There are so many!

[Ellington Hayes]

Ellie headed along the corridors. Earlier she had scoped out all the classrooms, and now she was on a hunt to discover the rest of the secrets of Hogwarts. Of course she wasn't sure what kind of secrets Hogwarts held. She probably should be outside with all the other kids, but seeing as she wasn't really good with sun, she figured being inside was much easier. Moving along the corridors slowly so that she can see everything, Ellie took in all of the walls, the floors and the roof so that she would be able to find her way anywhere. She had a really good memory which she was definitely happy about. She looked around and suddenly stopped when she saw a door she hadn't noticed before. She must not have been paying much attention when she came here last time. She smiled to herself and entered the room. She was immediately overwhelmed by what she was seeing. This place was amazing. It was all shiny and had all these different trophies. It also had a wall of faces that said they were the previous headmaster and headmistresses of Hogwarts. The only one that Ellie recognized however, was the latest one, Headmistress Davershire. Ellie rather liked her she seemed like a nice person. As she looked around the room, and traced her fingers along the glass, she found herself daydreaming about her own name being on a trophy in here.

Ellie sighed and moved away from the trophies to look back up at the Heads. Just from her photo, Ellie thought that the Founder looked like a really interesting person. She had also been the Headmistress for a while, which made sense considering she had founded this place. Ellie looked down the wall to the next name, this time it was two people, a co-headmaster/headmistress. Nicolas King and Cecily Zhefarovich. Wasn't one of the professors named Zhefarovich? In fact she was sure there were a number of students with this last name as well. Perhaps there was a relation? She smiled though, because they both looked like nice people and she was sure the school thrived under them. She moved down the wall again. Next was some-one named Roman Ivo. He looked like he might have been a rather strict headmaster. Just from his face she thought she wouldn't want to get into any trouble with him around. Gabriel Lloyd was after him and shared the same thought. He didn't look like he would tolerate any nonsense either. Ellie smiled as she looked further down to the most recent and current Headmistress. Professor Davershire reminded her a little of her mother. Not so much in looks, as Ellie looked like her mother and not this woman, but in the expression and aura she gave off. Ellie decided she might be visiting the trophy room more often.
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[Victoire Fontaine]

Knowing there had to be a library somewhere in this school was what was currently keeping the young girl going. She had taken many corridors, and had just turned up empty. However, she had always found something that had made her curious. A place, or a something to look at that had made her stop and just admire the magic of this castle. She was in constant awe. No matter what way she turned, the girl was just always surprised by the sheer beauty of the place she now lived. It made Victoire think of all the times she'd been to places like Bruges, Brussels, Paris, or London. The sheer amount of buildings that made her realise that she lived in one of the best times. She couldn't imagine not being able to see the beauty of any of them in any other context. Having decided that she was going to try once more, on this new day to find the library, Victoire had taken things slowly. She had woken up slightly earlier than normal, perhaps it was the nerves of the impending new classes that had been stopping her usually perfectly normal and adjusted sleeping pattern. She hadn't rushed out of bed. Instead she had sat up and began reading. Thinking that on these last few days of holiday she could spend a few more hours in bed just reading. A brief thought was cast to her brothers, as she realised her parents would be taking them back to school in Belgium. They had both been mighty jealous of her, and her magic. Victoire had promised to write to them, but she hadn't yet figured out the method which magical people used to send mail. At least she hadn't noticed a post office or something. Which lead the girl to believe that it simply didn't exist. She'd have to ask someone about that. It been the thought of her brothers that had persuaded the girl to get out of bed. Victoire hadn't hurried to get ready, she'd thrown on some spare clothes. The new Gryffindor t-shirt she'd gotten, it was a gryffindor quidditch t-shirt, and while she didn't play, or even fly she liked it. Her brothers had plenty of clothes with the school name, she wanted a few items too. With this t-shirt, she wore a pair of shorts and her hair was up in a simple side braid. It meant her hair was a little tidier, but that wasn't saying much. When she was finally finished getting dressed, the girl put the usual red ribbon in hair, and headed out the door.

Victoire wasn't sure where the library was, and while she could help herself by asking another student, she enjoyed the exploring side of things. Her last school had fairly big, but she'd only ever really been in one part of it. This was completely different. It was so much bigger. So much more was within it. She wondered until she was sure she had the right floor, she noticed that there was the nurses office, or really like a sick bay, which she hoped to never have to use. Though she was curious as to how magic helped people. Or if they stuck to mostly muggle medicines. She then noticed another room, it wasn't the charms classroom, which had a clearly indicated marker, she opened the door, and noticed she was essentially in a room filled with trophies. It was a surprising amount, but it was what every school did. Her last school had proudly displayed them at the entrance, but these were sort of hidden away. Which she thought was mostly because Hogwarts probably didn't get that many parents just wandering in. Or things like that. She glanced around, the trophies nearest to the door. It was a little tricky to make out the the writing, but it was interesting. There were old top points earners, and halloween stuff. Victoire had never really celebrated halloween before, it wasn't something that was done back in Belgium, she wasn't sure she even had a costume. Sure, some had done it, and the school had a small halloween thing for the young ones, but it wasn't a huge celebration. Victoire dressed up for the carnival which happened in February not October. Heading further in, Victoire noticed another girl was in the room. Victoire thought the girl looked somewhat similar. A student in her year, in her house she was sure. "Hello" Victoire said, announcing herself to the girl to hopefully not startled her. Victoire went over to look at what the girl was looking at, at what turned out to be previous head masters and mistresses. "Out of all the head mistresses, I think Professor Davershire looks the nicest." She said, with a smile. "I'm Victoire" Victoire's english was good, but she had only been learning it for about four months. She still had a pretty heavy accent. "This place is incredible. I hope to have a trophy with my name on it in here." Victoire's pale blue eyes showed how absolutely pleased she was to be there. Even if she knew next to nothing about this world.
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[Ellington Hayes]

Ellie smiled at all the trophies in the room. There were so many, all the names were foreign to her, but she liked to imagine what they were like as people. When she was little, she used to imagine what her father was like. Her mother wasn't exactly a font of knowledge when it came to her father, so a lot of it had been left to the imagination. As it turned out, Austiin was not at all like the kind of man she had imagined him to be. Ellie had imagined that he would be tall dark and handsome, well, that was a check she supposed. Not that she would ever think of her father a handsome, she was eleven and she refused to believe that he would ever be swept away by another woman, or a man, really. Not that she thought homosexuality was wrong, she didn't, she believed in love for loves sake, or something. again, she was only eleven. Ellie had also imagined that her father was a great hero, like a Police Officer or a Fire Fighter, even a Super Spy. She had never thought that he was dead, her mother had made no secret of the fact that he was actually alive, but Ellie had thought that he would come back for her, or that he was so busy saving the world, he couldn't risk being back with his family. Maybe it was a great risk and so he had to settle for just sending money every month. It was a ridiculous romantic notion that turned out not to be true, but, he was her father, and he was saving her from an orphanage or having to stay with her stuffy aunt. She couldn't hate him too much and she didn't, she just hated the situation.

Ellie however, jumped when she heard someone speak. She hadn't been expecting anyone to be here as well. After all it was kind of out of the way a little. Never the less she smiled when she looked over at the girl. She was a Gryffindor, Ellie had seen her at sorting. She nodded. "Oh, hello! I'm Ellie. Nice to meet you." She nodded as Victoire mentioned Professor Davershire. She definitely agreed with that. "I agree, Professor Davershire seems so nice, right? I mean we have her for Transfiguration I head, so that should be fun, right?" Ellie asked as she nodded enthusiastically to the girl. "Oh, it is going to become my life's ambition whilst I am at this school, to get my name on a trophy. It is going to be a major goal from here on out!" Ellie clapped her hands together. "How'd you get here? Were you exploring too? I was, found this place by accident thought. What about you?" They were the same age, both being in Gryffindor as first years. Ellie had already made a couple of friends, she would like to add some more.
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[Victoire Fontaine]

Victoire had won a couple of trophies in her time at the last school. But, they weren't the sort of trophies that singled out a person. They were the type that a team won. She'd won both for her debating, in the junior debating team competitions that existed for people in primary schools. She had always enjoyed that, but there seemed to be something different, something better about the fact that all of these trophies, well most of them, appeared to have individual names on them. There were the halloween trophies and things like that. Victoire was sure that if part of it, was just to win in the halloween stuff or to gain a lot of house points then she would be more than capable of doing so. She was positive of this fact. Victoire was incredibly confident in her abilities to do well. And she was glad that she had run into another person while in the trophy room, whom even from afar had appeared to be interested in them. Victoire was all about learning, and doing well, but she figured that others weren't. Victoire was from a muggle family that expected very little from her, and this was the best possible thing that could've happened. She was different, and she would be successful, and perhaps with a few trophies to her name her parents might just actually be proud of her. But, for the short of it, Victoire just really wanted a trophy. The other girl, who seemed startled by Victoire's arrival, and her lack of alerting her to her arrival, introduced herself as Ellie. Victoire smiled at her, "And you Ellie" Her french accent playing on the word Ellie a little more than the others. It wasn't a particularly hard name for the girl to say, but Victoire had only been in an english speaking country for just over four months, her english was not that good yet. Though Victoire was sure that it would, like everything else improve given the right amount of time. "She is also a professor?" Victoire seemed surprised by this, since in her experience management level staff rarely, if ever.

She nodded along with the other girl, it really did appear like the easiest way to win one was just by doing well in the halloween thing, but it would be great to have one. "I think it would be incredible to have my name on a trophy in here, within the walls of this great school" Victoire nodded glancing around them, while also thinking of everything else magical that made this school amazing. Even though she appeared to be constantly getting lost it was still an incredible thing. She loved every hallway and every room. Which were all in their own way completely different from all else. The other girl spoke again, citing much the same reasons that Victoire had come to find this little gem. "I was looking for the library, but I am glad I have stumbled upon this." Victoire moved away from the girl slightly, to reach out to one of the trophies. "My last school was much smaller than this place. I hope I will eventually remember where everything is. They also did not put all the trophies in one room. Away from the entrance, but I admit Hogwarts is not in the slightest like my last school" Victoire glanced back at the other girl, giving the girl a small smile as she did so. "There seem to be trophies for halloween, I wish I had known that halloween was something that was celebrating at school." The girl had never really thought that a school would be so into a thing like that. "Did you think to bring a costume?"
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[Ellington Hayes]

A- I apologise for my shocking writing earlier, i did a pretty poor edit apparently.
B- So sorry this took so long!

Ellie continued to look at all the trophies about the room. She had never personally won a trophy or anything, but the thought of seeing her name on something in here, was magical. She had always wanted a trophy. Her mother had made her one once, but it wasn't the same, she hadn't won it. The trophy was something about being the world's best daughter, but it was made out of like scraps of paper and plastic and whilst it was ingenious, Ellie had seen many of her mother's creations, so to say she was unimpressed would be an understatement. Coming to Hogwart's had been an interesting conclusion to this chapter of her life. She had gone weeks after the death of her mother, wondering what she was going to do. Then of course, Austiin had stepped in and so now at least she had a home, but that didn't make her feel anything different. She still missed her mother, and she was sure she always would, but the fact remained that she was a horrible gift giver, but then, so was Ellie, thanks to her mother's influence. She smiled at the girl's question and nodded. "Well, that's what my brother told me. He said she teaches... Transfi- something... Transfiguration... i think. I wasn't really listening, probably should have been though." She said shaking her head and moving away from the trophies. They were really nice, but Ellie knew the only way she would get a trophy like that was if she worked hard, so she was going to have to do just that. Oh, maybe she could try out for quidditch. She liked learning to fly when Cameron taught her before she got here! "Yeah, my name on a trophy would be really great. Maybe we should try out for Quidditch next year?" Ellie suggested, tilting her head slightly to look around the rest of the room. It was a really neat place!

Ellie laughed slightly and nodded. Yep, getting lost was one of the main causes of discovery. She had gotten lost many times and had found some really neat places. So far this trophy room was the coolest place she had stumbled onto here. Maybe one of these days she would even find the room of requirement. She tended to find things that were lost - maybe she should have been a Hufflepuff - really easily and it was sometimes quite freaky. "Yeah, this room is so much better then the library. Who needs to study when you can look at all these shiny things?" She asked, shaking her head and pushing her face up against the glass. When she spoke again, Ellie looked up, curiously. "Where did you go to school before?" Ellie asked as she raised an eyebrow with curiosity. She hadn't heard of any schools that magical kids go too, so maybe this girl was muggle raised? Or perhaps a muggle born even? Ellie had only met one muggle born before, but she was muggle raised herself, so it wasn't that big of a thing. At the mention of a Halloween, Ellie grinned. "Oh yes! My brother informed me of it before I got here! I love Halloween! I always have!" It was one of the most exciting times. Ellie and her mother used to work on her costume for weeks. It was a really good bonding experience for the pair. Ellie would always miss these times she spent with her mother the most at this time.
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[Victoire Fontaine]

Victoire listened as she looked at the headmistresses portrait. She taught transfiguration, which if Victoire had been paying close enough attention to, they had next semester. Though she was looking forward to it, the name made her curious about what it would include. She imagined transfiguring things, but was that really a large part of learning magic. "We don't have transfiguration till next semester, right?" The girl asked as a general question, thinking that she was indeed right but just wanting confirmation. Victoire was so new to this magical world, it was at times a little difficult to keep up with what everyone else was going on about. It was interesting, all of it, but she sometimes felt like a little help so she could really understand everything would be greatly helpful to her. Victoire was the kind of girl who enjoyed doing things by herself, but that was really only part of the time. There were certain occasions when a little extra hand could go a long way for someone in a situation like she now found herself in. "I wonder if she is a good professor, or even how she manages to find the time" Victoire said aloud. Her experience of head teachers was not overly extensive, but this was new to her. She imagined that a school like this would take a lot of running, and then would therefore not have the time to teach. But, this was magic, so just maybe it was easier. "Oh yeah! That would be great. I don't quite know how to play quidditch, but that would be so much fun!" The girl said excitedly. Victoire was big on sports, and this new sport that she knew next to nothing about, was something she was excited to try out. It seemed like fun. Victoire knew that it would be hard, she had no idea how to fly, or how to do any of the positions, but she would always try. She hadn't really known how to play football until she'd actually given it a shot.

Victoire wasn't so fussed about the getting lost thing. She broke away from the girl, Ellie. Looking between several of the other trophies, but when the girl spoke again, Victoire looked over to her, with an eyebrow raised. Who needs to study? "You study to gain the shiny things to keep them" Victoire chuckled as she spoke, as if the idea of not studying was absurd to her. Victoire had always studied, this hadn't changed in coming to this school. "Studying is fun, you can learn so much. And there is so much to learn about this world" Victoire said looking back at the trophies, but wandering back to stand with Ellie, who then asked her what school she had gone to before, "You wouldn't have heard of it, it's a muggle primary school in Charleroi, in Belgium." She doubted the girl would've heard of it. Belgium was far from New Zealand, and most people from New Zealand probably care about the private school in the tiny country of Belgium. "It was a good school, I would still be there if my family hadn't moved to Australia and if it hadn't turned out I could do magic" The girl shrugged slightly, she didn't mind it, she loved this school. She loved this world. She enjoyed everything about this. "Both my parents are.." She paused, remembering the word, "muggles" Victoire stumbled over the word a little with her accent, unsure how to say it really. She shrugged not really caring about that fact, she was happy and this world was pretty incredible.

As for Halloween, Victoire wished she had maybe thought about it more. She figured that she would have to come up with something with what she had in terms of clothes. "Ooh, What are you being?" She asked curious about Halloween and what it was like when it was actually popular. "How many brothers do you have?" she asked, picking up on the fact that the girl had said that her brother had told her about this place. It made Victoire wonder about if either of her brothers would be magical. She had no idea currently how to even tell.
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[Ellington Hayes]

Ellie shook her head at the question and shrugged. "Nope! But I am really excited though, I mean how cool would that be!" She asked excitedly twirling around the room like a bit of a bull in a china shop. She stopped and grabbed her head. "Oh, gosh, I am never doing that again, uh-uh, never." Ellie was still a bit of a dope. Not through any lack of intelligence, but because she never got much of a childhood when she was living with her mother, her mother was usually so into her painting or other things that Ellie had to do a lot of the work, but there was no telling that she loved her dearly. "I don't know. I think she must be a really good teacher though, she must work very hard right?" She asked, running her fingers along the trophies in glasses cabinets. Ellie smiled at Victoire as she agreed with the Quidditch idea. Oh yes! That would be excellent and they could become Quidditch excellence together! "Oh, it will be wonderful! It is a most exciting game! Brooms! Flying! Scoring! Hoops! Oh it's magnificent! You should definitely come to the game, it'll be excellent!" Ellie was getting excited for the games that would be coming in a couple of weeks, she had only recently gotten into it to be honest, but she loved it with a passion, it would be the most amazing thing ever whilst being here at Hogwarts, she couldn't wait. She didn't know what she would do in the game, she had no idea about what position she would want to play, but it would be the best thing ever. Ellie looked over her shoulder at Victoire again. "Studying is boring though, Vicki... can I call you Vicki? Studying is only part of it, right? You need to have fun outside of studying too."

Ellie nodded at her voice of wisdom. She liked to think she was quite smart, even if she was the smallest voice of the choir. She listened quietly as she listened to Victoire talking about her muggle school. Ellie thought that was pretty cool. Ellie hadn't spent much of her muggle life in school to be honest. She had been busy forgetting, or helping her mother. The social workers said it was for the best that her mother was in heaven, if she believed in heaven that was. Ellie disagreed however, she didn't see how a child being without her mother was a good thing, but she was no psychiatrist of course. "I've never been to Belgium, I can't speak French either." Well, even if she could, she was sure her Irish accent would make it sound weird. "I never really went to school, I was always so busy doing other things, it wasn't much of a priority to be honest." She said, playing with her hair. "Oh! So you're a muggle born? Me too... uh, well I used to think i was, turns out my father is a pureblood, so... makes me a half-blood, or something I guess." She told her new friend, trying to think of what she could say about that. "Nothing flashy, i used to play volleyball, so I'm going as a volleyball professional. Kinda boring actually, but I love Halloween, I absolutely had to dress up!" Ellie thought about it for a second when she was asked about how many brothers she had. It was all quite new to her, so she sometimes forgot to count them all. "Well, I'll say... three. Yeah, i have three brothers." She grinned throwing the question back to the girl. "What about your family? Any brothers or sisters?"
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[Victoire Fontaine]

The more the young girl heard about quidditch the more she wanted to do it. It was just this game that she'd read about, and had was hearing about. It just really to her seemed pretty damn incredible. She couldn't believe that wizards had entire world cups without her knowing. She hadn't found much about the belgian national team, but she was sure they were good. Maybe not the world best, but she was sure they stood a better chance in that than they did in the football world cup, or even in the euro cup. Victoire smiled excitedly at the other girl. "I can't wait" She said happily. "I need to see how it's played, so yeah, I'm definitely going!" She was definitely going to go. Victoire was keen on trying out in the next year, so she was sure that she needed just a little bit more watching time with the game itself. Mostly so she could decide what position she would be best suited in. "We could go together. I was thinking of painting my face, we could do that?" Victoire had always followed her team closes. The local team, and the national team. She wore the colours with pride, and always had a little flag painted on her face. Which was just the tip of the iceberg really. She wondered if Ellie would do that kind of thing too, or if Victoire was one of few people who were like that. Victoire wasn't sure about the practices at the school, if she was thinking about it too much, if wasn't as big of a deal as Victoire thought it would be, if they were in her home town. She hadn't really spent much time in Australia to know about their sports, and even less New Zealand, though she knew of the six nations, which was rugby.

Disagreeing with the girl that studying was boring, Victoire looked a little confused about the nickname. She'd never really been given one, Vicki didn't really work in french. "Yeah, sure, if you want" She was happy to have a nickname. Shrugging slightly. "I find studying fun. We are all different, I guess" Victoire shrugged at her. While Victoire found studying fun, it was just the way she was. She loved learning, and she loved reading, so liking studying was mostly just something that came quite naturally to her. It wasn't something she had to give too much thought about. "I'm good at studying" Victoire shrugged. Saying it more as an after thought that anything else. The young Gryffindor didn't find it odd that the girl had neither been to Belgium nor that she could speak french, the young pre-teen had yet to meet any other people in New Zealand who spoke french. She was sure she'd find some, but Victoire really doubted that they would be from Belgium. Although as the other girl spoke, it became clear that Victoire was not the only one who'd gone through many changes. That it left her at times a little confused about things. "That's nice, and yeah, I am. Proudly so too." she replied, smiling fondly at the girl. With the girl talking about what she was going as it was really just an opportunity to think about what she could actually be dressed as for the event. It appeared that any outfit goes really. Which was good for Victoire who had nothing packed with her for that kind of event. She would be happy to be go just dressed in her football top from her home team and pretend she was a player. That would be simple enough. Again, the girl seemed a little unsure about her reply. Was it a hard question? Victoire had just met this girl, she really couldn't bring it up just yet.

"I have two. Both young, and both are still in Belgium." She replied with a bright smile. Hoping that it wasn't too odd that her brothers were in entirely different places from her family. They would move to Australia as soon as her father found an acceptable school for them. "I sort of miss my brothers. But, they were at boarding school anyway, so it's not so different now. Just further apart, and my english is better"
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