Under the Same Stars

Stella Wright

🌟 Space girl | SCIENCE! | question everything 🌟
Messages
358
OOC First Name
Jasmine
Blood Status
Half Blood
Relationship Status
Single
Sexual Orientation
pansexual
Wand
Straight 12 Inch Unyielding Beech Wand with Meteorite Dust Core
Age
9/2033
Stella climbed up the stairs to the Owlery with letters in her hand, just like she'd done regularly since she started at Hogwarts. But this time, there was something different. While before she'd just written one letter to all her family, this year, with her sister so close to joining her at Hogwarts, she'd decided to write separate letters just for Nell. Something special, for the two of them. At the moment her letter for Nell wasn't much different to her letter for her parents, but as Nell wrote back and they got a conversation started, Stella was sure they'd evolve into something unique.

Dear Nell,

It's only been a week and a half and I already miss you so much! It's so weird to think it's only a year away now that you'll be coming to Hogwarts too. I can't wait! You're going to love it here. Zoe is keen to help me show you around the castle when you do get here, which sounds like a fun experience for all of us. I think she's quite fascinated by the idea of having a little sister to spoil.

Classes are still getting into the swing of things, but we've already brewed our first potion of the year - the Forgetfulness Potion. This semester's Potions classes are shaping up to be really exciting. Professor Pendleton is back to his old enthusiastic self - remember I was worried about him last semester? I bet he'll be your favourite professor too. I'm hoping to find out (maybe do some experiments, though Professor Pendleton disapproves of brewing outside of class time) why you have to stir potions in particular directions.

I've also started taking Muggle Studies, and I'm beginning to think that was a mistake. The first lesson was really basic - the Professor was talking as though there were people in the class who didn't know what pens are! I'm hoping it'll get better - Professor Phillips did say there was science in it, but he takes the later years, and if this is how it continues this year I'll probably drop it before then.

First thing when I got back, Zoe and I had a very entertaining debate about astrology. She says I'm a typical Virgo! I think she might have been insulting me . . . in a nice way. Well, you know how I feel about that stuff, it's all ridiculous. Still, I do enjoy bickering with her about it.

I think I'll go stargazing again soon, take my telescope up to the top of the North Tower and see what I can see. Hogwarts is remote enough that you can see the stars a lot more clearly than we can from Dunedin. It's one of my favourite things about being in Ravenclaw, getting to live in a tower so high up away from everything. And it reminds me that even when I'm far away from home, and you, and mum and dad, we'll still be able to look up and see the same stars.

Lots of love,
Stella
 
Nell always looked forward to her sister's letters. It was easy to feel like Stella had almost vanished entirely, when she was away for so long. Even though she knew magic was real, had seen her father use it countless times and read through plenty of Stella's old school books, sometimes the story about a magical school far away where Stella was learning just felt like a fairytale. The letters helped Nell feel close to her sister, and now that Hogwarts was on her own horizon, it felt like a preview of her soon to begin future. Nell was delighted to get her own personalised letter from her sister, excited to begin writing back and forth with her. She had always added her own pieces on to the letter with Mum and Dad, but writing just the two of them somehow felt much more special.
Letter said:
Dear Stella

Hi! I miss you too! I was really happy when I got your letter. I want to go to Hogs Hogwarts with you soon I can't believe it is a whole year away! Is Zoe your friend who likes aliens? She sounds silly. I want you to show me around the castle though I can't believe you live in a castle.

That potion sounds scary because I don't wanna forget things but the class sounds really fun! Do you get to make up your own potions sometimes. I would make a potion that makes plants grow into the shape of a house so you can live inside them.

Muggle Studies sounds like a class where you look at a muggle to see what they do. It doesn't sound like science much.

Your friend sounds really silly and funny. How do you know what astrology sign you have? Do you learn that in classes? I don't know what mine is.

Living in a tower sounds so fun but scary. Do you ever look down out the window and get scared? I think I would. If I go outside tonight and look at the stars maybe we can be looking at the same stars at the same time. Last time I went stargazing with Mum we were making star maps together and it was really fun. I wanna do that again soon.

I miss you lots I can't wait to go to Hogwarts with you.

Love
Nell

P.S. I drew you a picture of me to put on your wall
 
Stella had forgotten, it seemed, how much she needed to explain when she was talking to Nell. It was easier, more seamless, when they were talking in person and Nell could just interrupt with questions anything she didn't understand. In letters, when Stella had to address each question in writing as it came up, their interaction felt so much clumsier. She found herself simplifying her language without even thinking about it, something she would never do in person. Nell was as smart as she was, just with so much less life experience, and Stella would never talk down to her. Also, she realised belatedly, having never paid much attention to such things herself, she didn't actually know Nell's star sign off the top of her head. "Hey Zoe," she called over her shoulder, "what's the star sign for the 23rd of April?"

Dear Nell,

I know! A year seems like such a long time but also it's so close. Yes, Zoe's my friend who likes aliens and she is very silly. I think you'll like her. I'm very keen to show you around the castle, though sometimes I can hardly believe I live in a castle either. There's so much to explore! And I'm sure there are more secrets yet that we haven't found yet. Zoe's convinced there are secret passages, and I think she's probably right, but we haven't found any yet.

I wish we got to make up our own potions! Maybe in the later years. Actually, there was a lesson where we got to invent a potion, but just for a joke. We didn't get to actually make them. It would probably be too dangerous to let the students experiment too much, but I would really like to. Your potion idea sounds wonderful.

Muggle studies is supposed to be a class to show people about how the muggle world works. It's mostly aimed at people who were brought up only around wizards so they don't know anything about muggles - not that I understand how they could manage that in such a small country - but I'm still hoping there will be some interesting stuff in it.

Astrology is the belief that the position of the stars when you were born determines things about your personality. It's a very old and obviously silly superstition. Your star sign would be Taurus (I had to ask Zoe). We don't learn about it in any of the classes I'm taking, though I wouldn't be surprised if there were classes about it. Hogwarts is very silly sometimes.

I love living in a tower! It's so high up, you can see everything, and the stars are really bright. I guess it could be scary, but it's really safe, there's no way you could fall.

That's beautiful, we shall definitely look at the same stars at the same time. I miss you so much! I'll see you in the holidays, though.

Love,
Stella

P.S. Thank you so much for the picture! It's lovely.
 
Nell had always looked forward to hearing from Stella, but now that she was getting her own personalised letters the anticipation had only grown. It was so exciting getting to talk to her sister properly while she was away. As soon as the letter from Stella came in Nell was running up to her bedroom to carefully compose a reply, eager to stay in touch with her distant sister.
Letter said:
Dear Stella

That sounds so fun I want to go looking for hidden passages with you and Zoe! I wish I could go to Hogwarts already.

That lesson sounds really fun, what kind of potion did you invent for class? Also what other kind of potions did you learn to make in class?

I asked Mum what a Taurus means and she said I shouldn't listen to silly people so I don't think she likes your friend's ideas much. What does it mean? Can you ask your friend what she says about it? It sounds silly and made up but I wanna know what it means.

At school today we went on a field trip to the butterfly exhibit at the museum and it was so pretty! I love the museum and the butterflies are so cool. We should go see them together when you have holidays.

I miss you!
Love, Nell

P.S. I drew a picture of you as a butterfly that you can put on your wall too
 
It wouldn’t be long now until the holidays arrived and Stella got to see Nell in person, but she was still enjoying writing to her in the meantime. Telling her all about what was going on, and hearing about life back home, felt like it grounded her, and writing things down gave her a space to think about them, even though she couldn’t fit absolutely everything into a letter.

Dear Nell,

I’m sure you’ll be welcome to go looking for secret passages with us. You might be disappointed, though: we haven’t had any success so far. We have a plan to scour the history books for clues, though.

I’m afraid I can’t remember the potion I made up, but I’m sure it wasn’t as much fun as yours. I’ll find it in my old notes when I come home for the holidays, if you like. This year the potions we’re making are all about making things grow bigger or smaller, like the mushrooms in Alice in Wonderland. It’s really interesting.

It’s very silly, but apparently Taurus are dependable, persistent, and loyal (sounds like you), but also lazy and possessive (which really doesn’t). I fear I’ve opened up far more discussion than I meant to by telling Zoe you were curious about this.

A school trip to see the butterflies sounds great! The only trip I’ve had this semester was to a muggle apartment for muggle studies, which was . . . weird. But last year we went to the Smithsonian (a big famous museum in America) with History of Magic, that was really cool.

I went to the Halloween Feast a little while ago, that was really fun. You know we don’t usually pay much attention to Halloween, but it was fun to dress up. I just had a mask like a masquerade ball, but some people got really into it. Zoe dressed as a character from a comic called Homestuck that sounded interesting, I might check that out over the holidays. And Ivory, one of the other girls in our year, dressed as the Universe!

I miss you too!
Lots of love,
Stella

P.S. I sent you a photo I got of me and Zoe dressed up for Halloween.
 

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