Start of a Journey [September 1978]

[Alexis Nightshade]

Alexis continued to look at the boy with the horrified expression, okay she could just about believe that he didn't fling them himself but still that wasn't the point.

"But they are harmless really, and they are doing what they've done for lots of years before we started moving into their territory!"

[Raphael Holloway]

"So the gnomes used to live here first, before humans lived here?" Raphael asked, rather fascinated by this. He was picturing his house and city as he knew it, but instead of humans living in the houses, it was filled by Garden Gnomes.

[Alexis Nightshade]

"Well I don't know about that. But some of the land that we inhabit now was naturally going to be the home of other creatures. They maybe small but they should have rights as anyone else does." Alexis was a budding eco-fighter.

[Raphael Holloway]

"Oh," Raphael said, "I don't really know much about rights." He swung his legs back and forth on the chair, looking out of the window, before looking back at Alexis. That was stuff he had heard his parents talk about before, but he wasn't sure what it all meant.

[Alexis Nightshade]

"I'm sure you'll come to know about them soon enough. Especially in the Magical Creature lessons!" responded Alexis, sounding a little more brighter and happier than before.

[Raphael Holloway]

"Yeah, it's going to be so much fun!" Raphael's eyes lit up when he thought about Hogwarts, and all the new things he would learn. "I can't wait to learn how to use my wand, too!"

[Alexis Nightshade]

Alexis would like to think she was bit of an authority on wand using, whilst she had never used it to actually perform magic she had been taught some of the moves by the eagle eye teachings of Daddy T.

"I can't wait to have Charms lessons and Transfiguation and Defence Against the Dark Arts and well all of it! Even History" Alexis was beaming at this point.

[Raphael Holloway]

"Yeah I think it'll all be really cool," Raphael nodded. He had always liked to learn, if he wasn't learning new things, he became restless and bored. Even with his tutor at home, he always needed to be challenged.

"I wonder what the Sorting Ceremony will be like," he thought out loud. His parents had told him some stuff, but he still wasn't sure what to imagine.

[Alexis Nightshade]

"I heard the hat sings, and the messages can be foreboding or cheerful. Which will be interesting to hear, I think my daddy was trying to pull the wool over my eyes when he said they bring Unicorns into the hall to perform for every student that gets sorted...cause he was trying hard to say it whilst not smiling."

[Raphael Holloway]

"Yeah, I don't think unicorns would want to perform," Raphael said, not believing this either. "I read that they're shy, they wouldn't want to perform in front of all the Hogwarts students."

[Alexis Nightshade]

"It would be overkill," said Alexis with a small shrug of her shoulders, "so what house do you think you'll get sorted into. I am pretty positive it's going to be Ravenclaw, it's in the blood you see."

[Raphael Holloway]

"My daddy was a Ravenclaw," Raphael smiled, he loved his dad, and would love to take after him. "He told me that he thinks I would be a good Ravenclaw, too."

[Alexis Nightshade]

"It is the best house" commented Alexis, "they are the best in the school in fact, certainly better than the other houses." Not that she really had opinion on them, sure you pick things up as a kid, especially about the stereotypical traits.

[Raphael Holloway]

"Yeah, I think so too," Raphael said, "the other houses are nice too probably, but I think I want to be in Ravenclaw." He was a little nervous about the Sorting Hat, what if the hat suddenly put him somewhere else, like Gryffindor or Slytherin?

[Alexis Nightshade]

"I think, I know I want to be in Ravenclaw, have to carry on the tradition" and well, the other reason being that she just knew what to expect in that house from the layout of the common-room to the talking Eagle bust. It was where she belonged, and she was darn well not going to have some old hat tell her otherwise.

[Raphael Holloway]

"Yeah, if your whole family was there, it makes sense for you to be a Ravenclaw too, it'd be in your blood," Raphael nodded, as if he knew everything about how fitting into a certain house was something that you inherited.

[Alexis Nightshade]

Alexis nodded, it only stand to reason that was the case. She simply hadn't factored in the possibility that might not be the case when it came to her sorting in her mind it simply wasn't likely.

"So where did you come from?" she asked, she might as well find out a bit more about the boy that was possibly going to end up in the same house as her.

[Raphael Holloway]

"Well I live in Liverpool with my family, but I'm also half American, so I have family there as well," Raphael grinned. He always loved visiting his family in the States, there were loads of them, and they were always really fun and friendly.

[Alexis Nightshade]

Alexis looked impressed, "I like the states, my Dad occasionally takes me if he has to visit there for work. I live in London otherwise, which is cool. Not far from the British Museum, which has all this old muggle stuff. But there is this area which is secret which is for witches and wizards." She liked to drag either her dad or Daddy Hurst along to see it.