Hotoke stood silently in the entrance hall with the rest of the first years. Why his father hadn’t allowed him to stay at Mahoutokoro instead of dragging him here where he had no friends baffled him. Not that he was allowed to have friends at home because of his status as part of the imperial family. It wasn’t like his father paid much attention to him anyway. Vi paid more attention to him than their father ever had. Vi always said it was because he looked like their mother. He supposed that was true. His skin was the same shade of coppery sienna that hers had been. Even his facial structure was more reminiscent of hers. His eyes had the typical slant that was a common inheritance amongst his imperial family but they were far more expressive, or so Vi said. His hair, like Bastian’s, was kept long and was dark in color. He was so lost in thought that had someone not run into him, he would have missed the sorting.

Hotoke made his way between two of the long house tables with the other kids. He didn’t pay attention to much, as he was scanning the tables for Vi. When he didn’t see her, he sighed in disappointment. She tended to avoid places like this because of her abilities. Not that he understood much about her abilities; he just knew that she was volatile.

“Oda, Hotoke!” The elderly matron with green robes and pointed hat called.

Hotoke made his way to the rickety stool and took a seat. The matron placed a beaten up hat upon his head.

Ah a transfer student from our sister school Mahoutokoro, the hat said. I haven’t seen a student from there in many years.

“The student was probably my father,” Hotoke told it.

Yes! Ryuunosuke Oda was a wonderful addition to Ravenclaw during his time here.

“Why am I not surprised,” Hotoke muttered.

And what’s this? Ties to Ilvermony!

“That would be my mother,” Hotoke sighed annoyed.

Ah yes, interesting. Very interesting.

“Are you going to sort me or not?” Hotoke demanded. “It’s been at least 2 minutes!”

Well I don’t make any placement lightly. Seems like one of your siblings has already been sorted.

“Probably Bricriu,” Hotoke said rolling his eyes. “Vi would likely not be overly fond of being around this many people with her abilities.”

Abilities she must hide.

“Among other things,” he murmured.

And you help her hide.

“When I can, yeah. Not like it’s easy when Ojiisan literally hunts her down at every opportunity.”

I see. Loyalty and cunning. Bravery and ambition. But where to place you?

“Better to put me with my sister than her twin.”

But your sister has yet to be sorted.

“Doesn’t matter. She’s the epitome of a Slytherin. And that’s where I want to go.”

Then let it be SLYTHERIN!!

Hotoke practically ripped the hat from his head and shoved it at the matron. He then turned with a flourish, his robes shimmering in the process. Vi had taught him how to transfigure his clothes before they’d left Japan. He found a seat next to one of the older Slytherin students and waited for the rest of the first years to be sorted.

When the last new student had been sorted, the headmaster stood and began to address the students. Hotoke didn’t pay attention until he called Vi’s name. Hotoke smirked. Vi definitely wouldn’t like this. The headmaster called her name several more times before she finally flung the doors open.

“Seriously, how much longer are we going to have to wait?” The blonde beside him grumbled.

Hotoke laughed to himself and rolled his eyes. It was just like Vi to make everyone wait, especially when she had to be around so many people. Her particular abilities made it difficult for her to be around large groups of people. Hotoke knew how she felt to some extent. Though his abilities were nothing like hers, he still understood how difficult it was to be around a lot of people. He often got intense migraines if he was around people for too long.

He watched as his sister shoved the hat at the green robed matron and turned towards his table. As she turned, she transfigured her robes to a mix between Mahoutokoro’s and Slytherin. The magic she’d displayed was high level and an incredible show of power. Truthfully, she was far above most of the students here and he was at least two years ahead of the other first years. He sighed. Finally, they were allowed to eat. A few seats down from him Vi was transfiguring her drink into alcohol, most likely sake. Hotoke stared at the food. None of it looked the least bit appetizing. Everything was drowning in some sort of sauce.

“Are you going to eat?” The blonde to his left asked.

“How do you people eat this slop?” He countered. “Literally everything has a sauce covering it making it look less like food and more like slop for pigs. Seriously, would it kill you to have fresh food not covered in sauce? Gods would I kill for some sushi or sashimi!”

“Not from around here I take it?” The blonde chuckled.

Hotoke rolled his eyes and glanced at his sister. He nearly burst out laughing at the comical expression on the boy’s face to the right of her. The laughter died in his throat when she stood to make her way out of the hall. He knew by the look on her face she was at her limit for dealing with people. He went to reach out to her mind but was stopped when one of the professors stopped her.

Shit! He thought. This isn’t good.

He could tell she was close to losing control.

Vi! He called into her mind. Let me siphon off some of your magic! Please!

Hotoke, I’m ok, she whispered into his mind.

No you’re not! You’re past your limit! You have to let me siphon off some of the magic! We can’t afford to have you lose control right now. You know ojiisan is looking for any excuse to lock you away forever. Please! Let me help! It’s the only thing I can do to protect you. So let me protect you this time!

He heard his sister sigh.

Oh Hiro, don’t you know it’s my job to protect you? She asked him. I’m your big sister.

I know that! But this is the only thing I can do for you so let me do it!

Vi sighed again but he could feel her funneling her excess magic through their bond. At first, it was just a trickle. But the more agitated she became, the more magic that funneled through the bond. The more magic she funneled to him, the dizzier he got. A surge in magic like this was nothing new to him. He’d been funneling her magick into himself since he was in utero. Vi suspected it had something to do with the binding ritual their mother used on her and the fact it wasn’t completed properly. It went without saying that the ritual she’d used was dangerous when completed under ideal conditions. The fact their mother hadn’t had a sufficiently sized magical core or a sacrifice, made the ritual that much more dangerous to perform. Add to that, she’d been pregnant with Hotoke at the time and it was no wonder he was so connected to his sister’s magic. By the time she had left the Great Hall, he was sweating profusely and gripping his goblet to the point his knuckles were white.

“Hey, you ok kid?” A dark skinned older student asked him.

“Yeah. Fine. Just hate the way they always treat her.”

His words were clipped and forced through his teeth.

“Sounds like this has happened before,” the older student mused.

“More times than I can count,” he griped.

“Do you know the lady?” He asked eying Hotoke.

Hotoke was used to people looking at him strangely. It was part and parcel with being part of the oldest monarchy in the world. He hated that he was used to it.

“I should hope so,” Hotoke drawled at length. “She is my older sister after all.”

That had everyone nearby staring at him in disbelief.

“But you look nothing alike!” Another of the older students gasped.

Hotoke hummed in acknowledgement.

“She tells me I look like our mother,” he shrugged. “Wouldn’t know. The woman died giving me life and otōsan won’t talk about her and there are no pictures of her. Ojiisan is the only one who says anything about her, though honestly he’s just bitter about the fact that otōsan will be named heir to the throne so it’s not like I can trust anything he says.”

“Are you saying you’re royalty?” The dark skinned student across from him asked.

“Blaise!” A pug faced girl hissed. “That’s not how you should be addressing him if he is!”

“Please,” Hotoke sighed. “I’m the third son of the second prince. I’m not important enough to the monarchy to matter. Plus, I’m fed up with the formalities and the sycophants of the imperial court. I finally get to be a normal person so please don’t fucking use my title ever.”

Hiro! His sister admonished in his mind.

You can’t scold me when I fucking learned it from you! He countered.

“How were you able to transfigure your robes?” The student who’d been sitting to his sister’s right asked.

Hotoke slid his eyes over to the boy before answering.

“Please that’s easy,” he drawled taking a sip from his goblet. He promptly spat the liquid out. “Now I know why my sister transfigured this into sake.” He flicked his wrist and transfigured his goblet into a teacup full of matcha tea.

“No it’s one of the most difficult types of magic practiced,” the boy said.

Hotoke ignored him and took a sip of his tea. It wasn’t perfect but he didn’t expect it to be since he hadn’t prepared it properly himself.

“Are you saying you can do 6th year level magic?” The boy demanded.

“Quite the contrary,” he answered after another sip of tea. “I’m saying your magical education has be lacking. At Mahoutokoro, we are able to study all types of magic. Transfiguration may be difficult to you simply because you have not learned there are other branches of magic far more advanced and difficult. I have been studying Druidic magic since I was 4. This means I had to learn Celtic because Druidic magic is passed orally and there are no written records of it making it nearly extinct. It also makes it one of the most difficult to learn because not only do you have to find a Druidic master WILLING to teach you, you also have to learn the language because the spells don’t work otherwise.”

“And you’ve been learning this since you were 4?” Hotoke had lost track of who was asking questions at this point.

“Hai,” he answered after another sip of tea. “My sister has been learning since she was 2 or 3. She says our mother’s people have their own branch of magic too. Not like we’d get to learn it even if we wanted to.”

“Why not?”

“Our mother was American, Comanche to be specific. Her family didn’t want her marrying our father so when she did it anyway she was cut off from her family. We’ve never even met her family. To be honest, I don’t think she kept in contact with them so it wouldn’t surprise me if they didn’t know about us or that she died.”

He took another sip of tea. Frankly, he didn’t even know why he was telling these people any of this.

“Hotoke, where’s Thana?” Bricriu asked taking a seat beside him.

“Why should I tell you where she is when you refuse to call her by the name she prefers?” Hotoke countered evenly over the rim of his teacup. “Besides that, why should I tell ojiisan’s spy?”

“I want to make sure she’s okay Hiro,” Bricriu sighed.

Hotoke didn’t answer. He just sipped his tea, letting his brother stew.

“Hiro I know you siphoned off her magic,” he hissed. “I felt it.”

Sometimes Hotoke forgot that they were twins. Originally, Bricriu was the one siphoning off Vi’s excess magic. But when their older cousin married a commoner, ojiisan took him from the family. Vi had just been showing signs of the curse at the time. Perhaps if Bricriu hadn’t been taken, their mother wouldn’t have bound Vi’s magic with that bloody ritual and gotten herself killed.

“You know as well as I do she cannot be around this many people without consequences,” Hotoke told him quietly taking another sip of his tea. “Perhaps one of my new housemates will be able to take you to her.”

“I can take you,” the boy she’d been sitting beside said rising.

Two others rose with him. The dark skinned one who he believed was called Blaise and another boy who was oddly silent throughout everything. Hotoke didn’t like him.

“Take him away so I can finish my tea in peace,” he grumbled with a flick of his wrist.

“Are you not worried about her?” Bricriu asked him rising.

Hotoke took a long sip of his tea before standing and facing his brother.

“Who said I wasn’t worried, brother?” He demanded crossing his arms over his chest. “Father didn’t have to drag us to this dreary place, he could have left us at Mahoutokoro. We’d have been perfectly fine there but he was insistent on us coming, not like he’d looked at me when he came to collect us. Do you know why he’s so insistent on us being here?”

Bricriu shook his head.

“Then you’re far denser than I ever thought you could be,” Hotoke scoffed.

“What?”

“The curse you flea brained hugger-mugger!” He snapped. “The motherfucking curse that has dictated all of our fucking lives.”

He drew a deep breath in through his nose and blew it out through his mouth just like Vi had taught him. With him siphoning off her excess magic, he needed to keep a level head lest he lash out and unleash the devastating power that his sister wielded on a daily basis. He reached for his tea, knowing that was the one familiar thing in this place that could calm him down. He finished the cup in one long swallow.

“Let’s go,” he sighed returning his cup to the table and turning away from his brother. “Something is not right.”