Welcome to Gaia! ::

Juliette grinned under the brim of the hat when it responded to their greeting in kind before announcing Mama’s house. Sweet!

They hopped off the stool, pausing on the steps as they noticed their robes turning crimson and gold. Huh. That must have been another piece of interesting magic. Their finger was on the watch on their left hand, immediately tracing a message to Mama. By the time they had claimed the seat next to Roxie with a high-five, Mama would have heard about the sorting decision.

Jules watched the rest of the sorting with an eye on their friends–and future classmates, they realised, scooting over to welcome another Gryffindor. When Flick was called, someone at the professor’s table called out that they were their kid. Given Flick’s mood all train ride, Jules highly doubted that. They sat a little straighter and folded their fingers in their lap as they scanned the table for the voice. The hat made its decision though, and soon the table next to them erupted in welcoming cheers.

The headmaster invited the school to dig in and–”Whoa”--a veritable buffet materialised. They poked at a red-coloured curry chicken in front of them with fascination before joining the other students in piling their plate full. It was only as they realised all the new people around them were their new house-mates. Dorm-mates. And they didn’t know anyone except for Roxie. Ah, well, meeting people started somewhere. And that would have to start with the older–but not much older looking?-- student next to the pesto shell pasta. ”Uh, hi. I’m Juliette. Or Jules Delacroix. Could I get some of that pesto pasta please?”

Jules’s hand froze around the bowl as they made sure they understood the boy’s–Nic’s meaning. ”Thank you. Yes. Basil is… good? It kind of…just tastes leafy?” They paused again mid-scoop. ”Why have you not talked to it? Basil at the castle is still just…normal basil, right?”

They weren’t sure what answer would be more interesting. On one hand, plants talking back would be kind of awesome. They could ask if the plant had enough sun or water or if it wanted to try chocolate! Imagine if their ruler or screwdriver or pencil could talk to them! On the other hand, what if Nic hadn’t talked to the basil yet because it could talk back? What if some plants were grumpy and didn’t like doing things? If their pencil case could talk, Jules imagined it would always be grumpy– the zipper was always jamming, and it seemed to eat their erasers. It just wouldn’t work with them.

After introducing himself, Nic asked if they had expected to be in Gryffindor, and Jules lit up with a grin. They almost hopped up to show him their socks. Thankfully, they recognized the table was full of food and did not. They did, though, mention the socks: ”Both! I have Gryffindor and Hufflepuff socks on for luck! Mama was in Gryffindor, and Daddy was in Hufflepuff. I didn’t know I would be in Gryffindor, but I guess I was hoping for one of those. But I’ve got friends in Ravenclaw and Slytherin so if the Hat had sorted methere that would have been okay too. What about you? Did you know you would be in Gryffindor when you got sorted?”

Nic replied that the plants were normal enough, but he also mentioned introducing himself to all of them. He’d barely gotten through the first greenhouse last year, which meant not only were there multiple greenhouses, but the greenhouses were huge. There was also the possibility that Nic wasn’t even a second year and had taken multiple years to introduce himself to the plants–how big was this greenhouse?!

”Could you talk to them in a group? Or at least introduce yourself to the whole greenhouse at once?” They hadn’t really tried that at MagiScouts, but technically it could work, right? Like having a switch that turns multiple things on at once. Then again, plants weren’t as neat as robots. Singing to robots didn’t do anything, but Aspen encouraged talking to or singing to plants. ”Like ‘Hello plants! Today I’m just checking if you need any water, but if there are some bad leaves we can trim that too.’ Oh but you’d still have to talk to the individual plant when you got to it I guess.”

Nic replied that his sorting had been a bit of a surprise–although not unwanted. He mentioned family that were muggles, family that went to school in China, and people who didn’t qualify for wizarding school. ”It’s kind of sucky squibs can’t attend Hogwarts,” they mused, munching on dinner. After swallowing, they piped up again. ”At least squibs can attend MagiScouts still! If you have any relatives our age, they can attend camp with the scouts at least!”

They nodded with a cheerful ”Yup!” at the mention of their socks working out. ”You don’t believe in luck–oh! Like you believe in being prepared!”