Chapter Text
It was a hot summer's day in the wheelers basement and as the sun shined in through the windows, the people upstairs can hear a commotion coming from downstairs.
“WE CANT RISK IT, THIS IS OUR LAST ROLL BEFORE I'M DEAD AND IF I DIE, WE’LL LOSE!!”
“STOP BEING A WIMP, ALL YOU NEED TO ROLL IS AN 18!!”
“YOU SAY THAT LIKE ITS EASY!!”
I sat listening to Dustin and Lucas bicker and laughed at how they were freaking out over the dice. I already died and so did Dustin. It’s just Lucas now.
“If I roll this and I lose, I'm blaming you.” Lucas said begrudgingly.
“Stop being a baby”. Dustin handed him the 20D.
Me, Dustin, and Mike watched intently as Lucas began shaking his hands with the 20d to prepare to roll it. He released his hands and we all sat in anticipation, watching the die as it rolled across the table. I placed my hands on the table to brace myself for whatever was about to happen. It started slowing down on the table and we started to lean in. It toppled over one final time and it read “18”. We all yelled in triumph and Dustin and I hugged Lucas excitedly.
“I told you!”
“Shut it, Dustin!”
“SHH. The monster gets hit with your attack and with one final blow, it sways and then falls over with a THUMP!” Mike bangs on the table and I watch intensely. It’s always much more fun when Mike is enthusiastic about the campaign.
“The king awards the three of you with medals of honor and a couple of sacks of gold. He thanks you for saving his kingdom and builds a memorial for you all to remember your noble acts. And THAT my friends is the end of this campaign.” Mike finishes.
I beamed around the table at them because of our victory. We all got up out of our seats to excitedly hug each other. We pulled each other into a big group hug with Mike and Dustin beside me and Lucas across from me.
“That campaign was AWESOME Mike!!” Dustin said eagerly.
“Yeah! And we only did it in 7 hours!!” I added.
Mike smiled in appreciation but our celebration got cut short by his mom calling us upstairs. We all single-filed upstairs to find his mom greeting their family owl while Nancy, Mike's older sister, was sitting at the table reading her letter. I was confused because Dustin was here and he’s not a Wizard, he has never seen magic before so why is she letting him see the owl? Dustin became our friend when we helped him look for his mom's cat.
“Now boys I know you’re probably confused as to why I have our owl here with the letters in front of Dustin.” Karen began.
I had been waiting on our Hogwarts letters for so long and I'm excited that we all get to open them together but why was Dustin here?
“It seems that Dustin here has a letter of his own!” Karen said excitedly. Me, Mike, and Lucas gasped in excitement.
Dustin raised his eyebrows, there’s no doubt he’s super confused about this whole thing.
“A letter for what??”
“Well, basically Dustin, We’re all witches and wizards. Magic isn’t just something in that thing you call ‘Fantasy’. The reason why you didn’t know before is that us Wizards and witches are sworn to secrecy to stay in hiding from muggles- sorry, normal people.”
“This is a joke, right? there’s no way this is true” Dustin looked around the room to confirm.
“Here, let me show you” Karen pulled her wand out and started levitating all of our letters to us. Dustin watched in amazement as me, Mike, and Lucas immediately tore open the envelopes and looked at our supply list. Jonathan told me that he will give me some of his old stuff since a lot of it is still in good shape. I looked up and Mike and I locked eyes before he smiled at me and waved me over to compare lists. We held out our lists side-by-side and read over them as if they weren't the same list. After sitting shoulder to shoulder for a couple of minutes, Lucas came over to compare his list as well while Dustin was carefully reading over his list.
"This is insane..." Dustin said, still reading his letter.
"You'll get used to it, you're not the only muggleborn to be starting Hogwarts!" Lucas encouraged.
"Muggleborn?"
"A wizard born from non-magical parents" Mike quipped in. "you'd be considered a muggleborn since you don't have magical parents."
"oh" Dustin replied.
"This is so exciting!!" Karen said. "I wonder what houses you boys will be in?"
Dustin just looked even more confused so I started to explain. "Basically at Hogwarts, there are four houses you can be sorted into."
Karen then started to explain each house to him. "First, there's Ravenclaw, the house Ted and I were in. That house is for intelligent and witty people. I wouldn't be surprised if any of you got sorted into it but the houses take your biggest core traits so we'll just have to see. Next is Slytherin. Nancy is in this house. This house's traits are ambitious and cunning. Don't be mistaken, some people who are bad mostly come from this house but it doesn't mean every person in Slytherin is bad. Then we have Gryffindor. This house is for brave and chivalrous people. Lastly, there's Hufflepuff. This house is for the kind and hard workers. Does that make sense?"
She looked back at us and we all looked at Dustin who was taking physical notes. "yeah, just one second" he added as he finished his notes.
"Now, Dustin I'm pretty sure the school should have someone sent over to explain everything to your mother but if you'd like, I'd be more than happy to go over and help her understand everything" Karen offered. To which Dustin replied "Yes that would be very helpful, thank you"
I sat watching with Mike and Lucas thinking about the houses. I looked over and it looked like they were lost in thought as well. I observed Mike's facial expressions to figure out what he was thinking. He seemed to look very puzzled. His brows here furrowed and he was biting the inside of his cheek, he was also looking off to the side. He might be thinking about the houses too but he looks worried. "Mike, what's wrong?" I asked.
Mike snapped out of his trance and quickly looked at me startled. "Oh, uh, nothing. Nothings wrong"
I deadpanned at him because he can't fool me.
"....Okay. Fine, yeah. I'm a little worried about something...." Mike said, he looked a little sad.
"What is it?" I asked, concerned.
"It's just that...." Mike sighed. "What if we aren't in the same house?"
I pondered for a moment, is he concerned about ALL of us being in the same house or just us two? "we'll still see each other in class and all that" I tried to say comfortingly.
"I know but we won't be able to be in the same common room or dorms, I don't want us to be split up at the times that we should be able to hang out," Mike said sadly.
My face softened. I don't want him to be sad, this should be exciting. Although I do know where he's coming from. "... I get it, but I'm sure we'll still have plenty of time to hang out, we'll sit by each other in class and if we're allowed, we can at lunch, and we can spend weekends together," I explained.
Mike then smiled slightly "true but I just don't wanna be separated," he said simply.
"I know, me too, but I'm sure we can still hang out loads if we don't get into the same house. It'll be like nothing has changed at all, okay?"I said trying to give him a smile at the end.
“I really hope so” Mike sighed. “Did you hear that Harry Potter is supposed to be starting this year too?” he asked.
“really??” I asked surprised.
“yeah, I heard Nancy talking about it and now I’m wondering what house he’ll be in" Mike wondered
Lucas butted in “I hope he’s in my house, wouldn’t that be so cool??”
“That would be so fun to tell people you’re in the same house as Harry Potter!!” Mike replied excitedly.
“Who’s that?” Dustin asked.
I walked over to Dustin and let Mike and Lucas talk about it while I explained it to Dustin.
“Basically, he’s the only one to ever survive the killing curse and he was only a baby when he lived and took down the darkest wizard of our time, we don’t say that wizard’s name though, we call him ‘he who must not be named”. I explained.
“What do you mean by dark?” Dustin looked visibly confused.
I let out a breath of air, I don’t really want to scare him. “Basically, some people discriminate against muggleborns, to warn you, and this wizard believed muggleborns didn’t belong in our society so he and his followers called the ‘death eaters’ hated muggleborns and would sometimes kill some or terrorize muggles themselves. He used a lot of magic that’s considered dark because usually, wizards don't use it because of the things it involves” I let out another breath, so much for not scaring him…
Dustin looked shocked. He sat there for a solid minute taking it all in until he said “This is insane”
“I’m sorry, I’m not trying to scare you-“
“No, no, I’m gonna need to know it all, this wizarding stuff seems crazy though, I didn’t even know all of this existed.” Dustin pondered.
“You’re not mad at us for keeping it from you?” I asked.
“No, I understand why, you’re not supposed to show ‘muggles’ magic so you probably weren’t allowed to tell me” Dustin explained.
I sighed in relief “thank god you get it, but if you need any help for when we go to school, don’t hesitate to ask any of us questions, okay?”
Dustin smiled “Okay man, I really appreciate it.”
~~~
Jonathan and I sat at a table in the Leaky Cauldron while we waited for mom to get back from ordering us drinks, we were waiting for the rest of the party to get here so that we could all shop together for school. "Are you excited about Hogwarts?" Jonathan asked. He's supposed to be going into his 4th year and I think Mike's sister Nancy is going into year 4 as well. Jonathan says he's a Hufflepuff and Mike tells me Nancy is a Slytherin.
"I guess so" I answered.
Jonathan raised a brow "you don't sound so sure"
I sighed and then thought for a moment. "I'm just nervous I guess..."
"Why?"
"I don't know... I think it's because I know that all of us in the party won't all be in the same house.." I explained while scratching the back of my neck.
"I'm sure you'll be able to still see each other plenty," Jonathan said.
"I know, I know but it still makes me nervous," I said.
Just then Lucas walked in with his Parents and Mike and Dustin came in, right after them with Nancy and Karen, I guess Karen offered to take Dustin to Diagon Alley which is nice. They all walked up to us as my mom gave me and Jonathan our drinks. Mike came over to sit beside me.
"What are you drinking?" Mike asked.
"Pumpkin Juice," I answered simply.
"Nice, nice, so... Are we all going to shop together?" Mike asked while looking around at everyone at the table.
"I suppose we'll let you boys look at your lists and go around the shops to get your supplies. I trust you all to be responsible and keep track of everything." Lucas's mom said. She then looked over at my mom and then my mom started speaking.
"We do however need to meet back up with you boys to see you all get your wands. That's a big milestone for you all. And then we'll bring you boys to the robes shop to get fitted. Meet us at Ollivanders at 2:00" my mom explained.
Jonathan picked up a bag next to me and opened it and signaled me to have me look inside. "some of these things I'll give to you, they're still in good condition. I have some of the books you'll be using." He said as he took out the things he was giving me and put them into my bag that mom gave me for my things. She put a charm on it to give it a lot of storage and to make it lighter. I looked at the different books he gave me to see what I'll be doing. I wonder what classes will be fun.
Mike, Lucas, Dustin, and I started to pick up our things to head out to the back with our parents so that they could open the entry to Diagon Alley. In the back, we stood in front of the brick wall as Karen went ahead and tapped a few bricks in a pattern and the wall started to open. As soon as the opening was big enough, we all flooded into the alley and me, and the boys immediately set off.
"Alright, where to first??" Lucas asked in anticipation. He was beaming and looking ahead at all the stores. His excitement was making me excited too.
"this is insane!!! I can't believe all of this is real!!" Dustin said as we walked.
Mike responded "I know!! I grew up with magic and this is still cool!! We should get our books first!"
We started heading towards the bookstore, walking next to each other in the alley. Lucas was on the far right, Dustin on the inner right, me on the inner left, and Mike on the far left. To make room for people passing by, we had to get closer together so as we walked, me and Mike kept accidentally brushing shoulders, and each time we'd look at each other. I'd give an awkward smile and he'd smile back at me nicely which didn't make me feel bad about running into him. We finally got into the store and we looked around at all the books.
"Alright so here's a plan idea, we have 7 classes which means 7 books right? how about each of us get four of the same book for a subject and we bring them back to bring the books together to distribute?" Mike suggested.
"There are not enough subjects for each of us to get two types of books though" I brought up.
Mike looked at me and said, "That's okay, I could just get one subject and find you guys if one of you needs help carrying books."
"seems like a plan!" Lucas said while taking out the list to see what we need. Dustin claimed Potions and Herbology, Lucas claimed Transfiguration and History of Magic, Mike claimed Astronomy, and I claimed Charms and Defense Against the Dark Arts. We each got baskets and set out to find our subjects. I chose mine because those were the subjects Jonathan already had books for that I was going to use. I went over to the sections that the books were in and pulled out three of each. Then Mike came over.
"Need any help?" He offered while holding a basket with four books in it.
"I think I'm okay" I turned to smile at him while holding up my basket with six books in it.
He walked over and took a look into my basket and asked "do you want me to carry it?"
"I've got it Mike, thank you though! You're very generous." I said to compliment him. He's so nice so I make sure he knows it, I'm glad he's my best friend.
Mike smiled at me and looked down with a slight pink tint to his cheeks. "Okay, I think i'll just follow you back to the group instead of wandering." he said.
"Okay!" We started walking back. "You find your books okay?" I asked.
"Yeah, they were pretty easy. I did however see a book that Piqued my intests that I might ask mom for later." Mike said in thought.
I looked at him as we walked. "what book was it?"
"It was called 'exploring the meaning of patronuses'. I heard Nancy talking about those and how she said she hopes to find someone that has a matcing patronus to her." Mike explained. Whats a patronus? What does all that mean?
“What’s a patronus? What does it mean when you have matching ones?” I asked curiously.
Mike looked at me in excitement about to explain, he must me really interested in this topic. “Okay, so, a patronus is like your spirit animal. It’s like this blue animal that comes out of your wand when you cast a proper Patronus charm and it comes from you feeling pure happiness. People usually think of their happiest memories to cast it. It chases away those dementors things that they have to gaurd azkaban…”
“Why does it chase them away?” I asked.
“So, dementors feed off of your worst fears and most negative feelings and emotions so they’re driven away by the pure happiness that is the charm. And now i’ll explain what it means when they match. So there’s two things that can happen; the first is where two peoples patronus’s are identical. This usually happens when one person supposedly falls in love with another person but i kinda lean toward the idea that it’s more so when someone becomes like… obsessed with that person. Their patronus changes to match theirs. The thing you’ll hear most people say is that the person fell in love with the other though. The other one is one people don’t normally think of but in my opinion I think it’s healthier. It’s when two peoples Patronus’s naturally go with each others, like not identical but still go together. Kinda like soulmates.” Mike took a breath after spewing all of that information. I smiled to myself.
“I think I get the picture. That’s pretty cool, I hope I find someone whose patronus matches mine someday” I told him.
“Yeah, too bad it’s a hard charm, it’s super hard to do and it takes most wizards years to do properly” Mike said almost sadly.
I sighed and put my hand on his shoulder with my free hand “Mike, I know you’ll be a great wizard, trust me. My best friend will be one of the greatest wizards i’ve ever seen”
Mike smiled bashfully and looked away with a tinge to his cheeks once more. I like it when he blushes.
“I bet you’ll be a great one too you know. A great artist like you must be able to be that good at anything else in my opinion, I think you’re just talented in general” Mike said looking back at me. It was now my turn to blush and look away smiling.
When we got back to the group, we all redistributed all of the books amongst ourselves and we took turns paying for our books one by one and at the end we put them into our own bags. We walked back out of the store and we ended up stopping at a place to buy our cauldrons. Now we’re at the pet shop. My mom act gave me some money to buy me an owl as a gift, Jonathan pitched in too, it was his idea. He’s truly the best brother ever, I don’t know how I can repay him…. Maybe I can draw him something.
“What pets do wizards bring to school?” Dustin asked out of curiosity as we walked into the shop. Just as he said that, we all watched in awe as a really tall brown haired bearded man walked out of the shop after just buying a white snowy owl.
“…. Uhh, well. Some people bring cats, some people bring rats, some people bring toads, and then most people bring owls because that’s also how we mail things. Owls are like the wizard postal service.” Lucas explained after watching the man leave.
“huh. Guess i’m gonna have to buy an owl then? I don’t think my mom will let me take Mr Mittens to school” Dustin said while looking around.
“I already got one for my birthday so I think i’ll go walk and help Dustin find one” Lucas said to me and Mike and then walked off.
“Welp, wanna look around for owls together?” Mike asked hopefully.
“Sure!”
Me and Mike gravitated towards the back of the store and looked around. A few times I stopped to pet a few animals like one of the cats and a few owls but nothing so far was yelling at me to buy it.
Until I saw them.
I looked and immediately fell in love with the sight I saw. It was two owls, almost the same height but the light brown one was slightly shorter and the other one was a black color and they were nuzzling each other and just really close to each other in general like they just couldn’t be separated. I immediately quietly gasped and went over and when Mike reached them too it looked like he was just in love with them as I am.
“I want one” I stated.
“me too, should we buy them together so that we don’t have to separate them??” Mike asked excitedly.
“yes, how about we take the ones that match our hair colors?” I suggested.
“sounds good to me”
We went up front and paid for the owls and they were brought to us in cages.
“What should we name them??” I asked enthusiastically.
“I kinda wanna name mine Erwin” Mike said in thought. Honestly, it really matches it. I really like the name.
“That’s a good name. Should I name mine Casden? I really like that name too.” I asked.
“That’s a really cool one! Erwin and Casden. Pretty catchy!” Mike beamed. I smiled back. Dustin then came up and bought a dark brown owl named Bilbo after that one muggle series called The Hobbit.
Soon, it was 2:00 and we had to go to Ollivanders t get our wands.
“So, Dustin, the thing about wands is that they’re all made out of different woods, cores, and they’re all different lengths. all of these things depend on the wizard. I won’t explain more because I think Ollivander is going to explain the rest.” Lucas said.
We all walked onto the shop and sure enough, everyone was there except for Nancy and Jonathan. They got their wands a couple a years ago so I imagine they’re doing their own thing.
“Welcome! I see all of you are here now. So, the saying for the wand choosing is ‘the wand chooses the wizard’ so you will all had to go through a few to find the perfect one” Ollivander explained.
First up was Lucas. He went through a couple wands but finally, he ended up with a long wand with a Dragon heartstring core with Spruce wood. It had a cool design on it that had thing rings going up it.
Next up was Dustin. He had a medium sized wand with a Unicorn hair core and he had Rowan wood. The design on his was the engravings on a nice handle.
Then it was Mikes turn. I gave him a smile of encouragement before he went up because he looked a little nervous. We watched for ten minutes as he cycled from wand to wand and he ended up with a long wand with Unicorn hair, and Pine wood. His design was really unique. His wand was kind of in a zigzag structure.
Lastly, I went up. After accidentally exploding things around the room with different wands, we arrived at my wand. I had a medium length wand and it had a unicorn core just like Mike and Dustin. It’s cool how Lucas actually got a different core than us, his core means he’s able to do very strong magic. My wood is pear wood and my design is where my wand is in a thin spiral.
We all gathered together to hold our wands in the middle and we were all admiring how they all looked.
“Okay kids, time to get your robes fitted for the day!” Karen said. We all walked out and went over to Madam Malkins and we all lined up on the stools and helpers came over and fitted all of us. When we were finally done, we all walked out and went back to the leaky cauldron to have a drink. Me and Mike sat next to each other raving about when we can use the wands the whole time. I think i’m gonna draw all of our wands sometime.
After we all finished, we all said goodbye and “see you tomorrow” since we see each other basically everyday. I’m a bit more excited to start Hogwarts, now it’s time for me to bond with my new owl!