Ethan had realised, many times, that time flies much quicker when you are having fun. One minute it seemed like he was wrestling the pictures away from Nocturne, the next minute he found himself in his Hogwarts robe being guided through the crowds of students by Albus. He found himself barely keeping up with the three ahead with the majority of taller students rushing in a different direction, towards the carriages. He read that First Years got to have a boat ride to the Entrance of Hogwarts. A slower path, but he had read the view was awe inspiring.
"First Years, over here!" a voice boomed. Ethan looked around to see the giant person – half-giant, actually – that easily stood above even the Seventh Years. He had wild, greying hair and an equally wild beard. Nevertheless, despite his obvious aging, his eyes showed the joy of a young man. He held the pride of a man who thoroughly enjoyed his work, a man who would do it until his body no longer let him. This was Professor Rubeus Hagrid, or Hagrid for short, Gamekeeper and Professor of the Care of Magical Creatures class.
Many of the First Years looked frightened by the man, but Rose and Albus greeted the Professor with the same enthusiasm as greeting their favourite uncle. "Hello, Hagrid!" the two greeted happily, ignoring the strange looks they got from other First Years for doing so. The man looked towards the two and smiled.
"'Ello, Rose, Albus! Where's your brother and cousins?" Hagrid asked Albus before looking around the crowd.
"James is off talking to his Second Year friends," Rose sighed, as if it was to be expected.
"And Roxanne is..." Albus trailed off, looking around for someone as he did.
"Here! Hello Hagrid!" a girl's cheerful voice called, before a blur with red hair hugged the half-giant. Hagrid laughed while Rose sighed. Ethan could of almost sworn he heard Rose mutter 'great' in a sarcastic tone.
"Hello Roxanne! How is your sister? Is she doing well?" Hagrid asked.
"How many of you are there? Should we watch the ground in case another one pops out?" Nocturne joked. Rose glared at Nocturne and huffed.
"Nice to meet you all again, but best we have the reunion 'til you can all come over to my 'ouse, near the forest," Hagrid advised, looking at his watch before turning his attention back to the crowd of First Years. "First Years, four to a boat!" Hagrid called. Ethan was confused until he leaned to the side to see the row of boats sitting on the sparkling water. Nocturne made some sort of fat joke which cause Rose to give him a vicious glare.
"Well, we better leave you Weasleys and Potters to your own boat. Don't want to see what happens if you try with five...though I am curious if I can make Rose's face match her hair in anger," Nocturne said mischievously, grin returning. Ethan pulled his friend along before the troublemaker could try.
"So, who were they?" Ethan could make out Roxanne say before the chatter and distance overcame the 'Weapot' boat, as Nocturne jokingly referred it in his aimless self-chatter. Said aimless chatter was starting to get on Ethan's nerves, a fact Nocturne knew very well. Ethan sighed in relief when Nocturne had found something else to amuse himself with.
"It's Pip! How're you doing?" Nocturne asked before suddenly jumping into a boat and wrapping an arm around someone's shoulder. Ethan paled slightly when he realised it was a now very annoyed and death glaring Orphne, giving a look which Ethan would hide from if it was pointed at him. Nocturne being Nocturne, however, simply grinned and gave a slight wave.
"Pip?" the boy sitting opposite Orphne asked. He had blond hair, pale skin and an air of importance about him. Ethan guessed how long it would be before Nocturne started annoying him, too. His guess was measured in seconds.
"P-P-I-P, Ppip! Stands for Princess Pretty in Pink! And you must be the other Princess, right?" Nocturne said happily. The boy glared at Nocturne. Ethan tried his hardest not to imagine this boy pink as well.
"I am Scorpius Malfoy, not some pink-loving royalty. And this boat is reserved for only those who are most likely going to be in Slytherin, so leave," Scorpius said with a clear tone of hostility and snideness, though keeping his cool better than Orphne.
"Really! Yay, we'll be dorm mates!" Nocturne said in his most childish, happy voice, wrapping his other arm around Scorpius' shoulder. Ethan ran to the 'Weapot' boat, despite his previous plans, with a look of urgency. Ethan did not want to be around when Orphne and Scorpius' faces had unfrozen from their horrified expressions. By the sound of Nocturne's hysterical laughter, he at least knew that Nocturne hadn't finally had Karma's revenge yet.
Ethan looked ahead to notice, sadly, that the 'Weapot' boat was full, as was his sister's with her friends, chattering away aimlessly just as much as Nocturne did. Ethan turned his attention away from them before he could get annoyed, reminding himself it was a 'girl thing' and not as aimless as Nocturne's self-chatter could ever be. 'After all, who would possibly question the shape of cabbages in regular conversation?' Ethan assured himself. Ethan almost groaned when he walked up to the last boat left with empty spaces, one with a pair of twins which looked like they would do exactly that sitting right in it.
Dressed in robes which looked like it was soaked in some strange substance, the two male twins smiled at Ethan. They held a dreamy expression and wore strange necklaces and bracelets made of all types of stuff. They even wore three-pronged Jester Hats instead of the regulation wizard and witches' hat, the ends of said prongs tipped with more strange things. They had blond hair, too long to be boyish even by Nocturne's 'masculinely long' opinion, and blue, hazy eyes. "Hello," the two twins greeted in perfect harmony, a fact which creeped Ethan out slightly.
"Ermm, hello. I'm Ethan Gaia. Nice to meet you?" Ethan said, sitting in the boat while trying to sit as far away from the twins as he could. To Ethan, these guys were too weird for him. Ethan sighed and relaxed, reminding himself there was probably a lot more strange things in the Wizarding World than just a pair of weird twins.
"Hello, Ethan," the twins said, still smiling in their dreamy sense, not helping Ethan in convincing himself to relax around them.
"I'm Lysander," one of the twins said, Ethan very much glad they can talk separately at least.
"I'm Locan," the other twin said, Ethan now trying to find a way to tell the two apart.
"Scamander," the twins said in unison. Ethan raised an eyebrow.
"As in the famous Magizoologist?" Ethan asked. He only remembered him from one of the books in Flourish and Blotts, a guide for Magical Creatures the manager said he wouldn't need at all unless he takes Care of Magical Creatures in Third Year. The two smiled brightly at the recognition.
"Why, yes! Our great grandfather. Most of our family has been Magizoologists, though our mother also runs the Quibbler," the two twins explained.
"Quibbler? What's that?" Ethan asked. The twins looked at each other in shock, which Ethan found strange comfort in as it was a quite welcome change from their quite creepy dreamy voices and looks, before nodding in understanding.
"You must be a Muggleborn. Pretty impressive you know about our great grandfather," the twins said. Ethan shrugged.
"I don't want to be too far behind in knowledge compared to all the wizarding families. Hey, you mind if we meet up again sometime after the Sorting if you're not in my House? I wouldn't mind learning about Magical Creatures," Ethan asked.
"Not if you mind being our friend," the twins said, smiling.
"Sure!" Ethan said. 'I guess I'm not that great a judge of character. These guys are pretty nice, once you get past their weirdness,' Ethan thought. As Nocturne ran past, laughing with to P.P.I.P.s on his tail, Ethan sighed. 'And at least these guys could make it past the first day without me,' Ethan thought, giving a sympathetic smile as he pulled Nocturne into his boat as it started moving away from the shore. 'Then again, that's what friends are for,'
(Sorry for the lateness, delay, and the like. I really have no excuse. Please point out anything I need to fix, since I really haven't looked through this one in the rush to get it done while inspiration was with me. Also, I know Locan and Lysander shouldn't be in Ethan's year, but I felt like adding some Lovegood madness to the story. Next chapter will be the Sorting, but I would like to hear your opinions on who should go where apart from Nocturne and Ethan. Plus it will give me indication you read the whole chapter. Reviews will be gladly welcomed, even if to point out mistakes or to say 'such and such is not in character!'. Or to yell at me for the delay. Hopefully my inspiration to continuing writing this into a full story will continue!)