The uneasiness Cassia had felt earlier was subsiding luckily. She took a deep breath and tightened her grip on her owl's cage. Seeing people around her made her feel safer and calmer. At first she expected that the atmosphere would be chaotic and students would freak out. She herself was about to freak out had she not convinced herself that the staff would take care of this. And indeed the ground keepers told them to go for the carriages.


Cassia's arm felt sore a bit from having held the cage tightly for long. So the second year settled it on the ground a bit and started to stretch her arm. She was tensed that what caused her arm to cramp a bit. While she relaxed her arm she started looking around her. Better to stay alert if anything happened. She won't be the clueless frightened girl, nope she is twelve years old and she is going to act like it! Well, as long as nothing creepy or out of the ordinary happens.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cassirin

Sigh. Sometimes being incredibly compassionate and giving was a BURDEN. "I guess," Vivi began with the sigh of a thousand martyrs. "I guess we should see if anyone needs help."

Starting with good ol' Gideon, who appeared to be dealing with a bleeder. Hopefully Hasty and Lex didn't have a low threshold for gore.

"Gert, you need a hand? I happen to have six, and all of them currently unoccupied." She approached him from the side and moved into view so both the injured boy and Gideon could see who was speaking. "Might as well put us to use. It seems there is a distinct lack of contingency planning going on here."

Hearing his surname being called, he turned to see Genevieve coming up beside him and the hufflepuff. Six hands...the girl---a seventh year his mother had informed him was apparently bringing along the two other young ones near by. "Not sure as of yet," Gideon answered still awaiting a response from his injured charge. He nearly snorted at her comment of a plan. "Aye...notifying more staff to meet us earlier might have helped."

Then he remembered the feline he had thought he had seen on the boy's lap when he had looked him over and figured that might be something. "Actually if one or both of ye two would keep an eye on the cat and make sure he or she doesn't ge lost," the prefect suggested to the younger two. The last thing that needed was someone's lost familiar adding to the mix. Gideon then turned back to the one he actually knew the name of.

"And here ye though the platform in King's Cross was crazy."

While on the ground she tried checking to make sure that Felix hadn't been hurt in all this but then...she heard a boy shouting. She looked over at him for a moment before following his pointing to a man that was standing at a distance.

She scolded slightly.

He didn't seem to know who the man was but he expected First Years, who couldn't possibly defend themselves if something were to go wrong, to go over to him. Yeah....no. She would stay here with the older kids until someone with a name came to collect them.

She looked over at Vivi, more than a little impressed when the girl appeared and was actually one her feet! She didn't even look like she was feeling ill or something! How had she managed to do that?! Lex felt awful!

At hearing her friend say they should go helping the others she nodded then eased Felix off her lap. It was a good idea seeing as they were prefectly fine--for the most part--while there were some others, like the bleeding boy who needed some help.

Her eyes fell on the boy that she had met at the train station. She hadn't seen him at all during the train ride; he must have been a prefect or something. And there was her cue. The moment Vivi said she had some extra hands ready to help. Well she should get off the floor then.

She tried easing herself off the ground felt a sharp pain in her wrist. Merlin, of all the times for something like that to happen. She forced herself up then hurried over. "Yup, I'm helping too. Just let me know what you need." At the same time she was rotating her wrist in an effort to work out some of the kinks.

She raised an eyebrow when he said she would have to watch the cat. Watching a cat? Really? But she could have been so much help, plus, "Felix gets pretty jealous when I take care of other animals--he'd make sure the things disappears--...I don't think you should leave me incharge of the cat so you should let me do something more important useful."

Six terms ago, Max would've been one of the poor kids who fell right on his bottom, he just knew it. Luckily, Max's figure and general level of confidence had both changed for the better over time - he landed hard, but on the bottoms of his feet. He took a few steps forward to steady himself, then he straightened up, wand still in hand. Good.

He immediately began to turn in a slow circle and scan the area for the others from the Food Trolley. There was... the girl who called the Headmistress Hogs Head, and the girl who called the Headmistress the Headmaster, right? Weren't those the two? And they both looked decently okay. At least they had arrived safely. Max gave nods of approval upon spotting them. But where was Dylan?

Before he made a full circle to look for Dylan, he saw Emmaleigh and instinctively marched in her direction, knowing she would be someone with an alike mindset. "Emmaleigh," he called as he approached. "You okay? Anything hurt?" She looked okay, so it was really more of considerate questioning than real concern. Look at her go - she had a first aid kit in hand! Where did she even get that from? "D'you... need help with anything?"

As he inquired, Max was scanning the crowd for Dylan again when he saw a nearby boy - probably a first year - who looked like he needed a friend. Of course, if Max had been a younger student and had to go through train problems and travel by portkey, he probably would have been latched onto the nearest seventh year for help. Either Max was a wuss as a first year, or this boy was being very brave. Or both. "I'll be right back, Em."

...Em?

Quote:

Originally Posted by TeamNeville

The portkey wasn't nearly as bad as he was anticipating. His older friends back home had made it their goal to spook him out about it, but besides a small graze on the palm of his hand, Dorian was relatively unscathed. He walked around for a bit, finding his bearings. He had to find the groundskeeper, but he felt a lightheaded. He was lost even though he was given the simplest instructions. He tightened his group on his dayplanner. How was he going to survive this school if he couldn't find the /groundskeeper./

Max made sure to approach him from the front, not wanting to startle him by sneaking up from behind. "Hey," he began awkwardly, his hands dug deep in his pockets. "You okay? Hurt? Need help with something? Anything?"

Melanie didn't like the portkey. It left a feeling in her tummy as if being on the train wasn't hard enough. The item she had grabbed had deposited her here... somewhere. Stumbling slightly, the girl righted herself, clutching her bag with her blanket overflowing out of it. Where was here? Melanie looked around with wide eyes. Were they at Hogwarts? Were they back at King's Cross? She looked around the place and thought she could see a castle in the distance, but she wasn't all too sure about it. She wasn't sure about anything, really.

She shook her head, and then touched the spot where she had hit it before. Which reminded her...

"Alice?" Melanie called out, wondering where the blonde had gone. Because the girl had been bleeding. What if Alice hadn't grabbed the portkey? What if the girl was lying on the train bleeding to death? Panicking slightly, she stood on her tippy toes and looked around for the head full of blonde hair. "Landon?" she called out as well. Because she had lost him too.

How did she lose the TWO of them?! Where was she supposed to go?! Was she LOST? Maybe she should've stayed at Salem... she would know what to do there at least.

Elliot was acting a little funny. Chuckling and trailing off on sentences? That was so not the Elliot that Presley knew. She studied her friends face, looking for something that would tell her what was up, but found nothing. So she ventured a guess. "Are you upset with me, Elliot?" She asked calmly. Because if Elliot was indeed upset, Presley would rather have Elliot just tell her. It was better than all of the speculation and guesswork that usually got nowhere.

The spinning finally stopped as Silvia felt her feet touch the ground. She stumbled a bit but managed to gain her balance without completely falling over. Ptolemy’s cage was still in her hand. She looked around and found herself standing on the familiar train platform in Hogsmeade. Good, we’re finally here. All around her more students were appearing by portkey. Silvia wondered just how far away the train had stopped from here. Hoping that those two first years made it alright, she turned in the direction of the carriages.

Despite watching him approach, Dorian couldn't help but jump. He fiddled with the worn pages of his dayplanner- one of his many nervous ticks. Thankfully, he had been approached, because Dorian would've never worked up the courage to ask for help himself.

"Sorry, I w-was wondering if you might uh- sorry, I need to go to the groundskeeper and I um, I don't, well I can't find him? If it's not a- if I'm not distracting you. Oh and I'm Dorian... Spark." Dorian fumbled over nearly every word, still completely overwhelmed by everything that had happened since his letter had arrived. Nonetheless, he stuck his hand out, remembering the advice his mum had gave him.

Kate glanced around nervously. For the first time in her relatively short life, she was without her Mum and Dad. It felt... weird. She looked round again, to see if she could spot anything which might tell her where to go. Well, she saw a man.. With a sign. Saying something about first years. Okay. She headed towards the man, only tripping twice, which to be honest was quite an achievement. Although, oww... She hoped she hadn't broken anything. She limped over to the man and stood next to him.

Elliot raised an eyebrow at her...

"No...I'm not upset with you at all, Presley..." she grumbled. "I'm just annoyed...i don't really like port keys..." she told her friend. Why did Presley think she was upset with her? "Trust me. You would KNOW if I was mad at you," she snickered.

WHich was true.

Because Elliot had a temper, and she would tell Presley t0 her FACE if she was upset with her. She smirked. "I just don't know what's going on...how have you been?"

Because it felt like they hadnt spoken in FOREVER!

Dylan was jerked foward and felt hard ground under his feet, but he didn't get the soft landing that he wanted. He fell flat onto his front as he lost his balance, he winced as he rolled himself onto his back and looked around at all the other students that were around. He slowly got up and winced again.. now THAT was not was he thought the ride would be like.. he was going to need some more portkey practice.. before he could achieve a perfect landing. He checked Leo over to make sure he was ok, he seemed to be ok.. a little shaken but good.

He then shook himself a little and tried to look normal.. he didnt want people thinking he was hurt. He was a strong boy! He looked round and saw that Alexa was there too.. he was glad that she had made it.. well he couldnt have his friend not being around as part of his fun group.. now could he? He wondered what they were supposed to do next when he saw that there was a message for all first years to go to some guy.. he watched as other first years made their way to him. Should he go over to him too? well he wanted to see if he could find anyone else he knew before he went to that guy. But he very slowly started to walk towards the guy and he kept looking out for anyone he knew that he could pick up along the way so that they could get the guy together.

What was going on? Where was the train? And why were the students suddenly appearing by portkey? Sebastian straightened up and pushed off the sign he was leaning on. Looks like his first day wasn't going to be as easy as he thought.

Before he could do...anything a young girl made her way over to him and Sebastian smiled down at her warmly. "Hello Ari. And yes I am the Groundskeeper." He watched as the youngster began to pet the balck ball of terrier. "Her name is Pepper. Actually do you think you can hold onto her while I sort out what's going on here?"


And all of a sudden he was surrounded and Sebastian blinked a couple of times. Some of the kids seemed just fine but others looked a litlte worse for wear. He gave the youngsters a smile. "Yes I am the Groundskeeper. Mr Gibbins is my name. Are you all okay?"

This was so weird but he had not time to think about what had happened to the train. He had to make sure to get all the first years together and to the castle. And to make sure everyone else was alright.


"First years over to the Groundskeeper please. Which is me." Just in case they didn't get that. Or somehow hadn't manage to see the sign.

"Prefects please make sure all students are accounted for. Attend to those who seem to have minor injuries. Anyone suffering anything serious, bring them to me." Hopefully they weren't too serious. He knew enough healing to get by but not enough to really be effective.

AW.

Max couldn't stop himself from smiling as the boy tried his best to explain the situation. Don't hurt yourself, bud. "Hi Dorian. I'm Max. Is this your first year?" He remembered the first time he talked to an older kid at Hogwarts and they talked to him like he was a four-year old - Max did his best to use a very normal, casual tone with Dorian. He was a person, not a baby. "You see over there?" Max pointed to their left toward a large sign. Right under it, he could see the Groundskeeper over the heads of the crowd. "If you go in that direction, you should find a man - I think I saw that he has a dog with him? - who'll be the Groundskeeper. It looks like there's already a small gathering of first years over there.

"And... for the record, I guarantee everyone feels just as lost as you do right now," Max added upon checking Dorian's face once more; he gave him a smile of encouragement. He knew those nerves all too well. Unfortunately for Max, that kind of anxiety didn't completely go away until his fourth year. Hopefully Dorian would have better luck feeling right at home.

...And just as Max finished up his little spiel, the Groundskeeper CALLED for the first years. He laughed, "Follow the voice." Hard to miss him now.

Abby nodded when the girl said she was okay. Good. Not that she particularly cared but still. Never wanted to do that again? Huh. Traveling via portkeys is always nauseating. Although, Abby was kind of used to it by now. Even if she never enjoyed it.

Abby raised an eyebrow. Was this the time for introductions? Abby gingerly touched the small bump on her head. UGH. It hurt. Badly. "I'm Abby. And, I heard someone say that we are in Hogsmeade.." She just wanted to go to school now. She was tired and annoyed with.. pretty much everything.

See if anyone needed help? Abby would rather not.. since she kind of needed help anyway. She was really starting to have an awful headache now. "Um. Okay." Whatever. She could help out a little bit. She watched as Genie approached a boy who seemed to be dealing with a boy who was bleeding. EEK. Abby wasn't particularly scared of blood but.. it did freak her out a little.

And.. Abby raised an eyebrow when Alexa said that she'd rather NOT help out by taking care of the cat. "Look, Alexa. That boy is bleeding and any help is big help. I would do it but I've.." Abby hesitated for a moment as she gently touched the bump on her head again, cringing slightly. "I've got a headache." She knew that she should get it checked but she knew there were people out there who were in more need of help. UGH. This was turning out to be the worst day of her life.

She frowned when she heard someone yell out for the first years. "I think you should head over to the.. Groundskeeper. I'll keep an eye on the cat."

*THUD*

Owww. Gah. Ronnie hated traveling by Portkey. She moaned and stood up from the ground, still holding Oliver. She felt like she was gonna PUKE. She had way too many sweets on the train, and then the next thing she knew she was traveling by Portkey. Which she absolutely hated, but she had really wanted to get off that train. But she just felt so sick! And her head still hurt very bad from falling when the train stopped. So far, today was no fun.

She looked around for any of her friends, needing someone to comfort her. She was in pain and still a little frightened...and was trying very hard not to cry.

DON'T CRY. DON'T CRY. DON'T CRY.

Bliss wandered around around the station with Elise for AGES before anyone adult-like turned up. But then her shyness kicked, she didn't see how she could manage to go up to someone and say that her wrist was broken. What if it wasn't, what if it was and they would have to chop it off!? Bliss wouldn't be able to deal with any of it, so she decided to carry on walking and hope someone you notice her. After all she was clutching her arm in a not-so-normal way.

Ariella smiled back at the man, he seemed very nice! He seemed a bit surprised as more students popped out of thin air by portkey, she assumed he hadn't been informed of the incident that had happened earlier with the train...

"Well it's nice to meet you Mr. Gibbins," She continued to pet the dog, "Pepper! Thats a nice name!" And it fit him nicely, well she was assuming it was a him.

Ari giggled and looked up surprised a bit when he asked her to watch her, "Oh! Sure I dont mind! Come here Pepper!"

She watched the other students while keeping the doggy company while the groundskeeper started shouting out instructions. Ariella shivered a bit as the wind blew, it was getting chilly out now that the sun had set, she just hoped they would get to the castle soon...

So her name was Abby. Good now she knew it and could stop calling her grouchy girl. Nod.

She gave her an incredulous look when she said that she should watch the cat but it got to a more understanding one when the girl said she had a headache...okay fine....she would watch the stupid thing; it better had not tried upsetting her Felix.

Lex heard a man shouting and tried finding out where it had come from. It was the man that didn't seem to have a name...but he was calling all the first years.

She wasn't so sure she wanted to leave, especially with all these people in need of help but then he said all first years had to report to him. She sighed a bit, hoping she wouldn't have to leave her new friends but she could already seen some of her friends make their way over to the man. Well she couldn't put it off much longer and besides this just meant the school was going back to normal.

She looked back at Vivi. "I think I have to go--don't do anything fun without me!" She had to make that clear before she left because she would have died if something terrifying showed up after she was gone. She reached over and gave the girl a careful hug, so as not to hurt her wrist. She then turned to Abby. "That goes for you to." She said, giving her a wide grin then a hug.

And now she would have to join the first years. She gave the both a final wave before grabbing Felix with her still functional hand and walking over to the Grounddkeeper.

"Hello. I would have come over sooner but it seemed you didn't have a name until just now." Which was the truth seeing as the older boy who instructed her to go over to him didn't know his name. "I'm Alexa." BEAM.

He hadn't found Amelia, but saw Ronnie looking like she was about to cry. "Ronnie!" he said hurrying over he wrapped his arm around her. "Ye alright?" he asked with concern. He'd seen her land on the ground, and looked her over quickly "Are ye hurt?"

Darn it, they shouldn't have done portkeys! Half the students around there had never used them, from the looks of it! There were injured students everywhere! And he was one of the few who'd just basically walked down from the sky as he appeared. He was so used to portkeys it never even bothered him anymore.

Dylan looked around as the guy with that sign was now telling all the first years to go over to him, he watched as the rest of the first years were now making his way over to them.. well looked like he had no choice but to go there now.. since they were all going over there he would be sure to see some friends there too. Once he got there he saw all the first years standing there and looked round to see if any friends were there.. he smiled when he saw that Alexa and Ariella were already there.. good!

And... THUMP!

Alec let out a groan as he landed flat on his stomach. He... didn't really understand this. Any of it. He blinked a couple of times, trying to make sense of his surroundings. It was dark and... there was some sort of platform and... people. LOTS of people. Everyone was busy talking but, what they said made no sense to him so he just lay there for a bit, blinking around.

But... lying in one place was boring and his tummy really wanted food. It was only after having food that he could figure out what had just happened, right? The thirteen year old sat up slowly and looked around. This was the second time he had fallen in one day! One on the train and just now on... where was he?! It looked like... Hogsmeade station. But how could he have ended up in Hogsmeade if he had just been on the train minutes, if seconds, before? Yeah... this made no sense.

But then... wasn't there something to do with a glowing? He remembered touching a glowing object and... people had disappeared. Yeah, this was all very confusing. And because of this, Alec naturally reached up a hand to ruffle his hair but something on his hand caught his attention. He looked down at them, his eyes growing wide. There was... how did he manage to scrap it and make it BLEED?! O_O An ache could be felt coming from his hands from where his skin had turned very pink. Ooops. He had a feeling that his Dad wouldn't be too happy about this.

Yet, that wasn't the only pain he seemed to be suffering from. His stomach was aching as well and his knees... Alec looked over at the damage done to his knees. Yep, scraped. But... really, all he needed was a plaster and some food. And... hey, were those the carriages? Awesome! He could... go over there in a bit. First, though, he needed to find out if all his friends were okay. Especially his best friend. Speaking of, where was she? And... where was Ells? He was sure that the two of them had touched the glowing object at the same time. ... GULP. He had lost a girl. Uh-oh.

Breathe... breathe... breathe...

Simply put, Dorian felt like the biggest dope. How could he miss the sign AND the gathering crowd. Thankfully Max was nice enough about it all. The friendly smile and reassuring words were just what Dorian needed.

"Thanks miste- I mean Max. Sorry." He grabbed his hair and laughed nervously. "Yeah, I'ma first year but you could probably tell that. Heh. Thank you so much for the h-help. I'd better run so I'm not late but um. Sorry to bother you." He gave a warm smile, followed by a half-flail, half wave and pottered off, toad in hand, to the groundskeeper.

Dorian made a mental note to try not to be as petrified by the older students. If Max was anything to go buy, they weren't half bad.

He reached the crowd and stood awkwardly, scanning the people who were near him. At least Pudge, his toad, was here with him. Dorian hoped that he'd get better at the whole 'meet-and-greet' thing as time progressed.

While Ari was kneeling on the ground playing with Pepper, she almost didn't notice the two first years that had made their way over toward her, two very familiar faces. "Alexa! Dylan! You made it! You guys aren't hurt are you?" She smiled at them and stood up, brushing off her knees, but kept a hand on Pepper to keep him close, "I saw some injured students... But wasn't that kinda fun?!?!"

Ariella thought this was a very eventful start to her first year, and she was enjoying most of it. She could have done without the creepy flickering lights but you know for the most part it had been a very exciting...adventure.

Blehh. Ronnie swore she was going to puke any minute now, and her head was throbbing so bad it felt like it'd explode! She looked over Oliver, hoping he was alright. "You okay, sweetheart? Pooor baby. I'm sorry you had to go through all that." she said with a frown, kissing the kitten's forehead and holding him close to her. He seemed pretty okay. Hopefully he hadn't got squished too bad when they landed. Hmph. Stupid Portkeys...

Ronnie looked around as she heard someone call her name. Who was thaaat? It sounded like...Isaac! She smield at the sight of him, relief sweeping over her. SHE NEEDED A HUG. As he put his arm around her, she put both of hers around him and squeezed him tightly. There. Now she felt a little bit better. It was good to have a friend with her.

As she pulled away she shrugged. "Eh. I'm okay... I just feel a bit sick from the stupid Portkey." she said, shaking her head. Couldn't they find a better way to get here? "And my head really hurts. I fell off my seat when the train stopped and bonked it on the floor." she said with a sigh. "Are you okay?" she asked. She had heard quite a lot of cries and yells and crashes from earlier when the train stopped. Ohh, she hoped no one was too hurt!

CRASH
Glenn slammed into the pavement, her cat screeching and running off into Hogsmeade. "Oww..." She moaned, standing up and brushing down her skirt. The side of her face stung from her stupid cat and now it seemed she had grazed her knees too. Hmpf. She hoped Amata didn't come back. Stupid freakin' cat, scratching her. Which STILL hurt, by the way. Find your own food, stupid mammal.

The blonde combed a hand through her hair and looked around. Geez, what had happened to the train anyway? It seemed everyone was out here. Hmm. Where was the boy she'd been talking to on the train...? Hopefully he'd gotten a portkey, too. She was jealous of the ickles, this was a much more exciting train journey than she had had in her first year! Finding an ickle a walking along near her, she looked and saw that the girl seemed to be holding her arm... what?

She tapped the ickle on the shoulder, towering over her, she asked, "Uh - Are you okay?" Had the ickle broken her arm or something... she'd done that before, falling from trees at home. Not fun at all.