Open A Brand New Wizard Exploring Wizard Places

[Gregory Friend]

The letter had been an absolute surprise. Gregory had been making weird things happen for years, but never had he thought it would mean he had magic, he was magic. He could do magic, or he was going to learn magic. It felt surreal. Wild. Crazy. He would leave his home and his friends behind - which really he wasn't all that upset about. After that interaction with that boy he had come to be a little wary of his friends, of their intentions and actions. So saying goodbye to them wasn't going to be hard, especially when he was off to do something so cool and interesting. He had been brought to the magical world by the wizard, a way for him to get his books and everything. It was a usually long journey done in minutes, and now he was here. Gregory had no idea where to begin, what he should get, how far his money would stretch. He wondered if the magical world had special sweets and stuff that he could eat. Gregory hadn't been this excited in ages. ​

 

[Dahlia Doherty]

Dahlia had assumed there was something weird about her sister, but to learn she was a witch herself? That was a real surprise. A pleasant one, mostly - though moving overseas and having to say goodbye to her friends and teammates was hard, even if it was ostensibly because her dad had been offered a promotion. Still, being able to do magic was going to be awesome. Dahlia just needed to make new magical friends, because she absolutely did not want to be a loner. Although she felt like a bit of one at the moment. Keeping her hands in her pockets, Dahlia wandered down the street, eying off the shops until she spotted a boy about her age and approached him with a smile. "Hi! Do you know where, um," she looked at her scribbled note, lamenting that the wizard who'd provided it had such bad handwriting. "Gladrags? Is? I haven't been here before."

 

[Gregory Friend]

Gregory was a little nervous as he was approached by someone. He wasn't sure when he had started to become nervous in front of new people but that experience with that boy and how he'd been had certainly caused him to be a little more cautious. He was glad that it was question about where something was and more to that that he didn't know the answer. "Oh no, I don't," he replied with a little apologetic smile. "This is my first time here," Gregory added with a little shrug. He glanced about. "I could help you find it though?" he offered, deciding that it was always good to be nice and he could get over his nervousness by helping the person out. He was sure him, not know where it was and her not know where it was wouldn't make for finding it easily but he didn't mind that at all. ​

 

[Dahlia Doherty]

Dahlia instantly gave a huge grin of relief when the boy said it waa his first time here. Which was possibly weird, but it was good to know there were other people not so familiar with the area. Maybe not even that familiar with magic. She was cautious not to reveal her parentage right away now in case people looked down at her (though she had no shame about her parents as she thought they were great). "Oh, you too? Oh, that's great!" She gave a bit of a sheepish grin, realizing how that might come across and she had no reason to be rude to a boy who had so nicely offered to help. "Ah, I just mean like it's my first time here too, so I'm glad I'm not the only one. Didja have anywhere you wanted to find? We can tooootally become experts of the harbour in no time."

 

[Gregory Friend]

Gregory was reassured that he would not be alone in being the only one to not know this world. Everyone else who'd passed him so far seemed to know exactly where they were going. He hadn't even clocked that to some the girl might've been rudem and instead was nodding along. "Same...this place is cool but a lot..," he replied hoping that it didn't make him sound silly to say just a thing. He didn't have anywhere to find, this was largely just to explore. "I need to find where you might buy quills...," he did need those and he did need to practice with them so that seemed like a thing he could now, with this girl take the time to find. "I'm Gregory," he introduced, since if they were to search together he might as well know her name. ​

 

[Dahlia Doherty]

Dahlia was more and more relieved to learn that other wizards weren't all stuck up and weird. She hadn't been worried about making friends at first but she was starting to get a little worried about being an outsider. That wasn't something she was used to and she hated the idea of it. "It is, yeah," she agreed. Of course it was nothing on Bourke Street or Chadstone but at least the shops there were recognizable brands. This had no clear starting point. "Oh right, we have to use quills to write, huh," she'd been told that by the pub guy but didn't quite believe it at first. "That's so...old fashioned. But, like, classy? Vintage?" There were probably super cute quills. Surely they couldn't be too hard to use. She'd gotten her pen licence, how much harder could a quill be? "Nice to meet'cha, Gregory. I'm Dahlia!"

 

[Gregory Friend]

Gregory could only imagine what that Cassius boy might say to him thinking that this was a lot, he often ended up considering what the boy might say ever since they'd met, though Gregory wasn't sure that Cassius was a wizard...he just had used some of the words he'd subsequently heard. So he was glad she seemed overwhelmed too. "Yeah...and parchment...," he said. he didn't think parchment was still a thing...but he hadn't thought quills were either, so he was wrong on both fronts there. He wasn't very good with pens, he doubted he'd be good with quills. "Nice to meet you too Dahlia," he responded warmly. "Where are you from?" he asked. "Shall we start walking towards Ob..Obs..the harbour? Where the shops are?" ​

 

[Dahlia Doherty]

"Woah, parchment too? Do they like, recycle it to make it? Or do they just like, magic it out of thin air?" Her dad was always on her about not wasting things and being a friend to the environment. Not that there was even much paper around, though her mum had bought sketchbooks for both Dahlia and Zinnia to express themselves. "I guess they can probably regrow trees with magic too," she reasoned with a shrug. "I'm from Melbourne! I just moved here for dad's work and for school. What about you?" Dahlia couldn't help but give a light giggle when Gregory stumbled over the name of the harbour. "It's a weird word," she agreed, kindly. "Uhb-si-dye-an?" She also plainly didn't know how to say it correctly. "Shops'll do. Let's go!"

 

[Gregory Friend]

Gregory hadn't thought too hard about where they might get parchment from, but it certainly seemed like a pretty important thing to know. He didn't know if making it out of magic from the thin air would be good. Certainly his school list said to buy some...so wouldn't it be unfair to make him buy some if it could be made for free. "They probably have spells to make trees grow really fast," he suggested, though that wasn't too dissimilar from what she was suggesting too. "You're from Australia?" and if he'd been listening properly to her he might've picked out the accent. "I'm from New Zealand...I grew up on Rakiura," he replied. "if you know it," he hadn't moved and would just have make the long journey back every time. He nodded in agreement. "What does your dad do?" he asked as they walked, given that her dad had managed to move his work, it had to be something flexible. ​

 

[Dahlia Doherty]

Dahlia nodded, glad that Gregory seemed to be thinking the same sort of thing. He mustn't have been from a magic family. It was a real relief, then, that there were others like her. The ministry people had said as such but it was still a relief nonetheless. "I don't really," she admitted. "But I'll learn my way around. Is it a nice place?" She was genuinely curious. Christchurch was nice, not as big and busy as Melbourne but that wasn't strictly a bad thing. "Dad's an engineer," she explained. "He, like, makes sure new buildings and roads are earthquake proof and stuff." Dahlia didn't fully understand the job but that was the basics at least. "My mum does relationship counselling." It was a bit complex to say. "They're really cool even if they aren't wizards," she added in a hurry, a bit defensive. She didn't have any reason to think he'd be judgy but she was a little on edge.

 

[Gregory Friend]

Gregory gave a nod, "It's small, there aren't a lot of people, but it's pretty, and I like living therem" he said, and though he couldn't describe it too much more beyond that it was the truth. He liked being part of a small community. Cassius had planted doubts in his head but he was happy for where he lived. He thought it was cool that her parents worked. "They're cool," he replied, "Both of my parents are retired...my dad used to work in like surveying or something. My mother used to be a dog trainer. They're both muggles too," he told her, he wasn't sure if it was a good or bad thing that he had muggle family but at least there was one other person he had now met who was in the same boat as him in being completely not from this world. "I'm the first wizard of my family...,"​

 

[Dahlia Doherty]

Dahlia nodded thoughtfully as Gregory spoke. She liked being in crowds, but she could see the benefits of being somewhere small and quiet. It would be relaxing and if it was pretty then it helped. She was surprised to hear his parents were retired when they had such a young kid but maybe they had just done really well. "A dog trainer? That's really cool," Dahlia said, earnestly. "They sound great." She paused to breathe a small sigh of relief. "Sorry, I met this totally rude boy who went on and on about how his parents were 'pureblood' or something. I'm the first in my family, too," Dahlia explained, smiling at Gregory. "I think that's good for us, though. Everything's really exciting and new!" As she said that, she swiveled her head to a shop selling broomsticks and gasped. "No way! I totally thought they were joking when they said that they actually ride broomsticks for real. And that they play sport on them!"

 

[Gregory Friend]

Gregory nodded, "Yeah! She was really good at it!" he said but he nodded along, he thought it was pretty nice that she thought they were great because Gregory also thought they were great. He frowned as the girl mention a rude boy who'd boasted about his magical family. It made him think of Cassius but there was no way that it could be. "I'm sure there are more of us," he had to think there would be a small handful and they could stick together...if they wanted to. But he didn't know how many would. It was all new and exciting, but the other hand was that there was a lot to learn. He followed her gaze to the brooms, and was very very shocked. "Oh wow!" it had to be amazing to play on a broom. "What's the sport called?" he wondered if he could play it. He knew he was likely to fall off a broom, but he definitely wanted to try. ​

 

[Dahlia Doherty]

Dahlia couldn't help but grin. She liked dogs, she hadn't been able to have one where they lived but she'd had friends who'd had them and she always liked running around with them. "I hope so," she agreed with a nod at the idea of there being more like then. Coming from a magical family was probably an advantage but there was a lot that was good about having a non-magical home, and she'd be glad to know others who were in the same situation. There was nothing like being in the same team to bring people together. "Yeah! It's called, um..." Dahlia tried to remember. It was a weird name, but then she looked up at the sign which answered the question for her. "Oh, kwee-ditch?" That didn't sound quite right, but it was probably close enough. "It looks like it'll be hard to fly and play at the same time but I guess you just gotta practice it, yeah?"

 

[Gregory Friend]

Gregory couldn't believe the broom he was seeing, and while it was called a broomstick, just like how he knew brooms that swept the floor, he knew doing that with something like this would be insane. Gregory couldn't imagine how it looked, how cool it would be. He was sure his first experience of the broom or the game...kwee-ditch was going to be him falling off a broom, or face planting to some degree. He'd never been good at sports. "Like any sport..," he agreed, "Can't be afraid of heights with this sport though...do you think they'll teach us about it?" he wasn't sure if Hogwarts would do have sports classes as his muggle school did, or if they would have to try and learn about it in their own time. He was sure it was possible to do, he just wasn't...very good at independent learning so being able to learn about it in class would be useful. ​

 

[Dahlia Doherty]

Dahlia wasn't even sure how a sport on brooms would work, but she was keen to see it in action. Polo existed, though, and that was a sport on horseback, so brooms were the next step up. Not that Dahlia had even ridden a horse before beyond riding a pony at a carnival. "I hope so," she agreed. "I'm not sure what the classes will be like." Dahlia shrugged. She didn't hate schoolwork but she certainly didn't love it. She hoped there was a drama class or something. "I hope they don't go too high up...that feels like it's a bit too dangerous." Netball was a non contact sport, allegedly, but she'd had her share of on court collisions and bruises from it. Dahlia was no coward, but she wasn't entirely unrealistic. "Though maybe they magic you to stop you from falling." She shrugged. There was a lot she didn't get about the magical world, but it would be fun to learn. "Is that the quill place over there?" She pointed, squinting over at one of the other shops.

 

[Gregory Friend]

Gregory wasn't sure what they would learn, the book list of course gave some times of things, but what that would actually mean. "I think they do at least astronomy," it was the only one which had a very real counter for him. He knew astronomy in the sense that it was about looking up at the stars. He didn't know how high the sport would go. "Well, the sky's the limit I guess?" he said, brooms couldn't go all the way up, there was probably a limit. "They probably can't play during thunder storms," he couldn't imagine the school would allow it, it had to be so dangerous to play in the air if there was a thunder storm. "I would hope that they magic you to not fall, or like give you a soft landing if you do," with sports he was sure falling was part of it, but it seemed different if you were plummeting to your death rather than just taking a dive. "Oh maybe. Scri..Scrife," he tried to say the name of the shop that seemed like it had quills in it. ​

 

[Dahlia Doherty]

Thinking about it, Dahlia should've probably paid attention to the books. She'd been so caught up in the whole romance of being an actual witch and thinking about the witches from stories that she hadn't really paid much notice to the real logistics of it. "They like, brew potions instead of doing science class, right?" Potions had stuck out as something she recognized. She remembered being a bit of a gremlin in pre-school and making 'potions' with mud and leaves and random plants, though these potions would actually do something other than make you sick, she imagined. "Yeah, I'm sure they've got to have something to help." Getting knocked onto concrete was bad enough when you were on the ground, let alone landing on an oval from way up in the sky. But they couldn't go too far, she imagined - if people were going to watch they had to be able to see the game. "Scry-ven-shafts? Is that German or something?"

 

[Gregory Friend]

Gregory hadn't thought that potions would be like science. "OH that makes sense, I thought it would be more like...cooking class," he'd only ever done a couple of classes where they made a dish, and it was only in visits to the upper school. but it being more like science made more sense than what he was thinking. He glanced back towards the store that he'd been looking for. He didn't know if it was German, had never once heard someone speaking that language or anything else. "Maybe? Do magical people have their own languages?" he figured they probably didn't but perhaps they did have some forms of language.."Do you know how to use a quill?" he asked. If she was also from a muggle family, she maybe hadn't. He was feel pretty sure he was going to absolutely struggle with it. ​

 

[Dahlia Doherty]

Dahlia thought for a second. "Maybe it's somewhere in the middle? Kinda like chemistry...but also cooking?" She shrugged. She'd done a little bit of cooking, but mostly on school camps...and it was mostly just making milo. "I guess it could be something completely different. It's kinda helpful if we can start from somewhere though." She didn't mind too much if it was all completely new, but understanding a little bit to start off would be nice, she thought. She didn't want to come across too lost. "I don't know...maybe they have spells in a magical language? Y'know, like going abracadabra." The more she thought about it, the more confused she got. She gave Gregory a sheepish smile. "I haven't. I can use a pen...quills seem like they'd be really messy though."

 

[Gregory Friend]

Gregory nodded, agreeing that if it was like either it would be a bit in the middle. He wondered if magical kids started from a place of greater knowledge than they did. Or if it would depend on how close to the subject matter the family actually was. "I don't want to have to learn another language...," Gregory replied with a frown on his face. English was hard enough at times, he didn't mind learning Māori but that was largely cause the teacher was cool. "I'm already left handed...my pages..parchments are going to be smudge city," he was already usually left with massive pen smudges in the side of his page, and a massive either black or blue smudge on his hand. It was going to be so much worse with magic. ​