Hogwarts!

It was a very quiet train ride all things considered.

Susan and her friend hung out right across from him while he decided to randomly browse through his school books. To be fair it was his first time looking at magic from an academic point of view, it certainly made it a whole lot more boring as now that he understood how to do this and that, it took away the whole mysterious, all-purpose, mystical power sort of impression.

It was a lot like how electricity was used in the muggle world except a whole lot more versatile and specific.

*Click*

The door to the trolley opened as a kindly-looking elderly witch entered their compartment.

"Anything off the trolley dears?"

Her sweet voice caught the attention of all the compartment's occupants.

Deacon really wanted to try some of the sweets from the trolley, it had been his fantasy in one of his past lives and it still is in his current, the wafting smell of honey and chocolate that permeated the train compartment was just too attractive. 

But he was too poor... Barely a sickle in his pocket, how could he ever wish to afford even just a single chocolate frog?

"Can I have one of everything miss?"

Susan Bones spoke up and handed an entire 3 galleons to the trolley witch who eagerly handed out a stack of boxes that seemed a bit too big to fit inside the tiny trolley.

...

It felt horrid, there was no way for him to try a chocolate frog, and she could afford that easily? Hell, she bought one of everything! That's enough food to feed him for at least a week if he rationed it.

Susan and her friend munched on some hard candy carelessly, Deacon tried his best to stick his nose in his book, which coincidentally happened to be The Witches Weekly magazine from the past month.

"... Is that a witches' weekly magazine?"

The blonde girl spotted it in the corner of her eye. It was very sudden, at least for Deacon, so he stayed there a little speechless until he slipped out of his trance and finally answered after a few minutes.

"... Yes it is"

"Really? I wouldn't have expected someone dark like you to read a women's magazine"

"... Dark? Do I really look that... And anyways! I heard magazines were the best way to adjust to the wizarding world!"

That was a lie, he liked the recipes they had written on there but he couldn't say that, could he? It would get him misunderstood faster than he could screw it up more which is usually really fast.

"You are a muggle-born?"

"Uh... Yes?"

He could have sworn the blonde girl's eyes twinkled for a solid moment as she began bombarding him with questions, she was sheltered as a kid and never learned about the muggle world at all. Her name was Hannah Abbot and she seemed like that one favorite child at the family reunion, but not as spoiled by everyone.

Soon Susan started asking questions, it was starting to turn into a lecture where the two were learning about the muggle world.

"These huge metal birds fly through the sky without any magic! Just two spinny things that go very fast!"

""Woah""

They had no idea what a plane was, and the more he explained the more he felt like he was describing a fairytale, they seemed so skeptical when they heard that muggles had apparently made a bomb that could decimate cities.

"So according to muggles, everyone is made of these tiny little things called atoms, and when you break these tiny little things, a huge explosion happens!"

"Like the explosion charm?"

"If you gathered the entire of magical Britain and made them cast it at the same time then sure"

"That big?!"

(A/N: I think I wrote something bad ಠ_ಠ)

At that moment he sneakily took a chocolate frog that hopped in his general direction and shoved it in his mouth as he pretended to sneeze.

Mission complete!

It tasted very chocolatey obviously, but it also had a lot of strange after-tastes, the one he had eaten had apparently some sort of vanilla because he tasted something akin to vanilla ice cream, not something bland, and not something too sweet.

"Hey! He took a frog!"

Shit, how did she know?

"You got chocolate all over your hands!"

"Goddamnit"

He got caught, but it's just a frog, right? They had a whole tower of boxes of assorted sweets right next to them!

"Announcement! Everyone get in your robes! The train is dropping you all off in a bit!"

Yes! Saved by the bell! Or... not the bell? Whatever the term was he sprinted out the compartment door with his trunk. 

He slid his robes on as smooth as butter, a little trick he learned in the orphanage to not miss the school bus that had to go past so early. Even after having experienced three different lives in different worlds he could still not really understand why the damned bus had to pick him up at 5 am!

Deacon pulled out his wand from its holster as he levitated the trunk into his hands, or at least tried to, his trunk was much too heavy for whatever he wanted to do, so he just held it in his arms as he heard the train chime with joy at dropping the students off.

*Choo Choo*

*Clack*

*Creek*

The train doors opened up with a creeky sound, probably some rusty hinges but this was a magical train of all things so it may as well have been built in. Why? Wizards and their quirky ideas or something, there was a whole shop dedicated to pranking in Diagon Alley after all.

"Firs' Years! Firs' Year over 'ere!"

An absolute giant of a man was gesturing with his huge hands for all the first years to follow him, and they did, he was among the tiny crowd following the giant man like a headless chicken.

"On the boats!" 

There was a line of tiny boats, fitted for exactly three kids each, nothing was connecting the boats, and there was nothing that could allow them to follow a path like a motor or even just a paddle, and the explanation is probably obvious. Yup, it's magic. The wizarding world seems a bit too over-reliant on it but how could you not rely on it? It's the most versatile thing you could have, but if someone used the magical equivalent of an EMP then everything would go to shit.

He stumbled onto the boat nearest to him with another boy and a girl.

"Hello! I'm Seamus Finnigan, it's nice to meet ya!"

"Deacon Butch, it's a pleasure"

"I'm Tracey Davis, it's good to meet you both"

Why's everyone so formal at this place? It's not like everyone who goes here is nobility right?

"Which house are hoping to go to?"

Tracey Davis was supposed to go to Slytherin right? It would make sense she would be curious, Slytherins were very pompous and discriminating right?

"I dunno, hope I won't go to Ravenclaw, too many books"

"Ain't that the truth, I'm hoping to go to Gryffindor!"

Seamus Finnigan was rather nice. He's got some spunk that's for certain.

Deacon didn't want to get into any feuds early on, and that required him to be ambiguous, not choosing anything and staying on the sidelines. He could go for a nice quiet school life but that was nearly impossible at Hogwarts.

Soon a beautiful view enveloped his eyes, an enormous castle stood proudly against a backdrop of stars, the twilight night shimmering in an attempt to outshine the castle's warmth. So his fantasies from middle school have finally come to reality huh?

*Woosh*

*Splash!*

The boats that were wading through the peaceful waters suddenly stopped next to a worn path leading to a large flight of stairs.

On the peak of the flight of stairs stood the transfiguration professor, Minerva McGonagall, who had previously taken him shopping.

"I'll leave them to you, Miss McGonagall"

The giant of a man respectfully gave the students off to her, like passing the leash of a dog to another person, and walked past her into the giant hall.

She led them into the enormous hall, the ceiling was covered with thousands of floating candles, each looking like its very own star in the dim light of the hall. Four huge tables were laid in the center of the hall, with a fifth smaller table overlooking all the other four. The four tables represented the four houses but the last fifth contained all the professors.

The first years were left in a small crowd, and an old hat was brought out, it looked so old Deacon could have sworn it crumbled a little as it was sat down on a stool.

"Abbot, Hannah!"

The first name was called out, a name that Deacon was quite familiar with, but besides that, what he heard next cemented his place in his reality. The hat spent no more than half a minute before it announced loudly.

"Hufflepuff!"

Hannah's robes suddenly obtained some yellow highlights and she was led off to one of the tables which had Hufflepuff written all over it, it mainly had way too many soups and steaming casseroles, pies, and various other warm dishes.

Wait a minute. Did every house have different foods on their tables? 

Deacon's eyes wandered around and, his suspicions were confirmed. 

Gryffindor had a lot of meaty dishes, chickens and turkeys bigger than he had ever seen, steaks, burgers, lamb, and just a single dish of steamed asparagus in the middle of the table that was promptly getting ignored.

Slytherin had a lot of luxurious-looking foods, vegetables arranged in aesthetically pleasing shapes, tiny chunks of fish, and various exotic animals, decorated the plates that lay upon the table.

Ravenclaw had mostly nutritious foods without much taste, no aesthetics, mostly vegetables, and quite boring in the food department. Deacon could swear he saw some of the Ravenclaws eating only bread, not garlic bread, not toast, just raw bread.

"Butch, Deacon!"

His name was called and as he was brought under the hat he wondered how it would obtain his house, was it an automatic personality test? Did it read his mind?

"Your curiosity is befitting of Ravenclaw"

Oh gods no! Deacon almost grimaced with how much he didn't want to go to those feathery bastards who didn't have a semblance of taste.

"You have a kind nature befitting of a Hufflepuff!"

"But you are cunning, fooling those around you into getting what you want!"

"Slytherin!"

... better than Ravenclaw at least.