Howie raised his eyebrows at Ami’s statement of “bullshit” but his smile did not falter. Swear words were nothing new to him, and did not offend him. All the older kids from his village used them, and although he wouldn’t admit it out loud, his father swore in the house regularly. Howie did however appreciate Ami’s straightforward attitude, as it was one he often responded well to. 

Howie agreed with her about a hat or a house not defining a person. “I see you’re point there. It does seem weird that they separate all the students like that, but it seems to have worked for hundreds of years. So who knows.” Ami went on to say how she felt like she wouldn’t fit in to any of the houses, seemingly not fond of the idea of any of them. “Well I’ve read how all of the houses are supposed to represent some kind of strong personality trait, but don’t we all have a bit of everything in us? Seems weird, and it’s good to meet people who are different right?” Ami turned back to the window as she seemed a bit flustered, but he would not give up easy. “Wouldn’t you agree Ami?”

Howie turned back toward Aurelia as she spoke. He laughed with her as she told him her parent’s tale of this so called ‘Sorting Hat’. “Well, I guess it is pretty damn old, probably has to yell just to hear itself.” She went on to seem surprised and impressed to meet a muggleborn. “Yeah...I’ve read about Granger too. Is it really uncommon to be muggleborn?” He asked her. Howie of course had heard of this famous muggleborn before, her tale was in all the history books. He was relieved that Aurelia seemed to think that his parentage was cool, for it had only been couple of decades since the great wizarding war, in which the history told him of an intolerance for witches and wizards born to muggles. He hoped this would not something he would have to face at Hogwarts, only time would tell.

Aurelia spoke again. Howie assumed it was towards Ami. “You still have to be sorted into a house, whether you like it or not.” Yikes! Was she challenging Ami, or was it simply an observation. Howie’s eyes shot back and forth between the two of them, waiting for a reaction.

“Well I’ve read how all of the houses are supposed to represent some kind of strong personality trait, but don’t we all have a bit of everything in us? Seems weird, and it’s good to meet people who are different right? Wouldn’t you agree Ami?”

Ami looked back at Howie with a raised eyebrow. Why was he being so nice to her? Why couldn't people just leave her alone? Was all of Hogwarts going to be like this? If so, it would certainly be hard to find some alone time amidst all these overly-friendly strangers. In response to his question, she only shrugged, then after a brief pause, nodded. "Sure."


The other two, Howie and Aurelia, had their brief stint on Muggleborns, at which Ami could only wrinkle her nose. Did it honestly matter who your parents were? It was how they raised that mattered. For instance, even if her mother was a pureblood, Ami had grown up as a Muggle, with absolutely no knowledge of the magical, mystical world she'd been born into. It was only when they'd received her letter that Abella had sat Ami down and explained to her the hell she was about to be shipped off to.

“You still have to be sorted into a house whether you like it or not."

No shit, Sherlock, Ami thought with an internal sigh. She knew that already, but she wasn't going to accept it without a fight. To be honest, most people said she'd get Slytherin like her mom, but Ami firmly refused to believe that she'd get sorted in there. Slytherin? Hell no.

The brunette chuckled slighly at the joke he made up about the hat being old. She had no doubt that he was going to be sorted into hufflepuff.

“Or maybe it was created that way so the whole great hall can hear which house a student is sorted into.” Aurelia stated the facts.

The boy had mention about him reading about the houses and the characteristics. Aurelia raised an eyebrow, slighly surprised how quickly he had managed to learn about the wizarding world when he was a muggle born. She was curious how his parents reacted when they were notified about him being a wizard.

“Mhm, for a person to be sorted into Gryffindor, the traits would be bravery, daring, nerve and chivalry. For Hufflepuff it would be hardwork, patience and loyalty... something like that if I remembered right. For Slytherin it would be ambition, cunning, resourcefulness. For Ravenclaw, it would be intellegence... just know that all the smartass students go there.” The girl listed out. She was sure they knew that already.

“Yes, it is quite rare. Something about and the recessive genetics traits or what ever I learnt in biology, I honestly wasn’t paying attention. Is it common for a dark haired child to be born of light haired parents? It would only be possible if one of your ancestors were dark haired so it could be because one of you great great grand parents might have been magical. ” the girl explained. If she though about it, she might as well be sorted into Ravenclaw already.

“By the way Howie, how did your parents react when they knew you were a wizard?” She asked, hoping the question wasn’t sensitive. The eleven year old was just curious.

"Sure."

Howie squinted his eyes at Ami, as if trying to see a way to break through the wall she was putting up. He was sure that he was going to get somewhere when they had both shared the same feeling about the Houses, but she had just shrugged it off. Howie wasn’t discouraged, every wall has cracks, and through cracks, walls can be broken!


Howie’s attention was steered away as Aurelia started to speak again. She was telling him about what traits each house was known for, and the biology behind magic, he couldn’t appreciate it more. He thirsted for knowledge of this new world...no, his new world. When his parents had taken him to Diagon Alley to purchase his school supplies he had torn through all of his books, trying his best to learn all he could about the magical community. However, he still had much to learn, and it would be knowledge from new friends like these that would be most valuable.

“By the way Howie, how did your parents react when they knew you were a wizard?”

Howie burst out into a fit of laughter at her question. “Oh my gosh!” He said in between giggles. Taking a deep breath he composed himself and continued. “I had no idea what to think really. My parents thought it was all a hoax when the representative from Hogwarts showed up. My dad had her pushed halfway out the door before she pulled her wand. She shot something out of it that pushed me dad back a bit, that shut him up alright.” Howie laughed softly again at the memory. “Once everything settled down, she told us all about me being a wizard and that I was placed on the list for attendance at Hogwarts since I was born. Couldn’t really argue with her at that point, it did explain all the weird things that used to happen around me, but she says that was normal for all young witches and wizards. Took a few days for it to all sink in. I think they were a bit scared at first, and mum really didn’t like the idea of me going away for schooling. She was a mess when I left her at the station. But, in the end they accepted it and agreed that it was best for me to learn how to hone this gift.” He ended with a shrug and a What-ya-gonna-do expression.


“What about you guys? You both come from magical families?” He then thought of Ami being from the USA. “Oh, Ami. Why’d you have to come all the way to the UK for school. Is there no school for magic in America?” There, maybe that would do it. Talking of home might bring her out of her shell a bit.

Ami listened with suppressed interest as Howie explained how he had found out he had magic in his blood. It certainly must've been a shock for him, not to mention his parents. Trying to give someone a crash course in the wizarding world and its rules was a hard thing to accomplish, but Howie seemed pretty caught up with it all, for which Ami admired him for rather heavily. Smart kid. Could be a good friend, you know.

“What about you guys? You both come from magical families?”

“Oh, Ami. Why’d you have to come all the way to the UK for school? Is there no school for magic in America?”

Howie asked the first question, probably not realizing he was touching a nerve of Ami's, but she was glad when he moved on to the next questio- oh. Nevermind, this question was worse. Her shoulders tensed as thousands of things came to mind that she desperately wanted to say, desperately wanted to tell this boy who seemed to be the nicest child on earth, but she couldn't. Thousands of lies sprung to the surface, but she'd been brought up to always be honest. She couldn't lie to such a beautiful soul, either, could she?

"My mom's a witch," Ami said shortly in response to Howie's first set of questions, and sighed heavily, running a hand through her hair. "Ilvermorny is the American school of magic, and I'd have loved to go there, honestly. I- I did a little bit of research..." Ami hesitated, and at the risk of sounding like an all-out nerd, hurtled forward in her train of thought. "I visited the school, too... the four houses there, Pukwudgie, Thunderbird, Horned Serpent, and Wampus, they represent different parts of your body, instead of character traits. They're more, say, about the type of person you aspire to be.

"Pukwudgie, for instance, represents the heart, the healers. The ones who only care and love for others, who would sacrifice everything to help their loved ones. Most people equate it to Hufflepuff in Hogwarts, but I don't think that's accurate. You could be a brave healer, for instance, or an ambitious healer, not necessarily loyal. But that's just my opinion.

"Also..." Ami cleared her throat uncomfortably, realizing she was probably rambling. She needed to wrap this up, quick. "Ilvermorny has more of an emphasis on casting spells without needing to utter the incantation. In America, back during the Salem witch trials and such, the wizarding community needed to learn to disappear while still keeping their culture, so they mastered the art of non-vocal spells. Britain never had to worry about that."

With a sigh, Ami wrapped up her lecture with, "But my mom wanted me in Britain." Well, there was more than that, but they didn't need to delve into politics just quite yet. That could wait for all eternity, for all Ami cared. Clearing her throat again, Ami looked to Aurelia, curious to hear her answer about the whole family bloodline. That was certainly enough talking for today, nobody else had better ask anymore questions of her.

Aurelia had heard of other magical schools other than Hogwarts. Beauxbatons was the school that most of her relatives from her mother's side graduated from. But she didn't know much about it. Her parents never told her anythings more than its name. After all, they had spent their entire youth in Hogwarts and there was a lot they had to say about it.

The brunette leaned closer as Ami explained about the American school, Ilvermorny. She had explained about its history and how students could cast spells without the incantation. Her Mother preferred to use to incantation when casting spell as she said it had lesser chances of it backfiring, however, her father worked as a muggle doctor and often discreetly used spells to heal patients without using the incantation. Then Ami finished talking and looked at her in her eye as if she was expecting. She was probably expecting for her to answer's Howie's question.

"Both my parents are witches. However, I have lived in Muggle England my whole life. Both my parents are pure-bloods, they don't have anything against muggles, in fact my Pa works as a muggle doctor, " Aurelia paused for a moment, thinking about what else to say to them.

"Honestly, I haven't seen any other magical people besides my parents and relatives. She shrugged. Even now, the girl still wondered why her parents chose to live along side muggles instead of the wizarding world.

Howie’s mind threatened to pop as it swelled with all of the information Ami was providing him. He was becoming knowledge drunk if there ever was such a thing. The books he had obtained for Hogwarts had made brief references to other magical schools, but he hadn’t really taken the time to think about how big the wizarding world actually was. Magical blood must run across the entire globe. A brief daydream fluttered through his mind. Images of people from all different nationalities swinging wands around, shouting incantations in hundreds of languages played out in his minds eye. Blinking it away, he gave his full attention back to Ami. She spoke of the American school with a bittersweet tone. Howie had been eager to hear more about the magical world and had forgotten his manners, it must be really hard for her to be this far away from home. He must tread more lightly.

Ami went on to tell them about how Ilvermorny put a lot of emphasis into non verbal spells. The Salem Witch Trials...Howie had not heard of these, but they sounded ghastly. “That’s interesting Ami. You say trials? So, the non magical people, or muggles I should say,” did Americans call them muggles too? “Were able to find out about witches and wizards? Then what, had them arrested?” 

"But my mom wanted me in Britain."

Howie gave her a warm smile. “I’m sorry you had to come all the way here to go to school. It must suck to be that far away from home.”


Howie’s attention was brought back to Aurelia as she spoke next. Wait, what! She went on to tell him about how her parents were both pure bloods, whatever that meant, and they willingly chose to live amongst the muggles. How interesting. Howie laughed softly to himself as he thought about his parents leaving the muggle world behind and living amongst witches and wizards. Now that’d be a sight.

“Really?! That’s interesting, why do you think they chose to live in the Muggle world? You think they like it there better than in the magical community? Must make it hard to do thier magic.” 

Ami grimaced as Howie continued on with the topic of the Salem Witch Trials. That was definitely a dark time period for America, definitely a darker spot in their already spotty history, not that Howie would know about it- Aurelia and Howie were both British, after all, there was no reason for them to know every detail of America's history. "No-Majs, they're called. Muggles, in America, I mean. No-Majs, like No-Magics. A- and-" Taking a slightly shaky breath upon approaching this part of history, she barreled forward. "They didn't arrest them, no, they hung them or drowned them. They were called Witch Trials because if you somehow survived the hanging or drowning, you would be a witch, and were killed anyway."

Shaking her head, mostly to herself, Ami shrunk into herself, shivering from the remembrance of that particularly nasty history lesson. While she certainly had quite the fondness for history, and nowadays especially those parts that intersected with the wizarding world, but the Salem Witch Trials... why, how could people be so cruel?

Then Aurelia brought up her parents being purebloods who worked with Muggles, and Ami still didn't get it. Why did blood status matter so much? Really? Was it that important? She didn't say anything, though, she simply bit her tongue and silently listened.

Ami had told them about the witch trails when Howie had asked her about it. After she was done explaining, Aurelia wished that Howie never brought the topic up. It was cruel. Burning and drowning, but what bothered her the most was that only witches were put in trail. How about wizards? Her mother had explained that there were gender inequality in the past, even now, in a few places it was still there.

Then Aurelia looked from the window of the moving train. The view was majestic. It was what she needed to lighten her mood. She moved her seat to the one across Ami and beside Howie.

"No wonder you like looking outside ever so often," Aurelia commented the turned to Howie to answer his question.

"I don't really know. I'm guessing that it is because they excelled in Muggle studies and Transfigration. I'm also guessing its because they wanted their privacy, its hard to not have the ministry of magic knocking at your door now and then if you live in Hogsmeade or something. " Aurelia explained.

"When I asked my father why of all jobs he chose to work as a doctor, he said it was good to help people from dying." Aurelia said shrugging.

"Although they have nothing against Muggles, there are still rules. Like I'm not allowed to have any ... other relationships with non purebloods as that would taint the family name. I'm not sure what tainting actually means in this context. I don't intend on finding out, I really don't want to disappoint my parents," Aurelia said casually. Her parents didn't expect much from her but she was always trying to prove them that she could be better. They had a lot on their shoulders and were always constantly busy and the girl tried her best not to give additional things for them to worry about.

Howie’s eyes widened as Ami told him the horror story that was the Salem Witch Trials. He became slightly embarrassed for having brought it up. The word trial to him, meant courts, lawyers, judges, not torture and murder. The atmosphere of the compartment seemed to shift, how could it not after such a gruesome tale. If the other two were like him, they would now have a sickening feeling in thier guts. Muggle history was full of awful events, so it shouldn’t have come as too much a shock for Howie, but he was disgusted by this. How could they have ever been so cruel? Fear. Yes, it’s the culprit behind most human tragedies, and no different in this case. No wonder the magical community took such an effort to keep themselves hidden. His thoughts went back to home, how many there would fear him now? 

“My goodness Ami...that’s...that’s just awful.” His words couldn’t actually describe how horrible it was. “It’s hard to believe that people could be so cruel...but I guess our history is filled with it. No wonder the magical community chose to stay hidden, even in this day and age, people would still be intolerant.” His focus shifted as Aurelia hopped up and came to sit next to him. Howie realized why as he followed her gaze out of the window, the countryside was quite beautiful. She went on to tell him about her parents hopes for privacy, and how they used thier gift to help people. It all seemed quite nice until blood status was brought back into the conversation. 

“Wait...really?! You cant have friends that aren’t Purebloods?” This didn’t make any sense to Howie. It was becoming more and more clear to him that he being muggleborn was a way bigger deal than he had originally thought. He looked over to Ami, attempting to judge her reaction. Was this normal?