Flood

"Oh, hi James! It's pretty fun, I guess. Although it's also hard since your the only one who doesn't know how to do real magic. I was usually known as the quite or not special girl." Yuki spotted James looking at her letter.

"Let me guess, you're wondering why I wrote 'sorry I didn't get into Gryffindor, right? Well you see, everybody in my family have always gotten sorted into Gryffindor, so they thought I was going to too. Although I never felt like I belong in Gryffindor. Whenever my mom or dad or anyone in my family heard the word 'Gryffindor' they would like get this magic energy, or happiness is what you guys call it right? But I never got that so I was depressed, and on June 24, my birthday, it got worse. My brother died in a car accident." Yuki wiped away the little bits of tear that appeared. "I was glad I had Maribelle, or just Mary. She was always there to comfort me when I was down." Yuki noticed that she was slowly pulling out a picture of her brother, she put it back in quickly. "Anyway, sorry I got you involved with my past." Yuki grabbed out her book 'All about green tulips.' then she started to read.

Kody took a seat next to Alexandra, he looked behind him to see Yuki already practicing magic. He heard a soft, "Lumos..." come from Yuki. But when there was no reaction from the wand, Yuki said more loudly, and confidently, "Lumos!" The tip of her wand had a faint light illuminating from the tip. Yuki's eyes lit up. (literally) She glanced down at the page and said, "Nox!" The light from the wand dimmed until there was no light. Yuki fetched out a quill and paper and started scribbling on the paper. From what Kody could tell, she was writing a letter to her family most likely. 

Kody saw James' eyes fall to look at Yuki's letter. He said quietly, "So... You're muggle-born too? Just judging from what you said earlier is what I meant when you were looking at Yuki's letter." He paused. "S-Sorry! Not to be rude!"

Kody has muggle parents, he did live in Brentwood, England. Otherwise known as a mud-blood, he has no idea what is going on in the wizarding world, so he plays by instinct rather than intelligence. Kody doesn't know how the wands work, somewhat, how to cast spells even. Hogwarts was almost straight out of a fantasy book. Magic seemed ethereal to him, otherworldly. It was hard to believe he could use magic himself. 

"Alexandra?" he waved his hand in front of her face. 

"Oh, well, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to get involved with your personal business. And I'm really sorry for your loss, I can't imagine what I'd do if my brother died." James said, trying to comfort Yuki.  "I just never really understood the whole thing with house bias." He added, having expression of confusion at on his face after stating his opinions on the whole house bias thing. James was a curious person, but had never thought about what would happen if one of the members of his family died. James wondered why she would be so upfront with him about her past. But, considering that she just told him something very personal, he thought it would be best not to question it. 

James nodded when asked about his blood status, assuming that by "muggle" he meant non-magical, as he had only heard the term in passing. He found it oddly comforting to see someone that shared similar heritage to his own. After all, most people had prior exposure to the magical world via their parents, so having someone to learn the ropes along the way made James' somewhat happy. He then asked Kody, curious to learn more about his fellow muggle-born's life, "So, what was your first experience with magic?"

"Hmm... Well, I'd say my first experience with magic was about a year ago. But it's still a little hazy to me, so I can't retrieve the memory that well..." Kody shrugged his shoulders slightly. He was trying to recall events when an animal came to mind. "But I do remember a cat! I think it had something to do with a cat...? Oh! I do have a calico at home that's with my muggle parents."

Kody is a curious person and has a habit of sticking his nose in other's business. Even if he doesn't mean to. Kody is still learning how to be a wizard and still has no idea what he's even doing at Hogwarts. But he was glad he could be at Hogwarts with someone he could relate to easily, blood status at least. Assuming most wizards that were in the Great Hall were half-bloods and upon noticing most were half-bloods, due to people around him already using magic. Most people around him, from what he could observe, were reading or reciting spells. 

Kody looked at the fellow muggle-blood. He tapped his chin with his quill. "What about you? What was your first experience with magic?" Kody asked, curious upon how James got into Hogwarts. 

James sat still for a moment, trying to recall his first memory of wizarding acts. "Well, it had something to do with squirrels..." He said, trying to refresh his memory until he got it back. Finally, he remembered it. "Oh, well one time, me and my brother got this kite stuck into a tree, and I somehow commanded a few squirrels to get it from the tree." He said, having a feeling of happiness and a bit of a sense of being home sick. The school was amazing, but the longing to reunite with his family was even greater. He slightly gazed at his bag, and in was a picture of his family at a park he knew all too well. Even the mere moment he recalled the memory gave him a great deal of desire to go back home. He remembered the lush, green forest behind the park that he and his brother would play in. The yellow slide he scrapped his knee on one time. However, he knew that he couldn't dwell on the past. It was a time to focus about his future. So, having that mindset, he decided to pull out his wand, a book of spells, a journal for notes and such, and a quill.

He placed the quill right next to the journal, and located in a position where he could grab it at anytime. The book of spells was placed quite closely to him, and was right in the center of the objects he had grabbed out of his bag. Wanting to preform some sort of magic, James firmly grasped his wand in his right, pointed upward to the candles that stood above them. With his free hand, James tapped Kody on the shoulder. "So, wanna practice a bit?" James asked, knowing that even if Kody didn't accept his offer James would still practice regardless. He had a smile on his face, eager to start learning and practicing spell casting.

Kody grinned, "Sure! What spell do you want to try first?" Kody was thrilled to try a spell, even though it never really worked. He set his journal and quill down, he pulled out his wand, a chestnut wood and phoenix feather. 24, 8 centimeters. Kody recalled that the wand was whippy? Ideal in the hands of innovators and extremely docile if handled properly. He still had no idea how magic worked and how to use it. 

Kody tried a spell earlier in the Hufflepuff dorms that were after the Sorting Ceremony but didn't work. He looked at the candles hovering around the tables. And saw other students trying to recite spells with their wands, similar to Lumos, but more difficult it appeared, to him at least. There were students reading books, but most were waving their wands around and saying 'gibberish' words. Gibberish to Kody, not to half-bloods and pure-bloods. 

Kody pulled out his Book of Spells that was underneath his journal and flipped to a random page in the book. "Hmm... We should start with something easy. Like Lumos?" Kody suggested. He remembered Yuki using Lumos and the tip of her wand was illuminated with light. "Then we could say, Nox, if the Lumos part works, haha!"

(sorry for the late reply)

"Alright, great!" replied James, anxious and eager to start casing spells. He laid down his wand on the hard, wooden surface of the table, shoving his plate aside trying to not get his things dirty. He skimmed through the pages of the spell book, trying to glance at almost every spell. Seeing as the two were beginners, he agreed with Kody that the two should start with something easy. Quite quickly, he came to the conclusion that lumos would be the best option. He looked at the pages that contained lumos, and tried preform the spell.

James grabbed out his wand, a 30.1 centimeter wand with a dragon heartstring made out of chestnut wood. It was a light, hazel color with a handle that seemed to spiral down. The end had a single bend in it, and there was not much else that made it stand a part from other wands. He gripped the wand tightly, staring at the pages in his spell book. However, when he looked up for a short section, he saw other wizards preforms the spells almost perfectly. "If they can do it, so can we." James said, slightly quieter than his usual tone. He got quite annoyed though, as he felt pressured to get better at spell casting. But, he knew that he could do it. Plenty of wizards have done it before him, so he would most likely be able to as well.

James quickly started to say the incantation required to preform the spell, with his wand in  hand pointed upward to the roof that hung above their heads. "Lumos!" James said with passion, saying so loudly that people at the Slytherin table could almost hear. However, like always, his efforts had failed. Nothing happened, nor did anything light up. He tried it again, this time with even more passion and energy put into it. "Lumos!" James said once again, with the same result as earlier. He was furious. James couldn't understand why he couldn't preform the simplest of spells. It should be easy. He's in a house full of intelligent people, but sometimes, he felt as though he was the dumbest person in school.

Once again, this time being the last, he said the incantation. "Lumos!" James said, this time with anger and passion all together. Suddenly, the table saw a glowing light in the corner where James was sitting. A bright ball of light emerged from the tip of his wand. He had finally done magic. He was amazed at what just happened. He couldn't believe his eyes. Finally, for one moment in his life, he didn't feel like a failure.

(It's fine. I'm used to people replying late anyways.)

Yuki noticed the boys doing some spells with their wand. She wondered how it would be if she got into Gryffindor and not Raven Claw, would she have meet all the people she's meet, or would she just be miserable. Ether way, she decided to finish her notes on her class for potions. "And...that, and done!" Yuki said after about 10 minutes of rereading her books and finishing her long 5 pages of notes, all in the subject: Potion Class Notes.

Yuki was pretty hungry, so she decided to grab some corn off the table and chow down. After Yuki finished her food she needed to go check on her owl. Yuki just recently got her own owl, she named it after her dead brother, Kiyo (K-eye-yo).

She walked over to the lunch woman. "Um. Hello! Do you guys have, or at least know where I can get some owl food?" Yuki asked politely to the lunch woman. "Who do you think I am? The vet? No! I cook HUMAN food little girl! If you wanna find you pets stupid food then go to the Mystical Creatures, or Magical Creatures, or whatever it's called class!" the lunch woman said back at Yuki, quite meanly. "Um. Thanks?" Yuki said back with confusion in her voice.

She didn't have to be so rude, Yuki thought to herself. Then Yuki headed to the 'Care of Magical Creatures' class to see if they had some owl food. Today has been so wired and crazy so far, Yuki thought. 

(Also sorry I am replying about like 5 hours later, I had to go to somewhere important with some family.)

"Wow! That's amazing James!" Kody said wide-eyed at the lustrous wand. "Hmm..." Kody flipped to the page that contained the spell, Lumos. So, for a spell to work well, you'd have to put passion, force? Maybe? And lots of it? Kody asked himself. He noticed other witches and wizards get their wands to illuminate with efficiency and ease. Kody lifted his 24, 8-centimeter wand with a tremulous hand. He doesn't like humiliating himself in front of others. He recited the words required for the spell to work, Kody drew in a breath, "Lumos!" He got no reaction as usual, but if James could do it, he could too. 

Kody tried to put more force and passion into his words, nearby tables could hear his attempts. "Lumos!" Still no reaction from the wand... he thought to himself, Ugh, how can a simple spell be so difficult? Is it something I'm doing wrong? Do I need to channel more energy and passion into my words? Kody tried the spell multiple times, but never got a reaction.

The sixth try, drawing in a huge breath of air, and forcing more energy and passion into it than the other attempts, "Lumos!" Kody said it so loud, tables across the hall could hear him. He was closing his eyes so he couldn't see his failure. He opened his eyes slightly, to his surprise, he saw the tip of his wand illuminated with bright light. Kody nearly tumbled off the bench he was sitting in. "Woah mY GoSH." he looked at James grinning. "You did it, and I did it too!"

Like James, Kody had preformed the spell, lumos, as well. James gave a short applause to Kody, before stopping to pick up his wand to put the light out. He grabbed the wand, this time with a looser grip than before, and said the incantation. He didn't expect anything to happen, but suddenly, something did. "Nox." James said, with a lighter tone than usual. Suddenly, the light had flickered out. The tip of the wand was no longer bright like before, which was a sign he was preforming the spell right. He was no longer contributing to the light in the room, as that was now being done by the candles overhead and the students preforming lumos. He had done a spell properly for the first time, something that made him just a little happy.

After preforming his set of spells, James saw Yuki get up and go to the lunch woman that served the students food. He noticed a look of disgust in Yuki, though he didn't quite hear the conversation. "I wish I had one of those extendable-ear things right now." James said jokingly, having a small chuckle after his own joke. He looked at Kody, as he had still had the light up, and tried to preform lumos again, just to get the hang of it.

"Lumos!" James said, with a tight grip on his wand. Like before, a light emitted from the tip, that made the table very bright. Then, he put the light out with nox. "Nox." he said, and the light was no more. He then waited patiently for Kody to turn his light off, before saying, "So, what spell next?"