Well she could HAVE her opinion and ---- Oh, pastry!

With a quick thank you he wasted no time in taking the offering and popping it in his mouth. If anything, having a younger brother made him quick.

The sweetness of the pastry numbed some of the indignation at her question and so he simply shrugged. "Suppose so." Yippee for him.

Simon couldn't help smiling at her laugh, echoing it with his own as he registered the likely cause of it and the image entered his mind as well. Yeah...a little kitten attacking a full grown human was an amusing thought. "I think kneazles do tend to be the more wild ones even if they are supposed to be more intelligent then the normal feline," he said as he turned away from his companion. A smooth movement was thankfully all it took for him to lift his trunk up to the rack.

"Well she's comfortable," he said with a chuckle noticing the feline off to the side already settled in and looking to be asleep. Spotting Kyle move to lift her own trunk to the upper rack, Simon moved to help out just in case but as it was she seemed ok so he stepped back and took his seat beneath his own.

"Not unless you count dealing with a best friend's adventures...or rather miss-adventures in Knockturn," he mused with a shake of his head. Josh had done some crazy things the last couple of years but challenging dark wizards without a wand certainly topped the list.

Melina looked up from her pygmy puffs and saw a girl standing in the doorway. She was carrying a cage with a beautiful owl inside. "Hi, I'm Melina Morninglory, but you can call me Glory-that's what my friends back home call me- or Mel, or Mellie, or just plain Melina!" Melina had a loooong way of intrducing herself. "Come sit with me. Are you a first-year too? What house do you hope to get sorted in?"

She gestured to the seat just opposite from her. She was digging through her Sugerplums bag for a fizzing whizbee. She looked up from the bag and said, "Hey do you want some candy? I bought a whole bag to celebrate with my new friends. You qualify!!" she smiled brightly.

She handed over the bag to Maggie and just looked at her new friend for a moment, smiling. Hogwarts was going to be a great place! "Hey, that's a beautiful owl you have there. What's his-or her-name?"


Melina had just introduced herself to another girl when she heard a "Meeeoooww" of protest. She got up and poked her head into the hallway. There was a girl with hair just a shade brighter than her own auburn locks, clutching a cat tightly to her chest. The cat looked a bit put-out by this.

She thought the girl looked scared, the same way she would have looked had she not made at least 3 new friends at Diagon Alley. She waved to the red-head. "Hey are you looking for a seat? You can sit with us!" she said with a welcoming smile.

Nika munched on a chocolate frog that she had bought not too long ago. Boy those things are good! She held up her card and slightly frowned. Great. Godric Gryffindor again. She only had 5 cards and they all happened to be Gryffindor. Well she had nothing against him because he is the founder of Gryffindor, but still would it hurt to get a new card once in a while?

She let out a sigh of defeat and put the card into her pocket carefully. Maybe next time? She looked up and noticed someone wandering around. The girl looked somewhat familiar... Maybe she had met her at a Quidditch match or something last term? Hmm... Nika couldn't be sure. "Hi! I'm Nika!"

"Wow..." Nika sighed with longing. "Must be great." How she wished that she was able to share her experience with her family members. "So how'd ya find out that she is a witch? Did she tell you?!?!" Nika asked yet another question. Hopefully Ariana won't get too tired.

"Oh transfer!?! From where?" Hmm lots of transfers this year. And they were all from different places which made them that much more interesting! "I don't know I'm pretty bad." Nika giggled. At the sound of the question she straightened up her back and puffed out her chest proudly. "A second year!" Ah, so grown up... "And I'm really excited!"

Arabella-Marie turned and said "Hi Nika, i am Arabella-Marie but call me Arabella for short"

Some people could maintain their snobbish dignity in the face of food. Others could not. Mihkel was shaping up to be an 'others'.

Not one to let someone eat alone, Hateya took out a snack for herself too. However, while his mouth was full she resisted eating said snack to talk uninterrupted, "It's going to be so weird. My brother said you have to sit on the stool in front of everyone, and they all watch to see where you get sorted. And then the Headmaster does a speech and Kyle --that's a girl I met, I think she's your age, she gave me this bag-- said that last year he --the Headmaster-- was telling everyone that the school's theme was 'don't die'. And then after he finished talking you get to eat."

Then she took a breath and ate her food.

Krissa had to bite her lip to hold back a laugh at how excited Nika seemed at being a second year. "I'm from Durmstrang." She said, and quickly changed the subject. Not something she wanted to talk about. "So you've been here before. Tell me a little about Hogwarts. I'm dying to know more!"

Jade was lost in the scenery, but when her cat jumped off her lap she saw a girl standing there. "Oh hi, i'm Jade," She said picking her cat back up.

Cody walked onto the train as he had said good-bye to his parents. He always liked coming back to Hogwarts. He couldn't see anyone he knew as he was walking down the corridor.

A lot of things were going through Cody's mind. He had done so much since he was last at Hogwarts. He had a grown a fair bit and was quite tall now.

He was walking past the compartments very slowly until he saw Elle with some people that he didn't know that were next to her.

He opened the door. "Hey Elle", he said with smile. "Do you mind if I sit here?", he asked.

Jaymie nodded and grinned. "That's so true. Vanilla smells better though. Like, vanilla candles. Not vanilla ice cream, that doesn't really have a smell." And if you tried to smell it, you just got a cold nose.

"My youngest sister is six," Jaymie said. "I have a brother who's ten; and I'm positive he'll be coming to Hogwarts next year. And I have an older brother who is a fifth year Ravenclaw. My other sister is a fourth year Huflepuff, and my oldest sister graduated last year, she was in Slytherin."

"It is! Don't you have any magic relatives?" Magic has to come from somewhere, after all. It can't be completely random!
"Well, she had just gotten her job at the Ministry and one of the people asked if she had any wizarding relatives, and she said "I don't think so," and they looked into it and found me! So she called and was all excited. I can't beleive that Dad never found out his sister was a witch!"

"Yeah..." and Ariana was lost in thought about ice cream. Oh, yummyb ice cream...

"Wow. You have a LOT of siblings. Don't they ever annoy you? I have one and I can't stand her!"

Rowan accepted the sketchbook and looked admiring at the drawing. "This is fantastic. You are a wonderful artist," she said and then handed the book back to her new friend. "You don't have to share your writings with me if you don't want to. I know that it can be very personal and we just met after all. Here is my favorite drawing," she said as she flipped through here book. "It's a drawing of a friend's owl."

http://i742.photobucket.com/albums/x.../HornedOwl.jpg

Ginny flinched a little as the ferret started to sniff her. It wasn't that she didn't like animals, she was just only familiar with owls and cats, and the occasional hippogriff. Everything else was a little odd to her.
"I-I-I have my w-wand, a few treats, and some coins..." Ginny stuttered, watching the creature get closer.
Ginny looked up at Kana's confession about her hair. "Ugh, you're so lucky your parents let you dye your hair. I'm so sick of red..." she muttered.
"I'm a first year too. Maybe we'll be in the same House?"

He blinked. Why was Hallie acting so odd. He didn't understand. She had run off after their kiss and that hurt him inside. "Hal why won't you talk to me? What did I do?" He asked softly. Her standoffish behaviour hurt even more than her usual ordering him around.

"Nice to meet you Arabella! So what year are you in?" She knew she had seen this girl somewhere, but she just couldn't put her finger on it. Hmm. This is what she gets for having such a bad memory.

"Oh cool Durmstrang." But what's a Durmstrang? Is it like Hogwarts....? Nika didn't ask though because the subject had changed and it was too late to bring it up again. "Hogwarts is amazing! Everyone is so friendly! Especially the Hufflepuffs. But us Gryffindors are probably the best house." And Nika is probably biased. "And the Slytherins are cool too! Well most of them. I've met a few that I wish I could un-meet." If that's even a word. "The Ravenclaws are all really smart!"

Nika sighed wishing that she could be smart. She is a smart girl per say , but when it comes to magic she doesn't know the first thing. "Oh and those were all just names of the houses. There are four and well I hope I'm not repeating something you already knew... I don't know how much other schools know about this place." The Hogwarts students knew nothing about the other places. Or at least Nika knew nothing about them. She didn't even know there were other schools until the end of last term when Elyon mentioned the french school.

"Nice to meet you Jade! Is this your first year here? I don't think I've ever seen you around at Hogwarts before." Maybe this is her first year... Or maybe Nika just didn't get around very much. "Can I pet your cat? I love animals!"

Nika giggled as Ariana and Jaymie talked about the flavors. "I think I like chocolate the most!" Who doesn't like chocolate!?! "It's just so good! But I don't mind vanilla either, especially when they have sprinkles." Yummy!

"Erm No? I don't thinks so." Maybe she did, but if she did she didn't know. "That's why I feel really lost sometimes. I don't really have anyone I know outside of school to go to for help." That's why she is always so clueless. "That's really cool! It's like your long lost magical relative! I wish I had one of those that would just pop up and give me a call. But I guess it's pretty cool being the only one in my family. I get to feel all special I guess."

"Thanks!" Wow. Praise was not what Ariana expected. "There's more if you flip through the pages."



"Aww, that's sweet. I'm okay sharing my writing, after all, I'm hoping to publish it as a book someday, so I have to be okay! Plus I like to hear what other poeple think of it, so I can make changes before it's too late!"

"Whoa, that's amazing! I could never draw like that! You could be a professional artist someday!"

Arabella-Marie smiled and said "I am in my third year Nika, what year are you in" Arabella-Marie was sure she had seen Nika about somewhere before

Nika nodded excitedly. Only one year apart! "I'm in my second year!" And she was proud. Not only was she growing up, but she had survived her first year at Hogwarts. "And erm what house are you in?" Lots of questions.

Arabella-Marie smiled and said "I am in Gryffindor Nika" Arabella-Marie was determined to meet more people this term

Adelyn's squeal was matched with Melina's. She ran to her and threw her arms around her. "Big Sis! You're here! Oh, I am SO glad to see you!" she exclaimed, bouncing on the balls of her feet. "Yes- I've only been waiting for you to sit down!" she beamed and gestured to the seat across from her.

"I can't believe it's really happening!!! I got a little teary-eyes with my dad. I felt grown up and very little all at the same time. Does that make any sense?" she asked her sweetest friend. It was hard for even Melina to define- the interesting dichotomy of the levels of her maturity. But she could telll; the farther away they would get from King's Cross, the older she would start to feel.

Melina pulled out a pink bag labeled Sugarplums, the store in Diagon Alley. It was practically sagging from the weight of the goodies inside. She held out the bag to Adelyn. "You want? It's my special bag of celebratory sweets!"

Her big sister's owl was so pretty. "What's your owl's name, sis?"

Kyle smiled to Simon as he laughed, a little thought slipped through the cracks of her mind - barely noticeable even now...he has a nice laugh. Even though it was a confident thought. Shocking how in-denial she could be. She smiled as he commented about Ginger being comfortable - indeed she was as you could hear her snoring lightly as she slept. "I have to say they are really smart - but for me, I'd rather something far more gentle" then again she wasn't much for confrontation as it was.

Looking over, as she had finished putting her trunk up she couldn't help but smile as Simon had been there encase something went array. Something probably would at the end of the trip knowing her luck - most likely missing the carriages and having to walk the entire way to the school.

"Ah misadventures in Knockturn can be pretty scary at times" she spoke softly, remembering some of the stories her mum, and aunt had told her when she was a little younger - before transferring that is. But, her own misadventures hadn't yet happened.

"Oh really!?! ME TOO!" Nika bounced up and down purely out of excitement. "I wonder why I haven't really talked to you before? Well it's a good thing we are meeting now!"

Dianna was making her way when suddenly she hit someone... Or that's how she remembered it. Maybe it was the other way around? Whatever, anyways she turned around to see a boy who seemed a little older than she was. Wait a minute was he blushing? More than blush, he looked like a tomato. "Eh, no.. I mean yes, yes I'm alright." she said. Great now she got infected.

She was supposed to turn around and walk away but somehow her feet were both stuck and wouldn't let her move. Might as well introduce herself. "Hi. I'm Dianna." she told the boy.

"Yeah its my first year," she said, putting her cat on the ground. "Sure, you can pet him. She sat back down. Hm so I guess this isn't your first year, second?"