Come and Chill With Me

Elizabeth walked around the grounds, just checking things out. This place is enormous! she thought, looking at the vast castle that stood before her. However, since going across the water just the previous night, she was eager to go back to see it in daylight.

She slowly walked toward the lake, enjoying the sounds of chirping from the birds, and the cool breeze in the warm air. The took a deep breath.

For the last few months, she had lived in the city. It was nice to get away. Being out here reminded her ever so slightly of back home, where the air was clear and the area was peaceful.

As she looked out toward the lake, she saw another person, a girl probably, though she was still pretty far away. She began picking up her pace, which gradually turned to running. She wanted to get there before the girl got up to leave.

“H-hi,” she said, breathlessly when she was closer to her. She did look to be about her same age. “Are you a first year, too?” She asked. It had been rather late when they had arrived last night, and with all of the excitement, it was hard to remember who was all there, especially if they were in a different house. She looked like she was drawing something. “What...are you drawing?” She asked, still trying to catch her breath.

Eloise looks up, smiling at the girl before her. It seemed as if she'd been running. She was terribly out of breath. "You can sit if you'd like." Eloise pats the empty space next to her. It seemed as if her newfound companion needed to rest for a while. "I'm Eloise. And... this is what I'm drawing." Eloise turns her sketch toward the girl. It wasn't shaded or anything. It was merely a rough draft of what she wanted it to turn out to be.

"I'm a first year too. Have you started classes yet? I haven't, but I will be soon. I've been studying day in and day out to prepare. But I'm excited." Eloise glances down at the sketch, a small smile on her face. "I don't believe that I ever got your name."

The girl that had approached her looked to be about her age, maybe a year younger. Her hair was extremely blonde, but it looked natural. It seemed as if her hair color was the result of a lot of time spent outdoors. Eloise loved being outside. As soon as she'd sat down here she'd known that this would be a place she'd be visiting often. But there were plenty of beautiful places about Hogwarts that she had yet to discover and explore.

"Thanks, Eloise!" Elizabeth said, smiling warmly at the girl. She seems nice, she thought as she took a seat next to her.

She looked at the picture. "That looks good!" she said, genuinely impressed. "Whenever I try to draw, it comes out looking like my dog tried to draw it....with her eyes closed!" Elizabeth smiled, fondly remembering her dog, but then focused her attention back on Eloise. "I bet it will look even more amazing when it's finished."

She looked out at the lake a moment, before saying, "I'm Elizabeth. I'm a first year, too. I haven't started classes, yet, but I'm super excited as well!" Elizabeth felt her heart start beating faster, and she started feeling even happier than she was before. She started talking faster. "I didn't even know I was a witch before and then I found out in the Summer, and my parents aren't magic and my sister might be but I'm not sure and now I'm coming here and it's just so incredibly awesome and amazing." She took a deep breath. "I've looked at my books a little bit, but a lot of it seems very confusing. "Like I get all confused about the difference between a spell and hex and curse and all of those. And transfiguration sounds interesting but very hard. But I'm still excited. It's going to be great!" She smiled broadly, and then asked, "Are you from a magic family, or did you just find out you were magical, too?"

Eloise smiles warmly at Elizabeth. She seemed nice. Maybe they'd even go as far as becoming friends later on in the year. Hopefully they had a class or two together. It would be nice having a familiar face in the room on her first day of classes.

"My father is a wizard, but nobody else who lives in my house is. Both my grandparents on my father's side are, and I think that may be it." Eloise paused in thought. She had been told that none of her aunts or uncles had magical abilities, but maybe now that she found herself at Hogwarts, her father would tell her the truth. She'd always had a hunch that he was hiding something about that.

"Maybe we can study together sometime. If you ever need help, I can try." Eloise smiles. She was definitely no expert, but she understood the concepts well enough that she felt she could sufficiently help another student if needed. "Besides, it gets tiring studying by myself all the time." With a small laugh, she glances down at her sketch. "I think that I'm most excited for astronomy. It's always interested me, and now that I get to take a class on it... I'm just excited, I guess."

Elizabeth listened as Eloise recounted her family life, wondering what it would be like to have one parent who was magical. It's like she has the best of both worlds, she thought. Magic was amazing, but there were some interesting things that Muggles had, such as electricity (what was with all the torches at Hogwarts? Why not just use a light switch?) and Elizabeth had gone to the library and hadn't seen a single computer. Not one! She already missed using one. However, magic was really cool, too. She had already heard of a spell that could repair broken things, and one that allowed the caster to quickly clean up. She wondered if Eloise's dad had taught her to perform a couple of simple spells.

"Sure," she said about studying. "I bet that will be fun! Besides, I'm going to need all the help I can get!" she laughed, but then grew quiet when the girl mentioned astronomy. That was actually the class she was least excited about. It wasn't that she wasn't interested in the subject. To the contrary - astronomy was very interesting, and Elizabeth had enjoyed looking through telescopes at the moon and planets, and had cherished the times her mother, father, and sister had spent lying on their backs, watching shooting stars. However, the interaction she had recently had with the professor made her quite anxious to go back. She waited until Eloise had finished speaking and then said, "I'm actually more interested in transfiguration. It's confusing, but it sounds pretty cool turning one thing into something completely different." She shrugged.

Elizabeth relaxed, and taking her shoes and socks off, let her feet sink below the surface of the water.
The water was a little cold, but still pleasant enough. She gently kicked her legs, feeling the water move between her toes. It really was pleasant out here, by the lake, with the light breeze and the warm sun shining down on them. As she listened, she could hear the soft buzz of various insects flying around or the soft twittering of birds. She could hear the water as it gently splashed against the rocks and shoreline. She could spend all day out here.

"Did your dad teach -?" she started to ask, but then stopped and stared out toward the center of the lake. She had thought she had seen a flash of a tentacle come out of the water, but when she blinked, it was gone. It must have been my imagination, she thought and then turned her attention back to Eloise. "Did your dad teach you magic?"

Eloise nods enthusiastically. "A couple of simple spells, really. He told me that he wouldn't be teaching me anything that Hogwarts would have covered. Which is a lot more than I expected. He just told me the one on how to clean up, and one how to fix broken things." Eloise pauses. She had her wand in the pocket inside of her robes. "Would you like me to show you one?"

Eloise hadn't really tried any spells yet. When her father was teaching her, she was very young. She hadn't had her wand then, so she had to practice using her father's. Of course, at the time, nothing happened. But when she'd received her Hogwarts letter, and gotten her own wand, her father had taught the spells to her again. She was still mesmerized by how quickly and efficiently each spell worked.

Looking out over the water, the sun was closer to disappearing behind the horizon. If she had to make a guess, Eloise would say they had a half an hour to forty five minutes before they had to be back inside, ready for bed. Eloise would start classes tomorrow, which was new, while also simultaneously scary and exciting. But she couldn't be more happy. The courses were something she had little to no background information about. He dad had refused to tell her anything about the subjects she would be learning. He enjoyed the mystery of it, just like Eloise herself.

She's going to teach me some magic? Elizabeth thought with anticipation. "Yes, please!" she said, enthusiastically. This was the best day ever! She was making a new friend, and she was going to learn her first spell.

She stood up quickly, little droplets of water falling off her foot and making the ground damp. The wind blowing against her damp feet made them feel rather cold, but Elizabeth didn't really care that much. She was much too excited.

She whipped her wand out of her pocket, feeling a familiar tingle as she held it, just like the day she first received it at Ollivanders. It made her feel all warm to know that it had chosen her. Out of all of the witches and wizards in the world, it wanted her. She smiled thinking about it. And I want you, too, she thought.

She frowned a bit, trying to figure out how to hold it properly. She had experimented with different ways of holding it the last few days, but couldn't find a position she was completely comfortable with. She finally settled with holding it snugly in her hand and then loosed her grip a little. She didn't want her hand to get tired from gripping it so hard.

"So, what do I say?" she asked, eagerly looking at Eloise.

"Alright, hold on." Eloise was going to be very upset if the spell wasn't executed correctly. Grabbing her pencil off her drawing pad, she broke it in half over her knee. Now, taking her wand out of her pocket, she pointed it at the pencil pieces that were now laying side by side on the dock. "Let me demonstrate first, so that you know what you're doing. Then, I'll slow down the movement when I'm done so that you can see what to do with your wand."

Once again, she points her wand at the two pieces of pencil laying on the dock. Confidently, she flicks her wand in the general direction of the pieces. "Reparo!" she says, and when she looked down at the dock, the pieces of the pencil had become one again. Smiling valiantly with her success, Eloise moves to stand next to Elizabeth. Now it was her turn.

Grabbing the pencil and breaking it in half once again, she places the two pieces on the dock. "Now, you're going to want to hold your wand like this. Actually, wait, you've already got it. Alright, so, you're going to move your wand first to the right, then in a slight diagonal to the left, up again in a diagonal farther left, and straight to the right." Eloise demonstrates slowly, so that Elizabeth can see what she's doing. "It's basically like a circle" she adds, showing Elizabeth once more. "Now, you must do it fast. And then you'll say 'reparo.' Hopefully that will put it back together." If it didn't work for Elizabeth, Eloise could always fix it herself. She had faith in her friend, though.

Elizabeth watched carefully as Eloise showed her the proper wand movement and said the incantation, and she even tried it a little, herself. "Wow!" she breathed, as she watched in amazement as the pen was fixed. She picked it up. There wasn't a single mark to show that the pencil had ever been broken. It looked completely whole, like it had never been broken before. "It's like magic!" she said, and then remembered where she was. "It is magic!"

She stood in amazement a moment as Eloise broke it again, and then pointed her wand at the pieces laying on the dock. Her heart was racing inside her chest and it seemed everything stopped in anticipation of her first spell. I gotta get this right, she thought, as she stared at the pieces lying before her. "R-reparo," Elizabeth said timidly, as she tried to follow the wand movement Eloise had shown her. Nothing happened. Elizabeth's shoulders slumped ever so slightly. She tried again. "Reparo!" she said again, this time forgetting the wand movement and instead tapping her wand to the pencil as if she were trying to nudge it to fix itself. "I guess I'm not very good at this, yet" she muttered. "Can you show me again?"