Noel noticed the badge right away and was about to congratulate the puff when someone burst through the doors and snagged his crup up. Well then. Noel proceeded to take a seat because he was really used to people cuddling the little guy.

It didn't bother him of course, that Lamb looked so terrified in the little girl's arms. So used to THAT too. "Oh you little wuss, she is just showing you some love - " he said in a bored tone, when the crup tried to wiggle his way out of her grip. And then Noel gave Henric a look. "Thanks. He is Lamb" Also. "Congrats on the badge"

Turning back to the girl, Noel offered: "Get one anyway? I think I can get you one, if you want it" Lamb's offspring ran around the castle in abundance.

Azure was slowly walking down the train, trying to get her balance! Err well keep her balance, she was attempting to find somewhere to sit, but everywhere seemed to be full!

She bit her lip as she looked around.. She was starting to panic slightly, what if she didn't find anywhere to sit? What if she had to sit with a bunch of people that ignored her? What if no one liked her?

Tears were starting to swim in her purple eyes as she walked further and she caught sight of a familiar face in a compartment! It was Jace!

Her little feet moved her forwards, onto to see that once she got close that he was in there with Esme, Ava and a professor! It looked pretty full though and Azura bit her lip a little as she waved at the full compartment.. before moving on.. tears sliding down her cheeks as she tried to find somewhere to sit.

Lucy made sure to board the train somewhere in the middle for fear of getting on the wrong one if she'd gone too close to either end. And irrational fear, but she was scared enough today as it was, the last thing she needed was to get on a train other than the one she was supposed to.

She tugged and dragged and pulled her trunk into an empty compartment. She left it pretty much near the door because she was too exhausted to get it in farther, or try and throw it under a seat, and she definitely wouldn't get it onto a rack above. Also, it didn't occur to her than more than a few people would be getting onto the train. Everyone could probably have their own compartment anyway, and her trunk nearly blocking the entrance to the one she was already occupying wouldn't be anyone's problem.

She heaved a sigh and sat forward-facing beside the window. She slid her backpack off her shoulders and pulled out the puzzle books she brought for the ride along with a case of colored pencils. Her head was still swimming with doubt and nerves, but this would take her mind off everything.

Jasper had jumped slightly at the knock, it had caught him off guard. Though he still quickly smiled at the older boy that was standing there. "Oh... um.. yeah sure," Jasper answered with a sheepish smile, knowing that he was a bit shy and that response was terrible.

Even for his standards.

"Jasper Quinn," he answered, following Austin's lead to shake his hand. "Nice to meet you!"

He should probably actually start a conversation to stop this from getting really awkward, so he went to the one thing that was fairly obvious. "How long have you been at Hogwarts?"

Sam boarded at the middle cars because he saw Genny's pair of pigtails stepping onto the train there. And at this point, she was his only Hogwarts friend. With Taco in his pocket, he eventually made his way onto the Hogwarts Express, only to have lost sight of his mate.

Well, shucks.

But he got over that quite quickly and resolved to meet new people instead. Maybe he'd run into her along the way, too. The next compartment he came across only seemed to have one person - also a smaller person - so Sam ventured for this one. He slid the door open and tried to take a step forward, but was blocked by something large and heavy enough to hurt his big toe. "Oww," he murmured, a little frown forming when he looked down at the trunk. After a moment of just looking at it, he lifted his head to see the occupant doing some sort of coloring page or something. "Er, hi," he said, standing in place. "Mind if I sit here?" After the question left his lips, he briefly wondered if the placement of her trunk was a hint that she didn't want company.

This was it!! Hope was finally getting onto the train!! She pulled her luggage behind her. Not sure where to sit she decided the middle would probably be perfect! She could observe everyone. she knew the prefect compartment was in the front of the train so she didn't want to sit up there, but she didn't want to sit in the back and be one of the last ones off so she found an empty compartment.

She was literally shaking with excitement! She couldn't wait for her friends to get here!

She tugged her luggage as far as it could go into the space. Trying to tuck it beside her as she sat down because there was no way she was going to be able to lift the heavy thing. She knew next year it would be easier since she'd be a first year. Her owl, Annabelle, was squawking up a storm. Probably excited about the up coming adventure too. She smiled as she waited. Wondering who would share the compartment with her.

In the mist of everyone trying to get on the train, Spencer gotten separated from Hope, Arista and Thomas while trying to get on the train. Spencer finally gotten on the train looking around to see if Hope was on the train yet, he walked down the corridor looking in the compartments for his girlfriend. Apologizing a couple of times, he kept on walking as he seen the compartments near the front were nearly all full, maybe she took the middle to the back cars. Spencer looked into a compartment and found her a couple of compartments down he smiled. "Ah there you are beautiful, sorry I got lost in the crowd. " said Spencer closing the door behind him. Sitting beside her, he intertwined hands with her and gave her a soft warm smile.


Spencer couldn't believe that they were finally going to Hogwarts, the wait was finally over and they were going to see the great castle he heard so much about from his brothers and cousin. "So...you're excited about going to Hogwarts at last? I'm so excited that I can hardly contain my excitement!"said Spencer honestly before chuckling. "Oh I brought my sketchbook for you to look at, I poromise you that I would, and I always keep my promises. " said Spencer. Spencer never showed anyone his drawings before, so Hope was the first one who ever seen his drawings. "There's quite a bit in there, like I said, I like to draw different things. said Spencer.

The young lady and young gentleman didn't mind that Art was in there? That was good. Art nodded at her, and continued to try and understand what his Madame Curie was saying to him.

Squeak squeak squeak.

"Oh.... hello," he said, giving the impression that he had forgotten he had company. Didn't she just say hello? Yes? But.. too old? He looked at her, blinking a few times. Was she being rude or was did she just have the confidence that the young seemed to have? "I-I..." he blinked a few more times. "One is only as old as they feel. And I... well, I feel..." what did he feel today? "Energetic." He nodded as if that settled things. See? He wasn't old.

The compartment door slid open and Art looked across, then down, to see a young gentleman come in. He seemed to be in a bit of a panic, which made Art re-think this compartment... but then there was a greeting. Art was confused. Was the young man worried or... calm? He picked up the greeting immediately. Japanese. Ahh. Art put his palms together, "Ohayo gozaimasu young man," he said, saying good morning in reply.

Squeak squeak squeak.

And then the young man started walking backwards and... and.... well that was clumsy! "Er.... do-do you need to... to uh... hmmm... can... can I help?" he asked, awkwardly. What was the matter? He was not equipped to dealing with the emotions of young people.

Great Scott, and another one came in. Asking if he was a Professor. "I... I..." how should he answer this? Well, the logical way, he thought. He nodded once. "Iyyy uh... I will be in-in a few hours." And he smiled. Not yet, though, he was off duty.

GREAT BLIMING SCOTT was that a young lady CRYING out there? Art pulled his Madame Curie from his shoulder and frowned at her. "I never know what to do... I know, I know. But... I'm sure there's others that can..." Art sighed and nodded to his rat.

Squeak squeak squeak.

Art nodded again, but then the rat seemed to go into a shrieking frenzy! It took Art a few moments of trying to calm her with her favourite tune before he looked around and saw that on the young lady's lap was... a cat. Art's eyes instantly widened, and he put his Madame Curie deep into the pocket of his sweater. She was safe there, and he could feel her relaxing. No, his Madame did not like cats.

The boy sounded as shy as Austin was, and he was grateful for it. It was nice knowing he wasn't the only one who was shy. Which was an issue he often had.

So the boy's name was Jasper? He could remember that. Jasper was a fairly unique name, and he didn't know any other ones. So it would, hopefully, be easy to remember. Although you never knew with him. Ophelia was a strange name as well, and he forgot her name for the first few times they hung out.

"I'm about to head into my fifth year." It was crazy to think he was over half way through his school term. He was going to have to think about things after Hogwarts, and it was such a strange thing to do. Hogwarts was a second home; what was he going to do without it? "Fifth year Ravenclaw." He figured he'd add in his house, since that was usually the second question asked with new friends.

"What about you? Are you in your first year?"

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cedric

Sam boarded at the middle cars because he saw Genny's pair of pigtails stepping onto the train there. And at this point, she was his only Hogwarts friend. With Taco in his pocket, he eventually made his way onto the Hogwarts Express, only to have lost sight of his mate.

Well, shucks.

But he got over that quite quickly and resolved to meet new people instead. Maybe he'd run into her along the way, too. The next compartment he came across only seemed to have one person - also a smaller person - so Sam ventured for this one. He slid the door open and tried to take a step forward, but was blocked by something large and heavy enough to hurt his big toe. "Oww," he murmured, a little frown forming when he looked down at the trunk. After a moment of just looking at it, he lifted his head to see the occupant doing some sort of coloring page or something. "Er, hi," he said, standing in place. "Mind if I sit here?" After the question left his lips, he briefly wondered if the placement of her trunk was a hint that she didn't want company.

Lucy's attention was caught by the thud and groan of someone kicking her trunk. She gasped at the thought of unintentionally hurting someone. Immediately, she dropped her pencils and books and rushed over to tug her trunk further into the compartment. Apparently, she wouldn't be sitting by herself. "Sorry," she grunted between tugs.

When a little more space was cleared, she looked up at the boy coming in. "No," she didn't mind. "Sorry," she repeated, tucking a lock of hair behind her ear.

She then hurried back to her seat and picked up her things again, but kept an eye on the boy to see what he would do.

Using an excuse to ditch her old compartment for a while Maggie was doing something she wasn't used to doing. She was trying NOT to attract any attention. Which was hard, seeing as how amazing she looked and just generally was and stuff. But she was trying. Which meant that she couldn't exactly stay out here in the corridor however.

So, as casually as possible, Maggie peeked into every compartment she passed in search for an empty one. Almost empty appeared to be the best she could do though. Which was why she quickly slid inside, closing the compartment door behind her again and staring at it for a few seconds.

Today was a really weird day.

Eventually she straightened up and turned around to see just who it was she'd graced with her presence. Ah yes. That quiet kid. Nodding at him, Maggie eyed him for a moment before climbing over his luggage and taking the seat farthest away from him. Weird kid. She brushed down her dress, then leaned back a little, looking out of the window.

Really weird day.

She got her something? Chloe momentarily panicked. She hadn't gotten the memo that friends-ish were supposed to get things for each other. Every other friend she had ever had in her life she didn't need to do that for.

But she visibly relaxed when it was a comic. That was simple and small and didn't require a return gift. PHEW. Her anxiety was just about to flare, too.

She grabbed the comic and turned it over curiously. "I don't think I've read this one. Is it any good?" Dora had READ it, hadn't she?

Daxton could lose himself in his books for hours. Some people thought that because he was so literal-minded, because he liked facts and statistics and hated when lies and deceit were presented to him, that he must dislike fiction. That because he was so blank and impassive, blunt and to the point, that he had no tolerance for imagination. All untrue. Books, fact or fiction, were Daxton's ultimate comfort. Were it not for the fact that he had almost as much trouble understanding most characters' actions and motivations as he did understanding people in the real world, he might have considered books the perfect escape. As it was, they were still an escape, however imperfect.

Of course, that only applied when he could read them uninterrupted, and that was near impossible when one lived (and travelled) with hundreds of intrusive children.

The sound of the compartment door sliding open broke Daxton out of his concentration at once, as alert as he was for it. His head snapped up and he eyed the person who had entered his compartment, that blank expression fixed on his features. He expected her to leave again, at first, though there was no real evidence to back up such an expectation. Instead, she sat, and Daxton watched her, blinking every couple of seconds.

What... exactly... did she think she was doing? In his compartment?

Daxton did not ask this out loud. He did not say anything at all (perhaps predictable), and he did not move at all. Instead, he sat incredibly still, looking the girl up and down, gaze lingering on her hair, his eyes narrowing ever so slightly the longer he looked. What did she want? What had she come in here for? What were her motives?

He did not trust her. And so he kept his eyes fixed firmly on her.

Sebastien made a point of avoiding familial goodbyes.

Not that he didn't love them, or would miss them terribly, but he outgrew the whole sappy goodbye scene the boat ride of his first year to Durmstrang. Now he wasn't a baby anymore. He was practically a man, all of thirteen and attending Hogwarts for this year only. The only reason his mum even got a quick parting hug was because Katy insisted on sticking with their mum and Leecey.

Now he'd ditched them all and was wandering sitting in a compartment on his own. Bast had been sitting with his sister, but Katy had found some other girls her age to be with and he wasn't keen on sticking around any of that chatter. The third year's long legs took up a complete side of the compartment as he watched his bat fly around.

Every compartment seemed to have at least seven hundred students inside of it. Jay kept peering into them as he went by, eyes squinted and nose scrunched up as he examined each for space. He finally came across one that held a single boy, obviously slightly older than himself... but before he opened the door to ask if he could take the other bench, as the boy was spread out across only one of them, he saw the thing.

The boy had a flying thing. Jay stood outside the door, watching in all his 11 year old amazement as the thing went back and forth and round in circles and just eeeeeverywhere. It wasn't a bird... There were no feathers that he could see, though the thing moved rather quickly. A bat? Was it a bat? Did bats eat hedgehogs? He stood directly outside the door, one hand on the edge of the window, and watched it, not even paying attention to the boy anymore or bothering about needing a seat.

How neat.

.

.

So busy was she (coo'ing and showering the crup with her affection), that the two boys hadn't initially registered on her radar. Well, they had meow, of course. Whipping around, the small pet still gripped tightly in her arms, Olivia regarded them with her huge, sparkling eyes.

They were both much older than she was...yet, Liv wasn't at all perturbed about joining them.

...which she was most certainly going to do.

So, taking a seat, the tiny blonde crossed her legs in a pretty fashion and grinned. "Hello," was her sweet response to the one boy; the one with the shining badge latched to his clothes. It looked exactly like the one she'd seen on that other boy's robes. So, he was obviously one of these...Prefect? people. Students with authority. The concept was dead fascinating...but she'd get back to him in a moment.

"So, Lamb belongs to you?" The second boy, the one with the especially pretty face, reminded Liv of one of her Disney princes. "Why did you choose that name?"...though, she imagined Lamb's snuggly body was similar to a lamb's. D'aww, that was actually so cute. She gushed at the crup a bit more; masking her excitement at the possibility of having her own. "Do you have others?"...so she could just have this one? Olivia liked this one.

Gus, who'd been perched atop of her curls, carefully made his way down to curl around her shoulders. His glittering black eyes were regarding the crup, still.

Hope was so glad that it was Spence who had walked through the door. She was hurried through the doors and she knew he would catch up. Now to wait on Arista and Thomas. That crazy couple.

She gave his hand a squeeze then let go to grab the sketch book. As she opened it her mouth fell open in awe. These were amazing!! She flipped through and touched the images on the paper. They almost seemed as they could just jump off the page. She had never seen anything like it.

"These are so amazing. It's like I'm there!" She continued flipping through them and then remembered where they were. She flipped each page and as she looked at them. "You are so talented. I am so glad that you showed me this."

As she finished looking through the book, She handed it back to him and intertwined their fingers again. Leaning into him."I am so excited! its finally happening! She did a little happy dance in the seat. Moving the top part of her body side to side with a big smile on her face.

Quinn hadn't really slept for the past few nights out of excitement of going to Hogwarts, but he wasn't tired. In fact, the first year was wide awake as he tugged his things along behind him in search for a compartment to sit in. He still couldn't believe he was going to Hogwarts. He'd never heard of Hogwarts before he got his letter, or even knew he was a wizard, but from reading that letter and buying his things and eavesdropping on people in Diagon Alley, he had a good feeling he'd love it there.

He noticed a girl around his age sitting by herself in one of the compartments. Sliding the door open, he smiled at her. "Hi!" He said. "Mind if I join you?" He asked. Hopefully she'd say yes, 'cause his stuff seemed to get heavier and heavier the longer he dragged it about.

The train was kind of…big….and clunky but what did that matter? It was a train and it was cool and sure there was haggola the old hag on it but maybe that was a normal thing? Maybe all trains had hags on them? Maybe she wasn’t a hag at all and was just a Professor? A really old smelly professor?

Mel was deep in thought as she wandered from compartment to compartment and gave the people inside smiles…and sometimes she just backed slowly away when she caught them mid snog because yes. Snogging happened on trains. THAT was apparent.

“Hopefully Professor Haggola doesn’t see them” she muttered and walked into a completely empty compartment and sat down….who was going to join her? Because obviously the train revolved around her.

Fifth year?

Then Austin would have had to know quite a bit about Hogwarts! Unlike Jasper...

"Uh yeah..." he answered in response, a sheepish smile. Was it that obvious that he was a first year? Probably.

"So what's Hogwarts like?" the first year asked, figuring that Austin would be able to tell him something about the school! So far the only people that he had met were also first years so everyone was just going off what their parents or other family members had told them!

Whoops.

Whoooooops.

WHOOOOOOOOPS!

He couldn't believe it. It was just...ASLFKJSDLKF! Mustard was lost AGAIN. That was twice in the span of a month. Cornelius had made sure he wasn't clinging to the back of his shirt this time like he had when he met Rula. That had been embarrassing, but at least he'd gotten to meet her.

Cornelius was sure Mustard was the only mustard-colored lizard on board so it shouldn't be THAT difficult to find him, right? His stomach twisted. What if one of the older kids kept him and didn't want to give him back? Cornelius would have to challenge them into a duel for his beloved lizard. Maybe he should have studied his DADA textbook more closely.

Crud.

There was a spark of hope when he could have sworn he spotted Mustard's long tail. NO ONE STEP ON IT. Cornelius would stick his wand up anyone's nose if they did. Following said hint of a yellow tail, he fumbled into a compartment that at first sounded to be empty, but a look inside corrected his thought.

................................."Hi."

Having caught up with Dottie, Sha was now on a mission to find her cousin Mel… or AJ. Maybe, preferably AJ if only to find out how her UNICORN was doing… but really she needed to check in on Mel too. She had promised her Uncle after all. And she didn’t like breaking her promises. Especially to the people she loved and adored.

So, she moved down the train towards the front and away from the compartment she had started in. She blinked as she saw the … woman … that Dottie had been on about and DID smell cabbage. Urgh… Though, surely she was lovely? Right? Bad things normally happened to the nicest people in the world so that surely meant that under the … slight smell, she was nice.

Right.

That was our story and with that we were going to cut into a compartment before we reached her… Just in case she really did sm- MEL!

Grinning wide, the Welsh girl looked across the compartment at her cousin-but-not-cousin and laughed as she flopped onto the chair and lay down, her feet up on the glass that looked out onto the countryside. How are you liking the train ride so far? You doing okay? Not missing Dia and Uncle Thunder yet?” ‘Cause… She was totally here if Melon was feeling ill or sick or whatever.

After saying good-bye to her cousin Hassan, Rula made her way onto the train, dragging her trunk behind her and holding onto her cat's carrier in her other hand. It was a good thing she'd still kept up with her Beater exercises over the summer, otherwise this stuff would be even more of a struggle to carry down the train corridors.

It was still a bit of a struggle anyway though, if only because of the sheer amount of students there seemed to be walking along the corridors. She would've liked to find Bast and sit with him for the trip, but maybe it'd be better to just grab the closest compartment? At least until later on in the trip when she assumed most people would've found a compartment to sit in.

Like this empty compartment here seemed okay, so she walked in...except it wasn't completely empty. There was some luggage on one side, including an owl cage sitting haphazardly on top.

Whoever had this compartment wouldn't mind if she shared it with them right?

And who was doing all that shouting down the corridor????

THERE WAS SOMETHING ON HER FOOT…oh…heeeey lookit that. Mel just leaned down and picked up the yellow thing and held it and then she heard the voice….oh…there was someone.

HE HAD CURLY HAIR…would he mind if she called him Curls? Probably. “Hi” she practically beamed over…wait…he looked…nervous. “Look what I found?” She practically beamed and held the bright lizard. “It’s cute” she muttered as she stroked the lizard’s back with her finger…Lizards were like little fireless dragons. They were cool.

WAIT she new that head of hair….Grinning up at the girl in the door Mel and gave Marsha a nod. “Hi Sha,” she grinned, oh…she was asking about how she was doing. “Oh…I…” she gulped and felt her eyes get wide for a bit. “of course I’m gonna miss them they are cool…but,” sighing she muttered “I did get in trouble with Emmy and Sal earlier” she admitted with a huff. “They caught me standing on my trunk…I was trying to get past my shortness” she added. It was effective after all.

Of course she left out the fact that she was standing on her trunk in the trolly…with a gang of people. “I’ve been meeting people…I saw the old lady at the front of the train” she added with a grin.

Turning to Curls...or whatever his name was she smiled. "This is Marsha..." she grinned. "i'm Melbourne but everyone calls me Mel or Melon" she admitted with a BIG grin.

There was by staring into his compartment. Bast noticed him immediately when he went to pull out some fruit for Gwenog. Not that he made any moves to invite the kid in. He was enjoying what little time left he had to himself. After being run into and getting looks from rude students (girls mostly) he was not looking forward to the year as much as he had been before.

But he supposed if this one walked in on his own Bast wouldn't kick him out. He was being SO nice today.