Kurumi moved to the side a bit more when Milton entered and she at first wondered why he was here when she remembered that SHE had graduated. No more glares. No more DEATH glares. No more judgmental glares. NO MORE! Which is why Kurumi's lips curled into a slightly wider smile when she put two and two together. Milton must be the NEW Ravenclaw captain.

Before she could react to this...Selina happened. She didn't just enter. She happened. For the second time in the span of what could only be less than 30 seconds, Kurumi's jaw was hanging open as she watched her best friend continue the insanity from the platform...and not introduce herself. Kurumi was again cut off when the red head was demanding cookies.

Right..of course...Selina hadn't thrown any first years under the train or anything, so she did deserve a cookie. "S-S-Sorry about her," Kurumi said quickly to the guests as she bowed a few times before rummaging through her bag for a small container of red velvet cookies and she passed them to Selina. "Selina...you could at least have introduced yourself before handing out posters..."

In the next instant Dylan entered the compartment looking about as chipper as an augurey and she handed him another small box containing different cookies. "As promised."

When the compartment door opened again, Kurumi looked up and was a little surprised to see Elijah standing there...but not NEARLY as surprised as to what came next.

o_______________________O

Okay...WOAH! Rewind and freeze EVERYONE?! WHAT?! Two possibilities were running through Kurumi's mind right now. One was that Elijah was just strutting around pretending to be Lewis and the other was that Lewis had used polyjuice potion for whatever reason to turn into Elijah.

Only Lewis knew how Kurumi felt about polyjuice potion and would never dare do that sort of thing to her. Not after she had told him about what had happened with that horrid Potions assignment.

Kurumi, instead of saying anything, just stood there staaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaring at Elijah in complete and utter shock. Nope. NOT Lewis because Lewis' hair was WAY better.

Kurumi just barely registered that Vickers had made an appearance, but her violet eyes eventually went to him and her jaw may have dropped a little more. WAS HE IN ON THIS?! Calling Elijah Lewis and what not? Kurumi didn't think Vickers would play a trick on her like that...

WHAT IN MERLIN'S NAME WAS GOING OOOOOOOOOOOOON!?

Before any of the governors or the new Headmistress could shake Elijah's hand, it was tugged away by... Vickers? What was he doing here? Perhaps he had been following Elijah to say hi, but now he was completely blowing his cover.

Or not... He had called him Lewis, right? The boy wasn't a complete fool. Looking around him, Elijah spotted another obvious absence. "Wait two minutes Spike. The governors are here and you should introduce yourself..."

Turning back to the adults, Elijah Lewis gave a small laugh, "This is Spike Hutchinson, a Ravenclaw Prefect." GRIN. "Spike and me are best friends. Amongst us Prefects and Captains we sometimes call ourselves Spewis," chortle chortle chortle. "So, can we be of any assistance with your visit?" Yeaaahhh, why exactly are you here, governors?

The compartment door opened again, and Sierra Greingoth found herself holding her breath. At this rate, who knew what kind of weirdo would join them. Wait...Ladybug?!

Her head jerked toward the door as she took in the site of Mr. Ian Amoroso, her father's best friend since childhood. Sierra was caught between a moment of wanting to be mortified that he was treating her like a four-year-old and grateful that someone was here that she knew well enough to call an ally. Precious?! Ahhh...

...but then the talk moved on her being a prefect, and she felt herself relax considerably. "That I am," she said with pride. "Slytherin house, of course." She tapped her badge a few times. "Congratulations on your new position, by the way." Senior Undersecretary, of course. Why was he riding the train to Hogwarts, though?

...and then a thought occurred to her. "Is...Jarek...a student here now?" she asked. DEAR MERLIN.



Sierra felt like rolling her eyes, but of course she didn't.

Hufflepuffs, ...you just couldn't bring them out in public anymore, could you?



Sierra gave the girl a sharp nod in reply to hearing her name. The Slytherin prefect was just about ready to settle down and avoid the rest of the chaos when the Gryffindor captain spoke again.

"Wait a second," she said. "You mean to tell me that you're missing...your Beater's bat?" So if it were somehow found by just the right person, they could maybe...keep it until the season was over? Therefore leaving the Gryffindor captain without her greatest weapon?

"I'll help you look for it," she offered.



"Congratulations, Captain," Sierra said, giving her new captain a grin. "Well, officially, I mean. You ready for a winning season?"



Wait. Whaaa?!

...bwah hahaha!

The PUFFERS were going to singlehandedly fall to shame, and the best part was, nobody even had to nudge them to do so. Sierra sat back, grin in place. She should encourage 'Lewis' to stroll over and sit with his 'girlfriend'. It'd be nice to watch Hollingberry squirm in awkwardness the entire ride.

GO, LITTLE PUFFER, GO!

Wait? No there is no waiting! Doesnt Elijah know who these people are? Fooling around in front of them can get him in trouble. Or worse-- EXPELLED.

Not that Elijah seems to care much about--

WHOAHWAITWHATDIDHECALLHIM?!??

Slack-jawed and eyes growing the size of saucers Vickers stood dumbly silent when Elijah called him Spike Hutchinson, a Ravenclaw Prefect. Now he REALLY want to whack the guy on the back of the head.

And he almost did, until he heard Spewis

Seriously if Vickers didnt have all those rules Elijah they've just broken and their consequences flying through his head he'd be laughing.

His gaze shifted towards the student leaders sitting inside-- they know full well they arent Lewis or Spike, but there was something in this Ravenclaw's eyes that BEGGED them not to out them in front of all these SCARILY IMPORTANT people. He wanted to bolt for the other direction, but that would mean abandoning Elijah.

No Bros dont do that. Besides thats not gonna get those people to forget his face with that name

"Uhm...." he didnt know what to say. He couldnt even greet them. Wonderful first impression. He did manage to wave feebly at the adults.... then glared at Elijah. Offering them assistance? Seriously? Why does Elijah even want to hang around here for? They should be making themselves scarce before one of them adults gets their mugshot and their fingerprints.

They needed an escape plan....

"Would... any of you like to have something from the Food Trolley? El--Lewis and I can get something for you all real quick." nod nod iiiiiiinching his way AWAY from the compartment.

Erm..erm..how to fix this..what to say?

Rensmee stood for a few few moments doing nothing, and grateful she was when Kurumi saved her life. Phew. Thank goodnes for her. Giving each adult in the compartment a nod, Nessie put a small smile on her face. She didn't want to look more silly than she already did, and nodding and smiling seemed sane enough... for now.

"Thank you." she whispered to Kurumi as she looked away from the adults.

Recovered from her awkward moment, Nessie looked properly around the comparment once more. She nodded and smiled too at the prefects before her. She even nodded to the scary looking Slytherin. She was the first captain to arrive, and she wasn't very fond of that but surely the others would soon arrive, which they did. First the Ravenclaw Captain, then Selina which was acting a little strange, Ness decided not to mention anything about the behaviour though, maybe because she had been just as bad a few moments ago. "Yep! Good summer for me and your's Selina?" asked Ness in return.

The bat? Ohh right! Ness had seen that flyer earlier. Some firstie was handing them out at the station. Before Ness could comment, the fourth Captain appeared. The Slytherin one. Dylan. The Jerk. Of course he was glaring at her, which was why she glared at him back "To you too, Dylan." she said as she rolled her eyes just a little and then gave him a small hair flick turning her attention to her bag.

There was a little nudge coming from her it, Ness put the rest of her luggage down and opened her bag. Her pygmy puff, Puffles climbed onto her shoulder where he seemed to be more comfortable. What Ness and him didn't notice was that Walnut was in the room. He was locked away, yes, but still present. *shifty*

Who now? Ness' attention turned to the compartment door as another student stepped in. Elijah? ...Wasn't Lewis the Hufflepuff prefect. Pout. Unless he was here to ask for assistance or maybe he was in trouble, because he was after all a trouble maker. He wasn't here for that though and the words coming out of he's mouth almost causde Nessie to have a heart attack.

"Le..Lewis?" was all she could mutter. What was going on? What was Elijah...and now Vickers up to?

As yet another student entered the compartment, Ness' shock just grew and grew. Spike? Um...was that a new nickname for Vickers? Nope it wasn't and that was confirmed by Elijah who had mentioned Spike Hutchinson. Yep! Ness had heard of him before and he was NOT Vickers.

THIS WAS UTTER MADNESS!!!!

Food? Had he heard correctly? HE HAD!! FOOD!!

The indigo pygmy puff began bouncing up and down, as one of the people creatures mentioned something about food. He was hungry and he wanted something to eat NOW! Puffles gave Ness a little nibble on her shoulder, trying to signal for her to interact with this food guy, but she wasn't paying attention to him and he began to get annoyed.

Couldn't he's owner see he wanted food? Mehh! Silly human creature she was! Well if she wouldn't get it for him, he was going to get it himself. If only he could do long jumps.

The ball of fluff eyed the distance between Nessie's shoulders and the boy in front of her. He could do it. It was worth a try. Waiit NOO! The boy was backing away!"EEK! EEK! EEK!" NOO! NOO! NOO! ...He had to do this quick now. ..and with that. JUMP! The indigo pygmy puff jumped in the air and landed on the older boy's shoulder, now happy he would be hopefully getting food.

Dylan hadn't been standing there but for a minute when a box of cookies was being passed to him. Oh, good. Cookie Girl remembered! In fact, to show his appreciation, he was about to congratulate her on her new Head Girl status when he looked down and noticed that she was NOT wearing that badge. Yep, the Slytherin hadn't seen that one coming...Cookie Girl was such a know-it-all. Hadn't she had that one in the bag...?

Then he remembered that he really didn't care either way. It was just a badge, after all...

Meh. She still made the best cookies, though. WIN for that. "Thanks..."

Then Sierra was speaking up and Dylan had to contain his smile. Why he was smiling at her like this, the Captain wasn't too sure..."Thank you, Greingoth." SMIRK at you other Captains. "Naturally! Are you ready to practice your face off?"

As a Captain, he believed in lots of Practice. It'd done wonders in that Championship game. 90 pts scored?! Yes, ma'am!...

And then Ness was saying something...Pfft. He'd deal with her later...off the train...and away from official looking people. Yes! Eyes for you, Red!

....BLINK....

What was Wilde doing? And Vicky, too?? Vicky never did anything bad, though...In fact, he was quite boring...

*STARE*

Hopefully points were going to start being taken early...

Of course, all Dylan could think about was how he wished he had his tarantula with him. Charlotte would have just LOVED to crawl on these people...

Milton eyed the Gryffindor Prefect for a moment as he sat down. JUST because he could. Milton kind of tuned out the madness that the red-headed Gryffindor Captain made. He didn't care if she lost her bat; that meant more points for his team. Heh.

But his attention went BACK to Kurumi when she started pulling out little containers of cookies. And that Dylan bloke got some too? Pfffff. Milton stared at Kurumi's bag before looking up at her. "Where are mine?" He was kind of half-joking, but the look on his face was dead serious. He wanted cookies, dang it. He DESERVED cookies.

And then there was more confusion... Lewis and Spike got makeovers over the summer, but he was pretty sure that wouldn't happen. And again, Milton didn't really care. His ears just perked up when he heard the mention of food. Milton flagged down Vickers Spike VICKERS. "I'll take a pumpkin pastie!"

And then the compartment got busier and more crowded.

First there was an older gentleman obviously from the two ladies already introduced. The man clearly familiar with Sierra especially the way he and the Slytherin girl reacted to each other upon visual contact. Oh this should be fun.

Kurumi arrived next providing him with a friendly face and someone he was entirely comfortable around. She seemed just as surprised as he had been by the additional riders but took it in stride. Gideon simply inclined his head with a small smile at her seeing as they had already seen each other on the platform. No need more more hellos then necessary.

Then one...no two ...no three and four captains arrived or he took as captains other than Selina of course, seeing as they weren't returning prefects and he had played against most if not all three of the new comers in one game or another. "Hello," he greeted simply, adding a smile for his girlfriend who still was down in the dumps. Fliers in hand as she handed them out and Sierra seeming just a bit too happy of the news of the missing bat. Gideon might have offered some support though she was clearly in search of Kurumi's cookies.

Same old Selina...

Once she had settled in, Gideon shot her a bemused look that might have meant...Welcome to chaos.

However it wasn't really crazy until a hufflepuff boy he didn't know with Vickers in pursuit that it got overboard. Lewis...Spike...what in Merlin's beard is going on?! Seriously, they were gonna cause trouble with their antics...in front of the new headmistress no less. Gideon sighed and finally took a seat near his friends not sure of what to do. Vickers at least seemed to be trying to reign in his companion.

"Nae...nothing for me," he answered the Ravenclaw going allone with the roose. The Gryffindor shooting a knowing look he hoped the other boy understood. Now was NOT the time for playing around.

Finally having gotten rid of the stupid bird which never shut up, which was supposed to be his stupid owl, Richard took his guitar and started to look for a suitable place to practice. Then on the way, he had decided that it could be more fun if he had started today's practice with Dylan, actually. Not to mention he had many ideas about his new song which was going to attract many ladies, no doubt, and he wanted to introduce the song to his best friend. Need to get his ideas on it as well.

Carrying the acoustic guitar with single handed on his right shoulder, the boy walked into the crowded corridors not really caring if his guitar would hit someone. Meh. They were the ones who needed to be careful about it not him. But, to be honest, he would be kinda bothered if his precious guitar would be touched by some Hufflepuff and get all contaminated so while he walked towards the prefect's compartment to find Dylan, he kept his guitar away from those who looked like Hufflers. Like those who looked too...eh...Huffler.

Once he reached to the place, he did not bother to knock or something, the place seemed to be as crowded as the corridors anyway.

''DUDE!''

Now where was this captain?

As he looked around the place to find him, he could not help stare at the ladies in the compartment. Not bad not bad at all. Leaning against the compartment door, he started to grin at them.

''My, my, my!''

Everyone in this compartment looked so stale. Had they lost their beater bats? She didn't think so. SO everyone should have been at least somewhat happy. They were all going back to school, which meant that they returned to friends, classes, Quidditch, etc. What was there not to be happy about? Selina had a reason to be upset. She was hungry, she didn't have her beater bat AND the bloody food trolley ran out of licorice wands. Just an all around bad combination. That was why she sought Kurumi's cookies.

On her way over to get her cookies, she smiled at Gideon who genuinely did look sort of concerned about her mood. He was probably more fearful of how she would react later on if her mood did not improve, but it made her feel a little better that he was concerned about her well being. It was sweet. But Nessie's words drew her attention away from the seventh year prefect.

The redhead nodded to Nessie when she said that her summer had been brilliant. Honestly, Selina had always like Nessie. Maybe it was a redhead thing, that people with similar color hair to her own were trustworthy, but that could have just been a part of why she liked Nessie so much. It also had something to do with the fact that Nessie was a nice person. It was sort of hard to find genuinely nice people in Hogwarts... because SOME PEOPLE WERE BATNAPPERS! Actually, she wasn't exactly sure if anyone at school had stolen her bat, but she had to keep a sharp eye. Even the most trustworthy of people in her inner circle could have stolen Mortimer. They knew how attractive he was, which was motive for stealing him. Maybe Selina should join up with that new Genevieve girl. She had been very helpful and nice- she would find her later at the feast. There could be a good friend in her because anyone who helped Mortimer helped Selina.

Returning Nessie's question Selina said, "It's been good. Kind of boring to be honest. But decent." But just before she was about to continue on about how her summer had been somewhat lazy and Quidditch filled the other captain entered the compartment. Nodding her head in his direction, she smiled, "Hey Switch. Good summer?" No need for there to be any bad blood between captains off the pitch. There was plenty of that during the matches. Besides, they had never spoken really before so it always payed to be nice... especially if he had any information on her bat.

When Selina finally settled into her seat beside Kurumi she happily took the cookies off of her friend's hands. It always warmed her heart to see the tin box that had emergency Selina box written all over it. Seeing that box was a reminder that Kurumi cared. Or that Kurumi was afraid of what would happen if Selina was not well nourished, but the redhead liked to think that it was the earlier of the two options. After all, she wasn't a chimera as Genevieve had pointed out earlier. A redhead chimera would be rather odd.

Sticking a cookie in her mouth, she barely heard Kurumi apologize for Selina's behavior. Being that the girl could not talk because of the food in her mouth she just shot Kurumi a look. These older people could appreciate starvation. Besides, her name was on the flyer. If they wanted a proper introduction then she would give it to them, but they hadn't asked for it yet. Although, as usual Kurumi had a point. So she swallowed her cookie and waved to the adults in the room, "Er, by the way you lot, I'm Selina Skylar. I'm the Gryffindor Quidditch Captain." See? She could be polite and introduce herself.

Another voice drew Selina's attention away from the captains, until she finally settled her blue orbs on Sierra Griengoth. It struck Selina as a little odd that Sierra was even talking to Selina. In her experience with the Slytherin princess prefect, Sierra never had much of anything nice to say. Usually it was slights about Kurumi that Selina got wrapped into being called the other Gryffindor or the friend. So it was peculiar that Sierra was offering to help her find Mortimer. Eyeing the girl up and down she finally settled on saying, "All right then..." she paused, "I'd really like some help. That's nice of you Sierra..." Why was she being nice? Did Selina not get a memo or something?

If that was not weird, something even stranger happened next. Lewis walked into the compartment... except it was not Lewis. Actually, she had gotten photos from Kurumi all summer of the pair of them on holiday. In those pictures it did not look like Lewis had gotten any plastic surgery. So either Selina was having eye problems or that was not Lewis Rasting.

She was about to verbalize that when Vickers started to fumble about in the compartment and asked if anyone wanted anything from the trolley. Picking up another cookie to eat, Selina said, "Oh yeah actually! Could you get me pumpkin pasties, please? Oh Vickers! And ask if they have any licorice wands. The lady told me they didn't, but she might be lying..." The trolley lady always did have problems with Selina. Said that she could eat her out of house and home or something to that effect.

With goodies in hand, Emmaleigh made her way to the prefect’s compartment. No, she wasn’t bribing them with candy; she didn’t need to seeing as she stayed out of trouble. She was coming to check out who the new prefects were. After all, that last time she had attended Hogwarts, Arya and Treyen had been the Hufflepuff prefects, but they had both graduated. Stepping up to the door, she noticed two of the boys from bowling; the two that never introduced themselves so she had never learned their names. Her gaze then shifted to the others in the compartment. She noticed Kurumi and the other students, some of which surprised her to see. Though, nothing surprised her as much as the sight of the adults in the compartment.

Taking a deep breath to calm herself, she smiled at them all. “Hi, I was just stopping by to see who the new prefects were, and to congratulate everybody on their positions.” Holding the bag with chocolate frogs, licorice wands, and Bertie Bott Beans out in front of her she asked. “I brought candy for everyone if you want some.”

"You have?" Cassandra was clearly delighted by the fact that Genevieve wasn't being entirely fail at making new friends. Or new acquaintances, at the least.

And he didn't appear bruised or hobbled in any way, so the meeting had gone well. "I'm happy to hear it, Mr. Gert. Gryffindor prefect, is it? Are you a seventh year this term?"

Quote:

Originally Posted by Anna Banana

Wait. Whaa?!

They had?! This got Sierra's attention...and fast, too.

"I..." OH, DEAR MERLIN. "So I was," she said, but her words came out a bit too fast. She eyed the woman with her horror-filled eyes, begging her not to say anything terrible about her in front of her peers.

...and the new Headmistress.

"It was a lovely event," she said. "Oh, and I met your..." WAIT. No. NOOOO.

...WHY?!

She didn't finish that sentence. All she knew was that she had a seventh year to make nice with...and fast, too.

Yes, well. This one was not a fan of Vivi, which wasn't precisely a surprise considering the girl's bad attitude and rude demeanor. That, coupled with the fawning and awkward fangirling coming straight out of Amoroso's mouth left Cassandra with the impression that this girl was likely a social pariah. Poor child.

The Minister's daughter, a social recluse.

"Yes, that's right. You and Viv have already met. How... lovely."

Quote:

Originally Posted by Magical Soul

Louisa instinctively tilted her head to the opposite direction of the woman's head, then she un-tilted it, her smile slowly fading and replaced by a serious but somewhat friendly expression. And was that last question a trick?! Special favor? The Ravenclaw didn't know whether Rae-Braxton said that simply or if she was testing the Head Girl.

...or maybe she was seriously paranoid after that horrible day.

"Of course. I have friends from Beauxbatons and I think I can help her... blend in quickly," she decided on a casual innocent conversation with no tricks/hidden meanings whatsoever. Mhhmmm. Not that she quit looking at the woman trying to decipher her words but still. Oooh, look at that! Gideon and Sierra seemed to have met the girl already. Oh good... or not so good in the Slytherin's case, considering the way she just froze and looked.... paler? Oops.

The compartment's door slid open then and a man with chocolate frogs! Louisa quickly tightened her grip on her cat as the feline gave some pleading meows and made a sign of jumping on the man. And as soon as he acknowledged Sierra, Louisa couldn't help but give the younger girl a smug smile. Hopefully this show was going to be amusing, Sierra Greingoth. Hehe.

Then the door slid open again and the Gryffindor girl walked in.. rather sad too. Louisa gave her a nod as a greeting as well before squeezing herself and her cat basket on the seat.

What was with this term already? Sierra was flustered with all those adults around, Kurumi was not so happy and Louisa had her depressed outfit on. Yeah.. definitely not a good time for a new Headmistress, President of Board Governors and Chocolate frog man meeting.

"I think blending in might be too much to hope for, but I appreciate your offers of help." Cassandra patted the girl on the arm. The whole pajama get-up hadn't been lost on her, and she suspected the girl had either lost her entire wardrobe in a house fire, or else she was going through some personal issue. Either way... sad.

Were presidents allowed to hug students?

She repressed the hugging (for now), especially as more prefects and captains filed in and made the once-large compartment seem more and more like a tin of sardines. Cramped. Uncomfortable. Starting to smell a bit like dirty socks.

Perhaps it would be better to start this meeting and let those who wanted to leave escape to the parts of the train with fresh air and fewer glum faces. "In or out, gentlemen." She fixed the Hufflepuff (Elijah), the Ravenclaw (Vickypoo), and the Slytherin (Richard) with a stern look and wagged her fingers at them. Take a seat and shut the door... or leave.

"To those who haven't been properly introduced, my name is Cassandra Rae-Branxton, and I'm the current president of the Hogwarts Board of Governors. This gentleman is Mr. Amoroso, our secretary. And you'll be pleased to have first chance to meet your new Headmistress, Anastasia Truebridge." And now... let them take that as an invitation to find a seat and let the lovely new Head get to know them all better.

Sierra glanced up to the compartment's door with a slight smirk on her face. So now the Ravenclaws were singlehandedly falling to shame? Perfect. Slytherin thanks all of you, they really do. She had no idea what they were doing, but when they fell from grace, she wanted to be here to see it.



Sierra turned her attention to her captain, who was smiling pretty big for...some reason. Must be because the talk turned to Quidditch. Who wouldn't smile at that? "Practice my face off?" she asked. Then she jokingly flipped her backward. "Would you really want this face to be practiced off my head?" Then she smirked and stopped flipping her hair. "Just kidding." She would never be that hair flipping kind of girl.



...and then the compartment door opened again, revealing...well, some new boy. Or, Sierra supposed he was new, because she'd never seen him before. He was actually sort of...well, hot. Sure, she was somewhat taken already, but just as her mother always taught her--being on a 'diet' didn't mean you couldn't look at the menu.



"Of course," Sierra said, fighting the urge to smirk. "After all, I'd have a hard time parting with my Scarlett. When was the last time you saw it?" Had one of the other Beaters already beat her to it? She eyed a few other people in the compartment. Speaking of other Beaters, ...were was Kennedy?



Sierra just blinked. Then blinked again. Was it just her, or had this woman already decided she didn't like her? Had she even ever met the woman? Hesitant to say anything now that she'd gotten an eery feeling about being accepted by the new President of the Board of Governors, Sierra just nodded slowly a few times. "Right," she said.

Elijah was pleased to see that none of the other Prefects or Captains had grassed them up. He was so pleased in fact that he could not remove the silly grin off his face. He made sure to remember this fact and he would have to send a small gift of thanks to each of them with special thanks to his father's wallet.

One person, however, who was determined to spoil his plans of snoopage was Vickers. STILL. He was now going on about getting something from the trolley. Didn't he realise that they had already committed identity fraud plus trespassing into a compartment they weren't allowed in? They were already criminals, so they might as well do it well and deal with the consequences later. "I'm quite alright, and if the other's want something I'm sure they are more than capable to fetch it for themselves," LEWIS said, resting a hand on the Ravenclaw's shoulder and forcing him to sit down on an available seat, whilst he took one beside his lovely girlfriend, Kurumi. "Heyyyyy my little pygmy puff," because Lewis would totally say something LAME like that to his girlfriend.

"Pleasure to meet you President Rae-Branxton, and also to you Mr. Amoroso," LEWIS said sweetly. "However, it is a fantastic honour to get to meet our new Headmistress before we even arrive at school. Your picture in the Prophet did not do you justice Headmistress Truebridge," he complimented. Might as well get the sucking up done early, even if he wasn't currently Elijah Wilde.

"Whoa... are those cookies?" He said hoping he'd be offered some. "I'm Ian Amoroso... Senior Undersecretary and on the Board of Governors." He smirked. Come on, kid. Suck up to me. Give me a cookie.

He turned to the Headmistress and the President. "Sorry, I'm her Godfather..." He said laughing and rubbing the back of his head. "No Ladybug, Jarek is finishing up at Durmstrang. We got him back in school there. The headmaster forgave him, with a little help from your father. But he wanted to finish with his friends... and it being his last year..." He pinched her cheek, "You understand."


"Hello boy! Nice to meet you, and yes, the Headmistress is quite the looker, and her husband, I'm sure, is a very lucky man." He laughed and took the boy's hand to shake it.

Wincing out of reflex when he heard one of them speak up, he was relieved when Milton called out a request and DIDN’T address him by his REAL name "Right pumpkin pastie..." he pointed to Milton "...none for you ok..." he pointed at Gideon, again another thankful nod of keeping silent about something "...and pumpkin pastie and licorice wands..." pointed at Selina... who just used his real name

Did anybody notice? Did those SCARILY IMPORTANT people pick up on that? No? Well its not like he can bolt outta there now because 1.) Somebody with a guitar just joined them, blocking that clear path of escape 2.) Em came trotting up to them with candies that he was supposed to use as an escape excuse go get for all of them and further blocking the corridor and 3.) Elijah just firmly grabbing him by the shoulder and dragging him into the fray compartment.

NoBroEscapeRouteTheOtherWayyyyy

As LEWIS took to his seat next to Kurumi (but of course and with a sickening pet name to boot), Vickers found himself dropping slowly into the barely available seat that was taken up mostly by the pet carrier. As he lifted it up a bit to make some more room for himself he turned to eye its owner "Hi Louisa." Thats a totally Spike thing to say right? Yes he knows he's in trouble. Just cover for him now yeah? She knows she can take it out on him later.... if there is a later of course....

Man the awkward moment when the REAL Lewis and Spike shows up at that door....

He turned his head at the one of the SCARILY IMPORTANT people started to speak. This was some kind of student leaders meeting wasnt it? Was this like.... SPYING? And Elijah Lewis being all Mr Congeniality. Thats fine. Implicate yourself further why dont you. This Ravenclaw will sit riiiiight here and... start forming their defense for a court date he was sure to be coming.

After giving Nessie a quick wink, Kurumi's attention was drawn back to who she now confirmed with the logical side of her brain to be Elijah NOT polyjuiced Lewis and Vickers...who was playing along with Elijah and his antics. Summer certainly had changed Vickers...

Pygmy puff noises somewhat started Kurumi and she ended up glancing over her shoulder again, about to ask Nessie if she should help the captain give him a bath again this term when Milton spoke to her. "Oh, um, I actually have some more in my bag..." she said trailing off. Maybe she really SHOULD have made cookies for each person. Only she didn't know who would be what role and the Gryffindor preferred to make things individualized - as in making their favorite cookies - and she couldn't do that without knowing who was what role. "But you should tell me your favorite cookie for next time."

But then her attention was caught by Dylan giving her a look. What?! Did she have something on her face? DID HE NOT LIKE THE COOKIES?!

Then the compartment door opened AGAIN and...Richard? The boy who had asked her where she had been all his life made his presence known and Kurumi felt as though the walls of the compartment were about to collapse on her. "H-Hey, Richard," Kurumi said, simply unable to NOT greet someone.

THERE WAS TOO MUCH AWKWARD IN HERE RIGHT NOW!

At least Selina had actually introduced herself now? That took SOME of the awkward away at least....

And then the compartment door was open again and... "Emmaleigh! I haven't seen you in so long!" Kurumi chirped, GLAD for a distraction from all the awkward turtle that was going on in this compartment. Again, she was SO glad that Walnut was still in his carrier. Merlin help her if he hadn't been.

Kurumi was about to move awaaaaaaaaay from all the awkward when one of the guests spoke and Kurumi simply FROZE. The new....HEADMISTRESS was in here? Thank her lucky stars she had kept her poise and greeted properly with a formal bow earlier. Bowing her head once more to the guests, Kurumi finally moved towards a seat when the man stopped her.

HE WANTED COOKIES TOO?!

"Yes, sir," Kurumi said with a bow again as she rummaged through her bag for another tin. Seeing as this was her last term, she had tripled her cookie recipe in preparation for the feast and as a distraction from her thoughts...but it looked like she would be needed these MUCH sooner than she had anticipated. Removing gold box, she removed the top and offered its contents to him. "Baking has always been a passion of mine."

NOW that cookies had all been handed out, YES?!, Kurumi, turned towards the new Headmistress and offered her one more especially deep bow. Wait...Truebridge? "Headmistress Truebridge, it's an honor," she said with as steady a voice as she could muster. It WAS a little nerve wracking to suddenly be thrown into a compartment of awkward crazy pants and find out that the new Headmistress was in here too. "If it is not too forward of me to ask...does your last name have any relation to a former Hogwarts professor?" Professor Truebridge had taught Kurumi Ancient Runes one term and had quickly become one of her favorite professors. She was sad when he did not return.

Kurumi finally sat down with Selina on one side and a space saved for Lewis on the other....or not. Kurumi's body tensed just a little bit and her cheeks flushed....only to soon have all the color drain from her face when he called her his little pygmy puff.

HOW DID ELIJAH KNOW THAT PET NAME?!

That conversation had been....welll....Kurumi blushed a bit more and averted her eyes towards the ground for her moment as her hands tugged on the fabric of her jean shorts. If Elijah wasn't careful...she was gonna slap him....or hex him. She was more prone to hexing Hufflepuffs it seemed. "Is this your way of keeping an eye on me?" she hissed under her breath. Since, you know, THAT had been his reasoning for what the Aparecium had written about him.

And yes, Vickers, you were getting eyebrow raises too....

Annabelle walked in the prefect's compartment. She was very new to this. At least she found the compartment after searching the front of the train. Belle walked in and was very shy and sat down on the seat and kept to herself for a bit. She didn't really like change that much.

Ooooooh, so she was one of those girls. Louisa couldn't help but think of a certain red-head Bunbury princess. However, that one did blend in quickly enough by turning herself into a princess of the castle. Internal SNORT. "I can give it a shot," because really, Louisa was a challenge lover kinda Ravenclaw.

Then the lady... patted... her arm. The Ravenclaw stared down at her patted arm and quickly offered a certain smile to the President. At least she didn't pat her head! Like a certain Slytherin used to do. Sniffles.



Then someone shouted.

At first, Louisa thought it was directed to her by a random students passing by or something. But when she spotted Nessie, who already knew of Louisa's new hairdo, the Ravenclaw made a faint groan noise and threw her head backward just a bit.

That was crazy. Even for Nessie. And she couldn't have chosen a worse time to be all excited about forming a Hogwarts red-headed leaders association. The Ravenclaw however gave the younger Huffie a friendly look as she took a seat with them and was introduced.



... okay. Right. First of the Ravenclaws to enter after herself and it had to be the Rude boy. Louisa rolled her eyes at him as he positioned himself by the window and just fell silent. "Congratulations on the Captain badge, Shacklebolt," she would've poked him too if her cat basket wasn't so big and taking up the space between them.



This fiery lioness, that one was pretty amusing. Her energy just spilled all over the place as soon as she set her foot into the compartment. Once greetings were being distributed, the Ravenclaw nodded smiling back at the quidditch captain, "Hey Selina." As for those flyers, Louisa stared down at one and her eyebrows lifted slowly. He? She called her bat a he? Instinctively, she glanced up at Gideon. "Erm... okay. I'll keep an eye out for this."



Louisa followed the new boy entering the compartment with her eyes, his face was familiar but since they didn't wear their uniforms, she didn't really know which one -- Ohhh! The Slytherin quidditch captain. He seemed as if he was sucking a really sour lemon, by the way. Was he alright?

The Ravenclaw just watched him glare at pretty much everyone in the compartment before taking a seat and... yeah. Mental note not to get on his bad side, simply because Louisa did not want her head to be smashed by Quidditch gear.



What. In. The. Name. Of. Merlin. The. Magnificent.

Louisa's lips pursed as the curled-hair boy claimed to be Lewis Rasting, and she opened her mouth to speak when Vickers - VICKERS! poked his head in the compartment and somehow became involved with this.

Being Spike Hutchinson.

No. Just... no.

The Ravenclaw opened her mouth again, glaring at the curled-hair boy, "Actually..." she started again but he had his focus on the adults and continued to babble. Her lips pursed together, totally ignoring VICKERS, and watched everyone else staring in shock at those two boys. She didn't know the Lewis fraud but she was soooo not cool with Vickers taking Spike's identity! It was very likely that Spike wouldn't show up in train, she never saw him here so maybe he had another kind of transportation, but he sure as heck was going to be there during the feast! Which's only hours away!

This was not happening to her in her first day - no, first hours as a Head Girl.

Where was Kennedy, by the way? He should be the one to deal with them crazy boys, she got the girls end covered.

Then they actually took seats! With the others! She did notice how Vickers seemed to be more flustered and wanting to leave to the food trolley when the other silly boy kept pulling him inside. That was sliiiiightly appreciated, but Louisa was frowning and pursing her lips all the time, glaring at the Huffie fraud.

Hi Louisa...

The girl simply tightened her hold on her cat and eyed the cat basket in the boy's lap. Nope, she wasn't going to participate in this, not even by a word. She's this close to graduate Hogwarts and she didn't want the wizarding Wizengamot to be her first destination after school. So yep, she just ignored this again and gave a sharp nod... coz she couldn't entirely ignore Vickers.

However, it was pretty easy for the new Headmistress to know that those were lying, right? Louisa didn't have to tell on anyone. RIGHT? She looked at the red-headed woman expectantly then... now would be the time where she should clap and say it was a pretty fun play and shoo those two OUT.



For Merlin's sake... Louisa raised her eyebrows at Mr. You-are-not-worth-my-time-unless-you-accpet-my-flirting's guitar. She didn't give him any more acknowledgement because the nice Mrs. Rae-Braxton gave an order to either walk in or walk out. PHEWWW. The Ravenclaw was about to wave at him goodbye when another person showed up..



... and maybe this was the only sane person to step in the compartment so far. The Ravenclaw nodded at her, smiling slightly, "Thank you." For her kind gesture... and the candy. Only Louisa did not want any, partly because she never really ate well for the past week, and partly because this whole stealing identities thing was making her stomach flip. So nope, thank you girl.

Oh. This must be the new Prefect, right? The one after Evelyn. Louisa watched her walk in shyly and take a seat, silently. The Ravenclaw cleared her throat getting the girl's attention and offered her a small smile, "Hi. Congratulations on the Prefect badge." Louisa needed to get to know the girl more, but for now she better gave her heads-up, "Maybe you'd like to introduce yourself to our Headmistress, and the guests?" Maybe the girl just wanted a nudge? Yes? Louisa was more than happy to get distraction from the FAKE Spikey sitting next to her right then.

Boring? For Selina? That was a little bit of a surprise. Selina seemed like the kind of person that always kept things intresting and alive, and well she just had a spunky yet awesome personality. "It had to have been more interesting than mine." she said as she looked back at her fellow red head, only to see that she was greeting Dylan now.

Argh!

With another eye roll he's way, Nessie watched Dylan. Mehh..Jerk..yes she would be repetitive about that. She hated him sooo much. She just wanted to punch he's face, but considering all the people around them it wasn't a good idea for now...or maybe ever. If only.

With Selina's attention now on Dylan, Nessie eyed the boy beside her...he was a Gryffindor. ..wait..he was the Gryffindor prefect right? What was he's name...Gideon. Yep that was it. She gave him a small smile and then her attention was switched to yet another thing.

OMG! O_O This was becoming WORSE AND WORSE!

There was a small movement coming from her shoulder and it was then that Puffles decided it was okay to just randomly jump onto other people. Ness just stared at him for a few moments, and then looked at Kurumi who. Once again Elijah seemed to have taken her attention, before she could properly react.

What was he calling Kurumi? O_O Weeeiiiirddd.

"Im so confused." Just as she said it..it hit her.

Elijah was pretending to be Lewis for one reason..and from the talk they had, had in class last year Ness had the feeling Elijah was doing this to be all touchy with Kurumi. It was little surprising though, becuase if anything it was Vickers that Ness had thought was crushing on Kurumi, but maybe there was more than one person playing this game.

Mehh..boys such strange and weird things.

There were other things to worry about..like these new adults.

o_O

Had Ness heard correctly. Listening to one of the adults talking, Nessie almost began screaming at what she heard. These people..they were from the ministry and here all these Prefects and Captains were going utterly bonkers, most of them anyways. As for the red headed lady she was ...she was the new Headmistress. The moment from before had just made Ness feel even more embarrassed. Lovely way to meet your Headmistress wasn't it? It was probably best to stay quiet for now.

Another two people had entered the compartment. First a boy that looked to be around the same age. He wasn't bad looking..but the way he entered it was just a little rude. The second person to enter was familiar looking Hufflepuff. One Ness had seen a few times before and she was ANOTHER RED HEAD! EEP! This time the thoughts remained inside her head though. Nessie eyed the candy the girl had brought and beamed when she saw chocolate frogs. She wanted them!! "Do you have chocolcate frogs?" she asked eyeing Dylan and hoping he wasn't noticing this, because he knew what chocolate did to her at times.

Louisa! Ness had only seen her now and felt rude not saying hello. With a small smile on her face began making her way towards her friend, but then another person walked in. This girl looked like she was the new Hufflepuff prefect and it was a good idea to stick with her. People did always say that birds of a feather flocked together didn't they? They did! "Hello." said Ness which was directed to both Louisa and the new prefect. "You're the Hufflepuff prefect right?" This of course was only towards the badger.

Belle looked around and was looking at her badge. "Yeah i am the new hufflepuff prefect. I am Annabelle, nice to meet you." she said with a kind nervous smile.

Annabelle looked across from her and was shocked she was talking to her. "Oh umm okay.." she said blushing a little bit. Belle stood up in front of the compartment and introduced herself. "Hi guys and Headmistress, I am Annabelle Lecium but you can call me Belle for short. I am the new Hufflepuff Prefect i guess you can say." she said while fidgeting her thumbs and a small smile. She did not like public speaking but she knew these people looked really nice.

“Hey,” she said giving Kurumi a smile “I know, its been a while. We’ll have to catch up later.” Not here, in this crowded compartment, that she wasn’t supposed to be in, with all these people she didn’t know. The puff’s eyes lit up when the lion offered the man a cookie. She couldn’t wait to have one of those at the feast.

As someone else spoke to her, she turned, seeing it was the girl from Fletcher’s shop. After seeing the girl there, it had taken Em a while to remember the girl’s name. They had started Hogwarts the same year, and she couldn’t ever remember actually meeting the girl. “Your welcome Louisa. Hopefully you guys won’t have a lot of trouble with the students causing trouble this year.”

She watched from the doorway as the two guys from the bowling alley made their way further into the compartment. Why was everybody on edge? Was everyone that uncomfortable with the adults around? The uncomfortable soroundins was forgotten when the red headed girl spoke. Em thought she was a quiddich player, or probably Hufflepuff’s captain since she was in the compartment. “Yep, there’s loads of them, take as many as you want.”

As the new girl squeezed in, Em made way for her. So she was her new prefect? “Congrats on your badge.” She said smiling at the girl she didn’t know.

Annabelle smiled at another fellow hufflpuff coming to congratulate her. "Thank you very much." Belle smiled. Belle didn't want to sound rude but asked, "And who are you? I know you are a fellow Hufflepuff and i want to meet many new faces as i can."

YES, another food volunteer! "Thank you!" Milton said, standing up and holding his hands. There were a lot of people in between them so she could, like, throw the bag to him. And then he would decide if he wanted to share. Bwahaha.



Milton's attention turned to one of the unfamiliar ladies at the front of the compartment. Oh, she was the president of the Hogwarts Board of Governers... Whatever that was. Yeah, he probably should have known exactly was, but he didn't. He didn't read the paper. Pff. So, that was that.



Milton just... stared some more. His eyebrow raised when he called Kurumi "pygmy puff". Milton let out a snort. What a weirdo. He couldn't wait until the REAL Lewis came in and the fake one got busted.



So, who was that bloke talking to Sierra? And - ohhhhohohohoh. LADYBUG? Milton snorted AGAIN. Sierra just got called Ladybug. And then he pinched her cheeks! Eheheheh. Milton laughed to himself. Sierra would not see the end of this Ladybug bizznizzzzz.



She had more in her bag? This was Milton's lucky day! "Brilliant," he said and waited for his cookies, holding out his hand. Favorite cookie for next time? Hmmmm. "Anything with lots of chocolate. No nuts. And none of that dried fruit crap. Just chocolate." He didn't even know why people put raisins in cookies. And they looked like chocolate if you just glanced at it, but when you took a bite and realized they were RAISINS, it was just... Horrifying. Shudder.



Then a very shy-looking girl walked in. Ah. She must have been the new Puffer Prefect. That would explain her awkward aura. Milton nodded at her, but that was all. He didn't normally associate with Puffers, so she should feel lucky. Uh huh.



And YES, Milton had noticed the furball next to him, but he had chosen to ignore it. But it was hard when Louisa actually talked to him because it was RIGHT there. "Thank you. And congrats to you, too." Milton said with a slight hint of unpleasantness and shot a nasty glare at the cat between them. Ugh. Felines. Gross.

Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa.

There were WAY too many Prefects, pretend prefects, and general... little children-ness in this compartment at the moment. Anastasia found herself standing, and was about to say SOMETHING to reinforce Rae's clear-out order, when she was suddenly addressed by a Gryffindor. THE Gryffindor Girl Prefect, that was.

"Yes," she blinked, taking a tiny step toward the girl, and then one step back. Good Merlin, her seatmate--- that redheaded poster-peddler ---was a something, wasn't she? Anyway. "Yes, my husband was also once a professor at Hogwarts. We both were, for a time."

But that was then, and this is now.

"As I was saying," she cleared her throat and spoke up, "could we clear out the Prefect's compartment, please? Only those with badges may enter. And those in here should be taking turns patrolling the train anyway." The Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin boys near the door all received LOOKS, specifically, LOOKS at their empty chests. No badge, no admittance. That simple, Spewischard.