Lux smiled nervously as several members of Hufflepuff were clapping him on the shoulder, welcoming him to their house. All of them wore black robes with yellow ties, including a yellow badger stitched into the same spot as the other houses. They had slid down the table, making room for incoming first-years at the very front.

“First!”

“Yeah! We got the first one!”

“It’s our year this year!”

Lux looked to his left, hearing several students shout something about getting the first student. He turned to talk to the student sitting in front of him, Theo, who was the same student that had brought the hat out to Gembol.

“What are they talking about?” Lux blurted out accidentally, not fully thinking he might be asking a question that would give up his background.

The man chuckled lightly. “Irrational superstitious thoughts, Lux, a silly notion indeed. For several years, the first wizard selected has belonged to the house that has won the Cup.” He directed his attention back to the front; a new name being called. “Please, if you have any requests or require my assistance, ask. As Head Boy, I am here to assist all students, no matter how diminutive the problem may seem.”

Why is he speaking so formally?

“Sure, thanks Theo, I appreciate it.” Lux said, deciding not to comment about the peculiar choice of vocabulary. Not that it was completely out of place, but Lux hadn’t heard any other wizard speak to him that way.

The seventh witch up was another Hufflepuff, Lindsey Jones, and Lux recognized her as the pretty woman from the wand shop who had been choosing her wand with a crowd of onlookers at the time.

He heard the Head Boy whisper a soft ‘yes’ to himself while giving a tiny fist pump, before resuming his previous formal posture while rising from his seat to meet the girl. A few heads followed her as she walked toward them, not quite being subtle about where their eyes were gazing toward.

I suppose I’m not the only one to find her attractive, Lux thought to himself as Theo ran out of his way to introduce himself and show her to the seat next to Lux.

“Hey ya.” Lux said to Lindsey dismissively; he wanted to pay attention to the next person up. He was doing his best to keep track of everyone’s names, and the Headmaster’s reaction to them. Maybe he could catch an important student by seeing the reaction from the professors on stage, or the student body.

Lux missed it, but the girl seemed perplexed by the offhanded comment. “Hiya back.” She said amusingly, eyebrow perked up in interest. She sat next to him and glanced out of the corner of her eye to see if he glanced back toward her, but he continued to gaze at the new student under the hat. He truly didn’t seem to care who she was.

How interesting, she thought to herself, making a mental note to talk with him further in the future.

As the names continued, the table at the front slowly began to fill. 17 total Hufflepuffs sat at the front of the table when it was all said and done. Lux made polite conversation with a few of them, but he continued his reconnaissance work. There were a few names that stuck out to him as having garnered unusual attention, besides the typical looks of an attractive man or woman getting a few more greedy looks than normal.

“Another Sorting Ceremony complete, and I won’t bore you with any more words of wisdom, as the most important part of the day is here. Food!” Headmaster Blas said the last word loudly, and a stream of different creatures erupted out of a door on either hallway, both situated toward the middle of the room. House-elves, half-humans, centaurs, ghosts… it seemed the school employed a variety of magical creatures in the kitchens.

Robert had, unfortunately, left out the details of this one situation, and so Lux sat wide-eyed at the scene, food being placed throughout the tables by the various creatures. A particular obese looking ghost was levitating multiple plates and handing them out at his table, particularly the new students.

“Welcome my dear students to House Hufflepuff!” The plump ghost said, beaming from ear to ear. He continued to motion with his hands and the plates of food obliged his wishes and moved where he desired. “My name is Friar, the house ghost, as I am sure you have heard no doubt. If there is anything you need, anything at all, don’t hesitate to ask!” He floated off back toward the kitchen, Lux’s eyes wide as the other students smiled politely and began to discuss the uniqueness of Hogwarts-Ilvermorny’s ghosts in comparison to the ones they had encountered previously.

“What’s the matterrr?” Lindsey asked, drawing out the r while taking a bite of a rather large chicken leg.

Shit. Recover, quickly. But don’t overdo it.

“Just surprised at the politeness of our house ghost… I had only ever seen ghosts who were rather unfriendly.” Lux said confidently, diving into a particularly odd colored steak, but his worries were soon gone as a flavor unlike anything he had ever tasted exploded on his tastebuds.

“Mhmm.” She said, chewing rather obnoxiously, twirling the drumstick around while giving Lux the stare down.

“You, uh, ever seen ghosts like this?” he asked between mouthfuls of food.

She hesitated and pondered whether to continue her line of questioning before dropping it. “A few times. My parents own a rather old house in California, and we have the occasional ghost that likes to make itself known. They were fine, as long as we didn’t touch any of their stuff in the attic.” She waited to see if he jumped on the fact she was from California.

“Oh, you’re from America! Me too. Kansas.” Lux said, happy to hear someone else was from the states. Robert had mentioned the school had students from all over the world, but mainly from America, Europe, Britain, and Scotland. The school grounds had ‘Intelligere Lingua’ charms enchanted throughout the castle and even Hogsmeade, making the language differences a non-issue. Occasionally things would translate oddly; a particularly strong accent or odd slang could make the charm not function properly.

He is either really good at acting dumb, which could be possible, or he really doesn't know of me. That means he's either a part of a family that are shut-ins who avoid contact with our community, which would be interesting in its own right, or even more interesting... Lindsey thought to herself before commenting, “I didn’t think there were too many magical families left in Kansas.” Lindsey said, dropping a cleaned off chicken leg and grabbing another. Lux looked up at her to see if she had said that in any threatening manner, but she seemed just to focus on the food in front of her.

“Yeah, not many of us left. Sad, really.” He said, going with a rather neutral approach to the conversation. Luckily, Lindsey seemed to move off the topic quickly.

“You excited for the duel?” She asked.

Jeez Robert, left out a tiny detail of a duel?? Who the hell am I going to have to duel? I can't even cast Lumos properly...

“Yup, should be fun.” Lux replied.

“I’m not sure our boy Theo here is much of a fighter.” She said in a hushed whisper. “Seems like he’s more likely to be a Botanist than an Auror or Bodyguard, if you ask me.”

“Hah, yeah. Definitely not a bodyguard.” Lux said, going with the word he recognized rather than the made-up bullcrap word she had said before that.

The hell is an Auror? At least the Duel doesn't include us, looks like they just want to put on a show.

They continued the conversation, nothing extraordinary, just shootin' the shit so to speak. One new student, Lux noticed, was not a part of any conversation and sat in awkward silence while he arranged his food neatly on his plate. Vegetables on one side, meat on another, and all were cut into equal pieces, never touching one another. It was only after his plate was organized to his liking did he eat, one bite at a time. Lux thought about talking to him, but selfishly, he didn’t want to draw too much attention to himself. No one else had talked with him, not even the head boy and girl.

“I hope everyone enjoyed their meals!” Headmaster Blas said, wand up to his throat again. “First years, if you could please follow me.” The rest of the school got up in a commotion, heading off toward the entrance to enjoy the rest of their leisure time while the first years continued their Sorting Day.

They took one of the side doors, which led them outside the castle overlooking a large lake and a field with three ringed hoops that stretched tall toward the sky on both sides of the field at slightly variable heights. Clearly, this was where one of the sports wizards play, with large stadium seating surrounding the pitch.

The headmaster led the group of 60 students down by the lake where a slightly elevated platform could be seen with four tall pointed pillars situated on the four corners. It was at least 40 meters by 40 meters and resembled a martial arts ring Lux had seen in some TV shows.

The sun was high overhead, the temperature a cool 21 C, much cooler than the summers Lux was used to. The large lake provided a nice humidity, that added a certain coolness to the breeze, the smell of freshly cut grass and blooming flowers carried along with the wind.

Theo and a woman Lux assumed was the Head Girl, went to center stage. Gembol looked at the two students. “Are you two ready to show these students what seven years of Hogwarts training looks like?” He asked.

“I shall perform to the best of my abilities headmaster. Although I am not focused on the art of combat like my adversary, I think I will give her an admirable effort!” Theo said, talking more to the crowd than to his opponent or headmaster. The woman was muscular and was just as tall as any of the men out there. Her hair was short in a pixie cut, and had a few scars on her face and arms that could be seen when the wind blew up the robes, showing off her previous battle wounds.

“You sure do like to talk lots, Theo.” She said in a really thick southern drawl. Although Lux was a farmer from Kansas, he really didn’t have an accent, as his parents had none either. However, he was sure this woman must be from Texas or Alabama, the draw pretty common in those areas.

“Come now, Katherine! I just want to give the new students an idea of what to expect in combat styles.”

“Yeah.” She said, crossing her hands across her chest. “Your style is runnin’ around all chicken shit like, and mine is kickin’ your ass. And for the 100th time, I go by Kate and ill spend the next few minutes remindin’ you of that.”

“Kate, could you try to tone down the crude language and cockiness around the new students.” Gembol said even though he was grinning while he asked, clearly entertained by Kate’s vibrato.

“Com’on headmaster, sir, just playin’ with my food first. Ya know how it is.”

Theo scoffed. “Did you just refer to me as a culinary treat??”

She pat her belly with her hands, making smacking noises with her mouth.

“Ugh.” Theo said, disgusted. This earned a sharp chortle from Kate, who clearly got off on pushing Theo’s buttons. Which, to be fair, he did make it pretty easy for her.

“Some of you may have witnessed professional duels before, but many others have not had the pleasure to witness it in person. I always like to show the students the match between the Head Boy and Head Girl. As Theo said, even though it is not his interest, you’ll find his performance to still be noteworthy.”

“Inchoare Duellum” Gembol said as he waved his wand. The four pillars began to glow, and an arc of blue light erupted from the tips, changing the scenery in front of them. Instead of an empty 40 by 40-meter space, now stood a small miniature ecosystem. Rocks, trees, a small stream cutting through the middle; the arena had been transformed.

“Begin!” Gembol shouted at the two drew their wands.