First-Year Entrance 2024-2025

Novalie rushed off the Hogwarts Express, her heart pounding with excitement at the thought of finally seeing the school she was about to attend. But to her surprise, there was no grand castle in sight. Instead, she found herself staring at a lake and a row of carriages, which the older students were climbing into.

'They must take us there', she thought, ready to follow their lead.
But as she watched one of the carriages pull away, her eyes widened in astonishment - was.. was it really moving without a horse?!
How could that even be?
A grin spread across her face, her red hair seeming to get a more fiery color as she realized she had truly entered a world of of magic. Yet, in the back of her mind, she couldn't help but consider more logical explanations. Maybe the carriages were powered by some kind of electricity or technology she didn't know of.

Before she could approach the carriages, a voice called out, interrupting her thoughts. She turned to see an - in her eyes rather old - man addressing the first years, urging them to follow him.
Novalie hesitated, a little disappointed. She had really wanted to ride in one of those carriages..!
But her disappointment quickly faded when she noticed the boats lined up by the lake, each adorned with colorful rubber ducks.
She let out an amused giggle- how whimsical and charming!

As the man introduced himself, Novalie scanned the crowd, searching for the people she'd shared a compartment with on the train. The sea of students made it impossible to spot them, but she hoped they would reunite soon.

After the man’s speech, the first years were invited to board the boats and Novalie wasted no time choosing the nearest one: a green boat.
It wasnt her favorite color or anything like that but she was too eager to care. She couldn't wait for the adventure to begin! Settling into her seat, she started rocking back and forth, barely able to contain her excitement. Her dark green eyes had already lightened to an almost white color, a clear sign of her overwhelming anticipation.

September 1st, 2024	Great Lake
“English”	“Gaelic”

Alyss, try as she had, couldn’t find the two she’d met on the train. She was now on her own, trying to navigate through the sea of first years. Alyss had been blindly following the voice that was calling the first years, figuring those around her were doing the same.

After quite a few “Sorry!”s and “Excuse me!”s were uttered, Alyss finally put a face to the voice she had been following, the one who had been directing the first years to the Great Lake and boats. She hadn’t been able to see much of anything upon leaving the train, instead seeing quite a lot of backs of heads. Because of this, Alyss had needed to head to the front, so that she could see what exactly all the newcomers were to do.

To the young girls delight, there were rubber ducks seemingly attached to each boat. To add onto her excitement, the boats all had different colors of the muggle bath toy.

She had known them for as long as she could remember, with her parents adding them to her baths as a child, and grandparents following suit when she stayed at their home for bath time. The toys usually just came in yellow, and oftentimes they were the only colours that her parents could find, considering that they were really the only ones that would be shipped to the Outer Hebrides. The only experience she would have with colourful rubber duckies was from a colour changing spell, or a box of hair dye that really only lasted for a single bath.

Alyss let out a grin and maybe even a few giggles at the floating ducks. “They’re so cute!” She cooed, eyes on the ducks and ears barely paying attention to the Caretaker anymore. Her interest had been grabbed, and it wasn’t until he stopped talking that Alyss stopped watching how the toys were floating in the water and gliding over all the ripples and small waves. Alyss panicked, eyes glancing up at him once again, waiting for some gesture that would point her in the right direction.

The girl hesitated, not really knowing what to do until she saw another girl who looked to be about her age as well, stepping into a boat. Using her context clues, Alyss deciphered that the first years were to step into the boats, so she stepped forward to do just that.

Seeing that someone was already in the green boat, and the caretaker Alyss had only half listened to took yellow, she headed towards orange, it being the closest color to the ducks she’d used in childhood seeing as she didn’t want to be the first to step into the boat with the grownup.

The boat quaked back and forth a little bit as she stepped in, and Alyss let out a small yelp, eyes wide as one of her feet was on top of a moving platform. She took a deep breath, before taking a quick second step, sitting down a fast as she could. Not standing up made her feel better about her chances of not falling into the dark water, even with the rubber ducks to save her.

There was too much excitement flowing through Mila's body. Her energy level was even higher than normal. The long train ride hadn't allowed her to get out her energy, making her even more impatient. Needing to stretch her legs, Mila rushed to be one of the first off the train. Once she finally was outside again, she took a deep breath. Her complete focus had been on getting off the train, leading to her completely forgetting about the students from her compartment. The girl tended to be quite forgetful and easily distracted. Currently, the main thought in Mila's mind was getting to the castle so she could have some food. Her brothers had always told great stories about the food at the school, so she couldn't wait to try it herself.

Mila's attention was drawn by the loud man, who tried to get all the first years to follow him. As she had gotten off the train pretty early, it was easy enough for her to make her way over to the man. Standing at the front of the growing group of first years, Mila looked around impatiently, hoping to be able to see the castle from here. Sadly, it was too far away. Once the whole group was complete, the first years were guided towards some boats, that Mila assumed would bring them to the castle. She would have prefered it if they were allowed to walk to the castle, because she was done with having to sit around. The train had forced her to sit still enough already. At least, they were outside now, which was a big approvement in her opinion.

The caretaker seemed pretty cool. He reminded Mila of her uncle, who probably was a bit older, as they both were kind but a bit awkward. She giggled softly as Ruckus joked about the boats sinking. It would be quite unfortunate if one of the boats would sink. However, Mila wasn't too worried about that, as she could swim just fine and was sure the caretaker wouldn't let anything bad happen to them. The mention of the sorting, food, and her dorm had made her even more excited to get on the boats and she had a hard time stopping herself from running towards them.

The colour of the little ducks around the boat wasn't something she really cared about at that point, so she just got on the first one she saw. The yellow ducks floated around the boat, which moved under her weight as she got into the boat. The young girl hadn't been on boats that often, so she was slightly more careful that she usually was, which meant she still wasn't very careful. Since she was the first student in the boat, she waited for others to join, hoping everyone would get into the boast as fast as possible. She really wanted to see the castle. While she was waiting, she turned her attention to the yellow ducks in the water and tried to reach for one. Her stretched hand dropped in the water as she realized the little duck was too far away.

@Mila Woodland @Oonagh Brown

She couldn't see much through the throng of people, but as the crush descended down onto the platform Erlea tried to keep her eyes on her compartment-mates. It would be the worst if she couldn't at least have some people to row across to Hogwarts with. The girl she'd made acquaintances with in the compartment had shot out of the train like a lightening bolt and Erlea stood on tiptoes to try and find her. It wasn't that she was lacking in height, but all these people.

Noticing the man shouting, who wouldn't, she followed the other girl and what seemed like the countless other first years to the water behind the Caretaker. She seemed dubious. She grown up with magic and somehow these rickety old boats were supposed to take them across to the magical castle that was Hogwarts. Even if they were filled with cute rubber ducks.

Yellow was her colour, and even though she wasn't thrilled that it was with the caretaker, Erlea wasn't giving up her new found friend. She stepped into the boat after Mila and the Caretaker, the boat dipping and swaying as she settled herself down on the bench filled with the yellow rubber toys? Were they toys? She wasn't sure. Grabbing one, she smiled over towards Mila and held one up to her face. "Quack, quack, quack," she imitated in a high pitch voice, dissolving into a fit of giggles. What could be better than this? Heading off to a place she was wanted and liked. Even if she made sure her blouse was tucked into her skirt and the robes covered her back.

Action: Hopping into the yellow boat.

Permission to slightly godmod Mila Woodland

@Ruckus Weems, @Mila Woodland & @Erlea Bevensworth

Oonagh felt more than ready to get into that creepy old castle. She had already watched it come closer as she had been sitting in that train as it took her back to Scotland and closer to her homelands. What a ridiculous endeavor having her parents drive her all the way to London, have her run through a wall only for the train to take her back from where she had come from. Or maybe she had actually hit her head against that wall and was dreaming. Regardless of what it was she violently bit off the head off the gummy worm she had bought on the train and squeezed herself through the mass of kids toward the front of the students.

Her gaze narrowed as her gaze dropped onto the one boat that seemed to already have occupants; some old guy and two kids. Now that one looked like it most needed a dramatic entrance. "Make some space, kids", was all the warning they would get before she closed the few steps of distance in a light jog. She then jumped off and into the boat, her Dr Marten boots offering the necessary grip to land her feet onto the sides of the boat, quite possibly causing it to violently dip and shake from the momentum of her jump.

She did not really care much for possible spooking the other two kids, or annoying the adult guy, caretaker man. She was just channeling her inner pirate and this is exactly how she imagined she would want to capsize a boat! Also... what was so bad about a little chaos? Another reason why she chose this boat? Well of course because she wished to be the one at the lead, it suited her well enough after all.

"I hope there will be food, I'm starving!"

action
jump onto the yellow boat

Date:	Sept 1st
Dialogue:	#011d57

Lev tried following behind the two people he’d met in the train, but there were so many people around and quickly, the top of their heads were completely swallowed by the crowd. Lev wasn't dumb enough to think they were friends, but it would have been nice to have some people he could follow around for a little bit. Not be completely alone.

That plan had failed miserably: Lev was lost in the middle of all of these strangers, surrounded by people and yet alone. He very well might have followed the older students into the carriages if it wasn’t for the loud voice of a man coming from near the lake.

Lev felt a small sense of relief when he saw people that looked to be of his age gathered around a man that introduced himself as Ruckus, the caretaker. Lev immediately liked the man: he seemed kind and friendly with a wholesome sense of humour. The way he spoke immediately made Lev feel at ease and almost calmed his nerves down.

Lev would have followed Ruckus into the boat surrounded with yellow rubber ducks, if it wasn’t for the filled seats. The tall boy ended up instead choosing one of the still empty boats: the one surrounded with purple ducks.

Careful to not trip into the water and humiliate himself on the first day, Lev got onto the boat and immediately scooted his way to the far edge. There his gaze focused on the water, watching the purple duckies as they bobbed around.

Their regular movements felt relaxing, almost like some sort of strange dance Simply focusing on watching them made Lev’s breathing slow down a bit and he even relaxed enough to feel a twinge of excitement. Maybe things wouldn’t be so bad after all.

Open to interactions with anyone!

─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

GREAT LAKE
2024-09-01
Interacting with @Corvinus Schröder (but also open to new interactions!)

─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

|

Mamori yawned as the Hogwarts Express pulled into the station, bringing to an end an eight-hour journey that had left him feeling numb. He had been far from bored on this trip ᅳ there was chaos, there was laughter, and there were periodic pranks that somehow kept it lively, yet they sapped his stamina due to the ride being too damn long. The whole idea of going all the way down to London just to take a train back up north was preposterous from a Scottish native's perspective. "These English really love their roundabouts," he grumbled under his breath with just a hint of frustration, recalling the Muggle term his dad had once explained to him. Mamori stepped off the train and took a deep breath of cool night air, tingling with both excitement and nervousness, eyes roved all over the platform until he found the caretaker ᅳ a man who called himself Ruckus. Ruckus called out for the first-years to follow him, ushering everyone towards the boats waiting at the dock. As they drew nearer, Mamori beheld what the caretaker had done. He was obviously trying to make a good impression, which explained why one would see cute and colorful little rubber duckies drifting around each of the boats. Mamori smiled at the sight before him, but his mind was soon pulled back when Ruckus started talking about the boat ride to the castle. The idea about passing over the dark waters was a little...uncomfortable, especially after his mother's stories about giant squid living in Great Lake. Curious enough about meeting the creature someday himself, he decided tonight was not the right time — far too dark an hour for adventures of that kind to happen, at any rate. As Ruckus finished talking, Mamori's attention shifted to the boats. Each boat was of different color, softly illuminated by the moonlight. Mamori immediately ruled out the yellow boat, where Ruckus had already taken his place. He'd rather not ride with grown-ups around as it might make him feel too self-conscious to relax or do as he pleased. Instead, he found himself drawn to the red and orange boats. The bright colors would stand out more in the dark, making it easier for the caretaker to spot them and come to their rescue if anything went wrong. Mamori glanced to his side, where Corvinus stood close by. Feeling at ease with his besties next to him, he leaned in slightly and asked, "Hey Cor, you wanna join me on the red boat? It will be easier to keep an eye on things from there." Having said that, he hopped onto the red boat and positioned himself as it slowly rocked up and down.

|

─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

ABOARD RED BOAT

─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

Permission to slightly godmod Corvinus Schröder had been granted by her writer

─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────