It was time to go back to school and Zita was ready. She had all her bags packed, her makeup on point, and she was going to find the perfect seat for her and the girl squad. No one, not even the older kids would take the perfect seat from her and her girls, she'd make sure of it. Her heels clicking as she looked around, she opened a few compartments and then closed them.

Nope, not good enough...


She could have also been being Zita!nosey and scoping out who was here, which boys she needed to talk to, and where were certain Slytherins she wanted to make sure they saw her, but she didn't see them.

She fliped her hair over her shoulder and checked her reflection in the glass before clicking down the corridor more.

New school, new tradition and stuffs. Diandra almost missed her train because she couldn't find Platform 9 3/4. Being a new student, let alone a muggleborn who had no companions or even an acquaintance was difficult. But thankfully she found someone nice to show her around, only now she lost him but well.... Here she was.

After saying goodbye to her mum and Isaac, the newly-transferred student boarded on a train. So this is the infamous Hogwarts Express, it looked so old-school considering it's 2094 and yet they still needed to take a train to school. Why didn't they use a jet or something more magical? Needless to say, she was kind of unimpressed. But she didn't really have high expectations when she moved here so..

Merlin, it was so crowded! Diandra tried to find an empty compartment or at least there was someone whom she had met before... Again, being a new kid sucked. Maybe she should just find any compartment who wanted to accept her presence. Sliding one of the compartment, the 14 year-old peeked in and saw a girl owning the place by herself. "Are you expecting someone or anyone could join here?" She asked.

Restless. That's what Derf was right now. Although the word was quite the understatement considering how much hair ruffling was going on as he made his way down the train corridor. It just felt better to be MOVING than standing around in the prefect compartment and he could always pass it off as him making his patrols or something - especially now that he had his formerly red Gryffindor prefect badge charmed yellow and it pinned to his robes. He looked, well, sorta official now.

He heard the heels before he spotted anyone - mostly because he was looking down at his feet at the moment - and looked up to see (unsurprisingly) Zita sauntering down the corridor - from behind so he did not see all the gunk on her face yet. "Hey Zi---" but as soon as he started calling out to the Slytherin he nearly bumped right into another familiar face. "Oh! Diandra! Hey! I was hoping to run into you on the train!" he grinned while fishing into his robe pocket for something while also peering around the transfer towards Zita and nodding his head towards her. "Zita Valla. Also a fourth year though she is in Slytherin. Um..the house that has the green robes and serpent for a mascot," he explained.

Who was the girl?

Zita was just about to give her a smile and see who she actually was, since she didn't seem familiar when eye candy distracted her. "Derf" Her grin grew and she moved to give him a hug but stopped dead in her tracks. "What is this?" He was a prefect, Oh my Merlin his hot scale was already up there, but this just made him sizzle. A boy with a badge, a fourth year with the badge. Oh yes, they were taking over.

Another hug was needed, but yes there was that other girl. She rest her hands on his shoulder and stayed close as if possibly marking territory with a newbie, but possibly just showing how amazing it was to be friends with them if she was lucky. "Yes I'm a Slytherin, hopefully, you'll be lucky and end up there." Her smile stayed sweet as she kept her eyes on the new girl.

To her question though Zita just shrugged, "My girls will be joining soon, but we can fit one more." It certainly could be a trail and error for her.

Kimi had placed his trunk in the luggage cars and found a free compartment and he left the door open in case anybody wanted to join him he was feeling a lot better now that he had time to get better he knew that this would be a tough year for him but he knew that if he did get ill then it would pass he was not as bad as he was in his fourth year anyway

Rylee had made sure to store her trunk in the luggage compartment before doing anything else. There was so many older students making their way through the corridor and into compartments to meet with their friends that it was easy to get lost in the sea of older taller people. Still sniffling softly the small first year ducked into the first open compartment she came across, if only just to get to the window and wave to her family...one final time.

"Hi.." she whispered softly spotting an older boy already sitting inside. "I- do you mind if I stay in here for a few minutes?" she bit her lip trying hard to keep the tears from sliding down her face again, eyes shifting to the window across from where she was currently standing in the doorway. Hopefully he wouldn't mind her being in here.

Kimi smiled at the young girl who came into his compartment and said "Of course i don't mind, you look quite sad first time being away from home" Kimi was only guessing but he knew that he was like that his first time leaving for hogwarts

The older boy didn't seem to mind and his words had her nodding her head slowly in reply as she made her way into the compartment. Sitting down beside the window she set the cage that held her pet rat inside against her leg on the seat. "Uh-huh... and my brother..." as she spoke, Rylee shifted on the seat a little to be able to look out the window better. Blue eyes searched for her family and for maybe the first time ever she was thankful for their ginger hair.

She lifted her hand and waved at the four people who remained on the platform. It was when her gaze met those of her brothers that she laid her palm on the glass wishing once more that she was out there with him rather than in here without him.

Kimi smiled and said "Don't worry i felt like that too the first time i went to school but it does get better with time, I'm Kimi just going into my fifth year and a proud hufflepuff" Kimi could understand what the girl was going through

How did she already end up near the back of the train? It seemed she'd only just left the Prefect Compartment ready to "do her rounds" but if you asked her what happened along the way, she wouldn't have been able to tell you. Wouldn't have surprised her to find out she'd blanked on the walk down and completely missed everything happening around her.

Didn't help that she was distracted too. At some point, the Ravenclaw was hoping to run into her friends. The whole trip wouldn't be spent going from compartment to compartment like a foot soldier--that was excessive, to say the least.

Heading down the corridor, Jessa spotted first the familiar face of her friend, then the arms wrapped around him...the body attached to the arms, the head and face attached to the body. It was in similar fashion to a picture slowly being revealed from the centre and spreading outward leaving it no surprise that the new girl (Diandra) was the last to come into her field of vision. Everything LOOKED alright there and if it wasn't, Derf could handle it far better than she could when it came to Zita Valla. Jessa had a hard time getting through to anyone too wrapped up in emotion to see logic so she would leave all such matters to the Hufflepuff. All she could do was offer nods of greeting to the three as she stepped by them to peer into the open compartment just a few steps away.

Kimi wasn't an unusual sight, but the crying presumable Firstie.....hmmm...was that...something....she was meant to be handling? Technically the girl wasn't even crying. So long as the tears stayed up in their ducts...everything was fine...yeah?

"He's right, you know." She chimed in, having caught the tail end of the boy's advice. "Once you get there and start making friends, you might not want to go home. I'm Jessa." For now, she remained standing at the door, not convinced she needed to enter the compartment to comfort the girl. "Nice to see you looking better, Kimi." Last she'd spoken to him, he'd been on about his health.

Kimi smiled at Jessa and said "Thanks i do feel a lot better hopefully it will stay that way for the rest of the time i have at Hogwarts"

Judging from her appearance, this one might be one of those clique-y girl who's always surrounded by her crowds just like in the teenage movies. Maybe she was kind of that popular girl or trying to be one, who knew. So maybe this girl was currently waiting for her other friends and that meant there would be no seat for Diandra to join in and that's okay because she could find another place. No hard feelings, okay? This wasn't her first experience being a new kid on the block.

As a familiar blonde came approaching them, Diandra smiled at him and saw a badge pinned on his robes. Oh, he was a prefect? Oh, maybe that's why he became very helpful when they met earlier. "Hello, Derf." The Asian girl greeted him briefly and was about to thank him before the other girl threw her arms and wrapped around him. There was a possibility that she would be ignored by them if Derfael didn't introduce the other girl (whose name was Zita). A fourth year too? Don't get her wrong but somehow she just couldn't picture Zita was in the same year as her. Maybe because Diandra had a smaller figure comparing with an average Caucasian's teenage girl or this girl looked just... well, a little bit old to be fourth year. "It's nice to meet you." Nevertheless, she smiled and nodded politely to Zita as she mentioned about being in Slytherin and stuff.

She could join her? Hmmm... This was a nice offer, although Diandra was quite a bit skeptical with that but she ended up accepting it. "Thank you, Zita. Oh, I'm Diandra by the way." She introduced herself.

Derf wasn't surprised when Zita started moving in for a hug and had his arms all ready to receive when the Slytherin instead went in for a fake out and DIDN'T hug. Because of his badge.

"Uh...prefect badges don't mean you can't----" But she seemed to figure that out on her own and NOW was hugging him. Phew. All felt normal then. For a hot minute there the fourth year was wondering if now if, perhaps, badges and HIM suddenly meant people would be too afraid to hug him or something. He was still Derf. Nothing really had changed. Save for growing a bit more over the summer and him fussing with his hair some more, he supposed.

And other things he was pretending did not exist at the moment.

He didn't think much of Zita sticking close and having her hands on him and whatever. It was normal, as far as he knew, of her behavior. Though the pause he took to turn a bit to face Diandra gave him a better view of the corridor and he spotted Jessa. Bright blues lit up seeing his first best friend and he gave a sorta not-so-subtle nod of the head that he needed to talk with her later. But since she was busy with Kimi and another girl he did not recognize at the moment, he left things at that.

"And you already know I'm in Hufflepuff," he grinned, tacking on to what Zita was saying about being sorted. And honestly, he couldn't picture Diandra in green robes...but stranger things had happened at Hogwarts and he wasn't going to rule out any real possibilities. "Where we would be lucky to have you." And cue a small amused look towards his blonde companion. "Everything going alright?" he asked the newcomer, recalling the slight struggle it had been getting onto the platform. Though that had all been easily rectified. "Thanks Zita," he smiled at her when she clearly offered up the compartment.

Then he suddenly felt a bit of a wiggle from within his enchanted pocket and he took a small sidestep away from Zita to slide his hand in. "You awake in there buddy?" he asked, looking down at his pocket with an impish smile and slight bounce as he rocked back on his heels.

Miranda made her way on the train with her trunk and her ever present cat, Eragon. Two more terms that's it... That's all the sixth year had left of school and the sure loneliness that was sure to follow her. But that was a good thing. She needed to focus on her studies and her training if she were to obtain the goals she had set for herself.

She stowed her trunk above her head and took her seat on the bench with Eragon on her lap.

With the train in motion, Rylee lost sight of her family that had been standing on the platform. She suddenly felt even smaller and the boys words of comfort didn't fully reach her ears. His name did catch her attention and out of pure politeness despite her sadness she swung her gaze over towards him. "I'm Rylee..." she whispered in return sniffling softly and praying silently to herself that she didn't cry.

Her own thoughts overtook her so easily that she hadn't even noticed the girl standing in the doorway to the compartment until she heard her voice. "I have friends..." she told the older girl who she just noticed was wearing a badge. There was several other first years she had met in DA while shopping for her school supplies. What she didn't have was her most closest best friend in the entire universe here with her. "I just really miss my brother..." It might sound childish to them and she knew she wasn't the only person on this train that was missing their family but to her, this was HUGE.

"Hi, Miss Jessa..." Rylee added as an afterthought doing her very best to give a tiny smile though it was sad. "I'm Rylee..." she looked back at Kimi and gave him the same small sad smile.

Kimi smiled at Rylee and said "Yeah i understand but you will see your brother again during holidays but yes i do understand that you would miss him a lot"

THIS WAS SECOND YEAR, PEOPLE.

Second YEARRRRR. You know what that means?! Maddie held her head high and grinned like she had just blown the best bubble gum bubble EVERRRR. She was no longer one of the little kids around this place! Sure, she acted like one. Sure, she might need the older kids to help her six bazillion times a day. Sure, she was only twelve and still didn't have that 'TEEN' word behind her age...

...but she WASN'T A FIRSTIE.

"HELLO, HOGWARTS!" she said, not too loud but definitely not too soft. SO who were the new prefects?! Who were the HEAD HONCHOS this year?! Were there any new professors? Because she had really JUST learned the names of the ones she met last year.

So many people were seeing her with a prefect and not just any prefect, Derf. As much as she liked being popular and being seen with all it people, she was deep down glad Derf was one of those. She was aware of how some people saw girls that liked makeup and liked the attention, but she also knew there could be more, but for now, image was everything and this fourteen-year-old was not going to screw that up. So being next to a prefect while all these people were coming through was a win.

Her smile grew as she saw Jessa coming, she remembered her conversation with Derf this summer about her. So Zita gave her a finger wiggle though she kept her position to Derf while doing it. "Hufflepuff does have some of the cutest boys." Her smile was on Derf as she said this, but her eyes did go back to the new girl. If she did end up in Hufflepuff and was lucky enough to be included in their group Zita knew they didn't have a Hufflepuff yet.

"Diandra, that's such a cute name." It was unique like her own. Bonus points for this one, but she'd have to see in social situations. "Juni, Andi, Chloe, and Soraya should be around soon. I saw Magnolia earlier too. She gave me this amazing color changing lipstick, isn't it just fab?" Magnolia was going to be famous one day she just knew it.

Then something was going on with Derf as he was wiggle and moving and... talking to his pants? She blushed and grinned, she knew she was pretty and all, but gosh Derf don't make it obvious. "What are you doing?"

Not even gonna lie, she was pretty surprised at the smile and the finger wiggle she'd gotten from Zita, given how......not well their last conversation had been but the Ravenclaw returned the finger wiggle from her spot leaning against the door threshold and offered a smile of her own...albeit a little cautiously. She didn't miss the signal Derf had given, nor the way he spoke to his pants but when you perched yourself so precariously between two sets of conversations, your attention tended to be all over.

Like with Kimi for starters. "I hope so too. Must suck having to leave your friends at weird times of the year. You can miss so much." That had been her train of thought even while several students were pulled last term. Wouldn't necessarily miss anything at home, not when she wasn't expected there for another month and a half but leaving school, Merlin you could miss a lifetime.

Which was what she hoped Rylee would soon start to feel too. School wasn't a real loss, it was its own gain. Firsties didn't have the luxury of previous experience to work through something like that. "He'll miss you too." She said, trying to remain casual about being called "miss" by a student. Definitely a first for her. "But you know, you could keep a magical journal of sorts for him and show him everything when you get home. Kinda like...a mission, you know? Making sure you get every memorable thing you can--and there'll be a few." This was Hogwarts afterall.

"You'll be fine, I think. Once the real excitement kicks in and sorting and Common Rooms--learning magic. D'you know what house you're hoping for?" Sometimes distractions were beneficial in these situations and while she couldn't and wouldn't stay here the whole ride, she'd try to help before she left.

Blue eyes back on the three standing outside the compartment, she noticed a girl (Miranda) walk by them to take a seat in the compartment with her cat. Another less than enthused soul for the train ride, interesting. Equally interesting was Zita's assessment on boys. Thinking them not on particularly rough footing, it was alright to sorta be in this conversation too...yes? "Ravenclaw and Gryffindor do too. You see a lot of good things up in the towers. Slytherin has pretty girls." Sometimes it seemed a whole world away, the kitchen and dungeons, when you spent so much time up so high in the towers. "Is the bowtruckle back this year?" She asked her attention shifting over to Derf, nodding to his pocket where his own attention had drifted. "Has she gotten better at sharing you?"

Looking inside the compartment again, Jessa focused on the newcomer. "Miranda....right?" She looked familiar enough, meaning she must've had a few classes with her at some point but any specific memories of her were a little hazy. "Not looking forward to being back at the castle?"

The noise near the top of the corridor had blue eyes lazily moving up in that direction. It wasn't a voice of panic or anything requiring immediate action, rather it was just Maddie. "Someone's awful chipper on this train ride. Good." One less person to cheer up when she was less than cheered herself.

Diandra had read about Hogwarts and their houses before she even landed in England. There are four houses where each of them have their own colors and animal symbols and every student was sorted based on their personality and yada yada yada.... To be honest, she didn't expect to be in any houses but since she had met some Slytherins around so probably it was a sign that she could be one of them. But again, let the sorting hat decide, huh? Also, since Zita and the other girl (Jessa) sort of mentioned about houses that had many cute boys.... Did that really matter? "I think there's a chance I could be in any house." The Asian girl spoke up. This would be fun since in Mahoutokoro, they didn't really have houses, just a regular dorm assignment that would change every term.

She couldn't help but blinked when Derf asked if everything was alright. Huh? Maybe because she didn't talk much but well, it's not because she was uncomfortable with the situation (a little bit, truthfully) but Diandra was just that girl who didn't talk much. "Yes, it is. I'm okay." She said and slightly nodded. She turned into Zita and smiled as the Slytherin girl complimented her name. "Thanks." This wasn't the first time someone mentioned about how she had an unusual (in a good way) name but still, it was nice to hear that. Oh, that's cool." She said about the possibility of some other people who might/would be joining them.

Uh.... What was Derf doing by the way?

*cue one dramatic entrance for one Théodore Mathéo Montmorency*

It was really the only way Théo knew how to make an entrance and was fitting since he was not even at school for the last half of the year. And was completely oblivious to his growth spurt and everything. It was an interesting summer but it seemed just endless and while it was fun at first it got old fast since all his friends were at school and the only thing he could do was quidditch, bug his family still at home and more Quidditch. You seeing a pattern. He did get to go away with his brother for a while.

The almost fifteen years old had to find his friends or at least a packed compartment because really an empty one was boring and he would have all the time in the world to nap once he was at the Castle. Reason History of Magic existed Everything else he could find out later like Prefects and all that.

WAIT A SECOND

....did he forget something. No not an item from home. He brought as he needed. He just...oh nevermind.

Deep down she knew Kimi was right. Come holiday break she would be home again with Reese and it would be like they had never been apart. Hopefully. “I miss him lots… he’s my best friend.” It was just one of those things that would take a little time to get used to. There was quite the adjustment being made here but she would go back to being her typical cheerful self in time.

The big older girl with the shiny badge was talking to her again. Just like when her sister spoke to her about magical things, Ry found herself listening. The brief distraction that Jessa was giving her was working. Shifting in her seat to sit up just a tad taller, she brushed her long ginger hair from her face a curious look in her eyes. “A- a magical journal? Like with photos and stuff?” She had absolutely no idea how to go about making one of those but she LOVED crafts and if this journal making involved some form of crafts she was down for it.

“I really want to meet the creatures in the barns.” She smiled softly. Stasya told her all about being able to go to the barns and interact with the different creatures there and that’s one of the first things she wanted to do. Speaking of which she needed to find Stasya so she could meet her pet squirrel! “Hufflepuff!” she exclaimed without hesitation. “It’s the house my big sister was in and most of her friends too.” So of course that’s the house she really really really wanted to be in. Though any house would be great.

Kimi nodded at Jessa and said "Yeah it does but i suppose i am used to it now and congratulations on being made prefect". Kimi turned to Rylee and said "Yeah i understand that you will make new friends and it will be an adventure of a lifetime, i find that and i am still making new friends to this day"

Oh good, it seemed the idea sat pretty well. On the first try too, good going Cambridge. Jessa nodded, figuring it best to continue along this line of conversation with the young girl. "Yeah, a magical journal. You could fill it up with just about anything you want. I could help you with some of the more complicated charms and trinkets you might wanna add." With her best subjects being Charms and Transfiguration, the Ravenclaw spent a lot of time perfecting them as best she could. Helping would also help her--not that she wouldn't have done it if there was no gain. This situation just happened to be mutually beneficial.

"Even if you do end up somewhere on the lower levels of the castle," She said she wanted HUfflepuff, yeah? "You could still come find me. 'm usually up on the sixth floor or a floor up in Ravenclaw tower. Bet we could come up with all sorts of things to show your brother."

And another simple request. Merlin could all the problems be this easy when term started? "There's this Creature Companions list. You sign that up and you can visit the creatures whenever. I dunno if some are still up for grabs but a couple terms back the Professor let us adopt a creature each. Something you should check out if you're up for it." It wasn't likely Wayland would say no. He was all about spreading that creature love, sometimes to the worst extent--but she wouldn't swell on that. Einstein was out their living his best life and she would do the same. "Is that your only reason for wanting Hufflepuff?" Not a judgement, simply curious. As she was about most things.

Her stomach did a sort of flip when Kimi congratulated her on the badge. It was still new to her...and she was still pretty sure it should've been anyone else's but she was willing to take this one step at a time. Starting with a little gratuity. "Thanks." She replied, fidgeting with the hem of her sleeve without really noticing. "Here's to hoping I don't lose any little claw babies on the way up. What with the moving staircases being what they are and the younger ones usually half asleep on their feet by then." All that food and a long day, anyone would be tired really.