The Long Ride Closed

Kenna was glad the others found the roundabout journey for Scots strange as well. Sometimes she wasn't sure if her opinions were crazy or just daft. She'd had so few others' opinions to compare them to all her life that she had no notion of what was normal or common. She nodded at Niki's mention of other magical portals, but then tilted her head in a birdlike expression of confusion when Niki added, "I’m used to moving around pointlessly, though." Moving around pointlessly? Kenna couldn't fathom what that meant... if her family travelled a lot, surely that would be moving with a point? Unable to contain her curiosity, Kenna burst out with, "Why's that?"

She was probably being nosey. Again. Mum had warned her about that. She said people wouldn't like it if she pried too much into their business. But Kenna was just genuinely curious, and wanted to know all about her new friends! At least, she hoped they would still want to be friends after they found out just how nosey she could be...

Kenna tried to keep quiet for a little while after that, watching out of the window instead of staring at the other girls. They were passing through hilly countryside, with rolling green fields dotted here and there with puffs of fluffy sheep. It was picturesque, Kenna supposed, but not terribly exciting. She looked forward to the creeping darkness of the dense forests around Hogwarts, where she had read lived hundreds of different species of magical plants and animals. Now that would be a landscape worth exploring!

When talk turned to the castle, Kenna's interest was piqued again, and she couldn't resist a little babbling of her own. "Not just a moat, there's a whole lake! And a colony of merfolk live in it, and goodness knows what else! I heard there's even some sort of giant monster living in the depths. Like Nessie!" She bounced eagerly in her seat at the thought, impatient to meet the mer-colony and find out what other creatures lurked in the Black Lake.

The library interested her, too, though. Kenna did love to read. A family trait, probably. "Oh, yes, my Da said there's a grand library at Hogwarts. He's a magical historian, you know, so he would be a good judge of libraries. I can't wait to see what books they have on magical creatures! My Da's collection is mostly on Scotland, but there are so many more interesting creatures out there. Like thunderbirds, and sphinx! Can you imagine meeting a sphinx?" Kenna clapped her hands together in delight. Perhaps a normal person should be terrified at the prospect of facing an ancient mythical creature who would kill you if you didn't answer its riddle correctly. But not Kenna - she would want to sit with the sphinx for hours asking it questions about its habits and history. And maybe answer the riddle, just so she could say she did. But mostly to learn more about the sphinx!

"A magical historian? That's so amazing! My parents don't have anywhere near as interesting jobs. My dad is a handyman, he goes from house to house doing repairs on machines and such, and my mum's an accountant. Nowhere near as fascinating as a magical historian!" Helena beamed, turning her undivided attention to Kenna. "Surely, you have stories? Amazing things your father brought home? Or even just things he told you about his time on the job? Magical history absolutely bewilders me. I think it might end up being one of my favourite subjects in Hogwarts"

Helena talked all too quickly when she was excited. Her words seemed to mix and blur together, to a point wherein one would have to really keep up just to understand her. Still, she absolutely beamed, beyond happy to meet someone with such fascinating parents. Then again, to a muggleborn, every wizard/witch parent would be beyond fascinating, as long as they had some sort of magical job. From something as simple as a Saint Mungo's welcome witch to as complicated as a member of the ministry of magic, it'd all be beyond amazing in her eyes. Quite frankly, everything about this world was beyond amazing in her easily excitable mind. She couldn't wait to begin her education on all things magic. She couldn't wait to expand her understanding of spellcasting. She couldn't wait to become a witch.

Celeste padded down the train corridor, lugging her lamentably heavy trunk along with her. She had been pacing the train for a good ten minutes; so long that it had already begun moving. And yet, she was still without a seat. Her father’s parting words echoed ominously in her head: “Try to make some friends, yeah?”
As if it were so easy as that.
Her father was perfectly aware that the reason she had zero friends for the entirety of her childhood was that they had an aversion to her. She grimaced a little as she remembered her disastrous attempts at befriending the Muggles in her primary school.
“That girl is so weird.”
“She’s got sand in her pockets!”
“She’s, like, bonkers."
"I heard that she's certifiably insane."
All of which was a bit harsh, in her opinion (apart from the sand part. That was true). I mean, really, insane?
So what if she kept a journal used solely for rating and writing reviews of the day's weather? So what if she made up her own idioms? So what if she had sand in her pockets?
She'd have no friends, that's what.
She felt her face going pink with frustration. That would have to change.
Celeste paused in front of a compartment. It was occupied; there were already four girls inside, chatting away animatedly. Catching snippets of speech about sphinxes and magical history through the door, she hesitated before mustering up her courage and sliding the door open. She put her trunk down, smoothed down a tuft of blonde hair back into its perfectly symmetrical bob, took a seat, cast her grey eyes in a swift glance over the others, and folded her hands on her lap, all without saying a word.
This was not Celeste being snobby. In fact, she considered it to be a fairly polite entrance. Hopefully, the others would think so too.

“Hm? Oh, It's just my family, er, well, me and my mum move around a lot. Sometimes it can be pointless though,” she laughed lightly. “In the end I wonder if we ever needed to move there, you know?”

Soon the conversation switched to the topic of Hogwarts. “I think there’s a library. It's a school, right? Wouldn’t make much sense to not have one.” The other girl, Kenna, confirmed, even going on about the moat and all the merfolk.

“Yeah, it must be pretty cool having that job! I never get any good stories. My mum’s got no magic. There’s a word for it, isn’t there? Muggle, right? Yeah. She just works as a nurse. She hasn’t actually been to Hogwarts. Any few stories about magic she got from my dad before he left, and even then he didn’t go into much detail,” she noted. “I’m glad I met you guys! Now I know a bit more and I won’t be going to Hogwarts completely blind.” She smiled.

They chatted a bit more about jobs, magic and Hogwarts, before they were interrupted by the door opening. Niki turned her gaze to the girl who had just entered the compartment. She seemed like a first year too, her gray eyes gazing at them. Staying completely silent, unlike the other girls who had asked and introduced themselves as they entered, she sat down and folded her hands in her lap.

Niki stared for a while, keeping quiet before she leaned over and waved. “Er, hello! I’m Niki. What’s your name? Are you a first-year too? Where are you from? We were just talking about Hogwarts and all the things to expect from it...” She went on. She frowned. She probably sounded annoying. She decided to stay quiet, waiting for the girl to answer.

Chaleur watched in wonder as Kenna talked about Hogwarts. The red head was so excited she was practically bouncing in her seat. This was the perfect opportunity to learn about her new school instead of walking in completely blind. Before she knew nothing, now she knows there is a moat, a lake, merfolk...monsters? "What?" She muttered in disbelief.

She hadn't thought that far ahead. Why wouldn't a school for magical children have mythical creatures and...monsters. There was probably so much beyond her imagination that existed in the world, and she was sure she would see a lot of it at this school.

She was pulled from her thoughts at the mention of the library. Kenna spoke of her father and his extensive knowledge as a historian. She had heard of the creatures mentioned in books on myths. She shook her head no. "I can't. That's amazing. I would absolutely lose myself in your library, I just know it." A grand library at Hogwarts. Well, at least if she didn't make any friends she would have plenty of books to keep her occupied.

"I know I sound silly. I'm just in shock I think. I really wasn't expecting this, you know?" She offered a light-hearted laugh.

Helena spoke next, continuing with more curious questions, before a sudden and odd interruption from a girl who very meticulously entered and sat in the compartment with them, without a single word. Chaleur looked her over for a moment, and nodded in acceptance. She too understood wanting to sit down without a grand opening.

Niki broke the silence, offering out a slow hello and introduction to the newcomer. Chaleur waited for a response, as well, offering the girl a welcoming smile.

Kenna was a bit surprised that Helena and Niki thought her dad's job was fascinating. Frankly, she found history a bit dull, and had always been used to thinking of her dad as the nerdy one of the family. She shrugged when Helena asked if she had interesting stories or cool relics her dad had brought home. "Not really..." she said, trying to think of anything remotely interesting she'd ever seen Da do. "Mostly he just reads old books and then writes about them. Sometimes he goes travelling around to historic sites or other libraries, but I dunno what he does there. The only thing he ever brought back was an old rock that he said was the Petrified ear of some goblin king. But he said the Ministry didn't believe him and thought it was just a rock, so that's why he got to keep it. I guess anything cool he finds goes to the Ministry?" She shrugged again. Now that she thought about it, she had never really talked to her dad much about his job. Maybe she should. Maybe there was more to it than she had always thought...

"Aye, Muggle, that's right," she chuckled as Niki explained what her mum did. "Oh, that's like a Healer, right? My mum's also a Healer, at St. Mungo's. See I find her job much cooler... she sees people with all kinds of crazy magical ailments every day! One guy was illegally importing an Occamy and it bit him and his hand swelled up to the size of a sofa and turned bright purple!" Truthfully, she was more intrigued by the Occamy and its effects than with the healing of the man's hand. But still, giant purple hands seemed way more interesting to her than dusty old books.

As they were chatting, another girl slid into the compartment and sat down without a word. Kenna cocked her head at the girl, wondering if she had lost the ability to speak or something. People normally said something when they approached others, right? She wasn't entirely sure what was normal or expected, but that was what she always did, anyway. But maybe she was overly chatty...

Since Niki had already broached a conversation, Kenna just gave a small wave and said, "Hi, I'm Kenna."

"My name's Helena! Helena Vaile. Nice to meet you!" Helena offered to the newcomer, slightly put off by her presence but excited to be making so many friends so quickly regardless.

"Oh! Okay, so, if it's not intrusive, anyone want to show off their wands as badly as I do?" Helena asked with her quickly becoming permanent beaming smile "It's quickly becoming my favourite subject! Ever since I found my way into that dusty old shop, with all those wands tucked away in all those boxes, high up on towering shelves, I can't help but be obsessed with what all of them mean, you know? After all-"

Helena put on a fake expression, hoping to imitate Ollivander to the best of her ability.

"The wand chooses the witch"

Her voice mainly just came out in a stereotypical elderly rasp, rather than anything anywhere near Ollivander, but still, she privately hoped that it'd amuse at least one of the others in their compartment. That line still perplexed her, even after it had been a good week or so since she bought her wand. The wand chose the witch. That implied that wands were sentient, that they had enough processing abilities to make active choices. And it further implied that her wand personally found something inside of her that made her worthy to wield it. If her wand was, in fact, sentient, did it have its own emotions? Did her consistently fiddling with it annoy it, or was it akin to playing with a pet? And furthermore, what would she have to do in order to keep it happy? All questions that, since she got her wand, she had pondered over obsessively.

"My wand is reed wood, 29 centimetres in length, with a phoenix feather core." She said, brushing the idle yet invasive thoughts away as she pulled her wand out, showing it off like it was a trophy she had won. A prize that brought her great pride, rather than a product she had purchased. "Anyone else?"

Celeste blinked at the others. Alas, she had quite forgotten that making friends required actually talking to people. At least these girls seemed a friendly bunch.

Entwining her fingers into an elaborate pretzel, she performed her usual trick to avoid eye contact: she looked up at the ceiling. As in, she craned her neck so far back that her chin was literally parallel to the floor. She held herself like that for a moment, taking the time to gather her thoughts, before she looked back down and replied to—Niki, was it?

“Greetings. My name is Celeste.” What were the other questions again? “I’m a first year, yes. And I’m from Earth.”

She said the last sentence with perfect sincerity.

"Pleasure to meet you, I'm sure," she said to Helena, somewhat alarmed by her bubbly enthusiasm.

“And hello to you too,” she said to the redhead, returning her wave. “Your name suits you. It means fire, you know. Your hair's very red."

Social interaction quota having been satisfied, Celeste leaned back and observed the others, particularly the blonde girl who hadn’t spoken, though she'd smiled at her. She made the doge meme face in return, face muscles twitching from both lack of use and awkwardness.

Helena began to talk animatedly about wands, going so far as to mimic Ollivander. It was an entertaining imitation, enough so to make Celeste laugh, although not a very faithful one.

"Phoenix feather's a cool core," she said, pulling out her own wand. "I heard it's super rare. Mine's thestral hair." She looked at it thoughtfully. "And cherry wood. I've haven't the slightest flamingo what that means, though."

“I’m a bit peckish,” she added suddenly. Popping her hand into her pocket, Celeste withdrew a fistful of sand, grains seeping through her fingers. “Sand, anyone?”

Chaleur was starting to become accustomed to strange things, she just started a mental checklist so she could go back and research it all later. Not all situations allowed that kind of study before a response, very much like the situation she was currently in.

Normalcy was brief with the introductions, and Chaleur offered her own "Hello, I'm Chaleur, nice to meet you," to the newcomer, Celeste, who announced she was also from earth. This brought into question whether or not all wizards come from earth? If magic is real...are other worlds? She glanced around, unsure of how to approach the subject, but decided against it in the end.

Then there was a hop in subjects when Helena brought up her experience receiving her wand at Ollivanders. She did an impersonation of the man, and Chaleur felt a twist in her stomach at the use of the phrase that he had also used with her. It was a rite of passage it seemed.

"It was so odd. I had four wands reject me very aggressively. When I found "my" wand it just...I've never felt anything like that before," she added into the conversation. "He said it was a chestnut wood and unicorn hair." She unconsciously gripped at her bag, in tune with it's presence.

It was then that Celeste declared she was peckish and fetched from her pocket sand, which fell from her fingers and to the floor. Chaleur stared at the girl's hand for quite a few moments, a thick and heavy silence falling over the crowd in that moment. Chaleur then looked to the sand on the floor, back to the hand, and then quickly around to the faces of the other girls. Do...wizards eat sand, also? Was she going to eat sand if anyone else accepted the offer? She didn't know anymore.

"SWEETS FROM THE TROLLEY!" Sweet, sweet reprieve.

Chaleur slowly nodded avoiding eye contact, "No thank you, dear. I'll just buy my own..." She stood then as the Trolley came to a stop nearby their compartment. A sweet looking older woman was accepting money and passing out treats to the students. Chaleur waited for her turn patiently, but when she approached the cart she was baffled. What was she looking at? Chocolate Frogs? Pumpkin...pasties? She had never seen any of these candies before. She looked bewildered at the woman, as she waited patiently for Chaleur's response.

"I...um."

Niki smiled. She never really put in the effort of making new friends when she moved, considering she'd probably move again and just end up leaving them behind again. This time around, however, she contemplated it this time around, considering she would be living here for the next seven years. Luckily, she had been able to meet a group of friendly people, and she was thankful.

The girl introduced herself as Celeste, a first-year also, and that she was from...earth. That wasn't exactly what she expected but she'd take it. She liked people who answered unexpectedly, it got a bit plain when people just started answering questions straightforwardly.

Helena shifted the topic and started talking about wands, explaining hers, from the core and wood, down to its traits. Niki reached for her coat pocket, which held her wand. She ran her hand across the twisted pattern of the bottom, before pulling it out. "Thirty-two point eight centimeters, cherry wood, and a snallygaster heartstring," she recalled, almost perfectly. She hadn't really been paying attention when she went to buy her wand. She thought they were just sticks of wood you used to control your magic. But apparently, they were almost alive. They each had traits, and they chose the wizard, not just randomly picked and given, like items in a store.

"Mr. Ollivander said something about mine being whippy or something, whatever that means," she chuckled. She pretended to be forgetful, almost to not care, but to be honest, she was very interested in how wands worked.

Suddenly, Celeste pulled out sand from her pocket, offering it to everyone else. Niki tilted her head. How odd, but in a good way. Did wizards just carry around sand? Her mum never mentioned that. "I'm good for now," she responded. A call came from the halls. A sweet, old woman pushing a trolley filled with sweets stopped at their compartment. Niki gasped excitedly. Her mum had told her all about the magical treats that were part of the wizarding world. They did wonderful things, like come alive, exploded, and more. She thought for a second, before remembering a wonderful story her mother had told, which she heard from her father, about how he had to chase a chocolate frog down the train on his first trip to Hogwarts.

"One Chocolate Frog please!" She dug through her pockets for a few coins.