*reaLLY ADDS IT THIS TIME WOW* *dork*
 

Far from being inconvenienced by the ferret's behaviour, Toby looked positively thrilled. He had been chosen by the creature, which was a pretty big compliment in his eyes, even if it did happen to everyone. He could only watch as it was taken away... and then returned, at which point Toby gave a shrug and a smile and pet the ferret's fur.

"It's fine, I think he's cute." And soft. Soooooo soft. Toby found himself downright mesmerised for a little while, could actually feel the ferrets tiny heart beating through his legs. It was strange, how just being in contact with this small, warm animal could have the most calming effect. Wow.

But, wait... mid-conversation. Yes. Sophie.

"Yeah-huh," Toby looked back up at the seventh year even as he continued petting the ferret, feeling mighty relaxed. More relaxed than he'd ever felt on the Hogwarts Express before, that was a dead cert. "She's my best friend. And my girlfriend too." NBD. "It's nice t'meet you too, Jun."

Toby rubbed at his face with his free hand and glanced out of the window to the steadily changing countryside. It was weird, being so... still all the time. He looked back to Jun and was about to mention something else, possibly about being a skateboarder too (he'd not quite decided), but then a little something finally caught his eye.

"Hey, cool badge," the Hufflepuff grinned, nodding towards it. He'd now seen one of those badges in three out of the four house colours. It looked just as cool every time. "Congratulations."

Was it right to congratulate someone you'd never actually met before? Whatever, Toby didn't think it mattered. Head Boy was a pretty big achievement.

Marigold swung her legs slightly because she was short enough to do that stuff. Sigh.

"Yeah, well, it's just a shiny thing anyway," she said, trying to switch subjects pretty quickly because she didn't want Z to be sad. Not that she was, but if Marigold was in Z's place... Well, she would be proud of Z. So, analogy failed.

"Thanks. And, uh, thanks for bringing me, y'know, here." She gestured around the train. Otherwise she would've had to walk, and that would not be pleasant with her short legs.

Keeping her hand held out, Lux was happy when Emmy poured some of the small candies into her palm. They were the colours of the rainbow, and that was pretty. One point in favour for the nerds.

Popping them into her mouth, Lux could see why her bestie seemed to like them so much; they were yummy. Another point for the nerds. "So how have you been? Did you have a lot of fun at home? Did you see Kace? You and Cinna made up, right?"

DID SHE LIKE THEM?!?

The blonde blinked at her best friend as she ate the Nerds. Well? Did she have to ask? There was no way that Luxness would hate these candies because Nerds were awesome and they didn't try to prove a point that they were awesome. That made sense? Yeah? Emmylou shrugged. "What do you think of them?" Emmy beamed. She just wanted to know.

WHOA!?! WHOA?!?

All those questions. They came out of nowhere and just happened to be asking them really fast. She could do this. It would be like practice for Divinations class because she couldn't wait for it to start. "I'm amazing!I read a lot and I was outside and I stocked up on loads of candy for this year and I'm gonna buy a lot more when we go on Christmas break. I hung out with Kace and it was fun. Cinna and I are best friends again." THAT WAS A MOUTHFUL! PHEW! Emmylou had to catch her breath for all of that. "How are you? How was your summer? Did you get to hangout with Bay or Cinna?" PAYBACK! It was so twenty questions right now.

Vinnie would love to sit with her.

Obviously. Awesome people sat together. Duuuuh.

"They serve food on this train? Like curly fries and stuff?" Because Bianca was kind of craving curly fries. They were french fries... but curly. What was there not to love about that? Bianca also liked the whole music and awesome thing. "We can sing super loud and offkey and show everyone we can have more fun without them." Because they'd hear their voices and be all 'omg i wish i was them' but they couldn't be.

Because Bianca & Vinnie were already being... Bianca & Vinnie.

Bianca nodded her head at what the Slytherin said about others and smiled. "We'd have fun and toss confetti around." Because confetti was cool.

Scoffing, slightly offended thought not really, Bianca rolled her eyes. "I think I can handle... a little light lifting. Please. Do you see these muscles here?" Bianca flexed to show Vinnie her nonexistent muscles. "I can lift it." And with that she grabbed the thing and attempted to drag it towards the compartment. She may or may not have been struggling and her face may or may not have started turning the color of her jacket.

"Just give me a second, I got this." Or a few weeks to do some body building and stuff first.

Shiny thing with POWER. Zahra wouldn't mind one, truth be known. Though she knew better. She got in trouble ALL THE TIME even when she didn't ACTUALLY do things.

"No, thank YOU. If you hadn't been there with your shiny badge for Cela to fawn over her and Cope would have probably got weird at me. Instead, they were distracted by you, so that's... yeah. Good on you instead." Z sighed. "Cela was head girl and Cope was like.... I don't know, King Ravenclaw. They dont' say it, but they hate that me and Mikey..." and the sad face was back..." sorted into Gryffindor."

Lux was so eager to hear what was up with Emmy, she had forgot to comment on the candies. Oops. "They are yummy." Nod. Not as good as Chocolate Frogs, but still really good. No candies compared to Chocolate Frogs in her opinion.

Reaching into her pocket, she pulled one out and unwrapped it. "Want one?" Popping the chocolate into her mouth, Lux chewed as she listened to Emmy talk about her summer. "That's awesome. I'm trying to stock up on Chocolate Frogs as much as possible. Though i think Jun would be willing to trade with me again if needed." Jun was cool like that. "I'm glad you and Cinna made up." Her besties not getting along had made her sad, but now things were back to normal again.

"I'm great! I had an awesome summer and I got to spend some time with Bay though his parents were super protective of him and didn't let him out of the house a lot. I hung out with Cinna too. We both got navel piercings!" Lux was still excited about that. Hers looked awesome.

Jun grinned. Charmander seemed to have that affect on most people he met. He couldn't really remember one person pushing his ferret away. Maybe because all he did was cuddle people and forced them to pet him. Plus, he lifted peoples moods in seconds. "He is. He loves to be petted a lot too. Charmander'll probably fall asleep soon on your lap," Yeah, he had that habit too. And to steal people's food too. In the dorm, the ferret loved hiding in Jun's clothes and underwear for some reason.

Best friend and girlfriend.

"That's adorable. She didn't mention it when we hung out but it's nice to know," Because Soph was nice and fun. Hopefully she didn't forget about the cookies she promised Jun for getting the Head Boy badge. But the writing in her letter, the older boy could tell she was really excited for him. Looking down at his sweatshirt, he grinned and nodded. Jun had forgotten the badge was pinned to him. "Thanks. It's pretty shocking to have gotten one considering I'm not really the role model type,"

Marigold brushed a strand of her weighed-down-straight-slightly-icky hair behind her ear as she listened. She had thought that Cela was definitely sweet, though to be honest a bit overwhelming just because of the prefect stuff. But it made her feel at ease with the power. She liked her a lot.

And the Head Girl comment caught her attention. She turned to Z. "Really? No one in my family or dad's friends have been prefect or Head Boy/Girl. I think it's cool." Not to mention scary that she was the first prefect in her family. Though it would've been worse to not be a prefect in a family of them. "But... Why? There's nothing wrong with Gryffindor... People I know want to be in that house!" And there was the sad face. This time at Mikey. "I didn't see Mikey at the field trip...is he... Y'know... Not coming back to Hogwarts?" Is that why Z seemed sad?

No one? Really? Zahra's other brother hadn't been a prefect or anything but HIS wife had been Head Girl too.

At Durmstrang... where Mikey was.

Sigh.

Mikey was everywhere, it seemed, everywhere in Z's thoughts, but not actually here.

"I thought... I guess I was kind of hoping... I looked for him today, but no he's not coming. His parents sent him to Durmstrang. I dunno." Z didn't really want to talk about it because now that she was on the train by herself, she was certain she'd cry soon. She moved over to the window and looked out. "It's fine. He'll come back when he's of age or something."

"Charmander? That's his name?" Toby recognised the name as coming from that one game series he'd heard of, with the pocket monsters. That was it, right? "Cool." And COOL for him falling asleep, too. This was one of the most adorable creatures ever. "He's very welcome to. Man, ferrets are awesome. Professor Airey has one too; they're just so..." Cute? Adorable? Perfect? Toby didn't know how to finish that sentence, so his just grinned it away.

Not the role model type? That made Toby think for a second, as he continued to gently stroke Charmander's fur.

"Maybe it's like how... I guess the best role models don't see themselves as one, y'know?" he suggested, still smiling. "If it surprised you, maybe they thought you'd be the guy to have it, 'cause you weren't expecting it." Toby shrugged and stretched a little, being sure not to disturb the little guy who was resting on his lap. "It looks dead cool, anyway. Y'know?"

Y'KNOW? It worked. On Jun. It looked good. He looked good WITH IT. And stuff. Yeah.

This one is for Kyra!
 

Listening as Isla spoke he nodded in agreement with Isla's questions. They were all things that he wanted to know too. "It's a pleasure to meet you too Ruby." Rob replied with a gentlemanly smile. "And yes, you can safely assume that we are both new as well. we just met a few days ago and I can't speak for anyone else, but for me it is a relief to have a friend here and not feel sort of like a loner."

It was quite obvious to Rob that Ruby knew the ins and outs of things and he could appreciate that. "So what have you heard about the houses and how the sorting is done?"

'i crept forward and looked across at the familiar window.--' Jeremiah snapped from his thoughts and visibly jumped at the slamming of the compartment door. "the hell!?" His book falling too his face at his sudden movement made him flail some more. "who?" Who daaaare disturb his reading time!? He slowly plled the book from his face fully expecting to see Beverly standing there grinning at him but there was no one at the door. Instead he glanced over at the seat across from him at a simple greeting.... "Gabe?" Oh Hey!! It was his pal Gabe! He didn't really expect to see the boy on the train not really, he assumed the boy would sit in one of the first compartments he saw but then again sitting with him was obviously the best idea. "Hey, you alright, man?" He sat p and looked over at the younger boy who didn't seem to be looking okay. He better not get sick....




He was busy making sure Gabe was okay when suddenly people were at their feet. He raised an eyebrow as the boy greeted Gabe as if he knew him already. well, that was interesting. Setting his book on his la[ he couldn't help but stare at the guy as he observed him. Curious one he was, this new guy who called himself Hugh. "Jeremiah." he pointed at himself like he usually did with introductions. Hugh though, that was such a cool name! "Is your face okay?" from the fall onto Gabe's feet and all. Faces we're important. Beverly liked his face. heh.

The door was slamming again and Jeremiah jumped once more closing his eyes at the sound. "Do we have to slam the door? Really it wasn't all too hard to close it nicely now was it? This one though Jeremiah couldn't understand a word he was saying with his accent but he also Knew Gabe and Jere found it curious as to why the shy boy was so popular. "come again? Sure Jeremiah had a nice Aussie accent but he was perfectly understandable to the general public. He also wanted to know if Gabe was okay, his poor friend. hopefully, since he seemed to know all the boys, this wasn't too much for him even if Jeremiah felt out of place and totally wanted his own compartment again.

Marigold immediately felt bad for mentioning what was obviously a bad topic. So Z's person and best friend (she was assuming) was at Durmstrang. That was sad. "Yeah, I mean, I'm sure he'll come back. And can't you guys... Y'know... Send letters? Or maybe see each other during the summer?" The letter part would fail if this term was anything like last term. Meep.

She reached into her bag and pulled out a small package. "I was in this store with my friend and I saw this and... Well, I thought it was perfect for you." She handed the small box over, careful not to rip the tissue paper she had wrapped around it. Inside, she knew, was one of those wristbands that concerts sometimes handed out... Except it said Not my fault you're lame.

Candy gotten, Lex considered herself ready to go finding Lottie. It wouldn't have been that hard. It was always somewhere in the back of the train. Most people crowded toward the front and middle cars, giving them loads of space in the back and even more permission to kick people out. You didn't see two girls unwilling to be disrupted and plant yourself between them. That was just asking for it.

"We'd have faster luck if you just sniffed her out, you know." She told the kneazle who'd been adamant he preferred being carried. It was evident he was better with directions and even better at finding things and people she liked but no, Felix would be a spoilt kitty for this ride. It was just as well, it was his last.

For now she would carry him but as they got closer to the back cars, she was throwing him from her arms and he would begin the proper search.

Curly fries?Why would they be selling curly fries here?Laughing a little the brunette shook her head."Noooooo they sell sweet stuff like cauldron cake and pumpkin pie." Man was she craving some pumpkin pie.

Singing offkey wouldn't be a problem for her at all. Drumming was easy...she kinda had the rhythm....but singing. That was just okay. A little bit and it was completely off key. "I am pretty sure everyone will appreciate our off key singing a lot." They'd probably want to jinx them but who cared.

[B]"Ohhhh I know someome who could give us glitter to toss around[\b]",she grinned. Phoenix surely wouldnt mind...and if he was nice they'd let him dance In it.

Amused, the Slytherin eyed her friends muscles and watched her as she tried to lift her luggage. Such a strong girl. [B]"You may have the second",[\b]she chuckled and leaned on the wall next to her.

He liked it when Dot seemed happy, so naturally, Dima was ECSTATIC. Especially because of hugs. Hugs were the best.

Especially going-to-Hogwarts-with-your-best-friend hugs.

"I know you are." And it was the best thing ever, 'cause it meant they didn't have to owl anymore (or they could, if they felt like sending written messages when they could be having ADVENTURES instead), or be lonely, or tell each other about what was going on at their school. Now they were at the same one, and the twelve year old was positive that this would be the best year EVER because of it.

Dot let go of Dima, but only partly, and she grinned at him. She wasn't really a grinner, but in this moment, she was so pleased to be on the train, going to Hogwarts with her bestest best. And he was happy too. She could tell.

"D'you think 'Gelo is sad, though? Let's write him an owl about it and send it as soon as we get to Hogwarts." She had a million questions about the school that she hadn't let herself ask before, not when she wasn't going to go there and then not when she was but wanted to stay calm. And now she could ask, but there were people around. "Can we sit?" Anywhere. Together.

not sure how long the train will stay open so I'm posting now <3
 

Ruby... had never felt like a loner in her life so she just smiled and nodded at that. For one thing she made friend easily, for another if things got really, really bad then she had her brother at the very (VERY) least.

"You don't know?" Really? Well okay. "There are four houses, Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin, Ravenclaw is like... the mad evil genius house" Soooo she proooobably wouldn't be one of THOSE. Ugh, Ruby was no genius. Maybe that was unfortunate. Would Nigel like her more if she ended up in his old house? "They all really like stupid puns for some reason, if they don't have the answers personally, they know who does." So that was useful. "They read a lot, but its usually really weird stuff. They like feeling smarter than you so sometimes they try and trap you into saying something that makes you sound dumb. I've heard some pretty interesting things go on in their common room." Brows. Like seriously. Ravenclaw were like a cult, right? She was almost sure of it.

"My best friends are in Gryffindor and Hufflepuff. Gryffindors are crazy rebels who don't know when to shut up but that's why they're the life of the party. If you want a Gryffindor to do something you have to convince them it was their idea or they'll argue just for the sake of it. Hufflepuffs are sensitive and they share everything so they're good to have around. They're the hardest to pin down because somehow its like every Hufflepuff is completely different, but in their differentness they're all the same, y'know? They travel in packs." Pause. "Sometimes they're a little bit rabid, if you mess with what they think is theirs."

Ruby casually examined her painted nails and then looked at Rob and then Isla, and then back at Rob. "And then there is Slytherin. They're like soooo competitive. They want to be the best at everything, and they're usually really hot and they're excellent kissers. And if they aren't hot then they have some other kind of niche that they've fit themselves into so they can be the best at that. They are totally observant and they're good with words. If you want to know what is going on, ask a Slytherin. They have networks so they can know things." Well that was all she knew anyway. Shrug. "I don't really care what house I end up in, I look good in all the colours."

Oh and as for how it was done? "They put a hat on your head and it talks to you and tells you where you belong." Pause. "It BETTER not mess up my hair."

"Merci beaucoup! Er, I meant thank you very much." Rob blushed for a second as his french just naturally slipped out. It was a bit annoying that he had to use English so much now when French sounded so much nicer to the ears.

They put some old smelly, grubby talking hat on your head? Oh Lovely.... But the house information was useful, after hearing all that he was sure he had an Idea where he would end up. As Ruby mentioned the thing messing up her hair Rob reached for his trusty Madam Primpernelle's Hair freezing potion and offered it's use to Ruby. "Here this might help some." He shot her a cheeky grin. She was definitely a cool chick. He liked that.

Isla ran a hand through her curls as she listened to Ruby talk about the houses. It was most definitely informative! They all sounded so different in such interesting ways. Her Mum had been in Slytherin and her Dad Ravenclaw, so it could really go either way. They'd enjoyed their time at Hogwarts, however, for some reason they hadn't wanted to send her there straight away. They'd wanted to travel and they'd wanted their daughter to see the world instead of sticking to rainy Scotland month in, month out. They'd never really told her much about the school, not having felt the need to because they hadn't expected her ever to be going there. However, they'd quite under-estimated the persuasive power of their daughter.

She didn't really care which house that she was placed into to be honest. She knew that she'd be happy wherever regardless, to be honest, she was completely happy just having been accepted to attend Hogwarts. She'd worried that because she hadn't accepted to attend at age eleven, they wouldn't ever have wanted her. However, that clearly wasn't the case. And it was also nice to hear that someone else had been home-schooled like she had been. Her family life had never been normal, if anything, it had been slightly eccentric.

She laughed at the hair issues; hers had always been rather a mass of blonde curls that she could barely control, and so she wasn't too fussed. She did straighten it out now and then, but it usually took a lot of effort to do and so she didn't tend to bother on a day to day basis.

"So you have a brother, hmm? Is he here too?" She asked curiously, wondering why she hadn't stuck with him. Yes, there were times when Isla could be... nosy? She would just settle on inquisitive because she hated the word nosy. It was just a part of her nature. "I've always wanted a sibling. I don't know why though because everyone's always like 'why? they're so annoying!' but being an only child sucks sometimes. I had no-one to plot with growing up," she laughed.

Hazel walked down the row of compartments looking for a place to sit. There seemed to be a lot more people than normal, or maybe she just had never payed any attention to how many students there were. Maybe out of all of these people she could find one of her friends, or at least someone that she knew.

Why did it always seem to happen that people make prior arrangements on who and where to sit on the train? She made a mental note to do that next year so she wouldn't have to barge in on some random conversation and do the whole, 'There's no more room, so please just let me sit here'. She was about to give up and find somewhere else to sit when she saw an almost empty compartment. She walked into it and recognized the boy. Eating a chocolate frog. "Can I sit here?" she asked him. He was the boy who sneezed chocolate frogs onto her, right? Perhaps that was some other person. "You're Zander, right?" That would be an easy way to find out.

Okay, okay see this was weird. He had eat like what, a million chocolate frogs by now? How come this dumb box was so hard to open?! It was totally defective. Completely defective. And he was starting to get impatient. After spending what seemed like CENTURIES ahem actually only a couple of minutes he threw the box to the side and reached into his bag for another, a less defective one this time. It wasn't like he didn't have any more to spare. Especially after he had made another trip to the food trolley just to buy some more!! He'd definitely have enough frogs to last him another snowpocalypse... incase... With Hogwarts you just never really know, and after the disaster last term, he did NOT another repeat. Right as he stuffed the new frog into his mouth, he heard a voice...

O_____O

Oh, it was that girl from the candy shop.

Oh. Why was he always around chocolate frogs when she seemed to pop up. Oops. Ahem. He did love the chocolates, but uh, it wasn't his only hobby and now this girl probably thought he was absolutely insane. And he still had chocolate stuffed in his mouth. Right. So instead of responding right away, the boy just nodded. Yeah he was Zander alright... Unfortunately. Or fortunately? He didn't really know at this point. There were just way too many awkward moments to handle and weird yearbook superlatives and just messy things that came along with his name. So maybe he could just not be Zander Adair for a day? "And you're uh" what was her name, Zander?! "Um, Hazel, right?" That one sounded right. Because Hazel like hazelnut chocolate and when they met there was that chocolate thing.. and there's that chocolate thing right now and uh "Do you want a frog?" He didn't even wait for a response. Instead he just picked up the nearest package and held it out towards her.

As he did so he noticed that oops... It was the defective box. But instead of putting it back and grabbing another one for her, he watched curiously. See if she could open that thing?