It was like... she didn't exist. Like this was some private battle of wills between two people she had called her best friends.

Had called.

"I hate you two," Gold said simply. "For doing this to me." She rose to her feet, and looked at Lori, at Brody, at both of them one-by-one. They didn't get it, did they? They thought this was between the two of them, that it was a win-or-lose situation for them.

"I've stayed silent, for you two," she said, quietly. Her tones weren't cold or angry, just quiet. Very quiet. "I've been there to hug you both, to cheer you up, just... been there. I've never asked you two for favours. I've never told you two that I'm down, or upset because you won't talk to each other -- and you take that, and me, for granted. Is that it, then? Do you think I'm some sort of mother figure who'll be around if you need hugs or advice, and can't find anyone else to talk to? Is that it?"

She took a deep breath. "I'm sorry I even tried to talk to both of you. It's obvious neither of you is willing to make the first move. But what's far more obvious is that neither of you ever gave so much as a single thought to how I might have felt - or be feeling - about this. I've stayed here, stuck in the crossfire, torn and God knows what else... and neither of you even thought about it. The first time I talked to Brody after Torin told me she had decided to leave, I was upset and angry - so very angry! - that she hadn't even told me. But when I saw her, she was upset herself, and I never said a word about my own feelings. I comforted her -- and I suppose that's all you two want. Someone you can come to for comfort, as a last resort. That's the value my feelings are given."

She picked up her bag. "Well, thank you very much for making me realize that you two don't care how your fights affect me. I can bet neither of you ever thought that this might be tearing me apart."

She headed for the compartment door.

Exhausted.

She was just exhausted, now.

Nancy threw the other girl a quick 'Not very helpful' sort of look as she stated the obvious. Well, where else would Chis be?! He certainly wasn't where he should be. Though, where SHOULD he be?! For all she cared under the seats could be were he SHOULD be...err...did that make sense? Either way she probably had to find her cat...it would look strange if she didn't. She could still abandon it somewhere later...or not.

Mimicking Violet's actions Nancy also bent down to glance into the darkness under the seats only to find absolutely nothing besides a lot of dust and...eww, was that an old chocolate frog? "Oh, believe me, I won't forget about you. Ever." At this she gave the younger Slytherin a playful smirk. No, she so wasn't, not after last term anyhow.

Wait...were those eyes glittering in the darkness? Squiiiint!

Lori sighed once, and only once.

She hadn't come looking for this. For none of it, all she has been looking for was her boyfriend, or Torin so she could give him Brody's present. Becaus she didn't want THIS to happen. All this rubbish, she hadn't wanted it, hadn't asked for it specifically. It was just DEALT TO HER. Dealt on her, and she was expected to be fine with it all. Well she wasn't. Who would be?

Taking a step closer to Brody, in the very confined space they had, Lorelai let her arms out a bit, to offer her openess to this 'hug'. That was until Gold spoke.

Lori listened, like she always did to Gold, because Goldie always had these words that made everything better, and she usually taught Lori something everytime she spoke. Not this time. This time she taught her nothing more than maybe Hogwarts most certainly was better off without Lori.

As Gold headed for the door, the bruette couldn't hold it in much longer, and spouted the words she obviously didn't mean. "I hate you both, too." of course she didn't. But she felt something she hadn't really before. Longing. But she had mistaken it for some
sort of hate.

"I wanted to apologise after that Charms class, apologise for you being put in the middle. I wasn't given a chance, you had gone by the time I looked for you.You just admitted it yourself! You were angry with her! So. Was. I. I'm entitled to that, entitled to be sad and upset that she obviously didn't think about me enough as a good friend; a supposed best one, to tell me herself. I spent EVERY NIGHT in her company these past two years. Every. Single. Night. And nothing. She never said one little word about it."

Lorelai shook her head as Gold went to leave and shot a glance at Brody, giving her a small smile. "I forgave you time ago." And then back to Gold. "You were here first, stay, celebrate Brody's birthday with her, I didn't intend to look for this. And I'm sorry. Sorry you felt like that, sorry you couldn't mention it to either of us, how you felt."

now, Lori had all her things before she left, right?

This wasn't meant to happen. They weren't all meant to fall out. They were meant to be happy, and all smiley and best friends. But both of them were going to the door now. And she didn't want them to go either of them. "Don't go. Either of you." or she was coming back. Coming back to Hogwarts. And making sure that they were all able to be best friends together.

And now Lori was talking like she wasn't there. Brody felt like crying. But she wasn't going to cry. Because she wasn't going to let herself be the centre of attention for once in her life. It was about Gold and Lori now. Her best friends. She had to make sure they knew that she still loved them. "I know I want hurting you Gold. Just like I knew I was hurting Lori. But I also knew that one day I was bound to hurt you both. You both know that I'm a very selfish person. You know I care about myself a lot. But of course I are about you two as well." She sighed, brushing her eyes, because she knew tears would solve nothing here.

"I'm sorry Gold. That you ever had to feel like that. I hate to think that I have probably caused you so much pain." It was just as well that she was going. So that they could get on with their lives, without her, because they didn't need her. "Both of you can stay in here. Because I should be the one going."

Daisy smiled and nodded. she didn't chnage any facail expresions and the only way you could see her true reaction was in her eyes which she avoided looking at anyone. Marriage!!! She was only eleven. Not ready. Way too soon. She looked at him and composed herself. "I know that but that's only in fairytales," she said laughing hoping anyone would jump in and change the topic.

Violet continued to look around for the cat, and saw the old chocolate frog Nancy looked at. That brought back memories from the feast where she had a bite of a chicken leg that was on the floor...."I'm NOT eating that, no matter what you say!" she said. Even if it was chocolate.

She looked around more as Nancy said she wouldn't forget her. Oh...that. Mainly all the prefects remembered the stuff she did last term the most, which wasn't a good thing since she liked them all now. "Yeah, but you know don't think of me as that mean girl that caused trouble once, think of me as a friend that loves Jake Upstead, unicorns, and pink okay?"

The kid really didn't want to go home. In fact Melissa would rather stay for the whole summer. She was tempting to do that. Alas she couldn't obviously and sadly. She sooo didn't want to go back to her parents because she didn't like them, well hate and yes hate was a big word but they probably hated her back anyway, well it wasn't her fault half of the time, it was how they took it. Sighh. :/

Melissa dragged her luggage (which weight quite a lot), onto the train and she immediately headed to the Back of the Train, she made that decision at the feast that she was going to head over there for a while or maybe stay there for the whole time she was on the train. She didn't have anything better to do right?

Melissa saw that it was packed already well to her it seemed. Plus giants were here. Of course to her because she was a wiiiitttle midget wasn't she. It was annoying. Very. Ugh. She was going to find an empty compartment right? She travelled all the way down to the back, scanning her eyes around to find one and finally. A compartment which was empty. Completely empty, plus it was right at the end of the Back of the Train and she had to go ALL the way to the end to find one but meh. At least she did find one in the end and look...

IT WAS EMPTYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!

Melissa opened the door, well just managed to anyway, it was slightly hard because she did have her luggage in her other hand. She finally opened the door, yes took her a long time because obviously she wasn't that strong as other people in the school. Of course she didn't think to not leave in on the floor while she opened the door.

Now Melissa had the door open and she walked through it smoothly, still dragging her luggage. She closed the door and gently placed her luggage on the floor and took a seat.

She was now at peace. No more dragging, or finding a compartment, or even opening one with her luggage in her hands. She had nothing to do except relax and wait for the torture to come. But maybe she could stay at Lucas's, if she persuaded her cousin that was...

Cameron was in a moody, sulky, nostalgic mood. She'd miss them. And it wasn't just that - this would be her last days as a sixth year. Her second last year! Her last train ride as a .. sixth year. . yeah..
She didn't want to be a seventh year. She didn't like the thought of those nasty NEWTS and all their wondrous placement of her life. She didn't like the thought of ONE exam determining her future when SHE didn't know what she wanted to do with her future. *pout*
Now.. to find some people before they left and she never ever saw them again.

Torin had been looking around everywhere for Lissy, because he wanted to say a better goodbye to her than he had at the feast. Since she had barely talked to him or anything.

He smiled as he found that she was at the back. Good thing, since he was tired of looking for her at this point.

He opened the door and took a seat beside her. "Hey."

Iris walked onto the train on her own, feeling EXTREMELY tired. She'd not slept at all last night. Ask anyone in her dorm. All night, all you could here was the flicking of pages in a book, the occasional mutter of a spell or swear word, and the odd spark from her wand.

She was dressed in just a navy blue T-shirt and white jeans, which instantly shows that SOMETHINGS up. Iris NEVER wears jeans. She didn't even have any make up on, and she had pretty bad bags under her eyes.

Iris also had a pretty scarf tied around her head, hiding the monstrosity that Jimbo made of her hair. She'd spent ALL night trying to get rid of the green, and trying to grow her hair back; but there was NOTHING that would work. What ever spell Jimbo used was a bloody strong one. And it wasn't a very common one. At least she could crush it into a headscarf, otherwise she'd have had to have strolled round with the mohawk.

The Slytherin headed straight for the back of the train, hoping to find an empty compartment. There weren't many people, so luckily she wouldn't get TOO many odd looks about the head scarf.

When she found a compartment, Iris heaved her trunk into the luggage shelf and then sat down nearest to the window.

She sighed and closed her eyes, as if trying to make her grow the sides of her hair back...

She'd been walking along, without too much care when she spotted a very familiar looking prefect.. er.. ex.. no. She didn't want to think about that. Twinkeh would forever remain as 'Prefect Kane' to her. Or Mr. Telletubby. Either way.

Swining open the door, she saw not only Korin Tane but Melissa! "Tooootoooo!" She greeted brightly and kinda launched herself into him with a HUUUUGE bear hug. When she finally released him, she grinned and waved at the girl. "How ya all beeen?"

Janet nodded with a smile to acknowledge Damon, and started to reply with a customary hello, nice to meet you, but Damon had started talking to Willow. Janet noted the wrapped hand as Damon showed Willow saying it would heal soon hopefully. Curious to what could possibly be wrong with his hand that couldn't be healed in the hospital wing, Janet asked, "This happened last night? I can't believe the hospital wing wouldn't take the time to heal a broken hand. It would just take a second."
Janet looked to Willow. "Willow, you and I have fixed our own mishaps all through the term. We do seem to get into a lot of contests don't we. But, we turned out all right." She smiled her sly smile at Willow. "Can't wait till we get to the ranch."
She turned her attention back to Damon. "Can you handle your wand alright? You should just fix it yourself. The spell if you don't know it, is Reparo."

Woah. Torin! He was here? Melissa wasn't alone!! Although she did need some sleep. Hmmmm....that would have to wait now because she wasn't going to fall asleep when Torin was here! Plus it would be his last train ride and they hardly got to talk at the feast when he was surrounded by millions of Kane fans. Hehehehe.

But poutttt.

No. No. No.

She wasn't going to think about it. Happy thought. Happy happy thoughts. Nice thoughts. As if her life included a lot. There were some, mostly when she was at Hogwarts and when she knew about magic. Then she was happy, plus she was going to enjoy her years at Hogwarts. She would make sure of it right? Then she would graduate all happy and not be sad and tearful. Grinnnn.

Now back to Torin. She smiled at the boy, well man right? He was 18. Already an adult in the Wizarding World and in the Muggle one. "Hey Torin!" Plus she was happeh to see him.

Anddd now the door opened yet again, well it was swung open but it was opened! This time by Cammy. Obviously it wasn't going to be Torin again was it. Snort.

WOAH.

Cammy just like launched herself like....she needed to be stuck to Torin. Although it was entertaining. Hehe, he looked like he was going to be squiiiiished but obviously he was a big man and he looked like he was really strong and yes a man. Hehehe. So....when the girl FINALLY realised the tall guy she waved at Melissa, who smiled back. Meh she wasn't going to flail her arms was she. Just smilleeee.

How was she? Well...she really had no idea. Sad somewhere. Yes she was sad but she wasn't going to show it because it wouldn't be good for Torin and she just wanted to make him happy and not leave him all sad and stuff. Nah, she didn't want that. No did probably. So she was alright. Good. Nod nod. "I'm alright," although she wasn't excited to go back home. To her parents. No. "Except I'm not all that looking forward to go home," she had to say it. Oh well. "How are you both?" she asked back. Well Torin didn't ask that did he. Cammy did but you know. Shruuug.

Jimbo was still a tad annoyed because of Teegan and her candy stealing. Not to mention the owl. That owl of hers was crazy. But he didn't want to talk about it.

He was struggling along with the weight of his pockets filled with candy and his trunk behind him, not to mention Pebbles in his pocket. He didn't want to crush the little guy. He made his way to the back of the train like usual and found that there weren't many people back here.

He tried to find an empty compartment, or at least ANY compartment that wasn't full. He was getting really tired of lugging all this around. He kept seeing some familiar faces that he had never met but only knew by sight. Then he came across a compartment with only one person. One person he knew very well. A person that had left the compartment door open and therefore is able to hear the hysterical laughter of Jimbo Farley.

Seriously. Jimbo was laughing so loud people in the hallway were looking at him weird. And it really was hysterical laughter. Poor Monty obviously wasn't able to reverse the spell. Not that Jimbo expected her to. He was darn good at spellsn he would have been surprised if her hair was back to normal.

"MONTY!" He managed to choke out. "A scarf? A scarf? Did you really think that would work? You look like an old hag!" Hahahahahahhahaha.

He couldn't even move out of the hallway into the compartment like he was trying to and like he really wanted to, because his arms were aching. He was laughing too hard. Too, too funny.

He was about to ask Lissy how she was when he was suddenly pounced on.

Wow..

"Cameron!" He'd never call her Cammy, because that was what he called his little sister. She would always be Cameron or Cam to him.

He smiled and hugged her. "I've been good. Went around to see people. Gave Brody her present." Yep. It was a good day so far even if it was sad.

But wait...

"Why don't you want to go home, Lissy?"

"Well, then you are " Prince of the Serpents" Rex told Carson. "Well, I think you captured the Lady of Gryffindor's heart" Rex said to Carson. " This is a real good group" Rex explained to Carson.

" Hello Cody" Rex waved to him. " How did you like HogWarts?" Rex asked Cody. " Will I ever get to see Georgie again?" Rex asked Cody.

"Well, hello "Duchess of HufflePuff" Rex told Kay. " Oh, you are part of the Royal Family of HogWarts" Rex explaijed to Kay. " Daisy is " Lady of Gryffindor, Carson- " Prince of Serpents, Emma- "Fair Maiden of Slytherin. you are "Duchess of HufflePuff and myself "Knight of Gryffindor" Rex said to Kay. "We are part of a close knit group of freinds" Rex smiled and then kissed Kay on the cheek. "Did you see Victoria?" Rex asked Kay

" Thanks for the treats" Rex told Daisy." My sister Victoria is a R
avenClaw" Rex said to Daisy." I am happy for both of youand Carson" Rex whispered to the "Lady of Gryffindor".

Iris sat here, with her head in her hands, trying to stay awake. Seriously. Those charms books had let her down SO bad. She'd even gone and gotten some NEWT grade books to try and find the countercurse. But no. Nothing.

Honestly, she just felt like strangling him.

What the?!

Iris looked up as she heard someone laughing like a maniac on helium, stood at her compartment door. Oooooh. He found it SOOO funny, didn't he? She glared at him angrily, wishing she had something to throw at him.

When he started to talk, Iris glared at him some more, and then turned away, not looking at him.

...

:O ...

He did not just call her that.

Iris quickly stood up and faced Jimbo, with her hands on her hips. "I DO NOT LOOK LIKE A HAG." She spat at him. "And no. I didn't think it would work. But I'd rather have people think THAT then have them see me with this... this... this atrocity of a hair style!" Iris glared at him and took a step closer to him without realising, "Have you SEEN the people who CHOOSE to have hair like this? They're FREAKY and completely abuse the use of eyeliner! I don't want to be associated with them by being stuck with this hair!" Iris threw herself back down into the seat and folded her arms over her chest.

She didn't even notice that her eyes were watering because of all the frustration and anger. "I spent all night, pouring over books, looking for something to fix it. But there was NOTHING. Jimbo, what the hell did you do to my hair? It's been more than 18 hours since you cast that spell. Why's it not worn off yet?" Iris looked up at Jimbo, really watery eyed now. Does he not understand how patronisingly HORRIBLE this was? Not only did she look like a complete FOOL, but everyone could see it, and she couldn't find a way of putting it back to how it should be. And that bothered Iris a lot.

"Please, Jimbo... just... Just change it... change it back for me, PLEASE."

God, even if she had to worship him for all of next term, Iris didn't care, just as long as he set her hair right. And besides, she was really angry with Jimbo, and she reeeally didn't like being angry people. It made her feel miserable.

And the fact that she'd had no sleep AT ALL really didn't help her crankiness.

Cody turned, spotting Rex, he waved back, "Erm, Hogwarts was...an interesting experience." Georgie? "Yeah, she's coming back in two terms. For 7th year."

"Erm. Hello, everyone," Zach said, a little taken aback. One moment he was alone with Kylie, and the next... There were like 80 girls in the compartment. Okay, 2. But 2, 80... Basically the same thing, right? "I'm Zach. Oh. Kylie already said that. Still true though. Yeah." He succumbed to an old habit and slid his thumbnail between his teeth. He'd stopped biting his nails years ago, but suddenly being thrown into a mildly stressful situation brought it out again. If he'd been prepared for two of Kylie's friends to barge in, he probably wouldn't be so panicky... But oh, well. He'd just have to suck it up. He wanted to meet Kylie's friends, after all. But being surprised by them was... a little scary. At least Kylie looked surprised, too. This definitely hadn't been an ambush, not that he thought she would do that. He took his nail out of his mouth before he gave himself the chance to do too much damage to it. Okay. Alright. Gotta look like a normal person... Wait... Potatoes?

Nulu woke up to the sound of her belly. She looked around to see that there was one more person besides herself in the compartment. Like her the other person had fallen asleep. Nulu heard rumbling once more and she sighed. "I thought I ate a lot during the feast." she told herself and smiled as she saw that Jeremy had taken her sweater and was using it as a blanket. She stood up and stretched then she realized that her neck felt sore.

Slowly opening the compartment door she sneaked out. She was thankful that she had decided to change back in the castle. It had been a long time since she had wore something besides her school uniform and she had to say she felt strange wearing muggle clothes. She had been raised as a normal person, but she had to admit that wizard clothes were much more comfortable than those of muggles. In the wizardry world no one really cared about how skinny one was. Robes were worn on and even though she knew that some teens wore normal clothes on the bottom they still felt comfortable.

Her pair of jeans were faded and had holes on the knees from playing soccer. These at some point in her life had been her lucky jeans, but she was growing out of them. She sighed. She made sure she had change in her pockets and headed to the food trolley,

Oh, great.

"Right." Gold said, pausing at the door. "If you two have said whatever you want to, brought it all out into the open, can we please forget it, and have chocolate or something?" She sounded tired, now, and she didn't try to hide it. It wasn't something she could have, even if she had tried.

"Lori. Brody. I love both of you and... I don't know. I simply don't know what to say. I would feel right, for once, if you two just discussed your problems, and found a solution for them. Don't apologize to me, either of you, because I have this idiotic habit of forgiving two minutes after I decide I'm angry, because I love both of you. I don't get WHY we have to fall out, because of things like these. Friendship is supposed to be about giving, not receiving. You're supposed to make compromises, and do what you can to see your friends happy. It's... do I really have to stand here, and be angry at you two, or be angry at myself, to get the point across?"

She sat down, right on the floor, and hugged her knees.

"Ridiculous as this looks, I feel dead tired and I want hugs. I'm also in the doorway, which means neither of you are getting to leave."

Willow looked at Daemon's hand and was surprised to see that it was still bandaged. She was sure it would've been completely healed by now. "What's up with your hand?" Willow asked. "Why isn't it healed?" Then, Willow looked around the compartment... "Well, I guess, as far as compartments go, this one isn't half bad. I thought they were all the same..." Willow watched as Daemon settled in.

Willow grinned at Janet. She knew this was going to turn into a contest; she just wondered if Daemon would allow it. She wondered if he was brave enough to allow them to heal his still hurt hand... "Well," Willow said slowly, "we could always heal Daemon's hand for him... if he'd allow us to. Right Janet?" Willow could feel the excitement growing in the pit of her stomach. The last time she'd tried the 'Reparo' spell, it had been on a horse, and it's tail had fallen off. But that had been ages ago, and her magic had improved greatly since then...

Willow looked at Daemon and said, "So, Daemon... want me, us, to help you with that hand? We're real pros..."

daisy shrugged, "No sweat. I'm just sweet like that." she gasped.
"That's right! She can be the...Princess of Ravenclaw." She nodded. Perfect. she then blushed. "Yeah I'm happy for us too," she whispered back.

"Yes feel free to help me with my hand that would quite nice" said Damon "Reparo doesnt fix hands i thought. Nice to meet you by the way Janet." Damon held out his hand to both of and wondered what they were going to do. In a few seconds flat Damon had a big platter of snacks in front of him. For once it was healthy food. Then he turned to Willow and gave her a friendly smile.

Oh wow, she was mad. It was really funny. He'd never seen Monty mad, but really, she had a MOHAWK under there! And it was all because of his amazing spell expertise. Hilarious!

Jimbo continued giggling as she yelled at him. Soo sooo funny. It was green! GREEN! His favourite colour! BAHAHAHAAHAA.

But then she got closer and started looking a little too scary. Still funny. But scary. And he hadn't stop giggling. He was laughing through her whole lecture! She was mad. No, she wasn't mad. She was beyond mad. She was as green as the HULK!

As Jimbo thought this, he started up in a new wave of laughter. Hulk! Geddit? 'Cause her hair is green? GREEN! And then she went off about how long the spell lasted. Yes, Jimbo is good at what he does. No, please, no applause. And she'd gone to so much trouble to try and change it back, too! No textbook would contain a reversal spell. MUAHAHA. He should take a picture of her to remember this masterpiece.

Jimbo was so preoccupied laughing he didn't notice that Monty was tearing up until she was begging him to reverse the spell. When her voice got all quiet and stuff. That's when Jimbo looked up at her, his own eyes watery from laughing. When he saw the look on her face...

He stopped laughing as he looked at her, sitting there crying. Had it been someone that he had pulled a prank on, seeing them crying would probably have made the prank that much better. But this was Monty. It was different. And it made him feel REALLY, REALLY bad. And it didn't just make him feel bad. It gave him the want to comfort her, to make her feel better no matter what it took. It made him want to...

"Er..fla..gerflamah?"

...

O__o

What was that? Gibberish. OMG.

STOP IT. STOP WITH YOUR WORD JUMBLE! SPEAK!

He blinked a couple times to clear his mind, which had clouded quite suddenly. Or maybe it wasn't clouded. Maybe it's more clear than ever.

...OH, GOD, WHAT IS GOING ON?

He was...FEELING. And it was WEIRD. And...WEIRD.

Was he...feeling for Monty?
No. No. That's not possible. No, no, NO!
He CAN'T like Monty! She's his best friend! Cupcake buddy! Butterfly conjurer!
No, no, NO!

He made a weird sound like he was in pain and looked at Monty all guilty-faced and such. He forced all his stuff inside the compartment and put his trunk on the luggage rack. Then he sat down beside Monty, and didn't realize he was shaking until he put his hand out in front of him.

"Monty..." He said it really softly. Like even HE was about to cry. He lifted his hand to put on her shoulder, but let it hover an inch away before bringing it back. "Please don't cry."

He had even forgotten what the problem was, he was so wrapped up in the new FEELINGS. Then he noticed the scarf on her head again and blinked. Right. That's what it was.
He took out his wand and pointed it at the door so it and the blinds would close. Monty wouldn't want anyone seeing her hair if they happened to be passing by.

He lifted his hand toward her again. Slowly and carefully, he took off the scarf, letting it fall off on it's own. When her hair was fully revealed, Jimbo didn't laugh. He only glanced at her as he pointed his wand at her hair and changed it back easily. As he lowered his wand, he looked at her.

"Sorry."