Ratchet and Clank

[Apollo Adams]

Only a few days in and Apollo only knew two spells - Lumos and Nox - but already he was starting to experiment with his magic. It seemed, when he'd woken up on the first morning, that his watch wasn't working next to his bed. He'd been rather surprised at this, and was about to ask his sister why that might be, when he remembered that his sister was in a different house entirely. With no friends yet, this realisation was slightly soul crushing, and he hugged himself in his bed, not wanting to leave and wander the lonely castle corridors. He'd probably only get lost anyway, but he knew that he couldn't justify not trying to find her in the very least. Sighing, huddling deep into the warm duvet that had been conveniently left on the bed allocated to him in the high Ravenclaw dorm, Apollo struggled to find a reason to remain. Finding none, he sighed once again, and picking up the Bengal cat identical to Artemis', he set off downstairs. Crossing the Common Room quietly, seeing as it was still quite early, he set off downstairs.

Having left the Common Room, Apollo glanced up and down the tower staircase, looking for anybody who might be able to direct him to the house called Gryffindor. Empty, just like the first corridor he passed on the way down. Taking a random exit, Apollo set off down a corridor, and realised he was hopelessly lost. He huddled down in a corner of the hallway and waited, gently stroking his cat for somebody to go by. As the Castle began to wake up, a tall girl did, but other than a harsh glance when he opened his mouth to speak, she did nothing to help. Seeing as the students didn't appear particularly kindly, Apollo instead decided to continue on, before once again choosing a random doorway and entering. Once inside, he found the classroom deserted, and it didn't look in particularly good condition either. Settling down into one of the chairs, Apollo huddled the duvet around him and began to cry, warm tears streaming down his cheeks at the loneliness of the whole castle. As much as he wanted to learn magic, he didn't want to learn it like this.

After a few minutes however, his crying wasn't benefitting him, and he decided to resort to doing some science instead - something he could at least understand. Taking out the watch he had shoved in his pocket, he looked at it, trying to work out why it was no longer running. The only logical conclusion that came to him was that a digital watch didn't like magic. And that had an interesting possibility - did that mean that it was the proximity to magic that stopped it working? Was the castle so imbued with magic that it wouldn't work? Or was it that he now had a wand, so that was eminently magical, or had unlocked the magic within him? He definitely wasn't sure on the answers to these questions, and he didn't really know anybody that might know, or would even be willing to test his theories. Nope, it would just have to be him trying to fiddle things out on his own - like it always used to be with Muggle science. He knew the spell Lumos, and he had a watch. Why not start now? Taking out his watch, Apollo placed it at a hands-length away, before lighting up his wand. Nothing changed on the watch. Repeating this experiment at increasing distances, Apollo hoped to determine a set distance at which the watch started working again - if it did.
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[Elt]

Waking up in a four poster bed never ceased to excite Elt to that degree which any observer would have thought she'd just been given news of receiving an unexpected fortune. Her quilt was soft, her pillows plump, and her duvet without holes. Breakfast each morning was delayed at least ten minutes by the fact she couldn't stop turning over to feel the silky sheets on every part of her body. But inviting as her bed was, she was soon enticed out of it by the prospect of another day's exploring. Once lessons started, her time would be divided between study and play, so she was determined to make the best of her present abundance of it. Dressing quickly and clumsily, Elt went downstairs to the common room and bolted out of the door. To the great hall!

Really, Elt had bigger things to find concerning than whether or not she were first to the breakfast table: she still only knew a handful of English words and phrases, and speaking them over a whisper was proving a near impossible task. But she was much too excited to stop and think about how difficult it was going to be to learn anything when she couldn't read or write. When she reached that bridge, she decided carelessly, she would find a way to cross it. Taking off into a skip, the part-goblin found the ever-changing staircase and began to descend it. The problem with the ever-changing staircase was in its name. No sooner had Elt reached the second floor than her staircase suddenly decided to change direction, pointing her down a corridor instead of onwards to the great hall. After brief deliberation, she started down this corridor, figuring that no harm could come from a little diversion, and soon found herself taking further diversions by popping in and out of each room to see what they contained. Classroom... classroom... bathroom... empty classroom... Elt back paced. What she'd first thought to be an abandoned room was, in fact, presently occupied by a boy she'd seen at sorting and around the common room. A fellow Ravenclaw, and one looking a little dishevelled, at that. He was huddled up in a duvet, apparently poking his wrist with the end of his wand. Elt watched silently from the door, fascinated by the glowing wand tip and wondering if hers were capable of anything similar. She hadn't so much as given it a wave, yet - there were too many other things to think about.

Remembering what she'd been told about not spying on people (but people were so interesting!), Elt cracked the door open a bit more and half walked, half toddled in. The door closed by its own weight behind her. Her curiosity unsatisfied, she wandered up to the boy and climbed onto the chair beside him, peering with great interest at the object on his wrist. Tentatively, and knowing no real manners, she reached out and gave the funny looking shiny thing a poke, hoping it might just be asleep and would do something if roused.