For the first time since he’d received his badge, Ewan didn’t really want to be in the prefect’s compartment. Being around the other students and laughing and joking seemed like such a better use of his remaining time as a Hogwarts student but for some reason, he wasn’t wired that way. He couldn’t just forget the job he was intrusted with so, just as the year before, he ventured into the compartment first to meet the other prefect’s before he started his rounds although this time, he had a feeling his rounds would take a little longer than usual. Maybe he’d stay in a compartment to check on some of the first years a little more. Maybe he’d chat to some of his fellow seventh years.

Nestling himself in one of the window seats, he looked out of the window in the direction that he knew Hogwarts was in with a small smile across his face. He had done it. He had survived seven hectic, death ridden years at Hogwarts.

She had left the feast before it was over because her nerves and emotions from everything had gotten the best of her. She was ready to leave Hogwarts, but she was sad to be leaving. It was all so much and she knew she had so many friends to see on the train before everyone started going their separate ways, but she had to do something before she lost the nerve again.

Making her way to the Prefect compartment she was glad to see Ewan was alone. This would be easier with him alone. She opened the door and stepped in. "Hey Ewan" She didn't move any closer, she just needed to say what she wanted to say and then she would leave. "Listen, I, I've been trying to figure out how to say this and I just feel if it isn't said before we step off this train then it will be possibly too late. " She glanced around not really looking for anything. "You have been one of my best friends since first year and we have been super close, but we'd both be stupid if we tried to deny there has been more in the past two years." She bit her lip trying to keep her nerve. "I think we should make it official, I think you should say you want to be my boyfriend, I think you should take a chance on us. I know things went bad in your last relationship, but I'm not her and it has been plenty long enough. Things are different with us and I think things could be great, but you have to at least try."

She said it, there, it wasn't her speech she had planned but it was what she wanted to say. "If you don't think giving us a try is good then I'll leave this compartment and never speak of it again, but if you do I think we could have an amazing summer and figure out the other stuff as we go." She finally stopped talking and just chewed on the inside of her lip looking at her feet too nervous at what his reaction would be.

Missa wanted to go see Eiji. But this was the last of her duties as Prefect and she honestly wouldn’t be able to peacefully spend the rest of the ride home if she didn’t do it right.

So, the brunette was just stepping into the Prefect’s compartment when Chloe began her SPEECH.

Oh dear. So it was all true, they did have a thing thing between them.

Why was Ewan’s love story always happening on the train ride home?

AWKWARD as ever, Missa stood in the doorway, pretending like she wasn’t there.

If there was anytime to say his goodbye to his crush, it had to be now. So what if she was with someone. Things can change and Curtis knew he was a total catch. He got all the good looks from his dads, after all. Ahem, besides that, Chloe had been the one to give him a chance when he was misunderstood all these years, even going against her older brother. He had a little rose in his hand, he would give it to her and then maybe even a little kiss on the hand or cheek. Something for her to remember him by for the rest of tomorrow.

Anyways, Curtis walked to the Prefect's Compartment again to open the door and... well, he heard it all. Chloe and Ewan together. What, they weren't even official? Curtis could feel his heart drop and shatter. Suddenly anger filled up inside of him and his face felt hot. How dare she do this to me? Leading me on. But just as soon as this thought came up, disappointment replaced the feeling into a small sigh. Well, so much for this, maybe Ewan will reject her.. but then that'd make me second choice. Forget that. The price to pay for not being upfront sooner. Anyway, how was Curtis going to explain why he was standing in the doorway of Prefects with a rose in his hand just staring at his crush. Oh, wait, he wasn't the only one standing by the door.

Curtis turned to Missa and gave a smile to her. Talk about awkward. "Here," He offered her the rose instead, "Don't worry, it's not charmed or anything. You just look too cute standing here alone like this." Maybe she could give it to her boyfriend, keep it to herself, or even stomp on it. He didn't care, he was out of here turning away from this.

Oh jheeze! Oh no. How did his calm train ride home alone become some kind of sideshow of people watching him discuss his personal life? What did he do to deserve this? One moment he was alone and the next moment, Chloe was standing in the doorway asking him to call her his girlfriend next to Curtis who had come in to…give Missa a flower? Huh? Had he forgotten something again? Since when were Missa and…No, that couldn’t be right.

“Uh…Listen…Chloe…I….”.

Why did his cheeks feel insanely hot all of a sudden? And his throat…why did it have a massive Quaffle sized lump in it? Taking a steading breath, he flashed a nervous smile at them all and mumbled “Hey Missa, Hey Curtis”. Needless to say, he was stalling for time or a distraction or and act of God, just something to remove him from the centre of attention so that he could pull Chloe aside and tell her what he actually wanted to say.

What did he want to say? It’s not like he hadn’t know this was coming. To say that he didn’t care for her and that there hadn’t been something between them would have been stupid but what did he really want? What was for the best? It’s not like they were going to be living close together at all. She could end up in Germany and he could well be in Canada! They needed to talk. This wasn’t just a yes or no decision, at least, not to him.

“Do you want to make get out of the doorway and come sit down Chlo? I mean, I think you’re in the way of…whatever it is that Curtis is up to there”, gesturing first to the seat opposite him and then to the two people standing behind her in the doorway. Hopefully, with her sitting oppoisite him, there was a chance of a little more privacy although in a place like this, what chance did he really have?

It wasn't that she didn't realize people were behind her it was that she was so focused on getting the words out before she just swallowed them forever. She couldn't do this anymore, she couldn't just play this hopeful game of some day, so she needed to know. What she was hoping for was him to jump up and hug her and say he did want all of that and wanted to try, what she was trying to prepare herself for was him to laugh and say that no way he ever wanted to try, but what she got was just the feeling of eyes on her.

As she turned around and saw Missa and Curtis. Had they heard everything? She knew there would be others around, that wasn't the problem. She didn't want to humiliate Ewan and if people were already in here she would have probably took him to the corridor, but there wasn't and now, now there were people to see her get rejected if that was what she was about to get.

He didn't jump....

He didn't hug...


Uh.. Listen.. Chloe..

That was not words of someone who wanted to finally admit the feelings, that was someone who she felt kept her hopeful but never truly wanting to actually date. As she looked back at him she frowned and took a deep breath. "This was a bad idea... I shouldn't have come in here. I... sorry for invading your prefect compartment." Her eyes were on Missa, not Ewan. She wasn't apologizing for what she said no matter his reaction.

Her eyes then fell on the rose and she thought that was interesting. Curtis was adorable and if no one else saw that, they were dunderheads. It was seat that he was giving a rose to Missa and thought he was doing it to congratulate her on graduation. "Hi Curtis" she gave the boy a nod, but her smile was lost for now. "I... I should be on my way."

Yes, right, she should go.

So this was it.

He would be relieved to stop having that thought soon. Hopefully the last one coming as the Hogwarts Express pulled into King's Cross and he was about to get off the train. He imagined his grandpa would be there along with his parents which, for once, he was looking forward to for once. He was also somewhat hoping his dad had soup with him but if not he may just be feeling sentimental enough to make a special request for some for dinner.

Or both.

Ugh. Feeling this was was so foreign and he was a reluctant fan.

Speaking of reluctance, he did not feel like settling down in any one compartment and thus was sort of just wandering the train. Something else he had never allowed himself to do previously because of his own pride. His stroll happened to bring him by the prefects' compartment, a place that had elicited nothing but petty salt at the start of term and HAD had no visceral response of any sort today...but that changed fairly quickly at the flower exchange and then the muffled words of Ewan that came out of the compartment. All he, Eiji, heard was 'Do you want to make out?' and 'you’re in the way' and something about Curtis ... and Chloe was here too looking, well, looking some sort of way.

"...who wants to make out with who now?" His hazel-green eyes shifted to the rose. If it passed his quality check he could use it for potions.

Knowing it was practically summer break, and she still wasn’t quite sure on her Quidditch status since technically she had aged out of u-17 now, Carys had been tempted to just bypass the prefect’s compartment for the train ride back to London. There was a lot to think about, and as usual it seemed like she was going to need to schedule time with Eron again once summer break had officially begun. Spending the ride home with him sounded nice, but she knew there was likely end of term prefect stuff to be established. At the very least, saying goodbye to the graduating prefects. True patrolling seemed a little superfluous.

Either way, the brunette had made her way down the corridor toward the compartment, Gwydion prowling the floorspace in front of her. Only to be completely confused by hearing the statement Eiji had made, from what looked like directly in front of said compartment, and she had stopped long enough to nearly miss her cat streaking inside between the legs of basically everyone gathered at the doorway. Nearly. “Excuse me,” she said with a sigh. “Gwydion, get back out here please.”

Maybe it would be better to just ask someone to find her if an actual prefect meeting was going to happen? She’d much rather not stand there witnessing a make out session, or whatever in Merlin’s name was going on.

...

Was Ewan honestly subtly rejecting Chloe right now? This just became more awkward, thank merlin they were heading home and not to a place where she would have to share a dorm with Chloe.

Taking the rejection as the queue to maybe wait outside and wait for Ewan to be done with the latest episode of his love life, Missa turned - only to be faced by Curtis???

Alarmed, she stared at the boy - because usually he was never up to good, but then he was giving her a flower?????????

And calling her cute???

What in the merlin’s beard?!

Has he ever been nice to her before????

Lost between wanting to be polite, and probably be cautious, the brunette smiled a bit nervously as she accepted the rose, ”thank you, I guess - I am afraid I don’t really have anything nice to give you though -“ - she added but then there was Eiji???

Okay, could this be anymore awkward?

”No one,” she said immediately - although she wouldn’t mind it herself with him but nope, no. ”I think Ewan needs to be ... alone with Chloe for a bit. Perhaps the prefect’s meeting could happen later” Right? Right.

Grabbing onto Eiji’s arm, she tugged him out of the compartment. But then there was Carys. ”The compartment is .... out of order at the moment” Due to an overload of awkward love tribulations.

If Carsyn was being honest, she didn't particularly feel leaving Hogwarts just yet which was why the Gryffindor Prefect was dragging her feet in packing her trunk that morning. It wasn't that she didn't like summer, but more that she felt as if they'd been robbed of a school year. They'd only really been at Hogwarts for like three months instead of the usual ten and she wasn't even sure she was properly prepared. Seventh year. Her final year. Looming ever closer and the brunette was frankly terrified.

In her distracted thoughts, she made her way along to the front of the train to check in at that prefect's compartment first, hoping to Merlin's beard that they hadn't started any closing meetings without her. A plate of fresh brownies levitating alongside her, pleased that at least her baking skills seemed to return without a hitch.

That was when she heard / saw Missa leaving??? Out of order?? "Uh .... what happened? I always knew eggs were a bad idea before a long train ride. Who let one rip?"

For heavens sake, why could he just not talk to Chloe alone? Could she not see that now was completely the wrong time to talk about something like this? The truth was, he had no idea what he wanted and maybe that was an answer in itself but he wanted to talk to her about it, preferably alone! Missa seemed to be the only one to understand because at least she was leaving but nooooo. Instead, more people seemed to be turning up to make things oh so much worse.

Before he could even get a word in, Chloe had made a move to go and Eiji had turned up to witness the whole rose fiasco happening in the doorway between Curtis and Missa. Despite his own situation, he was so happy not to be Curtis and to have to be in the middle of an Eiji and Missa Sandwich with a Rose for Missa!

Oh, what a joy the prefect’s compartment was today. Unsure exactly what was the right thing to do, the prefect simply chose to stand up and outstretch his hand, not quite fully, but towards the direction of the retreating figure of Chloe McCarthy in what one would assume was to stop her but in reality, it looked nothing more than involuntary twitch. How had it really come to this?

Taking a deep breath, he sat back down in his seat and simply shook his head, a little confused and generally discombobulated with life in general. What had Chloe expected really? For him to confess his love for her in front of everyone? That simply was not him and he was never going to do it. Choosing to ignore the first disturbance, the curly haired Ravenclaw forced a smile on his face and looked towards the steady stream of non-prefects gathering outside the compartment. “No one is making out with anyone” . How anyone got that idea was beyond him and as for Carsyn’s flatulence notion, he simply rolled his eyes and looked away. He had no idea what it was with her and always making the same old joke but it just never seemed funny to him. Maybe that’s why he’d never laughed at the reason she’d come up with for stalking following him through the corridors this year.

And then there was her sister (Carys) with the cat...he had no words at this point. Clearly the world wanted to be prefects or to be in the compartment.

"No Missa that won't be necessary. I said my peace and it is very obvious I have my answer." She was defeated and honestly tired of trying and being hopeful. As she moved towards the door she stopped seeing the others. "Sorry for interrupting everyone." She felt really stupid, but she wasn't going to show it. "Miss maybe you and Nettie can come to Germany this summer and we could do a girls day or something." She really wanted to keep in touch with her dorm mates if possible. "Eiji good luck with everything." They were never super close but she did enjoy getting to know him.

Turning to Curtis she gave him a forced smile, "Don't get into too much trouble." Reaching up and squeezing his arm, she was going to miss him. She hoped they could hangout this summer at some point. Right before she was about to leave she looked back to Ewan, "Good luck with whatever you decide." With that she gave the twins a small nod and headed out of the compartment and down the corridor.

She knew when she needed to stop trying and this was certainly it.

Jillian has all these mixed feelings boarding on the train right now. For one, she is quite excited to be going home but at the same time she feels sad that this would be her last time to be in this train and joined everyone. Talk about bitter-sweet. All good things must come to an end and so is her journey to Hogwarts. With all these mixed feelings combined she still felt like it is going to be a good day.

She approached the compartment with Chloe just walking out- she was the first one her eyes focused on but then everyone else was outside of the compartment? Eiji, Curtis, Missa, Carsyn, Carys and oh my god the cutest cat in the train ride! Whose cat is this and will she be able to hold and pet her the entire train ride? "uhmmm... h-ello... everyone?" she joined the crowd with a confused expression on her face. "Is something going on inside the compartment?" she asked then giving a quick glance at the possible commotion inside the compartment.... you know, if there is really one.

But there seems to be none, just Ewan. What did Ewan do now? "Is Ewan okay?" she asked again because last year's train ride was kind of like this too. One thing is for sure Jillian is not going to stay in the doorway for the rest of this train ride. "Okay, let's all go inside and join Ewan"

Awwwww... "That's a pretty flower, Missa" she smiled at the Ravenclaw prefect. Assuming that Eiji was the one who gave it to her. Obviously. Because who else? She didn't know Eiji could be such a charmer.

Well, well, well, look who else was joining in on the scene. If Curtis wasn't directly involved one way or another he'd have some popcorn out to watch. But enough of that, seeing Missa look a bit flustered made Curtis' grin slightly bigger. Something about making others look unsure on how to handle him made him feel good. Why? He didn't know, it was just a fact with him. It slightly distracted him from the lack of response Ewan gave Chloe. Only slightly.

Really? Chloe needs a reboot on her taste in guys. His brows rose at Ewan in particular because now Chloe was likely embarrassed. Suddenly, Curtis regretted giving the rose away so quickly, but oh well, too late for regrets. So Missa didn't have anything to give him back, "It's cool," He shrugged it off. And then suddenly uh... some older Slytherin who was likely Missa's boyfriend came into the picture. What was his name again? Eejay? Eli? Eddy? No wait, Eiji. "That depends, are you volunteering?" Curtis asked him back. His tone could pass as either sarcastic or serious, take your pick.

More girls were arriving and a cat. Neat. He shrugged at Carsyn, a bit unexpected for him to hear that, but it made him want to chuckle. What stopped him from chuckling though was Chloe about to walk out and then she touched him, giving his arm a nice squeeze. He lost some feeling in his face from the sudden heat, "Hey, I try.. we should talk soon," He said, but she was leaving now. Booooo. He supposed she wanted to be alone after this rejection. Ewan sure let a good one go, but hey, this means good news for me.

Curtis did manage to give a small smile to Carysand Jillian with a small "Hey," Was it time for him to go now? Yeah, best time to do so as he turned to walk back out. What an excellent way to end the year.

And there were officially too many people here. Entirely too many. And a cat. The only thing keeping him from turning relentlessly snarky was the reality that this would likely be the final time he would have to put up with any of them. So instead he could list off in his head a few 'lasts' that almost made him smile as his gaze turned dully towards Curtis. "....you're not even remotely close to my type," he drawled with the faintest of smiles. Though smirk was the better term for the curl to his lips. He was even capable of tolerating Carsyn's immature taste in humor. Another last. Another calming breath.

Whatever that Gryffindor thought was socially acceptable behavior to even ask that sort of thing was, well, nothing he had to concern himself with.

"You DO realize how that sounds, don't you?" his gaze then shifted to his girlfriend with almost an amused twinkle to it. Almost. Next thing he knew was Chloe was leaving followed soon by Curtis - good riddance - an then the former Slytherin's arms were crossed and he was leaning against the door frame of the compartment, his eyes focused exclusively on Missa. "Come find me when you're done with your meeting? Looks like you can have it now." Somewhat uncharacteristically, he leaned in and left a soft kiss on her cheek before plucking the rose from her hand because she would NOT be needed that. "I'll hold on to this in the meanwhile." His hazel-green eyes flickered briefly to Jillian, offering her a fleeting sort of smile, before he too turned around and started heading back down the train corridor to occupy himself elsewhere.

Oh please.

It sounded like nothing, Eiji.

Missa gave the boyfriend an amused look - feeling the urge to be done with this prefect's meeting even more now. Because yes, she was very much done with whatever was going on in this compartment - especially Carsyn's attempt at humor.

Smiling at Jillian, she nodded, "it is - and quiet a surprise too" - because no, she was not expecting any flowers from Curtis. A thing Eiji had clearly noticed, and was now stealing while giving her a much needed kiss. Amused as ever, she chuckled and shook her head, "I am coming with you"

Because it did not look like there was going to be any meeting any time soon.

"I'll do my usual rounds, and if I am needed for something else, let me know?" she quickly told Jillian, before turning back to Eiji - and very much leaving with him.

Blinking and shaking his head, unsure exactly what to say, Ewan sat there and just watched as Chloe left. Even as she walked through the door, he couldn’t even bring himself to run after her, not even when she squeezed Curtis’ arms. All he could do was sit and watch as everyone slowly made their way out of the Prefect’s compartment, only mumbling a reply to Chloe, “Thanks. Have a good summer” .

The relief that spread across his face when Jillian walked through the door though must have been something. Now they could start the meeting and he could leave and take a moment to gather his thoughts. “I’m fine Jillian. I’m ready to start our meeting whenever you are” . Let it be know that he was not sad or moody or having a pout or whatever else despite the drama around him! He was fine! F I N E. FINE!

....

She wasn't trying to make one of those bad jokes. She saw the looks from her peers, but honestly, all she had heard was Missa's comment about the compartment being out of order. Surely there wouldn't be a serious relationship type conversation going on in the prefect's compartment??? So naturally Carsyn had drawn the conclusion that someone was passing gas.

But then Chloe was leaving.... and Jillian had arrived .... and Missa and Eiji were leaving ... And Eiji was taking a flower from Missa? Huh, weird.

Shaking her head, she smiled faintly as she moved into the compartment. "Anyway, I baked brownies for the farewell trip. I have a card for each of you seventh year prefects as well," the gryffindor nodded. Along with a little keepsake keychain thing that she hoped would be reminiscent of each of their times they spent on patrol together. They'd find that when they opened the card though.