Author's Note: June had said that her Aunt Makena was the fourth grade teacher, but by the time June's class had started fourth-grade, Makena was on maternity leave. Therefore, this is why they had Mr. Carmichael, since he took over teaching fourth-grade for the year.
Harry sat in the third row of the Assembly Hall, with Ron, Neville, and Draco on his right side and June, Eileen, Stella, and Arista on his left. "Isn't it exciting to finally be a student at Nightwind School?" June asked.
Harry nodded in agreement. The adults in their lives had told them to just focus on school and living their lives, and not worry about Voldemort or his eventual return until it actually happened. So for the time being, the eight had put what Headmistress Nakamura and Professor Chavez had told them out of their mind, other than the warning that some of the other students could make a big deal of Harry's fame.
"We should sit with out roommates at lunch so we can get to know them," Draco suggested. "Since Anthony Goldstein is Jewish, we'll have to make sure we sit by the kosher dishes."
"Oh look, the other students are arriving," Ron said, turning his head to look at the group of seven students making their way into the room. More students trickled in during the next ten minutes, until all one hundred thirty-five first-years were present. There was a couple of minutes of the last group of people finding seats, and then silence reigned as Headmistress Nakamura and Deputy Headmaster Ihejirika appeared at the front dais.
"Good morning, new students," said Headmistress Nakamura. "I am Headmistress Hikari Nakamura and I also teach the class on Japanese culture. Welcome to Nightwind School of Magic. In case any of you are wondering, there is a translation spell on the school so that you will hear anything spoken to you in your native language until you are fluent in English."
"Hello, I am Deputy Headmaster Oluchi Ihejirika," said the tall black man in his mid-sixties next to her. "I am also one of the teachers of the World Culture class, focusing on African culture." He then gestured at the group of staff that had filed out behind him. "We have many teachers, but these are the ones that you will deal with the most this year, as they teach the first-years."
The first-year teachers introduced themselves one by one, followed by the librarians, Harry's godmother Aunt Claire as the school Healer, religious staff (four of whom also helped out as the auxiliary Healers or Mediwitch and wizard), and the groundskeepers. Harry and his friends didn't pay much attention to this, as they already knew all the staff, or at least recognized who they were. They also didn't pay too much attention to the tour of the school, as they were quite familiar with it, and just stuffed the maps they had been given in their pockets.
After the tour, the students returned to the Assembly Hall, were they were all asked to introduce themselves and state where they were from. Harry and his friends paid close attention to this, as they needed to know who their roommates were, and they wanted to get to know the other students a bit. There were several gasps when Harry introduced himself, and a number of students craned their heads to get a good look at him and murmured to each other. There was more murmurs when Eileen introduced herself and said yes, she was descended from the founders of the school, as her last name implied.
Following that was lunch. Only the staff table and the first-year table was occupied in the Dining Hall, since the rest of the school wasn't due to arrive until three days later, on Thursday. Harry and his friends sought out their roommates, explaining that they wanted to get to know them, and the sixteen of them sat down at one end of the table, where the kosher and halal dishes were located.
"I doubt you remember all our names among all the ones that were said today," June said. "So we're going to go over them again for you guys. I'm Juniper Okoro, June for short. That's my cousin, Harry Potter." Hermione and Anthony gasped again, and Dean frowned as if he had heard the name somewhere, but couldn't recall where. Leilani and Kalea exchanged looks, while Mikhail and Frank looked mildly impressed. Veronica's eyes flicked briefly to Harry's scar, but she otherwise didn't show any reaction.
"You're Harry Potter?" exclaimed Hermione, eyes wide. "I read about you in Great Wizarding Events of the Twentieth Century! You're the one that somehow defeated the Dark Lord as a toddler and –"
"That's where I read your name!" Dean interrupted. "I thought it sounded familiar. Er, not to be rude or anything, but how are you and June cousins? You're white, while she's black, or at least mixed."
"It's all right," said Harry. "You're not the only one that has wondered. June's mum, my Aunt Petunia, was sisters with my mum. Her dad, my Uncle Tau, is from South Africa and is the older brother of my Aunt Makena. She's not really my aunt, I just call her that since she was friends with my parents. And Hermione, yes, I'm Harry Potter, but I prefer not to make a big deal of my fame. My parents died in the incident that made me famous, for one thing, and I wish I could have gotten to know them."
"I'm sorry, Harry," Hermione apologized. "I wasn't thinking about that when I spoke."
"Apology accepted," said Harry, smiling. "Anyway, to continue with the introductions, these are my god-sisters, Arista Black and Eileen Prince-Nightwind. Of their group of friends, Arista's parents were my dad's best friends and Eileen's parents were my mum's, so they made them joint godparents. Due to the war against Voldemort, my parents felt it would be best to have back-up in case something happened."
Before Hermione could ask, Eileen said, "Yes, my mother is the Healer Nightwind-Prince that gave you your acceptance letter and explained all about the wizarding world, Hermione."
Arista continued, "This is Stella Black, my cousin, and the three guys there are Draco Malfoy, Neville Longbottom, and Ron Weasley. Draco is my and Stella's second cousin, since his mother, our Aunt Narcissa, and our dads are cousins. Neville and Ron are our friends since we attended the primary school in Windmere together, but they otherwise have no close relations to us. Their parents weren't in the same year as ours, and they can only claim distant cousin-ship at best to some of us."
The other eight introduced themselves. Hermione, Anthony, and Dean were British, the latter also being black, and all of them were raised in the Muggle world, though only Hermione and Anthony were Muggleborn. Dean was actually a halfblood, though he hadn't known that until after Professor Freeman had given him his letter and explained about the wizarding world. His father, who had been an alum of Nightwind School, hadn't told his Muggle wife about the wizarding world and had left her and their infant son for their protection before he'd been killed by Voldemort's followers for opposing them.
Frank was of Chinese descent, and grew up in California in the United States. Kalea's mother was mostly native Hawaiian, while her father was mixed Navajo and Choctaw. She divided her time between Hawaii, the Navajo reservation in New Mexico (where her paternal grandmother had grown up in), and the Choctaw reservation in Oklahoma (where her paternal grandfather had grown up in). Mikhail was from Ukraine, though his mother was originally from Israel. Through his mother, he was Jewish, and he had decided to follow Judaism instead of the Eastern Orthodox Church that his father was part of. Veronica was Italian, both her parents had been Muggleborn, and she was raised a Catholic. Leilani was a halfblood and from the Philippines, though she had Polynesian and Samoan ancestry as well, and probably a little bit of Spanish ancestry, since Spain had once ruled the country.
Further conversation proved that Hermione was a bookworm, though she tended to read more non-fiction than fiction, and had a thirst for knowledge, and Anthony was the same. Frank also enjoyed reading, though in his case, it was science-fiction. Leilani was also a bookworm, but unlike Hermione and Anthony, she only read non-fiction books when she had to or if the subject interested her, and preferred fiction, especially Muggle fantasy. Mikhail enjoyed Quidditch, though he said he wasn't as good as his father, but he probably was good enough to play on a school team.
"Oh yeah, didn't your father play on the Russian National Team?" Ron asked. Seeing Mikhail's surprised look, Ron hastily said, "One of the teachers mentioned it to us when we got to see our room assignments, as a way to reassure Harry that he wasn't the only one who had exposure to fame."
"I see," said Mikhail, making a face. "It was very annoying to not be able to go out in public, at least in the Russian wizarding world, without having people asking my father for an autograph or members of the press wanting to know what the family was up to or trying to take pictures. The only times we weren't bothered was when my parents put Glamour Charms on all of us as a disguise, and they couldn't do that all the time."
"That sucks," said Harry. "I grew up in the Muggle world and most of my exposure to the wizarding world was through attending Windmere primary school and visiting the town, where the teachers and residents knew better than to make a fuss over my fame. The few times I did visit other wizarding places, like Diagon Alley or the wizarding section of Tokyo, nobody knew who I was, and my scar was hidden. I suppose I'll have to make a public appearance at some point, though, since people are going to realize that I'm old enough to attend wizarding school and will expect to see me out and about in public."
"Oh, don't worry about that," said Eileen. "Mum said that a couple of reporters that are alumni of the school will take a couple of photos of you when we get our school supplies tomorrow, and write up a short article for the Daily Prophet and The Quibbler saying that you're attending Nightwind School. I expect Mr. Lovegood will want to ask you a couple of questions, too. That will satisfy British readers, and the rest of the world can use that."
"That's fine," said Harry. "I don't mind if Luna's father interviews me." For the benefit of their roommates, he explained, "Luna Lovegood is a year younger than us and a friend of Ron's sister, Ginny, and Eileen's brother, Keith. Her father is the editor of a magazine called The Quibbler, which likes to print articles about strange theories and magical creatures that may or may not exist. It has entertainment value, even if it's not very accurate or newsworthy usually."
"And the Daily Prophet is the main wizarding newspaper in Britain," Arista added. "It has a Sunday edition called the Sunday Prophet, and if something noteworthy happens, it will print an evening edition called the Evening Prophet."
Dean, Anthony, and Hermione looked interested to hear this, and Arista and Stella explained a few other British wizarding publications, like the main magazine Witch Weekly, and Transfiguration Today, which was the wizarding equivalent of a Muggle science journal. June added that when her Uncle Yun (who was the second year Transfiguration teacher) got his Mastery in Transfiguration, the thesis he wrote was published in Transfiguration Today, and then had to explain that her father's sister had married a wizard of Chinese descent at the puzzled looks that the three Muggle-raised students had.
"You're going to find that a lot of students have mixed parentage," Neville said. "Since the school has students from all over the world, most of them end up falling in love and marrying anyone, regardless of where they're originally from."
"Like my brother and I are one quarter-Chinese, since my maternal grandmother is Chinese," said Eileen. "She's the Astronomy teacher for the sixth and seventh year students, and also teaches the class for any students that signed up to learn Chinese as their foreign language."
"And my ancestors originated from all over Europe," said Draco. "The original Malfoy that settled in Britain came over with William the Conqueror, so we've got French ancestry, and ever since Cressida and Justus Malfoy decided to attend Nightwind School over Hogwarts, we've been marrying fellow students that we fell in love with."
Anthony raised a brow. "I have no problem with it, but I don't know how my parents would react if I married someone that wasn't Jewish."
Stella said, "Well, couldn't the girl convert? Aunt Nicole wasn't Jewish to begin with, but she converted when she married Uncle Kurt. That's Rabbi Freidrich, by the way. He and Aunt Nicole are my godparents."
"Religion isn't an issue with the students here," Eileen added. "Of my godparents, Aunt Amina is Muslim, but Uncle Remus isn't religious at all, though he'd probably identify with Christianity if asked. They've got no problems with that."
"Well, I'm not planning on dating anyone, much less getting married, anytime soon," said Anthony, "so I'll just deal with my parents when the time comes. Anyway, Rabbi Freidrich explained about the various dishes at meals, being able to go to your place of worship, and everyone is supposed to be accepting, but are there any other allowances made for students of any religion?"
"Well, Jewish students are exempt from classes during the High Holy Days," said Stella. "They'll still have to do the homework, of course, and their friends will lend them the notes they took in class, but they won't have to go to class on Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah. Other religions or cultures with similar holidays also get the day off. Like those that celebrate the Lunar New Year, which is mostly the Asians, they get the day off from classes."
Anthony nodded, and then the conversation turned to the school clubs and other extracurricular activities. Leilani and Anthony said that they wouldn't mind joining the Book Club. Eileen planned on joining the Potions Club, as she had inherited her father's love of brewing. Harry and Draco both planned on trying out for the school Quidditch teams, since they had heard from Fred and George Weasley that the Ruby team's Seeker had graduated the previous school year, and the Emerald team needed a reserve Seeker and a new Chaser. Ron was joining the Chess Club, since he was very good at it, and beat his friends every time they played (except for when they all been beginners, in which Arista had won once and the rest had ended up stalemates and draws). The others were still deciding on which club they wished to sign up for.
After lunch, the room assignments were given out and everyone went to get settled in their rooms. Harry's roommates were Ron, Anthony, and Mikhail. The four of them opened their trunks, put their clothes and anything else they didn't want to keep in their trunks in the two closets, their respective drawers in the four bureaus, and the bookcase, and their toiletries in the connected bathroom. After that, the other three answered Anthony's questions about the wizarding world and Nightwind School, which was mostly clarifying what he had read in the three books that Rabbi Freidrich had given him. Knowing that Anthony was genuinely curious and had a thirst for knowledge, and not because he was making a big deal of someone famous, Harry was willing to tell him what happened the night Voldemort was defeated, based on what he had been told about it.
"Great Wizarding Events of the Twentieth Century made it sound like the Dark Lord killed your parents, then tried to kill you, but couldn't," Anthony said with a frown. "It didn't mention anything about your parents' sacrifice making it possible, or that the Dark Lord tricked your parents into being there in that field."
"Do you really think my parents or their friends would have wanted to make it public knowledge that Voldemort put a spell on one of them to make the plan work?" Harry asked. "They preferred to make it sound like Voldemort got wind of their attempt to move to Windmere and took them out. You know that they're going to be stupid people who won't believe that my parents' friend was being controlled magically and blame him for the deaths."
"Right," said Anthony, flushing. "I didn't think about that. But what about the book not mentioning your parents' sacrifice making your survival possible?"
"It's not a hundred percent confirmed, it's just what Headmaster Dumbledore of Hogwarts guessed what happened based on what he saw, and the other witnesses agreed with him," Harry replied. "And I certainly don't remember anything about that night, other than some flashes of green light, which I'm told were the Killing Curses, since that's what color the spell takes."
"The book also didn't mention what happened to you after that night," Anthony added. "I presume that you grew up with your aunt and uncle on your mother's side, of course, since you're close to your cousin June and the book did say that your father had no close relatives. I guess where you lived wasn't well-known, to keep you from being bothered by people in the wizarding world only interested in your fame?"
Harry nodded. "Aunt Petunia and Uncle Tau, plus my godparents, wanted me to have as normal a childhood as any witch or wizard could have. I knew I was famous, but other than my friends making a few jokes about it once or twice, I've never really dealt with the consequences of that. Professor Chavez, who's the Head of the first-years, had to warn me a couple of weeks ago that there would be students who might make a big deal of my fame, just so I could be prepared once school started."
"Well, you don't need to worry about me and Anthony doing it," said Mikhail. "And from what I've seen of your friends' roommates, they won't either."
At dinner, each person was given a handbook which listed the school rules. The first and foremost was that teasing and bullying (other than friendly teasing among friends) was not allowed, especially any about another student's race, religion, culture, or bloodline. The other rules were pretty much what would be found in any school, such as being respectful to teachers, no fighting, and everyone having to be in their rooms at ten o'clock at night, unless there was an emergency or a staff member gave them permission to be out after curfew.
Harry brought up his idea of forming a second Phoenix Club once they'd all looked through the handbook, and the others were interested in the idea. Hermione, in fact, looked touched that she was invited to be part of a group of friends. After some questions, she admitted that back in primary school, she had been teased for being a bookworm and teacher's pet, and having odd events (which she now knew was bouts of accidental magic) happen around her didn't help any, so she hadn't made any friends, other than the sort that wanted to use her for homework help. Luckily she had caught on to that quickly, especially when those students wanted her to do their work for them, which was something she refused to do.
"That's awful," said Kalea indignantly. "Well, that's not going to happen at Nightwind School. And if it does, the students making fun of you will be punished, and we're going to stand up for you."
"Thank you, guys," said Hermione, looking surprised and touched by this, as the others backed up what Kalea had said.
After dinner, everyone returned to their rooms, and by ten o'clock, they had all gone to bed.