His eyes opened, adjusting to the dim light of the room he was lying in. It was quite large, enough to fit all the first years who were lying across the entire room. He sat up observing the people around him, it seemed everyone had been laid out into their groups from the sorting. He looked around him recognising the faces of Ellie and Yuko, who were lying next to him. They looked to still be asleep. It was not long after that he noticed something strange; they were not wearing white anymore, and neither was he.
He looked down, touching the blue robe that was uncomfortably draped around him. What did this mean? Was this the house that he had been sorted into? He glanced over the others in his group noticing that they had different coloured robes. Both Ellie and Yuko were draped in the same azure blue, which gave Julian a sigh of relief. Jack was laid out parallel to where Julian had been, his mass of purple dividing Julian and the rest of the group. Ben was beginning to stir, his golden robes somehow blinding Julian despite the lack of light in the room. The brightness was doubled by the last member of their group. Hannah began to open her eyes, her eyes widening upon observing her new golden robes.
Without saying a word, she took notice of Julian and the colour adorning his body, staring blankly for a moment before she quickly turned away. At this point the rest of the room began to wake, the short moment of peace Julian had appreciated was replaced by shouts and shrieks. Shocked that they had been moved somewhere while unconscious. A day ago, Julian would have thought the same. Though it did unnerve him, in the last day Julian had seen more magic than in his lifetime.
He turned just in time to see Ellie stretch her arms above her head in a yawn, noticing the quick look she gave his blue robes. He was just about to ask her if she was ok when the only door to the chamber opened up quickly, letting warm light flood in. The heads of everyone in the room all turned simultaneously to observe the familiar newcomer.
'First Years!' Mr Hall shouted over the large chamber. 'I hope you all enjoyed your sorting. If you would all please line yourselves up behind me we should be off.'
They all stood hesitantly, some of the other first years must have still felt groggy. Mr Hall did not look impressed, 'Come quickly now, quick!' He clapped his hands with enough force to send a small shockwave through the room.
This seemed to be the right cue for everyone to quickly line up behind him, people had gathered around the groups they had made for the sorting. Julian and his group had also stuck together.
'Blue huh? Which one's that?' Ben remarked while walking towards the line.
'Wha- Oh right,' Julian said, Ben distracted him away from staring at Hannah's gold robes. 'Terrascale, the sorter told me, don't know what it means though.'
'Same for me, Lioncrown' he said pointing to the gold adorning him, 'Check the crest?' Ben suggested. To which Julian realised there was a crest that had appeared above his heart. Stitched into his own robes was a birds-eye view of a turtle, it was so detailed that Julian could make out the hexagonal pattern on its back. A turtle was a strange choice, he thought. At least when compared to Ben's.
When he looked over at the Lioncrown crest on Ben's robes, he saw a golden lion standing proudly on all fours, its head raised high as if it was trying to place itself above whatever would oppose it. Maybe it was the type of person Ben was or the crest itself, but it suddenly dawned on Julian exactly what sort of house Lioncrown was meant to be.
Ben gave him a nervous smile, he must have realised it too. Julian glanced around him, thinking maybe he could jump ahead to walk with Ellie when another boy jumped onto his back. 'Guys! How come you all had to ditch me eh?' Jack amicably jumped off just as quickly, pointing to the colours of the rest of the group.'
'Sorry,' Ben said shrugging, 'Guess we didn't fit into…?' He trailed off.
'Imphorn,' Jack answered. 'To be honest I got to say I really like this purple. You guys are missing out.'
'Don't know about that one.' Ben bantered back, 'The gold works-'
'All of you, split into your different colours.' Mr Hall announced from the front of the line, giving Julian and his group a stern look. Everyone had started lining up in their groups from the sorting. All the first years seemed unwilling to leave the friends they had just made.
'Hurry up, please.' Mr Hall demanded, upon which the students quickly rushed to their new housemates. He was forced to wave goodbye to both Ben and Jack when they left to form their own clusters, he hadn't minded the two of them.
But he was not given the chance to mull over this thought, as straight away it seemed every blue robe in the room had decided that Julian, Ellie and Yuko were the most members of Terrascale in one place. Starting to line up he shot Ellie and Yuko a thumbs up with a smile, only one returned the gesture. He had a look over his new housemates, wondering if it was just him or if there really was less blue than the other houses had.
After everyone had gathered in their respective houses, they were led out of the large chamber into a corridor a remarkably well-lit corridor, despite the fact it was lined only with torches. Julian had never seen walls so well designed before, certainly not at his old school. He'd never see castles in Australia.
They all continued following Mr Hall as he turned at the end of the hallway and then turned left at another intersection. After several turns Julian was starting to get lost and judging by what the other students were saying he wasn't alone. Iin one section Julian noticed a patch of wall looked a little more see-through than the rest, in another section Ellie mentioned she could hear the sound of water, he might have even caught a glimpse of pale blue light. However, it was becoming quite clear to everyone that they had been dumped into a maze. It was becoming harder and harder to keep track of where they had been let alone where they were going.
The eternal maze of hallways was broken once Mr Hall led the first years into a large atrium that was tall enough to fit a small building in it. On one side of the atrium was a great door that Julian assumed was the entrance to the castle. Presumably eventually leading to the train platform that felt like a lifetime ago. He was shaken out of his thoughts by the sound of Mr Hall opening a pair of doors on the opposite side of the Atrium, which while not as grand as the main entrance still dwarfed Julian and the other first years. The room on the other side revealed the sights and sounds of the rest of the school.
The first years followed Mr Hall into a large hall that while not as imposing as the atrium, it was nothing to scoff at. A large swathe of colours were spread out in front of the halted congregation of first years. All the students staring at them were split by colour into different sections of the room, within each section, were several small round tables seating a handful of students. Above their heads an entirely glass ceiling allowed the clear night sky to be seen with ease. Once again despite there only being several braziers spread around the hall, magic was able to supplement light. Many of the first years wore looks of embarrassment once they stopped staring at their roof and realised how many people were watching.
While Julian and his classmates stood at the front entrance, Mr Hall walked up to a long table on the other end at which sat what could only be the teachers. Once at the front he called, 'First Years, please be seated at your designated house.'
As if on cue a table in each section appeared with the exact number of seats for every new student. Mr Hall sat down after this, leading to an eruption of talking from the school. Julian figured he may as well lead the rest of his house to the table for eight in the mass of blue robes on his right, awkwardly waving to the older students as he went.
It was strange, he could have sworn he barely received any in return.
Julian sat down facing the teachers table in between Elie and an exhausted looking blonde boy. He noticed Yuko trying to create as much of a gap as she could between herself and the people she sat next to on the other side of the table. Without even thinking about it he looked over to what was left of his old group. Jack had already begun to make his table of purple laugh from some story. Over at the front of the hall Ben and Hannah appeared to have partnered up, Julian wasn't sure how he felt about that, but it made sense at least.
Ellie had spent the last minute looking across the hall, her eyes fixed on a table of older turquoise robed students, one of which made Julian do a double-take. A girl at the table looked almost like Ellie, except with a slimmer face framed with hair twice as long as Ellie's. This must be Ellie's sister.
'Separate houses, huh?' Julian had to speak louder over the whole room.
She glanced back at Julian as she'd been caught, after a moment she relaxed slightly. 'Yeah.'
'Is it weird?' It must feel weird to be separated from your sister like that. Not that Julian knew what it felt like.
Elie shrugged, 'Who knows.' She paused a moment, turning to the front of the hall, her face unreadable. 'She might even like that.'
He was about to ask her why when the talking in the hall died down. They all looked up at the teachers table. An old man with a slightly hunched back who before had sat in the middle of the long table now stood as if about to deliver a speech.
'Hello, students! I would like to extend a warm welcome to our first years. I am Mr Dowsy your Headmaster. I hope that your experiences here will stay with you many years to come.' The man had just started speaking but he already looked ready to sit down.
'I would like to inform you all about some of our rules, staying out of the castle past curfew is forbidden to all of you. I would also not recommend swimming far out to sea. Also…' He trailed off before the next rule as if trying to remember them. He continued to list off rules, as if not realising most people would ignore most of them. It came across that Dowsy believed that merely stating them now would make them true. Nobody else appeared to be listening. When Julian looked over at the tables with older students, they all sat there either mad that their food was taking so long or bored out of their minds. It didn't take long for the first years to feel the same, Ellie had her head in her hands amazed that this was continuing, the blonde boy next to Julian had fallen asleep. Even Yuko who had been listening intently was starting to slump back in her chair.
After listening to Dowsy drone for ten minutes he finally was finished, Julian felt like he'd never been subjected to something more boring in his life.
'I hope that this was informative to you first years, to all other students I do think it never hurts to remind you. If you have any other questions you can talk to your prefects.' He paused awkwardly, attempting to think of something else to say. 'Now that that is done, enjoy the feast!' With that he sat with great care, ready to eat.
At that exact moment an array of food suddenly appeared on Julian's table. Plates stacked full of all kinds of roasted meats as well as his favourite, roast potatoes. That was only in front of him however, across the table there appeared to be even more kinds of food. He hadn't really thought about it, but he hadn't eaten since the train, which judging by the night sky, had to have been more than five or six hours ago. Realising this, he felt so hungry he thought he could eat everything in front of him.
The feast passed by in a flurry of warm food, strange drinks and conversation. Julian had never been part of a feast before and felt more pressure than ever to eat his way through the food. He hadn't gotten used to everything however, there were some more unique wizard foods that Julian hadn't enjoyed. Julian had almost spat out what looked like orange juice and had been told by a laughing Ellie that it was pumpkin juice, upon asking the blonde boy on his left, Julian even tried meat from a chimera, which was a strange mix of gamey tastes that promptly finished his feast right then and there.
He spent the rest of the feast sharing idle conversation with the rest of his table. It quickly became clear that he was in the minority being from a non-wizard background. Only one boy across the table was also a muggle-born. A conversation between a boy and Ellie began turning to some sport called Quidditch and whatever team would win the season eventually this soon began to encompass the whole table.
'What team do you go for?' the boy who started the conversation had asked everyone on the table and now was rounding on Yuko. Julian smirked, there was no way that girl was talking to anyone. He was proven wrong however, as after a brief silence she began talking in broken English about some team she knew from Japan, before she clammed up with an embarrassed look on her face.
Unfortunately, when the boy, Nick was his name, asked Julian about Quidditch, he had to expose that he knew nothing about the sport whatsoever. This turned out to be the worst decision, as before he could protest, everyone on the table was jumping down his throat to tell him about the complicated rules of this game. The others were even trying to push him into following a team, of which there appeared to be too many of.
'Mate, you got to get into the Warriors. We're gunning for the premiership this year.' Nick was telling him.
'Nah, they're dropping off, Thunderers are coming back.' Another boy chimed in, 'Go for them Julian.'
'Relax guys, the sport sounds cool and all but it sounds like a bit much.' Julian said without thinking.
When he looked back across the table both Nick and the other boy along with most of the table were looking disappointed.
'You know what, I-I reckon I'll think about it.' He said nervously. He didn't want to upset anyone on the first day.
Soon after this, the vast array of food was replaced by dessert that was so plentiful Julian felt full just looking at it. Even so, he managed to arrange some room in his stomach for it. The time passed and the conversations between the new members of Terrascale died down. They were all too full and too tired to properly talk to each other.
Luckily, they didn't have to, after dessert a woman who announced herself as the deputy head, Ms Creed, stepped up to the podium.
'I hope you enjoyed the feast, I have some further announcements, sports day will be postponed past its usual date, the new date is tentative for the time being. Any questions about this or any other matters can be directed to your house prefects, if they can stand now please.'
Four students from each house stood up for the room to see. Immediately, Ms Creed called out, 'Alright, off to bed!'
At once the whole room erupted with the sounds of scraping chairs and loud footsteps. All the older students were on their feet instantly, some even ran out of the hall. Julian and the other first years stood up to see their house prefects walking towards them. He noticed that they didn't appear to be enthused about their job except for one.
'Hi there!' The enthusiastic blonde girl waved. 'I'm Emily, your prefect this year. You can all follow me to the house common room.'
She began to lead the first years out of the main hall. Unfortunately, the entire school had clogged up the doorway, it seemed that all the houses had decided to all leave early to avoid the rush, which turned out hadn't helped at all. The prefect Emily however, had decided to wait close to the door but not next to the crowd.
'Um, are we waiting for something?' The outspoken boy, Nick asked her. She angled her head downward, 'Yes actually.' She smiled.
While waiting by the door, Julian noticed Jack from the Imphorn crowd giving him a wave on his way out of the hall. Julian gave a half-hearted wave back. After several minutes, most of the students had left. At this point the group moved into the atrium unimpeded. Emily led the first years not down the hall on their right where they could still hear the sounds of students, but into the left corridor. As they walked Emily was explaining the castle layout to the first years.
'The castle is made up of three main areas, the North, South and West blocks. But there are some smaller buildings for Herbology in the East. We're in the South block just so you know, as far as I know Imphorn are close to us, the rest of the houses are in the North block but we're not really sure where,' she wondered in a faraway voice. 'Oh, this doesn't mean you should look for them' she added quickly, looking nervous.
One of the less bored prefects coughed right then, 'We also have the Potions department on the seventh floor, Alchemy's there too but don't worry about that yet, my name's James by the way.' James did a little wave.
'Also, we have easy access to the roof here if you want a good view. You'd think astronomy would be here but that's in North like most classes.' James didn't speak as excitedly as Emily but despite appearing disinterested at first he came across down to earth, which Julian appreciated.
Soon after, the students from Terrascale turned to the right into a stairwell heading downwards. Eventually, they were led into a hallway that seemed quite familiar. It was the maze of tunnels Mr Hall had taken them through.
Emily noticed the reaction on Julian's face, 'That's right, you all would have gone through here right?'
Julian nodded. 'Couldn't tell where anything was.' Ellie chimed in, 'Took forever too.'
Emily turned away to lead them through the corridors. Emily was about to reply but was interrupted by James, 'Sounds about right, we call it the maze, for obvious reasons. Don't feel bad if you can't find your way, only the teachers know how. It might seem fun to see if anything's hidden here and I get that,' he suddenly became more serious, 'but you really don't want to get lost down here. Trust me.'
'Did something happen?' A girl called from the back of the line. James stiffened up all of a sudden.
After a pause, James finally replied. 'Let's just say getting detention and losing house points isn't the worst part of getting lost down here.' He left it at that.
Emily spoke up again. 'That's why it's good that Terrascale isn't hard to reach if you go this way. Once you're down here you only have to turn left, right and left again.' She said this after causing the group to turn left. Soon after, they had all found themselves in front of the end of a hallway. Julian normally would have thought they were lost but he noticed a small turtle close to the bottom corner of the wall.
James stepped forward, pointing to the turtle, 'It appears in different parts of the hallway, have to find it each time.' He touched the turtle moving his hand as if he was tickling it. After a moment the turtle glowed the same blue as their robes and then moved across the wall like it was swimming on the surface of water, until it ended up in the centre of the wall in front of them. At that moment the wall dissolved into blue light. It drew an excited gasp from most of the group, it really was a beautiful display, but Julian would never have admitted it.
Emily and James stood on the side to guide them into the Terrascale common room. The first years walked into a large room mainly lit by a large fireplace on a wall opposite where they were standing. The entire room contained several couches and tables all decorated with the blue colours of their house. However, despite how late it was there were plenty of older students relaxing who had stopped to watch the first years. As they all walked into the common room proper Julian noticed the walls on both of his sides were a darker shade than the back wall. He thought he could see movement outside. He reached out to touch the darker wall on his left but felt an extreme coldness quickly seep into his hand. He recoiled instantly, this was a window, not a wall. He thought he could faintly smell sea salt when they'd stepped in and now it made sense, the whole common room was under the sea.
'Welcome to the common room' Emily announced, 'All your rooms are through the window on your right.' She gestured towards a corridor in the opposite window Julian had gone to.
Julian didn't need to be told twice, he was dead tired after the sorting and the feast right after it. From the look of it the rest of the first years were feeling the same. They all walked to their dormitories, the girls split off from them after an intersection, eventually all the boys reached a door with a plaque that read 'First Years'.
The dorm room was round, with six beds arranged with the head against the wall extending into the centre of the room. Each boy had his own luggage placed on the side of the bed, Julian was able to tell his bed apart from the others easily, apart from one other boy, his bed was the only one with a suitcase instead of a trunk.
He climbed into his bed, almost forgetting to change out of his robes, almost sinking into the mattress. He'd definitely had a long day.
Everyone had fallen asleep except for him, he found it too difficult to fall asleep, he was just too thirsty. Julian got out of bed and headed towards the common room, maybe an older student could help him out
He quietly walked down the corridor away from the dorms, trying not to wake anyone. He was about to walk out into the common room when he heard the voice of the prefect Emily.
'Come on, don't say that.' Julian heard her say.
'Why not? Those firsties are in for it.' One of the other prefects replied. Julian stopped where he was, luckily, they didn't see him walk in. He managed to quickly shuffle back into the dorm corridor.
Another voice spoke up, a girl. 'We didn't know back then either. We turned out alright.'
'You think so?' James interjected. 'Do you see anyone here trying to fix it? The new kids are just gonna go through the same thing. They just haven't done it yet.'
'But maybe they could change things' Emily started, 'We could get them prepared early, let them know.'
James snorted, 'Yeah like that'll work. They'll just get trashed like we did.' There was a silence among the prefects now. 'I'm gonna sleep, night.'
Julian jumped back; no longer thirsty as he ran as quietly as he could back to his dorm room. Luckily, he managed to make it before he saw James make it to the hallway. He hoped no one had heard the door close behind him. He crawled back into bed, not nearly as comfortable as before.