"Y-yes I'm Willow...I can't imagine why anyone would do that..." Well in honesty, she could. People could be so cruel sometimes for no reason.

Staring up at the high cage, Willow started to doubt she could ever reach it, being a fellow shortie herself. Maybe there was some sort of spell to get it done? She was a witch after all! And she did come to help a person in need, she couldn't back out now!

What was that spell that levitates things again? She learned it her first year in charms it was so easy, how could she forget? Lingardium Fivosa? Wardium Pamosa? Something that starts with -ium and -os...

Willow drew her wand mumbled hesitantly, "Fardium Losa!"

Isaak saw the look that Verlin sent back to Acacia and he almost rolled his eyes and shook his head but he didn't want to start something. it wasn't because he was afraid, he was just smart in choosing his battles and also he didn't want to get expelled for breaking too many rules. he wasn't expecting the second year's cat to hop onto his lap, and as it purred he gave it a gentle pet. his family had a cat at home as well as an owl, and their cat was very nice to both them and new people who came to their house. when Ester growled at Acacia and Verlin said that it looked like cats didn't like Acacia, he was on the verge a laughing but he stopped himself.

when she asked them about how their summer break went, Isaak replied saying, "It was pretty good, my parents took me and my siblings to see the Quidditch World Cup between Transylvania and Scotland. it was a great game, I was glad to see Scotland win but I was rooting for Transylvania. you should have seen how fast and aggressive some of the chasers were on both teams. but aside from that, I mostly did a bit of practice flying so I could try out for the Slytherin Quidditch team this year, and also some reading on charming spells."

He was glad to have a family that did fun things over the summer, and from the sound of Acacia answer to the question, it looked like she was one of the students who didn't really have the best family life. this made Isaak think of Harry Potter the famous Auror who attended Hogwarts many years ago, he grew up with a terrible aunt and uncle who were muggles since both of his parents were dead. Isaak was glad to have not that sort of misfortune.

he decided to go get his pet and picked up Ester from his lap and placed the cat beside him. "Excuse me, i going to go get my pet from the storage compartment, I will be back soon."

he got up from his seat and exited the compartment. he walked down the aisle towards the place where students stored to their luggage. he went into the compartment and quickly found the cage that had his ferret. he grabbed the cage and headed back to the compartment with the others, he barely noticed the Hufflepuff Elina, and Willow, but he kept on moving, they were higher years than him so they could probably handle whatever they were doing more than he could. he soon reentered the compartment, and took out his ferret from the cage. he sat back down in his seat and had Perun sit on his lap. "This is my ferret, his name is Perun."

Suddenly there was a loud explosion in mid air. It made Elina fall on her back. There was black smoke in the whole wagon. ''*cough *cough what happend? did the spell go wrong?'' she stands back up and waves around trying to get the smoke away. The wagon has cleared up a bit, the cage only moved backwards by the explosion making it only be more difficult to get it. ''Are you okay willow ,are you hurt?''

Gus nodded sagely when the Ravenclaw introduced her cat as Jabber. It was a good name. Not like he was an expert on cat-naming or anything, but at least there was an interesting explanation behind it. Unlike Charlie, which was literally just something that popped into his head when he found the kitten mewling at his doorstep. It had been fortunate that Charlie was a name viable for both genders. Otherwise, he might've had to come up with another one. But that was besides the point, and Gus stopped following the asinine train of thought before he managed to space out and make a fool of himself.

"You talk a lot.

"I know. It's one of my many charms." The Hufflepuff joked, raising an eyebrow and smirking with mock-smugness. He withdrew his hand once the basic formalities had been taken care of, slipping it back in his pocket.

"I'm Frankie Blackwood, Ravenclaw fifth year."

"Ah, right. I'm in my sixth year." Gus's eyes lit up at the mention of Quidditch, even more so at the almost-compliment. He wasn't about to start bragging about his skills, though, that would be horribly un-Hufflepuff of him. But he was pretty good, if he did say so himself. Though part of it was attributed to his Moontrimmer, as well. The last time Hufflepuff won in the Interhouse Cup, Gus had successfully managed to knock off the opposing team's Chaser with a well-aimed bludger, allowing their own Chaser to capture the Snitch. Of course, Gus didn't take all the credit for himself -- it was a team effort, after all, but his teammates sang his praises for a good number of days after their win. Owning a limited edition Moontrimmer didn't hurt, either. Shrugging diffidently, he opened his mouth to speak.

"Well, I'm alright, I guess? It's a hobby, mostly." He clasped his hands together, grinning sheepishly. "What about you? What do you like to do?"

Willow blinked in surprise, coughing slightly from the smoke. She could only imagine what her face looked like...at least her hair didn't catch on fire. There were perks in keeping it in a low bun... She lowered her wand, looking disappointed at the cage that got tossed farther back, even harder to reach than before.

"I don't understand what I did wrong...I can't do anything right..." Willow muttered, looking down at the floor. She returned her wand to her pocket.

A couple of curious onlookers walked by, giggling as they saw Willow covered in soot. She took a deep breath, and lifted her chin, staring hard at the cage as if it held all the answers to her problems. She rubbed the soot off from her face, brushing her clothes, before lifting her wand again and pointing it at the cage.

"W-Wingardium...Le-leviosa!" She stuttered. The cage reluctantly lifted up, shaking a little bit, but Willow kept a steady hand and gaze. Slowly, the cage floated to the floor, in front of the girl's feet.

Willow beamed in delight, "T-there!"

She returned her wand and suddenly heard the wheels of a cart being pushed from a distance. A sweet voice rang out, "Trolley! Anything from the trolley!"

Oh yeah, the snacks!

Willow turned to the girl and smiled shyly, "Sorry to run out on you like this. B-but I promised to get a few things...I hope I helped!"

Then she ran off, towards the direction of the voice, to chase the trolley cart as it made its rounds around the train.

Before Roy could begin his reply, they both heard a sharp, quick explosion in the cart right next to them. They rushed in, Raymond waving a way the thing layer of white smoke, and saw that Willow was coughing. Raymond had a few classes with her in the past, a fellow Gryffindor, they had Defense Against the Dark Arts together, and their third year they were partners int he Patronious Charm. She was intelligent, but Raymond knew that her status and fear of making mistakes made her a bit shy. So he did his best to make her welcome, but not overwhelmed, and shooed off the people who made fun of her, Gryffindors had to look at each other, right? He liked to think they were friends. Raymond definitely trusted her.

He smiled a bit as she got the spell right, and let it down for another familiar face. Elina and Raymond didn't really socialize that much, but besides the fact that she falls alseep almost anywhere, she was a nice person. Eager to try out his father's teachings with his wand. With a flick of his wrist, and a murmur of a spell he remembered, he blew away the smoke from the cart and outside. Pleased with himself he put his wand back. "Not even at school yet and the school year already looks promising." Raymond said to Roy with a grin. "Now let's go find some friends!"

Roy and them walked through the small aisle of the Train, hearing students of all ages talking and laughing, Raymond peering in a couple of times and waving to see if he knew anyone. He dodged a small self propelled paper airplane, and heard a pop from a bunch of non flamable (and mess free) mini fireworks, one of the older trolley cart operators mumbled under her breath something about the Weasely Twins...

He peeked in to a compartment to find his girlfriend, Samantha, Grace who was now a prefect (They worked together sometimes through their school year, since both have a strong sense of pride and honor), and Acacia, one of the most popular people of their year. It wouldn't surprise him if she didn't know who he was. Although he wasn't as popular, Slytherins weren't that fond of Gryffindors.

"'ello, 'ello" Raymond said, walking in with Roy. "Hope you don't mind two more to join the party." He saw Willow's books in one section of the bench, so he made his way on the other side of Samantha. "'ello love." He said to her with a giant smile, placing a small kiss on her cheek as he sat down. He heard the last warning whistle from the front of the train. Five minutes until departure.

"Sorry if we just interrupted a conversation or anything..." Raymond said with a weak smile, realizing he probably did.

Phloem said
Gus nodded sagely when the Ravenclaw introduced her cat as Jabber. It was a good name. Not like he was an expert on cat-naming or anything, but at least there was an interesting explanation behind it. Unlike Charlie, which was literally just something that popped into his head when he found the kitten mewling at his doorstep. It had been fortunate that Charlie was a name viable for both genders. Otherwise, he might've had to come up with another one. But that was besides the point, and Gus stopped following the asinine train of thought before he managed to space out and make a fool of himself."I know. It's one of my many charms." The Hufflepuff joked, raising an eyebrow and smirking with mock-smugness. He withdrew his hand once the basic formalities had been taken care of, slipping it back in his pocket."Ah, right. I'm in my sixth year." Gus's eyes lit up at the mention of Quidditch, even more so at the almost-compliment. He wasn't about to start bragging about his skills, though, that would be horribly un-Hufflepuff of him. But he pretty good, if he did say so himself. Though part of it was attributed to his Moontrimmer, as well. The last time Hufflepuff won in the Interhouse Cup, Gus had successfully managed to knock off the opposing team's Chaser with a well-aimed bludger, allowing their own Chaser to capture the Snitch. Of course, Gus didn't take all the credit for himself -- it was a team effort, after all, but his teammates sang his praises for a good number of days after their win. Owning a limited edition Moontrimmer didn't hurt, either. Shrugging diffidently, he opened his mouth to speak."Well, I'm alright, I guess? It's a hobby, mostly." He clasped his hands together, grinning sheepishly. "What about you? What do you like to do?"

“I like to read.” Frankie grinned, slumping in the seat and crossing her arms over her chest. “I like to read classics, informational, or just something fun. It doesn’t matter, really. Sometimes I knit as well. That’s it for hobbies.”

Frankie shrugged, her fingers fidgeting. Silence fell over the compartment and she tried desperately to think of something to say, and before she could tell herself to shut up, she blurted. “You’re kind of awesome. A bit on the ‘what’ side, but y’know…still awesome.”

…

“Okay, that sounded stupid and weird. But you know what I mean, right? We should totally hang out – platonically! Want some chocolate?” Frankie shifted into her jacket pocket and pulled out a wrapped Hershey’s bar, holding it out to him. “It’s a tradition of my family’s to get chocolate every first day of school. And, well, my dad gave me a chocolate as well as my mom, so I have an extra.”

She hoped he would take the chocolate from her hand, because she seriously could not eat another bar. Stuffing her face with a second chocolate bar, looking like a cow…that would not be good for her skin. Chocolate can cause breakouts and popping said things can leave marks on the face, and well, Frankie didn’t want marks on her face. An image of a pimpled brown cow, chewing on chocolate grass stalks entered her mind and she furrowed her brow at the thought of it. “So, what’s your favorite class?”

Samantha sighed hearing the last whistle. "Okaaaay. Im going to go find, Raymomd." She told the others as her cat sat on Samantha's spot. "Oooh. Why dont you like cats?" She said to Acica alittle confused, everyone liked catss...right? As she was leaving she stopped backing away seeing two others coming in and finally it was Raymond and his friend! Thank god he was safe! She was starting to worry. "Oooh. Ofcourse you guys can join ussss." She smiled at Raymond as she walked towards hi- well he walked towards her as he kissed her in the cheek. She blushed hugging her boyfriend tightly and sitting down with him, her cat say on Samantha's lap. "I thought you wasn't here! You got me worried.~" she told Raymond holding his hand and locking hands with him squeezing it. "Oh. Hey." She smiled at Ray's friend.

Isaak let Perun lean over on the side of his lap to give Ester a curious sniff to see if she was friendly or not. he then saw Samanthas boyfriend Raymond and a Ravenclaw named Roy, enter the compartment. when Isaak saw Raymond give Samantha a kiss on the cheek and they began to hold hands, he hoped that they kept it child appropriate. he cleared his throat and introduced himself, "pleased to met you, my name is Isaak Boyars"

He was curious to to hear what the Gryffindor fifth year thought of being a chaser and co-captain for the Quidditch team. he also wouldn't mind getting some tips that he could against the Gryffindor if he got on the team and had to face Raymond's team. Isaak was also curious to see how Acacia would try to act with all the Gryffindors in the compartment together with them.

Acacia listened silently as Isaak and Verlin talked about Quidditch. She didn't share the same enthusiasm for the sport as most other Witches and Wizards did. She thought it was more or less a useless thing. All it was good for was potentially getting injured and distracting someone from more important matters. She couldn't really see why it was so popular. Normally she'd use the time to study, or do other things. She wasn't very interested, but she kept a look of interest as Isaak spoke.

"You like Quidditch? I'm not a huge fan of it myself, but being good at it is a nice goal to have." She said with a friendly smile. "Hope you got a good broomstick ad skills if your going to try out though. I hear the Slytherin Quidditch team this year is only going to be looking for the best!"

Soon though, he left to go get his pet. It didn't take him long to return either. She was somewhat surprised to see his pet was a Ferret by the name of 'perun'. Well, its not a name she would have given it, but that wasn't what was surprising to her. Most rules at Hogwarts only allowed for a few types of pets. A Toad, Owl, or a Cat, or Rat, as far as she knew. Seeing someone with a different type of pet, was quite uncommon. Now, she was slightly wondering where Thatch had gotten since everyone seemed to want to show off their pets. She wasn't about to get up and go to the storage and get him though.

Before She could ponder going to get him though, another two people walked into the compartment. One, introduced himself as Raymond. Oh wonderful more people. Willow was going to love that. She gave him a friendly smile. So this was Samantha's 'boyfriend' he didn't look like anything special as far as she saw. He looked to be your typical Gryffindor. "Jeez, I didn't realize I was so popular that I'd have three Gryffindors wanting to be my friend." She giggled. Despite her display of friendliness, she was feeling that the compartment was feeling rather crowded right now. She herself didn't mind it too much, but she had ducked in here to try to get some peace and quiet and try to focus on some studying. Trying to befriend Willow was just a whim that she decided to try to indulge in. "No, you didn't really interrupt anything either. Just talking about Quidditch and our pets."

Willow stopped to catch her breath as she arrived in front of the kind lady pushing the trolley cart loaded with delicious snacks.

"You alright, dearie?"

"F-Fine...thanks." She tilted her head, assessing all the choices in front of her. Everything looked so yummy... She grabbed a couple boxes of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans and Chocolate Frogs along with some cauldron cakes and licorice wands.

Suddenly, she remembered Acacia's request for a drink and added something that looked particularly fizzy to the pile. After handing the lady some money, Willow made her way back to the compartment as the trolley continued pushing forward.

Entering the room, Willow's face fell as she took in the amount of people. She recognized Raymond, vaquely remembering running into him at the storage compartment.

"S-sorry...it seems it's rather f-full here." Willow stammered, placing the snacks on an empty space. "M-maybe I should go..."

Samantha smiled at Raymond and then looked at Acacia raising an eyebrow. "Whoo wants to be your friend? Caaause your making them sound desperate to be your friend. Aaaaand im
desperate." She said looking around and waiting for Willow. Aaand there Willow was bringing snacks, they had her like if she was a slave. Samantha stood up and looked at Willow. "Sweetie. You arent going no where. You are staying. This was your room. Soooo you dont have to leave YOUR room. Nowww please stay,Willow." She smiled at her and she was being honest. All Samantha wanted is to be friends with WIllow. "If someone has to leave it has to be someone else. Just saying." She sat back down raising a leg ontop of the other
and running a hand through her hair smiling at them.

Earlier and after Artemis had sealed the book away, an explosion occurred. It wasn't large or threatening, but it had caused a stray object to fly in through the glass of the compartment he and his fellow Slytherin were staying in, obviously breaking the thing and hitting the cage of Jersey. Easily fixed, but Casimir felt the need to go and have a chat with whoever caused the explosion, just to make sure it wasn't done purposely. He cast a spell to repair the window and told Art to wait for a while... or follow if he wished. He picked up the foreign object that busted their window before heading out.

After following the direction where the stray projectile seemed to have flown from, Casimir arrived at a room full of Gryffindors and a few Slytherins. The bubbly Samantha, the timid Willow, and the stone cold Acacia were there, just to name a few. He made his presence known by partially entering the compartment and leaning on one of the doorposts.

"Sorry to interrupt whatever joyful meeting you're all having here, but would someone care to explain why an explosion occurred, allowing THIS thing to break the glass of my compartment?"
Casimir held up the foreign object for them to see.

Willow blushed, her entire face turning tomato red. Oh god, did she hurt anyone? She immediately felt horribly bad, not only did she completely fail and embarass herself in front of that girl earlier, she probably injured someone else!

She raised a tentative hand and struggled to say, "I-I-I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to honest! I was only trying to help this g-g-g-"

Her head was pounding and she started feeling light-headed. Was everyone staring at her? Oh dear... Today wasn't going as well as she hoped.

She thrust a licorice wand at the boy, in hopes of making amends, "W-would you like some licorice?"

Oh... so it was Willow who was responsible. Casimir's face and demeanor softened as he discarded of his original sterness and smugness, feeling bad for causing the girl to go into a clear state of worry and panic. It was ok, he doubted she meant anything by it, and judging from what he'd heard of her occasionally, she was probably just trying to try out some new spell to prepare for the coming school year. It happened.

"It's ah... it's ok," Casimir said with a small smile to try and ease the tension. "The licorice won't be necessary, not really a fan of the treat anyway."

There was a slight sigh as Brutus sat, he had been silently reading for the past hour listening to the others bicker and mess around. It was rather annoying to say the least, but Brutus didn't want to say anything about it. His deep green eyes glanced up from his book to stare at the others, just to study them for a moment before looking towards his sister Annabelle, whom had been quiet as well. It seems the two siblings were quite occupied.

He let out another long sigh, but this time it was a sigh of slight boredom. Brutus' eyes averted back to his book as he sat cross legged, quietly flipping the pages. Nothing seemed to bother him, the little spell accident didn't bother him either, when it happened he never bothered looking up to see what happened.

Brutus' frog companion poked its head from the front pocket of his vest, it croaked before hopping out and aimlessly frolicked about.

Raymond smiled as Samantha's hand went in to his. "I wouldn't miss the school year! Just being a bit late, and catching up with Roy." He replied to Samantha with a smile. He and him were both sorted in to Gryffindor right after each other, Raymond stumbled up the stone stairs because he was too busy staring at her... After a few days Raymond made friends with Sam, finding that she was incredibly out going and friendly... which he liked alot. They took some classes together, did homework late at night in the dormroom, playing small games. During the first year of the summer he and her would always write to each other, and even met up one time. They were incredibly close for the whole second year, and it took him until his third year to ask her to join him to Hogsmeade. They have been in a relationship ever since.

He saw Isaak holding his interesting pet, and introduce himself. "Hello, Isaak. Raymond Chase." He said with a smile, shocked to see a second year so casual with the bigger ones. He used his other hand to shake his, and then looked over at Acacia. He nodded when she told them about the conversation. "Ah, nice! I got a barn owl named Olly. A bit of a typical pet, but i love him." Raymond said with a shrug.

"And as for Quidditch, I love the sport! Year five and I'm already co-captain." He couldn't help but say it, it made his father and mother both very proud, and to be honest, he liked the title. "You plan on trying out, Isaak? What's your favorite position on the team? I bet you'd give Ravenclaw's team a run for its money." He obvioiusly was joking a bit, just trying to see if he could get a reaction from Roy who was Ravenclaw and did enjoy watching Quidditch. "It seems like there is a lot of talents for the younger ones, and if you do, I'll look forward to seeing you play." Just as he stopped in came Willow, holding snacks for everyone, and clearly shocked to see Roy and Raymond in the cart. He stood up. "Oh, I'm so sorry, I can leave to make the room less crowded if you'd like." Raymond said, feeling a bit bad for adding to the cluster of people. He knew Willow liked small amounts of people. He didn't want her to give up the compartment she clearly had first.

Another head popped in, a 7 year, someone who Raymond has seen for his whole school year, but never talked to. When he asked what happened, and Willow started to stutter. "Just a bit of an accident is all, we all have those moments, right?" he said to him with a grin. His wand seemed to prove that over his four years at Hogwarts.

"Anyway, i didn't meant to intrude, if its too crowded, i don't mind leaving. I was the last to join in after all."

"Awww he's so cute!" Verlin said referring to the ferret. 'The boy ain't half bad looking himself.' She thought, and then thought back at herself 'Come off it and stop being a pervert,' Verlin's transfigured tail wagged a bit, but she refused to touch him until she got Ester's approval. It was strange to get approval from a cat, but her and Ester were quite close, and she trusted her feline judgments. Ester went over and sniffed the unique pet, and nuzzled her head against its body gently. She saw more people enter the compartment, and Willow coming back, and then attempting to leave in complete terror.

'Geez I feel like such a schmuck,that poor girl. She clearly isn't much of a people person, and all these people were invading her compartment.' It was making Verlin herself nervous a bit. She decided that soon she would leave this compartment, and perhaps take others with her to ease the poor Willow girls nerves. "Willow sweetie don't worry, I was planning on going to mingle here soon." She looked around the compartment and acknowledged all the new faces. "And anyone who wants to join me can." She gave them all a subtle look that said 'Come on guys look what we are doing to this poor kid.'

She turned her attention to Acacia, and grinned "Whelp though we disagree on cats. I do understand your feelings about Quidditich." She shrugged, "It looks like fun to play, and I want to try it myself, but I'm not Quidditch mad, and I understand the boredom over the summer too it's just me and my ma. No brothers or sisters or anything, and as muggle psycholgists put it my mom is a helicopter parent." She shudders a bit at her own misfortune. "She hovers, and is interested in everything I do. I try to read a book in peace, and she's right there, and she's a muggle who loves wizard stuff." She rolls her eyes. "Dunno how many times I've had to tell the woman its not Bobby Bott's Every Flavor Beans, but that it's Bertty Bott's, and she pronounces Potter Porter." She makes a gun motion to her head, and rolls her eyes back twitching jokingly.

She returns her attention back to the Quidditch conversation, and says "If I were gonna play though. I'd wanna be a Beater." She paused for a moment, and could have had a V8ed her own forehead "And silly me to all you newcomers my name is Verlin. Verlin Mackenzie." She flashed her wolf eyed contacts in a smile at everyone,, and gave a few thumps of her transfigured tail.

Gus leant back further in his seat, nodding a little every now and then while he listened. While he wasn't a huge fan of books himself, he knew that they could be pretty interesting. Except for textbooks. After all, who would ever want a six-inch thick tome on all the different kinds of fungus you can find around the world? It wasn't exactly the most exciting of topics. Now a book of advanced Quidditch techniques he'd be fine with, but Gus was a hands-on kind of guy, he preferred actually trying things out for himself rather than just reading about it.

The Hufflepuff blinked in surprise when Frankie started going on a bit of a rant about how he was "sorta kinda" awesome and how they should be friends. It stunned him for a few short moments, but he was quickly snapped out of it when the redhead offered him a Hershey's chocolate bar. Uttering a quick thanks, Gus took the candy bar from her. Cookies 'n' Creme it said on the packaging. Quickly unwrapping it, he took a chunk off of it. As he chewed, only one thought was in his mind; Hershey's really was the best. Chocolate Frogs and Cauldron Cakes? They didn't even come close to the heavenly goodness that was a Hershey's Cookies 'n' Creme bar.

"Yeah, sure! We should hang out." Gus concurred around a mouthful of white chocolate. No doubt he both looked and sounded ridiculous but at the moment, he could care less. At the question about what his favourite class was, he thought about it for a moment before answering. "Charms, I think. The Levicorpus Jinx I learnt last year? It's pretty useful for dealing with those prats who pick on first years."

"Herbology, though... I'm not too great at it." Gus slumped a bit in his seat, with a dejected shrug of his shoulders. Straightening back up again, he decided it'd be best to quickly change the subject. "Anyway, enough about me. Your turn, what's your favourite class?"

She tries to clean herself up a bit but ,some of the black sweeps won't go away. I'm still really dirty I should take a shower when im at hufflepuff. she grabs her cage and heads towards her room again. She walks past a room where she could her some stuff about a explosion with willow standing in the room all red and embarressed. it was pretty busy in there, it was weird that this was the room willow chose to sit. Walking further she sees the room where she just sat was filled with other students and her bag was standing outside the room next to door. she peeks in the room ,the room was filled with 7th year students that all seemed to know each other. I'm not gonna sit with them. Walking down the hallway again she noticed a room where she could sit with only two students in it. The hufflepuff augustus and the ravenclaw redhead frankie. Elina opens the door ''Can I sit here ,my room has been taken over by some other students''