A New Adventure Open Closed

Leonard Valdelamar hadn't seen this many wizards in the same place since his parents' dinner parties. A part of him was delighted not to have to hide his magic any longer, and another, a bigger one, was completely terrified he'd be a terrible wizard compared to his peers. His aunt Mary and her friend Amelia had come with him, and he was already dreading having to leave them. He'd spent such a good year with them, after all...
But he really wanted to study magic, and see the moving paintings his aunt made, and the creatures that hid in the forest, and every secret Hogwarts School had to offer. Mary had told him all about her time there, and the curiosity had been eating at him for months.
Running straight through a solid column had been more fun than he'd imagined, though he almost expected it to move to the side at the three of them running so fast and determinately. Soon enough his luggage was taken care of and he didn't want to be alone in the crowd for much longer, so he climbed inside the train and looked for somewhere to sit. There didn't seem to be any empty carriages anymore, so he decided to just hope for the best and open the door to one.
"Hello, I'm Leonard." He tried to sound less nervous than he felt. "Is there any room here?"

Leonard cautiously slid the door of the carriage closed, and sat across the person already on this cart. She seemed nice, if a little stiff. He felt comforted immediately, knowing he wasn't the only one freaking out about being new.
Wait, maybe she wasn't new, and he was just making her uncomfortable. It would be rude to assume. He didn't know how to ask, though, so he just straightened his robes and hoped his accent wasn't too noticeable. He'd always studied English, but he only had a year to interact with it on a daily basis. Granted, the year had been wonderful, and Aunt Mary and Amelia always said you couldn't even tell he was Spanish, but today was apparently a day for feeling self conscious for dumb reasons. Leonard wasn't a baby, but he certainly felt like one right now.
The train hadn't started moving, so it meant that people could still get on and maybe even join them, and Leonard decided it would be embarrassing if he didn't even know the name of the person he was traveling with, if someone came in to join them.
"I'm a first year, so I don't know anyone," he started, "what's your name?"

Isaac Strowler travelled along the train, dragging along his luggage, searching for a spot to sit. His body was positively abuzz with joy. This was the first time he'd be riding the Hogwarts train, though that wasn't the only reason he was so happy.

Isaac was a muggle-born. He only developed his magical abilities a few months prior to receiving his letter from Hogwarts, and upon getting it, he was overwhelmed with emotions. He had been invited to a school filled with people just like him, with these strange and magnificent abilities. He couldn't wait.

With his favourite book, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Then, resting open in one of his hands, in his free hand his chestnut wood wand, of which he had pretty much not put down since he bought it at Ollivanders, Isaac pressed on. Magic truly did excite him beyond belief.

Finally, he found what looked to be a free space, in a compartment with two strangers. Putting on his best, beaming smile, he stepped forward, ready to introduce himself.

"Hey, my name's Isaac." He began, cheerful to meet new fellow-wizards, and hopeful that he wasn't interrupting anything. "Sorry, is this seat taken? None of the other compartments seem to be available, at the moment."

Leonard looked it over. He definitely hadn't. Wait, maybe he had? Back home? His mother kept a giant library and he had read some of what was there, mostly while using it as a hiding place from his siblings. He'd get bored of waiting for them to find him and he'd grab a book. He had only read the ones in Spanish, though.
"Maybe a translation of it?" He wanted to look inside, a book of Creatures and Beasts seemed like the most interesting thing in the world. "Does it have any pictures? Maybe I'll recognise one of them and I can tell you for sure."
Would there be magical beasts at Hogwarts? His Aunt Mary had told him there was a whole class (and a whole forest) to learn about them, but he thought she was joking.
"Do you think we'll see dragons?" He'd always dreamed of seeing one, and there were allegedly Catalonian Fireballs living in his country, but he was 'too little' and they were 'too dangerous' and 'firebreathing'. Seeing one here could be something like adventure, and he was itching for one of those.
It had been so long since he'd been in a forest, too!

"I know, right? I'm absolutely fascinated by it!" Isaac beamed, as he stored his luggage away, before taking a seat in one of the remaining ones. "It's beyond incredible to think of all the things out there, hiding in the world. If I'd been told a few months ago that there was some giant, English speaking spider out there, I would have been completely terrified, though now I want nothing more than to meet one! God, the wizarding world is so unbelievably fascinating!"

Isaac was blissfully unaware of how muggleborns, or mudbloods to some of the... less than accepting souls, were treated. He didn't know of their shaming, of the insults, of all the pain they'd go through. Purely because he had yet to experience it. To him, the wizard world was nothing more than an endless supply of whimsy to explore, an endless amount of joy to experience. He had no anxieties while sitting on that train, whatsoever, because the longer he sat on the train, the closer he got to Hogwarts, and to discovering all that this brand new world had to offer for him. Excitement filled him, an excitement that only grew with every single passing second.

Leonard felt like he was suddenly around two very informed people.
"Do you think a Mandrake could kill a dragon?"
Possibilities ran through his head, he'd been going to museum after museum with Amelia, but there were muggle museums, and she didn't even like the natural sciences ones that much. She still took him, of course, but he always ended up going to the art museums she liked better. She would tell him all about the paintings and the artists, and that was always fun. She knew a lot about the materials, too, and the chemistry of it, because she would restore pieces for some of the museums and she'd know the process. His Aunt Mary would know about magical paintings, but it was a bit more confusing. Leonard didn't care a lot about art, honestly, but science and how things work would never stop being interesting to him.
"I mean, how strong is a mandrake? How does it affect people?" Iris seemed like the kind of person who would know these kinds of things, and Leonard would never want to waste that opportunity.
He looked at the book. He definitely had seen it before, but he probably hadn't read it.

"That seems a bit cruel, doesn't it? Purposefully subjecting a creature to the scream of a mandrake?" Isaac questioned aloud, not really directing said question to anyone in general. After being asked his favourite creature, though, he took a good, long pause to really think about it. "Well, before I actually knew about the wizarding world, I had always been kind of fascinated by a specific creature, one I recently discovered is actually real. Specifically, Phoenix's. I can't help but be amazed by a creature whom is born anew from its own ashes. Plus, apparently they can live up to 500 years before their re-birth? that's completely amazing! Plus there's all the symbolism, what with being born again, that I can't help but relate to-"

Isaac tended to ramble, quite a bit, and the subject of "favourite creature" was making him do just that. He basically was going through everything he'd read from the phoenix entry in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, along with any extra information he'd learned, through other mediums. He was utterly obsessed with phoenix's, every aspect of them fascinated him entirely. Sure, dragons, unicorns, pixies, what have you, they all had their charms, but to Isaac, nothing came close to phoenix's.

"Here's a good question, what's your wand?" Isaac asked, far too excited to pause for breath after rambling on about his favourite magical creature. "When I got mine, I was told that the wand chooses the wizard? and that you can tell a lot about a person depending on the wand? so what kind of wand do you guys have?"

Isaac quickly drew his, happy to show it off.

"Mine is 23.7 cm chestnut wood and troll tail hair. I'm not exactly sure what it says about me, but I hope that I don't make it regret it choosing me" Isaac chuckled

Still thinking about possibly a favorite magical creature, Leonard pulled out his wand. "26,7 centimeters, hornbeam wood and unicorn hair, that's what old man Ollivander said." He happily provided "My family all got theirs from the same man, but he was too far from my Aunt's and we'd ran out of time to go see him." He never liked that man, anyways, Ollivander was so much nicer "He's always super busy because he's also famous for enchanting furniture, so of course you'd have to make a reservation to see him. I think if my father asked he'd have seen me anyways, but it must've slipped his mind" He chuckled amicably, but there was an edge to it. Leonard still wasn't happy with his parents' choice to send him away to somewhere he'd never been to stay with people he'd never known in a language he barely spoke. It had turned out fine, of course, Aunt Mary could do no wrong and Amelia was basically perfect, but he was still bitter about Mother and Father not visiting, or letting him see his siblings. (They'd sent him letters. And stuff. So much stuff. Oh God, the amount of stuff. He loved it)