Chris walked to the front of the train. He had his hands in his pockets and his guitar case on his back. He walked by a couple of compartments and saw Emiliano. He waved slightly, seeing he was talking with two girls. He looked and saw a girl he thought he had seen in the common room but wasn't quite sure and Karam. But whatever he kept walking, until he saw Amanda. "Hey Amanda." He said walking closer to her. "Hey how was your summer?" He asked know she was on tour over the summer.

Ruby walked slowly to the front of the train, she was having to do this year alone Sakura was in L.A now and well.......she thought about the summer and pulled her hood up on her cloak, she wandered untill she found a compartment and sat down in it

Wandering down near the front of the train, Vanessa looked for an empty compartment, one where she could sit alone, and relax on one of the final journeys she would be taking on the train. When she found one, she slipped in and sat down next to the window. She sighed, feeling a little wierd being alone, hopefully Miles would come soon. Reaching into her bag, she pulled out the little envelope which had her prefect badge in. She took the badge out, and held it in her hands. She was a prefect this year, in her last year. She smiled, she needed to put it on soon.

ARRGH.

Why, oh why did it have to be the last term EVER he would endure at Hogwarts? Miles hated ageing. Why couldn't he just be a little boy forever? What was up with grwoing up? And why did he have to get taller? Miles felt like these questions would never be answered, not for now anyway.

Miles slowly walked down the corridor of the express, looking for Vannie. That was a bit blunt, but he hadn't seen her for a while and he was beginning to have Vannie deprevation. "Aha! Found you." He mused as he slid the empty compartment door open to find a lonely looking prefect. "I'm surpised you're not in the Prefect's compartment. Is the power overwhelming?" Miles smiled and put his arm around her.

Vanessa smiled as she heard his voice, and she looked up at him, glad that he had found her. "Am I that hard to find" She giggled, although she could have been anywhere on the train. "No...but you're not in that compartment." She commented, as she rested her head on his shoulder. She had to be careful now. She didn't want to get done for PDA now. Not when she was a prefect. "There is a meeting there later though." She nodded, so she'd have to leave him.

Ooh. That reminded her off her badge, and she looked back down at it. Now would be a good moment to pin it to her robes. "Can you put it on for me?" She asked, placing the badge into his hand. At least then it would be straight. "If I do it....it'll be wonky." She giggled, looking up at him. She didn't want to mention anything about it being there last year. Not yet anyway.

Clark Landers was seriously annoyed.

He hadn't seen the pretty girl, Melanie L-something(Lizt? Laraby?) since Diagon Alley, he hadn't seen any of the people he had met, actually. All he saw were a couple obviously flirting, a Slytherein second year, and a sixth year. This would be an interesting year if he couldn't locate anyone and had to make new friends every time he turned around. Yeesh.

He looked to his side. The Slytherein girl wandered into an empty compartment and sat down, so he followed. She seem kind of sad, and Clark hated when people were sad. So he made it his mission to make that girl happy.

He entered her compartment. "Can I sit in here?" he asked, beaming.

Lizzie! Dem!! She ran to her friends, or as fast as she could with her stuff, and hugged both of them.

Lizzie looked up from the thoughts, meeting Dem's happy eyes as she got up and hugged her friend back. Hey sweetie! It's been all summer, except for the party of course.. She grinned and offered the girl a seat in the compartment. She was just about to sit down again when a familiar voice was heard yet again...

...and Jesse entered with two pygmy puffs and a wide smile. Hey Jesse! she said happily and got up again, hugging him tight, she had missed him too. Everything ok with you? And you too De...

...She didn't even finish the question before Dem got up with a scream and attacked Jesse. With a giggle Lizzie smiled brightly at her friends, happy to be with them again, just as Shaylee joined too. Hey Shay!! Lizzie called and ran over to her too, hugging her. Lovey I haven't seen you for long, how've things been during summer?

Vivianne boarded the train and was looking for a compartment. She wasn't in the mood to choose whoever was seated inside though, she just wanted some place to stay. The feeling of going back to Hogwarts again made her excited for the past few days of the summer. She glanced around and saw familiar faces busily chatting with old friends and new ones.

She'll be missing her parents again however she was used with it now unlike before when she was on her first year. She's hoping this year's going to be better than the past years.

Jesse, not expecting the big hug that enveloped him, instinctivly dropped his stuff, his trunk landing with a large thud onto the compartment floor. Robin, who'd been snoring in his pocket, poked his head out, cooing lazily. Jess laughed, returning her hug, "Nice to see you too!"

Another girl entered the compartment. Why was it he was always surrounded by girls? It wasn't as if he was complaining though... He'd seen this girl hang around with Lizzie and Dem often enough and the way she said their names confirmed. But he'd never spoken to her before. Offering her a friendly smile, he sat down oppisite Dem and Lizzie.

Then came the hug from Lizzie. He hadn't had this many hugs since before the holidays! He grinned at her as they broke apart, "Thing's have been good," he said in answer to her question, "What about you? Haven't seen you or Dem in ages,"

"Oh hey Chris, my summer was amazing. The tour was absolutely insane, played sold-out shows around the world, I also got a bit of a contract with Gibson, designing guitars for them. I actually have most of the guitars I've designed in stores now." Amanda said, then grabbed her new guitar to show Chris.

Melanie blinked over at him as she set her trunk down onto the floor of the compartment, deciding not to try and lift it up onto the rack like she had her cat, pondering his inquiry. Well...in her opinion her cat was the sweetest most loving creature on earth apart from a certain select humans.

Most people tended to disagree.

So she decided to answer the question honestly. "Well...he hasn't exactly been around many other animals lately..." she answered, uncertainly, glancing up at her, now peaceful cat, satisfied by the sight. "He's sleeping anyway." she added, with a small smile.

She listened as Jake introduced her to the firstie, glancing over at her, as well to her own introduction. "Yep..that's me...And that's Momo." she said, pointing over at the dozing cat.

Noticing the blush on the other girls cheeks, Melanie gave her an encouraging smile, wondering whether she was shy or something. Of course Melanie wasn't too shy at all and even she had been when meeting new people last year, so it was perfectly understandable.

"Hey." she repeated uncertain of what to say next. "I like your owl." Melanie commented, for lack of something better to say to her, observing as she poked her finger into his cage. She silently debated whether to ask if she could pet him as well, but decided not to...Not until she was sure the owl wasn't going to chew her fingers off. She liked them the way they were, perfectly intact.

Melanie eavesdropped listened to what Jake was saying to Haley...About his birthday being yesterday. "Happy Late Birthday!" she said, perhaps a bit too loudly, tempted to start singing the birthday song, but thankfully she settled for humming it under her breath. "Mine was this summer too...July 15th." she informed anyone would listen. Chyeah. No one could call her a child anymore... 12 at least classified as tween or something didn't it?

She was a bit disappointed she hadn't been informed earlier...she could have gotten him a present or something. It wouldn't have been great, but it would have been something. However, on that note, Melanie did remember something she could give to him. Reaching into her trunk and , digging around a bit (she wasn't the most organized person.), she finally pulled out a small pouch, much like the ones they had at Gringotts. "I have your money from Madam P's." she explained with a sheepish smile. Ugh. And there was that jealously building up in her stomach again...Seriously, couldn't that stupid emotion leave her alone for a little while?!

Stranger...??? Emiliano took a look at the door step. Eep, Karma Atkins, his last year's crush and someone he just cared for a little too much still. But then he looked back at Piper. Ooh, oh...

What would happen? He gulped and gestured Karma to enter the compartment. "Hey, stranger...I should say the same thing, I mean I didn't get to see you before I almost left." He told her, a bit of reminder of the time when they spoke at the Common Room. There sure had been other feelings, maybe anger in the deep.

"ERr...I would like to introduce you to Piper Snow, she's a sixth year Gryffindor and a friend of mine." He said, nodding every once in a while, trying to calm down.

He was in trouble...

Ruby heard someone enter her compartment and they sounded happy ugh she thought she nodded and pointed at the seat opposite her she kept her head down not wanting to scare anyone she knew with her looks

"Thanks," Hayley said with a proud grin, "His name is Booker. I just got him a couple weeks ago, but he's super nice." Booker gave a hoot at the mention of his name, causing Hayley to giggle lightly. "If you guys wanna pet him, you can. He really likes people," she said, lifting his cage onto her lap. Booker ruffled his feathers up a little bit, and turned to face Melanie, looking expectantly at her, probably hoping for a treat of some sort. "Silly owl," Hayley whispered to him. "Your cat is really pretty, too," she added as an afterthought, looking up to the sleeping feline on the luggage rack, "Momo's a cute name."

Jack yawned as he walked down the corridor and tried to find himself an empty compartment, as always. He didn't see Anna anywhere, since she was probably in the prefects carriage, so he sighed in disappointment as he found himself an empty cart and haphazardly pulled his things into the compartment. He lifted his trunk onto the rack along with his empty owl cage--to be honest, only Merlin knew where his owl Xavier was at the moment. Probably off delivering a letter for the demon twins, who always borrowed him without asking.

Sneezing again and shaking a bit with the chills, he reached into his trunk and pulled out a blanket. Unfortunately, it was the one he had accidently taken from Jennifer a few years ago, and still forgot to give back to her, so it was covered in teeny tiny Hufflepuff crests. Sniffling, he stretched out on the seat and rested his head against the window, covering himself in the Huffie blanket.

Strolling down the hall, carrying two cages in each hand, Reese Nor- I mean, Upstead has finally arrived. Yes, everyone be afraid. BE VERY AFRAID. This was was her fifth year, which meant this was her year for OWLs. She has been dreading this year since she started school, this year and her 7th year, she didn't like doing BIG tests that might judge on her getting into a good department in the Ministry. It was just plain scary. But, she wasn't going to let any tests get in the way of her having a wonderful year. She still had that promise that she made to her- and somewhat to other people- that she wouldn't get into trouble this year. Yes, Reese was going to be a goodie two shoes this term. Will she keep the promise? Well, that was undetermined at the moment, but she was going to try her best.

Darn. Reese couldn't find any empty compartment, so she was going to have to share a compartment with someone. Turning back around, she headed to the front of the train, glancing in each compartment as she walked past them. Then, she came across a compartment that was taken by a boy, that was wrapped up in a blanket. Should she disturb him? Yes. Yes she was.

Reese knocked on the compartment door, then slid it open. "Can I come in? There isn't anymore compartments that aren't crowded," she asked him, looking down at him. She noticed the Hufflepuff crest on the blanket and grinned. He was a Hufflepuff, how awesome. She hasn't met many Hufflepuffs before.

Just as Jack had been slipping into the first stage of sleep, he heard someone knock and enter his compartment. He blinked in surprise--well, this never ever happened to him. Maybe once in first year, but he was pretty sure those had been some nasty Ravvies who proceeded to rub their chocolate frogs all over his clean white trainers...

He sat up and nodded. "Yeah, sure, sit down," he said with a nodd, pointing at the seat across from him. He blinked again as he tried to place a name to this girls face--he knew he had seen her before, and he was 99.9% positive she was in his year. Hadn't she been good friends with Cale? He did recall seeing them together a lot last year.

"I'm Jack, by the way," he added, figuring the least he could do would be to introduce himself to her. "Jack Fritzera," he explained.

Booker... well that was a unique name, but wasn't unique always the best? Plus it reminded her of books and, well, books were about the best thing on the face of the earth. Not living thing that is.

Melanie's eyes grew wide as she said she could pet him. "Really?" she asked eagerly, but the girl didn't need any further confirmation. If he was friendly then he wasn't going to bite her fingers off. And that was all she needed to know. "Okay. Thanks..." she answered gratefully, still a bit shaken up about her decision as she slipped a few fingers through the thin bars of his cage to stroke his soft feathers. "He's soft..." she commented, quietly, looking solemnly at Haley. Noticing the look she was getting from Booker she wished she had some sort of treat to give him...Unfortunately Melanie was pretty sure Haley wouldn't appreciate it if she gave him cat treats. Booker probably wouldn't either...And that was the only type of animal treats she kept with her.

"Thanks." Melanie said, beaming as Haley commented on her cat, looking back up at the luggage rack to make sure he was still sleeping and sure enough there he was sprawled out among the trunks. "Maybe you can pet him when he wakes up..." she added.

Reese eyed the boy, trying to figure out where she had seen him before. He looked quite familiar, but she couldn't remember where. Maybe they just passed in the corridor at school or something. Or- maybe they saw each other in class. Geeez, it was going to drive her crazy if she didn't know where she saw him before.

"Thanks," Reese said as the boy said she could stay in here. She walked into the compartment and closed the door behind her, then turned to look back at the boy. "I'm so sorry about- you know- waking you up," she told him as she set her owl cage and cat cage up in the rack above her seat.

Reese took a seat in the seat across from the boy. Wait- Jack? Ohmygosh. JACK FRITZERA. That was the boy that Cale called nerdy last year...and also the boy that Cale said was protecting her and Anna. Oh, great. She chose a compartment with her bodyguard without even knowing it.

"I'm Reese," Reese told him. "Reese Upstead." Maybe he won't know she was the one he had to protect, since he maybe knows her as an Northway and NOT an Upstead. Or, just maybe, Cale told him about her name change. It would be like him to do that.

"Yeah, I named him Booker 'cuz he's a BooBook owl...not really original of me, but, oh well..." said Hayley as she watched the other girl stroke Booker's feathers. "He really is soft," said Hayley as she reached into her pocket and pulled out a pouch of owl treats, "You can give one of these if you want," she said, offering the treats, "He'll end up loving you forever....could I really pet your cat when he wakes up," she asked happily. She loved cats, but well, her mom was allergic, so she couldn't have one. Oh well...Booker was just as good, if not even better...

Jack shook his head. "Nah, it's ok, I was barely asleep," he said. At that moment, he sneezed again, sniffling afterwards as he let out another sigh. Leave it to Jack Fritzera to catch a cold three days before heading off to school. With his luck, this girl would be utterly disgusted with him now, and she'd bolt out of the compartment before he contaminated her with his germs.

Not wanting THAT horrific scene to play out, he pulled a small bottle of crisp apple hand sanitizer out of his pocket and quickly rubbed some on his hands before dropping it back into his school bag. Never to late to stop the spread of germs!

Reese...NOW he remembered her name. Cale had told him about her...he had also told him that in addition to keeping an eye on Anna, he should keep an eye on Reese has well. But hadn't that been Reese NORTHWAY he was supposed to be watching? Ehh, Cale probably meant Upstead. Either way, it was the same girl, he was certain. Although, Jack had gotten the impression that Cale was being just a teensy bit too overprotective about Reese--this girl hardly looked like she needed a bodyguard. In fact, she could probably take him down in a duel. No questions.

"Oh, right...Cale told me about you last year," he said, half wishing a second later that he hadn't said that. Now she was going to think he was a lot cooler than he really was--after all, Cale had only associated with the coolest of the cool, and Jack knew without a doubt that he was hardly among the people that Cale usually talked to.

Reese jumped a little bit when Jack let out a sneeze and frowned slightly. Awww. Poor Jack was sick. Was it just HIS luck to get a cold before school even started? She reached in her pocket and pulled out a tissue and looked back at Jack. "Here," she said and handed it him the tissue. There was nothing wrong with carrying a tissue around with you since you never knew what was going to happen. You might get sick and need one...or you might start crying and need something to wipe your eyes on.

She watched Jack pull out a bottle of sanitizer and couldn't help but give him a little smile. Jack seemed like the guy that was always prepared for stuff. I mean, who else carries sanitizer in their school bag? Not, Reese. He probably had a lot of other stuff in his bag that would help him in times of need.

"Oh, really? He did?" Reese asked. "What all has Cale told you about me?" She hoped she didn't tell Jack that she sometimes get into trouble or that she has a temper. Those were just some bad stuff to tell others about you. Jack would probably think she was a horrible person if he knew some stuff that has happened in the past.

Jack smiled and gratefully accepted the tissue from Reese. "Thanks," he said with a smile. He felt downright lousy right now. He just wanted to get to the feast, eat his meal in quiet, and go collapse in his bed, which was strangely more comfortable than the one at his house. Maybe all this stressing about Anna and Polonius and Prefect guy were making him sick? That was most likely it.

"Oh, nothing bad, just that you were like siblings and stuff and I should keep an eye on you to make sure you don't get into trouble," he told her. GASP! Great, now she probably thought that HE thought she was a troublemaker. "I mean, not that Cale said you were going to get into trouble. Erm, he's um...I think he's just nervous about leaving you alone. Not that you NEED anyone to watch you or anything, I mean, you're like what, fifth year already? He's just being overreactive. Not that that is a BAD thing," he said.

Gah. Shut up Jack. Just shut up right now.

"So, uh, you have a cat?" he asked, staring up at the cat cage and desperately trying to change the subject. "Me too."

"Sold out." Chris said with a low whistle. "That is pretty amazing." But then he saw Amanda's guitar. "Holy crap that's like the prettiest guitar I've ever seen. It must be good eh?" He asked still in awe at the guitar.