The Sun and Moon

Chapter 15

Much like Christmas, my summer had already come and gone. Leaving me to already board the Hogwarts Express. This time the effort it took to gather supplies for the new year was much less exciting or as much of a hassle. All things considered; it was actually a pretty quiet affair.

Not much had really happened in the meantime. Since school was out, I instead decided to travel the world a bit with my dad and sister. Joining them on several of their trips.

Though a lot of their explanations went over my head, I nonetheless took great enjoyment on simply being with them. Rather than taking pride in accomplishing anything of importance, I took it from attending to them. Washing their clothes, setting up their tents, carrying their bags, notes, spare quills, spare ink, extra spare quills, and helping them spot abnormalities.

Whenever we went home, I’d also occasionally travel to Diagon Alley. My supply of spellbooks and other strange baubles that I’ve received as gifts were appraised by several merchants, so I’d be able to get a price on them.

Eventually a goblin recommended me to ‘patent’ some of the spells, and making money through some sort of convoluted wizarding rules. I of course decided that making money perpetually over time was better than a sizable short-term gain.

That being said, I made sure to not put all my chickens in one basket. Thus, not all of my spare spellbooks were handed over. Only a handful, while others were sold elsewhere.

I still needed money, and I’d rather not ask dad for it. If anything, I’d much rather him or Luna coming to me for financial aid.

Besides that, nothing else of note had really happened.

Well, it was a bit unusual to see this many people hanging around the Hogwarts Express. Usually, families only came around to send off first years, with only close family members waiting for them on their return. If they were waiting at all.

But this year there was quite a…sizable amount of people. Forget just a few family members, entire family trees seemed to have shown up. For what reason I couldn’t imagine, but instead of focusing on sending off first years, they seemed to be observing just about every student that boarded the train.

I myself felt quite a few eyes upon me before finally stepping inside.

As I was passing through the compartments, a squirrelly girl nearly crashed into my side. She stammered out an apology before running along.

It made much more sense when I noticed that she was headed over towards the first-year compartments. Hogwarts could possibly be intimidating to the uninitiated.

I quickly found a familiar face through one of the doors, and thus opened it up. Revealing a slightly older Tim and Victoria…who were already deep into a discussion about the ethics of muggle experimentation.

Victoria’s eyes widened as she locked on to me. Seeming to attempt her best impression of an owl before schooling herself. Tim on the other hand frowned.

“Sorry, but we’re kind of waiting for a friend here…”

That made me frown slightly. Had they not verbally consented to being friends? Was there some sort of requirement or upkeep that I’ve failed to perform to maintain it?

Before I could respond, Victoria did first. Hissing at Tim with an annoyed look.

“You idiot, that’s Sol.”

His brows knit in confusion as he faced her, before moving to look back at me. Several seconds passed as he studied my visage before his face slowly morphed into a look of realization.

“…Holy…It’s like you skipped puberty or…wait, is that a spell!?”

“Of course it isn’t…”

Victoria stated, giving Tim a deadpan look, causing him to throw an annoyed expression back at her.

“Oh please. There are spells to shapeshift into animals, make your skin look more youthful, and to transform into other people. You really think a spell to skip puberty is that outlandish?”

Victoria sighed.

“With comments like those, you might as well be telling everyone you’re a muggleborn.”

“You…! Sol, back me up on this one.”

Tim stated before turning to me. Victoria huffed, before running her hand through her dark red hair. Crossing her legs before looking in my direction.

“Please. Sol has a much more grounded magical perspective. He’s obviously going to side with me.”

Mmm. Yeah, it looks as though nothing’s changed at all.