I have always wanted to go to Hogwarts. I've heard so many stories, from my grandparents. The danger the excitement and most of all Harry potter and the Dark Lord. My grandmother, Mary, always sends me a new biography about the Potters for my birthday, my grandfather Scott, always wrights me stories about the school and how it was like when he went there. Classes at Hogwarts sound so amazing turning things into something else, pigs to tables, turtles into teapots, and for first years' matches into needles. I am so glad I am a wizard, and I wonder what school life is like in Ilvermorny.
Ilvermorny is a North American school for the magically possessed. My mom went to the same school but she won't tell me about it, she wants it to be a glorious surprise. The only thing I could wheedle out of her was that it had four houses like Hogwarts. My father went to Hogwarts and after he graduated, he traveled the world on broom finally stopping, from some reason in Colorado. I think it had something to do with my mom, but he goes all lovey dovey and it's hard to understand him. Of course I have asked my dad about Ilvermorny, no doubt mom told him about it but I guess he's taken the vow of silence.
I know I am going to Ilvermorny because they sent me a star, well not one of the shooting stars in space that are actually giant rocks; it was more of a fireball conjured by a wizard and sent flying from the school into the my backyard. They put some spells on it, first, so the muggles don't see it, and second, a projection of a man in the fire.
The star that was sent to me had a man who said in a deep but kindly voice, "Hello My name is Thomas Wayne I am a teacher from Ilvermorny Academy I am here to offer Lay Palen a place in our school."
I was going to interrupted and tell him I go by my middle name Griphith but mom put a hand on my shoulder and hushed me. So I let him continue even though he never stopped. "If you accepted please, say yes, if you wish for more time just say, need time, if you wish to decline say no thank you, and then answer why, your responds will be recorded." My mother looked at me and nodded, so of course I said yes. The man gave a small flicker, smiled, and then continued, "Were happy you accepted, the new school year will being August, 21, 2016. You will have to arrive in Ottawa, Ontario on the 17th -20th of August, you will need to visit the Centennial library and give the librarian this" the tall fiery man took something from his inside coat pocket and handed it to me, his hand becoming real when it left the fire. It had been a library card that read Ottawa Centennial Library with my name and face already on it. Then I had noticed that it had a strange star on the top right hand corner. It looked as if someone put an upside down solid triangle on top of another. It wasn't the Star of David but it was close. Later my mom told me it was the alchemy symbol. After that she wouldn't tell me anymore. After that the tall fiery man handed me a folded piece of paper with instructions and a list of supplies, said his goodbyes and disappeared in a cloud of smoke.
That was three months ago on my birthday, you can still see the scorch marks on the ground but only faintly, my dad has been trying to re-grow the grass there ever since. Now there is only a week left until the deadline so mom is taking me to the Fort to buy my school stuff. Of course we can't go to a muggle town to buy the stuff so we are going to an abandoned mine in Silverton Colorado using flu powder. Silverton is about 47 miles as the broom flies from where we live, but my mom hates heights so we don't fly there. As you may have guessed the mine is just a front, it really is a wizard base manly used in time of war to protect their citizens, but in times like now when there is only peace they use it as a shopping center.
I ran over to get the flu powder as mom was grabbing her purse and the list of supplies. My mom's name is Charlotte she is a short woman but has more muscles than any other women or most men I have ever met. She doesn't boast about her strength but I have seen her arm wrestling with my dad more than once. My dad's a tall man maybe 6ft something and he goes by the name Jess. He likes to think of himself as a "jess-ter" though his jokes are pretty lame. My dad has ginger hair which he keeps saying is the only reason mom ever smiles at him. Told you lame jokes. If you are wondering I have brown hair like my mom though hers is thicker mine is more wispy which is why I cut my hair short otherwise it would be everywhere no matter how much hair gal I use. I also have my mother's height which is to say I am short, but I'm not as muscular as my mom, one thing I am very proud of is my speed. I am the fastest is school even though I have shortest legs.
"Hurry up and threw the powder in before your father inset he should go" said my mother standing behind me.
As I threw the powder in, I wished to myself that dad would come he might let something slip about the school in all the excitement. Also my dad doesn't like flu powder travel, the spinning, the ash, and falling through peoples fireplaces. He likes broom stick travel a hundred times better. I step into the emerald flames and shouted, "The Fort".
I don't mind flu travel as much as dad, I like the warmth and the speed, but I do wish the spinning and ash were a little less. Coming out of the fire place I stumbled and spun around once before coming to rest on my knees. Knowing my mom was on her way I rolled to the side and took a couple of slow breaths trying to regain my balance.
"You okay, need a hand" that's my mom for you steady as a rock; the trip didn't faze her one bit. Pulling me up we started on our way.
The shopping center comprise of eleven different shops all lining the walls of the tunnel and lit with everlasting torches. The ceiling was 8ft from the ground and the tunnel was 10 ft wide, with each shop carved into the wall. The Mine specialized in non-perishables just in case it ever needed to be used in emergencies. At the beginning of the tunnel where we are now there are 10 fireplaces 5 on each side for those to use at a moment's notice. We started to walk down the Mine; there were a few people out shopping today. Noticing a few other 11year olds with their mothers doing the same things we were here to do.
"Okay are first stop is the bookstore" my mother said looking at the list.
"What's the store's name" I asked so I could help look.
"Books."
"Books, books what?"
"That's it, Books. They keep the names simple since there is only eleven, shops each selling a different product. See that one it's called Pets."
We pasted all of the shops before we reached Books; Pets, Bank, Clothes, Music, Food, Home, Foreign, Alchemy, Potions, and Transportation; each store looked boring and small at the front leaving a lot of room for the tunnel. When you actually walked through the door of the store as we did, the massive size of the store took your breath away. There were hundreds of book shelves and lots of employees walking around helping people look for books. The ceiling of this room was twice as high and 10 times as wide.
"Magic is awesome!" I say with my mouth wide open.
"Yes it is, this whole structure was made both by carvers centuries ago" a female voice said beside my mom. The woman was taller the both of us which wasn't hard, and had stunning blue hair, whiskers, and a large book in her hands and she winked at my mom.
"My name is Nicole. May I help you find anything, today?"
"Yes, we need to find the first year's Beasts of North America, Beginners guide to potions, along with all the other books on this list for fist years at Ilvermorny" my mother replied handing her the list.
Mom didn't seemed phased by the hair or whiskers, of course I had to remind myself that she has been down here a lot more then I. The times I have been down here I have only been in the bank, which is just as big.
"Sure follow me, those are is section 13 B, I have been done there twice today once for another first year, second for a fifth year" she received the list and looked down at it for a second then started walking to the right of use passing me and giving me a wide smile.
She had a lot more sharp teeth then was normal, she also look to be around 18 years old probably just graduated from some school.
"What are you?" I asked as we started to follow her. "Whack"
"That was rude" my own mother had just slapped me across the back of the head, "you can't just ask people like that, now apologize!"
Rubbing the back of my head, "Sorry, I didn't mean to offend you or anything".
Smiling Nicole said, "no it's quite alright I get that question all the time, the truth is I am a normally metamorphmagus, no special powers or anything. I make myself look like this on purpose, I am rather good at transfiguration and I change my appearance weekly for practice" she turned her head again to give me that sharp smile. "You should have seen me last week I had butterfly wings and antennas. Of course I couldn't fly but it was worth it, I had so many people laughing and saying how beautiful my wings were."
She turned left down a row of books; I could see the sign on the book case that had a black number 13 on it. We went down one row and there I saw a red letter B on the second book case. Looking at the list again and then at the case she found the history book grabbed it, then to my amazement threw the book in the air, which then sailed off over the cases. She did this over and over moving around the bookcase. She would say the title, grab the book, and then chuck it into the air.
"Beasts of North America, Beginners Potions, Guide to Alchemy, History of Ilvermorny, Mathematics, Shooting Stars a Guide to Astronomy, and Transfiguration a Beginners Guide. That should do it, are there any other books that you would like."
My mom noticing my bewilderment started to laugh, "In my first year I tried to catch the book. My father laughed so hard, he nearly wet himself."
Gathering my composer, "do you have anything about dragons?"
I have been a fan of dragons since I was three; my dad had taken me on a trip to Romany to see my grandparents and to see dragons, ever since then I have been drawing them.
"Of course, let's see" opening her giant book that had been floating next to her while she was throwing books. She started flipping through it looking for something probably the location of the dragon books. "There you are row 45, sections W. It's a bit of a walk but if you are willing?"
We both looked at my mom.
"Okay, one more book won't hurt." She said with a smile. "lead the way!"
As we started to walk back the way we came, I thought about how amazing this whole place was and how it was more or less the place to go for all the witches and wizards of North America. Of course there are more places to get books and other magical stuff but they were tiny compare to The Fort. The Fort was meant to hold every single witch and wizard in North America for a long period of time. According to mom they had use it, maybe 200 years ago when there had been a war, a three way battle between the giants, Canada and the United States. The battle had lasted 10 long years and that's how long the Fort held the citizen of the USA. The Fort had been smaller at the time, but ever since Canada and North America have been allies the Fort has grown bigger and stronger.
We turned left down the 45th row and started down to section W. The adults were talking amongst each other, probably about girl stuff. We passed a few other people, students, families, and if my eyes weren't deceiving me a grown man in a full piece yellow swim suit carrying five red books that seemed to be singing in Spanish. Okay sure why not we are wizards after all.
"Here we are. You looking for anything particular, or did you just want to browse?" ,she had lead us to a spot where there were a lot of big books bond in leather, and a lot had titles in different languages.
"Browse I think?"
"Okay. If you have any question let me know."
There were some titles that sounded kinda silly like, "Dragon Lullabies", "Master of the Dragon neck", maybe that one taught you how to grow scale on your neck. Then there were other title that sound pretty cool; "The mystery of the Dragon Claw", or "Dragons of the Sea and where to stay away from", I've never seen a sea dragon before maybe I should get that one. Then after I been looking for a while one caught my eyes, "Dragon magic, talents, and power."
"This one defiantly", I said with a big grin on my face.
"Are you sure?" mom looked at the title then flipped it open the book. "Well okay, you know what to do." She handed me the book and we both looked at Nicole.
Nicole nodded and I threw the book high into the air, well I thought was high. It barely passed Nicole's blue hair before it shock and sent itself the rest of the way up and presumably into our pile at the checkout area.
"I guess that's it" said my mother, "we still have lots to do."
The rest of the day went by quickly we stopped by the Potion store and got my ingredients, then to the Alchemy shop to get some tools like chalk, cauldron, charts of elements, candles, scales, and etc. After that, we headed off to the clothes store and bought some uniforms that consisted of nice black pants, white shirts, ties, and vests with the Ilvermorny symbol on it, the alchemy symbol. The nice lady there that worked in the school section said that once you knew what house you were in the symbol would change to match. I tried to ask her more question but my mom hushed her and we moved on. My mom is scary, when she wants to be, but why the secrets "AHHH!"
Then it came to the last and smelliest shop of all, Pets I have been waiting for this one all day I was going to get an owl just like Harry Potter's. Though when we entered the shop, owls flew out of my mind, for this place was more of a zoo then a pet store. They had bears the size of house cats, bats that could deliver letters as well as owls, slugs that were… well… slugs, and so much more. Mom had to hold me back from the miniature dragons, they could blow fire, fly, and they cost a lot of money. They had cockatiels that changed colors with their moods, parrots that could speak French, Spanish, Germen, Portuguese and many others though they seemed a bit dim. It took me a while to decide, but I ended up getting a young Polar Bear Bat 11in high with each wing 2ft long. This magnificent creature was a lot cheaper than the dragons and mom wouldn't have to worry it's not like it could burn down the house during the summer. The bats name's was Bruce, yeah I know like batman, I didn't name it, if I had I would have named it something awesome like Dooms day, Destroyer, or Charlie. After mom heard those names she said the bat was lucky to all ready have a name. "What's wrong with Dooms Day?"