The Platform was crowded and filled with white, swirling steam. But even through all the noise and bodies clogging the space, Julia could clearly see the opening where two small families stood clustered together. They were easy to spot because the bustling crowd that bumped up against one another were careful to leave space, a gap, between themselves and the families, although they were certainly not afraid to stare.
"That must be them," Nikki said as she nudged Julia's arm. Friends ever since they could remember and both heading off to Hogwarts together.
Julia just nodded as they both studied the celebrities that they had learned about very quickly in the short weeks since their owls had come. It was impossible to escape the knowledge of the Potter-Weaseley-Granger prestige in the wizarding world, even for muggle-borns. Julia's mother's lips pursed tightly as she followed their line of sight to the trio and their children. Their parents had picked up on the story just as quickly and were not happy sending their daughters off to a school with a tendency for throwing children into wars.
It had been a theme for the summer, tense arguments about whether or not the girls would be allowed to go off to another country to learn magic from a bunch of lunatics who allowed their children to fight Dark Wizards. Round and round the arguments went while the bureaucrats sent from the Magical Congress pleaded with their parents again and again to see reason. They insisted that the school was safe, new policies had been put in place, new treaties between the Ministry and the Magical Congress ensured transcontinental communication and travel would allow for higher american involvement in the school.
Of course, their parents asked why they couldn't send their girls to a magical school in America and the pale face and shaking hands of the representative did nothing to ease their stress.
"Oh, yes, Ilvermorny, the school in Massachesetts," She had said, ringing her hands, "Yes, well, you see… It will be shut down for some time… Perhaps not for the entirety of your daughters' education but there was… an incident…"
Both their fathers' eyes hardened at that statement and they pressed and pushed until they learned the truth that some hideous, horrible creature had torn the place apart, destroyed the school and injured, killed, students. It quickly became clear that the wizarding world was not safe. They were not sending their children off to some fuzzy boarding school to learn British etiquette. They were sending them off because they were powerful young women. They were sending them off to learn how to use that power.
Nikki's mother grasped her arm tightly before turning her daughter away from the supposed heroes across the platform.
"You will stay away from those children. I don't care what house they are in, they are trouble. You know better, Nikki. Julia, you too. You are good girls. Do your homework. Learn your magic. Come home safe and sound."
The girls nodded, hugged their parents and climbed aboard the train. Their normal giggles and bubbling conversation was tempered by the solemn goodbye they'd had with their family. They found an empty compartment and dropped their belongings on the floor before wrenching open the window and waving frantically until they caught their parents' eyes. The train began to chug out of the station and Julia's father grasped her mother's hand fiercely as they watched their daughter slip away with tight expressions. Julia and Nikki settled down inside their compartment once their parents were out of sight, knowing they were leaving to rejoin the Magical Congress employee assigned to assist them in the uncomfortable process of portkeying back across the Atlantic.
"Next year, we are flying." Julia muttered as she mentally relived the nauseating experience of travel by portkey.
A few moments passed before their compartment door flew open and a girl with brilliant purple hair shuffled in dragging her trunk behind her.
"Hey! You must be new firsties. I'm Rebecca."
She extended her hand before sitting down.
"It's ok if I sit here right? Everywhere else is full."
The girls nodded at her and Julia smiled.
"You're not a first year? You've been to Hogwarts before?"
Rebecca scrunched up her face annoyed that the girl couldn't obviously tell that she was so much older and more mature.
"I am thirteen. I'm a third year." She rolled her eyes. "But I've never been to Hogwarts. I started at Ilvermorny two years ago. I would've been there again this year but…"
She drifted off and looked down at her feet. She was wearing worn out Muggle flip flops and had her toes painted pink.
Julia and Nikki exchanged a glance.
"What happened?" Julia asked.
She didn't look up from her feet.
"I don't really know. Just one night we all woke up to screams and roars and the older students were grabbing us and telling us to run but we didn't know where we were supposed to go and the professors were throwing spells at it but it just kept coming…" She trailed off.
Nikki felt like she was going to be sick on the carpet.
"What did it look like?"
That's when Rebecca looked up from her feet and directly into their eyes.
"A shadow. I mean… it was just… Darkness."
The girls were quiet after that. Staring out the window or skimming their new textbooks until the train pulled to a stop at Hogsmeade Station. It was raining and miserable outside.
There was a bit of a scuffle on the platform as first years moved to the boats, older students moved to the carriages and the new students transferred from Ilvermorny stood hesitantly, unsure of where to go. A huge, gruff man boomed out instructions above their heads.
"Ilvermorny transfers can take the carriages."
But Rebecca stood stock still in place staring with horrified wide eyes at the carriages being pulled away by nothing. She wasn't the only one. All over the platform, older looking kids froze or shook their heads in protest, even some of them started crying. The large man stuttered as he noticed and his face crumpled before he silently guided them to the boats instead.
Julia and Nikki clasped hands as they climbed into a boat with Rebecca behind them. So far, this new world didn't feel exciting and magical, it felt scary and horrible. The boats began to move across the water and there were ominous splashes somewhere in the dark. Wars, Dark Wizards, shadow creatures. What might be lurking in the water below? But before their imagination could runaway on thoughts of evil mermaids and the loch ness monster, the boats came out around a peninsula and the view before them illuminated with the warm light of a thousand fires glowing in a thousand fireplaces. Hogwarts was sprawled out before them and the looming castle chased away their childish fears as they waited apprehensively to be wrapped in her embrace.
They were ushered through halls where the new students gaped at the high ceilings and ancient architecture and the new, new students, the muggle-borns, gaped at everything else- from the floating candles to the talking, moving portraits. They had seen Diagon Alley but that was nothing compared to this. Tiny voices grew louder and louder with excitement, American and British accents mingling in the air. Curiosity pulled their eyes to one another but timidity kept them speaking only to those they knew from childhood or the train. Rebecca had recovered from whatever had shocked her on the train platform and now she just quietly scowled at everyone. Julia was beginning to look more like herself, a broad, expectant grin across her features. Nikki was able to smile a bit back at her friend but her eyes were wary. An older woman led them into an enormous hall that filled with older students. Nikki looked around and realized their were almost as many students crammed into the front of the hall as there were already seated at the tables. The new students from Ilvermorny still needed to be sorted into Hogwarts houses she realized. This was going to be a long ceremony.
Rebecca was the first person she recognized be sorted. She sat down on the stool, less nervous than the first years who had come before her, she had the confidence of someone who had already had a house affiliation, she knew it meant love and friends and loyalty. The hat was on her head for a full minute before it pronounced,
"SLYTHERIN"
The table on the end clapped and cheered politely in their seats and as she stood from the stool her brilliant purple hair shifted into a deep emerald green. The students around them gasped and the students at the Slytherin table grinned at one another before cheering a bit louder and more enthusiastically. Nikki and Julia heard someone whisper with awe, "Wow, a Metamorhphagus."
Julia turned to face the British boy who had spoken.
"A What?"
He smirked at her vowel pronunciation. His blue eyes narrowed as he took care to emphasize his posh British pronunciation as he spoke very slowly.
"She is a Metamorphmagus. She can change her hair color, eye color, skin color, etc. At will," he extended a hand, "I'm Scorpius Malfoy and you are both clearly muggle-born… and American as well."
He didn't say either word like it was a good something to be. Nikki glared but Julia smiled and took his hand.
"Julia Jacobs. Nice to meet you, What house do you think you'll be in?"
His face lit up with amusement but he didn't respond as the older witch who had led them in here, Professor McGonagall, cleared her throat and glared until the titters among the crowd of students at the front of the hall had quieted. The sorting continued and Nikki eyed Rebecca as she sat at the end of the Slytherin table grinning like a cat as the entirety of the table leaned into her presence and the girls sat next to her ran their spindly fingers through her emerald hair. Nikki felt her heart ache at the sight.
"Granger-Weaseley, Rose" McGonagall read and Nikki refocused on the sorting ceremony. She knew that name, one of the ones she was supposed to stay away from.
"GRYFFINDOR!"
The table filled with Gold and Crimson exploded with noise. They hooted and hollered, jumped up on their seats, stomped their feet. There was nothing polite about this cheer and Rose smiled broadly before running over to the table and slipping in next to some students who looked older like Rebecca, next to one with black hair and glasses who hugged her tightly.
Before long it was Julia's turn and her friend broke their clasped hands after a quick squeeze and sat with the hat fallen over her eyes for a long time. The quiet hall grew loud with anxious whispers. This was the longest the hat had sat and deliberated on any of the students so far. Finally it called out,
"HUFFLEPUFF!" and the bright yellow table cheered loudly for her. One particularly raucouse fifth year called out, "Hey, we got one with matching hair too!" and Julia preened as she sat at the end of the table and touched her fingers to her blonde locks. Nikki watched as groups of students who had clearly been housemates at Ilvermorny get broken up by the hat, rushing over to other tables to hug their friends before sitting down across the hall from them with sour expressions.
"Malfoy, Scorpius." The hat didn't fall over his eyes and Nikki watched as his expression grew annoyed and frustrated the longer he sat at the stool without having a house declared. He sat, nearly as long as Julia had, before the hat yelled out,
"SLYTHERIN!" The green table cheered and the rest of the school rolled their eyes and grumbled good-naturedly.
"Potter, Albus."
The boy she knew she was really supposed to stay away from, undesirable number one stepped up to the stool and let the hat ponder his mind. The hat took its sweet time but unlike before, the hall remained silent. There were no whispers like before, no speculation. Just tight anticipation. Until the hat shouted out,
"SLYTHERIN!" and table, although they looked confused, politely applauded and the Gryffindor table slumped and everyone looked at James and Rose sitting halfway up the table next to each other, looking stricken.
Finally, finally- McGonagall read, "Varney, Nicole." And Nikki stepped up to the stool.
"Another muggle-born, and American, too. A strange year." The hat whispered in her ear. "Ah, quite bright this one, you could do well in Ravenclaw. Oh, but, what is this? You are green with envy I see. Want to be in Slytherin like your Metamorphmagus friend?" the hat chuckled at his own play on words. "Well you certainly wouldn't fit in wit Hufflepuff, maybe Gryffindor, but there is so much cunning here. Better be…"
"SLYTHERIN!"
Nikki smiled and slid off the stool joining her politely clapping house. Rebecca made space next to her on the bench with a wide smile.
"Guess we are both snakes now." Nikki returned her smile with a small grin.
"Your hair…"
She laughs. "It's nothing."
"It's beautiful!" She smiles.
Nikki looks around at the table full of Slytherins and notices how crowded it looks, how crowded the entire hall looks. There are double the students they normally have here because of the Ilvermorny overcrowding. Nikki briefly wonders where they are all going to sleep. A girl across the table from her who looks about her age, meets her eye. She's slight and blonde and doesn't smile when they make eye contact. Nikki opens her mouth to introduce herself when the headmistress steps up to the podium and begins speaking.
"Welcome students new and old," Her lips tighten as she looks at the cramped, overcrowded benches. "We offer our condolences to the Ilvermorny students who have joined us to their great tragedy but we welcome you to our halls with open arms and look forward to a year of expanding our cultural horizons with our American wizarding brethren. As always, the Forbidden Forest is, of course, Forbidden. Although the hall feels crowded now, you will find that our home here at Hogwarts is quite-accommodating-of the guests whom she holds in her halls. Now, enjoy the feast and may a new and prosperous school year begin."
The rest of the meal passed uneventfully with guarded, polite small talk among the Slytherins. Nikki spared a glance to Julia in Hufflepuff and the students in the other houses as her prefects led them down the stairs towards the dungeons and, presumably, their common room. Julia looked happy. She was surrounded by other smiling students who looked like they might start jumping with joy at the thought of meeting the new students in their house. Nikki turned away towards the basement, happy that her friend was happy.