Disclaimer: We don't own anything done by JKR If we were do you think we'd be writing fanfics?... Nor do we own Gorton (though we do have permission to use it)!

AN: This is a story about charectors that we created, and we thought it would be a great fanfic... I am writing this story with one or two other people... please bear with us as the first few chapters are dull, but nessesary backstory!

Atrus Lysander Valentein was a normal eleven year old year old... except that he had been forced to grow up very fast, and thus was overly serious. You may be wondering what exactly happened to make him grow up so fast. I can't tell you... it's not like I'm an omniscient author or anything!

Atrus sleepily walked down the steps from his bedroom into the kitchen of his normal house, which was in the very abnormal area. The location he lived in was called Hogsmede, it was somewhere in the United Kingdom, and it was fairly large considering that it was located above a family shop that his mother had started three years ago.

"G'morning Mom," the young boy said groggily. "What's for breakfast?" As usual, the first thing out of his mouth in the morning was about food, but since he was a eleven year old boy, that was to be expected!

The reply from Mrs. Genevive Valentein was overly perky and the sort which implied she had already been up for many hours. "Good morning Arty! I haven't really thought about that yet... I have been up since 3:00 in the morning baking for a huge party!"

A huge party, what is she talking about? you may be thinking. The truth is, Genevive didn't have any idea at all. You see, the family-owned shop she had opened was called Alpine Village, and it was Hogsmede's very first bakery and sit-down restaurant!

"Don't worry about it Mom. I'll make something, then wake up the others!" Atrus said as he walked over to his mom and gave her big bear-hug. He knew she worked hard ever since what had happened so long ago. Aside from himself, she was hit hardest when they got the news.

"Thank you Atrus; If you don't mind making me a plate and bringing it down to me I would be really happy, I haven't eaten yet. I am going to get back to work for that party. I have so much to make! Apparently, someone is doing a muggle theme wedding, Mark and Linda judging by the wedding cake!"

"Alright Mom, I will!" Atrus said in his thick Italian accent as he gave his Mom another quick hug, then hurried off to the refrigerator to see what there was to make.

You may be wondering why Atrus and Mrs. Valentein have such thick Italian accents. It is because they are both born and raised in Italy. They only moved to Hogsmede three years ago, in light of a sad situation. The same situation that forced little 'Arty' to mature so fast.

Atrus was rummaging through the refrigerator when he felt a sharp poke on his back. It was so painful, he lept almost a foot in the air. "OUCH HERMIA THAT HURT, DON"T DO IT AGAIN!"

Suddenly three very lethargic looking children appeared from upstairs. There was a girl about Atrus' age, a boy who was a year younger than Atrus, and another girl who was around a year younger then the boy, these three were Atrus' siblings.

Hermia, Atrus' twin sister and best friend, said to him in a fairly sarcastic tone, "Atrus, brother dearest, why must you yell so early in the morning!" suddenly she to was pecked hard, and yelped, "OUCH, is that why you screamed... The owl on your back?"

"What the bloody hell is an owl doing on my back and yours too, Hermia!" Atrus said with shock as he noticed the official waxy seal he had been hoping to see for the past year and a half, ever since his twin cousins Kenzie and Izzy showed Atrus and Hermia theirs!

With a gasp, Atrus started jumping up and down and yelling, "HERMIA THEY'RE FROM HOGWARTS!" He ran over to her and hugged her. He said, "Let's open them together, but first, Shane, Lucinda, go get Mommy and bring her up here, tell her it's urgent!"

With that Atrus' younger brother and sister darted down the stairs to the restaurant without a word, except Lucinda (his sister) who was vigorously nodding her head and the reply of 'Okay Atrus!' from Shane (his brother.)

Within 3 minutes he heard three sets of footsteps running up the stairs and the cries from Lucinda, "Come on Mommy, Arty says it's agent!"

Then came the correcting voice of his brother Shane, "Mom, she meant to say that Atrus said it was urgent!"

Shane, Lucinda, and Mrs. Valentein hurried up the stairs. "What's so urgent?" They all asked after taking a moment to catch their breath.

Atrus and Hermia were standing next to the table smiling, with their hands behind their backs. They looked at each other, nodded, and ran over to their mom waving the envelopes at her. "We wanted everyone to be together when we opened them..." They said in unison.

"Okay, hold on let me get your dad!" Mrs. Valentein said as she ran upstairs ten seconds later she came down with a huge picture frame which contained a moving picture of a handsome man with a beard, wearing T shirt which said Auror Force. "Alright... now we are all here and you can open them, and read them to us!"

Atrus and Hermia ripped open their envelopes, and out of each two pieces of paper fell onto the floor. Both kids picked up the first letter and, Atrus read, "Dear Miss Hermia Valentein..."

As Atrus was reading that, Hermia was reading, "Dear Mr. Atrus Valentein..." Everyone sitting at the table laughed as the twins blushed and switched papers, then continued on in one voice. "We are proud to inform you that you have been selected to attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. You will leave by way of the Hogwarts express on September first of this year. Included in this envelope is your ticket for the train, and your supply list!"

Mrs. Valentein's eyes filled with tears of joy and hugged her two eldest children. She smiled, and said, "I know your dad is as proud as I am. I am so glad you two didn't turn out like me!"

SEVERAL MONTHS LATER

"Well Herms," Atrus said, "I guess this is it... Good luck tonight with whatever happens. I hope you make lots of friends!" The twins hugged and got into boats which crossed the lake of Hogwarts. After they got in the school, they were brought into a side room where it was explained they were to be sorted into houses by an impartial party, based on their personalities.

The twins looked at each other, hoping they would be sorted into the same house. They were lead into a huge dining hall, which they were later told was called The Great Hall. They listened to an old hat sing a song and watched as unsorted students were called up, and the hat sorted them. Among the people sorted were Callahan, Piper, who got into Hufflpuff, Telcontar, Tinny, who became a Ravenclaw, Gellar, Ariel, who was put in Gryffindor, and Moonlight, Arya, who was immediatly placed in Slytherin.

Finally, Atrus was called up to a three legged stool. He heard a little voice in his head saying, Well... if it isn't another Valentein... Atrus is it? I see you want to be a ministry worker... honorable job... your father was one of the best auror's I've sorted! This is a difficult decision, but one founder really wants you in her house, so I will have to honor her wishes... and place you in... RAVENCLAW!

Atrus ran over to the Ravenclaw table and sat down next to two older girls and immediately called out, "GOSH I ABSOLUTELY ADORE PRANKS!" The two girls started to giggle and said something along the lines of, 'Don't worry about it, some nasty pranksters played a trick on all the tables!'

Suddenly after what seemed like forever, the hat's mouth opened again for the last person in line: his twin sister, Hermia. After a few seconds it said, I am sorry dear, I can't put you there... You are wanted much more by another founder... HUFFLEPUFF!

The splitting up of the Valentein twins into two different houses began the growing apart of the Valentein twins. They would never be as close as they were before they were sorted until much, much later in life. The rest of Atrus' first year went by very quickly, and at the end of the year he applied for a foreign exchange program to go to a school in America called Gorton Institution.

Over the summer he went to his grandparents' Villa in Italy where he wrote to his friends Tinny Telcontar, Bowman Sisero, and Drusilla Night frequently. One night after dinner, Atrus was pecked in the neck ironically at that moment he was recalling when he got his Hogwarts letter. After a few more moments of pecking, Atrus called to it, "You can come down and have a bite to eat and some Pumpkin Juice before we send you on your way. I know it must have been a long journey!" With that, the owl took some food off the Valentein table. Atrus offered it his goblet of Pumpkin Juice, which it drank from gratefully, then immediately flew off again.

"Hmm... I wonder what this is?" Atrus asked his family sitting at the table. The family members present were, his Grandma (Granny), his Grandpa (Goompa), and his cousin Kenzie, they all replied something like, 'I have no idea...'

He tore open the letter, and read it to himself. As he read his eyes got bigger... and bigger... by the time he finished reading the letter they were like large orbs!

"I have been accepted into the foreign exchange program to America!" he yelled happily, not knowing what adventures, friendships, and mysteries would be waiting for him when he got to The Gorton Institution, on the Island of Notrog, in the Bermuda Triangle, which is in North American waters. The most important things he didn't know were that he would be meeting his first and only love there, make the best friends he would ever have, and that eventually he would opt to stay there for good instead of returning to Hogwarts after a year as was planned!

Several Months Later

This was it... Summer was over, and Atrus was flooing to what would be his new school, and boy was he excited! With a final kiss for his Granny, and a hug for Hermia, along with a wish of good luck for the upcoming school year he left with a WHOOSH.

A few moments later he was in a fireplace, stepping out covered in soot, but happy none the less. Immediately after he stepped out of the fireplace a house elf ran over to him, quickly cleaned him up and said, "Over there go the trunks Sir," a house elf was staring at Atrus in awe as if he was the first student to floo to the school in a long while. "Oh... please excuse Torko's stairs... Sir should go into the Dining Hall now!" The elf was pointing towards a boy who was giving a girl a hard time... He had half a mind to give the boy a piece of his mind, but he needed to make a good impression on everyone. With that decision Atrus slipped around the two and into the grand dining hall and sat next to a girl who was sitting alone.

Atrus had no idea of what was to come yet, all that he knew was that he was sure that whatever it was he would get through it... Somehow.