A Sea of Green

[Abian Hunter]

Going to school in a big giant fairy tale castle was still strange to Abian. He wasn't used to the old building, not having seen anything like it in Wellington where he grew up. Abian was a city boy through and through, and something about Hogwarts felt surreal to him. It wasn't just the magic, it was also how it seemed to be frozen in some medieval time. Both the castle and the grounds unfamiliar to the boy. While the grounds left a lot to be explored, which he found kind of thrilling, they were a bit of a disappointment too. He knew a concrete driveway would really clash with the general aesthetic of the castle, but it would definitely make skateboarding here a whole lot easier. Surrounding the castle seemed to be endless fields of grass, nowhere he could really use his skateboard. At least, so far as he had seen.

Today, he was trying to see if this was accurate. With his skateboard under his arm, he had trudged around the castle, looking for any sort of surface he could skate on. But so far, it was useless. Skateboarding on grass wasn't impossible, technically he would be able to move a little, but it really wasn't very effective or fun. He walked a few circles on the great lawn before giving up. There didn't really seem to be any paved paths anywhere, at least for as far as he had seen. But he had to admit the grounds were pretty nice. He had never gone to a school with its own lake before, or a forest. And while he missed the noise of the city, it wasn't bad to be outside and hear nothing but nature. With a small sigh, the Hufflepuff placed his skateboard on the lawn and sat down on it, gazing over at the castle as he enjoyed the early spring sun. It really was surreal that he was here, and sometimes he still expected to wake up in his own room. He stretched out his legs on the grass. Even if he couldn't skateboard anywhere, he could still enjoy the free moment outside.

 

[Jacob Kingsley]

Even though Jacob had plenty of friends throughout the castle, he still managed to find himself alone a great deal of time. Sometimes, it was purposely. Especially lately. He was feeling too much. Jacob was still sad about his aunt, especially now. His birthday has just passed and Aunt Kiera had always had the best gifts and hugs. He's had neither from her, and he couldn't even really talk to his parents about it. His birthday had come just around the time his dad had dropped the bombshell about enrolling Noah in Durmstrang. And since then, he'd also been really mad at his brother. Noah had abandoned him because of a girl. They were supposed to have each other's back and how could they when his brother was hundreds of miles away?

Sometimes though, Jacob just happened to find himself alone. He didn't like when that happened. Jacob was prone to boredom and getting in funks when he was alone for too long. So he'd taken his frisbee with him, the replacement for the one he'd broken last year. Tossing it, Jacob watched as it screamed, lights flashing as it soared high up into the air before beginning it's descent. In a near mirror of last year with Athena, Jacob spotted the boy after he'd thrown it. Letting out a word his mother would be appalled to hear coming from her twelve year old son, Jacob ran as he shouted "Move! Move! " waving his hands as he did and hoping the boy wouldn't get hit.

 

[Abian Hunter]

Abian stared up at the castle, moving his skateboard back and forth sligthly as he daydreamed about everything the magical school could hold. While he really wasn't very keen on his classes, he still hoped they would help him master awesome magic spells one day. He really had no idea what to expect from most of his classes, but he had to assume magic school was better than regular school at least. As he sat there, he moved his gaze up to the clouds. his mind drifted to his mother and sister. He hoped they would be okay without him. They had both assured him they would, but he still worried. But before he could linger on those thoughts too much, he was startled by something very noisy. Alarmed, he turned his head, trying to figure out what was happening. There was something bright, noisy and fast coming his way, and a boy was running after it waving his hands around. Abian barely had time to react. In reflex, he threw up his arms to defend his face. Moments later, the object hit his arms. The momentum made him lose balance, and he toppled backwards off the skateboard onto the grass. At least he had only been sitting. Dazed, he stared up at the sky. "Where am I?" He asked, blinking. The comment was a joke, but he really didn't know what had happened. Slowly, he sat up, rubbing his arms before looking around. "What was that?"

 

[Jacob Kingsley]

Jacob came in fast, unable to get the boy to move in time to prevent him getting hit. He stood over the boy, extremely worried when the boy asked where he was. Jacob didn't think he'd been hit in the head but if he didn't know where he was, he probably had. Jacob knew he was going to be in trouble, but he'd deal with that if the boy needed medical attention. When the boy began to sit up, Jacob grew even more uneasy. "Maybe you should stay laying down and I can get a nurse?" he suggested. "Do you know where you are now?" he asked quietly, still very uncomfortable. "I hit you with my frisbee " he practically whispered. Now, he knew why fanged frisbees were banned, but really maybe they all needed to be.

 

[Abian Hunter]

Abian blinked up at the boy that approached him and quickly realized his offhand comment had worried him. Quickly, he shook his head. "Oh, no! I'm okay." He said quickly, giving him a smile. "I was joking. Like, how cartoon characters might say something like that after being hit. I'm fine. Promise. It hit my arms." He said, hoping it would reassure the boy. "I know where I am. Outside Hogwarts." He gestured at the castle for emphasis. "That was some frisbee! Can I see? Is it magic?" He looked at the boy excitedly, eager to see this magical frisbee that made so much noise and had had such an impact. "I'm Abian." He added, still sort of trying to prove to the boy that he was alright.

 

[Jacob Kingsley]

"Oh" Jacob blinked as the boy explained he'd been joking. "I knew that. I was just messing with you" he lied. Jacob was relieved that the boy was joking. He really would have been upset with himself if he had hurt him. At Abian's next words, Jacob nodded enthusiastically before jogging to the spot, not too far, where the frisbee had finally come to rest. "Jacob" he replied hastily, eager to move on and show off his frisbee. "Of course. It's got a charm to help it flash different colors and then another charm for the noise" he explained as he returned to the boy's side and held it out to him.

 

[Abian Hunter]

The boy said he had been messing with Abian, and Abian laughed with a small shrug. "Oh, then you got me." He said, seeming untroubled. He got to his feet as the boy went to get his frisbee, smiling as he introduced himself. "You're not in my year, are you?" He asked the boy. They looked similar in age, but Abian had thought he recognized most of the boys in his year at least. He wasn't as sure about the girls, though. Hearing the frisbee had a charm made Abian's eyes go comically wide, and he gazed at it in wonder. "Can I?" He asked, though he was already taking it from the other boy. "Wow! So if you throw it, does it automatically do all the noise and colors or do you have to do magic for that while throwing? Did you make it magical?" He was still hazy on how this all worked, but if the boy had put the charm on the frisbee maybe he could help Abian understand the basics.

 

[Jacob Kingsley]

With a shrug, Jacob replied. "I dunno. I'm a second year" he stated. He knew a lot of people in his year, but he knew he didn't know everyone. He was pretty sure Abian wasn't a Gryffindor. He knew more people from his house than anywhere else. Not that it would matter if Abian was in a different house. He had plenty of friends from Hufflepuff and a friend or two from Ravenclaw and Slytherin each. Jacob just didn't like mean people like Diana Holland or annoying people like Analei Louw. Abian didn't seem like either.

"Yeah!" He replied eagerly, letting the boy take the frisbee. "No, it's built in. I barely know the levitation spell" he said, not even embarassed by that. He was only a second year after all and had his whole magical education in front of him. "My dad said people don't take toy makers seriously enough because it takes a lot of good magic to make objects keep magic in them." He hadn't thought about it until his dad said it, but now that he knew how much concentration and work it took to do any magic, he realized his dad was right. "Throw it!" He urged.

 

[Abian Hunter]

Abian grinned widely when the boy mentioned he was a second year. That was great! Surely, Jacob knew a lot of magic already that Abian didn't know. "Oh, I'm a first year. I'm in Hufflepuff." He still couldn't quite say that name without a slight snicker. He really wondered who had picked it, but was sure whoever it was had a great sense of humor. It was clearly the funniest name of them all. "I bet I was put in there because it has the funniest name." He told Jacob, though he really wasn't sure why he was put in that house. He hadn't listened to the sorting song that much, too overwhelmed by everything around him on that first day.

He wasn't surprised or disappointed when the boy said it was built in magic, though he did feel a flicker of sadness as he realized Jacob didn't know as much magic as he had hoped. That meant he probably wouldn't learn that much in this year. But in a way that was a relief as well. If he didn't have to learn much, he couldn't disappoint anyone a lot yet by completely failing at it. Abian blinked at the boy's statement about his dad. Then he grinned. "Let me guess, your dad is a toy maker." He said, turning over the frisbee. He was delighted to hear Jacob encourage him to throw it, and he hardly thought twice about it. "Yes!" He said excitedly, throwing it out in a random direction and watching in amazement as it flashed in different colors, making a whole lot of noise. "Whoa." He murmured. "Can I get one of those?"

 

[Jacob Kingsley]

"You think so?" he asked with an amused look on his face. Jacob had heard the names of the four houses for so long that they were almost as familiar to him as his family member's names. "I don't know. Slytherin is pretty funny to me" he mentioned after he had mulled it over for a moment. The Gryffindor really had never thought about it. He supposed they all were rather strange names when he finally did think about it. "Anyway, you're probably at least a little hard working or friendly to be in Hufflepuff" he added with an encouraging smile. He liked most Hufflepuffs. There was only one notable exception to that.

As Abian looked over the frisbee, Jacob kept waiting for him to just throw it. He didn't know why the guy was taking so long. Snickering at his question, Jacob shook his head. "Not even close" the young Gryffindor declared, wishing his dad had a cool job like that. "He just likes magic a lot, I guess" he shrugged. Jacob was always surprised when he came across someone who didnt know anything about him. Most people seemed to know one or the other of his parents or had even seen his picture in a maga,ine or newspaper even. Try as they might to keep their children out of the press, Jacob's face had made its way into the pages. "England" he declared. That's where they'd picked it up. "Do you apparate there ever? I could write down the name of the toy shop and I'm sure your mom will know how to find it. They even have a space for parents who are side along with their kids. It's right next to the gigantic ball pit that moves like it's the real ocean!" Jacob said with some excitement. He loved that toy shop.

 

[Abian Hunter]

Abian didn't undestand how this boy couldn't see Hufflepuff was a hilarious name. But he had to admit Slytherin was also very funny. "Now that you say it, that's a good one too." He said with a grin. "I wonder how these weird names were even thought of. Do they have some sort of meaning?" Ravenclaw seemed obvious, but what on earth was Hufflepuff? He blinked when the boy mentioned he had to be hard working or friendly to be in Hufflepuff. Abian laughed slightly. "I guess I'm friendly then." He said jokingly. He wasn't very hard working at all, as far as he could tell.

The frisbee fascinated Abian, so after he threw it he watched it go until it landed in the grass again. Only then did he turn to look back at the older boy with an excited smile on his face. "Wow, cool!" He was a little sad his father wasn't a toy maker. That would have been fun. "I think my dad would have liked magic too." He said, then immediately regretted the words. He hadn't really talked about his dad at this new school, and he wasn't sure why he had blurted it out now. But it was a thought that occurred to him sometimes, how this amazing world was now open to him but how his dad would never know about it. His death still made him sad often, so he tried his best not to think about it too much. He listened in puzzlement as the boy explained he had gotten the thing in England, and felt a sense of sadness as he realized the boy was talking about (what he presumed to be) a magical way of travel to England for something small like a toy. The toy store sounded amazing, but Abian knew for a fact his mother wouldn't know how to find it. Nor would she have any clue what 'apparate' meant, which Abian didn't know exactly either. "My mum's not magical," he said with a slight shrug, "neither was my dad." He wasn't one to beat around the bush. There was no sense in trying to pretend he understood what Jacob was going on about, as the confusion on his face was probably clear as day. "I dunno what apparate means, or side along. That store sounds cool, though." He gave him a slight smile before glancing over at the frisbee in the grass. "Can I throw it again?"

 

[Jacob Kingsley]

Jacob gave the boy a funny look, mostly because he wasn't sure if Abian was joking when he asked the meaning of the names. The sorting hat had explained it all during the sorting ceremony! "Yea, they're the names of the founders of our houses. Yours is a witch named Helga Hufflepuff and mine is a a wizard named Godric Gryffindor" he explained. His mother had taught him all about Hogwarts history from when he was a child. He was pretty sure his mom wanted him and Noah to be in Gryffindor, but that hadn't happened.

Watching the frisbee as it soared and then softly landed in the grass some ways away, Jacob was about to jog over to it when Abian's words stilled him. The boy had spoken about his father in the past tense. Just as Jacob was trying to decide whether or not to ask about it, Abian continued on and explained that he was muggleborn. Now that explained a lot, and Jacob found himself smiling at the news. "Oh, you're muggleborn then. Cool" Jacob said after a beat. He had two grandparents, one on each side who were muggles and had spent time in the muggle world in California. Now his grandad was here in New Zealand though helping Uncle Carter take care of his twins. "It is. Side-along is how you apparate when you don't know how to. It's my mom or dad who does all the work and I have to stand next to them so I can go along" he explained. Jacob tried to figure out a way to explain apparating and found himself struggling so he gave up for the moment. "Race you to it?" he said, not wanting for Abian to answer before he began running for the frisbee.

 

[Abian Hunter]

Abian noticed the way Jacob looked at him as if he should know these things, and he shrugged with a sheepish smile on his face. It wasn't the first time he'd not known something he really should have, and he always got away with it by just making fun of himself or the situation. "Hey, I didn't catch all that. The sorting hat was singing pretty quickly. Maybe it should try rapping next year." He joked, not minding if the boy thought him a slightly stupid goofball. It was how he liked to be known, there was little pressure to be anything more that way.

He could tell Jacob reacted to his words about his dad and waited with some anxiety for a reaction. But thankfully, the boy seemed to find the fact that he wasn't magical more interesting. "That's a stupid name for it." He said, though he grinned to show he wasn't serious about it. "Muggle is a really weird word, you know? Kind of sounds like an insult." He shrugged, showing he didn't care. "I'll get used to it though." He said quickly. He wasn't making some sort of big statement about words, but he had to admit a lot of the new words he was encountering were strange to him. "Is apparating like... teleportation?" He asked, almost not daring to hope for that, but before the boy could really give him an answer Jacob offered to race to the frisbee. He was about to say yes, when he saw Jacob take off already. "Hey!" He yelled as he ran after him. "No fair!" He was laughing, though. That, combined with his slight delay, made it clear pretty quickly he wasn't going to get to the frisbee first.

 

[Jacob Kingsley]

Jacob slid as he reached the frisbee, grass stains covering his knees before he rolled onto his back. He had been too busy preparing to run to comment on anything the boy had said but now he sat up with a grin, his frisbee back in his hand. He held it out to the boy. It was his and he had plenty of chance to play with it. "You really don't like the word 'muggle'? " he asked. He had always liked it, finding being called a muggleborn a bit more exciting than his classification of being a mixed blood. He was glad the guy didn't mention having been called the actual insult for people like him, muggleborn.

"So what's telephonetation?" he asked, wondering if it had anything to do with phones. If it did, it couldn't be anything like separating. "Ohhhh, is that what Superman does when he goes into the booth and comes out in his costume? No, it's not anything like that. Apparating is like... I'm here and then I do some magic and I can be in the castle just like that" he snapped his fingers to punctuate his point. Maybe that would help Abian understand.

 

[Abian Hunter]

The way Jacob slid over the gras to grab the frisbee was impressive to Abian, and he laughed as he caught up with it. "You definitely won that fair and square, awesome." He said with a grin. He was pleasantly surprised when Jacob still handed it over to him. "Thanks!' He said brightly, turning it over in his grasp while they talked a bit more. He shrugged at Jacob's question. "It just... doesn't sound very cool, does it?" He said with a shrug. "Like... wizard sounds all magical and strong and muggle sort of sounds like a noise you'd make if you burp weirdly or something." It wasn't the best way to describe it, but Abian felt like it came close enough.

He thought Jacob's interpretation of the word teleportation was hilarious, and started to laugh. "No! Not at all." He said, trying to stop his laughter as he didn't want Jacob to be offended. "Though thtat is very cool. You like superman?" He asked, surprised the boy knew about that. "When I first realized I could do weird things I hoped I was developing superpowers." He admitted, though he felt a little disappointed still that it wasn't quite that. But his eyes widened quickly in wonder when Jacob started to explain apparating. He dropped the frisbee. "That is teleportation! Holy crap, are you serious?" He asked, amazed. "Like, you're in one spot one second and in another spot the next, right? Without having to fly there or anything?" The idea clearly enthralled him, though he also realized he had dropped the frisbee. He quickly picked it up again. "When do we learn to do that?" He asked, too distracted by this line of conversation to throw the frisbee again. It would probably result in another race to grab it and as fun as that seemed, he needed answers first.

 

[Jacob Kingsley]

Jacob didn't mind that Abian was laughing at him. It didnt seem like he was doing it to be mean or anything. He didn't feel offended anyway. Giving an enthusiastic nod when Abian asked if he liked Superman, Jacob didn't have a chance to explain why before Abian was continuing which he didn't mind until he did. Jacob shook his head. "Nooo. It's apparition" he corrected. He was having none of this teleportation nonsense when he had grown up with a different word.

"My mom says sixth year" he replied. He remembered because she had been upset that Noah wasn't going to learn with his classmates, the ones he'd grown up with. He didn't think he'd much care who was in the classroom when it was his time to learn, but that's what she had said. "But yea, it's different. If we wanted to fly, we've got brooms for that right. And it doesn't feel like floo travel at all. That always feels dusty to me. And it doesn't feel like portkey. I've only done that once so I don't remember it much. And no one travels by carpet anymore unless you want to be laughed at. " That was all the travel methods he could remember off hand. "You gonna throw the frisbee?"

 

[Abian Hunter]

Abian found the way Jacob clung to his made up word kind of amusing, and he shrugged. "Well, normal people, I mean muggles call it teleportation. At least, in most books and movies and stuff. It's fake in the muggle world, though." He said with a shrug. "Like something out of stories. Which kinda goes for all magic." He said a little wistfully. It was still so strange to him that it was all actually real. But he didn't want to linger on that too much now. Making a new friend was a lot more fun.

He groaned when Jacob said sixth year. "That's ages away!" He complained, as if Jacob had anything to do with the decision. "That stinks. I would just teleport all over the place." He gestured at the castle. "It would save so much time getting to class." But as Jacob started talking about different ways of transportation, Abian quickly lost him. He stared blankly as he talked about something called floo travel and port keys, feeling mostly taken aback by the fact that flying carpets existed but were apparently uncool. He stared for a moment too long, clearly not entirely comprehending it. So when Jacob reminded him of the frisbee, he was glad to take the change of subject. "Yes!" He said, throwing it immediately in a random direction. Not waiting for Jacob to say anything this time, he started running after it.