First-Year Entrance 2024-2025

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After hours of being on a train, it had finally stopped. They arrived to their destination: Hogwarts, School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. It was surreal to believe that her adventure was just beginning. She heard stories from her parents about the school. Granted, they did not share with her details. A lot of their stories ended with, "you have to be there" as some descriptions or scenarios they mentioned did not make sense in abstract. Well, here she is. There. It was almost like Colby was wondering if something was going to happen once her foot stepped on Hogwarts' grounds. With one foot off the train, everything remained the same. Guess not.

When off the train, students were being herded in different directions. There seems to be a specific path for each year of students to experience. Her group, first years, were pulled towards the docks. When she got there, she saw a male figure calling out to them to bring them closer. He went by the name 'Ruckus' and was Hogwarts' Caretaker. Colby lifted her eyebrows at the fact that this one man took care of the entire castle and grounds. Perhaps magic took a big role in helping him, but it was a lot.

Colby got a closer look at what he was talking about. In the midst the dark and dreary scenery were colorful duck boats. There were so many colors to choose from. Alas, only four students were allowed on a boat at a time. From the looks of it, they were filling up fast. Colby did not care too much about the color of each duck boat. She went to whichever was the closest and not full. Her choice happened to be a blue boat. So far, no one was in the boat. How relaxing. She wondered who out of the entire first years would be entering her blue boat.

ACTIONS: Entering and jumping into the blue boat

Caitriona took a deep breath as she stood at the edge of the grounds. It was relaxing to get a breath of fresh air after the long train ride. Taking about 9 hours, it was the longest time Caitriona had spent in any vehicle. Her family manor was connected to the floo network so that was the usual means of transportation of the family. She had been to places via portkey but never by broom because her parents wouldn't let her fly when they weren't monitoring her (meaning not on brooms themselves.) There was an old car in their carriage house but no one ever bothered to use it. The family never went many places anyway aside from her father going to work and the occasional shopping trip to Diagon Alley.

The young witch eyed the lineup of boats. The orange and yellow boats already were filled, the red one was getting close, and she had lost the girl from her train compartment. Noting the caretaker's comments about potential sinkage Caitriona decided to enter the least occupied at the moment: the blue boat. Less people meant less chance drowning in an unknown, potentially magical body of water, right? Her mother had told her that the fish liked to capsize first year boats as an initiation ritual. The 11-year-old had little reason to believe the horror story; she knew her mother was prone to extending the truth. However, there were some instances on which Belladonna Dewine turned out to be right.

This, hopefully, was not not one of them. The idea of entering Hogwarts for the first time completely soaked was not appealing in the slightest to the dhampir girl. Despite her worries, it was clear that the only means of getting to the castle was by riding the duck boats. Everything was fine. Caitriona was not going to be joining the ranks of first years who had a meltdown on their first day of Hogwarts. Talk about embarrassing.

Instead, she approached the blue duck boat with a relaxed smile on her face. "Hi! May I sit here?" She directed the question to the girl already in the boat. It was polite to ask before jumping in.

joining the blue boat - interacting with @Colby Vidler - open to interactions

Novalie backed away slightly from the boy when she heard the girl mention that she wasn’t from a wizarding family.

“Me neither.”, Novalie said with a smile, treating it as completely normal, considering that most of the people she’d met so far were 'Muggle-borns', as they called it. But why were non-magical people called Muggles anyway? Where did that name even come from?
She almost got lost in her thoughts again until the boy started speaking, snapping her attention back to him.

So his old friend could not only change the color of his skin but also the shape of his eyes? And he and his family even used fake names? How cool was that?!

“Wow…”, she whispered, completely awestruck by this revelation.
It reminded her of the games she used to play with her friends in the slums, where they’d give each other code names while pretending to be police officers and criminals.

When the boy suddenly seemed to recall his friend's name, Novalie nearly interrupted with a suggestion, “Ice Cream!”
She started to laugh happily, rocking back and forth in excitement, causing the boat to wobble.

“That’s epic! Imagine calling yourself Ice Cream or Vanilla Ice or something like that and your parents just go along with it!”, she giggled and turned to the girl again.
“Right? You could name yourself after your favorite ice cream flavor!"
She began glancing between them alternately, "What would your names be?”

Interacting with @Caitriona Dewine

Are there such things as miracles? Colby watched as other students began to jump into the other colored boats. Already there were two boats that were full, one of them the caretaker was on. Feeling good about this, Colby began to stretch herself on the blue boat. The less people, the more room. She could feel a good stretch in her legs as they spread across the boat. This was obviously after hours on a train with little time to really lengthen them.

It wasn't until she saw someone coming her way. The miracle had ended. Colby retracted her legs and watched as a girl entered her blue boat. She was kind when she entered asking to sit in the boat. But of course, Colby scoffed and rolled her eyes. "Yeah, sure." The next thing Colby should do was to introduce herself, but she did not want to right away. If anything, she was distracted by the smell that was coming from the girl. It was not something she was used to. The smell was very much related to 'metal' but Colby could not put her finger on it of what it could exactly be. She twitched her nose ever so slightly, thinking that would rid the smell. But alas, her werewolf ability of heightened sense of smell was strong.

For a moment, Colby's stomach was gurgling. There was not much to eat on the Hogwarts Express other than candies that needed to be purchased, and it was now nearing supper time. For hours, Colby did not eat. Her right hand gently covered her stomach area as if that would stop the gurgling from happening. "When are these boats going to move? I'm starving," she said aloud with a tone of impatience as she looking around to see if Ruckus was going to start revving up the duck boats to head towards the castle. Another miracle down the drain. They hadn't started moving and it did not seem like they would any time soon. Colby might as well make small talk with the blonde girl in front of her. "What's your name?" she asked cooly.

ACTIONS: N/A

Date:	Sept 1st
Dialogue:	#011d57

All that serenity vanished the moment a small boy jumped onto the purple boat and plopped down directly in front of him with the widest smile Lev had ever seen. There wasn't even a chance to think before the other started to speak quickly, spouting out word after word after word. After a while Lev wasn't even listening, looking a bit like a deer in headlights as he stared at Lemmy, completely dumbfounded.

Alreadly he was overwhelmed and it had only been a few seconds. Pushing away the urge to hide his scars from view, Lev hesitantly extended his hand to grab the other's. As if he was scared of doing something wrong, he slowly shook it, his gaze shifting between Lemmy's beaming face and their intertwined hands. Inside, Lev was panicking: was he putting enough force into the handshake? was he squeazing too hard? when was he supposed to let go? This anxiety translated to a slight frown as he eventually cut the handshake short and wiped his hand on his black robe.

Every action made by this boy seemed timid. The way he tucked his hair behind his ears over and over again, how he pushed himself into the corner of the boat trying to make himself as small as possible, even the way he leaned forward, slouching. It wasn't a surprise when his voice was as much of a testimony to his shyness as everything else about him. "I-I'm Lev. Lev Makarov." It was quiet and shaky. "It is very nice to meet you Lemmy." He bit at his lip, trying to recall everything else the other boy had said. "You're probably right.. I think the older students are taking some carriages. … But I'm probably wrong!" He added that last part quickly. He didn't want to sound like a know it all..

@Lemmy LaRue

@Lev Makarov

Lemmy was oblivious to any discomfort he was instilling in Lev as he bombarded the other boy with word after word. Not because he was a rude person, though sometimes like now he would forget his manners as his excitement got the best of him. Though it was often overwhelming for others at it was for Lev now, the part-Goblin meant nothing ill by it. Meeting new people was one of his very favorite experiences and the adrenaline was flowing through him like a raging river. Even when their handshake was cut a little short, Lemmy was still unaware of any unease.

"Lev Makarov!" He did notice a bit of a stammer, but Lemmy would never call anyone out for that even if it was just nerves. "Quite a lovely name and similar to mine. Lev, Lemmy. Lev, Lemmy." He repeated a couple of times as he committed the name of this new friend to memory. "It's a pleasure to meet you too." Lemmy listened closely as Lev explained that the older students were taking carriages to the school before he seemed taken by a moment of self doubt. "Not to worry, friend. I am wrong about things all of the time." The lad spoke in a way as if he was stating the obvious, still mostly unaware of Lev's discomfort, but perhaps his upbeat nature may eventually out the other boy at ease. "I think I'd much rather take the boats personally. A shame we may only get to do this once. See, I grew up near the ocean and have spent loads of time on boats. Something about the water just calls to me. Perhaps we will see the Giant Squid! Mother told me all about it. You see, she went here ages ago. Was a Ravenclaw at that! I do wonder what house we will all be sorted into? Do you have a preference?" The onslaught continued. Poor Lev would probably avoid Lemmy for the rest of his days, but as the boats nudged off, he was temporarily trapped with the little ball of energy named Lemmy LaRue.

date: september 1st

location: great lake

interacting: @Colby Vidler @Caitriona Dewine

ooc: wearing a plain black robe with black ballet flats, she's wearing small round gold earings and a thin gold necklace.

joining the blue boat

speaking

This trip was getting more and more interesting to Eirene Tilbury but if you had asked her she would have told you she had seen places even more enchanting. The train had given the first years a beautiful ride that overlooked the lack it looked calm, serene, and whimsical. When everyone was ushered off the train she attempted to head with her sister but was pointed toward a group of boats and rubber duckies. It was then that she had remembered her older sisters' descriptions, that the first years took a fantastic boat ride across the lake during their entrance.

You're kidding, right? Eirene thought as she walked with the rest of the first years picking at the perfect stitches on the sleeves of her robe. The young girl had imagined the boats much differently in her head believing they would be the size of a yacht. She had always had a fear of deep water and she had hoped that there would never be a day when she was on a boat in the middle of a lake floating forever and ever.

She watched as the students loaded themselves upon the boats she had hoped to find a boat all to herself however each one had a least two students in it with two being full. Eirene had then decided to herself that an open boat wasn't going to appear in front of her, she wiped the front of her robe straightening the folds, and headed to a boat at random. She chose a blue boat that already had two girls seated inside they appeared to be getting acquainted with each other so it would be a good time to appear. The young girl approached them hoping she appeared friendly, "Good evening, do you have room for one more?"