Walking around Crystal Rose was almost like walking into a fantasy world. It was incredible in so many ways that it was actually hard to describe. There was so much to see, so many people to meet, and so much to experience. Plus, the magic around them felt amazing. It was like nothing that any of them had ever felt before. Hogwarts had been a school for over a thousand years and not even it felt as magical as Crystal Rose did. But, did any magic school match up to a school that was over four thousand years old? Probably not.
"Well, are you people going to just stand around like statues," Krinos raised an eyebrow as he looked at the group of students and staff. "The tour is over. Go and mingle. An announcement will be made that will tell you when you will need to go to the Main Gallery for the welcoming feast."
It had been like the "On" button had been pushed for the wand-users. At least the shock that they had gone under was useful for keeping them quiet when they had learned about all the extraordinary things about Crystal Rose. Such as descendants of their school's founders still walking the halls as well how old the school really was.
The students had already proved to be far from normal magic-users. Even from the few students that were actually using their powers instead of just sitting or walking around being regular teenagers, the powers around were very cool. Especially the kid that was juggling fireballs.
"Well, you don't see that every day," Harry said.
"Unless you actually go to school here, of course," Fred chuckled.
"Yeah, that is probably completely normal to them," George laughed.
"Yes, yes it is," Krinos said as he walked over to the four boys.
"Hey, Krinos," Harry smiled at his friend.
"Geia, Harry," Krinos greeted back in his native tongue.
"How are you able to say that," Neville asked, curiosity getting the better of him before he even introduced himself. "If the wards around the school work as translation spells, how can you say anything to us in your actual language?"
Krinos chuckled at Neville's curiosity.
"Simple words can be... ignored is not the best word for it but it is technically a word that works for how to describe it," Krinos says, scratching the back of his neck nervously. "It's just that little words like 'hi' or 'excuse me' can be overlooked by the wards because of how simple they are. It's why those from Hawaii can still say 'aloha' and those from France can still say 'excuse moi' as well."
"Magic does as magic wants," the twins chuckled.
"I could not have put it better myself," Krinos grinned. "Magic can sometimes seem to have a mind of its own. Well, considering that Hecate is the goddess of magic, I guess it does have a mind of its own. Haha."
"Your school is amazing, Krinos," Harry tells him. "I have never seen anything like it in my life. Not even Hogwarts is this grand."
"Thanks, Harry," Krinos smiled at his friend. "Crystal Rose has about one to two thousand students at one time, so we have to go big, or too many potential students would have to go home."
That was another shock to the Hogwarts students. They had never thought a school could hold so many students. Hogwarts only had a few hundred students at most and their numbers were not the best given how many families had been whipped out during the two wars that happened in the last century. Between Voldemort and Grindelwald, a lot of families had either gone extinct or had been decreased to just a few members like Harry was the last Potter and Susan Bones only had herself and her aunt left for the Bones family.
"How can so many students fit into one school," Neville was shocked.
"Magic," Krinos stated. "Our dorms and the classrooms magically expand to accommodate for the number of students in the school. It's another part of the wards around the school."
"Your founders really thought of everything, didn't they," Fred asked.
"We are not sure if such things are a part of Hogwarts," George added.
Krinos shrugged. "We might not know everything about them since they are from so long ago, but they thought of a lot to make sure the school was the best it could be for mystic souls."
"Speaking of which..." Harry let the question hang in the air.
"Yes, Harry, you will now be able to meet my sister," Krinos chuckled since he knew that Harry had been dying to meet Melody.
"Yay," Harry cheered a little, showing that even a fifteen-year-old could be adorable.
It made the others all laugh. Harry rarely got to act in such a way since the idiots of magical Britain all wanted him to act like he was some great hero even when he was just a teenager. And they would always turn on him or treat him horribly if he did not act in the way he was "supposed" to act. Something that really annoyed those that truly knew like Fred and George since they knew that Harry would much rather be playing with animals, flying on his broom, or helping them invent their pranking spells and potions than risk his life saving the ungrateful people of his home country.
The real Harry, who he was rarely ever allowed to be, was just a teenager that wanted to relax and have fun with his life. He did not need to have his life constantly put in danger because the adults in his life hardly ever react. Harry was the one that saved the school from Voldemort-possessed-Quirrell, the basilisk, and many other threats as well. It should be the adults doing all of that, not him.
"Melody should be with some of our friends out back," Krinos says. "We can meet her there and you guys can also meet some of our friends as well."
"From what you have told me, almost the entire school are your friends," Harry chuckled.
"I would not go that far, but I certainly do like to think we have a lot of friends," Krinos smiled. "The only ones that we truly do not get along with are sexist brats like Tommy Reverse and egotistical bullies like Aurora Alexis."
"Well, there are always people like that around," Fred says.
"Bullies and brats will always be around, nothing we can do about it," George added.
"No kidding," Harry agreed with them. "I left the muggle world to go to Hogwarts when I was eleven, thinking the magical one would be better. But then I met people like Malfoy and Snape, who are some of the most horrible people on the planet."
"Mystic souls do not use the word 'muggle' to describe non-magical beings," Krinos says. "We use the term 'mundanes."
"Got to admit, that does sound better than muggles," Neville admits. "Muggle' can be easily used to insult them while 'mundane' is not that easy."
"Technically, mundane is usually the term to describe something as 'normal," Krinos made quotation marks with his fingers. "But we have a saying in the mystic soul community. That being normal is vastly overrated."
"Only makes us like you even more," Fred laughed.
"Gotta love people that let all the crazy come out," George chuckled.
"Some people call it crazy, we simply call it being who we are," Krinos said.
Krinos then started to lead the group through the school so that he could introduce them to his sister. But that did not mean that he actually left the rest of Hogwarts without them being watched. The other students of Crystal Rose as well as the staff were all going to be on high alert the entire year to make sure that they did nothing to harm anyone. Plus, he also was able to look through the eyes of nature whenever he wanted to. There were always plants and flowers around since Crystal Rose with the number of different nature mages attending the school, so he would be able to spy on them whenever he wanted.
The four Hogwarts boys were even more amazed as they walked through the school and saw even more students. Each one seemed even more magical than the last. There was a girl that they saw changing from one animal to another in the blink of an eye. There was a boy that looked to literally be absorbing knowledge from a book that he had his hands hovering over. There was even a teenage centaur walking around the school. You definitely could not find any of these types of kids at Hogwarts.
It showed them all just how Hogwarts was lacking in terms of their school. Like, Hogwarts maybe have had students like Remus, Hagrid, and Flitwick at points in time, but they were the only creatures to ever be allowed at Hogwarts. And yet at Crystal Rose, they could see a number of creature students like the centaur boy. If those types of kids could so easily use magic, then they should be able to attend Hogwarts just as much as other magic schools. They easily blamed the fact that they did not attend Hogwarts on those like Dumbledore and the ministry, both of who would never want creatures to even appear to have equal rights to wand-using wizards.
It made them a little jealous that Krinso got to go to a school like this, but it was not his fault that he was born a mystic soul while they were not. And even if Harry could feel some type of connection between him and the school, it was not like he was a real student since they were just visiting for the year. He would give anything to be able to stay at such an incredible school.
"Hey, Krinos," Harry pointed to one of the students. "Who's that?"
He was pointing at a boy that had falcon wings coming out of his back. He looked to be staring out of a window while using his wings to be hovering above the ground.
"That's Hawk Ventus," Krinos says. "He is actually one of the students here that are half-harpy, which is why he has wings. His magic is that he is able to summon different weather storms using his wings and then be able to control them. It's called Harpy Storm magic."
"Wow, that's incredible," Harry gasped.
Krinos smiled as he knew that Hawk would be able to help Harry when they were able to unlock his magic. They thought that Harry's magic was that he could control the weather, which is normal Storm magic. So, Hawk's weather powers would make him the perfect teacher, given their similarities.
"And what about her," Fred pointed at another student.
"She certainly looks unique," George added as he pointed as well.
Looking over, the rest of them saw that the twins had been pointing at a female student that seemed Chinese given her style choices, her eyes, and how she also had a traditional Chinese comb in her hair. Like what you would see from the movie Mulan. Her hair was also in three ponytails tied at the top of her head with the comb at the beginning of the middle ponytail.
"That is Weilan Breeze," Krinos tells them. "She is a mermaid mage from Hong Kong. Whenever she touches water, she becomes a mermaid. But even when not in her mer-form, she can still manipulate water, freeze it, boil it, and even turn it to gel or glass."
"I sure hope she is better-looking than the mermaids back at the Black Lake at Hogwarts," Harry commented.
That made the rest of the boys shiver, remembering the second task of the tournament the previous year. Krinos just raised an eyebrow at that, telling himself that he would need to remember to ask about that later.
"You will find that a lot of students here are either creatures or have creature-related magic," Krinos says to them. "Weilan and Hawk are just two out of plenty of other creature students."
"Wait, so Weilan is not just a mermaid because of her magic," Neville asked.
"Oh, no," Krinos shook his head. "Mermaid and merman mages can only exist if they already have merpeople blood in their veins.
"Woah," Neville gasped.
"Bloody hell," Fred also gasped.
"You said it, mate," George agreed with both of them.
Krinos chuckled at their reactions. Seeing so many creatures in one school could not be something that those from magical Britain were used to since their country was two centuries behind all over magical communities in terms of equality and magical advancements. It was why most mystic soul terms for "blood" were not as obvious as those for wand-users. First-generation instead of muggleborn, second-generation instead of half-blood, and third-generation instead of pureblood.
"You guys are probably going to have to get used to everything new here that is different from your own school," Krinos says.
"Which is everything about this school since it is nothing like Hogwarts," Harry commented.
"I will take that as a compliment," Krinos stated.
"You should," Fred tells him.
"It's definitely a compliment," George added.
Krinos chuckled and continued to lead them through the school. He did also tell them about other students when they asked about them as they walked by. It made the nature mage even more comfortable to see just how curious they all were about the other students. They were not scared or paranoid over all the different powers and that is what helped him really trust them.
Krinos was friends with Harry, Fred, and George, but trust takes time to build up. Especially since they did come from the one country that hated mystic souls more than anything else. He knew they are not like the others, but making sure of things made him feel better. Especially since there was still the chance that someone could place mind control spells on them or give them some potions to make them act how they want them to.
He smiled whenever they asked about another of the students. It was expected for some to be curious since there were some very unique powers at the school. Not to mention plenty of unique students that wield those powers.
Like Celest Aurora, who not only has the power to control water, but her body is literally also made out of water that most physical attacks do not affect her at all. And there is also Atem Moto, who has the power of Duelist magic, where he is able to place his own special cards on his 'duel disk' and use it to summon monsters, cast spells, and set off traps. And the group had definitely also been curious about Abby, Kryo, and Crystal Gold. All members of the Gold family and have the same Enchanted Sapphire magic, which was advanced ice magic. Harry had been told about the magic clans, so being able to actually meet members of them made his eyes sparkle.
The four of them were so amazed by the school and each student that they were told about just made them even more amazed. Even if all those types of powers would make a government like magical Britain's very paranoid about them, there was not much of a reason to be paranoid about them when they lived across the continent. What was there to fear in Britain when those that they are scared of were living in Greece? Another thing that adds to the very long list of reasons why the British ministry of magic was made of nothing but idiots.
Krinos lead all of them through the school and out to the back of it. They passed by the greenhouse, Neville trying very hard not to get glued to the glass since he was already staring at the plants inside, and made their way over to one of the groups of students by the lake. They saw a group that was of three girls and one boy.
The one that was obviously Krinos's sister was playing the violin. She was similar to Krinos but still is a girl. Her style was a red, pink, and purple dawn-colored dress with gold flats. She had pink-streaked black hair with butterflies in it. On her wrists were diamond rose cuff bracelets. The most surprising part was that she had elegant bluebird wings coming out of a belt she wore around her waist. Around her neck was an amethyst lyre pendant.
One of the other girls looked like the kindest among them. She had long dark brown hair that, with tan skin to match. She was in a pink dress with gold bands wrapped up her legs and attached to her heels. Tied to her neck was a red cloak that went down to her shins. She also had a pink scarf around her neck. A tiara of daisies was in her hair.
The third girl also had dark hair, but her's was black and done in a simple top of the back of her head ponytail. She wore a mostly white dress with a ruffled layered skirt that went down to her knees, but the sides of the dress and the bottom of each ruffle were colored blue. She also had on elbow-to-wrist layered bell sleeves that were not connected to the dress that were also white and blue. On her feet were knee-high white boots. Around her waist was a simple silver belt with a whip on her right hip and a rectangular holder with visible golden keys inside of it.
The boy was definitely different from all of them. He was African with a slight accent to his voice. His hair was a buzzcut length and dark black. His clothing was like night back armor, yet not heavy or metallic. It's more like leather. A black vest, pants, and boots with matching arm gauntlets. On his chest was the symbol was a dark purple symbol of a panther. His eyes were an amazing shade of amethyst with specks of emerald in them if you looked close enough.
As the group approached them, Melody stopped playing her violin. It was as if she knew that they were there even when she had had her back to them. Turning to them, she smiled.
"Well, I see you brought us some company, Krinos," she said.
"What can I say, Mel, Harry has been dying to meet you," Krinos chuckled.
She put her hand out to Harry, who she recognized based on her brother's descriptions of the teenager.
"Melody Gardna," she introduced herself. "Music mage extraordinaire and full-time babysitter of her twin brother."
"Hey, I save you from demons way more than you save me," Krinos protested.
"Keep telling yourself that," Melody smirked at her twin.
"It's nice to meet you," Harry shook her hand, chuckling at the interactions between the siblings. "I'm Harry Potter and these are my friends Neville Longbottom and Fred & George Weasley."
"It is nice to meet you all," Melody smiled at them all. "These are some of our friends. Hestia Apolla, Angela Zodiac, and T'challa Jungle."
They all shook hands with each other, greeting one another.
"Well, at least nothing had exploded, yet, from our two kinds being together," Krinos said. "I take that as a win."
"It's only the first day, brother dear," Melody rested her arm on her twin's shoulder. "We have a long year ahead of us."
"Oh, crud," Krinos facepalmed.