After she'd loaded her luggage, Anna slowly headed to the one place she could go where she wouldn't be surrounded by too many people. She really didn't feel much like talking right now. There were too many different feelings swimming around in her head for her to even hope for a decent conversation. She'd venture out of the prefect's compartment as soon as the train had gotten well on its way. She had a few people to say goodbye to...as well as some prefect rounds to make.

As soon as she got settled in the prefect's compartment, Anna secured Charlotte's cage in the corner and then placed Piccadilly on her lap. She smiled at the little crup---who wasn't so little anymore---as she thought about the summer ahead. One one hand, Anna was bubbling over in excitement. Her wedding was only two weeks away, and then she and Cale were off to Greece for most of the summer. After that, though, things would get a tad hectic. Cale would go off to the Ministry and work, and she'd head back to Hogwarts for her seventh and final year. Sighing, Anna rested her head against the window and grew quiet, trying desperately to battle with the conflicting thoughts in her head.

"Honk! Honkkkkkkk Honk!"

Like usual, Cale Thornton's presence on the train was announced loudly by his beloved honking daffodil which was tucked safely into the crook of his left arm. In his right was a small travel bag filled with a few jars of gillyweed and some other water plants from the Hogwarts lake that Cale figured he could use at a later date to bread something.

He pushed the door of the compartment to the Prefect's compartment open.

"Honk!"

"No running in the compartment!" Cale yelled at an ex-firstie before climbing across the threshold of the compartment. "Oh, hiya Anna-eee."

THUNK!

That was sort of the sound Anna's head made when it hit the side of the window she'd been resting her head on. She'd been peacefully wading through her thoughts when the loudest, most annoying sound everrr interrupted her and startled her into accidentally banging her head against the window. Rubbing her head and wincing a bit in pain, Anna turned to see Cale---the Ravenclaw Cale, not her Cale---entering the compartment. Well, that explained the honking---and the yelling at someone apparently running down the aisles of the train.

"Hey there, Cale," she said, frowning slightly at the honking daffodil. That head bang against the window had hurt! "Another year down. Got any summer plans?"

"Ssmmmmmppppp oooo," Cale made a scrunched up face and a sucking ooo sound as he set Robin down on an empty seat. "That looked like it hurt. You gonna need a headache potion?"

He slipped his travel bag full of mason jars, which tinkled and clanked together as he moved it, over his head and set it down on the seat next to Robin. "Last year down. I'll be spending the summer looking for work. Oh," he snapped his fingers. "And entering Robin here into the International Plant Breeders Competition in Acerbus." He pushed some hair off his forehead. "I'm hoping to take the blue ribbon in vocal plants this year." Stupid Oliver Grant.

"Yeah...it did," Anna replied, finally removing her hand from atop her head. "I'll be alright, though. After six years of playing Quidditch and walking off that field with a bleeding and sometimes broken nose, I think I can handle a little head bang." Anna laughed softly and then watched as Cale positioned a travel bag full of...glass?...above his head and then sat down next to his plant. "What's all that?" she asked, pointing to the travel bag. Cale Thornton was certainly one interesting guy. "Oh, well...good luck to you and Robin both, then. I have no doubt that your plant is vocally ready to take top prize."

Anna looked out the window for a few moments and then turned back to Cale. "Finished your seventh year, huh? I'm entering my seventh year. Seems sort of scary, ya know. I suppose not to you, though. My Cale graduated, too. He's going off to the Ministry this Fall."

He was about to sit down when Anna-eee asked about the travel bag. "These? A few lasting samples of Hogwart Lake Gillyweed and a few other water plants I thought might be useful years down the road in my research. I don't know when the next time is that I'll get to go back there." He sat down next to Robin. "The lake was quite a treasure trove of herbaforial delights."

The consolation of 'I'm sure you'll find someone else to be gooey-pooey with next year' was about to slip out of Cale's mouth in what could only be described as word vomit, but the newly graduated Ravenclaw Prefect wasn't placed in Ravenclaw by accident. The comment's most logical ending wouldn't have been comfort but rather pure unadulterated anger. Thankfully, Cale's brain was fully functional now that N.E.W.T.s were done and it caught the slip before it could become social (and perhaps physical) suicide. "Yeah, last year I sorta felt that way. Now I'm more worried about tomorrow and the day after that. Oh and having to wash my own clothes - now that's a terrifying."

Cale walked down the train, absentmindedly playing with the spot on his robes where his badge had formerly been. He felt naked without it--and the fact that he was going to no longer be a prefect in about, erm...five hours was a very strange thought that he had not gotten used to yet.

Well, didn't mean he couldn't enjoy the luxury of the prefect compartment for the last time. He opened the door and shut it behind him with a small thud, turning to the two occupants of the compartment. "Hiya Anna, Hey Cale," he said with a grin. Cale was the same year as him and had graduated too--next term, there would be two different male prefects sitting in this compartment. WEIRRRRRD.

"What's up?" he asked, plopping down with a grin next to Anna and unwrapping a packet of jelly slugs. Mmmmmmm sugar rush.

Deciding he would just have his luggage stored on the rack in the luxuriously spacious Prefect's compartment on the ride back to King's Cross, Dominic figured he would make a stop there first. On top of that, even though he still wasn't particularly fond of Newell, the male Gryffindor was graduating and proper mannerisms dictated wishing him well in his future. Though the fifth transitional sixth year also knew that being his girlfriend had one year left, he would unfortunately - to his discord - still be around on Diagon Alley visits and such.

Sliding the door to the compartment opened, his eyes widened in alarm at seeing three people already seated there. Two Cales and Anna. Frowning at his own arrival, he wondered how long they had been sitting there since it was clear that he had NOT missed the train, but honestly, did they like find a way to apparate directly from the Great Hall into here?

"Hello," the Hufflepuff greeted amicably, sliding his trunk along the compartment and lifting it onto the rack. Lucky he was tall and athletically built. Once that he was settled, he took a seat next to Cale Thornton - not wishing to disturb sitting next to the lovebird Gryffindor Prefects. "You all looking forward to the break?"

"Ahhh," Anna said, trying hard to understand how one could be so enthusiastic about the field of Herbology. Herbology and Anna more or less...tolerated one another. When Anna thought about Herbology, she thought about relationships...such as the time Cela and Plymouth became boyfriend and girlfriend in the Student Gardens or the time Anna tried to convince Plymouth to become her Herbology tutor, only for Professor Bunbury to claim they were flirting. Oh, yes, Anna had quite a different view on Herbology than Cale did. Well, good luck with your herb...a...forial delights, then." Had she said that correctly? Maybe...maybe not. Then again, did she even know what a herbaforial delight was? Anna giggled when he mentioned being terrified of washing her own clothes. Anna could agree with him on that one---adult responsibilities were horrifying!

"Hey, sweetheart," Anna said, scooting over a bit to give her Cale more room to sit down. She frowned when she saw his badge-less shirt. It was the little signs, such as that one, that reeally called attention to the fact that Cale was officially gone from Hogwarts. No more late night strolls around the castle...no more quiet afternoons down at the lake...no more detention (thank Merlin) for public displays of affection. "It's gone," Anna said, eyeing that spot on his shirt once again. "I guess it's official, and you know...I thought I'd be devestated. I'm not, though. I'm really proud of you. My Cale, graduated and off in the big, adult world. Congratulations!"

Leaning over, Anna squeezed him in a tight hug. "Cale, I just want you to know that you've made the last three years at Hogwarts better than I ever thought they could be. You've not only been my boyfriend and co-prefect, you've been my best friend. I can't even imagine my life without you now," she said. "You've been there with me through the good times and the bad, as well as the happy times and the sad. I thank fate each and every day for bringing you to Hogwarts...and to me...three years ago. I love you, and I'll miss you every day, but...I'll see ya on the flip side, I guess. You'll have to write to me everyday and tell me how awesome the big, scary adult world is, and I'll write you back and tell you how same ole, same ole Hogwarts is. Then, when a whole year is up, I'll come home, and then we can finish the rest of our lives together."

"Oh, erm, hey, Dom," Anna said, glancing at him for all of a split second before turning right back to her Cale.

Cale smiled and hugged his girlfriend back. After a speech that awesome, he really didn't have much more to say. That summed it up perfectly. He sighed and looked down at his bare robes again and shook his head. "Yeah, it feels weird not being prefect anymore. And honestly, I've been waiting for a moment to come where I just...freak out about graduating, and it hasn't happened. Yet," he muttered with a small chuckle.

He looked up at Dominic entered the compartment. "Oh, hey Denton," he said with a small smile. True, him and the Hufflepuff prefect weren't the best of friends or anything--they sort of, tolerated each other. "Yea, break should be fun--my last big vacation before the job hunting begins," he added with a slight frown. Boooooooooooo for working and being an adult.

Grabbing ahold of Cale's hand, Anna smiled and scooted closer to him. "It does feel weird, but something tells me you're going to move on to something bigger and better. I can just see it now---'MR. CALEB NEWELL, MINISTRY DEPARTMENT HEAD'---etched into a plaque on a doorway somewhere in the Ministry of Magic. This isn't the end you know. It's the beginning of the rest of your life," she said. "Then, after you're good and settled in at the Ministry, a year later another name will be etched into a plaque on a different doorway---'MRS. ANNA NEWELL, POTIONS RESEARCHER.' We're going to have quite the future, you know, and lucky for us, it's only just beginning." Anna grew quiet as Cale started to talked to Dom. Cale's days with his school friends were numbered, but Anna would get to keep him for forever...and ever.

Slipping quietly into the Prefects compartment, Kayla stood by the door for a moment her eyes scanning the compartment and deciding on where she was going to sit. Denton and Thornton were on one side and Cale and Anna were on the other. Not really wanting to sit with the two lovebirds and disturb them but the thought of sitting next to Denton didn't exactly appeal to her either.

Letting out a small sigh, Kayla made a move towards the lovebirds when Anna's words caught her attention and her eyes widened slightly and her jaw dropped. "You two are getting married?" she managed to blurt out after a moment. Oops. Was she supposed to say that? Maybe it was supposed to be a secret.

Kayla changed direction and went to sit down beside Dominic instead. Just as she was about to plant her behind onto the seat however, the train gave a slight lurch causing her to stumble slightly and she promptly landed in Denton's lap. Oh! Not good. "Sorry about that Denton, I guess you shouldn't be so attractive" she drawled as she got back up and sat down on the seat.

She chuckled lightly waiting for Denton's explosion and she turned back to Anna and Cale watching them for a moment. Wow how nice it would be to know exactly what you wanted to do and have your life set out before you. Kayla leaned back in her seat, she had been so sure about what she wanted to do when she left school but Professor Kazimeriz had given her something else to think about and now she was all confused. And if that wasn't bad enough, her personal life was in utter turmoil at the moment. She snorted softly to herself...eh when wasn't it!

It appeared that Cale had worn out his welcomed discussion with Anna. It was a normal thing for him. He had always gotten the impression that the other prefects merely tolerate him, the same way that the students had. Oh well, too bad for them. They were missing out on the exciting world that was Cale Thornton land!
"Honk!"

Robin beat Cale to a hullo. "Hullo," he echoed with a half-hearted wave. "Break'll be boring and filled with degnoming the garden." He hated degnoming the garden. The buggers liked to bit his fingers. However, this year he had Noland, the gnomtruckle. Perhaps the weird little creature-plant would be helpful with the task? "I have to find a job and then there's the International Plant Breeders Competition in Acerbus. Robin and I are going to beat Oliver Grant this year in the Vocal Plant division this year, so help me merlin. You?"

Lost in thought, Anna found herself not quite aware of her surroundings when she was suddenly brought back by the sound of Kayla Winters' voice. Jumping a bit, Anna sat up straight and stared at her co-prefect, trying to piece together a few of the words she'd heard her say---two, getting, and married. "What? Oh, huh? I mean...yes, we are," Anna replied, feeling more than just a tad awkward. "I mean, you had to have known it would have eventually...I mean...yeah. In two weeks." Well, that had been awkward. Kayla was the first student Anna had actually given a straight marriage-related answer to, and she thought that maybe that might have something to do with the fact that she was currently in a compartment surrounded by very few people, two of which wouldn't be returning to Hogwarts next school year. Even then, one of the students not returning was her husband-to-be himself.

Cale Thornton's honking flower brought Anna out of her thoughts once again. Anna found herself jumping over the loud sound for the second time, but at least this time she didn't bang her head on the window of the compartment. Cale seemed really interested in Herbology, a subject Anna had always been not-so-great in. She listened as he detailed his future plans, most of which included Herbology related endeavors. "Sounds like you have a busy future up ahead, Cale. I only wish I was that sure of my plans. I'm only sure of one thing," she said, looking over at her Cale. "The rest is just...scary adult stuff."