Initiation

At Heatherhill School there has long been a tradition of welcoming at the beginning of each school year as the new students are brought into both the school family and their wider magical community.

This ceremony brings the students into their new school family, as even though they are not all related by blood everyone gifted with magic is family as they are the children of the Nir-iell in their way.

History

The tradition has been largely unchanged over the years, it evolved in the early years of the school as the colleges were founded and the staff needed a way to sort the students into the correct colleges.

Spirit Books have long been an important item for those gifted with magic and are the traditional gift for anyone starting out on their journey of a lifetime. When the Ministry of Magical Education decided that they would regulate the creation of these books there was some push back so they later decided to make them customised to each school as each had their own traditions they wanted to keep even as magical education became more standardised.

Execution

When everyone arrives at the school for the start of term, they are taken to the School Hall where the older students who are already living in their colleges go to sit at their tables while the new students are held in the entrance hall while the format of the ceremony is explained to them.

Once everyone else is settled, they are brought into the dining hall where they stand at the front of the room and wait for their names to be called. They are brought onstage one by one where they are presented with their Spirit Book which they drop some of their blood onto in the Binding which creates the tether between the individual and their book.

This also assigns them to their college at the school so when they leave the stage they go to sit at their tables.

Components and tools

The hall is often extremely decorated with the decorating committee working year on year to outdo themselves, progressing to the ludicrous every few years when they have to be reined in again.

The dias in the centre of the room acts as the stage for the ceremony while the books are sent from the Ministry of Magical Education as while there are custom elements for each school, the main body of the books is the standardised by them.

Participants

The head teacher of the school is the one responsible for handing out the books while one deputy head reads out the list of names and the other helps the students to be in the correct place. The college heads are responsible for helping the new students to find the correct table after the ceremony.