Patrick walked slowly down to the train, he saw a few people already ahead of him. Honestly, this was the first term where leaving felt bitter sweet. He was excited to go see his grandparents in the states but he really didn't want to leave his friends. He actually knew the seventh year students and knew it was likely that unless he went into the same job as them, there was absolutely no way he was going to be able to see them again. His heart hurt a bit at that.

Shaking his head to wipe the sadness from his mind he shoved his hands in his jean pockets. Figuring term was over and robes were way too much over kill for a train ride home. He stood along the platform taking it all in. In a few short months he'd be a fourth year student and man was he ready to stop growing for a bit. 5'10 just was too much for him.

Taking in the last look he jumped up into the back compartments of the train, knowing he didn't want to be in the front, the back had all the speed like a roller coaster. Looking into a couple compartments he finally settled on one. He pulled out his muggle playing cards and started to play solitaire as he waited for other students to arrive in hopes that his friends would join him so he wasn't alone.

Skyler walked through the coridor. Her red hair was messy from trying to pack her suit cases this morning.
She finally found a seat towards the back she softly knocked on the door and poked her head in. She noticed an older house mate sitting down. Patrick she thinks his name was. She might have saw him in one of her lessons but the memories were jumbled. She noticed he was playing some type of muggle card game.
"Excuse me," she asked. "Is it okay if I sit back here with you?"

Patrick was deep in thought watching the cards, trying to figure out if he should move the pile over and then start taking up, or if he should start taking the pile up now. He nearly dropped his cards when he heard a knock, but somehow didn't jump. Turning his head toward the door of the compartment he noticed a girl. She looked familiar to him, but he still couldn't place her right away.

"Yeah no problem, have a seat" He recognized her a bit more the longer he looked. She looked like one of his housemates. But he wasn't too sure since he had been all over the place this term. and He had been sick right at the tail end of the term which he was still recovering from.

Skyler smiled and had a seat away from his cards. "Thank you," she said. "I'm Skyler, by the way," She said.
Skyler glanced down at his cards and back at him.

She'd go back and spend some time in the Prefects Compartment later, but for now she had a couple younger students she wanted to give her regards to. Only problem was finding them, which proved more difficult than one could imagine. Peering into each of the compartments, she never looked away so fast as she had when she spotted her ex with his new girlfriend again. Nope. Didn't need to see that.

Reminding herself to breathe, she came to the back cars which she almost did a double-take through her blurred vision.

"Patrick Dooley. How do you think you're going to just get on the train without saying goodbye to me?" The now former Slytherin Captain said as sternly as possible, looking him over, and her gaze flickered back over to the other student present. Ah, she recognized her. Her name stealer, except with an E not an A. She gave a brief not of acknowledgement towards Skyler, before turning back to Patrick.

Patrick smiled at Skyler, “I’m Patrick.” He turned a bit but continued to lay cards not exactly sure what to say to the girl who was in the train compartment with him. He had seen her, interacted with her, but hadn’t heard her name in a long while. “Ready for summer?” the silence between them felt deafening because he wasn’t sure what to say.

Just as he was about to ask another question when he heard the familiar voice of his captain. He smiled turning quickly. Skylar was one of the first faces he had met at Hogwarts, and the first familiar face that he had each year. He was fortunate to play quidditch with Skylar and was so glad to see her before the train got to Kings Cross. “Skylar!” He opened his arms, ready to hug her before he stopped. “I really feel like this moment deserves a hug. I’d say what I really think but the muggle reference might be lost.” He smiled knowing that out of all of the people he kept in touch with throughout the coming years he would keep in touch with Skylar. He was seriously so happy that he had bumped into her on the train three years ago.

Her attention was fully on her quidditch player, sorry Skyler. She grinned at his explanation and at how much he's grown already in the three years she'd gotten to know him. "Definitely lost, but definitely deserves a hug too." She grimaced, and crossed the compartment to reach to him.

"Counting on you to show those new Slytherins what it means to be a Slytherin. I might be gone from Hogwarts, but I'm only an owl away ..." She was able to apparate to Hogsmeade fairly easily. "So if you need anything, I still got a beater's bat," She winked, semi joking.

He chuckled a bit as he met her in the middle wrapping her in a hug that he hoped didn’t hurt her. This whole growing thing was really hard to get a grasp of. He seriously didn’t know what he was going to do. “It’s all good.” he released her to stand back a step.

Thank Merlin that he had a friend like her. “You’re telling me to find an ickle?” he snickered a bit. It hadn’t really set in that he was the ickle she picked and now he had a great friend in her. “Absolutely, I think it’d be great to keep in touch. Never know, might need some quidditch advice in the coming years.” He was hopeful that maybe in the next year or so he would get a chance to be Quidditch Captain just like her. Hashtag goals. He just had to get his flying under control.

Hint: it didn't. Three plus years of beater training, plus being fairly tall herself at least compared to some of class, she was completely comfortable with the hugging. Also, it was impressive still seeing how much taller he grew in the short span she'd known him and was sure he was still growing.

Skylar laughed. "One ickle or ten. I won't judge. But I was a fifth year when you first started..." Only a year older. And she was fairly sure she had some of the ickle first years look up to her with questions when she was a fourth year. Except Zoryn, who was equally as stubborn and dramatic as she was. And yet, she was strangely going to miss Zoryn Spinnet. "Now that you're familiar with the school, first years are going to look up to you. Ask you where the loo or which professors were the stern versus the nice ones." Okay no one ever asked her the last one, but seriously, unless your name was Flynn, you were expected to give decently accurate answers. Or well, if you did aspire to be a Flynn, you best get you some best friends that those ickles can turn to for confirmation. Ugh. So many memories.

"I can do quidditch advice. Or OWL advice." She did earn twelve of them and though given the circumstances of her seventh year, she wasn't sure she earned quite that many NEWTs, but hopefully she did alright. "However, relationship advice, you might want to try to figure out on your own." Cause she still had absolutely no clue, as someone who'd given her heart twice, and had it broken twice - once by herself. And yes, she was sure being a fourth year, he'd start to develop feelings soon. They were inevitable, unfortunately.

He felt like he didn’t know a thing still. He had found his study alcoves that he liked, but he still found himself getting the moves of the stairs off by a second or two. He felt like he could answer most questions, “you mean they really expect you to know everything?” Although he did remember a time or two when he asked really odd questions. He had followed Flynn around the whomping willow just to see what he was doing, so he did suppose it was such a thing.

His grin reached ear to ear. He couldn’t believe that he had made such friends this whole time. “I’m so glad you bumped into me back then. I really will take you up on the advice for Quidditch and OWLs.” There it was, he knew she had been upset by something at the feast when he saw her but he couldn’t put his finger on it. He wasn’t sure if anyone was the best at giving relationship advice. Although he wasn’t sure how to relationship at all. Sure there were people that caught his eye but how did you do it when you lived in the same place as the person. How did you not want to run the other way? This was all a lot for his almost 14 year old brain. “I’m not sure relationships are in my future just yet.” his brow furrowed with the wheels turning in his head.

Skyler meanwhile wasn't saying much. Between not being asked any questions and being lost in her thoughts about looking forward to seeing her family, when Skylar with an A had entered, she more or less just didn't say much but did nod to him. She blinked looking down at the game again. She wanted to ask but it felt random if she did. Skyler shrugged and decided to wing it.
"What is the game you're playing?" She asked almost out of nowhere, not sure if they had asked her anything or not.

Here's the secret... If we could read your thoughts, it would be that one NEVER got used to the staircases. Considering there were one hundred and forty-two of them and they constantly moved. But the other secret was learning to judge your time and make the best of it. Skylar grinned though at Patrick's question. "Without a doubt. But you should at least be able to fake it or point them in the direction of someone who could help," Skylar grinned, thinking about the misdirections she might have given over the course of her time. Ah, all in good fun though.

She nodded though about the quidditch and owls advice, but smiled at the relationship comment. "The one thing I do know about relationships is to take it slow. When you're ready, you'll know. Don't feel pressured because all your dormmates and those in your year are finding the best snogging alcoves."

That was when she heard the younger slytherin girl speaking up and Skylar had ALMOST forgotten her presence. Game? OH NO. PLEASE SOMEONE HELP THIS CHILD. Wasn't she a second year?? Where had she been all year?? "We're talking about quidditch which is pretty much the best wizarding game ever."

Skyler facepalmed. Did she really have to be that specific? Her face flushed. 'Noooo, I was talking about the cards," she said and thumbed.
Of course, she knew what quidditch was, why would she not??

Cards? OKAY, so Skylar was officially CONFOUNDED by the younger girl, because what was she talking about? "Cards?" The recent graduate repeated. "What ... kind of cards?" Because she and Patrick hadn't been talking about any cards? Only game they were talking about was quidditch.

Patrick wasn’t to certain about the whole directions thing. It was as if every person had to figure them out themselves, but they never got easier. He was so certain he’d be the person to direct someone in the wrong direction. Although that certainly would make for a good story. “Oh no kidding, I’d deff have to make sure to move so slow. I never thought about the pressure.”

He nearly forgot about the other Skyler until she questioned what card game he was playing. Although he could suppose that it was over at this point. Oh, quidditch? That was funny, Patrick had to hold back a snicker, cause Skyler 2 had no idea that they had been deep in the conversation about Quidditch and ways he could improve. Oh boy he better answer this before something bad happened. “Oh, muggle cards, playing solitaire which is a single player game.” he shrugged pointing to the seat he had vacated when Skylar had come into the room.

Skyler giggled at Sky yeah. She'll call him that face.
She turned to Patrick. "Ooh okay." Her cheeks were still flushed. She was so deep in thought that she didn't hear them talking about quidditch? Whoops.