Chapter 1: Beginnings
Dear Mr. Overland-Frost,
We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed list of all the necessary books and equipment. Term begins on September 1. We await your owl no later than July 31.
Yours Sincerely,
Nicholas St. North, Deputy Headmaster.
Jackson Overland-Frost was beside himself with excitement as he re-read the letter that had come nearly a month ago. His mother had cried, she was so proud, and his sister had already shown signs of having magic, so Jack was sure she would be going to school with him in a few years.
"Today's the day, dad!" Jack thought. "I'm finally going to Hogwarts."
The eleven-year-old boy looked to the side as he sat on his bed with only a few of his things left strewn across the floor, and his trunk left open nearly full. There, on his nightstand, was a picture of him and his father when he was only four years old. His father was carrying him on his shoulders and they were both grinning madly.
"Jack!" The boy heard his mother calling. "Jack, are you ready?" Jack jumped up and grabbed the picture, quickly packing it away with the rest of his things.
"Almost!" He shouted back in a hurry.
Jack lived in a small building located just behind Gringotts Wizarding Bank in Diagon Alley. Upstairs was a small apartment of sorts with two bedrooms; one for his mother and one for Jack and his sister, Emma.
Downstairs, however, was his mother's shop and business. She was a seamstress who handled everything from capes, to school robes, to suits. She was kind and caring and even though their shop was painfully small, many witches and wizards knew her as one of the best seamstresses in the wizarding world. It helped to keep the business running, especially when your mother's shop is hidden behind a massive bank and three other shops in Diagon Alley sold mass-production robes.
Finally catching the latch on his trunk so it was shut tight Jack ran downstairs where his mother's shop was and found his mother tying Emma's cloak around her neck. They wore every day robes, but the fact that the three of them were ready to go made Jack's stomach flip in excitement. His mother was taking him to King's Cross Station, platform nine and three-quarters where the Hogwarts Express would be departing from at eleven o'clock on the dot.
"There you are!" His mother smiled when she saw him. "Have you packed everything you need? What about your owl? Is she comfortable?"
"Yes, mom." Jack smiled as she tried to pet down his messy brown hair. "Jenara is asleep in her cage."
"Oh, I just can't believe my little boy is all ready to go to Hogwarts! It feels like just yesterday that your father and I were finding frost on the window above your crib in the middle of July." Jack's mother said, her cheeks turning pink from her eyes welling up. She hugged Jack good and tight before excusing herself to go upstairs and levitate Jack's trunk down the stairs.
"Promise you'll send letters?" Jack's little sister, Emma, asked pulling on the sleeve of his robe. Jack smiled and knelt down to give her a hug too.
"Of course I will. You take care of mom while I'm gone, okay? Help with the chores and the shop." Jack told her as Emma nodded determinedly at his words.
After that his mother came back levitating Jack's trunk with her own wand and Jack slipped up the stairs to collect his staff and Jenara, who was now wide awake because of all the excitement. Once they had everything ready to go, the family of three locked up the shop and made their way to the train station.
"Come on, you two!" Jack's mother ushered him and his sister through the crowds of muggles in the train station, looking for platform nine and three-quarters. "Hurry now, it's just a little ways ahead!"
Jack smiled, watching his little sister ride on the trolley as he pushed it and giggling excitedly when he sped up to keep up with their mother. As they reached the area between platforms nine and ten, Jack couldn't help but notice the group of six already standing there. One of them was a girl about his age. She had the wildest, reddest curly hair Jack had ever seen and she stood beside a trolley much like his.
"Mum, I'll be fine!" She groaned as a woman with long dark hair fussed about her.
"Eleanor, Let the lass be." A large man came and placed his hands on the woman's shoulders as three little boys ran about their feet. The girl smiled and waved goodbye as her family stepped aside.
Jack looked on from just a few feet away along with his mother and sister. The girl noticed him and blinked, then realization came to her expression as she took in his trunk and owl, and she waved to Jack with a smile. Jack waved back and then watched as the girl ran straight at the wall between platforms nine and ten, disappearing into the wall.
"Alright, well, I guess it's your turn now." Jack's mother said after the girl's family had followed her through, her eyes looking a little glassy. "Just run straight at it and you'll go straight through to platform nine and three-quarters. We'll be right behind you." His mother promised. Jack nodded and licked his lips nervously, eyeing the solid wall before him, and then started running at the wall as fast as he could.
He closed his eyes just before he hit the wall and when he opened them again he found himself slowing to a stop on a very busy platform, a sign labeled nine and three-quarters hung on the wall nearby. Jack looked behind him to see his mother and sister appear from the wall and Emma gasped at the sight before them.
A bright red train whistled proudly as people were boarding the train and saying goodbye to their loved ones and trying to put their things in the storage compartments: The Hogwarts Express!
Jack and his mother worked together to get his trunk into the storage car of the train and then Jack gave her and Emma one last big hug before getting on the train and finding an empty compartment so he could wave goodbye to his mother and sister as the train started to pull away from the station.
"Bye, Jack! Good luck!" Emma called as she waved, holding tight to their mother's hand. Jack smiled and waved until he couldn't see any trace of them in the distance.
Jack settled back into his seat and sighed, watching the scenery pass by outside the train. At this rate it was going to be a very boring train ride. Maybe he should have found a compartment with some of the other first years, but most of the compartments had already been filled and it seemed like a lot of the kids on the train already knew at least one other person.
A quiet knock on the compartment door brought Jack out of his thoughts and he found a boy with messy brown hair and green eyes standing in the doorway. The boy was short and scrawny, his robes looked too big for him, and he looked incredibly shy.
"Do you mind? Everywhere else is full..." The boy gestured to the seat across from him and Jack grinned widely.
"Not at all!" Jack told him and the boy sat down in the empty seats. "What's your name?"
"Oh, uh... it's -it's Hiccup." Hiccup offered his hand and Jack shook it. The little fellow seemed nervous to Jack.
"Nice to meet you, I'm Jack." Jack grinned.
"Oh... Okay, nice to meet you, too, Jack." Hiccup blinked in surprise and Jack raised one eyebrow but didn't comment. "Is that yours?" Hiccup asked, pointing to Jack's staff leaning against the seat.
"Yeah." Jack said bashfully, scratching the back of his head. "My dad made it for me before I was born."
"That's really cool! Mind if I..." Hiccup trailed off when he realized what he was asking could potentially be very rude or offensive and blushed slightly.
"Yeah, okay. But only if I get to see your wand." Jack bargained. Hiccup quickly pulled out his wand and they exchanged the precious woods.
Hiccup's wand was quite handsome. At fifteen inches it was all black with a fairly simple grip-design on the handle and a strange stone on the end of the handle that was as black as the night sky with small specks that looked like stars. The handle was only inches six inches, leaving the other nine for added reach of the spiral. Above the handle, where most wands were straight or had a tight twist to resemble unicorn horns, this one had the rare quality of a spiral wand.
"Impressive." Jack muttered. "Dragon scales for the core? That's only been done successfully a handful of times. And vine wood? Very nice." He said, turning the wand and looking at it from different angles. It certainly had much more character than most other wands he had seen. "What's this stone at the end? Black Diopside?"
"Whoa...you know a lot about wands, don't you?" Hiccup snorted, having stopped his inspection of Jack's staff to listen to his ramblings about his wand.
"Me? No, not really. I just learned some stuff from Ollivander because my dad was his apprentice." Jack told him, laughing, and Hiccup chuckled a bit with him.
"So... what House do you want to be in?" Jack wanted to know, handing Hiccup back his wand as the other boy returned his staff.
"...Well, I'd give anything to be a Gryffindor like my dad, but I'm not anything like him. I think I'll probably end up in Hufflepuff, like my mom." Hiccup sighed.
"That's not bad. Hufflepuff is just as good as Gryffindor! And at least you'll be in the same House your mom was in, that must be cool." Jack smiled, but Hiccup only shrugged.
"It would be cooler if I actually knew who my mom was." He murmured quietly and Jack frowned. A moment of silence passed and then Hiccup looked embarrassed, his face turning cherry red. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't be troubling you with my problems! Just forget I said anything, it was stupid and it doesn't actually matter. She died when I was just a baby so I never actually met her. I mean, it's kind of hard to miss someone you never met, right? I -"
"My dad disappeared when I was five years old. My baby sister was barely a year old when it happened." Jack cut off Hiccup's endless rambling and the two boys fell into silence. Jack smiled suddenly, making Hiccup's eyes widen slightly. "Wow, I never really thought I'd meet someone who knows what it feels like."
Hiccup smiled a funny little half-smile and nodded slowly. "Yeah. Me neither."
Just then a rather plump woman appeared at the door of their compartment, pushing a trolley. It was filled with sweets and snacks and both boys felt their mouths watering at the sight of it.
"Anything from the trolley, dears?" The woman asked and Jack shoved his hand into his pocket. He fished out a few coins his mother had given him to use if he wanted anything from the trolley - as a treat for his first time on the Hogwarts Express - and quickly got up to pick something out.
"Yes, please. Thank you!" He said, searching over the cart as Hiccup stood and watched from behind him.
"Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans? Chocolate Frogs? What is all this stuff?" Hiccup asked as he read some of the colorful packaging decorating the trolley.
"You've never had it?" Jack gaped at him and Hiccup shook his head.
"We don't have a lot of sweet things where I'm from. The best dessert I've ever had was a small slice of cake." Hiccup told him and Jack shook his head, disapproving.
"We need to fix that. Now. Can I have a package of Bertie Botts, two Chocolate Frogs, and a Cauldron Cake, please?" Jack asked the lady, who smiled and started gathering everything Jack had asked for.
About an hour later, Jack and Hiccup were laughing and talking like they'd known each other for years. The two boys had finished their treats long ago and now joked with each other about various topics. Jack would share what he knew of Hogwarts with Hiccup and Hiccup would tell Jack everything he had heard about the school, so they could compare rumors and stories.
"Oh, hey, I almost forgot." Hiccup said after they had finished laughing at one particularly funny joke Jack had told. "You never said what House you wanted to be in?" Hiccup said it as more of a question and Jack smiled.
"Well, I'm not very picky, but I'd really like to be in Slytherin. Like my dad was." Jack smiled and Hiccup nodded.
"That's cool. I hear Slytherin's are supposed to be really fast flyers." Hiccup smiled.
"Yeah, my dad was a Seeker for their Quidditch team!... I guess the only down side would be if we ended up in different Houses." Jack admitted.
"Yeah...You're the first person who didn't laugh at me after hearing my name." Hiccup replied, only half joking.
"How about we make a pact right now?" Jack suggested, holding out his hand. "No matter what Houses we get sorted into, we stay friends, deal?"
Hiccup grinned for the first time and nodded. "Deal."
The two boys gripped forearms and shook on it, sealing their promise.
"Excuse me?" A girl appeared in the opening of the compartment after their hands had fallen back to their sides and the boys looked up. The girl had long, long golden hair that was braided into three braids and then braided into one giant braid to keep her hair off the floor - just barely though. She had kind, light-green eyes and a warm smile. "Have either of you seen a chameleon around here? He's my familiar."
"Um, no." Hiccup said slowly and the girl looked a little disappointed.
"Oh, well, thanks anyways." She said, starting to leave, but Jack called her back.
"Hey, wait! Do you need help finding him? We could help." He told her and the girl smiled sweetly.
"Thank you, but we're playing hide and seek. I'd be cheating if I got you two to help me." She giggled and then waved goodbye as she started her search again.
"Well, I hope she finds him soon. We should be arriving any minute now." Jack said as he sat back down and Hiccup nodded in agreement.
About fifteen minutes later the train came screeching to a halt in Hogsmeade Station, jerking to a stop as all of the first years struggled to look out the windows with everyone else. Jack and Hiccup struggled through the crowd, managing to reach the front after a few moments of squeezing between the other first years.
Looking out the window, they couldn't see very much because it was dark and the windows had fogged with the cold, but there were several lights posted along the station and there were plenty of guides offering assistance to the first years and anyone else who needed it.
They were led off of the train and the first years were instructed to stay together as the other students walked away, obviously already knowing where they were going, with the exception of a few second years.
"Right then, first years! First years, this way! Come on, hurry up!" A large man holding a lantern called out, waving so the first years would see him. He had short brown hair, a thin beard, and he wore brown furs from head to foot. His brown eyes were kind, but stern and his teeth were slightly crooked.
When all of the first years had found their way to the huge man and had grouped together in front of him, he smiled and nodded. "Well, that looks like everyone. This way to the boats! Come on, keep up!"
The man turned and led the way with his big, bright lantern as they walked down a well-used path through the woods. Hiccup looked around curiously at the dark woods and Jack grinned, excited for whatever was waiting for them.
They came to a wide, open lake that reflected the stars and the moon beautifully, making several of the first years gasp while everyone else just gaped in open amazement.
"Four to a boat! No more, no less! Come on, hurry up now! They'll be waiting for us!" The man with the lantern exclaimed, helping some of the more squeamish girls and boys into a boat.
"Come on!" Jack nudged Hiccup's shoulder and ran for an empty boat, the smaller boy right on his heels. They climbed in excitedly, twisting around and around as they tried to take everything in.
"Oh, excuse me!" Both boys turned to the rocky shore of the lake and found the girl with the really long hair standing there along with the red-head Jack had seen earlier at the train station. "Would you mind if we shared a boat with you?"
"No, not at all!" Jack smiled brightly and he and Hiccup moved aside to give the two girl's space as they climbed in.
"Alright, hold on!" The big man shouted before they could say any more and suddenly the boats started moving all on their own.
Jack and Hiccup shifted towards the front of the boat with the other two first-years in their boat, trying to see what was ahead of them. Then the castle came into view, silhouetted by the night sky and bright lights burning from nearly every window. It was terrifying and welcoming all at once. It was huge and Jack heard Hiccup muttering some strange words from another language under his breath as the boat drew closer and closer to the mysterious castle.
This was Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
AN: Hello! So, I decided it was time to add my own flare to this wonderful fandom, and since the Hogwarts au is probably my favorite: here you go. This is the first of hopefully seven. I cannot promise regular updates at this time, but I will definitely be trying to get chapters out as quick as I can. Jenara means snow, so that is why Jack's owl is named Jenara, and after doing a bit of research on wands in the Harry Potter universe I was really impressed and fascinated, so I took it as a chance to give Jack some character development and to show off the wands in this story - there will be more wand analyzing in the future. Read & Review, Please! -Owl.