Chance Encounter PV Alan Vanes Closed

“Oh my Lord, home schooled?! Tell me everything! What was that like? Did you ever get lonely? Magic at a young age, what did you do? Runes? What are runes?”

Henry’d bounce in his spot, excitably grinning at the male. It also helped keep him slightly warmer in the cold. Henry was muggleborn and therefore loved to hear about magical folks childhoods. As much as he loved this new world he found himself in, he sometimes had to remind himself that he belonged here too because he found it so bizarre that he was here in the first place. At first, he thought his older siblings had paid a magician to come tell him he was a Wizard and hadn’t taken it seriously. This had changed when the wizard in his home turned into a bird right on his couch. Terrifying, really. His youngest sister had nightmares for months about shapeshifting bad guys.

“I went to public school yeah, I had skipped a year when I was little so I was always the youngest in my year. It meant I got to be in the same year as my older sister. A bit of healthy competition was good between us. It also meant I got to experience the first year of high school, whereas everyone else who is magical would have gone to Hogwarts before they went into year 7.” He left it at that, more interested in Alan’s version of his schooling.

Alan's eyes widened at all those questions, his mind unable to register most of them since he already had difficulties with concentrating during a normal conversation.

”Well… I would not say that I ever was lonely or anything- I had some friends for example Arya; she is also a Gryffindor. Just because I studied at home didn't mean I could not make friends so my parents usually were invited to lots of events were I met lots of kids. I could always floo call them! Oh- floo call means throwing a powder into a fireplace and then you can stick your head through the fire talking with any friend who also has a fireplace! I started showing signs of magic when I was five years old so yeah that is kind of young so my parents helped me to control it a bit better even though that often failed…. Runes are kinda like an alphabet or sometimes they mean whole words; the alphabet for wizards” the second year took a deep breath after rambling for such a long time. His cheeks warmed up. ”Sorry, I didn't mean to ramble!”

Hearing about the other boy's explanation he frowned. ”How was it for you to discover magic?” He asked curiously.

Wide eyed, Henry listened to the information and attempted to absorb it the best he could. His lips moved for a few seconds after Alan had finished talking, as if he were mouthing the last sentence or so that he spoke. This was one way Henry could get the details to stick into his mind after hearing it. His memory was eidetic so he couldn't remember things just from hearing them, so he had to ensure he watched Alan's lips carefully to memorise their movement and then use that to formulate his knowledge. His mind was rather strange, if he did say so himself. He liked to compartmentalise his thoughts, as to not get them mixed up.

Back to Alan's question, he brought himself back to that time before answering. "No need to apologise, I do exactly the same. For my experience, really it was quite peculiar. On my eleventh birthday, I was dragged out of bed by my younger siblings to go downstairs because this man with a pointy hat wanted to speak to me. You would've thought they'd wear ordinary clothing when coming to see a family like mine. Anyways, I thought my older siblings were playing a birthday joke on me at first. Eventually, after everyone had stopped panicking and freaking out- my stepmother even spilt her tea on the carpet, which is a massive deal for her- they gave us the instructions to go to Diagon Ally and how to change our money over n'everything. It was /wild/."

Alan's eyes widened. He was fascinated by the younger boy's story. This might seem weird for someone else to be this amazed by such a simple story but for Alan it was something he could not imagine. He could not imagine a world without magic, since he grew up in it from the second he took his first breath. This seemed so surreal for Alan to be surprised by someone with a pointy hat when everyone he knew had at least one in their clothing collection.

”They might have worn a glamour to hide their appearance-” the young Gryffindor offered with a small smile. He sounded not lecturing in any way, just thoughtful. He never heard about the process of picking up Muggle borns so the only thing he could do was taking guesses himself.

”You should also never show your parents pictures of Hogwarts… they would see it as ruins and that might be worrisome for them” he snickered lightly, again no malice in his voice. Alan was genuinely a boy that never openly looked for trouble. He was happy when his surroundings were at peace or when he was in a room full of creatures.

"No way- really? That's really sad- they would have loved to see Hogwarts! It's so beautiful, far better than the Church in my town. Don't tell my father I said that, he'd have me by the ear." Henry'd chuckle at the thought, his father was very religious whilst his mother didn't believe in that sort of thing. She often said 'Show me proof and I'll consider it', and she's still going strong. His step mother just went along with his father, though he was sure she loved dressing up every week and parading to church with nine well-dressed children in tow- like the Von-Trappe Children in the Sound of Music. It surely amused Henry when he thought of them singing and dancing like on the film. That had given him an idea,

"Hey Alan, do you watch the same films non-magical people do or do you have like, different ones? I'm assuming you do have TVs as that would be rather silly if you didn't. Unless you do some spell or, I don't know- something different to us." He'd shrug, trying to get his point across so it didn't sound silly or childish. Since no electronics were allowed at Hogwarts, he didn't know if that was a general rule in the wizarding world too.

Alan stared at the younger boy and had to fight to remember the name for a second. H-... Ha- no. Henry. Alan shook his head, how could he have already forgotten if the boy just mentioned it mere minutes ago. Alan looked at him, listening to his words and the stories he told. ”I never went to a church before… not that I can remember” He informed the first year with a small smile that curled his lips upwards.

The whole questions made Alan confused but also excited. ”Well… in my families house we don't have a television but at my aunt's place there is a big and thin one and my cousin Camdon also plays a lot of games on these little boxes where you put in disks so you can see the pictures move on the television. But you know often people have some kind of technology at home but can't bring it here because Hogwarts is just full of ancient magic that disturbs technology… it wouldn't even work! But the house my aunt lives in isn't warded by as many ancient spells so it is working there just fine…”Alan explained before continuing. ”Before I moved with my aunt I never had something like a tv but my two cousins showed me Disnee and I loved it!” he didn't even notice that he was mispronouncing Disney.