The Hogwarts Express

That was no way to talk to people. Ethel watched an older student try to clear the corridor by screaming at it. Astonishingly, his tactic worked. Ethel was impressed. Or at least envious. She watched him choose a compartment and followed in his footsteps.

"Hello," she said.

"My name's Ethel. Ethel Prerana Atkinson. What's yours? What year are you in? I'm going into first year. I wonder what house I'll be in. What house are you in? I bet it's a good one. That was some good shouting you did back there, by the way. Could you teach me to shout like that? Nobody ever listens to me the way they did you. Did you know there's no smoking on this train?"

When one wishes to be alone that usually doesn’t mean they want to be in the presence of someone else. Elijah had gotten rid of the first years for a reason, not only did the aggravate him but he really didn’t want to fill out detention forms. Without even having to flash his badge he managed to get them to move. This year would definitely be easy for Elijah. Not only had he gotten the position of Slytherin Quidditch Captain but he was also still a member of the Imperium Squad. If the other years proved to be more annoying than the first years then he’d definitely have to find some unsuspecting second year to dump his paperwork on. They could do their homework in their own time, paperwork first.

Elijah looked up when he heard the compartment door slam and he raised an eyebrow at the idiot first year that had decided to bother him after he had yelled at them all. He should have threatened to assign detentions with Wilson. At least that way they’d be antagonised as well as in trouble. Knowing the ass, he’d probably just let them go. Elijah was in favour of making them clean the library. That would be much more fun for him to watch. Humans truly did amaze the Slytherin. Maybe she was just braver than the others. Gryffindor.. he thought after a moment. He quickly sized her up, not that there was much to see, and tapped the end of his cigarette, sending the ash out of the window. He took his legs away from the wall and flipped them around, moving his body and planting his feet on the floor so he was facing the first year.

“Elijah Krum. Sixth Year. Slytherin.” He replied, watching the odd first year. “You’re going to be in Gryffindor. Slytherin’s aren’t as annoying, Hufflepuff’s know when to shut up and the Ravenclaw’s usually come up with something more intelligent to say. So, Gryffindor will be your home for the next seven years. Congratulations, you’ll be stuck with lions.” His eyebrows shot to his hairline when she pointed out the obvious and he smirked. “Sweetheart, addiction doesn’t conform to rules otherwise we wouldn’t have these problems. It’s also incredibly unlikely that I’ll be reprimanded for it.” He yawned, still moderately fatigued, and turned back to the window, returning his feet to the wall.

Luna saw someone she recognized near one of the other compartments. She got up and strode over to the other First Year whom she met in Diagon Alley when she was school-shopping. She was talking to a Sixth Year! Being brave, she walked up to both of them.

"Hi!" Luna said. She looked back at Brienne who had risked spilling her stuff to look for a suitable read. She covered her blue eye over with her bangs so that no one'd see it, she had enough to be teased over as it was. Like her stomach which seemed to bulge out of all the body parts that could've. Or her brown hair which seemed to be the same color as her skin. Even how short she was would be a reason.

Ethel didn't know where to start. With his implication that she was annoying, or that she was stupid. She didn't mind being told she didn't shut up, because, well, that wasn't really news to her.

"Yeah? Well I'm not the one giving myself cancer," she replied petulantly.

Of course, the midget girl had to turn up right when she was trying to impress someone. Ethel rolled her eyes at Elijah to show that she didn't ask for this and wondered how the other girl had found her.

"Oh, it's you."

"Yes, it's me. I thought I'd say hello, since I haven't made many friends", Luna said. She didn't realize she was still holding her sack of candy until she peered down. "Anyone want a bit of it? I'm willing to share some of my candy", she popped an unwrapped chocolate frog into her mouth. It crunched under her teeth, and satisfied a certain need for something sweet.

Meanwhile, Brienne was reading an old muggle book about mass murders and other heinous crimes. She enjoyed getting deep into the minds of those different than her, meaning everyone.

Jack had tried to sit in a compartment with Chase and Andrew, but she found that she just... couldn't. Not after she had made her decision... She had chosen Vito... And she knew they would never forget that. And it broke her heart to look into their eyes and see the betrayal and anger and the misunderstanding there...

She glanced out the window of the train at the station full of waving, happy parents and knew that no one in the crowd was there to say good bye, to even pretend to care. Her parents would never willingly surround themselves with wizards, Riley was growing distant, Elliot was God knows where, and Uncle Chip could not travel at the moment. Besides he had never been one for moral support, though, none of her family really were...

A first year rushed by her and rammed her into a wall. Jack froze for a second, staring at the first year. Ah...hell, no.

Jack was back... To those of you just tuning in... it had been a difficult summer for Jack and she had almost lost touch with the Jack who would have tripped the first year or done something of that sort. She raised her wand but the first year disappeared in the crowd. Jack shrugged. She remembered the kid's face...and she would be needing prank victims this year any way.

Jack felt freer since she had left her luggage in Andrew and Chase's compartment. She was sure it would be fine and she had her robes and money stuffed into the knapsack she always carried, so she was fine.

Again, she found her way blocked by those ickle firsties and she felt her frustration grow. She let out an impatient growl and pushed past them to see that they had flocked Elijah Krum. She rolled her eyes.

She had met Eli over the summer in Diagon Alley and they had chatted, though at the time she found nothing interesting in the acquaintance. By studied people at the summer party, Jack had seen that Eli was one of the more popular boys that seemed to already have a fan club running in his honor... It seemed these first years were eager to join as its newest members.

Still, she had not yet found anywhere to sit and it did not look as though he was exactly happy with the current company. Jack wined as she overheard the tail-end of the girl's speaking. "Oh my... First years... The very thought of it dampens my year already." She looked up at Elijah. "Oh, you're smoking. That's a terrible habit, y'know."

She was one to talk. What with her mother and Vito, it would not be surprising that Jack had become involuntarily addicted to second hand smoke. She shifted her knapsack, sending the first years a roll of her eyes and told Elijah, "Where are you sitting? Or are you sitting with the newest inducted members to your fan club?" She smirked slightly.

Elijah’s mind was reeling. Not only did he have one first year harassing him after trying to get rid of them all, he now had a second one that felt brave. She was a Hufflepuff; she wouldn’t but heads with people like the other one. A classic Hufflepuff, treading eggshells around everyone. Except Ingrid and Mis of course, they were feisty and depressed respectively. Then again, he’d never really had relations with Mis like he had Ingrid. A few drunken snogs was hardly relations but he was sure there was more to the recounts she told him in the mornings. Bloody women, always keeping things from him. And then there was Ethel. Maybe it was him being paranoid but she reminded him of his mother. This did scare Elijah somewhat and he wasn’t sure whether he should poke the girl in the eye or not just to check.

Putting the cigarette between his lips, Elijah swivelled his hips and planted his feet on the floor again. He leaned forward and poked Ethel firmly between her eyes instead of directly in her eye. He didn’t want her to cry although she had the attitude that told him when she learned some decent hexes she’d have his ass. She definitely wasn’t his mother which was excellent news. Truly marvellous. Of course, then there was the other one. the smaller, chubbier one that was eating a chocolate frog. A scathing remark entered Elijah’s mind but he held it back. If there was one thing he knew about women, you never commented on their weight unless you lied because they’d kill you. “I’m not going to get cancer.” He scowled at Ethel. “I’m a wizard you dolt.” He blew let a bit of smoke escape the corner of his mouth and it formed small rings as it floated up into the air. “Besides, it keeps me sane.”

He saw the compartment door open and raised his eyebrows at Jack. Ah, Jack. From what he could remember, although details were sketchy, they’d met in Diagon Alley. But who knows really? He remembered her for the most part but if he remembered rightly it was just before Paris Take 2 and everything gets distorted in Paris. He took his cigarette from his mouth and formed an ‘O’ with his lips, creating larger smoke rings. He did direct them away from the ickle firsties but it was hard not to catch them. If they didn’t like it then he wasn’t stopping them from leaving. But chubby was quite happy to eat her frog and Ethel just wanted to pick a fight with him. He was incredibly hypocritical. He wouldn’t dare smoke around Fauve, he’d always go outside and stand by the window of whatever room she was in and tap the glass to irritate the five-year-old. Not only would his mother have his guts for garters but he knew Fauve had been around second hand smoke for a long while before he even found her so she probably enjoyed the relief from it.

“Jack, sweetheart,” He grinned lopsidedly. “If I wanted new members of said fan club then I wouldn’t induct Ethel or ...” He looked at the Hufflepuff-to-be and frowned. “...this piece of Hufflepuff skin. I did intend on sitting here for the duration of the trip but I might move.” He glared pointedly at Ethel and flicked some more ash out of the window. The cigarette was definitely lasting which was odd. He was just in no rush to finish it today and he really wanted to wind up the moody Gryffindor. “Why don’t you two go and be friends somewhere else, eh?” He gestured to Ethel and the Hufflepuff and narrowed his eyes before saying, “Shoo...”

"Don't talk to me like that!" Luna growled. If she was a Hufflepuff, she wasn't a typical nice one. She had her wand tucked into her robes and was ready to pull it out if she needed to. Her lips curved back like a feral cat's, her bangs pushed away from her blue eye, revealing her heterochromia. Her shortness and tubbyness were no disguise of her defensive nature now.

Brienne was still reading, but could step in at any moment if things got ugly.

"There's one thing my father always taught me while he was still alive", Luna continued, "and that is that I shouldn't let anyone just push me around."

Ethel elbowed Luna in the side. Hard.

"I wouldn't join his fan club if someone paid me to do it," she informed the red-haired girl.

She waved the smoke out of her face. Now the boy was blowing smoke rings, probably just to be annoying.

"Oh, I forgot you're an invincible Slytherin. Even if you did get cancer, you'd probably be really happy with the way it made you look all disfigured and evil. All the better for scaring your victims, right?"

Never underestimate the power of words. Eleven-year-olds were young, naive and they were only just beginning to understand the power of language. If you were bilingual like Elijah then you truly understood how powerful words were. He knew he did. The Hufflepuff’s ‘threatening’ manner hadn’t bothered Elijah in the slightest. He found her quite cute. She was like a small mouse trying to stand up to the big bad cat. Elijah mentally rolled his eyes. We all know what the irony of that statement is he thought with a smirk. But the words that darling Ethel had expressed did bother Elijah. She was obviously as narrow-minded as she seemed to be if she believed that all Slytherin’s were evil. He was quite happy to let her continue to think that because he’d make sure he came off as evil in her presence. He’d just send her off to Jen or something. The Dent woman was probably as sadistic as her murderous brother but as far as Eli knew, she had a shorter fuse than Rob so a lot of lives were probably lost at her hand. Ethel wouldn’t be a loss.

To turn a wand on a first year would be a cruel thing to do but Elijah was sorely tempted. His features darkened considerably and his eyes deepened in colour, changing from a chocolate brown to pure black. But was also interesting was that his pupils began to shrink, change and take on a completely different shape; cat eyes. It was amazing how connected his magic was to felines. His emotions and his magic mingled together as they ran side by side and the feline aspect of that was included. When he was incredibly content, as he learned with Lily after...well...., he would begin to purr. When he was angry, furious even, well, he was about to find out. An animalistic growl was threatening to rip from his throat and he was beginning to wonder whether that was Ethel’s plan, just to see how far she could push him until he snapped.

“Get. Out.” He said, his voice dangerously low, like a calm before a storm. Oh how he hated some children. He would have turned his own wand on himself had that been Fauve antagonising someone else. But she wasn’t likely to be a Gryffindor swot. Time would tell though. He was putting his money on Ravenclaw. He stood up and turned his back on them girls. He opened the window further and sat on the edge, pressing his hand against the pane to stop himself from falling out. He took one last drag of the cigarette and flicked it away. He looked back at the First Years and glared, “I thought I said get out... did I not make myself clear!?”