Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, founded over a thousand years ago, had always been a beacon of light for the wizarding community through thick and thin. The school was a safe haven for students through muggle wars, witch hunts, and the rise and fall of dark wizards. True enough, the solid stone walls had seen a lot of students, teachers and headmasters come and go. Mysteries, however, did a lot more coming than going - where one was solved, another two took its place. One such mystery was intentionally kept secret from the bulk of Hogwarts students (and even some of the teachers), and that was the secret swimming pool.
Alec Jones stood alone on the train platform, feeling out of place in a Hufflepuff uniform. He refused to mingle with familiar Hufflepuff students, instead preferring to wait for his own friends by a stone column in the middle of the station. His hair was almost white-blonde, a shade darker than his fair skin tone. With strong blue eyes he scanned the crowd of fellow students, content to listen in on conversations about various summer holidays.
Pulling Alec out of his reverie, a fully loaded trolley grazed his leg. Joshua Stinger brusquely sat on the ground next to him, leaning back on the stone column. Dressed in only a casual t-shirt and shorts, his copper skin broke out in small goosebumps from the cold of the stone behind him. Packed in his trunk were his Gryffindor robes; yet, much like Alec, Josh did not belong to the house the Sorting Hat had sorted him into. Both of them belonged to the prestigious house of Leg, built on the solid foundations of competitive swimming, unlike the other houses that had their roots in the bickering between the four ancient founders of Hogwarts.
"Hi Josh," Alec greeted him, "How was -"
"Do you know how much fucking bullshit I've had to put up with these last few weeks?" Josh interrupted, completely ignoring Alec's greeting. "Steve did not leave the house once, he just camped in his room the whole time playing with his stupid bass. I can still hear him doing the fucking tuning thing, I kid you not."
Alec grinned. "I guess Meredith's owls must have been a welcome distraction."
"Fucking Meredith, you got them too," Josh groaned. "I swear, that bird will be dead by the end of the year. Another helpless victim of the postal service. Are you taking Meredith's class this year?"
"Outdoor ed? Of course, I wouldn't miss it for the world. C'mon, I think I saw Ro boarding the train."
Josh heaved himself up and looked around vacantly. "Where's your brother? Didn't you say Arthur was starting school this year?"
"Yeah, he is. He thinks he's too cool for fifth years, he'd rather have no friends on the first day."
"I personally think we should help him out, but he's your brother and I trust you."
O0o0O
Casey couldn't help but feel on edge as she sat in the train compartment with some of the other Leg girls. She was up to date with all of the holiday homework, and was in peak physical health. Yet, it had been five days since she had been in the pool. Meredith had sent letters around mentioning that a major swimming competition was coming up, and she was only entering two students from each year. Casey had one month to prove that she was the obvious choice to enter. She glanced over at Natasha, who was the closest to her skill level. If anyone was going to beat her, it was Natasha. Casey smiled to herself, relishing the chance to compete with her classmates again. Visually, Casey was very similar to her cousin Josh; they shared the same grey green eyes and light brown hair. Having grown up together, they were very opinionated about the same topics, yet Casey had a much calmer persona, more content to just let things unfold. She had a thirst for competition, while Josh had a thirst for victory.
"No, Paige, come back. I just need help with this one last question!" Hayley held up her potions homework, indicating the last question on the sheet. The sheet was covered with messy handwriting and ink blots, having only been done this morning. Paige just smiled and left the compartment, saving the page in her book with her thumb. Hayley groaned. "That's just rude, that is. She finished all of her homework in the first three days of the holidays!"
Casey raised an eyebrow. "Really? That girl needs a life. I only finished mine yesterday. Let me see that." She added, taking the potions homework out of Hayley's hand.
"Thank you," Hayley said, as if Casey had helped her prove an important point. "I only started this yesterday, I thought the point of holidays was to take a break from schoolwork."
Natasha let out a small chortle. "Y'know, if you'd done it earlier like Paige did, you could have done more fun stuff without having this hanging over your head."
"Sure, sure," Hayley rolled her eyes. "When did you finish yours?"
"Like, two weeks ago."
"Try asphodel," Casey said, handing the potions work back to Hayley. "I can't remember what I put, all my books are at the bottom of my trunk."
Hayley breathed a sigh of relief. "Yeah, that makes more sense. Thanks, Casey." She hurriedly jotted that down as a train whistled for the remaining students to board the train.
"Where are the others? I thought they'd be on the train by now," Casey said, more to herself than Hayley or Natasha.
Natasha indicated towards the opposite compartment. "I saw Ro just a few minutes ago, I don't know where anyone else is."
"Surely they can board a train by themselves, they'll be fine," Hayley added, shrugging. "Finished!" she exclaimed, punching the air in celebration.
O0o0O
Rowena staggered into the last carriage of the train, almost collapsing with tiredness. She saw Paige by herself in a compartment, relieved to see that it was almost empty more so than seeing her friend. Turning to the opposite seat, she was slightly disappointed to see Ivan, but collapsed into the seat regardless and swung her legs up onto Ivan's lap. He raised his thick eyebrows in shock, but didn't push her legs away.
"Good morning Ro, how were your holidays?" Paige asked happily, adjusting her glasses as she finished the chapter of her book.
"Terrible," she replied, "my parents made me help them with church services, they confiscated my alcohol, and refuse to acknowledge the fact that I'm a witch." She ran her hands through her short dark hair in frustration, and pulled her robes over her head to stop the sunlight from hitting her eyes.
Paige finally raised her eyes from her book. "Oh? That might be for the best, actually. The alcohol, I mean."
"No, it's not for the best. I bought it with my own money, and it wasn't cheap, either. I had to ask dad to drop me off at Kings Cross last night, it took ages but he finally came round."
"You know one of us would have come round to pick you up if you asked."
"Yeah, but you all live so far away..." Ro rolled over to face the back of the seat, indicating that she didn't want to talk any more. Paige shrugged and pulled a textbook out of her bag, keen to do some further reading on Herbology.
A few minutes later the door opened again and Karen poked her head in. "Morning all!" she announced, impossibly chirpy at such an hour in the morning. Ro moaned and bunched her cloak further around her head, trying to block out Karen's voice. Karen gingerly took a seat next to Paige and lowered her voice. "Guess who was made Leg Prefect?" she asked, indicating towards her prefect badge.
"Congratulations!" Paige smiled and pulled her in for a hug.
"Thanks, Luke and I are sitting in the prefect carriage, but we'll come up and talk to you guys later. Have you seen what some of the third years are wearing?" she asked, her voice raising in volume towards the end of her sentence.
"No, what?" Paige shook her head.
"Some of our students are wearing the Leg uniform, with the purple and grey ties and everything."
Paige covered her mouth in shock. "No, Surely not!"
"Yeah, it's true. I transfigured their uniforms to fall in line with the other houses, but Professor Belacqua isn't happy. The other students thought it was some kind of fashion thing."
"Belacqua? Oh right, Meredith. She must have been so mad!"
"Yeah, she's really going to let them have it tonight." The train whistled again, slowly pulling away from the platform. "Oh, I'd better get going. They think I'm a Hufflepuff prefect, and that McGonagall's made some kind of mistake with the prefect badges."
"Okay, see you later!"
Karen stood up and waved. "Oh, Ivan, Oliver's just in the next carriage with a few seventh years if you want to get away from... that." She indicated towards Ro's softly snoring form spread across the seat.
"Thank you," Ivan mumbled in a thick Russian accent and followed Karen out of the carriage. Paige, left with only Ro's snores for company, returned her attention to her Herbology textbook. She smiled to herself, daydreaming about the castle that was her home away from home, her safe haven from the worries of the muggle world.