Sigh.

The train was here. The worst part of the school year. Being trapped like a sardine with a bunch of other sardines in a tin can traveling at what seemed to be like thirty miles an hour with no fresh air but what little you could get from the very small windows for nine hours. Yay. And the worst part was that she couldn't even escape from the insanity by sitting in the prefect compartment because she wasn't a prefect! This was going to be a long ride.

It least she didn't have to carry her luggage around with her. Because three trunks could be a hassle, as she had told her Uncle Fransisco while he was in her closet suggesting that she pack what seemed like everything in there. Why she had agreed to let him help her pack she didn't know. He had a habit of doing things like that.

Anyway, back to the present, in which she, Heather, was looking for an empty compartment. Unsuccessfully. Was it just her or was the train fuller than it had been last term?

So, they were here at last. On the train which was as if they got to the castle. No actually that wasn't like it at all but eh, only a little and this new chapter in his life will start or whatever. And where was his brother? Dante could have sworn they dropped their luggage together in the compartment and were debating which part of the train to settle in. Oh, well. Looked like he was on his own. Jamie was probably bouncing somewhere and making new friends already.

So the sixteen years old was just going to observe and take a prolonged look before choosing a car. So far, he'd only ever met one person. Wow, talk about social. Which he wasn't against but also never quite figured out how to mix easily. Most people just looked .... clueless and annoying which irritated the sixth-year. But perhaps he'll get used to the people here. Hopefully, else it'd be one boring and eventful year.

After poking his head inside a couple of compartments, Dante stopped and leaned against on of them. He still didn't know where to sit and was already bored of searching. Meh. He was just going to stand here with his arms crossed eyeing watching people passing by. Seemed like something to do.

Zeke liked girls, he did, but he didn't like them enough to spend the WHOLE train ride with. Besides, he had to change, and he could hardly do that in front of a girl. Grooooooossssssss. After gathering his robes and stuff into his arms, Zeke left his compartment to find another, or at the very least, squish himself into a toilet cubicle.

It was as he was making his way along the corridor, arms full in front of him, that he saw a dude. A 'cool' dude, or so the 'dude' probably thought. Was the dude watching him? Was he? What was he looking at?!...

Instead of the harsh words he imagined coming from his mouth, a simple "Sup?" escaped his lips instead, followed by a head nod. Yeaaahhh.. this Gryffie was cool with his uniform swag and loitering in corridors toooooooo.

Gabriel Banner had been perfectly fine, by Gabriel Banner standards. Some of the nervousness and unease had been walked off...and he'd even further relaxed his mind with some reading of The Hobbit translated in Latin.

.

.

.

That was....until it came time for him to join THE compartment.

It was inescapable; Gabriel knew that now. He'd have to go in that compartment with those people....and.....he was stuck; standing stock still, hand frozen in place on the door handle. He couldn't force the motor skills to do the simple task of opening the door, and then walking inside. Gabe's body, nor his brain, seemed to be cooperating.

His hands and his face were cold and clammy; a shudder ripping through his system. The air in his lungs seemed sparse as his breathes hallowed and quickened.

He was about to have a panic attack.

Somehow recognizing this, Gabe managed to shakily lower himself down to the corridor floor....taking a seat just outside the compartment door. He regulated his breathing, counting steadily and forcing himself to calm down. The mantra of...'You are okay. You just aren't ready'...hopefully doing the trick.

Luckily, he hadn't pinned his Prefect badge on yet. No one needed to know a supposed 'Leader' couldn't handle going into a simple compartment.

Clara has such mixed feelings about returning to Hogwarts. On the one hand, it couldn't be worse than staying at 'home' and spending time with her supposed 'family' ... however, something about this term made her nervous. Things that had happened last term stayed on her mind, and even things that had happened during the holidays. Eden. Eden deserved so much better than her for a best friend. She needed to turn things around and be a better person.

She could do that.

She could be her own hero.

But, before the sixth year could find a compartment to burrow in and hide until Eden found her, she noticed someone. A someone that meant something to her. She hadn't seen him all summer - though they had stayed in contact - and now, here he was, on the floor on the corridor. She was overwhelmed, again, with feelings. Alarm bells rung in her head. "Gabe?" She whispered, watching him carefully ..... she knew from experience that she shouldn't move him or get too close, but that's all she wanted to do.

In the end, she decided to crouch by his side, trying to ignore the people also in the corridor.

"Gabriel? Look at me."

Silas had long since given up on finding an EMPTY compartment. He simply wanted one with enough room for he and Archie to sit together. He kept peeking into each compartment as he went and merely shook his head each time.

His pink Converse made a slight scuffing sound as he walked... he was nearly as dejected as his shoes sounded. Heh. After stepping around a couple of kids acting like freaks and taking up more of the corridor than necessary he came to a stop beside a girl in Gryffindor robes like himself.

Putting on a small smile he said, "I reckon the only hope is you don't get stuck in a compartment with someone who smells now, eh?" He gave an awkward chuckle and lowered his eyes. Seriously. What an ice breaker!

SIGHS.

Back to Hogwarts, then!

Noel Wallace was actually as excited to be getting back as he had first been when he had first started the school. It had sucked though - all his excitement and anticipation had been for nothing. Hogwarts had not lived upto his expectations. It had been nothing but a castle full of things happening to kill hufflepuffs. Alas, he was hopeful yet again - due to certain arrangements with a certain ravenclaw.

Grinning like a fool, the fourth year was trying to find a compartment with his favorite people on it but no such luck. Not in a mood to look anymore, the fourteen year old simply came to a stop next to two gryffindors.

Hearing what the guy was saying, Noel nodded before saying: "Yep, I agree, is that why you are without a compartment?"

And oh, look at the sad girl.

"Why do you look so gloomy?" he asked.

Silas looked up only when he heard another boy speak. Giving him a smile he felt his cheeks burn red. "Yes. I mean, no... Maybe. I was looking for my boy...i my friend." He wasn't sure how Archie would feel about him calling him his boyfriend to strangers... so he corrected himself quickly. Hopefully no one noticed, right? Maybe.

Casting a glance over at the girl he thought she didn't quite look gloomy so much as lost in thought, but he was curious as to what her answer would be. Turning his attention back to the guy he extended his hand. "Hi, I'm Silas. We could all share a compartment if you'd like?" His cousins had said he needed to be more sociable. This was what that meant, yes?

"Theeeere you are!" Archie said as he spotted the familiar pink shoes of his bestie, and launching himself towards him for a piggy back. "I got caught up with the food trolley queue, which is stupidly long already, and then you were gone!" Catch him please?

Oh, and there were other older people too. He gave a crooked grin. "Er, hello? I'm Archie. And I don't have a compartment either." Though he did have a boyfriend. Yay.

'I turned right when I left the compartment...right? Or was it left?'

Oliver stood in the middle of the corridor and looked back and forth between the front of the train and the back of the train. How had he gotten lost on a train??? All he had done was leave to find a bathroom!

Now was not the time to panic, though. He couldn't show weakness. He was a strong eleven year old who don't need no man! who would be able to find his sister alone. Right? Right. If it came down to it, he'd use his twin senses to get her to poke her head out of the compartment.

For now, he just stood there, looking back and forth, trying to figure out which way to go to be reunited with Timmy.

Train rides. You see you needed to MAKE them something, not just act like they would out of nowhere be entertaining. A few good hours on a moving train; really there was TONS you could accomplish. For example you could master the model swag walk. Which was totally not what Abbi had been doing by the way

....Ahem.

Well okay, but she didn't make it *look* that way. All she'd been doing for the last few moments was walking up and down swagster style whilst pretending to look for a free compartment to disguise her actions. Nobody else was there to see and it was a lot more entertaining than just staring out the window.

Fun or what? huh?

Silas caught his legs as Archie jumped on his back. Tucking his arms under thw back of knees he popped him into the right spot on his back. He beamed as he glanced over his shoulder at Archie and gave him a smile and wink.

"We'll find a compartment in a moment. And if you lot would like to join us you definitely can. " He looked from over his shoulder and then back to the others. Hell he figured the more the merrier. Mhm.

Why exactly did they have to travel to school by a train? A whole 8 hour long ride. They were all magic folk here with a amazing system of their own making here. It was very muggle like to travel by train, wasn't it? If they used their ways they would be there it like no time.

Anyway she needed to get up and walk around a bit. She couldn't sit in one compartment the whole ride. Maybe she would go find Dot and Maddie and the guys. She was sure that they were all somewhere in the same compartment.

Before she left she grabbed up and handful of sugar quills. She had been nomming on them as she walked down the corridor. She was on her last one. All of those sugar quills were going to go right to her..... Abbi? What in the name of Merlin was she doing? She slipped into a compartment and watched for a few minutes. *snort, snort* What even? She laughed and tossed a Bettie bot toward her. To get her attention. "What do you think you're trying to do. Win the little miss universe pageant?" Hehe. She couldn't help but to mess with her a bit. She was considering trying to be friends with her again.

Fumbling a little, Dalton put his newly bought Cauldron Cake into the pocket of his far too large hoodie, before shoving his hands into them. He began to retrace his footsteps from the Food Trolley to the compartment he'd shoved himself into the corner of, already looking forward to eating and then pretending to be asleep.

He just really couldn't be bothered with conversation right now.

It would be a lie to say that he wasn't homesick - but he would never admit to it. Dalton just really didn't like the effort and attention it took to get to know knew people. He had his friends - well, friend: only Aled actually counted - and acquaintances, and he'd only gotten to know them because he was forced to live with him. He didn't exactly like it, and he was scared boarding school would be the same.

Which is why, when he came across a stray boy in his path, that he stopped. Stopped, and looked at this kid, who seemed lost. Which was ridiculous, as he was on a train. Stopped and looked at this kid, who seemed about his age. Which was ridiculous, as he didn't even care. Stopped and looked at this kid, and raised his eyebrows.

Ollie had been staring to his left for quite some time, trying to decide if anything that way looked familiar, before turning his head to the right to look at...a boy? Why in the world was this boy just staring at him? Oliver was small. Not like he was taking up the entire corridor.

Then the boy raised his eyebrows at him. What even?

Taking a step away from the kid, who was Timmy's height and seemed to be around his again, and blinked at the boy. Ollie just wanted to be lost in peace.

"C-can I....uh...." DIDN'T HE KNOW STARING WAS RUDE AND INTIMIDATING?! "Whatareyoudoing?" Oliver touched his face all over, just in case there was something on it he hadn't been aware of. From what he could tell, by touch anyway, his face was the same as always. Huh.

Arms still shoved deep into his pockets, Dalton let his eyebrows return to their normal position on his forehead and shrugged a little bit. He let one eyebrow slip up a little bit, joining it with a smirk when the boy began touching his face, and was tempted to focus on a spot on the boys left cheek.

He let his eyes linger there for a second, before allowing them to rove around to the fact that him passing, what with all the other people, would involve PUSHING. And that was effort he didn't plan to exert.

"I was considering whether or not to ask you the same question."

Ollie watched this boy's face and tried to figure out if he was lying about what he'd said. Was he really thinking of asking him that, or was he just hiding his ideas of wanting to bully him? Because, y'know, people did that. According to Cordy anyhow, and he trusted her 100%. If Cordy said it, it must be right.

"Well...I'm standing here...in the corridor. Obviously." And the boy had been watching Oliver enough to know that already. But he knew leaving his answer like that might be rude and he didn't want to start off on the wrong foot just yet. If this boy ended up seeming mean, then he'd contemplate being rude. "....I got lost......so I was just trying to figure out which way to go without getting run over by people.." And he had been doing exceptionally so far.

"Oh. Obviously." Dalton didn't manage to hide the sarcasm in his reply, but did refrain from rolling his eyes. Remembering, or trying to remember, what Travis had said was helping. 'The whole world is not against you. People are nice. Most of them, anyway. Try making some friends, Fletch. Or at least, try not to make anyone hate you.' Something that was apparently fairly easy to do, if Clarke's mean remarks were anything to go by.

But Clarke wasn't here. And this kid was. And, by the looks of this kid, they had a few years ahead of them, together. Ew.

"Lost. How?" ........Rude. "No, I mean... Were you lookin' for sommat in particula'?"

Sarcasm. Cool. Ollie wasn't a big fan of it when it came from anyone other than his twin sister, but since he had started it first, he was in no place to get annoyed with the boy for using it as well. He was just going to move on from that little comment, he supposed.

Oliver and the boy stood there as people continued to pass by them, and when the boy asked him how he'd gotten lost, his face turned a deep shade of red. He knew it was ridiculous to get lost on a train but it had HAPPENED.

But then the boy changed what he said and how he said it and Ollie grew curious. Why not just stick to the 'how'? "Um...well, how: I don't remember which car I was in or which way I went when I left the compartment." He shrugged after saying this, acting as though it could happen to anyone. He really hoped his cheeks would stop burning so much. "Ummm...." Hello accent he hadn't heard very much. "Well, my sister, Timmy, is in the compartment. So I was gonna start poking my head in compartments to see if I could see her." He was just lucky enough that the windows were low enough for him to tippy-toe and look into.

Aimless wandering was happening. All the way down the train corridor, and probably back up it again once he reached the end of the train. Toby wasn't entirely sure what he was doing, but he wasn't really looking for a compartment, per se. His feet just kept on moving and he was letting them do what they wanted.

He continued on down the corridor, holding his hand out to the side and running his fingertips over the inside wall of the train and the windows and the doors that led into other compartments, pausing only to move out of the way of other students. He'd already found himself separated from Soph, though that was sort of intentional, being that he'd wanted to go 'check on his luggage' once the train had pulled out of London. Yep, absolutely nothing to do with needing to pull himself together after saying a slightly emotional goodbye to his dad and grandma on the platform. Nope, not. at. all.

Toby side-stepped again to avoid walking straight into a gaggle of first years, and briefly glanced at his now numb fingertips before resuming running them across the wall as he walked. He was meant to be meeting up with Soph again at the... uhh...

... at the...

Huh. Where had she told him to find her? Toby had completely and utterly forgotten that important piece of information. Welp.

...

On he went down the train, now actually keeping an eye out for the hellion in question.

Hehehe.

Hehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehe.

With a badge in her hands and another pinned to her robes - she changed into them as soon as she boarded the train because she couldn't wait - Soph bounced down the corridor looking for the new owner of the yellow badge. She'd concealed it from him all this time, leaving it as a surprise, and she was purely elated to see his reaction.

He didn't turn up where they'd agreed to meet, though, and she was IMPATIENT, so he was making her hunt him DOWN. He wasn't that hard to find, though, as Tobes was at least smart enough to stay in the corridors so she'd find him eventually, and she waved the badge at him from the opposite end of the corridor when she spotted him coming her way. "Tooooooooooooobes," she chimed brightly, greeting him with a hug even though she'd just seem him - she could see the sadness in his eyes from a mile away - and pulled back to hold the yellow badge facing up on her palm extended to him. "This is for you. I've got one, too, but you're number one for obvious reasons." She gestured to the similar blue badge pinned to her chest and positively beamed.

Team Tophie.

Her eyes were downcast, staring at the palm of her hand. She had gotten on the train quietly, without looking around for familiar faces, her head not quite her own. Something shiny sat square in the middle of her palm, to which she closed fairly quickly if anyone got too close. She wasn't hiding it, no, but keeping it safe, keeping it from accidentally falling to the floor; that's what she told herself anyway.

Once the coast was clear and the traffic had a small break, she bit her lip and pinned the badge into place with shaky digits. She didn't want to think about what had happened earlier today, but the memory was fresh in her mind, and it continued to replay.

We're proud of you.

Had they really meant it?

Quietly slipping into the movements of the corridor, she made her way toward the compartment she knew to be the place for her. A place she could potentially frequent for a few years... Which was odd to think about.

Some hair was tucked behind her ears, but it did not want to stay there so she let it go where it wanted, her eyes following it down to the ends..

Was that...? It was.

A proper smile rose to her face.... But it soon faded. "Gabe?" .... And Clara....

It seemed like an empty compartment was a lost cause at this point. Heather was about to turn back and go sit on her stack of trunks in the luggage compartment when someone spoke. "That would be my worst nightmare honestly." Nine hours with someone who stunk? Pass the barf bag.

Was this guy shy or something? Not that there was anything wrong with that. It would just explain why his eyes were lowered. Of course, her first thought to break the-what was the word she was looking for?-awkwardness that had fallen was to introduce herself. "Hi, I'm Heather," she said, holding her hand out for a shake.

Wait, what? Gloomy? Was that how she was looking? "Actually, I was going for brooding, but okay," she replied to the newcomer with a small smile. "Was just thinking about my family and how much I'll miss them." And being tactful enough to mention the prefect thing out loud. That would probably make her seem pretty conceited, which she wasn't. Or tried not to be, anyway.

This Gryffindor had noticed the boyfriend thing, though had decided not to mention it. Especially since the guy, who she now knew was named Silas, was already blushing. For why, she didn't know. He didn't have anything on his shirt or.....oh. Hehheh. This was going to be interesting.

And little guy joining the group. Only now, hearing him, she thought he was just confused. Like that word didn't mean what he thought it meant. "Sure, okay." Four people, wouldn't be too crowded. Or three, if the other guy wasn't coming.....

Sense Domino's owl arrow was stored with her school trunk and other belongings, the sixth year didn't have to worry about transporting her. It was hard to believe she had only one more year after this and then she would graduate. It was a mericale she had gotten this far. She lazily walked the coridors looking for an empty compartment. As she looked for an available seat, she thought about her upcoming sixth year which would start tomorrow or so...she wondered, what professors would be differen't.