First Year Fears PV Group Locked

Interacting with @Starlee Kennedy

"It looks like you need help with this!"

Tina did her best to squeak a thank you to the kind helper when she felt the suitcase lift a little, but struggled to get her words out due to the weight. She gladly accepted the assistance; God knew she needed it. Together, they managed to heave it onto the rack. She let go with a huge sigh of relief, clambering off the table to better greet the stranger. Just from her appearance she could tell they were a first or second year, like she was.

"Oh my gosh, you have no idea how much I needed that! Well, you probably did, now that I think about it. Guess that's one more thing I need to learn to do when we arrive: how to make heavy objects float!" she said, wiping her brow on the sleeve of her fleece, a faux dramatisation of how exhausted she was, and laughing. There were just so many ways in which magic was going to make her life easier.

"I'm Starlee. I'm a first-year."

When she realised a hand was being offered to her, Tina immediately clasped it in both of hers, shaking vigorously. She looked at the girl more properly now, wide-eyed with a huge smile across her face. Tina had that sort of smile that was so ridiculously cheesy people might assume was disingenuous, if they didn't know her well. The other girl was slightly taller than her, with blonde hair and a soft sort of face. She had assumed correctly: another first year.

"So, uh, do you want to be left alone here? Or do you mind if I join you?"

"Oh no, please! Join me! Starlee is such a pretty name, wow! I've never met someone called that. Can I call you Star?" Tina asked, letting go of Starlee's hands and plonking herself down by the window. "My sister like, totally banished me from her compartment. Mean right? Yeah, and now I'm all alone here. All my friends are muggles so no one I know goes here. Oh! I'm Martyna by the way. You can call me Tina though. You want help with your case?"

When she got going, Tina was almost unbearably chatting, firing questions and conversation topics one after the other without much room for poor Starlee to answer. This was something she was unaware of.

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le outfit~

Interacting with @Martyna Romero

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Starlee's Outfit!

Interacting with @Starlee Kennedy

"Yea, I will definitely need help! While I may be taller this thing is still just as heavy! My dad charmed it to hold all my plants..."

It never failed to amaze Tina just how far the uses of magic went. There were countless ways her life would have been made easier, if only her parents were wizards. She had thought about this many times before; how selfish it was of magical folks to keep it all to themselves. Her sister Lucie had explained in a letter once that it would be very difficult for witches and wizards to keep up with their day to day lives if they had 'muggles' constantly demanding favours off of them, and that it was so much easier to keep it secret, but it still left a bit of a sour taste in her mouth. When Tina was fully trained, she would help all the muggles she could, even if it meant getting in trouble. She was lucky to be a witch, and in her opinion, muggles deserved all the favours they could get.

She bit her tongue for now, of course, helping Starlee lift her case, which had multiple funny stickers on the front. It did make her wonder what she thought of all this, though. Her father was a wizard (and most likely her mother was too, because Tina couldn't imagine a wizard would want to marry a boring old muggle) so she would have had access to all those 'magical perks' growing up. Tina, on the other hand, had two muggle parents. They both had very muggle-esque jobs, if that was even a word, and both led very normal lives. They had scraped by without the help of magic, so it was natural for her to feel like this.

"So Tina, you mentioned you have a sister here? What has she told you about Hogwarts? I'm the first in my family to go here... if you couldn't tell by all the Ilvermorny stickers on my trunk! I know how siblings can be though. My older brother is a Squib. He was so frustrated when we found out I had magic.""

Tina sat down in one of the squashy chairs, looking up. She would tackle all the girls comments one at a time. Firstly, what had Lucie told her? Well, for a start, not much. For some reason, Lucie didn't like sharing tales of Hogwarts with her siblings. She was in her fourth year by now, so you would've thought she had plenty of fun experiences to talk about, seeing as she was there most of the year anyway, but apparently not. The only time Tina managed to get any information out of her was during the holidays and in their very infrequent letters, but Lucie still tried to brush her off, saying Tina was 'bugging her'. Most of what she knew was from Lucie's copy of Hogwarts: a History, which she had clawed away from her during her visit home at Easter in the girl's second year. Thing is, Tina was pretty bad at reading, and couldn't understand most of the book anyway.

"Hmmmm! Well, I know there's a hat, that sorts you into houses! There's Gryffindor - that's my favourite, by the way - which is for like, heroic, brave people." Tina put her hands on her hips and raised her head high, trying to show Starlee that this was exactly what she was: a hero. "Then, ummmm..." Huh. She didn't know much about the others. "I know Ravenclaw is smart; that's the one my sister is in! Then Pufflehuff is... um. I'm not sure. I think it's for like, very nice people. And Slithering is like, for smart people too, but not the same as Ravenclaw. Ravenclaw is book smart and Slithering is street smart. Yeah! That's it!"

Tina had no idea, really, but tried to disguise this with a confident nod. She couldn't even remember the other house's names. All she knew was that she wanted to be a Gryffindor.

"Wait! Sorry, what's an Ilvermorny? And what's a squib? Is that a bad thing?"

Interacting with @Martyna Romero

Interacting with @Starlee Kennedy

Tina listened to the other girl intently, leaning forwards to place her elbows on the low table in front, head in her hands. She wore a dreamy expression, nodding along as Starlee spoke, her mouth hanging open. She assumed that the term 'muggle-born' meant she was born to non-magical parents, and nodded sharply to tell Starlee that yes, she was exactly that! Her brain was about to move on from this brief exchange when the other girl added quite defensively that there was 'nothing wrong with that'. Huh.

Why would she feel a need to say that, if there really was nothing wrong with it? Tina was just as magical as anyone else at Hogwarts; at least, she thought that was how it worked. Did she have less magical power than someone who was born to wizards? That would actually make a lot of sense, if her sister wasn't extremely good at magic (according to her report card, that is). She tried to concentrate on what Starlee was saying about Ilvermorny (barely resisting the urge to use her terrible American accent on the poor girl), but then the topic of 'half-bloods' came up.

Gosh, it sounded so gross! Half-blood certainly worse than 'muggle-born', but it still felt like a weird thing to point out. Were all wizards this obsessed with blood? She silently prayed that this girl wasn't judging her, shifting in her seat self-consciously. She hadn't heard about any of this. Perhaps she'd have to keep her non-magical heritage private from now on.

"Not everyone is like that though! I've heard that there are some astounding witches and wizards that are Muggle-born. I plan to prove my grandparents wrong."

"I hope so," Tina replied, not entirely convinced. Star's grandparents had disowned their own child after he married a muggle. Sure, Tina could see the appeal of marrying another witch or wizard, but muggles weren't that repulsive, surely? "I don't wanna fall behind or anything... I guess I'll just work doubly hard, huh?"

"Anyway, a squib is someone who is born to magical parents but doesn't have any magical abilities. So it's like the opposite of a muggle-born. So he at least can be a part of the magical world, but he can't cast any spells or anything."

Tina gasped at that, covering her mouth with one hand and catching herself on the table with the other. Okay, so, being a squib sucked way worse. She let Starlee finish talking, although felt like she was about to burst with everything she wanted to say.

"Oh my gosh that's so sad for him! I can't even imagine how much that stinks, ugh! I would so much rather be a muggle than one of them - at least then you wouldn't feel like you're missing out!" Tina leaned back in her chair, hands still cupping her face as she dropped her head to rest against the window. She glanced to her right. Outside, the countryside rolled by, an undulating line of green hills whizzing past. Had they left London already? "When I found Lucie was magical, I was, like, reeeaaaally upset."

Tina looked back at Starlee, drawing out the 'really' with both her voice and her right arm, which she stretched out as far as she could. She sat up again, letting it flop to her side. This might be interesting for the other girl to hear about. After all, she was pretty sure most children just received a letter to let them know they'd been accepted. Only children with non-magical parents got the surprise visits.

"We had a visitor come to explain everything, which was like, don't get me wrong, the most exciting thing ever. Like, magic is real! That was crazy! Is crazy, still! Like, wooooah! Anyway, they told us Lucie could come to Hogwarts, which was like, cool, but then they said there was no guarantee anyone else in the family was magic." Tina raised her eyebrows at Starlee like this was totally shocking news. In her mind, she was telling the most exciting story ever. "That's just because both mama and papa aren't magic, and none of us had like... shown signs yet. Lucie had though. And she was eleven, so she could go. It was like, really sad. Anyway, ta-da! I'm here now!" She did a little jazz hands. "I just hope my brother can come next year too. I don't want him to be a squib. Wait, 'muggle', I guess. Not squib."

Tina's friendship with her brother was tight. Although he hadn't shown any signs of magic just yet, she had faith that he would soon.

Interacting with @Martyna Romero

Interacting with @Starlee Kennedy

"Oh wow, well I hope your brother turns out to be a wizard too then!"

Tina nodded sharply. She wasn't exactly sure what the chances were, of Patrick being magical, that is, but she was trying to remain hopeful. When Lucie found out she was going to Hogwarts, the visitor had told them as gently as possible that there was no guarantee any of them would show magical abilities, as no one other than Lucie had done so far. She wasn't sure whether that meant the odds were in their favour or not, but she suspected it was the latter. Some illogical part of her brain whispered that the magic in their blood would be strongest with Lucie, and then slowly fizzle out with each sibling, but her father insisted that this wasn't the case.

Perhaps they'd all be magical. Who knew?

Tina reached into her pocket, pulling out a semi-squished strawberry jam sandwich. It was a treat from her parents. Usually jam would be considered too sweet for a lunchtime snack, but today was special. She unwrapped the foil, stuffing it into her sleeve. She wasn't sure whether recycling was a thing at Hogwarts, but she thought she'd better keep it anyway. Maybe they used magic to instantly turn waste into something new. That would be cool.

"So are you the middle-child as well? I have a younger sister, but she hasn't shown any abilities either. I really hope she does soon..."

Tina nodded fiercely, unable to speak with the large mouthful of bread she was currently chewing her way through.

"I'm like, kind of in the middle?" she said after swallowing, taking a short moment to work it out in her head. Six siblings. What was the middle of six? "Like, I'm the second oldest but it feels like I'm a middle child, you know what I mean?"

If Starlee was a middle child herself, surely she would understand the struggle. The hand-me-down clothes, having your achievements constantly overlooked, the unbearable pressure to live up to the high standards the older sibling seems to set (although, in Starlee's case, this 'older sibling' was a squib, so maybe that wasn't how their family dynamic worked). Maybe it was her age, or just her being silly, but Tina always felt like the ultimate middle child, though that award would technically go to Patrick or Sophia, being children number three and four. As Tina finished her second bite, she explained.

So, basically. I have four younger siblings and Lucie is my older sister. There's like, four whole years between us, so we don't really like... Hang out or whatever, which sucks because I wanna borrow her clothes and that." She huffed at the thought of it. Lucie was a lot taller than her, but oversized was in style right now. Tina was always eager to share her clothes with Sophie and Issy, after all. "Anyway, there's like, a lot of us. I don't know if we'll all be magical or anything, but I think there's a good chance. Maybe my mama and papa both have distant magic in their blood, and so all of us have it because they combined? I dunno. Do you know how it works? Like, you think we'll all get to come here?"

Tina looked at the other girl hopefully, ready for an answer to her question. If anyone would know, it was someone like Starlee. The girl was smart, with a magical parent. She was just seeking reassurance, really, though now that she knew wizards had a chance of producing non-magical children...

Oh, favourite lesson, right.

"Defence Against the Dark Arts, obviously!" Tina squeaked, chowing down on her sandwich again. A lesson to show your strength against evil, magical beasts - what wasn't to love? It because it was one of her sister's favourites, as well, and felt very Gryffindor-y. "I'm just excited for magic lessons, honestly! Not potions though. I'm like, well bad at Chemistry... Oh, that reminds me!"

Tina leaned in closer to Starlee, her expression one of awe and fascination.

"Did you have to do non-magic lessons? Like, Maths and English? And Science?" she asked. She then reached a hand forwards, offering the other half of her jam sandwich. It almost seemed like an act of bribery. "You want this? It's strawberry jam."

Interacting with @Martyna Romero, @Starlee Kennedy

Elizabeth was angry. She hadn't been able to find her friend Abi, ANYWHERE on this stupid train. She marched down the train corridor, just looking for a compartment to sit in at this point. Her long blonde hair wasn't put up at the moment and so it was getting in her face. She blew a piece of hair out of her face irritably. A conversation wafted to her ears from a compartment a little ways ahead. "Did you have to do non-magic lessons? Like, Maths and English? And Science?""You want this? It's strawberry jam."

Liz's nose wrinkled in mild disgust. Non-Magic classes? Must be a muggle-born.Deciding to avoid this compartment she continued on her way, only to have to double back after finding all the other compartments full. She huffed as she stood in the doorway, before knocking gently on the side.

Two girls inhabited the space in front of her. One with blonde hair like her, pale skin, and a soft face and another with brown skin, curly hair, and an equally as soft face. After pinpointing the curly haired girl as the one to have been talking about Non-Magic Lessons, Liz shot her a harsh glare. She entered the compartment and addressed the two. "Hi. I'm Elizabeth, Elizabeth Isaacs. So um...all of the other compartments are filled up. So may I sit here?"she asked, hating every sugary sweet word that came out of her mouth.

She was disgusted at having to ask a Muggle-Born for anything and this soured her mood further. She raised her large brown eyes upwards to the racks above and groaned. She was even shorter than Tina, reaching a towering 4'4. How was she gonna be able to put her trunk up there? Even with the lightening spell her Mother had put on it this morning. She let out an indignant snort at the thought of her even attempting to get it up there. She brought her gaze back down to the two girls.

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Liz's Outfit: