Dinner ended with a horrific caterwauling thinly disguised as a school song. Jazz desperately hoped that it wasn't a nightly occurrence, though he did appreciate the ginger twin's solemn funeral march from across the room. Minutes later two older students were leading the small group of first years down through the dungeons to the Slytherin dormitories. They stopped in front of a blank wall.
"This is the only entrance to Slytherin house. The password that opens the door will be changed monthly, and the new one will be posted by the door. The current password is Sly Subtlety. I'd like you to repeat that back to me please." Gemma Farley, the Slytherin girl prefect, who looked remarkably androgynous despite her skirt, spoke crisply, but listened as the group of children parroted the passphrase back to her.
She nodded approvingly and swept the small group into a lavish room full of couches, desks, and bookshelves with an odd bean bag chair scattered around. She observed each child for a moment, eyes sharp and crafty, reminiscent of a jaded alley cat.
"Professor Snape is head of Slytherin house and will welcome you himself in a moment. For now, I welcome you to the House of the Cunning and Clever. I look forward to watching you learn the tricks and traps inherent to our house. I am aware that Professor Snape can be very intimidating to those unused to his manner. If you need anything tonight, I will be on a couch by the fire. If you need anything in the future that you would not be comfortable asking Professor Snape, then I am your Prefect and I would be more than happy to help."
With that she turned and stalked to the indicated couch and settled in with a book. Jazz watched her for a minute, absently noting the dour Professor stepping out of the shadows behind him.
"As Ms. Farley has said I am Professor Snape, head of Slytherin House. I teach potions. Slytherin will be your house, home, and family for the next seven years. There is no changing this.
"Slytherin is not well liked. We are bullied, belittled, and begrudged. You will not further this belief by starting fights. You may defend yourselves accordingly however, use caution and wisdom when you do so. Protect each other, and help each other. In house disputes remain behind closed doors, and will not be flaunted in front of the other houses. I will set aside times to speak with each of you individually tomorrow. For now, your beds await." He turned and swept away without a backwards glance.
The small group of first years stayed in place for a long moment before Jazz broke off from them. Blaise and Theo exchanged looks before following Jazz, the rest of the first years following at a distance. Jazz stopped in front of Gemma Farley and she looked up from her book at him. Jazz simply watched her for a minute.
"Ye-es?" She drawled, looking incredibly amused, "Do you have a question?"
"Do you have preferred pronouns?" The blunt question drew gasps from all around Jazz and the common room grew silent. Professor Snape paused in the doorway.
"Yes. They/thems if you would. Thank you for asking." They smiled at him and Jazz grinned back. The blond kid, Malfoy, began to loudly protest and Gemma glanced sideways at him.
"Draco! Come." Malfoy sulkily followed Professor Snape through a doorway behind a portrait.
"That's one of the entrances to his office. He likes being accessible. So, the dorms are split. In the dungeons we have a lot more room than in the towers, so we have that option. Do we have any other agender people?" The group all shook their heads, but Gemma looked at Jazz who had tilted his head to the side before nodding. Theo openly gaped and Blaise let out an odd sputtering sound before falling silent.
"Interesting. We rarely get people that know that already in first year. What are your preferred pronouns, and where would you rather stay?" All of the first years watched Gemma and Jazz wide eyed.
"He/him. I mostly just dress however I like and have neutral preferences. I can stay in the boy dorms." Gemma nodded and hopped off the couch, leading the group to a corridor at the other end of the room.
"Alright. Girls dorms are to the left. Boys are to the right. Firsties start at the very end. Keep going until you get to the door with your names on the placard by the door. Lights out is in an hour, goodnight." The group split down the corridor and started to their rooms.
Jazz, Theo, and Blaise were all in the same room and Jazz promptly claimed the bed farthest from the door with the method of jumping face first onto it. Blaise took the bed next to Jazz's, leaving Theo the bed closest to the door. Very shortly all three were in bed.
Jazz woke up early in the morning. A quick glance at his watch told him it was 5 Am and he wasn't surprised. The time difference between New York and Scotland was significant, and jet lag had ruined many more circadian cycles than Jazz's.
In short order Jazz had slipped out of the Slytherin Dorm and was running around the lake. The Creeps led a highly active lifestyle, and Jazz hadn't seen any indication of a PE class. At 6:15 Am Jazz slipped back into his shared room.
Blaise and Theo were still asleep. Jazz let a mischievous grin grow as he contemplated how to fix this travesty. Jazz carefully twisted his magic to create makeshift orbs of shifting green energy and slowly began filling them with icy cold water. The orbs drifted to hover directly over Blaise and Theo. With a loud popping noise the green energy dissipated leaving the water to fall.
Blaise jerked up with a high pitched shriek and Theo attempted to roll away from the water, but only succeeded in rolling off the bed entirely. Jazz burst out laughing and Blaise hurled a pillow into his face.
"C'mon, breakfast is in, like, forty-five minutes." Theo stumbled to the bathroom to shower, and Blaise slowly began dragging clothes out of his trunk and onto himself. Half an hour later when the three of them had made it to the great hall for breakfast, Theo was bright eyed and awake, and Blaise was barely awake and grumpy as a bear.
Breakfast was an array of various foodstuffs and Jazz gravitated towards the waffles. Blaise munched on a piece of toast while downing as much coffee as he could. Jazz was amusing himself by putting more and more within his reach to see what he'd be like when the caffeine had kicked in. Theo was beginning to look apprehensive as Blaise began his eighth cup.
Snape was slowly working his way down the table handing out schedules. As he got closer Jazz noticed that he looked about as awake as Blaise.
"Potter, Nott, Zabini. Your timetables." Snape's tone was acerbic, with a gruff edge from drowsiness.
"Roger's, if you please, Professor. Coffee?" Snape blinked and accepted the cup offered.
"Rogers. Fine then. First years have no morning classes, I suggest that you use the time to study ahead, especially in potions. I expect all of my Slytherins to excel to the best of their ability in my class." The Professor spun around and stalked off. Blaise blinked and stared at Jazz from across the table.
"What'd you give him coffee for?" Theo broke first and began snickering and Jazz joined in. After a moment Jazz got up and wandered over to the Ravenclaw table and tapped Hermione on her shoulder.
"Hey, any morning classes?" Hermione shook her head and swallowed her bite of oatmeal.
"Nope. Neville doesn't have any either. Is there somewhere all of us from the train can meet up?" Jazz grinned.
"Yeah. There's, like, eighteen empty classrooms between here and Slytherin commons. We're going to meet in one of those. Theo and Blaise are almost done eating, if you grab Neville we could walk together." Hermione nodded and went for the Gryffindor table. A moment later all five were walking down the hall together.
In the empty classroom they'd chosen they all sat in a circle. Blaise still had a mug of coffee, and Neville was going to town on an apple, but Theo was staring at Jazz.
"What is agender? You said you were, whatever that is." Hermione gasped and looked affronted at Theo, before she looked at Jazz expectedly.
"I figured that was coming at some point. Agender is an atypical gender. The typical genders are girls and boys, right?" Blaise nodded and Theo did as well.
"But what else is there than girls and boys?" Neville's voice wavered with his confusion.
"I'm about to explain. Agender is anything other. There's genderfluid, which means that people might change depending on how they feel each day. There's also gender-neutral, which means that they don't feel like a girl or a boy. Genderqueer covers all of the atypical agender options in one group. It's very helpful. I tend to be gender-neutral, I dress how I like, act how I like, and do what I like, regardless of gender norms."
"It's probably more common in the muggle world than the wizarding one. It's a particularly small percentage of the population. Do you have preferred pronouns?" Jazz gave Hermione a grin at her interjection.
"I'm really ok with whatever. They/them are probably the most accurate, and most people are more comfortable with he/him, and my little sister likes she/her. Most of my family just pick one on the fly. It's totally up to you. I am pretty much good with whatever."
"So, it's not really going to be an issue with Malfoy?" Jazz grinned at Blaise.
"Only if he makes it one. We should play a-get-to-know-you game." Hermione lit up and the three boys all looked confused.
"I know a good one! It's called Toss the Ball!" Neville looked even more confused so Hermione continued, "You have a ball, and you ask a question, everyone else answers it, and you toss the ball to the person of your choice. Then it's their turn to answer."
"Oh! That's pretty neat! We don't have a ball, though." Blaise looked around the small circle of children seated on the floor. Jazz let a mischievous grin grow on his face.
Jazz's magic coalesced into the middle of the circle and then flowed away leaving a red foam dodgeball sitting on the floor. The others gaped for a long moment.
"Oh! It's wish magic, isn't it?" Jazz gave Hermione a half grin.
"No, it's not", she let out a confused noise so Jazz continued, "When I was little, my magic was lashing out at my siblings and hurting them. As a result, I began learning control of it early. But since none of my family knew about the wizarding world, we made it up as we went, so it's all wandless. It'll be interesting figuring out a wand." Jazz was getting really glad that his siblings and him had already sat down to hash out cover stories that were mostly true. Saying that he'd been taught by an ancient Eldritch being of Chaos and Insanity probably wouldn't have gone over too well.
"So, what's wish magic?" Blaise asked, looking quite miffed. Jazz and Hermione glanced at each other before Hermione took point.
"Wish magic is a form of accidental magic, most commonly performed by muggleborns or muggle-raised, where there's a small measure of control. I wish that would happen, and it does, for example. I used wish magic a bunch, so Professor Mcgonagall explained it." Neville blinked and looked at Hermione.
"I think I can see why you're in Ravenclaw." Hermione wilted completely and stared at the floor. Blaise narrowed his eyes at her.
"You are going to get along great with Theo. He's a bookworm too. I still think that he's a Ravenclaw in disguise." Theo threw a glare at Blaise, but Blaise ignored it in favor of watching Hermione look up and smile shyly.
"I'll go first", Neville reached for the ball, "What are your favorite colours?" Blaise was the first to respond.
"Yellow. Like a happy marigold." Blaise looked to Theo next to him.
"Blue. Royal blue." Theo's eyes flicked to Jazz on his left.
"Bright green." Jazz's answer had everyone laughing. There were bright green strips in his hair, as well as light jade nail polish, so his favorite color was obvious.
"Mine is white, like the pages of an old book." Hermione got blank looks from the circle before Neville let out an amused huff.
"My favorite color is green, like plants or life. I don't think anyone was surprised by Jazz's, but Hermione's really surprised me." Neville lightly tossed the ball at Hermione, who promptly fumbled the catch.
"Um, what do you think your favorite subject is going to be?" There was a short round of laughter at the quintessential Ravenclaw question.
"Herbology." Neville smiled softly as he answered.
"Charms." Blaise grinned.
"Potions." Theo's answer earned a grin from Hermione, evidently she might enjoy it as well.
"Defense against the Dark Arts. I'm looking forward to learning about the magical version of something that I've grown up with." Jazz grinned crookedly and got flat looks from everyone.
"Transfiguration. Why aren't I surprised that you are looking forward to the most
potentially aggressive class?" Hermione's voice was droll and Jazz grinned at her.
"Because you know me a bit?" Jazz pulled out a pocket knife and flicked it open and closed a couple times, earning a snort from Hermione, and nervous looks from the other three.
"Yeah, that must be it. Blaise, catch!" Hermione threw the ball straight at Blaise's face and he glared for a moment after he had caught it.
"What are your favorite holidays?" He fiddled with the ball rolling it on the floor between his hands.
"Christmas." Theo said.
"Halloween." Jazz grinned sharply at the group.
"My birthday. My parents do a book scavenger hunt around the house." The entire group laughed at Hermione.
"Spring Equinox." Neville grinned happily.
"Ooh, that's a good one. Mine's probably Christmas too." Blaise smiled and hummed A Natale Puoi softly. Jazz hummed it with him.
"Why's Spring Equinox a good pick?" Hermione asked curiously.
"It's one of the Sabbats. They're the eight days a year when magic is at its highest. They used to be the holy days, but the Light is doing away with the old traditions." Theo seemed genuinely shocked that she wouldn't know that.
"Why?" Jazz directed the question at Theo, but Neville answered.
"They're trying to be progressive, and follow the path of development, and forgetting the reasons for those traditions. A lot of light families still practice the traditions, but they're just quiet about it. My family does. A lot of it is Dumbledore's fault, with him wanting everyone to be like muggles."
"What's wrong with that?" Hermione was indignant.
"Nothing, in principle. In practice, we are magical and there's reasons for those traditions. Magic, being magic, is unpredictable and dangerous and it still isn't really understood." Blaise's voice was very matter of fact.
"Huh. Well, Blaise, who's your pick?" Jazz changed the subject, it sounded political and he wanted more information first.
"Can I pick Hermione again? The book scavenger hunt is so completely her."
"No. Definitely not yet. Let everyone else have a chance." Hermione shook her head.
"Theo, catch." Blaise threw the ball at Theo hard, and it hit him straight in the face. Theo lay on the floor for a moment before glaring viciously at Blaise as he sat up.
"What are you looking forward to most at Hogwarts?", Theo paused before continuing, "That isn't a school subject."
"Learning another culture and the laws with it." Jazz looked at Hermione.
"Magic! It's really cool, and there's so much possibility!" Hermione's answer got a laugh and muttered Ravenclaw out of nearly everyone. It was rapidly becoming a running joke.
"Getting away from my Grandmother. I love her, but she has very different expectations for me than I want to even consider." Nevile stared at the floor as he spoke.
"New friends. Proper friends rather than the political allies that my mom wants me to have. Theo's awesome, but he's not always social and I usually am." Blaise grinned but avoided looking at Theo.
"New friends, and learning a different perspective of the world than my dad has." Theo elbowed Blaise and the boys grinned at each other, Blaise with his usual wide grin, and Theo with a soft smile.
Jazz caught the ball and rolled it between his hands, "Well, I guess I'm the last in the round. What are you going to miss most from home?"
"My bedroom. I love my parents, but we're not close, since they're always working, so this isn't going to be very much different. I'll still see them for holidays like usual, but I loved having my own space."
Hermione sounded slightly ashamed of her answer and Jazz and Neville both leaned on her sides comfortingly for a moment until she smiled softly.
"My greenhouses. They're one of the only things that I have from my mom, and I love feeling close to her when I work in them. It's relaxing." Neville smiled sadly and Hermione grabbed and squeezed his hand.
"My mom. I've always done everything important with her, and she homeschooled me all my life. At least, up to now." Blaise shifted uncomfortably.
"My family's library. The Hogwarts library is light based so it won't have resources for everything, or anything that might be controversial." Theo got a grin from Hermione.
"My family. We're all really close. This is already the longest I've been away from home."
Jazz fell silent along with the rest before a short beeping began. Hermione glanced at her watch as she clicked off the alarm.
"It's time for lunch, and then classes." Hermione scrambled up and pulled Neville with her.
"We should all eat at the Hufflepuff table together. It's the only house none of us are in." Blaise's suggestion had everyone agreeing.
"What are your schedules? The Ravens have Charms with the Hufflepuffs after lunch. And then Herbology with the Slytherins." Hermione asked as she started down the hall.
"Potions with the Gryffindors and then Herbology." Theo had pulled out his schedule, looking it over as he walked.
"Cool." Neville sounded slightly disappointed that he didn't have Herbology that day.
Jazz broke the resulting silence, "Is there a wizarding government?"
"Random, but yes. There's the Ministry of Magic and the Wizengamot. Why?" Blaise questioned.
"That's going to be the first thing I research, I think." Jazz looked thoughtful, his history lessons with Toby had taught him not to trust a government without thorough research. Corruption was inevitable, and it was best to know where it was.
"I'll do it with you." Hermione was grinning excitedly.
"Me too, my Gran's on the Wizengamot, so I can offer information from the light side." Neville offered.
"My father is too, on the dark side though, so I can do that too." Theo's voice was quiet and he stared at the ground.
"I haven't got British political connections, but Italy is much more lax on the Dark restrictions so I can probably get books that are banned in Britain." Blaise was walking backwards so he could see the group.
"Awesome! Thanks y'all!" Jazz beamed around at the bewildered expressions of his friends.
"Americans actually say that? I thought it was a joke!" Hermione had stopped in the middle of the Great Hall to stare at Jazz.
"Uh, yeah? It's a real thing?" Jazz and Hermione stared at each other in complete bewilderment. Theo and Blaise pulled Jazz down to sit at the table while Neville did the same for Hermione.
"Potions is going to be interesting, Snape is supposed to be a strict teacher." Theo muttered around a mouthful of spaghetti.
"I'm more excited about Herbology, honestly." Neville said wryly, "Snape hates all the Gryffindors according to all of the older years." The whole group laughed at that earning them odd looks from the Hufflepuffs around them. Conversation flowed easily between the five of them.
Sorry about the wait y'all...