This habit of finding the trolley lady wherever she chose to move on the train during the ride every year had become something like tradition. Though Lex didn't have much need to buy anything off her it didn't stop her from getting in line....a long line by the looks of it. Hadn't these people ever heard of taking stuff from home? Reducing the line for others??????? Selfish, the whole bloody lot of them.

Lex shifted her weight from one leg to the next and resigned herself to waiting. Though she wasn't wearing her badge, she figured there'd be returning students who it'd be bad form to shove and push infront of. Never knew who the next great snitch could be and she was taking no chances. After the stop here she'd consider changing into her robes and putting her badge on right. It'd have to get done at some point anyway. Might as well happen right after getting a new stock of candy.

Wait...was that one kid at the front buying everything? Did no one tell him that was her job? Sigh. Could she give up on humanity now?

Penelope had made sure to pack a few snacks for the train, but she wanted to stop by the food trolley to get a few more. You could never have too much food after all. She probably wouldn't eat it all on the train anyway, so she'd have some snacks for the dorm too. The seventh year dorm.

That was starting to feel a little weird. She was ready for it and wasn't super upset over the idea of it being her last term at Hogwarts, but it WAS a little strange when she thought about it. How was it her seventh term already? It didn't seem like her first one was all that long ago, although it felt like ages at the same time. Time was so weird.

These thoughts kinda distracted her from paying attention to whether the line was moving forward or if there was anyone around her.

Jasmine arrived at the food trolley to find a long line of apparently very hungry students. Taking her place at the end of the line, she amused herself by checking out the others around her. People watching was fun and she thought maybe she could learn something by observing the other students. Getting hungrier by the minute, Jasmine waited and watched. She had the feeling that this school was going to be unlike any that she had attended.

A little while after he'd found himself a seat and gotten situated in his compartment, Dima had wandered off in search of snacks. What? Food was always a very vital necessity for growing boys, and until he made more friends, it was his ONLY company.

Fortunately, the food trolley wasn't difficult to find. Unfortunately, that was due to the ridiculously long line in front of it.

He was alright with that, though! After all, it just meant more time for him to decide what he wanted.

"What should I get?" he whispered to himself as he tried to get an eyeful of ALL the options despite the excessive amount of taller students blocking his view. But the words could have been thought to be spoken to anyone nearby.

How in Merlin's beard did people have patience as their virtue? It was just about the hardest thing in the world. By some great miracle the kid up front had left without stripping the trolley bare but that didn't mean the other 374263487 infront of her wouldn't. The Gryffindor was half tempted to stick her badge on then lie about Prefect privileges but then she heard an indecisive voice just behind her.

Oh? When did she not become the last person in the line?

Twisting slightly, Lex caught sight of what looked like a Firstie. Had to be, she'd never seen him before. "Chocolate frog." She said with a solemn nod. He may not have been talking to her but she was helping him make all the right life choices. "Sugar quills too but only after you've gotten enough chocolate frogs--jelly slugs should happen too. I don't recommend the beans but that's all you after you've gotten the already recommended few."

She paused, giving him a once over. "And you are?"

Maddison was feeling quite excited as she wandered the train, not that her expression matched how she felt on the inside. Outwardly one would think the eleven year old was rather bored, especially with the way she seemed to be wandering aimlessly. There was purpose to this, though. She was in search of the food trolley. The brunette had overheard some bigger kids talking about it and she had money to spend so why not? Food could only enhance this traveling solo experience.

Eventually she did come across a gathering of students and she could only assume that this was the place she needed to be. Good thing, too. Maddie had grown even hungrier since she'd started her search and a grumbling stomach needed to be satisfied soon.

So standing in queue, the first year shifted impatiently and peered around the taller girl standing in front of her. This line was going to move eventually, right? She had places to be, conversations to overhear. She wanted to gather as much information about her new school as she could before she arrived. No one liked being the kid left out of the loop.

After Candice got herself a compartment, she went to find the Food Trolley. Her brother did tell her about the Food Trolley but he didn't tell her where to find it. The Food Trolley was not that hard to find, thanks to the line of students.

She should had come sooner. What if they already run out of snacks? She was thinking to go back to her compartment and eat whatever snacks she had in her bag. But what if Latte decided to go through her bag and eat all of her snacks after she stepped out from the compartment? She should have put her Kneazle in her cage.

Queuing its then.

She stood behind the girl who has the same height as her. "I hope the snack lady sell something other than sweets?" she said in no one particular.

Inching forward at a snail's pace, that's what Maddison was doing. She stifled a yawn and glanced around the girl in front of her again, willing the kids to move faster. She was patient for the most part but this was getting sort of ridiculous. Surely the woman in charge was OLD or a chatterbox because there was no way this much time should have passed without her being able to get something to eat.

"What've you got against sweets?" The eleven year old had turned when she heard someone speak behind her and for no other reason than boredom, decided to respond. Perhaps this one had something interesting to say. "Allergic or something?"

[COLOR="#B54872 "]The line seem moving very slow. Even her turtle walk faster than this people. Why can't they just pick something, pay the lady and get back to their compartment as soon as their done? Didn't they know that the line is getting longer by the minutes? Hmmph.

Candice was a bit surprise that the girl in front of her responded her monologue. She doesn't have anything against sweets. Really. But her body does. "Sugar intolerance." And that's not fun.[/COLOR]

Marigold was hungry, as usual. So trolley it was. She smiled as soon as it came into view. Delightful cauldron cakes, delicious chocolate frogs, which she always had a bias for ever since... Yeah. That. Anyway, she reached the cart and smiled at the lady. Tapping her fingers on the surface of the trolley, she leaned froward to order.

"Can I have two chocolate frogs and... A jelly slug please." She looked around aimlessly until the lady gave her the bag of sweets. She thanked her, then walked to an open wall. She slid down to sit there, already opening the bag for chocolate.

Cris hastily made his way to the Food Trolley to catch up with Jasmine. When he finally spotted her, he quickly slowed down and casually walked up to join the long line of fellow students.

"Hi. I decided that I would come and get something after all. Mind if I join you?" Cris asked the girl. Even as his heart was beating fast, and he was feeling awkward, looking outwardly calm, Cris peered over at the selection of food the Trolley had to offer.

He kept in mind what he wanted before turning back to look at Jasmine.

'It's now or never, Cris. Just get it over and done with,' Cris told himself. Rubbing his neck with his hand, he first formulated his apology and when he thought he was ready, he whispered so that only she could hear what he had to say.

"Um, Jasmine I want to apologize to you. Back there in our cabin...," Cris gestured over to the somewhat vicinity where Bay and Lux were waiting for them, "....I realized that I kept mentioning my family, especially my brother's name a lot. It never once dawned on me that you don't even know who they are. I'm sorry if that made you feel awkward in any way."

Cris paused to look around before turning back to her. "[b]I don't know whether you've noticed or not, but I tend to run off at the mouth when I'm nervous...just like I'm doing now,[b]" Cris belatedly realized and immediately gave her a embarrassed smile.

"To be honest, I'm kinda nervous about going to Hogwarts. It will be a new school for me too, even though I chose to come here. Sander...that's my oldest brother, attended Hogwarts last year and that's when he met Bay, Lux, his girlfriend Tessa and his other best friend, Alex. If he hadn't, I wouldn't know anyone at all...except for you, of course," Cris confessed to Jasmine.

"Anyway, I just wanted to say thanks for being my friend," he smiled warmly at her.

He looked at the treats on the Food Trolley again and began to grin.

"So you do like eating Cucumber Sandwiches?" he asked her, a glint of mischievousness in his eyes.

Norah made her way down the corridor using all her effort to keep from skipping. She felt her smile grow wider at the sight of all the sweets on the trolley, so much more than her mother would ever let her eat at home. She wanted to buy them all, but the nervous fluttering in her stomach at the prospect of sorting lead her to just requesting a chocolate frog...or two. She took the bag of chocolate from the lady and made to continue down the train but instead tripped over a girl seated with her back against the wall. "Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry!"
Sigh. At least she hadn't been skipping.

"Hello Cris, thanks for the invitation! I don't know if Penelope will arrive here but I'm starving! I'm not very practice of magical snacks so..advise me if I choose something disgusting! .. My mother is a muggle .. she is Italian and she always does the homemade cakes! Oh but I see that you're with your friend and I don't want to disturb .. then I would like to bring some food to my owl Amber .. She bears the grudge if I forget her for a moment! I hope to see you soon!"

Sinead had been on her way to find a compartment somewhere, but then she saw students with sweets. So first of all she had this cool magic power. And she was going to a cool magical school to learn more magic. And now, they had THE coolest sweets ever. There were creepy little frogs made of chocolate and licorice and lots and lots of jellybeans! Obviously then she hurried to find the SOURCE of all the sweets, a cute trolley.

As she waited in the line, eager to waste all of her money on sweets for the journey, she digged in her pockets for money. Where did it all go?

WHERE WAS HER MONEY? SHE NEEDED MONEY TO BUY SWEETS!

And what was an innocent little Irish girl without sweets? Nothing. She was absolutely nothing. Luckily, it wasn't too long until she found the few coins at the bottom of her backpack. Sinead sighed in relief. Panic over. Everything was okay. Except having to wait in this line.

Eventually, she got to the front and happily surveyed the large selection of sweets. Why could they not have sweets like this at home? Wizards just suddenly got automatically cooler when she saw the sweets! They were amazing!

"Uh... I'll have three chocolate frogs, a packet of those jellybeans and a licorice wand, please!" she beamed. then she could try to find a compartment with other small people and feast on all these! "Thank you!" Then she moved out of the way of the queue and ripped open a pack of jellybeans. Finding a seat could wait.

Sugar intolerance wasn't as interesting an answer as Maddie had hoped for but she'd take it. "S'unfortunate for you." 'Cause sweets were awesome. So awesome, in fact, that them being so close yet so far was doing Maddie's head in. How was it that she still didn't have the chocolate she craved in hand?

The eleven year old inched forward a bit more and then looked over her shoulder again, eyeing the sugarless girl curiously. "So what happens when you eat some by mistake?" For future reference and all. It was good to know these things about people.

Marigold was just about to take the first deliciously satisfying bite of the chocolate frog that accompanied the Merlin card. For some reason, she always got the Merlin card. Anyway, she was milliseconds away from chocolatey delight when —

"NOOO!!" she cried. Someone had tripped over her, sending the chocolate frog flying. She lunged towards the candy and grabbed it before it landed on the ground. Phew. She escaped that catastrophe narrowly. Before any more harm could come to her food, she took a bite and looked at the source of all this.

"Hello," she said through a mouthful of chocolate. Nothing would be gained by being angry at her, after all.

Cris turned around when he heard someone say hello to him. It took him a brief second to figure out who it was. It was the girl he had seen inside the adjoining compartment, the girl who along with another looked like they were new to the school too.

"Oh hi there. You don't have to leave. You must be hungry yourself. We're just standing in line to give our orders. Well I know I don't like cucumber sandwiches, but I'm sure that pastries are really good, so that's a safe bet.," he winked at the younger girl.

Monty stood in line at the food trolley, peering around the arm of the very tall tall boy in front of him and fiddling with the ruffled cuff of his shirt.

His mother had made him wear his robes over the top of his first choice outfit minus the cane and make up, because she was worried people would make fun of him for it. He couldn't see why. Who didn't love a ruffled shirt, frock coat and waistcoat etc? Anyone who hated them was obviously wrong. In Monty's opinion anyway.

He was also of the opinion that covering it up was a travesty. At least he thought it was a travesty. He wasn't entirely sure what the word meant, but he'd heard his mother use it before when she was talking about something bad. Either way, he'd have preferred to be able to walk among his fellow students the way he wanted. Until it was absolutely necessary anyway.

But he'd promised. And his mother always said she'd know if he broke his promises. He didn't know how she would - it wasn't as if he had any friends to tell on him yet - but he wasn't going to risk it. She had after all let him pack all his favourite outfits for the coming term. To wear under his robes. Sigh.

With all these other people around, though, he was starting to feel a little hot. And the lace was itching on his arms. And his tights were starting to sag around his ankle. And he was so hungry he could have eaten a Hippogriff. When was the food lady going to get a move on?

Norah jumped at the sound of the girl's cry, but her shoulders relaxed at the sight of the relief on the girl's face when she ensured the safety of her chocolate. Anybody with such an affinity for sweets surely couldn't be too evil. And anyway, she didn't look to upset about being tripped over so that had to be a good sign.

"Hi," she replied. "I'm Norah. I'm a first year," she added in case her height and fundamental cluelessness hadn't made that clear already. She couldn't really tell what year the girl was in, but even sitting down it was clear she was taller than Norah. Most people were, of course, but that wasn't the point. Once again she had to restrain herself from bouncing with excitement. She was talking to someone who didn't seem to hate her in any obvious way! If that didn't warrant some celebratory chocolate, she didn't know what did. Norah unwrapped a chocolate frog and took a bite. Perfect.

Cris was happy to be standing in line waiting to give his order. He was here with Jasmine and already he was making more new friends. He smiled down at Lucy before sticking his head out of the line to see how much closer he was to the Food Trolley.

He glanced around to check on how the long the line was forming behind him when he looked down and saw a young boy standing behind him. The boy's face was and he looked like he was hot, but Cris couldn't understand why. Some of the windows of the train in this compartment had been pulled down to let the cool air enter.

"Hi there. Are you alright? You look like you're hot....I mean you look like you're hot under your robes. Are you feeling hot? Would you like more air?" Cris offered as he reached up to the nearest window and began pushing it up.

He had the window almost all the way up, when his fingers slipped and the window came crashing down.

BANG!!.

"Sorry everyone. My fingers slipped. Let's try this again, shall we?" he grinned at the younger boy before hoisting up the window again.

"There you go. Do you feel a little better?" he peered down at the boy.

Was he talking to him? It appeared he was talking to him. The first person on the train to actually talk to him. Ohhhh.

Monty stopped scratching his arm, putting it firmly down by his side as he looked quizzically at the older boy. Hot? How did he know he was hot? Oh gosh, did he read minds? Was he one of those........wait, he said "You look hot". Oh. Well that made more sense. A school age person probably couldn't read minds yet.

But he looked hot? He didn't realised he looked hot. Felt, yes.

Staring into the window next to the one the boy had just opened, Monty put his hand to his face and rubbed it, trying to get rid of the terrible redness that had somehow crept up his cheeks. Well, that was embarrassing. It clashed horribly with his outfit.

"Uhhhh, thank you." He stuttered, smiling up and nodding. That was very kind of him really. "It's much better. I tried opening the one in - in the place I'm sitting back there," thumbing over his shoulder, his grin got wider. Or was it the other way? He had no clue. Which was a problem, because he'd left his stuff down there. "But it was stuck. It's the coat you see. Quite thick."

Lucy smiled at the guy and said:"Thanks Cris, but there is too much row for me .. I'm not a very patient girl .. I think I will eat one of the sandwiches that I brought from home .. I wish you a good trip and.. I hope to see you soon! Bye!"

Jasmine was starting to get impatient as she waited in the looking food trolley line when she heard a voice behind her. Turning around, she was happy to see that it was Cris. Smiling, she said, "Of course I don't mind." "Getting a little hungry, are you? I'm starving. I'm not sure what to get though."

Jasmine was surprised when Cris started apologizing to her. Looking puzzled, she waited for him to finish speaking. "You have absolutely nothing o apologize for. You didn't make me feel awkward at all. Actually you've made me feel comfortable because you are one of the few people on this train that I already know. Besides you introduced me to your friends and they've been wonderful,". Hearing how nervous he was, Jasmine tried to put Cris at ease. "Cris, you don't ever have to be nervous with me. OK? We'll tackle Hogwarts together....two newbies. I'm glad to have you for my friend"

Trying not to pay too much attention to the younger boy's efforts as he seemingly tried to rub off some non-existent dirt off his face, Cris smiled at him, waving off the boy's thanks.

"No problem, you're most welcome. I'm glad you're feeling better now. You did? Maybe when we're done here, I can follow you back there and help you with that window," Cris offered the moment the boy mentioned he had attempted to open the window in his compartment.

"I'm back somewhere over there...or is it there?" Cris gestured over in one direction before realizing he was pointing in the wrong direction...or was it? "Well I do know I'm somewhere in the middle. Where exactly I don't know but I'm sure I'll find it when I come to it...I hope." Cris grinned back at the boy, knowing how easy it could be to get lost, even on a train.

"So, I'm Cris and it's nice to meet you. This will be my first year at Hogwarts." he introduced himself, sticking out his hand to shake the boy's before blurting out the one question he had been wanting to ask the boy ever since he mentioned that his coat was thick.

"Um....I apologize for being so nosey, but may I ask why you're wearing such a thick coat in the middle of summer? Is it your favorite?"

========================================



Cris grinned at Jasmine even as his tummy rumbled. "Actually I've been hungry ever since I boarded the train. I believe the Cornish pasties are delicious. I'm going to get some. I can share them with you if you want. That way you won't be wasting your money if you don't like it," he told her as his tummy rumbled again.

Laughing, he patted his tummy. "Shush, I'm talking to a pretty girl right now. Stop interrupting," he spoke down to it, not realizing he had just revealed that he considered Jasmine pretty.

Then he blushed when he heard what she said next and gulped back the lump in his throat. "Okay ," he quickly nodded in agreement. "Yes we will tackle Hogwarts together. Two newbies," he smiled down at her.

"So would you like some cucumber sandwiches too?" he grinned over at her gesturing to the cellophane wrapped packages on the Food Trolley.