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Syd blinked when the Sorting Hat did its job and sorted him into Ravenclaw after telling him it would be better to forge a path of his own rather than following his parents’. He supposed that could be true, but it wasn’t like he would have had to follow their path if he got sorted into their house. Regardless, his next task was to go sit with his house, so he jumped down from the stool and made his way to the table, which wasn’t hard to spot since the entire Ravenclaw student body erupted in cheers. Syd slid into an empty seat, smiling and quickly greeting the older students around him before turning his attention back to watch the rest of the Sorting Ceremony. Although everyone so far seemed nice, he hoped another first year would join him soon.

Syd cheered every time a student was sorted into Ravenclaw, but he couldn’t help but look over at the Gryffindor table, trying his best to spot his sister. His eyes wandered through the unfamiliar faces, but his search was interrupted by a stuttering greeting from another first year. Syd looked the other boy in the eyes and smiled, nodding to confirm his name, but he gave the kid, Kai, a confused look when he twitched not once but twice. “Hey, yeah, my name’s Syd. Nice to meet you, Kai,” he greeted. “What’s that thing you did?” he asked, genuinely curious. Syd had never seen such a thing from any of his previous classmates, but then again, he did go to a small school in the suburbs. One cool thing about Hogwarts was the variety of places that students came from.

Syd furrowed his brows when Kai explained that he had Tourette’s, which made him tic. Syd had heard about the syndrome before, but from his limited understanding, he thought people with Tourette’s sounded angry and swore a lot. Kai did neither of those things so far. He noticed that Kai quieted down a bit and rubbed the back of his head nervously, which made Syd feel a little sad for the blond. “Were you born with it?” he asked, wanting to know more. Syd hadn’t realized that his question may be a little too intrusive, especially considering he had just met Kai. The only other thing he knew about the boy was his last name, and that was only because of the Sorting Ceremony. However, if Kai didn’t want to explain any more, he’d back off.

Syd sat at the Ravenclaw table and watched the sorting feast with Kai. He had made a few friends during his first year at Hogwarts, but his closest was his housemate although the two didn’t hang out as much as many others who were deemed to be best friends, mostly due to their differing interest levels in skateboarding. Syd skateboarded a lot. Additionally, he didn’t know if he’d consider the blond his best friend, and he knew for certain that Kai’s best friend was Simon. Those two were practically inseparable outside of classes, which was alright. Syd never felt like he was left out or needed more from their friendship. They had a good thing going, so why fix something that wasn’t broken?

Perhaps things would be a little quieter this year than the last, however, if only because Penelope had graduated. He and his sister got along for the most part, and although they didn’t hang out too much over the last year (due to her being seventeen and having friends and going on dates??? Plus him spending a lot of his time practicing cool tricks on his skateboard), they still ran into each other and talked and kept each other mostly up to date on their lives. Maybe he wouldn’t miss her, though. After her first six years at Hogwarts, he got rather used to only seeing her for the holidays.

Syd turned to Kai when he had asked if he did anything fun over the summer. “Yeah, I finally landed my first 360 flip!” he bragged, a large grin spreading across his features. Although it took many scratches and scrapes, and even shooting his skateboard out from under him on more than one occasion, he was proud to have done it. “I managed to land it a few times afterward. I can show you later,” he offered, hoping that his friend would be interested in checking out his new cool trick. It was a shame that Kai didn’t skateboard or scooter; otherwise, the two would have the opportunity to hang out more. “Aside from that, not much. Penny moved out with Cenek,” he mentioned casually. Honestly, Syd thought it was kind of weird that they decided to live together considering they broke up at the end of the school year, but his parents didn’t seem too concerned with that situation as far as he could tell. Maybe Penelope thought they still stood a chance, and perhaps, that was why she had agreed to move in with him. Poor, naive Penny, he thought, assessing their friendship with the limited information he had. “How ‘bout you? Did you do anything fun?” he asked.