First Year Entrance

date 01/09/25

word count 667

outfit ⁺₊ ☀︎ ⁺₊

speech #8C2626

mentions @

notes open to interactions

After what felt like an eternity, the Hogwarts Express finally halted. Lucille wasted no time in scrambling out. The girl had learned long ago that her small stature meant she could duck through crowds almost unnoticed, weaving this way and that between people. Perhaps not the easiest way to navigate, and patience would certainly be rewarded, but who could blame the girl for being impatient, elbowing through the crowd like her life depended on it. And, in a way, it did. She certainly didn't want to get lost or left behind and so, when Lucille heard the calls for first years at the front of the train, she hurried to reach.

Lucille quickly made her way to the front of the crowd of first years, and saw the person who called them. To her surprise, he looked to be a teenager, not the old, wizened staff member she imagined. The teenager waited for all the students to catch up, but something else had drawn Lucille's attention. There was a mongoose on his shoulder, peering out at the students, completely unbothered. Lucille was captivated, seeing a wild animal so relaxed in the presence of so many people, its eyes curious but never fearful or aggressive.

Perhaps she should have been a bit more present, and paid more attention to the teenager's words, because before she knew it, he was guiding all the students to the boats. Breaking her intent observation of the mongoose, Lucille peered around at the boats, each one identical except for the bear plushie at its bow. Some students had already settled in, and she was sure she could see a familiar face among them. Lucille hesitated, trying to decide which boat she'd like to sit in. From the corner of her eye, she would feel as if the bears were watching her, but when she would look straight at them, they simply looked like normal plushies. Magic is creepy, she thought to herself, reminded of the countless Muggle horror movies that came out with the premise of toys that moved and plotted against you when you weren't looking. Of course, on the other hand, in her nervousness, she could be imagining things.

Did the bears mean anything? Was there a correct choice? Did they affect anything? She liked the look of the spectacled bear, but she didn't want to be the last boat, staring at everyone else's heads as they ventured through the Great Lake. She thought polar bears were adorable, but weren't they also the most aggressive bears? As more people pushed past her, Lucille took a deep breath. Just pick one, she thought to herself, not wanting to board last.

Finally, she stepped forward to the first boat of the batch, with a brown bear at the bow. This was the one which would be at the lead, which meant there would be no boats blocking her view. The boat wobbled a little when she stepped into it, and she was silently grateful that this was a lake, not the sea. Lucille disliked the sea, with how saltwater stung one's eyes. She had a deep distrust of water, despite knowing how to swim, and wasn't all that comfortable on a boat. She always worried she would fall over, but there was comfort in the fact that, even if she did, she'd be alright. Wet, but alright.

Lucille's eyes drifted back to the first year students still choosing their boats on the dock. She seemed to be waiting expectantly for the next person to enter, excitement beginning to return to her, coupled with nervousness. Ordinarily, Lucille would have been fidgeting impatiently, but the boat's gentle bobbing kept her still. Her last experience on a boat had been the gondola on the Amortunnel, and it hadn't felt so threatening, being a calm, relaxed ride. This was a ride on an expansive lake, which, although calm, certainly was no manmade river, and made her a lot more nervous. Still, she was determined to enjoy it.

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When Tatiana first step foot on the Hogsmeade Train Station, a giddy feeling of importance and having to prove herself swept over her, she felt as though arriving here was the first task in which she needed to pass in order to successfully fulfill the imaginary task set before them. While other students were focused on what house they would be getting wondering what foods they'd be serving, and socializing as much as possible before they'd get separated in their houses, Tatiana was already laying out a plan in which she wouldn't make a fool of herself.

The first thing she would do now is to listen to all instructions, whether it may be from a prefect or a staff, just not from those students that feel funny and cool leading innocent first-years to catastrophes before the school year had even started.

She kept close to other first years, though not really wanting to talk to them, but rather so that she had an alibi of some sort when she'd be accused of some utter nonsense just because she'd been the first person the accuser had saw or because they had a grudge against her. As they drawled here and there, a loud booming voice was grouping them near the dock of the great lake, where small boats sat huddled, all sort of representing some sort of stuffed bear, but as Tatiana looked closer, one of the bear's ears seemed to move and, in the nick of time, another's paw was itching its snout, but she could've just imagined it all, the magic seemed to sort of mingle with her eyes.

Tatiana watched as friends fought with one another on whose boat would get who, already silently deciding on who'd she would befriend first. Once almost all the other first-years were to be seated, Tatiana made her way to the Panda Bear boat, where a girl with long, dark hair sat by herself.

Action — Board Panda Bear Boat · Open to Interactions · Please Owl

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› The students, and for God's sake there were too many, just too many of them, for some private boarding school, were out of the train and most were moving somewhere right away. Clearly, they were older students who already knew where to go. Among everyone, it was clear who was there for the first time — the first years were glancing around. Well, to be honest, Archibald couldn't help but do the same. The air felt close to home, which was unbelievable. He made all that way from his small island to London, just to get on a train and ride all the way back to Scotland. He wondered how actually close he was to his home. A small needle pierced his heart at this thought, as he realised he did not know whether he'd see his parents until the next summer, or they manage to get him at least for Christmas.

› A sudden shout woke him up, and directed his attention, finally, to where it should've been. The crowd of the youngest students was led towards what seemed to be a lake... Water, finally, where he belonged. But his jaw dropped in awe, as he watched a gigantic castle materialising in front of him just across that lake. He just turned a corner with the whole crowd, and the sparkling image of something immensely magnificent just shot every bit of consciousness out of him. It was nothing he had ever seen before in his life. He was following the crowd on autopilot, gaping at the beautiful lake and the vast architectural masterpiece not so far away, until the crowd halted.

› The man who was leading them @Avery Phineas Finch was quite young, definitely younger than his Father. Too thin, and too feeble, as Archibald would think. But he could really only compare to his Father. His name was Avery Finch, and he was, as he said, the school's caretaker. He would try to get what a caretaker did at school later. The order was to load themselves into the boats, which were marked by certain types of bears Archibald had never seen even on pictures. He instinctively checked the boats colours to avoid jumping into a green one. But something else eventually lured him into a boat. It seemed to be beyond reason and consciousness. He glanced around to see anyone from his train ride, but couldn't see anyone. He was passing the boat with two girls, shot them a quick glance and couldn't tear his eyes off the long-haired girl @Tatiana Contraire in that boat. There was no need to decide, it was fate that decided for him. In complete silence, he stepped into the boat — the action he did a billion times through his life, so he did it once again — and just sat on the opposite side, smiling awkwardly, and turning his eyes away to look at the castle instead.

Action: board the Panda boat.

Credit to Tabitha Murrey

@Aaron Stone, @Angelo Angelov, @Silas Norwood, @Esme Hestridge

The hours of the train ride from London to Hogwarts was entirely too long, especially for a kid mostly familiar with using the Floo Network or not going very far. By the time she was hopping out onto solid earth, thoroughly done with trains until she next was forced to ride one, Aislin needed fresh air and to stretch her legs. At least she didn't have to drag her trunk and bruise her shins any more. The castle was still in the distance, spires obscured by train steam, and tales from her cousins combined with a persistent yelling over the din of so many shuffling students paved the way toward a boy with a mongoose.

But there were a lot of bodies around, older students heading in one direction and first years filing toward the boy to slowly board a swarm of boats, so they weren't moving that fast. In the empty time, Aislin's thoughts drifted quickly to the soil, of all places, though no one who knew her would be surprised. Scotland's climate was different from her home in Ireland, they were more north now, so she had to check for variations in bugs, the species and prevalence and all that. Not that the light level was currently ideal for investigation, but she was bored and it was something to do and her hands were empty. Aislin kept up with the procession's slow pace and kept her eyes on the ground, just in case.

There. A tiny shift, the wriggling signs of bug life. Or the much more disappointing effect of someone's step making the ground shift in such a way to make her think she'd seen a bug, which would be a disappointing start to her time at Hogwarts. But then she saw it again, the light finding spindly legs between shadows.

Without warning anyone else, Aislin crouched down right then and there, shielding the bug from potential squashing underfoot and lifting a leaf to get a better look at it. The eleven-year-old was no entomologist, but she did prize herself on knowing a lot about bugs, and this was a beetle. Not just any beetle, either; as she watched, she noticed the hair-thin antennae extending far past its body. "Longhorn beetle," she whispered to herself, quietly delighted. She wanted to observe the antennae and coloring in more detail, maybe with a light source or a magnifying glass (hers, unfortunately, was in the trunk somewhere behind her or being rapidly transported to the castle). At the very least, the little guy needed relocating away from careless kids and possibly onto a tree, though her identification skills weren't honed enough to know what kind of plant this guy liked. Her mind made up, Aislin scooped up the beetle in her hands, cupped carefully to not crush it or leave any gaps for crawling out just yet, and caught up with her peers.

Holding a bug complicated the boat-boarding process a little bit. She ended up transferring it to one hand, much more squished conditions, and using her other to steady herself. Then she was seated safely over the water, stuffed polar bear at the head, beetle in hands. Upon closer inspection, one of its wings looked askew, damaged to some degree. Maybe the beetle had already caught the corner of someone's shoe before she found it. That meant it wouldn't be able to fly off and find itself stranded over the water, so that let her hold it more loosely, open to the air.

A minute later she was holding it up higher, though, stopping her observation of its little movements as the stuffed bear crowded into her space. Well, one of the polar bears. Aislin had tuned out her boat mates for the time being to prioritize her new beetle friend, but now she watched as one of the boys tapped the head bear repeatedly, spawning in replicas of the same bear, some sort of spell at work. Cool. Though possibly less cool to leave them in the water, but maybe the duplicated bears would vanish after a while. Someone was already telling him to stop. Aislin didn't say anything yet, just held the beetle close and waited to see how that would sort out.

Action: Boarding Polar Bear with a tiny extra passenger (beetle)

Odd Things Do Happen Here

Place: Great Lake
Date: September 1st, 2025
Time: Evening

And with that, the boats were off, sailing peacefully into the night towards the candlelit castle.

As the minutes passed by with the general chattering of the students in the boats, the various nightly bug and animal sounds, and the movement of the boats causing the waters to shift and clip gently against the other boats, there was an odd, potent feeling of anticipation and, well, magic in the air. It was that feeling right before things started happening or when they were already happening, but you didn't know that they were.

Maybe it was just the anticipation of new beginnings, of the excitement of being sorted, or just of a good dinner. A reverent feeling that these children where beginning their schooling and some of them were really, truly stepping into the magical world for the first time.

It was that kind of beginning of the climax that Avery always loved about coming back to Hogwarts when he was a student. Every year felt like the beginning of an adventure, and it usually always was, despite and, maybe because of, the mishaps that always happened every year.

As the boats progressed through the water, Avery couldn't help but attempt to offer his own words of wisdom to the general group. He wasn't too far out of Hogwarts, having literally shared the halls with the current sixth and seventh years, and it was a fine line between arrogance and care when giving people younger than you advice, but Avery went ahead and tried to say something of note to the group.

"I know that I may seem a bit over the top, but give an old timer his theatrics, this really is the beginning of the rest of your lives." He said, his voice projecting over the rather quiet lake to be heard all the way to the last boat. It didn't much matter to him if the students listened or not, the sentiment was out there over the water and those who needed to hear it, would. "What you learn here, the friendships you make, the enemies you make, the things that will happen to you here, carry you through everything that will happen to you later. For many of you, this is the beginning of magic for you, having just recently discovered your magical heritage, for many others, this is the start of everything you've heard of from your families. I want you all to keep in mind that you are all starting from the same level, just because some on you have known about magic for longer, doesn't necessarily mean you really know what it's like to be performing it yourself. You'll find that practice is much different than theory once you have a wand in your hand and Hogwarts is one of the more intense places where you will learn that first hand. So be cautious, ready, and alert, you never know what you might discover here." He concluded, wanting to keep his advice speech short, but also wanting to say something as they approached the castle.

It was a little bit ironic for Avery to call himself "an old timer", but the thing was: maybe it was a trick of the dark, maybe anyone who noticed was just a little too tired from the long train ride or their expectations of the "adult" who greeted them a little too thrown off the "wizened wizard" expectation to really believe that a teenager was their leader on this little adventure, but, to those who were paying attention, the caretaker seemed to be getting older the closer the boats got to the castle. It was as if the minutes were taking years off his life, by now appearing in his later twenties.

He hadn't grown any taller and his brilliant green eyes had not dimmed in the slightest, nor had his wide, welcoming and excited grin, but the slightly chubby cheeks of youth had begun to thin out, hardening over his high cheekbones to display his features further into adulthood. His chin, still clean shaven, had hardened, as well, thinning out his face overall.

It didn't appear as if he was doing anything himself to cause the change. He was simply keeping an eye on the progress of the boats, the scenery, the passengers in his own boat, and the students in the other boats. He would chatter animatedly with the students in his boat if they were inclined to bring him into their conversation in any way, but he continued to grown older as the boats crossed the lake.

As he chattered though, a keen eyed student may notice that his hand would drop near the water every once in a while as the boats progressed. It could have looked like he was just dipping his hand in the water because he liked the feel of it through his fingers, though he definitely wouldn't advise any students to do this, but did he have something in his hand every time it dipped below the dark waters? More light tricks maybe, or darkness, rather as the sun was almost set. It had definitely sunk below the trees and so the night was quickly falling on our floating students.

Whatever he was putting in the water, or maybe just the rare stir at the surface made by Avery's hand and the sailing boats, was definitely attracting some of the wildlife inside of the lake. If any of the students looked behind them, they would catch some curious creatures, maybe grindylows or mermaids, poking the tips of their heads out of the water to observe the parade, keeping their distance from the boats and staying far behind, but peering out at the students before dipping silently or splashing loudly back under the lake's waves.

As for the bears on the bows of the boats being shifty themselves, Tatiana Contraire may have thought she saw an ear or paw twitch but upon further inspection, it was impossible for the bears to have moved. They were simply stuffed bears made to make the ride a little more friendly and more inviting to the nervous first years.
Maisie Fenwick Rose Williams , Tavi Honey, Lucille Rosenhart, and Esme Hestridge would not be deterred from their observations. The bears were moving and they would not let anyone tell them otherwise if they brought it up to their oblivious boat mates. It was very small movements, a quick look to their left or right, a small ear twitch, a wink, but they were moving nonetheless, even if they were doing a pretty good job of pretending not to be enchanted.
Róis O'Rourke and Shelowyn Bloomthorn were the most convinced of the bears movement. It was plainly obvious that they were somehow enchanted, aside from the duplication spell. They fidgeted like disobedient toddlers who are told to sit still and pay attention to a teacher in class when all they want to do is go out and play. Why were the bears enchanted? For the fun? If so, why were they trying to hide their enchantment? Maybe it was a side effect of the duplication spell? Just how "alive" were they?

It was looking to be a very peaceful ride across the lake. Knock on wood.

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5

BOATS

Each boat will contain 5 students, except for the lead boat which will contain 5 students and Mr. Finch.
Please note which boat you are joining in your first post.
Do not join already full boats.
IC all boats are full, even if they are not full OOC.
More boats (and bear types) will be added if necessary.
Students joining after the boats are already moving may act as if they have been there the whole time and have gone through already passed events.
Boat formation: Lead(-===-)Last

1. Cantabrian Brown Bear - Lead boat - Avery Phineas Finch, @Lucille Rosenhart, @Verity Engels, @Leo Noxley, @Corinna Starling, @Livia Machavariani 5/5 - FULL
2. Polar Bear - @Aaron Stone, @Angelo Angelov, @Silas Norwood, @Esme Hestridge, @Aislin Darragh 5/5 - FULL
3.Panda Bear - @Janet Flannel Roll Banana Karen, @Tatiana Contraire, @Archibald Learmonth, @Emily Harris, @Ally Craig 5/5 - FULL
4. Black Bear - @Róis O'Rourke, @Milica Vranekova, @Matisse Ellison, @Jaxon Grayson, @ Brutus Palmer 5/5 - FULL
5. Sun Bear - @Rosaline Everhart, @Frederick Buckley, @Maisie Fenwick Rose Williams , @Seraphina Vale , @Nora Doyle 5/5 - FULL
6. Sloth Bear - 0/5
7. Kodiak Bear - 0/5
8. Spectacled Bear - Last Boat - @Harold Franklin, @Tavi Honey, @Shelowyn Bloomthorn, @Pyce Rotanski, @Katelyn Magnolia 5/5 - FULL

Each boat has a plush likeness of its bear sitting on the bow of the boat, leading the way. To clarify, the bear is attached to the front of the boat and does not move from that place.

Note: dNPCs are not allowed to participate in staff moderated threads. If you have a dNPC in first year (a cousin, a twin, a stepsibling, childhood friend, etc) you may roleplay that they joined the American Brown Bear boat and got a plush, but that is where they must be left.

OOC NOTES:

Welcome first years!

- This thread is open to all 2025-2026 first years as an introduction to open, moderated threads.
- I will be posting a moderation post every 2-ish weeks to moderate actions and progress the story. Please do not write beyond what is written in each mod post! We don't want to get ahead of ourselves and miss the fun.
- If you would like to perform a moderated action, please state your action somewhere clearly in your post, preferably at the beginning or the end. Do not roleplay reactions, follow-up actions, or any other results of your action until the moderation post has been made and I have stated whether you were successful or not.
If you'd like to perform a moderated action, please state the action clearly in your post. You may only perform spells if they are indexed in your trunk. And do not roleplay reactions, follow-up actions, or results to your moderated action until I have clearly stated whether you were successful or not. Only one moderated action per part/moderation post.

Moderation is over. You may still join the thread, interact with your boatmates, and roleplay as if you had been there all along, but I will no longer be doing action rolls.

Hope you had fun!

- All RPG rules apply. This means a word count minimum of 200 of your own words, excluding quotes from other's posts, occ chat, and coding. Any post under 200 words will be deleted after a warning owl is sent.
---- If you are having trouble meeting word count, try to be descriptive: How is your character feeling? Why did you pick the boat you picked? What do you think of those already in the boat? What do you think of the scenery?
----You do not need to be indexed to join this thread. You do need to be indexed to perform moderated actions.
- If you have any questions at all or concerns, don't hesitate to owl me. My window is always open.

Some helpful tips for large, open, moderated threads
- Tag the people you're interacting with (in this case, those in your boat) by putting each name in mention brackets like this:

Code: Select all

[mention]Full Name[/mention],[mention]Full Name[/mention], etc

- Feel free to read every single post or only the ones that have to do with your character.

Rolls:

Reducio

Notice Bears Movement: Wisdom check: 10
Róis O'Rourke - Wisdom: 5 ([d20: 20 (Crit)] +5 = 25) 25 > 10 → Critical Success
Maisie Fenwick Rose Williams - Wisdom: 4 ([d20: 17] + 4 = 21) 21 > 10 → Success
Tavi Honey - Wisdom: 7 ([d20: 15] + 7 = 22) 22 > 10 → Success
Shelowyn Bloomthorn - Wisdom: 7 ([d20: 20] + 7 = 27) 27 > 10 → Critical Success
Lucille Rosenhart - Wisdom: 5 ([d20: 5] + 5 = 10) 10 = 10 → Success
Tatiana Contraire - Wisdom: 6 ([d20: 2] + 6 = 8 ) 8 < 10 → Fail
Esme Hestridge - Wisdom: 7 ([d20: 6] + 7 = 13 ) 13 > 10 → Success

Interacting with @Avery Phineas Finch and @Lucille Rosenhart on the Cantabrian Brown Bear

Vera practically ran from the train to the boats once she heard the First years had a special ride, not out of excitement, but panic. She hadn't been sure where to send her suitcases, lingering around the area long enough that she almost missed the boats' departure. She jumped into the first boat, noting that the rest didn't have adult supervision. As much as Vera loved her freedom, taking a boat with a bunch of other kids her age without an adult over a large body of water was bound to end terribly, and she preferred to be near someone competent in case it did.

After a few moments of catching her breath, she could finally admire the scenery clearly. The clear skies, the gentle waters, the bright lights of a freaking castle right up ahead. Vera couldn't believe it. Hogwarts was real. Hogwarts was real and she was taking a boat to the place.

Vera turned to the caretaker, blood still rushing through her ears and creating some sort of static background noise. Thankfully, it wasn't louder than the caretaker's voice, now that she had calmed her heart down.

As Mr. Finch made his speech, Vera couldn't help but grin. "Almost sounds like we'll end up fighting monsters during our time here..." She mumbled to herself as she turned back to face the castle up ahead, half-wanting the others in the boat to respond and half-not.

When they said Hogwarts was a school for witches and wizards, Vera didn't really know what to think, what to imagine the place to look like. She knew of The School for Good and Evil and the two castles connected by one bridge. There was also Nevermore Academy from the Netflix series 'Wednesday', but from what Vera remembered of the first season and a little bit of season two, it was more of a school for... abnormal children? Was that the right term? Anyways, Vera couldn't really remember anyone using magic in the show. Nevertheless, from what she knew of them, she expected towers, maybe some mosaic windows, some fancy gates?

Hogwarts definitely had towers, a bridge just like The School for Good and Evil, the mosaic windows were to be determined, and there wasn't really a gate. The towers had pointy roofs that were probably so tall they could've fit another room in them.

Vera turned back to the boat, studying the faces of those inside. These would be her classmates for the next seven years, and Mr. Finch would be her school caretaker until he decided to resign. Crazy. But as Vera studied his face, she raised an eyebrow at his odd movements.

Action: notice Avery dropping something into the water