Having said goodbye to her Mums on the platform for the third time in her education, Aurora only looked back once to offer a small wave before disappearing into one of the carriages. It had got easier every year especially as her friendship circle grew and the excitement of seeing her classmates was outweighing the anxiety of not seeing her parents for a few months.

Speaking of growing, this petite blonde had managed a whole 2 inches of height over the summer holidays and her hair had followed suit half way down her back which for once wasn’t up in her usual braids but cascading in soft waves framed by newly cut bangs. She had turned thirteen in July and was feeling especially grown up even if her personality hadn’t changed one bit.

Somewhere in the process of boarding the train and skipping along the corridor looking into each compartment for a friend to join, she had managed to loose track of her sister and had found herself very much alone. Enthusiasm was great until it meant that the eagerness to arrive early was met with a very empty train with barely anyone to talk to. Anyone who would likely want to talk back anyway, not that that mattered as having one sided conversations was something the Ravenclaw was particularly good at.

The next compartment she checked which was empty she stepped into, leaving the door wide open as an invitation for anyone passing by to join her. She plopped onto the seat near the window, removing her shoes and folding her legs up under herself in a comfortable position. Her nose pressed to the glass to peep out at the platform as she hummed somewhat tunefully to herself.

Less than a year ago - and for the many years before that - Yves had never dreamed that he would some day be going to Hogwarts. His mother had always intended to send him to Beauxbatons, and she was very determined, regarding the places she sent him. And calling him back from them. Not that she had much say in that anymore. At any rate, he'd never even made it to Beauxbatons, and was now about to join Hogwarts at the start of his second year.

It was a large group of residents that had been brought to Kings Cross Station, though Yves was used to being part of groups by now. Groups of children, groups of residents, group homes, and so on. As such, it was easy to blend in with the group on the way to the platform, and easy to say his cursory goodbyes and break away from all the partings and last-minute 'oh-wait-did-I-forget's. Yves dragged his trunk onto the train and did not look back through the windows again. One thing he'd learned through everything; looking back never makes it easier.

After stowing his trunk away in the luggage compartment, wondering briefly if it was secure, but deciding not to be too bothered about it, Yves moved down the train in search of a compartment. After a while, he found one - already occupied, but with the door wide open. He hesitated, then tapped on the doorframe with his index finger.

"Hello," he said, his French accent immediately evident, and smiled slightly. "Can I join you, or do you want the door closed?"

The situation on the platform was getting busier as more and more children joined the train for their journey back to Hogwarts. The few that she recognised received over-enthusiastic waves through the slightly smeared window from the nose smushing making it unlikely for the recipients to even be able to see her. It didn’t stop the attempt though, if Aurora could make friends with the entirety of the school population she most certainly would try.

The humming, which had somehow morphed into a concoction of several different songs which Aurora evidently didn’t know the words to, was getting progressively louder as she went on. So loud in fact that she hadn’t heard the boy approaching her carriage until he spoke up. The blonde swivelled in her seat to turn in the direction of the voice. “HI!” She beamed, taking in what the boy looked like and deducing that he was not one of the adorable little first years she had attempted somewhat successfully to accumulate last year and therefore she did not know who he was.

Not that that mattered. “Yes you can join. I was just waiting to see if one of my friends were coming but that’s okay, there’s plenty of room in here for us all to sit.” The more the merrier right? Aurora loved rooms that were full of laughter and chatter and the kind of atmosphere where you could just be yourself. Herself being the kooky head-in-the-clouds third year who had somehow been sorted into Ravenclaw.

“I don’t know you.” It wasn’t an accusation more of an observation. “Are you new?” Could she accumulate him and his adorable French lilt into her collection of friends?

Sophia lugged her cat and her bag of essentials to an empty compartment near the middle of the train and claimed it for herself and anyone else who wanted to sit with her. She set her bag on the seat across from her, let her cat out to sit on her lap, and lounged. Another year at Hogwarts! And the most important one, since she was a third year now.

She reached over (which her cat protested with a meowww) and dug the latest issue of Quidditch Times out from her bag. She'd read this one already, cover to cover, but she was going to read it again. She might have missed something important.

Stretching out her legs, she stroked her cat with one hand and propped the magazine open with the other. Time to pass some time.

At the 'yes', Yves' smile broadened, though for a moment there he wasn't sure if that next part was actually a hint that the 'yes' really precluded a polite, blink-and-you'll-miss-it 'but really no thank you'. It was a concern that flashed through his mind only very briefly, though, because the girl soon made it clear she was happy to engage.

Stepping inside the compartment, Yves left the door open and as he had found it, for the as yet unnamed friends who might be coming along, and took the other seat by the window.

"I am new," he confirmed, giving a little nod, and pulling absentmindedly at the ends of his sleeves, twisting them into his palms. "But I am going to be a second year. My name is Yves." He said it like eev, except maybe a fraction of a second shorter. "May I ask your name?"

So charming, so polite; Yves had a way of smiling at a person that was often endearing, something just short of shyness but that never quite strayed into its territory, but which made it impossible to believe anything resembling a wild child could be lying dormant. Almost self-effacing, though at the same time drawing in and drinking up whatever attention he could. Ultimately, though, a nice young man.

Emmie had her deep pink pygmy puff Laila resting on top of her right shoulder for companionship, and comfort as she tried to get her heavy bag of essentials off the floor. Jamie had of course deserted her to find someone to talk to in another part of the train. He didn't want to be with his baby sister on the first day of school. With her black hair braided back into pigtails Emmie took a breath and surveyed the compartments around her.

She didn't see Ary whom she had met in DA anywhere so she gave off a shaky nervous breath, and headed towards the nearest compartment door where Emmie glimpsed a girl sitting alone with her cat. Trying not to think too much she put on a bright smile, and took two steps into the compartment to greet the other girl. "Hiiii! Can I join you? I'm new, and don't know where it's good to sit..I'm a firstie as you can probably guess." Before Emmie had a chance to say anything else or let her partially swedish accent shine through more her bag ripped itself open, and caused all her belongings including a very thumbed version of 'hogwarts a history' roll out along with clothes, and a big bag of jelly slugs.

With Bagel his pet rat resting on his shoulder, Sohrin had left his luggage in the luggage compartment and was presently strolling through the corridors of the train to find a compartment to sit in.

He thought it would be easy to find one at first, but after leaving the front of the train, he realized it wasn't. He could join a compartment already occupied by other students, but he wasn't sure if he could. So, after stepping away from a rather packed compartment of older students, wishing he could be as cool as them, the first year discovered an empty one.

He sat down, leaving the door wide open in case someone else was looking for a place to sit that wasn't too crowded. He placed his bag beside him and rummaged through it for a treat to give to Bagel.

If she hadn’t been already warned that her enthusiasm and eagerness could be a little overwhelming to others, Aurora might have hopped out of her seat to go give the younger boy a big squish over how utterly charming he was. The politeness of the introduction and the proceeding question and the sweet little smile in which butter wouldn’t melt. Oh he was one she’d have to tell Anna all about and reinstate their tour guide duties around the school which had become a thing last year after adopting a group of first years likely against their free will. She was a THIRD year now and therefore so mature and responsible and evidently had all the inside knowledge of the school. The important parts anyway. “Yves” she repeated. Eeeeeev.

“I’m Aurora. I’m a third year in Ravenclaw.” Her smile morphed into a grin. Was the poor child prepared for the onslaught of information he was about to receive? “Are you French? Did you go to Beauxbatons? My sister went to Beauxbatons until two years ago so she can speak French but I’m not very good at it.” She barely had a grasp on her native language sometimes when her mouth was running a lot faster than her brain was.

Sophia looked up when she heard someone enter the compartment, expecting it to be one of her cousins. It was not a cousin, though, but some girl with adorable, braided pigtails and an even more adorable pygmy puff. The third year had barely begun to smile and didn't have the chance to invite the girl in before her bag fell apart.

"Oh! Here, let me help!"

She wasted no time in saying she'd help, but moved a little more slowly as she had to carefully move her cat so that he wouldn't get angry. Finally free of cat-on-her-lap, she hurried to where the girl was standing and started helping her retrieve belongings. "Is your bag completely broken?" she asked. She knew some mending charms that might help.

Yves went to repeated the girl's name back to her, as she had done with his, but hesitated. Rs. Rs were very difficult. He could say them, of course, but not in the way she had just spoken them, and then there was the 'a' at the end, just to keep things interesting. "Aurora," Yves said, after a pause, trying to replicate the English R but sounding as throaty as ever, and feeling that he had perhaps never sounding more French - while speaking English - than he had in that moment.

Well. He would just have to practice.

Third year. Ravenclaw. Yves opted not to repeat that one, and in any case it soon transpired that he would have plenty else to say. "I am French, yes. I was supposed to go to Beauxbatons but things did not go to plan." And so he would have to remain curious about whatever house he'd have ended up in, or trust his mother's assessment. Not something anyone ought to do, and yet he did just that, perhaps because there was nothing riding on it. "Why did your sister go to Beauxbatons?" More than that, Yves was curious why the move between schools; he'd have guessed the family had moved except Aurora said she didn't speak French well, so maybe had never lived there.

The more possibilities he considered, the more curious he got, but was mindful of unintentionally asking too personal a question. Those could be difficult to gauge.

To be honest, Yves could call her anything and she wouldn’t mind. Except maybe if it was something mean in which case she would probably have a little sulk about it until she found it funny again. Aurora had that strange knack of finding the good in every person she met whether they were cruel to her or not. It was both endearing and could present an issue in the sense that she could easily be taken advantage of. “You can also call me Rora.. or Rory.” Although both of those still contained the R’s that he was finding particularly difficult and therefore wouldn’t exactly help the situation.

’Are you French?’ was probably a stupid question considering the strength of his accent but Aurora’s curiosity often got the better of her and she couldn’t help but send a firing line of inquiries towards her companions. “Well it doesn’t matter because you’re going to the BEST school instead,” In her completely unbiased opinion of course. “I can show you around the school if you’d like? My best friend Anna and I did a sort of scavenger hunt around Hogwarts for some of the first years last year and it was so much fun.. well we thought it was fun anyway.” She couldn’t speak for the opinions of the first years.

“I don’t really know. I think it’s because there was a war at Hogwarts when she was due to go to school and my Mum’s decided it was safer to send her to Beauxbatons.” No one had really divulged the true reasons behind that decision but that much she had managed to deduce all by herself. “Plus the uniforms are prettier.” Priorities right? “But when I turned eleven I really wanted to go to Hogwarts like my Mum’s both did so Ari came with me!” Hopefully Yves would be able to keep up with Aurora’s rambling speech, although her accent was clear enough she did like to talk a million miles an hour.

There was also no such thing as an invasive question for the third year. She was notoriously (albeit unintentionally) bad at keeping secrets.