Open Homesick

[Evan Eldridge]

Evan didn't think she could handle it. Less than twenty four hours had passed since she had first set foot inside Hogwarts, but already she felt as though she was never going to fit in or feel comfortable. Everything around her was overwhelming, intense, and inescapable. All the different ways that magic had shocked her, it was so different than she'd imagined. The amount of people, the endless halls and staircases, Evan's stomach churned every time she turned a corner and found nothing but strangers.

The previous night, she had seen two of the students she had met so far, Finn and Sigurd, had been sorted into Ravenclaw house, she was also pleased to confirm her suspicion that the boy she had met on the bus recently, Ryan, was also a wizard. But he had been sorted into Ravenclaw too, and she honestly didn't know where to go in the hopes of bumping into any of the three. She felt so alone in Gryffindor. All of her housemates she had met so far had seemed so much more Gryffindorish than Evan felt.

She knew that if she could made her way all the way up to the Owlery, she could send a letter to her mother. She assumed her mother would be working even more now that Evan was at Hogwarts, but she hoped she'd find the time to reply to Evan, considering it would have been a while since they had seen each other by the time her mother would receive the owl.

Evan had written a letter in her dormitory, and by the time she had reached the Owlery she had been fiddling and fidgeting with the envelope so much that it was almost scrunched up into a ball. She found the friendliest looking owl, and watched it soar off into the distance with her letter.

Knowing that the owl was flying straight for her home and her mother, and that Evan herself had to stay right where she was, was enough to make the young girl finally break into tears. She stared out of the window, and tried to keep her sobbing quiet enough so as to not bother the other owls.

 

[Nikko Blackwood]

Nikko wanted to go home more then he had wanted anything in his whole life. He felt so uncomfortable ever since he stepped foot on that train platform, it was like his shoes were too tight but it was his whole being that felt wrong. He had met a couple people, a nice Ravenclaw girl on the train and his roommates seemed alright but it felt like he was just waiting for something awful to happen.

He had written a letter to his parents last night when he couldn’t sleep, and it had taken him most of the night. Nikko wasn’t sure what to write. He didn’t want his mom to worry so he couldn’t fully list all of his problems and he didn’t want to seem like he was too excited to be there, in case his dad thought he was choosing magic over his family. He was supposed to be at school to learn about magic, and decide for himself if it was something he wanted to be a part of. He just hated he had to do this so far from home, away from his parents and everything else in his life he found comfort in.

In the end, he stuck to the facts talking about the train ride and sorting ceremony. As he climbed the steps to the owlery, he hoped with his next letter he might get to write about something more exciting. He stopped short when he saw that there was someone already up there, sending off a letter. Nikko recognized her as another Gryffindor first year. He noticed she was crying and he wasn’t sure what to do. Nikko awkwardly tucked his own letter back into his pocket and went over to the girl. ”Hey, a-are you alright? Did something happen?” he asked, and glanced around the owls as if he could spot the cause of the girl’s distress.

 

[Evan Eldridge]

Evan was startled to hear someone behind her, she spun around and was faced with a boy she remembered had also been sorted into Gryffindor during the ceremony last night. Great, Evan thought to herself, someone else much more brave than I am. She spun back around to stare out of the window again.

"Nothing happened." Evan sniffled, not sure whether she should open up to the boy or not. It wasn't a lie, nothing had really happened, after all. Evan just didn't know whether or not she could really let herself get to know anyone else wearing the red and gold crest, considering she felt like an impostor. Nevertheless, Evan found herself incapable of biting her tongue, as usual. She took a deep breath, and let it out sharply before she spoke.


"I'm just a stupid scaredy-cat." She spun around again to point at the crest on the boys uniform. "I'm not a lion like you."

 

[Nikko Blackwood]

Nikko wasn’t very good at comforting people when they were upset. He always managed to say the worst thing, so he was relieved when she said nothing had happened. “Oh good.” he said, mostly to himself. “Thought there might be a rouge owl going after first years.” he mumbled quietly before the girl spun around and pointed at the Gryffindor crest on his robes. His eyebrows shot up and he took a step back.

He was stunned for a moment and stood there blinking dumbly. A lion? Hardly. If she only knew how he hadn’t slept a wink last night or how he had a stomach ache since dinner the night before, she probably wouldn’t think so either. But instead of explaining any of that he tripped over his words. “I’m not a lion. And I-I like cats.” he stuttered, finally coming to his senses.

 

[Evan Eldridge]

Evan didn't know how she expected the boy to respond -she hadn't thought that far ahead- but she was surprised when he responded the way he did.

Evan looked the boy in the eye, and saw no hostility. She felt foolish, and she didn't want to go away from this situation with the boy thinking she was rude or anything.

"I'm sorry, I'm just so overwhelmed!" It felt good to say the words out loud. "I never expected Hogwarts to be so... well..." Evan couldn't quite find the right words "I don't know what I expected. I just want to be at home with my mum." Evan took yet another deep breath. It was all she could do to stop herself from returning to sobbing.

 

[Nikko Blackwood]

I like cats. What a stupid thing to say! It really was no surprise he wasn’t sorted into Ravenclaw. The girl immediately backed off but still seemed upset. “It’s ok.” he said and nodded in agreement. “It’s definitely not the easiest place to get used too.” he mumbled and rubbed his arms as a cold breeze swept through the owlery.

It was cold back home too but he missed the beach already. “I’d like to be with my mom too.” he said honestly, not seeing the point of trying to play it cool. “She’s a muggle but somehow I think she’d understand more than dad. I was just about to send them a letter.” he said, remembering the letter in his pocket. He pulled it out and handed it over to an owl before he forgot.

 

[Evan Eldridge]

Evan let out a slow, sad sigh. The the boy seemed nice, and she felt bad that she had snapped at him. He definitely hadn't deserved that.

"I'm very sorry for talking to you like that." She tried to bring herself to smile a little bit. "Thank you for being nice to me, I'm sorry we had to meet like this. I'm Evan, and I'm not normally so mean- I promise."

Evan turned to the window trying to catch sight of the owl she had sent home with her letter, but the bird was gone. She rested her head against the window frame as she listened to the boy talk about his mother. She realized the two of them had a few things in common.

"My mother is a muggle too. We didn't know about magic, or at least I don't think mum did... I definitely didn't!" Evan laughed as she said she hadn't known about magic. "Sometimes I still wonder if I'm going to wake up, and find this was all a strange dream."

 

[Nikko Blackwood]

Nikko blushed as the girl apologized, he hadn’t really expected such an immediate or extreme turn around. He wasn’t sure what he had expected either, but this wasn’t it. “It’s alright.” He said and gave a small smile. “I’m Nikko.” He added, after she introduced herself. He walked over and leaned against the wall next to the window Evan was staring out of. “Oh so you’re muggleborn then? That’s cool. So was my dad but he’s not really...” Nikko trialed off, not really sure how to explain his dad. “He doesn't really like magic or really use it that much at home. He hardly even wanted to talk about Hogwarts before I came so I couldn’t really ask any of the questions I had.” He explained with a shrug. “It definitely would make a strange dream. I mean who uses owls to send mail, that hardly seems practical.” He grinned.

 

[Evan Eldridge]

"Yes, I'm muggle-born." Evan felt herself beginning to relax a little. She hadn't expected to have somebody relating to her situation, a part of her had believed she would be one of the only people at Hogwarts who barely knew anything about magic. It was a relief to know that even some people with magical parentage didn't know much. She listened to Nikko curiously, and wondered why his father didn't like magic.

"Wow, I wouldn't have guessed there were witches or wizards who don't like magic. Do you know why he doesn't?" She hoped she wasn't being too nosy.

Evan giggled a little when Nikko said he didn't find using owls for letters to be practical "I hadn't thought about that. You're right though, it's going to take that bird a lot longer to fly to my house than it would take to just send mum an email." Evan already understood that muggle technology wouldn't work at Hogwarts due to all of the magical interference but she did find it rather amusing that the non-magical way to send mail was much faster.

But now that she felt a little better, she did feel like she wanted to head back down from the Owlery and find something to do. "I might head back down now though, it was nice to meet you Nikko. If I don't see you in the common room I guess I'll see you in class?"

 

[Nikko Blackwood]

Nikko shrugged. “He doesn’t like to talk about it much, especially to me. Every time it comes up he just brushes it off and says magical people are stuck up, and don’t care about anyone but themselves. My mom says he had a bad experience when he was in school and that he chose not to be a part of it anymore.” He explained and started to feel bad for dumping this on someone he just met who was feeling uneasy already. But he couldn’t help his rising frustration. “I just don’t know why he insisted on sending me to school if he hated it so much?” He asked to no one in particular. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to complain so much.” he mumbled quietly to Evan, hoping he hadn’t upset her. He chuckled when she mentioned emailing her mom. “Email would much easier. I just hope my mom doesn’t shoo the owl away before she can get the letter.” he said with a laugh, feeling his mood lift slightly. “It was nice to meet you too.” He said with a wave. “I’m sure I’ll see you around.” Nikko said with a genuine smile.