Closed A Friend From The Train

It was a little while before their first Herbology class of the year, yet being so fresh faced to Hogwarts there was little else for many of the students to comfortably do besides head on down to the Greenhouses ahead of time and get a feel for this new area of the school.

Though they could not yet go inside, many of them stood and peered through the glass panes curiously. They spied what lay inside, huge bags of dirt and plant pots that could fit a whole First Year in them, long wooden tables meant for potting upon, and of course plants... Plants galore. They climbed up the interior (and a couple the exterior), clinging to the ceiling rafters and dangling back down to plain view.

Eliphas found it all quite fascinating, in truth. He didn't know the first thing about plants! He knew which to avoid, such as the dreaded nettle, and of course he made wishes on seeding dandelions, but beyond that? Well, beyond that he was a right old dunce! And yet he found himself excited all the same at the prospect of learning more.

He blamed this excitement in part on the girl he'd met on the Hogwart's Express. Orla Finch had proudly boasted about taking one of her mother's books, one which just so happened to tackle the subject at hand. As a fellow C.S. Lewis fan, and an all around mischievous whirlwind, he figured it must have been a very fascinating subject indeed if she was so invested as to steal a book! He simply had to find out more about it, had to know why it was she was as interested as she was.

Eliphas was practically bouncing on the spot in excitement when he heard a voice call out his name. Not once, twice. He turned on his heels, losing the sight inside the greenhouse, and therein spotted just the girl he'd been hoping to see.

"Finch!" Eliphas beamed a grin, realizing a little too late that he'd unexpectedly picked up a habit from Jack Burnett. He shook his head, and quickly corrected himself. "Orla Finch... Fancy seeing you here!"

He stepped around whoever might have remained in their way, and then came to a halt just in front of her. "Boy am I glad to see you! How have you been?" He glanced over her robes, and though he had eagerly watched to see where she was placed during the Sorting Ceremony - after all, he'd been sorted first and thus had been able to watch from the Ravenclaw table - it still took him a moment to process which House she was in.

"What's it like to be a Badger?"

@Orla Finch

And he'd remembered her name?! That meant, statically speaking, her chances of friendship had gone up... well.. A lot! The grin on her face, shining and bright, seemed to become brighter as he spoke. "I've been.. Well.. Stories could never prepare me for this place..." Orla admitted, bowing her head a bit.

She'd heard tons of stories-- From her brother, from both her parents... But the reality of it was... Hogwarts was a whole lot different than the stories she'd been told. She could have never done the proper preparation, one only could experience it for themselves to fully understand the magnitude of grandeur the magical place held. Orla wasn't sure she could uncover ever single secret if she had a whole lifetime ahead of her at the castle, no less just three years.

"It's.. Well.. I'm not quite sure yet." Orla said, nodding her head. "The common room is so pretty. And the dorms are... Crazy. Everyone's so nice. And everything's so nice. It's all just... Fantastical!" Orla told him, not exactly able to articulate the overwhelming feelings that swirled in her head from the past day. "And what about you, Eliphas Dune? How is it being an eagle? I had a feeling you'd be placed in Ravenclaw... I could tell from the moment we met each other, you had a sharp noggin." Orla knocked on her own head, as if emphasizing Eliphas's intelligence.

She was curious to get some of the inside scoop on some of the other houses. From what Caspian told her prior to her arrival at Hogwarts, sticking with the Ravenclaw's were a good idea. His best friend, Johnny was a Ravenclaw. While Caspian had proved to be a bit of an ass, she did trust him as much as she could. And Eliphas, as it seemed, had proved to be a swell individual.

Orla could not keep a beaming grin from her lips, and by extension neither could Eliphas. Oh boy did it feel good to find a familiar face among a sea of so many strangers. It didn't matter if the pair of them had only interacted for the length of their train journey here, it didn't matter one bit. A friendly face was a friendly face.

When the girl began to explain her experiences thus far, but fumbled at the first hurdle, he couldn't help but empathize. "Wow, it's a lot even for wizard-born huh?" He sounded genuinely fascinated by that, he had expected that the students who had been raised around magic would have had a leg up, an easier time adjusting.

But as it turned out, they were all in a similar boat.

"What does your Common Room look like? And your Dormitory?" His voice raised ever so slightly as he fought to contain his excitement and refrain from asking too many questions in a short period of time. It was difficult though, and for a moment he caught a glimpse of how it must have been to be a whirlwind like she had been on the train. "I heard that they're all so different! We have three dormitories for the boys, and even they are completely different from one another. Isn't that crazy?"

Fantastical. That was definitely one word for it.

"Really?" he asked, almost sheepishly as she said she'd known he was headed for Ravenclaw. "It was honestly a surprise to me! I didn't expect it at all. I thought maybe I'd end up in Hufflepuff too, Dad says that's where he was sorted when he came here."

He leaned back against the glass-hewn wall of the greenhouse, and let out a small sigh of contentment. There were still nerves niggling within him, as he wondered about their first Herbology lesson, but seeing Orla had really helped to diminish them.

"I like it, though. My Dormitory has a projection of the sky on its ceiling, same as the Great Hall! And I really like my robes, I think the blue looks perfectly fine!"

Smart... That's how he felt he looked, even if he didn't necessarily feel it in other ways.

@Orla Finch

“More than a lot…” Orla admitted with a small sigh. There was so much to take in at Hogwarts. “A whole lot…” Orla told him, chuckling a bit. Obviously, that wasn’t saying much, but she figured Eliphas would understand what she meant after their conversation. Adjusting wasn’t going to be an easy time, she had to admit that. It was so much different than the little town of Killin. This was almost felt bigger, somehow. It was definitely more overwhelming…

“We’ve got four dorms, exactly.” Orla told him, glad to talk about something she did feel like she grasped. The dormitory system was easy enough to get her head around, she was thankful for. “And they’re all quite unique,” She explained to him. “And the common room… It’s warm. It feels like home, in a lot of ways.” She snorted, finally thinking about it. “In a lot of ways, it sort of reminds me of a Badger’s Burrow,

“I thought it was quite crazy how different the dorms are too. It is just another thing that makes this place so fantastical and wonderful!”

She shifted her weight, all her attention of catching up with Eliphas. Surely the teacher would be around soon, but that was the least of Orla Finch’s worries as she was happy and content just chatting away with Eliphas. She crossed her arms and hummed out at the shorter boy, nodding her head. “I would’ve supposed you would be a Hufflepuff too… But after you pulled out that big ole book, I knew you had an Eagle heart!”

Orla had no idea what house she’d be sorted into. Apart of her wished she’d ended up in Gryffindor. At least her brother would’ve been forced to see her there. Her father was a Ravenclaw, intelligent and studious. Her mother, a bit wild, but insanely brave hearted, was a Gryffindor as well.. But something about her had called out to the Sorting Hat that she held the traits in a different way. Kind and loyal. Hardworking and just… She wasn’t sure she’d ever seen those things about herself, but perhaps she would begin to discover them as she went through Hogwarts.

“Your Dormitory has a projection of the sky!?” Orla chirped, eyes wide in interest. “How… How… How fantastical!” She exclaimed, using that colourful word again. “Oh, the Ravenclaw Common Room sounds so lovely, I can’t lie!” She wondered if Eliphas had met any of Caspian’s friends… Orla recalled that the Finch’s family friend had a son that attended Hogwarts, and from what she remembered from Caspian, he too was a Ravenclaw..

Oh boy did Eliphas ever understand what she meant. Hogwarts was crazy, it was huge and old and full of goodness knew what. How many secrets lurked within its walls? And even beyond that, there was the Whomping Willow, and the Forbidden Forest - which Eliphas would never explore, even if the opportunity arose - the mountains, and the lake... And there was Hogsmeade! It was like it's own self contained civilization.

And that was mindboggling.

"It's almost a shame we have to do schoolwork" he said with a chuckle, words obviously insincere. Schoolwork at Hogwarts was nothing like schoolwork back home. There was magic! And plants... and, well, Eliphas didn't really know what else. But something, certainly.

When she told him about her dormitory and common room, his eyes lit up and he gave her every ounce of his attention. The other common rooms were not somewhere he'd ever get to see the inside of, which quite frankly was a shame. So hearing about them would have do to satiate his curiosity.

"Four?! Per gender?" Four was one more than they had, if so! "I'm glad it feels like home, Orla. It sounds cozy." Home for Eliphas had always been cozy. Small rooms, low ceilings, but always warm, and always filled with plush carpets and rugs and blankets. And books... Many books!

"I thought you'd be an Eagle too, to be honest," he said, with a smirk, "You talked as fast as lightning on the train, asking so many questions... And you knew all about C.S. Lewis!" He pondered on that for a moment. Had the hat mixed them up? No. Looking at her now, she seemed right at home with her yellow trimmed robes. "Hufflepuff suits you, Orla Finch. Yellow's definitely your colour."

Her excitement over his dormitory made him beam with delight. "It's a shame I can't ever show you our common room, or vice versa. It would be nice to see how the other side lives." He grinned cheekily at that. "It's all so fantastical, isn't it?" He agreed wholeheartedly..

@Orla Finch

Not being able to see the other dormitories was a bit disappointing. If she could figure out some way to sneak in, she absolutely would. It might have been impossible, but Orla had seven years to give up and she hadn't done so yet. Maybe, eventually, she'd be able to sneak into one (or all) of the Common Rooms. Time could only tell...

Orla thought that for herself, Ravenclaw was likely for her. She loved learning, she was curious and explorative and it only made sense for her to be sorted into the house that valued intelligence! But man was it a surprise to her when she'd been placed in with the other Puffs. But as she settled in, it made more sense... sort of. She was barely elven, how could she know what kind of person the Sorting Hat saw her to be? Like the secrets of Hogwarts, even she would have time to figure out just who the Sorting Hat saw during her time at Hogwarts...

"I am a fast talker, I suppose..." Orla snorted out a laugh, grinning at him. That was one thing she knew about herself. Her mother was mindful to remind her she spoke and thought so quickly that sometimes she left people in the dust of her mind...

"I suppose your wonderful descriptions will have to do for now..." Orla conceded for the time being. "For now." She emphasized, a twinkle of mischief in her eyes. It was almost an invitation to find trouble. It might not have been the common room, but something else was on the horizon for Orla Finch and Eliphas Dune. She just knew it.

"I like that about you," he said, when she agreed about how fast she spoke, "I knew as soon as you joined me on the train that we'd be friends, because you just had so many questions and so much to talk about! I bet you're never boring to be around."

He glanced over his shoulder into the classroom. As early as they had arrived to their first class, it felt as though time was running short. Soon enough they'd be heading inside the Greenhouse for the very first time, and Eliphas felt entirely out of his depths with the whole thing.

"Say, if we're allowed to choose where we sit do you want to sit with me?" It would be nice to have a friendly face in there. Even his fellow Ravenclaw First Years were relative strangers to him at present.

"I wonder what we're going to learn? I don't know the first thing about plants! I bet you're going to ace it, aren't you? I wonder if your mum has noticed the missing book yet..."

He smirked, holding back a small laugh at that thought. Hopefully Mama Finch wouldn't mind... The last thing he needed was for his friend to get in trouble so quickly after coming to Hogwarts. How would she find out if she was upset? He'd heard about letters being delivered, by Owls of all things!

That just seemed crazy to him.

@Orla Finch