First year first steps

"Oh, mum..."

Fionn’s complaint trailed off. He knew he shouldn’t complain about his mother’s tears, but he hated the way she was so emotional about him going to school. It wasn’t as though these were sudden, saying goodbye at the station tears, either. Fionn had been able to feel his mother’s tension building up over summer as it got ever closer to the day he was going to leave.

It made him feel all tight and thin inside, while he helped decide what clothes to take with him and his mother acted like she was mourning his death. It would only be for a couple of months before he was back for Chistmas, for god’s sake!

"I'll be fine. I have a wand to protect me!"

He tried to lighten the mood by shooting a stream of sparks into the sky. It was the only bit of magic Fionn could do, ever since he'd been matched with the wand in the shop.

The train's whistle rang across the platform and Fionn hugged his parents one last time before disappearing inside.

Thank god that was over.

Now, he'd just have to find a nice, quiet corner. Fionn liked quiet corners.

"You're going to miss the train Aidan! Hurry up, Evan and Lottie went on board ages ago!"

Aidan's mother ushered him onto the train. It was like she wasn't even going to miss him. No, he knew that wasn't true. But still, Aidan felt weird about leaving his parents for the first time. As excited as he was about finally being able to start Hogwarts, he was feeling a bit queasy now. He'd never been away from his parents for more than a few hours before. Now suddenly he was being sent to the other side of the country, to share a bedroom with strangers and be told what to do every moment of everyday. It would definitely be weird, at least at first, that was for sure.

He climbed on board the train, much to his parents' relief, just before the whistle was blown. He hauled his bag up and looked left and right. There were more compartments to the right, plus he thought he had seen his brother go left, so right it was.

As Aidan walked along the train, he spotted his older sister in a compartment, talking to a bunch of people her age. He pretended not to see her, Aidan doubted she'd want her little brother pestering her on her first day back with her friends. Luckily Aidan spotted an empty compartment, so slipped inside and got out his copy of Hogwarts, A History. He'd read it many times before, but wanted to refresh his memory on some bits and pieces. He started wondering what house he'd be sorted into once he reached Hogwarts.

Fionn stared at the boy who'd just made himself all comfortable in his compartment. What was his malfunction? He didn't even bother to say hello or try to introduce himself or anything.

The kid was reading a huge tome called Hogwarts: A History. Fionn disapproved of this behaviour. It would only encourage people to be less muggle friendly. That was the word they used for people who didn't have wizard parents. Muggles. Fionn had exploded into laughter when the man from the ministry had said it, perfectly seriously, to his parents. It was such a dumb word.

"Ahem," Fionn wasn't the sort of boy who cleared his throat when he wanted someone's attention. He literally said the word.

Aidan hadn't even gotten through a page of the book when he heard a noise. Looking up, he nearly jumped as he saw a boy sitting opposite him. He had sworn the compartment had been empty. Had the boy just come in, or had he missed him altogether? Aidan had been a bit nervous and not paying attention to a lot of things that morning, he could very well just have missed the boy altogether. Great, he thought, I haven't even gotten to Hogwarts and I'm already making a bad impression.

"Erm...hi...sorry, I didn't see you there...I'm A-Aidan." Aidan said, half-mumbling. Even under the best circumstances he wasn't the best with people, and he had been feeling a bit off all day.

"It's my first year at Hogwarts...I didn't see you sorry...I just needed somewhere to sit..." Aidan trailed off, trying to explain and say something but he wasn't sure if he was being very clear or not.

"I mean, hi, I'm Aidan." He managed to get out somewhat clearly. That was alright, wasn't it? He hoped it would be. He did hope to have some friends here. Aidan imagined his brother Evan already being friends with half the year by the time they reached Hogwarts. This was one of those times that he envied his brother. Still, he refused to tag along with his brother. He could, and would, make his own friends. Somehow.

Wayne walked in, his cooking/potions book made by your very own held to his side and plopped down right next to the door, he hated being in an area like this. Probably had to talk to someone here. The thought sent shivers down his spine. His mother had told him to sit, talk, and actually make some friends this year, he had been home schooled of course, but he never talked to his age group much. talked to a few kids just to get his parents to stop bugging him but not much at all. Wayne sat back and hoped the train went fast enough to get him out of having to talk in the trolley at least.

Just as Aidan had spoken, another boy entered the compartment It slightly comforted Aidan that he wasn't the only one to have come in without knocking or saying a word to anyone. Still, he had thought the compartment to be empty. This boy must have seen one of them, surely? Since he was in a social mode though, Aidan thought he may as well continue and try to talk to this new boy.

"Hi, I'm Aidan by the way. I'm just starting my first year at Hogwarts, what about you?" He asked politely, not being a very good conversation starter himself.

Aidan put his book to one side. There was no chance of a peaceful journey up to Hogwarts, he thought. His mother had reminded him many times to be social and try to make friends, and he did want to make his mother proud. He would at least try, he told himself.

Wayne looked over, noticing he had to respond, he figured this wasn't so bad, but as he was about to utter his first word he realized that it was hard. It's okay buddy.. just hold through. Maybe one of them is interested in cooking, or potions! he thought. The idea brought him a smile and figured he might as well just hope they do. If not, then he probably picked the wrong seat.

"Hello, my name is Wayne, Wayne Bryd." he nodded, this was going better then he thought it would come out. "Yeah I am first year too!" and he figured he would just ask, "Ever done muggle cooking? you know... the muggle way?" he figured that might be a nice way to start off a conversation, hoping that he actually did like cooking the muggle way he could actually keep this conversation going!

Another first year. It didn't surprise Aidan though. Most older students had probably found their friends, so mainly first years wondered around on their own, hoping to find somewhere to sit.

Muggle cooking? A bit of a strange topic to bring up, considering the number of wizards that were anti-muggle, and even many that weren't still would have no clue about muggle cooking. Luckily, Aidan was one of the few who did, since his father was muggle-born, his paternal grandparents being muggles. He wasn't very good at it yet though.

"Hi Wayne. Nice to find more first years. Yes, I actually have tried muggle cooking before. My Dad's parents are muggles and whenever we go visit I can help cook if I like. I'm not very good at it yet though, but I want to get better." Aidan didn't like being bad at things, so wanted to get to an acceptable level. He often found muggle tasks more challenging than wizarding ones, magic made things really easy, too easy sometimes he thought.

"What kind of things have you cooked then?" He asked, assuming Wayne had some experience. "I've mainly done little bits in helping roast dinners and such. Or easy things like fish and chips."

Then Aidan looked across at the other boy. He hadn't said a word yet, apart from ahem earlier. Maybe he was shy. But he didn't seem shy. Maybe he didn't have much to say on muggle cooking, a lot of wizards wouldn't. Still, he thought he might have a conversation going now, which was an achievement for him, so didn't want to do anything to risk it halting.

Fionn didn't like these boys. They'd both come into his compartment uninvited and more or less unannounced, which he might have been willing to overlook. But the conversation about 'muggle' cookery? They were clearly going to be the most losingest losers of first year.

"I'm Fionn, but you can call me Finn," Fionn belatedly introduced himself, "and it looks like you two were made for each other. You should probably get used to it, since you're going to be besties for the rest of your school lives."

He slid off the seat and hauled his trunk to the floor with a thud.

"I'm gonna leave now and find some normal people, with normal interests," he said.

Honestly. Everyone knew the only reason to be interested in cooking was to see if anyone finally tried to cut Gordon Ramsay's fingers off.

Aidan was a bit shocked at Finn's reaction. Just because they liked muggle cooking, that didn't make them losers. It made them well informed wizards with a broad range of interests, he thought. He wasn't sure if he liked this Finn.

"Bye!" Aidan called down the train as Finn left.

So his making friends thing could be going better, he thought. Though Wayne seemed to be nice, and he wanted to make friends only with certain people anyway. His Mum thought he was too picky, especially given his lack of people skills, but why would he want to make friends with dumb or horrible people?

"So, ermmm, that's an overreaction. We're better than him and his narrow mind anyway. How did you learn about muggle cooking, do you have muggle relatives or something? My Dad's parents are muggles so they taught me." Aidan tried to carry on the conversation.