Wait waitwait. You posted a request to write a Stardew X Hogwarts story? OK, here's Part 1:
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Penny Farthing and the Year of Eventfulness
Part 1
Glancing over the top of her book towards the mail slot, Penny thought to herself, post is late today. Not that she was expecting anything but there was usually a bit of entertainment contained within at least the junk mail. An outfit she'd never see IRL, a game console she might see in a city shop window or at a friend's house. She lived with her mom in the outskirts of Zuzu City so she rarely came across these things in person but at least there were the butterflies out here. She enjoyed watching them flitting their way to and fro, and occasionally caught and raised caterpillars. Free pets beats no pets at all.
She smirked to herself thinking of friend's houses, she was rarely invited and would never invite anyone over to the tiny place her mom was renting this summer. Mom never picked up the place so Penny would for a bit of sanity, organization and again, light entertainment trying to fit the tchotchkes between her books in the meager shelfspace. None of her on again-off again friends needed to see her living arrangements. Things used to be better before dad left--
Penny jolted out of her daydream by the bang of the mail slot flap and dump of paper onto the floor. She hopped out of her chair to retrieve the notes while someone else rustled out of her seat at the table. "Lemme see what we got, Pen," Pam asked firmly, hand extended. Her mom had seemed increasingly preoccupied as the summer progressed, leading Penny to wonder whether it had something to do with dad. No, that was just her hope getting the best of her, it had been years since last contact and mom's slow slide continued unabated. This more recent change seemed to be an additional blanket draped over that already heavy dose of reality.
Flipping through the floppy layers of grocery coupons, a thick yellowed envelope refused to bend in defiance of the other ephemera. And it didn't contain mom's name. "Hey there's one in here for me!" Penny exclaimed, "see?" She handed the mail over to Pam dutifully but with eager eyes alight, wondering who could have mailed her... what? A letter? A sweepstakes entry?
Pan quickly flipped it over, seeming to read the return address and caught her breath to say, "this is nothing to be concerned about. You need fewer complications in your life." She slipped the still-sealed postage into her pocket.
"Wait, what? It's addressed to me and I don't get to see it?" Penny blurted out in surprise. "You're not even going to open it?"
Pam shook her head, looking down, "I know who it's from and what it is, no need to open it." Her face was conflicted but Penny was only tangentially aware of this.
"Is it from dad??" She asked before even thinking. Oops she immediately thought and proactively winced.
"No it's not from your father!" Pam bellowed as she advanced a step towards Penny but strangely she stopped, eyes still wide in anger but fading in a very unusual way for her. "But it sure as hell is his fault!" Suddenly it looked like all the life had been sucked out of her and she slumped back into her chair. "I guess... I guess I shouldn't fight it. It almost feels like a release. It's probably the right thing to do." Pam sat up a bit more sharply and turned to look at Penny, her gangly 11 year old daughter and for the past couple years, her only family. Pam narrowed her eyes and pursed her lips. "No. It's probably not the right thing to do, so I'm going to do it anyway. Because my decisions are rarely the right ones." She looked at the floor, considering.
"So after dreading this the entire summer, I'm finishing it in reverse." An unusual resolve in Pam's bearing and voice. "I'm doing it the "wrong" way for Pam." She drew in a long breath and sighed, turning to Penny.
"Which by the grace of Yoba and all other possible deities, will be the right way for you."
Penny had remained silent as one thing she had learned was not to interrupt her mother. Mom's brain worked OK most days she took it easy from drinking. Well by mid-afternoon at least. Let the thoughts finish and then react.
"I don't understand mom, what's the letter about?" This was well outside of Penny's comfort zone but it seemed this might be the thing mom was agitated about since primary school ended the past Spring.
"Your..." a pause as Pam retrieved the letter from her pocket and turned it over. "invitation, in all likelihood." She started to peel the seal from the back and stopped herself with an annoyed snort. "This is yours, you open it!" And she tossed it over to Penny like a Frisbee. Penny was not the most athletic, or graceful, or quick girl out there but she at least managed to bat the spinning missile to the ground without sustaining a paper cut. She very quickly grabbed it and read her address on the front side and turned it over.
"Your father's alma mater, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry," Pam said in slightly piqued tone. "That place is probably why he's not here anymore, chasing legends or something." She pursed her lips as if reticent to say anything more, but continued, "buuut it was probably the place he needed the most when he was a kid so-- I dunno." A pause. Pam's shoulders slumped a bit more. "I dunno," she repeated.
Penny read the school name and address on the back and slowly opened the letter, half expecting mom to protest but as the seals cracked open, Pam just sat and waited. Penny read the short invitation which mentioned her father Jacob by name and how the school staff was looking forward to her attendance and instruction. And when and where to be to travel there.
Penny sat in silence for a short while, not sure what to do, even to think. Then she sighed. "This isn't for me, is it?" Penny asked after finishing the letter a second time and turning it over in her hand. This felt wrong. Out of place. For other people.
"What?" Pam recoiled slightly, this was an unexpected response. "Envelope's got your name on it. Is your name there on the inside, too?" Pam pointed to the letter.
"Well yes--" Penny started.
"Then it's sent to you!" Pam almost laughed. "Who else do ya think it's supposed to go to? I'm a little long in the tooth for secondary school, girl." This time she did laugh but then had a flash of inspiration, eyebrows lifting a bit. "Oh, yes I think I get it." Pam got up and walked over to Penny and put her hand on her shoulder, whispering in her ear. "I can afford this one!"
She pulled back and barked, "It's paid for! In that I don't have to pay anything." Pam was getting genuinely excited now. "And you know why? Oh you're gonna like this! Because you'll be more of a danger outside of that school than in it, so they pay the whole thing to serve their purposes. Oh I wish I'd thought of that earlier, that would have saved me a lot of stress and more than a few bottles of wine this summer! Ha!" She clapped Penny on the shoulder now, almost knocking her slight frame back down into her seat.
This was a lot for Penny and Pam had guessed wrong, she hadn't directly thought of the money aspect yet, more that this was all a big typo or error and someone more important was supposed to get this. And a small detail. "Witchcraft and Wizardry?" Penny asked. "I mean yes I've heard of this but really how much of it is just... stories?" She looked at her book, a compendium of butterflies and moths found throughout the Ferngill Republic. She'd also read some books about warlocks and magicians, but often returned them without finishing because they just didn't feel like her thing.
"That will be for you to find out." Pam answered in an oddly sanguine manner. "I could tell you but I'd get it wrong," she looked pointedly at Penny, "and I've heard enough from you about other things from your school I've been wrong about so for once, I'm going to back off." Pam paused, thinking. "Your father went there and he learned the techniques. And so will you."
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On the train to Hogwarts, Penny settled into a cabin in a car near the middle as the older kids hung back and what looked like some adults were at the front. Teachers, caretakers, staff? Who knows? She had a case full of all the clothes she owned that she could stand to be seen wearing in public and really didn't know what to expect. There had been loads of people on the platform waiting for the Express and many families with multiple children, more than a few seemingly her age or thereabouts. However Pam and her stuck together and bid their goodbyes on their own and now she was alone. She was used to making her own entertainment, being with her thoughts so this wasn't anything new, but that didn't last long.
A blond, spiky-haired boy bustled into the cabin with a "seat taken?" and Penny gestured for him to take any of them, too surprised even to speak yet. She momentarily chided herself mentally for assuming she'd be alone as the train was probably full of people looking for space.
"Hey, names Sam!" He said after whumping his case into the overhead bin. Penny was seated next to hers as she couldn't lift it all the way up. "What house you gonna try for? It's all super cool, eh? My mom hid the letter from me for like 2 days until dad made her give it to me before leaving for Boot Camp! I guess mom didn't want 2 people leaving the house so soon after each other." His torrid verbal pace momentarily slowed as his brow wrinkled. Continual noise from the open door made it hard to hear but Penny gathered most of what he said. "Hmm. Yeah, well she's got much less to clean now with only li'l Vince left so she should be happy, right?" He brightened. "Oh uh sorry I talk a lot, mom always says." A toothy smile lit up the cabin.
"Hi Sam, was it?" Penny started tentatively. Sam nodded, still with exposed teeth as he took his seat across from Penny. "I'm Penny. Penny Farthing."
A musical giggle emanated from the doorway as a mop of blonde hair attached to a short frame draped in blue snapped back to the doorway after passing. The giggle transitioned into a laugh, followed by, "Penny Farting did I hear? Now I thought the particular scent of this rolling deathtrap came from the coal being shoveled into some engine at the front but now I find it's just... you?" The blonde girl gestured dismissively towards Penny. "I shall have to apologize to the engineer for assuming-- you know I won't even waste my time." She grabbed her hair and drew it over her nose and mouth like a mask. "I'll steer clear of this cabin and any classes with you and maybe my nose I'll make it through this year."
"Clear off you menace!" Sam yelled at her, but she was already sauntering off, closely followed by a boy with spiky hair wearing a green sports jersey. "People like that, why can't they just... go to some other school for annoying people and leave us alone?"
Penny was on the verge of tears by the time Sam looked back at her. "Oh Yoba it's OK, she's going to be the easiest person to ignore, you'll see!"
Trying to regather herself, Penny choked out, "yeah it's not the first time I've heard that one. She probably thinks she's so clever. Probably be the dumbest one in class."
Another very short girl presently appeared in the doorway, practically consumed by the pile of black robes she was carrying. "What size are you two? I have small, smaller and smallest. I think some mediums too. You both first years?"
"Hi I'm Sam! Who are you, a clothing golem? I dunno maybe I'm a medium, what about you Penny, maybe a small?" Words spilling out. Someone needs a lot of personal interaction, Penny thought.
The girl unceremoniously dumped the pile of robes next to Sam and said, "Just hold them up to you, don't show too much leg and yes you wear your regular clothes underneath!" She sighed and leveled a no-nonsense stare at Sam through glasses and dark reddish neck-length hair. "Mr. Smartypants in the first carriage already asked."
"So what's your name?" Sam asked.
"Oh." She seemed surprised. "Uh, Maru. Yeah you asked already, I got caught up in the sizes. They're all in order so just try the small and smaller and if they fit you're good if they don't, you know which to switch to. Perfect system, don't mess my organization up." All business, this one, Penny thought.
"Are you a..." Penny stopped herself short. Second year? If she's third but short then she'll be offended. What if she's a fourth?
"Tailor?" Maru finished smartly. "No, I just went to the faculty in the first car and asked how I could help and they said I could distribute robes to first years. I got a perfect size for me and now getting everyone set so we can leave for the castle as soon as possible. I can't wait!" Maru bounced on her heels, hands clasped in front of her. "And then there's the Sorting!," she finished excitedly with glittering eyes behind spectacles and her first smile for Penny and Sam.
"Sorting?" Penny asked, more bewildered. Castle? I thought it was a school. Sorting?
"Yeah Penny!" Sam answered, matching Maru's excitement. "That's where we all get sorted into our Houses at the school! Do you know which House you want to be in?"
"I'll be in Ravenclaw," Maru answered promptly as if there was no question.
"I dunno for me," Sam said, seeming somewhat detached all of a sudden. "I can't decide whether to take it easy in Hufflepuff or go crazy in Gryffindor. No Slytherin for me though." His face darkened a bit. "That blonde one will probably be a Slytherin, I'll bet."
Penny tried to keep up. "No... Raven for you then?"
"Ravenclaw," Maru corrected. She looked appraisingly at Sam. "We'll see. Apparently the Sorting takes your wishes into account so maybe it's Hufflepuff for you."
They both glanced towards Penny. Her brain froze and nothing came out, she didn't know anything about any of this and what it meant. One of these houses seemed not to be as interesting to them though. How am I going to remember which one it is?
Creativity, individuality learning(later). So many said Slytherin. Ambitious, leader, determined or cunning? I don’t think so. The girl is more interested in what she’s wearing and winning a dance contest… Ravenclaw is about the pursuit of learning, which as her heart levels progresses she shows interest in personal growth. She’s starts off self absorbed, so was Gilderoy Lockhart. 
Hardworking, loyal 
Brave and nervy
Resourceful, family oriented, morally ambiguous and self preserving. 
