Minerva just looked at Laura.. no more then looked starred at her. Yes that was a better way to put it. The look on Minerva's face was like someone watching an adult try to do something a baby could do and not succeeding. "Fresh.. air?? She looked around, well they were in a train station, but still. "Why do you need fresh air? We are in a huge area surrounded by openings for the train.. You are getting plenty of fresh air."

She couldn't help but shake her head at this one. Sighing a bit Min knew she was going to have her job cut out for her this term watching over Laura. She worried about her, but she was a big girl so Min couldn't over see everything. Maybe she would have to be looked after like a toddler, hmm if that was the case she was going to have to get a babysitter at times.. Smirking to her own little thoughts she gave a thought to maybe Oakey babysitting Laura, now that might be funny within itself, but Min wasn't that mean she would never make Laura deal with him ever.. No Laura was a fifth year, she wasn't just a small child. Whatever was going on with her friend she would probably have to figure it out on her own, but she just hoped that Laura would ask for help if she really did need some.

She'd loaded her things up on the train, before wandering the platform to collect her last bit of London air before the train headed North and things. Elodie adjusted the bag on her back and ushered the cat around her feet ahead as she hovered for a little while. The train wasn't going to GO anywhere yet, so she had time to hover.

HOVER.

Dear friends, reveal yourselves.

Fifth year meant she was older than more than half of the school. Just barely because summer birthdays. OLDER. Mhm, hullo LITTLE people. Little people who should be in Hufflepuff so that she could send them to do jobs she didn't want to do. LIKE FOOD.

HOGWARTS, HERE I COME.

Stan stood on the platform, his lips stretched in a grin. The boy was so excited!.. And a little tired too from all the last minute packing and lack of sleep. But, definitely more excited than tired. He'd heard so many great things about the school! He just couldn't wait to start classes already. Dropping his luggage on the ground, he sat on an empty bench and looked around.

.. Yeah, he'd reached the station a little TOO early.

"Feeeeeeelix? Felixxxx?"

What a way to start the new term, down on all fours looking for a kneazle that couldn't have simply STAYED put. She'd only put him down for a minute to settle her trunk a bit better on her trolley but by the term she turned around again he. was. GONE.

Lex muttered a quick word or two as she brushed by people already on the platform, looking under benches and over luggage but the Kneazle was nowhere to be found. The idea of caging him despite his protest was starting to become more and more appealing. Of course she wouldn't. Her baby didn't like that cage.

SIGH.

She kept crawling until she ran into a pair of...legs? Blink. It wasn't a kind of 'ouch' run in but Merlin! Lex looked up immediately. "Sorry about that."

Stan was slightly bored. He didn't like being alone, okay? He kind of started to wish he'd taken up his parents' offer to stay with him until he boarded the train. The fifteen year old sighed and awkwardly ran a hand through his hair when..

... He nearly jumped out of his skin. But he was oh-so glad that he didn't squeal. He almost did, though. "What..." Stan looked down to find a girl. A girl who was down on all fours. "What..." He was completely lost for words. But suddenly realizing that he probably looked rather stupid for repeating himself, he cleared his throat.

"Are you alright?"

Good to know she wasn't the only one taken aback by the sudden bumping into. Lex kept her gaze on the boy who looked as if he was about to speak but only managed to get out a 'what' twice. Okay, in the event he'd lost his speech, could they all agree that it was SO not her fault. This time when she bumped into someone it wasn't a full on collision. Quite the success if you asked her.

"Yeah, I'm fine." She pulled herself off the floor and brushed at her knees a bit to get rid of any dirt that thought of hitching a ride on her to Hogwarts. They had enough there, thanks.

"Just...looking for my kneazle, he'd kinda slivery, has black stripes on his neck but spots closer to his bum. Sparkly eyes. Have you seen him? He ran off earlier."

SOMEONE must have seen him. She couldn't spend the day at the station looking but she wasn't prepared to LEAVE him here. How would he get home?

Stan flushed just a little when he noticed the girl staring at her. Yeah, he really did look stupid.. but then again it was HER fault. She scared him quite a bit. So, there.

He was about to offer her a hand when the girl stood up and asked him if he'd seen her kneazle. Stan frowned and shook his head. "No.. I don't think I have." He'd surely remember if he had seen a kneazle running around, right? The boy smiled a little and awkwardly ran a hand through his hair again. "Do you want me to help you find it?" Not that he really wanted to but he was being nice. He was always nice to girls. heh.

Her shoulders slumped and her face fell. He hadn't seen him either. Had no one? It was becoming ridiculous to say the least. He would have tried finding her by now...or she would have heard squawking of some kind, angry bird protests, a refusal to be the felines next meal. She heard none of that.

What she DID hear was him asking if she'd like some help. [b]"I would actually, see, I don't want him left behind or left alone for too long. He has a tendency to think anything in or out of a cage is fair game. "I've already checked up at the north end, no luck so we'll check around here like I was doing earlier." Lex twisted a bit so she could have another look at the platform when something hit her. Oops.

"I'm Alexa by the way, and you are?" Because if you were accepting help from a stranger the least you could do is exchange names. Hold on...stranger--"HEY! You're new, aren't you??" She hadn't seen him before.

Then again, there were lots of people she'd never seen before that had been there all along. Go figure.

Stan looked slightly amused when he listened to the girl go on about her kneazle. He could totally understand her pain though. Losing your pet in a crowded place like this was the worst. His smile widened to a grin and he slowly nodded. "Okay." He still wasn't extremely happy about running around the platform looking for a kneazle but he really had nothing better to do. So, it was okay.

"I'm Stan. Nice to meet--" Oh the girl had already jumped to another question. "Yes, I am." And the grin on his face widened a little. EXCITED.

"I take it you're not new."

Stan. She hadn't heard anyone else with that name so far so he wouldn't have to worry about her confusing him for someone else. He didn't have a face like anyone else's either so there was that as well. New but standing out. That was the best way to not get sucked into the many nameless faces around the castle.

Lex shook her head, grinning at him. [b]"Not at all, been here since my first year."[b] Hard to believe it'd been so long ago now that she was saying it out loud.

"I'm a fourth year Gryffindor, what year are you transferring into?" Her eyes were once again roving over the platform for any signs of quick movement or flashes of silver. He had to be around there somewhere. Perhaps he'd gone to take a nap inside the train? It seemed just as likely. He liked naps just as much as hunting. She could never be too sure when it came to him.

"And any idea what house you want? You're welcome in Gryffindor." Just saying. "But the other houses are alright I guess."

See how unbiased she could be?

After saying goodbye to his family and greeting a few people here and there, Forrest decided to check out the other end of the platform. He had already loaded his luggage on the train, and it was just about 10 minutes till departure. He didn't think there would be anyone around, but he didn't want to get on the train just yet either so... there. Standing. Looking around for a familiar face. Trying not to think about family.

Such a great pastime activity.

Kalla was bored of this place. Not really. But she looked it. SHE LOOKED IT. She was just kind of sad that Garrick had shown up and well... Benjy had been all flaily about his OTHER cousin. So she kind of got pushed to the wayside. NOT THAT SHE WAS EVER GOING TO ADMIT TO ANY OF IT. Never.

So she merely stood leaned against the wall... WATCHING PEOPLE.

And yeah she was still scoping out the BOY situation.

Like... this place needed more BOYS.

Having already gotten rid of the company of her Mum, Bristol made her way down the platform with her twin, Dee. She hoped to see many faces that she knew, but she also didn't want to leave Dee alone - for protective sister reasons. There was also a part of her that was itching to meet even more new peoples, but Dee had to come first. Grinning, she looked over to her sister and asked, "are you excited, Dee? We're finally HERE."

Dee scanned the crowd nervously, fiddling with her bag strap as she tried to keep up with Bristol. "Oh .. yeah, definitely," she said, though it wasn't so much the fact that she was HERE, as the fact that she could finally lose her head in a book and not get as many complaints about it. Teachers would hopefully like that, unlike her mother. "Actually, Tol, I think I spot one of my friends. I'll see you later, okay?" Then without waiting for her sister's response, she scurried off in search of somewhere quiet to wait until it was time to board the train.

"You could show a little more excitement," Bristol teased and grinned. Unlike Dee, she'd made SO many friends, that she was never going to run out of peoples to have adventures with. At some point, she could introduce them all to her twin. Speaking of her twin, she was walking away, going to find her friends? "LATER, DEE!" Bristol called over the noise and then turned back to her own scanning of the crowd.

It didn't take long for her to find someone she knew and before you knew it, she was heading straight for him, dragging her luggage along behind her. The question was now, she this going to end in a hug, or was she going to crash straight into him. Who knew. Maybe if she gave her warning? ... "Hey, FORREST!"

It was good thing she'd warned him beforehand, or else Forrest would have had another heart-attack caused by her. He turned towards the voice and soon enough, he was grinning from ear to ear.

"YO, best friend!" he greeted back, eyes shining. He had so far managed not to think about his family, and now he was fully distracted by her. He should thank her sometime.

"How're ya?"

Luckily for him, she had the presence of mind to stop BEFORE she crashed into him. Unless he liked being crashed into, which wasn't something she thought could be enjoyable, but you never know. Maybe she could ask him that at some point, but now wasn't that moment. It wasn't a random enough moment for that. Obviously. Grinning and bouncing slightly on the spot, she replied, "I'm just SUPER. I have all of my stuff and I'm SO READY FOR THIS." Grin, grin, grins everywhere. "Dee just ran off, though and I don't know where she went, but .. I'm sure she's fine." Bristol's magical twin senses weren't alerting her to any danger, so she must be fine. HA. Kidding, she didn't have 'twin senses,' that was silly. She just hope that her sister was fine.

ANYWHOOO.

"How are you, best friend?" She asked and produced yet another massive grin.

Forrest wasn't expecting the crash, but he held his ground firmly and didn't knock over. Instead, he giggled once and just wondered at her excitement. Though that was understandable. She at least had an idea about what awaited her.

"I'm so SO glad!" he replied with a nod and grin of his own. It was great to see not everyone was as gloomy as leaving their families--Dee... he frowned a little and racked his brains to remember who she was, but he couldn't. He hesitated to ask, though. What if she had mentioned her before? Well, luckily, she asked him how he was. He jumped on that subject and ignored the Dee comment.

His face was shadowed for a fraction of time as he remembered his family again, but he regained his grin quickly and didn't dwell on it. It was very sissy especially in front of a girl to talk about how he felt sad for seperating from his family. Instead, he copied her previous sentence. "I'm ready too! I've already loaded my trunk on the train. I jus' hope feast's better this time." So that she could actually have a proper first-year feast.

So her fourth attempt to ditch her owl's cage and pretend she forgot about it FAILED! Each year she tried and each year someone shouted behind her to tell her she forgot her pet's cage. Well, duH! When people decide to be helpful, pfffft. FINE! Evil owl was going with her again. She'll try to remember dropping by the owlry.

After dumping her trunk and the cage, Cassia slowly back and forth on the platform. She was kinda early and the train wasn't leaving yet. So she decided to stall a bit longer out here. Maybe she'd see someone she knew or you know just observe and try to memorize new faces.

She stood watching younger ones saying their goodbyes to their families. While she was here alone because her Dad went with her brother! And her mum dropped her off and left.

Swinging her bag back and forth Cassia looked around her feeling the need to SPEAK! Everyone around was talking with someone except her. And another girl! Walking over to the familiar girl whom Cassia knew as Elodie. They've never really spoken before but she knew her name. She was Cat's friend. So yeah.

"Hi," She greeted her as she stood shoulder to shoulder with her with her head turned towards the badger. "Waiting for someone?"

She contemplated what she would look like if she sat down on the floor at that instant, and regarded that she would probably get trodden on by a student or family member or someone intentionally rude. But whatever. Elodie could stand. She had legs, and that was what legs were made for. Kicking too. Els was partial to a kick or two. A few males had gotten THAT treatment from her for definite. They'd deserved it of course. A kick to the shin.

When a fellow fifth year joined her and stood beside her, Elodie smiled at the Slytherin. Cassia, she was pretty sure. Names weren't her fantastic strong point. They were if she knew people, but this was a person that she hadn't gotten to know completely, but knew by name and face and other tidbits. The Hufflepuff was cool to talk to her though.

"No one specific." No one in general. She had been content with standing alone, but company was also good for the 5'7 female. "Hey yourself, though." Might as well return the greeting. She smiled again and shot a glance around them. Younger students, lots of younger students. There was also a Stan and a Bristol from what she could see first off.

"How was your summer?"

Before meeting Forrest, she hadn't even known that giggles were contagious. It certainly seemed like they were, though, she thought as she giggled after hearing him giggled. She regained her balance and threw a 'hello' type grin in his direction. Was there a hello type grin? Was that a thing? Had she just created a thing? It would seem so. HEHE.

"I'm glad that you're glad," she replied. That made sense and was true. SO YAY.

Bristol quickly glanced down and checked up her pets, hoping that they were alright after the collision with Forrest. Her owl, Mischief, was totally fine and was looking up at them with bright eyes and her toad, Ack, just sat there. That meant he was fine, too. She hoped. Ack didn't do all that much other than sit, but he was her pet, so she loved him anyway. Dee disagreed, thinking that she needed a smarter pet, which reminded her .. "do you have any pets, Forrest? And have you met Dee?" Questions, questions.

She glanced once again down at her pets and luggage, "I probably should have taken mine, too," she consider and shrugged. She didn't HAVE to take it, it just meant that now she'd have to ride with it that whole time and that might be annoying. "Better this time? What was it like last time?" Why hadn't she read up about Hogwarts in the past AND present. It was possible she'd need to know things, silly her.

The sun was nice but like Cassia didn't want to get sun-burnt also her eyes were already squinted and it wasn't cool, squinting at people. Might be taken totally in wrong way. So the blond angled her body so the sun wouldn't get into her eyes. Then she drew the hat down to shield her eyes from the sun while still making them visible to be seen. It'd be creepy to completely shield them while talking to Elodie.

"I guess it's hard to find someone seeing how crowded it is," She nodded. "I almost lost my trunk." Like it got stuck between the people and she had to snatch it free. It wasn't a very pretty to watch scene. She tried not to look back and see the injuries she caused. She kinda ducked and bolted away afterwards. So yeah, the hat wasn't only for the sun. Ahem.

See! She had someone to talk to while getting on the train. Very cool! "It was great!" She answered with an excited grin. Because it WAS! "I was interning at the Leaky and had fun," She told the fellow fifth year. And she had said those particular words loads of time those past months. And probably was going to say them loads for the upcoming ones. "And hung out around Diagon Alley with friends and all.." That was more fun. Since the interning thing included working while the other thing did not.

"How was yours? Did you enjoy it?"

She adjusted the bag on her back again before looking away from Cassia for a second and down at the floor to check on Gemini. Who was still there, and apparently sleeping by the two girls feet? Stupid cat. Els let out a laugh and shook her head at the feline. Trust her to end up with a cat that felt sleeping on a busy platform was plausible. It was like he had learnt nothing from having his tail trodden on plenty over the summer by toddlers. You'd think that would make a cat extremely careful, but no. Not in Gemini's world.

She nodded. "Incredibly hard, yeah. There's a lot of people about." For some reason, Elodie expected there to be less students this year because of those graduating for the summer. First years, though. She forgot about those every year, and they kept getting smaller. Or was she just getting bigger??? "You lost your trunk!?! Did you find it?!" For extra measure, Elodie feverishly looked around for a lone trunk, JUST IN CASE. She remembered that one time that she lost HER luggage. That was the first time she ever met Kurumi, actually. Losing her LUGGAGE whoops.

OH, Cassia had been interning also? Elodie grinned and nodded whilst the other girl spoke. She sounded like she'd had a great summer for definite. "I interned at Wiseacres, actually. Thattttt was interesting for sure." Riles was totes a friend FOR LYF. "Then I spent time with my boyfriend aaaand Cat and I went to the beach." Bff beach time was the top of the best ever list.

WAS THAT A CAT!

The fifteen-year old snake HAD just said goodbye to her FIVE spoiled cats and she already missed them. How she wished one of them would be HER school pet instead of the vicious owl. If only the cats weren't so spoiled and lazy. They were also delicate and she feared for them at the castle. That place hasn't been the safest place recently. Mhhmm. But she still wished to smuggle one of her kittens into the castle. "This your cat?" She asked though it didn't require a question. It was in the girl's bag so DUH! "What's his name?" She asked crouching and peering at the sleeping cat. Nope not going to disturb the cutie one. "I have five cats back at home," She said longingly. Yuuup, dramatic.

Did she find it? For a split second Cassia wondered about this. Did she find it? Or did she just run away after trying to pull the tangled trunk free. But then she remembered that she did. Since both the cage and the trunk were loaded in the luggage compartment. "Fortunately I did," She assured the Badger whom seemed ready to go search if Cassia asked. "It was sandwiched between another trunk and someone," Hopefully the someone was still breathing.

Cool, sounded like Elodie had an enjoyable summer as well. "That's nice," She smiled at her. Woot! Interning as well. So far most of her friends had an intern at a certain place. The beach thing sounded very interesting, too. "Then we're both refreshed and ready for this year!" She announced enthusiastically! "Hope it's gonna a good one," She said her tone turning casual again. And by good she really meant that it'd be SAFE. Let's not die this year, okay?

"Also, OWLs," That was said in a very non-enthusiastic tone. She's been having nightmares already!

First year? "That's a really long-" Stan couldn't help but look a little annoyed. This was really starting to bother him. WHY ask questions if you're not going to let the other person talk? But, yes. That was a really long time. He wished he'd started Hogwarts as a first year too.

... "Fifth year." Stan really did wonder what house he'd be sorted into though. He really hoped it was Ravenclaw.. or Slytherin. But before he could give that any more thought, Alexa continued asking him questions.

"Well.. thanks. I want to be a Ravenclaw but.. let's see, I guess." Stan said, with a light shrug. Hey, look. She actually let him complete his sentence this time.

Forrest had calmed down from giggling fit, and now looked at her luggages thoughtfully. "I can help you with them, if you want." Not that he was Hercules, but four hands were better than two, right?

Weeeeell, he hesitated before answering her. He didn't want to scare her off or something. But she'd asked, so... "The school was broke, so the food wasn't that good. But it's all fine now! The Headmistress promised." He looked at her with big eyes. So she need not worry! At worst, she could bake him some cookies, no?

He involuntarily looked at her pets too. And then he saw it. He didn't even hear her questions afterwards. Everything happened in slow motion: the scratching wave came slowly--starting from his arms and spreading to his neck--his mouth opened but no sound came, his eyes got bigger as they were fixed on the toad, and to make up for the time lost in slow-motion, he started to scratch uncontrollably. His right hand was scratching his left arm, while his left hand was leaving red marks on his neck.

"IT--HHSLF!" he exclaimed and faced away from it but it was no use. He KNEW it was RIGHT THERE and--scratch scratch scratch--what if it just LEAPT on him?! and--scratch scratch scratch--he knelt down, his right hand now trying to scratch over the fabric of his jeans.

Someone, PLEASE stop him!

"Oh, yes, that'd be helpful," she said gratefully. Unlike most of the smart kids here, she hadn't brought one large trunk, but two miniature trunks. They did the job just as well, but were a bit of a pain to carry around along with her pets. "Thank you!" There you go, have one small trunk, she thought and nudged the trunk towards him.

BROKE? How had she managed to miss that?

"She promised?" Bristol needed to double check this, otherwise that school would have one ravenous and dangerous little girl attending it. Peoples ought to be really afraid of that thought. She was lovely ... until she wasn't fed. Then it would all down hill for those around her, except maybe Forrest. And some others. She could turn off her evil!hunger for them, maybe.

One minute she was waiting for him to answer questions, her next she was watching a completely ... wild Forrest. There was no other way to describe it. "Forrest? Forrest!" Panicked, she looked around, almost flailing around herself. She wasn't prepared for these sorts of situations, what was she supposed to do? She also couldn't just leave him there, he was her best friend and he looked .. whoknowswhat, but it wasn't good.

Taking a couple of deep breaths, she tried to find what had caused his outburst thing. It wasn't her, otherwise this would have happened already, it wasn't her luggage because that would just be silly, so it had to be ... her pets!? NO. It couldn't be. How could anyone react that way to them, they were lovely .. but Forrest had and she HAD to look after her bestie, no matter what. Doing the first thing she could think of, she got out her cloak and threw it over Mischief and Ack's cages. There. Now he couldn't see them. She turned back to him, eyes wide and stepped in front of him. "Forrest?" Whispering gently seemed like the nice, smart thing to do, so that's what she did.

Next to sort out his scratching problem.

She bobbed down to his crouching level and looked at him. "You're alright. Yeah, Forrest? You're alright," she assured him in a half panicked voice herself, before taking his hands to stop him itching. "Don't itch. It's bad." That much she knew and now to find out what had caused it. "What happened?" Bristol didn't want to mention either type of pet, just in case it set him off again. She also continued to awkwardly hold his hands to stop him scratching.