Musing Grounds Open Finished

Jade was walking on the grounds, she couldn't wait for classes, but along with the excitement came the nerves. Jade had horrible butterflies and had decided that fresh air would help. She walked through the grounds turning this way and that eventually stopping and staring at a large tree.

Jade didn't really know where to go so she decided that socializing would be the best thing to do. She turned as a group of student walked past, she thought of joining them but Jade didn't really like crowds. When the crowd cleared Jade saw a boy standing looking in her direction.

Well, here goes. Just stop shaking, walk up to him and say hi, he looks nice enough.  Jade thought. With that she put on her kindest expression and walked towards the boy.

"Hello, I'm Jade, I was wondering if I could join you" Jade said in a bright voice. She hoped she had been able to hide her nerves, she didn't want to be thought of as shy or a wimp. Though she was in Hufflepuff she was no wimp, in fact, her Dad had thought she was going to be in Gryffindor or Ravenclaw.

Lachlan’s ear perked up when a girl in yellow robes introduced herself to him, “Oh, yes of course, please do.” Lachlan offered a smile. He outstretched his hand, “I am Lachlan, Lachlan Morrison by the way. I am in Gryffindor house, but you could probably guess that by my robes.” He said plucking at his tie. Lachlan was a bit nervous, making new friends could be hard! However, his voice came out steadily carrying his traditional light Scottish brogue with a tint of Icelandic enunciations on the words.

Perhaps Jade could be his first friend here at Hogwarts Lachlan mused to himself. She was nice enough to approach him first which was half the battle. He remembered his father saying something about loyalty in Hufflepuffs and how they made good friends. Jade, judging by her robes, was a Hufflepuff. “You are a Hufflepuff right?” Lachlan said gesturing to her robes. “My dad went to Hogwarts and he was a Hufflepuff.” Lachlan smiled again at the thought of his father. “He couldn’t say enough about how much he loved the house.” Lachlans words were accented by his wands waving in gestures that his dad used when he talked about Huflepuff. “What do you think of your house, is it the one you wanted?” Lachlan asked curious.

Euphrasia waved goodbye to her friends as they parted ways. Her friends to the inside of Hogwarts, and Euphrasia to the grounds. It had been a shock that Euphrasia was ready to head out on her own, and, to nobody's surprise; make more friends.

It seemed that Euphrasia couldn't be more friendly, and wanting to share that with everyone, was her passion. She enjoyed being gregarious and making new friends, but anxiety was still there. Anxiety never seemed to leave Euphrasia's mind, yet it could be held back, hidden from the public view. 

Taking in a deep breath, Euphrasia skipped off the steps and onto the grounds, her bright violet-eyes flickering through the green grass, and then to the bright sky. Light blue, with spots of fluffy, white clouds splattered around. Just like a magical fairytale, beautiful and like an elegant meadow.

Yet, her gaze was lost from the sky when Euphrasia's violet eyes looked down, and saw two peers. A boy in a Gryffindor robe, just like Euphrasia's, and a girl dawned in Hufflepuff robes. The colors, though nearly the same, didn't match. The maroon and gold not nearly going with the black and Sunflower colored yellow.

Euphrasia made her way down to the pair, a bright smile on her small face, her violet eyes flickering between the two, and her raven-hair swishing on her shoulders.

"Hiya! I hope I'm not intruding, but I'd like to be friends. My name is Euphrasia, but you can call me Millie!" The Gryffindor girl was just as bright as her voice made her out to be.

Jade took a breath to answer but at that moment a girl appeared. She was a Gryffindor like Lachlan. 

"I don't mind, in fact you haven't missed much. We only just met you see. I'm Jade Murphy. In answer to your question, Lachlan, I do find Hufflepuff to be a wonderful house. Though I wasn't really expecting it, I was expecting Ravenclaw, like my Dad or Gryffindor." Jade said beaming at the two.

This was proving to be quite a good day, she had met two people and they seemed really nice. "What about you two? Do you like Gryffindor? Did you think you were going to be in it?" Jade asked excitedly, her Irish accent getting a bit stronger with excitement. 

Jade had been trying to be as English as she could so she wouldn't give anyone anything to bully her about, but in the moment she had completely forgotten with nerves and was sounding Irish as ever. 

Her mind racing Jade started to fiddle absent-mindedly with her long braids, something she often did. Jade had always been interested in Gryffindor, the house of the lion. None of the relatives Jade knew had been in there, all the ones she knew were in Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw or Slytherin.

Lachlan’s attention was pulled away from Jade when a new face popped into the conversation, a Gryffindor like him. She introduced herself and in turn Lachlan did the same with a smile, “Hi Millie, my name is Lachlan Morrison.” She was quite cheery, innately so it seemed. Lachlan was friendly, but not as naturally exuberant as Millie. It was a good start to the year indeed! Perhaps he would make two friends? At least, that is what he hoped. Lachlan turned back to Jade when she spoke to him about her house. Initially he thought Jade was quieter but it seemed she was excited as well, her distinctly Irish accent even came out! This, of course, was ok with Lachlan and didn’t bother him in the slightest. He had an accent too after all.

“Well, I really like Gryffindor! So far it seems to be a house mostly full of nice people. However, I have not been here long enough to meet the whole crowd just yet!” Lachlan exclaimed. He paused thinking about the second question Jade posed. After a few short moments he spoke again, “I guess I wasn’t expecting to be in Gryffindor. I wasn’t expecting to be in any house really. My mother was a Slytherin and my father was a Hufflepuff. If anything, I expected those two houses over Gryffindor. I trust the sorting hat though, it said it was never wrong!” Lachlan said with a laugh. It was good to talk to others, most of his time at home was isolated with just his family.

Listening to both Jade and Lachlan's talk about houses, Euphrasia could only begin to let her mind wonder. Had she expected Gryffindor? Yes and no. Her parents had grown up in North America, they didn't attend Hogwarts. They attended Ilvourmorney, the American school of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Growing up in England was a shock to everyone in the family. Why would Naomi and Andrew Millie move to Birmingham, England when the entire family lived in the United States?

Euphrasia listened to the other two speak, before calmly taking in a deep breath.

"Well you see," She started, "I'm the only person in my family from England. Everyone else lives in North America. But after doing some research, I think being in Gryffindor was definitely a good choice done by the Hat." In the vast sunlight, Euphrasia's long black hair and violet-red eyes made her look like a small, polite demon. Something her family always used to call her, the polite demon.

Memories of her family flooded Euphrasia's mind as the two began to converse about the hat. The sorting hat had always been a wonder to Euphrasia. Some random old guy decided to take off his hat and enchanted it to become sentient, and then it began yelling the founders last names as a way to sort students?

But something else caught Euphrasia off guard. The hat was never wrong? That was stupid, the hat had made multiple mistakes in the past, and it obviously showed. Though, to Euphrasia, maybe mistakes showed for the better, but maybe not.

"The hat has been wrong about a lot of stuff, like when it sorted Severus Snape, the guy who helped Harry Potter. Some other people, but he's most famous. But that's not my problem."

"I suppose you're right in a way, though Severus Snape was originally on "The Dark Side" He just changed for Lilly Potter, or at least thats what the books say. There really isn't that much on the matter, only what they could get out of Harry Potter. So maybe he was sorted wrong, it's a really interesting topic" Jade said.

Jade had always loved reading the history of Hogwarts from a young age, but when it came to The Battle Of Hogwarts the books got a bit, well, a bit lacking. 

"What do you think on the matter Lachlan?" Jade asked with a warm smile. As Jade said this she thought of the possibility that Lachlan didn't know anything about it. And with that came the realisation that Jade hadn't met many muggle-borns.

This interested Jade as she had grown up in a mostly muggle community and had always wondered what muggles would think of the wizarding world. Jade had always been a muggle-lover, something some of her relatives frowned upon, but Jade's parents had always encouraged her so Jade didn't mind. She did mind it when the kids in her town had called her weird, Jade didn't like being abnormal, sometimes she wished she was a muggle.

In truth Lachlan knew very little of the tale of Harry Potter. He knew a war was fought and he knew several of the important protagonist and antagonists. It was interesting history yes but his mother would always look upset at the topic so it was never discussed. The only thing he knew was that his mother’s parents were on the losing side. Despite both Millie and Jade’s sentiments about the sorting hat he still trusted it.

“To be honest,” Lachlan started, “I actually don’t know much of anything about the most recent wizarding war. My family doesn’t really discuss it. I know there was a war that happened. My father is a Magizoologist so we mostly follow the tales of Newt Scamander.” Lachlan said adding at least something to the conversation. “He studies Dragons mostly. While I sure know a whole lot about dragons I don’t know about much other history. I suppose my family is rather detatched…” Lachlan began to trail off. “That’s ok though!” He said reassuring himself mostly. It was true Lachlan’s family really was off the grid in a sense. Rarely do they interact with others. They see muggles just about as much as they see other wizards. Interesting lot they are.

Millie listened to the other two students speak, before Millie hummed in response, choosing her words very carefully.

“I actually don’t know much of anything about the most recent wizarding war. My family doesn’t really discuss it. I know there was a war that happened."

This surprised Millie, even growing up in America, she knew almost every little detail about the Wizarding War. It was something she enjoyed studying in her free time. Not like Millie had any of that with all the work first-years were getting stomped with. Homework and classwork had took up most of Millie's free time.

"Well, the Dark Lord, Voldemort, was arising to power and needed to be stopped, the ministry wasn't doing anything, and so Harry Potter was being called 'psychotic' and stuff, then they realized Voldemort was back, then everyone was in a frenzy. Fast-forward about two years, the battle of Hogwarts between Harry Potter and Voldemort. Long story short, the good guys won and then BAM were here now." Though it was a horrid explanation of how the second Wizarding War was, Millie giggled at herself. She was a joke.

Millie smiled at Lachlan and Jade, the two seemed like really cool people, and the type of people she wanted to be friends with. Millie could see this friendship lasting a while.