SaraJoy: You forgot quite a bit in your disclaimer last chapter, Spider. Namely reviews! (BTW thanks to our reviewers! You guys are great, and we have started reading your stories and will have our own review in soon. You rock.) We need to remind people or maybe they will stop. Have you thought about that? So yeah, as Spider said, we don't own Harry Potter or his world or any of that stuff we got out of the Harry Potter series and accompanying books (hey-we do our research) but we do kinda own City on the Hill and totally own our own characters, even if they would not be possible without those books. And it would indeed be great if J.K. would not sue us, though such an attempt would be fruitless, as we are all college students/recent graduates/some form of poor starving creatures…
Oh, almost forgot! Ok, last thing. Very important. We also don't own John Simmons or the names of the houses. John Simmons was the founder of our college and The Man! So really no one owns him, and Simmons owns some of the other stuff I guess, but this is all good stuff about him so it's all good right? Please no one sue us, really.
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It took about twenty minutes or so for all of the new students and their families to finish assembling into the huge hall they had been brought to. Truth be told it was really more expansive than anything else. The ceiling was high but only about 10 or 11 feet, but the whole room looked like it could hold at least a thousand people or more at once, which led Cady to believe it was used anytime the whole school needed to gather at once. Looking over at her mom in the seat next to her, Cady couldn't help but whisper, "Well, I think it's finally safe to say this isn't a hoax…"
Her mom barely had the time to look back at her daughter before there was a call for quiet from the front of the room, where the five orientation leaders were set up behind a long table.
"Now that we're all settled in, I'd finally like to formally welcome you all to City on the Hill," began Bronwyn, who so far had done almost all the talking today. She took a slight pause to brush her long braid of brown hair back over her shoulder, and proceed to fix the set of her flat silver necklace with one hand while setting some note cards on the table in front of her with the other. "My name is Bronwyn Rhian Finch, and I have the honor of being this year's head orientation leader. This doesn't mean I'll be the only person talking this whole week, but it does mean I'll be giving you a very brief introduction to wizarding history and primarily how the Three Cities, that is the three American wizarding schools, fit into it. And mind you when I say brief, I mean brief. The new students here will be learning the long version in their First Year History class, and can no doubt pass on the best bits too all you parents.
"Wizarding as we understand it originated in Europe somewhere around 300 BC, that's right BC. Granted it took a fair amount of that early time to develop to it's know state. Originally, witches and wizards did not try to hide their abilities from those without magic, but over time, a combination of people pestering for magical favors, and eventual persecution by many sects, encouraged earlier wizards to withdraw from the view of 'muggles', which is our term for people without magical talent. Since then, the wizarding community takes great care to avoid muggles knowing about us, as a group at least. Obviously muggle relatives of witches and wizards can be an exception, as long as they understand the need for secrecy. Among the most logical restrictions this secrecy requires is that all magic not be preformed outside of the wizarding community, and no interfering in muggle matters…which I might add is the only reason the Sox haven't broken their so called 'curse' yet, as far as we're concerned." She paused again and smiled, as there were a few scattered laughs at that observation from the Bostonians in the group.
"To jump ahead a few centuries, we come to the first emigrations of English witches and wizards to the 'New World'. The first émigrés to America did not, as far as we know, include anyone from the European wizarding community, though it should be noted that the Native Americans did have their own flavor of magical arts that has long since been incorporated into our magic as well our school's curriculum. The first European wizards came over on later voyages to the developing New England colonies, particularly in what would become the Massachusetts area. At first, it didn't occur to anyone to build any real wizarding schools in America, as it wasn't thought that the population would grow large enough to support the decision. But as more people slowly trickled across the Atlantic, muggles and wizards alike, a few individuals with a lot of foresight started to seriously consider the idea. One of these people was our founder, John Simmons.
"Mr. Simmons was a man of high ideals, and like many people thought back then, hoped that a new continent would lead to a chance to escape from the harsh persecutions of the Old World. Naturally, such thoughts lead to the idea of a school that embraced individual differences and the kind of friendly competitiveness that leads to great ideas. So he began designing the plans for this new school, which he originally planned to hide outside the town of Salem, where he was living at the time. However, he quickly reconsidered his location when the Salem Witch Trials started. While no actual witches or wizards were hunted or condemned, the implications of the Trials was hard to miss, and still are horribly offensive. So, he moved himself and his plans to the starting city of Boston instead, and got the inspiration to name the school City on the Hill, as an inside jab at the Puritans of Salem.
"I will mention here that while the wizarding community did not go through the same revolution the muggle patriots did in the 1700s, we did decide to form a different political sphere after the fact, as we were now citizens of a new country, and felt that we would likely then face different issues than the wizards back in Europe, and so would need a different governing body to handle them. However, the breaking off was friendly, and our relations are still good today.
"For a long time after the founding of City on the Hill, a least a century, we were the only school on the continent. Which made a particular difference once we gained independence. At first there were not many complaints, largely because of the limited space to work with. So, wizards from the Southern areas of the new US simply kept their grumbling over the location and the difference in sensibilities, to themselves. All this changed however, with the Louisiana Purchase. With so much new and unsettled land suddenly available, the South decided it was finally time to found their own school, which is now outside of present day New Orleans. The school eventually took the name City of the Night, in reference to it's affiliated city.
"Now, this still leaves our third 'city' unaccounted for. Over the years, as more and more territory was opened up to America, it started to become obvious that at least one more main school would be needed. But, deciding when it would be needed was a big question. The west was indeed filling up, but not primarily with wizards, who were mostly content to stay where they were. So it took until the late 1800s for the school to finally be built. However, it did take another few years for the pioneering wizards to come up with an official name for their school. Wanting to stay in the theme that had been started of naming our schools for cities, they finally found what they thought was the perfect name in the year 1900. From the famous book by L. Frank Baum, they took the name of Emerald City, and have naturally retained a slight reputation for light hearted-ness ever since." Finally, with a deep breath of relief, Bronwyn stopped talking and took a sip from a glass of water next to her place at the table.
"There, now that all that is out of the way, back to our own school. Taking a page from his old school back in England, the famous Hogwarts Academy, John Simmons decided to create several different dormitories, or Houses, into which his students would be placed by virtue of the strengths of their character. Which finally brings me to the reason there are specifically five of us here as orientation leaders. Each one of us represents one of the five Houses at this school, and we all will give you a bit of an introduction to ourselves and our Houses. So, I can finally stop talking and pass things off to Kelsey there on the end. Kelsey?" With a light smile she plopped back into her chair, while the fair, dark haired boy on the far right of the table stood up.
"Thank you, Bronwyn, we'll see how long a break we can give you. As you just heard, my name is Kelsey. Kelsey David Stuart. It's my job this week to give you some more detail about the classes available at our school, but as for right now, I am a fifth year student here at CotH as well as a prefect, and I'm here to represent Arnold Hall. We Arnoldians are best known at the school for our competitive team spirits. Most of us are involved in some form of competitive sport or hobby; I myself am the captain and center fielder for our baseball club. Still, some of us only compete against our own expectations, feeling a drive to succeed. For this we're also sometimes called dreamers, as our goals have been known to outreach our grasps from time to time. But what matters most to us is that we try for our goals, you know, at least trying to shoot for the moon before settling for the stars." Deciding he was finished, and looking a little chafed under a perceived need to put on a perfect front for his Hall, Kelsey sat back down, flashing a bit of a look to the next speaker as she stood up, a confident smirk seemingly plastered to her face.
"My name is Alice Marie Linden, and I'm here to represent Smith Hall. Unlike Kelsey, the rest of us, myself included, are sixth years, and I am proud to say I am the head of WIMS, Witches in Math and Science. Also, I'll be taking charge of things on the last day of our orientation, and take you all down to our shopping district to help you to start purchasing your school supplies. While each of our Halls are unique in the qualities we look for in our members, there are occasional crossovers. Like Arnold we in Smith Hall also prize a need to succeed. Though this has given us a rather undeserved bad reputation. We are ambitious people, but don't misunderstand, we aren't cheaters. Cheating does nothing to prove yourself better than anyone else, but we aren't afraid of playing a little hardball if that's what's needed. We're the people who know what we want, and go out and get it. Also, we're probably best known for our steel-strong bonds of hall loyalty. If you're a member of Smith, you're part of the Smith family network, and most graduates from our hall often maintain those connections long after they've left CotH behind." Having finished her rather up front view of her hall, Alice moved to sit down, gesturing and flashing a quick flirtatious wink at Marcus, who was sitting on the other side of Bronwyn.
As he rose, Marcus returned Alice's wink with a quick smirk, and turned to face the assembly properly. "My name is Marcus Caesar. As Alice said I'm a sixth year, I'm a member of Dix Hall, and I'll be talking to you later this week about the various clubs and social activities here at CotH. Being a Dixie I'm not really much on formality, unlike the rest of us up here, which says a lot about us. We're sometimes called slackers, and daydreamers, but quite frankly none of us care much. We pride ourselves on being entirely our own people. Most of us are artists, or writers, or dancers, or musicians, or just people with really weird hobbies. We tend to be more laid back, because of our creative bent, though there are always a few who surprise the rest of us by being a bit more 'grounded'. But hey, that's cool too. After all, it would be boring if we could be so easily stereotyped," and with a lighthearted shrug, he plopped back down in his chair, the only clue for the next speaker to rise and continue the introductions.
"Well, I'm not nearly the end of many speeches for the week, so I'll try to make this one short," The dark-haired teen swept his eyes over a room full of captivated young female and twitchy male muggle-borns, half of whom wanted to stay and take everything in, and half run off and explore. "My name is Chavez McMurray and again, I am a sixth year here. Later this week I will tell you about everyone's favorite part of school", he went on with half-enthusiasm, "Tests! All right, now when you are done groaning I will begin today's topic, namely Mesick House. Now, what you will probably hear the most is that Mesick's are the pushovers, the 'nice guys', and those who would do anything to help you out. I'm not sayin' we're nasty or anything, we are indeed quite nice. But don't ever try to get one of us to do your homework. We're not gonna do it, it's wicked annoying, and if you want it to be right, you should head on over to Dix hall anyway, they may actually know what's going on. Seriously, though, we are associated with being loyal, and we are; loyal to our house, our school, and our friends. Those of you who should be here really depends on why you want to be here. If you're looking for a friendly house, and someone who'll watch your back, but in a nice way," he said with a wink he aimed at Alice, "this is probably your place. My suggestion is to pay attention during your tour and see which place feels right. Sometimes, like with many aspects of magic, it finds you before you find it before you find it."
As Chavez finished and sat down, Bronwyn stood up once again, "Alright, guess it's my turn again then," Bronwyn said as she stood up again. "I've already introduced myself by name, so now I'll introduce myself by House. I'm here representing Evan's Hall for the week, and apart from being orientation leader I'll also be taking you out later in the week for your first flying lesson. Yes, that's right, flying lesson. And at the same time I'll be explaining our flying sports. I'm afraid we poor Evans students have earned a reputation for being rather dull. We're not competition oriented like Arnold or Smith, and we're not as eclectic a group as Dix is. We aren't even particularly well known for being kind or caring. That's because Evans is a place for well grounded, practical, thoughtful students. Much to the surprise of our classmates we do actually have dreams we want to follow, but we're more practical about it than most of the others. Since this means we tend create B plans for most things, so we can normally be counted on if something starts going south. You could say we're something like the old tortoise from the fable, 'slow and steady wins the race' and all of that kind of good advice."
Taking another pause to catch her breath and sip her water, Bronwyn put on another big smile. "Now the part you've all been waiting for. When we shut up and move on with the rest of today's orientation!" After a bit of scattered chuckles from both the visitors and the orientation table, she continued on, "As you can see on your programs, it's now time for the tour of the grounds. We'll be splitting you up into the same groups that you were in to get here to take you around the school building and show you a bit of the grounds. We won't be showing you the dormitories yet, as that is where you will all be sleeping over this week. So, after the main tours are all finished, we'll meet back here for some dinner, and split up one last time to take you to your rooms to relax, unpack, and let all of today sink in. All right, that's more than enough speeches out of me. As through Fs again, if you'd stand up and follow me, we'll get going."
"Well, I must say, I'm sure you would do wonderfully in a house like Evans. That is, of course, if you decide to stay. I do think we should still consider all options." Cady was semi-listening to what her parents were saying, but was mostly distracted by her own thoughts on the subject. She came to as she heard her father say,
"Ah, yes. Cady, I'm sure you would do wonderfully and get great grades no matter which house you chose, but it might be nice to have the girls from Evans on your side and there to help if you need it."
"Ummm, yeah," Cady said less than enthusiastically, "I guess so. That could be nice..."
"Or," her father chimed in again, "What about Arnold? It seems as though you'd make some strong connections there." Cady thought about this, completely puzzled. What am I worrying about, she thought to herself, if I do decide to come here (though she was pretty sure she'd decided to stay), I have at least a week to make this decision.
"I know!" Her father exclaimed excitedly, "We can make a list of the pros and cons of each house and you can pick empirically! What do you say, honey, do you want to try that?" Cady had to laugh. Her father could be so geeky when he went into analysis mode but, she had to admit, it was nice to have a base to start from in making a decision for something that was so new to her.
"Are you ok Honey?" Cady's mother asked her daughter, looking puzzledly at her"
"Hmmm? Yeah fine" Cady answered, she had been completely unaware that she had stopped paying attention. "Just thinking... and I think that I'm gonna go to bed now. Night Mom, Night Dad." Truth be told, Cady would not actually go to sleep for another couple of hours. Instead she would lie awake trying to decide if all she had seen was true. She wondered if her parents even truly believed it themselves. She decided to accept it for now and move onto the next part that worried her. How would she manage to stay that far from her parents for so long? She had never been away for more than a week before. Those weeks were always spent with her grandparents. Always near family.
She didn't want to lose such an opportunity either. It was an amazing place, with moving staircases, halls that had more doors than she could count, and all kinds of other things that only happened in movies. Her mind raced as she tried to imagine if she'd fit in at any of the houses. The last thought in her mind before she finally drifted off was maybe I could just pick the house with my favorite colors...