There was no turning back, the school term was over and the only thing left was the train ride home. It almost was funny that he went all the way to London when the family home was in Scotland within one of the counties the Hogwarts's express blazed right on through. But seeing as he had travelled that way even when he was alone it didn't make sense not to travel by train now that he had the friends to spend the time with. And as prefect they did have some expectations there on the train with their fellow students.

Stepping onto the awaiting train, Gideon walked through the central corridor, his guitar properly shrunk and packed in his trunk that he carried behind him and his broom resting tail up against his shoulder as he carried it. Corvin the crow was perched upon the tail twigs, the bird having decided to travel with his master this time around rather then just take off from home this morning. The prefect was debating as he slowly walked if he should settle one place or head straight to the prefect's compartment.

The food trolley was Selina's favorite place on this entire train. Ever since she was a first year it had offered her comfort, support, love and, most of all, food. This trip was no different. As soon as the redhead had settled into a compartment earlier, she decided that she needed some company AND who was better company than Mr. Bertie Botts and Mrs. Licorice Wand? Honestly, they never spoke back to Selina, they never gave her headaches, they were only there for her whenever she needed them and they never asked for anything in return. That and they were delicious.

So on her way back from the food trolley, with her arms full of candy, she noticed something perched above the rest of the students who were moving in and out of compartments. From a distance she could not tell exactly what it was she was seeing, but as she moved down the corridor her blue eyes shined with recognition- it was Corvin. The brilliant raven was perched on what she could only guess was a certain curly haired prefect's broom because his guitar was not that tall. As she approached, she saw that her suspicion was correct because there in the midst of student chaos was her boyfriend lounging about looking awfully indecisive.

Adjusting her hat, she walked up behind him and wrapped her arms around his back, "Hey you," Then she nodded to Corvin as if he could hear her and said, "And hello Corvin... why are you sitting on a broom?" Usually, he was perched on Gideon's shoulder. Not that Corvin was ever a problem. He was the most well behaved bird Selina had ever met.

Selena couldn't believe that this would be her last time on the train. Was it too late to flee and to hide out in Hogsmeade or sneak back into the castle somehow? The Slytherin pet her crup absentmindedly as she walked down the corridor. Kent wasn't perched on her head, instead, the pygmy puff sat on the Slytherin's shoulder because with her hat on, it would just look weird. She let out a little sigh, fixing the strap of her backpack and just standing off to a side. She should probably head to the Prefect's Compartment but there were so many goodbyes she had to make! And she had to find Emma which was super important.

And not only did she have to find people but she needed to find a place to hide. Maybe she could hide out on the train and wait for it to go all the way back to Hogwarts or something. There was the food trolley so she'd be fine regarding food, right?

Gideon had paused in his traveling, standing off to one side to let others pass alongside. He almost wished he had left the castle with a friend or two, that way he would know where they were in the vast vehicle. However he did know that his girlfriend and Kurumi would eventually make their way to the prefect area so that was to be one of his stops. However It was there at his temporary perch in the hallway that he suddenly felt arms come around him from behind, a smile developing across his face as Selina spoke identifying his capturer yet not turning around right away.

"Cause its like a tree...caw" Gideon remarked using a fake voice as if he was indeed the bird in question. Then taking Selina's hands in his, he slipped slowly around to face her better. The sixth almost seventh year careful not to hit her with his broom as he moved. "At least thats my opinion," he added with a chuckle," Hello to ye too."

Alice bounced into the back of the train. She was rather happy to be going home, since she missed her Gramps. And since she hadn't seen Emma, the waterworks hadn't started yet. She hopped into the train corridor, dragging her pale blue trunk with her, her pink travel bag slung over one shoulder. Her bunny teddy was stowed away safely in her trunk. In the other hand, she held Domino's cage and Frank sat inside of it, next to him. Much to the lioness' surprise, her owl showed no interest in eating the chocolate frog and the two seemed to be friends. Currently, Frank was burbling at the barred owl, who was playfully nudging the thing with his talon.

Animals were weird.

ANYWAYS. Of course, as soon as the girl stepped into the corridor, she ran into her least favourite person in the world. But Alice had to admit, after she stopped calling her Kiwi, Prefect Pygmy Puff was a bit more likeable. "Sel?" she asked, staring at the Pygmy Puff on the girl's shoulder. Lucky her owl was in the cage, or Domino would be lunging for that furball right now. "Good owl." Turning back to the older girl, she frowned and spoke again. "Do you know where Emma is? I can't find her." She wanted to say goodbye to her sister friend. But still, she was slightly happy to see the prefect. She kinda wanted to say bye to her, too. "Are you sad to be leaving?"

Selena looked up when she heard her voice, blinking her eyes quickly. A smile crossing her face quickly she noticed that it was Kiwi. With her chocolate frog. Was no one seriously going to eat that? It was a chocolate frog - someone needed to eat that ASAP and Selena would volunteer herself for the job. All she'd need to do is freeze it, chomp on it and swallow. But right, the girl had addressed her.

"Ello Peanut, Food and Evil Owl," Selena said, as she stopped petting her sleeping crup and waved at the the girl briefly before petting the creature again.

She looked at the owl in the cage. Yeah, that THING better stay in its cage. Hmph. Right. Question. Where was Emma? "I don't know, I haven't seen her yet," Selena said, shrugging her shoulders. Was Emma gone already without saying a goodbye? Because what if Emma decided to actually go across the ocean? Then what would Selena do without her bestie? How would they plan universal domination then?! "I'm looking for her too." Kinda. Really, she was just walking around and relishing her last moments on this train. Ah... that question. Right. No crying. Awesometastical people didn't cry. "Definitely sad," Selena said, nodding her head. "Hogwarts is my home, after all," Selena said, wondering if it was too late to leave yet.

Because she'd gladly run off this train and get back to the castle and hide somewhere. "What about you? Excited to be going home?"

Thankfully, Selina could not see Gideon's face at that precise moment. If they had been face-to-face when he manipulated his voice to mimic a bird she would have snorted in his face. Although they had been dating for two years there were still some things she was embarrassed to do around him and snorting was at the top of that list. But she could not repress the giggle that escaped at his caw. It was one of the most ridiculous things she had ever heard him do... and they both had done some pretty ridiculous things together from Raggity Anne to a knight to a mermaid and prince... they had gathered quite a few ridiculous things over the past three years as friends and later as a couple.

"Like a tree? Technically it IS a tree Gideon... it's made of wood." That comment was laced in sarcasm, but it was all in good fun.

When he grabbed her hands and turned to face her, she smiled at him. Her nose crinkled as she aimlessly rubbed circles into his palm, "Its good to see you again... haven't seen you since the Great Hall this morning before we all shipped off. Had prefectly duties I'm assuming?" Best part of being captain? No prefect duties... just Quidditch.

His first term has over..

The sixteen-year-old guy felt that the time flew so fast. Very fast maybe. It seemed like yesterday he just moved to England and had argue with Lucas, because he didn't agree about this movement. At first, he wouldn't enjoy his year at Hogwarts. But now, it was change. Gary was enjoying it very much. Hogwarts seemed like his second home now. He had friends.. and also a lovely girlfriend.

But now, she's not here.

He just got a news from Dimitri, her brother. He said that Zhenya was sick and now she stayed at Russia. What? How could she didn't tell him? Didn't she know that he was so worried about her? The blonde guy just exhaled, he wandered around the corridor to entertain himself. People who noticed him maybe though he seemed like he didn't have any problem (because of his flat and cool face) but inside? No one knows.

Tiffany made her way along the train corridor and decided to head to the middle of the train where she usually got herself seated with her friends maybe, or simply making new ones during the ride. It was good that she went on board earlier than most of the other students who were still wandering around or maybe saying goodbyes to their friends. But anyway it was good for her that the corridor wasn't that crowded or else she would never make it to the middle of the train with her trunk and so on.

The lioness went all along the corridor till she found someone blocking her way. She stopped herself from getting any further, hopefully she didn't want to hurt this person standing in front of her. "Excuse me, would you mind..."she asked as she looked up and found his blonde hair, being so familiar to her. It was the apple boy. Gary Apple. "Hi, silly apple boy,"she beamed as she poked him on his forehead.

YES. I can see you eyeing my frog, Crazy Girl. Keep thy paws off. Alice smiled back at Selena. Peanut was slightly better than being called Kiwi. Slightly. "Frank's not food, and my owl's not evil. As you can see, he's not trying to eat your hairball right now. I think." The lioness ignored the hungry look in her owl's eye. He was not getting to eat Kent. That thing was so fluffy that Domino could choke. And even if he didn't, he'd be coughing up magenta fluff for days. "Domino. You're not allowed to eat Kent. Period."

Pretending not to notice the disappointed slump of her owl's wings, the second year turned back to the Prefect. "I don't want you guys to leave. I mean, at least you'll still be in London, right? But Emma's evil boyfriend is trying to drag her to America." hmph. That boyfriend was horrid. First he cheated on Emma, and now he was trying to force her out of the country? If Alice ever met this boy, she was going to SuperGlue him to his chair. "Well, you can have more than one home, right? Besides. My Gramps always tells me that home isn't a place. They're little pieces that you pick up along the way and put inside your heart." Her Grandpa was a funny man. "I don't think I have any home inside me 'cause I haven't swallowed any pieces of stuff. And I don't feel anything in my heart." Alice bounced. Nope. No funny pieces of stuff inside her heart, "Yeah. I'm happy that I get to see my Gramps again, and I'm going to meet up with my friends in DA. We're gonna go to the zoo and see BUNNIES."

ASDFGHJKL. Bunnies were cool.

Okay, now what was his plan for summer? Gary had decided to visit Zhenya first at her house before heading back to Canada. But when he heard that she stayed in Russia for a while, he didn't have any idea. Perhaps he could visit her there but he was clueless about her home in Russia.

Argh!

The blonde guy just leaned himself to the corridor, he didn't want to go back to his compartment. Suddenly he felt like someone called him, and her sound was so familiar. But she wasn't Zhenya right? Because she never called him 'silly apple boy'. He took off his glasses and noticed she was.. Tiffany. He just gave her a cool smile. "Oh, hello there." said him short.

Alright.

The lioness just stood there as the Slytherin took his time to recognize who she was. What was he doing actually? Wandering around at the corridor and leaning himself to it...was he waiting for someone to come or his friends to chat with? Tiffany headed to him and waited for his response as he just greeted her with his usual cool smile. She exhaled, not because of those heavy stuffs that she was carrying and she was stuck on her way to find a compartment to sit in but it came out from her disappointment. She has always thought that they got a little bit closer after that crazy little swim they did at the lake and that Gary has told her that he had had loads of fun though it was a crazy idea. That time he did smile a lot and even talked to her with wide grins and so but now it had all move back to his usual cool smile. It was tiring though, not just for him, Tiffany hates to be treated in such a cool way.

"What's wrong?"she asked, rising her eyebrows. Though she knew that the answer was obvious enough for her to see, it was either about OWLS or Zhenya, nothing more. She opened her backpack and took a small box out and put it in her hand. It was for him, his birthday present but she would like to give it to him after he told her the reason why.

Gary just stared at that girl. Actually he was not in good mood to have a conversation with people. He preferred to keep quiet rather than telling his problem. Maybe he should head back to his compartment and sleep; that his best way to make himself calm. But the train was so crowded and noisy. He couldn't sleep! So that's why he just stood and leaned here. What's wrong? Tiffany asked him suddenly. Sigh, why she became so nosy about his problem?

"Nothing's going on." said him cool.. Again, he acted so cool in front of her. Then he noticed that Tiffany took something from his backpack. The blonde guy pretended that he didn't know what was that, and why Tiffany wanted to give him that. Gary remembered that she owed him a present, right? So, she really wanted to give him one? Good, he would like it. "What are you doing here?" asked him flat. "And what's that?" his finger pointed to the box in her hand.

The blonde guy just exhaled.

Corvin was not amused. Granted he heard his name and watched the girl with his deep black eyes head tilted slightly. However his human familiar had acted strange...cawing...and the raven simply stood by from his perch. What was so odd about where he was?

She had him there, a broom...including his broom was made of wood like a tree. "True in that case," Gideon mused as he followed along with Selina's comment. There were a few differences however between the rwo items in question, one, the movement that was at the moment not guided by any wind coming through the train. "Guess that would make it the whomping willow with me as a trunk and the broom as a moving branch."

He couldn't help but chuckle softly as he felt the circular motions along his palms as well as the teasing words about their last meeting just an hour or so ago. "Aye so very long ago. And I did indeed..." Gideon answered to the affirmative. "Had to help some firsties with a trunk issue too." The perils of being polite and helpful but that might just be him being gallant...and trying to be a good example. "Whatever was the lady captain up to?"

Sigh.

The lioness moved her gaze downward as she received the cold stare from the snake. She hated this, she hated the way he was talking to her right now. She had learned to put up with this kind of behavior, but she just...sometimes she just didn't want to receive it. She knew that he must be in a bad mood but did he know that it also made her feel frustrated as well. She wanted to leave, she didn't want to be sad or angry anymore because she had been enough with all those feelings when she went to the graduates and waved them goodbyes. She had already cried a lot.

"Right-t,"she replied, showing her box and made it a little bit more noticeable. Right, there wasn't a point of hiding right now as she just wanted to leave as soon as she could. "You know-w...I have said that I would keep my promise, so..."she lifted her head up a bit and looked into his eyes. "Happy be-lated brithday." She said, giving out a slight smile and handed him the present. She knew that she was supposed to send him thousands of apple candies but both of them should know that it was just a joke, though she had put a tiny one in the box.

Okay.

So, she fulfilled her promise to give a present for him as the birthday gift. Gary appreciated it very much. He thought at first Tiffany was only joking about that. But she did mean it, she was the only one who knew his birthday and gave him present. At least, there was a person who cared about him, not to mention his girlfriend didn't care about it. The 16-year-old guy realized that she's still sad and couldn't accept the reality about her best-friend and he couldn't act so selfish to her. Well, he wasn't selfish but he missed and worried so much about her.

His cool smile widened as she handed the small bos on her hand. "Thank you very much, Tiffany." He said. Then he put the box on his backpack. "I really appreciated it." He didn't want to open it now in front of her, maybe he would open it at his compartment or later when he arrived at his house. Noticed that she didn't look so happy, Gary tried to ask her. "What's wrong? You don't look very happy today."

"The whomping willow?" Selina chuckled his analogy. Of all the trees in the world the last one Selina would have pegged her boyfriend for would have been the whomping willow. He was not nearly as violent as the tree that ha resided on the Hogwarts grounds since before they were born. If anything, Gideon was like a calm, sturdy tree than the whomping willow. He was always calmer than half the people she knew, including herself, and she could always count on him- so he was like a sturdy tree not the whomping willow.

Although, he was saying that his moving about made him like the whomping willow, so she supposed that she could agree with it to a point. That was when she looked up at Corvin to see if the bird was alright perched up there. When she made eye contact with the bird she suddenly felt very uncomfortable. Corvin was smarter than most of the humans Selina knew; looking at him now it was like he was questioning everything the pair were doing. To avoid being judged by the bird, Selina looked back up into her Boyfriend's green eyes and added, "I guess you're kind of like the whomping willow."

Her ears perked up when she heard him chuckle at her small contact with his hand. Throwing him a smile of her own she continued on with the nearly undetectable motion. She liked to see him laugh, so if that made him smile she would do it. "Yeah I haven't seen you in forever. But the first years didn't give you any trouble then?" There was a part of Selina that admired his helpful nature to younger students. She herself would have simply told them that they had hands and that they could do it themselves. That was why she was captain and not a prefect.

"Eating," she answered simply. What? It was the truth.