Kitty hummed the tune for We are the Champions by Queen as she made her way down to Cascade Hall for breakfast Saturday morning. She still felt on top of the world for making the Quidditch team and decided that this morning she would celebrate a bit. As she entered the fantastic room, one that she really couldn’t get enough of even though she saw it all the time, Kitty smiled.
Grinning ear to ear Kitty sat down with a huge stack of chocolate chip pancakes, with whip cream, sprinkles…the works, and a large glass of orange juice. Anyone looking might think that the pile of hot cakes was taller than the tiny girl who sat in front of them, and would wonder how in the world such a small girl could eat all that. Without hesitation Kitty dug in, delighting in the sugary goodness that was her victory breakfast. Other girls might worry about their waist line, but not Kitty. Her brothers often said that she was like a humming bird, she had to eat her weight in sweets to keep up her endless reserves of bouncing energy up. In fact, if Kitty didn’t eat regularly she would start to shake, which wasn’t any fun at all. So the small girl never worried about what she ate, eating whatever caught her fancy at the moment.
She’d just put another big bite in her mouth when someone sat down at her table. Chewing quickly Kitty gave the person a small happy wave, not wanting to be rude and speak with her mouth full.
0Katrina (Kitty) McLevyBreakfast of Champions0Katrina (Kitty) McLevy15
Laurie was pumped, since he had been chosen to be part of the Quidditch team! Not in the position he wanted – Beater -, but he was now the Shiny New Teppenpaw Chaser. The first-year Teppenpaw knew he would need to practice extra hard to become a good Chaser. He had always preferred to beat things about, but his team needed him in another position. No biggie. He would make the best of it. Of course, he had owled his father as soon as found out about it. He had been very proud of him! That was all he really wanted, his father to be proud of him. Patrick Stratford was known for his awesome skill on the pitch, and Laurie just wanted to be like his father, be admired by thousands. But that was something couldn’t worry too much about, he was at school, and needed to be a good student. It was the first thing his father had told him, he needed to get good grades, because that was his sole responsibility. Laurie planned on getting good grades and become a capable wizard.
For now, his mind was completely focused on finding something to eat. He was starving. And the best place to find some good food was the Cascade Hall. The eleven-year old merrily walked from the Teppenpaw common to his final destination: The Cascade Hall. Food was something that Laurie enjoyed and loved. He was somewhat on the chubby side, but his mother always told him that it was still baby fat, that he had nothing to worry. Since he had started at school, he had lost some weight, which would help him in his Quidditch goals. Quidditch was probably the reason for that, because he still ate like he always did.
Anyways, he looked around to see if there was someone he knew to sit with, but there was no one. However, he spotted a somewhat familiar face. He had seen her in classes, she was in his year. Smiling to himself, he sat down and served himself some delicious looking chocolate-chip pancakes. Laurie returned her wave, “Good morning!” he said while putting some whip-cream on top of them. “I am Laurie Stratford,” he introduced himself, because he was quite certain they weren’t on a first name basis. He took a bite of his breakfast and smiled, it was delicious.
There was a bit of chocolate smeared on Kitty’s bottom lip left over from the delicious pancakes the house elves made for her. The tiny girl grinned as she finished her bite before speaking. “Hi Laurie.” She said happily, completely unfazed by the feminine name for a boy. “I’m Kitty McLevy. Guess what? You’re looking at the new Keeper for Team Aladren!” Kitty said with an excited little bounce. It was a surprise that the girl didn’t manage to fall out of the chair her excitement was so great.
Considering she was a first year, and a rather small one at that, the picture of the bouncing girl probably wasn’t the most intimidating one. But, that was something Kitty counted on at times. People would underestimate her, or be afraid of hurting her so they wouldn’t be as hard on her as they might be on someone older, or bigger, or male. Kitty didn’t just rely on that though, because not everyone would be fooled. Especially when they saw she did have some talent, and was willing to do what needed to be done to win.
“So how do you like everything so far? Care of magical creatures is great, but I don’t think I like potions very much. Too much stuff can get messed up. Not to mention the teacher said it could totally kill us if we get it wrong. That doesn’t sound very good at all. At least we shouldn’t be doing too dangerous as first years, right?” Kitty asked. Potions was one of those classes that worried the distractible girl. It was difficult for her to pay attention to all of the steps required, and she was sure she’d mess it up. I’ll just have to make sure I sit with people who know what they’re doing, that’s all. Just like following people who know the way. Kitty decided. “So, are you any good at potions?” She asked, figuring if he was then at least she’d have some idea of who to sit with when they had to brew something.
Laurie smiled good-naturedly at Kitty, and couldn’t help but bounce a little with her. Her excitement was contagious, and since he was always full of energy it was easy to follow suit. “Congratulations, Kitty!” a grin was plastered on his face. Kitty being part of the Aladren team meant that he would play against her, he had been chosen as a Teppenpaw Chaser. He took another bite of his pancakes and looked at Kitty with amusement in his eyes, he liked her. She was like the female version of him, or so he thought. “I got into the Teppenpaw team!” he shared with her. “I am a new Chaser.” The redheaded first-year was somewhat nervous about his new position, he wasn’t the best chaser out there, and he would need to practice really hard to compensate his lack of chasing skills. The position didn’t look too difficult, thankfully.
“My cousin, Preston, is a Beater for Aladren,” he commented. She probably knew him by now, and he had to be honest, that was something the most fun thing one could ever do. Meet Preston. The older Stratford was too serious for Laurie’s liking, or anyone’s for that matter. Pres didn’t know how to have fun, and Laurie doubted he would ever learn. He smiled, Kitty didn’t look that intimidating, but he couldn’t underestimate her. From what Preston had told him, the Aladren Captain was ruthless and serious and he wouldn’t have chosen someone that wasn’t good enough. They had won the House Cup last term.
The Teppenpaw suppressed a chuckle, Kitty talked a lot! But it was cool with him, since he liked having conversations like this. The conversations he was used to having were short and to the point. Everyone in his family thought that wasting words or time was a very bad idea. Laurie shook his head in response to her question. “Nope, I don’t like the class. I prefer something that requires more movement, like Transfiguration or Charms or CoMC,” he took another bite of his breakfast while he pondered what he was going to say. “A lot of things can go wrong in Potions, and the idea of adding things to a cauldron doesn’t strike me as interesting. I like to brandish my wand and do other stuff!” he finished with a snigger. If Preston heard him, he would be very upset, he loved Potions and Fawcett and everything to do with the class. “Which is your favorite class?” it was now his turn to question her.
Great! I’ve been looking for good company
by Kitty
Kitty gave a small laugh of delight when the boy next to her matched her energy instead of backing away from it like so many other people in the school seemed to. She held up one small hand for a high five when he exclaimed that he’d made Chaser for the Teppenpaw team. “That’s great! We’re totally going to beat you guys, but we can still be friends right?” Kitty giggled as she teased him.
Nodding in agreement Kitty wished Laurie was in her house instead, or maybe that she was in his. He was the first person the small girl had met so far that didn’t seem to be annoyed by her to some degree. Instead he was just as excitable and willing to talk and be talked to. She didn’t feel the need to attempt to rein in her curiosity or handle him delicately like she did with some of the magic kids. Not that it was ever successful, her attempts. Once her curiously was struck she threw all ideas about delicate sensibilities out of her head in her quest for needing to know more.
Friends really weren’t something the small girl had a lot of. Not too many people were willing to put up with her long enough to become friends. Those who did ended up being her friends tended to be the best friends ever because they had to be to put up with the energetic curious girl. She hadn’t really found anyone like that at Sonora so far, but Laurie had promise.
“I really like CoMC, they’ll probably have even more interesting creatures as we get older. Even the not big ones are pretty neat. Anytime I get to use my wand is a class I like!” Kitty chirped happily. She was still amazed that she had a wand. “I guess we probably shouldn’t ever team up in potions then, we’d probably end up blowing up the entire school, or something.” She said with a giggle as she imagined the two of them throwing random things into a caldron while crossing their fingers hoping it was right.
0KittyGreat! I’ve been looking for good company0Kitty05
If there was something he couldn’t resist it was a high-five, and with great excitement he high-fived back. The smile on his face was ever present. Laurie loved meeting new people and Kitty was his kind of person: just like him. It was rare to find someone that matched his constant flow of energy, and he was very happy about starting a friendship with her. Usually people became tired of him quite quickly. He had heard his nannies complain about his never ending energy too many times. “You wish!” he said good-naturedly. “We are going to beat you guys!” He was actually sort of afraid to play against Aladren. If everything that Preston said was true, they were crazy, and the Big Beater was fearsome. He was super big! Laurie didn’t like being at the end of that particular relationship, he preferred being the one sending Bludgers to other people. Being a Chaser was going to be interesting. “Yes. Of course we can still be friends,” the redhead nodded seriously.
There was no way in hell or heaven or earth that Laurie would stop being friendly with Kitty. She was just like him! It was a breath of fresh air, to be honest. The Teppenpaw really liked Michael, his roommate, but he had the notion that Micheal could end up annoyed at him. Most of the people did. His own family got tired of him quite easily. He was sure that Kitty and he were going to be awesome together. He was naturally curious and the curious quest was taken with someone. Laurie was of the idea that everything shared was better. Plus, Laurie had lived a somewhat sheltered life, and he wasn’t the most knowledgeable in the making friends department, but he was doing a good job with Kitty!
Laurie giggled with Kitty; he found funny her last comment. Yes, it was probably better to stay away from each other during Potions. It was better to seek someone that actually knew what was going on in the class. Fawcett seemed like the kind of Professor that could become very intimidating. Well, he was. The older Professor seemed capable of terrible things. “I love CoMC! The creatures are awesome! Plus, the fact that we are outside of the usual classroom setting is way cool,” he said eagerly. At this time, he would be worried about annoying the other person, but Kitty seemed to be quite okay with his excitableness. His breakfast was long forgotten, he was more interested in Kitty than to continue eating. “I can’t wait to get older and see the more interesting creatures,” he smiled. “What is your favorite thing about the school?”
If possible Kitty’s grin grew when Laurie returned her high-five. Half the time people just looked at her funny when she tried to get them to high-five so the fact that Laurie did earned him like a bazillion points in her book. A happy laugh escaped her when Laurie exclaimed that his team was going to win. She loved competition and was delighted that Laurie wasn’t going to go easy on her for being little or a girl.
The fact that Laurie was able to match Kitty’s energy made the tiny girl exceptionally happy. Finding others like her was difficult at best, but most often imposable. She could usually find someone willing to tolerate her, or even be amused by her, but very rarely did she find anyone who was like her. Laurie could have been her long lost brother, for all that they looked nothing alike they shared the same spirit. A small giggle escaped her as she thought about how other people would react when confronted by both of them, if her housemates found Kitty to be difficult to tolerate Kitty plus Laurie would be impossible. It would be fun though, watching how her uptight roommates would react.
Kitty bounced with pent up energy as she spoke “Oh my gosh! I love the maze, I can’t ever find my way but that’s most of the fun. Any time I go in I know I’ll find something new and exiting that I hadn’t seen before. They should have more classes outside, you know? It makes things way more interesting. Do you think we’ll get to see dragons?” She asked, anticipation gleaming in her bright blue eyes. She always loved the big predators at the zoo, tigers, bears, the wolves. And she couldn’t wait so see one of the more dangerous and magnificent magic creatures. Sure, the little ones were cute, but the big ones were way more exciting.
The redhead felt he was in friend heaven. This wouldn’t have worked out if he had planned it. Fortunately for him, destiny did exist, and he was certain he had been the reason he had decided to go and get some breakfast. Yes, destiny was awesome and it had given him a friend. Of course, he would not inquire to her blood-status, this was too good to mare it with such nonsense. The first-year Teppenpaw kept his beliefs hidden from his family, they would freak out about them, but he was adamant on believing that Muggle-borns were okay, at least as friends. Laurie had a Half-blood friend back at home, maybe the only one living inside the magical community. His mother was a Muggle-born that worked at his house. The redhead would just need to keep it a secret, from his parents and his cousin Preston, if Kitty turned out to be something other than a Pureblood.
Anyways, he was sure Kitty and he were going to become good friends and a force to be beckoned with! That thought made him really happy. To spend time with someone just like him. He sniggered at the thought of them cornering Preston. That would be hilarious! His cousin would not know what hit him. He actually wondered how Preston dealt with her during their practices. He would pay to see that.
His green eyes widened with excitement at the mention of the maze. The Labyrinth Gardens were amazing! “I know!” he almost squealed. “It is awesome. I have been there a couple of times, and I can’t get enough. My goal for my years to come is to get to know it to perfection,” he nodded solemnly at his statement. He leaned closer to Kitty and whispered, “You can do it with me, if you want to.” Laurie grinned mysteriously. Susurrating made everything seem more interesting, as if they were plotting something dangerous or something.
He returned to his previous position and smiled. “I think so, but that would be in later years,” he said with a tint of sadness in his voice. The big creatures were always more interesting than the little ones. Plus, dragons breathed fire! How cool was that? He couldn’t wait for that class to come along. Plus, Professor Kiva was awesome and she was always responding his never ending questions. “I really can’t wait to be older and know more stuff! That is going to be cool and exciting.”
This was perhaps the first time Kitty had ever been around someone who didn’t shush her after five or ten minutes. Or glare, or demand she apologize for saying something wrong. Laurie was the first person ever who seemed perfectly happy to spend time with her. And that simply made Kitty’s whole day. Magic was fantastic, the classes were grand but it was this…finding someone who could end up being a true friend, that made Sonora the best place she’d ever gone to.
Her eyes widened with absolute delight as Laurie grinned and asked her to join in exploring the Labyrinth with him. A happy squeal of delight escaped the small girl before she managed to whisper back “Yes! That would be the funnest thing ever.” It was a struggle for her to keep to a whisper but that just added another layer of excitement to it all. By whispering it made it feel more like a secret adventure for just the two of them.
“I know!” She said enthusiastically when Laurie pointed out how much more they would know in later years. “There’s just so much to learn I can’t wait. It’s gunna be great.” She finished, eyes shining with all the things yet to learn, to explore and figure out. “Wouldn’t it be cool to see dragons in their natural habitat? I mean, any one they brought here would most likely be tame. It would be so much fun to just study them in the wild."
Laurie was about to burst with excitement. This was the first time he had found someone that actually liked him as he was, not someone that had to like him because of who he was and the ancestry he had. The Randolph’s were very important, that he knew, but the redhead had always been friendly, and he had never found someone that wanted to spend ridiculous amounts of time with him just doing fun stuff. His so-called friends spent time with him because they had to, their parents knew one another and they made them be together. It wasn’t the perfect setting, but Laurie always tried to make the best of it. With Kitty it felt completely different and the Teppenpaw loved it. He didn’t have to rein his never ending energy, which was brilliant, because it meant he didn’t have to be stressed about being liked. He was sure this was the beginning of the best friendship ever!
He smiled at Kitty’s excitement at the idea of exploring the gardens. It was going to be awesome. They could make a map or write out their findings and write something completely fantastic! Yes.yes.yes.yes. This was definitely the best day of his young life. “It will be amazing. Just wait, we are going to become legends!” this time he couldn’t susurrate, his excitement was too much. He actually bounced on his chair a couple of times before settling in with a big grin on his face.
“Yes, I can hardly wait to be all grown-up and know more stuff. I have seen my parents do amazing things with magic.” His stomach grumbled a bit and he remembered he had been eating breakfast. Laurie sniggered and took a bite of his pancakes. His green-eyes looked at Kitty while he chewed and swallowed. He cleared his throat, “Seeing them in their natural habitat would be exciting, but dangerous.” He nodded, “but I hear that when the time comes, Prof. K will take us to a dragon ranch. Not the same as their habitat, but good enough. I think..” he smiled and took another bite. Not really wanting to leave Kitty.
Yay! Finally I have someone to bounce with
by Kitty
Large blue eye sparkled with the idea of becoming a legend. “YES! They’ll totally be talking about us long after we’ve graduated.” Kitty grinned widely as she pictured the impact they would have on the very fabric of the school’s history. No one would ever forget Laurie and Kitty! “Oh! Lets totally start exploring this weekend. I heard that there might even be magical creatures living in the gardens.” Her voice lowered into an excited whisper. She remembered Fae had been worried about the creatures and Kitty really wanted to see it was true.
Delighted surprise colored Kitty’s features. “Wow, you’re a magic kid? Most of them I’ve met so far aren't nearly as fun as you! What kind of magic do your parents do? What’s the very best magic you’ve ever seen?” Kitty asked excitedly. She was so glad that Laurie wasn’t as uptight and stuffy as the other magic kids usually were.
“Really! I can’t wait. I wonder what it would be like to work there? Do you think that the dragons are nice to the people who handle them all the time?” Kitty wanted to know, suddenly dragon hand at a dragon ranch made it to her list of things I wanna do when I grow up. Even though the pancakes were long gone Kitty continued to drink her juice, absolutely not wanting to leave her new best friend. Why couldn’t we be in the same house? It’s just not fair, we’re so much alike, we should have been in the same house Kitty thought with a small pout.
0KittyYay! Finally I have someone to bounce with0Kitty05
“Sounds like a plan!” he exclaimed when Kitty proposed starting their wanderings this weekend. It would be amazing! They were going to have so much fun, and would have so many stories to tell everyone that the other students will seek them for some story-telling time. Laurie was already fantasying about it. The danger, the adventure!! His excitement was hardly containable. He was sure that everyone was able to see it, not to mention that he was fidgeting on his seat, he needed to get out of here and just explode in an activity. Sitting down was becoming an irksome activity, he had the need to run, to try and burn some energy that was going through his body. “How awesome would it be if we actually saw something in there?” by this point, Laurie was almost screaming. He was very excitable and he wasn’t ashamed of it.
Laurie blinked when Kitty called him a Magic Child. It was the first time someone referred to him like that, it was weird. “Yeah, my parents are magical. As well as my grandparents and their parents,” he nodded somewhat seriously. He was still grinning. He sniggered at her comment about other magical children, “happy to be of service!” he said with a chuckle. He tapped his finger index on his chin thinking about the best piece of magic his father had performed. “I think it was last Christmas when he charmed some Quaffles to move around, but they were glowing!” it had been amazing, it really had been. He smiled remembering the flying Glowing-Quaffles. “So, you come from a Non-Magical family?” he asked cautiously. He didn’t really care, but he was curious about it, especially at her surprise of him coming from a magical family. He cleared his throat, “I don’t care about that.” He was trying to make Kitty at ease, but if his father knew about this, he would be super mad.
The redheaded Teppenpaw looked at Kitty and frowned, she was pouting. “Is everything okay?” he asked concerned. They were having so much fun! Laurie hoped it didn’t have to do with the fact that he came from a magical family and she didn’t. He stretched out a hand towards Kitty and smiled. Everything was going to be okay, he was sure. His father would never learn he was friends with a Muggleborn. No, everything was going to fall into place.
“Wow! That sounds super cool, I wonder when we’ll be able to do that sort of stuff?” Kitty said with a grin. Then he asked if she’d come from a non magic family almost hesitantly, not that the question bugged the small excitable girl any. “Yup! I’m the only one with magic, none of my brothers got it.” Kitty said with a grin, of all for of them she was the special one. His energy only fed hers and Kitty didn’t even notice how loud Laurie was getting, it just felt so perfectly right.
She pouted a bit at the thought of how well matched they were, why were they in different houses? “Is everything okay?” he asked as he reached out a hand and smiled. An echoing smile curled her soft pink lips as she reached out and twined her fingers with his.
Again she pouted, this time exaggerating the movement and being overly dramatic. Though her blue eyes did twinkle with suppressed laughter she spoke forlornly “It’s just not fair! Why are we in different houses? There’s never been a better fit than us, I think that whole sorting mumbo jumbo was just a trick the adults pulled and they already picked what houses we’d be going into before they even saw us. There’s no way we should have been placed in different houses.” Kitty declared.
Even though the words were spoken in jest there was a flavor of almost sad truth to them. Kitty was a very friendly little thing but even she could see that most of her housemates agreed with her assessment. She just didn’t fit in very well with her fellow Aladren’s though most of the time she didn’t let it bother her. But sometimes Kitty just felt like an outsider. For once she wanted to be with people who could understand her and not be annoyed by her. Well, at least now she had Laurie, even if they were in different houses, it still felt wonderful to find someone who didn’t frown when she got to loud, or asked too many questions.
Laurie blushed when Kitty intertwined their fingers together, it was a very interesting new experience, and he liked how it felt to have such a good friend. He squeezed Kitty’s hand before letting go of her, “Wow. I always wondered about the Muggle world, I don’t know anything about it. My parents are very conservative.” Laurie didn’t want to flat-out say that his parents were Anti-Muggle and Muggleborn. It would just make everything awkward, something he didn’t want to happen with her. Laurie genuinely liked the other first-year. He was sure they were going to be become the best of friends. At some point, the conversation would be needed to be touched, but not today, maybe when they were older.
He laughed at Kitty’s over-dramatic antics. She had a good point, but he knew that the sorting ceremony was serious, and that there was no way the Headmaster could have rigged it. “My father explained how the potion works, but I really didn’t understand,” he grinned sheepishly. “I tried to pay attention, but I got bored after the first 3 seconds. Potions will never be my thing,” He declared while snickering. His father had been very upset with him, because he had wasted his very valuable time. Laurie didn’t remember a time when his father wasn’t home, which was very weird. Anyways, he agreed with Kitty, it was weird that she was an Aladren while he was a Teppenpaw. He wished they were in the same House, it would have been epic.
He was about to comment on that when his watch screamed that he was late. He jumped out of the surprise, and after a few seconds of recovering from the scare he looked at it. The hour-hand was pointing to ´Being Late´. He blinked, remembering that he was supposed to meet Preston at the Sports Room now. Time had passed very quickly, and he really wanted to stay and chat with Kitty some more. She was better company than his cousin.
“Kitty, I need to go,” he said with sadness. “I need to meet Preston, but I will send an owl to make plans for our adventure!” he hugged her before running out of the Cascade Hall. This was far the best day he had had Sonora.
Kitty grinned when Laurie admitted he didn’t know anything about muggles. She was a bit curious about what conservative meant in the magic world, in her world it mostly just meant old sticks in the mud who didn’t like change. Perhaps in the magic world it was the same. She giggled softly imagining all the old wizards and witches arguing about hem length for robes. “Well, I’m still learning about the magic world so it’s only fair to tell you about the muggle world yeah?” Kitty said happily. Sharing information was something she loved to do, even if in this world it seemed to be met with mixed results. It really only seemed fair to offer her own insights and observations as she compared the two worlds, but often times it got her glared at. Not that the small girl cared too much about that, they usually got over their annoyance soon enough.
A pleased smile graced her lips when Laurie squeezed her hand back, instead of pulling away. Kitty was a very touch based person, and found it difficult not to touch and be touched by those around her. So far even the muggle born kids were way more touch shy than she was use to and the magic kids all pulled away whenever she reached out to touch them. That would take some getting used to.
“Eepp!” the startled little sound escaped her throat when Laurie’s watch started screaming. It was surprisingly loud. Sadness touched her heart shaped face when Laurie said he had to leave, and Kitty was amazed how fast the time flew. It seemed like they’d just started talking, but a quick glance around showed a lot of the other students had already finished eating and left. The sadness was chased away by Laurie’s hug and Kitty grinned. “I can’t wait it’s going to be amazing fun! I’ll bring a fresh note book and everything.” Kitty promised. She’d make sure to document all their discoveries and they’d start working on their map.