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Mako Mori is seven years, three months, and five days old when she sees her parents crushed under the falling debris of their once neat and well-loved home. There are figures in black robes and white masks jeering as they chase her down the street, casting pale green curses at her feet and laughing as she falls.
For a moment she indulges in her fear and curls up in a tight ball on the ground, the muddy water from the pavement soaking into her hair and scraping her cheek. There is a sudden silence and she decides she would rather face death than hide from it. She is ready to see her parents again.
She pushes herself up in an ungraceful stumble and does not attempt to control her harsh sobs as she turns around, expecting to see her scornful attackers cornering her.
Instead she sees a tall man with a strong face and kind eyes.
He's lit from behind by the remnants of her burning home, the fire unnaturally bright and wrathful, and surrounding him on the ground are the bodies of her parents' murderers. In that moment she loves him fiercely.
--
When she is eleven years, one month, and twenty seven days old, an ancient and apparently wise hat is placed upon her head. The brim falls to her nose and it smells faintly of must and the oil that Stacker uses to clean the small, intricate machines resting on his desk. One of the first things he had taught her was that while a wand might be faster, one would never truly understand what they were doing if they did not do it by hand. Taking something apart was important, he said, in order to know the consequences of not being able to put it back together.
The smell comforts her, and she is not afraid.
She was taught to appreciate all houses. She knows that one is no better or worse than the other. And although she would never tell him so, she is secretly very relieved to be placed in Ravenclaw; she suspected he knew by the pleased, indulgent tilt to his smile.
--
Mako would never be able to tell you the exact age she was when she met Raleigh Becket, because time seemed to pause and reset from the first time he spoke to her.
She does, however, know that he too was awash with a bright light that he laughingly parried as he returned defensive spells with an intensity that belied his smile. He was fighting illegally in the corridor and students were densely packed in an effort to avoid getting hit by stray curses.
His opponent was much taller and he was wearing red hemmed robes and the same jeering smile she remembered from those that stole her world away. She hoped very much that the Hufflepuff would beat him, and was not nearly as surprised as everyone else when he did.
Although she had been able to predict how he would counter the other students' attacks, she knew she would not be able to emulate it, not yet. So when their disappointed peers had pushed and shoved their way back to the dormitories and the stunned, sullen Gryffindor had been revived and shouldered down the hall, she went up to the boy.
He had blonde hair that matched his tie and he did not rush to speak when she took a moment to stare into his eyes. They were the color of the earth, and something about his presence made her feel settled.
"Will you teach me?"
She had known Raleigh Becket for exactly seven minutes and thirty seven seconds when a wide grin tugged at his lips and her world changed.
"Sure."
--
Mako has been best friends with Raleigh for nine months and two days when he chooses to tell her what happened to his brother. Yancy Becket had been fifteen when he was killed, four weeks short of Raleigh's twelfth birthday.
He had been a Slytherin, but he hadn't been cruel, and Raleigh should have died right along with him if he hadn't shielded him with his own body in the crash.
That had been two years ago, just after his first year, and ever since then Raleigh had taken to defending the small Slytherins who were still so often jostled and teased and left unprotected in a world still plagued with the fear of a recently deceased Dark Lord. He was small but infinitely sturdy, and people frequently underestimated both his skill and his strength in the face of his quiet grin and rumpled robes.
Mako presented a similar facade, and she delighted in proving the tormentors wrong.
--
Chuck Hansen is nothing like Professor Hansen, differing houses aside, and although she suspected him to be a bully at first, she revaluated when she saw him helping the small, wild boy called Newt with his glasses when they had fallen. It could be dismissed as Gryffindor camaraderie or simple house loyalty, but she believes it to be an act of compassion when she observes him monitoring the smaller boy from time to time and steering him away from the worst of their house.
By the small, delighted grin she shares with Raleigh, she knows he believes the same. Although that does not help Chuck when he decides to try and provoke Raleigh into a test of his skills, ignorantly and somewhat fearlessly ignoring the fact that Raleigh is two years older and endlessly more advanced than his peer group.
While he could easily pay no attention to insults to his person, although Mako could hardly tolerate them, he did not turn to violence until Chuck sneered at her and called her an ugly world that had fallen out of use in recent times. Mudblood.
It brought back memories of a terrible night, the worst of her life, and whether or not Raleigh could tell was immaterial because the next thing she became aware of was his fists taking careless aim instead of his wand, and warm blood somehow managing to spray onto her hand as Chuck fell back onto the cold stone of the floor.
She saw the fear in his eyes then, and knew he spoke not out of hatred, but of stubborn ignorance, and although he was forgiven, she did not forget. Nor did Raleigh.
--
When Mako is fourteen years, seven months, and twenty days old, she looks at her life and is content.
Her father is strict but loving, and although he shows very little affection during the school year, she can always see the same kindness from their first meeting in his gaze upon her, and the pride in the grip of his hands that he sometimes braces on her shoulders.
Her best friend is the best duelist in the school, and he has taught her everything he knows. No one ever bothers the first year Slytherins anymore, and they are making plans to start their own dueling club. Chuck is very eager to join, and although Professor Hansen has so far remained resistant to the thought of participating, she believes it is only a matter of time.
She has made perhaps unlikely friends, with few houses or ages in common, but they are as fascinating as they are strong.
Mako Mori no longer feels as if she is merely facing an inevitable death, because she can perform the most durable shield charm Professor Hansen has ever seen, and Raleigh stands at her shoulder, unafraid.