Ronnie smiled, shaking his hand. "Nice to meet you too, Mick!" she said. She had seen Mick around Hogwarts a few times, but had never really gotten the chance to talk to him.

"Huh? Oh, him?" Ronnie looked down at Oliver as Mick asked if he had a name. She nodded, turning her attention back to Mick. "Yeah, his name is Oliver." she said with a smile. "Would you like to hold him?" she asked.

Ameliah was pretty much vibrating as she walked into the middle cars, sitting as close to the door as she could. She was hours away from seeing Logan!

EEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeEEEEEEEEEEEeeeeeePPP!

Giggling (yes, cool-and-tough Ameliah started giggling), she maked a kissing sound to call her Pygmy Puff.

Brrr? Mel crawled onto her owner's shoulder.

Am smiled to her Puff before closing her eyes for a nap. Naps make time go faster, right?

So. Here he sat. On the train. About ready to head back to London, and from there, home to Sicily. Man, Palermo in the summer.. I can't WAIT. Because the thing he liked least about Hogwarts was definitely the cold. The Mediterranean had a moderating effect on the weather at home during the winters. But in Scotland... it could get brutal.

His thoughts were interrupted by a rattling at the compartment door. Who..? Alec! A smile broke onto the Italian's face. "Hey, dude! Of course not!" Really, what kind of question was that? This cool older Seeker Puff was.. well, cool!

"Hope you don't mind that Thomas is along for the ride," he said, indicating the cage. "Oh, sweets! What kind?" Not that he was, like... offering himself Alec's sweets or anything..

Awar scanned through the compartments. She smiled at herself, sensing that she wasn't as nervous as the first time she was on this train. She definitely felt...different. She wouldn't say grown up because she was still a baby compared to the rest, but definitely different. She absolutely couldn't wait to brag to her mother and her brother that her house had won the Quidditch Cup and the House Cup. Not so sure she should tell her grandparents...

The great thing about Pao was that he was always very... cool, you know? And happy too! Whenever Alec bumped into the guy or met up with him to do some Arithmancy, the boy always had a big smile spread across his face. And it made Alec grin some more. Nodnod.

"Thanks, mate!" he said, stepping into the compartment and letting the door close behind him. ... Thomas? As in... Broadmoor? Captain Loch Nessie's reallyclosefriend/bestfriend/boyfriend? ... No. Alec blinked and looked down at the reptile in the cage... and then GRINNED. "Nah, it's awesome!" he said, looking between the reptile and the Keeper guy and back again, "Erm... hey Thomas! Nice to meet you!"

... Because it was normal to talk to an animal. Yeah.

Erm. Awkward. Moving on to Pao's next question... "Yeah, sweets! You want some?" He... should have offered some earlier. You know, when he had first opened the compartment door. "Erm... well... they're a mix of some of the ones that were at Honeydukes." His eyes scanned the outside bag quickly. Yeah... he really had gone all out and gotten a lot of different types of candy. No wonder people looked at him funny.

The sweet thing about Alec? He shared Pao's obsession with sweets. So Pao was doubly happy when Alec let the door close behind him and plopped down on a seat in the compartment. Cuz the only thing better than having Alec here was having Alec here... with SWEETS.

"No problem!" Honestly, he was HAPPY Alec had joined him. Pao's gaze shifted to his frog as Alec addressed him. "Wait, you've never met Thomas?" This was just not acceptable. The boy carefully unlatched the cage and cradled the horned frog in his hands. "This," he said, proffering the creature, "is Thomas the horned frog." And without so much as a questioning look, he plunked Thomas down onto Alec's lap.

"Ooo, Honeydukes!" Definitely the best sweets in Britain, as far as the Italian could tell. "I'd love some!" Seeing as how Alec was occupied with Thomas, Pao grabbed the bag and began to rustle through it. "Yum, ice mice!" He popped one into his mouth and instantly felt as if the train had started moving because his teeth were chattering.

Awar continued looking through a few compartments before spotting a friend of hers. Alec! and someone else she hasn't met. She'd like to join them, but didn't want to intrude. She started knocking and then stopped hesitantly, then again knocked. So, it sounded like knock........knock, knock. Awkward.

Alec grinned some more, glad that he was in good company on the train. Because Pao was good company! One of the awesomest actually. And Hogwarts should have more guys like him. Although... no one would score a goal and every one of those Pao!Keepers would end up getting an award. And LOTS of points! ... Pao did have a lot of points, right?

... Erm... yeah... next term, he was going to get a lot of points too. Maybe.

"Never ever!" he said, shaking his head. He didn't even know Pao had a frog, actually. And... oh? His eyes sparkled bright blue as he watched Pao take out the frog and... put it on his lap.

... Erm... Awkward. What were you meant to do with a frog? Pet it like it was a dog? Stroke it like it was a cat?

... Yeah, it couldn't hurt to do that. Alec set the bag down to the side and gently picked up the frog. He brought it up to his eyes and grinned at it. See? This wasn't so hard. Except... the frog... wasn't going to jump at his hair, was it? The fourteen year old lowered his hand slightly, still grinning. "Erm... so hey Thomas!" Casual conversations with a frog was going to be crossed off of his checklist. "Did you enjoy Hogwarts with Pao?"

And... speaking of Pao... Alec let out a chuckle. The first year, or soon-to-be second year, seemed to be very enthusiastic about sweets. Well... yeah. This was PAO. Alec didn't really know anyone else who liked sweets more than Pao. "Erm... enjoying the sweets?" he asked, grinning.



Pat, pat, stroooooooke. Pat, pat, stroooooooooke.

So... hopefully... his little patting and stroking thing was working, yeah? Because he didn't want an angry frog in his hands. The frog could just... well... jump in his hair again. And he wouldn't like that at all! Plus... it could upset Pao and well, Alec had never seen him upset so... it wasn't going to happen, yeah? YEAH.

... Maybe he should compliment the frog, just in case. Alec looked down at the frog and opened his mouth to say something when...

... someone knocked on the compartment door.

Alec turned his head... and GRINNED. Awar was standing there! Except... erm... he had his hands full with a frog. And this was Pao's compartment so... the soon-to-be fourth year looked over at Pao and then tilted his head towards the compartment door. "Erm... is it okay?" ... Pao knew what Alec meant, right?

Once Lily had gotten onto the train, she dragged her stuff along almost as if she moved in slow motion, until she reached an empty compartment. Stepping inside, the redhead shoved her trunk up onto the luggage rack before placing her broom on top of it and then slumping down into the seat without bothering to change into her muggle clothing. She seemed very alone as she sat there thinking about her conversation with Taylor on the way there.

Taylor quickly changed into her muggle clothing, happy to get out of the hogwarts uniform. Tay wandered the corridor of the train until she looked in at what seeme to be an empty cabin. She opened the door then noticed Lily. "Oh... hey... mind if I ride with you?" Taylor glanced down and shifted her weight.

"Well that is very nice of your Aunt. Your family all seems really nice and caring." Minerva sat back and smiled as she listened to Ethan talking and then he was getting into his bag. Minerva watched curiously and then smiled as she saw him pull out a Reese Cup. "Sure, I would love to share one."She smiled and took the candy. It was great that he loved them as much as she did. Minerva made a mental note to hope over to the muggle store she use to visit when living with Leelee to get some more. "SPARKLES" Minerva said a bit to excited. "Sorry.. I guess I'm a bit attached to this little metal badger." She laughed a bit and took the badger from Ethan. "I'm so glad he helped.. I know you did wonderful on your owls." Ethan was smart, so Minerva had no doubt he did great.

Minerva ate her Reese cup and was sitting there being happy about all the things to come. Ethan said something that made her grin, "Yes, I think you did say something about giving me something or some sort of surprise." She tried to play it down, but was super curious to know what Ethan had been talking about the last few days.


Minerva then heard another knock and looked up it was Laura this time. As she came into the compartment Minerva smiled, "Hey Laura, what's going on? I didn't talk to you much at the feast. Seemed like there was a bit of weird Elliot drama, so I figured staying out of it was probably best to stay out of it." She then looked towards the door. "Well he knocked and said hi, but then he went next door to talk to someone. I thought it was you, but must have been someone else."

Laura looked at Minerva. "Mind if I join you?" Laura would speak to Mick later, if he was next door with Elliot she didn't want to speak to them. "Well basically it's this, Elliot was a bit mean to Sophie and I when we were second years, she threw tea all over us and was just rude." Laura sighed. "And I think Elliot must have found out about Mick and I and said I was mean to Mick or something and Mick says now he can't be friends with Elliot though really I don't mind, so he went off to tell her they couldn't be friends, and that's about it." Laura sighed, she had been truthful.

Ethan grinned at Minerva's excitement over her little badger. It almost made him wish he had taken that class however many terms ago when she got him. His smile faltered, however, when she mentioned OWLs. "Well.. let's wait to say wonderful until I get my results." There were a couple he knew he didn't do as well as he would have liked. "I don't think I failed any, at least."

Ethan nodded and grinned a little. "Right.. I did say that.. I guess it wouldn't be fair to make you wait any longer." The boy pulled out a smallish package wrapped in velvet from his messenger bag before stowing the bag under their seat. "So, I had to specially order this from Diagon Alley and I thought it might help with not seeing each other as much.. though now that we both have the internships it might not be as needed." Still, he was pretty excited about giving it to her.

Oh, another knock?

Before he could give Minnie anything, Ethan turned his head and saw that it was Laura walking into their compartment. He gave the girl a friendly smile and nodded in agreement to Minnie's words. "Hi Laura.. Yeah, that was just a minute ago when he stopped by.." The boy was about to say if you wanted to find him and bring him back so you can both join us.. but it seemed Laura had a few things to get off her chest first. Well, that would work too, he supposed, as long as Mick would join them later.

He gave Minnie a curious look - weird Elliot drama? What was that about? - before looking back at Laura as she spilled some story about Mick and Elliot and tea. He furrowed his brow slightly trying to follow along. Was she upset that he didn't want to be friends with her.. or..? "I think you should probably wait to hear Mick's side of it before you get too upset, Laura." It didn't sound like she knew exactly what he was thinking. "I mean, maybe he's trying to respect your feelings.. or maybe he's decided for himself what he thinks about her.. or maybe something else entirely, but it's probably best to talk to him." And Ethan thought that was true about most anything.. find out what a person thinks before making any assumptions. Though he was sure he wouldn't want to be friends with anyone who dumped tea on his girlfriend.

Bliss looked down at the kneazle once again and once reminded of all the animals back home. The animals which she'd be seeing again very soon. The animal sanctuary was RIGHT next to the family bakery and Bliss, when home, visited both regularly. Sometimes the bakery even did themed cookies and stuff, to do with the animals. When Bliss got home, she'd go STRAIGHT to the little unicorn foal that they cared for and feed it all of its favorite food. Unlike wild unicorns, this foal had lost it's mother and was all alone in the world, so they'd taken it in and cared for it and eventually it learnt to trust them. She loved that little foal.

YAY. HAPPY THOUGHTS.

"Oh," Bliss said and paused, unsure what she could say. "I'm sorry," she told Lex, wrapping her in a warm hug. No word were really necessary for Bliss to understand that it probably wasn't a topic to have chit chat about. She grimaced at Lex, as much as she was happy that she couldn't see them, she knew what it meant TO be able to see them. MELLOW. Lex shouldn't have...it wasn't fair. No one should have to witness such a thing. But definitely NOT someone that Bliss loved.

And she loved her Lexi a lot. A lot, a lot.

Bliss was glad, very glad, that Lex hadn't pried. Although she would have told her if she'd asked, it was a long story and Bliss felt like it just wasn't the right place to explain it anyway. But she'd let it pass, so Bliss let it go. Simple as that. Uh-huh. "Thanks," Bliss said, beaming widely at Lex. The girl deserve EVERY good thing in the world and more, Bliss thought to herself. She always managed to cheer her up, without fail. Alexa was the one person that Bliss would really TRY and be happy for when she was sad, though that wasn't very often. BEAM. "You're nervous about going home? How come?" Bliss asked curiously. Personally Bliss couldn't WAIT to go home and give every member of her family a massive hug. And yes, the unicorn foal counted too.

Obviously.

So much for a nice start to the train ride home. And here he had though it might have been tension between him and Selina that might cause some awkward moments. Nope...entirely different captain and he and his ex seemed to be getting along fine. Nevertheless, Gideon made his escape from the prefect's compartment in search of another place to hang out for a bit. He knew quiet and alone was probably pushing it, given how many students were on-board but he'd been willing to try for something...anything that was better than what he left.

It took him some time and a venture all the way to the middle cars from the very front, but upon a glance through a compartment door Gideon saw that it was empty. "Jackpot...?" he mused, tentatively entering in case someone had been there and left stuff and merely exited the car for a moment. However nothing appeared and he stepped further inside, letting the door slide closed behind him. The graduate crossed over towards the window and sat down beside it with a sigh, his satchel resting almost haphazardly down on the seat beside him as he starred outside.

Minerva rolled her eyes at Ethan saying that he probably didn't do well on a few. She didn't believe that, she had total faith in him. "Well there over now, so we can just put them behind you and enjoy the summer." Yes, because summer is the most exciting and important thing at the moment. "So you will have to tell me all about your internship and what they have you doing, plus I can't wait to hangout at DA. The ice cream place is just great, and I need to hit the bookstore at some point in time. There are a few books I want to look for." Then she thought of Ariana's place, yes that will be another great place to be at.

She looked curious as Ethan brought out a nicely done package. What on earth could he have gotten her. She wasn't expecting anything so nicely wrapped, well she wasn't expecting anything just being with him and getting to spend the summer was great enough. When Laura started talking Minerva turned, but her mind wondered about what was in the package.

Minerva sighed, "Well anything that involved Elliot is usually not good. She seems to always have something mean and nasty to do, no matter what. Especially if it involves puffs. I'm just glad Oakey finally saw her true colors." Yes, it was nice that he had found her out and just in time to start dating Sophie. "Well I understand where your coming from, I don't mind if Ethan is friends with her, they are in the same house, but he knows.. well I hope he knows.. glancing and smiling at Ethan, "I will never be friends with her nor will I ever trust her. I always feel like she is up to something." It didn't help that she had turned Maxwell into a jerk as well, but that was another story for another day. "I would just say talk to Mick once you see him and let him know it's okay to be friends with her, but just let him know that you are not friends with her and not to put you two in the same area if possible."

Smiling politely, Mick leaned over to pet the adorable Oliver with his index finger, while hoping it wasn't disturbing him or anything. "I would've took Janet, my cat, with me to Hogwarts," he mentioned. "But she hates travelling. My dad had to charm her to sleep when we moved."

He leaned back in his seat, taping his fingers on his knee when he suddenly saw Laura from the corner of his eye, outside the compartment. She walked and went inside the compartment shared by Ethan and Minnie; then he thought of the End of Term feast. Maybe he shouldn't have done what he did to Elliot, in front of everyone. It seemed like the right idea at the time, he was thinking about Laura's feelings. Maybe he should've asked how Laura would've felt about Elliot and himself being friends. Speaking of, Mick doesn't recall her expressing how that would make her feel.

"Excuse me Ronnie, I have to clear up something," he hurriedly said, getting up from his seat and mindlessly forgetting his bag. I probably shouldn't done that. If I explain it to Ronnie later, maybe she'll understand, Mick thought as he walked out the compartment and went after Laura at the next door compartment. He silently closed the door behind him and then turned to his friends, giving them his undivided attention.

"Hi everybody!" *dork*

Laura looked at Ethan and Minerva. "I know you two." Laura suddenly giggled as she thought about the first time she met Minerva this term. "Kind of like you trying to get used to my new way of behaving and actually studying." Laura giggled. "If I remember rightly you pushed me into the hot springs asking for you old friend back because you thought I was joking." Laura was sure that Minerva would remember that, "You had to get used to me being good and actually getting loads of points." Laura smiled at Minerva and Ethan and then Mick came in, she didn't know what to do, playing with her sleeve she smiled. "Hi Mick."

She continued stroking Felix, her attention drawn to the window again. Maybe it was because she was so excited to get to school on the first ride but she didn't notice half the things she was seeing now. Like...were those sheep always grazing in the meadow...? She knew she was oblivious but she didn't think she was that bad. Did anyone else notice? Was she the only one who didn't look through a window more than she needed to?!?! Her eyes flashed to Bliss and she gave her a sheepish smile. "You'd think we took a different route to school. I don't remember seeing any of this on the way there." It was actually a little funny when she thought about it and she was trying to light the mood a bit.

Usually she'd be happy to get a hug from Bliss but this time she just stiffened a bit at it. Hugs were cool and all but not under these circumstances. No. These were the types of hugs that she didn't like because she couldn't help but think they were caked in pity. "S'Okay Blissy!Face...really..." She patted the girl's back awkwardly, hoping she would let go. "I mean...er...thanks for the hug..." NowLetGoPlease >.<

Awkward situations made for an awkward Lex and hugs for certain things definitely counted as awkward situations. Hopefully she hadn't just offended her. It was nothing personal...honest.

When she did let go Lex saw that nice beaming thing that she did and gave her a wide smile. "Sure! No problem!" This was in response to her thanks of course and now she would answer her question. "Well...because everything will be all weird and different. Now that Jessa's there Daddy's not gonna pay as much attention to me and I don't get to sleep in my own room any more." Something she still couldn't understand. It was her room, the baby was the stranger so why did she have to get the guest room. The thought was a little insulting when she thought about it.

Ethan sat back and listened as Minerva then gave her own take on the situation to Laura. He glanced over at her when she did to him and he returned her smile. Yes, he knew that they weren't friends.. he would never press that issue.. though he wasn't completely sure if he would use the word friend when describing her. More like acquaintances.. It was kinda hard to be friends with someone who disliked your girlfriend so much.. and made sure everyone knew that.

He gave Laura a friendly smile as she seemed to appreciate both of their advice and then raised an eyebrow as she recounted a story. Chuckling, he turned to Minerva. "You pushed her into the hot springs?" Ethan laughed a little at the thought, hoping she would elaborate. Then he looked up as their compartment door opened. "Well there you are.." he said, giving Mick a grin. "Where'd you run off to?" he asked lazily. Not that it mattered really.. but now they could hang out a bit and make some summer plans.

Ethan rested an arm along the back of his seat and leaned back. As he did, he once again became aware of the package on his lap. Oops, forgot about that for a second with their newest arrivals.. Sitting up, the boy picked up the velvet-wrapped box and handed it to Minerva. "This is for you.. sorry for the delay." He watched tentatively, waiting for her to open it, and hoping she liked the idea as much as he did.

How was it possible that Alec had never met Thomas? "Well, then I'm even more glad that you came in today!" Besides the fact that Alec was like, his role model and awesome and all that. "Thomas, this Alec. He's cool, don't worry. You're safe with him," he explained, finishing the introduction.

As Pao dug into the sweets, he chuckled at Alec. He's a natural! Most people wouldn't immediately understand that Thomas liked being talked to. Add that to the list of Reasons Why Alec Summers Is The Coolest Guy I Know.

With a mouth full of cockroach cluseter, Pao nodded and let out an "MHM," somehow in answer to Alec's question. But then the first year's eyes bugged out. Thomas had just jumped straight into Alec's perfect hair.

O___O

Of course she would. She better! Delphinia was planning on having Nathan come to Greece again at some point during the summer, but she wasn't sure on when just yet. That required figuring out what Giogos had already planned without notifying her, and a little conversation with m- Athena.

"You shouldn't do that, you're going to tear the stitching," Delphi commented, pulling Nathan's hand away from the string hanging from his jacket. "And I don't know how to sew, magic or no magic." Better 'no magic', seeing as she'd watched Erimentha several times and sewing by magic could become dangerous with a newbie involved.

Her smile became small as he informed her of his summer ideas, one in particular standing out to her. "Think you're ready to meet her?" She asked, green eyes staring up at his own green eyes. "I'm sure you'll find interesting things to do and adventures to take, so you can tell me all about them!"

Minerva felt her face blush and then she saw that Ethan was eyeing her.. "Yes I did push you into the springs, but it was for your own good. You were just acting so odd I was hoping to snap you out of it. I'm glad you got all the points though. I think by the end you figured out how to balance, nerdy Laura that gets points and trouble making Laura. Maybe we have Mick to thank for that." She gave Ethan a grin, yes she had her moments were she wasn't just all about the books and could get in a bit of fun.

Then looking up she saw Mick and smiled, "Speak his name and he appears. Hey Mick, glad you came back!" Looking between the two Minerva leaned back and moved closer to Ethan since he had his arm stretched out she moved in and leaned on him a bit. "So what exciting things do you two have planned for the summer?" Minerva hoped they would all get to hang out especially now that she was going to be in London and in DA everyday.

Looking at Ethan as he pulled the gift back off his lap and handed it to her. She glanced over to Mick and Laura and then back at Ethan and smiled. The mystery surprise he had been talking about. She opened it slowly being careful with the pretty wrapping. "When did you have time to do this, with all the extra studying and school work?" Not that she wasn't appreciative, but Minerva couldn't figure out how anyone had extra time to do anything with all the work and crazy things this term. Once she opened it and saw the Mirror she just looked at it and then looked at him forgetting Laura and Mick were with them for a second. "Oh Ethan, this is wonderful. Thank you so much. I love it!" She leaned over and gave him a quick kiss. Then looked over at Laura and Mick, "Oops sorry guys.." Ahh they were dating and probably kissed before, no big deal.. she hoped!

Pat, pat, strooooooooooooke. Pat, pat, strooooooooooke.

Alec grinned up at Pao and nodded. But... he said 'even more glad' right? So... well... that had to mean that he was glad that Alec had come before, right? THAT. WAS. AWESOME! And it made Alec even happier. "Thanks, mate!" Erm... he did need to be thanked, right? "I'm glad I came too!" But... that was mainly because he got to hang out with Pao for the remainder of the journey to King's Cross. And that was AWESOME.

... How long did they have left until they got there?

But the little Keeper dude was introducing Alec to Thomas and so the soon-to-be-fifteen year old grinned down at the frog. "And you know, Tommy... frog," ... Erm... Tommy frog? Where did that come from? "You have a really cool owner." Nodnod.

Alec's eyes wandered over to Pao and he let out a small chuckle as he watched the soon-to-be-second year digging into the bag of sweets. That was something else that the two had in common, apart from being Hufflepuff guys. And it seemed as though Hufflepuff guys were really hard to find. Alec didn't know any other guys who had been a Hufflepuff this past term but... maybe Pao knew some? Yeah. He opened his mouth to ask Pao about this but then...

... BOIIIIIIIIIIIIING.

...

O___________O

FROG. IN HAIR. FROG. IN HAIR. He had a FROG in his HAIR. His precious HAIR. Alec's eyes grew wider and every ounce of coolness in his persona vanished as he let out a small squeak and a whimper. 'Cause, you know, he was scared about his hair. And the frog. What if the little dude didn't like something in Alec's hair and then... and then... he grew sick and then... Pao... would be so mad.

Wibble.

Erm... "Pao?" he squeaked, "Erm... how often does Thomas poop?" Because frog poop in his hair was not... well... it wasn't the bestest of the hair care products.

louise walking into the middle train and sat down, she was sad to be going home, but oh well she would be back next year