25 Aug 2021, 23:00
New Beginnings
"Here we are then," Eleanor's mother said. "It's just through that barrier, are you sure you'll be alright on your own?" Eleanor knew her mother was late for work, and she was used to doing things on her own anyway. But she also wanted to stay with her as long as she could before she was off to Hogwarts. She had never been away from her mother for that long. She shook the thought out of her mind. Her mother was stressed enough as it was. "Yeah, mum, I'll be okay" she smiled at her mother warmly, hoping to relieve her worries. Her mother sighed and hugged her daughter. "I love you, Ellie. Remember to write, okay?" Her words were slightly muffled by Eleanor's hair. "Of course I will, I love you too," she replied. They said their goodbyes, and then Eleanor was alone, watching her mother disappear in the crowd of people.September 1st, 2021
She took a deep breath and fixed her eyes on the barrier between platforms 9 and 10. She felt a little bit anxious, running straight at a wall, and remembered her mother's advice from earlier in the morning. It's easier to do a little run if you're nervous. She moved her trolley to face the barrier. She stood there for a moment, looking around to see if anyone was watching. Then she gathered her courage and ran straight towards the barrier. Instinctively, she closed her eyes as she was about to hit the barrier, and when she opened them again, slowing down, she was standing on Platform 9 3/4.
The platform was full of people, everywhere Eleanor looked were parents saying goodbyes to their children and older students catching up with their friends. She could pick out several of the other first years, looking nervous. She thought she knew exactly how they felt. The long, red train was standing ready by the platform and through the windows she could see some of the compartments were already taken. Deciding there was no point in staying on the platform herself, she boarded the train and found an empty compartment. After stowing her luggage away, she sat down by the window, gazing absent-mindedly at the scenery, her mind completely filled with thoughts and speculations about her new life at Hogwarts.
Last edited by Eleanor Talpin on 26 Aug 2021, 21:11, edited 1 time in total.
26 Aug 2021, 02:32
New Beginnings
Della walked slowly down the train's hallway. Many of the compartments were full--especially with older kids. She took a deep breath and looked out the window towards the platform. Her mom, Aunt Abigail, and cousin Marnie were still there waving her on. She looked bravely out, tried to smile, and waved back--hopefully, it looked enthusiastic. Well, she was enthusiastic. She was going to learn so many new things and start using her magical powers! But it was the prospect of having to meet new people and worry about them liking her that made her nervous. Marnie had made friends for them in school, and Della was able to tag along. She didn't need a lot of friends, but the idea of being a loner was also unbearable.@Eleanor Talpin
Today had also been exhausting. Della and her family struggled to leave the house on time, her mom and aunt were very emotional about it all, Marnie seemed a little jealous and was making a list of all the "souvenirs" Della would need to send her (a poisoned apple, a staff like Gandalf's, green healing potions, a keyblade, etc.)--and the shock of walking through a solid wall sent the whole family in a tizzy. It would be great to stop lugging this heavy trunk around and sit down.
Finally, she got to a compartment that was somewhat empty. There was only a girl looking out the window inside. She looked like she could also be a first year. Della took another deep breath. The other compartments were filling up fairly fast, and kids were starting to run through the hallways looking for their friends. Should she knock? Della had never ridden this kind of train before--and wizard manners were probably different anyway. She decided to knock politely, and then she slid open the compartment door. "Hi, can I sit here?"
sta 8 - eva 16 - str 5 - wis 11 - arc 5 - accuracy 13 |||| Parselmouth - Evasive Maneuvers - Beast Master
also Ruckus Weems | Quentin Gagné
26 Aug 2021, 15:37
New Beginnings
Eleanor had been deep in thoughts about the upcoming sorting ceremony when there was a knock on the door. The sudden noise instantly pulled her back to the train compartment. She vaguely registered that the crowd on the platform outside the window was thinning, already considerably smaller than when she had sat down. Slightly startled, she turned towards the compartment door, and as she did it slid open, revealing a girl with pale blonde hair. She looked to be around Eleanor's age, and Eleanor figured she must be a first year too, or else she would have sat with her friends, wouldn't she? "Hi, can I sit here?" the girl said. Eleanor smiled, and she felt happy at the prospect of a new friend. The anticipation of getting to Hogwarts had been building fast as she speculated and the idea of company, and a distraction, was a welcome one.@Della Barfield
"Yeah, sure, I don't mind!" she replied. She quickly glanced down at her watch, and saw there was only a few minutes until the train would depart for their new home. Looking up at the girl again, she said "My name is Eleanor Talpin, what's yours?" and then she added, "Are you a first year too?"
28 Aug 2021, 06:25
New Beginnings
"Yeah, sure, I don't mind!"@Eleanor Talpin
Della was grateful. She could finally sit down and maybe even have a nice conversation. With a great effort, she lifted her trunk over her head and into the overhead compartment. It was at least an easy reach for her long arms. She hoped she had remembered to pack everything. Her mom and her had went through the contents a thousand times over the last week, and judging by how heavy it was, she had probably brought too much.
"My name is Eleanor Talpin, what's yours?" "Are you a first year too?"
Della sat down across from the girl. She sat her wand in her lap. She wasn't sure where put it--she was just wearing jeans and a sweatshirt. She's wasn't sure when they put on their wizarding robes, but after trying them on multiple times a week over the last week, she knew they had great wand pockets.
Della smiled at the girl, "Yeah I'm a first year. My name is Della Barfield."
Just then the train whistled and lurched forward. They were moving! Della forgot some of her reservations at that moment. She scooted closer to the window. "Wow, we're really going . . . we're going to learn magic."
Della realized that that might be uncool. She quickly looked back to her wand in her lap, her cheeks turning red. "Sorry, I'm muggle-born. It's all very exciting."
sta 8 - eva 16 - str 5 - wis 11 - arc 5 - accuracy 13 |||| Parselmouth - Evasive Maneuvers - Beast Master
also Ruckus Weems | Quentin Gagné
28 Aug 2021, 16:26
New Beginnings
"Yeah, I'm a first year. My name is Della Barfield.@Della Barfield
Della had sat herself opposite from Eleanor, and Eleanor looked curiously at her. She was very interested to know about this girl, but she wasn't very used to talking to other wizard children, save for a few of her mother's friends' daughters. All of her friends were muggles, and none of them knew anything about magic. She had felt a bit insecure about this fact the past few weeks, being wizard-born she figured people would expect her to know everything about the wizarding world. Perhaps there were unspoken rules that she wouldn't know about and she'd stick out like a sore thumb.
The train began moving and both girls looked eagerly out the window. Parents and younger siblings smiled and waved at the train as it left the station. Eleanor suddenly felt very excited. It was finally happening, she was finally going to Hogwarts!
"Wow, we're really going... we're going to learn magic," said Della. Eleanor was about to share the sentiment, when Della looked down at her lap and blushed. Eleanor looked at her, a little bit confused. "Sorry, I'm muggle-born. It's all very exciting."
"But then you didn't know about magic or Hogwarts before this summer, did you? Wow, I bet that must have been a shock!" The words fell out of her before she could stop herself. She felt very relieved that Della was a muggle-born, that meant there was probably a lot they both didn't know. She went on, practically beaming, "There's nothing wrong or embarrassing about being muggle-born either. And all my friends at home are muggles, so we have something in common!"
Last edited by Eleanor Talpin on 5 Sep 2021, 01:23, edited 1 time in total.
29 Aug 2021, 04:32
New Beginnings
Eleanor happily explained that all her friends are muggles. Della immediately felt better. Eleanor didn't seem to be judging her; Della might even go as far as to say that Eleanor seemed genuinely excited to meet her. Della looked at the brunette and smiled back.@Eleanor Talpin
Eleanor had confirmed that her worst fears of being disliked or made fun of for being an outsider weren't based on reality--at least in this train compartment. Maybe Della was free to ask some of the questions she was holding in.
"Yeah it was a bit of shock. I guess I had done some bits of magic before, but I honestly thought for the longest time I must have imagined or dreamt it. Then I got my letter and it all became very real. And wasn't just my magic that's real. There's a whole community of people like me." This all came tumbling out Della. She hadn't been able to fully process being thrust into this new world with anyone. She had been reading her textbooks over the last few weeks and her mind had been rapidly expanding to make room for this new reality, but her mom, her aunt, and even her cousin weren't able to truly understand how she felt.
"Wait, did you say your friends were all muggle-born? You mean witches and wizards just . . . live next to muggles? I wonder if any wizards have ever lived near me?" There was that one eccentric family in Stoke that lived a few houses over, but they could have also just been circus people. "Did your friends know? Or did you have to keep it a secret?"
sta 8 - eva 16 - str 5 - wis 11 - arc 5 - accuracy 13 |||| Parselmouth - Evasive Maneuvers - Beast Master
also Ruckus Weems | Quentin Gagné
29 Aug 2021, 14:26
New Beginnings
"Well, yeah! We live in West London, everyone in our neighbourhood are muggles. It makes sense, you see, we can travel much faster than muggles can, you know, the Floo Network, apparition, the Knight Bus, even flying, so it doesn't really matter that we live so far apart," Eleanor explained, happy to be able to teach her new friend something.@Della Barfield
"There are some places with more wizards than others, though. Hogsmeade is the only all-wizarding village in Britain, but Godric's Hollow is a major wizard neighbourhood too. You know, that's where You-Know-Who was defeated the first time." As she said this she realised this was probably all new to Della, she wasn't sure how much Della had been told or able to gather.
"As for my friends... No, they didn't know. They think I'm off to live with a distant relative to go to a better school," she said, and hesitated; the thought of this made her a bit sad. They had not understood what was wrong with the area or the school - there was nothing wrong with them - and Eleanor had been dying to tell them why she had to go. If she could only have told them that she was going to learn magic, she was sure they would have understood, but her mother had always been extremely strict on this. "It's because of that Statute of Secrecy thing, muggles aren't supposed to know anything about magic. If I had told them, it would have been illegal." She looked a bit grim at this and looked out of the window quietly for a moment.
Then she smiled and looked at Della again, though the smile didn't quite reach her eyes, and she said, "You might have lived close to other wizards, I reckon it's often hard to tell."
Last edited by Eleanor Talpin on 5 Sep 2021, 01:24, edited 1 time in total.
2 Sep 2021, 06:09
New Beginnings
Eleanor happily told Della all about the wizarding world. She mentioned so many names, places, and things. She was moving fast through them, and Della was excited to listen. She had actually read about a few of these things in her textbooks. Della was an avid reader, and it was easy to read through her books cover to cover before September first. Of course, she didn't remember a ton, but now she felt like her hard work was paying off. She wasn't completely lost in this conversation. She thought back to Diagon Alley when she didn't even know what transfiguration meant. She wasn't sure who "You-Know-Who" was, but it didn't seem like Eleanor was making a joke at her expense or expected her to actually know who.@Eleanor Talpin
Then Eleanor explained that her muggle friends didn't know anything about her family or her magic or where she was going to school. Della felt for her--except for her cousin Marnie, she hadn't been able to tell any of their friends where she was going either. "I couldn't tell my friends either. My cousin--she lives with me--we made up this story that I got to go to a special school in Scotland for writing. And my cousin Marnie is great at making things up if people keep asking questions. But yeah, it's really hard to leave everyone and not get to tell them the truth." Della fidgeted with her wand in her lap. She smiled back at Eleanor.
Della changed the subject in hopes to get Eleanor's mind off things: "Um. Who is "You-Know-Who"? Is that a person?"
sta 8 - eva 16 - str 5 - wis 11 - arc 5 - accuracy 13 |||| Parselmouth - Evasive Maneuvers - Beast Master
also Ruckus Weems | Quentin Gagné
2 Sep 2021, 23:15
New Beginnings
"Um. Who is "You-Know-Who"? Is that a person?" asked Della.@Della Barfield
"Oh, yes!" said Eleanor, and she racked her brain for everything she had learned about him. Her mother had been a child herself during the second war and her grandfather had lived through both the wars, so Eleanor had grown up listening to stories about Harry Potter and his friends, though she knew most of them were probably made up or highly embellished. They hadn't told her that much about You-Know-Who, though.
"He was this really dark wizard in the 70s, he wanted to, I think, enslave muggles or something and, well, he didn't like muggleborns very much either. Then in 1980, sometime around then, he tried to kill a baby, Harry Potter, and he couldn't. And then he came back in the late 90s and was killed for good, by Harry Potter," Eleanor explained. "I mean, those were the Wizarding Wars, everyone in our world knows about them, but it was all kept completely quiet from the muggles, so of course, your family wouldn't know about it."
Eleanor had tried to imagine many times what it would be like being a muggle, but she had never really considered how strange it must be to not know about magic until the age of eleven. And if Hogwarts made her nervous, she couldn't imagine how overwhelming all of this information must be for Della. "Do you have any other questions?" she asked, and smiled at Della, genuinely now.
11 Sep 2021, 06:30
New Beginnings
Eleanor gave Della a warm smile—which strangely juxtaposed the story she had just told about this dark wizard. But Della understood that the smile was Eleanor extending a courtesy; she wanted graciously to help Della understand important aspects of the magic world. Della's first-year textbooks would only teach her so much and she was woefully unprepared for a social life at this new school.@Eleanor Talpin
Over the next few hours, the girls talked about different aspects of wizarding history—especially an overview of Harry Potter's adventures and his more recent misadventures—and they talked about the differences between the magic and muggle worlds—games and entertainment and sports. Della was especially interested in quidditch; sports didn't usually interest her but a flying sport was another whole matter entirely.
Both Eleanor and Della spent a large amount of time laughing and genuinely enjoying each other's company, especially when they shared snacks from the trolley. They both seemed to feel a little less lost about the friends they had left behind, and they were now looking forward to the school year ahead of them.
Time flew by, and it was time to put on their school robes. Della had practiced wearing hers a lot alone in her room, so she felt didn't feel like a complete newbie when it came to change. She smartly put her wand in one of its large pockets.
She smiled at Eleanor, who was now also in her robes. "Wow, I guess we're going to arrive soon." Della was starting to feel antsy all over again. "I kinda hope we get put in the same house."
permission to godmod from @Eleanor Talpin
sta 8 - eva 16 - str 5 - wis 11 - arc 5 - accuracy 13 |||| Parselmouth - Evasive Maneuvers - Beast Master
also Ruckus Weems | Quentin Gagné