The door was locked? Why? Of course, it was only because the meeting had already started, and they had locked it in order to avoid any non-prefects. Evan breathed as if to calm himself down because he had to think straight now to come up with a nice excuse for being late; and at the mention of a secret password, he frowned even more deeply.

"There isn't any password..." he said. If there was, surely it would be mentioned in the letter? 'Sides, he didn't think they would put on a password. This compartment was also supposed to be where people sought out help, no? And surely others didn't know the password...

When the girl--Wesley, wasn't it?--yelled that the meeting had already started, he cursed under his breath. Why did he have to put his stuff in the last compartment? Surely people would see him sometime with his badge on, no need to risk his first impression! He took a deep breath, eyed the door and said "Okay, I'm knocking the door and getting in, regardless of the consequences..." Because they had to get in at some time, didn't they? Before it was all too late, maybe they could utter an apology or two, and get away with it? Hopefully. Yeah, he was fairly positive. If he kept a nice record afterwards, he could keep his badge.

As he raised his hand to knock on the door, someone inside beat him to it. But to his displeasure, it was Iris who noticed them, and she was looking at them as if she doubted their cleverness. Gah! Why her, but not someone like... peeking in, he saw Trixie. TRIXIE?! She could have been their saviour too, but no, it had to IRIS! Dropping his hand to his side quite openly for her to see, he said "I was about to do that," in a slightly defeated and rude voice as something flew in. Aha, the Quibbler. Good. At least he would read that if it got too boring or stupid with Iris--

...Aaron. Aaron. What was HE doing in here? Eyeing the guy, giving him a curious look, he tried to think of a possible solution for his presence in the prefects' compartment. And it didn't occur to him even once that he was the new captain and had every right to come in. Not paying attention to the boy as he concluded that he was here only because he couldn't stay away from Iris even for half an hour or so, he gave him a slight nudge with his shoulder before he finally made his way in. There. Finally. And to his delight, he could see that the meeting hadn't started yet, since people were still greeting each other. Magic! Smiling at all of them, he opened his mouth to greet them back--and ignore the Puff Prefect's sarcastic comment 'please open the door'--a little... frightened? girl walked in. He gave him a sympetic smile before he seated himself next to Sophie, one of the four people he knew in the compartment.

"I..." He didn't want to admit he wanted to show his badge around, so he half-lied at her question. "I had to look for somewhere and someone to leave my stuff." It was true that he didn't want to drag his bags over here, although it wasn't his primary reason to be late.

He was relieved when the Puff guy helped the little girl out--so she was a firstie, judging by her question--and turned back to face his fellow prefects, then, after the cool Ravvie introduced himself, he remembered to do so.

"And I'm Evan." No need for surnames, yes? Surely it wasn't that formal...

A crowd of 100 strong was gathered, each sporting signs to...

Sierra was still silently reading the story about crups losing their tails when Puffer Boy finally spoke up again. She'd been expecting him to answer her question about what in Merlin's name terminal degenerative dementia was. After all, he was reading about it. Instead, he went on about how this was the prefects' compartment, which is something Sierra couldn't have possibly known ahead...

...wait! prefects' compartment?! You mean to say...all of the students in the compartment, other than her, that is...were prefects!? It wasn't the fact that they were prefects that scared her. No, her sister had been a prefect...and a Head Girl, too...and Anna had never been scary. Sierra was more alarmed at the fact that she'd possibly embarrassed herself in front of the Slytherin leaders! They were some of the ones she'd wanted to impress the most. Wasn't the Head Girl a Slytherin, too?!

Eep!!!

"Puffer's a prefect?!" she exclaimed. Oops. Maybe she shouldn't call him Puffer or Puffer Boy anymore. He was a prefect, and she supposed that even the Puffers had student leaders, too. "I mean, you're a prefect?"

It was only then when she finally took a long glance around the compartment. No wonder all the people inside looked so old. Well, not old. Just not eleven, like she was, either. "...oh," she finally said. So the prefects had their own special compartment where they sat the entire train ride locked away from the rest of the students?

Well pin a rose on their nose!

She was a little embarrassed, though. After all, what Puffe--- errr, this boy had just told her was that she pretty much wasn't allowed to be in here. "Uhh, I guess I'll be making my leave then. I apologize for the interruption," she said. "I was actually just trying to find the compartment I'd been sitting in before." Turning back to the Hufflepuff boy, she said, "Wanna remind me of your name one more time, please?"

Sophie was watching the interaction between the first year and Cedric with interest. She wondered who would make the next move and if someone in the end would have to step in to mediate. Sierra looked like a tough girl and Cedric was to her unfamiliar. A voice to the right of her spoke up to introduce himself. Finally the silent Ravenclaw had a name. Turning to him she said smiling "Pleased to meet you Finn. I'm Sophie!"

Sophie's heart made a little silly leap when Evan sat down next to her. It wasn't something she had planned or wanted to happen. Keeping her blush from showing she said "Aha, well I brought my luggage here. It felt safer somehow." She gestured towards her trunk and owl cage situated on the luggage rack. To change the topic Sophie mumbled "I tried my new pewter cauldron yeasterday. It worked fine but unfortunatley i blowed up yet another potion and my mother had to come and undo the damage." She and potions just didn't mix well. It was a common fact but she hoped that more lessons and with Evan's help that that would change.

"Nice to meet you Wesley." Her smile widened at the girl's suggestion. Protect did indeed seem like a "prefect-like" password.

Sadly, it didn't look like the door was opening though. Staring up at a spot high up and to the right,the general far in to the distance thinking spot, Ivory tried to not giggle. This was serious and not the time to be chuckling over the possible humor in a talking badger. Maybe later...

But then-here was their chance to ninja inside! There was a Slytherin prefect coming their way; And one with a very confident air at that. Surely, he'd know what the password was or how one did it to get inside. Oh but he was asking, and Wesley was answering and before she knew it there was now three people staring at the door wondering if they were too late.

Smiling fading slightly at his suggestion, Ivy stared at the male prefect. "Meeting star-" She hadn't even considered that.

It was in that one dumbfounded moment that the door was opened by a grinning prefect.

Knock. Oh, if only she'd gone through with that. Opening her mouth to -Well who knows what she was going to say because then the Slytherin Quidditch captain was coming in as well and introductions were being made and there were these butterflies nay dragonflies zipping around in her stomach making her nervous in spite of the fact that that in itself was a very rare occurrence.

Yet just when it seemed her nervousness would get the best of her and leave her standing mute before her new fellow prefects, a few words trickled into her ears. 'Tis 'Please open the door', no?

And with that her unease vanished and instead Ivory found herself laughing and nodding as she made her way inside and set a covered cage on an empty seat.

Shrugging her hair over her shoulder as she turned to face everybody, Ivory brought her hand up in a small wave. "Hello everybody, pleasure to meet you all....Oh, and I'm sorry if we've met before and I don't remember." Brown eyes danced in mirth as a sheepish quirk picked up her smile. "I'm horrible with names and faces sometimes." Odds were though that her presence was completely new to everybody so at least she wouldn't have to worry about hurting people's feelings with her I-don't-think-we've-met-before's. Speaking of which...

"I'm also apparently horrible with manners..." Self deprecating humor aside, she couldn't help the slight blush that brought color to her cheeks. "I'm Ivory, Ivy if you're all for short and to the point-ness. Ravenclaw prefect."

Her attention was diverted for a second however as a first year joined their group and then she was back to laughing, albeit behind a hand and coughing a little to cover it up. Puffer boy. Shaking her head in suppressed laughter, she gave the girl a mischievous thumbs up when she was sure the Hufflepuff prefect wasn't watching. Wouldn't do to have him thinking she was laughing at him right off the bat. Nope, not just yet.

Evan grinned at the little girl as he made himself comfortable in the compartment. She called the Puff boy a puffer... Tehee. He winked at her while the puffer was looking away. Gotta love these small kids who were always full of... creative ideas. Aww, so she was kind of lost, eh? He opened his mouth to offer help, but then decided against it. She was looking too embarrassed anyway, and helping her to find her compartment in a train would be humiliating. Waving at her as she announced that she was leaving, he turned back at Sophie.

He looked at her trunk and gave a small smile. His luggage was too heavy to drag all the way up here--of course he could have just entered directly the front compartments, but then no one would have seen his badge--and he wasn't that energetic today. Smiling again, more brightly this time, he gave a small pat on her shoulder.

"Don't worry, we'll look into your potions making." Having got an O from his potions, he could call himself an expert, and he'd be more than happy to help her out.

Then his attention went back to the Ravenclaw prefect he'd seen outside. "Nice to meet you," he said and practically grinned at her. She looked a little bit nervous, didn't she? There wasn't any reason to be nervous... yet.

Cedric smiled as Sophie asked him about the Quibbler. Did it have any interesting news? He barely hesitated to respond. "Like Sierra here said, terminal degenerative dementia... and ah, how to remove a crup's tails."

He then turned to the female Ravenclaw prefect as she walked in, laughingly. "Nice too meet you, Ivory. I'm Ce--" His introduction was simply cut short by an exclaim coming from, you guessed it, Sierra.

Comes much as a surprise, huh? He gave her a tolerant stare, ignoring the 'puffer' word on purpose. Really he didn't know what he had done to get that derogatory word. "Yes, Hufflepuff's prefect," he told Sierra rather proudly; truly, though, he wanted to say it in the humblest way possible. And he also just wanted to say he would forgot someone or, to be straightforward, that she had ever called him a 'Puffer Boy' not once but twice. If she meant it to be a variation of Hufflepuff then it wasn't a good variation of his ever-so humble house. Other students might start calling their friends who was a Hufflepuff: 'Puffer Boy' and 'Puffer Girl' and if it was a professor, 'Puffer Professor'. Now think about that!

He wrinkled the skin over his eyebrows, somewhat deciding what to do with the girl before things get out of hand. He fixed his gaze upon the girl to see what she was up to now... and then she started talking in an obvious embarrassed, sorry tone.

AWW.

Now he felt all but pity for the little girl. His slight annoyance toward Sierra vamoosed so suddenly. Had he been so mean to her? Had he not been that successful of suppressing his annoyance? He was sorry! He just abruptly became not his usual self as Sierra walked in and started saying bad things.

Cedric lacked of anything to say.

She was just trying to find a compartment? She was lost? She was sorry? She was... leaving? AWW.

His face crumpled into a rueful grimace. He started talking in the most apologetic and consoling way he could think of, "Err, you know, Sierra, I can help you find your compartment. It'd be really fine... or if you're not comfortable about me helping you, I can ask for my co-prefects' favor to figure which compartment you'd been sitting in before... or if you somehow can't remember, um, you can spend the whole journey with us... you know, visitors are welcome."

Sometimes it is really hard to be mean and to conceal your own good self. Well, in his case anyway.

"And Cedric, remember?" Cedric replied, all smiles and twinkly eyes.

Sophie was looking out the window when the female Ravenclaw prefect introduced herself as Ivory or Ivy for shortness. Beaming at the dark haired girl she said "Pleased to meet you Ivy! Do you think the prefect compartment needs a password?" It felt a bit pointless since the compartment had to be available to other students who might be in need of their assistance like Sierra here whom seemed to be a little lost.

Sophie glanced over at her trunk and hid a grimace behind a hand. It had been difficult and not to mention quite heavy dragging to get her trunk to the prefect compartment. She had no intention of leaving her either her luggage or pets unattended in compartment with strangers. Sophie knew that such an action if known by her mother would have resulted in a howler. Sparing herself from that she had dragged her stuff all the way from the back to the front.

Turning her attention to Evan she softly "Thanks!" growing a bit restless she asked him "Want to go on a patrol down the train?" Sophie’s feet had almost fallen asleep by just sitting. Looking over at Oliver who was still trying to get Trixies attention she made a decision. Getting up from her seat she picked up her kneazle and put him back into his carrier since when they got back it would probably be just before they arrived to Hogwarts.

As Cedric said what the Quibbler was about Sophie just blinked and shook her head in confusion. "Terminal degen-e what? And why would you need to know how to remove a crup’s tail?" The quibbler really wasn’t about that right? There was a man on the front page after all looking very formally dressed. Sophie sat down next to Evan again.

Huh?

WHAT?!

Whatever had happened in the last couple of hours, Trixie couldn't remember at all. Her mind had wandered, and many had entered the compartment, but the Head Girl was far too distracted, not that she wanted to be. She shook her head as she came back into realisation and looked at the others with sorrow in her eyes. Oops. Now what exactly had happened.

The seventeen year old had felt something nudging up against her but not really paid much attention until the Gryffindor female had taken it away. She stroked his head a few times, tickled his ears and smiled a little, but she picked him up and the Blonde returned to staring out the window. He was cute, and she appreciated the attention, she'd always loved Kneazles, she had one herself of course.

But she had noticed the few new arrivals, two of whom she recongnised, one at the end of term last year and the other from Diagon Alley. Oh he was prefect now? Heh. She hadn't known that when she met him. She smiled at them weakly before hugging her knees once more, not noticing the quibbler had been placed in the Compartment, or that Sierra, the wannabe Slytherin had also enterred and quite possibly left the compartment.

*Sigh*

Should she say something or were they alright with her remaining silent and rather to herself for the rest of the journey.

And anyway, weren't they supposed to be holding some sort of meeting? She would, start one, but well... The presence of the Head Boy was unknown, and she didn't particularly want to run one all by herself. But if the other prefects said anything, she would...

But for now she should be preparing herself for the start of term feast. She didn't have to do anything right? Except maybe, be introduced, or sit amongst the students and just chat, unlike what her bestie had done last year, he'd just been with her.

Iris looked around the people in the compartment. Aaron Aaron appeared, Iris raised her eyebrow a little. Quidditch Captains were allowed in here? Looking at him, she eyed him in a way to ask "So, Fallon's sat on her own right now?"

She scooted a little closer to Trixie, to make room for someone to sit down.

Sighing, Iris looked out of the window, then did a head count. Not everyone was in here. Where was the Head Boy? Iris couldn't see a Head Boy badge in the compartment. SURELY he should be here by now?

Iris sat awkwardly, twiddling her thumbs together. Wasn't there meant to be a meeting? Looking at Trixie, though, Iris wasn't that surprised that little was being said. And the Head Boy wasn't here, so it didn't seem fair on Trixie, to make her hold the meeting.

They could always all meet up in the Room of Requirement and hold a meeting there, though... or even in one of the old classrooms. It looked like they were nearly at Hogsmead now, anyway... so there'd be no time for a meeting.

The Slytherin Prefect made a small mental note, to talk to Trixie later about holding a proper meeting somewhere for all the prefects, when she was up to it and when the Head Boy turned up. Somewhere with more room than this compartment, preferably....

Sierra could almost sense someone looking at her, and she figured they likely were. She had entered the prefects' compartment, after all. Although she was almost afraid to look, she glanced out of the corner of her eye and saw someone laughing. At her?! She started to give the girl a glare, but then she was a given a thumbs up sign.

Could it be?! This girl was laughing at the Puffer and not Sierra after all?! Sierra gave her a small smile and a quick thumbs up. After all, she didn't want Sir Puffer the Prefect to see their actions.

...but what if this girl was the female Puffer prefect?! Did that make her Miss Puffer the Prefect?!

Sierra diverted her attention away from the girl and toward another boy sitting in the compartment. This one gave her a wink! Could it be that the prefects were approving of the nickname she'd given to all those unlucky enough to be sorted into Hufflepuff house?! This was turning out even better than she imagined!

She returned the wink then turned back to Hufflepuff Boy. Yes, Hufflepuff Boy. She could drop the Puffer every now and then. After all, he was being nice to her. She hoped, at least.

Terminal--what? There was that phrase again! ...and ew! Chopping off a cruppies tail! The horror! Sierra decided that she might not want to know what terminal de-something dementia was after all. It it turned out to be half as painful as getting a tail chopped off, she didn't even want to know!

Sierra could almost feel Puffer's annoyance with her melting away. She realized that she possibly might not be in as much hot water as she'd imagined herself to be in. These were prefects, after all--a whole compartment of them, too! Starting off on the wrong foot with all the student leaders just wasn't on her To-Do List today.

"Cedric," she sweetly said, adding a smile on the end of the name. He'd offered to help her find her compartment, too, or maybe even spend the rest of the ride in here. He was being almost too nice, which made the fact that she just didn't care for Hufflepuff house that much harder on her. Did she really want to spend the rest of the ride in here? The prefects probably had something important to discuss or more school rules to make. Something like that. She'd probably just be in the way.

"Thanks, but I think I'm just going to walk around for a while, see who I can meet," she said. "More apologies for the interruption, and I'll see you at the feast, then." She took a step backward and towards the door. "Have a good train ride." Her hand had already made its way to the door handle, so all she had to do was turn it and step out the compartment.

A few seconds later, she was back walking up and down the aisles.