On the 2nd of January, Hermione was up with the dawn. She packed her stuff into a large suitcase, including the books she had gotten in Diagon Alley. She didn't know if she would need them but it wouldn't hurt to be prepared. At 8 o'clock sharp, she heard a knock on the door. Opening it, Hermione met the gaze of an old regal looking woman with hair white as bone and piercing blue eyes. The way she stood made it seem like she could kill Hermione without a thought.
'Be brave Hermione' She told herself as she tilted her chin a bit higher in an attempt to appear braver. She was nervous and confused. She thought that Ms. Sicari was going to pick her up.
The woman laughed. It was a warm sound, and even though it was probably directed at her, Hermione didn't feel mocked. The woman's smile was kind as was her laugh.
"My name is Professor Sylvestris. Headmistress Sicari had to finalize a few things, so I offered to take the students she was going to pick up. I will be teaching the students about sirens and the stigmas that come with it, reading body language, and lie detecting. You probably won't ever need to know how to be in tune with your inner wild cat or wolf though. Anyway, come along now."
Hermione followed the professor into the street. A large carriage pulled by large grey winged horses waited at the side of the road by her house. Hermione wanted to gape. Professor Sylvestris smiled back at her.
"Come on. All the students from the U.K and Britain are in there. You are one of the new student's from the U.K right?" She smiles to show it was meant in jest.
Hermione nods and gingerly steps into the carriage as Professor Sylvestris levitated her suitcase into the storage compartment. Inside she found an empty seat and sat down.
As the carriage lifted off she looked around at the others in the carriage. A young boy around her age watched out the window with his head on his knees. Hermione wondered if she should talk to him. Another boy sat by himself, staring around at the other occupants with veiled distaste. His blond hair was slicked back When his eyes met hers Hermione flinched. Even though she looked her age there was no way she would talk to someone who hated her without meeting her. She had hoped that this school wouldn't have people like that. Hermione hoped the blond boy was the exception, not the rule. Other kids around her age sat together in clusters, but they already seemed so tight-knit as though they had grown up together. There is a small creature with large ears dressed in rags. It is sitting sullenly on the floor of the carriage next to a seemingly younger creature that was like the first one only with better clothes. There were also a few floating lights in a cluster by one of the windows and merry tinkling sounds came from it. A few other people sat throughout the carriage but they were all older than Hermione and she wasn't brave enough to talk to them., She hated to admit it but she was so out of her depth right now she didn't think she could deal with talking to the small creatures on the floor.
In actuality, there were more people in the carriage than Hermione had expected. She had expected less because it was a new school and most people didn't want to risk losing out on 'actual' education. Hermione felt a shock go through her looking at all the children in the carriage, except for a few like her who had been accepted into Hogwarts everyone here had been shunned by the wizarding community. It made her sick.
Hermione wanted to fit in and for that, she needed to make connections. The boy looking out the window seemed the safest bet to Hermione at the time. Gathering up her courage Hermione stood and made her way to the seat next to the boy.
"Hi. My name's Hermione. What's your name?" She said with a cheery grin.
The boy looked up and smiled nervously back.
"Neville. Neville Longbottom. I was planning on Hogwarts next term. I turn 11 in July. But when I got this offer, well, my Gran said it would probably be the one time I would get chosen specially, I guess, I decided I should come. They weren't sure I would be accepted into Hogwarts and until Ms. Sicari came they thought I was a Squib."
Hermione nodded inwardly cheering. The boy was more like her than she thought. Except for the magical family. And he was almost her age.
"I'm the same. Kind of. I'm a muggle-born and I got my Hogwarts letter, I would be starting in your year even though I'm 11 because my birthday is after the start of term, and then I heard about this school, and it seemed like a chance to learn more about this world I just found out about. This place seemed like a better option. Aren't you excited?"
Neville looked at her for a moment before nodding. But Hermione knew that he was probably scared like she was that the school would fall through.
Nodding to herself Hermione looked out the window and gasped at the sight of the ground rushing by far beneath them. It was absolutely stunning, and normally she would have been afraid but all she felt was awestruck. This was going to be her life, up in the sky, she already felt like she never wanted to go down. Settling down more comfortably next to Neville, Hermione spent the rest of the journey looking out the window at the sight of the world passing by beneath her and alternately grilling Neville on things in the magical world.
When the carriage landed, Hermione was one of the first people off. She stepped off the carriage and into a courtyard made of clouds. Actual clouds. Bridges made of light spanned to other clouds where buildings rose rose. Four bridges went to clouds only wide enough to support a tall tower. Each tower faced one of the four cardinal directions. As one carriage emptied another landed. Carriages from everywhere on Earth. Waiting for everyone to arrive stood the Professors, those who hadn't gone to pick up students. Hermione could see Ms. Sicari, Headmistress Sicari if Professor Sylvestris as to be believed. The professors who had gone to pick up students joined the other professors until all the professors stood in front of the crowd of anxious students. The carriages departed flying off in the direction of another lower down cloud. Hermione stood sandwiched between the people from her carriage, the blond boy stood on one side, Neville on the other and the twinkling lights floated around in crowds throughout the air. Hermione almost jumped out of her skin when one of the light popped and a humanoid girl with pointed ears and silver hair appeared where before there had been light. She was dressed in a gown of light gossamer fabric that seemed to float in the air. She looked back at Hermione's involuntary gasp and grinned toothily. Hermione smiled back hesitantly.
The students slowly all quieted and once one could hear a pin drop(would a dropped pin make a sound on a cloud, Hermione wondered) Headmistress Sicari spoke.
"Welcome all. In a moment everyone will be sorted and given a wand, if necessary. For all immediate intents and purposes if you need to go someplace call out your name and the place you need to be and a trail only you can see will appear to your destination. No misbehaving or skipping class will be tolerated. Other than that have fun, branch out and learn. You'll be called forward one at a time for sorting. Once sorted and you have a wand go to the island that matches the direction of your house. Is that understood?" She paused. At the chorus of yes, she began calling names. Some sounded odd to Hermione but that was probably because they belonged to foreign magical creatures.
She watches with interest as each person give a drop of blood and reach into a box and pull out a wand. As they spin around and around 7 times before they stop facing one of the bridges. It is not as interesting as a hat, like what she read in Hogwarts A History but it is more like a choice than a hat choosing for you.
When Hermione is called forward she steps forward nervously. She can feel eyes on her and feels an urge to shrink in on herself. She takes the proffered knife and slices her palm letting her blood drip onto the lid of the box that the wandmaker shoves towards her. Two drops and she reaches in. She feels a wand fly to her hand and stick and she withdraws her hand. In her hand was a wand with a curved handle about 11 inches. The wand-maker murmured to her Vine wood dragon heartstring. She was given a holster that fit around her wrist under her sleeve. Once her wand was in place on her arm Hermione went to the middle and spun, muttering under her breath with her eyes scrunched closed..
"One, two, three, four, five, six, seven!"
At seven she stopped and swayed slightly before opening her eyes. She was facing East. Stumbling slightly, she was still dizzy, she made her way over to where the others in East stood. With the rest of her new house, Hermione watched the rest of the sorting. The boy she had talked to on the carriage ride here wound up facing the Northern island. A Phaet Tousilee and a Draco Malfoy both joined them in the East. And when the last person had been sorted, the fae that had grinned at her, Zarya, facing West, a professor led each group of students of the bridge and taught them how to get into the tower that corresponded to the direction they had been facing.
Once in her new bed in her new dormitory in a new school, Hermione listened to the sounds of the others around her age sleep before turning over and falling asleep herself.