Another Year For Me, A New Year For You PV Fin

Elisabeth was really, really excited now that she was all set to bound for Hogwarts. Earlier, her parents had helped the eleven-year-old moved her trunk on to the Hogwarts Express; it was now tucked in the corner of an empty compartment, whereas the owner had don her school robes.

But even though Elisabeth could not wait to see what Hogwarts would have in store for her, another part of her found it heavy to go. Yes, definitely she would have lots of fun and adventures, but she would deeply miss her family as well. While it was true that the girl had spent the last five years living with her ayi (maternal aunt), they all lived in the Muggle part of the towns and could make use of the thing Muggle called "video call" and "instant messaging".

Hogwarts would differ a lot. It had no internet, no electricity (what were those wizards thinking?), and only owls to deliver traditional letters of ink on paper.

That was why Elisabeth decided to spend the last minutes before the red train embarked on its journey by talking to her family. Her parents were both there, and so was her little brother; pity her ayi could not get a half-day off, but she worked in St Mungo's so it would be quite easy to see her some time soon.

The four of them were talking about anything and everything when suddenly a lady's voice called Elisabeth's mamá. "Hello, Mrs Erner! My mother hopes me to say hello to your father. I guess they’re acquainted before?" asked the voice.

Of course, her mamá turned around upon hearing her name. She was not very sure who the lady was, but after trying hard to remember, she finally guessed, "It's Mrs Springhall, isn't it?"

"Ms Verna Lin," repeated Elisabeth's mamá. "Ah, yes. That does ring a bell. How is she now, Mrs Springhall? Is she doing well?"

Suddenly Elisabeth felt Mrs Springhall's eyes on her, followed by the lady's daughter's, though from a spot further than her mother. "Is this your daughter?" Mrs Springhall asked, to which her mamá gave a polite nod and a proud "yes, she's starting her studies at Hogwarts this year". Peering shyly, Elisabeth gave Mrs Springhall a smile and a polite nod, the way some Asians would do (instead of shaking hands) during introductions. Her brother, Elisabeth realised, also did the same thing, although from a spot farther.

"Edmund. Lindsey," Mrs Springhall called her children afterwards. The two seemed to playfully bicker at each other for a short while, and then the girl pulled her brother's hand. She greeted Papá and Mamá first, before turning to Elisabeth and introducing herself as Lindsey as the two girls shook hands. She also said - what was it she said? Hufflepuff? "- second year," Lindsey added.

Ah, so the brown-haired girl was her senior.

After that, her brother Edmund also introduced himself to Elisabeth, and Lindsey took over the conversation again from him. "Do you have any ideas of which house you'd be sorted into?"

"No," replied Elisabeth automatically, feeling quite dumb. She had never heard that Hogwarts had a system called houses, let alone their names. "I think," she added swiftly, to avoid appearing rude for just answering with a short no, "I'll figure it out later there. I'm... fine with all of them... I think."

Meanwhile, Elisabeth noticed, her own brother was re-reading the Muggle novel he had with him today. It seemed that with his sister talking with the two more senior students, his papá with their father, and his mamá with their mother, he felt bored.

Should she invite him to talk with them as well? Elisabeth wondered, observing the two kids' reaction.

"He's doing all right, thank you," Elisabeth heard her mamá answered Mrs Springhall's question about the condition of her agong. "He still lives with my mum in Indonesia. My sister and I are worried they might get lonely, especially now that both of us live in very different time zones from them. But the good news is, now they're going to move here to London, as soon as my sister gets the permission from the Muggle government body and they get the visas."

Meanwhile, Edmund had also taken a notice of her brother and decided to approach him. "Maybe you'd like to come along with your sister? We could have a pleasant talk together. The train's not leaving yet," the Gryffindor offered.

Atticus set down his novel and politely nodded to the elder boy. "Thank you, it's a pleasure," he said gracefully, without any trace of awkwardness. And then, extending his hand to Edmund, he spoke in a friendly but professional tone (at least professional for his age), "Atticus Erner." Seriously, Elisabeth was sure that boy would be some kind of a diplomat, a spokesperson, or even a lawyer one day. He was really good at talking, even on sensitive topics, without lying about his personal views.

"Um, I guess I haven't had the pleasure to learn your name yet," said Lindsey cheerfully, disrupting Elisabeth's thoughts. "And, is that your brother?" (No, it was not that the elder girl was being rude or something. Elisabeth did have a tendency to suddenly zone out, this she herself realised.)

"Oh right," the Hispanic-Asian said. "Sorry. I'm Elisabeth. And yeah, that's my brother Atticus. He's eight this year, so he hasn't gone to magic school yet. But I'm not sure if he'll go to Hogwarts too, he doesn't live with me and our auntie in England."

As their brothers talked to each other, Lindsey told Elisabeth about three other magic schools - Ilvermony, Durmstrang, and Beauxbatons. She also said that her cousin studied at the last.

Elisabeth was impressed. Lindsey was only one year above her, and yet she knew much more than Elisabeth. The Hispanic-Asian girl only knew that there were several schools of magic around the globe, but she had no clue at all about their names, or their geographical locations.

After that, the second-year Hufflepuff excitedly spoke about common rooms. So... how does this common room thing work? Elisabeth asked herself, inside her head. One common room for each house? Is that why Lindsey says "our" and "their" common rooms?

However, the new student felt too shy to ask about this. So instead, she asked, "How do they all look like? And may I know why the common room is your favourite part of Hogwarts? Are they always so crowded?"

Realising that she had just shot three questions at the same time, without giving the more senior student a chance to answer each first, Elisabeth quickly shut her mouth. Really, she felt so embarrassed for behaving like a curious little girl, but now she was afraid to apologise to Lindsey. Wouldn't that make her talk even more?

Listening to Lindsey's explanation on the common rooms at Hogwarts made Elisabeth experience a mixture of feelings.

She wanted to see how it looked like at Hufflepuff common room when it was filled with morning sunshine. The brownish haired girl loved morning sunshine, so she imagined that the room would be very pretty. But she was also intrigued about the giant squid that her senior said could be seen from the common room of Slytherin. Even though Lindsey had explained that students from one house were not allowed to visit the common rooms of other houses, Elisabeth crossed her fingers that one day during her time at Hogwarts, there would be an open house or the like so that she would be able to visit all of the common rooms. Or at least, to take a peek at each.

On the other hand, Elisabeth had decided not to spend so much time in the common room. From Lindsey's story, there were lots of people in one room; just thinking about it made Elisabeth nervous. The black-eyed girl had nothing against people in general, of course, but she was never comfortable being in the middle of them. It did not matter if she knew them or not, whether or not their attention was focused on her; the only thing that matter was that she was physically being too close to many of them.

She was not sure what to expect about the corridors or abandoned toilets, though. Corridors sounded OK. Abandoned toilets, certainly not. She was sure her mamá would find them inspiring for her novels, maybe her papá would think it was kind of fun when he had been at her age, and Atticus definitely would not mind them. But for Elisabeth, there was nothing interesting about abandoned lavatories; for the girl, they were creepy and dirty.

But naturally, she did not want to offend Lindsey, or worse, hurt the Hufflepuff's feelings. So to her, Elisabeth just remarked, "I had no idea that Hogwarts is so different from my Muggle school. You seem to enjoy it very much there. Do you want to be a professor there after you graduate, so you can still stay years after school is done?"