On the Way to Hogwarts... Open Closed

Aaron was bursting with excitement. She was on her way to a magic school. Just a month ago, she didn't even know magic existed. Now she was visiting shopping districts hidden behind brick walls and charging through train station pillars like they were bead curtains.

The train hallways were bustling with students, jostling and colliding with one another as they saw friends and acquaintances. There was an odd mish-mash of regular clothes and long, sweeping black robes. Aaron felt like she'd walked into a film at the theatre. She was wearing one of her favourite argyle sweaters (loose-fitting, with the sleeves rolled up to expose her forearms), a pair on dark blue mom jeans, and worn blue high-tops. Her thick curls were contained in a messy bun to allow her a full range of vision. When clock struck eleven and the train started rattling forwards, the throngs of students started retreating into the numerous cabins. Left out in an empty hall, Aaron decided to explore down the train before finding a seat. Peaking into the cabins, she saw all kinds of people. Some were chatting with friends, some were sitting gloomily in silence, some were casting little spells, and still others were gawking out the large windows.

After venturing all the way down to the front of the train, where she met an older student with a shiny badge labeled prefect on their chest who shooed her away, she started seriously searching for a cabin. She wanted to make friends, but she also wanted to avoid crashing any tightly knit friend groups and causing conflict. She also wanted space to openly express her excitement without being compressed against six other people. She finally found a cabin with only one occupant, a girl who was staring out the window and twirling her wand between her fingers.

Opening the sliding door with a sharp flick of her wrist, hard enough for it to smack audibly against the frame, Aaron stepped into the room. She smiled her award-winning smile at the girl, who had (presumably) turned to look at her.

"Hiya! The name's Aaron. Pleasure to meet you. S'alright if I join you?"

Eirian looked away from the window when the door opened, but she kept twirling her wand absentmindedly. She took a moment to take in the grinning girl standing in the doorway before her speech registered.

"Oh, yes, sure." Eirian used her free hand to wave towards the bench across from her, "I'm Eirian, good to meet you." She smiled at the dark-haired girl.

"So, where are you coming to school from? You're definitely English, from your accent." She stopped twirling her wand and pointed the tip towards herself, "I'm from Aberystwyth." she paused, "I always knew I'd end up coming to Hogwarts when I was eleven, but it's still exciting to be going off away from all muggles and parents for the school year, isn't it?"

She returned to twirling her wand in one hand as she grinned at Aaron.

Having gotten approval, Aaron tossed her knapsack onto the bench across from Eirian before plopping down herself, swinging her legs up to sit crisscross (she knew if she didn’t, she'd fidget and probably end up kicking her new acquaintance by accident). She grinned again, watching the wand in Eirian's hand.

"English, born and raised. I'm from Alfriston in East Sussex, a tiny spot of a town, not far from the ocean. And by "always knew", do you mean you've always known you were a wizard? No wait, witch." she asked, eyes shining. The only official witches and wizards Aaron had talked with were the shop owners on Diagon Alley, and they'd been too busy with the hoards of students to play 20 questions with a curious, freshly named witch.

"I only learned magic itself existed about a month ago, and I'm still reeling! Did you grow up with magic? Are your parents a witch and wizard? What was it like? Can you use your wand? I gave mine a try, but it was like swinging an ordinary stick." She rattled off words like she was wielding a machine gun. She pulled out her wand, a thick piece of wood that she had been told contained a phoenix feather, and gave it a wave. Nothing happened. She frowned at it with frustration, waved the wand a few more times, then sighed in acceptance.

"Well, I guess if I could use it right off the bat I wouldn't need to go to magic school, now would I?" she said, laughing. She turned her gaze back to Eirian, eager to hear her responses.

Eirian nodded along with Aaron's questions, taking a moment to realise that her companion must have been a muggle-born witch. She chuckled at Aaron's last statement.

"Yeah, I've always known. Or expected anyway. Mum's a witch, so she did magic sometimes. Dad's a muggle, though and we lived around mostly muggles, so she had to be careful not to expose us. Magic is fun, and really convenient when you can use it all the time for sure."

She stopped twirling her wand and looked at it contemplatively, "I can use it... kind of. On and off, y' know. Like you said, if we could just do magic well, why would we come to Hogwarts? I've heard mum do some spells, but I don't really know all that much. I'm sure purebloods coming to school will know more but..." Eirian shrugged.

Again, she paused. "I don't know how much I can answer, but you can ask me any questions that you have if you want to." As she spoke, Eirian realised that she was working off an assumption that Aaron was a muggle-born without confirmation, "You're a muggle-born right? Both of your parents are muggles, and that's why you're so surprised about all this magic stuff?"

Aaron was still new to being labeled as a 'muggle-born'. There hadn't been a mention of her Hogwarts letter, but a few of the shop owners had referred to her with the name.

"Muggle-born. That's when you come from a normal, non-wizardy family, right? If so, then yes. I was living the life of an ordinary small town lass until my magic manifested. OH, speaking of, the story for that is wicked!" Aaron was excited to tell her tale. She'd tried to when talking to the people she'd met on Diagon Alley, but the shop owners were too focused on selling her things and the students were too busy excitedly telling their own tales to listen to hers. Now that she was alone in a cabin with an attentive audience, her time had come.

"So me and my mates were seashell hunting by the ocean and we found this huuuuuuge half-submerged cave. It was low tide so we could actually squeeze along the rocks and go in. We found a bloody treasure trove of shells and started stuffing our pockets, giddy as could be. But one of my mates wasn't watching where she was stepping and fell into the water. I ran after her, naturally, and jumped in to help, but the water had us and we couldn't make it back to shore. We were clutching a rock like our lives depended on it, which they technically did, and I could feel my fingers start to slip. There was no way I just gonna let the sea take me, so I yelled and cursed at it. And it just pulled back, all at once, like someone was peeling a banana. I thought I'd somehow awakened my water bending blood, like in that show they like to play on TV at 8am on Saturdays. We escaped our watery death by a hair, and all because of my magical powers started kicking in. Aaron the witch was born!" Aaron had been pantomiming throughout the entire story, using her entire body to convey the epicness of her tale. She finished with a flourish and a wink in Eirian's direction. She kicked her legs back up underneath her (they had swung out at some point during her retelling) and looking excitedly at her companion.

"What was your first magical feat? I imagine it must have been way earlier than mine, considering you've known you were a witch since birth." she said, motioning for Eirian to take the spotlight, eyes sparkling.

Eirian leaned forward with her elbows on her knees and listened intently to Aaron's story of the first time she had used magic. Aaron was a very avid storyteller; she put her entire body into a recreation of the event; Eirian was grinning at her by the end of it.

"Wow. That was impressive," Eirian laughed, leaning back and drawing one knee up to her chest. "I mean, your friends must have thought the whole thing was clean off."

She shook her head and pulled up her other knee, then crossed her legs. She set her wand in her lap, then raised her hand and put up one finger.

"To answer your first question, yes. Muggles are just non-wizards. Regular people. I've heard that Americans call them "no-maj" which seems uncreative." Eirian pushed some hair away from her face, "For your other question, yes I was younger, but my story is nowhere near as entertaining or impressive. I guess that makes sense though since your magic was building up for longer."

"I was..." she pursed her lips and exhaled, making a noise which she briefly chuckled at, "Eight, I think. I grew up around mostly muggles so, I knew about magic, but mum always had to be careful about using it. I had gotten into a fight with some kid in my neighbourhood. It's definitely dumb now, but I was little, y' know, so I was furious that this boy had stolen one of my favourite stuffed animals. Actually, I'm still kind of attached to it." Eirian admitted, pulling a small stuffed lizard from her bag with a slight laugh and showing it to Aaron, "I brought it cause I thought it'd be nice to have some stuff from home."

"Anyway," she set the lizard down beside her, "I was chasing this kid around trying to get my lizard back and we were by my house. Mum has lot's of plants and jars and stuff on the window sills so while I was yelling at him, I was getting more and more frustrated. I didn't realise what happened until later, but one of the jars on the window shattered when I got distraught. Of course, the boy got scared and ran off, and I don't think he ever talked to me again."

Eirian leaned back a little and shrugged, "Not very entertaining but there it is. I can maybe help with some magic questions since I've always known about it though."

Aaron smiled at the way Eirian mirrored her crisscross sit. She was almost vibrating with excitement, and it was nice to share this excitement with someone. She decided then and there that she WAS going to become Eirian's friend, no matter what. Eirian couldn't escape her.

Aaron laughed when Eirian announced her violent outburst, but it wasn't mocking. She herself had started fights over much less before. Fists were Aaron Hastings go to solution, and no threat of punishment had ever dissuaded her. She also didn't judge Eirian for bringing her plush lizard. She herself had brought her old lumpy hugging pillow she'd had on her bed for years (it was frayed and miscoloured, clearly very well loved) and if anyone dared laugh at her, she'd deck them with it. In the same vein, if she caught anyone teasing Eirian, they'd recieve a fist to the face. She was proud of her childish side, and saw no reason why an eleven year old should have to grow up. She didn't even see why eighteen year olds did.

"Bashing a jar with your mind? I'd say thats pretty wicked. Too bad you didn't toss it at him instead, I'm sure that would've given him a right fright" Aaron said when Eirian had finished her story, pantomiming throwing something. "I hope your ma wasn't angry that you broke her jar. My mum's a gardener, and if I broke one of her pots, magically or not, I'd get a real thrashing."

A bird flew past the window, momentarily distracting Aaron, and she gaped out at the landscape rushing past for a minute. It was beautiful, all big lakes and bushy trees and bright sunlight. It truly felt like she was on her way to another world. She felt her excitement spike yet again.

She looked back to Eirian, grinning wildly. "What're you most excited for? This is my first time living in a dorm environment away from my parents, and I can't wait to take full advantage of that. I wonder if magical teachers are strict. I hope not, otherwise magical mischief might be a bit hard to pull off!" She began waving her wand lazily, imagining all the things she could do once she knew how to properly use this magical hunk of wood.

Eirian shrugged and laughed, "Well, mum wasn't too happy about it, but she realised what had happened before I did so she didn't blame me for it. She'd have been right cross if I'd chucked it at him, but if I'd thought of it, it'd have been worth it."

She paused for a minute and watched the passing scenery as Aaron had a moment ago. It was very bright, but the passing scenery was quite pretty. It was a little amusing how hyperactively excited her new friend was.

"Eh, teachers are always strict. That doesn't mean we can't have our fun anyway," Eirian winked at Aaron, "My teachers have never liked that I don't like to stick to their rules, but I usually got away with it anyway. With mum and dad, too. I'm pretty good at getting out of trouble when I get caught."

Eirian pulled a book from her bag before answering Aaron's last question, "I'm definitely most excited for learning about magical creatures! This one," she raised the book and showed Aaron the cover, "is mine but before I got my school books, I read mum's copy of Fantastic Beasts a million times since I was a little kid." she paused thoughtfully for a moment, "Okay, technically when I was little it was more about the pictures but once I could read to now."

She flipped through it and stopped on the page with the description and illustration of a Niffler. She held it out to show Aaron, "This one is one of my absolute favourites. It's super cute, and they can be affectionate with wizards. I would love to have one as, like, a pet to keep and take care of. They love shiny and glittery things, they burrow and will stop at pretty much nothing to get the shiny things they want."

"Not meant to be a brag or anything, but I could tell you about pretty much any magical beast." Eirian grinned, "I'm not much of a reader, but when it comes to creatures, magical and regular actually, I know my stuff."

Aaron took the book from Eirian, goggling at the pictures. Nifflers were little black beasties that looked like a cross between a platypus and a raccoon. Aaron thought they were adorable. She skimmed the pages as she listened to Eirian's description.

"They're like little pirates!" she laughed, imaging one of the beasties chasing after a chest of shiny gold coins, wearing a little pirate hat. She'd never considered the idea of magical creatures. She'd been to caught up in all the other magic related things. Wands. Spells. Permeable brick walls leading to an alternate dimensional train platform.

"I'm also not a big reader, but if this is what our textbooks will be like, I might become one," she said, carefully flipping through the book. There were all kinds of beasties, ranging from hilariously outlandish to utterly gorgeous to excellent nightmare fuel. She froze when she reached the section on dragons.

"DRAGONS ARE REAL?!" she gasp-yelled, leaning down to stare wide-eyed at the illustrations. Of course, ordinary people knew about dragons, but those were myths and fables, stories you tell to kids to teach them lessons or make them shut up and go to sleep. "What are they like? I'd imagine they're pretty big, and fiery, and intimidating."

She raised her wide-eyed gaze up to Eirian. "Can you ride them?" Even if she wasn't an avid reader, she had been a rambunctious child, and it had taken a lot of bedtime stories to send her to sleep. She'd probably heard every fairytale her town's library had to offer. As a result, she'd had a wide range of wild, vibrant dreams, and many of them had featured her seated soundly on the back of a dragon. She could die happy if she could bring that dream to life.