Chapter Text
CHAPTER 1: THE BEGINNING - GENJI
Genji Shimada had never been more excited in his eleven years of life. Today, he would prove himself worthy of being a Shimada; he would join the centuries long legacy of honour, nobility, and pride that his father expected of him. He would wear the green of House Slytherin, just as every Shimada had before him, the green already on his brother's tie.
But more than that, more than just anything Genji would be in the same house as Hanzo. His brother and best friend, or at least they used to be best friends until Hanzo had started at Hogwarts just two years earlier. But never mind that. It was about change; they would be as they had always been, just as soon as Genji was placed in Slytherin. Which was going to happen. Genji just knew it; he hadn't even considered the possibility of anything else; he was just like Hanzo, so of course, he'd be a Slytherin. They were going to study in the common room side by side and play games of wizard's chess together. He could already see the next five years of his life by his brother's side. The only thing in Genji's way was one train ride, one train ride, and the past two lonely years would become a distant and faded memory.
The Hogwarts express filled Genji's vision; it was a beautiful scarlet engine that belonged in one of the picture books from his childhood. There were more people standing on platform 9¾ than Genji had probably ever seen in his life. There were hundreds of children, and each had their families there to say goodbye for another year of school. Many of the younger children were crying, and even some parents were tearing up as the time to board came closer and closer. So many parents had their children in warm embraces and were freely giving goodbye kisses to the children they were going to miss so much, it made Genji feel a little uncomfortable. He wondered if his mother would have been sad to see him leave for a year, would she have held his hands and choked on emotion as she told him she was so proud and would miss him so much. The mother in his head would have, the one he saw in the echoes of his memories, the smile and warm eyes, she would have. He tried to push thoughts of her aside, it wouldn't change anything to dwell upon a woman he'd barely known.
Beside Genji was Hanzo, already in his immaculate school robes; he was standing stiffly listening to their father lecturing him on making sure Genji would not make a fool of himself. Genji was only half paying attention as Sojiro and Hanzo had had the same conversation too many times to forget over the last summer, most recently, just the night before. Genji had never quite had the same gift of staying out of trouble that came so naturally to Hanzo, so his father was worried he'd do something stupid in front of the heirs to the other pureblood families. It was a reasonable worry if Genji was honest, he knew just how much trouble he could cause, but he was determined not to mess up this time.
Somewhere, a whistle was blown, and Sojiro inclined his head towards the train. "Be quick about it now; we do not want it to seem like you are in a hurry." He snapped with all the disdain he frequently directed at his youngest son. Genji quickly followed behind Hanzo's brisk pace towards the train dodging between the crowd that seemed to almost part before his brother. As he stepped aboard the train, he turned to where his father had been standing, a goodbye already on his lips, but his father had already gone and his sentence died in his mouth. Genji turned back around and followed his brother with a slight frown, though he hadn't truly expected anything else of his father.
The inside of the train was just as sleek and beautiful as the outside, and Hanzo led him down the corridor towards a compartment near the front of the train, inside there were at least three boys all in Slytherin robes. The only one Genji recognised was the extremely intimidating Akande Ogundimu. The boy was a third year like Hanzo and had briefly visited the Shimada estate over the summer, his family, like the Shimadas, was of an ancient, pureblood line, as such Sojiro was more than pleased Hanzo had befriended the boy. Akande was tall and muscular, and despite only being 14 already had a rather deep voice. As Hanzo sat beside his friend Genji stood awkwardly at the doorway unsure of what to do. " Hanzo, are you really going to allow your brother to sit with us?" Akande asked accusingly.
Genji looked Hanzo hopefully but his brother just raised his eyebrows and shrugged, " Go on brother find somewhere else to sit, I'm not here to chaperone,"
Genji gaped at his brother for a few seconds before one of the other boys in the compartment slid the door into place, leaving Genji alone in the corridor. He turned and stormed towards the back of the train in desperate search of an empty compartment, if he couldn't sit with Hanzo then he wanted to be alone. It was all Akande's fault really, if it weren't for him and his other friends then Hanzo would have surely let Genji sit with him, but that's okay, Genji knew he would have plenty of time to spend with Hanzo once they got to school. It wouldn't take Hanzo long to remember that Genji was much more fun to be around them stupid Akande, Genji just had to wait a little longer that was all.
It didn't take long for Genji to find an empty compartment, the train hadn't even started yet. He sat down with a sigh right next to the window, and watched as more students made their way onto the train. He tried not to look at the parents smiling, or the younger siblings waving frantically. Instead he stared into the middle distance, seeing the door shut him out and his brother's expression of nonchalance. Over and over again.
The click of the compartment door opening made Genji jump, he turned and saw a group of students, they must have been first years like him as they did not have any house colours yet. The boy at the front of the group shifted his weight from leg to leg for a while before being nudged by someone behind him, he cleared his throat and said, " Hi, I don't suppose you'd mind me an' my new friends sitting here, would ya? Everywhere else seems to be a bit busy. "
Genji shrugged and turned back to the window, but he could hear the other boy enter the compartment along with, he supposed, the boy's friends.
Genji could hear the others whispering to each other but he tried to ignore it, but as the train started to move one of the others in the compartment started to speak, " Hello!" The girl said cheerfully "Do we all want to introduce ourselves? I can start, I'm Angela Zeigler, pleasure to meet you."
Genji turned to look at the girl, Anglea, she had hair so pale blonde it was almost white, stormy blue eyes and she was smiling at him kindly.
Next to Angela sat another girl, this one with long brown hair, " I'm Brigitte Lindholm, I've known Angela for years but it's nice to meet you two " she gave a pointed look at both Genji and the other boy.
"And I'm Cole Cassidy," the other boy said with a wink.
The three of them looked at Genji waiting for him to respond, "I'm Genji" he said reluctantly, but that was enough. It didn't take long for the three of them to start a conversation about what they were most excited about, to start with Genji tried not to take notice but they kept asking questions to include him and quite soon Genji was chatting with them happily.
Over the journey the discussion of topic varied significantly, to start with the four of them discussed what house they wanted to be in, Genji proudly declared that he would be in Slytherin just like his brother. He learned that Anglea was probably going to be a Ravenclaw, she wanted to go onto healing apparently. Ravenclaw was a reasonable house Genji supposed, they were smart and some of his fathers friends had been in Ravenclaw. Cole didn't really know much about the houses and wasn't at all sure where he'd end up, a fact which baffled Genji. He hoped Cole wasn't one of those muggleborns his father often complained about, they were a detriment to magical society and Genji knew he wasn't supposed to interact with them but Cole seemed nice so he decided not to ask, for now. Brigitte wanted to be a Griffindor like her uncle or a Hufflepuff like her mum, neither seemed like good options to Genji.
He and Brigitte discussed quidditch, she seemed to be the only other one interested in the sport, so they eagerly talked about which professional team they liked best and which position they wanted on the house teams even if they wouldn't be able to join for at least another year. Brigitte wanted to be a beater, she said she liked to be able to look out for her team, Genji much preferred the idea of being a seeker, he thought it was the most challenging position that required speed and precision. The glory of catching the golden snitch was also appealing, he could see it now everyone cheering his name when he caught the snitch and assured the Slytherin team the house cup.
It surprised Genji when the train eventually stopped, that he hadn't really had much time to think about his brother. He decided that Cole, Brigitte, and Anglea were pretty cool and even if they didn't end up with him in Slytherin he would still talk to them from time to time. As the four of them made their way off the train Genji's excitement only grew, it wouldn't be long now until all of his dreams came true.