The might, the marvel and the muggle.

One week ago Caspian would have scoffed at anyone who claimed magic was real, it was all illusion, slight of hand, and yet over the years unusual and somewhat unexplained things had occured, but that had all been coincidence, an old chair, a slant on the table made the pencils move; right?

Caspian cracked an enermous grin as he surveyed Diagon Alley, strange sights and sounds flooded his senses and he lapped it all up. The buildings looked old, really old, this whole place was ancient, magic was ancient, the Wizarding world was ancient and now, now Cas was part of it. He pulled out the slightly browned piece of parchment that had arrived on his doorstep two weeks prior in an addressed envelope with green ink. Upon opening the letter summarised what two days previous a Professor had informed his shocked family. That Caspian Winters was a Wizard and had been selected to join Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry, it seemed too good to be true, but it indeed was true. Included with the letter was a piece of paper explaining the resources and equipment he would need to purchase, and not to mention the robes of course, furthermore the letter explained that this year the school was pairing older students with first years, especially ones like himself from what the wizarding world called muggle backgrounds. The older students would serve as mentors and guides to the new students and help them get acquianted with the wizarding world and assist them in acquiring all they needed to begin the first year, and so here he was, well, firstly he had, had to find that odd little pub. Caspian was not overly familiar with London, yet he had visited the capital on more than one ocassion, however the Leaky Cauldron didn't strike him as the type of place he would visit and secondly upon finding it, thanks to his map he noted that passers by seemed all to unaware of its existence. He had gingerly entered and been greeted by the barman whom was prepared that day to greet several newcomers as it transpired and had a bar maid guide Caspian out the back where they faced a brick wall. It was at this point that Caspian believed perhaps this was some ellaborate hoax, like one of those hidden camera shows, but the bar maid simply winked at him, pulled out a wand and much more to his continuing disbelief tapped the bricks upon the wall in a cerain order. The wall had moved, yes moved, brick by brick to form a perfectly regular archway that led onto a more than less regular world and for several minutes Caspian had stood there mute eyes wide and slack jawed as he took in the strange broom shop, the oddly dressed people mulling about in their coloured gowns and hats, the newts, what appeared to be lizzard tails and odd horns from an animal Caspian could not identify hanging from what looked to be some form of ingredients shop. There was all of this and much, much more.

Glancing down at his itinery for meeting his would be Student guides he read the name 'Flourish and Blotts' and 'iron lampost', following the instructions and the small map he began to make his way along the cobbled street marvelling as he walked at the odd little shops. Eventualy and after pausing to look at the strnage wand shop called Olivander's with it's decaying signage he found the much brighter shop called 'Flourish and Blotts' and the silver lanpost, well to be correct he could only just make out the top third of the lanpost for gathered around it were several children all around the same age, although most were attired in odd little black cloaks emblazed on the front of which was an capital h surrounded by four animals each adorning a corner of the crest, there was a badger, a snake a raven and the third animal was a lion. Cas began to wriggle and maneuver his way through the body of younger students until he could see taller students some of whom had a look of importance upon their face. Choosing the closes older student he could reach he tugged firmly upon their sleeve and said.

"Excuse me, I was hoping you could help me, you see I am new here, new to all of this, and well, this is the right place?"

Joining the programme to help the soon-to-be-firsties had been a good idea in theory. Calixta wasn't sure if her classmates had noticed, but Professor Thorfinn seemed to have a soft spot for the halfbloods in Slytherin. So yeah, it had been a good idea.

Until she got here and realised that she was only a couple of inches taller than a lot of these... children. She tried to ignore the one or two people without house insignia who she was actually shorter than.

On the upside, her efforts at least hadn't been in vain. It turned out Professor Thorfinn had a kid. He seemed kind of young to have a kid, but everyone knew he was half veela, so Calixta supposed that had something to do with it.

She had got bored of listening in on the older students talking. Usually, they were okay with her listening, so long as she didn't interrupt. Or they just didn't notice she was there. Calixta didn't dwell on that possibility; she was the daughter of a pureblood house, of course they noticed. In any case, she was just about to go and greet her Professor - make sure he knew she was helping - when someone grabbed at her.

"Hey!" she exclaimed, following quickly up in a nicer tone. "Oh, hey."

The boy spewed some really long question, about being new not just to Diagon Alley but to "all of this." Muggle for sure.

"Oh, I see," Calixta nodded in an understanding and reassuring way. "You mean for the mentoring thing? Yeah this is the right spot."

"I'm Calixta. You can stick with me if you like. I can teach you everything about Diagon Alley. I practically grew up here."

The owner of the robes turned in his direction, and her initial excaliamtion had Casius imediately let go and almost leap out of his skin; well that was good going he thought to himself, good way to make a good start Cas. Then the girl seemed to smooth out her initial appearance of irritation and the following hey was more of a greeting and far friendlier than before.

Caspian smiled a little weakly as she exlained to him that this was indeed where he was supposed to be, and then further, and to his surprise she offered to show him around, although the way in which she delivered it, it wasn't so much an offer as a statement, in fact Caspian would have almost said that the girl who didn't appear greatly older than himself was rather aloof. She seemed to rellish in being able to demonstrate how accomplished she was. Once more Cas became aware of the fact that he was a stranger here, although no doubt she meant well, but her comment about growing up here made him feel like not only had he much to learn, but that the alley contained hidden depths, at least this was what Caspian read into what she didn't say.

As slightly haughty and important her response she was at least kind enough to want to show him around, and she had also been nice enough to not imediately shove him off, so in balance not all was bad, furthermore Caspian wanted to fit in and if this girl knew everything about Diagon Alley then he might just make up for lost time.

He smiled and nodded his head once.

"Tha...that sound brilliant, I was really excited and interested to see all that there is to see. I feel a little knew to all this. I would really appreciate it if you could, you know, show me around. Oh and I'm Caspian by the way."

Caspian extended his hand to the girl in greeting.

"And for your information, I am not having a spat with Shylock."

Selwyn ran a hand through his hair as he finished saying it, like he did whenever he was stressed.  Christian copied him.

"Looks like a spat to me," he said.

"I think it's a rough patch," Selwyn replied.

"That's what people say on telly before they get divorced," Christian observed.  "And you're not even married yet."

"That'll make it harder to get divorced, then," Selwyn said wryly.  "Damn, Calixta's here, and she's making friends."

"Who's Calixta?"

"Over there," Selwyn pointed. "Short girl, Slytherin crest. Rich pureblood, probably owns a pony."

"We own ponies," said Christian. "We have five."

"You have Cindy," he went on.

"Cindy is a horse," Selwyn replied. "I don't take Cindy to pony club."

"You could," Christian said. "I bet the mums would love it."

"I bet," Selwyn agreed, before giving Christian a shove. "Go over there and introduce yourself. Tell Calixta I want to speak to her."

Christian stumbled forwards.

"You're a shit, Selwyn."

"Don't swear at your professors."

So that was how he found himself squirming between people to get to the two on the edge of the crowd. It wasn't even a very huge crowd, but it must have been Christian's unlucky day, because everyone seemed to want to squish him.

"Hi," he broke in. Selwyn had been right about Calixta making friends, because the other boy was only just introducing himself.

"I'm Chris."

He turned to the girl.

"And my brother wants to talk to you."

"Professor Thorfinn, that is."

It was so weird calling Selwyn that. Christian decided then and there he wasn't taking Magical Creatures. Unless his brother got fired.

The girl actually looked excited to be called away and with an "I'll be right back" she hurried off. Ugh.

"Girls. Weird huh?" he said to his new friend.

Caspian was only half muddling through his introduction when a voice cut in, 'Hi' the voice exclaimed. Caspian turned to see a boy who judging by his appearance was at the same ungaingly age Caspian was. The boy however spoke to Calixta first informing her that....Professor. Caspian wheeled around to get his look at an actual Professor, but he couldn't see through or over the gathered crowd. He couldn't help but wonder what a magical professor might look like, what might this Thorfinn..........hold on, didn't this boy just say Brother. Caspian arched his eyebrows. Then was jolted back to Calixta's sudden and rather hurried exit, she seemed more than eager to meet with the Professor.

The lad's voice then snapped Cas's wandering mind back to the present, he ruffled his hand through his hair trying to play it cool.

"Oh, yeah, girls."

He shot a look over his left shoulder at the now retreating figure of Calixta, then turned back to the boy. Cas put his hands into his pockets and ground his foot on the floor, the way you do when you are a little awkward of how to continue.

"Soooo, you mentioned a Professor and he's your Brother? I am new here."

Cas gestured at those gathered.

"A little obvious huh, but you must know all about magic and this world and well....everything."

Caspian's eyes lit up with excitement and longing, he wanted to know what it was like, feel what it was like, maybe this newcomer might shed light, maybe even show him a thing or two.

"He's the Care of Magical Creatures Professor," Christian answered. "And the Head of Slytherin. That's Calixta's house, so it's probably why he wants to talk to her. But Slytherin's... It's not the best house. I'd rather be a Hufflepuff."

At Caspian's suggestion that he must know all about magic, Christian just laughed.

"I mean, nobody can know everything about magic, but yeah, I grew up with it," he said. "Our family's been halfblood since forever, and like--"

He cut himself off. There was no way Caspian was going to be able to keep up with Christian's ancestry. Most muggleborns had difficulty understanding blood purity and Hogwarts Houses and the fact that a whole bunch of people suddenly wanted to kill them.

"That means I know about the muggle world and the magical world," Christian amended. "I have cousins who are muggles. Has anyone told you about blood purity yet?"

At the boy's response Caspian's eyebrow's rose; magical creatures, so in this world the creatures had magic too, or was it something different, he began to wonder what sorts of creatures they might have that perhaps he was unfamilliar with, so far he hadn't seen anything out of the ordinary. Then the boy went on to mention houses and Slytherin and it must have shown on Caspian's face that he was completely lost, although interested he wasn't sure what Slytherin was. Following the boy's response to the fact that like Calixta he too had grown up magic he stopped short now seeming to take note of Cas's lok of perplexion, for after mention blood, whatever that had to do with anything..

The boy before him finally said something that made at least some sense to him, mentioning he knew about the muggle world, which Caspian knew was how Wizard's and those from the Wizarding community spoke about his world and referred to people like Caspian's parents whom were none magical as such, he made a mental note to thank the helpful barmaid if he ever saw her again.

Then came the boy's question? Blood purity, what was he on about, blood type Caspian had heard of but he had never come across purity. Honesty was the best policy.

"Muggles, yes, that's a phrase I was introduced to at the Leaky Cauldron, both my parent's are what you would call Muggles, but purity, and houses and Slytherin..."

Caspian stopped short and looked a little sheepishly at the boy.

"I don't know any of these things, I can see that there is going to be so much more for me to learn here than just magic."

Christian gave Caspian a sympathetic smile, one that indicated there was worse to come.

"Ah, yeah. I mean, most muggleborns, they don't really go back to the muggle world after school. Hogwarts doesn't teach the things muggle schools do. You wouldn't be able to get a job in the muggle world. So you have to learn the whole magical culture," Christian explained.

"And that's why blood purity is a thing," he said with a grimace. "At least, that's why I think it's a thing."

"Basically, there's this whole group of powerful witches and wizards who think they're better than everyone else because they have what they call pure blood," he said. "It's supposed to mean there have never been any muggles in your family, but that's impossible. Anyhow, they don't like muggles or muggleborns much."

"Then you have halfbloods, like us. Means you have some magical ancestors and some muggle ancestors. You're called a halfblood even if your great grandparents were muggles, so don't expect anyone to actually know anything."

"And then there are muggleborns, which is what you are."

Caspian responded in kind and returned the smile, seeing something akin to a knowing sadness reflected in the boys eyes bu not being able to place it. At least Christian seemed sympathetic and understanding. As Caspian listened realisation dawned on him that not only was this a new world, but it was now a world he had to make his, although return to the England he knew was possible there was no future there for him, and just like that it was snuffed out like a candle. The visions Cas had, had were obliterated, and the greater question filled the large gap, what of his family. This was something unforseen, his plans had been to learn and return and now, now, well there could be a return, several he was sure, but no sense of permanance, he now belonged here in the WIzarding world, in a world he didn't know and was so vastly different.

He rubbed his temples trying to massage away the thought of rarely seeing his parents. More of a headache was to follow when Christian explained in detail precisely what blood purity was and what it meant, Cas snorted at this, so this fantastical and in someways more advanced world was hardly different from his own, distinction and prejudice was apparent here just as it was at home. Yet judging by Christian's tone of voice he sounded like he didn't agree with it and not surprisingly it Halfblood. It sounded a bit of a silly system, but somehting in Christian's seemed a little weary as though perhaps he was resigned in fighting it, was there perhaps not a liking but an acceptance that for now this was the way the Wizarding world was.

"What I am."

Caspian stressed the 'I' and then sighed, he had, had such fantastical ideas and now they all seemed to be falling down.

"It makes sense, I just thought this place would be different, but I guess prejudice is a human factor you can't quite eliminate. I just thought it would be great here, and it is, but what I learned, I..........I just thought my life had been and was where I lived with what I know and suddenly my world has been turned upside down. It's all a lot to take in."

Cas shrugged and cocked his head slightly to one side and sighed again, guess he better get used to it, after all, this was still the most exciting discovery and event in his life.