The inevitable questions finally came three days later, from the first woman they’d met.

“Where did you three come from?” she asked, the third day after they arrived.

Teo, walking around the room in a shaky circle, jerked in surprise and lost his balance. Haru, however, didn’t even blink. “Home,” he replied, as if it should have been obvious. “It’s a pretty big island. Not sure exactly where, though.”

“Is that so?” she asked, eyeing them sharply over her glasses.

“Nobody leaves the island,” Haru explained. “It’s forbidden by the elders on both sides.”

“…on both sides?”

Zuko stood up and walked to the window. Haru was a better liar than he was, it made sense to let him do all the talking.

“There’s a civil war on the island,” said the older boy. “Nobody’s quite sure what started it, though.”

“…I’m sorry to hear that. You ran away?” Minerva McGonagall was not a stupid woman.

“…yes and no,” Haru said. “I ran. Teo here was entrusted into my care by his father.”

“And what about you?” she asked, turning to Zuko.

“I couldn’t do it anymore.”

“Zuko’s from the other side of the island,” Haru then explained. “We stuck together because it made surviving out there easier.”

“I see.” Thankfully, she didn’t press.

“We still don’t know how we got here, though,” the earthbender added then.

“…Really?” She considered a moment. “Would you please tell me what happened, as much as you know?”

“Well, Teo here spied a statue and wanted to get a look at it.”

“I couldn’t really get close to it,” the thirteen-year-old put in, “‘cause of my wheelchair. So Zuko and Haru picked me up and held me close so I could. I touched it, and then we were all… well, jerked to that forest.”

“…A Portkey, then.”

All three children — well, Haru and Zuko were both seventeen — stared at her. “A what?”

“…they don’t use Portkeys on your island?” she asked, arching an eyebrow. Without waiting for a response, she explained.

“We don’t use magic like you do,” Haru said once she was done. “It’s… more of a religious thing.” True if you looked at it from the left, tilted your head to the right, and squinted.

“…I see. Ah, that reminds me.” Out of her pocket, she pulled three letters out of a pocket and handed one to each boy.

“…uh. What does it say?” Haru asked, turning the parchment over as if it would make sense from a different angle.

“…You use a different script on your island. Ah. Well, then.” Minerva explained the alphabet to them.

Haru frowned. “So you use twenty-six characters? That’s… strange.”

“Our alphabet is phonetic,” she explained.

“So we have to learn your writing system before we can read these?” Teo asked.

“Yes.”

“…fun,” Haru declared at last. “Let’s get started, then.”

“If you need any help, please just ask me.”

Haru nodded, already studying the letter intently. Zuko did so with his, perched on the edge of his bed. It was Teo who asked for parchment, brushes, and ink so they could practise the shapes of the phonetic characters.

Minerva provided them willingly.

All three of the boys were quick learners; in only a few days, they were puzzling out the letters, more or less.

“…this word doesn’t make sense!” Teo complained. “What is a ‘Hogwarts’?”

“Why, that’s the school, dear,” one of the portraits told him, cheerfully.

Haru glared daggers at the portrait — damn it, pictures weren’t supposed to talk! — while Teo thanked it. “I guess it makes sense as a name…”

Zuko had wandered off again to drill in the meantime. He spent very little time in the room, something that annoyed Haru to no end. Until they had a better grasp of this place and its culture, the earthbender felt they ought to stick together.

The prince, however, seemed to feel that exploration and continued drilling were more important — either that, or he didn’t feel quite like one of them, and didn’t want to impose himself upon them. Or possibly both reasons. It was hard to tell.

Teo glanced at the earthbender. “…you can go find him if you want,” he offered. “You don’t need to baby-sit me all the time.”

Haru flushed slightly. “It’s not that I think you’re helpless, Teo—”

“I know that. We both fought on the Day of Black Sun.” The boy smiled wryly. “But you’re going nuts in here. Go find Zuko. I’ll be fine.”

He glanced at Teo, nodded, and slipped out of the room.

Given the confusing nature of the building — and the fact that not only the staircases, but also the doors, seemed unwilling to behave and stay where they were — it took Haru nearly an hour to find the room Zuko had taken over — and even that had taken some subtle earthbending to track the younger bender and some not-so-subtle earthbending to keep one of the staircases in place while he climbed. He came out of that one gasping; never before had stone actively fought him. At last though, he came across the room and rapped on the door.

After a short pause, Zuko pulled it open a crack. “Oh,” he said, recognizing Haru, and pulled it open a bit wider. He retrieved his shirt from the corner and pulled it back on. “What is it?”

“You think you’re the only one who needs to drill, Zuko?” asked Haru with a small smile. “C’mon — it’s nice outside. Not too hot. We can both practise non-bending combat out there.”

“…I don’t have practise swords here yet,” Zuko pointed out.

“So practise on a tree,” Haru countered. “Or we could both try unarmed.”

“…Fine.”

Haru led the prince outside and started doing some warm-up stretches while Zuko decided if he would spar with the earthbender or just beat up on a tree.

Apparently, he had decided on the latter, at least until Haru finished warming up.

After ten minutes, Haru shucked off his shirt. “So what’ll it be, Zuko?”

Zuko set his swords aside by way of answering.

The brown-haired man grinned, and lunged for the prince.

* * *

Two days later, Haru set his letter down. “So in short, we’ve all three of us been accepted to this magic school.”

Teo nodded — he’d figured his out while the older boys were sparring and refused to translate for them. “The second portion of the letter is a list of the supplies we’ll need.”

“Right,” Zuko said — for once, he was actually in their room during the day.

“There’s just one problem,” Haru said.

Teo blinked. “There is?”

The earthbender nodded to the lists. “Supplies cost money. And we don’t have any of this place’s currency.”

“…You’re right. Dammit,” the prince muttered.

“So we find a way to earn some!” Teo countered. “Place this big, there has to be something we can do!” He pushed himself to his feet, wobbled, and steadied himself.

“…right. But who do we ask about that?” Zuko asked.

“Professor McGonagall, of course,” Teo said, tapping the letters. “She signed them as ‘deputy headmistress’, which means she’s the second-in-command of this place.”

“…Right, then.”

“Then let’s try to find her,” Haru declared.

Zuko nodded.

Teo led the way, steadier on his feet than he’d been a week before. He’d decided to take the potion every Friday evening before bed, as a regulated schedule would lessen the likelihood he might forget. Zuko brought up the rear, retrieving his swords from the corner of the room on his way out.

It might have taken Haru or Zuko several hours to track down the professor, but Teo simply led them to the closest portrait — the one in their room had been removed at Haru’s insistence — and asked it where the professor might be found.

“In her office, of course,” the portrait, a rather snippy old man, informed them.

“We’re new here,” Teo explained patiently, his grin not dimming in the slightest. “Where would her office be?”

Just as snippily, he gave them directions.

“Thanks!” said the younger boy, leading Zuko and Haru away cheerfully.

“Portraits,” Haru said yet again, “should not talk.”

“Or should at least learn to keep their mouths shut around strangers,” Zuko replied.

“Yes, that too,” Haru agreed, keeping his voice low. “We’d be in trouble if certain people came across this place.”

The younger bender nodded emphatically.

“Perhaps they think the moving staircases and the stubborn doors are security enough?” Teo asked.

“No such thing,” Zuko declared.

“I did say ‘think’,” Teo muttered.

Haru ruffled his hair lightly. “Well, we’ve received no indications this place is at war, so we might be all right.”

“Here’s hoping,” Zuko said, almost inaudibly.

A few minutes later, they found the office; Teo knocked promptly.

Professor McGonagall answered the door immediately. “What is it?” she asked, after ushering the three boys in.

As usual, Haru acted as spokesman. “We were able to translate your letters,” he said, “and we noticed a problem.”

“Oh? What is that?”

“We don’t have any of the supplies required,” Haru replied. “Nor have we money to pay for them.”

She nodded. “The school has a fund to help you with that.”

All three young men stared blankly at her. “…charity?” Haru asked at last, sounding as if the word itself left a nasty taste in his mouth.

“I assume you had something else in mind?” she asked, arching an eyebrow.

“None of us are accustomed to charity,” Teo said then. “We were hoping you might have work for us to do in exchange for money.”

She considered for a moment, then nodded. “I’m sure we can find something for you three to do.”

Haru grinned. “Excellent!”

“Is there anything else you need?”

“…probably lessons on the currency you use,” Haru admitted, “but I can handle that much. My parents are merchants.”

“Very well, then.”

The earthbender bowed. “Thank you, professor.”

“You’re welcome.”

It was eventually decided that the boys could take care of the gamekeeper’s cottage while the man himself — Hagrid was his name — was away on business. Both Haru and Zuko noticed that they had not been told what kind of business, which left them suspicious. Given the state of the place, however, the labour involved was certainly worth every coin they earned.

And so, the next few weeks passed quietly, until there was less than a week left for them before term started. When they hadn’t been working, they were studying under McGonagall in order for them to catch up with the students their age — Haru and Zuko were far too old to like or accept being put in with eleven-year-olds, so it was imperative that they, at least, caught up. Fortunately for at least one of the classes, the professor left it alone — apparently there had been a several-year string of incompetent teachers in that class, so they would be better off starting fresh anyway.

Zuko applied himself to these lessons in his usual manner: if he beat it into himself long enough, eventually it would stick. Haru, on the other hand, quickly recognised his strengths and weaknesses — oddly enough for his being an earthbender, he had a certain knack for the subtler spells, and no talent at all for things such as Transfiguration. Both he and Teo excelled in Potions — in fact, Teo caught up to his year quickly, both because he had less work to do to catch up and because he really was quite smart. While Zuko and Haru continued their own catching up, he began struggling his way through a book called Hogwarts: A History.

“This is weird,” he commented one afternoon. “They divide the years into groups of four according to… I guess personality?”

“…What do you mean?” Zuko asked, looking up from the book he was working through.

“Well, according to this, the clever students go to Ravenclaw. The bold, daring ones go to Gryffindor. The cunning, sneaky ones go to Slytherin. And everyone else goes to Hufflepuff.” Teo frowned at his book. “Someone vandalised this book, though. They crossed through the bit about Slytherin and added ‘evil’.”

“…hopefully that’s just personal bias.”

“It could be,” said Teo, rifling through, “but the book also says that a majority of the Dark wizards also come from Slytherin.”

“Doesn’t mean anything,” Haru said. “Like you said, it seems to be by personality. Cunning and sneaky as personality traits also tend to walk hand-in-hand with ambition.”

“Ambition doesn’t always mean evil, though,” Zuko felt compelled to point out.

“True. But several people tend to view it as though it was,” Haru replied. “And with examples like Long Feng…”

The prince fell silent, suddenly very interested in the backs of his hands.

“My dad’s ambitious, too,” Teo pointed out.

Still Zuko said nothing, determinedly staring at his hands.

“Anyway, it doesn’t matter,” Haru said. “The only thing that worries me is that putting us in these Houses is an effective way of separating us.”

“Yeah…” Apparently, he’d rediscovered his tongue.

“Psh,” said Teo dismissively. “We’re friends, right? Putting us in separate Houses won’t stop that.”

Startled, Zuko glanced over at him, then hastily looked away again.

Haru laughed and ruffled Teo’s hair. “Yeah, you’re right. Hey, Zuko?”

“What?”

“Let’s keep up the sparring thing when the school year starts. We can teach Teo a bit, too.”

He nodded. “Good idea.”

“That’d be great!” exclaimed Teo happily, closing his book. “So when should we go shopping for our supplies?”

“Soon, probably. Term starts in four days,” Zuko pointed out.

“Tomorrow would be best, I think,” said Haru. “We get paid again then.”

The prince nodded. “All right, then.”

“Sounds like a plan!” Teo grinned at them both.

* * *

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Tags: avatar, crossover, fanfic, harry potter, magicbending