Pass!

As I trudged across the school grounds, I had to admit it felt great to be outdoors, even if it was a tad bit cold. I wrapped my winter jacket tighter around myself, but the cold wasn't biting cold yet. I looked out over the lake, wondering what might be down there. Probably a bunch of little fishies trying to find something to eat. I thought back to that book I had been reading, earlier, Hogwarts, A History, and although I don't usually enjoy reading, the history of this school was pretty wild. This school was over 1,000 years old! The oldest thing in my old school was probably my physics teacher, Mr. Jacobs. He never said much, just assigned us textbook readings, but I suspected he'd been teaching so long he'd probably known Isaac Newton personally. As these thoughts went through my head, and I looked out over the lake, I felt something nudge my foot. I looked down, and saw a soccer ball. Just then, a girl's voice called, "Hey, pass!" as she gestured for the ball. I'm going to be honest. I've never been very good at soccer. In fact, I was absolutely horrible. With my luck, I would try to pass, slip on the ball, fall, and make a fool of myself in front of this girl. I decided to play it safe, and scooped up the ball while jogging over to her. As I reached her, I could see she was about my age, maybe a few years older. I could feel myself beginning to blush. "Oh-I-uh-is this yours?-um-I'm Andrew Casey Lucas-I-I mean-I'm Casey Andrew Lucas." I stumbled on my words, my cheeks bright red. I don't know why. I'm usually good talking to girls, and people in general. I cleared my throat awkwardly, and then blurted out, "Hi, I'm Casey Andrew Lucas. What's your name?"

@Flame Afterglow

Flame smiled as the boy picked up the ball and walked over. He tried to introduce himself several times and stumbled over his words a bit and the finally said it right. "Hi, I'm Casey Andrew Lucas. What's your name?" He said to me. Flame smiled at him again. “Flame Afterglow! I’m a first year Gryffindor.”

Flame examined the boy and then decided that they could probably be friends. He looked kind and funny. Like the kind of person Flame would hang out with from day to day. “I’m a half blood. My mom was a wizard and my dad was a muggle. I grew up going to both schools.” Flame wondered if this guy would like to be friends but she wanted to know a little bit more about him. Flame grabbed the ball from his hands and then dropped and started doing small juggles.

“Sorry,” she said to him. Colour slowly rising to her cheeks. “I just can’t stop moving. I always try to occupy my hands during class and stuff. Any way what about you? Year? House? Tragic backstory?” she said the last part as a joke but also to be honest she knew some people didn’t have the best life before this and wanted to make sure everyone was okay.

As Flame introduced herself, I tried to get a read on her personality. She seemed like a very cheery and kind person, with a good soul. As she told me about herself, I perked up when I heard she had a dad who was a muggle, like my parents. Of course, I knew what a muggle was, having spent more time here at Hogwarts and learning the various terms for non-magical people. Secretly, though I never would say this in Hogwarts, I just called them "regular people." I found it amusing how little some "pure-bloods", those born "fully" magical, understood about technology. I mean, granted, some things about the internet did confuse me too, like why people could be so cruel, but I had never met so many people who didn't understand modern technology until now. She peppered me with questions, "Year? House? Tragic backstory?" I detected a bit of humor in the last question, but I played along. I laughed and said, "Whoa, slow down. I'm a first year, if you couldn't already tell by my nervousness." I spread my hands to indicate the lake, the grounds, and of course, the castle itself. "I mean, all of this is so much bigger than I'm used to." I paused, and then said, "I'm a Hufflepuff. Since my family was never magical, I don't know much about houses, but I like this one. I don't have any tragic backstory, unless you count the years at regular, boring old school before I came here." I smirked, hopefully letting her know I was joking. I decided I liked her energy, and I sensed she was a good person. I shuffled my feet nervously. "Um, so what about you? What house are you? I've never seen you before in the Hufflepuff common room, so obviously you're not a Hufflepuff. How long have you been here? You don't look much older than me, so maybe you're a second or third year?" I crossed my fingers behind my back as I asked this, hoping she was within my age, since I felt we could be best friends.

@Flame Afterglow

"Um, so what about you? What house are you? I've never seen you before in the Hufflepuff common room, so obviously you're not a Hufflepuff. How long have you been here? You don't look much older than me, so maybe you're a second or third year?" Flame smiled when she heard him call her a second or third year. “I’m a firstie like you!” she told him happily. He seemed really nice so Flame thought that they could be friends. “I have been here pretty much the same amount of time as you if you took the Hogwarts express.” she said.

Then snapped her fingers. “That’s where I recognize you from! U saw you ask one of the Muggles. (Though technically I am half muggle so I probably shouldn’t call us that.) Where platform 9 3/4 was! I was gonna come help you but my Mom shoved me through the wall.” Flame smiled again at the memory. “You looked so lost!” Flame said laughing hoping he didn’t think she was laughing at him. “Oh! I’m a Gryffindor! House of the brave and all that Jazz. It’s nice to have a friend to talk to about the muggle part of my life! People here are so clueless!” Flame hoped he had caught on when she said friends. She really wanted to be friends with Casey!