Taylor looked at him and then looked away and sighed. She pushed off the wall and left her things as she sauntered over, flipping her hair. Tay finally reached him and she stopped and posed. Her shirt rid up a few inches to show her pierced belly button. Taylor smiled, "Brodie!" She placed a hand on his shoulder, "You look better now." Tay ran a hand down his arm and pulled her hand away, putting her hands on her hips and shifting her weight which made the piercing sparkle. She smiled at him, "How have you been?" Taylor straightened up his shirt and then laughed, "Sorry..." Tay backed away some and then twirled in front of him, "How do i look? I am so glad that we can be friends."

Brodie didn't react as she yelled his name. He could say he didn't hear her right? Aparently not... Because she managed to grab his shoulder. He sighed and looked back at her giving a very weak smile, "Hardly better... Just can walk again and don't need a neck brace..." He looked at her for a moment then down, "I've been better." How else was he supposed to put it? Tell her the truth that looking at her still caused a stab, and he highly doubted it would ever stop. He just shrugged as she said he was sorry, "You look gorge..." He stopped himself, "Good... You look good."

"Last year was the same. I think it's always this way." Anna nodded. "But last year I was worried about the school, among so many other things... A Hufflepuff?! Oh, it would be amazing, but not. I didn't make myself understood: I'm not related to Helga Hufflepuff, I'm just a student sorted into her House." She grinned once again. She was a proud Hufflepuff and thinking about it filled her heart with pleasure.
"Nice to meet you, Adi. You can call me Anna. I have a very dear friend who calls me Anna, he's so kind! Unfortunatelly he graduated last year and I'll miss him so much... " She shook her had aside and added "Anyway! Which House do you want to be sorted into? All the Houses are wonderful, but I like Hufflepuff... Everyone is friendly there." She grinned, took his hand and led him towards the less crowded place she had pointed to.
"Phew! I didn't think it would be so hard to come here". Anna release his hand and rubbed her forehead with the back of her hand. "So, Adi, do you want to know about my first year? It was amazing. The older students told me that Hogwarts was different now that the elves are gone and the school have less money, but I thought it was amazing. I don't mind if we have to eat on dixies or have to do laundry - I don't like to do the laundry or clean things, but it's not so bad as it seems to be..." the girl shrugged. "The classes! The classes are amazing! I love Potions and Herbology! Defence against the darks Arts is very interesting too, but the teacher is a little weird. She likes yoga and makes us to do strange stuff, like laugh a lot." Then the girl looked at him and waited for his questions. She had talked a lot and needed some time to breath.

Taylor sighed, "Sorry to hear that..." Tay pouted and then shifted her weight. A smile started to form as he started to say gorgeous but frowned as he changed it to just good. "Well, thank you." Tay smiled at him and didnt realized that her shirt was still showing off the piercing as well as her flat tummy. "So how was your summer?" Taylor messed with her hair and smiled, showing her sparking white teeth that shone beside her red lips and tanned skin. Her tan was natural and glowing as she stretched her arms above her head, "I cant wait to get on the train. Who are you sitting with?" She bent backwards into a bridge so that she can stretch. She went into a hand stand and turned, facing him. "Good summer minus the hospital?" She did a flip and landed on her feet and showed off her high heels. They made her legs look long and she ran her fingers along the holes in them with a smile. She had an awesome year.

"Peanut butter chocolate cake!?!" Fern exclaimed, making grabby hands at the box. She may have had two scrambled eggs and a slice of toast and an apple and a glass of milk and stolen some chocolate from Uncle Carl's secret stash for breakfast, but there was a slice (or two) of Tallulah's birthday cake calling her name. She wanted it noooow. But it was her cousin's big day, really, so she just nodded glumly to the older girl's suggestion. And of course she wouldn't be feeding Lewis cake. "That's ridiculous; I've got his crickets right here." Fern patted the right pocket of her robes; she'd caught them just that morning.

Ollie's reminder of the time sent all the Quimbleys scrambling for last minute hugs, Palmer's included. And now that the time for departure was nearing, Fern found herself reciprocating their embraces instead of trying to escape. Her throat might have even felt a little scratchy.

But nah. That would be silly.

"Aye aye, Uncle Ollie! Even if I have to lock her in the owlery." Fern saluted, trying to keep her face set in a serious expression but failing. Then she grabbed her trunk, and moved next to Tallulah. "That's right! If we don't go now, we might have to sit with people who smell bad!" That would be the very worst, and Fern began to hurry to the train, shouting, "Goodbye Mum! Goodbye Dad! Goodbye Patty! Goodbye Grandpa Phil-"

"WAIT! FERN AND TALLULAH WAIT!" Carol called, looking frantic and close to tears, "I need a picture, of my favorite girls. Rhonda, where's that camera? And Patty, go on dear, get with Tallulah and your sister." She gently pulled the 3-year-old off of her left leg, from where the little girl had been clinging since they'd parked the car, and prodded her towards the other two. Rhonda readied the camera, and Carol shouted, "Say cheese cauldron!"

"I'm a Gryffindor!!" Mackenzie said proudly. She wasn't bragging just happy with her house. "But I'm sure you'll love whichever house you get into! They really are all great!" The blond smiled at her new friend. She really was hoping that he would enjoy any house he was going to be put in, and they would be fine as long as he wasn't a Slytherin... Nothing personal against other Slytherin's but they were mortal enemies...

Adelaide grinned with pleasure once she made it to the other side. Mainly she was just happy she hadn't run into the wall face first. One thing was for sure: this place was packed. She carefully pushed her cart through the crowd, making sure not to jostle Oreo too much. Didn't need the cat giving her problems later. She put her trunk with the other's, grabbing Oreo's cage.

Addi looked around at all of the people. She didn't see any familiar faces which made sense because she only knew about three people that she would be going to school with. Her smile started to fade as she saw everyone saying goodbye to their parents. She got a quick goodbye when Mr. Samson picked her up and that was it. Nothing heartfelt about it. Great. Now she was sad.

Benzi had to admit, it had been a rather emotional farewell. Mummy had cried, he had NOT cried NOPE NOT AT ALL NO TEARS NOPE, and now his trunk was in place, everything was ready to go and Mummy was gone. He knew that she had to work, and couldn't stay for very long, but Benzi was a little bitter about it nevertheless. He was LEAVING. She should have taken more time off.

Looking glumly at all the parents saying goodbye to their children, he noticed an older girl standing around not too far from him who was also alone. Perhaps her parents also had to work? ... Plus Mummy did say that the best way to make friends was to go up to random children and say hi.

So he would do as Mummy said, for the first time ever. He walked over the girl, frowned a little bit at their height difference, and proceeded to reach up and tap her on her shoulder. "Hi."

... Benzi ran a hand down his cornrows. Now what?

Addi was lost in her sad thoughts about her parents. Man, she lucked out in the lineage department, but her parents were really sucky. She was a little happy she wouldn't be seeing them for quite some time. Maybe her being gone would be a good thing for all of them.

She was pulled out of her thoughts as she felt someone tap on her shoulder. Adelaide turned around and looked down at the little boy that had approached her. She immediately plastered a grin on her face. Couldn't let anyone else see how sad she was right?

"Hi to you too. What can I do for ya?" That was the proper thing to ask at the moment wasn't it? Maybe he needed help with his bags or something.

He might be eleven, but Benzi wasn't stupid. He saw how she went from sad to happy in a second, and didn't believe it. Mummy did that too sometimes, but it usually just made him feel guilty so he would hug her. Benzi didn't think hugging a girl stranger would be a good thing to do.

Instead, he opted for talking. "Um. You going to Hogwarts?" he asked, then hit himself on the head. Of COURSE she was going to Hogwarts. Not made people here at school age weren't. Shaking his head mainly because his hand had HURT he grinned sheepishly at the girl.

Look! He was being CUTE. Mummy said that was always a good thing. Benzi didn't really think so, but perhaps this older girl knew everything about Hogwarts and would help him. That sounded like a plan.

Adelaide looked down at the boy, her smile still planted on her face. "Yep. You too I'm guessing?" She figured he had to be a first year or something close to that. She realized that she was technically a first year too, even though she was going into her fifth year.

Oreo let out a complaining meow from inside his cage. She ignored the cat. He had never been in a carrier for this long so he was bound to complain a bit.

"Yeah! Can you tell me about it? My Mum went to Hogwarts but she wouldn't tell me nuthin' expect the stuff I had to know because she said there's nothing like exploring it yourself and blah blah blah but I just want to hear about it already!" Benzi exclaimed, his energy coming to life as she reminded him that he was, in fact, going to Hogwarts. Thoughts of being left here alone soon left him - he'd never really been one to stay upset for long anyways.

HOGWARTS. Uncle Jake's school. Mummy's school. Lucas and Alice's school. But his cousins were going up with Uncle Jake to Hogsmeade first, which is why they weren't here. He'd wanted to go too, but Mummy had insisted he needed to go through the 'Hogwarts Express' experience.

It seemed to take him a few moments, but soon enough Charlie had spotted her and was waving just like her. They must have looked quite silly to other peoples, especially as they were only a couple of meters apart, but Bristol couldn't have cared less. Life was too short to not look like an idiot. At least in her opinion. "Yes. This is it," she confirmed and grinned. "Excited would be an understatement! I CAN'T WAIT. It's going to be so cool." Of that she was sure.

House?

Was that a serious question?

"HUFFLEPUFF," she cried, followed by even more grinning. "I think I'm Hufflepuff like, plus my best friend is in that house." So she wanted to be in that house more than any of the others. Ravenclaw was her parent's house, but Hufflepuff was her best friend's house. She'd just have to wait and see, eh? "What about you, where do you wanna gooooo?"

YAY. Someone had noticed her little call out to the world.

"Yeah. We met at the ice cream shop in Diagon Alley, where I got brain freeze," she explained and thought back on it. It had been nice to meet someone who seemed to like ice cream just as much - if not more - as she did. Wait, did he say Hufflepuffs? "I bet we'll get on great, then. Hufflepuff's my favourite house because that's where my best friend is." Repetition was totally necessary there. "It's VERY nice to meet you both. I'm Bristol."

Brodie looked down, he didn't feel it was his place to tell her she was gorgeous or beautiful anymore... They weren't together anymore, as much as that killed him, so he didn't need the chance of some jealous new guy coming along and telling him to back off. He forced himself to look away from her, he just couldn't looked at her right now like this. All he wanted was to pull her close and tell her he loved her and he made a mistake and just... A bunch of things he couldn't do anymore. He sighed silently, "Well, it's hard to be better when you're stuck in a hospital the last two months of vacation." With only one visit from the one I truly wanted to see... Brodie shrugged, "No one, I guess... Or a bunch of strangers." No, he didn't want to ask her and hear her say she was going to sit with Harvey or 'Nash'. This was killing him, it would probably easier to just pull his teeth out without numbing him. This was hard for him, he wanted to be her friend, to be able to talk to her, but the only time he'd been around Taylor as a 'friend' was when he had faked liking her... Ever since the truth came out and they'd started talking they'd been together again... He wanted it to be that way but she seemed to hate him anytime he brought them up but... He sighed he was being rude, Try... She's the only reason your here this year. "What about you? Who are you riding with?" He really didn't want to hear her say who he knew she probably would. "Well, when I wasn't in the hospital I was at camp or in my so called 'home'." If you could even consider a hollow in a tree a home.

Nashville moved along the platform and looked around to see any faces. The seventh year had his trunk in his hand. He needed a break, he was tired because he had to wake up early, he didn't have any coffee and he muscles felt a bit sore from his workout last night, Nashville set his trunk down, he did a little stretch and looked around once again.

Name? THAT WAS HIS NAME! Nashville spun around on the ball of his foot. Unruly, curly hair, he thought it could have been Hermione Granger-Weasley with that hair but it wasn't it was a DUDE! It was Pickle!Man. "Hey what's up?" Nashville said with a little yawn. "It's going good just a tired."

Adelaide bit her lip. "Umm...I can't tell you anything because I probably know less about it than you do." Now came for the part she was going to have to explain a lot.

"This is actually my first year going to Hogwarts. Was homeschooled for 4 years." The young boy didn't really need to to the extensive reason why that was right?

Benzi looked up at the girl, at first very confused by her idea that HE would know more about Hogwarts than HER, but then he was just confused. "But why homeschool you if you can go to Hogwarts?" he asked, his dark eyerbrows furrowed.

And there went his ENTIRE plan down the drain. It was her first year too! She wouldn't be able to help him with anything. He needed to find an older person who would be able to tell him all the tricks and shortcuts around the school. The one thing he DID know was that Hogwarts was massive.

Stan tucked his hands deep into the pockets of his jeans and looked around, feeling rather awkward. How could someone so pretty be so annoying? And how could she NOT like his smile? He was offended. BIG time.

.... And his blue eyes lighted up when he spotted a familiar redhead nearby. Adelaide! So, she was going to Hogwarts too!? But before he could greet her and ask her to rescue him, the girl spoke again.

Same, exact house? Stan raised an eyebrow, a little amused. ".. Or unlucky enough." Because it would be great if he wasn't stuck in the same house as her.

The confused look on the little first years face did not escape Adelaide. She let out a sigh. "Because my parents are snobby muggles who didn't want their 'freak' daughter out of their sight."

It was pretty obvious she wasn't too close or fond with her parents. But that was a whole other story that just brought back her sad thoughts. She didn't need those sad thoughts.

...and then she spotted Stan. Her cheeks immediately started to turn red. The last time Addi had seen him had ended well, after quite a bit of awkwardness. Then she noticed he was talking to another girl.

She managed a small smile and gave him a little wave before turning back to the first year. Adelaide couldn't help but hope he'd come over and talk to her. He was one of the few people she knew after all.

O_O

"That's HORRIBLE!" Benzi exclaimed, looking at her with something akin to horror on his face. "But you're not a freak! You seem really normal looking," he pointed out, crossing his arms across his chest in annoyace. Dumb people.

... The eleven year old suddenly stilled as her story jolted a memory. Something Mummy or Uncle Jake had once talked about in hushed voices when he was very little. Scrunching up his face, Benzi tried to remember and gasped as it came to him. "Hey! That happened to my uncle as well - but his parents just left him, they put a note on the table or something and left the house so when he came home once there was no one there. . . That's bad too right?" he asked, suddenly unsure.

Kace smiled as Asher was greeting the first person. Kace did not know him. He must be knew. "Hey what's up?" he asked. Kace then heard Asher asked if he was a first year. He must have been, he did look quite young. "Don't worry you will love Hogwarts." he assured him.

Kace then met someone else. Kace smiled and waved to the girl. "Yup i am Kace. Nice to meet you!" he smiled friendly. He held out his hand to be polite.

"Tell me about it." Adelaide wasn't usually one to complain about her home life, except to Mr. Samson on occasion, because she never had anyone to complain too. She gave the kid a slight smile. "Thanks. And believe me I'm perfectly normal aside from the being a witch in a muggle family."

Addi raised an eyebrow at the change of expression on the younger boy's face. She blinked. "Wow. Yeah. That's pretty bad. A lot worse than my situation." Wow. Her parents were never that bad. They just pretended she was normal.

Benzi nodded, believing her. He didn't really know very many real 'freaks' though. . . Usually even the ones that were called freaks were just getting picked on. Benzi couldn't imagine his Mummy ever picking on him. He didn't even know parents COULD pick on their children. Wasn't there some rule that said they couldn't?

Then again, Great Grandma Elena and Great Grandpa Ralph had moved houses without Uncle Jake, and Benzi's never really thought of it all that much until today. Very strange, indeed. He wondered if he would remember to put all this in his letter home this weekend.

"I'm Benzi by the way," he said, pulling out of his deep thinking to grin up at her. After stories like THAT, Benzi felt that he really ought to know her name. "What's your name?"

"WEEEEeeeeee!" The sandy blonde haired man jogged across the station pushing his daughter's pram as he went, making funny noises for her sake. "Wasn't that fun, Allie!" Because it had been for him.

David Fitzgerald turned around and beamed at MRS. FITZGERALD -- m'hm, he finally put a ring on it -- and at his tiny brother-in-law, Troy. "Hurry up, kid, wouldn't want to miss the train, would you?" They weren't late. For the first time they were early at something, but he wanted Troy to get a good seat. Not a crowded compartment with a bunch of bozos.

David took out a pouch front his coat pocket and bounced it on his hand. "You have money? Just in case last year repeats itself." Which he hoped it didn't. The little dude deserved the best after that thing with his parents, and Hogwarts had not offered that last term. David opened the pouch, a bunch of Galleons gleamed up at him.

Adelaide looked around absentmindedly. Honestly this whole topic was not something she liked to talk about and it was just throwing her off completely. Today was supposed to a happy day, so she was going to be happy even if she had to force it.

She was drawn back to reality by the boy speaking again. Right. Names usually helped. "Lovely to meet you Benzi. My name's Adelaide."