she had expected it, or perhaps hadn’t even noticed it. There was nothing further said between the sisters for a few minutes, until Shiori sat up so quickly that she hissed out in discomfort.

“What’s that singing?” she mumbled, peering out of the window. This part of the road was not well lit, so there wasn’t much to see. Rin frowned, straining her ears to hear it as well. She couldn’t seem to pick up on anything.

“Singing?”

“Oh… It’s like that folklore thing, right?” Shiori murmured, as if coming to a sudden realisation. “It only happens at night… Yosuzume.” Before she could say anything more, she dozed off again.

Dismissing her mumbling as being caused by whatever illness had overcome her, Rin turned to watch the darkness scroll by, the only light being brought by the moon, hung like half of a pendulum in the sky waiting for its other half. In that dim lighting, she could have sworn she saw some sort of dog, or wolf, slink by into the underbrush.

-

When Shiori woke, much later than she usually would be allowed to, she could hear her parents speaking in the next room. After a few moments she realised that she wasn’t in her bedroom, but instead the guest bedroom by Rin’s - perhaps her sister had dropped her here, since it was easier to get to from the front door of the estate… But surely the servants would have helped to carry her?

Feeling guilty that she had burdened her sister like that, she sat up quickly and felt her head spin. Groaning, she rubbed at her eyes and looked down at herself. She had been stripped to her undergarments, but no further thankfully, although she wasn’t wearing bedclothes either. It was cold, for some reason, and she still felt uneasy - her skin prickled a little, but she supposed she must still be fatigued from whatever overcame her the night before.

About that… She couldn’t pinpoint a cause or any symptoms that had occurred prior to suddenly feeling sick. She had just been having a normal conversation… An exciting one, she felt, but not anything untoward. She hadn’t eaten anything unusual either, nothing that would make her woozy… The only strange occurrence she could single out was that one violet from the back of her dress. Unless she had guessed incorrectly, and it hadn’t been a sumire, had been something toxic - but that seemed unlikely. Her parents had forced her through botany lessons, flower arranging… Those sorts of extracurricular. And even if she was inattentive from disinterest, she was smart. She could remember whatever she had needed to remember to exceed.

Possibly she had been too warm… She couldn’t remember now. What Shiori did remember was the birdsong she had heard on their journey home, the unusual call that she wasn’t familiar with. It had been late, for a bird to be singing, though she couldn’t recall what time it had been. She had spoken to Rin about it, hadn’t she? What was that name…

“Yosuzume!” she exclaimed, excited to have remembered it. The talking in her parents’ bedroom ceased altogether, that dull murmuring that had been the background for her slowly waking thoughts cutting out. She held her breath, wondering if she would be reprimanded for being loud, or if she was going to be in trouble for fainting before. She supposed it must have ‘caused a scene’, as they would say. The door of their bedroom opened, and two sets of footsteps sounded out over the hallway. They didn’t stop by the guest room, didn’t even falter, going to the next room along.

Shiori crossed to the door, pressing her ear to it and breathing as softly as she could. She could hear them, though they were talking quietly.

“Rin, to the office,” Wayuu intoned. She could hear some shuffling as her sister stood, moved towards them. Shiori had expected more - something to tell her what her parents might be calling Rin to the office for - but there was nothing. Three sets of feet walked down the corridor, eventually out of earshot.

There was no possibility that Shiori wasn’t going to follow. It wouldn’t be easy to get there quickly in her current state of undress if she were to clothe herself properly, but then if she was smart about it, she wouldn’t run into anyone. Grabbing a cotton yukata intended for a man, to guess from its navy colour, Shiori tied it messily as she made her way to the door, neglecting to put shoes on to allow her to move quietly.

The house was silent - eerily so. On a regular day, the sound of servant robes would whisper along the corridors, sometimes behind the walls where their corridors connected. Doors opened and shut, the sound of wooden shoes on wooden floors a familiar rhythmic click. Birds sang, tree branches rustled, sometimes bumping into the windows if it was windy or if it was during the winter months and the gardener hadn’t visited in a little while. Usually the hum of the electricity or the drains working would underpin every movement, and there was always a sense that someone was just around the corner… It was the same with most old estates; there were presences that gave the air weight in each corridor and room, nearly. They carried no emotional ties or anything of the like. Mostly it could be attributed to the eyes of the portraits that scanned each passer-by, sometimes whispering to one another, sometimes talking to them as if they were old friends. Shiori supposed they were old friends, or more exactly they were her ancestors, sealed forever in portrait form - some semblance of their past personality locked in with them, allowing them to make scathing remarks or casual commentary.

Today, it was different. The portraits continued to whisper under their breath, some holding hands over their mouths, some frames vacant as they went to gossip elsewhere. There were no servants clicking to and fro, and even though it meant Shiori didn’t have to worry about being intercepted, it was unnerving. The Kuros kept a decently sized staff of roughly 10 servants of varying roles, and they were kept busy, so they tended to be spotted frequently if one walked the corridors for more than a couple of minutes. This was the reason Shiori was cautious when walking around this house - the servants knew better than to think she was out on innocent business if she was stalking around quietly, without slippers, peeking around corners or over her shoulder. Experience had them keep a watchful eye on her when she was nearby, and often Orochi specifically insisted that Shiori be kept under their thumb if he was hosting guests, for the fact that he knew she, like a spider, crept along the walls and felt the vibrations in the web. She had been doing so since she was very young.

Though surely there must be birds singing, or movement in the garden, even the creak of a drain, Shiori seemed to hear none of it. Beyond her own soft footsteps there was nothing of note, nothing suggesting others lived and moved within the same corridors. As she slithered down the stairs as silently as she could, curled low to be behind the bannister that only provided minimal cover, there was some noise, the sound of a door closing, but whether it was left, or right was muffled by distance. Frowning, Shiori shook her head and darted over the foyer and into the west wing where her father’s office was situated.

Some tension was about the place, exuding from each corner, and Shiori knew that something must be amiss. She had never been encouraged to voice such notions when they came about, however. Whatever sensitivity for auras Shiori had had long been pushed aside by her parents, who tended to dismiss any concern of their daughter’s as an overactive imagination. Sometimes Shiori felt that she could almost smell tension, sadness, anger, as well as illness and fatigue. Maybe her senses were just prepped for these things constantly, as they tended to be reliably consistent in her life. Had her family ever gone a day without some kind of disdain or irritation? She was being ridiculous, probably, to think there was something to be worried about just from the quiet of the house, and yet she couldn’t shake it.

It wasn’t difficult to get into the servant’s corridor that she had so recently slipped into to overhear her father talk about the new Ministry workers. It really did seem that there was no one around - no servants up ahead in the kitchen, as there was no sound or smell of food. That, in itself, was odd. Shiori wondered if she had guessed the time incorrectly, as she was yet to see a clock. It might have been earlier, or later, than she expected. As she curled down by the servant’s door and edged it open, she was struck again by the quiet, but this time it was more significant.

There was no one here.

Standing upright carefully and sliding the door open fully, Shiori snuck forward to peek around the side of the divider. As she had thought, no one else was in her father’s office. Her brow crumpled in confusion, and she glanced around once, twice more as if her eyes might be tricking her. She looked at the clock on her father’s desk - 10am. So, she was right in thinking that someone ought to be in the kitchens, that she should have seen someone on her journey here… And she knew that she had heard her mother tell Rin to follow them to the office.

Grunting in disdain, Shiori shut the sliding door over again and reserved herself to having the opportunity to poke around her father’s office. She didn’t know where they were, but it didn’t seem they would be coming here anytime soon. Flopping down in her father’s desk chair, she stretched her legs out underneath the desk and wished that the tables in Mahoutokoro had such leg room. Shiori wasn’t tall by any means, but a little taller than some of her female peers. She wondered how the tallest boys in her year dealt with having to fold themselves onto small stools or chairs with little leg room in the classes that mandated sitting at desks. Smirking to herself at the idea of some of her least favourite peers getting a leg cramp in that situation, she ran her fingers over the items covering her father’s desk.

Her finger caught on the edge of a small box, sliding it out from under a loose-leaf page. A packet of cigarettes with the writing in Chinese, that Shiori had watched her father receive from a colleague.

“Ah, good. I had hoped you would secure these for me,” Orochi had smiled, holding one out for his colleague to take - a man who had worked illicitly in China for the duration of the Muggle Sino-Japanese war in 1894-95. They had seized Chinese artefacts, and other, less valuable items; it was all to assert dominance.

“Of course, this is strictly between us,” the man had explained needlessly. The Japanese Ministry had condoned any Japanese wizards partaking in or profiting from the war between the muggles. That didn’t mean that wizards and witches hadn’t gotten involved at all, though. Just that doing so was a highly secretive operation.

“Yes, of course.” Orochi lit his cigarette, and then his colleague’s. He took one drag and smiled indulgently. “It makes me laugh, watching the Muggles squabble. Our profits will only rise from here on out, as Japan realises its worth.”

“When the factory producing this cigarette was closed down, people despaired for their livelihoods. Of course, the British were all over the place… It’s a partially British brand, you know.”

“Yes, Shanghai was crawling with the Brits. Everything that became of those foolish Chinese people, they deserved; though I do not care for Muggles, the Chinese spurned our government too many times. A statement had to be made. And knowing that the statement was made, that makes this cigarette taste all the sweeter.”

Shiori pursed her lips at the memory, opening the packet and removing a cigarette. She had never smoked one before, but she had been curious. Now it was becoming a little more acceptable for women to smoke… The adverts for these things that she had peered at in the Muggle magazines her friends had smuggled in often featured women, so Shiori figured that must be the case. Either way, she doubted her father would find out if she took just one. Casting a look around the office again, she found nothing to suggest that she was being watched and relaxed more thoroughly in the seat. She would need to find something to light this with - her use of charms that created fire were not honed enough, she couldn’t guarantee using one here would not leave scorch marks or some evidence.

Supposing they were in one of the desk’s drawers, Shiori opened the top one first and began to look through it. Her hands were careful, deft, to ensure she didn’t move anything too much from its original place. She knew her father had a great eye for detail, that he would know if the papers were more to one side than the other since he had last viewed them. It was lucky, then, that when viewing paperwork in this office he smoked enough that he could be convinced he had not lost one but smoked it without realising. Slipping the butt of the cigarette between her lips, she let it hang there as she continued to search.

She had reached the middle drawer when she pushed aside an envelope that caught her eye. In English, it seemed to be addressed to her mother. Why would her father keep a letter for her mother in here?

Curiosity piqued, Shiori withdrew the letter and turned it over in her hand. The paper wasn’t familiar and was slightly crumpled around the edges. It had been opened with a letter knife, but awkwardly if the uneven curls of paper around the cut were anything to go by. She slid the letter out of its envelope, surprised to see that the letter, too, was written in English. Why would an English speaker be writing to her mother?

Dearest Wally,

I write you many letters, but infrequently receive replies. I have at times wondered if I might have the incorrect address for you, all the way across the world, but Cygnus assures me that is not the case. It has been a long time since I have heard from you and I wonder about your health, and that of your family. Not to mention that I have not seen you since we were both still teenagers. I remember those days, strained as they were, fondly.

My health has been withering in stints, but presently I am healthy enough to sit with the other patients in the communal rooms. I have petitioned to be moved to another facility, or to at last be released to live alone. Failing that I had mentioned I could live with Cygnus and his wife. Despite this, I am turned down time after time. Cygnus does promise that he will support my petitions each time, but he is reserved as we speak about it.

I still receive my usual treatment. I still remember when none of this was necessary… Oh to be young again. While mother and father insisted, I was frail even in my youth, I do not remember it that way. Do you? That must be the last time I saw you - at mother and father’s funeral after that terrible incident. You travelled so far to us in London, yet none of your family attended with you. I had been enthusiastic to meet Shiori and Rin. I still regret that we did not get the chance to become acquainted then, but I understand your reasoning.

I digress. This treatment, I’ve been receiving it since I was twenty-one. That seems long ago now. After that curse... The one that saw you leave us for Japan, the second one. I have never been the same. I thought that they intended to kill me, but it seems my suffering was not intended to be brief. I had never viewed that first ‘curse’ as a true curse in the first place. It was a beautiful thing. I cannot say the same for the one that still afflicts me to this day. Whatever did I do to deserve this?

I am sorry. I took a break after that past part, after I became emotional. If I may ask, how does Orochi fare? Is he ever troubled by weakness or anything of the sort, as I am, from this curse? Do those flowers ever still appear?

They had the most beautiful blooms… Sumire, and tsuboki, mother called them. Violet and camellia, to me. When Orochi held them, or when I did -

Here, the writing was swiftly cut off, lines scribbled out hastily. Shiori frowned and leaned closer to try and decipher what lay beneath. She thought of the sumire she had found in the collar of her dress the night before, and the horrified look on her father’s face. Could the two incidents be connected? A shiver ran through her, sharp and unkind - something about this was wrong.

Wally could only be her mother, Shiori assumed. It was addressed to Kuro Wayuu, and yet within the letter the name ‘Wally’ was used. It was funny, almost, and Shiori repressed a giggle at the idea of her austere mother being referred to as Wally. Holding the letter delicately at the edges, she scanned further down, over the scored-out lines she could make out barely anything from underneath. At the very bottom, it was signed off - the only part past what she had read that was not scribbled out.

With love in abundance,

Alphard.

“Alphard…” Shiori mumbled, searching her memory for this man’s name. She thought there was some semblance of a memory from when she was younger, of her parents speaking about him in quiet voices, strained and angry. That was all. Sighing in defeat, Shiori placed the letter back into its envelope and the envelope carefully where it had been before. She hoped there would be no way to tell that she had seen it - she had a feeling that the punishment would be severe if she was found out.

-

Rin was waiting for Shiori when she returned to the guest room, still in the dishevelled yukata. It was clear that she had been out snooping around for information, but Rin didn’t comment on it. She knew, from the look on Shiori’s face, that she hadn’t been successful in overhearing the conversation between Rin and their parents.

Rin herself was pale, her face taut with nerves and disbelief. At first, Shiori didn’t noticed it, caught off guard as she was to see her sister waiting for her in the guest bedroom. Then, she frowned and crossed the room to stand within arm’s length of her sister, looking her over for a bruise or mark that might suggest her parents had hurt her. There was nothing, and yet… Rin looked worse than she ever had after one of those incidents. She looked shaken to the core.

“What happened?” she demanded, reaching to place her hands on her sister’s arms. She couldn’t get Rin to meet her eyes.

“I’m… Not supposed to tell you,” Rin admitted, casting her gaze to the ground as if in shame. Shiori pursed her lips and stepped back, looking around her in thought.

“We’ll go to the garden, then. It’s quiet just now, I haven’t seen a single servant… Let’s talk there.”

Rin and Shiori went first to Shiori’s room to find her more suitable clothing, Rin sitting on the edge of her sister’s bed while the older changed. She wasn’t meticulous about making herself look well put together or presentable - her parents would probably take issue with it if they saw her. Right now, Shiori had other things on her mind. As she reached into her closet for a yukata of her own, Rin piped up.

“You’re really getting older. We both are,” she mumbled, as if shocked. Shiori frowned and turned to her sister, in her underclothes, holding her yukata in one hand as she paused putting it on.

“What do you mean?” she asked, surprised at the observation. She hadn’t noticed any changes in herself that would be worth commenting on, but Rin was staring at her sister miserably, as if what she saw upset her.

“You’ve developed. Mother and father still call me a girl, mostly, but… They call you a young woman now. It’s… Doesn’t that mean that your role in the house will change? When you come of age? Won’t… Everything change?”

Shiori stalled for a moment, unsure what to say before focusing on dressing. She hated to think about the way that her body was changing with puberty - it had happened slowly enough that she didn’t have to see it as a big change, something to think about. When she did linger on her reflection, though, she saw that she had fully developed breasts, wider hips. It was troublesome, when it meant she had to get new clothes and her parents insisted on making everything ‘perfect’, even as they suggested she wasn’t ladylike to warrant it. Sometimes the growing was painful, too, and she couldn’t speak to anyone about that… She had been told to be ashamed of her body, even as she was made to use it to her advantage in many ways.

“Nothing’s got to change. I look the same as always,” Shiori denied, flipping her hair out of her collar to let it fall down her back in a black cascade. She had no interest in brushing it or fixing it, presently, since Rin seemed to upset about whatever had been said in the office. She wanted to comfort her sister, and to let her unburden herself, so she hurried to be ready. “Let’s go.”

Rin stood, looking down at the crumpled yukata Shiori had dropped to the floor, before paling further somehow. Shiori followed her gaze and saw sumire and tsuboki furrowed in the folds of her clothes. There were only a handful of flowers, but it sent a shudder racing through Shiori’s chest that saw her shiver bodily. This… She didn’t have an explanation for this.

“Come on,” she croaked, grabbing Rin’s wrist and tugging her from the room.

Once in the gardens, they circled around to the further reaches. It was rarely visited unless by the gardener, and today there was no sound of shears or shovelling dirt. There was a small building for drinking tea near the water garden overlooking the lily pads and koi, though it was shut presently as they had no visitors and thus, no occasion for any such frivolities. Shiori and Rin crouched behind this building, Shiori reaching up her sleeve and producing the cigarette she had filched from Orochi’s office with a smirk. Rin stared at her, shocked.

“Where did you get that?” she asked, and Shiori let her sister take the cigarette from her, turning it over in her hands. “It’s one of father’s… He’ll kill you for this.”

Shiori laughed and shook her head, taking the cigarette back.

“He won’t notice. He smokes them too quickly to realise I’ve got one. And besides, why would I have ever been in his office in the first place?” she pointed out, a conniving smirk on her mouth. “Do you want to share it? I heard someone say that it makes you calm, to smoke.”

Rin pursed her lips and looked around them, clearly unconvinced that they wouldn’t be caught. They were far enough away from the main house that no one would spot them, or the smoke, from any of the windows, and yet Rin always erred on the side of caution. While she longed to be able to be wild like Shiori often could be, it always made her heart hammer. Some part of her, while knowing her parents were generally unkind, truly wanted to earn their approval. This wouldn’t do that… But she was already overwrought with what had been discussed in the office, and she supposed that she should indulge Shiori this one trifling misdemeanour. She would need it, once Rin had told her what had transpired.

“Fine. But I’ll light it. When you tried to light the candles in the shrine, you nearly burned grandma’s picture down.”

Shiori laughed and conceded, placing the cigarette between her lips and sweeping her hair out of her way so that it wouldn’t be singed. Rin withdrew her wand from her kimono and held it under the tip, whispering the incantation quietly and succeeding in bringing forth a small flame. Inhaling to light it, Shiori immediately coughed and withdrew the cig from her mouth, beating at her chest with her closed fist. Rin startled, jerking her wand back and extinguishing the flame from it, before watching her sister’s undignified display and snorting.

“I thought it was meant to calm you down - I assumed that didn’t mean by choking you to death.”

Shiori glowered up at Rin, swatting at her little sister’s head half reproachfully, before she regained her composure. Huffing a thankful breath, she proffered the cigarette to Rin and watched her take it uncertainly.

“If we get caught for this, I’ll blame you,” Rin stated, and Shiori rolled her eyes.

“What, in case mother and father come out here for a romantic stroll? Unlikely.”

Rin hardly fared better, but after a minute both managed to take a drag without choking. Once they were both settled into the routine of passing the cigarette back and forth, Rin pretending she didn’t hate the ashy taste on her tongue, Shiori looked her sister in the eye, ready to hear whatever she had to say.

“What happened, then?” she asked, and even as she said it Shiori wondered if she really wanted to know. Regardless of whether she would like what she heard, which she doubted, she knew that not knowing would chew her up inside. She hated being out of the loop, she hated knowing Rin was struggling but not being able to do anything, and she hated surprises.

Rin seemed to flinch back from her stare, passing the cigarette back hastily as she coughed on a hitched drag.

“Just finish it. It’s gross,” Rin grumbled, wiping her hands together as if that would free her of the lingering scent. Shiori shrugged and accepted, putting the cigarette in her mouth and letting it dangle there. It wasn’t as bad as she had thought it might be, in truth, so she didn’t really mind.

There was a long silence again, while Rin gathered her thoughts and prepared for the reactions she might face. As she had been returning to the room, she had already gone over many of the emotions Shiori might express - anger, hurt, confusion, upset, disappointment. None of them were preferable to the other. Rin was better at repressing her emotions, while Shiori tended to show them even as she pretended she was fine. And if mother and father saw that Shiori was in a bad mood, saw that there was something wrong… They would immediately guess that Rin had told her, when she had been ordered not to.

It was a risk, but she didn’t like to keep secrets from her big sister.

“There’s a transfer programme, sending students from Mahoutokoro and Japanese higher education facilities to western countries. Mother and father want to send me to one of the other magical schools… Either Ilvermony, or Hogwarts. I’ll be going as soon as possible, so… Before the next term.”

Shiori stared at Rin blankly, the words taking moment to sink in. There were so many thoughts, so many feelings, swirling through her head that she felt as if a hurricane had started up inside her skull. She didn’t understand - or, she did, but it didn’t seem real. Couldn’t be real. How could this make sense? Why Rin?

“You agreed to that?” Shiori asked, and Rin winced at the bitterness she could hear in her sister’s tone. She had expected this. Going to Europe or North America would give Shiori a break from their parents, from her impending responsibilities and all the many traditions that her parents intended to see through.

“What other choice do I have? They’ve already sent letters to both schools, and the Ministry approved it immediately because father put in a good word with some people last night. You know what would happen if I said no.”

“You could have at least tried!” Shiori snapped, standing up properly so quickly her knees clicked. “You could have tried to say no or suggest that I go instead. Didn’t you think of that? Is it not worth it to at least show where your loyalties lie, even if the end result is the same?”

Her voice was cracking, becoming frantic. Rin stood upright again; face crumpled a little at the onslaught of angry words from her sister. She hated upsetting her sister, because Shiori was pretty much the only one in the family that Rin could feasibly gain approval from. Despite all their differences - their different standpoints on how much they should obey their parents, or how important good grades were, for example - Rin loved Shiori and knew that Shiori loved her back. She couldn’t say the same for her parents. She loved them, despite herself, but she didn’t expect that those feelings were reciprocated. Whether or not family were supposed to love unconditionally, she knew that her family wasn’t a family in the traditional sense of the word.

Rin wanted to shout back. She wanted to be angry at Shiori for reacting like this, but even so, she didn’t figure it would be any good. What was the point? There wasn’t that long until she had to leave for abroad, going by the sounds of things, and she didn’t want to waste that time. Had she ever gone so long without seeing Shiori, apart from before she had joined Mahoutokoro and Shiori would go away for the day and come back in the evening? By the time Shiori was boarding, Rin was attending during the day, so she at least saw her sometimes then. This time, that wouldn’t be the case. She could send letters, but she doubted they would visit one another often, if at all.

Defeated, Rin pressed her lips together and turned her gaze down to her feet. She could hear Shiori breathing heavily, waiting for an answer, a defence. There was none.

“I don’t want to spend time arguing. Mother and father asked me not to talk to you about this, so don’t tell them I did… Try to hide it. I’m sorry.”

For a moment, Rin thought Shiori would hit her, hand curling into a fist and raising a little from her side as if on its own accord. She crushed the cigarette under her heel, long finished, instead, then turned and walked away. Rin stood, alone, idly wondering if her parents would tell Shiori right away, if they would smell the smoke on her, if that would make things worse - if it could get worse.

-

Shiori sat in her room, wishing that she could write to someone about this, wishing she had a friend she could visit or call over. Someone who would understand or at least try to. She had Jameela, but her parents didn’t approve of her, so she couldn’t write to her when she was at home. She had to wait until she went back to school, where letters would probably be waiting for her. Jameela knew that she couldn’t send letters to Shiori directly, which was a relief, but sometimes Shiori wished that there was a way for them to communicate. She would find a way, sometime.

Rin had always been all she had, in this house. Shiori didn’t get along with her parents and the servants were always nervous of her, in case she treated them the same way Wayuu and Orochi did. She had no pets, no one to write to her over the summers because indubitably whenever she made a friend, her parents did not approve and tried to force her to cut off contact. That worked only so far as Shiori forbidding the people she did talk to at Mahoutokoro from writing to her, still talking to them in term time.

The only time she had ever said ‘no’ to her parents when it came to who she could or could not be friends with was when they told her not to speak with Jameela. Jameela had been on a transfer program from India, studying in Mahoutokoro for the previous year. Against all odds, the two had formed a strong friendship, strong enough to make Shiori brave in the face of her father’s beatings. Jameela was also pureblood, her parents incredibly wealthy, but from what she had heard they were… different. They wanted Jameela to absorb other cultures and learn about people’s differences, in a way that wasn’t to reinforce any other person’s inferiority. Whenever Shiori’s parents had allowed her to be exposed to other cultures, aside those she came in contact with at school, it had been to show them how lucky she was to live the life she currently lived.

Shiori did not feel lucky.

Jameela, for all her kindness, had somehow made things harder for Shiori. Because she no longer felt resigned to her fate, because she saw that other ways of living could be just as prosperous and respectable. She had always secretly felt that must be true, but she’d never been shown evidence to back it up. Her parents had made sure of that. Shiori was more inclined to disagree with her parents outright, now, a fact which had been solely to her detriment. She was still young, only 16, and she believed that if she persisted, she could change her parents somehow.

Maybe that’s why they were sending Rin away. Maybe her parents thought Rin encouraged Shiori - either directly, or indirectly as Shiori endeavoured to do things to protect her little sister. Perhaps… perhaps they thought that Shiori was contaminating Rin, by being disobedient. They might believe that Shiori was a lost cause… Had her refusal to be her parents’ puppet ruined her chance at escaping?

It didn’t bear thinking about. She couldn’t stand to think about it, to be more exact. Even as her brain followed those trains of thought, she rebelled against it, denying that it was possible. Surely not… Her parents were such perfectionists, would they give up on her already? Shiori didn’t want to fit into her parents’ mould of a perfect daughter, not for their benefit, but if they considered her so far gone, what might they do to her to bring her back on track?

She was catastrophizing. Shiori knew it, she knew she was blowing this out of proportion, but she somehow couldn’t stop. Her breathing was shallow and laboured at the same time, too quick to calm her. Her heart trembled in her ribs even as she curled up tight on her bed, pulling her pillow into a fierce hug as if it could protect her.

It would be good for Rin. Shiori knew that even if they would miss one another, Rin would have a good time in another country, far from her parents’ watchful eyes. And recently, Rin had been more and more reticent whenever Shiori had gone on a tirade against their parents. Before, she had voiced her complaints as well, agreeing with almost anything Shiori said. Now, she was so quiet, and it was hard to say what she really felt or thought. Shiori knew that Rin was afraid of their parents, more than she was herself - and with good reason. Their parents had never given them any reason not to fear them. There had been no moment of kindness, so secret soft side… Only coldness and anger in turns, depending on how well their daughters could read their minds.

Somehow worse, Wayuu and Orochi had been almost indifferent towards Rin throughout their childhood, only paying attention when she made a misstep. Shiori had learned from a friend that some pureblood families always had two kids if they could, because it meant if the first one went ‘bad’ then they had a backup. At first, Shiori had thought that they meant ‘bad’ as in, using dark magic, and had been offended for herself that her parents would worry that she would become such a person. And then it had made sense - bad, like a bad apple. Not a bad person, but someone who doesn’t fit, someone who doesn’t obey. Someone like Shiori. And that had hurt, though not as much as it had made her angry. Angry that her sister had been brought into the world as some kind of insurance policy, a term that at the time she hadn’t known. It just wasn’t fair. Rin deserved better.

Shiori had never told Rin about that tradition, or whatever it could be called. Somehow, she expected Rin already knew, but kept whatever hurt she felt about it private.

It was dehumanising.

Rin was probably resigning herself to her fate, after years of indifference and anger. Shiori knew that this was just the way their family was, and that many other families must be just the same, but it didn’t mean it was a good thing. Maybe… Maybe going to Ilvermony, or Hogwarts, or wherever, would help Rin find herself a bit. It might help her, if it stopped her from simply accepting whatever her parents put in front of her. Shiori could get her sister back, the one who knew that what they faced was unfair, who would always have her side even when Shiori got in trouble. Who put other people first instead of always aiming for personal gain, the way their parents did. God, the first time Rin had spoken about making ‘connections’, Shiori had felt she might be sick. But it was different in America and Britain. They were more open minded, apparently, according to girls at her school. Rin would gain some freedom and realise that she should fight back.

From that point of view, Shiori could think positively about her sister going to another school for a term. They would be a team again. And if Shiori encouraged Rin and showed approval, Rin would be happy instead of miserable about the change. She tended to follow Shiori’s lead. Shiori could get through whatever her parents were planning, whatever it was that meant she wasn’t allowed to go somewhere else too. It would be fine.

-

Term would be starting for Mahoutokoro students in a matter of weeks. Remus Lupin was trying her best not to be nervous and failing. Her mother had given only words of encouragement, and her father had been full of platitudes like ‘everything will be fine’ and ‘there’s nothing to worry about’. Despite this, it was hard not to be afraid. Until this year she had studied at Hogwarts, where the arrangements for her condition had been steadfast and without judgement. Of course, there was no hint of malignancy from the staff at Mahoutokoro. The headmaster at Hogwarts had spoken with the professors and headmistress of Mahoutokoro extensively to make arrangements for her there, and yet…

There was a pit in her stomach. Treatment of werewolves was no better in Japan than in the UK, when it came to their magical governments. Werewolves were routinely locked away in prisons, dubbed ‘kennels’, and disallowed from re-joining normal wizarding society. They were deemed a threat. Some activists for magical creatures had tried to insist on better rights for werewolves and the like, but it hadn’t come to much. If anything, it just wasn’t taken seriously - the Ministry were busy enough keeping up with the rapid modernisation of Muggle and wizarding Japan.

Remus supposed they might be more open to true reform now, if they had asked her father to come and aid the changing of laws purveying to magical creatures. She wouldn’t allow herself to hold out much hope; no matter how much her father said that things were getting better, always better, when it came to protections for werewolves, nothing had changed back home. Her father told her that he was working hard to make things better, and that she was lucky that things were as good as they were now. But she knew that even if he no longer spoke about werewolves in the same way that he had before the attack; he didn’t care for them. He barely cared for her. She was always an afterthought, the second to be considered after her mother. Lyall, in truth, was bitter that Hope had been attacked in the first place, even if it had been his own fault for the things that he had said…

To this day, Remus didn’t know exactly what had transpired that had pushed a werewolf to attack her and her mother. Her mother wasn’t bitten, but badly injured so that, even after all this time, her health had never reached its previous levels and in fact grew weaker every day. That was the reason they had moved to Japan in the first place; her mother was bedridden most of the time, weak, found being outdoors difficult and overtiring and was struggling to hide the pain she was in. Her mother wanted to be near her remaining family when she died, and all that was left of her side of the family lived in Japan.

All Remus knew was that her father’s work in the magical creatures department at the Ministry had been detrimental to werewolves, and that she and her mother had suffered because of it. It was enough to brew resentment in any soul, and yet Remus tried not to dwell on it. There was no use in feeling sorry for herself.

Mahoutokoro had wards in layers around Iwo Jima. This succession of wards kept unwanted visitors out while allowing the Quidditch teams to fly higher and further, testing their resistance to the wind. It now served a new purpose of meaning Remus could leave the castle grounds and go to a separate building further down the mountain, without encountering anyone that shouldn’t be there.

Remus and Lyall had visited Mahoutokoro already to learn about the school, its layout and the grounds as well as the island in general. This wasn’t standard practice for new or transferring students, but because of Remus’s lycanthropy it was considered necessary. The building she would spend her transformations in was far nicer than the Shrieking Shack, not that the wolf would care. Single floor, high ceiling, two rooms and a bathroom. One room, the smaller one, was for being collected by the school nurse after the transformation. The other room had a series of locks, and wards would be placed on it. It was here that she would transform and spend the night.

The bathroom was not technically necessary, but a nice touch. There was no functioning bathroom in the Shrieking Shack. Ridiculous, probably, to be touched by the provision of a bathroom with a functioning water supply, and yet Remus was touched all the same. It wasn’t the sort of thing people tended to spare a thought to - not even her parents did, when they locked her in the basement of their house in England on the night of the full moon. Sometimes the transformation ended earlier than expected, if the sun was merciful, and the nurse or her parents wouldn’t wake until sometime after Remus had transformed back. Those times were the worst - left bleeding, human again but naked, often hungry, thirsty and needing to relieve herself. Now, when she returned to human form, she would be able to remove the wards and locks on the door, as a compartment for her wand was provided inside the room to keep it safe. She could use a bathroom like anyone else would, as if she had simply woken up in need of the toilet, or a drink of water. It was one step closer to the normalcy she wished she could have.

The building itself was not easily accessible. It was settled in the centre of a ring of bamboo, enhanced by magic to be exceptionally tall, and impassable for its density. The stalks were reinforced to be strong enough to withstand any intruder, though for ‘the right intentions’, as the professor had put it, they parted and allowed a single person inside at a time. At first Remus had had her doubts - bamboo seemed such a weak guard, even imbued with magic. But when she had been asked to try and fight her way through it to prove its strength, she had failed despite the proximity of the full moon rising in two days, making her stronger than usual. Even use of magic had failed her, and she was a proficient witch. Anxieties quelled, she had accepted what to her seemed an unorthodox method of protection.

The significance of using bamboo was not lost on Remus, who had been doing a great deal of research on everything regarding Japanese culture - muggle and wizarding. She knew that bamboo was used in festivals and shrines to ward off evil. It was seen as a kind of barrier against evil, and it seemed that this belief was being used here, in part. As if whatever evil came with being a werewolf could contaminate the rest of the island, if it wasn’t kept at bay with a magic ring of bamboo.

As well as the arrangements for her transformations were arrangements for regular visits with her mother. Hope was scheduled to be taken into hospital for more intensive, frequent treatments, and she spoke about it with a kind of finality that suggested she didn’t expect to make it back out. Knowing that her mother would be in hospital during term time made Remus nervous; she had feared she wouldn’t get to see her mother in her final stretches of life. She had tried not to think so negatively - surely there would be some possibility that her mother would survive this? And yet, she had to be realistic. Since she was a child, her mother had been ill, and it had only gotten worse. If her mum and dad felt it necessary to come to Japan now, to say goodbye, then she figured they had a good reason for it.

Remus would be able to visit her mother monthly, between full moons. It meant she would miss a day of study, as she would have to travel to the mainland and then to the hospital from there, but that would be worth it. She didn’t intend to take days off before or after her transformations if she could help it, so hopefully one day per month wouldn’t make much of a difference. It was agreed that, should Remus or any staff member be asked about her absences by another student, they would tell her she was visiting her mother - whether she was, or if it was the night of a transformation.

Apart from this, she would be as regular a student as she could be. Mahoutokoro had a small student body compared to other wizarding schools, but it held people of many nationalities and cultures. While there weren’t any other British people attending, there were people who were also foreign, as much as she was. There were spells to translate speech in real time, so that everyone could understand one another. She had been raised with Japanese culture throughout her entire life, so she wasn’t completely new to that. It should be… Fine.

Remus had obsessed over each of these details for as long as she had been privy to them. She had the routes around Mahoutokoro mapped in her mind after the two circuits she had walked around it, though she expected there were discrepancies she would need to account for. Now things were becoming real; a package had arrived from Mahoutokoro this morning before she had woken up, containing her robes and other documents that were deemed helpful for her.

The robes were a nondescript beige, as they arrived before they had been worn by their intended recipient. Hope had removed their packaging with a nostalgic smile, lying in bed propped up by several pillows. She had wanted to be there when Remus received them. She herself had attended Mahoutokoro for the early half of her education, transferring to Hogwarts when her parents moved for opportunities in the British Ministry. Now, she was unwrapping the paper around the robes, smiling as she ran her fingers over them.

Hogwarts had sent Remus’s grades for all of her subjects to Mahoutokoro at the end of her last term, and they had been more than satisfactory given the stress she had been under at the prospect of the move. Her grades would dictate the colour her robes would turn when she first wore them and change as she progressed within the school. Hope picked up the carefully folded robes, recognising the feel of the fabric, before passing them to her daughter. Remus took them in her shaking hands and went behind the screen to change into them for the first time.

Remus focused on pulling on the layers of the uniform that in themselves did not change colour - deep grey hakama over a kimono the colour of flint, an obi tied at the waistline of the hakama. Remus had questioned the use of the obi when she was researching the uniform and various other Japanese items of clothing, and her mother had explained that obi were worn by Muggle Japanese swordsmen to carry their swords - in this case, they were used for storage of the wand. She was clumsy tying the hakama and obi, as she was unused to it, but supposed that practice made perfect - and she would get plenty of practice. Once this was finished, though likely not to a very high standard, Remus took the final garment that had been sent - the outer robe reminiscent of a haori. This was the clothing piece that would change colour.

Remus had been predicted to fall under the blue category of robe, called alternatively Sora or Josho - sky, ascending, soaring. She had achieved the grades required for this, taking several optional classes and steadily managing to get Outstanding or Exceeds Expectations grades. The blue robe was typically worn by students between 14 and 16, so she wasn’t necessarily behind, and yet… Remus had always felt the need to do well academically, as if to make up for what she lacked due to her lycanthropy. She had wanted to be better. Even if blue was more than acceptable, she had quietly hoped for more.

Sliding the robe over her uniform, Remus focused on organising her layers neatly and making herself presentable. She was already nervous; she didn’t want her mum to poke fun at her for making a mess of her uniform. There was no mirror on the side of this room, so she kept her gaze straight ahead stubbornly even if it meant she had to organise herself mostly blind. In her periphery she noticed the fabric of the outer robe change colour from its previous undyed linen colour, though she redirected her gaze quickly enough that she didn’t catch sight of the hue.

“Do you need help?” Hope asked, and Remus startled. She supposed she had been back there for a little while.

“No, I’m ready now,” she reassured, taking a steadying breath before stepping from behind the screen.

Her mother’s eyes flitted to her quickly, as if she had been watching the screen for the entire time, waiting. Remus tried to steel her posture and expression to hide her nerves - she didn’t want her mother to worry for her. She took her grades incredibly seriously, but whatever she started out with she would be able to improve upon. There was no need for her to consider this the end of the world.

“Beautiful,” Hope murmured, reclining more easily on her pillows with a pleased smile. Remus turned slowly for her mother to see how the robes she had once worn looked on her daughter and heard Hope chuckle at the display. “You’ll take some practice getting used to the hakama, but you did well. Take a look in the mirror.”

Obeying, Remus took the few steps needed to put herself in the mirror’s gaze. She didn’t like to look at herself much - without the various cosmetic potions she applied to her face, the scars were clearly visible over the bridge of her nose and at the corner of her mouth down onto her jaw. There didn’t seem to be any point in indulging in the self-pity that occurred when she looked at the scars for too long, but she could admit on this occasion that there was no benefit to be had by refusing to look at herself. It would be good to know how the uniform looked on her.

The first thing she noticed was green. Remus had been prepared for blue, the colour of her father’s eyes that her mother had always waxed poetic over. Instead, the outer robe was vibrant green, like a forest. Something unknotted in Remus’s chest at the sight, a quiet sigh slipping from her. Green was the level above blue, requiring not just exceedingly good grades but also participation in school responsibilities like library duties or cleaning. In Hogwarts Remus had indeed helped in the library on a regular basis, though she hadn’t expected that fact to transfer to her standing in Mahoutokoro.

“Your favourite colour,” Hope commented, the smile evident in her voice. “Like back in England, and the forest we loved.”

Hope and Remus had taken regular excursions into the forest while her father worked. Hope had insisted upon it, to encourage Remus to get out in nature instead of taking studying so seriously - an unusual attitude compared to many parents. Remus knew that there was an ulterior motive that her mother didn’t voice. She didn’t want her daughter to be afraid of the forest. Even if it was not the same forest that the werewolf had come from, the one that had connected to their backyard in Wales where Fenrir Greyback had attacked them, Remus had become deathly afraid of the dense trees and deep green foliage. With patience and encouragement, Hope had brought her daughter into the forestry near their new home in the south of England and showed her how to love the wind in the branches and the rustling leaves, as well as all the wildlife.

Those memories were some of her dearest, spending time with her mother outside of the watchful eye of her father. Lyall would always step in whenever Hope and Remus would play, saying that Hope needed to ‘watch her health’, as if playing with Remus, or paying attention to her at all, was simply too strenuous. He especially disliked the ideas of Hope and Remus taking walks in nature, particularly in the woods. He knew what might live there, even if there were no reports of werewolves in the area, and the fear tore him apart. Even so, Hope pressed on. Remus had found a connection with nature that rivalled any other connection she had made in her 16 years.

And now, she stood before a mirror in a different country, in the edges of wizarding Tokyo, with the colour of the forest wrapped around her.

-

Hope asked Remus to change out of her uniform and then back into it, this time in front of her, so that she could provide her daughter with help or advice. Remus had been embarrassed, as she was in front of anyone, at the exposure to the scars that lined her arms and legs. Despite this, the second dressing went quicker and smoother, which was a good sign. Sometime later, after Hope and Remus had sat on Hope’s bed, Hope relaying tales of Mahoutokoro and the teachers who had worked there a few decades previous, Remus left the room to let her mother sleep.

Lyall was waiting for her in their kitchen, sitting with the documents that had come with Remus’s uniform. There was a list of items she should pick up before attending, some of which she already had from her time in Hogwarts, such as a cauldron, quill and parchment. Others she would soon receive from her mother’s sister, an aunt Remus had still never met, who was significantly better off than the Lupin family but seemingly always too busy to visit. There were explanations of rules and regulations, a map of the grounds, information on the building of the school a long time ago, and lists of famous witches and wizards who had passed through its walls. The staff were listed by name with their subjects besides, and the different colours of robes were detailed within a leaflet. Finally came a letter personalised to Remus, rather than the basic information leaflets. This contained the names of the people she would be dorming with.

Mahoutokoro put four people from the same year to a single sex dormitory, with the arrangements meant to be complementary - those who flourished in one area but not another would dorm with others who held strengths they lacked. Moreover, each floor of dormitories had the necessary equipment to allow them to make food and tea as and when it was wanted or needed. This was to meet the needs of the students who so often stayed up late studying. It was also to promote self-sufficiency, although meals were provided in a main hall much the same as was done in Hogwarts. In total, it would be a very different experience.

Lyall was looking over the letter, reading the names of the girls his daughter would be sharing a room with, before looking up at Remus as she entered. He didn’t smile, as he usually would even if it was without feeling, instead gesturing for Remus to sit down across from him at the table.

“How did your robes fit?” he asked, in way of greeting, and Remus tilted her head.

“Perfectly. Just like they were supposed to. They’re green, by the way.”

If Lyall remembered the order that the different coloured robes came in, he gave no sign of it - unimpressed or uncaring. Remus hadn’t expected much more than that.

“Is your mother sleeping?” he asked, moving on with the conversation as if she had never spoken. Remus simply nodded, not bothering to reply verbally. He clearly had something he wanted to talk to her about, so she’d prefer if he’d just get to the point.

“I wanted to warn you about something, or at least, someone that you will be sharing a room with,” he explained. This was what he had intended to speak about - Remus could tell by the way he finally met her gaze properly and squared his shoulders. Remus sighed - how could there be anything to warn her about, since they had only just moved here? She doubted Lyall knew much more than she did about the people who attended Mahoutokoro, unless he had met them on his introductory days to the Ministry.

Instead of saying so, Remus kept quiet, looking at the table top with great interest as she feels her dad’s gaze bore into her.

“Kuro Shiori - we met her at the introduction party.”

Remus looked up at Lyall with a frown, confused. Shiori had been the only one at that entire ball to talk to them normally, without a hint of disdain at their motley appearance. She had been so… Nice. Remus shifted a little in her seat, finding colour rising to her cheeks. Shiori had also been beautiful, undoubtedly, and when their eyes had met there had been a shock that Remus felt bodily. Like there was some kind of… Instant connection.

Before waiting for Remus to reply, Lyall went on.

“She seemed nice, of course, but I believe she had ulterior motives. It’s known, of course, that I’m here to represent the Ministry department for magical creature regulation. Since a part of my position here is to reform laws surrounding that, just as you’ve always wanted-” there it was, that guilt trip he used so often. Pushing Remus to agree with him at every corner because he was doing her a favour, apparently, by not dehumanising her kind. She bit back a snarky remark. “- there has been some suspicion towards me. Not least from her father, Orochi.”

They hadn’t met the other Kuros than a perfunctory nod and exchanging of names. Remus didn’t know how much interaction her father had had with Orochi already - her understanding was that he mainly worked in finance, liaising with the Japanese Ministry alongside. However, Remus did remember how Orochi and Shiori’s mother, whose name she had forgotten, had reacted to Shiori’s fainting incident. The Lupins had been turning back to their conversation, when Remus had been overcome with a fit of dizziness and became certain that she was going to be sick. As they were leaving, she had looked over at Shiori only to see her parents glowering and looking at the onlookers to their daughter’s fainting, as if more embarrassed than concerned. That itself seemed quite damning, but she figured she may have misread it in her sudden illness.

“Kuro Orochi is quite a prominent figure throughout the Ministry. The Kuro family are well known, pureblood and most importantly, blood purists. Orochi currently works to modernise investing for wealthy wizards, but it’s thought that he manipulates stock levels in both the Muggle and Wizarding economy for profit, as well as influencing exchange rates between Muggle and Wizarding currency. He has… Many, many connections, and has been very vocal on several political issues in regard to the Ministry’s decision to fall in with the west, and the wizarding decision to not get involved in the Muggle Sino-Chinese war. He dislikes Muggles, he dislikes foreigners, and he dislikes werewolves. He has made that very clear.”

Remus stared at her father, letting the information sink in. She understood Lyall’s reservations towards Orochi, but she didn’t understand why that meant she had to be cautious towards Shiori. That seemed unreasonable, and also… Well, they’d be sharing a dorm - how well could she truly avoid the other girl? Of course, Remus intended to keep as much distance as possible from the other students, for her own privacy and security - she couldn’t risk any of them finding out about her secret.

“My worry is that Shiori was sent by her father to understand my intentions regarding new laws for werewolf treatment. If that interest continues, Shiori may start to put things together for herself… And if she then told her father, I’m sure his many connections would cause several problems for us - not just for you, but me, and your mother.”

“She seemed nice,” Remus insisted, pursing her lips. “And if she was scouting for information about your job, she did a bad job. She didn’t once bring it up.”

Remus watched a storm begin to brew on her father’s brow and glanced at the bottle of sake he had been working through since waking up. He had never drunk a great deal before, but as Hope became sicker, he turned to it more often. She knew that he wouldn’t hit her, but he might get aggressive… She didn’t want that.

“In your position, it’s better to exercise caution,” Lyall stated, voice flat. Remus bit her lip and turned her gaze back to the table. He always had to reinforce Remus’s lowly position, whenever she toed the line. It made her guts crawl with hurt and anger. “Orochi may or may not be planning to push back any reform on magical creature laws. Until we know, you should act as if he is. It’s for your best interests.”

Remus blinked a few times, forcing the tears that tried to well up back, her chest tight. Her father hated it when she cried. He always got exasperated and irritable.

“If Shiori talks to me, I’m not going to ignore her. I’ll be staying in the same room as her for as long as I’m in the school, so I need to create a good relationship with her, regardless of her possible political standing.” Remus stood from the table jerkily, pushing her chair back in and turning to leave the room. She didn’t want to partake in this conversation anymore. She had been so happy to achieve green robes, and now… This.

Just before Remus reached the door, Lyall spoke up again, voice stony.

“Then it’s your funeral. Orochi has connections, like I said, and nearly everyone I’ve spoken to has warned me about him. They say his family affiliate with some dark wizards… And that they have been known to have madness in them. I was only trying to care for you, but you have refused it. If that decision causes issues for myself or your mother... “

Remus didn’t need to hear the rest. She closed the door behind her and returned to her room.

-

“You know… I’ll always support you,” Shiori spoke quietly. Tomorrow, Rin would leave for Hogwarts - her parents had deemed Ilvermony too much of a risk, since Americans seemed so… Forward, to put it in less words than her parents had when debating the matter. The sisters decided to have a sleepover of sorts the night before Rin left, so that they could spend every last second together.

Currently Rin and Shiori were both curled up in Shiori’s bed, the way they used to when they were children. When Rin had had a nightmare when they were younger, she would come to Shiori and sleep next to her. Her older sister had always pulled her under the covers sleepily, wrapping her up in a firm hug and letting her talk about the nightmare. Then, she’d tell Shiori about something unrelated - a book, or a spell she was trying to learn, or something funny one of the servants said when they thought no one was listening. She’d spin tales with a silver tongue until Rin fell asleep again, waiting until her little sister started to snore before she went back to sleep herself.

It had been some time since they had done that. Shiori had been awkward upon approaching Rin, who had been packing in her own room, to ask her to come and sleep next to her again. Rin had accepted immediately. Of course, they had already gotten over their previous fight from before - they needed each other too much under the watchful eye of their parents who only seemed to get stricter every passing day. There had been some left over hurt from it, though, especially in Rin. She had been quieter since then and didn’t look Shiori in the eye very often. It made Shiori feel terrible.

“You will?” Rin replied, almost doubtfully. Shiori frowned. They could see each other only by the moonlight that came in through the curtains over Shiori’s window. It was just enough to make out each other’s glinting eyes and the outline of their forms.

“Of course. It’s me and you against the world, right?” Shiori joked, hoping to lighten the mood. Rin didn’t reply, just stayed quiet as she watched Shiori.

There was a heaviness to the atmosphere that Shiori couldn’t shake. Had something happened? Why was Rin so reserved? Maybe it was just nervousness… She couldn’t tell.

It had been a long day. Neither of the sisters said anything, and soon enough they both fell asleep.

-

“You are not coming with us.”

“What do you mean? I’m already dressed. Of course I’m coming!”

Wayuu, Orochi and Rin stood by the front door, parents flanking their daughter with their hands gripping on to her shoulders like vices. Shiori stood two paces away from them, further into the house, hating the feeling of being outnumbered.

They were ready to leave for the portkey station, but now Shiori was being forbade to go. This was… Ridiculous.

“You will only make a scene. You are unreliable when it comes to showing your emotions.”

Before Shiori could protest, Orochi held up his hand - doing so quickly enough that Shiori flinched, as if he were about to strike her. But instead, he was only halting her speech.

“This is final. You may say goodbye to your sister now, and we will escort her to the portkey stations. We will travel to Britain with her and be back by the evening. If I hear of any mischief - if you try to follow us, or cause trouble in the estate - you will be punished.”

Shiori felt tears welling up in her eyes and forced them back down. This wasn’t fair. But if she cried then she would be proving her father right, and that was the last thing that she wanted. She had to be strong. For herself, to prove her parents wrong, and for Rin. Rin was pallid and drawn already and had slept badly last night - Shiori had woken several times to her sister making scared noises in her sleep, or just tossing and turning. She couldn’t put any more stress on Rin like that… That wasn’t fair.

Orochi and Wayuu unhanded Rin at last, and Shiori held her arms out for her sister to hug her. But Rin was awkward in front of their parents, wrapping her arms loosely around Shiori’s waist and resting her head on her shoulder. She didn’t want to seem too affectionate, too emotional. It hurt in a way Shiori couldn’t explain, but she gripped her sister fiercely nonetheless and didn’t let go until her mother started tapping her foot rapidly, impatient.

Once they had separated, Shiori looked into Rin’s eyes, assessing her.

“Do well,” she said in way of goodbye, rather than anything too heartfelt that would apparently embarrass Rin in front of their parents. “I’ll write.”

Rin seemed to be trying to communicate something to Shiori with her eyes, but whatever it was, it got lost in translation. Exhaling lowly in defeat, Rin nodded and set her shoulders, tilting her chin high. She wouldn’t cry. She refused to cry.

“Goodbye, then,” Rin spoke, in the voice her parents instructed her to use - clear, cold, unemotional.

“Bye.”

-

There was a book open on her father’s desk. Shiori knew it was a risk to be in here - she had come to steal another cigarette out of spite, for not being allowed to go with them to see her sister off. Her father would be expecting her to do something like this, would have told the servants to keep an eye on her, but… Shiori couldn’t care less. She was angry, and bitter. She had come into her father’s study through the main door rather than the servant’s one, since she figured the servants would expect her to come through their door. She had intended to come in, filch a cigarette and then leave, but her curiosity was piqued by the old tome.

It was bound in leather that was cracked in places with age, some traces of dust still on the back cover. The pages were slightly curled as if by moisture, and here and there were stains from what she assumed was spilled tea. There was no title on the spine or cover, though it was printed and so certainly not a journal. Shiori sat down on her father’s desk chair for the second time during those holidays and leaned over the book to peer at the small print.

“Animae dimidium meae” - the other half of my soul. Written by Horace of his close friend Virgil, the term ‘soulmate’ can be related back to such phrases from the time before Christ. The soulmate, so often referred to by those without magic (often termed ‘Muggles’, as they will henceforth be referred to in this paper, or ‘No-Majes’ in Americanised English) as a natural affinity for another, a connection that crosses the boundaries of reason, or at times, what is natural. For us with the gift of magic, it is known that such an affinity is beyond the understanding of Muggle science and even philosophy. While little is known of the physiological implications, and what might lend some to the symptoms of having a soulmate, it is known that soulmates do, without any doubt, exist within our universe.

Shiori frowned. Why would her father be reading about this? It was what he might have called a ‘frilly’ subject, and she knew that if she had brought such a thing as soulmates up to him, he would have looked at her with disdain. And yet… He was reading a massive volume, that seemed to be solely on the subject of soulmates.

Feelings only further confused and complicated, Shiori sat back in the chair and sighed. Keeping her finger in the page she had found the book open to, she flipped through some more, trying to get some hint of what was inside that would make her father interested in this. Was there something she had missed? She had never considered that soulmates might be real, but now...

Particularly in families upholding blood purist ideals, the soulmate bond can be seen under the term of the ‘soul bond curse’. This ‘curse’ appears in several fictions including ‘The Demise of Drusilla’ by Elphius Hodgkins, and the particularly popular ‘Fair Gentleman Waylaid’ by Vita Gastrell still taught under literature curriculum in several private schools. In these tellings, the discovery of having a soulmate is a destructive force wreaking havoc on respectable family lines, dismantling proud reputations and leading, ultimately, to the death of the traditional way of courting and various other historically important values.

The reasoning behind this approach is clear: when a pureblood child in a blood purist family presents symptoms of having a soulmate, the parents and/or guardians lose significant amounts of control over the romantic lives of their child. Further, as it is unknown if there is any way to remove a soul bond apart from, in some cases, the death of one half of the pair, it is seen as a situation that cannot be ‘won’. Either the child rebels against the values of their family and becomes romantically involved with someone their family will disapprove of, or the child of the family will live in a marriage that is, to an extent, loveless and unfulfilling.

Shiori pursed her lips. This seemed relevant, somehow, though she had never looked at the literature mentioned. Knowing that her family were strongly opposed to Shiori or Rin having any sorts of romantic affiliations with anyone not pre-approved by their parents, on the basis of blood purity and reputation, meant that Shiori felt that there must be some cause from within the household for her father to hold on to a book like this.

Was there some clue that Rin had a soulmate? Shiori hadn’t noticed one. She didn’t think there was anything of the sort to apply to herself, but…

Dizziness swirled threateningly below the surface, and Shiori bit her lip. As she stood, turning the page back to the original place it had been left at, she saw what she had expected, and partially feared. Sumire and tsuboki fell from her sleeves and skirts, littering the floor of her father’s office. Was this the kind of sign the book was speaking about?

Kneeling, Shiori picked up each and every one of the flowers and watched the petals swell and open to her as if happy to be held. Something in her gut twisted - did she have a soulmate? Was that why her parents had been having so many heated conversations recently, arguing in her father’s office every day, once at least. If pureblood families often saw it as a curse… Was she in some kind of danger? She didn’t think that this would hurt her, but the dizziness wasn’t fun. No, she was worried that her parents would try and strengthen their grip on her, to strangle out any chance she had to find her soulmate.

Shiori knew she had to prevent it, but she didn’t know how.

-

Orochi and Wayuu returned sharply, as if they had barely lingered to say goodbye to Rin past perfunctory farewells and perhaps a lecture or two. Shiori suspected that was the case. She had stolen a cigarette like she had planned to from her father’s office, and smoked it in the gardens again, this time alone. She thought about Rin, and all the adventures she would get to have in Hogwarts, and the relative freedom that would have afforded her by being so far away from their parents.

Their parents wrote to Rin and Shiori every week and expected replies each time as well. The letters were never interesting - telling them that they expected good grades, or that they should be studying more, or that there was someone in the school they would like the girls to make a good relationship with for connection purposes. Shiori tended not to reply and when she was chided for it, she made a point of her ‘gruelling study hours’ that she secretly often shortened to go and do more interesting things. Rin was more reliable in getting back to them.

Would they still write to Rin every week? Would it be a good idea for Shiori to write to Rin, too?

While she thought on this, Shiori had lined up the flowers she had collected on her windowsill. Once or twice during the day while she had been wandering around feeling listless and lonely, she had found more in the folds of her clothes or pressed to her skin underneath them. How exactly they appeared, she didn’t know - she didn’t have any say in the matter. Remembering how the sumire had turned to ash in Rin’s hand, she shuddered and resolved to go to the kitchens and steal a bowl of some sort, to store them in. If her parents thought the flowers were an indication of her having a soulmate, they probably wouldn’t approve. But on the flipside of that, if they were something to do with a soulmate… She couldn’t bear to throw them away.

Shiori had been on her way back to her room from the kitchens with a decorative bowl she had never seen used when she heard the front door opening. The twin pair of footsteps entering told her all she needed to know, and she quickened her pace. She didn’t want to speak to them.

There was mumbling downstairs, several voices that probably consisted of her parents and some of the servants. Shiori smiled, since they wouldn’t have anything to report, and focused on moving each flower from the windowsill to the bowl one by one. Hopefully her parents would be busy with other things for today, so that she could work through how she was feeling. Things felt complicated in her mind right now, and she wanted some space to breathe.

It seemed she wouldn’t be so lucky. Footsteps resounded down the hallway, followed by a knock. Shiori picked the bowl up and hid it inside her closet before answering. Her mother stands outside looking severe and cold as per usual. Instead of greeting Shiori, she gripped her arm painfully tight and dragged her from her room. Shiori tried to struggle but failed to escape her mother’s iron grip, bare feet skidding uselessly on the wooden flooring, her shoulder stretching in its socket painfully whenever she tried to pull her upper body back and resist.

Dragging Shiori to the office, Wayuu flung the door open and all but threw her daughter inside. Orochi was standing on the opposite side of the desk, watching. Shiori hit the ground before his desk hard on her knees, falling forward to skin her elbow. She didn’t make a sound, because she knew that would make it worse. Wayuu entered behind her and shut the office door, taking a seat in the corner of the room near the door.

Orochi waited until Shiori stood up, eyes trained on her at all times. Once she was on her feet, he held up a box to her and raised a perfect brow. She stared back, defiant, and said nothing. He had noticed that she had stolen the cigarettes, apparently. Instead of saying anything, he put the box back down and drummed his fingers on the table.

“Did you enjoy your reading?” he asked, voice cold. Shiori tensed.

“Yes.” It was better not to speak too much, and it was better not to make excuses or lie. He tended to see through lies, despite Shiori considering herself an adept liar.

“It’s good to read on your subject before your class.”

There was a coolness to his voice and a light smirk playing on the corners of his lips. It made Shiori shudder - if her father was even minutely amused, it was bad news for her.

“Remove your clothes.”

The command was clear, and yet Shiori stared at him in confusion. She turned her head minutely, enough to see her mother’s form through the curtain of her own hair. Wayuu was impassive, unmoving and not surprised by what Orochi asked of her. She looked to her father again, her mind short circuiting as she wished to be somewhere, anywhere else.

Her father had abused her in many ways - emotionally, physically… But he had never gone in this direction. It was the one thing Shiori held on to, the one barrier that would not be crossed. And now… Why? As soon as Rin left, this was what he did? She took a step backwards, towards the doorway, but saw her father look to her mother sharply. Wayuu stood and positioned herself in front of the door. Would she really be party to this? Didn’t it bother her?

Seeing no other option, Shiori’s hands went to her obi, undoing it shakily, followed by the datejime. She didn’t look at either her father or mother as she did so, refusing to see their faces. Parting the kimono, she dropped it to the floor around her feet, seeing no where else to place it without having to get closer to either of her parents. Goosebumps broke out over her exposed skin and she began to sweat. All that was left was her thin white juban, and as her hands raised to the fastening of it, she noted that she was starting to feel sick. As soon as it dropped, she was left exposed and her father straightened. On the floor were those flowers again, a scattering of them across the floor.

“Wayuu, check her.”
“W-what?” Shiori stuttered, turning to her mother with wide eyes. She resolved that if her father came near her, tried to do anything to her, she would scratch him, hex him, bite him – whatever it took to give her a chance to run to the servants’ door and as far as she could in what time she had. Wayuu was emotionless and silent as she approached, lifting her daughter’s hair to look at the back of her neck before starting to look all over.

Shiori didn’t understand what her mother was looking for, being prompted to lift her arms, turn to one side and then the other, part her legs. She was shivering in the cold of the office, desperate to get dressed again. Lastly, her mother made her lift her legs so that she could look at the soles of her feet, before looking at Orochi and shaking her head.
“Nothing.”

Orochi looked displeased, to say the least. His mouth turned down and his eyebrows pinched together.
“How inconvenient. Shiori, get dressed.”

Shiori was in such a rush to do so that she was sure that her kimono was uneven and messy, but she couldn’t bring herself to care. She felt humiliated and distressed, sweat pouring down to the small of her back and pooling there. Wayuu stepped away from her again, and once their proximity was lessened her muscles started to relax from their knotted state – not fully, though. She hadn’t been dismissed, so this wasn’t over yet.

Orochi gestured for Shiori to sit down on the seat at the near side of his desk, taking a seat back in his own. Wayuu returned to her seat in the corner by the door, watching impassively. Shiori hesitated, then did as she was told, settling uneasily in the chair. Her father felt around the desk for something, produced the packet of cigarettes again and opened it, offering one to Shiori. She felt it was a trap, and yet… If he was offering, she would take it. It was his own fault if he didn’t really want her to.

Orochi lit her cigarette after his and set the packet away in his drawer. While she watched him do so, she noticed a familiar envelope on the desk, set near to where she sat. Orochi focused on locking his drawer, making a show out of doing so, and while he was distracted Shiori leaned forward minutely and placed her hand on the letter, quickly pushing it up her sleeve with a subtle curl of her fingers. When her father looked at her once more, she felt as if it was burning against her arm, as if he could see through her clothes to where it sat. She shifted uncomfortably but kept her face set in a blank mask.

“You’ll return to Mahoutokoro soon, this time with some new students from abroad,” Orochi intoned, tone fairly light as if he were discussing the weather. Shiori knew to consider each of his words as loaded. He had humiliated her for a reason. “You met them at the event recently.”
“Yes.”
“It seems that you’ve started to show symptoms of a troublesome curse. I believe you know what I’m talking about.”

Shiori blinked and focused on keeping her cool. She didn’t want to talk about this. She was basically desperate not to, and yet here she was. There was no escape.
“Yes,” she repeated, voice monotone. She wasn’t going to give anything away, even if she truly knew nothing.
“This is an issue for us. We are already preparing to select someone to betroth you to. We do not have room to make changes for your ‘soulmate’. We need to ensure the safety of our reputation and blood purity. So, do you have any idea at all who your soulmate is?”

Shiori simply stared at him, perplexed. What good would it do for him to know who her soulmate was? What could he do about it? Was he going to try and get rid of them, or something? Fear shuddered through her, and she forced her fear down.

“No.”
“Well, that’s inconvenient. As it stands, most likely they will attend school with you. You are to write to me every week, without fail. Any information you have on your soulmate, or otherwise, I wish to know. If you fail to write to me by the end of the week, I will bring you back to the estate and you will not be allowed to leave until you learn your lesson.”

Shiori distracted herself from his piercing stare by taking a long drag of the cigarette he had given her, until now forgotten and smouldering in one hand. It had burned down a fair portion, and she resolved to enjoy every single drag from now on. She blew smoke slowly in her father’s direction rather than from the side of her mouth. It was the only show of disrespect that she could manage without certain punishment.

“Am I understood?” Orochi asked, voice steely. Shiori watched him flatly as she took another drag before replying. It was his fault, after all.
“Yes.”

The contempt she held for him in that moment was clear, expressed perfectly in only one word. Her anger seemed to radiate from her in waves. She hated that her parents insisted on butting in on every part of her life, and it was made worse that now her father was threatening action if she didn’t do as she was told. For her entire life, she had lived under her father’s thumb, and as she grew it became more and more restricting. She was tired, and restless. She wanted freedom. Mahoutokoro had been the only place she could truly claim to have that.

Of course, Shiori would lie if she did figure out anything that her father would be interested in. She had no intention to keep him in the loop, but she would have to write something either way. Orochi probably knew this, and Shiori expected he likely had connections in the school like he seemed to everywhere else. Hopefully his grasp on Mahoutokoro wasn’t as strong as it was in the Ministry.

“About your condition,” he added, just when Shiori expected to be dismissed. She tensed. “You have produced sumire. Have you noticed any other flowers?”

Shiori didn’t want to tell him, but she supposed he would find out himself when he looked properly at the flowers she had left on the floor of the study.

“Tsuboki.” She watched his jaw tense, swallowing thickly. Shiori’s mind flitted to the letter up her sleeve, that mentioned those flowers. Violet and camellia… Had her father had a soulmate?
“The flowers are produced when you are further than a certain distance from your soulmate. They stop when they are nearby. If you notice a pattern… I want to know.”
“Yes.”
“It’s in your best interests, really. When we find out, we can deal with this accordingly and save you from what might be a disgraceful relationship. You won’t need to worry about it at all.” His face twisted into a cold, cruel smile. “Let us help you.”

The silence extended for a long moment, before Shiori reached over the desk and stubbed her cigarette out in his ash tray. Orochi looked at her impassively before gesturing with one hand.

“You may go.”

As Shiori was leaving the room, she was aware of eyes on her. Turning back just slightly to shut the door, she watched the flowers wither.

-

The hospital smelled of potions and cleaning products. Remus stood by her mother’s bed, tense. She was doing her best to keep her emotions tamped down. In the corridor was her suitcase and bag. After this, she would be travelling to Mahoutokoro for the first day of term. It was incredibly early in the morning, but Hope was awake anyway – she slept badly these days, even though she slept for long stretches of time. She had wanted to see Remus on her own, so had sent Lyall out of the private room she had, to watch Remus’s things.

“You’ll do so well,” Hope reassured, smiling and gripping Remus’s hand as tight as she could manage. Remus squeezed her hand back. “Please write to me often, okay? I know you’ll visit monthly but… Still. When you write, I’ll read it and hear it in my head with your voice.”

Remus bit her lip and nodded, forcing back the tears that threatened to well up. She was suddenly filled with dread, looking at her mother shrouded in blankets, looking so small on the hospital bed. What if she never saw her again? What if something happened in the next month, and…

It didn’t bear thinking about.

“I promise,” she agreed, once she trusted her voice not to crack. “I’ll write all the time.”
“And make friends!” Hope insisted, looking towards the door to make sure Lyall wasn’t lingering too close. “I know what your father said about Shiori, but… I have a good feeling about her.”

Remus was taken aback. She didn’t know that her mum was aware of what her dad had said, since they hadn’t spoken of it until now. Even so, it made her feel better. Remus had also warmed to Shiori fairly for the short time they had spoken, and she was curious about her. She wanted to see her, more than she felt was reasonable. She didn’t understand why, but it was like a kind of pull… Maybe she was just latching on to the kindness of anyone who would show her it. She wasn’t sure.

“Me too,” Remus admitted, after a pause. Hope’s smile widened. She winked at Remus like they were sharing a great conspiracy, then straightened her face again when Lyall pushed in.
“Remus, you’ll be late. Your mother needs to sleep.”

He didn’t seem to be in the mood for goodbyes, so Remus sighed and checked her posture, feeling her neck beginning to ache because of how she had been looking down at her mum for the past half an hour. She was tired, but she didn’t want to go. She didn’t want to face the rest of the day, past this quiet hospital room.

“Goodbye, mum. I love you so much.”
“And I love you. Remember to write! Don’t worry about me. I’m in the best place to be kept healthy, aren’t I?”
“I guess so… Thanks.”

Remus leaned down and pressed a quick kiss to her mother’s cheek before straightening up and walking towards the door. Lyall stepped out of her way, uninterested in overblown goodbyes. Once, when Remus was a bit younger, he would be forcing back tears to see his little girl go away to school for the term. He would make her sandwiches for the train and a flask of tea, and check and double check her battered suitcase, asking if there was anything she might have forgotten. Since she was 13 or so, he had grown colder. Now he barely seemed to care at all.

“Remus, remember what I said before,” Lyall ordered, face serious. Remus looked up at him and forced herself not to scowl.
“I will. I’ll write to you, too,” she assured, even though they both knew she was lying. She wouldn’t have anything to say to her dad, really.

Outside in the hallway, once the door was closed, Remus slung her satchel over her shoulder and picked up her suitcase, blinking furiously to keep from crying. She felt a tightness in her chest that wouldn’t unwind, like something was breaking. But she would remember what her mum had said – that this was the best place to be when she was ill, and… That she had a good feeling about Shiori. It would be okay. It had to be. Hope had held on for so long… She could keep it up, right?

-

Shiori arrived on the Mahoutokoro grounds with a sigh of relief. Finally, she was alone, away from her parents who had been lecturing her for the past hour or so. Levitating her suitcase in front of her, she walked up the dawdling path that wound towards the school. There were other people arriving around her, some by petrel, some by broom, others apparating or using portkeys. It seemed that many of the students just seemed to float from the sky as gently as sakura petals. It was peaceful here, quiet, and Shiori felt the snaking anxiety that had been crawling up her spine begin to release her, starting from the base of her skull and slinking downwards in defeat.

Shiori wasn’t overly invested in school or wouldn’t have been if it hadn’t been the only viable means of escaping her family. If she could attain excellent grades, she could maybe gain a place in a good university. It would give her an excuse to move away. She had no idea what she wanted to do, of course, but that was hardly an issue. If it was between choosing some random subject to study at a university or staying at home at her parents’ beck and call, she knew what she would choose in a heartbeat.

As it was, her grades were perfect, mainly by virtue of being naturally academically talented. Her extracurriculars were lacking because of the limited number of clubs her parents would allow her to join – flower arranging, tea ceremony, cookery, were pretty much all she was allowed to do. There were others Shiori was interested in, but she had worried Rin might let it slip if she found out. She trusted her sister, mostly, but she wasn’t a very good liar under Orochi’s withering stare.

Past the main castle branched many pathways, with flourishing trees and flowers flanking them on each side. These were the paths to the greenhouses, water garden, sports grounds, quidditch pitch, gardening sheds and dormitories. The dormitories were split into rough age groups, and Shiori would be turning right at the next intersection. It was a nice walk, a decent distance from the school and shaded by towering trees further along. She often took her time here, enjoying the fresh air and scenery.

Just ahead, entering into the tree-shaded section of the path, was a figure in a rich green outer robe. Shiori tilted her head, noting the golden brown of the girl’s hair and her unusually tall height, and wondered if she was right in saying that she was familiar… Looking down at her feet for a moment as she collected her thoughts, Shiori spotted a single sumire flower on the ground and grimaced. Maybe they would stop soon…

After a couple more steps, Shiori decided to go ahead and catch up with the person ahead of her. Something about her was so familiar, but she was certain she was new. It was only as she was running to catch up that she remembered – Remus Lupin. The girl she had met at the party, before she had fainted. Shiori grinned from ear to ear, glad that she’d have a chance to talk with the other girl. She had extended an offer of friendship, after all, and she had been sincere in doing so. Remus had seemed… Nice. Really nice.

“Hey, Remus!” Shiori hollered, the first time she had truly raised her voice in weeks. It felt good to be loud, and she had to stop herself from bursting into bright peals of laughter just at that. Remus turned to her with a confused look, before smiling gently, almost tiredly. She waited for Shiori to catch up. “I was wondering when I would see you. Are you looking forward to joining the school officially?”

Remus seemed taken aback that Shiori would have been looking for her but tried her best to take it in her stride. Her feelings about how she should react to Shiori were a little complicated, but she trusted her mum the most. She could at least be friendly, even if she knew she couldn’t let anyone too close. It was endearing, though, that Shiori seemed so excitable, like an eager puppy. Remus didn’t tend to have people acting so enthusiastic to be around her. They thought she was weird.

“Shiori, hi,” Remus greeted, realising she’d taken a little while to reply. She watched Shiori’s suitcase bob along ahead of them unevenly because of the quick strides the shorter girl was taking to keep up with Remus. It made her smile even more. “Yeah, I’m looking forward to it. I’ve been getting kind of nervous about it, but it’s beautiful here. It’s hard not to feel calm.”
“Mm, that makes sense. Do you know what dormitory you’re in? I heard new people get a list of who’s in their room before start of term, since everyone else stays in the same one.” Remus blinked and nodded, an awkward, jerky motion. Would Shiori maybe be disappointed that Remus was going to be in the same dormitory? Maybe she was already really close with the other people in their dormitory, and Remus would be infringing… Well, there was no use in keeping it a secret.
“I’m actually in the same dormitory as you,” she admitted, watching Shiori nervously in case her face fell. But instead, her expression lit up, grinning lopsidedly.
“Great! Finally, someone likeable in my dormitory,” Shiori laughed, stretching her hands above her head. Remus blushed, looking away – she wasn’t good at taking compliments.

“Are the others not likeable…?” Remus asked, nerves chewing at her guts. Shiori seemed to come back to herself, turning to Remus quickly and placing a hand on her arm. The touch was warm and comforting, but it sent a jolt through Remus, who wasn’t used to being touched. She had to force herself not to pull away – it wasn’t that she didn’t want Shiori to touch her, it was that she wasn’t… Good at this stuff. Physical affection had only ever come from her mother. She barely ever touched anyone past that, unless it was accidental.

“Oh! Sorry, that’s probably not the best thing to say to make you feel less nervous but… Let’s just say that… They’re an acquired taste. And I haven’t acquired it.”

Remus laughed quietly, unable to help herself. It was a graceful way of insulting someone, truly, and she’d probably use that line herself in the future. The cheekiness to Shiori’s tone, the expressive movement of her hands, the light in her eyes… Remus could see her becoming good friends with her. Even if her father had told her not to.

“What are their names, again?” Remus asked, looking ahead of them. A river was drawing near, with no visible pathway across it. She hadn’t visited the dormitories yet, and she glanced side to side, looking for an alternative way around. Shiori paid it no mind, not looking ahead but instead up at the trees. The river was still some distance, but Remus was already worrying that they had taken a wrong turn or something of the sort.

“Myoui Leiko, whose friends call her Lucy for some reason, and Rokuda Euna,” Shiori explained, tone dull. It was obvious that she didn’t hold a high opinion of these two girls, and Remus wasn’t sure why. “You’ll meet them soon, so… I don’t know. Maybe you will get along with them. To be honest, they might just act the way they do because they don’t like me.”

Remus decided not to press the matter, nodding just to be agreeable. She didn’t know anything about those two girls, so she wouldn’t pass judgement right away, but she wouldn’t be all that surprised if what Shiori said turned out to be true.

“Anyway,” Shiori piped up, ready to change the subject. She didn’t want to freak Remus out by complaining about their roommates too much. “What clubs are you going to join?”
“I was thinking about the culture club – I think that’s the right name, the one where they look at magic in other cultures. I’ve already asked to help out at the library as well, and next term I might become a Prefect if my performance is good enough,” Remus listed, and Shiori looked at her curiously. Remus seemed like a total overachiever.

As they neared the river, Remus felt them pass through some kind of magical ward. As they did, a bridge raised up out of the water into a perfect semi-circle, and her eyes widened in wonder. How did that work?

“It’s charmed so that only people in 4^th year boarding and up can go over, since we’re in separate dorms from the younger ones. It’s meant to keep them safe from older students practicing spells and such, amongst other reasons I’ve forgotten,” Shiori explained, seeing the look of surprise on Remus’s face. She moved on, thinking about the clubs as they crossed over the bridge, the water a calming ambience as it rushed underneath their feet.

“I always wanted to go to the culture club, but… Well, I wasn’t allowed to. I’m not a part of a club right now, which doesn’t do me many favours. My parents tried to push me towards calligraphy and stuff like that but… I’m not interested. Maybe this year, we can go together. Just so long as you keep it quiet!” Shiori laughed, nudging Remus lightly with her elbow. Remus smiled down at her.

“Sure. That’d be nice.”

-

Leiko and Euna were already in the dormitory, both sitting on their respective beds and talking to one another in undertones. They both sat up straighter, Leiko plastering a snide smile on her face as soon as she set eyes on Shiori. This wasn’t unexpected but… Shiori didn’t want to deal with this right now. She turned to Remus and smiled encouragingly, before dropping her suitcase on top of her bed.
“This one’s yours,” Shiori said, gesturing to the bed next to hers. Jameela had slept there last year, and they had spent nights whispering to each other in hushed tones, giggling at inside jokes… Hopefully she could have good conversations with Remus too.

“Thank you.” Remus was sincere in saying so, setting her suitcase down far more gently than Shiori had. After she had done this, she steeled herself and turned to her new dormmates, the ones she hadn’t met yet. “I’m Remus Lupin. Pleased to meet you.”

Euna watched Remus curiously, tilting her head a little. She wasn’t usually the main antagonist to Shiori, but just as contemptible for not doing anything when Leiko decided to lay into Shiori. She just followed along with whatever Leiko said, because Leiko was popular and powerful thanks to her rich father and the fact that she had many of the professors wrapped around her finger.

Leiko was smiling, expression far too saccharine to be genuine, and stood up.

“Myoui Leiko, and really, the pleasure’s all mine. I see you’ve met our resident dog. Don’t worry if you need to kick her away to get some space – dogs need to remember their place,” Leiko smirked, smug. She was talking like it was just a joke, like Shiori would usually be fine with this kind of talk, but Remus knew better. She already knew Shiori didn’t like Leiko. “You’re already Tsuigeki, so you must be promising. If you ever need some connections to help you out, let me know. It’s no hassle to do a favour for a friend.”

As she said this, Leiko held out her hand to shake Remus’s and Remus looked from her face to that hand a couple of times before glancing at Euna and then Shiori. Shiori just stood next to her, arms crossed, glowering at Leiko as if she wanted to say something but was holding back – possibly for Remus’s sake. Remus realised she was being given an option here, to pick a side. Shiori, or Leiko?

“I like dogs, so I think I’ll keep with my current connections,” Remus retorted, voice low and venomous. In her peripheral vision, she saw Shiori’s scowl falter, mouth twitching into a smile. She felt warmth blossom in her chest even if she had done something that would usually make her incredibly nervous; she wanted to see Shiori’s smile again and again

Leiko’s smile dropped as quickly as it had come, gaze turning icy. Her hand lowered to her side, and she took a half step back from Remus, using the extra distance to look her over. Then her smile returned, but this time it was snide – and completely genuine.

“I see. What, will she be your little pet, then? Honestly, if that’s the sort of decision you want to make… You need all the help you can get. But turn your nose up all you want – you’ll learn.”

Shiori bristled at the tone Leiko took with Remus. She was never surprised to have that derision turned on her by the other girl, who called her a ‘closeted blood traitor’ as much as she could fit into one conversation, but she would always stand up for those she considered a friend. She stepped closer to Remus, wrapping a hand around her wrist.

“Keep your crooked nose out of other people’s business, and maybe people will learn to actually like you enough to take you up on your ever-so-friendly ‘offers’, Leiko,” Shiori sneered, before tugging Remus over to their beds across the room from Leiko and Euna’s, turning her back on them to end the conversation.

Remus was gawping at Shiori’s foul response, genuinely surprised that she would try to defend her. She supposed Shiori was probably just defending herself and that it helped Remus was a happy coincidence, and yet… She felt touched by the gesture. She’d had very few friends before, and even fewer who would go out of their way to say a word in her defence. She didn’t comment on the fact that Shiori was still holding her wrist, closer now to her hand, instead actually enjoying the warmth of the touch for once. Maybe they really would be friends.

“I’ll help you unpack, since I tend not to bother,” Shiori commented airily, pointedly ignoring the angry muttering going on behind them. She had always had a bad habit of leaving things in her suitcase until she needed them and then making a mess of her things by having them strewn about the case or the floor nearby it. It was just one of the many habits she had accrued over time that she had never bothered to change. Besides, it irritated Leiko, who wanted everything to be perfectly neat and tidy, so it was rewarding in that way.

Remus just nodded her agreement, never having had any qualms about letting other people see or handle her stuff despite being such a private person. Most of her things had never been hers to begin with anyway – second or even third hand. Either way, she had a feeling that Shiori wasn’t going to be making comments on Remus’s fashion choices or penchant for bringing as many books as it was possible to carry.

As they worked through Remus’s suitcase, their hands would occasionally bump and Shiori barely seemed to react to it – she was so generous with her affectionate touches that it mustn’t have even occurred to her to apologise or pull away. Remus was the one to stutter out an apology the first few times until Shiori reassured her in a firm tone that it was ‘fine’. After that, she just kept quiet, though every point of contact they had was at the forefront of her mind – she wasn’t used to being touched, but she supposed this wasn’t so bad.

Once past the layers of clothes – other robes, some casual clothing, pyjamas all tucked away in respective drawers – the books were revealed. Remus was surprised to see Shiori’s expression change from mild concentration to awe, watching the other girl reach a hand out towards the books before retracting it as if she had been caught doing something she oughtn’t to. Remus smiled a little.

“It’s alright, you can have a look through them. Borrow some if you like, since I have a lot.”

Shiori did so immediately, sitting down on Remus’s bed cross-legged and pulling out piles of books to sift through them, eyes intent on their covers. They were, mostly, in English, with only a few books in Japanese dotted throughout. Shiori had never had access to books written in English at home really, since the Kuro library was vast and yet dominated by boring books on economics, accounting, trading and finance. It hadn’t been stocked with anyone other than Orochi in mind, apart from one shelf at the back dedicated to ancient children’s books that Rin and Shiori had been read as a child, and another that held Wayuu’s books – romances, poetry, housekeeping. Shiori had never seen her mother read even one of them. They seemed like books someone would pick thinking a woman would like them, regardless of that woman’s personal tastes. The only good books in that library had been the family histories, and other history books. Most of the other books that Shiori had wanted to read, like the encyclopaedias, atlases and academic books on interesting subjects like culture and art, were kept on the topmost shelf with no ladder present to reach it.

There were many of the classics – Pride and Prejudice, Frankenstein, War and Peace, Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights. But more interestingly was the volume of poems by Sappho, Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu – which Shiori had never heard of – and a collection of periodicals by Constance Fenimore Woolson, Octave Thanet, Mary Eleanor Wilkins Freeman, Kate Chopin and Sarah Orne Jewitt. At the bottom was work by Amy Levy and Vernon Lee. There seemed to be a huge range of books, by genre, covers, blurbs… Shiori didn’t know what to make of it. But she was curious, and she wanted to read something different. If Remus said she could borrow some, she would take her up on the offer. She just didn’t know where to start.

“Do you have any recommendations?” she asked, somewhat meekly. She didn’t want to sound like she needed help, just wanted it. She didn’t want Remus to think she was clueless… But Remus just smiled and nodded, looking through the books as well.

“Vampires, poetry or English classic?” she asked, and Shiori considered it for a long moment before settling on poetry. It would be better to start with smaller pieces of text, since she sometimes struggled with reading English. She could do it, but it got tiring at times – she often got distracted in the middle of a sentence. Especially when her English tutor had made her read English translations for books she had already read in Russian, as per the instruction of her Russian tutor. She found many Russian writers wrote so long-windedly – or was that just the translation?

Remus handed her the copy of Sappho and told her to enjoy it. As Shiori was about to flip open the book just to get a peek at what kind of things were inside, the door to their dormitory opened and one of the professors, Ms Yamamoto, poked her head in. She entered properly once she had confirmed they were all inside, smiling a little. Shiori had always liked her – she was young, and very accepting. Even if Shiori had been told not to focus on Yamamoto’s subject, divination and spirituality, she had enjoyed it quite a lot for the fact that it was more subjective than many of the others. It gave her brain space to consider new angles.

“Remus, you got here okay. I was about to offer to show you around the school buildings, so you would know where each of your classrooms will be… But I see you and Shiori are getting along well. Shiori, would you like to show Remus around for me?”

In truth, Yamamoto was doing this for Shiori’s sake. She knew how close Shiori had been with Jameela, their transfer student, last year and supposed that she would maybe feel lonely without her. Shiori mostly kept to herself – she didn’t seem to have many close friends, maybe just one or two. It was a shame, considering her charming personality, and she wanted to encourage her to branch out a bit. More than that, Yamamoto got the strangest feeling from Shiori and Remus – like some kind of connection she couldn’t name. She was probably just imagining things, although her subject would have her follow her gut feeling… She would have to wait to be sure.

Shiori nodded and shut the book of poems over so gently there was no noise, her touch almost reverent on its binding. Remus watched her put that, plus all the other books, back into Remus’s suitcase and shut it over, casting a charm on it to lock it. Remus frowned a little, but Shiori gestured at her to wait.

“Will Remus be in all of the same classes as me, or is there a timetable, sensei?” Shiori asked, addressing Yamamoto who stood and watched Shiori and Remus curiously. Leiko and Euna were completely silent, sour over the preferential treatment the other girls were receiving. Leiko made it her personal goal to be the favourite student of each teacher, but Yamamoto was one that she found difficult to win over. Which was fine – her subject was full of rubbish, anyway.

“Your electives are slightly different – Remus chose Astronomy rather than Care of Magical Creatures. But otherwise, yes – they’re the same. Here,” she offered, taking out a card that had Remus’s timetable printed on it. Shiori hesitated, and then took it – clearly thinking it was meant for Remus, at first, before realising that Remus would already have her own copy. She’d have to hand this back at the end, but she’d try and memorise it before that. For no reason… But it would be nice to know where Remus was likely to be, if they wanted to meet up at some point.

“Thank you,” Shiori smiled, and bowed lightly. As Yamamoto excused herself, Shiori looked to Remus in question. “Ready to go?”
“Yes, that sounds good. I’ve already been shown around, but… It would be good to know the most direct routes to get from class to class.”
“Don’t sneak into any broom closets,” Leiko simpered, and Shiori made a rude gesture behind her back as subtly as possible as they left the dormitory. She heard Leiko squawk in indignance and giggled, grabbing on to Remus’s wrist and pulling her into a run so they could get away before any hexes came their way.

Once they had slowed down, Remus was huffing with laughter as well although she didn’t know what Shiori had done exactly. She just found Shiori’s laugh infectious and couldn’t help but join in, especially at being dragged through the hallways in such an unruly fashion. It seemed Shiori liked to bend rules, seeing as everyone else in the corridors gave them a slightly exasperated but unsurprised look.

Remus did draw some looks as they walked around the school, for her appearance. At first, she was self-conscious, wondering if her scars were showing through her cosmetics, until she realised it was because she didn’t look like anyone else here. She was one of only a handful of white or partially white students – even if her eyes were upturned and her nose was much like theirs, she stood out. Her hair was light, a golden-brown colour, and her eyes were auburn. She had a noticeable smattering of freckles over her nose and cheeks, and her face was longer and thinner. Remus didn’t particularly like the way she looked, so having people spare glances at her face curiously made her feel uncomfortable, and yet she found that there was no aggression in those looks. Before, at Hogwarts, once her scars had become known those looks were full of interest and examination, as if she were some kind of specimen. Sometimes people expressed fear or disgust at them, too. It hadn’t helped her self-esteem at all.

Shiori hardly seemed to notice people looking at them as she tugged Remus through hallways, quite used to them herself. Being from such a high-profile family as the Kuros, people often did look at her. They wondered what she was like – if she was crazy, like people thought her family were, or if she was snobbish. She never spared them a second glance. If they wanted to know any of those things, they would have to stop looking at her through a lens.

“Hey, watch this,” Shiori whispered, tone dropping from her usual loud chatter suddenly so that Remus’s gaze flipped back to her. Shiori glanced both directions, seeing the hallway empty, and pushed back a heavy tapestry showing a scene of a starry night, which coughed up dust as she did so. Remus followed, brow furrowing in confusion as Shiori went behind it. Peeking around the tapestry, she saw a narrow doorway set into the wall. This hadn’t been included in any of her previous tours, that was for sure.

“This is the fastest way to get from Transfiguration to Divination. If you’re running late, use this – just make sure no one sees you. It’s a secret,” Shiori whispered when Remus looked askance at her in the low light of their lumos spells. Remus raised a brow, surprised but curious, and nodded.

Shiori started walking along the stone corridor, stride confident, while Remus watched her feet on the uneven stones. This felt a lot more like Hogwarts than any other part of Mahoutokoro had. This castle was so well kept and polished, with an abundance of natural light – it was far from the often dusty, well shaded and cluttered looking British school. Remus felt no preference one way or another, but she appreciated the familiarity afforded by this.

They came out on the other side of the passageway, which was hidden by another tapestry – this one decorated by a depiction of the moon – and lo and behold, the Divinations classroom was directly ahead. Remus grinned. It always gave her a thrill to discover these things.

“They used to have so many secret passageways and such in Hogwarts. I wondered if all the other schools were like that,” Remus mused, and Shiori lit up.
“You wanna see more places like that? I’ve been here for a long while, so I think I know all of them… Okay, maybe not all, since it’s hard to say, but I’ve got a good grasp of it.”
“That sounds good. It’s good to get a peek behind the curtain. Or, I guess, tapestry.”

Shiori grinned and tugged Remus along. They looped through several secret passageways – some hidden by paintings and tapestries, others by statues or displays, some disguised with charms and others with hidden handles in a specific stone or panel of wood. Shiori imparted as much of her knowledge on the castle’s hidden places as she could call to mind on the spot, and Remus appreciated every grain of it, even if some of the passageways would never be of any use to her (such as the passageway between the girls’ Quidditch changing room and an old storage room full of dusty trophies and medals that seemed not to have been touched in years.)

Shiori slowed down gradually, walking them out of the castle and as if towards the dormitories again. Remus followed, happy that she seemed to be making a friend. It was a breath of fresh air from the sober mood of the past months, as her world had been turned upside down and her mother had only gotten sicker. She mulled over all that had been troubling her, using the distance granted to her by the prior distractions and her current good mood to try and be rational about them. She wanted to take on a better attitude to things… She was sure it would be more helpful. It was just… Hard.

Absorbed as she was, Remus didn’t notice Shiori leading her off the pathway that lead back to the dormitories. At some point she turned off and led them through the treeline and down a hill, eventually coming to a place that had been carved out to form a manmade cliff, a set of stairs settled in one side to allow access to the bottom of it. It wasn’t a large drop – no more than 7 foot or so – but enough to afford privacy. Tucked into that artificial cliff was an old, worn plaque, with weathered logs on either side for people to sit. A couple of large rocks protruded from the ground. From there, on the far side of the school grounds, was an excellent view of the descent down the rest of the mountain into the sea.

Remus blinked herself out of her thoughts as they neared the stairs, Shiori touching her arm to alert her to them.
“Come down here.” It sounded almost like a plea. Remus followed Shiori down the uneven steps and over into the protection of the rockface. A breeze swept in unobtrusively, bringing the scent of cut grass and sea salt. Shiori seemed to relax almost as soon as she stepped foot on the dry dirt, her shoes kicking up dust from the topmost layer. Remus looked around curiously, crossing to the plaque to see what they had come here for.

“I can’t read it,” Remus frowned, rubbing at the plaque with the sleeve of her robe. Shiori shook her head.
“It’s really old. It’s pretty indecipherable, but I looked it up in the school histories and it’s a plaque to some students who died in some war, a long time ago.”

Remus’s mouth formed an ‘o’ at the information – she had always been interested in history, perking up whenever she was given such titbits as this. Shiori smiled at her and sat down on the ledge of one of the rocks set into the ground, legs curled up towards her chest from her proximity to the ground. Remus sat down on one of the logs, glancing about them. Why were they here?

“I come here to clear my head. It’s calm, and no one seems to know about it… Or if they do, they don’t bother coming.”
“Are you okay with me being here with you?” Remus asked, wondering if she should go. Sure, Shiori had brought her here in the first place, but maybe it wasn’t polite to linger if she maybe wanted to be alone.
“I told you I’d show you the castle’s secrets,” Shiori smiled, face brightening again. For a second, she had looked almost melancholy, but she brushed it aside in the blink of an eye. “It might not be a part of the castle, but I guess it counts. So… Voila. You can come here whenever you want. And if you ever need me and can’t seem to find me, here’s where I’ll be.”

Deeply touched, Remus found herself at a loss for words. She stared down into her lap at the green of her robes, running her fingers along the fabric almost nervously. She wanted to show how much this meant – Shiori’s kindness and openness, her offered friendship… But she found it incredibly difficult to explain the innermost workings of her heart. It just all seemed so fortunate, to meet and then share a dormitory with someone so kind-hearted. Maybe she ought to be suspicious, as her father had suggested, and yet everything Shiori said and did was instilled with a kind of hopeful sincerity, like she wanted to be understood. Remus resounded with that and found herself drawn to Shiori despite only having known her for such a short amount of time.

“Remus, you went to Hogwarts, right?” Shiori asked, breaking the silence that had fallen over them like fine gauze. Remus looked up into her face and saw nerves there that the other was trying to disguise.
“Yes, I did. For four years,” she agreed, wondering why Shiori was asking. Mahoutokoro had seemed so reclusive in nature, disconnected from the other wizarding schools across the globe. Remus noticed that Hogwarts had connections with Durmstrang and Beauxbatons especially, though she would assume that was down to proximity more than anything else. All the same, it seemed the wizarding schools were in contact with one another… And yet Mahoutokoro had remained much of a mystery to Remus. In fact, when Remus had told her handful of friends that she would be transferring here, some of them hadn’t even heard of it, or knew where it was situated. To them, Japan seemed eons away, a different planet entirely.

It made sense that people in Mahoutokoro were aware of Hogwarts, though. It did have quite the reputation. Even so, the keen emotion behind Shiori’s words wasn’t in line with a simple curiosity.

“What’s it like there?”

Remus sucks in a slow breath, picking her brain for the right words. Hogwarts had been a comforting and homely presence in her life, and yet alienating and confusing at the same time. Sometimes it was hard to know what parts of the atmosphere came from the school itself, and what came from associations made by experiences with other students. It wouldn’t be correct to say that Remus had been bullied, but she hadn’t been treated very well at times. Still, she had a lot of fondness for Hogwarts, because it had been her reprieve from all of the unhappiness at home; for a term at a time she wasn’t a hopeless bystander to her mother’s deterioration or her father’s unwillingness to be anything remotely paternal towards her. She was able to be as much herself as a werewolf could be when trying to hide her true nature.

“It’s… Eclectic. The building is old, and the upkeep isn’t as good as in Mahoutokoro. But it has a charm to it, from all its history. There are hundreds, maybe thousands of portraits, and so many secret passageways and hidden places. And it always feels busy, even when it’s quiet, even if the portraits aren’t speaking; there’s always some noise, the pipes or the doors or footsteps. It has a kind of… Vibrant atmosphere to it. It’s hard to explain.”

Shiori took a moment to take that in, comparing that to Mahoutokoro and also ruminating over whether or not such a place would be welcoming and a good fit to Rin. She wanted her sister to be happy and to experience a lot of new things. She was now certain that the latter would become true, but as for the first…

Rin was so exacting over nearly everything, a by-product of being raised to be a certain way at all times, as if performing. Wherever there was even a miniscule mess, she had to tidy up. If something was even mildly out of place, then she had to fix it. There was no space for clutter or disorder. There was order, or there was anxiety and fear of being reprimanded. Which was not an irrational fear; in their foulest moods Wayuu and Orochi would be happy to punish Shiori and Rin for leaving one thing out of place. It didn’t matter how insignificant, or whether it was even in a room that either parent used. All that mattered was that there was a misstep, a failure. Everything could and would be made right, and not doing so would have consequences best avoided.

“Why do you ask?” Remus probed, not wanting to pressure Shiori to reveal her thoughts but curious all the same. She wondered why Shiori seemed so sober over the thought of Hogwarts, considering every detail as if they were of utmost importance. Remus almost felt that she was attempting to pass a test of some kind and became nervous she had given the wrong answer.

“My sister transferred there for this year, as part of a government initiative to modernise each and every area of wizarding Japan. Apparently, Muggles are also doing that – sending students from here to Europe and North America. I had almost hoped that they’d send her to Ilvermony… It seems closer. But Hogwarts was deemed more ‘traditional’ or something like that, so she went there. It’s the furthest we’ve ever been apart, and for the longest time… I know she can look after herself, but I can’t help but worry. She’s my little sister.”

Remus nodded along with what Shiori said, understanding completely the anxiety that came with being away from someone you cared about, unable to help them in any meaningful way from that distance if something did go wrong. It had been her experience of going to school every year, even if she did settle back into her school routine and manage to stop obsessing over every what-if.

“If she’s bright enough to be put into a transfer programme like that by the government then she’ll be fine. Hogwarts is prestigious but it’s generally welcoming. And there’s so many people, she’ll fit in somewhere.”

Shiori found some comfort in Remus’s words, and managed a small smile. If she just kept in contact with Rin, everything should be fine. There was a lot on her mind with all that her father had said to her before coming back to Mahoutokoro, but that didn’t have to weigh on Rin thanks to the distance. Rin wouldn’t have to worry about her sister, and Shiori could shoulder her burdens and do all she could to make sure her sister enjoyed herself, even from all the way across here.

She still deeply regretted getting angry at Rin in the first instance, when Rin had told her that she was going to be transferred. Shiori had been hurt and somehow, betrayed. She had always been the more selfish of the two siblings, looking for things that other people had that she didn’t. Even with the Kuro family’s abundant wealth and fame, Shiori was left wanting in almost all other areas. Somehow, by choosing Rin to go to Hogwarts, that seemed like a kind of display of favour from her parents – they believed Rin should be the one to prosper elsewhere and gain her independence, at least partly. As much as Shiori liked to pretend to never need her parents’ approval, she knew that to say so would be a lie. She still wanted love and affection that would never be given to her for her accomplishments. And she still wanted to impress her parents, in some part of her heart. She wanted, more than that, to be accepted.

It was just a dream, really. But sometimes that dream still guided her actions.

“I’ll write to her a lot,” Shiori murmured, mostly to herself. She had to think of Rin first, to think of the positives. Being negative wouldn’t solve anything.
“You should. Hogwarts has already started back for this term, so she’ll already be studying. You should write her to encourage her.” Remus paused, thinking of something. “I do have a couple of friends in Hogwarts who might be able to help. They’re called Mary and Dorcas. I could write to them and ask them to help Rin settle in.”

Shiori smiled fully this time, looking up from where she had been twisting and untwisting her fingers. Remus smiled back, flushing with pride that she had managed to get Shiori to smile again. It was nice to feel that she was helping someone.

“That would be great.”

-

When Shiori and Remus returned to their dormitory, Leiko and Euna had left, which was a relief. Shiori had a stack of mail on her bed – several letters and a couple of packages. She smiled; this was the backlog of mail that Jameela had sent to her during the break, finally arrived. Remus eyed the pile of mail curiously but went to her suitcase instead, unlocking it with a swish of her wand.

“Why did you lock it, by the way?” Remus asked, remembering Shiori’s furtive look as she had done so. They were alone in the room now, so they should be safe to speak about it.
“Oh… Leiko sometimes liked to go through my stuff, before. She hasn’t done it in a while, but I figured it was better to be safe after we both insulted her.”

Shiori sounded nonchalant about it, but Remus was genuinely shocked that Leiko would undermine Shiori’s privacy like that. It was so disrespectful that she could hardly fathom it. Shiori didn’t seem like the sort of person who would be a target for bullying; she was charismatic, beautiful, intelligent. And yet, Remus couldn’t help but think that that was what was happening here.

“Oh…” Remus mumbled, unsure what to say. Shiori looked up at her properly with a small, reassuring smile.
“Don’t worry about it. I got her back each time.”

Somehow, Remus didn’t doubt it. She smiled to herself at the thought.

Shiori settled down on her bed where her still-packed suitcase sat underneath the slew of envelopes, picking up the pile and setting it on her lap. Remus picked out the book that Shiori had selected before and left it on the foot of her bed for her to read later.

As suspected, the letters were all from Jameela – there were three or four letters in total, plus two packages. Shiori opened a letter at random, since she couldn’t tell which had arrived first, and read over it.

Jameela’s handwriting was frankly atrocious, a fact which never ceased to make Shiori smile. She had been taught to write in cursive when writing English, as had Shiori, but Jameela still elected to write in her typical chicken scratch handwriting. They had teased each other over their handwriting, last year – Shiori being teased for her ‘prissy, posh’ writing, Jameela for her ‘five-year-old child’ writing. It had been fun.

Shiori,

I know you won’t get this until the end of your holidays because you can’t get letters to your house, which is bollocks. But I’m going to keep writing to you a lot anyway, so you have plenty to catch up on without wonderful me in your dormitory. Will someone else be joining your dorm? Are you hoping they won’t snore like I did? Haha. Well I already know they won’t be as stunningly charming and funny as me, but best of luck to you! Anyone would be better than Leiko and Euna. That’s the only reason I’m glad I’m not there anymore to be honest.

Shiori laughed. It was typical for Jameela to find a way to be as rude as possible in one paragraph. The rest of the letter was about how it was monsoon season there, and she kept on getting soaked. She also complained that her mum was always lecturing her for failing to act like a lady. That wasn’t something that Jameela ever bothered to do – she didn’t care much for being ladylike. She was lucky her parents weren’t anywhere near as strict as Shiori’s were.

The next letter was mostly about a girl who lived nearby and went to the same school as Jameela. Jameela’s school was near Mayong, which Muggles called the black magic capital of India. Jameela said that was rubbish – there was just a large wizarding population there. ‘Black magic, as if. People are just scared of everything’. All the same, it apparently had a good atmosphere for using magic, and was very reputable as the national magic school for India. The girl Jameela kept talking about was a white girl who had come to India from Britain, since a lot of Brits apparently did that, with the muggle colonialism and all. Her name was Lily, and Jameela kept talking about how cute it was that she had to be in the shade whenever it was sunny because she was so pale, she burned incredibly quickly. Shiori smiled to herself; she was glad they were getting along. When Jameela had first come to Mahoutokoro she had complained that Lily never used some mirror the two of them had, and that before Jameela had left for Japan Lily had totally ignored her.

The third letter was to announce that Priyanka and Fleamont, Jameela’s parents, would be sending Shiori some gifts for looking after their daughter so well while she was away. Shiori smiled softly, touched that they would think of that. She picked up the package that was connected to it and pulled out a tin of chai, homemade jalebi and ladoo charmed to stay fresh for months. There was more that she couldn’t yet identify, that Jameela hadn’t received in care packages when she had been in Mahoutokoro. She had always shared with Shiori, and it seemed that Jameela’s parents had sent the things that had been Shiori’s favourites. It was so kind that she felt tears well up and had to quickly put the items away in the package again so that she wouldn’t become too emotional.

Moving on to the final package and letter, Shiori tried to collect herself before she could overthink and become melancholy. Her parents never sent her anything kind, only letters full of imperatives and criticisms and warnings. So, she focused wholeheartedly on Jameela’s chicken scratch handwriting again, deciphering it bit by bit.

Shiori,

How long until you’re back at school? I miss you! I have a big surprise for you, I’m sending it with this so look as soon as possible. I guess there’s no use in saying that considering that you won’t know to look until you read this but all the same, look look look! Do you miss me? I bet you do, I’m the best.

Lily gave me your present back today. I did tell you about it when I was there, but you never listened because you seem to just zone out when I talk about her… Do I talk about her too much? She’s just so pretty. Her hair is so red, you wouldn’t believe it, and her eyes are such bright green. She’s so colourful! Wait, I’m rambling again. Anyway, your gift.

To use it, just look into it. Something good will happen! Also, hope you like the stuff mum and dad sent. They kept bickering over what to put in – mum’s jalebi, or dad’s homemade masala chai mix? So, they went with both, and some other stuff. I know you’ll gobble it all up like a horse because apparently you have a bottomless stomach and never put on weight – lucky for some. If I so much as look at sweets I feel like I’m…. Absorbing calories or something.

Anyway, go look at your present! Seriously!

Jameela

Shiori raised a brow and opened the package, feeling something cold inside. What she pulled out was a mirror, and even as she looked at herself, she saw something glimmer over her visage before hazel looked back at her instead of dark brown. Jameela’s face appeared in the mirror, grinning widely.

“You finally got to it!”

Shiori jumped, surprised by Jameela’s voice suddenly coming through the mirror. What the hell was this thing? She turned it one way then the other to examine it but didn’t come up with any answers. It must be some impressive spell work.

“What is this thing?” she asked, frowning. Remus looked over at her curiously, wondering what she was doing and where the other voice was coming from. She stood up and leaned over Shiori’s shoulder, putting her worries of seeming nosy aside. Seeing someone else on the other side of the mirror, she put the pieces together quickly and piped up.
“Oh, a two-way mirror! You can communicate with someone in a different location in this,” she explained, and she saw both the person on the other side of the mirror and Shiori look at her.

“Who’s this then?” Jameela asked, voice friendly even though the question was blunt.
“This is Remus, my new dorm mate. And you know, she might be a better dorm mate than you – it all depends on whether or not she snores.”

Remus blushed and glanced at Shiori, embarrassed that she was being complimented in front of someone else. Jameela faked heartbreak, falling back out of view for a second before returning to the frame.
“I don’t snore,” Remus informed them both quietly, averting her gaze. She wasn’t entirely sure if she snored, but she didn’t think she did.
“Well, she’s beating you already then,” Shiori teased, and Jameela shrieked in indignation again. “Remus, this is Jameela. She was here from National Residential School of Shakti, in India, last year.”

Jameela grinned.
“Yeah, I was there to lap up all that culture. Really my parents and teachers probably just wanted rid of me for a bit, but oh well. Oh, let me tell you about Lily, she said the funniest thing earlier…”

-

It was only when Shiori began to finally unpack – spurred to do so by Remus’s disapproving ‘tsk’ when she saw the mess Shiori was making getting into her pyjamas – that she found the letter she had stolen from her father’s office. The mysterious letter from the stranger called Alphard, that mentioned sumire and tsuboki, the flowers that Shiori had been producing when at home. Those flowers were something to do with soulmates… And Alphard had asked about them. Did Orochi have a soulmate? Was it Wayuu? If soulmates acted the way her parents did, Shiori didn’t hold out much hope for her future relationship’s success.

The return address on the envelope was in London. Shiori wondered if she should write to there, to enquire about Alphard. But even if Alphard seemed to know her, he had mentioned being in a hospital… Would they accept a letter from someone that couldn’t prove they even knew their patient?

“Uh, Remus?” Shiori asked, looking up from the envelope in her hands thoughtfully. Remus was from the UK, so she might know about this place that Alphard stayed. Hopefully she would.
“Do you need help with unpacking?” Remus asked, sounding amused at the prospect. After all, she had already seen first hand how messy Shiori could be in the two days they had been rooming together.
“No, I wondered if you knew about this place in London.” Shiori held the envelope out to Remus for her to see, pointing to the return address stamped on the back. Remus tilted her head, taking the wrinkled envelope and peering at the small print.

“St Mungo’s?” Remus asked, raising a brow and glancing up at Shiori. “This is a hospital in London. It’s the main one in the wizarding part of the city… To be honest, it kind of has a bad reputation at the moment. There were a few scandals. Apparently, they were keeping people in the psychiatric ward for money from that person’s family. You know, kids who wouldn’t do as they were told, or family members generally threatening the family’s reputation.”

Taking the letter back, Shiori frowned. How would she find out more about Alphard, if he was kept in a place that might be keeping him in for money? It sounded as if he might be related to them – he had said ‘mother and father’ as if Wayuu and he shared the same parents. That didn’t seem possible, if he was in London and Wayuu was in wizarding Nara.

“Maybe Rin could look into it for you?” Remus asked, wondering what the letter was about but not wanting to pry. Shiori looked up at her in surprise before considering.
“Uh… Yeah, maybe.”
“Hogwarts isn’t close to St Mungo’s or anything, but if whoever sent the letter is in Mungo’s, they might have gone to Hogwarts or one of the other European schools,” Remus continued, and it was obvious on Shiori’s face that she had already warmed to the idea.

“I’ll write to Rin right now. I have to write to my parents anyway, so…”

-

Rin,

I already miss you. I hope you’re doing well. How is Hogwarts? Is the British weather really as bad as everyone says? And how about the food? I hope they’ll feed you well.

I know you’re not the only one from Mahoutokoro going to Hogwarts, but I still worry that it’ll be so different. A few Hogwarts students actually transferred here this year – we met them at the welcoming event. One of them is in my dormitory, in the bed Jameela was in last year. Her name is Remus, and she’s really nice. She says that you’ll do well in Hogwarts, but I still wanted to check in about it. She said that Hogwarts is totally different from Mahoutokoro so hopefully it won’t be too shocking for you.

I wanted to tell you about something I found out recently, when I was in father’s office. So please keep this a secret, because I’m definitely not supposed to know about this. Someone called Alphard wrote to mother – he mentioned in the letter he wrote often, actually. And he talked to her like they definitely knew each other. The thing is, he stays in London, or in a hospital in London called Saint Mungo’s. I don’t know why he’s in there – maybe he’s sick or something. But he knows about us, and he asked about father. He said that flowers used to appear. Sumire, and tsuboki. So now you know why I’m curious.

I know London is a fair distance from Hogwarts, so I don’t expect you to go visiting or anything. But Remus mentioned that, if he is a patient at Saint Mungo’s and he writes in English – which he does – then he might have gone to Hogwarts, too. Maybe there will be information in Hogwarts about him? All I know is that his name is Alphard, and that he is in Saint Mungo’s and that he knows mother and calls her ‘Wally’ (funny nickname, right?). Anyway, I would really appreciate it if you could look into him for me. I want to know why he writes to mother, and why he knows about us, and why he asked about those flowers.

Let me know if there’s anything you need from me. If you’re homesick or miss me too much (which it might be hard not to, since I’m such a good big sister) then we can maybe Floo. I think it will be good to write to each other often, too. I’m sorry I wasn’t there to see you off. I wish I had been allowed to come.

The address for Saint Mungo’s is on the bit of paper I sent with this. I’m looking forward to hearing back from you. It’s really weird without you here.

Love,

Shiori.

-

It wasn’t until Shiori was going to send her two letters away – one to Rin, and one to her parents – that Shiori thought about the flowers she had found. She had left them in a bowl on her windowsill in the Kuro estate, and she wondered if they would have wilted by now. They ought to have. If not, whenever a servant or her parents found them, they would be thrown out.

By this point Shiori had been back at Mahoutokoro for three days. As she walked to the owlery, she ruminated on what had been in Alphard’s letter, and looked down at her feet. No flowers. She had paused then, looking back at the way she had come, to look for any in that direction and there were none. Later on, when she undressed for a bath, there were none either.

That meant…

Orochi had said that if the flowers stopped, she was fairly close to her soulmate. That meant they must be here, in Mahoutokoro. A thrill of excitement stole through her and Shiori bit her lip, feeling heat rise to her cheeks. Who could it be…?

-

Two weeks later, Shiori woke up in the middle of the night to the moon pouring through the dormitory window and onto her bed. She wasn’t certain of the exact time, but she knew it was long after curfew. She could hear Leiko mumbling in her sleep, and Euna turning over under her covers, causing the fabric to rustle. The usual ambience of their dormitory was mostly intact, which in itself was soothing, but Shiori knew immediately that something was wrong.

At first Shiori simply lay there, staring at the ceiling in a groggy daze. Why had she woken up? And why wasn’t she going back to sleep? It seemed foolish to just lie here awake, but even as she was still waking up, she knew that sleep wouldn’t take her back for the moment. There was a restlessness under her ribcage that she didn’t understand, and she touched her forehead to check for signs of a fever.

Nothing felt wrong physically. She wasn’t too hot or cold, she had no aches or pains and she wasn’t shaky, snotty or dehydrated. But in her heart, something wasn’t right. There was an absence that lingered around the sides of her head like she was searching for something, and a pit in her stomach. She strained her ears for evidence to back up these feelings, and finally noticed it. There was no crinkle of sheets directly next to her, no sighs or slow, heavy breathing. Shiori had learned quickly that Remus was a restless sleeper, tossing and turning even when she slept heavily, sometimes murmuring and breathing deeply. Immediately Shiori had become accustomed to this addition to the dormitory’s night sounds; it was comforting to have noise from someone that she actually liked. As much as she might notice it if Leiko or Euna were absent, she didn’t enjoy knowing of their proximity from the sounds of their sleep. It was just a routine.

Rolling over slowly, Shiori looked across to Remus’s bed and confirmed what she had suspected. Rem’s bed was empty, duvet still folded neatly at the foot of the mattress as if she had never gotten into it in the first place. Shiori knew she had – she had been there when Shiori had gotten into bed, feeling tired from completing a Potions assignment. Shiori had fallen asleep so quickly, though, so she had no idea when Remus might have left, or why.

Waiting patiently to see if Remus was coming back, Shiori rolled her thoughts around her head, examining them. Why was she so worried about Remus? There was no evidence in the dormitory that suggested she should be. Remus could have just been going to the bathroom, or maybe she couldn’t sleep and had gone for a walk. Sure, that was against the rules, but Remus knew the secret passageways and the layout of the school by now. She wouldn’t get caught.

And yet, Shiori felt strange. She felt a deep tug in her navel, telling her to go and find Remus, to check on her. She felt that she had to go and make sure that wherever Remus was, she returned here safely.

Shiori was silent as possible as she got out of bed and pulled a robe around her shoulders. As she stood, she looked back down at her bed and her eyes widened. There across the spread of her mattress were an abundance of flowers, the same that she had been seeing before. Why had they begun to appear now, again? She bit her lip and shook her head, putting that aside for now. She needed to find Remus.

Shiori slithered out the door without casting lumos to light her path. She knew Euna was a light sleeper and that she would tell a professor if she caught Shiori sneaking out. She liked to try and get Shiori in trouble. The hallways of the dormitories were silent and there was no noise from the bathrooms for that floor, so Shiori knew Remus wasn’t in there and passed by without pausing.

Once out of the dormitory building Shiori began to walk in one direction without consciously choosing it. She simply had a feeling it was the right way to go, and her feet had begun to push her that way without hesitation. The moonlight cast down on her fully now, and she looked up to the moon to watch clouds pass over it. Thin, wispy clouds wrapped the full moon in a shroud and Shiori felt a shiver run through her. She typically had liked the full moon for its brightness and beauty, but tonight it felt like a bad omen.

She walked downwards, winding down the uneven kilter of the mountain and out of the first circle of wards that hugged Mahoutokoro tightest. There were several layers, and she knew she would pass through a few of them that night. Out here on this small island on the sea, the wind was persistent but no overwhelmingly strong. Gentle, almost, but nudging Shiori along at the same time. Where there was grass, it danced under her feet, and where there was rock it seemed to accommodate her path as if it was trying not to be an obstacle. The whole island seemed to conspire to push Shiori onwards.

The walk felt long and yet incredibly short. Shiori didn’t know how long she had been walking for – it might have been five minutes or half an hour. Under the watchful eye of the moon she reached a clearing beyond a copse of trees, which held a circle of protective bamboo.

Here, Shiori stopped. She didn’t know what she was here for apart from the chant of her mind calling Remus, Remus Remus. In some part of her soul she was sure she could hear, or maybe even feel a reply. It felt that someone or something was calling to her, and she was drawn in towards the wall of bamboo that looked so dense it would be impassable.

As she stood before it, she reached out to it and laid her hand on the stalks. They shivered but did not move. She would not be allowed to enter. And yet there was a howling, and Shiori couldn’t tell if it was from in her own chest, her own mind, or if it was truly around her in the air. Howling that was so pained that Shiori felt tears spring to her eyes. Shiori tried to push at the bamboo, to force the stalks apart, but they wouldn’t budge. Whenever she forced a hand in, she felt that her skin was being torn, and removed her hand with cuts over her fingers. It would attack her if she tried to push through it, and yet she so desperately wanted to fight it, to try and make her way through to the source of that howling. She knew it was coming from in there, even if it seemed to only be within her that she could hear it.

Her hands ached and blood ran rivulets down her fingers and palms. The bamboo had bitten back her attempts to force her way to whatever it was protecting from. Shiori knew bamboo was typically used to protect from evil, and yet she did not sense evil in this place. She sensed something that needed help. Tired from her attempts and in pain, Shiori went to a nearby tree and sat against it, waiting. The moon continued to shine down on her, and she sank into the endless night.

-

Dawn began to slowly slip through the gaps in the leaves and over the ground. The bamboo still looked impassable under the weak light as Shiori was slowly roused from her sleep by the cold dew on the grass. It was still too dark to be the morning, truly – it must have been around half past four.

As Shiori stood and stretched, working the tightness out of her joints, she heard a rustling and creaking from the bamboo before her. With the moon fallen from the sky, not yet replaced with the sun, the bamboo parted like a curtain. Startled, Shiori ducked behind the tree she had fallen asleep against. The ache in her chest from before had subsided mostly, but there was still a tug, a need to find Remus, to make sure she was alright.

As if in answer to her concern, Remus stepped out from the suddenly pliable bamboo. She looked exhausted, her scars were plainly visible over her face, and deep bags hung under her eyes. She seemed bruised and in pain, shoulders hunched up, legs shaking as she walked. Shiori wanted to go to her, but the way that Remus glanced back and forth nervously gave the impression that whatever she had been in there for, it was a private matter.

Once Remus had gotten a decent distance away, walking towards the school, Shiori began to follow. This was what she had come for, she realised – to find Remus and escort her back. She wouldn’t make herself known, so that Remus felt her privacy was untouched, but she would make sure that she was safe.

The two girls walked along through the tail of the night, several paces apart, cast in darkness and the beginning silvers of dawn. As they entered the forestry Shiori knocked small pebbles and twigs with her feet, intent as she had been on watching Remus’s back and her awkward gait. Remus picked up on that noise and turned stiffly behind her, only to see nothing. Shiori had hidden from her again, eyes unnoticeable as they glinted from behind the trees.

Remus became nervous after the third instance of being certain she had heard something. There had to be something in these woods with her, right? She was confident that she was being followed, and presently she was weak and in pain. She couldn’t fight right now even if she wanted to. Who would be out here at night? How had they found her?

Trying to consider what to do, Remus thought back on what her mother had told her about Mahoutokoro. Had she mentioned strange noises, or ghosts that might be the cause of this? Instead of recalling anything specifically useful, she remembered the tale of the okuri-inu, the escort dog as her mother had put it. To calm herself from her racing thoughts of being followed, Remus ran the lore through her head and found herself comforted; the okuri inu was a protective spirit. All that mattered was that she thanked the okuri-inu afterwards, and that she did not fall. She thought she could manage that.

It seemed impossible that that would be what was behind her, and yet as she made her way onwards, still nothing happened. If someone had decided to follow her with malicious intentions, wouldn’t they have struck by now? They were close to the school now, meaning they were in closer proximity to someone who could overhear a scuffle or see them. No one in their right mind would wait to be in a place they would most likely be seen before committing some kind of assault.

Thinking on this, Remus felt more assured. She no longer felt quite as unsafe as she hobbled back to the dormitories, occasionally hearing a scuff or rustle behind her that, to her, indicating there was still something nearby. If okuri-inu were real and she was currently being escorted by one, she should be thankful. After a rough first transformation at Mahoutokoro, this was a kinder end to it than the long walk back to the dormitory on her injured leg and hip, which had been cut by the scratching of the wolf.

Once in the dormitory building, Shiori pulled off to a secret passageway that would take her more directly to their floor and room. She wanted to make sure she was back in her bed before Remus returned so as not to arouse any suspicion. Separated like this, she didn’t know that Remus went to the dormitory nursing bay where the school nurse waited in her own apartment, prepared to patch Remus up as had been arranged by the school. Even so, as soon as Shiori lay down on her bed, which was still strewn with flowers that had not withered since she had left, she felt calmer. There was no urgency now, as she knew that Remus was safe. She soon fell into a dreamless sleep.

-

The flowers appear and then disappear. They have only appeared once so far for no apparent reason. I do not know who they are for.

Shiori wrote the letter to her parents. She didn’t say any more than the bare minimum. She knew they would be chagrined that she wasn’t putting in more details or effort, but she didn’t want to aid there search any more than absolutely necessary. She was afraid of what they would do if they figured anything out.

-

In Defence Against the Dark Arts, they were learning to conjure a patronus. The tables had all been pushed to the sides of the room and the chairs stacked, leaving an open space in the centre of the classroom for students to practice. It was a complex spell, and many were struggling. Their teacher, Mr Katsuki, was walking around the class, stopping with each student to give words of encouragement. He knew how advanced this was, and yet he believed in his students; they were all plenty talented enough.

The issue was that, to cast a patronus spell, it was necessary to draw on one’s happiest thoughts. For some of the students, this was easy, but for others it was incredibly difficult.

Mr Katsuki had known this. He knew of Shiori’s situation – that her parents were cruel to her and beat her, that she had little to no friends, and that currently she had been separated from her sister, who she was close with. He also knew about Remus – her lycanthropy, her mother’s illness, that she had moved half way across the globe which was not an easy thing to deal with. So, when he saw the two girls standing side by side, only producing weak wisps of pale smoke from the tip of their wands, he wasn’t surprised even though he hurt for them that it was so hard for them to think of happy memories. Shiori had always been his best student, and Remus had already proven herself adept in Defence Against the Dark Arts in the three weeks she had been in Mahoutokoro. He knew they both would be able to do it, if they could think of a memory happy enough.

“Maybe the time Rin and I pranked our Aunt Chizue. We put laxative in her coffee…” Shiori mused, closing her eyes to try and remember the memory. But all that came was the beating she had received afterwards, and another plume of white smoke came from her wand. “I don’t know, how about you?”

The two girls had been working together to try and jog one another’s memories of happier things. So far nothing was working.

“Walking in the forest with my mother, when we lived in England,” Remus mumbled, but still nothing. Both girls sighed and looked at one another, both too awkward to admit that they didn’t know if they could do this.

“Think of something more recent, then the memory may be more vivid,” Mr Katsuki suggested as he reached them. Leiko had produced a ferret, and Euna had produced a badger. Marlon, the boy who had also come from Hogwarts, had produced a huge horse that had paraded around the room as proudly as its conjurer strutted through the corridors. In fact, it seemed many animals now bounded around the room happily, even as they kept to themselves. Shiori had thought they would interact.

Shiori tried to think of a recent memory that made her happy. She thought of seeing Jameela on the other side of the two-way mirror, and Priyanka and Fleamont sending her gifts. She thought of how, whenever they had been able to get the dormitory to themselves, Remus and Shiori had made jokes about the other girls in their dormitory, and how Remus and Jameela got along well and already cracked jokes like old friends, and how they would all sit and chat whenever they had the chance and laugh so much their sides hurt. She focused on those thoughts as she tried to cast a patronus, and this attempt was far stronger than the others had been. She thought of sharing jalebi with Remus the first night they had come, and making Remus laugh when she kept making fart noises with her mouth whenever Leiko sat down, and watching Remus talk about the books she had brought with her as if her heart was within the pages. Her next attempt was stronger still. She thought of the flowers that appeared and how they bloomed when she held them, and how she knew that somewhere in this school was someone meant for her, someone who could help her and love her and keep her safe. She thought of Remus, then, though she didn’t know why – of Remus sitting in the place Shiori had claimed as her own under the manmade cliff, talking to her about Hogwarts, asking her about Japanese folklore like the okami-inu, about sitting there together last week and talking about their dreams.

A huge dog erupted from Shiori’s wand so suddenly that she jumped and nearly faltered. It reached Shiori’s hip standing on all four legs, and it had shaggy fur and intense, watchful eyes even as its tongue lolled out of its mouth. It barked happily at Shiori, and Shiori found herself laughing, laughing until she couldn’t breathe.

Remus watched Shiori’s success and smiled, revelling in the joy that radiated from Shiori in waves as she laughed. The dog bounced around and spun in circles on the floor in front of them and Remus felt as if it knew her, as if it was speaking to her somehow. She thought of Shiori reading Sappho on Remus’s bed, while Remus pretended not to watch. She thought of Shiori telling her about the person called Alphard, who she wanted to keep a secret. She thought about how just yesterday when they had both been late for Divination and had grabbed for the tapestry to run from Transfiguration, their hands had touched, and Remus had felt like electricity raced through her.

For one moment she was no longer afraid that her patronus was going to be a werewolf and that everyone would know what she was because of it. For one moment, all she thought of was Shiori, and their friendship and the other girl’s kindness and beauty and intelligence and witty humour. In that moment, she pushed her feelings outwards and standing by Shiori’s dog was a wolf. The wolf was huge with long fur and piercing eyes and a strong build. But it didn’t have the same scars Remus knew her werewolf form had, nor was it angry and restless the way the wolf she turned into each month always seemed to be, howling for nothing, for everything. This wolf watched her silently, then turned from her.

Katsuki’s eyes lit up as he watched his star students produce their patronuses. He was not surprised by either of the forms that these patronuses took – it just made sense. Shiori had a dog-like nature in the way she sought approval and how her senses always seemed elevated. There was a playful side of her that she rarely showed to anyone at the school – he had only seen it directed at Rin – and she always had an overabundance of energy even when her mood was sombre. She fidgeted, shifted on her seat constantly, always looking for something to do.

Moreover, Mr Katsuki was glad that they had managed to encourage each other to do this. Even if they hadn’t exchanged any words directly before they cast their patronus, they had been helping each other before. Somehow, he knew that they had thought of one another, at least in part, when searching for happy thoughts and finally succeeding.

The wolf and dog sniffed at one another, which was unusual enough as it was. Sometimes patronuses would play with one another or interact in some way, but it wasn’t usual. It tended to happen between the patronuses of people in a deep relationship, be that friendship or a romantic relationship. Shiori, Remus and their professor watched as the wolf and dog trailed around each other. Then the wolf began to lick the dog, cleaning it almost affectionately, and the dog began to wag its tail. For whatever reason, Remus found herself blushing. Shiori glanced at Katsuki and wondered why they were acting this way – the other patronuses in the room were hardly interacting at all.

Shiori’s dog lay down then and rolled on to its back, baring its neck, and Shiori flinched and retracted the patronus abruptly. She wasn’t sure why, but in a classroom full of people that had seemed too intimate. She knew that dogs did that as a sign of submission, and she wasn’t sure that patronuses were meant to submit to anything. Remus also retracted her patronus at the same time and looked down at the floor as if ashamed.

A tension fell around the two girls, and Professor Katsuki looked between them before smiling.
“That means that you two will have a fulfilling relationship. You understand each other,” he explained, and Shiori relaxed a little. At least the professor didn’t seem confused or judgemental over the developments. “It tends to happen with really good friends or romantic partners.”

Remus nodded slowly, though she was still blushing and refusing to make eye contact with anyone. Shiori wanted to comfort her, but she herself was quite shaken. The emotions that her patronus had acted out had been too raw, and she felt exposed somehow. It was as if her heart had gone into that patronus and it had given away her affection and warmth for Remus. She didn’t know why she should be ashamed, only that she felt it. It wasn’t the done thing for her to express emotion freely, and even if she hadn’t expressed it on purpose, it was still… Too much.

“I guess we’re really going to be best friends then,” Shiori murmured, finally looking up at Remus and Professor Katsuki.

Shiori hadn’t had many friends and to know that her friendship with Remus was genuine enough for their patronuses to express it… That was a lot. She smiled at Remus, trying to show that she was sincere.

“I’m really glad,” Shiori finally uttered, before her shock could be misconstrued as upset. Remus seemed encouraged by it and smiled.

Somehow Shiori couldn’t help it was more than that, that best friends wasn’t really the right term, yet she couldn’t find a better name for it. She was probably just overthinking. She tried to put it out of her mind.

-

“Where are you going?” Shiori asked, looking up from her place on her bed sitting cross-legged. Remus looked back at her as if she had forgotten the other girl was there, before turning towards her properly, her satchel over her shoulder.

“I need to go and visit my mum. She’s in hospital just now,” Remus explained, and Shiori widened her eyes in surprise. Remus hadn’t mentioned her parents much until now, so Shiori hadn’t known that Hope was ill.
“I hope she’ll feel better soon,” Shiori blurted, not knowing what to say. Somehow, she had the feeling that that had been the wrong answer, by the tightening of Remus’s lips and the slightly pinched look of her face. “I… I’ll see you soon,” she added, embarrassed. She didn’t know what else to say. Remus just nodded and managed a small smile, rearranging her bag on her shoulder before leaving her room. Shiori felt her absence immediately.

-

That night, Shiori woke with the moon coming in through her window again, though this time it was not a full moon. She sighed and rubbed at her eyes, feeling an ache in her chest and an uneasiness in the air. Leiko and Euna were sleeping, and Remus was still away. She’d be back in the morning. Shiori didn’t know why it bothered her so much when Remus wasn’t here. Maybe because she was one of the only friends she had in this school now? Maybe because she worried about the other girl?

It was hard to say. Either way, Shiori knew that she wasn’t going to be getting back to sleep any time soon, and she sat up and stretched. There was no compulsion to go anywhere tonight, as there had been on the night of the full moon. She was still groggy, but she wanted to see Jameela. She needed someone to talk to, even if it was late. It would be more sensible to go back to sleep, but her mind was swimming. She knew that Jameela would comfort her.

Retrieving the two-way mirror from its hiding place, Shiori stole out of the dormitory as quietly as possible. The hallways were abandoned, as they should have been, and Shiori had left her shoes in her dormitory to dull the sound of her footsteps. Her head spun a little as she walked, and she tried to clear it with deep, even breaths to no avail.

Wandering without a thought to her destination, Shiori left the dormitory building and made the walk to the plaque she had sat under countless times since coming to Mahoutokoro. It was a familiar route that she knew like the back of her hand; she knew that she could do it blindfolded. Each curve of rock, each dip and hill, every stray tree root and strand of grass was familiar to her. She felt as if she made it there in a heartbeat.

As soon as Shiori looked into the mirror, Jameela looked back at her. It was as if she had known that Shiori would want to talk to her tonight, and Shiori smiled at the thought.

“Hey,” Jameela greeted, smiling a little. She seemed sort of tired, but happy. Her face was an open book, as always.
“Hi,” Shiori whispered, feeling silly that she had needed someone to talk to right now. She should be able to deal with these things on her own.
“What’s going on?”

Without meaning to, Shiori began talking about everything that had been on her mind recently. She didn’t know that when she started, she wouldn’t be able to stop, and everything poured out in a rush. She told Jameela about Remus’s books and her smile and how it was so easy to make her laugh, even though it had been difficult to begin with. She told her about the flowers and how they kept disappearing and reappearing and she didn’t know who they were for. She told her about how her parents weren’t supportive of the fact she had a soulmate, and that they had sent Rin to Hogwarts instead of her because of it. She told Jameela about her patronus and Remus’s patronus and how the two had acted with one another and how Mr Katsuki had said that indicated a close bond. For all of this, Jameela only watched her and nodded and made little noises of acknowledgement; she knew how hard it was to get Shiori to talk about what was bothering her, and she didn’t want to interrupt the flow.

As soon as Shiori was finished, she realised she was out of breath and she dragged in a rough inhale that hurt her throat. It was only then that she realised she was crying, and she wiped furiously at her eyes, embarrassed with herself. Jameela watched her thoughtfully for a long moment, as if considering whether or not she ought to say anything, before deciding to.

“Where’s Remus?” she asked, and Shiori frowned. That seemed kind of unrelated to her current situation, but she entertained it anyway.
“She’s visiting her mum on the mainland, at a hospital.”
“Have you had any flowers tonight?”

Shiori paused. Had she? She brushed her hair out from under her collar and fanned it over her shoulder and watched a handful of tsuboki fall from her hair – far more than had fallen last time, when she had woken up on the full moon. She felt herself pale. What did this mean?

“Yes,” she croaked, and Jameela nodded as if something she suspected had been confirmed. “What, what is it? What are you making that expression for?” Jameela only smiled and sighed good naturedly, shaking her head.
“I won’t say a word. But if you think about the timing and who is leaving the school when you start seeing those flowers again, then you might be able to figure out who your soulmate is.”

Just as Shiori was about to ask what Jameela meant – she couldn’t be suggesting Remus was her soulmate, could she? – Jameela looked off to one side before saying something to someone nearby in a muted tone. When she turned back to Shiori she looked sheepish.

“I need to go now. Lily told me I’m making too much noise,” Jameela snorted, rolling her eyes. Shiori sighed, frowning to herself as the mirror began to only reflect her own face again. This was no good.

-

“Who here knows about soulmates?” Yamamoto asked, standing at the front of the class and gesturing grandly to them, calling for answers. Shiori froze up, sitting a little straighter, and Remus glanced at her in question to which she got no reply. A few hands went up to answer, including Remus’s. Yamamoto smiled and called on Remus.

“It’s two people who are destined to be together in some way,” Remus answered, and Yamamoto nodded.
“Yes, that’s correct. It’s generally relating to a romantic connection between two people, predetermined by fate, but in some cases, it can be thought of as platonic.” Yamamoto perched on a stool at the front of the classroom, looking birdlike and elegant. “It’s in a lot of different cultures and it’s interpreted in many different ways. Who can tell me something about the different receptions of soulmates?”

No one raised their hand, but that didn’t matter. Yamamoto was looking directly at Shiori as if she could read her student’s innermost thoughts, and Shiori wanted nothing more than to disappear at that moment. Falteringly, she made eye contact and knew that she had to say something. People were following Yamamoto’s gaze to her, and more and more heads turned in her direction the longer she waited, locked into that staring contest.

“Usually it’s seen as a blessing, but some people consider it a curse. In some pureblood families it’s a curse because it means their parents can’t control who they marry… It might ruin their lineage or reputation.”

Yamamoto nodded slowly, and Shiori was more certain then than ever that her teacher knew about Shiori’s predicament. She shuddered and dropped her gaze.

“Correct. There are a few examples in literature of soul mates being a destructive force, rather than something truly ideal. Of course, there are some different lines of thought as to why those authors made that interpretation. But today we’ll only talk about history, rather than literary couples.”

Standing again, Yamamoto went to her cupboards and unlocked them with a swish of her wand, pulling back the doors. She retrieved two items wrapped in thin paper and took them to the front of the class, setting them down on her stool and unwrapping the first. It was a mask, black with red markings, and ears set either side of the head. It was decidedly dog like, and a traditional style of mask that Shiori immediately recognised. Without commenting on that one alone, Yamamoto unwrapped the next and held it between her hands carefully. This one was white with red markings, still canine in appearance but with sharper ears. Shiori’s first thought upon looking at it was ‘wolf’ and yet she bit back the exclamation she had wanted to make.

“Does anyone know who these belonged to?” Yamamoto asked, and one or two hands went up. She called on Marlon, who everyone was surprised to see offering to answer a question.

“Pureto Soga and Ikue Chinen. Wait, I should say that the other way around… Anyway, it was owned by them first, and then, Hisanobu Soga and Midoka Yamaguchi.”
“How did you know that?” Shiori blurted before she could stop herself, and Marlon turned to her with a grin.
“What, do you think I moved to Japan without doing any reading? I’ll have you know that I’m quite intelligent.” Shiori rolled her eyes at him, and Yamamoto cleared her throat to interrupt their bickering.

“Marlon is correct. These were the masks worn by Soga Pureto and Chinen Ikue to hide their identity when meeting, hundreds of years ago. Pureto was the son of a well-known nobleman, Soga Arinobu, and he was due to marry a woman of appropriate stature. However, he discovered he had a soulmate, Ikue, who worked as a servant for his family.”

The tale was familiar, but Shiori hadn’t read it herself. She wondered why these soulmates were quite so famous so as to be taught in Mahoutokoro to this day.

“Does anyone know how their story ended?” Yamamoto asked, and Leiko threw her hand up to get the teacher’s attention. She had always liked to suck up. Yamamoto seemed reluctant to call upon her, but did so all the same.

“Arinobu told Pureto he couldn’t be with Ikue because she was common, and he was right to do so. Honestly, it would be terrible for their family name to have that sort of relationship between classes. And well, Pureto didn’t listen, so Arinobu had Ikue killed. A noble decision, to sacrifice his servant for his son’s good.”

Shiori pulled a face and turned to Leiko sharply, but Remus beat her to it.

“It was a tragedy. That’s why Pureto and Ikue are so famous – they’re a classic example of star-crossed lovers. Pureto found out what his father had done he killed his father and the assassin his father had hired, then killed himself. It was a bloodbath. How could that be considered noble? Arinobu didn’t care about Ikue in the first place, so it wasn’t a sacrifice at all.”

Shiori found warmth blossoming through her. Maybe she took the story too much to heart, though it was quite relevant to her situation. Depending on who her soulmate was, would her parents harm them? Just the idea filled her with fear. Having Remus refute Leiko’s interpretation of the story was a breath of fresh air; most people in the school didn’t try and talk against Leiko, considering her father’s riches and her status. Shiori was the only one to bother, because she had similar riches and status behind her. Not that her father would support her if it caused a problem – he was more powerful than Leiko’s father by far, but he wanted Shiori to have a good relationship with Leiko for reputation’s sake. Shiori knew he had arranged the dormitories so that she and Leiko shared, which only served to make both girls miserable in the end.

Remus looked at Shiori from the corner of her eye and saw her approving smile. She felt herself heat up and ducked her head. Had she been too forward? Leiko was staring at her with complete indignation, looking between her and Yamamoto as if asking the professor to do something to put Remus in her place. Yamamoto only smiled minutely at Remus as a wordless encouragement before continuing the lesson.

“That’s correct, many people died. These masks were to give the couple anonymity while they met. They were made from unknown materials, but it’s said that when they wore them, their soulmate bond grew stronger because they showed their true emotions behind the shelter of the masks. Tears, laughter, words of affection… All were absorbed in the material. Some said that their souls connected with the masks as the purest and truest representations of themselves – one dog and one wolf, free of familial ties and expectations. It’s disputed if those were their respective patronus, but it’s generally believed so. We’re lucky to have these in our school. For today’s lesson, I will pass these masks around and allow you all to hold them or wear them, depending on what you wish. Some say that they sense the raw emotion that was felt within the mask, if they are particularly sensitive to others’ emotions. There’s even a rumour that the masks allow one to find true love.”

Immediately the class became loud and excited. The girls especially began to clamour, reaching their hands out to take the mask first. They all wanted to know if they could see their true love with this mask, even if it would require that person to be in this class. In fact, the reason that they were so eager was probably because of Marlon – since he had come to Mahoutokoro he had gained a steady following of girls who longed to win his affections. Shiori didn’t feel that way for him, but she appreciated his charm and good humour. She supposed it was probably tiring to have those girls trail around after him all the time, begging for a scrap of attention from him. Girls were much more forward than boys, apparently – Shiori had garnered quite a following of boys who were interested in her, either for her looks or her money or her reputation. For whatever reason, they believed she was promiscuous in love, so that it would be easy to win her heart – maybe someone had spread a rumour. She attracted stares all over the school grounds, but the boys rarely had the guts to talk to her. She wondered if Marlon had experienced so much attention when he had been at Hogwarts.

Yamamoto shushed the class and waited until they were quiet enough before handing the closest pair the masks. Shiori was tense in her seat, feeling that today’s lesson was particularly aimed towards her. First the professor had stared intently at her during her initial questioning, and now they were discussing a soulmate pair that consisted of someone with a dog patronus, like Shiori’s. Did Yamamoto know how Shiori’s soulmate was? Would she see them when she put the mask on?

Remus was also frozen in her seat, watching the other pairs try on the mask. She had felt the weight of Yamamoto’s stare, and had wondered what it could mean. Now she was bringing up a famous story where the soulmates had a wolf and dog patronus, or at least were best represented by those animals. Immediately, her mind went to the class where they had conjured patronuses, and how her and Shiori’s patronuses had acted towards one another. Her cheeks began to heat just at the memory. It had felt like a truer connection than could be achieved with words, and Remus hadn’t been prepared for such an onslaught of emotion. It was true that she had some affection for Shiori, but that was normal for a friend, wasn’t it?

A few disappointed noises rang out across the class as people failed to sense anything or to see their true love through the eyes of the mask. Some students tried to hold on to the mask for longer than was fair so that they could keep trying, craning their neck this way and that to look at every student in the room, searching for a sign. Eventually the masks reached Shiori and Remus, and Shiori automatically reached for the dog mask while Remus reached for the wolf.

A thrill went through Shiori’s fingers as she touched the mask, compelling her to put it on. She glanced to Remus to see if she was going to wear it and was relieved to see she was. She didn’t want to be the only one. Thankfully most of the students were distracted with their own conversations, so there didn’t seem to be anyone watching them. Shiori secured the mask over her face in tandem with Remus and immediately she sensed love, anguish, fear. Once the initial wave passed, she was left stunned, letting it fade slowly as her eyes fluttered shut. There was a feeling that pushed her, made her feel compelled to move towards something, and she found her hands moving on their own, one landing on Remus’s knee and the other on her arm.

Remus immediately held the hand that had landed on her leg, but it was as if the touch brought Shiori back to her surroundings. She looked at Remus, remembering they were in the middle of a divinations and spirituality class, and angled her body away from the other girl’s. Even so, she kept their hands touching one another as she let the sensations flow through her. What was the mask pushing her to do? She needed to avoid this compulsion to be so physical with Remus, since anyone might be watching. It was probably just the dog mask wanting the person who wore the wolf mask, right? But no one else had reacted like this…

They removed the masks at the same time, parting their hands. Shiori felt the loss keenly but ignored it, passing the mask on as quickly as possible. Her face was flushed, and she was too warm, but she didn’t understand why. Professor Yamamoto was looking at her, expression knowing, and Shiori wanted to run away, to get away from the searching look Remus was giving her and the pressure that suddenly crashed in on her.

Someone in this room must be her soulmate, then. Shiori didn’t have another explanation. But Remus hadn’t reached for her first, hadn’t also sought out contact, so she might not have felt it as well. Shiori wanted to ask, but it seemed inappropriate. Even if she did ask, she wouldn’t want to answer if the question was reflected back at her.

-

At the end of the lesson, Yamamoto stopped Shiori on her way out and called her over to her desk, where both the masks still lay, side by side. Shiori was nervous of what the professor wanted to talk to her about, because she doubted it would be anything that she wanted to hear.

“Shiori, take a seat,” Yamamoto offered, smiling serenely. She was watching Shiori but not as intensely as she had been before. Shiori did as she was asked, sitting down and watching her own fingers twist and untwist. “What did you feel when you put on the mask today?”

Immediately Shiori began to blush, but she forced it back as much as she could. She was sure she could be honest with Yamamoto – the professor had never done anything to suggest she didn’t deserve her trust. And yet Shiori was not good at opening up to people, and this felt incredibly private. She didn’t know how to express what she had felt without embarrassing herself.

“I… felt love and sorrow. There was so much when I first put it on, so many feelings, like you said…” Shiori started, finding herself whispering without meaning to. She couldn’t convince herself to speak up. “I felt a kind of compulsion to reach for… Someone, but I’m not sure who. It was like being struck with a sudden wave. It was… Overwhelming.”

Yamamoto nodded as if this was exactly what she had been expecting. She reached over to Shiori and placed a comforting hand on the girl’s shoulder, giving it a light squeeze.

“I know. Shiori, if you ever want to try the mask on again, just let me know. It might not give you the answer, but it may help you find it. There is wisdom in old things like these,” the professor explained, stroking her fingers across the masks. She turned back to Shiori after a moment. “Marlon mentioned they were also worn by Hisanobu and Midoka as well. Hisanobu was Pureto’s younger brother, who also had a soulmate. Back in that time, soulmates were more common. Midoka was also a commoner, but Hisanobu’s mother feared his wrath too much to deny him his soulmate’s love. So, she allowed him to go to her, only asking that he keep their identities secret with these masks. Hisanobu married a noblewoman as was planned, but he was allowed to see his soulmate as often as he wanted.”

Shiori nodded along with this, glad that the story wasn’t all doom and gloom as it had seen. Yamamoto smiled softly.
“I wanted you to know that there are good endings for these things as well. Don’t limit yourself or your relationships based on what has happened in the past.”

“Okay,” Shiori agreed, though she was taken aback at this advice. Yamamoto knew that she had a soulmate and was encouraging their relationship. It was kind and yet Shiori didn’t know what to do with it – even if she remained optimistic, that wouldn’t change the fact that her parents and many others would look on in judgement of whatever relationship she ended up in. It wasn’t only for her to choose.

 Yamamoto dismissed her and Shiori left gladly, considering going to her hiding place to calm down for a while. Her nerves were still fried after her experience with the mask and she didn’t want to return to the dormitory where Leiko and Euna would be gossiping loudly and trying to start arguments. As she left the main school building, a warm hand landed on her arm and she jerked back in surprise, looking up into a freckled face with curly blonde hair.

“Marlon, you scared me,” she scolded, face folding into a frown. Marlon laughed and fell into step with her as she set off again, entirely unapologetic. “What do you want?”

“I wanted to ask you about you and Remus,” Marlon said flippantly, and Shiori looked up at him in askance.
“What do you mean, about me and Remus?”

Marlon rolled his eyes at her as if she was missing something entirely obvious, folding his hands behind his head and stretching his face up into the evening sun.
“You’re soulmates, aren’t you?”

He said this just as Shiori started inhaling, and she choked on her breath. Doubled over, Shiori coughed while Marlon beat her back to help her clear her throat, and when she stood upright again, she was bright red and teary eyed.
“Soulmates? Why do you think that?” she asked, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand. Shiori hadn’t told anyone in the school about having a soulmate, and now Marlon apparently knew. That, and he had decided that it was Shiori’s best friend that she was bonded to. “You know if you say stuff like that out loud, it’ll be really bad for me, right?”

Snorting, Marlon raised a brow at Shiori, entirely unimpressed.
“Bad for you? What, because Remus is a girl? Who cares? It’s no one else’s business.”
“You’re right, it’s no one else’s business,” Shiori grumbled, exasperated. Marlon stuck his tongue out at her.
“But I said so because I know you have a soulmate. You left flowers behind you at the party and I saw them when you snuck out of the dormitory building after curfew as well. I told you, it’s not like I didn’t read up on things before coming here.”

Shiori scowled at him, annoyed that Marlon had worked out her secret. She didn’t want anyone to know, and she didn’t know Marlon well enough to trust him with the information. Why did he have to work it out? He hadn’t seemed particularly intelligent when she first met him, just funny. Shiori had never seen him put in much effort in any of their classes, and now he had somehow deduced that Shiori had a soulmate and had decided that soulmate was Remus.

“How did you know I went out after curfew?” Shiori hissed, glancing around them to see if anyone had heard so far. Marlon grinned, clearly pleased with himself.
“Because I was out after curfew as well, and I saw you. I was coming back to the castle after going to visit my dad.”
“Then why Remus?” she pressed on, confused at how he had worked that out. Marlon tilted his head.
“You both reached for one another when you put the masks on,” he shrugged, as if that explained everything. Shiori rolled her eyes.
“That’s not really conclusive evidence,” she pointed out and Marlon shrugged again.
“Whatever.”
“Anyway, if you were away when I was wandering around leaving flowers, how do you know it wasn’t because you’re my soulmate?” Shiori pointed out, voice bordering on petulant and irritated now before she registered what she had said and blushed darkly. Marlon looked down at her in shock before tilting his head a little, raising an eyebrow.

“Well… I don’t know. Do you think I am?” he asked, and Shiori noticed that he looked embarrassed. She smiled to herself – she had never seen him blush before.
“I don’t know. Do you?”

Marlon looked around them before taking her hand gently and pulling her off the pathway into the trees. Shiori laughed at his flustered face, unthinking of what his motives were. Probably he was just trying to go somewhere to hide from anyone who might see him blush. But instead, once they were out of sight from the path, Marlon turned Shiori towards him and placed his hands on either side of her neck. They were warm, and she blinked at the sensation and looked up at him. What was he doing?

“What…?” she started, and he just shook his head, looking at her with a complicated expression. Then, he leaned down and kissed her.

It was a gentle kiss, the softest brush of lips, and Shiori shivered at the sensation of it. It was unfamiliar – she had never been kissed before and she found herself blushing at the strange intimacy of the moment. She let the kiss happen, though her eyes were open, noticing that Marlon had freckles on his eyelids. When he pulled away, she didn’t feel loss so much as an absence of heat.

Marlon looked at her closely when he pulled back, still close enough that their breath mingled in the space between. Shiori felt no urge to kiss him again, but also no aversion to it. It simply… Was. She wasn’t sure what Marlon was thinking, though his eyes were half shut and his cheeks were still bright red.

“So, what do you think? Any fireworks or bells ringing?” he joked, though his tone was lower and muted. Shiori laughed softly and shook her head.
“No. But you’re a good kisser, I think.”

Marlon grinned, laughing as well. He pulled back from her and pushed his hair out of his face, but his eyes never strayed from her.
“Well, if you ever need anyone to kiss, you can kiss me. I’ll be good practice for your soulmate,” he teased, and Shiori turned bright red.
“Do… Do you think that I’ll need practice? Oh god, I didn’t think of that… What if they’re experienced and they think I’m awful…” Shiori complained and Marlon held up his hands to stop her.
“I think you’re a perfectly good kisser from that very small preview. Don’t worry about it. But seriously, I think Remus is your soulmate. I’d put money on it.”

Shiori frowned and looked down at her feet, unsure how to react to that. She didn’t know that liking another girl like that was something she could even do… Sure, she liked to look at Remus and talking to her and being around her but that didn’t mean they were meant to be together. She shook her head at Marlon’s line of thinking and he just shrugged it off.

“Don’t get scared just because she’s a girl. Soulmates don’t discriminate like that,” he intoned, and his scholarly impression made Shiori laugh. She felt a degree lighter, even if she was still confused and overwhelmed by all that had happened that day. Maybe things really would be alright.

-

“I don’t think this is the right course of action,” Wayuu argued, and Orochi looked up from the letter he was writing sharply. Wayuu barely ever spoke back to him, as she had mostly learned better by now. His brow creased and he slowly lowered his quill.
“Excuse me?” he asked, and Wayuu swallowed hard before continuing.

“After what happened with Alphard, after it went wrong… I don’t want that to happen to our daughter. Even if she has disappointed us at times, and even if she’s disobedient, she’s our child. To see her deteriorate like Alphard did, I don’t – “

Orochi slammed his open palm on the desk and Wayuu jumped, taking a half step backwards automatically. Her husband’s eyes were fire and the stern line of his mouth was deepening to a scowl.

“Do not talk to me of him. I only wish the curse had killed him so that we wouldn’t have to ever speak about him again. Our daughter has to learn to obey, and a soulmate will not aid her in doing that. You must be objective.”

Wayuu looked at Orochi with tears in her eyes, surprising herself at how keenly she felt her worry for her daughter and brother. She hadn’t written back to Alphard in so long, but she still couldn’t help but care. He was her little brother… She had looked after him throughout their childhood like a mother when their own mother was too drunk to do anything beyond hex them. And Shiori, she had truly been such a disappointment… Her academic prowess was fine, but her social abilities were lacking. She only wanted to make mischief and refused to accept that there were divisions between certain types of people that had to be maintained.

“It is not easy for a woman to be objective when it comes to her flesh and blood, Orochi. You should understand that. Alphard is not just flesh and blood to you but the one you are destined to – “

There was no warning when Orochi struck her, sending her to the floor with a hard thud and a frail cry. She had known this would happen, but she had hoped her husband would see reason. It seemed she would not be so lucky.

-

It was the third time that Shiori had woken in the middle of the night. Again, it was a full moon and the light of it bathed her bed in silver and grey. It no longer surprised Shiori to wake up like this, with an urge to find the missing pieces. She didn’t pay it too much mind if she could avoid it. The stress made her feel panicked and weepy.

Remus was gone again. She said she was going to visit her mother in hospital, but somehow Shiori felt that she had been lying. There was a dull throb in the back of Shiori’s mind as if someone was calling for her, but as she sat up and strained her ears, she heard nothing. The room was quiet, and she wondered where Remus was. She wanted to see her just now, to describe the way that these strange nights felt – like moving through water, like everything was amplified and then dulled in turns. It wouldn’t make any sense if she said it like that, so she shook it off – there was no use in trying to communicate this. Instead, she reached for the two-way mirror like she often did when she felt lonely and carried it under her arm to the cliff, the brisk night air waking her up more.

She could see the moon clearly from here, and the pull in the back of her mind was harder too. She glanced back at her long shadow, which stretched serpentine over the ground, and saw flowers blooming within and around it, unnaturally bright. Shiori sighed softly and found her way to her usual space curled against the cliff face, pulling her knees up to her chest. It didn’t do to dwell on it… She didn’t understand anything anymore.

Jameela appeared in the mirror quickly, but not right away. She smiled knowingly at Shiori and patiently waited for her to speak.

Shiori didn’t need to deal with formalities with Jameela, and for that she was grateful. She needed to just breathe and not think. To speak her mind before her thoughts consumed her. She told Jameela about the letters she had been sending to her family, about her kiss with Marlon, about the masks and the connection she had felt and the way she had reached for Remus, how she had known to take the dog mask right away. How Yamamoto seemed to know, maybe more than Shiori did herself. Jameela listened in silence, eyes shut as she nodded here and there. She was concentrating, going by the slight furrow between her brows. When Shiori finished she took a ragged breath, and Jameela looked at her, her hazel eyes bright and excited.

“You seem to have a really strong connection to things relating to dogs, right?” she asked, and Shiori shrugged and nodded at the same time. She didn’t know if it was a connection to specifically that, but that had been the pattern so far. “I found out this really cool thing, and I think we should do it.”

Shiori raised a brow, momentarily distracted from her woes. Jameela always came up with the weirdest plans and Shiori liked to indulge in them for the adventure. Right now, she would love something like that – something to take her mind off everything that had been happening.

“You know that my patronus is a stag, right? Well, the other day I was complaining that I thought stags were way cooler than people, and I wanted to be one. And Lily looked at me like I was stupid and said, ‘why don’t you just become an animagus then’,” Jameela explained, making a funny British accent when she imitated Lily. “Now she totally was joking but… Why not? It doesn’t even seem that hard.”

Shiori stared at Jameela for a long moment, frowning. She had learned about animagus but… To turn into one was a different matter.

“Isn’t that really dangerous?” she asked, and Jameela tilted her head.
“Yeah.”
“Isn’t it possible for that to disfigure you permanently?”
“Yes.”
“It could make you a half person half animal.”
“Yes.”

There was a silence, and then Shiori snorted.
“Well, how do you do it then?”

Jameela lit up at Shiori’s agreement and began to rattle off the details, which she had researched extensively. First they would have to keep a mandrake leaf in their mouth for a whole month, from full moon to full moon, then spit the leaf into a vial within the moon’s rays, add a strand of their own hair and a silver teaspoon of dew that has never seen sunlight or touched human feet for seven days, plus the chrysalis of a death’s-head hawk moth. Then the mixture had to go into a quiet dark place and not be disturbed at all, with an incantation chanted at dusk and dawn with their wand pointed to their heart until the next electrical storm. When that happened, they had to go to a secure, big place and recite that incantation again before drinking the potion. It was incredibly complex, and Shiori had to write each part down in just as much detail as Jameela said it, which wasn’t an easy task with how quickly her friend was speaking.

“Well? What do you think?” Jameela asked once she was done, and Shiori bit her lip, reading over the long list of requirements she had noted down and read back to her to make sure they were comprehensive. It wouldn’t be easy to conceal the mandrake leaf, but she thought she could probably do it. When she said so, Jameela grinned. “Cool! Let’s go get mandrake leaves right now.”

“Wait, what?” Shiori asked, although she was already getting to her feet to do as Jameela had suggested. Jameela shrugged and looked around her, ensuring her privacy.
“Well, it’s a full moon right now, so we might as well start, right?”

It made sense, so Shiori agreed and got moving. They whispered to each other through the two-way mirror, giggling along the way in their excitement and nerves. Shiori had a longer way to go to the greenhouses but she walked faster to avoid detection, already wondering how she was going to execute all of these requirements. Dew that hadn’t seen sunlight or human feet for days? Could she collect it and then keep it out of the way of those things, or would that not count if she did so?

Shiori had broken into the greenhouses before so she knew what spells she needed to use. She unlocked it bit by bit and slid in, looking behind her to check for someone following her before she shut the door behind her. The mandrakes were lined up along a shelf furthest from the door, already re-potted by that time of year. Shiori crossed to them on light feet, worried she would attract attention from some of the more… Lively plants.

“Are you ready?” Jameela asked and Shiori nodded, still holding the mirror up to her face. She wondered if the mandrakes would scream when she plucked one of their leaves. Their heads would still be under the soil, so hopefully she would be alright…

“Three, two, one…”

Shiori held the mandrake leaf in her hand and eyed it for dirt or bugs before yanking it from the mandrake and stuffing it under her tongue. She pulled a face at the strange, earthy taste of it, wrinkling her nose but forcing herself to leave it in place. Jameela coughed as she accidentally grabbed a handful of leaves and pushed them all into her mouth, choking on the stray leaves and gagging before she successfully put only one under her tongue. Shiori was focused on not dislodging the leaf even as she laughed.

“Is there an actual reason that we’re doing this?” she asked after she had relocked the greenhouse door, and Jameela gave her a funny look.
“Sure there is. But do we ever actually need a good reason for doing any of the stuff we do? It’s fun.”

Shiori hummed and nodded, since she guessed Jameela was right. She watched Jameela making her way back to her room and climbing into her bed.

“I’m going to go now, because I think Lily will wake up if I talk more. But we need to keep updating each other on how it’s going, so don’t forget! And keep it in your mouth, okay?” Shiori snorted.
“Yeah, I will. Bye for now.”
“See you later, my partner in crime!” Jameela cheered before leaving, Shiori again looking at her own face. She had some dirt on her cheek, and she brushed it away. She wondered if anyone would notice that she had this in her mouth. Maybe if she was quiet…

Well, who was she kidding? She was rarely quiet, but she could try and pull it off. It would be fun.

-

Remus watched Shiori move her tongue around in her mouth behind closed lips, wondering why she kept on fidgeting like that. She had been doing that for a while now, maybe a couple of weeks actually… Time directly after the transformation always seemed to get away from Remus and she wasn’t as attentive as she usually would be. But it had been long enough that Remus had noticed it several times and it was starting to bother her.

Watching Shiori recline on Remus’s bed with a book of Sappho on her lap, wearing her yukata loosely because of the heat, her hair splayed about her and sweat shining on her skin, all while rolling her tongue around in her mouth like that, occasionally letting it dart out to wet her lips…

Remus had started to come to terms with the fact that the feelings she had for Shiori weren’t strictly platonic. She figured that as long as she kept it to herself, she would be alright… It was just another secret to keep, in the end. But sometimes Shiori would look at her in a certain way, eyes piercing and understanding, or she would place her hand on Remus’s leg and squeeze in a way that was supposed to be reassuring… It sent shivers up her spine.

“Shiori, have you got a sore tooth?” she asked, finally losing her patience to curiosity. Shiori looked up at her and immediately stopped moving her tongue, seeming to reposition something with a quick shift of her jaw before she replied.
“No, why?” Her expression was shifty, and Remus was immediately suspicious.
“You keep moving your mouth around. At first, I thought you were eating, but you’ve been doing it a lot…”

Shiori’s eyes widened minutely and she cast about for a good excuse, gripping the book of poetry a little tighter as if she was going to use it to hide herself.
“I’m, uh… I bit my tongue. I keep doing that lately. Clumsy,” she explained, but her words were too rushed, and her face too guarded for that to be true. Still, Remus just sighed and shook her head, looking back down to her own book. She supposed it wasn’t really her business.

-

I finally managed to get some information on Alphard. His name is Alphard Black, and he’s in the psychiatric ward in Saint Mungo’s. He’s our uncle, our mother’s brother. I’m not sure what he’s in the psychiatric ward for, but apparently, he knew father as well. I’m not sure how, but… I’ll keep looking for you. If he’s related to us, do you think I’ll be able to go and see him in hospital?

Shiori looked at the letter from Rin with wide eyes, hardly able to believe that she had finally received a letter back from her sister. At first she wondered if her letter to Rin had been delivered, or if she was ignoring her, but it seemed that Rin had been hard at work researching. There was other information within – Rin was doing well in Hogwarts. She had been sorted into Slytherin, which their parents were happy about. She was acing her classes and she had made some friends who were in some kind of club. Even with all of these things that Shiori had been waiting to hear, she couldn’t help but focus on the small amount that Rin had discovered about Alphard. Their uncle… why had they never met him, then? Why did it seem that he was some kind of family secret?

-

Remus stood outside the hospital with bated breath, wishing that she could find some reason not to go in. But she had already made it this far, all the way from Iwo Jima, so it would be a waste of a journey to cancel everything now. Her mother had sent some letters in between visits, trying to convince Remus that she was doing well, but there was a kind of strain conveyed in those pages that Remus took to mean that her mother was lying to her, or trying to be optimistic.

The nurses looked at Remus as she came in and their expressions were sympathetic. Remus felt her breath catch. Why would they look at her like that? What was wrong? Her pace quickened even as her mind reared back, wanting to avoid whatever was waiting for her upstairs. She knew the route to her mother’s ward by heart now after two prior visits that she had thought back on time and time again. She was able to be here for several hours, but she would have to leave first thing in the morning. She never wanted to waste a minute, especially not by getting lost in the maze-like hospital.

Lyall was asleep outside of the room on one of the upholstered seats, arms crossed over his chest and head hanging down. Mussed up and tired, it was one of the few times that Remus could muster kind feelings for her father. He had been attending to Hope as much as he could, but he still had to work… Remus didn’t particularly want to worry over her father, but she did anyway – he was pushing himself too hard.

The lights were on in her mother’s room and Hope herself was propped up on several pillows. To Remus she looked smaller than ever, barely a pile of bones laid out on the bed, and her eyes were ringed with purple. Cannulas stuck into her at various sites and it appeared she was being pumped with some fluids. Remus bit her lip and went to her mother’s side, touching her bruised hand, marred by the marks caused by misdirected needles.

“Remus, you’re here,” Hope greeted, her voice thin and weary. She smiled as much as she could and it seemed to take a lot of energy to do so. “I’m sorry I’m so tired right now… I’ve been on some strong painkillers is all.”

Remus frowned, knowing her mother was trying to omit information again for her comfort. She didn’t want to be lied to – she wanted to know what was happening so that she wouldn’t be surprised by any outcome. She wanted to know what was happening so maybe she could help in some way.

“What’s happening? What is all this stuff? Before, you were just being given medications but not through a tube. And you weren’t so thin or so tired.” Hope winced at the irritation in Remus’s tone and sighed, gathering her thoughts.

“They still don’t know what’s wrong. They’re trying stronger drugs – chemical and alchemic solutions, potions and such. So far nothing seems to help… They might stop the pain but then they stop me from being able to eat, or they make me sleep too much, so on so forth.”

Remus felt her lower lip wobble, wishing that someone could finally give them some exact answers. Not knowing why her mother’s body had never worked to its full ability after the attack had taken a toll on all of the Lupins. It was suggested it was some kind of dark magic, or something related to lycanthropy that hadn’t yet been discovered. But either way, Hope’s mobility had been limited and it caused her agony to stand up for very long without support. And now, she was bedridden and looked ready to fall apart.

“Why… Why isn’t anything working?” Remus choked, voice watery. She wanted this to be over. She didn’t want to see her mother in pain anymore. Hope smiled sympathetically, reaching for Remus’s hand and taking it between her own.
“My darling, we knew that it was possible I wouldn’t ever get better… We knew that I might not come out of this hospital. But I’m here, and the people I love come and visit me often,” she explained, giving Remus’s hand a squeeze. “I’ve never felt lonely since I was given a bed here. And truly, there’s no pain. So even if my time is near, I’ll be alright. What I want is for you to accept that, as best as you can. You might miss me, but the ones you love will always be right here.” As she said this, she lifted her free hand to her own chest, tapping the skin over her heart. Remus bit her lip and nodded, trying to share that same calm that her mother seemed to have. Wasn’t she scared? Remus was terrified by the prospect of death, and yet…

“Remus, let your mother sleep,” came the gruff, sleep-ridden voice of Lyall. Hope and Remus looked at him with a frown.
“I only just got here,” Remus protested, and Hope gave her daughter’s hand a gentle squeeze. Remus didn’t want to go. She didn’t even know how long her mum had left. What if she was gone by next week, next month? She should be here more; she should come every weekend… But she wouldn’t be allowed. Her mother wouldn’t allow it, because it would impede on her studies. She wanted Remus to have as normal a school experience as possible. Yet Remus was filled with a deep-seated dread that something final was happening here.

Lyall was impervious to the worries Remus was experiencing, scowling at her. He was still fresh from sleep, but he wasn’t softer for it, instead less tolerant for backchat.
“Remus, go. Your mother has had a very hard day and it’s best for everyone if you just… Go. You’re too emotional just now, it will tire her.”

Reluctantly, Remus let go of Hope’s hand. She wanted to stay here, but what if her father was right? What if she was making things worse? In her emotional state she couldn’t work out if that was true or not, and she was full of doubt over her own motives. Was it selfish to want to be here…?

“Mum, I’ll go. Please get some rest,” Remus requested, and leaned down to press a passing kiss to her mother’s forehead, unable to let herself linger in case she stopped herself from going. Lyall stepped aside to let her out of the room, and Remus went as fast as she could so that when she started to cry, she was already safely alone and out of sight of anyone.

-

“Any luck with Remus?” Marlon asked, and Shiori swatted at him. She had slept badly the night before, waking up at one point with a pain in her chest like she was choking on tears. She didn’t understand where it had come from, but the emotion was raw and afraid, and she had been shaken to the core by it. Now she was tired and grouchy, looking around for Remus. She hadn’t come back that morning before breakfast and now she hadn’t turned up outside of Defence Against the Dark Arts either.

“I don’t know what you mean by luck. What kind of luck do I need? She’s my friend.”

Marlon glared at her for being purposefully obtuse, elbowing her in the ribs.
“You haven’t told her that you have a soulmate yet?” he asked, and Shiori sighed and shook her head. Since Marlon had suggested Shiori’s soulmate was Remus, she hadn’t been able to face that conversation. Even though it wasn’t true, it seemed… Strange, to talk to someone about having a soulmate, and that you wondered if they were your soulmate. Marlon groaned when she answered in the negative. They’d spoken about this a couple times since their first conversation, and now he was exasperated.

“What am I supposed to say to her?” Shiori complained, but before Marlon could give her a snarky reply Professor Katsuki came out and ushered everyone into the classroom.

It was weird to sit on her own, the space usually occupied by Remus left empty. They were going over some things from previous lessons before they moved on to the next section of the course, and some people wanted to cast a patronus one last time. Shiori sighed and lifted her wand, ready to struggle through the next several minutes, trying to come up with happy memories. The mandrake leaf was soggy and limp under her tongue.

Katsuki came to her first, and Shiori looked at him curiously. She hoped he wouldn’t ask her where Remus was, because she didn’t know any better than anyone else. Instead, he just stood near and smiled.

“Remember, it can be anything. No one else has to know what you thought about.”

The words were loaded somehow, and Shiori wondered if he could somehow read minds too, the way Yamamoto seemed to sometimes, before reprimanding herself for being silly. She tried to muster happy thoughts but presently she was so worried it was hard to concentrate. All she could think about was Remus – where was she, and was she safe?

After five minutes of struggling, Shiori was more anxious than ever and felt near tears. She saw Marlon staring at her, glancing down at her feet, and she followed his gaze. The floor was covered in flowers, scattered everywhere within her reach and she felt blood rushing to her head as she looked at them. Before she knew it, spots were appearing on her vision and then there was nothing.

-

Shiori woke up slowly, then all at once as she realised she wasn’t in her bed. Where was she? She sat bolt upright before yelping in pain, feeling like a hammer had been put to her head. She heard a startle nearby her, and then there were warm hands on her, guiding her back to lie down.

“Don’t do that, you idiot,” Remus grumbled, looking tired and pale. Shiori stared at the other girl for a long moment, putting the pieces together. “You need to rest. What have you done to yourself? Didn’t you eat enough? It’s important to eat enough,” she rambled, and Shiori found herself smiling, a warm and slow thing that crept onto her face without her permission. “What, what is it?” Remus demanded, and Shiori smiled wider.
“You’re looking after me,” she pointed out, and she knew she was blushing just like Remus now was. “I’m so happy, look,” she went on, and found her wand on the side table and raised it. A huge dog erupted from the cherrywood tip and bounded around in circles, and Remus stared at it in shock.

“Katsuki-sensei said that you were struggling to conjure one when you passed out…” Remus mumbled, and Shiori hummed in agreement, eyes fluttering. Why did her head hurt so much? She lifted a hand only to have it caught in one of Remus’s bigger ones before she could touch her head, a scowl on the other girl’s face. “You hit it when you fell. Don’t touch it, it’s a big bump and it was a bit bloody.”

Shiori sighed and held on to Remus’s hand, glad for the touch. It was warm, and comforting… Things were a little hazy, but she couldn’t help but be happy that Remus was here. Her patronus seemed to agree, snuffling around Remus’s feet.
“Where were you?” she asked, and Remus pulled a face, looking away from her and retracting her hand. Shiori pouted at the loss of contact and Remus rolled her eyes at her dramatics.
“I was visiting my mum. I do that every month – uh, I mean, every two weeks – remember?”

Shiori narrowed her eyes at Remus, wondering why she seemed so tense about it. And what was that stumble? If she didn’t go every two weeks, where did she go every second time? She definitely didn’t sleep in the dormitory those nights, that was for sure…

“She’s really sick,” Remus blurted out, gaze trained on their joined hands. Her expression was pained as she said it. “She… We don’t know how long… And I…”

Before thinking, Shiori leaned up and caught Remus in a hug, arms flung around the other’s shoulders. Remus stiffened for a moment in shock before leaning into it, and Shiori took advantage of that to pull Remus back onto her bed with her. Remus tried to protest, aiming to disentangle herself before anyone saw them, but Shiori just whined and held on tighter.

“I’m giving you a hug like a good friend, and you’re going to give me a hug like a good friend too. Because you’re sad and I’m injured, so we need to look after one another, right?”

Remus seemed to consider this for a second before nodding slowly, still casting a glance over her shoulder to see if anyone was nearby enough to watch them. The rest of the nursing bay was empty, and she allowed herself to fall into the hug with a long exhale, feeling like she was releasing some huge weight from her chest.

Shiori stroked Remus’s hair thoughtfully, head still spinning from lunging up at her like that to capture her in a hug. The mandrake leaf was still securely under her tongue, she noticed, but before she could toy with it Remus looked up at her curiously and Shiori stopped abruptly before she could ask her any questions.

“I, um, I have something to tell you,” Shiori mumbled, suddenly embarrassed. She knew that Marlon would use her fainting and all of the flowers as further evidence that Remus was Shiori’s soulmate, so she had to tell Remus before he could try and take matters into his own hand. He was really too tenacious, and he liked butting in on other people’s business too much.

Remus hummed in question, frowning at the serious tone that Shiori had taken and the bright blush on her cheeks. Maybe it was about that maddening thing she kept on doing with her tongue…

“I… Have a soulmate,” Shiori explained, voice halting and awkward. How was she supposed so say this? She hadn’t had to actually explain it to anyone yet, and suddenly words seemed far from her grasp. Remus seemed to wilt under her words and Shiori wondered what she had done wrong, but knew she had to plough onwards before anything could be misconstrued. “I don’t know who it is yet, though. It’s just. Well. Basically, I know it’s someone in this school but… Well. When they’re near, everything is fine, it’s normal. But when they’re far away from me, I… Flowers appear. Sumire and tsuboki. Violet and camellia, I guess,” Shiori added, remembering how Alphard had called the flowers in the letter he had sent to her mother – his sister, Shiori reminded herself.

“I know,” Remus whispered, and ducked her head. “When I got back, I went straight to see Katsuki-sensei to apologise for being absent… It was just at the end of the lesson, and there were still flowers everywhere.”

Shiori watched Remus put a hand to a pocket in her robes and curl her fingers around something. She lifted out a handful of tsuboki and sumire, all perfectly healthy under her touch. Suddenly Shiori remembered the ash that the sumire had crumbled to in Rin’s hand, and felt faint.

“I… Need to sleep more,” Shiori muttered, quickly angling her face away and closing her eyes. She couldn’t think about the implications of this right now – she didn’t have the capacity for it. Nothing made sense.

-

Shiori, I found out more about our Uncle Alphard, but I don’t know if you’ll want to hear it. Maybe it’s better if we floo one another.

Shiori stared down at the letter curiously. Rin had been curt in this letter, rushed. Her handwriting was messier, and a feeling of dread was blossoming in the pit of Shiori’s stomach. Was something wrong? What had happened?

Shiori requested to use one of the fireplaces to floo Rin. It wasn’t an easy connection to make, and took some time to set up, but eventually everything was prepared and Shiori had to hope that Rin was ready because she didn’t want to wait half an hour to get the connection smoothed and checked again. International floo was difficult, apparently.

Rin’s face appeared in the flames and Shiori could have cried for relief of seeing her sister for the first time in two and a half months. She hadn’t realised quite how much she had missed her because she had been so busy with all her personal plights, but now that she could see her sister in the flames she was hit with the strength of Rin’s absence. However, Rin seemed harried and nervous, glancing around herself constantly, and Shiori realised she might have to hurry this. She tried not to let the prospect of that upset her, but she couldn’t really help the pang in her chest. She kneeled down before the fire to communicate with Rin easier.

“Rin, I missed you,” she smiled, but Rin didn’t return the smile.
“Yes, I missed you too,” Rin agreed. Her voice was stiff. Was someone there?
“Are you okay? Is something wrong?” Shiori asked, suddenly worried again. The dread from before came back suddenly and her breaths came shallower. She needed to try and stay calm. She was the big sister. She could fix whatever it was.
“I’m… Well, you’ll see. Nothing is wrong… Well, nothing wrong that I think you can fix right now. Anyway, listen, I haven’t got a lot of time. I have to go meet with… Um. Some people.”
“Who?” Shiori asked, brow pinching.
“That’s not important right now. So, Alphard Black is our mother’s brother.”
“Yes.”
“I managed to meet with him in St Mungo’s last weekend. He told me everything. He’s… Well, he’s definitely sick, but he doesn’t need to be there. Someone’s paying to keep him in there so that he doesn’t tell anyone what I’m about to tell you. So please don’t spread this around… He was put in there because he was our father’s soulmate. He said that when he and father met when they were younger, since they’re second cousins, that there was some kind of connection and that afterwards, father started seeing flowers everywhere. Well, eventually they worked out who it was that he was bonded with, but they couldn’t let him be with another man. So, they put a curse on father and Alphard that meant they would be caused a lot of pain if they ever touched one another or if they got too close to one another… But it went wrong. It made Alphard really sick for some reason, and no one knows why. It wasn’t like they could seek a lot of help because the curse is ancient and completely illegal. They decided to marry mother to father to cover up any rumours, but mother was living in Britain up until then under her birth name Walburga Black. Since she was already half Japanese, they figured she would pass easily… She definitely looked Japanese. So, she changed her name and moved to Japan.”

Shiori sat back on her haunches, trying to take everything in. It was a huge onslaught of information that she didn’t truly know how to process. There was so much to think about… Their mother was half British, and her real name wasn’t even Wayuu. Their parents were second cousins. Her father’s soulmate was another man, and also his second cousin. The family had used dark magic on her father and uncle and then had put her uncle in a psychiatric ward to make sure he couldn’t tell anyone. Shiori and Rin were both born out of incest.

“That’s why they don’t love one another. Mother and father,” Shiori said, without thinking. “Because if you have a soulmate and know who it is, being with someone else won’t be fulfilling… Not truly.”

Rin nodded, pushing her hair back from her face. She seemed just as horrified at everything that she had learned as Shiori was.
“And we’re… Our parents are… Second cousins?” she mumbled, feeling a little ill. Rin just rolled her eyes at that.
“It’s quite common in pureblood families. You’re lucky our cousins are girls, or they might have tried to marry us off to them.”
“Even now?”
“Yes.”
“But if it was normal for second cousins to be together like that, then… Why couldn’t they have just made an exception? Why did they have to do that to them?”
“Because they’re both men. It isn’t right.”

That was when Shiori realised that her sister had changed. Not just a little bit, but a lot. She had hardly ever seemed to have concrete opinions - not even the ones their parents had fed to them throughout their life had really stuck. Then she had just denounced same sex relationships with such conviction, and her face was stony as she said it. She acted as if that should have been obvious to Shiori. And it was; Shiori knew that people didn’t tend to accept that kind of thing. But if two people were destined to be together, wasn’t it wrong to intervene? Shiori felt uncomfortable at the thought. Why did it matter that a couple was made up of two men or two women? What difference did it make to anyone else?

Shiori knew the answer. It made a difference to the family’s reputation. It made a difference to the perception other people had of that person and the people they affiliated with, and that could be dangerous. Maybe it didn’t matter if it should or shouldn’t matter. Maybe the consequences were more important.

“I need to go now,” Rin interrupted, looking behind her again. Shiori looked down at her sister and nodded, feeling all of a sudden that she wanted to be alone. The mandrake root was sour under her tongue. “I’ll talk to you later. Please keep what I’ve said a secret. It would be terrible for our reputation.”

-

Remus found Shiori curled under the plaque, looking out to over the mountain and the sea. Shiori looked small like that, knees tucked under her chin. Her expression was forlorn – it was clear that she had been crying. When Remus came down the steps to the cliff base, Shiori tried to hide her emotions, wiping at her face and straightening her kimono and hair. She felt like a complete mess and her head was so cluttered that she felt she would just break in half soon. But who was there to tell? She was ashamed and there seemed to be nothing to make it better.

“What’s wrong?” Remus asked, voice so gentle like even the soundwaves could shatter Shiori. The other girl looked up at her with red rimmed eyes and just watched. The sun was in Remus’s hair, making it turn almost golden like honey in places. Her amber eyes seemed to glow, and she had removed the cosmetics from her scars, her face lined with cracks of silver. She was an array of precious metals and so, so painfully human, so painfully beautiful, so kind. Shiori knew that there was a deeper reason that it bothered her that her sister couldn’t condone same sex couples. She knew that the way she looked at Remus wasn’t the way friends looked at each other. And sometimes, she thought that the way Remus looked at her wasn’t how friends looked at one another either. To seriously entertain that was probably just wishful thinking.

“I…” Shiori began, voice quiet and uncertain. What should she say? She curled in on herself more, holding her knees to her chest tighter, trying to keep herself together. “I got some bad news,” she finished, and Remus nodded in understanding before sitting down next to her, cross-legged, her knee touching Shiori’s calf.
“Do you want to talk about it?”

That was the undoing. Shiori had never been asked if she wanted to talk about her feelings or her life. No one had ever taken enough of an interest or hadn’t believed it was proper to express emotions in that way. It was important in her family to keep their feelings hidden so that no one could use them against you. Shiori had always been criticised for being the emotional one, and yet…

Here she was, so painfully emotionally stunted. She didn’t know what to say, and she wanted to say everything, to tell Remus everything. Nothing felt right at that moment.

“I don’t really know how. But… I can try.”

Remus smiled and nodded encouragingly, then turned to look out over the scenery. There was no pressure or tension in the air between them; Remus wasn’t going to ask questions or force her to say anything she didn’t want to. She was just waiting patiently, letting Shiori take her time. It was so kind it hurt.

“It’s a long story but, the letter I showed you before is from my uncle. I had never heard of him or met him before, but my family have been paying to keep him in the psychiatric ward at that hospital for a long time now. They used dark magic on him because…. Because he was my father’s soulmate. And I… I didn’t understand why they would curse them, for being soulmates. I thought it was because they’re actually second cousins – again, I said it’s a long story – but apparently that’s normal. What wasn’t okay wasn’t the incest, it was the fact that they’re both men.”

Wetness pooled in Shiori’s eyes and then overflowed, and a sob hiccupped out of her. She knew Remus would keep her secrets safe, and yet she was afraid. Saying it out loud made it so much more real, and she wished it wasn’t. She wished that this was all some horrible dream and that she would wake up and there would be no Uncle Alphard and no one telling her that it was wrong to be in love with certain people even if fate decided upon it. She didn’t want to know. She was tired and upset and confused. It felt that her life had been turned upside down.

“Does that bother you?” Remus asked, and if it had been anyone else Shiori would have assumed that she was asking ‘why is that a problem?’ But in this context, it was genuine. Remus wanted to know if it bothered Shiori that that had happened because the relationship in question had been same sex. And Shiori wanted not to think about her answer, but she already knew it.
“Yes. It… It’s not right. If fate decides it then it isn’t for anyone else to intervene, right? But I’m scared. If they did that to my uncle Alphard because of his bond with my father, then what will they do to my soulmate? I don’t know who they are yet, but… My parents keep making me write home to tell them if I’ve worked anything out. They said if I don’t write they’ll make me come home. What if they put the curse they used for Alphard on me? What if I get sick? What if my soulmate gets sick? I… I just wanted to have a relationship where I would be happy.”

Remus’s arm was around her shoulder in seconds as Shiori’s small sobs and leaking tears exploded into floods, the dam inside her finally breaking. She leaned into the touch, desperate for the comfort of it, desperate to be known as she truly was rather than the person she kept trying to be to gain approval. She felt raw and miserable and she didn’t want to hide that. She knew that with Remus, she didn’t have to.

“There’s nothing wrong with two men or two women being together,” Remus reassured her, speaking into Shiori’s hair. Shiori listened as best as she could between new waves of tears. “Sometimes it just happens. I don’t know if you noticed but, the poems by Sappho you’ve been reading are definitely not talking platonically about the other women. In the end, you love who you love. Maybe others won’t accept it, but… I’ll always be here for you, no matter what.”

Shiori frowned, thinking back on the poems by Sappho she had read. She had been so focused on translating it and getting a better feel for the rhythm of the poems that she hadn’t considered what they were really trying to say.

“And her light, stretches over salt sea, equally and flowerdeep fields. And the beautiful dew is poured out, and roses bloom and frail, chervil and flowering sweetclover.”

Remus stared at Shiori for a long moment, pulling back from their hug to do so. Her face bloomed into a smile.
“You memorised it?”

Shiori blushed and looked away.
“I thought it was good.”

Remus laughed softly and patted Shiori’s shoulder, sitting back more comfortably. The other girl had relaxed a degree or two, and she was glad that she had been able to help. She herself had struggled with the same kind of thoughts – they ‘why isn’t that okay?’ and ‘is it wrong to feel this way?’. In the end she had given up on it. She felt what she felt, and it didn’t do any damage as long as it was kept inside where no one could see. Maybe she had exposed that part of herself to Shiori now but given the circumstances she figured her secret was safe with the other.

“As soon as I glance at you a moment, I, can’t say a thing, and my tongue stiffens into silence, thin, flames underneath my skin prickle and spark, a rush of blood booms in my ears, and then, my eyes go dark,” Remus returned without a hitch, knowing the poem off by heart. Shiori looked up at her as she said it, listening to the lilt of her voice and feeling herself calming. For some reason the words felt so sincere to her.

“Remus, I…” she started, then stopped. How would she know what to say? “I don’t know if you know this or if I’m being weird but… How do you know when you have feelings for someone?”

Remus seemed surprised at the turn in the conversation and began to blush. The last time Remus had read that poem in the privacy of her own bed, she had thought of Shiori and had felt her heart pick up the pace so sharply that she had had to put the book down. She was trying so hard to avoid all of these thoughts about her best friend, but no matter where she looked, they kept on coming back. So how did one know when they had feelings for someone? Remus had seen so many signs of her feelings for Shiori, but how could she express them without giving everything away?

“I’m not certain to be honest. It changes for everyone. But for me, it’s like… You want to be around them all the time. You feel warm when they’re there and cold when they’re not. It always feels like you’re looking for them or thinking of them. You want to look after them and make sure they’re okay. You do everything you can to be a good friend to them and you… You know you would do anything. Anything at all to make them happy.”

Shiori hung her head a little, resting her chin on her knees again. She ruminated on what Remus had said; it resonated within her. She understood those feelings so keenly. So Shiori really did have someone she liked… And she knew it was Remus. She knew that these strange tugs and pulls and sudden bouts of neediness were all linked to Remus. Did that mean Remus was her soulmate?

Shiori wasn’t stupid. She knew that the answer was most likely yes, but she couldn’t accept it so easily. She was scared. If she told Remus, she didn’t know how she would react. What if she ran away, or was disgusted? What if her kindness about what they had talked about before had just been to make her feel better? What if, what if, what if.

“Remus… Do you have someone you like?”

Remus looked at Shiori so sharply that her neck cracked, and she rubbed at it awkwardly. She hadn’t thought that Shiori would ask something like that. Suddenly, she was faced with two options: she could be honest, and accept that Shiori might ask her who, or she could lie. Remus didn’t want to lie, but she was worried that Shiori would press her for answers and everything would come tumbling out. She didn’t know how Shiori would react to the whole truth. Even so, the look on Shiori’s face was so open and helpless. Remus couldn’t lie to her. Not about this.

“I, um. Yes. I do have someone I like just now.”

Shiori only nodded and didn’t push the conversation further. She could sense discomfort on Remus and figured that this was a pretty awkward conversation to have, even if they were close by this point. Instead, she just looked out at the setting sun and wondered what she was going to do.

-

Marlon accosted Shiori outside of the dormitory building on her way back from extracurriculars with a knowing look on his face. It was like he just knew when some development had taken place and had to get the details as quickly as possible. Shiori figured he was just a huge gossip.

“So, you’ve talked to Remus by now, right? She knows?”
“Knows what?” Shiori grumbled, tired and stressed. Everything had been getting to her these last few days since her and Remus’s conversation. She just wanted to hide in bed all of the time. Marlon rolled his eyes at her.
“That she’s your soulmate,” he stated, as if it should be obvious, and Shiori pulled a face and shook her head rather than replying. That seemed to give Marlon pause for a second, and then his face broke out in a knowing smile. “You know it’s her, don’t you? You’re certain of it.”

Sighing, Shiori looked down at her feet. So much had pointed towards Remus being her soulmate that it had been the only logical answer, but she was still worried that she might have misread this. Even so, she knew that Marlon wasn’t going to tell anyone. Even if he was a serial gossip, he had made good on his promise to not tell anyone about Shiori’s soulmate or his theories on the matter. The two had hung out often enough that she trusted him entirely.

“Well, there’s been a few things since the mask,” Shiori explained in hushed tones. She didn’t want to risk anyone hearing her; she doubted anyone else would be kind enough not to spread rumours about whatever they might have managed to eavesdrop on. “She can hold the flowers. You know, the ones that happen when she’s far away… She came back to school and picked them up and they didn’t turn to ash like they did when my little sister held one. And… sometimes when she’s gone, I feel like I need to go to her. I don’t sleep well and it’s like… I feel some kind of urge. I don’t know what it is exactly, but it’s so strong. I can’t resist it.”

Marlon hummed and nodded, nibbling on his lip as he thought. Frowning a little, he turned to Shiori.
“How often does she leave the school? She only visits her mum once a month.”

Shiori looked up at him with a raised brow, crossing her arms over her chest.
“And how would you know that?” she asked, and Marlon snorted.
“Because my dad’s in the same hospital. He’s in the same ward as Remus’s mum, just not in a private room. They get along pretty well, actually. And my dad always asks after Remus. Hope won’t let Remus visit more than once a month, because she wants Remus to study well.”

It was Shiori’s turn to frown. If Remus wasn’t going to visit her mum twice a month, where was she going in between the hospital visits? Why would she lie? Marlon patted her on the shoulder and smiled almost sympathetically.

“I don’t know why she lied, but she definitely doesn’t go to the hospital twice a month. Maybe work out if there’s a significant day of the month that she’s going when she doesn’t go to see her mum. It might help.”

-

The full moon came around again and Shiori didn’t attempt to sleep this time. Instead, she lay in bed wide awake listening to Leiko and Euna snoring. Everything was in place. Shiori didn’t pray, but she had been praying for lightning that night so that she could get all of this over and done with. In the previous few days she had secured everything she needed: she had stolen a vial, a silver spoon, a dead-head hawk moth chrysalis and had located a place where the dew was never touched for 7 days by sunlight or human feet. It would all go well. The humidity had been oppressive in the last two days, and a storm was due to come. The clouds had been brewing it throughout the day and Shiori had watched it with nerves and anticipation. She wanted to do this as fast as possible. She was not a patient person.

As soon as she was certain that Leiko and Euna were deeply asleep, Shiori stood and retrieved her materials from the locked box under her bed. She piled everything into her robe pockets and rushed from the room less carefully than usual in her hurry, though neither of her present dorm-mates stirred. She crossed out into the rays of the moon and held the vial up to them, looking at the silver light reflecting from the glass before bringing it to her mouth. Finally, she could get rid of this mandrake leaf.

Shiori spat the mandrake leaf, by now almost pulpy for the fact it was only just holding together, into the vial. Then she plucked a hair from her head and slid it in alongside, wrinkling her nose at the mixture. Now it was time for the dew, and she walked slowly over the grass until she found the place she had been thinking of – the patch of grass in the very corner of the cliff face, which protected the grass from the sun. No one had stood there, and no sun had touched it. With the silver spoon, Shiori knelt down carefully and collected a teaspoon of the dew, which in itself was a gruelling task. She worked at it until it also entered into the vial. Finally was the chrysalis, and she dropped it in and watched the whole concoction fizz for a moment, the components working together to form bubbles and foam. She didn’t like the idea of drinking this, but it would be better if she could get it over and done with.

The earth seemed to heed her call, and the first strike of lightning hit the earth almost as soon as she had stoppered the vial. Shiori look about her for the best place to drink this, and decided it was only right that she do it right here, in the place where she and Jameela had spent hours scheming on silly things like this. She didn’t know how long it would take for Jameela to be able to finish the process of becoming an animagus – she had already failed once when kissing Lily ‘for practice’ and accidentally getting the leaf in the other girl’s mouth. Apparently, Lily hadn’t been overly impressed. Smiling at the thought, Shiori took a deep breath and removed the vial’s stopper again. She would do it as quickly as possible so that she wouldn’t have to think about what she was drinking too much.

Holding her cherrywood wand to her heart, Shiori steeled herself.

“Amato Animo Animato Animagus.”

The mixture tasted terrible and felt even worse in her mouth than she had expected, and Shiori found herself gagging. She forced her mouth to stay closed and managed to push everything down her throat with sheer force of will, determined that her month of hard work had not been for nought. Once all of the potion had been swallowed, she took a deep breath. Jameela said that she just had to focus on being her animagus form, that she just had to will it and it would happen.

So that’s what Shiori did. She thought of her patronus and she thought of becoming that patronus and then the next second, she was closer to the ground and her weight was distributed differently and the world was painted in entirely different hues. She didn’t have to look at herself to know that a huge black dog would be staring back.

The feeling of being a dog was strange – the movements were far different, even if they immediately felt natural considering that she was in the right form for it. When Shiori thought about it, the idea that her joints were now different shapes kind of freaked her out. But the most noticeable difference was the howling in the back of her mind, the cry of something she had to protect, to help, coming incessantly from somewhere not too far from here.

The dog took off without thought, knowing that it was being called to. Shiori was acutely aware that whoever it was, they were in pain. She ran as fast as possible, in a way she had never ran before, and soon found herself past a familiar copse of trees and in front of a circle of bamboo. Shiori bared her teeth at the bamboo slightly, remembering the cuts it had caused on her hand, and stalked towards the bamboo. Whatever, or whoever, was in there needed her help and she would help them.

Somehow, the bamboo seemed to respond to this. Shiori watched with wide eyes as the bamboo bent and warped to make space for her, though she didn’t hesitate for long enough that the bamboo had the chance to change its mind. She didn’t know what she was doing here, but she knew that she was in the right place. She eyed the ramshackle house in front of her and padded up to it, looking around her for signs of the source of the howling. It was coming from inside, and she transformed back into human form so that she could unlock the door and go in.

There was a second room, and by the furious thumps and scratching from inside, that’s where this poor creature was. Shiori shuddered at the thought of being trapped in a room like that all the time; that was a punishment her parents had used on her once, keeping her in the room for nearly 24 hours. By the end she had been a shivering, shaking mess, crying and begging to be let out of the dark. Innately, Shiori knew she couldn’t go into that room in her human form. She knew that she had to go inside as an animagus, even though she didn’t know why. Biting her lip, she undid the manual locks and cast spells to undo wards. As the door burst open, Shiori transformed herself into the dog and leapt at whatever was coming crashing out at her.

The wolf was massive and covered in tawny fur. Shiori seemed small next to it, and yet she remained steadfast. This wolf seemed hugely familiar and yet she couldn’t put her finger on it. Shiori looked into the wolf’s eyes before dropping her gaze, suddenly sheepish. That was impolite, wasn’t it? She didn’t know a lot about canine behaviour.

The wolf at first as hostile, but then it became curious as it realised Shiori wasn’t a threat. It sniffed at her, noticing that she was unusual – she didn’t smell quite human or dog – before allowing Shiori to return the favour.

The wolf smelled of chocolate and firewood. Shiori was drawn in to the familiar smell, and found herself nuzzling up to the wolf, surprised that it was letting her. There was some hint of a scent like an old book, but it was indistinct. Everything seemed hazy as she learned how to navigate dog behaviour.

Shiori thought back to the interaction her patronus had had with Remus’s and remembered how her patronus had acted. The wolf patronus had responded well to that, so maybe this wolf would as well…? Tentative, Shiori lay down on her back and bared her neck and stomach, watching the wolf covertly as it began to sniff at her. Then, after a long moment, the wolf lay down next to her, curled partially around her. Shiori couldn’t resist the temptation; the wolf was so big and warm and soft with its masses of fur. Before she knew what she was doing, sleep was taking her, and the world was fading to black.

Shiori fell into the best sleep she had had in weeks that night, curled on the floor as a dog.

-

Morning came, or so it seemed. Shiori woke up as soon as light touched her face through one of the dusty windows, and she knew immediately that something was different. She wasn’t in her bed, and in fact she wasn’t even on any bed at all… She had fallen asleep on the floor somewhere and there was a warmth running up the length of her back that was unfamiliar to her but comforting.

Opening her eyes slowly, Shiori glanced around her to take in her surroundings. Things started to come back to her; she had successfully transformed into an animagus for the first time, and she had found the bamboo from before, but this time she had managed to get through it. Inside had been a wolf, and the wolf had been friendly after a while… And then she had slept.

But this wasn’t a wolf at her back. It wasn’t furry at all, and Shiori shifted a little to get better idea of what was behind her. She was still sleepy, and everything was taking longer to process. Instead of just turning her head to find out, she found herself slipping back into sleep until a hoarse voice spoke to her.

“Shiori?”

Shiori nearly jumped out of her skin, rolling away from the voice so quickly that she bumped into the wall and groaned, cupping the back of her head. Lying on the floor across from her, covered in bruises and scratches, was Remus Lupin, completely naked. Shiori’s face grew hot at an alarming rate and she averted her gaze, trying to work out where to put her eyes.

“Why are you naked?!” Shiori asked, voice indignant as she tried to work out what the hell was going on. Remus looked entirely panicked now that the situation had settled in for her; her secret was out. Shiori was going to be terrified of her and run away.
“Do you remember what happened last night?” Remus asked instead of answering, because she knew that if Shiori could remember that then everything would make sense.

Shiori thought back to the wolf and linked it to the current moment, taking the longest minute that Remus had ever endured. And then, her eyes widened, and she sat up from the cool wooden floor.

“I should have known. I can’t believe I didn’t work it out. You’re a werewolf.”

Remus sighed and nodded, looking down at her lap after she too sat up. She was so scared of what Shiori would say about it that she could hardly stand to look in the other girl’s direction. And yet, no insults or fear came her way. Shiori didn’t scramble to get up and run away. She just sat there, looking at Remus who was still in a state of undress, and let everything fall into place.

“You went away every full moon, and I always woke up. I felt like I had to be here… I started walking you back to the castle after you left here, which is how I knew where you were last night… I wanted to make sure you were safe. You always looked like you were in so much pain. And… You were.”

Remus gawped at Shiori, confused by the direction this conversation had taken.
“So you’re the okuri-inu?” she asked, and Shiori tilted her head.
“You thought… You think I’m a yokai?” Shiori asked, and Remus shook her head quickly.
“No, no, I just thought that you were an okuri-inu… You know, the protective kind. I knew something was following me…”
“Oh! Um… Yes, that was me,” Shiori admitted, embarrassed that she had been caught. Remus smiled wearily, pushing her hair from her face.

“Do you need me to do anything? It looks so painful,” Shiori asked, and Remus smiled a little.
“It’s actually the easiest transformation I’ve had in a long time. I… Well. Why are you here, anyway? You should be afraid. Werewolves aren’t friendly creatures, as a rule.”

Shiori pursed her lips and looked closely at Remus, wondering why she would ask something like that.

“You were plenty nice, and… Werewolf or not, you’re my friend. I… Um. I didn’t actually realise what I was doing. I came here more as a compulsion.”

Remus sighed and shook her head. Why did Shiori have to be so reckless? She could have gotten badly hurt. Remus never would have forgiven herself.

“How did you even get in?” she asked, pressing on. Shiori once more looked sheepish and scratched the back of her neck.
“Um, it’s maybe easier to show you,” she explained, standing up and focusing. She was hoping that it hadn’t been a one-time fluke and that she wouldn’t look like a total idiot, standing here frowning and doing nothing. And then she was looking at Remus and Remus was looking at her in total shock, and Shiori realised that she was lower down than before and that she was on all fours and she knew it had worked.

“You… What? When did you do this? And why? Are you authorised to do this?” Remus asked, but more than anything it seemed that raw emotion was coursing through her and Shiori changed back into human form and crawled over to sit next to her.
“I kept noticing connections between myself and dog yokai, or dogs in general, I guess. Like the patronus, and the masks in divination… I felt drawn to those things. And I thought that maybe it would be fun to become an animagi, since it’s difficult so it would be a challenge. But moreover, it was so that I could, um… It made me feel closer to you. Because even when I didn’t know about this, I felt like… With the masks… And how our patronuses acted…”

Shiori took a deep, gulping breath.

“Remus, I think you’re my soulmate. When you visit your mum and when you come here for transformations, I wake up to flowers in my bed. When you’re with me I don’t see any flowers at all. You’re the only person who has not killed the flowers by touching them, as far as I know, and… Um… It’s like everything in me is pulling me towards you.”

Remus stared at Shiori, dumbstruck. She didn’t know how to reply. Was this happening? Was it some kind of dream? It was a cruel dream, if that was the case; everything that she had wanted to hear from Shiori and everything that she had wanted to tell Shiori, all wrapped up in one neat package. And yet the earnestness in Shiori’s eyes and the way her hands were shaking were so realistic. She knew in her heart that this was real, but it was so hard to believe…

Remus had hoped that she was Shiori’s soulmate but figured her reasons for feeling that way were selfish. After all, she had feelings for Shiori, so it only made sense that she’d hope their relationship was fate. Even so, every time that came to mind, she had pushed it aside. It wouldn’t help to get too hopeful, and Shiori was her only friend in Mahoutokoro at the moment, so she didn’t want to scare her away…

That was the issue with Remus. She was always too cautious. Too scared of scaring people. She had considered herself a monster since she was a child, and now she took that so seriously that she felt that, no matter what day of the month it was, she would inspire fear in people. That her scars and her mannerisms and her lycanthropy meant she wasn’t safe for anyone, and certainly not palatable. But Shiori had been cautious for three months and now she had worked up the guts to tell Remus what she felt. She had confessed to her. And Remus was left reeling.

“But… I don’t know how we can be together,” Shiori went on, shaking more now. Remus felt herself grow cold and saw that her dream seemed to be peeling at the edges. “My parents… They don’t approve of same sex relationships, and I told you what they did to their own flesh and blood when they wanted to keep everything that happened a secret. I’m… I’m so scared that you’ll get hurt because of me. I couldn’t bear it. It… It hurts, sometimes, when you hurt. And I don’t want that for you. They say that my family is… That they’re all crazy. And they’re right. I don’t even know how I could keep you safe if my parents found out…”

Despite the pain behind Shiori’s words, Remus felt herself being flooded with warmth and love. Shiori was trying to keep Remus at a distance for Remus’s own safety. She was thinking of Remus before she thought of her own happiness. And after years of having no meaningful friendships, the only person she could call a true friend her own mother, Remus wouldn’t take that for granted. It meant so much to her.

“Then let’s leave. If you need to get away from your parents, and I want to get away from my dad… We could leave. I don’t know where we can go, but… We can get in contact with my mum and Rin eventually, right? We could find somewhere to go. Somewhere that we could be together.”

Remus didn’t know where the idea had come from, but it had entered her mind fully formed. Shiori was staring at her with wide eyes, wondering what had gotten into the soft spoken and careful Remus, the one who had kept Shiori on the rails for the past few months whenever she had tried to fly of them. But even if it was crazy, Shiori wanted that. She wanted to run from everything that was scaring her and experience something with Remus that otherwise would have been decimated by her parents’ cruelties. Seeing that glint of determination in Remus’s eye was encouraging, and…

Shiori had never really needed a good reason to do something, anyway. It was just because it was fun.

-

Yamamoto knew something had happened when she entered her classroom the next morning. There was a disruption of some sort in the atmosphere, and she frowned. It wasn’t a strictly negative feeling, but it was significant. She searched the corners of the school with her mind, wondering what it could be.

“Yamamoto-sensei, please help. Two students are missing, and two others have been petrified.”

Yamamoto looked up at the frantic Prefect, before smiling serenely. It all made sense.

“I’ll be right there,” she agreed lightly, and as the student left, she stood up from her desk. Going to the cupboard where she kept all her artefacts, she opened it to confirm what she already knew. Both the dog and wolf masks were missing, a small note left in their place.

Thank you for your support. We’ll be safe.

Yamamoto smiled a little and shook her head, turning over the note in her hand. So, they had petrified Leiko and Euna and made a getaway… Well, that was good. Though it was just typical that in doing so they had to steal some of her favourite artefacts. She tsked under her breath and shut the cabinet, locking it again. She wouldn’t tell anyone what she knew.

-

“Mum, dad, this is Shiori and Remus.”

Priyanka and Fleamont smiled widely, glad to finally meet Shiori and Remus in person. Lily and Jameela hovered in the background with their pinkies linked, waiting for Jameela’s parents to finish smothering Shiori and Remus in hugs and greetings and questions about their wellbeing.

Shiori caught Remus’s glance over Priyanka’s shoulder and smiled. Everything would be fine.

-

Hope Lupin passed away peacefully in her sleep. A figure stood by her side, reading her fairy tales and poems that she had always loved. Her scars shone in the light of the crescent moon, and Hope let her eyes shut one last time with a thankful breath.

-

Rin received a package. It had been a long time since she had returned from Hogwarts, and her parents were trying to organise a marriage for her. Just yesterday she had found a violet down the back of her yukata, but she had kept it secret and hidden it under her pillow.

The package was brought by the youngest servant, who gave her a furtive smile as she passed it to her. Rin frowned at her strange attitude and sat on her bed, removing something cold and smooth from the large envelope.

She held a mirror in her hands, then, that at first only seemed to show her face and then began to glimmer around the edges of her own reflection. A different pair of eyes looked back at her, a face so like hers and yet so different. A face she hadn’t seen in over a year now.

“I miss you.”

Shiori smiled. “I’m here. When you’re ready, I’ll be here.”