Wow. Adi had admitted that he would actually turn her in. Had the badge already gone to his head? No, Adi was a fair man. That was just his style. "Some friend you are," she teased. "You suppose I'm in the clear?" She snorted. "Go easy on me, prefect." For the most part AJ was a super nice, but when she got mad things would get heated and fast. "I'll have to take lessons from you."

AJ leaned in to his hug, and laid her head on his shoulder. AJ made sure to look Ian right in the eyes when she said "I'm not worried about him." Oh, she got two frogs. Score. One to eat and one to play with. AJ took the wrapper off and bit the head of the frog clean off. "Thanks," she said in between bites. "Hey there Gus... up for croaking the alphabet today?"

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He was worried about her, and all too familiar tingle in her belly was back. What did that even mean? "I promise I'll be more careful." Maybe. Adi got an elbow in the ribs. "I can't just contain my coolness."

Benny was relieved when the hex hit shield and AJ was unharmed, either by it or all the jumping and running and jumping she was doing. Ian didn't matter. He didn't deserve attention, well other than what was needed to make sure his friends were safe from his antics. Reallly? He liked AJ so treated her badly. The lion just shook his head and worked on ignoring the other boy. Which wasn't hard considering Angel's presence in the carriage had caught his attention.

Oh boy...

"You're welcome," he said to AJ as she thanked him, turning his attention from one sister to the other. Adi too when his best friend added to the feelings of gratitude. "I tried," he said as he returned his wand to his robe pocket and settled back down. " I wasn't about to let a coward win."

Attention turned back to Angel and Benny grew nervous. The boy not catching the look the other two exchanged. "Hey..." he said by way of greeting to her, offering a tentative smile.

Ian listened to what was said. He'd said enough, more than enough really. The word coward probably stung more than any other word that was said. It indicated that there was not enough courage in the young man to face his enemy head on. Nothing could be father from the truth. Of course AJ was not Ian's enemy. None of these people in the carriage was his enemy. They were his classmates. Ian turned away from the others and pulled his hood over his head. He needed to be alone. He needed to collect his thoughts. Unfortunately, the only thought that now haunted him was the word coward. This time, he didn't even try to wipe the tears away. He was grateful when the carriage slowed and stopped. Before anyone could go, he thrust himself from the carriage toward the castle door, the great hall and his house table.

Zander smiled, but really he was doing his absolute best to try to figure out where this guy was from. He had to know him from somewhere. Even though the name didn't really ring a bell... But maybe that's because he wasn't thinking hard enough. Think Zander. Think. "Thanks," eh, he was never really a big fan of his name actually. It was weird. Why couldn't he get a normal name like his brothers? It was like his parents just gave up with him. You'd think that after two goes they'd know what they were doing. But evidently this wasn't the case...

A fourth year?! Okay. Uh. Was this guy a transfer? No. Couldn't be. He had totally seen that face around before.... But where? Maybe he was in potions too, that would explain things. "I don't think I'll ever get the hang of it to be honest," but he wasn't upset about it, not after Beautiful Bentley told him that he wasn't completely hopeless at the magic stuff. Not to mention the fact that the whole top point earner thing really boosted his ego, well a bit... Kinda. "How'd you get it?" Battle scar from the Cold Ones?! O____O Because Zander may have won that superlative, but he didn't get any Cold One scars, so was it too late to ask the Hogwarts population for a revote?

At the 'not a firstie' thing Zander almost found himself offended! Of course he wasn't a firstie!! See his voice was deep, well deeper anyways, and he had grown four whole inches over the summer!! AND it wasn't like he was a complete no show at school like he was his first two terms. After all he had managed to get on a few of the Professor's 'good lists' and a top point earner and everything. First year?! HIM? "I'm a fourth year too!" Not a firstie. He didn't look like a firstie right? AND THEN IT HIT HIM. Like a brick on the back of the head. DUH, of course he knew this kid from somewhere!! Or knew of him anyway. "Wait a minute! Are you in Gryffindor?... Because I-uh- I could've sworn that I've seen you in our dorms before," They had to be dormmates. That was it. And if not then this would be very, very embarrassing. See it kind of made sense? He typically kept to himself the first two years so he didn't meet any of his dormmates. Then third year the only one he ever really talked to was Bart... So yeah. Could this guy be the other one that never socialized either?

With her arms crossed against her chest and an amused smirk planted on her face, Layla watched as her cousin finally noticed that absolutely no one was paying attention to him. It seemed like there was some sort of over-dramatic conflict going on in one carriage and an awful lot of excited younger years with their eyes fixated on the castle. Layla was seemingly disinterested, despite the fact she was here she quite simply did not want to be.

An un-ladylike snort escaped as he almost pouted at being ignored. The fifteen year-old was mature and world-wisely. Quite frankly boys were the complete opposite. "I ain't always right."she shrugged. "I'm observant. And I ain't stupid." She used her eyes.

She looked disinterested as he showed her his old camera and explained where he got it from. "Yeah. Sammy, it's just a camera to me." Give her the one on her smartphone any day. He continued to explain how it worked and she yawned both because she quite frankly didn't care and because that journey in carriages full of bloomin' excited girls had taken it out of her. "Cool." She had her eyes focused on the lake next to the castle. In the darkness it looked almost black and inviting. And Scotland was COLD.

"Do I look like the sort of girl who wants to live in a castle?" she turned to look at him. "I live in a semi in the middle of London. I'm a CITY girl, not a country lass!" This castle in the middle of nowhere was her worst nightmare.

So where Layla had spent her summer reading up on everything she needed to know by her fifth year at Hogwarts, Sammy had obviously been procrastinating like the boy he was. "Yeah. They're like skeleton horse things. Kinda creepy" She wasn't sure she wanted to see one. "If you dare touch me I will personally see you suffer a horrific ordeal at the hands of those Thestrals" she warned.

And then they came to a stop. They were finally at the school. Layla hopped off and headed towards the castle.