A First Time for Everything Closed

Aurelia cranned her neck, glancing across the Gryffindor table looking for her friends. She couldn't find any familiar face. They were probably up in their dorms rushing though assignments. Maybe she had to sit alone for this meal. She didn't mind sitting alone, but she hated not being able to talk with anyone. Her roommates usually conversed while having their meals. She would have to get used to the silence if she were to eat alone.

The food was already laid on the table. Aurelia looked one of the many silver rimmed plated and started filling her plate with food. There was roasted chicken potato salad and some vegetables. She took a little bit from all the dishes. Hogwarts food was delicious, but she thought her mother's cooking was still the best. The thought made her miss home, it only had been two weeks since she arrived at hogwarts and she was already missing her parents. The brunette had told herself she would see them again during the Hogwarts summer break.

She scanned the room once more for any sign of her friends, but to no avail. She sat on an empty seat across a boy who was eating by himself. The blond haired boy was reading a book. Curious, she peered and saw the words on the book. It was in German. She knew how to speak the language but was no where near fluent. Her German born mother had taught her the language but only a little at a time as she was already familiar with the Dutch language.

"Deutschland, kommtst du da her?" She asked in broken German, trying to engage in some friendly chatter. She hope he understood, it would be embarrassing if he all he heard was her was speaking gibberish.

Elrich was startled by the girl's voice, as he had grown used to the silence since arriving at Hogwarts. He marked with his finger where he left off and quickly looked around to see if there was anybody else she could be talking. As if there were very many students that could be suspect of being from Germany. When he saw that there was nobody else she could have been addressing, he looked at her. Strangely enough, he had to take a split second to turn his thoughts into words. Not only was he not used to people besides his parents speaking German to him, he was not used to people at the school speaking to him at all.


"Ich wurde dort geboren, aber meine Familie lebt jetzt in England," he replied, pausing slightly between words to make sure he enunciated correctly. He took his finger off of the word and placed the book down on the table next to his food. For what was the first time in a long time, perhaps even years, he was more interested in a conversation than a book. Elrich could not even remember the last legitimate discussion he had been a part of with somebody even remotely close to his own age, which made this encounter all the more interesting to him.

“And you? Do you come from Germany?” he asked her inquisitively, switching to English. The chances of somebody else who spoke German happening to notice him reading a German book in the middle of mealtime were slim, and he was rather intrigued by the turn of events. What was previously loneliness had turned to a genuine sense of curiosity.

The boy glanced up form his book and strangely looked around. Then his attention was directed back at her before replying,

"Ich wurde dort geboren, aber meine Familie lebt jetzt in England,"

It took her a moment to catch the words he was saying. She wasn't very familiar with the language. She only went to Germany twice in her childhood. There were a few words she didn't understand but she knew he said about his birth, family and England. She nodded slightly.

Then he asked in English,

And you? Do you come from Germany?

She shook her head. She only had been to Germany twice to visit her grandparents.
"No, I'm English. I've been living there my whole life. My Ma is from Germany and my Pa from Netherlands. I can speak dutch too." The brunette explained. The conversation seemed to be going well and at least he spoke English or she might have trouble communicating with him. She rarely saw any German or Dutch speaking students in Hogwarts. She knew there was a german professor who taught Defence Against the Dark Arts, either than that, there weren't really any people who spoke the language, at least not that she knew of.

"So how long have been living in England?" The young witch asked.

Not only did she speak English and German, but Dutch, as well. This greatly impressed him, as even in all of his studies he had never been able to pick up on new languages. Even his father, who often worked with international officials, could only speak two languages. This girl was something that he had yet to see in anybody else at the school. She was smart, or at least smarter than the other idiots that he had encountered in his short time attending.

Nearly get lost in his thought, he almost forgot that he was in a conversation. She had asked how long he had lived in England for. "I have been here for most of my life. When I was young we had to move because my father was offered a position in the Ministry. I know he hated saying goodbye to Germany, but I don't remember it well enough to really care, I guess," he replied, stopping himself from going into too much needless detail.

She had also mentioned that her parents were from Germany and the Netherlands; an interesting pair. He had only ever read about the Netherlands in books, but then again, he had only read about most things in books. "And you? How long have you lived here, if you don't mind my asking?" he asked, honestly not knowing when to cut off his questions to stay clear of the line between curiosity and rudeness.

The boy already seemed like a nice person to talk to. He had explained about the reason of departing Germany and even told her about his Father working in the Ministry of Magic. The boy then asked about herself. Even though the young witch was pure-blood, she had lived in Muggle England her whole life. Her Mother had told her that it was because Muggle England was safer than Hogsmeade, the girl didn’t know if that was true but she never questioned about it.

“I grew up Muggle England. My Father and Mother decided to settle there after they graduated from Hogwarts. They excelled in Muggle studies. Pa works as a Doctor, sometimes he uses magic to heal muggles if there was ever a serious case that cannot be fixed using Muggle methods. My Ma writes books, both in English, Dutch and German. ” the girl had explained. It made her wonder if living in the wizarding world would be any different from the Muggle one. She had been enrolled into a Muggle school and the experience wasn’t pleasant at all. She had gotten picked on constantly and the students there were nasty. On the other hands the people in Hogwarts seemed extremely easy to get along with.

“So you’ve been living in the wizarding world? How is it like?” Aurelia asked.