Open In A New Country

[Angelo Dela Cruz]

Going out of the Philippines for school was weird. Angelo had never even thought of transferring schools before. He thought that he would stay in his school until he graduated high school and then move to a senior high school and then college. With his Hogwarts letter arriving though, he didn't even manage to finish grade school. He'd just finished 5th Grade, and if he hadn't received the letter saying that he was a wizard, then he'd be shopping for school supplies for 6th Grade. Now, apparently, he was shopping for quills because wizards still hadn't discovered pencils and pens. And parchment because did they not know you could write notes on your phone now? It technically wasn't allowed in his old school because he was still in elementary, but he heard that high schoolers were allowed to bring their phones to class. He'd dreaded when he found out he couldn't even bring his phone to school. What was he going to do until Christmas?! The school didn't even have internet because wizards hadn't even discovered the telephone and still sent messages through owls. Jesus. Still, his mother told him to keep an open mind since it was a world that apparently he also belonged to. It was stressing her out, though, he could tell. After all, she couldn't just pack them both up and leave the Philippines to stay in New Zealand; they didn't even have relatives here. So she was only here until he got on the train - Jesus it was an actual old train, and he thought the metro at home was old - in three days. They were doing the last of the shopping today and he was just hanging out with her because the two of them had never been apart for more than a couple of days and he knew his mom would be lonely while he's off at school. Still, he didn't expect to be separated from her thanks to the rush of people. One moment they were walking beside each other, and the next he's lost her in the crowd - which wasn't good since his mom wasn't magical and they were both so new to this place. "Ma! Ma! Where are you?" he calls out in Filipino cause surely that would stand out.​

 

[Zennon Baros]

Zennon saw that Finley was in a conversation with another kid, and decided he didn't really need to interrupt, and so he just popped back into the store he'd just come out of.​

 

[Finley Mackintosh Baros]

Lemon darted out in front of him and Finley had to chase after her, half way down the cobbled path of Obsidian Harbour before he managed to catch up to her, and when he did he had to quickly call her to attention because she was trying to get into the arms of someone that not only did Finley not know, but he could see that he appeared to be maybe a little lost. Finley wasn't sure what he was saying, though it was clear that he was looking for his mother, or someone else that he probably associated with a parent, since Finley knew a lot of people in his life who had parents that weren't their parents, but sort of took on that role. He called to Lemon, racing up to the boy with a smile. "Sorry about Lemon, she gets really excitable, do you have any food on you? That might be what she's smelling, she really likes chicken, I can't get her to stop eating it." It had been a bit of a rough time when Lemon had first met the coils (his name for his dad's snakes) but they'd all sort of come to an agreement, or something, and because his dad was a parselmouth he was able to talk them out of eating Finley's pet for lunch, or dinner, and Lemon didn't seem to be all that worried about the snakes most of the time so it seemed to be a pretty win-win situation. "Are you looking for your mum?"​

 

[Angelo Dela Cruz]

It was obvious that he'd completely lost his mother in the crowd. It was okay, he knew where they were staying at, and she knew where they were staying. Since phones apparently didn't work in this area, they'd already said that if this ever happened, they would meet up back at the hotel reception. And if either of them weren't back within an hour of each other, they were going to inform reception. This was a magic place, surely they would have something that could locate a person right? Still, he figured it wouldn't hurt to try looking for his mother a little longer. Or at least, that was the plan until a dog came bounding up to him. To which Angelo had frozen, because well, he was about to be attacked by a dog in a magic place. It was a weird scenario. When the tiny dog did not clamp its teeth on Angelo's leg and instead kept trying to jump on him, he breathed a sigh of relief and picked the dog up so it wouldn't get trampled on in such a busy place. He did turn though when a boy came up to him smiling which had him blinking. Oh, he must be the dog's owner. What was he saying again? Something about a lemon and a chicken? "Ah. No?" he said rather unsurely. He probably should have been listening, but the dog was quite distracting. "No lemon chicken. I don't have food with me. Sorry," he said the words flowing out of his lips rather awkwardly. He really should get used to speaking English more than Filipino. He did at least catch the boy's last question. "You speak Tagalog?" he asked in surprise, "Yeah, 'di ko mahanap si Mama," he said in rapid-fire Filipino since this boy obviously spoke the language after figuring out that Angelo was trying to find his mother.

*Yeah, I can't find Mama​

 

[Finley Mackintosh Baros]

"What?" Finley hadn't expected the boy to suddenly rapidfire him, and even if he maybe did understand some filipino, he definitely dind't understand it to the point whrre he could help this boy at all with him speaking so fast. He blinked at him, holding his hands out for Lemon. "Sorry, I don't know filipino, but I just understood the sound of a kid looking for his mum, it's pretty standard I think... plus you were calling Ma - so... I just assumed, sorry." He hoped that the boy wasn't upset with him for not knowing what he was saying, he hadn't realised at all. "Her name is Lemon," he clarified, petting the silly dog on the head. "I'm going to take her to Hogwarts if I can." He wasn't sure if this boy would be going to Hogwarts too, but he figured it was probably a safe bet, he looked about the right age.​

 

[Angelo Dela Cruz]

Angelo would have said more, because his mother always said that he had a tendency to ramble, but it was easy to identify the look of utter confusion on the boy’s face when he started to speak in Tagalog. His face would have probably fallen but he was starting to come to terms with the fact that this wasn’t his country and the possibility of him being able to get by with his weak English was slim to none. He had to start making sure that he would be able to hold himself in a conversation with the poeple here no matter how intimidating this was. Besides the nice boy in front of him didn’t look like he’ll judge him. And well, he wasn’t being mean at all about Gelo’s blunder of assuming the boy spoke an entirely different language. “No no, it is my fault,” he said, his Filipino accent sounding quite thick. He wasn’t used to speaking the language even if he understood it quite fluently as long as he isn’t caught by surprise. He blushed though when the boy told him that the puppy in his arms was named Lemon, and he handed the cute one to his owner pretty quick after that. “You should. Take her. I did not saw the letter said- say you can’t.” It was a pleasant surprise to know the young boy would be going to Hogwarts too. Though perhaps there was only one magical school since he had to go all the way here?​

 

[Finley Mackintosh Baros]

"Nah, don't worry about it, it's not anyone's fault, there's nothing to fault," he didn't know why the guy was apologising, but he was willing to roll with it anyway. He happily took Lemon off his hands though, wanting her back with him desperately and he hugged her tight. He cringed as she licked his face and he quickly deposited her back on the ground where she swiftly decided to jump up against the boy again. "Sorry, she must like you. I'm Finley by the way." He said, though he didn't hold out his hand to the other boy because it was at that moment that Lemon seemed to remember that Finley was her best friend and bounded back over to him, scratching against his leg. He shook his head, disbelieving at the sudden yet inevitable betrayal. "I want to take her, and I know it says you can't but I don't think she's on the approved list, so I might have to smuggle her in," he admitted, though he hoped no one would think anything of it. Surely if he could take a cat or a rat, he could take a dog. They were much better house trained.​