Spider: Well, I've said it before and I'll say it again, we do not own the world of Harry Potter, just this little niche of it that we've carved out for ourselves. So please, no suing, k?

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"Grandma!" the young boy yelled happily as he shot ahead like a bullet to hug the aforementioned grandparent. Smiling, the elderly woman wrapped him up in a big hug, before passing him off to his grandfather.

"It's nice to see you too dear. It's nice to see all of you again," the last being directed towards Cady, her older brother, and her parents as they caught up to the rest of their family group. Soon enough everyone had gotten their hugs taken care of, which was good, because they only had a few minutes before they'd all have to leave again.

"Thanks so much again Mom, for looking after the boys while we're away."

"Oh it's no trouble at all. We love having any of you over, you know that. You all just have a good time at this open house, and be sure to tell us all about this school when you get back."

"Don't worry, we will. Come on Cady, we better go see about signing you in."

Cady shouldered her duffel bag once more, looking as if she didn't know whether to be more excited or nervous. She and her parents had been through and through how this whole 'City on the Hill' place was probably some kind of elaborate hoax, but she couldn't help hope it was true. After all, to learn actual magic...that's probably every eleven-year-old's dream.

Everyone checked to see they had their bags, and said their good-byes, despite the fact that they only just gave their hellos. Before she could follow after her parents, Cady's older brother reached out to give her hair a brief tussle. "I always said you were the weird one," he whispered with an affectionate wink, "And assuming this school thing is legit, I'm proud of you for it." He gave only one more grin at her, before letting them go their separate ways.

"I still say this could be some huge trick."
"I know dear I know, but Cady wanted to check it out. Besides, the letter said the sign-in was in the food court, a perfectly public place. Surely they wouldn't try anything so stupid out in the open like this."

"I hope so too. Still, of all the places to hold a check-in for a school open house...you'd think the Prudential Center wouldn't exactly be a normal choice."

"Well, they don't exactly sound like a normal school, do they?"

"I suppose you're right."

The rest of the way through the mall was passed rather quietly, the three of them staying close as the food court came in sight. True enough, there were two tables set out, both with banners saying "CotH sign in", and a large group of kids and parents around them, apparently waiting for something.

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"Marcus!" came the call as a rolled up bundle of orientation schedules rapped him soundly on the head.

"Ow!" came the reply, as the young man in question was startled out of his gazing, rubbing his head lightly, "what did you do that for?"

"You know, the whole idea behind separating you and Alice today was so that you'd both focus on our job, not so that you can stare at each other across the room all day, now pay attention!"

"Oh come on Bronwyn, almost everyone who's coming is already here, it's not like they're all waiting on me to sign them in."

"That's not the point, we're supposed to be making a good impression."

"And your physically abusing me fits into that vision where exactly?"

"I've been trying to get your attention for the past several minutes!"

"Oh...heh...sorry about that..." He put on his semi-apologetic look, complete with a light blush. Bronwyn just sighed and shook her head a bit. As much as she liked her friend Marcus, she did have to wonder how he got picked to help run orientation. Probably cause of how active he was in school social activities. But he really could space out sometimes, especially since his rotten girlfriend Alice was assigned here as well.

She unrolled the schedules again and straightened out her blue-patterned blouse while regaining her composure. He was right, almost everyone who was coming had checked in already, but there were still about five that weren't here yet, and she still intended to represent her school properly. Looking around again, she saw Kelsey was just finishing lecturing Alice for the same thing she had just lectured Marcus on. Still, other than this constant problem, things have been going pretty smoothly with the lot of them, surprising considering how much friction there was between the four of them during the school year. Speaking of, the fifth and last orientation leader, Chavez, seemed to have wisely stepped away for the moment, probably just to use the bathroom but she doubted he felt he was missing out on this arguing.

Before she could risk getting lost in thought, she saw what looked like another of their families coming up, looking a bit wary as they stopped at the check-in desk and momentarily put down their bags.

"Excuse me, is this the right place to meet for the City on the Hill school orientation?" The mother was clearly still skeptical about this whole thing, Bronwyn could hear it in her tone. Still they were used to this sort of thing from muggles.

"Yes, that's right. What's your name please?"

"Lyman."

"Let's see...Lyman...ah yes, Cady is it?"

The girl nodded a bit, "that's me."

"Good good, just sign in right there please...and here's our schedule for the next week or so. We'll be leaving as soon as the last few families arrive, in the meantime you can wait with the rest of the party, over by Alice and Kelsey," she pointed over in their direction, where there was a large group of parents and their kids, all with various bags and suitcases.

"Well at least they picked a decent food court for us to meet at. I do hope the school food is a little better though," said Cady's mother between bites of her salad. They had decided to grab a quick bite as long as they were waiting for the other families to arrive. Seeing all these other people around, some looking just as skeptical as them, some looking excited or well pleased, had helped her relax a bit. Enough to at least stop saying that this could be a hoax.

"I wouldn't worry mom, whatever it is I doubt it'll be worse than my old school food." As Cady finished up her food and went to throw out the trash she couldn't help but wonder about the kinds of things that would be taught at this school. Would she still be able to learn non-magical things? The talk of food had to make her wonder, since she had always hoped to be a great chef when she grew up. Do they even have chefs among wizards, or does magic handle all of that for them? She had so many questions, but hopefully this orientation would be able to answer them. Hopefully she'll like what those answers are.

She went back to the table her family had claimed and sat down quietly, head resting on one hand. Glancing back to the table she was able to catch another family signing in, one that looked pretty comfortable with all of this. Wouldn't be long now, she figured. The young girl that just signed in looked up then, and saw Cady looking in her direction. Smiling, she waved a friendly hello and left her parents behind to come over.

"Hi there, I'm Sarah. Are you here for the orientation too?"

"Hi, yeah I am, my name is Cady. So, um...what do you think about all this?"

"Me? I'm really excited. Grandma's been telling mom and me stories about witches and wizards in the family for years, but we just figured they were fantasies. It's so cool to know she was telling the truth. I never really heard much about any magic schools, but it still sounds like fun to me."

"Yeah, sounds like fun to me too. I just don't know what to expect."

"True, but that's half the fun," she paused, as her parents called for her to join them, "Well, nice meeting you Cady. I'll see you later." With another big smile she ran back over to her parents who were getting their own table.

"Alright everyone, if you could please collect your things and come over here, we can be on our way," Bronwyn called out to the assembled families, and with the help of her fellow orientation leaders it only took a minute or two for everyone to be ready.

"Now, rather than try to take this whole group through the mall at once and risk loosing people in the crowds, we will go in smaller groups. I'll take the first group ahead along with Chavez here," she paused to point to him, "He will then come back to signal the next group, and so on till we're all together again at the main school building. To make things easy, we're making groups by last name, so if your last name falls between A and F, please come up here and we'll be on our way."

Cady watched as several families extricated themselves from the group and went over to form a new knot around Bronwyn and Chavez. She'd probably be in the next group to go, and wondered how long she'd have to wait for him to come back. Then she started wondering just how they were getting to the school. Bus she figured was the most logical way. Vans were also a possibility, but it would take fewer busses considering how many people there were here. It was really the only practical thing.

It only took a little over five minutes for Chavez to make it back to the food court and signal the next leader to step up and call out their group. This time it was the guy who had been sitting at the sign in table. The rather cute guy who had been sitting at the sign in table. "Alright people, the next group will be G through L, so come on down." Cady happily followed suit, and soon enough they were all winding their way through the hustle of the Prudential Center. However, much to her surprise, they didn't make their way for any of the major street exits. In fact, they seemed to be heading for one of the smaller corridors off the main way, the kind that lead to the hotels or apartments next door to the mall. About halfway down the plain white hall, Marcus called for the group to stop. He looked all around, suddenly looking more serious than she had seen him all day, to make sure no one else was around. And surprisingly, no one else was. In fact, in looking around herself, Cady noticed that none of the people shopping on the main way seemed to even notice the side passage. Then Marcus proceeded to open a door in the wall to his left and signaled the group to follow him. Inside it looked a bit like a storage closet, although it was a bit on the large side, and not very full. Once everyone was inside Chavez, who had left with her group as well (no doubt so he could signal the next group as he had hers), closed the door soundly behind him.

"Alright everyone," Marcus started, "I know you're all wondering what we're doing in here. Well, we don't have the time, and this is hardly the place, for a deep discussion on the details of all this, you'll learn about it in your classes anyway, but you're about to get what is no doubt your first exposure to magic. This item here is called a port key,' he indicated a bottle of spray cleaner on the table next to him. "This will take us all to our main hall in our main school building at City on the Hill. It's very simple to work, which is the main reason, other than that it's convenient for us, that we use these for orientation. All you do is touch it, and since I know you all either don't believe me or won't think it's safe, I'm going to go first so you'll see how it's done, and then wait for you all to come through. Chavez here is staying behind to make sure you all get through all right. So, now that the explanation is done, let's go!"

Without any more rambling, and it was clear from his tone he had been required to say all that, he reached down and touched the bottle, vanishing into thin air. Cady couldn't help but join in the general reaction of shock and a little awe at this, while some people almost immediately started trying to figure out the illusion instead. Still, whatever the reactions, Chavez set about calmly settling people down again, and worked his way to the front of the group by the port key. "Now now everyone," he said softly, "As Marcus said this is all perfectly safe. So please, if someone could step up and be next, the sooner we get you all through the sooner we can continue the orientation."

There wasn't exactly a rush to go and try this. Or rather, there might have been if most of the parents in the room weren't holding their kids back, who all thought this was the coolest thing they ever saw. So, being close to the front of the group, Cady looked up at her parents in question. They looked at each other first, then both just nodded quietly back to Cady. So it was that the first family of their group to arrive after Marcus, was the Lymans.

All three of them were temporarily disoriented, as would be expected. Cady was the first to recover though, and looked around at the huge room in front of her with awe. Nearby, Marcus watched her with a bit of a grin. "Welcome to City on the Hill."