Chapter 2: No wifi?!
[1st year]
It took quite a lot of persuasion but here we were. The logic this school possessed was just great. I live in Edinburgh, Hogwarts is in Scotland as well but Johnson insisted we go to London to take the train to the school. (Johnson is the teacher who came out of nowhere to explain the letter I received.)
Not wanting to make a big deal out of it we obliged, my mom decided to bring me there, but by plane because she couldn't afford to take such a long time off of work. Which resulted in me being unable to bring most of my stuff with me.
My bag was filled with the bare necessities: everything from the list; books on magic and such, even a wand! My Ipad and laptop, some clothes and a credit card to buy more clothing and for emergencies. Apart from that the only things with me were the clothing I wore: A snapback, t-shirt and skinny jeans and my Nike Sneakers. And my phone in my pocket.
It took us over an hour to finally arrive in London where we first went shopping to get me some more clothing (Max had informed me that there weren't any shops near the school) and school supplies. My mom then got a business call.
"Eden honey, I really need to head back I'll drop you off at the station will you manage from there?" she asked, but it's not like I actually had a choice.
"Sure mom, I'll just find Max."
And so it went, She dropped me off at the London train station with my backpack and my new luggage where I sent a text to Max.
Hey Max, I'm at the station where are you?
While I waited for him to send me a text, I took out my train ticket. It said platform 9 and three quarters… Right, I shouldn't have expected a normal platform now should I? That's when my phoned buzzed signaling a text.
I'm already at the platform with my dad. You can get here by walking straight through the pillars between platform 9 and 10. See you in a bit!
After searching for a little while I found the platform all the way at the back of the station. Well, here goes nothing I thought to myself. Half expecting to make a fool of myself and just bump into the wall I walked through it carrying my backpack and suitcase.
Suddenly I was at the platform. I looked around for a bit but it was filled with people so searching for Max was quite pointless. I decided to send him a text.
I'm at the platform, where can I find you?
After sending the text I decided to walk around for a bit and take it all in. I noticed most people wore these kind of old looking robes. They looked hideous to be honest, I just hoped they weren't what one may call wizard fashion. As I progressed I noticed that there were mostly people my age at the platform and most older had already boarded the train. My phone buzzed.
I'm at the front of the train!
Looking around I found what direction to go and headed that way. I found Max and we said our goodbyes to his father, who was also wearing the strange looking robes. I assumed his father is a wizard. We entered the train with our luggage.
Max was carrying his backpack as well and had an old suitcase with him too. As we walked through the train we found most cabins fully occupied so when we finally found one that was occupied by just one girl we took our chance.
"Can we join you? The train is very full." Max asked her.
"Yes sure, come in." She answered enthusiastically. "Are you first years?" she asked eyeing our luggage and clothing as we sat down and put our stuff away.
"Yes" I answered "Are you? …And how can you tell?"
"I'm a second year. I can tell because of your luggage. Most students use much smaller suitcases, we use spells to enlarge them on the inside. Your clothing betrayed you as well, most students get changed into their uniforms before boarding the train, like me." That made sense I guess.
"So you're a Hufflepuff!" Max exclaimed looking at her uniform.
"That's right" she said smiling "And what house do you want to get sorted into?"
"Ravenclaw or hufflepuff as well I guess." Max said. "I just don't want to end up in the whole Gryffindor versus Slytherin drama."
"And what house would you like …?" she trailed off.
"Eden" I said. "My name's Eden and that's Max."
"I'm Kathy, nice to meet you. So what house?"
"I don't really know anything about these house or about Hogwarts at all so I don't have a clue." I said glaring at Max who was putting his hands up. "Hey, you never asked!" he said.
We then fell into comfortable conversation. About what Hogwarts was like and the magical world. We spend most of the journey like that and playing games on our phones.
"You better get changed into your uniforms" Kathy said. "We're almost there."
"Yes I guess, let's see…" I answered while pulling the pieces that made up our uniforms out of my suitcase. "Are we obliged to wear all of this?!" I asked incredulously.
"There aren't any strict rules, I asked my dad" Max answered. "I didn't really feel like wearing it either so I asked him, they apparently got rid of the rules regarding the uniform when Umbridge left and never bothered to instate new ones. They may have just forgotten to though." he explained.
"Everybody does wear all of it though." Kathy said. "It's the standard I guess…"
"Well let's break that standard!" I exclaimed. "Because there is no way in hell I'm wearing that skirt." We continued getting dressed.
I opted to just keep my skinny jeans on, they were black anyways so they wouldn't really stand out. I did put on the shirt but rolled up the sleeves and put the tie on loosely. Max put his shirt on top of his t-shirt keeping it unbuttoned. He decided to not wear the tie at all and just keep his jeans on as well.
"It's by far too hot to wear those robes." Max said putting his hoodie and everything that was supposed to be the uniform back into his suitcase.
Kathy was looking at us chuckling. "I think you guys are going to be making a lot of changes to Hogwarts" she said. "Nobody ever dared to change the uniform. By the way you can just leave you luggage here, the house-elves will make sure it ends up in whichever house you get sorted into."
After a while the train stopped signaling they had arrived at the school. Kathy led them out of the train onto the platform where they said their goodbyes because the first years had to continue their journey by boat. As we walked towards the other first years everyone was looking at us, probably because of our uniforms.
"This is bullshit!" I said. "Why can't we just go by carriage. It'll take much longer to go by boat."
Max nodded. "I agree, but it's tradition, my dad told me." Max said.
Suddenly a loud low voice sounded. "First years with me!" It was a man, no a giant! He was over two meters long and had long blackish grey hair and a beard. He looked over all the first years. His gaze stopping on us for a second and snorting. "Well, well first years. I am RubeusHagrid and you will be following me to the boat." He said in his loud voice. And signaled for us to follow him.
He started walking and we followed at the front of the group, apparently everyone else seemed somewhat scared of him. As we were walking he looked back at us grinning. "You guys better watch out, the headmistress isn't too fond of rule breakers." He warned us.
"We aren't breaking the rules, because there aren't any regarding the uniforms." Max answeredsmuggly.
"I like you." Hagrid said. "It's true but I'd still watch out, you don't want to get on her bad side. I'd be safer to put on your robes once we're there just to make a good first impression."
We nodded, agreeing to it. We continued to the boats, Max and I shared one. Hogwarts apparently was more like a castle than an actual school. It took about half an hour for us to actually reach the Hogwarts grounds. When we set foot on the small beach we decided to put on our robes as Hagrid had advised.
As we entered the castle a woman was waiting for us.
"Welcome to Hogwarts first years" She said. "My name is Minerva McGonagall I am the headmistress of Hogwarts. You will follow me upstairs into the great hall where you will be sorted into your house. You house will be your family during the seven year of your life you will be spending here at Hogwarts. Now follow me."
We followed her up the stairs and into the Great Hall.
"Woah look at the ceiling!" Max whispered. "It's even more awesome than how my dad described it." I looked up expecting a ceiling but I looked up straight into the sky!
McGonagall halted and turned around. "Wait here until I call your name. Then take a seat on the chair up there." She pointed at it and walked up to it taking a scroll of paper.
"Jack Whitehall." She called out. A boy with white-blonde hair walked up to the chair. Confidence in his stride. He sat down and McGonagall placed this old brownish hat on top of his head. After a few seconds the hat exclaimed "Slytherin!".
People at the far right table started clapping s the boy walked towards them and sat down. This process continued for a while until…
"Max Jones" McGonagall called out.
"Oh my God" Max whispered as he walked up to the chair trembling and sat down, after a minute or so the hat called out "Ravenclaw!" Max visibly relaxed and a smirk showed on his face. He did a thumbs up at me as he walked to what was the Ravenclaw table.
A little later and it was my turn. I hadn't really gotten a clue in which house I wanted to get but because Max got into Ravenclaw I thought it'd be nice to go there too. When the hat was put on my head it started mumbling to me.
"Hmmmm. A good set of brains… yes.. but rebellious as well, Slytherin would be a good fit but brave as well. What should I do with you?" it said into my head.
I coughed and under my breath I mumbled "Ravenclaw".
"Ravenclaw? I don't think all your abilities would fully develop there… hmmmm I'm going to go for…" "Gryffindor!"
Shit, I cursed to myself. That meant I wouldn't be in the same house as Max! I walked down to the Gryffindor table and sat down near the end. I was greeted by a girl with black unruly hair who seemed to be some older than me but not much.
"Hello, I'm Bella I'm a third year." She said. "And this is Alice, my sister she's starting this year as well." She pointed to the girl next to her, she resembled her sister the same black wavy hair and features but she seemed somewhat shy.
"I'm Eden, nice to meet you two." I answered her while looking at the table where Max was seated. I turned my attention back to them. "Do we only follow classes with our own housemates?" I asked them.
"Oh no, you follow all classes with first years from one other house, for example potions we tend to do with the Slytherins while we take flying lessons with the Ravenclaws. Do you have friends in the other houses?" Bella elaborated.
"Yes, my best friend just got sorted into Ravenclaw." I said. "But I'm sure I'll make friends fast enough." I took my phone out to send a text to Max.
Apparently we get to take classes with other houses, let's compare schedules when we have some free time.
It took quite some time to actually send though because I could barely get a signal here.
"By the way, Bella. Do you know how to get wifi here, I think the network is hidden because I can't find it." I asked her.
She looked at me incredulously and giggled.
"I'm sorry to disappoint you but there's no wifi here, most purebloods don't even know there is such a thing as the internet."
Oh. My. God. I thought to myself. How in the hell am I going to survive in this place for seven years!