The Train
Life continued for the Vizslas for the next month, Evaar’la altered the robes he would need with the supplies he got from Madame Malkin. He was planning not to wear all his armour all the time, of course it would just require a phrase and he could transport this armour onto himself from its stand but that was neither here nor there.
His guardians however, immensely enjoyed learning about various magical subjects, they even found out that his buir was a Squib, this meant he was able to brew potions and cast runes. Master Tarre on the other hand was using Voldemort's wand, he found he had quite a connection to the wand and took great delight in practising magic under Evaar’la guidance. It wasn't long before magical duelling was part of their practice sessions, in addition to their lightsaber practice and unarmed combat.
Unfortunately, September seemed to roll around much too fast for any of their liking and before they knew it they were packing Evaar’la's bag to head to King's Cross. This time however they were taking the motorcycle, with a sidecar for Tarre as Evaar’la enjoyed riding pillion.
Once they reached the station they quietly made their way through the gateway fifteen minutes before the train was due in.
“Be good, alright Ev'ika?” Buir asked, “and make sure you send a letter tonight with Hed’ika, lek?”
“I will, buir, don't worry” Evaar’la said, as his buir leant down to touch their helmets in a Keldabe Kiss, hugging him fiercely
“You be good padawan, listen to the force, in such an ancient structure like Hogwarts you may find more sentience than normal, don't be afraid if it reaches out, OK?” Tarre pulled Evaar’la into another hug, touching their helmets in keldabe as well.
“I'll be alright Master,” Evaar'la said, pulling away from his Master to adjust the straps of his pack.
“Re’turcye mhi, ner ad” Co’buir said, pulling away from his child, giving a traditional salute, beskar ringing.
“Re’turcye mhi, ner buir” came Evaar’la’s response repeating the salute.
“Re’turcye mhi, padawan, may the Force be with you” Master Tarre said, giving a traditional mandalorian salute before bowing from the waist in the traditional jedi farewell.
“Re’turcye mhi, Master, may the Force be with you too” Evaar'la responded, before returning the salute and bow.
The young mandalorian jedi then turned and boarded the train leaving his buir and Master to wait on the platform until the train was out of sight.
Evaar’la settled down in his compartment, putting his bag above him on the railings before pulling out a spell book on healing. This was one of his more recent interests, he knew that if they ever decided to join the galaxy as a whole again then they would need every advantage possible, he also knew it would help in the fight against Voldemort.
He was ten minutes into the journey when there was a knock at the door, glancing up he saw Hermione and Neville, no doubt looking for Trevor, Neville's escape artist of a toad.
Getting up he unlocked the door and addressed the two outside. “Hello, can I help you?” The look on Hermione's face was comical as his modulated voice addressed her. She quickly shook herself out of it before asking,
“We were wondering if you had seen a toad? Only, Neville's seems to have lost his.” Neville wrung his hands together, it was weird for Evaar'la to see him so shy as Harry (how he referred to his old life) remembered him so brave at the final Battle of Hogwarts.
“I'm afraid not, but I think if you ask a prefect they may be able to summon it for you? I saw someone with a badge walk past earlier checking on people.” He replied, tilting his head to one side to convey his curiosity through his body language.
“Thanks, I'll ask, is it alright if we come back after, only you've been the nicest we've spoken to, I'd like to get to know you more.” Hermione stated, nervously twirling her hair around her finger. He just inclined his head in assent before retreating back into the cabin without closing or locking the door.
It was not five minutes later that they returned, Neville clutching his toad with both hands to prevent him escaping again. Once they were settled Evaar’la got up again and closed the door. “Feel free to let him loose, there is no way he is escaping the compartment” he said, sitting back down next to the window. “I never introduced myself before, su cuy'gar, I am Evaar’la Vizsla, Clan Fett, House Vizsla. It's a pleasure to meet you” he inclined his head politely in the typical greeting for outsiders.
“Err… Hi, I'm Hermione Granger, nice to meet you?” she seemed unsure, Evaar’la had to stifle a giggle that would have been picked up by his voccorder, he had unsettled her, probably with his use of a completely unknown language and use of a clan and house.
“Merry meet, I'm Neville Longbottom, Heir of the Ancient and Noble House Longbottom.” Neville held his hand out for a handshake, he replied gently grasping his hand and giving it a quick shake.
“Ah, Heir Longbottom, it's a pleasure, I'm actually Heir to the Peverell House myself, the first magical with the aptitude for it in generations actually.” Evaar’la felt like Neville could be a valuable ally if he knew at least one of his heirships, and particularly one which had many descendants that had been unworthy.
“Well met, Heir Peverell, please call me Neville” when Evaar’la nodded in assent Neville seemed to lose the confidence he had been displaying just moments before, slightly curling inwards on himself.
“Please, you may call me Evaar’la, you as well Miss Granger”
“OK, you may call me Hermione?” she seemed confused, “I'm not entirely sure what just happened? I mean I knew that the wizarding world had nobles but… is this some sort of etiquette thing? I mean, it's just that none of the primers I got for being a muggleborn mentioned greetings. I'm so sorry if I offended you, Neville!” She now had tears in her eyes, Evaar’la could understand why though, she had just entered a world not her own and had just committed a social faux pas, against nobles.
“It's ok Hermione, I gave you leave to call me Neville when we first met, I'm not offended!” he was quick to reassure Hermione that she hadn't been rude.
“I got a few supplemental texts, I haven't grown up in the Magical world so I needed to know how to talk to and interact with other nobles and those raised in the Magical world. I'm happy for you to borrow it.” Evaar'la said, getting up to manipulate his pack until he could pull the book out of the library section. He offered it to her, grinning widely under his helmet, ‘score! One less biassed Hermione coming right up!’ He then addressed the girl again, “I can give you a few pointers now if you like?” After receiving an enthusiastic nod of assent he began to tell her the basics of meeting other wixen.
“First thing, you should always start with a polite greeting, either ‘good morning’ or the like, ‘merry meet’ or ‘well met’ you'll probably notice I didn't use one?” he paused for a moment letting Hermione ingest the information before continuing. “It’s also considered ok to use a greeting in your mother tongue, for me that is su cuy’gar, it essentially means hello but the literal translation is ‘you're alive’, you still with me?”
“Yeah, ‘merry meet’, ‘well met’ or ‘good morning’ for me, but don't be surprised if people use foreign languages.” She repeated the information back “your language seems fascinating, what's it called?”
“Ah, it's called Mando’a, magical folk tend to refer to it as Gobbledigook but the proper English translation is actually Mandalorian” Evaar’la explained “it's the language of the warrior culture of the Mandalorians, goblins form one, I suppose you could call it faction, of this culture.”
“Fascinating” Hermione said, fidgeting on the edge of her seat. Neville then cleared his throat before speaking.
“Once you've greeted someone you should then use their formal title if you know it, for example if I was meeting Evaar’la at a formal gathering I would say: ‘well met, Heir Peverell’. Even if we're already familiar with each other, Evaar’la would then respond similarly.”
“It's really important that you don't use someone's given name until they invite you to do so, until then you should refer to them by their formal title, Mr or Miss if they're not a noble.” Evaar’la explained, gesturing as he did. “The given name thing is a massive pitfall in both Magical and specificly noble society here, it's expected even at school, although you may eventually get close enough to drop titles you should always refer to them by their family name until they give you leave to use their given name. It similar in some ways to Japaneese culture, so dont be supprised when teachers call you by your last name, or upper years.”
“Alright, don't use given names, wait until allowed to. Thank you so much! I'll make sure I read the book as soon as I can so I can give it back” she seemed to practically vibrate at the thought of the book.
“Final thing,” Neville said, “if you're offered a handshake always take it, even if they're the most repulsive person alive, it's practically social suicide not to.” he warned, looking directly at Hermione.
“Right, always handshake.” she parroted, nodding to herself. They were then interrupted by another knock at the door, Evaar’la once again got up to open it and was met by the young form of Draco Malfoy. He groaned beneath his helmet as he remembered the interaction in his past life.
“Well met Heir Malfoy, I am Evaar’la Vizsla, Heir Peverell. This is Heir Neville Longbottom and Miss Hermione Granger. What can I help you with?” He was now even more glad that his voccorder masked any emotion in his voice. He held his hand out for a handshake and was only slightly disgruntled when Malfoy got over the fact he was talking to someone in a metal helmet to respond in turn, avoiding social suicide, even if it's only in front of his two goons.
“Well met, Heir Peverell, Heir Longbottom, Miss Granger. I'm looking for Harry Potter, he was said to be joining Hogwarts this year?” he seemed to not be pleased that Evaar’la had introduced Hermione in the traditional pureblood way.
“I'm afraid we haven't seen him” Evaar’la replied, “I've been in this compartment the entire time” he looked to Hermione and Neville, the two thankfully picked up the que and were quick to nod in agreement.
“Whatever” Malfoy said dismissively, “let's go.” And with that he flounced away, followed by his two brainless goons.
“Well that was fun” Neville said, a hint of a smile on his face, Evaar’la shook his head in disbelief at the blond prat’s antics.
“We should probably change into our robes” Evaar’la said, standing up to pull his pack down from the luggage rack, Hermione and Neville said they had to run back to their trunks to grab their robes but that gave Evaar’la some time to get ready.
Thankfully he'd had the foresight to be wearing one of the flightsuits that he had altered with the colour changing fabric, he then took off his belt and tabards, replacing them with his altered ones, all in all he hadn't changed his look much. He then pulled out his school cloak and layed it on the bench next to him. The final thing he did before the others got back was his weapons check. Wands in wrist holsters under his vambraces, an invention that was only possible thanks to magic, elder wand on his left wrist, new wand on his right. His lightsaber and collapsible quarterstaff were attached to the front and back of his belt respectively, he took a quick dig through his pouch at his side and made sure his invisibility cloak was in there. The final thing he did was check his Heir rings, still around his neck, the Peverell ring holding the resurrection stone. By the time he had finished both Neville and Hermione had made it back wearing the typical robes, now currently with grey trimmings that would change to their house colours.
“You're not in robes?” Hermione questioned.
“I'm a Mandalorian, armour and such are part of my religion, to ask me not to wear it would be like asking a Muslim woman to take off her hijab. That's why I wear a helmet, modesty is a very important part of our culture, not wearing any armour is almost like being naked to us.”
“That makes sense,” she said, “is this a normal magic thing or…?”
“It's different,” Neville said, “but it is not strange for wixen to pick up all sorts of beliefs.”
“Our beliefs are similar to the Goblins, or Dwar’mando’ade as they are known in our language” Evaar’la said.
“What are you called then, ‘cause you're not a goblin?” Hermione said, taking a seat inside the compartment again.
“Tra'mando’ade, it essentially means Mandalorian of the Stars as human mandalorians don't tend to live underground all that much.” Evaar’la relaxed back into his seat, folding his cloak over his lap.
“I'm totally nicknaming you Star” she said, giggling. Evaar’la shook his head ruefully,
“I don't mind, I've never had a nickname from a friend before, but I'm going to find one for you though” he said.
“Yes, definitely” Neville agreed, a broad smile on his face.
Before they could get any further in their conversation they were interrupted by the whistle signaling they had arrived at Hogsmead station.