Norah burst through the doors of the compartment with what could usually be considered as too much force, but it so didn't count today. Today was IMPORTANT. Really really really important. Almost the importanest ever, but she'd said that about a lot of days in her fifteen entire years of life so it was kind of hard to choose.

She straightened her PREFECT's badge for the eighty seven millionth time as she plopped herself down on a seat, giving a little bounce. It was only a little one because she was a a real live student leader now and that meant bigbigbig things, but she couldn't just not bounce at all. That definitely counted as wasting a perfectly good opportunity. And so she sat, beaming at the door in the hopes that somebody would finally come through it so they could celebrate. Her parents had gotten bored of her celebrating ages ago, and her brothers had too which was kind of unfair because she'd spent an entire month and a half mourning Marcel's snail without getting bored but there ya go. Norah tugged on her plait (JUST like Puck's that one time 'cause she still hadn't forgotten) and continued to grin at the door until her cheeks starting to feel funny. Where were all the PEOPLE? Weren't prefects supposed to be on time? And good at everything? Were they going to teach her how to do that 'cause she really didn't know how to do that.

This was his final trip in the Prefects' compartment TO Hogwarts. With Guster the toad fixed on his left shoulder, the seventh year, happy, bouncy and excited as ever bounded into to compartment. Time to see who the fresh meatnew prefects were! Most importantly, his Hufflepuff co- prefect.

"HELLOOOO!'' Adi greeted before he had even taken a proper look around. But his eyes did spy Norah instantly because she was the only person there... she and her shiny new badge. "Puff Co- Prefect Norah!'' He was THRILLED she had been picked, could you tell? Hehe. The Puff bustled over to the girl to give her a giant, squishy hug. "Sooo glad you're one of the cool kids now.'' With a wink, he flopped down onto the seat next to his friend. Goah, she had grown up fast too. Seemed it was just yesterday she came to Hogwarts for the first time.

There were a lot of things going on in Benzi Rider's mind. One, where in the world has Suri disappeared to ALREADY and here's hoping she's got a good strong hold on that kneazle of hers because he'd sworn he'd hex it into next Wednesday if he caught it wondering off. Two, he hadn't seen Evie yet which wasn't really worrying given that they'd made it to the platform with a minute and thirty seconds to spare. She was around somewhere, he'd catch her after.

It had actually made everything much easier, them being super late, as mum had had less time to cry and Suri had had no time at all to make a list of demands before the train took off. Granted, perhaps giving her a nudge as she dangled out of the window to wave goodbye wasn't the nicest thing to do, but it had been hilarious and she totally deserved it.

Three, he couldn't decide between the two pins. There was the pin that he got in the mail, the shiny new one that he'd been forced to polish the night before because some dumb CAT had decided to do its business on it. But it was cleaned to perfection, it didn't smell or nothing. Then there was the older pin, a bit rusty and definitely more worn out, which had belonged to his mother. How she'd been prefect for three terms without wanting to hex everyone to bits was beside him, but the result was a very cool looking matted Prefect badge. Decisions.

... He'd wear his mother's tomorrow and the shiny one now. Yes. Make a good impression on the little kids running around and on the older students who might not know who he was. Yes, that made sense. Kind of.

His mother had told him to not go straight to Prefect's compartment... so he'd gone to use the bathroom first, walked up and down the train a couple times to look for people he knew, hadn't found them and NOW he was here. That was enough time right? He wouldn't be the first one here. Sliding the door open, he grinned when he saw that he'd indeed been right, and that the two Hufflepuff prefects were already there.

He knew one... kinda. Adi had been with him on the rescue mission. And the other one he knew from lessons. Kind of a goofy kid. "Hey guys... I'm Benzi."

It was her last year as a Prefect and as a Gryffindor…heck, it was the end of her reign as a Gryffindor this was, odd. All those times she had told herself not to get attached, that she’d probably be shipped off to another school yet again – well, those words didn’t help now. This was it. This was the end. She had been here for four years and it felt like the world was changing…that, and everyone was gone.

Even Bianca.

She was not her usual chipper ever-happy self. Not today. Opening the door to the Prefects compartment she did notice the blue color and just figured it was another Banner substitute. Dull. Boring. Bookish. Everything that Sophie kind of wasn’t? Because at least she had a sense of bubbliness…and well if Zander liked her she had to be nice right? Right?

“I brought food,” she mumbled as she strode in and took a seat next to the window…now taking the time to glance around at everyone her expression changed. “Benzi? And Norah!” She sighed happily, “I’m glad to be working with you two,” she beamed.

So the blue wasn’t a Banner substitute. It was only one of her coolest friends ever. “How were your summers?” She asked happily, “Adi, she’s always been one of the cool kids – really, and nice plait Norah it looks great on you” she smiled. Aw, Norah as the cutest. Could she squish her? Wait wouldn’t that be weird? Who cared though because she’d totally take time in her day to give her any support at all.

Those who knew Dot knew that the fifth year Slytherin didn't walk anywhere. She floated and hopped and danced, and she sometimes skipped on a very good day... and today was a very good day. She was going to sit in the Prefect car with the big important people and be big and important too.

And then... well, her imagination hadn't really been able to fill in the rest of the picture after that, but it was going to be GLORIOUS.

In the door, she paused to let the light catch her badge, and then Dot pranced into the carriage and... didn't know who to greet first. EEEE... Adi! "Hi, look! Now I'm Prefect Queen Dot!"

And Norah! "Oh, you got one TOO! NORAH. NORAH, we're going to be prefects together for THREE years and basically we should start being very good friends right now, okay?" Done and done.

Who else? Puck was looking very tall and very stylish and Dot was overcome by shyness for just a moment before the older girl got a big hug, and then... someone Ravenclaw. Hullo there, Ravenclaw. Dot crashed on the bench beside Norah and gave the Ravenclaw a finger wiggle.

She was probably on the verge of exploding by the time Adi got there, and that was saying something because Norah Kittredge had done entire boatloads of exciting things. The waiting part had never been easy though, so maybe exploding was to be expected. "ADI!" The name came out far louder and high pitched than she'd intended it to, but he was the Official Nicest Person Ever, so it was easy to forgive herself for the baby-ish sound. She returned his hug with a big squish just like always. Aw yeah. Trying (and failing) to make her voice sound lower and more like she really was in charge, Norah added, "We're PARTNERS, isn't that the very coolest?" Cool kid INDEED. She went to strike a pose to show him just how cool she was now, when all of a sudden there was somebody ELSE (Benzi)in there.

"Hiya Benzi." She stood up stuck a hand out to shake his and glared at her fingers for a moment so they'd stop wiggling. "I'm Norah," she added with a beaming smile. Did he KNOW how lucky he was to get to be Sophie Brown's partner? 'Cause that was a cause for celebration all by itself, if you asked her. Right after Norah sat down again she found herself standing right back up because now there was Puck and obviously she got a big hug. Grinning at the compliment, she took her seat again. "Thanks Puck, I learned in from you anyways. Remember? Back when I wasn't a real live prefect yet," WAY back then. Ages ago. Imagine that, Norah Kittredge pre-Prefect Princess. She tugged at the end of her plait, needing to fiddle with something because there weren't any curls available anymore. At this point there were more strands of hair coming out of it than were actually braided, but the POINT was that Puck said it looked nice and she knew things so something had to be right. Apparently things could go right sometimes.

The bestest surprise of all of them was when Dot showed up TOO. Man, it was a real party in here. If only Mari were here to celebrate with them too. "I got one! YOU GOT ONE?" DIdja hear that? SHE HEARD THAT. THREE whole entire years with Dot ruling the whole school! "Friends sounds even BETTER than fabulous." Could they try on shoes again? That definitely qualified as Prefect Duties. Kind of. It'd be much for fun than studying for OWLs, anyways. When the Slytherin sat down beside her, Norah swiveled around to face her. "Can I hug you? Is that okay? Yes? No? Maybe so?" You had to ASK (she'd learned that, okay?) but she was getting close to exploding again. Hugs were IMPORTANT.

Puck just looked up when she heard the door open and grinned over to Dot. Perfect, just perfect. No, really. They would need people with style for these events – and oh. She was hugging her. “Congratulations Dot,” Puck grinned over to her and hugged her back.

“I can see it, you two having an amazingly brilliant friendship.” Puck grinned, and shifted to give Norah a grin as well only to find the young Hufflepuff hugging her as well.

Was there a hug me sign on her? She didn’t check, all she did was give her a hug back. “Yeah I also remember your awesome sparkly shoes – those were amazing.” Puck grinned at her. “Oh you guys know if you want any food have at it,” Puck smiled pointing at the box of treats. Obviously the two of them would know she’d totally give them advice if they asked for it…even if she wasn’t the best source.

Adi was not getting over this excitement anytime soon. Nope. He laughed at Norah's reaction, her and her squeal and hug. The hug was just they way he liked them... the extra squish. "We'll make quite a team. Norah and Adi, awesome Hufflepuff prefects!'' Hehe. "Looking good, Norah!'' He snapped a picture with an imaginary camera. ''We'll be partners for the year!'' Yep and then she'll have a new partner for the next one.

Food? Did someone say foooood? Of course! It was Puck who always brought them delicious things. "Heya, Puck! Oh, yeah! I should have said cooler kids, huh?" He already knew from the first day he met Norah she was cool. Anyway... Adi gave her a hug too. "How are you? And what did you bring us today?" He was hungry, yo! But before he could even get to the food, someone else joined them. "Heeey, Benzi!'' Another choice Adi approved of. Though he barely knew the boy, he had seen him help out last term with the spiders and all. "Congrats on the badge.'' How about a high five? Don't leave a badger hanging.

If Adi approved of Norah and Benzi as prefects, there were no words to describe what he felt when he saw Dot and her shiny badge. "DOT! Congrats!'' Ehem. "I mean, Prefect Queen Dot.'' Eeeep! He was doubly excited now. Oh and yes, the Head Minion did have to reach over to give his Queen a hug. Mhm. Today was a good day for hugs.

Ellery had heard ALLLLLL ABOUT the prefecting system and duties, mhm, and thought to be honest that it was a HUUUGE waste of shiny badges. She already knew pretty much that the prefects would probably just be huge BORES who would make her stop having FUN. Essentially, she had heard that prefects were LARGE, SCARY, SOUL-SUCKING VAMPIRES.

So, naturally, Ellery had come to crash their party. She flounced in, pigtails and all, and HUGE WIDE GINORMOUS SMILE. She wasn't even going to do anything. She was just going to stand here smiling until the BIG SHOTS CAME IN. As in, Head Boy and Girl.

MHM.

Of course he wasn’t completely sure of himself and also, he probably wouldn’t ever be completely sure of himself. Completely was a big commitment and Zander wasn’t about that kind of life yet. BUT he did feel a little better and he was most definitely pretending and improvising all the rest. But really, didn’t all good leaders pretend at least a little bit? Or at least just the semi-decent ones? Because that’s what Zander was really going for here. He just wanted to be decent. Or semi so.

But she was still sad, and her half-hearted smile was enough to tell him that. Zander was secretly hoping that all the congratulatory hugs and compliments she was about to get would help fix that… But mostly because it hurt seeing how much she hurt. And he wasn’t even all that close to Toby. But man, he could feel the pain.

And soon enough they were walking again and there wasn’t really much more he thought he could say to help. Maybe this was just something that came with time. Didn’t it heal all wounds or something? Or was that just a myth? Eh. Irrelevant. Anyways, he gave Soph a ridiculous look and a snort to accompany it. ”Only ‘cause they’ll be in shock,” because again, who would’ve thought? Zander Adair resident comic relief of Hogwarts… Newly named Head Boy? Nah. That kind of stuff only happens in fiction.

Which is probably why walking towards the Prefect’s compartment felt so surreal. Even though it was the third year of doing so… Finally. Their compartment. Ew. Never mind he didn’t like that. The compartment. Much better. Ahem. He took a quick second to swallow down all the nerves that were just about to burst through, and instead tried to focus on everything Sophie Brown. She always put his mind to ease. Like some magical spell or something. Works like a confundus, but doesn’t require a thing. And with that he put a goofy smile in place (because apparently a part of their job description was being encouraging) and slid the compartment door open.

”Er, hi,”…. WHAT. That wasn’t the plan. What happened to faking it till he made it? No wonder he almost failed out of Hogwarts. Right. Ahem. Ahem. He coughed to clear his throat before starting over…. TAKE TWO. ”What I meant to say was, Lady Prefects and GentlePrefects, you may know her as my incredibly pretty girlfriend, Sophie Brown, but from now on we also know her as our Head Girl,” and with that he smiled and walked right in. As long as he thought about Sophie Brown being Head Girl, he didn’t even have to remember that he had the other half of the job. And that was more or less how he was going to get through the year. Probably. That and by faking it till he made it (to graduation).

Oh. But before he could even properly sit down, he took the moment to scan the compartment. He gave all the returning Prefects a silly, awkward wave (making sure to grin extra wide at Puck). And they had a few graduates last term which meant— Norah! Dot! Benz! The little one! He gave them all nods and that goofy smile of his. ”Congratulations, you lot definitely deserved—” Wait. Something was weird. His head bopped over from Norah! to Dot! to Benz! to…. The little one??? Wait a minute. ”Who are you?” And her attire indicated that she wasn’t even sorted yet….

Talk about low standards. Merlin, they really were just giving badges out to everyone this year. It all made sense now. No wonder he got Head Boy, Botros really was off his rocker.

The WHOLE idea behind Zander leading the way into the compartment was that HE would be the center of attention and everyone would notice HIM first and see HIS badge and make a big fuss over HIM instead and smother HIM in the congratulations and encouragement he very much deserved. So when he did lead the way inside and IMMEDIATELY opened his mouth and started announcing HER arrival... Sophie Brown mellowed.

That. was. not. the. PLAN, Zander Adair.

"Okay but the REAL story here is that HEAD BOY ZANDER ADAIR is a thing and he's really shy and modest about it and it's really cute so it's probably best if we shower him in encouragement and embarrass him a lot. S'probably the right way to go about this." And she reached up and gave his hair an affectionate ruffle as if that made her point before turning back to look at everyone and processing...

New face. Small child. Yes. Interesting, but NOT THE BIGGEST PART OF THIS. NORAH, HER PROTEGE. DOT, HER POTIONS PARTNER. B E N Z I RIDER, FRIEND SINCE FIRST YEAR.

"NUH UH. NO WAY. SHUT UP. YOU GUYS GOT PREFECTED?!" Sophie didn't know who to jump at first so she tried pulling Norah, Dot, AND Benzi all in at the SAME TIME in the center of the compartment for a big group hug. THREE NEW PREFECTS AND THREE FRIENDS. THIS WAS THE BEST GROUP OF ALL TIME.

It was SO exciting, and Dot was pleased as anything to be cuddled up beside very-nice-Norah. Who was asking for hugs? Merlin, did she have to ASK? Dot was always up for hugs, and she slung an arm around the Hufflepuff girl and squeezed her tight. "You never have to ask me if you can hug me. Even when I feel like a grump, I still want hugs." She clinked her badge against Norah's too, because cheers.

Puck had food, and congrats to offer, but Dot was on strict food intake rules at the moment, and could only make big eyes at whatever it was Puck had in her basket. "Yeah, we're going to be very good friends and probably will rule all of the whole world some day. Better be nice to us." Not that Puck was ever NOT nice.

Adi was hugging her, which was kind of awkward with a Norah in the middle, so Dot hugged them both at the same time for good measure. "I don't think you can be my minion anymore, Adi. I think we'll have to be equals and stuff now. Sad. It was nice having a minion for a little while." She rather thought that not having a minion would be dull at first, but it wasn't like he was a very ACTIVE minion. She'd get over it.

They were still missing a few people, probably folks who were happy to chat and socialize and didn't care at all about... oh, nope, 'cause one of them was her co-prefect, and Dot had decided that Caleb was perfection itself. So if he wasn't here, it was because he was saving babies from shark attacks or something. Kissing puppies with juvenile diabetes. Decreasing their carbon footprint by pushing the train to Hogwarts himself. Caleb was amazing.

Also amazing? The bold little muffin who just bopped in the door, followed by the dating Head Boy and Girl. "OOOoooooooOOOOO," Dot made appropriate sounds of approval and... y'know... where-you-two-been-lately type noises at their appearance. 'Course it would be Sophie-Daisy, and... Zander. Who else?

"We got... okay, but Sophie-Daisy, we need to breathe. Also this girl is my human foot stool. I hired her for the day. Get down on the floor, human foot stool." Dot gestured for the bold pigtailer to make herself useful.

… Did Puck just completely ignore him or was it just him? Okay. Weird. Eyeing his Gryffindor friend as she sat down, his eyebrows went even FURTHER up at the mention of food because hello Puck Greyvson you cannot ignore him and then offer food to the other prefects that was rude and uncalled for and- Oh.

Puck the Unobservant. Benzi chuckled. "Yup, the one and only. And I resent that tone of surprise in your voice," ahem, because it shouldn't be THAT surprising that he got Prefect'ed. About to answer her question about how his summer was - amazing, almost perfect in every way and kind of bummed to be back would have been his response - when more people came in and he got distracted.

He's briefly seen the Slytherin girl (Dot) around the school... and was happy for her that she was prefect. Yup. He nodded to the freckled girl. Good job, Freckles. Or.. Dot apparently? Freckles was better.

Reaching his arm out, Benzi grinned as he shook the Hufflepuff Prefect's hand. Norah. Yes. He WILL remember her name. Like Freckles. Dot. "S'nice to meet you Norah," definitely a bouncy one. And excited. Very much excited to be here. Not that he wasn't excited because he WAS but he'd have liked someone here with him who wasn't so... yeah. Moving on.

"Hey Adi! Thanks! Let's hope for less spiders this year yeah?" he laughed and most definitely high fived him because they were prefect BROS now. Prefect bros most definitely high fived, especially since they had that whole almost killed by spiders shared experience. He'd like to hang out with him a bit more this year, Benzi realised. He had very little Hufflepuff friends, and Adi seemed like a very cool kid.

Speaking of kids, this next one was rather small. Not much older than Suri. Erm. Was anyone going to say anything or...? But then the Gryffindor male prefect - Zander, he was 95% sure his name was Zander - came in with Sophie and he announced that Sophie was headgirl. Yes, yes she was. He knew that already. And about Zander getting Head Boy, he'd assumed as much so it was all very cool but not surprising.

"Hey Sophie, Zander! Congratulations" Benzi smiled widely and, dodging the group hug with a well timed duck, waited for everyone else to hug Sophie before he went in to give the Head Couple a nod and hug of his own. A nod for Zander and a thank you and a hug for Sophie, as he really didn't know Zander and Benzi didn't hug people he didn't know. He barely hugged people he DID know so yeah, Head Boy Zander, sorry but you don't get a hug.

... Well, he WOULD have asked the little girl if she needed help with anything but then Freckles claimed ownership of her and he shrugged. The girls could sort that out for themselves, whether the little one was a human footstool or not. Moving back to his seat, Benzi took a pumpkin pasty out of his pocket - his magically enlarged pockets which he'd stuffed with essential sustenance for this incredibly long train ride - and munched on it. So how long did he have to be here before he could go look for Evie?

No need to ask before hugs? AW YEAH. It was certain now that Dot was made up of 300% kindred spirit material. Not that Norah had doubted it in the first place, but it was nice to make things official for sure. They practically had it in writing at this point, with the hug situation all sorted out. "Me TOO. Definitely up for hugs all the time. They're my very favorites." And with that, she squished and beamed and squished and beamed until an ickle pigtail baby showed up and distracted her from the squishing part. Ooooooh who was that? The Hufflepuff sat up straight, fully intending to ask that exact question, when the compartment door opened AGAIN and distracted her for a second time.

And there Zander was, addressing Lady Prefects which included HER now, but that was the only part Norah really paid attention to before completely ceasing all efforts to listen to what he was saying. She had good reason, okay? There was something funny about Zander's prefect badge, and that meant detective work was in order. You couldn't expect her to investigate and listen at the same time, that'd just be impossible. She stood up while he was speaking and took a step closer to stick her nose close to his chest and peer at his badge. It sure didn't look like hers or Puck's or ANYBODY'S. THAT wasn't a prefect badge, that was HEAD BOY one. Unless HB stood for humongous bighead but the boy WAS dating Sophie Brown: Queen of the World, so obviously he wasn't one of those. Man oh man oh man Zander Adair was HEAD BOY. THE BIG GUY. KING OF THE WHOLE SCHOOL. She gave him a huge grin and stuck an arm out to pull him into a big congratulatory hug, but apparently Sophie Brown had shown up TOO without Norah even noticing (see what happened when she had to come to conclusions by herself?) and was telling her to shut up even though she hadn't even been SAYING anything. She let herself be pulled into a group hug, squishing Sophie, Dot, and Benzi all at the same time with one arm while the other one remained outstretched in Zander's direction, her hand accidentally knocking into his stomach in the confusion of all the hugs. Whoops.

"Sorry Mr. Head Boy Sir," she said with a big smile as she wiggled out of Sophie's arms to look at 'em both full on. Of course she had a Head GIRL badge, but that bit wasn't even a surprise 'cause to be the Queen of the World she obviously had to become the Queen of Hogwarts somewhere along the way. What a time to be ALIVE. "Congratulations to both of you. This is gonna be AWESOME!" That was the understatement of the century but STILL. Norah stood beaming at both of them for a few more seconds just so she'd never forget how exciting this whole thing was, noting with a raised eyebrow that Sophie Brown's eyes were looking funny in some way that she couldn't really place, before taking her seat again. DID THEY PARTY NOW OR WHAT?

All of a sudden a BUNCH of people came in. Just, like, one after the other. BAM BAM BAM. Ellery held her head high as the first couple came in, both with Head badges on. OH. So THESE were the special people who were apparently going to make sure nobody died. Not like they did that well in the past, according to the news. Hmm. Ellery assessed them both, first eyeing the boy (he looked a little nervous, a little dorky, so she immediately was drawn to him), but the girl looked - and sounded - a little too smug. Like, yeah sure the Head Boy and Girl were dating, wasn't that REQUIRED? But she didn't need to go be all ew and be like "yeah so everyone love on my boyfriend" because that basically was fishing for compliments, just for some other person. Ellery wasn't quite sure about that one.

"I'm Ellery!" she managed to say before a GIRL spoke up. And said something about a human footstool.

???

She was the human footstool?

"Oh HELL nope." She was NOT a human footstool. That didn't even EXIST, big meanie supposedly responsible girl. "I am NOT a human footstool. You would need someone a lot squishier for that, and I'm like, BASICALLY all made of muscle. I can do a standing backflip. WATCH."

She tended to get a little distracted once gymnastics were involved, so she spun around to create a circle of space, then bent her knees, whirled her arms up, and executed a compact backflip. She landed a little roughly and ended up staggering out of it, briefly grabbing on to the Head Boy for support. She straightened up and slid her hand into the Head Boy's unoccupied hand.

"Would a human footstool be able to do THAT? Huh? Huh? I didn't think so."

Just for the record, Zander Adair knew exactly what he was doing when he went ahead and introduced Sophie Brown to an entire compartment of people who already knew exactly who she was. Firstly, she needed some major love today. But secondly (and most importantly) Sophie Brown had a way of embarrassing him at some point during every single train ride to Hogwarts. Like when she jumped on top of him in the Prefect’s compartment his first year with the badge, proclaiming that he was a nerd not to mention the major cheek kisses and cheek pinching involved. THEN there was also the one time where he was talking to Tia and Soph jumped on top of him (yes, there seems to be a theme here) and claimed him as her territory.

So by going ahead of Sophie and embarrassing her this time, Zander was basically just returning the favor. You are welcome, Sophie Brown…. Except she was a lunatic and wouldn’t let him get away with it unfortunately. So now he was red, just like his badge. His badge that was starting to feel really, really heavy once again. Uh yeah hi, people….

The Gryffindor made a point to go ahead and fix his hair while Sophie was busy trying to wrangle half of the compartment in a group hug or whatever it was that was going on. ”Thanks, Benzi,” because he was sure that was his name. Zander already liked this guy. ‘Cause hugs weren’t really his thing either. So appreciated.

And before he knew it his stomach was being whacked by one Hufflepuff Prefect’s arm. ”Ooh” he let out a quiet groan, but otherwise put his goofy smile back into place ‘cause he’d been working out over the summer. MHM. Mostly to impress a certain someone with new strength, but also so that whacking wouldn’t hurt quite as much. Super strength really kicked in. Ahem. He was all good. Right. ”S’okay, Norah…. But, uh, let’s drop titles, yeah?” Because that could get awkward. Wait. Could this be? Could he have finally just understood one Airey Flamsteed. Huh. Guess nothing really is impossible, huh? He was pretty sure he never went around addressing Alexa Cambridge as Prefect Lex. That’d just be plain weird. Also he had no intention of calling Norah Prefect Norah either. One name was hard enough to remember, thank you very much.

And now, about that little person, Ellery apparently which didn’t really help with the question btw. Who is apparently a foot stool? ”Oh,” reckon that makes loads of sense. Well… Not really. But he’d roll with it because Dot had authority now and she probably knew what she— So he’d take it that the little girl didn’t like being referred to as a foot stool? Because what happened next was all sorts of strange and definitely not ideal for a compact train compartment such as this one. But before he could interject and STOP her from doing a back flip, it was already being done. What. The. Heck. Talk about a weird welcome back.

He turned to Puck and Adi to give them both WHAT THE HECK??? kind of looks, but all that was before he was being a human support.

And now his hand was being held.

Uh. What was the protocall for insane-gymnastics-dwarf?

”…” Um. ”Too talented to be a human footstool, I reckon.” So uh, was he meant to kick her out or could she just sit here until they got off the train because honestly at this point, Zander just wanted to sit before the train came to a halt and he fell on top of every single last Prefect before the term even officially started. ”Normally this compartment is just for Prefects, but…. if you wanna sit down and not do anymore backflips, I’m sure we can make an exception just this once?” Was that cool with the rest of the gang… Or? Because Zander was leading her to a seat, hoping she was following along. Also, No more backflips for the love of Merlin.

He was just tired of standing around. And besides, there was an extra seat since Caleb wasn’t in the compartment this time. So there. If anyone else came in playing the “but the gymnastical dwarf is in here” card, they’d say all the open seats were taken. And he was gonna sit now, thanks.

Hugs were Norah's FAVORITE. Dot was going to remember that, because people who liked hugging were a sparse commodity these days, and she would like to know at least one person she could hug in case of a hugging emergency in any given room in the castle. Except a Gryffindor. No one should hug Gryffindors in case of explosion.

She winked broadly at her new friend before turning her attention back to the human-footstool-not-footstool-random-gymnist. She was lucky no one had been kicked in the face, because these were pretty tight quarters and now there were flailing limbs to contend with. "I'm afraid that if you aren't a foot stool and you aren't a prefect, then you shouldn't be in here."

Logic. Or... errr... Zander was saying the girl COULD stay in here? Now everyone would think there was open seating. "Listen, Flip... Ellery. You're obviously too talented for mere footstooling, and I'm sorry I got confused about that. Are you a first year? D'you know what house you hope to get? Maybe you and I can go on a tour of the train and introduce you to some other first years. You can start making friends before you even get to Hogwarts!"