The last two months with the Smith family were fun, especially since Josephine had lost custody of Alex when Mike finally divorced her. Sadly, she was given visitation rights, but thankfully they were supervised visits, so she couldn't do much. The Fourth of July was especially fun; Alex and Brian watched the fireworks at night. Speaking of nights, Brian decided to name his owl Athena, after the Greek goddess of strategy and wisdom. Every night, Brian would tick off another day on his calendar until the final Friday of August.

Friday, August 26, 2011

On the final Friday of August, Brian went downstairs to ask his mom and uncle to take him to Dallas Union Station.

"Well, we can go there today," said Amelia, "but we're probably gonna be tired by the time we get there, so we'll need to check into a hotel."

"That'll be perfect!" Brian exclaimed, happy to go with them.

"So, how are you gonna get to Ilvermorny?" Mike asked his nephew.

"Apparently by train, but I don't know where it is," Brian replied

"I see. Strange way to get to a wizard's school, isn't it?"

"Well, Ilvermorny did use balloons until around 1937," Amelia pointed out. "Ever since then, the Ilvermorny Railway Authority utilized trains to get students to and from Mount Greylock."

"Wait, so my school is on a mountain?!" Brian was surprised at hearing this.

"Yeah. I know from Amelia," replied Mike. "Which platform do you need to go on anyway?"

"Lemme check," said Brian, as he pulled out the ticket from his pocket:

"It says… platform -1?"

"Huh? You sure it doesn't say platform 1?"

"N-no. It says Platform -1. Maybe there was a printing error?"

"No, it's right," Amelia told Brian. "Hey Mike? Do you mind if we go to the station tomorrow?"

"I have no issue with that!" Mike replied.

"Wait, Brian's going to Ilvermorny tomorrow?" Alex asked before hugging her cousin. "Hey, have fun at school!"

"I will, Alex," Brian replied, "I will."

Amelia had driven the group to Dallas in her 1940 Ford Deluxe Ford Sedan with suicide doors. Mike and Amelia had checked themselves, Alex, and Brian into a hotel for the night.

Saturday, August 27, 2011

The next morning, they would drive Brian and Alex to the Dallas Union station. If Josephine did this, she'd have a nasty grin on her face when they arrived at the station. Mike, on the other hand, had a confused look on his face, as did Alex. The group watched the trains travel on the tracks outside the station.

"Hmm… Hey Brian? Are you sure your ticket doesn't have a typo on it?" Neither Brian, Alex, nor Mike knew where to go. According to the ticket, the train departed at exactly 11:00 AM. Due to it being 9 AM, the group had about two hours to find it. Brian decided to ask someone at the ticket office.

"Excuse me?" Brian asked, carrying his suitcase and messenger bag with him. "Um… where's the train departing at 11?"

"There is no train departing at 11 AM today. Sorry," said the worker.

"Thanks anyway." Brian said, defeated. He sat down at a bench, wondering if he missed something. That's when he saw a group of people approaching the nearby phone booths and he caught a few words of what they were saying.

"—packed with No-Majes, of course—"

Brian swung around and saw Merula once again, this time with her father, what appeared to be her mother, an older girl, and two boys. One of the boys was older, but the other was younger than Merula. All of them had light-brown hair and tan skin.

"Now, what's the platform number?" The woman asked.

"Negative One!" Piped the small young boy, holding his mom's hand. "Mom, can't I go…"

"You're not old enough Jonathan," said Maxwell. Meanwhile, Brian watched as the teenage girl entered one of the phone booths. He could only watch in awe as the booth started to descend and a new one took its place!

"Excuse me?" Asked Brian. "Mr. Snyde."

"Oh, hey Brian!" Merula noticed Brian.

"New to Ilvermorny too?" the woman asked.

"I'm trying to find Platform Negative One, but—"

"Oh, that's easy! Just go in the phone booth and dial 6-2-4-4-2. Be sure to deposit some No-Maj currency though!"

"But, that's not a full phone number."

"Just trust me."

Having no other choice, Brian entered an empty wooden phone booth, managing to place his suitcase in with him. He looked as Merula, the older boy, and the older girl entered the adjacent booths. After he closed the door, Brian took out a quarter, a dime, and a nickel and inserted them into the slots before picking up the phone and dialing the number on the rotary dial. A dial tone was heard before an operator spoke on the other line.

"Ilvermorny Railway Authority. How can we help you?" Said the telephone operator.

"Uh, hi," Brian replied. "I'm looking for Platform -1."

"Please state your name and position in Ilvermorny."

"Brian Bank, first-year student."

"Please hold." Brian waited a second or two until the operator replied with "Thank you for holding, Mr. Bank. You've been verified as a first-year student of Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. We hope you enjoy your journey on the Lone Star Express. Please close the door and hang up." Brian hung up the phone and felt the booth shake a bit before it descended like an elevator. The elevator phone booth descended into an underground hallway. Once the phone booth/elevator had arrived at its destination, the door automatically slid open, allowing Brian to leave with his luggage. That's when he noticed Amelia, Merula, and the older boy and girl, each in descending phone booths.

"Don't tell me," Brian said, with a smirk on his face, "you knew where it was, didn't you?"

"Maybe," Amelia replied, also with a smirk. "To be fair though, I was just as lost as you were when I was your age."

The group stepped out of the booths and traveled through the hallway, but not before the students collected their enchanted suitcases. A sign overhead said Lone Star Express, eleven o' clock. Brian could see a silver steam engine waiting next to a large station packed with people. Brian saw smoke from the engine drifting over the heads of the chattering crowd, cats, ferrets, dogs, and even snakes of every color wandering between the crowd's legs, and birds chirping or hooting to one another. The cars looked almost exactly like the Superliner cars back at the surface station, save for the fact that, instead of the Amtrak logo, they had the logo of Ilvermorny on them.

The first few cars were already packed with students, some fighting over seats. Brian noticed all kinds of different students as he made his way to an empty car, but not before he talked to the conductor, who appeared to be almost twice as tall as a normal woman and almost twice as wide.

"How can I help you?" She asked Brian.

"Um," said Brian, "which floor has rooms?"

"Both floors have full rooms, roomettes, and seats. But if you want to move between cars, you have to travel to the upper level. Oh, I almost forgot to ask you for your ticket."

"Oh, sure." Brian gave her his ticket.

The conductor looked at Brian's ticket for a moment before returning it to him and saying, "Everything's in order! You'll need to renew it every year on May 12th until your 7th and final year at Ilvermorny, but it can be used as many times as you need until the end of the school year. Welcome aboard!" Brian took Athena, still perched in her cage, out of his suitcase and gave her to the large conductor. "Don't worry; we'll make sure she's safe. And before you ask if I'm a giant, I'm half-giant, so you'd be half-right."

"Oh Brian?" Said Amelia.

"Yes?" Brian replied.

"I totally forgot to do this sooner." She took out her wand; it appeared to be light brown, almost like a cherry tree. "Oculus Reparo," she said, before tapping her son's glasses with her wand. All of a sudden, the tape that held Brian's glasses together had flown off and disappeared! Brian's glasses were as good as new!

"Thanks!" Brian replied before hugging his mother and boarding the train.

"Have a good time at Ilvermorny!" She smiled.

"I will!"

While Amelia started to leave the station via the phone booth in the hallway, Brian entered the train and decided to take a private room on the upper level. He looked around the room and found that it looked similar to an Amtrak Superliner bedroom, except the seats were blue with cranberry red accents. With nothing better to do, he sat down and unfolded the table, which faced the window. He saw a chessboard in the center of the table, but no chess pieces. He shrugged and folded the table back up again before looking around.

"Hey Brian?" Asked Merula, as she stood outside the room's door. "Do you mind if I sit with you?"

"No, go ahead," Brian replied as Merula entered the compartment and sat in the room's armchair while Brian sat on the sofa. "So, how long will the trip take?"

"A normal train would take about 54 hours. Good thing this train isn't a normal train! We should be at Mount Greylock at around 7 PM, Eastern Standard Time."

"Wait, how will this train get from Texas to Massachusetes in 7 hours?"

"You'll see." The two saw students clamber into the different rooms, roometts, and seats of the train.

"All aboard!" The conductor said at 11:00, on the dot. The doors of the train began to close, securing the train and its passengers. Brian and Merula placed their luggage in the compartment's closet, slid their room's door closed, and sat down.

As the train began to move into the tunnel, students began to wave goodbye to their parents. Brian couldn't help but ask Merula about the chessboard table.

"Oh, you have to bring your own Wizard's Chess pieces."

"Ah. So, those two boys were your brothers?"

"Yup. Jacob and Jonathan. I also have two older sisters, but one of them's already graduated; Rebecca was a head student before she graduated. The other, Elizabeth, is a prefect."

"How many prefects are there?"

"Because Ilvermorny has a larger student body than say Hogwarts, which has 24 prefects, Ilvermorny has about 240 prefects, 10 boys and 10 girls per house per 5th, 6th, and 7th years.

"In addition, there are 8 Student Council members: the Student Council President, the Vice-President, the Treasurer, the Secretary, the Head of Public Relation, the Officer of School Spirit, the Historian, and the Chief of Security, along with 8 Head Students (4 boys and 4 girls) per house, exclusively from 7th year students, for a total of 32 Head Students, along with 32 Deputy Head Students (same number), which are from 6th year students."

"How much?!" Brian gasped at that number!

"You gotta remember that the American population is about 4 times the population of Great Britain and Ireland combined. Plus, Ilvermorny accepts students from all across North America, so that includes Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean Islands, and even Central America. This train is just one in the Railway Authority's fleet." The train had exited the tunnel and was now traveling across the rails and into the Texan countryside. As the train moved, Merula and Brian continued talking when Brian noticed something odd… the train was starting to ascend from the tracks!

"What the-?!" Was all Brian could say as he saw the train fly into the sky!

"Told you this train wasn't ordinary."

"How are the No-Majes not seeing this?"

"Easy. A concealment charm is placed on the train so that when it takes off from the tracks, No-Majes don't notice. To them, this train doesn't even exist."

"Ah. I bet," he added, voicing for the first time something that worried him a lot, "I bet I'm the worst in class."

"You won't be! There are loads of students who come from No-Maj families and they learn fast enough."

"L-like my mom."

"Yeah!" Merula smiled.

At around 12:30, The two went to the lounge car to view the skies above. They could see that many students were having lunch in the diner car. When they arrived, Brian went downstairs and saw a smiling young woman working the cafe bar. She said, "Anything from the bar?"

Brian forgot to have breakfast that morning, as he was too excited for the journey. So he decided to check the menu

Brian wanted to buy all of the Hershey bars he could carry, but he noticed that the cafe didn't have any. What it did have were Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans, Drooble's Best Bubble Gum, Chocolate Frogs, Pumpkin Pasties, Cauldron Cakes, Licorice Wands, and a number of other strange things Brian had never seen in his life! They did have some ordinary looking drinks, like Coke and root beer though, but they were all in glass bottles. Not wanting to miss anything, Brian got some of everything and paid the woman about eleven silver Dragots and seven bronze Sprinks.

Merula stared as Brian brought it all back upstairs into the lounge and placed it onto an empty table.

"Hungry?"

"Starving," Brian said as he took a large bite out of a pumpkin pastry. "These are pretty good. You want one?"

"Eh, sure. Why not?" Merula accepted Brian's offer. It was a nice feeling, sitting there with Merula, eating their way through Brian's sweets.

"What're these?" Brian asked as he picked up a purplish pentagon shaped box and placed it on the table. "They're not really frogs, are they?"

"Nah. But they act like frogs because of a spell, so be careful. Also, Chocolate Frogs have trading cards inside them. Go ahead and see what you got. Oh, can I have a frog too? I might get Morgana, Merlin, or Newt Scamander!" Brian gave Merula a chocolate frog. "Thanks!"

Brian opened his Chocolate Frog; the tiny chocolate frog hopped around the table before Brian caught it before he picked up the card. The card showed a woman with pale skin, darkish brown hair, and dark colored eyes.

"Isolt Sayre!" Merula exclaimed. "I've never seen her card before!"

Brian turned his card over and read:

Isolt Sayre
Co-Founder of Ilvermorny

1603-1703

Considered by many Americans to be the greatest witch of all time, Isolt Sayre is one of the co-founders of Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, the most democratic, least elitist of all the eleven great wizarding schools.

Isolt was known to be close to nature and possessing a powerful ability to love. She also cared not for her ancestor's pure-blood fanaticism.

Brian turned the card back over and saw, to his amazement, that Isolt had disappeared from the card.

"She's gone!"

"Well, you can't expect her to stick around all day," said Merula. "She'll be back. Alright, Agilbert Fontaine. I already have one in my collection though, so do you want him?"

"Sure." Merula gave Brian the card of the Ilvermorny headmaster himself. He looked at the card and saw a man with silvery hair and a silver mustache. The man looked somewhat old, but athletic. "You know, in the No-Maj world, people just… stay in photos."

"Well, that's a bit odd!" Merula sounded amazed.

Brian starred as Isolt returned to the picture on her card and gave him a warm smile. Brian and Merula had some fun collecting cards of famous witches and wizards, not just in the Americas, but in Europe as well. Brian decided to take his eyes off of Newt Scamander's card to open a bag of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans.

"Hey, you might wanna be careful with those," Merula warned Brian. "When they say every flavor, they mean every flavor. You get all the ordinary ones like chocolate and cherry and peppermint, but then you can get spinach and liver! Jacob swears he got a booger-flavored one once…"

"Ew!" Brian sounded grossed out.

Merula picked up a green bean, looked at it carefully, and bit into a corner.

"Okay, well that's a green apple, but my point still stands."

The two had a good time eating the Every Flavor Beans. Brian got toast, coconut, baked bean, strawberry, curry, grass, coffee, sardine, and was even brave enough to eat a pepper bean!

"Okay, that one is spicy!" Brian said, while sweating bullets. Merula gave Brian a bottle of milk that she bought from the cafe. Brian drank it ASAP, which helped alleviate the effects of the spicy bean. "Okay, let's stay off the beans for a while…"

"Good call," said Merula.

As the train continued to fly in the skies above, Brian and Merula were talking to each other in the lounge when they saw the brown skinned boy approach them. He was already wearing his new blue Ilvermorny robes and uniform.

"Hey, have you two seen a toad? Ben's lost his," he said. He wore a pair of glasses and had a friendly, if nervous, voice. Underneath his robes, he wore a white collared shirt with a red tie with blue accents on it, a black button-up vest, blue and red plaid pants, and blue shoes. A patch of Ilvermorny's symbol was on the robe's left breast and the robe itself was fastened by a golden Gordian Knot.

"Nope, sorry," said Merula.

"Darn. I really hope he finds him." Brian noticed an Indian Cobra snake hanging around the boy's leg. "Oh, don't mind Khali. She may look scary, but she's a sweet-heart. Oh, sorry! I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Rowan Khanna!"

"I'm Merula Synde," Merula replied.

"Brian Bank," said Brian.

"Are you?" said Rowan. "I know all about you — I got a few extra books for some background reading, and you're in Modern Magical History and The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts and Great Wizarding Events of the Twenty-First Century!"

"Am I?" said a dazed and confused Brian.

"You didn't know? I'd have found out everything I could if it was me. Do you two know what House you'll be in? I've been asking around, and I hope I'm in Horned Serpent. I'd be fine with any house, don't get me wrong! Anyway, you two should change. We're gonna arrive soon. See ya!"

He left with the toadless boy, who had light skin, blonde hair, and brown eyes.

"So what House are your siblings in?" asked Brian.

"Well, that's kind of a tough one. My dad was in Pukwudgie, my mom was in Wampus, Rebecca was a Thunderbird, and Jacob and Elizabeth are currently sorted in Thunderbird. Why do you ask?"

"Just curious."

"Hey Brian? Did you hear about the Lunar Bank? It's all over the Texan Dragon, but I don't suppose you get that with No-Majes — someone tried to rob a high security vault."

Brian starred.

"Really? What happened to them?"

"Nothing, that's why it's on the news. They haven't been caught! Dad says it must've been a powerful dark wizard to get around Lunar's security, but they don't think anything was stolen, which is what's so odd."

"I think I need to take my mind off of that… Can you tell me about Quidditch and Quodpot?"

"Sure!" And she was off, explaining about the four balls and the positions of the seven players of Quidditch before explaining about the single ball and the positions of the eleven players of Quodpot.

"So Quodpot is basically football, except you're on a broomstick and the ball can explode?!"

"Only if you don't get it into the opponent's pot in time. It contains a solution that nullifies the Quod's explosive properties. You'll probably get hurt if you play it, but nobody gets killed by the Quod's explosion."

"Oh, that's a good sign."

"Anyway, we'd better get changed. We're gonna arrive soon!" The two returned to their room, took their suitcases out of the closet, opened them, and entered the suitcases. When they came out, they were wearing the exact same outfit as Rowan was wearing. The two closed their cases as they noticed that the train was beginning its final descent.

A voice echoed through the train: "Attention all passengers, we will be reaching Ilvermorny in five minutes. Please leave your luggage on the train, it will be taken to the school separately. All passengers should remain seated until the train comes to a complete stop."

Both Merula and Brian looked nervous and excited at the same time. They placed the last of their sweets in the pockets of their plaid pants and sat as the train landed on the tracks.

The train slowed right down and finally stopped. People pushed their way toward the door and out onto a large station seemingly built into Mount Greylock itself! The cavern, lit by magical lanterns, was filled with the cold evening air.

"This place is huge!" Brian exclaimed as he saw passengers of other trains exit onto the station.

A voice echoed throughout the cavern: "All first-years, please follow the Keeper of Keys into Greylock Village. There, you will begin your journey to Ilvermorny Castle." Someone began to walk towards the students. He looked human, save for his blue-ish skin and fins on his arms and legs.

"Sorry about that. I'm Professor Triton, your Charms professor and the Keeper of Keys and Grounds at Ilvermorny." With Professor Triton leading the way, the students came across a fleet of what appeared to be large carriages, but where were the horses?

"All aboard! No more than 20 per carriage!" Triton called. The students began entering the carriages. Brian, Rowan, and Merula were all in one carriage.

"Everyone in?" Asked Triton, as he entered a single empty carriage. "Right then. Forward!"

And the fleet of carriages moved off all at once, climbing up the mountain as if it were nothing. Everyone was silent, but started to stare in amazement as they saw the giant granite castle sitting atop the mountain's highest peak. The front gates opened as soon as the carriages approached them, and the trio could see how big the castle and the school grounds were!

The students all exited the carriages, following Professor Triton up a small flight of stone stairs and crowded around the huge, snakewood front door. Standing next to the doors were marble statues of Isolt Sayre and her husband, James Steward. Both statues were being tended by pukwudgies, but the one tending to Isolt's statue was a bit… older looking than the others.

"Everyone here? Now then, welcome to Ilvermorny!"