First Year Entrance 2020-2021

@Robert Toukmond @Elisabeth Erner @Rohan Fog

Akari's breath hitched as she spotted the castle. The enormous seven-story building was finally visible. And boy was it quite the sight. She it looked better than she ever imagined; she was so awestruck and at how magnificent it looked in the setting that they were in that she began to get lost in a day dream of what the next few years of her life will be like.

She was taken out of her thoughts as the woman (who she couldn't recall her name) was sitting in the same boat as the caretaker spoke up welcoming them to their home for the next seven years.

Akari nearly jumped at getting startled at Rohan's tone of voice and was completely oblivious to the shadow that was roaming around underneath the other boats and then quickly looked over to see Elisabeth attempting to stand so then she added to his comment in a concerned tone by saying "Elisabeth, do be careful"

As the boats glided closer and closer butterflies started swarming around in her stomach. She knew she had nothing to be nervous about but she just could not help it; this was just too exciting.

Entering boat 7
Interacting with: @Barret Baldwin @Sunny Nightingale @Lindsey Monroe

As Kira got off the train she wasn’t sure where she should go when a man called out "Incoming first years, come this way! Leave your luggage behind!" gesturing for them to come to him. Kira along with all of the other first years began to follow him and she took this time to take in the things around her. This school was much bigger and had a lot more students than anything back home and while this was a bit intimidating it also excited her.

The group made it’s way to the edge of a large lake where a woman was waiting and small boats were docked. Across the lake was a towering castle, lights from the windows reflected across the water mixing with the moonlight, it was breathtaking Kira couldn’t believe that this would be her school for the next seven years. Snapping her out of her thoughts, the man you had led them here introduced himself as Mr. Iwasaki, the Hogwarts Caretaker, and the woman as Professor Jensen, head of Slytherin House. He then explained that there must be four to a boat and after a second of hesitation everyone began to find a boat. Most of the students headed towards the closer first boats so Kira walked towards the farther boats, were she found one with three students seated who seemed to have already started to introduce themselves to each other. She was a little nervous but made her way over and introduced herself, “Hey, I’m Kira! Mind if I join you guys?”

Interacting with
@Remi Yao
@Starlee Kennedy
@Jess Malters

This was going great. I was making friends, learning magic and having fun. I felt like the protagonist of a fantasy movie. Luckily, the tension in this boat died very quickly. The fog began to clear, which seemed to ease a lot of people. As I turned away from Starlee... I saw it. The main attraction of the Scottish highlands. The cherry on top of the proverbial cake. Hogwarts.
It was a breathtaking view. The castle standing tall as it shone with lights. I felt like pumping my fist in the air and shouting "YES!", but all that came out was,

"Utterly amazing"

I said in a quiet and soft tone. It was beautiful on the outside, but I still wondered what greater things I would see if I entered. One thing was for sure, I couldn't wait to get sorted. Suddenly, the idea of everyone in this boat getting sorted into the same house started appealing to me.
I was a halfblood so I didn't know where I truly belonged. I hoped that this school would show me. Remi said something about us joining quidditch teams. "Great, just another thing I don't know" I thought. I needed to learn about magic... Fast.

Boat 7: @Lindsey Monroe, @Barret Baldwin and, @Kira Rosenburg

Sunny felt that the boat was relatively small, and she did not want to risk the chance of falling, so she made sure she was well-seated. She had previously heard her grandmother and mother mentioned that a Giant Squid lived underneath this body of water. She pondered whenever the Squid was still around since her guardian graduated from Hogwarts several years ago.

After settling into the boat, one of the students said, “Hi.” Sunny was so focused on making sure that she was seated securely and the possibility of the Giant Squid still being alive that she forgot to introduce herself. “My name is Lindsey. What are your names?” the young girl stated.

Sunny smiled and proceed to answer, “My name is Sunny Nightingale, and it is nice to meet all of you.” While they were in the middle of introducing themselves, another girl approached the boat and asked, “Hey, I’m Kira! Mind if I join you guys?”

Sunny turned to the dark brown-headed girl and replied, “Hi, I’m Sunny, and come right in!” Sunny was rather happy that her boat was full of students, and she hopes that they all could become friends.

When all the students were seated, she heard Mr. Iwasaki shout, “FORWARD!” Instantly, the boats started to move across the lake without the assistance of any paddles. After what seemed like a few minutes to Sunny, she could now see the stunning view of the big castle with its many towers and turrets. She could not believe that this is where she was going to spend the next seven years, just like her grandmother and mother had done.

Interacting with: @Barret Baldwin @Sunny Nightingale @Lindsey Monroe

It turned out that Kira was worried for nothing, as soon as she introduced herself, one of the girls, whose name she now knows is Sunny, invited her to join them. As she stepped into the boat, it rocked slightly and she had to take a moment to steady herself before sitting down. Seconds after getting seated, they heard Mr. Iwasaki yell, “FORWARD,” and the boats instantly left the shore and began to cross the lake.

Not long after leaving the shore, the boats became surrounded by mist, it reminded Kira of something out of a dream. It was silent except for quiet conversations happening around them, but she couldn’t make out the boats themselves. Only the lamplight breaking through the fog let her know that they weren’t alone as they continued across the water.

The fog began to fade away after a few minutes and in front of them stood the school. It was amazing, and Kira couldn’t wait to explore it, but she also couldn’t help but imagine how easy it would be to get lost inside. She turned to the other kids in the boat and voiced this thought, “This place is huge, it must be really easy to get lost. I mean, I’ve even heard that there are moving staircases, do you know if that’s true?”

Interacting with @Elisabeth Erner, @Akari Kato, and @Rohan Fog

Robert looked around him as he saw the heavy fog start to clear, and got his first view at the castle he would be spending the majority of his next seven years in. He was awestruck by how beautiful and impressive it looked, sitting atop the steep cliff in all its medieval majesty. After staring in awe at the castle for a couple moments, his gaze then traveled down closer to the edge of the lake, when he was startled to see that they were heading straight for the cliff, with no dock in site.

His nerves were eased a bit when he heard Mr. Iwasaki say they were heading for an underground harbor, but not by much. Robert hated not knowing what was happening, or where they were going. In the muggle world, whenever he was in the backseat of a car, he always leaned over past the seat in front of him to see where they were going. Before learning about magic, he'd been counting down the days to when he could finally get a driver's license and take control of the car for himself. Not having any say over where they were going, whether it was in a car speeding down the highway or a boat drifting toward a cliff, gave the first-year a suffocating feeling of helplessness. The only thing that helped ease this feeling was being able to see at least a couple feet ahead of him.

For this reason, when Elisabeth started to stand up, blocking his view of the castle, instead of comprehending the danger she'd put herself in, he instead started to lean to one side in order to get a better view of the castle. It was only when Rohan and Akari both cried out in response to her action that he took another look at the standing girl. "Wh-Elisabeth, what are you doing?" he exclaimed, sitting up straight again, embarrassed. "Sit down before you fall overboard or something!"

Overboard

Marcus continued to grin at the thought of Browne and a singing hat. He had no clue what to think of this Sorting Hat since he had never seen it before, so he was picturing Browne wearing a bowler hat with a mouth and the two of them singing a duet. The thought cheered him and took his mind off of the relatively miserable situation he was in. He and Nora fell into a companionable silence again as the boats progressed closer to the cliff side.

Meanwhile, a girl in boat 3 (@Elisabeth Erner) had decided to try her luck at standing up to get a better look at the castle. She thought that asking her boatmate @Robert Toukmond for help would aid her in staying balanced, but he didn't - opting instead to lean around her in an attempt to continue looking at the castle. When he did notice what she was doing, he offered no aid, simply telling her to sit back down. But it was too late - she had gotten to her feet and attempted to maintain her balance on her own. She was nearly successful in straightening to her full height, but after just a second, the boat rocked from her movements and she was thrown into the icy cold water (rolled 10, DC 12). It would leave boat 3 rocking violently from the fall, but with no one else standing up, they would all maintain their spot in the boat.

The splash caused Marcus to snap his head towards the source. He saw the disturbance in the lake where someone may have dropped something or maybe even fallen in, but he guessed it was the latter because he witnessed firsthand as the dark-skinned boy from before (@Remi Yao) dove from boat 2 right into the lake.

"STOP!" he commanded of the boats, the anger in his voice prominent. The small fleet came to a standstill near the wall of ivy that would've taken them into the underground harbor. Marcus gritted his teeth at the thought of having to rescue the rugrats, but before he or Nora could make any action to do so, bubbles began to appear on the surface of the lake.

Suddenly, an enormous tentacle rose from the depths of the lake, sending water splashing across all of the boats. Not a lot, but enough to upset Marcus even further. Just as his instincts to defend were triggered, his light eyes noticed the tentacle was holding two very soaked first years. The tentacle promptly deposited these two youngsters (Elisabeth and Remi) into boat 1 where both Marcus and Nora were. With this task accomplished, the tentacle disappeared as quickly as it had arrived.

"Sit down!" he snapped at them, having no sympathy for the fact that they were probably icy cold from being drenched in the lake. Not to mention probably terrified at being manhandled by the giant squid. And his own presence probably wasn't helping them. But none of this crossed the caretaker's mind as he sought an explanation as to how and why they had ended up in the lake. "Care to explain yourselves?" Marcus hissed at the two. He had half a mind to shove them back into the water, but knew that would just mean another rescue attempt and more work for him in the end.

OOC Note: For those that aren't aware of what is meant by "rolling," HiO has a discord channel where thread moderators use a bot to roll dice for moderated instances such as this. Usually, a 20-sided die is rolled plus a character's stats to determine the outcome of a situation. For example, below is a screenshot of me rolling to see if Elisabeth maintains her balance. The bot rolled a 3 + Elisabeth's 7 accuracy stat meaning she got a 10 total, but the DC (difficulty check) to stay balanced in this situation is a 12. Therefore, she fell from her boat and ended up in the lake. If you haven't joined already, our discord channel is also a great place to interact more with the community! Click here if you're interested and follow the instructions.

Reducio

Also, just a note that Remi Yao owled to confirm he would jump into the lake if Elisabeth fell in.

Interacting with @Aemadall Zarcovich & @Jess Malters
And kinda @Remi Yao if you wanna read it to catch up on our boat before you jumped in!

It seemed that while Logan was rather large for a first year, he wasn't quite so menacing as Starlee thought. He told her not to worry about bumping into him, and that he won't hurt anyone. 'Well... that was kinda sweet.' She thought. And he was excited for Defence Against the Dark Arts and Charms, huh? I mean, all the classes at Hogwarts seemed fascinating. Well... except maybe Astronomy. She really had no idea what they would be doing in that class... plus she would much rather be sleeping!

Before she could respond back to Logan, it was then that the fog lifted and the Castle was directly in front of them. 'Wow.' Starlee had traveled all over Scotland with her father for various healing trips, but she had never seen anything quite so spectacular. What a way to see the school for the first time. The rest of her boat seemed to be staring at the castle in awe. None of them could peel their eyes away from such a glorious sight.

Remi was the first to look away, going back to answer her earlier question. All of the classes huh? I mean, she certainly wanted to have a good grade average... but she definitely wasn't excited for all of them. He went on about all the classes, and how Defence Against the Dark Arts would be a joke until later years. Well, she hoped she would learn something. And hmm... another magic school? She knew loads about Ilvermorny, but Remi could have gone to Durmstrang? He is certainly bold, perhaps his parents were right in sending him to Hogwarts!

He then asked about Quidditch, to which Starlee shrugged. She wasn't the most sporty person, so Quidditch never interested her. Now dueling on the other hand, that she was excited for. However, before she could respond, Remi jumped up. Starlee was still staring at the castle and didn't catch Elizabeth standing up, or falling in, until she heard the splash, and then the following splash from Remi diving in after her. "R-Remi!" Was all Starlee managed to shout at the boy as the boat rocked back and forth from his hasty departure. She quickly grabbed on to the side of the boat, as it rocked, hoping the thing wouldn't tip them over too. Mr. Iwasaki yelled 'Stop!', and the boats immediately stopped. What was going on!? It was then a giant squid tentacle popped out of the water, proceeding to splash them all, and then going for Elizabeth and Remi. She was speechless. She couldn't say a thing. She just watched as they were lifted into the air and then conveniently dropped into the boat with Mr. Iwasaki and Professor Jensen were. Well, that was certainly not what she had been expecting to happen. Perhaps the Squid was... okay? Starlee nervously stared at the front boat, wondering if the two would get into trouble.

She turned to Jess and Logan and said, "Well, I certainly wasn't expecting that! I wonder if that squid is nice after all? I mean... it did just put them back down in the boat... what other reason could there be?" She could hear Mr. Iwasaki yelling at the two in the distance.

Interacting with:
@Jess Malters, @Starlee Kennedy,
@Remi Yao

Alright, here's a quick recap. We all walked into the boat. We started warming up to each other and knew we were gonna be friends sooner or later. Remi and some other girl, probably Starlee, got at each other's throats for a couple seconds, the giant castle appeared and sweet, simple Remi does the unthinkable.
We all seemed to be stunned at the sight of the castle. Why wouldn't we be? It was magnificent. Everything was fine and peachy.... until it happened.
I saw Elisabeth stand and fall out of the boat. Remi stood and jumped in the lake and began to swim for her. I shouted,

DUDE, NO!!!

I saw a short bubbling in the lake, out of the corner of my eye. Then it happened. A huge tentacle grabbed Remi and Elizabeth and dropped them in the boat with two adults. It's amazing how much can happen in a few seconds. I was relieved that the squid didn't attack them but still a bit shaken up by everything. I hoped they didn't get in trouble. Starlee thought maybe it was a nice squid cuz it dropped them in boat 1 and didn't hurt them. I could hear one of the adults, yelling at them. I felt sorry for them, but still, what the heck were they thinking? The squid could have eaten them. Elisabeth could have realized her mistake and climbed back in. Remi could have sat down like us.

"Well, that's one way to go. The kid is crazy."

I said turning to Jess and Starlee. Only a nice, long nap could fix this trainwreck.