Hogwarts

At this question Lia became a bit pensive too.

"Probably Slytherin, at least I hope so; it is the same house grandfather went to. But Ravenclaw wouldn't be too bad either."

Habol also pricked up his ears at that:

"Would it be a problem for your grandfather if you didn't go to Slytherin? And what about your parents?"

At those words a shadow seemed to fall over Lia's expression and she shook her head.

"No, my grandfather wouldn't mind if I don't go to the same house he was in, though he would probably be a bit disappointed I would imagine, as long as I don't get sorted into Gryffindor he will probably not really care.

And my parents are both dead. They've been for most of my life now so you don't have to act different around me because of that."

Despite Lia's request a short uncomfortable silence followed until it was broken again by Habol, trying to get away from such an uncomfortable topic:

"Are you by chance interested in dark magic?"

This would have been an inappropriate question in quite literally every situation but in this specific one it was even more so, resulting in Lia wrinkling her brow before answering:

"I don't know if you're insinuating something here but I am not really interested into the dark arts, after all my main focus in life lies not on magic or magical power, but on economic power and the addition of assets to the west family's businesses. Does this answer your question well enough or do you want me to elaborate?"

Now it was the first time for Julius to see Habol flustered as he quickly tried to explain himself:

"No! No, you misunderstood me; I was just talking about the dark arts with Julius here since we shared a passion for them and I wanted to know if you would be interested to talk about them, but you could also talk about economics with him, I just wouldn't be able to talk much in this conversation."

"If it's like this I'm sorry, I should not have drawn quick conclusions like this. But what do you mean I could talk with Julius about it? Is he also interested in this?"

Now it was Habol's turn to wonder again:

"Did you not listen to him when he introduced himself earlier? He is the heir of the noble house of Abraxus and therefore of the Theia corporation. Even the West family's wealth can barely compare to his.

Assuming the current head George cares about the opinion of the future head and your grandfather cares about your's your talks could even result in a small cooperation of the two economic giants, even though that's quite unlikely."

But since this would result in Habol being completely excluded from the conversation Julius tried leading it in other areas again:

"You don't just so happen to be interested into Quidditch? Because I myself just started playing not too long ago and I would love to learn more about it, even if it's just theoretical knowledge."

Anyone could have seen Lia's face light up at these words as she found herself completely in her area of expertise:

"Actually I am very interested in quidditch, Habol would this kind of conversation fit your interests more?"

And Habol too seemed to be quite excited:

"Too be honest I've never played quidditch before but I would love to learn more about it or even play it. It's too bad that we won't be able to play in our first year but I hope to get into the team of my house later on. Maybe we could train together in the second year?"

"We certainly can but I think your informations concerning Hogwarts are a bit outdated; it is already possible to play quidditch after passing a basic test at the beginning of the year. But only with school brooms and only after applying for the program and being accepted. Officially it is luck which decides if someone gets accepted but everyone knows it depends more on the family of the applicant", Julius answered, starting a long discussion about their chances of getting into the program and their plans concerning positions.

…

After explaining quidditch to Habol and talking about it for most of the ride Habol and Julius went into Julius' briefcase to change while Lia does it inside the cabin to not alert the purebloods who no doubt were still searching for her.

„I really don't like those robes, I mean why would anyone ever wear those out of their own free will? They're extremely uncomfortable and inconvenient. At least I will only have to wear the school robes at special occasions, otherwise I might just actually have visited Beauxbatons or Durmstrang, even Beauxbatons allows male students to wear suits instead of this."

Julius was extremely annoyed at the prospect of having to wear the school robes the whole evening while Lia wore them with the dignity of a pureblood heiress and Habol wore them in the most messy way Julius could possibly imagine someone wearing them while also looking extremely uncomfortable.

"Come on boys it could be worse, I can assure you any dress is worse than just this much so stop complaining and just get ready, Hogwarts station is probably just there in the front. We will have to find Hagrid quickly if we don't want to get swarmed by those damn stuck up… anyways let's just hurry."

And just as Lia predicted only moments after she finished speaking the train started decelerating before coming to a complete stop at the still mostly empty platform, at least aside from the half giant with a lantern waiting for the new first years.

As soon as the doors opened Hagrid's voice boomed through the whole train:

"Firs'-years to me! Firs'-years!"

Hagrid had probably already had his problems with the suddenly much bigger groups of new students each year since the opening of the borders.

‚I already assumed there would be far more new students than even last year due to how much better the school has gotten in the last two years but I would have never predicted something like this!'

Julius was completely stunned when all of the older students were already gone and there was still a huge crowd of students which reminded him he had forgotten to find out how many wizards and witches there even were in the world since his information from the books and movies were certainly misleading.

"C'mon, firs'-years after me! Yeh'll get yer first sight o' Hogwarts in a sec'. An' only four to a boat!"

Julius predictably got in a boat with Lia and Habol as well as another first-year who was constantly doing something on his Mirror.

************

I dunno but I have a feeling this chapter is worse than most of the other ones despite the time I needed to finish it.

Thanks for reading!