The Boy Born With Everything ✔

Year 1 Part 3

After the Inter House Quidditch Competition came end of year exams, meaning the library was packed every hour of the day with students forcing as much information into their brains as they could so they could be successful, especially those in the 8th and final year. For 1st years exams weren't very important, they were simply to make sure that each student understood the foundations of the magical disciplines they were taught so they could progress better next year.

But that wasn't the case for Shoto.

His father commanded, no, expected excellence, meaning that if he scored less than 100% perfection on any test then his summer would not be a happy one at all. This meant more late nights in bed, curtains drawn as he used Lumos to read his textbooks by wand-light. This meant having to say no when Mina wanted to practise flying with him so he could master the wand movements for the set charms they were to learn. And this meant more nightmares.

Nightmares where his father would appear, taunting him and telling him everything that happened to their family was his fault. Mocking him for being so weak, for not being able to save his mother. Telling him that he was disgusted for having a son like him, showing that disgust through spells aimed at his head and chest that would leave him writhing in pain on the floor. The Unforgivables.

One evening it was close to curfew and Shoto was still writing up notes on the Cure for Boils. It required dried nettles, snake fangs, stewed horned slugs, porcupine quills and Flobberworn mucus. He shivered at the last one, remembering the slimy substance they had to accurately measure in class under the scrutinising gaze of their potions master, Professor Snape.

Potions was a subject he had to spend studying longer than most, knowing the absolute precision he would require in order to get top marks from the strict professor, or as high as the man was willing to give. He was partnered with Tokoyami for many of their practicals, which was helpful since the boy was excellent at brewing even the strangest concoctions Snape would give them, but the end of year test was an examination of the individual. Meaning, he had to do the work expected of two people by himself in the time span of one hour. Easy.

The closer the exams came the worse his anxiety got. And damn, what would people say if the youngest son of the esteemed Todoroki family would get panic attacks over the idea of failing an exam? Even if failing by their standards was still an acceptable pass to others.

He tried to brush off his anxiousness by helping his friends, hearing from Iida that teaching someone else was a way of testing your own knowledge as well. He was intending to go the library with everyone else when he saw a familiar owl swoop by the windows of the Great Hall. So, ending his meal early, he said he would meet everybody there and left to go to the Owlery, already dreading what waited ahead.

The Owlery was a decrepit tower covered in animal waste and paper shreds. It was cold, thin, and the stairs looked like they could break at any second. But if one looked past that, they would find the wonderful array of majestic owls perched on their stands, delivering letters or pruning themselves before their next task. Sometimes, Shoto visited the owls and gave them treats he brought secretly from Diagon Ally, as well as the ones for cats stashed in the back pocket of his robes. What? There were students' pet cats roaming all around the grounds, and he was supposed to ignore them? Impossible.

Anyways, he reached the top of the tower and went over to a deep brown owl, the tips of its feathers almost a burgundy-red. It was large, clearly well fed and cared for, and he untied the letter around its claw before it flew off again, its faint caw echoing into the cool evening air. His name was written in black cursive, and a sense of sick foreboding washed over him. It was from his father after all. Steeling himself, he checked to make sure the Owlery was empty and no students were lingering outside it before ripping open the envelope, watching as the letter spring out and floated in the air above him.