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!
