The Hogwarts Express

Ethel mentally berated herself as her face flushed and her eyes prickled. She didn't care what some Slytherin thought, but she'd always hated being yelled at.

"Can't make us" was the retort that immediately rose to her lips, except that he was much older than her, and the whole cigarette thing made it clear he didn't care for rules so he probably could. Ethel didn't want to get sorted with a face full of boils.

Instead, she plunged her hand into Luna's sweet sack. By the time she found the strap of singing liquorice, she was well enough composed that she wouldn't burst into tears as soon as she spoke.

"Let's go, Luna. It's boring here."

Grabbing the smaller girl's wrist, she tugged her out of the compartment.

Jack scowled at the tiny first year who had had the nerve to talk back, but soon she was relieved of teaching the girl how things worked as she disappeared, dragging the other girl with her. Jack rolled her eyes and collapsed onto the bench opposite Elijah.

"Geez, not only are they getting more puny and pathetic, they are getting nasty," she said, staring out as another first year ran by, whooping at the top of his lungs. "OI, shut it!" Jack bellowed, sticking her head out of the compartment. He froze and turned to look at her, looking frightened at first before sneering. She twitched forward in her seat, stomping her foot and he let out a terrified scream and ran into a nearby compartment. She rolled her eyes and turned back in her seat.

She had never exactly been complaint nor had she let herself been pushed around, but she had understood that she did not need to be obnoxious as a first year, especially seeing as everyone expected it. No, Jack liked to be the weird one who acted unexpectedly, and as a first year, that meant that she was tolerable.

Her eyes landed on Elijah, who really was only a casual acquaintance to her. Not only was he younger than her, but he was also a Slytherin, so Jack had never really run into him at school before. Still, it was better to have him for company than to be stuck out with first year or dying in a compartment with Andrew and Chase. "How was your summer?" she asked grudgingly, knowing that if she ever wanted to exist properly in the real world, she would have to master this ritual known as small talk.

Luna sighed, "Fine. Where do we go?" She reached into the sweets while being dragged, just to pull out a lollipop. She struggled out of Ethel's grip to allow herself to unwrap said lolly. Then she began to suck on it, exposing a layer of spice-flavored candy underneath.

"You know how certain lollies have spice in them? This one went way overboard" Luna was trying to start conversation. Brienne wasn't getting up or looking in her direction, good. Luna didn't want to appear coddled.

Ethel looked at the other girl, and remembered her family. She didn't seem like a muggle born.

"Well, you're not breathing fire yet," she observed. "If you have some ice mice in there, you could try to cool it down with them. But not too much. Once, someone dared me to put as many in my mouth as I could and I almost got frostbite on my tongue."

She glanced up and down the corridor. All the doors to the compartments were closed, and the sounds coming from them made it sound like everyone had already made friends... or were full of people Ethel didn't want to make friends with.

"Hmmmm... I think we should go this way," she turned towards the front of the train.

"I have an idea", Luna replied. She took one of the ice mice from her bag and put the bag in her pocket temporarily. She gripped both the hot lollipop and the ice mouse, then went back and forth, licking the ice mouse and sucking the lollipop.

She paused, "Daniel told me that this is the way that ice mice and spicy lollies are supposed to be eaten". The contrast of cold and hot was hard to describe, but it was something that was just....awesome. She continued the alternation between the two treats, each had their own unique flavor, but were really good.

Desmond Miller wrote:Desmond sat down on the seat across from Leanne, sighing softly as he was able to find someone to talk to for the next...eight hours. Oh god... he thought to himself, feeling like he would be unable to cope with the long journey. Sure, it would be less boring with Leanne with him and all, but he would have to wait...and wait...and wait for the train to arrive at Hogsmeade. It was going to be a pain in the rear. When Leanne's cat tried to pounce on him, he flinched backwards, pushing on the cushions of the bench.

"Umm..." he said, in an awkward tone as he looked at the cat "It's a uh...very curious cat." When she asked him about his owl, he shrugged his arms up and down and said "Well my dad had got it for me. I couldn't think of a name for the little guy, so my dad named him. It's name is Reuben." His dad was horrible with names, and even Desmond questioned his name. He had tried to look it up on the internet before, yet could not find anything. Maybe it was because he was 8 at the time and barely knew how to use the computer. Oh well.

He looked his head out the window, noticing that they were still in the station. He groaned softly, turning his head back towards Leanne. "When are we supposed to leave anyway?" he asked curiously "Weren't we supposed to leave, like 10 minutes ago? Or an hour?"

Leanne turned her attention towards Desmond once he sat across her next to the window. It was weird travelling with a boy for eight hours. Usually it was just a bunch of annoying noisly girls. "Oh don't worry about my cat he just jumps and sits in your lap if he likes you.Here." she said placing the little annoying cat to the basket before she closed it. Now he could only take a peek or two, but he couldn't jump anywhere.

"You're right it is weird.." she smiled softly as she found out Reuben was Desmond's owl name. It did seem rather awkward so Leanne hoped she wasn't being rude. "What? Oh the train well it should be leaving right about... now.." she finished a bit distracted when the train started moving to leave the station. Looking at her new friend didn't quite help her pay attention.

"So do you know anyone that might join us today? I mean i do have friends, but they are too noisy so i evict 8 hours ride with them.." she asked casually looking at Desmond while her cat was observing Desmond with a great intrest, but unfortunatly closes in his basket.

Lulu had dumped her trunk in one of the compartments and was now looking for her friends. There was lots to talk about before they got to Hogwarts if Lucy's plans for this year were going to go off without a hitch.

Before she found anyone, she found a couple of ickles wandering around the corridors. Poor things, probably already missing their families.

"Hey newbies, you lost your seats or something?" she called out.

Where had the damn respect gone? Clearly it had been left at Kings Cross. Elijah didn’t know whether he should have stuck the mouthy Gryffindor in detention or not. He wasn’t the disciplinary type. He got angry like the next person but he’d never had to say no. Fauve...she didn’t need to be disciplined. She was an angel: his angel. Regardless, he’d have still had her head on a pike if she’d treated someone with the disdain he’d just been shown. Elijah wasn’t irritated with the Hufflepuff as much as he was with the Gryffindor. The Hufflepuff had spunk and Elijah liked that streak in her but Ethel needed to wind her neck in. He truly pitied Wilson. Sure the guy was an ass but he had to deal with a lack of respect from a fair few students and Elijah was one of those students. The Slytherin blanched at the admission he’d made to himself and he slumped in the chair.

Perhaps he would try this year. He was in a position of authority that he wasn’t exactly sure he was ready for but he did know one thing. If the students knew he couldn’t handle it, if he showed that he couldn’t, then they would walk all over him. Ethel was one of these...miscreants? Elijah wasn’t prepared to go running to Jen; he had more dignity than that although at times one could wonder. Jen would be busy doing whatever one did in Herbology and Rob wouldn’t be coherent for most of the time. As far as Elijah knew his potion use had sky rocketed due to ‘pain’ although what that pain was, the Slytherin wasn’t sure. But perhaps he could learn from using his authority wisely, after this year he only had one more year until he was free from Hogwarts and anything could happen in twelve months. Elijah just had to treat every moment like it was his last.

Elijah’s eyes drifted back to Jack and he watched with amusement as she scared away the first year. They were getting incredibly brave and that irked Elijah a fair bit. He sighed and picked a bit of invisible lint off of his trousers and flicked it away. He ran a hand through his hair and hummed a little to himself. He was beginning to calm now and his pupils were dilating back to their original size. He sighed and tugged at his hair. He was frustrated, that much was obvious, and ill at ease. His eyes drifted back to Jack as she spoke and he shrugged before replying, “Spectacularly awful. What about you?”

Jack stretched back in her seat, letting out a might yawn as she did so, dragging a knuckle over one of her eyes. She had not slept too well, dreading the return to Hogwarts for once in her life. Though, of course, there had been some relief mingled in with that dread. She was glad to escape her home for another school year, have an excuse not to walk down Knockturn Alley and create problems for herself. It was nice to have a permanent distraction for a time, even if it was within close quarters with people who hated Jack's guts and people she could not face.

At Elijah's words, Jack could not help but allow for an amused smirk as she dropped her arms back down to her side. She had expected the usual 'pretty good' answer and had planned to go with the usual 'not bad' response, but it seemed that this summer had not been the magical period of relaxation and sanity that everyone always disillusioned themselves for. No, it was never like that really.

"That is a pretty sufficient summary for mine," she said, a slight darkness in her voice that hinted at the fact that she did not really want to discuss it. And when she hinted... that meant it was bold, underlined, italicized, and had neon signs pointing at it. She did NOT want to explain just how terrible it had been. It had been bad enough to have experienced it in the first place.

She stared as another first year scurried by and she shook her head, pulling a slightly disgusted grimace onto her face. She jutted a thumb out, pointing at where the two first years had been and said, "The first years are getting so damn cheeky! I was never that ignorant when I was their age!" She shook her head in shame and disbelief. "What is the world coming to?" She smirked slightly, loving her dramatic tone.

Amelia had gotten to the train far earlier than the rest of its passengers, in part because of her duties as a member of the Imperium Squad, but mostly because she could not wait to get away from the imposing presence of her parents. She had spent nearly all of the last six months being watched like a hawk for any further signs that she was being even the tiniest bit rebellious. The Ravenclaw knew that after her brother made his escape for freedom, her parents had become that much more protective of her, and that much more wary that she might follow in his footsteps. That worry was probably what had prompted them to pluck Amelia out of school at the first sign of an action that had even slightly diverged from their well-laid plans (though being chosen champion for the Hogwarts Tournament probably didn’t qualify as slight).

But now that her parents’ imposed prison sentence (also known as being grounded for nearly all of five months), Amelia was being allowed to return to Hogwarts. Their goodbyes had been hasty, as they usually were, without any high degree of emotionality on either side. Amelia had never really minded the physical separation that the school year brought about; if anything, she appreciated it for it gave her greater range to do as she pleased without constant supervision and guidance.

Having already stored her things in the compartment reserved for members of the Imperium Squad, Amelia had volunteered for patrolling the corridors of the train. Although she disliked the idea of having to deal with screaming first years and apathetic seventh years, she disliked the idea more of having to ride in a compartment all the way back to school with James Wake. The other member of the Imperium Squad seemed to have an elevated sense of self-worth which tended to grind on Amelia’s nerves whenever she was exposed to him for a long period of time. If given the choice – and she had been given it – she’d take the first years.

Stepping carefully from one cart to another, Amelia passed by several compartments of students chatting amiably, reminiscing on events of the summer and talking excitedly about what was to come in the new school year. A second-year Gryffindor student ran past her clutching something to his chest that Amelia couldn’t see, followed closely by several of his peers, their wands held aloft. Before the pursuers could pass her, however, Amelia stuck out her arm to block their path, which brought the three younger students to a clumsy stop.

“No running in the corridors,” Amelia said bluntly, looking pointedly at the boy in the front of the group, who seemed to be in charge, “And if you do manage to catch up with that boy you are chasing and do him any harm, I certainly hope you can run faster than what you have demonstrated thus far. I promise you that whatever you are planning to do to him will pale in comparison to what I have in mind for students who torment those weaker than them.”

Letting her stare linger just a few seconds longer, Amelia broke the eye contact she had had with the boys and moved easily past them and continued on her way down the corridor. Although she could not see them while they were behind her, Amelia heard a quick, whispered debate which seemed to have ended with a decision to think better of their previous plan of attack. A moment later, there was the sound of shuffling and a compartment door sliding closed, and Amelia felt comfortable continuing her rounds, though she made a mental note to stop by the compartment later on to see if the boys were still behaving.