After the feast and the awkwardly cramped boats, Gabriel had wandered off on his own. Wanting to reflect in private for a bit, the Sixth Year didn't shy away from the Prefect's compartment this go...seeing as it would be one of the more quiet ones on this journey. The end justifying the means, essentially.

With a notebook and quill in hand, Gabe was already outlining a few things for next term. There was a plan.

Perhaps he could get his co-Prefects in on it? Maybe.

Marigold was all discombobulated from last-minute packing, as in, she was holding a bunch of her notebooks while hurrying to the prefect compartment. She burst in, promptly dropped three quills, and exclaimed loudly, "Am I late?"

…to Gabe, the only one there. Of course. She sat down and slid her quills towards herself with one foot, leaning back against the wall. "Hi, Gabriel. How are you?"

.

.

Heh.

"I assume you'd realize if you were late...You would've missed the train." It was a casual observation...and yes, Gabriel might've been trolling her just a little bit. All in good fun, of course. It simply remained the strangest thing. His mood was still a pleasant one from recent happenings. Strangest thing, indeed. He might've even smiled at her. Maybe? Gabe couldn't possibly know as he couldn't see his own face.

He was aware of his own shy head-nodding, however. Pausing in his writing to regard the Hufflepuff Prefect, Gabe took a breath. "I'm well, thank you for asking." See? He could make words. It wasn't impossible for the anti-social Claw. Though, if we're being honest here, it was a bit forced. Baby steps. "..............and you?"

Okay, so...the awkwardness wasn't completely gone...but the good mood was helping! So, there was that.

Caleb was exhausted. Exhausted was putting it lightly, actually - he was bone tired. He wasn't sure he would ever remember what it felt like to be awake and well rested ever again.

But the upside of this was - OWLs were done. He didn't have to worry about them ever again...until he got his scores in a few weeks, of course. Oh, and then he had to turn his attention to NEWTs now. So there was that.

Caleb was starting to seriously think he'd go grey from all the stress he was under. Maybe he should take up yoga or something.

Wandering into the prefect's compartment, Caleb was relieved to see that it was only Marigold and Gabe - they weren't going to be too chatty, probably. Ruby's brother certainly had never been the talkative one around him. "Marigold. Gabe," he said in greeting, nodding at each of them as he spoke. Then, he plopped down on the seat next to the window, turned and rested his head against the wall, and popped his hoodie from his Slytherin pullover over his head, shielding his eyes.

Alright. Naptime.

Marigold was absolutely SHOCKED by this new development. Gabe was TALKING!?!? To HER!??! Wow. He even made a JOKE!?!?? She tried as hard as she could not to have her jaw drop and instead stretched her legs out to see if she could lay them across to the other seats. She could not. Biiiiig surprise.

She smiled back at him, then replied, "Yes, yes, true, but I meant more prefecty emergency meetings or something." With no heads this year, meetings seemed to be a lot more plentiful but a lot less urgent or scheduled. She couldn't tell if that was a good thing or not.

"That's good," she said earnestly. She was the kind of person who actually cared if someone was doing well or not, y'see. "I'm okay. Ready for summer, anyway. Do you have plans?"

Another person! "H'lo, Caleb."

Adi could not go through the entire train ride without dropping in on his AWESOME fellow prefects, now could he? That was a total no- no. With Gus the toad once again perched on his head, he made his way to the Prefect's compartment.

"Heya, guys,'' he chirped happily and Gus croaked LOUDLY. Oh, there were only three of the others there. No Beverly, the Huflepuff noted but there was a Gabe, a Caleb and a Mari. And just what was Gabe scribbling? O__O Ravenclaws... cue the slight head shake from Adi. "Missing all the school work already, Gabe?''

Also, was Caleb sleeping? Adi was quite tempted to drop Gus on the other boy's head just for fun. LOL. He decided to take a closer look. Well, the guy's eyes seemed firmly closed. Yeah, haha, he was going to do this! Removing his toad from his head, Adi plopped Gus FIRMLY down on his fellow fifth year. Cue the snigger from the Hufflepuff as Gus started croaking away. Wasn't Caleb in for a surprise?

She wasn’t that late but really. She hadn’t even wanted to go into the compartment in the first place so maybe that was why she’d taken her sweet time to get in there? BUT she had food. That totally made up for it right?

Peaking her head in she just spotted Adi, Marigold, Caleb and Banner…what? It even felt unnatural to THINK his first name because they weren’t exactly on that wavelength were they? But really, a little part of her wanted to act just so different than how she normally did because hey why not? Be friendly to everyone for a change and be less guarded?

“Hey I brought food,” she mentioned as she walked into the room and remembering what Marigold had done for CB at the meetings she glanced over to Gabe quickly, “Gabe? I’ve got these for CB…I remember’d she’s gluton and dairy free right?” She said as she handed him the brownies and put the different treats down before looking for a place to sit.

“Hey Caleb, Marigold…Adi,” she grinned at them all, and grinned at them. “I don’t know if Zander’s joining last I saw he was surrounded by a gaggle of girls all cooing for Azalea” she grinned because hello? He was sort of her friend yeah?

Hmm. Were people talking to him? Caleb thought he might have heard people in the background, but he wasn't sure. He was half asleep...

That was, until he felt something on his head...and heard something CROAKING.

WHAT THE WHAT.

Making a noise that was a mix between "Bloody hell" and a strange sort of shout, Caleb shot up, arms flailing, as the toad hopped off his head with a croak onto the seat next to him.

Well, he was awake NOW.

"What the..." he said, still half asleep but now startled awake