It was six in the morning and Carlos had risen early in honour of his eleventh birthday. The sun was not yet fully risen, and a cool breeze wafted gently over their small but well-kept lawn - a refreshing break from the oppressive heat of summer. He was staring at the large tawny owl standing before him, which was gazing back at him imperiously. As though it expected something of him. It kept waving its gnarly scaled leg at him, and it took a few minutes for Carlos to realise it had a small scroll attached to it with a scarlet string. Unfurling the parchment the owl took off and he began to read.
"Dear Mr. Flores,
We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment.
Term begins on 1st September. We await your owl by no later than 31 July.
Yours sincerely,
Minerva McGonagall
Deputy Headmistress"
Carlos reread it several times trying desperately to take it in before calling "muuummm" loudly, who came running at his slightly panicked tone.
A few weeks later found Carlos sitting in the back of his parent's car, the family was in a state of tense silence and his mother had a white knuckle grip on the steering wheel. After a short drive through the London traffic they reached the drop off point in Kings Cross Station car park.
"You don't need us to come in with you, do you sweetie?" his mother asked, but her tone was colder than the term of endearment would suggest. She looked at her son tersely who got out of the car, kissed her on the cheek, grabbed his trunk from the boot and watched his parent drive away without looking back.
After their car was fully out of sight Carlos sighed, his shoulders slumping a little and he began to drag his large and extremely impractical wooden trunk inside. He hadn't been allowed a pet, if he didn't make friends quickly he suspected he was in for a bit of a lonely year, since he got his letter his parents had been unusually cold towards him. His birthday dinner out had been an awkward evening, and the cake had tasted dry and bitter to Carlos, who almost choked on it.
He followed the directions his muggleborn information packet had provided and glanced at the paper again, had he read that right? He was supposed to walk through the wall? Maybe it was some kind of test, he glanced at the solid brick pillar nervously.
Still, if there was someone watching him he better at least try and put on a show of courage. The short boy steeled himself, standing straighter in a subtle transformation, and attempted to stroll through the wall casually as if it were a completely everyday occurrence to walk through solid matter. To his utter astonishment it worked, he hadn't felt a thing, and he now found himself in a completely different train station from the one he had just left. Most people reacted in a number of common ways to shock, dropping their jaws, shaking, panic, or even fainting. In contrast Carlos froze, statue like, and examined his new environment.
An old fashioned claret coloured steam engine stood on the tracks, the steam coming off it didn't move in the normal pattern of convection currents, but instead sprawled out into lazy spirals which seemed to spell out some strange symbols repeatedly that Carlos didn't recognise as any language he'd seen before. He immediately scrawled a rough diagram on the back of a receipt he had in his pocket to research later and shoved the scrap of paper into his jeans.
The platform was filled with the hustle and bustle of hundreds of families saying their goodbyes for the next few months. The air was filled with their chatter, the occasional piercing cry of a child and the loud advertisements of a man selling newspapers. As he knew no one he boarded the still mainly empty train, valiantly dragging his trunk all the way without stopping for breath.
He found himself an empty compartment, stowing his trunk on the overhead shelf and took out one of his text books. The 'high level' maths books Carlos had been happy to find in Flourish and Blott's had turned out to be a bit a bit of a disappointment, they weren't above the muggle GCSE level. Not even covering differentiation, and only briefly touching on any algebra.
Instead he had picked up a few extra volumes on the theory of the various magical disciplines, although all of them seemed to have been written in the late 18th century and despite many nights of study Carlos was still having trouble deciphering them. There was some suggestion that magic was just a type of matter with no mass, allowing it to break some physical laws, almost a type of energy but it was unclear how it was manipulated or how it was able to change the properties of other particles. One of the authors had mentioned the possible implications of Darwin's theory of evolution but it was looking like the understanding of science in the wizarding world had not progressed much further than that.
It wasn't long before the others started to leave the platform and the train began to fill up, soon another young boy joined him in the compartment. He looked scared, and seemed determined to ignore Carlos when he enquired whether he too was a first year, he seemed every inch a timid muggleborn unsure of this new world. A pure blood raised in the wizarding culture would have replied with an introduction including their house and status within it, although he had read that it was now the case the muggleborn population was increasing while those born to wizarding families was falling. Caused by centuries of inbreeding and rising populations of normal non magical people. Despite the massive discrepancies between medical science and the progress medical magic wizards just seemed to live longer. It wasn't uncommon to hear of someone reaching over two hundred years of age, it seemed that the genetic mutation which allowed a person to manipulate magic also protected them from many muggle diseases, and gave them varying degrees of natural talent at healing their own injuries. However, it appeared not even magic could make up for the infertility and birth defects caused by indiscriminate inter familial marriage.
Carlos suddenly realised he was staring the boy sitting opposite him, lost in thought about how the ministry of magic could perhaps bring in some more stringent laws on just who you were allowed to marry to prevent this decline of those raised in the unique wizarding culture. He was probably making him more uneasy than he already seemed.
He looked a little sickly, thin and possibly even shorter than Carlos was, he had mousy brown hair which was cropped short, had a prominent roman nose and hazel eyes. His whole body was turned in on itself, what Carlos had mistaken for bad posture was in fact the boy curling in on himself trying to appear smaller.
"Hi, look, I'm sorry for staring just now I was just lost in thought. My name's Carlos" he tried introducing himself again, using a softer voice. "This is all new to me too, have you read the muggleborn pamphlet? There's nothing to be afraid of just yet" he explained in a gentle voice.
After a few minutes of Carlos' soothing ramble about how pure bloods should actually fear muggleborns, the boy seemed to relax and introduced himself as 'Perry'. Soon they were happily chatting about what they had read about the school itself, Carlos was concerned about the practicalities of house system and sorting and Perry was more concerned about what the teachers would be like.
As the train began to move, slowly edging away from the platform another first year joined them, this time a girl. She confidently introduced herself as 'Tamika' and took a seat next to Carlos, grabbing one of his books without asking to see what it was, before sheepishly returning it when Carlos gave her a look.
Tamika was a few inches taller than Carlos, much to his dismay, and her skin was much darker than his, a deep umber with bronze tones, where his was a cooler sepia colour which spoke of his father's Hispanic lineage. And where Carlos black hair fell into gentle waves framing his face, hers was a wild tangle of dark brown which he kept having to brush off his arm due to her close proximity.
They were soon embroiled in a debate about the ethics of Carlos' proposed marriage law reforms when they were interrupted by the food trolley. Carlos chose a mozzarella and roast vegetable sandwich on fresh olive focaccia, as he was the only one without a packed lunch. All three were astounded by the range of sweets the kindly woman offered them, and Perry was persuaded to buy a small box of every flavoured jelly beans.
After they had eaten their lunch they had an enjoyable time sorting the jelly beans into piles of colours, trying to distinguish between shades only a few tones different. The small box had turned out to actually contain several hundred beans, and was bigger than the inside than it looked from the outside. Although Carlos was saddened to discover this effect ended as soon as they had poured out all the beans, it now seemed just like a normal box and they had no choice but to eat the majority of them as they would no longer fit. Luckily Perry was happy to share, letting Carlos and Tamika try the new colours first before braving them himself, Carlos was surprised to find that he actually quite enjoyed the grass flavour as it was very refreshing and Tamika declared the key lime pie flavour to be her new favourite. Poor Perry hesitantly chose one of the green jelly beans they were almost certain was another grass flavour, only to discover it was an extremely sour lime flavour which literally sucked his cheeks in. Carlos decided that the beans should come with some kind of colour chart and a disclaimer, even Tamika didn't fancy her luck with the brown coloured beans, although Carlos decided a pale beige coloured one looked safe enough to risk only to discover it tasted of cardboard and dried his mouth out somewhat.
The train had picked up speed as soon as they were out of London, and now the rolling hills of the lush English countryside were an indistinguishable blur, although there was no indication from the train's internal motion that they were even moving at all. Carlos suspected they actually weren't, and that it was merely some form of complex illusion, as it wouldn't be long before a government defence satellites picked up an unregistered train of bright red breaking the speed of sound.
Soon the green fields gave way to a harsher, more barren and rocky landscape which was dotted with craggy and dangerous looking cliffs overlooking icy cold grey lakes. The train journey alone should have been impossible, Hogwarts A History suggested that while the exact location of Hogwarts was unknown it was widely accepted it lay somewhere in Scotland and they had only been travelling for around three quarters of an hour when the view began to fit Carlos' conception of the Scottish countryside. Sheets of rain sleeted down, obscuring the view from the window and Carlos allowed himself to be once more drawn into debate with the other two about what would happen during the sorting. Once again he voice his vehement disapproval of sorting eleven year olds into houses based on their personality traits. Privately Carlos thought if he still had the same personality he was currently in possession of after seven years of schooling, then something had probably gone very wrong with his personal development somewhere along the line.
After what seemed like only the blink of an eye they were once again slowing before pulling into an old fashioned stone platform. The journey had lasted merely an hour from London in total, it seemed more of a formality than anything. If you can bend space time to that extent, why not make the journey instant? The platform was well lit with gas lamps, and the stone covering was ornate with gargoyles at each corner, Perry shuddered a little as they came into view.
They were led to the shore of the dark lake by a rugged giant of a man who called himself 'Hagrid', Perry was very timid around him, but soon warmed up as everyone realised how kind and cheerful the grounds keeper was. Uncertain about the safety of such a manoeuvre the three got into a boat together and began to glide forwards with no effort on their part.
There was a collective gasp as the new students got their first glimpse of the magnificent castle. The sky was just beginning to darken to a dusky grey, highlighting the dark walls of the huge structure, warm light glowed from the many windows casting watery golden shadows across the water, rippling as the boats cut through them. Hagrid gruffly wiped a tear from his eye and the rest of the lake crossing was made in silence, an excited hush having fallen over their group.
When they reached the other side of the great lake, the dismounted from the boats at a small dock, though one boy had to be pulled from the mud by an amused Hagrid before they began to squelch damply towards the entrance hall.
Carlos looked up in wonder at the domed ceiling of the hall, marvelling at the architecture of the ancient castle, he suspected for it to be in this good condition it required some hefty magical upkeep, even the many suits of armour were rust free.
Professor Dumbledore stood at the top of the stairs watching the new students arrive, watching the new first years was always an interesting experience. In his many years of teaching he had never failed to be surprised by at least one of the students. This year he was watching Carlos very closely.
Cecil was the obvious candidate for the strangest student of the year, already a wide berth was forming around him as the other students realised the purple smoke was stemming from the bottom of his robes which swirled ominously despite the still air in the entrance hall.
However, where Cecil was causing chaos, Carlos inspired calm. The students speaking to him all seemed to relax at whatever he was saying, their postures becoming just a little less straight. The boy stood out for one main reason, where most of the eleven year olds were in constant motion, he was a fixed point. He doubted any of the other students recognised why they were drawn to him, his complete lack of fidgeting allowed him to evoke calm in others and told of a sharp mind.
Where the unusual occurrences that followed Cecil showed his magic to be playful and young. Carlos' magic swirled softly around him, a comforting presence to the other students no doubt, to Dumbledore trained nose it smelled of roses and the midnight sky. It was wild magic, but reigned in carefully with control beyond his years.
The elderly headmaster noted Carlos' swift gaze sweeping the great hall as the doors opened, quickly evaluating the scene before him. The young boy stepped forward almost imperceptibly, slightly shielding the girl he was talking too behind him.
His outward appearance was unremarkable, his robes neat and wrinkle free, a mop of black hair fell over his glasses. His dark skin was in stark contrast to Cecil's pale colouring, the two boys were night and day in more ways than one. Carlos' piercing gaze glanced towards where Dumbledore was disillusioned, but allowed himself to be led into the hall by Cecil who was smiling blithely.
Dumbledore took his place at the head of the staff table.
It was a week into the school year and Carlos was already going insane, none of his instruments worked and the only thing he had verified for certain that the rules of physics didn't seem to apply anymore.
There was a large group of muggleborns in Ravenclaw who had agreed to help him in his research. However, after going into the forbidden forest for soil samples Perry had come out completely traumatised. Rumour had it that another first year of an unknown house had carried him out, whether he had saved Perry, or been the one to put him in danger was thus far unclear. Perry had spent the night in the hospital wing and when he came out refused to talk at all about what he had seen. The only thing Carlos had observed since was that Perry now studiously avoided mirrors.
The group had reconvened and most had agreed to give up any scientific testing. Carlos had forgotten how young they were, few of them had studied science at all formally and none of them seemed to have the burning desire for knowledge that Carlos had. Not just the kind found in dusty books, although he respected that, but the kind you could discern with your own two hands, the kind you could answer a question that no one else in the world knew the answer to just by asking the right questions.
Carlos sighed, he looked up at the stars - at least they seemed to be similar to the ones in his ordinary magic-free life. Apparently the centaurs could read the stars like the muggles read horoscopes, was it written somewhere above him that magic would flow through his veins? His last glimpse of the grounds, lit by the watery light of the moon, showed a huge shadow rippling across the lake. He wrote it on the ever increasingly long piece of parchment that was his list of things to investigate and headed back to the common room to research the levitation charm before what would probably be another night of disturbed sleep. His dreams were plagued with vague shadowy figures and the constant ticking of a Geiger counter.
That morning he was staring at the projected sky on the domed ceiling of the great hall while shovelling eggs mechanically into his mouth, when Tamika nudged him. She pointed to a lanky, pale haired boy who was approaching a purple cloud of billowing smoke coming from a localised patch on the ground near the door. When the smog cleared, dissipating into a thin green fog, the boy could be seen to be holding a fiery coloured egg carefully in his cupped hands. He took the nearest seat available, which happened to be the Slytherin table, much to their disgust. After rolling up his sleeves, the boy smashed the egg violently on the table, causing many of the student body who were intently watching in silence to wince. He pulled what seemed to be a letter from the oozing yellow goo and read for a few minutes before looking up, surprised that everyone was staring. "What, have none of you seen post eggs before? I mean, owls. Really?" He huffed defensively.
Carlos had originally dismissed the rumours that were circulating Hogwarts of a boy that claimed to be from Nightvale, a town legendary in the scientific community his parents belonged to. But, he was beginning to have doubts that anyone could fake being this odd. It took commitment and effort to have no reaction to the mystical environment of Hogwarts and some of these occurrences would be hard pressed to be explained by even magic.
When the great hall finally emptied Carlos wandered over to the door and inspected the floor for damage, all he found were the traces of some unrecognisable chalk markings, vaguely circular in shape. He wrote it on the smaller, but still large, roll of parchment dedicated to things he had to ask the potential Nightvale native when he eventually tracked him down. He was surprisingly hard to find, students whispered down the grape vine that he popped in between various common rooms and classes without any particular schedule or pattern. The rumour mill said that the sorting hat had let out a bloodcurdling screech and refused to sort him, so Cecil slept where he liked. Which some days didn't seem to be in any of the four house quarters.
Hurrying to Transfiguration, Carlos let all hypothesises about the bizarre post egg slip away and mentally reviewed his homework on the common uses of object to animal transfigurations. He slipped in at last minute and took a seat next to his tentative friend Tamika, who had become used to his obsession with scientific experiments causing frequent tardiness.
Carlos spent his afternoon in the library pursuing the woefully lacking collection of science books, which seemed to have not been added to since the Copernican revolution much to his dismay. The librarian, Madam Pince, did not seem to take kindly to his questioning of the sorting system either. Hogwarts felt almost dreamlike, he was being taught to violate the laws that he believed governed the whole universe and this small community seemed to have no regard for the implications of this. He left the library gladly for dinner, there was an eerie statue in the corner which was contorted with pain in a silent scream and it felt a little bit like its eyes were pleading with Carlos to help, shaking his head he focused on his food.
The great hall was once again filled with bubbling chatter and he soon found himself engrossed in discussing the finer points of the arithmetic theory behind the levitation charm with Perry. He glanced round the hall several times, searchingly. Soon blushing as he realised he was in fact hoping for another mystery from the boy from Nightvale, to occupy his mind while he ate. Despite never actually speaking to him in person, Carlos couldn't help but wonder about the skinny boy with almost albino pale hair. Chaos followed in his wake, but no one had yet reported him seeming so much as fazed, even when Professor Snape had insisted he tested his own potion and the poor boy had vomited copious amounts of blood before coughing up what looked horrifyingly like a human foetus.
Dumbledore was giving the daily notices, which hardly ever varied from Filch's thinly veiled threats and Prophet Headlines but today there was something which gave Carlos pause for thought. "This weekend quidditch try outs are being held and for the first time will be open to first years, after a well thought out thesis has been presented to me on the benefits of an extra years training by the four captains. And remember, when you gaze long into an abyss the abyss also gazes into you".
Carlos was not traditionally athletic, PE in primary school had been a trial for him, but something about the idea of flying was irresistibly appealing. He resolved to try out and rushed to the library after finishing his coconut and pumpkin tart to check out every book the library had on quidditch, carefully avoiding the shifting gaze of the statue. He read late into the night, getting through almost a whole weeks supply of candles, he would have to look into ordering some more, and slowly fell into the most contented sleep of his stay in Hogwarts so far.
The sun streamed into the dorm rooms and slowly awakened Carlos, who had forgotten to close the curtains around his bed, bleary eyed he stubbed his toe and woke up Dean – who swore at him and rolled over and fell back to sleep. Deciding it was futile to try and sleep Carlos picked up a coffee from the small selection in the great hall and slipped out of the large oak doors to the fresh dawn air. The smell of the freshly cut grass permeated the air, with the vaguest hint of mint, perhaps it was a wizarding variety of grass, Carlos mused.
He was halfway round the lake when his heart dropped. The first year, who had received a post egg, the most unusual first year Hogwarts had seen in centuries, was being held fifteen feet above the lake by a monstrously huge tentacle. "STOP" Carlos cried, panicking, running forwards, wand at the ready despite only knowing three spells (none of which were applicable to potentially fatal emergencies).
A/N: This was my first attempt at writing something of any length, so any criticism or advice is appreciated. I wrote it for NaNoWriMo '14 so it's still somewhat of a work in progress, though I have enough to post weekly for a while.