The Adventures at a Modern(ish) Hogwarts

Author's note: J.K Rowling is an amazing woman, and I respect her work greatly. I am writing this as a fan, and JK Rowling owns all rights to Harry Potter, not me. #RavenclawRoar

Christopher (R)

"Skreeeee!"

I wake with a start. I looked out my window and see a majestic Tawny Owl holding... a parcel. There is a note on the top and the glimmer of ink inside rings a bell in my mind. This is the package. The one containing something special. The one containing my pre-ordered books, cauldron, among other things. I open the window to the scent of a warm British summer's morning. I untie the parcel on the bird and give it one of my owl's treats. It flies away in the early rays of the sun, and I rummage through the items. I lug my chest from out of the corner and climb into it. This chest wasn't an ordinary can't, but a 125-Galleon expando-chest; my Christmas present in my 5th year. It has a spot for all of my new books and all of my supplies for my classes.

As I am gently putting the books into the shelves and sliding the cauldron onto the top shelf, there is a knock on the top of the wooden roof. I climb back up the stairs and open the top, I find my younger sister, Katherine peering into the mysterious room below.

"What's that?" she inquired.

"Its all my books and shouldn't you be sleeping? It's like 6:30" I retorted

"Hmph!" Why can't you ever be nice to me? I'm your only sister and you should be nicer to me!" she replies as she stormed out of the room.

"Your right." I'm said quietly, but loud enough for her to hear. Katherine turns back around, and I continued by saying, "Come down here, and I'll show you my stuff." As I climbed back into my chest, Katherine pops her head into view and starts climbing down. We both fit comfortably in the small escape, and I move to sit in one of my beanbag chairs.

"What's this?" She points to the brown box.

"The new books that I just got this morning. I'm about to put them away."

"Can I help?" No. She's only 9 and she is going to mess something up. I say to myself, as she reaches for some exploding newt powder.

"Don't touch that!" I nearly screamed as she jerked her hand back and gave me a dirty look. "If you want to help, bring me the box of books carefully," she gave me the box, and I start to shelve the books.

"Ooh! What are these!" She was admiring the tri-clawed sucklers in the fish tank and then something moved in the back. "What's the thing in the back?"

"Ummm. I don't know." I'll look later, I said to myself. Something takes my mind off the thought: the scent of bacon frying.

Gage (H)

"Good morning, sweetie! Breakfast is in the kitchen waiting for you," was what I woke up to this morning. After I nearly fell out of bed, I decided it was probably a good idea to eat something. I dressed and got my money for today because we will be going to Diagon Alley to get some toys for my baby brother, Drew.

I walk into American-style flapjacks and bacon with a large glass of OJ on the table in the kitchen, and the TV turned onto channel 5, the muggle news channel, and the reporter was droning on about something I couldn't care less about. My dad was watching the TV intently as I dug into the flapjacks and polish it off in a few minutes. My mom is in the kitchen, making more pancakes effortlessly with the twitch of her wand. My wand. Where is it? I frantically search my pockets, and to my relief, it's in my pants. I sighed, and get up to get more breakfast. After I had multiple helpings of breakfast, I went back to my room. There is a large snowy owl perched on the planter on my window, eyeing my magical flowers suspiciously.

I opened the windows, curious to see what is in the large, brown box. I untie the box off of the bird, and it flies away into the morning sun. I close the window and open the box. I lay everything in my bed, and find that there is a smaller brown box about the size of an American softball. I open it, and inside was a shiny badge. A Prefect Badge. I study the badge, admiring the attention to detail, and my name engraved into the bottom ribbon, as well as the Hufflepuff crest in the top corner. There is also a note in the box, and it reads;

Dear Gage Mclaughlin,

We are pleased to inform you that you have been selected as a prefect for this year and next. You may choose to decline by sending the badge, along with this note, back to Hogwarts. Please send an owl to us confirming the position. More details will come when you arrive at Hogwarts.

Signed, Minerva McGonigal

Headmistress, Transfiguration teacher

This should be interesting... I thought to my self. I'll be in charge of all the first years and everyone else. My mom knocks on the door and steps in. I turn around, and she sees my badge and the paper. She faints, and when she hits the floor, the whole house shudders.

Jadon (S)

(Insert loud yawn here)

I look out my window and see a beautiful sunrise. The large garden below, full of magical plants and creatures catches my eye, and I take in its beauty. There is never a day that goes by without me going down in the garden. Except for today. I take the thermometer from the bedside, along with my portion of medicine and place it on a small tray on my bed. I stick the thermometer in my mouth, and it reads 103.6.

"What? That can't be right. That's more than boiling!" I look at the back and see that it is on Fahrenheit, not Celcius. After switching the mode, I look back and see it is 39.8 degrees. By God! I have an even higher fever than last night. A soft knock on my door breaks my thought. "Come in, " I respond to the stranger knocking. My door opens to reveal one of the house elves. She brings in a tray similar to the one on my bed and hands it to me. It is filled with fresh fruit and an omelet with melted cheese on the top, my favorite. The scent of food makes my stomach churn, and the elf clearly noticed.

"Would sir like some crackers and ginger beer?"

(a.n. GINGER BEER IS NON-ALCOHOLIC, it's BASICALLY THE SAME AS GINGER ALE)

"Please, if you don't mind. And after you get that, can you bring me a quill and some parchment?"

"Yes, sir. I'll be back in a minute."

A loud "SNAP" and the elf disappeared in front of me. The room suddenly gets very hot. I quickly push down the covers and take off my shirt. I look out the window again, and the animals seem more rowdy than normal. The caretaker is struggling to keep my enormous St. Bernard, Bernie, on his leash. Bernie looks up at me and sits down. He knows something is wrong with me. He gets up, and charges straight for the wide open backdoors. Not even 30 seconds later, he barges into my room and jumps onto my bed. I propped up some pillows behind me, and start rubbing my dog. He brings me so much happiness, I almost forget that I am sick. Suddenly, the world starts spinning. I close my eyes and put my head back on the pillows. As I'm laying down on my bead, my dog props his head on my stomach with some difficulty.

Christopher (R)

As I walk into the kitchen, I notice that something is amiss. My younger brother, Logan, who is a third year is sitting at the table pushing around his scrambled eggs.

"What's wrong?"

"Kirsten just sent me an owl and she said she is really sick. She said she got some disease from a magical animal she had touched in Honduras. She might not be going to Hogwarts this year."

"That's terrible! I really hope she gets better." I reply sympathetically. I hate seeing people sad, especially my own family. "I know what will take your mind off of her: we are going to Diagon Alley today, and I'll tell you what. I'll buy you something. Maybe we can go to Weasley's Wizard Wheezes and you can pick something out."

"That sounds like fun!"

"Now, eat something and we can go soon."

I walked by the stove, and my dad was cooking more bacon, flipping it with his wand.

"Nice Job! I couldn't cheer him up all morning."

"Will you pay me whatever he spends?"

"Half," he responded.

"That sounds good." I walk back into my room, after eating a bit. I climb down into my blissful escape room and finish unpacking the box. After thumbing through all the books, I start unpacking my potions supplies. There is a box in the bottom, about the size of a size 1 football. Inside, there is a... patch? And a slip of parchment on the bottom.

Gage (H)

"MOM!" I rush to her side and tap on her head. "Hello?" Please be okay. After what seemed like an eternity, she came to, and she said quietly,

"My baby... Is a prefect! I was one when I went to Hogwarts and it was a huge honor." She rambled on and on and on for a while, but eventually, she got up and went back into the living room with a glass of iced water. Oh boy, I think to myself. After I made sure my mom was okay, she turns on the telly and watches some news. I walk slowly into my room and put my books into my classic Hogwarts chest. I put my new robes, tie, and badge on my dresser, and continue to file my books.

A few hours later, we are ready to apparate to the Leaky Cauldron by side-along apparation. After the familiar sensation of squeezing through a small tube, which is even worse for me because I'm fatter than the average person, I feel relieved that I'm back in the wizard territory of Diagon Alley, surrounded by witches and wizards alike. We walk into Terries Toys for Tots and turn straight into the newborn aisle. We see Mesmerizing Cradles, soundless rattles, soothing heating, and cooling teething rings, and many other gadgets around the section. After we buy a new cradle, some soundless toys, and a load of diapers, we head over to Florean Fortescue's ice cream par, or, and have a midday snack. I get a 3 decker s'mores flavored ice cream sandwich and espresso to drink. We sit in silence for a few minutes, and then my mother brings up my prefect badge.

"Honestly, I think I will make a good prefect, I'm a good role model, I follow the rules, I make really good grades, and am a generally good person to be around, right?"

"I'd bet you would be an amazing prefect. You also seem to have good relations with most of the people in your year, across all houses, " my dad replied. I honestly am a bit nervous because this is such a big undertaking, but this would be a good test to see how well I can manage. "Let's go to Weasley's Wizard Wheezes and get some supplies for your year."

"Now wait just a minute, did I hear you were going to be a Prefect?" A voice behind me said in a way that ensnared my every ability to do anything besides look at the girl.

"Allie! You scared me!" we embraced each other for the first time in months. Allie's parents were behind her, watching nervously. They were muggles, unlike my parents. We walked around the Ally and gathered some more materials for school.

"Guess what? I'm a prefect too! We will make an unstoppable team. We will be the best prefects that Hogwarts ever saw, or at least Hufflepuff, anyways." Yeah, we will, I thought. Yeah, we will.

Jadon (S)

Another soft knock on the door and the elf comes in with a basket containing a quill, an inkwell, and some parchment. She also has a ginger beer and brackets in her other hand and opens it for me. She sets the ink, quill, and paper on my writing desk and puts the beer and crackers on the nightstand.

"Mistress says that she wants you to rest up, and if you ever need me, just say 'Winky.'"

"Thanks very much." She leaves the door open just a crack, and the familiar SNAP could be heard in the hallway outside my room. I sit up, grab the ginger beer off the nightstand, and sip carefully, as to not spill any on my bare chest. I reach for the crackers and nibble on them slowly to ensure I don't throw it all back up. A few crumbs fall onto me, and I brush them off. Then I realized something I hadn't before: white scars surrounding my fattened chest and torso. I cringe slightly at the thought of what happened last year.

We had just learned the severing charm, and my self-image wasn't of the highest quality. I thought I always looked like a beached whale. All the Gryffindors in my classes would always bully me because I wasn't the fastest runner or the most adventurous person. They called me so many names, it drove me to try to cut off all the parts of me I didn't like, namely the fatty parts of my chest and torso area. If it wasn't for Gage, I would've bled out and died in that empty classroom. He was the one who called the Matron, Madam Pomfrey. She luckily brought a vile of Essence of Dittany, which aided in healing the deep cuts. She stitched up the wounds, and I never looked at myself the same way again. Every day I was recovering, he was beside my cot in the hospital wing and he helped teach me all the concepts I missed and how to do all of the assignments. He saved my life. Now, we are super awkward around each other, and I feel like we had some connection. Something greater than friendship.

My dog perked up. He jumped off the bed and whined near the door. He needed to, go out. I slowly adjusted myself to a sitting up position. Slowly, I managed to slide out of bed and stand up. I slowly shuffled over to the door and opened it. Bernie looked at me and trotted out of the door, down the hall and down the stairs. I slowly walked over to the writing desk and sat down with beads of sweat forming at my brow.

"S-! It's hot in here." I said under my breath. I turn to the parchment and start writing.

Gage,

I have fallen ill, and I'm not feeling my best. I would really appreciate a visit from my best comrade, and it would make me feel so much better. A doctor from St. Mungo's Magical hospital is coming to look at me tomorrow, and I'm praying that it isn't anything super serious. Hopefully, it's just a cold and not something serious like Dragon Pox.

Always wishing my best,

Jadon

"Winky? Are you there?"

The all too familiar SNAP was heard outside the door and Winky walked into my room.

"Yes, sir? What is it that you need?"

"Would you send up an owl, the fastest one we have, please?"

"Yes, sir! He will be up in a minute."

"Many thanks, "I reply as Winky leaves the room. I walk back over to my bed and climb in. I lay there for a while, and then a SNAP was conjured outside the room. Winky walks in, and I say, " Would you mind folding the letter on the desk and sealing it?"

"I don't mind, " she replies as she walks over to the desk. She pauses for a second, clearly thinking about something, and shakes her head. She continues over to the desk and folds and seals the letter. She attaches it to the owl perched on the window.

"Snowy, can you send this to Gage in Little Whinging, please?" Snowy hoots, and flies off in the midday sun.