For somebody who could usually measure his own - usually positive - emotions with certain security, Idris Ross couldn’t tell whether he was excited or terrified by the prospect of spending seven years at Hogwarts. If anything, the following four months might be the greatest adventure of his life, given none of his parents were there to help him if he got into trouble. Idris had never been so far away from family. It mattered to him, just as much as it mattered to have mom there to read him a bedtime story and father to give him a kiss. Even his aunts and cousins he already missed!
He knew school was supposed to be the next great chapter. However, one could hardly fault him for fearing. Idris himself didn’t, and instead spent most of the weeks before September figuring out how he could take most of his things, instead of leaving them home as other students did. It’s why he had seen of his cat before joining the others walking towards the Great Hall, and the reason before his loud curiosity regarding first year’s material before he joined them at the boats. Losing his bags amounted to losing some of his inventing materials and that would be a shock to the pupil.
"Do you think students ever swim in here? Would they ever let us?" He stared at the lake’s calming water, which wasn’t so balanced now that dozens of boats awaited the firsties. Idris spoke to no one in particular, despite smiling to the other two who would share a boat with him. "It doesn’t make a lot of sense that they have a lot of small boats, does it? Wouldn’t a huge ship be better? We could even pretend to be pirates! And it would take a lot less time…" Frowning, Idris tried imagining Hogwarts new students dressed as pirates instead of wearing neutral uniforms. That would be a lot more fun! Not to mention, spare a lot of their time - he could see people scared of entering a boat so close to water, and one or two who took minutes to find the courage. See? No problem like that in a big ship.
He grinned after sitting on the wooden transport, letting his hands touch the surface of the water. Idris wasn’t a huge fan of it but he saw no reason for dislike, either. Not that he’d ever taken his time to swim. Right now, the element served as a point of focus. "I do hope they let us swim. I’m sure any creatures here won’t mind it. As long as we let it very clean and don’t make a mess of the lake… can’t see why the would. Mind it, I mean." This time his frown had nothing to do with doubt. It was because another student at the boat stared at him like he was a bit nuts for talking so much, so he shut up. Not one to annoy his colleagues so early or… ever.
Actually, half of why he feared going to Hogwarts had nothing to do with leaving his parents and family behind. It was more because, what if he didn’t make any friends? He didn’t want to be alone. His inventions would be no fun if he had nobody to share them with. He could see himself working until too late on them, though - alone or not, at Hogwarts he would be able to use magic, finally, and figure out how it might change his creations.
A full bag of his had previous inventions he could never quite put to use because they needed a number of enchantments. In fact, he was already thinking about how he might get older students on board to help. Maybe if he promised to create something they wanted. Perhaps he wouldn’t know how, but he was willing to learn… and everybody said the library was huge! He hadn’t read many story books in his life, but of invention and creation? Probably over twenty.
It goes without saying, his biggest relief on going to school was not having the underage magic rule on his shoulders.
"If everything goes wrong, at least we have-" Finishing the sentence fled his mind in a second. Less than it. His eyes, instead, took in the beginning of a dark form by the end of the lake, which grew bigger and bigger and- "wow!" There seemed to be an echo, something made out of excitement and surprise. Idris’ heart beat so fast, he remembered it last feeling like this from adrenaline of fighting with his mother.
It was… Hogwarts… right in front of him. And from everything he had heard, seen, talked about, this - this was amazing. He couldn’t find the words to describe his own astonishment, other than thinking of how gorgeous the school looked, as well as imponent. He thought back of horror stories of how bad things happened there, and had a hard time understanding why anybody would target it in the first place. Somewhere this striking should be left alone, shouldn’t it?
Because he knew it must have taken a lot of effort to build tall towers, raise every wall and understand surrounding lands to turn Hogwarts into what he’d just seen. Not to mention everything else he only ever heard of! He couldn’t wait for the following morning. It would certainly begin with exploring, that is, if they didn’t have classes right away. Not that he would be complaining - he wanted to learn, in fact, he wanted to study as soon as possible so he could apply it to his invention, and explore more of magic than theories inside his brain. However, he meant to explore Hogwarts a tad more than he did stay still inside a classroom. After it was done, he could put 110% of his focus into studying. 120%! Or maybe 90% if he found a few great friends. Definitely more than 85%.
Even then, nothing compared to the Great Hall itself.
The place was huge! Grandiose. He could hardly see the end of it, though he was curious about the professors, students who kept staring at them, even the Sorting Hat centered somewhere meters ahead. At the boat, he paid no attention to hunger or cold - the first taken care of at the train, especially with some lunch his mother left him, and the second didn't come to mind when he was so busy wondering about rules and his future school life.
Now, if any doubt remained, it was erased by a dose of adrenaline and happiness upon knowing that's where he would be taking his meals and stay at every day. He had never seen a place so beautiful. And the candles above! Idris wondered where it came from. He knew he should have read books containing Hogwarts's history - it's just that, he was hoping to get a few from the library itself. As a Hogwarts student, he couldn't wait to begin portraying himself as such. Idris even smiled at Alina, a friend he met before school. "This really couldn't be better, could it? And to think I thought the Ministry of Magic was impressive." Idris chuckled. He still found it impressive, actually. But it was a hard fight against Hogwarts.
Now, there was only one thing left - getting sorted. He could sense his hand start to sweat, even while he wished Alina a "Good luck." before her turn. It happened sometimes, even before he tested some of his experiments and inventions, though he was slowly learning how to control it (couldn't have sweat get in the way of what he created). Not that it would affect anything now. So he joined his hands together, and stared at other students were sent to different houses. Gryffindor. Slytherin. Ravenclaw. Hufflepuff. Where would he go? Father had been a Ravenclaw, mother a Hufflepuff. Whichever house took him in, he hoped he had a great time there as his parents did.
It was said the Sorting Hat made no mistakes. He hoped it wouldn't start a different tradition with him.
