OoooooooOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH HHHHHHH!!!!!!

HOGWARTS BOUND! HOGWARTS BOUND!! HOGWARTS. BOUND!!!

Matt preeeeeetty much bounced off the Platform walls INTO the train and BSLKDJGNSKLFJNSDKJF TRAAAAAAAAAAIN to HOGWAAAAAAAAAAARTS!!!

He was actually hyperventilating. Like, fo' real. HE WAS SO EXCITED he couldn't stay in one place. Hence his trunk being right in the MIDDLE of the train. Which included his owl that was in a cage placed not so neatly on top of his other stuff.

Matt was BUSY now. REALLY BUSY RUSHING back and forth from the front to the back of the AWESOME TRAIN because he was going to HOGWARTS, GOOD MERLIN!!! "HOGWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARTS!!!!"

They found an empty compartment easily enough, and claimed it. Haddie practically made a flying leap onto the compartment bench so she could grab a spot next to the window, and grinned at her friends, obviously proud of herself.

While the others settled into the compartment, she opened her messenger bag and pulled out a journal with silver lettering on the front, Hadley Denaker's Book of Ideas, beneath that in smaller silver lettering, Not for you, and a muggle pen.

She didn't open the diary though, but looked out the window onto the platform. Her family was there, all of them, Dad, Mark, Mom, and even Natalie. When they spotted her they waved, except Natalie, who was still trying to look angry and like she didn't care all at the same time. Hadley caught her wiping her eyes, however, when she thought no one was looking, and for the first time in months, Haddie thought there might be hope for her and her twin. She smiled and waved back.

"Oh!" Hadley pulled out her wand as she turned to Rachel. "She told me her name," she announced. "Kira."

It was here, it was hereeeeee.

Jay had finally allowed himself to be tracked down by his mother (who was awfully surly about the fact that he had gone unfound for the amount of time he did), had his hat taken off and then put back on after his hair had been messed with, had been fussed over and prodded and kissed on his cheeks and forehead more time than he could remember, and then had been gently nudged toward the gigantic train when it had finally pulled in. He would have been lying if he said that he wasn't apprehensive about getting on it and shipping off for an entire school year; he'd also have been lying if he said he hadn't held tightly to his mother's hand up until the very last moment he could.

If anyone asked, he would absolutely have followed through with the lying, though.

The minuscule boy held his equally minuscule hedgehog in a ball against his chest, and he pressed close to the wall as he walked to avoid being stepped on by the already numerous rambunctious students pounding their way up and down the hall. His little tummy churned with an extremely unfamiliar emotion, and he peeked into each compartment he went by, looking for an empty one he could hide in for just a little while. Huuuuuuu.

Austin was excited to start his new term. He had made new friends over the summer, and was ready to make more. Even if he didn't make any more friends, he was going to be too nervous about exams anyways. At least he had potions to fall back on. It was one of the few things he knew he was good at. He got that trait from his mom, but that only put more pressure on him. The boy felt the need to do exceptionally well during the exam to make his mother proud.

Thinking about it only made him that much more anxious. So after a quick wave to his father out the window, he settled into the seat. Maybe he'd find one of his friends later.

Haddie was the one who found them a compartment. Rachel was excited to be on the Hogwarts Express but her girl best friend was obviously even more excited. She giggled as the other girl literally threw herself in a seat closest to the window. She followed the others in, sticking close to the boy best friend as she had promised him.

"Are you okay, Garreth? Are you nervous?'' Rachel had to be sure he was alright. His shyness and limited confidence in himself always made her concerned for him though she knew she could not keep babying him.

Reaching Haddie, Rachel gracefully took a seat beside her, smoothing her clothing underneath her before she sat. She patted the space next to her while looking at Garreth. She would not mind being sandwiched between her two closest friends.

The girl cast an interested look at Haddie's book before looking out of the window to find Haddie's family. She waved too. "Haddie, do you think Natalie would mind it if we wrote to her a lot?''

"Hmm? Who told you their name?'' Rachel was momentarily confused then caught the wand in her friend's hand. "She did? That's a beautiful name.'' She wasn't really sure how Haddie's wand 'spoke' but Rachel knew her friend 'spoke' to inanimate objects as though they were real.

Haddie looked down at her wand, fidgeting with it. It was a long moment before she did anything else.

Finally she looked up at Natalie still sulking outside on the platform and shrugged. "I don't know. I-- I want to... I just don't know if it'll make things better, or worse." She shrugged again. "Has your wand told you her name yet?"

Garreth's furious distrust of large, tightly packed crowds had been a constant companion through his journey through London and King's Cross and into their compartment. Maybe his social skills weren't the most developed, but not for a second did it occur to him that anyone could possibly enjoy being around THIS many people. Still, this was the train to Hogwarts, and his overwhelming excitement completely blew those negative thoughts out of the water.

As they moved through the train, Garreth made note of pretty much everything he saw, and paid special attention to their compartment number. The thought had burrowed its way into his mind that you only got one 'First trip to Hogwarts', and it would be something you remembered for the rest of your life. It was to be an important detail in his recollections of Hogwarts in the future, and he was determined to make the most of it.

"I'm great!" He smiled back at his best friend who - rather sweetly - was so concerned for him. "Sure, I'm a little nervous, but Rachel! We're going to HOGWARTS!" his gleeful tone shattering the illusion of the sophisticated young man he attempted to seem like, revealing his true self: a giddy little boy going on an adventure.

Happily he took his seat next to Rachel and looked around the compartment. In his head, he had seen himself sitting by the window, but of course, so had everybody else, and he wasn't about to fight anybody for the window seat, nor sit on the opposite side rather than sit next to his best friend. He shot a glance over at Haddie when she announced that her wand had revealed it had a name. At least, that's what it sounded like she was saying. "Your wand has a name?" he asked, puzzled, but not disapproving. Who was he to say it didn't? Or that it had communicated this name to Haddie?

Regardless, the sight of Haddie's wand roused a desperate desire in him to show off his wand to his friends. The boy was overwhelmingly proud of it, perhaps more than most kids would have been, and even though he was by no means a vain or proud child, he simply couldn't wait to show it off. Too bad he felt it would be rude.

Art and Madame Curie were boarding the train. Yes they were. They were going to Hogwarts. But his clothes were a little bigger this time, and his hair a little greyer. Madame Curie squeaked excitedly in his ear, and he walked down to the middle of the train.

Where should he sit?

Hmm.... There were so many students. Everywhere. He smiled awkwardly at them, waving occasionally. "Hi, hello, hello," he said.

He walked into a random compartment, as they all seemed pretty full. No compartment to himself and Madame Curie, no. "Mind if one more joins?" he asked, and sat down without waiting for a response. He looked around with a grin on his face.

Ahh to be back...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jessiqua

Art and Madame Curie were boarding the train. Yes they were. They were going to Hogwarts. But his clothes were a little bigger this time, and his hair a little greyer. Madame Curie squeaked excitedly in his ear, and he walked down to the middle of the train.

Where should he sit?

Hmm.... There were so many students. Everywhere. He smiled awkwardly at them, waving occasionally. "Hi, hello, hello," he said.

He walked into a random compartment, as they all seemed pretty full. No compartment to himself and Madame Curie, no. "Mind if one more joins?" he asked, and sat down without waiting for a response. He looked around with a grin on his face.

Ahh to be back...

Say goodbye to summer holiday and hello to the school. Was she excited? Yes... A little bit. No for some reasons. No more Professor Dakest and his exciting Defense Against the Dark Arts class, No more Professor B and her generosity for giving them so many sweets every time they had class, No more Professor Culloden and his potions class (and his football partner too). And dueling club... Well, Dakest had promised that the dueling club would still be running but... Who knows?

Sitting in a compartment with Preston on her lap, Ava took some bite of her chocolate frog. She noticed that somebody had slid the door open and... Wait, he's not a student. She looked confused as the very old man asked if he could join her sitting in this compartment. Well? "I uh... Don't mind at all." Because there's no particular reason why she couldn't let him sitting in here. "Hello and uh... Aren't you too old to be a Hogwarts student?" Because he was old... Maybe at the same age of her dad (who was old too) but... Dunno.

Uh oh... He had a rat on his shoulder, and she had a cat here. Do your math what would happen after this.

Jasper had reached the train, surprised by how big it was. He was still early though, meaning there were still a few empty carriages. He was kind of thankful for that.

Finding one of those for himself, he sat down near the window so he'd be able to see the scenery when they were travelling. He was also hoping to catch a glimpse of the castle before they reached it as well!

Wondering what he could do he thought about his options.

Play his guitar? No that was currently in his trunk...

Read? Boring...

Finally he pulled out a small black sketchbook from backpack he'd been wearing, along with a led pencil, starting to sketch out what he thought the castle might look like...

Henric needed to find a compartment so he could have his *winkwink* alone time with his girlfriend. Hmm...he wondered if the middle cars were all full...there should be an empty one around here somewhere, right? But he saw students had already occupied most of them. *sigh* He should keep on looking then. He stopped and peeked through one of the compartment doors again, and was relieved to find an empty one finally! Yessss! He sat himself comfortably and propped his feet up onto the seat opposite to him. Nice~~~

Seventh year coming through! Yes, that was the attitude of one Noel Wallace as he strolled down the corridor. LAST TIME. It was the last time, Noel was ecstatic really. He just needed to make sure Hogwarts didn't kill him for one more term. And he will be free.

Seeing as most of the compartments were full, Noel decided to not be so picky and walked into one with the person he was in okay terms with. "'Sup, Nicolei?" he greeted idly, and pushed open the door a little more so Lamb could follow him in.

He watched as the crup climbed the seat opposite of Henric and waited for the younger puff to move his legs. Because hello, rude.

Hanging with friends (and family) was one of the best things, yes...and she obviously had loads of family on the train...but this was Olivia's FIRST time on the Hogwarts Express. That meant that an ADVENTURE was awaiting her...somewhere...and the tiny blonde planned to find it!

.

.

Or...she would...in a moment...


WAS THAT A CRUP?!


Peering into a random compartment, Olivia butted her way inside, completely ignoring the two older boys present. "Oh, look at how cute you are!!!" She carefully snatched the small creature up, nuzzling her face against his soft furry body. Gus, who was perched atop her blonde curls, leaned forward to get a better look. "I've wanted one, but my mum is mean." Not even two weeks worth of staged food strikes had solved the issue.

It was true, there was no logic behind the Dora train of thought. Ever. So she wasn't bothered by the curious look... in fact it was less OMG WTF IS WRONG WITH YOU than she had expected.

Boys are juvenile ... Dora took a moment to mull this over. It wasn't entirely untrue, was it? No. Henric seemed to like embarrassing her... Phillip had humiliated her last term... it was true. Hmmm. Maybe Chloe was on to something. Giving a small nod she replied, "Yeah. " Simply, yeah.

OH TRAIN WHISTLE THING MEANT SCHOOOOOL!! Taking a moment to hitch her rucksack up higher on her shoulder she nodded enthusiastically. "OF COURSE! YES! LET'S GO FIND A COMPARTMENT! " HUZZAAAHHHH!! LOUD NOISES! EXCITEMENT! YASSSSS!

llia? Did she found him? He knew she woul-...Eh? No, it wasn't her. Awwwh man...he was only here for a few minutes and already someone else wanted to butt into his compartment. Urgh...who was it this time? Oh, it was only Noel...his seventh year housemate and his used to be crush,Leah's, bestfriend. He returned his greeting with a nod,"Hey..." Hmm? He brought a dog with him? Wait...not a dog..a crup?! He could bring one of those in? Was there a written permission from the school for that crup of his?

Huh? What his crup doing now? Henric blinked at the creature for a moment before realising what it wanted. Ohh...he was waiting for him to move his feet away. "Oops...sorry little one..." he smiled and set his feet back to the floor. "Nice crup, what's her name?" he asked Noel. Wait, it could be a 'he'...but he didn't have time to check its gender when suddenly, a little girl came bursting through the doors. Woaah...what was happening in here?! He watched the girl scooped up Noel's crup into her arms. Oh dear...
"Uhh...hello,"he quipped.

Austin looked up as a young boy walked into the cart next door. Hoping to make a new friend, the fifth year put on a brave face, gathered his things, and walked over. "Hey," He knocked, hoping to get the boys attention. "I hope you don't mind if I join you. I was sitting next door, and i figured it would have been better to sit with you than for us to take up two seperate carts." There he goes again, rambling along. That tended to happen when he was nervous. But hopefully the young boy was equally as nervous, and thus not noticing Austin's nervousness.

"I'm Austin, by the way. Austin Moore." He sat down and stuck out a hand.

And THERE was the loud that Chloe was talking about on Gryffindors. It burst out of Dora like a canon and she was genuinely surprised when her head didn't, just, pop straight off. But she was glad of it. The clean up sounded very, very messy.

She offered Dora a small smile and jerked her head in the way of the train, "Come on, then."

The blonde climbed up into the train and automatically began walking toward the back of the train. Far away from other people. Though, she conceded, Dora probably wanted to be semi-close to the action, so she picked a compartment smack in the middle and wandered in.

He needed to see Teddy, immediately. He wouldn’t believe he met a really old witch, with tarot cards. He also needs to mention that this old lady looked like the real thing. Scary looking witch who looked like she hasn’t bathed in centuries, BUT is emanating with psychic powers. It was a very scary and interesting brief encounter.

As soon as he reached the middle cars, he went straight to where Ava was, and gently closed the compartment door behind him. “I can’t find Teddy anywhere, Ava-san...I wonder...” Jace’s voice trailed off as he realized that she wasn’t alone. “Ohayo.” He said, automatically greeting the man in his native language. “I mean, good morning.” He corrected himself and gave the man a bow. Was it...unusual to have a grown man on board?

All questions were thrown out the window when he saw a RAT.

Jace gasped, paling at the sight of the rodent perched ON the man’s shoulder, and took a violent step backwards making his back crash on the compartment door.

He can tolerate the hag...but the rat...NOPE!

Rachel giggled. It was quite obvious that Garreth was excited too. "Yes, we are. We are finally able to attend the best school in all of the Wizarding world!'' Wizarding primary school had been great but at Hogwarts, they would be able to do lots and lots of magic. She could hardly wait to get started on Charms, Transfiguration and most of all, Herbology.

"Haddie talks to inanimate objects,'' Rachel explained to Garreth with a giggle. "They talk back to her.'' She playfully nudged her girl best friend in the ribs. "I know you're not completely crazy though. No, I don't think it wants to talk to me just yet. Perhaps it will speak to you?'' She cast another look outside at the family. "We can try writing to her at least once and see how things go.''

"Garreth? What's your wand?" He had never told her about his. Was it similar to hers like hers and Haddie's? How exciting that would be!

Why was there an old man on the train?

Esme had so many questions because she had never seen that happen before. Was he really bad at magic and STILL getting his education? Or was he a Professor? If so, why was he on the train? As far as she knew the Professors didn't ride to Hogwarts with the students.

Esme was rather confused.

Curiously she followed behind a younger boy and entered the compartment. There was a girl inside and she looked to be the same age as Teddy. How cool would it be if she was his sister! He had told her that they looked nothing alike, so she was just as good a possibility as any Second Year girl.

"Er, hello." She waved. "Are you a Professor?" she asked the old man.

Was that a rat?

...

Despite her efforts to get in first, Genny found herself squished and pushed and dragged in the small corridor to the middle cars. She elbowed her way out of a bunch of oldies and was spit out into an empty compartment. She gave the swarm of students a look as she fixed her robes then proceeded to even out her two long pigtails that her mother spent quite a while fashioning them.

Haddie rolled her eyes at Rachel. "Well, maybe if you didn't call her an 'it', she might be more willing to chat."

She leaned forward to see Garreth better. "I'm not as crazy as Rachel makes me sound. She just doesn't understand," Haddie punctuated that by returning the playful elbowing in the ribs. "It's not like they talk to me in words or anything. I just, um-- Things have their own spirits and identities and personalities, you know? It's like..." She paused. She was about to go into her long time spiel of how computers had their own temperaments and quirks that you had to learn to work with, but then she realized her new world was filled with actual examples, and smiled. "Like the measuring tape at Ollivander's! He's just an object, enchanted to move and work on his own, right? And now he can show everyone his personality. His name is La Rue, by the way."

She leaned back in her seat, sitting up a bit straighter, more regal, and smiled that now familiar Haddie smile, the one she had whenever she was exceptionally pleased with herself. "It's like that. I can see their spirit and personality and identity." Her pleased-with-herself smile grew bigger for a second.

"Oh yes! Can we see your wand, Gary? Is your wand a boy or girl?"

As far as Daxton had managed to deduce from his experiences on the Hogwarts Express to date, the front cars and the back cars were usually the ones which ended up busiest, full of crowds of rowdy students. As such, he had been sure to scout out a small empty compartment in the middle of the train, and heaved his trunk to it once the train had departed. Daxton still did not trust leaving his belongings in the luggage compartment, and if he had it with him where he sat, the likelihood was that it would take up so much space that nobody else would want to sit with him.

He sank into a seat now, right up by the window, leaning his forehead against the cool glass of the window. After a few moments to gather himself - the ruckus of the platform and boarding the train was always enough to send Daxton's brain into a spin - the now-second-year shuffled around in his seat to get comfortable. He leaned back against the window-side wall of the compartment, stretched his legs out along the seats, wrestled a tatty and well-worn paperback book out of the pocket of his shorts and began reading. Occasionally, Daxton would glance up at the closed compartment door whenever he caught movement out of the corner his eye, usually someone walking by, and sent a glare through the window. After a while, during which nobody had bothered him, Daxton allowed himself to get lost in the pages of his book.

Dora scurried along behind her FRIEND and waved at a few people here aND there. Hehe. And Chloe was right, of course. Dora ALWAYS wanted to be near the action. ALWAYYYYYSSSSS!

Upon entering the compartment the smaller blonde plopped onto the bench and sprawled out. YASSSS! YAS!

OH! She had ALMOST forgotten. "I GOT YOU SOMETHING! I saw it this summer and it reminded me of you! " And it had been inexpensive... and yeah. After a little more digging Dora brought out the WONDER WOMAN comic. Hehebe. She had told Chloe she enjoyed Wonder Woman MOST!