Chapter Text
Nagisa looked up in wonder as he walked into the Great Hall with Gou and the rest of his soon-to-be classmates; he’d never seen anything like it. The ceiling was a perfect image of the night sky. All the first years were muttering and whispering to each other, nervous and scared about what house they would be put in.
“I hope I get Gryffindor.” Gou confided as they walked past the Gryffindor table. She could see her brother, Rin, sitting at the far end with a grey-haired boy. “It’s my brother’s house.”
“I know, Gou-”
“Kou!” she protested.
“-I saw everyone this summer and they told me all about it.” The previous year had been so boring for Nagisa without Haru, Mako and Rin there with him. As soon as they stepped off the Hogwarts Express on the first day of the summer holiday he was there, hugging them and exclaiming loudly about how much he’d missed them all.
They reached the front then and a silence fell over all the students: first years and all other years alike. Nagisa knew he wouldn’t be called for a little while so he looked around a bit as the sorting hat sat on its stool and began singing. On the Slytherin table he could see Haru sitting by himself, reading and just generally oblivious to what was going on around him. Makoto was sitting with a bunch of Hufflepuffs and caught Nagisa’s eye, smiling and giving him a small wave when he’d made sure none of the teachers were watching. Nagisa couldn’t help but smile back and had to prevent himself from yelling ‘Mako-chan!’ He turned back towards the front just as the hat stopped singing.
A few spaces to his right was a boy who was very tall for his age. Nagisa recognised him from the train ride there; they’d shared a compartment as Nagisa and Gou couldn’t find anywhere else to go and there was only him and one other person in there already. Nagisa couldn’t help but notice how the boy’s hair was a very unnatural shade of blue – was his hair that colour before? – and made a mental note to himself to ask the boy about it later. People were being called out now and Nagisa fidgeted while he waited for his name to be called. He hadn’t out rightly said it, but he was nervous of what house he would get into. Although, he did have someone he knew in three of the houses and he highly doubted he would get put in Ravenclaw anyway, so he didn’t really have anything to worry about.
A few more minutes passed and the clapping for the previous person died down as his name was called. Sweat pooled lightly in his hands and he felt the gaze of everyone in the room as he sat on the stool. He could feel his heart speeding up, could feel the blood pumping through his veins but then suddenly it was over. Before the hat had even touched his head, it yelled ‘SLYTHERIN!’ and that was that. Nagisa broke into a shit-eating grin and skipped over to the Slytherin table as people threw him confused looks. No one expected someone like Nagisa, a bubbly, over-energetic kid, to be in Slytherin.
Haru cried out in surprise as Nagisa sat down practically in his lap and wrapped him in a surprisingly strong hug “Haru-chan!”
“Hello, Nagisa-kun. I’m very glad you’re in my house.” Haru had missed Nagisa as well. He might not be very sociable but Nagisa was one of his best friends, how could he not miss him? (Although he was just as shocked as everyone else at which house he’d been placed in: Haru would have guessed at Hufflepuff). But still, he was glad to have his friend there.
The rest of the names were called out: Gou got Gryffindor liked she wanted and the blue-haired boy (whose name was Rei) was Ravenclaw. When that was announced in a similar fashion to what happened to Nagisa, Nagisa proceeded to yell ‘Rei-venclaw! Get it? Because you’re Rei-chan!’ to which everyone laughed and from there Nagisa knew everything was going to be fine.
*
Gou couldn’t have been happier when she got placed in Gryffindor. She immediately bounded up from the chair and ran to sit with her brother to celebrate but he just ignored her in favour of his ‘cool older friends’. It didn’t matter though, because Gou knew her brother was proud, even if he didn’t say it. So instead she got up and decided to try and make some new friends by sitting with some of the other first year Gryffindors.
It turned out Gou was right, as later that evening when they were in the common room, Rin walked up to her and scooped her into the best kind of big-brother hug she could have asked for. It was strong and reassuring and - most importantly – conveyed the sense of pride her brother felt.
“I’m so proud of you,” He mumbled into the top of her head and she giggled as his breath tickled her ears.
“Thanks,” she replied, the tips of her ears turning red. Rin let go and coughed, slipping back out of big brother mode. “See you later, Rin.”Rin coughed once more.
“Bye, Gou.” With that, he turned around and walked briskly up the stairs until he was safely inside the dormitory walls.
“Aw, Matsouka-senpai, you do care about your sister!” came a voice from the opposite side of the room.
“Gah! Aiichirou, we talked about this! No more spying, it’s creepy!”
Nitori looked down in shame, “Sorry Matsouka-senpai. It won’t happen again.” Rin sighed exasperatedly and flopped gracefully onto his bed.
“ Sorry for snapping at you, Aiichirou, it’s just different having Gou and Nagisa here.” But to tell the truth, he was excited to see what the year would bring. He knew that now they were all reunited it was going to be amazing and he couldn’t wait.