16 16 - Start of Second Year.

Looking around the platform, there were a few families saying goodbye here and there, but it was nowhere near packed like it will be in around 20 minutes, because I once again am early.

Stepping onto the train, I made my way to the second to last compartment that I agreed upon with my main 3 friends as the compartment we'd meet up on.

Putting my trunk away and pulling out a fantasy book that I found in the wizarding world, I waited for 20 minutes and by that time Ryan and Penelope were here.

We made small talk waiting for Kevin to make it to the platform and we noticed after 10 more minutes, Kevin coming onto the the platform with what was more than likely his parents along with an 8 year old looking girl who could only be his sister.

We watched as his family smothered him with kisses and hugs and before finally letting him onto the train, 30 seconds later he made his way into the compartment.

Breaking the silence, I said, "You know for someone so quiet, I didn't think your family would be so doting."

Kevin just blushed a bit and sat next to Penelope.

"So, did you do anything fun during the summer?" Penelope asked

"Well I got a new broom.. and a kneazle, which you already know" I said while glaring at Archie who was sleeping peacefully in Penelope's lap as if it was the most comfortable place in the world.

'Damn traitor'

"Oh, what broom did you get?" asked Ryan who seems to like quidditch.

"A Cleansweep 7." I said casually.

Ryan gaped at me.. "That's the newest broom in the market, I saw it in the front window of Quality Quidditch Supplies!"

"Cool" I said casually, even though I was also excited at riding my new broom.

.. "I went to Greece, the magical world there is so much different than ours!" said Penelope after a few seconds of silence.

"Those sweets you sent me from Greece were very nice by the way" I said to her.

"You're welcome, though I didn't appreciate you sending me those dung bombs and acid pops"

"That's what you got her for Christmas?" Ryan asked

"What? She almost had a panic attack when she realised she was out 5 minutes after curfew, she needs to learn to lighten up."

"I can lighten up just fine, thank you!"

"Sigh, what about you Kevin, you do anything fun?"

"I got a few new books on charms and Defence against the Dark Arts."

"I see.. what about you Ryan?"

"Not really, I did get to go to a quidditch match though. Puddlemere United's seeker was amazing! He scooped the snitch out of the air with the grace a cat!"

'It seems that Ryan is very passionate about quidditch..'

"If you want, i'll let you ride my broom once we're back at Hogwarts."

All of a sudden I heard snorting

"What?"

"You want him to ride your broom?" asked Penelope

"You really have a dirty mind Penelope, and here I thought you were the sensible one" I said playfully.

She blushed a little at that, "You're the one who said I need to lighten up"

"Yea, yea, so anyway, how was Greece?"

"It was fun! There were lots of cool landmarks that we got to visit, and they had a huge bookstore that had loads of new books that I've never even heard of in Flourish and Blotts."

"Did you see The Parthenon?" asked Kevin.

"I did! It was amazing, it was waay bigger than I thought it would be!"

After that, Penelope and Kevin proceeded to have a long conversation on historical landmarks and books.

After a long few hours we finally reached the platform.

..

In the Great Hall, we were all sitting at our table, waiting for the First Years to get sorted.

After a few minutes they all walked in, most looking nervous but excited.

There wasn't really anything interesting that happened during the sorting, i'm fairly certain there was a few new names that weren't in canon but I can't be sure.

After they were all sorted and Dumbledore did his speech we dug into the feast.

Making our way back to the common room Kevin and Ryan decided to play some chess while Penelope was reading a book, meanwhile I decided to head off to my room and meditate for a bit.

After a few hours, I eventually fell asleep and like usual, I went for a run around the lake at 7:30am

On my way back I met with Penelope and Ryan walking together, we all walked into the Great Hall together and were handed our schedules by Professor Flitwick

We had 2 free lessons, transfiguration at 11am, then Herbology after lunch at 1pm, followed by another free lesson, then we had history of magic at 3pm and I had Flying at 4 with Ryan, we have Astronomy at midnight on Monday's too. It seems Magic Theory is gone as well.

I plan on really getting good at duelling this year, I also need to work on my magic control and rune drawing skills.

I can remember all of the runic languages required to get my NEWT's but Runes need an amazingly steady and constant hand. Because of all of the Martial Arts and Duelling, along with the improved mental faculties I got with occlumency, I already have a very steady hand and good hand-eye coordination but my hands just don't flow like a Rune master does when they draw runes, I don't have anything to compare to so I don't know exactly where my skills lie.

As for my magic control, with all of the wandless magic I've been doing it's far above any second year student, in fact it's probably on the same level as the upper year 6th and 7th years students at least but after my first magical maturity, it took a while to get used to when casting spells, I had to consciously change how much magic I wanted put into the spell for it to work, so I can't be fully confident just yet.

On the other hand, transfiguring all of those figures and making them fight in many different ways simultaneously really helped my understanding of magic and how to use my mind to control and mould it in the way I want.

As for duelling, while my skills are progressing nicely I still don't quite have the pure power that the older students have considering i'm only in my 1st magical maturity. I'd say in terms of power I can compare to quite a few in their 2nd maturity but the 17 year old students just have more power, power isn't everything in a duel but it's still important and considering I have no students duelling skills to compare to mine, I honestly don't have a very good idea on where my skills are at compared to them.

As a rough estimate I'd say i'm on the upper levels of duellers among students regardless of their age but most of the teachers are just better.. still, i'm only in my 2nd year, I have quite a while to improve.. though after I'm able to beat the puppets I think I'd have to beat real people to further my skills.. but that won't be for a few years so I can hold off on those thoughts for now.

Hmm.. I do remember there being some duels in Brazil that have almost no rules other than no unforgivables, you can even die and nobody would be held responsible but yourself, but deaths are pretty rare. I'll have to check those out at some point, maybe next summer? Or the one after at least, but for now.. I'm going to improve my duelling and experiment with potions and spells.. maybe create my own.. what's the worst that could happen?