She hadn’t taken much notice about where she had situated herself on the train, and hoped that it wouldn’t affect her journey too much regarding noise. As long as no insufferable kids joined her, Remy wouldn’t mind. As someone who was about to be transitioning into fifth year, she certainly felt she was a kid no longer. In fact, she had even been considering ditching her lame diary and turning it into more of ‘journal’. That sounded more grown up. Maybe she’d even do a summer vlog.

Once sat in a comfortable position, Remy pulled out her ponytail allowing her long hair to warm her ears. She extended her legs to try and rest them on the seating opposite her, but she was still a little too short to succeed. Instead, Remy used the books she had brought for entertainment as a foot stall.

Violet hadn't managed to find any of the people she really wanted to talk to on this final journey home on the Hogwarts Express and she just didn't have the appetite for anything from the food trolley, so in the end, she chose a compartment in one of the middle cars at random and walked in. There was only one other girl there--Remy, a fourth or fifth year Gryffindor she didn't know all that well. But, the girl had books with her, albeit she seemed to be using them as a footstool rather than reading them. That was promising, at least.

"It's really inconvenient that they seem to design all seats for tall people, isn't it?" Violet commiserated with the other girl. Being just barely average height herself, she knew well the discomfort caused by not being able to put your feet squarely on the floor.

Ash, late for the train, just hopped onto the middle and found a random compartment to sit in. She was pleasantly surprised to find Violet(We need to talk before she leaves, I have a present) and Remy(we haven't talked in a bit, I should fix that). She sat down in an unoccupied seat and smiled. "Hey you two. Mind if I sit here?" She found no problem with the seats, but it wasn't her place to tell other people what they ought to think.

The ride was starting get a little bumpy which wasn’t providing the greatest of comfort in the position she was in. She did often doze off on the train, particularly when she was alone, but something was niggling in the back of her head today. It hadn’t been a particularly eventful term in Remy’s personal life, but it still felt like some sort of rite of passage. Weird. She kind of wanted to cry about it.

Remy jumped as someone had swiftly joined her and interrupted her thoughts. A seventh year, at that. She smiled, although a little shyly around the older student. They seemed to have that affect on Remy, despite her ranking getting higher each term with her increasing age(!) Their comment did slightly confuse her, before realising that Violet must have assumed that she was too short to reach the floor. Remy soon showed her otherwise. “Oh, no, I can reach…” she gestured to said feet that were now planted on the floor, before returning them to the stack of books. “I was just resting my feet.” Because placing them on the ground was, apparently, exhausting.

Her recently empty compartment was now filling with people who she didn’t usually converse with, but she didn’t mind all that much, mostly because Remy had always thought highly of Ash in particular. “Hiiii, of course you can!” The soon-to-be EX fourth year sat up a little straighter and even placed her feet back on the ground in the presence of elders. “Did you both enjoy the dance?” She may or may not be digging to see what these two had been up to during the event.

Hmm. Okay, then. Violet looked bemusedly at Remy's continued use of books for a footstool for a second or two--Miss Howard would have had words to say about mistreating books and all if Violet had ever tried that--before she heard the sound of Ash's voice and turned to her excitedly. "Ash! I was hoping to get a chance to see you before I...we all left. I"m sorry I was so distracted at the Feast. Letter from home and all," Violet would have liked to talk to Ash about her news from home, but she didn't feel comfortable revealing personal information in front of Remy yet, so she just left it at that.

"Oh, yes!" Violet responded just a little too enthusiastically before she caught herself. "I mean...it was all right. It made a nice change from ending the year with some sort of battle or disaster or other, anyway. And it was sort of nice to have something like that to end my senior year with." This last statement made Violet rather sad, so she stopped talking. (What was wrong with her? Just several months ago she had assured Aria that she had no regrets about leaving Hogwarts and was ready to move on with her life, and now here she was getting a little teary.)

Ashley would have laughed if she knew Remy thought of her as a cool older student... She definitely didn't see herself that way! "I had an excellent time with my friends at the dance, you? Violet's right. It was great to have a year that ended in a cool and safe way." Blasting a board member was pretty cool... not exactly safe though. "It's alright Violet, I was busy as well. Had to say lots of goodbyes. Now I can say them to you. I have a present." She smiled at Remy. "Bit early to say goodbye to you, that'll be next year when I leave this place for good. We have a whole year left to hang out." Until ASH graduated. When she wrote in the book.

"If you're not going to use those books as a footrest, can I?"

Violet looked at the two younger girls, perplexed--what was it with this books-as-footstool thing? Was this some kind of fad with the younger students? It didn't see quite right, but...oh well. Violet was graduated and no longer a senior student, so she did not need to feel responsible for the younger students behaviour any more.

And...oh! A present? Wow, Violet didn't have any presents for anyone; was this a graduation thing? Oh well, too late now. Her pet magpie, Machiavelli, squawked several times with interest from within his cage which was sitting on the seat next to Violet. He was probably hoping it would be something shiny that he could steal later. Thank Merlin she wouldn't have to chase around after him at Hogwarts any more--it had taken her practically a whole day to round up all the trinkets he had hidden in his latest nest and figure out who to return them to. "Wow, a present! Thanks, Ash." And did she hear right--Ash only had one more year to go? Everything seemed to be going by so fast all of a sudden. "It'll be funny not to go back to school next year. And what about you? Will you be around Diagon Alley any time during the summer?" Violet was hoping maybe they could get together and hang out--or maybe Claudine would be there again, home from university for the summer. Or maybe Caes... Violet had the feeling she might want to talk to someone this summer.

She couldn’t help but feel a little like a spare part when Ash and Violet started to say their goodbyes, before remembering that this was her compartment first. Ash soon involved her, though, which she appreciated. “Wait… you’re going to be a seventh year next term?” Why did she always assume everyone was in her year group? It was beginning to dawn on her that she had a few older friends who would soon be leaving her behind, but thankfully she was still a little too naive to think graduating would change their social dynamics. Adulthood had a tendency to creep up on you unexpectedly like that. “We will have to do something fun for your last year!” They should, at least, hang out more because they did not do that enough.

Remy beamed and listened intently as the pair expressed their fun at the dance. It seemed that everyone had had a brilliant time, her own ending on a high thanks to her lovely friends. She never knew that being dateless to a dance was actually okay!! “It was fun. I didn’t do much dancing, though, no good at it” also she had nobody to dance with other than Lisa. “I thought about learning over summer but there’s probably more fun things to learn.” And so little time, too.

Ash wanted… HER books to use as a foot stall? That was only okay if she was the one using them that way. “Umm…” she paused to think of a plausible way to decline without being rude. “Sorry, I was just going back to using it myself. My feet were… aching. Did you bring your own books?” The blonde placed her feet back onto her pile of books to prove her point.

Ash shrugged, noting Remy's awkward pause and explanation without comment. "It's alright. They're your books." They were there to be used by somebody. It didn't need to be Ash. She crossed her legs neatly. "You don't need to be good to dance. Although if you just don't like dancing, that's fine." Ash was a fairly good dancer, but she didn't do it often. Just not her thing.

She turned to look out the window, watching the scenery with a very strange feeling in her stomach. "Yeah, I plan on having a good last year. End all this stuff on a high note. Let me know how much you'd like to be involved in that, Remy. I'm trying to hang out with people, especially ones I haven't seen in a while." She didn't really know if she'd keep in touch with them, so next year was kind of the time for that. "I'll be in DA this summer for shopping and business... but remember, I don't live in London." She'd probably have to plan all of her meet-ups for the same couple of weeks. She handed Violet her present, a small box wrapped in dark green. "Here."

Violet listened to the two younger chatter about next year, feeling a bit left out. She realized that she was already not a part of that Hogwarts world any more, and what was worse, for once she had no idea of what her future world was going to look like, at least not immediately. For someone who liked things well organized, this uncertainty was not a pleasant feeling. "Oh, you should definitely learn dancing if you get the chance," she commented. "Dancing is fun, and probably useful in life as well." Plus, you got an excuse to touch a boy you liked. Violet smiled briefly at the memory.

Oh, right. Ashley didn't live in London. Why, she'd probably never see much of Ashley Fox again now they wouldn't be together at Hogwarts, Violet thought, and she suddenly felt gloomy again. Then Ash handed her the present, wrapped in her favorite shade of green. "Wow, thanks, Ash. Thanks a lot," Violet said as she smoothed the paper beneath her hands and admired it. "Is it all right if I open it now, or did you want me to wait?"

Good, she didn’t need to worry about someone else dirtying her books. Remy knew full well that her shoes were clean enough. Back to the topic of dancing… “I’m not really sure if I’m any good at it. I danced with Lisa for a bit, but it wasn’t a serious dance, you know what I mean?” What she meant was: she didn’t have any experience slow dancing with a potential suitor, much to her dismay.

Turning to Violet, Remy smiled at her encouragement to learn. “How could dancing be useful in life?” She expressed her thoughts out loud. Of course, it would be useful only if you were a professional dancer. “I might look into it. I have a busy summer ahead, hopefully,” that’s if she got the job she applied for, “what are you guys up to this summer?” She looked to both of them.

“I’d love to be a part of your last year, Ash!” Although she hadn’t really hung out with her or anyone else THIS term. It had been a trying time dealing with one’s emotions, but it was OWLs year next term, so she had to get back to herself.