First Ride Closed

Jordan had been waiting on the platform for what felt like ages. Their parents were early risers, early attenders, early...to everything. So it made sense, then, that they would be so dramatically early to send their only child off to the mythical, magical world of Hogwarts.

Of course, a professor had visited to give a full breakdown of what to expect with Hogwarts. The Niveo's were shocked, of course, but not nearly as much as one would think. Jordan was more surprised than their parents, especially as they began recounted instances that Jordan had little to no memory of. For example, apparently Jordan was once found running across the top of the pool in the backyard chasing after a ball they had dropped. Yes, they said across the top of the pool. It had completely frozen over in the middle of July!

Jordan shook the memory of that conversation from their mind, and turned their attention to the beautiful crimson train that was pulling into the station. Its whistle was loud, but melodic in a way, and the plumes of smoke rising from its engine were perfectly formed as if they were drawn by some artist in the sky.

"Alright my dear," said Mrs. Niveo. "I suppose we should ready to tell you goodbye."

Jordan frowned, turning to their mother. Linda Niveo was a woman of short stature, her smile was warm, and her graying hair was always pulled back into a hair clip. Her mother's arms were already outstretched, waiting for a hug. With a small shake of their head, and a frown pulled into a smirk, Jordan hugged their mother closely. They spent what could have been seconds or minutes hugging, then pulled away. Their mother gave a traditional kiss on each cheek, and passed Jordan off to their father.

Bruce Niveo was a man of limited words until the topics of business, fishing, or Jordan came up. Each were a point of pride for the tall man, and he had no problem bragging to anyone who would listen about his greatest accomplishments. Right now, though, was one of those quiet moments for him.

"Alright, kiddo," said Mr. Niveo to his one-and-only child. "I'll see you soon."

Jordan gave him a smile, and hugged their father goodbye. "I'll miss you, too, dad."

Then Jordan grabbed their cart, readying to follow the next student onto the train. Luckily there was someone at the train's entrance to help them with their bags, and Jordan was able to continue on to the compartments unencumbered. They noticed many groups of people already knew each other, and were pulling one another into busy compartments. Feeling suddenly shy, Jordan found a compartment with a single person who was reading and ducked their head in.

"Hello, would you mind if I sit in here?" asked Jordan. "I'm all alone. Promise."

Rose seemed lost in her own world that the book she was reading had sucked her into. She jumped slightly when she heard them, looking up to see them. Jordan’s words seemed to register a few seconds after they were said. She nodded slowly with a small smile. “Of course.” She mumbled. Rose had messy curls of brown hair reached her waist and looked as if it hadn’t been brushed in ages.

Rose would frequently look into her lap and fidget with her hands. She glanced out of the window as the train began to move along the tracks. Her leg began to bounce without her knowing it. The second she did notice it, she quickly suppressed the movement. “Sorry, I had a tad more sugar than I should have this morning, I’m Rose, just so you know.” She seemed genuinely apologetic

“What is your name?” She asked. She bookmarked her page with a pen and slipped it into her bag, before putting the bag at her feet. Rose tried to avoid direct eye contact and looked just to the left of the other. Her hands drifted to a small section of hair near her fact and played with it.

Thankful to have a spot, Jordan slipped into the compartment quietly, shutting the door tightly behind them. They placed their own carrier bag on the bench seat before sitting in the corner away from their new traveling companion. Rose, they reminded themselves. You ought to remember people's names. You'll likely be seeing them every day now, after all.

"Thank you," Jordan said, trying not to be too enthusiastic or not enthusiastic enough. They cursed themselves for waiting so long to use their manners. "I appreciate you letting me sit with you."

Reaching into their own bag, Jordan pulled out a textbook on Charms, hoping to read ahead a little bit more while they were on the train. "I don't mind the bouncing. It's actually almost soothing," they smiled, trying to ease the girl. "My name's Jordan. Nice to meet you, Rose."

From the body language Rose was giving, Jordan decided that a handshake was probably not required with this introduction. Rather, they turned their attention to the book Rose had put away.

"What were you reading just then? An old favorite or something new?" asked Jordan, peaking over at the bag, but seeing nothing. They held up their own text, "I was planning on reading further into the Charms textbook. I want to be sure I don't sound ridiculous trying to attempt these pronunciations in class. Though I also packed some fun reads in case it really bored me."

Rose chuckled softly at what to her was an excessive amount of ‘thank you’ type things. She doesn’t know what it would be called. Jason, their name is Jason she had to think. You’re going to want friends, it’s good to start now. She reminded herself.

When she heard them say something about her leg bouncing she quickly began to do it again. “Uhm, the book is an older one, I’ve probably read it a billion times, it’s a nice read. I don’t get new books often, I’m too picky of a reader.” She said giving a small laugh at her last few words.

Then she was reminded of her study books, great. She pulled her charms book out as well. Looking at one of the first ones listed. The levitation charm, “I feel like I’m back in elementary, having to sound out these new words, like this one, wing-ar-dee-um lev-ee-oh-saw…er- sah. Like what?” She flipped through the pages and kept mumbling out broken versions of the hard to pronounce spells and charms.

She flipped through all the different fun charms, like the wand lighting charm or the unlocking charm. “Hey, pick your favorite charm thing and we could try to figure out how to say it?” She asked, after saying it she started to seem unsure of her own suggestion.

Jordan found themselves chuckling at Rose's comments. She was pretty funny, though Jordan wasn't quite sure if it was all intentional. When Rose began reading out from the Charms text, Jordan flipped through their own book to follow alone. They tried a few out themselves as they went along, but found that saying them out loud was quite different than trying to pronounce them in person.

"Alright," said Jordan, mulling over the suggested game. They flipped forward to a page deeper in the book. "Let's try this one here."

Jordan had flipped forward to dueling spells, and pointed straight to the first one. It seemed easy enough to pronounce. The consonants and vowels were in normal places, and they were pretty straightforward. They read it over a couple times: Flipendo, Flipendo, Flipendo . . . Then tried it out.

"flip-END-oh" Jordan said carefully aloud, looking up to Rose for approval.

They then focused on the list of spells again, trying to find another one that would be relatively simple to master. If they were going to be taking turns picking out a spell, then Jordan wanted to be prepared for it. That's when they settled on the perfect follow up, a spell for tickling! It was innocent enough to probably be easy.