Okay, so the front of the cars weren't the first choice of Wade choosing a compartment at.. But it was the end of the year, and he was looking forward to the relaxing ride back home.

Wade took a seat in an empty compartment, letting it shut on its own. He rested his joined hands against the back of his head while he lounged before the ride began.

The train was awfully quite for some unknown reason and the handsome blonde Slytherin wondered why as he walked in the corridors. He was unable to see ickle younger students running about and making the annoying clatter they liked to do. He could not see any obnoxious Gryffindors around, either. Yet that was good actually. His mind was busy so he wanted a peaceful way back home. If only he had Aurora with him so it could be perfect.

Wait...

Actually the front side seemed...almost empty. Richard looked at all the empty compartments as he walked in the corridor. He seemed to be thoughtful yet a smirk appeared on his face when he saw a lonely puffer sitting in a compartment. Hahaha. Maybe it was the time to have some fun while waiting for his girlfriend. Not a bad idea at all. Peeking into the compartment, Richard tapped on the compartment door and grinned at the boy sitting alone.

Just a nice ride for Wade.. yep. The ride was going to be long, so a good nap should suffice him. Just when he closed his eyes however, some tapping noise sounded on the compartment door. So much for napping, Wade turned to see a guy dressed in green robes smiling at him. Hm? Looks like company.

Wade didn't mind sharing, so returning the Slytherin a smile, he nodded beckoning the guy that it was quite alright for him to join.

Summer.

Ella smiled faintly at the thought as she plopped down in the nearest empty compartment she could find. Tired Ella was tired.

Curling up on the seat, the blonde placed her head on her bag and waited for the journey to begin. A nice quiet train ride sounded really nice right now.

Kaiden peeked into several of the compartments looking for a place to sit. More specifically, he was looking for someone he knew. And more specific than that, he was looking for Miks... but he couldn't find her. He did however find the blonde haired Hufflepuff keeper.

"Hey Keeper Lady," He said, not bothering to ask if he could join her, and just taking a seat opposite her.

Person?

Ella turned on her side and smiled up at her housemate when he decided to join her. "I like your shirt." Punny, yeah? Ella smiled at it and then up at the boy. BEAM!

"Where's Mika? I figured you'd be sitting with her." She asked all casual-like but the blonde had other motives for her question. Ella had promised Mika she'd talk to Kaiden about things and stuff, yeah? Poke around a bit. Well now seemed like the perfect opportunity to her.

Cupid mode activated.

His shirt? Kaiden looked down at the shirt he was wearing, and even pulled it out a bit to see it better. "Oh, yeah, thanks. I like it too." Yep. "Frisbee is great."

Kaiden blinked... Keeper Lady was asking about Miks? The boy frowned. "I, uh, I couldn't find her." he said with a shrug. Where was she?? "Er, so where's Seeker?" Because he wan't here, and they were always together.

Mhm, his shirt. "Welcome." And the blonde smiled a little, watching the boy curiously. "Frisbee is awesome. My Dad plays with my little brother a lot." It wasn't Ella's favorite thing to do but she didn't mind playing either, especially if it meant spending time with her Dad.

Frowning? What was that about? ...Ohhhh, cause he couldn't find the blonde. Heh. "I'm sure she's looking for you too, y'know." Clearly not because she liked the boy or anything. Nope, not that. As for Kaiden's question, Ella's brow furrowed and she frowned slightly. "I haven't seen him yet, actually." Shame really, she was hoping to spend time with the hair ruffler on the train. "I'm sure he'll turn up eventually." Or at least she hoped he would.

Shifting a bit to get more comfortable, Ella's green eyes flicked up towards the boy again and asked, "So...big summer plans?"

The boy nodded. "I mostly play it at the beach. Or once or twice with the scouts." Though, he wan't too found of them. "You have a little brother? Does he, Does he do magic?" Siblings usually did right?

Kaiden shrugged. "I guess. I must have just missed her or something." Because he had LOOOKED. She hadn't seen Seeker either? "Umm, maybe the found some tacos or something."

"I don't really have summer plans. I mean, just going home to America and stuff, but thats it. Or well, really, its whatever my parents do. Maybe go to the beach, or spending a couple of weeks in London and my Grandpa's place." The boy pulled his legs up onto the bench. His summer plans weren't really up to him. "How about you? What do you plan on doing?"

"The beach is lovely." Dreamy sigh. Ella hadn't been in quite some time and she missed it. "I do, yeah. His name is Caleb." Grin! "He hasn't shown signs of magic yet but he's only seven. He's still got some time, I think." And if he wasn't magical, he was still pretty cool to Ells. "He's a brilliant little guy. Really fun." Mhm. "What about you, got any siblings?" Y'know, since they were on the subject and all.

Tacos? Grin! "I could go for tacos right now. I'm sort of starving." No big deal or anything, just casually starving on the train home. "She's nice, Mika is. I'm sort of sad I didn't meet her earlier. You guys been friends long?" Because she needed to know these things for reasons, obviously.

So he was from the States? Well...Ella sort of knew this but she was curious as to why she'd never questioned him about it before. "Where in America do you live?" Curious Ella was curious. "If you come to London, you should try and go to Diagon Alley. We could meet up." That is, if Kaiden felt like hanging out with Keeper Lady outside Hogwarts. "Me? I'm actually going to work at a zoo this summer." BEAM! "Just received word that they said yes so I'm pretty excited." It was going to be pretty awesome.

Ronnie tugged on her suitcase along the corridor with one hand and carried her kitten Oliver in a cat carrier in the other. She peeked into some compartments, hoping for an empty one.

She moaned at how heavy her suitcase was. "Merlin! This...bloody...thing...is so hea-heavy!" she grunted, pulling as hard as she could and almost falling over. Ugh. Why was she so clumsy...and weak?! She then came upon an empty compartment and sighed with relief. She slid the door open and set the cat carrier down on the seat and her suitcase on the other seat.

She collapsed onto the seat, feeling exhausted. Either that suitcase had WAY too much stuff in it or...Ronnie needed to work out more. She glanced at her puny arms and sighed.

....

Yeah...she needed to work out more.

Here was Aidan's logic: If you sat at the front of the train, you'd get wherever you were going first, before the rest of the train. And he was VERY excited to go home, so the sooner he got there, the better. Hence why he sought out a compartment in the front of the train. He'd get to London first. And then maybe his dad would take him straight to Diagon Alley and buy him a new broom!!!!

No, he didn't feel at all ashamed that he might get a super cool present on his friend's birthday. She'd be getting cool things, too, probably. So could he.

Speaking of his friend...she should be here soon, right? He hoped so, at least. That she'd find him. He did have a gift for her (though it wasn't a new broom or anything). Plus, he had a plan that put a smirk on his face.

Lex tugged her trunk along as she made her way through the train. She didn't particularly like the fact that it was so heavy because she couldn't successfully levitate it. This meant she'd be picking a compartment riiiight at the front of the train, less walking; see how that worked?

Only problem was, all the compartments seemed to be filled with either people she didn't like or people she didn't know and let's not forget the occasional CRIERS. Great. MORE walking. She stopped tugging and adjusted the kneazle in her hand before sliding open what might have been the millionth door. Don't let an idiot be inside, PLEASE??? After mentally preparing herself she looked in--

OH!!!

"AIDAN!!" GRIN. She was actually hoping she'd run into him! "Thought you might have been further down in the train or something." She hauled the trunk into the compartment before slamming the door shut and plopping down in the seat across from him. Now she would wait, because he had something to tell her; yup, today was a special day.

"Lex!" he greeted with equal enthusiasm. "Thought you might not find me." Not that that was a problem, really, he'd eventually get up and try to find her himself. That wouldn't have been terribly hard, he thought, she'd probably be by the trolley.

But that was unnecessary because she did find him!

Aidan grinned at her as she sat down, "Happy birthday!! I've got something for you." He pulled a larger-than-normal chocolate frog wrapper from his pocket and tossed it at her, "It's hollow. Has candy inside." So a candy-filled chocolate frog. He did good.

...Right?

There it was! She beamed when he told her happy birthday. "Thanks! And now you can't be older than me anymore!" Double!BEAM. Back when he turned 13 she thought it wasn't fair but now she was that old too--No Aidan, you're not allowed to count months, those made things unfair again.

Her eyes widened when he said he got her something. So far she'd gotten mountain loads of candy. These people were finally getting it. They knew the perfect gift!!

Was he gonna give her a sack of candy like Elliot did? If so then she was going to have to cast a quick extension charm on her trunk because she was sure nothing else could fit at this point. Lex's eyes got even wider. JBDLFGFBVJFG!!! THAT WAS A REALLY BIG CHOCOLATE FROG!!! It took every ounce of civility in her--and she didn't have much--to NOT snatch it right out of his hands. "Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeep!!!!!" That should have said how much she loved it, RIGHT?? Lex shoved Felix from her lap and plopped her new baby there. This thing...it would be gone by the time they got to the station; long before actually.

NOW WHERE TO START?

Oh yeah, he DID do good. Aidan's face lit up at his friend's reaction.

"About that, the I'm-not-older-than-you bit?" he leaned back in his seat and gestured at the kneazle. He could come onto his lap if he wanted to, as his owner was preoccupied. "You're a dangerous age now," he didn't remember exactly how Lex had put it when he turned thirteen, but he was trying his best to at least mimic the seriousness. "You better not go getting all into boys and mush on me," he smirked.

The kneazle wasn't in the least bit amused. Replaced by candy. How did he keep losing to something that couldn't even cuddle??? He thought to crawl right back into her lap but then he was being offered a new seat? He looked over the boy, sniffed him briefly then climbed up and began making himself comfy. This could work too.

Lex had practically stopped listening to him, there was a huge chocolate frog and she was in the process of ripping it open. This meant there was little time to focus on anything else, especially him trying to prove her wrong about him not being older. It wouldn't work. They were both 13. Lottie was too which meant none of them were older than her; she'd caught up to them!!

Ah-hah! She got it open!!!

Just as she broke the frog in half she heard him say something that caused her to pry her eyes away from the chocolatey goodness before her. She raised an eyebrow at him. Dangerous age....? Lex was about to question it--actually no she wasn't because that sounded like a whole bunch of things she didn't want to hear, when suddenly he said THAT.

Blink. Blink.

There was probably a real good way of responding to something like that...and she knew it....but just...STAREEEEEEEEEEEE. Yeah Stone, you were getting LOOKS.

Oh! Felix accepted! He...never had a kneazle on his lap before. Aidan smiled to himself and gently scratched its head. That was what you were supposed to do, right?

When he looked back up, Lex was giving him looks. Which made him burst out laughing.

"Oh, come on," he managed through his laughter, "I know you're above all that." No need to worry. Don't lose your appetite, Lex.

"Oh, I bet he's... cool." Were seven year olds cool? he didn't know. but if he was Keeper Lady's brother he couldn't be so bad. "When are people supposed to magic stuff?" He couldn't even remember when he had done stuff... at least not for the first time. Siblings? Him? he shook his head. "Nope, its just me."Yeppp....

"They would be good. They don't have them down there at trolly thing do they?" probably not, they usually had some weird food. They didn't even have real candy. "Oh yeah, She's... nice." He nodded. If nice was the word. there were other words too. But he wasn't going to say them. "oh, we met on the train going to Hogwarts the first time. She was up there." he said pointing to the luggage rack above the benches. "With Blue."

"South Carolina." he answered. "Gamecocks country." Yeah!! "Oh, we could, that would be fun! and maybe Miks could come too." wait, did he say that last part out loud? Oops he hadn't meant to, and his ears started to turn pink. "But, uh, yeah, that would be fun."

Kaiden's eyes got all big. "You're going to be working at a zoo? How old are you? What are you going to be doing?" like people in school don't work.

The blond was just walking down the corridor outside of the compartments not really knowing where she was going to sit or where her friends were. She'd luckily cleaned the mud off of her clothing and her hair no longer looked like a disheveled pygmypuff nest. Though it could have been.

The squeaking though was annoying. "Dez, stop it I'll find us a seat in a minute" the girl told the tutu wearing pygypuff who seemed irritated by something (most likely that he was wearing four little wellies and a tutu). When he started wiggling around she thought he was making a nest in her sleeve.

Then the pressure changed and she watched as he SOARED through the crack of a compartment door. THERE COULD BE CATS IN THERE she thought in horror as she watched him scurry in.


Dez was irritated. She wasn't listening. HE COULD HEAR RUMBLEY VOICES. He knew those voices. There was a girl in there and a boy.

So he leaned his tutu wearing bottom up in the air and took flight. With a floomp he landed in the doorway and looked around.

Squeak squeak squeak he chirped at the boy. That was toad boy. He liked toad boy. Toad boy had a rumbley voice. Rumbely voices were nice. The pymgypuff trotted over and scurried onto the boy's foot and began to squeak and hop.

LET ME UP LET ME UP LET ME UP he was squeaking but the boy couldn't understand him no one could ever understand him.

With her batch of candy in her arms and her little cat on her shoulder, Penelope made her way down the corridor in search of a compartment. And, surprisingly, she didn't have to actually go all that far to find an empty compartment. She opened its door swiftly and dropped her candy on one of the seats then closed the door and took a seat herself. Her cat crawled down into her lap and laid down as Penelope picked up one of the pumpkin pasties to eat.

Well...

...this was definitely boring. Maybe she should try to look for some of her friends...or would they look for her? Hm...well, she'd stay until she ate all her candy. Then she'd decide from there what to do.

Okay, this seemed like a good enough compartment. And it was empty too, which gave Kat a lot of space and time for thinking and all that jazz. It was great too considering her compartment was super close to the food trolley. Whenever she needed food, she can just swagger out and grab a few treats. Not much effort to be done today, cos Kat felt really lazy and stuff. Was that supposed to be a good or a bad thing? Well, if it was bad then she didn't want to know it anymore.

Kat slid the door open and then closed it behind her. She took a seat and kicked her sandals off. Ugh. She actually wanted to sleep and rest and stuff. Plus her feet felt tired and aching. For unknown reasons. Kat was just feeling weird today, and sort of disturbed.

And once again, for unknown reasons. Sighs. What was going on? She didn't even understand herself. All she knew was there something bothering her and she didn't know why. Like a gut or something. She wanted her mum.

Bliss went nearly as fast as she could onto the train, trying to avoid talking to people. Not because she hated people or anything, but because right now, she preferred the quiet and being alone. Unless West came to find her like he said he would. Either way, she was going to find an empty compartment. Easier said, than done. It seemed that everyone liked finding empty compartments.

Before long, however, she stumbled across an empty one and wedged the door open, dragging her trunk, guitar and Twitch's cage inside. There we go, she thought as she shifted her things around, creating space for others to join her, if they so wished. She up against the window, her feet on the seat, though, she'd taken her shoes off first. Like a good girl. She was pretty comfortable and so, took out a quill, ink and parchment and started writing a letter to her family.

After... talking to Alice, West continued up the train and eventually/finally found Bliss as promised. Because he was supposed to sit with her and he knew it'd be a little while before he got to see her, and that she needed family time given everything that had happened. He'd definitely see her in August since they were going to Brighton together for a few days, but hopefully before that too. As much as possible.

He peeked at her through the glass and waved, then opened the door and slipped in before pulling it shut again.

"Thought you'd hidden from me or something." He dropped on the seat next to her and squished in close. He had nothing with him, all his stuff was packed away in the luggage compartment.... including something that had caused scratches all up his forearms.

He needed to find a better way to transport his pet, that was for sure.