I'm not so sure.

[Jeremiah Raven]

To say that Jeremiah Raven was out of his comfort zone, would be a gross understatement. He was in a different country, they had very different accents compared to his Italian one. He sighed in exhaustion, usually he would be excited to be in a new place, and at first he was, he was very excited when his Papa apparated him here, but when he decided to say that he could walk around by himself... that had to be the worst idea he could have created. His Papa had warned him. 'You will be lost here, Boy, you will get lost.' were his exact words, did Miah listen? No, he never did and now he was suffering for it. To his knowlegde, he was in a park, a muggle park, with muggle children, playing their rough muggle games. Some boys, probably his age or younger, were tackling eachother to the ground, it looked brutel, one boy seemed to have lost a tooth. How terrifying! How could muggles allow such treatment to carry on with their young? It simply astounded him, his Papa and Mama would never allow him to play such games. All he was allowed to do was read or play his piano or violin. But unfortuately, he only had his violin with him, in all honesty, he would have rathered his grand piano, but he had no way of carrying around a grand piano in Muggle New Zealand, because if he did have a way, his grand piano would be out and he would be playing it right now.

He sighed once again and walked carefully by the sidelines of the rough looking Muggle game, he had no wish to join, he was far too fragile to engage in such a tough sport, his weak, pampered body would buckle in seconds. It was true, he was not as strong and tough as other boys his age, but he was more of a game board person, if he had the time to pull out one of the Muggle board games his workers smuggled in, he would play it for hours, having a laugh with the workers, until his Papa or Mama showed up, then the board would disappear and the workers would go back to cleaning or cooking or what ever else they needed to do, while Miah would leap to his bookcase and pull out any sort of book, pretending that he had been reading the whole time. Sure he felt guilty for deceiving his parents, he felt horrible for being behind their valuable teachings, he was very lucky to be so well-off, never needing anything because everything he could possibly need was provided for him, but sometimes he felt like he needed some freedom, especially freedom of speech.

Jeremiah walked towards a park bench and sat down quietly, putting his violin case on the ground beside him and sighing once again. What was he to do? Where was he to go? He was quite lonely, but there was no-one to talk to, he was not supposed to heavily converse with Muggles, and right now did not seem like a problem because no-one was coming up to him, even though he surely looked like he needed some company.

 

[Ryder Straton]

Ryder Straton was enjoying the warm day. He had been allowed out of the house and away from his responsibilities as an older brother and his piano lessons to go and have fun. The park that was a mere 10 minutes away from his new house presented itself to be a great place to go. Grabbing his soccer ball and a jacket for if it got cold he set off. As he walked to the park his soccer ball under his arm Ryder felt saddened, playing soccer was something he was going to miss when he had to leave to go to Hogwarts. It was a muggle sport and he wondered if there was a wizarding equivalent of soccer. That was one thing he hated about being a muggle born he didn’t know anything about what went on in the wizarding world.

Though when he walked through the gate of the park Ryder’s mood brightened and he couldn’t help but grin, there was a great field to play soccer on. Dropping the ball to the ground he began to kick it softly as he walked back and forward across the grass field. Soon other boys had joined him and an impromptu game or soccer had started. Running and kicking the ball Ryder laughed, this was a great game .However the game ended when a boy lost his tooth to a misjudged kick hit him in the face. After that incident most of the boys had to leave, leaving Ryder with only two players aside, not enough to play a proper match.

Sweaty but happy Ryder collected his ball and went to look for something else to do. A boy about his age was sitting alone on a bench nearby. He looked rather lonely; everyone was avoiding him for some reason. Always one for including everyone he ran over to him and flopped down into the seat next to him, “Hey! What are you doing here all by yourself?” he asked looking at the boy curiously, “Ooh! Do you play the violin? I play the piano myself. But I wish I played the violin.” He said rather loudly. Ryder never had any trouble with talking to people and he sometimes got on the nerves of people who just wanted peace and quiet. “It would be good to learn the violin, and then I could take it to the boarding school I’m going to soon.” Ryder said carefully, he was told not to talk of Hogwarts to other muggles because they might not know about magic and he would get in trouble, so he called it his new boarding school. He wondered if the boy in front of him was magical too. It would be nice to meet someone else that was going to Hogwarts. “My name is Ryder by the way.” He added deciding that it would be best to introduce himself to the boy. "What's yours?"​

<i></i>

 

[Jeremiah Raven]

Jeremiah often daydreamed, mostly about how different things could be if he changed one factor in his life. This time, the fact in question was whether he was a muggle or magical. His life would be universes different, he would probably not be sitting on his bench with expensive clothes, thinking philosophically like an old man and sitting with brillient posture, though he did not want to, it was habit to sit and think in such a way, from the time he could contruct a proper sentence, or move his feet in a walking action, he had been taught how to be respectable, responsible and better than others. But this never changed his inner feelings for people, no amount of yelling and 'studying' would change his personality to one that his parents desired. He didn't know why they bothered in all honesty, why didn't they just have another child and leave him to a Nanny? They did with Grace, why was he different?

Miah was given quite a fright when someone hopped onto the bench with him in quite an energetic manner, the boy was rather sweaty and very energetic, this caught Miah off guard, he had never seen someone quite so energetic during conversation in his life, but he soon realised that Muggles probably had different ways to raising their offspring than his parents, so he had to excuse the rude introduction and carry on the conversation in a polite and gentleman-like manner. "Oh... good morning." He said, nodding his head slightly. What annoyed him about the English language was that he could understand English very well, which was why, when the boy spoke so quickly he could understand perfectly. But when he spoke English, he had to thinking about his words to make sure that he was not speaking too fast and that he was pronouncing them correctly. But the conversation went so quick for him, he was not used to fast conversation, most of the people he spoke to were men and they spoke with an air of authority, something that Miah had to learn to replicate, and it was working, sometimes. "Err... I play both violin and piano," he added, trying to keep up the conversation and making sure the boy would understand every word he uttered, it would be ungentleman-like to allow another person not hear what he had to say to questions he had been asked. What intriuged Miah was that the boy was attending a boarding school, he too was attending a boarding school, though it would be far different to any muggle borading school, though he had always wanted to go to a muggle boarding school, he thought it would be interesting, but if he ever did such a thing, his parents would hang him by his thumbs in their dungeon. "I see, um... boarding schools can be quite pleasent, no?" He said, smiling slightly and keeping his back straight. He must not slouch, not in the first fifty seconds of meeting someone, but he was sure later he would begin to slouch and calm down a little, once he settled into his surroundings. "It is wonderful to meet you, Ryder, I am Miah." he explained, introducing himself in his prefered name, he didn't like the name 'Jeremiah' too much, so he shortened it and allowed people to call him 'Miah', though it was a very feminine name and it was not at all gentleman like to assosiate ones self to such a name, he didn't really care, he was eleven, his natural train of thought was that boys and girls were not that different.

 

[Ryder Straton]

Ryder grinned, he could tell that the boy found it bemusing that he was so excited and loud. Most people felt that way. They thought he was weird not that Ry cared, he liked to be different. Nevertheless he slowed his speech slightly and stopped talking quiet as loudly as before, he could tell the boy found in a little uncomfortable. The boy had impecable manners and posture, and Ryder felt a little bit awkward and quickly sat up in the bench, correcting his slouched back. "Good morning to you too." he replied trying to adopt the manners that the boy presented. The last thing he wanted to do was offend the boy with carefree and slightly rude manner.

"Cool! Don't you just love the piano? I could play it all day if I didn't have to care of my sister sometimes. She's only two so she needs looking after occasionally." Ryder explained enthusiastically. Piano was his passion and he had always dreamed of becoming a professional pianist one day. Ry could tell that the boy was struggling to keep up with the pace of the conversation and allowed him to get a word in edgewise. Shrugging he smiled, "I wouldn't know, this is going to be the first boarding school I would have gone to. I only just heard about, I got a letter..." realising he had probably said too much Ryder changed the subject, "Anyway, it should be fun. It's nice to meet you Miah. Is that your full name?" he asked bluntly, he was never the one for tiptoeing around delicate subjects, he always jumped right into it, "Or is it a nickname? 'Cause I have a nickname, it Ry, you can call me Ry if you like?" Ryder had decided that he instantly liked Miah, he was polite and very well mannered quite unlike himself and he also played the piano, to things that he really liked. "Do you play soccer?" he asked holding up the ball and trying without success to spin it on his finger like the pros did.

 

[Jeremiah Raven]

Miah found it quite amusing to see the boy trying to adopt speech and posture, it was quite unexpected, but in a pleasent way, he found it quite admirable to see the boy trying to best to cause no offense, though he would not have caused any offense by just being himself. It was odd and a little disturbing to Miah for the boy to be as energetic and excited as he obviously was, but he would not have been disrespected, just a little thrown off guard, though this would mainly be because he didn't like to cause people pain, and it was usually difficult to upset him to the point of him reprimanding someone else on something as simple as posture and speech. In fact, Ryder was nearly everything Miah wanted to be, except the fact that he was probably a muggle, there was a Magical area of New Zealand not too far from here, a simple aparation would get any magical person there in seconds, so Jeremiah didn't think twice about whether Ryder was a muggle or not, his parents would be able to get him to magical areas of the globe. Jeremiah was only here because he wanted to spite his Papa and prove that he could function off the island, but it was obvious that he was out of his element. But Ryder? He looked completely in his element, like he was natural to the muggle world, which meant, in Miah's eyes, that he was a muggle.

Miah smiled and nodded. He simply adored the piano, though he could not play it as well as he did the violin, he liked the sound more, it sounded more vibrant than the violin, and he could sit whilst playing the piano, but he felt the need to stand when playing the violin, which could be annoying sometimes. He nodded with curiousity at the mention of a little sister, to his knowledge, two year olds could be a handful, though he had never been close enough to one to know for sure, since he had no younger siblings, he never had to take care of someone younger. "What is your sisters name?" He asked curiously. He always loved girls names, they were so much nicer than some boys names, like Bill and Henry, they were horrible names in his opinion, but names like Sally and Christina were lovely, he had not heard a female name that made him cring with disgust for it, yet, though going to a school as large as Hogwarts New Zealand, he was bound to hear names that he would dislike. He nodded again at the mention of a private school, it was interesting, the boy seemed to be avoiding the subject as if it were fire, and he was sure that muggles had a different mail system compared to magical people, he did not know they used a mailing system that included letters, it was interesting, but for the sake of not sounding abnormal to the muggle boy beside him, he did not mention his curiosity with the letter and focused on the school instead. "What is the name of the school, may I ask?" He asked, but as soon as he asked this, the subject seemed to take an unexpected and completely unrelated leap to his use of the name 'Miah', he smiled slightly. "It is short for Jeremiah, I do not like the name 'Jerry', so I shorten it to Miah instead." He explained, his English was getting better now, now that he was in a conversation with the boy, he was adapting to the speech he used, and felt a lot less tongue tied than before. "Ry... I will use that from now on." He said quietly, folding to the boys suggestion of Miah using 'Ry' instead of 'Ryder', in Miah's opinion, it was the persons decision as to what they should be called by people, though his parents disagree with this, he did not care and continued to ignore their teachings about most things. Once again, subject changes, seemingly unrelated and totally unexpected, this must be the art of 'child conversation', it was new and a little exciting, he quite liked Ry, he was very unique indeed. But the name of the sport made him tilt his head to the side in confusion, he had no idea what the sport was, though he felt that any muggle would, so he was left with a desicion, tell Ry that he had no idea what soccer was and risk him thinking that he lived under a rock, or lie and feel down right horrible to doing so. He decided to go with the first suggestion, he could not bring himself to lie to another person in his life, even though he had just met Ry and would proabaly never see him again, he couldn't lie to him. "No, I don't actually know what soccer is..." He explained, looking at the ball curiously.

 

[Ryder Straton]

Ryder grinned, he was enjoying the company of Miah. He was extremely polite, the opposite of himself and extremely pleasant to be around. He still wondered about the possibility that Miah was a wizard. Ry wanted to believe that he was but he couldn’t tell for sure without actually asking him, which of course would blow his cover if he were not one. It was all so confusing, Ryder wanted to make friends with people who were also going to be attending Hogwarts but couldn’t find them for the life of him, and all the rules surrounding the issue stopped him from plain asking. Something he dearly wished he could do. Miah seemed a little uncomfortable; Ry couldn’t tell if it were from the perfect manners and posture he was obviously required to have or if something else entirely was bothering him. He didn’t want to pry in case it was the latter and it was something personal so he left it, deciding instead to focus on spinning the ball on his finger, to keep his mind off it.

Ryder was glad that Miah agreed with his love of piano, he loved to play it, the smooth keys under his fingers. The deep melodic chords, he enjoyed playing it and loved learning his favourite songs. When he wasn’t attending to his sister he was spending time at the piano practicing. “Her name is Aaliyah, Allie for short; she’s the most amazing sister in the world.” He said with a smile. His baby sister meant the world to him and despite his occasional whines about how much time and energy she used up looking after to her, her truly cared deeply for her. “She’s just learning to talk; she can say ‘brudder Ry’ now.” He explained mimicking her way of pronouncing brother. It made him smile to think that one day she was going to grow up and learn to say more and more words and be able to withhold an in depth conversation with her older brother. Ryder hoped that his younger sister was going to be a muggle born witch, he didn’t want to fathom the idea that she might miss out and she could loathe him because of the magical abilities that he had got. He inwardly shuddered; he didn’t want to think about it. At the mention of the school again Ryder hesitated, there was two ways of answering the question. The first was to tell the truth and hope that either Miah was a wizard and didn’t think he was crazy or he was a muggle and didn’t know of the school anyway. The other option was of course lying and possibly missing out on a friend if he was a wizard. Ryder chose the former; he wasn’t a very good liar and was pretty sure that Miah was intelligent enough to see through it if he did lie. “Er, it’s called, Hogwarts.” He said cautiously looking in the other boys face for a sign of a reaction. He didn’t have long to dwell on it however, the conversation had leapt to another topic, the subject of Miah’s name. “Jeremiah, it’s not that bad I can understand your desire to shorten it. Just like I shorten Ryder.” Ry didn’t mind the name Ryder but it was just easier to shorten it. But in respect to Miah’s wishes he would continue to call him ‘Miah.’ Grinning Ryder held up a hand to high five, “For nicknames!” he announced. Ryder looked from the soccer ball on his lap to Miah, "You don’t know soccer? Well it’s a sport where you kick the ball between the players in your team while trying not to let the other team steal the ball. You can’t use your hands or you’ll get a penalty and to win you have to get the most amount of goals in the time allowed. To score a goal you kick the ball past the keeper into the net. It isn’t too complicated when you actually play it. Do you want to have a kick?” He asked holding the soccer ball out to Miah.​

 

[Jeremiah Raven]

Out of Character:

Congratulations for the sorting!

Jeremiah nodded with curiousity, in his eleven years, he had not met many young children, let alone children that could barely speak, he had always wanted a younger sibling, but his parents only wanted him, that was enough for them, especially since Miah did tend to go out of his way to disobey them, from time to time. ''It must be hard work, caring for a young person.'' He said, not realising the fact that his sentence made him sound like he was far older than his eleven years, considering he himself was still a 'young person' , he was going to comment, society demanded that he comment on Ryder's statements, preferably in a positive manner, but he was stopped dead in hhis tracks at the name of the school. The New Zealand boarding school Ryder was obviously attending, which just happened to be name, Hogwarts. How many schools were named Hogwarts? A couple, admittedly, in New Zealand? Very few, New Zealand boarding schools named Hogwarts? Jeremiah only knew of one, the very same school he was attending, a magical school for mmagical creatures to learn magic. It was far too much of a coincidence to be ignore. But it was not like he was going to ask Ry if he were a wizard in the open like this, someone may hear, so he simply nodded and smiled. ''I am going to Hogwarts as well, it seems that we may be seeing a lot more of each other.'' He said, letting Ry know, in a more shuttle way, that he was magical, the good way about answering in such a way was that if Ry was not magical, it would have been a normal answer and he would think that they were going to the school that happened to be the muggle version of a magical school, but if he were magical, he now knew that Miah was magical also. He had a potential friend that possibly shared his magical abilites, it made Miah smile wider.

He agreed with Ry's next statement, Jeremiah was such a formal name, it was long and some people found it difficult to read or spell, but Miah was much easier to remember, and he didn't care if people spelt his nickname incorrectly, it was a nickname, so it was false anyway, but his birth name was to be spelt correctly, as it is his real and true name and shouod be treated as such in the form of being spelt correctly. But then Ry did something quite peculiar, he held up his hand and cheered for nicknames, Miah had no problem with this, until Ry's hand did not return to its original place, it was confusing, by the look on Ry's face, it was quite obvious that Miah was supposed to do something. But what? He had no idea, he had never done such a think before, it was new to him, he tilted his hhead slightly, examining the situation, trying to find a logical answer to this mystery, finally he realized, perhaps he was to mimic the action? Sp he too smiled and held up his hand, but when he saw two other children nearby clapping their hands together, he finally discovered what ry was trying to do aand laughed tto himself, lightly slapping his palm to Ry's, discovering for the ffirst ttime what a high five was. He stood up, listening to the rules and regulations of a sport called...soccer. he nodded. ''Okay, we shall play.'' He said, walking out a little further from the bench, the ball in his delicate hands. He did not know how to hold the ball, he looked like he was holding a bomb by the way he was standing stiffly, looking down at the ball with a small frown, not from sadness, but from thought, how was he to play this game? He was not ssporty, his stature told any bystander that, he was thin, tall and looked delicate, like he had never done a hard days work iin hhis life, which was very true, he was a very pampered boy. He placed the ball on the ground carefully and waited for Ry to tell him what to do.