but if i wait for a holiday
could it stop my fear?
to go away on a summer's day
never seemed so clear

holiday — vampire weekend

Tulio's first reaction upon their arrival at their new common room was, of course, checking how comfortable the couches were.

He and Sofia had arrived a little earlier than expected, because they, like Callie and Rhona, had left their home school in the middle of the night and hadn't really given the fact that Britain was in an entirely different time zone much thought. He was surprised to find that they weren't the only ones who were a bit too early, though. They'd been told that two other exchange students — the girls from Ilvermorny, a house elf kindly explained to them as she showed them to their common room — had arrived right before them. One of the girls was nowhere to be seen, but the other one was now chatting with Sofia in a rather amiable way.

"So your school is in Brazil, right?" she asked brightly, with a heavy American accent that reminded Tulio of his classmates who came from Puerto Rico and other countries where English was nearly as common as Portuguese or Spanish. "That's . . . incredible! Where is it, exactly?"

"It's in the middle of the Amazonian rainforest, really," Sofia explained. There was a gentle smile on her face, which Tulio recognized almost instantly as the one that she usually put on whenever she was around the primeiro ano students back at Castelobruxo, where she had been a Prefeita for the past two years. "We're not entirely sure if it's in Brazil or Peru, or perhaps even Bolivia. We usually get there from Manaus on these giant canoes that take us all the way down the river to our school."

"Yeah, and we usually get to fool around with the caimanes and scare some of the primeiro ano students off," Tulio joked, laughing a little. When Callie tilted her head in confusion, he added, "A caiman is sort of like . . . a crocodile? Yeah, sort of. Well, not a crocodile . . . " His brow furrowed as he tried to find the exact word, but eventually gave up and looked at Sofia. "Hey, qual é a palavra em inglês para caimán?"

"Alligator!" Sofia said brightly. "Yeah, it's like a South American alligator, sort of."

"Cool!" Callie nodded, smiling at the way her two new classmates had made a quick exchange in what she supposed was their native language. "So do you guys speak Portuguese all the time over there?"

"We do at school, mostly," Tulio said, shrugging his shoulders. "It's my first language, but I do know how to speak Spanish too because most of my friends come from Spanish-speaking countries like, you know, Colombia or Argentina or Chile or Peru. But Sofia's first language is Dutch! Right, Sof?" He jerked his thumb at the girl.

"Well, yeah," Sofia replied with a humble shrug. "My family and I usually speak Dutch at home, but my não mágico school was a Spanish-speaking one, so I grew up handling pretty much both of them, plus English as a second language. Then I ruined my cousin's quinceañera dress by shredding it to pieces in a fit of rage without having touched it and, ta-daah, I was on my way to Castelobruxo and learning Portuguese thanks to this one." She jerked her thumb back at Tulio, who just did a toothy grin and leaned back on the couch. It wasn't like they were close friends, but they were both on the more extroverted side of their Year, and had therefore gotten to spend a lot of time together back at Castelobruxo.

"That's so fascinating," Callie mused. "I wish I spoke more languages, to be honest."

"It's no big deal, really," Tulio shrugged his shoulders and offered her a friendly smile before closing his eyes. The house elf had told them that their dormitories weren't quite ready yet, so he gathered that the people of Hogwarts wouldn't mind him taking a short nap on the sofa before the rest of the students arrived. It had been quite a long journey, after all.

"So where's the other girl from your school?" Sofia asked. She then did a mischievous smile and leaned forward to pull at one of Tulio's black bangs, which resulted in the boy yanking up from his half-acquired slumber and a rather hysterical laughter from the two girls as he mumbled something about being tired and Sofia's sense of humor being absolutamente estúpido.

"Well, she . . . I think she wanted some alone time?" Callie shrugged her shoulders, feeling a little awkward all of a sudden. After all, her relationship with Rhona was nowhere as good as the one that Sofia and Tulio seemed to share. "I don't really know her that well, so."

"Aw, well, we'll keep you company until the rest of the group arrives," Sofia said, a warm smile on her face. When Callie beamed back at her, she added, "I'm sure the rest of the group will be lovely, don't worry."

"Yeah, and hopefully a little more concerned about my sleep schedule," Tulio grumbled from the sofa.

Sofia giggled yet again, but glanced up when someone entered the room. She was surprised to find a small, black-haired girl with Eastern Asian features who was already wearing a Hogwarts uniform like the ones the house elves had handed them a little earlier. The girl did a feeble smile, her cheeks a blotchy red, and awkwardly waved at them from the entrance.

"Hi!" Sofia said. "You must be one of the exchange students too, right?"

"Ye . . . yeah," the girl said, her tone just as awkward as Sofia had expected it to be. "I'm Miyako."

"Oh, you must be the girl from Mahoutokoro, right?" Callie asked brightly. When the girl nodded quietly, she grinned and patted on the chair next to hers. "Come over, we were just getting to know each other a little. I'm Callie, and I'm one of the Ilvermorny students."

Miyako shook the girl's hand, albeit a bit doubtfully, and took a seat next to her. "Nice to meet you, Callie."

"I'm Sofia," the other girl said, then jerked her thumb at her schoolmate. "And the dying morse over there is Tulio, but he's pretending to be asleep as of right now."

"I was asleep," the boy complained from the couch, still refusing to open his eyes. "For a split second, you know."

Miyako's cheeks immediately turned a bright red, and ducked her head. "Sumimasen."

"Oh, no, it's no big deal," Sofia said reassuringly. She placed a hand on Miyako's shoulder, but removed it when the girl trembled ever so lightly — she was very used to physical contact, but she gathered that perhaps the other girl wasn't. "Tulio's just a bit overdramatic sometimes."

"Oh. Oh." Miyako nodded quickly, and then did a shy smile. "It's all right. I just got here, you see — I came on a Japanese dragon all the way from Tokyo."

"Well, that's quite the journey, isn't it?" demanded Callie. "We used a portkey to get here."

"Yeah, us too," Sofia agreed. "But it must've been amazing to fly all over Asia and Europe, right? Plus Japanese dragons tend to be really tame and sweet — it must've been a lovely journey."

"Yeah," Miyako said, nodding her head. She then added, in a more feeble tone, "How come you know so much about Japanese dragons?"

"We do tons of Care of Magical Creatures-related stuff back at our school," Tulio explained from the couch (his eyes, of course, still firmly closed). He rolled on his back and did a lopsided grin. "The Amazonian rainforest is pretty much the ideal place to set a bunch of kids loose while playing around with all sorts of creatures, I suppose."

Miyako nodded politely, her expression still clearly awkward, then fiddled with her uniform skirt as her eyes fell to the ground. Tulio covered his face with one of the multiple cushions that surrounded him, and Callie and Sofia shared a sympathetic glance. They were both fairly extroverted, but understood that it probably required a lot of effort from Miyako to be there, interacting with people that she had only just met.

"You know what?" Callie said. "I think I'm gonna go check the dorm out. Wanna come with me, Miyako?"

The girl glanced up at her, looking genuinely surprised by the fact that the other girl had remembered her name. "Um . . . sure!" A small smile spread across her lips as she stood up and followed Callie, who waved a warm goodbye to Sofia and promised to catch up with her later.

"See you two in a bit!" Sofia said. When she found herself on her own with a seemingly asleep Tulio, she poked him with her toe and said in Portuguese, "C'mon, you jerk, it really hasn't been that terrible."

"Just let me be," Tulio moaned. "I'm tired. I don't want to go to theoretical classes, Sof, why did we sign up for this."

"I'm sure they'll be fun enough," she said reassuringly as she took a seat on the couch. When Tulio placed his legs on top of her lap, she squirmed and giggled ever so lightly. "You really are the worst, you know."

"Whoops." A cheeky smile spread across Tulio's lips. "I really hate this uniform, you know — can't wear sandals with it."

"Tell me about it," Sofia sighed, glancing down at her plain black shoes. "These are so dull. But hopefully the school will be a lot better? Yeah, I'm fairly sure it'll be pretty great."

"If you say so, Sof," Tulio said as he placed his hands on the nape of his neck. He cracked an eye open and beamed toward her. "It's good to have you here, by the way. I would've gone bonkers if Ángela or Eusebio had gotten in instead of you."

Sofia grinned. "Me too, you little hedonistic prick."

"What?"

"Nevermind, Tul." She smacked him with one of the cushions, which resulted in the boy smacking her with the one he had used to cover his face before. And with that, the two of them burst into laughter and simply relished for a few minutes on the idea of what was to come.

"Whoa," South whispered, a broad grin spreading across her face.

"What is it, South?" Jade asked as she rubbed her left eye. The journey from Vanuatu had been exhausting, to say the least, and they had only just arrived at Hogwarts.

"Uh, what are you two talking about," Levi said, stifling a yawn. "I think half of my brain got lost somewhere between here and Abu Dhabi." Using a portkey to Hogwarts all the way from Vanuatu technically exceeded the limit established by the International Wizarding Confederation, which meant that they had had to travel to Singapur first, then catch a portkey to the Emirates, where they finally found the final portkey that had taken them to their exchange school.

"It's just . . . the school grounds are huge," South muttered, her expression still a rather awed one. The hidden island where the Oceanian Wizarding community had decided to establish their school was a very small one and didn't leave much to the more outdoorsy students' imagination, which made the grounds and mountains surrounding Hogwarts look like paradise to South. "I can't wait to explore them all."

"Well, I can," Levi yawned. "Let's get some sleep first — then we can go explore, all right?"

"Okay, okay," South sighed as she picked up her backpack. She hardly felt tired at all, and wished her schoolmates would understand how she ached to go outside after all those hours stuck in dull, dim-lighted offices where they had to go fetch their portkey and convince the Ministry officers that they weren't illegal immigrants who wanted to get to the United Kingdom to escape the Australian authorities. "But I'm gonna go check that Whomping Willow thing first thing tomorrow."

"Be my guest," Jade joked, shaking her head.

Once they got to the common room, they saw that two of the exchange students were already there, both fast asleep on the couch — they both had tanned skin and frizzy black hair, and the boy's feet were resting on the girl's lap as they both dozed quietly. Levi placed his index finger on top of his lips and signaled for his two schoolmates to follow him upstairs, where they supposed their dormitories would be.

"Those two must be the Castelobruxo students," Jade whispered excitedly, a broad smile on her face. "They looked so peaceful."

"Must've been a long journey." Levi shrugged his shoulders and tilted his head towards the male dormitory. "This is mine, I think. The house elf said that yours was right upstairs, and that we boys weren't allowed inside. Suppose it's their way of preventing their students from shagging instead of going to class."

"Well, people are gay too, Levi," giggled South. "So they've failed miserably at that."

"That's a good point," Levi laughed. "Anyway, I'll see you guys later. I really do need to get some rest before dinner."

"All right, see you."

The two girls trotted upstairs once Levi disappeared behind the door. They could hear soft voices coming from their dormitory, and quietly wondered what their roommates would be like. The Castelobruxo girl had looked peaceful enough, but they were both itching to know them all already. They immediately spotted three different silhouettes when they entered the room — a small, Asian-looking girl, a white girl with caramel-coloured hair with pink-dyed tips, and a slightly younger girl with olive skin and long, wavy black hair.

"Hi!" South said brightly when she realized that all three girls were now looking at them. "I'm South, and this is Jade. We're the exchange students from Makutu — well, there's Levi too, but he stayed behind because of how he's, well, a guy and technically isn't allowed upstairs because of that. Which is bollocks, honestly, isn't it?"

"Yeah, we were just discussing that," the girl with the pink-dyed tips agreed, nodding her head, "It's just so . . . old-fashioned, to be honest. And I'm Callie, by the way! I'm one of the two Ilvermorny students."

"I gathered," Jade said, a smile spreading across her face as she eyed the eight beds. Callie and the other two girls had already picked one each, so she ended up placing her backpack on top of the one next to the olive-skinned girl's.

"I'm Chione," the girl said with a softer tone, but smiling nevertheless. "I study at Sahar Almadrasa, and I'm from Egypt."

"That's really cool!" South exclaimed as she placed her things on the bed next to Jade's. "I've always wanted to go to Egypt. My parents have been there like a million times, but . . . well, I don't get to see them that often anymore, so I don't really get to travel with them either."

"Oh, that's . . . " Chione's eyebrows rose, her expression clearly absolutely clueless as to what to say. "That's a shame, you really must miss them a lot."

South shrugged and did one of her broad, warm smiles, trying not to think about how she did miss them a lot in spite of everything. "Nah, it's fine. Plus we're gonna be here for an entire year, so it's all good for me!"

"Yeah, that's bound to be pretty exciting," Jade agreed, nodding enthusiastically. She then glanced towards the Eastern Asian girl and asked, "What's your name?"

"I . . . I'm Miyako." The girl's cheeks had turned a bright red, although Jade and South really had no idea why. "Mahoutokoro student."

"Cool!" Jade grinned, then leaned back on her bed and placed her hands on the nape of her neck. "Merlin, I'm exhausted. I think I'm gonna lie down for a bit, all right?"

"Sure," Callie nodded, then glanced towards South. "You gonna stay here too? We were thinking of going downstairs — the Durmstrang and Beauxbatons and Koldovstoretz students should be here sometime soon."

"Yeah, and you might get to meet Ziv. They're the other student from my school," Chione explained, a shy smile on her face.

"That sounds amazing!" South beamed, then picked up her wand and poked Jade on the cheek. "I'll come wake you up for dinner, you loser."

"Whatever." Jade chuckled and rolled around, burying her face in the pillow.

"All right then," Callie said. "Let's get going!"

Jade had fallen into a deep slumber before the other four had even left the room.

"I'm loving this castle so far, let me tell you."

Vera grinned as the tips of her fingers grazed the walls of the corridor, the cold stone sending shivers down her spine. Jon, next to her, observed their surroundings with an equally curious expression.

"It really is something, isn't it," he muttered thoughtfully.

Vera and Jon had never really spent time together before — he was in the Year above her and usually hung out with the more popular kids, whereas she had a smaller group of close-knit friends and didn't really go out with the rest of her year when they were allowed outside on summer weekends, because of how the weather at Koldovstoretz was so extreme that they were practically secluded inside the immense dacha that was their school during the winter months. Still, the few days that they had spent together on their school's official submarine on their way to Hogwarts had taught her that he was a generally nice person, soft-spoken yet incredibly charming — and that he spent a lot of hours in his room, humming to classical Beszil music and tiptoeing silently with his ballet shoes on. He was a dancer, she had learned, and there was something about the way his eyes lit up whenever he spoke about Tchaikovsky or the Bolshoi that made her smile and wonder if she would ever feel half as passionate about anything as he did about dancing.

"I can't wait to meet the rest of the students," she said casually, a half-smile on her face. "I bet they're gonna be really cool kids."

"I suppose," Jon nodded. "Most of them will be top-notch students, that's for sure."

"It's not like you aren't though," Vera smiled. "Or at least that's what our Direktor said."

"I'm all right, I guess," he replied, a small smile on his face. If he hadn't looked so confident about everything all the time, Vera would have thought that he was acting a little sheepish about it. She just offered him a kind smile and shrugged, her fingernails tapping against the walls ever so lightly, and with that they began to make their way upstairs in a rather comfortable silence.

When they were approaching the entrance to their common room, they heard how a pair of voices argued in a very rushed French.

"C'est quoi le mot de passe?"

"Putain, Mona, j'sais pas."

"T'écoutes les autres ou quoi, connard?"

Vera was surprised to see that the two students who were arguing right in front of the entrance to their common room were actually very attractive. The boy had big black curls and green eyes, and spoke with a husky voice that added more attractiveness to the general picture of him. The girl had equally black hair and bright red lips, with thick eyebrows that reminded Vera of some of the prettiest girls back at Koldovstoretz. She briefly glanced towards Jon, whose lips seemed to have twitched up at the sight of the two of them — she could tell that the two French students had caught his attention, too.

"Is everything all right?" Vera asked, her accent thick as she changed to English.

The girl was the first one to look up to her. She beamed and replied, with an equally thick accent, "No, it's all right! It's just that Henri here is a big fat connard and can't remember the password."

"That's enough, Mona," Henri said, his brow furrowing. He glanced towards Jon, whose eyes were still on him, and did a slightly self-conscious nod before adding, "But yes, it'd be great if you could help us out."

"Sure," Vera said. "It's pickle python." The door grumbled in front of them, and the girl offered the other two students a half-smile. "See, it's done."

"Pickle python," echoed Ramona, her brow furrowing. "What does that even mean?"

"It doesn't have to mean anything, I guess," Jon offered. When Henri's eyes fell upon him, he quickly looked away and picked up his bags before following Vera into their new headquarters.

The common room was big, spatious and drenched in light. Koldovstoretz was a relatively small school — a lot of Russian students attended Durmstrang, and only the more liberal ones went to Koldovstoretz because of its more progressive values — and its location didn't allow them much exposure to daylight, especially during the winter, so the two Russian students couldn't help but feel a twinge of excitement in their stomaches when they realized that Hogwarts would be a whole lot sunnier than their home school, which meant that they would get to go outside nearly every day.

A group of students had already huddled in a circle on the couches — a tanned boy was now sitting on the carpeted floor, whereas a group of five or six girls had taken a seat on the sofa and a couple of puffs. Looking a lot more alien to the conversation that the rest of the group was currently sharing, another girl flipped through the pages of a thick book, and was the first one to notice the newcomers' presence, and nodded in what intended to be a welcoming gesture.

"See what I told you?" Vera said, a faint smile on her lips. "Tons of cool kids, all packed into one dormitory. It's gonna be insane."

Jon just chuckled and shook his head a little, looking a whole lot more skeptical about it than his schoolmate. "We'll see about that, Vera."

And they would, in a way.

"C'mon, Head Boy — we're running late already."

Jimmy chuckled, waved a dismissive gesture at Elodie and then glanced towards his boyfriend, a somewhat cheeky smile on his face. "It's got a neat sound to it, doesn't it? Head Boy. How does it feel, being involved with someone as relevant as myself?"

Calvin just scoffed and did a half-smile at his boyfriend's antics. "Get your head out of your arse and go introduce yourself to those exchange students, Marston."

"Oi, show me some respect! I'm going to have to punish you if you keep misbehaving." Jimmy did yet another cheeky smile, his hand discreetly approaching Calvin's lower back until the Slytherin slapped it ever so lightly, which turned Jimmy's expression into a light pout.

"Please do put an end to this or kill me now, El," Celine mumbled next to her, her arms crossed and her expression feigning a disgust that showed up whenever one of the couples in their gang acted even remotely intimate around each other.

Elodie just snorted. "I just can't believe these two sometimes." She then cleared her voice and added, in a much louder tone, "James Marston! Let's get going, for Merlin's sake."

"All right, all right," Jimmy sighed, and grinned towards Calvin one last time before adding, "See you tomorrow, all right?"

Calvin placed a hand on his chin and pressed his lips against Jimmy's, which made the Gryffindor's freckled cheeks turn a bright red in spite of them having been together for well over a year. "See you tomorrow, love."

Celine just rolled her eyes and feigned irked noises before mumbling something about going to fetch Brooklyn and Simon, which left Jimmy and Elodie on their own after Calvin waved goodbye and trotted downstairs to the Slytherin dungeon. Jimmy flashed a smile towards Elodie, and the girl, in spite of how her friend got on her nerves sometimes, had to beam back at him before setting foot towards the exchange students' dormitory.

"So, how's your summer been?" She asked. "Haven't gotten much info from you after the barbecue at Thea's, and I don't think Maggie has, either. How was Copenhagen?"

"Oh, it was fantastic," Jimmy said brightly. Calvin's family lived in Copenhagen, and he had invited him over for a couple of weeks during the previous summer. Jimmy, in return, had showed him around York for the other half of the month of August. "It was sunny yet not too hot and the city's marvelous and there's tons of Wizarding pubs and a lot of stuff to do . . ."

"I hear Calvin's parents aren't home that much, so that must've been great too." Elodie elbowed him in a friendly manner. Even though she had never been in a relationship, she loved seeing how happy her friend was.

Jimmy's cheeks reddened ever so lightly. For a person who was so open and extroverted about everything, he was surprisingly shy when it came to talking about Calvin and the more intimate parts of their relationship. "Well, yeah, that was great. Especially because my family wouldn't get off our arses once we got to Ripon, so . . . " He chuckled, running a hand through his hair in a rather nervous way.

Elodie just grinned and hugged her friend by the waist. He had become one of her closest friends after what had happened the previous year, and she couldn't help but feel ecstatic about how adorable his relationship with Calvin was. "I'm so happy for you, Jimmy. And I'm so glad we're getting to be Head Students together!"

"Yeah, right? I can't believe McGonagall would trust me with such a responsibility," he laughed, shaking his head. "I mean, you? We all knew you'd be Head Girl, but I honestly thought Calvin or Simon or some other Ravenclaw twat would get to be Head Boy."

"Some other Ravenclaw twat," Elodie mimicked him, elbowing his side ever so lightly. "I'm flattered, Marston."

"Oh, you know what I mean," he snorted, but smiled nevertheless. "I'm glad I'm getting to do this with you, though. And . . . I call dibs on the bigger dormitory!"

"Oh, I absolutely loathe you sometimes."

They both melted into a fit of giggles as they arrived to the portrait that would lead them into the exchange students' common room.

"All right, let's do this." There was a rather solemn expression on Elodie's face as she pronounced the password that Professor Longbottom had trusted them with earlier that night.

And with that they both peeked into a room where fifteen teenagers hung out like any other group of teenagers would. They were all spread out in smaller groups, the more introverted ones still looking a little anxious about having to introduce themselves to all those strangers all of a sudden, but the tone was generally light-hearted and even bright. They had already changed into the uniforms that their Headmistress had sent over to them before dinner, all fifteen of them wearing the black tie that First Years usually wore until the Sorting Ceremony. They were all more or less within the same age range — sixteen or seventeen, Elodie gathered from the way most of them looked — and seemed equally thrilled to be at Hogwarts.

"Um, hi," she cleared her throat, perhaps a little too briskly. All fifteen pairs of eyes fell upon her, which made her stomach churn. Get a grip. "Eh, hi. I'm Elodie. This is Jimmy — James. We're this year's Head Students here at Hogwarts and McGonagall has asked us to show you around and, well, sort of just be there for whatever you may need. So yes, we were thinking maybe we could take you on a small tour tomorrow after your classes? And feel free to ask any questions that you may have."

"Yeah, since we're a lot less imposing than McGonagall and all that," Jimmy added in his usual cheery tone that made a few of the exchange students giggle. He had a way with words, Elodie admitted to herself as she crossed her arms. "So . . . any questions?"

One of the more serious-looking boys put up his hand, and asked, "Are we going to go to your classes? Or are we going to get private tutoring sessions with your professors?"

Elodie's eyebrows rose. "I don't see why you shouldn't come to our classes. Our professors will be happy to help you if there's anything that you may need after class, but I think you'll be able to handle it."

A few of the students chuckled, until another girl put up her hand and asked, "Are we allowed to go outside? Where to, by the way?"

"You're allowed outside as long as you don't leave the castle grounds," Elodie explained. "The Forbidden Forest is also, well, forbidden. Name's self-explanatory. But yes, other than that you're allowed to go wherever you please — oh, and you'll get to visit Hogsmeade on certain weekends. That's the little village nearby, there's a couple pubs and a few nice shops that I'm sure you'll enjoy."

"There's shops nearby," Jade whispered, looking clearly awed. Attending school in a tiny Vanuatu island meant staying away from all means of civilization for the entire school year, so the change definitely felt refreshing to her. "I can't wait to see what it's like."

"It's pretty dull once you've been there three or four times, but you know . . . the candy's still mental," Jimmy joked. "But anyway — feel free to drop by our dormitory if you need anything at all!"

"To those of you who are Sixth Years, we'll be happy to provide you with information on your coursework and assessments," Elodie added. "As for those of you who are Seventh Years like us . . . we'll see you around tomorrow for Charms or Transfiguration, I suppose!"

"Hooray," Tulio sighed, but grinned a mischievous smile when Sofia elbowed him.

The two Head Students stayed at their common room for a little longer, trying to memorize all fifteen names and asking endless questions about their home schools and countries. Quite a few of the exchange students were in fact very talkative — Levi and Jimmy were exchanging puns and Quidditch ideas in no time, and Elodie had quite a lot of fun getting to know all about how Castelobruxo and Ilvermorny worked — but even the more introverted students shared a bit of their past with them before they left. When they were in fact gone, all fifteen students exchanged quiet glances, silently wondering what their next step at Hogwarts should be.

"So," yawned South. "As much as I'd love to set up a party with the lot of you, I think I'm going to head off to bed — dammit, travelling around the globe can be really exhausting."

"Oh, really?" Jade deadpanned, but smiled nevertheless. "Yeah, I think I'm gonna go to bed too."

"Shouldn't we all?" Rhona replied, shrugging a little. "I mean, I hope y'all don't intend to stay up late every single day, 'cause we do need to get enough sleep."

"We do need to get enough sleep," mimicked Ramona — who was, in fact, dying to stay up and get to know her new schoolmates better. When Rhona glared at her, however, she just shrugged awkwardly and stuck her hands into her trousers (she had argued with the house elf who had brought their uniforms for over fifteen minutes about how it was sexist to assume that she wanted to wear a skirt with the rest of her uniform just because she was a 'female-alligned human being', until the poor thing had sighed in defeat and turned the skirts that she had brought for the girl into trousers).

"I think Rhona's right," Sofia agreed, in a more conciliatory tone. "We should get some sleep — we'll have plenty of time to drink Butterbeer and get to know each other better starting tomorrow."

Most of the group nodded in agreement, and with that the first few of them went upstairs, waving awkward goodnights to their new schoolmates. Tulio, Ramona, and Ziv were a little more hesitant about it, but ended up following the rest of the group upstairs.

"You know," Ziv said brightly as they glanced at the now-empty common room. "This might be fun after all!"

"Yeah, I really hope it is," Tulio said as he (failingly) tried to hold back a yawn. "Good night, little one."

"G'night!"

Tulio whisked his wand at the chandelier that lit the common room, and with that their first day at Hogwarts came to an end.

So! Everyone's been introduced now. I didn't think I'd be done this early but yeah, I'm in love with this story and its characters already so here it is. Again, hope the lot of you enjoyed this chapter and that I portrayed your characters correctly — please do let me know if I didn't or if there's anything that I need to change and/or keep in mind for future chapters! Also, thanks a ton to everyone who reviewed the first one — it really does mean a lot to me, you know. :)

So yeah, that's it for now. Chapter three will be up soon, hopefully!