Jina was both scared and excited to finally attend Hogwarts. She had heard good things about the school, so she would get to learn a lot and hone her magical skills. But recently she found out about dangerous events taking place at Hogwarts. She hoped nothing bad will happen this year. She found an empty compartment in the middle of the train and sat down by the large windows. As the train began its journey to the school, she looked out of the window nervously. The view was beautiful, so she felt slightly optimistic.

It was here! She was here! Holy Hippogriffs. Her knees were shaking a bit as she had stood on the platform before getting on the train. Her parents were being encouraging. Her father especially, he never even went to Hogwarts and he was telling her to have fun and cause a bit of trouble.

Trouble.... her?

No way.

She was going to keep her Puffskein’s in a row.

Tugging on her sequined skirt she took the first few steps onto the train turning to wave at her parents. She was officially on her own. No siblings, no mom, no dad. Swallowing she felt the fear start to creep up on her. She turned and began walking down the hallway of the compartments. She noticed that there wasn’t a soul anywhere yet. She was surprised, didn’t the train take off in like ten minutes? Her parents were always nearly late.

Keeping her hands on her skirt to keep them from shaking she kept walking further down the hallway. She glanced in one compartment and saw an older girl (Jina). A small eep escaped her throat. She gave a small wave after letting go of her skirt, before she quickly turned away from the window and darted into her own compartment. Taking a few deep breaths she stood near the window watching the people mill all about the platform. Chaos it was, she was glad she had already made it on the train.

Was Eiji salty? But of course and it would be to absolutely no one's (save for first years and transfers) surprise that he was. But was his salt based on jealousy? He supposed that if one chose to look at the situation through a certain lens that one could see it that way, but it wasn't entirely the truth. He had no aspirations of holding a prefect badge during his time at Hogwarts - that had been a privilege that BOTH his parents had had been bestowed and he wanted to do everything he could to pave a different path for himself during his seven terms - so it wasn't that he was jealous that his girlfriend was a prefect and him not. It was more he knew his girlfriend and what this responsibility could and would do to her.

He also knew how badly she had wanted it...so he was trying to be supportive, even if at times he was feigning excitement over that piece of metal pinned to her robes.

But the salt now? It was in his own moping mood that she would have to spend the train ride this year on patrol and in whatever rubbish meeting it was the prefects held each term. He had heard several earfuls from his mum about it once she had learned about Missa being prefect and gone off reminiscing about her time as a prefect for Gryffindor over dinner. Eiji's green peas on his plate had been far more fascinating at the time.

Walking the corridors, he tried to find an empty compartment and was nearly run into by a first year who went darting across the way into a compartment of her own. He had served his time sitting with first years last term so....he would not be doing that again this term, thanks. His hazel-green eyes met followed the smaller girl briefly, his scowl withheld for the most part, and then peeked into the next compartment to see that it was occupied already.

Such was his luck...but at least this girl looked around his age, unfamiliar as she was.

Oh well.

"Hope you don't mind," he offered in lieu of a greeting as he invited himself into the compartment and carefully took the seat opposite her and at a bit of an angle so that he wasn't sitting directly in her line of sight.

A small sound outside her compartment made her turn her head around. She waved back at the young girl, who seemed quite nervous. Maybe she was a first year and it was her first trip to Hogwarts. Well, Jina was not too different from first years in that respect, being a transfer student. She was wondering if she should go to talk to the girl, when someone entered the compartment she was in.

"Oh, no it's okay," she replied. She then continued to look out of the window, but occasionally glanced at the boy sitting opposite her. He seemed to be around her age. If they were going to be sitting together in the long journey to school, she might as well talk to him. "What's up? You don't look too happy."

Phoebe James was now a SECOND YEAR, even though it was her first time on the Hogwarts Express, and she intended to lord it over every first she could find. Granted, she hadn't managed to find one yet, but WHEN SHE DID... it was on. The blonde Gryffindor flounced into one of the compartments (as she'd flounced into many before it), and while she was disappointed to find ZERO first years, she was delighted to find bigbrother!Eiji.

"EIJI. Hiiii-eeeee." Phoebe climbed up on the seat beside him (RIGHT beside him, snuggly-like) and grinned at both him and the older girl sharing the compartment with him. "Oh, excuse me, please. I'm Phoebe Skylar James. I'm a second year. I'm a Gryffindor. I'm..." She tried to pick some good adjectives and gave Eiji a peek to see if he had any. Delightful, maybe?

Opening his well organized satchel bag, Eiji searched for his alchemy textbook from Himitsumahou and accidentally rattled a few of his potions phials and ingredient tins before managing to pull it out. He had just settled it on to his lap and flipping to where he left off - which was of course on a character he did not know and that had been why he had stopped. He really...hated having to reference his kanji dictionary while reading. It was a frustration that anyone who knew him would assume would be fuel to study his second language with more enthusiasm, but it ended up doing the opposite.

So, perhaps, it was a blessing in disguise that she was trying to engage with him. Pity her attempts were to ask about personal matters. He was a particularly closed book about such things unless you were graced with being in his inner circle. "I'm f----"

And then Phoebe happened. As she usually did. He just wished she would happen when he wasn't around new people. Or maybe people in general because she always brought out a very private side of himself he did not feel others needed to be privy to.

So while his body may have gone rigid to start, he sighed into a relaxed position with his arm around her shoulder. He couldn't deal with the pout if he didn't. "....spirited," he offered somewhat dryly.

She was curious about what the boy was reading. It was definitely not one of her course books and it did not seem to be in English either, which fascinated her. She would have asked about it, but got the impression that he did not want to be disturbed. She felt a bit apologetic for speaking to him in the first place.

But then a younger girl entered the compartment and snuggled up to him. She was SO cute!!! Jina grinned back at her. "Hi, Phoebe. I'm Jina Nicole Morin. I'm a sixth year and I'm ... new," she introduced herself, ending with a rather lame adjective.

Eventually Catherine had to board the Hogwarts Express. Her things were already in, as were the people who were going to Hogwarts with her. All of them. All. Of them.

Which didn't included mum or dad. As the train door shut, Catherine stood near it so she could still see her family through the window. As the train moved away, the young brunette held her breath for Merlin knew how long as she kept watching mum, dad and her other siblings get farther and farther away.

Once she couldn't see any of them anymore, she finally exhaled and gulped before turning around to see... nobody she knew.

This was it. She knew it. This was exactly what she was dreading. She hated it, she hated it already. Side-eyeing both the front and the back of the train, she quickly realised this area she was standing in was the least crowded. Okay... this had been done for years by many an eleven-year-old. She would be okay, of course she would. Hogwarts was fine and safe and she would learn loads.

She took a deep breath and... didn't move.

Merlin, help her.

After stuffing her pockets with as many candies and sweets as she could, Bernie parked herself in a semi-empty carriage, but was sure to leave the door open so she could eavesdrop watch other people? Maybe someone she knew would appear? MAYBE something INTERESTING would happen on the train? Interesting things were always happening at Hogwarts, and they were FINALLY going to HOGWARTS!!!!!

Bernie settled into her seat, facing the door, put on her fake glasses as part of her spying-on-others get-up, and then tucked her nose behind her biggest textbook. She was "reading" hehe. Thats's so Raven....claw.

The journey that had taken Elias from his home to this car had been a true epic, indeed. Given that his father the doctor and his mother the pharmaceutical sales manager had a distinct wariness of all things magical, they'd been less than enthused about their only child racing full-tilt at a solid brick wall just because a passing man in a flowered nightgown had said it was 'the thing to do' to get to Hogwarts. Elias had pointed out, in what he thought was a logical and rational manner, that if he ended up breaking something his father was right there to do something about it.

In the end, he'd been made to wait until some other owl-toting child disappeared through the bricks, at which point his parents had kissed him goodbye and made him promise to write them twice a week. Once on the other side, he'd been jostled and bumped until he finally found his way here, to a car that seemed to have room in it.

He flopped down onto one of the seats, only then turning to eye the girl and her book. He supposed he should have asked about sitting, but he reasoned that he wasn't planning on making noise, and if she was going to be reading the whole time it wouldn't matter anyway. The door was open...

"D'you mind if I sit here, then?"

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ashwinder

The journey that had taken Elias from his home to this car had been a true epic, indeed. Given that his father the doctor and his mother the pharmaceutical sales manager had a distinct wariness of all things magical, they'd been less than enthused about their only child racing full-tilt at a solid brick wall just because a passing man in a flowered nightgown had said it was 'the thing to do' to get to Hogwarts. Elias had pointed out, in what he thought was a logical and rational manner, that if he ended up breaking something his father was right there to do something about it.

In the end, he'd been made to wait until some other owl-toting child disappeared through the bricks, at which point his parents had kissed him goodbye and made him promise to write them twice a week. Once on the other side, he'd been jostled and bumped until he finally found his way here, to a car that seemed to have room in it.

He flopped down onto one of the seats, only then turning to eye the girl and her book. He supposed he should have asked about sitting, but he reasoned that he wasn't planning on making noise, and if she was going to be reading the whole time it wouldn't matter anyway. The door was open...

"D'you mind if I sit here, then?"

OH LOOK. A victim fellow student. Bernadette had not seen this boy before, but maybe she didn't know everyone from Hogwarts yet. She hadn't technically been there herself, so. She peeked at him over her glasses and rolled her eyes. Typical boy, sit first and ask questions later.

"D'ya mind if I read aloud, then?" She didn't WANT to scare him off but also she DID feel like testing him.... "I heard we have a pop transfiguration quiz first thing Monday morning, so, y'know." Study up. Or not. She was eager to see if he'd believe her or nah.

To her question of reading aloud, he shrugged. Saved him having to read it, if he were perfectly honest. He would have said as much, but when she brought up the test he changed tracks as well, "I don't mind if you have trouble reading in your head. Study away."

He'd already run through a solid brick wall today, and he was far more interested in learning how to do that magic than some test on transfigureskating or whatever she'd just said.

Hang on... first he was agreeing and now he was... waaaaait, was that a joke about her reading abilities? Bernie's eyes narrowed. She huffed and loudly turned a page in the book, taking a deep breath before she read. "Transfiguration is subject to rules, such as Gamp’s Law of Elemental Transfiguration, which has five Principal Exceptions, of which food is one." But would HE know what that meant? Bernie had kinda gotten the gist of this last year in Barlow's class. Anyway, she continued reading.

"BUBBA GAMP'S LAW means that ONLY food can be produced out of thin air. Food can be moved from one place to another by magic, or changed, OR created out of nothing. Essentially, by following Gamp's Law, wizards can never starve, and can easily transfigure ordinary, boring food into something more appetizing." She stole a peek at the boy to see if he was listening. "For example, to transfigure a ham sandwich into a sandwich cookie or biscuit, one would only need to use the incantation Pastillum fartum whilst tapping the sandwich in question."

Hmm, interesting. Was the kid believing it? All this reading was making her hungry, so Bernie pulled a chocolate frog box out of her pocket.

Elias was listening, but perhaps a little too well. He raised an eyebrow at her explanation and shook his head before resting it against the cushion on the back of the seat, "I saw a wizard 'produce' a bouquet of flowers out of the air in Diagon Alley, after he forgot his five-week anniversary with his girlfriend. She took the flowers, and then she beaned him over the head with them. It was brilliant."

He glanced over at her pulling out the box of candy and asked, "You're going to try the spell with that?"

Okay, well, that was a good description of... uh, charms maybe? What was the spell that made flowers pop out of your wand? Bernie hadn't learned that one yet.... but she was betting this boy didn't know it either or he wouldn't have called something so basic, like, 'brilliant.'

She pretended to be unamused, though she also would have hit her imaginary boyfriend over the head if he forgot their anniversary. "Cool story bro." Back to her book and her frog. The brunette scoffed a bit at his question, then pulled something from her other pocket, tossing it lightly to him. "No, this frog doesn't need any spell work to be more appetizing. That ham sandwich does though." Have at it, kid. Give it a whirl. She was practically daring him.

Meanwhile, she carefully opened her chocolate frog and immediately clamped a hand around one of its legs, holding it tightly in case it decided to hop off. The frog struggled pathetically as Bernie snapped off a different leg and dropped the chocolate straight into her mouth. Mmmm, delicious.

Yeah, it was a cool story, especially since he thought it meant Bubba Gamp's law was a bunch of bunk. This was why he was skeptical about books and hadn't bothered to buy any new ones for school; the second-hand ones had all sorts of notations in the margins that were at least as helpful as the printed text, and he'd already found an entry in his Fantastic Beasts book that underlined a specific description of the beast's mating preferences and added the commentary of 'also, don't wear purple.' Useful stuff, indeed!

He eyed the admittedly sad-looking ham sandwich sitting on the seat beside him, with its sad single layer of ham and its sad lumps of butter that had sadly torn some of the bread (clearly someone had used hard butter straight from the fridge). Then he looked back up in time to see her brutalizing the chocolate frog.

"Did you know that torturing animals is a sign of future serial killer behaviour? That's like Principal One of Crime Watch Daily's laws of How To Spot a Murderer." He was fully aware of the insolent expression on his face as he flicked the sandwich back at her, "Anyway, you're the one all up and tizzied about the pop quiz. You should practice."

"What if I told you that wasn't the first time someone has compared me to a serial killer?" Bernadette calmly bit the head off the frog next, which rendered it nonmoving and made it just look like ordinary chocolate. "I LIKE animals though. I'd never torture a REAL one." He didn't think this chocolate frog was an animal, DID HE?? Silly Muggle, chocolate frogs were for wizard kids! Don't tell anyone she had this same reaction around this same time last year. Obviously this boy needed to study more transfiguration if he didn't understand wizarding candy!

She chomped through the chocolate, mannerly enough to keep her mouth closed while doing so, and flipped the sad, bruised little sandwich back to him. "I already know that spell, so Barlow will NOT be impressed by it if *I* do it. I think he'll want to see how well I've learned how to transfigure... textbooks. I practiced on mine all summer." That was half true; she wasn't allowed to use magic around her Muggle family, but there was a spell for turning textbooks into plates and bowls, a REAL spell. She'd practiced it and everything. She just needed a refresher on the incantation, and then she'd show him.

"That would make you more interesting." Perhaps odd, but true; he'd meant his original observation as an insult, but if she had additional details about concerning behaviour he definitely wanted her to dish them out. He was, after all, experimenting with the 'rebel kid' mentality that his friend Magdelas seemed to think he possessed, and making friends with questionable characters seemed to fit his idea of what being a rebel was all about.

But getting back to the matter at hand, he'd much rather she dish the deets than dish this sandwich, which once again went back in her direction, "Who's Barlow? And what can you turn your books into?"

Classic backhanded compliment. Bernadette was tempted to roll her eyes again, but instead she hid her smirk behind another bite of frog, nearly her last bite. "Believe it or not, I was also expelled from Beauxbatons last year for attacking the Headmistress and fighting with her gargoyles, but our Headmaster got it reduced to a mere suspension." She shrugged nonchalantly. Would he find that interesting? She shouldn't care about this random kid's thoughts. He probably didn't even go to Beauxbatons last year, since he didn't know who Barlow was.

"That's the transfiguration professor, of course. This is your first year, isn't it?" She eyed him and threw the sandwich back without another word about it. It could probably be molded into the shape of a ball or something, with all the handling here. "I think I'm going to turn mine into a plate, since I've been reading about Bubba Gamp's Law and food and stuff, and then put more of my candy on my plate." So practical. Wasn't she brilliant?

Bernie flipped through the pages to the section on cutlery and whatnot; she still had it dog-eared from the spring. "The spell for turning textbooks into plates or bowls is Patella Verto.... that's pa-TEL-la VER-to." That's right. And then she remembered the undoing spell of course... because she would be needing this textbook as a textbook and not a plate soon.

Anyway, onto the spell. Bernie dug her spellotaped wand out of her boot and rapped it importantly on the transfiguration book. She concentrated as best as she could, envisioning a fancy dinner plate instead of a book, and recited, "Pa-TEL-la VER-to," as she tapped the book once more. Magically, it changed shape into a rounded, brownish dinner plate, roughly the same color as the book. And if one looked closely enough, one could see the faint writing of A Beginners' Guide to Transfiguration by Emeric Switch embossed on the plate. Well well, wasn't that just a nice enhancement? Bernie was pleased with her work.

Rylee had somehow managed to slip away from her cousins into the crowd of students. Since the moment she had arrived at the station everyone had been checking up on her. She was also one thousand percent positive that once this train started to move there would be even more people popping in on her. Which was the top reason why she wasted no time in finding herself an empty compartment and slipping inside, the door sliding shut behind her and her kneazle Cosmos.

Gently placing her bag on the floor beside the bench, Rylee sat herself down sideways, so her legs could be on the bench and her back was against the window area of the train. Pulling out her and gripping it in her right hand she cast a quiet charm to darken the compartment a little. The brightness of the compartment was too much right now.

Cosmos leaped up onto the bench to join her, carefully settling himself down on her lap in such a way that she could rest her still healing left arm up on his back, her hand on his head after sliding her wand back into it's holster. Leaning her head back against the wall of the compartment, she closed her blue-gray eyes in hope of possibly getting a few minutes of sleep.

Charlie pushed out of her compartment tired of sitting alone. So maybe being on your own wasn’t as fun as she thought it was going to be. Sure she didn’t mind the fact that she didn’t have her little brothers getting into all of her stuff. But she didn’t have here little sister around, and now she realized just how much of a little shadow she had.

Just as she rounded the doorway she saw the girl from the ice cream place. Her eyes narrowed a bit. Of course, she would be on the train. It took everything in Charlie not to glare at Catherine. She had been nothing but rude to her when she offered her table to sit at. Well she wouldn’t be so kind to offer her compartment to sit in.

Sigh, which direction had she heard the food trolley call from? She really didn’t want to have to be nice to her. But that look on her face she knew that look all to well. Fear. Sighing she walked closer tugging on her sequined skirt a bit. “I’m Charlie by the way. Wanna sit with me?” Wow she should get points just for being kind to her. She still planned on going to find the food trolley, but she supposed it could wait.

Catherine was kind of hoping either her brother or best friend would turn up and save her so she could join them, but knowing them they were probably off already making a million new friends while she was left to fend for herself.

Great.

It was only when someone spoke relatively close to her that she realised she had been biting her nails. Quickly moving her hand to her pocket, Catherine looked at whoever was talking to her.

Oh. She easily recognised that girl from the ice cream parlour. The one that offered her a seat and then started judging her. And well, it seemed like she was about to do the exact same thing again, asking if Catherine wanted to join her in the compartment she had just come from.

The one thing that was different this time was that the girl had offered her name first. Maybe it wouldn't be exactly like last time, then. She reckoned it was because the girl had realised they were likely going to be in the same year - though unlikely to be in the same house, Catherine thought - so she might be trying to make amends.

Looking both towards the front and then the back of the train again, Catherine didn't see either of the people she had been looking for before, so she looked back at Charlie. "Okay." She offered in her most polite tone, taking her belongings with her as she moved into the compartment.

Charlie smiled and followed along side the girl. She fidgeted with her skirt more and more because she just wasn't sure if the girl and her were going to be friends or if they were going to just be... well enemies was a bit much this early on. Wait. She could have enemies at Hogwarts this early. She shivered at the thought of having people hate her already. She did not like the idea of that at all. Not one bit.

Charlie left the door cracked as the moved further into the compartment. Maybe the food trolley would make its way back through the middle cars and she could finally ask for some snacks. But for the life of her, she couldn't remember her compartment companion's name. "Hate to be that person," but did she really hate to be that person? She was pretty sure that she was exactly that person. "Don't know that I remember your name from Florean's..." she trailed off hoping that maybe the girl just misunderstood her attitude. Her pops always did say she would get in trouble with it.

His eyes widened. Whatever he'd been expecting her to say, that definitely wasn't it. Almost expelled?

...it seemed he'd have to be more outgoing than he'd anticipated, if he were truly to live up to the rebellious expectations Magdelas had for him. Truth be told, he didn't think he had it in him to attack a Headmistress, but surely he could flirt with expulsion in a more underhanded manner. One thing was for certain: if his parents could see the path his brainstorming was taking at that particular time, they would have boxed Miss Whatever-Her-Name-Was about the ears for putting those ideas there in the first place.

At her question, he nodded, "It's my first year, yeah. I just found out about magic and all that a month ago, when I got my letter."

He scooted forward on his seat to watch her do magic, and couldn't help the excited expression on his face as the book flattened into a dinner plate. He was, after all, 11 years old.