Cam took out his crumpled up Daily Prophet newspaper, unfolding it and observing the pages to see if there were any coupons he could use. Hmmm coupons. HE SERIOUSLY NEEDED SOME COUPONS, DOODZ. But they were all about werewolves. Ehhhhh. Stupid... mean werewolves. Professor Lupa. Bontecue. That headmaster was probably the one that ate Forrester and spit him back out as a hairball!1!1

He looked back at the glass door and OMG OMG OMGEEE IT WAS JACK. Poor POOR Jack. See, Cam wasn't just a Slytherin. No, he was a spy, from the uh... Society of Cool Spies. Now he obviously knew that Jack had been drinking love potions that had been put in his drinks by the infamous Reese, because REALLY...

Reese's BOYFRIEND?

He was definitely alienated. Totally. And it was Cam's job, no, it was his MISSION to save the poor guy from that monster! And EEEEP he was asking about the buckets. WOULD THE STENCH BE ENOUGH TO GET HIM OUT OF THE LOVE POTION??? Would it? It might be possible. "Oh Jaaaccckk, it's only mooncalf dung. Found a mooncalf burrow while I camped in the summer. Here here HEEEEREEEE, now now I'm sure it's not that smelly is it?"

And evilly, oh so evilly, he picked up the bucket and stretched his hands out, making Jack's nose and the bucket let's say... only a few inches apart from each other. Heeeheee. But not before Cam gave a look which said "oh don't worry Jack, I'm only doing this to SAAVEEE you!" Because really, he really was.

AND NOO. EW. EW. EWWWWWWWWWW. REESE UPSTEAD. BARGING IN JUST LIKE THAT. "Mooncalf dung Reese. Now I'm sure aliens like you like eating mooncalf dung. Heard it was some sort of a side-dish with eating 13 year old children named Cam. Am I right???" He would have bitten her if Jack wasn't there.

Eeep. School. All over again. Where in Merlin's beard was everyone? Did Cam eat them up already? It wasn't odd one bit. The boy was a total spaz. A freeeaak. Livvy wouldn't be shocked on bit if he said he was going to travel outer space and to Mars in search of more hobos. She was sure that idea would come to the boy's mind one day.

As she made her way through the front part of the train, Livvy peeked into the compartments for anybody she knew. So far. None. Either that or people that she really couldn't care for... like Jake Upstead. The boy was just sorta... there. Like how the sun was just... there. Except the sun is way more important than some thirteen-year-old creep-o boy.

Gripping the strap of her book bag, Livvy brushed away a strand of her hair and tucked it behind her ear and that's when she smelled it. This horrible.... HORRIBLE smell. What was it? The girl scrunched up her nose in disgust as she moved forward and towards the compartment from which the smell seemed to be emerging from.

She swung the door open to see Cam, Reese, and some... dude. "Oh hey guys." Mighty good looking but Livvy had no idea who he was. But she didn't ponder on that for the smell was stronger than ever. Livvy's eyes were immediately drawn to the buckets that Cam held by his side. "Ugh. Cam... what is in those buckets?"

"Thanks," Tibi said, taking the water. Swishing around some in his mouth before opening the window and spitting out the side. He heard a knock at the door and instantly went rigid, but then he heard Ella's voice. Relaxing just a bit, he turned back to Jake.

"Yeah.. that's Ella... she's a first year, too. We met shopping." Tibi paused. "I think she saw what Willie did... she probably shouldn't stay out there." He considered another moment, looking around the rest of the compartment. "But whether you tell her to run and hide or come in here is up to you... it's your..." Tibi paused... where was his bag? Was it back with Willie? Frantically searching, Tibi began to get really upset. Then, he noticed that the strap of his bag was over his arm. He'd held onto it through all of Willie's shaking, the running, the hiding. He'd had it with him the whole time.

Oh no HE WAS MOVING THAT THING CLOSE TO HIS NOSE! Jack backed up as far as he could go to now avail, he bumped right into the glass window beside the door and was trapped. He dry heaved once and managed to wiggle his way free, moving to the other side of the compartment and way from the nastiness.

"But why did you bring them HERE?" he asked. Wouldn't it have made more sense to put them in something like, a giant steel container that trapped odors inside? Then, just for safe measure, he could have stuck that in his bag and put that on the OTHER side of the train in the Luggage Cart like a good little boy. But no. Too complicated, apparently.

He smiled when Reese entered the compartment--and opened the door to let some of the SMELL out--and frowned when Cam called her an alien. "Hey, she's not an alien!" he said lamely. Ehh, so he didn't have a comeback, but he HAD to stand up for his girlfriend! Cupping his hand over his nose again, he lamely waved to a girl who entered the compartment and stared back at the dung again. GROSSSSSS!

"Oh, okay," Jake nodded, peeking through the blinds and indicating to that Ella girl to come on in. Whilst he waited, Jake sunk onto the seats, feeling absolutely exhausted. "Willie is never like that..." he said, more musing aloud than anything else. "I mean, sure... he used to be a bit defensive... but he's never... you know," Jake said as he bit his lip, not wanting to use the world bully.

"You'll be alot safer at school..." Jake explained. "It's a huge place. If you just make sure you're somewhere where there's adults or something about. And if you don't like travelling in large groups, I suggest you invest in a sneakoscope. At least he can't get to you up in... your... OHCRAP!"

Yup, Jake finally realised that Willie Crocker had pretty much constant access to him and, more importantly, his animals. Lolcat and Charlie would be...

... traumatised.

EEP!

Mooncalf dung? Only Cam Karsten would bring that kind of stuff to school with him. "Is there ANY way you can get rid of that stuff?" Reese politely asked the boy. "Maybe..." she could throw it out the window. "Just get rid of that sme-" Before she could finish her sentence, she heard the next thing that Cam had said.

She looked towards Jack when he tried to standing up for her. "Yeah, what he said. I'm not an alien," she rejected. "And, Cam. I told you that I was KIDDING about being an alien when I told you that. Didn't you listen?" Probably not. He was probably too busy laughing at her face when he squirted lotion all over it.

Turning her attention back to the compartment when it opened, she smiled when she saw Livvy standing there. "Hey Livvy," she greeted the girl. She paused for a moment as the firl asked Cam what the smell was and before he could reply, she said, "It's mooncalf dung." She turned back to Cam and crossed her arms over her chest as tried her best to hold her breath, then she waited to see if Cam would get rid of those buckets so that everyone could try their best to enjoy the ride to Hogwarts.

Safer... at school. Good, good. Stay by the adults... yep, pretty much his standard survival pattern. A... sneakoscope? "What's a sneakoscope? How would that help?" Tibi listened as Jake kept talking and noticed a look of recognition cross Jake's face as his sentence trailed off. Tibi thought Jake looked concerned, and so Tibi became concerned..

"What's wrong?" he asked timidly.

Ella smiled as she got access to the compartment. She slowly let her way in. She locked eyes with the boy named Jake, as she heard from inside. She took a seat on the comfy seat and bounced a little. "Soft," she chuckled quietly. Her brown hair fell in her eyes, and she swiftly moved it out. Her gold eyes gazed up at the people in the compartment.

"So what happened?" Ella asked, demanding an explanation. She glanced at Jake, who seemed oblivious to her, and said, "I'm Ella, by the way." She held out a hand. In her head, she couldn't help but think, Wow! He was cute, but she would be stupid to think that she could have a chance with someone like him. She dismissed the thought as soon as it had come and changed her gaze to Tibi. He looked older, anyway.

"Sneakoscope... it... it looks like one of those spinning top things. It balances like, perfectly on it's point and starts spinning and making a racket or whatever when something untrustworthy is going on," Jake explained, regretting his decision to buy one during the summer. Oh, how he wanted one! "Professor Lawson... he teaches Defence Against the Dark Arts... he could tell you."

Running a hand through his pink hair and thus making it stick up a little, Jake held his breath for a moment. "Willie Crocker," he sighed, jerking his thumb in the direction they'd just run from. "Hufflepuff third year boy. Place of residence: Hufflepuff third year boy's dormitory." By means of explanation, he pointed to himself and said, "Jake Upstead. Hufflepuff third year boy. Place of residence..."

Yup... fill in the blanks.

Noticing that Tibi's friend had also entered, Jake took a moment to distance himself from his current dilemma and glanced over at the girl when she introduced herself. "Yeah... Tibi said that. I'm Jake," he replied, shaking the girl's hand and giving her a small smile. He didn't really feel like answering her question just yet...

Cam eyed the compartment door being opened yet again, aaaand Livvy came in. OOOHHH where would he put his buckets? WOULD THERE BE SPACE FOR EVERYONE?! Reese should have been that one that seriously needed to leave because she did admit that she... she LITERALLY ATE CHILDREN LIKE HIIIMMM. But before he could respond to Livvy's question, Reese told her first. HMPPHHH. But he payed even more close attention to Jack, observing him.

Jack Fritzera 6th Year Gryffindor, under the affects of a powerful love potion, could possibly be the illegal Amortentia--or another brand, fed daily--being eaten alive by Reese Upstead, girl obsessed with said Gryffindor.

Why was he backing up? DIDN'T HE WANT HIS HELP?! Oh. Right. Love potions were... serious stuff. "NOOOOO Jack, don't you just... don't you just LOVE the aroma of raw... RAW nature?" Cam took a BIIIIG sniff, well he disliked the mooncalf dung scent but he got used to it.

"But fine... fine I'll try to get it out," because apparently the scent didn't break the love potion effect! Cam took out his wand, pointed it near the buckets and muttered, "Orchideoussss." Ooohhh most conjuring spells were NEWT stuff. Just one rose sprouted out from his wand, onto the compartment seat.

Errr... yeah. It didn't help much.

"And REEESE, no I didn't listen 'cause--'CAUSEEE I NEVER LISTEN TO YOUUUU." Well he did actually. "Aaaand isn't it a special day today?" He eyed her all shifty-like. Teehee.

The smell.... AUGH! It was horrible. Livvy remained near the compartment door and as far away from Cam and his buckets of STINK as was physically possible. The maniac had done it again. Why was it that this kid never ceased to amaze her and gross her out? Livvy had figured she was used to his crazy antics by now, but apparently it wasn't so.

Seriously... what WAS this stuff? Was it a dead rotting hobo that Cam was going to attempt to bring back to life so as to prevent the hobo extinction? Livvy swore it was it. Yup. Dead hobos. Just.... great.

She glanced over at Reese as the girl answered her inquiry of what those abnormal and dastardly buckets contained. "Mooncalf dung?" Livvy repeated, questioningly. Well... there went her dead hobo theory. But if that theory had proved true, the question of where Cam had gotten those dead hobo remains would have popped up and Livvy wasn't so sure she would've wanted to know.

"Um... okay... Cam. Why do you have mooncalf dung?" she asked, confused as she stared at the little twerp. Seriously. Mooncalf dung? Why... just.... WHYYY?

Livvy watched as the thirteen-year-old Slytherin boy conjured a rose on the compartment seat. Pfft. Really? Yeah... that was TOTALLY going to make the smell go away. Though it did help a little. Just a little.

Jack covered his nose even tighter and shook his head, pointing at the buckets. "THAT" he said "--is NOT nature. That's just...foullllllll. Nature is like, flowers and grass and bunny rabbits with fluffy tails. Not...poo!" he exclaimed.

Cam was crazy. It was official. Jack confirmed it.

At least he was trying to get rid of the smell. Jack pulled out his own wand. "Wait, there's a spell to get rid of smelly stuff...darn, it was on my OWLs, I can't remember it now!" he grumbled. He remembered conjuring his brother's socks and de-stinkifying them...why couldn't he do that NOW?

Oh right. Cause all that info about OWLs had melted out of his brain as soon as he took the tests. Oh summer joy.

Lucy wandered towards the front of the train, still skipping, of course...what else would she be doing considering no one was there to stop her or tell that "Skipping is not precisely a good thing to make a habit out of while on a train." After all, Lucy was skipper, and skipping-loving girl. Besiiiiiiiiiiides...who said there was ever a rule about not skipping on trains? Pssh. And then...Lucy stopped skipping. Sniff...sniff. UGH!!! What was that HORRIBLE smell? Walk away, walk away, awaaaaay!! Ew, ew, ewwww! Yuck. That's probably not at all sanitary. Did someone just go in their pants? Gawsh. And then, she looked to her left, and saw a boy she recognized from the day she went shopping for school supplies. "Cameron...?" she whispered to herself. No doubt...the smell was strongest here. One would think the doors would prevent it from being emitted outside...but apparently not. Must be the crack...or perhaps the smell was just so strong that it could pass through the doors. Wow. That's a powerful stench.

Lucy slid open the compartment door, and covered her mouth immediately, thinking she would puke the moment even got an up-close whiff of it. "Cameron! What's that smell?" Lucy said, muffled by her hands. Gawsh. At least he did something to get rid of the smell. For some reason...it still seemed like the smell would remain. It's essence...Nyaaaah.

OH NO. Jake had to live with Willie?? He'd risked an awful lot, then, by sticking up for Tibi. "Oh.. oh dear," Tibi muttered. "Maybe we should tell someone?" As much as Tibi worried about what Willie would do to him, it seemed like Jake may be getting the worst of it.

Ella had come in demanding to know what had happened... but he really didn't want to talk about it. "I'd rather not talk about it, Ella, if you don't mind... this is Jake, by the way. He kinda saved my neck back there..."

Sara entered the compartment at the front of the train. She was looking for her friend. Jemina. Sara hadn't seen Jemina in a few days and wondered how she was doing? Had Jemina missed the train?

'Are there any empty compartments?' thought Cassarissa, looking into where others were sitting. She found an empty compartment, opened the door and sat down.

"Ah, much better." she said with a smile. She pulled out her wand and layed across the seat, examining it.

"Nice hair," she pointed out to Jake. She really did think so. Unique, she'd call it.

Ella slumped on the chair, though she knew she shouldn't forcefully inquire for information. "Pweeease?" she asked, pouting a bit. She felt a bit stupid doing this, but she still put on her cutest face.

"Outta my way." Lettie said loudly and grumpily to a couple of stray luggage that was in her path. 'Stupid trunks...' "Oof!" As she dodged a piece of luggage, her foot slammed into the molding on the lower part of the wall.

"Ow." She mumbled to herself and shook her head, clearing her mind of the pain. For someone who was in a very good mood the previous term, the fifteen year old was now surprisingly sour. Despite the incidents that resulted in her breaking her hand...twice. Having most of her belongings destroyed in a flood, and after having some weird boy follow her around. 'Stupid people, stupid walls...stupid school...stupid everything!'
Her maine coon cat, Ornlu, trotted up ahead and managed to lead the way to one of the only remaining empty compartments.

"'Bout time." Leticia said and threw her backpack onto the empty seat.
Sitting down on a cushion herself, Lettie removed her left shoe and checked to see if the skin of her toe was broken. Luckily it wasn't, although it was a bit red.
"Well...are you ready for the new year?" Lettie said to her cat, who was now resting comfortably on the space in front of the girl and who was peering out the window. 'Course you are, you are always ready.'

With a sigh, Leticia took out a heavy notebook and started to scribble on it.

"No. Don't tell someone," Jake said instantly, conveniently forgetting that time in his first year when he lost house points for not telling anyone he was being bullied. "It makes it worse. And Willie has a brother... who has this friend, Daphne. She doesn't like me. I don't think any of that lot do."

Jake was of course, assuming that everyone knew the different classifications he did of people. There was 'that lot', 'those', 'them', and many many more.

"Thanks," Jake smiled, reaching up and ruffling the hair 'til it lay mercifully flat again. Stupid hair. It was the quidditch that did it.

As the girl pouted and begged for an answer, Jake tried his best not to look at her face. He'd never really been drawn in by a girl before, unless you count that part-Veela in Diagon Alley. But this was DIFFERENT!

And Jake REFUSED to admit he felt anything.

So he just sat there.

"Is his brother as bad as he is?" If he was, Tibi hoped they'd never meet. Jake seemed genuinely frightened by the prospect of telling someone, so Tibi resolved to keep silent. "Ok.. no telling. I'm going to have to get me one of those sneakoscopes, then... but what are you going to do??" Tibi didn't want Jake getting hurt because of him.

Ella was pouting, but Tibi didn't notice or, if he did, wasn't fazed by it. He had little to no interest in girls, mostly because he was oblivious to their flirting. "I really don't want to talk about it Ella... it was bad." Tibi sighed. He had no desire to rehash the craziness that had ensued.

"Thanks." That was all that came out of Reese's mouth when Cam said he would try to get the smell out. She still as the boy took out his wand and when he spoke the spell and only a rose srpouted from his wand, she looked towards Livvy and Jack. Well, one little rose isn't going to get rid of that smell.

She narrowed her eyes when Cam said he NEVERED listened to her. It was his lose if he never listened to the marvelous words of Reese Selena Upstead. Before she could say anything to him about not listening to her, he asked if today was a special day. "Why yes it is," she replied. "It's my birthday...17th birthday to be exact." Bwaha.

"I think I know the spell," she spoke up when her boyfriend said he couldn't remember it. She took out her wand and stepped a little bit closer to the buckets. "Odoris Subsisto mooncalf dung," she incantated as she motioned her wand in the right directions. Once she was done, she stepped back closer to Jack and took in a deep breath.

Much better.

"Erghhh, okay," she said, then folded her arms. She batted her eyelashes one last, hoping he would give in, but he didn't, and really, she didn't expect him to. She threw a hopeful glance at Jake. He wasn't even looking at her. Finally, she just said, "Oh, alright," then listened to their conversation.

"So, is this guy some sort of bully? Bunch of poor kids who get tortured by them in my neighborhood," she recapped while rolling her eyes. They had never tormented girls. I cant hit a girl! she remembered one saying to another. The only girls that got bullied were the nerds. And that, too, was by other girls. She was never involved with that crew.

LouAnn stayed quiet for a moment while the two brothers talked between themselves. They seemed to be quite close to one another, just as LouAnn would imagine them being after having been homeschooled together for quite some time. W and Bastian, she kept hearing them refer to one another as. They were cute nicknames, but LouAnn imagined neither was meant for her to use.

From what LouAnn could tell, though, Sebastian seemed just as nice and polite as his brother. When he thanked her and called her Miss, she smiled at him, beginning to like Woodson's brother just as much as she liked Woodson. "You're welcome, Sebastian," she replied. She'd never met anyone who needed hand sanitizer quite as often as the Whitcomb brothers did, but to be honest, in the two times she'd met with Woodson, she'd sort of gotten used to it.

She opened her mouth to ask about what Sebastian had started to say---they must now do what?---but Woodson spoke up, so the attention was turned back to him. Ladies first? She blushed a little, but otherwise just continued smiling. No one had ever said 'Ladies first' to LouAnn, not even the boys in France! "Alright, then. Somewhere private that doesn't smell," she said, echoing Sebastian's words. She hoped it was alright that she'd just joined them and assumed she could sit with them. Sebastian had specified private, so maybe they preferred to ride alone? She'd just play it by ear and see what happened. She wasn't really sure which compartment would suit the boys, so she stopped near the first empty one she came to. "Is this alright, or do you want me to keep going?" she asked them.

"I..." Jake bit his lip again as he stretched out across the seats he occupied. Oyye, he was tired. "I'll just have to do what I did in my first year. Not... sleep. I'll find a way."

Wow, these things really were soft. And cosy. Ohhhh yeah.

As he heard Ella speak up, Jake looked quickly over at her before shutting his eyes, now splayed out across the empty seats. "I dunno. He never used to be like that. He was my mate. He put my shoulder back into place when it had been dislocated for about four months."

Okay, so Jake had been pinned down and gagged for that, and his shoulder did move in rather alarming ways, but hey, it didn't hurt anymore.

Like... ever.

Jake could hardly even feel the joint.

Cam glanced at Livvy and nodded, because mooncalf dung was just PLAAAAIN awesome. Heh. "Yessss moooncaalf dung, Oh-Leeeev-ya, it smells GOOOOD doesn't it?" He was pretty sure she'd say no but the scent was getting A LOOOTTT of attention. Oh yess he liked attention. YAY FOR MOONCALF DUNG!!11 "And it's 'caause it makes a good fertilizer ya seeeee," he winked, it's my little gift for Bunbury."

Well, it was a gift to Bunbury's PLANTS. But she better give him COMPLETE--I repeat, COMPLETE rights to interview her and make her ADMIT that she ate men and had a current affair with Kazimeriz--and let's not forget her first boyfriend was a cactus.

Smirk.

He looked back at Jack, frowning. HOW COULD HE NOT LIKE IT, EHH?! "Is TOOOO nature! Dung is TOO part of nature. I think..." Something was definitely wrong with Jack, and he opened his mouth wiiiiide when he... HE TOOK OUT HIS WAND. "Wait NO, what'cha gonna dooo??! STOPPIT STOP," he shouted and put his very own body in front of the buckets.

"DON'T HURT MY POO!"

Oh that came out a bit wrong. BUT WHATEVER, NO WAND POINTED AT BUCKET. It had a no-touching sign on it--hmph, he should have replaced that with a no charming sign on it also. But he got distracted by yet another person that came into the compartment. "Hiiii Aunt Lucy," yes that was his new nickname for her, all she needed was a mustache and voiilaaaa, "oh oh it's mooncalf dung. Doesn't it smell niiiiceeeeeee?"

And, in all slow-motion-ness, he watched as the CRAZEHH REESE take out her wand as well and used some sort of an anti-odor charm on it (he assumed because he couldn't smell the raw aroma of it), "OIIIIIIIII. What'djya DOO??? You could have ruined its magical properties! MAGICAL PROPERTIESSSSSSSS," he yelled in front of her face.

But then he remembered, oh yes, her birthday. "Heh... I very well think it's time for your gift then." He gave her a look of full evil, and then into a look of pure innocence. Yes, he'd prepared Reese a gift. Mwahahahaha. Cam wanted REVENGE.