Katelynn looked up and saw a girl a few years older than her. "Yes please" she muttered, and knew that her face must have become scarlet by now. She took the girls hand and got up. "Thank you! It's so crowded here, I couldn't get through" she said, and realised that her candy was still on the floor. She hastily bend down and scooped it up into her arms.

He turned off the music but her words wouldn't register in his head. Because the more he observed the girl, the more she reminded him of a lamb with it's wool dyed red. And since he was prone to blurting out whatever notion crossed his mind, Maxim wasted no time in telling her how he felt. "Don't mind me, red-head, I mean Harley but you remind me of a lamb." He placed his hand on his chin, blue eyes squinted as he mentally tried to deduce as to why she seemed akin to a lamb. "Maybe it's the way you talk." He reasoned, thinking hard but failed to come up with a satisfactory answer. "How about I tell you later why I feel that way, hm?" That sounded much better and gave him time to actually weigh his theory up.

"My name? Ah, right. It's Maxim." He said, and a chuckled escaped his lips at her reply about the candies tasting like crap. "No really, I hate candies. They can be addicting and I for one wouldn't fancy depending on a mere chocolate frog for life." These kids sure looked obsessed - thank Merlin he wasn't anything like them.

Harley tilted her head, looking the boy up and down, he was certainly different. Or maybe he was normal. She wasn't sure, she was used to being homeschooled and not knowing many people so yeah, she wasn't sure what normal was. Shrug. She widend her eyes, brushing her hair out her face before giving the boy a small nod. "Um..You can call me red-head if you want, I dont really mind....Excuse me, did you just say I remind you of a lamb ?" Last time she checked she wasn't made of wool nor did she have cotten wool taped to her, so how could she possibly look like a lamb ? She let out a small giggle, before giving a mellow look. Talk like a lamb ? "...I dont think lambs can talk. Unless theyre like talking lambs." then theyd be able to talk. "Um. Yeah..I think I can wait until you've figured it out." she nodded.

Maxim. "Thats a cool name." She blinked as he chuckled. He was certainly unusual. She bit her lip before nodding slowly. "Um..Thats..unusual. Im pretty sure most of these people dont rely on a chocolate frog for life though."

Iris wandered down to the food trolley... She'd missed breakfast because she woke up late, and was hungry! Hoping that the trolley was there (and that there weren't many people waiting), Iris skipped to the end of the train.

... Much to her dismay, there were way too many people at the trolley. So, wait she must.

Even though she didn't want to.

Satine glanced over Alex's head and spotted a familiar blonde head in the crowd. She stood on her tippy toes which wasn't the easiest thing to do in her new dark blue heels. Once she felt like she was up high enough she started flailling her arms in the air and saying loudly...not screaming, but just loudly, "Iris!"

Once she thought she had her attention, she said, "Girl come up here with me...I'm glad you got out of your meeting in time to come to the food trolley...I'll give your money back to you..." she said with a wink as she lied through her teeth for her friend to cut with her.

Food...

That was all that was on Iris' mind.

...

Someone was shouting her name?

The prefect looked over the queue of people, to see who it was. "SATINE!" Iris hadn't seen her in ages! She grinned, and waved back, giggling at the purple-haired girls arm flailing.

She looked at the girl as she spoke, and raised her eyebrow. Maaan. The girl was crafty when she wanted to be.

Why exactly was she a Blue? Hehe.

Iris nodded to her, winked, and excused her way through the little Firsties. "Heeeey!! How've you been, I've not seen you in ages!" Iris grinned at her friend, and pulled her into a hug. This was honestly the best part of the journey. Getting to see friends that she otherwise didn't.

Satine quickly hugged Iris back..."I was hoping you would pick up the secret clues of cutting that I was throwing your way." she said under her breath with a wink.

She glanced around to make sure no one heard her and then continued on, "i'm doing great, except this line is humongous! And I'm pretty sure it hasn't moved yet." she said rolling her eyes and cocking her right eyebrow. "And I'm telling you those licorice wands are just staring at me and tempting my rumbling belly." as if on cue her belly rumbled slightly and she rubbed it making a yah see look towards her Slythie friend.

"Well how are you? You're the only one I've seen on the train yet....but there are too many firsties and newbies running around so it's hard to find anyone." she said with a little giggle as she looked around mischieviously....too many little ants scurrying around...ugh...

"But I guess that means you get to meet new friends along the way, which I have met quite a few. " she leaned in close and whispered under her breath, "and some pretty cutie boys!" yeppers Satine boy crazy now...o no not her.

"Almost profitable.... from an almost brawl" he replied to the Slytherin girl and winked at her again "Too bad that old dude had to pull you away, that would've been some good entertainment at the party." he chuckled. "Speaking of which, that old man... he's your Dad? Jake called him Dad too. You two arent related to some degree are you?" Jake and Marie may be both blondes but they sure dont look anything alike. But then again the old dude looked nothing like them either.

He nodded at the Ravenclaw Prefect and replied "Alright then Finn...." There it is again, the feeling of familiarity "You know I couldnt shake the feeling that I've heard your name before, I just couldnt seem to place it...."


He suddenly stopped whatever he was doing when Mia used his full name. At least that was his full name as far as she knew. He looked at her soulful dark eyes and he could feel his face heating up. He just wanted to blurt out the jumbled mess that's been festering in his head since that trip to Antarctica. He turned to face her finally "Got to spend some time with Nik down at the South Pole... " he started nearly spitting out the Durmstranger's name "Real nice guy he is, really...." Arrogant! Conceited! Dastardly! Egotistaical! Self-Serving.....he had a word for every letter of the alphabet that was just waiting to burst out. Then he blinked. He realized he was shaking. He struggled to keep it all down, trying to draw measured breaths. Interesting how it was that a year ago he was in the exact same state of fury, only to be eased into calmness by Mia. Now it seemed her effect has reversed itself "..... he's a real piece of work." he said finally "You may want to know a bit more about how he is and what he does when you're not looking."

He backed off. He wanted to get out of there.... and do something insanely dangerous. Like climb onto the train roof.




He flipped through a few more pages to see if there was anything else interesting. Words upon endless words on paper. He made the motion of returning it back to the Trolley lady but he got that look. What he couldnt even trade this off for a couple of jelly slugs?

He shifted around the trolley and made his way towards the others, walking directly behind Treyen-- who didnt seem to make any motions of turning to say hello. Or even acknowledge that he was around. What the hey? At least Vashti saw him. "Hey wazzup Vashti?" he nodded at the Ravenclaw girl, then shifted his eyes behind Treyen's head and back to her again Whats with him? he was trying to say silently.

Lexi trotted down the corridor with her hands tucked into the kangaroo pocket of her hoodie. Humming slightly to herself she smiled widely as she spotted Salander. Ohaiii! A tiny giggle escaped her lips as she pulled her hands out and launched herself at the boy. Hugging him tightly as she pounced she looked at him and giggled. "SAL! I have missed you so much!" she exclaimed as she clung to him.

Kurumi noticed that Vashti seemed to be just as intrigued and confused about this particular issue of the Quibbler as she was. Perhaps she could pull her aside later and talk to her about methods of research.

Kurumi's thoughts of research and mystery calmed down when Treyen began listing off other magical creatures and almost forgot about her desire to take a peak behind him when...
...she heard Salander's voice and then saw him standing behind Treyen. From the way the atmosphere suddenly felt like someone had put a black cloak over everything or...that there was a herd of Pogrebins in the area. Did you call a group of Pogrebins a herd? Or was it a pride? A gang perhaps? Kurumi looked back and forth between the two and noted that they seemed to get along as well as a boggart did with a wizard.

"H-H-Hi Salander," she waved cautiously. Treyen's blinding smile seemed to have fizzled out at the moment.

Even if she wasn't actually part of the discussion on nargles, Vashti was definitely listening, and suddenly one of the comments Treyen made caught her curiosity. "Thestrals. They're only visible to those who've seen death, right?" She was pretty sure that was right. "So if nargles - if they're real, of course - if they're like Thestrals in that they're invisible to most people, what would a person have to do or to witness to see them, do you think? Would it be death, or something else?" Perhaps it was a random thought, and it was really mostly hypothetical since she was pretty sure nargles didn't exist, as she'd never heard about them in any CoMC lesson, but it was interesting to think about, wasn't it? Because what if, by some small possibility, they actually were real? Wizards couldn't possibly know about every species of animal that ever existed, could they?

And besides, continuing the subject on nargles would keep the conversation from wandering back to the Statute of Secrecy that everyone seemed so unsettled over.

Vashti nodded, still smiling. "It is rather crowded, isn't it?" she agreed. "I guess a lot of the students like pumpkin pasties and licorice wands." And the other candy that was on the trolley too, but she certainly wasn't going to just name them all. It would take ages. "Do you need help with any of that?" she asked as she saw the girl hurry to scramble up the candy she'd dropped. The corridors could be quite crowded too at times, and she didn't know if the girl had found a compartment yet or not. Trying to wander the crowded corridors with candy in your arms and searching for a compartment was not very helpful for preventing even more embarrassing.

Oh, and now Salander was coming over.

"Hey, Salander," Vashti replied with what she hoped was a friendly smile. Noticing his glance towards Treyen and assuming the question he was trying to imply, she wracked her brain for a way to answer without having to actually explain it all out loud. Finally she just decided on unfolding the Quibbler in her hand so he could see what it was then she raised an eyebrow and shrugged as she glanced briefly at Kurumi and Treyen, as if to say, This thing's making them a bit uneasy. Which mostly it was Kurumi who hadn't liked the Quibbler, but Salander had appeared to ask only about Treyen, so she had to connect the Hufflepuff into it somehow.

His eyes was searching the nearest window to see if they were the types that would slide open so he can just hoist himself up outside. He desperately needed for something to clear his head. Suddenly he felt someone nearly tackling him to the ground. "Lexi!" he uttered surprised at the Gryffindor blonde. Its like she popped up just when he needed a distraction the most. Incredible timing. He gave her a big hug in return while easing her grip from him just a bit. He needed to breath after all "How are-- oh you have? I mean of course you have!" he grinned. Just how often did she get the chance to "renovate" a Diagon Alley landmark? Never. Not without him heh. "You got all your stuff on board no sweat?" he asked, having seen quite a bit of students having trouble getting their luggages on board.







He tilted his head to the side as he stepped up beside Treyen "Hi Kurumi!" he greeted the young brunette, waving the folded up Quibbler. Which was a mistake because now he saw Vashti motioning to it and looked like the magazine was causing some problems with her and with Treyen. Oops.

He turned his head at Fletcher's #1 fanboy "Wa-zup Treyen" he said slowly, bending low and looking at the boy by the side of his face. Why does this feel familiar heh.

Well she knew that she didn't have to remind him of where he lived but she just seemed to like saying it. His house was freakin awesome. Mia wanted to live in a house like that some day.

She returned his grin and raised an eyebrow. "That is of course you don't dump me for one of your other girls." From what she had seen Finn was very popular especially with the girls and probably would be more so, now that he was a Prefect.

"Which reminds me. Are you and Jimmy friends again?"


Mia had to literally take a few steps back when Sal went on his tirade. She had seen him like this before and it was rather scary. But last time she had managed to calm him down, she had the feeling that she wouldn't be able to this time.

Seeing how she seemed to be the problem. Well technically not her but Nik which was the same thing as far as she was concerned.

And the things he was saying...

Mia could feel herself starting to shake a little as well. Why was everyone trying to warn her away from Nik? She was a big girl and could look after herself and Nik had never done anything to hurt her. In fact he had been the perfect gentleman.

"I know enough about him Sal. Thank you very much. Nik and I only officially got together in the last month so whatever happened before that is none of my business." And then there was that feeling of protectiveness for Nik again. Mia moved closer to Sal without even thnking about it and she raised her hand that was holding the cauldron cake and mushed it into his face.


Just as Lexi walked up and hugged him. "Sorry Lexi." She said throwing an apologetic look at her and then giving Sal one last glare before turning on her heel and stomping off down the corridor.

Lexi giggle!snorted as Sal loosened her grip a bit. Finally releasing him from her huggle she stepped back and beamed at him. "Of course I missed you... the remainder of my summer was dreadfully boring," she pouted at him for a moment. Then wrinkling up her nose she giggled softly.

Oh my! She was so oblivious sometimes. Looking around she saw several people she recognized, including Mia and the Fletcher fanboy dude... Treyen was it? Yes. Waggling her little fingers at them all she smiled and said, "Hey guys!" Then turning her attention back to Sal she actually caught herself blushing as she thought about the last time she saw him. That, in turn, brought even more giggles. "So, how was the rest of your holiday? Oh yeah my stuff ot on just fine. You know me, I asked a big strong guy to help me," she said in rapid fire.

Kurumi nodded in agreement. At least there was someone else who thought that these Nargles could potentially exist. "Well, since they are said to be thieves, perhaps you have to have something very precious to you stolen to be able to see them," Kurumi offered putting her thinking cap on. "Like...your favorite chocolate frog card or a family heirloom that has been in the family for centuries!"

Ha! Victory was her's as she had managed to see past Treyen's head. Not that it was that much of a victory to begin with. Kurumi noticed Vashti's look about the Quibbler and she quickly folder her own copy and put it in her robe's pocket. She was going to have to talk to Eino and Adam about it later. "So, Salander," Kurumi said swaying back and forth a bit out of nervousness. "What do you think a Nargle looks like?" Best to keep the flow of conversation away from the Quibbler, right? Kurumi didn't really want to start crying again.

Too late. Salander was already waving the Quibbler around. But the conversation didn't change to it and no one started freaking out, so maybe it wasn't a horrible mistake. Maybe they'd all gotten over it. For now, at least.

Vashti nodded thoughtfully at Kurumi's suggestions. "That would certainly make sense," she agreed. "That seems like it'd be a disadvantage to the nargles though. It would be easier to find them if you can see them, so you'd probably be able to find your lost item or the thieving nargle. So they'd have to be pretty crafty to be able to hide with their stolen goods. Unless they're really, really tiny?" Perhaps they were, if they were supposed to be in mistletoe and all that. But then how could they steal potentially heavy items? Even shoes could be kind of heavy when compared to a tiny creature.

Marie just grinned at Mia. She had told Mia enough about how she felt that she was sure Mia knew what she was going to be doing later. Plus she really didn't want to say too much to Mia right now not really knowing yet how she was feeling about Nik not being around.

Feeling Mia tug on her arm she turned her attention from Finn back to Mia. "Um sure, I'll be here for you. You know I'll help you with whatever I can." She then looked between the boys. Hmm, wht did she have a feeling Mia was going to want her to punch one of them?



Hmm, she wondered if Finn had told Jimmy that he was a prefect. Jimmy had told her about him but never mentioned his prefectness. Eh not that it really mattered to her. However she did like that fact that her boyfriends best friend was a prefect. Hopefully that would make it easier to get him to do what she wanted him to do. She would wait until later to talk to him about that though. "Yeah, and I'm sure we'll be seeing a lot of each other in the future." She said grinning back at him. Not only because of Jimmy but hopefully because she would be able to convince him to help her out with her task.



Marie started to laugh when Sal mentioned her almost brawl with Jake. "Right, that would have been something to see for sure." Given the way her and Jake felt about each other Sal may just get his chance at making a profit before the term was over. Lawson wouldn't be around to protect Jake at school now would he.

Huh? Old man.. her dad?

Oh right, Lawson. "No, he's not really my dad. He's Jake's dad and he used to be a professor at Hogwarts. I stayed at his house last summer. That's when I found out that the Lawson's had adopted Jake." Boy did that come as a shock to her. "Jake didn't exactly like the idea that I was staying there so we ended up fighting... a lot... when he was home that is." She still found it rather amusing that just her being there made Jake leave home and act like a little baby. "He got it stuck in his head that I was trying to steal his parents away or some crazy thing like that. Now I like to annoy him as if he was my big brother." Because she knew that really made him mad. Anything that had to do with her being a part of his family was sure to set the boy off.

O___O

What was Sal's problem with Nik? Why was he acting that way to Mia?

Wait... South Pole? Sal was at the South Pole with Nik? What had Marie missed here?



Looking over at Mia she had a feeling things weren't going to end so well. Mia had lost that happy look Marie was so used to seeing her with. And then she was telling Sal off... and smashing cake in his face and taking off.

Well... that wasn't good.

"Um, I think I better go see if she's alright." She said looking back at Finn and Sal before taking off after Mia herself.

He should probably give her a nickname since her name didn't sit well with him from the start of this conversation. "In that case, i'll be calling you RedLamb, if that sounds good to you. It's just that your name -- your name..ugh. I don't know, I like RedLamb better." He said, eyes wide, lips scrunched as he nodded his head. "Plus, you're kind of cute..." Oh crap. He should stop now, no more compliments for girls today. "..in a lamb-ish kind of way, that is. He stared at her, waiting for her to weird out. This train ride was definitely making him SICK!

She thought his name was cool? She has got to be kidding! "I'm not very fond of it. The reason is because I hate it when people call me MAX. I just, ugh, loathe to be called Max." Max was more of a dog's name and he felt very insulted when referred to as Max or any of the shortened derivatives of Maxim. Grr.

Okaaay. He should perhaps, stop arguing about candy. "..Then think again!" Hah! He loved, LOVED to force his opinions down other people's throats. O, the fun. "By the way, RedLamb, what year are you in?" He asked, leaning next to the glass window, arms crossed. "Shall I take a wild guess?" He raised his eyebrow as he waited for an answer.

"Uhm well, I have a compartment already, but uhm.... Do you think it's really crowded all over the train?"
The girl seemed really nice. Katelynn wouldn't want to bother her, but at the same time, she didn't really fancy the possibility of falling over again.

"But of course you love New York, it's amazing." Alex chuckled, how cool that he had met his first american in England. "From the south, I thought I detected that accent." he grinned. He spoke in his american accent now casually, it felt good to just let that go.

"Yeah America sure is great." he nodded absently. America was... Home. And awesome of course.

He raised his eyebrows at her impressed. And he thought he had moved around. "Which did you like best?" he asked curiously. If she didn't say Hogwarts he would jump off the train. Okay not really but still, what a disappointment if she didn't say Hogwarts.

"Scrumdilyump-what?" he frowned confused. Perhaps she had said something in another language, yeah probably. Because he hadn't caught that.

"It's not as crowded as the trolley is right now, I don't think," Vashti answered, trying to remember what the train was like the last three times she'd ridden it, "but I think it can sometimes be a bit crowded. Especially if we're getting close to Hogwarts and everyone's trying to gather their things and get their robes on and all that." Speaking of which, Vashti probably ought to go do that herself. She wasn't sure how close to Hogwarts they were, but she didn't want to wait until the last minute and then get left behind because she was taking too long. Not that it took that long to put one's robes on, but still.

"Noo nothing is up",Fee smiled sweetly at Katie,"its just that i am a little confused.No biggy."In the end she was only imagining things and then she would make a complete fool out of herself.Nooot cool.

"Waaaaait!!Torin like in Torin Kane?",the blonde asked wide eyed.Didnt he graduate already? And hadnt there been something goign on with Savvers before? Woaah."He sounds pretty nice",she nodded,"but he is a little old dont you think?"19 and 12 that was like big brother and lil sister.Nooot good."But i would advice you to keep going maybe he just wants to be a friend."So why not?!

Satine smiled at Alex.., "Well, it's great to have a fellow American here...peeps tend to make fun of my accent a lot...so atleast I'll have someone that understands that I'm not the only one in the world that talks like this. " she said with a little wink.

She thought for a few seconds and then answered his next question. "Well, Hogwarts, of course. It's leaps and bounds above everyone else. The classes they teach here are actually more modern than most of the classes at the other schools. And Hogwarts has stayed true to magic where some schools have stepped more towards either muggles or the dark arts. " she said with a little shrug of her shoulders. "I learned a lot and met some amazing peeps but I am sooooooo very very very happy to be back here. Hogwarts is the best by far." she said with lots of pride.

"Scrumdiliuptous just means yummy...my mom and dad say that every that tastes good is so...I'm pretty sure they just made up that word, but it works...I guess." she said with a little giggle as he tried to sound it out and say it.

She glanced at the line once again. "I hope we get our candy before the train arrives....good think I'm already in my robes. What are you going to buy? I highly recommend those licorice wands."

Harley smiled at Maxim, still trying to get her head around the hole idea of her being a lamb, it was kinda confusing she'd never really thought about it before. "Redlamb sounds...good too me. I think." Eh, whatever floated his boat. "Right um. Okay then." Did he not like her name ? Oh, shrug, people had different opinions. Cute ? Was that a compliment ? Clearly. But, what did that have to do with her being a lamb ? Her cheeks went a slight shade of red as she looked around a little bit trying to figure out what her being cute had to do with her being a lamb. "Um thank you. Your...pretty cute yourself." That was the right thing to say right ? Although, he didnt remind her of a lamb.

Did not many people like their names ? She didnt dislike her name but quite a few people she'd met lately seemed to dislike their names. "Ive heard that a lot lately. Not the Max thing. But yeah..Ill stick to Maxim then unless you'd prefer something like....Green lamb ?" she said looking back to him and giving a small smile.

Think again ? "Okay. Thinking again." Even though she wasnt sure what she was rethinking. She opened her mouth about to answer his question when he suggested him guessing. That sounded fun. "Sure thing, You can guess."

We're not going to lie, Treyen almost almost jumped when he heard Salander greeting Vashti, because well, he hadn't expect to hear anyone else but Kurumi at the moment. But he still remained in place since it was rather hard to see if the boy in question was still frowning over the Quibbler or not...

...except...had he managed to quiet down Kurumi? Was she now accepting his ideas of Nargles? Which weren't his ideas in the first place, it was just some random thinking made in order to keep her mind away from the Statute. He still believed in what he said, though.

She'd also noticed Salander, well, who couldn't? It's not like Treyen was tall enough to truly stop anyone taller than him to be noticed anyway. By the look on her face he assumed that he no longer held the worrying look no more, and decided it was alright for him to move a bit. Except Vashti started to talk about Thestrals now.

"Er, yes, correct," he said, while nodding. One had to witness someone's death to see them, and, well, he hadn't had the opportunity to witness such an event, and he wasn't sure if he wanted to, unless it was someone evil, really evil.

And...you know what? This was all getting too confusing about Nargles and who could see them and such. Too confusing because those were one theories, and it'd prove rather difficult to make them facts. Indeed.

If over a hundred years no one's been able to see them, then he'd say they didn't exist.

And...Salander again, "Sup, Salander," he said, nodding once, Nargles probably looked like Salander anyway, stealing away their most precious people...Sir Fletcher.

But he wasn't going to say that to Kurumi, not when she had asked such question to the Slytherin one.

One Hufflepuff. One Gryffindor. One Ravenclaw. And one Slytherin. All trying to solve the Nargles theories? More like trying not to make Kurumi cry again.