Ariella sighed and stared out the window, watching the scenery whiz by. Tired of being alone, she decided to do something with herself and find someone to sit with. She noticed an unfamiliar boy sitting in a compartment.

She poked her head into the compartment. "Mind if I sit here?" she asked, trying to be friendly. Ariella crossed her fingers, hoping she didn't just make a fool of herself. This person probably wanted to be alone, anyway.

'I guess,' Daisy smiled, 'you see them a lot more.' That was definitely true; she saw her Hufflepuff friends loads and even shared a dorm with some of them. 'But yeah, like you, I have lots of friends here, she smiled, yawning.
She thought for a second, 'maybe it's true...although it does seem very random,' Daisy said. She wasn't very convinced by the theory, and was quite a down-to-earth person, but it was sure intresting...

'Oh,' Daisy responded, 'the hat almost put me in Ravenclaw, but chose Hufflepuff in the end, but then they're both family things; my mum Ravenclaw and my Dad and Brother Hufflepuff.' She frowned a little; Gwen seemed nice, but why did she keep smirking at Daisy in that way.... it was getting on her nerves a little...

'Yeah, Ron, my parents have told me stories about him and stuff,' she smiled, pulling a magazine out of her bag as the conversation faded a little. Gwen was pulling a book out too, and starting to draw. 'You like drawing?' she smiled.




Daisy stuck her head out of the compartment, looking round as Gwen gazed out of the window. A boy was out there; he looked around Daisy's age again, looking quite lost, especially for someone who had probably been at Hogwarts at least a good couple of years.
'Are you ok?' Daisy grinned, her hair falling madly onto her face and her foot holding the door open. 'There's loads of room in here... wanna join us?'

John suddenly snapped out of the funk he was going through...well at least for now. He turned the boy and nodded.

"yeah sure man, go ahead" John replied as he moved some of his stuff out of the way to clear out some space.

"I'm John" He said with a proud smile.

Alyssa walked along the corridors, looking to find less than full compartment. She saw two older boys in one so hoped that they didn't mind. "Hi there, is it okay if I sit here for awhile? My name is Alyssa. Nice to meet the both of you." Alyssa smiled sticking out her hand to shake theirs.

Sammy took another bite of the chocolate frog as he thought about it. "Wally always says that Charms was fun. I'm kind of looking forward to Arithmancy though. I like numbers." He always enjoyed mathematics in muggle school. It was just his thing. "What about you? Any class you're particularly excited about?"

Cornelius seemed to be immune to Edric's form of sarcasm, his caramel-colored eyes lighting up as the boy next to him seemed to beam with what was, unfortunately, fake excitement. He believed this enthusiasm act for a while, and only truly realized Edric was mocking him as the 'golly gee's started being thrown around. The smile disappeared from his face, and for a moment there, it looked as though Cornelius was honestly angry with the other 5th year. But then, very suddenly as though he couldn't hold it anymore, he let out a loud chuckle, and shoved his arm once more, "Sorry mate, I can't do a very good impression of you," he admitted in reference to his expression just moments before. Apparently Cornelius had taken Edric's over-excited mocking as a sincere impression of himself, and in turn had tried his best to do an impression of Edric; a sour angry face.

"You're funny, I can appreciate a funny person," Cornelius informed him, flashing him a grin from ear-to-ear before turning his attention to Emma who was currently introducing herself to the boy at his side. And then, as though getting a name from the sour-faced boy was a competition with a grand prize, Cornelius's jaw dropped once more as he finally admitted his name; Edric. EDRIC!

And then, as though the universe was ironically doing the direct opposite of Edric's own fear, Cornelius didn't forget the 'd' in his name, but rather seemed to enjoy the 'd' as the best part, and exclaimed:

"EDDY!"

Obviously pleased with his new nickname for the boy at his side, Cornelius was still grinning until he received an unfortunate nickname in return. "Cornie!?" he nearly squeaked in response, eyes widening for a moment before he listened to the rest of Edric's statement to Emma. He was distracted from his nickname with this, and looked up at Emma as though she held all of the answers in the world. "You know things?" he let out in amazement as though he was asking if she had a mystical key to some unknown world.

And then, registering that Edric had just said he knew things as well, Cornelius turned back to the boy at his side with a look of betrayal. "You know things!?" he repeated his last statement, though it was now clouded with accusation. "Tsk, tsk Eddy, this wounds me deeply," he muttered jokingly. And even if he wasn't joking, it would've been incredibly difficult to take him seriously since he was now leaning over Edric obnoxiously in order to grab that crumpled piece of parchment he had left in his seat.

In the next moment he was sitting up straight, parchment in hand, his light brown eyes gazing up at Emma in wonder. "Okay. Yes, Eddy's right. I'm very confused," he began, glancing down at his parchment before returning his eyes to her own. "First, I know that I'm in some 'house' called Ravvieclaw or something of the sort. What exactly is a 'house'? Do we build our own? And yes, I would like to know if they are furnished!" He began to ramble a bit through all of his questions, but each held a level of importance to the 5th year, "Second, how are these houses set up? Does every student have their own? Where are all of them kept? Do I get a mailbox?" He rose his eyebrows at the both of them as though daring them to not see the importance of a mailbox, before continuing.

"Lastly, are you currently in a committed relationship, and, if not, are you interested in slightly younger men?" He asked this completely unrelated question so smoothly and without pause, that it might've taken a moment for one to realize that he wasn't still going on about houses and such. "You know what, strike that. Where would you place yourself on a 'cougar scale', in terms of your affection for someone, let's say, a year younger than yourself? 1, of course being that you're completely attracted to older men, and 10, of course being that you're solely attracted to those that are a year younger than yourself."

Cornelius flashed her a friendly grin.

August just sat there for an awkward moment while the other kid entered the compartment and was instantly greeted by Amelia and Zayden. August hadn't really seend him around much, and definately didn't know his name.

Then Amelia expressed her sympathies for Tori's departure. "Yeah, her father made her leave. But we are going to write to each other and visit during the summers." he nodded. Taryn was taking it harder than he was though.
Glad that Zayden too was put off by the fact that the newcomer had returned the evil cat and told him to leave it outside, August was starting to warm up to the Slytherin. "Yeah, I had no idea magic really existed until last summer." he chuckled. "My parents went with me to Diagon Alley the first time and my mother was scared to death by one of the Goblins at Gringott's." he listened about the boy's family owning the coffee shop.

"Oh that's pretty neat! I've never actually crossed over to Scotland before...well apart from Hogwarts and stuff." he nodded. Did he know Star Wars? "Of course I've heard of Star Wars. My father loves it, he's shown me the movies a few times. They were pretty good."
Nodding politely to the new girl August introduced himself and scooted over so she had a place to sit. "Hey Adrianna, I'm August Goldstein." He did like meeting new people, made sitting next to random people in lessons less awkward.

John smiled back and nodded,

"Yeah sure, you can sit here" Johnathan answered, as he shook her hand.

"Nice to meet you Alyssa, I'm John" The 16 year old added, as he clears out some more space so the young girl can sit.

"Hi John, nice to meet you. Sorry to barge in. The people in my compartment were getting a little dramatic, so I decided to take a walk and let them settle it. Hopefully they'll be done, once I get back." Alyssa smiled at the older boy. "So you're definitely not in my year? What year are you in?"Alyssa asked the older boy.



Alyssa quickly ran over to give her room mate a hug. "Hi Daisy. It's so good to see you. What have you been doing this Summer?" Alyssa asked her friend.

Then she noticed that someone else was in the compartment with her. He didn't look familiar but he looked around their age. "Hi my name is Alyssa. I haven't seen you in school before? Are you new? Anyway, it's nice to meet you." Alyssa smiled at the boy and stuck out her hand to shake his.

Awesome! Tahnee plopped herself down on an empty seat near the window and kicked her trunk under the bench with her sandal-clad feet. Then she sighed contentedly and looked around.

Noticing the two girls she didn't know, she leant over and extended her hand in greeting. Hi, I'm Tahnee! Nice to meet you guys!

Louisa literally jumped when a foot was kicked a bit high as she gazed down. Raising her eyebrows at Dallin and letting out a chuckle, she replied, "I've been quite fine, thank you." Things rarely irritated Louisa nowadays. That was one of the changes she was growing to take. "Summer was.. intense." Which was probably what Dallin would like to know. And by 'intense' she meant A LOT had happened. It just wasn't the suitable time to break the news of her punching Joao right in the face and having a quarrel that almost got the bodyguards to arrest her.

"How was your summer?" She addressed the couple. They did spend it together, right? Even now that Louisa had a boyfriend of her own, she just couldn't imagine the relationship between the two. Joao and her argued a lot and they were extremely different while Dallin and Ellie had this harmony going on, they'd complete each other's sentences and just... be in love most of the time. The fifteen years old was jealous of this just a bit. No hard feelings whatsoever, though.

While reading her book, a girl came into her compartment with a large luggage. Joanna assumed it was also heavy. The fourth year gave a look at her pet hawk 'Stares'. Luckily, he was sleeping, he doesn't like new people, he usually stares at them for a long time, which sometimes even creeps her out. Looking back at the girl with her usual friendly smile, Joanna replied, with her bold American accent, "Of course you can join. Just... try not to wake up the bird." Joanna pointed (even though it was rude to point, even at an animal) at her bird.

Joanna noticed that the girl was Asian... Maybe this girl was also a transfer student like her. Yay!!! "I'm Joanna by the way. But most people call JoJo or Joe," the Ravenclaw added, closing her book, and flicking her black hair off her face. God... she needs to get a haircut, her hair is starting to be a bit too long.

John chuckled.

"I'm a sixth year" John replied with a smile.

He was always friendly to everyone, who he encountered with it was just who he was.

Gideon watched her get settled into her seat, seemingly confortable with the arrangements at the moment. Something had told him not to put his guitar up and away in the luggage rack above him before he had sat down and it appeared to have been a good decision; Selina's attention was still on the instrument.

So she wanted him to play.

"Aye...alright," Gideon answered with a nod, reaching into a pocket of his sachel for a pic. He then absently strummed a quiet chord with closed eyes as he thought on what he would play for Selina's request. It took him a minute or two before he opened his eyelids once more, gradually began a piece that came to mind. His fingers almost carelessly moving across the strings as he played a simple tune Hopefully she wouldn't as him the name of it for he honestly couldn't think of it at the moment...it had meerly come to him as an option.

When he yessed her or in his case ayed her Selina beamed at him and pulled her knees into her chest so she could watch him play. Her head rested against her knees and she looked intently at the guitar strings. She had always loved the guitar. It was perhaps her favorite instrument and Christopher never let her look at his. So she had never really had the opportunity to study someone playing the guitar before. That and Selina was just really comfortable. The train had to have gone through a renovation because the seats seemed much more comfortable this year than previous years. Enough so where if she wanted to she could fall asleep.

The whole compartment went quiet with the exception of the brief squeak of the seat underneath Selina. Then Gideon closed his eyes and strummed his first chord. She waited quietly with bated breath for him to open his eyes and begin. After a minute or two he began to play. It was slow at first and then he found a steady rhythm within the chords. Each harmony and cadence rang out in the small compartment.

When he finished playing she blinked and unwrapped her arms from around her knees. Trying to find the words to speak she said, "I... didn't know you could do that. That's good Gideon. Really it is."

The blonde raised an eyebrow as she watched the two boys interact with each other. Edric? Interesting name. Emma turned around to face Edirc. "Edric. That's a nice name," she added. It was a nice one, she hadn't heard of the name Edric before. It was different. She scrunched up her nose and smirked when Edric called his friend by a nickname (it was Cornie right?). So Cornelius was the lost one. Alright, Emma could solve his problems and give him some answers. She gave him a confident nod. HIT ME WITH YOUR BEST SHOT!



Never mind...

The blonde wasn't expecting to be bombarded with what felt like a million questions. "Uhh..." she began before pausing slightly and composing her thoughts and responses. "A house? Well its not like a muggle 'house'. The house that you are sorted into at Hogwarts is like your family. It's kind of like a team too. Inside the houses, you will find a Common Room where all of your fellow housemates can just hang out- it's like your living room. Also, all the houses have dorm rooms- one for the boys and one for the girls. You'll share a room with some other guys. Once, we get to Hogwarts all of our luggage will be taken there," she explained before taking a deep breath. Merlin? She wasn't even done with answering his question yet. The blonde's eyes glanced towards Edric to see how he was taking it. Perhaps he knew how she felt but then again, Emma hadn't seen the boy express anything but sarcasm.

Meeting Cornie's eyes she continued, "The four houses are very different. The names of the houses are: Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin; they all compete against each other to be the 'top house' essentially. For example, I was sorted into the Slytherin House, which means my school robes are black, emerald green hood, and silver. And yes, all of the houses are completely furnished. And to your other question. We do not have 'mail-boxes', there's an Owlery at Hogwarts where you can send letters or see your owls. Also, sometimes in the morning, we get post during breakfast time. The owls deliver it." The blonde leaned back against the seat, allowing herself to relax a little more. Alright. Was that everything?

And once again, Emma was staring at him blankly. What was he asking? What was a cougar scale? She had never heard that saying before. But as Cornelius continued, the blonde's eyes widened in shock perhaps horror as well. The Malfoy leaned back a little for she didn't know what to say. Silence followed Cornie's question. After a few minutes, the blonde opened her mouth, "Uh, well, I never been asked that before," she admitted and paused again, she smiled slightly as she thought of telling this to Braeden over Christmas Break. "Sorry to disappoint you, but first of all, I am currently in a very committed relationship with a wonderful guy. He graduated last year from the Gryffindor House," she explained, making sure not to say Braeden's name in case Cornie would go after him. "And for your second question, I think it would depend. A year isn't really a big issue. My boyfriend's two years older than me so that should answer your question," she said, firmly.

Taking another deep breath, she turned to Edric and gave him a small smile. "Now do you two have any more questions?"

"Cool!" Logan said. "Oh let's see..." he said. "Flying, Herbology, and Defense Against the Dark Arts. They all seem great!" he said.

Arabella-Marie sat and hummed to herself in her compartment hoping that somebody would join her soon and she hoped that she would see some of her friends soon

Oscar looked up when a girl stuck her head into the compartment. He smiled at her, it wouldn't be bad to have some company right now. He could hardly spend the entire train ride talking to Wally. Wally was an owl after all, his mother had warned him about talking to animals, saying people would think it was weird.

He shook his head and indicated the empty bench, 'do join!' He smiled and put Wally back into his cage, Wally could have some more attention once he was safely sorted and all at Hogwarts. 'My name is Oscar, by the way.'

Oscar stuck his head out of the compartment he had just sat down in when he heard someone talk to him. At least, he was quite sure it was him..
'Hi there,' he smiled and indicated the compartment that he had just found. 'I'm fine, thanks, I will probably see you around.. I'm Oscar. Oscar O'Connor.' The girl seemed nice enough, maybe she could show him around Hogwarts to make sure he wouldn't get lost.

Oscar flashed a smile at the girl. He gave her an odd look, he had never heard an American. Odd. He wondered what his brothers would think, but he was pretty sure they'd think it was just as weird as he did.
'I'm new this year.' He explained, 'homeschooled until now. The name's Oscar, by the way.'

Preoccupied by a pretty person? "What?"It came out in a confused tone as the brunette just stared at her new friend. Confusion, yeah it was all over her face too. How exactly did THAT happen? Maybe Valentina just didn't have that part in her brain to get distracted by pretty people? Of course, Val found people attractive but that didn't make too much of a difference! She never got distracted by them. Maybe the blonde was just easily distracted, weren't all blondes sort of like that? Valentina didn't know too many blondes honestly. Val wasn't surprised when her new friend made the mention of people not being kind, "Surely you already knew that, right?"People could be mean and rude and hideous and terrible and Valentina could keep listing all the negative adjectives in her head forever but she figured it would be best to just stop there. "Some of them are like animals out there! I can agree, it's utterly awful."Her tone was a bit over dramatic, drawn out towards the end of her little speech. People needed to learn manners, darn it! "I used the elbowing technique, honestly. It works better than shouting."Shouting just made people give you nasty look and not do anything! Elbowing got them out of your way!

"It's not,"Val said honestly before eying her watch for a second."You could have been seven minutes late? Ten minutes? Twenty? Thirty? All worse than six."She beamed now before resting her arm once again. Her sister? "Does your sister have her sister? Oh my goodness, that really is cute though! Really it is!"Naming pretty cats after princesses! Heh. Not that she was biased or anything.

"I know!"She took the compliment first, smiling. She knew she was a genius, a true genius that most people didn't seem to SEE as a genius. Those people didn't matter though at least not to Valentina. "THANK YOU THOUGH! I thought it was a good name for her..."Her eyes fell back on her cat who was still silent before letting out a sigh. Found someone else she wanted to sit with? Val just snorted. "Not really, I honestly haven't met too many people I'd want to sit with."Which was a slight problem for the brunette. GULP. She really needed to find people she actually liked.

Wary? Made sense. Valentina shrugged for a moment, "A bit unsure, actually Bells. I...I'm excited, slightly. Nervous more than anything though I think..."She chewed at her lower lip now. "I'm sure it will be fine though."She hoped anyway.

Jen-I don't mind. I'm on my way to get some treats if you want some. I'm Jen by the way.

Jen came back with her ruffle bag. She had a few liquorish wands, a couple chocelete frogs and a few bags of every flavor beans.
"Sorry to ease drop but I heard something about flying? I would like flying class. I plan on trying out for the quiditch keeper next year."

"Wow! A 6th year!! That's awesome. I'm just a third year. I wish I was older so that I could get out of here faster. But I guess I'm stuck here for another 5 years including this one." Alyssa sighed. "So what house are you in? I'm in Hufflepuff. Everyone is nice there."



Alyssa smiled at the boy. He seemed to give her an odd look when she first started speaking to him, but couldn't figure out what she had said that would make him do that. So she chose to ignore the look and concentrated on what he was saying. "Hi Oscar. So you were homeschooled. That's why I haven't seen you around. Well I'm sure that you will enjoy your time at Hogwarts. What year will you be attending? I'm in 3rd Year. But this will be my second year here. I transferred over from Salem Institute after my first year."Alyssa realized that she was babbling, so she quickly stopped herself and just smiled, giving the boy a chance to respond to her questions.

John chuckled and gave her a friendly smile.

"Hehe yeah one more year after this and I'm gone! Hogwarts is okay, but I miss my muggle friends too. John sighed.

"I'm in the coolest house, in my opinion obviously hehe. I'm a Gryffindor!" He added, with a really proud smile as he looked out the window.

Sammy no longer knew what she was doing. Nor did she no longer know where anyone was besides her cat who was sitting safely in her arms. She had gotten sick of poodle boys presence and had told him she was going for a walk around the train because his company bothered her. Which was true, his company did bother her so now she was walking along the train looking for something interesting to do humming the tun to "Kiss the Girl" from Disney's "The Little Mermaid" along the way. She had gotten it stuck in her head because of the amount of times she'd found someway to show it to Everett. Well worth it but she needed to find a new song to bother him with. So that's what she thought of whilst she went along the corridor looking into cabins to see if there was anyone she knew in any of them.

This girl seemed to talk.. a lot. He stared at her while she kept on talking, trying to remember all the questions.
'Yes, my mother home schooled all of us.' But maybe that was pretty common, at least in his family it seemed to be.. 'Where is Salem Institute?' He asked, eyeing her questioningly, maybe all people talked like that there, he had never been outside of Britain so he could hardly know. 'I'll be a Third year too,' Oscar added, unsure of how he would get sorted, he hoped it wasn't like how his father had told him about his sorting, in front of the whole school.
He eyed her curiously, 'whats... your blood status?' Which would probably make him sound stupid, but that wasn't what he meant. 'In a none-Death Eater way.' He was just curious!