To New Beginnings PV Gia Adelard Finished

"You play guitar, too? No way!" he said with a bright smile, glad to meet a fellow musician. Even if she hadn't taken lessons that didn't mean she wasn't brilliant at it - all depending on how much time and dedication she put into it. "I play that and piano and saxophone. Hope to learn more someday." Guitar was one of the best though because one could practice it and it wasn't too loud and the instrument wasn't too big and bulky to carry around.

"Maybe we can have a sort of practice session together once the school year begins?" he asked, unsure if she even brought her guitar to Hogwarts. It wasn't on the list by any means, of course, but he still had packed his in his larger trunk - the acoustic one, anyway. He had been told that no technology of any kind worked at Hogwarts and he wasn't sure how he was going to get by without his cellphone.

In fact, when Gia mentioned what time it was, he instinctively reached for his front pants pocket where he kept his phone and realized it wouldn't be there for that very reason. "'Fraid not," he replied on not knowing the time. He glanced out the window, looking up to the sky. "I'd say it'll be later evening by the time we arrive judging from the sun." Simon, having been really only comfortable exploring the world after dark, had quite an interest in astronomy. Usually it was for knowledge and stories about the stars and constellations, but he still could tell the time, relatively accurately, using the position of the sun in the sky.

Gia grinned at Simon. "Yup! You do too, I'm assuming?" It was fun to find out how many different things the two had in common with each other, and it seemed like there were even more things than she'd originally thought. Not only were their pasts similar in a few ways, but they both enjoyed music as well! Then the boy across from her told her that he also played piano and saxophone, and her eyes widened. "Oh, that's a lot!" she exclaimed. "I used to take piano lessons too! But eventually ended up stopping that and turning to guitar, which I've always liked better. And you play the saxophone? That's so cool!" She had never met anyone who played that instrument.

When Simon then asked about having a practice session type of thing once they got to Hogwarts, Gia smiled even wider. "Sure!" she replied, and looked at her trunk sitting beside her. "You brought an instrument too? Obviously not the piano, that would be much to large. Which of the other two instruments did you bring?" The eleven year old didn't really mind which one he'd brought, although it would be sort of fun to hear him play the sax. It would still be tons of fun to play the guitar with another person though, since she'd only ever played by herself before.

Right after she asked what time it was, the boy sitting across from her reached for his pocket before seeming to realize that whatever he was looking for wasn't going to be there? "Your phone?" she guessed, getting what he was doing right away. "I know, I was pretty annoyed as well when I read technology wouldn't work at Hogwarts. I guess wizards have magic and all that, but. . . it's going to be so weird not having a phone or anything there." Gia raised an eyebrow when she saw Simon look out the window to find out what time it was. "Oh, you know how to tell time from looking at the sun? That's so cool!" she turned back to him. "I can sorta do that, but not that well. Do you like astronomy? I hear that'll be one of the classes at Hogwarts one year. . ."

371 words
@Simon Kincaid
Banner by Lucia Fox

"Yeah I brought my guitar but left the saxophone, a little hard to fit into my trunk with everything else and I figured it might be a little loud to practice. Who knows, maybe I can have my Aunt Maggie send it later or get it when we go home for the holidays?" That sounded nice, but then it might be difficult to try and get them both home come Summer unless again, he were to ship it back or something. He wasn't sure how feasible that was to this wizarding school.

"I love learning about the stars and the Greek mythology about the stories of the constellations. I was set to take Astronomy this coming year at my school back in London before getting a letter of acceptance from here. I'm glad they'll have it as well," and he was curious as to what magical sort of spin the class may or may not have. Maybe it would be about the same. He hadn't any idea.

"My aunt mentioned that my mum favored a class that dealt with plants," he shrugged. "Greenhouse and Gardens 101?" he suggested a name. He knew nothing of the classes they were about to take that coming school year like Herbology and Potions and the like. "It would be rather amusing if they were having us take honeysuckle and primrose and brew it together with some essence of corncokle root and get some sort of cure for the common cold or something," he laughed. "Although while I hardly doubt we'll be brewing potions (...Oh Simon, how wrong you are), there must be some kind of cooking class or something because of the cauldron on the list."

Gia nodded when Simon explained why he didn't bring his saxophone to Hogwarts. "That makes sense," she said. "Oh, yes, you could ask. I would love to hear you play it, by the way," the eleven year old added with a smile. "I've never heard one live before, to be honest. My father plays songs with a sax in it occasionally, but. . . it's always better hearing music live, you know?"

The boy sitting across from her said that he loved learning about things like the stars and the reasons why people in ancient times thought they were there, mainly the Greek Mythology ones. "I've never actually heard any of those stories. My brother used to love a book series about that: Percy Jackson. I've never personally read the books though - but maybe I will the next time I go home. It's interesting?" she asked. A ton of kids at her old school had loved those books, including her old best friend, Alayna, but they just hadn't seemed super interesting to her back then. Who knew though. . . maybe she'd like them more now.

Suddenly, an idea hit her. "Oh! I wonder if it's possible that the wizarding population of the world had something to do with any of that stuff. Probably not, but then again. . . if they can do all of this stuff, why not, right? There were most likely wizards and witches back then, don't you think?" Now her mind was spinning. Although that one theory seemed a little far fetched, now that she knew all of this stuff about the wizarding world and magic, anything could be possible. What if the wizards and witches from way back when had come up with super important discoveries in the past? What if there were so many magical things around her that she simply hadn't noticed before?

Simon told her that his mom had really enjoyed a class about plants and stuff like that. Gia tilted her head to one side, thinking for a moment. "Cool!" When the boy offered a name, the girl couldn't help but laugh a little. "Hmm, what's the difference between, like, wizard and magical gardening and regular human gardening? There must be something different, right? Hopefully. . . I feel like everything magical is so much more interesting than the normal things that we grew up knowing. Although that might be the reason why it's so interesting, I guess."

Now that they were talking about Hogwarts classes, all she could think about was what types of things they would be learning. Her brain buzzed with ideas for magic classes, like learning spells or something with the wand she'd bought, and maybe even brewing potions. Simon mentioned that last thing, but didn't seem to think it would be happening. "You really never know," she said with a grin. "Maybe we'll learn to, like, transport ourselves magically. Wouldn't that be cool?" There were just so many possiblities!

486 words
@Simon Kincaid
Banner by Lucia Fox

"That would be cool!" he said, agreeing with her completely. There were now some students walking about in the corridor of the train and Simon looked to the window of the door. He watched as an older boy stopped at theirs and opened it, instructing them that it was now time to place on their black cloaks that they had purchased at Diagon Alley. They would be arriving soon.

Arriving soon? He felt a mixture of both nerves and excitement, but more excitement and smiled to Gia. "Guess we're about to see what this place really IS like," he said to her.

He got out the dark cloak from his trunk and slipped it on over what he had on and she did the same. He worked on making sure it was straightened out and fitting fine and it did...Madame Malkin made sure of that for every student that came into her shop.

He looked the part. Gia looked the part. They were students at a magical school! Now, they just had to FEEL the part. The train began to come to a slow and the loud whistle blew once. They came into view of a station and stopped. The whistle blew twice. It was time to dismiss.

Simon helped Gia get her trunk down and they exited the train with the others, following along with them as they made their way toward their new adventure. It was all happening so fast, it was almost a blur! There was a man harshly instructing that first years get on a boat and Simon looked to his left to say something to Gia but discovered she was no longer at his side. Too many students were around. "Gia?" he called out. "GIA?!" but no response.

Eventually he had to board one of the boats. He'd see his new friend again when her name was called out at the sorting ceremony and he clapped when she got into Gryffindor - the house his mother had been in. It must be a good house. He hoped though that he'd see her again soon once the school year began.