Like Hogwarts, the Academia de Italia had to be reached by train. The four members of the Petrroci family who were going to school - Sergio, Tina, Rosina, and Isabella - were to be escorted to the station by Isabella's parents, Lorenzo, and Alessandro. The three siblings mother had died several years ago due to a back-firing spell. Another man, short and rather round, was waiting downstairs when Isabella arrived. He was Florean Fortescue, former owner of Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour in Diagon Alley and god-father to Isabella's father, Patrick O'Reagan.
"Off to school," he beamed, bouncing on the balls of his feet. "Excited?" The other three, who did not know Florean very well and were clearly uncomfortable having him stay with them in their private home, averted their eyes and did not answer.
"A little nervous, actually," Isabella confessed. "I've never gone anywhere but Hogwarts."
"Speaking of which, did you hear that they're requiring all English students to enroll?" Isabella's father asked. "It's an outrage! Parents have always had the option of tutoring their own children, now Snape's got all of the next generation of witches and wizards under his thumb, and he's under You-Know-Who's thumb."
"Are you coming with us, Mr. Fortescue?" Isabella asked politely, though she already knew the answer. Florean had been advised by grandfather not to leave the Villa Petrroci.
"I'm afraid not," he sighed dramatically. "Though I would have likes to see Rome! But your Uncle Luigi is very kind, he brings me samples of gelato everyday." Florean and Luigi had hit it off very well, both being wizards who preferred to use their skills in making food.
"So, I guess you'll be going then," Florean said, escorting the little group to the doors. "Have fun, Bella, don't worry, do your homework, and make some friends!" As the huge doors of the Villa Petrroci closed behind them, everyone looked relieved and Isabella's father looked amused.
"He gave me that exact same speech, word for word, every time I went off to Hogwarts," he said. Alessandro smiled, and gently squeezed Isabella's shoulder.
"It'll be fine," he assured her. She smiled weakly back.
They walked along the dusty road, occasionally picking grapes from the untended vines. The area around the house had once been a vineyard, but had become overgrown with neglect. It still produced a few grapes, though, and these were sweet and ripe.
At the end of the path they paired off, one adult with one student. Mr. O'Reagan took Sergio's elbow and together they stepped off the path onto the asphalt. Twisting, they Disapparated with a crack. Isabella's mother helped Tina carry her trunk onto the road and they disappeared together, followed by Lorenzo and Rosina. Alessandro, carrying Isabella's trunk, stepped onto the road. She joined him, holding Portia's carrier and Castro's cage. He took her elbow and turned.
There was a terrible feeling, like being squeezed tightly around the chest so she couldn't breathe. Everything was black and pressing. Then, suddenly, the pressure stopped and Isabella took a great lungfuls of air.
They stood in an ally just outside of the Roma Termini Station. It had a high, peaked roof and bright glass windows at either end. Isabella's parents, Sergio, the twins, and Lorenzo stood a little farther away. Together their little group hurried across the street and into the station. Passing under the famous sign marking the name of the station, they joined the cues of Muggles, who were all all trying to catch their own trains.
Remembering Platform 9 and 3/4, Isabella wondered how they were supposed to get on the right train. Her ticket said that they needed to find the AI Treno, but there was no platform number. Everyone else - except her father, who lagged a little behind - seemed to know exactly where to go and was intent on getting there as quickly as possible. Lorenzo and Alessandro kept looking around nervously.
They marched straight across the station and to the other side, which was a wall made entirely of glass.
"Right, Sergio, go," Lorenzo said, pushing the boy from behind. Isabella looked around, there was no where to go to. But when she turned back to where Sergio had been, he wasn't there anymore.
"Rosina, quickly!" Lorenzo beckoned the girl impatiently she rushed forward, running straight at the windows and when she reached them, she went straight through. But she didn't emerge on the other side. It was like looking at some bizarre one-way mirror, or a picture painted to look like the outside.
Lorenzo had followed Rosina, carrying the rest of the girl's bags. Tina went next, Alessandro going with her, holding one end of her trunk.
"Blimey," Isabella's father said, watching as they disappeared.
"You'd better go, honey, take Portia and Castro," Isabella's mother said, looking worried now that Ale and Lorenzo were out of sight. Isabella's father picked up the two carriers, closed his eyes, and stepped through the barrier.
"Come on! Hurry!" Isabella's mother had seized on end of the trunk, definitely anxious at being left alone in so public a place. Isabella grabbed the other end of the trunk and help her mother through the barrier. When she was within an inch of the glass, Isabella instinctively shut her eyes and tensed, as though she impact with it would cause the window to shatter. But it didn't. The window seemed to bend around her, very chilly, then she broke through and the window slowly, like gelatin, moved back into place.
They were on a platform identical to those in the station except that this one was open-aired. The train was waiting there, but it was in every way different from the familiar Hogwarts Express. This was a new, modern electrical train. It was white, with purple streaks running the length of each coach. Golden dragons were painted on the doors that lay at each end of the coach.
Conductors were loading trunks into the last three coaches. Isabella could see Sergio, Rosina, and Lorenzo there already. Sergio was passing off Matrice, his Harris hawk, to another conductor who had a steadily growing pile of cages and carriers growing around his feet.
"Let's go," Isabella's mother said to her husband. They all scurried off after Alessandro and Tina.
"-don't see what one earth you could have packed to make it this heavy," Ale was saying to Tina. "It feels like you brought the Colossus of Nero with you."
"I need clothes, don't I?" she retorted.
"You wear a uniform!"
"So what? There's also makeup and hair-stuff," Tina said. Ale rolled his eyes and passed the purple trunk to one of the conductors.
"Time to say goodbye, I think," Lorenzo said, checking his watch as everyone's belongings were put into the correct hands. Castro's eyes followed Isabella morosely as he was put with the other pets.
Isabella buried her head in her father's shoulder. "It'll be fine," he whispered, hugging he tightly. "Don't you worry." Her mother had slightly different words.
"Now I know you're used to Hogwarts," she said, "but keep on open mind. You'll be fairly safe at the Academia, but not as safe as at home so be careful!"
"You'll have loads of fun," Ale assured her, giving her a one-armed hug. "Promise."
Isabella followed Sergio, Tina, and Rosina onto the train. She had not really known what to expect on the train ride, possibly that they - the Petrrocis - would sit together, but of course that didn't happen. Tina and Rosina immediately found their boyfriends and disappeared with them.
Isabella turned to Sergio and asked, "So, where do you-?"
"Sergio!" A boy with brown, curly hair waved to Sergio.
"Gavino, what's up?" Sergio asked, moving off to join a group of boys his age. They all exchanged greetings and friendly punches before moving off to a different coach. Isabella was left very alone.
Rather than the compartments she was used to, the AI Treno had tables and chairs. One of these tables was empty, so Isabella moved to sit by it, absently twirling her hair. The train lurched into motion and the Roma Termini Station slid away.
"Mind if we sit here?" Isabella turned around, startled, and saw three people standing there. One of them, a boy, had very blonde hair and bright blue eyes. The other two might have been brother and sister, they had brown hair and green eyes.
"No, not at all," she said, moving over.
"Thanks," the brown-haired boy ginned. "I'm Mariano, by the way. Mariano Vinci. This is my sister Angelica."
"Khalid Brust," the blonde boy smiled. He was holding hands with Angelica, indicating a romantic relationship between the two.
"So, we don't recognize you - no offense," Mariano said. He apparently was the spokesman of the group. "And I think I would have noticed someone like you."
Isabella smiled. "Isabella Petrroci. I'm a transfer."
"But you're a Petrroci!" Angelica pointed out. "Every Petrroci has gone to the Academia!"
"My mother worked in England, so I went to school at Hogwarts," Isabella said.
"What was it like?" Mariano asked, leaning forward.
"Well, it was a castle by a lake," Isabella said carefully. She was pretty sure you weren't supposed to tell other schools too many details about your school. "And it was very big. Seven floors, and that isn't including the four towers."
"That's huge!" Mariano said, amazed. "And that's just for that little island?"
"England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland," Isabella nodded. "But the Academia has more countries than Italy, right?"
"Yeah, Khalid here is from Switzerland, the Madder brothers are from Austria, and we've got several people from Greece. So what year are you?"
Levels were very different at the Academia de Italia. They started one year earlier, but most of them spent their fifth years doing internships instead of taking classes. They also didn't have houses, but lived in dorms with girls or boys of their same year.
"Seventh," Isabella said. It was so hard not to say "sixth", which would have been her year if she attended Hogwarts.
"Same with me," Mariano smiled. "Angelica's sixth and so's Khalid."
"They do that differently at Hogwarts, right?" Angelica pronounced the name with difficulty, as though it sounded extremely funny to her but she didn't want to offend Isabella.
"Yes, we are sorted into houses there," Isabella explained. "I was in Ravenclaw. 'Wit beyond measure is man's greatest treasure'."
"Cool! What other houses were there?"
"Gryffindor, known for daring, nerve, and chivalry; Slytherin, cunning and ambitious; and Hufflepuff, the loyal and true," Isabella thought back to feast after feast of listening to the Sorting hat recite those words and she felt as if, until now, she had never really understood what the hat was trying to say.
"Did you have a mascot at Hogwarts?" Mariano asked. Isabella hadn't realized Hogwarts would be such a topic of interest. "Like our dragon? Was your mascot a hog?"
"No!" Isabella said, defensively. "Our crest included all of the House animals. An eagle for Ravenclaw, a snake for Slytherin, a lion for Gryffindor, and a badger for Hufflepuff."
They lapsed into a comfortable question and answer session. They would ask a question about Hogwarts which Isabella would answer, then she would ask a question about the Academia, which they would answer.
"Could you go swimming in the lake?" Khalid asked.
"I suppose so," Isabella said, thinking of Victor Krum. "But it was very cold and the giant squid lived in it. How long does the train ride take?"
"About five and a half hours. What was the food like?"
"English, but good. They had things like steak and kidney pie and treacle tart, but they also had Yorkshire pudding and crumpets. How do they organize Quidditch teams at the Academia?"
"Well, of course you know about the upper and lower school," Mariano said. Isabella nodded: the upper school was ages 15 through 18 and the lower school was ages 10 through 13. "The upper school and lower school each have their own tryouts. Those who get in are placed randomly on one of three teams: the claws, the horns, or the teeth."
Isabella thought over this. Hermione Granger, a Gryffindor a year older than Isabella, had once suggested that Quidditch divided the school and encouraged animosity between houses. By having the teams all be named after parts of a whole dragon, Isabella thought this nicely combated that issue. But she still wasn't so sure about how 'random' the whole process was. It seem like it would be easy for one team to have just a few of the best players on it.
"Okay, one more question," Mariano said. "Are you hungry? Because there's a snack bar in one of the coaches..." Isabella laughed and followed the three through the snaking train. She had a good look at most of the other students.
It seemed that though the Academia began at a younger age than Hogwarts, there were fewer people on the trains. In fact, if she had counted correctly, the Acadmeia seemed about two-thirds the size of Hogwarts at roughly one-hundred eighty students. Although a vast majority of these were dark haired and brown-eyed, there were several clearly of Austrian and Swiss descent.
The snack bar had Pumpkin Pasties, Licorice Wands, Chocolate Frogs, and Drooble's Gum, but it was missing certain items like Bertie Bott's Every Flavored Beans and Cauldron Cakes. Instead, they had some sort of chocolate bar in a yellow wrapper with the words, "Calypso Circe's Caramel Chocolate Surprise" written in green. Isabella bought one of these and a coffee.
"Getting a Circe, are you?" Khalid smiled. "Everyone falls in love after the first bite. Heaven on earth, some say." Arching her eyebrows, Isabella unwrapped the yellow paper and bit into the candy bar.
Heaven on earth didn't even begin to cover it.
It was dark chocolate poured over caramel with chunks of almond. Isabella tried not to inhale it, but it was still gone within minutes. To their credit, none of the other three laughed at her, but they did smile a little and looked out the windows.
"How far north is the Academia?" Isabella asked. The school was unplottable, so she had been unable to find its location on a map. But five and half hours seemed impossibly, almost-in-Swizterland far.
"It's up in Valle d'Aosta, you know the place?" Mariano asked. Isabella nodded; the region was difficult and rugged, practically in the Alps. It was going to be very cold in the winter. Isabella disliked being cold, but she supposed there was nothing for it.
Khalid pulled out a pack of exploding snap and they played until both of the boys had burned fingers. Isabella dug in her pocket and produced her Aviatomobile, a flying toy car given to her by Fred and George in a package of Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes products. The other three were instanstly hooked.
"Adorabile!" Angelica said, watching it hover near the window. "Where did you get it?"
"Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes joke shop," Isabella smiled. "It's the only toy I could fit in my pocket."
"What is this Weasleys?" Khalid asked, examining the car with curiosity. "I've never heard of them."
"You... never? Well, I suppose... in Italy... no," Isabella stammered. "They're only the best joke shop ever! Ten times better than Zonko's!"
"Zonko's? Never heard of them," Mariano said, not looking very interested. "But no one's better than Laughing Agrippa."
"Want to bet?" Isabella smiled, then she emptied her pockets of Edible Dark Marks, Extendable Ears, Ton-Tongue Toffee, Canary Creams, and every flavor of Skivving Snackbox. She refused to let the boys try any of the sweets, except the Canary Cream, but she gave them all an Extendable Ear. She also had Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder, but when a much-more interested Mariano asked about it, she just smiled and pocketed it. The powder had bad memories of betrayal, battles, and a dead headmaster.
The joke products entertained them for the rest of the trip. Several people, seeing the amount of fun they were having, came over to see what was going on. Soon Isabella was out of Canary Creams, but she suspected Fred and George were about to get a flood of order forms all postmarked with Italian stamps.
She also learned that the Academia had most of the clubs that Hogwarts had (a Gobstone's Club, Quidditch team fan clubs, Potions club) but not a dueling club or a defense club. Isabella knew the DA had been set up because Umbridge was such an atrocious teacher, but still...
"We're nearly there," Khalid said, looking out the window. Isabella looked and saw that the mountains they had been winding through for the past hour were taller, but the valley was lower. They appeared to be going up into the mountains, higher and higher until the valley was almost lost to sight below. The trees here were all pine and fir, tall and dark sentinels on either side of the tracks.
"You'll get your first view of the Academia soon," Khalid told her. The Al Treno rounded a corner and a huge building came into sight.
Hogwarts was a castle, Beauxbatons was a palace, Durmstrang was a fortress, but the Academia could only be described as a Alpine lodge. It was several stories tall, with large windows that would overlook the mountains and pine forests. It's roof was peaked and hung over the dark wood walls. A huge, stone chimney took up a large part of one side. Purple fringe, bear grass, and moss campion sprung up all around the lodge, brilliant in the late summer warmth.
There appeared to be no station. Rather, the Al Treno simply pulled up to a relatively flat area and everyone began to climb off.
"Get your trunk and I can show you where the dormitory is," Angelica told her. Isabella joined the cue of students trying to collect belongings and narrowly saved Castro from being knocked over by the bustling crowd. The augury was looking around, bright-eyed and excited. He ruffled his feathers and opened his mouth in a silent crow of delight.
Isabella joined Angelica a few minutes later and together they entered the stream of students heading up the gravel path toward the lodge. Up the stone steps, Isabella had a faint impression of a huge room with an enormous fireplace, a wall of windows overlooking the valley below, and a large amount of tables and chairs before Angelica urged her up the stairs. The next floor appeared to be entirely classrooms with a few nooks where chairs and coffee tables nestled.
After that came the dormitories. The girls' rooms were a level below the boys so Isabella and Angelica left the crowd of ascending boys and set off down one of the corridors.
"There are about ten girls in every level," Angelica explained, panting slightly as she dragged her trunk down the purple-carpeted hallways. "So each room has two beds. We won't be together, since we're different ages, but..." They stopped at one of the doors. 7E was written in golden letters on the door. "This is yours. We have an hour or so before dinner to get unpacked and in uniform. Should I meet you here?"
Isabella agreed and offered to help Angelica with her belongings but the girl simply smiled and shook her head. Opening the door, Isabella peeked into her new room. It was small, with two beds shoved up against the walls. Two desks and a set of chairs were also in here for studying purposes.
Dragging her trunk inside, Isabella set it down beside her bed. She released Portia and Castro from their carriers. The augury immediately fluttered to the window, so Isabella opened it. The view overlooked a path that wound through the fir trees, which Castro flew between, vanishing from sight. Portia crept out of her hamper, unsure of this new place.
The door opened and a golden-haired girl strode in confidently. She had blue glasses and her t-shirt had the logo of the Vienna Vipers, a Quidditch team with a spectacular losing streak.
"Oh," the girl said, looking amazed to find someone sitting in her room. "Hello."
"Hello," Isabella smiled, standing up. "My name is Isabella Petrroci; I transferred here." The girl shook her hand, looking Isabella up and down surreptitiously.
"Zala. Zala Baumschlager," the girl said. "So, I guess you're my roommate."
"I suppose so," Isabella said. "Can I help you with your things?" Zala, in addition to her trunk, had a broomstick and a sleepy-looking owl named Fett. When Zala opened his cage door, Fett took one look and buried his head under his wing.
"So. Um. Where did you come from?" Zala asked awkwardly, opening her trunk and pulling out a rumpled pile of robes.
"England. Well, I technically am from Italy, but my mother worked in England," she said, starting to unpack as well.
"Did you see the world cup?" Zala asked, pinning up a poster of a young man wearing the lime green robes of the Vienna Vipers.
"Yes, I did," Isabella nodded. "My cousin Roberto took me."
"The Keeper of the Padua Panthers?" Zala asked, looking excited.
"That's the one," she confirmed. "Do you play Quidditch?"
"I try out every year," Zala sighed. "But I can't get on the team. I think my broom is too slow."
"What do you have?"
"Bluebottle." Isabella turned to look at the ancient, decrepit broom.
"That might be the problem," she admitted. "I mean, it's a very safe broom..."
"It's slower than a sedated snail," Zala sighed. "I went to see the annual broomstick races in Sweden. You want to know how fast their broom were? One-hundred and fifty miles an hour! Wowzers, huh?"
"My friend Harry has a Firebolt," Isabella nodded. "He almost always gets the Snitch at our games. It drove Cho, our Seeker, off the wall."
"Wait. You're not talking about Harry Potter are you?" Zala asked, riveted. "The Harry Potter?"
"Yes, that's him," Isabella nodded.
"Wowzers!" (Isabella was to learn that this was Zala's favorite exclamation). "So what's he like? Is he really the Chosen One? I hear he's on the run, is he on the run? Did he really face He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named? Is it true he survived the killing curse? Wowzers!"
"Um, Harry's really nice, actually," Isabella said, trying to remember all the questions. "He's a really good teacher, I was in a Defense Club he led two years ago. I don't know if he's the Chosen One, but my grandfather reckons he is. And Leornardo Petrroci is very rarely wrong. I heard Harry's disappeared, but I don't think he'd run away. He's very brave and daring, being a Gryffindor. Yes, he faced You-Know-Who. Several times, in fact. He did survive the killing curse." Isabella wasn't sure if Zala understood any of that, but the girl merely shook her head, blue eyes wide-open and said, "Wowzers."
There was an awed pause on Zala's part, then she asked, "So, do you play Quidditch?"
"Center Chaser," Isabella nodded.
"But where's you broom?" Zala looked around the small room expectantly, as though waiting for some broom to pop out of a hiding place.
"Oh, I'm not doing Quidditch this year," Isabella said, trying to sound off-hand. But it wasn't off-hand. It was most definitely decided... by Leonardo. One evening during dinner Great-Aunt Guilia had been bewailing the unlady-likeness of riding broom sticks. To everyone's surprise, Leonardo had come to her side almost immediately.
"I agree that Isabella should give up Quidditch. But not because of her gender," he had announced. "I do not wish to denounce the game; Quidditch is a wonderful game that promotes teamwork and diligence. However, I think that, considering our situation, Quidditch offers too many 'accidents' that might be fatal."
That had been the first time Isabella had been informed of "their situation". Basically, this meant that everyone in Italy knew Leonardo's influence over the Ministry. The rivolta was about overthrowing the Ministry. Leonardo Petrroci stood in the path of the rebels, as did Signor de Pietro. "Their situation" basically meant that everyone was out to kill Leonardo, and it wouldn't matter to them if a few Petrrocis died along the way.
"So, aren't we supposed to get dressed for dinner?" Isabella asked at length.
Zala jumped up from her bed. "Oh yeah, come on. I'll show you where the bathrooms are." There was a bathroom at both ends of each of the seven halls. Zala and Isabella changed in one of these and then hurried back to their rooms. Isabella wasn't sure if she liked the new uniform or having to walk through the hallway to get to the bathroom, but she said nothing.
The uniform was a simple black skirt, white blouse, and purple and gold striped tie with purple robes worn over these. She almost missed the simple black of Hogwarts and the austere blue of Ravenclaw.
Zala, Isabella, and Angelica went down to dinner together. At first, Isabella was confused because she could not remember passing anything that looked like a dining room on the way up. She thought the large room on the first level might be their destination, but they continued down the stairs, passing it. It turned out that, since the school was built on a slope, there was a level under what appeared, from the outside, to be the ground floor. This room contained many round, solid pinewood tables. Mariano, Khalid, and two boys who looked as though they might be twins sat at a table already, so the three girls joined them.
"Isabella, this is Kurt and Dietmar Madder," Mariano introduced her to the newcomers. "Kurt's in our year and Dietmar is in Angelica's class."
"It's nice to meet you," Isabella said, shaking their hands. She could see now the brothers had subtle differences between them. Kurt's hair was just a shade lighter and his eyelashes just a little longer; Dietmar had a sharper jawbone.
"Settle down, now, settle!" a voice called. Isabella looked up from her seat and saw an older looking woman gesturing for them all to be silent. "Welcome to the Academia de Italia!" she beamed at them all. "For those of you who don't know me, I am Professor Bianchi. I am the headmistress here! I'd like to take this time to introduce you all to Professor Hecuba-" A witch with dark hair braided back smiled "-and Professor Francis-" A rather fat, jovial looking man stood and waved. "The heads of the lower and upper schools. Now, before we begin our dinner, I have a few announcements.
"First-years would do well to note that while walking in the Enchanted Wood, you are absolutely forbidden from leaving the sight of the path. Magic should not be used in the hallways without the supervision of a teacher. Quidditch trials will be held the second week of term. If you wish to try out, please turn in your name to Senior Mosca." A man possibly of Spanish origin with prematurely greying hair nodded when Professor Bianchi gestured to him.
"Now we shall delay dinner no further," Professor Bianchi smiled. "Lower school, please remember that curfew is at ten o'clock for you. Upper school, be in your rooms at eleven. Now, begin!" She clapped her hands.
Just like at Hogwarts, food appeared on the tables. But the cuisine ranged from ravioli to liptauer to cervelat to horta. Isabella couldn't help but notice that everyone at the table instantly reached for their own nationality's food. Even she was guilty, passing over the tafelspitz for the trenette. So, she thought wryly, Even without houses there is still some division.