Somehow, they were moving faster than he realized. Robert explained that the magic helped neutralize the forces one would feel moving so quickly, and they had somehow made it halfway across the world in just ten to fifteen minutes. When Lux made it clear these should just be everywhere, Robert, unfortunately, had to explain how magic intensive and expensive this was, and there were only a few scattered throughout the world.

When the booth opened, Lux’s sights and smells were assaulted with entirely new senses. Hundreds of robed wizards and witches littered the cobblestone street, moving around from shop to shop talking amongst themselves. Although the light was fading from the sun, the town was well lit from scattered street lanterns and the soft glow from various shop windows. He was about to ask Robert where the lights were but remembered what he had said about magic and technology.

Lux’s mouth gaped for several moments while Robert let him enjoy the experience quietly for a bit.

“Welcome to Hogsmeade, Lux.”

He let out a half-laugh, half gasp. “Hogsmeade.” Lux said under his breath. He felt like he was in a historical museum portraying the 1800s… except for the wands and wizards everywhere of course.

“This town has grown to be of the biggest magical communities over the last several decades.” Robert pointed to the giant castle in the backdrop. “Now that there are only a few schools left, the area that surrounds them has become quite popular to try and attract potential students when they graduate or at the very least have them spend their money at their shops on the weekends.”

Lux hadn’t even noticed the enormous castle structure nestled in the backdrop of the village, probably no more than a 15-minute walk from where they currently stood. “Wait… that is Hogwarts-Ilvermorny?”

Robert chuckled. “Yes, but the students typically call it Hogmorn, for short. The headmaster isn’t too fond of the nickname, so I’ve heard.”

“Hogmorn…” Lux whispered under his breath for the second time, his excitement stirring in his stomach.

They slowly walked onto the street in front of them. Lux, being young, with no robes or wand, and accompanied by an adult wizard, was a fairly obvious pick for being a new fledgling student at the school. He received a few smiles, words of encouragement from a passerby, and one that said “See you in class.” as she walked by. Lux turned his head and tried to awkwardly say he was looking forward to it, but she had walked off before he could get a good look.

“So, what are we doing here first instead of the school?” Lux asked as they made their way through the crowds, gazing at different shops along the way.

“First-year… muggle-born students get a stipend from the school that pays for your first-year books and wand.” Robert made sure to mumble the muggle-born part so only Lux could hear. “It isn’t much, but, depending on your performance in school and your magical aptitude test, it could afford you some more money than what you get initially.”

“Magical test?” Lux asked.

“Yes. Every year, students get their magical capabilities measured. It just shows how high your ceiling can go, so to speak.” He said as they took a turn down a smaller ally that was less crowded than the main street. “If you remember part of our conversation about the birth rate of wizards, I mentioned that our prowess has been fading in addition to our numbers dropping. We figured out how to measure someone’s innate magical capabilities with some tests a few decades back.” He stopped as he saw Lux frown. “It can change with time, although, there usually is no drastic fluctuation in power. The average increase from a first-year to a seventh-year student is only a few points more than what they started as. But!” he held up a finger, “that doesn’t mean they will be stronger, it just means they have the ability to become stronger if they develop the skills for it. Plenty of powerful wizards tested low but could run circles around the more ‘gifted’ individuals.”

That made sense to Lux. There were plenty of examples in sports over the centuries of “nonathletic” individuals outperforming more talented people in their profession due to their work ethic and honing their craft. It seems magic was no different.

“Do mugg… uh, people like me, do we tend to score higher or lower on that test?” Lux asked, catching himself from saying anything too loud that could put him in hot water from any potential student or professor passing by. He didn’t know the details of how bad the prejudice was, but he thought he should be safe until he asked for more details about it.

Robert frowned when asked this question, “The test is silly, and you should not take it to heart. Like I have said, plenty of wizards and witches prove that the test is just a way for the UW and the school to keep tabs on its more powerful individuals.” When Lux stared expectantly back at Robert, he took a few seconds before sighing. “Fine. Lower, usually.”

He was about to follow up before Lux interrupted, “Yes, yes I know. I don’t take it seriously. Just was curious.” It was the half-truth. He was curious, but admittedly, he was disappointed. He hoped he had enough talent to be able to help his family, but there was a potential that he wouldn’t even be able to make artifacts. Hell, he didn’t even know how much talent and ability it took to even make them in the first place.

They walked in awkward silence first before stopping in front of a large store called “Blotts’ Books”. Even peaking through the window he could see robed students perusing the many lines of books stacked as high as the eye could see.

“I don’t think I have ever seen a real book before.” Lux commented.

Robert looked surprised. “Never seen a book before?”

Lux shook his head. “Everything is online now, fed straight through our laptops or holograms… there hasn’t really been a need for them.”

“Well, Botts is one of the most famous bookstores in all of the world. At least for us wizards that is.” Robert said.

“Yeah, I guess without technology, your options are limited.” Lux commented, another reminder of the technological limitations due to magic.

“Occasionally in small households, you will see special holograms embedded with magical technology that keep it from overloading too quickly from magic, and has a fail-safe for when it gets too much residual power. However, as soon as it goes past just a few individuals, it overloads faster than it takes to turn on and find what you’re looking for. Plus, they aren’t the cheapest to find either.”

Lux nodded and walked into the store, the smell of parchment and old leather overwhelming his senses – it was the first time he had ever really smelled the two sensations before.

It was loud too, students groaning and moaning about a particularly thick book that a professor had assigned them to read, or parents talking with their kids about just using their older sister’s hand-me-down textbooks. Lux had only been in big crowds a handful of times in his life – usually on trips to the movies with his parents or the few vacations they had gone on in their life. It was definitely something he would need to get used to.

“Over here!” Robert called out to get Lux’s attention, and they made their way over to the line at the cash register. It took a few minutes, but eventually, they were met with a portly looking man with red cheeks and a stubble-free shave. He beamed when he saw the two of them.

“Robert my friend!” The man said rather loudly.

“Evening George,” Robert replied kindly. He gestured toward his companion. “This here is Lux, one of my usual's.” He said and smiled while raising his eyebrows. George responded with his smile fading quickly before turning serious while glancing around.

“Of course Robert. The usual order then? To the same account?” he asked.

“Please.” He said shortly.

Lux had questions about the particular change in mood during the conversation but tabled it for now. The man came back with a small backpack that looked like it had seen better days. It was made of old faded leather with cloth lining in different spots where patches of leather must have eroded or torn somehow.

“Thanks, George.” he nodded his head at him while accepting the bag. “Sorry for the short conversation… you know.” he said, to which George waved his hands and shooed them off.

“No need to explain. We will catch up when we catch up.” As they walked, Lux overheard the man return to his previous energy, encouraging the next customer to upgrade to a new edition of a book he didn’t quite catch the name of.

“Later, Lux. I promise.” He said as they left the room, interrupting Lux’s open mouth before words could even escape. He closed his mouth and continued to follow Robert, storing away the conversation for future questioning.

When Lux grabbed the backpack from his wizard guardian, he noticed it felt virtually empty. Robert explained it was a bag with a much larger space than seen, and can reduce the weight pretty dramatically. Lux’s eyes widened.

“A bag of holding!? Seriously??” He basically shouted at Robert who wore a complete look of confusion on his face. Apparently, he had never played video games or heard about dungeons and dragons. It was pretty much the same mechanics too – it had space enough for five feet by five feet worth of things, and if he thought of the object, it would let him grab it from the empty space within the bag.

“How on earth is this in the discounted section for people like me?” he asked.

“For one, the bag is quite large for the small space it provides. Two, it can’t summon the book for you by talking to it like some can. You actually have to physically reach for it. And three,” he gestured toward it on his back, “it looks absolutely disgusting.”

Lux snickered. “I could give a crap, I have a freakin’ bag of holding.”

As they walked, Lux had swung the backpack in front of him, testing out different methods for pulling out the books. He had a list, given to him by Robert, with the names of the books which worked just fine when he thought about them. Then, he tried just thinking of the name of the class that one of his books belonged to – Potions. Apparently, that worked too, as Lux now knew the name of his textbook was related to the potions class.

“Alright, so what’s next?” Lux asked.

Robert grinned at this. “Every student’s favorite part; time to buy your wand.”