It was September first, and there I was, standing on platform 9 & 3/4's waiting for the red "Hogwarts Express" to take me to my new school.

I was wearing my denim jacket over my robes from my previous school, Huntshrow. I thought I might blend in with my jacket, my girlfriend -er ex now- sewed the patches on for me. They had my favorite band logos stitched on. The Clash, The Who, The Beatles, Radiohead, Blur, Sex Pistols, and The Rolling Stones. I was for sure going to fit in better here than America... Except for my accent.

Then I noticed all the other kids were dressed in robes only. Weird.

The train finally came steaming along with its brilliant sheen of red, ringing its bell and exhaling as it stopped.

I was thrilled to get on the train to try and make some friends, or at least talk to some people. The kids filled in there pretty quick, by the time I walked on, the cabins were almost completely full.

The first cabin I tried was in the middle, but boy did I regret it.

"Hello, mind if I take a seat?" I asked, there were only three people in the cab.

"Excuse me? Who do you think you are?" the guy with brown hair in the corner asked. "And what's with the hairdo?" he and his two other friends started cracking up.

"Is that a mohawk?" the girl burst out laughing.

"Uh yeah..." I uttered.

"Do you hear his accent?" the other guy said. "He sounds like he's from America! 'Ey pal, Huntshrow is just across the pond y'know!"

"Leon, I bet if he could summon a Patronus it'd be a bleedin' bald eagle!" the guy in the corner hollered.

I wish, that would be amazing. I started to turn away.

"Oh wait!" the girl said.

I stopped and looked one last time, tears swelling in the back of my eyes.

"Why don't you go join the Misfits cab all the way in the back on the right?" she hollered, and all three cackled together.

I shut the door. Well, I like The Misfits, they're a great band. Maybe I'll fit in with them.

I trudged down the aisle to the cabin at the end on the right and I opened the door. Only three kids sat there. The one boy was wearing massive glasses, another girl had red hair and plenty of freckles, and the other girl there had the craziest, wiry blue hair I'd ever seen.

"Whoa!" the girl with the blue hair yelled. "Dude, your mohawk is awesome!"

"Thanks. Mind if I join you all?" I asked. The boy scooted over for me.

"P-p-please do! Nice j-j-jacket, I love all those bands!" he beamed.

"And your accent is so cool! Are you from America?!" the red-headed girl said.

I sat down, and for the first time since I moved to England, I felt like I was a little more at home.

“Your mohawk is so great! I love the green color,” the girl with the wiry blue hair that resembled porcupine needles said. "Finally, I won't be the only one with dyed hair at Hogwarts!”

I grazed my four-inch mohawk with my hand front to back and almost forgot it was dyed lime green. “Thanks,” my lips extended from ear to ear.

"My name is Daphne Poisonwood! Champion potioneer, well, for my age group at least, and the captain on the Hufflepuff Quidditch team! Pleasure to meet you!” she threw her hand at me to shake, which I obliged with a slow lift and gentle touch. Her hand was warm but her grasp was a firm squeeze.

“Nice to meet you,” I smiled. “What year are you in?”

“Fifth year,” she beamed.

“Cool, me too.”

The three of them shot glances at each other with their eyebrows cocked as if they were trying to solve a nonverbal riddle.

"I'm sorry but who exactly are you? I don't think any of us have ever seen you at Hogwarts? In fact, I wasn't aware that we had an American at the school at all.”

I shrugged. “I’m new, I'm a transfer from Huntshrow.”

The three of them erupted into a head-spinning chatter of confusion.

“But, you can't transfer from schools can you?” the shorter boy with glasses asked.

“Usually you can’t, but my circumstances are a little different. Fortunately, my grandpa lives in England and I've started staying with him, so he had some conversations with the right members of the magic community to get me in, and so, here I am.”

"Wow, that's so cool. By the way, my name is Edna Lyptus, and my fraternal twin is sitting across from you, his name is—“

“I can say my own name thank you very much, sis. The name is Bran Lyptus, pleasure to meet you!” both of them reached out their hands at the same time and I shook both of them at once and the three of us had a weak chuckle.

"My name is Rollie Magpie.”

The three of them cracked up, but it was quick to die down once they recognized the smirk on my face said, ‘it may seem funny, but it’s true.’

"Sorry, magpie is a funny word is all," Bran said.

"Yes, I'm aware, but I’m humbled to be named after a beautiful bird.”

"So tell us more about yourself, Mr. Magpie, what is the Wizarding school in America like?” Edna asked.

"Actually I wanted to ask you two something before I start. Daphne said she was on Hufflepuff and I noticed that the three of you are wearing the same colored scarves and have the same patch on your robes. I take it you two are also in Hufflepuff?”

“Yes indeedy!” Bran said with glee.

“The best house in my opinion!” Edna said with the same amount of enthusiasm as her brother.

"Why is that?”

"We are the nicest house, arguably the most selfless, kind, patient, and definitely the most loyal of the bunch. It's hard to compete against those traits, don't you think?” Daphne said with one eyebrow lifted and one end of her lip curled up.

"Yeah, I'd say those are pretty good things to have. I don't know if I'm the nicest person though,” I said, and the three of them all had the same look of concern. “I don’t know! I'm young, I'm still learning who I am, that's all. I didn't mean to sound like Mr. Tough-guy. Things were a little rough for me when I left the US, so I'm hoping to start fresh and anew.”

"That's all right, we understand," Edna said, sitting upright and peppy, defining the meaning for ‘bright-eyed and bushy-tailed’.

"So, Rollie, tell us what it's like back in the US, what house were you in?” Bran asked, staring at me with newfound wonder.

“None of us know much about Huntshrow, other than it exists,” Daphne shrugged.

"Well, I'm happy to tell you. The school was founded by these four people. Wesley Wolveros, Samuel Saberfang, Griselda Grizzarus, and Willow Woolyrun. I had the pleasure to be in the Wolveros house. Our house mascot was the wolverine, our heated rivals were with Woolyrun who had a wooly mammoth as their mascot. Then there’s Saberfang which has a saber-tooth cat called the smilodon as their logo, and their rival was with Grizzarus who had a grizzly bear as the face of their house.”

“Whoa!” Edna and Bran said at the same time, and then they followed it up with “JI—“

“No!” Daphne shouted. "I thought you both learned your lesson not to do arbitrary, childish jinxes? Do you really want to risk either of you being silent the entire duration of this train ride while we have a very special guest with us?"

“Fine,” they both muttered at the same time.

“Those houses sound fascinating and neat! Part of me wishes that we were going to school there. What are the traits like for each house?” Edna asked.

“I knew mine well and good, not so much the others. Wolveros had some loners, some rebellious kids, but overall, we were always the reliable ones with the tools to be a good leader. Clever as well.”

“Huh, what house do you think you might get sorted into? Or did you already get sorted into Slytherin? You know, with the green mohawk and all?” Daphne said.

"I haven't been sorted into any house yet, lime green and black where are the colors for the Wolveros house, so that's why my mohawk is this color. This is what our logos looked like,” I spun around in my seat to show off the back patch on my denim jacket, which had the four sorting houses on the upper right shoulder. The three of them ‘ooh’d’ together.

"It's hard to say though what house he'll get sorted into,” Bran’s shoulders bounced.

"Well, to be perfectly frank, you three have been the nicest ones to me so far. So, I'm going to really wish for Hufflepuff.”

“That’s the spirit!” Daphne yelled, she gazed wide-eyed at Edna and Bran. "Do you think Rollie here will be up with the first years in line with the sorting hat?”

The three of them giggled together.

“Sorry, Rollie! We don't mean to laugh at you, it's just a funny thought, that's all.”

“No worries. I understand, I'll probably be laughing too if I'm standing up there in line with a bunch of first years,” I smirked.

“He’s gonna tower over all of ‘em!” Bran shouted. “They’re all like, 4 feet, and you’re like what…?”

“6 feet flat.”

The three of them snickered at me but they all whispered an apology in between their exhales.

"We hope we don't seem rude, we really hope we can be friends! It would be great to have you in Hufflepuff, but all of the houses are pretty great too," Edna said.

“You’re not rude at all,” I smiled. They haven’t the slightest clue what rude is.

“Brandna!” Daphne yelled, then looked back at me, “Sorry, sometimes I combine their names together, you know, ‘Brandna!’ when I want both of their attentions,” she turned back to her friends. "We should teach Rollie how to play Wizards and Jesters!” she turned back gazing with dreamy eyes talking a million miles a minute. “The three of us have wanted to play with a fourth friend for a while! This is so perfect, it's a really fun card game to play but you can only play with four people. We can teach you, or you can tell us all about yourself and all the questions we have about Huntshrow or we could do it at the same time!”

My lips barely curled up. “I like you three a lot, you're very kind people and I appreciate that. While I would love to be honest and tell you all about myself, it's a bit of a hard story for me to recount. So you’re just going to have to give me some time to trust you before I start opening up, I hope you understand? I’ll answer what questions I can though.”