1/6/2002

 

Hospital Wing

 

Typical hospital wing.  The matron here, Madame Pomfrey, can mend almost anything in an instant, though beds have been set up for prolonged stays.

 

 

Early morning. Before classes, no less! There is a young man entering quietly, the swish of robes about his ankles audible in the quiet. He is slim, not too tall, not to short, though the shock of bright, pale blue hair and the single, visible burgundy eye that flickers over the hospital wing. He seems a little unsure of himself, fitfully straightening his robes and seeming a wee bit nervous. He seems, if anything, lost in this great hall. Help! ;.# He needs some directions! And so he moves to the nearest live-and-hale body in the room and clears his through softly. "Excuse me...?"

 

There are generally not that many people who stay the night in this wing. Some days are more common than others. Today is one of the empty days. The canceling of Quidditch until further notice likely had something to do with that. Though there is someone present at the moment. A small young woman sits perched on a stool in front of a table with many assorted jars and bottles. Apparently some oriented heritage, the young woman is dressed in Hogwarts robes, with blue and bronze trim and the seal of a Ravenclaw. She glances up at the voice and offers a beautiful smile, her trademark, if he'd known anything about her. "Good morning. Can I help you?" Her eyes linger briefly on his missing eye, but not for very long. It certainly isn't a new wound, so it can't be why he's here.

 

The young man has no house seal upon his breast, merely plain black robes. He's new, AND yet to be sorted. Lucky him. He just musters a slight smile and then says, "Anou, I have come to see Madame Pomfrey for my physical screening," he says, "Only I have no idea who she -is-." It's a big wing. She's probably busy somewhere! He turns his head--almost subconsciously--as she gazes at his disfigurement, and continues, "I've recently arrived from Kyoto, and I'm a bit lost, really. I was just trying to find this Madame Pomfrey, so I can get a clean bill of health." He runs a long fingered, rough hand through his hair, letting it drop back into his face as if it had never been ruffled. "Can you help me?"

 

Cho continues to offer that prized smile (well, prized by the general male population of the school at least) and twists in her seat so she's better facing him. "Madam Pomfrey is out of the Wing right now, in a staff meeting. She'll want to see you personally, but you can wait here until she arrives if you'd like." She slides down off the stool and stands up, gesturing towards a couple chairs off at the side. "My name's Cho Chang. I'm a sixth year student here. I sometimes help out in the Hospital Wing. I'm probably not the first person to say this, nor likely the last, but I hope you enjoy it here at Hogwarts." And hopefully he won't get into any of the problems that have recently begun to happen, but she won't toss those on someone on his first day.

 

Well, Houjun could prize that smile in time! However, for now, he's simply smiling back at her, far more shyly. His english is thickly accented, R's and L's sometimes blurring into a sound between. But he nods quietly, and then says, "A pleasure to meet you, Chang-san." Never one to use the given name, such as he has been raised, he remains 'polite' but his people's standards. "I'm Houjun Ri.... newly arrived. And actually, no, not the first, but perhaps the most sincerely seemed." It's a compliment of sorts--she seems warm and sincere, and he appreciates it.

 

Well, Cho Chang is almost always warm and sincere, to everyone, completely without bias. As he is unsorted, he could easily be a power-centered Slytherin-to-be, though with that shy smile, she has her doubts. But her recent encounters with a certain young boy who most people she knows think poorly of only prove that she doesn't discriminate at all. "It is sincere. I know a couple of the transfer students, and so far I must say they're all a breath of fresh air around here." She pauses for a moment. Since he called her by her last name, she's hesitating on what to call him, so for now, she doesn't. "If you don't mind me asking, what have your studies in the past been like? I've always been curious as to what people in other places learn." As anyone with a Chinese Wizard for a father likely would be.

 

There's a little pause, and he flushes slightly. "My education--both in magic and in more mundane subject--has been strictly, ah, of a religious nature." He reaches up and scratches at his long hair, before looking down at the ground, and offering, "So This 'Hogwarts' will be a new thing for me. So please forgive any faux pas I may commit. I am new to both your world and your culture, as it were." Slytherin? This blushing, bumbling young man? Riiiight. >_> But he then says, "But if you like, I could tell you what my schedule was like, for most of my life." ... Life? As in, he's not known anything but? ... How young do they start them over there?!

 

From the way her father talked, Wizardry magic in China was quite different. In Europe, generally people start at the age of eleven, though most people have some knowledge if they were raised in a Wizarding family. She also knows that for the most part, her father had been involved in more religious styles of magic usage, but not to the point of being a religious figure himself. Cho does offer a nod at the bit about this being much different. "I'm sure it is. But don't worry, you'll probably get into the flow of things quite quickly." Though, his timing probably isn't the best for arrival, with all the bad things going on... "If you want to, I'm more than happy to listen." It's more eventful than staring at jars and bottles of potion ingredients!

 

Well, perhaps it will abate the oddness if he recounts it, and thus, feels a little more secure in someone knowing and understanding. "I suppose I shall understate things, as explaining each step goes deep into theory and philosophy.  I wake at dawn, and I push hands--or rather, I shadow box, as you would say--with the monks at the temple. I then I bathe, I meditate on the eight fold path, and then I have breakfast. I do whatever chores I have, and then I have my lessons, whatever the abbot has decided for me. And then I do more chores, meditate, exercise, ring the bells at the evening prayer, and then I practice my more mundane education. About two o'clock in the morning, I will finally go to bed." ... And get up less then four hours later. o.O; He must have one hell of a strict schedule. o_o;

 

You know, Cho almost wishes she had sat down before he started to explain that. It's so... vastly different from what he will be doing here. Except for the strange classes, Hogwarts isn't too far from a typical European Boarding School. She voices that after a long, soundless pause. "That's.. certainly different than what we do here. What kind of fields of magic have you studied?" She knows that some of the transfer students have extremely odd types of magic. Hikaru never explained fully what they were, but Harry said that Sakura and the friends that came with her used cards of all things for their magics. And whatever Setsuna does is completely outside of Cho's imagination.

 

"Yes?" ^_^; Eheheh! "I do a little of everything. I'm most proficient in warding, teleportation, enchantment of objects, transformation, a few attack spells, a little telekinesis..." He flushes slightly, and then says, "My education has been very broad. But I haven't studied a number of your more worldly subjects, so I imagine that I'll be enjoying trouble with your normal subjects, while you probably structure your magic much more differently..."

 

Cho blinks noticeably. "They teach you teleportation magic there?" She whistles softly under her breath. "Here we're not allowed learn how to Apparate until you're eighteen. And you have to pass a test to get a license." It's honestly one thing she's looking forward to learning. Would save having to use the Floo Network... There's just something about using fireplaces to travel that always bothered this particular witch. "And yes, our magic is... quite different. I can already see that.. Professor Flitwick will adore you if you're good with Levitation and Telekensis though."

 

Houjun pauses to ponder, and then nod. "Yes. It's one of my newer spells," he admits. "But I have learned it." And he's only sixteen! "And levitation is something my parents are intimately familiar with now these days." ^_^; "My gifts manifested young... including levitating off the bed during nightmares, and making thinks fly from shelves. That's when they decided the abbot's advice was sound." He shrugs then, and says, "But I've learned many things... but I want to learn more of the world outside the monastery, then the about magic, honestly. Which is why I agreed to come here." The worldly knowledge he can gain here is more important to him now then anything else.

 

"The first powers of mine to surface were an affinity with healing. When I was two I healed a bird. My mother was furious. I still remember the lecture I got. Healing charms are dangerous, not as much as Apparating, but dangerous. I'm still not allowed to practice them without supervision." Cho says this so he knows he isn't a freak. Powers tend to manifest young with a lot of people of their magical heritage, usually in times of extreme emotion or stress. Though likely if his family weren't magical in nature themselves, then it would have been quite strange at first. "There are some non-magic related classes, but a majority of them will be magic based. You may have to take some first level classes. I'm not sure how they handle the older transfers... But you'll likely have to learn the basis of wand use."

 

Wands. o_o; "I haven't even gotten one," he admits. He seems pleased that his case was not so rare--he had no other young people to judge himself by. "I'm not even sure how to get one." Won't they be pleased when they find out he's unprepared! But he shuffles slightly, and then says, "I have used a staff--a gohei--in a similar way your wands are mentioned, so hopefully, it won't be that difficult."

 

Cho clicks her tongue for a moment, trying to figure out how he can get a wand. "You normally would have to go buy one. London's the best place to get them, but I'm sure they can allow you to go without for a while. There are a lot of classes that have nothing to do with wands at all." She's obviously trying to not make him feel too uncomfortable. "There's Potions, Herbalogy, Divinition, Ancient Runes, Magical Creatures and even Muggle studies." She pauses, then adds, "Muggles is what we call non-magic folk." Just in case he doesn't understand the European slang. "And if you practice wardings and attack spells, you'll probably do wonderfully in Defense Against the Dark Arts. Not to mention Transfiguration."

 

A moment later, the young man relaxes. "I'll look into it, regardless." Having no idea what he's going to be going thorough, anyway. But he'll look forward to it as it comes... smiling at the list of classes. "So many classes-- but yet the school day is so short!" (Who knew someone would think a school day was SHORT? O.o;) But he chuckles softly, and then his brows furrow. "Anou? 'Muggle'? Nonmagical? There's a difference? O.o Woo, this is going to be a blow. "We make no such distinction in Japan. People are people." But then, Japan is a culture that still respects and honor ancient traditions dating back to the beginning of time. It's very little wonder there's no dividing line between them like there is with the other nations.

 

"Well.. here we do. Mainly because of the particular.. animosity towards the magical world." Cho explains, rather slowly. She's unsure exactly the right way to phrase this without sounding, well.. like a bigot. (Or a Slytherin, take your pick.) "Some of the students here come from complete Wizardry families. Myself included. Both my parents had magical training, and families as far back as any of them could trace. My father's Chinese though, but my mother's family is well-known. A good deal of the students are mixed, with one parent who never had a drop of magic in their family. And others are the first Witch or Wizard in a long line of Muggles. It's.. not exactly important, but Muggle studies is mainly for students from Wizard families, so they understand the basics of the world they were not raised in." In Europe, the Muggle and Wizard worlds are almost completely separate...

 

"I don't think I belong to either group. Muggle or wizarding." He can't really explain--but then, how do you explain that your soul is the stuff of stars, forged in fire, and set to a fantastic duty in another time--and given a second chance, for the sake of something as... fluffy as love? IT sounds like a bad romance novel, except he lacks The Girl. (And the Best Friend, too, but that's another thing entirely.) But he shrugs quietly. "Boushi still work their trade for common people. However, as I imagine it's all religious, instead of the 'heathen' practice of magic outside your ..Christian God of the West, it's better taken in Japan." After all, he did state his education was entirely religious. But his brows furrow, and he says, "My parents will never know magic, but I come from a brotherhood of magical men, yet I am an only child. Just what am I?" He winks that one eye, as if asking her to figure out what he means with that riddle, before turning to a new subject. "Just what do you do here, Chang-san?"

 

Continuing to flash that amazing glowing smile, Cho listens to what he says with interest, but doesn't really seem to understand the riddle. Not that she isn't smart (she probably wouldn't be in Ravenclaw if she wasn't) she just isn't sure what he means by that. And considering the fact that he changed the subject, she feels she is not required to delve into it too much. "My studies are mainly in Potions, Herbalogy and Charms, Healing magics mainly, though I am interested in Defense Against the Dark Arts now." She hadn't been until last year, but... that's another story for another time. "I help out in the Hospital Wing this year, as part of my studies. I'm also Seeker for the Ravenclaw Quidditch team." She pauses, trying to figure out how to explain Quidditch to someone who's likely never seen it. "It's our sport. Wizardry folk. It's played on brooms, flying around. My job on the team is to catch this tiny little gold ball that flies amazingly fast." She holds up her hand and shows the basic size. "Unfortunately though, Quidditch has been canceled." And her broom taken away! ;o; "Because of.. uh.. recent incidents."

 

..."You fly on brooms?" O_o; Okay, excuse him while he just stares at her for a moment. "Ah. I ... see. Well, I likely couldn't participate anyway." With his disability. He apparently is quite used to it, though he has a hard time looking at her dead on for some reason. Perhaps it was the way she looked at that malformed socket. Or perhaps it was something else. But he nods quietly. "I knew a healer, a long time ago. But you seem slightly better with people then he was." ^.^; Good ol' Mits.

 

If she suspects it's anything, she probably just thinks he's very shy. Besides, boys tend to stammer and avoid eye contact around her. Harry, the famous 'Boy-Who-Lived', tends to turn a bright shade of pink in her presence even. Cho has gotten to the point where she expects any kind of reaction from boys. "I realize it sounds quite odd to you, but it's true." Hikaru had a similar reaction to hearing about flying on brooms. And Sakura spent many minutes staring at her and Harry during their practice match. "Healing is a wonderful magic profession. If I can't get onto any professional Quidditch teams after graduation, I'd like to look into it as a career." It certainly beats working for the Ministry.

 

Houjun is very shy, so there you are! ^.^; Easy answer. But he shakes his head quietly, and then says, "To think you can make a career of flying on brooms. Can you actually... make that a career? I mean, is it difficult enough to the point of being that ... applaudable that you do it well?" He's never grasped the concept of sports, really. ^.^; But he seems intrigued to say the least! But he does nod quietly. "I had fully intended on joining my order," he says, "But I was refused, and sent here. My Abbot said... it was not what I was meant for in this life. So a 'career' is something I suppose I shall have to think about." Since he's apparently not going to be a monk. o.o;

 

Cho laughs for a moment, "If they open up Quidditch games again, you'll have to come to a match and see for yourself. Or at least a practice. I'm hoping to get Draco and Harry to practice with me." If they can stop bickering long enough to catch the Snitch that is... "And, yes, Quidditch can be done professionally. It pays well, if you're on a good team. Seeker is generally the best paid too, it's the most important position." And the most dangerous. And just as the conversation winds down, Madam Pomfrey returns. "Madam Pomfrey! This is a new student, Houjun Ri, he needs his physical."

 

Madam Pomfrey gives him an eyeing over, focusing on the empty socket for a moment, then says, "Please, come this way, Mister Ri and we'll have a look over."