@Sylvie Maple

Illowy moved as quickly and quietly as she could through the narrow walkway of the Hogwarts Express. Never would she conciser herself a nervous person, or even a terribly shy one, but given the circumstances, she decided it was alright to be nervous today. Each compartment she passed was filled with students; some older and happily catching up with their school friends, others were her age and clearly nervous as they began making their first connections with the people they'd be spending the next seven years of their lives with.

Truthfully, Illowy had promised her mother that she would do her best to make friends while she was away, but it seemed so much more difficult that staying to herself. She wasn't good at being with people her own age; they might as well have been total aliens to her.

Holding tight to her luggage, the girl simply kept walking until she finally found herself an empty place to sit. A rare find, she was sure as she tossed her suitcase up in the holder above the seat as well as her personal backpack full of art supplies among other things. She then plopped herself down on the worn seat, slouching down a bit as she rested her violin case upright on the floor between her legs.

Of course she was sad to be leaving home until break, but even more so she was anxious. Anxious to simply get there and start working on her magic skills, to get sorted, to do all the things her mother talked about doing when she was a student at the school... well, almost everything.

Icy blue eyes gazed out the window as she watched excitable students separate from teary-eyed parents, all eager for the same things. Though she didn't quiet have the same type of goodbye with her own mother. The woman wasn't exactly known for wearing her emotion on her sleeve.

Absentmindedly, the girl allowed herself to get comfortable, resting a sneakered foot on the seat across from her, careful to make sure she didn't let her case fall. She then tucked a dark curl behind her ear and chewed on the string of her sweatshirt. Her mother had insisted that she wear something a bit nicer for her arrival, but Illowy saw little point in that. After all, they'd be changing to robes and uniforms when they arrived anyway.

Through her fingers, the girl twirled her newly acquired wand, having barely put it down since she'd bought it. It had almost become her fidget toy, finding solace and focus in twirling it in her fingers the same way she a pencil when she was drawing. The focus was broken when the door to the compartment was slid open and the dark haired newbie turned in her seat to see who entered.

“Bye Sylvie!!! I miss you already!!!” Crystal, Sylvie’s sister, yelled as Sylvie stepped onto the Hogwarts Express, her heart racing from excitement and nervousness. It had only been a couple of months since Sylvie learned she was a witch and was able to perform magic. Not only that, but now she was off to a school for said magic. She’d gone to Diagon Alley before the year started, but besides that she had no idea what the people would be like. She turned around and waved to her sister and her father, who was on his phone not paying much attention He was probably focusing on something for work, after all he had to take care of two, well now one daughter by himself. There mom had never helped with the financial situation and had run off with another, wealthier man when Sylvie was 5.

Sylvie was worried about Crystal, since there dad was always on trips for work. She could no longer be there to protect her. Despite the worry she felt, Sylvie kept smiling and finally her dad looked up from his phone and waved goodbye to her. Another boy was getting on so she waved one finale time before getting onto the train.

She made her way through the train, looking all over for places to sit. It seemed like every place she looked was full. She was growing tired of pulled the heavy suitcase full of her stuff behind her and the noisy chatter of the other students was starting to give her a headache. Luckily, the walls of the compartments somewhat muffled the noise so it was less bothersome.

Sylvie looked into a compartment with one girl sitting alone. “Well, I think this is the best I’m going to get…” She thought as she slid open the door. The girl turned to look at her. The girl had bright blue eyes and wavy dark brown hair. Sylvie smiled, feeling a bit nervous, and said “Hello! My name is Sylvie. Can I sit here?”

The girl's eyes flickered up and down at the examined the girl. From the looks of her, she could only assume that the blonde was also a first year. She had that same nervous but excited look in her eyes that all the first years had; constantly searching through the crowd for friendly faces and potential friends to be made for the next seven years.

The blonde who introduced herself as Sylvie, offered a smile at the request of a seat. Awkward around people her own age, never quite being known as the sort to have friends, "Illowy...." she then offered a small shrug, "Sure." the girl dropped her pale eyes away, sweeping them towards the window. In spite of the girl joining her, however, she still kept her foot against the seat opposite of her that the supporting the violin case. Whether that choice was to bar the girl from sitting directly across from her, or failing to be conscious that the other might also want to see out the window could've been up for debate.

Illowy had grown up in the wizarding world, albeit in a mostly Muggle populated city, but still. She wasn't completely oblivious to some aspects of the muggle world. However, being raised where she was, and coming from a single parent household, surrounded by more adults then children, being on her own was more natural then being in social groups. She liked working alone, things got done right when she was alone... but being alone could also be lonely, she'd have to admit, and she had promised her mother to at least attempt to make friends while she was away.

Sylvie frowned a bit as she sat down on the seat across from the girl, but she did not sit directly across from the girl since she still had her feet on the seat, her legs holding the violin case in place. On further inspection, Sylvie noticed the girl had pale skin with freckles scattered across her face. The sun beaming in from the window gave her hair a reddish tint and made her blue eyes sparkle. She wore a sweatshirt, which looked a lot comfier than the t-shirt Sylvie was wearing. 

"Hm.... this girl, Illowy, doesn't seem very talkative, or did I do something wrong!?!?! Maybe she wanted to sit alone?! Maybe she thinks that I''m weird!? Maybe she already hates me, oh god, what did I do!?!?!" Sylvie thought, lokking down at the ground and panicking in her head. "Okay Sylvie, you're doing this stupid thing again... just breath, in and out." She breathed in and then out, letting all her worries slip away with that breath, at least trying to let her worries slip away. 

"Okay, you need to try and make small talk or something. You have no idea how long you're going to be here with this girl, let's see....." Sylvie furrowed her brow as she tried to remember a good conversation starter she'd learned or something of that nature. Suddenly, she thought of one that might work, and hopefully not get a one word response. "So, have you read any good books about magic? I haven't been able to find any in my local library since it's a library for people without magic..." She'd been searching ever since she'd received her letter from Hogwarts, but had no success in finding anything about magic. 

The air between them seemed to begin to stagnate, not that it bothered the brunette much. She was use to quiet and use being left on her own, having only her own thoughts to amuse her. However, the quiet was broken when the girl decided to spark up conversation. Truthfully, Illowy was only half listening at first as she stared out the window, only having her attention caught when the girl mentioned something about looking for books on magic in muggle library.

Illowy turned her head, giving a puzzled look to the other. Pale eyes studied the girl with question before the dots finally connected in her mind, "You're muggle-born, aren't you?" she asked bluntly, letting the sweatshirt string fall from the corner of her mouth. A small smirk graced her lips along with a puff of a chuckle. The Irish girl pushed a pale hand through her hair, combing the dark curtain from her face and shifting in her seat to face the other a little more, "You'll find nothing but fairy stories in a muggle library. If you want anything from the wizarding world, you have to go to it specifically." she explained, perhaps sounding a little more haughty then she'd meant to, "The Ministry would throw a fit if there were books on the wizarding world where muggles could get to them. There's a perfectly good library not far off from Diagon Alley. Or you can go to Flourish and Blotts. They have just about any book you could possibly want on magic." the child continued.

Illowy rested her elbow on the frame of the window, "Or just wait until we get to school. My mum said they have more books on magic in there then one could possibly read in three lifetimes." even if her tone did come off as a bit 'know-it-all', books and studies were one thing the girl did genuinely enjoy; finding peace and comfort between each page of history and information lying in wait for her. Plus, if she got into Ravenclaw (the house she was sure she'd get sorted into, as her mother had been), she was sure she'd be even further indulged in learning with her fellow housemates, bent on learning as much as humanly possible, constantly having meaningful conversations about what they'd learned.

The pale girl gave Sylvie a confused look. "What's that look for!?" Sylvie thought as the blue eyes examined her.

"You're Muggle-born, aren't you?"

She noticed Illowy's smirk and chuckle as she said this. "She seems amused... I wonder why. Did I say something wrong? Does she think I'm an idiot?" Sylvie frown, crossing her arms. "Yeah, I'm a Muggle-born..." Illowy went on to tell her that the libraries she knew about wouldn't have any information about the wizarding world. "Oh, I guess that makes sense. I wonder why wizards don't want the other people, well I guess muggles are what they're called here, to know about them. They don't really have anything to be afraid of..." 

Illowy listed the places where she could find the books she was looking for in the same snarky tone. Sylvie was confused and a bit annoyed (she doesn't like know-it-alls), but she decided to ignore it. Sylvie pulled out her diary and wrote done all the places with the heading being 'Places to Find Books About Magic'. One of the places that Illowy had mentioned was the Hogwarts Library. "I should head there as soon as possible! I don't want to be too far behind when classes start." After the girl had finished, Sylvie closed her diary and placed it next to her. "Thanks for letting me know! I'm definitely going to drop by the library as soon as possible. I wonder how many of the books I could read over the course of this year." She said in a cheerful tone, thinking out loud a bit. She smiled to herself thinking about all the new and exciting things the wizarding world might have to offer. For a bit, she spaced out and completely forgot about the other girl still sitting there. "Which books do you recommend? As you could probably guess, I don't really know where to start." Sylvie thought she was actually doing a good job of being friendly for once in her life. Now, she just had to not mess up too badly. 

Whether the other girl hardly was a muggle-born, pure blood or had purple skin was hardly anything she cared about. While she came from a pure blood family, and while others in her family had their... opinions, to put it politely, judging merit by blood was not a belief held in her household. The only thing Illowy thought of muggle-born was how silly and ignorant of everything they seemed to be at first.

This girl was proof enough of that ignorance; not that it was a negative thing, by any mean. Ignorance was completely curable ailment with time, patience and education. How could she be expected to know of the wizarding laws and why the Ministry conducted things the way they did? It was no different then Illowy's own ignorance on Muggle politics.

The brunette watched as the blonde pulled a journal from her things and began taking notes on the places she listed where to find the books Sylvie was searching for, yammering on about how she wanted to go to the library at school right away. Then came the hard question. What to read?

Illowy mauled over all the books she had read in her time that focused on magic. But certainly she'd need a little more information in order to narrow it down a bit, "Well, what are you interested on reading about? Animals? History? Dueling? Quidditch...?" she questioned calmly.

As the other girl thought Sylvie opened her diary again to write down the books Illowy might list. Her diary had a leather cover with her initials, S.C.H., engraved into it. She grabbed a pen, which she still used even though she'd boughten a quill and ink at Diagon Alley. She had already tried it out after the trip to Diagon Alley and preferred to use pens and pencils. 

"Well, what are you interested on reading about? Animals? History? Dueling? Quidditch...?"

"I guess history and animals. Also, what is quidditch?" Some type of musical instrument or something???* She said raising her eyebrow. Sylvie wanted to learn about the history of magic since she knew basically nothing about the wizarding world. She was also interested in magical creature because she had a deep love for all types of animals. She wanted to be a vet or zoologist before she knew about magic. Now she wanted to know about all the different animals the wizarding world had to offer. Were they similar to fairytale creatures, or were they completely different? So far Sylvie had only seen pink and purple creatures that looked like cotton candy. 

As for quidditch, it sounded weird. She remembers seeing a sign with the word on it somewhere in Diagon Alley, but besides that, she wasn't familiar with the word. "I probably sound like an idiot..." She thought, looking down at the ground, her cheeks turning a bit red. 

Honestly, i thought it was too. Like some kind of didgeridoo (which i swear is a real instrument) lol!

Illowy smiled to herself when the girl asked what quidditch was, possibly the most innocent question she'd hear all day. Whether you liked the sport or not, everyone in the wizarding world knew what it was, how it was played and what team you'd most likely die for, "Quidditch is like..." the girl thought through her limited knowledge of muggle culture to decide how to describe it, "like the football of the wizarding world. Only, you have hoops, not a net goal, and you don't run, you fly..." for fear that she'd confuse the girl more then help her to understand the sport, she decided that it might be able to explain it when it was actually in front of them, "it'll make way more sense when you see a match. Each house has its own team, so they're been plenty of chances to watch." then the girl leaned in a bit, "But if anyone asks what your favorite national team is, say Ireland. Always Ireland." the girl chuckled a bit as she leaned back in her seat.

Her thoughts shifted to the books again, "The best book for animals is honestly one of our text books. The one by N. Scamander. As for history, we already have the History of Hogwarts and Magic, everything else, you'll have to hunt down by topic. That shouldn't be too hard to do in the library, though." she assured.

Illowy said that quidditch was the football of the wizarding world. “Oh, that sounds interesting. I’ve never really watched a football game, but I’ve played football a few times! It’s really fun!” Sylvie used to play football during recess at her old school. It was fun running around with the boys in the grade. She was actually pretty good at the sport since she was so quick and could easily get the ball away from the opponents. 

“How would it work when you’re flying? Would you have to carry the ball with your hands? Wouldn’t that mean you have to try to knock people out of the sky!” Sylvie said, hating the idea of hurting others in a game that was supposed to be fun. It seemed like Illowy was a fan of this game, and had a favorite team. Sylvie giggles as Illowy leaned over and told her what to say. “He he he, sure why not.”

Illowy told Sylvie that she actually had two of the best books for the information she wanted. “Oh cool! I guess we’ll be reading the books in class. Whatever, doesn’t hurt to read ahead right?” Oh wait.” Sylvie just realized that she’d been so busy trying to make conversation that she’d forgotten to put her suitcase on the rack above. She managed to life it up, even though she was very weak, and sat down again, clearly exhausted.