For a moment or two Nicholas wasn't sure what had happened. Then he glared at the remains of his ineffective barrier, blaming it wholeheartedly for tumbling apart and letting this small child into his little space of solitude.

Distracted by his lacking architectural skills, Nicholas muttered, "I've misplaced my lunch."

Then he was brought back to himself by her torrent of questions, and swallowed the impulse to swat at her as a cat would swat at an overly excited puppy. He had decided, after all, to be disdainful of this whole experience, and the enthusiasm Sinead was displaying had the possibility of being contagious.

Still, he supposed he'd better balance disdain with manners, and answered her questions, "I'm Nicholas. I'm meant to be a fourth year, but I've been home schooled to this point so I've no idea if Hogwarts is 'good' or not. Did you know half the student populace were ready for a geriatric ward by the end of last term?"

At least, that was the impression he'd received from the Daily Prophet. He hadn't intended to add an invitation for gossip, but that was his mother talking.

"Oh no!" Sinead gasped. "Are you hungry? We must find it immediately!" She understood how important food was. Actually, she was hungry herself. BUT IT MUST WAIT! She had to find this boy's lunch first! Then they could both eat and be happy and not grumpy. Where could it be? "Have you checked under the seats? In your bag? Anywhere else it could be?" She had to check he'd looked in the obvious places first, of course. Otherwise she'd search everywhere and it would simply turn out to be in the bottom of his bag, just like her money had been earlier.

Nicholas. That was a cool name. Her cousin was called Nicholas, but everyone called him Nick. "Do people call you Nick?" Sinead wondered aloud. "And home schooled? How was that? Wouldn't it be BORING? And why are you going to school NOW?" It surely would be much easier for him to have attended Hogwarts when he was eleven?

Around Nick (as she planned to call him from now on), the redhead seemed to ask and come up with many more questions than usual. Maybe it was just because he was interesting and said lots of interesting things? "What's a geriatric ward? It sounds SERIOUS!" she said worriedly. "But whatever it is, it's not true! Hogwarts is an awesome magical place with sparkles and unicorns!" Right? Sinead would be disappointed if it wasn't.

Caelen yawned and leaned back on the leather seat. She still couldn't find Spencer and Paige, but that wouldn't matter. The redhead with the newly short hair supposed she would have plenty of time with her friends at Hogwarts. Especially her friend, Paige, who was a Ravenclaw too! Ooh, exciting! They could stay up all night in the girls form talking about which boys they liked or what food they wanted, and the freckle faced girl could show them the pathways she explored just a term ago. She would get to be at the coolest school in the world, with her two coolest friends!

Okay, some of that first year energy was back. The kind that made you jump in your seat and stare out the window until the breathing on the glass caused it to fog up. Maybe that energy never left. According to her mom and her looney aunt, Hogwarts was an exciting place no matter the year. So maybe it was always repressed and the brace faced girl just let it go more. Although she wasn't bouncing, so that was a huge plus. That would be embarrassing. And she was too tired to bounce. There would be plenty of time for that when they got to Hogwarts and reunited again.

Which reminded her, there was something weird with Spencer, right? She couldn't be the only one who saw it. Was her face getting red? The girl put her pale hands over her cheeks to try and remedy the situation. At least her hands were cold. What was this? Was he just a really good friend? Being homeschooled meant the shorter girl didn't have many friends. Was this what normally happened? But this never happened around Paige. Maybe it was because the thin girl saw Spencer more?

Lifting her head from the seat and shaking it to clear her mind, Caelen trying to think of the GOOD parts of Hogwarts. She wasn't a firstie. Her friends were going to be there. The kid was thinking of joining the quidditch team. The blue eyed girl loved watching the game last year, maybe she would fall in love with playing it. And she was going to do better in school, not lose housepoints but gain them. Hopefully a lot of them. Yes, this year was goign to be totally awesome. With hopefully nothing happening this time. Because it was crazy last year.

The alarm she took at his muttered confession was more than a tad bewildering; especially as the missing lunch wasn't an especially good one. Truthfully he'd been prepared to wait until dinner, as a test of his self-control against the stereotype that teenage boys were eating machines, but now he almost felt obligated to look. He gave a half-hearted peer into his backpack, "I can't imagine what it would be doing under the seats, but yes, I've checked my bags."

Though there was something else that had to be cleared up first, now, immediately, before any further searching was done, "A nick is an accident, a small imperfection gouged into an item of worth. And to nick a possession is to steal it from its rightful owner. I am not a 'Nick', I am Nicholas. As introduced."

And he waved off her seemingly incessant questions about schooling by checking under the seat. He didn't see his lunch, though he did notice quite a few colourful beans stuck to the underside which he could only imagine were unfavourable flavours of Bertie Bott's.

From his investigative position (i.e. somewhat upside down), he instructed her, "A geriatric ward is where the elderly receive medical attention. The problem has been solved, however, so I wouldn't worry."

As for sparkles and unicorns... sigh.

What a MOODY old person!

Sinead understood that teenagers were generally moody, stupid, horrible people. When she reached that age she planned to be much more awesome. But as of now, she didn't get them. And Nick - sorry, Nicholas - was even worse than most teenagers. In comparison to him, her three brothers were sweet, kind fairy princesses. And that was far from the truth.

"No need to get all defensive," she giggled. "I just asked." Really, she wasn't offended, but then she realised she could test out her awesome acting skills. "And ACTUALLY, I have a cousin named NICK! Have you got something against my innocent five year-old cousin?" Maybe her tone was a little too dramatic to be believable, but he was stupid and maybe he'd fall for it anyway. However, she couldn't hold back another giggle. Oh no, now he wouldn't believe she was OFFENDED.

Okay, so the lunch wasn't in his bag or under the seats. Sinead was too hungry to help anymore and he didn't deserve it anyway. She reached into her own bag for the sandwich her mother had packed. Yum, chicken! Who cared about lunchless Nick? She had a chicken sandwich so the world was alright.

Elderly people? "But people here aren't THAT elderly! No older than, like, a hundred," she said confusedly, but then she got it, she reckoned. "HOGWARTS put SPELLS on STUDENTS to make them OLD?" Why would they do that?

Nicholas sat back in his seat and regarded her. Indignation and youth rarely worked well together, and Sinead's "offended" tone simply oozed insincerity. Oozed it.

"I have nothing against the names of others. I'm saying that I don't want it applied to me." Fairly straightforward, no?

As Sinead went about preparing to eat her sandwich, Nicholas took the time to make himself comfortable and look out the window. That became boring rather quickly, as he could never quite bring himself to take an interest in the Scottish countryside. Even if something interesting did show up, it was gone in a second or two as the train steamed its way along.

"No, no. Don't you read the...?" Obviously she didn't. "Sorry. One of the professors was sucking the youth right out of them. It was all the result of a secretive healing experiment gone awry. Every student he touched began to age, and every student those students then touched began to age in turn. Apparently it was quite an epidemic, and all the while the originator was getting more and more youthful without knowing why."

It would make quite a good story, actually.

"Makes sense," she nodded in agreement. Now that he'd explained it so moodily and grumpily and teenager-ily. "Not that you don't want it applied to you, because it's a cool name. Your logic makes sense... sort of." Sinead could speak a lot more about the subject, but if there was anything she'd learnt about the world, it was that it didn't like to hear her speak for longer than a few seconds. So she decided to drop it there. Unless he retorted, in which case she'd talk more to prove her point.

As she nibbled on her incredibly good chicken sandwich, she followed Nick's - Nicholas' - gaze to the window. Scottish countryside. "Personally, I prefer Ireland," Sinead nodded, even though in reality the grass and sky and everything wasn't THAT different. She thought back to home. How was she going to stay away for so long? All the sheep would miss her so much. And she would miss them too. Sheep were her favourite things in the entire world ever.

Oh, and her family, she supposed.

Didn't she read the what? The paper? "I don't read anything, let alone wizard books and news," she giggled. Except the book about magical animals. That was good literature. Unfortunately, there was no mention of magical sheep.

"That's so weird," she said, admittedly quieter than she had been all day at the thought. "Magic can really do all this weird creepy stuff?"

WAIT.

Strange happenings? Secret healing experiment? Evil professors? Young old people? "Am I on a train to an EVIL school where they teach us EVIL stuff and WEIRD stuff happens all the time? I never thought this was happening!" she exclaimed. "I mean, I was genuinely looking forward to unicorns! And glitter and sparkly things! And magical sheep!" If there were any.

He stared at her, as a scholar might stare at a neanderthal. She didn't read anything. She didn't read anything?! This casual revelation was so startling that he sat there in an indignant flummox for a few moments. There may even have been a twitch of the eye or two. Morgana's muffintops! He'd known he was going to a school full of strangers but he'd at least been able to comfort himself with the thought that they would be literate ones.

He was so lost in the distressing notion that all of his peers would be too busy sticking their wands up their nostrils to crack a book that he missed Sinead's moment of quietness. Only her return to vibrant exclamations shook him out of his fresh wave of dread.

"Magical what now?" Well, mostly shook him out of it, anyway. Then his brain caught up, "I very much doubt this is an evil school, Sinead, though its track record does seem to show a disproportionate amount of weird happenstances over the years. I wouldn't hold my breath on the glitter though."

RUDE BOY.

Not only was he moody and typical stupid teenager-like, he was RUDE. Staring was rude. When she stared at her brother wearing a bright pink tutu for a dare, she got a slap around the face from him. And now, when this moron stared at her for absolutely no reason, nothing.

Why was he staring? What had she said? Uh... she didn't read anything. Maybe that was odd to him? Sinead hadn't meant it TOTALLY literally, but in all honesty she hardly ever read except for when she had to at school.

"I read sometimes," she said hesitantly, bemused my his expression and scared of what he'd do next. Teenagers were unpredictable monsters. "But I'd just rather be outside. Eating. Or playing with sheep." It was NORMAL. Whatever Nicholas-not-Nick said. He didn't know ANYTHING at all! He didn't have very good social skills either. At least, he wasn't disproving that to her.

But all the evidence led to her conclusion. That this was all some sort of weird project to turn her into an evil witch. However, she should give the school the benefit of the doubt for the sake of enjoying herself and the opportunity to get away from her siblings. "Did you research this?" she asked. If he had, he would have all the proof that this was E-V-I-L.

"There will be glitter," Sinead nodded certainly. And if there wasn't, she'd bring it herself. As soon as she learnt the glitter-explosion-making spell.

Well, at least she was a little embarrassed about her avoidance of the written word. That was how he chose to take it, anyway, but rather than press the point of how valuable literacy was he let it go at that. She was, after all, still a very young child. Plenty of time to learn that sheep weren't the be all and end all of valuable ways to spend one's time.

"Research it? No, I just read the paper and listen to..." gossip. Not admitting that ever, he amended, "discussions from people around me. I suppose if you're so concerned, you'd have to ask yourself if your parents would wittingly send you to a place full of evil people and wicked spells."

Oh, so he only had what it said in the newspaper and the gossip he heard from people. "That's not very reliable then," she murmured. "The old people young people healing experiment thing might be complete rubbish." Newspapers at home had a tendency to write complete lies or else twist things round so they sounded bad. That might be the case with wizard papers too.

"I think my parents are glad to be rid of me for a bit," Sinead grinned. "Their attitude is the 'what's the worst that could happen?' type. They just roll with it. Which is fine." Obviously. "Besides, they're NORMAL." By that, she meant non-magical. "They've got no clue about magic."

Most likely, it wouldn't be ALL evil spells. On the bright side, she'd get to learn the glitter-explosion-super-party spell.

"It might." He was willing to grant her that, "But most likely it isn't. Especially since some of what I've heard came from students on this train."

Nicholas made himself more comfortable in his seat, "I'd have to say the same about mine, as far as sending me off. I suppose it's for the best I come here, if only so I don't have to listen to another lecture about healthy social development."

Ascanius found, since it was just a lot of unnecessary effort, he wasn't very quick to violence, yeah? At best he would be aggressive, but only in places that merited that response. The Pitch, any conversation with a Hufflepuff, etc. But this kid was making him want to punch a wall. Of course he knew the layout train. He'd gone here enough years. Kid had some serious nerve.

The seventh year shot Nigel a look. He let the kid sit here. This was on him.

Oh now they were gonna ask names? Jeez. Why didn't Nigel just put a sign on his head that advertised that he wanted to be friends with the nosy, little thing? 'Cause that was basically the vibe that he was sending out.

..................no nap for Ascanius.

Connor walked through the train. He had no idea where to sit, Honestly he felt like he had no idea what he was doing. He hoped his mother knew what SHE was doing. Sending him to this school, where he knew no one. Just because she went there.

He couldn't lie he was nervous. His mother had said everyone in her family were Ravenclaws. Brilliant and whatnot, he hoped to be like them. To be a 'Ravenclaw' whatever that meant. He knew he would be sorted, and there would be others like him. He hoped so, but what did that even mean? Others like him? What was he like? And a hat was supposed to tell him? When he didn't even know?

He knew what his father would say, that this was all crazy and he was being nervous for nothing. He missed his father. He had only passed a year ago. But he was at peace with it now. He just wanted to be happy and make friends, but he didn't know where to go at all.

Sinead shrugged. He was probably right. But she didn't like admitting to being wrong under any circumstances, so she didn't speak.

"Yeah, school is good because of... making friends!" she said, enthusiastic after she came up with a point. Like her and Nicholas-not-Nick were friends! "My brother doesn't like home-schooled people. He says they're stuck-up, socially deprived creeps." Her tone was matter-of-fact and she didn't think to wonder if her words were blunt and uncaring. "I don't agree, though." In case she sounded rude like he was when he was staring.

It wasn't the nicest things for parents to say. "Are you parents nice? Do you have any brothers and sisters? Good family?" Sinead liked to keep the conversation going.

Ah so he was here last term. Kace nodded and replied, "Too bad i didn't see you around. Which house are you in?" he asked curiously. Then as Kace went back to drawing he noticed him looking at his pad.

He smiled and replied, "Yeah i am, i mean i am not good but i do it in my free time." he shrugged. Not a big issue. "Do you draw?" he asked. Oh? Where was his manners! "Oh i am Kace Lecium by the way..." he said extending a hand.

"He sounds like a winner," Nicholas observed. He wondered if Sinead's brother was also illiterate.

"Are my parents nice?" It was a bit of a baffling question. 'Nice' seemed to be one of those words with a thousand connotations. When he responded to someone by saying whatever they were saying was nice, for example, he tended to mean that he didn't give a care for the topic of conversation.

"...I suppose they are. And no, I don't have any siblings. When father found out I'd had the audacity to take after my mother's side of the family and be a wizard, he decided not to risk any more wizards or witches. It's for the best." He was supposed to reciprocate questions, that much he knew, "Have you any other siblings? Other than the charming brother you've mentioned?"

Kohen pushed his way through the trains' corridors, trying to find somewhere to sit. Not for the first time this week did he feel like transferring to Hogwarts wasn't such a good idea. Being geographically closer to his family after they moved back to Scotland had seemed like a great idea at first but now he found himself missing his old friends at Beauxbatons already. Maybe he should have stayed in France after all...

His new, black school uniform at least beat the light blue number he had been forced to wear at Beauxbatons, he thought with a sigh while dragging his heavy trunk behind him and walking past department after department filled with chatting, giggling students. He really didn't want to sit with some first years, but it was starting to look like he didn't have much choice in that matter.

Suddenly, his trunk got caught somewhere, maybe it was the carpet or a nook, and he had to yank it free, sending himself tumbling into another student.

"Sorry, mate, didn't mean to do that."

He quickly apologized, giving his trunk a furtive kick.

"Yes, well... he always wins at football," Sinead agreed. "Other than that, I hate him and he's the worst brother ever." Seriously. That bad. It seemed to be his favourite hobby making fun of her and her sheep. At least he didn't steal her sweets anymore, like he had when he was ten.

So he had nice parents. Very good. "Wait... does your pa - father - not like wizards?" she asked puzzledly. When her parents found out she was a witch, they were over the moon. Partly because they were proud, partly because they could get rid of her.

Oh, he had no idea. "I'm one of seven. SEVEN. And I'm the youngest. It sucks," she said, still not over the fact after eleven and a bit years. She was the baby of the family and her three brothers and three sisters always made fun of her and bossed her around. They tried to, anyway. "The charming one's my worst brother. The rest are bad, but they don't make fun of Cloudy or her babies." Cloudy was her favourite sheep and by far the fattest.

Connor was lost in his thoughts, maybe if he would have been paying attention he would have been of some use. But instead he was toppled into and fell to the ground. He wasn't mad or anything. Just confused to find himself on the ground.

He turned to see another guy, about his age too, if not close to it. "Ohh, No worries, Man. I should have been paying attention." He said and stood up, offering the other guy a hand up. He noted the black on his uniform and no other colors, just like his own, the kid was another transfer student.

"Are you new too? I'm transferring from Salem..I'm Connor." He said and offered her his hand to shake it. He hoped he would make a new friend. He needed friends here, since all his other friends were in America.

Nicholas couldn't help the single "Ha!" that came out of him at Sinead's frankness concerning her not-so-great brother. Given that she seemed to be tolerating him fairly well -- and Nicholas wasn't delusional enough to think that he was pleasant company for all and sundry -- this brother of hers sounded like quite the rotten one indeed.

"My father isn't especially fond of magic. It unsettles him." His father was the type of person who prided himself on looking at someone and knowing exactly what he was up against. Magic threw that ability of his completely off kilter.

"Well no wonder you're so chatty," Nicholas commented. "If you were quiet in your family home I imagine no one would even know you were there."

He had no idea who Cloudy was. Probably a pet of some kind... or a sheep. Given Sinead's sheep fixation, it only took a few seconds of thought for Nicholas to decide that Cloudy was a sheep.

That was fair enough. "I understand him. Magic is weird. But good. Except the evil spells." Which she might have to learn at Hogwarts.

Sinead thought back to the time when she first did something magic-y. It was actually Michael's fault. He stole Cloudy's first baby and ran away with him. So she'd somehow managed to make a random brick spring up and trip him over. Fun times. Weird, still.

"I'm chatty? You should meet my family." They were all worse, except the one sister that rarely communicated in any way other than her own made up sign language. That was annoying because nobody understood the weird signals she gave with her hands. "Sometimes I can get away with the innocent cute baby thing." It wasn't all bad.

Most of her time was spent thinking about, talking about or being with Cloudy. So it was only natural she wanted to tell Nicholas ALL about her. "Cloudy is a sheep! A fat sheep with lots of children. Her family is like the sheep version of mine!" Sinead grinned. Give or take a kid. "I miss her already."

Siiiiiiiiiiigh.

Just great. The first human contact he made on this whole merry Hogwarts "odyssey" and he managed to knock the guy right to the ground before falling flat on his butt himself. He could only hope the other student wasn't angry, as he really wasn't looking for a fight during his first day... and the guy seemed to be a bit taller than him, so that wouldn't help if things were headed in that direction. He needn't have worried however, as he was offered a hand up just moments later and not a fist accompanied by angry words.

"Yeah, first day for me too. I'm from Beauxbatons. My name's Kohen."

He introduced himself once he had let go of Connor's hand and righted himself again.

"I'm really into this old train design, not so much the narrow corridors though."

He joked, patting his trunk.

"Also trying to find somehwere to sit?"

He obviously was, but it seemed like an innocent enough question to ask someone he really didn't know anything about yet. He figured they might as well sit together, seeing how they were both new and seemed to be about the same age. He had really been hoping to find someone to talk to before they arrived at the school and this whole sorting business would take place. His parents being Muggles and everything, no one had really been able to tell him much about what to expect.

Tessa couldn't stop smiling as she walked along the train corridor. It was familiar- she had never, EVER gone to a school two years in a row. And, there had been times where it seemed like she wouldn't be returning- but she had fought and she was here! She sighed happily and continued her searching.

Her friends had to be here somewhere.

Finally she peeked into a compartment and saw some familiar faces. "CUCUMBER!" she exclaimed, bouncing into the compartment and wrapping her arms around the younger girl. "BAY!" she turned next to hug the younger lion, giving his hair a ruffle for good measure. Then, she turned to Cris, a sly smile on her lips. "Up for a hug Cris?" she teased, before wrapping her arms around the young Strand without waiting for an answer. SHe just wished Sander were here... but she had a fresh letter from him in her pocket, so it was all well.

"How is everyone?" she asked, settling into a seat.

Smiling, Lux was glad that Jasmine was having a good trip to Hogwarts so far. Making friends early on was a good thing, as it made the arrival to the school less scary. "There are so many nice people at Hogwarts, hardly anyone is mean." And Lux tended to stay away from those mean people as much as she possibly could.

When Cris mentioned how his sister had a shoe mishap, Lux's eyes widened in sympathy. That sounded pretty awful, it was a good thing that it hadn't been serious. "Well, I'm glad she was okay. Mine was more that I twisted my ankle and had to lie in bed with my foot up and ice on it." Pretty sucky, but she honestly didn't mind it all that much since it wasn't serious enough for her to have even considered healing magic. The sprained wrists last term had definitely been worse.

As food from the trolley was mentioned, Lux shook her head and held up her sandwich. "I am okay for the moment. Plus I have Bay to get stuff for me," she joked while patting him on the leg gently.

Suddenly a blur of multi-coloured hair entered the compartment, and there was only one person who it could be. Laughing, she hugged Tessa; it was wonderful to see her again. She was wondering where the girl had been. "SUPER TESSA! I was wondering when you would show up." Now they were together, though she wished Sander was here. Clearly Tessa was missing him more, but Lux knew that they would still be able to see each other. "I am doing awesome! I am so eager to be going back to school and seeing everyone. How about you?"