[OPEN/ALL] A train on the lawn

Scarlett stepped past the gates of Ilvermorny castle, feeling something a bit strange pass over her. It felt wrong somehow but when she turned back around, she couldn't see the other Ilvermorny students anymore. When she made to pass through them again, she couldn't. ([You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]) Frustrated, she moved towards the train, wand aloft.

As she approached, a blonde girl was sticking her head out and that Casey girl from Hogwarts was there, jumping on board the train. Confused though she was, she moved closer.

"Who are you?" She shouted, glaring at the girl who she frightened into backing away from the doors.

Inside, Katherine gawped at the girl coming towards her. Another thing she noticed: Casey was familiar. Hogwarts familiar. Hadn't she gone away for a year to that other school? If that's where they were, she was glad to have been told she couldn't go abroad.

Except here they were.

Scarlett looked up and down the train, trying to guess how many students would be there, if that's what these people were. So many, she decided. Where on earth would they all go once whatever was about to happen was over?

Nicole jumped out of the train, holding her wand up as well, though with vastly less confidence than the older girl. "We're from Hogwarts," she explained. "Our train just- well, we aren't sure what happened. We are supposed to be at the train station, not here."

"Well," Scarlett replied, clearly confused. "I hate to say it," and she really did, "but it looks like y'all will be stuck here for a while. None of us could go home either. A lot of things are going wrong. Professors haven't been around for weeks. No real food, freezing castle, everything. Can't even get letters home," she claimed, shaking her head. Looking back at one of the gates behind her she added, "I think something's weird about the gates, too, actually."

Scarlett squinted at the gates but turned back, looking up at the students still on the train. "Maybe they think you're a threat."

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Ducky stumbled away from the train and towards the gates. In his mind, it only made sense that he move to the forefront of any action. If there was any danger, he was of age and had experience with dangerous situations. Also, if he was wiped out, who would mourn him? Bev, maybe. Nora, sure. But there were kids here with real futures ahead... and speaking of futures... there were some kids who needed rest. One, a particular blonde, he had just left.

He stepped forward. "Well, hey, can we rest here while we try to figure out the train issue?"

The short Weasley girl was beginning to pace the gates from inside, her keen eyes moving sharply. To her, that train meant a way to get off this stupid island. If it had gotten here, it could go back.

He reached the gates but found himself incapable of crossing. He glanced back at those gathered and began to back up to attempt to barrel through when a hand caught his shoulder.

"It's some sort of ward. You can't muscle your way through."

Molly Weasley was standing there, taking everything in. She looked completely transformed without a cigarette in hand. She looked over at Casey. "Case. We're safe?"

Casey's mouth was dry. "It's like Duffy said. It's pretty rough over here. But I wouldn't stay beyond the gates too long. I can't account for the wildlife out there."

Molly nodded and stepped closer to the gates. The ward was keeping her far from it but she reached out and touched the bars.

She felt the gate tremor and suddenly, a voice that rang out from gates.

"Of our House doors,
You will find four
Without your name,
They’ll stay the same.

To find the key,
As you’ll soon see,
Don’t be a mouse,
Go find your house."

Molly looked up at Casey, who heaved a shrug. Molly turned and looked at Ducky.

"So we..."

"Have a riddle to solve."

Ducky nodded and turned. "Alright! Hogwarts crew! Bring it in. You all hear that? To get in we gotta... gotta..." he wasn't sure.

"We should probably check out the house doors," Molly said, pointing at the gatehouses.

Ducky nodded. "Right. And stick together! No one goes alone!"

Michelle had been quiet in the crowd and just was trying to figure out what was going on when the people were talking there with each others. She just wasn't sure what to say there or how to help anyone out right now. So yeah better was to stay quiet.

When there was riddle and basically they almost solved it then she just sighed. "I guess we need to find the doors but then we might be separated since not all of us will be in same house and we have no idea where the doors exactly lead use but i'm sure in some point we will see each others more," she said there something now, what did make a little bit sense since they weren't sure where exactly did the doors lead them.

She knew that there was something more than just finding the house doors. It was part of the riddle. She wasn't good at figuring out them for sure. She hoped that they wouldn't take her sentences rude way even if they did, she doesn't care much.

Mercy looked up when she heard a booming voice echo in the air, a riddle?
She groaned letting her wand arm drop, she hated riddles, she couldn't answer a simple question without a few hesitations, she'd hope the people around her would understand though but they seemed almost as confused as she... almost.

Mercy shut her eyes for a moment saying the riddle over and over in her mind since her memory had latched onto it like a leech, but instead of figuring it out she dropped it and answered nothing.

"Dammit." She said under her breath shoving her wand back into her waistband, stuck in this place would be no fun.
Mercy then quickly pushed her way through the crowd to get a good look at the gate and the people surrounding it, she listened carefully to the talk around her but none of it was any help, people were either shocked or frightened, either way Mercy was done with waiting, she wanted to be home.

And of course it was Ducky to order them around like farm animals, Mercy sneered as people pushed past her, eyeing the "Leader" off for a moment.
She then turned swiftly to follow the crowd.
"Go find your house," She repeated the last line under her breath trying to figure out what that meant, would it be like the sorting hat? Or the house they were already placed in? Perhaps it wasn't a house of that sort, maybe a house like a home? Mercy groaned running a hand through her disorderly hair.
The house doors were approaching but Mercy could see very little of them from where she was standing, the people were just too tall and ignorant!

"C'mon! Open the doors!" She yelled out of the mist of the crowd and a few others joined in the yelling.

André was simply just taking in the view, looking at the school his father went to, and a school his mother taught in after her time at Beauxbatons. The stories he heard about the school, about how it turned his father into the honorable Auror he was until he died. Or how his mother enjoyed teaching Herbology. Maybe his knowledge of the school cold help them out since it seemed like they couldn't get into the castle.

He was only slightly startled by the voice, only since he hadn't expected it, and listened to the words that was spoken. He raised an eyebrow, this was originally supposed to be his school, it would have been had it not been for the untimely death of his parents before he was to attend. His father had been a Horned Serpent.

As he looked at Ducky take on the role of defacto leader and have all the students gather around, he looked back at the gate, and stood in his thoughts for a moment before his eyes widened. He ran through the large crowd, apologizing as he bumped into other students, running up and putting a hand on Ducky's shoulder. "Ayo, yo, listen." The kid took a moment to catch some of his lost breath. "It wants us to choose houses, right? Whatever that was." André looked back around. "My dad used to go here, and my mom used to teach here. They used to tell me the story about how the school and four houses were founded. Each person who named the house after an animal, and like hogwarts, it goes like a persons personality. What if it wants us to choose the houses similar to ours?" André said. He was sure the story of the houses could help them out, now, how to choose a house, he had no idea. But this could be a step in the right direction.

Andrew got off the train, still holding onto Poppy's hand. He heard the stupid sounding rhyme coming from someplace. He sighed heavily, looking around and seeing that some of the faces of students he didn't know seemed to also be dealing with nausea from porting.  And now the bloody door wanted to play games.

The door wanted his name? Well, it was worth a try. He went up to the door.

"Andrew Diamond," he said. He waited, but got silence.

"Andrew Diamond," He shouted his name at the main door a second time.  

"Andrew, Damnit!" he shouted at the door a third time.

"Psst," Poppy said softly. "That's probably not gonna work unless your last name is Damnit."  

The door seemed to bellow again.

"Of our House doors,
You will find four
Without your name,
They’ll stay the same.

To find the key,
As you’ll soon see,
Don’t be a mouse,
Go find your house."

The door was stupid, Andrew decided, but then again, how smart could a door be? Then he wondered. Was there another door someplace?

A Slytherin girl was muttering something next to her, but the cogs in Molly’s brain were turning quickly, making connections. Margo had finally stumbled off the train but, finding her friend was somehow helping head this up, she stuck with Andre. The rest of the train was congregating now, Fudge and Fiona nearby, joining the moving throng. Molly glanced at Ducky, who was conducting the migration and rolled her eyes. “We could have at least split up into groups,” she muttered. He swallowed. Right.

Casey was following alongside from her place inside the gates, also trying to understand what was wrong with the gates. Andre was speaking too and Molly paused, as students got the idea to begin yelling up at the doors. It was working, so far, to no avail, when she heard someone yelling their name. And it all came together.

“We’re being sorted,” she breathed, glancing around. Diamond had yelled. Right. He was a Gryffindor. She stepped up, staring at the Pukwudgie crest. “Molly Weasley!” she shouted. Nothing happened. She whipped around, eyes falling on Wendy Fudge. “Fudge. You do it.”

Wendy, hands tightly wound with her siblings, cleared her throat. “Wendy Fudge!”

Molly hissed for the crowd to shush, but it had worked. The door was opening, and a throng was beginning to move. Casey had hurried towards the gates and was calling to Molly, but it was Ducky’s voice who cut throat. “Hey, hey, wait!”

Casey panted, “Go get your trunks! Any supplies you bring with you could save us! Please!”

Molly glanced to Ducky who nodded. “Come on, guys, let’s go get our stuff. Mulligan – what was this story? Might help us narrow it down.”

André stared intently when Wendy Fudge had managed to open the door to the Pukwudgie tower, a smirk grew on his face. His theory was right. Though the sorting and the houses were very different from Hogwarts, that did not change that there were some similarities between the houses of each school. Having a hufflepuff enter Pukwudgie. He looked at Molly, giving her a nod and smile, because she had tied up the only loose end he had, which was how to open the doors.

He turned to Ducky. "This school was founded by Isolt Sayre, an orphaned Irish witch, and her No-Maj husband." As soon as the american boy said the word 'No-Maj' he saw some looks of confusion. "It's what American's call Muggles." He explained, and then he looked back at Ducky, and from him to Margo and Molly. "The story is long, but to sum it up, those two, plus their adopted sons named a house after their favored magical creature, and the houses, much like Hogwarts, all have overall defining traits. During sorting, the houses usually chooses you." He pointed at the Pukwudgie crest. "Pukwudgie is more like Hufflepuff, the Pukwudgie favors... Healers, companions. Just like the loyalty and friendship of Hufflepuffs."

He turned to look around. "The Horned Serpent, which was my dads house, is favored for it's scholars. We all know who those are." He looked between Margo and Molly. "This other part is tricky, but the Wampus favors warriors, while the Thunderbird favors adventurers. My guess is Thunderbird is for us.." He motioned between him and Ducky, as if to say Gryffindors. "And Wampus is for Slytherins.... If not, then it's the other way around."

“Oh Merlin, Serry, I think I’m about to be—”

Orla squeezed her eyes shut, her hands flying up to cover her ears, as her younger sister expelled the contents of her stomach (a rather potent mixture of two pumpkin pasties, an entire box of Bertie Botts’, and three liquorice wands) into a bucket that had been hastily conjured by Seren, Orla’s twin. The spell didn’t last long but it was enough time to allow Cerys to make her aversion to Portkeys well known. She never did well with them, regardless of whether they were accidentally or deliberately taken. And in this case, it was certainly the former – but why?

“Stay here,” Orla muttered distractedly as she got up from her chair, one hand reaching to grab her rucksack.

“Oh yeah, ‘cause she and I are really going to go out for a jolly—”

The door slammed shut behind the blonde Hufflepuff, putting an end to her sister’s sentence with a clang. Orla put her arms through the straps of her bag and trudged down the corridor, following the path of other students who were hurriedly making their escape from the now stationary locomotive. When it was her turn to hop down from the train, though, Orla wished she’d not been so forthright about going to find out what was going on. This wasn’t Hogwarts.

This wasn’t anywhere she recognised.

Jumping down onto the grass, Orla hurried over the grounds towards a group of people she more or less recognised. They were in her year, at least – some of them. She was sure that the one speaking was called André, and of course there were a smattering of Weasleys about. She integrated herself with the group and listened attentively, glancing up at the magnificent structure bearing over them. Ilvermorny. They were in … America?  

She looked up as a voice rang out over the grounds, her mind spinning as she absorbed the words. What the Dickens? She had to be re-sorted? Orla turned, having half a mind to run back down to the train and pray that whatever brought them there would take them home. But, just as she was about to do so, a wave of sickness overtook her, also. It seemed that as confident as the elder Hughes girls were, even they weren’t immune to the sudden time difference.

Pulling her bag off of one shoulder, Orla shoved her hand in, searching for a bottle of water. Once the cap was off she hastily took three or four glugs before replacing the top and shoving it back in. Then, gathering whatever courage she had inside of her, she pushed off towards the door that Wendy Fudge had gone through. She was a Hufflepuff and she’d done alright. It was a decent enough choice to make. Seren and Cerys were in the same house. They’d figure it all out together. But Orla? Well, Orla needed to pick her allies quick.

“Hang on! Fudge! Wait! Wait for me!” Mustard and coal scarf fluttering around her shoulders and all, Orla hurried to join the group near Wendy. “How … how do we do it?” She asked. “Just our names? Nothing else?”