It was the first rays of sun falling on his face that woke Skyler that morning. Like many old (and wealthy) wizarding families, the Grays had several houses, and this one was hidden in the heart of London. It was a small room, with a window on the wall to his right, where the sun shone through onto his bed. The rest of his room was simple, painted blue with white trim. The Queen sized bed Skyler got out of had plain sheets in that faded from grey to blue. At the foot of the bed was a chest-empty save for the clothes he would wear today. Attached to the room was a private bath, with a simple shower/bath, toilet, and sink. The mirror was spotless, Skyler noticed as he shaved after a short shower. No real surprise, the house-elf kept it clean. Skyler didn't really have to shave every day, but after a day or two the beginnings of a beard would appear and he didn't like the way it framed his face. In all fairness, his high cheekbones and fair features made him somewhat of a pretty boy, though he preferred the term handsome. The beard just didn't fit. It also took too long to grow. So he shaved every day. Skyler decided to wear black slacks and a dark blue dress shirt over a white undershirt. He did not button it to the top as he would not wear a tie with this shirt. Once on the train he would replace it with the standard white dress shirt, house tie, and cloak, but one did not wear these things in public. Too many wizards could not blend in with the muggles, although Skyler admittedly found it easier to wear nicer clothes as he never quite understood most of the other fashions. T-shirts were comfortable, but he never got the references. Growing up in the Wizarding World was like that. He was a little worse than many, as the Gray household is not the most social, even among wizards.

Breakfast was a simple affair. Eggs, some toast, and tea. His father was escorting him to the station today, as usual, so they ate together. They spoke briefly about the weather-it was raining again-and then about Hogwarts. Skyler did well on his OWLS last year and would be taking quite a few classes this year. Most importantly he would be studying Alchemy. They opened that class at his request this year. Thankfully there was enough students that were capable and wanted to take it, but he was surprised that one required an Outstanding in both Transfigurations and Potions. It explained why the class was not always available.

"You must be excited for Apparition classes. And, having passed, you will soon enough be an adult. Usefull skill to have." Skyler knew that traveling was a burden on his father's work, but he also knew his father enjoyed the break, short as it was. "And as you already have some experience assisting me, perhaps you will be soon ready for your own project." A small chuckle, "Let us see what happens after the NEWT exams." The thought had Skyler excited, but the NEWT exams were still so far away. Besides, this year there was something almost more important. He was grateful that he was not in his seventh year. It would be terrible to study for exams during the event, whether he was lucky enough to be the contestant or not. The Tri-Wizard Tournament had come again.

"I am excited. This year will prove to be very entertaining, at the least." Skyler sipped the last of his tea, "Hopefully moreso." After placing his napkin on the empty plate, Skyler stands, "Shall we leave then?" His father stands as well, nodding. Skyler quickly retrieved his cat, Alabaster, a small black cat. Alabaster followed them into the car, almost like a dog might. His father had always told him that cats were far smarter than most other animals, but they disdained anyone who was not excellent-which supposedly explained their behaviour. On the other hand, there is some evidence known to the the Gray family that cats are useful in magic, they just haven't quite figured out how. Perhaps one day.

The trip to King's Cross station was uneventful. Skyler supposed that his things were quite noticeable, but his appearance and that of his similarly dressed father kept them from drawing too much attention. Walking through the barrier to Platform 9 and 3/4 without drawing any attention was simple, Skyler didn't even look around first, simply walked up and through. The train was already here, of course. After taking care of his things Skyler hugged his father and boarded the train. Alabaster disappeared shortly afterwards, not that Skyler was bothered. The cat knew when it was needed. Sky was early enough in boarding that the train was mostly empty. Not being a prefect or anything, he needed a cabin, so he found an empty one a little ways down the train. He expected his friends any minute now, as well as other random people coming in and out. The doors were always open. Skyler made sure of that.

Ever tried to explain to someone something that only you understand; like a dream? Or an idea that only makes sense in your head, or a secret code that only you and a few other people could speak as well. Well that’s what it was like being a witch with a muggle family. Despite the fact that her parents had been to Diagon Alley and to the train at platform 9 ¾ but to her younger siblings, they didn’t quite understand.

“Astoria has to leave for school again? But but why?!” Her youngest siblings complained as they all sat at the breakfast table. The home was practically having a feast, the blonde and her matching male counterpart both prepared for their departure to their respective schools but the youngest siblings still didn’t understand why Astoria went so far away compared to her brother who could make weekend visits home. Explaining to them why they couldn’t visit was hard considering it was more of a ‘seeing is believing’ style of situation. And that was something she couldn’t show her siblings.

“It’s okay, I’ll be back for the holidays.” Was the way the blonde haired girl in the high pony tail responded as she munched away on her pancakes. The question arose asking if one of the siblings would ever be able to attend the school that Astoria was going to and she shrugged, her brother matching her motions in the twin-sort-of-way. Her brother was around longer then her younger siblings and saw his sister go into the magical world and knew things the younger siblings didn’t. And now, it wouldn’t surprise any of the family is one of the other children turned out to be magical and got a letter at 11 years old. Now they couldn’t count anything out.

Their mother huffed and puffed as she rubbed her belly, the newest member of their family growing inside and making her feel worn out due to the amount she had grown. A small laugh left Astoria as she got to her feet and helped her mom with the dishes. Soon the entire kitchen was clean as the siblings felt bad for their exhausted mother and always did what they could to help.

Because of her mother’s exhaustion, her father was the one to take her to the station so she said good bye to her siblings, crated her cat and hugged her mom tightly before climbing into the car. “I wish I could have used magic to help mom with the house…” She muttered under her breathe as she pouted out the window.

“Well kiddo.” Her father said with a small sigh but a bright smile. “We’d rather have you follow the law and continue your schooling then to lose this incredible opportunity.”

Her father, always the words of wisdom and she nearly giggled in response, “You’re right dad, thanks.” It wasn’t long before the two arrived at the train station, her father still nervous about walking through the wall but with the guidance of the daughter and being the one to push the cart; he was more than willing to do so for his little girl. The good bye was a bit disheartening as having such a parting ways with a large family was always hard. A deep sigh left her as she watched her dad awkwardly attempt to leave and even having to ask for directions on how to get out. Luckily people seemed a lot more kind now-a-days and she felt okay letting her father wonder out.

Climbing aboard the train, the blonde was in a pair of dark blue jeans, black sneakers and a bright yellow jersey sporting her class colors with pride along with the number 11 on the back. Her Quidditch number to be exact!

If there was one thing the young blonde hated it was being alone. So her hunt for a cart was based around one thing; which one had people in it. And of course, the first one she found was the one that held Skyler Gray. When it comes to interaction, they had some classes together and may have held from brief conversation but after so many school years together, it was hard not to know who each other was and being who she was; she was always up for moving an acquaintance to a friend. “Hello Skyler.” Her voice was bubbly and cheerful as she stepped inside the carriage. “Mind if I join you? Did you have a good summer?”

While he waited for others to join him, Skyler pulled out this year's herbology book. It was important to understand herbology in order to be good at potions, but Skyler found this a bit more difficult. More memorization, whereas potions seemed to be governed by a set of rules that were hidden away yet to be discovered. Skyler, in fact, had a book of these rules that he was using. He started writing it in his first year, and there were many that he had crossed out and revised. Now he had a handful of rules that Skyler was confident he could eventually prove true. These rules allowed him to stray from the guidance of the potions books they use in class, and improve on the technique oftentimes. He definitely benefited from the journal during his OWLs last year. Unlike some of the prodigies he knew, Skyler had to learn potionmaking the hard way. He had spent much of his sparetime making potions over and over again in order to discover these rules. Only then had he begun to excell. It also helped to have proficiency with the tools at hand.

Herbology looked to be signifigantly more difficult this year, as did his other classes. He was taking quite a few. Skyler knew he was in for a tough year. Alchemy alone would be incredibly difficult, and it would be a new subject altogether. Thankfully it built on foundations they had already established. Divination would be fairly simple, but necessary. Charms would probably be the next biggest headache, simply because Skyler had so much to do. Charms was not as easy as many thought it was, even if it wasn't as complex as Transfiguration or requiring as much awareness as Defense Against the Dark Arts. Herbology would be pretty difficult as well, simply do to the amount of memorization. After reading a few pages, for familiarity if anything, Skyler had that feeling. It was fairly strong. Something important was about to happen. So he shut the book in his hands and put it away, waiting patiently, alert, but not overly so. And then came Astoria. Skyler knew her somewhat, having had some classes with her before. They weren't exactly friends, but Skyler could say that about a lot of people.

"Hello Astoria. Please, feel free to join me." He gestured to the seat across from him. It would be odd to sit next to her as they weren't all that friendly. To intimate. "My summer went well," Skyler paused only briefly, considering how much to tell her. That feeling lingered, "My father allowed me to assist him on one of his projects. It was a good experience, but I definitely need more practice with ancient runes." Skyler smiled at her, "Will you be taking Ancient Runes again this year?" Astoria was definitely one of the few in their class Skyler was certain got a good score in Ancient Runes. In fact, he would be very surprised if she didn't get an Outstanding on her OWLs.

There was still that lingering feeling. Skyler could almost say that it centered on Astoria. It wasn't a feeling of danger, simply one of importance. Unfortunately there was no way of knowing what, even with some magic-which he wouldn't perform in front of her as it was rude-Skyler wouldn't have a solid answer. That isn't how it worked. Still, he knew Astoria was important somehow. While Skyler knew that he wasn't going to intentionally be rude to her, now there was a more signifigant meaning to this conversation. He had to make a good impression, or so he thought. Unfortunately, Skyler didn't really know how to do that. People swarmed him for all sorts of reasons, and after his first year he learned to be cautious and distrustful. What an odd situation to be in, feeling a need to trust someone but having only ever trusted himself.

More importantly, Skyler thought, Why do I get such a strong feeling? I've had a couple classes with her, I know she is quite the flier, but otherwise I know little. Maybe she'll be important for figuring out something important in a project? But I don't even have a project of my own yet...I wouldn't get a feeling like this over something so vague. Skyler could only sigh inwardly. It was unlikely he would figure it out. While he was very good at divination, it was not a very friendly art. If anything, it was the least reliable form of magic. Some doubted it as a branch of magic alltogether. Skyler knew enough to know this wasn't the case, but it didn't change the fact that divination was largely unreliable.

The invite was met with a bright smile from Astoria, showing her straight white teeth as she nodded thanks in response and settled down across from him. The bright smile never seemed to leave her face as she practically oozed happiness and excitement. Even though this was their 6th year, she was still not used to life revolving around magic. Especially with the lack of magic at home; that and Quidditch, she really missed Quidditch during the summer! Maybe someday she could see a professional Quidditch game.

The thoughts of possible adventures next summer with her friends rolled through her head before she snapped back to reality, realizing that Skyler was talking to her about his summer and her attention fully returned to the world around her and honed in on Sklyer as she listened to his explanation of what he had done for the summer and the instant he explained that he had practice with ancient runes, the blondes gray-blue eyes sparkled with excitement. “Wow! That’s amazing! Yes, yes I am taking Ancient Runes again this year. The idea of being able to study the magical world’s runes is something that has interested me ever since I came to Hogwarts.”

There was no doubt that Astoria’s life had drastically changed since she became involved with the magical world but one thing that never changed was her interest in history. The amount of history and ancient things in the muggle world was vast and interesting but now, NOW Astoria had a whole new world to play in and she couldn’t wait to get a chance to do so.

Her eyes expanded as she stared at the young man across from her, not only did they expand but the twinkled with questioned and excitement. “What does your father do for a living that gets him to visit ancient runes?! Not to mention take his son along!”

It did not surprise Skyler that Astoria did not know what his father did, as his family didn't share their work with much of the wizarding world. To be completely fair, only the older families and some higher ups in the ministry really knew anything, and most of the families fame came from Skyler's grandfather. Unlike other famous wizarding families, his did not show up often in history books.

"My father studies ancient magicks." Skyler smiled politely. It wasn't his place to tell her everything, but it wouldn't hurt to tell her a little about what he did this summer. "One of his projects involves attempting to determine the purpose of a magic circle left behind in certain ruins. He believes that they had many uses beyond what modern wizards imagine. We were studying the runes and the ruins themselves, attempting to glean some information there." He could only sigh, "Unfortunately, the runes did not tell us anything useful, so it is back to the drawing board."

Though Astoria had only just joined him, Skyler could hear people on the train now, as it was quickly becoming busier. It wouldn't be long before they were joined by others. Not many of the people that often surrounded him were Hufflepuffs. Skyler attributed it to the difference in personalities. Hufflepuffs tended to be genuine, friendly people, like Astoria seemed to be. The people that fawned on him and generally surrounded him tended to have motives beyond simple friendship. He often wondered what it would be like to have such simple relationships, but it was unlikely he would find them.

"Did you enjoy your summer?" He asked. It was unfortunate, but likely there conversation would be soon cut short as many people attempted to join them. Sky only hoped that he had made a decent impression on her in this time. There was no way he had made a strong impression, but hopefully it was positive and would allow him more chances to build upon.