Oh, lordy. Now look what she did, she made the poor boy upset! Schuyler honestly did try to suppress a grin when he curtly responded with an 'I'll try.' Then there was this awkward lull where neither of them said anything, just stood there like bumps on a log. Maybe there would be some cricket chirping.

This pressure of speech thing was getting out of hand, so Schuyler came up with something to day. She was good at doing that. "So, what year are you, then? I'm going into my fifth year." Fifth year, first year at Hogwarts.

Dylan watched as the girl took Ginger and pet her. "Her name is Ginger, by the way." he added with a small smile, standing a bit on his tippy toes so he could look at his kitten better. 'Cause Dylan was a bit short, and this Mack girl was kinda taller than him..."It's nice to meet you, Mack. I'm Dylan!" he then said with a smile, surprising himself at how suddenly friendly he was becoming lately with people. Turns out he wasn't so shy now a days, which was good. He needed to make lots of friends, he didn't wanna be all alone at Hogwarts because of some stupid shyness...

"Oh!" Annabeth smiled. The boy seemed to be bad-tempered. "Did you ever see a big mess like that?" She looked around. "Everyone is worried about their pets and trunks and saying good-byes... Definitively, I like it!" She nodded and added "by the way, I'm Annabeth, Hufflepuff, second year. I'd like to invite you to wait for the train with me there", the girl pointed towards to a less crowded place, farther north, at the beginning of the platform. "What do you think?"
Annabeth was excited with the idea of being helpful for someone.

Kace finally made it to the platform. He smiled and saw the huge red engine. His heart was exploding with happiness. He was SO happy to be going back. He wheeled his cart to the conductors to let them take his luggage. Then he gave his owl cage to him as well. She was already sleeping so he was sure she would be safe.

Once he got his stuff done, he looked around the platform to see if he could see anyone he knew......

Hmmmm. Bludger... that was a good sounding name. 'Cause the kitty was black and darted around running into people and things trying to injure them. Or at least that's what it felt like. At least, the cat did remind Tobias of a Bludger. Well, he'd definitely think on it.

Anyway, yeah. "Of course this year will be better. Even if it doesn't seem like it, all you need to do is look and think and you end up finding something that's better." He didn't mention it, but one of those things was that THIS year there probably wouldn't be another ice cream drama, leading to the syrup disaster. In Tobias' mind, there was nothing worse than a sadness that you couldn't get past. And, like Forrest said, the headmistress had PROMISED that things would be better.

Tobias chuckled a little and scratched the kitty behind the ear. HE WAS SO CUUYUUUUUTE EEEEEEEE. "Bludger is a good name... or maybe Blighter." As in 'you little blighter'. Well, there was time to figure it out.

Deciding to just... not think about the man-eating plant part of what Lex said, Tobias thought for a second for something else to say, otherwise they would be talking about school craziness and just how safe the place actually was. "So uhh... are you guys' families not still hanging around?" His grandparents were still here, and would hopefully stick around until the train left. Was that not the done thing?

Forrest was about to nod fiercely that this year was going to be better in at least one way, but Alexa beat him to it. His face went paler when she mentioned man-eating plant, and he even stopped breathing for a few seconds and just stared at her with big, shocked eyes.

...was she trying to say that was how Headmistress kept her promises? He lowered his gaze on the ground and looked at it nervously. Surely... surely Headmistress was the honest, cute lady she appeared to be... he didn't want to be a meal to any plant...

He forced himself once, twice to answer Tobias' question, but he couldn't. He didn't even remember what it was. It certainly wasn't anything more shocking than a man-eating plant though. Alexa had made it sound as if it was nothing, but she was a Gryffindor. What she called 'cool' was the most terrifying event on the earth for him.

Maybe he should just run away before it was too late.

They're going to hit the wall any moment now, aaaaaany moment...

Aaany mooooment?

They were still running.... No sign of any walls...

Tallulah opened one eye, her face still scrunched up - ready for the impact.

Oh.

"FERN WE DID IT!!"

They were on the other side of the platform! Tallulah's mouth fell open, seeing all the other students and parents, and the train. The train was beautiful! Far prettier, far more majestic than any train she'd ever seen.

"Merlin... It's even more amazing in person!"


Ollie and Nancy appeared next, jogging up to meet the girls. Nancy looked nearly as overwhelmed as Tallulah did, also having never seen the Hogwarts Express in person. "It is even more amazing. And you get to spend many, many hours in her cabins."


Ollie frowned momentarily. Nance didn't have to say anything for him to see his wife was mildly envious. He wrapped an arm round her waist and pulled her close to him, and kissed her cheek.

"Indeed!"Let's cheer up the mood! "I can't think of a better place for you to spend most of your Fifteenth birthday! I wonder if they're still as outdated as they were in my day..." Ollie smiled - one of those toothy grins which fill your cheeks to resemble a 6 year old.

"Hey, Nance - Did you bring the you-know-what? "

QUEUE EVEN BIGGER GRIN.


"Of course I did." Digging into her bag, Tallulah's mother pulled out a 9" white cardboard box - a box which definitely didn't look like it could fit in Nancy's bag (That was Ollie's handiwork).

"One last thing, then we'll let you two get on the train. You didn't think we'd forgotten this, had you?"


Tallulah stared between her parents as they talked. Did her mum bring WHAT? What had they been hIDING from her?!

Oooh... Her attention was distracted by a slightly older student, one with a broomstick... She looked so cool.

"Forget about what?" Tallulah asked, looking back to her parents. There wasn't anything she could THINK of that they'd forgotten. She had all her clothes, her books, her wand, the birthday presents they'd given her, her cards, those sickles Myrtle just gave her, she even had Fern still with her! They'd not forgotten ANYTHIN-- "OH. You didn't. Muuuuuuum..."

'I can't take THAT with me. I don't KNOW anyone to share it with!'

...

Tallulah frowned, suddenly not looking forward to spending her birthday on a huge, huge train. It was going to be such a lonely birthday.

Asher strode along the platform, smiling from ear to ear. It was finally time to go back to Hogwarts and he couldn't be happier. The summer had been long and helping take care of his sick mother had proved to be much harder than he ever thought.

As he walked towards the train, he noticed a fellow Hufflepuff "Hi there, Kace!" Asher hurried towards him and held out a hand "It's me, Asher." He hoped that Kace would remember him. It had been a while since they had seen each other. Looking up and down the platform, he strained to see who else had arrived.

"Ginger, well that's a fitting name..." the blonde chuckled. She bent down slightly as she noticed the boy, now known as Dylan, was standing on his tippy toes. "So Dylan, what house are you hoping to get into?" Mackenzie smiled, still secretly hoping he would be a baby lion.

"WE DID WE DID WE DID! WE'RE GOING TO HOGWARTS, 'LLULAH!" Fern hopped up and down, prancing around her cousin. Then, mid-skip, she stopped. And stared.

"OOOOOOOOH! It's so shiny!" Was Minnie on board already? What about Claudette? Did Tallulah know those girls? Of course she did. They were all teenagers. Maybe they would all get to sit in the same cabin! Just her and Tallulah and Minnie and Claudette, and they could do each other's nails and gossip, and it would be just girls, and it would be awesome!

The 11-year-old turned around to tell Tallulah her amazing idea, but stopped when she notice Aunt Nancy's expression. And then her own mother, looking odd and...

Then her aunt and uncle were presenting Tallulah with a box, causing Fern to completely forget what she had been thinking only seconds earlier. "OPEN IT, OPEN IT!"

Kace was looking around for friends then he heard someone call his name. He turned around and noticed a fellow puff. Kace beamed and waved. "Hey Asher! It is good to see you!" he meant it. He didn't really spend too much time with Asher last semester and hopefully that will change.

"How was your summer?" he asked conversationally.

Pssh.

"I'm not opening it now. It's obviously cake." Specifically, it was a peanut butter chocolate cake. She knew it was, because 1) the box smelled as such, and 2) it's the cake her mum made her every year. "We can open it on the train, later - yeah? Your frog isn't having any, though." Heh.

"Talking of which, you should be getting on it." Ollie announced, checking his watch. "Come one, we'll help you get your trunks on board."

Tallulah nodded, and perched the cake box on top of her trunk before throwing herself towards her mum for a hug. She may have said something about going to miss her mum this year.

"Promise you'll write to us every week?"

"I promise."

"Fern, it's your job to make sure she actually does. Okay?"

More hugs.

"Come on then! Fern and I still have to find somewhere decent on the train to sit!"

The blonde jumped slightly as she noticed the other cat that had almost made it to where she was before another girl had thankfully caught it before it actually managed to get to her.

But once the other girl was holding her own cat in her arms she giggled slightly at the way that it was playing with the badge, which was when she noticed the other girl was her own houses Quidditch captain... unfortunately Kahlan couldn't remember ever meeting her let alone what her name was.

"No worries, Jinx is the same most of the time" she said, shaking her head at cat named so stupidly by her older brother. "And he didn't even manage to get to us anyway, but he's adorable, what's his name?" she continued with a smile aimed mostly at the really, really insanely cute cat that almost attacked her.

"I'm Kahlan by the way" she continued after pausing for a moment, figuring now would be a good time to properly introduce herself considering she'd forgotten to earlier on. "Second year slytherin" she finished, remembering how while she'd been here last year, the first thing people tended to ask was which year you were in and which house you belonged to.

Despite that it didn't make much sense to the Irish girl.

Thankful that Kace remembered him, he did look quite different being almost an entire inch taller, Asher smiled brightly. He sat down his back pack and handed trunk and owl toting trolley over to the gentleman loading the luggage compartment.

"My summer?" He thought for a moment how he was going to answer that. it had been a hard summer caring for his mother and his dad had been gone for most of it. Without his mother working, his dad had to make up for it with a lot of extra work. "My summer was alright. Let's just say that I'm happy to be going back to school." Asher fiddled with the chocolate frog card he was holding in his hand. "How was your summer? Did you get to travel at all?"

Stan was easy-going most times but this girl.. she was just annoying. Or maybe it was just the fact that she didn't fall for his smile, like most girls did. Running a hand through his hair, he started to feel really awkward. For how long was he supposed to stand here again? He finally considered just walking away when she broke the silence.

.. FIFTH year? Really? She was going to be in his year!? That would mean he'd see her around quite a bit, right?.. Oh, man. Stan tried not to look too upset. "I'm entering my fifth year as well."

hehe. Oh, gosh. If he thought he was good at disguising his disappointment about her being in the same year as him, then he was WRONG. As he frowned, Schuyler basically did the opposite. Was it bad that she found some pleasure in his upset feelings? "Really? Who would have thought. Maybe we'll even be lucky enough to get the same, exact house." That would be overkill. And she honestly didn't think she'd be able to tolerate the cheesy smile and oozy charm 24/7.

She tapped her fingers on the base of her trunk. When was this train coming, anyway?

It was strange, that weird feeling of being scared to cross the barrier from the muggle station to the platform where the Hogwarts Express was and Patrick hadn’t been able to figure out why; he was a superhero for Merlin’s sake! Superheroes weren’t afraid of walls, they were supposed to be brave enough to save the world and right now he hadn’t felt much like his normal self which definitely had been strange; it wasn’t like he had Kendall around either to make sure he was alright but he had had chocolate so maybe things weren’t about to be so bad after all, maybe this was the very reason that there was always some kind of chocolate in his messenger bag. It was always useful whether or not he had been the one to need it, rule number one had been to be prepared for any situation but this time there wasn’t anything wrong really but that really hadn’t change the earlier curiosity for what was happening. Instead of trying to figure it out, he only took a box of chocolate truffles from his bag and started to chew on them while attempting to maneuver the trolley with one hand. Might not have been the wisest decision but that was alright.

So as long as he hadn’t managed to accidentally run into anyone while figuring out where to go once he had gotten on the train then it definitely would have been awesome, the sixteen year old might not have looked it but at times he ended up avoiding conflicts was necessary so that they hadn’t led to a whole other situation. What was that muggle term for it? Ah right the domino effect, it took one wrong move for everything else to end up in trouble and that wasn’t anything which had needed to be dealt with, at least not right now. Right now was time for finding friends or meeting new people, whatever came first.

Charlie was lost. He had his trunk and his rucksack. Fred was in his pocket. He was ready to go to Hogwarts. Was this the train? He had followed some people through a wall. It was where his mother had pointed him. He was alone from there onwards though. He dragged his trunk slowly up the platform until he saw some people his age. Two boys. They looked nice. He hoped.

"Um hi..." he said, waving his free hand awkwardly at them. "Is this the train for Hogwarts?"

She was SOOOOO ready for Hogwarts. Bristol couldn't even describe how ready her version of ready was because it was just that ready. Understand? After having said goodbye to Mum and Daddy, she stood and took in the platform around her. Dee had already wandered off, but she knew she didn't have to worry, because her twin was a big girl now. Just like her.

Soon, just standing didn't satisfy, so she moved around and listened to people's conversations. It didn't take for her to hear a familiar voice. "CHARLIE," she called over several other people and waved her hands around so he could see her. "Did you ask about the train? This is the Hogwarts Express," she said and grinned. Straight to Hoggywarts this would take her, Charlie and all the other peoples.

Speaking of other peoples ..

"Hellooooo," she said to everyone, but specifically the two other boys that Charlie had spoken to.

''Is it usually like this each year?'' Adi asked, yet again dodging another student. Really! Don't they see properly? Or did they need another pair of eyes. He frowned after the kid. She didn't seem to be that older than he was. He turned back to the girl and grinned. "Well, I won't mind it if they just looked where they were going.'' Annabeth Hufflepuff? "Are you related to Helga Hufflepuff?'' he asked with a mighty amount of interest. He totally misunderstood that Annabeth was telling him she belonged to Hufflepuff House. "Nice to meet you, Annabeth! I'm Aditya Rehman but you can call me Adi like everyone else does.'' Adi grinned. "Do I call you Anna or Beth for short?'' And how awesome! He would have company!! "Yes, I'd love to, thanks! In the meanwhile, you can tell me about your first year if that's okay with you.''

Charlie heard a voice he recognised. He frowned though. Where was the voice coming from. He spun around on the spot. "BRISTOL" he smiled. He saw her waving arms. He waved his free hand at her. Why didn't he let go of the trunk? It wasn't going anywhere. He let go of it and it stood up straight. He began to wave at her with both hands.

"This is the train?" At least someone knew. "You excited to be going now? We'll be there this afternoon." When he could eat to his heart's content.

"What house do you wanna be in?"

Asher noticed a young boy headed his way, looking rather lost. "Hi" he greeted as the boy approached. "I'm Asher. This here is Kace." Smiling, he reached his hand out to help the boy with his trunk. "Yes, this is the train to Hogwarts. I assume this is your first year."

As he spoke to the lost looking boy, Asher heard a girl call out. "Hi back at ya" he said to her. He wondered if he looked as young his first year. The summer had treated him well with a nice growth spurt. Yes, he was only a year older than these two, but he felt much bigger. "I take it you know each other already?" Gesturing towards Kace, "This is my friend, Kace. We are both second year Hufflepuffs."

The boy shrugged. "I don't quite care, but most of my family thinks I'll be in either Hufflepuff or Ravenclaw. So those are my preferences I guess." Dylan said. He really didn't care though, he knew he'd be happy in whatever house he was sorted into. "What house are you in?" he then asked curiously, cocking his head slightly.

Taylor walked onto the platform. One of her ears were pierced all the way up and down with small silver hoops and chains while the other just had the normal piercing. Her nose had a small ruby sparking in it. Her blonde curls were cut to her shoulders and was streaked with a hot pink and purple. Tay wanted a new look for her last year... She wanted change. Her sunglasses were sitting on top of her head and she was leaning against the wall, watching people. One leg was bent and against the wall near her bottom while the other was just normal and standing. She had her arms crossed and her bags by her side. Her clothes were clean and had the new freshness to them while her mouth was set in a tight straight line and were red with lipstick. Her eyelashes had mascara on and her nails were painted silver with pink stars. Her skin was tan as if she spent most of the summer on the beach. Her clothes were tight and she was glowing.

Brodie was traveling the platform after his little talk with Alec with a small sigh, it helped slightly, but he still wasn't looking forward to the year. His slight limp still there and he barely managed to pull his bags between him. He looked around and was very tempted to turn the other way when he saw Taylor standing there, heartbreak showed and he tried, failing to mask it. She looked beautiful, though she looked nothing like the sweet girl he'd fallen for, she was still gorgeous... Still flawless... and probably still over him. He sighed and started to turn away, not wanting to do this now, though his limp slowed him down tremendously he tried to walk away from her.