Chapter 5: We come in peace

White steam billowed from under the wheels of a shiny black and red engine, which waited on the hidden train platform nine and three quarters, as much a character as the hundreds of witches and wizards milling about.

Elsa tried to look composed despite the mix of thrill and terror that sped up her pulse. It was happening. They would finally get to attend the school McGonagall had promised them. The witch dropped them off and went to sit with the other teachers but not before encouraging them to mingle with the other students, the first wizard children they would encounter.

Beside her, Jack craned his neck to see over the strange and colorful sight of the wizard families saying their goodbyes and school friends greeting each other. With a permanent grin on his face, he pointed to the stacks of trunks and animal carriers, musing out loud why people had so much stuff.

Elsa dragged him away from the crowd and onto the train. They sat across from each other in an empty compartment. Jack promptly kicked his shoes off and sat cross-legged, looking out the window at the commotion outside.

"They sure like owls," he said, pointing at bird cages.

"Remember what she said. You can't walk around the school barefoot. Put them back on."

"It's a long ride, Elsa," he complained. "Can't I get a break for a few hours? I'll wear them to classes. I promise."

She ground her teeth in frustration. All summer long, Jack fought McGonagall passionately about shoes. Elsa didn't have anything against footwear, but her brother hated this part of their human act.

"You promised you'd try to act normal," she reminded him.

They had agreed to be careful and not draw attention to themselves. McGonagall was quite clear when she explained that only witches and wizards attended Hogwarts. What would she do if she found out the truth of what they were?

"This is my normal," Jack insisted, wiggling his toes. "Besides, we're alone here."

As if on cue, a girl with long dirty-blond hair walked into their compartment.

"Can I sit with you?" she asked in a dreamy voice.

"Sure," Jack answered. To give her room, he jumped off his seat to sit cross-legged next to Elsa. Still without shoes. However, instead of sitting opposite them, the girl sat right next to him.

"Your eyebrows are a different color than your hair," she pointed out, leaning just a couple of inches away from his face.

Dumbfounded, Jack stared at her and scooted away.

"Both of your eyebrows are black but your hair is so white," the girl continued, tilting her head. "Do you color it?"

She appraised him with her unnerving silvery stare as if he was an art piece, and he blinked rapidly.

"Uh, no."

"I'm Luna. Luna Lovegood." She offered her hand.

"I'm Jack." He shook her hand and vaguely tried to smile.

"Cold," she commented in the same fascinated voice.

Elsa felt left out as if she was still invisible. Or was her brother just that much more interesting?

"I'm Elsa," she said.

Luna smiled at her, then gazed at Jack for a while longer while he stared at his feet. Once she had her fill, she pulled out a magazine from her pocket and started reading it while humming to herself.

Jack gave Elsa a poignant look, and she imagined him saying, 'Next to her, I'm very normal.'

They suppressed a chuckle and relaxed. If all wizard children were as peculiar as Luna, they would fit in easily.

Jack pulled a wand out of his pocket and leaned on Elsa's shoulder. As he turned it around between his fingers.

"You're not supposed to play with it," Elsa scolded in a whisper. McGonagall was very firm on this issue. After the mess they had caused at Olivander's, she warned them against using their wands before they learned real spells.

"You just regret leaving yours in your trunk," Jack murmured, running the wand across his sleeve. Wherever it touched, a line of frost formed.

Elsa scoffed and looked out the window. Only parents remained on the platform, waving at the train. She hoped it meant they were about to leave. She hated when he was right. She did wish she had her wand on her. McGonagall never made a sound argument regarding why she couldn't teach them any magic this summer but insisted on catching them up on their basic literacy. They could've easily handled both.

"What spell is that?"

They snapped to attention and saw two girls that had opened their compartment, eyeing the frost on Jack's sleeve. Elsa smiled immediately at their sight. They both had a dark complexion and black hair, but first and foremost, they were identical.

"You're twins!" Jack exclaimed.

The girls looked at each other with a 'duh' kind of expression, so Elsa added while elbowing him, "So are we. I'm Elsa Nix, and this is my blunt brother, Jack."

He rubbed his ribs but did not complain. He knew that he deserved it.

The girls introduced themselves while settling in.

"Padma Patil," the one on the right, across from Elsa said.

"Parvati Patil," said the other one.

Their likeness was uncanny. If not for the different-colored tie of their school uniform, Elsa wouldn't be able to tell them apart. She couldn't hide her excitement. She had never met any other twins. Did they have the same kind of bond she shared with her brother? Could they feel the other's presence or call each other from a distance? She wondered how to broach the subject safely while maintaining the 'normal' act.

"So," Jack asked, eyeing them with a smirk, "how often do you play the twin prank, switching places?"

The girls looked at each other and shrugged.

"We did it a couple of times when we were younger," Parvati said. "Not recently."

Jack sighed and said in a serious tone, "For some reason, we could never make it work. No one believed I'm Elsa. It's the hair, isn't it?" He ran a hand through his white hair in an exaggerated manner.

Parvati chuckled at his joke while Elsa rolled her eyes and elbowed him again.

"You're becoming very violent, sis," he said, rubbing his ribs.

"Jack, I love you, but sometimes, you can be such a dork."

"Aw. But I'm a lovable dork."

She was tempted to smack that lopsided grin off his face.

"You're new, right?" Parvati asked. "I haven't seen you two in Hogwarts before."

"Yes. First year," Elsa answered.

"We're in second. I wonder which House you're going to be in."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, first-years are sorted into one of the four Houses: Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, or Slytherin. You will live and attend classes with your House. It's going to become your second family. There's a bit of rivalry between them, but mostly, we're all friends."

Friends that would become her family. That sounded exactly like what Elsa wanted. She loved her brother, and he was a fun company, but sometimes, she secretly wondered what it would be like to have a sister.

Parvati and Padma started arguing over which House was better, and Elsa looked out the window, watching the buildings and then the landscape move at blurring speed. The train was fast but not as fast as apparating. She couldn't wait to get to school and be sorted with Jack. It didn't matter which House they'd get to join.

The train had been moving for a good while when their compartment door opened and a raven-haired boy with ears that stuck out peeked through. He had a long look at Jack and her and then asked, "Do you mind if I join you? Everywhere else is full."

"Go ahead. I'm Jack Nix," her brother encouraged.

The girls introduced themselves, and the new boy sat down next to Parvati.

"I'm Merlin Ealdor. It's my first year at Hogwarts."

Parvati stared at him. "Your parents sure had high expectations, naming you after a wizard that famous."

"What famous wizard?" Jack asked.

All heads snapped to him, giving him quizzical looks. Elsa held her breath, realizing that he had said something wrong. Oh, it would've been safer if he wasn't so talkative. He looked to her for help. She understood the panic in his eyes but didn't know how to cover up his mistake.

Merlin slowly smiled at him. "Exactly. It's just a name."

Jack relaxed and went back to playing with his wand as if nothing had happened, but Elsa kept replaying the moment in her head. From their reactions, she guessed that everyone in the wizarding community knew Merlin's name. What other well-known information were they missing?

Maybe the challenge of blending in wasn't as much about what they looked or acted like but more so about what they said? It didn't help her nerves that Merlin was eyeing them very curiously. When their eyes met and she locked onto his cerulean blues, she felt momentarily stunned. His eyes alone felt like magic, and she had to look away to shake the feeling off. She was imagining things.

"I'm Luna. I'm a first year too," Luna said out of nowhere while reading her magazine. "And Jack doesn't color his hair. I already asked. And I believe him."

They all looked at her and then each other, suppressing giggles, to which Luna was oblivious.

"Well, thanks… I guess," Jack said.

The train ride was long and mostly uneventful. Jack learned his lesson and controlled his loose tongue. Parvati kept trying to start up the conversation while Padma entertained herself with a book. Elsa wished she had thought of that. As the sun started setting, she leaned her head on Jack's shoulder and started to drift off, lulled by the train's steady rocking.

"Elsa, you feel that?" Jack's whisper snapped her awake.

He was looking out the window at the darkness of the woods they passed by. She closed her eyes and recognized nature's magic pulsing from the forest. Powerful magical creatures had to occupy it to create such a strong impression upon the land.

"Feel what?" Parvati asked.

Elsa and Jack looked at each other and exchanged a nod. If witches and wizards couldn't feel the strength of nature's magic, then they had to be careful of the topic. Thankfully, the train started to slow down, distracting everyone from the subject.

As they got out of the train, Jack and Elsa fell behind the others, feeling the forest watching them, as if the magical creatures they felt before came to check on the two Winter Spirits who had encroached on their territory.

"We come in peace," Jack said quietly.

She hoped they heard the message.

The creatures did not reveal themselves but quietly observed from the shadows, completely unbeknownst to the rest of the students. Jack took Elsa's hand and cautiously walked towards a half-giant who was urging them to follow.

"You're going to have to put your shoes back on," Elsa said, and he groaned in protest.

》《

Ginny got off the train with a smile. Hogwarts. She was finally here. The ride itself was rather disappointing. She was supposed to ride with Ron and Harry, something she was scared of and excited about at the same time, but she couldn't find them anywhere. She ended up riding with two first-years: Colin Creevey and Su Li.

Colin seemed to be very interested in the fact that she'd met Harry Potter. She made it sound like she knew him well but that wasn't entirely true. While she had the opportunity to get to know Harry this summer when he spent a few weeks with her family, she felt too shy to say anything to him.

She didn't understand why he affected her so. She was never a coward so why did she turn into one in his presence? No, worse than a coward, more like a clumsy blubbering idiot. So, maybe it was better that she couldn't find him on the train so she didn't get to make a bigger fool of herself.

She liked Su. She appeared nice although with the way her head was stuck in a book the whole ride, and a textbook no less, not some interesting fiction, Ginny guessed that the girl was not going to be in Gryffindor. That girl had Ravenclaw written all over her.

Would Ginny even be in Gryffindor? What if she was the first one in her family to end up in Hufflepuff? She knew that she shouldn't worry about it but that didn't stop the butterflies in her stomach. She was the only girl of seven children. The same fluke of luck that made her a daughter among all sons could stick her in a different house, ending the impeccable family legacy.

"Pull yourself together, Ginny," she told herself. "This is your year. You've waited forever for this."

She shook the nervous thoughts away, ready to face the sorting. She hummed "Do the Hippogriff" as she trudged on, ready for what may come.

This was the year of Ginny.

Trivia: Nix means "snow" in Latin.