Chapter 3

Smoke and Mirrors

"I'm excited! No, really! But c'mon!"

Ben was not, by any definition, a morning person. Even on special days, such as the day when he takes the train to Ilvermorny and starts his first year of school, he prefers to have at least 10 hours of sleep.

"Get. Off. Of. Me." He struggled to get the words out. Kelsey had attacked him at 6 AM and now was putting all of her weight on Ben's back. "Why must you be the way you are?" He groaned.

"WE GOIN' TO ILVERMORNY GET UP!"

"I would if I were able to move or breathe," he croaked.

After being dragged onto the floor, dragged down the stairs, dragged to breakfast, then dragged to the car, Ben felt himself finally feeling like he was somewhat alive. It wasn't until they pulled up at a very old and large train station that he realized just how excited he was to be finally going to Ilvermorny.

"Union Station. Still can't get over that No-Maj's were able to build places like this over 100 years ago and still keep it running. I know a certain someone that can't even get around to fixing a television that was installed only two months ago" Mrs. Reilly teased.

"Hey now," Ben's father started. "That only just broke and I haven't had time to fix it. You know as well as me that repairmen in Florida are terrible. Last time they broke my-"

"I WANNA GO I WANNA GO" Phoebe screeched. Her 9 year old sister Maggie put on her headphones and tried to ignore her frantic little sister.

"You will soon," Uncle Joe reassured her "but first you've got to let the big kids have their turn since they waited longer than you."

"But I wanna go now! Why can't I come? I can do magic!"

"The last thing we need you to be doing right now is magic." Mrs. McKenna shuddered at the thought. "Alright you all. To the dome."

The group headed towards what most of the wizards referred to as "The Dome," which was a huge, circular atrium that was built over a hundred years before. "Let's go, come on now. All of you with me, right here" she stood in the center circle with Charlie and Kelsey. "Ok, on the count of three. One… Two… Three!"

They all jumped at the same time and went completely through the circle on the way down. Ben was falling a solid 30 feet before his fall slowed and he dropped softly onto his feet. He had been to the wizarding platform of Union Station before but now that this trip was meant for him, the bustling gate felt more intimidating than usual. Everywhere he looked he was surrounded by hordes of frantic families, each trying to get their children to their correct section of the train and say their goodbyes.

Ben is met by his sisters and his parents falling through the ceiling, followed by Mr. McKenna and the little ones. "All the third years are boarding, Ma" Marie started pointing at the mass of 13 year-olds piling into their compartments.

Jenny pointed to the back of the train. "Looks like most 5th years already boarded."

"Yeah, we might as well split up now. It looks like the train's going to be leaving real soon." Ben's dad admitted.

After hugging his father and prying his teary-eyed mother off of him, Ben and Kelsey entered the front of train. The interior looked as ancient as the train itself.

"The train doors just shut. We must've been with the last few stragglers to get on the train." Kelsey stops Ben. "How about right here?" She asked pointing to a compartment with one girl that was struggling to get her bags on the luggage racks above her.

Ben opens the door. "Hey!" The girl gasps and drops the bag. "Can I help you with that?" She nods and he manages lift the surprisingly heavy bag onto the racks.

Ben shines a crooked smile at the girl. She was tan and very small with dark wavy hair and caramel brown eyes. Her expression made Ben feel as if she was wary of them, yet her attitude said otherwise.

"Hi, um, yeah, if you both want to sit in here you can. My name is Jessica, by the way." She smiled nervously.

"Thanks! I'm Kelsey and this is Ben," she patted his shoulder. "We're cousins. He's got two sisters here and I've got my brother in second year."

"Must be nice," Jessica shuffled her feet. "My brother graduated this past year."

"Eh, not really. He's kind of a dingus. What house was your brother in?"

"He was in Horned Serpent like my mom and dad." Jessica started. "It only makes sense. He's a complete genius. He's working to be an alchemist and got O's on most of his NEWTS, I think."

Ben nodded. He remembered Charlie telling him the Horned Serpent house focused on scholars. "What about you? Do you want to be Horned Serpent too?"

She looked thoughtfully at Ben. "I… I don't really know. I don't think I could ever be as smart as him so I'll probably be put somewhere else."

"Don't say that!" Kelsey smiled. "We haven't even officially started school yet for all we know you could be a natural at this kind of stuff."

"Yeah, I guess. I don't really know much about the other houses or how we even get sorted for that matter."

"Charlie said there was some sort of fight to decide but I think he's full of it. They'll probably just have us fill out some dumb survey or something." Kelsey rambled on and on of how she wasn't interested in the other houses and wanted to be placed in Wampus. "Our McKenna side of the family were mostly Wampus members and a bunch of Thunderbirds as well. My mom was Horned Serpent as well as yours but I'd hate to be in that house. So boring. No offense, of course."

"No, it's fine. I honestly don't know if I even want to be in Horned Serpent either. I feel like I wouldn't really belong there I just have no clue where I do fit in." She turned her attention to Ben. "Where would you want to be placed?"

"Couldn't tell you," Ben sighed. "Haven't thought about it too much."

This was a lie. Truth was, Ben thought about it a lot and it was terrifying. The sorting system is based on the way one thinks and acts and is separated into 4 houses: Horned Serpent symbolizes the mind and favors scholars, Pukwudgie represents the heart and favors healers, Wampus represents the body and favors warriors, and Thunderbird represents the soul and favors adventurers. However, Ben was none of these things- at least not enough to be defined as a "warrior" or "adventurer." What was scary to him was that even he doesn't know how his brain works and has no clue how in the world this school could figure that out. What if he didn't fit in any of the houses? He'd surely be on the first train back to Union Station…

Kelsey was quick to respond. "I'm sure you'll be in Wampus, like Brooke. You're pissy like her." She smiled devilishly.

"Thanks Kels. Really appreciate it. Definitely worth telling her that too." He looks at Jessica who is visibly trying not to laugh.

"I mean you never know, that could be the reason you get put in there," Kelsey winked.

Ben glanced out the window. He knew what to expect to see- after all he had been spending the past few weeks in the mountains of Pennsylvania with his family. Even so, he couldn't help but gawk at the view. Endless rolling hills with the first signs of autumn already starting to show. The intermittent flashes of red, yellow, and orange in a sea of massive green peaks would never get old to him. Seeing the change in seasons was exciting for Ben, as he had never seen the fall colors before. He had spent his whole life growing up in Florida and had grown tired of seeing nothing but flatlands and palm trees.

The landscape, to Ben's delight, generally didn't change much for the whole ride. The sun was beginning to set over the mountains and the light was shining between the hills. He was discussing Quodpot with Jessica and Kelsey when he felt the train start to slow. "Could we be there yet? I don't see anything but trees and hills out here."

"I feel like we wouldn't be able to see it from wherever we are right now" The others looked at Jessica. "I mean, don't they put a ton of enchantments on the castle? It's probably on that mountain in front of us. Dad was saying it's on the biggest mountain in Massachusetts."

Kelsey nodded. "Yup. Mount Greylock. This right here has to be our stop," she pointed at a platform that was approaching fast on the right side.

Sure enough, the trained slowed to a stop outside of a very old train station. The first years nearly piled on top of each in the attempt to get off the train. It seemed everyone was as anxious as Ben and Jessica were.

Kelsey, on the other hand, didn't seem worried about any of it. She kept the same blank grin on her face that she wore at Union Station. Ben couldn't help but envy her; for someone with such an attitude, she never seemed to worry about anything. His attention shifted to the sound of yelling. A short man with dark skin and a wide brimmed hat was bellowing instructions.

"First years! First years! That's it y'all, first years over here! I'm Billings but you kids call me Coach Billings, got me?"

"Are you the Quodpot coach?" A girl with platinum blonde hair quipped.

"No, dumbdumb! I'm your coach! My assignment is to be your caretaker which means I'm gonna be watching over you kids and make sure none of y'all are doing somethin' stupid!" He gestured over to the trail next to him. "Follow me and we'll take you up the mountain. Stay together!"

They sauntered along a deep forest trail as night fell and they reached a grassy clearing below the mountain. Even as close as they were to the mountain they still couldn't see any sign of a castle.

"Alright everyone stay right here I got this." Billings took out his wand and flicked his wrist…

"Uh… is something supposed to happen?" Kelsey whispered in Ben's ear.

"Damn it," Billings muttered under his breath. "...always forgetting where it is…"

Billings started to walk around cautiously with his arms stretched out in front of him, grabbing away as if he believed he'd eventually find something. "I got this y'all! Stay right there!"

The students started murmuring. "Is he alright? Did I get on the right train?" A boy with spiky black hair asked.

"Ah! Gotcha!" Billings kept his arm forward and pulled on something. Suddenly, the air appeared to ripple for a split second and then Ben realized what he was doing. A mirror-like door opened to reveal an interior with two rows of chairs and tinted windows.

"Is that a cable car?" Kelsey asked.

"I think so," Jessica responded. "It's kind of hard to tell when you can only see the inside of it."

"Listen up, youngins. You're going to line up in the order that I call you." Billings pulled out a list. "All of you are gonna stay in alphabetical order by last name. Any of you break that order and we're gonna have a problem. Headmaster Wheeler will explain as soon as you get there what you will be doing when you're all sorted. Alright first we got a... Austin Andrews?"

A blonde boy with a serious face stepped forward. Then, 6 at a time Billings loaded the student onto the cable cars. Ben secretly wished that Billings could've made the cars visible so he wouldn't spend extra time stumbling around trying to find the next car that would come by. The anxiety to get into the castle was killing him.

"Alright, in this car we got Shivani Pillai, Erica Polk, Jack Powell, Shane Ramsey, Ben Reilly, and Jessica Renner."

Ben turned to Jessica. "I didn't know your last name was Renner? Awesome!"

Jessica smiled brightly at Ben. He was glad at least he'd be able to talk to someone leading up to the sorting. The whole situation had him on edge and he could tell it was bothering her too.

They stepped into the cable car and he could feel the car lurch forward. The first few minutes were spent in uncomfortably silence. Finally, a boy Billings said was named Jack Powell broke the spell. "This is a sick whip," he grinned. "I wanna learn whatever spell turns stuff invisible like this. I'd be so loaded."

Ben laughed. "What would you possibly do? Turn invisible and pickpocket someone? It's not like you could break into Raubash and Batts with just an invisible charm."

"Who said anything about stealing?" He giggled. "I'm just saying I'm sure there's a market out there for enchanted objects and invisibility is a cash cow. Besides, nobody can break into a wizard bank anyway."

"Nope, you're wrong," the small Indian girl Ben assumed was Shivani Pillai interjected. "Harry Potter broke into Gringotts bank and escaped too!"

"I thought he was the one that beat You-Know-Who?" Jessica asked, her brow furrowed.

"Yeah, he did both." A lanky girl with short blonde hair cut in. "He had a dragon help him, though. You don't happen to have one of those do you?"

"If I sell enough invisible stuff, I could buy one. Name him Jimmy, maybe even Jimbo." Jack smiled as the blonde, Erica Polk, rolled her eyes.

Ben could tell Jack Powell was a weird kid. He had thick black hair and pale green eyes that were nearly gray. He had a square jaw and a wicked grin that almost immediately would get him labeled as a troublemaker. Sure, he was a bit goofy but normal has always been boring to Ben and Jack definitely didn't seem boring to him. He laughed and continued to listen to Jack's future invisibility business ventures and Jimbo the dragon until Jessica gasped. "Oh my god, look at that."

As the car travelled higher and higher up the mountain, whatever it was became visible. They were approaching some sort of force field that rippled in the sunlight through the tinted windows. Not knowing what to expect, Ben shut his eyes and braced himself for impact

"Whoa."

Ben's eyes shot open and he gasped.

A/N: I want to put in a lot of background and perspective into the school itself and the location so I plan on writing more about the layout of the school. Ilvermorny is its own world and I'm trying my best not to just make a mirror of Hogwarts so let me know what you guys think. Also, I hope you guys will end up liking Billings as much as I do because the man that inspired the character is a great guy and I wanna do him justice.