Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry discussion
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Hogwarts Express
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Carriage 3: Compartment C
[Enter Jason St. John from Platform 9 3/4, message 17.]After separating from his brother because he had spotted a few of his friends, Jason proceeded to get into a tussle with one of the Gryffindor boys and left in a sour mood. Moping to himself about how unloved he was, he took off in search of his brother but the sound of squealing, laughing voices distracted him and so curious to see what all the commotion was about, Jason followed the sounds and when he walked into a still open compartment, he saw two small children who looked shockingly similar except one was a boy and one was a girl.
"Hi," he said, his face breaking out into a grin. "Are you guys first years?"
[Enter Ayden August and Jinx August from Carriage 3 Corridor, message 2.]The two children, hearing someone asking a question, both turned from where they were bouncing on the seats, looking out the window, to see the speaker. Their eyes grew huge and their faces immediately dropped. They stopped bouncing and sat firmly on their tushes, hands shoved under their thighs.
"Yep," Ayden said honestly, both he and his sister squirming under the newcomer's gaze, as though certain they were about to get in big trouble.
"Cool," Jason said as he invited himself in. He sat down on one of the seats and still grinning, he glanced from sibling to sibling. "Are you guys twins? What's your names?" he asked. "I'm Jason. Fourth year," he said, proud as punch as he crossed his arms over his chest.
Jinx giggled and jumped down from her seat to clamber up next to him. She had no concept of personal space, and this boy was no exception. "Yep! I'm Jinx," she said, her brother chiming in, "I'm Ayden."
"Jinx and Ayden," Jason repeated, leaning back slightly as the redheaded girl stuck her face in his. "Cool names. Did you guys already pick out all your supplies and wands and stuff?"
"Yep! Mine is..." Ayden frowned and pulled out his wand, trying to remember exactly what it was made of. "Larch and dragon heartstring!" he declared proudly, quoting the shop owners words. "Ten inches, and swishy!" He waved his wand wildly to demonstrate his point."And mine is dogwood!" Jinx exclaimed, holding her wand in Jason's face. "With unicorn hair and pixie eggs for a core." She sounded so proud and precocious, having a dual-cored wand. "Also ten inches, but reasonably springy instead." She nodded earnestly, her small face deadly serious.
"What is yours?" Ayden inquired from Jason's other side, carefully putting his own wand away as he spoke.
Jason laughed as they shoved their wands in his face and backed up slightly so that he wouldn't accidentally get turned into a toad by tiny, untrained hands. "You guys have really cool wands," he told the twins, noting their shining faces. "Mine..." he began proudly, "is holly and ghoul slime," he told him. "Ten and a half inches and swishy too!" he said with a grin to Ayden. "They're the best," he told the boy. He pulled his wand out of his pocket and held it out in front of them for them to see.
"Ooh!" Ayden peered excitedly at the wand, blue eyes wide. Jinx was considerably less impressed. After all, she had a dual core. Unicorn hair and pixie eggs."Ghoul slime?" The look on the girl's face was one of obvious disgust. "That's... gross."
Jason grinned. "It's not gross. It's a really awesome core," he insisted. "Watch," he told them as he stood up and pointing the wand at the backpack on the table, he said, "Engorgio." The bag grew suddenly to twice its size and he waggled his eyebrows at the twins. "It's a simple spell," he told him, "but I don't want to get into too much trouble on the train. There's nowhere to hide really on it. It's different at Hogwarts," he told them solemnly.
The twins eyes suddenly both grew to round saucers and their faces split into mischievous grins at Jason's words. "Where... might one be able to hide at Hogwarts?" Ayden asked, doing his best to be sly and failing miserably.
Still grinning, but now more mischievously, Jason reversed the spell and sticking his wand back in his pocket, he sat down on the opposite bench that he had originally been sitting on since the twins were now occupying it and told them, "There are loads of good places. I can show you. Only... I don't know which House you'll be in so I may not get to see you all that often," he sighed then solemnly, running a hand through his short brown hair. "I'm in Gryffindor," he told the kids.
Ayden shrugged, it made sense. Who knew where they would end up?"Hopefully we'll be in Gryffindor," Jinx said brightly. "Our brother is in Ravenclaw, but I think he would prefer we were sorted into a different House than him..." At her words, both of the twins shared an Oh well, sort of glance, Ayden even going so far as to shrug it off.
Jason raised his eyebrows at that? "Really? How come?" he asked them curiously. Before they could respond though, he continued, "All of my family are or were Slytherins," he told them. "I'm the only Gryffindor," he sighed, his fourteen year old mind still unsure why it bothered him. "Except my dad. He's a Ravenclaw too. My older brother is Captain of the Slytherin Quidditch team," he bragged proudly, the grin returning to his face.
"No way!" Jinx's face lit up as Jason turned the topic to Quidditch. "That is so awesome," she groaned, flinging herself dramatically against the seat back. "I want to play Quidditch so bad!""Except we're first years," Ayden finished for her, his face and voice equally dark with displeasure of the fact. "And first years aren't even allowed brooms!"
"It's for your own good, you know," Jason told the twins with a solemn look on his face, his own blue eyes wide with seriousness even though up until fifteen minutes ago, he had been whining to Nathan about wanting to play at Hogwarts. "If you fall and hurt yourself, not even St. Mungo's might be able to save you." He wanted to play Quidditch as well so badly but currently the Gryffindor team was full and Jason only hoped that someone would quit so that they would hold tryouts. "Have you been on a broom yet?" he asked curiously. "Sneaking it, I mean." He grinned naughtily then, mischief running rampant in his own head.
The twins rolled their eyes simultaneously at Jason's first sentence. "Of course we haven't," they said, their faces and voices both too sincere to be telling the truth. Of course they had! Their parents were both magical, and they lived on the edge of town... They'd managed to sneak a few trips on their parents brooms over the summer before they'd been caught and the brooms had been locked away.
Jason grinned then, smelling the lie. "I did too when I was ten. I think I flew my first broom then. But my brother boxed my ears when he found out," he admitted, grimacing from the memory of the pain. "So you have an older brother too, then?" he asked, remembering them mention it earlier before they were sidetracked.
"Yep. He's thirteen—" Ayden started, his sister finishing his sentence for him by habit."—a Ravenclaw." Jinx shrugged, sharing the same thought with her brother. "He's kind of..."
"Uptight," Ayden said, his voice dry.
"Right, you were saying he was one," Jason nodded, remembering them mention House Ravenclaw. "Uptight? Like how?" he asked curiously. "He's strict with you guys?" Jason guessed sympathetically, wondering if their brother was anything like Nathan which made him then wonder what their parents were like.
"I guess," Jinx said with a shrug, though that wasn't quite the right description. "Mostly he's just moody though.""And all too easily bothered by little things." Ayden piped in.
The twins looked at each other and then together at Jason, chorusing, "Uptight."
Jason grinned at their uniformity and rubbing his short brown hair again, he wondered if their older brother was anything like Nathan. Although Nathan wasn't uptight per se, just... too studious. "Is that why you guys think he doesn't want you to be in his House?" he queried. "What's his name?" Jason asked, curious to know if he knew him, although he didn't know too many Ravenclaws....
"Evander August," Ayden said primly."I think we bother him," Jinx commented, answering Jason's first question. She exchanged a grin with Ayden, that clearly translated that it was no accident that their brother felt pestered by them.
Jason couldn't help but laugh then at the twins' mischievous exchanged grins, thinking that they looked like two little pixies. He hoped that they would be sorted into Gryffindor--the amount of pranks that they could play would boggle even his mind! "Evander..." he repeated. "Don't know him," he sighed regrettably. "Does he like Quidditch too?" he asked, wondering if maybe the name simply didn't ring a bell.
At his last question, the twins burst out laughing. Ayden was doubled over and they looked close to falling off their seats, so hearty were their giggles.
"I take that as a 'no'," Jason grinned, watching the twins rolling around on the benches, Jinx close to stabbing herself with her wand that she hadn't put away. "You're right: he is uptight," Jason added then, confirming their verdict.
Jinx uncurled from the ball she'd laughed herself into, and looked up at Jason, her green eyes wide. "See?""What about your brother?" Ayden asked as he resituated himself in the seat. He remember him saying something about having a brother, but he missed the part about more than one.
"Oh, well, I have two," Jason clarified. "But only one is still at Hogwarts. He's in Slytherin. He'll be graduating this year," the boy couldn't help but sigh. He would miss his older brother terribly--Nathan was the only one who paid any attention to Jason at home and sometimes even at school. "He loves Quidditch and he's the Captain of his team," he repeated with a proud grin, crossing his arms over his chest. "Maybe you guys will get sorted into his House if you don't end up in Gryffindor," Jason mused, forgetting about Hufflepuff for a moment.
The twins giggled, and then leaned suddenly out from the seat to peer at each other around Jason."I don't know," Ayden said uncertainly, still regarding his sister with one eye.
"I don't think we're very..." Jinx frowned, searching for the word. "Sly."
Both she and Ayden had to fight the urge to make a comment of how they didn't really like snakes.
"Me neither," Jason sighed, although he was clearly more upset about the fact than they were. "My whole family is Slytherin," he repeated again. "Except me." He looked down at his hands then, slightly dejected, and forgetting about his father.
"That just means you're special," Ayden insisted. In his fidgeting and looking at his sister, he was now turned around backwards in his seat, so he was facing Jason."I've heard Gryffindor is a pretty cool House, besides," Jinx offered, noticing the forlorn expression on the boy's face.
Jason grinned then, oddly comforted by the twins' words. He liked the fact that they were paying attention to him; it always felt good to be noticed. "I hope you guys are sorted into Gryffindor," he told them honestly. "But even if you're not, I'll still to show you the best hiding places in Hogwarts," he promised.
"Really??" Jinx asked, her eyes bright at the prospect. "That would be so cool!"
"Yep," Jason told her with a firm nod of his chin. "You wouldn't believe some of the places that exist in that castle. There are so many good hiding spots!" As if to prove his point, although they weren't in the castle just yet, an odd hoot (but it didn't really sound like a hoot) came from above them. Glancing up, Jason saw his cat sitting perfectly still, perched up on the luggage above the benches. "Pablo," Jason grinned. "When did you get in here?" The cat stared ahead with large, unblinking eyes, ignoring his master's question.
"Is that... your cat?" Ayden asked. The boy sounded uncertain. After all, it looked pretty much like a cat, but... Cats didn't hoot.
"Yes, it is," Jason answered, his body shaking slightly with silent laughter like it did every time he caught sight of Pablo owl-ling it up all kinds. He looked between the twins with a grin and whispered conspiratorially to them, "He thinks he's an owl."Pablo "hooted" again, his eyes still unblinking and his black, bushy fur puffed up to its maximum potential.
The cat gave another hoot, and the twins busted into an uncontrollable fit of laughter. It was too much. They'd never seen such a thing!
Laughing with the twins, Jason shook his head and managed to gasp out, "He even catches food like an owl. Watch." Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a bag of the jerkied salmon Nathan fed to Icarus and standing up, he held it close to Pablo's face, who's head finally moved as it swooped down to grab the treat, much like a bird would move. "He's so silly," Jason told the still laughing twins.
[Enter Sam Sporander from Platform 9 3/4, message 22.]The musical sound of laughter coming from several steps ahead to her right told Sam as sure as can be, that there were first years being tickled pink, and unable to resist from smiling herself, she adjusted the strap of her backpack with her Nym-free hand and reached for the compartment door. Just before she did so, a strange hoot that did not sound owl in origin instigated a further cascade of giggles, and sliding the door open she was met by a pair of identical faces, laughter still alive in their expressions as the source of the "hoot" came once again, not from the tiny owl, who looked somewhat taken aback but from the- "Did, did your cat just?" As if in reply the dark feline "hooted" again, and Nym fixed it with a thoroughly distrusting glare, wriggling to be put down. "Wow!" Sam's blue eyes widened, "how does he do that, is he mistransfigured or something?" The question was directed at the twins companion, a bright eyed boy, who she guessed was a third year. "Is he your cat?" Reasserting his autonomy, Nym padded towards the strange owl-cat, grey eyes gently narrowed. "Now now, Nym, play nice." Sam intoned, reading the white cat's body language easily as her naturally protective feline checked out the stranger.
At the sound of a girl's voice, Jason glanced at the door and saw an older student peering in curiously at his cat. Grinning, Jason shook his head. "No, he's a regular cat. He just thinks he's an owl," he told her, still laughing, the sound of the twins' voices encouraging his own. As the girl's cat approached Jason, he said to her, "Don't worry, Pablo won't even react to him. He only reacts to owls."
The twins laughed some more, though their fits had subsided to just the occasional bout of uncontrollable laughter. "What's your name?" Ayden asked of the newcomer, almost shyly, which was shocking.
"Oh, right, sorry," to have barged in on their private fun wasn't really like her, and Sam blushed slightly before adding, "I'm Sam,and that," she gestured at where Nym was extending his curiosity to the new cat, "is Nym, asnd he's not being very polite at the moment." "Mroww!" Nym mewed his outrage at being picked up and cradled in his mistress's arms. "Say hi, Nym" she chirruped, to which the cat remained obstinately silent. "Well don't blame me for getting up from the wrong side of the basket this morning, I did tell you not to go out hunting on the night before we travel, but noooo!" Suddenly realising her habit of talking to her cat had become a source of further mirth, she grinned sheepishly. "Mind if we join you?"
Jason shook his head. "No, I don't mind," he said, even though this had been the twins' compartment and he had also been one to barge in. "What year and House are you in, Sam?" he asked, taking a step closer to the girl, crossing his arms over his chest. "I'm Jason, fourth year," he said proudly. "Gryffindor. That's Ayden and that's Jinx," he told Sam, introducing the twins. "It's their first year," he added with a grin.
The twins grinned and gave a wave to the small girl. "Hello!" they chorused, beaming at her.
A radiant smile spread across her face like a sunrise. "Jinx?" she asked incredulously, fixing the giggling girl with a comic scrutinising look. "Well I'm very pleased to meet you and your brother, my name's Sam, I'm a sixth year and I'm in Hufflepuff" she indicated the little felt bumblebee dangling from a zipper of her backpack. "Uh, nice to meet you too Jason." she gave him a glowing smile before turning her attention back to the pair of fresh faces looking eagerly at her. "Which houses do you two want to be sorted into?" Placing her rucksack onto the luggage rack above, she sat down next to the twins, smoothing her long golden brown hair.
Jason grinned at Sam's pleasantries and then, settling down on the other bench across from them, the Gryffindor scooted back comfortably as he waited for the twins to reply. "I'm guessing you guys want to be in the same House," he couldn't help but add though beforehand.
Ayden and Jinx looked at each other, their faces scrunched in pensive concentration. They weren't too worried about being in the same House, they were practically the same person, after all. Finally, the gave up. Looking to Sam with a pensive shrug, they said, "I don't know."
If she was creeped out by the fact that they answered in unison, Sam didn't let her reaction show behind the veneer of her knowing smile. "Well you have nothing to worry about, I know how some students like to scare first years with tall stories about what they have to do to get into one of the four houses, but it's really nothing much." There really wasn't much chance of the twins being sorted into different houses, although, as far as she recalled, the last pair of identical twins had in fact been sorted into the same house, although cases of separation were not unheard of. "Actually it doesn't matter so much anymore," she said consolingly, "A while back houses got reputations based on their histories, but now everything's changing." Nym had finished his inspection of the other cat, and prowled over to his mistress, who let him climb into her lap before stroking his silky fur. "That's a rather, err, unique owl you have there." she said, regarding Jason shrewdly. "Could he always do that or have you trained him or something?"
Jason grinned and shook his head. "He's not an owl. He's a cat. He just thinks he's an owl," the boy clarified. Glancing up then, Jason called out, "Pablo, come down and say 'hi'."The cat remained immovable.
The twins couldn't help but giggle at the silly pet. "He's so fluffy!" Jinx exclaimed. She looked up at Jason, her green eyes round with hope, and queried, "Can I pet him?"
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The third compartment of Carriage 3. It can seat eight, but for comfort's sake, usually seats no more than six.