Born to Make (Hogwarts A) History

By Gothams_only_Wolf, originally posted here.
"Born to Make (Hogwarts A) History" | Hogwarts!AU/Prelude | Hogwarts!AU | Hogwarts!AU (continued) | Hogwarts!AU (continued 2) | Hogwarts!AU Meta
==September 1st, 2014==
Mako Mori's knees shake as she sits on the stool, the brim of the Sorting Hat falling over her eyes before she knows it.
Hmm. Loyalty, ambition, intelligence, bravery; these you carry in equal amounts. Slytherin will take you far, Ravenclaw will give you understanding and Gryffindor will grant you a chance to show your bravery, however, Hufflepuff will earn you loyal friends and show you a path through hard work.
"May I chose Hufflepuff?" She asks quietly.
""HUFFLEPUFF!"" Though you display all traits of the Hogwarts Houses, Ms. Mori, you /value loyalty above the rest. Enjoy your stay in Hufflepuff, fierce little badger.
==November 23, 2014==
Mako excels at almost everything... Everything except Herbology. The plants snap at her and she refuses to back away.
The other prodigy in her year, Charles Hansen, has the carnivorous plants practically cuddling him.
How does he do it?
She squares her shoulders and resolves to ask him after class.
"Excuse me? Hansen-san?" Mako asks as she taps on Charles Hansen's shoulder.
"Yeah," the broad accent isn't English as she's heard it. "Come to make fun of the Aussie stuck in an English school?"
"No, I was wondering what you did to get the plants to like you," Mako replies. "I wish to be better at Herbology but the plants... They are fickle."
"Umm, yeah, they're somethin' ye gotta get used to," Hansen murmurs as he pulls them off to the side of Garden One. "You're the other one then? Th' one they say 's a prodigy?"
"I suppose. I do not listen to the rumors much. Did you need help with a subject?" Mako murmurs as she holds her books tighter.
"I... Okay, I kinda suck at Transfiguration. You wanna trade tips?"
"Of course," Mako pauses as she walks out of the nook. "Hansen-san?"
"Ye c'n call me Charlie. You're Mako, right?" Charlie says with a gap-toothed smile.
Mako's lips pull up in a smile for the first time in months. "Hai. I am Mako."
"See ya in th' library same time next week?" Charlie asks.
"Yes."
Mako hugs her books tighter and sighs.
She can tell Sensei she made her first friend today.
==March 17, 2015==
Mako and Charlie may not match the Golden Trio for being famous but they are twined tighter than Devil's Snare. They answer questions before the words can even make it out of the Professor's mouth and their essays are precise and to-the-point.
There are whispers that Charlie and Mako will be shoo-ins for Head Boy and Girl when their time comes.
Mako tucks her quill behind her ear, ink streaking her cheek as the end drips with blue.
"Maks, you got... ink." Charlie plucks the quill away and flicks his wand in the motion for cleaning except his wand /rolls at the last moment into a Hair-Changing Spell. Mako shrieks in horror as the ink sinks into her hair and changes the two streaks that had ink in them. "Oh no."
"Oh no. No, no, no..." Mako runs for the hallway mirror.
It comments in a reassuring tone, "You look alright deary. The blue isn't even all that noticeable..."
"Is it?" Mako turns to Charlie and he nods.
"Looks kickarse. I'm sure Madame Pomfrey and her assistant c'n get it out if ye really want—"
"I... I like it. However, we need to work on your hand movements."
"Awww. Mako...." Charlie whines but Mako fixes him with a stern look and holds out a strand of dark blue hair. "Shite."
"Language." Mako absently comments as she looks up how to properly do cleaning movements.
Charlie only grins and helps her look for the right spell.
.
In the end all it takes is a Third Year seeing her plight and helping.
Mako's almost ready to scream at this point, trying to fix what Charlie had colored by accident.
"That looks pretty good," Mako looks up to see familiar marigold on black robes and she flicks her wand again in a hopeless gesture. "Oh boy. C'mere."
She presents herself to the other Hufflepuff and he tilts his head to the side as he looks at the streaks of dark blue.
"I am... trying to get rid of them."
"Okay, let's see what I can do." He offers and she takes his hand. "Is it ink? Paint?"
"...Ink."
"That I can fix. Y'see, I got this little sister that does some weird stuff... Shoot. My name's Raleigh Becket. You are?"
"Mako Mori."
"Well, Mori-san, let's see what I can do." The kind blue gaze is enough for Mako to let her guard down a bit.
He ends up clearing her hair of ink dye and teaching her how to do it on purpose.
==September 1st, 2015==
Mako sits with the Ravenclaws, her shoulder pressing up against Charlie's as they watch the First Years get Sorted.
"Why's a /Hufflepuff sitting here with us?" One of the First Years questions as she takes in Mako's deep marigold hood and her posture.
"Because," Charlie pipes up with a grin that wouldn't look out of place on a Gryffindor, "She can answer the riddles the Eagle gives her. Honorary Raven. Just like I know how to get into the Den."
"Oh."
"Appearances are deceiving," Mako murmurs as she picks up her fork again. "Not everything is strictly as you see or hear it."
"'Don't judge a book by its cover.' Right. I'm sorry."
"No harm, no foul. You know something new," Mako waves it away as she follows her fellow Badgers to the Den.
"Teaching the little birds not to take everything at face value?" Raleigh teases with a soft smile that crinkles the corners of his eyes.
"Better to let them figure it out now instead of having 'foot-in-mouth-syndrome' later." Mako points out dryly.
Raleigh laughs as he tickles the apple on the painting next to the kitchens. "Especially when they need to work together with Lions and Snakes."
"This is true."
==January 23, 2016==
Charlie comes back quiet the next year. Mako joins him at the Ravenclaw table and, for the first time in two years, Charlie doesn't acknowledge her.
"Charlie?" Mako tugs him gently by his sleeve off to their usual Garden One nook, concerned about his change in behavior.
"Let go!" Charlie snaps, pulling his arm away but not before Mako sees it.
A bite mark and deep, scoring cuts mar Charlie's left arm something awful but he won't look her in the eyes the way he used to.
"What happened?"
"Yer th' prodigy, you tell me." He sneers coldly.
"Werewolf?"
"I wish," comes the retort, "Try were/dragon."
Mako's hand covers her mouth and tears spring to her eyes.
Charlie had been the Hogwarts student attacked in the Ukraine over break.
"I don't want yer pity." Charlie growls and there's a flash of green as his eyes reflect light.
She notes numbly that it's the tapetum lucidum of a predator.
Mako's shoulders square and she drops her hand. "I do not pity you. I want to help."
"Don't bother." Charlie makes an about-face with a grimace.
"Charlie wait!"
==March 17, 2016==
She retreats to herself again, withdrawing from her classmates. Mako tries to remain upbeat, she does, but Charlie refuses to speak with her again.
Mako plods her way up to the Owlery when she spots a large golden retriever.
The dog lolls out his tongue and wags his tail when he sees her.
"Hello, Retriever-san," she coos softly, offering her knuckles for the dog to sniff and lick at. "I wonder if you have ever been abandoned by a friend."
The dog's collar jingles and Mako reaches under to see Plasmacaster as the name.
"What an odd name. Do you mind if, between us, I use Plasma?" She asks solemnly. Plasma licks her cheek and Mako sits next to the dog as she pets the thick fur into a semblance of order. "Plasma you are lucky."
Plasma tilts his head to the side before he whines, shoving his face into her neck.
"I miss my friend. He is... sick. He has medicine and the love of his Baba. But I... I want to help. I do not suppose you know where I can figure out where to become an Animagus?" Mako inquires a little hopelessly, tears falling before she can help herself. A warm, wet tongue licks them away.
Plasma squirms out of her hold and nudges her side, repeating the move when she doesn't understand. Mako stands with a feeling of strangely comforting déjà vu.
Plasma leads her to a blank wall and starts pacing three times before an elegant, wrought-iron door with curling designs forms right before her eyes.
"Here?"
Plasma woofles and paws at the door.
"Thank you."
She follows Plasma when he appears and begins the long and arduous task of becoming an Animagus.
The mandrake leaf under her tongue for a month proves difficult but not impossible to accomplish.
Mako writes that she wants to practice for the upcoming years of silent and non-verbal spells and could she do it for a few months?
The Professors are a little suspicious at first but Mako plans to hold the mandrake leaf during the second month as opposed to the first.
Mandrake is bitter and horrendous after the first three days but she perseveres through sheer stubborn will.
==October 25, 2016==
When she's ready, Mako repeats the incantation and finds herself as a familiar dog.
The Kai Ken is rare even in her home country of Japan, let alone in the United Kingdom. The famous brindle fur is thick and Mako flexes her paws briefly before trotting out of the Room and running into Plasma.
[---Plasma?
---Mako? 
And oh she knows that voice. 
---Hold on.]
Plasma—/Raleigh—shifts and suddenly it's Mako's only other friend standing next to her. "Back inside, please."
She growls but complies enough to shift back to human. "Why didn't you tell me?"
"It's not like I can draw my name in mud with paws without freaking you out, yeah? Listen, I think I know where Hansen goes for his monthly scale date."
"Where?" Mako's not dropping the fact that Raleigh /is also an illegal Animagus at the age of fourteen/ but she's willing to compromise in things when it comes to Charlie.
"You know that old house, the one everyone still avoids because they say Headmaster Snape died there during the final battle?"
"Oh. The Shrieking Shack! But why there?" Mako does some quick and painful calculations before she realizes Charlie's been transforming by himself for nearly ten months. "Tell me how to get there. He's not spending another one alone."
"We can't. Not this month. Probably not even next month. You," here Raleigh sighs as he plops into a pile of cushions that materialize from the room, "need to learn control. We're not gonna go into about dealing with the aftermath of the moon for all three of us."
"... All three of us?" Mako echoes before it clicks. "You'd be willing to come with? Even though this is not your burden?"
"Let's just say it's easier with friends."
==December 9, 2016==
Mako waits when Charlie gets out of Charms class, his haggard appearance making her heart ache.
"Hansen-san, may we talk?"
He startles at her fierce expression and starts to bolt when Raleigh steps in his way, arms crossed and a stern expression on his face.
"Why don't you and Mako have a chat?"
"I don't... Alright. Ye get five minutes starting from when we get t' Garden One." Charlie grouses with ill-grace. They march in silence in the snow before Charlie spins to face Mako. "It's Chuck now. Make it snappy."
"I know you've been transforming alone." She says quietly. Chuck sucks in a surprised breath as she continues. "I have made good use of my time to help my friend."
"We're still friends?" Chuck croaks out, blue eyes rapidly blinking to hide tears. "Why would you even..."
"Chuck Hansen, just because you happen to have a large, scaly Ukrainian-sized problem doesn't mean we are no longer friends." Mako says hotly, wiping furiously at her tears as she steps into Chuck's space very gently. "I became an Animagi to help you. Bearing a burden alone is heavy but it is lighter with friends, both old and new."
Chuck hugs her, then and there, both of them crying as they hold their best friend again.
"Ye mean it?"
"Of course I do," she murmurs as she presses her forehead against Chuck's. "and we have back-up."
"What, my old man?"
"No. His name is Raleigh Becket and he promised to help us. He's... also an illegal Animagus and has sworn not to tell anyone about you." Mako reluctantly offers.
Chuck starts laughing, his breath curling up in the cold air as he looks up at the nearly full moon. "Th' universe has a hell of a way of helping, Maks. C'mon, I want a hot Butterbeer while you introduce me t' our back-up..."
Snow swirls upward, playfully tugging on navy blue and marigold scarves as they catch up on each other, holding hands as though they hadn't been parted.
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