Freaks: Year Two

A Tournament

"It's good to be back," Jasper said before he took a spoonful of soup.

"It is," Maryrose agreed. "I had no idea how much I missed this place."

Hogwarts had not changed. Well, it seemed like that at first. There were still candles floating over the heads of students and the ceiling still reflected the actual night sky. There was still chatter among the students, and excited first years, mesmerised by everything they were seeing, but there was something else...a feeling of worry.

With the muggle attacks over the summer, it left some of the students at Hogwarts without a parent, a sibling, an uncle, or an aunt. That, and it gave a sense of worry and anxiety over the school as a whole despite the Great Hall being mostly cheery. All the older students and professors knew something dark was going on. There was no denying it anymore.

Jasper took another bite of his soup, a bit down that he was the only one here. He really had thought that Toby would end up being a wizard. He knew it was stupid, but how the hell did muggleborns and getting magic in their blood even work? He wished Toby was here. If he had been a wizard, Toby would have been sorted! He would have been right beside Jasper, unless of course he had ended up being a Ravenclaw or Gryffindor, but Jasper really thought out of all the houses, Toby would have been a Hufflepuff just like him. That's what he hoped anyway because then Jasper would be able to look out for Toby easily.

But no, Toby hadn't even been a wizard which had crushed Jasper's hopes about all his brothers getting out to a magical safe haven.

"Look at that!" Andy Scott's voice broke out as she watched an owl fly over the length of the Hufflepuff table.

"Have you never seen an owl before?" asked Garret Fletcher, another first year, in a bit of a snooty tone of voice.

Andy said, "Well, I have, but never so close!" She looked up as the owl flew out of the Great Hall. "That's so cool. Are there really ghosts too?" One of the prefects nodded and Andy gasped. "Cool!! I can't wait to see them!!"

"Muggleborn?" Jasper asked Andy.

She nodded. "Yeah...two non-magical parents right?"

Jasper nodded. "I'm muggleborn too, you'll love Hogwarts. Have you seen any of the moving paintings yet?"

Andy's eyes were wide. "They actually move?" Jasper nodded. "I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me."

"Nope," Jasper said. "They actually move...and talk. It's pretty cool."

"Wow!" Andy exclaimed.

"It frightened me when I was a little firstie myself," said a seventh year Hufflepuff who was a muggleborn as well. "Screamed and fell down the stairs and before I knew it, it was moving...which only made me scream more."

"Ah, who could forget about that Priya?" one of her friends named Roxanne said with a grin.

"Yeah, you were the one who laughed!"

"It was funny! You made the record of ending up in the Hospital Wing before the first day even ended! That takes talent."

"Yeah, the talent of being a clumsy easily scared muggleborn witch."

Roxanne shrugged. "Still a talent."

"Just wait until flying class," Wyatt Haywood (a first year) said to Andy who had been listening to the two seventh year girls. "It is the best."

"Flying is an actual thing?" another muggleborn first year named Elijah Po asked.

"Yup!" Wyatt replied.