Chapter 3: Onward to Hogwarts

*The Next Morning*

The girls woke up to the sunshine shining into their rooms, Lotte and Sucy were chatting with each other, excited about the new school. Sucy was looking forward to what Potions class would be like, Lotte was wondering what kind of spirits she would encounter, and both...well, wondering if they would learn magic at a similar pace as Luna Nova. The whole group finished packing and made their way down to the main area of the Leaky Cauldron, with their bags by their sides, some were taking care of their owls, some were reading, others were just chatting.

Phoenix stepped forward and clapped his hands together, "Ok, everyone all packed? Good, now then, allow me to make this easier."

He pulled out a large trunk and his wand, he waved his wand in a pattern and said "Wingardium Leviosa", and everyone's things levitated up into the air and toward the open trunk.

But before anything went in he asked, "Before I pack this up till we get to the station, anyone want to keep something on them?"

Lotte asked for her lantern with her fire spirit in it, Sucy asked for her potion book, and Chariot asked to keep her owl on her. All of them had their wands on them so Phoenix could teach them on the train. After everyone got what they asked for, Phoenix finished what he started and moved all of their things into the large trunk, which didn't look like it could fit all their things.

But it worked, the trunk closed without issue, leaving everyone speechless, "Undetectable extension charm...you girls don't have anything like that? Shame, it's quite useful."

*20 minutes later at King's Cross Station*

The group arrived at King's Cross and Phoenix had handed back everyone's things and each of them had gotten a trolley. They made their way down to platforms 9 and 10, walking down the platform while Phoenix counted the pillars, stopping at pillar 11.

"Ah, ok, here we are."

Everyone looked around and saw nothing, "Uh...where?" Amanda asked,

"Is there a hidden Layline somewhere?" Akko asked.

"Nope, the gateway to platform 9 ¾ is right through here." He said while gesturing toward the wall, "All ya gotta do, is run straight at that wall, and you'll be there."

They all looked at Phoenix in disbelief, "Uh...you're kidding, right?" Akko asked in concern.

But Amanda knew he would never lie about this so she volunteered to go first, "Ok, so I just run at the wall, what do I do after that?"

"Well, you'll know when you're across, just step to the side and wait for the rest of us." Amanda nodded and readied herself, she ran at the wall and shut her eyes.

When she reached the wall, she phased right through, leaving everyone but Phoenix in a state of shock.

"Ok, who's next, we got about 10 minutes to get on the train so let's choose fast."

Jasminka stepped up and ran forward, followed by Constanze and Sucy, Lotte took a minute to ready herself and ran toward the wall and successfully phased through. Akko and Diana went through together, unknowingly holding each other's hand.

Chariot was the only one left, she had a look of fear and concern on her face, Phoenix noticed this and knew what he had to do.

"Chariot, we can go together if that will make you feel better." Chariot nodded,

Phoenix put his hand on her shoulder, and they both ran toward the wall and made it through.

When they made it through, Phoenix removed his hand and said, "See, easy."

They walked forward and met up with the others, who were in awe at the experience they went through, Phoenix explained that they just need to get whatever they want to take with them into the train, everything else will be waiting for them at Hogwarts.

They made their way onto the train and separated into two groups, Akko, Diana, Lotte, and Sucy in one group and Amanda, Jasminka, Constanze and Chariot in another. Constanze had made a device that would allow Phoenix to teach both groups at the same time without having to change cabins or repeat a lesson.

"Alright, let's get started, everyone's wand at the ready?" Everyone nodded, "Excellent, let's start with something simple, levitation."

Phoenix popped a table out on both sides and asked everyone to place something light in front of them. Most just placed a feather that Lotte's owl, Orion, and Chariot's owl, Aurora, had pulled off themselves, Jasminka just put a chip in front of her.

"Now the incantation for this spell is Wingardium Leviosa, you also need to move your wand in a swish and flick motion like so."

After Phoenix demonstrated, the others tried it, Akko, Diana, and Chariot had no problem doing it, Lotte and Constanze had some trouble but pulled it off, Amanda and Sucy were still trying, and Jasminka...just stared at the chip, drooling a bit.

"Next, unlocking, just in case you girls accidentally lock yourself out of a diary or something, just promise not to use it to snoop around."

Amanda was tempted but resisted for the sake of not getting more than herself in trouble.

"The incantation for this is, Alohomora." They all tested it on the cabin door, and all succeeded.

"Good, this may be easier than I thought."

They continued to practice spells, learning Diffindo, for cutting things (don't take that out of context), Reparo, for repairing objects, Depulso, the banishing charm, Colloportus, for locking things, Lumos, for lighting up the ends of their wands, and Nox, the literal off switch for Lumos.

After a good hour of learning new magic, Phoenix gave everyone a break to rest and just chat, but they would get more than that when an old woman with a trolley full of sweets came by.

"Anything off the trolley dears?" the woman asked,

"Yeah, 9 of everything, you girls are going to love these."

After giving everyone 1 of every sweet on that trolley, they started tasting their wizard sweets.

"Uh...Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans?" Constanze asked in confusion,

"Yep, and they mean 'every flavour', like pear and bubble gum, but there's also, spinach, pepper, and dirt. Trust me, if you have a sensitive palate, don't bother eating those, the gamble is not worth it."

Constanze was still curious and opened the box anyway. She pulled out a green bean thinking it may be pear flavoured...it wasn't.

"Urk...is this...grass?" She said with a face of disgust.

"Probably."

Lotte picked up a pentagon-shaped box with the text, "Chocolate Frog? These...aren't real frogs, are they?"

"Nope, it's just frog-shaped chocolate, though they do have a couple of surprises in each pack. Each one comes with a Famous Witch or Wizard card, I managed to get all of them a few months ago, the other one…"

Lotte opened the pack and to her surprise, the Chocolate Frog was alive. It tried to jump out away, but Sucy caught it before it could get away.

"Yep, that would be it. Don't worry, if one does get away, the card is more than worth it, at least in my opinion."

Lotte was hesitant to eat the frog, but after Sucy convinced her that it wasn't a full living creature, just a hunk of chocolate that moves, she ate it, and liked it, not fully enjoyed it, but liked it.

While everyone was just enjoying their sweets and chatting, and Jasminka was almost inhaling her sweets, Diana and Akko were talking about aspects that they thought might be different at Hogwarts,

"Phoenix said there's no Philosopher Stone, right? So how does flying work?" Akko asked,

"Maybe the brooms just work on their own, maybe the brooms are connected to our wands, who knows?"

They continued to speculate for a good 20 minutes until Phoenix noticed that they were looking like they were getting really deep in their speculation, and he heard them talking about how magic would work if they were away from the school.

"To answer your question, yes magic works outside of the wizarding world, but I'd keep the use of magic in the Muggle world in a minimum."

Everyone stopped when he said that, one word in that sentence caught their attention.

Chariot spoke up, "What's a Muggle?"

"It's what people in this world call non-magic folk."

"Is it like a racial slur?"

"No, but there is one for people who have magical heritage, but no magic power. They're called...squibs."

They all looked at each other in surprise,

"Please, for the love of God, never say that word." They nodded and pretended they didn't even hear it.

After a few minutes of awkward silence, Diana spoke up asking, "What would someone with no magic heritage but has magic power be called?"

Phoenix took a second before answering, "There are actually two names, Muggle-born and...Mud-Blood."

The latter name left everyone with looks of shock on their faces,

"Mudblood? That's horrible!" Diana responded,

"True, but there are still people who use that term, mostly by mistake, but others use it because they see themselves as superior to them. They call themselves Pure-Blood because they have full magic heritage. And people who have half magic heritage are Half-Blood, not as bad, some people embrace being half-blood."

They all looked at each other, some were wondering where they would fall, but Akko knew where she fell, her family was normal, not magical, but she had magical talents. She got up and walked out,

"Sorry, I just need some air."

Diana took a minute to think, she was concerned about Akko and why she seemed a bit, different. Until it hit her, she walked out as well, "I'll check on Akko."

Phoenix put his head against the seat, "I was afraid this would happen, I knew this would happen if I opened my mouth on this subject."

"Where do you fall on the spectrum Phoenix, if you don't mind me asking." Chariot asked.

"I'm Half-blood, my mother was a witch and my father was a muggle-born wizard." Chariot was surprised but understood nonetheless.

*Diana's View*

I ran out of the cabin to search for Akko, I soon found her in the corner of the train car, curled up and shaking. I didn't hear any crying, but I still approached her gently and with little resistance.

"Akko?"

"Please, leave me alone."

I sat next to her and slowly reached for her hand, "Akko, please talk to me. I know what you're thinking, don't let what Phoenix said get to you."

Akko looked at me with a look of sadness and disappointment, "Diana, I'm a Mudblood, I'm a joke, I'm…"

I grabbed her head, giving her a look of reassurance, "Stop, don't talk like that, you are amazing. Did you forget what I told you the other day?"

Akko pulled her head away, I noticed that she was starting to doubt herself again,

"But, I wasn't the only one, I had help, you helped me, I'm not the only one who did those amazing things."

When I heard that, my heart dropped, she was right.

"Akko… I know you had help, but you were the only one that knew what to do, you just needed help to execute your plan. You knew what to do when the Jennifer Memorial Tree was covered in those Pappiliodya chrysalises, you were the one who used the Shiny Rod to release the curse on the princess who had swallowed a seed of sorrow, and you were the one who never gave up when your friends were in danger. Without you, the tree would have been destroyed, the princess would still be cursed, and your friends may not be here."

Akko turned back toward me and looked at me with tears in her eyes,

"Diana…" She hugged me tight and cried into my shoulder,

"It's ok Akko, you just needed someone to speak your mind to. I'm here for you."

I stroked her hair to comfort her, she calmed down after about 5 minutes, after we separated from our hug, I instinctively kissed Akko on the forehead, leaving her blushing, I started blushing after I realized what I did.

"I-I'm sorry, I was…" I stuttered trying to explain, but Akko just stopped me,

"It's ok Diana, it helped me feel better." Both of us smiled, as we made our way back to the cabin.

Little did they know, Phoenix had heard the whole thing, he knew that there was going to be some emotional problems, but what he was counting on was them helping each other. He made his way back to the cabin before them and informed everyone that they were going to be ok.

After 30 minutes, everyone had calmed down and had gone back to having some harmless fun. Phoenix and Chariot talked about his plan to get Chariot into classes, Chariot agreed to his plan on one condition, he has to teach one of the classes. He said he would try to get a teaching job, but if he fails, the private classes are still there if she's interested. She was, but she wanted to know that there's at least one class that he can teach to keep an eye on everyone.

"Knowing Hogwarts, they should have an opening in Defence Against the Dark Arts, but you never know," Phoenix said opening a book on Charms and Jinxes.

They had been on the train for nearly 5 hours, the sky was getting dark and everyone was getting tired and hungry. Well, Jasmika was getting hungry, everyone else was just tired.

"We should be at Hogwarts in about half an hour, you should get into your robes."

"But, our robes are in our bags," Lotte said.

Phoenix responded by opening the door and gesturing to follow him, "I'm aware of that, which is why we're going to get them."

They followed him down a couple of train cars and arrived at the luggage car, they located their bags and used the magic they learned to get them,

"Ok, good, I'm just going to step out to give you some privacy, if you have any questions...well, save them for when everyone's dressed."

After a few minutes, the girls were fully dressed into their robes,

"Hmm, these feel better than our old uniforms," Akko said looking at herself in her new duds.

"I sorta agree, the robe itself feels nice, but the sleeves may be a bit of an issue." Chariot said noticing how large the sleeves were.

They walked out and Phoenix complimented them, "Wow, looks great, you girls will fit in perfectly."

Chariot was the first to react, blushing slightly, "Thanks, but I have a question. I noticed that there were a few robes hanging on their own, and they looked nothing like ours, why is that?"

"Ah, I forgot to mention, students are sorted into 4 houses, Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and Slytherin. Each house has their own common room, they earn points for doing good things and lose points for causing trouble, the house with the most points at the end of the year wins the House Cup. There's also the Quidditch Cup, but I'll explain that later."

They looked at each other, wondering how sorting worked, "Maybe you'll all be in the same house, who knows."

Amanda stepped forward and asked with a hint of sass in her voice, "So, what house were you in?"

"Gryffindor, why do you ask, hmm?"

Amanda stepped back in surprise, "No reason."

"Heh, let's head back to our cabin, we'll be arriving any minute now."

Once they arrived at the train platform, they stepped off and were greeted by a large man, they looked up, most of them in fear. Constanze reached for her wand, but Phoenix stopped her,

"Girls, I'd like to introduce you to a friend of mine, Rubeus Hagrid. Hagrid, these are the witches I told you about in my letter."

"Ah, nice to meet you girls, as Phoenix mentioned, I'm Hagrid, keeper of keys and grounds at Hogwarts."

Everyone had calmed down, and Akko just stared at the giant in awe, she wanted to praise him but kept it to herself.

"Ok, let's get to the boats, we're right on schedule so let's not doddle now," Hagrid yelled to every first year.

Phoenix walked toward Chariot with a small vile in his hand, "You're probably going to need this, drink it before we get to that castle."

Chariot looked at the liquid in the vile and knew what it was.

"Well, bottoms up."

She drank the whole vile, it tasted...well...horrible, but before she could say anything, she felt a sharp pain in her, everything. It felt like her bones were being crushed, her organs were being squeezed, and her skin was being torn apart. But after a minute or two, the pain stopped and she took a look at herself, she was her younger self. Her robes, somehow, shrunk along with her, and she no longer needed her glasses.

"This is...weird, but at least I won't stick out like a sore thumb, I hope."

She met up with the others and most of them looked in awe at what had become of their friend,

"Chariot?" Akko asked staring in awe,

"Y-yes?"

"Why do you look so cute?"

This not only shocked Chariot but also made Amanda, Jasmika, and Constanze question what was happening.

"I see you took the potion already, good, it should last till you get to your common room. Let's just hope at least 1 of you will be in the same house as her."

END OF CHAPTER