Hi, finally almost done with finals! God, I just finished a crucifying exam last week! Sooo, finally, I have a slot of time to update! Sooo, here's more of the Hogwarts students' American experience...the usual disclaimers that none of the characters that Harry Potter fans recognize are mine. The American characters and Shankspell are mine, however, but alas, dear Harry belongs to the wonderful JK Rowlings. Thank you, JK, for bringing a dear like Harry to all of us! Upward and onward with...

Hogwarts and Shankspell

By: CNJ

PG-13

2: Welcome to the United States!

Harry:

The next few hours went by at breakneck speed. Once we landed and got our luggage out, our professors led us out of the airport and McGonagall led us to a taxi. We split into several, actually. They were so big compared to the cars back home in England!
"Where to?" the driver asked. It was interesting hearing the broad, rather flat American accent.
"Broadskniets Inn," Hooch told the driver. As we headed there, the driver peered at us a few times curiously even though we were in muggle clothing. Broadskniets Inn was right in downtown Manhattan in the middle of New York City. We spent the ride gaping around at all the sights. The buildings were tall just like the ones in London, but they were more glass, steel, and sleeker.
"Look, the Statue of Liberty!" Cheria suddenly bellowed. We jumped, then peered over to the right and sure enough, in the distance, we could see a faint green statue of a woman with a torch. I gasped softly as other muttered things like, "Wow..." "That torch looks like a wand..." "She's beautiful..." She kind of faded in and out like an apparition over the New York Harbor. It was a twenty-minute ride and we were let off at a Station called Times Square. We met the others there and McGonagall blew her whistle, then told us, "Follow me..." We did until we reached the Broadskniets Inn, which somewhat resembled the Leaky Cauldron, but it was more western in appearance. People of all sizes, colors and shapes milled around and there were dim fluorescent lights all over in different colors. McGonagall led us to the back and tapped her wand three times on a huge kettle in the back. The kettle split and opened onto a huge street filled with stores and to the right was a huge building that housed a horde of big stores. All of us were talking away as we headed down the street, which was named Gridley Alley. Just like Diagon Alley, I thought.
"That's what they call a mall or a plaza," Hermione told us as we passed the store cluster. "They have those lots here in the States." We passed several more store clusters or malls on the way to a huge tube that resembled cars connected together. Once again, we gaped at the sights. There was an exciting mix of people and other species! I saw elves, goblins, and little halflings among the humans. I also heard a diversity of languages spoken along the streets. The United States truly is a country of immigrants, I thought. Once we got to the tube, a tall witch met us there and welcomed us with a smile.
"I'm Professor Anne Waltrane, Principal of Shankspell. Welcome to the United States." We greeted her in return as we gathered onto the tube. In the States, Headmistresses and Headmasters are called principals. It wasn't a ground tube like the Hogwarts Express, but it lifted into the air and over the Hudson River. All Professor Waltrane had to do was tap her wand over a console-like board at the front and say, "Shankspell Academy, please."
Shankspell Academy was a tall building that resembled a large flat building. It was mostly red brick, but had some curved archways, large windows, and a miniature Statue of Liberty over the door. It was a really pretty, bright building. Shankspell Academy of Sorcery, square magical lettering floated over what I took to be the front entrance, which was a large glass door. My heart banged in excitement as all of us became quiet with anticipation.
"Bloody wicked..." Ron muttered.
"God..." Lavender added as we went in. The inside was exquisite too in a different way than the stone castle structure of Hogwarts. Shankspell had high enchanted ceilings too, but there was more brick designs and some magical patterns dancing on the walls. Outside their...Great Hall, I figured, was an enormous moving mural of various American scenes, especially many Native American scenes. I'd always been curious about the first Native Americans and I thought I'd even seen some on the way here and suspected that Professor Waltrane had some Native American in her. It's really too bad that back then Europeans invaded this place and drove most of them far west, where so many perished. We'd studied about that in Muggle Studies and it's just so sad.
"Come on in, your tables are ready..." A professor poked his head out. "I'm Vice-Principal Jonathan McClure. And here is the Grand Rotunda." The Grand Rotunda was Shankspell's equivalent of our Great Hall. We poured in and were introduced. The Grand Rotunda was a large, round room with tables of different shapes.
"Students...these are the Hogwarts students from London, England," the professor went on. He had thick, salt-and-peppery hair with a short beard, but no mustache and was a bit on the round side. "Let's give them a huge welcome to America!"
"Welcome to America..." "Hope you have a great visit here..." "Wait till you see some of the cool stuff we have here!" were some of the greetings as we sat among the American students. My friends and I managed to grab one end of a table. The students here are just as diverse as the general American wizard population, I realized in delight. I noticed several denim robes among the robes and made a mental note to at least try on something denim before I went back home. All around, I noticed several halflings sitting among the humans and even a couple of merpeople and someone who had what appeared to be a lizard's tail and hind legs. Hermione had already gotten acquainted with two witches next to us and were talking a mile a minute about the histories of both schools. The two witches introduced themselves as Barbara Maroni and Lira Goldmeyer. I mostly listened and Ron, who was mostly talking to a big heavy wizard across from him named Ben Bosentra, occasionally tossed a comment in our direction. Cheria also went back and forth between the two groups as well.
"Hey, is it true that you all defeated this powerful evil wizard last fall?" Barbara asked us.
"Yes, we did," Ron grinned. He told them about our Gryffindor retreat and how we surrounded the evil wizard Voldemort last fall on a windy November night and chanted good spells until he'd dissolved into ashes. They'd vaguely heard of the evil wizard that had terrorized the London magical community for years, but didn't have too many details of the actual defeat. Lira, Barbara, and Ben told us about a few evil sorcerers that had been on this side of the ocean, but none of them had been as powerful of Voldemort had been so far. There had been a group of death eaters, only they're called sorcerkills here, that had run wild around the New York magical world until a group of their students had caught them using a special spell that froze them in the act until their aurors caught up with them. The night went by quickly as we ate and by the time we were shown where we'd sleep, which are adjacent to the Shankspell dorms, I was full and kind of grinning.
"Their Quidditch teams are about top speed in this country," Ron told me as we lay down. Shankspell has three houses here...Hudson, Grenswith, and Libertrar. I wonder if they are named after their founders?
"Ummm..." I was nodding off already. It's so neat meeting a different culture. They were on spring break later this week, so we'd sit through some of their classes at first, then see the city in the second half. I was looking forward to this week.

More later!