Finding a quiet place on the train was nearly impossible. Ascanius had even wandering up and down these corridors for what seemed like ages now and every time he thought he found an empty and/or quiet place it ended up being ransacked by someone else.

He, of course, knew why. Being the level of attractive that Ascanius was, ahem, he was often disrupted by individuals vying for a chance to get a good look at him, which was flattering, but tiring.

The sixth year continued to meander down the corridor and occasionally stuck his head into a compartment. Some of the things he walked in on, well, he just kept walking. But he was still coming up short on a compartment.

How hard was it to find a ruddy compartment?

Okay, luggage successfully put away, Lex made her way back through the train's crowded corridor. You think people would have settled into compartments by now but the ride hadn't started all that long and you had to expect that there would be those who waited until after the initial rush to get their trunks and such packed away, herself being one of them. Balancing a kneazle, a trunk and her candy bag wasn't exactly the easiest.

Lex shoved her way back up the corridor...okay, no, there was no shoving, that supposedly wasn't allowed anymore, go figure. She did make her way back up though and ended up walking right into a girl she hadn't seen since the term gave out.

"Ohai Sarah! Trying to get through the sea of people too?" She asked, looking about at everyone around them, some with their trunks still on their persons and others just...compartment hopping...? Yeah, she'd go with that. Whatever they were doing, it wasn't gonna be her telling them otherwise, not while her badge was still in her pocket and not unless it was outrightly breaking a rule. A badge would not turn her into a stick in the mud. Not even.

Then she saw her... "yo.. Alexa" Sarah called over the bedlum. She was not in the mood to project her voice. Alexa did not hear her. The girl continued on walking... until she was right under Sarah's nose.
"hi" Sarah said, giving her friend a hug. " long time no see... nah I actually like to stand here and watch people. That way I get to meet people new and old as well as observe people and their reactions." Sarah said. "you can find out a lot by watching... that, asking questions and of course listening are vital to knowledge." She preferred the first two she mentioned.
"anway... do you know who the lion prefects are?" Sarah asked casually, "I did not see a badge when I was walking around" . She said... She saw a little hand go up in the midst of the sea of people... a ppor firstie was too short to be seen and was kind of gettting squashed by an older kid, Sarah gave that would-be-squasher-older-kid a tap on the shoulder, motioning about that little one... Sorted.

It wasn't long before Sarah had gone off on one of those famous ramblings of hers that usually just had Lex staring with the occasional nod and smile. It wasn't that she wasn't following....a little but more all those words together and ideas she wouldn't have thought of herself, making it harder for her mind to wrap around them. "I dunno, watching's cool but I think you learn a lot more through interaction. I know I do." Watching got boring after awhile especially if the people you were watching, weren't all that interesting in the first place.

"But to each their own so I guess you'll be standing out here in the corridor for a while? Do you do this every term?" Lex wouldn't know, she was usually sitting somewhere in the back with Lottie or Aidan, Cassia was with her yearmates, they all knew how that would go.

Lex watched Sarah save this firstie while she thought on the question. Did she know? Of course! She knew herself but didn't remember seeing a boy with a badge. She could keep it to herself but Sarah would notice at the feast anyway and it was pointless in hiding it in the first place. "I haven't seen a boy." She started, idly glancing around. "So I can't be sure about that, but I have this." She said, sticking her hand into her pocket and producing the badge and holding it out. That answered that.

Delilah needed to get away from her crowded apartment for a little while. Not that she didn't enjoy meeting and talking to new people but.. she wanted a break from all the noise. So, here she was. Randomly walking up and down the corridor, humming softly to herself. This was nice--

... "Ooops!" Awesome. Honestly, she was so utterly fed up of bumping into people that.. Woah. Cute boy alert. She stared at the boy standing in front of her for a whole minute. Wait, stop. No, she shouldn't be staring. That's rude. He did have a really nice face.

"You should watch where you're going, you know." Delilah finally said, clearing her throat. But yeah. It WAS his fault and she wasn't going to apologise.

"you do learn more through interaction... but the train ride has just began... I am just being useful.. not that I am taller than the other younger kids... although they all seem to be catching up" Sarah said.. her eyes darting through the throngs of students... making sure it seemed alright. Good, now back to conversation.
"nah.. I am usually am in the compartments by now, meeting people, dealing with the homesick kids and that.... " She should do a check on the cars to look out for that. "I also usually join my yearmates at some stage - have you seen them? I want to intrude on them later" Sarah asked.
No boy yet? Sarah would keep an eye out... Sarah's gaze wandered to what Alexa was doing (was that rude?) What was that a prefect badge.. similar to the one she saw at her OWL? Does that mean... Alexa.PREFECT.
"AAAH" Sarah let out a girly shriek... her first one ever.. and flung her arms around her friend and gave a squeeze. "WELL DONE LUCKY GIRL"! She said, releasing her friend. It was good thing Sarah had time to let the news of the prefect not being her sink in... that way she was able to rejoice on her friends behalf.
"Can I see the badge for a moment? My brother told me that engraved on the badge it says... use it, don't abuse it" Actually he didn't. Sarah just wanted to give advice to Alexa in a subtle way.. was one allowed to lie to do that? She hoped so. Part of her was happy for her friend.. and the other part was slightly worried about how the lions would fare under Alexa's control. Alexa.... was not exactly Kurumi.... who to Sarah was prefect material. Maybe the headmistress knew things that Sarah did not about how to get Alexa to reach her potential.... Everything works out for the best after all.
"if there were more space here... I would do a jig of celebration!" Sarah said, still smiling.
"if you ever need a hand... let me know" It would be really doing Sarah a favour.
"so... how was your summer? What did you do?"

Ascanius was in the middle of looking into a compartment to check if it was empty when someone bumped into him. The sixth year fumbled back a little and never got to see if the compartment was empty 'cause he was suddenly distracted by a person of he female persuasion. A blonde, to be exact. A very nice looking blonde.

He put his arm out to steady her and chuckled at the very first thing out of her mouth. Right. 'Course it was his fault. Girls were so funny like that, especially when they got nervous. They all seemed to adore the blame game.

But, luckily for her, he was extremely charming and all that, so he knew just how to play this. "I know," he conceded, "I should be more careful. You alright though, beautiful?"

And didn't she ever learn STARING wasn't polite? Eh, s'fine. He knew he was striking.

Oh...well...yeah that kinda made sense. Being helpful and all. It was the responsible thing to do and probably what she was meant to do but in all honesty, in her years of riding the train she'd never seen a prefect standing out in the corridor asking for help so maybe this was just another instance of Sarah!usefulness, the kind only Sarah would think about....Man she dealt with the homesick kids too? Lex just blinked over at the girl who seemed to do everything right. Welp.

Lex snapped back at the question. Had she seen them? "Only just a few but they were heading to the Prefects Compartment. There were a couple others up by the front of the train so I guess you could check there too." Lucky Sarah not having to sit with Theo, not that she planned to. Surely no one expected her to spend her entire ride in that place--

O_O

Loud Sarah was loud. Alexa cringed at the sudden noise but accepted the hug anyway. "Erm, thanks Sarah." Lex extended the badge to her because she'd asked for a better look and gave it a curious look of her own. "Really? Does it really say that? I haven't gotten a very good look at it." And she hadn't thought to either. Who left messages on badges these days??

She chuckled at the mention of a jig. "It's fine, the screaming shows enough and Alice offered to help but I suppose if Alice needs help helping me I can direct her to you?" Did that even make sense?...Sorta? "My summer was alright. Nothing overly interesting. What about yours?"

Sarah liked to be useful... sometimes it made her feel like a somebody... It was strange how no one had the problems she had... her brother told her that she must stop over extending herself like that... but she could not help it. Besides she had something to prove...
heading up the prefect compartment... something inside of Sarah winced.. of course she did not show it, but the prefect business was still her weak spot... and she had to stop it. It was not meant to be.. It was not meant to be Sarah thought to herself. That was what kept her face and emotions composed in times like these. "thanks.. I will go check on them later" she said.
Sarah kept thinking postive thoughts as she examined the prefect badge... the thing she will never have... She handed it back "he was probably joking... maybe its the advice they give to prefects" Sarah shrugged. White lie here.. because this was the advice she was giving to Alexa.
"oops.. sorry. I NEVER shriek like that.. I dunno what came over me" Must be sixth year nerves.
"Well.. I was an intern at diagon alley at the Daily Prophet.. it was SOO nice. So...its OWL year.. good luck with that.. Mine were moderate to hard"

Lex watched Sarah giving the badge a look over. Turns out it didn't have that thing written on it afterall. Go figure. "That was weird of your brother to say. Did he imagine they would have them or was he trying to spook you." What would be even spookier is if the badge DID say that and had a creepy voice going with it too for those odd occasions where someone might actually try abusing a badge. Funny thought too. Abusing a badge sounded like a lot of extra work considering you'd have to work doubly hard at not getting caught doing so. "But yeah, maybe it is just prefect advice." Who knew.

Lex grinned at her apology. "It's fine, loud noises don't bother me, just loud ones I'm not expecting, like that shrieking just now over the badge." When her father and her saw it, there was shock, then realization then a whole bunch of laughing before finally getting to the part where he mentioned he was proud but there was no SCREAMING involved. It was kinda new.

"The Daily Prophet seems real legit for you. Bet you had fun. I interned at the Joke Shop, we got to mess with the fireworks and prank the people in the shop." Epic, it was definitely epic but then the conversation went there and the Gryffindor couldn't help but make a face. "Yeah, OWLs, Cassia and Lottie are gonna help me study for those and I guess I'll be helping Aidan study as well." If she failed anything else, the OWLs she had to take seriously. Sigh.

Laura was rushing along the corridor trying to find an empty compartment that she could sit in all by herself. She was not looking where she was going and so bumped into a girl that was standing in the middle of the corridor. "I'm so sorry." Laura sighed. "I really didn't mean to bump into you." Laura wasn't looking at the girl so she had no idea that it was her twin she was actually talking to. She was too busy looking at the photo of herself and her boyfriend but well the girl didn't need to know that.

Lana winced slightly as her own twin bumped into her. Now her shoulder was throbbing a bit more and she nearly dropped her bag. So much for trying to avoid a collision with another person.

"Silly Bean! Where have you been?" she replied as she rubbed her shoulder again. "I was looking for you earlier." She wasn't seriously going to even mention how she was late herself of course.

Laura listened and was shocked as to who it was. "Oh I was nowhere." Laura lied trying to hide the photo from Lana. She hadn't told her parents about DJ yet and she wasn't sure what Lana would think about it. "I was just running a bit late." Laura had no idea if the nervousness was showing.

"Were you?" Laura had no idea why her sister would be looking for her. "Where have you been over the summer?" Laura asked, she had missed her sister so much.

Lana eyed her sister and shook her head. "You obviously had to be somewhere," she replied with a slight look of questioning. She couldn't prove it, but she had a feeling that Laura wasn't being completely honest with her. "You know I promised mum and dad that I would be there to say goodbye at the station." She had seriously made the effort to be there, so in her mind; she did her part.

"Of course I was," she answered a bit surprised. Why would she lie about something like that for?

Blink

"I've been around...." Her whereabouts weren't really common knowledge and it wasn't like their parents didn't know where to find her. "Mum and dad knew I would be around."

Narumi walked through the corridor there had to be a compartment somewhere. She would just walk until she found someone she knew or someone she could talk to or maybe a compartment. But for now walking it was for her.

Laura looked at her twin sister. "What happened between us?" Laura sighed she hated the fact that they hardly spoke to each other and the fact that they were really busy. "I was with a friend." Laura smiled. "He's so awesome and I'm going to get you to meet him one day." Laura hoped that her twinnie would say yes.

"I know and I tried to be there twinnie. I just lost track of time that was all." Laura pouted she had seriously only just made the train and she was sure her parents would be cross with her. "I know but we all worry about you." Laura said truthfully well she worried about her sister anyway.

A new year meant new faces and new potential friends, Sophie knew that, so this train ride was all about finding new people to form bonds with for the rest of the year and for years to come. She'd already met a couple cool first years and had set off to see what kind of new personalities were out there for her to meld with. Or clash with. Either way, the Ravenclaw started her adventure down the corridor, scoping out the faces and backs of heads down the way.

And one particular back of the head made her perk up. She straightened, stood on her tippy-toes to see who he was talking to - some kid she didn't know, another new potential friend - and decided it was a good time to interrupt. She could work on making that new friend, even. Sophie ducked low and slipped past people in the train corridor with speed - she bumped into Ascanius a little as she went, tossing out a regretful "sorry bestie!" behind her as she saw who it was - and as she neared the Ravenclaw Captain, she crouched low, building suspense for herself, then leapt merrily onto Marcus Branxton's back and clung to him with the biggest, goofiest grin on her face. "Guess whoooooo!"

Lana sighed and looked at her sister again. She did hate when things got this way between the two of them. It wasn't as if she had planned to be all so distant. They were at least talking once again and they weren't harbouring ill-feelings for each other; that in itself was a good thing. "I'm not sure, but we are together again." she smiled. It was a start again and there was no way that they would be at each other's throats this year. It was their last year and it wasn't going to waste; especially if Lana had anything to do with it.

Blink

Blink

"A friend?" Oh this wasn't what she expected, but to be completely fair; she wasn't really expecting a completely honest answer to begin with. "And a boy? Does mum know about this?" she teased. Oh, she was so going to have some fun with this one!

Again, Lana frowned. She already felt terrible about all the broken promises of the summer and she didn't want to be reminded of them again. It was already heart breaking enough facing their parents on the platform alone. "Well, once we get to Hogwarts; you must owl mum and dad. They were a bit worried about you." They were parents after all and that's what they did....WORRY!

"You know it wasn't like I was all alone or something and you know I can take care of myself. Mum and dad know that too." Seriously, it wasn't like she was still a firstie or something. Plus their parents always did tell them that one needed to venture out and explore a bit more.

Yes, that's just what she had done and she didn't feel that she did anything wrong.

She was still on the train and she was going to finish her last year.

Mitchell wanted a snack. He was a hungry boy. Of course, that was to be excepted given he was a teenager and all.

And so... the boy wandered down the hall. He stopped a little bit behind a girl who seemed to be running into everything. He half smiled to himself, slightly amused by the girl, before continuing down the hallway behind her.

What? It was a hallway. He totally wasn't following her or anything.

Marigold had shaken her head and stopped bumping into things, but she had also caught sight of a familiar annoying smirk out of the corner of her eyes. She whirled around and crossed her arms.

"Following me, are you Mitchell?" she said, half jokingly. He seemed to be TOO amused by her to be innocent. She glared at him, then gave in and grinned. "How's your first Hogwarts Express trip going?"

She was curious about these things. Plus, she wanted to hear his New York accent again.

Luggage away and the World's Grossest Pygmy Puff (otherwise known as "Gus") on her shoulder, Tallulah ventured down the train's corridors in search of either Fern (her cousin) or some other students who looked cool, but who didn't look really intimidating.

Sadly, most people looked pretty intimidating. Look at them all, with their friends. None of these students are sat like they'd want to welcome a stranger into their compartments. Ugh.

Maybe instead of scrutiny, a pleading look might help her efforts - like how those puppies in terrible pet shops do. That'd make people want to be her friend, surely.

Though, no... it'd merely make them pity her. Ha! Tallulah doesn't need pity. (Gus does, though. That's how she ended up with him.) Sighing, Tallulah continued walking down the corridor - stopping every few doors, noting the girl with the hair (Oh, that hair. A unicorn would be jealous of it), the boy with the weird eyes, the cat that pooped on her last year...

Tessa was making her way down the crowded corridor. Was there really no place to sit on this blasted train? Most of the compartments had filled quickly and while she didn't mind meeting new people she was a little tired of just jumping in on a group discussion. Sometimes, she hated being the new kid.

Suddenly, a tall boy was walking right toward her. She quickly dodged to the side, almost knocking into two other people before dodging them as well. "Oi! Watch it!" she called to the first boy.

Making his way back from the food trolley, Michael did his best carry the bundle of food he had in his hands and avoid tripping over loose luggage or walking into any over excited first years.

He wished he hadn't bought so much now, he didn't like not having at least one hand free. You never knew when you were going to need a free hand. He continued walking toward the back of the train because it was usually quieter down there and he was just passing through the middle cars when a couple of those over excited first years came running toward him and he had to push his back up against the wall so as to not get knocked over.

"Great." He muttered, as a few of his purchases spilled onto the floor. This day was just getting worse.

Rhodes wasn't going to look back, nope.

She was just going to keep on walking, pretend that she had put her own luggage away all by herself, and act like she hadn't just met the rudest boy in the history of rude boys. Of course, it didn't change the fact that she was already trying to come up with AT LEAST a million ways to get him back for what he said to her, and maybe a few of those things involved getting him in trouble with the Healer again. Because.. that was just hilarious.

A few chuckles left her mouth as she just thought about it all over again, and only when she noticed the very familiar boy up ahead, did those chuckles stop. She saw what he did, spilling all his stuff over the floor. She didn't need him thinking she was laughing at him.

Even though that was funny as well.

"Michael Toussaint!" Rhodes did not skip her way closer to him, and once she was standing right next to him, she did not bend down to help him pick up his stuff. Okay, yes she did. But it was only because she was hoping he'd share. Whatever that stuff was. "I saw you on the platform earlier." So he knew.

Only one person insisted on calling him by his full name and any other time he might have been happy to see her, but she was ONE of the reasons why he was in such a bad mood.

He straightened back up after picking his stuff up off the floor and he very rudely snatched what she had picked up out of her hands. "I see." He gave her a semi cold look because he couldn't quite pull off a full one. "So you were purposely ignoring me."

WHATEVER!

HE DIDN'T CARE!

Only he did, but he didn't want to admit it.

"Well I'm glad you've finally made some new friends." And he was but did she have to forget about him? So soon? Especially after they...nope he wasn't going to think about them kissing. It had caused him enough trouble already.