aiko's otter den

Quality of Hellos - Children are the best at saying hello. Or being told to, anyway.

Taiki has not met many wizards before.

Then again, he is seven, and one thing he is reminded of on his birthday is that the world is so much bigger than he is. So it is not a surprise that he’s now going to meet a lot of them at a stuffy party he dislikes on impulse. No mud or games or anything. Oh, certainly there will be other kids, but probably not many. He tugs at his clothes, at the coat that is only a little less itchy than when it was first worn. His mother adjusts with her dress collar, as though wishing to find a way to offend as many stuffy Western aristocrats as possible. Taiki toys with his dress shirt again, feeling stuffy and proper and wanting to cover it all in a nice layer of grass stains.

But his grandfather will kill him if he doesn’t look right in front of all these people, and over a ‘silly old anniversary fundraiser’ as his mother put it.

So it isn’t worth it.

Even though he is small, Taiki understands this much.

“Don’t sneeze Taiki,” he hears his mother say, finishing in attaching a silver earring around one of his ears. “There, should be fine. You haven’t learned enough English yet, or I’d just let you try without it, but even a while after the war, England’s wizards tend to be a prickly bunch.”

“Un.” He twiddles his thumbs, twitchy and bored.

She reaches over and musses his hair. “I know, you don’t like this much, but they have their traditions and we have ours. They could be much worse. During the war, there were a lot of scary things happening, remember?”

He does. He remembers the newspapers, the videos. He doesn’t understand them that well, but grandfather always makes a big fuss about them, those “Western wizards and their foolish pride”.

It’s a very odd thing for him to say but Taiki has no idea why.

He places a hand over the can his mother carries back to them, just like he was taught to do and his mother mimics. Then there is a hefty tug, and their house vanishes, taking them to a hotel ballroom. he stumbles briefly, deciding in that instant that he rather hates Portkeys.

As they stand out in the slight chill, Taiki looks to go inside and his mother stops him. “If you do well today, you’re going to go Core-Hunting over the summer.

“Really?” It takes every ounce of his self-control to not jump out of his shoes. “All right!”

“But remember,” Kudo Emiri says with a wink. “You have to not embarrass anyone. They do that enough for themselves.”

Taiki almost laughs, catches himself, and wears a solemn nod. “Yes, ma’am.”

“Good lad.” She switches on the device behind his ear and they walk together. He doesn’t mind his smallness so much now, because he can see near eye level with some of the creatures popping in and out of sight. “Oh, I forget they use house-elves here. Too cramped where we live, hey?”

Taiki nods. He supposes he would like someone else to do the cooking, but then he would never learn how and it’s nice to learn things. But that probably isn’t what his mother means.

“Ho, Emily!”

His mother’s eye twitches, likely at the bastardization of her name (he learned that word three days ago. He likes it a lot.). “Ho, the Savior of the World,” she says to the speaker, who chuckles, mussing his already untidy black hair. “What are you doing here? Aren’t only the obnoxious and traditional allowed to flaunt their dress robes?”

The man sighs. “Unfortunately, my friends and I are invited everywhere as ‘unsorted riffraff.’” Mom snorts and the man’s eyes are drawn down below. “Who’s the tyke?”

“My son, Taiki,” she said, motioning for him to step forward. Taiki does so and bows, watching the man’s eyes. “Taiki, this is that hero you kept having to hear about, Harry Potter.”

Taiki nods, filing that away because he knows it matters. “Is it fun being that tall?”

Harry seems taken aback, and laughs. “My friend Ron is worse. He’s like a basketball player, not that the guy knows what that is, really. Do you play?”

Taiki grins. “I play a lot of sports.”

“He’s interested in everything,” his mother supplies. “Can’t get him on a fake broom yet though. My dad’s particular about the traditions.”

Harry dips his head, and Taiki thinks the man gets it but doesn’t get it. Taiki sees his smile flash again as he says. “Lad, do you want to meet someone smart?”

“Mom’s right next to me.”

Both adults laugh, hard, and Taiki wonders briefly if there’s a disease in the brains of older wizards that makes them laugh a lot at children.

“You got me there,” the man says, eyes streaming. “How about another smart witch? Hermione’s been wanting to see your mother about… something or other.”

Taiki glances at his mother, who nods, still chuckling and they follow Harry.

What an odd bunch of people wizards were, and he is supposed to be one of them.

Maybe when he’s older, he’ll understand.

But for now, he needs to meet someone named “Hermione” who has a very pretty name… that is also very hard to pronounce.