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"Oi, what kinda shite is that?" Elizabeth found herself saying, quickly rising to anger at the Trolley Witch wanting to write her and her friend up for standing up to Ismelda's blatant racism, "Respectfully miss, o' course." She cleared her throat, trying to maintain her temper, "But in what world should the two of us get in trouble fer callin' out a bully? I dunno if you know what it's like, but anybody who'd call a fellow witch a mudblood deserves far worse than a shove and some mean words." Nevertheless, she knew lying about her name wouldn't get her anywhere, "Shout it fro' the towers, name's Elizabeth Flame, and I ain't ashamed of what I, or what me friend here just did." Her eyes were burning at this point, ready to get into a full on argument here and now.

She found her brow furrowing at the Trolley witch, it was safe to say the Flame was fuming. "And more than any o' that, she" Elizabeth jabbed a finger over at Fae, "has an amazin' point. If yer even thinki' about tryin' to get 'er in trouble for doin' her job, yer just as bad as Murk." At this point, half of what she was saying was out of pure anger, and half in the hope that she'd be getting the Trolley Witch angry, or ashamed enough to forget about about Fae. Mintfree certainly didn't deserve to go down for acting in defense of her, and she'd do whatever she could to keep that from happening, even if it meant making things worse for herself. That was just the witch she was, at least when it came to Fae. She knew she'd do that same for her, at least for something like this.

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Apollo felt himself be shunted out of Mary's mind as she told him he was dealing with it. Right, personal space. Sometimes it was hard to forget that when things began to run wild. It had always been easier for him to speak into minds than to speak his mind. There was a small sigh as he sat there hearing the mounting voices go to a fro including Faes words towards the Trolley Witch. He pinched the bridge of his nose, taking it all in and wondering if they truly could take points away for exploits on the train or if this was merely to be punished with chores and detention in the dungeons. Finally he released the bridge of his nose and patted around his person in search for his divination coin. One side held an open eye and was marked yes, the other a floating feather marked no. He began to think to himself, whispering into the coin his question on if he should get involved or stay put. If it landed on yes then he would get out of his compartment and finally take part in the mischief.

Apollo flipped the coin into the air and it floated for what felt like an eternity. It finally landed down onto his hand with the eye staring right back at him and another long and harsh sigh escapes his mouth. He really didn't want to get involved but if the fates deemed it so he would. He stood from his seat looking at Scamander and telling him to stay put. As he turned out of his cabin, away from the rest, his wand quickly flicked as he muttered a spell trying to silence Fae but accidentally causing her voice to boom louder when next she spoke. Apollo walked down the halls in search for the other prefects. They as he might there were none to be found and so he turned back to old habits. His mind bounced from person to person but quickly fizzled out before any prefects were found. Either it was his lack of conviction or his agitation towards all this that caused it to fail. Apollo turned back, went into his cabin as he simply sat and began to eat one of his packed Lemon Sherberts.

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"Why does that not surprise me... Then again, you more of have lackeys to do your bidding and all, that must be nice," Zelda said with a shrug towards Merula. In reality she couldn't care less what Merula did in her spare time, or who her tutors were or what she had done over the summer. She had just been trying to create some small talk to try and avoid a fight all things considering, but it seemed like that wasn't going to happen anytime soon, with Merula more or less rubbing it in Paige's face that she had been tutored by a professional Curse Breaker. That was more or less just a bit of an annoyance, since Merula and Paige did share a dorm room together, so they had to deal with one another all year. At least she could avoid any sort of interactions with Merula for the most part.

"That certainly does make for an interesting summer. Patricia Rakepick is well known in the wizarding world for being an amazing Curse Breaker. Though if you don't mind me saying, and pointing this out, but even the best tutors in the world won't help if you don't have a natural gift for it, and considering the fact that your aunt felt the need for you to have a tutor says a lot for how much she believes in your capabilities. That is to say, not too much, since otherwise you wouldn't need a tutor." With those last words, she went back to paying attention to Goose, who shot another glare almost at Merula, before he curled back up again and was purring.

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The Corridor Near Compartment 6 -

The trolley witch narrowed her eyes, considering whether or not to believe Mary. She had heard her threaten Ismelda, after witnessing Fae roughly shove the poor dear. She pursed her lips as Fae yelled a curse word, only to then continue and insult her. The Hufflepuff prefect was acting reasonable, at the very least. "Young lady, I understand you wish to defend your friend, but I have to report what I witnessed. The appropriate punishment will be decided by Professor Flitwick for Miss Winthrop." This was hardly the first time she had witnessed students misbehave on the train and then attempt to get out of it.

Ismelda rolled her eyes. "Your little gang is all here then, going to defend you, innit?" she scoffed at Mary and Fae.

The trolley witch did not want to deal with any of this, especially as Elizabeth added in her own two cents, cursing and making accusations. "Miss Flame, I am reporting Miss Murk as well for her derogatory language. I suggest you get a handle on your temper and you can advocate your case to your head of house. In the future, I hope you all learn a lesson to treat others with respect and kindness. Shoving one another in the halls, swearing at me, and dealing threats will not serve you well at Hogwarts."

"Now, unless you would like for me to add an account of your abusive language towards me, I suggest you all return to your compartments now," she concluded, before looking at Artemis and Madalyn. "Please keep them in line," she said, before taking her cart and pushing it down the hallway, parking her cart in front of compartments 9,10,11, and 12.

"Anything from the trolley, dears?" she asked sweetly to those seated there.

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Paige couldn't help but chortle slightly at Zelda's crafty put-down of Merula. That was one of the perks of having a best friend in Ravenclaw - they tended to use their words rather than their fists when it came to fighting. "You know, how about we make a wager?" Paige said, a mischievous gleam in her eye. "A proper wizard's duel, me and you, Merula. Zelds' will be my second, you can pick one of your tossers for yours."

Merula's eyes narrowed. She knew that Paige was baiting her. She was the self declared most powerful witch in Hogwarts, yet Paige was captain of the dueling club. Her pride and ego were on the line if she accepted the challenge - and if she declined, she didn't doubt that Paige would hold it over her. "Fine," Merula snarled. "Tonight in the old potions room in the dungeons."

"Rad. We'll be there," Paige said with a smirk, as Merula got up and stared at Zelda for a moment.

"You better watch yourself, Flynn," she threatened, before leaving the compartment. Paige could see Merula go over to a rather tired looking trolley witch and order a few chocolate frogs. Her own stomach growled and she couldn't help but be slightly excited that the trolley would be here soon.

"I hope she's got some chocolate cauldrons... Or maybe even some no-melt ice cream, I'm starving." She felt a little guilty at volunteering Zelda for a duel without asking her first, but she also figured that Zelda wouldn't mind. They had first met in detention after Zelda hexed someone after all. Plus, Paige didn't think she would lose to Merula, so her second wouldn't even be needed. If they were lucky, Merula would invite her lackeys too - she'd love to beat Merula in front of a large audience.

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Mary appreciated her friends for trying to help her, but the more they talked the more Mary felt like she was going to get into that much more trouble, especially Fae and Flame. Her jaw clenched tighter. Thankfully the trolly witch decided to move on with it all before the whole lot of them ended up in detention. She let out a small sigh of relief as she walked away. "Seriously cussing her out will not help our case." She said shaking her head. How she was going to get out of this was beyond her. Mary only had to hope that Flitwick would know that Mary wasn't the type of kid to cause problems. Heck, he had chosen her to be a prefect for a reason. He knew that.

Stepping past Georgina into compartment three Mary sank into a seat her heart pounding still from the encounter. She hated getting in trouble. Apollo knew her fears about the whole situation and she had no desire to go over it in her head more than it was already playing. Mary closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths and pushed it away. She rolled her jaw a bit losing it from the tight clench that had happened from the stress. Finally, she opened her eyes and turned to Apollo, "So how was your summer, Apollo?" She asked him as he popped a lemon sherbert in his mouth. Her own mouth watered and she quickly asked. "May I have one please?"

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Madalyne looked at the Elizabeth girl for a moment and shook her head slightly, the girl really wasn't making the situation any better for herself letting out a slight sigh. It sometimes did make her job a little bit harder, especially since Fae was right there as well, and she didn't want her best friend to get into any kind of trouble. She looked at her friend, asking if a Prefect could actually get in trouble by doing their job. Though she wasn't friends with Mary really, she would of course help out a fellow prefect if needed as well, before speaking again. "I didn't witness the whole thing, but i'll help however I can." Madalyne said towards Fae, and gave the Trolley Witch a friendly smile and nod watching the woman walk off to sell more treats to the remaining students.

Felix continued to purr happily occasionally trying to bite at Fae's hair, before walking up to her friend and lifted her cat off she didn't notice that Apollo had cast a curse on her friend yet as Madalyne gently petted her cat who purred happily in her arms again. "Want to talk about what happened?" Madalyne asked, while looking at Elizabeth and Ismelda again and gave the two of them a little glare right now she felt like the two of them would cause trouble, especially Ismelda who was a part pf Merula's little gang as well. "I suggest the two of you go back to your compartments that you were sitting in."

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“Yes, ma’am!” Artie agreed to the trolley witch’s demands before immediately diving into the compartment, plopping down as close to the window as possible as he removed himself from further possible confrontation. Blimey, what a horribly exciting start to the year. Trust the snake gang to make everything totally topsy turvy before they even managed to make it to school. And Fae. Nice girl on most occasions but going absolutely mental only made the whole situation worse! The whole gryffindor/slytherin rivalry was so grody. But Artie had no doubt that Professor Flitwick would see it as a load of codswallop and Mary was only standing up to a bunch of tossers as a prefect should and they’d put the whole situation behind them. After all, they had the celestial ball to focus on and unpleasant business had no place anywhere near it.

When Mary asked, as any best friend should, Apollo about his dusty books, Artie groaned. She asked about his summer which was books and books and books and copying books and copying books and more reading and even hanging out with his totally kick ass twin turned into magical discussions. Not that he minded entirely but he would have loved to do more things outside and not school related, magical or otherwise, with a touch more frequency! So, although he may have been feeling… petty, Arty did his damnedest to keep his mouth shut.

Maybe.

“Wait, wait, wait!” Artie interjected before his brother steered it into academic territory. He may have played up the eagerness, more interested in getting rid of the sour mood the confrontation brought about. “Maaaaaaaaaaaaaaary, we have exciting news for them! Tell them about what we volunteered for! Tell them, tell them, tell them!” Artie bounced on the seat eagerly. “Actually, I’ll tell ‘em! I’m about to explode! Listen up, you wankers! Guess the pair in charge of planning the raddest Celestial Ball of the century! Mary and me! And that means, we’ll be taking inspiration for the bestest friend and twin too! Isn’t it totally tight?” He asked Georgina directly, practically begging for some positive attention about it.

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Fae felt a tinge of guilt when the trolley witch, rather than responding with anger or annoyance, responded instead with understanding of her actions and the harsh insults she'd thrown at the older woman. If the trolley witch had gotten mad, at least Fae could've marked her down in her head as an adversary and continued her tangent, but she didn't, which made Fae pause, unsure what to say. When Mary suggested that cursing out the authority figure probably wouldn't end with the best results, Fae decided she'd heed the advice and not say anything more - after all, Mary was the smartest person in all of Hogwarts. So she watched with a slight frown as the elderly woman continued down the hall, and once she was a decent distance away, Fae's smirk came back to her lips as she leaned in, bringing her face closer to Maddy and Flame.

"Well that blows. Shovin', swearin', and threatenin' happen to be some of my favorite things!" she whispered as she felt the light weight of Felix taken off of her shoulders, brought back into the snug embrace of his owner. She had intended it to be a quiet side remark, but when the words came out of her mouth, they sounded much louder than she intended, ringing throughout the hallway. In fact, they seemed louder than she thought whispers actually could be. Her eyes widened at the surprise of her volume, pursing her lips. "WHAT-" she began to ask in what she attempted to be a normal voice, only for it to come out thunderous. It caused her to stop once again, a wicked smile crossing her face as she turned back to Ismelda.

"WELL WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?! PISS OFF YA EMO!" she shouted. She could feel the raw power rumbling up her throat, projecting into the room, amplified by the seemingly sourceless magic. It felt like she was a roaring lion, and she knew it sounded like it too. Even so, the girl didn't seem fazed in the slightest. She had to give the girl props for guts. When she failed to get a reaction out of Ismelda, Fae turned back to Maddy, shrugging her shoulders.

"Nah, not right now. But don't be surprised if you hear me boastin' about it in the common room later," she said, brushing off the offer to talk over the events that had just unfolded. Instead, her wicked grin turned into a more wholesome, somewhat dorky smile of excitement. She stepped forward, enveloping Madalyne in a massive bear hug that was almost tight enough to hurt, but not quite. She'd inherited what she called 'the perfect hug' from her father. "Fuckin' a, Mads, it's good to see ya! Sorry I couldn't write much this summer. Been workin' on commissions with m'pops." she said, her voice still booming, and right next to Maddy's ear, for that matter. After a few seconds, she pulled away from the hug, leaving a hand on the girl's shoulder. "Did Mary tell you how broken up I was about you leaving me alone on the platform?" she asked, before raising her other hand dramatically to her forehead, acting faint. "The ultimate betrayal!" she said, her voice making a mocking attempt at faux sadness. Her face straightened out, however, when Madalyn grouped Flame and Ismelda together, telling them they best go. Fae looked over to Flame, placing a hand on Elizabeth's shoulder, before turning back to Maddy. "Oh, no need to get all prefect-ey on Flame here. She may be a snake, but she's one o' the good ones." Fae stated, emphasizing what she intended to be a compliment with a soft squeeze of Flame's shoulder.

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Mouth currently full of his treat, he simply covered it with his hands as he spoke so as not to seem rude and speak with his mouth full. He smiled as he agreed to share his candy with her, tilting the glass jar so that the opened lid was facing Mary so that she may pick one out herself. "Summer was fantastic I got ahea-" before he could finish his twin had decided to enter the cabin with them, cutting off anything Apollo was going to say of the studies he'd done and the reading he did in advance while copying texts. He never understood why Artie found it so boring, even though they practically lived in each others heads. He simply piped up and nodded towards his twin as he let him rant on about the celestial ball that was being thrown this year. Two of his thickest mates were now in charge of throwing the ball? That certainly made this year that much more interesting. Apollo moved the sour candy towards his cheek as he spoke "That's the dogs bollocks! Perhaps we could have some muggle music added to the list this year with you two at the helm!"

It wasn't hard to tell that his previous spell had gone sideways. Faes voice echoed throughout the halls and then turned into a boisterous boom that seemed to shake the panes of the doors. The sudden onslaught of noise startled Apollo as he bit down and cracked his candy in two. "Someones gonna have to take care of that." He knew itd have to be him. Not because of his grades, or his love for Charms, nor because he viewed himself above others in casting, but merely because he was the source of this problem. He stood up and moved towards the other side of their compartment, leaning against the frame as his flicked his wand towards Fae. "Quietus" The charm went off without a hitch and her voice returned back to it's normal, yet still boisterous, self. Apollo slid back in, taking his seat next to Mary as he fidgeted at his wand. "Sorry about the whole...thing. I didn't want to get involved and add to the chaos, and I guess I forgot boundaries for that moment as i slipped back into my old habits." He had gestured with his wand to explain that he was speaking about the legilimency from earlier.

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Flame bristled as the trolly witch turned her attention away from them. "Well fine then," She muttered. "Murk, go and sod off, why don't ya'? Yer not worth my time right now, you know where to find me if you grow a spine." She shot a glare at her, before she was interrupted by Fae's eruption. A grin broke out on her face, before laughing. She had no idea how that had happened, but she was glad it did. Disappointed that Murk wasn't intimidated, she patted her friend on the shoulder, saying, "That was fuckin' awesome. Good show!" Giving a look at Maddy, she said, "Ain't nothin' to talk about, Murk's a bleedin' racist, and I'm not gonna apologize fer respondin' in kind with mean words o' my own."

Sticking her tounge out a bit at Fae she said, "Now now, who ever said I was good?" She asked playfully. She thought, of course, that she was a perfectly good person, but her having a tendency to exact her own form of justice and being a general troublemaker left many to disagree, "Ya can't go and ruin my reputation like that Fae! People'll stop taking me seriously!" She likes to think that she had, at least, a bit of a "don't fuck with me" reputation, but clearly Murk and her kind didn't agree. It almost disappointed her, but at the same time, it gave her an excuse to kick their ass from time to time. "Now, yer Maddy right? Good to see ya! I don't recall seein' you much before, would you like to spend some time with Fae and I and fix that up?" Flame offered, figuring having a prefect in her pocket was always a good thing.

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The Trolly Witch just didn't see reason. Before Georgina could protest, everyone, more or less in their own regards, had ceased. Bollocks, she didn't want to make it worse. Mary slid past her without so much as a nod or a smile. Georgina shrugged her shoulders and returned to her compartment with her friends. "You're welcome, by the way. Let it never be said I do not help a friend in need." She knew she might have made matters worse, but it was something she stood for regardless. It was something her father instilled in her. Be there for others, do not back down.

As she sat, she handed out the treats she bought for Mary and Artemis while they were gone, just as Artemis was bouncing in his seat almost about the Celestial Ball. Crikey, now she would have to think about that this year too. Getting dressed up. And she'd have to find a date! Who would ask her? Did she hope for someone to or go with one of her friends?

"That sounds wicked! What muggle music were you thinking though?" She didn't want just any old music there. Plus, would faculty allow it? It didn't matter much anyway. She was right where she had wanted to be all summer, packed up with her friends on her way to Hogwarts.

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"Don't think about threatening me," Zelda more or less muttered in response to Merula as she left the compartment. She personally was glad to have Merula out of their hair for the moment, even if it meant that they'd have to go deal with a duel later that night. Sure, in theory Paige probably should have asked her first whether or not she'd be fine with being her second, but in all honestly she didn't mind. Everything would be fine, and she figured that Paige would be able to hold her own, and if they got in trouble who cared. It would definitely be an interesting show.

"Well a duel is definitely going to be interesting to see from my perspective," she said to Paige with a bit of a smile as Goose decided to headbutt her hand wanting more attention, to which she obliged. "Well I mean, she probably has a whole bunch of stuff still, whether or not you believe that is up for debate. I mainly want some chocolate frogs honestly, but the trolley will be here soon enough, so be patient Paige. You aren't going to starve to death sitting there waiting!"

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The Corridor Near Compartment 6 -

"Yes, Princess," Ismelda told Madalyn, rolling her eyes. She purposefully ignored Elizabeth's words. Ismelda had contemplated calling her another slur, but had decided she didn't feel like getting into another fight with the trolley witch close by. Snape would have Elizabeth's head later anyways, Ismelda was certain of it. She headed back down the corridor until she neared the end of the train, slipping into compartment 27 where Merula was waiting.

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Out of the corner of her eye, Paige spied the trolley witch. She was servicing compartments 13,14,15, and 16 now. Her stomach grumbled approvingly and Paige got up from her seat, Hestia hissing slightly in annoyance. It wasn't that Hestia felt disturbed by Paige's movement - she just hadn't given her owner permission to get up quite yet. "Can you imagine if we showed up to the duel with an axe? How brilliant that'd be?" Paige asked Zelda, a wicked grin on her face. "I'll get you some chocolate frogs - you can owe me." There were going to be Hogsmeade Weekends after all - and Paige loved going to Honeydukes. Without that little sweet shop, she wouldn't last a month at Hogwarts.

She popped out into the corridor and swung on her heels slightly. "Can I get five chocolate frogs, three chocolate cauldrons, a bag of Bertie Bott's, and... two cones of no-melt ice cream?" Paige ordered. "Oh and three sugar quills, sorry." She had almost forgotten that she needed to get some candy to start fueling the stash in her dormitory. She reached into her pocket and took out some galleons. She had earned them this summer, helping her father with his work for Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures.

"There you are, dear," the trolley witch said, handing the small pile of sweets over to Paige in exchange for the money. "Don't eat it all at once, now," she added with a wink, before helping another customer. Andre had gone out of compartment 15 with a few others from his Exploding Snap tournament, buying some much needed provisions.

"Oh, wotcher Paige," Andre greeted. "Zelda around?"

"Yeah, she's with the cats," Paige then nodded her head towards their compartment. "You mind getting the door for me? Precious goods," she said with a bit of a laugh. Andre opened up the door and Paige went inside, dumping the candies down on her seat.

"Zelda, hey," Andre greeted her with a grin. "Will this be the year you finally let me style you?"

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"Oh gosh I'm sorry Georgina, you were fantastic thank you. That just got me all discombobulated. Like how in the world did I not open with we are organizing the Celestial ball?" She shook her head. "You handled that way better than some others Apollo. Thanks for backing off." She rolled her eyes and didn't say any names, she just hoped it was clear she was talking about Flame and Mintfree.

"As for the ball there are a dozen ideas running through my head. Since it is around Halloween I definitely think we should play monster mash. Any non-muggle raised will have no idea what hit them. We should lean into the Halloween theme." Mary was sitting on the edge of her seat with excitment as she spoke. The stress from potientially getting into trouble already taking a back seat as her brain ran over possibilities for the ball. "We have to talk with Professor Flitwick. I'll see about setting up a meeting with him for tomorrow."

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Madalyne smiled and returned the hug, letting out a little groan feeling Fae's hug was a little bit to tight. "You are kind of crushing me.." Madalyne said, while Felix squirmed out and managed to jump off of her shoulder and landed onto the ground, a little spooked with Fae's booming voice as well. Madalyne could feel her ears ringing as well, once Fae released her, she couldn't help but rub her ears a little bit. She was pretty sure that it was someone casting a charm on her, who it was Madalyne wasn't sure at all either while looking over at Fae. "Its fine I was pretty busy myself with my aunt and uncle over the summer to, though I did send you some letters checking in on you and stuff." Madalyne said softly.

She watched as Ismelda got up and started to make her way back to whatever compartment she was in originally, most likely with Merula and her little gang no doubt. She turned to look at Elizabeth, she wasn't really sure what to think about her she of course did play Quidditch with her. And Fae did spend some of her time with the girl whenever she wasn't around as well seeing her in the halls of Hogwarts, she could understand sticking up for yourself, but stooping down to their level never really turned out well. "Still stooping down to Merula and her little gangs level never turns out well. I can understand sticking up for yourself and all, but I wouldn't actively make the situation any worse." Madalyne said towards her.

"Hey it wasn't my fault, had the prefect meeting and all that stuff to, I would have stayed and waited for you but I couldn't find you." Madalyne said nudging Fae a little bit while looking at Elizabeth and shrugged a little bit. "Sure why not? I wouldn't mind hanging out a little bit." Madalyne said when Felix jumped back up into her arms again.

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“Oh, maybe! Let's put together a whole list! If we make it rad enough, they won't even consider telling us no!" Arty said, although he had a sneaking suspicion that wasn't quite the case. Even the more tolerant members of the magical community would only tolerate so much muggle stuff bit it was always worth a shot! The worst that could happen is a no… several times after he tried the puppy dog eyes. He wasn't really planning on bringing in a bunch of muggle stuff but if Apollo wanted it, he was going to fight for it as much as he could.

"So now that the band's back together, what is everyone most excited for? I can't wait for the food and Charms, a total surprise I know. But gosh, I've missed wizarding food. Muggle food is yummy but something about adding magic to the whole event just makes it so much more exciting! And any meal shared with my best mates is a perfect one!" Arty chatted away, snuggling up to Georgina as he gesticulated. "Speaking of sharing, I have an idea for a new sign that is totally ace! I'm going to bring it to every one of your games, Georgina, and I'm going to try and charm it to change colors and maybe sing too! I'm not sure I can do it but I'm totally going to try!"

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"Oh that would be hilarious. Could you imagine the look on Merula's face if we did that?" Zelda said with a laugh, giggling slightly at the picture that was now going through her head of that scene. It was hilarious to think about, and she couldn't really stop giggling until her cat decided to interrupt her giggling fit by tapping his paw against her hand, telling her that she needed to keep petting him, so of course she obliged, petting the cat, but still smiling slightly at the thought. "Of course, I'll owe you one Paige," she said as Paige went to go get some treats from the trolley witch, though she rolled her eyes at Paige's cat who was clearly complaining.

She just waited patiently for Paige to return with the treats, and she was still just sitting there petting Goose when the compartment door reopened allowing Paige to reenter and dump her load of treats. What she hadn't expected was Andre to be there right behind her, and she was a little surprised to see him. Goose saw Andre too, and instantly got up from her lap as the cat raced up to Andre and started rubbing up against him, clearly wanting to be petted. "Oh hey there Andre, how's it going? And not so sure about that one Andre, we'll have to see." she said, giving him a bit of a smile.

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Fae gave a small nod, acknowledging the existence of the letters that Maddy had sent her. She had received them, and had replied to one or two of them, but she hadn't been able to write back more than that, a fact she couldn't help but feel guilty about. Partially, as she said, because of a lack of time, but also because of cost. Parchment wasn't cheap, and all the ink they kept around their shabby little shack was used solely for bookkeeping of her father's business. But her family's financial status wasn't something that she much liked to talk about, so she let the topic rest with only the answer of her busyness. A small chuckle slipped past her lips as she heard Elizabeth protestations.

"'Course, my apologies. You're one of the fun ones," Fae corrected, knowing that the revised compliment would be more in the mischievous girl's taste. Her lips turned into a small frown, hearing that her voice had been brought down to its normal volume. The disappointment didn't last long, however, as she immediately turned her head back to Maddy, a grin perched back on her lips. "Oh, no need to feel guilty, I'm just fuckin' with ya. I'm a big girl, I can handle myself. It's everyone else that should be worried!" Fae's tone was joking and full of amusement, though that wavered slightly when Flame suggested that they spend a little time together. Fae loved the two girls with all her heart, but part of her was worried they might not end up feeling the same way about one another. Madalyne's restraint paired with Elizabeth's abandon wouldn't necessarily make for a good combination. But then again, if Maddy could handle Fae's recklessness, perhaps she'd get along with Flame swimmingly. With that thought, Fae nodded her head. "Sounds like a fun time if I've ever heard one," she said, before twisting her neck to look at the trolley witch still making her way down the hall. "I know she told us to go back to our original compartments, but there's no better bonding activity than watching a bunch of geeks play Exploding Snap, so I say we stay on Plan A."

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Apollo wrung his hands around his wand once more, slight marks of wear could be seen forming after years of repetitive motions. His team soon finally released and the wand now lay loosely in the palm of his hands. She didn't seem to upset at him for using legillimency, but he was unsure if she understood that that was what he was referring to. Perhaps if he could just peer in real quick; No. Apollo leaned back onto the chair, head resting against the wall as he looked up for a moment before turning his attention to the crew again. A new smile plastered onto his face as they brought up the Monster Mash. "I'm sure that song would be totally rad! Could probably throw in 'Season of the Witch' only fitting for both Halloween and a school of witchcraft. Though I suppose it's a bit more of a chill song that might require a bit more greenery." Apollo mimed taking a hit off a bean as he began to act like a stoner would on a hit before laughing and settling back.

"Definitely gonna need to think this one through if we want to get it past faculty and Flitwick. Now what am I most excited for? Well charms ofcourse. But also divination! I just love that class and what it has to offer, even if most of the students believe it's a load of rubbish. But, just this morning I divined something that was shown to be true moments later. Isnt that right Georgina? So shows what that lot knows." Apollo stuck his tongue out towards the cabin door, to no one in particular but those who are imagined to dislike divination. "As for that charm of yours, I believe I read something about that in our course this year while peering g over our books. Or was it next year while I was in the library? Any roads, it appears to be doable and you could always ask your favorite twinsie for help on enchanting it with charms. It is after all our specialty is it not?" Apollo nudged Artemis with his foot as he made a silly face to his brother. Clearly now more relaxed as he pushed the threat of Death Eaters and detention out of his mind.

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Elizabeth smiled at Fae's amended statement, "Aye, I can agree to that, I'm about as much fun as a stripper on payday." At this time, she started leading the group towards the Exploding Snap carriage. "And fer the record, I ain't stooping to their level." She said, giving Maddy a look, "When the trashman scoops up shit, he ain't becomin' the shit, he'd doing what has to be done." Truly, Elizabeth's hatred for that group knew almost no bounds. As far as she was concerned, they were a bunch of degenerate scum, and she wasn't about to abide by their racist bullshit, especially when it was directed her way.

She was excited at least, to get her mind off of this and get her year started off right; by watching some nerds play a game of Exploding Snap. Hell, she might even join in on the fun, see if she could get her opponents to play a little more carelessly than they should. Arriving at the compartment, she gave a swift knock on the door, before forcing it open, and announcing their presence to the room. "Oi, you lot, we heard a fun game was goin' on in here, me friends and I wanted to see if we could watch, how's that sound?" She asked, putting on her sweetest voice. "Maybe we could join in too? Anythin' to pass the time till we get to Hogwarts."