Front of the Train
 

Grab a seat near the front of the train and spend the next few hours with all your friends. We'll be home in no time. All aboard!

Camira sighed wearily as she plopped down in an empty compartment. This year had been....long, and home was going to be just as bad. Though much shorter, so that was good. She put her feet up on the seat and rested her head against the window. Now would be a good time to get some sleep. It was quiet...and she was alone for once.

Freya found herself an empty compartment near the front of the train. She found to prefer this to the back, which she had chosen on the trip to Hogwarts. Her two owls took flight off of Freya's shoulders and made themselves comfortable perching on the headrest of a vacant seat near the window. "Fine with me you guys. Just don't tear the place apart." Freya tossed her bag into the seat next to her and threw herself into the other spot next to the window that faced her birds.
The larger owl, Tundra began to groom himself again, while, Anchor flew over and landed on his owners knee looking for attention. Freya scratched her pet's feathered head, allowing him to nibble her finger affectionately. "I wonder what it will be like..." She said quietly to them as her eyes focused out of the window. Her mind raced along as she remembered everything that had happened over the last year. 'What a crazy time this has been. I wonder what will happen next term...' She leaned her head back onto the rest and continued her gazing out the window, staring at the countryside, her long legs stretched out in front of her.

So, the last time she'd been on the back of the train it had resulted in a crash with a first year, and a much destroyed music player...or something remotely named that way...this wasn't an extremely happy time to be going through something similar as to the beginning of the school year.

That's what made Kaika not choose the back, at least for now...maybe she'll walk around later, just to check on someone who wasn't at the front.

The first compartment she had to look in was occupied by...Camira, she wasn't still sure how that will turn out, or if the girl was on a good mood to accept a Huffie travel back home in the same compartment. She stood outside for a moment before moving on.

Kayla walked down the aisle of the train as she headed towards the back. She glanced into each compartment as she passed and nodded to those that she knew. And then she spotted Camira sitting on her own and Kayla hesitated for a moment, she hadn't had a chance to speak to Camira since she had heard what Will had said in the courtyard.

Kayla opened the door of the compartment and leant against the door frame. "Hello Yaxley" she said coolly.

Camira's eyes shot open and her wand was pointed at Kayla - oh, Kayla. Not a psycho killer. But what was up with the tone. She put her wand away and glanced at her curiously. "Hey. Um...is everything alright?" Could she be in a bad mood? "Do you want to sit", she asked politely. If it were anyone else, she would have told them to get the hell out, but it wasn't so...

Kayla was a little surprised to have a wand pointed at her but was even more surprised to find that her wand was in her hand also. She had never realised that she could be so quick to draw but then with the enemies she had after her, she guessed it was good survival instincts.

She lowered her wand when Camira did and raised an eyebrow. "I was in the courtyard the day Will confronted Nicholai and I kind of guessed what he was getting at. But would you care to explain the details to me?"

Oh God. The courtyard drama. But why would she be upset about that? Surely she didn't know...No, who would have told her. "I guess. It was no big deal though. Will and I were talking and he offered me his home for the summer and I told him Nico had already offered me his place to stay and somehow he took that as us being together, even though I expressly told him that wasn't at all the case", she paused to catch her breath and roll her eyes at the annoyance she felt about the whole drama. "And then I'm not sure exactly what happened, but when I got there, Will and Nico were arguing and Will was accusing Nico of cheating on me and yeah. It was pretty much a big misunderstanding." She shrugged a bit. It was the truth. Not the whole truth, but nobody needed to know about that, except the people that already knew. She wasn't even all that thrilled that Evolette knew, but she was trustworthy so whatever.

Kayla listened patiently as Camira gave her explanation and the story sounded feasible but something else was still bugging her and Kayla had a feeling that there was more to it...a lot more.

"I think Will is a lot smarter than that to assume that you and Nico are together because you are staying at his place over the summer. I think something else happened for Will to come to that conclusion" Kayla cocked her head to the side and looked at Camira. "Is that right? Did something happen between the two of you?"

Oh dear. What did she said now. She shifted uncomfortably and looked down at her hands. Self preservation was screaming to lie like she'd never lied before. But there was a part of her that remembered that Kayla was her best friend. And Kayla had told her about the prison thing with complete trust. Gah. She was turning into a Hufflepuff. "Well, I....something might have possibly happened between us. But Will didn't know about that, so I'm pretty sure that was the only reason he came to that conclusion. I mean, even when I was giving Nico a massage and he walked in he didn't...yeah." Not the best thing to say. Maybe she'd need her wand after all.

Well that was a guilty look if she ever did see one as she listened to Camira's speech. Massage? Oh this was just getting better all the time. Kayla raised her eyebrow as high as it would go. "I see" she said softly but with a slight edge to her voice. "And was the massage all that happened?"

Damn. She'd have to tell her. Or else Kayla would always be suspicious and never trust her again. Though she might not trust her anyways after this. Still, she was not going to be a Nico Toussaint. She was going to explain herself and leave it up to Kayla. "Not...not exactly." She took a deep breath. "I kissed him. And I don't know what got into me and why I did that and I wish I could take that back." That was the start of everything, after all. "And he came to me later. Uhm...he was being all cryptic and whatnot and so I followed him into our library study area...where things might have possibly gotten a bit carried away." God, please don't make me explain that, she thought to herself. "But that was it", yea like that wasn't enough", and that was the end of things. Forever." Okay, could she help it if that last part came out a bit bitter. Nope. And now for Kayla's reaction.

Kayla ground her teeth so hard that she was sure that she had just put a hole in one of them. "Why the hell would you do that?" she yelled, to hell with trying to remain calm. "As my best friend Camira, you know how I felt about him and you go and do this to me" Kayla turned and punched the glass in the door of the compartment and watched as it shattered.

"This is Helios all over again" she seethed. "And here I was sticking up for you with him and I find out that you've gone behind my back with the one guy that I truly love" Kayla looked down at her hand and could see that it was bleeding. "Crap girl, why do you keep doing this to me?"

Camira flinched as she watched the glass shatter. Not good. Not good at all. "I'm sorry. Believe me, you have no idea how sorry I am. If I could get a hold of a time-turner, I would kill myself before any of that happened." Actually, that would be a good idea. Could she pull that off? It was then that she realized she was crying.

"I don't know. I don't have an answer for you, really. Everything was so messed up and Nico was the only one to really, I don't know, get it. So we'd talk...and I don't know how that turned into this. I didn't mean to fall in love with him..." Oh merlin's pants. She had not meant to say that. She clapped her hand over her mouth, but it was too late. The damage was done.

Lisa walked into an empty compartment and waited for someone to join her.She was so excited to be heading back home.She sat down on the seats and sighed heavily.

Kayla groaned loudly and then felt guilty when she heard what Camira said. "You don't need to go to that extreme" and now she was crying. Oh Kayla was definitely on a roll at upsetting people lately.

"Your what?" she screeched. "No Camira...no!!!" Kayla stamped her foot in fury. "Well you're just going to have fall out of love with him damn it, because we're back together now" she seriously thought about punching the glass again but her hand was already starting to throb. "And I don't like telling people what to do but I DON'T want you staying at his place over the summer. If you have no other place to go then you can stay at my villa in Greece but I don't want you alone with Nicholai until you can get over this infatuation with him."

Oh God. Yep, she definitely shouldn't have said that. "Don't worry. It's done. Everything is done. And I'm not staying with him anymore. I'm going home", she said simply, suddenly feeling very drained. She wiped at her face and forced her expression blank. She needed to save her energy. She couldn't waste it on this. "Look, I don't care about Nico anymore. He doesn't matter. I just need to...I need us to be okay. I can't leave without us being okay." Because if she died...people always felt guilty when someone died and they were mad at them, didn't they?

Kayla sighed deeply and looked down at the floor and clenched and unclenched her fist. It felt better to have the physical pain in her hand, then the emotional one she was feeling. Kayla pressed her head against the wall and forced herself to look at Camira, she knew her friend was sorry and the fact that she was more worried about their friendship than Nico made Kayla feel better.

"The offer still stands" she said after a moment. "If you need a place to stay then you are more than welcome to come and stay with me in Greece" Kayla gave Camira a faint smile. "I understand we all make mistakes and because you are one of my dearest friends Camira, I am willing to forgive you and forget this incident happened." It wasn't going to stop her from having a talk to Nicholai though.

Camira smiled slightly. She was forgiven...ish. She'd have to prove she deserved it, of course. "Thank you", she said sincerely. It just proved how much of a friend Kayla really was. She'd better make damn sure that she didn't do anything else to upset her. Ever. But back to the housing thing. "And thanks for the offer. I think I need to take care of some things at home first. Besides, Greece reminds me too much of Helios. I'd be creeped out the whole time I was there", she said half joking. Maybe she could lighten up the situation.

Why oh why did he always have to be so rude? Rapunzel was just TRYING to be a friendly badger, for crying out loud. Would it be so hard for him to be the same? He WAS a Hufflepuff, after all, and one who at least worked hard in school and on the pitch....

But no, he didn't even deserve the ounce of respect Punz might have had for Dominic Denton. "Fine, be that way. Just learn how to not block corridors in the future." She stuck her nose up and deliberately pushed past him - squeezed, more like - til she was in front of the kid. Once she was free of his presence (ugh), the blonde started walking at a quick pace until she reached the front of the train. She stomped into the first empty compartment she came to and sat down in a huff.

"Anytime" Kayla replied and then she chuckled in spite of herself. "Well I didn't think of that when I bought the place" and then she burst out laughing as she remembered the feast. "We actually got into a fight and he had the nerve to tell me to stay away from his kingdom" she snorted and shook her head. "Like I ever want to be caught dead anywhere near his residence." She brushed away the thought that she had actually made a play for the Prince this year but that was purely for her own evil purposes and nothing more.

Oh honestly, why did she have to tap him on the shoulder? After nearly ten months with him, you would think one would learn that he hated physical contact of all kinds. The fifth floor corridor was still fresh in his memory of course and would likely not be forgotten. Sure that was no reason for vengeance against Rapunzel, but he was like this to nearly everyone ...

Dom frowned though as she returned a snide comment to him and pushed past him! Oh block corridors? It wasn't a crime to be walkinggg..... but apparently to Rapunzel, it was. Completely annoyed by her blond hair and attitude, he slowed his pace down to get away from her and walked into the first compartment he saw in the front of the train. Front would have less headaches, right?

Except the compartment was not empty. SHE was there. Gah!!!

"Don't say a word." He glared at those green eyes, before sitting in the opposite corner from her.

Camira smiled wider as Kayla laughed. It was a welcome change. And then when she realized what Kayla actually said, she snorted. "He's unbelievable. So creepy too. This whole term I was trying to figure out if he'd gone completely mental. I really wanted to have him committed to St. Mungos for a psych eval."
She remembered then the glass. She pointed her wand at it and muttered a quick repairo. Hmm, were they allowed to do magic on the train? Oh, whatever.

Punz had just slipped off her trusty bag and was cuddling lil Nacho, theee cutest yellow pygmy puff ever, when the compartment door opened.

She looked up, hoping to see maybe Ryan, but NO! It was HIM! AGAIN!

Her mouth dropped open into a perfect O - was he looking for a fight? Seriously?

Luckily, Punz didn't speak and slowly closed her mouth instead, glaring daggers at the boy from across the little room. Hmmph. She could ignore his ugly face any day.

Rapunzel coughed loudly and then set Nachoi down on the floor so he could roll around and maybe lick up some dust bunnies. She reached in her bag, still determined to ignore the Seeker, and pulled out a fancy, formal letter she had received whilst packing. Punz hadn't the time to open it back then, so why not now? Maybe she could hold the letter up and inch from her face and read and ignore that boy all at the same time. Win-win.

Dominic tried so hard to annoy her and really wished he had something to occupy his own thoughts besides the looming summer with his mother. Unfortunately there was nothing else and was forced to turn back and look at the blond who was .... glaring at him!?

And then she coughed and removed something from her bag. Something that had him narrowing his topaz eyes at her with curiosity, as he cocked his head slightly to the side. What was thattt? But he wouldn't say anything. Hopefully there was just enough light where he could see through the parchment for some hint as to what it was... quite official looking.