The middle cars seemed like a good place for Hanna to sit. She boarded the train, this time by herself (she hugged her daddy goodbye back on the platform). At random she opened a door, saw it was empty, and sat down on the seat with her little backpack. There were some snacks in it, and a book, and a comic. She wanted to have a few things to choose from. It was very nerve-wracking, sitting there, knowing her parents were going home without her. She had a countdown in her diary, just so that she could keep an eye on how many days until she saw her family. Baby Elsie would be so BIG when she saw her next, but her mum had PROMISED to send photos of her.

So back to doing train rounds, at least this part of his duties still feel familiar. Then again so is hunting for the trolley lady who seems to make it a special challenge to look for her just when one's blood sugar level is dropping.

There was a youngling that caught his eye though, alone in a compartment. A firstie he wondered or perhaps a very young transfer. She was lonely that was a certainty. The Gryffindor Ace rapped his knuckle against the glass plane gently and leaned in "You ok?"

Hanna was lost in her own vivid imagination, when a rap on the glass startled her back to the present moment. She looked over and saw a boy, and felt her face go warm. She sat up a little straighter and nodded. "Yeah, I am. J-just... a little nervous. Leaving my mum and dad for the first time. Do you... did you find that hard?" she asked. He wasn't too bad to look at, she thought.

Daisy was casually looking for a compartment in the middle of the train when she spotted the Head Boy talking to a young student, maybe a First-Year. She stood beside the Head Boy and spoke with a smile.

"Hello, sorry to interrupt. Mind if I join you?"

Ah definitely a firstie. "May I?" he nudged his head at the seat by the door as he sat down. Her question prompted his own memories of his first train ride to Hogwarts.... seven years ago. Goodness has it been that long?? "Well.... I did feel like I was gonna miss my Mum and Dad, we were all quite emotional at the platform." he smiled pensively "...But it wasnt that hard for me because I had my friends going to school with me at the same time, so we really were rather excited to get onboard the train and get to Hogwarts." Gosh good memories that train ride, made new friends then that ha pretty much lasted to this day. He paused for a moment, the young one's loneliness definitely not forgotten "Do you wanna be friends?"

Oh look the sunny Hufflepuff has joined them "Hey Daisy! Well I dont mind--" he glanced at the young girl, seeing if she was ok with additional company.

Just as she had said, Rylee didn't spend very long in the other boys compartment. She had been quite sure that he wouldn't want to spend his entire ride with a firstie... especially one that seemed close to tears at every word she spoke. So once the train was in motion and there didn't seem to be many students flooding the corridor between the compartments the young girl had thanked Kimi before leaving to find her own place to sit for the remainder of the ride.

She hadn't really expected to be able to find an empty compartment but that's just what she found as she came to the middle of the train. Without wasting anymore time, Rylee slipped inside closing the compartment door behind her and sat down. Tucking herself into the corner against the window she pulled her knees up to her chest and took Neptune from his cage cradling the young rat against her chest. Long ginger hair framed her face hopefully hiding the new round of fresh tears that began to freely slide down her pale cheeks now that she was alone with her pet who wouldn't mind her crying.

Jessi could hardly believe that she was on her way to Hogwarts. She was a little nervous, ok a lot nervous, but determined not to show it. She was on a mission to find the perfect seat and had been unsuccessful so far. Most of the compartments she had passed had been full of older students. She could have taken a chance with one of them, but she was not feeling quite that brave just yet.

Finally she came upon a compartment with just one occupant. Jessi was in luck because the girl inside looked to be about her age. She gave a soft knock on the door, opened it and peeked inside. “Hi, I was wondering.......” Before she could finish, she noticed that her prospective seatmate was crying. This couldn’t be good. Resisting the urge to turn and leave, the first year pressed on. “Are you ok? Would you mind a little company? My name’s Jessi and I could sure use someone to sit with who’s not like a million years old.”. Hoping that the answer would be yes, she tentatively inched into the compartment.

Hanna nodded when the boy asked if he could sit down. Company was nice. His pensive smile got a little one from her as she listened to his recounting of his first train ride. The emotional part was something she could relate to. Having cried at the sight of her mum's tears and all. "Oh d-did you have friends too? I don't really know anyone. I've met Rylee and Emmalyn, and they're both first years." So it would be nice knowing other firsties. But then this boy asked if they wanted to be friends! She smiled, her eyes twinkling, as she nodded. "That would be lovely. I'm Hanna," she said boldly, holding her hand out to the handsome Gryffindor. "Do... do you know my Grunkle Art? He... well he used to teach at Hogwarts and I think he was the Head of House for your house." That was right wasn't it? She'd heard them talking about it once before, but hadn't really been paying attention.

And just like that, there was another face. This girl looked a bit older, so Hanna assumed she wasn't in her first year. She nodded, still smiling, at the offer for MORE company. Here she had been, by herself, wondering how she was going to make new friends, when her empty carriage now had THREE occupants. "Hello," Hanna said to the older girl.
Daisy, was her name? "I'm Hanna."

Finally! Aaron was going on his first ever train ride to Hogwarts! The kid was so excited to finally getting to go to the school. Basically, ever since he had learned that he wielded magic and there was a school for it, he looked forward to the day he got that letter in the mail! That was one of Aaron's best memories. His father would be so proud of him. Unfortunately however, he didn't make it to see this day. But the first year wasn't sad. Only happy thoughts and a positive vibe flowed out of him like water flowing down a mountain.

Aaron walked into the middle train cars and immediately noticed one of his friends that he had met back in Diagon Alley! He wanted to walk over and sit with them, but at the same time, the dark haired student wanted to make some new friends as well. Choosing the latter, his eyes fixated upon a small gaggle of others sitting in the one compartment. Making his way over to the cabin, smile decorating his already bright face, Aaron said "Hi! I hope you don't mind me sitting with you guys? My name is Aaron."

Dark, enticing eyes looked over the group. His guess, the one girl was probably somewhere around his age, but the two others were certainly older. His guess was that the other girl was somewhere in her second or third year at Hogwarts, and the boy, he was certainly the oldest. Probably at least a sixth year. Either way, hopefully they would let him sit there. Although he had already made tons of friends, Aaron always loved to make more.

Daisy smiled at Hanna as she entered the compartment and sat down. "It is nice to meet you, Hanna. How are you feeling about starting Hogwarts?" She then looked at Tenacious congratulating him on becoming Head Boy.

Daisy then spotted another possible First-Year. "Hello, Aaron. I'm Daisy and I don't mind you sitting with us." She glanced at Hanna and Tenacious as if asking them silently if it was okay if Aaron could join them.

Alright. Now she was dressed for an adventure with her badge clipped to her bag. Time to explore the Hogwarts Express and make sure the kiddos were all settling in nicely. The blonde made her way to the middle of the train, offering a smile to those who passed her and a quick wave to the Head Boy who was surrounded by younger years... Seriously it seemed like Ace had a knack for working with kids. Vi smiled as she continued on her way, making sure that all was in order or at least close to it.

She came to a sudden halt when her eye caught two girls in a compartment. At a first glance, it all seemed fine but then she saw that one (Rylee) of the girls looked.... quite - no- very upset. That girl was just sitting there and crying. She blinked. Crying on her first trip to Hogwarts? Oh no! That was not a good start to the train ride. Perhaps the girl was upset because she was leaving home? Vi frowned. Poor thing. If so, Vi could def relate to that when she first left for Beauxbatons. Fortunately, the other girl (Jessi) in the compartment seemed to be trying to comfort the crying girl.

Removing her frown, she replaced it with a smile and then knocked on the compartment door before sliding the door open. "Everything ok in here, ladies?" she asked with a concerned smile before taking a step in. "Mind if I join you too? I'm Vi."

Rylee should have known that with as many students as there was, she wouldn't be able to have a compartment to herself for very long. Even so the knock on the compartment door caused her to jump slightly and quickly wipe away the tears from her face with her shirt sleeve. Clearly not quickly enough though as the other girl standing there appeared to have seen her crying already. Just great. She hadn't even made it to Hogwarts yet and she was already going to be known as the little firstie that was crying on the train. Way to make a great first impression.

"Yo-you can sit.." Hiccup. "here if you want." Hiccup. Sniffle. Another swipe of her shirt sleeve against her cheeks. "I- just...I just miss my brother.." And her sister and parents but mostly her brother. Sorry mummy, daddy and Rian. "H-hi, Jessi. I'm Rylee," she tried to muster up a little smile.

And just like that another much bigger girl was peeking in the compartment to check on them. Rylee spotted the badge on this girls robes right away, a badge just like that other girl from the other compartment. Gosh, why was everyone seeing her cry today. Nodding her ginger head she looked up at her. "I'm okay now.. we're okay, right Jessi?" she looked from the older girl to the younger one. There wouldn't be any more tears from her, hopefully. "I'm Rylee. This is Neptune." The baby rat that was sleeping on her lap, that is.

So.......... back to Hogwarts then.

Of course, Abey Abra knew it had been not only possible, but also actually quite probable that he'd be going back. He'd had the option to leave entirely - Hassan would probably have fought for it if nothing else - but it was due to his own decision that he found himself on the Hogwarts Express once more. Not only were the twins going back (though Alanna did not seem too happy with this arrangement), but so was Junia. The thing was, actually, that it would have taken the return of only one of Abra's cousins to convince him to go back too; it was horrible, being so far away from a dangerous place and knowing that someone you loved was still there, so that you could do nothing to protect them or comfort them or help them or anything.

Assuming you were any good at protecting or comforting or helping (or anything) in the first place.

But also, actually, despite everything, there was still something about Hogwarts that kept drawing Abra in. He'd spent years and years and yeeeeaaaars desperate to be there, and had been distraught when he thought it wouldn't happen. Even now, when his anxiety mounted more and more with every second that they sped towards Hogwarts... he knew he wouldn't have been very proud of himself if he'd stayed at home, even though he'd have felt much safer and therefore a lot happier. In any case, he had friends that he was not at all ready to say goodbye to, actually. Friends had the potential to make up for everything else, as long as everything else didn't get too bad.

Friends that, as it happened, he was having a hard time locating at the moment. Abra had parted with his family not all that long ago, and had since spent the time wandering down the train, looking for a familiar face. Part of him had wanted to stick with his cousins, but an overwhelming worry in his mind had told him he'd probably end up bothering them and being annoying and embarrassing by not leaving them to do their own thing. But that was okay, because friends were excellent company too... if only he could find them.

Of course, the fact was that Abra wasn't having much luck in his search was mostly down to his being far too distracted. Instead of actively searching, it was more like he was wandering down the train and staring into each compartment without really seeing who was inside, but hadn't yet realised that this was the case. Maybe it was because he was mostly seeking out one face in particular, also without realising, to the effect that it was like he had blinders on where everyone else was concerned, or maybe it was because his mind was so preoccupied with school worries and people worries and other general worries and other specific worries that it was hard to focus on anything else, or maybe it was all down to another reason entirely.

But all Abra thought was that he was just having bad luck with finding people. Trying very hard to ignore the sudden thought that perhaps everyone he knew was all together, having fun without him and maybe actually at his expense, he continued on down the train, looking into compartments, squeezing past fellow students, effectively on 'cruise control'.

Jessi was a little worried that she was not welcome in the compartment. She was very relieved when she was offered a seat. Breaking into a smile, she went over and sat across from the girl who was pretending not to cry. Hoping to cheer her up, she said, “Nice to meet you Rylee.” “I know what you mean. I miss my family too. This is the first time I’ve been away from them....well for more than a few days anyway. This will be my first year at Hogwarts. You too?” Then trying to look on the bright side, she added this. “When I get sad about missing my family, I think about all of the new friends I’m going to make at school.” At least she hoped she’d make lots of friends, but Jessi didn’t add that part.

Then there was a knock on the door and Jessi turned to see an older girl enter the compartment........an older girl with a big shiny badge that said I’m very important. She seemed concerned and asked if everything was ok. Taking Rylee’s lead, Jessi chimed in, “We’re fine”. Yep, nothing to see here. When the important girl with the badge introduced herself, Jessi smiled. “Hi Vi. I’m Jesse. I don’t mind if you join us.” She turned to Rylee with a questioning look, as if to say, “Is it ok with you?” Besides, it would be good to know someone older.......someone who knew things......someone important.

The ickle one was starting to open up. Progress, this is good. "Yeah my childhood besties Mel and Sammy and Tory, then we met a new friend at the Platform, Carl. All still good friends to this day." he nodded happily. "Pleased to meet you Hannah, I'm Tenacius Salander. Gryffindor Prefect and Head Boy, at'cher service." he smiled as he shook her hand.

But whoah wait full stop what did she say?? Grunkle Art... "Art... are you referring to Professor Arthur Newton, Potions Master and former Gryffindor Head of House??" Oh wow now she's gotten him going "Professor Newton made me Prefect several years ago, he set me down the path to all this." he gestured about himself. Yes he owed the Potions Master a great deal, kept him out of trouble before trouble found him, as Salander historical data was anything to go by.

Ah but new additions to the compartment. He smiled at Hannah-- more friends there you go-- and he motioned the young boy over "Pleased to meet you Aaron, I'm Tenacius Salander, from Gryffindor." another potential firstie quite likely, given that he looked even younger than Hannah. "Daisy here is reppin' the Hufflepuffs. Have you both given any thought on what house you'd like to join?"

Merlin she thought it would never end. It wasn't to say the mood in the Prefect Compartment was hostile, not by a long shot while she was there but just standing around....waiting to be briefed....forced through small talk while they waited on the others...it was enough to have the Ravenclaw crawling out of her skin. Being under-stimulated had to be just about the worst feeling when you were already trying to quell the rising tides of restlessness that greeted you at the doors of the train.

Now that the meeting was over this walking thing helped a little but there was still the anxiety that on this walk something would happen and she would have to take care of it.

What exactly qualified as her responsibility? And what constituted over-stepping any authority she may have been given? Was there a handbook for all this? Circe, imagine how useful something like that could've been.

Jessa moved down compartment after compartment, watching friends huddled in cars together laughing and catching up. All it really did was make her wish she could go find her friends and spend the ride with them. Not all this patrolling the train stuff. Wandering aimlessly until purpose found her. It was hardly a way to spend so many hours.

It was a familiar head that caught her attention as it moved by her, weaving through the light crowd of students not yet seated in a car. "Abey?" Was that Abey? You could only be so sure when watching someone's back.....but she was still pretty sure that was Abey and wanted to believe that she HAD found one of her friends on what was sure to be the longest ride to school since her first year.

Patrick came scurrying down the hallway of the train hoping to find his bag. His stupid brothers. Why would they do such a thing. He flipped his hair out of his face before glancing in a few compartments. He was almost near the back of the train when he finally spotted the tan muggle bag. “That was almost bad.” he grabbed his back and turned back to head toward the front of the train hoping to bump back into a few familiar faces.

She was okay, now? And so was the other girl? Vi glanced back and forth between the two girls and then nodded after she had gotten confirmation from both parties that they were alright. Hmm... She supposed the crying must have been from missing family but she wouldn't press the matter. It wouldn't be right. If the girls wished to talk about that, she was sure that they'd bring it up. And besides... Well... From the looks of it, they were okay for sure.

"Great!" With that, she took a step further into the room. Sure, she'd be joining these two for a bit before she'd have to head out to check on the rest of the students on their way to the castle. Vi smiled at both Rylee and Jessi as she slid the door behind her closed and took a seat. "It's nice to meet you, Rylee. And you, Jessi," she nodded and then glanced down at the rat that rested on Rylee's lap. A peculiar choice of a pet. She had seen most students go after cats or toads before rats. "And Neptune as well."

Reaching into her bag, she pulled out a bag of mixed chocolates. Her brother had packed her away with a few from his favourite chocolate shop in Paris. It was the one that he always brought with him when he taught at Beauxbatons. Chocolate was proven to help in any situation. Mhmm.. "Would either of you care for some chocolate?" she asked as she held it out to them before asking another question. "So are you two excited to be heading to Hogwarts?"

As much as Rylee may have wanted to hide in the corner of the compartment and continue to cry until she ran out of tears that wasn’t going to happen. She was here on this train and she needed to be strong… at least for now. Crying could happen tonight after she was finally in her dorm alone. For now though, for now she was determined not to be that little firstie that cried the entire train ride.

“Uh-huh it’s my first year too,” she nodded at Jessi. “I’ve never been away from them. Unless spending the night at my big sister’s place counts but that’s just right down the road and Reese was always there too.” See. They had always been inseparable. Until today. Making friends was a huge plus when it came to Hogwarts. And getting to learn magic of course but that was a given. “Have you made many friends yet?” What were the odds that they had met some of the same kids and they could ALL be friends? Now that would be really cool.

The more she got to talking with Jessa and Vi the better she felt. Sure her small freckled face might be tear streaked but at least they were dry tears now and her nose wasn’t runny anymore either. “It’s nice to meet you too, Miss Vi. Are you a Prefect?” she asked looking once more to the girls shiny badge. Rylee knew all about the Head Boy and Girl and Prefects. She smiled a little bit when Neptune got a greeting as well. Rats might not be the number one choice of pet but she was very happy with him. “Do either of you have a pet that you brought with you?” Nearly every student brought one along with them, right?

Rylee shook her head at the offer of chocolates only just remembering that she had candy of her own in her bag. “No thank you… I have sugar quills that I brought along with me, do you want one?” Reaching into her bag that was tucked between the window and herself she pulled out a bag containing several different flavors of the candy offering the bag to each of her new friends. “Uh-huh. I really want to know which house I get to be in.” That was most important right now.

Half a train's length.

That was about as far as Abra got before he finally realised how little attention he had been paying since he first started down the train. For a moment, he considered stopping and turning back and starting again - and actually he did slow down just a little bit during said consideration - but the thought of how ridiculous he would look, stopping in his tracks and turning around as though he'd forgotten something or made some sort of mistake (which he had done but shhh) or gone the wrong way (even though there had literally been only one direction to choose from), was enough to make him forge onwards. If he ended up finding nobody, he'd turn around when he reached the end of the train. That way he'd maybe look a little less like an idiot... unless he ended up spending the whole train ride going up and down the train looking for friends that never appeared.

By the time he'd thought through all of this, Abra had passed about four more compartments without taking note of who was inside of those either, and that was when he started getting frustrated with.

Luckily, however, there was no time for his frustration to play out, for at that very moment a voice reached Abey Abra's ears, and he instinctively turned towards it, because of course he had recognised Jessa's voice at once.

"It's me," he replied, breaking into a smile as he did so. Except, uhhh... "I'mtryingout'Abra'." That part was blurted out - maybe even to the extent that it was difficult to know what he'd said at all - because actually he had found that it was a lot more difficult to bring up that sort of thing than he ever expected. But then, he noticed something.

(And, actually, it came as a very welcome distraction, so maybe he latched onto it a little more desperately than necessary.)

"Oh!" Abra exclaimed in a tone of pleasant surprise. "You got one too!" 'Too' meaning 'as well as Derf', of course. Now he saw Jessa with one, it made a lot of sense. "Does mean you'll be able to do more experiments without people bothering you?"

..... And, because he sort of got carried away with all that babbling...

... "Hi, Jessa! I missed you."

And then he finally stopped speaking.

Oh Merlin it WAS Abey! Phew! Good! It was nice to see a familiar face, especially one that lit up upon seeing her. Having friends wasn't so weird a phenomenon for her anymore but it didn't change the fuzzy little feeling when she could see how much someone liked having her around. It was a stark contrast to what used to be and had her own face lighting up inspite of the consistent rise in anxiety.

On impulse, she reached forward to hug him. It felt like a lifetime away since she'd last seen him and with all the mess of the last term it was no wonder.

Jessa pulled back looking at him with the curious gaze she typical held, this time because of his rambled words. "Huh?" She almost thought she heard what he said, but it all came out so quickly that she wasn't entirely sure.

The Ravenclaw glanced down to her badge, feeling oddly self conscious about it being perched there on her chest but nodded anyhow. "Yeah. Might've been the biggest shock of my summer." Which should've said something but given how the 15 year old prioritized things, that statement could've gone either way. "I....actually...never thought about it like that....." She admitted, now giving it actual thought. "Maybe, yeah, I hope so--I can be out after curfew now, yeah?" So that was a good point at least.

She grinned wide. "I missed you too, but I'm glad you decided to come back." His absence would've been NOTICEABLE. As would the absence of any of her friends who decided enough was enough.

Shera had been wandering around the train absently, hoping to spot a familiar face from Diagon Alley somewhere on this train. It had taken a while but she had eventually found Rylee, who was with two other people. Contemplating whether or not she'd be welcome for a moment, she shrugged, plastering a wide smile on her face as she poked her head into the compartment.

"Hi Rylee, do you mind if I join you guys?" the question was mostly directed at Rylee because she looked like she had been crying and she was the only person in the compartment that actually knew Shera. "My name's Shera, by the way."

She tacked on the last bit of information for everyone else.

Once Gunnar boarded the train and stowed his trunk in the luggage compartment, he slowly walked along the corridor carrying his owl in her cage and looking for a place to sit. There were a lot of people on this train, many more that Gunnar really expected if he was honest with himself, and he was having a hard time finding Hudson. They had said they'd sit with each other on the train, but he hadn't even seen the other boy since he and his family arrived at the train station.

He grew more nervous as he walked, his anxiety starting to outweigh his excitement, especially at seeing all these unfamiliar faces and becoming acutely aware of how much shorter he was than all the older kids. Soon enough, he came to the conclusion that he should just find either an empty compartment (but that seemed lonely) or one that had kids about his age. He really wanted to wave (at least inconspicuously) to his family out a window before the train actually left the station. And that was likely to happen soon!

The next compartment window he peeked into had two girls that appeared to be about his age, and an older girl.... oh! She had a prefect badge. Gunnar knew what that was. Both his parents had been prefects when they were at Hogwarts and they told him that if he ever needed help to ask a prefect. That's what they were there for. Not that he really needed any help right now, but he figured she would at least be nice.

The door to the compartment was already open, and he started to approach, but yet another girl beat him to it. He kind of waited behind her, but also kind of craned his neck so he could peek in too. "Hi," he started to the group, offering a small smile. "Is it okay if I sit in here too? I can't find my friend." He waited in the doorway for them to say it was okay before he entered. But hopefully they wouldn't mind because he really needed a place to sit down.

Hanna shook the Gryffindor Prefect, Head Boy's hand, and grinned. He was very friendly. Hanna was a bit surprised this boy remembered her Gruncle Art so well, but the things he said... it brought tears to her eyes. "Y-yes, my Gruncle Art. That's him. He's a wonderful man." She loved him a lot. "Well that's really nice to hear." She sniffed a little. Trying not to be too sappy. "Did he share his tea with you? Did you know, he has a HUGE tea collection at home." Hanna loved having tea parties with him and her sisters, and the other little kids of the family.

Another boy joined, which made them a party of four. "Hello Aaron, I'm Hanna," she said. Was he a first year too?

... apparently so!

"Mmm I'm a bit nervous about the test to get INTO the house," she said. "But I'm excited to be here. I want to explore every inch of the castle! Do you reckon I can do it in my first year?" She knew it was a HUGE place, but was it really THAT big?

So she was in the company of a Gryffindor AND a Hufflepuff. So, if she were in either of those houses she's know someone. "Well... most of my family were in Ravenclaw, but a few of them have been in Gryffindor. So... well... they think I might be a Ravenclaw, but I mean, who really knows?"