Magical Hogwarts

Living in Shackamaxon, Betsy Mae knew about all events that took place in the wizarding town. How could she not? Her family had a shop there. Birds of a Feather was a name that most American wizards knew, an address that they came to when they wanted to get outdoor gear or anything along the lines of that. Betsy had not attended summer school this year and it had bothered her for a few days that her older sister and younger brother had been sent. However, the youngest Bird, Sunny, had also stayed behind and so it had not been quite so disappointing in the end.

Now it was a weekend again, Shackamaxon was particularly crowded as the beginning of term was coming closer. It gave the shops an opportunity to sell more than usually and there was always some extra activities that were rather exciting. Little contests, some of which were silly, others not so much. In short, there was a lot going on. The girl had already met some of her friends from school who had come over to get their school supplies. However, most of them had been with their parents and had little time to talk. That was also quite usual for such a day.

Betsy Mae had got herself a paper cone full of asorted sweets. The girl particularly liked the Fizzing Whizzbees and picked them out of the lot. The floating bit about them always made her smile. With her bag of sweets the fourth year made her way to Gondwana Laurasia Global Tea House. In order to prepare for the new term, the owner had put up a sign announcing that the first student who was able to answer three questions correctly would get a free drink. Betsy definitely wanted to try her best and do that. Gondwana Laurasia Global Tea House was one of her favourite locations in Shackamaxon anyway so this was quite convenient.

On her way there the girl looked around for further familiar faces. However, she did not spot any of her friends. Instead she almost walked into a little boy, probably an incoming first year, who seemed a little lost in the magical surroundings.

"Hey you," she greeted him kindly, "Are you okay? Can I help you? My name is Betsy. What's yours? Would you like a sweet?" She held out the paper cone to him and smiled. "Shackamaxon at a Saturday is a tad overwhelming, isn't it? Is it your first time here?"

http://www.magical-hogwarts.org/rpg/index.php?action=profile;u=23891' rel='nofollow noopener' target='_blank'>@Patrick Flaherty

Today was the day, Pat was making his first trip as a student with Kieran and his parents to Shackamaxon to buy all the things he needed for the upcoming term. He had been the year prior with Kieran to buy his things for his first year, but Pat was about to embark on his own adventure at Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. It was his own first chapter in a story that would write itself over the next seven years. His family had made the trip the same way they had the year before, by driving the several hundred miles between Temple and the northeast. His family, rather different from the normal type of folks that you would find in the NE anyways, felt particularly out of place in a town full of wizards and witches, shops dedicated to selling magical gear, and everything else that existed and was so obviously magical. Even though they had been once before, the shock of it all still seemed to find its place on the faces of the Flaherty family.

The weather was great as the family walked into the small town. Pat's parents had agreed to do the majority of the shopping themselves and, after warning the two boys on the dangers of strange people in the town, let them explore a bit through some of the shops that lined the streets. Pat moved fluidly through the crowds around him, waving farewell to his parents as he did so. Passing several impressive window displays, Pat found the magical bookstore and ducked in without even a backwards glance.

Staring at the floor to ceiling bookshelves that lined the walls and created makeshift corridors through the shop, Pat pulled random books from their homes, noting the covers, the titles and the topics they covered. Some of the books looked familiar and Pat was sure that he had read at least a few of them from Kieran's stack of course books he had borrowed over the summer. Noting one book which looked particularly interesting, a leather bound tome with pictures of a man transforming into a dog, Pat decided to go back and look for his parents to ask for an early present for the start of term, a few extra books might help him catch up on some of his classmates who had been doing this whole magic thing since they were born.

Stepping back out to the sun filled street, Pat looked round, rather lost hoping to catch sight of his parents. Moving towards some of the more congested areas, Pat looked for his father's noticeable cowboy hat or his mother's, rather unnecessarily large, handbag. Not catching sight of either one of them near the robe shop, Pat moved towards the apothecary, a shop just on the other side of a small tea room. Making his way to the tea shop, Pat heard someone call out to him. A girl, a few years older than him by the look of it, was holding out a sack of sweets and asked his name. Pat did his best to smile back at her, deciding there was little harm in introducing himself to what he would assume would soon be one of his schoolmates. "Hi Betsy, I am Patrick, but you can call me Pat." Reaching out to accept her offer of sweets, Pat nodded at the same time, "Sure, a sweet would be very nice thanks. I hope they aren't as exciting as the rest of this place. It is kinda overwhelming, but no it isn't time, it's my second. My brother is a second year and we came last year."

Taking the sweet from the sweet from the bag, Pat undid the wrapper. The bright colored wrapping and ton tongue toffee label falling forgotten to the floor. Popping the candy into his mouth. Pat smiled and replied, "Thanks again, these sweths awr so goud" Pat's words began muddling completely and immediately. His tongue had already grown to almost twice its normal size. He couldn't control its growth and he couldn't form words anymore. Grabbing at his mouth, Pat felt his breathing quicken, his heart beat speed up and began to freak out. What had she given him? What was going on? How could he have been so stupid, his parents had even warned him about strangers just earlier. Looking around, Pat searched for someone, anyone who could help him.

sorry it took so long to get something up, hope this works

"Nice to meet you, Pat," Betsy said with a wide smile. She could well remember how it had been when she had been about to start her education at Ilvermorny. It had been so exciting and overwhelming despite the fact that Mary Lou and their parents had told her about what she could expect. She hoped that the boy in front of her would find everything equally fascinating.

Betsy shrugged when Patrick said he hoped that the sweets wouldn't be as exciting as the rest of the magical world. There was hardly a guarantee that the sweets were harmless. Betsy almost wanted to take her offer back, fearing that she'd scare the boy away with one of the magical sweets.

"That's nice. I have an older sibling myself, a sister," Betsy said. "And I have two younger brothers. Do you have any younger siblings?"

When Patrick took the sweet and put it into his mouth, Betsy wanted to scream 'no!' but it was already too late. She bit her lips anxiously and looked down. This was not good. Not good at all. Quite certainly Patrick would not like her anymore after this.

She had never tried a ton-tongue toffee herself and the sight of Patrick's tongue growing was rather disturbing. "Oh..." she said. "Let us go inside." She pulled Pat along and got him into Gondwana Laurasia Global Tea House.

As they were away from the crowd outside, Betsy looked at the boy apologetically. "I'm so sorry," she said, "I didn't mean to trick you into taking a sweet with strange side-effects. In fact, I just got a paper cone of mixed sweets so I didn't even know that they put that in as well. I'm really sorry... can you forgive me? I'll get you a pumpkin juice, okay?!" She blushed as she realised that with the still growing tongue Pat was hardly able to drink anything at the moment.